Minutes of the Parks and Recreation Commission Meeting
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Present: Michael Arbour, Barry Cady and Steve O’Shea
Also Present: Timothy Pascale, Director; Jeannie Guertin, Secretary/Clerk; Pete Beaupre; Jen Gouvin
Steve O’Shea called the meeting to order at 6:34 p.m.
Steve made a motion to accept the May minutes and Mike seconded. All in favor and minutes passed
Steve O’Shea has thought about replacing Steve Slozak as Chairman of the Commission and would like to accept this position. Barry made a motion to name Steve O’Shea as the Chairman of the Parks and Recreation Commission and Mike seconded. All in favor and the motion passed.
Regarding repairing the electrical box at Flynt Park, Steve Kacoyannakis has agreed to do this and will fix the box when he gets free time from his regular job.
Mike received a call from Sandy Courtney from the the Friends of the Monson Free Library. The Library would like to hold an event in September, but does not want to conflict with Monson Summer Theatre performance dates. Mike was given the dates of the performances and will call Sandy to inform her of those dates.
A letter has gone out to a parent that had signed her child up for one of the weeks of the summer Basketball Clinic. Tim wrote the parent informing her that her child’s registration was being declined. This particular child has distributed undesirable behavior in past years at the Clinic and Tim felt this behavior was detrimental to the quality of the Clinic and, in fact, last year had to assign one counselor to watch the child. On the Basketball Clinic flyer it states that the Parks and Recreation Department has the right to deny an application. The letter had gone out two days prior to the meeting, and the parent had not yet responded. The Commission supported Tim’s decision to deny that particular registration.
Pete Beaupre and Jen Gouvin appeared before the Commission to discuss Pete taking over the direction of the Parks and Rec instructional soccer program from Jen Gouvin. Jen is ready to turn this over to Pete. Mike had some concerns that were voiced to him by some parents about how the program has been run. The parents that voiced their concerns to Mike felt that during the game portion of the program on Saturday mornings there were parents on the sideline screaming at their kids. The screaming was negative and was putting pressure on the kids to play competitively, and they felt that the kids were too young to be participating in this way. They feel that the kids should be learning skills and having fun, and shouldn’t be playing any games.
Mike runs the instructional basketball program and feels that kids lose interest in games because they don’t know what to do. The basketball program runs about 1 ½ hours, and the kids play around, run drills, and may shoot baskets with a parent towards the end of the morning.
Pete felt that 45-50 minutes of practice type drills is sufficient. Any more time than that is too much for that age group (3-5 year olds). Jen stated that youth sports organizations all suggest open games for ages under 6, and she feels it is important for kids to learn through open game/play. The game portion of the program isn’t as long as some parents (with the concerns) have made it out to be. The open games are attempted to be kept short, but some players may want to stay longer. While some parents are needed to help coach, the solution could be to physically separate the parents who are not coaching from the kids during this open game period. Also, the parents need to be better informed about the philosophy of instructional soccer. Steve O’Shea suggested handing
out a Code of Conduct to each parent. Jen and Pete will receive a copy of the Code of Conduct that the Parks and Rec uses for the older groups and see if they can modify it more specifically for the instructional soccer program.
Pete asked about the length of the program, and he was informed that the program ran Saturday mornings in the fall, from 10:00-11:30 a.m. It will start on September 12 this year.
On another topic Jen spoke to the school about having a Soccer Day on September 19. Teams involved would be the high school, alumni, Maple League, Pioneer Valley and instructional. There would be fees involved to raise money. Inflatables could be put up, and vendors could come to sell cleats, shorts, etc. The idea would be soccer on all levels “across the board”. The Commission told Jen that they have her support for this.
Steve O’Shea asked about the schedule for baseball tryouts this summer. Tim has contacted varsity baseball coach Tony Dismukes about directing the tryouts again this summer. Once Tim hears back from Tony, they’ll set the dates for the evaluations. Steve noted that our 8-10 Tri-Town team made the states this year.
Tim informed the Commission that our Red Sox bus trip scheduled for Thursday, July 9 is sold out.
The current field usage fee is $150 and Tim suggested that the fee be raised to $200. This would be effective for fall soccer. Monson is still lower than most towns, the fields are well maintained, and the new fee would not reflect a huge increase for each player when you divide it among a team. Steve O’Shea made the motion to raise the field usage fee to $200 per Tim’s suggestion, and Barry seconded. All in favor and the motion passed.
Since Steve Slozak was the Parks and Rec representative on the Community Preservation Committee and he is no longer on the Parks and Rec Commission, he needs to be replaced by an active commissioner. It is mandatory that a Parks and Rec Commissioner be on the CPC. The Commission decided to table this topic until the July meeting and will decide at that meeting who will replace Steve Slozak.
The sprinkler system at the high school soccer field has been under repair. It is 90% “up and running”. That field cannot be overseeded without water.
The fiscal year 2010 budget was discussed. The Selectmen asked for a proposal from the Parks and Rec Department, the Library, the Senior Center, and the Cemetery Department. The proposals were to suggest cuts to each department of 15%, 20% and 30%. Tim submitted proposals to the Selectmen’s Office but was told the proposal arrangement was not what they were looking for. Tim e-mailed the Selectmen stating that there were so many different scenarios of how he could the budget in three different levels that he’d prefer to meet with them and discuss this, line item by line item. The Selectmen want the proposals from the various departments by July 6. While Tim would recommend where the cuts could come from, he emphasized that it is ultimately up to the
Commission. As a team, Tim and the Commission should figure out how to best serve the community with what we have. The budget that comes out from the state that will decide if there will be budget cuts and how much may not be known until October.
Baseball playoffs are coming soon, and the baseball/softball season went pretty well for the most part. One incident occurred at a 9-10 rec baseball game. Only one umpire showed up and it was a first year ump. He was supposed to ump the bases but ended up behind the plate. Complaints came from the visiting team that the home team (Monson) was giving the ump an extremely difficult time. Monson players, parents and coaches were harassing the ump over what they felt were bad calls, and the ump was visibly upset. The visiting team thought the ump was doing a good job, despite the harassment.
Also, during a 5th/6th grade softball game, one of the Monson coaches was displaying negative behavior over umpire calls. On a positive note, there have many comments regarding the great job that Randy Emerson does umpiring games.
Steve Hutchinson is no longer a town employee so he now has to submit a bill for the equipment maintenance he performs for the Parks and Rec. Previously, we had been able to pay him through Payroll.
The next meeting will take place on Thursday, July 30th, 2009 at 6:30 p.m.
Steve O’Shea made a motion to adjourn at 8:10 p.m., and Barry seconded. All in favor; meeting adjourned.
Respectfully submitted,
Jeannie Guertin
Secretary/Clerk
Timothy J Pascale
Director/Program Coordinator
Monson Parks and Recreation
110 Main Street
Monson, MA 01057
1-413-267-4105 ( phone )
1-413-267-0327 ( fax )
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