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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-09-11 - 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 11, 2007 CONVENE MEETING: Chairman Steve Schoen called the meeting to order at 8:05pm The following members of the Council were present: Advisory Council Members: Chairman Steve Schoen, Cliff Shaw, Richard Gutner,Debra Tempesta Kenneth Finder, and Jeffrey Kornblum Absent Council Members: Steve Epstein Recreation Department Members Present: Robert Bertolacci,Parks and Recreation Superintendent Carmella Swick, Sr. Office Assistant Janice Kunicki,Recreation Leader Village Of Rye Brook Trustee,Paul Rosenberg Village Residents: Lori Discolo, Samantha Panzier, Pat Levine, Maria Colotti, and Joe Occhicone. Jeff Benzak,Westmore News Reporter Chairman Schoen welcomed everyone attending tonight's meeting and will address the Public View Points comments and issues. I. Minutes: In view of the fact that some members of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Council did not receive the August Minutes, the August and September Minutes will be approved at the October meeting. II. Public View Points: Basketball Chairman Schoen stated that he read the e-mail that was circulated around last week by Lori Discoli, a Rye Brook resident. Mrs. Discoli is interested in having her daughter Carly who is in 2nd grade play basketball. Chairman Schoen stated that Mrs. Discoli daughter will be able to play basketball. Chairman Schoen stated that the Recreation Department currently has a 2nd grade skills program that Janice runs in January on Thursday afternoon. There is a girl's division program that 3rd and 4th grade combined and 5t" & 6t" grade combined play in. The boys division are 2nd & 3rd grade, 4" & 5" grade, 6t" & 7t" grade and 8th & 91" grade. Chairman Schoen stated that there are parents of 2nd grade girls that are interested in having the girls play basketball in the 2nd & 3rd grade boys division. In the past, parents of 2nd grade girls didn't show an interest in the basketball program so the issue never came up. Programs are growing along with enrollment in our schools and we are already stressed for gym space for the different programs. Right now, we are about 10 to 12 hours short to administer the basketball program the way we would like to see it run. If there are a couple of girls interested in playing, there is no issue but if there are 20 girls interested, we have to find a way to make it work with gym space. Because we don't have the space we need currently, we have to come up with the best way to accommodate our programs. Mrs. Discoli stated 1 that it is not the 2°d grade girls' problem that there is not enough gym space. If the gym space is stressed, it needs to be equally stressed for 2"d grade girls as it is for 2"d grade boys. Mrs. Discoli stated that her daughter would prefer playing in a girl's league and if there is not enough interest or you don't offer a girls league, she would rather play than not play. Samantha Panzier, a parent of a 2nd grade girl, said encouraging 2"d grade girls to play sports at a co-ed level is extremely difficult. In the spring, there were 6 girls signed up for Rookie Ball, 4 of them were 2nd graders and 2 were lst graders. I didn't agree with the fact that the two girls couldn't play together on the same team. Mrs. Panzier stated that knowing we are stressed for gym space,you have to offer the program to both girls and boys or make it co-ed. Chairman Schoen reiterated that there is the skills program that Janice runs in January for a potential of 20 girls. Mrs. Discoli said that the skills program offered is small and it is not the same as giving the girls a league to play in. Mrs. Discoli said it is like saying anyone in 2nd grade can play basketball in this league no matter what your ability is unless you are a girl. Chairman Schoen said our objective is to try and satisfy what Mrs. Discoli is asking for in an appropriate way. With the 2nd and 3rd grade boys' league, it is half skills and they play a 45 minute game after. We can offer the same parameters for Janice's skills program. Mrs. Discoli said if you are giving me two options; a girls league, or she gets to play with the boys, Carly would prefer to play with the girls. If you tell me there is not enough gym space or there aren't enough girls to make the teams, then she has to play with the boys. Mrs. Discoli stated that she understands that not everyone in the Recreation Department has the power to make changes and it would have to go first to the Superintendent and then to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Council. I was told things that really bordered on being illegal like saying there was a liability. I did some research and there is no liability for pre- pubescent boys and girls to play together. What you are answering to now is from people that were up in arms at what was thrown around as gender discrimination. Chairman Schoen stated that we will come up with a solution that is logical, practical and reasonable. Village Trustee, Paul Rosenberg stated that he saw the e-mails that went around and when it said gender discrimination in Rye Brook, it also struck a nerve with us. We try to make our programs open to everyone. The issue