MOUNTAIN LAKES RECREATION COMMISSION
Minutes for February 12, 2013
7:00 PM Borough Hall

Present:  Commissioners –  Petersen, Terhune, Sentowski, Shertzer, Spoto, Wright;
Recreation Director – Flynn; Borough Council liaison: Holmberg

Absent: Commissioners – Mancuso, Thompson;  Board of Education liaison – Mitchell

Note: Date altered due to February break coinciding with regular meeting date.  Time altered to accommodate a heavy agenda.

A motion to approve the minutes from the meeting of January 22, 2013 was made by Kim Terhune.  Seconded by Deb Shertzer.  All were in favor.

Charter

The group reviewed the draft version of the Commission’s charter for input and changes.  The group plans to adopt the final version at the next meeting.  It was highlighted that there are now 3 committees and the duties formerly assigned to the Finance Sub-commission have been absorbed into the other 3 sub-commissions. The Commission agreed that the day to day operation of the Recreation Department is Celia Flynn’s responsibility.  The operation of the Department should be transparent to the Recreation Commission so that the Commission can act effectively as an advisory body.  The operations of the Rec Commission must be transparent to the commission. Deb Shertzer will finalize draft of charter and redistribute.

Appointment of Sub-Commissions

· Facilities Sub-commission: Nicole Wright and Mark Caputo will continue to serve here in order to move forward with facilities request process.

· Sports Sub-commission: Deb Shertzer, Jim Petersen, Pete Sentowski (Chair), and Rich Mancuso will serve on the. 

· Programs Sub-commission : Kim Terhune, Lydia Spoto, and Kelly Thompson

There was a brief discussion of question of conflict of interest with Commissioner Petersen having a seat on the Tri-Town board.  All agreed that Commissioner Peterson will recuse himself from any vote regarding a question of financial transactions between the Rec Department and Tri-Town.

Goals of Recreation Commission

Deb Shertzer presented the 2013 goals.  

1. Work with BoE to develop electronic facilities use request and calendaring system
2. Improve communications to residents
    a. website/email
    b. reputation/responsiveness
3. Establish and support boards for all recreational sports
    a. adopt a single online registration and payment processing system
    b. suggest parameters and guidelines for recreational sports programs
4. Ensure adequate facilities are available for Jr. track program

Facilities request calendaring system update (Goal #1)

Nicole and Celia presented the needs and recommendations for the Facilities Request and Calendaring system to the Board of Education.  All agreed to buy a canned program to handle this.  James Smith proposed “RSchools”.  This software package matches our needs 90%, it is easy to use, and it has many desirable controls.  The purchase (approximately $1500) could be funded by additional surcharges.  It does have a program registration component that may be useful.  Nicole Wright plans to make an official recommendation to the Board of Ed supporting the purchase of RSchools and proposing that the Recreation Department can partially fund it.  Nicole expressed hope that it will be in place for fall sports.  Many schools in NJ are already using it.  The RSchools vendor offers training with implementation. 

A note regarding facilities:  The High School AD controls all facilities owned by the Board of Ed. The others are managed by Celia.  Taft and Midvale are not run by the Board of Ed, but they do use it. 

Communications to Residents (Goal #2)

Deb Shertzer will work with Celia to implement a Recreation Facebook page.

Single Registration System (Goal #3)

This will be looked into by the Sports sub-commission.  Rugby and soccer use “sports manager” for their registrations, and it is successful. 

Facilities for Track clinic (k-2) Junior Track (8 years and up) (Goal #4)

This is achieved in that Celia has arranged for Track Clinic to use the track on Sundays 5-6, and  Junior Track will use the track Monday –Friday at 6:30 (subject to occasional  change due to demands of HS Sports).

Track begins first week of March.   They will likely use the gym and run indoors for the month of March. Post-daylight savings they will use the track.  In prior meetings the use of Celia’s lights to enable later practice time was discussed.  The Board of Ed has decided that it would not be safe.

