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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2011-07-12 - 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 July 12, 2011 Convene Meeting: Chairman Marc Zimmerman called the meeting to order at 8:25 p.m. The following Members of the Council were present: Advisory Council Members: Chairman Marc Zimmerman, Ken Frankel, Kevin O'Neil, Sari Jablon, Frank Carbone Brian Funtleyder, Glenn Brettschneider, Jamie Schutzer and Adam Berman Absent Council Members: All Present. Parks & Recreation Liaison: Michael Brown Recreation Department Member: Robert Bertolacci, Parks & Recreation Superintendent Carmella Swick, Sr. Office Assistant I. Minutes: Chairman Zimmerman asked for a motion to accept the June 7, 2011 Minutes. Committee Member O'Neil made the motion to accept the June 7, 2011 Minutes and Committee Member Brettschneider seconded the motion. Committee Members Berman, Jablon and Schutzer abstained from voting. Committee Member Brettschneider noted for the record that a comment in the June 7 Minutes attributed to him was taken out of context and appeared harsh and derogatory. He explained that he was commenting that parents should bear responsibility to teach their kids how to play the game, and that should not fall on the coaches during games while they are responsible to coach many other kids at the same time. II. Public View Points: Committee Member O'Neil stated that one person said they noticed the concession stand is not always opened during soccer games. Superintendent Bertolacci said the concession stand at the turf field was not opened on Father's Day. III. Superintendent's Report: Superintendent Bertolacci said this Friday night is Movie Night. The movie is Yogi Bear. It will be shown at Pine Ridge Park at 8:00pm. The next movie will be Furry Vengeance which will be on August 5t' and will be the last movie for the summer. Chairman Zimmerman commented that he believed the Rye Brook Birthday Celebration was a huge success. There was a nice turnout and everything went smoothly. Congratulations and appreciation to Superintendent Bertolacci for a successful celebration. IV. Old Business: 1151187.1 a. Little League Wrap Up Superintendent Bertolacci stated that we discussed Little League Wrap up at the last month's meeting. We had the play-offs for Major League for the first time this year. Despite a bit of tension at the end of the championship, it turned out to be a positive event for the kids. Chairman Zimmerman asked if the surveys for Little League were sent out. Superintendent Bertolacci stated the surveys were sent out and we basically received the same amount back as in past years. Committee Member Schutzer asked if we would consider using a hard ball instead of a soft ball in the Minor League, whether we use wood bats in the Minor League, and whether we discussed having more practices. Superintendent Bertolacci suggested that there should be a Little League sub-committee. Chairman Zimmerman said there would be a baseball sub-committee set up to discuss rules, equipment and how to get more involvement in the Little League program --all items we have been discussing the last few months. We would like to get through the season feeling like we did something positive with the Little League instead of losing sight of the importance of Little League. It would be a bad thing for the town to have Little League to continue the way it is going without trying to improve year after year. b. 10/11 Year Old District 20 Baseball Wrap Up Committee Member Carbone commented that he believed it is lack of participation that puts our Little League in the position it is now. We entered an IIU team into the District 20 Little League tournament. Kyle did a lot of work putting the team together, and there were no try outs or ratings because there were barely enough kids to field a team. In the first game of the tournament we got demolished by White Plains but played a great game against Kensico in the second game. The kids had a good time and it was a great experience. Committee Member Carbone also commented that, at the first game in White Plains, the White Plains team was there 1'/2 hours before the game started, while our kids came between 15 minutes or a half hour before game time. The required time to be there was '/z hour before the game. The District Managers there asked where our players were, and Kyle told them that some of the kids had a travel baseball game in the morning. Committee Member Carbone said that we gave the impression that our town puts Travel Baseball ahead of our Little League. Committee Member Berman stated that the Major League championship was directly competing against the soccer tryouts for the 5th grade boys. There were 3 or 4 kids that had to miss it. You are always going to have priorities. Committee Member Berman believes there should be a requirement that Travel Baseball has to play Little League. Superintendent Bertolacci stated that we will set up a meeting with our Council and Travel Baseball to discuss the programs. Chairman Zimmerman requested that the Council think about whether it deems it necessary to make a recommendation to the Village Board because it feels that Travel Baseball is negatively 1151187.1 affecting the Little League program. Particularly, does the Council believe that participation in Little League was suffering, and we may end up not having a viable Little League program, because Travel Baseball continues to grow and expand while Little League continues to shrink. Also, the Council should factor in that we have a kindergarten grade coming in with less than 80 kids. It was questioned whether the Council can recommend to the Village Board that it eliminate any discounts that Travel Baseball may have for use of our fields. Trustee Brown stated that if an organization takes a block of time, they are entitled to the discounts if the requirements are met. The Village can not set different rates for different groups. Trustee Brown commented that the Village Board is well aware of the issues being raised about Travel Baseball, and that it has had preliminary discussions concerning these issues. Trustee Brown said he would highly recommend that the Parks and Recreation Advisory Council sit down and talk about what ideas it has and what it may want to consider presenting to the Village Board. The Board is going to discuss this item at some point and it would be very beneficial if the Council had some input so that the Board can make a complete review of all the issues. Committee Member Berman suggested adding a new requirement stating that anyone taking a block of time gets the discount as long as they do not compete directly with a Recreation sponsored program. Trustee Brown stated that may solve the issue and is certainly in the Board's power to do. When Travel Baseball went private, they were not supposed to compete with Little League, but they subsequently changed their rules. He asked whether we want to revisit our arrangement and perhaps discuss with them before we change anything. We do not want to see our Little League program disappear, but the question is whether we can get our program to the way it was and work it out with Travel Baseball. If we can not get an agreement that we are content with, then the next step is to revisit and reconsider the arrangement that we have. That is