Park & Recreation Commission - Regular Meeting

So, complete grace with regard to and appreciate everything that, Mo, you've been doing since you were hired, and all the additional, really appreciate it. Having said that, I just want to check in with regard to the beach operation? Yes.

We are getting kids certified this weekend. So ideally I'd like to be open the 20th, the 22nd, no 20th, 21st that weekend because we're just going to go full-time season. So it's just offline because the kids didn't come back certified. So coming in so late and finding those Spaces fill up as soon as I didn't look at you available. Yes, and then it's gone and you're like, okay, so it's a real quick pivot move I've reached out to colleagues such as Kaz who used to be here. He gave me a couple of selections and of course they are just for recertifying not fully getting them hired or certified rather and so that was like, okay, that's a little bit so it's a three-day training versus a two-day training so But definitely, yeah, I'm a little wanting to get the beach up and running now, too. I feel really behind at the moment.

You're stretched beyond, but I thought we need to just understand. Oh, absolutely. Yes. Okay, thank you.

So, sorry, Mo, what day did you say you're hoping that the

So the 20th and 21st, because we'll go right into each operation weekly from the 22nd on. So I just want to be up and running. I wanted it this weekend, that was my goal, and then we're pivoting, so that's where we're at. Next year, I am hoping so much earlier. That's certainly...

Rob, anything else? Okay. So, for my perspective, one thing Mo and I spoke about on Friday is the Apple Man Triathlon on July 19th. We need to talk about the usual closing down the beach for that. So, I don't know if that needs to go to a vote by the commissioners, or how that's worked in the past.

I don't think we've ever voted on it in the past.

So we definitely want to support the Apple Man triathlon. I actually met with Cheryl and Susie today. They stopped by. I actually spoke with Susie, who does the aquatics aspect of the triathlon. She's the point person for that. So she gave me a good sense the other day on a phone call, and then they stopped in today. just gave me, they showed me a video and how it runs, and I was like, okay, all right, this is a huge undertaking. I was like, this is fantastic, but they have everything, like, prepared, so I was like, what do you, you know, we have our lifeguards there. My only question and reservation is that if we have all of our lifeguards out in the water from 7 a.m. to whenever they finish up at 12, do we open up the next, that, like, at one o'clock in the afternoon? So, for, like, the couple hours, the night, you know, I guess my concern would be the staff that have been there for the whole day, out in the sun. So, I don't know if we want to talk about that at a different time. But, I just, that was a question that popped up in my head today, and I said, oh, I'm going to see all of you tonight. It's a great question to bring up.

I think typically we have, because as soon as the... as soon as the swimmers are out of the water, and the the finish area is clear, like the kids spent on the beach. Yeah, I'm sure they did. And there's a lot of people down there. Yeah. So... And the swimming goes fairly fast. It does, yeah. In and out. Right. I mean, you still have the runners crossing the beach for a while, and they're trying to keep everything closed, but... Okay. Actually, maybe we... I don't know, because I think we have to... Let's go back and check. I think we have to pull up the swim lines.

Okay. I know that they were telling me that the box kind of goes in and they fill the parking lot with bike stands. So, I mean, I'm sure as quick as it goes up, it goes down just as quickly, if not faster.

Yeah, but we should check with them on what effort. I just don't recall what we do at the, where the swim box comes out. I think it has to come out because you're swimming into the whole beach. they even get squished or something it's she's like you pull it in on the sides right so when we walk i don't think i'll tell notes that was more of a oh you stopped in okay um so maybe we don't bring the guards back in for that day we just do the reset for the next day

Oh, yeah, I can. Yeah, I can check with him. I mean, I remember he's been in contact with me since I started. So, I was like, anything you need? And so, he's been fairly helpful when I can get in touch with him.

Yeah, I think we do... My recollection is we close the feature and pull the guards at like 4 o'clock on Saturday, or something like that.

Yes. She was saying that it was about, like, three or four, it went three, and I was like, okay, we can talk about this. Clean a parking lot. Yes. Yep. Okay. Thank you.

It would make sense just to do business as usual, what we've done. Sure.

