MOUNTAIN LAKES RECREATION COMMISSION
Minutes for July 9, 2013
7:30 PM Borough Hall

Present: Chairperson – Wright, Commissioners – Petersen, Terhune, Thompson, Sentowski, Shertzer, Spoto; Director – Lane, Liaison to Board of Ed – Mitchell;

Absent: Caputo, Liaison to Borough Council Holmberg

Commissioner Thompson moves to approve the minutes from the June 18th meeting.  Seconded by Terhune.  Motion passes.

Rec director Lane clarifies an item from last meeting.  There were 36 kids in first week of camp.  150 was the number of registrants across all weeks at that time.   

Recreation Sports Board Guidelines Document Review
Rec Director Lane requests that section regarding background checks is edited so that the rec director is not providing background checks, but rather facilitating that process. It should also specify that the Rec Director will facilitate the registration process and participation waivers.

Group agrees this document should be reviewed by a lawyer, and should be reviewed with various clubs for feedback.  Shertzer and Petersen will take it to Tri-Town and to MLBTB.  Sentowski will take it to Girls’ Lacrosse.  Wright and Terhune will review with the Swimming board.  Thompson and Wright with Boys’ Lacrosse.

Recreation Director Report

I. Updates on current issues:

·         Wight and Lane did a beach review and sent findings to DPW and Bob Tovo.  Both agree this review should take place earlier next year, suggested March. 

·         Fireworks display on July 4th was a great success.

·         Summer camp serving 300 families.

·         Lane plans to update the summer recreation strategy to make a variety of things available to ML kids.

·         Field hockey and hoops camps are not getting advertised. 

II. Discussion of access to our facilities

Lane would like to create a written policy defining who gets access to our facilities and how.  Group agrees that we should charge some fee (perhaps a portion of the registration fees) to “for profit” camps. This was done with the USA sports camp according to the contract they had with the town last year.

Recreation camps should always receive priority over “for profit” camps.  Lane will draw up a document defining these parameters for non-rec program use of facilities.   The recreation department is considering how to define for which camps/activities on our facilities  we will “advertise” (in the form of website and calendar postings).  The commission will consider non-profit entities, those for-profit camps run by ML district teachers and coaches, etc.

III. Concussion baseline testing

This is currently done at MLHS for soccer, field hockey, football, lacrosse.  Cathi Mitchell will talk to her board to find out more about it, e.g. cost, logistics.  The group would like to recommend that these sports also conduct baseline concussion testing for recreation-level participants.

IV. Positive Coaching Alliance

We currently have an 18 month old bill from PCA for $1179 (for the period March 2011-March 2012).  No renewal apparent.  The option to do a renewal for only online training is also expensive.  The Rec commission must contact the sports boards to see if they want this PCA service. This service is training for parents of players, not coaches.

V. Field Leases

Fanny road field lease is up in 2015.  We receive $1/year from the Tri-Town board.  For the fields behind tennis court, the town receives $45K/year from Board of Ed.  This payment from the Board of Ed  is taxpayer dollars.  The Commission wants clarification as to where this payment goes.  This transaction and its implications should be clarified.

 

Facility Assessment and Capital Plan – Nicole Wright

All present volunteer to join in the assessment.  Dates will be communicated by Mark Prusina on Friday July 12th.  There will be three walk-throughs covering various facilities.  Nicole will publish the dates to the group and allocate a few volunteers for each. 

With regard to a needs assessment, the group agrees to run Rschools for a year and then determine if there is a need for more field space.  The commission is aware that the upper and lower fields behind the YMCA both get boggy, and turfing one of them has been suggested as a possibility by some residents.  Knowing more about the current field leases and the allocation of those funds will be part of that discussion.  The cost to turf a field is projected to be over $1 million.  This will likely go on the commission’s list of facilities requests.

 

Other

I.                    Should a Rec Commissioner sit on the board of Borough Programs?
Both swimming and sailing are borough programs, in that all counselors are borough employees.  The group considered whether a Rec Commissioner should sit on their boards.  Audrey will seek a legal opinion on this.

II.                  Audrey pointed out that many neighboring towns require a legal waiver to be signed by all Rec Sports participants.  Audrey will seek a legal opinion on this. 

III.                Rshools training has been arranged by the Board of Ed.   Wright, Shertzer, and Lane will attend.  Until RSchools is up and running, Lane would like to use Google calendar for scheduling and information distribution for all events that are offered to ML residents. 

Communications committee  of town council – Lane and Shertzer will attend this committee meeting on July 10th to represent Recreation.

Action Items:

·         Commissioners will review the Recreation Sports Board document with the various sports boards, as detailed above.

·         Lane to consult with borough’s legal counsel regarding Rec Commissioners sitting on Borough Sports boards

·         Lane to consult with borough’s legal counsel regarding a standard waiver form for participants in Rec sports

·         Mitchell to get details form the Board of Education regarding concussion baseline testing currently in place at MLHS and whether program can be extended to Recreation

·         Rec Commission to contact sports boards regarding need/desire to continue PCA contract. Commissioners will do this in conjunction with sessions on the Recreation Sports Board documents.

·         Rec Commission to get clarification on Board of Education payments to lease the fields behind the tennis courts. Audrey to follow up with Bob Tovo.

·         All sitting commissioners to seek candidates to fill open spot

·         Wright to publish dates for facilities assessments, commissioners will sign on for one or more assessment.

Meeting adjourned at 9:15