##VIDEO ID:K3dTVWW5BsY## here um thanks for joining the recreation committee as an associate um first order business then would be discussion and approval of meeting minutes somebody have a motion make a motion to accept the minutes present as presented we have a second second there you go Jump Right In all right we got a second all right discussion any edits any comments I think looks a bit a speaking of we should ask who's taking them today right get that get to that no discussion being heard um we can go around the room and vote on uh oh here you go hey Jenna can I ask you a procedural question um now that we have Quorum without elevating an associate does that do we then put have Laura go back down to being an associate for tonight that's okay I believe that the rule is once that person is elevated that they can stay in on the discussion great okay and if there's a vote you know then it would be relevant I don't think there's any vote anyways correct on the agenda minutes just minutes um and then well so Amplified sound request and temporary so there's a couple votes but all right Y no worries yep they can stay a part of the vote thank you okay it exp okay so let's go around and um all those in favor of the of approving the minutes um we can go around the room B have voting rights yeah okay right I I do this I do this I do this every week right Laura Alissa yeah yes and yes so 6 Z thank right am I doing the math right now yes 6 Z okay uh so the first order of business after that public comment so yes Judy Colman 18 Milton Road and I just want to thank the rec department for providing the benches for the Memorial Park courts before beautiful benches are there now everybody was thrilled to see them they're comfortable they look good place to sit down we change your shoes take your rest games it was really excellent so thank you thank you I also want to thank you for supporting our small little ultimate py group on Friday you support that and you supported more with Kevin now giving a um a class for the kids doing Su so that was really great thank you guys for doing what you do without you guys we can't do a lot of stuff so thank you guys as well thank you thanks Judy that was great anybody else Angela go ahead um Angela Benda Orchard Park Drive um I want to address the issue um I think you spoke about it at the last meeting about money from Burbank ice funds going directly to Recreation Committee in some form um Carl mcfaden spoke he said he went to the select board they were talking about something else they didn't really make they didn't discuss it at all and then he came here and he talked about it with you and I just want to say um I think that that would be um really an inappropriate thing for that money to go directly to um go directly to the recreation committee and I can mail this to you but I have the um 2011 annual time meeting report on the warrant and the Burbank Ice Arena leases money and in Article 13 which was asked for uh town meeting approved it says with the net income from the rink operations after deducting operational maintenance and repair costs and expenses the funding of a cash Reserve to cover Capital replacement costs the funding the remainder would be paid to the town of Reading Massachusetts um as a rental payment so it is a rental payment um in the first years there was money there was a lot of money that went to reading's contribution for the YMCA that was um hundreds of thousands of dollars and then in the next few years it was payment and move taxes for the land lace and then it has been a direct payment to the town um the money goes into a special account now it doesn't go into free cash or something so there is a a a way to keep track of what is being used um but funding is is uh for different projects is at the discretion of town meeting um select board works with fincom but fincom makes the recommendations and that money really needs to to be at the discretion of the town meeting it really isn't like $100,000 to just Recreation to decide how it goes that is what the capital projects are there for no other committee has this type of money at the discretion um I spoke to two fcom members about this and when I said I said you know this has gone back and forth between the select board when they're talking about the lease and R committee I'm just going to bounce it off you what do you think and when I said that I said I didn't tell them what I was thinking and and they're first both of them both of them said well the one of them said money is not fungible and they both said well if they get $100,000 for Burbank that means that they're not going to be asking town meeting for money or we would deduct $100,000 from the capital plan and I said well I don't know that that's the intention I think that they would think that like this is extra money and they both sort of said well no there there's not extra money there's money and if they get money through one source then they wouldn't get it through the other and I think that um I think that um we need to think of the rec committee and the funding in a very holistic sense right now um I think we are just spent a million dollars or we will be spending a million dollars for garbage cans out of free cash um fincom reserves I heard from one select board member that they are going down because things costing a lot more um and and you know we all know that our taxes will be going up with kilum I mean a 10,000 bill it's possible that taxes with kilum could go up ,000 um I think that the town has been very supportive of the recreation committee I think that they've you know Birch Meadow I think that going through it in the way that it that you ask for money you could even say you know what there's there's Burbank M can we spend more but I really think that I think that it would come back and bite the recreation Committee in the ass in in the end because it would it would sort of feel like a double grab and when you have so many needs right now I mean I know that we have parks and playgrounds that need to be done and they really do but we also have a school that hasn't had drinkable water for years and so I think that you know asking for that money to go there even if even if it's just going to the selectboard and saying we support this I think it sends the wrong message I think that these kind of projects really need to be uh gone through fincom and town meeting and they really need to be vetted and this looks like an end run to me so I I hope that you know you let it kind of drop and if the select board decid to take it up that's their business but I don't think it would be the right thing the recreation committee to do thank you right thank you Angela um I'll just make a a quick comment just just so everybody knows where we where we are in terms of a status from that um this was brought up to uh select board so we made our we made our recommendation last week that the select board look at or last month to look at it um there was no there's nothing definitive about it um so it's is in the bo it is in the select board's hands to make a decision on how they want to pursue the request from the Burbank ice authority to have monies allocated in a certain way um so uh did did you I thought it was just a discussion you you didn't actually vote and make a recommendation on it did you we we recommended that the select board look at it yeah actually recommend they look at it so and It ultimately it's up to the select board to make that decision if they want if they want to pursue it um and look that that way I agree with you that money's eventually all has to get approved by town meeting regardless of how it it goes um so uh yeah any other public comment go ahead K did a letter go did a letter go to the select board or did did did did something actually go to the select board I think the only thing that was brought up by Carl mcfaden I believe I know Melissa had brought it up again on anything I mean Melissa meliss so I I I know that Carl and Melissa were working together on it so was it not brought up on Monday as well too Melissa had mentioned it mention can mention whatever they want liais reports but we're just making the distinction between it's the select board putting something on their agenda to have a formal discussion the answer that would be not yet yeah yeah and that's when I when you see it on the agenda here that was what I'm talking about we kind of just talked about what we did as well too and I was just going to there was no major updates other than it was mentioned on Monday night as well um and I Know Carl when he spoke with us tied in the school department as well saying he wanted to allocate some money for special education program inclusion program and then he connected us with Tom machelski I spoke with him over a zoom meeting and he said he'd be in full support of it as well too so that's the updates I had on that so you could even scratch it from the the agenda at 710 go ahead Ken hereen jan3 Circle I'm um speaking as a pickleball player and and a council and aging member and um I just uh would like to see what the next steps are for the recreation Committee in terms of pickle ball because it's time to be Pro aete there's so many people playing pickle ball you should come up to the courts because it's all ages it's so much fun we see families out there we see multi-generations intergenerational activities I play with my son and my daughter-in-law and we play all ages and it's a really awesome activity but I think it's time to make a decision because the cracks on the court are growing they're wider and longer and that impacts the quality of the play and I know that um I had a great conversation with Jenna and Jim last month and we're really looking forward to Recreation committee making some sort of step forward about using the Z land and using because we all agree