Minutes of the Parks & Recreation Commission Meeting
Wednesday, March 23, 2016
Present: Peter Beaupre, Jr. (Chairman), Sara Szado, Mark Bodak
Also Present: Timothy Pascale, Director/Program Coordinator; Jeannie Guertin, Administrative Assistant; Steve Gordon, Grounds Laborer/Recreation Assistant; John Monaghan, Monson United Soccer.
Peter called the meeting to order at 5:32 p.m.
Sara made a motion to approve the February minutes and Mark seconded; all in favor and the motion passed.
Regarding the summer Basketball Clinics, Joe Trivosonno can run a clinic during the first week in June and will be in Italy later in the summer. Tim suggested we have the basketball clinic usually held in August for one week instead of two weeks. The registration numbers are low but the feedback is good from those who attend. After the tornado our participation numbers plummeted but registrations are drifting back up. It was agreed that Joe would run his clinic in June, similar to last year, which was three mornings, and Tim Gerry would continue to run the clinic for one week in August. Tim will contact Tim Gerry to see which week is best for him.
John Monaghan from Monson United Soccer appeared before the Commission to request permission to rent Moriarty Field for four home games for his U16 soccer team. John said that Lower Rogers Field is a difficult field to play on for his age group, given the size of the field, and that balls are continuously lost down the hill. His team is playing good teams that are used to playing on better fields and artificial turf fields.
The Commission, Tim and Steve discussed the heavy schedule the Parks & Rec has to set up 16 fields for the various JV and Varsity teams, as well as Parks & Rec baseball, softball and lacrosse teams. Steve is mostly on his own and has occasional help from Tim and another seasonal worker who is only available during his college break until he can join us full time in mid-May. After much discussion it was agreed upon that spring soccer is not a priority for the Parks & Rec given the obligations they already have with the above mentioned sports fields, as well as caring for town property, such as Dave Grieve Park, Memorial Hall and the Town Offices. Moriarty Field also needs to be rested this spring. Monson United will continue to use Lower
Rogers Field for their home games since we already need to have that field set up for other soccer teams.
Mark discussed the possibility of having volunteers set up the fields to help keep the burden off the Parks & Rec Department. Steve gave an overview of what entails setting up a field and the time involved. Volunteers are unable to use the Town’s equipment. If volunteers get hurt the town is liable for the deductible portion of damages, which would be anywhere between $5,000 and $50,000. While volunteering is a good idea, it doesn’t make sense since volunteers can’t use our equipment, and it would be time consuming to train a volunteer how to set up a field properly.
The new storage building is very nice but lacks shelving, which wasn’t included in the pricing to replace the building lost in the tornado. Peter called his father who works for Friendly’s and they have a lot of metal racking that they don’t need. Peter will meet with Tim and his father to look at it. Steve asked if they could get more barrels donated by Friendly’s, too, and Peter said he’d check.
The front of the new storage building needs to be paved before things can be moved from the two rental containers where our equipment has been stored since the tornado.
Tim coached the 7th/8th grade Suburban girls’ basketball team in the winter which has stirred his interest to coach high school basketball again. He asked for the approval from the Commission to do so before he applies for any vacant positions. Tim said he wouldn’t accept a coaching job too far from Monson. The Commission gave its approval for Tim to accept a high school coaching position if one was offered. They feel as long as his job is being done, there’s no problem. Tim makes up for any hours lost by working weekends, attending evening meetings, etc.
The results of the recent baseball evaluations were discussed. For U11 we have a team in the Tri Town division, and a team in the Suburban (recreational) league. For the U13 age group we won’t have a Tri Town team, and instead we will enter the one team into a rec league, which would be 5th/6th grade. We would like to do the same for the 7th/8th/9th grade age group, in order to give everyone a place to play.
The next meeting is Wednesday, April 27 at 5:30 p.m.
Meeting adjourned 6:54 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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