Hello and welcome to the Parks and Recreation Commission meeting for Wednesday, January 21st, 2026.

We are here in City Council Chambers.

For public participation, you can view things the meeting on Comcast, Cable 27.

It's streamed live via the city's website at www.belmont.gov or via Zoom.

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Select join and enter the meeting ID 924 8319-3757.

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All public comments are subject to a three-minute time limit unless otherwise determined by the committee chair.

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Any public comment regarding agenda items that are received from the publication of the agenda through the meeting date will be made part of the meeting record but will not be read during the committee meeting.

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Okay, for our agenda, item number one is roll call.

Commissioner Lee?

Here.

Commissioner Michaels?

Here.

Commissioner Whitmore?

Here.

Commissioner Lieford.

Here.

Commissioner Cunha?

Here.

Chair Emkin?

Here.

Commissioner Hill and Youth Commissioner Perez and Benkatech are absent.

Item number two, uh, all rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.

To the Republic, which is one nation, an argument on individual with liberty and justice.

Item number three, community forum.

This portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the commission on any city matter within the purview of the commission, which is not on the agenda.

The period for public comment at this point in the agenda is limited to a maximum of three minutes per speaker.

Do we have any speaker slips or raised hands?

We do not.

Um item number four, commissioner announcements or agenda amendments.

Any announcements?

Oh, we're all we're all so quiet tonight.

Okay.

Well, you can always bring it up at the end if you think of something that you wanted to mention.

Item number five, consent calendar.

Consent calendar items are considered routine in nature and will be enacted by one motion.

There will be no separate discussion on these items unless a commissioner or staff request specific items be removed for separate action.

We only have one item, and that is the December 3rd, 2025 draft minutes.

And the recommendation is to approve the minutes as presented.

Do I have a motion?

I move to approve.

Commissioner Lee?

Yes.

Commissioner Michaels.

Yes.

Commissioner Wetmore.

Yes.

Commissioner Leifert?

Yes.

Commissioner Cunha.

Yes.

Chair Emkin?

Yes.

Motion passes 6 0.

On to items of business.

Looks like we only have one item tonight, and that is the Oak Knoll Improvement Project Design Consultant Recommendation.

It's kind of a mouthful.

Good evening, Commissioners.

As you recall from our meeting in December, we selected a subcommittee to help review the proposals that were received for a design of the Oak Knoll cul-de-sac space, about a 3,000 square foot area at the end of Oaknoll Drive.

It is not technically designated as one of our park locations or parcels.

It's not part of our parks portfolio, but it is a space that we've designated as an opportunity site that was identified in our parks recreation and open space master plan.

If you look on the staff report at the map that where we've kind of indicated, this time with the big blue arrow in the right location, pointing to where this proposed park would be, you can see that it clearly fills a void that we had in our community.

And at maximum make some improvements to that site to make it a uh destination, primarily for uh residents that live nearby and that might want to walk there.

So in doing so, uh particularly because this area is a little complex.

Um it does have the roadway going all the way around it.

There are driveways that point to it or that sort of um enter um the roadway around it, and uh to be mindful and make sure that we properly hear the concerns of uh in favor or in opposition to um this project.

We wanted to engage a design consultant that has experience um in that sort of thing.

So we put out proposals, we got uh put out a request for proposal, we got three proposals, and our subcommittee, um, Commissioner Michaels, Commissioner Whitmore, uh Parks Manager Matt Ward and myself reviewed uh their proposals independently, um, scored them on a couple of dimensions of uh professionalism, quality of uh proposal, pricing, and one more factor that I cannot recall at this moment.

Anyone?

Professional uh I can't recall.

Sorry.

Um, nonetheless, we reviewed them all and um and rated them and then had a meeting to um sort of confer on our uh on our ratings.

We um uh and we came to a consensus, and our recommendation is uh uh is to um advance with calendar and associates as our um designer for this effort.

Uh calendar put forth a proposal that was uh complete, professional, um, and allowed for the type of community engagement that we're looking for doing outreach to the community at the site so that people can come to the site, we can kind of walk and talk it together and and hear people's thoughts, and then present those findings to commission, ultimately to council, um and um and it the their proposal also gave some opportunities for additional outreach or additional um commission presentation, should those be necessary.

