Park and Recreation Commission
Minutes of the Meeting
November 13th, 2013
Meeting called to order: 7:30 pm.
Commissioners in Attendance: Rob O’Connor, George Caye, Al Larson, Andy Paterna, Ray Favreau, Dan Rezende, Bill Nowak, Mike Kelly
Also in Attendance: Srinivasa Chalikonda, Harman Singh
Approval of Minutes: October Minutes Approved.
Public Input: Srinivasa thanked the group for all the work in locating a Cricket area for them. They will be playing behind the old Fuel Cell Building on Governor’s Highway next spring.
Report of Council Liaison: There will be a new liaison with the new election of Town Council members. George made a motion to ask the Mayor to appoint Stephen Wagner as the Town Council Liaison to PARC. Motion was seconded voted on and passed unanimously.
Report of OSTF: There was no November meeting. The pond on King Street Property was thoroughly searched by the Regional Search and Rescue Crew and no debris was found. Water testing found no problems in the pond.
SWWWW: Rob thanked PARC for sponsoring a table at the Bike /Walk Dinner on November 12th. There were 13 members from SWWWW.
Report of Parks and Rec. Director: Ray talked with the Town Attorney about scheduling meetings for the Master Plan. If we have a quorum then the meeting has to be public. He suggested small sub-committee (less than quorum) work sessions beyond the monthly meetings. We could also limit public input to 2-5 minutes maximum.
The total Skate Park Design was shown to us and the small portion that is to be built now. Ray told the skaters that it has to be used and photos taken so they can go to Council and ask for the park to be completed. The footings for the new scoreboard at Rotary Baseball Field will be installed this year with the completion of the scoreboard for April of 2014.
SWLL Shack at the complex will be taken down this month.
There is a new protocol for the 4th R Program at all the Elementary Schools.
VMP: The cost to fix the gutters and the crack in the main pool will be around $20,000. Ray will try and put this through the town’s Capitol Projects list.
SW Food Alliance: Winter Farmers Market is under way in the basement of St Margaret Mary Church on Saturday’s from 10-1 until December 21st.
The group has received a $15,000 grant from the CT-TRUST for Historic Preservation to do a study on the Priest Property. They would like to establish a “South Windsor Agricultural Arts and Nature Center. This would have classrooms, a Farm Museum, Farmers Market, and Community Gardens. This is a matching grant so they will be trying to raise $15,000 to match the CT-TRUST grant.
PARC Master Plan: Andy handed out a great Draft Outline for our PARC Master Plan. One suggestion we need to think about is having no pre-determined map designation for any Town areas we are thinking of developing in the future. This would allow for greater public input for what the people want in town and not telling them this is what they are getting. GREAT IDEA. Andy asked Ray if we could use the next three months of meetings to review and get ideas to go to the public for input on the next PARC Master Plan. Ray also gave us three websites that have master plans that we can utilize (COPY) for all of us to look at.
All of these have great ideas and are different in their approach. Please review these when you get a chance and bring thoughts and plans to the next PARC meeting.
NOTE: Ray is trying to get room 100 at the SWHS for the next year of meetings. This room has all the electronic gadgets we need to work and produce the next PARC Master Plan. Ray will let us know if this will be set for the December Meeting.
Meeting Adjourned at 10:00
Next Meeting: 7:30pm December 11th, 2013
Respectfully Submitted
George S. Caye
| 