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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-12-12 Recreation Committee MinutesGvR� y' OFF a ,��(•i CL V Town of Reading a� �o Meeting Minutes�i24 JA3 AM 9: pb xv a Board - Committee - Commission - Council: Recreation Committee Date: 2023-12-12 Time: 6:30 PM Building: Reading Town Hall Location: Conference Room Address: 16 Lowell Street Session: Open Session Purpose: General Monthly Meeting Version: Final Attendees: Members - Present: Michael Coltman (M), Melissa Pucci (M), Chuck Robinson (M), Rich Hand (M), Kate Kaminer (M), Eric Gaffen (M), Peter Lydecker (M), Eric Boemer (A), Kevin Leete(A), Ben Ream (A) Members - Not Present: Bob Weiden (M), Angela Binda (M) Others Present: Jim Sullivan - Recreation Administrator Genevieve Fiorente - Community Services Director John Feudo - Executive Director at Reading Burbank YMCA Karen Janowski - 30 Azalea Circle, Reading Joe McHugh - 28 Middlesex Ave, Reading Eileen Manning - 78 Riverside Drive, Reading Chuck Webberly - Reading Youth Lacrosse President Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Genevieve Fiorente, Community Services Director Topics of Discussion: 6:30pm — 6:35pm Vote/Discuss Approval of September and November Meeting Minutes 6:35pm — 7:00pm ARPA Update on current and future programming from the YMCA 7:00pm — 7:20pm Discussion and Vote on Pickleball play at Memorial Park in Winter Months 7:20pm — 7:30pm Recreation Report E. Gaffen calls to the meeting to order at 6:35pm. R.Hand makes a motion to accept the September and November meeting minutes as written. C. Robinson passes. Motion passes 6-0. Page I 1 J. Feudo gives an ARPA update on behalf of the YMCA for their adaptive programming initiatives. He gives a powerpoint presentation and discusses the popularity of the swim buddies program and the splash program. He also talks about the first social event to the Red Sox that was a collaboration with YMCA, Reading Public Schools and Reading Recreation. He adds that Communitas has not been able to help as he had hoped. C. Robinson says that M. Pucci had told the School Committee that families were going to other towns for adaptive programs and asked if that has changed. J. Feudo says that he has received great feedback and has held lotteries of over 100 people for the swim buddies program. He adds that the schools put out all the offerings to families. E. Gaffen asks if there are kids being turned away. J. Feudo answers only non-residents. M. Pucci asks J. Feudo to talk about the instructors and asks if Swim Angel Fish has trained any YMCA instructors. She also asks if the program will be sustainable. J. Feudo answers that two instructors are trained and he thinks it will be sustainable. M. Pucci states that the offerings are great but there is still need for different scheduling opportunities. J. Feudo says that classes are offered on Tuesdays and Sundays right now. J. Feudo gives some more details on numbers for programs and states that there were 270 participants in the SPLASH program of which 25 were unique. He says that there was 35 people in attendance for the Red Sox trip. J. Feudo wraps up the presentation by talking about adding more adaptive opportunities to the YMCA such as wheel -chair bball. In addition, he states there is a collaborative with the schools to created a unified strength and conditioning class. The Recreation Committee expresses their appreciation to J. Feudo and his staff for implementing all of the adaptive programming. E. Gaffen states that it is super impressive what the YMCA has done and he is happy to see multiple organizations involved in the effort. He asks what percentage of funds is used for adaptive programming with ARPA? J. Feudo answers that all the money given to the YMCA is going to adaptive programming only. E. Gaffen asks if the YMCA will be able to sustain the programming in the future. J. Feudo says yes, it just won't be free. G. Fiorente asks how much money the YMCA has already spent. J. Feudo states about 1/3. G. Fiorente states that funds must be encumbered by the end of 2024 and used by the end of 2026. Page 12 E. Gaffen introduces the next agenda topic of pickleball play at Memorial in the winter months and states he will allow public comment first then the committee will discuss. Eileen Manning states that she would like to speak in support of having the courts open in winter. She says she understands the concerns with courts that they should not be shoveled but she is hoping the Recreation Committee can find a way to keep them open. She adds that pickleball is a sport where people will play in the cold. K. Janowski