Approved 11/6/07
TOWN OF WELLESLEY
NATURAL RESOURCES COMMISSION
MEETING MINUTES
October 16, 2007, 9:30 P.M.
Great Hall, Wellesley Town Hall
Following the NRC’s “Organic and Healthy Lawn Care Educational Forum”
Attending: Paul Cramer, Vice Chairman, Joan Gaughan, Secretary, Neal Seaborn, Richard Bashian, Janet Bowser, NRC Director.
Absent: Heidi Gross, Chair.
Public Voice
No one at the meeting spoke at Public Voice.
NRC’s Organic and Healthy Lawn Care Educational Forum
Approximately 94 people attended the NRC’s Organic and Healthy Lawn Care Educational Forum that preceded the NRC’s meeting. Ms. Bowser organized the educational outreach and publicity for the program that featured Jackson Madnick of the Wayland Surface Water Quality Committee and the program was filmed by the Wellesley Cable Station. The NRC agreed to give Mr. Madnick a small stipend for his presentation.
Discussion Re: Use of Playing Field User Fee Funds for a New Sprague Field Study
Rick Bashian reported that the Sprague Field Task Force wants to utilize $11,000 of the field user feesspacepreviously appropriated to Gale Associatesspacefor it's consulting work on the field last spring, and apply these funds toa new study. The Task Force plans to meet with thespaceCommunity preservation Committee on October 24, 2007spaceto ask for an additional $10,000 and another $10,000 will come from Schools, DPW, and the Recreation Commission for a total of $31,000 for the Sprague Field Study. Mr. Bashian stated that Gale Assoc. would be hired to complete the engineering and field design portion of the study, and that the ENSR Corp. would be hired to complete the environmental and health analysis of the artificial turf materials. As requested by the Recreation Commission, the NRC discussed the use of
field user fees for the funding of a new Sprague Field Study, and it was the sense of the Commission to:
1. Support the use of the "left over" study funds totaling $11K for funding a new study on the condition that the funds be returned to the Town from Gale Associates in compliance with all municipal finance rules and on the condition that there are sufficient funds remaining in the Field User Fee Account to meet the Town's Field maintenance needs;
2. Recommend that the new Sprague Field Study be broken out into 2spaceseparate RFPs in order to hire 2 independent consultants to address the 2 different scope of services as follows:
A. Conduct an analysis of the health and environmental impacts/issues related to the use of artificial turf
B. Conduct design and engineering services for the field siting and the field design and layout options
This recommendation is based on the NRC's concern that hiring only one consultant for both scopes of services could result in the appearance of a conflict of interest and, in the eyes of Town Meeting Members, could taint the independence of the health and environmental issues analysis process and result in a loss of credibility in the study process; and
3. Recommend that the Town first hirespacea consultant to complete the health and environmental impact analysis since the artificial material needs to be determined to be safe before the Town moves forward with any field siting, design, engineering and implementation phases.
Next Scheduled NRC Meeting
The next NRC meeting was scheduled for Tuesday, October 30, 2007 at 7:30 p.m. in the NRC Office.
Adjournment
After a motion was made and seconded, the NRC voted 4 – 0 to adjourn the meeting.
The meeting adjourned at 10:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted:
Janet Hartke Bowser
NRC Director
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