i'd like to call this meeting the park board to order today's Wednesday April 2nd 2025 the meeting is being held in the council hearing room beginning about 5:35 um before we get started pursuant to the open meeting law any person may
make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any media attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions are being made whether perceived or unpersceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible the city charter mandates
that multiple member bodies develop and adopt rules or public or policy for public comment we have adopted such a policy and will provide for citizens input the start of the meeting there's a signup sheet in the back of the room
we'll start with roll call defin BJ McDonald we're uh not here commissioner Amber Burns and Commissioner Nick Cecilio citizens input do we have anyone not on the agenda that No one signed up
no one signed up um I'll I'll take a motion to accept the minutes from the March 5th i'll make a motion to accept the minutes all in favor i motion carries new business item A is a letter
from the mayor's office regarding the use of the Veterans Memorial Bsentennial Park for its third annual Cops and Bobbers Family Fishing Clinic the event is to take place on Thursday September 18th 2025 from 4 to 6 with the setup time between 3 and
4 anyone questions comments on that have an annual event yeah I think last year I think last year they had a couple they had some issues with the weather and I think they rescheduled it a few times but um they did it last year too i remember I'll make a motion make a move
second motion to approve by Commissioner Ferris second by Commissioner Rigo all in favor i motion carries item B is a letter from John Sylvia he's requesting permission to plant trees at
the Bowmanville Green on Dery Street and to take place in the spring okay cool i'm going to just I only made one copy here but this is where we want to plant the trees for the right here um yeah I'm sorry uh from the tree planting uh committee and fall no problem could you
just state your name and address please just so we have it on sure no problem sure thank Uh name is John Sylvia address is 51 Ada Street and I'm with the forest street tree planning program uh part of the Arbor Day celebration that the city's putting together um one
of our members uh suggested maybe that we uh plant a tree which we've done in the past uh during that period so um we're trying to request uh to put a tree it's on Bowman Circle which is around Turner Dery Street right near the um
MBTA tracks um and there's an X there sorry um that's where we wanted to put the tree um and we're going to be working with the uh city with Chris Martin working with him and we're also working with Mariah Day who is the contracted arborist to find the right
tree for that right place and we'll be buying it from uh Silven Nursery in Westport um so we don't have a specific date but we wanted to get permission ahead of time you guys have anything no okay i guess I would just as long as
you're working with you know Chris and uh his his team i know that with other trees the the board the considerations were just like say what kind of mess does it make you know is it a fruit tree where there's going to be stuff that you know kids can whip around or whatever so we'll trust you know your judgment and
the arbor's judgment um in in that regard as they're the experts but I know that in the past that's kind of really the one thing that the park uh gets concerned with yeah i don't I mean there's not a lot of traffic at this park um one of our members Mary um was looking at the area um with the arborist
and um they kind of looked at the top of the park there's a sign there there's a couple billboard signs so they didn't want it there because they figured eventually it's going to grow and it's going to block the signs and they don't want it to get cut down so we're working on it to make it the right tree for the
right place perfect i guess um I would entertain the motion to approve it but maybe once you know what you're going to plant you can just let us know you don't have to come back to us but just hey this is what we decided on we'll have u this you know your picture here we'll
put that into the record for tonight so that it's gets scanned in um and then yeah if you just give us a heads up as far as what you guys are going to do i can do that definitely not a problem cool motion to approve second it motion to approve made by Commissioner Riggo second by Commissioner Faras all in
favor okay thank you thank you item C is a letter from the Fall River Young Marines regarding the use of Kennedy Park including the use of the pickle ball court for the Fall River Young Marines embracing and energizing Fall River the
event is to take place on Saturday October 18th from 9 to 4 with the rain date as October 19th how are you i'm well thank you i'm Kim Broer from uh Paul of the Young Marines i'm the unit commander i have some information here for you please yes
absolutely please copies that yes for sure hey how are you thank you thank [Music] [Applause]
you good evening everybody again my name is Kim Bro unit commander for the Fall River Young Marines this is going to be our first energizing and embracing Fall River 2025 it is is going to be our uh main fundraiser of Fort Marian Marines is a
nonprofit youth organization been around for a long time ordinarily uh how our main fundraiser in the past up until COVID came everything to a screeching halt we would have a bike run and uh again things have changed a lot has changed but what hasn't changed is
there's truly a need uh for in order for our unit to stay afloat we do not get funding it is a national organization but each unit has to come up with their their own money basically there's truly a need for these youngsters who come to our to our uh unit uh again what we do
is there's you know we keep them off the streets basically is what we're trying to do just for leaders it's teamwork discipline and uh some leadership is what we're trying to instill in them but in order for us to do that again everything's so expensive uh uniforms alone um they're changing them this year
for the first time since 1965 we we drill on the USS Massachusetts we have dozens if not hundreds of but their woodland camouflage now they're changing it as of September that we need need the digital so the cost is just through the roof so in order for us to do this we
need to fund raise so how we are proposing to do that is with this fundraiser we're calling it energizing and embracing fall river and basically our mission statement is to empower our community by promoting a drugrevention awareness supporting local businesses and fostering unity through collaboration through education
engagement and advocacy We strive to create a safer healthier and more connected city by bringing together residents businesses and organizations we aim to inspire positive change and build a brighter future for all so we're proposing to use uh Kennedy
Park for a very festive celebration type funday is what we're looking to do we're hoping to kick the day off with a 5K where we call it DDR dash there it's done right across the country there are
more than 200 units totaling 10,000 uh youngsters uh young Marines and adult volunteers on October 18th right across the country uh they often have these DDR dashes and it's for drug prevention you may have recalled last year we we the
government center here was lit up red for red ribbon week so we would kick off our red ribbon week with the DDR dash in our uh fundraiser uh embrace and uh energizing Fall River on that Saturday so again we're hoping to get I have to
get this done first then I get to go to the city and the police department which which I've already spoken to but little backwards here but our hope our hope is to start the day off with a 5K that'll start at the waterfront somewhere whether by Centennial Park uh and get
