Manchester Essex Playing Fields Committee
August 1, 2007
Manchester Town Hall, Room #5
7:30 p.m.
Meeting Minutes
Members Present: Matt Casparius, Jeff Jones, Richard Trembowicz, Greg Blagden, Mike Christopher, Tony Giedt, Hardy Nalley, Paul Goodwin, Tom Arntsen, Sandy Bodmer Turner
Guests Present: Jessica Lamothe, Tim Gates
Called to order: 7:45 p.m.
I. Review of minutes of July 11, 2007 – Motion to approve made by Hardy Nalley, 2nd by Jeff Jones, Approved by all.
II. Matt Casparius presented update on Brook Street. As of last Thursday, the schedule for the Brook Street Field is as follows. The turf installation will be completed by August 27th; the fencing around the field will be completed by August 31st and the general site cleanup will be completed by September 7th. This schedule is very tentative and may change between now and then end of the summer.
Matt Casparius also reported that there has been no update from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). DEP has asked the Mackin’s for additional information pertaining to a wildlife habitat study and gave them an additional 30 days to submit information.
III. Public Input – Tim Gates asked the committee to also consider alternatives for new tennis court locations as part of our planning process.
IV. Jessica Lamothe from the School Building Committee gave a presentation of 18 sites that the School Committee looked at as possible school locations and also presented an overview of the Geller Report (2003). The Geller Report was commissioned to look at land owned by the Towns of Manchester & Essex and to identify improvements that could be made to existing athletic fields and/or possible locations for new fields. The Geller Report recommended using synthetic turf wherever possible. Some things items in the Geller Report, the School District has since done. This report was commissioned prior to the first attempt to get a new school.
Looking at the sites listed in the Geller Report and their recommendations from the report:
Coach Field – install synthetic turf. Report had specifically recommended not putting additional tennis courts on this site.
Sweeney Park – because of wetland issues, the Geller Report felt that it was not possible to place a full sized soccer field here. They did suggest that maybe putting the two baseball diamonds at opposite corners of the field. It was also suggested raising the grade of the field so that the field wasn’t as wet. Finally the report stated that there was no room to expand the field.
Masconomo Park – The only recommendation was to possibly move the home plate of the baseball diamond towards statue and regrade the field.
Memorial Field – Report recommended taking out the tennis courts at this field.
Field of Dreams – Pending no restrictions or environmental conditions, consider expansion of athletic facilities, and possibly put high school stadium there.
Essex Elementary School– no where to expand this field. Consider raising field and fix drainage issues
In June 2005, the School Building Committee looked at a number of sites as potential locations for a new school. Listed below are the sites and how much useable acreage there is on that site and any particular issues with the site.
1. Manchester Compost Site - 5 usable acres
2. Laurel Lane – drink water site – Southern Ave after Beal Property – 45 usable acres, wetlands, elevation changes on property
3. Transfer station – old dump, would need to be capped, 10 usable acres. One question was whether it could accommodate both the transfer station & the compost site to free up the compost site.
4. Abandoned land near Gloucester line – on Southern Avenue, north of athletic club, past Agassiz rock, 36 usable acres. Town owns 3.3 acres
5. Pond Street Essex – 36 usable – no access to the site.
6. Essex Park Road – Peter Van Wick site – no access to site.
7. Haskell Court, Essex – 47 usable acres, private, no access
8. Manchester Essex Conservation Trust land west of Southern Avenue in Essex. Cedar Swamp, a perennial stream, and a very steep rocky outcrop block access to the site from Southern Avenue. Access is possible from Old Manchester Road, but that road is unpaved. The site is nearly a mile from the water main and more than a mile and a half from the sewer line in Essex.
9. Southern Ave – numerous small parcels along the road – all privately owned. Area 1 has 33 usable acres, Area 2 has 32 usable acres
10. Southern Ave in Essex where it makes bend in the road – Beal Property – long access road, 44 useable acres.
11. Manchester Athletic Club Site – privately owned, 60 usable acres.
12. Brown Site – across from medical building on School Street, 23 usable acres, privately owned.
13. Pennoyer/Henderson site – 54 acres – north of drink water, on Forest Ave.
14. Pine Street – Across from Exit 16 off ramp – 36 usable acres, up on cliff, high development costs.
15. Pine Street – Anne’s Woods - 36 usable acres, conservation land and some is privately owned.
Jessica Lamothe suggested that the Committee look at School District website for a complete overview of the sites which lists additional details on those sites including how far away the sites were to utilities, sewer, water, etc. Environmental concerns. Hazards, etc.
