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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-11-03 - 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 November 3, 2015 Convene Meeting: Parks and Recreation Advisory Council Chairman Jamie Schutzer called the meeting to order at 7:36pm. The following Members of the Parks & Recreation Advisory Council were present: Advisory Council Members: Chairman Schutzer, Adam Zahl, Scott Tillison, Michael Keilman, Emma Saghir, Susan Gardner, Jason Steinberg, Rick Buzin, Trustee Jeffrey Rednick Recreation Department Members: Robert Bertolacci, Parks and Recreation Superintendent Jennifer Leichter, Office Assistant I. Minutes: a. Approve October 6, 2015 Minutes: Chairman Schutzer asked for a motion to accept the October 6, 2015 minutes. Council Member Tillison made the motion to accept the October 6, 2015 Minutes and Council Member Zahl seconded the motion. Council Member Buzin was not a member and abstained. The minutes were accepted and approved. II. Welcome New Council Member: Chairman Schutzer welcomed the newest member to the Council, Rick Buzin. He asked Council Member Buzin to give a brief summary about his background. Council Member Buzin said from 1992 to 1997 he was on the Rec Commission, 1997 to 2003 he was on the Blind Brook School Board, 2004 to 2006 Village Trustee, 2006 to 2009 Blind Brook School Board. He said he retired last year. He said he was happy to be back. Chairman Schutzer said he looks forward to his wisdom because of his history and all of the public service he has done. III. Public View Points: Chairman Schutzer said he did not see any members of the public present but he had a public view point. He asked what was going on with the turf field. He said when you walk around the field synthetic turf is coming up. He said when the kids play soccer the turf gets all over them. Council Member Tillison said the life of the turf field is 8 to 10 years. Council Member Saghir asked how old the turf field is now. Superintendent Bertolacci responded 8 years so in the next couple of years we need to probably look to replace that turf on the field. Chairman Schutzer asked is that what happens when the turf is at the end of its life span, the synthetic pulls up. Superintendent Bertolacci said he is assuming that with all the grooming you are pulling on the turf so eventually it is going to pull. Council Member Buzin asked if that was something worth having the company take a look at it. Superintendent Bertolacci said it is about that time that he needs to get them to do a gmax test anyway. Council Member Buzin said so it would be a 1168377.1 perfect time and maybe they can give you a general idea of how much life it has left and when they do that he thinks the Village Board can figure out what they can do. Trustee Rednick said they have been budgeting for it. Chairman Schutzer asked how much does it cost to replace. Trustee Rednick said it is significant. Superintendent Bertolacci said it is probably about $750,000 to replace all that turf. Chairman Schutzer said you would have to do it all in one shot right you cannot do pieces. Council Member Saghir asked if we were putting the same material. Superintendent Bertolacci said it has improved since then and the turf is different from when we put it in. He said you can tell there is a difference between our turf and the one that is in Port Chester. Chairman Schutzer said we are at 8 years so in 2 years it is going to be shot which means that you probably need to replace it within the next year. Superintendent Bertolacci said we are going to have them take a look at it and evaluate it. Council Member Tillison said the high school fields were probably done about the same time right. Superintendent Bertolacci said the high school fields are in substantially worse condition than ours is right now. Council Member Saghir asked because of what. Superintendent Bertolacci said because of the water and the baseball field itself because around the bases they have clay and all the clay built up around and clogged all the drainage and there are mounds all around the field so there are issues on the baseball field. Chairman Schutzer said he did not think that field is pitched level because he was up there the other day and it had rained Wednesday and Saturday morning they took the tarp off and there was that much water all around the bases and it had not rained in 3 days. Superintendent Bertolacci said you have to remember that they do not have 40 inches of gravel underneath their field like we do as our field was built to retain the water underneath the field to help alleviate the drainage downstream so our field holds it underneath there is 50 inches of gravel under our field so the water sits in there and slowly seeps into the drainage. Council Member Saghir said so that is a different company who built the 2 fields. Superintendent Bertolacci said the same company built both fields but the architects designed 2 different fields. Council Member Buzin said there was also another reason and that is the people on Hillandale at that end also had drainage problems there was a quid pro quo in order to get some of the property there to fix the drainage issues. Council Member Buzin confirmed what Superintendent Bertolacci said was exactly right that field was built with the idea that it is not only going to have to take care of whatever water went on the field but also in the neighborhood that is adjacent to it so the drainage was a big deal on that field. Chairman Schutzer asked if there were any issues. Superintendent Bertolacci said there were zero issues. Council Member Zahl asked if the replacement turf was a weather dependent project or assuming there is no snow can it be done in the winter. Superintendent Bertolacci said it is not as obtrusive a project as it was initially this is basically taking all