Park and Recreation Commission
Minutes of the Meeting
February 11, 2009
Meeting called to order: 7:35pm
Commissioners in Attendance: Andy Paterna, George Caye, Jason Race, Sharon Parlapiano, Dan Rezende, Al Larson, Dave Romejko, Ray Favreau
Also in Attendance: Cheryl Cohen
Approval of December minutes: Motion to approve January minutes
Special Report: Cheryl Cohen, owner/operator of the Podunk Farms on 99 Main St. in South Windsor presented an overview of her project. The farm is a non-profit therapeutic farm. It was established to serve other agencies. She is starting out with some small animals and a greenhouse. The farm will also be an area for agencies to train animals to become therapeutic animals for their groups. Cheryl would like a letter from PARC supporting her project. She is hoping to open the farm in April. Jason Race made a motion to fund two visits to the farm for the “Monday Night Social Club” to go to the farm for an outing. The funding will be for up to $350.00. The motion was voted on and passed unanimously. Ray will get a P.O. out to
Podunk Farm Resources for the visits. The cost for a visit will be $5/visit/person. She will start out with single visits but eventually charge $100/mo/person.
Lawrence Road Park: Andy Paterna presented a power point presentation to the leadership roundtable meeting on January 26th. The total cost for the project went from around $700,000 to 1.6 million. Ray will update the costs and put the new figures in the master plan 2011/12 year. He will send the update to the Capitol Projects Committee and to the Town Council with a cover letter signed by PARC members present at the meeting stating due to the high cost of completing the entire project PARC is thinking of removing the project from the master plan and sending the project to referendum.
Rye Street Park Building: Ray will go forward with getting the stamped plans for the electrical, plumbing and concrete for the building for a cost not to exceed $12,000. PARC will look to see if we should waive competitive bidding or not at the March meeting once all the plans are finalized. Jason Race would like to see a name change for the building. Rye Street Park Shelter was mentioned.
SWW&WW: Jeff Folger made a presentation on the development of Wapping Park walking trails at their last meeting. The group has almost completed a master plan. They are looking to purchase bike racks to be placed at different areas in town (Town Center, Evergreen Walk. Library, ETC.).
Report of the Recreation Director: Ray would like the members of PARC to be ready to go to a Town Council meeting to try and save the money for projects that our in our master plan that has been approved by Town Council. They Town Council members are looking at our funds to possibly pay for repairs to the High School practice fields. This would eliminate all funds for future projects including the Rye Street Park Building, Lawrence Road Park and the Skate Park. He will let us know if this will be on the upcoming Town Council agenda.
09/10 Budget: Next year’s PARC budget will be static at $4500. There will be no increases in recreation fees for the upcoming year in the Special Revenue Recreation Fund.
Indoor Batting Cages: Ray met with Craig Zimmerman, the town manager and public works to finalize the project. After discussing the costs of moving electrical and getting water to the building if it was to be built on the third base side, the group decided to put the building on the first base side next to the press box. This would allow them to use the existing bathrooms in the press box building and eliminate the bathrooms in the new building. This reduces the cost and they may have enough to complete the project. The building has already been ordered and will be delivered this spring.
Bark Park: Ray received a bill from Chief Tyler for $13,867.49 last week and was asked if PARC could pay the bill. This was from Environmental Services for the digging and installation of water pipes for the three drinking fountains in the park. After discussing the issue a motion was put forward and voted in favor unanimously for “PARC to pay any outstanding costs for the installation of the fountains in the Bark Park”. The amount is not to exceed $14,000.
Ray informed PARC members that Manchester has been expelled from the travel basketball league and they are suing the town to get reinstated. The Town Attorney is handling the situation. He also told us of the girls asking to start a 5th grade travel team. The rec. dept. discussed this and denied the request.
Meeting adjourned at 11:00pm
Next Meeting: 7:30pm March 11, 2009
Respectfully Submitted
George S. Caye
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