Parks and Recreation Board Meeting Minutes - November 4, 2024

​Parks & Rec Meeting Minutes
November 4, 2024 @ 7pm

Hybrid meeting was held both via Zoom and in person at the Township building.

• Call to Order
• Attendees
  • Board Members Present: Helen Eckel-Wiener, Anne Duzan, Brett Klukan, Liz Malone, Sam Wiener, Jane Kennedy, and Katy Brauchle.
  • Staff Members Present: Abbey Swan
  • Guests Present: Gary
• The Parks and Recreation November 4, 2024 agenda was posted on the Township website and at the township building on November 1, 2024. Agendas were made available to the public at the meeting. The 2024 Parks and Recreation meeting schedule was published in the Daily Local News on December 27, 2024.
• Public Comment - None
• Minutes Approved – October 7, 2024
• Old business
  • Meadow Seeding recap and grant application – The seeding of the second acre of meadow went well. There were about 30-35 people, including some Boy Scouts, Watershed Stewards, and people who had seeded the first acre. We used the same seed mix, winter rye, and grasses. A few volunteers were interested in doing their own meadow conversion projects and were looking for guidance. We met in the meeting room beforehand for people to see a slideshow of photos of the first meadow acre and give people an opportunity to ask questions.
    • Abbey applied for the PECO Green Region grant to seed the remainder of the meadow. The $15,000 grant would cover renting a drill seeder and allow us to finish all of the acres at once.
  • Halloween Party Recap – Katy suggested adding a new category – “cutest costume” for next year. Everyone agreed. There were about 200 kids, plus their adults, based on the contest sign ups. The trunks ran out of candy, so there were more people than expected. The day was beautiful. We condensed the event from 3 hours to 2 hours which worked well. Skipping the “parade” continued to be popular. The Police attendance and decorated trunk was nice. Giant also decorated a trunk. Next year it would be nice to have even more trunks. We should definitely have people sign up though – Abbey will make the sign up and send it to Shannon to share with the parents. We may want to reach out to the Methodist church to join us if they want, since they do theirs at the same time. Anne suggested inviting other businesses to do a trunk too, or Public Works. The Fire Company would also be fun (they could bring Red Hots!). We should also buy more table cloth clips.
  • Clean Up Crew recap – Lincoln Highway was very clean (since Rotary has adopted it and does some clean ups). There were 5 people, but many more signed up to come. This was the last one of the year. Between the monthly clean ups and clean up weekend we had 298 volunteer hours and collected 317 bags. The Clean Up Crew alone collected 132 bags of trash (plus tires etc.). Brett and Sam earned their baseball hats in November. In 2025 we can discuss getting new rewards. Having flaggers and hosting bigger events in places like North Bailey would be a good idea.
  • Project Updates:
    • Spackman Farm Lease – the renewed lease with the farmer deducted a 10-foot path around the farm perimeter. The farmer will leave those ten feet open for a walking path. We will need a bridge to cross the stream near Fisherville Road.
    • The Bondsville Road Apartments developer has proposed a land swap with the township for a piece of land near the cell phone tower. The benefit to the township would be access to the land-locked township property along Beaver Creek which would allow us to open that acreage to the public at some point in the future. The developer would also have to run sewer and water up the hill, which would be helpful for a future Kings Highway park.
    • This year is the last year of the urine-tolerant plant trial. Anne planted the plants we received from them this year around the gazebo outside the dog park in the hopes that they would survive better than the plants we had planted in the dog park before. Public Works dug out the turf to create the beds in May. The plants did really well! We got a good response from the public as well.
• New Business
  • Tree Lighting – Scheduled for December 8th. Rotary has confirmed they’ll do refreshments. The Fire Company will supply Santa again. The Historic Society and Commission are doing a contest to reward the best historic photos contributed to their archives. They proposed allowing the winner to be our tree lighter and the group was amenable to that. Meistersingers and Shannon Cooper’s dancers are confirmed. If the burn ban is lifted, we’ll do our fire and smores again. We’ll collect gift cards for Fostering Hope. The group will arrive between 2:00 and 2:30 that day. We should get new candles and lighters for the luminaries.
    • Snowflakes for Lincoln Highway have been received but we’re waiting for outlets to be installed on the posts before they can be put up.
  • Holiday Decorating Contest – Judging will take place on the 18th. We’ll add a category for “best use of small space.” Hatt’s is confirmed to sponsor the contest again.
  • A vote was held to add a September meeting on the second Monday in addition to the usual first Monday monthly meetings for 2025. The motion passed 7-0.
  • Abbey reminded the board to save the date for the annual township holiday party.
  • New program ideas: Anne suggested some art-based programming for adults. Perhaps an expert-led phone photography workshop or basic landscape drawing. We could also do specific projects – draw the barn, farmhouse etc. Parks and Rec could even provide the materials. This could be marketed as “Art in the Park” for adults and could take place in other parks. Abbey will look into instructors. Starting with photography might be easiest. We discussed charging a fee just to ensure that people show up. The fee could vary for residents vs non-residents.
  • New Program Idea – Native Plant Giveaway. Anne suggested hosting a workshop/plant give away event. We could do container planting, using the township compost or ask Hatt’s for some bags of dirt. Perhaps in June. Liz suggested adding a native plant tour of one of the parks as part of the workshop. Abbey suggested that the golf course pavilion might be a location for one of these events.
• Additional Business
  • Abbey reported that the NYC bus trip is sold out and online ticket sales worked really well.
• Adjournment