Parks Board To Review Outdated Rental Rules

Parks and Recreation · Meeting of August 18, 2026

NEWINGTON — The Newington Parks and Recreation Board asked staff to review outdated park rental rules after a social media dispute. Board member Beth DelBuono said she emailed Superintendent Scott Kieras after residents raised concerns about a rental event, citing town code Section 305-1, which requires a public hearing before any rule change. Town Council liaison A.J.

Tiniakos accused DelBuono on Facebook of trying to ban an event, which she called false, saying she had "never asked for anything to be banned and never would." Kieras agreed the current one-page rules, last touched during the pandemic, are "a little outdated" and will research other towns' policies before the September meeting. The board also unanimously accepted its 2026 Fall Program Guide, approved a partnership with The Chapel donating 200 mini pumpkins for an Oct. 10 Halloween party, and nominated Tim Manke to the Town Pools Project Building Committee.

In the full story:

• Who Was There
• Organizations And Documents Referenced
• The complete report — 2,692 words

Source: the Parks and Recreation meeting of August 18, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.

Checked against the record: before publication this article was automatically compared with the meeting transcript. It was corrected where it differed.

The Full Article

Call to Order, Roll Call and Minutes

Board member Eileen Francolino called the meeting to order at 6:02 p.m. Seven board members were present: Beth DelBuono, Trish Feeney, Francolino, Tim Manke, Carol Anest, Mia Colopy and Diana Serra. Four members, John Patz, Tim Hutvagner, Austin Knowlin and Phil Knowlton, were absent, along with Town Council liaison A.J. Tiniakos, who was present. A motion to approve the minutes of the prior meeting passed with Carol Anest and Diana Serra abstaining because they had not attended that session; the board's written minutes list the approved meeting as the "June 10, 2026" meeting, while the transcript references "June 16, 2026" and the minutes' own header cites "May 19, 2026," a set of internal inconsistencies that an editor should verify against the town clerk's record before republication.

Correspondence: Kiwanis Donation and the Cherish Our Children Angel Statue Committee

The board reviewed two correspondence items with no formal vote required under that agenda heading. The Kiwanis Club of Newington donated $1,000 to support the department's Camp RECreate financial-assistance program, which Superintendent Scott Kieras said is "very rewarding to see the direct impact it does for our residents each year" when the department can offer camp scholarships funded partly by such donations.

The second item came from Diana Duksa Kurz on behalf of the Cherish Our Children Angel Statue Committee, which has voted to dissolve after five or six years running a memorial-brick fundraising program at the Christmas Box Angels site in West Meadow Cemetery, a section set aside for families who have lost young children. The committee asked the town to take over processing granite paver installations and site maintenance going forward and to help decide how to spend roughly $6,000 in remaining committee funds, with ideas floated in the correspondence including an irrigation system, foundations for existing benches and an outdoor shade structure. Kieras said cemetery staff already maintain that section and the transfer would add no new staffing burden; he said he had discussed the handoff with the town manager, who indicated the matter would also go before the Town Council. The board's discussion did not register as a formal agenda vote in the minutes, though members voiced support for continuing the Walk to Remember the Child We Love and Have Lost and the Dec. 6 candle-lighting service, both of which will continue regardless of the transfer.

New Business: 2026 Fall Program Guide

The board was asked to accept the department's 2026 Fall Program Guide along with all associated fees and charges for the season's events, programs and facility rentals. Beth DelBuono moved to accept the guide as presented; Diana Serra seconded, and the motion passed unanimously with no discussion of specific line-item pricing recorded in the transcript beyond general praise for the document's design.

New Business: Public/Private Partnership With The Chapel

The board considered a partnership agreement with The Chapel, a Newington congregation, for a family Halloween event in the Mortensen Community Center gymnasium on Saturday, Oct. 10, from 4 to 8 p.m. Under the agreement, The Chapel will donate 200 mini pumpkins and allow use of its logo for promotional purposes; in exchange, the department will feature The Chapel's logo in the 2026 Fall Program Guide and promote the pumpkin-painting activity on the department's social media accounts. Kieras said a Chapel representative identified in the discussion only as Sam was "very eager to start a Halloween program." Mia Colopy moved to accept the agreement as presented; Beth DelBuono seconded, and the motion passed unanimously.

New Business: Town Pools Project Building Committee Vacancy

The board took up a Republican-seat vacancy on the Town Pools Project Building Committee created when Carol Anest resigned from that seat "months ago," according to Anest's comment during the discussion. Members initially debated how to word the motion, clarifying it should nominate Tim Manke to "fill a vacant place" rather than to "replace" Anest. Beth DelBuono moved to nominate Manke as the Republican representative from the Parks and Recreation Board on the committee; Trish Feeney seconded, and the motion passed unanimously. Board members noted a second, separate Republican public-member vacancy on the same committee will need to be filled by the Town Council, not the Parks and Recreation Board.

