get the record and record is going all right uh hey Matt U welcome um let's see today is February 3D this is our the first Rec commission meeting for January or for 2025 um I did want to begin to
let uh anyone who's listening know that the rec commission has um decided that we're going to hold our meetings on the first Monday of the month feel like that's an important way for us to uh get better Community participation if people
just always know when it is instead of having to check to see for kind of every other week so thanks to folks on the committee for making that work uh I think much easier for everybody involved hey Chris can you go on mute
for a sec I just did you already did all right cool all right um so be let's see before we get started um we need need a minute taker um Matt yes interested in taking minutes
all right awesome okay um and then on that note um we let's begin we received minutes from Matt for 912 and 129 um can I get a motion to approve those minutes I submit a motion to approve the
minutes all right and second second is all right um any discussion on either set of minutes we'll just approve we'll approve them simultaneously here uh any any comments
questions clarifications on the minutes no I think things went all right very good hey Jean hey sorry I'm late just yeah no no problem we're right in the middle of a discussion on the minutes Matt gave us for
September 12th and December 9th um did you do you have any questions on those no I looked at them a while ago it's been a while all right well then uh motion to approve uh can I get a around here who's who would like to approve the
minutes we got one two four five looks like we've got Chris you're good for minutes thumbs up I can't see Chris there is all right so we have unanimous approval of the
minutes all right okay who do we have moving next would be public comment do we have anybody in the audience today looks like we Amy would Amy like to join in or she should hang on the
sideline Amy if you want to join in just if you want to join the panel just raise your hand otherwise we'll let you uh stay in peace all right she would like to be added sounds good great all
right so we've got a agenda um in the calendar invite a few things to go over today um with nobody in the public we won't ask for any public comments so the items we have this is just an order from the agenda we dis a disc golf update a
Winterfest update Youth Empowerment and then circling back on Cherry Hill and pickle ball um let's just start in that order so disc golf uh Ray or Becky or both um would you like to get us
started I can say this is it's actually a really exciting time to be associated with Cherry Hill um we have a little bit of a new venture out there which I think has a chance to be very successful we we're running into a little bit of snow
right now and we know how that can that that's some people have said that that that's a deterrent from disc golf but I think that uh enough people have told us that they there's been some traffic out there anyways we are open we have we've we're in bark right now on a soft open
forour this golf course that is at Cherry Hill right now 18 holes course design uh the course design and installation happened to in a whirlwind over a course of about two weeks well the the process of procuring during it and certainly dated back further than
that but we really got ourselves moving through a course design and installment in about two weeks uh on the nine-hole golf course we have 18 targets out there with a good degree of challenge uh from
for beginners there's some there's some Target holes that are that that I think are are pretty inviting pretty challenging for for folks that are that have been experienced I got a chance to walk through walk the course myself uh both in the installation process and
then when it was all done it really is a gorgeous uh course with uh that that that reflects a lot of hard work that went in there by our team of designers um right now the the way it is is it is open play uh we're we're we're
preparing to ask the public for some for some donation help certainly but right now is open play uh we have we have the opportunity for people to come in uh familiarize themselves with the course and play some rounds as they get a
chance to um we are going to be bringing our we're we're preparing to to have our inaugural our first ever uh at least in this this round our first disc golf tournament coming up uh before certainly
before the the golf season opens but uh are we don't have a date set on that yet but it would be the first time that we have a chance to open it officially for the community and bring some bring some competitors in uh it is designed to be
in line with uh us golf ratings and so people be using it as a way of of trying to get their golf ratings up uh there's a large the usage of the course is is is intended to be obviously for
the town of ammer for UMass students for the college students in the area for permanent residents here there will also be some folks from around the area who see our course and it's its viability and see the challenge and will be coming over to try and play for their own
rating systems but the the life of the course is from the close of of the Cherry Hill Golf season to the open of the Cherry Hill Golf season where we have invested it's another uh wonderful tool Becky
who's going to be going over arpa the sort of post arpa and our programming our our programming children of arpa uh this is another one of those seeds of arpa that I think stand to benefit the community for a long time um Cherry Hill
tried this the recreation department in the town of amoris did explore this a few years ago it explored the possibility of dis golf a cherry I think arpa certainly gave us the opportunity to invest in a way that we didn't have it before and we're trying to safeguard
and give ourselves a chance to do it in a way that interferes as little with with uh the Golf Community as possible even interfere the the designers spent a lot of time making sure that it could coexist with uh cross country skiing uh
which the snow that's come out here has been a very good get for for the trail grooming we've had some activity out there here for the last couple days um but we are we are excited to sort of
look at our soft open and see how how our if Our intention was to get Cherry Hill uh more diverse in its usage in town and its and its profile in and outside of town I think that we've taken
a few steps towards making that happen too early to say success uh but I know the people who've been out there I've talked to a couple people who've been on the course here uh I think the I think early on I can say that the people who used it have been happen I can I can open for any
questions about scheduling about about uh about sort of the overall picture anything else yeah could you just remind us exactly when the season so you mentioned end of basically when it's going to
parallel or go opposite of golf what what time frame is that exactly relatively short season this year because we did spend a lot of time we couldn't do the design while golf was going on now we have a blueprint as to what the course will look like when we move it into its permanent stage in year
two year three but uh the golf the golf course we closed Cherry Hill Golf uh with daylight savings time the first week of November um we we Clos we closed Cherry Hill for golf around that time and put it to bed
and go through all the cleanup go through all of the John Quello spends a lot of time in that transition period the ideal will is that is that in that in that week that it takes to close it and put it to bed that we can then be
also simultaneously be moving our golf our this golf course into active play and into into a into a position where people can come and use that after that week so we're talking mid November is when the course will be open typically
uh and then we open the golf course again in early April and so those months there there's sometimes where it may be too cold for for major activity or too snowy icy weather may not be friendly through all
those months but it but we are looking at it at the possibility of having tournaments in that time scheduling tournaments uh gu golf tournaments happen in in cold weather they happen in in winter months they happen in in those
