Pottstown Area Regional Recreation Committee

PARRC Meeting Minutes August 24, 2021 a Hybrid Meeting In Attendance: Michael Lenhart, Borough of Pottstown Bill Keohane, Lower Pottsgrove Township Craig Colistra, PAHWF Bill Deguffroy, Community Planner, CCPC Charlie Valentine, West Pottsgrove Township Tim Konetchy, Community Planner, MCPC Cathy Paretti, Upper Pottsgrove Township Alyssa DeFlavia, PAHWF Intern Jay Erb, North Coventry Township Tricia McCloskey, PARRC Planner Karen Nocella, East Coventry Township Meeting notes: 1. Call to Order – 4:35pm. Pledge of Allegiance. 2. Introductions were made- Bill Deguffroy of Chester County Planning Commission was introduced himself and the group did a round of introductions. 3. Meeting minutes from July 28, 2021, were corrected as to approval of June minutes rather than May minutes, with K. Nocella, M. Lenhart and B. Keohane abstaining. July minutes were motioned for approval by B. Keohane and seconded by J. Erb. All approved with no abstentions. 4. Executive and Subcommittee Reports. Treasurer’s Report: C. Paretti sent the Treasurer’s Report prior to the meeting. C. Paretti stated that the checks are going out and the next ones are due in March. A discussion was held regarding earning interest on the funds in the checking account. C. Paretti indicated that she could move $25,000 to the savings account to earn some interest. B. Keohane agreed that this was a good idea and suggested that a 6-month CD may return higher interest. There was also discussion about changing the name from Circuit Rider payments to another name since there is no longer a Circuit Rider program. C. Paretti indicated she will discuss this with Michelle Thompson at SRGA. C. Colistra indicated that in the future he could cut his check directly to PARRC so PARRC can earn interest before the payment is made to SRGA. After further group discussion, a motion was made by B. Keohane to move $20,000 to a 6-month CD pending the Treasurer’s approval of the terms of the bank, and to move $5,000 from checking to savings. C. Valentine seconded the motion. All approved with no abstentions. • Events Subcommittee: J. Erb stated that T. McCloskey prepared a spreadsheet that included events for the PARRC municipalities. After he and K. Nocella discussed it, they would like T. McCloskey to add another column to the sheet that includes whether the event is a municipally-sponsored events or if the event or not. T. McCloskey indicated that she would do this. J. Erb indicated that after that is complete, all the municipalities can review and edit the list for completeness. K. Nocella reported on the Fall Festival and indicated that she and T. McCloskey had discussed this with the East Coventry Park and Open Space Committee last night and they were generally supportive of the concept of having the festival hosted by PARRC. There are concerns about turnout, parking and COVID. K. Nocella indicated this may be a good test to see how many people show up for PARRC-sponsored events. The date for the festival is set for October 30th and can be advertised on PARRC’s Facebook page, the PARRC website and the PARRC member websites. C. Colistra stated that having a volunteer/s ask for attendees’ zip codes may be a good way to collect data on where attendees are traveling from. K. Nocella and T. McCloskey will discuss event details. 1  • Financial Sustainability Subcommittee. M. Lenhart indicated that no meeting has been held since the last meeting. M. Lenhart indicated that they are still trying to identify a trail project that can be used to apply for funds wherein PARRC would be the applicant and manage the grant and project to completion. T. McCloskey asked for clarification on the objective of this and M. Lenhart indicated it was to demonstrate that PARRC has the ability to successfully manage a grant and project to assist with asking for funds from larger organizations such as the Penn Foundation. C. Colistra indicate that he and Michael Lane had developed a PowerPoint presentation of 4 trail section projects from the DVRPC study that could be done simultaneously. M. Lenhart indicated they would review North Coventry’s project to see if its viable. 