HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-06-24DRYC
June 24th, 2015
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Dryden Recreation and Youth Commission
June 24, 2015
Members Present: Stephanie Mulinos (Chair), Judy Sinicropi, David Bravo-Cullen,
Diane Pamel, Kathy Servoss and Rick Ryan
Youth Services Coordinator: Kris Bennett
Town Hall Staff: Jennifer Jones, Recreation Director
Liaisons Present: Joe Solomon (Town Board)
Guests: Nikki Nease, Shelly Lester
The meeting was called to order at 7:00PM.
Review and Approval of minutes from April 22, 2015:
D. Pamel moved to approve the minutes, D. Bravo-Cullen seconded and the minutes
were unanimously approved.
Minutes from May did not require approval due to a lack of quorum.
Town Board Liaison Report: Joe Solomon
The Town Board appreciated the presentation by Diane Pamel at last month’s meeting.
He did not have anything else to report in relation to the DRYC.
Volunteers for the Committees proposed by the Conservation Board:
Trail Maintenance Committee: David Bravo-Cullen is interested in participating.
Trail to Rail Steering Committee: Stephanie Mulinos, David Bravo-Cullen and Judy
Sinicropi all expressed interest in joining this committee.
Youth Development via Cooperative Extension:
It appears that Dryden’s share of the Cooperative Extension’s budget increase will be
$10,980
Discussion regarding the use of Dryden Central High School:
The School charges $10/hour to have someone open the building (facility use fee) and
$12/hour for use (staff fee). Each time the high school gym is opened for the Town, it
costs the Town $22/hour. The Town staff cannot even access the storage facility that
contains Town sporting equipment.
The fields cost the Town $150 per season.
In another Town, the school allows the recreation department to use the building
without the supervision fee (staff fee) which reduces the cost.
The Commission decided that Jennifer Jones will keep in contact with Brian Ford (at
DCS) and David Bravo-Cullen will attempt to contact those that he knows on the
School Board to discuss the usage policy.
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Nikki Nease: Rural Youth Services
Report attached
Ms. Nease joined the Commission to share her bi-monthly report in person.
Shelley Lester: Cooperative Extension
Report attached
Ms. Lester is going to work on developing a percentage increase in her budget request
for Youth Services so J. Jones can put together her budget for the Town.
The County budget is contributing $31,337 and the State contribution is very small
($3,207).
Alternative Park Option:
The Commission has discussed this topic in the past. They are interested in
considering alternate locations that may be more feasible than the current Park Plan.
Kathy Servoss offered the following resolution to the Town Board:
Whereas, the 2011 Recreation Master Plan and 2005 Town Comprehensive Plan both
identified the need for increased outdoor leisure and recreational space; and
Whereas, the most recent needs assessment conducted by the Dryden Recreation and
Youth Commission identified several areas of needs, including a safe place for youth to
congregate and recreate; and
Whereas, the plan developed by Must Have Play in 2013 is financially outdated,
making its viability questionable; and
Whereas, the current Recreation and Youth Commission believes the property owned by
the town and previously identified as a potential site for a town park is not
geographically or financially ideal; and
Whereas, the Commission believes there may be an alternative location better suited to
serve the needs of the community;
Therefore, be it resolved, the Dryden Recreation and Youth Commission requests the
Town Board’s permission to consider potential alternate sites for future recreational
facilities.
The motion was seconded by Rick Ryan and unanimously approved.
Cl Joe Solomon recommended the Commission review the Recreation Master Plan and
begin working through the goals and objectives. That will provide support for their
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June 24th, 2015
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resolution. And it will work well with the Comprehensive Plan review that is being
conducted by the Planning Board.
Program Monitoring:
Does a program have a particular goal that can be assessed?
Using the goals from their application, did they meet those goals?
Is this a quality community event?
S. Mulinos and K. Bennett both provided draft forms that S. Mulinos will work into a
single report form that can be used for a variety of programs.
