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Manchester Parks and Recreation has partnered with Reese’s Gene’s Boutique for a Halloween Bash at Rotary Park Saturday Oct. 21.

“We are doing food trucks, we are doing an outdoor movie with Hocus Pocus 2, we are planning on doing a hayride, costume contest, cake walk,” Parks and Recreation Director A.J. Fox said during its regular board meeting Thursday, Oct. 12.

Fox said Reese’s Gene’s Boutique owner Tiffany Hoyne reached out to Parks and Recreation to host the event jointly after the boutique’s previous location for its annual trunk-or-treat was sold.

“Tiffany Hoyne is handling all the trunk-or-treat registration, she said she is at 16 right now,” Fox said.

While the majority of the event will be free, the hayride will cost $5 for ages four and older. Young children must be accompanied by an adult during the hayride. There will also be a small charge for the cakewalk during the event.

Event activities will be 5-7 p.m. with a screening of Hocus Pocus 2 at 7:30 p.m. sponsored by Comfort Suites.

Fox also provided an update regarding the community’s soccer, baseball and T-ball fields during the meeting.

“We have overseeded our soccer fields and fertilized them, we have a little seed left over that we are going to apply after soccer season is over with,” Fox said. “Then for the baseball and soccer fields we put down some pre-emergent just to kill the weeds so hopefully they don’t come back up in the spring.”

Fox said that while the department utilizes a pre-emergent annually for its baseball and soccer fields, this is the first year in a while that Parks and Recreation have been able to seed due to rising costs that have begun to level out.

Also, rotten rafters were replaced and new metal roofing was also installed in the T-ball dugouts.

Board members also unanimously accepted a bid by Southern Flooring of Greenville, South Carolina to repair damage to the Recreation Center basketball gym floor.

“We met with the insurance company…he sent the report back, his final determination is they don’t need to replace the entire gym floor, that we can just repair the section and it will be fine,” Fox said. “Insurance is giving us just over $105,000 to make the repairs.”

The repairs are expected to cost about $98,000, leaving about $7,000 remaining for change orders or anything unexpected.

The recommendation will be presented to the Manchester Board of Mayor and Alderman for final approval during its next meeting.

An increase in pay for part-time Parks and Recreation employees will also be discussed during the next BOMA meeting Thursday. Nov.7.

Fox said the increases were approved by the Manchester Finance Committee during a recent meeting.

“The consensus was they approved the rate structure, they are going to pass it on to BOMA,” he said. “This year they gave us an initial $75,000 for part time wages, next year they will increase it to $105,000.”

Fox said he is hopeful the increase will allow Manchester Parks and Recreation to not only retain its existing staff, but also bring on some new hires.