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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-02-19 Recreation Committee Minutes POFq �. Town of Reading Meeting Minutes RECEIVED ae TOWN CLERK oa READING, MA. Board - committee - commission - council: 2019 MAR 13 PM 2: 21 Recreation committee Date: 2019-02-19 Time: 7:00 PM Building: Reading Town Hall Location: conference Room Address: 16 Lowell Street Session: Open Session Purpose: General- Version: Final Attendees: Members - Present: Emily Sisson (M), John Parks (M), Rich Hand (M), Mike DiPletro (M), Michael Coltman (A), Kate Kaminer (A) Members - Not Present: Dan Foley (M), Lori Russo (M), Eric Gaffen (M), Adam Chase (M), Patrick Sheeran (A), Chuck Robinson (M), Mary Ellen Killion (A) Others Present: Angela Binda 10 Orchard Park Drive Dan McCarthy 91 Prospect Street Reading Little League Mike Wondolowski 4 Bartlett Street Reading Little League Justin Bakst 6 Gardner Street Reading Little League Chuck Webberly 3 North Street Reading Youth Lacrosse Genevieve Fiorente Recreation Administrator and liaison to subcommittee Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Genevieve Fiorente, Recreation Administrator Topics of Discussion: E. Sisson opens the meeting at 7:00pm. E. Sisson elevates K. Kaminer to a voting member. K. Kaminer makes a motion to accept the 1.8.19 meeting minutes. I Parks seconds. The motion passes 5-0. G. Fiorente states that M. Wondolowski is at the meeting to present a project that has already been internally discussed and approved by Parks and DPW. G. Fiorente says that M. Wondolowski has done a great job to cover all the bases before coming into the committee. M. Wondolowski introduces himself and explains he has been a Reading resident for 11 years and how he has 3 boys who are active in baseball. He goes on to say that he has been active on the Reading Little League Board, and most recently became President. He said that the board put out a survey to participants about their thoughts on improvements as they were interested in creating a Capital Plan for RLL. M. Wondolowski says that the top two answers were improved fields and restrooms. Page I I M. Wondolowski presents a power point presentation on the conversion of the tennis court baseball field to a 50/70 field to allow for more games (attached). M. Wondolowski states RLL would like to fund and donate the project to the Town. K. Kaminer asks what happens to the mound. M. Wondolowski says that there are two options and one is a man-made mound and the other is to do a clay mound. K. Kaminer asks if that is safe. D. McCarthy goes on to say that the clay mound does take some time to regrade to make it safe for small ball players but the field would be turned over seasonally, not daily. M. Wondolowski introduces D. McCarthy and J. Bakst. J. Parks asks about fields RLL uses in towns and what they do to maintain them. D. McCarthy and M. Wondolowski both talk about how there are 5 fields RLL uses in Town and they maintain 4 of them. They say in the Spring Season they pay around $15,000. D. McCarthy says that he believes they started to take over maintenance of the 4 fields because they wanted to use a more expensive clay. A committee member asks how much the project donation will be. M. Wondolowski answers around $35,000. M. Coltman asks if the project will be completely funded and donated by RLL. M. Wondolowski says yes. K. Kaminer asks about the improvement to drainage on the power point and asks if the infrastructure will be affected. D. McCarthy says no, they are just taking the 12 inches of soil and adding it again and improving soil and materials that will be used. K. Kaminer asks that if any changes are made to plan that they would brought back to appropriate town staff. M. Wondolowski says that yes, the current plans were already reviewed and if changes are to be made, he will keep town staff informed. R. Hand asks about moving bases and sealing caps. D. McCarthy states that they will handle that. K. Kaminer asks if new games can be played with this improvement. M. Wondolowski says that yes, the summer games can now be played at home field instead of them playing to pay elsewhere. M. Wondolowski also presents the porta potty initiative. Mike states that RLL would like to put porta potties at Hunt, Joshua Eaton, Barrows, and the tennis court field. Mike also says that RLL is willing to put fencing up around the ones that are in neighborhoods. M. Wondolowski adds that he already received permission from the schools and he was meeting with Billy Fuller in the Parks Departments to look at locations. Page 1 2 R. Hand asks if RLL will pay for them to be serviced. M. Wondolowski answers yes. A short discussion ensues. Committee members discuss and agree that abutting neighbors should be notified if porta potties are going up at a field. J. Parks makes a motion to accept the RLL project donation at the Tennis Court Field as presented. K. Kaminer seconds. The motion passes 5-0. R. Hand makes a motion to approve the porta potty initiative as presented by RLL pending a conversation with Health and Parks. J. Parks seconds. Discussion ensues. Some committee members state that they would really like abutters informed first. Vote is 2-3. The motion does not pass. Committee discusses to table the discussion until March since the locations and permits are not yet finalized. Committee also mentions again informing neighbors. J. Bakst presents the idea for the fundraising event for RLL. He states that they would like to have a 5 on 5, coed, all ages, softball tournament to be held at Memorial Park on June 9, 2019. J. Bakst states that they would like to hold the tournament from 9am-5pm. He says that they would also like sound from 11am-6pm. Committee members have a discussion about location being at Symonds so it does not directly impact neighbors. G. Fiorente states Babe Ruth is scheduled for Sundays but can see if they would mind. K. Kaminer makes a motion to approve the amplified sound request for the RLL Softball Tournament Fundraiser from 12-6pm and allow the field request from 9am- 6pm at Memorial Park on June 9, 2019. J. Parks seconds. Committee votes 4-1. Motion does not pass. R. Hand emphasizes that he would rather see the event happen at Symonds. The Committee has further discussion and also compare the space at each of the fields. K. Kaminer makes the