 |
Newton Recreation Commission
2 Town Hall Road, Newton, NH 03858
Tel: 382-4405 ext. 13 * Fax 382-9140
NEWTON RECREATION COMMISSION
DATE: Monday July 11, 2016
TIME: 7 PM
LOCATION: Town Hall Rear Meeting Room
MEETING MINUTES
- Call to Order: Chairman Bob Faghan called the meeting to order at 7 PM.
- Members in Attendance: Chairman Bob Faghan, Selectman Ex-Officio Matt Burrill, Vice-Chairman Annie Collyer, Steve St. Cyr, Alternate member Fred Burbridge and Alternate Member Angela McVey. Mr. Faghan appointed Mr. Burbridge as a voting member to take the place of an absent member.
- Guests: Former Recreation Chairman (97-99) Cathy Surrette
- Approval of Minutes of June 27, 2016: Mr. St. Cyr made a motion to accept the minutes of June 27, 2016 as written. Mr. Burbridge seconded, and there being no discussion, the motion passed unanimously.
- Town Beach: Mr. Faghan stated that there have been two incidents of vandalism to the town raft. Selectman Burrill said the police are viewing the videos and the investigation into who is committing the vandalism is ongoing. Selectman Burrill made a motion, seconded by Mr. Faghan, to remove the raft for the remainder of the season. Ms. Collyer offered a friendly amendment that the raft be removed temporarily, until the perpetrators are identified and repairs made, but Selectman Burrill declined the amendment. Discussion followed that the Commission members are in agreement that the raft cannot remain in the water with a broken panel because there is risk of injury to a resident. They are also in agreement that the vandal should be found and held responsible, and the security camera videos should help.
However, Mrs. McVey pointed out that Newton is not CSI and it takes time to investigate. Ms. Collyer would like residents to become aware of the vandalism and the responsibility residents have to care for our town properties in our little community. Mrs. Surrette asked why Newton cannot go back to the days when we had swimming lessons at the beach and lifeguards, making money for the town to do other improvements to recreation properties. Ms. Collyer reviewed the results of the past several years, with only 30 signed up for swim lessons versus hundreds 20 years ago when Mrs. Surrette was in charge of Recreation, despite heavy advertising and outreach to surrounding towns. She surmised that with more parents working, they just do not have time to take their children to half-hour swim lessons. She reviewed the attempt made two years ago to outsource swim lessons at the beach to the Regional Y, without success due to liability issues when the Y
refused to assume liability for their own activities. She summarized with the eventual decision by both Recreation and the Board of Selectman that $25,000 for swim lessons and lifeguards for 1/3 of the total time the beach is open, catering to 30 kids for lessons and only 10-20 residents in the water, was too costly for town residents. She said the total Recreation budget is about $12,000 and Town Residents were not willing to pass warrant articles to support safety moves at Greenie Park this year. Mrs. Surrette was surprised at how the demand for use at the Town Beach has changed over the years. The vote initially failed by 2-3 but it was agreed to vote again, and the motion passed 3-2. The raft will be removed for the season, and re-installation can be revisited next year, pending the results of the investigation into the vandalism.
- Greenie Park: Mrs. Surrette commented that this is a vulnerable time of year for Greenie Park. There are not vandalism events, nor drug use, going on, with the new security cameras. There have been some incidents of littering, and she and her husband let the police know when these occur. She said that the lawn needs to be kept mowed, so that people with dogs use the edges and not the center of the fields, since they rarely bag. She noted that the tennis court and basketball court are getting a lot of use and could use a sealcoating, which she estimates at $1500 plus linepainting. Ms. Collyer suggested we could offer a warrant article next year, but believes that the priority is the safety issues of the playground and the skate park before the beauty of sealcoating and paint. Mrs. Surrette agreed that the skate
park has some unsafe conditions with cracks, homemade structures and need of repairs.
- Senior Events: Mr. Burbridge reported that Ms. Kuzmitski has been polling Seniors on Senior trips.
- Town 5K Race Sept 10: Selectman Burrill shared a question from Vanessa Burrill about fees of $3.95 that will be charged by Active for online registrations. It was agreed that the registrant fee is sufficient to cover the cost. Mr. Faghan stated that he has two ice cream vendors lined up and has given the contact information to Mrs. Burrill for the Kingston Lions Club, who want to offer coffee and donuts that morning.
- Other Business:
- Canobie Lake tickets online has been having some challenges, but Christine Cina has done a fix, Ms. Collyer stated.
- Mrs. McVey said that her Senior Girl Scouts have a map to post of the Peanut Trail and suggested it can be done on Facebook, since the Town Website does not have enough capacity for it. She thinks they may do a geocache around town next Spring and may also finalize the trail map for Greenie, putting the trail exploration at Greenie back in residents’ awareness next Spring.
- Mr. Faghan reported that movie night was well-attended with about 30 people. Selectman Burrill suggested the possibility of a movie night in the fall, post mosquito season. It was agreed to look at long-range forecasts and make a plan for that in September or October.
- The next Recreation meeting will be held on Monday, August 1 at 7 PM.
- Adjournment: Ms. Collyer made a motion, seconded by Mr. Burbridge, to adjourn. Passing unanimously, Mr. Faghan adjourned the meeting at 8:15 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Annie Collyer, Secretary
| |
