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Milton and Mane
Welcome to Milton and Mane, the City of Milton, Georgia's official podcast—a dynamic space where community connection meets insightful conversation. Whether you're a resident, local business owner, neighboring government official, or a curious listener from afar, this podcast is your gateway to understanding Milton on every level.
Each episode is designed to bring you closer to the heart of our city, offering behind-the-scenes stories that humanize the people who keep Milton running. You'll gain valuable insights into local government operations, discover new opportunities, and hear from the voices that shape our community. Expect to learn about our rich history, stay updated on future developments, and explore the vibrant arts, culture, and sustainability initiatives that make Milton unique.
Join us as we celebrate our community, encourage civic engagement, and share inspiring stories that resonate beyond our city limits. Subscribe today and be part of the conversation that's building a better Milton, one episode at a time.
Stock Music provided by ikoliks, from Pond5
Milton and Mane
The Fall Forecast: High Chance of Fun
This episode is your all-access pass to the fun, fitness, and friendships waiting in Milton’s Parks and Rec world. Host Christy Weeks sits down with three members of the Parks and Rec team, Micaela Burke, Thomas Rhodes, and Matthew Graney, to talk about the programs, people, and behind-the-scenes magic that make it all happen. Whether you're chasing toddler energy, looking for a new hobby, or hoping to connect with neighbors, this department has something for you. From packed sports programs and creative kids’ classes to unique adult groups and senior socials, there’s something here for everyone. You’ll also hear about hidden gems like the Atlanta Pétanque League, budget-friendly rental venues, and how this once two-person team has grown into a community powerhouse. Tune in and get inspired! Your next favorite activity might be closer than you think.
View Fall/Winter Activity Guide HERE
Sign up to receive the monthly Parks and Rec newsletter HERE
Register for a program HERE
With the community in mind, this podcast explores the stories, people, and initiatives that make our community unique. Each episode offers insights into local government, highlights Milton's history and future developments, and showcases the vibrant arts, culture, and sustainability efforts shaping our city. Join the conversation, celebrate our community, and discover how we're building a better Milton together.
Do you have an idea for an episode or would like to request a specific topic to be covered? Email Christy Weeks, christy.weeks@miltonga.gov
Learn more about the City of Milton at www.miltonga.gov.
Welcome to Milton and Maine, the official podcast for the city of Milton. We want to bring you closer to the heart of our community through stories that inform, inspire and connect. Each episode offers a behind-the-scenes look at the people, projects and priorities shaping Milton, covering everything from local government and future development to arts, culture, sustainability and public safety. Whether you're a resident, a local business owner or just curious about our city, this is your front row seat to what makes Milton special. Hey, everyone, welcome back to Milton in Maine. I'm your host, christy Weeks, the communications manager for the city of Milton.
Speaker 1:Today's episode is all about fun, connection and community, because the new Parks and Recreation Activities Guide for Fall and Winter is officially out. Whether you're new to Milton or a longtime resident, there's something for just about everyone. In the latest lineup, I'm joined by three of the amazing individuals who make our programs possible Michaela Burke she's our Parks and Rec Specialist. Matthew Graney, recreation Coordinator. And Thomas Rhodes, our Parks and Recreation Program Supervisor, and we're going to talk all about what's new, what's backed by popular demand and how to get involved. So, whether you're looking for a new activity for your child, wanting to connect with other adults in the community or just trying to stay active this season. This episode has you covered. So, everybody, thank you so much for being here, thanks for having us Of course, happy to be here.
Speaker 1:You've all been here before, Matthew. I know you're a little far off the mic there, but you're going to, we're going to, we're going to get you. Say hi to everybody.
Speaker 3:Hello everyone.
Speaker 1:All right. So, um, we've had you all on before, but I want to take about a hot minute just so you can kind of give us a quick history of the part you play in Parks and Rec, because there's a lot of you over there and I know that because I share a floor with you and everybody has such specific talents and energy that they bring to the program. I think it's really important to remind everybody and for those that are are new what's going on in the Parks and Rec Department. So, michaela, let us know what's going on.
