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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2011-09-13 - 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 13, 2011 Convene Meeting: Chairman Marc Zimmerman called the meeting to order at 8:05pm 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, Jamie Schutter and Adam Berman Absent Council Members: Glenn Brettschneider Trustee Michael Brown, Parks & Recreation Advisory Council Liaison Recreation Department Member: Robert Bertolacci, Parks &Recreation Superintendent Carmella Swick, Sr. Office Assistant I. Minutes: Chairman Zimmerman asked for a motion to accept the August 2, 2011 Minutes. Committee Member Berman made the motion to accept the August 2, 2011 Minutes and Committee Member O'Neil seconded the motion. The Minutes were accepted and all approved. II. Public View Points: Committee Member Funtleyder stated that his daughter has just joined the Rye Brook Travel Soccer program. The Red Bulls are doing a great job and the program is well organized. III. Superintendent's Report a. Fall Sports Signups Superintendent Bertolacci reported there were no issues with our Community Pass sign-up process on Wednesday evening and the numbers were good. Elite Soccer was cancelled for a personal issue and the clinic will be extended one week. An e-mail was sent out to the Elite Soccer participants who were signed up to let them know there was no session on Saturday, September 10`h. Superintendent said at the present time we have over 100 boys and girls signed up for our basketball program. Superintendent Bertolacci stated this is the most sign-ups at registration time that we have had in a long time. The schedule for the basketball ratings is in the fall brochure. Committee Member Berman asked who made the late sign-up fee for the rec basketball program. Superintendent Bertolacci stated the late fee was instituted by the Village Board to discourage anyone from signing up after the draft. 1154377.1 Committee Member Berman stated that the $50.00 fee is not really much of a discouragement and thought the fee should be higher. Superintendent Bertolacci stated that the late fee can be discussed at budget time. Superintendent Bertolacci said Halloween in the Park is a new program. It will be held on Saturday, October 29th from 6:00pm to 9:00pm at Rye Hills Park. We plan on decorating the park and having volunteers work to make it a scary event. We are gearing up for ages 7 and up. There will be one vehicle as a hay ride and another vehicle as a train. The entrance will be from Crawford Park. The admission will be free this year and candy will be given out. Superintendent Bertolacci said an e-mail will go out and advertising will be in the Westmore News for the event. There will be one entrance and one exit to the park and all other entrances will be blocked off. Superintendent Bertolacci will meet with the school districts next week to seek volunteers for the event. We also have some firemen who have volunteered for the event. Some Halloween scenes will be built and there will also be some animatronics that will be set up. IV. Old Business a. Little League Discussion/Travel Baseball Chairman Zimmerman, Superintendent Bertolacci and Dan Wurtzel, President of the Travel Baseball met to outline ways that we as a Recreation Little League program and the Travel Baseball program can co-exist and let Little League flourish despite that there are children playing Travel Baseball and other sports. From the Travel Baseball perspective Dan wanted us to know that Travel Baseball enrollment is also down and there are fewer teams this year than in past years. Travel Baseball has the same problem that we discussed at the Major League level. Travel Baseball has no 1 lU or 12U team for lack of participation. in the spring Travel Baseball only had one I IU team. Dan feels that we share the same problem as we do for our Little League in the spring. Travel Baseball has to figure out a way to cover their cost for field space because they aren't making enough money to float them from season to season. From a Board perspective, the Travel Baseball Board is not sympathetic to the fact that our numbers are down while they are experiencing the same participation issues. The business people of the rec department feel the Little League program has to be improved in some way and we believe the most obvious ways is to pump up the participation. Dan feels Travel Baseball came about because the more skilled kids and the parents of the more skilled kids wanted their kids to play in a more competitive environment. Dan believes its more parent driven to play in travel opposed to kid driven. Chairman Zimmerman stated that he doesn't believe anyone on the Travel Baseball Board and certainly not Dan wants in any way to hurt the Rec Little League program. Dan pointed out that the issue is economics. Dan wants to be confident that the Travel Baseball program, which is private and is run from money that comes into the Travel Baseball program 1154377.1 from participants, that there is enough money to carry them over from year to year. Dan stated that they are running tight from an economic standpoint. We are all experiencing belt tightening and the same crunch. Chairman Zimmerman stated they discussed the modified spring season starting June 1St like they did the first season where they started after the end of Little