Parks and Recreation Meeting Minutes of February 23, 2009
Attendance:
Committee Members: Rita Mullin (RM), Mike Prisco (MP), Sergio Coviello (SC), Billie Luker (BL), Mike Fitzpatrick (MF)
Staff: Lynne Clemens (LC), Sheila Sturdevant (SS), Marty Tilton (MT)
Absent: Lisa Dickey (LD), Lauren McMullen (LM), Maureen Stevens (MS)
(RM) 7:09pm Quorum, meeting called to order Rita Mullin
Audience of Citizens:
NRYLL-(North Reading Youth Little League) Sib Masiello, Ron Chuive, Phil Dardeno
Acceptance of Minutes for 1/5/09, 1/14/09 and 2/2/09
(SC) Sergio Coviello made a motion to accept the minutes from the meeting on January 5, 2009 as is.
(MF) Mike Fitzpatrick seconds the motion
Approved: 5 Opposed: 0 Abstained: 0
Motion passed
(SC) Sergio Coviello made a motion to accept the minutes from the meeting on January 14, 2009 as is.
(MF) Mike Fitzpatrick seconds the motion
Approved: 5 Opposed: 0 Abstained: 0
Motion passed
(SC) Sergio Coviello made a motion to accept the minutes from the meeting on February 02, 2009 as is.
(MF) Mike Fitzpatrick seconds the motion
Approved: 5 Opposed: 0 Abstained: 0
Motion passed
New Business
NRYLL-(MT) - Sib Masiello (SM), Ron Chuive (RC) and Phil Dardeno (PD)
Introduction was made by NRYLL and by committee members. First order of business was creating a Bob Schaefer memorial and scholarship by the NRYLL. NRYLL presented P&R with the financial statement and a check for payment of partial registrants.
(SM) Bob Schaefer Memorial-NRYLL would like to set up a memorial of some sort for Bob Schaefer. They were thinking of installing a bench with a plaque on it or possibly creating a small planting garden over by the flag pole. The committee agrees that that would be a nice gesture to create a memorial for Bob Schaefer.
(SM) NRYLL Bathroom Project- NRYLL experienced some extra cost of $5000 for an electrical power update from 200 amp to 400amp with the new bathroom project down at the Little league field and they are asking P&R to help out by covering the $5000 cost of the upgrade or a portion of it.
Page 2- New Business- NRYLL-cont'd
(RM) Rita asked why NRYLL did not come to P&R before the monies were paid out. She stated that generally P&R does not REIMBURSE for a capital improvement because the department can not put a purchase order in for an expense after the fact. The procedure is to have the leagues call Marty Tilton to present the issue in question and Marty would take it to the committee and they would make a determination as to have an emergency meeting for a vote on the issue or hold off to the next meeting. P&R will take the expense under advisement and get back to NRYLL.
(MF) Mike asked why the league did bring this matter to P&R previous to the pay out and the league said it would have held up construction so they decided to make the upgrade and then ask for help after the fact.
(PD, SM, RC) User Fee Structure- NRYLL presented a complaint regarding the increase in the user fees for sports league for P&R. They feel as those it is a huge increase and unfair to charge the fee for each season. They presented that most kids that join NRLL play all 3 seasons (spring, summer and fall) and do not like that a child is charged the $45 fee for each season. Sib stated that although the user fee does not affect their operating budget at all, they have found it difficult to work it into the league fees charged to the families and have found that the parents are complaining loudly. NRYLL also asked why the fall season could not be charged a reduced fee because they feel as though not as much wear and tear happens in the fall on the fields because they only play once a week for 7 weeks and discourage
practices by the teams during the weeks. However, they did admit that there have been people down at the fields practicing on their own during the weeks. Ron stated that they have approximately 800 kids in the spring season at $155 each, between 100 to 150 for the summer season at $135 each and about 200 children in the fall for $105 each. They also asked why they have to pay by the season in the fall if it is a short season of 7 weeks and it averages that 2 games per season are rained out so it brings it to a 5 week season. They asked what they would be charged if they had to pay by the rental rate. Phil stated that the need to grant scholarships has increased dramatically this year. Sib expressed that they are more than happy with the services that Marty Tilton has provided for NRYLL but feels that the fees are still overrated. Ron asked if it is possible if NRYLL hired or solicited landscaping services for free to cut back on cost and not be charged such
a high user fee.
(MT) Marty Tilton expressed that he works very hard on the NRLL fields even when he has been shorthanded with staff along with keeping the site plowed this winter for their building project. He does more than just mow the fields. There is a lot of upkeep that is maintained at those fields other than just mowing. Each time NRYLL calls Marty he immediately interrupts his schedule and day to run down to NRLL fields to accommodate them. Also, NRLL would not be able to outside of P&R to hire a landscaper or anyone for any service that P&R provide through their union contract because the union would deny it. Also, Marty informed NRYLL that he has seen teams practicing during the weeks when they claim not to be when he is down at the fields working and although the league may say that they discourage
practices but they do not enforce it.
