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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-02-03 - Parks and Rec Advisory Council Meeting Minutes MINUTES OF THE VILLAGE OF RYE BROOK PARKS AND RECREATION ADVISORY COUNCIL 938 KING STREET RYE BROOK,New York 10573 February 3,2015 Convene Meeting: Parks and Recreation Advisory Council Chairman Jamie Schutzer called the meeting to order at 8:20pm. The following Members of the Parks & Recreation Advisory Council were present: Advisory Council Members: Chairman Jamie Schutzer, Scott Tillson, Adam Zahl Adam Berman, Brian Funtleyder Absent Parks & Recreation Advisory Council Members: Steve Ketchabaw, Christopher Dutra, Frank Carbone, Traci Erenfryd Jeffrey Rednick, Village of Rye Brook Trustee Liaison to Rye Brook Recreation Recreation Department Members: Robert Bertolacci, Parks and Recreation Superintendent Cannella Swick, Sr. Office Assistant I. Minutes: a. Approve January 6,2015 Minutes: Chairman Schutzer asked for a motion to approve the January 6, 2015 Minutes. Committee Member Zahl made the motion to approve the January 6, 2015 Minutes and Committee Member Tillison seconded the motion. The January 6, 2015 Minutes were approved and accepted. Committee Members Berman and Funtleyder abstained from voting. Public View Points: 1. Chairman Schutzer reported that Committee Member Erenfryd stated that 4 out of the 12 lights in the new gym at Ridge Street School were out. Committee Member Berman said that the high hats in the high school gym are also out. Committee Member Berman said he spoke to Greg Russo, the Athletic Director of Blind Brook School, and he said the lights have been replaced several times and they keep going out. Greg said he was told by Jonathan Ross, Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Facilities, that the state was coming into the schools to redo the lights with some energy saving lights and the schools wouldn't get charged. Greg stated that he would follow up with Jonathan Ross. 2. Committee Member Tillison commented on the 8`" and 9`" grade basketball that we are wasting our money paying for 2 officials to referee those games. You don't need 2 paid 1168377.1 Officials for kids that are clowning around and just running up and down the court. Maybe one official and a volunteer would be sufficient. Committee Member Berman said it's the ninth graders that are not passing the ball to the 8th graders. Superintendent Bertolacci said at one time we used 2 high school varsity boys to work the clock, two varsity boys coaching the team and 2 varsity boys refereeing and it didn't work out. Chairman Schutzer said they are still official league games and I don't know how we cannot have paid referees. Superintendent Bertolacci said they are paying the same amount as every other person playing basketball for rec. 3. Committee Member Tillison asked if we can reserve the first two rows of the bleachers in the new gym. There are plenty of seats above those two rows. It will eliminate parents and other kids from being too close to the players. Superintendent Bertolacci said it's already been taken care of; it will be blocked off. Chairman Schutzer said if you go up too high you are behind the backboard and you can't see one side of the court. Committee Member Zahl said the games aren't that crowded so you can move over for a better view of the court or we could have the backboards moved UP. 4. Committee Member Berman said another view point is that some refs have not been making the players remove their jewelry. Somebody went up for a rebound and got cut because of it. Please remind the refs to have the players remove their jewelry. 5. Chairman Schutzer said that Committee Member Erenfryd suggested to the baseball committee that there are no double headers in Little League. The biggest drawback of Travel Baseball is back to back games and the commitment on a weekend. 6. Chairman Schutzer asked what their thoughts on a Gazebo for Pine Ridge Park. Trustee Rednick said the idea of a Gazebo has to be looked at in a grander scale and maybe do this as a master plan with the playground. Trustee Rednick said we would table the idea of a Gazebo for now. We could also think about having tables or some benches in the park so residents have a place to sit. H. Superintendent's Report: a. Spring Carnival (Date): Superintendent Bertolacci said the Carnival dates are May 15th, 16" and 17th. The Village has approved All Star Carnival. The carnival will be held at 900 King Street which is the same place as the previous years. Committee Member Berman asked if we get any percentage from the game booths. Superintendent Bertolacci said the game booth wasn't negotiable this year, but next year we will negotiate the games, but we are getting a better percentage on the rides this year. Trustee Rednick said the 1St year we lost revenue because there were initial set up costs, last year we came close but because of the rain people left earlier on Saturday and Sunday night. Committee Member Berman said we should figure out some way to increase our revenue when we have the Carnival. Trustee Rednick thought to promote the carnival is to advertise outside the borders of Rye Brook. 