Open Space Advisory Board Agenda and Packet 2015 03 11

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Open Space Advisory Board Minutes February 11th 2015 Page 7 of 7 Issue #3: "Fairness" According to documentation provided to the board, there are currently 30 memorial benches on Louisville Open Space land, and staff recommends allowing up to 19 more. At that point, presumably the program will be finished indefinitely. The reason for capping the program is to keep the land from filling up with benches. To me this suggests a system that is inherently unfair. The benches will only be available to families in a short window (the next 5 -10 years ?) and unavailable to future generations. My fear is that at some point the city will started to field complaints about this and experience pressure to allow more benches. What if citizens want to commemorate a beloved community member, such as a teacher or a city leader, and collect signatures to petition the City Council? We are tasked with maintaining the city's Open Space in perpetuity, and it is likely that there will always be requests to relax the memorial bench program's bench maximum cap. Alternatives /Proposals: As I see it, there are two general ways forward. The first is to continue the memorial bench program as currently proposed by Open Space staff including a total bench count cap. But if this is the choice, I would strongly advocate a Rules and Regulation document (analogous to that of the cemetery) that specifies: 1) A specified maximum period for an individual to reserve the right to maintain an engraving /plaque on a certain bench, such as 20 years. 2) A statement that says while the city will maintain the bench itself, the memorial components, such as the engravings /plaque, will not be guaranteed against "acts of god," including vandalism. 3) Items such as stones, shells, beads, toys, plantings, flower pots, baskets, candles, etc. may not be used and shall be removed. Furthermore, I believe the cost of staff time needs to be included in the price of the benches. The benches are a finite commodity and probably undervalued at the current rate. I would advocate a significant cost increase. Memorial benches should not be seen as a cheaper, but otherwise comparable, alternative to a grave- marker. The second way forward, which I prefer, is to eliminate the Open Space memorial bench program. If the city wants more benches on Open Space, I believe that the city should fund them from the general fund, rather than through an unfair and piecemeal process. Current benches would remain, but no further applications would be accepted. That said, Louisville citizens love their Open Space and their desire to be memorialized with it speaks to a connection to the land and the city that is special and worth celebrating. I propose that, rather than a bench program, the city establish some other way of marking citizens' love for and connection to the land. My idea is to have either an inscribed - bricks plaza on the sidewalk or a low wall of inscribed - bricks either at Harper or Davidson. The wall could be functional, such as covering a retaining wall or the wing walls of the underpass. Citizens could buy a brick as a Friend of Open Space, and inscribe it with their name or "in memory of." The money raised from the bricks could be used in the Open Space and Parks Fund or in a smaller fund dedicated solely to education and outreach. It is my belief that many of the people who are currently buying memorial benches could be satisfied with the a less expensive memorial brick, which would be cheaper and easier for the city to maintain. The program would be more fair, as it would need no upper maximum count; when the first plaza or wall is full, the city could create another at Hecla Lake, etc. By concentrating the markers at trailheads, we would also avoid the aesthetic issues of too many memorial benches. If a family or group is adamant about putting a memorial on City-owned Open Space land, it should require a petition to the City Council and be open to public review and comment. That way, citizens who believe that Open Space is being over - populated with memorials can be heard. Sincerely, Laura Scott Denton 687 Tamarisk Ct., Louisville 8