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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-09-09 - 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 9, 2008 CONVENE MEETING: Chairman Steve Schoen called the meeting to order at 8:35pm The following members of the Council were present: Advisory Council Members: Chairman Steve Schoen, Richard Gutner, Steve Epstein, Debra Tempesta Jeffrey Kornblum, Ken Frankel, Marc Zimmerman, Glenn Brettschneider, Sari Jablon Absent Council Members: Recreation Department Members Present: Robert Bertolacci, Parks and Recreation Superintendent Carmella Swick, Sr. Office Assistant 1. Minutes: Chairman Schoen asked for a motion to approve the Minutes for August 5, 2008. Committee Member Richard Gutner made a motion to approve the August 5, 2008 Minutes and Committee Member Jeffrey Kornblum seconded the motion and all approved. 11. Public View Points: Committee Member Kornblum said that a couple of residents expressed displeasure with the rest rooms at Pine Ridge Park. There was no soap or paper product in the ladies room. The residents did comment that for a public bathroom it was very clean. They would like a soap dispenser so they can wash their hands. Superintendent Bertolacci stated that if there was a dispenser in the rest room the kids would probably damage it but Superintendent said he would look into it. III.Recreation Programs: Chairman Schoen asked Superintendent Bertolacci to review the programs offered by the Rec Department. Superintendent said the basketball program is one of our biggest programs. It is run like the Little League program where the kids are rated and placed on a team via the blind draft system. This year we have both the boys and girls in the 2nd and 3rd grade, 4th and 5th grade and 6th and 7th grade playing together. There are 8th and 9th grade boys that play on Saturday. The youth basketball breaks into leagues where the parents are coaches and the high school students coach the 8th and 9th grade boy's teams. Last year we kept standings for the older kids and we will decide if we are going to do it this year at future basketball meetings. Manny Martinez is an outside contractor who runs a basketball clinic on Friday afternoons at Ridge Street School for boys and girls grades 3 to 6. He also runs a clinic for girls in 7th through 9th grade. 1 Mike Welsh is an outside contractor who runs a basketball clinic for high school boys. Lifetime Racquet Sports is an outside contractor that runs our tennis programs. The program starts with a Pee Wee program for 4 year olds and through the middle and high school age. There are also individual and group lessons for the adults. The fall tennis program takes place at Pine Ridge Park. Mid-Day Kinderplay is run at Ridge Street School for students in kindergarten and runs for 6 weeks. Our staff takes them from 12:00 noon to 2:30pm. Pee Wee Soccer starts this Saturday. The 9:00 and 10:00 am classes are filled and there is a waiting list with about 4 or 5 names on it. Those kids will probably get fitted into those classes or go into the 11:OOam class which has 26 registered at this time. Brett Gober is an outside contractor and he has 4 or 5 instructors working with him. Kindergarten and 1st grade floor hockey starts next week. Janice will run those programs with a couple of staff assistants. Ice Skating starts in November. Our staff meets the kids at Ridge Street School and buses them to Playland. They have a '/z hour ice skating lesson and 45 minutes of free skate. There is a Speed and Agility Camp run by an outside contractor, Tony Iasiello at the request of the soccer club. There are 4 participants registered for the program. If we don't get more kids registered for that class it will probably be cancelled. John Dakers, and outside contractor will run a fall baseball Clinic. There are 4 participants registered for the program and if we don't get more registrations for that class, Mr. Dakers will cancel that class. The timing for that class on Saturday's may be a factor for the 6th and 7t1' grade boys that have Hebrew School. This was the only field time we had to run this program. Youth Lacrosse is being run by an outside contractor, Steve Forzaglia. The program will take place at Crawford Park starting this Friday. There are 2 time sessions 3:30 to 4:30 and 4:30 to 5:30pm. Because of the low number of registration we may combine the grades and use the 3:30 to 4:30 time slot. Chairman Schoen commented on the traffic and parking situation at Crawford Park. There are so many activities going on and cars are parked everywhere. You really have to be careful when you leave the park because of all the kids. Youth Bowling starts next Monday and Superintendent Bertolacci will be running that program in the absence of a Recreation Leader. The new Recreation Leader will take on that program when he comes on staff. There are 20 kids registered for the program. Our staff meets the kids at Ridge Street School and they are bused over to White Plains Bowl. They bowl for two weeks and then teams are made and they bowl a different team each week. Tae Kwon Do is run by David Moradi. We had 1 registration and referred him over to David. Hip Hop Zumba Workout is a high energy dance class for 3'd through 5th grade girls. There were 3 registered and the instructor needs at least 8 to run the class. 