Bangor parks panel weighs basketball court at Little City Park, hears Cascade Park fountain still broken

[1:38] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: And we go. [1:39] Susan Hawes, Committee Chair: All right, this is a regularly scheduled meeting of the Van Gogh Park Recreation Harbor Advisory Committee. On September 5th, 2026, and we'll start with introductions. Committee member Pamela Krop Anderson, committee member. [2:02] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director and failing AV coordinator for this committee. [2:08] Suzette Holly Furrow, Member: You do great. Suzette Furrow, committee member. Chelsea Smith, Recreation Coordinator. Susan Faloon, I'm the Council Liaison. Brianna Frye, community member. [2:19] Susan Hawes, Committee Chair: Okay, we don't have the July minutes, do we? [2:24] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: They should have been in the calendar attachment. I have copies. Okay, they were included in the calendar invite, but I have copies, and here are July's. [2:39] Susan Hawes, Committee Chair: Oh, so the first thing we're going to do is use a proof to fill in this, so I'll give you a point. Tracy, on the mission statement, it says that the end opportunities that promote lifelong employment, well-being, no less, while protecting— shouldn't it be lifelong employment and well-being? Okay. [Suzette Holly Furrow: They're underneath.] Oh, thanks. [Tracy Willett: That makes sense.] I yield. [Tracy Willett: Lifelong enjoyment and—] yeah. Perfect. [4:02] Suzette Holly Furrow, Member: That's the spelling of my name. It's F-R-Y-E. [4:05] Susan Hawes, Committee Chair: E? Yeah. And my first name is spelled wrong. [Pamela Kropp Anderson: Pamela.] P-A-M-E-L-A. [4:14] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: Apologies for all those. [4:19] Susan Hawes, Committee Chair: Someone else is coming soon. [Tracy Willett: Hey, Mula.] Hey, Mula. It's not too dark. Yeah, I like it. [4:57] Pamela Kropp Anderson, Course User: Yeah, no,, I thought you needed a second. Go ahead. [5:00] Susan Hawes, Committee Chair: Okay, thank you. now we're going to talk about Little City Park. We are. [5:10] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: something— a couple things wanted We wanted to chat with you all this afternoon at Little City, and we— that one specifically. So we have had requests, and rightfully so, to clean up some of the cracking that's happening with tennis courts. For history and context, both the courts at Little City And at Hayford Park, we resurfaced, repainted. I'm going to say in the neighborhood of 7-ish years ago anyway, so the cracking that's happening is not uncommon. So in the short term, what the crew will do in the next few weeks, the park maintenance crew will go and clean out and fill in the cracks and repaint them. And then we'll seek out some quotes to resurface them yet again. We'll be doing the same thing at Hayford. So in the event that any of you all have heard that kind of thing about the condition over there, yes, we're aware of it and addressing that this fall. We do get asked at Little City. About pickleball lines over there. We haven't been asked in a while. I put that on the table. I don't know if you all heard pickleball lines in the city. recall that there are pickleball courts at Williams, outdoor courts at Williams Park. There are outdoor pickleball courts at the high school, and I believe at Cohen School. So we've held off co-mingling pickleball and tennis at Little City for the time being. We feel like there's enough pickleball opportunities outside currently, but so just so you know, we're holding off on that. Currently outdoor tennis courts, Little City, Hayford, and the high school. Cohen, I'm not sure if it's both or not. [7:28] Susan Hawes, Committee Chair: I can't remember if they're both or not. [7:31] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: Charlie's going to talk to you a little bit about tennis programming we've been doing in Hayford, as well as the high school that's been tremendously successful for us. The other little project that we're working on— yes, the swings at Little City are in tough shape, as is the Safety area below them. We have some funding available to us within our current budget to replace and relocate a bay of swings and move the swings closer to the existing structure. Why are we that existing structure? Roughly, we'll be replace a timeline. We're on our rotation again of replacing play structures. I believe that's probably at least 3 to 4 years down the line in that rotation as far as replacement. So at least for the time being, replace the swings and relocate them closer to the structure. And it'll look a lot like the swings at Hayford, Chapin, as far as the frame and the arch and that sort of thing. We've been asked to consider at Little City, replacing or placing a half basketball court at that park. There is not one there. You currently have half basketball courts at Stillwater Park, Banger Gardens, Paramount. [Susan Hawes: Thank you.] I believe that's it. [9:12] Susan Hawes, Committee Chair: We have full-size courts Oh, Bangor Gardens has one. [Pamela Kropp Anderson: Yep.] Collected for years. [9:17] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: Yeah, no, the gardens has one, and I'll come— since you brought that up, I'll come back to that in a second. So yes, as I said, Stillwater Garden, Bangor Gardens, Fairmount. I missed one again. I think that's all the half courts. So a half court could fits within the existing footprint of the current swing set locations. And the logic would be, if we were to pursue this, was to locate that half court in that spot. I share that with you tonight for thoughts, feedback. Think it over, and we'll bring it back next month. Staff feels like it could fit there fairly well. Serve, I believe they're still using Hoops at the edge of the street, in the street on— you're the one that helped me out with the streets from Linden down to Montgomery on each side of Little City. One of the streets on each side of the city. [Susan Hawes: Is Grant nearby?] Grant's the next one down. At any rate, But before we went too much further, wanted to get some feedback from you folks tonight. I don't know if you need to live over there. It would fit over there. Orient the court in such a way that the basket would be parallel or up against— not literally up against, but on the same side as the tennis court, so that Aaron's shots would actually get going to the fencing of the tennis court. South Street, in theory. But we're not that far down the road yet. But again, wanted to share that with you. We feel like Public Works— Public Works has done a similar project for us as far as preparing a paved pad at Parks and Rec where we had the old barn. So utilizing Public Works. to assist with that, trying to keep it as in-house as possible, as much as in-house as possible, to try and keep costs down, but yet able to add an amenity over there that doesn't exist. [11:44] Susan Hawes, Committee Chair: Does Chapin have a basketball net? [11:49] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: