SOMERS RECREATION COMMISSION

February 4, 2008

Kibbe Fuller Community Center

Present: Colleen Maniscalco, Karen Murdoch, , JJ Wassmuth, and newly appointed members Karen McGuane, Troy LaMontagne, and Alicia Albert

Non-Members present: Jen Charette, Mike Provencher

I. The meeting was called to order at 7:08 pm.

II. Minutes: Minutes of December 3, 2007 were read and accepted as written; there were no minutes for January as the meeting was cancelled due to lack of a quorum as Chris Meunier, Pam Coverdill, and Rick Lees resigned from the commission.

III. Election of Officers: Nominees for Secretary: Colleen Maniscalco, Chairperson: JJ Wassmuth, and Vice Chairperson: Karen Murdoch were made, with Karen Murdoch making a motion to accept the slate with Troy LaMontagne seconding the motion. The nominees were unanimously voted in for the 2008 session.

IV. Audience: Chris Meunier and Heather Sharp of the Ponytail Softball Association proposed a basic skills softball summer camp for girls in the 3-5 grades and 6-8 grades for the weeks of 7/14-18 and 7/21-25,2008. The camp requested the use of Field 2 and possibly Field 3 at the Field Road Park. The camp requested grooming of the fields. All necessary forms and permits have been submitted, and the camp will be insured through the Ponytail Association. Camp applications will be provided by Chris Meunier , and can be downloaded on their website and available at the regular summer camp sign ups. Karen McGuane made the motion to accept the camp’s request, and it was seconded by Karen Murdoch. The camp was unanimously voted through by the commission.

V. Coordinator’s Report: Valentine Party set for 2/9/08; JJ Wassmuth made an appeal to the Commission to support the Recreation Department’s activities; A report was given regarding the preliminary response from the CIP Committee on the Recreation Commission’s CIP requests; the CIP Committee showed support of lights for the multipurpose field, wooden guardrails for the new field, skateboard park, and Senior Life Trail. Purchase of clay for the little league field upgrades was rejected, stating that the project should be part of the Park’s budget. Jen Charette mentioned that due to the library capital project, the children’s library will be temporarily moved to the Recreation building meeting rooms; this prompts the need for the town to provide alternate meeting sites for the various town associations.

Park’s Report: Mike Provencher reported that the skating rink has been very well attended weather permitting, but continues to experience vandalism on a regular basis after hours; police are aware. The new playground is used even during winter hours, even though the playground is officially closed in winter and users accept their own risk.

VII. Old Business: Skate Board Park…so far there has been little interest shown by the community for participation in the Skate Board Park ad hoc committee ; only two names have been received(Ann Piscatano and Andrew O’Neil); JJ Wassmuth has been researching area towns that have town run skate board parks; most parks are fenced in, collect dues for participation, and have oversight by town members.

VIII. New Business: Karen Murdoch brought up the fact that there is a conflict with gym space at the high school between Varsity girl’s teams and the Women’s Volleyball recreation league; the commission suggested that the girl’s team request that the Volley ball league move their gym time up by a half hour.

There was discussion regarding the possible need for the Recreation Director position to be increased from part-time to fulltime in order to accomplish all the tasks required of the job, and also to expand the role to better serve the community; the commission requested that the Recreation director bring a copy of the job description to the next meeting.

IX. Correspondence: None

X. March agenda: nothing specific requested.

VI. Adjournment: A motion to adjourn was made by Colleen Maniscalco and seconded by Karen McGuane. The meeting was adjourned at 8:50pm.

Respectfully submitted by:

Colleen Maniscalco