AI-generated transcript of Medford Parks Commission 03-01-23

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: At this park, can we use another park? Can we spread the wealth?

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and I think I had emailed with Kevin maybe a couple months ago. We are definitely open to using different courts. Typically, we like to use at least two, preferably three courts. And if they have lights, that's ideal. But I know most courts around here don't. So 6pm to about 8.30 or sunset. Um, would be great. And, uh, preferably not too far from the T or from, um, like more densely populated areas. Cause I know a lot of people don't have cars and they bike or, or take buses. So we'd be open to other courts as well.

[Reggie Graham]: Let's see.

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: So I just don't, I just don't want to run into a situation where the residents can't use the court because they're blocked out. That's the only thing I'm just concerned about.

[SPEAKER_20]: Now, Mike, I think that's fair. We've heard that before. So Leah, you're saying Tuesday from six to 830 if you're at Placedead, you would take two of those courts. That's just not one court, you would take two during that two and a half hour period.

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_01]: So in the past, we've used all three courts on Tuesdays for that whole time period. But we're happy to like on Wednesday, move to a totally different location if that helps with residents or access to the courts. We're definitely open to talking about that.

[SPEAKER_20]: I mean, I think we should maybe think about leaving one court open for, you know, drop-ins from the community, you know, folks that just come and want to play at all times, if that's possible.

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: I think that makes that sound, just to leave one open for the residents.

[SPEAKER_20]: Yeah, I agree with that. And the other options for courts or locations would be what, Duggar? I mean, if she went there on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, is everyone comfortable with for taking up two courts at a time?

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: I have no issues with that.

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_01]: So you're suggesting two courts, but both at place that Tuesday and Wednesday?

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: I think that's what Colleen is saying.

[SPEAKER_20]: Okay. That was what I might get, thank you. I don't know if Chris is on the call, but anyone else?

[Reggie Graham]: I'm okay with two courts. When we heard from Ms. Hamilton, she came to our January meeting. She was a little perturbed about not being able to access the courts on Saturday mornings. So, I don't know how many other residents have that same complaint, but rather than run into a problem later, we can probably hit it off at the pass now and cap it at two courts on both Tuesday and Wednesday.

[Unidentified]: Does that, does that, is that agreeable to you?

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_01]: That would work for us. So yeah, our fall leagues are lights. We typically do Saturday morning. So would that also be the same two courts on Saturday mornings? That would be kind of the plan going forward.

[Reggie Graham]: Well, we'll address that when we when we come to the fall, you know, because you might have more people in the fall, you might have less people. I mean, you said that, you know, that these people now that are a little bit more advanced, are looking to have access. So why don't we wait until such time as we, you know, run up against that, and you're coming in for the permit for that time. And we'll make a determination at that time.

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_01]: Okay, sure.

[Reggie Graham]: All right. So, um, can I have a vote on this, Mike? I go for it. Yes. Colleen.

[SPEAKER_20]: Yes. That's good with me. And Leah, if, if, if you are running into capacity issues, I think we're all open to you coming back, you know, in June, if this didn't work for some reason, right. And maybe we're looking at other options because this only goes to June 21st. Is that the date I'm seeing?

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so that this is just our spring season and then summer season would be beginning of July to about mid August. Yeah, I think.

[SPEAKER_20]: Let's do the place dead. To each night for now. Chris.

[Reggie Graham]: Chris on the phone.

[SPEAKER_20]: I don't know if Chris jumped on Reggie.

[Reggie Graham]: OK, I don't see him.

[SPEAKER_20]: I don't either.

[Reggie Graham]: Alright and.

[SPEAKER_21]: I'm a yes to I'm here Daniel Daniel. Yeah, I'm a yes.

[Reggie Graham]: Okay. All right. So here we go. Kevin, you get, uh, you'll continue the, uh, the collection and so on. So process process. Yes.

[Adam Hurtubise]: We'll do the collection. We do our percentage with the USDA.

[Unidentified]: All right.

[Adam Hurtubise]: Thank you so much.

[Reggie Graham]: Thank you very much, Ms. Malofsky.

[Adam Hurtubise]: Yes.

[Reggie Graham]: All right. Have a nice day. Enjoy your season. I hope you do well.

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_01]: Thank you so much. I appreciate it. All right, bye.

[Reggie Graham]: Next permit application is for the United India Association. This is a returning group as well. Do we have a representative from United India Association?

[Unidentified]: Yeah.

[Kevin Bailey]: Thought I saw Neil log in.

[Reggie Graham]: What's the name on the permit?

[Kevin Bailey]: It's Nila, and I thought I saw her in here a few minutes ago.

[Reggie Graham]: Dr. Gandhi? Well, we can come back to her. Let's move on.

[Kevin Bailey]: Just want to make sure that she's not on still.

[Reggie Graham]: Okay, so next on the agenda is the Bangladesh Sports Club, and they're looking to get Morrison Park from April 28th to September 9th, which we would not be considering at this particular point in time. We'd be only going to June 30 because of the spring season. They're requesting to use Morrison Park from April 28 to June 30 on Saturdays and Sundays from 11am to 6pm for cricket games, which is unusual we've never had that. So, Mr. alarm.

[SPEAKER_12]: I'm representing Bangladesh Sports Club right now. My name is Saeed Saim. I'm the coach and the advisor of the team. The reason we requested from April 28 till September 9, because of our MSCL cricket game, we have a lot of players they wanted to play. But because there is a shortage of the field, they just don't have the opportunity. We're having a hard time to get the permit for the game. So that's why we're requesting April 28th till September 9th.

[Reggie Graham]: Yeah. Well, see, the way we do things is we do them in a trimester of sorts. So we do the spring, we do the summer, and we do the fall. So right now we're only offering permits for the spring semester. But I'm sure that some of the commissioners have some questions for you. So I'll just tell you that right now we're going from April 28th to June 30th. And then when the time comes, we can go from July 1st to the next available time. Thank you, sir. So, Morrison Park, Morrison Park. Have you have you seen Morrison Park, sir.

[Unidentified]: Yes, I do.

[Reggie Graham]: You have seen it. Yes, we did. Okay, so. No, I know very little about cricket. So you're going to have to help me out. I'm pretty sure the other commissioners are a little foggy on cricket as well. So what I'd like to know is, is Morrison Park the way it's currently set up? Is it able to accommodate a cricket field? I understand it has to be 360 feet by 420 feet. Right. It should be.

[SPEAKER_12]: 60 years like on like a circle that if it's a 60 year circle, we can play cricket. So I think that's enough for for us.

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: OK. All right. All right. Do you have don't you need a special kind of mound or certain height mound to work with? Do you have a portable one? Do you have to have a built up?

[SPEAKER_12]: What mount, sorry, I didn't get that.

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: I didn't know if you, we had another cricket league that tried to come in a couple of years ago and use Harris Park and they were gonna bring in, they were worried about the bound area. Would you be using the outfield or would you be using the baseball field?

[SPEAKER_12]: No, we'll play in the middle of the field. We have met that we're gonna put on top of the soil to make a pitch for that.

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: And how many games would you be playing during the day? And how many at one time?

[SPEAKER_12]: That would be one game and one day for the practice.

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: One game a day for all that time? How long is a normal game?

[SPEAKER_12]: The game will be starting at 11. We need to be at the ground and prepare the ground by 11. Then the game will run till 530, and then we can clean up and get out by 6.

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: There's one practice and one game.

[SPEAKER_12]: Right. So the games are on Sunday? The games are on Sunday? The games, it depends about the MSDL messages, cricket league schedule. Some days it would be Saturday, some days it would be Saturday, some days it would be like Sunday.

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: And how many Method residents are on your team?

[SPEAKER_12]: How many residents? We have about 100 players who's playing. We have some kids under 16 kids and we have under 18, 19, and 22 years, kid, 22 years up there.

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: The question is, how many Method residents are on your team?

[SPEAKER_12]: There are about 10.

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: 10 out of 100?

[SPEAKER_12]: Yeah, because we, as a cricket, there are not a lot of players from, you know, in Massachusetts. There are 10 players from Medford, but we have other players from surrounding towns, like Malden and surrounding cities. So we gathered them and we made out a team.

[SPEAKER_17]: I just got here. Kevin, this is MD. I was at the hospital, so sorry about that. So Kevin, I send you the list. the Madford resident in our team, and how many games for the last year's schedule. I touch everything for the league, like what happens last year. So we have- Where did you play last year? Yes, go ahead. Mike, I'm available now.

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: I'm sorry, where did you guys play last year as a league?

[SPEAKER_17]: So last year we rented with another team in Boston, Franklin Field. Do you know the Talbotap Dorchester?

[Reggie Graham]: Yes. Franklin Field. I know it.

[SPEAKER_17]: Yeah. So this year, so that field is gone. They're doing the renovation there. So, and there's no more right now. So in that Franklin Field. So in order to play the, join the league, we need the field to give the Massachusetts cricket league. And yeah, out of a hundred players, we have almost like 35 to 45 players from Medford. So I'm just making correction because I did everything, the details and everything.

[SPEAKER_20]: So can I just ask, so the time period, this is Colleen McGlynn-Moody, hi. The time period, would it be you welcoming an opposing team from out of state? Cause you, you you're referring to your team as the Massachusetts team. So I'm trying to understand what, what the competition looks like on those days.

[Adam Hurtubise]: How many people are actually going to be on the field?

[SPEAKER_20]: Is it going to be room for residents to come in? have portions to neighborhood residents who use it regularly to still play in areas. I'm just trying to understand what it looks like.

[SPEAKER_17]: Let me explain it to you. So we had 12 to 14 home games, sorry, total games. From the total games, we'll have seven to six games at home games and rest of the game will be away game.

[SPEAKER_20]: So do you have that schedule available?

[SPEAKER_17]: I have the last year's schedule available, which I send it to Kevin. So Kevin has it in the Excel, the whole schedule for the league. The Kevin has it.

[SPEAKER_20]: So you're just looking for six to seven weeks.

[SPEAKER_17]: Six to seven, whatever player we have. So we can make it two team there, so to play in the league. So six to seven game for each team. So it will be 12 to 14 games. That's what we're wondering in the game, home game.

[Reggie Graham]: So can I ask you this? So you're saying you have two specific teams, different age groups?

[SPEAKER_17]: No, same age group.

[Reggie Graham]: Same age group, but you have two specific teams.

[SPEAKER_17]: We are trying for two. So, I mean, whatever players we have right now this year.

[Reggie Graham]: I don't understand. From the same club.

