WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP
                                                             RECREATION COMMISSION MINUTES
                                                                                 OCTOBER 2, 2007

Adequate notice of this meeting, in accordance with the Open Public Meeting Act, has been given by posting one copy of the Notice of Meeting in the Washington Township Administrative office, by making copies to the “Express Times” and “Star Gazette,” and to the municipal clerk in Washington Township.

ATTENDEES
M. Kries, S. Fritts, D. Schott, R. Berrie, W. Godfrey, D. Detrick, J. DeFranza, J. Miller, B. Jeffries.  WTRC Administrator, N. Godfrey and Committeeman B. Mueller were also present. Guest: R. Flint, P. deBoer, (DPW Manager), R. Christian, US & NJ Jr. Lacrosse League, D. Nolan and R. Rhinehart, Jersey Fusion Softball League.

NEW BUSINESS   (Items for Presentations & Discussion)

1. Rob Christian, US & NJ Lacrosse League spoke to the Recreation Commission on bringing Lacrosse, a established sport to the community.  In 2007 he fielded a clinic through the WTYA who were able to help  insure them and this clinic turned out to be very successful with about 20 families who signed up and the kids really liked it.  However, the reality of it is because Lacrosse is a contact sport they were unable to obtain their insurance through the Youth Association and very much like football, they had to go out on their own.  There is a great infrastructure to help towns put Lacrosse in the towns under US Lacrosse and the NJ Jr. Lacrosse League.  When you sign up with these organizations you are put on their insurance, they provide the goals, referees, and most importantly they hook you into a game schedule.

He is here tonight to ask the Recreation Commission if they would consider letting them use one of our fields so they can go forward with this new and exciting endeavor. He would be able to supply field dimensions and the necessary information for lining and marking out the field.  There would probably be somewhere between 8 to 10 games, one day a week, during the spring season (April - June).

There was a discussion between B. Jeffries , who is also a member of the WTYA and R. Cummings about how starting a new Lacrosse league could possibly take some of the township youth away from the already established soccer, baseball and softball leagues. N. Godfrey reminded the WTRC members that Mr. Cummings is only coming before the Commission to ask for the use of one of our fields, nothing more. Any of the concerns just discussed are not the concerns of the Recreation Commission, we are only here tonight to decide if we can supply a field for R. Christian to use for his new Lacrosse team.

After a brief discussion on whether or not we would be able to honor his request for field usage, a motion was made by J. DeFranza, seconded by W. Godfrey to consider this request.  J. Miller stated that he can see this as a growing sport and that eventually Lacrosse may be added to the Warren Hills High School schedule and even if Warren Hill does not take it up, he believes 100% in these traveling teams.  A lot of Field Hockey girls don’t get scholarships because they play for Warren Hills, which is one of the top schools, they get it because they get seen on one of these clubs. So you don’t necessarily have to have one of these teams at your school, in order to get visibility and if we can get more girls or boys scholarships, I think it’s a great idea. M. Kries asked if there was any further discussion. There was none.

Roll Call: J. DeFranza, yes; W. Godfrey, yes; D. Schott, yes; S. Fritts, yes, R. Berrie, yes; M. Kries, yes; D. Detrick, yes.

N. Godfrey will be in touch with Rob Christian to let him know when the date for our Spring field scheduling meeting is set.  This will be sometime during the later part of February.

2. Dan Nolan and Rob Rhinehart, Jersey Fusion Softball team. They came to the Recreation Commission to ask if they could use D3, D5, D6 & D7 for a tournament on Saturday, May 3 and Sunday, May 4, 2008 for a tournament.  B. Jeffries asked what provisions would be make for the WTYA leagues that might have a scheduled game for that weekend on those fields. N. Godfrey stated that is why D. Nolan and R. Rhinehart are here tonight, they are asking if we can reserve the fields for them on those particular days. When the other teams are scheduling their games for next year, if the Recreation Commission agrees to this tournament, then the weekend of May 3, 2008 and May 4, 2008 for fields D3, D5, D6 and D7 would be blacked out from any other game play.   D. Nolan explained that since this is a traveling team, and these kids get recruited for collage and they play all over the Eastern United States, both North and South.  This team has insurance, which Washington Township gets yearly, they would be charged per field, as non-township residents for 2 days. M. Kries said that as long as we have the dates, he does not see a problem with blocking out the dates for this tournament.
 
A motion was made by J. DeFranza, seconded by D. Schott to reserve/black out D3, D5, D6 and D7 for Jersey Fusion (girls softball traveling team) to hold a tournament on Saturday, May 3, 3008 and Sunday, May 4, 2008.  All in favor.

