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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-YB-1999-07-26 ITHACA YOUTH BUREAU Board of Directors July 26, 1999 Attendance: Cathy Currier, Bill Murphy, Jim Walker Staff: Sam Cohen, Allen Green, Marilyn Hall I. The meeting was called to order by Sam Cohen at 7:05 p.m. The June and July minutes will be mailed to members and a vote for their approval taken at the September meeting. II. Special Topic— Review of FY2000 Budget The Finance Committee has met and reviewed each program in detail. Budget summary sheets were distributed for the Board's review this evening. The budget guidelines are the same as last year: 0%(which include 2%salary increases), a—3%, and optional budget(meaning that if you had something beyond 0 that you wanted to put in you could do that). • The grand total for Youth Bureau expenditures is actually $2,000 higher than 1999 with the difference explained by the way we did Recreation. The overall revenues in the proposed budget is up $3,000. • In Youth Development we used the same convention that we used last year, i.e. when a program is 100%funded outside the City we did not take 3%penalty. If we did that,that would really mean that for all the other programs they would be taking 6, 8 or 9 %cuts. After checking with the City we exempted those programs (that's part of the explanation for the slight increase). In YD when you look at the total expenditures the figures match for last year. Revenues are down by approximately$25,000. We lost money from Town of Ithaca and Village of Lansing when they pulled back from some employment work programs they were doing with us and some monies we had rolled over from a PSMP grant which came to an end. • When you look at Recreation you'll see that the 0%budget is actually higher by around $11,000 but you'll see that the revenues are higher by approximately$20,000. Recreation has obligations to the Rec Partnership and therefore we can't make cuts independently and we're expected to make a full effort this year equal to last year. We did the 0 and—3% only partly through cuts but more through revenue increases. We did come out in the City's favor when you look at the City share—it's down from$95,262 to$81,898. • When you look at Recreation Mainstreaming Services which is almost fully 100%funded, you'll see the expenditures are up slightly and the revenues are up slightly. We didn't cut back because we show revenues for those salary increases coming from the County and are hopeful we will get this money. Key item in optional budget 1. Under Youth Bureau administration totals—contractual,435: we put$15,000 in the contractual for administration to try to get help to get us fully operational and updated with all the right software and all systems go for all of our staff to move ahead with our entire computer network. Allen,Alice and Sam will be meeting to talk about all the many things they see happening with that money. We are hopeful the City will hear our plea and all the problems we've been having along with all the other departments and will take all that into consideration when they try to rebuild the computer support system. 2. Youth Development item—Allen would like to see a part-time staff person hired to help locate available funding and the goal would be that that would pay for itself This is an Julie Conley Holcomb City Clerk ITHACA YOUTH BUREAU ADVISORY BOARD Ithaca Youth Bureau Building 1 James L. Gibbs Dr. First Floor Activities Room I. Call to order/approval of minutes II. STAFF AND COMMITTEE REPORTS 1) Director • Children's Garden Open House Thursday, September 9th, 4:30-6:30 p.m. • City Planning Update • Park Planning Update • Budget Update 2) Youth Development • One to One—Big Brother Big Sister 3) Recreation Items • Recreation Partnership Update • Cass Pool—extend season • Program Updates • Club Ithaca 4) Recreation Mainstreaming Services • Program Updates IV. REPORT FROM GIAC LIAISON V. REPORT FROM SCHOOL BOARD LIAISON VI. BOARD COMMENTS/ISSUES VII. OLD BUSINESS VIII. NEW BUSINESS IX. ADJOURNMENT addition to the part-time seasonal 120 line. Bill M: do you envision a grants writer as someone who will look for new money and new programs or ways to get new money with programs that are already in place. Allen: this would help 1-1 with their fundraising efforts, and help the Computer Recycling program which has a descending grant $5,000 below what was funded in '99. We would also look for new funding for other programs. Bill M: any chance the optional budget has a good chance in passing? Sam has talked with Pat Vaughn and he feels rather than give us the computer money they will try to get us the support we need with City-wide support. Jim Walker suggests looking within the school district for grant writing and fund raising. The first step however would be to get approval from Council for paying for this position. A non-quorum vote was taken with all three members casting aye votes. III. STAFF AND COMMITTEE REPORTS 1) Director's Report • City Planning— As reported last month we had picked two people to do a preliminary proposal for City youth services planning, however, one of the two candidates has now withdrawn and we have not yet decided how to continue. • Children's Garden: Sam invited members to walk outside after the meeting this evening to view the garden. This is our second year with Lara Kimber leading the program. Lara has raised money, equipment, donations of seeds, plants, and trees to make this project a wonderful addition to the Youth Bureau. 