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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013-08-14 - 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 August 14,2013 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, Scott Tillison, Adam Berman, Jennifer Wohl, Traci Erenfryd, Absent Council Members: Christopher Dutra, Frank Carbone, Adam Zahl Recreation Department Members: Robert Bertolacci, Parks & Recreation Superintendent I. Minutes: a. Approve the July 10,2013 Minutes. Chairman Schutzer asked for a motion to accept the July 10, 2013 Minutes. Committee Member Berman made a motion to accept the July 10, 2013 Minutes and Committee Member Tillison seconded the motion. The July 10, 2013 Amended Minutes were accepted and approved. Committee Member Wohl abstained from voting on the July Minutes. II. Public View Points: Committee Member Erenfryd spoke to a parent whose children went to the Rye Brook Day Camp. The parent said the camp was much better when her older children attended. The children would put on a play and the parents came to the camp show. Her opinion is that the camp wasn't structured or organized. Chairman Schutzer said his son went to the day camp for two weeks and he had a great time. Superintendent Bertolacci said if parents have something to say about any programs, whether it be a sports program or the camp, the comments should be put in the evaluation that goes out to the parents after camp or any program run by the Recreation Department. III. Superintendent's Report: a. Summer Camp Update Chairman Schutzer said there is an issue with the Carver pool; the kids have to wear a bathing cap. Superintendent Bertolacci said the health department requires them to wear different color caps to distinguish a swimmer from a non-swimmer. Swim caps are also required at all county pools. Superintendent Bertolacci said camp ended last week. There were no major incidents to report. Evaluations for camp will go out next week thru Survey Money. Superintendent Bertolacci will report on the results of the camp evaluations at the September Parks and Recreation Advisory meeting. Committee Member Berman stated in reference to the Public View Point about camp, the enrollment numbers are down because the ages of the kids have decreased. 1168377.1 Superintendent Bertolacci said he is going to send out a questionnaire to the parents whose children didn't come back to camp this year, hopefully to get an idea as to why they didn't register for camp this year. Committee Member Erenfryd said she would talk to her Dad who ran a camp in Oyster Bay and perhaps gather some information that would be helpful to us for next year's camp. Committee Member Funtleyder said he heard about a safety issue which was observed by a resident who did not have children in the camp. The kids were playing baseball and swinging bats at Pine Ridge Park and the counselors were playing basketball with no interaction among the two groups for at least 15 minutes. Committee Member Wohl asked if there are group leaders at the camp. Superintendent Bertolacci said there is a Camp Director, Medical Director, Arts & Craft Director, Group Leaders, Assistant Counselors and Counselors in Training. Superintendent Bertolacci stated he went to the park and dealt with some incidents regarding counselors at the day camp. Committee Member Erenfryd said there are always things that happen and parents will talk about it, safety has to come first and the persons in charge needs to instill that to the counselors just how important safety is. Superintendent Bertolacci said there is an all-day camp orientation for all the camp staff before camp starts. The main subject is safety and supervision of the children. The Health Department requires background checks on all camp staff. b. Frank's Retirement Plaque Superintendent Bertolacci asked the council members what they would like the plaque for Frank to say. Superintendent Bertolacci said he would work on the wording for the plaque and e-mail the council for their input. Also the council would like to invite Frank to the next meeting. c. Other Updates The recreation brochure will be on-line the end of next week. Registration for programs is on September 10th at 9:30pm. Some new programs: Zumba for Kids, Open Gym Night. Chairman Schutzer asked if the new programs can be highlighted so it stands out. Committee Member Wohl said maybe saying exciting new programs this fall maybe more eye catching. Committee Member Berman suggested sending an e-mail regarding the new programs. Superintendent Bertolacci announced that Halloween in the Park will be held October 18th and 19�'. Last year there were 350 people that went on the hay ride. Because the event will be two nights, there will be a fee of$2.00 per person or $5.00 per family to cover some expenses. The hay ride is weather permitting. There was a suggestion made that we have a pumpkin patch and let the kids pick out their own pumpkin. Committee Member Tillison asked who does all the scenery for the hay ride. Superintendent Bertolacci said his parks department does the laying out of the scenery. With Frank retiring, the Village is hiring one full time parks attendant. The DPW foreman will be running both departments. IV. Baseball Sub-Committee Report: Chairman Schutzer said his baseball sub-committee will meet before the next meeting. He suggested we incorporate some of the rookie travel principles of that program, primarily 1168377.1 practicing. There is a drastic improvement after 5 or 6 weeks in a 7 and 8 year old playing baseball. Committee Member Tillison stated one of his priorities is to increase the quality of the program from 3rd to 6th grade so we can field a good team for District 20 in the coming baseball season. V. Basketball Sub-Committee Report: Committee Member Berman said he would have a sub-committee basketball meeting '/2 hr. before the September 10th meeting. The basketball sub-committee members are Adam Berman, Adam Zahl, Brian Funtleyder and Jennifer Wohl. Committee Member Berman said he would like to review the rules. Committee Member Berman said in the past the parents and the coaches had to sign the Code of Conduct. Coaches and parents