everybody even fincom has mentioned it select board has mentioned it you've mentioned it that s way is the place so it seems like it's the time to make a decision to as the rec committee and then select board ultimately has to make a decision and then um we'll see what happens from there so I'm just wondering what you feel like are the next steps what the recreation committee feels are the next steps and I really appreciate you taking the time to listen Jim again I'll reiterate what Judy said about the benches we are ecstatic about having those four benches so we and everybody is so thank you for all you're doing but do I do ask what will you do especially as a council and aging member because this is a recreational activity that so many 60 plus members of our community are participating in so thank you Jim have a uh update uh so as far as the update I have I know it um was brought up again at the select board meeting right now they just finished up reel I think it just closed and they did recommend that Simon's way was the spot and I know there's other processes that have to take place between today and kind of when we make decisions and I think every meeting we've had we've continued to say full support of them going there but we don't want to put the The Carriage before the horse so my understanding is we're waiting for the select board to basically kind of say if we could do something with that land right can I just and if and if we get if we get that green light from the select board to like let's fully explore zy land and that spot that then it's I I think that I don't want to speak for everybody but I have not heard anybody say no that pickle ball shouldn't go in Simon's way everybody has said to your point everybody has agreed that that is the best spot for it um so uh I think yeah as soon as as soon as there's something a specific partial that you know and I know that like I think cpdc had something to say about it uh or cpdc is next right Karen am I wrong that was permanent building committee so I think we need to back up a little bit because the select just heard the presentation and and so I just want to be clear we did hear from recal that they recommend s's way so we just heard it so they have now formed a building committee for this project um so I think that's the next place that it needs to go yeah the building committee is formed that's what I said yeah yeah so it's not really but is not looking to make a decision the community is going to make it need to make a decision to move forward with this project and so so again you can't really build a pickle ball court without knowing what where that product is going to go so but I just not s board holding anything up at this point we just had a presentation so so one one of my questions on this is um it seems like it's critical to get those courts on the on the capital plan um for fy2 and I don't really know that process uh and how that gets done and when it gets done um but it would be a real tragedy if it doesn't get on the FY 25 Capital plan because Town meeting's going to have to to approve this and get it done and the courts are so crowded at Memorial that can I ask Jenna um to to chime in uh and or and or uh Jim on kind of like that that part from the recreation departments uh if if that's the next step sure so my thought is I know that we've had um meetings with the reading pickle ball Players Association and Jim and I also had a meeting with Karen so I think as staff and as the pickle ball Community there's been some discussions like behind the scenes which is great because we're all communicating and that's what we want um about a location and it is the location that is currently on the recal plan um which is the conceptual design but as Jim just said there's some question on where the building will go where it won't go um we seem to think that the parcel of land that the pickle ball courts are on right now on the plan would be the best spot but again um we're just kind of waiting for a direction from the select board on you know if this is something that we should pursue now later um so that that's kind of where we're at um and it's up to the to the board if they want to discuss it further there is also a private donation um I don't know if Michael wants to speak to that as well or anyone else in the room that's coming forward so there's there's a lot of moving Parts here and um I'm myself would would love to see pickle ball move to the Forefront because there's been a lot of behind the scenes Good Will um by the players and the association to get these fund funds raised and they have also indicated that if a location is specified that they want to move forward and donate even more money to the project so so what so so I guess I guess I mean I I'll I'll ask the question like what committee needs to say what's next because I don't think the recreation committee has the wherewithal to like say Okay Town move forward with this with with this at this point like we've voiced our support for it again and again Kate you oh sorry go ahead Jenna sorry yeah so I think right now um from what Jim said that it's gonna be going to the preminent building committee to really decide where the location of the building should be if it should be Simon's way um if it should be Oakland Road that hasn't even been determined R calcon sea have made their recommendations but permanent building committee as a whole has not and neither has the OPM um the OPM is not even on board yet so I think once that's determined and they say it's Simon's way and they say it's going to go here um then we could probably move forward as as a board and make some type of recommendation um and I think that would probably be within the next couple months I think the OPM and the permanent building committee will have a decision on the site um in a couple months and Mike you can correct me if I'm wrong because you're you're on the squad too I'm on the recall committee so I I think that you you characterized uh the recal and permanent building committee and and the um I forgot the manager whatever he's called um that's all in process the recal never actually specifies pick ball um locations because that was separate from the recal there is a location that would work at Simon's way and not interfere with any of recal regardless of whether it's in the close to the April Street end or the other end of the parking lot I mean where the pickle ball courts are existing plan in the exist where the which hasn't been approved by permanent building committee yet right but where the pickle ball courts are is is a narrow bit of land and you you really can't put a building there I don't um so I think it I think they're two separate things and what I'm concerned about really is that if we have to wait for the permanent building committee to make their decision in November or December that we won't be on the capital plan budget for next summer and if that is the case this is just pitball could happen next summer we have um over 125 in the bank today we have commitments for much more as soon as we get a piece of land we're talking about a substantial gift to the town to get these courts built estimates of what it would cost to build so it's a particular site so maybe it cost 400k 450k who knows you know until you actually do some of the site rep stuff you don't know but until we get a location and do some of this stuff and get it on the capital plan we don't have a project and we can't do any real planning we can't get the engineering department in in town to to help out and really lay out this is this is what it's going to cost maybe maybe it'll cost 350k maybe 250 I don't know if it's 250 we could probably raise all the money ourselves so I'm gonna to get on the capital plan yeah or and if and if it's too late that's a real really sad sad I'm gonna pause this conversation I we we've talked about it as part of public comment um but I think we're veering a little probably a little too a skew um Jim maybe we can offline figure out figure out kind of like a concrete course of action whatever we can do um and if it if it is us then maybe into permanent building committee and saying how do we do this how do we split these up um can we split these up is that feasible um I don't know right I don't have the answer to that but um I I think it as much as we can do we we we we should do so um okay so uh and thank you for your patience uh we're going to go to the uh next item oh yeah sorry any other public comment can I just say one thing they should um you should all go to the um Financial forums in the fall to get in front of the bencom and to to put it in their ear and start talking about getting on the capital plan so if you don't have a place yet start appearing especially the C the financial Forum where they have they're talking about Capital plans so attend those everybody should attend those um Amplified sound requests for reading Coalition for prevention and support and Reading Police Department anyone okay so that is coming up so does everybody have a copy of this no no okay we read it all right I will read it out loud so this is uh on August 28 thank you August 28th from 5:30 to 6:30 use of sound equipment speakers mixers microphones um in order to make General announce ments and speeches um doesn't give any other specifics um do you know uh it's the purpose of the event is overdose awareness so my guess is this just a communic Community Information Police Department Erica M okay mlet I'm sorry on the town common is it Town common common yeah both we approve second any discussion all right let's go around the room Mike hi hi yes I all right it passes fix that thing uh next is the vote on approval of temporary portable lights at Birch Meadow multi-purpose area um submitted by reading youth football as you said we're looking to BAS lights the