Um and their proposal was also um uh most cost effective, I guess.

And and because we are talking about a relatively small site, I think we want to be mindful of our dollars here in the city.

So again, the subcommittee's um recommendation is to proceed with that.

Maybe commissioners uh Michaels or Whitmore want to add anything to that.

Uh yeah, over I think that that you at the nail had overall they had the um the presentation that felt the most kind of Belmont.

It felt like they knew the city, they knew the residents, they knew kind of our vision for what we are looking for.

Um they had some good ideas, and uh I think that it'll be a good project moving forward.

Yeah, I think all the companies who contributed the bids were well thought out, and I think it was a tough decision in the sense because they all seem to have the heart in the right place, and I think as Bridget said, the considerations of cost and kind of timeliness and kind of approach led us to to pick the one we did.

And so I think that um they're all great and uh we're definitely excited and and they all read as being very excited to kind of uh tackle the opportunity so yeah we do have a this is the same group that did the Northfield this is the same group right I was just gonna say that we we do have experience working with them um that was not necessarily a deciding factor uh but I'm happy to continue working with uh calendar associates and um and I think it'll be a it'll be a successful project.

So we do have the funds budgeted for this so uh with the commission's um approval uh tonight we can go ahead and and um begin the process of getting the contract approved and then we can start to put together a schedule to get this project going.

I just want to say thanks to the subcommittee for taking the time and energy to work on that and it's a timely recommendation.

It's awesome.

So I don't know if there are any other questions.

Is this the same there was a a family that came a couple years ago that wanted an improvement at in their street this is different than that.

I think this is the same one.

This is this isn't right so there was a there was someone who's six year old now who no longer lives um we got a bunch of emails right there um but really kind of I would say brought this opportunity to our attention um at the perfect time when we were doing that sort of gap analysis across the city um and um so we certainly appreciate um the passion and the enthusiasm that that resident had for it to help make this a reality you know it meets one of our pros planned goals of you know providing park spaces um where people are so and we do have um several other call pocket parks or whatever you want to call them spaces throughout the city the Patricia Wharton Park College V Park those kinds of things that are right in neighborhoods and um and so they are uh they are primarily there for use by the people that live around them it's not the kind of place that you know busloads of people would come to or anything like that and and particularly because this is such a unique space and there is not parking around it um we do have to be very mindful of what kind of amenities we put there and what kind of amenities we don't put there so um and I think uh I have confidence that calendar would would uh is a good fit for helping us get that right this might be early in the process to assets but did they have a strategy for irrigation or how to get water.

We do not have any uh we do not have any water there.

So that will have to be factored into the right the trees that are there are mature trees so they get you know they get watered by Mother Nature.

And we would be planning to keep all or nearly all of those trees we have to kind of assess the health of those trees and all that.

But that but the lack of irrigation is definitely going to limit the kinds of things that we do there.

It seems like there's one tree kind of in the center that might not make it but the ones on the exterior that'd be nice if they could save them.

Right right we'll we'll take a look at that with calendar.

This is a bit off topic but when you mentioned Patricia Wharton I thought of it how do parks get named like I don't know who Patricia Wharton was but um like would this be Oaknel Park eventually or would there be a naming opportunity or how does that happen once the process gets going how does how does a park get a name I I remember looking up a long time ago who who is Patricia Wharton and actually we should know that for our centennial so thank you for the centennial I feel like maybe there's that might be there to that might be an opportunity too, right?

I think traditionally they're named after the Parks and rec director who's most recent parks directory.

Yeah.

Yeah.

My little spot traditions there.

Um yeah, that's a great question.

There no parks have been named in my tenure here, so uh so I can't.

This is such a rare opportunity to have a new space to develop everything else we've done has been, you know, refreshing what's been there.

Um so that actually might be a really fun part of this process.

So thank you for bringing that up.

Okay.

Any other um thoughts or questions?

And if not, then if would someone like to make a motion to uh recommend this public comment?