3. WTYA - Field House Roof Repair / Waiving Field Usage Fees for 2008.  W. Godfrey reported that at the last Township Committee meeting a representative of the Washington Township Youth Association said to the Committee that they want to replace the roof of the field house. They wanted to know if for spending  the money to repair the roof would the Township consider waiving the field usage fees for 2008. The Township Committee brought up that this was discussed once before with Warren Hills and if we had allowed it then, it would have set a preference meaning if we did it for that set of teams then we would have had to do it for anyone else who asked. The Township Committee referred this request to the Recreation Commission.

J. DeFranza suggested that since the usage fees we collect are suppose to be spent on park maintenance materials, wouldn’t it make sense for the Recreation Commission to use these fees to repair the roof and not have the WTYA spend  any of their money on it.   After some more discussion, a motion was made by D. Detrick, seconded by S. Fritts to have the roof repaired for a amount not to exceed $2000. All in favor.

MEADOW BREEZE PARK/OLD BUSINESS

P. deBoer was at the meeting to report and make recommendations on 3 of the larger ongoing park items. He had prepared a report which was handed out to the members at the start of the meeting.

Item #1 - Care and treatment of treated lumber for the Pavilion:   P. deBoer contacted the manufacturer of the wood of the treated lumber and they suggested that we clean the wood with a deck cleaner.  It is not to be power washed, it is meant to be porous and power washing would ruin the wood.  It should be painted with a clear, breathable, waterproof  sealer. It is recommended that this be done in 5 year intervals, so this treatment should be done early in Spring of 2008.  The Commission recommended that P. deBoer obtain quotes from a professional deck cleaning contractors and plan on having this done during the early Spring of 2008.

P. deBoer suggested that we may also want to consider putting rain gutters on the pavilion.  He will get some prices for having this done.

Item #2 - Flooding of the Morris Canal for skating:  According to the Municipal Engineers memo to the Recreation Commission dated 7/12/07 “It is definitely a case requiring specific input from the DEP”. P. deBoer agrees that we should do nothing until such a contact is made and permission granted. He also recommends that we do not involve the Municipal Engineer at this time and perhaps D. Detrick would be interested in contacting the DEP to set up a sit down visit with them to discuss the possibilities of this project.  P. deBoer would be willing to go with D. Detrick when or if he sets up a meeting with the DEP.

There was a suggestion that perhaps we use Lake Marguerite for ice skating, however because of the remote location of the Lake the Commission felt that there would be to many safety and security issues with using the Lake.

A motion was made by D. Detrick, seconded by R. Berrie that because of insurance & safety reasons, No Skating Signs should be posted at both Lake Marguerite and at the Roaring Rock dam.  All in favor.   deBoer will order the signs and have them put up at both locations.

Item # 3- Tennis Court Cracking and Repair:  P. deBoer had made contact with Bob Hale at Halcon regarding the repair of the cracks of the Tennis Courts. He had hoped to have had a date when these repairs would be done today, but Bob Hale had not gotten back to him with one.  After a discussion on the cracking issues it was recommended that we have the Township Attorney review the Contract and Maintenance Agreement we have with the Contractor with the idea that if the repairs arae not made very soon that the Attorney write him a letter as he deem appropriate.  D. Detrick is the WTRC member who will be at the next Township Committee meeting and asked N. Godfrey to have the WTRC added to the Township’s October 16th meeting agenda. 
 
deBoer told the Commission that he had one more item to discuss that was not on his report to the Commission on the Mill Pond Rd/Pleasant Valley Park Property.

Mill Pond Rd./Pleasant Valley Park Property - deBoer reported that at the last Township Committee meeting there was some very positive interest in developing this area for future fields and park facilities. Committeeman Dempski said he would start to investigate some preliminary things regarding that with the State Green Acres and D. Dempski request that we provide him with a sketch of how we envision the layout of the fields to be.  P. deBoer will be able to provide him with the sketch that he and Ric Lucy created a few months ago for one of our meetings.  deBoer had also had the soil tested a few years back by Penn State for toxins which tested good.  He will also get a copy of this to D. Dempski so he can move forward with the preliminary investigations for developing the fields.

There was further discussion on various on going park projects which involve the Commission and Dept. Of Public Works.  One being the Panther football league needing to find field space for their practices next fall.  They have been using a field at Warren County Vo. Tech but this field will be no longer available to them for use. We will have to look into this and J. DeFranza will work closely with P. deBoer and his park personnel to find a space for them to use.

When this discussion ended, M. Kries thanked P. deBoer for coming to the meeting this evening and looks forward to having him back again for periodic updates.