Joint Maintenance Agreement for 2013

Last night was a bad night for me at the Commission meeting. During the Discussion Session, John Bendel wants to look at using the Rec Bond for turfing fields, including looking at turfing Mellon - again. He wants to study this some more. Why he won't take as much time over deer culling is beyond me. 

The usual sports people were there to speak about turf.  I had to save my minutes for deer culling, so I never even addressed turfing a school district field, let alone any Mt. Lebanon field. The sports people supported the YSA proposal and dissed the Robb Hollow plan.  Only problem with supporting the YSA plan is that their days may be numbered.

Dave Brumfield made three recommendations for the next Joint Maintenance Agreement.

• Negotiate a longer term
• Have individual groups who want field preferences sign the JMA separately
• Draw up guidelines for using fields.  Include field use rules.

If anyone has any other suggestions, I am sure the Commission would welcome them.

Another one bites the dust

I understand that Aqua Club has dropped out of YSA. Smart move. YSA only cares about fields, as far as I am concerned. What about Ice Hockey? Are they in YSA? Or is that another group ready to jump ship? So much for the YSA proposal for Middle and Wildcat Fields.

I see that Tuesday's Commission Discussion Session agenda has been published. Let me guess. Update on Robb Hollow athletic field proposal will probably turn into a discussion about artificial turf. Fifteen minutes has been allotted for the discussion.

A related topic on the agenda is the Joint Maintenance Agreement. Discussion of joint maintenance agreement. Fifteen minutes for this one too. Hey, maybe the school board directors allocated a couple of minutes of their ever popular community coffees to some commissioners so that they could discuss the JMA. With groups dropping out of YSA, I don't see how MTLSD is going to be able to collect from YSA. Maybe a lawsuit is in order. That always seems to be SOP when things don't sit well with the school board.

Updates on Recreation Proposal

Kelly Fraasch updated her blog to include her updated recreation proposal which she presented last night. As before, she has provided a link to her revised proposal.  http://www.kellyfraasch.com/2012/08/15/updates-on-recreation-proposal/

Kelly's initial proposal included lights at Middle and Wildcat Fields. I understand that Dave Franklin felt that lights were not necessary. So Kelly removed them from her revised proposal.  My gut feeling is that YSA didn't want to fork over the money that they proposed in their turf presentation. Isn't that just like them to offer something and then not deliver? Want to read Dave's slant on this? Read his blog at http://lebofields.blogspot.com/2012/08/robb-hollow_14.html#comment-form I just love to promote Dave's blog. He can never say that I don't present both sides. Haven't seen him do that for my blog.

At last night's commission meeting, I had to get something off my chest. On Monday evening, I attended Carnegie's skate park public hearing. I recorded it and emailed it to the commissioners. As I said in Citizens Comments, I hope that the commissioners take the time to listen to it. I may post it here, but have to switch computers to do that, if anyone is interested in listening to it. What a difference there is between the two communities. Carnegie has a mayor and six councilmen and women. We, of course, have a manager and five commissioners. Carnegie doesn't have a swimming pool, ice rink, golf course, and their best field is no better than our worst field. Yet, I heard nothing but excitement from these folks. Not Larry "I'm excited" excitement, but honest to goodness excitement. They take pride in their community. They spoke of fundraising. Carnegie had proposed a smaller skatepark for their kids, but the residents were thrilled to find out that a larger, nicer skatepark could possibly be built in Carnegie. I heard words like, "We're so lucky to have this opportunity" and "Thank you." It was refreshing. Here in Mt. Lebanon, we get empty promises, demands for artificial turf, entitlement, arrogance, and have grown men acting like spoiled brats. It isn't all about field sports. I think the YSA people have a lesson to learn here.

Houston, we have a problem UPDATED

It seems as though President Brumfield is only allowing Matt Kluck five minutes to speak about turf. Here is the agenda for Monday's Discussion Session. Yet when the deadbeat YSA gave its presentation, they were allowed three times that. June 25, 2012 Discussion Session Agenda Mr. Brumfield, care to explain the difference? Or are you going to continue the discussion after the regular meeting is over? I hope whatever Mr. Kluck is presenting will be posted on the municipal website, just as the YSA was able to have its proposal published.

