Recreation and Parks Committee Meeting Minutes
RECREATION & PARK COMMITTEE
MINUTES
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
Avon Town Hall, Conference Room, Building 7
Call to Order - 7:30 a.m. – By Peter Ponziani, Chairman
A. Attendance
1. Members & Staff Present
Ruth Checko, Director, Donald Droppo, David Jadovich, Paul Marioni and Peter Ponziani
Members & Staff Absent
Minutes – September 24, 2014
After reviewing the minutes from the September 24, 2015 meeting, David Jadovich motioned to accept the minutes as presented and David Jadovich seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.
Public Comment – None
IV. Director’s Report
Budget
Ruth Checko reported that she and the staff worked extremely hard on the Department’s budget requests; it was definitely a group effort considering her length of employment at that point. Goals and objectives were established, and efficiencies and areas of inefficiencies were identified.
In the 01 budget; personal services came in with a 6.99% reduction this included covering steps and minimum wage increases. We funded the designing, printing and distributing 3 brochures without an increase by moving around funding requests.
Programs
Ruth reported that there is a new summer brochure money was reallocated from within to do this. It is fully funded in the next fiscal year. It has been very well received by residents as well as other Farmington Valley residents. We have created a new time line in order to produce 3 brochures a year. Our next brochure will go out on August 27 for the fall and the winter brochure will only be available online, and we will not print it. We have also launched a Facebook page as part of our social media plan.
Ms. Checko said she hired a sports coordinator to run the Youth Basketball League. The YBB numbers were down considerably this year. We also concluded that the program has been running in the red for the past few years. We made some staffing/contractor reductions this season, bringing some age groups “in-house” with our own staff running them. Next year we will reduce that further and reduce the numbers of referees that we hire. We are also going to try to consolidate schools used on Saturdays to bring down custodial costs.
We generated a good profit from our Ski Sun down programs. Based on enrollment numbers we consolidated two nights into one and eliminated the cost of one entire bus for the season ($4100). In addition, by doing this every body over 35 was profit. Additional savings came in hiring chaperones at $15 per hour instead of paying Bonnie $35 an hour to chaperone. It worked out very well and the new staff did a great job.
New Programs offerings include sewing, parent’s night out, pickle ball, archery, DEEP Family Fishing program, bus trips, cooking, and a Counselor in Training Program.
The Avon Day Camp only netted $1600 last season. The entire camp has been restructured. We have reduced expenses in the running of that program. The reduction in personal services in this account was 9.05%. We divided the camp into three age groups: Pee Wee for ages 3 ½ - 5, Fun Camp for grades 1-3 and Discovery Camp for grades 4-6. The reasoning was for a more developmentally appropriate curriculum for campers and age appropriate field trips. By the time the brochure went to print, all themes, field trips and entertainment were in place. When a parent opens our brochure they know what each week has to offer. The older kids will walk or be bused to the pool 4 afternoons each week and the younger ones will be bused 2 afternoons each week.
Senior Center
Ruth said she and the staff have been working with the Senior Center Coordinator on the programming philosophy. We are trying to update the image of the center through our approach to programming. Instead of programming directed to seniors we are calling them “Adult, Boomer and Senior Programs”. We have been losing money on a lot of the programs for a variety of reasons but we are working toward cleaning that up. I meet with the Coordinator twice a week and include her in our quarterly staff meetings.
As part of our strategy to update the center’s image we are planning several community oriented programs to be held in the Community Room.
November: “Help your Neighbor Fair”
December: Parents Night Out
January: Chili Cook off for Middle School Ages
July: Family Fun night –eventually expand to community room
Pool
As far as the pool, Ms. Checko said that the pool is not losing money so we didn’t analyze this division too much. The aquatics staff is very anxious to make expand offerings but I have asked them to give me 1 full season of observing the operations and we’ll shake it up for next season.
One area she did change was the way the lifeguards were paid when they were teaching or coaching swim team. They have been moved from contractual employees to payroll employees.
The Director anticipates the funding of a very large Capital Improvement Project in FY2016 for Sycamore Park. Public Works replaced the Pergola and may re-point the stone wall in-house. Ms. Checko said the pool needs new coping, tiling, and painting and there is possible damage to the bond beam. She started working on the bid package for pool restoration and getting estimates for the equipment we are going to replace. She will put this out to bid this summer and the bid will be signed by September 8, 2015 and construction will start by 9/15, then it will be buttoned up for the fall. Next spring the pool will then be acid washed and should be set to go. Ruth said she is meeting with a pool contractor this afternoon to discuss this.
