Peru Parks and Recreation Board met Tuesday, Dec. 13.
The board oversee all matters related to the creation, preparation and management of both public parks and recreation programs in the community.
Here are the minutes as provided by Peru:
Peru Parks and Recreation Board
12/13/2016 Meeting, City Hall
The meeting was called to order at 6:33 pm by Board Chairman, Ray Zborowski. Board members in attendance were Steve Michelini, Larry Weide, Bill Steve, Janice Grabowski, Simon Kampwerth Jr., and Linda Dzierzynski. Absent was Recreation Director Lynda Kasik. Alderman Mike Sapienza was also present.
Guests: Eric Carls, City of Peru Engineer passed out a drawing of the location the new McKinley Park concession stand would be in and also showed the dimensions. He wanted to know what we were looking at as far as equipment that would be inside the concession stand. He originally had some storage space for field equipment but he was informed that would not be needed so that would possibly change the size of the building. Simon explained what they have now inside the old concession stand. Simon and Eric decided they would get together and look at the old concession stand to give Eric a better idea of what would be needed. Eric said the cost would probably be in the $120,000.00 to $130,000.00 range depending on the final dimensions and any donated materials or labor. Simon said building some shelving might be something they would do themselves. Eric said the cost is usually somewhere around $150.00 to $160.00 a square foot. Ray asked about lighting and Simon said the lighting was fine but maybe a ceiling fan would be nice. Air conditioning was mentioned and Eric said they make some relatively inexpensive small units and he would look into that. Steve said you might not want to eliminate storage space since they had to add on to the Veterans Park building to get more storage. It was also decided the storage area door should have a lock on it. The restroom was discussed and Eric suggested we go with two toilets in each one. Eric will supply a list of materials in case we want to solicit for some donations. He will write the bid specs depending on what we get. There is some block masonry already and Eric said he contacted Just Masonry and when they get a chance they will look at it to see if it can be used. Also the board donated $30,000.00 and Peru Softball had $7,500.00. When Eric is closer to a final cost we would like to take it to the city council. Eric thought it could possibly be bid out in February and started by March and it would probably take 4-6 weeks to finish depending on the weather. Eric will give an update to the council on this project. Eric will also provide an itemized list of materials for our January meeting. This will be put on the agenda for the January meeting.
Reports: A motion to accept the minutes from the 11/08/2016 meeting was moved by Simon, seconded by Linda and passed unanimously with Larry abstaining. A motion to approve the Treasurer’s report dated 11/30/2016 was made by Janice, seconded by Larry and passed unanimously.
New Business:
Communications: Ray spoke with Doug Bernabie about the Peru Pride magazine and the Recreation Board will be featured in there either late January or early February under year in review
Ray spoke with Rick Abbott who is the liaison between the park board and the city library about the Storytime in the park. He said he would contact Ray sometime after the holidays to talk about getting it started. Simon wanted to know which parks they wanted to go in and Ray said he didn’t say. Simon said if it was going to be in Rotary Park they might like to do something like maybe drinks for the children. The goal is to have a story read in each park.
Janice had a communication from Barb Pyszka. Barb has a connection with someone from the Clydesdale horses for future parades. Laura McNally from IVCH is related to the owner of the horses and Barb said she would be our contact person if we liked. Barb also found an idea for something called the great candy cane hunt. It entailed some refreshments and making candy cane crafts. It would be after New Year’s and before the children
returned to school. It would need to be done in a gymnasium because of the weather. Ray said Lynda can follow up on this.
Ray said the City would like to give the float back to us to take care of. Ray spoke with Alderman Sapienza about it. Ray was asked what taking care of it meant and Ray said it really meant preparing it for parades. Steve asked how many parades and Alderman Sapienza said about eight. Janice asked why the city would not want to have the float in parades and Alderman Sapienza said the city did want it in parades. He felt we needed to the do closer ones as some are too far away to safely haul the float. There was some thought that you had to be a city employee to pull it. Simon said the liability is tied to the float and you would have to be a city employee to use a city vehicle but anyone could use their own vehicle to pull it and should be covered by their own insurance. Ray said possibilities would be volunteers or paying someone to prepare it for parades. Simon felt since the float belongs to the city we could not make any decisions on it. It was unanimous that the park board did not want it back. It was decided to table it until the next meeting.
Ray said the ice skating rink was up. Hopefully it will be frozen by the weekend. Ray would like a sign put up on the rules. Rules were set and they are as follows. Open daily 8am-10pm weather permitting. Skate at your own risk. Wear proper footwear. Hockey M+W 3-5pm, Sat. 10am-12pm. Bill will contact Doug to get one made and put up.
Ray did a recap of the Christmas parade and fly in Santa. Lynda said the numbers were down and she only handed out 50 bags. Ray thought too many towns had things going on. Ray said it was already on the 2017 calendar but maybe for 2018 we could move it to the second Saturday. Fly in Santa was cancelled due to weather and since it was forecast to be bad again this weekend we might want to cancel it again. Ray will contact the airport and make a decision on it and let the rest of the board know. Ray spoke with Mark Lippert from the radio station and they quit the ads in Friday and are going to do ads for this weekend at no charge. Ray noted that the Mark Lippert and Shaun Walsh have gone out of their way to accommodate us on this and it was greatly appreciated by the board. Ray will contact them about this weekend.
Lynda informed Ray that all tennis instructors would be back for 2017. The field use meeting will be January 25th at 6:00pm at City Hall.
Unfinished Business: The recording Secretary position was discussed. Linda was at a meeting and we were told we have to do it ourselves and to buy a recorder. It was tabled until the January meeting.
There will be no Christmas light display this year since Steve had surgery and recovery and was not able to get it done. It will be discussed in the future if it should be moved to a new location.
Public Comment: There was no public comment.
Adjournment: At 7:54pm Simon made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Janice seconded. Motion passed unanimously. Meeting adjourned.
Respectfully submitted, Bill Steve, Secretary
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