Town Park Committee
Meeting Minutes, 11/3/05, 4 pm

Members present: Tim Clarke, Scott Brodie, Walt Gove, Peg Smith (secretary). Julie Ketchum participated as a member of the public, joined later by Breck Crystal. Mark Nelson sent comments, but had work conflict.

Scott’s agenda was as follows:
1. Chairman’s report
2. Boulders
3. Interpretive signs
4. Park Master Plan—review scope of work

Chairman’s Report
• Sam Stout has resigned his committee position; Scott asked Shelly Riplinger to replace him, which she has accepted (She was sick and could not attend this meeting.)
• Tim and Scott had attended the Plan, Specification, and Estimate (PSandE) meeting in Richfield to go over the fine work detail of the Phase 1 drawings before they are let out for bid. Additional grants are also in the mill, and, if successful, should completely fund our match requirement for the current cost estimate. If things proceed on schedule, the project should be publicly posted on the UDOT contractor site. The town is hoping some of the local contractors bid and/or local people can work on the project.
• Mark Nelson is working with a man from Torrey on designing more unique and suitable lighting fixtures than the $5K/light currently scoped out in the detail drawings. No one on the committee or the town council had been totally pleased with the selection of lighting that had been shown to us.
• Scott is requesting the Town Council approve his application for the 2006 Enhancement grant to help fund a multi-purpose pathway from Burr Trail to the Anasazi Museum. The Park committee applied for it last year, but lost out in the final grant selections. The biggest change this year is a slightly shorter length of pathway (only to the museum; not to the rodeo grounds) and letters of support and financial match in hand, rather than in the bush.
• Tim is working on the draft Signage and Interpretation plan for the Scenic Byways Committee, and within that document, the plan for placing a “welcome to Boulder” sign. Although a simple welcome sign will remain at the far north end of town (way out there) and at the south end, an additional information sign and turnout can be located within Boulder, advertising Boulder businesses and places of interest. Rather than locate the sign outside the park, Tim recommended placing it immediately west of the Town grounds, on the east side of the road as a better location. The committee took a little field jaunt outside to look at the site: a wide area is available between the fence and the highway, and the committee agreed this looks like a favorable spot, pending UDOT approval. The draft doc will be reviewed by the Scenic Byways committee on November 14, at 10 a.m. in Escalante, and anyone can participate.

Boulders
Tim estimates we will need 1,025 boulders, ranging from 12” to 48” in diameter, to construct the designated rocky portions of Phase 1. Scott wants to start immediately making arrangements with the suppliers of the boulders and with the persons who offered to haul the boulders. The boulders and the labor/equipment are considered part of the town’s soft match of funding, and the weather constraints of digging and moving boulders require work to begin placing them onsite as soon as possible.

Interpretive Signage
UDOT requires at least one interpretive sign on the restroom building, but its content and design is our call. The committee discussed possible themes or topics, along which were:
• the boulders---what are they made of, where do they all come from.
• self-sufficiency of remote Boulder---what brought people here, how did they support themselves in such a remote location
• the views looking south, east, west from the park---what are those things?
• the water---source, need, history of the irrigation ditches; why is Boulder so green?
• interpretation of the origin of place names in the area---Hogsback, Sadie’s Nipple, Hell’s Backbone, etc.
The committee decided that all those subjects would be good, suitable topics, but some can be explained on small interpretive panels within the park. For example, a “water” sign can be placed at one of the footbridges over the water feature. For the restroom panel, the committee agreed to focus on Boulder history/self-sufficiency. Peg volunteered to draft some copy if Tim would procure basic signage specs and lettering sizes.

Park Master Plan
Phase 1 is nearly ready for construction to begin. The next task is to put out a bid for the design plans for the rest of the park. The money for the design is already in hand. But first, a Scope of Work document must be prepared to give the designers to aid them in their bid and describe the context of the job. Tim and Scott have been working on the Scope document, and plan to have it available for the public to view---on the bulletin board and on web in the near future.
This is the design phase that will truly distinguish Boulder Town Park from anywhere else. Some items, such as the bike path and amphitheatre are already designated on the conceptual master plan; however, other items----cave/ruin-type play areas, hitching/corral areas, orchard, edible native plants---anything else can be discussed at this stage for the designers to consider how to incorporate. Scott repeated, “It’s our park, totally uniquely ours. It should be what the people in Boulder want it to be.”
Please call Scott Brodie, Tim Clarke, or any other committee member with your ideas, or email them to Peg Smith (msmith@aros.net)