[SPEAKER_12]: We have 100 players, sir. So what we are trying to do now, because only 11 players, we are out of the practice, the only 11 to 15 players can play in one team, or 20 players can be one team. And we can play, there are another 20 players, they can play in another team. And then we have a practice and the match on Sunday. So that's how we wanna run it. And all the teams, the previous question was, if all the teams are from Massachusetts. Yeah, this is a Massachusetts Ticket League. So all the teams are from Massachusetts.

[Reggie Graham]: Okay. And what kind of fan base do you have?

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: That was a question I was gonna ask. How many people show up at a game?

[SPEAKER_17]: The players from each team have 11 players and two extra players, each team from 13, 26 players from both team. And there will be like maybe sometime some people showed up five to 10 people. So there'll be the maximum.

[Kevin Bailey]: Yeah. I can just start if you can see on my share screen. The 24 players and then the 30 to 35 people. Those are my notes in a previous meeting when they were looking to put the application together. I think, correct me if I'm wrong, but we're looking at the absolute max being around 50, but on average, a game might bring in about 30 to 35 people.

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: Just parking in that area. I mean, all of them at the parking stuff, but that area there is very limited.

[SPEAKER_12]: But we're doing carpooling, so not all the, you know, under 16, under 18 players. We're doing carpooling so that each car can accommodate, you know, four or five players. So there won't be like more than, you know, 15, 16 cars in a day.

[Reggie Graham]: And you say you have 40, you say you have 40 players from Medford?

[SPEAKER_12]: There was, I don't have the list, but he has the list. It might be the 30 to 35 or 40 pairs. I don't have the list.

[Reggie Graham]: And have you gone to other cities? For play? Have you gone to other cities for space? Are we the first city that you've gone to that you've requested space from?

[SPEAKER_17]: Yeah, so our advisor is here, Humayun Murshid. So he helps us to apply with everything. Then we started applying in Medford, so yeah.

[wPYt766Eu-g_SPEAKER_08]: Yes, hi, my name is Humayun Murshid. and I'm the Metro resident and also we ran a lot of times in the parks and use the school facility as well but yes we apply City of Boston and also we tried to get the Cambridge too so nothing confirmed yet but the Medford one fast fast and community is growing Bangladeshi community is growing in since last last couple of years because we bought the Islamic center the which is 43 High Street. And we had a meeting with the mayor also, and she's very cooperative as well. And our community is growing, and we love the city, and we do have, we love to participate all the sports, our next generations, and we are requesting for the space.

[Reggie Graham]: Do any of the other commissioners have any other questions?

[SPEAKER_20]: I just, I have a comment, Reggie, my, my only concern, and I love bringing new sports and, you know, bringing new experiences to the city and to its parks is the, the time period is like seven hours on Saturdays and Sundays, and that's a neighborhood park. So that's what I was trying to understand how much space and how many people, um, is that totally necessary? You know, 14 hours every weekend is a lot to take out of our you know, community neighborhood parks, if there's not gonna be space for residents to just come over with their kids and hit a ball or throw a ball or, you know, kick a soccer ball or do something else. That was, I think the only other group that we give this much time to is our youth, you know, our all Medford youth soccer teams. I don't know if anyone else can think of another example where we give this, you know, amount of time to dedicated, you know, groups.

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: I think it's all youth sports.

[wPYt766Eu-g_SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, the cricket is the nature of the game. It's kind of pretty long sometimes, but we all understand. But at least try fast years. You guys will see how these things work. I know it's pretty new, but a lot of colleges have been accepting this kind of cricket as a sport. I think especially our generations have a better chance. Not everybody going to play basketball or football. You know what I mean? So my kids can have a chance to go to college as they play cricket. So I understand it's a pretty new concept, but believe me, it's pretty gentle. It's not going to harm anyone.

[SPEAKER_20]: Yeah, no, I have no problem with new new is not what it's not. It's not the newness of it. It's just the length of time that that park can't be dedicated just on Saturdays and Sundays to I, you know, one group and that's regardless if it's a basketball team that comes in and wants to take the whole park up. I just, that's why I was trying to get a sense of how many people would be in there. You know, that they have, it has one diamond and it would, you know, kind of be dominated for the night. You know, we don't have a lot of nice weather in this area, unfortunately, during those seasons. So that, that was my only concern. I'm not saying I'm against the sport itself.

[SPEAKER_17]: but if you i mean if any other options or any other part you guys can recommend besides this one we willing to you know uh yeah so let me interrupt you calling so we can we can accommodate like so let's see if we got this schedule we can send it to you guys right away and we have the last year's schedule that's how the schedule works so whatever games we have you guys can give us those days and rest of the days you guys can, I mean, if we don't have games, so the community can use or somebody else can use, you know, so we can accommodate that way as well.

[SPEAKER_20]: So that's why I was trying to understand the home and away games, because it seems like you might only need a certain amount of days.

[SPEAKER_17]: Yeah, exactly.

[SPEAKER_20]: Yeah, yeah. Helpful me and but I might be the only commissioner and I could get outvoted here so I'll let my other.

[Reggie Graham]: I think, I think what you what you said calling is very, very astute and impertinent. You're asking for two days on the weekend, Saturday and Sunday, one day for practice and one day for practice and one day for games, but you're only going to play six or seven games. So I think that what we want to do, and you want to start April 28th. Now, we do have another meeting between now and then. I'm just trying to make sense of this.

[SPEAKER_20]: Yeah, it feels like we can work it out if it's only six or seven days.

[Reggie Graham]: If you only have seven games. Yeah, seven games. May I finish please? Yes, yes. So if you only have seven games, essentially the other times would be utilized for practice. Am I correct in that assumption?

[Adam Hurtubise]: Yes.

[Reggie Graham]: So the question begs, if you only have seven games, and I don't know how many weeks there are between April 28th and June 30th.

[SPEAKER_17]: So Mike, let me explain a little bit. Seven games for the first round. If the team qualify, there is another four games. And the team qualify for the next round, there is another two games. And the team qualify for the final, there is one game. So if you guys look at the schedule, I mean the last year's schedule, so you guys will understand. So seven home games, the first round. Second round is four home games. Third round is two games. The final is one game.

[Reggie Graham]: So if we qualify, there is a... I don't know whether you were here at the beginning of the call, but right now we're only going from April 28th until June 30th, because we split our seasons into semesters, if you will. the spring semester would go from April 28th to June 30th. The summer session would go from July 1st, which you could reapply for. And it would go to, I think it's September 1st. And then the fall season goes from September 1st to November 30th or something to that effect. So essentially all we're talking about right now is from April 28th to June 30th. Now- So what I'd really like to do is I'd like to see your schedule, because you do know that if you take all this time, we charge you by the hour. You do know that, right?

[wPYt766Eu-g_SPEAKER_08]: Right, right, yeah. So what we can do is, I think it's the best, I mean, The practice, we can reduce the hours. Instead of seven hours, we can do two or three hours a week. You know what I mean? We don't have to use all those hours. But the game, absolutely yes. But except, you know, so probably instead of two days, we probably can use for one day dedicated and And the other weekdays we can use very limited times because also the cost is expense too, you know what I mean? So we have to figure out as well.

[Reggie Graham]: Right, right, right. So can we do this? I'm gonna ask for a vote from my commissioners and find out exactly where they're at with this. And then we'll figure out what the next step is, all right? So Mike, what do you say?

[SPEAKER_20]: Reg, I think Danielle and Chris both have their hands up.

[Reggie Graham]: Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I was going to say the same thing.

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: Thank you, Colleen. Oh, is her hand up? Is that what that is?

[Kevin Bailey]: Yeah. I'm also trying to write notes, so I'm on.

[SPEAKER_21]: We didn't want to interrupt you, so I raised my hand like a good student.

[Reggie Graham]: Oh my goodness.

[SPEAKER_21]: Go ahead, Chris. You go first.

[Adam Hurtubise]: Yes.

[Chris Murphy]: Hello?

[Adam Hurtubise]: Yes, we can hear you.

[Chris Murphy]: Sorry, I'm late. First of all, forgive me if this question is already at today. I never, I don't understand cricket at all, but like, does the field have to be like lined or will the other nets like, are they gonna need anything stored down there? That's just my only, I just never watched a cricket match in my life.

[SPEAKER_17]: yes so so kevin kevin that's what that's why i i send it to you kevin and attachment what do we need exactly so then we can work it out so we need in order to play in the center of the ground we need to put a pitch there it should it could be the match pitching uh the match or it could be the permanent peach, it's called the concrete peach. So the two is different. If it's matte peach, so we need to put that matte in a small storage, the corner of the field or anywhere. And we need some cones around the circle and everywhere in the field.

[Chris Murphy]: Which park is this for again? All right. So I think you would have to provide your own storage. I mean, we don't have storage down there.

[Reggie Graham]: They would take that with them, Chris. Okay. Yeah. That's something that's portable. Yeah. Okay. That's definitely portable. I'm intrigued. You've never seen a cricket game, huh?

[Chris Murphy]: Never in my life.

[Reggie Graham]: Quite fascinating.

[Chris Murphy]: This is something I'd go watch, too, since it's down the street.

[SPEAKER_17]: Yeah. Yeah, cricket is going up. We have 70 teams in Massachusetts total. Wow.

[Chris Murphy]: I would never have thought that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hello, sir. Actually, my name is Munir. I am a president of the Bangladeshi Sports Club Boston. And then actually, cricket is very popular game in the world right now. And then US cricket team, male and female, qualified for World Cup. And the next World Cup will be USA. I think it will be 2024. So cricket is very, very popular game right now. And then there is like five days game, nine hours game, and then four hours game. So, you know, day by day is, yeah.

[Chris Murphy]: So you gotta have some stamina. You gotta be in shape, it sounds like.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then also, you know, so many colleges, and universities that try to start with a scholarship for kids. And then, you know, cricket is very popular game in England, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, West Indies, but now more than 200 countries playing cricket. So cricket is really, really popular game. And then USA is one of the finest team in the world. Excellent. And then also cricket is very much similar with baseball. But baseball started from one corner to the whole field. But cricket, we start from middle of the whole field. So you can see, you'll love it. Trust me. Danielle? Danielle?

[SPEAKER_21]: Yes, so my question is more directed towards Kevin as far as, What was like our call for this park last year? Like what was our, who else used this park last year?

