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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013-05-07 - 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 May 7, 2013 Convene Meeting: Chairman Jamie Schutzer called the meeting to order at 8:15pm. The following Members of the Council were present: Advisory Council Members: Chairman Jamie Schutzer, Brian Funtleyder, Christopher Dutra Adam Zahl, Jennifer Wohl: Scott Tillison, Traci Erenfryd Absent Council Members: Frank Carbone, Adam Berman Recreation Department Members: Robert Bertolacci, Parks & Recreation Superintendent Carmella Swick, Sr. Office Assistant 1. Minutes: Chairman Schutzer asked for a motion to accept the revised April 2, 2013 Minutes. Committee Member Adam Zahl made a motion to accept the April 2, 2013 Minutes and Committee Member Wohl seconded the motion. The April 2, 2013 Minutes were accepted and approved. Committee Member Dutra abstained from voting on the Minutes. II. Welcome New Council Members: Chairman Schutzer said we officially welcome our two new members Traci Erenfryd and Scott Tillison and ask them to say a little about themselves and why they joined the council. a. Scott Tillison said he has 2 boys ages 12 and 9 and has lived in Rye Brook for over 10 years. Before living in Rye Brook we lived mostly in the Mid-West. I am active in the baseball program and coached rec basketball in the fall. I am active in the sports program and it is very important to me to be involved. I have some ideas I would like to share with the members regarding the sports programs. b. Traci Erenfryd said she has 2 children 9 and 7 and has lived in Rye Brook for over 9 years. I am manager of the Rye Brook Youth Soccer League. I was a teacher and now a stay at home mom. I think I have some good ideas to add to the council. III. Public View Points: Committee Member Zahl said there has been an ongoing issue with a coach in the girls Minor League; 3 games with 3 incidents with the same coach. Superintendent Bertolacci said he heard about the incidents from someone who wasn't at the game. If I do hear one more incident I will sit him down and straighten it out. I have heard from others that he is a good coach but a little too intense. This coach was also spoken to about the incidents by his assistant coach. 1168377.1 Committee Member Zahl said he has received a lot of complaints about the photo sessions. There wasn't enough notice with all the communions and other events going on. If possible, a little advance notice would be helpful to plan the photo session so all the kids could be there. Committee Member Tillison suggested that the teams show up an hour earlier on a Saturday and do all the photos then. Superintendent Bertolacci said if that team wants a make-up photo session, he would speak to the photographer to set it up. Committee Member Tillison said the field at Garibaldi is in terrible shape. It's like playing on cobblestone and it's very dusty. Superintendent Bertolacci said the field has a sprinkler system which has to be set on automatic timing. Usually in April we have rain but it has been very dry and that makes the field drier and dustier. IV. Superintendent's Report: a. Carnival Superintendent Bertolacci said the carnival ran for two days instead of three due to the rain on Friday. We had a good turnout. The total revenue brought in from the carnival was about $52,000. Disbursements to the carnival was $29,000; the Village about $23,000. There was about $14,000 in overtime. Our total expense for the carnival was $26,000 to $30,000. We lost some money. We were able to return some product to Costco for a refund. The leftover bread was donated to local area soup kitchens. One big expense was $3800 for the lights under the tents. This was a onetime expense and these lights can be used for other events. Chairman Shutzer said the game booths at the carnival seemed very busy and probably made quite a bit of money. Committee Member Wohl said we probably could have made more money at the food booth if we took cash because the different tickets were confusing. Superintendent Bertolacci said next year we will have two separate booths, one booth for food tickets near the food tent and one ticket booth for the rides. Also, maybe next year we will have the food done by area restaurants. Superintendent Bertolacci said the net loss was about $3000. Committee Member Wohl said over all the community thought the event was great, the kids loved it. But some comments were made about the carnival employees looking a little sketchy, and smoking near the rides. All in all it was a positive community event. b. Rye Brook Birthday Party: Superintendent Bertolacci reported that the 31St Rye Brook Birthday celebration will take place on June 15th at Crawford Park from 12:OOpm to 4:OOpm. There will be rides and food. We are going back to a water park theme with a dunk tank, water wars. We do need volunteers to cook, serve, and make pop-corn, sno-cones and cotton candy. We also need volunteers to do spin art and to run other booths. c. Baseball Improvements: Superintendent Bertolacci said some of the improvements done on the baseball fields are the installation of screens at the old and new fields, and foul poles have been ordered. Chairman Schutzer asked about the pitcher's mound on the old field which is on an uphill mound. He saw a portable mound that Yorktown uses on their baseball field. He said the cost for that portable mount is about $500 to $600. A mound that covers the entire pitcher's mound is about $1,000 or more. 1168377.1 Committee Member Dutra said the cheaper mound wouldn't last very long. It's like a fake turf and doesn't last. Superintendent Bertolacci said he would take a look at the pitching mound at Pine Ridge Park Old Field. Committee Member Wohl said the softball field at Ridge Street School is pretty awful. Superintendent Bertolacci said that field belongs to the school. There is no sprinkler system on that field and when there is a rainstorm, the clay comes off