Park and Recreation Commission
AMMENDED Minutes of the Meeting
April 9th, 2014
Meeting called to order: 7:35 pm.
Commissioners in Attendance: Rob O’Connor, George Caye, Al Larson, Gary Bazzano, Ray Favreau, Dan VanHorn, Dave Romejko, Mike Kelly, Craig Zimmerman, Katie Graham, Dick Gregorian, John Caldwell
Also in Attendance: Stephen Wagner, Cindy Beaulieu, Bob Goldman, Mike Mundo, Kevin McCann, Darren DeMartino, Kevin Greer, Dana Weber, Cookie Pandiscia, Robin Klemba
Approval of Minutes: March Minutes Approved after some changes.
Public Input: Kevin McCann asked that whoever sent the letter to Town Council saying that only 5 of the 15 fields in town were being used, where the other 10 fields are? Craig Zimmerman asked if we could be allowed to explain field use. Gary Bazzano made a motion to discuss field use in town by all sports. Motion seconded voted on and passed unanimously. Most Sports Groups were at the meeting to discuss lack of field space in town.
The first to speak was Craig Zimmerman for baseball. He passed out the field schedule for the next four months and showed how much use the three large baseball fields (Rotary, Nevers and Duprey) accommodate. 40 years ago there were three fields and there are still only three fields for baseball. There are very few open spaces for practices and games now and it will get worse when there are rainouts. Next year TE will have an 8th grade baseball team which will need to use fields to practice and play. Craig would like to see one more field for use between April and August. Mike Mundo spoke about LL as did Kevin McCann. SWLL teams have to share field space all the time and some of the fields are not available in the spring because of high school
softball. Stephan Wagner said that someone may be coming to planning and zoning asking that the times for the lights to be on be changed back to 9:30 instead of 10:00 pm which was approved by P & Z this past fall.
John Caldwell spoke about softball field use in town. The Ayers Road softball field is an adequate field but built in the wrong space. Spectators have to sit within ten feet of Ayers road with not barrier between them and cars. Darren DeMartino has concerns about lawsuits if someone gets hurt with the town already knowing there are safety issues. The town needs to move the field location by either reversing home plate and center field or moving the field to a different location. The softball field at TE is gravely and not suitable for play. Gary Bazzano asked our Town Council Liaison to ask the council to put $100,000 back into the Capitol Projects budget to improve the conditions at Ayers Road field. Stephan Wagner said that the town should spend around $8
million a year on Capitol Projects but only spent $167,000 last year and are only spending up to $1.4 million this year.
Darren Demartino spoke for football. They have six teams in town along with the Cheerleading team. They purchased ($16,000) temporary portable lights to use on the practice field to eliminate using the game field all the time. The practice field needs repairs constantly. They would like to have one more practice field behind the fence but the slope prevents this now. The town would need to spend around $100,000 to level the practice field and give the teams two practice fields. The football program is willing to purchase new lights for the practice fields. He also stated that the football practice field in front of SWHS is a mess. John Caldwell stated he has an “open truck policy” and would gladly show anyone what the town has for fields, open
space, parks etc. As for the proposed synthetic turf fields at Nevers Park the town has allocated $50,000 for the planning/design and have applied for a $500,000 STEAP grant for site work on the area with the turf being leased to own by the town.
The Athletic Director would like 2 turf fields for the town. That would allow for less rainouts and easier scheduling for SWHS games in all sports. Kevin McCann said by turfing the Stadium Field we don’t eliminate the need for more fields in town. All people agreed that having turf fields would allow the Parks Dept. to begin resting other grass fields in town.
Bob Goldman discussed the needs for the soccer teams. They have around 800 kids in their fall and spring program (about 70 teams). Right now all teams double up on fields for practice but the fields being used now are unsafe and not regulation fields (Ellsworth, VMP and Eli Terry). The VMP field is the over flow parking area for the pool in the summer. TE and OH fields are not flat due to the old drainage pipes for the orchards. Nevers Field issues: Spring Soccer is having problems with practice times and sharing space with Lacrosse. The other issue is that the fields are rested in July and August when it is the worst time to reseed and water. Also they are having 8&9 year old kids practicing until 8 pm on school nights. Craig brought up a
point that if the referendums had passed in 2001 at $4.9 million we would have had 6 athletic fields and in 2002 another referendum at $4.6 million would have provided 9 athletic fields with lights on some of them.