We actually have two public comments.

Oh, yay, like public comments.

Thank you for reminding me.

I know people are watching.

That makes me delighted.

Okay, um, do we have any public comments?

Yes, so we have two hands raised.

Thank you.

All right, Henry, you will be going first.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes, you're good.

Hi, so I'm Henry.

I I was the one who uh kind of called out, I don't know, a couple years back, and uh we I just moved actually just down the street to Pine knows, so I'm still very excited about it.

There's still a lot of young families that could really take advantage of this.

I think a couple are actually uh on the call.

And uh just wanted to thank you guys for all your effort, really appreciate it and looking forward to you know what the commission comes up with.

Thank you.

All right, Oliver, you will be next.

Oliver, you have three minutes.

Can you hear us?

Oliver was my neighbor, and I think he's really excited, but I don't think his mic might be is working.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

I think he's good now.

Oh, okay.

I apologize.

I was speaking and I had no clue that you couldn't hear me.

I am not sure what was going on.

Um anyway, yeah.

Thank you, Henry, uh, for for pushing this through for the last several years and uh thank you, City Council, for for approving this project.

I live just a few houses down from there and got two little kids.

So I really appreciate that you guys are doing this.

Uh I guess I I'm kind of frankly even surprised that this much money and effort is going into it in terms of having external uh planners and arch architects and contractors.

I I really thought public works would have just done something minimal and have us throw a few climbing structures or something like that as as neighbors and and call it a day, but I appreciate the the bigger funding for it.

But I I was definitely willing to volunteer some of my time and effort to it if need be.

And that's all I gotta say.

Thank you.

It's um it's nice to hear that the neighbors are excited about it, um, and willing to get involved.

And so I saw on the the potential timeline there were several neighborhood meetings, right?

So there'll be times for them to give input and see how it progresses as it goes before there's a final project.

Yep.

Um we actually have one more hand raised now.

Yay.

All right, Mimi, you will have three minutes.

Hi, can you guys hear me?

Yes.

Oh, awesome.

All right, thanks.

Um, yeah, so I live down the hill from um the proposed area and I go walking up there all the time.

And um, we're excited.

We also have kids and like to walk around the neighborhood and would love to have a um park or a small area that would be a destination for us to meet up with other folks.

Um and I really appreciate Henry's work bringing right this to everybody's attention, and I think we're excited to um participate and um write in the the next steps and give input and hear what others are thinking and and all of that and just be part of this uh development and project together uh with the rest of the community.

So thank you guys.

Thank you.

Thank you for everyone for um watching the meeting and calling in.

It's it's nice.

Sometimes we talk about projects and we don't get feedback and we don't really know what people are thinking.

So it's nice that to hear the people are supportive of this project, especially people who live in the area and would be really using the park because they can walk to it, which is the intention.

And if I could just make one other comment about uh the cost, I um I can fully appreciate the comment from the public that this seems like a lot of money for a small um park.

Um city government and developing these things.

They're always more complicated than you think, and there are a lot of I's and to dot and T's to cross to make sure that the space is safe for everyone.

And um sure there could have just been a you know an impromptu, you know, somebody put an old swing set out there or something like that and and call it a park.

We are doing this the right way.

Um again to make sure that uh that we are doing it properly and safely and in accordance with um all kinds of uh regulations.

And um, and so that does cost money and it does take time, so we really do appreciate the community's patience as we get here.

But um, we have now gotten started on this project, and we're actually super excited, and it's wonderful to hear public comments in support of that.

Any other comments or questions?

I'm not forgetting anything this time.

Okay, good.

Okay.

Now maybe we could get a motion to approve uh recommend the design consultant for the Oaknole Improvement Project.

I move to approve.

I'll second.

Commissioner Lee?

Yes.

Commissioner Michaels, yes, Commissioner Whitmore?

Yes, Commissioner Liford.

Yes, Commissioner Cunha?

Yes, Chair Emkin.

Yes.

Motion passes six and item number seven.

Other business and updates.

We'll start with department updates.

You're doing it right, Henry.

Okay.

This feels like forever ago, but this was our last uh major event that we had.