Birch Meadow fails multi-purpose field for middle of September or so to middle of November so we have 170 kids this season record for us they practice about 6 to 8 o'clock and at some point it gets dark early and having lights just helps that tremendously 40% of our kids have first through fourth grade so asking them to go later and get the turf field of the varsity field once it becomes available to us It's just tough at that age so we're seeking approval for lights temporarily we would use them say Tuesday and Thursdays but anyone soccer Etc that's there any other days we'll have the ability to use them as well and how many are there two is it two two two yeah are they located where would they be located I made a little map if you want me to yeah you could that' be great this is your favorite po I'm getting that's right you got to see where they are where they facing all right now I just got share the screen we'll get there I say but it's not showing up there we go thank you sure it makes this bigger too all right okay I kind of made a quick little map so the it's typically lit pretty much From Dusk till 10 o'clock whether it's high school or are youth rentals which they get on there about 7:30 and those little triangles that are look a little bitlish that's kind of where the light's showing right now am I wrong it's you we get the bleed that goes a little bit towards the street field but the area that's needed is where it says lights needed and I'm pretty sure those two little red dots that I put there those would be the two locations that would light them up as well um the lights are on like I said at 10:00 every night and I want to say two or three years ago we approved I think you had four of them at that time um but we realized that there was a backside light on that Turf to that was shooting over there that we never really utilized before until last year and it's made a huge difference but there still is that area back there and I want to say you can fit almost two teams back there correct yeah I'd say it's even a little bigger that dead zone last year A Little Closer towards that other field closer to the softball D on the right 50% wider and we do have temporary lights currently over at coolage right now coolage has a set of four of them that will be coming in the fall and they use them uh in the early spring as well with without any issues so it's worked out well and as you all know we are an extreme shortage for field space because the high school team is taking a lot of the field space up until 7 or 7:30 so again I'm always in support of getting kids out there earlier in bed sooner so I'd be all about it this the same technology as the soccer ones behind coolage using Sol these are diesel and that's what was used prior not wanting solar just not available right now I was wondering it's they're hard realistically is there any a butter issue it's not is already it's a ways it's a ways either direction before you get to a house and the rest of that place is lit up like a Christmas right and how would you coordinate turning them on and off that I can work with whoever whoever you tell me to work with I can work with to make sure I know the soccer ones have like an automatic switch that will shut them off regardless that at 10:00 my biggest fear um I don't like getting phone calls at 6:00 in the morning that the softball lights were left on the other ones do go off in timer so I would just be adamant about making sure that they are being shut off every night and whatever time are definitely down that every day yep yes that's earlier you can have them on until 10 o'clock um so what are the dates and time it's probably mid September like mid November so somebody armed with that information want to make a motion I move that we approved the use of portable lights in the bir Meadow multi-purpose field with the cut off at 10 o'clock and uh coordinate with direct department on uh fueling I'll second any other discussion okay go around all those in favor Michael y i as well six zero thanks Brian sounds good once you get them there heads up already so they know they just said let them know the time frame it'll probably be drop them off in that new parking lot area and they'll put them exactly where you want yeah thanks for I think the tank fuel is enough for season yeah all right uh update John do you have your presentation I do but I don't have a way to get it onto your screen you happen to have it maybe this gentleman here can help I have it right here for John I have it on my computer because I have to read and I won't be able to see I'm going to go sit where Brian was because you you all won't be able to see me on the screen so come stand and I prefer I prefer to stand whenever I present but I'm going to cheat and look at my screen and I definitely won't be able to see that from here um well thank you for indulging me I'm John fudo I'm the executive director of the Burbank why I've been here before I think I came in December or January of last year um so thanks for indulging me again I'm going to share some updates and some stats just know that we haven't closed the air out yet so we're still projecting through um a little bit uh a little bit more than a quarter of the year um but we are about we are about 1.5 U years in and halfway through the grant so um things are going very well I'm very proud of the work that we're doing and we've found ways to expand this year to get more uh more kids especially into the swim lessons um so things are going well from our standpoint glad to hear some feedback but what I'd like to do is run through what I have just for an update so I can share what's new kind of what we've maintained and what we're looking to do for uh for the rest of this year and I'm glad to take any questions at the end so I'm going to go through mine here because I can't see and I'll let uh Jimmy scroll as we need to so uh I mentioned at the very end of our meeting last year that we were going to be seeking um permission to work with the unified um groups early he runs the Unified sports program for the middle and high school uh she approached us last year and said it would be really good if you could help us stop Gap we don't have anything kind of in the later winter into the spring and she asked us about doing a strength conditioning program um for the kids in the unified program which we said of course we would love to do so with that we sought out one of our really good trainers Paul Dollard Paul is I was telling camon this he's a retired dentist uh who became a trainer about eight years ago and he's just phenomenal with especially this population uh he did went out and did a special certification for the inclusive and adaptive programming for a for a sports trainer and uh and took for the first time with this group of kids we had 12 kids in the program uh that went over 12 weeks basically through the winter into the springtime uh mostly High School age kids we had four of them actually walk for graduation so that we looking to refill those seats this year um the the activities included treadmills ster mat's rowers uh Paul's really giv us an obstacle course every week for the kids to go through just to make it fun and kind of American Ninel Warrior type and gives them some um kind of behind the scenes balance work so we set that up uh each week so Paul was really good with that he actually recently asked if we could run it again and I think tera's also interested running it uh through the athletic department again this year with us so again this is another great partnership we've uh we've been able to um pull together with the Runing public schools in the special ed Department along with Jen stce and I think they just lost a couple staff members I think unfortunately T Tina Nutter who was phenomenal just left the district um but hopefully they'll get her replaced but that whole Department's been phenomenal it's been a really good partnership and we'll share more of that as it goes on Jim you can jump forward can I ask a question before you since since you said it was partnered with Tara herley from the RPS does that mean that this program would be only for students that attend RPS no it's for reading in I Reading Public Schools yes it's only Sor so you so if you live in reading and you're a disabled child and you're looking for a program you wouldn't be able to do this unless you attended the writing public unless in the reading public school system that is correct okay so swim buddies is our very very good swim program that we set up last year for the first time this year we've set up 17 sessions so we've we've run we've got 17 setup for the year so we have 32 total over the last two years we ran 15 uh completely in 2024 uh we have 63 participants and an overall number of 112 that we've serviced to this date that will grow by the end of the year we still have I think five sessions to fill before the end of the year that closes um another program that we tried to really give reading residents first crack at where 83% of the kids that participated in that program are reading based and the obviously the other different 177% are from out of town um our high school volunteers were down this year we've gone in a little bit of a different direction I'll expand I'll explain that a little bit uh we were going with one-on-one volunteers we ran into issues with consistency of high school kids being available week after week after week um so we had limited it to four students per class with an instructor um I hired a phenomenally new um Aquatics director this past Jan uh she started in January she came from Malden and as Melissa might know uh Malden took the same plan we took with the Opera program and landed the same type of funding for uh for their YMCA so when she joined us she had some ous ideas for this program and one of them was uh for the