And they do a decent job running it.

very excited. So, I mean, it was really a fun conversation for me to have with them. So, it was really like, they got a good sense of what happens. And, I was like, oh, I have so many questions.

That water gets real stirred up for a couple days.

I am sure. They said they're hoping to cap it at 500 this year, for registrants. Last year, they had about 400. or 450, and they would cap it at five. They wouldn't take any more than that. So I was like, wow, that's fantastic.

It's popular. All right, another question that came up from the public was about Oktoberfest, if we've thought about dates.

We have kind of thought about dates, yes. I was talking with the staff, and let me get my calendar here. I don't know the dates off the top of my head. They were talking because we do the trunk treat as well. So we were thinking either like the 26th of September. So that's Saturday before, yes. But that's just still tentatively. We're still loosely trying to figure out what we're doing. But yeah, don't be stressed. It is on the radar, though. Everything's on the radar.

Excellent. Thank you. And trunk retreat, yes, another huge endeavor. I mean, trunk retreat's fun, though.

I've done trunk retreats in PT before. They're a lot of fun.

Usually the Littleton PTA gets involved with that, too. That's good to know. So they oftentimes will help collect candy, even, I think. or at least they have. So, and then all the good stuff that comes with that. The only other thing, I don't know, have we put anything out yet on social media about Third Thursday's on hold this year? No, I asked Nate to do that.

I know he's been really, really busy, so I did remind him yesterday. I was like, hey, Anand, what's going on with payroll today? So, can you just make sure? Okay, so I'll just remind him tomorrow. That and the toucher truck that we're not doing, so just... Oh, he did do... Oh, he did do that?

That was posted a while ago. Oh, okay. Yep, so that went out.

So then just... Just third Thursday. Yep. I haven't done that the first day of the morning.

Oh, and I'll just share now. I was brainstorming over the weekend about what could happen next summer for third Thursday. And how we do Oktoberfest came up. Maybe we do Summerfest. And a whole slew of ideas which I can just share with you. Down to massage chairs and Metro Rock getting involved with a little portable rock wall. We're like, no idea, that's too silly, just bring it on. Bring it out there. Yeah. We have the slide. Yeah, my child was very excited to have this conversation, because he said it had been stale, so we were excited about making it something fun.

That's from the... And separately, we have had, we did one, I think we did one at the beach a couple of years, last year or the year before. Yeah.

Two years ago.

Yeah. And that was... is better attended by the public than the others. Not so much the vendors, but... Yeah.

Is that the movie night?

No, movie night gets announced periodically. I don't know that we've ever actually had a movie night that I ever called, but... I may have missed that. It was the same night as the baseball chamber. Okay.

Yeah. Which is another huge night.

Somewhere around here, it's really way too late to try and do an outdoor movie, I think. Yeah. It's true.

It needs to be, like, earlier in the season, when it's darker, earlier, and freezing. Yeah.

I'm not sure that this is the location for outdoor movies. Yeah.

All right, those were my updates. We have space for public input, and we have a visitor. So public input will last, Diane suggested 10 minutes. Speakers are allowed to speak for no longer than two minutes. And that's pretty much just the only Only guidelines we have.

So, if you want to speak, you're our visitor. I'm just observing.

Okay. We're very excited to have an attendee.

I mean, I have some... I can stand up and give you some thoughts I have as a citizen, not as a select board person. Oh, no. You can speak as a citizen. Sure. Okay, fine. You don't even have to stand up. You don't even have to stand up. You can sit down. I have to do the whole official thing. I'll go up 28 Ernie's Drive, So I have two daughters, and I want to get them involved in the Parks and Rec programs, but frankly, it's cheaper for me to utilize the YMCA programs that can't mess up all right now. So that's what we're electing to do, take the information as you will. Other than that, I really appreciate everything the Parks and Rec Commission does, as well as the Parks and Rec team. I think it's probably one of the most important groups in town.

the amount of work that you all do is greatly appreciated and i just wanted to have that on the record so thank you thank you thank you camp nasa park is that what you said yeah yeah where is that that's the one that's the one it's interesting it's usually reverse they realize that always more exponentially more money than approximately so i haven't looked into any of the wise around here so

Oh, okay. That's a YMCA day camp. It is. Yeah.