Chapin does not. One time there was a Featherball circle over there on the Parkview side. Those of you in the room that may be of a certain generation, I believe there was a wading pool over there one time. But I don't believe basketball. And only reason we're bringing up Little City, because it's been brought up to us by residents over there. [12:23] Pamela Kropp Anderson, Course User: So you're moving a swing set closer to another building. [12:29] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: So what is the play structure? [12:30] Suzette Holly Furrow, Member: Okay. [12:31] Pamela Kropp Anderson, Course User: And then, so what is that space going to look like? I mean, I guess I don't know what the swing set situation— so is it going to be like kind of this dead grass area or something? I mean, would it be nice to put something on it so it just doesn't look like a vacated spot? [Susan Hawes: Yes.] Yeah, it would look— will it look odd if we just Pluck that out of there and not do anything with that other than— [12:51] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: No, not necessarily. I mean, if we move the swing set, we would low and seat it and just be more green space. By adding the court, you'd have play structure, swing set, basketball court, someone in a line on the tennis court end of the park. So it doesn't take away from any existing green space. [13:12] Suzette Holly Furrow, Member: A lot of soccer out there too. [13:14] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: Yeah, on the Linden Street end of the— and we wouldn't impact that at all. So the existing green space that is used primarily for those kinds of activities would stay in place. [13:23] Suzette Holly Furrow, Member: So they used to have tetherball as well. But I think your other— [Tracy Willett: we have—] you have basketball courts at the dog park too. [13:31] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: Thank you. Yes, at Powell Center. So there are full courts, as you mentioned, at Powell Center up to Essex Woods, next to Dayton Pool. At Williams Park and at Hafer Park. To your statement earlier about the conditions at the gardens, we have funding currently to start rehab basketball courts. [Suzette Holly Furrow: We—] Public Works will be doing the one at Stillwater. They'll go to gardens next, Niagara Gardens next. At Stillwater, they're trying to straighten the basket up. a little bit and repave the surface. It's getting incorporated into the street paving contract. So when the contractor's paving the streets, has some time, they'll resurface Stillwater Park. Same scenario played out when we did Padawan. If you— if we want to bring it back, let me know. We can certainly bring it back. But Again, I thought— [14:36] Susan Hawes, Committee Chair: why don't we bring it back? [14:38] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: Like, okay, come up with a concept. Yeah, okay. Yeah, for sure, for sure. Maybe start to develop some preliminary ideas of what it will— how it lay out over there. [14:48] Susan Hawes, Committee Chair: With, the swing set, are you also getting a new swing set? [Tracy Willett: Yes.] I just gotta say, the Fairmount Park swing set, the, the thing where you put the little Infant in it. You put a baby in like a little bowl-looking set. Well, the one at Fairmount has an added thing for the adult to also sit on the same swing with the infant. That is the best thing in the world. [15:14] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: I appreciate that. Yeah, those are— so I'm going to use a vendor-specific name. They come by different names. in that case, they call it an expression swing. And that's exactly what it was designed for. Yeah, for adult and child to swing at the same time. We also have one in Avery. Yeah, that's from what we've heard. I appreciate the feedback. [15:38] Susan Hawes, Committee Chair: Yeah, and my parents came to visit and they'd never seen one ever in their life. They said this was the coolest thing, like swing at the same time with their grandkid. [15:47] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: Like, we're starting to incorporate something here. Yeah, we can come up with some— just a quick sketch of what it might look like over there and bring it back to you next month for sure. [16:00] Susan Hawes, Committee Chair: Any other questions, comments? All right, we're going to move on to an update on Mansfield Stadium. [16:10] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: So I want to share with you, and many or some of you may know already, I know Councilwoman certainly is aware of this, it's been a Busy summer at Mansfield. Usual activity aside, we had a couple ceremonies over the summer. We might have met in July. We met in July, obviously, with minutes, so I don't know if we talked about it at that time. We had sort of a rededication, re-recognition of the stadium's name for Dave Mansfield's son, Sean. A plaque was there, and the plaque would be affixed at the stadium. And recall, and for those of you that don't know, the stadium is indeed named for Sean T. Mansfield. Sean was David Mansfield's son. Passed away at an early age. Multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy. So when the Kings made the original gift to the city early on, it was going to be named for David's son, Sean. Another gentleman that is synonymous with the operation at Mansfield Stadium is Ron St. Pierre. We were talking about it earlier when the chair came in. Ron St. Pierre has been involved with activity, youth, here in Bangor for a long time. He was a former teacher at Bangor High School, coach, and has been at Mansfield Stadium from the beginning. The management of Mansfield Stadium for 30-plus years was through a management agreement with Westside Little League. And David and Ron were the managers of Mansfield Stadium. The playing surface and much of the amenities at the stadium exist as they do today at the direction of Ron St. Pierre. So during the commemoration we had in June, which happened prior to the state Class C high school game, discussion started about some sort of recognition for Ron. And we came quickly to the field. So through the summer, when we started the process, council was very good, very good at recognizing that the timeline and authorized through council order, the naming of the field. at Mansfield Stadium. So now it will be known as Ronald J. St. Pierre Field at Mansfield Stadium. Sadly, Ron passed away soon after the council meeting when council authorized the order. So appreciative of being able to expedite that process. and having council consider and approve that, having those 2 names forever associated with Mansfield Stadium, and St. Pierre Field at Mansfield Stadium is important. If you didn't see it, might still live out on the Mansfield Facebook page. When we did the naming, we did the naming ceremony They've got a YouTube channel now. [19:51] Susan Hawes, Committee Chair: You're talking about the video, the dedication? Yeah,, I think they've got a link there. [19:57] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: We did the naming ceremony