youngest kids especially that they would bring a one-on-one with them and that would allow for more people to get in the pool so we would have to limit it to four so now we're up to around six or seven kids can participate and we really don't have any barriers as far as how many we have to limit it to as long as it's reasonable we can bring as many kids that's why you see such a large number already this year and that will continue to grow um so that was really good news and that seemed to work out really well um we also added um and we still volun here it's like we still put this out to the four schools that we had before ring Memorial High School um Central Catholic Austin prep and Malin Catholic for the four schools we were getting students from um but we found that um because of the inconsistency we would still take them and they could definitely help with the class but it was best to have someone um there with them that they knew every week it made the program a lot smoother and we're definitely getting that feedback we added a certified swim whisper uh Gus malab joined our team uh back in March so that's why we were able to offer an extra session as we're going through as well so we're pleased to be able to do all this and expand the program um we're using a lottery system still but we're actually at a point now where the lottery system is filling and we still have space um which is one of the happy um The Happy collateral off I'm on Zoom you're not muted Angela happy consequences of uh going to the one-on ones that we did um so that's expanded space in the program which is R any questions on that one so as I mentioned Gus joined us as a swim whisper and he's now running the Splash Program for us that's uh one of our Flyers that we do uh rotate throughout the the Y uh this program is open to the general public see um adults of all ages participate I think some of you remember last year we did we shot a video for this last year this is one of the best things that we do it's we run it every week in the summertime we shift it back to 12:30 from I'm sorry to 12:00 from 11:00 and the participation is not quite as good uh but we have a couple of group homes that do show up with um with daytime students uh and it works out awesome for them it's sometimes their only time out of the uh out of the day program where they come to the bir Bank y some come by by Van some come by um one-onone so it's really great to see we have all ranges of disabilities and Gus will on the next slide you me if you can move forward Gus will talk a little bit about that and I'll just share some some of his this where I have to read on screen I definitely can't see that far um just gave me a few of the uh the highlights that he seen recently over the last few months so one of the patrons um one of I'm sorry one of the particular named he didn't give us the name obviously I blacked it out he showed significant coordination recently he's been attending the program for two years his mom in his caregiver uh the lifeguards and other friends in the pool cannot believe or cannot fathom that he's walking chest high in the pool this is a kid that couldn't do he's Fu 26 years old he could not get past his his waistline so he's now was just in the waiting area and now he's actually submerging the pool up to his waist his tall kid um so it's this what he says small transportation is very very inspiring and and if you have a chance I would invite anyone to come down and check out this program we do run it every week on Tuesdays and Thursdays um Gus also said I was also able to work with in the the pool individually during the summer with two other girls who are in their 30s who have reduced motor skills they're now confident in showing increased stability and body awareness control and their balance while working on Long Long lever joint movements abduction adduction extensions flexing and hypertensions and the uh the third one that he he um wanted to call out was the equipment that we use for the program um the group classes include boy um noodles in swim paddles uh they work on articulation uh bodyw work motor skills repetitive routines they also work on swimming skills while reducing individual participant Road Blocks um working oneon-one is limited in a group session so sometimes he struggles with the group session because it's a large group they are sometimes with a one-on-one sometimes they're on their own um but he has found ways to make it work and make it more fun so it's been a really good success and again if anyone has time I'd love for you to come down and see this in action it's pretty cool um so one of the aspects of the grant was we were going to find some social programs and when we wrote the grant we thought we'd be able to do maybe something weekly or even monthly with um an outfit like communist house unfortunately that never came to fruition uh inep Ed and Jim they've helped me coordinate some projects and some uh and some trips this was the second trip that we did we did it in February and it was in partner parip with Reading Public Schools again um we took 35 people total with 25 students being um being Celtics fans and we took them into town to see the Celtics play the worst team in the NBA and it was awesome we sat up top the kids had a ball um we learned the day after from Tina that some of the kids had never taken the train before nor been into a Celtics game before so it was pretty cool and we get to see the unified kids working with the Buddies um and the Partnerships that they have and how they treat each other you can see it in the bottom some of those kids are typical high school students that are there giving their time and volunteering to hang out with these kids and they gravitate they idolize them and it's really a great mentor program for them so we have um we have our next trip planned for November we're going to see the masters of Illusion it's magic show in um in L J you can go to my last SL the cool part with the Celtics where we were as well two we were sitting at the top and right behind us they actually had a sensory room as well so if someone got over stimulated and need a little break they can go off to and they had a room set aside for the kids that um as well which I thought was pretty cool yeah thank you um now are these social programs opened up to individuals with disabilities that live in reading but don't attend the ring Public Schools yeah so the struggle with that will always be how we'll know where they are we do bring one student that one person with us that's not in the ring public school system that we happen to know what the why uh otherwise it is do how how you know where where they are they found us and someone that we knew mutually that would enjoy it that's really the only way we have the best way we can get this out with managing who's going to go on the trip is we utilize the teachers they able to tell us who's sort of ready for that trip so you just don't have someone signing up and going on the trip and the chaperon not knowing what to do so was that arpag Grant was it written in there that the funds would specifically only be for RPS students though or was it for like people that live and Runing with disabilities yeah not for this particular program we just headed in that direction because it was the honestly the simplest way to run the program without the fear of taking someone the most inclusive way though and it really cuts out a great amount of the population so hold on before we go further just to clarify when you say writing public school student are you meaning like they actually have to like be in one of the writing Public Schools or can be somebody who's out of District to look at it out of District so some some people are out of district and don't go to school and reading but some kids aren't in the system at all right so there's two that's a good question so I think that you know what you had asked earlier about the um for the fitness they don't necessar if you had somebody who was say out of District um but an RPS but an but but an RPS student they're still under red incon schools when they're out of District correct but not all children with disabilities are o students some are just just go to private schools but correctability correct so if you had somebody in a private school yeah that would be one with so we start with the special ed Department from the superintendent's office they have the most complete list of people or families in town that would fall into this category they would know better than anyone we would have a harder time finding them without the connection if without that connection we wouldn't even be able to probably with the O OD team chairs could do it exactly the the added District team chairs could help with that oh okay that's but even if say for example you had somebody at a private school Y and I'm just going to use Austin preps since it's in town in there in Middle School sure could that person even though they're not part of RPS if they found this program they could still access yeah we would just want the same safeguards that if they're they're coming on the trip that we're as chaperon able to and that's the beauty of using the students in Reading is the teachers come with them and they know the students as well as anyone so we're not putting random chaperons with random students that have never met before if a parent wanted to come with the child I me absolutely y don't necessarily have to be reading public school correct but it just so happens this is how you're marking this is how you're identifying people this is probably the simplest way to because when we talk about marketing we're like all right how do we even launch this like if we put it out we have no idea what's going to come back to anything that's right did you put flyers up the Y maybe um we didn't go that route we