Parks and Recreation Commission Meeting: February 5, 2025

Present         Members      

Y                 Deb Faucher, Chair

Y                 Ed Harley, Clerk

N                 Sherry Horeanopolous

Y                 Martin Sterman

N                 Meghan Bodwell

Y*                Addison Barwise (Alt 1)

N                 Andrea Surabian (Alt 2)

*  Joined following the financial discussion

Present         Other Attendees    

Y                 Walter Zawacki, Advisory Committee and liaison to P&R

Deb called meeting to order at 7:34 PM

Open Meeting and Commission Role Call

Approve Minutes: 
Deb made a motion to approve the minutes from January 8, 2025.  Martin seconded.  All in favor.

Public Comments:

None

Updates/Discussion Items:

Financial: Nick should have submitted the warrant today.  He will meet with Deb on Friday to provide files, which hopefully includes all of the financial files he created while he was processing invoices and cash submittals.  Ed is up to speed on the new process, but he hasn’t been given SharePoint access yet to submit warrants (requested twice via email and once in person), so he will use the old email method for now.

Events/Programs:

• Winter Carnival – Deb
  • Rink is set-up and was great for a week or so.  A well-intended person tried to shovel after the rain/snow, and it made it a mess.  An attempted flooding didn’t fix it because it was too cold.  Deb and Ed Sweeney will work on it again this weekend.
  • One Day Liquor licenses – 7 Saws, Wachusett Winery
    • 7 Saws will get a liquor license that will cover both vendors to satisfy insurance requirements.  This will require 7 Saws to purchase the wine and then sell via their POS. Both parties are happy with this solution,
    • We will also need a police detail due to liquor being served.  Deb has reached out to the police chief to coordinate.
  • D.J.
    • Cost is $450.  No objections from any committee members.  Sherry suggested (and will reach out to) the Mountain Ski area to see if they would sponsor the DJ.
  • Raffle
    • Raffle has been changed to a “suggested donation” activity to remove the gambling aspect.
    • It is now time to contact businesses, if you haven’t already.  Here are the assignments based on last meeting minutes:
      • Sherry H will contact Sterling Greenery, Mountainside Café and Game On
      • Deb F has reached out to Golden Grain, Davis’ Farmland and EcoTarium
      • Addison B will contact Launch, WooSox and JC Aesthetics
      • Ed will contact Thirsty Lab, Monty’s, and Princeton Pizza
    • Deb suggested that Parks and Rec host a table at the event.  Perhaps have a questionnaire to get some feedback from attendees on Parks and Rec needs.
    • Deb sent a working document for the Winter Carnival for everyone to review; it contains a detailed status on all aspects of the carnival.  Deb will check on the bull horn and other supplies at the Fieldhouse the next time she is there.
    • Several organizations have requested tables at the event.  She will check on source and availability of tables for them.
    • Police detail is set.  They will bill us, as usual.
    • The porta-potty will be delivered at the end of February and will remain for spring, summer, fall.
    • The First Congregational Church will sponsor a hot chocolate and coffee table.
    • Peter Giumette will help with the parking detail, and Walter has been volunteered to help with it also.  Peter requested that we line up additional parking help for 1-hour shifts each.  NEED VOLUNTEERS.  Peter will talk with Ben Metcalf at Highway Dept for use of their parking area.
    • A bonfire will be set up.  Addison will bring marshmallows so it qualifies as a cooking fire.  Ed will bring the mashmallow sticks.
    • Recommended arrival time to set up is 10.
    • Boy Scouts are lined up for the cardboard sleds.
• Town Wide Yard Sale – Sherry
  • No updates
• PTA and P&R Movie License – Last year we purchased a license with the PTA, they are requesting that we do this again. They are interested in doing the 3 year option – $696.50 each.
  • 1 year (12 months) = $550 (this is what we did for this past year)
  • 2 year (24 months) = $980 (5% Savings)
  • 3 year (36 months) = $1393 (10% Savings)
    • Any space can be used, and it covers indoor and outdoor movies. They have a spreadsheet of about 20,000+ movies. Pretty much everything from kids, to adults, to documentaries. It is extensive! https://www.swank.com/digital-campus/bucket/5438-all-movies
    • I’ve spoken with the FCC about holding Movie Nights for adults; A Drive-in type movie at Krashes could be fun; and PTA sponsors Kids Movies at TPS
    • Deb made a motion to purchase our share of the license.  Martin seconded.  All in favor.
• Princeton Take Over Day at WooSox –Sunday, April 27 – Addison
  • They ask for nominations of people for hometown hero, a non-profit, a kid to walk the ball to the mound, potentially someone to sing the national anthem, etc.
  • Non-profit – potentially Princeton PTA
  • Hero – Addison will ask Larry Pistrang
• Afterschool Classes at TPS
  • John Buffington – Primitive Skills Class – Tuesdays 3-4:30 at TPS Grades 3 and up; 8 weeks beginning on requested Feb 4^th
    • Deb will work on a doable start date, likely after school vacation week.
  • Jamie Greenland would like to start After School Yoga, as well.
• Yarn Works – Sunday February 16^th – 3-5 at the First Congregational Church. All ages, all levels welcome.  Deb is working with Joelle on identifying interest and potentially starting this up.
• Rick Gardener is looking for P&R to collaborate on finding new people to attend hikes with Naturalists centered around particular topics, like old growth forests, butterflies, etc.

• Fields/Parks:
  • Bike Park update – Ed
    • The select board voted against the request to sign the landowner’s permission form to facilitate grant submittal.  The Wachusett Trails Collective is reformulating their proposal.  Likely Boylston Park location will no longer be the site due to neighbor response.  They are looking at other sites, but all have other issues to overcome.
  • Dedication for Larry Pistrang at TPS – Justin Griffin has met with Ben Metcalf and all is moving forward
• Other Business:
  • Strategic Plan due by May
    • Nick has been actively working on this and will have a first draft by first week of Feb or maybe a week later.  We may need to make it our own and fill in more details.
  • Committee Town Report
    • Ed sent out a draft of the report for review.  Only one edit from Deb was received.
    • Deb motioned to approve the Town Report with her one edit.  Martin seconded.  All approved.
  • Krashes/Field Usage Fees – Need to discuss how we move forward on this.  Deb will discuss this with Nick in her meeting with him on Friday to see how the new MyRec system will facilitate this.
    • She should be able to discuss with committee at next meeting, and potentially with external users by the following meeting.
    • Martin suggested someone send out the field usage agreement for the committee to review.  Deb will discuss this with Nick on Friday.
    • Martin communicated the Princeton Youth Soccer board request to meet with Parks and Rec at the March 5^th meeting.    Because of in-process tools, procedures, and events, Deb expressed preference for the April meeting.
• Andrea Surabian – Was approved by Select Board to be an alternate on our committee. She has completed all training and only needs to be sworn in.

Director’s Update: Nick didn’t provide an update.  This is his last week.  Deb will meet with him on Friday.

• Deb asked who wants to be trained on the new MyRec software, in addition to her.  Ed and Martin both expressed interest.  Deb will try to coordinate training to meet everyone’s schedule.

Deb adjourned the meeting at 8:36.

Next Meeting: February 26, 2025 focused on Winter Carnival

March 5, 2025 for regular meeting