the rubber and pulling off the turf and laying down another set of turf and the rubber, it shouldn't take even half as long. Superintendent Bertolacci said it would probably take a couple of weeks. Council Member Zahl said it can be done late February or early March if necessary. Chairman Schutzer said he did not know if the dugouts were a public opinion or do we talk about that under old business but he asked if the dugouts were done. Superintendent Bertolacci said the 4"' dugout was completed today but the tops are not on them yet as they have to order them after they are built because they are all different sizes so they will be put on in the Spring and rolled back for the Winter. Chairman Schutzer asked what kind of material they are. Superintendent Bertolacci said it will be similar to the tennis screens. Superintendent Bertolacci said it is going to be canvas and permeable so that water can go through it but not as bad. He said the purpose of it was for screening from the sun. Council Member Keilman asked what was the cost for them. Superintendent Bertolacci said the cost for the 4 dugouts was almost $20,000. He said so each one cost him give or take $4,500. Council Member Keilman asked if that was a 1168377.1 better solution then the other canopies that were sent around. Superintendent Bertolacci said yes the canopies he would have had to take apart the existing dugouts and it would have been a nightmare and they would have been the same thing, permeable roof. Chairman Schutzer asked if you can put anything on there other than the screening in the future. Superintendent Bertolacci said he is sure if the screening does not work we can get a canvas type thing where it is not going to go through. Chairman Schutzer asked what else. Council Member Saghir said people were complaining that there is not enough shade in the playground at Pine Ridge Park. She said she was driving by and the side that is closer to the street there is plenty of space for trees. Superintendent Bertolacci asked if she meant the open space. Council Member Saghir said not in the open space but around the playground where the bench is. She asked if he would be able to put any trees around there. Superintendent Bertolacci said in essence you could but that is really the only open area kids can play. Superintendent Bertolacci said the thought process is the legality. Superintendent Bertolacci said there is one tree there right now that was dedicated to Ken Berman which has to be replaced because the tree died. Superintendent Bertolacci said there are no more plans to put any trees over there. Chairman Schutzer asked if there were any other solutions for shade as we talked about a gazebo. IV. Superintendent's Report: a. Update Website With Agenda And Minutes: Council Member Keilman said this was going to be done. Office Assistant, Jennifer responded everything up to tonight's meeting is current including all agendas and minutes. b. Letter To The Public/Public TV: Superintendent Bertolacci said the letter went out to the Public. Chairman Schutzer received a bunch of email responses. Trustee Rednick asked what were the nature of the comments you got back. Superintendent Bertolacci said while you are looking up your responses with regards to Public TV we can put our upcoming meetings on the Public TV as an ongoing thing, anything we want to use to promote the Rec Council our IT person is willing to do that for us. Council Member Keilman said he would think the meetings and sports sign ups at the Rec Dept. the more content the better. Council Member Keilman said use that as direct department marketing tool. Council Member Keilman said we talked about getting away from printing out the brochure because of the expense use the TV. Chairman Schutzer said here was an interesting comment that he got: "Thanks for the email, won't be able to attend the meeting, wanted to give you some thoughts about my personal experience/knowledge, I think I'd be more inclined to sign up for more Rec programs if the schedules came out earlier, the afterschool PTA schedule came out significantly earlier then the Rec Fall Program, in fact I am pretty sure I had signed my children up for activities before I even got the Fall schedule, probably would have equally considered the programs but I completely forgot about them." Trustee Rednick said that has been an issue that we have been working on, correct? Chairman Schutzer said yes. Superintendent Bertolacci said we are going to simultaneously put our programs out PTA and Rec so that should alleviate some of those issues. Council Member Keilman asked how does the 1168377.1 PTA actually put theirs out. Superintendent Bertolacci said they email it as well. Chairman Schutzer said they email it like every day. Council Member Tillison said maybe we should have some sort of a Rec committee liaison on the PTA that follows events like that. Chairman Schutzer said didn't you say you met with them. Superintendent Bertolacci said I meet with them every 6 weeks. Superintendent Bertolacci said we met with them last week and we talked about possibly getting certain things out through the PTA email list and they are working with Jonathan Ross to get us permission to send a few things out through their email list. Superintendent Bertolacci said PTA during their sign ups is going to be pushing their people to get on our mailing lists to fill out a waiver through community pass or something. Superintendent Bertolacci said we have to work out the details as they are going to work on getting all their people registered in our database as well so we can get out the information to all of their people as well. Council Member Saghir asked why can't we do something similar to the PTA so that we can promote ourselves. Chairman Schutzer asked if there was any way the Rec Department can run their programs. Chairman Schutzer said the PTA