for Ron prior to one of the final games of the Northeast Regional Senior League Tournament that has been hosted here since the World Series left. I mentioned that specifically. In behind was a variety of individuals who either worked in Mansfield or played a sport for Ron or Dave, and the ages spanned generations. And it certainly demonstrated the impact that Ron had. So, wanted to share that with this group specifically. We haven't met for a while. Mansfield, currently we're fortunate to have a couple of employees over there who are willing to stay and manage the stadium for us. Both have worked with Ron and Dave, know how things work over there. Troy and Adam. Troy Laird and Adam. I always forget Adam's— [21:07] Pamela Kropp Anderson, Course User: yeah. [21:07] Susan Hawes, Committee Chair: Sorry, Adam. [21:10] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: They're familiar with the operation, or it's providing a good transition to transition the facility from that management agreement we had 2 or 3 years ago. So I want to share that with you all. So it will now be known as Ronald J. St. Pierre Field at Mansfield Stadium, and we'll have signage applied for that. There's already a banner underneath the scoreboard at Wright Field. [21:39] Susan Hawes, Committee Chair: Yeah, and I just wanted to add that I played under Ron my final year of the league, and that field owes its appearance to Ron. He was there anytime they had a problem. If he was back at home, he'd come and help them fix the problem, and he did everything. He mowed, He raked, you know, it wasn't just him telling other people what to do. [22:06] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: To quantify the number of volunteer hours that both he and Dave have dedicated to that facility, it's, it's numerous. So both of them, 2 years ago, the Hall of Fame Yeah. A couple of years ago, were inducted into the Maine Baseball Hall of Fame. They went in together, which was pretty cool. So I want to share that with you. We haven't really met or talked about it. Mansfield Stadium is, quite an amenity for us, for the city. As far as baseball experience, you're really not going to find a much better place in the state. We watch athletes come here from around the world When the World Series is here as well as around the country and marvel at what they see there, it's it's a great thing to see. [23:00] Susan Hawes, Committee Chair: So, I'm on fire there. When we were doing the morning game, I think it was a Legion game at ten in the morning with the patron. I heard one of the outfielders say that he didn't mind having to get up four in the morning to play on a field like that. [23:14] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: Yeah, it's quite a facility. So that's what we've been doing in Mansfield this summer. They'll be starting to. wind down. And we do have a lighting project we need to complete. Our goal is to still replace the lights in Mansfield this fall. So that's what I have to share with the committee about Mansfield. [23:34] Susan Hawes, Committee Chair: You've got an upcoming— what's that game? You've got the Children with special needs will be able to play. [23:48] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: Yes, that happens not this coming Sunday, but the following weekend, I believe. Don't quote me on that timing. [24:00] Susan Hawes, Committee Chair: Any questions, comments? Okay, we'll move on to recreation programming. [24:09] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: Chelsea's here with us tonight. I think all of you have met Chelsea Smith, our recreation coordinator. She is here to share. It's been a busy summer for us. it's been, already starting to be a busy fall. I'm going to say what I told her she didn't need to say to you, but I'm going to say it to you anyway. as you all know, facility space continues to be a challenge for us, so we make it work. Chelsea's been a great addition to the crew, has fit right in quickly. So appreciate that. I'll be quiet and let Chelsea talk. [24:51] Suzette Holly Furrow, Member: It's definitely been busy, but I would say like good busy. I like it. Definitely keeps me on my toes. Never a dull moment. [25:01] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: I have some flyers. We just got these out. I think they were— is it Monday or Tuesday? Shout out to Walter. [Speaker chunk1_B (unidentified): Amazing.] This is our fall and winter programs. We have another amazing staff working with me who helped put this flyer together. I can't take credit for how great it looks. So this is some of our upcoming fall and winter programs. We're always adding to it, but I did put together some numbers for summer that highlights some of the growth that we've had. So we had a lot of Significant increases across all programs. The Union Street Athletic Complex remains fully utilized with our youth and adult athletic events almost all times, whether I'm driving by in the middle of the day or driving by in the evening. It's, it's pretty incredible how many activities we have. going on out there. One that I'm particularly proud about is T-ball. So when I first started here, I was told that T-ball would be my, baby. And I didn't quite understand what that meant until I, really got into it. And then I found out that in 2025, we only had 7 kiddos registered for T-ball. Which is not even enough to play a game. Yeah. This year we had 71 kiddos register for camp. So pretty excited about that. There was a lot of small humans running around those fields, but I think they had a great time. It was definitely a good turnout. I'm just gonna start rattling off some numbers. Aqua Zumba is very popular among adults. They get really into it. That takes place at Panko. We had 35 people register for that. Our Bangor Blast summer camp, which is run by our, Kids Cave staff, we had 254 kids registered in that. So that is kids in grades K through 6. We had youth-guided canoe trips, which is really cool. If anybody knows Jim Fahey, he's a wonderful man. Definitely brightens my day when I bring my kiddos to Bangor High. I get to see him in the mornings. He's also a Maine guide, and we wanted to start taking advantage of that. Just branching out with more of those types of programs. It was already established, but we wanted to advertise more and to just see what else we could do with that type of recreational programming. So we also, we made it as part of one of our excursions for the Teen Extreme Camp, which is geared towards middle school kids. So we had 13 participants in the youth-guided canoe trips. which was double what we had last year. We had a summer baton twirling camp, which took place over a week. We had 21 participants for that. We had a culinary camp, which we wrote on our program page, you know, spots are limited, sign up now. And I kind of just thought that was like good advertising. You know, it filled up in like 2 days. It was incredible how fast that filled up. It wasn't just advertising, it really does go up fast. Adult softball, 548 adults love softball around here. I was warned about that when I took this job and I don't think