Minutes of the Parks and Recreation Commission Meeting
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Present: Steve O’Shea (Chairman), Steve Slozak, Michael Arbour
Also Present: Tim Pascale, Director/Program Coordinator, Jeannie Guertin, Secretary/Clerk; Peter Sauriol (School Committee liaison); Sara Szado and Patti Vacon (Monson Athletic Boosters); Grant Hamilton and Donna Mastroianni (Monson Lacrosse Association); Colin Leyburn (Monson Dolphins Boosters); Liz Manley, Pool Director
Steve O’Shea called the meeting to order at 6:33 p.m.
Sara Szado and Patti Vacon appeared before the Commission to discuss a lighting project for Monson athletic fields. The boosters netted a $5,000 profit from monies raised at the recent night soccer games, and have set up a separate account specifically for the lighting project. The Community Preservation Act bylaws have been changed so that CPC funds can be used for lights. The deadline for CPC project applications is March for the spring Town Meeting, and August for the November Town Meeting. Parks and Rec and the Boosters should complete the paperwork together for the lighting project. The first lights planned would be for Moriarty Field, and lighting would have to be designed for use of soccer games and track, for both track and field events. There are poles at Granite
Valley Middle School that John Rahkonen, owner of Northern Construction, claims are still usable. It would cost approximately $70,000 for lights, including new poles and heads. This includes pro bono work that local people would like to help out with. Monson Savings Bank has already stated they would donate $20,000 for the lights. All gate proceeds of soccer games could also go towards the lighting project.
Parks and Rec supports this project, and if it is pursued, permission should be received from the School Department to put the lights up. Then three quotes should be obtained from different companies. Musco Sports Lighting does most of the fields in this area. The Boosters should find out from Palmer what the electricity is costing them for their lights.
Grant Hamilton and Donna Mastrioanni appeared before the Commission to propose that the Parks and Rec Department take over the developmental lacrosse program from the Monson Lacrosse Association. This would include from Instructional (K-2nd grade) up to the Club teams (9th-12th grade). MLA would concentrate mostly on fund raising and would also act as a sounding board for the Parks and Rec. MLA has all equipment and uniforms and will turn those over to the Parks and Rec. Coaches or a MLA representative should attend all scheduling meetings for the boys and girls leagues, which are one time meetings before the start of the season. Monson High School Athletic Director Sarah Shaw works with boys varsity coach Dan Haggerty to schedule the club teams. Teams
need to be reported to the league by January 31. Steve Slozak made a motion that the Parks and Rec Department accept the MLA’s proposal and take over the developmental lacrosse program from them. Steve O’Shea seconded; all in favor and the motion passed. MLA will send an e-mail out to all former players letting them know of the change of administration to the Parks and Rec Department.
Colin Leyburn of the Monson Dolphins appeared before the Commission at their request to discuss the financial status of the pool. Liz Manley, Pool Director, was also present. Peter said at their last meeting, the School Committee voted to close the pool after the varsity season ended in February. It is a budget issue and they feel they will save $15,000 by doing this. Don Smith recorded expenses for the pool on a monthly basis for the pool for a full year, 2011-2012, and the pool costs $62,000 a year to run. The varsity program costs $21,000; the Parks and Rec programs pay $21,000; and the school subsidizes $20,000. Peter would like to see consistency in the financial management of the pool so the threat of closing the pool doesn’t happen every year, and that perhaps a 3-5 year
plan can be put in place to be more proactive to avoid this pattern. The School Committee is working on this for next year.
Liz and Tim both questioned that the $60,000+ figure was given in previous years before savings plans had been put into place, such as the pool cover and sub meter installation. Together with electricity costs decreasing, why is Don’s figure not lower? It costs an average a month of $4,000-$5,500. If the pool were open just for the varsity season, which is November through February, the Parks and Rec could run their programs within that same timeframe, but not outside of those months.
The town may have to budget for the pool if they want to keep it open longer than Parks and Rec can afford to keep it open. If the pool is totally shut down, it costs approximately $3,000-$5,000 to reopen it. There was discussion of approaching the Finance Committee to ask for $40,000 to keep the pool open for the remainder of the fiscal year. Jeannie will see when Steve O’Shea, Peter Sauriol and Colin Leyburn can be on the agenda for a Finance Committee meeting to discuss this. Peter will be able to get all pertinent and accurate numbers together for the Finance Committee.
Colin asked about the income and expenses of the pool. The average payroll for the pool programs is $1,500/month. Tim will send Colin all recorded turnovers and expenses for the pool since July 1, 2012.
Parks & Rec has been asked to put up a gate at the beginning of the trails at Flynt Park to deter vehicles, quads, and dirt bikes from entering. Before Tim gets three quotes the location needs to be confirmed. Tim will also meet with the police chief to see what kind of signage can be put up. After looking at the proposed location of the gate, the Commissioners thought they should walk the area to see where the best location is for the gate.
The tennis courts are done for now and are locked, and Tim is waiting for a price from Palmer Paving to use blue paint.
The Cushman Field project is being put on hold since it will cost $7,000 to repair Park Road. Maybe Community Preservation Funds can be used towards Cushman Field.
Tim is asked to provide a “level services budget”, and he feels that in order to provide the same services we are providing now, that would include Jeannie’s position. Based on this, he is putting Jeannie’s salary back in the budget for $13,630, which includes her normal raise, meetings, Saturdays, etc. The secretary’s salary had been cut in the budget, and Jeannie’s salary has been being paid with monies from the revolving fund.
In 2010 the school put out contracts to maintain the school grounds, and we lost the bid. Mike feels we are doing too much work for the school’s fields, and that we are using money collected from registration fees for our programs to maintain the school’s fields. It was discussed that we maintain the school’s fields, which are also used for Parks and Rec programs. In addition to that, we are not charged to use the school gyms for our programs. Tim feels he does the best he can for the amount of money we have to work with. Steve O’Shea feels Tim is the director to oversee the managing of money and that is part of his responsibilities as to the day to day operation of the department, and should continue to do what he’s doing.
Regarding the town’s policy of requiring referees to fill out a form at each game for payment, Tim found that referees are willing to follow this procedure and fill out the form to receive payment after the games they are officiating. We can no longer issue lump sum checks to coaches at the beginning of the season and have them pay out from that amount at each game.
Mike asked about completing the drainage work on the third field now instead of waiting until the spring. Tim said there is more clearing to do at that field and the drainage work has to wait until after that is done. If this can be done in April, the field should be ready for practices; however, the spectator area might not be. The parking area has to be leveled and paved, and there was hope that reclaimed material could be used for this.
Steve Slozak asked if Tim had spoken to the woman who had provided cupcakes for team members of both teams for the last game of the season. (She got permission from both teams’ parents to distribute the cupcakes after the game, but the opposing coach denied his players the cupcakes after the game because he said they did not deserve them because they did not play well.) Tim will check again with her about this. He said he hadn’t heard from her to pursue the incident as a formal coach complaint. If the coach in question wants to coach again there will have to be a conversation about it.
There are still a lot of outstanding balances for basketball, and a first notice will be sent out after the holidays.
Regarding the water irrigation project at Constantino Field, Peter said the school is waiting for the development of the 2014 budget before they approve the project, which will be sometime around March/April.
Steve Slozak made a motion to accept the November 29 minutes. Mike Arbour seconded; all in favor and the motion passed.
The next meeting date is Thursday, January 17 at 6:30 p.m.
Steve Slozak made a motion to close the meeting at 9:29 p.m. Mike Arbour seconded; all in favor and the motion passed.
Respectfully submitted,
Jeannie Guertin
Secretary/Clerk
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