TOWN OF ARLINGTON VISION 2020 ENVIRONMENT TASK GROUP
RESERVOIR COMMITTEE
October 15, 2003  Meeting Minutes

In attendance:   Gene Benson, Bryan Hasbrouck, Jane Howard, Elizabeth Karpati, Ann LeRoyer. The meeting was facilitated by Gene Benson.  The minutes are by Elizabeth Karpati.

 Next meetings:   to be announced.

The meeting was devoted to a discussion of goals for the coming year.  The following items include those e-mailed to Gene by members who could not attend tonight’s meeting.

Dam project:  Review – oversight – public participation – interaction with DPW.

·         Make sure the dam project improves the natural experience at the Res.

·         Make sure the dam project has public involvement – hearings and comments on dam design.

·         Regular interaction with DPW – ask John Sanchez for an update before each meeting.

·         The committee should review relevant documents and plans such as the upcoming  “25% design”.

·         Coordinate with Lexington – involve Jay Kaufman.

·         Turn the stump dump into a flower and community garden.

·         A question still pending:  Does the dam provide significant flood control?

Develop an overall management plan for ongoing maintenance.  The Arlington Open Space Plan, and the management plan for the Concord Great Meadows, which is on the Web, could be used as models.
·         Monitor invasives and water quality.  (Make sure water chestnuts don’t return.)
·         Better marking of property boundaries, especially those with the Lexington abutters.
·         Improve trails (should trails get a different surface?)
·         Cleanups – opportunities for volunteer involvement.
·         What is already scheduled (by DPW, Parks & Rec), and what needs to be added?

Whatever we come up with should probably be called a “proposed management plan,” since we have no power to assign responsibilities.  Elizabeth agreed to try a first draft.

Public information and education:

·         Distribute the “Walking Tour of the Reservoir” booklet (some were distributed at Town Day, and it is also on the website).

·         Maintain the website (David White has been doing this).

·         More educational programs like the bird art by the fifth-graders.

·         Add a bulletin board, maybe at the beach entrance, on which information like a list of walks can be posted.  Who would maintain?  Invitation to vandalism?

Other projects:

·         Realign fences to maintain access to the playground all summer.

·         Realign fences to allow walking all around the Res without walking on Lowell Street in summer.

·         Sidewalk on Lowell Street and improved access paths.

·         Build bulletin board (see above).

·         Do another walk along Mill Brook before winter, reviewing the Maguire Report recommendations, this time with John Sanchez.

Some thoughts on implementation:

·         Have a charrette to re-envision the Res?

·         Compare our ideas with the goals for the Res adopted by Town Meeting last year  (see below).

·         Have joint meetings with the Mt. Gilboa Association and Parks & Rec.

·         We have some pretty big ideas (like moving fences, resurfacing trails). Maybe the Town can carry them out in increments, with volunteers doing some of the work.

·         But construction jobs should be grouped so that heavy machinery does not have to be brought in repeatedly.

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