5. Planner’s Report. T. McCloskey reviewed her activity for the last month. She indicated she spent time working with A. DeFlavia on Facebook posts, the newsletter and minor website edits. She continues to work on the Standard Operating Procedures manual including DEI policy. T. McCloskey submitted two LOIs to PAHWF, for Pottstown Borough and Lower Pottsgrove. She has been working on the Shared Schoolyards program with East Coventry and Upper Pottsgrove and the two school districts. 6. Old Business a. Intern’s Update. A. DeFlavia stated she has is continuing to post up to three Facebook posts per week on the PARRC page. She has also completed a draft Marketing Plan and sent it to T. McCloskey for review. C. Colistra indicated that Gina’s last day was yesterday and that she was only able to collect data for about 50-60% of the parks, and accidentally deleted some data. C. Colistra indicated he needs to determine other ways to collect data about park use in the region. b. Strategic Plan Tactics: Subcommittees • M. Lenhart indicated that the PARRC has set up the subcommittee according to the Strategic Plan schedule. He indicated that the DEI subcommittee is next to be set up and should be set up by December. T. McCloskey indicated she has been in the process of gathering DEI policy information from other organizations such as NRPA and DCNR and J. Erb suggested the Audubon Society as well. met and discussed future funding. B. Keohane asked that T. McCloskey share her data so far with the group. c. PARRC Future Meetings/Format and Location. M. Lenhart indicated that we must have a physical quorum for the PARRC meetings but that the hybrid meeting should be an option. He indicated that we should keep the Borough as the meeting location until the end of the year and then we don’t have to readvertise it. A comment was made by B. Keohane that an item needs to be added to the agenda next month regarding the status of previous action items. T. McCloskey indicated that she can add this to the agenda for next month. 7. New Business: a. Sharing Schoolyards Grants/Projects. K. Nocella stated that T. McCloskey prepared a 10-page PowerPoint about the East Coventry project with OJR/East Coventry Elementary School with sketch plans and an itemized list of estimated project costs for the $12,500 grant they got from the Tri-county Community Network. K. Nocella indicated that after the costs are firmed up, the PowerPoint can be sent to Jackie Krumrine at OJR for her review. C. Paretti reported on the status of Upper Pottsgrove’s Shared Schoolyards project with Pottsgrove Middle School. She stated that a meeting was held on Monday that she attended together with Greg Churach, Gary DeRenza and T. McCloskey to look at the proposed trail alignment and road crossings. She indicated that the township is working on the Master Plan for Hollenbach Park across the street from the middle school and that this will need to be coordinated with the school trail project. C. Paretti indicated that a future connectivity goal would be to connect down to 2  Pottsgrove High School. T. McCloskey commented that she was glad to have had the opportunity to meet with Gary from the school district and was excited to see that school district seems to be supportive of the project. C. Colistra stated that the Shared Schoolyards Project will be presented at the October PMRPC meeting. b. PARRC Newsletter and Email List. A. DeFlavia shared her screen and presented the draft newsletter to the Committee. T. McCloskey stated that she and Alyssa thought a newsletter might be another way to get PARRC’s name out to the public and show what we do. A. DeFlavia explained the project and park focus articles, and that it was prepared on the Wix platform where the PARRC website is housed, and that so far, it seems to be free. M. Lenhart indicated he thought the newsletter was a good idea, and a good way to show accomplishments to the public. T. McCloskey indicated that we would not move forward with the newsletter without the Committee’s approval. The consensus was that the newsletter was a good idea and that it should move forward. c. PARRC Events. M. Lenhart indicated that the Pet Fair is coming up on September 11th. C. Paretti discussed events happening at the Island in Memorial Park and that she will send T. McCloskey the flyer with the details. J. Erb indicated that on 11/6, the township will have its bonfire in Coventry Woods. C. Paretti also said to talk to Ken Hamilton about upcoming events at the Arboretum and that they have a Gala-type event as a fundraiser. B. Keohane shared that Lower Pottsgrove Township’s Community Day is tentatively scheduled for October 16th but may be cancelled due to COVID concerns. 