Speaker 4:I'm the Parks and Recreation Specialist. I've been here about three years. I do a lot of random things. I do some administrative tasks for our department. I help with events.
Speaker 1:If we need a building painted or something like that, I'm the one who goes and gets. Oh, so I can call you when I need help. Let's see, I believe Tom called you the Swiss army knife I'll do your bathroom for a hundred thousand dollars. Oh yeah, my bathroom's not that bad.
Speaker 4:Thanks, anyway, I'll put you on the list.
Speaker 1:I'll put you on the list, Thomas. What's going on?
Speaker 2:Nothing much Happy to be here again. Yeah, so my title is the parks and Recreation Program Supervisor. More specifically, I deal with the city's athletic program providers, work with them, oversee the contracts. Very important task that I have is overseeing the field space and allocating field space to our different programs. As you know, we have a lot of them and we're a little bit short on field space. So, yeah, that's what I do.
Speaker 1:That's what you do.
Speaker 4:You make it sound so easy, but I feel like your job would be like if I had to fill in for someone. Yours is like the last job I would want to fill in for because it sounds so hard.
Speaker 1:Well, there's a talent to balancing schedules like that and, like you said, we have a lot of programs, programs and there's a lot of things that we offer in conjunction with other municipalities in field.
Speaker 2:space is a thing absolutely yeah so I don't want your job either fortunately, I don't have to create the schedules, but I just got to make sure our teams are in the right spot at the right time ooh right on Matthew.
Speaker 1:What's going on?
Speaker 3:yes, my name is Matthew. I'm the recreational coordinator here for the city of Milton. If you're in Parks and Rec, you do a lot of jobs Like it's not just one, you don't really have one job, it's a lot. So with me it's a non-sports programming. Also, it's the rentals for our facilities that we have.
Speaker 1:And we'll get into that, because I really want you to touch in on all the available space that we have.
Speaker 3:So and then also as well too, I oversee the like the summer camp, so it's going on right now Also.
Speaker 2:I've been here in Milton for it'll be three years in August.
Speaker 3:It just feels like it's flown by.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, y'all are, and we covered this in one of the episodes. Y'all are relatively new growing department, like a handful of years ago, less than five, it was like two or three of you and now there's six of you and interns.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's correct, we've got interns as well. But you're correct, there was just two of us it was Tom and myself several years ago, and fortunately we've added to the team. Yeah, that's correct, we've got interns as well. But you're correct, there was just two of us it was Tom and myself several years ago, and fortunately we've added to the team.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, it's a lot of fun up here. I'm not going to lie, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else, but up here, me and my nosy self jumping in the middle of your meetings. So let's start off. Let's talk about what is new this season, because you guys just pushed out this brand new fall winter activities guide and it is full of things. What's new?
Speaker 2:well, I don't have a lot of new going on, but, um, we're continuing with our thriving athletic programs. We're looking forward to a busy fall season, um, you know, stacked with all of our youth opportunities, anything from baseball and basketball, lacrosse. We also have some adult opportunities as far as soccer and our baton program. So, yeah, we have a lot of things going on in the athletic department.
Speaker 1:And those continue to be very robust programs that come back every year and seem to continue to grow. Is that correct?
Speaker 2:Yes, that's correct. Like we touched on before, we're busting at the seams as far as it goes on field space. But yeah, we've always-.
Speaker 1:Hang on, Deerfield's coming.
Speaker 2:Exactly, we've always got room for more participants, but our programs definitely continue to grow season to season.
Speaker 1:So I'm guessing that's why, when we say register early space limited, it literally means space is limited, jump on it, jump on it oh, I would really encourage.
Speaker 4:If you have kids in that age bracket where they're going to be doing sports, sign up for our email newsletter, because thomas does a really great job of he'll have this whole chart in there of you know this sport registration opens on this date and so it's hard to keep track of that stuff on your own if you're not subscribed to our newsletter, I mean I missed. I even work in this department and I have missed registration dates before and had to go to like I-9 sports.