And it's outdoors. They have a lake that they go to. It's about $100 a week cheaper. Oh, okay.

I'm lucky with coal. I don't know what they're doing.

Actually, that reminds me of something I'd forgotten about. I did have a discussion with... Margo from the Planning Board, there's a state senator has at least suggested or started discussing the possibility of bringing a Y to the General Vicinity Act in Littleton-Boxborough area. And so there's a brief discussion about what that looks like, how it compares to the parking right facility. And so it's just something to have on our have on our radar that there is interest in, I think, particularly approval is a little more accessible than what's out there right now. Whatever else.

Thank you. All right. That moves us into, we're going to talk about stipends, paying out the stipends. Yes. And that's specifically for, we have paid out before for the Red Cross certification. Yes. And the, that was the one that we need to talk about today, since they've just recently gotten certified.

Yes, and the CPRP, which is the National Parks and Recreation Certified Professional Park Recreation. Certified Parks and Recreation Professional. Yes, so what is this? So I got this from Brianna in accounting. Everybody came to me this week and last week. So the Red Cross First Aid CPR and AED instructor and in-service facilitator stipend is $2,500. This compensates for 50 hours at $50 per hour per fiscal year obtaining aid. A Red Cross aquatics instructor, Red Cross healthcare instructor, or first aid instructor with CPR AED for professional rescuers instructor is required to be eligible for this stipend. The conditions stipend approved by the Parks and Rec Commission will be paid out of the PRCE revolving fund. The stipend amount will include the indirect costs and distributed amongst program fees. The stipend will spread over 26 installments within a fiscal year unless otherwise stated or retroactive. In those cases, the payment will be a lump sum. Payment of the stipend, unless otherwise stated, carries an obligation of service on a fiscal year basis. The stipend cannot be combined with other tuition or training reimbursements provided by a little-thin parks or community education. The limitations stipends are subject to availability of funds as determined by the annual budget. Modifications, this policy may be modified or discontinued at any time by the Littleton Parks and Recreation Commission based on organizational needs and budgetary constraints. In terms of the conditions, application procedure for professional development stipend must submit a written request for the stipend to the Parks and Rec Commission along with proof of enrollment and successful completion of the certification. For annual certification maintenance, employees must submit proof of certification renewal to receive the yearly stipend. And that's what that says in IP for the ZOE UK.

And I can't remember last, when we voted on putting that in and then we voted, it wasn't retroactive last time, so this is the first time that we're talking about

Yeah, my recollection is this was to cover the in-service lifeguard training that Tim was doing. So that was both the whatever it was, the multi-day session that he did with both Littleton and Lexington folks, and then the, I think maybe also the ongoing updates during the season.

The CPRO, which is what it's called, is for the use of our, making sure that all of our staff are trained exactly the same way. Excuse me. And that, God forbid, if there's an emergency, we're all construct at the same level.

Are there people interested in the red crop? Oh, sorry.

Yeah, sure.

He's interested.

This one was not, so we had the I'm doing this off memory, which is dangerous, but the CPRP was a stipend for having the certification. This one, I believe, was a stipend based on the expectation of doing a particular set of trainings throughout the years. It wasn't a If I'm remembering this correctly, it was not just a stipend for having the certification. It was sort of an additional... There was an expectation to do the classes, right?

Right.

That does sound familiar, actually. So the question would be, like, is it in the budget? Are they doing the classes? You know, are they training everybody, all that stuff?

Are they certified now, as instructors?

Yes, so we all got them certified last Tuesday.

Oh, okay. So, certified instructors, okay. Yes.

And then, we would take it to the, about the fifteen to twenty staff members, the counselors, who still need to be certified. Okay.

So, I mean, it's all good. I mean, I would certainly support getting in-house instructors to do the trainings.

Right. So, how many people are going to be certified with this, that would be eligible for the stipend? Is it just Jeff?

It would be Jeff, Kelsey, and myself. Okay.