1168377.1 Superintendent Bertolacci said the advertisement for the Carnival will go in the weekend section of the Gannet, Westmore News, Greenwich Newspaper, and the Patch. I also have phone calls out to News 12. b. Other Updates: Superintendent Bertolacci said he has proposed an ice skating rink for next year. Superintendent Bertolacci said it can cost anywhere from $80,000 to $180,000. Superintendent Bertolacci said if the committee has some input on some capital projects, a good time to discuss it is in November prior to the new budget proposals. Committee Member Berman asked if we ever thought about rolling the Birthday Celebration together with the Carnival. Trustee Rednick said we are looking for more community events to attract older people and not always geared toward the kids. Another suggestion is to have the Battle of the Bands in the summer at Pine Ridge Park. Committee Member Berman asked if Kyle was going to put the standings and current schedule on line for the 6th and 7th grade basketball. Superintendent Bertolacci said the schedule is on line and he was working on the standings today. III.Playground Sub-committee Report- Traci Erenfryd: Chairman Schutzer said the committee was to look at other playgrounds that were done by these companies but the time frame of when this project was to start and completed has been moved UP. Trustee Rednick said by the time it gets voted on and it goes out to bid, designed and lead time to order everything you are still talking sometime in the summer. We are looking at 9 weeks after it is designed and ordered. The amount of money in the budget for this project is $100,000. Chairman Schutzer said the three companies that gave their presentation at the November 2014 meeting was Kompan, Gametime, and Miracle. Chairman Schutzer said Kompan built the playground at Ridge Street School and Miracle built the playground that is at Pine Ridge Park now. Superintendent Bertolacci said for the record he has sent his recommendation to the Village for Kompan. Trustee Rednick said for the record that Mayor Rosenberg, Chris Bradbury and I were present at the November meeting and we all agreed that Kompan was the company to go with. For information on the 3 presentations,please refer to the November 2014 meeting. Chairman Schutzer opened the item for discussion. Committee Member Funtleyder said that Committee Member Erenfryd said that she thinks the playground equipment at Ridge Street School is dangerous. Committee Member Funtleyder asked Superintendent Bertolacci if he had any statistics of accidents from the Ridge Street School playground. Superintendent Bertolacci asked the company Kompan if there were any reported incidents. They reported that there weren't any accidents reported. Chairman Schutzer said this project is going to be built to specifications so if there are certain things that we feel may be more of a risk of getting hurt, we can change it. Committee Member Zahl said if the Mayor, the Administrator, Superintendent of Recreation is voting for Kompan, I don't see any compelling reason to go somewhere else. All playgrounds have a risk built in them. 1168377.1 Chairman Schutzer asked for a motion to make a recommendation to the Village Board. Committee Member Tillison made a motion to recommend to the Board of Trustees to move forward with Kompan. The motion was seconded by Committee Member Berman. Everyone was in favor and no one opposed. IV.Basketball Sub-committee Report-Brian Funtleyder: Committee Member Funtleyder said the feedback on the basketball referees has been negative. The main problem is the refs don't know the specific Rye Brook rules and some of the refs don't know the basic rules of basketball. They don't know how many steps for traveling and in a lot of cases where something should have been a jump ball if there is no press, and defense gets a re-bound, and the other team tries to get the ball after they have it, it is not a jump ball. Mostly I have seen this in the 6th/7th grade boys and girls. Committee Member Berman said he personally thinks these refs are better than the ones we had last year. They shouldn't be allowed in the gym unless they know the rules. Our rules are not that different from the major rules. At the beginning of the game they should get a 30 second primer on the rules. The fall back and the pressing is a big problem. Committee Member Funtleyder said also that they don't call a hand check which is a foul now. The 6th/7`h grade girls play a little rough and it's not being called. Committee Member Berman said the refs are not calling a fall back and I have seen a kid come from behind and pummel the kid and the ref didn't call it. Chairman Schutzer said that fall back should be incorporated into the rules, one warning and after that it's a technical foul, and have the refs enforce it. This would be a rule for next year. Another issue is the refs don't call charging, the referees call it defensive fouls. Chairman Schutzer said safety comes first and if things get out of hand where someone can get hurt,that needs to be addressed. Committee Member Funtleyder reiterated that the rule is you have to be at 60% of the game and be there for at least '/2 of the game. The problem with some of the girls is they are playing on 2 or 3 basketball leagues. These girls will ask if they can leave early to go to another game and if it is one of the stronger players, it's not fair to the rest of the team. I think we have to discuss this item for next year and maybe have them be there for the whole game to get credit toward the 60%. Committee Member Funtleyder said the selection for County Center is different this year. For the boys each coach will nominate 2 from their team and for the girls each coach will nominate 3 from their team. Superintendent said we will look at each team and anyone who deserves to be on that ballot will be placed on the ballot. The nominations are due in to Kyle by tomorrow