Volunteers Green and Browns Court Project Committee 11/21/24

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VGBC Minutes 11-21-24v4 90 KB

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Volunteers Green, Browns Court, Round Church Green 3 Parks Improvement Committee (ARPA Funds) Minutes from meeting held on November 21, 2024 - Approved 3/20/25 7:05 pm Members Attending: Kendra Ziskie, Denise Barnard, Fran Thomas, Tess Storrs, Megan Andrews, Jeanne Agner Guests in person: Jim Oliver Attending Virtually: Marcy Harding, Duncan Wardwell Public comment: Minutes Approved as written in Draft Two from last meeting of October 30, 2024 Next scheduled meeting - Thursday January 23, 2025 Agenda: Notes from any other meetings held by other committees / Select Board / etc. regarding VOLUNTEERS GREEN as it pertains to our work 7:09 Report from the Planning commission meeting Nov.6 Fran reported that as a result of our input at the public hearing some language changes have been made to the Zoning Regulations that will allow us to continue with our designs for the plateau area while yet protecting flood zones for the town. Virginia and Keith have been very receptive to our suggestions. The playground can be moved and there can be a fence for safety. The structure language for the bandshell is more flexible and would allow changes if need be. The area where the old playground currently is can be restored with topsoil and other materials needed to plant grass. Some questions from us and from John Linn about accessibility have been forwarded to the planning commission for consideration and/or clarification. We discussed the next steps with regards to the language changes. Our understanding is that the planning commission has to adopt what they feel is a final draft. Then they must hold another public hearing with changes in language. Then the selectboard has to hold a public hearing before adopting these changes. 7:20 Report from meeting w John Linn and Ben Bush from Hillview Design Collaborative- Oct 31 Denise, Fran and Jeanne met with them to see if they would be interested in working with us to develop a design for the plateau. They were very interested. Hillview Designs will develop two or more plans: #1. If the current bandshell is repaired and remains where it is now the plan would show adding a playground with a fence and a bathroom # 2. If the area is a “clean slate” the design would replace the bandshell with a new structure that would include a nod to the current bandshell. This structure could be at a different location on the plateau. The design would include a bathroom and a playground with a fence. Possibly a few options. Note: Hillview Design ( John Linn) developed the Brown’s Court Park design and donated his services for that park. For the Volunteer’s Green project, Hillview Design gave the town a proposal to do the above work at a significant discount. They normally charge $110/hr and have given us a proposal for 60 hours of design work @ $50/hr for $3000. 7:30 Report from meeting w Bob Neeld from Engineering Ventures on Nov. 21 Fran, Denise, Duncan and John Linn met with Bob at the playground today. Bob is going to provide an assessment of the current bandshell as it exists and what might have to be done and the cost if it could be repaired. Bob agreed to work with us and will get a proposal for his fee to us. We do not need to go to the Selectboard to get his fee approved as we had approval last Fall from the Selectboard to hire an engineer to evaluate the bandshell. Report from Selectboard Meeting - Nov 18 The board approved the fee for Hillview Design. The fee will come from the Reserved Funds (ie former ARPA funds). Report from Richmond Town meeting on Nov 9 The Special Reserve Funding was approved by the town voters. They then approved moving the ARPA funds into this special account. Therefore the money budgeted for our projects is now reserved. 7:40 ish Photo of Volunteers Green shared by Marcy Harding. Marcy joined the meeting virtually and explained a photo, that she had discovered, of flooding in Richmond that was in a VPIRG brochure. The photo focused on Volunteers Green. Marcy did some research to find out where the photo came from. She learned that it was taken from a helicopter by the Vermont National Guard on July 11, 2023 at 10:03 in the morning. The photo shows that flood water had risen to the foot of the bandshell on the plateau. However, it was noted that the water on the plateau was not the high velocity current that was coursing around the flagpole and through the playground. 7:50 Notes from any other meetings held by other committees / Select Board / etc regarding BROWNS COURT Browns Court and DRB discussion Duncan joined the meeting to talk about Brown’s Court and explained why the Browns Court project did not make the DRB agenda until now. Duncan and Tyler Machia have been working on the DRB application. Tyler now has to warn the meeting by mid December to be on the DRB agenda for January. Note: The Bocce Court is in the plan being submitted to the DRB, even though our committee does not have this in our current budget. It is in the DRB plan so that if, in the future, some benefactor gives the town funds to do this, it will already have been approved. Additional note: While the Browns Court project is really out of our hands and is in the hands of the town and Selectboard, we will do anything that we can to help move the permitting process along. Duncan provided us with a To -Do list (see list ) of information that he has yet to gather for the permit. Duncan will reach out to engineer (Tyler B ) for items #6 and # 7. We have to get details for #s 1 to 5 to Duncan 8:20 We had a discussion about these details. What we could not determine at this meeting, we assigned the task and who will report to Duncan. 8:45 Other updates Playground design review Jeanne, Megan, Tess and Christy Winters met and went over the proposed playground plan. Three other participants who Jeanne contacted from our public feedback meeting could not meet at this time but expressed an interest in reviewing the next plan. The plan reviewed was originally designed for the current location of the playground and was changed somewhat to fit the plateau area. We made some minor tweaks and added a small structure for 2 - 5 year olds. Playground Fence We have a quote from F.E.Hart Fence Company for $14,188,12. This does not include installation. The White Company has been recommended for installation. Jeanne will share the fence design with John and Ben to incorporate in their plan. FE Hart suggests 3 gates with one being large enough for maintenance equipment. Restoration area- We have a rough estimate from Mow and Maintain for restoration of the the old playground area once the playground is removed for $9,950. 8:50 Grant update Jeanne is working on pre-approval documents for a 2025 Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) grant for building the new playground and restoring the area where the old playground is now located. This first step in the process is to determine if the project is worthy to actually apply for the grant. She is meeting with Duncan tomorrow to go over the initial documents. It is a 50% matching grant. If we need selectboard approval for matching funds at this time, she will ask for that to be put on the next agenda. Future meetings for our radar DRB - Possible Jan 8 - if Duncan gets all paperwork in to be warned by Dec 2. Scheduled our next meeting for Jan 23. If either Bob Neeld or Hillview Design has something to share with us, we will meet. If we do not have information to review, we might choose to schedule the meeting a few weeks later. 9:10 Meeting Adjourned