Present: Mike Prevoznik, Denise Brennan, Dede Conlan, George Jackson, Duke Smith, Ed Kubliski, Celia Flynn
Absent: Debbie Bednar, James Smith, Steve Corley, Bob Wilson, Mike Davies
MINUTES: Minutes of the March 29th meeting were approved.
SPECIAL EVENTS:
BEACH REPORT: MLHS will begin classes on August 31st and as a result, guards will not be available as late into the summer as they have in years previous. Dede is working to address this problem knowing that Island Beach should remain with guards through Labor Day.
FACILITIES TOUR: Facilities tour took place on April 24th at 12:00 pm. Attached is a copy of report generated from that tour. Some discussion ensued due to the various problems encountered. Some problems or items in need of repair have remained the same over many months. Duke suggested asking Gary Webb or another local administrator to tour with us to help expedite communication. Denise will submit the report to Mark Prussina.
SUMMER RECREATION: On Thursday May 19th and Wed. May 25th there will be an information night for parents of campers and counselors, 7:30 – 9:00 pm at Wildwood School. At this meeting, information will be available regarding all the trips, mandatory dress for counselors, mandatory training sessions, etc. Two trips are scheduled as of this date: Bowling and on Aug. 8th a trip to a baseball game in Montclair. Denise handed out a calendar filled with weekly activities for campers. Denise met with the recreation directors from Boonton and Boonton Township and they agreed to gather forces to save costs in hiring special events and activities. Two events that will be shared by the tri-towns are a carnival at RFL and a water day at Birchwood. Denise is also looking into a man who exhibits lizards and a Juggler. George Jackson mentioned Lynn Stowe, a community member, who does special crafts with vegetables. Denise will follow up on this. The position of Summer Rec Director is not filled. The Council agreed to offer $5,000 to help support this program, about a third of what has been contributed in the last couple of years. As a result, the fee schedule must be raised while the number of employees carefully reduced to make this program viable. Mike and Denise will work carefully on this.
FIREWORKS: Flyer requesting donations will be mailed soon.
OTHER BUSINESS:
MANAGING CLEAN COMMUNITIES GRANT: Denise has asked different school groups to support a clean up effort the weekend of May 21 – 22. Trails and fields need work. This grant pays $4,100 to the community to support clean up activities.
SUPERVISED FREE PLAY: Friday after school program has had light attendance. Flyers were sent home in backpacks and will be sent again. Committee members suggested that many children of this age group (3rd to 6th grade) already play freely throughout the community.
RECREATION COMMISSION WEB SITE: The recreation web site is up and running, but has terribly old information on it. Celia will ask someone on the Web page committee whether they could at least have the Web page pulled with something saying “Web site under construction”.