through the city and we're going to end at Kennedy Park once we end that 5K then the rest of the fund will be will uh will then commence we're um hoping to have um vendors lots of community partners involved we're hoping we're
going to have a DJ uh some food trucks some giant yard games and also we're going to we're hoping to add in a pickle ball tournament i've been in contact with uh Tyler Anderson from the Fall River uh pickle ball club and he's on board we're going to do something really
fun down there with that that's going to be just one more part of our event uh the other thing that we're asking to do at the Kennedy Park is we're going to have a little a fun run we're calling it again it's going to be uh DDR which is a drug demand reduction dash but for
little kids and for uh young people that perhaps can't run maybe they're um you know in a wheelchair or they have or just younger or just we want to include everybody is our point or maybe they're older and they want to so we're going to we're hoping to use that round skating
area to have something a little fun another another race of sorts again all promoting drug prevention you have to know make got to make sure that all your vendors are insured yes yes ma'am yes ma'am got to have
insurance yes yes and then you'll have to provide insurance too for you know the day of the event yes sir um and then with the bathrooms and stuff I think you work with is it through the health department and stuff they have to sign off on that stuff so food trucks got to
have their their insurance in the food trucks yeah is that and and I guess the other thing is you're looking kind of the whole park top to bottom you guys want what what we what we primarily um are we're hoping to to use is not the very top unless that ends up that the
city says that that's best for us to have our finish line that would be the only reason that we would use the the very top there where South Main Street is what we're primarily looking for is from Broadway down okay so again I I included that only
because I again I don't know what the Fall River Police Department so Broadway down so yeah basically where the circle is yes yes ma'am yes ma'am and then we would use the pavilion and we would use the bathrooms there and then the very far end would be primarily for the
pickle ball tournament again but again I only included that top part because if the police department says that's where we need to have our finish line because if they do come down south that would be the only reason that we would we would do that we utilize that that particular space yeah so I think like some of I
mean most of the stuff is pretty standard um I know the food trucks there's always questions as far as what the best place to put park them is you know so depending on where you're expecting the most people i think probably I might lean on the police department for their advice there too to
make sure people are safe and they don't have to go into the street right right so I included that in one of my um uh graphs that I had given you i am I am um mimicking what uh your the Junth that
event that we had in June at the Bristol Black Coalition had done i I I stole I basically I used I used their props there that's right that exactly where I was going with that so that that is what I follow but again if the police
department um if the police department deems it to be better in a different place of course that's that's what we would do so yes so I I I'm sorry um you had said for basically food trucks vendors insurance we'll have our own insurance um anything
else does the DJ need insurance yes anybody else that's there basically I have insurance okay okay and there's there's a checklist too like as far as going to the different departments yes I have that sir correct yes I have yes I have that yes work your way through that
correct yep i have that right there based on what you're doing you know with the vendors and Yes sir and whatnot so yes sir questions ellen you could move to approve second it motion
to approve by Commissioner Rico second by Commissioner Ferris all in favor i motion carries good luck thank you very much okay youth soccer so that was item C item D is a letter from for youth soccer
requesting the use of Britain Park for their spring and summer season 2025 so they sent us um their schedule we don't have Is there anyone here yeah right there perfect come on
down i think you guys kind of know the deal anyways right been here before insurance letter of solicitation awesome i'll just We'll get it to Al i did send it okay we're working through
some of that so I think I know that uh I don't have any issues i don't know do we have Al do you know off hand do have we approved anything at Britlin for the weekends already on the dates that they're looking we have an active calendar if there was any concerns with
that we would we would highlight that so that's the only thing we might have to work through is if something's already been approved and we've already given it to somebody else we might just have to work through some of those logistics as far as when they're going to come in nobody else I believe has requested like
a full day right so if there's another if there's a game we that's already scheduled we you may need to just work with within the parks department to finagle it so that everyone can use it um but otherwise I mean I don't have any issues i'll give you this stuff to put
it absolutely on file um do you guys have questions for us or anything uh two questions and we'll have to update it so there's a couple of uh weekday games just individual games like on a Monday night and a Tuesday night later in the season so we can send over those dates to see if there's any conflicts yeah
because we're getting more requests for that field the charter schools want to use it diamond doesn't have a field so there's we just got to try to make sure we're as fair as we can um in giving it out yeah we've done that with Nancy in the past so if there's even you know if we have a full day but then there's a time slot that's not being used and
someone needs it you know we work with the other organizations uh there are two two points of reference for the field itself um as usual uh there needs repair on both sides um so the PK spots on both the I guess east and west side of the of
the 11 v11 field um they both need to they both need turf it's just a hole okay um so it's been repaired before but now whoever's using it is just making a hole on the other side so and is that when they repaired it in the past they cut out that piece yeah they cut a little square and then they they glue the new new piece in and we have a
picture of I took some pictures so you can see what it looks like um so it's literally a a mirrored mirrored picture a mirrored hole on the opposite side sure uh and then the we replaced one net last replaced one net in the fall like the actual coal and uh the other side
needs to be replaced with repair and this was the new okay and that's that's the net of one net and I replaced the other one last fall and this is the other PK area where that one was the patch and this is the new old okay so
they fixed that one and now there's a new one yeah okay unfortunately um the other thing too that I just just to let the board know that we've done last year with with NY's approval um being that the field is well over 10 years old and a lot of the lines are fading so you can't see a lot of the
white lines when you're playing so we we did paint over those white lines last year um so as long as you guys are okay for us to do the touchup at least touch up those lines so we can see it needs to be basically cut in new lines at some point what type of the whole field needs to be
