Parks and Recreation Board Meeting Minutes - October 7, 2024

Parks & Rec Meeting Minutes
October 7, 2024 @ 7pm

Hybrid meeting was held both via Zoom and in person at the Township building.

• Call to Order
• Attendees
  • Board Members Present: Helen Eckel-Wiener, Anne Duzan, Brett Klukan, Sam Wiener, Jane Kennedy, and Katy Brauchle.
  • Staff Members Present: Abbey Swan
  • Guests Present: None
• The Parks and Recreation October 7, 2024 agenda was posted on the Township website and at the township building on October 4, 2024. Agendas were made available to the public at the meeting. The 2024 Parks and Recreation meeting schedule was published in the Daily Local News on December 27, 2024.
• Public Comment
• Minutes Approved – August 5, 2024
• Old business
  • National Night Out Recap – The event was rescheduled due to weather and the turnout was great. Chico’s Vibe and fireworks were provided by Parks and Rec. The group also provided an “Art in the Park” station, which was quite popular. Maybe next year we can get Paw Patrol characters from Birthday Buddies. The large obstacle course was set up in the outfield and that worked well.
  • Community Day Recap – While it went well, we could really use more volunteers and we need to get them signed up earlier in the summer. Mrs. Steele luckily volunteered to help with the Parks and Rec table. We need an additional tent or two for the art table (it was out in the rain). Next year we can make sure that the branding is better for the Art Show so that Parks and Rec is acknowledged. Next year we should discuss if we want the general P&R tent closer to the art show. The playground survey got a lot of responses – the top three were the saucer swing, fly around, and ninja dash. We’ll use that to decide what new equipment to buy next year. We’d like to have a voting choice each year. We discussed exploring rescheduling Community Day farther away from NNO. One idea was to move Community Day to June and move the movie night to September. We need to see what other events are scheduled nearby for June. But we didn’t have strong feelings about moving it. The new mini golf worked well on the tennis courts and Giant staffed it for us. Abbey already booked Bubbletopia for next September. The Rotary enjoyed bingo and plan to do it again next year. We could do a better job of promoting it. Jane suggested publishing a map of the event for visitors to see.
  • Clean Up Crew – in September we picked up a lot of stuff, but it was our second time where someone was stung by a bee. Sam asked if we have a first aid kit for that in the Public Works trucks and Abbey will look into it. Embreeville could use a whole additional clean up.
• New Business
  • Meadow seeding event – Abbey will pull together a slideshow of photos to show on the meeting room screens and make a brief introduction. Then the rest of the event will be the same as we did last time. Seeds from Ernst cost about $800 all together (but we had $600 left from the MWS grant).
  • Halloween Party Planning – Shannon Cooper’s Dance school will co-host and set up the Trunk-or-Treat and do a performance. The PD will be participating as well as Giant. We’ll do a new scavenger hunt which is always a hit. We’ll do candy corn and pumpkin guessing again. We also made a photo booth last year and will do so again. We will arrive at noon for set up. But we’re only going to do 2 hours this year and do the judging as people arrive again instead of trying to line all the kids up for a parade. United Sports is donating the prizes again (thank you!). Sunday is the rain date.
  • Tree lighting planning – It’s December 8th this year. Abbey booked the Meistersingers and Shannon Cooper’s dancers already. Abbey will reach out to the Rotary about refreshments and the Historic Commission about opening the schoolhouse. We will need a larger table for smores. Decorating Santa’s tent went very well.
  • Jane asked about the NYC bus trip. Abbey is looking for a chaperone and Jane offered to help. Abbey will add an emergency contact form to collect for everyone. It’s December 14 – leaving Thorndale at 7:30 am and Times Square at 6:30 PM.
• Additional Business
• Adjournment