Um, this is the Santa Firehouse event.

We had a new Santa.

Um he was very enjoyed.

Uh, lots of people like that.

The Grinch made an appearance, um, super fun night, lots of toys donated, um, and just overall great way to get in the holiday spirit.

We are happy to announce that some of our happy hydrants have already been completed.

Um, these are the ones that we've received pictures of already.

Um, you can see them about town.

Um, we have also reopened the applications for this and the utility box, so that is up on our Centennial webpage, and that will be going out on our social media and everything like that shortly.

Um, but yeah, so we're excited about these.

We still have some um current people still painting theirs, and we'll share those once we get those as well.

If you can believe it, we are already hiring for summer.

Um, we are looking for our camp counselors for camp SOAR, um, pool managers, lifeguards, and then swim instructors for our pool, and then for our folks that um aren't quite old enough for the job.

We have our CITs and our swimmer aids at the pool.

Um, all of those applications are up on our website.

Uh the end dates vary, but most of them close around end of February, so we always suggest applying sooner rather than later.

And then our centennial swag shop is live.

Um, so this is a place for the public to go um and shop and get some items to share the centennial pride.

Um there's a bunch of different shirts, jackets, hats, everything like that.

Um it is linked on our centennial web page.

We also did a little video on it if you want to see how we got those ideas, but we're very excited about this.

And then some of our upcoming events this Saturday, we have our second music and open mic night over at the Twin Pines Manor.

We will have an artist that it will be opening, he'll be performing, and then afterwards will be the open mic session.

There's no sign-ups required, no prior experience or anything like that.

Everyone is welcome to join.

The MLK Poetry and SA contest, we are currently accepting submissions, and the deadline for that is February 2nd.

So everything is listed on our website to submit that.

Then our lunar new year celebration is on Sunday, February 8th.

Now that we don't have plans for that day, hope we see everyone there.

It is on our calendar on our website as well.

Lists the breakdown of all the different performances and everything like that.

And then the following week on February 13th, we have our superstars and sweetheart dance.

Um registration's a little low, so if you've been waiting to sign up, we would suggest doing it so we can make sure we have everything prepared and ready for you.

That's all I have.

And I want to add one other thing to our centennial celebrations, right?

So the happy hydrant, the utility box, that's part of the centennial activity, the swag shop is open.

And one other thing, um, this is a great idea.

I'm excited about even though it hasn't been officially announced yet, but we're gonna be um encouraging there to be 100 celebrations throughout town.

So any backyard picnic you have with friends or you know, wine and cheese or something like that, or a block party, whatever you're if you um if any resident wants to do that, we're gonna create a sign up sheet for people to um sign up and just register, just tell us about their event.

They don't it's not that it's open to the public or anything like that, but just tell us about the event and um and if you're interested, we'll provide some napkins and a little bit of swag for um centennial swag for your party, and then our goal is just for there to be a hundred you know gatherings throughout town, so kind of a kind of a fun idea.

Um there is also um uh what else, right?

We talked about the parade, we're working on details for that and um walking tour.

We're gonna have a model of the um Belmont School for Boys.

There's somebody has actually made us a small model of that that's gonna be displayed in City Hall very soon.

So it's it's really neat to see this is sort of organically um happening.

One other thing that we have on our website are the podcasts, right?

Uh uh the first four uh folks that we've interviewed about their history of growing up in Belmont.

So you can go and listen to those podcasts of the good old days in Belmont, and um we will be scheduling another round of uh podcast interviews soon.

So that's actually been really fun to um to listen to some of the stories from back in the day.

The podcast will be live tomorrow.

Oh, they'll be live uploading right now.

Oh, they're uploading right now.

Okay, I don't even know how that works.

Okay, and they and we've also in addition to those podcasts that we've just done, um, there were audio recordings done for the city's 75th uh birthday, and those are being uploaded as well.

So lots of stories.

Any questions?

Yeah, I have a question.

Is there a way to give feedback to the swag shop designers about some of the options that they've provided?

So this is just the site that we use, and then we just slap our logo on the stuff that they have available.

