Rec Committee Minutes 1-6-2022

Rec Committee Minutes 1-6-2022

RUTLAND TOWN SELECTBOARD COMMITTEE MEETING

RECREATION COMMITTEE

TUESDAY JANUARY 4^th, 2022

The Recreation Committee of the Rutland Town Selectboard met at 5:00 PM on Tuesday January 4^th at the Rutland Town Municipal Town Hall. Present was Board Clerk Joe Denardo, Board Member Sharon Russell, Board Member Don Chioffi, Town Recreation Director Mike Rowe, and Town Administrative Assistant Bill Sweet. There was a conference call line with a publicly accessible and warned phone number in use.

• Commissioner Rowe reported on the progress to update the Act 250 permit to be able to add the mountain biking trails at Northwood Park. Mary Ashcroft and Mary Beth Poli are working to help him with the paperwork.
• Commissioner Rowe said a grant application for a water bottle filling station was approved. This will be placed at Northwood Park, likely at the pool facility and will be available for anyone to use. They will be available seasonally while the water is turned on.
• Discussed adding KSA Built to the preferred vendor list for the Town. They are a vendor who specializes in trail construction and would be our vendor of choice to build the mountain bike trail system. The committee will recommend this to the full board.
• The zero-turn mower has been repaired and is back at the park.
• Discussed increasing the depreciation account contribution and adding the request to the March ballot. The current contribution is at $.0075. Commissioner Rowe said he would like it to go to $.0125.
  • Two-thirds of the current amount is set aside specifically for future pool replacement. The remaining one-third is used for replacement of any other rec items.
  • $67,000 is deposited annually at the current rate. The increase to $.0125 would deposit $112,000 annually. Commissioner Rowe is proposing $100,000 of that new amount be set aside for the pool replacement, with the balance being used for all other rec items.
  • Outdoor concrete pools, in our area, are expected to last approximately 50 years. Our pool is over 40 years old and has been resurfaced one time, at a cost of approximately $150,000. Infrastructure components including roofs, pumps, etc. have been replaced. Resurfacing the pool is recommended at least every 15 years. The cost to resurface it now, is almost certainly going to be higher.
  • The pool leaks water and has to be topped off every day up to 2” at a time. The source of the leak is not known.
  • There are cracks on the inside corners.
  • There are signs of decay on the pool surface in various locations, like before prior to it being resurfaced.
  • The plumbing for the kiddie pool needs to be replaced, all the valves are broken and require careful handling to get them to operate. This would involve digging up all the surrounding concrete to repair them.
  • The only main infrastructure item which has never been replaced is the main water line from just outside the pump building to the pool itself. It is not known what condition it is in and when it may fail.
  • If the fund is increased to $.0125, we could have between $800,000 and $900,000 in 8 or 9 years to put towards the replacement project. The expected impact on the average tax bill for this increase would be approximately $3 to $4 per household annually.
  • The committee is in favor of recommending the increase to the fund.
  • This should be discussed at pre-town meeting.
• Commissioner Rowe is still looking for a used snowmobile to use to groom trails in the park in wintertime to allow cross country skiing.

 

The meeting adjourned at 5:45 PM.

 

Respectfully submitted, Bill Sweet