[Kevin Bailey]: That's actually one of the reasons why I suggested Morrison. Looking at all the other parks and when they put this last spring and last summer, Morrison is the only one that I can see right now that is gonna be widely available. That's the baseball we've been meeting with along with DPW to talk about fields. Battery Park is another facility that hasn't been used frequently in recent years, but I think baseball is going to be used in Battery Park more this year, particularly with Carr Park and Gillis Park slated to be renovations. So with that said, Morrison is the only park that I've heard from Method Baseball that they are not planning on using it. Historically in the past, used on occasion by bolo sports for soccer, but primarily I think it's being used for passive recreation.

[SPEAKER_21]: Okay, that was my only question. I'm kind of on board with you guys as far as like, I mean, I'm guessing you're going to want more of a detailed schedule so we can really figure out what the exact usage is going to be.

[Reggie Graham]: Exactly, exactly. So I think that what we're going to do is we're going to take a vote as to whether or not we're going to allow them to take a contingency, if you will, so that when they bring the schedule back. Now, it's my understanding you have to have a schedule in order to be in the cricket league. So when do you anticipate getting the schedule?

[SPEAKER_17]: So the schedule should be the same schedule like last year. That's why I provided the- We don't have that, sir.

[Reggie Graham]: Kevin might have it, but we don't have it.

[Kevin Bailey]: Actually, I have it, but it gives all the league, all the games for that league.

[Reggie Graham]: Yeah, I understand. So, so, so, so Kevin, I'm just trying to ask them to provide us with their schedule. Okay, so that they can bring it to us and show us their schedule.

[SPEAKER_17]: Okay, so let me tell you the process. So the process is from the league, as long as if we have the field, we have to tell them, hey, we got the field for this season, this field, they're gonna tell us like, okay, so then end of the March, they're gonna provide the final schedule, end of March or beginning of April. So then we can send it to you guys, the final schedule. But before that, we have to inform that we had a field, we can participate. Otherwise they're not gonna approve us to register this year league.

[Reggie Graham]: So what I'm asking you to do is this, okay?

[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah.

[Reggie Graham]: I mean, if we say that you can have the field, from April 28 till the June 30. Yeah, yeah, we'd like to, we'd like to know what the usage of the field is going to be. Okay, you say you won't be able to do that until you get the confirmation from the league. We understand that. We understand that. So you have to understand we're trying to navigate a schedule and distribute our parks to everybody that we possibly can. So we're not saying no, but we're not saying absolutely. Do you understand what I'm saying? And quite frankly, I still have to take a vote amongst the commissioners to make sure that everybody's on board.

[Adam Hurtubise]: Okay, sure.

[Reggie Graham]: All right, so this is what I propose. And if there were any commissioners on the call that can think of any other method which we can determine this, speak now. Can we get a detailed roster as well? Well, we're supposed to get a roster anyway. That comes, that comes with the permit application. If I'm not mistaken.

[Kevin Bailey]: You do have last year's schedule and roster.

[Reggie Graham]: Good. Are there any other questions?

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: Not at this time.

[Reggie Graham]: I don't have any more calling.

[SPEAKER_20]: No, no, you're not having this point. I think seeing the schedule from last year, Kevin, would even be helpful to give us a better sense of what we're talking about. I'd like to look at the schedule and if there's any way to kind of, I think the gentlemen on the call that are representing the sports club said that they would be willing to maybe shorten up the practice time. I think that would be maybe a welcome thought.

[Reggie Graham]: probably a good solution because once they figure out how much it's going to cost them, they're probably going to say, yeah, we think we need to scale this back a little bit.

[SPEAKER_20]: Yeah, no, they can give a little wiggle room there. Well, now we have a better understanding how long the matches are. So sounds like that's going to have to be what it is if we authorize the field.

[Reggie Graham]: I'm going to tell you, if they're playing these four and seven hour games, The pitcher's arms are going to be really, really tired. I'm telling you that right now. Yeah.

[SPEAKER_17]: Yeah. As long as, as long as if we get for the game that that should be, that should be good. We can, uh, for the game should be good, you know? So the, for the practice, we can do one hour, two hours, something like that. Yeah.

[Chris Murphy]: Chris. Okay. I'm on board with everybody else.

[Reggie Graham]: Danielle.

[SPEAKER_21]: Yeah.

[Reggie Graham]: Come on, Bobby. Okay, so I don't know who I'm talking to. I was talking with Mr. Alam. Yeah, Mr. Alam. So why don't we do this? Why don't we give you a tentative okay? And you come back with the schedule and the practice schedule next month, once you have it from the league. And we'll go from there.

[SPEAKER_17]: Right. I'll do that. Absolutely. Like as long as I got the final, final schedule, I'll send it to you guys. Then you guys can see which day we have game. Then you guys can give those days for permit for the home game. So that's all we need from you guys.

[Reggie Graham]: Absolutely. We can, we can, we can certainly do that.

[SPEAKER_17]: And one more last question. So the peach, we can use the matting peach or we can do the concrete peach. So do you guys allow the concrete peach? It's kind of like, we don't have to take it off and put it back. It's kind of grass piece, like concrete on it. Is it a permit structure that you would put in? There is a company, they came and do the peach.

[Reggie Graham]: Yeah, I think I think not. Yeah, I think not because what you what you're asking us to do is to put a permanent structure in the middle of a baseball field. Now we may not have baseball there on a scheduled basis. But we do have kids that do still play baseball, contrary to popular belief.

[Chris Murphy]: It's not gonna use that field this year.

[Reggie Graham]: No, no, no. Okay, so I think the mat that you're talking about would probably be preferable. And then of course, you still have to have those three little wickets, right? Yeah. At the end of the mat, right?

[SPEAKER_17]: Yeah, it's a removable, we're just gonna put it and bring it back, you know?

[Reggie Graham]: Yes, yes.

[SPEAKER_17]: Yeah, if we use them.

[Reggie Graham]: Yeah. I'm just trying to get a sense. The one that's concrete is not something that you would pick up. It would be something that would be placed there for the whole summer, right?

[SPEAKER_17]: The concrete is permanent. It doesn't harm anyone. It's kind of like a robbery pitch. So it's going to be there for a while. We don't have to put it back. We don't have to roll it. We're just going to go and play it. That's kind of permanent thing.

[Reggie Graham]: So we just have to take care. I think we're going to be leaning towards the portable one. The Matty? Okay. Yes, please. Yes, please. Yeah, sure. All right. So we all set? Yeah. So we'll see you next month or we'll hear from you next month and we'll kick off cricketing method.

[SPEAKER_17]: Nice. Thank you so much. I really appreciate that, everyone.

[Chris Murphy]: Not a problem.

[Adam Hurtubise]: Thank you. Looking forward to it.

[Reggie Graham]: OK, let's see. What's next here? West Medford Open Studios, June 24th and June 25th, rain day. This is a repeat from last year. Wonderful event. I don't know if anybody got to go see it.

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: Yeah.

[Reggie Graham]: So, um, is there any conflict on the schedule? We haven't, we haven't issued any permits, so I wouldn't imagine there. I move approval. I second. Danielle?

[SPEAKER_21]: Yeah, I'm in.

[Reggie Graham]: Colleen? Absolutely. All right. Do we have, um, do we have somebody on here?

[Ann Marie Cugno]: Yes, I'm here, Monique Dougherty.

[Reggie Graham]: Oh, Miss Dougherty, how are you today?

[Ann Marie Cugno]: Hello, Mr. Graham. Nice to see, nice to hear your voice. Thank you guys so much for your time. I appreciate it.

[Reggie Graham]: Have a wonderful event as usual.

[Ann Marie Cugno]: Yes, thank you. We will. I hope you'll all join us.

[Reggie Graham]: We'll all come down just to say hello and spend some money.

[Ann Marie Cugno]: That's always a good thing. All right. Have a good night, everyone. Thank you so much.

[Reggie Graham]: I know. Well, we got Boston Ski and Sports. Kevin, next.

[Adam Hurtubise]: Is Kevin still there?

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: Yeah, he's taking notes.

[Adam Hurtubise]: Whose mom is on the phone?

[Reggie Graham]: Oh, Chris. I didn't realize I was on mute. Told on yourself. He muted. So Boston Ski and Sports is next?

[Kevin Bailey]: Yeah, Reggie, I don't think- Mark's not on the call? Not on the call right now, but let me just scroll down to the request. I did talk to Mark before the last meeting. And he did say that he's not planning on using Tufts for the spring, so this is actually a reduction than what he has in the past. But as we said, it'll be on Tuesday and Thursday nights at Memorial Field in South Parkfield.

[SPEAKER_21]: Do we know if Medford High JV, are they using Tufts?

[Kevin Bailey]: Yes, JV is.

[SPEAKER_21]: Oh, then there's no conflict really.

[Reggie Graham]: So hub didn't come back last year, did they?

[Kevin Bailey]: They came back in the fall, right? Could be right, if you give me one minute I can actually look it up on the calendar.

[Reggie Graham]: I think that would be the only conflict that we would have.

[Kevin Bailey]: So May, Volo Sports was using it on Wednesdays and Thursday nights from seven to 10.

[Reggie Graham]: And then- Who was it?

[Kevin Bailey]: Volo? Who was it?

[Reggie Graham]: Who was it?

[Kevin Bailey]: I'm sorry, I still didn't- It's Volo, V-O-L-O.

[Reggie Graham]: They were using it for softball?

[Kevin Bailey]: Softball, yeah.

[Reggie Graham]: Well, Boston Ski and Sports has used Memorial before, right? Yes, they used to. Over the years, they've used. So do you think, do we think that Volo's coming back?

[Kevin Bailey]: I don't have a request in, but I believe last year they had some concerns with field conditions.

[Reggie Graham]: At Memorial?

[Kevin Bailey]: Yes.

[Reggie Graham]: So they may or may not come back.

[Kevin Bailey]: Yeah, I haven't heard from them. but I remember last year they had concerns about field positions.

[Reggie Graham]: How come we didn't hear about it?

[Kevin Bailey]: You didn't hear about it. I think you actually were the point on it.

[Reggie Graham]: Oh, Jesus. The mind is a terrible thing.

[Kevin Bailey]: You're the one who told me that they had concerns about the fields.

[Reggie Graham]: Oh, okay.

[Kevin Bailey]: But again, I haven't received any requests for follow-up.

[Reggie Graham]: So if necessary, the only conflict would be the Thursday night and we can probably move them around, right? We could probably move Volo around.

[Kevin Bailey]: Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. Can you see the calendar on the share view or do I have to reshare?

[Reggie Graham]: No, it's there.

[Kevin Bailey]: Yeah. So, I mean, you can see it.

[Reggie Graham]: It's real tiny.

[Adam Hurtubise]: Is that better?

