Vice Chair Sanchez.

Present.

Councilwoman Barnes is asking General Acad.

Present.

Kenny Phillips is asking to get three president and two apps and behalf for him.

Alright, before we begin, I want to recognize our vice chair on the occasion of his birthday.

Is dedicating his time here at the city hall?

He is a selfless public servant, and uh we appreciate you being here on your birthday.

Thank you, Chairman.

Appreciate it.

And uh happy birthday to you.

Thank you, I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Um so uh we had it's been a few months now since we came together.

We are missing uh uh one of our members for short too.

Um but uh since we last met uh the mayor's budget has been proposed for well as entire budget's been proposed, but also in particular, we're gonna be spending some time looking at the recreation department budget tonight.

Um we will do a review of programming on basketball and soccer is currently underway, basketball is done, um, and then summer programming which is coming up.

Um get to update on facilities, open up for any public comment, and uh we'll go from there.

Does anybody have any thoughts or anything else I want to not add to the agenda because it's been publicized already?

But all right, great.

Um director, we will turn it over to you for an initial I think presentation on the on the mayor's proposed budget and your budget.

And we are always blessed to have our director and deputy directors here.

Um appreciate all your work as always and looking forward to hearing more.

We appreciate you as well.

It feels like uh beige, so to speak, with uh being in front of Kelsey and uh Sanchez with this budget.

Um but the budget that was uh proposed has been pretty much staff's poll as it was last year.

It hasn't really been any increases or an increase uh just really evident as the um item of uh rubbish removal um things like that, but it's no real adjustment as far as programming budgets or the uh anything else that's right.

And for your um so for personnel, are you fully staffed up at this point, Director?

Or there where are you in terms of uh staffing?

We do have uh an additional uh position that's in here, recreation specialists, uh as well as the um director of uh Elwood Community Center is also new, right?

Right, right.

But are you fully staffed up now?

Are there are there any poll and vacancies in Varnes then?

Well Western Western Assistant Director position is being posted as well, but those are positions that are already in the budget.

Right, yeah, right.

I'm sorry.

No, those those are your vacant vacant spots right now.

Those are the only ones that you have vacant to West End deputy director position and Weston, Elwood Director, and the recreation specialist.

Yeah, I mean I think the budget's pretty status 12, basically the same exact thing from from last year.

Um do you in your programming budget last year um did that about meet the needs of of the department?

Yeah, I think um we still have uh a decent amount of in the programming budget for the last year.

I mean the it's a budget that actually I inherited um six months in.

Um but it is a budget that I've been able to work with uh with the team.

Uh David, Jackie, everybody's been great in terms of helping navigate through that existing budget.

Um as to get ready for the new budget.

So within the existing programming budget, then are you thinking is there anything that you're thinking about switching around?

Is there more money that would go towards like basketball and soccer or soccer and basketball, or is there a lot of people?

Well, we have some areas that we definitely would like to address.

Uh certainly given well, soccer's always been very popular.

Um but given the uh increased popularity of soccer and with what's coming to the region.

It's been uh sort of focus of ours to create more of a developmental program for a soccer to uh get our youth for uh interested in soccer, just um just exposing it to the sport too as well.

Is that a programming area that's been necessarily a focal point for recreation in the past, but certainly something that we need to be very mindful and very involved with huge sport?

So that would that would be a key area as far as programming uh to focus on.

Okay.

I'm interested in the recreation director, the new role, is that what it's called?

The which one?

The new one you're creating recreation specialists, specialists, yes.

Is that to oversee expanded soccer leagues or literally, or what's the goal, the intent of that role?

Well, we found uh high need to look at our data capturing, work of our data, because I think that'll strip to us in terms of developing new programming to look at what we've done in the past, what works, what doesn't work.

To have a strong person that could be focused on data would be certainly a key area for the recreation specialist.

But it's somebody too that would fill a lot of voids or fill somewhat voids within the operations from the main office therefore.

Yeah.

Okay.

Um in your budget.

Um yeah, no, uh, a couple things came up in the budget uh committee.

The first one was um there's a lot of curiosity uh from counselors regarding on uh enrollment for summer camp and summer jobs.

Um the the department didn't have like the wait list numbers at the time, but they they did provide it to us a few days after, and it's good to see that it's in this packet.

Um because I was personally speaking, I I think we need to be doing everything that we can uh to have a spot available for anyone that wants to participate in, especially in summer camps.

Um I mean, this is uh a very affordable um very meaningful opportunity for a lot of families.

Um 2026 summer camps uh page, you see the total enrollment right now is 461, and uh there's almost 300 kids on a wait list.

Um so I mean I think it's our responsibility to try to you know expand capacity, maybe not all 268 at once, but when we're providing the exact same amount and funding and uh seasonal staff and program expenses, um it kind of shows that we're not moving in that direction.

What which number do you reflect on?

Uh I'm speaking on the 2026 sports camps enrollment.

Well, I'm glad you pointed that out because that um that significant uh weight list total is as a result of the fact that we don't have access to PCTA this summer.

Um past that has been uh facility that the records use for that sports camp uh program, uh which is uh it's somewhat it's somewhat sad to see that um we're not able to maintain the normal um capacity with that sports camp because that is a program that's very important to our youth in the city of province.

Uh it's something that there's been uh a lot of legacy youth that go to that sports camp year in, year out.

However, as I said, we do not have the ability to use BCDA this summer, and we're using uh Hope High School.

Yeah, and that's so it's hope not able to accommodate the same amount of students, the same amount of kids that PCTA would.

I mean, are the have we gone to the colleges if they might be willing to open up their field houses or anything like that?

There's been we've had some conversations and we certainly have some relations with colleges, but they have their own programming that's going on, so it would be good for camps, yeah.

Maintain uh ongoing some of the uh sports camp program like this without it being broken up into segments, and it would be kind of bits and pieces in terms of uh finding facilities to use that way.

As opposed to we have PCTA, we can utilize it throughout what how many courts are there?

Yeah, there's three courts in there, there's a track inside that is uh you know, as a I think there's the the long jump and triple jump um pit in there as well, so it's really all encompassing.

That's why we're able to offer uh a larger amount of allotment for for each of those sports camps that they'll rotate on a weekly basis.

So one week is gonna be tracking field, we're gonna be basketball, so we're able to have 150 kids in BCTA, whereas hope um with some of the HBAC issues that we're having, kind of hacking that building makes it very difficult for our kids, and we have gotten a lot of complaints from from parents and concerns about just the space itself, and that's something that uh you know we're talking to public property, PPSD facilities and purchasing to see what we can do for our contingency to make sure that we have a cooling area that um will suffice if we're not able to get PCTA.

Um, so what's the reason that we can't use PCTA?

Uh then we went through the question.

That's why I'm just like so many.

No, I have everybody to know.

I want to speak for others.

I mean, I mean, you know, it's it it the director kind of made it kind of clear that's above you know uh your pay period, I guess you could say uh we don't know.

But it's just like that's where I'm just like okay, like we're you know, appointed elected officials like that's our job, like is to advocate or to at the very least find out and make sure that our community knows that PCTA isn't available for sports camps for 300 kids because X, Y, and Z.

Like not having that information is completely unacceptable.

And I'm not saying it's on you guys, but like I have 14 colleagues that will go to back because there's kids from every single ward that uses this camp.

So for us not to be aware of like what the reason is, and for us not to have the ability to advocate or to put pressure on PPSD to let us use the facility, or at the very minimum give us the reasoning.

Right.

Um they point to that they've chosen that time period to do their subconstruction and um changes with their facility.

So it's gonna be closed to the public in general because of construction?

Well, I don't know.

It's it's not available to us.

I don't know if it was closed to uh public in general, uh, but I just know that the indications that there's construction going on at the time period that would make it uh problematic for us to utilize for the sports camp.

Does the camp have to be done at one location, or could it be done at multiple locations?

It possibly could be done in multiple locations, but a lot of the um participants, some overlap to go to each uh to a number of different um other programs week in and week out.

So that chapter around the city, um I mean it can be done.

Could we pivot to do it?

Yeah, I mean, I think and Shanna Perry does a hell of a job of overseeing and running that sports camp, and she is going to pivot and do the best she can with what she has there.

I mean, no disrespect to hope, but it's certainly uh given the nature, the importance of sports camp, it's uh unfortunate that we cannot utilize PCT.

I think what are the dates right in the dates of the sports camps running?

Is it all summer or is it just for a certain period of time?

All summer.

So that's it coincides another sort of program that we're ever doing.

Yeah, you almost wonder if you could say, like, well, you know, cheerleading what camp is that Nathan Bishop, right?

And something else is that hope and kind of divide it in that capacity.

I think a lot of our parents too also really appreciate being able to go to one place.

