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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-09-09 - 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 September 9, 2015 Convene Meeting: Parks and Recreation Advisory Council Chairman Jamie Schutzer called the meeting to order at 8:34pm. 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: Kathy Billig, Emma Saghir Recreation Department Members: Robert Bertolacci, Parks and Recreation Superintendent Jennifer Leichter, Office Assistant I. Minutes: a. Approve June 2, 2015 Minutes: Chairman Schutzer asked for a motion to accept the June 2, 2015 minutes. Council Member Zahl made the motion to accept the June 2, 2015 Minutes and Council Member Keilman seconded the motion. The minutes were accepted and approved. II. Welcome New Council Member: Chairman Schutzer announced new Council Member Emma Saghir who was not present at the meeting. He stated she has two kids in 6th and 8`h grade and her husband is involved with the Rye Brook Travel Soccer. He said she has a good perspective of things and we welcome her. He said we will let her talk more about herself at the next meeting. III. Public View Points: a. Chairman Schutzer asked if anyone had any public view points. Superintendent Bertolacci said he had a few public view points. He said there were a couple of complaints about the playground at Pine Ridge as there is not enough stuff for toddlers and little ones. He said he was not sure if they were the same complaints but he had names to go with them this time. Complainant expressed that Pine Ridge Park is not toddler friendly and there are no railings for the slide steps and no stairs to the slide. Those were the complaints. They recommend mirroring Bruce Park in Greenwich for toddlers. Council Member Tillison said Bruce Park is phenomenal and it is also triple the size. Superintendent Bertolacci said they miss the littles horses & the seesaw. Chairman Schutzer asked if there is anything we can do. Superintendent Bertolacci said there is still space that we can add stuff. Chairman Schutzer asked if we can put it in for next year's budget. Superintendent Bertolacci said yes we'll have to do something. Superintendent Bertolacci said he would see what he had left at the end of the budget year and if there were any 1168377.1 funds that were unallocated we would certainly look to do something there. Chairman Schutzer asked what the old playground had. Council Member Steinberg replied that it was just a different layout and had more space and more things to do for the little guys. He said his son who just turned 3 has trouble with the big ones and he is bored with the little ones in two seconds because there is nothing there. They need some mix between what is too big and too small which would be ideal. He said what you have now for the small is great for a 1 or 2 year old but for the 3 and 4 year old they can't go to the big stuff they need something in between. Council Member said what your saying is it is the younger kids. Superintendent Bertolacci said the 1 to 3 age. He said the ones not so much because they can't do much anyway. He would say 2 to 4 is the target if he had to guess. Superintendent Bertolacci said we can take a look at it when we look at the playground for Garibaldi which they will start doing that in November and they will start looking at an addition to Pine Ridge at that time. Chairman Schutzer asked if there were any other view points and Superintendent Bertolacci said that was it. b. Chairman Schutzer said he had a public view point. He wanted to know what we do about the turf field. He said the baseball field essentially has little carpet and it is all chopped up rubber and it is not just annoying because it gets in your shoes but it is actually like ice and the kids are slipping all over the place. He said if you go down there you will see black and a little bit of carpet. The carpet is either worn away or that black stuff has come up to the top. Is there something that you look to maintenance there? Chairman Schutzer said it was the King Street Ball Field. Chairman Schutzer said it is the lower King Street Ball Field and that they were practicing over the weekend and the kids are going for balls and they are literally slipping because it is the black stuff. There is no turf left in spots. Council Member Zahl asked Superintendent Bertolacci when the field was installed? Superintendent Bertolacci replied the field was completed in 2006. Superintendent Bertolacci said he has to look at it as the fields in pretty good shape. He said he will go take a look at it and if we have to, we can add nike mix which is the baseball mix. Chairman Schutzer said he is more than happy to meet Superintendent Bertolacci at the field, but he said if you walk down there you will see black spots all over the place. They may also be where they filled some low spots with the wrong stuff. Chairman Schutzer said the reason he mentioned it is because it is slippery, very slippery. Superintendent Bertolacci asked if it was near home plate. Chairman Schutzer said it is by first base in the infield part area by home plate pitcher mound somewhere in that area. Superintendent Bertolacci said it was probably