could I mean we talk about these programs and they're it's not something we advertise in a brochure or anything yeah I mean I'm just thinking I just yeah my thoughts are it's just it's just not an arm of the RPS right and not not everybody goes to the reading public schools right so I just don't want it to be to cut off a whole group of the population it too so and the question would be and that's and we do that with Splash we put up the splash signs all over the W and that's because it's kind of an allomer and we're able to to more easily do that where we're going off site and we're going with chaperon with with young kids in some cases or younger kids in some cases it's a little bit more of a slippery slope I have no I would have no issue with that we could definitely and we can send out email blast as well too you know and then it says a little venting have someone come in Meet the child Meet the Parents where are their needs is good fit yeah yeah we do intake forms for swim buddies for the same purpose like we want to know like what their challenge about and anything and sometimes it's something as simple as you know sometimes get a little a little sensitive to extra sound or music it's those little tidbits that it's important for us to know how are you I've seen the swim Budd emails come but I've never seen the email come for for that so what system are you using to get out the apply for the swim body Lottery and could you use that same system for that hey we've got this great social program yeah we we totally could do that right now we send in we send the trip we actually work on the trip together with the running Public Schools they help us decide what would be good with what the kids would like what they might not like that's what we did for this one we pulled them and said you want to go to a Red Sox game you want to go to I think we gave them Blue Man Group and we gave them the masters of Illusion they the teachers came back and said we think this one would be the best one it's great to brainstorm but then if you could also send out just a just I just I don't want to monopolize the conversation but it's like stopping at the reding public schools and not like offering it to like other kids in town too that would could use it just as much um it's just it's just sad to leave them off yeah out of it that's why we have these up well you know you got another side you know a connection this way and as a parent and we I would take that if you want to reach out to me I'll happily give you my card if you have or Melissa seems like you know that other group that we would need to talk to that would be helpful I'm surprised that Jen oh sorry Jen dies didn't didn't say maybe she did and I'm just presuming that we were just working with our own students she could have so pretend have all the district people to yeah yeah but even ra about advertising on the rec department I mean on the rec website that I mean I think if I was a parent in town and I was looking for something I'd go right to the rec department website and that's where I would look first yeah um John just talking about like um you know I know you still oh that's the last guy um when you were talking about like we there was a boo about um working with communitas but that didn't quite actually pan out can you just elaborate a little bit more as to what the barriers were with communs and yeah it was really that they just didn't have the Staffing for we went back to them in fact they were part of the conversation when we started this we said if we allocate money to you would you take this and then when it came to say okay here's what we have for funding would you like to spend it they said you know we don't really don't have the bandwidth to to staff and that's when we got kind of started thinking what do we do yeah and we thought about teen nights we thought about these different opport unities and what we really came up with was the field trips would be I mean they they do cost a lot of money I'm not they cost3 to $4,000 every time we run them but they're well-run and the kids really enjoy it and what we found is the teachers actually have used this as a very good way to get the kids to listen a little bit more in class if you really want to go on this trip this is coming up in the fall it turns into a really nice carrot for the students as well so the teachers have right or wrong use this as a little bit of a carrot for them to take part in programming thank you you guys have done awesome work I mean this is just amazing we're very proud of it too I can't tell you I'm definitely want to come down on a Tuesday or Thursday and watch those those classes so thank you I know that you know getting this money is a huge responsibility in tax for your your staff and it's a lot of work I work in a nonprofit and we have some AR profils that we're trying to spend and I know how difficult it can be sometimes it responsibly and meet the needs of the people that it's intended for so I thank you and your staff for the DAT that you guys have um put towards that you know one of the things when we worked on this proposal and pitched it to uh I forget the name of the the committee that we to the arpa committee was that you know some of this funding would be really kind of like some seed money to really think about like just expanding services for um for this population and I really want to I really think that this committee should really think about you know all the people that this program has touched and that you know I know we've talked to I've talked to Jenner about I've talked to Jim about this in the past but I think as a committee we really need to start considering about putting some funds towards a therapeutic recreation specialist someone who can look at our programs to make them more inclusive and to um build some programs that there's a need and what happens when this Opera funding is done and these what's going to happen with these programs so um I don't know I just want to put that out there I know there's a lot of uh people looking for funding for different things I think this is something that's really important it's potentially that we could partner even with another town to um have a Rec Recreation therape therapeutic recreation specialist um I think one of the challenges for you guys and you could probably I think you just nailed it with communitas and why it's so challenging is because of Staffing yes and so having our own staff who's trained to know how to implement some of these types of programs I think would be key yeah an implementation is key but also adaptability we're looking at a lot of our own programs right now trying to figure out how can we make it adaptive versus it doesn't have to just be adapted programming it can be like our summer camp is adaptive we will take students with special needs in those programs um with the same thing with the intake and just the conversation with the parent to make sure that the child sustain the program that's the key so I think you're right there's definitely and we're looking at more adaptive opportunities as well but trying to infiltrate them into or integrate them into just mainstream programming is perfectly fine and what should happen and that's kind of what I think the unified program tries to do as well is to meld the two programs together so these all the kids feel the same and they have the same opportunity yeah and and I just want to also just Express it's not just about kids it's adults with disabilities in seniors with disabilities though it's all ages on how to make programming more inclusive so it's not something that just benefits children yeah it benefits all ages of people who might need um some adaptive uh I just I gotta tell you I just did a walkth through I'm glad you said I did a walk through um two days ago I'm sorry th last Thursday with a gentleman that runs a a facility in Lexington it's for um TPI traumatic t bi traumatic brain injures and I had invited him out we want to visit his facility and I invited him out to look at ours to say what do we need to do to make these Pro like the what equipment do we need do we have enough walking space do we have accessibility elevators do we have everything that we need and we're looking at harnesses over over treadmills to try to bring in not only brain but um uh folks final issues so we're trying that's it's it's a huge it's a huge huge huge undertaking to do it but it's a huge population yeah it is if you startop looking around it's it's huge so and Melissa thank you you great comments um and I'll Echo them um I repeat what you said but I also have great appreciation um for all the work that you guys have done um also recognizing that we you did not get hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars that you've made uh it was 85 990 yeah 92,000 $992,000 right so $92,000 over the course of three years can't can't develop programming for everybody all the time and and and handle the entire population to your point Melissa there's a lot there's a much bigger population out there um but I think for what you have and what you have done and starting these programs and like in some cases innovating and doing new things um I think you've done a tremendous job so I appreciate it so thank and it gets it on the map too and it gets it people around this table talking about it and people around other tables talking about it and I think that's what it was sorely missing when we went after it it people weren't talking about it because a lot of the Adaptive program had disappeared during the pandemic and was very very slow to come back so these are some of the first to come back and I am very proud I'm super connected to all the work that we do I actually run all of the swim buddies out of my office so all the intakes that come in come through me so I see all of them I get all the