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Home My WebLink About2010-03-31DRC 03 -31 -2010 Page 1 of 2 • Dryden Recreation Commission Minutes of the March 31, 2010, Meeting Present: Sharon Todd, Vicki wlkins, Steve Stelick, Jason Leifer, Billie Downs, Monica Knight, Melissa Bianconi (Recreation Director), Don Scutt, Patty Millard (Recording Secretary) Excused: Eric Hicks, D Schmohe, W Martin 1. The meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m. 2. Approval of February Minutes.E G utchess made a motion to accept the minutes as corrected. M Knight 2n° all were in favor. Motion carried. D Scutt abstained since he was not at that meeting. 3. Adoption of Agenda — order changed slightly, no additions 4. Recreation Department's monthly update — M Bianconi a) The Rec Dept has been very busy this month_ Both Easter egg hunts are coming up. A Pierce went to B Downs class, Entertainment and Sports Marketing, and spoke to the students about how the Rec Dept advertises its programs. Lacrosse signups and Red Cross classes coming up. Due to a grant the Red Cross received, kids that qualify for Free or Reduced lunch do not have to pay registration fees this year. M Bianconi has been working with the school district on reciprocation for some of the work J Bush and the Highway Dept does for them. Part of that has to do with getting flyers out to students to let students and parents know about programs. Also discussed were field maintenance and transportation fees. M Bianconi is on Montgomery Park Committee. They have been working on plans, Received $2500 grant for signage to help let people know how to get to it from the main roads in Dryden. 5. Recognition of guests — Mike Lane, Tompkins County Legislature a) The Ithaca Journal ran an article today regarding Ithaca's fireworks being moved to TC3 this year. This could be a good opportunity for our community. Since there isn't a business owners' association, like in Groton, M Lane asks that the DRC consider spearheading this opportunity. Ideas were discussed. The DRC will include this on next month's agenda and see about asking Fran Benedict to the next DRC meeting. 6_ Town Board monthly update —S Stelick &J Leifer a) Nothing to report this month. Coming up will be review of grant applications now that the DRC has reviewed them and will be sending their recommendations to the Town Board after tonight's meeting. Rec Master Plan review coming up. At the school board meeting the other night, someone mentioned the town having an overabundance of money that had to be spent in a very short amount of time. This is erroneous information. There is a $2500 grant the Rec Dept has that needs to be spent, but that is it S Stelick is on the Youth Development Task Force and would like to partner with the Town. S Stelick wants to talk more to M Bianconi before committing to anything, i) Capital Reserve Fund: Has this been discussed any further? Have any decisions been made? Is there more information the Town Board needs from the DRC to move forward on this? (1) The 2011 Budget season is when more money would be planned to be put in to the Reserve. M Bianconi and S Stelick have discussed some possible scenarios for deciding how to put funds in the reserve. The Open Space Master Rec Plan will give some direction on how a capital fund would be spent and how much should be planned to be put in to it. 7. Dryden Central School District Liaison Monthly Update — B. Downs a) Spoke to L Hinkle today about providing some activities to all students whether it be skateboarding, sports, and other types of programming. Athletics: DEC field cannot be used by outside groups for a short period of time due to new sod being put down. R Boettger wanted to let everyone know he is planning a fundraiser sports and youth rec on district grounds at the high school. This summer, main goal is reformation of a booster club. Becoming more united and organized. Ways to support modified teams, 8. Community center update — M Knight a) Bethel Grove was able to put in a grant application. Waiting for grant decisions at the moment. i) Molly Adams and Gary Foote are the ones M Knight has spoken with. They had a good first meeting and had a group of people who seem eager to move forward with resurrecting the Bethel Grove Community Center. 9. Old Business a) Master Recreation ! Open Space Plan i) M Bianconi gave a summary of some of the work that has been done on the plan and asked for feedback. ii) Discussion of the plan (1) One item that seems to be missing is a community recreation venter with a large enclosed space • and full kitchen facilities. This was something that was in the Survey filled out by residents. DRC 03 -31 -2010 Page 2 of 2 (2) Miscellaneous (page 15) list senior organization here since they meet regularly and put on events. (3) Freeville Community Council should be listed as well, M Bianconi will get information on them. 10. Sub - committee Reports a) No reports this month 11. New Business a) Recreation Partnership: contract renewal is coming up in June, They just had their annual meeting last week. M Bianconi attended that. There were about 30 people in attendance and the meeting went well. The County administrator was there as well. Some good questions were raised and answered. M Bianconi will get the presentation out to the DRC. S Todd asked how other towns felt about the partnership, M Bianconi said it seems stronger now than a few years ago. The only area the Board seems concerned about at the moment is the County's participation since they provide a quarter of the funding for this set of programs. Participation numbers and budget information are in the presentation M Bianconi will be sending to DRC members. Things to talk about are: should we continue the partnership OR if we dissolve this partnership, what alternatives would or could we offer to take the place of the programs they offer. b) DRC Contact List needs to be updated — asked D Scutt, Secretary, to pull this information together c) Meeting schedule for the remainder of 2010 — 4'" Wednesday of the month seems to work, will leave the meeting scheduled for this night for the remainder of the year. d) Dryden Lake Park Festival — meeting next Wednesday at the town hall at 6:30, D Schmohe and M Knight have shored up 10 activities / events that they are suggesting take place, Most of them have someone in charge of them. Simon St. Laurent will be hosting a website for the event. That should be up soon, There will be a field trip on Saturday. At the next meeting, they will be taking the key players down to the lake to get everyone acclimated with the site. The old pavilion is being moved and a new pavilion is being built. M Knight has applied for some grants and is waiting to hear back. A fundraising golf tournament is being discussed. Things are progressing, but more help is still needed. 12. Next Meeting —April 28, 20100 7 pm at the Dryden Community Caf6 13. Old Business continued a) Community Center Grants i) There are some recommendations the DRC is making to the Board. These things deal mainly with process, There was one application on time and a couple of them were very complete. Not all Included actual estimates or how specifically town residents would benefit. Another recommendation was that the town might include in their contract that if the money wasn't spent by a certain date, it was lost. Would like to see the bills processed through the town instead of through the community centers for tax purposes. Discussed criteria for types of items or events the centers have proposed. Not to reward already completed work. Suggest some alternate sources for funding. Clearer goals on how to give award the money. Was a goal to make sure all of the centers got some money? ii) $25,000 was available to award — there was over $63000 requested. Following are the awards the DRC members are recommending the Town Board approve. They total $25,610. (1) Community Caf6 ramp — to make facility accessible $8136 (2) Etna Playground - $5374 (3) Varna repairing existing roof - $6000 (4) Ellis Hollow — bathroom floor - $2000 (5) Varna playground maintenance (existing facility) - $1200 (6) Community Caf6 freezer - $1400 (7) EI lis Hollow — sound system - $900 (8) Bethel Grove — floor maintenance - $600 iii) V Wilkins motioned, E Gutchess, 2 abstentions (D Scutt and M Knight), others voted in favor, S Todd will type up the recommendations and send them to the Town Board, 14, Adjournment — On a motion made by S Todd and seconded by M Knight, the meeting was adjourned unanimously at 8:27 pm, Respectfully Submitted Patty Millard, Recording Secretary