Speaker 1:Come and talk to me because I do your newsletter.
Speaker 3:It's coming.
Speaker 1:You guys do a great job gathering all the information for people to know and keeping them up to date on what's new and how to get registered. I mean there's 8,000 opportunities and you guys do a good job at reminding. Plus Matthew's favorite he likes flyers. I love flyers love flyers, flyers and signs, but you know what it works and when you've got great programming. That's why they do well. What do you have new coming up?
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, so so far in the summertime, the summertime, we're trying to add some new and some exciting programs. I will say majority of the new ones are not in this upcoming guide because obviously with the guide it takes months of planning and also printing as well too. So fortunately those ones weren't in the guide.
Speaker 1:But they're still going to be available in the fall.
Speaker 3:Yeah correct, those ones weren't in the guide, but but they're still going to be available in the fall. Yeah, correct. So obviously we do have the the programs that are in our guide currently, like the kid create, which is the art classes for kids, we have the art for ronnie, yeah, by teens and also with adults, and then also as well, too, we have the baby suit boot camp classes, and then we have the yoga classes as well and the bombay jam for Fitness Currently, right now, we have a couple new programs that are not in there, but they are going.
Speaker 1:Well, tell us what they are.
Speaker 3:We have the Keto Kinetics, which it's not official yet, but they'll be hoping to start in the fall. It's kind of like a whole introduction to sports for the toddler age, because currently we have the Toddler Tuesday program, which is a free offering that Michaela does an awesome job of doing, but we don't have really any programs besides Tyler Tuesday. So I spoke with a lot of parents. For example, there was this husband and wife that came in and they were like hey, we're moving to Milton, what are some programs that you have for the Tyler age?
Speaker 3:and I was like fortunately, all we really have is the Tyler Tuesday right now, but we're working on adding the a couple new programs. So we have the kiddo kinetics. Um, we have this music class for the toddler age that is starting up in August as well, and then also we have the kids yoga, which is kind of like a meditation and kind of yoga program listen.
Speaker 1:If I would have thought when my kids were little that they were gonna to do something like yoga, I'd have shoved them in there. That was not on the books at the Weeks family. Those kids were mm, mm-mm. What do you mean? Take a deep breath. They were too busy yelling at me. Breathe, child.
Speaker 3:I will say yoga is awesome.
Speaker 4:It's fabulous yeah my kids loved doing story time and yoga at the library when they were little, when we lived in Kansas City.
Speaker 1:That's probably why your kids are more mellow than mine. Mine are super high strung.
Speaker 3:And then we have our catalog where you can go on the website. You have the youth programs, you have the adult and the teen programs kind of listed together, and then you have toddler like like. The Todd programs are listed as well too on there. So it has the different age ranges.
Speaker 1:It has all the different tabs at the top outdoor recreation. You've got. What do we call it? We call it Outdoor Academy, now that kind of stuff. There's a whole bunch of them. It's actually pretty easy to navigate once you get in there and select the type of program you're looking for, because Thomas has his athletics. You have a lot of your programming and they're based on art or, uh, yoga or whatever. It is so easy to navigate and we'll kind of get into those details towards the end. So, um, I'm going to ask any of you guys feel free to answer as you wish what? What's the most popular, most requested program that we have?
Speaker 2:good question like non-athletic any, I don't care any of them I would say our baseball program um just by the sheer number of participants. It has and it's continued to grow shocking baseball in georgia being popular so they're, we're definitely looking, looking forward to some additional field space, uh, to spread them out a little bit, but as far as numbers go, it would be youth baseball.
Speaker 1:And what are the age ranges on that.
Speaker 2:We've got everything from our mini hitters which is three and four-year-olds that's my favorite age to watch baseball.
Speaker 4:Oh my gosh, it's so cute. They'll run the wrong direction or they'll be halfway to the next one and then they'll just stop and look at the clouds or something I'm pretty sure one and then they'll just stop and like look at the clouds or something I'm pretty sure so cute.
