Transcript
Town of Medfield Office of
Medfield Parks & Recreation 459 Main Street, Medfield, MA 02052 Phone (508) 359-2715 Fax (508) 359-8638
To: From: RE: Date:
The Residents of Medfield James Snyder, Director and the Medfield Parks & Recreation Commission PRELIMINARY STUDY of Hinkley Park Site for the Proposed Recreation Center 9/26/08
I am writing this MEMO in an effort to clarify the status of the PRELIMINARY STUDY of the Hinkley Park site for the proposed 25,000sf Recreation Center. Let me begin by reiterating that we are all in the PRELIMINARY STUDY portion of the site selection process. Nothing has been determined, finalized, voted on or approved including the site selection and funding for the proposed Recreation Center. The time selected, (Thursday, October 2nd at 9:00am) was during normal working hours and most convenient for the Architect, Project Manager and several members of the Commission and the Department. It was definitely not an effort to deliberately leave the neighbors out of the site selection process, in fact we want community input. The goal of the visit is to get familiar with the site and begin the analysis so that the Commission may continue evaluate ALL of the sites under Parks & Recreation jurisdiction to make an informed decision. Over the years the Recreation Center proposal including finances has been reviewed independently by both a Study Committee and a Capital Planning and Finance Committee. Information gathered from this analysis has resulted in meeting the needs of the entire community for the site, amenities and financing. The Parks & Recreation Commission has three properties under our jurisdiction to locate the Recreation Center; Metacomet Park, McCarthy Park and Hinkley Park. Ice House Road is no longer an option due to a no compete clause in the contract with the Kingsbury Club and the current location of the Pfaff Center too small and most likely going to accommodate teacher parking once the Public Safety Building is constructed. We will continue our due diligence by studying ALL of our properties with both our Architect and our Project Manger. We want your input just as we have heard from the neighbors of the other Parks and Recreation properties when we propose large projects. Toby Burrell, Chairman of the Parks & Recreation Commission, attended a Selectman’s meeting on a Tuesday night that aired on Cable 8 and was reported by the Medfield Press on Thursday, to proactively update the residents of Medfield on the status of the site selection process for the Recreation Center. The following night meeting of the Parks & Recreation Commission, 4 households were in attendance to express their concerns about the Hinkley site. We have posted all of our meetings, both at night and in the morning, to make ourselves more accessible. In addition, we have put our minutes on our website and responded in a timely manner to all e-mails and phone calls concerning this matter. We will continue to reach out to all Medfield residents with additional public forums at various times before a final decision is made. Recommendations will be made by the Commission to the public and ultimately the residents will vote on the Recreation Center proposal at future town meeting. We view the Recreation Center as a vital service needed to better serve the entire community and will do our best to reduce any perceived negative impact by its construction.
