Kensington Recreation Committee Minutes

March 12, 2008

Approved April 9, 2008

In attendance: Nancy Roffman, Dave Macek, John Andreasse, Kathy Cook, Donna Carter, Mary Jane Solomon

Guests, Kathy Felch, Mike DelSesto

Meeting began at 7:00 at the Town Hall

Minutes of the Feb. 12, 2008 meeting approved.

Kathy Felch asked when softball fields would be ready. She was told May 1^st for games. Practices for all teams will not be held at the new park this year to minimize wear and tear on the new sod allowing it to become established. Kathy reported 36 girls have signed up for the U10 and U12 teams.

MJ reported Frank Smith thought building benches would fit under certain requirements for his

boy scout troop. He will be asked again as it is actually picnic tables that are needed. Bridges and wooden walkways along the trails would be more appropriate for Eagle Scout Projects. Doug Merrill is still working on his proposal for a bridge.

John showed an example of the master schedule for the fields. Still does not have the softball or EJBL game schedules. T-ball will be held on the multipurpose field this spring. Exeter Express Soccer has asked about using the field. They are a spring and summer league which does include several Kensington children. We need a proposal of time requirements before agreeing to this. A brief discussion followed concerning field use by out of town organizations. It was agreed this first year it should be limited to town groups or those which involve several residents only. As this will be a big learning year on park operations we felt some restrictions on use were necessary. It will also have less impact on the grass its first year.

Kathy passed around the new camp brochure for approval. It looks great and will go out through the school on Wed, March19th.

Terms for both John and Dave will expire in April. They both agreed to be reappointed and we all agreed they should.

Discussion about the concession stand manager. Need to find out if the position needs to be posted. Also, questions about who pays this worker. Money has been placed in the Rec. budget for the concession manager and janitorial services. Duties of the manager were discussed. The manager will hold a key to the concession stand and be responsible for opening and closing it – Donna will try to get a copy of the checklist used by her sister at the restaurant as a model. The manager will make sure there is change in the cash register upon opening and be responsible for removing all cash at closing. The manager will oversee volunteers working the stand to make sure all items on the checklist are completed. He/she must be willing to help operate the stand when volunteers are few and take inventory to prepare for ordering supplies. Trash generated by the stand will need to be removed and taken to the dumpster. Trash from the playing fields will be the responsibility of those using the field. Bathrooms will need to be left clean. The police department will be approached to see if they would be willing to unlock the bathrooms in the morning and lock them at a given time at night.

Lack of communication throughout the park construction seems to be raising some tension in town. Nancy gets bombarded with questions at school and Kathy Felch stated she always gets questions at the town office, and neither feel they have answers to these questions. Rather than attempt to hold another park info meeting it was determined a list of Frequently Asked Questions be posted on the web, in the town offices, the library, and distributed through the school. Kathy Felch also offered to place a box at her window for people to drop their questions in. Other public relations methods were discussed. SALT will be invited for a tour of the park in May or June. Various playgroups and story hour attendees will be invited for a special play group the middle or end of May upon completion of the play area. Middle and high school students who have been attending winter pick up basketball at KES will be encouraged to check out the multi-purpose court when it’s ready to go. Mike DelSesto stated a Grand Opening will be scheduled perhaps some time in June upon completion of the adult softball field.

Brief discussion regarding by-laws. Rec. members indicated ones they felt important written in the ones we had read from other towns. John will put together a draft of by-laws, policies and field usage guidelines for next month.

Meeting adjourned. Next meeting April 9^th.

Respectfully submitted,

Mary Jane Solomon