February 5, 2018 Regular Meeting

STILLWATER TOWNSHIP

RECREATION COMMISSION

02/05/18

The regular meeting of the Stillwater Township Recreation Commission was held on February 5, 2018 at 7:00 pm at the Stillwater Municipal Building, Stillwater, NJ. The meeting was called to order by Commission Chairman David Manser with the statement read that this meeting is in compliance with the Open Public Meetings Statement and the flag salute.

Members Present: Mr. Ashley, Mrs. Connelly, Mrs. Delaney, Ms. Hess, Mr. Manser, Ms. Richardson, Mr. Sylvester

Members Absent/Excused:

MINUTES

Motion by Ms. Hess, seconded by Mrs. Delaney, that the minutes from the Dec. 4, 2017 meeting be approved. Motion carried.

BILLS

The following bills were presented – A Royal Flush $ 319.88; A Royal Flush $ 68.00; Home Depot $153.86 (holiday lights); and Ronetco (Shop Rite) $ 103.89 (tree lighting and candy canes). Motion by Mrs. Delaney, second by Ms. Richardson to approve the bills. Motion carried.

CORRESPONDENCE

Letter from Township for budgets (already passed); a letter from Nisivoccia, LLP, a CPA firm outlining some of the upcoming tax changes. Anyone interested in reading it, it’s up here; Township Resolution with the dates and workshop meetings of the committee; Township Resolution listing Holiday Schedule; Township Resolution appointing Michele Hess and Dawn Delaney to 5 year terms on the Rec. Commission.

OPEN PUBLIC SESSION – Agenda Items Only – 7:09 – none

AMENDMENTS TO THE AGENDA

Add under new business – Mr. Sylvester wishes to add the following items to the agenda: Sub Committees and Information packets and Ms. Richardson added Port-a-johns as an item; Mr. Manser wants to discuss SLAP

OLD BUSINESS

1. Field Use Applications –

• a. An application was received from Kittatinny Youth Lacrosse Club for March 1 – June 15, 2018 at Veteran’s Park. Mon-Fri 5:30p – 8:30p and Sat.& Sun. 8z – 6p. This is for both boys and girls practice and games. All paperwork in order. Also, end of season picnic. Will get us a date. Mr. Sylvester discussed field maintenance and their willingness to help work with us to keep things in good order. Garbage pick up, etc. needs to be looked at. Also, please make sure they report things they see wrong as well so that it can be corrected. Mr. Sylvester also went over the field closure procedure and the flags that will be put out for open or closed. Motion by Ms. Hess, second by Mr. Sylvester to approve this application. All in favor with Mrs. Connelly abstaining.
• Application was received by Kittatinny Little League. March 10 – Nov. 30 Sunday thru Sunday. Weekdays Their application is requesting the fields at both Veterans and Stillwater Park. They are also requesting for both spring, summer and fall. There was a lot of discussion on this due to monopolizing the fields. Mr. Choma assured us that if anyone else brings in an application, he will be more than happy to work with them. He has done so in the past with a couple of other leagues. Mr. Sylvester also discussed with them assisting in field maintenance, clay, clean up, etc. Mr. Choma assured us that he will gladly do so. He also expressed interest in clean up day. He has an increased number of teams, which is a wonderful thing. He anticipates he will have 16 teams or more. They also use Paulinskill and Fredon as well. Wed. and Fri. went to High Point Travel baseball and Sundays went to Men’s slow pitch. These are fall dates. Motion by Ms. Hess, second by Mr. Ashley that we grant the conditional use of the fields. Motion carried.
• Application received from Stillwater Rec. League for the Soccer field at Volunteer Field. This is for Apr. 1 – June 30. Mon – Fri 4p – 7p and Sat. 8:30a – 3:00p. They always work with the other league that uses the fields. Again, discussion came up regarding the field closure system with the flags. Motion by Mr. Ashley, second by Mrs. Connelly. Motion carried. Discussion about maintenance of the fields and their availability to help out.
• There was some discussion on the shed. Not much of this discussion was able to be heard on the tape.

2. Fields Update – Buddy Phillips who works for Fish and Game. He spoke with Mr. Manser about the possibility of cutting back the brush in the areas where they drop the fish, etc. Also, have SLAP cut back the brush along the fence that’s coming through. They would like to have this done by mid March. We will send a letter to SLAP requesting their service. There is no news on the lights.

3. Signs/banners – Although we didn’t want to get new signs as of now, Ms. Richardson got a price. The company she knows can’t beat the price on the banners from “Banners on the Cheap”. The other signs are pretty comparable. We’ll hold the prices for later.

