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HomeMy WebLinkAboutKMB 09/10/2020�c��tnosjlr/r/IlP,�. l j { !_IVED OFFICE xt[v nhumcn a[numm nvininie Ary q FES f�?i rCu 02 "Empowering residents, businesses, and government to r — make Mansfield a greener, cleaner place to live, woYk,� a d pl�T Meeting Minutes for September 10, 2020 Tuesday, 6:00pm, Live Online Webinar Attendees: Nancy Wall, Mike McCarthy, Jeff Ward, Mike Healey, Martha O'Connell, Pat Colbert, Janice Wivagg Missing: Ana Newell KEEP MANSFIELD BEAUTIFUL Welcome & Call to Order • Meeting called to order at 6:00pm. • Minutes accepted from previous meeting and signed by Jeff Ward. Treasurer's Report Balance on Hand at Town Hall: $10,410.97 Funds at Mansfield Bank: $64.82 Changes from Last Meeting Include: • $1,000 donation from Rockland Federal Credit Union • $21.47 payment to Patrick Lyons $41.45 payment to RoadSafe for signs Expense Approvals - KMB had previously agreed to split storage unit costs with Keep Massachusetts Beautiful - Neil to provide invoice (for half) New Member / New Responsibilities - With recent departure of Jason Dodd, there is currently an open slot - Nancy solicited feedback from Board members on the needs of the organization and who would be best fit for this position - We all agreed that Communications/Social Media should be a top priority - We also may want to consider that a job description be developed/created for one of the committee members to become a communication coordinator. Specifically, to communicate as needed with Town Departments, Garden Club and to maintain all social media, website and emails received for AaS or inquiries for other programs. And any other ideas/areas you may have. 2020 Cleanup — Saturday, Oct. 241t' — Sunday, Nov. 8'1 - The 2020 Fall Litter Sweep will be taking place over 2 weeks - October 24`' - November 1h. - Sign -Up is on KMB website: ("We encourage all Mansfield residents to clean up a street in their own neighborhood or other public space. Please select Register Now for more details and to obtain cleanup supplies.") - Precinct Leaders will communicate personally with previous participants by sending an email with specifics - Volunteers can request a spot or Precinct Leaders will give them an area to cleanup - We recommend rubber -lined gloves and grabbers and we may have some available for participants - Also recommending wearing a face covering for those instances when physical distancing may not be possible - Precinct Leaders will be providing bags - We recommend that participants take their own trash. And if they can't, to leave bags along the side of the road and DPW will pickup - We are not doing t-shirts for Fall Litter Sweep - We talked about the possibility of signage (ie. lawn signs) recognizing major sponsors - Responsibilities: o Communications —Neil o Precinct Leaders — Pat ■ Precinct 1: Pat Holliver ■ Precinct 2: Deb Snyder • Precinct 3: Ana Newall ■ Precinct 4: Pat Colbert ■ Precinct 5: Jeff Ward • Precinct 6: Nancy Wall Garden Club Signs and Other (Ana provided this update) — In the past year I have been in contact with the Garden Club many times regarding which areas in town they maintain and the lack of continued maintenance during the season. I obtained a list of the gardens they maintained and had a conversation with the current President Allyson Anderson -Sterling in regards to their ability to maintain some gardens and if they needed help or would like us to take over some of them. From the conversation and other meetings, the Garden Club relinquished the Fulton's Pond parking area gardens to us but kept others we had discussed as needing improvements. I hope you have all noticed that their gardens are looking great and that they have added signs (similar to KMB's) so they get recognition for their hard work. The Garden Club takes care of the gardens at the Town Hall sign. Right now. that area has been under construction. I was informed by Allyson that the DPW had communicated with them about the impending construction and they had time to remove most of the plants and store them for future use. They were not able to remove 4 plants which subsequently ended up on top of KMB's new pollinator garden on either side of the Superintendent's office entrance. I contacted Allyson and she had not been aware- she immediately went and removed the plants form the area. I sent a thank you note! Two items to note: How come we were not notified by the DPW that the construction was going to happen? Maybe if we had someone on the committee as the point person we would have been notified. Recycling Park Arborvitae Planting Beds - I recently sent an email to various town officials requesting that the Arborvitaes planted in front of the recycling fence although beautiful, had become an eyesore due to lack of weeding. I even suggested that maybe the area should become an AaS. Since the area has been "mostly" weeded and looks much better. I will send a follow up email with a thank you, but more needs to be done message. Nonprofit Gift Fund - A grant application was to be submitted for plants for the New AaS at the corner of East Street and Flint Farm. As you may recall the plants were planted before the grant was secured. Because of Covid. I asked the KMB committee to approve payment of the invoice for the plants to Guerrini Landscaping for $3,000.00. My intention was to apply for this grant. Because of Covid. the application process was delayed various times. Unfortunately, I was not diligent about checking when the application opened and its deadline. In talking with Nancy today she mentioned the deadline was soon. As It so happens the deadline was today and I missed it. Because of my mistake KMB will be out of $3,000.00 until the next time the Nonprofit gift fund is accepting applications which should be 2021. At that time. I will also submit a second grant for the proposed sign at the West Mansfield Village AaS. DPW - Items I am aware are pending action by DPW. Sprinkler system/water source for Pollinator Garden. Mulch for pollinator garden. Fix water source at Fulton's Pond so barrels can be properly watered. Removal of stumps at the West Mansfield Village AaS. Adopt -A -Spot Ana provided some very comprehensive updates on the Adopt -A -Spot Program. The Town Manager informed us that he wants to approve all new Adopt a Spot locations. From now on, we will have to get his approval for all new AaS. This brings me to the following: Jason Dodd Adopt -A -Spot Garden- Jason has not been able to maintain the garden this year due to Covid and family commitments. Because