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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-03-22Dryden Recreation and Youth Commission March 22, 2017 Page 1 of 6 Dryden Recreation and Youth Commission March 22, 2017 Members Present: Stephanie Mulinos, Claudia Haferkamp-Wise, Diane Pamel, Paula Klaben, David Peck, and Deana Madigan Town Hall Staff: Jack Davison, Recreation Department Liaisons: Kris Bennett, TCYSD and Kathy Servoss, Town Board Guests: Shelly Lester, Rural Youth Services Coordinator and Lexi Hartley, OURS/YOURS The meeting was called to order at 7:03PM. The DRYC introduced themselves to the Lexi Hartley as this is the first time she has met the Committee. Youth Employment Program: Lexi Hartley - “Project Lead” o Monday through Thursday for 6 hours per day. The first half of the day will be spent working on “soft skills” workshops. The skills are those that have been identified by the Department of Labor as skills that youth entering the workforce generally don’t have. Examples are teamwork, communication, professionalism, etc. o The second part of the day will be a service project. They have already contracted with the TC3 farm to work on the farm and do a tour of the school. They are talking to other organizations like the Rail to Trails project and the Dryden Lake Festival. o They will have 7 weeks of program with 10 youths per week. They are hoping to work with 70 youths but if a week’s program does not have 10 original participants then youths that have previously participated will be permitted an additional opportunity. o She is in the process of contacting the middle school counselors, BOCES, Home Instruction groups, etc. for recommendations. o They are looking for youths that are just leaving 7th & 8th grades so 12 - 15 years old. o Ms. Hartley will have one youth employee that is at least 16 years old. o P. Klaben asked if the “home base” – the location at which each week’s participants meet – will be in the same place or will it move around to various locations in the Town.  Ms. Hartley indicated that it will be moved and the Committee strongly recommended she contact the various community centers. o S. Mulinos asked what kind of projects the youth will be working on. The TC3 farm, helping with park clean-ups (painting, etc), assisting with the Dryden Recreation and Youth Commission March 22, 2017 Page 2 of 6 Rail to Trail effort by having the youth do research on environmental and historical aspects as well as physically clearing the trails. Ms. Hartley said they are also looking for a combination of work projects that are inside/office based and outside.  J. Jones has done a needs assessment for all of the parks located in the Town. J. Davison is aware that the Town does not own a park and he and Ms. Hartley will contact the proper administrators for permission to do work. o K. Bennett said that several years ago the Youth Commission supported the Youth Conservation Corps through the Ithaca Youth Bureau and they found that there was a lot of work that could be done at the Pioneer Cemetery. o S. Mulinos suggested talking to the Christine Nash about working with the Community Garden. Ms. Hartley has a meeting scheduled with her on Saturday. o The Community Centers are also an option for service projects. o Shelly Lester indicated that there may be enough funds to pay for an assistant for Ms. Hartley, a full time employee for the Library and the 7 weeks of programming. Review and approval of meeting minutes from February 22, 2017. - C. Haferkamp-Wise moved to approve the minutes as presented. The motion was seconded by P. Klaben and unanimously approved. Reports: - Town Board: K. Servoss o The Town Board approved the hiring of Rex Hollenbeck as a full-time employee. o He will start full time on March 26th. His primary responsibilities will be overseeing programs, creating schedules, and maintaining inventory on the equipment. J. Davison will take care of the “book work” and overseeing the department as a whole. - Recreation Department: J. Davison o Rex Hollenbeck has been approved by the board to work full time starting March 26th.  Meeting with Kyle Hollenbeck about the fit trail  Kyle will do business outreach for fundraising and is willing to run a class using the fit trail o Awaiting messages from SERTOMA and Community Café to see if they will act as a promoter for donations. o Spring booklet to be released this week, all programs are online and registration has begun Dryden Recreation and Youth Commission March 22, 2017 Page 3 of 6 o Facebook posts exceeding expectations on post reach and involvement with one post promoting a benefit for Kaylee Wacht’s family reaching almost 2000 people. o Rex and I will be attending the NYSRPS conference April 2-4, 2017. - TCYSD: K. Bennett o Please see attached. - Rail to Trails: D. Bravo-Cullen o Due to the snow storm last week, the Rail to Trails meeting was postponed until tonight. Summer Music Location: - Members of the Montgomery Park Revitalization committee are interested in moving the Summer Music series back to the park. It was originally held in there but moved to the VFW for a variety of reasons. - C. Haferkamp-Wise recommended having half of the concerts at the VFW and half at the park. o The VFW has a large pavilion and if the weather is bad, the band moves inside and it has more parking. o Montgomery Park has more open space and has the playground for the kids. o The Dryden Hotel has expressed interest in sponsoring concerts. J. Davison indicated that if the Hotel is willing to sponsor the bands then they could have music in the park on a different night providing the Town with three music venues per week. The Committee agreed that having two near/in the Village will be too much. o Hopshire has a summer concert series on Friday nights as well. - J. Davison has talked to Susan VanSant (Montgomery Park committee member) and indicated that the Recreation Department will help with a concert series in the park if they are interested in running a third concert series. - K. Servoss – the Town provides $1000 to the VFW each year and part of the contract with them includes the agreement that they host the community music series. - The Committee agreed that for this summer, they will support the music at the VFW. Next year, there will be more discussion regarding the