hired Peter Corbin to run a lot of their programs. Superintendent Bertolacci said the problem is that if the Village runs the program the Village cannot give the PTA funds towards the PTA and Peter Corbin can do that. Superintendent Bertolacci explained that the Village is paying for the staff, it is taxpayer money and the Village is not going to subsidize the school district. Superintendent Bertolacci said it cannot happen nor will it happen as it is a legal issue. Council Member Buzin said that the PTA is essentially a private group and they are not taxpayers but the Village is the taxpayer. Council Member Keilman asked why can't the Rec Department subcontract Corbin and do it the same way like the PTA. Council Member Keilman said we are talking about the Rec Department trying to run all the sports programs within the Village not the PTA. Superintendent Bertolacci said the Village is not looking to subsidize the PTA's programs the Village is looking to run the Village's programs not the PTA's programs. Chairman Schutzer said let me ask a question when the Village participation in programs is down because people are doing the PTA does that negatively impact the Village. Superintendent Bertolacci said revenue wise yes but there are no expenses. Superintendent Bertolacci said if we do not run we do not have the expenses for the program. Council Member Tillison said but you do have the expenses for every program because you have all the people who are employed by the department. Chairman Schutzer said at the very least he thought with Superintendent Bertolacci meeting with them frequently and as much as he can try and collaborate. Superintendent Bertolacci said we are talking about trying to let them run the non-sports programs and the Village run the sports programs but he is not sure how much of that will fly because the PTA's major fundraising is through their afterschool programs so he does not know how much they are going to give in. Council Member Saghir said she does the school tour at the elementary school and families always ask her does the school run any sport programs and she always has to explain that the school does not have that but the Rec Department has it. Council Member Saghir said she is the one promoting because she is doing the tour and she lives in town. Council Member Saghir said her thinking is there has to be more flyers in the school about us and by April we should have flyers about summer camp because new comers do not know the Rec Department has that. Superintendent Bertolacci said the school district will not 1168377.1 allow us to hand out paper flyers in their schools. Council Member Buzin asked if he could make a suggestion here as he wanted to know if we could have a subcommittee that handles this and deals with the relationship because part of the reason he was interested in being on the Rec Council was because of this issue as it really does not make sense. Council Member Buzin said we are small and since Bert has met with them because he has spoken with some of the PTA people it has gotten better as it was a lot worse and it seems to him that we are kind of playing with each other and we have to sit down and work with each other to see what works for the PTA and what works for the Village. Council Member Buzin said he thinks Bert's suggestion is great if the Village can run the sports program and the PTA runs the non-sports program. Council Member Buzin said he thinks this makes sense and it will come down to the dollar. Council Member Buzin thought it would be best to get people from both communities that are not the adminstrators to sit down and work it out so that everyone is happy and it does not make Superintendent Bertolacci nor Jonathan Ross look like the bad guys. Council Member Buzin said he would volunteer to be on the committee if nothing else he said at least he knows the politics and how it works. Chairman Schutzer said I can do one better then you volunteering for that but rather he should chair. Council Member Keilman asked is the numbers that the PTA gives the schools is that a known number. Council Member Buzin said yes and it is in the 6 figures each year and he thought it to be somewhere around 200 grand. Council Member Buzin said the PTA gives a lot of money to the schools. Chairman Schutzer said so we need to officially sanction a subcommittee. Council Member Saghir said she does know the politics but she has ideas. Chairman Schutzer placed a motion on the table to set up a PTA subcommittee is that what we want to call it. Superintendent Bertolacci asked if there was a second. After discussion amongst the council members, Chairman Schutzer mentioned the name of the subcommittee would be the Village PTA Coordinating Subcommittee. Council Member Tillison asked if they had to restrict this to just coordinating with the PTA because there are some things to be gained by coordinating with the schools. Council Member Buzin said it should be both. Superintendent Bertolacci said they did not need to change the name of the subcommittee as the chairman is going to invite whoever he needs to invite to these meetings. Chairman Schutzer said whatever the name of the subcommittee will be someone needs to make a motion to set this subcommittee up. Superintendent Bertolacci said Council Member Buzin already made the motion. Council Member Keilman seconded the motion. Chairman Schutzer asked if all were in favor and all council members were. Chairman Schutzer said we now have to figure out members for the subcommittee. Superintendent Bertolacci said whoever wants to be on the committee but no more than 4 members. Chairman Schutzer said Council Member Saghir is on, Council Member Steinberg and Council Member Gardner. c. Fall/Winter Updates: - Winter Festival/Christmas Tree & Menorah Lighting Superintendent Bertolacci said we have the Winter Festival coming up on