the field. Our parks crew redid that field 3 times already this year. V. Baseball Sub-Committee Report: Superintendent Bertolacci said the sub-committees have to be reformulated because two of our member's terms have expired. Chairman Schutzer said having his son in the Major League for the 1St year is definitely more competitive from when he played baseball as a kid. He is concerned after this year the Majors are going to be very low in enrollment. There are no 5th graders playing and very few 4th graders playing. We will have to do a major push with more tryouts and more e-mails to get the word out. Last year Committee Member Carbone did a big push and he was able to get most of the 6th graders that were playing on a travel team to play in Little League. Committee Member Erenfryd said her son is playing Rookie Ball. He did the Rookie Travel that was great and now he is playing with I st graders and I feel it's a step back for him. It doesn't feel like baseball. Superintendent Bertolacci said Little League starts at 3rd grade. Chairman Schutzer said Rookie Travel had 2 practices a week and a game on Sunday. There are no practices with Rec Rookie Ball. We are not doing enough to cultivate the kids at a younger age. Superintendent Bertolacci said with Travel Baseball, you are there to play baseball; Little League Rookie ball, kids are there because their parents sign up to be with their friends. It's more of a social hour. We have to start pushing in December for Little League with more communication and more e-mails to the residents. VI. a. Dog Park: Chairman Schutzer said he heard Port Chester was putting in a dog park at Abendroth Park which is located behind United Hospital. Superintendent Bertolacci said they just approved the dog park. Chairman Schutzer said suggested the dog park be part of the Rye Brook Comprehensive Plan. Superintendent Bertolacci said our compost site on Lincoln Avenue may be a spot to look into if we want to pursue a dog park. Committee Member Zahl volunteered to look into the space and report back to the council at the next meeting. b. Pine Ridge Park Wall: Chairman Schutzer said at the Village Board meeting it was reported that the green wall at Pine Ridge Park is not structurally sound and there are cracks in the wall. The recommendation was to knock the wall down, not replace it or replace it or build it somewhere else. Superintendent Bertolacci said the wall was built there for tennis and it's in the right place. I will have the Village engineer look at the wall, get a report and I will report the findings at the 1168377.1 next Rec meeting. Superintendent said there is no immediate danger. The cost of rebuilding the wall is in the budget. c. Men's Softball: Chairman Schutzer said the last few years the Men's softball has played at the Port Chester Middle School under the lights. To turn those lights on was an absorbent price which Rye Brook split with Port Chester Rec because they used the field a couple nights also. We were then notified that Port Chester didn't have enough teams to have a league. The Port Chester School told us if we wanted to use the lights we would have to pay the entire fee of$1,000 to turn the lights on and then usage each month on top of the fee to turn the lights on. Superintendent Bertolacci notified the teams and they agreed to pay an extra charge of$350 to keep the lights on. Chairman Schutzer asked if this is this a one year deal and what happens next year, lights or no lights. Superintendent Bertolacci said we would see how the season goes. The lights will be on for the season except for one of the light towers that is out right behind the 3rd base dugout. Two lights are out and it's not fixable, wiring is shot and it would cost mega bucks to fix. d. New Sub-Committees: 1. Baseball 2. Basketball 3. Grievance Superintendent Bertolacci suggested we table new sub-committees until the next rec meeting when maybe everyone would be present and if anyone wants to switch committees they would be able to. VII. Old Business a. Food Truck: Chairman Schutzer said that every week he gives Anthony a schedule of our Little League games and Travel Baseball games. He is getting a constant flow of people. Superintendent Bertolacci said he has not received any complaints from the neighbors about the truck being parked in the park. Chairman Schutzer said he thinks people are getting used to seeing the truck there and it is another positive for the Village. b. New Programs: Committee Member Erenfryd said she looked into other recreational town's website to see what they have to offer. Some of the programs I thought would be of interest: 1. Vacation Camp before school starts 2. Concerts in the Park Superintendent Bertolacci said Port Chester has Concerts in the Park because they have a stage and we don't really have a park that is open like that where we would not disturb the neighbors. 3. Father's Day 5K Race 4. Multi Sports Program Committee Member Tillison said we should look into a program like that. Ridge Street School PTA runs that program for 10 weeks and charges $350 for an hour of playtime. Committee Member Tillison said we could get high school kids who need community service hours to graduate. They could help run a program or help supervise a program. Superintendent said it sounds like a good idea but it's very hard to get these kids to come out and volunteer. 1168377.1 5. Open Gym Nights: Chairman Schutzer said he liked the ideas and asked if there are any of the programs we can look into. Superintendent Bertolacci said has it all written down and we can review and discuss it further.* VIII. Adjournment: Chairman Schutzer asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting. Committee Member Funtleyder made a motion to adjourn the meeting and Committee Member Tillison seconded the motion and all approved. The next Parks and Recreation Advisory Council meeting will be held on June 4, 2013 at 8:15PM. The meeting adjourned at 10:1OPM. Minutes prepared by Carmella Swick 1168377.1