The Parks and Recreation Commission is asking for your support of Article 4 at the Oct. 1 Town Meeting. Voting yes would create a paid, full-time recreation and beach director position to handle the administrative duties of the recreation and beach programs. Most neighboring towns already employ recreation directors and don’t rely on volunteers for this essential role.
There should be a town employee hired for the management of a rec department and beach activities. This would allow Parks and Rec volunteers to spend more time on bigger projects, such as developing recreational programs or upgrading facilities. Currently, most volunteer hours are occupied by administrative duties like monitoring the maintenance of facilities; coordinating field schedules and closures; handling the town’s scheduling software transactions; and managing the boating, swimming, tennis and pickleball activities, etc.
The Select Board supports Article 4 but is wary about the proposed salary. The town’s Personnel Board, however, vetted the job description to ensure that the salary was commensurate with the job responsibilities, as well as competitive enough to attract a qualified candidate. To address the fiscal concerns, Parks and Rec will earmark the money not used for the beach director and lifeguards this past summer to help fund this position until July 2023. For fiscal 2024, the beach director’s budget will increase, with the hope that the salary could be partially self-funded from increased programming.
While the Finance Committee didn’t support Article 4, it was for procedural reasons; namely, that the vote should be delayed until spring when budgetary considerations are heard. This isn’t a reasonable solution, as the town hasn’t attracted seasonal candidates in over two years. By postponing the vote, we will miss time to hire and train a director in time for the summer. Clearly, Article 4 should be discussed now in order to restart our beloved beach programming for 2023.
With Bob O’Shea stepping down from his chair position in July 2023, there is no volunteer in their right mind who would take over all of the administrative duties that he has managed so graciously over the past several years.
For more info, please see Bob O’Shea’s most recent Nextdoor post.
Marisa Steele, member
Parks and Recreation Commission