Reports: Life. Be In It. Extravaganza

Kieras gave an extended report on the summer Life. Be In It. Extravaganza, which included a carnival, food trucks, entertainment and a Craft Beer and Cocktail Tasting that drew more than 200 guests sampling approximately 40 unique craft beers and cocktails. The event's planned Saturday carnival did not run; Kieras said the vendor told him Connecticut would not approve the rides' insurance paperwork in time, then called him afterward "trying to blame us why we couldn't have the carnival on Saturday." Kieras said he found the vendor's explanation implausible because the company's equipment remained on site for weeks afterward, and said he is now vetting roughly four alternative vendors, with the farthest based in Rhode Island, including some within Connecticut.

Kieras also outlined pricing changes he is considering for food-truck vendors at smaller June events and at the department's regular Thursday concerts, aiming to add food trucks and a beer-and-cocktail partner ("the two gals") to boost attendance beyond the current draw of cornhole and a concession stand. He said craft-fair pricing may also be adjusted after hearing complaints that current rates "outprice some of the local... smaller stores or people that just like the craft," and he credited a new part-time hire, referred to in the discussion only as Angelina, with substantially increasing the department's social-media engagement. Board member Trish Feeney asked a follow-up question about a different topic in the same report: the sudden appearance of spotted lanternflies in town. Kieras said the department has had no lanternfly reports in five years but residents are now asked to follow Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station and state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection guidance to report sightings; the department is removing tree-of-heaven host trees on town property where identified.

Kieras reported the department's concession operation at the town pools, referred to by a staffer named Stephanie who was finalizing total attendance figures, generated a gross profit of $5,713.40 and said the department is weighing new concession items, including pizza slices for winter basketball games, without raising prices enough to drive customers to outside vendors.

Reports: Upcoming Events

The board received updates on a slate of fall and winter events with no votes required: the Candlewyck Park grand opening on Thursday, Sept. 10, from 6 to 7 p.m., which will include a ribbon-cutting and free registration; Community Field Day at Mill Pond Park on Saturday, Sept. 12, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., featuring a new "Kickball Cup" friendly competition between the fire and police departments that Recreation Supervisor Elizabeth Litwinko originated; the Oct. 10 Halloween party described above; Night of Lights on Main Street on Friday, Dec. 4, from 6 to 8 p.m., which will drop a previously used 3D laser display that staff judged "not worth the expense"; and the Holiday Craft Fair on Saturday, Dec. 5, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Mortensen Community Center. Kieras also reported that the Town Council recently approved renaming the Mortensen Community Center gymnasium the William A. DeMaio Gymnasium, and said he would contact the town facilities department about timing new signage, possibly alongside planned hallway repainting.

Comments by the Board: Park Rental Rules and the Facebook Dispute

This was the meeting's most substantive item, consuming roughly 20 minutes. Background and stakes: Beth DelBuono said two residents brought complaints to her in June about a specific rental event at a town park. Rather than fielding the complaints herself, which she said is not a board member's role, she emailed Superintendent Kieras to ask what written rules governed park and pavilion rentals. She said the town's online rules document is only a single page, is not specific to parks or pavilions, and appears largely unrevised since being "adopted by the COVID-19 rules and regulations," a characterization Kieras did not dispute.

The question before the board: whether existing rental rules and regulations needed review and revision, and if so, what process should govern changes. DelBuono read from Newington municipal code Section 305-1, which states the Parks and Recreation Board "is hereby authorized to adopt rules and regulations governing the use of town parks and recreational facilities" but that "no such rule or regulation shall be affected until after a public hearing by the board." She also cited the code's "scope" language requiring that rules provide for "the reasonable use of parks and recreational facilities... without interference with the public peace and safety and the benefit to the greatest number."

Substantive content: DelBuono walked through specific gaps she found in the one-page rules sheet: unclear language on who must supervise an activity; an alcohol-and-tobacco provision that does not address marijuana; a vendor-authorization clause buried under "fees and donations" that she said she, as a board member, did not know existed; and a catch-all clause stating rentals are subject to "any pertinent rules and regulations as provided by the parks and recreation rules and regulations," language she compared to open-ended job-description clauses. She also raised an access question: when a group rents multiple pavilions and its vendors and booths extend along a park's perimeter, should the department post a notice that the park is effectively unavailable to the general public that day. She cited the Peter J. Laban ride and a church Easter egg event as past examples of rentals that occupied most of a park's footprint.

The deliberation turned pointed when DelBuono described a Facebook post, which she said was made this week by Town Council liaison A.J. Tiniakos, accusing her of trying to "ban a certain event." She said the post cited an email of hers that "had zero reference to a certain event" and that she has "never asked for anything to be banned and never would." She said she intentionally omitted any event name or date from her emails to Kieras "because I'm not naive" about how such a reference could be perceived, adding that the controversy nonetheless "caused a lot of fear in the community that wasn't necessary." She invoked the town's code of ethics, which requires officials to "discharge their duties conscientiously, impartially, and to the best of their ability, placing the good of the town above any personal or partisan considerations," and the boards-and-commissions conduct guidelines barring "abusive conduct, personal charges or verbal attacks upon the character or motives" of fellow officials. She said she was not seeking formal disciplinary action: "I'm not asking for formal action, I just want to make it clear that we have to have respect for each other at this board." Another speaker asked DelBuono directly whether it was "just a coincidence" that the scrutiny followed what was described in the exchange as a Pride-related event; DelBuono responded that deciding whether timing is coincidental "is not my job," and that her role as a commissioner was simply to relay resident complaints to Kieras.

