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1978-06-29 " /1 p . TOWN OF WAPPINGER RECREATION COMMISSION MINUTES OF JUNE 29, 1978 The regular meeting of the Town of wappinger Recreation Commission \Vas held at the Town Hall on June 29, 1978. The meeting was opened at 7:40 P.M. Present: Hugh J. Maurer, Mary Schmalz, Ronald Petro and Director Joseph Ennesser. APPLICANTS Mr. Thomas Barber had previously sent in a resume to apply as a member of the Commission. He was present at the request of the Commission to be interviewed. As he was interested in boaring, the Chelsea boat ramp was discussed. Mr. Maurer explained the situation to him - a request had been sent in by the residents of. Chelsea to have the ramp made usable. The request had been signed by a number of the area residents interested in boating and had been presented to the Town Board at their June meeting. The Board referred this matter to the Commission and requested them to pour concrete and clean the debris in order to make it usable. No funds were in the budget this year for item, but they \Vould do what they could. Mr. Barber explained that he was a new resident in the Tm.m and had heard about the death of Mr. Schlathaus. He saw Mrs. Schmalz's name in the paper regarding soccer so he contacted her about the vacancy and then sent in his resume. He seemed interested in the Commission and anxious to serve. His resume was very lengthy, so therefore the interview did not take long. Mr. Maurer said he would be in touch with him since we did not have a quorum at the meeting, no action could be taken. Mr. Barber's resume was sent to all members of the Commission. Mr. Frank Presti had been interviewed by the present Commission some time ago, but at that time he was not appointed. He sent a resume to the Commission to again acquaint the members with him, but did not appear personally. This resume was also sent to all members. Councilwoman Reilly arrived at the meeting at 8:12 P.M. SOCCER Mr. Clausen and Mr. Saracino, Soccer Coaches, were present at the meeting at the request of Mr. Maurer to again discuss proble~they seemed to be having in the program. At last months' meeting Mr. Maurer asked the coaches to come back with numbers of children participating on these teams. He had also made the same request of Mrs. Schmalz who was running the program. The numbers were incon- sistent so Mrs. Schmalz could not give a definite figure. They would substitute in order to form a team, although she said they did try to balance them as best they could as far as ages. It was a flexible gecr~ation Commission Minutes 6/29/78 Page 2 ... headcount. She went by the colored card system--younger, intermediate and senior age groups. She still felt there was no problem, the children who pl~yed 'were happy with the program. She stressed again it was a recreational program, all children played and this is what they wanted to do. Mr. Clausen then spoke and complained about meetings he knew nothing about. He had no knowledge of the color card system. He spoke of another coach taking over on Wednesday evenings to instruct the older children. Why was this done when he couldn1t get enough on his team -- why send them to another coach on a different night. When told by Mrs. Schmalz, he had quit and walked off the field, he was not aware of this action. He had had words with Mrs. Schmalz but he did not quit, at least not to his knowledge, his team was not aware of it. All he wanted was a team and a schedule. He felt there was a definite lack of comrnunication-; he was not told about meetings, he was not informed of the planned trip to the Cosmos game. He felt Mrs. Schmalz could not handle this program alone, the coaches should share the work involved, arrange meetings, make up schedules, they wanted to be involved and know what was going on. Discussion continued along the same lines as the last meeting--recreational charter, competition games, losing their teams to baseball. Mr. Petro felt they were talking about apples and oranges, there was no comparison. They just had to know what t~e of soccer they wanted to play, did they want to go for national charter, then that had to be looked into. ~rrs. Schmalz stressed the policy of recreational soccer which was all children played and that, she emphasized, was all they wanted to do. Mr. Clausen and Mr. Saracino looked for competition, that was what the teams wanted. They had to go in the same direction to make anything work, Mr. Petro stated, and they were not doing this. Mrs. Reilly felt all children want competition, they like the feeling of winning, they look forward to competition games, not only in soccer, b~t in anything. Could Town of wappinger children play on poughkeepsie and East Fishkill teams, if so, she was not aware of this. Mr. Ennesser said there are no boundaries in charters. He offered to look into the charters, if that1s what they wanted, he offered his help to Mrs. Schmalz to help straighten this out. She said they could play what they wanted, it wouldn1t affect her program. Mr. Steve petvai, a Soccer Coach, was also present and explained that he had volunteered toinstnuct those children 12 and over. He felt they had no athletic ability, no talent or skill, but just wanted to play and that1s where he came in. Mr. Enpesser interjected at that point, this was not true. He compared it to Class A in Little League in baseball and by proper coaching you could make