redone we use we use an athletic paint that we use for uh far grass fields okay so they may not be the right the right paint but Right uh I think the one we bought last year would would stick to turf yeah okay and again it's just it's really just the white the yellow like
the 99 field looks good you know you could see the lines pretty well but the outside 111 there's definitely some areas where you can't even see it at all i would just defer to Al's office and you know and Charlie I think is going to be involved too so it as far as like the paint and stuff goes I don't have an issue with that i think the field should
be you know look up to par you know we have people coming in and it's a travel league that's coming from out of town it should look nice um and we appreciate you guys the effort you know maintaining it and helping with with that stuff so yeah we have two I think we have M's
vineyard actually coming in this weekend in Nucket all right so they're coming in this weekend so you got to you want to paint it like tomorrow yeah so we're going to try to to try to replace the net i think we have one net i think I have one net left in our in our container um and I have we do have white paint yeah so we'll touch it up we can
touch up so Al do you want to check on that before just looking at the weather the weather for the obviously is it going to be dry it's going to be dry for us to do it it's going to be I think Friday is probably when we'll get lucky doing it on Friday cuz I'm there i think we have a game at
10:00 in the morning on Saturday and then I have the second game with Martha's Vineyard at uh 12 12 okay yeah i mean I don't I don't have issue with the paint i don't know if you guys what what you guys think but um yeah that's a maintenance issue we'll Yeah that's more
like just make sure that it's the right paint and they have them you know just give it a thumbs up before you do it uh and then lights for any night games so we don't really have a whole lot but I do have two 6 pm games i think we'll be okay without lights but I didn't know who to check in with to if we needed
lights are those games on here no I I just I literally just reschedled them uh before coming so we'll send them off i'm all for the night games so um I know that print I forgot to print the schedule but it is in the email okay I got that one so I'll give you the the the I think it's just two games i'll
just I'll send them if if if Yeah as long as nobody else is using it then you know I don't have an issue with that and all you have updates with the as far as like the lights and I don't know are those on a timer every night or are those just specific i'll have to check to see what the status is on those
lights typically it's because we use it on Friday nights during the fall nancy has a timer on Friday nights say 5:30 to 9:30 she would have them come on automatically okay so yeah like to your point the field needs to be redone so the lights like they the same lights I think there since my dad was I've been
saying that for a while and but there's an osprey nest in one of the lights just every light every light right now in this stadium has an offspray yeah the other every just about every stadium the other consideration is you know obviously it's always where does the
money come from to pay for the field but um I'm on the CPC committee too yep the community preservation and open space is one of the categories and so if you have some people that can put together an application I can get you some
information on it the CPC just paid for the softball lights at Father Kelly yeah I saw that um Yeah put metal poles right yeah brand new lights but I would I would encourage you to look into the CPC process okay and maybe you know for view
Soccer could be the nonprofit that putting the request in right right because it has if nobody asks for it then the money's the money may or may not be there but if the money is there and nobody asks for it then the committee can't do anything with it so
if it's something um you guys want to do and kind of see it help see it through um I think that that might be worthwhile to it would benefit not just our league but all the other leagues that play there as well right so Right right okay so I'll I'll
get you some of that information on on the CPC process because their application process will start again for for next year like they award the funding at the start of the new year so it'll start like towards the end of your season there's a there's an application you can fill out what do you need what
do you want to do fill it all out and then it goes through the vetting process within the CPC and then they vote on you know which projects and how much money is in the pool to be able to divvy it out right right
anything else and sorry we understand that we may not be able to get the the you know permit or Yes i'm just hoping that we were able to get at least a temporary one for this Saturday and next Saturday at least i think what what the approval will probably say for the record is we'll
approve this just but then we're just going to have the girls in the office cross-check it and make sure we haven't already given out a date and then if there is they can just be in contact with you and say hey we're double booked on this day can we be a little flexible and move some specifically for Saturday because obviously the weather's getting
nicer so you got a lot of neighborhood kids that show up in the field so we generally don't kick anybody off unless we have a permit to use that field so if there's a document that I can use cuz I'll be here if there's I'll I'll can get you that so we'll approve this tonight and then so that you have it for
the weekend and then um we'll have the girls just cross check it in the office and make sure there's no other dates yeah Alan let me know or through we need to pick it up after the Okay cool so I make a motion for grant them permission to play second all in favor i motion
carries thank you very much thank you guys appreciate it thank you um the next is item E it's a letter from Bobby Bailey regarding the use of Bsentennial Park for the third annual uh Diamonds Boys and Girls Tennis Program
it's actually started I think this week they started practicing so I think they've already been down there um but they still don't have courts so they need a place to play okay i'll um I'll make a motion that they can uh motion to approve motion to
approve the mot to approve made by Commissioner Faras second by Commissioner Rigo all in favor i uh item F is a letter from Gloria Sadler requesting a comprehensive community garden in Father Chvasos Park hi hi how
are you i'm good i'm Dr gloria Sadler thank you for hearing my letter my request thank you for being here do I need to start are you going to be asking me specific questions why don't you give us a the Reader's Digest version of your of your letter and then
if we have questions we'll go from there readers Digest i am currently working with the Office of Community Development i am the person overseeing revitalization for the Flint
community so along with the funding that the state delegate the municipal delegation has secured funding for the total outlook is to provide residents with an opportunity to provide input
after going out into the community the input from residents and nonprofits within the community was they wanted a community garden so what I did is I went out with the assistant city planner we
identified some available location within the father to borrowers park i think I did send this over but just in case I didn't I had him print out another one for your viewing so what we're asking for is space we'd like 20
4x8 boxes these are going to be boxes we're not actually going to till the soil because this is a former mill town a former me mill area we did not want to get into the logistics of soil testing so we thought if we were going to go
