##VIDEO ID:qBqHPzxJY68## pause so the meeting is coming to uh order at 1 are in attendance this is Barbara Bigalow bz Riley Elaine pleo Christine marglin Darwin Mitchner rutage an Brigham and I'm about to admit Christine Robinson and as guests we have Diane jacobe and Alan Hansen so welcome um Diane and and Allan is entirely up to you would you mind just saying a few words about what brings you to our meeting today um I just wanted to see what was going on oh Lots we can tell just playing nosy let's put it that way I like I like an honest person yes I I'm not gonna stay long I don't think I I'm kind of like Alan I wanted to see what the recreation committee is up to and and how you guys run the committee I always refer to this as the fun committee so if you like fun this is the committee to be on I I was looking for a fun committee we definitely are so our first agenda item is um I seem to be knocking hold on just a second here we go is uh Kristen Burgess our chief of police and I I mean I'm sorry yeah our police chief and she is not here yet so I'm going to go ahead with the other agenda items and when she joins us we will then loop back to her um so I'm going to start off with our knitting group which is really more of a stitching group we had our first meeting this last um uh Sunday morning and it was a great success uh we had a actually a good number of people and you know Christine Robinson you were pointing out that there are some other people who are interested in joining so we are extending it from knitting to sitching because there were people people who were darning there were people crocheting as well as knitting there were people who wanted do um embroidery so it was a great time and because we did not know how to um disarm the alarm we got to meet the state police and so it was really quite quite exciting um Al together and uh we he nobody was arrested so that was good uh and the guy was the police state police officer was incredibly Pleasant would that be a fair yes incredibly Pleasant and at one point as we were all kind of like nervous about it he said you know I've got bigger fish to fry so think it was a nice easy one for him our plan is to meet every other week everybody was very enthusiastic about that possibility we're going to be starting on February 16th and then going every other week from there and the reason for putting it off is that there's Library programming on the afternoon of the 9th and we don't want to like um either do anything that could potentially conflict or that just uploads loads one day with a lot of programming so we're going to start on the 16th and then do it every other week and there will be no conflicts with Library programming so that's uh item number one uh number two two is um The Improv Workshop so we uh and and Christine I wanted just to Christine marglin has is the person who is responsible for putting this together getting the person who's going to be leading the workshop thank you thank you thank you um we ended up changing that date as well because originally we have it on February 9th in the afternoon and the library already had some programming on that afternoon and so we didn't want to there were two issues one was finding an acceptable room and then the other issue was um uh that we might canalize each other's um audience so we thought it best to not have things programmed on the same day and that so that is on February 23rd the announcement just went out thank you Sam for sending that out um and the reason for the delay is because we wanted to make sure we had a room and we have now booked the town hall room we plan to know how to you do the alarm although given that it's improv maybe having this state police officer come could be just add to the fun I don't know um but we'll try to avoid that if if we possibly can so yes and Christine is she and I were the partners in crime on that one there's no question about it right but we're still free women so that's a good thing okay uh we will need to set up a snow date I realized that we February 23rd was our rain snow date so uh Christine I was going to suggest three different Saturdays March 2nd 16th or 23rd whatever works best for him and if he can't obviously that's understandable thank you um next item of business the CPC determination of Eligibility proposals both the pickle ball Court proposal to do the feasibility study and the proposal to construct a path between the new library and the school are eligible to apply for CPC funding neither of them are going to neither of them oh they're not well actually the the pickleball is not eligible oh they aren't oh I read misread the minute the meetings Okay misread the minutes no they're not eligible and uh the the um the path was just going to be too much work to try to get um right of way access along people's properties and get that written into their deeds and everything and it just was too much okay okay I'm not willing to work on it and yeah thank you for that update yeah and the pickle ball because of it didn't have a a specific site um the feasibility study was not eligible oh okay okay yeah I know they had talked about behind the uh fire station okay so I think that's it for things that we not it for our meeting but it for um existing programming so what I'm hoping we can do yeah Ann sorry Barbara when you said um Sam sent out an announcement can you remind me what that means means is it an email Sam