I took the warning seriously. I've since learned adults really like their softball in Bangor. Men's draft league, which is also softball, but it was geared, It was— it's done a little bit differently. If you've ever played like fantasy football, it's kind of like that, but softball. So we had 68 participants for that. Eastern Maine Lacrosse, 180 participants for that. Ram Track Club, that is very popular, that had 109 participants. And then we had 46 participants in one of our newest programs, which I am super proud of, summer cheer camp. That is brand new to us, and it was something that I had a lot of roadblocks and was able to overcome. Was able to partner with middle school coaches and some high school staff. We utilized high school varsity cheerleaders to volunteer and help out. So it was really cool to make that happen. We had all the other sports, so it just didn't make sense that we didn't have cheer. Also a little biased 'cause I have a daughter that does cheer. So I was really excited to make that happen. And then when we had that many, we maxed out, we couldn't take any more people in that program. So that was kind of it, the highlights that I wanted to give you for summer. We also partnered with Bangor High School coaches and athletes to provide high-quality youth sport experiences. One that was new is a youth football clinic that was run by Bangor High School coaches and players. They enrolled 44 kids through us for free, which I thought was really cool. So they reached out and said, we want to do this, but we can't reach as many kids as you guys can. Can you help us? And so we partnered with them and made that happen and was able to Get 44 kids in grades 3 through 5 enrolled in a youth football clinic for free. Some additional Bangor High School summer program for sports that are run through us is boys summer basketball that had 34 participants, girls summer basketball that had 15. Swim, Fitter Faster Swim. which is run by the swim coaches, that had 11. Field hockey had 30. Summer soccer for boys had 51, and summer soccer for girls had 33. 33 is actually pretty good for girls because they didn't have their coach figured out until like the last month of summer. So, to get those numbers up there in such a short period of time was pretty impressive, and they were able to make it work. [32:11] Speaker chunk1_C (unidentified): Your hockey coach is persistent. [32:13] Speaker chunk1_B (unidentified): She is. [32:15] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: She is passionate. [Speaker chunk1_C (unidentified): Yes.] Yes. She's probably watching. [32:18] Speaker chunk1_C (unidentified): Yeah. She's using her son as a mascot. [32:24] Speaker chunk1_B (unidentified): Yes. [32:26] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: Watching him run back and forth with that flag at the games made me so happy. And he seemed to love it too. So I was there for it. It was great. So Tracy chatted about this earlier, and I think it's worth saying again, there's obviously like scheduling challenges and facility coordination that goes into some of the programs that we see here and some of the ones that I've listed off. So Union Street Athletic Complex, it is one of our most heavily used facilities in the summer and fall. It's not just used by our programs, it's used by other community partners. So we're trying to balance field time, and it's increasingly challenging because, you know, we all rely on that space. But despite that scheduling strain, we do successfully accommodate this high volume of summer programming while we support those other community partners. But our programs just continue to grow. So we're working on it. There's been a lot of phone calls and a lot of scheduling Challenges. I think I was telling you I had like over 100 emails that I was responding to this week and phone calls just with scheduling stuff. So it's fun. Looking ahead, our upcoming basketball season will require the majority of Angour School gyms. We appreciate them for sharing their space with us. We also utilize the Eastern Maine Community College gym. in our own facility to support all youth practices and games. When we were doing this flyer, I was like, okay, we just need to really worry about fall. And then it said fall and winter, and I was like, no, I don't want to worry about winter yet. Like, I'm not there. But you do really have to start planning ahead for that stuff. So looking ahead, just— We are very grateful to all of the places that share their spaces with us so that we can provide these programs to our community. So the coordination definitely highlights our commitment as a department to ensuring that every participant can have the space and opportunity during these seasons for soccer and basketball and field hockey. I said it, Leah. It's all right. So we've also gotten a lot of feedback from the community that I wanted to touch on too. So we heard some requests from residents for social fun, lower impact adult sports. Super excited for this too. We launched adult kickball. Which was honestly a huge success because we had about 45 days to launch it. looking at our schedule and our field space and what we could navigate, like softball ending, soccer starting, and where we could fit it all. And like the time that we could get the program live and get teams set up and all these things, it really took about— we had like 45 days to make it happen, which sounds like a lot. It's, it's not that much time to— But 8 teams registered, which is pretty good for the first year and the amount of time that we had, and the amount of people that have said to me, I didn't know you had a kickball league, I would have joined. So I anticipate next year will be double, if not triple. We also just added an adult pickleball clinic. If anybody is familiar with Coach Rich, she will be the one running that for us. Very excited about that. And we'll be utilizing Eastern Maine Community College's gym for that. We had a summer social line dancing program, which was a 2-hour social gathering for people to line dance. And then we are working with Bangor High School teams to help facilitate youth days for their fall programs, such as field hockey, cheer, and soccer. And then we have over 300 participants currently registered for False Offer. Clearly, stalkerism. Yeah, pretty popular around here. This just got printed this week and was supposed to be distributed to schools this week. So I anticipate those numbers will jump again. Definitely shows strong community engagement. We're gonna try to build on the summer cheerleading momentum and bring that program into winter sports. Had a meeting today to discuss what rec cheer might look like for winter. So the summer one was like a camp built out over 4 weeks, and then we had a showcase at the end. But we had a meeting today just to kind of see what opportunities might look like. We're also introducing guided hikes, so those are in the flyer. Pretty excited about that too. I mean, if you spend any amount of time outdoors in Maine, this time of year is beautiful. So pretty cool to use the Maine guides for that. And there's adult and youth