Recreation and Parks Committee Meeting Minutes
RECREATION & PARKS COMMITTEE
MINUTES
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
Avon Town Hall, Avon Room
Call to Order - 7:30 a.m. – By Peter Ponziani, Chairman
Attendance
1. Members & Staff Present
Ruth Checko, Director, Todd Donovan, David Jadovich, Peter Ponziani, Kelly Jackson
Members & Staff Absent
Donald Droppo
Minutes – December 17, 2015
Minutes from the December 17, 2015 meeting were presented. David Jadovich motioned to accept the minutes as presented and Todd Donovan seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.
Public Comment – None
Director’s Report - Tabled
Correspondence
Ruth Checko distributed the Approved Minutes and letter to Brandon Robertson regarding the Parameters of the Proposed
Synthetic field at High School.
Committee Communication – None
Old Business
2007 Master Plan Discussion
Ruth reported that she reached out to the company that did the last Master plan and the cost would be $9,600 to update the Master Plan that we have. Nothing is going to be done with this at this time.
Synthetic Turf Field Project
Ruth Checko told the Committee that at the last meeting Brandon has decided to stay with BSC Group for this project. He met with Eric and the new person that is taking over for Luke. The Town Council will approve the site based on the Board of Education approving it. Ruth said the project will jump to Phase II – Design and Development and this will be done pre-referendum so the public will know what they are voting on. Once Phase II is done, that would bring us to contract. The cost for the Phase II is $30,000 and will include 8 meetings and this would be the base package, infield lights, track and the alternates which are the Press Box, bleachers and one other item. A sub-committee would be formed which would include someone from the Board of Education, Tim Filon, a resident from Sudbury and one from West Avon Road as well as the Recreation and Park committee. Ruth said this phase also includes geotechnical and boring.
Todd Donovan said he would like the Press Box to be mandatory. Peter Ponziani said the sub-committee would present the information to the Town Council and they will decide. Ruth will let the committee know if there will be a meeting prior to the first sub committee meeting.
Ms. Checko said the ideal situation would be to get this done so it can go to bid when contractors are looking for work.
Tennis Court Use Policies
Ruth told committee members that a town resident called her and felt that the town should charge for the use of the tennis courts at Sycamore Hills Park. Ruth spoke with Farmington and they do charge to use their tennis courts, but they said it is very hard to police or enforce it. Ruth spoke with the Women’s Tennis group that uses the courts and they will only be using two courts Monday – Friday and one court on Saturdays in the summer. After some discussion, the committee agreed to not charge for using the tennis courts.
2015-2016 Budgets
Budgets are submitted and are currently at the Town Council level and very little has been cut.
Field Demands
BSC Group said their company could give Ruth a 3-D report on all of our field use and the cost would be $5,000. Ruth said we will do a report in-house and save the money.
Lacrosse will have one (1) game field this spring. Ruth gave them the JV game field because that particular field is going to be renovated in the fall. Grade 3-8 girls will practice and have games on this field. The field will go back to soccer in the fall.
Ruth said one baseball field will be converted to a lacrosse/soccer field. Engineering is looking into this and will shoot the grades. Paul Hoekman from Public Works has some ideas to re-configure field #2 & #4 to get more fields.
New Business
A. 2016 Summer Season
The summer season is underway in the Recreation Department. The summer program brochure will go to the printer on Friday and will be distributed to the public via The Valley Press. Registration for summer programs begins April 21.
The return forms for summer 2015 staff are due back in the Recreation office on March 8. New applications close April 8, 2016.
Members
The Recreation and Park Committee is still in need of another new member. The Town Council is working on this.
Senior Center Projects
Many new items have been purchased for the Senior Center including a new television, new handicapped accessible doors for the front of the building and new lighting. Ruth is getting estimates for painting.
Ruth is also getting estimates on the roof at the Sycamore Hills Pavilion.
Approval of advertising signs for Buckingham Baseball field
Committee members reviewed the signs that have been submitted for approval. Bob Emery is asking the committee to waive the sign fees for AHS Baseball, AHS Championship sign and the Home of the Falcons sign. Todd Donovan felt it would be okay to waive the sign fee, but the maintenance fees would have to be incurred by the high school. Ruth said she would let them know that the fees will be waived but the signs are subject to all policies. Signs will stay up year round.
David suggested contacting the sponsors to tell them to put more information on the signs. Some were missing contact information. After some discussion, Todd Donovan motioned to approve the fee waivers and the signs presented. David Jadovich seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.
V. Adjournment
A. Todd Donovan motioned to adjourn the meeting at 8:10 am. Kelly Jackson seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.
Respectfully Submitted by Sharon Brummert
Sharon Brummert
Sharon Brummert
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