come before the park board we were going to ask for the space the use of the space but what we are going to do is we're going to have the young Marines as I stated in my letter we're going to have the Young Marines take the lead and
building the um boxes we are actually going to have the and I've already gotten the Fall River Police on board they want to assist the Young Marines they're actually going to make it a fun initiative where neighborhood youth can come in and assist and it's going to be
a competition with getting those garden boxes built between the Young Marines and the Fall River Police so we're super excited if given approval about that but we also want to make it an ADA compliant we do have the two 55 and older mills so
what we're looking to do is build the table height where wheelchairs can glide underneath tables so that the senior citizens disabled from within the neighborhood and the two mill complex apartment buildings so that they can um
participate in the community gardens but not only that we thought about the toty Assad tot lot so if you go back and review my letter over at the Kathy Assad Tot I also visited that location it's a fun location for smaller younger
children in the summertime what we propose to do over there is just add some maybe table hot size just so they can watch vegetables grow the adults will manage that vegetables grow and flowers grow and just have some sand maybe just for any child that has a
sensory need that attends um visitations of that particular part does that make sense do you have any specific questions for me now it does make sense but what happened with this when it is it's all he at the beginning and then it just
dies out and the pop and the the project there just dies out people just don't they lose interest tell me more about that ma'am right and they lose interest i can tell you this my address is at 318 Jinx Street i've
owned my house for 11 years my son's a Fall River police his children were born and raised in my house at least three of them were my granddaughter owns a home on Quicoanam Street we don't see this as growing out we are part of those residents that reside within the
community they're going to be taking the lead so not only do I work for the city and I'm doing my part for my particular position but I'm also a resident i'm not going to see it fizzle out in addition to that I've had an opportunity to chat
with Andrew Raposo the Espirto Santos School that is going to be a part of their regular ability to earn their service learning minutes points whatever Andrew does over there so this is going to be an ongoing thing in addition to
that the Cambodian population under Ricky Tith they have taken on a wanting to take on a lead to make sure that this is upkept so we're not concerned about dollars and cents are going to flow and disappear from the Flint based on the
Office of Community Development based on Jake Aenclauss or Carol can't secure any more fundings we the residents of that community are invested so you guys are raising the money to build this stuff with the help of the young Marines and correct we are taking that
responsibility and if you go back and take a look at my letter the first thing we say is we the residents i didn't say I Gloria Sadler from the office of community development i said we the residents sometimes I feel a little bit confused and conflicted when I come in
here cuz sometimes I come as a city worker but then I have to step back and say "Hey I'm a I'm resident of the city but more importantly I'm a resident of the Flint i'm not just a resident i'm a homeowner so I'm really invested." So I think my if I'm interpreting so I
understand her concerns yeah and I think what her concern is more so too like does it create um an additional burden on the staff and the people that maintain the parks and those types of things right i think that's maybe Al could in all fairness to what Mr riggo
just mentioned when you start these type of projects in a school environment right you do that for the students to learn it grows come summertime that's when it's growing that's when it dies that's when the tomatoes go flying all over the place this is a different story
because the stu it's no longer students this is an act of community so there's there's a little difference but there's I can understand i most certainly understand and respect her concerns because if I were not a resident I would say "Oops I didn't think of that." But I had already thought of that that school
children will go away but the hope is they'll want to continue coming to visit the park to see the fruits of their labor in fact just today I met with a grant writer we are looking to see if perhaps we can write a grant to have
that area fenced in so that we know that we can monitor in addition to that I don't want this to be a burden on the city and I did write that within my letter with saying can we have water can we have electricity my goal is to purchase rain barrels so that each four
corners will have a rain barrel that is your supply of water and if it means that I have to will one of those barrels across the street to my home and fill it up I'm willing to do that that was going to be my next question i'm willing to do
that my daughter's willing to do that my son is willing to do that now I know that there's um like throughout the country these community gardens are they have been super successful in a lot of urban communities like there's no denying that i just don't know and I'm a
little naive to it as far as like securing it and those like vandalism those types of concerns in that area at nighttime um do what is how does that play out like is it are is it not a fenced in area right it's at the moment
it is not fenced in again today I met with a grant writer we want to prepare and go ahead and kind of do a trial run with some of the garden bed boxes but as we continue to proceed and move forward we know that we should at least because
there's already the the fence up there that divides the state property from the cities we know that we eventually will require fencing in those three dimensions that are currently unfenced just so that we can secure the area but for now we're going to start small with
those garden boxes in fact we're requesting 20 but we may start with a a lower amount just so we can get started how close is this going to be to the mini wheels
so ma'am if you take a look at this white spot here that is the hockey rink you know the hockey rink that's over there so you know that the knitting mills are off over here let me kind of explain a little bit clearer where we
are on this schematic so where we have the area that we'd like to use this is the hockey rink this is the entrance to Father Tobaso
Park the first knitting mill is over off to the entrance the second mill which is what is that the um That's the loft yes the loft they're on the opposite side but people can kind of walk through yeah it's far enough out of the way that when
I visited the father Tarso Park to scope out an area with the city the assistant city planner we decided this was going to be the best place so that if you had a senior citizen who may have been able to have enough wind to just get out
there they don't have very far to go that's what we took into consideration we didn't want to make people trample behind the field or more up towards the school we wanted people to feel comfortable enough to come out of those mills and know that they made it we're
also going to include some benches and that I have some grant funds to do that right away so once people get down there if they just want to sit and just observe what's going on they'll have the ability to do that i know that there's seating over there but I also know
because this father to Barcel Park is near my house most of the time the seating is taken up and people bring in their own chairs during the summer months so we are going to I have funding available to provide bench seating over there in the area