Speaker 1:I have a photo of my middle son squatted down in the outfield because that's his skill set. Was the outfield? Um, because we knew the ball was never going out there. They're slick man drawn in the dirt. That was about as much fun as he got.
Speaker 2:Baseball was not his initial skill set but yeah, we've got um, you know, a program for this is like okay, thanks, we've got a program, obviously miniators for little guys and girls and um play all. The way you know they can learn the game and play all the way into high school through that's awesome.
Speaker 1:I love that. Baseball is great sport. I did like to watch it. I'm just never one that could play softball. I'm not a team sport, kind of gal, individual sports.
Speaker 4:My kids have done several of these. My 7-year-old son. He's in Hopewell Baseball and he loves it. He did basketball and he did flag football with I-9. But I feel like the fast sports where you're just running back and forth, back and forth, you just can't do it. But baseball where, like, each person goes up and gets their own turn, that's more his speed. My daughter's in AYSA, she loves it.
Speaker 1:What is that?
Speaker 4:The Alpharetta Youth Softball Association. So they practice at North Park. She's done softball since she was in preschool.
Speaker 1:That's the other thing that I found really shocking in Georgia is how popular softball is down here. I mean a lot of our people I know, through pageants. When their kids aren't on stage, they're literally playing softball and they're they're hitters man.
Speaker 2:They are competitive. A lot of respect for that. I love it. Yeah, I would like to add, uh, you know why. We've got plenty of kids on our fields. We also have some opportunities, you know, on the courts as well Our basketball program, our winter basketball program. We are using every inch of gym space that we can possibly use in the city of Milton. That is available.
Speaker 4:We've even, you know, moved out and, you know, conquered a little territory in Alpharetta, just because we need the space that one I thought was really cool because max did that and sometimes they would go to shoot 360, which is an incredible facility. It's really cool is it just a bunch of basketball courts and it's courts and they have like these big screens and like all these sectioned off areas and you can be practicing and the screen gives you you can do different options and it gives you all the kinds of feedback.
Speaker 3:I don't know it looks yeah, yeah, it looks really cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're definitely very fortunate to have built a relationship with with shoot 360. Cool, but yeah, while I'm touching on our court sports here, you know our tennis program is busting at seams as well, so we're looking forward to getting some additional. And is that all ages?
Speaker 1:That's as well. So we're looking forward to getting some additional. And is that all ages? That's, we've got youth and adult, youth and adult? Yeah, correct, I'll tell you. When I first told my friends in colorado that we were moving, they're like you've got to learn to play tennis. I go listen myself. Does not navigate a court quick enough. It's just not my thing. I have all the respect in the world for it. I wish I knew how to play tennis, because I think it's a very my thing. I have all the respect in the world for it. I wish I knew how to play tennis because I think it's a very cool social game yeah, agree, even now it's pickleball now, I don't know.
Speaker 1:I think I had this discussion once before with me and tom.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I don't need to tie one of one of his arms behind his back he cheats?
Speaker 1:I'm sure he cheats just out of height. Someday maybe I'll learn how to play pickleball.
Speaker 3:I haven't even played it.
Speaker 1:You haven't no, then why are you telling me I've got to play pickleball?
Speaker 3:Because every area, every place I've lived, at every job I worked, a pickleball was involved at some point.
Speaker 1:That's hilarious and I love that. The courts are starting to pop up everywhere and it's this whole again another social circle. That's, the courts are starting to pop up everywhere and it's this whole again another social circle that's what sports are.
Speaker 3:When you get old like me. It's social, but also as well too. Just being parks and rec and having parks and facilities and just seeing the fields or the where the space is being used for programming, it's a. It's an awesome feeling that you see the registrations go through and stuff like that and then you see the programs happen. So it's at the tennis courts, at the baseball fields football fields or at community place or Bethel Community Center or at the Milton Community Center. It's really cool to see.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, because we talk about sports and all these different activities and camps for kids and stuff. But really all of the programs that we offer, whether it's sports, non-sports, whatever it is, it builds community and it really connects people with the city of Milton, but it connects them to each other and that's so important and I think we're lucky that we have a small enough town, big enough, but small enough that that's still relatively a feasible goal to set yeah, it's nice.
