• CCAG Holiday Party - Tuesday, December 16^th at City Café in Chelsea

• Walton/Chasen House Boat: Meg reported that the Attorney General’s office made final judgment about this case on December 6^th. They are required to have the boat out of the water by February 4, 2004. They paid a first penalty of $35,000, and will be required to pay an additional $25,000 if it is not out by 2/4/04, and possibly another $25,000.

• First Night Parade: Shaundra reported that E3C and the Chelsea Environmental Youth Crew worked with a professional puppeteer to make River God(dess) puppets/masks (made from cardboard and papermache) for the First Night Parade - they will march in the Charles River section. They will also use these puppets for events here in East Boston and Chelsea.

• Water Quality testing: Juan reported that E3C is now doing water quality testing at the Urban Wild every Monday. They’re doing seven tests and giving results to UEI who put the data on a web site. They are also posting results at the East Boston public library starting in 2004. The New Arrivals group from the YMCA is also conducting these tests, as is the pre-GED class from the Harborside Community Center.

• A private developer purchased the MWRA building. He purchases distressed properties on a regular basis. Aaron met him at the auction, informed him about the CCRP, and invited him to a meeting with Irving Oil the next day. He attended this meeting/tour and is interested/supportive of the idea for the Chelsea Creek Rail Trail (and is aware that we would like to see a trail/boardwalk around the MWRA building as a linkage. He’s also aware that we would like to see part of his building dedicated for a public use. He was open to the list of ideas that CCAG had developed for the building, but made no commitments/indications what they would do with it. It seems that he’s open to working with CCRP -- before he proposes development. We will invite him to either a sub-committee or regular CCAG meeting in the future.

• Tour with Irving Oil. Aaron reported that Stacey, Roseann, and he took a tour with the plant manager at Irving to see how they plan to use the rail trail at their facility in Revere (as well as the new owner of the MWRA building). Irving recently went before the City of Revere to seek approval to use the rail line (though not required to get this approval) to bring in ethanol (a corn based gain alcohol) by freight to be added to fuel (for cars). They are required to replace MTBE (both are oxygenates that make the fuel burn cleaner), as there were significant problems with ground water pollution from MTBE leaks. Trucking is not cost effective to bring in this product. Though they will be using the rail corridor, we will meet again with Irving and Global to discuss if there is an alternative route that we can develop that works for both the community and these companies.

• National Park Service - they are starting to work on conceptual map for rail trail.

• B Amore’s 2^nd piece of artwork: This second piece - which B presented at a CCAG meeting would be the silhouette of a boat she found in the mudflats at the Urban Wild. It’s about 26 feet long and 5 feet at its highest section. Her and Parks Dept thought was to set it in the area of the Urban Wild to the left of her current sculpture - when facing the water - so essentially in the area that is flat. It would include a history timeline on it. We did not move forward with this project this past fall for two reasons -the project is costing more than anticipated and with problems at the Urban Wild we had agreed to not install any other elements. All agreed that we should proceed with this project, and preferred that it be in bronze.

• General discussion: * Susan went sledding at the Urban Wild during the storm and saw many kids doing the same; * DPW site needs to be cleaned up. Question as to whether we could get salt marsh along the coast of this piece of land, expanding the Urban Wild. Stacey pointed out the cost associated with this - that at the Urban Wild they had to remove contaminated soil and cap it. In Mill Creek - where Chelsea Green Space plans to do a ¾ acre salt marsh restoration- they are facing that situation right now (and having to pay for its disposal). They are working with the State, BSC Group, National Oceanographic Association to accomplish this. The following people asked to be added to Chelsea Green Space and Recreation Committee’s mailing list to receive meeting minutes: Susan, Leigh, Lucy and Ana Maria. Maddy, Vinny and Nancei already receive and sometimes attend Green Space (essentially Chelsea - CCAG meetings); * Gateway - re-discussed idea of having the Condor Street Urban Wild burnt into the wooden rail guard - NOAH will follow-up with Parks

• Dogs: Meg reported that Jim Banfield, an Eagle Hill resident, is interested in forming a dog group to walk in the Urban Wild, be the eyes of the park, and educate dog owners about the importance of picking up after their dogs in order to help their own dogs from getting sick (as dogs tend to eat dog droppings; few know this can give them parasites, etc). He’s also interested in having a dog-poop bag dispenser there. Participants agreed that this was a good idea and that CCAG could pay for it out of our capital funds for the park. NOAH will look into the cost.

• Sub-Committee for Cross-Creek event in spring. This committee, which includes East Boston and Chelsea residents (so far, from East Boston - Nancei, Lucy, Susan, Leigh, E3C members…and anyone else who would like to join) has met several times to work on ideas for this event/festival. Ideally, this event will take place on June 5^th, on the Meridian Street Bridge. We will need to get the Bridge closed down for 6 hours and will need to work with Creek industry, the U.S. Coast Guard and others to achieve this. Ideas include food, music, youth talent show, triathlon w/ canoes/kayaks, run/walk and biking, and then mini one for kids, etc.

• Suggestions for new ideas: E3C is putting together survey to get kids at East Boston High School and maybe Umana Barnes to fill out about what they would kind of programs they would like to see at the Urban Wild. This is especially important as youth are often considered the problem makers in the park (though they are not always). It’s important that they take an interest and we try to get them invested.

• Ideas for reaching different audiences - it was pointed out that the best way to get new people involved is to hold successful events and to do outreach there to get more people involved. When appropriate, we could also get articles in the local paper to attract new volunteers.

Source of meeting minutes: Stacey.Chacker@noahcdc.org Contact her for more information.