thank you notes too which is awesome and I get all the grumpy people so I handle everyone there's not a lot of grumpy people but people are very very thankful after they've had the opportunity especially because the program's free and some kids have got have got to do it sometimes even three times now so it's pretty awesome any other comments or questions thanks for coming in and I'll see you again in six months yes thanks again appreciate seeing all of you in touch soon thank you I know touched on it earlier um so I'll just open it up for uh any additional discussion um Burbank funds did anybody have any additional thoughts discussion on it everyone I do um when Mr mcf had come in last month he had said that um nson burbank's original intent was to send it back to Recreation for recreational loose he had also said that there was a a hope that it would go for adaptive programming and I think that I just want to Advocate again um that there's such a great need for that like I was just on I'm sure all parents recently were on the um the running w website looking for programming for their kids and there's so many great programs you to scroll down to see all the programs and there's one in the top right corner there's one and it's great that we have special Cas skates program I don't know any other town that has a skating program so that's great but it's not for all kids because it's too cold and it requires a lot of equipment and sometimes the sensory needs also it's $150 which is kind of a lot of money to spend when your kid goes I don't want to put that ice skate on you know um so just to have a second one in there like any any second one in there just to kind of balance it out a little bit more um would be amazing so I just wanted to put a plug for yeah and I think I think we all kind of agreed in theory that um the and your point like the spirit of what Nelson Burbank wanted was to to have extra money from the the Burbank ice Authority go towards helping recreation in general like big General um in ring um so if we can figure out a way to honor that it would be awesome um I understand kind of what Angelo is saying earlier about there being you know are there what what's the mechanism in order to do that um are there ways to kind of like to to to dedicate it um I think it'd be awesome I know we had subsequent conversations after last meeting I know Jim and I talked about kind of the same thing having special education having adaptive programming um would be a huge beneficiary of like the additional funds um so um but you know uh like we we like we mentioned um right now it's you know we we need we need kind I think select board and maybe maybe Carlo can comment um uh to kind of like hopefully advocate for and or look at what is the mechanism to do that if there is one um or if there's another way so I think that's where we're at right now so we voted on that last time but then how does and I'm hi I'm the rookie in the room how does what we voted on get to the select board like how do they know it do we just need Carlo to be like watching all of our meetings so we know so caros Z Le is on right so he his his responsibility as other select board members to other committees are to report back to the uh to to to the select board so if we say you know we would here here's something we voted on here's something we'd like to that then it's on to onto Carlo or if it's another committee and it's Melissa or if it's Karen or whoever they bring it to and they say they suggest an agenda item for a future select board meeting um so that's kind of where it was and I I haven't watched it um I was where was I I was in Connecticut College um when so was not not at all um paying attention to select board this week so I didn't see what the Le what the liaison reports were um but will at some point and that would be similar for the pickall that was discussed exactly yeah yeah KL go ahead I I don't have the leaste memorized but I'm assuming it' be an amendment to the lease yeah I don't know if there's language in there specifically that monies go to the general fund or whatever fund but that's a I don't want to say a simple fix but that's a board discussion y to amend the lease to dedicate the funds to Recreation as a whole activities so that's something I will I will read the lease again I read it for another reason but I'll read I'll go over it again and then you have Town Council comment if need it if it's in there specifically then we just going to amend it if it's not in there at all then I don't know what for there to be I think one thing that that we found out last fall with Fidel was that the the money from Burbank goes into a special fund yeah it's a it's a fund that's separate from all the other funds and it gets voted on by town meeting when it gets spent okay I'll look into it yeah I'll look into it yeah sounds right I think if you decided that that money should be ok for adaptive programming you'd be hardpressed to find someone that's going to object to that right I think you would it would I guarantee you that would get rousing support and that's just my two SS on that find out if we can do that like weed earlier going to the board fincom oh of course eventually go eventually this has to go it has to go it has to go to town meeting so GNA say no I think we I think we I think we were we were just kind of like that Parish rung to like elevate it up and and and then eventually yeah skip yeah exactly okay no but always ask those questions um we've all been so thank you for thank you for asking it any other questions or updates or discussion on that okay uh I'm gonna turn it over to the Dream Team tell us what's happening in Reading wreck I did some photos again this time we're gonna share screen pictures get I'm getting quick by next mon I forget every week I'm older than you all right all right so that's what we just talked about the lights all right bankr tennis courts I know we were talking about getting these done and we did go out to bid um the bid closed on August 15th and we received two I think very good bids um this is for the entire bankr tennis courts the six courts we have down there um as so as a hit wall and we had Vermont recreational surfacing and fencing coming at 74819 sporttech was about $55,000 higher at 794 um and both of these companies are planning on or they said they could get it done in the fall but this is very weather related they need about a 2 to three week window in order for everything to set up and cure correctly um so right now um the town just sent out the intent to award the bid in the contract they sent it out on 8:22 so we're waiting for the Certificate of Insurance to come in and a payment Bond um as well with the hopes of starting this fall um like I said whether permitting if it didn't happen this fall then we would have to push it to the falling fall we can't interrupt the spring tennis season and the summer um tennis season as well and both of these folks knew that as well when they did go out to the bid so we're waiting for all the paperwork to come in hope to have it in in the next week or two and then it's going to be updating the tennis community as well as the neighbors that there's going to be some work done um and Vermont recreational service they were the last ones to do it so they know the courts um pretty well um we had allocated $100,000 so it came well under so it will be uh approximately call it $25,000 that could be utilized for another project this year nice so that is good news how long will it take Jim approximately so they said about two to three weeks so ideally I would love it to happen in mid October you get into November it gets a little cold is Vermont the award a contractor or what's that Vermont they won the they won the they won the bid yeah yep they built the original cords too got it and they've done a good job from what I recall the first go around where they did it so um and I know the engineering department knows them pretty well too um and have good relationships and they do a lot of tennis courts and we do have all their um references as well which I will still be calling as well to um so it's been a busy month August is get ready for the kids to get back to school um a lot of our playgrounds were in need of some wood chips to go on the spots where kids typically fall so myself and Ed um we had rakes in our hand we did have help with DPW this is the before picture this is the upper lot over at wood end um I think it was last we had some wood chips I think Jenna did it about three years ago um they wash out kids wear and tear certain areas so this was H one we just did this past week this is just the four this is the mulch we had a total of 45 cubic yards of mulch get dropped off um we worked with DPW um and it's funny that one scoop right there would have been $700 for them to ship on their trucks I reached out to DPW they had some trucks they had some guys available they took five trips down to mass Mulch and Andover had this all dropped off within four hours saving us $700 a truck load so it's nice to have that relationship um with them to save us some money 700 truckload for nine cubic yards and then um also another savings too um uh someone at DBW knew and had done some work with mass mulch before and other projects and when I called I got $54 per um cubic yard and that number shrunk 238 when DPW said we're going to come pick it up so um in the Birch Meadow playground that you're going to see coming up here um just in that one playground alone we Ed 75 cubic yards and we save $4,800 so so this is the after product it makes a huge difference um and it's got enough mulch where it is safe you need I think it's six inches of mulch underneath the fall areas for padding um so this here was 45 swings are all covered up and this was done it me and Ed were out there for half a day we got about