HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014-12DRYC December Meeting Minutes
Present: Stephanie Mulinos, Tracey Kurtz, David Bravo -Cullen, Vicki Wilkins, Rick Ryan, Kris
Bennett, Shelley Lester
Minutes: (We somehow managed to forget to approve October's minutes)
Budget Update: Shelley and Kris reported that the town public hearing on the budget went
well; the town board agreed to restore $5,000, but this still meant a net cut of $6,000 to the youth
development portion of the budget. They I met several times to discuss how to absorb this cut with
minimal impact to programs. Shelley reported that CCE just got notice about a Tech Wizards grant for
2015; this brings $4,170 in revenue that must be applied to Nikki's OURS salary. They proposed
reducing the allocation to OURS by that amount; CCE had requested $23,561 for OURS for 2015, minus
the $4,170, that made a recommended allocation of $19,391. It was noted that the Tech Wizards grant
is for 2015 and not a guaranteed source of future income. The funds will likely need to be restored in
2016.
Kris and Shelley proposed reducing the allocation for youth employment to $18,908; this will
mean a reduction of approx. 1 youth job of 100 hours (including required workers comp and other
fringe). (The amount originally recommended by DRYC earlier in the fall was $19,942.) Since
youth employment was identified as an unmet need in the last DYC needs assessment, as well as
the County Youth Services Dept. needs assessment, the DRYC was pleased to finally be addressing
this need in 2014 with funding and consolidation of youth employment in this program and hopes
to continue it in 2015 and beyond. It is hoped that additional funding can be found; we talked
about possibly writing a grant to DYOF but Tracy, whose husband is on the DYOF board, said this is
not at all the sort of thing they typically fund.
There was also discussion about the plan that the town's contract with CCE can be one contract
rather than 3 which will allow more flexibility in shifting funds if there are savings in one program
(for example, if OURS gets any more grants or does more fundraising than expected).
Rec. Department Report: Jennifer provided a report on the Departments' winter activities. She
informed the board that the Town would like the DRYC to adopt specific goals for the community grant
program by their February meeting. Since funding has been reduced, the competition for the funds will
be significantly greater. The DRYC had discussed establishing more specific guidelines to better guide
applicants, so the Town Boards mandate is timely.
Other: The remainder of the meeting was a general discussion about the functioning and direction of
the DRYC. Vicki shared some thoughts and concerns she had about what she sees as a shift in the focus
of the group to more administrative and bureaucratic tasks. She is concerned that the vibrancy and
excitement that the DRC had experienced in the past are fading. It was recognized that the past two
years had seen a tremendous amount of change for the group and much of the groups' efforts have
been focused on managing that change. It was agreed that the commission needs to spend some time
considering what it wants to accomplish as a new entity. A suggestion was made to have a retreat to
include all current DRYC members, all past DRC and DYC members, and all Town Board members. The
goal of the retreat is for all to understand where both commissions have been, acknowledge where the
DRYC is now, and establish goals for the future. The date of the retreat was set for January 10, 2015,
from 3-6 pm at the Cafe. Stephanie will work on getting the notice out and Jennifer will work on a draft
agenda.
Next meeting: January 28th, 2015