December 3rd at Pine Ridge Park from 4pm-9pm. A layout of the festival was passed around to the council members. Council Member Saghir asked if there was a rain date as last year it rained. Superintendent Bertolacci responded no. Superintendent Bertolacci discussed the specifics of the event. Superintendent 1168377.1 Bertolacci described the train that will be going around the park to take people from the basketball court to the North Pole where Santa is, then it will take them back through observing all the ice sculptures, Polar Express will be shown on the wall, the Blind Brook Choir & Band will play holiday tunes at one point during the night. Chairman Schutzer said you did not do all this last year right. Superintendent Bertolacci said no we just did the choir and the lighting of the menorah and the tree. Superintendent Bertolacci said there will be games and crafts over by Santa so this way they have something to do while they are waiting on line to see Santa. Superintendent Bertolacci said the movie, Polar Express will be shown. Superintendent Bertolacci said everything that is happening is on the back of your sheet. Council Member Zahl said last year it was done on a Friday. Superintendent Bertolacci said yes there were some issues with doing it on a Friday which is why it is not on a Friday this year. Chairman Schutzer asked when Superintendent was going to start promoting it. Superintendent Bertolacci said very soon. Chairman Schutzer asked if he could make a suggestion that people bring toys to donate like a toys for tots kind of thing. Superintendent Bertolacci said yes as there is a toys for tots in Port Chester. d. Summer Camp Survey: Superintendent Bertolacci said he did not have any information on the camp surveys. Chairman Schutzer said he was going to bother Superintendent Bertolacci about the camp until it is the middle of May because he feels we have an opportunity especially because the change in guards there. Superintendent Bertolacci said he would start thinking about camp in December and keep you guys updated on what is going on with it as well. Chairman Schutzer said some of the things we spoke about was bringing in an outside guy for soccer or basketball it may be an incremental cost but it will be more organized. There was discussion of talking to Bellefair, Talcott and Manhattanville College with regard to use of their pools for the children to swim at. Council Member Saghir asked why Superintendent Bertolacci did not have the survey. Superintendent Bertolacci said he did not have the survey because they had not finished it and it did not believe it had been sent out and to do it now did not make sense. Chairman Schutzer suggested looking to explore doing other opportunities like bringing in an outside trainer once a week. Superintendent Bertolacci said he can do a generic survey of camp to see who would be interested. Chairman Schutzer said at this point we could blurt out ideas and put them all down and send out a survey and see the level of interest in some of these programs. Council Member Saghir asked if it is possible to do some type of sports competition like can you do games between Port Chester, Rye Brook and town camps. Superintendent Bertolacci said if there are similar interests there is always an opportunity. Chairman Schutzer said like inter-camp games. Council Member Saghir said like tournaments. Council Member Saghir said we can look into whoever has it and whoever can do it because Rye has a huge camp and she is sure they can come up with something. Chairman Schutzer thought it was a good idea and he liked it. 1168377.1 V. Basketball Sub-Committee Report—Mike Keilman: Council Member Keilman said he spoke to Janice and there were no real changes from last year. He said same refs as he thinks they changed refs last year so they are going with the same. He said he did not have any problems with them and he didn't think there were many complaints. He said Janice did not seem to think there were many. He said she has slightly less sign ups but he did not have actual numbers, slightly less across the board but did not seem significant. Superintendent Bertolacci said for Janice's programs traditionally they sign up late like the first week of the program. Chairman Schutzer said she sent out a memo yesterday. Superintendent Bertolacci said Janice's program is completely different than what Kyle has going on as hers are a lot less structured. Council Member Keilman asked what is the difference because he did not realize there is a difference between hers and Kyle's. Superintendent Bertolacci said Janice has the high school kids. Superintendent Bertolacci said she has 8`h, 9`h 10`h and 11`h. Council Member Keilman said he will have to talk to Kyle. Chairman Schutzer said he knows the 6`i' and 7`i'boys teams are already out. Council Member Keilman said the draft for the little guys is next Monday. Chairman Schutzer said he did not know about the 4`h and 5`h. Council Member Tillison said Kyle mentioned to him about another town runs their league heading up to the draft a little bit differently as they let them play like open gym play for a couple of weeks so people can see them play and get a better idea of how good some of the players are and their skill level. Chairman Schutzer said he has spoken about this with Kyle in the past it is never going to be an exact science and you are never going to get it right and the sooner that people understand that coaches the sooner we can just move on. Chairman Schutzer said it is rec have fun okay you want to win a game here and there but the kids are having fun there is no reason for the coaches to get pissed off. Council Member Tillison said if you want to get rid of that element you push the kid coaches down to the lower level just like we do with the 8, 9, 10 and 11. Council Member Tillison said you guys can't have the right