types of uh environments also and so it's it sort of is going to be one of our our character marks of the CH Hill Disc Golf Course Jonas yeah it sounds like a great initiative and uh I might try to get out
there go around um how are you getting the word out uh seems like maybe the tournaments they're probably people who kind of watch some kind of thread for the tournaments but beyond the tournaments how do you get like just regular people like me um
The Hope was if it was put in right when the last freeze and Ice came in or we would have we would have put in all of our social media coming out right now uh we are we are sending through our our limited channels this is what's open we
are putting up on our our social media we are we are communicating with the with the sources that come to us already um we intend to be sharing this also through the schools through some of our Community Partners um
uh the the uh the tournament is as you said it will be a chance as people are familiarizing themselves casually it also that tournament is a chance to sort of have a coming out party and introduce it to the broader Community we'll get a chance to do that as an event at that
point um I see Becky's hand I actually want Becky to jump in on this as she is she is going to be uh responsible for that communication Becky hi everyone um so the disl course is also on udisk
which is this app that um dis golf users use to find courses so it is already on that um we have information we are waiting we have a tentative um sign design that we've already put out that a
graphic designer is volunteering his time to help us get um P signs we're doing temporary signs this year that we allocated as part of arpa um so that we can we can't really
open it full open until we have signs with the rules and you know where holes are directionals kind of thing so as soon as those signs are done those we last met about those last week um so I
do expect something hopefully by the end of this week um to get those signs done it's quick turn around at um sunrays and we'll get those out and then we'll more officially like on social media push out
the course we do have we um so right now they're temporarily installed in the ground with like ground screws things like that we did um use additional arpa money to buy the converter kits to make them permanent so once we're like all
right this course is really playable um we'll go ahead and install the permanent buddings so that they just pop out and you put a sprinkler cover on um during the um golf season take it off slide in the you know pole and it'll
be a much easier setup next year um but we did want the flexibility to kind of go through a little bit of the Season before we we solidified it in place in a permanent way that answers
yeah and does this have to be reserved or players can just go and show up whenever they want or like how does that work it's free play it it is designed as free play um we obviously we will be
messaging the uh the care for the course we'll be messaging out there's a variety of different people that'll be using between the college kids between Regional disc golf folks North ammer casual people who sorted swing by
there'll be a number of different groups of people there and we are hopeful of course that everybody will take as good a care of it uh in our in our Down Season as they would uh as they would you know membership a club there um but
but it is set up as open it's it's essentially we're we're putting it into the same category of recreational play uh as as the basketball courts ten courts over the course of their life and their Seasons where we say we're giving
you the opportunity to come we have the we have the the the infrastructure here for you to use and and participate and basically play take care of it so that so that we can continue to do
this but we are not it's not like it's not like golf or we have to come in and register and te times you don't have to come and and just to add on there can be 78 players on the course at any time um the way the
holes are spaced out you can do four at each hole so over the 18 holes so we've got a good amount of room and there's a decent amount of walking distance um because it goes all around so we can accommodate a large number of players at the same time so you might have to wait at a hole but you could always go around
to the next one I want to just make sure I understood correctly though so it's temporary we've got the temporary holes up now um and then just like do we have temporary tea boxes as well like no they
are you want me to go right you can go all right so right now we have the the Nets um installed as a movable like they're in they're in the ground with a ground school screw you cement in
a bracket and like a pole and a bracket in the ground for a permanent installation but we did not want to put cement in the ground and go through that until we knew the final layout of the course yeah no that makes sense I was I actually am a dis golfer and I I'm
looking at it on udisk and and they show it looks like just a temporary like one of the photos is just a temporary hole which is why I was curious so I could clarify that that it's not the the targets obviously are real targets it's not it's not makeshift
targets they're there are there are permanent targets that are temporarily in the spaces where we've designed them okay and then the other thing that I just wanted to make sure so it's set up for the winter now but were you saying that we're trying like we're going to
trial it like this and then try to make it be available year round at Cherry Hill no never going it's only ever going to be our plan is not to is not to uh have the two Sports golf and dis golf
overlap at the same time okay yeah I that's what I thought just want to confirm all right any other uh questions or comments on disc golf all right um then let's see next up would be
Winterfest Becky so Winterfest kicks off on uh February 15 um we have a lot of activities running that day um so you'll probably recall that last year Winterfest happened in
January um the weather wasn't fantastic we got a lot of events that had blackluster attendance some that had good attendance um but with the turnover of leadership at the bid um when John
paage who's the new bid director and I met we talked about making sure we were doing it at a time where most people had time in their schedule to do it so it made sense to try to do it over February break so it starts the Saturday after February break runs the entire week with
lots of programming during the day and then it Fire and Ice ends it on the 22nd which is the last Saturday of break before everyone's getting ready to go back to school so we don't know if this is you know the new model of how it will
go forward but it seemed like you know last year during February break Winterfest was already over and I was like Wow parents have this whole week with their kids at home what are we going to do so I had done this program called station ammer where I just emailed a bunch of people saying what do
you have going on like at the library or here that we could give parents like an easy list to access over school vacation week and that was actually really well shared and those events were really well attended so I thought wow why are we not
doing Winterfest during February break so John paage is great to work with and he was like let's you know it never hurts to try so we're we're doing that so our big kickoff we have actually let me start by
saying we're really fortunate we live in a town with a lot of great businesses and Community Partners who want to support Community get togethers like Winterfest so we have H 48 activities
planned during the week um some are through Community Partners like the Hitchcock Center is always a fantastic partner they're running three programs for us over the course of the week the library you know is running kid young
adult um teen and um adult programming over the week so we're partnering together on that um we have one they were helping pay for a concert that we're doing on um President's Day
which is Carrie Ferguson and the grumpy time Club Band um they are an inclusive affirming group that's local and just fun um so the friends of the library are
helping pay for that um but the library the they tried it once at the library and it's not actually the right venue it's a little loud for the library so Winterfest is taking it on and we're doing it at the bang Center since the bang center is closed for President's