low and they just added some pellets. It has to be groomed. Chairman Schutzer said it looks like it needs to be raked. Superintendent Bertolacci said unless they just recently did that it may have been why it was brought up to the surface. Superintendent Bertolacci said the warrantee for the turf is 8 years and the shelf life is from 8 to 12 years so pretty soon that field is going to have to be replaced. Just the turf and the pellets have to be done, not the drainage nor the subsurface gravel. Chairman Schutzer asked if that is something down the road that is going to be in the budget. Superintendent Bertolacci said he will make an evaluation come budget time as to how far along we are and will have to bring one of the consultants out to do a compaction test, a gmax test and check the wear and tear on the carpet. c. Chairman Schutzer said the other thing he had under public view points is I guess this would be covered under August but for the record was the ribbon cutting for the playground in conjunction with the movie night. Unfortunately I was away, but I heard from a lot of people it was very well attended and it was a good community event. Council Member Steinberg was there and said it was very good. It was very well attended. Chairman Schutzer said those are the kinds of things as a community brings people out as a group. The movie nights I feel can kind a go either way sometimes you get a lot of people sometimes you don't I don't know if there is any rhyme or reason to it. Superintendent Bertolacci said the first movie he got 2 people. The second one he had about 100 and this one he had about 80. Chairman Schutzer said he wondered 1168377.1 if it was the movie. Superintendent Bertolacci said it was probably the movie. Chairman Schutzer asked for next summer maybe we can do a survey and put out what movies you are thinking of doing and see if people respond. Superintendent Bertolacci said it was a waste of time to get maybe three responses. Chairman Schutzer said that was all he had on public view points. He asked if anyone else heard anything from the public. It was a quiet summer not much going on. Council Member Tillison joined the meeting and was asked by Chairman Schutzer if he had any public view points. He said no he was good. Chairman Schutzer said that he was talking with Council Member Steinberg after the last meeting about the lack of the public at the meetings. They feel that the public generally does not know about the meetings. They were wondering how to get the message out that these are public meetings. Superintendent Bertolacci suggested that the council put together a letter to the public soliciting their feedback. In the letter state who is on the council and he will circulate through email. IV. Superintendent's Report: a. Fall Update: Chairman Schutzer asked Superintendent Bertolacci if he had any feedback on camp. Superintendent Bertolacci said he did not as they did not do the evaluations yet. They're going to be going out this week. Superintendent Bertolacci stated regarding the Fall Update that registration opens up tonight at 9:30pm so make sure someone's on line doing registration. He stated it is just Fall registration. We put together in the Fall brochure a Fall festival and we have subsequently cancelled it because the PTA is doing the exact same thing a week later. He thinks the PTA is working with us a little bit better this year than in the past. Superintendent Bertolacci does not feel it is necessary that a PTA member come to this forum so long as there is a communication between the Rec Department and the PTA it will be fine. He expressed to the Advisory Council that if they think it would be beneficial to have them come to this meeting you are more then welcome to invite them to the meeting. There was discussion of who is on the PTA board. During this discussion Council Member Tillison thought of an additional public view point being have we ever tried to do any kind of equipment exchange like everybody show up with their stuff that they want to get rid of and have a big equipment exchange. Superintendent Bertolacci said if we are going to put this in our book and said to Council Member Tillison you can help him with it? Council Member Tillison replied of course. The Council mentioned doing the equipment exchange on a Saturday when there is basketball. b. Other Updates: Chairman Schutzer asked if Halloween in the Park was happening and Superintendent Bertolacci said Village Board took it out. They decided not to do Halloween in the park this year. Council Member Zahl asked Superintendent Bertolacci if he had people signing up for teen night at Lake Compounce on October 17`h for the 6th 7`h 81h & 9`h graders. He said we've gotten a little bit not a lot. It is still a month away. V. Basketball Sub-Committee Report: Chairman Schutzer said he just recognized that Brian Funtleyder was the Chair of the Basketball Sub-Committee so we need to find a new Chair. He recommended Mike Keilman. Council Member Keilman accepted the position as Chair. The committee is made up of(3) members consisting of Council Member Zahl, Council Member Gardner & Council Member Keilman. Chairman Schutzer asked Superintendent Bertolacci about Basketball