Park and Recreation Commission
Minutes of the Meeting
November 14th, 2012
Meeting called to order: 7:35 pm.
Commissioners in Attendance: Rob O’Connor, Andy Paterna, George Caye, Craig Zimmerman, Dan Rezende, Dan VanHorn, Al Larson, John Caldwell and Ray Favreau
Also in Attendance: Gary Bazzano, Scott Waters, Mike Burgess, Steve Ryder, Sandy Jeske, Matt Riley and Cindy Beaulieu
Approval of Minutes: Oct. Minutes Approved.
Public Input: Mike Burgess spoke about concern with the new athletic fields and where the town was going with them after the referendum failed. It was explained to him that the referendum had nothing to do with the fields and Gary Bazzano would give an update later in the meeting.
SW Food Alliance: Group has designed a banner for the five corners area of town. Winter Market is open at the Unity Church on Ellington Rd, Saturdays from 10 to 1 until Dec 22nd. The SWHS has started a Green Roof Project and Andy is meeting with MaryAnn Lopez to try and get more local produce into the school lunch program. Andy would like some funding from park to cover the cost of the banner and flyers being used. Ray asked that all banners and any paper used to promote the Alliance have the PARC name on it as it is a subcommittee of PARC. A motion was made by Craig and seconded to spend up to $1000 dollars of the PARC operating budget for the South Windsor Food Alliance to cover costs of the banners and any other material needed. This was voted on and passed
unanimously. Ray also suggested and will help Andy apply to the SW Community Foundation for future donations to be directed through the Community Foundation.
Report from Council Liaison: Gary Bazzano stated again that the fields were not part of the referendum. Many members said that town people were asking about the question and thought that the fields were part of the question. They Field group is now looking at using the 11 acres in Nevers Park as strictly practice fields. They will also be looking at possibly linking up with the Recreation Complex project at Evergreen Walk for the Turf/Lighted field. Craig asked Gary why groups don’t come to PARC first before going in front of the Town Council with a project. That was asked by several members and Gary didn’t have an answer. It would benefit most groups to get the PARC behind projects before going in front of the Council. Rob suggested that it be put out to the
public that there is also a new Recreation Center being built along with the Ice Rinks with a pool. Gary stated that the hockey group is not funding any part of the project. Cindy Beaulieu told the group the owner of Evergreen Walk had been in talks with Matt Galligan this summer about the Recreation Center. He is also involved with Youth Hockey. He approached hockey and decided it would be a good fit to combine the projects. That is how this whole ice rink project/rec center got started. Ray asked that as many groups as possible show up for Monday’s Town Council meeting at 7pm to show support of the project as a Town Recreation Center. It should also be brought up that this project would greatly benefit the seniors in South Windsor. A new Recreation Facility would allow the Recreation Department to move out of the Community Center. The senior groups would have more space and take over most of the Community Center along with the Teen
Center. Ray will send out some bullet points about the benefits of the project for us to look at before the meeting. Ray also said that he doesn’t have any idea on the plans for the Recreation Building. He has sent suggestions based on Mansfield’s Center. Craig asked that if the project is approved that no corners be cut as to the size of the pool and basketball court. The group agreed because this may be the only chance for the town to get a new facility and not having a regulation size pool and court would not make it a worthwhile project.
OSTF: OSTF did not meet in November.
Report of the Rec. Director: Fund Balance: $425,173. $47,789 has been spent to date on the 6 projects approved by Town Council. $172,211 will be needed to finish those six projects. This leaves a balance of $205,174 for any new projects in town. Right now no new monies have been allocated for any Capitol Projects and there is an $113,000 allocation from the 2011-2012 town budgets that was never put in our balance. If we are to do any projects we could possibly deplete all the funds and not get any more money for future projects. This will be discussed later in the meeting.
Bark Park: Parks Department has taken over complete maintenance of the Bark Park. The Friends of the Park have not been around to do any clean up of the area. Ray will try and contact someone from the group and try and get them to get more involved with the Park.
Rye Street Park: The new security cameras were installed in the park and are operational.