was discussed tonight at the Village Board level and will also be discussed tonight at this meeting and your daughter will be eligible to play basketball. Trustee Rosenberg apologized on behalf of the Village Board and stated we don't want anyone to think that we are discriminating or looking to leave anyone out of our programs. This Council and the Village goes to great lengths to create as many programs as we can and if we have accidentally excluded someone or mis- communicated,we are sorry and will do a better job. 12U Fall Travel Baseball Selection Joe Occhicone, a Rye Brook resident would like to speak about the issues of the 12U travel baseball selection process. Mr. Occhicone said that he feels the recreation league feeds the high school programs and that is the way you develop children to play other sports. There are other Little League teams that follow a policy that when you are on a travel team you stay on that travel team until the player moves up to the older league. Mr. Occhicone said he was informed that we don't follow that policy here. This past summer, the 12U travel baseball team did a tremendous job and Rob, the coach, was never consulted what player attended the practices, and the games and what the stats were for each player. I asked why Rob wasn't consulted and Superintendent told me that's not our policy. Mr. Occhicone thinks it is a poor policy. Another issue Mr. Occhicone has is kids playing dual sports. We were told that players are expected to be committed to the baseball team for both practices and games and players can be removed from the team for blatant lack of commitment. Also, it was stated that rec staff and volunteers will rate the players at the tryouts and the end result will be a major factor in selecting the team but not the only factor. Mr. Occhicone asked if the board knew how many players are playing dual sports. Committee Member Gutner said there are 3 kids on the 12U team 2 playing baseball and soccer and the commitment was considered in the selection process. Committee Member Gutner stated that last year and this year children were allowed to play travel soccer and travel baseball and there were some conflicts but it worked out. In the 10U there are 4 children and on the 9U there are 6 children that are playing soccer and baseball. Mr. Occhicone asked how a father on the Recreation Advisory Council could rate his children in the selection process. Committee Member Gutner stated that he didn't rate his children. Superintendent stated that he would take that issue into consideration for future ratings. Mr. Occhicone asked if there is any liability issue by putting 10 year olds against 12 year olds on ls` base. Committee Member Shaw stated that the kids on the 12U team are 11 years old. Mr. Occhicone commented that at the ratings he saw every child make errors. Committee Member Shaw said it is not about feeding the high school; it is about the best 13 kids that are playing baseball to travel around Westchester County and win ball games. We rated the kids fairly and got the best 13. Mr. Occhicone asked why the coach of the 12U summer travel wasn't asked for his input. Committee member Shaw stated there were other children who couldn't commit to the summer league and that should not be a reason to penalize them not to be able to play on the fall team. Chairman Schoen said the only fair way is having the ratings in September and you have more children to choose from than in the summer. Mr. Occhicone said he heard there were 15 players on the 12U roster. Superintendent stated there were 13 players on the roster and one dropped off the team. The number of players on a travel team is 13 and it was set by the Little League Committee and the Parks & Recreation Advisory Council. The Little League Committee makes recommendations to this Council for approval. Committee Member Shaw said in the past years there were 16 players on a travel team and it was not manageable and you couldn't get all the players in each game. Every year we debated the issue of the number of players and last year we felt 13 children was a fair number which allowed many kids to play in each game. Mr. Occhicone said that fathers who did the ratings and their children were there for the tryouts made him feel uncomfortable. How do you tell your kid he didn't make the fall travel team when he was a terrific player on the summer travel team? There may be some favoritism here and that is how it works. Committee Member Gutner stated that in years past his children went to the tryouts and didn't make the team and he had to tell his children they didn't make the travel team and it is not an easy task. Committee Member Gutner asked Mr. Occhicone why this year he had a problem with fathers doing the ratings that their child/children attended and not past years. Mr. Occhicone said that this year he was personally touched by the ratings. Committee Member Shaw said there is no favoritism when it comes to the ratings and I take offense to that remark. We try very hard on this committee and the Little League Committee to make sure there is no favoritism. It is a very hard task to please everyone in this town and try our best to be fair. Superintendent said that each year we try to learn from our previous experience and if there