[Reggie Graham]: Yeah, that's better. Now I got to put on my other glasses. I can't read the words. OK, so Volos on Thursday nights. And Boston skiing sports was on. Tuesday nights.

[SPEAKER_21]: I mean, if they wanted the field, they would have put in a request. It's kind of a snooze you lose.

[Reggie Graham]: True, true, but we'd like to have our returners, you know, get as much as exposure as they possibly can. So I think that you're right, that they should have come back, come to us sooner. Maybe they don't want to come to us. I don't know. I think we should just go with Boston Ski and Sports. Boston Ski and Sports has been with us for 20 something years.

[SPEAKER_21]: When did Volo start their permit last year? What was their permit request? Like when did their season technically start?

[Unidentified]: April.

[SPEAKER_21]: I mean, they could potentially come to us next month, they might not be here now because they don't need it yet. Well, I just think we get there.

[Reggie Graham]: So they were looking at Wednesdays and Thursdays. And so what we can do is we can possibly just give them Mondays and Wednesdays or something to that effect.

[Kevin Bailey]: Because Mark is not using tests this year. Mark usually has, so.

[Reggie Graham]: All right. So we, we have an option for them.

[Chris Murphy]: Yeah. I say we can get both on top.

[Reggie Graham]: Okay. If they come, if they come, is everybody in agreement with this? Yes.

[Adam Hurtubise]: Yes. Yes.

[Reggie Graham]: Yes. Yes.

[Adam Hurtubise]: Yes. Yes.

[Reggie Graham]: That's a yes. On to Method Youth Soccer.

[SPEAKER_14]: Good evening, sir. How are you doing? I'm doing great. And thank you, Colleen, for the shout out about all the kids playing. I am happy to tell you we could break 800 this season.

[Adam Hurtubise]: Wow. That's awesome. That's great.

[SPEAKER_14]: We're also going to be, there was some discussion, last year about signage honoring Tom Hines. I'm happy to tell you guys, April 1st will be the dedication. The sign is being painted and stained as we speak. And we've already gotten the mayor's blessing and the DPW is involved in installing it. So if anybody's around, we believe it's gonna be a 6 p.m. Saturday, the 1st of April. That's when we're gonna unload it and show it to the world.

[Reggie Graham]: Are they gonna stick it in concrete?

[SPEAKER_14]: I believe they are. It's a mahogany sign on granite, left and right granite stabilizers into the ground on the corner of Playstead and Century Street Extension at a 45 degree angle. So you'll see it as you approach the park.

[Reggie Graham]: Wonderful, wonderful.

[SPEAKER_14]: It's a beautiful sign. Mike Marr, who is a local contractor, lives up on the hillside, is a Medford youth soccer coach and parent. Uh, he's the one that's building it and, uh, I get updates and, uh, each update is a little bit more, uh, spine tingling than the one before. So I can't wait for this thing to be unveiled.

[Reggie Graham]: Good. Wonderful. Wonderful. So, um, it looks like you have the same schedule that you had last year.

[SPEAKER_14]: Uh, I asked for a little bit more time because we have more teams with 800 children. We've got over 450 traveling. And believe it or not, we are setting records with our 3-4 group. We are going to have nine boys teams and seven girls teams, I think is the final count. So there's 16 3-4s that need to play on any given Saturday. So we asked to extend, we probably won't need all the time and we're certainly not gonna schedule a 9 a.m. and a 4.30 p.m. game. because the referees would be staying on the field to do consecutive games. So, you know, we'll, I just want to be able to have that ability in case we have to, because you know, the first day it's going to snow like eight feet and then we'll have to push that game off again like it did last year.

[Reggie Graham]: Mr. Taylor, please. Do not jinx us.

[SPEAKER_14]: Do not jinx us.

[SPEAKER_21]: We don't say that. We don't say that S word in the parks commission meetings.

[SPEAKER_14]: If you remember last April, our first game.

[Reggie Graham]: No, we don't remember last April.

[SPEAKER_14]: I can't remember last week. Had to be postponed. Kevin shut that thing down faster than you know what. Yeah.

[Reggie Graham]: Listen, I don't have any problems except that I don't really want to start March 15th.

[SPEAKER_14]: Okay. Just when do you want to start?

[Reggie Graham]: I'd really like to check with DPW to find out, I mean, cause I remember they closed one of the fields late last year. Yeah.

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: Mike always likes to have the soccer fields ready to go. So we need his blessing before we go any further. And we've always done that just to make sure that he's got everything in place.

[SPEAKER_14]: We're speaking directly with them as far as lying it up and such. I'm not married to the 15th. We, our first game should be the weekend of the 8th of April. And we generally like to have two weeks warmup. So that would put us like the last week of March.

[Reggie Graham]: So why don't we do this? Why don't we, why don't we say that I don't have my calendar. Oh, I do have my calendar. Look at that. Last week of March would be the 27th, the 26th. Yeah.

[SPEAKER_14]: So. And that would not be Saturdays. That would just be during the week. We wouldn't need Saturdays until the 8th. Or ideally, the first that we can set up the soccer fields for the sign dedication, right?

[Reggie Graham]: So what I see for one?

[SPEAKER_14]: So for one for Saturdays going forward, and then if we get out the week before that. Just to start our practices. Okay. I don't necessarily need lined fields, but again, we're in, we're in touch with the, with the guy who runs the robot. Yeah. We got real friendly with him last year. So we're going to make sure we maintain that relationship.

[Reggie Graham]: Well, so, so we're looking at the 27th. Yeah, that's fine. All right. Yeah. That, that, that, that works a lot better for us. And I'm pretty sure the DPW, if there's, if there's any questions about that, we can you know, uh, we'll figure out a workaround.

[SPEAKER_14]: We never had a problem with them before. We have no problem helping, you know, going both directions here, whatever they need.

[Reggie Graham]: We'll be happy to help out with any of the commissioners have any other questions?

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: The only thing with the nets, can we get those locked up more and more?

[SPEAKER_14]: Yeah, I have. So I have more chains and locks ready to go. And during our, uh, coaches meeting, we'll be, discussing what we do with the locks instead of leaving them dangling, because they tend to walk away.

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: It's always been an issue. Always been an issue. But again, with the kids hanging on them, when we're not around, it could cause a lot of problems.

[SPEAKER_14]: I hear you, Mike. I really do. I've got about 80 pounds of chain in the back of my car, just waiting to get over there.

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: I know the feeling. And how many locks do you have to go around and how many keys you keep giving out?

[SPEAKER_14]: Yes. Oh, I switch to a combos. I can't do any more. He's driving me crazy.

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: Very good.

[SPEAKER_14]: Well, I appreciate it everyone. Thank you so much.

[Reggie Graham]: Mr. Taylor, you take care of yourself.

[SPEAKER_14]: Thank you. You all too.

[Reggie Graham]: Have a good season. Uh, m y g s. I'm Chuck Wilworth.

[MCM00001514_SPEAKER_02]: I'm from my GS representing Mr. Woolworth.

[Reggie Graham]: How are you?

[MCM00001514_SPEAKER_02]: Good. How are you?

[Reggie Graham]: So, uh, Columbus Hickey McNally, the Jamboree and Tufts park.

[MCM00001514_SPEAKER_02]: Yep.

[Reggie Graham]: Okay. and you're looking for April 1st to June 30th, obviously. The same thing that we told youth soccer, we're going to be contingent upon DPW. Obviously, they're the ones that have to take care of the fields and so on and so forth. So between now and April 1st, we've got to figure out if there's going to be any weather. We've been lucky so far, so I'm not going to jinx it. And I don't think that any of the commission, excuse me, let me take that back. Do any of the commissioners have anything that they would like to ask Mr. Wilworth? I have no issues at all.

[SPEAKER_20]: I'm good with this permit.

[Reggie Graham]: I'm good. So there we go, Mr. Woolworth, you're all set. Contingent upon DPW's okay and so on and so forth. And I hope you all have a wonderful season. Please let us know about that, Jim Marie. I went last year.

[MCM00001514_SPEAKER_02]: Oh yeah. Yeah. It's my, I always tell people, you know, when my daughter was five, like it was kind of like, all right, she likes softball. We'll see how it goes. And then, walking away from the jamboree with a mouthful of cotton candy and slush. She was like, can we play softball next year? So it's a big day for us.

[Reggie Graham]: Good. Well, have a wonderful season, sir.

[MCM00001514_SPEAKER_02]: All right. Thank you.

[Reggie Graham]: All right. And the last permit request is for MassBiotech Softball.

[SPEAKER_15]: Hi, my name is Matt Malachowski, and I'm here to talk about that.

[Reggie Graham]: Okay. Um, as you can see, um, Bedford youth girls softball has, uh, we have a little bit of a conflict here.

[SPEAKER_15]: No, no. And so we've, we've had Tufts park on Friday evenings, Tufts one and two, uh, in July and August. Um, so obviously we're not talking about that now, but I just kind of sent a of a flyer request to Kevin to see if something else is available starting in May and June, if possible. And he indicated that Tufts might be available from 8 to 10 p.m. on other nights, which we would be interested in in the spring if it was available. But we understand that the field availability is very limited and we're just kind of sending a flyer request, you know.

[Reggie Graham]: Okay. So let's see what we can do for you.

[SPEAKER_21]: Fred, I believe that Tufts is used for the Littles for my GS. I don't think they use it like that late at night. To be honest with you, I know like their permit is is that and I know like once they send their schedule will be more set in stone, but. I think that those are like the the U6 and U8 use.

[MCM00001514_SPEAKER_02]: I can speak to that if you want. eight o'clock where we're gone by then.

[Reggie Graham]: Yeah. On all four diamonds?

[MCM00001514_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. We have, yeah. Our, our practices are scheduled to end at 7 30. Um, and if we had a game there, if we moved to the U 10 game there, we'd still be out of there by eight.

[Reggie Graham]: So, so, um, Matt, I'm not going to try to butcher your last name, I'm sorry.

[SPEAKER_15]: It's one of those Polish names that's hard to pronounce.

[Reggie Graham]: So if you started your games at eight o'clock, would that be something that would be interesting to you?

[SPEAKER_15]: I checked it early. I don't think we could do Fridays at eight o'clock, but we could do any other weeknight at eight o'clock and have our team members be there. Again, Kevin was indicating that there might be another league who is trying to get that time. And that's fine if we can't get that time, but we'd be interested in Monday to Thursday or one of those nights from eight to 10 p.m. if it's available.