So not 15 to 20?

No, no, that's who we would be certifying. That's who you're going to be training. No, sorry, I must have misspoke. No, that's, oh, that's. I'm like, no, no, no, we're training them. But this, I mean, it also can be used within the town as well. We could train other people.

Was that, did we include that? Is that in the budget to pay that?

I would, I don't know for certain, but I would say.

I think it's important to have the ability to be nimble and have people do the training in-house. We do that on the state side, so it just makes it a lot easier to get people trained without having to worry about classes and dates and things like that.

I also think there was this, wasn't there a stipend for, I want to say it was around the $7,000, $7 or $8,000 for running the youth, the sports council? Yes. Yes. Which, that should have been...we haven't paid that. So, we would assume that would wash with this. Oh, that's a good point. So, that's taken out for now, yeah. Yep, for now. So, do you have a sense of, in training those over twenty people, is that So that's three days of training?

It would be three days of training. So we would have one day of recertification and then two days of recertification. Does the department have all the supplies? Yes, I believe we do. Okay. Because I just moved all the bags today. So I believe we actually do.

Tim must have run, right? I think Tim ran, right? Because he was here. He was. Yeah, anybody else? Yeah, and I think this... Playing in dangerous territory. But, I think a chunk of this was also lifeguard training, which he did. Yeah. And, are we doing that, or is that, how is that?

That is, I've sent a couple of kids out to get trained. Okay. Because we don't have any, and when I did reach out to Tim, he didn't have any availability at that point.

Okay. Would this cover that after you guys are certified, or no?

No, because there is the... It's an additional training. It's an additional training.

Gotcha. So, do we need to take a vote on that?

For three people to... Yeah, I mean, I think...I think, I'm supportive of it. Yep.

So, who's making the motion?

Is that you, Pete?

Yeah, so I'll make a motion to have three staff members, that you mentioned, Mo. That will... get a stipend for being in-house certified Red Cross instructors for this coming fiscal year. Or no, actually, for the end of this fiscal year, and the beginning, and all of next fiscal year.

I think that's right. I think we've already done it for this fiscal year. Oh, I see. Yeah. I think probably just for next fiscal year would make sense, in terms of...

I'm talking about a month or... So it should probably be a prorated portion for this month, and then the stipend for next fiscal.

Second.

All right. All those in favor? So, that passes, aye. All right. Well, we do have another visitor, so we can ask if there's public input before we go into our...talk about going into our executive session.

And, we still have the... .

Oh, the CFEL policy, how could I forget? Yes. But before we go there, we'll see if our visitor has anything.

No comments, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Are we holding on the professional development for NRPA? I mean, was that something that you were bringing forward? No, I'm just saying. No, no, that was just, that was another one. Okay. Yes, sorry.

Yeah, that was just one of the things we did, but this was the most pressing.

Pressing. This definitely is pressing. Okay.

year. Okie doke. So we do have our seatbelt policy that Norm so kindly forwarded. I've printed it out. I mean, sorry, no one. Saul sent to us, I'm sorry. Okay. Saul, do you want to chat about this?

Yeah, so, we... there's, I guess, three things, three pieces of documentation that are relevant. The vehicle use policy that's in the plate handbook covers more individual stuff. There isn't just a seat belt policy that's in the Selectman's regulations. And then, this was kind of an additional document to deal with the PRC trips. This was generated by Harrington Heap, our town council. And, I think when we had previously talked about this, we were thinking that there were some sort of standard operating procedure elements that we would like to add in but as I kind of looking at this now and the season coming unless there is anything we want to change in here I think what I would suggest after we discuss it is that we adopt this and then ask the staff to generate a checklist for drivers, and truck leaders. And then, that can just be a part of their procedures in business, so they have to be part of our policy, or we can add it to the policy later. If that makes sense.

So, this has already been through Harrington-Heath, our town council, correct? Is that what you said? Yep.

And, I mean, it can be a living document, if there's things that need to be changed down the road, we can make an amendment. Absolutely. And, you've seen this in this document, and comfortable with how it reads?

Yes, I have.

