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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2003-05-14 Recreation Committee MinutesTown of Reading 16 Lowell Street Reading, MA 01867-2685 c. FAX: (781) 942 - 5441 RECREATION DIVISION: (781) 942 - 9075 READING RECREATION COMMITTEE MINUTES May 14, 2003 Attendance: Alan Beaulieau, Rec. Committee Member, Sudie Fay, Rec. Committee Member David Bryant, Rec. Committee Member, Claire Bolger, Rec. Committee Member Patrick Fennelly, Rec. Committee Member, Chris Campbell, Rec. Committee Associate Member Kate Kaminer, Rec. Committee Associate Member, John Feudo, Recreation Administrator Guests: Dennis Lucyniak, Reading Youth Baseball, Peter Coumendorous, Chris Flanagan, Ken Johnson A. Beaulieu called the meeting to order at 7:54 PM and asked the Committee to review both meeting minutes from April 9th and April 30th. C.Bolger made a motion to accept the minutes of the April 9th Recreation Committee meeting. P. Fennelly seconded the motion. Motion passes in favor of accepting the minutes of April 9th 5-0. C.Bolger made a motion to accept the minutes of the April 30th Recreation Committee meeting. D. Bryant seconded the motion. Motion passes in favor of accepting the minutes of April 30th 5-0. Dennis Lucyniak of Reading Youth Baseball appeared before the Rec. Committee to propose an application for a Special Sunday permit for June 22nd. A. Beaulieu asked for clarification as to why RYB needed a special permit. D. Lucyniak stated due to early season rainouts, RYB was forced to play make-up games on the original Saturday designated for the All-Star game. C. Bolger stated she had some concerns about the games starting at 8:OOAM due to the fact that people always arrive at least a half hour prior to game time. K. Kaminer asked if it was possible to start at 9:OOAM. Dennis stated that RYB would need Hunt, Barrows and Joshua Eaton for June 22nd and stated that moving the games to 9:00 AM would not be a problem. A.Beaulieu stated the Rec. Committee has permitted more than one field under a permit before siting the RMSL Tournament that was coming up in June reserved both the Street Softball Field and the Lighted Softball Field. D.Bryant made a motion to grant RYB a Special Sunday permit for June 22nd for Hunt, Barrows and Joshua Eaton with the condition that nobody arrives at any field prior to 8:30 AM. S. Fay seconded the motion. Motion passed in favor of granting the permit 5-0. A.Beaulieu stated that the group of gentlemen in attendance were at the meeting to make a presentation on improvements for Hunt Memorial Park and gave them the floor. I READING RECREATION COMMITTEE MINUTES May 14, 2003 Con't Peter Coumendorous, Ken Johnson and Chris Flanagan presented to the Recreation Committee a plan for improvements to the Hunt Memorial Park Playground area. Peter stated the group basically consisted of residents that lived close to Hunt Park. He went on to state that he has already spoken to abutters to Hunt Memorial Park and had already began gathering signatures from Abutters and Non-Abutters in favor of the improvements. He stated that the group was looking for no money from the Town, just support and guidance. The Committee seemed to like the idea but encouraged the group to seek out the Conservation Committee before they made anymore progress. S. Fay suggested a Public Hearing is probably necessary, as there would be changes to the physical area of the playground. A. Beaulieu agreed that Hunt needed to be updated and stated there was a capital improvement plan set up, but has not been able to be fulfilled due to lack of fanding. D. Bryant suggested setting up a "Friends of HMP" to start raising money once they have gone through the proper channels. A. Beaulieu made a motion to allow the HMPR group to proceed with exploring the proper channels for getting improvements made for Hunt Memorial Playground. D. Bryant seconded the motion. Motion passes 5 - 0 in favor of allowing HMPR to proceed with exploring the proper channels for getting improvements made for Hunt Memorial Playground. Next Kate Kaminer from the Friends of Reading Recreation presented 2 separate Sunday special permit for 2 separate events. The first permit was for the use of the Birch Meadow Tennis Courts on Sunday, June 1St beginning at 9:00 AM by the Friends of Reading Recreation for the purpose of the Doubles Tennis Tourney. The second permit was for Sunday, June 8th beginning at 9:00 AM by Jason Ronan and Greg Luongo for the purpose of the Singles Tennis Tournament. C.Campbell asked if the was any concern about high school graduation taking place on the first day of the Doubles tournament. K. Kaminer stated they anticipated less people for the first tournament and typically there is 30% less people on Sunday due to elimination. K. Kaminer stated all the proceeds from both tournament go back to the Town by means of contributing to the courts in Town that have new nets this year or purchasing uniforms for the high school tennis teams. D. Bryant asked if there would be any type of public notice about the two events. K. Kaminer stated both events would be in the Chronicle and signs would be posted at the tennis courts at Birch meadow on the Friday prior to each event. D. Bryant made a motion to accept both Sunday Permits with the condition that there be two separate names as requestors on the two Permits by the separate groups. P. Fennelly seconded the motion. Motion passes 5 - 0 in favor of granting both special permits. Recreation Administrator J. Feudo next presented a new baseball program called Full Count. J. Feudo stated "Full Count" Private Baseball School is a proposed baseball program by Scott Farris - and John Macaluso, both former Reading Baseball coaches as well as players. They are looking to READING RECREATION COMMITTEE MINUTES May 14, 2003 Con't establish a private lesson baseball program. The program has Peter Moscariello's endorsement and they can provide all necessary items needed to Program with Reading Recreation Division. A. Beaulieu felt there were too many questions about the program to approve it with out speaking with the directors themselves. Alan suggested inviting them into the June meeting. D. Bryant suggested tabling the issue until the next meeting. Next the Recreation Administrator asked for some discussion on how the scholarship policy was arrived at. J. Feudo stated with the economy suffering, the Recreation Division is seeing more and more need for scholarship. He stated the policy seemed to not restrict out of town use nor limit the amount section of a specific program people could apply for. The Committee felt that the policy should have some flexibility built in for the Rec. Administrator to make independent decisions. The Committee also felt that people that ask for more than one week of Camp were indeed taking advantage of the system. A. Beaulieu made the point that most people will only register for what they can afford. He felt it wasn't fair to scholarship someone for the entire summer when others only do one week due to financial constraints. The Recreation Committee made the recommendation to change the wording of the Waiver Application to include the instance of limiting people to one session of multiple session programs such as camp. The Committee briefly discussed reappointment, but decided to hold off until June when more of the committee was present. J. Feudo discussed camp. He stated that there were 26 applicants interview for various camp positions and felt confident that the staff that has been hired will be exceptionally strong. J. Feudo also stated that camp numbers were coming along slowly by surely and there would be one last flyer sent to the school before the end of the school year about the various offering for the summer. J. Feudo thanked those from the Recreation Committee that helped on the April 12th registration day. The division deemed it a success with a total of approximately $40,000 in revenue generated just on that Saturday. D. Bryant made a motion to adjourn the meeting. S. Fay seconded the motion. Motion passes 5-0 in favor of adjourning the meeting. Meeting adjourned at 10:04 PM Respe submitted by, Jo eudo Recre ion Administrator f'