[Kevin Bailey]: Before I scanned all this to you, that's where you see the little sticky notes. What I did know is that there wasn't gonna be that conflict. So I know Matt, we kind of talked a little bit with email back and forth as I said, Weeknights Method Man Softball does use that field at nighttime from 8 to 10. However, I think one of the diamonds will be available from 8 to 10 on Monday nights. I just won't know until I speak with Tony and John just to confirm that, but I think that might be another possibility.

[SPEAKER_15]: Yeah, and we're really flexible. If we can't get it to July, that's fine. Even if there's another field that's available from six to eight on Monday through Friday night, we'd take it too. But like I said, it was just a flyer request to see if there was anything available in May and June. And if there's not, it's fine. We're okay coming back in when you do your summer permits and requesting what we had last year for Tufts in July and August.

[Reggie Graham]: Do you need two fields?

[SPEAKER_15]: No, we would take just one if you had it. May and June, it would help a lot.

[Reggie Graham]: So I'm looking at what we've already approved right now, right? And would Memorial on Wednesdays work?

[SPEAKER_15]: Yeah, that was Memorial Wednesday would be great if it's available.

[Reggie Graham]: I'm looking at Kevin because Kevin has the master.

[Kevin Bailey]: I haven't pulled up right here too. So we just approved the SSC. Was it two nights a week?

[Reggie Graham]: Yeah, that was Tuesdays and Thursdays.

[Kevin Bailey]: Thursdays. So I know we said with Volo, you know, if they come back, they might want some of the time, but if Volo doesn't come back, do we want to just give it to Matt on either Monday or Wednesday nights?

[Reggie Graham]: I think Wednesday is probably the preferable night. I don't know. What do you say, Matt? Do you think that Wednesday night at Memorial would work for you?

[SPEAKER_15]: Yeah, Wednesday night would be great. Monday night would be fine, too. And again, we're flexible. We can wait. We can wait a while until Bolo comes back to you. And you can let us know in a month or six weeks, whenever it's ready, if you have a field availability. At this point, we're not expecting it. It would be great if it came through. But we're not expecting anything from Medford into July.

[Kevin Bailey]: you get six to eight, and then if all comes back, they can get the eight to 10 slot.

[SPEAKER_15]: Yeah, the six to eight slot's preferable for us, because it's a corporate league, and we have a lot of companies in Medford that play too, so they prefer to go straight from the office to the field rather than, you know, find something else to do for two hours before the game starts, so.

[Reggie Graham]: Yeah, like go to the bar and play.

[SPEAKER_15]: Yeah, that's what we're trying to avoid. People are trying to avoid that.

[Reggie Graham]: Yeah, they didn't then they want to know why the abandoning averages in the toilet. Yeah. Could you can't throw the ball over the plate. Right. So, so is that is that is that tentative date okay with the rest of the commissioners.

[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah, that works. For me. Alright, so we'll look for Wednesday.

[SPEAKER_15]: Perfect. Thank you very much. I appreciate your consideration of this.

[Reggie Graham]: Our pleasure. Our pleasure. Good luck with your season. Thank you. We'll see you again in summertime. That sounds great. Looking forward to it. All right. Now that concludes our agenda for the permits. Now we do have three other items on the agenda. I'm going to pass it over to Kevin because he has all of the items on the agenda for discussion.

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: Before we get to that, did anyone show up for the United India Association? Because that's March 12th.

[Reggie Graham]: Sorry, just trying to write. Hey, Mike, I hate to tell you this, right? But it doesn't make any difference whether we say yay or nay, they're going to do what they want to do anyway. That's my concern. Exactly. But whether we give them a permit or not, they're going to do what they want to do. They obviously feel as though they have carte blanche.

[Kevin Bailey]: So, Commissioner, the only person I see on the call is Rebecca Lewis. I don't know if... That's the only person that hasn't met.

[SPEAKER_04]: Hi.

[Kevin Bailey]: I'll make sure it's not with that group.

[SPEAKER_04]: No, I'm not with that group at all. I think I might be in the wrong meeting. I'm not sure, but there was a notice in the mail that came to me about regarding Carr Park. So I'm not sure if that's on the agenda still, or maybe that's a later discussion. That's why I came on.

[Kevin Bailey]: It's not on the agenda to discuss car park, but I guess if there's a question that you have maybe the Park Commission might be able to help answer I might be able to help answer a question, but I'm not certain of any notice out so far about what that was.

[Reggie Graham]: Sometimes the right hand doesn't tell the left hand what they're doing. Is that the revitalization. Did you receive.

[Adam Hurtubise]: Yes, sir.

[SPEAKER_04]: That's what I received in the mail. Yep.

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: And we talked about this meeting or another meeting.

[SPEAKER_04]: So they said it was a meeting on today, March 1. At this time, um, and I thought that's what I was joining, but, uh, I don't know, I could be wrong. And I was just, I was just joining to hear just some general information about, you know, they're going to be moving forward with the revamp or there was questions for, I don't know, people who live in the neighborhood or near the park. So that was that was mainly it.

[SPEAKER_20]: It would make sense that it was this meeting. It would have, right?

[Kevin Bailey]: It would be here.

[SPEAKER_20]: Kevin, do you know if there was another meeting separate from us on that tonight?

[Kevin Bailey]: There are other meetings today. So I'm just pulling it up right now to see if I can find out what other meetings are here. There was a conservation commission. I know there are parts of Cobb Rock that needs to get approval from the conservation commission. So that might be where that notification came out on and that's at 6.30 PM.

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: Are they using CPA money?

[Kevin Bailey]: Yes. And phase one I know is about cleaning the wooded area. So I would assume that's where conservation will have. I think that's probably what it was.

[SPEAKER_08]: I'm looking at the Conservation Commission agenda, and they have Clark Park on it.

[SPEAKER_04]: I'm clearly in the wrong meeting.

[Reggie Graham]: That's all right. We would love to have you. That's all. That's fine.

[SPEAKER_04]: What am I hearing about the approvals and stuff? I think that meeting might be over, but all right. Sounds good. Thanks for letting me know.

[Reggie Graham]: I'm back any time.

[SPEAKER_04]: Take care. We'll certainly do. I know where to go to if I need an approval for any parks now, so thanks so much. All right, now. Take care. All right, take care. Bye-bye.

[Kevin Bailey]: OK, so the other three that I have. I'm just going to scroll down again so you can read all of it. Okay, the first one is the Roberts Elementary PTO. They're requesting as well a bond and a full pass this year as a fundraising. The Roberts PTO has not requested any this year yet. So again, just as we have with the McGlynn and Brooks. If the commission wants to approve.

[Chris Murphy]: Motion to approve.

[Unidentified]: What are we approving?

[Chris Murphy]: We're giving them a gift to wrap along with a pond pass.

[Reggie Graham]: You know something, I must be really getting old. You are.

[Unidentified]: I know.

[Reggie Graham]: But did we charge these folks anything? I mean, because if we continue to do this, we're going to get inundated by every PTO in the city.

[SPEAKER_20]: We would be okay with giving these to PTOs. Is that what it was?

[Chris Murphy]: There's only four schools now, Reg.

[SPEAKER_20]: Really?

[Chris Murphy]: Yeah, there's about 15 elementary schools.

[SPEAKER_20]: I would say it could be the middle schools as well, right? So just extend it out by a couple.

[Chris Murphy]: At most, I think you're looking at six schools. I don't think the high school PTO does anything like this.

[Adam Hurtubise]: But I would say we could just,

[Chris Murphy]: I would just limit this for the PTOs.

[Reggie Graham]: That would be it. So we did it. What's the Columbus school? What's the Columbus? What is it now?

[Chris Murphy]: The Missittuck.

[Reggie Graham]: So did we do it for the Missittuck last year?

[Chris Murphy]: I think we did it for the McGlynn and the Brooks. McGlynn and the Brooks. I don't think I missed a talk is asked for anything yet.

[Reggie Graham]: Okay. So, so in monetary value, it's, it's really not much of anything, is it?

[SPEAKER_21]: No. And that's if it even gets used by the person who wins it.

[Chris Murphy]: Yeah. Good point. How much, how much is each past again, Kevin?

[Adam Hurtubise]: Um, so the pond is, here $55 and the pool is $80.

[Reggie Graham]: So I, you know, I think it's a, I think it's a pretty worthy cause, you know, for the PTOs to get a little money to distribute amongst their brethren and make sure that the little urchins get a little dough with their stuff. So, yeah, well, hey, mine's 38. And he was urchin when he was that age too. So, you know, I don't have any problems with this. I think this is probably something that we can do on an annual basis, but only if they request it. We're not gonna, I don't think we should publicize it.

[SPEAKER_21]: No, I think we should just approve it. And like we said, it's not like this, we're gonna get like a ton of them coming in.

[Reggie Graham]: All right, so we're all in agreement? Yes. All right. What's next, Kev?

[Kevin Bailey]: The next one is, from KP Law, if you remember at the last meeting, as I was saying, with the pond and pool passes, one of the things that we were discussing is with house pool, we were inundated last year with a lot of daily fees. We had very high bay loads. I do think with the improvements that are coming out by the end of the spring, we're gonna finish up. We have a pool deck completely done now. The only thing that's really left to finish is a couple of tiles for water depth and the water mushroom will get installed this spring. So we're near the end. So I know by the end of the spring, the pool's gonna have a little bit of an update and some water features. I would imagine with that, we would get more people trying to come into Tusk Pool, which is a great thing. But I also wanna be, concerned that we don't put ourselves in a position where we are getting inundated or to the point where we don't have enough lifeguards on duty or we reach our bay below capacity, which is relatively high, it's over 200, but it's not very enjoyable with 200 people in that pool. So as I was saying, I wanna try to have it so that we still continue to have membership for residents and non-residents. So the membership will still stay the same, but daily fee is where we got a lot of people coming in. I still wanna keep the daily fee for residents. I think there's a tremendous value for it. A lot of residents have said they find it much more affordable and easier to come to the pool with the daily fee, but we wanna have it so that there is no daily fee for non-residents. And so basically like last year where DCR had some of the pools closed, close. We want to try to stop that from happening. So again, last meeting, we said that I reached out to K.P. Barr and I just want to confirm, because we did take federal funding at one point, that we do have the ability to restrict non-residents and only allow it as a membership and not as a daily fee. So this is what you're basically seeing here. I did send this to you guys as an email attachment as well, but it's the response from KP. And basically saying that when they looked it up, they were able to feel that there is justification and it's defendable if it had to be questioned. So I just kind of leave that to you if you want to read this as a follow-up to what their answer was. And then if you had any questions or any other recommendation, but I am still requesting to remove the daily fee for non-residents based on this answer from KB Law.