Speaker 4:Sometimes my kids will walk into some of these programs and they'll be like, oh it's so-and-so from my class, like my son, my seven-year-old did the play well one and he walked in and some of his classmates were in there and he got to make new friends too, and I love that play well, your your lego thing.
Speaker 1:I think it's the coolest thing.
Speaker 4:I just wouldn't want to pick all the legos up yeah, he's like obsessed with legos and they have like a minecraft theme pokemon wizarding world so he had a lot of fun there. And then my youngest son and my daughter did kid create and they made a lot of really cute art in that one.
Speaker 1:Can I be honest, where does your kids art go?
Speaker 4:It is actually displayed in my living room, unless some of it might be going in the trash soon, but it has been displayed for like a year.
Speaker 1:I have an entire plastic tub. Listen, my kids are 25, 23 and 22 and I have an entire plastic tub of old drawings and cards and some ceramics. I have a bajillion tubs.
Speaker 4:I like at the end of every school year I'm like can we throw this out, can we throw that? And they'll be like you want to throw away all this work that I worked so hard on and then like and I've seen enough episode of hoarding buried alive, where it's like if you throw away things that they really want, then they can. That can like trigger something. So I'm like, okay, I just organize it.
Speaker 1:The best I can.
Speaker 4:So I have tubs and tubs and tubs of art.
Speaker 1:You never know. I display it the best I can. One of your children may become an artist. My youngest is an artist. He's an art photography guy. So I'm hanging on all to this, to this art, because we're gonna go oh look what he did. He started here.
Speaker 4:I won't be surprised if my daughter was an artist. She took um art with ranny and she brought the pieces home and I was like whoa, I was so floored like my daughter is starting to like run circles around me. She's better athlete than me. She can draw better than I can. She can bake better than I can that's our goal.
Speaker 1:Every time I get the guy and I'm like what is she going to do now?
Speaker 4:No, she no. The stuff she makes is really good.
Speaker 1:Here's the thing. That's what we're supposed to do. Our kids are we're supposed to raise our kids to be better than us, right? It's a cool thing that they have the opportunity to learn some of the stuff, because I didn't have all that. You know where I grew up? I did gymnastics, that was it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I feel like my kids. I try to get them into as much as I have the time to do. I feel like every day after school I'm just driving from point A to point B to point C, but it's so. I mean, I feel like it's really important. Like the art with Randy again, mika, she signed up with her best friend and so they got to go for a whole month and like do all this art together. It was so cute. Um, I made my older to take babysitter boot camp so they can babysit each other so they can babysit um babysit my youngest
Speaker 1:yeah, I need it and needs a little supervision, that one.
Speaker 4:I would really like to encourage everyone to sign up their kids. It's for kids 10 to 15, matthew, I think, and so my older kids are home alone.
Speaker 1:10 to 15 for the babysitter boot camp yeah, so like around that age?
Speaker 3:yeah, it's. Uh, they have different types of classes.
Speaker 4:Yeah, my kids took the three hours so they they were introduced to cpr and first day they didn't get certified. You have to take the five hour workshop or the three-day camp. For that. I was so glad they took it because they had like an idea of like how to give cpr and like high milk and stuff.
Speaker 4:But they they got to use the actual mannequins and like the people who do this boot camp have different size mannequins, and so I walked in right at the end when my daughter was trying to get food out of the infant mannequin and she's so kind and gentle and sweet and she was just like tapping the mannequin and I was like no, no, no, mika, if someone's choking, you're like thumping, like don't be afraid to leave a bruise and with the cpr I was like, don't be afraid if you're doing it correctly, the ribs are breaking under your hands, and she was horrified and I was like no, if you survive, you can heal your broken bones, but if you aren't doing cpr correctly, you know you're not going deep enough and you're not really doing it right and they don't live.
