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Home My WebLink AboutDRYC 08282024DRYC 2024-08-28 Page 1 of 2 Dryden Recreation and Youth Commission (DRYC) August 28, 2024 Hybrid Present: Leslie Debo (chair), David Peck (vice chair), Will Olson, James Whalley Absent: Jenelle Carr, Rhonda Kowalski, Julie McLean, Ron Szymanski Liaisons: Jason Leifer (Town Board) (7:12pm) Kate Shanks-Booth (Tompkins County Youth Services) Athena Steinkraus (Cornell Cooperative Extension – Tompkins County) Joshua Bacigalupi (Superintendent of Dryden Central School District) Staff: Marty Conger (Recreation Director) Allison Kjellander-Cantu (Deputy Town Clerk) The meeting was called to order at 7:06 p.m. Reports: Recreation Department M Conger- Updated everyone that there were 4 RFP proposals submitted for the project behind the Town Hall. They have it down to 2 proposals with 1 interview next Wednesday here at the Town Hall at noon; the other will get back with some dates and times. Gina Cassidy (planner) has a few questions for the interviews; how can she be most helpful? We need her for the knowledge of planning. Gina will direct it all to this committee. J Bacigalupi- Is excited to be here and happy to represent the district. The staff and I are getting ready to start the new school year next week. The summer food program was successful along with the summer literacy camp, as well as the regional summer school they participated in. M Conger- I’m currently in the budget process. Summer camp just finished. This was the best year since covid, and with no major issues. It was a rainy summer for Wednesday night basketball, not much outside play. The soccer camp has over 100 kids including some varsity players as refs. There are three levels of cheerleading this coming school year. Working with Groton to start an adult flag football program. This year’s haunted house theme will be “orphanage” and they are looking for volunteers to help build and/or participate in it. M Conger to J Bacigalupi – We're trying to build fields behind the town hall, so we have more places to play. This would be super beneficial to the school to help back this up, to build fields and affordable housing, a community willing to work together to get things done. Reports: Town Board J Leifer- nothing to report at this time D Peck- The plans for the Ezra Village project on Mott Rd have been delayed because they are waiting on large-scale electrical equipment to be delivered to move forward with the project. Reports: Tompkins County Youth Services K Shanks-Booth - TCYS hired a new youth service specialist last month, which is working out very well. We are in the middle of budget season. Our department has put 3 OTR’s (Over Target Request) in, and none of those are supported in the county administrator's budget; we couldn't do so and keep the 2% tax cap the legislature had asked. So we will be DRYC 2024-08-28 Page 2 of 2 going before the Legislature next week. Also, waiting for some guidance on that to help us with our municipal budgets. So that's really kind of our focus right now. The only change to the number would be an increase, instead of coming from your reserves, it would come from the county reserves to the different municipalities. And I should say that for the Rec partnership budget, the county administrator did support the OTR to increase our section. I believe the city and the town are both doing it as well, so, things should be fine with that. Reports: Cornell Cooperative Extension Rural Youth Services A Steinkraus - CCE’s budget is on pause while waiting on the county to see what they have available for funding. We can email our budgets to show a couple different budget scenarios to show how the reserves would be phased out through the youth programs, Dryden OURS program next year to help cover that. CCE’s improvement plans bumped up, will cover a 2-year phase to bring it into the communities. This summer was the Special Olympics at Myers Park, several local municipalities came together, and it was a great event. The Dryden OURS program has been stagnant to the point that we have started meeting to kind of try to rethink it, to figure out how we could make it a successful and attractive program. They are in the final stage of hiring a 4H director and they will start working soon. And then, just as we are finalizing, we will come back here for you to give your approval. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 7:42 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Allison Kjellander-Cantu Deputy Town Clerk