I'll say in item four, the second sentence concerns me a little bit. I certainly appreciate that if the vehicles aren't available, need to do something different, but from a public standpoint, my two cents, is that if we stated somebody's going to be transported from point A to point B for some event, to suggest that it's acceptable to continue to receive their compensation for the program, and yet not fulfill that aspect of it, if it can't be a suitable alternative, I'd certainly expect us to be refunding money, or that sort of thing. I just don't think transitioning it into a non-transported location may be a disqualifying event from the standpoint of the public. I'll just throw that out. Again, I hadn't seen it before in the last 24 hours, but that's my personal perspective on it.

So if you're going to a Red Sox game, instead of the Red Sox game, you go to the PRC office? Something like that. That would be a good example. Maybe Ron would go to the PRC office.

That would be a good example. Yeah. I just think it's something that I would expect us to do right by the pump. We can't fulfill the expectations. I'm changing this, but directionally want to just throw out that perspective. And, your example's perfect.

Yeah. And, I think that has generally been the... And, again, if that's understood, I'm just trying to read the letter of what's exactly written. Right.

Yeah, that's a good comment.

I don't think it's part of the vehicle use policy. I think that's probably a part of the policy. That's probably the refund policy. Yeah, the refund policy. If there's a substantial change to a program, we'll offer it. Yeah, that's probably a better place to put it in, yeah.

But good to bring up.

So maybe that's another policy that should be refunded.

A refund policy, let's write that down.

So do we need a motion to adopt this policy? I believe so, yes. And probably to put an effective date on it. I would make a motion that the parking rep commission adopt this policy and have the effective date be 6-10-26.

I'll second.

All right. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All those against, say nay. This seat belt policy is passed.

And, I want to support what Sal said. It needs to be on the checklist, so that everybody's responsible for driving the vehicle is presented with this, so they're fully aware prior to taking on that responsibility.

Excuse me, I agree.

Is there anything else before we... ?

If I may, Madam Chair, I would suggest the checklist, it should be, I would recommend, um for a you know deliverable date for that to be done and reviewed by by the parks commission so it's in place and ready to go once that process is no delay just as a by july 1st or june 20th um yeah i mean

I would like to see it in place before our first major summer transit. So that's probably before our next meeting. But I think if you can review it either with chair and vice chair or the policy committee or some, pick a couple of us to take a gander at it and then we can do a full review of it.

Yeah, we definitely want it in place before any of the tests are going in for the summer. Good point. Anything else before we move into our next order of business? All right. So the Parks and Recreation Commission will enter into executive session under OGC. So not in the leaves, you want to read that section?

Okay, Mass General Law, Chapter 30A, Section 21A2.

To conduct, thank you, to conduct a strategy session in preparation for negotiations with non-union personnel regarding the appointment and employment terms of the Interim Parks, Recreation, and Community Education Director. and that the board will reconvene in open session upon conclusion of the executive session. Is there a motion to enter into executive session?

So moved. Seconded.

All right. We need to do a roll call for that? Yes. Yep, roll call. All those in favor of going into executive session, please say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed, say nay.

I should call them by name.

Oh, okay. Great. Rob?

Yes, aye.

Saul?

Yes.

Norm? Yes. Pete? Yes. Pete, yes. So... The majority has passed. It's unanimous. So we shall move into executive session.

Does the broadcasting stop? Yes. We're back.

We're live? Okay. Excellent. Thank you.

All right.

All right, so we are back from executive session, and we need to have someone, I believe, make a motion for considering the appointment.

I'll make a motion to appoint Jennifer Davis as the Interim Parks Recreation Community Education Director at grade 16, step nine of the compensation plan, schedule A. Second.

Second.

amend that to say effective tomorrow or as soon as absolutely effective tomorrow June 10th I'm on the roll of doing the roll I'm going to just do the roll Rob? Yes. Saul? Yes. Norm? Yes. Pete? Yes. Kate? Yes. Alright is there any other business

we need to discuss before we come to a close this evening all those in favor say aye aye opposed the passes to adjourn for this evening so

is adjourning at 7 31 thank you all for your time and participation