[SPEAKER_20]: Kevin, so just skimming this, it looks like that it would be allowable.

[Kevin Bailey]: Yes. If you all will say yes or no, their answer is it's defendable. I don't think they'll give you an absolute yes or no. It seems reasonable and justified.

[SPEAKER_20]: And I'm assuming you would publicize that, right? There'd be some like communications out there that would talk about how residents are going to be, you know, prioritized or something of that nature.

[Kevin Bailey]: If you would like it, I actually have, I started to write this out and I can give it to the commissioners next meeting. One minute, I'm gonna pull up.

[Adam Hurtubise]: I'm working on the summer program book right now. I started to update that as well on what that would be.

[SPEAKER_20]: easier for you, right, if you get the communications out ahead of time and make it clear.

[Kevin Bailey]: And I like that too, because, and this is one of the things that I always struggle with, is sometimes, you know, in my head, or we discuss it, it makes sense to me, but to the general public who are reading this for the first time, about attending this meeting, doesn't make sense to them. So usually I might pull like a staff member like John, since he's not here directly in the office and heard about it, I'll just have him read it and say, hey, does it make sense to you? So I'd love to do that at maybe next meeting, if I could show you, but this is how I have it currently worded. But I, again, just started working on the wording today. So I know there might be some edits and some tweaks.

[SPEAKER_20]: look it over a few, you know, at some point, if you're when it's a little more ready to be viewed, I'm happy to be a set of eyes if that's helpful.

[Chris Murphy]: I think we have to make it absolutely clear on there that no non-resident will be admitted for a day in the past. It has to be like straight forward on this.

[Kevin Bailey]: There are a lot of people that buy a membership and they want to bring a friend. We didn't want to exclude that. So we did say that if, for membership, so if you have already purchased a membership, you have people within your family, now you want to, you know, one of your children wants to bring a friend to the pool, that's where we would still auto the guest pass. But you would have to have that membership in order to bring in that guest and you would pay that daily fee. But we also felt that there'd be a lot of Method residents that have a family past, they have a child with them, they wanna bring a friend that doesn't live in Method, would wanna still have that as an option. But I don't think that's a lot of people that will have that circumstance.

[Adam Hurtubise]: I think it makes sense.

[Kevin Bailey]: Does anyone else comments, questions?

[SPEAKER_21]: I mean, you might just want to put like something on the bottom that literally just says like non-resident membership holders will be allowed to have day pass guests. You know what I mean? Like make it really more for dummies.

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: Keep it simple.

[SPEAKER_20]: Yeah, and may even want a header that came with something like new this year. So like you draw some attention that there's, you know, something different about this program book than last year and the way that things are run.

[Kevin Bailey]: Yeah, that's a good idea.

[SPEAKER_20]: New for 2023.

[Kevin Bailey]: Yeah, and I want to put this on our website too, because I'm sure a lot of people, if they don't live in Method, are probably going to first, they're not going to see our program, but they're going to see our thing.

[SPEAKER_20]: And social media and any other social media that's out there. Yeah.

[SPEAKER_21]: Or even like some verbiage that says like daily pool passes, you know, cannot be purchased for non-Medford residents without a membership.

[Kevin Bailey]: Yeah, so right now I have pool members can purchase daily pass for guests, resident or non-resident when visiting the pool. But I know that can probably be more.

[SPEAKER_21]: I feel like, yeah, I feel like you don't even need to put, I think the fact that it just says pool members, like pool membership holders can purchase daily passes for guests. I don't even think you need to specify that. like resident or non-resident. I think you could probably even get rid of resident or non-resident. I think you need to just be really specific on just daily passes without membership is for residents only or non-membership is resident only. You know what I mean?

[Adam Hurtubise]: Sorry, it was daily passes without residency.

[Kevin Bailey]: That's really the same as saying resident only, right? Medford residents only.

[Adam Hurtubise]: Non-member daily passes for Medford residents only. like available for Metro residents only.

[Unidentified]: So if I, so if I come from Somerville.

[Reggie Graham]: Yeah. So I come, I live, I live up, up Medford street, right? On the other side of Broadway. And I want to come to Tufts pool. I have to take out a non-resident individual license to come to the pool, which cost me $60? Correct.

[Kevin Bailey]: You don't need to show proof that you're a non-resident. Only you have to show proof of residency to get the discount. So a non-resident, you're not going to be allowed to do a daily pass. You can't pay a day pass. But you can buy a membership for the year. So you can do the individual membership for $60 or the family pass for $160. but they wanna be able to come in as a daily fee.

[SPEAKER_21]: Yeah, you can buy a membership. You can't just drop in when you want.

[Kevin Bailey]: Correct.

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: I mean, the whole idea is to just maintain the right amount of population within the pool itself and keep them for the residence access.

[Kevin Bailey]: That's where we're at. It's just to make sure that we don't get to the point where we are overwhelmed or really just over occupancy have to maintain that 1 to 20 ratio. So I don't want to turn people away. And ultimately, that will be, once we hit occupancy, that could be method residents, most likely will be method residents. Or to the point where we might have enough lifeguards. But as I said, having 200 people in the pool, we might be able to still maintain our Bayville load. But that doesn't necessarily mean that

[Reggie Graham]: How many times did we hit capacity last year?

[Kevin Bailey]: We never hit pay the low capacity. Lifeguards, there were times. Excuse me. As you might see, 150.

[Reggie Graham]: If we didn't hit capacity too often, and I'm just asking the question, if we didn't hit capacity too often, is this much ado about nothing? Or is it something that happens occasionally, all the time, twice a week?

[SPEAKER_21]: I think he's concerned because the pool's now going to be updated and it's going to have new water features that it's going to be more popular and more people are going to want to come.

[Kevin Bailey]: I think that will happen. I think we'll see a bigger increase. We're seeing larger increases year after year. So especially getting that over, I would expect more people.

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: This is an option to stem off the issue.

[Kevin Bailey]: This summer, we do have points. where managers were going up on the chair, our managers were getting called in because we had a lot of people in the pool. Like I said, we never had the reach to obey the load where we would have to turn people away because we would actually obey the load occupancy. Obey the load is the occupancy, right? We never hit that point, but we certainly hit the point where having one lifeguard for every 25 swimmers, we were getting close to that number, where managers or staff were getting called in, or we had to stop doing rotations or breaks temporarily just to have enough lifeguards on stand to meet that one-to-one ratio. So to your point, seeing it year after year, if we don't take steps now, I think What we would have to do is once we hit that number, we would have to have someone stand at the door and say, you can't come in until somebody leaves. Again, that would be, I don't want to get to that point. I think at that point, it's really difficult if there are a lot of non-residents in there and then method residents.

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: I have a question. Are we voting on this tonight or are we waiting for the language to be written up so then we can vote on it at the next meeting?

[Kevin Bailey]: I mean, I wasn't looking at the specific language. I think last meeting, discussing, we were just waiting for people to answer. So I was looking today to seek the approval to remove the non-resident daily fee. But okay with that, and then maybe next meeting we can go over. Is that what you're asking?

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: Yeah, are we looking to vote tonight to change tonight? Or are we waiting for the language to be written up so we can vote upon the actual language? That's basically it.

[SPEAKER_21]: No, we're voting on whether or not he can go forward. Yeah. And then next meeting, he can redo the verbiage and then we can vote on the verbiage, I guess, the next meeting.

[Adam Hurtubise]: Yes, thank you.

[SPEAKER_21]: I'm fine with it. I think, I mean, I, you know, it's, it's our pool. I feel like we shouldn't be turning away Medford residents in, in any new fee. I think with the new like water features, it is going to have a little bit more of a draw.

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: So, and I was going to say the same thing. I think it'd be more popular. We probably will hit the, the, uh, the total a lot quicker and more days. So let's, let's have no issue now.

[Chris Murphy]: Are you projecting Kevin to have more lifeguards each year, less lifeguards, the same staff? Like what are you looking at for staff at this point this summer?

[Kevin Bailey]: So historically, since I've started, I've asked for more lifeguards. So City Council Mayor has approved the actual lifeguards. So it's three guards. But to your answer, if I expect that we're going to get more lifeguards over the years or less, actually there's a lifeguard shortage. There's a group that has it. really extreme steps on their pay rates. My short answer is the trend of having less live jobs. So I think we need to do the best we can to improve as much as possible.

[Adam Hurtubise]: I certainly don't think that there is going to be a trend. All right.

[SPEAKER_20]: Kevin, I'm fine with you going forward. You know, I think someone else said it, try to stem any issues that you may see and maybe it doesn't come into play, you know, and you don't have to do the bad cop thing. But I think if you have seen a trend and we only know things are, you know, getting improved over there, thanks to your good work as well. Yeah, I'm fine with you going forward.

[Adam Hurtubise]: Thank you.

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: Make a motion to approve.

[Reggie Graham]: Do I hear a second?

[Adam Hurtubise]: Second.

[Reggie Graham]: All those in favor? Aye.

[Adam Hurtubise]: Aye. Aye. Aye.

[Reggie Graham]: Motion passes. Bring it to us next month, Chris, Kevin. I was thinking maybe it could go right in, right after that where it says pool members can purchase daily passes for guests. And then you can say non pool members are not eligible to buy daily passes. It'll be in there, then all you have to do is, Enforce it.

[Kevin Bailey]: Yeah.

[Reggie Graham]: Don't have to reinvent the wheel.

[Kevin Bailey]: I do things. It's gonna be putting it on social media.

[Reggie Graham]: Okay, last but not least, the game's about to start.

[Kevin Bailey]: Okay, so the very last one is that pickleball survey. Let's get out of this. You know what, the pickleball survey, I have it as printout for everyone, but I didn't see it. Do you want me to just kind of give a summary and then I give a copy of it for everyone?

[SPEAKER_20]: I'm having a little trouble hearing you, Kevin, and I don't know if it's... I'm also having the same thing.

[Kevin Bailey]: Yeah. I'm assuming it's... I have basketball in here right now, so that... I was going to originally suggest that we meet down at the arts center, since we don't have a concert going on upstairs and basketball down here.

[SPEAKER_20]: I didn't think that was going to be a... Yeah, I mean, whatever is easiest for you. If you want to send it along and we read it or you summarize, but just, yeah.

[Reggie Graham]: Give us a synopsis. Give us the abridged version.

