The commission discussed event safety and budget implications after the town’s police department advised that any closure of the park driveway during public events requires a police detail.

Staff described a police detail cost of $258 per session (a session = 4 hours). If both ends of a driveway are closed, two details may be needed — roughly $516 per event. Commissioners recalled past events that used driveway closures without a detail and noted a recent concern about near misses where children were close to moving traffic during trunk‑or‑treat.

Members explored lower‑cost alternatives such as roping off areas with cones and conducting partial closures that would require only one detail. Commissioners also discussed the revenue realities of volunteer run events such as trunk‑or‑treat and Lakeville Day — earlier fundraising yields for trunk‑or‑treat were modest (examples given of $40–$122 in small sales) and the commission questioned whether it can absorb repeated detail costs without outside support.

Ideas discussed included combining the Christmas stroll with the existing arts festival (“All the Glitters”) to attract more vendors and shared resources, forming a “Friends of the Parks” group to help with fundraising and volunteer organization, and asking leagues or volunteers to run field days to help with maintenance costs. Lacey (human resources) said she has experience helping organize nonprofit friends groups and offered to assist if the commission identifies a volunteer president (town staff cannot serve as president because of conflict‑of‑interest rules).

Commissioners said they will reassess event budgets during their next planning/budget cycle and consider whether to ask for a budget line for detail costs in their 2026 budget submission.