VMP: Cameras were also installed and should be operational soon. A tree fell onto the lap pool and damaged the cover. It is the oldest cover and would cost around $6,000 to replace. The construction of the Cell Tower in the back of the park is on hold although the contractor has recently paid $1,000 to hold the option to construct on the site.
SWHS: The All Purpose Field has held up well through the fall sports season. The field has been draining and teams were able to play the day after rain and snow. Kudos to John Caldwell, the Parks Division and Kevin Foley for the successful reconstruction!
SWLL: George had passed out a plan to redo the dugouts on Major B Baseball Field and repair the dugouts on the Pepin Field. The first base dugout on Major B was destroyed by Storm Sandy. The town has recently redone the infield to accommodate a new 50/70 baseball field which will be an intermediate field for ages 11-13. LL is a 46/60 field and a full size field is 60/90. Al Maximino, president of SWLL, would like to construct a dugout/press box/storage structure duplicating the Pepin Field structure. The cost would be around $54,000. John said the town can repair the existing first base dugout through the Parks Division. Andy asked why this needed to be done when the referendum question addressed the need for a new Snack Shack to bring the building up ADA code.
This discussion brought us to what to do with projects that were on the failed referendum question. This was discussed next.
PARC MASTER PLAN: PLAN B (Failed Referendum). Due to the failure of referendum question five which had to do with recreation PARC needs to come up with a new plan to fund some of the areas that were in the Referendum Question. Craig had sent out some suggestions which were discussed. The following was established as a way to get some of these projects completed.
- Spend up to $50,000 on irrigation of town athletic fields. This would include Nevers Park Soccer Fields, Practice field in front of the SWHS and Baseball Fields in the SWLL Complex.
- $50,000 for SWW&WW for future projects to connect trials and provide bike education to kids and adults.
- $100,000 for an upgrade or new construction of the Snack/Storage Building in the SWLL Complex.
This would be a total cost of $200,000 and would leave us with $5,000 for future projects if no more funding comes to PARC from the town’s capital projects budget. A motion was made and seconded for us to adopt this plan. The motion was voted on and passed unanimously. Parks would repair the dugout on Major B. John would also like to see SWLL put a gate on the fencing along Nevers Road. George will go back to SWLL and Al Maximino and ask them to design a new Snack/Storage/Bathroom facility and bring this back to PARC for review and approval.
John is working on installing irrigation to the Soccer Fields at Nevers Park and will get irrigation on Duprey in the SWLL Complex.
SWW&WW: Town’s Bronze Award Ceremony was held Saturday October 20th, 2012. There were close to 130 riders for the 10 or 20 mile ride after the ceremony. Thanks to all the Town Council, State Reps, and The Simsbury group who showed for the event and for Tom Condon who emceed. It was a great day and the town received many compliments from people outside of South Windsor for what the group has accomplished in five years. The group celebrated their 5th anniversary at the Nov. 7th meeting. They are working on getting the SW BOE to put The Bike Education and Road Safety Program into the 4th Grade Curriculum every year. Six members of the group are working on getting certified to teach the course along with the Elementary School phys. ed.
teachers by Bike Walk CT. SWW&WW would use some of the $50,000 to purchase a fleet of bikes along with a trailer for bringing to the schools. Andy Johnson from the BikeShop has agreed to help with the bike purchase and would do maintenance on the bike fleet each year. This would be the first bike teaching program for schools in the state. BikeWalkCT would use this as a model for other towns to follow. The program would give each student a helmet to keep. The new “Share the Road” signs which were designed in house were installed along with ten new BCF signs at the entrance roads in town.
Bylaw Revision: A motion was made and seconded to change the election of officers from a one year term to a two year term retroactive our recent September elections. This was voted on and passed unanimously. Al, Rob and George are in for two years.
Ray mentioned that Steve Harz has resigned from the Commission.
Motion made and seconded to adjourn.
Meeting adjourned at 10:10 pm
Next Meeting: 7:30pm Dec.12th, 2012
Respectfully Submitted
George S. Caye
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