December 10, 2009
The monthly meeting of the Parks and Recreation Commission was called to order at 7:00pm by Chair Sam Harding. Commission members in attendance: Pat Leonard, Barbara Reynolds and Thelma Nichols and Celeste Lunetta, Director of Recreation.
A card was circulated and signed for Ron Haggard, Commission member who is dealing with a health problem.
Minutes of November’s meeting were read and approved.
Discussion was had on filling a vacancy on the Commission, resulting from the term expiration of a 2006 appointment. Sam and Celeste will talk with individuals named to see if they would consider serving.
Old Business: We discussed the request of Rick Davis (see Nov. minutes) and the Commission decided that it would not be appropriate to add expenses to the budget this year as we are working diligently to cut expenses for 2010 budget. Sam will inform Rick of our decision.
Celeste presented her revised 2010 budget to the Commission. She managed to reduce the budget by 5% from the 2009 budget, but the Commission felt that it needed to be cut further. After much discussion on where cuts could be made to have the least impact on services provided it was............
VOTED: That we present a budget in the amount of $52,993 for Parks and Rec for FY 2010.
NOTED: This budget figure is 10% below the 2009 budget and the 2009 budget was 3% below the 2008 budget as requested by the Board of Selectmen during that year’s budget process. We would like to emphasize that the Parks and Rec budget for 2009 was only one of two departments that met that directive.
Celeste Lunetta, Recreation Director, working with the Parks and Rec Commission, has been very conscientious in preparing and adhering to budgets over the years and we have made deep cuts to respond to Board of Selectmen’s request. The P&R budget is only 1.7% of the total town budget so while our cuts do not have a big impact on the whole, it does however, have a large impact on the residents of Antrim and affects the whole spectrum of ages.
NOTED: This budget does not allow for payroll increases for the Director of Rec, Celeste Lunetta, or her assistant, Tammy Ford. This decision was made by Celeste and Tammy. The Commission recognizes that both of these dedicated employees also give substantial time to the Town of Antrim as volunteers for many of our programs.
$3,175. cuts were suggested by Celeste from her initial budget by either eliminating some expenses or by absorbing them through “user” fees.
$360. will be cut eliminating the bus cell phone expense. Individual drivers or a passenger will have to provide their own cell phone - for emergency use only.
$2200.will be deleted from the Antrim in the Park concert series. Dropping this program was not endorsed by Celeste, but with the pressure being put on all departments to cut their budgets the Commission felt strongly eliminating this program would have less impact on the residents then other areas we discussed. This amount is the town’s share of the approximately $6,000 cost to run the series. Sponsorships, mostly local businesses, have picked up the balance of this program in past years.
The P&R Dept met the challenge to reduce their budget by 10%, and we sincerely hope the Board of Selectmen will be insisting all other departments in the Town of Antrim do the same or better.
Submitted by Thelma Nichols
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