Speaker 4:You can't recover from that.
Speaker 1:So well, just make sure they don't practice on each other here.
Speaker 4:Let me try this on you, no if you have a kid in that age range, I would highly recommend you sign them up for that.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So, matthew, you, you had a program start over the summer. Uh, romans, kicks and tricks, right? Yeah, I'm a big martial arts fan. I think it's amazing for kids, my children, they all took some version of it, and my middle son used to bribe my daughter let me practice a headlock on you because he liked jujitsu and she's like, oh, nick, and he's like, just like twice it was chaos at my house. But I do love some good martial arts. I think it's a really good thing for them to learn as far as that. And wrestling Wrestling is another big sport that I love and we don't have wrestling. It's not much here.
Speaker 2:We don't directly have wrestling but we do advertise in the activities guide for the youth wrestling program around the city which is out of Cambridge.
Speaker 1:Oh is it.
Speaker 2:Now they've brought in Milton as well.
Speaker 1:So there is, you know, cambridge and Milton, youth Wrestling, one of the greatest sports ever, and the reason I love it is because it is when you win, it is your win, when you lose, it is your loss. I mean, there is nothing else, but it's a great sport. I love it. I'm a big fan of all sports. What else you got in the sports range over there? You said you have patonk for adults we do.
Speaker 2:It's probably our newest athletic program. So the atlanta patonk league approached the city just looking for space, looking for somewhere that they could play. They already had it mapped out. They have some great representatives. Yeah, their interest was in the overflow parking lot at bell memorial park which, if you're familiar with bell park, you go from all the paved parking spaces at the park and then in the back is our overflow parking which is all gravel which maybe gets used a few times a year, sure. So they approached us with the idea to partner up and needed somewhere to play and we kind of jumped all over it and all learned a little bit about the talk got out there.
Speaker 1:So the gist of it, is it anything like? The first thing comes to mind is like bocce ball.
Speaker 2:It's uh, yeah it's. That's an easy way probably to envision it but, the game definitely definitely differs. It's a french game, but yeah, they get out there at least one saturday per month and they also run some introductory classes that's cool as well, so hey if you're going to pickleball, you can patonk yeah
Speaker 3:one time, when this was probably two and a half years ago, I went to New York City for like a weekend and we stumbled upon one park that was kind of like a French style park and they were playing patonk.
Speaker 1:That's hilarious and I was just like I know what. That is Not going to lie.
Speaker 2:I'd never heard about it until I got here and started making all your stuff. It's everywhere and, uh, bell park has actually hosted the national batonk tournament wow so we had people fly in from all over uh to visit our city and play out in our parking lot, so that was a very yeah, very cool thing for us and I imagine we'll probably host again.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. I did not know that. Is this a fall type sport or is this a year round thing?
Speaker 2:They're Saturdays. They call them the Saturday challenge days. They typically meet for the duration of the year, about once a month, but as far as their introductory classes, they offer a spring and a fall offer.
Speaker 1:That's really cool Right on month, but as far as their introductory classes, they offer a spring and a fall offer. That's really cool right on. So, matthew, we is first. Before I move on, do we have any other programs that we want to make sure that we mention in here, because I mean that's a multi-page book, I mean, aside from Michaela's?
Speaker 4:yeah, I have a toddler Tuesday, starting back up August 12th, and I'm going to make it a little longer. In the morning it used to be 9-11, I'm going to make it 9-12 so people have a little extra time to play. And then there's still the afternoon session from 3-5. And then Book Club is going strong. We meet 6-8pm one Wednesday a month, usually at the Community Center at the Milton City Park and Preserve, although if you want to come, I would register online so I have your email and I can give you all the up-to-date locations. That's cool. And the next day is July 30th and we're reading the 22 Murders of Madison May by Max Berry. And then my last program, we have Mahjong. We do it Mondays from two to four and Thursdays from 10 to 12 at community place right here at city hall. Yeah, and you need your own card, but you don't have to go out and buy your own Mahjong set.
