Minutes of the Parks & Recreation Commission Meeting
Wednesday, February 24, 2015
Present: Peter Beaupre, Jr. (Chairman), Sara Szado, Mark Bodak
Also Present: Timothy Pascale, Director/Program Coordinator; Jeannie Guertin, Administrative Assistant; Liz Manley, Pool Director
Peter called the meeting to order at 5:15 pm
Sara made a motion to approve the January minutes and Mark seconded. All in favor and the motion passed.
Regarding Accounts Receivable, there is a total of $1,000+ in outstanding balances for basketball registration fees. Parks & Rec will generate an invoice to go out to anyone with an outstanding balance for any Parks & Rec program. Jeannie distributed a draft of an invoice which the Commission agreed upon, and added on the invoice “Payment plans are available”. We will also start invoicing participants (parents/guardians) for replacement costs for uniforms that are not returned.
Some basketball players are still wearing their uniforms outside of game time. To prolong the life of uniforms they should not be worn at practices or “around town”. An e-mail was sent at the beginning of the season reminding parents uniforms need to be returned at the end of the season, should only be worn during games, and should not be put in the dryer when laundered. Jeannie will send out another e-mail stating the same, and adding that invoices will be sent for replacement costs should the uniforms not be returned.
Liz Manley appeared before the Commission to discuss pool memberships. Because we do not have a high demand for memberships, and we are losing money on those few people that have them, we will discontinue offering memberships.
Other pool programs were discussed, as well as the general maintenance of the pool. Currently, there are no major problems. A bench was taken out of the women’s outer locker room because of rusty footings and other problems and was replaced by three chairs. It’s undecided when a new bench can be installed. Recently, the pool was awarded $750 through the Monson Savings Bank Community grant, based on the number of votes received.
New LED lights were installed recently at the pool as the result of an energy grant. This will save money for electricity and we are also saving money from switching vendors for the CO2 needed for the pool filter. We had 67 swimmers on the swim team this season, which is an increase from previous years. After the tornado, our participation was down, but has been climbing slowly since then. A diving board was donated by Springfield College and has been installed.
Baseball and softball registrations have started. The baseball league will allow us to merge with other towns if necessary if we cannot field a team with our registrations, especially for U15. Our net is ready for use at Monson High School. Tim let the coaches know and it is intended for use for our baseball evaluations, which are March 19 and 20.
Mark is getting involved in RSL (Roots Soccer League) soccer in which they play on a smaller field. We may be able to work out a smaller field for this league, but will stay away from the high school fields. Cushman Field or Veterans Field are possibilities.
The new storage building is complete, except for heat. Town Administrator Evan Brassard was supposed to attend the Selectmen’s Meeting Tuesday night to discuss this but he was sick. Tim had a conflict and couldn’t attend either, so we prepared a packet which given to the Selectmen in their absence. The packet has a chronological progress report with photographs and a cover memo from Tim
The next is Meeting Wednesday, March 23, at 5:30 p.m.
Meeting adjourned at 6:09 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Jeannie Guertin
Administrative Assistant
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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