Park and Recreation Commission
Minutes of the Meeting
October 14, 2009
Meeting called to order: 7:30pm.
Commissioners in Attendance: Andy Paterno, George Caye, Sharon Parlapiano, Katie Graham, Dave Romejko, Dan Rezende, Jason Race, Rob O’Connor, Ryan Kane
Also in Attendance: Gary Bazzano, Ginny Hole, Craig Zimmerman, Sgt Scott Custer, Skip Bourke, Helen Butler, Nancy Yario, Bob Dickinson, Roxanne Mongeon, Jim Ray, 15 South Windsor Students supporting a Skate Park in South Windsor.
Approval of minutes: Motion to approve September minutes was seconded and accepted unanimously.
Public Input: The Skateboard/Bike group gave a slide presentation on the need for a Skateboard/Bike Park in South Windsor. The biggest reason is to keep the Skaters/Bikers off the streets and out of trouble by having a local area to go to for skating/biking. The closest area is the Bristol Skate Park. The park was built at a cost of $500,000. They had a few ideas to help raise funds to offset the total cost of the park. They would set up donation cans in local businesses to raise money. Another way was to go to local businesses and ask for a donation to the park in return for space at the new park to allow these businesses to advertise in the park.
The Park design would have many features to benefit skaters and bikers. Some features are a Half Pipe, Quarter Pipes, Rails, Stairs, and Ramps that would all be placed in areas according to the skaters/bikers needs. They had of few ideas about sites; Behind Veterans Pool, Nevers Park, and Rye Street Park. PARC discussed this after they group had left and since most of the kids are young teenagers it would be best to find and area around Timothy Edwards School for the Skate/Bike Park due to the large number of 8 to 15 year olds that would be using the park. High School kids that have a license would be able to drive to the park.
Sgt. Scott Custer told the group that Chief Tyler and the police dept. support the idea of a Skate/Bike Park and they would like to be used as a resource in the development and placement of the park. Gary Bazzano commented that the group needs to be organized before they come to the Town Council for their backing. He wants them to have a plan as to what the park would look like and where in town it would be built. They also need a cost of the overall plan and who is going to maintain the clean-up and repairs in the park. What are the skaters willing to pledge to get the park built? He suggested getting as many in-kind services for building and buying supplies in order before coming to the Town Council to show the Council that they have a large
support group for the park. Craig Zimmerman suggested they start fund raising and also have a good plan ready before going to the Town Council. Rob O’Connor gave two great websites for helping in building a Skate Park: www.parents4sk8parks.org/DesignBuild.html and www.grindline.com/default.aspx?page=shovelready .
Bark Park: Nancy Yario came before the commission and requested that the PARC come up with a plan to place a buffer zone on the east side of Chief Ryan Way. She said it’s been two years and nothing has been done to curb the noise in the area. She would like PARC to make a commitment to pay for placing plants along the road. She only wants it for 5 or 6 houses and not all of them. George Caye said it should be all or nothing in planting trees in the area. You can’t just place them in front of one house and then skip two houses and plant more by other houses. The people on Andreis Trail need to be unified in what they want for a buffer zone. The estimated cost for the trees was about $6,000 for 75 trees plus the cost of planting. Andy
Paterna suggested that the members discuss this at a future meeting and come up with alternative plans.
Special Reports:
Batting Facility: Craig Zimmerman gave us an update with some pictures on the progress of the building. They hope to back fill this week and get the floor poured. He has a group that will be erecting the building in the coming weeks. The facility will not be ready until the spring of 2010. He also reported that they are about $30,000 short of the total cost of the project and may be coming to PARC for some help in this matter.
“Hoot’s Chalk Talk”: Craig is bringing Don Hooton Sr. in February to speak about the use of steroids and children. He will be speaking at TE to the eighth graders on Feb 5th during the day and then will speak to the town on the evening of the 5th. On Saturday the 6th he is speaking to the American Legion Baseball Coaches of Conn. The total cost is $1800.00 or $600.00 per talk. Craig is asking PARC to pay for the cost of the evening talk. A motion was made by Jason Race and seconded to pay up to $750.00 to cover any expenses for the evening talk be Mr. Hooton. The motion was voted on and passed unanimously.
SWW&WW: Ginny Hole and other members of the SWW&WW subcommittee were at the meeting. Ginny presented the final Master Plan to PARC. The theme of the plan is “Connecting Our Community”. Ginny presented an overview on how the group came about and what their objectives are for implementing the plan. She came to the meeting for PARC to accept and support the plan and allow Ginny to present the Master Plan to other Boards and Commissions as well as individuals in South Windsor before finally going before the Town Council for their approval of the SWW&WW Master Plan. Jason Race made a motion to accept and support the SWW&WW Master Plan. This motion was voted on and passed unanimously. Congratulations to all the members of the subcommittee on
getting this plan finished and hopefully to be used by all future development in South Windsor.
Report of the Recreation Director: The coach of the Eighth Grade Girls Travel Basketball Team has resigned and there are now two coaches for the team this year. This went into a discussion about single season sports and why there is an overlap in seasons for almost all sports. One comment was that the 8th grade girls travel team play more games than any other basketball team in the state except the UCONN Women and Mohegan Sun teams. There are a lot of issues with youth sports and limiting the sport to one season is not the answer. Some seasons for one sport are linked to the following season i.e.; Spring Travel Soccer sets the seeding for the Fall Season so that one season only would kill the travel team for the fall in soccer. As for the overlapping of seasons and
scheduling tournaments during tryouts and playoffs Ryan Kane is willing to try and get all the groups together to set dates and try to eliminate any potential problems with tournaments and playoffs. This was tried a few years ago and only Craig Zimmerman showed up to represent a sport. Andy Paterna and Dave Romejko also volunteered to help.
Lawrence Road Park: PARC will present the plans of the park to the Town Council in December.
Rye Street Park Building: The C.O. was received for the building this week. The water to all the building in the town parks are being shut off this week so this will be an issue that will need to be discussed for this building because Soccer and Football are still being played until late October into early November.
The next meeting of PARC is scheduled for Veterans Day November 11th. Andy asked that we change the meeting to the 18th. All in attendance agreed.
Meeting adjourned at 10:15 pm
Next Meeting: 7:30pm November18th, 2009
Respectfully Submitted
George S. Caye
| 