is something not right in our rating process,we try to learn from it so we can do it better the next time. When the Little League Committee meets, we will discuss the ratings process and more importantly how we can do a better job. If there was an error made in this rating process, we apologize. Chairman Schoen stated that the two issues Mr. Occhicone would like to hear back from the Little League Committee and the Parks and Advisory Council are: 1. Parent involvement if the parent is rating in the same division where they have a child/children trying out. 2. Going back to the coach from the previous year to get input about the players' commitment for practices, games and their stats if kept by the coach. III. Superintendent's Report Parks Projects &Maintenance Superintendent said the basketball courts at Pine Ridge Park are to be resurfaced this week. Depending on the weather, the courts will be closed Wednesday to Friday and back in service on Saturday. Chairman Schoen asked if there was any investigation about 3 cleaning out the pipes under the basketball courts before resurfacing. Superintendent said the courts would have to be ripped up to actually hook the pipes up and there isn't any money budgeted for that project. Committee Member Gutner said the basketball court floods when it rains and with no drainage the new asphalt is just going to crack again. Superintendent said he would talk to Victor Carosi, our Village Engineer and see if he can run a camera in the water drain to see what is going on. Little League Update Superintendent reported that there is a 9U, IOU and 12U Fall Travel Baseball program. There were not enough girls that tried out to have a 12U softball team, 17 girls tried out for the 10U Fall Travel Softball Team. Unfortunately we didn't have a league for them to play in. The teams in District 20 dropped out one by one which left only 1 team for Rye Brook to play. It was decided it was not feasible to take the girls back and forth to play the same team. We are going to offer a skills program for those girls interested in attending the program. Superintendent stated that we need someone to go to the WPBA meetings. The reason we didn't get into the league is because we didn't show up for the meeting with a team in place. We need to discuss this with the Little League Committee and figure out a plan of action so it doesn't happen again. Fall Program Update Superintendent stated that the registration for the recreation programs took place on September 4th. The soccer program was filled within an hour with the exception of the 11:00am class. Tennis was also filled and Lifetime Racquet Sports was able to add more classes to accommodate the overflow of children. Last year there were 10 Men's Flag Football teams and this year 11 teams are registered. Basketball is filtering in slowly and will pick up at the ratings. Floor Hockey is filled and Bowling has 10 children registered. Also Men's Over 30 Basketball program started this weekend. IV. Basketball Committee Update Chairman Schoen stated that we he wanted to update the Rec Council where we are in terms of using Belle Fair's gym, and Port Chester High School's gym. Committee Member Kornblum stated that he met with the Home Owners Board at Belle Fair and they have agreed to give us t/2 of the basketball court on Saturdays from 1:00 to 5:00pm. The Superintendent would write a letter of understanding to the Belle Fair Home Owners Association. Concerns are: a. that we have liability insurance, b. parents not wearing the proper footwear on the court, and c. there is no janitorial staff on Saturday so Rye Brook Recreation would have to make sure the facility was cleaned up before leaving. The Belle Fair Board has a strong desire to work with the Village and make this work out. Chairman Schoen stated that utilizing the time at Belle Fair helps but we are still short hours. There are logistics of staffing if we are running two locations at one time. There are 3 locations with lower hoops where the younger kids can practice and play their games. Superintendent said he spoke to the Port Chester Schools Athletic Director, Joe Durney, and he seems optimistic that he can find us some gym space at the high school. Originally Superintendent requested the Middle School but the Japanese school uses the Middle School every Saturday. The high school is similar to the Ridge Street School new gym with more bleachers. That would be appropriate for our 4th and 5th grade boys and 5th and 6th grade girls. If we decided we want to do the 2nd and 3rd grade boys and 3rd and 4th grade girls and create a 2nd grade girls program, we can offer those programs at Ridge Street in the new gym and still have Port Chester High School for the older groups. Committee Member Finder asked if there was a cost for the use of the high school. Superintendent said he has not discussed cost but we were never billed in the past. We are talking 1:00 to 4:00pm when there is a janitor in the building. If we request more time, we 4 probably would be billed. Janice suggested to Superintendent that we realign the teams next year like the boys division and have 2nd & 3rd grade girls, 4th & 5th grade and 6th & 7th grade. Superintendent stated that in 2001 the girls' basketball program was changed because the 