and wanted to know if there were any issues or any rule changes. Superintendent Bertolacci said he thought we ended Basketball season on a sour note. He suggested we take a look at the minutes from the meetings during the Basketball season. Take a look and see if anything came to the forefront during that 1168377.1 time. When the committee meets, see if you have any suggestions on how to make Basketball season better. He knows that the same referees are contracted to be with us again for this year, so will be looking to the Council Members for your suggestions. Council Member Tillison said a lot of the previous members of the Basketball Committee thought a lot of the behavioral issues stem from poor officiating. We switched officials and the behavior didn't really change. He thinks it has been proven that this is not the case. The officials are the officials and the behavior comes from the people who are acting out poorly. This is where the attention needs to be. Council Member Keilman said he has been coaching Basketball for different age groups for the better part of 8 years now and he has never had a problem with the officiating. He doesn't know why the change came through. He wasn't part of the board back then. Council Member Tillison said one of the things he thought we talked about last year was communicating with the officials a little bit better before the season starts about our rules and how we would like things to be officiated so that they're clear in what we would like to have done and they're consistent so people in the stands know what to expect. He didn't think it really happened and he didn't think that the process took place and there were a lot of inconsistencies. Regardless of the process Council Member Keilman said if the fans in the stands have a problem it's not going to matter what the referee said. Council Member Tillison said if people act out you either kick them out of the gym for that day plus ex number of other games. He thinks that is the only thing you can do. Chairman Schutzer said there was the incident at the end of the season and there were just a couple of things during the regular season. Superintendent Bertolacci said it wasn't terrible on his end there were a couple of suspensions and someone thrown off the Rec council. Council Member Keilman asked if you get more problems from the parents or the coaches. Superintendent Bertolacci said it was the coaches that he had to suspend. He also had to suspend a player. He said it wasn't flagrant stuff, but it was stuff that they got ejected from games or they had just received technicals for. He said it wasn't terrible other than that last game. It was discussed amongst council members if issues with coaches including past coaches then you need to sit them down and let them know if this happens again. Superintendent Bertolacci said he did that with one coach last year and he had no problems so he will have a conversation with the coaches he had issues with last year if they are coaching again otherwise he'll be dealing with this issue forever. Superintendent Bertolacci asked Council Member Zahl to look into the Texas State rules on abusing officials. VI.Grievance Sub-Committee Report - Adam Zahl: Council Member Zahl said he is making something more user-friendly. He asked if we are going to want kids to be signing the way they did last year. It looks like a contract so to speak that they are going to abide by the rules. Superintendent Bertolacci said he would like to have something before he commits to having them sign it. He asked when Superintendent Bertolacci needed it by. Superintendent Bertolacci said basketball season starts in November so he would like to have a draft of it for the October meeting. Council Member Zahl said he will have it to him before then. Council Member Keilman asked if he could make a suggestion. He wanted to know if the parents have to sign the contract. Council Member Tillison said we have one for each. Council Member Keilman said make sure the parent tells the kid and have them sign one form instead of two. He said he knows for him when he was coaching he signed one and it just seems like one form for kid parent is enough. Council Member Tillison said he would like for the thing we said in front of a kid or we are telling the kid we are signing is something the kid can digest and something he himself can digest. Chairman Schutzer said he was not aware the children would be signing, but that is fine and he understands. Council Member Zahl said he will definitely e-mail it over to Superintendent Bertolacci probably within a week or two. 1168377.1 VII. Baseball Sub-Committee - Scott Tillison: Chairman Schutzer said we have not met since June 2nd which was our last official meeting. Council Member Tillison said the older team the major league team went 1 & 2 and the girls softball were 2 and out. He said it was not the strongest showing but we were there and played. Our major league team was made up mostly of 11 year olds so we are hoping they will get some good experience and make something out of it next year. We beat Dobbs Ferry to start then we lost to White Plains who eventually won the tournament and then we lost to Ardsley. We had some