Recreation committee report

The POA recreation committee met recently, here are the highlights of the meeting.
Director's report: Stephanie Stone handed out a newly formatted statistical report to committee members. The report has more revenue detail than the previous styled report. It will give committee members a clearer picture of how much money each area under the recreation committee brings in. This new monthly report will make it easier to evaluate a fee structure for the 2012 budget.
Stone reported the recreation department will have a booth at the Health Fair tomorrow at the Coronado Center. The department will be giving away two 30-day fitness center memberships at the fair.
Coming up on October 30 from 3 to 5 p.m. is the children's Halloween party at the Coronado Center.
Stone also reported the five year plan for the recreation committee will include sound upgrades for the Coronado Center and the Woodlands Auditorium. The sound upgrades will be part of a fundraising effort with the Village Community Foundation. The recreation department will not be able to fund the improvements.
Stone called on Margaret Weeter, Coronado Center librarian, to explain her proposal for a food drive benefiting Project Hope Food Bank. The drive will be called Food for Thought. It will run from November 1 through 20. The library staff will collect nonperishable food stuffs and monetary donations from library patrons for Project Hope leading up to Thanksgiving.
Stone was happy to report bocce ball club members have ceased their effort to have bocce ball separated from lawn bowling and pickleball in the fee structure.
Chairman Tony Cifelli was unable to attend the recreation meeting, vice chairman Jim Harlow conducted the recent meeting.
Family Recreation
Steve Seitz said the pickleball Senior Olympics were a great success. He pointed out the POA proclamation made prior to the Senior Olympics play. Dee Vincent accepted the proclamation on behalf of the pickleball club. The club has 131 members and is continuing to grow in popularity.
Stone is looking into pickleball expansion into another tennis court.
As mentioned above the bocce ball club has withdrawn its effort to separate out game fees on the recreation fee schedule. Currently, if you join one bocce ball, pickleball or lawn bowling one fee covers all three sports.
Coronado Fitness Center and DeSoto Pools
Mary Lou Moran reported there will be a November 1 CPR class to keep staff current on certification. The fitness center is preparing for holiday visitors in November and December.
Last month there had been preliminary plans made for a recreation center open house, it has been postponed to sometime in early 2011.
The DeSoto pools are closed and the pool sub-committee is still meeting to explore all avenues of repair or replacement of the pools. The data collected up to this point is showing repairing the pools may be the best way to go.
Tennis
Joyce Feix said the tennis Senior Olympics held last month were well attended. She said 14 Villagers qualified for the state Senior Olympics.
Feix wanted to clarify the tennis age divisions, adults are under age 50, seniors are age 50 and up, super-seniors are age 70 and up.
The tennis association recently spent $2,263.45 for netting replacement on courts six and ten. There was no cost to the POA.
Feix reported evening play has picked up. She noted more people with day jobs are playing in the early evening.
The surface on three hard courts were recently patched.
The tennis association president Larry Chalgren attended the meeting to report the dissatisfaction with the proposed fee increase in tennis.
Coronado Community Center
T. J. Smith was unable to attend the recreation committee meeting.
Librarian Weeter gave her report. Library circulation activity was down slightly in September. Weeter attributed the slight decrease to the beautiful weather last month.
The library is continuing to sign up new members. Memberships run from January through December.
Weeter said members of Friends of the Coronado Library may sponsor another trivia night. The last one was well-attended. FOCCL is looking at dates in March or August for a second annual event.
Three parking signs will be installed in the Coronado Center parking lot designated just for library patrons. The signage will allow patrons to get to the library when there are large events at the Coronado Center. The large events put parking at a premium.
Ponce de Leon Center
Sue Mefford was unable to attend the recreation meeting. Stone reported the Ouachita and Woodlands facilities have been well used recently. The first week of November will bring performances of the HSV Players' production of Annie Get Your Gun.
Outdoor Recreation
Bill Etie said the beaches are closing in October. The port-a-potties will be removed. Bocce ball was previously discussed.
New lawn bowling hours will go into effect on November 1. Call 915-8819 for details.
Newcomers
The next newcomers meeting is this Thursday, October 28. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. The program will run until about 10:30 a.m. A tour of the Ponce de Leon facilities follows the meeting.
The next meeting of the recreation committee is scheduled for November 8 at 1:30 p.m.