sounds good to me i mean I I I'll u make a motion that we uh go on with it a motion to approve as is you have any hesitation or I just hope it I just hope it works out
now you you mentioned that it's it's going to be ADA compliant yes so there's going to be a walkway into that so what we're going to do with regards to the ADA component for now I just want to put that down because that's making my arm tired this is not very far off what I'm
going to do is I'm going to secure funding because I do have the requirements for the ADA compliant what they require to walk on the grass what what I'm doing is I'm going to be applying for funding a grant funding there's a USDA
and I could share that with you El i can send that to your office too bad I didn't bring my We apply for that annually as well yeah yeah they have where you can do the community um gardening grant request that's what I'm going to be applying for in fact I met with a person today we're going to She
asked me to secure a list what my costs were going to be so we can include that and explain what we're doing so yes ADA compliant so that's And you don't need water you're going to get we're going to cuz I don't there's probably no spot or anything over there right we know that
there is that house here but again in my letter I state I don't want to become a problem to the city with our ass we know that there's a building that probably controls the water and the electricity so if we ask Charlie or Al for the first
get us started let us fill up our containers we should be able to take it from there okay we should take it again if I have to get my cart I have a card and I live across the street if I have to fill up a container and take it to my house and fill it up I don't mind i
don't mind i'm a member of the community and for me it's important that we take on some level of self advocacy and sustainability to maintain this i think it's great i think the more we can get use out of the parks the better
different uses you know there's uh I I think it's great so we'll entertain Mr far's motion to approve do I have a second second second by Commissioner Rigo all in favor i I Thank you thank you very much good luck yes thank you and hopefully you'll come out and pay us
a visit get some tomatoes this summer i can't promise you this summer's tomatoes maybe the fall maybe the fall plantings but thank you so much item G is a letter from Lin Maderas requesting a tree located outside of 342
Pier Street to be removed because it's causing damage to the property um someone looked at this tree already al has someone gone to look at this chris Chris here yeah oh I didn't see him back
there i know Chris and I have hit a few trees i'm not sure i think there's a couple trees in a row Chris so maybe we'll just have you uh give us your thoughts on these couple did we look at that one pierce you and I you didn't okay
i always think we should defer to you for the most part on these um so this one at 342 Pier Street right um so the the issue with that one is it's right on the corner of their
driveway the whole thing's heaved up right into his driveway and the sidewalk is like probably 6 in up um there's really no way to work around it to repair it um so that's why they're requesting
to remove that tree um she did send a bunch of pictures and stuff i don't know if you guys got them um so if you look at the pictures of where that tree is um it's it's heaved up
really re and it's like so it's a super trip hazard like cuz it's the driveway opening and it's like right there on the corner chris is that damaging that wall too i think it might have affected it a bit
but at this point it's not anything that they were concerned about what is that the corner of Pierce and what it's the corner no it's just his the house is probably two houses up from the next
street down which is maybe Rock okay um however it's like like I said it's right at the opening of his driveway to go in and it's lifted up so um there's that and probably six panels down from that
there's a tree that was removed I guess a few years back there was some type of uh water line issue and it had to be removed so they could fix that that stump is was still there i guess the contractor whoever did the water line
going into the property never took care of that but it is a city tree stump that's left so if we're down there doing that tree and that stump we're going to take care of that one dcm's going to repair all that sidewalk over there
i mean I think if you think it should come down based on the pictures and the trip hazard then you know it should probably come down i guess the only other thing though like I know uh you guys took one down on my street and then it got paved over it looks great but are there ever plans like I guess bigger
picture we always get the requests for them to come down do they ever go back up because it does look nice when you have them um so I don't know how that works we do if the person like sometimes the people if it's right in front of
their house or it's just in a bad spot sometimes they put the driveway in the tree was already there they put a driveway in um and it ends up affecting the driveway over time so people tend not to want to put one back there but I
will ask or we will ask um would you mind having another tree over here and I did ask that person and they weren't too keen about it because that tree is affecting his driveway the next one down
at the corner of the next house that one affected their water line going into their house so they weren't too fond about hearing about replacing but a lot of times when we do a big section and you know there's multiple trees that
have to be removed because of street issues sidewalk or not ADA compliant so they can't get wheelchairs and whatnot through um if there is the ability to put them back we do like to put them back so when they repaw that we leave
tree boxes to to replant trees there but we do we do have a policy that whenever trees do get removed depending on the size and the thickness that we have either a ratio between one to two or one to three 1 to four depending on
the size of the tree to make sure that we do have active trees in in bloom yeah i just think that that's important like we get these requests for them to come down all the time correct and I don't have issues with them coming down if they're a nuisance and they're you know trip hazards and everything else right i
just on the flip side if we're taking four down let's put up in one or two in another in the same spot or another spot right and normally that's what we do we go out there we assess it i'll go out there with the the cement crew and we'll
look at it and see is it possible to work around it right to save the tree and this might be a bad example cuz it's driveway cuz it's literally right on the corner so it's got the driveway the entrance to the driveway lifted and the
sidewalk lifted at the same time so we did look at it and we but there's just that that one there's no possibility of of making that work just because of the spot it's in if it was maybe down one more tile it it would have probably been
fine yeah but because of where it is right on that corner of the driveway it's it's an issue you know yeah and the other thing we have to be cognizant about is making sure that what whatever we do we need to make sure that it becomes ADA accessible after the fact right now it's not right so that's the
that's the focus that we have to make sure I don't have an issue anybody take a motion to approve you before the after this meeting entertain a motion to approve motion to approve motion to approve by Commissioner Ego second second by
Commissioner Fris all in favor i I motion carries and then Chris before you go it's item H is a letter from Cheryl Wilding requesting the tree located outside of 51 Bailey Street be removed it's causing damage to her
