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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2006-12-13 Recreation Committee MinutesTown of Reading RECEIVED 16 Lowell Street TOWN CLERK Reading, MA 01867-2685 READING, MASS. 21101 JAN 19 P 12* 02 FAX: (781) 942 - 5441 RECREATION DIVISION: (781) 942 - 9075 READING RECREATION COMMITTEE MINUTES December 13, 2006 Meeting Room -Police Department Attendance: Chris Campbell, Rec. Committee Member, Mary Ellen Stolecki, Rec. Committee Member, Rick Shaffer, Rec. Committee Member, Beth Claroni, Associate Member, Kate Kaminer, Rec. Committee Member, Mike DiPietro, Associate Member, Frank Driscoll, Rec. Committee Member, Nancy Swain, Rec. Committee Member, John Feudo, Recreation Administrator K. Kaminer called the meeting to order at 7:03 PM and asked the committee to review the minutes of November 8th. C. Campbell made a motion to accept the November 8, 2006 meeting minutes M. Stolecki seconded the motion. Motion passes in favor of acceptance of the minutes by a vote of 6- 0-0. Corrections: Frank Driscoll was not in attendance at Nov. 8 meeting. -Reading Recreation-ltty Bitty Baseball Program Dan McGrath came up with a T-Ball program where the, divisions are named after Red Sox Players. We tried to differentiate between Jack Webster's program and our program by calling it Iffy Bitty baseball. F. Driscoll suggested perhaps not calling the program Itty Bitty Baseball and suggested including softball in the program title. It was decided to leave the name unchanged but make it clear in the program description to be inclusive to both genders. Jan 20th will be, registration day we could probably use volunteers. The program will run April to June. The Recreation Division will allocate Mr. Webster field space to continue his program. J. Feudo relayed conversation he had with Jack Webster. J. Feudo explained to Mr. Webster the financials and other reasons for starting town run spring league program and about field space and other program issues. It's set up the same way. Name and administration is the only difference. K. Kaminer made a motion to accept the Itty Bitty Baseball program, R. Schaffer seconded the motion. Motion passes in favor of approving the Itty Bitty Baseball program by a vote of 6-0-0. READING RECREATION COMMITTEE MINUTES CON'T 12/13 Administrator's Report J. Feudo gave an update for fall program season. We have jumped considerably with In Town basketball, 75% of the kids in Travel program are participating in the Sunday Program. Reading wrestling is doing well at about 40 kids which is about what we had last year. The New York trip went really well. We are losing T.H.E. Farm program they were unable to find staff for the spring. Once upon a time program will not be running due to the instructor no longer administering the course. We will be offering a one day skate program with hot chocolate sometime in February. Other programs being offered are Biddy Basketball, Egg Hunt, and the fencing program. New this year is Puente's Spanish program which will be offered 4 days a week at 4 schools any kid can go to any school for 18 weeks program fee is $340. It's a curriculum program to be offered to 3rd and 4th graders only and to be continued in the fall and winter seasons. We are also in the process of solidifying an internship position. We will consider it a sports supervisor position it will be 12 hrs in the office and they can create their own program do cost accounting and budgeting, the position should run from Jan to July. Subcommittee Reports: NAG UDATE Report given by F. Driscoll: The group meets once a week and have done three walking tours to see what can be done for pathways and trails to make it accessible for everyone, strollers, handicap and such. They are in done February and report back to board of selectmen. Some people want to leave it as is. The bike path will most likely not happen; it's a huge issue because of the question of materials _used to_create the path. There _is_a committee meeting onDecember -14th-not sure of direction it going to go, anything we do has to be accessible to everyone. Tennis Courts on Bancroft Ave. Update given by Kate Kaminer. K. Kaminer: Group is in the third month of organization. They have organized our 501 c3 status we have met with P. Hechenbleikner on getting the town involved to get money allocated for FY09 to be pushed up to FY08 that's only 150k. The group has been active in receiving bids. J. Feudo and K. Kaminer met with Cape Ann Island tennis he has not come in with hard bid, the figure was in 400k range not including lights. David Rotundi (Contractor) gave us a hard bid including lights it's a third cheaper than concrete this would be asphalt and needs more contractors for different installation components. The lights are antiquated and not working properly. The goal is to start in the fall 07 we are getting our bids in also grant writing and fundraising. The group is working toward getting the Town Captial money appropriated so they can move forward with grants. f` 4V READING RECREATION COMMITTEE MINUTES CON'T 12/13 CPA ADHOC Committee CPA - Creation, Preservation and Acquisition of open space. Update given by Mary Ellen Stolecki. M. Stolecki: They are going to try to put together something to go before the board of Selectmen to deduct a surcharge of any amount up to 3% on the real estate tax bill. We selected Chairman Clayton Jones, Vice Chair Mary Ellen Stolecki, and Secretary Bill Brown. They want to move quickly on this we need package ready for Feb. 29th we will put a place holder on it and table it. Imagination Station J. Feudo: Regarding Imagination Station: Meeting with the Board of Selectmen on the 19th of this month with at least the short report, the long report is going to take another four weeks for us to get. P. Hechenbleikner did not want to wait for that. I don't think we need it the long report it only tells us how to fix it, it doesn't tell us anything more than the short report. I am appearing before the Board of Selectmen one more time, and we are going to try to make some kind of decision and I am going to make another recommendation that we rip it down. J. Feudo: The short report said that they could retrofit it for 30k to 40k with about 100 town volunteers and they would send someone down to assess and then we would have to purchase the materials to take out what needed to be taken out and fix what needed to be fixed or they offer to rebuild the entire thing on a smaller scale for about 125k and there again is a community build, they would not_come _in and build it for us. I don't think we aregoing to be too quick _to-say we are going to rebuild a brand new playground there the same size. I really am in favor of knocking it down and doing some surveys of everyone in town to see what they think the space should be used for. You can extend over the parking lot. I know we have to give back some of the space because we gave up green space with the stadium field. It's all town property but the negotiation for putting in that football field was either we don't do it or we give them some that space back to green which means that's some of that area has to be grass. Wood End R. Shaffer expressed concern for the condition of the Wood End field. J. Feudo said that it was status quo. It has been irrigated now so that should improve it. The problem has been the fill that was used was not good and the considerably large boulders that are there. Wood End play ground will eventually be better. Field House Gym R. Shaffer recommends progressively moving forward to open the Field House Gym to Reading residents. READING RECREATION COMMITTEE MINUTES CON'T 12/13 J. Feudo expresses Gary Nihan's goal is to open it to everyone, the problem is supervision. They need someone who has knowledge of the machines used. Also they need to be careful opening up to the public at the same time as the high school students. J. Feudo suggests bringing Gary Nihan to next meeting to discuss staffing options and other considerations that need to be taken into account. R. Shaffer: Motion to adjourn meeting N. Swain: Second 7-0 in favor of adjournment. Meeting adjourned at 8:41 PM. Respectfully submitted by: John A. Feudo Recreation Administrator