is the townwide yeah if you did not get it it might mean that your email address for townwide emails is also incorrect okay yeah that one I don't have any control over I would guess that's scale flar anyone what did you what do you guess and's email address is not the correct one on the town email list so I used to get them and I don't get them anymore at this email address I know so so Barbara was just saying who I might contact Elaine she thought it might be Gail I I would contact UM the town clerk okay all right thank you both great thanks elain so we'll until and hopefully Kristen will will be able to join us um we have several programming that I'm hoping we can talk about today that we're hope the bike repair in the spring go fly a kite updates on soccer and then a whole list of things so I'd like to start with the bicycle I don't know what to call it um certainly we talked about having a bicycle repair have people there um just out on the commons on some we hope nice day in the spring um for people to bring their bicycles um and get simple repair jobs um advice is and what we yeah go ahead Elaine I was hoping could we possibly put that at the school since there isn't um pavement around the T um Town common yes and it would be easier to do it at the school especially if we have kids so that they can ride their bikes around yes okay I like that idea too I can't get my camera to work today sorry um but I did talk to my friends too um is kind of interested in it so I'll reach out to him um before the next meeting and he has um a contact that he was going to reach out to um so I'll reach out to him and see if I can rope him into helping us out with that now I know you had mentioned and I hope I'm not telling tailes out of school but you had mentioned that can't hear you Barbara what can't hear you your sound went down you hear me no oh how about now yep okay great um so Sam you had mentioned that you were likely not going to be able to kind of take this on as the lead person is that correct it would be lovely if someone else did I think okay well I was operating on that assumption but I wanted you to confirm it um because it would be great to have you know to have people from outside the committee who have an interest in this involved in it but to have at least two people on the commit from our committee who could take part in the planning of it as well so I'm not willing to take on the planning of it but I'm very willing to be one of the helpers so yeah Christine has anybody talked to the bike cell repair joint on University Avenue no one's talked to anyone yet I wonder if they would be willing to volunteer I will talk to them okay and and if they're not willing to volunteer we can provide people with a stipend so um yeah let's kind of yeah that that sounds um like a good resource for us may I make a suggestion which is that we wait until we have a committee because I don't know what knowledge people in the community have who might be yeah so let's see what that looks like and I'm kind of hoping we can become be get more specific on details starting at our next meeting does that sound reasonable yes I'll do some I'll do some research before then too oh thank you thank you and Elaine as I recall you knew people who might be um have the be able to help people with basic repairs can you hear me oops something's going on here I can't hear elain we elen can you unmute yourself yeah my phone my landline was was ringing and that's why I muted myself sorry oh no that's I was just saying I'm pretty sure you had you mentioned that you knew people who would be able to help with basic kind of repairs Tire changes oh yeah there's there's a lot of people that are B here in this community that would could give I'm donating their time for a day for afternoon or something how je of you Eline thank you another another idea I had that we could go with that would go alongside with it is you could we could start like some group rides just like have you know like I know my husband would do like a 10 mile route or something and just get a group of people together for to do small routes and ride together I think I think we could I could find a couple people to do that too great Diane how about you you're a bike repair person aren't you oh how glad were are you're here thanks for remembering Elaine a former retired bike repair person former retired back on it yeah I'm not sure I phrased that correctly but um yeah events like this the repair part is um pretty challenging for the mechanics so I would suggest that a stien would be appreciated by the mechanics yeah we will definitely that's been my experience great how about teaching people something like you know easy maintenance like changing a tire and greasing your uh chain and things like that I think everybody needs to know how to change a tire I think nobody needs to be taught how to grease a chain chains are oiled they're not greased sorry how much I know um yeah I I spent many hours cleaning up horrible chain messes from people who put the wrong thing on them I leave that to uh my husband he takes care of my bike well this is nice because we're I'm already just kind of making a little list here of some of the types of activities that we might have there could be just instruction you know showing how to do it there could be somebody who's doing the repairs sort of more oneon-one work with someone um but yeah and as other thoughts