Yeah, um, regardless of the camp.

So if my I'm fully enrolled in all sports camp for the entire settlement period, um having one place that I can drop off my kid and and know that I have a direct correlation with Shannon who doesn't really good job, and knowing that she's gonna be here when I drop my kid off and I pick my kid up, um, there's probably a little comfort for that as well.

Sure.

But we're at 600 less kids than last year that are gonna get no gap then.

Well, but even last year there was a significant wait list.

1,000 eight last year.

What was that?

So we were at 1,078 people on the wait list last year.

Enrollment, okay.

I'm sorry.

All right, so now that's 461.

Was there was there a wait list last did we accommodate everybody last year?

Were there people that did not get accepted?

I mean, sort of skipped ahead of the schedule here, by the way, the summer.

But since we're on it, we might as well talk about it.

We're all of those together as all of this.

Um but also you look at the enrollment of uh 1078 as opposed to where we have five uh 461.

Right.

And a lot of that is because of the fact that legacy families that have youth in this program have pulled back from leaving even signing up or even being brought a waitless because of their awareness that it's not going to have PCTA this summer.

So there's some families that just even have a reluctance of going elsewhere.

Jack and David, you can weigh in on that too.

Jackie, did you yeah?

So I mean, to Sean's point, um, the feedback that we have been getting is if it's going to be like to Sean's point, no disrespect to hope, but if the camp is going to be at hope, they're not going to be interested in going for this year because of the situation with the um with the heat in the heat index in that gymnasium.

Um it is a plan B.

We had that last year, and it wasn't the most pleasant experience uh for everyone last summer.

So I think um some people are so-called turned off by the the situation with the with with the facility, the gymnasium, etc.

Um, we've been getting a flood of phone calls and emails, and you guys have been a test for that in hopes of PCTA opening.

And that was the sentiment across the board that please open up PCTA.

We're hoping that we can go back to PCTA, but that's not in our control with the construction over the zone.

Yeah, last so just refresh my memory.

Last year we weren't allowed to use PCTA either.

Correct.

Was the reason then because it was under construction again?

Or what was uh reasonable last year?

They were doing some construction last summer as well.

Uh but I think if and I don't want to miss it.

Well, part of it is to the PCTA was the full sports camp or two.

The beginning, I believe, was at PCTA and then they had a new correctly.

Yeah, so um I I don't I don't want to misspeak either, but I believe that the monies that were uh appropriated to PCTA this year came a little bit later, and then kind of was sprung a little bit later than our plan.

And um obviously if they have the opportunity to renovate, and if it's a one-shot deal to renovate, they they have to uh go with it.

And obviously that's a downtime for the school, which in turn would make sense for the construction of PC PTCA because the uh central wouldn't be using the facility as well as all the weeks that they have.

So I guess you know that's the reason why they chose July and August to do it.

Yeah, okay.

Um I want to go back to budget stuff, and I think I'm gonna keep on jumping around.

I wanted to finish off that budget item.

Um maybe you can help answer this, Councilman.

When do you expect the budget process to wrap up?

Uh we should have uh budget approved by like the 20th of June.

So tax bills are all can I ask a question?

Sure.

If um if enrollment is a lot of working is fragile, isn't it?

Coolie.

Um if the enrollment is down, does that mean less seasonal staff is needed?

Um not necessarily.

I mean, as it relates to the sports camp.

Well, you you use seasonal, is it that primarily we use seasonal staff for is sports camps?

For sports camp as well as this the summer program too as well.

Correct.

So it might be less, it might be less uh that's another effect too that it might be a loss opportunity for some individuals to have uh the summer job as it relates to the decrease in rope enrollment as it relates to the sports camps.

But the summer camps themselves, the uh seasonal program uh staff should not be changed.

In fact, we've been for each other, so it should be more because I would say too is we shouldn't be you know, you should never be giving that by not.

No, we have space and capacity.

My hope is that we are like and be fully on the recruit until the very last minutes that we can utilize all the dollars that we want to use for these kids during the summertime as well.

We should never be you know in a position where we're not trying to utilize every last precious dollar that we can for the car.

I mean, I could if I can chime in.

I mean, if there's extra dollars and seasonal staff, I mean, could it we possibly look at extending splash pad or uh a particular pool with those funds?

You mean extended and past the like hours, whatever because that's kind of that's usually one of the challenges with extended hours, right?

Is staffing so there's that could be looked at um as long as those extended hours doesn't yeah, I think there's a there's a different number of different layers when you look at extending hours, you have to think about um I'm I'm just kind of yeah, I'm kind of using that as an example of that.

Like if if we have extra dollars and this hour, like if we do something else with the dollars and staffing.

I I totally understand what you're you're saying, and we're not looking to cut back on the staffing, but what I'm saying is the way it's set up, there may be a need to do that, but we are going to look at different areas so that we can keep the numbers the same as far as our seasonal staff in particular for the youth of fraud to sort of look at the five job for as well.

We don't want them to be hurt by this there's a need to force to really focus on different ways to keep that manpower for to allow our our youth to have that opportunity.

Yeah, I just think it's one of those things we should probably you know, we'll definitely be meeting again in June.

I think we'll want to take another look at those numbers as they continue to populate too.

Because I'm assuming that as we get closer to the time that more people will be signing up for this stuff too.

So maybe we just do a bigger, you know, deeper dive in June too and see kind of where we're at.

But um, you know, certainly if there's extra money and we can extend hours out or increase capacity in certain areas where they might need more capacity, we should definitely think about the one thing I wanted to add to.

Yeah, a lot of it is weather dependent, also.

Um so we depending on what the weather pattern is for the seven eight weeks that we have, um, we could be doing extended hours already if you have several heat waves.

Last summer we had several heat waves, and if you want to pool uh two extra hours uh times five city pools, um the money comes in handy at that point.

But at the end of the season, you know, if you get that last week or the week after and it's rainy, no one's gonna really say, hey, let's extend either the pools or the water box.

But if it's blistering heat, they're like, hey, maybe we need to look at this, and you know, if we have the extra money, but a lot of it's touch and go throughout the summer, and a lot of it's weather dependent.

You just never know what type of summer you're gonna get.

What does it cost to keep a pool open?

Let's just say one pool.

So like per hour, I guess, like they want to keep it open after two hours.

Don't hold me to these fake is exactly.

I can get that to you, right?

No, no, no, we'll trust your judgment.

Yeah, so five lifeguards with extended hours depending on the capacity.

The lifeguard capacity is one per 50 swimmers, so depending on how many people are still in the pool.

So that's one per 50.

Then you have staff.

You have um, you know, the the front desk that they're registering have one, two to three people right there, and you have several pool attendants that are working working also as water watches and cleanup.

And you have bathroom attendance as well, two in the uh on the girl side, two on the boys' side.

So it can get costly times five pools.

I'm not saying it's not worth the money because it's and a lot of you at that time from five to seven, the kids probably will stay in the water, especially when you're announced, and you you also get some adults who don't have the opportunity to come swimming because they work until five.

So extended hours sometimes the dynamic of the pool changes as well in terms of age because uh a lot of the adults take advantage of that last two hours.

And the and the and the children as well, the screen is so um it's certainly a good resource to have a little extra money.

And because like let's just I mean take Zoo Globe for example, if you can keep that open an extra two hours on a weekday, what would that cost roughly?

So an extra two hours.

Oh, but the one I gave it to you.

Yeah, sorry.

We actually broke that down at the rate of, I think we did this previously when we went in our rooms at 15 an hour.

So for a two-hour extension at six pools, a one-day expense is gonna be $973.

That's at this as like a 15-hour 15-in-hour race.

So again, we if we adjust the, you know, to what we have currently at, um that's that's again that's one that's one pool, but if we usually expand in hours, we extend the water parks as well.

And so two hours tend to own the water parts for one day is $390 as well.

So for all of them for $13, yes, but $3100, yeah.

So $1,400.

Yeah.

But sometimes we do extend the water props and not the pools.

Right.

If it's really not scorching hot, yeah, but it's on the borderline of we need a little time for everyone to cool off.

Yeah.

So we do that in conjunction with the administration as well as PIMA.

And they give great advice, you know, obviously weather-wise.

If we don't build the capacity on some of these things, it seems like we might be able to hopefully do some of that stuff, which would be nice.

So hopefully our spots fill and we utilize the dollars for what they're intended for more than anything.

Yeah, yeah.

Let's focus not to the weather we've already deep milk or this year.

I know I know.

All right, well, um, does anybody have anything else on budget before we move on to programming?

It's pretty straightforward.

Do you guys have any suggestions for us as it relates to the budget?

I mean, other than what you've already weighed in.

Um, I mean, I would just say in general, um, you know that we've talked about this a lot, programming and communications are the two big things, right?