2 The Teen Center is for boys and girls in the 7th and 81h grades. There is a dodge ball tournament set up for September 26th. The kids make up their own team and register that team with the Recreation Department. Committee Member Jablon stated that when these kids make up their teams, some kids are left out and don't have an opportunity to play because they are not chosen to be on a team. Maybe the kids could just come to the gym and we pick 1, 2, 3 and those kids make up a team. Committee Member Gutner suggested giving them a number when they come into the gym and make the teams that way. It was commented that the kids would then switch the numbers so they can be with their friends. Superintendent said that we will figure out how to work it out so it is fair to all the kids. Superintendent said the whole point is to get the lads there for Teen Night. The Flag Football league starts this Sunday. There are 11 teams. We could have had 14 teams but we got our field request in too late and the Rye Youth Soccer Club ended up getting the 11:OOam time slot on Sundays. Adult Tennis is run by Lifetime Racquet Sports. Total Body Work Out is run by Barbara Colao at the AJP Center on Tuesday nights at 7:30 to 8:30pm. Last registered class had 19 participants. Our outside contractors get 80% of the registrations and we get 20% across the board. Piece Corp Quilting runs the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month at AJP. Country Line Dancing is a line dance program run by Pam Francella on Wednesday evenings at the AJP Center. There are about 15 to 20 people every week. The charge is $10.00 at the door. Ballroom Dancing is run by Rita Hessert on Thursday evenings at the AJP Center. We don't get that many couples attending, it is more about providing the service. Yoga Latte is run by Barbara Colao on Wednesday mornings at the AJP Center. It's a combination of Yoga and Pilates and runs for 10 weeks. The class is 1 & '/z hours at a cost of $150.00. Men's Over 30 Basketball starts this Sunday. There are two sessions, 8:30am to 10:30am and 9:30 am to 11:30 am. There is a staff member there every Sunday who takes attendance. Committee Member Frankel asked if there is a gym available during the week for men's basketball. Superintendent Bertolacci said he would gladly give them another night but there is no facility available. Ladies Bowling is on Mondays at the White Plains Bowl. The ladies that bowl run the whole program. Years ago it was run by the Recreation Department. Zumba is run by an outside contractor, Ivy Berke. There are 7 adults registered. It will take place at Crawford Park on Friday mornings at 9:15 to 10:15 3 The Rye Youth Soccer Club starts in the I" grade. The Pee Wee Soccer is a program before 1'r grade. Chairman Schoen said there is a soccer program that is run out of New Rochelle called Golden Touch. The coach that runs the program played soccer and he is an excellent coach. They do skills and drills and start the kids at 5 years old. If we had more field space for soccer it would bring in more revenue for the Village. IV. Fall Registration vs. Spring Registration (On Line): Committee Member Zimmerman said he got comments from residents that times changed for registration for kindergarten programs and parents that had to pick up other siblings at 3:00pm. The 3:00pm registration didn't work for then. The midnight registration time was great except for the residents who didn't want to wait up for that hour. The Rye Y does on-line registration at 6:00am and has been doing it for years. Very few people have work or school requirements at that hour and for some it may be an inconvenience, but it is one time thing. Superintendent said that we create a wait list and see what the demand is and if there is a large number of people on a wait list, we create other classes providing we have space and staff. Committee Member Jablon suggested putting in our brochure that we will accommodate as many children that we can staff. Chairman Schoen said whether the sign up is 12:00 am or 6:00 am, there is always going to be someone that is going to be inconvenienced. Committee Member Zimmerman said you are getting inconvenienced once every four months and that is okay but it is not okay to put the resident in a position where it is an impossibility to register because of some other issue. V. Baseball Update: a. Participant Survey b. Public Forum Dates & Format Chairman Schoen asked Superintendent Bertolacci how the survey is going to be administered, who is going to receive the survey, who is creating it, what are the dates the survey would go out and when would we expect the