location. Recreation Reserve Funding Plan: - The Committee began to discuss some of the previously suggested “rules” regulating access to the funds. - D. Pamel asked if K. Servoss could explain the purpose of the reserve fund. K. Servoss read parts of the resolution creating the reserve fund. - The Committee determined that they needed clarification regarding the purpose of the fund. Dryden Recreation and Youth Commission March 22, 2017 Page 4 of 6 o “Pursuant to General Municipal Law 6-c, there be and hereby is established a Capital Reserve Fund for the purpose of accumulating all or parts of the costs related to the development and/or improvement of recreation facilities, fields, parks, trails, and other related assets of the Town of Dryden.” Does this mean that only those belonging to the Town of Dryden can access those funds? o D. Madigan asked if any of the Committee members have talked to the people who were involved with the creation of the reserve fund. She has and stated that the person she spoke with said the money was absolutely intended for a facility in the town of Dryden to be developed and accessed by the Town residents. o S. Mulinos said she is not disputing the intention, but that what really matters is what is in the resolution because intentions change. None of the people who were involved in the original plans are affiliated with the Town and the plan for the park behind the Town Hall is out of date, making it not really feasible. Additionally, there has been no forward movement on the original intent, she feels that we are no longer beholden to it. What we do need is clarification on whether the funds can be used only for Town of Dryden property or property purchases or if the funds can be used for other purposes. Kathy Servoss was asked if she could get this clarification from the Town Board. o DRYC Annual Report: J. Davison has put together a draft report which the Committee reviewed and made suggestions. J. Davison made notes and will refer to his notes and emails to make the suggested changes. Achieving Youth Results Initiative: K. Bennett - The TCYSD realized that they didn’t have any measurable indicators to determine whether they are meeting their goals. - They have goals in 6 broad areas including community, education, family, economic security, community engagement and physical and emotional health. - Each of the broad goals has 2 indicators per goal. - They had 80 different community gatherings to generate the potential goals. - More information can be found at http://www.tompkinscountyny.gov/youth/AYR - S. Mulinos asked if the Committee felt that this project assists the DRYC with their goal of creating a communication plan. o C. Haferkamp-Wise hoped to see a page on the website with contact information regarding places and prices of community areas – places that folks can gather to engage in activities. o S. Mulinos added that the Committee wanted a place/site that they can list the events, venues, contacts, etc for community events. Dryden Recreation and Youth Commission March 22, 2017 Page 5 of 6 o S. Mulinos said there will be a meeting in April to gather the interested parties to further discuss a community area. Comments: D. Pamel stated that this week, and it is only Wednesday, she has had three different people talk to her about how great it is to work with J. Davison. He is doing a great job. The next regularly scheduled meeting of the DRYC is April 26th. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:35PM. Respectfully Submitted, Erin A. Bieber Deputy Town Clerk Updates for Dryden Recreation & Youth Commission, March, 2017 From Kris Bennett, Tompkins County Youth Services Department • The PQA visit to Lexi’s program will be rescheduled yet again. The planned visit for 3/16 was postponed since Dryden schools were closed. • After the last DRYC meeting at which Erin, Jack and I had volunteered to work on a DRYC annual report, I reached out to both to see how I could help. Jack asked that I send the CCE annual reports which I did, he was going to work on the report himself. • Our offices prepared and sent out contracts for 2017 to the Town of Dryden and Villages of Freeville and Dryden for county and state aid funding. • I met with CCE’s Elizabeth Wolff on 3/8 to discuss our department’s Achieving Youth Results initiative, what progress has been made to date and how Dryden could move things forward. (For those of you who were not part of DRYC last year and don’t know about AYR, please visit our website. AYR is a way for the entire Tompkins community to help develop an action plan to support our youth and their families and includes tracking indicator data to measure our progress. The action plan was developed after a series of 80 community convenings across the county, including Dryden, to .) Stephanie had intended to come, too, but was unable to do so. Elizabeth and I focused primarily on the Community goal: Tompkins County will provide children, youth and families with healthy, safe, and thriving environments. The action plan had identified several gaps having to do with a lack of community gathering places and a lack of knowledge of what places already exist. Elizabeth works as a Family and Community Educator, primarily in Dryden, with some work in Groton and Newfield too, in CCE’s Tompkins Families program. The program works collaboratively with local organizations to help provide education and support to families which, in turn, helps create healthy children, strong families, and supportive communities. After our meeting about AYR, Dryden Recreation and Youth Commission March 22, 2017 Page 6 of 6 Elizabeth volunteered to convene her existing group to help fill in the AYR action plan about existing community hubs and gathering places in Dryden. • I will be participating on April 6 with TST BOCES in Data Day where we will report on the results of the fall, 2016 student survey that was given to all secondary schools in the TST BOCES region. As I have in past years, I will be making a full group presentation and then working with the Dryden District to analyze their results and develop a plan for using the information. In Dryden, 625 students in grades 7-12 participated, an 89% response rate. I would be happy to make a presentation at a future DRYC meeting of the Dryden results. • I will not be at the April DRYC meeting.