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Commission talks improvements and upcoming events

The Manchester Recreation Commission and Director A.J. Fox discussed a variety of improvements to the city’s Recreation Center as well as some upcoming events during its September meeting.

Amazing Family Night will be 7-9 p.m. Friday Sept. 27 at the Recreation Center. Sponsored by Southland Pharmacy, the event includes free admission to the center for area families with open gym and pool time as well as snacks.

“The only thing that won’t be open is the weight room upstairs,” Fox said.

The Parks and Recreation will also be hosting its annual Halloween Bash with Reese’s Gene’s Boutique beginning at 5 p.m., Saturday Oct. 19 at Rotary Park. The event will include a trunk-or-treat, cake walk, food trucks and hayrides and a screening of Inside Out 2 sponsored by Comfort Inn and Suites at 7:30 p.m. Food trucks and activities will begin at 5 p.m. with hayrides available between 6-7:30 p.m. The event is free, but the cost for the cake walk is $1 and hayrides are $5.

Fox also provided board members with an update on the recent September maintenance shutdown week.

“We painted the upstairs hallway, it was the big task that we took on,” he said. “We stripped and waxed all the floors, dusted everything, cleaned windows, pressure washed the pool deck scrubbed the locker rooms, ran the floor machine about five times on this front floor.”

Fox said recent storm damage to the city’s dog park is also in the process of being repaired.

“The dog park had a big limb fall on the fence and a bench,” Fox said. “The bench we have on order, it should be here this week and then we just got our final quote for the fencing. It is about $1,100 to fix the fence. We will turn it into insurance and get a little money back. A few weeks ago.”

Fox said the Parks and Recreation Department was allocated some funding to make needed repairs and purchase needed to operate. A new 2024 Ford Transit 350 Passenger Van is one of those items.

The vehicle will be used for the department’s afterschool program and summer day camp program.

“This vehicle will also be used to hopefully take senior citizens on trips like we used to do before COVID-19 hit,” he said.

The total cost for the vehicle is $53,723 off the statewide contract.

Fox said if an item is purchased through the statewide contract, then the department is not required to put it out for bid.

“We just have to have Rec Commission approval and the approval to go to the Board of Mayor and Alderman with it,” he said.

Fox provided updates on a new chiller for the Recreation Center which will replace its original 21-year-old unit.

“If we order a chiller it takes approximately eight months to build the unit and be delivered, so the idea is for a recommendation from you all to go to Finance to talk about getting a purchase order issued for next fiscal year,” he said. “This unit would not be installed until our shutdown in September 2025.”

Fox said if the department does not ask the city’s Finance Department about ordering the chiller and they wait until the next fiscal year, it would add another eight months to the replacement timeline.

As far as the lifespan of the existing chiller, Fox said it is only a matter of time before it expires.

“When TRANE came and looked at it they said you have gotten your life out of it, they expect them to last 18 years and we have gotten 21 out of it,” he said.

The replacement cost for the chiller is expected to cost nearly $370,000 itself, in addition to replacing two water pumps used to circulate the water from the chiller throughout the building for $26,000 making the total project cost $395,916.

Board members voted unanimously to take the chiller request to the city’s Finance Committee.

The next meeting of the Manchester Recreation Commission is scheduled for noon Thursday, Oct. 10.