Minutes of the Parks and Recreation Commission Meeting
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Present: Michael Arbour (Chairman), Peter Beaupre, Jr., Sara Szado
Also Present: Timothy Pascale, Director/Program Coordinator; Jeannie Guertin, Administrative Assistant; Craig Szado; Ed Yesu
Mike called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m.
Peter made a motion to approve the minutes of the January 21 and January 31 meetings, and Sara seconded. All in favor and the motion passed.
March 22 and March 28 will be the days for Tri Town baseball evaluation dates. Saturday and Sunday worked out well last year in case someone couldn’t make one of those days. Craig will run the evaluations the same way he did last year. He thought it went well and the teams were pretty evenly divided. Both B teams in the 10-12 division did very well. Some of the people who had complaints of where their kids were originally placed ended up telling Craig they were happy that the kids were placed where they were.
If participants can’t make either date due to injury or absence what happens? Last year one player couldn’t make evaluations because of vacation. If evaluators aren’t familiar with the player there can be a single evaluation date for that player, and it should be done within a week of March 28. Jeannie will add to the Registration Form that Parks and Rec must be notified by March 20 if a player cannot attend either date.
Craig wanted to know if there was any baseball league available for U8. There is a Tri Town league that is mostly Palmer. Ed Yesu said that Wilbraham, Palmer, South Hadley and Ludlow have U8. He has been asked why there isn’t a U8 in Monson. The Commission decided the last two years not to participate. Craig thinks it’s a necessity for some kids that have the skills. If you don’t have the numbers can we go with another town? We think we’ll get the numbers. Craig feels that first graders and lower level second graders can handle it. We could run evaluations for U8 the following Saturday of Tri Town evaluations for the older divisions. The minimum age requirement for U8 would be you cannot be 9 by May
1, 2015.
There was much discussion of how the U8 evaluation would run and with that the concern of our softball program. There is a group of girls that could play in our 3rd/4th grade softball program. There is worry that our softball program is going to die out due to lack of participants, and there currently is a five grade gap of players. Jim Zielinski is the new Varsity coach; there is no JV coach, but Jim is willing to be involved in the whole softball program, and has agreed to run a softball clinic.
The Commission decided to run a clinic for boys and girls ages 6-8 for whoever is interested in baseball or softball, then bring in 3rd/4th grade softball girls for the last half hour. This will be done on April 4 from Noon to 1:30 p.m.
Ed Yesu wanted to know if we could do anything with a U17 team for the summer. New England Elite has a U18 team, but it’s a tournament team. There really aren’t any competitive baseball teams for that age group in the summer.
Ed Yesu suggested that a commissioner be assigned to oversee one sport. A commissioner would be involved in one sport, instead of three commissioners handling all our sport programs. That Commissioner would be involved, talk to the kids, and be visible. We need to find out why kids are leaving programs and looking to other towns. Peter said the Commissioners’ time isn’t focused on individual sports but the focus is on recruiting and training more parents and volunteers for all our programs. The Commission as a whole has to tackle problems or set policies. The 5th/6th grade basketball situation is a good example of the Commission and the Department working together for a solution. Sara said we
are trying to get the Varsity coaches involved in our instructional programs and run clinics for specific sports. Our specialists are our high school coaches.
Ed says we have to change the perception of the Parks & Rec Department. The Commission responded that people should come forward to ask questions, and get involved to better understand decisions made and how the Department runs. Ed feels we need to communicate more, and he wants to be more involved.
People are signing up for Middle School Sports and Fitness Training Program which will run after school on Tuesdays and Fridays. Tim recently was told by the School that the Granite Valley Middle School gym is not available on Fridays because of the School’s after school programs. We thought the School’s after school programs were Mondays and Wednesdays, and Jackie Rickson wasn’t available to run the Training Program on Thursdays. Tim said this Fitness Training Program is a win/win on our end, but we have to find out more about the potential conflict with the school permit.
Regarding more resources for coaches via our town website, the Commission discussed more about links available to coaches and/or potential coaches with tips and drills, etc. We will try to have something active for lacrosse/baseball season, and could include information about these resources in a coach’s packet. We may get more volunteers to coach if they know there’s available resources. Tim distributed information for “alphaBASKETBALL” which is a resource that Wilbraham uses. Because of our dwindling budget, however, we couldn’t afford the cost associated with such a program.
Outstanding basketball fees are trickling in. We will follow our policy that a participant can’t sign up for a program if they have an outstanding balance for a past program that they had registered for.
Paperwork for the Community Preservation Act funds for the Flynt Park playground was signed by the Commissioners. The playground is designed and ready to go once the weather conditions allow for installation.
Tim went to the girls’ league lacrosse meeting. We have to have boys’ coaches in place to attend scheduling meetings in late February. The girls’ scheduling meetings will be moved to March 23 per Tim’s request at the meeting.
The next meeting date is Wednesday, March 11 at 6:30 pm.
Meeting adjourned at 8:03 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Jeannie Guertin
Administrative Assistant
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