should again be required to sign the Code of Conduct. There have been incidences where parents were told to leave the gym because of the comments made. The most important issue is the rating process which we will discuss at the meeting. Committee Member Berman said last year there wasn't a problem having the basketball sub-committee take a look at the teams before the draft. As long as you can point out that a player is rated too high or one is rated too low or a team maybe stacked, it will alleviate a lot of concerns that people may have with a flawed rating system. Committee Member Tillison said in basketball, the point is to learn to dribble, pass and rebound; its fundamentals and skills. Committee Member Berman said that age group, 2nd & 3rd grade, you have 45 minutes of skills and 30 minutes game time. Some coaches are running full drills, and some coaches let their players shoot half court shots over their head backwards. You need to have uniformity. VI. Grievance Sub-Committee Report: Chairman Schutzer said that Committee Member Zahl wrote up a draft for the Grievance policy. The goal is to put this in the brochure. Superintendent Bertolacci said he would send out an e- mail to the committee members for their review, concerns or comments. If there are no concerns we will go with it. Superintendent Bertolacci said that all parents and players have to sign the policy or their kids won't be able to play. Chairman Schutzer suggested that all comments be made by Monday. VII. Old Business: a. Food Truck: Chairman Schutzer said he sent an e-mail to Anthony regarding getting some input on figures but he hasn't responded as of yet. Will Anthony be able to park his truck in the park during the fall baseball season or did his permit run out? Superintendent Bertolacci said his permit is for the baseball season. b. Dog Park: Chairman Schutzer said Committee Member Zahl was working on that item. Superintendent Bertolacci said according to the Minutes he was going to talk to Trustee Rednick about the dog park. The location in question is the area by Bowman Avenue which is owned by Kip Konigsberg who is developing the property. As part of his development he is donating part of the property to the Village. Superintendent Bertolacci stated that a Comprehensive Plan survey is going out to the residents on Friday. 1168377.1 Committee Member Funtleyder stated that the back of the South Ridge shopping center faces Garibaldi Park. There is graffiti all across the top of the wall and it looks terrible. When other towns came to play it was embarrassing. c. Pine Ridge Park Wall: Superintendent Bertolacci stated that we are waiting on an opinion from the Village Board on what they want to do with the wall. We did get prices and the number is $40,000.00. We received about 2 prices. If we were to go ahead with a new wall it would have to go out to bid. Committee Member Funtleyder asked how much of a backlash would there be if we don't replace the wall. Committee Member Berman said a resident near the park would get a petition for the wall to be replaced. Superintendent Bertolacci said that people that are waiting to get on the tennis courts will go to that wall and hit a tennis ball until a court is free. Superintendent Bertolacci said this council could give a recommendation to the Village Board on how to approach the issue. Superintendent Bertolacci said there are 3 options: 1. Get rid of the wall 2. Knock it down for a season and see what happens and determine whether we would put up another wall or 3. Replace the wall. Superintendent Bertolacci said the back of the wall is starting to wear. Chairman Schutzer said our recommendation would be to take the wall down for safety reasons and send out for bids if we go ahead and replace it. Superintendent Bertolacci would put a recommendation together and e-mail it to the council and if all are comfortable with the wording, I will submit to Chris Bradbury. d. New Programs: Committee Member Funtleyder said he signed his kids up for a basketball program by Terry Teachout and the program was awesome. The cost of the program was $425. Gerald Smith showed up the first day and was going from group to group and showing kids how to shoot a little better. There were 14 to 15 coaches and they split the kids up into age groups. They got some real basketball skills. Terry said he would like to come to our town next summer for a I week basketball camp. Superintendent Bertolacci said he spoke with Terry Teachout and he is not a contractor who is going to give us 20% as the other contractors do. We would have to be creative and come up with a dollar figure that he is comfortable with as well as us being comfortable with the amount. Committee Member Berman said that there is an abundance of these basketball players and X basketball players that would love to do this basketball camp in the summer. Committee Member Wohl suggested an end of the summer event with a food truck in the park and someone playing music. Superintendent Bertolacci said you would need more time to plan this event and find a location where you are not going to disturb people with noise and music. Also most people go away the end of the summer. Committee Member Berman said Rye Brook Travel Soccer ran a barbeque and sold raffle tickets and it was a great event for many years. For some reason it just stopped. Maybe the rec department can do something in September like a kick off of the rec programs. You can have a barbeque and promote the rec programs. Committee Member Berman said he would get more information from the soccer club. 1168377.1 Committee Member Tillison said he didn't act together quick enough to do the sleep over at Crawford Park. Maybe next year we will try to put it together and have it. VIII. New Business: There is no New Business. IX. Adjournment: Chairman Schutzer asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting. Committee Member Tillison made a motion to adjourn the meeting and Committee Member Berman seconded the motion and all approved. The next Parks and Recreation Advisory Council meeting will be held on September 12, 2013 at 8:OOPM. The meeting adjourned at 10:15PM. Minutes prepared by Carmella Swick 1168377.1