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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-12-12 Recreation Committee Minutes+ r "RECEIVED Town of Reading TOWN CLERK Meeting Minutes READING, MA. 2023 MAR -6 PM �2 Board - Committee - Commission - Council: Recreation Committee Date: 2022-12-12 Time: 6:30 PM Building: Pleasant Street Senior Center Location: Great Room Address: 49 Pleasant Street Session: Open Session Purpose: General Monthly Meeting Version: Final Attendees: Members - Present: Michael Coltman (M), Eric Gaffen (M), Bob Weiden (M), Chuck Robinson (M), Melissa Pucci (M), Angela Binda (M) Members - Not Present: Katelynn King (A) Rich Hand (M) Kate Kaminer (M) Others Present: Arielle Carney - Recreation Administrator Genevieve Florente - Community Services Director Carlo Bacci - Select Board Liaison Mary Sullivan -Scott - Resident, 48 Salem Street John Scott - Resident, 48 Salem Street Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Arielle Carney, Recreation Administrator Topics of Discussion: Recreation Committee Chairman B. Weiden opens the meeting at 6:32pm. E. Gaffen makes a motion to approve the October 17'^, 2022 meeting minutes. M. Coltman seconds. Motion passes 6-0. M. Coltman makes a motion to approve the October 24t' Special Meeting Minutes. Chuck Robinson seconds. Motion Passes 6-0. B. Weiden opens up the discussion with abutters regarding the Memorial Park Flag Pole Donation. G. Fiorente tells the committee that a resident, Dan McGrath, who manages a charity in honor of his late brother approached the town with the goal of donating a new flag pole at the corner of Harrison St. & Charles St. This specific location was requested due to the high visibility for passers-by. A. Binda stated that the flag would need to be lit 24/7. She wonders if the constant light would be too bright and obtrusive to neighbors. That is her only concern with the requested placement of the flag pole. A. Binda asks how tall the pole would be. G. Fiorente said it would be 35 feet. M. Coltman has a concern about the potential location of the pole due to the usage that space gets from user groups such as Ultimate Frisbee. G. Fiorente showed the committee on a Google Map the Page I t approximate location where the donating group discussed placing the flag pole. M. Coltman doesn't foresee the suggested location disrupting user groups like Ultimate Frisbee. Mary Sullivan -Scott (48 Salem Street) asks why the Salem Street location was rejected given a flag pole used to exist there and there is an existing memorial/plaque in that location. G. Fiorente stated that she was unaware the flag pole on the Salem Street side had fallen/was no longer present. M. Coltman says the Salem Street entrance is more of a main entrance to the park and he thinks that more foot traffic would see the Salem Street Flag Pole. G. Fiorente tells the abutters that she can find out if there is any intent on putting the flag back at the Salem Street side. E. Gaffen makes a motion to recommend the Memorial Park Flag Pole donation be moved on to the Select Board for consideration to accept the donation. C. Robinson seconds. Motion passes 6-0. B. Weiden moves to the next agenda item regarding the School Department Light Polity at the Stadium Turf Field and Turf 2. G. Fiorente explains to the committee that currently, the Town Field Light Policy allows for field lights to remain on until 10pm. The two turf fields, however, are managed by the School Department and their current light policy requires field lights to be off at 9pm. Each season, the Town must receive special permission from the Superintendent in order for the lights to remain on until IOpm. With the high school's later start time, after school HS sports are practicing later into the early evening. This has resulted in the Recreation Department and the user groups is permits to use the field spaces such as Pop Warner and RUSC not having access to utilize the turf fields until 7pm. The School Department has asked that we gather feedback from abutters and the Recreation Committee about extending the School's Light Policy until 10pm to match the Town Policy. E. Gaffen thinks it's a no brainer— High School is starting school later, which means they are starting practices later, which ultimately pushes back on town sports. But that means town sports need a little more time on the back end to make up for that. He also thinks it is better the be aligned with town policy for continuity. M. Coltman asks if there are security lights and G. Fiorente says that there are security lights M. Coltman says the intent for the new bathroom building in Phase I of the Birch Meadow Master Plan is that they are anticipated to lock at 10pm so it would make sense to streamline the two turf fields/School Policy to match. G. Fiorente will notify Town Manager Fidel Maltez of the Recreation Committee's consensus of the light policy being moved to 10pm. B. Weiden moves on to the next agenda item —the scope of work for the ARPA funded YMCA Adaptive Programming. G. Fiorente asks if there are any questions regarding the scope of work provided to the committee from YMCA Director John Fuedo. E. Gaffen