I mean, like keep on expanding as much as we can as much as budget allows, you know, and it's our job to advocate for more, and whatever we need it, but you know, obviously, we need to hear from you guys as to what you think you need on some of this stuff too.

I think probably the programming, if we need more money for soccer, we want to hear that.

If we need more money for basketball, we want to hear that like what are the things that we really need.

But you know, I mean, there's no shortage of I think um kids, seniors, people in the city that want more programming and things to do, and I think that's what we should prioritize.

The other piece, um, you know, I know that we talk about a lot is communications, and we've talked about our website a lot, we've talked about our uh you know how we communicate on social media, how we advertise, uh, which I think we've come a long way on, but I think we need to really keep pumping money into that.

I mean, I still very often hear from people in my neighborhood, and I talk about recreational time that don't know that the basketball league exists or don't know that there's a soccer program that you sign their kids up, and oftentimes because we're a border community, my ward in ward five, you know, people will sign their kids up in North Providence because they just they still don't know that was what we have to offer, which is why I always talk about you know, we always talk about as a group.

I think on the soccer program, it's a spectacular program.

I can't wait to hear more about it.

But I really do encourage you guys to be thinking about expanding it in other spots in the city too, because as small of a city as we are, people are very parochial on where they you know where they go for their sports, where they go for recreation, and so uh with our successful programs, I think like soccer is demonstrated over the past couple years we've been doing it.

You know, I would personally encourage you guys to really expand that outwards to like three locations in the city and make it a competitive lead so that they're playing against each other and that there are leagues that are you know actually competitive in nature, it's not just um uh you know skills and drills and whatnot, but actually make it a competitive soccer league, like there are in many municipalities across the city.

And I you know, I just I think soccer is kind of just the beginning.

We talked about volleyball, I think, in the past and other things that we hear from our kids that they want to you know be playing more of.

So my my advice to all of us is that we continue to look at the budget and continue to find creative ways to uh expand existing programming and create new programming where we can and then really communicate outward about what's available, how do we get more people involved?

Well, Jenna, if you have any suggestions.

I was gonna introduce Sean uh last week to a woman who used to work in New York running field hockey programs for free with their recreation department, and she had said, Oh, this would be great to do here in Providence, like I'll do it for free, I'll bring equipment, you know, we need field space.

She's looking for um turf fields, so I know Sean's gonna be connecting with her and seeing if that's a possibility.

So I think that would be great role to talk about how do we get more programming for girls.

Um she's been doing it a little bit here in Providence.

Um, but if we could build that out and start promoting it, um they're avenue for girls participating.

That's great.

And I I you know, again, somebody lives across the street from Mount Pleasant High School and Conley Stadium in that area constantly, and that's a turf field again that's really underutilized.

I mean, we don't we don't use it as a recreation department, we don't use it as a city.

One of the things that we kind of always talked about, it's kind of mind-knowing, it drives me nuts that like we don't the school we have invest a lot of money in our schools yet.

Our recreation facilities, our department doesn't really get a chance to utilize those fields as much as we as we should be able to.

That's a perfect example of it.

I mean, if I would say if in that particular case, if we can help you advocate with the school department on using Conley or others, or I know the schools sometimes they try to charge us for use of the field because there's maintenance and things like that, but in my mind, these are all city assets that should be utilized by cross you know, inter-department interdepartmental and uh interdepartmental in the cities.

So one of the things that I have noticed that there's not as strong of a relationship between directly between the schools and the rec department.

But I think there could be um definitely a stronger connection to you to your board to utilize the fields.

We prevent a lot of the schools for the old store for the summertime.

Um but I do look forward to increasing the bottom between the schools and the recs to make sure there's more of a cohesive uh connection and uh in terms of operational and agenda.

Thank you for connecting me with uh about the field hockey, and as I mentioned in a phone, she and I did have an initial connection we will be talking this week or only next week.

Um with field hockey is I do want to see our youth be exposed to more sports, and field hockey is a sport that's close to me with uh the province college half of uh I've often had a number of field hockey students in my class, so it's a sport that I didn't really know a lot about but have become followed up.

So yeah, yeah.

I would just say we're gonna talk about facilities after, but I mean I we're really fortunate to have West End Rec Center as a part of our recreation department, I think.

Because of the facilities, they have the turf football field there that's not run by the parks department, that's actually run by the recreation department, correct?

We permit that field.

You permit that rather than parks, right?

Right, yeah.

And it's not a school asset, that's actually a recreation department asset.

But we uh right.

It's not a school's asset, is what I'm gonna asset, right?

I guess we're I know we have a lot of like the um like the futsal fields, right?

That that are turf in the areas, but they're smaller.

That's actually a nice full-size field at West End.

And I love it.

Yeah, I mean, I look at I look at you know, sort of rec centers that have big spaces attached to them, like Rogers, for example, and um uh um Rogers uh Jocelyn, Johnson's got that big field in the back, like Steam as well.

Bad Zini's got the that's a school asset, though.

I think no, that's the city field.

That's a city field in that without open.

Oh, is it really?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh, interesting.

Yeah, but I'm all about the turf fields.

I think they're great, and then I think there are more, you know, folks who are looking at them, and our kids deserve.

But I think in regard to the school department and the rec department's relationship, I'm not sure if everyone knows, but we do host the middle school basketball league for boys and girls.

So all of their home games and away games are hosted at our recreation centers.

I believe this requirement is.

Yeah, why is that?

That they don't play in their own school gyms.

I think it depends on availability.

Um depending on the I I'm not sure exactly what they have going on, but I've heard sometimes the gymnasiums that are not available.

And last year we had to really step up as well and last minute provide them with a facility.

Um we we do to some uh I think to Swanley's point, we do share all the same kids.

And we I I believe Leozi, Vincent Brown, Zuko hosted some, uh I believe West End hosted some, but we of course welcome the men with open arms, right?

But we of course welcome the men with open arms, right?

I mean that's oh yeah, of course.

So but it but is that happening in the reverse?

Like if we want to use Convy, for example, why do we have to jump through that point that multiple course?

Of course, that's the way it should be.

They're all sitting next to us.

But I do, you know, and like I'm not gonna find a different course on it, but I think you know, we should be utilizing these assets.

They're underutilized and they're there, you know.

Right.

And then that middle school league has come a long way, especially you know, uh under uh Bobby Palazzo, the Athletic Director's leadership at Classical High School.

I mean, he's all in and he's yeah seven, whether it be track, whether it be basketball, no matter what the sport is, the middle school league, which I know is under the RIIL now.

Um so that the basketball um games, you know, it brings some excitement.

It's a little bit earlier um than the games that we host, so a lot of times if it works out, okay, at least right after school, 330, 345, depending on when the bus is gonna get there.

So it was a it was a good relationship uh in in the fall and at the beginning of the winter.

It should be good.

That's the way it should be.

And there's a lot of familiar faces on both sides, because again, we share the same uh children.

But though let me clarify that there's there are a lot of strong relationships between recs and individuals at uh public schools, um, because both sides, both those parties recognize their courts of sports, um, and what it means to our youth, and not just to the development recreational, but also to the development just in life in general to as well as yeah, that's there are a lot of strong relationships.

So yeah, I love it.

I mean, I you know again, Conley Stadium, kind of perfect example of it on any given Saturday.

There is people from all over the state coming to use that facility because it's it's beautiful.

We did a great job with it as a city, I think it's a nice turf feel.

A lot of rich history in that stadium too, as well.

There is, yeah.

But there's no reason why you know we're investing these in these facilities in the city, why we can't have some of our leagues utilizing them, whether it be soccer, whether it be field hockey or other things as well.

So I would encourage you know, we should keep working on that for sure.

But councilman, do you have anything you want to add for budget before we move on?

Um no, I think the only thing that also got kind of brought up is that uh rec department has uh special fund or something.

What is it?

The uh support fund.

The support fund.

Yes.

Um I just asked, like, we obviously don't need it line by line, but just like an overview of like, you know, this money is also being used across the rec department.

Um I think it's important for us to at least be aware.

So when we're talking to neighbors, and you know, I don't know how many neighbors are gonna look at the program expense for the rec department.

I know there's probably a couple uh Tonies out there.

Um but you know, at least we're aware, like, hey, yeah, we're investing in this, but there's also you know, this going on that's being spread across the rec department.

Um do you want to touch on the support for the show?

I I know that um the crystal uh with uh with finance is working to be able to provide you guys with some reports and see where that's at.

She might have sent it to us, might be a little bit.

I send it, yeah.

Sorry, I don't need to interrupt, but um, she sends it to me and then I forward it to you guys.

So it could be in the recreation from last week's meeting.

That's that's definitely what I think.

Yeah, you know, and I think you know, I give the mayor a lot of credit for raising money into that support fund.

