Park and Recreation Commission
Minutes of the Meeting
July 9th, 2014
Meeting called to order: 7:35 pm.
Commissioners in Attendance: Rob O’Connor, George Caye, Al Larson, Katie Graham, Mike Kelly, Andy Paterna, Dick Gregorian
Also in Attendance: Ray Favreau, John Caldwell, and Stephan Wagner
Approval of Minutes: June Minutes Approved
Public Input: None
Special Reports: None
Report of Council Liaison: Steve Wagner had two items to discuss. 1) The BOE at their last meeting is behind installing a turf field at the SWHS Stadium. It is preferable that the field be installed while the outer track is being resurfaced. Now Matt Galligan and Kate Carter are looking into ways to fund the project. considering a lease-purchase with the initial monies going into the design work. The track was getting resurfaced this summer, so that project may be put off until funding is in place for the turf field.
2) Lights at the SWLL Complex on Pepin Field. The Town Council at the request of one member has directed Matt Galligan & Ray on behalf of the Town to put in an application requesting that the time for turning off the lights at the complex be changed back to the original 1999 approval of 9:30pm. This application will go before the P&Z on July 22 at 8:00pm in the Council Chambers.
OSTF: No Report
Report of Parks and Rec. Director: The big issue now is with the High School Girls Softball Field on Ayers Rd. The town is looking to realign the field with home plate in center field and the outfield toward Ayers Rd. The second issue is the JV field. The town looked at Wapping field but the dimensions were too small. SWLL has agreed to allow the town to skin Minor A field to be strictly for JV Softball. One other project that has come up is Rye Street Basketball Court. It may need to be shut down if it is not repaired this year. Ray asked PARC to reallocate some of our master plan capital project money to cover some of the costs of these projects. A motion was made and seconded to shift $60,000 originally allocated to put fencing at My Friends Place and repair the
Tennis Courts at Rye Street Park to realigning the Ayers Road Softball Field and resurface the Basketball Courts at Rye Street Park. Motion was voted on and passed unanimously. Total cost for both projects will be around $140,000, so additional funding will be needed from other sources. Ray will need Town Manager’s approval to proceed and he will be speaking to Dr. Carter about the softball field.
SWLL Shack: Interior of the building is being completed.
Rotary Scoreboard is up and running. The old scoreboard is still up and may be used for signage for sponsorships/advertising.
Skate Park: Pre-cast concrete features are being installed this week. The project should be completed in early August after a long delay. The kids are down there every day checking on the progress. A Rule sign will be installed. There will be no fencing around the park and no supervision. Ray will let PARC know when they will have the Grand Opening.
Master Plan Survey: To date 371 surveys have been collected. Next events are Camp Family Night on 7/16/14 from 6:30 to 8:30, Senior Picnic 7/24/14 from 11-1. Ray will be sending an email for signups for these events to hand out surveys.
Ellsworth Gym: The floor will be refinished August 15-27.
Orchard Hill Soccer Fields: Ruts and low spots have been filled and leveled, reseeded and will be irrigated throughout the summer.
TE: Next spring the school will have a boys 8th grade baseball team. Parks is looking at which field can be made ready for the team. The upper TE softball field has been determined to be too small, so we are waiting for permission to pursue the Orchard Hill softball field.
Drone: Ray informed us that a drone will be flying around the parks in town for the next three days videoing events and the trials to be used for a promotional video for the department.
Master Plan Subcommittee: The Group is changing some of the focus group dates to this fall. They will be during our Oct-Dec PARC meetings. We will conduct a quick business meeting then go right into the Focus Groups. They are also working on the long form survey. Mike Kelly suggested to entice the seniors to fill out the survey enter them in a drawing for some type of gift certificate. Ray will follow up.
SWWWW: Pre-concert rides are before all the Thursday Concerts at Evergreen Walk. Two new bike racks have been installed at PR Smith School and Timothy Edwards School.
Clark Estates sub-division: The group was successful in getting a 4 foot sidewalk with allowance for a 10 foot path in the future.
SW Food Alliance: Third week in a row with 1,000 shoppers. They now have 50 vendors and will be open until October 18th. In November they will be moving into the basement of St. Margaret Mary Church for the winter market. Andy is still looking into making the Priest Property into a working Community Farm. The Group is planning to visit local working farms.
Nelson Property: Should be ready to go for the year.
Ray has ordered the shirts for PARC and will have them for our next meeting.
Katie had asked Ray to set up a tour of our town parks. He will work on some dates and get them out to the group to choose a date and time for a SW Park Bus Tour.
Meeting Adjourned at 10:02 pm
Next Meeting: 7:30pm Sept. 10th, 2014
Respectfully Submitted
George S. Caye
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