Parks and Recreation Committee Minutes for 06/03/2020                 Approved 7-1-2020                                           In attendance: Steve Dell, Jim Gurr, Jan Loveland, Bonnie Robbins, Ruth Smith, Barry Snyder & Laura Westerman    Others in attendance: Paul DeLange 1. Meeting called to order. There was no public input. 2. The meeting minutes from 03/04/2020 were approved as presented & will be published on the HT website. There were no Parks and Recreation Committee meetings held in April nor May 2020 due to the coronavirus. 3. From HT March Meeting: The garlic mustard problem at Coy Mt. and Tennis Ct. Park was mentioned. We talked about the interpretive sign for Torch Lake at the Coy Mt. Trail. OLD BUSINESS

4. Soil erosion at the Ball Park. The application for shoreline stabilization at the Ball Park has been approved by the state. We still need to contact EGLE to discuss what might be needed for this project if we include moving soil from the RR grade to the ditch east of this area to level the area. We did not discuss what Barry Snyder found out concerning estimates of costs for the shoreline stabilization project. Heidi Shaffer had provided a list of local service providers. 
5. Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). Steve received the CIP software and is working on getting it set up for the project. This will be further discussed in July. Laura & Barry have reviewed the Ball Park for the CIP project and they feel there are things that need to be done there now if the Township does not want to end up spending way more money to preserve or replace them. The wall and bleachers were mentioned.

6. Parking Issues at Safe Harbor: Burt Thompson, Antrim Co. Road Commission Engineer/Manager, talked over the parking situation at Safe Harbor with Barry Snyder and has presented a parking plan for the area east of Safe Harbor. This information will be shared with the HT Board.

7. 7. Signage for Coy Mountain Preserve. When Steve Lagerquist of the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy (GTRLC) was contacted concerning signage at Coy Mt. he apologized that he had sent the signage plans to the printer forgetting that he was to have the project reviewed by HT to sign off on it. Hopefully we will love the signage. NEW BUSINESS:
8. Policy to protect what we have in our parks. (Jan). This issue was decided at the March meeting. As part of the CIP project items of any substantial value in each park will be identified.
9. Do budget for P&R to take to the Township. We are not prepared at this time to present a specific budget to the HT Board. After the CIP project has been completed, we feel we will be in a much better position to talk about priorities and the specific monetary needs of each park.
10. Proposals to be reviewed: Paving east of the Depot historical museum and in front of the veteran’s memorial. Placing another RR boxcar near the others at Depot Park. The P&R Committee supports both of these projects. The proper paperwork will be sent to the HT Board. 11. Recognition of volunteers who worked on the Coy Mt. Trail redo. & 12. Celebration of the completion of the Coy Mt. Preserve trail redo. We will wait until the signage has been installed at the Coy Mt. Trail before we plan either of these events.
11. Tri-fold brochure and some ‘high-tech’ chips telling about our parks and local events. This will remain on the agenda for July.

Other: We discussed the need for better communication between township officials and the parks and recreation committee. A document encouraging better communication (both ways) is to be sent to the HT Board.

The next monthly meeting is scheduled for: Wednesday, July 1^st, 2020 at 7pm in the meeting room at the Community Bldg.

Respectfully submitted by Ruth Smith 06/09/2020