(RM)The user fees have been set as a universal across the board according to upkeep maintenance and services provided for all field not just for NRLL. P & R has worked on the fee structure for months on end and finally came up with something that not only was the least harsh solution but a fee that they thought would work for all leagues. Rita also wanted to reiterate to NRLL that P&R asked the leagues for help in backing P&R up at the Town meeting when budget cuts came through and explained that the User fee would have only increased to $25 instead of $45 if we had more support before the budget was cut, but not one league showed up to support P&R.
Rita will have the office research and do a comparison of what it would cost for the season rate vs. the weekly rental rate for NRLL. P&R will take the situation under advisement.
(SM & RC) Registration issue with CMI- NRLL used an online vendor for online registration and collections of registration monies. The vendor was CMI who collected the monies for NRLL and then would send the monies to NRLL who in turn would pay the user fees with that money. . NRLL paid P&R $9k for their user fees upfront to obtain permitting and expected to receive the monies from CMI as the registration came in. unfortunately CMI has not paid NRLL the monies they collected from the registrants and has recently filed for bankruptcy. NRLL is trying to submit a claim through the insurance company but at this point it does not look favorable to recoup the monies. NRLL is asking P&R to help them out by reimbursing them the $9k that they
Page 3- New Business- NRYLL-cont'd
paid for the user fees. NRYLL feels that since they did not receive their monies from CMI that they should not have to pay the user fees.
(RM) Rita expressed that we do understand the situation that CMI has placed NRLL in and that P&R feels badly about their situation. However, each league runs independently from P&R and maintains their own finances and financial procedures. It was NRLL choice to use an online vendor for collecting their fees and it is completely separate from Parks & Recreation. It is up to NRLL to handle their finances and regardless of how it is handled the league is still obligated to pay the user fee per child for all registrants.
Advertisement in Brochures (LC)
Lynne presented her ideas of advertising through the P&R brochures and a community calendar. Both ideas would bring in monies to support the projects and the dept. The Community Calendar would be managed by Maria Brown and it would include not only P&R information but Town groups such as seniors, spots leagues,
NRYSSS, School Dept, Library, etc. LC used another town's community calendar as a template to present to the committee. P&R would pay for all printing of Community calendar and distribute it through the Transcript. We would sell spots on the calendar for advertisement for business to help support the project. LC is going to research further and finalize up size of ads and pricing and present it again to the committee at a future meeting.
Turf Field Warrant Article (RM)
Rita reminded everyone that the next meeting, Monday, March 2nd we will need to interrupt our meeting to go to the Selectman's meeting to present the Turf Field Warrant Article.
Review 2008 goals and discuss 2009 goals-All
Subject has been table until the next meeting
Discuss new member solicitations-All
(RM) Rita has asked the committee and staff what type of people do they feel we should be looking for in new members. The members would like to find someone in the Grant field, someone who can make a time commitment, someone in the finance field.
Old Business
Renovation at the Wheeler House-(MT)
The Wheeler renovations are well under way. Just received the first electrical bill it was a bit high.
Committee Liaison listing-(SS)
Table subject until next meeting
Wine & Food- (SS)
Sheila updated the committee on the status of restaurants, which we currently have 14 confirmed participants for food and 4 verbal confirmations. Auction items are flowing in. If anyone has auction items of knows of anyone that can donate please pass the word around. Also, sponsorships are low please pass the word around to anyone or business that may be willing to help. Sheila asked the committee members to stop in the office at the end of the meeting to pick up tickets for each of them to sell for the event.
(MP) Mike has asked for 30 tickets to sell.
Update on IRP Bathrooms- (SC)
Sergio has received the final plans from Mike O'Neill on the IRP Bathroom Project earlier in that day and has not had the time to review them yet. He is going to have Margie Salt review the Pavilion portion of the project.
The pavilion is an add-on portion to the project or an alternate plan. The metal bridge at the back field of the Barn to go into the park will be reinforced in order to have the project commence for the bathrooms and after the project is completed the bridge will be revisited for proper repairs and upgrades.
Page 4- Update on IRP Bathrooms- (Cont'd)
Status of committee members-(SS)
Sheila updated the Committee on members that have resigned and status of each. Kathy Morgan and Olga Arnold have resigned from the committee. We have received both of their resignation letters and they have been forwarded to the TA.
Other Business
Building addition at the Wheeler property- (SC)
Sergio has presented the committee with a gym addition to the Wheeler house as an idea. He would like to know what everyone thought we would need for a gym size in order to accommodate renting it out to bring in an income. And in order to run our classes. He proposes building just a gym at first but make it built so that it could easily be added onto with another room or structure and so on in the future.
Wine and Food Social Purpose- (LC)
Lynne would like to see that the proceeds from the Wine and Food social begin to go toward a community center.
Enter into Executive Session
(BL) a motion was made by Billie Luker for the Committee to enter into Executive session at 9:47pm.
(MF) Mike Fitzpatrick seconds the motion.
Accepted: 5 Opposed: 0 Abstained: 0
Motion passed.
| 