half of it done DPW came on Friday and they had some bobcats come out and they took care of the rest of it Birch Meadow this was a big one um I didn't get a before picture but you can see that dirt that was in there I don't know if anyone's been to Birch meow if it rains out it was complete mud I'm not sure the last time this was done um but this one here took 75 cubic yards I think it was a total of nine truckloads that were dropped off um over there here's DPW and their Bobcat there's Ed trying to hide from the picture in the background we had blisters on our hand um and this is the end result nice I mean that looks like a brand new playground right now too and while we were there the um I think uh they have a um special ed program that happens over at Birch meow I want to say from 9 to 12 um and the teachers were so thankful they came out the kids we let them run around in the M have fun they were actually helping us spreading it by climbing on these giant piles um the kids were so excited um and then a lot of teachers started talking to me which I'm going to get to in this report as well too just another shot as well um I'm going to Barrow's Elementary School this has the rubber mulch here there was a number of areas that had spots like especially under the um the monkey bars and where kids hang and hang upside down and fall that were lacking some mulch so myself and Ed found the Border areas we red them out we probably moved I'm going to say 85 recycle bins worth of mulch and pulled them over to these spots that needed them um I don't want to overly invest in rubber mulch um because it's getting to the sorry I'll go back one it's getting to the point where the mulch has been there for so long that it's starting to break down a little bit when it gets wet um it starts to come off on whether it's clothing on hands when we were doing the mulch over at Birch Meadow a number of the teachers that worked there were over at Joshua Eden and they like can you please do this over here can you do it over here we send kids home their hands are covered in Black they're picking it up we see dogs coming there sometimes eating it when kids spill on it so I mentioned it to DPW um my plan is to hopefully rid all the playgrounds of rubber mulch in the next two years or so I do have a game plan DPW in the highway department they have a back truck that sucks up like some of the sewer lining and stuff like that so they would come in they would suck up all this rubber mulch we'd have to pay for a dumpster to remove it um but my goal is to possibly start doing like a Memorial Park and if you've been to these Parks if you see where this park is if you walk 150 yards away you will find rubber mulch that is there it gets extremely hot um as well too and um you saw the wood mulch it's a lot cheaper and I just think it looks a lot better when it flows out like Joshua Eaton's probably one of the worst schools it's going down that hill right now that Hill everything just it's going on the Hut top areas so we're slowly going to start seeing um this go away and then like I said with the The Mulch pricing we get to as long as we maintain it we don't need to get you know almost 100 yards of mulch every year if we're doing it every three or four years you're Dro in one truckload moving around in low spots as well too um DPW has been out and what they have this machine I call it a fluffing machine where they actually turn it over they go to the parks and they'll get the mulch that's kind of sitting below that's been getting wet they'll turn that overing to the top and it does um make the the life of the mulch lasts long you'll be seeing a lot of that coming I think people will be very happy to see it kind of go away um I worked with all the youth organizations and DPW to get rid of old equipment if you've been at some of the fields there's always Nets that are just put everywhere there's a lot of Lacrosse Nets that get put everywhere soccer nets get broken they find a cemetery in the woods sometimes and leaves and Vines start growing all over them so I reached out to all the youth organizations um and they put together any broken equipment they had anything you know all this stuff this is probably just half of what we removed is a lot of these lock boxes that are around town that aren't even being use and those just scare me if God forbid lock on and a kid gets in there can't get out of there as well so a lot of the fields you're not going to see lros nets all along the the grass and DPW they struggle as well too so they have to move them every single time they go out there and cut them so lacrosse put away all their Nets because they're not using them as much in the summer so coming up with plans to make things look better in town coolage looks wonderful right now um it's just two soccer nets out there which yeah I've never seen it like that before um so DPW was huge I put in C clip fixes their crew came out got rid of it put in the scrap metal yard and got that out um coolage parking lot I don't know if anyone's been to coolage parking lot lately um DPW has fence money they get allocated each year um and the reason this is happening I don't know if anyone recalls this past spring um there was an event coolage Middle School where parking there wasn't any parking and folks decided to uh make their own parking so these are just kind of blockades to stop there's a lot of stuff there too that I mean it will prevent cars from going in we have our summer camps there as well so it'll prevent them from going there at least stop them um but it's running all the way down there and it's this is the reason why this was spring and it became its own little parking lot um for an event that was through the facility Department in the school it wasn't one of our events so I talked to them um I mentioned to DPW um so that's the reason you'll see them um down there as well which will be nice nobody will drive on the field I think it's happened a lot in the past so it's just another fail safe for us pickall updates I know we kind of did talk about that um we can talk about it again if you want um I know we all want pickle ball courts it's just fig figuring out the right way of action to get it done sooner than later I think there are some roadblocks but I think that's to us to figure out if uh we can utilize the land that I think we all agree would be a great spot for these pick of all courts and know if we can rely on Carlo to get it moving along or if Carlo has any updates on how to do this I think we got to talk to some folks I'm not sure where it stands or if it's gonna be an agenda item anytime soon yeah if Eric can I speak for a few minutes on this go ahead so we had a recal a very extensive recal update last week and we don't meet again till the 10th because the next week is an election so how many move so the um there is a piece of land carved out for up to eight pickle ball Courts at Simon's way which this body and everyone else in town agreed that's where pickle Ball's gonna go now we have a spot carved out we knew it was gonna go over there somewhere and now there's a spot carved out and I have not got a direct answer if the soil is being tested because I've spoken to Michael spoken to other people and I forget if all the soil is getting tested on the Z land or just that portion so they can start but our PPA you know has a lot of money um has to go to town meeting obviously to advocate for more money but as a board I I plan to put on the agenda to move forward we would love I know the rec committee and it's select board its members would like the support of the rec department and the Recreation committee whether that needs a vote or not you know is not up to me that's up to you guys um because you know town meeting will want to hear that probably and so will our board so there is funds already waiting to be allocated from rppa I think the town will step up and do something and then with an exact location rppa will get to raise more money uh with the location picked and there's some approximate costs out there nothing you know down to the penny but several hundred, Michael correct me if I'm wrong um so we have a location we have some funds when I see we I'm saying R PPA has the funds the town has the location kind of sorted out and the I guess the potential push back will be well the senior center location hasn't been picked yet even though that's one of the sides but we know pickle ball is going over there and we know a senior center active Living Center is going to take years just break ground so I plan to pick it up I would love this body support whatever that is coming from Jim directly coming from a vote whatever it is so it's something where if it was on the agenda we could come and chat and do a presentation whether yeah yeah I think glossed over the pickle ball portion of that land I thought it was G to be a bigger part of the update but it wasn't and and I was kind ofin waiting for this meeting to put it on the agenda again they weren't opposed to it right did I see that on Monday I think he commented that they weren't oos no no one's opposed to it it's just a matter of we got to pull the trigger if we wait until a location is picked and if it's that say it's not that say Oakland roads pick well we just gonna sit on our hands and make make pretend pickle ball is gonna happen someday so again everybody wants to move this forward in in town especially the pickleball people the 60 plus people so I want to move it forward for for a lot of reasons not because I'm dressed like this but you know I got into bck ball two years ago Michael was a big part of it and that's the way it is and I happen to be on the board I I don't teach lessons in town I have my courts in wber so there's no conflicts all that stuff I'm just a player um and it really planed reading now so how do we get there I