come to people please send me a a a text or email rather um so we'll have a good list of types of activities who might want to do should we aim to do it in later May or early June anyone um I think I'm just GNA pull out the dates they have the dates of the library things yeah we would be able to um do it in either April or I mean May or June um or even April there are lots of dates what do you think would be best April can still be cold is yeah yeah okay so May or June I think so yeah okay and those both um there'd be enough time in there that we can definitely have a have a rain date should we need it although I don't know is bicycle repair things like this similar to doing a 5K um it could be thunder and lightning and you still go out and do the 5K or is this a more fair weather activity fair weather okay so we'll definitely do make sure that we have a rain date all right um go fly a kite Sam how are you feeling about doing that again this year wait sorry before we move on Diane was gonna say something oh I'm sorry Diane um if you're having the bike event at the school um it's important to not conflict with the weekend of town meeting oh of course of course I think is the last Saturday in April yeah I'm wrong oh okay okay that'll make that easy if we're not doing it in April don't conflict with town meeting great okay um go fly a kite um yeah I can take that on and maybe I'll talk to Maryann about collaborating again when she gets back um not everybody here is familiar with the event can you say a little bit about what happened last year with this yeah we just had um like a Kite Festival we just met on the town common and people brought kites to fly and then we had a couple like 15 or 20 kites available too for kids to decorate and fly and it was really simple and really fun we did it at the end of April and it was still snowy so that I would avoid time but it was I think just another one of those events that was like getting to people together at the same time to do something and um it was really it was a good time good good yeah that'll be a nice kind of annual thing to do if we if we can um so otherr programming um soccer uh Sam I think you talked a little bit about this at the end of The Fall season so presumably it's going to be continuing into the spring and then on into the future yeah I think uh again May when it warms up a bit um and I'll talk to my friend Sean again too and I'll just send out an email when we're ready to go we have all the stuff already um so we'll just aim to do Sunday mornings again and I'll I'll uh get a form from the school to fill out so that we can use the field so Sam how successful was that in your opinion like how many kids showed up and it was awesome yeah um like it's started off with like like 30 or 40 Kids the first day it was like insane and then it like every week it petered out but there was still like a core group of I don't know 15 kids that came um and then yeah it was everyone who came really had a good time it was really fun great yeah I loved it my kids loved it and uh I'm excited to do it again great um for Diane and Allan and Darwin I can't remember whether when you joined the committee um the recreation committee doesn't run the soccer we we sponsor it so we per we helped purchase walls and pennies and um goals but we don't actually run it what we will do and thank you thank you Sam um you know Sam has children who are in the elementary school so it works out well because they enjoy it she enjoys it but this is a programming that we hope will not be dependent on an individual but is something that will be able to keep going if Sam at the point where you decide you don't want to do it again you know we can identify other parents who are so it's we have a couple of other things that are like that as well um that was kind of how the pickle ball started originally um you know we sponsored it we gave them support but then it's not we don't run it um and it's really separate from the recreation committee so the other um another event that's like that are the Open Studios um we provided $100 for marketing last year I think that goes BC do you know when that's scheduled for this coming year yes I think it's the last weekend in June which is what okay so that same time okay so that'll still be in this fiscal year okay great and I'm if it's better that it went in the next fiscal year probably change it and it's not doesn't matter matter I don't think it matters no we have sufficient resources I mean I think it was a pretty much a success so I think it'll build on it's good to sort of do those things the same time of the year yeah every year at the that time because then so some of the other art tours in the valley do that like the asparagus tour artist pottery tour is always the same time you know like so it's good to build on that I think yeah I agree with you um we last year we um provided them $100 for marketing um as we get closer to the date we'll see what they asked for one of the things that they asked for it turned out we couldn't provide which was um money to give to the various artists to purchase food for people who are coming to their Studios because they're a business each artist is selling their things and so we're not able to give we were not able to give them money for that but were able to help them with marketing so Nate has already reached out I don't know what the specifics are in terms of what they