attitude with the games we will find somebody else. Chairman Schutzer said that is also an opportunity to weed out if we can some of those coaches. Chairman Schutzer said for 6`i' and 7`i' we had more coaches then we needed. Superintendent Bertolacci said there were a few groups that we had that issue. Chairman Schutzer asked how did we select these coaches and wanted to know does it go through a process. Superintendent Bertolacci said the process was we asked them to voluntarily step down as coaches and whoever stepped down thank you and whoever was left was given the opportunity to coach. Superintendent Bertolacci said there is an issue with one group as we cannot get them to step down so we are going to have to pick the ones who are not going to be coaches. Chairman Schutzer asked one age group. Superintendent Bertolacci said one particular group. Council Member Keilman asked which group is that. Superintendent Bertolacci said one of the girls groups. Superintendent Bertolacci said the process is that anyone who that has had an issue with us in the past is not going to get a team. Council Member Tillison said if that does not weed out enough then what. Council Member Keilman said the next question is was there a coach that was a problem that that happened to. Superintendent Bertolacci said he was not sure and he had to review that grade and he thought that draft had been pushed off once again to see if we can get someone to step down. Council Member Tillison said that he thought we should also make it known to coaches that your behavior is going to be a factor in you possibly coaching in the future so that you are not springing it on some people so like you know hey you did this 6 months ago and you are out. Superintendent Bertolacci said he is sending out a letter before the season that is going to state that your actions on the court during practice and during games is going to tell us whether you are going to be coaching again in the future. Chairman Schutzer said wasn't that the point of the code of conduct that if you misbehave you won't be asked back to coach. Superintendent Bertolacci said it is going to say that this year. Council Member Tillison said we need to add that. Chairman Schutzer did not 1168377.1 think it needed to be added. Chairman Schutzer said that if Bert and Kyle sat down with 14 coaches and they only need 10 and whether they officially or unofficially had issues in the past they have every right to say these are the 10 we are selecting and if somebody said why didn't you select him just because you volunteer doesn't mean you are guaranteed to get a spot. Council Member Tillison said he agreed with Chairman Schutzer and he didn't think there was anything wrong with doing that but he thought it made it better if we tell them up front. Superintendent Bertolacci said do you want to have the conversation with them do you want a be there when I tell them they are not coaching their kid. Chairman Schutzer said he understands it is an uncomfortable conversation but he thinks if you said remember last year when you got thrown out of a game and I had to suspend you for coaching a 4th and 5th grade basketball team in a rec program. Chairman Schutzer said if you feel more comfortable that you have to spell it out and he did not think they have to be written up as we already know that the grievances are not working. Chairman Schutzer said if it is observed and it is mentioned that any way you catch someone using foul language, yelling at a ref it should be stored somewhere. Council Member Zahl said it should be documented. Chairman Schutzer said it does not have to be documented. Council Member Tillison said Jamie already made the point that nobody is documenting anything. Council Member Zahl said but if you are using someone's behavior as an excuse not to allow them to coach next year you're opening up a can of worms if you are not documenting it because then you have no back up. Council Member Buzin said he thinks Bert should write whatever he feels comfortable with as he is going to be making the decision we are a policy making board and he is the administrator and from his standpoint if he is going to have to take the heat then he has to be comfortable with whatever way he wants to do it and we all agreed on the philosophy all we have to say is we backup the Superintendent and he said you don't make it and if it is in a letter it is helpful. Superintendent Bertolacci said just like he had no issues with suspending coaches after they got technical because he put it in the letter. Superintendent Bertolacci said by the way what is also going to be in that letter is any coaches that we have issues with during the season are not coaching the county center team. Council Member Tillison said he liked that. Chairman Schutzer asked if Council Member Keilman was good. Council Member Keilman said he did ask Janice about one other issue we brought up was the older kids about the high school kids coaching. Council Member Keilman said Janice did not think there was a problem. Council Member Tillison said they do not do a whole lot. Superintendent Bertolacci said he thinks his issue was they didn't really control the game they just let the kids go free for all and that was the issue. Council Member Keilman said he never witnessed it but he would make a point to go to them and check it out. Council Member Tillison said if you watch a 6`h 7th grade game and 8th 9`h grade game you will see a huge difference in what is going on there the kids of the 8`h 9`h grade are just screwing around. VI.Grievance Sub-Committee Report - Adam Zahl: a. Code of Conduct: Council Member Zahl asked Superintendent Bertolacci if he was sending out a letter. Superintendent Bertolacci said he was and that they are going to get his code of ethics. Council Member Zahl said the kid friendly web page will that be in the same communication. Superintendent Bertolacci said no it is going to be separate his letter is going to be coach specific. Superintendent Bertolacci said as soon as the drafts are done he will send out the code of ethics. Council Member Zahl said it seemed like last year everyone did take it seriously and they were getting people to sign it but the point was they didn't understand what they were signing but we definitely improved upon that and it is a work in progress. 