Jessica Lamothe concluded her presentation by reporting that the Geller Report is available at Superintendents Office.
Tom Arntsen asked if there was any privately owned land that the owner might be willing to donate the land to the Town? Richard Trembowicz reported there were none that he was aware of. However, there is some owner unknown land that maybe something to look at. But still some development costs and access, grading, etc are issues with those sites.
Tim Gates asked what support services does the Essex County Club provide to the High School? Hardy Nalley responded that the Golf Team plays there for free. The cross country team used to practice at the course. Water for the underground sprinkler system at Hyland Field is their water water. Tim Gates suggests that the Town/ School District ask the Essex County Club for more use of their property, particularly on the Tennis Courts. Tony Giedt responded to Tim Gates that he was unclear whether the charge of the Manchester-Essex Playing Fields Committee included looking at tennis courts and suggested that we place that topic as an agenda item for our next meeting so that we can clarify the charge of the committee.
5. Draft Field Schedule – Greg Blagden reported that placing a soccer field on the Memorial Field site was pretty tight but doable. He also reported that Sue Taylor sent him an email indiating that she was not sure about whether he can hold games on Saturdays on the Memorial Field site. Paul Goodwin was reported that he was pretty sure that no one uses Memorial Field in the Fall at all.
Tony Giedt reported that the School Committee is planning to move ahead with 8 temporary lights at Brook Street. They are currently exploring options for only Fall 2007 (October thru Thanksgiving). Then they will reevaluate it’s use after that. The estimated cost is $6,000 - $7000 to go ahead with the 8 portable lights for this fall. Rental would have to come out of School General Fund because not in the schools budget. It still doesn’t give us football games on Friday nights as the lights are not high enough to be safely used for football. Light use would be at the discretion of the Superintendent and coordinated with Hardy Nalley on its use. Hardy called 2 communities that use portable lights. (Lexington and Pembroke). Based on the feedback he received from them he recommended using the lights for only practice and not for
games. Football games will either be on Saturdays or he is also exploring making them away games at either Endicott or Gloucester.
Scheduling corrections:
Hardy only needs to use Brook Street on Sundays from 4:00 – 6:00 p.m. only.
Paul Goodwin reported that if field space is an issue, then he didn’t see an issue with using all 3 field locations at Memorial Field for practices.
Tom Arntsen said that we had talked at previous meeting that we try placing football and soccer on the baseball fields for 1 year as a trial basis and see how it goes from there. We want to make sure that we do not destroy those new fields.
Richard Trembowicz made a motion to allow Manchester Soccer Club to use Memorial Fields for practice & games. 2nd by Jeff Jones. Approved by all.
Brook Street – High School Football will only be using the field on 5 Saturdays. The Manchester Soccer Club can use it on the other 6 Saturdays in the Fall.
Richard Trembowicz suggest that we create a date specific schedule for all the fields. Matt Casparius said that he would create that document.
Masconomo Park – Jr Hornets will use Field of Dreams this year so that the Manchester Soccer Club can double up at Masconomo Park.
Field of Dreams – Jr Hornets will only need the field on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Jr Hornets starts the week of August 13th.
Richard Trembowicz made a motion to approve the schedule as amended; dated as of August 1st and be noted to say subject to change on date specific as needed. Hardy Nalley 2nd the motion. Matt Casparius will update the schedules as amended above and then will resend to the whole committee asking that any changes be given to him by noon on Friday. The schedule will be considered accepted unless objections made before noon on Friday.
Richard Trembowicz also made a motion that Matt Casparius will maintain all entries and be official keeper of the schedule. Sandy 2nd the motion. Approved by all.
Richard Trembowicz made a motion that final schedule has been approved to post it on the Town of Manchester website and have the Town of Essex and the School district link directly to the Town of Manchester website for the general public to approve. 2nd by Hardy Nalley. Approved by all.
The next meeting will take place on August 29th at 7:30 p.m. in Essex at a location to be announced. Agenda items for that meeting are as follows:
Committee Charge
Schedule Revision
Update on Brook Street
How to begin – what do we need?
Meeting Adjourned: 9:20 p.m.
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