Kieras responded by confirming he and DelBuono had met at length the day before the meeting. He agreed current rules are outdated, noted the "Churchill picnic regulation" and other provisions were adopted during the pandemic, and said he is open to surveying comparable Connecticut communities' rental policies. He described existing informal practices, such as requiring large renters like a youth soccer end-of-season event to coordinate parking and vendor placement with the department and cemetery staff to avoid damaging irrigation or electrical infrastructure. He raised the idea of requiring dedicated staffing for sanitation when a rental group exceeds roughly 200 people, based on a prior job's threshold, and of formally closing sections of a park to walk-in visitors during very large rentals, while cautioning that some communities bar renting an entire park outright during peak summer months, when school is out, to preserve access for campers and families. "I'll get some information and we can talk about this at the next meeting," Kieras said.

Procedural steps and outcome: No motion was made and no vote was taken on the rental-rules discussion. Per the minutes, Kieras will compile the board's requested revisions and bring proposed updates back for discussion and consideration at the September 2026 Parks and Recreation Board meeting. Any actual rule change would still require a public hearing under Section 305-1 before taking effect.

Implications and what is next: The outcome directly affects how the department handles future large private rentals, including whether renters of multiple pavilions must notify the public that a park is effectively unavailable, and whether the department will require health-department vetting of food vendors and dedicated sanitation staffing for groups over roughly 200 people. The unresolved Facebook dispute between a sitting board member and a Town Council liaison also remains a live governance question for the board, since DelBuono raised, but did not formally invoke, the town's code of ethics and conduct guidelines against a fellow official.

Public Participation

Resident Paula Siegel, who identified herself for the record as living at 1827 Main Street, told the board she found its physical seating arrangement, with members split across the room, to be a visual symbol of division, and asked "is this the Republican side?" Board members explained the unusual seating was arranged in anticipation of larger public turnout than materialized, and said the board typically sits closer together. Multiple members told Siegel that the board's votes are "unanimous" in nearly all cases and that party affiliation does not generally drive its decisions. Siegel urged members to address disagreements by talking to each other directly rather than through social media.

WHO WAS THERE

Eileen Francolino, member, called the meeting to order and presided over roll call and several motions. Beth DelBuono, member, led the park-rules discussion and moved two motions (Fall Program Guide second; Pools Committee nomination). Trish Feeney, member, seconded the Pools Committee nomination and the motion to adjourn. Tim Manke, member, seconded the minutes approval; nominated to fill a Town Pools Project Building Committee vacancy. Carol Anest, member, abstained from the minutes vote; raised the Main Street sign issue; noted her prior resignation from the Pools Building Committee. Mia Colopy, member, moved the Chapel partnership motion. Diana Serra, member, abstained from the minutes vote; seconded the Fall Program Guide motion. John Patz, Tim Hutvagner, Austin Knowlin and Phil Knowlton, members, absent. A.J. Tiniakos, Town Council liaison, present; cited by DelBuono as the author of a disputed Facebook post. Scott Kieras, Superintendent, Newington Parks and Recreation Department, staff; gave reports on the extravaganza, upcoming events, concessions, tree warden matters and the rental-rules review. Elizabeth Litwinko, Recreation Supervisor, staff; credited with originating the Community Field Day "Kickball Cup" concept and preparing the meeting minutes. Paula Siegel, resident of 1827 Main Street, public comment on board division. Diana Duksa Kurz, correspondence author on behalf of the Cherish Our Children Angel Statue Committee; not recorded as physically present. Sam, a representative of The Chapel referenced in the partnership discussion; not recorded as physically present.

ORGANIZATIONS AND DOCUMENTS REFERENCED

Kiwanis Club of Newington — donated $1,000 to the Camp RECreate financial-assistance program. Cherish Our Children Angel Statue Committee — dissolving nonprofit asking the town to assume maintenance of the Christmas Box Angels memorial site at West Meadow Cemetery. The Chapel — Newington congregation partnering on the Oct. 10 Halloween event, donating 200 mini pumpkins. Town Pools Project Building Committee — town body to which Tim Manke was nominated to fill a Republican vacancy. Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station and state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection — cited as sources of guidance on reporting spotted lanternfly sightings. Newington municipal code Section 305-1 — cited by Beth DelBuono as the legal authority and public-hearing requirement for any park rental rule changes. Town of Newington code of ethics and boards-and-commissions conduct guidelines — cited by DelBuono regarding standards for council and board member conduct, in connection with the disputed Facebook post. Eversource — referenced in the tree warden's report as the utility responsible for tree work near power lines, which the town does not perform.