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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-06-02 - 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 June 2, 2015 Convene Meeting: Parks and Recreation Advisory Council Chairman Jamie Schutzer called the meeting to order at 8:35pm. The following Members of the Parks & Recreation Advisory Council were present: Advisory Council Members: Chairman Schutzer, Adam Zahl, Scott Tillison, Susan Gardner Michael Keilman, Jason Steinberg Absent Parks & Recreation Advisory Council Members: Brian Funtleyder, Kathy Bilig Recreation Department Members: Robert Bertolacci, Parks and Recreation Superintendent Carmella Swick, Sr. Office Assistant I. Minutes: a. Approve May 6, 2015 Minutes: Chairman Schutzer asked for a motion to accept the May 6, 2015 minutes. Council Member Zahl made the motion to accept the May 6, 2015 Minutes and Council Member Keilman seconded the motion. The minutes were accepted and approved. II. Welcome New Council Member: Chairman Schutzer asked the new Council Member to introduce himself and give a little background about why he joined the Parks and Recreation Advisory Council. Council Member Jason Steinberg said he has lived in Rye Brook for 13 months at Beechwood Blvd. and works in the city for the Bank of New York. He has a 5 year old, 3 years old in September and a 3rd child on the way. He was asked to join the committee by Trustee Jeff Rednick because he was passionate about a certain topic with the Village Board. Unfortunately, I was voted down so Trustee Rednick said I should turn my passion to something good. Chairman Schutzer welcomed Jason Steinberg as the new Council Member. Chairman Schutzer explained about the different sub-committees. There are basketball, baseball and grievance sub- committees. The sub-committees have a meeting before the monthly meeting and will report about their meeting at the regular monthly meetings. The Parks and Recreation Advisory Council meet the first Tuesday of each month. III. Public View Points: Chairman Schutzer said it was really great the Opening Day of Little League with the DJ, announcing each player for the first game and the barbeque. Chairman Schutzer thought that for 1168377.1 the Little League final game or the play-offs to make it a special day. It doesn't have to be elaborate like Opening Day but to do something special for the end of the season. Maybe we can call some of the plays with a portable mike, call the name of the players and have a small grill to cook on. Council Member Tillison thought it would be a good idea. IV. Superintendent's Report: a. Playground Update: Superintendent Bertolacci met with the playground company today at Pine Ridge Park. The company is going to start construction next week and completed within two weeks pending the weather. All the equipment will be delivered next week. Superintendent Bertolacci said he would put a message on the web site as soon as there is a definite start date. There will be a fence around the construction site for safety. b. Spring Carnival Recap: Superintendent Bertolacci said the carnival this year was a success. Saturday was a tough day because of the weather and was down about $7,000 from the year before. On Friday we were up about $600 from last year and on Sunday we were up somewhat. We brought in the profit from the food and craft vendors. Saturday was questionable all day with a threat of rain all day. Friday night and Sunday the weather was good. Last year we probably lost about $500 and this year we made a profit of about $6,000. Chairman Schutzer said as long as you're not losing money it's a win for the community. Superintendent Bertolacci reported there were some scrapes but no major injuries. Council Member Zahl asked where the money goes that was made from the carnival. Superintendent Bertolacci said the money goes into the general account. c. Birthday Celebration: Superintendent Bertolacci reported the Rye Brook Birthday celebration will be on June 20`h rain or shine at 12:OOpm to 4:OOpm. We are looking for volunteers to cook at the barbeque and serve food. Council Member Gardner volunteered her husband Barry to cook at the celebration. Chairman Schutzer, volunteered, Council Members Keilman and Zahl volunteered if there is no AAU basketball scheduled that day. Council Member Tillison also volunteered if the baseball tournament schedule permits. Superintendent Bertolacci said a new attraction at the birthday is bumping cars. It's not as big as what we had at the carnival but a new attraction. d. Summer Camp Update: Superintendent Bertolacci reported that we have 85 children registered for day camp and 30 campers for the Travel Camp. We will probably have maybe around 27 or 28 more campers that will register for the teen camp. The registration numbers for camp is way down. Three, four years ago we had 115 registered in the travel camp. With a better economy, parents are sending their children to sleep away camp. Also the grades are significantly smaller than other years which contribute to the lower registrations. Superintendent Bertolacci said across the board our programs are suffering also due to the lack of numbers in the school. Chairman Schutzer said the last big grade is the 7`i' grade with 140, and then the classes get smaller. Superintendent said with the new development in Reckson and a new development on Anderson Road that should significantly bring the population up in the village and the school. 1168377.1 V. Sub-Committee Appointments: Chairman Schutzer said we have three sub-committees, basketball, baseball and grievance sub- committees. The Grievance sub-committee is formally new because of behavioral issues from coaches, parent coaches, parents in the stand and the players. Our attorney on our council drafted a Conduct of Code policy this fall that required the parents to sign off on when registering their child for programs. If a formal grievance was made, it would come to the committee for discussion with a recommendation to Superintendent Bertolacci. There were some incidents that were grievable and the people would call me or Adam or Scott and saying that this coach shouldn't be coaching. The fact is that no one will register a formal grievance because of the town being so small and everyone knowing each other and seeing other socially. Chairman Schutzer said we should encourage the department employees to file a grievance who are there most of the time at the programs and see any incidents that may warrant a grievance. The following sub-committee appointments are: Grievance Sub-Committee: Council Member Zahl will stay on as chair, Council Members Steinberg, Funtleyder and Chairman Schutzer join on the sub-committee. Basketball Sub-Committee: Council Member Funtleyder will stay on as chair, Council Members Zahl, Keilman and Gardner join the sub-ommittee. Chairman Schutzer asked how many kids are registered for the Terry Teachout Basketball Camp. Superintendent Bertolacci said there are 85 for the first camp of which 28 are Rye Brook children, and 100 for the