Update July 21, 2012 PM 1:19 PM
The link to the YSA Proposal podcast is here.  It starts at 13:00 minutes and ends at 43:37 minutes.  In my pea brain and never one for math, it appears that the YSA spoke for 30:37 minutes. Why does Matt only get five minutes?  This place is so corrupt.

Latest LeboALERT and Poor Field Conditions UPDATED

This is an important notice from LeboALERT.

 Due to inclement weather & poor field conditions, Lil Sluggers is cancelled today (7/20).


If we had artificial turf, we still wouldn't have Lil Sluggers due to the heavy rain and thunderstorms.


Over on Lebo Fields, Dave Franklin put up a video from Penn State in his latest post, The Facts About Injuries and Turf.  Dave provides an excellent link to Penn State's studies. I found the following information.  http://plantscience.psu.edu/research/centers/ssrc/news/2011/from-the-field-december-2010

So what do these studies tell us? Based on the results of the available research, the notion that athletes are at a greater risk of suffering injury when playing on synthetic turf is not valid, if they are playing on infilled synthetic turf. It is important to look at these studies collectively, as a whole, and not cherry pick the data from one part of one study. The fact of the matter is that while these studies are the best way to track injuries occurring on various surfaces, all research suffers from inherent limitations. For example, it is sometimes difficult to determine whether the surface contributed to an injury. Additionally, lumping all natural grass fields into one category is problematic, as the condition of grass fields can greatly vary. Surely, a hard, compacted field with little turf cover has a greater potential to cause an injury than a finely manicured field. This is true for infilled synthetic turf as well. The age, type, and maintenance of the surface can affect the playing quality. Nevertheless, when looked at collectively, the take away message from the available research is that the rate of injury on natural grass and infilled synthetic turf is comparable. 

OK, so artificial turf adds zero slots to playing time during thunderstorms. Injury rate is comparable to both natural grass and infilled synthetic turf. What about costs?  Surely artificial turf is cheaper according to the YSA. Well, according to the same Penn State link, their studies say no.  Resources

The general conclusions listed under Natural turf or synthetic turf: The numbers game:

• Synthetic infill systems can handle up to six times more traffic than natural turf fields in high-use situations
• Synthetic infill systems are less expensive to construct and maintain than sand-based fields; but they are much more expensive than soil-based fields.
• An existing sand-based field will be less expensive to maintain over a period of 10 years, than constructing and maintaining a new synthetic field that will need to be replaced at the end of that period.
• Existing soil-based fields are the least expensive of all to establish and maintain.

This and the lack of documentation from the School District showing YSA's payments make me question why the Municipality considered the YSA worthy of linking their proposal.  I see that it has since been removed.

Update: Friday, July 20, 2012 3:09 PM An important seminar for the YSA:

	501(c)(3) Status: Keeping it Legal with the IRS
	This full day workshop hosted by the Bayer Center for Nonprofit Management and presented by IRS Exempt Organizations specialists, explains what 501(c)(3) organizations must do to keep their tax-exempt status. Topics covered will include: Tax-exempt status Unrelated business income Employement issues Form 990 series Required disclosures Fee is $50 and includes lunch. This session will take place at the Robert Morris University Holiday Inn at 8256 University Blvd. Moon Township, PA 15108 on Tuesday, September 11 from 8:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.For more information go to www.stayexempt.org. Pre-registration is required. Register online or by calling Shelby Gracey at 412-397-6000.

My counter proposal to the YSA's - UPDATED

FIX THE POOL.

This is an important notice from LeboALERT.


Due a mechanical failure, the Pool will be closed for the day. We apologize for the inconvenience and will update when the problem is corrected.

Pool Update July 1, 2012 7:45 PM The pool was packed when it had to be evacuated. Our filtration system went down. This morning, the Aqua Club held a meet in dangerously low chlorine levels. Our kids were swimming in filth. I am listening to the March 26, 2012 Commission Discussion podcast. About halfway through the podcast, Kelly Fraasch asked David Donellan what would happen if the filtration system goes down. Matt Kluck had asked for a timeline and would never receive it. Kelly had said that she would hate for residents to have to go to Dormont's or Scott's pool. It was mentioned that if the filtration system would go down, it would be the end of the season. It seems that both James and Kelly Fraasch are prophetic.