09 Account
Ms. Checko said she believes we have been putting too much pressure on this account to offset General Fund Budget. The Fund Balance to date is $49,663 as of 3/2015. After the budget was submitted we realized that in the 09 recreation activities account services-other instructors, contractors, catch all, the 2014 budgeted amount was $140,000 the actual was $177,000; $38,000 was transferred into this account to cover the overage. So not only are we running over in this fiscal year, we only requested $141, 000 for the 2016 FY.
Parks
Ruth said she met with the Athletic Director and BB Coach on improvements to Buckingham baseball field. We are going to run power to scoreboards and around to the outer first base line. We plan to move the shed, install a batting cage and replace the team benches with dugouts. The BB coach spearheaded a fund raiser and it was agreed that they would use that money to fund a press box behind home plate.
Peter asked if the dugouts will be put in this summer. Ruth said she and Bruce differ on the material for the dugouts. Ruth suggested pre-fab buildings and Bruce wants pre-cast concrete, however, the cost for the pre-cast concrete is much more than the pre-fab buildings. The Committee agreed that the pre-fab buildings would be best. Ruth said the funding is in place for July 1 and the dug outs would be in place in spring of 2016.
The Advertising signs are also an extension to that fundraiser effort but won’t start until next year.
The Public Works Department and Ms. Checko have agreed to only place dumpsters at Sperry Park, Countryside Park, and Sycamore Park Pool. There will no longer be dumpsters at Buckingham or Fisher Meadows due to excessive dumping and abuse by residents.
Sports leagues and fields
Ruth said all permits are issued for the spring sporting season; she is just waiting for the fields to be playable. Public Works is ready to go, it’s just a matter of when.
V. Correspondence - None
VI. Committee Communication – Don Droppo said he thought it was interesting that the issue of looking at Avon High School again for the athletic fields came up. David Jadovich said that the Town is just doing due diligence to look at it again to make absolutely sure that the fields cannot be done at the high school.
Old Business –
Advertising Policy – Ruth said she was asked by a resident to look into signage at Buckingham Park. Ruth handed out details of the Town of Avon Athletic Fields Advertising Program and gave a brief overview of that issue and said the Town Attorney said one of the biggest issues was the First Amendment. Ruth said Planning and Zoning controls any signage that is visible from the road. The Committee reviewed the guidelines for the advertising and after much discussion the Don Droppo motioned to approve the guidelines with the recommendations that Avon businesses have preference and it would be on a first come, first served basis. David Jadovich seconded the motion and all committee members were in favor, but Paul Marioni opposed the motion. Mr. Marioni said he agrees with the guidelines for signage at Buckingham but is opposed to changing it at Sperry Park.
VIII. New Business
A. 2007 Recreation Master Plan Discussion
Ruth said the Master Plan was created in 2007 and she asked the committee what the process is for keeping this current and up to date. Peter Ponziani said we just update it and see what we feel needs to change. Ruth said she will look at it again with a fresh set of eyes and see what she thinks needs to be changed and/or updated.
B. Outlook 2015 Summer Season
Ms. Checko said summer job applications closed on April 6 and the staff trainings have all been set up for the summer. She said the Program Coordinator will be off for the summer and Ruth will be more involved with the camp and the pool.
Peter Ponziani gave an update on the Thompson Road Athletic Complex Project and a hard copy of portions of the presentation were given to committee members along with a Conceptual Budgetary Cost Estimate. Todd Donovan did express concern over not having the sidewalks lit along Thompson Road and the fact that after games, people will be walking back to their cars at Thompson Brook School in the dark.
C. Synthetic Turf Field Project – Avon High School
Ruth said the high school will be looked at again to see if the new athletic fields can be done there. There is a meeting on Tuesday, April 14, 2015 of the special sub-committee for this project and she should have some more answers at the next Recreation and Parks Committee meeting and then we would be able to make the final recommendations to the Town Council. Peter Ponziani said then the Town Council will make the final recommendation as to where the fields will go. The questions came up as to when this project would go to referendum. Ms. Checko said the Presidential Election, Bonding and budget calendar would all play into the referendum timeline. Mr. Ponziani asked Ruth the check with Brandon to see if he had an estimate of when the referendum would be held.
IX. Adjournment
A. Donald Droppo motioned to adjourn the meeting at 8:30 am. Paul Marioni seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.
Respectfully Submitted by Sharon Brummert
Sharon Brummert
Sharon Brummert
N:\Recreation\Rec. & Park Committee\Minutes\Minutes April 7, 2015.doc