Day um our uh another Community partner we have emmer Cinema who as always steps up and does their $ five film uh family film which is going to be frozen to they'll do that on the 15th um the historical society is running a special
they're usually closed this time of year they're going to open up and do um keeping warm how people stayed warm in Winter and ammer like over the years um so that would be a nice history program
we have our emmer College in UMass Athletics going on the um Community ice rink at the Mullen Center um was fantastic to work with and they gave us a bunch of public skate times
um additional public skate times so that people had more options to go our Aquatics coordinator is running three different swim programs that week usually we're a Sunday only open swim we're going to add a couple more open swims so that um kids can be busy and
warm um or cold in the water um we're really fortunate Harolds Judy from Harold's ice cream is going to do a science of ice cream making for us um um which would be really fun we have um I'm going through the small things
and saving the big things for last um a local author and former educator at the high uh at the middle school um Jennifer wellborne is doing a program for us that we're going to partner with the library we're going to run it out of the library
we have the me and the binsky stepping up to do special programming for us and the m distri is running a bunch of drop in kids crafts for us so those are like the daily fun little things and then the
big highlights are going to be the Winterfest games which is our kickoff we if you recall it used to be at Cherry Hill we've had no snow for several years it kind of got tired at Cherry Hill so we moved it to Mill and now all of a sudden we're getting
snow um so the Winterfest games are collection of outdoor activities like the boys high school um ice hockey team is doing street hockey clinics and teaching little kids to play we have s'mores
courtesy of the mill District we have um we're gonna have an Atkins Farm cider donut eating contest um at the Winterfest games we have about 200 foam snowballs for safe snowball fights we have a SC scavenger
hunt and animals and winter scavenger hunt we have about 14 Carnival is games to play and um yeah just like it's a fun free afternoon to get out with your kids
and have a little fun in the in the snow or not snow depending on the weather and it all ends with our um our fire and ice Festival on the um common on the 22nd that's done in
partnership with the bid we have ice sculpting we have um wood sculpting tie dye Rec does tie dye on the common there's performances and then it all ends with
the very beautiful luminaria on the common so it'll be a very full but fun week and most of the activities are free and open to the public excellent I actually had the a
question for the ones that aren't free thinking the public ice skate at Mullins do we get revenue from that no okay they're just all right um okay they're just creating they're just blocking more space for us and opening more hours got
it got it okay uh very long I was reading through it already but thanks for giving the walk through um any any questions or comments or Applause for Becky can I also I'm sorry I forgot to mention our sponsors um because we're
really fortunate so you know even though the events might free running them aren't um so we are super fortunate um emers inovative living um Summerland floors um emeris Insurance Agency in
Charter um and the mill District in Atkin um are all sponsors of Winterfest so we're super grateful for them and um the mass cultural Council I should they're um paying the bulk of the concert of they carry Ferguson concert for us so
we're super fortunate to have so many different groups you know supporting ways to make events free so would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge them thanks for doing that
that's impressive list and I would say it makes sense to have the loud thing at the bang Center and not the library because isn't that what the bang Center is all about um anopia bang um and just uh just want to point
out um you're it's it's an amazing uh and just curious like how how are these ideas coming like the science of ice cream making did the the person from Harolds suggest that was that your brain no um I'm met with I met with Harolds um
actually I had gone to a bidden chamber event and I ran into her there and I was talking and she's like oh I need to find ways to connect with the community and I'm like let's talk so um that's how that came about um the keeping warm and
emmer I was talking with the um historical society and I was like it was freezing that day and I'm like got a space heater under my desk trying to keep warm and we're talking she's like I don't know what we can do and I'm like do something on keeping warm because I like I would not
have survived so a bunch of things like that plus I just like I don't know sometimes ideas happen and it's just you know it's just talking with people and that's one thing I've definitely tried to do with Winterfest is just talk to
people and find out how do they want to connect with the community um like Hitchcock centers um rolling out a new program this spring called little bear walks and they're designed for you know the the preschool and under age to get
them used to looking at nature so I was like why don't you test run it at Winterfest so and they agreed to run these free programs for us so it's just it's honestly we just have a really awesome Community who are willing to do
things to support efforts like Winterfest and do you publ size in the schools like I mean I um I don't think I took advantage when my kids were school age I I moved here when I think my kids were a little on the older side but school age kids just sounds like an
amazing week so do you go into like Crocker Farm Wildwood how so we get the word out we um they don't send backpack Flyers home anymore um so we send things to the Arps
um media and climate coordinator to send out but I am not on the parent list anymore after too many years um so I I I don't see them but we do try to send things out through the school and um the
town has been fantastic our um Communications manager is fantastic about sending things out there's videos on Instagram and Facebook um we are I haven't set up I've just
gotten wreck on Blue Sky and I'm trying to figure out how to post videos to Blue Sky in um the length that I'm used to doing videos um but we will be you know incorporating Blue Sky into our into our
social media um profile as well and press release is going out I talked with Sam today a press release will go out this week so it'll get in the paper and then hopefully get more traffic that way as
well yeah yeah I just wanted to say um I think it's a great idea to overlap it with school vacation because I remember when my children were young that that February vacation was always kind of difficult yeah agreement here awesome all right well Becky thanks
for that update I think you're up next also with the Youth Empowerment y so I'm actually not referring to it is Youth Empowerment I'm calling it Outreach programming because that's kind of more in line with my position and there's other groups working on other things so
this is just the wreck programming so I'm calling it Outreach programming um I don't recall actually if I've ever come before you since arpa funds to talk about morning movement and mentoring I know
at okay great um so I wanted to update you all on that um morning movement is in its second year for those of you who don't know um morning movement works with students in 7th 8th and alumni 9th
graders um before school from 7 to 8:45 Monday through Thursday to come um to the middle school or high school gym they warm up they play some games we do mentoring and homework help and then
otherwise encouraging them like to stay on top of things at school and then just building Community um which is like one of the beautiful things of the programming um this has been paid for
through arpa funds um through wreck These funds were identified for outreach it's you know we still partner with the school and APD we have over 50 students registered in the program with 24 to 40