where the Village Board will get involved. Committee Member Jablon said she hoped that the Village Board will take an active role because the Village Board is responsible for allowing the Travel Baseball program to become completely private and causing us to lose any control that we had. She commented that apparently the stipulations in the agreement were not strong enough to protect our Little League. Chairman Zimmerman stated that if everyone on the Council wants to participate in the baseball discussion, instead of having a baseball sub-committee, we simply would have a meeting dedicated to discussing Travel Baseball and how of if we want to move forward with comments or recommendations to the Board. Committee Member Schutzer said it may be a good idea to mention the meeting to Travel Soccer because we had kids who chose to go to soccer practice over a recreation baseball game multiple times. Committee Member Berman said the way Travel Soccer operates is that the coaches are instructed to tell the kids that games take precedence over practice. He stated that it is worth reiterating to the Travel Soccer program because they are pretty open-minded and they listen. 1151187.1 Chairman Zimmerman said the major concept we need to have a clear decision on is how important Little League is to the Village and whether we want to elevate Little League to a position above travel sports. The decision is based upon the needs of the Village and its residents. Chairman Zimmerman stated that we need to have a meeting dedicated to the issue to determine how we want to proceed. Superintendent Bertolacci suggested a public meeting, and that we invite Travel Baseball and Travel Soccer. Trustee Brown recommended an organizational meeting to brainstorm and come up with ideas, agree on the ideas you want to work on and have a subsequent meeting to finalize your ideas. You need to sound well organized and have all the issues all worked out before you consider having a discussion with Travel Baseball. There are a lot of issues on the table and a lot of things that could occur that the Village Board could do if convinced that the Little League program is in jeopardy. If the Board believes, based upon information available and with Superintendent Bertolacci's input, that the way it is working now is no longer right for the Village, then we revisit it to see what we can do to take more control or take it back. It is certainly open for discussion. Committee Member Funtleyder asked if Travel Baseball signs an annual contract. Trustee Brown stated that it is not a contract. We did a pilot year where we would have some control over what they were going to do to make sure we were comfortable and that they were going to be able to run a successful program, he believes they are. One of the big issues is whether they are infringing on a Recreation program. After that first year they had complete control to do what they wanted. The spirit was that they would continue to do what we had set up but Trustee Brown said they moved away from that. Committee Member Funtleyder asked if we are committed a year at a time to them. Trustee Brown stated they are a private organization running within the boundaries of the Village and getting courtesies from the Village which is a benefit for the Village because we get revenue from a result of it. They certainly have an option to go elsewhere. Both parties benefit from the arrangement that is going on, at least from a financial viewpoint. Superintendent Bertolacci stated Travel Baseball started out under the premise they would start their spring season at the end of May so as not to affect Little League. The big issue is that each year Travel Baseball seems to start closer to the beginning of our season. Kids can't do both, and if you have all your pitchers in Travel Baseball, it affects the recreation games. You can't overload these kids too much. Committee Member Carbone stated that other towns do not play Travel Baseball in the Spring. They have Little League in the Spring. They have Travel/Tournament team try-outs in May. In Summer they play in the District 20 Tournament and when the tournament is over they play Travel Baseball the rest of the summer. Chairman Zimmerman stated that Rye Brook has a relatively high concentration of kids that go to sleep away camp, and that if you don't do a spring travel program, then fall becomes the only significant travel program for these kids. If you eliminate a travel program for a Little League program, we first need to determine whether there will to be more people playing Little League as an alternative. We also need to recognize that, as a small town, lines between the top and 1151187.1 bottom talent levels are more apparent and the kids on the bottom may not be able to compete. We may have to think about an A or B division in Little League or some other way to address that issue. Superintendent Bertolacci said there are different ways to make up Little League; you can keep the same players on the same team which a lot of leagues do and as they come up and go to the next division, you have a draft for the new players and keep the other kids on the same team. Superintendent Bertolacci suggested that we discuss Travel Baseball at our August meeting as to what we want to do about Little League. After our August meeting we can meet with Travel Baseball and discuss our issues. Chairman Zimmerman stated that if anyone has view points on this issue we need to have an agenda that will set forth any points the Council wishes to raise with Travel Baseball. We should have this agenda in place a week before the meeting so we can review our points and revise where necessary. V. New Business: a. RBAF Rules - Banning of Sunflower Seeds Chairman Zimmerman stated that the Rye Brook Athletic Field has an artificial turf surface, which has rubber, not dirt, underneath. It is very hard to pick up the sunflower seeds with the equipment that grooms the turf. Superintendent has spoken with representatives from LandTek which is the company that installed the turf field. They highly recommend that we do not permit sunflower seeds on our field. Superintendent Bertolacci said we will send an e-mail to Rye Brook Travel Soccer and Travel Baseball that sunflower seeds are banned from the Rye Brook Athletic Field. Chairman Zimmerman stated that we, The Parks and Recreation Advisory Council recommend to the Village Board to amend the rules at the Rye Brook Athletic Field to prohibit shelled sunflower or other seeds or nuts on the field. The motion was moved by Committee Member Berman and seconded by Committee Member Schutzer. All were in favor and the motion was approved. b. Lacrosse Committee Member Brettschneider asked about a Lacrosse program for the summer. Superintendent Bertolacci said that there is a Lacrosse camp running on our field for two weeks in July and there are no registrations for the program. E-mails have been sent out and there were flyers in our office. VL Adjournment: Chairman Zimmerman asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting. Committee Member O'Neil made a motion to adjourn the meeting and Committee Member Berman seconded the motion. The meeting adjourned at 10:00pm. 1151187.1 The next meeting of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee will meet on August 2, 2011 at 8:30PM. Minutes prepared by Carmella Swick. 1151187.1