Open Space Committee
Open Space Committee meeting minutes for October 18, 2023
Present: Rick Gardner, Deb Cary, Susan Downing, Laura Reynolds, Annie Charrette, Karen Rossow
Guest: Brian Keevan representing the Princeton Land Trust
The meeting began at 7:07 p.m.
Minutes from the September meeting unanimously approved.
Vote: to approve an additional $200 for trail signs: unanimously approved.
Hey Day last month: Rick had our table and there was a reasonable turnout considering the poor weather. Princeton Touch-a-Truck event at Krashes Field in September: Annie, Deb and Gerry represented OSC. They had lots of interest from attendees.
Goodnow Park: Susan and Philip Ceryanek cleared the trails and the trailhead sign has been installed. Hooray! Thanks to Susan for spearheading this project. Additional signs will be placed at the points where trails start/end on Hubbardston Ave. and Mountain Rd.
Fall Nature walk series: The naturalists are too busy to pursue this. We may just offer the series in the spring.
Hikes for Kids: The flyer is ready and will be distributed via email to all students’ caregivers/parents.
Master Plan Review: nothing yet.
Ecotourism committee: Susan applied for a seat on this committee as an OSC representative a month ago and has followed up asking the status of her application but hasn’t received a response to date.
Stern trail: To be named Boone trail per the Stern family. Rick will organize a trail clearing party in the next few weeks. Trail signs will be put up and the start and end of each trail plus at the points where the trails exit onto Hubbardston and Mountain Roads. Rick is also negotiating a trail connection from the Boone trail to Cobb Brook trails, and also one from Cobb Brook trails to Red Fox Farm trails. These are ongoing tasks that are not expected by a specified date.
Thomas Prince School trails: Annie showed us photos of the Eagle scout with his father and grandfather (who is a carpenter by trade, a plus). The scout will put together a proposal to replace the little bridge and a small platform. Deb reiterated a suggestion to obtain a state grant to restore the larger platform and make it fully accessible. Karen mentioned that there is a program at the school wherein older children teach younger ones how to be good trail stewards so we should avoid infringing on that effort.
We spent the remainder of the meeting introducing Brian to the parcel analysis work that we’ve been working on. The next step is a smaller meeting with Tom Sullivan and Anna Wilkins where we can talk in detail about parcel approaches. This might be done without a quorum of OSC members.
Next meeting will be on Tuesday, November 14th at 7:00 p.m. in the SMALL room of the town hall annex.
Tasks before we next meet: Rick will send the email out about the Master Plan chapter(s) to the committee members. Everyone will review the documents and return all comments to Rick, who will compile our collective responses and return to the Master Plan Steering Committee. (Disclosure: Karen is on that committee.) Rick will arrange a meeting with Anna Wilkins and Tom Sullivan to discuss the parcel analysis.
Respectfully submitted,
Karen Rossow