Recreation & Community Services Commission

RECREATION & COMMUNITY SERVICES COMMISSION December 19, 2019 MEETING 6 PM MINUTES RECREATION & COMMUNITY SERVICES COMMISSION – In attendance: Ed Dypa, Lincoln Everest, Anthony Jaskot, Susan Laribee, Winfred Lee, Philip Pessina, Salvatore Uccello Absent: Mary Bartolotta, Akbar Coffy, Matt Fraulino Staff: Cathy Lechowicz, Director AGENDA: Call Meeting to Order: Meeting called to order at 6pm. Approval of the Minutes: Tony Jaskot, made a motion to approve the minutes, Sue Laribee seconded. Unanimously approved. Public Hearing: No Comments Department Reports: Building Updates - Envelope specialist (Hoffman Architects) who provided the initial report will be engaged to provide project management going forward. It is expected to go out to bid in the New Year and begin work in the spring. - Geothermal upgrades will be moving forward. John Sima, a geothermal expert who has been assisting with the project, submitted an invoice to begin work on the system. It may need to wait until the weather is more moderate, but we are in good shape moving forward. - It appears that each of these projects should be completed by summer. Program Updates Senior division - Holiday programming scheduled for most of the month, including a week long holiday extravaganza and senior bus trips to holiday themed events around the state. - On January 16th, we will be hosting the Mayor for an afternoon to meet with seniors, he will be working from the center that afternoon and available to our members. - Anniversary Celebration for the 5th year in our building on Dec. 20th. Mayor, our commission chair – Phil Pessina, and Cathy Lechowicz will give remarks. Recreation Division - Christmas Toy Drive 2019 in full swing, toys are still being donated and there are still calls coming to assist underserved children in Middletown. It is projected that we will serve around 375. 80 businesses and individuals donated gifts this year and we raised $1,961. We appreciate the incredible generosity of our community. - The skating rink is open in its new location at Veteran’s Park. It is beautiful and less windy. A birthday party rental for thirty people this past weekend for an hour before the rink opened. There will be signage added by Public Works directing people to the park. Open Saturday and Sunday from 12-4pm, last Saturday of the month the rink is open from 12-7pm. - Unified Theater is one of our signature programs, it is a theater program for children of all abilities. Typical children and children with atypical needs write, create, and perform in a show for the general public on January 30 & 31, as well as February 1st at 7pm at Middletown High School. This year’s title will be “Dear Journal.” OLD BUSINESS: - Minimum Wage – went up October 1st. Cathy Lechowicz put it on the radar of the new administration. We will absorb the change through the end of the fiscal year. We will be including this in the next budget season as an increase. - National Fitness Campaign Fitness Court in collaboration with Wesleyan. Public Works is the lead. We will add a circuit training court geared to community adults, which will vary our offerings. Recreation will give instructional information sessions at the site, getting people comfortable using the park. The location will be near the corner of Wadsworth St. and Long Lane on city property (there is a bench and plaque at the site currently). - Veteran’s Pool – there is a significant need for the pool to be upgraded. It is very likely that the pool will remain open this summer with some patches allowing it to be operational. Public Works is working with Malone and McBroom to look at the site as a whole, including the installation of a splash pad and the reimagining of the parking lot on site. - Crystal Lake is an underutilized resource. The camp building on the site is in great need of repair. This will be on the Public Works upcoming agenda for consideration. It is related to the work on Veteran’s Pool, when the repairs at the pool happen, it is likely they will have to close the pool for a summer. Upon finishing the building at Crystal Lake, it will make the lake better equipped to receive the public, in place of the pool. The repairs will also help the Recreation Department serve families, as there has been less access to the schools due to construction and school programs. Having a non-school site serving more children would be helpful. Funding for the project is already sent aside in the Parks Bond. NEW BUSINESS: - Meeting dates for 2020 were reviewed and meetings remain on the third Thursday of the month at 6:00 p.m. Motion to accept passed. - Senior Grants spending went through finance and spending, as well as the Common Council. We have a textile recycling bin on the property and our center receives a portion of the proceeds from the company providing the service, which contributes to meeting our general fund expectation. As we received the first check, we worked with finance to find an account to deposit the check. In the process, $3,000 was discovered. Our director knew nothing this account from circa 2009. The funds were donated to us through Liberty Bank with the intention of supporting community seniors in need. The Finance and the Senior Center staff decided that purchasing gift cards to Stop & Shop and Middletown Area Transit would be most helpful to our seniors. Food and transportation are two of the biggest needs our seniors face. Our Municipal Agent meets with seniors and assesses their needs. Because of this fund, she could give $50 - $100 of these gift cards to patrons found to have an acute need. - Recreation Grant RFP’s information has been distributed, we will be receiving applications and then enter the selection process. This should be finalized by July. When our office has the applications, they will be brought to the next commission meeting for review in either January or February. - Money to fund programs has been cut from our budget in the past by about $20,000. There was a discussion of how to increase the funding for both departments. Members of the Commission would like to restore funding to the grant funding for team/league applications. Members of the commission also feel there are many seniors in our programs and there is always more we can do. We are experiencing an increase in the senior population, as baby boomers have joined their ranks. Cathy Lechowicz did caution that the mayor’s first budget cycle is 6 weeks after election and that it might be too soon to make any changes at this point. MISCELLANEOUS: No comments. ADJOURNMENT: Ed Dypa made a motion to adjourn at 6:59 pm; Lincoln Everest seconded. All in favor.