students um attending a day depending on WE trans we can only transport 24 students because we only have three vans um so it's the days that are really cold and parents don't want to drive that it's just our van kids but we are still getting our van kids and our van kids
are prioritized as kind of more of our students who really we really need to be there um for social emotional or other needs like we really want to get these kids there so we can only transfer um
transport that many um we don't have funding identified for this program for next year um I am working with I'm presenting at a public health class you Mass next year hoping um a student group will adopt me and help me scour
um combes for Grants to fund the program but we are exploring multiple ways I have found a Desi grant that we we would be eligible for but it doesn't open until like may we don't find out till
August which concerns me a little bit I'd like a little more certainty in the program um so we are doing that we have had multiple Town counselors come to the program program we've had da
Sullivan um Sheriff Kain Mindy Dom PA baman and about six town counselors come to the program so that's been nice to have them see like what an amazing like it's not always easy to leave your house before 7 and get to
work but it is one of the most beautiful programs like such a joy to go to even when it's you know cold and miserable out so I feel really fortunate that recreation's been able to be part of this program and hope hopefully keep
this program alive um after our profunds end does anyone have any questions on morning movement Matt were you asking a question sorry I couldn't get that time mute um what roughly is the budget per
per year so morning movement with what we pay for this year it's about $38,000 with transportation that pays for transportation and two staff members right and then field trips we use field
trips um as incentives for kids to keep their grades up if they have um like a SE or above they can attend field trips um otherwise they need to do some makeup work in order to get to go on a field trip so we've been really fortunate
UMass Athletics and ammer College athletics are really awesome about hosting the kids for um sporting events on campus having them for pizza or something so we're super fortunate we're trying to get um a field trip to the
community ice rink at EMASS scheduled as well so we're really fortunate that most of our field trips are free we just pay for the bus um yeah we have tried to be careful uh and Becky
has certainly shephered it very well but we've been try we've try to be very careful about uh finding life for not depending on the grants that are behind us to give our programs life in the future so as she kind of mentioned our our our
big challenge right now is to find life for these programs after art it seems like to me that you're getting quite a lot of bank for the buck there in terms of a powerful intervention I would agree there are actually some kids who are in the
program because they've been referred by the school because they're having difficulty at school so one of the interventions being suggested is to come to Mor movement right that's what I mean compar to compared to other other other Alternatives I think this is probably
quite cost effective I would agree I think that the that the participants also are saying the same thing that we can sit there as as administrators and say or community members and say we're getting we're getting a pretty good bang for our buck
here I think the participants uh accounts the families and the kids themselves have had some pretty powerful testimony about what what the programs have meant for them about about how they feel like they're changing with the programming um about the bonds and the
connections that they're making and and how they feel coming out of it so it's nice when they are are echoing those same sentiments is this sort of where we are in the arpa life cycle now just funds that we've got are kind of petering out
this year or yeah so the town of ammer um really made us allocate all of our funding by the end of October um this past October um so that
they could make sure like not knowing the future how things um to protect the town from like clawbacks or anything else um so all of the the town has been really good about
allocating its funding um so we we could fund through this um June for the program but we don't have um any ability to fund past this the end of this fiscal
year okay H how many other programs Ray under Rec are impacted by that how many how many tap into arpa are impacted by arpa uh there are number that are impacted in
some way of the the from our loner libraries uh I had a chance to talk to our uh fantastic uh Youth Lacrosse folks this week um our loner library was
was for our youth sports is ARA we were able to get some supplies that have that have helped after school in prime time so direct programs that are funded by arpa not necessarily there
may be some limit there but we've gotten every one of our programs uh save a few maybe all of our programs have had some some impact from the arpa spending for that arpa grant that arpa Grant was
$200,000 uh which has been spent in a variety of different ways our Aquatics programs of course have have made Incredible use of of some of that investment Sherry Hill has used the the disc golf of course was a was a seat of
the only other direct programming is um Nifty which is the program I was going to talk about next um that's the only program that's direct funded by um arpa um it's a one-time
program um that so we've contracted with Nifty to offer their bis Camp um curriculum um this program will reach 15 to 25 um high school students Rising you
know ninth through 12th graders um and what the purpose of it is to um I gotta go to the second side of my page so I speak correctly um so Nifty is the U Network for teaching entrepreneurship and its goal is to help
students develop entrepreneurial mindsets critical thinking problem solving financial literacy skills um its goal is to get more high school students thinking in a business-minded way um that can help them achieve their give
them access to resources and supports to help them achieve their goals of being future small business owners um while creating a positive impact in their Community um so this program it was a one-time fee of
$5,000 um for the curriculum we have reached out to Ray and I have met with multiple professors at the school of um the Eisenberg School of uh management at UMass we're working with them to find a facilitator for the
program we're looking really at a younger facilitator that more near Pier talking about teaching the skills um and then we've been meeting with members of the local business Community talking about like
my goal is to infuse this program with like the young energy and then the more experienced small business owners in town having them come in and I'm calling it a share your um your pathway story like because not everyone's story like
there's the goal part of the goal is to teach them the skills but also that there's no one path and no one way to open a business and become a small business owner that there's lots of different first jobs and different experiences that build towards this so
we've met with the bidden chamber we've met with the mill District we've met with several small business owners directly talking about building up a group of speakers to come into this group this Camp it will be like a camp program that runs for two
weeks over the course of the summer and the goal is to get at least 10 business owners to come in and share their story with the students and kind of also build this network for kids of adults they know that own businesses that they can
reach out to in the future um that program will be run actually we also met with the high school the high school is going to help us with some of the recruiting for students through the guidance office and give us space to use where the kids know
the layout and feel comfortable so that will run this July right anyone have any questions on that yeah what what what is the profile of the students you're looking for for that I'm just trying to understand are you
looking for like real go-getters or are you looking for people who are sort of struggling a bit academically and you're trying to like um show them that there's other ways to do things so Nifty tries to focus on students that don't normally have access
