Open Space & Recreation Committee Meeting Minutes 1/9/24

Meeting date: 
Tuesday, January 9, 2024

Monterey Open Space and Recreation Committee (OSRP)

 

Date: 1/9/24

Members present: Margy Abbott, Susan Cooper, Gerry Clarin, Dennis Lynch, Mark Andrews, Rob Hoogs

Members Absent: Jim Hunt, Melissa Noe

Others Present: Seth Jenkins, BRPC; Doug Brown, Berkshire Natural Resources Council

Agenda:

  • Doug Brown from BNRC about potential collaboration
  • Final Survey edits and specifics about disseminating
  • Approve minutes from 11/8/23 and 12/5/23

 

The meeting was opened at 3:02 pm

  • Doug Brown, Director of Stewardship for the Berkshire Natural Resources Council (BNRC) gave a summary of the lands in Monterey which BNRC’s oversees and their vision for these properties in the next few years. 
    • BNRC recently worked with the Monterey Land Trust, the Department of Natural Resources and a number of property owners to craft a large contiguous set of properties stretching from Mt. Hunger Road to Steadman pond and down into Tyringham – soon to be renamed the Konkapot Ridge Reserve.  Plans include an expanded trail system, and hopefully connection to the Steadman Pond trails and Bidwell House trails as well.  This is now BNRC’s largest reserve, comprising 1,728 acres.
    • BNRC is conducting a multi-stage natural resource inventory to identify areas of high and low resiliency as a first step to understanding the factors that cause low resiliency and ultimately crafting a strategic plan to improve resiliency.
    • The Swann Dunlop property is 6 acres, situated just across Route 23 from the Community Center, just east of the old firehouse.  BNRC is open to a conversation with the Town of how to best use this property, should the Town have a plan for it.
    • BNRC has no current plans for changes of Bob’s Way beyond the recent renovation of the trail head kiosk.
  • The committee unanimously approved the minutes of 11/8/23 and 12/5/23 as amended.
  • The committee made edits to a blurb to appear in the Monterey News for participation in the OSRP survey.
  • The survey is scheduled to go live from 1/15/24 – 2/28/24.
  • Word will be spread about the survey through:
    • Monterey News
    • Google group(s), multiple weeks from different committee members
    • Posters around town (Library, Town Hall, Transfer Station, Monterey Store)
    • Coffee Truck?
  • The committee discussed edits to the draft survey including:
    • Fixing the number of questions in the introduction (currently reads xx)
    • Changing the wording of some entries in Q. 2: Lake Garfield/Boating and Town Beach/swimming
    • Changing the number of visits in the visit categories to smaller brackets, eg. 1-3 occasional, 4-9 frequent, 10+ very frequent
    • Change in wording of Q. 6 re adult exercise equipment to reflect both use and support.  Something like: “Would you use adult/senior exercise equipment if it were installed in a town park?”   Would you support the installation of that equipment and where would you prefer it be located?
    • Change wording of Q. 8 to “pedestrian or multi-use path”
    • Make slider for Q.8 range from 0-3%, with 1.5% in center, and make sure the counter for slider makes sense in that context.
    • In Q. 10, Capitalize Community Center and change wording to “building expansion for additional programming space and storage.”
  • Next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, February 13, 2024 at 3 pm.

 

Minutes approved 2/23/24