same motion to approve the amplified sound request for the RLL Softball Tournament Fundraiser from 12-6pm and allow the field request from 9am- 6pm at Memorial Park on June 15, 2019. J. Parks seconds. The motion passes 5-0. G. Fiorente presents the next amplified sound permit for the Friends and Family Day on June 25, 2019 submitted by the Reading Lions Club at the Birch Meadow Complex Softball Fields. She states that the time of the sound will be from 9:30pm - 3:00pm. Page 13 K. Kaminer makes a motion to approve the amplified sound permit for the Reading Lions Club Friends and Family Day at the Birch Meadow Softball Fields from 9:30am-3:00pm on June 15, 2019. J. Parks seconds. The motion passes 5-0. G. Fiorente presents the next amplified sound request for another Lions Event for July 25, 2019 for the 5K event from 5pm-9pm. G. Fiorente states that the 5k used to be run by Friends of Reading Recreation and then they ran it together. She says it appears the event will just be run by the Lions Club this year. R. Hand makes a motion to approve the amplified sound request for the Lions Club 5K Event on July 25, 2019 from 5pm-9pm. J. Parks seconds. The motion passes 5-0. G. Fiorente presents the next amplified sound permit for Global Eats and Summer Beats submitted by the Public Library on the evening of June 21, 2019 from 6pm - 9pm. K. Kaminer asks if the Recreation Committee has authority over the sound permit since it is on the library's own property and not a town field. G. Fiorente says that is a good point and that the committee approved it last year. The committee collectively thinks that they probably just do it is a courtesy. R. Hand makes a motion to accept the amplified sound permit for the Reading Public Library Event on June 21st, 2019 from 6pm-9pm. M. DiPietro seconds. The motion passes 5-0. E. Sisson discusses the capital funding field priorities with the committee. She states that she has had conversations with the Select Board liaison, V. Alavarado, and she would like the feedback of the committee and the Recreation Administrator on Capital Projects moving forward. E. Sisson asks the committee to think about what they think should be prioritized so the committee can further discuss it at the next meeting. The committee briefly discusses capital project options. The conversation brings up projects like tennis courts and playgrounds. The committee also discusses lights and improving town field conditions. E. Sisson brings up that it may be a good idea to discuss the priority on lighting the fields as the committee did back a few years ago. A. Binda mentions the lighting of the fields in relation to the Capital Plan. She gives out specific dollar amounts and questions the amount that the project is for the lighting plan based on the fact the turf 2 with lighting is going to be separate now. A. Binda adds that she is in favor of the Turf 2 project but wants clarification on the other project. The committee agrees that she should get an answer for her question. G. Fiorente says that she and the committee do not know specific ins and outs in regard to finances and suggests A. Binda go to the Town Manager. Page 14 J. Parks discusses the next agenda item of the Sunday early start tiem and said he is the one that suggested it gets put on there. He asks the committee to revisit their thoughts on it. C. Webberly says that Lacrosse is in a very different position as they can only have games on Fridays and Sundays with two of their leagues. C. Webberly states that Reading is the only town that does not play before 12pm on Sundays on their home field. A committee member asks if they can expand their play time to grass fields. C. Webberly said the dimensions are all different for girls and boys and it would be extremely difficult to line all the time. The committee discusses the Sunday early start at non-neighborhood fields vs neighborhood fields. M. DlPletro says that if it is rediscussed that the neighbors should be invited again. The committee agrees. A committee member suggests G. Fiorente bring in the research to the next meeting that she collected last year in regard to the early start. Committee discusses the early start on Sunday Fields as a ballot question that the community votes on. G. Fiorente says this is a topic that gets brought up every year and so much time is dedicated to it. R. Hand gives an update on the Birch Meadow Master Planning Subcommittee meeting that was just held. R. Hand goes through some key discussion points of the meeting. R. Hand adds that even though there is no immediate funding that the subcommittee wants to keep momentum going and focus on redoing the map and working with trails on walking paths. K. Kaminer mentions that there always seems to be a need from the community on passive recreation. M. DiPietro comments that the subcommittee should focus on top 3 needs/wants of the community that trend on the surveys. G. Fiorente pulls up the powerpoint and says that yes, that is exactly what the subcommittee had discussed. G. Fiorente gives a division update. She states that programs are being planned for winter spring and the new programs will be available in March. She states that Summer Camp weeks sold out quicker than the year before. K. Kaminer asks if there was any more discussion on not creating and mailing out the recreation magazine anymore. G. Fiorente states that some other towns she chatted with said that they had tried it. G. Fiorente states that some other towns that do the magazine outsource a company to put all of their information into the brochure to save time. E. Sisson comments that the division does a great job of sending out email blasts with reminders and upcoming programs. G. Fiorente comments that Reading has recently been "going green" with the no plastic bag initiative Page 1 5 A committee member asks when the online registration goes live and when the book comes out. G. Fiorente answers that the online registration goes out two weeks before the magazine comes out. Committee continues to have a friendly discussion on pros and cons. K. Kaminer makes a motion to stop publishing the Reading Recreation Magazine in the Fall of 2019 and instead send out a postcard mailing reminder to residents instead. M. DiPietro seconds. The motion passes 5-0. K. Kaminer makes a motion to adjourn at 9:40pm. I Parks seconds. The motion passes 5-0. Page 1 6