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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-08-15-CCPAC-min 575 IWO L71s Town of Lexington a¢ '�c " m_°° Lexington Community Center Program Advisory Committee 4 y > 7/ x < APRIL I411' X I NCi7C Nancy Shepard, Chairman Tel: (781) 698-4870 Alessandro Alessandrini Fax: (781) 862-2747 Daniel Palant Francesca Pfrommer Sandra Shaw Archana Singhal Ling Yang Community Center Program Advisory Committee Minutes of Meeting August 15, 2018 A meeting of the Community Center Program Advisory Committee(CCPAC)was held on Wednesday, August 15, at 6:30 p.m. at the Lexington Community Center, 39 Marrett Road, Lexington. Meeting Attendees: Members -Alessandro Alessandrini, Nancy Shepard (Chair), Francesca Pfrommer, Sandra Shaw, Ling Yang Ex-Officio Member Attendees: Christine Dean (Community Center Director) Charlotte Rodgers (Director of Human Services), Doug Lucente (Board of Selectman), Susan Rockwell (Historical) Unable to attend: Daniel Palant, Archana Singhal, Melissa Battite (Director of Recreation & Community Programs) The meeting was called to order at 6:33pm. 1. Minutes of May 10, 2018 The minutes from the May 10th meeting were reviewed and accepted unanimously, upon the suggestion to correct the date listed for the previous meeting. 2. Citizens and Other Boards Bobby Lin and Ken Ford were in attendance representing Lexington Youth Lacrosse. They introduced themselves and expressed an interest in attending a CCPAC meeting to get a sense of how the committee operated. 3. Welcome New Committee Members Nancy Shepard introduced new members,Francesca Pfrommer,Recreation Committee liaison, Sandra Shaw, COA appointed liaison, and Ling Yang, community member. 4. LexSwim Presentation Mark Anderson, representing the informal advocacy group "LexSwim" shared a presentation highlighting the benefits of a year-round swim facility for the residents of Lexington,followed by a question and answer session. Please see the attached slide presentation. Ms. Shepard asked how much time Lexington swim teams are needing,to which Mr. Anderson reported that Lexington has one of the largest teams in the area•,there are cuts. Their season is 1/3 of the academic calendar,for which they need a pool 2 hours a day, 5 days a week. He added that given the size of the High School, a JV team is warranted. The private teams are year-round programs and have even more demand. Those teams currently use the Minuteman pool as well, adding to the overcrowding. The High School team does not provide any diving time or instruction,but it is a swim and dive team so divers need to find practice time and space on their own. Ms. Shepard asked for the proposed closing date of the Minuteman pool. Mr. Anderson stated that they will be close the pool next fall. He added that all of the teams are shopping the area right now to look for alternate space. Ms. Shepard stated that it doesn't seem realistic to have a Lexington-based pool in place in time for the closure next year. Mr. Anderson agreed and confirmed that they are looking at a strategy over the next 5 - 8 years. Sandra Shaw suggested that the real costs of building a pool are not capital, it is the operating costs. She feels that we should be looking at the surrounding areas for options as Lexington does not have the capital or the land for a pool facility. Mr. Anderson shared an idea of building a pool on the Minuteman property to solve the land question. On the operating side, Concord reports that they are losing money, despite being given a pool. This is a result of charging themselves a$400K depreciation rate each year. Brookline reports to break even on operating cost. He added that even if a private pool moves forward, this process would be still be advantageous to identify the swimming needs of the community. Alessandro Alessandrini asked, if we do have a pool on the Minuteman land,who will have ownership of the facility, to which Mr. Lucente replied that the Town is in the early stages of working with Minuteman to answer that question. Pat Costello,TMM, stated that it would be appropriate to bring Minuteman in to share their ideas for what they would like to see going forward. She continued on to advocate for the Circuit Breaker tax credit. Francesca Pfrommer thanked the LexSwim group for collecting data on the broad population of Lexington. She added that information about how and where they swim would be really important data. The operating costs are not insignificant at all. Many pools have other facilities to underwrite their costs. A multi-town collaborative could be an interesting way to share the costs as well as provide a quality facility. Mr. Alessandrini agreed that having a multi-district complex would be a way to share the costs and benefits. Mr. Anderson added that there are not a lot of increased costs when you add an additional pool to a complex. Mr. Alessandrini said it is not just about a pool,but field interests, gym space, etc. -having a joint interest will help things move forward 5. Expansion and Capital Planning Christine Dean proposed to the Committee the plan by the Recreation Committee to ask for money at Town Meeting to conduct a comprehensive needs assessment. The community was polled and data was collected before the current building was purchased. Now that we have this facility it is important