SUNAPEE RECREATION COMMITTEE
MEETING MINUTES
October 14, 2009
Present: Paul Skarin, Scott Blewitt, Craig Heino, Chuck Weinstein, Pat Halpin, Melissa Eastman, Marilyn Morse, Leon Davie
Guests: John, Dexters Inn; Dave Thibeault and Beth Tye, Mt. Royal
Meeting called to order at 7:05pm.
No minutes to review.
Brian Garland made a motion to renew Chuck Weinstein and Melissa Eastman as members of the Sunapee Recreation Committee. Pat Halpin seconded the motion. All were in favor – motion carries.
Chuck Weinstein made a motion to accept Leon Davie as a new member to the Sunapee Recreation Committee. Pat Halpin seconded the motion. All were in favor – motion carries. Leon will replace outgoing member Marilyn Morse.
Dave and Beth from the Mt. Royal Academy came to the meeting to talk about having fields in the Dewey Woods area. Thoughts were a baseball field in the upper part and a soccer field in the lower part. Would also need to be room for a parking lot to hold at least 75 vehicles.
Mt. Royal would like to work on this project with us for fundraising, maintenance, etc. The area is town property. (Beth is doing this project as part of her work for her Masters Degree.)
Would want the baseball field to be universal so it would work for all teams. Would like to have these fields completed by this time next year.
Scott would like to develop a warrant article for other necessary items for the fields such as bleachers, nets, bases, etc. This warrant article would need to be in for early December.
Paul mentioned that we need to make sure the Society for the Protection of NH Forests and the Conservation Committee are on board with this.
Page 2 – Sunapee Recreation Committee Meeting Minutes – 10/14/09
We all recognize the need for more fields. Also need to make sure that when the vehicles leave the fields it is safe for them pull out onto Route 11. Should consider having a small playground there as well for the younger children.
A volunteer is needed to spearhead this project. Chuck will do it as long as he gets some help with it. Dave volunteered to work on it with him. Chuck will call Charlie Hertzberg. Paul will contact SPNHF and the Conservation Commission. Tony Bergeron volunteered to dig the test pits. By next month we should have elevations, test pits and an estimated cost for the project.
Pat Halpin made a motion to support Scott in continuing his work with Dave on this project. Craig seconded the motion. All approved. Motion carries unanimously.
Scott will bring this up at the Selectmen’s Meeting on Monday, the 19th.
Lynne Peirce Playground at Tilton Park – We went over the Memorandum of Understanding and the Lynne Peirce Memorial Playground Fund. We are ready to begin the project. The funds to start the project will come from the Town to pay for the ground work. Cost is $6,000.00 which would come from the Revolving Fund. Donna approved Ted Gallup to do the work. Did not need to send out for bids as it is such a small amount. Area would be 75 feet by 150 feet. Will put in drainage stone and drainage pipe. The Peirces have to give a minimum of $50,000 to the project.
Scott will do a short write-up on this. May have some sort of informational meeting. We need to have a cohesive fundraising plan for this project.
Brian Garland made a motion to approve the cost of $6,000.00 to come from the Revolving Fund. Pat Halpin seconded it. All approved. Motion carries unanimously.
Pat reminded us that we need something in place with Tilton Park on it. Something in granite would be nice. Would like to see it in in the next couple of months. Will talk further about it at the next meeting.
Page 3 – Sunapee Recreation Committee Meeting Minutes – 10/14/09
Basketball sign-ups are underway. K-2 will start 12/5. 3-6 will start the first Saturday in November with the first game being the first Saturday in December. Will have full use of the gym for a couple of weeks as the school basketball will not start until around Thanksgiving. Coaches are needed for K-2. Will be 10 weeks of games. All games will be held on the weekend with the exception of games scheduled in Newport. Those may be held during the week.
Turkey Trot organization is already underway. Hope to have 600 runners this year. Pat brought up the concern of t-shirts being given out in a size other than what the person ordered. Last year we ran out of the right sizes as people were taking different sizes. Scott said plenty of shirts would be ordered. Early sign up will be on Wednesday night. Volunteers are needed.
Rhonda Gurney will be heading up Christmas in the Harbor. Will be held on 12/5. Recreation Department only dealing with the Looney Lunge. Volunteers are needed and should contact Rhonda.
Small discussion about the skating rink in the harbor. Greg Kelly has been taking care of it and plans on continuing to do so. We do pay him to do it. It takes a lot of time with constant maintenance to keep the rink up.
John from Dexters Inn came with a couple of ideas. He would like to use his single tennis court for an ice skating rink if not this year, than maybe next year. Scott said we could not do it at the Inn for liability reasons. There would be no one there to supervise. His other idea was hosting a cross country skiing bi-athelon with paint ball. There are 12 miles of cross country skiing from the Inn. Again if this is too short of a notice for this year, maybe next year. A suggestion was having a cross country ski day like we do at Mt. Sunapee. Another suggestion was talking to the school about winter activities. Snowshoeing also an option.
Meeting adjourned at 8:15pm.
Respectfully Submitted,
Melissa M. Eastman
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