success. Council Member Tillison is optimistic we have a good crew of upcoming 12 year olds for next year's team and he thinks we can make a pretty strong showing come next year but what that is going to take is we have to start working on the team in January/February. We need to work together better to work with the high school to get that opened up to us where we can use their nets and the gym and run multiple clinics for the minor league age, major league age for the girls. He can get a bunch of people in there. We have not had good access to those facilities up until now so with the new Athletic Director in town we will hopefully have a better relationship. Superintendent Bertolacci said he is a great guy too. Council Member Tillison said that is what I hear. Chairman Schutzer asked if that kind of thing is his decision. Superintendent Bertolacci said it is Jonathan Ross. Council Member Tillison said I think he has input right. Superintendent Bertolacci said of course if he gives his stamp of approval it goes a long way in the eyes of Jonathan. Chairman Schutzer asked if Superintendent Bertolacci has met with him. Superintendent Bertolacci said yes I meet with Athletic Director every month. Council Member Tillison said that is really what we have to do and we need to start doing that every year not just this year because my son is going through major leagues now, but if we want to consistently have a good showing in the district, we need to start building with 8 year olds and giving them the proper training and trying to develop their skills from day one. Chairman Schutzer said the numbers in baseball are going down as the kids get younger. Council Member Tillison said yes and he thinks that is going to continue to go in waves. He thinks you see it with our age we had people who are committed to making the rec program stronger and the couple of grades below us the people behind baseball are not so committed to making rec baseball stronger they're just more interested in travel baseball. Superintendent Bertolacci said travel baseball did want to meet with us and try and see how both of our programs can flourish. Council Member Tillison said we need each other. Superintendent Bertolacci agreed and said he was going to suggest they meet with us prior to next month's meeting. Superintendent Bertolacci said Andrew Rogovic and Lee Goldstein want to meet. Council Member Tillison said he had an hour long conversation with them over the summer about just things. He told them some of their ideas he is not for but he said the biggest thing they can do is just start being more positive about rec baseball. Don't give the impression to the kids that it's a lesser brand of baseball. Their still going to get some good out of the programs we have to offer. You see the kids when they play each other they could care less if their hitting off a pitching machine or the Dad's pitching. They're hitting the ball and they're running around and they're having a good time which in the end is what we want out of the program. He said make it sound better than you do. Council Member Keilman said rec and travel have to get together because they are both going to fail. He has a thirteen year old and an 8 year old now getting involved in travel and rec and he sees both. It's getting worse and worse because the kids start to diverge and the travel program isn't all that great from a talent perspective. The problem he sees in this town is we do not have all the kids playing rec so you don't have the best kids out of rec playing on the travel team, which a lot of towns do. Chairman Schutzer said a lot of towns the Village doesn't run the travel team. Council Member Keilman said this town is unique where you have a completely separate travel program unto themselves so you don't necessarily get the best players there and that is going to continue. Council Member Tillison said this is the example he gave to Andrew and Lee. You go to Porchester and you 1168377.1 cannot play travel unless you play rec. He said it is not an option. Superintendent Bertolacci said there is no rec they are the travel team. He said that is what every other municipality is. He said none of the rec departments run the little league with the exception of maybe Harrison. They have their own little league committees that run the baseball program. Council Member Tillison said they have an agreement with the town that says they have to serve the town in their interest. Council Member Gardner asked who runs the travel baseball here. Council Member Tillison said Rye Brook Travel Baseball. Council Member Gardner said it is a separate organization and she said you can just be on travel baseball, you try out and if you don't make it you don't make it and you can decide to play rec if you want. Superintendent Bertolacci said there is no rec. Chairman Schutzer said it is little league but there is a private travel baseball that plays other towns, their numbers are dwindling big time. They are losing teams left and right. Their biggest issues are double headers. I mean sitting on a baseball field for 4 or 5 hours a day I mean you know unless your kid is die hard eat, breathe and sleep baseball, then kids that were on the borderline