think that's our biggest yeah so yeah I think that you know I I had laid out some things here to talk to you about afterwards but I can I can answer the questions or ask the questions here first um you mentioned kind of like it the the the piece getting carved out so that was my biggest question was how does that piece of property get carved out who has the authority to kind of like make that call pretty sure the board does my so so so and that's what I mean like it's not us right um so like I think I can I can speak for myself as a as as just a sole member of recreation committee like if if the board says we're carving out this piece of land which realistically can't be can't be used to build something right um in terms building building um and you know we're ordering soil testing and here's the and and then the next step is to kind of like create a plan to eventually go to town meeting that's something that's enough specificity I think for kind of the rec committee to kind of say like given those criteria like let's we'll we'll advocate for it we can we can be part of the presentation we can kind of like you know join forces with whoever needs to so that it's kind of a cross departmental or crossboard kind of like collaboration going in front of town meeting as opposed to just like one person or one group um so I just think I just think as long as we have that that specificity it's it's easier than saying like if we took a vote right now we we don't know what we'd be voting we'd be voting on theoretically go make cours and Simon's way with no real like you know no real plan behind it other than what we think and hope we want to happen so that's what I would hope that whenever that comes up from the select board we get some of that specificity and then we can kind of throw what weight we have right it's it's all theoretical um behind it I have one question so the land being talked out that land is being tested isn't that isn't that a big question land I've heard mixed things I'll find out from that that's that's a that's a a block for me we need to know what's how so I mean I can address some of that because recal recommended Simon's way and one of the things that you have that's going to have to happen for recal and Andor pick a ball is you have to test that land to find what's there y once you test it you have to do something one of the easiest things to do to a land that is contaminated with some things is to pave it and put a parking lot or Pi a ball courts that's sort of the the lowest level fruit of remediation you can do only thing you're allowed to do so putting in uh a building is is actually a little bit more and that's that's one of the things that the permanent building committee is is going to try and address so but there recal and the the center for active living is is separate from pickle ball yeah they didn't include it in their proposal and it's and it's really separate has two two location the testing should happen uh ASAP and I think they J they they haven't hired the guy yet right the PBC doing it um are you talking about the soil testing yes uh no nothing has been decided on yet okay so so that's something that happened but I mean the the key on all of this really uh is it you know rppa can develop all the pl at once but until we actually have a site or anything we can't do anything it's just well and I and I would I would actually Advocate you guys certainly rppa can have suggestions ideas but ultimately it's the town that should be driving once we have the goahead you know and and and the the town should be driving the you know going out to a bid looking at looking at the resources how much is you know what are the different costs and then kind of and then and then collaborating with you guys and saying you know hey this is what the cost would be how much of your of your available funding will you put forward the one thing that I think that you know sort of I view our real Mission and goal at this point is to convince the town and this committee and fincom and anybody else willing to listen that this this should happen sooner rather than later because there's there's real demands so I think one of the things that we're all sort of circling is like the actual function of getting the getting that question on the town meeting board so like not only getting select board to do the sort of steps they need to do to sort of approve putting it there but also what the what the warrant warrant pieces going to look like yeah like what does that language look like theoretically that's going to come from selectboard it would probably be helpful if it was written by someone else to be given to them to say hey this is what we're doing and we've got an X Y and Z which is the stuff you're looking for yeah so I guess maybe the the step forward in the immediate term is to write that out get that written in front of because it sounds like everybody's on the same page you know to car's point just go like make happen to do that there needs to be language and have it in a kind of like a rough draft form so that as we hear from select board you can make the modifications before we start before we're voting on anything and submitting it back to the select board exactly get the writing in place to be edited and then submit it around so everybody says yay and then it's you know submitted as part of the warrant because otherwise to your point like we're not going to get this by5 and it's desperately needed so I think the writing it out is in my just from a legal perspective and timing perspective seems to be the next step you guys you know the I don't know that much about the inclusive community but there are there are some inclusive uh players that come and um that could be that could be expanded as a role if we if we had courts right now be an accessible way to get to the court right sort of sort of a challenge but but that's down down the ref even though even though recal didn't it in their presentation as the holistic in the holistic cost estimate Michael it was a breakout cost and recal really did to my knowledge at were advocating for pickle ball or some type of outdoor recreation right um opportunities for that population in addition to the walking trail that would go around the building so that was kind of a big reason why they chose Simon's way was because of the opportunity for perhaps pickle ball or the walking trail um and things like that so I think it did come up a lot in the conversations with r Al it it certainly did it was it was a big plus for Simons anything else Jim Ed check up too much for you at this time but no I mean the summer wrapped up I thought everything really well with our programming dation everything I was just really pleased with my first summer of planning it and kind of seeing it all come together then yeah kind of touched on our fall programs went up on August 15th um really happy the offerings that we have there it's I think it's well-rounded um and then expanded on for adult offerings too so we have some like nutrition cooking classes we have some there's an intro to salsa dancing uh program which I think is great um it's like out of town but um I it's it's an oportunity I was like looking for so it's there and then a meditation series um but yeah and then we got the downtown trick or tree coming so we started process uh planning for that I reached out to businesses started getting um you know seeing who's participating again this year that's always the fun them so just a little bit awesome Ed question downtown trick or treat I think I don't know if we talked about this last year about how we can make that more inclusive like maybe even having like the first half an hour 45 minut minutes um more like I guess I don't know sensory friendly or a little bit like something a little bit quieter can we think about doing something like that yeah so last year is my first time experien and yes like the streets get very very busy down there I mean very happy to talk more about how that could be implemented you think like a 30 minutes like a 30 minute prior I mean I don't know I have to think about it but something where you know it gets crowded really gets crowded especially get very stimulating overwhelming people can kids can get scared with different types of costumes I don't know if 30 minutes is enough time might not be but are you thinking like having only disabled children come at first with their siblings too so the parents don't have to come yeah like for that first half you know half an hour 45 minutes or so the hard part is is that everyone comes early you tell [Music] them you almost have to have a different day I don't know if you could oh that's a that's a better idea it's a lot for the you talk and then how to how to promoter I'd love to hear the language and stuff I you know but implementing it would be hard how do you tell an adorable 5-year-old why you return yet I mean could something as far as maybe you know Town Town Hall like I want to let them do it like Town Hall you come in a half an hour we let all our staff know that you know half hour earlier they're going to be coming in the businesses might get tricky I get nervous because we do shut down roads yeah we don't want to shut them down too early and have businesses most businesses are great but there are some that do get a little bit upset on those days so I'd be nervous about shutting down streets any earlier than what we've done but I mean somewhere like town hall and the town common maybe they can get out there a little bit prior think that would work I know our staff in town hall would be absolutely fine with that yeah okay yeah great idea thank you okay and I think that is it move to a second all right I'll uh all in favor you can just go around any anybody opposed all right we are adjourned thank you all thank you thank you e e e e e e e e e e e e