2010-04-08
TOWN OF BERLIN
Park and Recreation Commission
230 Kensington Road • Berlin, CT 06037
Meeting Minutes of April 8, 2010
A regular meeting of the Parks & Recreation Commission was called to order by Chairman Len
Zielinski at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 8, 2010 at the Community Center, Berlin, CT.
ATTENDANCE
:
Present: Chairman Len Zielinski; Commissioners Donna Bovee, Don Dellaquila, Steve Hinchliffe,
John Solek, Rob Sylvester, Charles Warner; Steve Kelly- Director of Parks & Recreation; Jon Zuk –
Golf Course Manager.
AUDIENCE OF CITIZENS
: None
CONSENT AGENDA:
a.
Recommend approval of donations for the 2010 Youth Fishing Derbies at Sage Park:
?
American Legion, Bolton-Patterson Post II 68 Inc. - $100.
?
Timberlin Women’s Club Inc. - $40.
?
Cambridge Specialty Company Inc.:$300.
?
Kiwanis Club of Berlin: $300.0
b.
Recommend approval for Hubbard School PTO to sell food and beverages at the Hubbard School
PTO Carnival on Friday, May 14, 2010 from 3:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. with a rain date of Friday,
May 21, 2010.
c.
Recommend approval for Metro Swim Shop to sell swimsuits etc. on June 23, 2010 from 6:00
p.m. – 7:30 p.m. at Percival Pool to participants on the Berlin Swim Team. Recommend waiving
vendor fee of $200.00
d.
Recommend approval for Boy Scouts, Pack 5 to use camp stove for cooking at Timberlin
Pavilion on Friday, April 30 to Sunday, May 2, 2010 and Sage Park Pavilion on Friday, June 25,
to Sunday, June 27, 2010.
Robert Sylvester made a motion to accept the consent agenda items, seconded by Commissioner
Dellaquila. The motion was unanimously approved.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
Len Zielinski made a motion to approve the minutes from March 11,
2010. The motion was unanimously approved.
TIMBERLIN GOLF COURSE:
Manes and Motion, a program providing riding therapy to those with autism, is requesting another
donation this year. Discussion and decision will be on a future agenda as their fundraiser is
scheduled for October.
Pavilion Tent was installed by Mr. Tent.
Golf Cart Update - Received two quotes (Easy go and Club Car)
?
We do not have a complete fleet of cars that will make 18 holes
?
Easy Go is the low bidder but Club Car has submitted a new offer.
Page 1 of 3
TOWN OF BERLIN
Park and Recreation Commission
230 Kensington Road • Berlin, CT 06037
?
Club Car has the better car and will warranty battery for 5 years.
?
Both companies now use a system of six 8volt batteries.
?
GPS Costs:
– Easy Go, $25,000, we received 100% of advertising revenue.
– ClubCar, $36,000, we would receive a percentage of advertising revenue.
Season Passes – non-resident golfers still attempting to obtain season passes at the resident $750 rate,
versus non-resident rate of $1,500. Town business owners paying $1,000 in taxes can get season
passes for either themselves or an employee. Employment must be documented with a payroll check
from the business. Season pass issuance will remain in the Tax Collectors Office.
PUBLIC GROUNDS:
Mr. Kelly submitted the monthly reported by David Paradise – Public Grounds Superintendent.
Tentative Schedule for Veterans memorial Park handed out. Nothing has changed in the design.
th
BHS Project
- Mr. Kelly provided copies of the hand out from the April 6 Town Council hearing
on the BHS construction project.
?
The High School project will cost approximately $82 million plus bonding net cost to town of
$52 million. We would have to renovate as new or we won’t get subsidy from the state. Also
requires architect and engineer to certify that it would last for a minimum of 20 years. By
renovating as new, they would take the high school back to the girders and exterior masonry
walls. It must also be brought up to code (electrical, plumbing, safety).
?
If this is not done as a renovation as new project, it will be done all at the towns expense. Part of
the process, they would like to put a science wing as that they can rotate the classes. Once the
project starts, it will take 3 years for construction. Project due to start Jan 2011.
?
If we just fix, it will cost town $20-$30 million with no guarantee that it would meet OCR or
NESAC specs. This would cause accreditation issues.
?
Sage Park will have to be made Handicap accessible, which will require work on parking and
traffic flow.
Sage Park Maintenance Building - Council authorized applying for $200,000.00 in grants from state.
Site plan will have to go back to the PZC for Site Plan Review. Only has one issue, the PZC has a
Berlin Turnpike Design Guidelines which do not permit metal building fronting on the turnpike.
May require modifications to plans.
Sage 1, 2, 3 infields were sprayed and more silt was put down. Outfields were rolled.
Portable toilets need to be moved closer to softball fields
Page 2 of 3
TOWN OF BERLIN
Park and Recreation Commission
230 Kensington Road • Berlin, CT 06037
Preliminary artificial turf field test results from DEP came back with no issues cited. Results will be
released in future.
PARKS & RECREATION:
List of all summer help hired so far was handed out. One more pool position to be filled.
Question brought up to Commission. There are a groups of people playing Lacrosse and Volleyball
from Mass., are they insured?
Donna speaks up about the Girl’s softball field. There is a lip between the infield and outfield that is
so bad that the girls are wearing mouth guards. There is also a big dip in left center caused by other
sports using the fields and not taking care of them.
Baseball fields are being used by other sports and ruining the fields and not fixing. They need to be
responsible to fix the field if the make a mess of the field. They need to move their practice around
to different locations on the field so that they don’t wear out one spot.
We keep doing patch jobs every year and this becomes very costly for the town.
Mr. Zielinski if the department established a triage type list for all worked being performed,
particularly at startup during the springtime, or just use an ordinary “to do” list.
The concession building girl’s bathroom needs to be part of their regular maintenance. Apparently
it’s current condition results in no one using it.
Bee situation has been taken care of.
Softball dug out vandalism - Was unable to power wash because there was a break in the water line.
Once it’s fixed they will power wash. Some group came in and drank a lot of beer, egged the dugout
inside and outside
Received funding for defibrillators – one for the Community Center and one for each of the town
pools.
United Football League – Plays games at Rentchler Filed, They will be holding practices at Scalise
th
Field, Will be having tryouts May 14. Are renting the field and will be practicing twice daily in
August. Dave to keep an eye on the field condition and brush field on a regular basis.
Score boards – All set and working
Lights – All set and working
Teams playing must have a majority of players from our town
NEW BUSINESS:
None
OLD BUSINESS:
None
ADJOURNMENT:
A motion was made by Len Zielinski to adjourn, seconded by John Solek to
adjourn the meeting at 8:05 PM. The motion was unanimously approved.
Kim Lanci, Recording Secretary
Page 3 of 3