to re-evaluate and look at what needs are not being met. Ms. Shepard asked for the timeframe of such a study,to which Ms. Dean replied 6- 12 months. Mr. Lucente asked if the assessment would this be for just a Community Center expansion, or to address recreational activities throughout town. He also questioned how this study would relate to what the Town is already asking for and paying for in the comprehensive plan? Charlotte Rodgers explained that the needs assessment could help inform strategic planning. She agreeed that there is some overlap and we need to be careful not to duplicate work. The Town is also currently involved in Livable Lexington and the Transportation Study. Mr. Alessandrini stressed that we should use all our unused spaces in an efficient way. He reminded the group that the Carriage House will cost more money to update than it is worth. He is in favor of the idea of using a public-private partnership to accomplish this. Ms. Pfrommer added that the Recreation Committee will need to keep the study broad enough to get unexpected results but not so broad that it would dilute the results. Ms. Rodgers recalled that when the community center was in its planning stage,it grew to a vision, and it was nice to be a part of that visioning process. As we look at the demographics, Lexington is unique in that the youth population is high and seniors are high while there is a dip in the middle. This needs to be recognized. Ms. Shepard recaped that once the scope is determined, it will be important to distinguish between this study and the others going on. The CCPAC will try to define and figure out where they sit in relation to the Recreation Committee, as well as determine how to work together to reach out to involve all groups. Meeting together a couple times a year will help with a shared vision. 5. Review of Goals The Committee goals were submitted to the Board of Selectman back in June. Ms.Pfrommer stated the importance of intergenerational programming as one our goals. Upon discussion of other service providers in the Town, she also added that completing a needs assessment will help drive and focus what we can offer that the Town may be lacking. Mr. Lucente explained that the Board of Selectman reviewed the goals and narrowed the over 50 goals to down to 22. The#1 goal is capital planning, along with public-private partnerships as a source of funding. Mr. Alessandrini stresseed that 575,000 is not a shoe-in ask, as a study. The Committee will need to show and campaign how this ask would align with BOS goals. It will be important to meet and present with other committees. Ms. Pfrommer asked if there a time to review the goals to see how we are doing. The group agreed that it would be good to evaluate in the coming months. 5. Community Center Director Updates • The LCC ran 31 half and/or full day program at the LCC with a total of 268 participants over the summer. The programs were a mix of chess, movie making, STEAM, Minecraft, and computer programming themed. • Programs ran for 8 weeks from June 25-August 20, no July 4 week. • The End of the Summer Party has 315 guests who have registered as "interested" on the Facebook event. Sponsors of the event include the Lexington Lions, Police, Russian School of Math, CAAL, Rotary Club, and Lexington Human Services. • A Teen Interview Workshop will be on the evening of August 29 and currently there are 9 students registered. • Surveys were sent out each week to evaluate the summer youth programs. Many responses were returned with good information and suggestions for improvement next year. • Recreation and Community Programs launched Instagram on July 2 with the help of our intern Cal; it is off to a great start @lexrecreation • Fall brochures have been delivered and registration begins Aug 20th at 6am. • Some new programs that will be offered this fall are FRESH (Friday Recreation & Social Hangout), Coding with Kids, Young Rembrandts, Adult Fencing, Adaptive Zumba, Karate for Seniors, Drop-in Collage Art, Launching Emerging Adults and trips to Italy and Alaska in cooperation with Collette travel. • A "cradle"has been added to the Clavinova piano which will allow for safe movement of the valuable instrument. • We are researching options for re-felting the billiards tables. • Three new handicap spaces have been lined and added in the rear of the building to accommodate increased demand. Charlotte Rodgers reported that Flex pass use was lowered to middle school age. Her Department is also ramping up fall programming—OWLL programs, collaborating with Recreation and Community Programs, a computer project funded by the Dana Home Foundation, and partnering with the library are among the highlights. Tony Serio will be embedding over in the teen space of the library doing some light discussions. The FCOA is also coordinating an Oktoberfest at the LCC to take place on October 13. On October 17`x'there will be a presentation on vaping at Carey Hall, along with a mock teen bedroom. The next meeting of the Community Center Program Advisory Committee is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, September 12, 2018 at 7:OOpm in Room 221 of the Lexington Community Center. The August 15, 2018 meeting of the Community Center Program Advisory Committee adjourned at 8:36 pm. Respectfully submitted, Christine Dean, Community Center Director