ones. We heard from a few people who said, you know, they've always wanted to go hiking. They didn't know where to start. They didn't know where to go or how to do it or whatever, and we have people that would love to bring you. So pretty excited about that. We have the adult tennis program that's playing at Hayford right now, and most of the participants in that program are from our summer tennis program for adults. Oh, and then another one that came from listening to the community is we have a soccer program called Mighty Mites. And so it's a partnership with UMaine. So they send us some college University of Maine players, and they volunteer and hang out with itty-bitty soccer players that are aged 2 to 5. Super cool. [38:43] Speaker chunk1_C (unidentified): It's quite a sight. It's quite a sight. [38:46] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: Super cute. The little soccer balls are like— it's adorable. Also, I had to pump up a lot of those balls. So we cap it at 100, and I was thinking like, okay, that seems overzealous. We actually have a waitlist now. That's— it's a lot. And then this week and last week, I've taken a lot of phone calls from people saying, is there any way that you can like extend that? Can you let more people in? And I don't like saying no to people, but we also— I mean, that's a lot of small humans running around, so at some point you do have to say no. But I had a great conversation with Tracy, and we're going to pull a program from the archives that was called Little Reccies. And it introduced kids at that age to different programs, different sports programs like basketball for a couple of weeks, soccer for a couple of weeks, volleyball, hockey, lacrosse. You get to choose the sports. So they just get a brief introduction to it. They get to play it for a little bit, and then they move on to the next one. Yeah, and it's geared towards pre-K kids. And that way, as they get a little bit older, old enough for some of the other ones you see in the flyer, they've already got a taste of it. And I was kind of surprised when I was talking to some of these parents, they're like, okay, well, if this is full, what's your next pre-K age program that you have coming up? And it— [40:11] Speaker chunk1_C (unidentified): I don't think we have anything. [40:14] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: I don't like that. So let's make it happen. And that's what I like about what my job is, connecting community members with what they're hoping to do. And we got a lot of phone calls about the waitlist for Mighty Mites, and then I got looking at other programs, and there's definitely a need there. So I'm excited about that, at least for that early childhood recreation before T-ball begins again. So yeah, definitely a busy summer, but fall looks like it's pretty busy as well, and definitely a lot of involvement from the community and a lot of support. [40:52] Speaker chunk1_C (unidentified): Adult kickball is really popular. Have you thought about maybe having dodgeball? [40:59] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: We have talked about that, yes. I mean, who doesn't love throwing things at people? Yeah, the air dodgeball. [Speaker chunk1_B (unidentified): Yes.] So in that discussion, we talked about Fusion, I believe, used to have it. So we would just want to chat with them and see like what their plans were, if they wanted to. So yeah, we are chatting about it and we don't want to like step on toes and maybe there's a partnership possibility there. Yeah, I'm all for it. Are you saying you want to put a team in? There's some things that people— I miss them. All right. [41:44] Speaker chunk1_C (unidentified): The secret is stay back and let your teammates get it. [41:48] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: And then you just find what you're good at. Either you can catch or— Collect the balls. All right. Any other questions about Bloomberg? That was wonderful. Thank you. Or any other ideas, send them my way. [42:04] Speaker chunk1_C (unidentified): Have you guys ever done floor hockey for kids? Not off the top of my head. We did when the program that Chelsea referenced a number of years ago with that group, but, and then the Kids Cave participants will do it as kind of an activity, but nothing structured. Like what she's describing, and again, just come back to space. Space filled with. Having said that, and you heard it in Chelsea, if you heard a few times words new, more distance. So certainly having her and the addition of Chelsea to the crew has. made our programming a bit more dynamic and broad. So there's some diverse programming happening, and appreciate the effort that Chelsea's put into that. Any other comments? [43:10] Angela Walker: I think the learn how to row program that they had, there was just a day thing on the river. I don't know if that was headed to Parks and Rec. [43:20] Speaker chunk1_C (unidentified): It was like a That wasn't us, and honestly, I don't know who that was specifically. [Speaker chunk1_B (unidentified): Yeah.] Oh, okay. Yeah. So yes, that's the 4 reports. That was part of the learning best of the Harvey Gammage. [43:51] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: Is that right? They did come up. [43:53] Speaker chunk1_C (unidentified): Yeah, they came up, and part of that visit was indeed what you're describing. [43:56] Speaker chunk1_B (unidentified): Because I did it, and it was great. I loved it. My family, we all did it, and I thought it was like a Sunday morning. [Speaker chunk1_C (unidentified): Yeah,.] And the guy said, you know, we'd love to have you start a team. I don't know if they talked to you about it, but the guy said we even probably donate a boat, but I don't know. All of that involved. [44:14] Speaker chunk1_C (unidentified): So that was a positive experience? [44:16] Speaker chunk1_B (unidentified): Yeah, it was great. [44:17] Speaker chunk1_C (unidentified): Okay, it's good to hear. [44:18] Speaker chunk1_B (unidentified): And they, taught us how to row. They had some people from Belfast come up, and I think the guy might have been from Bowdoin or Bowdoin. [Speaker chunk1_C (unidentified): Yes.] Yeah, he was really good. [44:29] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: It was really cool that you did that. [44:30] Speaker chunk1_C (unidentified): Yeah, that is— [44:30] Speaker chunk1_B (unidentified): It was so much fun. [44:32] Speaker chunk1_C (unidentified): That's good to hear because, full candor, A, the initial route that they were going to use for that Yeah, they won't come back. They'll be down beyond 395, and they'll be in Arlington before they know it. So they showed the loop up. So that's good to hear that was a good experience, because I agree, that would be a— Chelsea referenced our travel camp for our middle schoolers, for example. That group, I want to bring them up here. So I appreciate that. That's good to hear. [45:04] Speaker chunk1_B (unidentified): Yeah. [45:05] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: And actually, you bringing that up, another really exciting adventure that I