1168377.1 VII. Baseball Sub-Committee Report - Scott Tillison: Council Member Tillison said that we really need to start working together with the high school to start scheduling time in the gym if we want to try to do some things come February - winter clinics for baseball. He said he knows the gym starts to get used up pretty well with basketball and other activities and if we do not get something going on that now. Chairman Schutzer agreed and said you have to do something on it now because the next thing you know it will be December and then after the holidays. Superintendent Bertolacci said he will reach out to the athletic director tomorrow. Chairman Schutzer asked if Council Member Tillison would envision hiring a coach to come in and run the clinics. Council Member Tillison said he was willing to take suggestions and he thought that there is an impression when you bring in people like that it is a little bit more of a higher quality program then just having Dads run it. Council Member Tillison said maybe it could be something run by a couple of outside people augmented by help from volunteers to try and keep the cost down or we just bring in another outside group all together. Council Member Tillison said he is open either way. Council Member Tillison said the one thing we told people we were going to do when we took away pitching from the minor leagues was that we were going to start supplementing that with pitching clinics and we have not done that and we need to make good on that promise. Council Member Tillison said he planned on making the clinics after school. He said that during the winter Saturdays and Sundays in the gyms are difficult because it becomes more expensive because they have to staff it with somebody that is an issue. He said if that is something we have to do we should consider it if Saturdays or Sundays work better. Superintendent Bertolacci said Saturday and Sunday will not work because he cannot afford the janitor fees and it will have to be done during the week at night, we have to pick a day and stick with that day. Superintendent Bertolacci said he thought they ran it in January 3 or 4 years ago on Wednesday nights at the high school in the gym. Chairman Schutzer said he liked the idea of hiring a couple of pro type coaches. Superintendent Bertolacci said during the month of January he may be able to get some guys from Suny Purchase to come in some of the baseball players to do a clinic with the kids or even Manhattanville. Chairman Schutzer asked if they can teach the kids. Superintendent Bertolacci said they have a certain level of credibility. Council Member Tillison said there are a lot of people to talk to, to see if they are interested in doing something like this but the cost goes up pretty quick when you add those people in to the mix. He said it all depends on what people are willing to pay. Superintendent Bertolacci said while we are talking about baseball he asked how the new mound at the new field worked out. Council Member Tillison said his team does not use those fields at all. Council Member Tillison asked if anyone knew anybody of the younger teams that have used the new field. Council Member Keilman said no. Council Member Tillison said another thing he wanted to bring up when we were talking about re-turfing the fields, the high school baseball field they are going to have to re-turf that as well and they chose to go the route of the dirt bases and the dirt mound. Council Member Tillison said if they would go the other route of doing turf over the whole thing and if they are willing to work with the town you could play a lot more baseball on that field then they play. He hopes they decide to go that route and thinks we should open discussion with the school. There was discussion amongst the council of utilizing other fields in the community. 1168377.1 VIII. Old Business: a.)Canopy For Baseball Dugouts Discussed under Public View Points. b.)Strategic Planning Session Chairman Schutzer brought everyone up to speed as to why he wanted to have a strategic planning session to discuss his concerns about the council and to make sure they are getting the most out of the council. He wanted to take about 30 minutes to do a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats) analysis with the council. He said he has some concerns about the council for example there is no clear cut not that you need a job description but what it is you are commissioned to do when you join this committee. Trustee Rednick said you are supposed to assist Superintendent Bertolacci with the programming and represent the community's views and help make the Recreation Department of the Village of Rye Brook an enjoyable experience for the community at large, whether it be additional programs whether it be facility wise whatever it is and then make those recommendations to the Village Board or to Superintendent Bertolacci who can act on your recommendations. Chairman Schutzer said the point of this is to see if there are better processes that we can be utilizing and he asked Trustee Rednick to be here too because if there are any questions in general about the council that goes beyond just us and this room but has to do with the Board of Trustees, Jeff being our liaison he thought it was important. Chairman Schutzer stood up to go write the councils ideas on the board. Chairman Schutzer said to everyone to just start throwing