were good but are playing soccer and are playing basketball and are playing lacrosse even to get them to commit for 4 or 5 hours on a Sunday morning or Sunday afternoon or Saturday morning. They like baseball and they're okay if they had to sit there an hour and a half or two hours to play a game but to commit 4 or 5 hours that's been their biggest complaint. There are kids who are good but like other things and to block off half a day of a weekend is their problem. Council Member Tillison said he just signed up his team for the Fall WBA it is actually on the form now asking if you want double headers or do you want single games so it is an option. Chairman Schutzer said that is what Rosson told him that the WBA changed it to ask so it's not just Rye Brook that is having this issue it is baseball in general. Council Member Tillison said this is kind of what Chairman Schutzer said with your 8u team. They need to practice more than they need games at that level instead of a double header have two practices during the week and a game on the weekend or something like that. That is how they are going to get better. If you cater the activities to be fun learning sort of activities, then you are going to start to foster more of a passion for baseball. Council Member Keilman said he thinks the key is somehow getting the rec little league and travel team has to work together as one. Council Member Tillison said we need to start blocking out time starting January to have baseball clinics. VIII. Old Business: a.)Ice Skating Rink At Pine Ridge Park Chairman Schutzer asked if the ice skating rink at Pine Ridge Park was going to happen. Superintendent Bertolacci said it is not going to happen until the next budget process for sure. Chairman Schutzer said he thought they were doing it this winter. Superintendent Bertolacci said it is not happening. They did not put in in the budget. They did not fund it. Council Member Tillison asked how much is this thing going to cost. Superintendent Bertolacci said depends on how we do it. They did not fund it and they want more information. He said what we need to do is to schedule a field trip if you remember that is what we wanted to do. He said we wanted to take a field trip and see some of these other synthetic ice. He knows you said Orienta Beach. He asked when they set up their ice. Council Member Keilman said that is real ice. Superintendent Bertolacci said that is real ice and when do they set that up. He asked if it is at the end of November. Council Member Keilman said it has to be below 40 so they will probably start putting it up in late October. He said they have refrigeration they have a real system. Chairman Schutzer asked if the system was expensive. Council Member Keilman said it was a $100,000 combined off of Craig's List that was a used price so they put it over a tennis court but they have the real refrigeration and it has to be below 40 for people to be able to skate on it. He said if you are just looking to have Mother Nature take its course that is a lot cheaper. Superintendent Bertolacci said but you may not get any ice for the whole year. Council Member Keilman said 1168377.1 he would reiterate his question from earlier who's asking for an ice rink in Rye Brook. Superintendent Bertolacci said he put it out there. No one specifically has asked for an ice rink. Council Member Keilman asked why would you put it out what do you think this community is going to get with an ice rink. He said he thinks he is the only one on the board who still skates. Chairman Schutzer said more for the kids. Council Member Keilman said how many kids are going to skate. Superintendent Bertolacci said he is not looking for an ice rink he's just looking for a synthetic ice surface or a synthetic surface to go along with his winter events, the Christmas Tree and Menorah Lighting Ceremony as he wants to do something on the tennis courts and potentially leave it open all winter. Chairman Schutzer said his kids do not skate, but if that was open he could rent skates because he does not own skates and he would definitely take his kids up there on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. Council Member Keilman said he is just asking a question because in a community where he does not know many people that play hockey or skate at all, it seems like a big expense for this community to be going out and putting an ice rink in. Further, he said now instead of putting in a real ice rink we are talking about putting it on a tennis court. He said he would use it he plays hockey. Council Member Tillison said if we are going to March down this road, do it on a more economical scale if we are playing in a skating rink this weekend if it freezes we are having it and if it doesn't freeze we are not having it so weather permitting there is going to be ice in Pine Ridge Park. Council Member Keilman said he is all for it. He skates and he would be there all the time, but for the whole community he did not know how much participation we would get. Superintendent Bertolacci said we do not know either. Chairman Schutzer asked if you have to rent the synthetic ice or do you have to buy it. Superintendent Bertolacci said you have to buy it. Council Member