The Freeville Community Counsel provides grants to the Freeville Summer Camps.
They asked about and S. Mulinos passed on the idea of having a Town of Dryden
recreation summer camp instead of the myriad small camps that are available.
Respectfully submitted,
Erin A. Bieber
Deputy Town Clerk
June Reports:
June 2015
Dryden Recreation and Youth Commission
Recreation Director Report
Jennifer Jones
News:
o The Recreation Dept participated in Dairy Days again this year with
information tent and bounce house which was very popular. It was nice to
see a lot of community members and promote upcoming events.
o We also have added a recreation decal onto the enclosed trailer. We are
hoping this will add awareness of the rec dept and programs while working
as a mobile advertisement around town.
Community Grants:
o Grant agreements were sent out on 5/26 to a total of 8 awardees. So far
three of those agreements have been signed and returned. I will give the last
5 groups about another week and then I will send out reminder emails to
request signed agreements be returned as soon as possible.
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o We will need to discuss who would like to visit these different programs for
monitoring.
Summer Programs:
o The Ellis Hollow Concert series started this past
Saturday with music and BBQ. Even with
questionable weather, there was a good turnout.
o The summer SeaBreeze field trip filled up very
fast and we now have kids on the waiting list. If
at least 8 kids are on the waiting list, we will
add a second field trip day.
o Our new archery program is also showing popularity which is great.
o Violin lessons have not seen any sign up yet. Many parents have called and
asked questions but nothing confirmed.
Fall Programs:
o The Pickleball program will be seeing a reduced number of sessions this
upcoming school year because of cost. Renting space from Dryden School
for Pickleball on Sundays this past school year cost the town over $2,000.
Program fees don’t even cover half of that. Building use fees and available
space at the school continue to be a struggle. We will continue the Pickleball
program next school year, but unfortunately for fewer days.
o New football uniforms should be coming in soon which is very exciting. We
are planning to sell old uniforms for a small price for some new revenue.
o A donation of $400 was given to the youth soccer program from Sertoma.
These funds will be used to replace some dying soccer nets.
Report to the Dryden Recreation and Youth Commission
From Kris Bennett, Liaison from Tompkins County Youth Services Department
June, 2015
• There have been additional meetings at CCE re. the CCE program managers’ request for raises.
Nothing has been decided yet. But it would be wise for DRYC to anticipate increases when
budgeting for both Dryden Youth Services and OURS next year.
• Nothing has been decided as yet re. the $75,000 the county administrator is recommending to
support the municipal youth services system. Staff in my department and the County Youth
Board continue to discuss possible scenarios and formulas for this. I’ll keep you posted.
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• Summer is a good time to think about visiting and monitoring programs. Dave’s summer
program schedule can be found at
https://s3.amazonaws.com/assets.cce.cornell.edu/attachments/8001/SummerSkies2015.pdf?1
430855008. Nikki’s schedule (2 documents) are attached separately (I do not have any dates for
her youth employment-related events that may be suitable for visiting.)
• Staff in my office have prepared a new monitoring form based on the PQA (Program Quality
Assessment) we have been using this year when visiting CCE programs. It provides more help, I
think, in what commission members may want to look for and notice when visiting programs.
I’m also attaching this.
Program Manager: Nikki Nease
Dryden OURS Program Report + Dryden Youth Employment Report – June 2015
HIGHLIGHTS: Shelley and Nikki were invited to the BCTR in May to lead a 4H “Tricks of the Trade” Webinar that
highlighted the YOURS and OURS Mentoring Program – Check it out!
http://nys4h.cce.cornell.edu/staff/Pages/The4-HBrand.aspx
RYS Girls’ Ventures will explore Cayuga Lake in canoes on June 24th! We can provide the exciting details at the
Commission meeting!
