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Recreation
Director’s Report With all this nice weather we have been experiencing this past month I hope everyone has made an effort to get outside a little more to enjoy it. Like I’ve said before we are very fortunate to be able to live here in VT, especially in the fall when air is crisp and cooler, the sky is bright, and the leaves begin their annual color transformation. The September Recreation Committee meeting was held at the Recreation Area so that committee members and I could walk around the grounds together to discuss one another’s suggestions of future improvements, projects, and/or goals. Everyone was encouraged to speak freely about any ideas that they had and were asked to keep their own notes and submit them to the Recreation Director. Over the next couple of months these ideas will assist us update the Recreation Area Long and Short Term Goal lists. In September when I wasn’t busy getting the fall programs off and running I spent a considerable amount of time putting together both the Work Plan and Operating Budget for FY 2007. The Work Plan is a tool we use to identify the work we need and want to accomplish within the coming fiscal year. The Work Plans include a history of any and all work completed in the previous year, along with any special projects that took place. Next, the Work Plan must layout it’s everyday planed services, in the Recreation Departments case that would be programs we plan to offer. This whole process may seem like a lot of extra work just to create a budget, well it is, but it’s worth it because it forces departments to think ahead and plan step by step for the future. With a Work Plan in place goals are laid out ahead of time to help everyone stay on task. It also becomes a measuring tool at the end of the fiscal year because you can measure what was accomplished verses what the plan actually called for. Once the Work Plan was complete my next step was to construct an Operational Budget that could handle the work load. I’m confident that the budget that I submitted is a fair and honest financial plan that will permit the Recreation Department to prosper and grow. It’s important to note that on Wednesday, October 5, I attended the Selectboard meeting to answer questions they might have in reference to the Recreation Department’s Work Plan and/or Budget. The Selectboard ultimately didn’t have questions, instead they thanked me and entire Recreation Department for the wonderful job we were doing for the Town of Pittsford, which I’d like to pass along to all the many people, majority who are volunteers, who care and do so much for this department, thank you for your support. The VT Hunter Safety Course that Recreation Department sponsored this fall is nearly complete, all the class room discussions are finished and the written exams are all but over. The only part of class that is left to complete is the practical portion where students will have the opportunity to demonstrate that they have the knowledge to properly handle a firearm. Thanks to Instructor Rick Hedding who was able to secure the Mendon Fish and Game Club as the site where participants will go to fire a real gun. Also thank you again to VT Police Academy for allowing the Recreation Department to use their space free of charge. The Academy is very kind to the Recreation Department by allowing us to use their resources and we appreciate that very much. Two rather successful programs that are coming up in October are the Pittsford Pumpkin Party on Saturday the fifteen and the Teen-Night Halloween Dance on Friday the twenty-eighth. The Recreation Department is still desperately looking for volunteers to help at both of these events, if you want to assist or know someone who might please get in touch with me.
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