Girls Lacrosse: Dana Weber spoke for the group. Girls Lacrosse is only in the spring for now with 7 teams, a fall season is highly probable in the near future. The field problem is the girls and boys dimensions are different. They have two teams /field to practice and he would rather schedule games away than fight for field time.
Boys Lacrosse: Kevin Greer said they also have 7 teams plus 50 kids in the K-2 developmental program and have three fields to use in the spring. Both girls and boys are looking to play in the fall. They are looking to get one or two more fields. The K-2 program uses the island at Rye Street Park for practices. Dan Van Horn stated that the biggest tension is finding field space between Soccer and Lacrosse. Gary Bazzano said that even though the numbers are declining in schools, more kids are playing sports in all seasons especially in the K-2 levels which didn’t exist 20 years ago. The increase if female sports and high quality programs in town have resulted in higher participation rates.
Kevin McCann thanks PARC for listening to the issues of field space. He said we should look at the field sub committee’s findings. Rob stated that all this comes down to money and the Town Council has given our group no money in the last two years and is ready to fund us ZERO dollars in the upcoming budget for PARC to do all its work.
Darren Demartino said he has an issue with the SWHS multipurpose field. The youth sports group went before the Town Council asking that this field be built at the request of people from SWHS. After the field was built, youth groups were banned from using the field. They will not support putting turf on the Stadium Field if the youth groups will again be banned from using it.
Stephan Wagner said that the field practice/game schedules for the spring/fall busiest times need to be presented to the Town Council so they are aware of the issues. PARC is aware of the problems with field space and the need for more fields in town for all of our sports teams. The Town Council needs to put some funds towards a solution for this to happen. Right now they are not looking at field issues as a top priority.
Ray explained to the group there are two issues at hand. One is the long-term of redoing of the PARC 10 year Master Plan and the other, more immediate is trying to get the town council to put more money into Capitol Projects for more fields.
Rob made a motion the was seconded that Stephan Wagner go back to the Town Council and request that they put back $275,000 for recreation projects in the Capitol Projects Budget. Darren then asked Ray and John if new fields are needed in town and they both agreed that they are needed. Dick then said that we need to prove to the Town Council the field space is needed.
OSTF: King Street property still not completed. Having title issues. Jones Property is moving forward. OSTF would like to get a feature in the Rec Magazine. They will be setting up a both for Trails Day on June 8th at Lawrence Road Park. They are also in support of Andy Paterna’s project at the Priest Property.
SWWWW: Will be having a booth at the LL Bean open house for bikes and canoes on April 26th. The Bike fleet is getting assembled and the trailer equipped for the bikes at the bike shop for the spring school 4th Grade Bike Safety Program in June 2014.
Report of Parks and Rec. Director: SWLL shack is finally under construction. SWLL was given $50,000 to start project from PARC monies. They will get another $40,000 this week and the final $10,000 when they get the CO for the building. The building should be up this spring.
The Rotary Scoreboard: is here but the fields are too wet to get the heavy machinery in the fields to install. Hopefully up and running in two weeks. Ray is hopeful that the Skate Park will get started this month after a long delay.
Wapping Tennis Courts: Courts 1 and 2 are betting refurbished during spring break.
Parks and Recreation Departments will be doing a walk through Wapping School during spring break in anticipation of moving the department to the school in the coming years upon completion of the first phase of the new school referendum.
Ray and John will be presenting their 2014/15 budgets to the Town Council on Wednesday April 16th at 7pm. All PARC members are urged to attend and support Parks and Recreation.
Craig thanked John Caldwell and the Parks crew for the great improvement made to the town parks and fields since they come under the guidance of the Recreation Department. All the sports groups still at the meeting agreed that the fields are in better shape and communication is much improved, with issues getting resolved quicker.
VMP: There will be no more family passes issued this season. The town will issue individual passes with Photo ID’s. This year Saturdays from 10 am to noon will be for residents & pass holders only.
Ray is looking into holding some adult functions this year with possibly a Wine Tasting or a Comedy Show with alcohol being served.
Master Plan Subcommittee: Their next meeting is 4/22/14 at 6:30 at the Community Center. They had a great response with their first short survey run at the Lacrosse Opening at SWHS. The next event for getting survey’s from the public will SWLL Opening Day on Saturday May 3 from 9-12. Ray will send out a signup sheet for the group.
Meeting Adjourned at 11:00 pm
Next Meeting: 7:30pm May 14th, 2014
Respectfully Submitted
George S. Caye
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