PROGRAMS THAT ARE CURRENTLY TAKING PLACE:
How Does Your Garden Grow? Summer 2015, 11 Participants, Aged 7- 15, 1 Teen Assistant,
8 sessions, June – August: Delight with dirt, sprouting the OURS home-base at 4H Acres; Playing games & getting to
know each other while growing edible and ornamental plants,& building relationships w/ new, vivacious adults w/
contagious love for gardening.
1 Tech Wizards Intern, 1 AmeriCorps Worker from the CCETC Ag. Department:
STEM/Life-skills:
Geo-spatial thinking: Planning/mapping/creating the garden space; Engineering: Planning/building
tomato trellises and the garden gate; Learning about soil with CCETC Master-Composters in the works for July;
Developing new search-images to identify plants; Community-Service-Learning as youth share skills with their
neighbors during 2, container-gardening workshops within the Mobile-Home-Parks; Sharing a small garden with
careful awareness of immediate surroundings; Nurturing new-life; Practicing safety with gardening-tools; Trying
new, home-grown foods such as Okra, Musk-melons, and Tomatillos. Our fingers are crossed that the Gophers
have enough to eat outside of our fence!
Dryden OURS meets iGEM, Summer 2015, 7 Participants, Aged 10 & 11, 7 iGEM Mentors, 1 Teen Assistant,
7 Sessions at Cornell University, June – July; One on one Mentoring with a team of Synthetic Biologists titled iGEM
(International, Genetically-Engineered Machines). iGEM will share their summer project focused on a cold-water
bacterial disease and OURS will visit the Fish-hatchery in Cortland that supports their research.
1 Tech Wizards Intern:
STEM/Life-skills: Introduction to a ground-breaking field of science; An initial survey informed iGEM of our
participants’ existing knowledge-base, from which OURS will build new skills through hands-on experiments,
trusted to respectfully practice safety and follow instructions in a state-of-the-art Biology Lab in Weil Hall at
Cornell; Gain confidence to participate in a real-life project that impacts fishing-communities globally.
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- Cornell Career Explorations, Summer 2015, 2 OURS Scholarships awarded through Tech Wizards
OURS PROGRAMS COMING UP IN JULY & AUGUST:
- Luncheon-Learn-In, Summer 2015, 11 Participants, Aged 7 – 16, 1 Teen Assistant, 1 Tech Wizards Intern
- Plant Medicine, Summer 2015, 11 Participants, Aged 7 – 16, 1 Teen Assistant, 1 Tech Wizards Intern – A
collaboration with the JYC Program
- 4H Youth Fair: OURS invites participants from the following programs to enter their projects for
evaluation and take part in the week-long line up of Youth-Fair Events: 4H is Sew Fun, PINY (Produced In
New York- Cooking performance), & How Does Your Garden Grow?
- Mystery Events, Summer 2015, 3 events in August, up to 33 participants: Each of 3 OURS age-groups will
be invited to attend a finale-fieldtrip as a reward for excellent attendance during Summer Programs.
- New York State Fair: PINY Participants will perform new recipes for the State Event & stay overnight at
the Youth Hostel, providing volunteer-services in the 4H Youth-Building & helping w/ guided Tram tours
around the outskirts of the Fair.
Dryden Youth Employment Program, Summer 2015, 9 Participants, Aged 14 - 16:
- Dryden Community Café: 2 Employees, Currently Hired
Jobsites + # of Youth Employees:
- Southworth Library: 2 Employees, Currently Hired
- RYS Summer Programs with Dave Hall: 1 Employee, Currently Hired
- Primitive Pursuits: 1 Employee, Currently Hired
- Freeville Summer Camp: 1 Employee, Currently Hired
- Dryden Summer Camp: 1 Employee, Still Pending
- OURS Summer Program Assistant: 1 Employee, Currently Hired
- June 17th: 4 Attendees
Paid, Youth Employment-Training Opportunities in collaboration with Ithaca Youth Works:
- June 22nd: 5 Attendees expected