Parks and Recreation Meeting Minutes of
Monday, June 9, 2014
Town Hall, Room 5 at 7pm
Attendance:
Committee Members: Billie Luker (BL), Rita Mullin (RM), Sergio Coviello (SC), Ron Kern (RK)
Staff: Sheila Sturdevant (SS), Maureen Stevens (MS), Marty Tilton (MT)
Tardy: Patricia Fillmore (PF)
Absent: Mike Fitzpatrick (MF), Lynne Clemens (LC)
Call to order: 7:10pm; Quorum, called by Billie Luker
Audience of Citizens: Ken Tarr-LUC at 8:10pm
Acceptance of Minutes: 5/5/14
(SC) Sergio made a motion to accept the minutes of 5/5/14 as is.
(RK) Ron seconds the motion.
No discussion had.
Approved: 4 Opposed: 0 Abstained: 0
Motion passed
New Business:
- Signs at Chestnut Street (RM)
- Rita has requested to have a discussion regarding having banner signs at Maguire Field Chestnut Street Complex for sponsors. She would like to have a round table discussion and have a vote at the following meeting.
- How do we handle going forward allowing sports leagues to govern signage at the fields? We need to set a policy.
- Rita stated that Recreation is in charge at the turf field, NRLL is in charge at Benevento field, and soccer put up banners at Maguire but did not go thru Recreation first. NRYFL only plays at Turf which we are already in charge of. Men’s Softball probably would never do it and youth softball is at a school and signs are not allowed at the schools. Rita asked for the school’s verbiage to be brought to the next meeting.
- Marty stated that we should allow as long as they confirm through Parks & Recreation and adhere to town bylaws. We have already set precedence with NRLL and NRYS puts monies back into the fields.
Ron suggested to soccer that they put the banners on boards and put in and out every week and if we set a price it will curve it.
Sergio stated that we cannot have signs at every field and they need to gain approval through P&R Committee prior.
Pat doesn’t see a problem with it.
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- Billie stated that the entities need to meet the town bylaws and we need to delegate how many signs will be allowed at a specific site and content must be approved as well. We should hold the same criteria as the schools do regarding signage. Billie stated to add the vote for this subject on the next meeting agenda.
- Marty stated that banners have to be a standardized size to be approved, less than 16 square feet and should all be one size and the organization is responsible for the upkeep of the signs. We need to measure the area at Maguire field and banners need to be facing inward toward field not toward the road.
- Maureen stated that she will email the committee the verbiage on signs from the school.
- Farmer’s Market (RM/KT)-Ken Tarr from LUC has joined meeting.
- Ken updated P&R on status of Farmer’s Market.
- We have only received one vendor application so far.
- He has contact 3 local farms.
- Other surrounding community’s farmer’s market has begun.
- Ken sent Recreation the newest copy of the farmer’s market application and flyer.
- They have decided on the location to be by the front on the left by the front parking.
- Vendors should arrive around 2:30pm on Wednesdays and set up.
- Ken will come to the June 23rd P&R meeting with an update.
Old Business
- Recreation Director Update(LC)-None
- Parks Director Update (MT)-
- Schedule has been busy: Relay for Life, Grand March for prom, graduation at Turf field, Softball tournament this coming weekend. Everything looks in great shape.
- Fourth of July: Chief of Police called and said that the 4th July committee wanted to charge for parking at the 4th event. Chief wants to squash it. Marty is handling. Carnival vendor called to say they would be arriving on June 30th. Marty told them they could not arrive until 7/2/14.
- Buses parked at Recreation Center: School Business Manager, Tom Connoly called to discuss parking the buses at the Recreation Center for one more year due to the construction at the school.
- Summer program fees through the school: Marty stated that he will speak to the superintendent regarding the fees charged for the summer program at the Little School.
- North Reading Youth Soccer: Marty spoke with NRYS. They do not need to come to a meeting. Marty is shutting down Maguire field at end of season to do maintenance and improvements. Soccer wants to Sod the entire field. They have offered to pay for the materials if Marty has his staff do the labor. Marty said yes. Marty is waiting for a response from Soccer. Billie asked if that would affect rentals and Marty said it would not.
- School New Fields Sod? Marty got a price for the schools to sod the new fields. Waiting to hear from schools.
- Operation Director Update (MS)
- BBQ Concert Series: Maureen distributed the schedule. Coca Cola is giving us $500 as a sponsor. We have applied for other sponsorships for the bbq and grants to help defer the cost. Once Farmer’s Market information is completed we can put the information on the back of the BBQ flyer. We will promote on facebook and email blast. Sign-up genius for volunteers has already been set up. Josh will return this year. Maureen has a sign-up sheet for the committee volunteers to help keep it organized.
- Permits: We have a lot of permits coming into the office. MyRec program has been a great improvement.
- Concession: Going great and the ice machine is fixed.
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- New Mower: Already purchased.
- Parks Seasonal Employees: Have been hired and are already working.
- Town Administrator: is leaving at the end of June. Farewell luncheon will be on June 25th, Billie asked to be reminded of luncheon.
- Golf Tournament: Billie wanted to start working on the golf tournament now
The date will be October 5th registration will be at 12:30pm and shot gun will be at 1:30pm.
We can do save the date flyers at the Concert BBQ series during the summer. We can send out save the date postcards. We can follow up with a letter to the editor over the summer and send a letter to the golfers 6 weeks (around 8/10/14) before the event date.
Sheila asked for the information on ordering the trophies to see if we can get a better price. Maureen has invoice from last year, also heard word from the golfers that they would love to get a golf bag umbrella. No need to get a big give away.
- Walking trails at Smith Property: the development has been cancelled for this project for the time being.
- Chris Poulus: Rita asked Lynne if she would like for Chris Poulus BMX biker to speak on bullying. Rita asked for funding from CIT for it.
- Mental Health Seminar: there are still opening available to attend Rita asked Lynne if she would like to extend to her summer staff.
- Relay for Life: Everyone rallied to help out at the last minute and it was very much appreciated. We made approximately $1040 gross profit, $600 net profit. 50% will go to Relay for Life and we will keep 50%.
- Freezer donation: We received a donation of a freezer chest from Harry Pretty and family. It is in great condition and is already at the concession stand at the turf field.
Other Business
- Little School field 3 retention wall: the space behind the wall is not filled in well and it is up high, seems a bit dangerous.
- Next Meeting: 6/23/14 is the next meeting at 7pm at Town Hall Room 5.
- Next Agenda: Add vote for signage at Maguire field.
- Adjournment:
(SC) Sergio made a motion to adjourn meeting at 9:20 pm.
(RK) Ron seconds the motion.
Approved: 4 Opposed: 0 Abstained: 0
No Discussion-Motion Passed
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