2) Youth Development • Allen reports the Youth Conservation Corps teens have been busy modifying and upgrading playgrounds this summer. This has been a follow up maintenance project on the original wooden play structures built by teens in previous years in various locations, namely Etna, Dryden Lake, Mill Dam Park in Freeville, Montgomery Park in Village of Dryden, and the Varna Community Center. Allen attended an interesting presentation at Ithaca College led by Susan Hudson on playground safety and obtained web site address and 800 numbers for other informational material sources. The newly updated guidelines with current specifications for public playgrounds issued by the Consumer Product Safety Division were now available. We contracted with Parkitects, Inc. to do inspections and put together a list of what needed to be attended to. One of the big issues is the thickness of the surfacing materials—asphalt,rubber matting,gravel or wood chips. When we built the play structures wood chips were used and over the years they were compacted with only an inch or less in thickness. The teens have been digging up the sod and replacing it with a thicker layer of wood chips and also redoing some of the playground elements (i.e. tire swings were out of compliance). Jim Walker suggests to look at the material on the commons playground (made of recycled tires)which is very safe and enduring, 3) Recreation • Program updates will be given at the end of the season when we get all the statistics. • Long Term Park Planning—we had passed a resolution and sent it on to the Planning Committee,however, the focus now seems to be on the question of ownership and whether it would be more appropriate for the County to own the Parks since they are regional parks and are used regionally and could be supported with regional tax dollars. It is important to get the County involved early on. The County Planning Director expressed interest and Joanie Spielholz has met with two County Board members, Barbara Blanchard and Barbara Mink, who are also very enthusiastic. A meeting is being planned with Sam,Thys, Joanie, Mayor, two county board members, county planning committee member to discuss this and see if the county wants to chair a committee that would look at the long term ownership. The Rec Partnership was created to try serve all the children and families to recreate together with the tax money coming from the larger group. However, everybody notices how much the facilities cost and the City notices that they bear a large burden of that cost even though they are regional parks. We need to make sure the County is interested and has a willingness to proceed. Sam will report back on this in the September meeting. • Facilities Committee has been rescheduled to Wednesday, August 25th, from 11:30-12:45. • Club Ithaca—has been a very successful program serving over 300 teenagers per week. There are ten teenagers working every week in the program with one adult staff person overseeing it. We are faced now with the fact that we may need to find a new site since Ide's will probably be closing. Some have expressed a desire to have a more central location but all options will be considered since we are serving kids from all municipalities. Cathy C: suggested the use of Helen Newman at Cornell that houses a gym, bowling alleys and a pool. Since Club Ithaca is a summer only program perhaps we could pursue this suggestion. 4) Recreation Mainstreaming Services—no report 5) Report from GIAC Liaison— no report 6) Board Comments/Issues: • Cathy Currier raised the question since GIAC became its own department are there meetings on a regular basis? Marcia and Sam meet regularly and keep in close touch. Allen, Alice, John Doyle, Marcia, Michael and Sam met recently to discuss a variety of issues and have made plans for the fall. • Bill Murphy has asked Paulette Manos to check into skateboard park update. • There are 2 signs on the IYB building, one over the entry door, one on the side of the building, and there is a free standing wood sign being carved now. There will not be a meeting in August. Our next full meeting will be held on Monday, September 13th. Meeting adjourned at 8:30 p.m.