and will be announced on Friday. V. Grievance Sub-committee Report-Adam Zahl: Committee Member Zahl said there were no grievances filed. There was a coach for the 6`h/7`h grade boys' teams that was given a technical and a one game suspension by the Recreation Department. The co-coach strongly objected to the one game suspension. I explained to the co-coach that when a technical is given there is an in game penalty of two shots and lost ball of possession. I explained to him that the one game penalty came directly from a memorandum that was distributed before the basketball program as part of our zero tolerance policy. In the event that a technical is given,there is a minimum of a one game suspension. Committee Member Zahl said the co-coach had every right to attend the rec meeting and offer his view point but he didn't show up. Committee Member Zahl said he was at a 4`h/5`h grade 1168377.1 girls' game and there was a coach who was jawing at the ref all through the game. This coach wasn't using any profanity or raising his voice but you can see he was going back and talking to the ref. After the game, I spoke to that coach and I told him you have to be careful because the ref could hit you with a technical and you would be suspended for one game. This is a coach who may have warranted a technical in that situation but didn't get a technical because the referee had a longer fuse or was having a decent day,where as another coach may have gotten a technical. Committee Member Zahl said it's not whether it's a good rule or not, it's the rule and they signed off on the rule. VI.Baseball Sub-Committee Report-Scott Tillson: Committee Member Tillison said he is searching for a place to do a spring training clinic for our League. We have an option to do something with Pro Swing. There are slots available for a minimum of 12 kids with 2 trainers for 1 '/z hours at $35 per kid per session. We are looking at the end of winter break to the beginning of the league, about 5 weeks, about $200 a kid. If we get more than 12 kids a session they would assign a 3`d junior trainer. The option of us doing any training in house is almost improbable because the gyms aren't available. We should plan ahead for next year and try to secure some space at Carver Center or some other organization. We also need to do a pitching clinic this year especially for the minor league boys and girls because we took the pitching away. Committee Member Tillison said he has heard from the residents about having an all-star game. We did discuss this as a community event so I would like to pursue this event. Chairman Schutzer asked if they would play other towns. Committee Member Tillison said for the Major League the 5th grade plays the 6th and the Minor League the 3`d grade plays the 4th grade and maybe Port Chester would want to do something like an inter town all-star game. Superintendent Bertolacci asked if we had any discussions with Port Chester Baseball regarding inter league play. Committee Member Tillison said the last time he spoke with Chris Swallen we thought it would be nice to expand down into the minor league this year. Committee Member Tillison said he would give Chris Swallen a call to discuss inter league play. Superintendent Bertolacci said with regard to night games at the Port Chester Middle School, night games will depend on whether we run the lights for men's softball. VII. Old Business: a. Men's Softball: Superintendent Bertolacci sent out e-mails regarding Men's Softball. Last year we had eight men's teams and at least one of the eight is going to drop out. Superintendent Bertolacci said he is going to present to the Village Board an incentive for teams to refer other teams to our league. We would give a discount toward their teams' registration if they refer a team into the league. Committee Member Berman said he talked to a couple of guys from Greenwich and Rye said their biggest problem they have with Rye Brook Softball is most other leagues have a set night to play on so they can play in other leagues. Superintendent Bertolacci said that we have two set nights which is Monday or Thursday and we need 10 to 12 teams to run the league with the lights. Committee Member Berman asked if there is any negative reason to take out an ad in the Westmore News to get the word out that we are looking for teams as to the rec bulletin. 1168377.1 b. Hosting District 20 Games: Chairman Schutzer asked when we would apply to host District 20 games. Superintendent Bertolacci said when we do our charter is when we apply to host the games. Superintendent Bertolacci said they are not as strict. A lot of it has to do with distances and fencing. The Pine Ridge Park new field meets the criteria but the old field doesn't meet the criteria. A score board is needed, PA system. etc. You don't need a concession stand because you could bring in a food truck. Committee Member Tillison asked why the old field wouldn't meet the criteria. Superintendent Bertolacci said the fences aren't deep enough. In the spring, we will have warm up pitching areas in both fields at Pine Ridge Park. VIII. New Business: There is no New Business. IX. Adjournment: Chairman Schutzer asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting. Committee Member Berman made the motion to adjourn the meeting and Committee Member Tillison seconded the motion. All approved and the meeting adjourned at 10:05pm. The next meeting of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee will be held on March 3, 2015 at 8:15pm. Minutes prepared by: Carmella Swick 1168377.1