got to set up for the teen camp was sailing. they got to go on a, like, a private sailing trip, out of Rockport. Yeah. [Speaker chunk1_C (unidentified): Yeah.] it was just an incredible experience for them. I mean, none of them had ever been on a boat like that before. Just, putting like a lot of thought into the adventures that they were going on, and planting seeds and how like one experience can like, oh, how do I pull this forward in the future? And it sounds like this experience is like, how do I get to do this again? So that's awesome. [45:54] Speaker chunk1_B (unidentified): And it was good family. There were some younger, you know, not probably teenagers, 20s too, and older people. [45:59] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: It was like, oh yeah, I like that. You don't mind? [46:02] Speaker chunk1_B (unidentified): No, you can keep it. [46:03] Speaker chunk1_C (unidentified): Well, it's good to hear. I wasn't quite sure how that would go out. [46:10] Speaker chunk1_B (unidentified): And the boat was very stable, so that was good. [46:12] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: I've never had a boat weigh like that. [46:13] Speaker chunk1_B (unidentified): That's a good touch. [46:14] Speaker chunk1_C (unidentified): Does, the city have like loaner program for like snowshoes or bikes? Not currently. I will tell you that we've had a fair amount of discussion with the Greater Bangor Rural Economies Recreation Communities, Rural Economies, something like that, GBR. One of the things we are trying to implement somewhere is indeed a gear share type Program. Where we land with that often is who's going to host it, where are you going to host it, who's going to manage that. But a gear share program, just something you just described, bikes specifically, with the number of trails just here in Bangor that you can bike, and if you're a visitor here, how do you do that without having to Buy rental, bring it with you. So nothing yet. And well, a number of years ago we used to do a cross-country rental program, through— it was— I can't remember the name of the organization that funded it, but that's exactly what we did. We rented out cross-country skis for the winter, but nothing currently. But it is still on the table to try and do something. Anything else? All right, perhaps you will give us a brief rundown of, things that are in progress. so I think on there we talked— let's talk about Cascade Park. yes, unfortunately the pool has— and the fountain hasn't been operating all summer long. I don't know that I've shared with you, and if I have and repeat myself, I apologize, but We had run into some pretty significant leaking and mechanical issues at Cascade. Where we're at currently is getting an estimate from a pool contractor to repair, replace, rehab what is over there. Recall from the original, plan and master plan that RS Leonard did for us. 2 years ago, 3 now. was trying to maintain as much of the original stonework, vegetation as possible. so we're still doing that, but we were losing water pretty significantly out of the pool as well as somewhere in the plumbing, and we can't find it. thousands of gallons of water first time we tried to fire it up. Last summer, we tried to run it for events. As you all know, it's a big wedding destination. We couldn't even do that without the pool losing at least a foot of water through the course of an 8-hour day. So couldn't run the fountain, and that's where it's at. So I wanted to share with you that our engineering department is working up a plan for mechanical building, getting cost estimates, of what it will be to start to fix the pool, the plumbing, and the fountain at Cascade. So at some point, council may hear from us. It's like a lot of things. It's, it's aging infrastructure. And I know council hears this for a variety of things around the city. Where is— where are we [50:01] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: Cascade. Just wanted you to know that it's not a matter of us not turning it on. Yes, we're not turning it on because— and we weren't able to this summer. And until we get it fixed, likely won't be able to. But we're trying to get some solid estimates of what it's going to be to actually fix the mechanics of Cascade. [50:20] Speaker chunk2_B (unidentified): What happens? Does the water just Disappear, or does it like go out into the park or something? Is it— [50:31] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: So what I can tell you, it does not appear at the surface. So we're not entirely sure where it goes. the plumbing, the original plumbing— well, so recall Cascade Park, late '30s, At least. Looked a lot different back then. We suspect the plumbing is deep in the ground up the hill to a point where you can't sensor it to know where it goes. we suspect there's also another leak that actually drains it into the stormwater system. Well, we can't— there's not a way to narrow it down that's not multiple leaks either in the pool and/or the plumbing. So we've struggled to locate the leaks. We might be able to at some point, but that's where we've left off. It doesn't appear at the surface. So we can't— it's not one of those things, although there it is bubbling up over there, we'll fix that pipe. And there is fair suspicion that the original plumbing is pretty deep in the ground. Does go into the stormwater system or to die. We can, we'll try that. Like, we try that in the fall, see if that is where we're at. The other issue we run into now is existing pumps. [Speaker chunk2_B (unidentified): The—] we're having a hard time keeping up with the leaking of the in-ground pit where the pumps are located. It constantly takes on water, constantly takes on water. So— We don't believe the rumors. Why? That's not— Well, in all candor, that's why I share with you all here. And I'll go back to what we tried last summer to at least have it run for events over there. We're as frustrated as anybody. Cascade Park is a signature park for this city. And we want to do whatever we can to ensure that it stays that way. Hence why we did the master plan when we did. There are some great ideas we're going to take out of that master plan to incorporate into Cascade so it lasts another 50 to 75 years at least. So it's not a loss on us at all. It's hard to believe that. I think they redid the whole thing. I think Marshall Frankel's That was after it was like 55, 56 years old. Yep. And now it's been almost 40 years. That's correct. That's correct. that was in 1988. Do you have a timeline on when that— So there are very few pool contractors around. the whole, the whole park on when something— Oh, specific tonight? No. What we'd like to do, and we can report back to you when I have a better— we have a better idea of that. Once we get some more solid estimates to start to develop a plan of replacement, it's going to be costly. There's no doubt about it. Everything is costly. It's going to be costly. But without knowing that information first, it doesn't— to assign a timeline to it is tough to do. And you are pursuing a National Register designation, which might get you some