Recreation Committee Meeting – March 18, 2008
Present: Debbie Bednar, Denise Brennan, Ellen Emr, Peter Holmberg, Mike Prevoznik, Scott
Richards and Pete Sentowski
Absent: Dede Conlan, Celia Flynn, Rich Mancuso, Mike Davies, Ed Kubliski and James
Smith
Budget Update - Denise reported that she was asked by Council to cut $3,000 from the Rec budget. This is the same amount that was inserted for Assistant Beach Director. Denise will look to try to keep the position but try to reduce the funding. Council also did not fund Rec’s recommendation for extra DPW staffing.
Summer Rec – Parent’s night meeting was successful, albeit lightly attended. Little feedback was received on why attendance dropped. This summer Denise will closely monitor the number of counselors to match the number of attendees. Rec will be trying to allow sign-ups through the Borough web-site. Rec will look to have sign-ups earlier.
Trout Derby – Will be April 12th and Stocking April 11th.
July 4th Fireworks – Denise will get together with Steve Shaw to coordinate fundraising.
Chili Cook-Off – Small turnout may be due to poor weather and possibly having it on Sunday night. There also was a conflict with the school play and much of the town had electricity outages. Jeff Reid won, with Rec’s own James Smith came in a very close second.
In 2008, the town paid $980 for 3,000 beach and tennis tags. The town collected $37,786 for beach tags and $4,620 for tennis tags. The Commission believes that the beaches should only be for residents and their guests and that the residents should be required to provide proof of residency (to include driver’s license or other tag of residency). The Commission agrees that the local ordinance be modified to require proof of residency – not necessarily beach tags – during off-hours. Beach tags are required during beach hours. The Commission also recommended that the police enforce this heavily during the beginning of the beach season to dissuade non-residents from coming to our beaches. Denise will present to Council a summary report of Rec usage during 2007.
Mike Davies – stepped down as Rec member. The Commission thanked him for his service. Peter Sentowski ascended to fill Mike’s vacancy and was warmly welcomed by the Commission.
Master Plan – Mike Prevoznik thanked everyone for providing feedback to Celia for the “Master Plan”.
Facility Fee – the Commission supported requiring a $100 deposit for using our bathroom facilities for groups reserving use of Island Beach or Birchwood to ensure proper clean-up. Denise to look into what needs to be done to codify this recommendation.
7:30 p.m. DPW Building
55 Pocono Road