SOUTHWICK — With the newly reformed Open Space Committee tasked with drafting a new Open Space and Recreation Plan, the Conservation Commission unanimously supported asking the Select Board to provide it a secretary and reestablish it as permanent town committee.
“We feel they need a secretary to run this committee,” said Commissioner Christopher Pratt during its meeting on Dec. 15.
He said that he and fellow Commissioner Dennis Clark had attended the committee’s last meeting and believed that a secretary was important to ensure the committee’s success.
“We need somebody that knows the nuances of posting meetings, agendas and all that stuff,” Pratt said.
He was concerned that the committee’s members, Conner Fleury, Martha Kane and Phillip Price, might get “burned out.”
“It’s a lot for volunteers who are on a committee to do all the legwork as well,” he said.
In the early 2000s, the town’s first Open Space Committee was created to draft the town’s Open Space and Recreation Plan, which is required by the state every five years.
It was also established to assist in managing Southwick’s open space lands and act as a catalyst for public participation in planning for future conservation and passive recreation opportunities in town, according to a report it filed in 2017.
Pratt mentioned that as another reason when asking the Select Board in August 2024 to reform the committee.
“That’s our land management tool in town,” he said.
During the commission meeting on Dec. 15, Commissioner Gerald Patria asked if the committee was a subcommittee “officially.”
“Well, see, that’s the thing, too,” Pratt responded. “We’re not really sure. I thought they were, but they said they were told that they’re only an ad hoc committee, which is not also what I thought they were going to be.”
Select Board Chair Diane Gale confirmed on Dec. 16 that the Open Space Committee is an ad hoc committee, which Select Board member Douglas Moglin said in August 2024 was what he’d prefer.
The former committee was a subcommittee of the Conservation Commission.
Conservation Commission Coordinator Sabrina Pooler said that there is a parcel in town that is managed by the Open Space Committee, which might provide a reason to make the committee permanent. According to the town’s GIS, there is a 10-acre parcel at 59R Miller Road that is jointly owned by the Parks & Recreation Commission and the Open Space Committee.
He also wanted the committee to have the role it played in managing the town’s open spaces before it was disbanded in the early 2020s.
“Right now, we have three people who’ve never sat on the Open Space Committee, and they’re trying to put together an open space plan, which is cumbersome,” Pratt said.
This was an issue that was discussed by the Select Board at its Dec. 1 meeting.
The Open Space Committee met on Nov. 25, and Moglin was in attendance. Gale watched the meeting’s video recording on the town’s YouTube channel.
Critical of the commission that none of its members attended for some “initial guidance,” Gale said they did an “outstanding job” before asking of the charter for the Open Space Committee should be modified to require a Conservation Commission member be on the committee.
Moglin commended the committee for jumping “headlong into doing the Open Space and Recreation Plan all by themselves.”
“They clearly had very limited direction of where they’re supposed to be going,” Moglin said, adding that he appreciated the three for stepping up to volunteer to help the town.
While Pratt and Clark attended the committee’s meeting, Pratt didn’t update his fellow commissioners on what was discussed. The meeting was not recorded.
