Friday, October 5, 2018
Vol. 95, No.3
FOUNDED 1923
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LOCALLY OWNED AND EDITED
A new Knight PAGE 3 n Apocalypse Then PAGE 17
Recreation Comm looks at pool membership data
WINNING STREAK CONTINUES
BY RIKKI N. MASSAND At its meeting on Wednesday, September 19 the Board of Commissioners of Cultural & Recreational Affairs met to discuss membership trends during the 2018 season at the Garden City Pool. The subject has received scrutiny from the Commission at most of its monthly meetings as enhancements have been made at the pool in recent years. The pool's revenues have been discussed and considered at many Village Board of Trustees meetings since 2014.
End of Pool Season Survey
The Garden City High School Boys Varsity soccer team extended its winning streak to six straight and remains undefeated in league play. Above, sophomore forward Andy Schneider and junior defender Ethan Senatore move the ball forward. See page 58 for more coverage.
New scoreboard planned for Comm Park BY RIKKI N. MASSAND On Thursday September 20 the Village Board of Trustees approved a contract for new scoreboard installation (a budgeted capital project) at Community Park, specifically a double-sided scoreboard facing Field 3, the smaller baseball field, as well as the 105-yard synthetic turf Multipurpose Field that opened for play in August 2017. The contract approved by the Board is from vendor Palace Electrical Contractors, Inc., of Wantagh, the low bidder for the project. According to the vil-
lage’s weekly Garden City Update published on September 28, the contract amount for Palace Electrical came in at $194,000. At the Rec. Commission’s meeting one night prior to the trustees’ approval, on September 19, village department head of Recreation and Parks Kevin Ocker explained the award of the bid and the start of work after the contract is signed, likely several weeks away. “The goal is to get into the ground and get the foundation work and concrete for the scoreboard before the winter’s real cold weather,” he
said. Recreation Commission member Christian Siragusa asked about the feasibility of electrical line connections at the fields in the heart of Community Park and Ocker told him there was conduit laid for the Multipurpose Field that can be utilized with the pole site, and the site of this scoreboard off the service road for Community Park would be a benefit.
Baseball renovations
Later in the Commission meeting Ocker discussed the $750,000 See page 43
Rec. Commission Chairman and head of the village’s Department of Recreation and Parks Kevin Ocker announced the recent initiative to study trends in pool memberships throughout Nassau County and in the immediate region of the New York tri-state area. The Rec. Commission also considered the feedback from a survey distributed to members of the pool. The “End of Pool Season 2018” survey remains available online on the Recreation and Parks division website, gardencityrecreation.org. To gain more useful feedback Rec. Commission member Judy Courtney led an in-person focus group at the end of this summer’s pool season, which for the first time was extended past Labor Day to the delight of many pool go-ers.
Family memberships down
“We took a tremendous hit in family memberships sold, down by about 139 family memberships purchased for 2018 -- from 1,482 sold in 2017 we lost 139 (roughly a 7% drop). For individual memberships we were down by 23 from last year, we were down by 30 ‘family of two’ memberships and decreased by 10 for senior 12-packs. In the rest of the categories we were up by a little. Obviously we are concerned and we want to continue running this as an enterprise but that’s a challenge as we move forward. When we prepare the Recreation and Parks budget and the Pool Enterprise’s for 2019-2020, we will start to build it off our most recent history and See page 42
Holiday celebrations continue at GCJC PAGES 36-37 Vacation Bible School at St. Joseph Parish PAGES 54-55