says that she is thinking of why the courts would be closed. She states how she sent emails out to the town staff on this and says that pickleball is great for mental health, well- being, and physical health. She adds that people were out playing today in the 40 degree weather. She says how she hopes that the Recreation Committee supports the courts staying up. J. Sullivan states that he has a responsibility to stay consistent across the board with all sports. He gives an example of how youth organizations have been wanting to play on turf in winter months as well. He says that he has been mentioning that the Memorial Park courts will not be open for the past several months and pickleball players have been present. He goes on to say that when it was posted on the website that the courts would be closed after Thanksgiving, he was shocked to receive calls from J. Fiorente and F. Maltez that people were upset. J. Sullivan says that he came in on his day off to figure it out and states that in addition to some not so nice phone calls, he also received nasty emails calling him biased, unamerican and discriminatory. J. Sullivan states that he reached out to 12 different towns. He said 2 of the towns do not have pickleball courts and the remaining 8 out of 10 towns close all courts. J. Sullivan states that other towns and the DPW are concerned with shoveling, rock salt, letting the courts rest and vandalism. J. Sullivan explains that in the past Recreation staff would have to lock and unlock the courts and monitor for snow and ice. He says that this is not feasible or consistent with what is done on other courts. He states that Town Staff including he, Mike Hannaford, and Fidel Maltez all agreed to keep the courts open until the first 1 or 2 inches of snow. He adds that he spoke with the Town Operations Manager, Jayne Wellman who also mentioned that if anyone filed a claim at the court in the winter, insurance would go up. J. Sullivan adds that it is also nice to consider a rest for the neighbors especially with no leaves on the trees. J. Sullivan concludes that it is his recommendation along with other staff members to close the courts after the first 1 or 2 inches of snow but he is leaving it up to the Recreation Committee to decide the path moving forward. C. Robinson states that he thinks field use vs. court use is different. M. Coltman says that many days in the winter are different and that all the basketball courts are not locked. He says that the new courts at Sturges do not have gates and cannot be locked but the nets are down. M. Coltman states that the pickleball players can bring their own nets and that last winter there were only about 3 weeks that were closed and the rest were available. He mentions how one day they were closed on a Thursday and could have been open that Saturday but couldn't be. G. Fiorente states that she recalls receiving mean smalls about that weekend and states that since staff was responsible for opening and closing the courts, weekend policing was not possible. Page 1 3 M. Coltman states that there is no liability and it is use at your own risk. He says that it is not like a sidewalk. E. Gaffen asks on the point of sidewalks, who paves the path to the courts? G. Fiorente states there is no path to the courts. M. Coltman adds that pickleball players only use brooms and squeegees to remove debris from court. He also says they sometimes use a battery powered blower to blow stuff off. J. Sullivan reads letter from town counsel. A brief discussion occurs on whether or not the reservation system should be kept in place. E. Gaffen says that the fact that the DPW is not in favor of opening the courts up in the winter carries some weight. He asks who would take care of the courts. G. Fiorente states that Recreation Staff opened and closed them in the past since DPW would not. J. Sullivan says he would just keep them open. G. Fiorente explains the spirit of why they were voted on to be kept open years back. She says that it was because of COVID and folks could not play pickleball indoors. She states that it is no longer an issue and that there are many opportunities to play indoors in Reading and neighboring towns over the winter. E. Boemer asks what the imptetus was in bringing this up and asks J. Sullivan if he has received any apologies after the way he was treated. J. Sullivan answers he has not received apologies. He adds that M. Coltman brought up to him that he had asked for it to be an agenda item earlier on but he did not. M. Coltman answers that he remembers it being mentioned in July and did want to talk further about it. E. Gaffen mentions that other