The Clinton County Rec/Park Board held its regular meeting last Thursday, March 29 with a quorum of seven members present. Board Chairman Chris Lovelace was unable to attend the session due to a family illness and the meeting was conducted by Park Director Bobby Reneau.

The board first approved the treasurer’s report presented by Vince Ostertag. The balance sheet included the $10,000 county allotment and the final half ($5,000) of the city allotment, as well as a $2,500 donation from Keystone Foods, LCC. The balance in the board’s account, minus pending bills, was just over $15,000–a far better outlook than the previous month when the balance after bills was less than $700.00

Reneau noted that Keystone was planning an “in-house” softball tournament later this spring, using players only from its Albany plant, with the proceeds going toward medical expenses for another plant employee. Ostertag made a motion to waive normal fees paid to the park board for use of the fields for tournaments, since this was going to be a benefit tourney. The motion passed by unanimous vote.

The park director then gave the monthly buildings and grounds update and also informed the board members of a 50/50 matching grant that can be applied for in the fall. If approved, the grant would allow for the purchase of playground equipment, which is currently in need at the park.

Reneau and Ostertag also discussed the amount of electricity it takes to light the park and ball fields and proposed a plan to save in some areas of lighting the fields and be able to have a couple of additional lights installed at the back side of the park.

Ostertag has been doing a study on the cost of what it takes to light some fields on a monthly basis, using different types of lighting, and suggested replacing some of the lights now in use with less expensive directional types. He estimated that the savings from changing out the lighting types used on some fields would allow for a couple of more lights to placed at the back side corner of the park, near the south side of the walking track.

Board members agreed that the walking track was heavily used, sometimes even in the night time hours, and the extra lighting would be beneficial to the walkers and make the park more secure overall. A motion to approve the lighting project was made by board member Matt Smith and passed by unanimous vote.

Ostertag, the board treasurer, also noted that he had noticed the price of Pepsi products, including water, had increased significantly last year and board members discussed possible alternatives to the drink and water products used.

Ostertag told the board he had requested written copies of all original contracts made with Pepsi for the board to review when they are received. No other official action was taken last week.

It was also announced that the opening day of Little League Baseball this year is scheduled for Saturday, April 28.

The league will not be officially sanctioned with Little League Baseball, due to high costs associated with being a member. The league will be independent, allowing for a longer season.

Reneau questioned about traveling teams’ insurance and board member Randy Speck, who is also a member of the Little League Board, said the insurance purchased to cover local players would cover traveling teams’ players. He also added that the requirement of birth certificates for all players was to guarantee that ages are correct and children are placed in the right age division when teams are divided between t-ball, Little League, etc.

On a motion by Speck, the board also voted unanimously to split both the opening and closing day’s concession sales with Little League. (More details on opening day events will be published in a later issue.)

Reneau also said he had been in contact recently with a PBS (Public Broadcasting) station out of Boston pertaining to vendors who set up at yard sales, including the 127 Sale held annually in August at Mountain View Park. Although nothing is official at this point, the park director did say it was possible that the educational station may film a segment about the yard sale at the park this summer.

Prior to adjourning the just under one-hour meeting, the board also discussed once again the need to have signs erected from the new bypass to the park during the August 127 Yard Sale. Also in future projects, Reneau noted that topsoil would need to be added before next season on a couple of the ball fields and that metal stalls needed to be purchased and installed in the park restrooms. However, he estimated the cost–per stall–would be around $600 to $800.

The next regular meeting of the Rec/Park Board is scheduled for April 26 at 6 p.m. at Mountain View Park and is open to the public.