We've all helped with the golf tournament and things like that, really important critical funds that quite honestly we should all be trying our hardest to raise as much money as we can into there to provide as many resources as we can.

Um but it would be good to know, I think in general.

Yeah, I can give you guys just a general uh like what we've used used that money for in the in the in the past year.

I know we've we've really opened up the uh girls' clubs, and we did that was something we did that was huge in the fall, um, especially with David Boats being down, um Johnson being down.

We wanted to make sure that we were able to offer something um that was citywide, all of our recidents can participate in it.

So that was used a lot utilized a lot for through that recognition support fund.

Uh the mayor's cup, which was brought back this past summer.

That was you again, that was something that was also utilized.

Uh the learned to swim PBD program.

Um so some of our staffers that are helping with the in-co-swim program at the scene, um, just to get them get them some wet suits and some gear to be able to actually facilitate that program.

Um so things like that is kind of where that money is usually tailored to.

Um the directors at our centers have the ability to be able to kind of petition for the usage of that funding.

Um because again, they're the ones doing the programming, they're the ones that are kind of helping to facilitate these things, so we're gonna get a lot of a lot of their feedback and input is very, very important.

Yeah, I think you know, sort of just a general list of what we've done, and I think in general um number of what we raised into it last year, we would be good to know.

Of course.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah.

Um okay, so let's go to item number two, review of programming.

Um let's start off with with basketball, always one of our most successful programs.

Um I'll let you guys just give an overview and then you can kind of throw this over to Jackie the Ron Dale, the basketball review.

So as you see in the document, uh boys tenu, they had eight teams participating, boys 12 years same, boys 14 you had nine, girls 10U, uh we had six, girls 12 and 14 you for each total number of participating teams was 39 similar to last year.

I'm sorry, similar to last year.

It was similar to last year.

Well, I think it's it's fewer, isn't it?

Because we had some rec centers that we had to that weren't open, right?

So we had the merge.

We did, yes, and uh um Josh and just uh open and closed, they you know kept going back and forth.

They had on their own team, but they also um combined with Liosi for practices and scrimmages, etc.

David Lopes and John Rams uh combined with their program.

Um so they had uh kids from both rec centers playing um for their teams, so no one was left out from either of any of those rec centers.

Um I I believe I believe we did have an increase with girls' tenue this year, and the girls' tenure has been on the rise.

Um it went well, that's what we talked about before.

COVID hit, it really wiped it out for a few years, but I think we're back on track, I believe.

Um you and I had a conversation next year there's gonna be a championship game at PC.

My daughter's team was undefeated, and they were upset there was no pay.

So they were hoping to get that title.

But I think I think even even though it's semi-instructional, they're ready, they're ready for it because there was a lot of talent in that league, and you know, they had that we saw the most smiles out of all six.

Oh, it was the most exciting thing.

And the beginning of the year to the end of the year, the improvement those girls made was amazing.

From the beginning to the end, and honestly, um, of course they were playing to win, but if they didn't, it was okay.

Yep, you know, a basket here, basket there, you know, it was a it was a victory no matter what, you know.

Yeah, so that's the plan for next year.

So 12 U and 14, you did have playoffs in the championship.

They did, okay.

Yeah, yeah, definitely we should make sense.

Uh I mean in 2019 the championship games of the final score was six to four, but that was okay because it went into overtime.

It was four to four, and then it ended up six to four.

But but the girls played so hard, and you know, again, the smiles on the 10 U, girls, the girls leave really, you know, not to take anything like from the other divisions, but yeah, they were extremely excited.

And then one location worked out uh well over there.

So it's great.

John Rollins, they were gracious host.

So also if I could add that our timing at uh Province College for the championship game was somewhat limited because PCs during that time period was um major push for uh hockey championship.

Um we were kind of uh placed in a waiting um in a waiting period in terms of knowing whether we were gonna even have PC to play.

We ended up being able to do so, but PC had to play uh uh playoff game hockey that evening, so we had to kind of be in and out of uh PC, the PCGM pretty quickly.

For parking reasons, why is that parking report?

Well, it was a major hockey parking challenge playoff.

So um all parking spaces were were needed.

So was that the same day that St.

Patrick's Day where you do?

No, no, it was last year.

Last year last year, and the year before last year.

This year was March 13th.

Yeah, I'm sure there were some celebrations on March 13th as well, but official.

Okay.

Um, well, you know, Jenna, this was your first year, I think, of your daughter in the basketball talked about your experience at all, or yeah.

I think um overall, she had a great experience.

She like I said, she loved playing with all the kids.

Um I would say the registration was a little frustrating.

You know, the fact that it couldn't actually be done online, and we had to go in, and there was a lot of confusion about the paperwork needed.

Could we just stop on that point there?

Why why why were they not able to do it online?

Why were they required to go in person?

That actually feels like a step backwards on where we've been in the past.

We I think that we really have tried to make it a point to make sure that the online registration was something that we really pushed on the rec centers.

So why so the online registration did exist?

There was the other two documents that you had to bring in person, which was the birth certificate and the report card.

So those were required to bring in person, you know, the report card, you know, we discussed it before.

Uh, two reasons residency and um passing grades.

So those, you know, I think all the directors feel as though that they would like to meet the parents, come in, discuss uh the child's grades if they're on the borderline, and also some people are confused a little bit with that system.

Whereas if they didn't have a good grade, it didn't mean that they couldn't play.

Once they got that grade up and that's motivational uh as a as a motivational tool, once you get that up, there is a safety net where you can come and play.

So some and and uh the apparent parental feedback with that to me um was phenomenal, where they thanked us over and over, and I think Tony and I discussed this.

Thank you for so-called taking something away temporarily to motivate my child to get their grades up.

And you know, we usually um interview the kids afterwards.

So if you're having trouble in school, do you need a tutor?

Do you need some help?

Because we don't want to let anybody just go by the wayside.

And a lot of the answers was no, I can do it, but you know, I stay up late, I play video games, you know, I was lazy.

And I I appreciate their uh they can't or you know the kids will tell you the truth.

But I think it's a good tool to help them get motivated as well, in addition, you know, to the parents and the teachers.

We've had school teachers call us and say, this student went from this to this.

How did you do it?

So can't play basketball.

So, you know, and and I I don't believe anyone, uh I I don't want to I don't want to speak for any other rec centers.

I don't want to say not anyone, but very low number of kids maybe weren't eligible after the the grace period to get the grades up, you know.

But um we've uh we've talked about it internally too to probably get maybe some type of in-house system where that we have tutors available where they're comfortable going.

You know, there are tutors available, but they now may not be comfortable going to uh a certain place after school.

But I I just want to be sure, like going back to online registration that that our we need to make sure that our rec center directors are all on the same page on is that that people can sign up online and they don't need to come.

There are certain documents that you'll need to bring, I think, at a certain point, but I think the initial registration I think it worked at some and not at others.

Ours definitely you could not do it online.

I tried.

So I think it just needs to be confirmed to everyone's.

Did they did they put it on rec desks to make an appearance at all?

Like it showed that there was a league, but you couldn't register for the league.

Yeah, okay.

Yeah.

Yeah, this kind of goes back to the whole, and this is a whole other meeting.

I think we need to just keep on the communications and the website and piece of it.

Recdesk is not a very functional public facing tool.

And we really have to work on that because it's it's not to scroll down, you know, a hundred different programs to find the one that you're looking for.

Like there should just be a basketball registration page.

I don't think you're gonna get any rebuttal on this side.

Yeah, we just have another conversation because you know I think the time has come that they're not an effective vendor for us than we need to find another vendor, and that's just what we have to do, something that's much more user-friendly and effective.

Um, because I I think you guys all know, I'd say there's a lot of meetings.

I spent a lot of time looking at other recreation pages across the state.

They're just they're very more, they're much more straightforward and user-friendly.

I mean, you just click on the page and a flyer pops up that says these are the registration dates.

Here's how click this link here to sign up.

It's just I believe all the programs are right in front of us.

They are, but then but then once but we have so many programs as it's not so like every rec center has you have to sift through the things to get to the one you're looking for.

It's not, it's just not user-friendly, just be a more drop-down menus and well I will say the the website that we do have uh that we have created, and I agree, there is some some growth there that we need to kind of explore with with the software that we're using.

But um, and there and there were some challenges you could get this this portion I'm about to explain across.

Rectors was able to implement an API within their software that connects to a website.

So all the programs that are created from our rec directors or even our main office staff, if there's a certain there's certain features that are or certain inputs that you put in that automatically feeds to websites.

So when you go to a website, there is filters that you can select.

So, for example, for summer programs, if you select the summer programs option, it'll show all of our summer day camps.

If there's a sports program, it'll show all of our sports programs.