money. And there's grant funding out there, all of that. So we'll pursue any of those resources for sure. [Speaker chunk2_B (unidentified): Is it concrete?] The pool? Yeah, pool is a combination of stone. I only chuckle because we had a similar issue in the early 2000s, and we were stumped as to what to do. We actually coated the pool with truck bed liner. Okay, there's actually— so the black that you see in the pool now is sprayed-on truck bed liner that lasted— we did that in '03. We've tried patching that and weren't able to mend the leaks with that. So, I'm trying to answer your question. Stone, some concrete, and bed liner. [54:56] Speaker chunk2_B (unidentified): So I was just thinking it was concrete, so then if it doesn't have water in it, 's more likely to crack, right, over the winter or something? Or— [55:04] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: but it doesn't hold water, so— Yeah, no, and we used to leave— it would not hold water anyway through the course of the winter. It would eventually evaporate or ease out, and then we'd clean out in the spring. well, we'll get a handle on what we need to do. what the plan is to bring everything out Back to the surface, incorporate mechanical building, a couple of restrooms. So that's what engineering is working on. The community garden parking lot, we were approved for funding to finally redo and bring some sort of order to the parking area in front of the community garden. I believe I've shared with this group before, the community garden is in the neighborhood of 300 raised beds. You go on to Google Earth and take a shot of it. It's pretty impressive. So, to actually create a defined parking area, repave the perimeter road and create some actual chutes and areas for soils so that They're not commingling in all the same pile. The community garden that was started back in 2010 or '11, and they were 30 beds. Fast forward to 2026, and we get asked to create more and often have a waiting list for that. Do you anticipate maybe more demand from that new Apartment complex that's going in here. Possible,. So part of this project will hopefully, once we define and clean out some vegetation in certain areas, will allow for some expansion in the back of the property. Recall that where the garden is now was a former Naval Reserve property. We try to make sure everything stays on the surface. And then there's a stretch of city-owned property between the garden and Milford Avenue extension, which is the street that leads into Mary Snow. That's the geography out there is quite a bit more challenging. But yeah, that's very possible. Very possible. [57:32] Speaker chunk2_B (unidentified): Has not Soil ever been tested for PFAS? [57:36] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: Yeah, so actually there was some testing done over there for something else, and I have not heard that has come back positive for that. I will tell you that we have surfaced that site with at least 18 inches of soil since we've been over there. To create the beds. The gardens, we still follow— I'm going to refer to the acronym and you can ask what it stands for, and I'm going to stumble through it. So it's called MOFGA, Maine Organic Farmers. There you go. So we still use their principles and policies when it comes to how we handle Soils and what you can use in your garden beds. We've been doing that since the beginning. Just a few things we're working on. We already talked about the Mansfield Lights and about— among other projects, but those are the 3 that— one of the things that keep us busy. Excellent. So you main A few, I believe they came to this group over a year ago, give or take. So the signs are out is what I wanted to share with you. And since we first placed them, the UMaine students had a chance to— or Professor, you're going to have a chance to review. We might have to relocate some, and we still need to create the concrete bases to add 3 more. But, and actually, there's gonna be swing frame pages. You don't need to know that, but 9 of them are out. It's been a pretty cool project. They replaced some existing signs that had been there over 20+ years. Some had disappeared. Some were in varying degrees of disrepair. The ones that were salvageable, we tried to keep and try to rehab them. But on those pages you have in front of you are the 9 that went out with the location on Connecticut Street and French. Professor Reardon brought approximately 30 of his current students down to gather around the sign that said Broad Street Park, or we know it as Comets, and they checked the first 3 or 4. Messaging and information on these signs was part of a municipal local government history class, and I that's a paraphrase of what this class I didn't really title it, but essentially this was a capstone project for those students, and it was interesting to work with them. They worked with Historical Society. The Bangor Public Library was hugely helpful with this. There's some great historical information on there, and it talks about events on the stream and some of the history throughout the stream. So they're out now in the location that you see pictured there. This was also presented to the Business Economic Development Committee as well. I think they came to full council, but— It's been a great project, been a great project. It was interesting to watch some of the students. So these are seniors. And it's interesting, they get on campus and that tends to be their world. You'll appreciate this from some of them. I've never been downtown Bagger before. How long have you been here? Conversely, the sign at Broad Street talked about the story of Esteban Gomez. I probably got the pronunciation wrong, if he hears that. That student was actually from Fall River, Mass. She came back to talk about her sign to the students that day. Drove up here the day before and wanted to be here for that. And that was pretty impressive. That was pretty impressive. So I wanted to share with you that had been done. There's still some framing to do. As you can see, we got to repaint some of the bases, and we do need to add 3 more bases along the route. But they're out. It's been about a year in the works. It's good to get those done. That's what I got. I saw where the council did some designation of some parks as historic, something or other. What is that about? [1:02:42] Susan Faloon: I know Chapin Park was one of them, but I can't remember the other ones. [1:02:51] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: Well, that was a designation that planning had coordinated, essentially designates those because of the history of the parks. As it wasn't a national— it was not a National Register. I believe it's a local designation, if I recall. I'm looking at you and you're looking at me. [1:03:15] Speaker chunk2_B (unidentified): No, it's That was, well, like a month or two ago. That's like completely gone out of my head. I barely remember what we discussed last night. [1:03:24] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: I can certainly— we can certainly flip back through. [1:03:26] Speaker chunk2_B (unidentified): Yeah, I can come back