asks when the YMCA plans on opening registration for these programs G. Fiorente said that YMCA Director John Fuedo and his team are still working out the final process for registration but current discussions are considering a lottery to keep the process fair and equitable for enrollment. M. Pucci said that feedback she has received from other members in the community was that class levels of four children may be too many and that parents have stated there are children in need of one-on-one Page 1 2 classes to better accommodate their individual needs. M. Pucci emphasized that one-on-one options are not a preference but a need for families. A. Binda asks if the class of four has just one instructor. M. Pucci said she believes that is the case. M. Pucci also stated that due to the needs of the adaptive programming population, these classes may be extended from 30 minutes to 45 minutes to allow children who may struggle with transitions more time in the program. C. Robinson asked how the YMCA was staffing the adaptive lessons. M. Pucci said that when she last spoke with YMCA Director John Fuedo, the YMCA was discussing bringing in the company Angelfish who have specialized training in adaptive swim programming. A. Binda suggested that there could be an opportunity for members of the high school swim team to be able to volunteer to assist in the lessons. M. Coltman asks if the YMCA leadership could come and provide a report to the Recreation Committee to give updates as the programming gets underway. G. Fiorente said that YMCA Director John Fuedo is willing to make presentations/updates to the Recreation Committee. M. Pucci wants to make sure that Reading Residents have priority access to enrollment. G. Fiorente said that YMCA Director John Fuedo did already indicate in other meetings that Reading Residents would receive priority. M. Coltman asked G. Fiorente if she can get a copy of the finalized contract between the YMCA and the Town regarding the ARPA funding agreement. G. Fiorente said she would get a copy for the Committee. B. Weiden moves on to the discussion of Summer Basketball programming. He would like to see more basketball programming offered in the summer time through the Recreation Department. G. Fiorente stated that we currently have RFPs that we have to abide by with the two High School Basketball Coaches but we could have a discussion with both coaches about the possibility of increasing the number of weeks they offer. B. Weiden said that Hoop Town in Andover is drawing a lot of Reading Residents and that it would be great to see those kids stay in town. E. Gaffen said it is worth reaching out to someone like Carl McFadden and finding out what numbers look like for Merrimack Valley to get a gauge of possible interest. G. Fiorente said that we may be limited with adding too many offerings because of the limited capacity of the field house and the need to share the space with a wide variety of other sports programming that occurs throughout the summer time. The committee moves on to the Pickleball discussion agenda item. G. Fiorente made a presentation to the select board regarding pickleball at their November Meeting. G. Fiorente said that the department does know that collectively that pickleball needs its own facility due to the demand and popularity of the sport. Sturges Park courts are set to receive $60,000 in Capital Funds for improvements that could potentially include resurfacing and lining. Sturges would be a great potential Pickleball Court location because it is usable during all hours of the day unlike Barrows, for example, which would not be usable during school hours. M. Coltman wanted to clarify that the Sturges money is for court resurfacing. Page 13 G. Fiorente said that K. Kam!ner proposed the idea of a working group during the November Select Board for the best use of those spaces and how to advance pickleball access in the community. M. Coltman agrees that a pickleball working group would be great. E. Gaffen agrees G. Fiorente recommends the working group brainstorm and gather ideas together that would be the best use of the property. She also recommended to the board that the Sturges Park abutters be invited to the January 2023 Recreation Committee meeting to allow them to provide feedback on the best potential uses for the Sturges Park Courts. C. Bacci wants G. Fiorente to find out when the Town plans to do the work so that the working group could work backwards on their timeline of ideas for the spaces. A. Binda wants to know why there are more discussions about noise in regards to pickleball lately. M. Coltman said that the sport is becoming a more popular activity that is bringing more people aware of the sport and the noise associated with it. C. Bacci said that in regards to the Birch Meadow master plan, he believes parking will be a hurdle with the proposal of 8 pickleball courts at that location. E. Gaffen said that he thinks it is great to have the abutters attend the January Recreation Committee Meeting but have the working group meet in the meantime to begin discussions and then collect further feedback from the abutters. M. Coltman said that in the past they