SOUTHWICK — Acknowledging that the Select Board didn’t make clear exactly who was going to update the town’s Open Space and Recreation Plan, the board approved creating a new ad hoc committee for the update at its meeting on Monday, and renamed the current Open Space Committee. The body is now a permanent town committee, following the vote.
“We did not clearly state whether this was an ad hoc or permanent subcommittee of the Conservation Commission,” said board Chair Diane Gale, referring to a meeting the board held on Jan. 12 about who was updating the report.
She told her fellow board members she had reviewed that meeting, and it wasn’t clear which committee would be responsible.
At the Select Board meeting on Jan. 12, its members didn’t reach a final decision on whether a new committee was needed, but Gale suggested one with board member Douglas Moglin, saying the “sole mission” of the Open Space Management and Planning Committee was not to complete the plan.
Every municipality in the state has the option to renew its Open Space and Recreation Plan every seven years. Southwick’s latest plan was approved in 2019. Having an updated plan allows municipalities to apply for various grants from the state.
On Monday, Gale suggested the current Open Space Committee, which has three members, and the Open Space Land Management Committee, whose members are Conner Fleury, Philip Price and Martha Kane.
Gale sent a memorandum to Conservation Commission Chair Norman Cheever, Conservation Commission Coordinator Sabrina Pooler, current chair of the Open Space Committee Conner Fleury and Chief Administrative Officer Nicole Parker.
In it, she wrote, the OSLMC would be “a permanent committee, as the land and its care remain in perpetuity. This is to avoid confusion with the similarly named former committee that was responsible for updating the last report, the Open Space and Recreation Planning Committee.”
During Monday’s meeting, board member Doug Moglin asked if a separate committee would be created “for the express purpose” of completing and submitting the Open Space and Recreation Plan.
And that the committee would be dissolved once the plan was done, he asked.
“Correct,” Gale responded.
“That means we need to get this committee together somehow,” Gale continued.
However, she sees the two committees working together to update the plan, noting that Kane had “already done a terrific amount of work on [the plan].”
“It is presumed that the OSLMC and the Conservation Commission will be integral in the task of updating the Open Space and Recreation Report that will be due in December of this year,” Gale wrote in the memorandum.
At Monday’s meeting, who would sit on the new committee was discussed.
Gale said the town planner, a member of the Planning Board, a Parks and Recreation commissioner, a Conservation commissioner, a Select Board member and two town residents.
In her memorandum, she asked the Conservation Commission and the Open Space Land Management Committee for help identifying potential members.
Moglin suggested a member of the Lake Management Committee.
“As you know, it’s kind of the centerpiece of our recreational community,” he said.
During that Jan. 12 meeting, Cheever and Conservation Commissioner Dennis Clark attended to stress the importance of the open space committees having a secretary to help with administrative tasks.
Parker said the town hadn’t budgeted for additional secretaries to help with the town’s various boards and commissions.
At Monday’s meeting, Gale said the Open Space and Recreation Plan Committee that updated the plan in 2019 used administrative funds from the Community Preservation Committee.
“This might just solve [that] problem,” she said.
Town Meeting would have to approve CPC funding, but Gale said work on the open space plan project could still proceed once the committee is organized.