property so uh I spoke to Cheryl about the tree situation i went and looked at it one time took a peek at it took a peek at the driveway took some pictures of it then I reached
out to Al Aloe Vera we spoke about it and then Al wanted to go down and look at it also there is some cracks in the driveway the tree is closer to the driveway but I'm not personally I'm not
convinced that the tree is doing that to the driveway because at the bottom of the driveway where the driveway comes to the street there is a sink there the I guess there's a manhole there there's a little div you know divot there where there's it's sinking a
little bit so I don't know if there's another issue there with that driveway maybe it's getting undermined a little bit or something the tree they're talking about is not it's small and it's young okay cuz from the picture it
doesn't look anything like the other one right i don't think that it in my opinion I don't think that that would be heaving the driveway because it doesn't seem like it's lifted there are some cracks but there are
cracks throughout the driveway going up um and it doesn't look like the roots would even make it up i not in the tray i don't believe and so I what I told Mrs wilding was if you have some
documentation or a company that came out and was going to repair the driveway or something like that and they did some removal of some of that driveway and seen that okay this is or or said
this is stating this is what is affecting your driveway some type of a documentation like that i said that would be helpful if you had something like that to send in right um for us to go by because I told her you know it's a
young tree it's it's a live healthy tree and we don't normally based on our all the conversations we don't normally take those trees down and that uh that culde-sac that's in there off of
Bailey Street is well I don't know I it's not that old 10 years maybe younger than that so those trees were planted when they that was the agreement when they did that was to put a certain
amount of trees in that area so is that the tree right there i have nothing to do with driving yeah it doesn't look like it from those so I think what we should probably do the tree down yeah I think we should
probably uh not you know deny that request for the tree to come down no you know based on motion to deny okay so the motion to uh deny for the tree from coming down on um Bailey Street was made by Commissioner Rigo second by
Commissioner Barius all in favor i motion carries thanks Chris so I guess somebody will have to just let her know that unless she can show us something from a professional that says the tree is causing that then we can revisit it
but for now from these pictures from you going out there from Al going out there and looking at it right the board agrees with your assessment in that it doesn't look like the tree is the issue with the the crack in the driveway i I will I will give her a call and and tell her
you know what you guys said and she can take it from there at that point um if she can get some kind of some professional company to go down there and which I I kind of told her that she should probably do that because normally
if it's a live healthy tree we don't remove them right um so um I will let her know that and we can she can take it from there thanks Chris thank you thank you
item I is a letter from Jamal McConnell it's regarding the use of Chup Park for family reunion on July 12th 2025 from 8:00 a.m to 8:00 p.m hi Jamal how you doing could you just uh name and address please just for the record um Jamal McConnell 913 Slate
Street Long River Massachusetts thank you uh so I'm having family come from Chicago Cleveland Alabama um every couple years we host last two years ago we did it in Boston this year we're doing it at my house
right across the street from True Park it's it's not really used on the weekends i know they do the baseball during the week so we just wanted to have family activities kickball sack races uh I wanted to see if I could get permission to have Porter John's there
there's already one there that the baseball team uses but to add a couple How many people how big is your family about 50 people 60 people can't have no uh Oh yeah no grills nope i live across the street i have a backyard driveway for
that no grills um and and you're talking about not the softball field the baseball field side park right tupac the Chew Park so the there's another park on the side of Globe Street i was thinking Father Kelly not Father Kelly the Chewac is the
baseball side yeah between Slate and Globe i was just kind of think of Chewac together as one but the softball and Father Kelly yeah yeah the fire station is right there you'll have to get insurance though in the city okay um how do I go about that process we can we can
have someone send you some stuff on it and there's like you know there's one day policies that you can buy you know not a problem i think he goes to the uh city council city clerk the city clerk or I I can give Al some information too that we
could share with you just you know give you a couple options to get a couple different quotes but there's uh that's that's standard for any you know like the the leaks and stuff they all have understandable I have no problem with it yeah neither way to approve the the only
thing I guess before we approve it is just the the portagons i don't have an issue with those i think it has to go through the health department yeah you got to have a checklist yep so there's you know this there's a checklist here you'll have to go and the health department can get the porta you know
facilitate the porta johns okay the only thing we've run into in the past with the portag johns is sometimes they get delivered and they don't schedule them to get picked up so we just make sure that they're just there that day you know pick them up in the morning and you know one day but they probably charge
you by the day I would assume so are you planning to have tents up there or uh Yes i'll say yes you mean the canopies yes canopies just the canopies are fine if they're above a certain size then you got to get the fire department involving
anything above 10 x 10 fire department approval okay it won't be nothing that big those little like pop-up tents you take like tailgating and stuff like that those are those are fine it's bigger than 12 x 12 you have to have to find a 12 x 12 okay potty ones like the potty
you have have to find the real large ones if you were going to rent a tent or something like those big ones no we're not going to have nothing that big okay other than that they approve it motion to approve by Commissioner Rigo second by Commissioner Ferris all in favor
motion carries thank you have fun we'll get you some information on the um You mail it to me or should I come down to city um do you have email yes I I believe it's on there i think uh nope i have a telephone we can have someone give you a
call get your email address and send you some or I could just come down tomorrow too after work okay and just come to uh room 508a okay yep yep i'll see you tomorrow thank you all right thank you thank you have a good night you guys have a good evening
you too amy Raosa item J is a letter from Amy Raposa uh requesting Highland Pediatrics 4th annual summer stroll resource fair it's on Wednesday June 11th with a rain date of June 18th from 5 to 8
questions concerns 4th annual yep i think they had it last year yes they did i took my kids i live right across the street to approve second it motion to approve by Commissioner Riggo second by Commissioner Fries all in favor i I motion carries item K is a letter from the Fall
River Federal Little League regarding a request for the 2025 baseball season requesting CIO Field the small field at Kennedy Park the big field at Abbott Court in Hudner Field games are at Kennedy Monday to Friday at 5:30 practice sessions will take place on