So you have to just use those filters.

I mean again that goes into the communication piece of it of how that website actually feels like.

But then you have to go down, and if you don't know, let's just say I'm average I found on my community web page that there's a basketball league in Providence, I want to sign my son or my daughter up.

And I have no idea which recreation center I belong to.

There should just be a register of basketball.

And then we sort it out on the back end, you know, where we can list a preference once they sign up on I prefer Kennedy or I prefer Zukolo, whatever it is, and then we sort of sort it out on the back end, but to scroll through, you know, 13 different rec centers or figure out which one's mine.

So people are just gonna turn around and be like, I don't know, that's gonna walk, they're gonna walk away.

Well, keep in mind each uh rent center inputs that themselves, so the language would have been consistent across the board.

So you could have one right center that starts off that by saying 2026 youth 10 and by the time you get to the word basketball, it's at the end, but someone else may input it and start off at basketball and then give you the description.

So there could be 11 different ways that people are inputting their personal programs into that next.

Yeah, I mean I've actually been on David and uh previous director Steven were nice enough to invite me on with Rec Desk because I know this is like a big thing I care about it, and I they this was last year, and they were supposed to make it much more user-friendly than it seemed that they have.

I just think honestly, at this point, we ought to look for a different vendor because if that's what we're relying on to get you know communication and work out there, then it's not it's just not a great system.

I mean, we should just have literally a drop-down that says basketball register, boys' basketball, girls basketball, move on to the next prompt.

I sign, you go through the registration, you can give a preference for a recreation center, and then you also give a preference of I don't know what my recreation center is.

You know, like there's just prompts that like could be much more user-friendly for you know, again, for expansion of these programs.

So, like if we are working with um the West Broadway neighborhood association, I'll just use that as an example, right?

And they put the link out there, and it's just a basketball registration sign up, and people just go and sign up, and that gets around to other areas of the city.

Um, you know, it's one of those things I think should just be a little more uniform, I think, in registration, and then we can sort of break them down into signos after and whether they need to go, but um, it just needs to be much more user-friendly.

And if rec can't accommodate for that, then we should just move on.

Yeah, I don't know how Recdes got uh implement it or what the reason it was for your own.

Well, forever.

So like we need to uh maybe have been good at the time.

We do need to figure out stuff that is much more uh user-friendly, and uh we gotta figure out a way for our digger bases to speak to each other easier too as well.

Um there's a not towards demoralizing, they go out live, they try to navigate and get frustrated and then just give up and say they quit it.

Yeah, I mean at Kennedy, you know, uh I had to walk parents, like walk parents through like because it was so confused.

You had to scroll down and it was 50 entries down, and it's just like for basketball, great, click here.

Right.

And again, it's it depends on how it was input as well.

I mean, personally, right?

Like I would start off with a certain like 2026 and then go down.

If I forgot the 2026 at the beginning of myself put inputting it, now I'm searching everywhere because it doesn't match the rest of the programs.

Like it's like if it's not consistent with everything else.

It should be for the send for the directors much easier, just like a drop-down basketball, right?

Yeah, right.

Right.

And then the other confusing piece of it too is okay, it's 10U.

Well, maybe apparently the question is when they have when do they have to be 10 by in order to qualify for that.

Right.

And it's not, it doesn't do that in that system.

So really it should just be the person enters their birth date and then they're assigned to automatically, you know, automatically assigned to whatever it is, you know.

Yeah, it's just that there's a lot of things that just are not user-friendly.

I and I I really am kind of at the point, ultimately, it's your guys' in the administration's decision where we should just find a new system because it doesn't seem to be working the way that it probably should, unless we're just not designing it the right way on the back end for the city.

But I think that's consensus with the directors of the scene center in the main office.

Yeah.

Yeah, but and and I do think, you know, I know we've I think for the smaller programs that are very recreation center specific, like if there is like a girls' club at Zucolo that meets two days a week, we should probably list that separately.

But for the programs that are citywide, I think, like basketball, like soccer, and anything else we decide to do, um, it should be more of a citywide registration, make it more uniform.

Right.

I mean, do you guys agree with that?

Or yeah, what citywide would be a little bit different from then site specific.

So if you're looking for something specifically, you're in your area, so to speak, sure.

But then if you want to join something where you want to um you know expand, obviously citywide, they they could be like to your point, two different ones depending on what you're looking for.

Not even two different ones, like your you I'll use Zuclo as an example, Jackie, because you're here, but if somebody registers and you give them a choice, a first choice and a second choice on which rec center they might want to be at, or which one corresponds with their neighborhood, and they choose Zucolo.

Like if I'm going on, I'm gonna register for Kennedy because that's what's in my neighborhood, that's where my son is playing.

But um, like if you just keep it in more of like a central centralized data, I think it's easier to push out there.

Right.

But I was saying it was more site specific where this particular program is like, oh, I forgot that facility.

So that's my point.

But if there's like if there's a girls' club that's specific to Zuclo, or there's like uh I don't know, senior uh senior pickleball at this place, then that's very different.

I'm talking about the city wide.

I know if it's around as a book club, so that would be cycle to now consideration.

I mean, that's a whole other conversation, but the basic point, I think, given Jenna's experience, I think a lot of other people's experience with online registration and basketball in particular.

Um, I think something more user-friendly, if it's not rec desk, then let's move on from rec desk and see what we need to do.

Right.

Any other thoughts, Jenna, about your experience with basketball?

Or no, the other thought was that a few of our practices got canceled at the beginning.

A lot of times it was Nathan Bishop who needed the court, which is a little frustrating, right?

Because it's the school where they have an awesome court.

Um but our practice is quite rolling, so I definitely did pretty early practices.

Um, but great experience overall.

Yeah, it's a very enthusiastic coaches.

And fans volunteer coaches, right?

Yes, absolutely.

Yeah, yeah.

I I'll take a moment when everybody's listening at home just to get a shout out to the volunteers, people that step up and want to volunteer for the rec department, sign up, get involved, coach kids, get it done.

Um I think um somewhere where you guys definitely deserve a lot of credit in social media.

Yeah, I mean, I think we were sitting around this table two years ago, and there wasn't uh you know a very active page.

I don't even know if there was there an Instagram page?

There wasn't.

So yeah, I was like, I remember when when I saw that, you know, now it has over you know 1400 followers, has posted 400 times.

Um so being active in that space, I think you guys definitely deserve a lot of credit and kudos and keep up that work.

Thank you.

Well, Lucy and Lucy and our departments did a great job of um kind of more the age with that, um often looking for different cocktail uh avenues to take.

Um definitely uh been a focal point, and you you've consistently you know make us aware of the fact of communication communication, yeah.

And that goes to I think budget-wise too.

It's it's very expensive to advertise with like on social media, and if if we feel like that'll help expand our reach, I'm not sure if we have to put any money into advertising, but if we have a certain registration coming up for basketball or soccer, like maybe you want to put a couple hundred bucks behind um you know advertising on social media to all right, soccer.

We are in towards the end of soccer season right now.

Uh middle.

Yeah, we're kind of right in the middle, yeah.

Right?

Yeah, we're the last day is uh May 31st.

Um with the rain day for June 6th.

Okay, but um so um right now with our five and six division, uh, we're seeing about fit for a little over 50 kids per per Saturday, and just tracking back to last year, we're around that same time frame, uh sorry around that same attendance count uh for that age group as well, and um for our seven eight-year-olds around a you know, 46, 47 kids per Saturday, and are grabbing around that same range um last year as well.

And for our seven, eight-year-olds, around a you know, 46, 47 kids per Saturday, and are getting around that same range last year as well.

Nine and 10, we're seeing again similar numbers there as well for our nine, 10 year olds, different enrollments for each group.

But one of the things that we typically do is soccer obviously is a big hit registration-wise initially before we start our program.

And so after that two-week period, if we notice that you know we've gotten a no-show or no communication from parents, we use we we've taken the kids that we have on our waiting list and we have put them.

And funny enough, when we're actually there on Saturdays, people are not even expecting that league to be happening.

So you have a lot of people that just walk into the area and they just bring their kids and register them right at the table with us.

So it's it's it's really great Lewis from Providence Pumas, who is confidence.

He's he's our soccer coordinator.

Uh he works very well with Shannon, very enthusiastic, really is able to reach the kids.

Um again, it's been it's the third year that we're doing this, and it's it's it's it's awesome.

It's awesome.

We love doing that.

That's one of the things we do get to use Buckman for on a consistent basis.

Um, and again, we get a lot of really good feedback from our parents uh about that league.

Did we cap enrollment at 72?

And what sort of a weight list?

Oh no, yeah, no, we our enrollment agreed.

We have it at 80.

Um you mentioned there's a weightless.

We did, we did have a weight list.

