park — Minutes

Park Committee May 4, 2026 Minutes Meeting called to order 7:00 pm, May 4th, 2026. Members present were Betty DeBoer, Emy Monroe, Amy Kothe, Ben Brockenhaur. Absent Scott Cooper and Justin Brandau. Motion by EM/BB to approve agenda, passed unanimously Motion by BB/AK to approve Mar 17, 2026, minutes, passed unanimously No public comments Discussion and possible action on potential UWL involvement with updating the Park Plan fall of 2026. Pros and cons of waiting for finalized plans/grants until fall 2026 and what sort of products would we expect from a grad student that would help us with our town parks were main topics of discussion. Motion by EM/BD to involve the UWL grad student in the fall 2026 semester to finalize and update the park plan, source grant opportunities and help apply for at least one grant by Dec 2026. Passed unanimously. To prepare for fall, BD will clean up the current draft of the plan as much as possible so that our clerk can distribute the plan to the full committee. Committee members (except for AK) are to read the plan and bring to the June meeting: 1) glaring omissions or errors to edit & 2) a list of their top 3 priorities for park enhancement or maintenance. Discussion on creating a formal tree donation policy resulted in group agreement that we need to proceed with a formal tree donation policy. AK agreed to bring a draft policy to the June meeting (this job will replace her park plan work for this meeting) Discussion on forming a bench donation policy resulted in group agreement that we need to consider a formal bench donation policy. AK agreed to bring some examples of bench donation policies from other government bodies as examples to begin working from in developing a policy for our town. (this work by AK will replace her work on the plan) Committee members suggested that future meetings happen at our parks so that we can assess park conditions to help the committee determine what parks need attention. The June meeting will need to be at town hall to accommodate use of the computer for the document editing and finalizing, but we will aim to hold the July meeting at one or more of our parks. We start at one park, and move to a few different parks to cover more than one park per month – and we will likely end at a park with tables and shelter to facilitate the business portion of the meeting. The next meeting will be Thursday, June 18th at 6 PM at town hall. Motion by EM/BB to adjourn at 8:15 pm Submitted by Emy Monore, secretary