results. Superintendent Bertolacci stated that he heard from Village Trustee Rosenberg that he wanted a survey but one has not been created at this time. Superintendent Bertolacci said that last week Trustee Rosenberg asked if we could do an e-mail to the people in the travel baseball to survey them on their experiences with the Travel Baseball Club because there are some people that are not happy with the program and are not willing to step up at a public forum to make their point. Superintendent stated that it is not his program and he doesn't have the Travel Baseball Club rosters. The only way it can be done is to get all the e- mail addresses of the travel baseball kids and enter them in our system or just send an e-mail to all the Little Leaguers from last spring. The survey would be linked to our website and no e-mail addresses would show up from the respondents. Chairman Schoen stated that Mayor Feinstein said we would have an open meeting in October or November to evaluate the experience of the Travel Baseball Club running the program under the Rec. umbrella to see what ran well and what didn't run well. Committee Member Kornblum suggested that we e-mail the travel team that was under rec last year and survey the travel team that was under the travel club this year. Superintendent said he would have each coach of the travel baseball club e-mail their roster to him and then he would enter them into a file and send the survey out. 4 Committee Member Tempesta offered to help input the e-mail addresses of the travel baseball club teams into our data base so the survey can be sent out. Superintendent stated that the questions on the survey will be drafted by him and Chris Bradbury, Village Administrator and the results of the survey will be reported to this Recreation Committee and the Village Board. Committee Member Brettschneider asked if there is anyone on the travel baseball board that doesn't have a child playing on the team. Chairman Schoen stated that they all have kids that play and they either coach fall or summer travel baseball. Superintendent said the Travel Baseball Club, as an outside contractor paid 20% for use of our fields. Committee Member Jablon asked if a parent of a travel baseball player has a problem, would the Village get involved with the grievance. Superintendent stated that he doesn't think that is the way the Village wants to go forward. The Village wants the Travel Baseball Club to run the way the Travel Soccer Club runs. Committee Member Jablon said that if they become 100% independent, they would no longer get the benefit of discounted fields and they would have to pay full price for the use of the fields. Chairman Schoen asked if the Village would come to a conclusion the night of the open forum. Superintendent Bertolacci said that question would be for our liaison to answer. Committee Member Brettschneider stated that to him coaching and being on the board at the same time presents a conflict. Chairman Schoen stated that the board wants to give the people an opportunity to provide their constructive feedback in an open way. Superintendent Bertolacci said the survey may go out the beginning of October. c. Batting Cages Chairman Schoen asked if the Travel Baseball Club submitted any proposal for batting cages. Superintendent Bertolacci stated that he has not received any proposals. Chairman Schoen said the Travel Baseball Club has hired an architect to render drawings. They originally focused on the area behind the scoreboard in the outfield at the new field but there are some drainage issues there so they can't build on it. The secondary area was the first base side of the old field toward the corner where the private property fence meets. Chairman Schoen said that the Travel Baseball Club is prepared to fund the batting cage. Chairman Schoen asked if there are any plans for the Recreation Department to do any work on the fields. Superintendent Bertolacci said this year an area on the new field was made next to the tennis courts with a rubber and a home plate so the pitchers can have their distance from the pitchers mound to home plate for warming up. Chairman Schoen stated that the Travel Baseball Club is trying to get a scoreboard donated for the old field. Superintendent Bertolacci said the club wanted to put a sign under the scoreboard similar to the Prudential Rand sign that is on the scoreboard at the new field. The Village Board is making us take down the Prudential Rand sign and they don't want anything like that in any of the parks. VI. Basketball Update; Chairman Schoen said the basketball sub-committee met last night. The girls' have their first rating on September 23'd and the boys have their first rating on September 26th. The coaches along with Janice will do the ratings. At the ratings the kids line up and they dribble up and 5 down the court, make a layup each way, go up and down the court and take a foul shot and pass the basketball back and forth to the next person in line. Based on