Antrim Parks & Recreation Commission
Minutes
November 10, 2016
The meeting was called to order at 7:05 pm.
Attendance
Parks & Rec Commissioners: Joan Gorga, Peter Lamb, Isaac Lombard and Mike Genest
Recreation Director: Celeste Lunetta
Antrim Resident: Chris Morris
Minutes
The minutes from the October 13, 2016 meeting were approved as written.
Town Gym
Floor. Celeste has scheduled C&C Flooring to do a full sand and recoat of the gym floor beginning on Thursday, November 17, as the kids do not have school the week of Thanksgiving and this timing will have the lowest possible impact other than completing the job in August. They will apply the first coat of urethane just as the kids leave on Friday, and the second coat will be applied Sunday. Steve Diggins (Wood Pro) will do the lining, including basketball, volleyball, pickleball and two four-square courts. C&C will return for a final coat of urethane Tuesday or Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and the floor will have five days to dry and outgas before the kids return on the Monday after Thanksgiving. Celeste has spoken with the school staff. The door will be blocked off and cracks taped. Celeste notified the School
Board in person in August that the project will proceed, and has not heard from them.
The Commission voted to proceed with the full sand and recoat, since the floor is becoming unsafe in places where the layers of polyurethane are peeling up and people are tripping on them. Although the floor is in failure due to lifting off the stabilizing pins in several areas, drainage improvements seem to have slowed the decline, and we anticipate that complete floor replacement, which was estimated several years ago to cost $75,000, is at least ten years off. We have been advised that patching peeling areas will lead to adjacent areas peeling and lead to an uneven floor surface. We believe that the responsible maintenance decision is to do a full sand and recoat at this time, which will allow us to do simple buff-and-recoats for the remaining life of the gym floor. Patching now will leave the floor in a deteriorating condition and it
will be harder to rationalize performing required maintenance in the coming years. Since the gym is a Town facility, not ConVal’s, we have a more vested interest in maintaining our facility over the long term.
C&C Flooring quoted $12,826 to sand the floor and apply three coats of polyurethane. WoodPro quoted $3100 to apply basketball and volleyball lines, and an additional $900 for pickleball and four-square lines. We will pay upfront and bill ConVal for $7900, half the cost, not including the pickleball and four-square lines. We will use funds from the Richardson Trust, since the gym is our primary location for youth programs in the summer. We will also use any available funds from the Rec Department budget and possibly from Govt. Buildings.
Other. The Town Gym sign has been put back up. ConVal changed the locks to the building without notifying or providing access to Celeste. According to the gym agreement, they need to notify and both parties need to agree on modifications to the facility.
Shea Field
ConVal Agreement. The ConVal agreement has been signed. Rich Cahoon suggested a $4000 contribution from ConVal for field maintenance. ConVal has also agreed to contribute half the cost of a handicap toilet at the field from April-October. Celeste will talk to Rich and Donna Hanson about how to proceed with documenting the itemized budget.
Ice Skating. Monica is working on coordinating ice skating on the infield in January and February. Pete will talk to Jim Plourde about access to the tractor for snow removal. The Highway Dept. may also be able to help with ice clearing.
Tournament. Rick Wood, Celeste and Joan met to discuss sponsoring a soccer tournament next fall to celebrate the lights. We set a tentative date of the Friday and Saturday after Halloween. Rick suggested entertainment beyond the games themselves, to try to make it more of a community-wide event.
Memorial Park
Maintenance. The bandstand spire is cracked and the roof is covered with gravel from kids trying to knock pieces out of it. Joe Valley promised to look at it, but probably hasn’t done it yet. A new hole has been bashed into one of the skate park elements, but it does not appear to be a structural problem. The mowing at Memorial Park was not adequate this year. We will need to discuss mowing requirements for both Shea Field and Memorial Park for next year.
Celeste mentioned that Hopkinton has received USTA grant funding for renovating tennis courts and beginning a “Quick Start” program to introduce kids to tennis. We’ll investigate what might be available to help in tennis court renovations.
Budget
The Selectboard appeared to be satisfied with the Rec Dept budget, which was lower than last year. The Shea Field budget was increased from $4500 to $6000. For three years the budget has been underspent in salaries, due to inconsistent staffing. Celeste suggested taking additional salary money out of the Revolving Account if more is needed for salaries. The budget numbers don’t account for raises. When we redo the gym floor agreement, we should include sanding of the gym floor every 5th or 6th year.
Recreation Department
Update. The soccer season was very successful, but basketball registration is low, with few kids and few coaches. It seems that the kids who were referred to the CVYSA over the last couple of years have slowly dropped out, and there will be no 5th & 6th grade teams. We will try to get the 1st and 2nd graders going this year in Antrim to rebuild the program. JT will try running a multi-sport program for 3rd through 5th graders on Wednesday evenings.
Crotched Mountain Ski Area closed the ski club program, but donated three free Peak passes. We donated one to the Grapevine auction and will raffle the other two off.
Gregg Lake
Watershed Management Plan Grant. The Pre-proposal for funds from NHDES/EPA to support development of a Gregg Lake watershed management plan was submitted on October 21. Those who will be asked to continue with the application process will be notified sometime in November.
Windfall. If the Wind Farm is approved by the SEC, we should be getting $40,000 for improvements at the public beach. Ideas for projects include: bathhouse improvements, benches, a handicap-accessible boardwalk, a dock reaching out to the float, a wind kiosk, a new sign and contributions to the watershed management plan.
The next regularly scheduled Parks & Recreation Commission Meeting will be Thursday, December 8th at 7:00 pm at the Rec Office.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:47 pm.
-Joan Gorga, Chair and Secretary
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