Volunteers Green and Browns Court Project Committee 11/20/25

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DRAFT Volunteers Green, Browns Court, Round Church Green
3 Parks Improvement Committee (ARPA Funds)
Minutes from meeting held on November 20, 2025
Members Attending: Kendra Ziskie, Denise Barnard, Tess Storrs, Megan Andrews,
Jeanne Agner
Members Absent: Fran Thomas
Guests in person: Jayne Sheridan, Mark Schiewetz, Kathy Gruber
Guest attending virtually:
1. Welcome
2. Public comment on items not on agenda - none
3. Additions, deletions, changes to the agenda items - none
4. Minutes Approved from last meeting of October 16, 2025
Next scheduled meeting- Thursday, January 22, 2026
Agenda Items for Discussion:
1. Parking lot update - The next step for Browns Court is to install the gravel parking
lot
There will be a short driveway into the lot. There would also be posts around the lot
connected by some sort of chain or plastic rope with the ability to take down the rope in
a couple of places to allow emergency and maintenance vehicles to pass through.
Denise communicated with Pete Gosselin to ask for his help with specifications as to
type of materials, depth of each layer, etc.
-Denise will check with Keith to see if we have to go to the DRB if we change the
location of the parking lot by a few feet from our application as was suggested by the
parking committee. 
- Kendra stated that it would save a lot of money if the town crew could do this.Denise
will check with Josh and with Pete to see if the Town can put in the gravel parking lot. 
Pete knows the soil and the park well. Denise will also ask if it does not snow, could the
lot be put in now. If Pete does this, do we still need an RFP? If the town cannot do this,
can the RFP go out very soon so that the lot can go in as soon as possible?
2.FEMA money - update
-We checked with Josh to find out where we are with FEMA reimbursement, and when
we will be able to ask the Selectboard for access to the funds. We wanted to know if
since we had approval for Browns Court, do we need to ask the Board for approval to
move forward with additional projects there - parking lot, ballfields, etc.- if money is
available?
-The following is a brief summary of Josh’s response via email to those questions:
The town has received $563,444 from FEMA. We expect to receive an additional
$987,004 from FEMA and $418,527 from FHWA (FHWA covers Hinesburg Rd and
Huntington Rd). While [ the town] is still responding to questions on the projects for
which we have not received the funds, we feel confident that we will receive payment in
FY26. The town discussed how to move forward with the auditors, and they advised
that we could start to spend out of both reserve funds once we were confident on
reimbursements from FEMA that would replenish the Highway Fund. He feels we are at
that point, but we should go to the Selectboard with the next steps of the projects,
including total cost, to check in and ensure they are comfortable moving forward.
3. Browns Court
A.Tree watering - has stopped for this year. Kathy Gruber reported that there were 6
volunteers who watered according to the schedule. We thank the Friends of Pickleball 
for organizing and making sure this happened
B. End of season - pickleball - net storage etc
Gates are locked for the winter. 11 volunteers were responsible for locking the gates in
the evening and unlocking them in the morning. The nets are stored in the basement at
the Town Center.
C. Friends of Pickleball ad hoc group - Jayne Sheridan shared information from their
advisory group. Next year they plan to publicize that courts will be open May to
October. She shared the budget that they proposed to the Selectboard for basic
supplies and maintenance needs for the court. The Selectboard approved a budget of
$1,300 for next year. The ad hoc committee got an estimate of $12,000 for resurfacing
the courts (approximately every 7 years). Josh Arneson has budgeted for that
maintenance in the capital budget.
-The group is planning to mulch the trees around the court next spring.
-Jayne noted that the neighborhood representative said there have been no concerns
brought to her attention.
-The group will continue to work with our committee to plan the “official” opening of the
courts next spring. Denise reminded us that when she sent thank you notes to the
business who donated snacks and items for the tree planting day, the Northfield Bank
responded that they would be interested in helping sponsor a tournament fundraiser
next year.
D. Tree Maintenance We’ll ask Fran to check with Caitlin Littlefield about trimming the
limbs of the trees on the east side of the pb court and to be sure she has included
money for maintenance of the trees in all parks in her budget for next year ...and the
future. Note: After the meeting, we learned from Fran that Caitlin has included money in
her budget for this.
E.Update re the boundary adjustments
Denise reported information she received from Josh
-The Town has signed the boundary line agreement with the McCarthy family.
-The attorney is drafting the boundary line agreement of Oliver and Carroll. When Josh
gets that, he will share that with Oliver and Carroll.
-The third and final step will be to draft the boundary line adjustment with McCarthy for
the triangle portion of land. Once that is complete, the Town will be able to have the
surveyor create a document that shows all three changes to be recorded.
F. Richmond High School alumni donation - Jeanne and Denise will meet with the
representative to see how the donation might be used.
4. Round Church Green
Jeanne will send Thank you notes to the Bench Buddies , Paul Garrett and Sue Fredrick
for cleaning benches throughout this summer.
5. Town Report - Jeanne submitted an end of the year report with photos to the Town
Clerk
6. Volunteers Green - 
-Discussion of information from John Johnston's presentation.
 He suggested that a lot of people/experts would need to be involved.
-Develop a plan of action so that we are ready when we have the funds.
Denise asked Josh: How can the committee move forward to develop a plan, determine
costs such as demolition, site preparation, playground installation, construction of a
pavilion and basically move forward with Volunteers Green ? Is it possible to hire a
project manager or similar to help develop the project?
Josh’s response - A project manager would probably be a good idea as we don't
have people with those specialties on staff. Perhaps a good next step would be
to determine a scope of work and send out an RFP to get some quotes.
We had a thoughtful discussion about where we go from here. We talked about
submitting a big plan that would include a new pavilion and bathrooms and would
probably require a town bond vote versus using the money we have to complete the
playground on the higher level and restore the area where the current playground is for
use of Farmer’s Market, 4th of July, etc.. That will take the amount of money we have
left in our budget.
 When our committee started to research improvements to Volunteers Green, we did
not know the scope of the deterioration of the current bandshell. We were initially
exploring ways to make it more accessible. We did not plan or budget for building a new
pavilion with bathrooms.
 While we believe that a replacement for the current bandshell is necessary, we talked
about giving our suggestions and rough plans to the Selectboard for a
bandshell/pavilion and restrooms for a future committee to develop, fundraise etc. We
could try to get an estimate for a simple pavilion w and w/o bathrooms so we have a
rough idea of what price the Selectboard might think about for future planning.
 Jeanne will contact the rep for an updated playground estimate. The Town will have to
develop a RFP and put the playground out to bid. Denise will contact John Linn to see
about a general estimate for pavilions to be able to present to the Selectboard.
Meeting adjourned at 8:19