League. Dan stated that Travel Baseball is in the WBA and that the first year of Travel Baseball by starting in June they didn't have enough games, they didn't qualify for the play offs, and John Nesi said never again. The WBA won't let that happen again so that is a non-issue. Chairman Zimmerman said that the numbers for the Minor League are consistent and Dan stated that the numbers for the 9U and IOU are also consistent. We discussed at the meeting whether it made sense that Travel Baseball or some other organization run Little League privately because other towns do that. Chairman Zimmerman said he didn't think there was any consensus that we want that to happen and Dan didn't indicate that he would want that to happen. Dan's point was part of the deal with the Village was we were sort of hands off in the spring, we run a Rookie League in the fall that is successful and we didn't want to run anything in the spring because that's competing with Rec Rookie League. Dan said he could see if the Travel Board would run their Rookie League in the spring together with the Little League and kind of make a super league. We could see if that would be a viable option. Chairman Zimmerman said that Travel Baseball wants to compete and Little League wants to continue to compete.The Parks and Recreation Advisory Board can make a recommendation to the Village Board or the Village Board on its own does something affirmative like take away your field space because we think Little League is suffering because of Travel Baseball. Dan's response was obviously it would leave us in a bad position and would have to look elsewhere for field space. Dan stated we all will have some type of political perception issue if we are forcing kids to do something that the parents don't want. if we eliminate the ability for Travel Baseball to operate within the Rye Brook parks, we can then say you still have an option; Little League, which may or may not be acceptable to the public. Parents want their kids to play Travel Baseball and want them to play with the kids that are on their kids' skill level. Chairman Zimmerman said a suggestion was made for a tournament team. Kids will play Travel, fields permitting, and the kids will play Little League because the Little League team will have an all star team and that all star team plays in the District 20 tournament and the District 20 tournament can be run by the Travel Baseball program who will borrow our charter for purposes of a Little League Series. Chairman Zimmerman stated what we want to do with the Little League program is not necessarily take away field space from Travel or kids from Travel, we want to build our program to meet the needs of the more competitive kids and the less competitive kids and as a result of that, people will gravitate back or the program will become a viable first option and Travel being a second option. We have to build up the program with more skills, field space, time and 1154377.1 repetition and at the same time increase our participation so our more skilled kids get pulled back into the program. Chairman Zimmerman stated that Dan seems interested in the Tournament team. Dan asked about the one kid on the Travel team that played with the other 10 kids and doesn't play Little League, and the other 9 or 10 play Little League, can this one kid play in the District 20. Superintendent Bertolacci stated that he would not be able to play. Dan stated that it may present a problem for the Travel Club if the Travel Baseball runs the District 20 tournament. Chairman Zimmerman stated personally that he doesn't think making kids play Little League is going to make the program any better and using the more skilled kids on the teams is only going to highlight the differences between the A players and the C players. Superintendent Bertolacci said there are other issues, Travel Baseball is expensive and your adding another $150 for a rec program. Some people can't afford both programs. Dan is going back to speak with the Travel Board to try and figure out what they can do to help along the development of the Little League. Also, what can our committee recommend so Travel Baseball doesn't suffer and or get more expensive because if teams get cut, it can get more expensive and field prices are not going to go down. Chairman Zimmerman stated as a Travel Baseball coach, he can only hold one practice a week because of the number of teams. If there are less teams, i can hold more practices. Committee Member Berman asked Chairman Zimmerman if it is economic or developmental why Travel Baseball wouldn't cut their spring program. Chairman Zimmerman said its probably a lot of different things. Committee Member Berman said that we should try to figure out why the numbers in the Major League baseball has declined. Superintendent Bertolacci said that issue was discussed at the meeting with Dan and he also doesn't know why the numbers are down in the Major League. Superintendent said that it seems the kids at that age level are expanding their horizons and trying new things because there are many options out there. Superintendent Bertolacci stated that he has a baseball group that will be doing clinics over the winter months. Also, Pro Swing may be an option because they have instructors there at the facility. Committee Member Carbone said he has researched other towns that have a rule if the child doesn't play Little League, he cannot play travel. Why won't that rule work here. Chairman Zimmerman said that Travel Baseball is a private organization and they can go when and where ever they want and the only leverage we have is renting them field space. Chairman Zimmerman stated that we can make a recommendation that will end any spring season for Travel Baseball because we can recommend that Travel Baseball doesn't get any field space. 