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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2009-01-06 - 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 January 6, 2009 Convene Meeting: Chairman Steve Schoen called the meeting to order at 8:15pm. The following members of the Council were present: Advisory Council Members: Chairman Steve Schoen, Richard Gutner, Ken Frankel, Marc Zimmerman, Sari Jablon, Glenn Brettschneider, Steve Epstein Absent Council Members: Jeff Kornblum, Debra Tempesta Paul Rosenberg, Rye Brook Village Trustee & Liaison to Parks & Recreation Recreation Department Members Present: Robert Bertolacci, Parks and Recreation Superintendent I. Minutes: Chairman Schoen asked for a motion to accept the Minutes of November 3, 2008. Committee Member Gutner made a motion to accept the November 3, 2008 Minutes as amended and Committee Member Zimmerman seconded the motion and all approved. II. Public View Points: There were no public view points III. Fund Raising a. Birthday Celebration Superintendent Bertolacci noted that with the current economy, it may be more difficult to get the funds necessary for the event. He asked for volunteers for a committee to put together the propaganda. Mark Zimmerman and Ken Frankel volunteered for this task. The committee will meet this month and report at the next meeting. b. Little League Superintendent Bertolacci was looking for volunteers to approach local merchants. He noted that if each council member got 4 sponsors for the little league program, we would have ample for the season. Superintendent Bertolacci will send out a listing of last year's sponsors via email. If each member can pick 6 of them to approach, Superintendent will assign them to that member to approach. IV. Winter Brochure Superintendent Bertolacci prepared the winter booklet in house and placed it on the Villages website without mailing to the public. There were no complaints from the residents and a 1 savings to the Village of approximately $4000. The public was notified via Community Pass, Westmore News full page ad, and the Village website. Registration has been slower, but has picked up this week. I will meet with Chris Bradbury, Village Administrator to discuss future booklet listings. V. Basketball Season to date Committee Member Epstein brought up three points on basketball. 1. He asked what happened to the uniforms for some of the teams? Superintendent Bertolacci mentioned that there was a new company that had the license for the NBA and WNBA and they did not have their act together yet. However, all uniforms are now in. 2. He then asked if there was a policy on parents running practices when coaches could not be present. The topic was discussed by the council. Superintendent Bertolacci mentioned that there are two ways to handle that situation. The first and best way would be for the coaches to cancel the practice and contact Janice for an alternative date. The second would be for a responsible adult to run the practice in their absence. This may be a topic for future discussion for a policy recommendation. 3. His final point was on the 8t" and 9th grade basketball program. He had some concern that the program would take some steps back after John Swick had left the Village. However, while viewing the program, he felt that new staff member; Kyle Thornton has been doing a good job in taking over the program. VL Budget The Recreation Department has been given the task to come up with two budgets, one maintaining current levels of service and one with potential cuts. Superintendent Bertolacci has been thinking of areas to cut and not affect the current offerings. Some initial thoughts are: - T Shirts—Pro Jerseys to generic jerseys—potential savings $15 per shirt - Men's Softball reduction of Lights and length of season - Flag Football reduction in length of season - Basketball reduction in length of season VII Old Business a. Travel Baseball Superintendent Bertolacci updated the council that Travel Baseball will be totally private. Travel Softball will remain under the Recreation Department. There is a meeting to discuss the fee structure for Grass Fields. Committee Member Jablon asked about the Soccer fee structure. Trustee Paul Rosenberg said that once a fee structure for baseball is decided and if there is a reduction in the fee, something will have to be done for soccer as well. b. Scholarship Policy Superintendent Bertolacci again noted the current economic situation and thought that there would be more need for scholarships for residents to participate in the recreation programs. He and Chris Bradbury will meet to discuss this topic and make a recommendation to the Village Board. Some initial thoughts are to use some of the Little League Sponsorship money for this purpose. One of our challenges will be to come up with a policy on how to apply, figure out who will be the deciding body and what the criteria should be. 2 VII. New Business a. Little League Committee Superintendent Bertolacci was asking for the Councils opinion on whether a committee was necessary in light of travel baseballs privatization. Some of the tasks that were taken on by the LLC were travel baseball/softball, rules, sponsorship, and assignments for the concession stand. It was discussed that the recommendations still needed to come back to advisory council and other tasks were performed by the Recreation Department anyway. Rules would be discussed at the Advisory Council level; concession stand would be assigned by volunteers from the teams that are playing and/or community service kids from Jane Romm. The advisory Council will assist on getting the sponsorship. Therefore, the advisory council feels no need for the LLC at this time. b. Community Center Superintendent Bertolacci placed this item on the agenda not to move on a Community Center, but to bring some points to note. - PTA Programs Over the course of the last eight years, the recreation department has been fazed out of the school usage directly after school. The recreation department had two days in the gym after school. That policy has moved to one day after school. Last year, we were told that we no longer had time after school because of the PTA after school programs. Jonathon Ross, myself and the PTA were able to resolve some of the issues. Once again this year, we were bumped to allow the PTA to use the gyms. Again this year, we were able to work out an agreement that the PTA would start after the break and our program would be cut short to end at the break. I do not see this situation easing up and only becoming further exacerbated. - School Policies for charging The Village has paid for janitors on Sundays and Saturdays after 4pm. The School District has notified the Village that the basketball program that was there on Saturdays prior to the village being in the gyms will no longer be there. Therefore the building at Ridge St will be open only for Village functions; therefore, the school district will have to bill the Village from 12-7pm as opposed to 4-7pm for the janitor being in the building. Therefore the Village will incur an additional 2000-3,000 dollars toward the janitorial fee. A motion was made by Committee Member Gutner at 9:15pm to adjourn the meeting. The motion was seconded by Committee Member Epstein and all approved. The next Parks and Recreation Advisory Council meeting is on February 3, 2009 at 8:OOpm. 3