Steve Novak of which 21 are Rye Brook children. The first camp is Tim Hardaway camp starting June 29`h and Steve Novak is July 20`h- We make $1500 on each camp. Baseball Sub-Committee: Council Member Tillison will stay on as chair, Council Members Steinberg, Belig and Chairman Schutzer join the sub-committee. Chairman Schutzer said on TV Fox that he was watching reported on how the sport of baseball is dying. We have our own internal issues of the grades getting smaller. In our town we have Little League, Rec and private Travel Baseball. In the past it was thought that travel baseball was taking our numbers from our Little League program. It's not just travel baseball but AAU spring basketball and Lacrosse that are pulling kids away from baseball. Chairman Schutzer said Council Member Tillison is working on some solutions over the past years to try and engage kids to continue to play baseball. One of things we have is we have inter league village games with Port Chester and Irvington. The last 3 years we had 4 teams in the Major League. We have been talking with other towns about merging. Council Member Tillison said Port Chester is also down with their numbers but Harrison is strong with 10 teams in their Major League. VI.Basketball Sub-Committee Report—Brian Funtleyder: There is nothing to report. VII. Grievance Sub-Committee Report-Adam Zahl: Council Member Zahl said there were no grievances to report. As we are getting into summer we are talking about simplifying the code which was my intent to try and make sure that everything was covered. Now we will make it more user-friendly. Council Member Zahl asked if someone was to come to our public meeting and ask if he can discuss something that happened at one of our programs, would his or her name go into the record of the minutes. Superintendent Bertolacci said that name would have to go on record. 1168377.1 Council Member Keilman asked if you need a specific grievance filed to take action on that person. Council Member Zahl said that is the way it is set up. There is a form on the web site that can be filled out. The number of grievances filed because of the zero tolerance policy in basketball this year was a lot less than in previous years. Superintendent Bertolacci said we almost had a grievance during baseball. One coach took one player out of the game because he refused to run the bases. The player was warned many times by his coach and the player curses and doesn't pay any attention to what the coach is saying. The parent was upset and complaining about the coach removing his child from the game. This child has missed one game since the incident. Council Member Tillison said there are disciplinary issues with that team. The coach tried being aggressive with his team and told them if they didn't run the bases etc., he would take that player out of the game. This parent came to the dugout after the incident and the coach explained why he took her child out of the game. Then she took her son and went home. The coach has been trying to talk to the parent and she won answer his calls. VIII. Baseball Sub-Committee Report-Scott Tillison: Council Member Tillison said it was a good baseball season because the kids on my team love to play baseball. There are other teams that are not into baseball and don't have enough kids to field a team to play a game. There probably will be complaints forth coming on how the draft works. Kyle knows the kids and a lot of the coaches don't know if these kids play different sports. Kyle has evaluated each child and pretty much knows their strengths, their weakness and if they can pitch. Each year we do a draft and try to even out the teams and it seems to end up with an undefeated team and a team that wins all the games each year. Superintendent Bertolacci said the difference is some coach's practice with the team and some coaches don't practice. Superintendent Bertolacci said the order of how you pick your team is how you finish the last season and the team with the most losses picks first. Council Member Tillison said there are 13 kids on a team and sometimes it's a struggle to get enough players to play the game, especially if that team is losing all the games. Superintendent Bertolacci said in Elmsford there are minor teams assigned to a major team as a feeder so if they are short a player they pull from that team. The coach is called and asked for a player for just that game so the game can be played. Maybe we should look into something similar to remedy forfeiting a game. Council Member Tillison said we had only 3 Minor League teams this year. One of the things we did this year was to use the pitching machine. There is always a trade-off which is taking away pitching from the kids. On the plus side, using the pitching machine enabled the team to play 6 innings in 1 1/2 hr. with less walks and more fielding the balls. Some parents are upset because there is no pitching. If there is time, the kids get to pitch in the 6th inning. Superintendent Bertolacci said we had clinics during the season and no one showed up. Council Member Tillison suggested starting the clinics in February to make baseball a little more attractive to the kids. Superintendent Bertolacci asked if Travel Baseball offered a discount to the kids and Council Member Tillison said the discount was offered to the players. Chairman Schutzer suggested starting the clinics from January through March with a class every 1168377.1 week and have the clinic run by a baseball professional. The important issue is to start the kids at an early age before they develop bad habits. IX.Old Business: a. Ice Skating Rink at Pine Ridge Park: Superintendent Bertolacci said the ice rink for Pine Ridge Park is a budget item. /the Village Board didn't totally reject the ice rink and is interested in exploring it further. Superintendent Bertolacci said he has to get more information and also find some place where there is synthetic ice that he can visit. Council Member Keilman said he never skated on synthetic ice. Superintendent Bertolacci said synthetic ice has a life span of 25 to 30 years and can have the ice rink all year round. Council Member Keilman said when you find a synthetic rink to let him know and he will get his team to skate o it and let you know how it is to skate on. At Orienta there is refrigeration with pipes under the ground. For a town to have an ice rink you have to maintain it and it's costly. Superintendent Bertolacci said the closest place with a synthetic ice rink is in Connecticut so I will be visiting that site. I will then report my finds. X. New Business: There is no New Business to report. XI.Adjournment: Chairman Schutzer asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting. Council Member Tillison made the motion to adjourn the meeting and Council Member Gardner seconded the motion. All approved and the meeting was adjourned at 10:00pm. The next meeting of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Council will be held on Tuesday, July 7, 2015 at 8:00 pm. Minutes prepared by: Carmella Swick 1168377.1