[Kevin Bailey]: Out of the survey, there's 63% of the people who took the survey are Method residents. Coming in second was Arlington at 16%, but we actually had pretty good numbers percentage-wise of people from Somerville, Malden, a little bit of Winchester, a little bit of Melrose, pretty good number for Cambridge. It's not showing me the percentage, but I would say that's about two to 3%. And we even have people from like Charlestown. I can't see the rest of them, there are small ones, but that only might be one person. But we are getting people from other locations. One of the big thing I want to see is what attracts people to Duggar Park. Was it the location? Was it the people? Was it that bats are provided? I will say the largest one was 35% said it was friendly pick-up games. Coming in second, 29% was it was a convenient location. And at 12% was that method provides the pick-up all-nights. In the court, 50% of the people said they use it one to two times a day, two times per week, I'm sorry. Coming in second was three to four times a day, but really five to six days to seven days a week is only a small percent. That was only 10% that are using it that frequently. What surprised me a lot, it was how many, what days did they utilize the coin? I really thought we were gonna see a huge jump on Saturdays and Sundays. The reality is though, the highest numbers was Tuesday and Thursday. Sorry, Tuesday, Saturday, but we're still talking a small percentage. Almost everyone is across the board, relatively equal on each day that people are using it. So it's not one particular day. I did find out one of the reasons why people to be outdoors versus inside. Inside the rec center was some lighting. Unfortunately, we were just replaced all the ceiling lights over the gym. So hopefully that will help get more people to be indoors in the rec center. But that was something that we were able to address, at least for some of the people who took off the lighting. But of course, most people, they want the fresh air. still coming out of the pandemic, being at higher risk. There's a lot of people that also could already be on the doors for that reason.

[Reggie Graham]: So did you ask him anything about costs?

[Kevin Bailey]: Yes. So one of the questions that were very helpful for us is if people felt that the courts were becoming overcrowded. 54% said occasionally. 30% said yes, and 14% said no. Then we asked a question, and we were able to break it down on people who took the survey, whether they were a resident or a non-resident, but we asked what is a reasonable cost for a non-resident? Most people said around $50, and then coming in close for second was $100 for the year. For the year?

[Reggie Graham]: Yeah. So they would, so in other words, we'd give them a, we'd issue you some weed. A pickleball membership. We'd give them a pickleball membership for $50 and they could go down there anytime they wanted.

[Chris Murphy]: Not bad for a dollar a week. Not even, 90 cents a week.

[Kevin Bailey]: The second question was asked of what yearly residents should be paying. and 81% said no fees.

[Reggie Graham]: They said what?

[Adam Hurtubise]: No fee.

[Reggie Graham]: No fee.

[Kevin Bailey]: We do have a lot of open-ended questions as well. So again, I can share that survey with you, but it just gives a little bit idea of people's thoughts and ideas to help out with that.

[SPEAKER_20]: Can I take a step back? I don't want to extend this meeting any longer than it has to be, and I know this is an ongoing conversation, but is the point of this survey for us to determine whether we should have more pickleball courts in the city of Medford?

[Kevin Bailey]: For multiple things, yes. Do we need more courts for the city of Medford? I think what attracts is also really helpful for us is that, is it the group? Is it the location? Was it providing pickleball nets? Because that was always our thought is people are there because we provide the pickleball nets. Everywhere else or what I've seen in other parks, people have to buy their own nets and bring in and assemble it. But that was actually a much smaller percentage than what I thought it was going to be. So again, that's a little bit helpful when we get to car park or do we need to keep providing that spots that you have a ballpark and other people just bring in their own ads and play like they do outside of the permanent hours. And then it was a cost to try to figure out what is a reasonable cost for residents and non-residents as a yearly membership.

[Unidentified]: The thing about charging people that are non-residents, how are you going to enforce it?

[Kevin Bailey]: Well, you have a couple of ideas. One of the things that we have talked about is using our operating systems. We already have memberships already capable with the pond pool. We already do the memberships where you have like a keep off. We could do that as well for non-residents that purchase the yearly membership to play pick a pool. We can actually, between laptops, we're able to actually go right to the Pickleball. And that's something, too, we can have designated times for people. But they can pay membership and get a key fob. We could make that key fob very specific. We can buy new ones that are specific to Pickleball, or we can have random times come in and scan. But I do think in order to force it, they are to be able to either check or to see when they come in they can show like one of the volunteers or the person to pick a ball and that's to be able to show they have that show or it's going to be something that the work department take a week or two to be down there to check and then spot checks but this is stuff that I still need to talk about So the key thought is one idea, the other one is to just get like arm bands. Strong type of arm bands that we can get those in green, that sounds about to think of all, and we'll be able to do that same exact thing. Is everything all right, guys? Yeah, come on in.

[Adam Hurtubise]: Sorry.

[Kevin Bailey]: This is Austin. Austin is one of our main guys at night. He just needs to grab a key. All right. So the other one is that arm band idea. But like I said, I don't have anything definitive, but those are two thoughts and ideas that I would like to propose to the Pickleball communities and see what their thoughts are.

[SPEAKER_20]: So what is what is our action item in this for you, Kevin? Like, how can we, you know, support you? What decision do we have to make? Is it is it about adding additional courts? Or is it charging folks? Or is it both?

[Kevin Bailey]: So on the on the park commission side, last meeting, we had that addition to add a six pickleball court. Yeah. to line it and add that six points. That was tabled because I said that I do have in a survey, a pickleball survey and it was tabled so that the commissioners can see and review the pickleball survey before making any decisions. So that's why it's in the agenda right now. Again, being a commissioner is a great, there's something, You have a recommendation for what I should be doing, as far as the, the program itself. But that is an open forum for the park commission specifically is more to review that information inside the system, pick about what should be.

[SPEAKER_20]: Maybe I missed this at the beginning, I'm sorry. How many people responded? I know the percentages you gave, but how many people responded to the survey in total?

[SPEAKER_21]: I mean, the courts are being utilized, which is great because it would be a, you know, kind of a disappointment to line these courts and not have them be used. But I know there is a concern, you know, battling with tennis.

[Kevin Bailey]: Yeah. And we had some tennis players respond to, you know, this came out in our newsletter as well. So we do have some tennis people that also responded. You can see that in some of the comments. And they had other people that had never played pickleball, but are thinking about it. So, yeah. your additional information as well. I think for the commissioners, probably the biggest one just to recap about whether the commission wants to add that pickleball court or not was if they feel the court is overcrowded. And again, occasionally, it was 54.9% said occasionally, 30.8% said yes, and then 14.3% said no.

[SPEAKER_21]: I don't know, those are tough numbers. It's like, do you lie in the court based off of a what if? Because that's what I think when I think occasionally. I think like, what if, you know?

[SPEAKER_20]: And if you say occasionally, you don't really think it's a problem. That's my opinion of that word. So the 30%, you know, we're talking of the 91, you know, it's not a huge number that thinks it's a problem.

[SPEAKER_21]: Yeah, I mean, well, it's a third when you think about it.

[SPEAKER_20]: So it's 30 people and are they all Medford residents? We don't know probably that, we don't know exactly who said what, but.

[Kevin Bailey]: 63% were Medford residents.

[SPEAKER_21]: So more than half. Those 63% of the only people I'm focused on.

[SPEAKER_20]: That's me. And if we are trying to promote this sport and bring this new sport to our parks and to our community, Why should it be Duggar? Why does Duggar have to have that extra? Why wouldn't we line a court somewhere else in Medford? So, you know, other neighborhoods or, you know, geographically make it, you know, a little bit more equitable in terms of who has access.

[SPEAKER_21]: We talked about that at the last meeting regarding like splitting it up by like skill level. You know what I mean? Like the pickup games and stuff like that. but like the league just hasn't gotten there yet. You know what I mean? Like they're still trying to work out. Cause it's still new, you know? Yeah.

[Kevin Bailey]: And I think that's the, you know, the question like about what attracts you, you know, the location was 30%.

[SPEAKER_20]: That's the Arlington people saying that. It's good for them. For real. And honestly, I don't mind having other communities come over, but I just think that's a really small sample size, it feels like to me.

[Kevin Bailey]: There's a small, small amount that says method recognized pickleball nets. I thought that was one of the biggest attractions.

[SPEAKER_21]: So now you're thinking you're just going to save your money and not provide pickleball nets? Kevin thought he was doing everyone a favor. Kevin's like, where can I invest the rest of that money now? Will that buy me a lifeguard?

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: It sounds like there's going to be a component where there's going to be a fee. That's what I like to hear.

[Kevin Bailey]: which working off of a revolving account, you know, the rec department operating costs is solely on a revolving account. If we are providing the pickleball nets and we're replacing it, you know, eventually there does need to be a fee so that there is money in our budget to replace them. But I did find that surprising that there's not a high percentage that the rec department provides the net. So back to the commissioner's point, at the last meeting when they talk about other locations, that might be a big part, especially at 29% because it's convenient location. Well, some of those people are definitely driving across town, the other side of Method, to come play pickleball. So having Victory Park, we know that Hickey Park, when the tennis courts are done over, that's gonna be lined as well with pickleball. But as we said, Victory has also lines that can help out. We need more tennis courts to have those lines, so it's more areas that people can play.

[SPEAKER_21]: Yeah, and you're also going to have Carr eventually.

[Kevin Bailey]: Yeah, and I think Carr will make a significant difference, especially where the nets are already set up. And it's dedicated for pickleball. I think that's going to make a very very large impact on the availability of the courts.

[SPEAKER_21]: I mean, it doesn't, like we said, it doesn't hurt to line the court. It doesn't like make it unusable otherwise. Because like we said before too, like even without it lined, they can still use it for pickleball. They can still set themselves up.

[SPEAKER_20]: Yeah, it would almost be just like designating Duggar as like the pickleball place. It feels like.

[SPEAKER_21]: Like they're gonna use it regardless if it's lined or not. Right. So it's like, do we just line it?

[Reggie Graham]: They don't use it if it's not lined.

[Unidentified]: They haven't been. I go by there every day.

[Reggie Graham]: Okay, and I've been pretty, I wanted to stay neutral on this, to be honest with you. But it's in my neighborhood.

[SPEAKER_21]: I mean, if they're not using it online, then let's leave it online, where there's going to be other opportunities coming up. And I know Carr Park is far out, but I don't think it's as far out as we, you know what I mean?

[Reggie Graham]: I'll follow the city plan. I think that that's a viable, thought, but car park is not is not going to be a reality anytime soon. Yeah. You know, you talk about Victory Park. They don't want to go back to Victory Park because there's only two courts down there. Am I right, Kevin?

[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah.