their thoughts out. Council Member Steinberg offered outside agencies in so far as they could be a threat but can also be an opportunity if we work together effectively. Council Member Keilman said strengths are our facilities (fields). Chairman Schutzer said for weaknesses he would say no pool. Council Members Zahl and Buzin agreed on population which could be both a weakness and a strength. Chairman Schutzer said budget constraints/costs as a threat. Council Member Gardner said lack of public engagement maybe a weakness as no one is coming to meetings and you do not get a lot of public view points which could be incorporated. Superintendent Bertolacci said a weakness is getting information out to the public if they do not see what we have that is an issue. Council Member Steinberg said it is a lack of knowledge for some people. Council Member Keilman said there is your opportunity to increase communication. Superintendent Bertolacci said one of our weaknesses is that we do not get any people from the Port Chester school district that live in Rye Brook to our programs. Superintendent Bertolacci said but kids only go with their friends. If their friends do not live in Rye Brook, but live in Port Chester, they are going to play in the Port Chester Little League opposed to the Rye Brook Little League because they want to play with their friends. Chairman Schutzer asked what percentage of residents are Rye Brook residents but go to Port Chester schools. It was stated a third by the council members. The council openly discussed the breakdown of Rye Brook streets as to confirm which residents attended Rye Brook schools opposed to Port Chester schools based on where they lived in Rye Brook. Council Member Tillison said Trustee Rednick made a good point and that is getting kids from other towns involved. Council Member Tillison said is that one of the things we do not take advantage of is the other towns programs we could be working together with 1168377.1 some of these people to make a stronger program that we could all use. Chairman Schutzer said that he thinks that is an opportunity to work with surrounding towns. Chairman Schutzer said he thinks this is more of a threat because we do not have a pool or a rec center that we always rely on schools for events. Council Member Zahl said he always thought for a village that is small the variety of programs we offer is fantastic and he would call this a strength. Council Member Tillison said he did not think we do a good job of reaching the teenage kids. Chairman Schutzer said maybe we could do some more social things. Council Member Steinberg said what about utilizing neighbor's facilities like renting their space. There was discussion amongst the council about utilizing AJP Center and Crawford Mansion for social events. Chairman Schutzer said some more social programs would be an opportunity. Council Member Saghir said the social event has to be in the heart of town. Superintendent Bertolacci said and that is the problem there is no facility other then schools that are in the heart of town and the kids do not want to go back into school on a Saturday night. Superintendent Bertolacci said we have been pushing for a community center for over 10 years now and there is really nowhere for them to go right now and they will not go to Posillipo so there is no other facility that the Village has right now. Council Member Keilman asked if it was just funding or something else. Superintendent Bertolacci said there was a community study done that is one of the items they are going to be looking to do. The question is you need to find a location. Trustee Rednick said location plus there was a survey done people would love a community center they love what the Purchase Community pool is they would all like to use it but then when they have to pay for it. Chairman Schutzer asked Trustee Rednick didn't we plan to buy from the firehouse to the Hutch and to buy those houses if they became available. Trustee Rednick said there was talk about it. Superintendent Bertolacci asked if we ever approached 900 King Street to see if they were interested as the parking lot is humongous certainly it could be done on the back end of that parking lot. There was discussion amongst the council about other possible locations for a community center. They talked about particular locations some of which were private property, some of which were already occupied and required litigation to obtain. Council Member Buzin shared his historical knowledge regarding the Enclave, Bellefair and the Firehouse at 940 King Street. Superintendent Bertolacci said another interesting location is the on ramp to the Hutch going North bound from Ridge Street on the right hand side there is all that land and it is State land. Chairman Schutzer said we definitely need a rec center. Council Member Gardner said being that there is not enough for teens would it be possible to partner with another town and organize a social event so if there was a town who had a facility they could get together with new kids. Superintendent Bertolacci said he could talk to Kyle and Janice and come up with some ideas for teens. He also said that Janice is organizing a bunch of stuff for the teens right now. She is organizing a 3 on 3 tournament which is in jeopardy of being cancelled for lack of participation. Chairman Schutzer said one of the problems is the parents are getting these emails not the kids and it would be up to the parent to relay to their child about the event. Chairman Schutzer said it goes back to if you promoted these events at the school you would have people sign up. Superintendent Bertolacci said this is what we are going to strive for. We are going to look for office hours for my staff to be in the high school a couple of hours a week. Council Member Tillison said for baseball you have the pitch it and run and