And we don't have options as far as like making things bigger or different kinds of hats.

Yes, there so my initial impression was like some of the logos, they're really small.

Yeah, t shirts, it should be on the back.

Yeah, the store.

Which changes costs and everything else I know of.

The store gave us like 400 options, so we narrowed it down to a few.

But if people want different stuff, we can add different stuff and yeah, just let us know.

There was just a lot.

I'm excited about ticket things with the logo on them, and I have some particular design requests, but I've also think other people will enjoy it too.

You'll have to wear it for 100 days.

There's gonna be 100 parties on King or 100 pounds.

It's not changing my shirt for a hundred days.

You will stamp people's passports exactly.

Mr.

100.

I think that's it.

Yeah.

Anyone else?

I'm excited about the hundred events.

I think that's a great idea.

I hope people invite their parks and rat commissioners.

I'd love to attend a hundred events.

So if anybody's listening, send me an email in there.

Is the hundred across the year?

Is it a month or is it within?

Anytime throughout the year.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's a little chilly to host some gatherings now, but um and they don't all have to be outdoors, they can be indoors or outdoors, whatever.

We're gonna we're it's 100 gatherings loosely defined.

Um it's just kind of a fun goal to have.

So and the library's also working on some things, you know, just uh read 100 books or something.

So everybody's and and we're still open to ideas.

We've got some ideas from the community that's still our uh form to fill out um to submit your idea and maybe get a little bit of funding if you need it to help pay for some expenses that's still available online and will be for several months, so um let us know.

I'll say in the uh pictures, I did not see a picture of our youth commissioner dressed as an elf, and I was really looking forward to that.

Oh, it's gonna be one of the highlights of okay I have I have a photo.

I was told not to show that.

What are we here for if not to embarrass ourselves in public?

No, I'll show them to you later.

I was also gonna uh um share the promotion or encourage any of our many listeners this evening to uh participate in the the superstar and sweetheart dance.

Um we our family is officially aged out.

Um so we will not be participating this year, but it's uh been a wonderful event for however many years that we've been involved, so it's great.

All right, and then we can move on to commissioner questions and comments.

Does anybody have any uh lingering questions or comments?

But I have a quick question.

So this this meeting was the consolidated meeting for January and February.

So next time we will meet will be uh first Wednesday in March.

That's right.

Is that I can't remember.

Is that the meeting where new commissioners are seated, or is that yes?

So this is our last meeting with our youth commissioner who has been totally lovely.

So I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank you in case we don't get the chance.

Thank you.

Uh it's been wonderful here.

But like I just won't be here.

You'll be over there.

Oh yeah, if we oh you'll be over there because we'll be giving you an award or something probably for the it's the it's the yak and voices, right?

The yak and voices meeting.

Well, but you won't be up here for us to say what a joy it's been to have you on the commission.

I don't know what side of the room I'm gonna be on because now I'm in both.

Oh I don't know.

Just run back and forth.

Are you gonna change sweatshirts between like the awards?

I don't know.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

No, I I don't think I have the talent to do that.

We're just gonna do that 100.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

I can do that too.

Yeah.

Okay, so we'll be seeing you a lot next year, right?

You'll you'll keep coming to the mission with great ideas.

Sure.

I'll bring like if I'm bored, I'll bring like a friend or something.

Only if you're bored, but yeah, yeah, yeah.

Shark and rent meeting.

Um, I'm sorry, I just thought of one other thing that I would like to say.

Sorry about that.

Um, and that is uh a thank you and shout out to our park boosters.

Uh they provided us some funding um to purchase uh speaker microphone and microphone stand of uh higher quality than we've had before and that we can use at some of our city events, so we would not be able to do that without park boosters.

So big thanks to the boosters.

And I was on Saulston Trail yet again today, and it's delightful.

So you just have to do that.

And what's that?

And what?

It's delightful.

Oh, it's it's thoroughly delightful.

So sometimes it takes a while to get a project done.

It's beautifully worked.

Great.

Great.

All right.

If that is it, then I will say this meeting is adjourned.

Thank you everyone for being here.

Thank you.