Steinberg asked if there were liability issues like having to worry about people falling, not wearing helmets and that kind of stuff because that opens up a whole can of worms. Superintendent Bertolacci said helmets are going to be required. He said we are going to end up renting all that stuff, (skates, etc...). b.)Canopy For Baseball Dugouts Superintendent Bertolacci said they are scheduled for some time near the end of October to put up the canopies as the dugouts are already there. Chairman Schutzer asked what they are putting over it. Superintendent Bertolacci said it is going to be a wind screen made out of canvas. They are going to raise the front of the dugout fences and there will be a slight pitch to the roof and a wind screen over the top for a screen from the sun. He said at the end of October, all 4 dugouts at Pine Ridge Park will be done. He said if it goes well we will go over to Garibaldi. Council Member Tillison asked about the King Street field. He said that could probably use it more. Superintendent Bertolacci said we don't really use that field as much for baseball. He said that field is mostly used for soccer. He said we will take a look and see how it works at Pine Ridge. Council Member Tillison said it is something that we have to have if we ever hope to want to host a district. Don't we have to have covered dugouts. Superintendent Bertolacci said he was not sure that was necessary. He has to look through all that stuff because we want to host next year. We have to do our safety plan and preferably we will do it this Fall and get it out of the way. Council Member Tillison asked what is the plan for the mound. Superintendent Bertolacci said they are going to be working on that this Fall and they are going to do clay. Council Member Tillison said he likes that idea. Superintendent Bertolacci said it will be similar to the bull pens. Council Member Tillison said as convenient as the artificial mound is on the other field he thinks you are going to end up in a situation where you need to replace that every so often because you already see it is starting to ware. Council Member Tillison said he knows this is asking for too much, but he would like to see the backstops moved 5 or 10 feet back from where they are. 1168377.1 IX. New Business: a.) Strategic Planning Session Chairman Schutzer said he did not think we had any old business so under new business he put strategic planning session. He said what he was thinking of doing and he would like to hear some feedback on this. He said this council has been around for 33 years and some of us have been on it for a few years. People come and go but he feels that we could take a fresh approach. This has nothing to do with the Rec Dept., it has to do with the council itself, kind of what our goal is and our mission is. Look for ways to revitalize the council like doing a SWOT analysis. We do not have to do this per say, but it got him thinking what we could do better, what we are not doing that we should be doing. He used the idea of the public view points he said maybe we need to advertise it a little bit more and if you have an opinion this is what this is meant to do. At the end of the day try to make this council work with the Rec Dept. and the community more effectively. He would like to have Jeffrey Rednick here as he is the liaison from the Board of Trustees. Superintendent Bertolacci said why don't we start off with your charge from the Village Board. What your charge to serve the community is how the village board would like you to act. Chairman Schutzer said he spoke to Chris Bradury a couple weeks ago and asked if there is a job description for this but is there any kind of responsibilities of accepting this position as a Council member. He thinks one should be put together and when someone accepts the role of being a member it should state exactly what it is. He does not feel it should be up to us to come up with a job description that should come from the Board of trustees or the Village Administrator. He said he would follow up with Chris Bradbury because we want that for this meeting. He said it is time for fresh ideas and see what we can do to operate more effectively. He said he would like to have Jeff Rednick here and maybe he would even invite Chris Bradbury. He said that is his goal for the next meeting. Council Member Keilman asked if he wanted to do this strategic thing for the next meeting or just set it up. Chairman Schutzer said he would like to do it for the next meeting, so he would like to get through their stuff quickly within a half hour, do an abridged meeting and then maybe spend an hour or so if that. He will start with Jeff Rednick and ask his opinion if we should have Chris or not. He will follow up on that and that being said we are on for October 6`i' definitely if we get the strategic planning it will be at 7:30pm. If for some reason it does not work out we will go to our usual time of 8:15pm and he will confirm that. X. 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 9:45pm. The next meeting of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Council will be held on Tuesday, October 6, 2015 at 7:30pm. Minutes prepared by: Jennifer Leichter 1168377.1