weekdays from 5 to 6:30 and on Saturdays at 10:00 a.m i think he sent us everything right motion to approve on this one here second it motion to approve by Commissioner Rigo second by Commissioner Paris all in favor i I motion
carries [Music] uh item L is a letter from Robert Barcelos it's a request for an Easter egg hunt at Kennedy Park to take place on April 12th from 12 to 3 are you
Robert yes could you just state your name and address please my name is Robert Parcelos 158 Buffington Street Fall River thank you Robert um I know that you guys had originally asked for up at Davis Park so I just Yeah I was told that it's just not going to work out for that particular park yeah that
park we can't permit that out there was some questions about that last year we had EMS go out there they can't get emergency vehicles back there so they suggested not to in all honesty it's kind of a blessing because this particular year we're going to have uh
handicapped children children that are on the spectrum and that walk from the street all the way up that pathway to get to the park could be a little taxing for the children sure so Kennedy Park would be much easier to park get out and they're right there totally agree so I'm
glad we're in agreement there cuz when I saw the first thing come in with I saw this on Facebook yeah it was So it's just um that Davis Park is a little bit the neighborhood's tight the parking like to your point is tough on Meridian Street so and I understand you I've done it
actually the last three years and that you know the the the neighbors on the corner of the park there i called the gatekeepers and they and there's a lot of history there too i believe it was a family they're nice people but you know was the the family's land if I
understand the history behind it that was donated to the city and so it's um I'm happy it's at Kennedy Park uh I know that I think Sam from the mayor's office has been in touch with you too yes yeah she she's actually the one that got a hold of me cuz I I really didn't know I
needed a permit for any of it so this is like I said the third year and she kind of said you know you got to get it should be three months in advance blah blah blah blah so no no the 12th there's no So next Saturday yeah it's on the It's on here it's on
the agenda item how now that I know all the all the details of it my next year I'll be more I'll have my ducks in a row oh okay because on Facebook it says the date over here it doesn't say the date yeah it says it on here it's April 12
from 12 to 3 yeah um and we're not going to have food vendors or anything like that it's just going to be Easter eggs Easter bunny pictures is it going to be um the bean bag games that you play cornhole stuff like that are these I
feel like some of these too as far as like the insurance goes he's an individual i don't know what how historically that's uh been handled dude I think they would have to have insurance right so probably similar to the gentleman who was just up for the
family reunion have to get an insurance policy so short money you can get one for the day yeah which just covers you know you in in the city if somebody gets hurt during your your Easter egg hunt so pending you know um that Mr barcels gets
you the insurance and everything else i don't have any issue with it i don't know you guys want to make a motion to approve i might give you a call i think I can help you out with something okay okay motion to approve by Commissioner Rigo
second by Commissioner Fious all in favor i thank you all right so do I get information sent to me or what do I got yeah well you'll get a followup tomorrow probably from either Nina or Sam I would think um upstairs and they can get you through the next steps of just making
sure that the paperwork is is all aligned and then they'll they can physically hand you the permit once you get the insurance sounds good and then you'll have the permit in hand if there's any questions sounds good we do suggest having it on you when you go so
police or any questions as it's right here yeah gotcha well thank you very much guys thank you thank you that was Lack last one here is item M is a letter from Jack Hackett regarding the request
for the use of Father Kelly softball park for adult slow pitch softball May 5th through November 7th new lights I think they're probably excited to get out and play i don't have any issues questions motion to approve second it motion to approve by
Commissioner Rigo second by Commissioner Harris all in favor i i motion carries two items in all business um we have the letter from Britney Maderas regarding the use of Kennedy Park for the local community children's event it's going to be Saturday August
30th 2025 um do you want to come down sure okay so I had resubmitted the letter taking away the um I don't even remember the bouncy house the kitty pools all the items that we had discussed um nyxing it and I
still am asking for the day just to set up and I will have small tents and I just want to make sure that I have time for every like the fire department to come if there's needed the health department so on and so forth um but the event will be from 2 to 8
and then Amber was saying last time was there an issue with the date like with the it's the day of the cleanup from the feast right from the feast so that's why I moved the event itself to the afternoon okay giving time I'm assuming
by the morning they should be okay but the area that I'm looking at is actually right literally around the um the basketball courts um we sized down our event drastically the the Holy Ghost but the Holy Ghost is up the top so that
really won't be affect yeah that's why yeah so but I know like she you guys had mentioned like they move the items down through the pathway so when they're getting stuff out of there yeah but it still won't affect Oh it won't okay because they'll be going by where the
old bathrooms are the little path there that's how they go in and out oh okay okay so it's not going anywhere near baseball field there oh if you go Okay near the baseball field right on yeah it's the basketball court without the uh
without the fencing around it right exactly that's where Yeah we we size down the what we're going to It'll be just like basic games that we're going to have for free for the community um and then the petting zoo I know was up
in the air i I didn't know if there was permitting for that well you better come into the city you got to go upstairs to the uh city hall you got to get in trouble okay i can get like it's the same as the others the health department if they're going to have petting zoom
you have I think I go to the health department okay i have to go to them anyways because I wanted to use their vetted food trucks um I'm trying to keep this as streamlined as possible um Yeah so for for us for it's really just the
insurance and you know we can approve this pending the insurance so that you can start marketing it and putting it all together and then you know get you won't have the permit in hand until you give the insurance and you know the girls upstairs can check all the boxes for you that's okay um but to Helen's
point as far as like health department and then if you have tents and stuff the fire department yeah i won't have big tents they'll be the 12 by 12s and smaller um I I'm trying to like I said I'm trying to keep this as simple and basic as possible and then same thing with the food trucks probably want to
just double check with the police department if they have to make sure that they they're insured too yes and then they go through the health department yeah yeah other than that motion to approve second it motion to
approve by Commissioner Riggo second by Commissioner Paris all in favor i all right thank you good luck thank you did we do this one no that's going to be at the end the last two okay we got one more and then