8. Grant Announcements – a. Giant/Healing the Planet Program. T. McCloskey indicated no awards were received for the four applicants and that mostly non-profits were awarded funds. b. PECO Green Region: T. McCloskey stated that she is working on two applications; one for Upper Pottsgrove in Sussell Park for tree-replanting and one for East Coventry Township for boardwalk construction. She and K. Nocella will have a site visit to firm this scope up due to potential wetlands concerns. J. Erb asked T. McCloskey if North Coventry could submit an application for the Nature Based Playground and T. McCloskey stated she did not think this would be as strong an application as others. c. PMRPC: T. Konetchy stated that the opening date for the PMRPC grant program will be September 1st and the due date will be October 31st. He reviewed the open PMRPC grants, which include 1 for Upper Pottsgrove, 1 in West Pottsgrove and two in Douglass Township. T. McCloskey indicated she will follow up with Douglass to see what the status of the ADA pathway improvements are. 9. Partner Updates • Douglass – Not present. • East Coventry – K. Nocella stated that the tree planting along the Pigeon Creek in Ellis Woods Park is set for September 26th, and the Fall Festival is set for October 30th. • Lower Pottsgrove – B. Keohane stated that the bids for the Gerald Richards Park improvements project are due September 2nd, and that according to E. Wagner, $625,000 in American Rescue Plan funds were received and a portion of this can be spent on parks and recreation projects. • North Coventry – No updates. • Pottstown Borough – M. Lenhart asked if any township has worked with an arborist can they please forward the information to him because the Borough is in need of one. He also shared that the playground relocation project in Memorial Park is underway and that it will be moved 200’ from its original location and about 3’ higher in elevation which should reduce the impact of flooding on the playground. Curry Grove, the same contractor for the installation will handle the relocation. The surface will be engineered wood fiber. 3  • Upper Pottsgrove –C. Paretti indicated that 42 dead ash trees have been removed from Sussell Park and the township is now working on a plan for the overall ash tree situation in the township and trying to identify high, medium and low priority areas/trees for removal. • West Pottsgrove – There will be a bridge dedication at High and Grosstown Road tomorrow at 1pm. • MCPC-T. Konetchy indicated the PMRPC meeting is tonight at 7pm. • PAHWF – C. Colistra reported the LOIs were reviewed for Lower Pottsgrove and Pottstown Borough and both were approved to move forward to the grant stage. A training for the grant application is scheduled and T. McCloskey will receive an email about it. • CCPC – Not B. Deguffroy indicated he was glad to hear about all the great projects going on the PARRC region. The Vision Partnership Program is now underway and applications are due September 24th. 10. Public Comment – none. T. McCloskey asked a question posed to her by E. Batdorf from North Coventry regarding the use of portable outdoor tower lights on playing fields, to be used after the park is technically closed for the evening. A request has been made of the township by a sports club to use such lights until October. M. Lenhart indicated that the Borough has an ordinance that indicates the Park and Recreation Department can use their discretion about allowing variances to the park hours and lighting requirements. 11. Action items – None 12. Next PARRC Meeting Agenda items – Please send to T. McCloskey. The next meeting is September 22, 2021, at 4:30pm. It will be at Borough Hall Council Chambers and a Zoom on-line link will also be provided. 13. Adjournment – A Motion to Adjourn was made by C. Paretti and seconded by K. Nocella, meeting adjourned at 6:28pm. Recorder: T. McCloskey 2021 Meeting Schedule (All meetings to be held at 4:30 PM at Pottstown Borough Hall, 100 East High Street, 3rd floor, Pottstown, PA 19464 unless otherwise noted): January 27 February 24 March 24 April 28 May 26 June 23 July 28 August 25 September 22 October 27 December 1 Next Meeting: September 22, 2021 Location: Hybrid Meeting: in person-Borough Hall, 4:30pm, Zoom link to be provided on PARRC website 4