feedback and surveys from parents and coaches, one of issues is the fairness of teams. What we discussed at the meeting was to have the mixed grades of 2nd and 3rd rated together. The thought is to use the 4 baskets and have a 3 on 3 games going on at each of the 4 baskets for about 3 to 5 minutes long. The kids that play together would be randomly picked. Then you have the six kids do layups and shoot. You have two evaluators at each basket all night and have another parent as an organizer for the younger kids. You won't have each set of raters seeing every kid but you would have 4 coaches evaluating each kid. Then you bring in the next 24 and do the same thing. Each segment should take about 10 to 15 minutes. We would have the sheets set up to give to the raters with how we want the coaches to evaluate the kids and it's not going to be dribbling, shooting and passing but shooting, dribbling, passing, height and general athletics. A kid could be rated a 3 but if he is a really athletic, it should raise his rating and that kid should be considered one of the better players and would be lumped in with that group of players that are considered better players so they are more evenly dispersed on the teams. Hopefully this would be a truer sense of the performance of the kids. We need to also take into consideration who is coaching together. The concern is that you don't want to have a third coach with a son who is a very strong player on that team with 2 other strong players because that team becomes a dominant team. Superintendent Bertolacci stated that when these teams get to use the bigger baskets there are more kids that can play the game, the court is more spread out, and 2 strong players on the team is not going to dominant the game. If there are 3 strong players on one team, there would be no stopping them. Committee Member Epstein said that the issue he would like to discuss is the commitment to the Rec. program. Parents of some of the stronger players come to the first practice and they will tell you that their kid will only be able to make 3 games. Chairman Schoen said what we use as an "All-Star" team for the County Center Tournament, some communities enter a team into the Tri-County League. In terms of competiveness, Tri- County is somewhere between CYP and AAU. Its school based with kids from your own community. A game a week is played on Sundays and practice whenever there is gym space. One of things you can do, as just an example, is make it so the players that are selected for County Center the year before get entered into the Tri-County select team in addition to playing in Rec. To be part of that program you have to come to the Rec. games. Committee Member Gutner stated that to qualify for County Center you have to be present at x number of games. Whether a coach votes for that player or not, that player still has to be at 65% or 70% of the Rec. games and then he would be qualified. The books are kept at the games so Janice would know who would qualify for the County Center. Committee Member Epstein asked if we can in the process of them signing up, tell us how many games your child would be able to attend. Janice does a thorough job to try and minimize the conflicts so those kids who play rec and CYP can go to both. Chairman Schoen suggested adding a question when they sign up about whether their child plays another sport. Superintendent said he likes the suggestion of the 3 on 3 games at the ratings but doesn't think it would be a positive thing with 24 kids in the gym. Superintendent suggested 2 games of 3-on-3 full court so you can see the kid play. Having 4 3-on-3 games going on at once you aren't going to see anybody handling the ball. All you are going to see is 6 passing. Janice said she would put the names of the kids who signed up and assign them a number. When that kid comes to the rating give them the number that corresponds with the number on the paper. Superintendent said take the first 6 kids and let them play for 3 minutes, those 6 go to the other side of the gym and the next six come in and they rotate and all the coaches see every kid. If anyone wants to coach, call Janice at the office and let her know you want to coach. The basketball games will start after Thanksgiving on December 6th. VII. Community Center: Chairman Schoen stated that he didn't receive any e-mails of comments or thoughts regarding the FAQ. We did hear at our last meeting that a Community Center would be considered at part of a comprehensive plan for the Village. I can over the course of the next month start putting an FAQ into a Power Point format. Superintendent Bertolacci suggested having another meeting with the sub-committee before the October meeting. VIII. Adjournment: A motion was made by Committee Member Gutner to adjourn the meeting. The motion was seconded by Committee Member Tempesta and all approved. The next Parks and Recreation Advisory Council meeting is on October 6, 2008 at 8:15pm. Minutes prepared by Carmella Swick 7