Park and Recreation Commission
Minutes of the Meeting
October 9th, 2013
Meeting called to order: 7:35 pm.
Commissioners in Attendance: Rob O’Connor, Dan Van Horn, George Caye, Dave Romejko, Al Larson, Craig Zimmerman, Andy Paterna, Ray Favreau, John Caldwell, Dan Rezende,
Also in Attendance: Gary Bazzano, Farooq Dada, Srinivasa Chalikonoa, Sami Ahmed, Mary Sullivan
Approval of Minutes: September Minutes Approved.
Public Input: Cricket group went to DST Output and liked the field. It is the right size for them. Ray is waiting to hear back from the company to see if the field is available.
Report of Council Liaison: Gary talked about the last TC meeting. The council has approved a scaled down version of the original field proposal. There will be a special Town Council Meeting Tuesday October 15th, 2013 at 7 pm in the Town Hall TC Room. The Town Manager is looking for them to pass two resolutions. One is for him to look into a STEAP Grant to help offset the costs and the other will be to appropriate $900,000 for the project. The new field will have one synthetic field with no lights or a concession stand. The total cost will be around 1.1 million to complete. Craig had a question about the Facility Inventory handout that Ray has to produce at the request of the Town Manager. He also made on hourly use handout for all town fields. This was
requested by a resident who didn’t think the new fields were necessary. He believed the town has adequate fields for all sports. Craig also had questions about funding the project. He doesn’t want to see the Rec. Dept’s special revenue fund used. This would be like double taxing. Nothing is set for funding. Sports groups may and should be asked to commit funds to this field whether it be a one time donation or a yearly maintenance fee. The groups can change their registration fees to get more money for the project.
Report of OSTF: There was no October meeting. King Street Property is still not complete. Ray informed the group that the town is doing water testing on the pond and they have divers going over the whole pond to look for any debris (rumor has it an old Steam Shovel) that may need to be removed.
SWWWW: Hartford Bike Ride: they had 180 riders come through SW and stopped at SugerBelles. There were two rides last weekend that stopped at SugarBelles, Heritage Day on Main St. and the Farmers Market. Rob asked PARC if they would again sponsor a table for SWW&WW at the Annual Bike/Walk CT Dinner on November 12th at CCSU. The cost would be $400. A motion was made and seconded to spend $400 to sponsor a table at the Annual Bike/ Walk CT dinner. This was voted on and passed unanimously. The bikes have been purchase for the SW Bike Fleet. Still need to get a trailer for storage and transportation.
The 4th Grade Education classes have been completed this fall at ET, OH and PRS schools. PV and Wapping schools will be in the spring.
Dan had a question if any funds were still available from the Safe Routes to School Project. Ray said the remaining money is to finish work at Eli Terry School. He would like to see some improvements to PRS. Ray suggested the Principal to get together with BOE, Michele Lipe and Cindy Yakoubian and develop a plan for the school to submit for a new Map 21 Federal Transportation Grant.
Report of Parks and Rec. Director:
Rotary infield project is complete. Craig said the scoreboard cost is about $28,000. Still looking to raise about $3000 and Craig submitted for a Matching Grant from the Town Council. Site Work is being done soon. Skate Park construction is expected to start within a week and it will take about three weeks to complete if all goes well.
Rye Street Park: Soccer Club will be holding a tournament October 26& 27. Currently 68 teams have signed up to participate.
TE/OH Field: Still more settling from the old orchard drains. The town is looking to move the field but doesn’t want to spend too much to fix until BOE new School Plans are out.
Oct 19th: Park and Recreation “Celebrate Fall” Day. The whole day is full of events from morning kid fun run and 5K with bands playing during the day to the night time Haunted Torch Walk sponsored by the SW Police Services to raise money for Special Olympics. SWW&WW will be at the Torch Walk as Trail Guides.
The Parks & Rec. Dept. will be conducting an outside audit by Tom O’Rourke to see where there are efficiencies and inefficiencies in the Department.
Gary Bazzano was asked by someone why the elementary school doors are unlocked after school when the 4th R program is still on. Ray said that the “buzz-in” system monitored by school office staff only during the school day to let people in. After school hours virtually all school buildings are not staffed for entry control so they need to keep the doors unlocked for community use. All 4th R sites have emergency action plans and staff is trained to handle unwanted intruders, inclement weather, etc. A “safe room” is also identified in each elementary school and available for the 4th R program.
The SW Community Foundation has established a “Friends of Recreation” fund for people to donate for projects in the works from Parks and Recreation.
Al thanked Gary Bazzano for all his help with PARC these last two years as Council Liaison.
SW Food Alliance: Farmers Market has been a big success. Averaging 550-600 people whereas last year at Union School they averaged around 200 people. All the vendors have signed up for the Winter Market which will be held Saturday November 2 to December 21 from 10-1 in the St. Margaret Mary Church basement. They will have a band and there is a kitchen for serving hot foods.
The TE gardens are going strong with the kids already picking food for the school lunches. The group is waiting to see if they get a grant to install water lines on the Nelson Property for new Community Gardens. Also, waiting on a grant to do a study on the Priest Property.
PARC Master Plan: Rest of the meeting was in discussing how PARC can re-do our 2001 Master Plan. Much discussion took place and a few things are needed.
- Dan would like to see the whole project be done digitally. This is also how it should be presented to the Town Council. We may have to change some of our meetings to the High School to allow us to use a SMART Board since the Town Hall is behind the times in IT.
- Craig asked about cancelling certain meetings to allow the group to focus only on the Master Plan. This would allow us to go over one section at a meeting but would be easier with a projector and Google Maps to looks at the park areas in town. If we don’t want to cancel meetings we could change the agenda and only have the Master Plan on the table.
- Andy wants a Mission Statement to have PARC involved in all decisions where Parks and Recreation are concerned and not side step our group. Too many projects are brought to the Town Council without even bringing it to PARC. We usually have to deal with these projects at some point but they should start with us and let us work to get the project to the Town Council. This would give Town Council a way to get the project to us first before they discuss anything in public.
Commission agreed to attack the initial outline in order as a group instead of sub-committees at this point. This gives PARC a starting point to begin the long process of bringing the 2001 Master Plan into the future.
Meeting Adjourned at 10:15
Next Meeting: 7:30pm November 13th, 2013
Respectfully Submitted
George S. Caye
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