During the first of three budget hearings before Milford City Council, questions arose about the need to add personnel to various departments, including the City Clerk and as well as Parks and Recreation. Brad Dennehy presented the budget for Parks and Recreation which included an additional staff member.
“I am humbly asking for a part-time additional recreation coordinator,” Dennehy said. “I have two full time recreation staff that are salaried. They don’t get overtime. They work Saturdays, Sundays, most nights during the week, and all seem to be in the office first thing on Monday morning. I am hoping we could potentially hire a retired P.E. teacher or someone who already has health insurance benefits for just 20 to 25 hours per week.”
Denney pointed out that his staff was phenomenal at their jobs, but with more houses and more people coming to Milford, there’s more for Parks and Recreation to do to create a happy, healthy community.
“We need more things for them to do, so on the recreational side of things and I can only do that with personnel,” Dennehy said. “I certainly will not have AI replace ands on or boots on the ground, blowing whistles, organizing kids, refereeing, umpiring, all those things that Parks and Recreation does. We rely heavily on volunteers, high school students and university students, to assist us in our programs.”
According to Dennehy, Parks and Recreation was at the point that they needed help. He pointed out that project management falls on his shoulders, but there are a lot of things facing the department in the upcoming year. New bathrooms, pavilions, engineers, bid documents and other things fall on Dennehy, but that is not where he needs help.
“I’ve heard from Councilwoman Wilson that there needs to be a priority in getting the feasibility study done for the new recreation and community center,” Dennehy said. “I’ve been with the city for 22 years and in my tenure, before I depart these doors, I would love to see that thing get created.”
Councilman Danny Perez expressed his support for the feasibility study for a new community center. Councilwoman Madula Kalesis asked if the new person was full- or part-time. Dennehy pointed out this would be part-time without health insurance, retirement or other benefits.
“Because it is the same thing we are looking at throughout the budget, we’re looking at over $100,000 from previous years,” Kalesis said. “Again, that is a big jump, I was hoping we would see an arborist position instead of somebody, because I feel that is what we need. The city needs an arborist so can we look at making this a seasonal position?”
Dennehy explained that there were two issues with that suggestion.
“This would be a year-round position, 25 hours a week or less,” Dennehy said. “In terms of the arborist, with all due respect, we have tried that before. What the city was willing to pay for a certified arborist to operate a bucket truck with a CDL and have a four-year degree, we couldn’t find anyone. The position was vacant for eight months to almost a year. And to the Vice-Mayor’s point, that funding was moved to the police department.”
Dennehy explained that having a single arborist in the city was not the best option. He met with a company out of Wilmington who did work for the City of Newark, that could act in an arborist capacity. They were going to provide a proposal that Dennehy would bring back to council, so he felt contracting with them was the best option. Kalesis asked if the city was going to contract an arborist, that they choose a local company.
“Well, believe it or not, this company is based out of Wilmington, but they actually have a yard in Milford on Route 36, so I think that makes this a two-for-one,” Dennehy said. “Although they are based out of Wilmington, they hire local individuals. The gentleman I met with lives in Milton and his whole crew is out of the Milford location.”
The first night of hearings adjourned after Dennehy’s presentation. The second night of hearings was planned for Wednesday, May 13. The entire budget can be found online.
