Accusatory, Pointed Debate Dominates Parks and Rec Meeting

In an often testy, pointed and long Wednesday night meeting, the Parks and Recreation Committee discussed a probable proposal for mitigation funds, debated over executive session minutes and deliberated on a director's job description.

With the Mitigation Committee taking applications for funds, the Parks and Recreation board decided it would draft a proposal to vote on next month that will seek funds to construct a handicap-accessible playground at Condon Park. Whether the board would ask for one piece of equipment, or go for the full funds was a point of debate among committee members – and Condon Park neighbors who were at the meeting.

Derek Moulton, a finance committee member and neighbor of the park, urged the board to seek monies for one piece of equipment so the project could get off the ground, and so the town could begin to replace equipment that "was installed sometime in the [1940s]."

With no plans for the site drawn, the board, as a whole, has not researched handicap equipment or its cost. Members struggled to come up with a budget figure, but agreed they would have to by their October meeting in order to submit the mitigation fund application.

Between rules for funds to go through Town Meeting in May, time it takes for bids and to organize construction, the beginning of work at the park could be longer than some board members – and neighbors – would like to see.

"You're not putting a shovel in the ground until September or October [of 2011]," said chairman Jim Maher. "It's going to take time."

The committee will attempt to include a donated slide – a costly piece of equipment – in any design, so it wouldn't have to be returned.

"If you're spending money on a new slide, you don't want to be tearing it down in a year," said board member Kevin Flaherty.

Closed Session Minutes Not Approved

Committee members refused to accept minutes from an executive session from more than three months ago due to the nature of those minutes and the fact that once they're approved they become public record.

Several committee members referred to "hiring a director before creating a job description" and an "internal/external" director search debate as the issues at hand, and those two topics were alluded to on several occasions by each of the five board members.

No official decision by the board has been made as to who will replace Anthony "JuJu" Mucciaccio as the next Parks and Recreation Department director.

"How could we have hired a person before [a job description]? It makes no sense," said Flaherty. "We should reconsider the whole internal versus external thing."

"We should've done this before we hired a person," Flaherty later added.

When time came to approve the minutes, Sal Ledda, a committee member, quietly moved to approve, but his motion did not receive a second, so the minutes were not passed, and they were not made public.