with that. I can come back with some more information on that. [1:03:32] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: Okay, does anybody else? [1:03:35] Speaker chunk2_B (unidentified): It wasn't controversial, so I don't remember it as much. [1:03:38] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: Anything else from anybody? We want to meet 2nd Thursday next month. October. [Speaker chunk2_B (unidentified): Yep.] So what I've heard, we'll come back with some, a little more information about, what we're doing in Little City. So that'd be— but what I'm hearing thus far is keep moving it to have that discussion, kind of move the concept forward. in the meantime, if you hear from folks in that neighborhood that absolutely don't want that here, then please let us know. We can talk about it. that time. But we did not want to move forward until we had a conversation. [1:04:16] Speaker chunk2_B (unidentified): Just because it's been a couple of months, are you— where are you at with, like, coming back to the council with anything about a rec center? [1:04:34] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: When would you like us to? [1:04:39] Speaker chunk2_B (unidentified): I don't know. I mean, I think there was definitely an appetite for— and, you know, I don't wanna speak, you know, for the council, but there's— I mean, there's support for it. I think we were— [1:04:52] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: That's encouraging to hear because— [1:04:54] Speaker chunk2_B (unidentified): Like, I think we just, you know, we were just really looking— again, not speaking for the whole council because— but like, we all agree that it's needed. So that wasn't the question. It was just really like how, much we thought that the taxpayers would be willing to absorb and, you know, and getting something on the ballot that we thought was going to be successful. That was really it. So I think like, and I know we've had a lot of conversations and then there's been some conversations about potentially even having— and again, I don't know if this is going to happen, but maybe having a— actually, I better not say that. [1:05:42] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: Oh no, you're out there now. [1:05:44] Susan Faloon: Sorry, but there are some things that we discuss in executive session sometimes, and I can't remember. No, that's true. [1:05:49] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: And if you haven't discussed it in executive session, you should not. [1:05:51] Speaker chunk2_B (unidentified): No, and I can't remember if it was, so I don't want to say it out loud because I don't remember, honestly. if it was. But anyway, I guess I just in general, I was asking, like, I think, you know, whenever you're ready to bring something back, but I think at least the impression that I got is that we would be looking for either, you know, something a little bit scaled back, or if there's any, you know, anything been done to secure like any kind of— Other funding like grants or anything? And I know there was a grant that you had applied for. Have you heard anything about that? [1:06:29] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: We had applied for congressionally directed spending, which we did not hear back from Senator King's office. When we last spoke to the council at a workshop, we had started to break out the project to discuss And we alluded to it here today to discuss why we landed at the concept we did based on what we're already doing. So we're certainly happy to continue that conversation. To answer your question about additional funding, it's kind of a catch in that to ask for any substantial funding, we need to know we have a positive path going forward. So until a question gets developed, We're kind of in a tough spot to really secure additional funding and have anybody willing to say, yeah, we'll do it without knowing if it will happen. To answer your question, we could, we can certainly come back at any time to update you, the council, on where we're at and happy to do that. [1:07:39] Speaker chunk2_B (unidentified): I guess I would just say, at least from my perspective, I'd be looking for, like, You know, not just the same kind of the same thing, but sort of either scaled back or something, you know, if there's been any revisions, kind of like we talked about. [1:07:57] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: We can start to prepare it and think about that. If indeed it's revised, what impact that has on what we're already doing. It might be helpful for you all to know that if we scale it back, We're gonna be right where we're at, or can we phase it? we can start to look at that and prepare a presentation for you all. We're coming up on November, so the timing of that— [1:08:27] Speaker chunk2_B (unidentified): Right. I mean, but that way we'd be out ahead of it, like, to try to get something on a ballot for next year. That's just my thought. Like, I'd hate to see it fall off the radar because that building's not healing itself. [1:08:39] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: It's not healing itself. I appreciate you bringing it up. Because it's good to know, A, where you're at individually, and B, the council as a whole. [1:08:48] Speaker chunk2_B (unidentified): You know, like that, obviously, that's just my perspective. But like, you know, where we landed on that was never that we didn't want it to happen. It was just kind of balancing, you know, like what we thought the taxpayers would be willing to absorb. And we did hear a lot from people on both sides of that issue. You know, people who were really in favor of it and weren't too happy with us, obviously. That always happens, you know, on anything that's sort of high profile. But, you know, then other people who are like, this is just too much for us as taxpayers, especially when, you know, everything else is going up. So, like— But, you know, I don't think there was one of us that thought we didn't need a new rep. [1:09:35] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: So perhaps we— and we have school committee coming in behind us. Yeah, I can hear them out in the hallway. We start to work on at least an update with you all for workshop in October. Okay, that work? [Susan Faloon: Yeah.] Yeah. Okay. Thank you for bringing up— it's good to hear that all is not lost with this current council, because we're going to start to crack open Sawyer Arena here pretty soon. And I'd like all of you to cross fingers. [1:10:00] Susan Faloon: And obviously we're gonna have a new council on a separate one, right? And who knows where they're gonna land. It could be, you know, they could feel differently than the current council too. [1:10:11] Tracy Willett, Parks and Recreation Director: Yeah, no, I, and I thank you. I just don't forget to be— [Susan Faloon: yeah,.] So 2nd Thursday in October, I heard the chair say. [Speaker chunk2_B (unidentified): October 8th.] Make that a plan, chair. Yeah. Okay. We're out of time. We're good. Thank you all for coming tonight. [1:10:30] Speaker chunk2_B (unidentified): Thank you.