would like to ask us for but when that time comes we can discuss it and vote on it so the note that I made to myself is spring comes up really fast um I'm always surprised because how quickly it comes but here are some of the things that um we might want to consider as I activities for the spring the one is bird watching and scheduling it during the Spring migration the event in the fall Elaine when was that was that in the fall oh God yeah I think it was sometime in was it September okay that was but that that was a great success and uh would be wonderful to do that again um and just something that as a committee we should kind of talk about be thinking about or what are what are some of the programs that we just think okay every year we're going to do this you know it's just um Cliff would love to do it at Brightwater bog great yeah yeah Christine it happened I just looked it up June 7th it happened on June 7th June 7 oh okay yeah that funny it felt further away than that than for looking remember it as being spring and sure enough I so um I don't know if you want to make it a different time to Accord with a migration I would say let Cliff decide and then as long as it's not conflicting with other programming um go with it does that sound reasonable sure yeah Christine and be sure to um unmute yourself you have to unmute yeah there you go thank you um is it Graham and Helen an yes they did they did the walk so it was yeah this was in fact that's another one on my list because we talked about having you know a spring walk and a fall walk uh at Brightwater bog um and I know people were who who came on the walk in the fall we're looking forward to the spring because of all the pitcher plants I think we found one while we were there and it will be quite covered with pitcher plants so you know that's definitely an event that people enjoyed a lot and Brightwater bog is just such a lovely lovely place to go for that and really accommodates a lot of different abilities as well I know it's so interesting people are coming from outside of shutesbury to go there and are just shocked at how gorgeous it is you know they're like how come we didn't know about this yeah because you didn't live here exactly right exactly something nice and shsy to do like yeah well it's all most people come here for the restaurants shopping it's shopping that's right exactly exactly okay so something that I will do for our next meeting and send out ahead of time is just propose some possible dates for both the bird watching and um although that would be helpful to get Ela if you don't mind asking Cliff when would be a good date for um the migration and then uh for the walks so um I I have something to add to our oh yeah if we're near the end I want don't want to butt into your agenda no go but but away okay so um I would like the wck committee to support a letter um opposing you know the DCR in um the Quin Watershed is proposing to do this clear cutting of the forest and um it's an area from sort of 202 I don't know if you walked down Cornwall road to 202 they put in a giant Metal Bridge and they're proposing to bring a big logging operation into um hollyville Road Cornwell Road New Boston Road and um I think that um it would be really appropriate for the wck committee to write since so many people walk down here it's sort of a walking a dog walk Walking park and it's a constant stream of people coming down here for them to realize that this is a really a recreational area that people use a lot um and if they're going to clearcut the forest down here it's going to really change the whole nature of the woods in the Quin and it's you know not to mention the impact on the environment and the you know the air quality and car Caron release and all that um but they've you know it it's we've been talking to the powers that be at the DCR and they're like well we're doing this for the health of the forest it's like and the Watershed it'll really help the Watershed like well how is taking down the oldest trees these trees are 200y old Pines they're the biggest trees in the forest taking those down going to help the air quality and the uh quality of the Watershed you know all the streams here go right into the Clavin so anyway um if I wrote something up and then brought it to our next meeting or sent it out to you all to see if you would agree that we could sign it as the rec Committee of shutesbury just being opposed because this is a recreational area um having not this you know clear cutting not happen so does anybody have any thoughts on that or any Christine I have a question beey does this affect people that live on Town Farm because they want to clearcut people's driveways up there as well is this related here's the yeah it's definitely related I think that so then I want I want I I want to be on board okay I think what's happened is it used to be logging in the New England Woods happened with a guy with a skitter you know a log like a a chainsaw and a skitter now they went and bought these giant machines if you've ever seen them doing it they have these giant machines that bring in you know they bring into the forest and it really disturbs the undergrowth of the forest and the and they they have the machines now they want to use them shocking you know guys in their toys I mean they so they have these you know machines that do logging in a completely different way than the old method of harvesting you