1154377.1 Trustee Brown said the focus now is how you can improve our program before you start figuring out how you are going to get the program to run. Once you figure out how the program is going to be great, kids are going to want to play in it, then we can figure out how we can get Travel to work with us. Trustee Brown stated this council would have to come up with a good program that will increase the participation. it's a good idea to get some professionals to come in and help with clinics, training and skills. Chairman Zimmerman stated that we ceded to Travel Baseball because they offered a better product than what we had. We now have to offer an alternative product that will entice these kids back to play with their friends. Because Travel Baseball is a competitive program you are not guaranteed to play with your friends. Chairman Zimmerman stated that Dan would speak with the Travel Board to determine ways to co-exist. There was no promise from Dan that they are going to do anything that will hurt their program because they are looking at ways to maintain the program also. Superintendent Bertolacci stated that the next step is to set up a Little League sub-committee with 4 members from this committee and me and workout a strategy. We can meet monthly or bi-monthly and each month we will report to this council. Volunteers for the Little League committee are Brian Funtleyder, Kevin O'Neil, Jamie Schutzer and Chairman, Frank Carbone. Chairman Zimmerman suggested pumping up the participation for Little League by sending out messages to the public about how important Little League is to the public etc. and sending out information in April is too late. Committee Member Berman suggested to Superintendent Bertolacci that we should look at the rules similar to how we look at the rules for baseball. Superintendent Bertolacci said issue should be a discussion for the basketball sub-committee. Chairman Zimmerman stated that we need to establish our basketball sub-committee. Chairman Zimmerman asked Committee Member Berman if he would like to stay on the basketball sub- committee. Committee Member Berman stated he would stay on the committee and chair it. Also on the committee is Committee Members Jablon, Frankel and Brettschneider. V. New Business a. Rye Hills Park Flooding Superintendent Bertolacci stated that a drainage project has been approved by the Village Board and the work will start in approximately 2 weeks. Superintendent Bertolacci is not sure where all the water was coming from into Hidden Falls but hopefully this project will prevent any additional flooding. Committee Member O'Neil, a resident of Hidden Falls, stated that there is two mini landslides that slide down from Rye Hills Park. The second place is coming down the hill from Longledge. 1154377.1 People were shoveling mud out of their garages. Superintendent Bertolacci said the second problem is an issue for the Village Engineers. Committee Member Berman stated that the brook in Rich Manor Park overflowed and came into the street and up to the second step of his neighbors house and also the street on Concord flows from the brook. Superintendent Bertolacci said that the Village controls Rich Manor Park but we don't control the waterways. Superintendent Bertolacci stated that any flooding issues need to be referred to the Village Engineer. b. Potential Budget issues Affecting Modified Sports Programs Chairman Zimmerman stated that a number of e-mails have been circulating around the community discussing the 2012 school proposed budget and if the budget is increased by only 2%, all of the modified sports programs in the school would be cut. Discussions were whether a booster club should be started like the football and soccer clubs have. Chairman Zimmerman stated that if there is a need for some type of program to fill the space, if there is no modified sports in the school, Rec should find the space for it. Committee Member Berman stated that not only if modified gets cut, there is still going to be an enormous number of 7t1, and 8t1, grade boys plus the 6t1, grade that won't have anything to do after school. In the fall we could do a soccer program etc. This way the kids will have something to do and some place to go. Chairman Zimmerman suggested that the Recreation Department may want to be prepared to fill the space if the modified sports programs at the school get cut. Superintendent Bertolacci stated that he had spoken with Jim Spano, Athletic Director, last year and we discussed intramural sports if Recreation had to take up the slack. Vi. Adjournment Chairman Zimmerman asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting. Committee Member Berman made a motion to adjourn the meeting and Committee Member O'Neil seconded the motion. All approved. The meeting was adjourned at 9:50pm. The next meeting of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board will be on October 4, 2011 at 8:OOpm. Minutes prepared by Carmella Swick 1154377.1