for football they have the punt pass and kick and he does not see anything for basketball. He said this town is kind 1168377.1 of basketball crazy why not try a skills competition and a free throw shooting competition as he thinks the kids would really like it. Council Member Tillison asked Superintendent Bertolacci if he had ever tried something like that and he said no. Council Member Tillison said you could do the same thing for soccer. Chairman Schutzer said to Superintendent Bertolacci we are throwing out ideas but what is your staff like as to how much more can they take on. Superintendent Bertolacci said that it is his balancing act so if they cannot do it, it will become his responsibility to get it done if he believes it is in the best interest of the Village. Chairman Schutzer said but from a staffing perspective have the number of people always been the same in the Rec Department or has it grown. Superintendent Bertolacci said the numbers in the Rec Department have been the same he thought since 1993 when the Village hired a second rec leader to comingle their time between the Seniors and the Rec Department. Chairman Schutzer said maybe that is an issue he said in 1992 you did not have Bellefair or Red Roof so you have more residents and more kids. Superintendent Bertolacci said the numbers in our programs are down across the board right now so now is not the time to push for a third rec leader. Chairman Schutzer said numbers being down is a threat. Council Member Steinberg asked if the numbers were down more from outside agencies taking kids or is it population or is it we are not doing enough. Superintendent Bertolacci said he thinks it is a combination of all as he thinks there are kids that are over booked, we do not offer certain programs and also we do not get all the information out to all the people in the proper time frames. Superintendent Bertolacci said in his opinion he thinks their biggest weakness is finding a better way to get the information out to the public. Superintendent Bertolacci said that most of the other municipalities send out a mailing to all of their people with their brochures and then you are guaranteed that everyone has gotten the information in front of them. Council Member Saghir and Chairman Schutzer both agreed that they paid more attention to it when they received it by mail. Superintendent Bertolacci said there is something to be said for having the information right in front of you. Council Member Saghir asked why did they stop sending it. Superintendent Bertolacci said because they are $10,000 for every time you mail them out. The council discussed various ways to work on getting the brochure out in a way more cost effective for the Village. Council Member Tillison said he agrees that communication is an issue but he sees the competition from outside programs is the biggest competition by far and he used soccer as an example as one organization came in and rec soccer was gone. There was discussion amongst the council members about the impact the travel programs have on the rec programs. Council Member Buzin had a question for Trustee Rednick since we are an advisory council what would the Village Board like this group to do. Trustee Rednick said he knows there is one Trustee currently right now who is looking for programing for the older residents, the after school the parents and grandparents residents of the Village. Trustee Rednick said he will talk to the Trustees and find out. Chairman Schutzer asked Trustee Rednick if he would consider bringing up to his fellow Trustees about doing a printed brochure maybe try for at least a year. Superintendent Bertolacci said it goes out 3 times a year. Council Member Tillison asked if you could give a short version of the brochure. Chairman Schutzer said it would be interesting to see the cost differential is from printing verses mailing. Chairman Schutzer said he thinks there is more opportunities that we have here and we are a policy making body but we will throw ideas at you and if there are things that you need help with everyone here is committed in trying to help you and bring and bring something to 1168377.1 light that is going to make the Village better. Council Member Tillison said that is the point he was going to bring up as a strength as he thinks we have a pretty active community. There are a lot of people who are willing to volunteer time to make these programs better. Council Member Buzin suggested with regard to the communication issue it would be good to invite the athletic director to come to one of our meetings. Council Member Buzin said he is a great guy and he was fortunate to be on the committee that helped to chose him. If he sees who we are he may wind up being a very good ally. Council Member Tillison said he thinks where there is a weakness is that we are always short facilities as we are always looking for fields for basketball, tennis, etc. Superintendent Bertolacci said now that the report has come out that you were a part of, the comprehensive plan, now we know what they are looking for, we can start focusing on some of the facilities as well and try to build up some steam to push for facilities. Council Member Tillison asked what are they looking for. Superintendent Bertolacci said they are looking for a pool/community center for sure and also kind of a parks system that connects the entire Village. IX. New Business: There was no new business to report. X. Adjournment: Chairman Schutzer asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting. Council Member Buzin made the motion to adjourn the meeting and Council Member Zahl seconded the motion. All approved and the meeting was adjourned at 9:55pm. The next meeting of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Council will be held on Tuesday, December 1, 2015 at 8:00pm. Minutes prepared by: Jennifer Leichter 1168377.1