Town of Hampden
Regular Meeting of
Parks & Recreation Commission
7:00PM at the Hampden Town Hall
June 13, 2002
Approved: June 27, 2002
Board members: Glennice Flynn, Chris McDonald and Jim Morris
Others: Jay Fenlason, Director; Sue Gorman, Clerk
The meeting was called to order at 7:10 P.M.
The meeting minutes were approved from the May 23, 2002 meeting after corrections were made under the FYI section. Chris made a motion to allow and approve the minutes after the corrections were made with a second from Glennice. The vote was unanimous with all in favor.
New sand will be spread on June 14,2002. Mike D’Amours will be patching the wall cracks with hydraulic cement. Trench will be backfilled. There is a small leak in by the set tub that Jay will call Tom McLaughlin to check. There still is no opening date. The board requested the lifeguards names and telephone numbers in case the pool area was not properly locked up.
This committee will be chaired by Chris McDonald, which will consist of ten people. The committee is as follows: Rick Willis, Terri Miodonka, Darcy Walulak, Mike D'Agostino, John Flynn, Jay Fenlason, Chris McDonald, Ed Pessolano, Tina Albano and Tom Crogan. Chris will notify the committee members that they will try to meet by the end of July, which will allow them some time to read over policies from local towns prior to the first meeting. John suggested checking with the PRA and the NPRA to obtain information on there policies. Chris would like to begin discussing:
1) Employee responsibility and job description
2) Facility usage
3) Equipment usage
4) Bill payment
The Fall Festival is planned for September 28,2002. Many volunteers are needed. The average attendance is approximately 3500. Glennice would like to see more advertising. John suggested bringing in more events such as karate or music etc. Jim would like to see local entertainment. The committees will be as follows:
Food vendors--------------------------Jim Morris Arts and Crafts------------------------Glennice Flynn Set up, clean up and parking--------Jay Fenlason Service Groups------------------------Chris McDonald Fun Run--------------------------------Tom Crogan, Rick Green and John Donaruma Games----------------------------------TBD T Shirts --------------------------------Jim MorrisGlennice will check into a possible Quilt Show to be displayed under the pavilion
The applications for the summer activities program are coming in steadily for all weeks Advertising in the Reminder will be done weekly. Could a banner be put up to also advertise for registration? The counselor and CIT training session will be held on Saturday June 15,2002. A lifeguard training is planned for Tuesday June 18,2002. Glennice is going to take care of the children that qualify for the scholarship program. This usually involves 3-5 children per year. Staff and camp tee shirts are in and lifeguard bathing suits have been ordered. The buildings have been cleaned out and will soon be painted. Some of the supplies for the bathhouse and camp have been purchased.
The next movie night is scheduled for Friday June 21,2002 at dusk (approx. 8:00 P.M.). Planned for this evening is a Scooby Doo film festival. Tom, Jim and Kathy will take care of this evening.
Soccer evaluations were held and three children did not attend. This automatically puts them on the B team. There still seems to be a problem with the numbers for U-14B and U-9G. The new goals that were purchased need to be disassembled for storage.
*Barbara Rose walked in to the meeting at 8:30 P.M. to complain about unacceptable behavior she just witnessed at her sons baseball game against an East Longmeadow team. She felt that that they showed terrible sportsmanship. More importantly it was the coaches son who was swearing. John asked her to put it all in writing so he could bring it to the Tri Town meeting at the end of June.
Accident reports need to be filled out in a timely manner when there are injuries. Art Ferrara had a child in T-ball break a leg and the report has not yet been received There needs to be a policy for coaches that all information pertaining to the health of the kids should be kept in the first aid boxes and be with the coach at all times. This health information should be on the signup forms. This policy needs to be reviewed by RAH. Dana and his crew did some work on the softball field. They did a good job and the field looks good. The fields need to be kept up and rototilled in the fall. Field maintenance also needs to done on the soccer fields. Spaces need to be filled in. The midfield is low and the modified has low spots. A load of loam is needed. Medallions were ordered for baseball and softball. Could this be dropped in the future? Is it a waste of money? Let the coaches decide if they want to hand out tokens for their own team.
John reported that the All Star Game is scheduled for June 22,2002. The season will be ending the end of July.
Chris wondered why there was a charge for use of the park. This covers the cost incurred for cleaning. Non-profit groups such as the boy scouts or sports teams are not charged a fee. Jay will open and close the facilities for June 16 and 17th. Sue will take care of June 29 and 30.
Chris wanted to clarify purchasing procedures. Who is authorized to spend? Glennice noted the board has permission along with Jay, Sue and Dana. For large purchases the bidding process of obtaining three bids is enforced. Chris questioned many previous expenditures such as: the purchase of soccer uniforms that were not a good quality, $1,000.00 paid to Cindy Coughlin a former employee, overtime money spent for work on fields (Dana’s crew only are able to work overtime for us) and money spent on flowers for board members. He felt these issues should be discussed at board meetings and that the money should be earmarked for the kids and their programs. Glennice agreed that these issues should and do get brought up at meetings however with the board meeting every other week sometimes decisions are needed prior to such as field prep so the kids can have there games (parents had complained that fields were in poor condition). All of the above issues were ongoing and had been discussed several times. All of this should be clarified in the policy and procedures. The selectmen have a report by The Tabor Study for guidelines of positions and policies.
Chris had information for sprinklers for the TWB field. It would be $1181.00 for a self propelled sprinkler plus $1000.00 for a hose that would spread 11-22 gals of water per minute. This would cover half of the field. Other smaller sprinklers were $150.00-200.00. Jay is going to check on the power to make sure it would be sufficient to operate the system. Jay is also going to check with Longmeadow C.C. to find out if there is a local company that sells irrigation equipment.
Jay asked that Park and Rec donate $5,000.00 towards the new gym floor at TWB. Jim wanted to know how this would leave all the teams for the future Jay said that all of the teams are set. Chris felt Park and Rec needed to support this especially since donations are coming from others in town. Chris also suggested a 50/50 raffle at the Fall Festival. Glennice made a motion to commit $5,000.00 to the gym floor with a second made by Jim. All were in favor.
The summer vacation schedule is as follows and will be posted down at the park:
Jay-----------June23 – July 2 Jim-----------June 30 –July 13 Glennice----Month of July Chris--------July 15-July 19 and August 12—August 23 Tom---------July 15-July 19 Kathleen----July 29-Aug 3
Chris was unable to locate other information on steel telephone boxes. The paperwork he had was for the aluminum box. It was agreed that this phone would be used for 911 calls only and would require a special line. Poulin would need to install this. Glennice made a motion to install this box with a second from Chris. All voted in favor to install.
The police have requested $1,500.00 for the summer golf program for kids. Glennice made a motion to appropriate $1,500.00 with a second from Chris. All voted in favor.
The boys that have sent letters wishing to have a skateboard park will be invited to attend the next meeting at 7:30 to speak to the board. Jim will call to invite them.
June 27, 2002 Thursday at 7:00 P.M.
Meeting adjourned at 10:30 P.M.
Respectfully submitted:
Sue Gorman, Clerk