4th grade girls refused to play with the 2nd grade girls when all three grades used to be grouped together. We ended up having a separate grouping of the 4th grade girls and they just played each other for the entire season and the 2nd and 3rd grade girls played together. The next year the Parks and Recreation Advisory Council formulated the way it is now because no 2nd grade girls showed up for the program. They wanted to keep the 5`h and 6th grade together, 3rd and 4th grade together and the Advisory Council came up with the 2nd grade skills program. When the basketball committee meets they can discuss this issue and go over the basketball rules. Superintendent recommends that we send a letter to all 2nd grade girls at Ridge Street School and invite them to a skill evaluation session for team selection. The program will run just like the boys league. Committee Member Shaw made a motion that we formulate a 2nd grade girls basketball program with a skills evaluation prior to the start of the season and similar to the boys basketball program. Committee Member Finder would like to amend the motion; it should be equal to the boys program not similar. Committee Gutner seconded the motion and all approved. Chairman Schoen stated that if there are not enough girls interested so the 2nd grade girls team can be formed, those girls interested in playing will be placed in the 2nd and 3rd grade boys division. Superintendent asked if we are going to keep the Open Forum meeting for October 2nd because the Blind Brook School District has their Open House on the same night. Superintendent stated that our Open Forum meeting has already been published. Chairman Schoen stated that we will keep that date especially since it has been published. It is scheduled for 8:OOpm but Superintendent said we could start at 8:30pm which will give the parents time to come to our meeting. Chairman Schoen asked Superintendent for a breakdown amongst the divisions of the basketball teams for the years 2005 and 2006. We need to discuss staffing and the next step with Belle Fair. Committee Member Kornblum suggested that we invite a member of the Belle Fair Homeowners Assoc. to our next basketball committee meeting. Superintendent will e-mail the basketball rules to Chairman Schoen. The basketball committee members are Superintendent Bertolacci, Committee Member Kornblum, Brian Grodin, Bill Golden and Chairman Schoen. Superintendent stated that the affect of the 2nd grade girls' basketball skill evaluation will either create more 2nd and 3rd grade boys teams or a 2nd grade girls league that we will have to schedule games and practices for and find gym space. Either way, there will be more teams. Superintendent said the Little League Committee will meet the last Wednesday of every month. This month the committee will discuss the fall travel process. We will also take a look at some of the responses from the last open forum and discuss some of the issues brought up. Chairman Schoen stated that one of the brainstorming issues that Committee Member Shaw suggested was keeping standings of the teams from the 4th grade and up. Committee Member Shaw also suggested giving a better trophy for the 1st and 2nd place team. Committee Member Finder said when you start keeping standings/stats your are putting pressure on the coaches to not play the less talented kids and they end up not getting equal time on the court. Committee Member Shaw stated that if nothing is 5 done to hold their interest we will lose the kids to CYP toward the end of the season and we won't have a full team to play the season out. This issue can be discussed at the basketball meeting. Chairman Schoen also suggested that we extend the basketball season to March and use those extra games as a playoff round. Superintendent stated that we discussed that at the end of the basketball season that instead of practices we would have games during the week. Committee Member Gutner asked if the back stops are getting done at Garibaldi Park. Superintendent stated that he just received prices and they will be working on the back stops in the next couple of weeks. Superintendent stated that he also got prices on a fence that can be put up during the spring, summer and fall and taken down for the winter. It is going to be in a sleeve so the park staff can just pull the pipes out of the ground and take down the fabric and roll it up and roll it out again in the spring. Superintendent recommended that we increase the sponsorship fee to $500.00 per team and each one of the sponsors would get a banner to put on the fence. Superintendent reported that he has an exterminator coming out to take care of the bees at Pine Ridge Park. Committee Member Finder stated that we should have defibrillators at the field and all the coaches should be trained on how to use one. The school has one and is located on the wall outside the nurse's office. Superintendent said he would talk to Police Chief Austin and find out how to go about obtaining one. V. Adjournment Chairman Schoen asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting. Committee Member Shaw made a motion to adjourn the meeting and Committee Member Finder seconded the motion and all approved. The meeting adjourned at 9:50pm. Minutes prepared by Carmella Swick 6