Minutes of the Parks and Recreation Commission Meeting
Monday, December 2, 2014
Present: Michael Arbour (Chairman), Peter Beaupre, Jr., Sara Szado
Also Present: Timothy Pascale, Director/Program Coordinator Jeannie Guertin, Secretary/Clerk; Robin Santos, Rich Krupczak, and Brian Garon; Chris Miller, Mark Bodak and John Monaghan (Monson United).
Peter called the meeting to order at 7:03 p.m.
Steve O’Shea appeared before the Commission to discuss the donation of money from Monson Baseball Association towards a shed for the Parks and Recreation Department. The MBA is dissolving due to lack of activity and Steve wanted to finalize their offer of the shed. The Commission can discuss where they want the shed but the intent was for coaches to have to keep equipment preferably at the new field at Flynt Park. Peter and Sara agreed that the new field would be a good location for the shed. Steve presented a check for $2,500 to the Parks & Recreation Department for the use of a shed, which was gratefully accepted.
Peter made motion to accept the minutes of the October 20 minutes. Sara seconded; all in favor and the motion passed.
Peter made motion to accept the minutes of the November 2 minutes. Sara seconded; all in favor and the motion passed.
Mike Arbour arrived to the meeting at 7:15 p.m.
John Monaghan, Chris Miller and Mark Bodak of Monson United Soccer appeared before the Commission to discuss the use of fields for their teams. The goal mouths have been sodded at Moriarty Field for the first time in a long time, and Tim wants to rest the field so he can overseed and rest it. Two spring soccer groups have nowhere to play except for Moriarty.
Upper Rogers hasn’t been used for summer soccer in a long time. Lacrosse utilizes the high school field. Track uses Moriarty field every day until 5:00 p.m. Tim said it isn’t a timing issue; it’s primarily the goal that needs to be moved. Mark asked if they purchased rollers to move the goal could they use it. Chris suggested they only use the field on the weekends. Veterans Field is being used by JV and Tri Town baseball. Lower Rogers field needs to be rested.
John Monahan needs a place to practice and a place for home games. They have worked up the program and don’t want to tell parents there are no home games. The goal at the far end of Moriarty Field would have to be moved back and to the left and out of the way of the high jump mats, which isn’t a long distance. It would have to be moved by Monson United by Monday morning. If not, we need a contact name and number to call. When spring season is over, they can go to the JV Boys field for summer soccer and practices. Baseball is at Vets Field until the end of July.
The Commission agreed to let Monson United use Moriarty Field under the condition they move the goal out of Track’s way by Monday morning. There should be no practices at Upper or Lower Rogers, Veterans Field, or Cushman Field. Tim would like to rest Quarry Hill field and put a small field crosswise at Upper Rogers field. Jeannie will put together a “do’s and don’t’s” list to Chris on field usage for Monson United in the spring.
Robin Santos, Rich Krupczak and Brian Garon appeared before the Commission to discuss 7th/8th grade girls’ Suburban basketball. We had 15 girls try out, and 5 additional girls signed up for recreational baseball.
Five of the 8th grade girls that signed up for Suburban have made the high school JV team. Three of those five want to play JV and Suburban. Game wise there is no conflict with the schedules. Rich asked why Monson had to follow Suburban rules last year, but we are not following them this year, and asked why Tim called the new coach to asked him to not allow any JV girls to play Suburban. Tim said he e-mailed the coach and didn’t call him to ask the coach his opinion about the girls playing on both teams. Rich had paperwork from those e-mails.
The girls were not evaluated/scored during the evaluation date since they didn’t know if anyone could try out for JV and/or make the JV team. Tim said there aren’t many conflicts, but in the winter when games get snowed out and schedules are changed, there’s the potential for a lot of problems with conflicts that weren’t there. Tim would like to see three players move from Suburban to rec.
The practice schedule of the JV team was discussed in detail and as a result of that schedule and ten known conflicts, the three girls playing both teams would be missing games.
After hearing the opinions of Robin, Rich and Brian, and much discussion the Commission decided that Mike will have a conversation with one of the players and her parents and explain that we have five signed up for rec and need more players, and explain the skill level and competitive nature of Suburban, and give that player a choice of playing on a rec team.
The Commission decided not to address the maintenance of Moriarty Field now since there is currently no Athletic Director.
Tim gave an update on the full time Administrative Assistant position. The position was posted internally with the union and no one applied, and also placed an advertisement in The Palmer Journal for two weeks. Tim, the Town Administrator and Human Resources will narrow the thirteen applicants down to two or three and the Commission would interview and hire the applicant for the position.
First Start basketball starts on Saturday, December 6. The high school coach is supposed to be there to run the program, and Mike will also be there.
The next meeting date is Wednesday, January 7 at 6:30 p.m.
Meeting adjourned at 9:13 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Jeannie Guertin
Secretary/Clerk
Timothy J Pascale
Director/Program Coordinator
Monson Parks and Recreation
110 Main Street
Monson, MA 01057
413-267-4105 - Phone
413-267-0327 - fax
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