Park and Recreation Commission
Minutes of the Meeting
December 9, 2009
Meeting called to order: 7:40pm.
Commissioners in Attendance: Andy Paterno, George Caye, Sharon Parlapiano, Dan Rezende, Jason Race, Rob O’Connor, Al Larson, John Pelkey, Ray Favreau
Also in Attendance: Craig Zimmerman
Approval of minutes: Motion to approve November minutes was seconded and accepted unanimously.
Public Input: None
Council Liaison: John Pelkey Said the roof for the Indoor Batting Facility should be going up this weekend. All the excavated dirt was removed and that person is coming back in the spring to grade and seed the area. The Kelly Road Project is moving forward. The finished plans will have sidewalks from Avery Street to the Vernon Town line. He is also trying to get some extra stimulus money to complete the sidewalks along Buckland Road from Deming Street to Town Center. He asked that the PARC and SWW&WW send letters to the Governor requesting additional funds to complete this project.
Report of the Recreation Director: The next meeting with Public Works is 1/27/10 at 2:30 if anyone is available to attend let Ray know. The Rec. Dept. has signed a new five year agreement with the Collins family to use Collins Hill for sledding (Cost of $1/yr).
The new Rec. Dept. website is in the works and should be ready for the spring.
New this year is a Skate with Santa: This is replacing the Winter Wonderland event. The skating will be at the SW Arena on Saturday December 12th from 5:30-7:00 pm. The event is free for everyone. Bring an unwrapped toy for “Toys for Tots” program and skate rental is free too. Event sponsored by Karen O’Connor of Prudential Realty.
Friends of Swimming: A group in town is trying to get a High School Swim Team for the 2010 school year. They are very active and have met with the BOE and Superintendant of the school. There is a $50,000 line item in next year’s budget to get the program started. They are looking at the YMCA and Tolland for pool time.
The Rec. Dept. is working to get a customer survey out in the spring of 2010. They would like PARC to come up with any questions (3 to 4) that can be included in the survey.
PARC needs to look at the budget for 2010-11. Do we keep it the same as this year at $4,500?
SWW&WW: The Master Plan is completed. They are getting feedback from other agencies, boards, commissions and town staff and are looking to present to the Town Council in February of 2010 at their February 1st meeting.
Skate Park: Andy has met with the Dr. K about the possibility of putting a Skate Park on the Timothy Edwards School grounds. He was not opposed to the plan and was going to bring it up to the BOE at their meeting on December 8th. Andy will contact him and get his response before we go forward. Jason Race suggested that we look for a vacant box building to place a Skate Park. There are many empty large buildings in town that would be able to house a Skate Park to be either permanent or get a place for skaters to go before an outdoor facility is built. John Pelkey suggested asking the Stowe Kitchen owners if the Mini Golf and Batting Cage area is available. It was not open at all last spring or summer and if the area is large enough already has some features in place
that may be suitable for skaters. Craig Zimmerman suggested that some PARC members go on a small bus tour of some of the area Skate Parks and bring some of the kids who asked for a Skate Park to get their input on what parks they like and dislike. The new trend in parks is a Skate Plaza and not a closed in area. Ray Spoke with East Windsor and told them we are committed to place a park near the Middle School but they are interested in possibly sharing costs of architectural design plans. We had allocated $150,000 towards phase 1 on this project.
Bark Park: Andy received an estimate from Burgess Nurseries to plant 30 Holly bushes around the fence by the parking lot of the Bark Park. The cost to purchase and plant the bushes was $400. He also spoke with Sgt Custer and was told that they are not likely to place no parking signs on both sides of Chief Ryan Way. He still needs to meet with Chief Tyler. It was brought up that a lot of people although they are cleaning up their dog’s messes are putting the plastic waste in the cans by the baseball fields which are causing some rather bad odors for baseball games especially during the summer. They would like to find a solution to let people know where to dispose of the waste. Possibly puts signs around the park designating certain areas for dog waste to
be deposited. We had estimated needing $2,000 for this initiative.
Lawrence Road Park: Andy spoke with DPW Director, Mike Gantick. He was going to talk with his staff about the Public Works Dept. helping in the removal of some of the trees in the area and the beginning of trails to get the park started. Andy will try and meet with Mike again in January and then have PARC present the final plans to Town Council in February. An allocation of $50,000 was earmarked to support DPW efforts.
Cricket Pitch: Andy hasn’t met with the group but plans to offer them some Sundays in the summer to hold Cricket events at a site to be determined. A portable pitch at a cost of $1,000 is anticipated.
The total for all the projects above is $201,400.
Ray went over the 10 year master plan and asked PARC to make any changes we wanted before it is brought to the Capital Projects Committee as a working Master Plan. This will be the first thing on the agenda for our January Meeting. Some of the discussion was on the following;
- Funding SWW&WW every year for a certain dollar amount ($20,000)
- Changes years three and four around.
- Removing the playground for Veteran’s Park in year 4 and putting it in year 2.
- Adding the lighting of Nevers Baseball Field into the plan and using some of the $90,000 earmarked for improving Rotary Baseball Field.
Meeting adjourned at 9:55 pm
Next Meeting: 7:30pm January 13th, 2010
Respectfully Submitted
George S. Caye
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