2009 was a successful year for the Town of Upton’s Recreation Commission.  We were able to continue a number of recreation programs.  Our Fields sub-committee has continued their work, with the main focus thus far being the rehabilitation of the Howard Leland Memorial Field at Memorial Elementary School in an effort to make the baseball fields more usable.  The Rec-Com also started the plans to form a Teen Center sub-committee aimed at trying to identify a site in town where teen activities and/or a teen center could be situated.

The Upton Town Beach and Athletic Facility had a very successful beach program in the summer of 2009.   This would not have been possible without all of the good work done by the Swim Instructor, Swim Aides, Lifeguards, Gatekeepers, and the Groundskeepers.  The beach program’s success also would not have been possible without the assistance and support from Parks Supervisor John Johnson, Jr. and DPW Administrative Assistant Carol Peterson.  Gary Harper also has been doing some really good work on the playing fields in town.  We would like to thank them all for their efforts in 2009.  A special thanks to our Recreation Director, Christine Horn who stepped down as Recreation Director after the 2009 summer programs.  Her work over the past couple of years has been greatly appreciated and we wish her well in her future endeavors.  We are presently in the process of looking for and hiring a replacement.

 
The summer of 2009 marked the 4th year of the Kids@Play Summer Program at the Upton Town Beach and Athletic Facility.  Approximately 215 different children (grades K-7) spent part of their summer at this fun program.  Without the hard work of all of the Program Directors and Counselors, this successful program would not have been possible, so we thank them for their important contributions.  The big change to the program this year were the purchase of kayaks for use by attendees, and we continued the field trips to fun destinations and also brought onsite entertainment programming  for the kids.

 
As usual, the Town Beach Softball field saw plenty of use from the Upton Youth Club’s various softball/baseball teams and the Upton Men’s and Women’s Softball Leagues in 2009.  The Town Beach Soccer field was extensively utilized by both the Mendon Upton Youth Soccer Association and the Mendon Upton Youth Lacrosse Association who held practices and a full slate of games on this field.  Unfortunately there was some damage done to the Kiwanis soccer field in the fall due to usage while the field was saturated.  It is not clear as of this writing whether this field will be online for the Spring of 2010.  The Rec-Com will investigate a ‘Wet Field Policy’ to attempt to prevent future damage.

 
The West River Street Soccer field was back on-line this year now that the irrigation system is in place.

 
The Howard Leland Memorial Field behind the Memorial Elementary School was open to baseball play and Nipmuc Ultimate Frisbee in the Spring, and soccer practices in the Fall.   The field conditions for soccer were usable, but the infields of both fields are in poor condition and this really limited the usage for baseball.  The initial overhaul of the fields researched by the fields sub-committee was too ambitious and as a result was too costly to move forward on.  The sub-committee is now looking at a reduced rehabilitation which will be a more reasonable cost.

 
The outdoor ice rink at Memorial School is up and running and opened for ‘business’ on 12/30/09 this season.  Cold weather is in the forecast, so hopefully there will be a good run for the rink. We would like to thank the small group of townspeople who assisted in assembling and filling this rink with water and opening/closing/maintaining this rink, your efforts are greatly appreciated – a big thanks especially to the Fire Department for their help in filling the rink.

 
In 2009 , the Upton Recreation Commission offered the following recreation opportunities to Upton:

                               
- Swim Lessons at Upton Town Beach

- Life Guard coverage at Upton Town Beach

- Kids@Play Summer Program for grades K-7

- Outdoor Ice Rink at

- Recyclable Boat Race at Town Beach

- Children’s Youth Theater

- Adult Volleyball – pickup

- Adult Basketball - pickup

- Adult Yoga classes 

The present Recreation Commission is very interested in offering additional recreation opportunities to the citizens of Upton.  We are also open to suggestions on future programs, you can drop us a note at: Rec-Com,

We look forward to working with and for the citizens of Upton to drive more recreation opportunities in town.

Dave Adams, Chairman

Tim Alibozek

Paul Pirozzi

Calendar Year 2009 Upton Recreation Commission Financial Results

Town Beach program:

  $  8000.00          Lifeguard/Gatekeeper salary account starting balance

- $  8000.00          Partial salary to Summer Beach employees

       ----------

   $        0.00          Ending balance *        

*  remainder of above salaries are paid out of gate/swim lesson receipts which are deposited into the Parks Dept. Revolving Account.  The Parks Dept. has been processing the payroll for the lifeguards/gatekeepers/swim instructors/swim aides over the past  number of years.

Kids@Play 2009 Summer Program:

  $  77,112.00             Kids@Play Revenue

- $  48,545.88             Kids@Play Payroll

- $       888.50             Kids@Play Advertising

- $     5179.33             Kids@Play Equipment and Supplies

- $   11149.97             Kids@Play Fields Trips and on-site entertainment

- $     4700.98             Kayak purchase

       ------------

   $   6,647.34            Kids@Play  profit 

  Youth Theater Programs:

   $   3400.00                       Class revenues

 -$    2895.68                       Instruction fee and expenses

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   $     504.32                       Youth Theater profit    

Adult pickup Volleyball program:

  $    737.00                            at-door collections

 - $ 2150.00                            Volleyball payroll

     ----------- 

   $ (1413.00)                            Volleyball loss  

Adult pickup Basketball program:

   $  855.00                            at-door collections

 - $  520.00                           Basketball payroll

 - $  162.17                           Basketballs

     ----------- 

   $  172.83                            Basketball profit 

Adult Yoga programs: 

   $ 1830.00                            Yoga revenues

 - $ 1420.00                             Instructor Fee

 - $   210.00                             Advertising

     ----------- 

   $  200.00                            Yoga profit 

Other expenditures from Rec-Com revolving account in 2009: 

- $ 1178.00                             Split Costs outdoor courts lighting repair with Parks Dept.

- $ 1000.00                             Donation to VFW ramp project

- $   331.80                             Ice Rink clearing shovels

- $   200.00                             Square for Uptonopoly game(275^th anniversary)

- $   353.87                             Wii system and games for Senior Center

- $   960.00                             BVT Facility usage for UptonPD/Rec Youth nights

- $    52.43                              Maps for W. River Field/Army Corp of Engineers

Recreation Director Payroll Account:

  $  7080.00     Director payroll account balance on 1/1/2009

-$  1160.00      Rec. Director pay through 6/30/09

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  $   5920.00      Balance (returned to General Fund on 7/1/09)

 $  10,000.00     Fiscal Year 2010 beginning balance

-$    2,510.00     Calendar Year 2009 Rec. Director payroll

   ---------------

 $    7,490.00      Rec. Director payroll account balance on 1/1/2009

2008 Recreation Annual Report

2007 Recreation Annual Report

2006 Recreation Annual Report

2005 Recreation Annual Report