But again, so once we were looking at the kids that were that didn't attend for that first two weeks and communicated with families out, which our front office does after that.

We do kind of an audit of registration to make sure that we have the people that are actually enrolled and attending still in in that watching.

So our max is 80 per slot.

So we already started we started off with a waiting list, but then kids didn't show up, and so we brought kids off the waiting as the waiting list down to zero now.

Yeah, we have zero greatness on all age groups.

For all the divisions, pardon?

For all the divisions?

For all divisions, yes.

Perfect.

Is the nine is are any of the leagues more games, or are they all instructional?

As of right now, uh a lot of it is um this will the first so each game group has an hour and 15 hour and a half um for their period, and so the first half of it is instructional, so they're going through drill work, footwork, um, passing, and also just being able to drive the soccer ball to the net so they're kind of working on their strength to kick power, um, and then they'll transition into pennies and they'll compete against each other.

So it's almost like a Jammer restyle every single Saturday.

Yeah.

Just my personal opinion, having three daughters.

I would love to see us have like a girl soccer league and a boys' soccer league.

Maybe even as they get a little older, like the seven and eight, nine and ten.

My girls have always played in the East Side Sports Soccer League.

Um you find that in the same way, my daughter plays little league, like in the youngest divisions, it's like a 50-50 split, and the girls slowly go down and the boys' percentage goes up, but it's because a lot of girls don't feel comfortable that the boys don't pass to me, like all these things, right?

Um, whereas when you see like a girls only league, they thrive, right?

And you get more friends joining over time.

So I just wonder, I haven't been to that facility, so it was like, but if it could almost even be divided in two, and like maybe some people won't like that, but I do think that a lot of girls kind of we might get more girls if we did it that way.

Yeah, it's great.

I also would love to see it be a more competitive league at some point too.

So they actually could assign teams, play games, and uh do a playoff type of thing.

I think that would be great, and maybe that is something that we sort of concentrate on if it went to expand out if there's like a province north team, province, south team, province, east team, province, west team, like and make it competitive.

But um, you know, I I'm just a strong believer in competitive sports, like skill building, building people as a as a human being.

I think it like really provides a sense of you know, sort of character and builds people their personality and whatnot too.

And so to the extent that we can make it more competitive even than it already is as we continue to expand, I think it would be great.

But I think these numbers, I think the numbers really demonstrate that there is you know really a demand for it.

These are great, these seem like great numbers.

I'm assuming the department's happy with the turnout and sign up and yeah, we I think last week we had we had a little bit of rain.

Yeah, uh, I think this week's gonna be really, really nice, so I'm excited to see these this week's numbers.

Um yeah, usually when we have rain, we usually expect that kids will have what lower numbers I think that's what you see reflected there in the individual.

But um, but yeah, it definitely is soft out there for sure.

Also, I think as recreation gets more involved with soccer, we can start to deal with more competitive league if they break down most competitive soccer players.

Most competitive soccer players, they do whales probably play with some a lot of the programs that we end up actually issuing permits to to uh play out of various fields throughout the uh the city.

That's where you see the competitive soccer kind of like we're able to help develop the skills of soccer, and along the lines, one of the things we uh will be kicking off to first is uh Province Recreation Soccer and Basset Club where each rec will have uh a number of kids participate in this and also be heavily involved with the uh FIFA program is going on and looking to wear conversations with everybody youth go out to uh uh Brian to watch a practice uh for team Ghana and to do various other things that are in conjunction with uh the soccer, yeah, subversum.

If you guys need uh extra chaperone, you wouldn't.

Yeah, I'm saying exactly I've been invited before.

Well for if your birthday is today, we might be able to work some uh well, keep up the great work on the soccer leagues.

Uh I think I speak for all of us.

They want to continue to see it dry and grow and become more competitive and keep up the great work.

Uh summer programs.

We spoke a lot about it.

I'm sorry.

We threw something in there, so extra senior program.

I'll just touch on it real quick.

That is something that we're getting more involved with bringing uh senior programming back to uh the recreation department.

Well done.

Where the conversation uh age-friendly organizations to help wrap up.

We've had a couple programs already.

The Shredder program we've been involved with, which is with AARP, uh, and also did a uh step into spring program at Elmwood Community.

So awesome.

Are we do we have pickleball courts in the city anymore?

We have uh Elmwood Community Center is line for pickleball.

The basketball court is yeah, but I believe that's it's an outdoor one, a home right street right next to the fire station.

Where?

On Message Street.

Message Street, right?

So there's uh the fire stations right on the corner of Message Street in Union.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Right there has a Google Ball.

Does it pick a ball?

I believe so.

That's right.

Yeah.

Or it could be you know uh for several um activities, but I believe it's it was fine for that.

I mean, I you know, it it's kind of one of those things where during the day, I mean, if there we I think for adults, I think we can definitely charge registration fees for this, but if we wanted to open the rec centers up during the day, ones that aren't attached to schools, and you know, get pickleball going there for seniors.

It's something to think about.

I mean, I've been really surprised at how many people love surprised, I just don't know enough about it, I guess.

But people love it.

I mean, if they see ball, yeah, that just seems like no, no, no, no, it's trolls.

Yeah, right.

It's very easy to roll out the net onto the court, pull them out, put them back.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

I know my brother has had complaints in Burlington, Vermont, of all places, they shut down pickleball courts outside because they were too loud.

Complaints by neighbors.

So they are put up.

You want to touch the summer program?

Oh, sorry.

No, no, I'm just I'm glad that I'm glad that you're really putting thought into senior programming notes and we've talked about, and I think um, you know, recreation runs not just for kids because all it should go all the way up.

So I would also look forward to the seniors engaging with some of our youth too in terms of that relationship.

I think that conversation is very important to be had.

Um looking for the seniors to be isolated, definitely try to figure out some ways to tie them in with uh some of the yeah.

And this is kind of a good transitioning to summer programming too.

But Jackie, I know you do uh a senior's swim hours or something, right?

Do we do that in all of our pools, or is that just that's the Rogers too proud of the going through it?

Yeah, yeah.

So we've we've had uh adult swim um probably for the last 20 years.

Um it's Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 7.30 a.m.

to 9.30 a.m.

a.m.

again for anyone who is you know someone who's at work from nine to five.

Yeah, uh, you know, it's a good opportunity if you dare to come into that cold water, but it's the water is beautiful, it's serene at that time, no one has even gone into that water yet.

Um, they do a good job keeping it chlorinated.

It actually looks like glass, you know.

And we we usually get between 10 to 20 uh swimmers, and it's you can use it either lab swim or exercise, and the pool's so big that you know it's there's plenty of room for everyone.

We do have lifeguards on duty as well, so everything you know is safe, and you know, and then uh some people will bring a kickboard depending on on your needs or you know, whatever you want to do on that day.

But we've we're close to 20 years when uh zoo below, and you're saying we do it at Rogers too.

They will be doing it right.

They're gonna be doing it at Rogers.

Yeah, right.

Okay.

Yeah, we've also had seen a splash.

You know, if someone is you know a little reluctant to go into the water, we've opened water parks in the past for seniors on it.

Um they do a nice program at Fox Point.

They do a really good program, and I know they have the um the facility right behind uh the high rise right behind it, and there's I I visited there several times, they've done a phenomenal job with that kind of thing.

Yeah, yeah.

I think it's a great idea for all of our we can do it and it makes sense.

All right, summer programming.

You want to give a quick overview and then we can dive in?

Yeah, um stuff already.

Just quickly before we go into summer programming.

I just want to just highlight that um we do have the director of Elmwood Community Center position posted.

Um I know we're talking about summer programming, but ideally, right with um that position being posted.

Um we do have an RPL for programming that's in relation to the off to uh the CPF program, and again, just for everyone that isn't aware of the CPF programs.

Um that is a that is a federal grant um that's been allotted to three of our locations for renovation.

So that's Davy Loafs, Elmwood, and Jocelyn.

And so what those spaces will become will be community learning centers.

Um, and so there'll be some additions that you'll see there.

I think when we go to the facilities update, you'll see some of the features that will be independent in those buildings.

Um, but again, that the sorry the programming that is going to be in those three locations for at least five years.

Previously was spearheaded by this director of Elmwood uh community center.

Um I believe she was live last year.

So we have hosted that position, and uh again, we are we have an RFP for programming that's gonna that the bids will be opening on June 15th.

So if there's any partners that are looking to provide programming that is uh health, workforce development or education related, I would definitely encourage them to uh to go to the city of Providence um bid site and um submit some of the polls.

And we also if you see on the screen too, we do have a QR code there.

So this is just for the communities.

This QR code will be in all of our centers.

So any folks that are interested in kind of providing their feedback as to what they would like to see for programming, um, they can scan that you are QR code, sorry, and um you know, submit their suggestions.