know harvesting lot you know trees out of the forest which they used to take the trees that weren't the healthiest now they want to take the healthiest trees the ones that have survived hurricanes and have survived you know all kinds of weather events because they said they're afraid they'll fall down the big trees will fall down and I I think they're going to do this Christine they're going to try to do it in many places it's just um because they I'm with you girl I'm with you girlfriend okay I just um it's just sort of sad to me that this is what you know the forests are going to become I mean shb is what we have I mean the whole you know it's happening everywhere for different reasons and so forth but this area is really a recreational you know site that people come down here to be able to walk in the woods and we're keeping it that way well yeah we we'll see yeah an bz also thanks totally on board and if you could circulate it yeah before the meeting that would just be super helpful yeah sure no problem I'll I'll write it can be a draft and I'll send it out and then you guys can help me edit it and thank you beey and then you know give me advice on how to say it or you know I'm not a writer just an artist um I I am a writer but obviously I don't have all of the information that you have so I'm more than happy to help graft this up and I'm totally on board great great okay cool thank you yeah I also appreciate you writing something up if you know of or have any links I I'm assuming there's been something in the newspaper has there been any kind of public comment to maybe um provide us with some of those links so we can see yeah that would be fantastic thank you um you know we've had a lot of um we've had meeting yeah the select board's written something um Joe comerford's office has been really involved and they're very against all this proposal of cutting um and you know the DCR says oh we aren't going to be making money from this it's like well why are you taking down the trees and sell you know they they claim it's not a money-making operation but anyway yeah we've got local um Aaron Saunders has been involved and they've been really helpful and really you know responsive but the DCR got all the letters from all these um legislators and from local people and they said well we're still moving forward we're still going to do this project so um they claimed this is a classic they claim we didn't get letters in when there was this period of time for public comment we didn't even know it was happening till after the public comment time was over they did not tell a Butters they did not tell anyone it was happening and then they said oh well you didn't get your letters in before the public comment time was over it's like well we didn't know no one told us it was happening so there's a little bit of you know sneaky business going on here I think so there have been lot of things in the paper about it though thank you beasy yeah thank you okay um so that will be first on our agenda for our February meeting okay there were um just a couple of other things I wanted to bring up in terms of programming and Christine M this has to do with you when we were chatting and you were talking about your husband and loving Orchards and liking to talk to people about Orchards I thought hm now there would be an interesting I think we talked a little bit about this about having like an afternoon on um just the basic starting an orchard 101 and uh what do people think about that as a program idea I think it's great oh good I see lots of Thumbs Up Oh fantastic okay so Christine I will can you kind of get some timing and dates uh when he might be able to do that yeah will I had been thinking maybe when the trees are blossoming or budding or something like that people when he does these talks people always have like a million questions about how to handle even if they just have one or two trees um also can I just say I just realized we never approved the last oh geez thank you and I I put it in big letters to do it because I always forget okay so um okay motion to approve minutes so moved okay second all those in favor please raise your hand and it is unanimous thank you Christine and I'm sorry one of these years I'll actually get that one down not my forte okay so yeah so that would be wonderful the other one I wanted to bring up is it's been I can't remember whether it's been two or three years since we had a visit to ancient Pony farms and that was a really a big favorite of people with young children um Zoe also spent some time talking about some of her farming techniques because she uses the sustainable practices um and that is was very interesting as well um so I just wanted to kind of throw that out there about whether or not that's a program that we would like to consider doing again what time of year did you do it I don't remember that's a good question um it was definitely in the spring and I think it was two different times so I we haven't been there when it's been earlyish in the spring so there was the planting does anyone else remember the baby goats it was definitely was after the goats they had they had a gazillion baby goats which was part of what made it such an attractive place to go for the kids in particular any objection to doing this one again I thought we talked about this before and decided we wanted to try to find another place that did we that I don't recall but