to the like a business-minded education so it's about finding the students that you know have this IDE like that are have ideas and don't know what to do with them um but there is no
like there is no one type of student that Nifty looks for but they really do try to focus on students who don't typically have access to this type of enrichment or programming so you have like a variety of businesses
like I'm thinking like more like construction or you know like a variety of businesses that will be offered yes so we've talked to handymen we're talking to bakeries we've talked to um restaurants um Landscaping like really
trying to we've worked to collate a list of different types of businesses and different types of stories to bring into the program so if you know anyone send them along please yes they do my husband oh really yeah he's a he's
a minority business it's a painting business um I think that might look you know be attractive to students I will send you an email okay great thank you any other questions relative to Nifty excuse
me yeah I GRE sounds like a a really interesting program I hope we get some good participation and you still need to find your facilitator you said right but seems doable for July like that's not in jeopardy yeah
okay all right and then I guess just sort of kind of broadly is a couple of your updates Becky sort of Hit Upon arpa would just be Ray like I know that this obviously your your day job so you're thinking about this all the time but just wanted to make sure that we've got
sort of a good line of sight into things that are going to be rolling off and coming up with plan BS or what what we you know do you need do you need advice from this commission as to things that we need to prioritize if for short
resourced are there some programs that you got to make tough decisions for I mean we're here to help advise so as much as I hate to say it there might be some tough decisions coming up when you try to plug a $200,000 hole so
so I will say that um the arpa funding it was $200,000 some of it was used to purchase like for morning movement um has gotten a chunk for two years yeah um we've paid for that we've paid for Rise through
that program um which I've already reached out to other people who are looking to help us fund that program going forward I've already made connection with sheriff kah helain and da Sullivan about funding things like that um most of what
we did we replenished our lending library so that every sport had equipment that kids who did not have like equipment access so they could play so we invested heavily in that we took care of some Ada things at the pools um
I don't know if you know like our outdoor pools did not have Ada stairs or chairlifts um that were operational so that's that was a big arpa um expense we also um
Denise Leen be our Aquatics coordinator who's absolutely amazing um we looked at we met with um CPAC the special ed parents advisory Council and we invested in
equipment for um for students to who have physical or other disabilities that make accessing the water hard we bought equipment for these kids to be able to take swim lessons um we also
underwrote um some of the pool rental costs for adaptive swim lessons and um adaptive open swim so that these programs could like so Denise teaches she just started Sunday um has a new group of students coming through
learning to swim these are kids who for a variety of reasons can't access traditional swim lessons so it's a one-on-one program adaptive equipment like we have different ways different types of life jackets and supports for kids to get into the water kids and
adults to get into the water safely um regardless of you know what physical needs they might have um so that was just to create the program like so we invested in the material we needed to create the
program um those are also a few like such a joy to watch um the swim lessons and to see the equipment in use um it's a real like it's a feel-good moment to see kids who've not had this
access get this access to the pool so that feels like it was a really good use um additionally we bought lots of um Recreation did not have a lot of physical materials that we owned in terms of like Outreach and activities
and things like that so we have a lot of supplies that will you know serve us well for years going forward um so that we are less dependent
on directly like direct budget so everything can be sustained through like normal event fundraising or like 4th of July we bought a ton of games I don't know if you went to Fourth of July last year was we had a blast kids kids in you
know the parents played we had fun we had a lot of really great things for kids to use and that was all thanks to arpa um so we really really tried to make it sustainable long lasting things out of that 200,000 um so other than morning
movement it wasn't a lot of program support it was materials that make programs more sustainable or more accessible got it thanks for that clarification Becky great you're welcome all right any other questions before we
move on to our our last topic I don't see any hands last topic um but goody here Cherry Hall Cherry Hill and pickle ball um you know it's it's my intent that we you know we keep these on the
agenda monthly um until you know frankly like we make a bit more tangible progress on these I know that uh hand it over to you in a sec Rey you know hearing about um hearing about getting people onto the
course for disc golf is like I think it's a it's a great way to to get people kind of remind people almost that you know that we we have this great resource in town so I think that will help a lot but as we mentioned before a couple couple folks on this committee very very
interested in being a part of the ultimate solution there and so like to make sure that we uh you know we leverage these people who are raising their hands to help with this stuff because it's super important to all to all of us and then pickle ball you know
we had the the presentation I guess it was it was September um Ray you and I have had some conversations since um you know there were some there were some ideas thrown about uh for specific locations
and you know we have two attendees here it looks like but um you know for anyone who's who's watching afterwards um I want the the town to know that you are looking into some of those locations you have looked into some of those locations you've ruled out some of those locations
for very specific reasons so uh would love if you could just sort of um make some kind of note on on the kind of the status of that work so that people who are or tracking know
that we're trying to make progress so all right thank you uh I will say that I again I I can do what I can do to try and push this forward uh and I share the the sort
of I I share the the the the the patience and and Urgent the Urgent patience that I know that people in the commission of have uh been displaying here for the Cherry Hill working group um we did have a bit of a of a of a step
forward here in the last week in the last week or two uh Dave zck and I sat down to to to uh basically to dress up the the charge which I shared with you a while ago was my original draft to be
presented to town hall uh we are working on finalizing that right now that should be done by the end of this week for for uh the town manager to be able to um to be able to be able to weigh in on to be able to put forward and turn into an
official charge for the Cherry Hill work group um I would like to of course Echo what uh Dave zc said here a couple of meetings ago that uh you know to to make sure that it's clear that the working group is not here to save Cherry Hill in
the sense that it's not that there there are slings and arrows coming at it if we don't do something right now the the course is going to fall fall apart and go away this is really an opportunity the working group is an opportunity for us to to uh offer some Community input
to offer some some evaluation of what the courses next steps are I know I'm not speaking that to you all in a way that that you know that that you all need to be convinced I think that the the rec commission is willing to do something if we put something in front
of you to do if we put something for for the two members here that are waiting to jump in uh your name is still on our list your name is still something that the town is interested in in having involved in that but uh again I can tell you that as the