this AaS has already been established we can have someone take it over immediately without requesting approval. Stephanie Hooper has worked for me for a few years and she would like to take over the site. I would like to request that this be presented to the committee for approval. Pollinator Garden by Superintendents Office: Even though we asked and had a meeting with town representatives at the site the Pollinator Garden, we were never informed of the new construction in that area. The Garden Club was informed as I mentioned above. This new Garden made possible by a $500.00 grant from Keep Massachusetts Beautiful was all but destroyed, especially the right side. Martha has worked hard and made the left side look beautiful once again but many plants died because there was no irrigation on the area (which we were assured by the town representative would be taken care of). Also it was impossible to weed either garden because of construction material placed in front of the gardens and further more because plant material and loam from other locations within the area where dumped at the entrance of the gardens and on top of many of the plants. I am in the process of figuring out how many plants died. I met with Nancy and Martha at the site today and discuss our next move. One of my employees and I worked on the right site today for 3 hours and got it to decent condition. More work needs to be done! Martha and Nancy are meeting with Kevin Dumas tomorrow to discuss. My hope is that the town will reimburse KMB for the plants lost and that there will be better communication in the future. Adopt a Spot Candidates: Martha and I have had many discussions regarding who should be able to Adopt a Spot. We even discussed it at one of our in person meetings. I would like to suggest that some requirements/conditions be put in place (if they are not already written somewhere) so that it would be easier to manage who can have an AaS. Martha also provided some very comprehensive updates on the Adopt -A -Spot Program: Adopt -A -Spot (cont'd) Irrigation - Irrigation is working well now in both gardens and is set to run at night. This should greatly help some of the shade plants that appeared to lack sufficient water and any new plantings put into the gardens before the frost. New Lighting - Mark Cook will check with Mike Ahearn on the schedule to install the new uplighting at the site. The electrical lines for the lights are already in place. Once installation timing is known, Mark Cook will ask Tracey to send us (KMB) an email so we can ensure there are no plants in place that will affect the workers' access. Mulching - Jay will be finishing the irrigation adjustments to the GC Town Hall sign garden today. Once that site is readied for the GC plantings, mulching will be done on all three gardens. Our KMB gardens have been prepared with some weed preventer in the interim. Granite Steps & Sidewalk - Mark Cook will be following up again on the installation of the new granite steps and completion of the sidewalk at the building's entrance. Neither of these unfinished tasks should affect the gardens, but with help with aesthetics. Plant Replacement - Many of the plantings (especially on the right side garden) were destroyed over the summer months due to construction activity and lack of water. Ana Newell has the original list of plantings and receipt from Blueview Nurseries where the plants were purchased. Ana and Martha will review the list and site to determine what needs replacement. Mr. Dumas asked that Ana contact Nancy Griffin to set up a temporary vendor account so Ana can purchase replacement plans and get reimbursement from the town as the plants were funded by a grant. We will replace the plants once we know lighting is installed. Mums, ect. - Martha planted a few fall Mums, flowering Kale and 3 Hostas in the shade garden last weekend. Nancy will be placing two additional Mums near the sculptures that will be potted and easily removed and can be replanted if DPW needs to get access to install lighting. The Mums will add some much needed color to the garden. Action item: Going forward we need to ensure that communication lines between DPW and KMB are working well. Martha will send a list of the current Adopt -a -Spot (AaS) sites to Tracey Whalen so DPW has them on file. The fact that all the AaS and GC gardens will have signage should be of assistance to the DPW teams in case any future projects will have impact on these sites. Fundraising - KMB was selected as the Shaw's GIVE BACK WHERE IT COUNTS Bag Program for the month of August. - KMB will be receiving $34.00. Ana said that she will send a Thank You note! Jason Dodd - Several of us have talked about some way(s) to recognize Jason's time and contributions to KMB. Maybe even getting together/dinner when he's back in town. - In our meeting, we talked about getting the sign from his site and giving it to him Flower Barrels • We talked about aligning the barrels around Mulligan's, or maybe they're set-up like that for a certain reason. Painted Barrels • Mike has 2 in his cellar (and they can't stay there forever) • 4 (painted black) are at DPW • Mike can purchase more when we want them • Fulton's Pond barrel may need replacement • Town is apparently ordering lids • Pat said she was going to do a barrel assessment to see how they look • Pat was going to mention at Downtown Committee Meeting • (and speaking of barrels, pole -mounted barrels have been re -installed) We Noticed • We agreed that Bead Cache is the most recent recipient of We Noticed Mike was going to take care of this We previously discussed a possible different approach of noticing business. Instead of it being based solely on aesthetics, maybe we're noticing how a business is bringing something positive during C-19 (ie. Jimmy's Pub outside dining) Adopt -A -Street • Here is the Adopt -A -Street Link: htti):Hmansfieldma.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Editor/index.html?appid=8d9d9c791 fdc4abebb5ab 5da5e74b29e • Need to add to Keep Mansfield Beautiful site. If not on main page then on the A-A-S section. • We also need to make it prominent on the Town of Mansfield website and searchable • Communicating with current and lapsed participants is also important. Particularly when we begin to engage new participants into this Program. We need to understand who is actively maintaining their streets. • Could possibly incorporate a `We Noticed' for participants to provide recognition and incentive NEXT MEETING: TBD Minutes approved on: / IC i �� r a�c�G) at�7 Secretary signature: