Manchester Essex Playing Fields Committee
July 11, 2007
Manchester Town Hall, Room #7
7:30 p.m.
Members Present: Matt Casparius, Tom Kehoe, Jeff Jones, Greg Blagden, Hardy Nalley, Sue Taylor, Tony Giedt, Rich, Trembowicz, Mike Christopher, Tom Arntsen,
Guests: Eli Boling
I. Review of Minutes of May 30, 2007. Hardy Nalley made a motion to approve the minutes as presented. Jeff Jones 2nd. Approved by all.
II. Brook Street Update – Tom Kehoe reported that on Monday night there was a meeting of the neighbors around Brook Street to look at the possibility of installing temporary lights at the field instead of moving the lights over from Hyland Field. Hardy Nalley responded that there are a number of issues with using temporary lights on the field . One of his concerns was that Football games could not be played using temporary lights since they would not light the field enough. Tony Giedt reported that there are other items that need to be considered including the estimated $50,000 in rental costs. He is also concerned about safety, insurance and vandalism issues. The Town as the landlord also needs to be involved in the thought process. Rich Trembowicz reported that the neighbors are looking for assurances on
top of assurances that the lights will be gone in 3 years. Tony Giedt reported that the School Committee had voted to light the Brook Street field in the interim and that won’t change unless it becomes cost prohibitive. We need to go through the process of looking at all the issues. Tom Kehoe reported that there are no updates at this time from the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
Fall Field Schedule – Hardy Nalley reported that Football starts Aug 21- 22. All other sports start on Aug 23. Greg Blagden from Soccer and Mike Christopher from Junior Hornets Football are going to measure Memorial Field and Field of Dreams in Essex to see if we can move those sports over to those fields for the Fall 2007 Season. Assuming the fields are large enough, a schedule can be developed and set around for everyone to look at. If we assume that High School Football Games are going to held on Saturdays since we do not have anything currently in place for field lights and if the two fields in Essex are big enough for Soccer and Junior Hornets Football we should be ok on space for this fall.
On the current schedule, High School Sports use Essex Elementary on weekdays from 3:00 – 4:20 p.m. and Manchester Soccer Club uses that field from 4:30 p.m. to dusk.
Potentially we could have the Hurricanes Men’s Soccer Team play on Memorial Field on Sunday mornings as they have in the past. The Junior Hornets Football program may also stay on Brook Street depending on if we decide the fields in Essex will work for them.
Jeff Jones made a motion that once we have a final schedule in place, the Fields Committee will send a letter to the Essex DPW and the Essex Board of Selectmen requesting the official use of the Essex fields based on the Fall field schedule. 2nd by Greg Blagden. Approved by all.
IV – Eli Boling submitted a oposal for a proposed field using the DPW site on Pleasant Street. He would like to suggest looking at moving DPW over to the Town’s compost site. He reported that he wasn’t sure if there was enough room to move there or not but seemed like a viable option to him.
Tom Kehoe suggestion that we get Sarah Creighton &/Or Jessica Lamothe to our next meeting to review the Geller Report (which is the report on the 18 sites that the School Building Committee looked at for possible school sites). This is in line with the start of our long range planning. Tony Giedt will talk to Sarah & Jessica. Tom Arntsen will bring in the maps from the previous fields committee.
Next meeting will be held on August 1st at 7:30 p.m. Matt Casparius will find and will email everyone with the location.
Adjourned 8:50 p.m.
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