Veterans Memorial Park in Tisbury, the home of the Beach Road Weekend music festival, needs its own stewards to ensure the grass and other park facilities are maintained consistently, town officials say.
Veterans Memorial Park in Tisbury, where more than 10,000 people a day gathered for last year’s Beach Road Weekend music festival, needs its own stewards to ensure the grass and other park facilities are maintained consistently, town officials say.
During a discussion with festival promoter Adam Epstein at last Wednesday’s select board meeting, board member John Cahill and town administrator John (Jay) Grande both called for a committee devoted solely to managing the park.
“We need a highly focused group, just like they had with the spring building,” Mr. Grande said, referring to the committee that developed a management plan for the town’s Tashmoo Spring Building area more than 10 years ago.
Income from Beach Road Weekend and other park users, such as softball and soccer leagues, currently flows to the town’s general fund for parks and recreation, he noted.
Veterans Memorial Park in Tisbury.
Veterans Memorial Park in Tisbury.
“I’d rather see it go into a dedicated Veterans [Park account],” Mr. Grande said. “This is sacred ground.”
Public works director Kirk Metell also supports a temporary or permanent management committee funded by park proceeds, Mr. Grande said.
Beach Road Weekend producer Adam Epstein said his company is interested in helping to establish a Friends of Veterans Memorial Park charitable nonprofit and a maintenance fund to aid the park.
“We’ve proposed to [Mr. Grande] that we will be the initial funder of that organization with a matching $50,000 grant for the first $50,000 donated,” Mr. Epstein said. “We would fully embrace the opportunity to help.”
Mr. Epstein also fielded select board concerns about the annual festival itself, which brings three days of amplified live music to the low-lying park. Complaints from neighborhood residents about noise and traffic during last year’s Beach Road Weekend have led his company to make new plans for 2023, he said.
Mr. Epstein said neighbors with noise complaints will be able to call a hotline for an immediate response from both festival personnel and town officials, and he would look to change bus routes to cut shuttle traffic on Skiff avenue by a third.
“Audio professionals will have a hotline to the sound board [audio control center] to fix any outstanding issues in the moment they occur,” he said.
Mr. Epstein also asked to conduct a full sound check this summer, saying last year’s sound check — the process by which audio engineers set and balance the amplification system before a live event — was cut short after neighbors complained that it was taking place outside festival hours.
Beach Road Weekend is scheduled to return to the park Aug. 26 through Aug. 28.
Comments
We are being asked to devote
Frank Brunelle Beach Road TisburyWe are being asked to devote $50,000 of donated money to fix a problem that is a total nuisance. The concert is clearly in the wrong place. This is similar to the decision to put town offices in Catherine Cornell Theater. Same mentality. What about the sports in the park, the dog walkers? And the music is so loud we leave the island for the duration. It is impossible to even have any peace and we are a half mile away. It is just the wrong place but all Jay Grande can propose is $50,000 dollars. Seriously?
Frank, you aren't being asked
Adam Epstein Vineyard HavenFrank, you aren't being asked to donate anything. I offered to establish a Friends of Veterans Park non-profit to assist with maintaining it annually and to make a pledge to match up to the first $50,000 donated.
It's an opportunity for us Tisbury residents and others to play an annual constant and invested role in beautification of the Park.
It's a park. Fun things
NIMBY OBIt's a park. Fun things happen in parks, including music. Sorry you live close by and feel it's a total nuisance, a point you've made many, many times.
Management committee that’s
Eric Vineyard HavenManagement committee that’s funded? this is like two weeks ago when our town manager suggested we pay what 300,000 dollars to rent space so we could get him to vacate the theater? BOS, form a committee from Tisbury town residents for the betterment of the Veterans Memorial Park, and how about having US military veterans on the committee to represent the group that donated the park to the town.
Let's be real here, Tisbury
Arik Goff TisburyLet's be real here, Tisbury has never been able to take care of this field. My kids played soccer down there with mv united for years and years before beach road was a thing and the town could never get their act together and maintain the field. Weeks of sports practices and even entire seasons were canceled because the town consistently does such a piss poor job of caring for the field. I'm neither pro nor con beach road weekend, but there's money paid to repair the field the repairs are done and then the town neglects care like they do around the rest of the town. During the 20+ years I've lived on mv all anecdotal evidence collected shows without a doubt Tisbury upkeep of everything from town buildings to town grounds the is shoddy, perhaps marginal, at best.
Federally fund a holding tank
George Stein OBFederally fund a holding tank for wastewater under that field. Five Corners never floods . The multi unit facility being constructed at the former lumber yard site gets covered too. Sadly if we are now approaching year six on the practice fields. More comedy, but thank you Frank.
Veterans Field, in its heart
Molly OBVeterans Field, in its heart of hearts, just wants to be a marsh. Keep pouring sand and soil and seed and money over it if you insist, but come a bit of rain and you'll have a soggy mess again.
Who took care of park upkeep before Beach Road Weekend? The place looks more or less the way it's looked for my entire life, so what is this sudden need for a new committee?
I am unclear as to why BRW has any role in the discussion of park maintenance, beyond cleaning up after themselves every year, which they seem to have done quite well.
In the beginning, if memory serves, BRW was going to give Tisbury some percentage of their profit to help with related costs; is that different from this $50,000 "matching donation" for stewardship of the park?
It can be be very different.
Mr. B ChilmarkIt can be be very different. First of all, the "match" is a one-time thing, not an on-going "percentage of their profit." Next, there never will be any "profit." The event, for tax purposes, will run at a loss every year. Expenses, including salaries, etc., will rise to meet income. The only ways to make sure that the town gets the money to care for the field is (1) by tacking a dedicated, per-diem user fee onto the tickets, or (2) by having the business pay an up-front fee each year, a fee that completely covers maintenance of the field, not simply a one-time annual clean up.
It is a pleasure to read an
Bob EdgartownIt is a pleasure to read an article about town, governments and private citizens trying to work together to solve a problem. The island of just say no mentality is alive and well and here we have people trying to work together. Maybe some progress although they are baby steps is being made and finding a way for everyone to be happy. We are all different and we all like different things, and variety is the spice of life. For me, Tisbury Street fair is a mess and I always avoid the town whenever that is going on. It is just not worth the aggravation. Judging by the number of people that go there every year it does seem that it brings joy to many.
Unfortunately, Veterans Park
M.Toms VHUnfortunately, Veterans Park has been mainly ignored and grossly under-maintained by the Town for years. The one weekend a year when the the concert is held is not the cause of the long-term and current dismal condition as that field has looked like that for many years. I believe their $50,000 matched donation is certainly a sign of goodwill to help where others have failed. The Town should not hold the concert “hostage” to bilk money from the BRW organization to make up for it’s historical mismanagement. Establish a long-term maintenance plan, budget for it accordingly, and then execute on that plan so that Veterans Park can be an ongoing asset to Vineyard Haven.
a Synthetic athletic field
James EDGARTOWNa Synthetic athletic field would be perfect in this environmentally sensitive area.
Molly said it and she is 100%
Tom Engley West TisburyMolly said it and she is 100% correct it’s a field that wants to be a marsh because it was a marsh and a native encampment for century’s Arik Goff is also correct. And Frank is a grumpy selfish person living in rarified air. The field needs about 10 million dollars in funding not artificial turf. It needs about 4 feet of fill and a complete redesign. When it rains like last year u have a problem.
the park was man made. It was
sand Edgartownthe park was man made. It was a swamp filled in with hundreds if not thousands of truck loads of fill from Goodales pit it will always be wet and soggy after rain for days I think if you dig down 5 or 10 feet you will find salt water
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