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Minutes of a Meeting of The North Olmsted Parks and Recreation Commission November 8, 2004 Mayfield to determine the lessons learned, because they pioneered the debt and surely learned a lot along the way. That has merit in the Safety Director’s mind: at least look at it and then learn from Mayfield’s mistakes. Pro-Shop Report The Commissioner was to meet with the Pro Shop Manager, but because he was busy with other matters, the meeting was not held. Betsy (Drenski) and the Commissioner did some preliminary information on where the Pro Shop is headed. The Pro Shop is losing money, and Mr. DiSalvo talked with Mr. Jesse about this before. With the upcoming budget and a loss of close to $13,000, the income is not exceeding the wages and the expenses of inventory and such. The Pro Shop Manager wanted to know what could be done about the situation, and Mr. DiSalvo said that they must meet to get the details, eventually meet with Mr. Jesse and, obviously, bring it before the Rec Commission. Eight other area Rec Centers that have Rink facilities were phoned: Cleveland Heights, Mentor, Brooklyn, Garfield Heights, Rocky River, Winterhurst in Lakewood, Elyria and Reis in Parma. They do not have pro shops. The only city that has one within the area is Strongsville, and it’s the Iceland Facility there. Also, the hours of operation for the Pro Shop at the North Olmsted Rec Center are extremely limited. Ms. Jones asked if Mr. DiSalvo thought about calling Perani’s to see about renting the Pro Shop out to them. Mr. DiSalvo said that Fritsche’s expressed some interest, but the problem is that it’s hard to seal the Pro Shop off from the rest of the Rec Center. Another issue is that there is a minimum order requirement, and the demand is not exceeding the supply, so there is a large inventory of equipment. There’s a decent selection of quality products, but the Rec can’t compete with hockey supply places price-wise. The Rec is just a tiny fish in a big ocean. If the Rec Complex were bigger and kept ordering, there would be no problem. Mr. Jesse said that the whole picture must be seen. One consideration is to use the Pro Shop as a satellite location for a bigger store, and the Rec can get the inventory at no cost to be an income source. Right now it’s costing the Rec money. The Safety Director thinks it important that the Rec doesn’t decrease its services unless absolutely necessary, and there was agreement among the members. Mr. Baxter said that’s why small stores have all disappeared; the Rec can’t compete with the big operations. If it was a question of convenience, and the Rec is losing money, it makes no sense (to become a satellite location). Page 11