Credit: Darrah Cloud
Brian Coons, a former town supervisor, was appointed recreation director at the Pine Plains Town Board meeting on Feb. 15, 2024. Coons, a Pine Plains native, is no stranger to the role—he and his brother Brad previously ran the department in the 90s. “We need structure and an exciting curriculum with numerous options for getting people together,” Coons told the Herald.
Coons replaces Mike Cooper, who resigned in January after serving for 4 years. Coons, whose salary is $10,000, is tasked with upholding the town’s policy of offering no-fee activities for residents of all ages, managing the recreation budget and overseeing volunteers. “What has held this program together the past few years is our volunteers,” he said. “Folks still do get involved.”
Almost three decades after his first stint as recreation director —and seven years following his six year term as Town Supervisor — Coons comes to the department with a long list of ideas. For one, he wants Pine Plains Beach to be a bigger local destination. “When I was a kid we were there all the time,” he said. “I want food trucks and music there, and the beach open until 7 or 8 on Friday nights.”
He also wants to broaden sports programming and offer more activities for adults and seniors. Coons and Christina Befanis, a home health occupational therapist who volunteers with the recreation department, plan to add classes for seniors in fall prevention and yoga lessons for strength and balance.
Pine Plains Sports
“Our basketball program is awesome,” Coons said. “For winter, we have youth basketball [boys and girls], a men’s league and a women’s night. For spring, baseball and an incredible girls’ softball program. For summer, camp and beach activities, T-Ball and coach-pitch. I’m studying how to get women’s volleyball going here, so we can play teams from other towns.”
Fall, Coons said, will be dedicated to youth football and he hopes to reinstate the soccer program. He wants programs to be open to all kids in Pine Plains, including those who are only in town for the summer.
Little League programs are difficult to handle. “Leagues are highly categorized by age,” Coons said. “It’s hard to field a team in a small town. We’re part of the Taconic Little League program, which means we have to share our fields with them. This is not always ideal.” He wants to try and develop the town’s own Little League program but it takes a lot of paperwork, oversight, time — and volunteers.
Take Sean Devine at Far-view Tree, for instance. Devine plans to devote his time and equipment to seeding and maintaining the sports fields, for free, an act of service that benefits both the recreation department and the community at large.
Credit: Brian Coons
Free Fun Requires a Balanced Budget
For 2024, the Pine Plains Recreation Department’s budget is approximately $140,000, which includes program costs for Pine Plains Beach and the Pine Plains Summer Camp.
With his salary of $10,000, Coons hopes to provide stipends to the seven members of his recreation committee – all of whom he considers subject experts in their respected sports – so they can do their jobs with financial support.
Coons draws inspiration from the U.S. Army’s use of SMEs — Subject Matter Experts — as a tool for thinking about leadership within the recreation department. “Go to the people who know what they’re doing and create a woven team to make sure they know what everyone else is doing,” he said.
A retired Master Sergeant in the U.S. Army, Coons served as a leader of a Civil Affairs Team in Iraq during the mid-2000s, helping Iraqi civilians with infrastructure problems, repairing utility systems like electrical grids and sewers, and building essential structures such as community centers and hospitals while providing additional humanitarian aid.
Coons plans to implement a new spreadsheet with line items to track “where, who, what, why” as a way to keep close tabs on the budget. “The Board is eager to get this going,” he said, “We are really adamant that the programs be free. We already pay for them in our taxes, why should we pay anything extra?”
For more information about the recreation department, to contact Brian Coons, or to volunteer for Field Clean Up Day on April 6 or Opening Day on April 20, visit https://www.pineplains-ny.gov/departments/recreation-department/.