towns as a Town's priorities have been have been uh have been chasing other items right now Cherry Hill has not become one of those things that they've had to take care of and so my the success that I've had is in not letting
it fall apart not letting it get off the table here I think that the last week or two by by pushing through this this uh this this working group charge I think we are in the steps to having this this happen right away the only part that I know that I'm gonna that I that I I need
to edit out is we don't need to do outside course comparisons one part to to make it more digestible for our group is that we don't have to go and sit down with the other uh comparable courses which there aren't that many but we don't have to that's not going to be
part of the charge to do comparative uh budgeting with other courses but most of that most of what we had discussed and what I presented to you all before is staying intact you quickly summarize then what
what the working groups scope would be the working group scope give me a second the working group scope is to uh uh it is to look at the history of Cherry Hill and what has been tried there what what
what we have what we have tried out there to manage our budget the things that we our limitations our obstacles our like I said the the attempts to to uh to make matters work uh what have
been the what have been the impediments to making those successful is to look at those those historical realities within there to look at what the operating budget is and what what the Gap is between the operating budget and what it
costs to run the golf course um it's to it's to look at um th that's those are the those are the big pieces it's basically to look at the possibilities look at look at the cost and the and the
efficacy of of these of these possibilities of management looking at what what what it would take for us to maintain management of the cores what it would take to uh put it out for outside management for external management what
it would take to what options does the town have with that with that uh property with that asset it's basically Asset Management to assess the the value and and the management potential of that of that
core can I sorry to C off can I just ask real quick is there because there's there's a lot in there um do you have a a a Clear Vision of what Su what a successful Cherry hole
looks like just thinking you know with all these tactics if we don't have uh the end in mind like we can do lots of different things but it may just feel like we're spinning our Wheels do we have a do we have a destination in mind it's important to say no I don't have
I'm trying my hearts I have an idea as the as a director of recreation who is who still loves the idea of having a golf course that's under my under my directorship um I love that idea I love
having that that capacity I have ideas for it but I've been I've been challenged to to to keep those ideas from being the end goal for the work group I don't think that I I don't think that the goal of a working group is to
is to reach what I as the Director my vision for that course may be I think that it's it's to bring in I could I could do that with my own staff and I think this by having the recommission of of people from The Golf Community people
from the non-golf community people from the north ammer neighborhood by having people uh that are coming together to sort of assess this and dependently of my mission and my I'll be involved obviously in the whole conversation I will be very much I'm the I I will be
the the uh the staff of liaison for this I believe I haven't been appointed yet but I'm pretty sure that I'll be the staff Le liaison and so so my my insight will be will be included there but I wouldn't want Chris and sanay to be
doing my work to try and get my vision for that golf course in place we need an object we need objective eyes we need somebody who's able to think critically about what the challenges are and what the challenges could be I will be able when when we sit down in that in that
working group I'll be able to tell you all the things that I'd like to do in the course I'd like to be able to tell you all the things that man if we just had money for this if we just had money for that if we just had the opportunity to do this if if this town just just supported us this way um I can I can
have that conversation but I don't think that my vision for the golf course should be the goal of that working group if you does does that make sense yeah I think does sanj Chris do you I know this has sort of been
something dear to both of your hearts I don't know if either of you to two want to jump in just thank you for a second um I mean I mean I think I gotta listen to Ray and kind of kind of get what his
thought process is and and I mean I'm trying to understand what the town's doing with it um or wants to do with it or you know I mean I listen to Zac the last time and it's not interested in closing it or anything like that I just trying to figure out you know is it you
know what what is I I guess I'm trying to hear what not now not you know what Ray's thought process is and hopefully the towns and you know and then if you put a committee together we can be like Ray I don't you know I don't know if Ray golfs I've never golfed with Ray we're like Ray that's not really like a
golfing idea dude like you know just try try to panel some some thoughts there um it's it's a good little course um you know it's an achievable price range um at some aspects um I think the conditions are
achievable could be uh you know potentially better um I think if I walked up there right now I don't think I would see anything really going on except for disc golf um you know I remember at a couple courses it's it's a you know it's a year round maintenance
thing it's it's it's not an easy thing it just there's a lot to it but I think you also got to look at some you know some of the more modern things you know to to try to make it to try to make it work and and get youth involved up there you know get the you know Amber college
has a golf team UMass has a club team um you know maybe tap into some of those with with uh do some younger kid programs up there like you do with lacrosse that I I do with volleyball and I know there's other people out there that do stuff like that you know um get them they seem to want to give back to
the communities in some in some points um I can respond to that really quickly I whether whether it's the mission of the working group or not I can tell you so so to respond to Chris's uh question about what do they want to have happen
out there think the the reason why the working group is important is because we're we're we're financially stuck and a course that costs more money than it's supposed to this is my first pitch when I first came to you wall it costs more
money than it's supposed to cost in order to make the revenue we're making we're making good Revenue up there but but it's costing more than it's supposed to cost and and we can they there temporary fixes we can find but I think we've fall into a pattern where those
bra fixes have sort of become routine and and I don't think that the the course financially can survive on on sort of making temporary fixes routine over course of a long
period of time and so try to find out what how it can be financially viable in ways that don't have a squeezing stones to ro to get water I think that's that's the biggest reason why why this why this working group I could come in and say we
want you know let's let's make a big Capital fund to try and raise some money or I could come in as a director and say shut the course down I'm not going to say that but shut the course down it can't make money it's too much of a headache or whatever if if I say either
one of those directions if I go with either one of those directions and present that to the commission and present that to the town then then I hope that the town listens to me but at the same time that I I think the town should be able to
have objective eyes on that that aren't just my my my Fanning out over it or my saying ah I'm done with this I don't want to deal I don't want to deal with the you got I mean the town's got to realize this too now it's it's it's almost the year round if you're doing
