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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-09-25 draftDryden Recreation and Youth Commission September 2019 Meeting Minutes (DRAFT) 25 September. 2019 at 7:00 PM Dryden Town Hall Members present: David Peck (Chair), Paula Klaben, Claudia Haferkamp-Wise, Diane Pamel, Joanne Holland Liaisons present: Alice Green (Dryden Town Board), Marty Conger (Dryden Recreation), Janice Johnson (fCYSD), Juliana Quaresma (CCE Rural Youth Services) The meeting was called to order at 7:05 PM. Due to the lack of a quorum for the previous meeting, there were no minutes to be approved. Town Board (A. Green) Board has been reviewing budget requests, including those from Youth Services and Dryden Recreation. Expect to know by end of October what the final budget looks like. Town Board has hired a consultant to do the comprehensive planning process. Town Board has accepted and easement of 3.2 acre of property at the Mill Creek development off of Caswell Rd. Twenty-two acres have been set aside for conservation and passive recreation, and 3.2 acres has been set aside for recreation purposes. The Board referred to the DRYC discussion about the need for recreation fields. May not be enough space for the need, but the options will be considered with DRYC input. There was discussion on the value of having a centralized recreation park. Recreation Department (M. Conger) Presented budget to Town Board Have started programming for winter sports. Reported on football and cheerleading 136 kids playing soccer. Games are at Cassavant. Marty invited DRYC members to come out to a football and soccer game to see what's happening. Tompkins County Youth Services (J. Johnson) There is an increase in county youth services funds going to the municipalities. There is money for the pitch program The county is identifying October 7 as Bullying Prevention Day. There is a Bullying Prevention Task Force at work in the county. Other Business A. Green mentioned the Story Walk on the Jim Schug Trail that starts by the Dryden Agway. D. Pamel gave Marty Conger credit for creating the backer boards for the Story Walk. A. Green noted that Jeff Panek's Project Lead students installed the story boards. D. Peck encourage members to review the monthly reports from Youth Services and O.U.R.S. J. Johnson and J. Quaresma commented on the video work being done to introduce and promote RYS programs. RYS Budget Proposals The Commission reviewed the proposed RYS budget requests. D. Peck noted that the Tech Wizards federal grant is no longer available, but RYS is using some contingency reserve funds to cover that loss. J. Quaresma provided clarification on the programs funded by each budget proposal. J. Quaresma noted that Jeff Panek could benefit from a work study student to assist him. D. Pamel moved that the Dryden Recreation and Youth Commission recommend the budget proposals to the Town Board P. Klaben seconded the motion. The motion was approved unanimously. D. Pamel commented that she would like to see the salaries for the Dryden Youth Program and Dryden O.U.R.S. program managers increased. J. Johnson noted that because these are Cornell Cooperative Extension programs, the salaries can't be increased by municipality, but she has been working with county legislators to provide funding to increase these salaries. J. Quaresma noted that the levels of responsibilities vary by municipalities. A. Green mentioned her conversation with Jeff Panek about the Project LEAD structure and the possibility of changing the program to better serve the kids and include more kids. D. Pamel added some background on the program history and evolution. J. Johnson noted that cutbacks in county funding forced the municipalities to scale back their programs. J. Quaresma noted that the size of the Project LEAD group didn't work for some sites, like the Dryden Community Center Cafe. Summer Camps M. Conger discussed a meeting she had with Village of Freeville officials exploring the possibility of Dryden Recreation taking over their summer camp. There was discussion of how this would work and how it would be managed. There are some differences between how the Dryden and Freeville camps operate that would need to be addressed. The Freeville camp runs an additional week but spends a lot more than the Dryden camp. M. Conger noted some of the differences in philosophy, particularly around payment and scholarships. Freeville required full payment before the beginning of camp. Dryden required payment the week prior to each week a child attended but offered options for delayed payment. Dryden's philosophy was that it was more important to have kids who really needed to be at camp at camp. J. Johnson noted that Groton gave a discount if camp fees were paid by a certain date. The commission discussed strategies for collecting fees and providing incentives for paying early. D. Peck noted that we should err on getting kids to camp. J. Johnson suggested that we could propose taking on the camp for one year and evaluating taking it over permanently after the first year. J. Johnson suggested making it one camp with two locations rather than maintaining it as two separate camps. Christmas in the Village D. Pamel shared details about the planned holiday celebration centered around the village tree lighting. She provided some history as well as mentioning some of the plans and needs for this year. There was discussion about the Reindeer Run that was done last -year. There were many conflicts and it did not integrate well into the rest of the festivities. It was.decided to table the run this year. The group discussed options and ideas for the event. The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 PM.