organizations do not complain about not using fields in the winter. He says that the way Jim was treated was unacceptable. M. Coltman says that after he spoke with Jim that he tried to settle down the chatter on Facebook. He said that he recognizes how hard Jim's job is. He adds that people are just really passionate about pickleball. K. Leete mentions that he does not think there is an issue with liability. He says that his ultimate frisbee team plays year-round and that if Memorial is open keep all the courts open. K. Kaminer says please do not open the Bancroft Courts and states tennis players want to preserve the courts for as long as they can. J. Sullivan says that there is always pushback with anything related to pickleball. He states that since most of the other towns are closed in winter that will probably bring more non-residents here. C. Robinson asks J. Sullivan if he has heard from any other organizations in town wanting to play in the winter. J. Sullivan answers that organizations would like to play on the turfs and fields in the winter K they were allowed. Page 1 4 E. Gaffen says that the court perspective is similar to fields and thinks that if it is done for pickleball, it should be explored for turfs for Soccer, Lax and other sports. C. Webberly states that he is there to ask for equal opportunity with the nice weather. J. Sullivan states that turf does dry quick. There is a brief discussion on the portable pickleball nets and whether or not those should be stored and/or protected in the winter. E. Boemer asks if there can be a compromise on Memorial Park courts and other fields and if the committee can discuss this again at the next meeting. E. Gaffen states that he also hopes there can be a compromise and a review of policy to keep it consistent with all organizations and the public. M. Pucci asks if turfs are closed in the winter. J. Sullivan answers yes. K. Kaminer makes a motion to support the staff recommendation of closing the courts at Memorial Park once there is two inches of snow on the ground. C. Robinson seconds. Committee votes 1 —6. Motion does not pass. P. Lydecker makes a motion that the courts remain open at Memorial Park until the next Recreation Committee meeting in January to see how it goes and revisit the discussion while removing nets and reservation system. K. Kaminer seconds. K.Kaminer asks what does see how it goes mean? P. Lydecker answers is there vandalism or other issues that arise in the time frame. K.Kaminer asks is it on a month to month basis or do we just keep it up for all 12 months and go from there? Committee agrees to discuss again at next meeting. Motion passes 6-1. J. Sullivan gives an update on Birch Meadow. He states there has been some flooding but the consultants and contractor have agreed to fix the issue. He says that there is also a complaint with a couple lights on the pavilion that have a bad glare that is extending into the neighborhood. He adds that an eyelid has been placed on the lights to help remedy the glare. J. Sullivan gives an update on the Barrows Capital Improvement project. He states how there is $200,000 to put toward court renovations over there so he and Ryan Percival, the Town Engineer are working together on some potential ideas. He also says that he plans to get involvement from the principal and the PTO to get their feedback on what is most needed at the school. J. Sullivan states the S. Simeola said that Ed Shambo has made the smoothest transition into the Program Coordinator position that she has ever seen. J. Sullivan adds that he agrees and that Ed is doing a great job. He introduces Ed to give a program update. E. Shambo gives an update on programming. He states that the Intergeneration Omament Painting with a special hot cocoa bar had 50 people in attendance. He mentions how Recreation Page 1 5 is in its second week of Sunday Basketball and that there are around 400 kids. He adds that the Travel Basketball Program has 3 teams. E. Shambo mentions some other programs that are running this winter like boxing, cooking, Letters to Santa, and art for kids and adults. He says that they are utilizing space in the afternoon and evenings for programming at the Pleasant Street Center. J. Sullivan adds an update on fall field scheduling fees that were collected. M. Pucci asks about programs like kids test kitchen being for all abilities and asks if it could be explored to bring a therapeutic art specialist. J. Sullivan states that they are open to continue to explore more therapeutic recreation programs. R. Hand makes a motion to adjourn at 8:26pm. M. Coltman seconds. 7-0 motion passes to adjourn. Page 1 6