4. Punch list – things are getting done. They aren’t really on it right now as they are busy with snow removal, etc. They are working on things in between. A lot is getting done. Mr. Sylvester would like to see them coordinate with SLAP to have some of it done as well. The entrance gate at Veteran’s needs to be fixed. It doesn’t open and close correctly.

5. Magnetic bases – Ms. Richardson supplied some prices. Mr. Choma explained to us about the bases with the posts underneath and the base slides into the sleeve. When players slide into the bases, there isn’t much give and the posts are breaking, and they’re finding injuries with knees and legs being jammed when they slide. The magnetic bases are able to give when the child slides into the base. Mr. Sylvester asked about who owns the bases at the other fields. Mr. Choma doesn’t know about Fredon but Hampton supplies the bases. Mr., Sylvester knows that the home plate and pitchers mound are part of the field but the other 3 bases, he didn’t know who buys them. The prices vary but are fairly close in price for a set of 3 at about $550. Mr. Choma will get us some more information and we will look into it again. These would be needed on 2 fields, one at Veteran’s and one at Stillwater Park.

6. New member – no applicants. We have the 7 members needed but no alternates.

NEW BUSINESS

1. Holiday Decorating – 903 Ridge Road, 907 Mt. Benevolence, 921 E. Walnut Dr. Mr. Manser, Mr. Sylvester and Mrs. Delaney are abstaining. Voting done by points. After Ms. Richardson tallied the scores, the following are the winners – 907 Mt. Benevolence 1st Place, 921 E. Walnut 2nd Place and 903 Ridge Road 3rd Place.
2. Event Dates – The following events are scheduled for this year – Clean Up Day – Apr. 14, 9am; Stillwater Day – June 16; Garage Sale Weekend – July 21 & 22; Summer Camp – weeks of Aug. 6-10 & 13-17; Garage Sale Weekend – Not decided – we will revisit this one later; Fall Clean up – after much discussion, we will revisit this one later, as well; Halloween Decorating – enter by 10/29, viewing on or after 10/31, voting at Nov. mtg.; Tree Lighting – Dec. 7; Holiday Decorating – enter by 12/21, viewing anytime after, voting at Jan. mtg.
3. Benches/sheds/tables – Veteran’s Park – Mr. Manser wants to do more top soil and seeding around the pavillion. Ms. Richardson got prices of $618.80 for two additional square tables under the pavillion. We have to wait for our budget to be approved. Mr. Manser brought up the team benches and the seats need to be replaced. They are getting to be a mess. Mr. Sylvester will look into it some more for the next meeting. The shed at Veterans – it needs some TLC. It needs to be painted. This should be done to match the recycling shed and the roof needs to be replaced. This is on the punch list with the DPW. The shed at Volunteer field should also have some TLC done.
4. Sub Committees – Mr. Sylvester would like to see people work in small groups based on interests. They could do the back up, etc. This will be on the agenda for next meeting.
5. Information Packets – Mr. Sylvester would like to have packets ahead of time – correspondence, minutes, etc. Can be electronic. The question is what exactly is wanted. When this was brought up in the past, the minutes should be done at least a couple weeks after the meeting and these come by email, we don’t have much mail other than catalogs, etc. Decision is not to have it done.
6. Port-a-Johns – we need to schedule the return of the johns. 2 handicap and 1 regular at Veteran’s (1 handicap in the field and 1 in the parking lot); and 1 handicap at Volunteer field. It was decided that, since they don’t pro-rate the costs, we will have them brought back on March 1.

OPEN PUBLIC SESSION – 8:46 pm – none

COMMITTEE MEMBER COMMENTS

Ms. Richardson – went to the Budget meeting and the Mayor feels we should clear the fields and all benches, bleachers, etc. should be moved by the shed and tarped. If this is to be done, it should be the DPW. We have never done this before. The Capital Budget meeting is tomorrow night. Bleachers at Stillwater Park are not compliant and this was brought up. We will need to price new bleachers. We have had multiple people look at them and no one will touch them to retrofit them. Mr. Ashley brought up that if we replace the bleachers at Stillwater Park, we can use the seats from the old ones to replace the team benches. The rest of the budget seemed to be ok. The $200 from the Holiday Party was added to our Stillwater Day budget. Some other adjustments have been made. $23,200 is our total, if approved. We will know soon.

LIAISON REPORT

Mr. Scott reported that Josh, from the DPW has been on board with the punch list and has been working away at it. He will do work on the fields. Our budget looks good and will be voted on. Remember that we can use the sign outside to advertise. Also, take note that there are now cameras out at the DPW and the Recycle Center.

EXECUTIVE SESSION

None

ADJOURNMENT

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There being no further business, motion by Ms. Richardson, second by Mr. Sylvester to meeting adjourn the meeting at 9:00 pm. Motion carried.

Respectfully submitted,

Michele Hess

Secretary