good players out of these children. This was proven over and over. It takes time, patience and lots of practice, but it can be done. Mr. Saracino said he wanted to stick with the program, he took pride in the Town and want.ed it to work, he wanted to see a future in the Soccer Program. All spoke their piece and "let their hair down" so to speak. Nothing was actually resolve~, but at the conclusion of the discussion, Mr. Clausen speaking for himself and ~tr. Saracino said they 'I '; .. Recreation Minutes 6/29/78 Page 3 would cooperate, work with Mr. petvai and the older groups, play the games that would be scheduled with Newburgh and Carmel and strive to give the program a future. They would endeavor to make it work and keep the Cornmissionaware of the activities. Councilman Johnson arrived at the meeting at 9:10 P.M. Mr. Maurer informed him of the applicants they had in mind and gave him copies . of the resumes that had been presented at the beginning of the meeting. Mrs. Reilly had also received them. TENNIS Mr. Pe~ro reported problems with lights at the Tennis Courts. There were about 24 of them out. Mr. MallIlrer had seen to this matter and they would be replaced and whatever work they had to do he would arrange to do. He felt a fee could be charged for Tennis. Perhaps a family rate. Mr. Petro did not feel this was needed. We were meeting expenses, but they could talk about it at budget rime. Mr. Johnson thought the Town Board would like'to see proposals inCluding fees; the program could be expanded with these fees, perhaps gradually add more courts as it is a popular sport and certainly could use expansion. Mr. Petro added we had one of the best, if not the best programs for Tennis in this area. Everything was going well in this year's program. SUMMER PLAYGROUNDS Mr. Ennesser reported all Playgrounds had opened June 26th, registra- tion at Martz, 191, Hughsonvil1e 72, Chelsea, 54. There was an accident at Martz, a girl fell off the Jungle Jim. Sloper Willen had been called and taken her to the hospital. He had called the mother that night and everything seemed to be fine. He felt it was handled very well. The Swim Program would start July 10th, the procedure would be the same as last year, we would have our own Life Guards as well as the ones provided by Deer Run. There would be 50 children at one time, the Red Cross would have the Learn to Swim program for two hours. They would test the children, categorize them and they would earn certificates at the end of the program. The Satellite Program at Rockingham field had to be scratc~~d because of lack of personnel. Some had dropped out, therefore he~'~o rearrange personnel, leaving no spare to take over this program. Mr. Maurer said he would still like to try it the 5th or 6th week of the program, perhaps use the field at Wildwood Drive and shift personnel. GOLF Mr. Ennesser reported he did not have too much luck with the registra- tion for this program, but would leave the registration open and see if more wereinterested and perhaps try it at a later date. METS TRIP The registration for this trip was filling up slowly and Mr. Ennesser . 'Recreation Minutes 6/29/78 Page 4 planned to have a meeting with the chaperones shortly and give them instructions on the rules and regulations. He was sure they would have a good turnout and hoped for a good trip. ... ROLLER SKATING Now that the new rink was open, Mr. Ennesser would like to speak to the owners of the rink and make arrangements for our Town to participate on a night set aside for them. The question of transportation free or admission free came up. It did not make sense to hire busses to be loaded at the Junior High, since parents could just as well drive them to the skating rink. It was suggested that the busses make stops at certain central places in the Town and 'then transport them to the ririk. After much discussion pro and con, they thought they would try the bus stops and then perhaps take a poll of the children and parents who participated and get the general opinion of. which they would rather have--free transportation or free admission. Mr. Ennesser intended to speak to the management in the near future. SOCCER TRIP Mrs. Schmalz reported on her Soccer trip to the Cosmos game. Because of the fact that she had to wait for a definite headcount and collect ticket money, busses could not be hired until a week before the trip, and the accommodations were not very good. There was no air conditioning, no lavator.ies. It was a hot day and one driver would not open windows when he was requested to. The occupants of that bus were very uncomfort- able. Otherwise it was a successful trip. Mr. Ennesser said he would contact the bus company and report this incident. There were no other reports and Mr. Maurer asked the members present what their thoughts were on the applicants for the Recreation Commission. He felt the other members should be consulted before they could make any recommendations. As this was not an official meeting, no decisions could be made. The two other Commissioners present, Mrs. Schmalz and Mr. Petro agreed that Mr. Maurer should poll the Board for their vote and then the Commission as a whole would recommend these applicants to the Town Board for appointment if this was the consensus of opinion. The meeting closed at 9:45 P.M. Respectfully submitted, L/ ./ //~) -'-+- ';/ / '!/I: /1,.. /1' . / ~"~--~'7~ ,-_.(.....-<'.././{ , Gladys Rlt, Secr.