Yeah, I um you know the healthy communities office obviously in the city here has a pretty big email list for the send out to, so I'm assuming they're gonna send this out.

Yeah, and I can kind of just dive into uh summer programming too, just kind of keep that along.

Um our water parks and pools, our slated to open for June 29th.

Uh we're in conversation with the property about you know, just getting those fill and all the preparation that comes and getting though ready to go.

Um, a few of our a few water parts under um some construction, so we're also in coordination with parks about that as well to see when those timelines um should line up.

So, but again, on the pools, it are they do they get painted every year?

Is it every year they get painted?

Do they get paid?

Yes, yeah, every year.

Okay.

Yeah, smooth it out and then clean it and all of that paint or reinfill, all that.

Yeah, they're not covered year-round, so they're outdoors over there.

Yeah, yeah.

They're subject to the elements over there.

And um for again, municipal exploration, something we'll be doing again this year.

I believe we started that in uh 2023.

And again, what that is is the opportunity for a lot of our our youth that are that are enrolled in our camps in summer to engage with some of our city departments.

And uh, you see there this is the province fire department, they'll bring their trucks.

I think you see this picture of um one of our youth um kind of sitting in there, they get those uh styrofoam or plastic uh fire recaps and get to kind of see what tools and and uh vehicles that are that are utilized by that department, uh the Providence Police Department.

One of the things that um we're looking into is that real-time crime center and allowing our kids to get a little bit of exposure to see what the police department does outside of just patrolling, you know what I mean.

So that's uh that's something that's gonna be pretty interesting, and we're working and playing to look at there.

Sustainability, Friday Woman's Park Zoo, uh, the museum, the Mount of Command, again, a lot of the features that the City of Providence and our all of our departments provide that our kids may not be exposed to.

So again, trying to coordinate those times throughout the summertime for our kids to go and get it, get that get that exposure.

Um field trips, again, as normal.

Um we're looking at some more large scale fieldships for our kids in in conjunction with the reverse field trips that we typically do with P3.

Um, so that includes you know, some kayaking, nature exploration, we're bringing some animals and kids get to kind of get that experience within the rec centers.

Um is a big one, obviously, for summer camp, and um our annual summer cookouts, those are always fun to kind of wrap up the year with all of our council members.

So uh you know that would be that would be a good time as well.

Bringing back Camp Fun Day.

Camp Fun Day is another one that is um that was a fan favorite from a lot of our directors.

We had a meeting at the end of the summer to kind of assess how summer programming went, and that was that was a key highlight that a lot of a lot of our directors were like, hey, we want to bring this back.

A lot of our kids um really enjoyed it in years past.

I think the last thing we did it was like before Food Inject.

Is it like a field day?

It's yeah, yeah.

Yeah, we don't have a friendly competition.

Yeah, no one's friendly competition.

But the the nice thing about Camp Fun Day is um when all the recents converge have at your Roger on its pop, the teams are mixed.

So you're you're participating on the same team with other recentness, not against each other, so to speak.

Cool.

And you can be as creative as you'd like to be.

You know, back in the day, we've done water balloon toss, we've done you know, grow at SAC races, we've done a lot of uh volunteer at that moment.

Ah, for real.

Bring back some old school games.

Um, but yeah, and then you know, there's hot dogs, uh handburgers for I don't know.

It's it's uh hopefully the weather's good, but that happened for uh a long time, and then you know, between COVID and a little bit, you know, trying to get back on track with that.

But it's a good end of the year.

Um, you know, the camaraderie is really good between all the sets.

So yeah, no, thank you, Jackie.

Um, and again, the annual swim meet uh meet is my all-time favorite.

Yeah, Jack Jackie's a major swim meeting.

Oh Jackie's a major player in coordinating and make sure that that runs really smoothly.

Um I know it's been um rotated.

Last year we had it at Rogers.

I think we're looking at a new location this year, um, just to kind of you know bring that around.

And Jackie's a major player now, so if you have anything wanna add to that to have these.

Yeah, that's been a tradition that's gone back like 30 years, but there's several reasons.

Uh well, maybe for no reason, it didn't happen.

So we brought that back uh close to 10 years ago or so, and it's a competition between all of the pools.

However, if you don't have a pool, you could still put a team in the competition.

So I believe uh Joslin did that last year, even though that they don't have a pool, they put a team into the competition.

Um it's five age groups, uh male and female, and uh the last leg is the lifeguard competition, um, which is which is pretty cool.

Um and again, traditionally before the team or the center that won, they got to host it the year afterwards, but um, we're going in the direction where we want to change the venue to show off all the city pools.

So it's it's been a long tradition.

That's a smart idea, it's great.

It's a great event.

Yeah, so it's a lot of fun.

Um the kids really look forward to it through you tell.

Oh, I'm sorry.

The kids really look forward to it.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So medals for first, second, and third place, individual as well as teams, you know.

So um it's a good time.

Hopefully, we'll see you guys there too.

Yeah, um, yeah, on that note, if you guys, when you lock in dates for this stuff, you can send it around to all of us.

Wednesday, August 5th, 10 a.m.

We have that one?

Yeah, great day is Thursday, August 6th, 10 a.m.

We'll give you the location.

And well, we'll obviously send the communication before that.

Yeah, we advertise that on social media as well.

Yeah, yeah.

August 5th, August 5th, yeah, that's what I'm saying.

And um, another thing that we're looking to host again.

Where is it this yeah?

I'm sorry, where is it this year?

To be determined, we haven't determined that, but we'll let you know.

And if you need to, you know, take a little bit of time out of work, it's usually 10 a.m.

to 12 noon.

Usually no, no more than two hours.

All right.

I'm just putting my calendar.

Yeah, just kind of going back to the um again, another program we're looking to.

We were reintroduced it last year, the Mayor's Cup.

Um that was a great success for getting all the buildings to compete at uh at JT.

That was that was a real good time.

Um I know some of the feedback we received last year, was thinking about doing something for the girls, um, like a similar setup, but um for our softball leagues as well.

So that'll be something that um you know we look to and have conversations with the leagues about and see what their capacity is to be able to hold something like that.

Um but that's nothing that we're looking forward to doing back in here again.

Um I might uh lead teams really enjoyed that.

Yeah, and uh no, it was it was a great event.

It was a great event.

Um Bill Levitt, who um you know kind took lead with putting everything together at least because he was hosting that year, uh really really great job with him and his team, and uh so again we're looking to rotate that again, some of it's similar to our swimming, but we'll take them where the mayor's got us hosted and interchanging and really showing off all of our city fields.

Jackie touched on it uh earlier, it's camp swim lessons.

Um that's something that is currently being scheduled for our recidents that don't have access to a pool, um, being able to bring their kids over to get those similar swim lessons as well as public swim lessons as well.

So if you're not enrolled in our camp, you still have the ability to come and get those swim lessons as well at all of our pools, um, and then finally the uh and also I just want to if if your camp doesn't have a pool, they're gonna partner with uh facility that does, and they'll schedule that uh between themselves and then they'll give us um their schedule as to when, but it's important that the campus get uh swim lessons at least twice a week, and as well as David said, the public swim lessons.

Uh we brought that back also on Saturdays and various eight groups.

I believe it's five to seven, eight to nine, ten to twelve.

Um, and then we also have 18 plus.

So we've had several adults come uh and and take um swim lessons.

So and again, that's that's free.

We do obviously they're conducted by the right cross lifeguards that we certify, and just to touch on that really quickly, um, right now with the lifeguard program.

We have um 20 returnees that made a commitment from last summer.

We have seven candidates that are gonna be recertified, which is a little less rigorous than the first time candidate.

We also have seven enrolled in a class starting this Friday, and then we also have another June class.

Uh, the exact dates are to be determined.

We were working, we already have seven candidates.

There is a pre-uh swim that you have to um have to pass to be you know um accepted into the classes, you know.

So uh we we do have practice time for all of the candidates, and it's all held at Patestini pool, which is a phenomenal resource for us.

So we so we train our own lifeguards in-house.

Ivor Montanez, he's the lifeguard supervisor, he does a phenomenal job with recruiting and um with the classes as well, and scheduling the lifeguards and lifeguard placement at all the pools as well.

And it's free.

Do we ever struggle to get enough lifeguards or are we always we did in the past, so that's how we went to the program where we pay for it because you can open up uh a pool without a director or an assistant director, but you can't open up pool without the lifeguards.

That's a specialized position, obviously.

So we made it a little bit more lucrative, you know, and then that's a portable um that's a those are portable cards from the Red Cross.

So after the summer's over, you can always get a job somewhere else.

You know, and they they get um full contingent of uniforms, um, and they they have to sign a contract considering that we're paying for it.