chalked at Washington Park and there were no noise complaints that he was ever made aware of. With past play at Washington Park - here is a past practice of playing pickleball in neighborhood parks similar to Sturges. M. Coltman said that in response to the pickleball noise; Burlington Recreation just put up a pickleball court sound barrierthat we could explore. A. Binda, C. Robinson, and C. Bacci provided an update on the first meeting of the Symonds Way Committee. The committee has seven members that are charged with recommending the best options for uses of land located on Symonds way that will serve as many residents as possible. They shall gather input from its members and the Reading Residents as to what the property should look like and its functionality. All ideas are currently on the table for the property be it fields or buildings. January 18" will be the next SWEC meeting and they will continue to meet on the 3'd Wednesday of the month moving forward. Recreation Administrator Arielle Carney gave the Recreation Committee updates on the department: • Winter Registration Opens Wednesday, December 14th o This programming covers everything through early Spring that the department will be offering • In -Town Basketball & Sunday Travel Basketball both began their seasons on Sunday, December 3rd. o We have two travel basketball teams this season, one 7th Grade Boys and one 8th Grade Boys. o We have over 400 Participants in our In Town Sunday Basketball Program that covers grades K -8th o Paul Orlando is taking the lead on our in -town basketball program and he and our high school referee staff are doing really well. The staff have been really engaged with the kids, theyre doing a greatjob at getting down to the kids' level, and they are super Page 14 interactive during the drill portion of the program especially during the K-1 session where we do the round robin stations. Santa Letters o This year we became a stop on the North Pole Express Mail service - which means we have an adorable North Pole Mailbox for Santa letters in the lobby outside the office and are ensuring all the letters get to Santa and have a response written back to the kids. o Its just a fun, free community engagement activity and we so far have received over 100 letters. Hopefully in the future these types of offerings help boost our presence on Social Media and just overall presence in the community. Intergenerational Program -Gingerbread Houses o Today, just before the Recreation Committee meeting, we wrapped up our first intergenerational program. We did a collaboration with the senior center to bring kids and seniors together for an afternoon of Gingerbread House and People making using foam kits to make everything allergy friendly. We also provided light refreshments, had holiday music playing and it was a great afternoon. We plan to begin offering these at least once a month. IncIYOUsion o We're excited to begin partnering with a brand-new company whose focus is on inclusive programming. o The company rolled out programming last September in the Danvers area. They have a set of 7 sports on rotation (Soccer, Tennis, Football, Track & Field, Basketball, Floor Hockey, Baseball) and target ages 18 months to 10 years old. Classes are broken up in groups of 2 years old to 5 years old and 6 years old to 10 years old. The primary goal is to ensure that their programming is INCLUSIVE as they find that children of ALL ABILITIES benefit from this format of programming. For children that do participate who need additional help, Parents are taught how to engage in the programming with their child as IncIYOUsion does not have the capacity to provide 1:1 support. Various strategies are taught to parents throughout the course of the program to help caregivers/parents redirect behaviors. They also use a variety of methods to provide kids of all learning styles such as sandwich boards with visual/picture timelines for the class activities that day. o Each class has a maximum enrollment of 8 kids with 2 coaches. IncIYOUsion believes strongly in rapport building and focus on keeping the same coaches with the same group of kids for the duration of the program. Classes are offered on weekend mornings & are 50 minutes per class. Teaching staff have a wide variety of professional backgrounds including Occupational Therapists, Physical Therapists, Kindergarten Teachers, BCBA (Behavioral Therapists), and Mobility Specialists, among others. This is a huge asset to partnering with IncIYOUsion . In addition, IncIYOUsion has an Inclusivity Consultant on staff o In the past year, InclYOUsion has expanded to 12 towns throughout Massachusetts- in several communities around the North Shore and as far down as New Bedford and Worcester. The structure is non-competitive in nature and brings in various other elements to the classes such as balance stones and obstacle courses to work on gross motor skills along with the basics of their specific program's sport. The anticipated start date would be Mid -April for outdoor Spring programming. B. Weiden makes a motion to adjourn the meeting at 8:14pm. E. Gaff en seconds. All in favor and the meeting adjourns. Pape 15