[Reggie Graham]: And you talk about you talk about Hickey. And that's not that's not done yet. Right. So in essence, what we're talking about right now is the location at Duggar. And all the people that come to the program from 830 to 11, or whatever the time is that the rec department has designated for open pickleball.

[SPEAKER_21]: Let me ask you this, Peg. Is it being used?

[Reggie Graham]: I beg your pardon?

[SPEAKER_21]: Is it being used otherwise?

[Reggie Graham]: Not too often. I mean, some days you'll find some folks that'll stay after 11 o'clock. But I think that they primarily have their own nets.

[SPEAKER_21]: Yeah. The court that's not lined, is it being used otherwise? Or is it just laying empty?

[Kevin Bailey]: At that time of day, I don't think it's being used. very frequently, I think in the summertime, you might have one of the courts being used occasionally, the two courts are being used.

[SPEAKER_21]: If the court isn't being used at all, then line it, and it'll get used. I'd rather see a court get used than sit there empty.

[SPEAKER_20]: Didn't we have a question about the high school team, tennis team using that, and if the lines disturb them at all?

[Reggie Graham]: We did.

[SPEAKER_20]: and keeping that PR tennis for those reasons.

[Reggie Graham]: We did talk about it, but when we checked with MIAI, MIA.

[SPEAKER_20]: MIA, yeah.

[Reggie Graham]: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever.

[SPEAKER_20]: Yeah.

[Reggie Graham]: They said as long as the lines were different colors that they would allow tournament play at Duggar Park or any other park, as long as they, and they are different colors.

[SPEAKER_20]: Yeah, they're designated colors.

[Reggie Graham]: The ball is yellow, tennis is white.

[SPEAKER_20]: And I appreciate the designation from the MIA, but I would, I mean, to the, I would prefer to go to the players and the coaches and say, You know, yeah, I get what you're saying. Yeah. Do you want multi lines there? You know, you play basketball on those courts with like, you know, volleyball, everything going on and it can be distracting. And I mean, I think maybe that's a question we want to ask to, to our, um, high school teams.

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: Here's another question. What's going on with the parking situation? The amount of people waiting to get on the courts, is it causing congestion in the area?

[Reggie Graham]: Yes. I just, I just, I thought about, you know, the open studios. The open studios doesn't, you know, kick off until June or whatever it is but, you know, if they have the open studios and they start in the morning like they do. And they also have the pickleball people. There won't be any room on Duggar Park to park at all. And so I don't know. I mean, it's, like I said, I'm a little bit too close to the situation. So I'm really, I'm almost thinking I should recuse myself.

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: Yeah, but you, that's your neighborhood for one. You know what's going on. You're a member at the West Medford Community Center. So you hear what's going on. You're like,

[SPEAKER_21]: Yeah, you're in it, like your, your opinion matters because you're in it.

[SPEAKER_20]: And the neighborhood opinion matters, Reggie. I try to tell us is an issue, but from the neighbors because that would matter to me.

[Chris Murphy]: I truly, I truly think that people need to just. We're gonna get more courts. I hate to say it, but people, you're gonna have to wait for Kyle Park to be finished. People are gonna have to wait for Hickey Park to be finished. I mean, we're doing the best we can. I mean, again, I only care about the 61% of the people that answered that from Medford. If the Arlington people don't like the fact that they have to drive across town to use a pickleball court because West Medford is full, I'm sorry. That's just how, I don't think you're gonna see Method residents care that they have to drive to Morrison Park, or they have to drive to Victory Park, or they have to drive to eventually Carr Park. I don't think they're gonna care. That's just how I feel. We're gonna add a significant amount of courts and, Again, I think we're going in the right direction. It's gonna take some time, but they have to just kind of bear with us. That's just how I feel.

[Kevin Bailey]: As a reminder too, I just wanna bring the point that right now there's five tennis courts at Duggar and two and a half of the tennis courts are lined for pickleball. So what the request from the pickleball group is the court that has only one half line for pickleball to line the other half with it as well. So it's not to line all five pickleball courts, all five tennis courts with pickleball lines. The request is to take that middle one, that third one,

[Reggie Graham]: and add another pickleball court. Yes, we understood. We understood. I understood.

[SPEAKER_21]: You might as well because you can't use it. It's all like they can play tennis on half a court.

[Chris Murphy]: Yeah, but now we're getting rid of probably the most popular tennis courts in the city and just going down to two courts.

[SPEAKER_21]: Yeah, but we already have two courts. You only have two courts. You can't play on a half a court, Chris. Why did we only do a half a court? Cause that's what Medford does.

[Reggie Graham]: No, that's no, no, no. That was, that was in the plan.

[SPEAKER_21]: I just think do it at this point because you can't.

[Chris Murphy]: Are we talking about the pickleball community or are we talking about the Medford pickleball community? Are we talking about people from Medford saying that we need, or are we talking about people from Arlington and Winchester? It's both.

[SPEAKER_21]: Yeah. I just feel like that's a waste of a half, it's a waste of space right now because you can't use it for tennis because it's only half and you can't use, I mean, you can use a pickleball and they'll use it if they want to, but you might as well- Is it fully lined for tennis or is it just half line for tennis?

[Reggie Graham]: No, it's fully lined for tennis. Respectfully, Danielle. OK, I'm not talking about pickleball people right now or the people that play pickleball. I'm talking about the folks that live in the area who are not too happy about the influx of folks that have been there. And quite frankly, if you add another half a court, there's going to be more people that come there. So it's not just a matter of appeasing the pickleball folks, it's a matter of appeasing the whole folks, all the folks. So I just, I'm of the opinion that, you know, if you add another half, if you add another, that's four more people per hour, one, two, three hours,

[SPEAKER_21]: I don't know. That's a dozen people?

[SPEAKER_20]: I mean, how do we hear from the community? I mean, I'd like to know if there have been incidences and issues. I mean, that's the stuff I think would be important to our decision-making.

[Reggie Graham]: You know,

[SPEAKER_20]: Like, do they know where, do they, does the community or the neighbors even know we're contemplating this?

[Reggie Graham]: No, I, I wouldn't tell them. Are you kidding me? They say, well, what the hell are you doing on that committee? You ain't doing nothing.

[SPEAKER_21]: But you say it all the time too, Reg, like you moved into a neighborhood next to a park comes with its consequences. You know, when people, Danielle.

[Reggie Graham]: I'm trying to tell you, this is not just a situation where it's people in the neighborhood being next to a park. I'm talking about 30, 40 cars every day, seven days a week, from the pickleball courts all the way back up to Harvard Avenue, okay? Now you tell me which other park we have in Medford that has that situation.

[SPEAKER_21]: I mean, it depends on the season. In baseball, you have that. In softball season, you have that. You do. Look at like... Memorials off. I mean, the Columbus Memorial. Look at Gillis. When there's a game at Gillis, that street is lined with cars. You know, you've got 30 kids. That tiny little pack with no packing. Like, it happens. I'm not like, I'm not downing what you're saying. Like, I understand what you're saying and I totally understand where you're coming from. And it's- I didn't know we lost you. It's, we can't like scale back. It's already like done. What's done is done as far as what's there. And I get, but I just feel like it's, it's a waste of a half a court at this point. And I think they're going to use it anyways, regardless if we put the lines or not.

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: Well, I thought they were using it for warmup.

[SPEAKER_21]: Yeah, I mean, so I don't know.

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: And who's going to be paying for it? Is the city going to pay for it? Is Breck paying for it? I mean, it's the one and the same, but.

[Kevin Bailey]: Yeah, I think it's approved for it. It has to go to DPW. That's our commission. that has paid for, I'm not sure yet. What I did say at the last meeting, I would imagine if the mayor and DPW agrees to align the court, it probably won't be done until we do Hickey Park. To me, it would just, to me, it would make logical sense if you're gonna get a professional DPW just come in and spray paint the line, you want it done. by Vermont Recreational, who did Duggar Park, but is also going to do Hickey Park. I would imagine when Hickey Park gets painted and lined, that would be the time for them to come out to place that and do that sixth line. But again, that's all that fits in the budget to have them come out there and do that.

[SPEAKER_21]: Do we have a timeline for Hickey? Do we know when Hickey's?

[Kevin Bailey]: I know the contract has been signed, but I don't, it's not about the project manager part, so I don't have a lot of details, but I did get copied in when everything was signed through procurement, so it's signed, so I would imagine that's coming soon.

[SPEAKER_21]: So can we, I hate to keep like putting this on the back burner, but can we table it until we get closer to that point, or do we need to like present it in order to get it included if we are going forward?

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: Are you making a motion, Danielle?

[SPEAKER_21]: No, I'm asking, I'm asking, like, do we have to decide now in order to get it included if we do want it? Or can we table it and make the decision as it gets closer? That's what I'm asking.

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: Well, it's not on the agenda. We were talking about the survey, so I don't know if it has to be on the agenda to discuss and take a vote.

[Kevin Bailey]: Yeah, if you'd like, I can send you a copy of the survey, and then we can table this and add to the agenda next month.

[SPEAKER_21]: I think that's a good plan.

[Kevin Bailey]: The other thing, too, is do you want me to check with DPW?

[SPEAKER_21]: Let's go forward with the idea that it's a yes. I'm not saying it is a yes, but take the steps to see what we would have to do if we do decide yes. So that way, if we do decide yes, we're prepared. Does that make sense?

[Chris Murphy]: Can we ask what the timeline for Hickey Park is?

[SPEAKER_21]: Yeah, so that way we know how much time we have to make this decision.

[Chris Murphy]: And how many courts are they adding to Hickey Park?

[SPEAKER_21]: I think it's, I think there's only, it's one tennis court, tennis court, yeah.

[Chris Murphy]: Two pick, two pick a ball courts.

[Kevin Bailey]: Okay, so do we need to make a motion for that, or we all said that? Next meeting I will give you a timeline of what Hickey should be done, and then ask DPW or the city how we would fund if the Sixth Line was approved, if there is funding available.

[SPEAKER_21]: Yeah, because that's kind of gonna make or break it too. If it can't be funded, then why are we even talking about it? You know? Let's do that. Let's push it to the next meeting and get all the information we need before we even go back and forth about it.

[Kevin Bailey]: And I will email everyone the copy of the survey as well.

[Reggie Graham]: Let's take a motion to adjourn the meeting. Oh, sure. Good night, folks.

[Chris Murphy]: Thank you. Thank you. Stay well, y'all this month.

[MCM00001461_SPEAKER_10]: This month, this month. You are right.

[Chris Murphy]: Two weeks, right? Thank you. Bye bye.

[Adam Hurtubise]: I'm