Yeah, of course.

You have to commit to working for the seven weeks that we come off.

Good.

And just to piggyback that too, um you asked about just applications and and and lifeguards registering closed positions last year.

We had I believe 130 uh applicants for for the lifeguard positions, and then this year we're at 51.

130 lifeguards.

Wow.

Applied, yeah.

Applications, yeah.

And how many do we need to hire?

So we we usually hire last year.

We had about 42.

This year we're not for about 43, 44.

And usually there are five to six guards on at the same time.

Um depending uh again on the on the ratio of swimmings.

That's great.

I didn't realize they had that many lifeguards in the community.

Yeah, yeah, and uh in Providence residents and uh that's great.

Uh you know, especially you know, recommendations from each recenter, you know.

Um need a little bit more practice, but then they get damned, some are already accepted into the into the program.

I was gonna ask on the pool.

Is seven weeks always standard for the time the pool is open?

Yep.

Usually all of our programs are seven week program weeks.

Winter stream, summer and fall.

Got it.

All right.

Uh so we went through some of the enrollment stuff earlier, I believe.

Um summer camp enrollment 2025.

We're at 6725.

So we're already up, we're already up higher than we were last year for summer camp.

Yes.

And what's our capacity?

So 696 is the capacity.

Um again, the the capacity really for this is determined by our ability to really depend on the budget, like what we're able to actually staff.

Um so it's really that's really what factors into that.

So it's really center by center, and also we factor in the actual physical facility.

Yeah, and what they're able to offer in the building.

So the budget that we submitted for this year, um, is that enough to accommodate the 696, or what's the what's the magic number for us?

I think actually that's that's sufficient uh for that.

Um a lot of the capacity is also built into the size and space of each individual recreation center to make sure that we have uh a safe environment for for the youth to uh to uh participate in the summer program too as well.

So is the magic.

So that's taken into consideration in terms of determining the size of the camp.

Yeah, the size of the recreation center uh cut it for.

So is the number roughly around 700?

Is that where we give or take all across citywide?

That's just for summer camp, though.

Obviously, our sports camp can take a larger number depending on the facility, but summer camp isn't really different.

Yeah, I think people often get confused between summer camp and and the sports camps, which are the one week where different because all the summer camps are at our rec centers, the sports camps are at different sites around the city.

Uh and seems like we're on par for staffing up.

Sorry?

Staffing up, seems like we're where we need to be for summer staff.

Yeah, or we're gonna get a number of uh it's a significant enrollment already for summer jobs.

So is it cut off for that?

May 30th.

You guys you guys can see there's a breakdown of the amount of applicants we have currently.

That's a lot of applicants.

Yeah, 600 kit people.

We typically hire between like 350 and 450 the summer for seasonal staff, uh, because obviously it's a lot of more folk for uh seasonal timers.

So yeah, that number is definitely very, very high.

I know I think we're learning there was a lot of questions about jobs.

A lot of parents were were you know, meeting with talking about the staff to kind of see what that process is like, but yeah, we're we're accepting applications through March 30th, because at that point we'll start we'll have to start doing the onboarding with the uh work papers and things that make sure for our um our young workers so wow, so this is like a couple of thousand people applying, right?

Couple of thousand applicants, is that what this is?

Across the board, yeah, for all positions.

Easily, yeah.

Is that yeah, you can see that you I believe this, so I don't I know it's very small, but each I know we're talking about the office.

Um each of the um the bars there is a reflection of the year before and the current year.

So that for the first two are assistant camp coordinators, the second two areas.

Oh, I thought we're I know I don't think it's very small to see, but it's a year over here, yeah.

So yeah, that's why they're uh but even still that's six, twelve, yeah, a couple thousand people.

Yeah, so it's so pretty it's pretty consistent in alignment with what last year was for Africans.

So again, we still have about what is it, the 13th, yeah, you know, a few more weeks before we shut down that application board.

Well, look forward to uh another great summer.

Anything else on the summer program before we move on?

Anything else you guys want to add?

Director?

No.

Facilities.

No, we uh we can uh facilities want to touch on real quick some staff training that we will be for that actually came up in uh committee meeting the other day with skill.

So we have skills development training for for some of our staff.

Um we've recently uh gone through some active um active treat here.

Active threat training.

Um we've had our staff go through active with in conjunction with uh PIMA, they can put us through our training for active product.

Right.

And then um we're also going to put our staff through our a comprehensive youth safety training, and that will that would touch on a number of different things, but also particular like our predator awareness and things of that nature, which I think uh given the vulnerability of our our youth um during the summertime.

Um make sure that our staff is vigilant and aware of those things.

Great facility update.

Uh you guys will be amazed once you see the completion of um well is already there, but um when you see the completion of Davy Loebs and what will happen at Jocelyn, the facilities that the um that we're gonna have is gonna be tremendous and great gonna create a lot of great opportunities for each of those centers.

Uh well for the rec department in general too as well, but each of those centers uh has been long awaited, you know.

It's um the construction process is never an easy process.

Um I will say that it's been a true testament to some great department partnerships.

Um we talked to uh uh public uh property public property, public safety.

Public property, but public safety too as well.

The public property, we're in touch with them daily with our different projects, um, as well as the vendors and the construction companies that are to deal with uh putting together the facilities.

So that's in conjunction with the CPF uh grant that David referred to earlier, which uh the components that need to be touched on there are health, workforce development, and uh education.

So within each of those facilities, the programming will be slated that fits those uh those models, but it is something too that we're looking to roll out to all of our other recreation centers too as well.

So it's mandated for these facilities that are getting uh an upgrade, but it's something we're gonna also uh utilize the partnerships that we're creating with our other recreation centers too.

Yeah, that's fantastic.

I can't wait to see it.

Um the one that's not on here is Kennedy, um, and I know that's being knocked down as we speak.

Right.

Um have we seen plans for what they intend to do for the recreation portion?

I know that it'll be a split use between the school and the recreation department, but we see have we seen any plans for the yeah, I've participated in a number of uh meetings that they've had.

Um I think they have the uh the final rendering of what they're going to do, and I'm very pleased to see the what they're gonna do for the recreation center because I've always felt that Kennedy Recreation Center was never a true or wasn't really thought of as being a true recreation center, but I think that they've done a great job with uh designing this model that's gonna allow for uh Allegra and her staff to really feel at home with the uh facility that uh will eventually be there.

But yeah, yeah, they just started tearing down the school there.

Yeah, that's great.

Okay, yeah.

Yeah, I just want to be sure it seems like you're in the loop on all the conversations, but right, yeah.

Yeah, because that you know, again, in terms of using school facilities for community purposes, separate entrances, yeah, sure the parking is you know set up in a way where on the weekends, if we're using it as a rec center for basketball teams or whatever, that parking is accommodated and things like that towards the entrance.

But I feel like Kennedy rec in the past never really felt like it had its own identity, but with this uh you'll be happy to see it well.

Yeah, great.

That's good to hear.

And um so baby looks gonna be done in June.

That's what it's uh sketching to speed.

Stay tuned.

Good.

All right.

It's a lot of progress has been done at David Loves.

I didn't want to thought that was last week and so on.

They have summer camp enrolled there, so it's gotta get done, right?

Well, as of now they're gonna be at the pool.

Oh, okay.

But as soon as they're ready to be open, um I want to shift the course go immediately to David Lowe's, but it is slated to be ready for June 23rd.

Well, I just want to you know compliment you guys, the administration and the council for investing in the rec centers um in our facilities.

They're needed.

I know that the mayor, I think also proposed a CIP bond for the upcoming budget, right?

Facilities to keep that going.

Right.

Which people at home, the council in their um wisdom passes that, and we get it on the ballot, vote for it, please.

We need we need our facilities to be updated across the city.

Um, I just want to compliment you guys on continuing to prioritize that with public properties.

I know it's a team effort, you know, across the board that's important that we're making these updates, so all that's reporting facilities.

None good.

Jenk?

Anything else that wraps up our agenda.

If there's there's no public in here to get public comment, so but we'll open it up public comment.

Good.

Well I have a public comment.

Once again, happy birthday to you to the five.

Thank you, Dr.

Happy Sweet 16.

Any words of wisdom on your on your birthday counseling that you'd like to uh compart with us.

Um words of waste on there.

I have a lot of wisdom.

I would should do a journey.

I'm 28, so I I really try to, you know, uh, I feel like this past year I I I really got into um a lot of my childhood hobbies.

So, you know, having uh a little bit of disposable income at as an adult and not having uh a lot of responsibilities, um I I have really have because I think we all have that child in it.

So to to feed that child and make sure that you heal any any past trauma to to not carry on into next generations is important, so that's what I'm really focusing on at the time goals, thank you.

Alright, I'll entertain motion motion that can.