Capital Planning

Celia and Nicole went through goals with Borough Manager Robert Tovo who requested that we do a capital plan showing how much money the Rec Department will need in the upcoming years.  The Recreation Department can be more efficiently funded if we can manage future expectations with the Town Council. The Chair recommended that year over year capital planning will be among our goals for 2014.  

Councilman Peter Holmberg reports that renovation to the Wilson basketball court will not be funded this year.  However, renovations to Kaufmann park have been approved for $11K.   The issue there is that the wood is rotting and as such it is a safety and insurance liability.  Also, the tennis courts renovation has been approved for $110K.  (These courts are maintained by Rec department as part of an agreement with the Board of Ed.  They handle maintenance and Rec does the capital improvements.  Also, Board of Ed maintains turf, which is used by Rec.)

Recreation Director Report

Celia presented the calendar of recreation events for the year.  Items in red are of concern to commission.  Nicole suggests season-ending recaps and reviews.  All agreed.  Celia presented the recreation report which will go to council. 

Boat Rack Fees

These fees have not been raised for many years.  The Rec Department could use some extra income, but the group decided that the fees should be raised in small increments.  It was suggested that we charge a surcharge that would allow people to keep their boats on the racks all year.  This needs to be vetted with Mark Prusina.  Additionally, the group wants to know how to ensure that money from the boat rack fees and surcharges is earmarked for needed facilities improvements, specifically bathrooms.  This remains an open question.  The idea for a fundraiser to be included in next year’s planning is discussed.  It was suggested that one of the Varsity teams move peoples boats at season’s end for a fee.

Lydia Spoto moved that we raise the fee by $10 this year.  Deb Shertzer seconded the motion.  Motion passed.

Beach tags

Celia reports that the Early purchase discount did motivate early purchases and improved the process.  We agreed to leave rates as they are.  Proof of residence proved difficult.  There was a problem with tags for relatives visiting for the summer.  We agreed to let them buy them individual tags for $25 so they don’t have to buy visitor tags, similar to Nanny tags.  Need to make up a form to define this.  Nicole will write this up and bring it to the next meeting for approval.   Make guest badges $50/12. 

Tennis tags

The tennis tags need to be raised to match cost of beach tags: $100/family.   We will apply the same timing incentives.  Nicole Wright moved to pass this.  Kim Terhune seconded the motion.  Motion passed.  Celia to follow up on getting a key card lock for the courts.  According to Mark Prussina, the purchase of such a system is in the budget.  

In order to ensure that tennis courts are available to all MLHS kids, including non-ML residents, they should be able to show their school ID to the park ranger.  We will have to discuss how this will be managed with the advent of a key card lock.    Likely they will get a key card from the Athletic Department.

Other

Nicole Wright informs the group that although the current recreation affiliation for football is Greyhawks, Darrell Fusco and Tim Christ are working on some plans for a football program for ML-BT.    There is no clarity on what this is.  Celia will contact Darrel to understand what is he doing and invite him to our next meeting.

Councilman John Lester has a subcommittee for communications to study all of the town’s current means of communicating with residents: outbound phone, billboard, print, email, FB, website.  Deb Shertzer will liaise with John Lester on this. 

Meeting adjourned 8:48pm

Action items:

· Deb Shertzer will finalize the Commission’s Charter and redistribute

· Commission members will review finalized charter and prepare to adopt the document at the March meeting

· Celia will reach out to Darrell Fusco regarding his football program.  She will ask him to come to a Rec Commission meeting.

· Deb Shertzer will contact John Lester to discuss his plans for the Council’s communications sub-committee

· Program Sub-commission to meet to discuss trout derby and Egg Hunt events

· Lydia will check with Mark Prussina to see if there is any reason boats can not be racked year-round.

· Nicole will write up the form defining beach tag purchase for visiting relatives and bring to next meeting for approval.