Park board meeting notes: 25.07.07
A Quincy Votes! member attended this meeting. While care has been taken in their creation, these notes are not official meeting minutes and may contain errors or omissions.
Approve minutes from June 2nd. Approved
Park Use Requests
Faxon Park:
Nik: August 17th. Approved
Jaiswal: August 3rd. Approved
Fee for Faxon Park is currently $0. Once restrooms are activated, sometime this summer, then the Board will have to set a fee.
Brill Field
Briss: July 26th. Approved. No fee.
O'Rourke Field
Ward 4 J James Devine: For fall festival. Oct. 19th. (Food trucks, bounce houses, stuff). Approved. No fee.
Old Business: none
New Business: Next meeting August 4th. Approved.
Update from Commissioner David Murphy on City Projects:
Dedication at Beachcomber is Tuesday July 8th @ 2:00 PM. Monuments installed a couple of weeks ago. Plantings are done. Woodchips were refurbished.
Faxon Park: pickleball complex was painted (color coded). Should be fully operational by end of July. Need fence, benches, and pave the parking lot. Dedication will be held in early August.
City having concerts as part of 400 celebration. This Saturday, Drop Kick Murphy.
August 2nd: Darius Rucker and August 3rd: John Fogarty.
Staff working to prepare for crowds that are larger than usual.
Flag day parade: Park and Recreation staff did an outstanding job (along with other departments). They did an awful lot of work to make sure everything went smoothly.
Board member Knowles recognized that the parade went really smoothly, and it was a very complex operation. For such a large event, it went really went well. The handoff of kids to their parents went very smoothly too. Moving the buses to Furnace Brook Parkway was very helpful.
Discussion:
Chain at Faxon Park was down.
Pageant field: someone used a picnic table to hold a grill. Want to put up signage about not putting grills on the picnic table. Per Commissioner Murphy: signs are being created.
Furnace Brook: clean up. There is a contract with Essex Horticulture to remove invasives; also bringing in a stump company to remove stumps; will reallocate stones to carry that look along the Parkway. Have a couple of different things planned. Local residents are not happy with the work FEMA did. Per Commissioner Murphy: most of the area along the Brook are old growth; had to regrade it and remove the trees. Feedback is that the native plants are not as nice as what was there.
Lighthouse committee: Board member proposed on Facebook about moving lighthouse of Quincy Oil to a park (Beachcomber maybe or the Rotary at Fore River Bridge). Lighthouse is 35 feet tall; installed in 1930; was the bathroom to the gas station. The top can be lit. If Sprague knocks it down and destroys it, they will get lots of grief from the community. So he wants the Board to explore what alternatives are. Sprague is not saying "yes" but want to hear details. Could get them to yes with some work. Discussion seemed to favor locating the Lighthouse at the Fore River rotary where the granite ball used to be. No commitment from Commissioner Murphy, just that the City and Sprague are talking.
Shout out to the Willard Auto Body for painting the 1978 Police Car. (Police car was used in 400 parade, and will be used for similar events ongoing).
Next meeting: August 4th at 5:30 pm