disc golf and you're doing cross country skiing I mean if you don't maintain those things and Christ if you look at um Hickory Ridge in three or four years not doing anything you're not doing disal you're not doing cross country scheme because
the it'll just come back so I mean I don't disagree with with the golf thing but it's also it's almost now it's it's which is a good thing it's almost a 11mon business even though you know we I don't have a problem with not collecting for dis golf or anything like that I
mean you know but I'm just saying it's it's an 11 month you know when he turns it around yeah operation so it's a year round operation it's a year round Town recreational facility right right right yeah I guess I think that what it sounds
like to me is that that the objective is to come up with options to maximize the value of the facility but not we're not going to we're not going to specify too tightly what we mean by the
value you know we're not going to tie it down to just revenue and cost we're going we're going to be a little bit loose about what value means right well because if we did that we'd have to look at every facility the pool everything you know I
mean yeah I mean Val value comes in terms of the revenues and the cost but also comes in terms of the the amount of use people get out of it right like there's plenty of facilities in town that are very valuable that have zero Revenue there's no Revenue at grth Park
no but there's a lot of value there right and it's right so Ray if I could um a couple of points about the Cherry Hall working committee uh first um it's hard to understand what is
taking so long to form the working group and just to be honest like at some point my interest in participating is going to dwindle and I'm going to I'm going to let that be a full stop there but it's hard for
me to understand why it's taking so long to form the working group uh that's not a comment to you Ray that's a comment via you if you understand what I'm saying I will I will I will agree with that comment I've talked to Andy about it numerous times and it's just like
just you know I think we've gone through almost two seasons of missing golf if a if a if a working group is formed I think a key question for the town to answer honestly before the group starts
working is whether financial and capital investment is permitted to be part of the output recommendations for financial or capital investment is basically permitted to be part of the output of the working group um there will be lots of good ideas almost all of them will
cost money and if the town's intent regardless of the volunteer time of citizens is to make no Investments to Cherry Hill the members of that group need to know that before they spend the time on the commission or on the on the
working group um and uh I just want to take an opportunity to say this every time Cherry Hill comes up which is that for the past several years I I don't know I've missed some meetings so I don't know if we've seen this year's numbers
but for at least the preceding two years Cherry Hill was profitable and only appears to be a loss to the town because of the particular accounting techniques that they choose to use with respect to Cherry
Hill um I uh I will certainly share this uh this feedback particularly the the the uh I don't know the the the non the non-automatic
Eternal nature of your of your uh willingness to participate I mean I'll I will share that um it's it's not something that I didn't I kind of expected that we might have been I wasn't guaranteeing that that either one of you all would still be involved
in it um and you you certainly have the right to to bump out at any point if you would like to but I will share that and and to San's point about about wanting to know that that the value of the
working group of the working group's findings the suggestions will be taken seriously and if the suggestions are investment and they the town already knows that that investment can't happen then then I would like it not to
be a waste of people's time obviously um I would tell you that when that charge is presented and your names are presented for for uh for appointment on the working group I
would say before you you enter read the charge see what the see what it's saying is your is your task and your responsibility what you what power is giving you at the end what what your suggestion would be and you can make
that decision or ask that before you agree to to jump on but I will be sharing your Insight here through this phase of finalizing that that in charge all right um real real quick here
I I think we did have a hand up in the audience uh Mary I don't know if you had a question or if you would like to but uh if you do have a question I see your hand go back up uh Ray could we recognize Mary please a lot of talk
yeah lot of talk a lot of talk hello Mary uh hi um I just wanted to to follow up with the two speakers I don't know people's names um who talked about
Cherry Hill as a uh community resource I live in north amorist and um it is true that area is used 12 months a year there's a lot of people for instance who just walk that
um area um all all during the year um and the other thing is that I am a little confused about the fact that um this is supposed to be making money when and I I didn't think the rec department was supposed to make money um and as the
person said before you know Kendrick Park doesn't make money I doubt if the swimming pools make money so I'm uh I I yeah I'd just like to say I I think we should be looking that as a as
a rick resource rather than as the town being in the business to make money off it okay thank you thank you Mary um all right uh Ray did you want to respond to that
or I could I the the idea about making money I can just say briefly because of the amount of money that goes in the because because the amount of money it costs to run Cherry Hill uh that money comes for the money it generates
and so it's not that it has to make money uh for its own sake we're not trying to raise profit out there it's not a profit Center for us but Cherry Hill should in some ways take care of itself in terms of the expenses it takes
to operate and keep that place running um and so we're charged my my and running Cherry Hill revenue is an important piece of that because that Revenue pay pays for pays for its part
of our of of of the revolving budget um that we're responsible for every year very good thanks Ray um all right before we go to pickle ball um just you know we are meeting the first of the month you've been making
recent progress on the working group charge will that be done by our next meeting well the work charge yeah will you have your draft I know You' mentioned you were going to take that and I guess sort of shop it with the
town but is that something that we can put you on the hook for to commit for our next meeting I don't see why not I I don't see why not uh send it my way yes I'll I will take that I'll will take that stress I will
be uh I do have an appointment to talk to Dave about it again here now so um yeah forcing mechanism can help so to to some of the other comments that you know it's been a while let's let's have
something tangible for uh for next meeting and if that's you know the working charge I think would be a great um a great thing that we can then discuss react to and you can get some initial thoughts all right um pickle ball was the last item again we talked about this
in the past and what you and I specifically talked about Ray was just addressing feedback from some of the people who attended that meeting about potential sites which they thought would be viable um could you just sort of
share the basically the work that you've done in terms of looking at sites sites that have been ruled out and provide a little bit of why because ultimately you know we we talked in that last meeting about you know we've got money from CPA
a couple Cycles ago um that could be used towards um I don't know if it's the I can't remember if it was the design and build but could be used towards pickle ball is you know that's sort of sitting there idle right now and I I think your answers will help uh everybody
understand um why it hasn't been spent or essentially what progress has been made so hand it over to you again okay um the I can first of all say that uh in terms of the mill situation
right now where we are with the mill courts is those courts will be uh the the lineing of the tennis courts will be will will address uh the the pickle ball Community they'll involve the pickle