yeah that's what I remember but we could look back in the notes that um because we done it twice there that right I think we were saying maybe there's another Farm anyway that's that's my memory that we did talk this but does it have to be a farm in shutesbury because the um um service net Farm is a really interesting Farm to go to and it's not only about you know the farming and the animal husbandry stuff it's also about uh the community awareness of um the people who actually work there it's a care Farm which is a different I think that's a great idea yeah and no it doesn't have to be when we did the um the Farm Sanctuary that was in Leverett this one this one is in weightly okay and yeah I could talk to uh I know one of the people who um April son works there oh okay oh that's right that's right and it's it's a wonderful it's very heartwarming experience to go so it's a lot of adults with um disability ities and um intellectual disabilities who run you know who are working there and they'd be thrilled if people you know little kids showed up oh great okay I'm notos to doing something in shutesbury but I do think there are other models of farming that like this that would be good to support fantastic I will add that I'm just going to for next time draw up a draft calendar with some of these things on it and then we can uh figure out what we want to do uh the other one was um the geologist whose name I don't remember but what I do remember was he was really busy so Warner retired now oh he's retired now okay because we had talked about asking him to do a a walk of rocks and shuberry yeah I'll see him on Sunday I'll ask him again okay I like that and uh Darwin Allen and Diane I don't none of you I don't think any of you were here for that conversation but he's riotously funny so it's you know it's it I'm dying to go on a walk in shoot SP looking at the rocks with somebody who's riotously funny it just sounds wonderful so okay and other than that the only other programming that I had down was the night sky but that would be in the next fiscal year because August was the best date for that um we learned some things from doing it last time we had too many moving Parts in terms of we had two nights set up and then we had rain dates and then it kept raining and anyway it the times that we were there were fabulous but um if we do that again uh we would definitely just set up a couple of dates the end um I don't know chrisy yeah Christine was that your sense cuz you're the person who set that up for us that that you doing fewer dates would be good so I did talk to um excuse me what the hell's his name Tom Tom she she shielding yeah he's willing and he knows you know exactly what you're saying about uh the fluctuation with the vacation this that and whatever no he's willing wants to do it great good yeah and he was so generous I mean he was just so generous because he said what he was knowledgeable oh my goodness yes yeah people really enjoyed it I really enjoyed it it was a great event and then and he told people any nice night just come over he's out there I mean he was he was just really generous with sharing his knowledge Okay so so am I missing anything I don't think so but who knows I well we enough programming for about three years and I I can tell you a little bit about what the police chief wants to do because pleas thank you um she obviously is doing something else that's more important maybe um she she would like to revitalize the field be behind um the fire station and a baseball field um she would like to get it cleared she would like to get bases she would like to start um a league you know very um um informal she wants to build bleachers she wants to really get the the get it going and she does not want money or anything from the rec but she doesn't want to step on our toes and I said have that wasia that was very much my conversation with her as well um yeah so she just wants to know if we're interested in being a support sure yeah okay I think we need yeah I think definitely we should have have her come and have a conversation with her and um proceed from there okay okay all right we covered a lot of ground um and again I am I missing anything I don't think so I'm reluctant reluctantly letting go of the mushrooms one of these years how to grow mushrooms I would love to have that but we'll not this year uh we'll we'll get to that at some point okay um are there any other items of business anyone wants to bring up okay I make a motion to adjourn thank you I was about to ask for that motion okay Christine had her hand up I think oh I'm sorry Christine Jour no I think you were raising your hand about adjourning right no oh I I I want the boom box the next time that stage shows up Jesus I forgot about that yes there was quite a bit of joking after the state police officer that our next one should come with a with a boom box but um this one just came with this uh little and he kept saying there's a body cam there's a body Cam and it's like we're not doing anything everything I am recording everything that's right he kept reminding us I don't know what well we were getting a little silly with him yeah that's true he'll probably memories anyone ever tells you that knitting groups are boring they're [Laughter] wrong okay so we have a motion to adjourn do we have a second and all those in favor please raise your hands and thank you so much we're uh ending at 4:44