we got those those last two that were added uh item B under old business we haven't got an update this is a letter from Bobby Bailey regarding the use of Dumont Park for his softball season i haven't heard from Bobby from
that original request so I know that they don't have a field and I know that the girls softball league has high demand for that field but I told Bobby if he sent us the dates that we could work with um you know Tim at the
softball league to see if we could work something out but he he in his original letter I think he said there was like six or eight dates that he was looking for but I we don't have those dates so we can't really do anything so I think the the motion would just be to table it um table it until
he gets us that information and you know the sooner you get our next meeting is going to be May so the high school softball season is be over by by then well I mean we don't have anything right now yeah so I just make the motion to table it motion to table second that
motion to table it motion to table by Commissioner Rigo second by Commissioner Pris all in favor hi hi excuse me the last two items um that are not on the agenda but just for discussion purposes I don't think there's really any action to
take there isn't we we received a request um there's a um a me uh a veteran's wife would like to uh purchase and install and have installed a uh
bench at Bsentennial Park um she's just looking for um some information and we'll get her some information pertaining to this uh but I don't um I just want to make sure that we bring it to the to the uh team here that um next
meeting we'll probably have this as an item to to uh to vote on she'll apply for all the she's going to pay for everything we don't nothing to do with the pot we just wants permission to do it and if we can find a spot for the for the bench we may have to work with the veterans though you know the wall
committee too depending on where she wants to go down by too so there's probably contact one of the para is in contact with her if you want to call her yeah and I'm sure if you got her some info al we we'll have more information at the next meeting but it is something
that's coming and then do you want to just touch on your uh so the other one the other one is um and we have uh Mr santos in you do you want to give us a quick little synopsis on this seeing you in the house
and you waited all this time yeah I was told it was going to be on your I was by the time we got it just too late for that so my name's Ton Santos i reside at I reside at 35 Sven something some something else wave the rules
motion to wave the rules myself Victor Farius and Mario Dart a couple years ago we resurrected and reclaimed renamed the local Portuguese American Veterans Chapter as the Portuguese American Veterans of Bristol
County our first project in the city I worked with Charlie and his department hand in hand we totally redid Santos Square on Columbia and Broadway
i mean totally we took everything out in the back tore down the old fence the old took out the old fence took out the old flag poles i fundraised we fun I should say we fundraised over $15,000 all new fencing
three brand new flag poles all the landscape was done by us we go back periodically we weed it out it's probably one of the better looking corners in the city it's a main road into the city if you're on Broadway it
takes you from Paul River straight up into Tividan same way same way down to get on 195 the other project we looked at we talked about was the city's World War II monument which is located the top of Kennedy Park
across from Alistair Funeral Home was dedicated in 1951 i looked at it and the guys and I was like "Okay this need this needs some love it's surrounded by concrete at the base and the and the
concrete's all cracked and it's up it's upheaving it's a safety hazard." And doing a little research into the monument I found the picture from the 50s before Russ Gibson way was there that's all grass going out to
Brford there were park benches there i said "You know what this is This is ideal let's let's let's work on this one while I'm there let's look at the Civil War does it make sense to take care of one and leave the other so this is this
is a drawing I had done by my architect before he passed away basically what we want to do is te tear up the concrete walkway into both monuments make them handicap accessible to a wheelchair cobblestone around the ends
we want to match the match the mulch and match the match the flowering across the top of South Main Street so it it looks the same as the the uh career in Viet Vietnam as
well as the fire department's monument on the other corner and then throw in a couple throw a couple of benches so it kind of resembles what it was like back in the day i don't have any issue with it um I
think like logistically it based on the timing and it didn't get on the agenda i don't think we can vote and approve it today um I won't speak for anyone else on the board but these are the type of things that we never want to get in the way of people wanting to clean things up
and um but my only concern is always with Kennedy Park and is an Mstead Park so I know that this is pre-existing um but to your point as far as how it used to look I know like the historical
commission and sometimes they uh just want to be kept in the loop of things that are changing so that might be the suggestion too between now and then just let them know what you guys are doing just so that they can I'm not changing i'm not change I'm not changing anything
in particular i'm actually if you put if we do put the benches back you're actually putting the benches back in place like it like it was this is more of a maintenance issue the concrete is really in in horrific condition um the skirt around the actual monument you you
really can't walk around that it's just deplorable at this point so um what what we'll do is we'll we'll work with with Mr santos and his group to start doing the logistics to prep for that in hopes that we can get this board
to to improve and and because it's like being privately funded by his group the procurement laws as far as three bids and all that he can use whatever he wants to fix that as long as we so uh but we are we are looking at the city um assisting in certain parts of that um of
that concrete okay yeah it's very minimal um so we land too but again so by doing that this there's no issue i just don't want to delay them further they didn't get on the agenda today i don't want to have to kick it down keep kicking the can down the road
if they're ready to go I think they should go and if um you know we can we can approve it officially at the next meeting um but if the three of us are in agreement today that it should be approved we got a three to two win if the other two don't want to do it
anyways right so I got to stay okay so two I think we'll have two anyways i think we can probably convince more if you read the if you read the letter also it's at some point we'd like to put a couple of flag pulls up in that in that spot also and that's it's in it's in the
letter of the request yeah that might be something too to just run by the historical commission i'm all for it i just don't know how the historical stuff there's a lot of rules and stuff with that thank you no thank you thank you
yeah just I know that when I've mentioned other stuff that it comes up and it's an oldstead park and you can't do that and you can't do this so it's just I want to make sure that where is this right you you know where the fountain is at the top of Oh yeah right
i caught a middle and yes I I know okay that's the motion to adjurnn motion to table uh yeah there's nothing in the table wasn't on the agenda so it'll go on the agenda next month but in the meantime they can keep working behind the scenes motion to adjurnn second to
second motion to adjurnn made by Commissioner Rigo second by Commissioner Farrius all in favor i thank you