ball lines on a permanent on a permanent basis uh for the long-term The Proposal that we go longterm to pickle ball in the in the parking lot adjacent to the basketball courts um I can tell you that that
that's not a uh that's not an option that I'm pushing that I would I have any sense of I don't think the town is interested losing parking spaces in that space I know that came up before and and
uh I'm not there's no part of me that is that is going to invest uh time and energy into a what I think would be a deadend Chase to give up parking spaces in in a in
a in a in park facilities that need those parking spaces um that being said there are options in town that are still in play and what I what I think I could do is I could ask that if there's any
commission members not unlike the the Golf Group there but if there any Comm members that would like to participate in and in some of the Outreach that that I and we need to do into communities I
do not feel comfortable sort of sharing what what the what the next space would be for us there are a couple things that had to come into play before that before we could make those extensions and I don't feel comfortable uh putting
putting my my target areas uh in public record right now before we reach out to those communities so I will tell if there there if there's any members of the commission right now that would like to participate in community
outreach with me and with my department then then I can involve you in that process as we as we extend to those communities but we when you say I'm sorry when you say communities could you just clarify what you mean there the the
communities that would be impacted by developing pickle ball in their neighborhood the neighbor basically neighborhoods so so neighborhood communities that are that would be affected by the pickle ball uh development you know we we would like to
not have a a repeat of of former the problems that we had with the Kanas site where where we got head of our skis in that situation we we don't want to we don't want to we don't want to end up having
members of the community find out that it's an option before before uh before we've already communicated with them about what that option may be imp talk in surveys Ray we're talking we're talking about uh basically
informational sessions surveys uh public Outreach with with uh communities that may be affected yeah I mean I can tell you from my from my own perspective even though I'm not a pickle ball player I'd be happy to talk to anybody about pickle ball um I mean as a person who's a big
proponent of amenities in town uh and the town having amenities I would be happy to volunteer time to for listing sessions you know without creating an adversarial environment for and again you know pros and cons happy to discuss that with anybody and any plans that we
have um at recck or at the town for and I agree I don't think anybody wants to end up where we ended up last time so um anything to put offut that but but still keep the ball rolling forward I think I'm a huge proponent of and happy to volunteer some time too for
sure thanks Jeremy yeah I would too thanks je I'll stick with golf yeah you got your hands full Chris exactly you and sanj both trying to get my trying to get my hands full I'm trying let me f my hands
yeah we're gonna we're gonna call uh we're gonna call Cherry Hill the uh it's like code name is going to be the Chris's handsful yeah I mean I'm With You Chris though it gets concerning just because again like it's a golf course so we all
know we're in drought you know it's not drought's not going anywhere so sooner or later you got start talking irrigation I mean something right I mean the frustr the frustrating thing right now is that I join a board to to do things and you know this is a good board this is a good group of people
but I look look a little more than just a meet an hour once a week once a month I I don't mind getting my hands dirty I I don't I've offered help numerous times um you know it's it's you know I I don't need a a gold sticker after leaving the
meeting you know I'm just looking for you know a little more and you know golf project of mine just like you know with my daughter's volleyball right now I mean it's a I don't mind helping those you know it's just you know even the pickle ball thing man it
just I I watch other towns just put in stuff in fields and pickle ball courts and it just seems like we drive by them you drive by I just I've lived this town my whole life and it's just like just wanted I was glad some said the other day we just
the amount of money we spent on studies we could have put up a lot of beautiful stuff exactly you know I mean just I can't believe the amount of money we blow on studies and Ray that's not I'm not that's not a hit at you I'm just saying the whole town yep you know I I
take every bit of it that I need to take and I will I'll leave enough for some other folks too right yeah I mean if I'm gonna stay Sun by your right I'll tell you you know what I mean it's just it's it's I mean we we're gonna do a pothole study soon because the potholes are coming out let's let's get a study going just ruined my tire yesterday on a
pothole it's it's just slash Matt what do you got on your mind you got your hand actually uh oh uh oh here it comes Mary do you have your hand up as well I just had I just had a quick question about I just have a quick question what the permanent lines are they going to
put pickle ball lines on both courts um undetermined yet I'm my guess is yet my my my push will be for yes for both courts yeah okay um Mary we got time here would
what's on your mind uh can you hear me y yes um yeah a couple things um I'm belong to district one neighborhood association in north amist and uh I just wanted to remind uh people that we did
do a survey about the pickle ball court uh with a really pretty good response and it was uh um very much in favor of having it at um U mil River uh we could get the those results again if
um Ray wants them um and the other thing was I was wondering whether there's been a parking study about mil River because um certainly whenever I'm down there that parking lot does not have cars in it so I'm wondering if it's um
basically used particular Ally for like baseball games or well I guess basically baseball games um and if that's the case um couldn't the pickle ball courts be used as a parking lot just on those
occasions when the uh that that lot needs to be used because it really mostly is not used it's um there's pretty much always parking down there unless there's some uh event going on
okay thank you thanks Mary Ray the parking the parking situations are event specific uh they it's not frequently that the spaces are occupied and used it is on the on those those
large events out there uh without street parking um it is it's it's a minor crisis there was a there was one major event last summer where uh there was basketball event Community uh uh I think
uh Community responders had an event there was there were like three major events and Little League at the same time and they was all uh spaces they they were overly creative with their parking spaces that time and it it just made for a really difficult time it's
not all the time it's just when it's needed there there is a strong need for it and if you put the the pickle ball cours in that lot and it would not be we could we could draw temporary lines inside the the parking spaces but to
have a pickle ball court means means raising those cords you can't use it for parking spaces if uh those would be to to dedicated to pickle ball means pulling it offline for
parking it's not just it's it's more of it's not a matter of just painting lines on those those parking spaces right um that is that's our agenda folks any unless anybody has any uh old
business they want to bring up or new business Jean is coair anything you want to to to share No thank you all right well then good meeting folks I think um nice to have everybody here um excited
for a heavily programed February and I'm looking forward to getting out to the disc golf I guess I have to do that before Thursday when the snow comes back so all right well on those working groups yeah thank you very much all
right everybody enjoy the rest of your evening bye bye thanks everybody