WASHINGTON PLANNING BOARD

Town Center Vision Subcommittee – Working meeting Minutes

January 22, 2019

Members present: Lolly Gilbert, Ron Jager and Nan Schwartz

Visitors: Penny Whitman, Jared Reynolds

1.0       Call to Order - The meeting was called to order by Co-Chair Lolly Gilbert at 1:00 PM in the Town Hall.

2.0       Gilbert opened the meeting. Jager stated that he feels our priority should be the landscaping and accessibility project around Town Hall and this should be highlighted on its own page. Whitman said that if the group decides that project is a priority or a key focus we could frame it and add that to the document, but we need to make that decision as a committee. Whitman said she and Reynolds made the edits we suggested to the document and added Andrew’s piece as a forward. She said Jared also added some town “facts” on page 7. They also changed the flow chart on page 23.

Gilbert said that she looked into prices for printing (full color) and it was 25 cents a page. We thought this was high but the prices Schwartz got from Staples were also high.

Whitman said the document is open and can be added to or edited at any time.

Gilbert asked if the suggestion boxes are a good idea. Reynolds asked how we will incorporate the ideas we get from them. Gilbert said she doesn’t want people to think it is all predetermined but we are open to other ideas. Jager thinks the suggestion boxes are good psychologically for the town but he thinks we probably won’t get any new ideas. He is still in favor of putting them out. Gilbert thinks it may reinforce the ideas we came up with.

Whitman said the next step is to prioritize and consider feasibility and impact. She suggested we make the boxes focus on the ideas we have determined are good and ask what people would like to see. She said we should make this a coordinated effort. Gilbert suggested having Steve Hanssen (Parks and Rec) come to a meeting to talk about the park/playground behind the TH and other issues they could be interested in.

Whitman said she has an exercise to help with prioritizing and we could do a ZOOM meeting (video conference) to pull everyone together for this meeting. Reynolds asked about when we were going to put out the boxes and Gilbert said we hoped to introduce them at Town Meeting.

Schwartz asked about engaging the public and Whitman said that her boss recommended a focused engagement on projects we have identified. Whitman asked if she could share the document with Derek Ferland, county commissioner, to show to the County Commission. We felt that would be fine. Jager asked about strategy. Reynolds said our goal is to prioritize then present to the Select Board, then get input from the public and then hold a meeting tentatively in early summer. Whitman thinks the last two pages are more for us so we could remove them from the document. She suggested putting conclusions after the Asset Review or an executive summary. She offered to do a one-page summary with the web address to find the full report. Gilbert suggested we make several full color copies of the report that people can borrow if they want to read the entire document. Reynolds suggested an 8.5”X17” folding piece for the summary. We agreed that sounded good. We discussed a date for the next meeting and we settled on February 15^th at 9am or February 19^th at 9am. There were also some Tuesday or Friday evening times when we could meet if the committee members. Schwartz will send out an email to see what times and days work best for all.

3.0       Next meeting –TBA.

Meeting adjourned at 1:45 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Nan Schwartz

Planning Board Secretary