Speaker 4:So that game's addictive is there's a lot of different places you can go play in the city really that's. That's what we offer here at city hall are you a mahjong player?
Speaker 1:I can sort of play, I'm not great, I feel like it's a thinking game. Yeah, yeah, it's like a puzzle, oh, some like puzzles maybe I'm an independent Mahjonger. You don't have to play on a team, do you?
Speaker 4:No, it's four people at each table and you're just playing for yourself.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. It's addictive. I love that, and I think the Senior Center has some Mahjong things going on. We just started.
Speaker 4:One of my book club ladies taught people at the senior center the past three Mondays, so that was really cool. We had 12 to 16 people come out every day.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. Before we go any further, I want to make sure we are going to do an entire episode on the senior center. We have a. There is a ton of programming out there. They do such a great job and everybody here works hard on it. So I we can kind of touch on it just real lightly, but I really want a full episode on the senior center because it's very cool. Any takers?
Speaker 4:So senior services North Fulton they have buses that will take people there. You have to be 60 years old and live in Oh'm almost there I can almost go city hall over I'm going and they have a lot of different activities during the morning and then they feed you lunch and then the bus takes you home. But we're trying to start up some afternoon programming mahjong. We have, uh, teen tech help a few days of summer.
Speaker 1:Well, that's cool because you you provide a calendar for the newsletter every month and we make sure that we throw that in there. So the easiest way for people to find out what's going on out at the senior center is to sign up for those emails, and we'll be sure to give those all those details and how, where to find it and how to do it at the end of the episode, because it's unbelievable how much information y'all push out every month.
Speaker 1:So, matthew facilities we have rentables yeah almost like a lunchable yeah, almost like Lunchable.
Speaker 3:I haven't had a Lunchable in years.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's the quick easy charcuterie board.
Speaker 4:I know I love Lunchables.
Speaker 1:Okay, go Sorry.
Speaker 3:But yeah, but you're right, you're actually making me hungry now.
Speaker 1:You're welcome.
Speaker 4:We'll bus you over to the senior center. You have to wait a little longer than I do. You're only 25 years away.
Speaker 1:You've got to wait 25 years. I get to go in the next five, so I'll send you a letter.
Speaker 3:Yeah, facilities. So we have a lot of facilities that you can rent for birthday parties, baby showers, weddings, even weddings, even weddings.
Speaker 4:Really, We've had two weddings at Broadwell Pavilion.
Speaker 3:I think we had two weddings in the past over at Broadwell.
Speaker 4:See, we're surprised no one has had a wedding at the Milton City Park and Preserve, because it has a beautiful event lawn and there's plenty of space inside.
Speaker 3:I've had meetings and conversations with people, but they never followed through with it. But I definitely showed people around the facility, potential wedding over there.
Speaker 3:But yeah, it's a nice facility it is a very nice facility and I will say all the facilities here are really nice and they kind of fit the style of Milton as well too. But yeah, just speaking about Broadwell with those weddings, the person who actually did the wedding actually sent me videos of kind of what it looked like and it was like they decorated the whole pavilion with lights and stuff like that and it turned out to be a really a successful rental for them and a lot of people were very impressed. Also, with the Milton Community Center, we have birthday parties, we have family gatherings, we had graduation parties over there if you want to do a graduation party plan in advance, because that's pretty popular in may yes, you are correct, yeah, because correct yeah the last three years, I will say in may.
Speaker 3:Every weekend in may has been fully booked with some type of graduation party. So definitely book in advance. So just a heads up.
Speaker 3:You can do the application process. You can start at six months or less, yeah, from the date. So just a heads up on that. So in the past we would receive applications in february, january and march. So just a heads up on that. So in the past we would receive applications in february, january and march. So just a heads up on that. But yeah, so we have the bravo pavilion, we have the milton community center and then we also have the bethwell community center, which is another smaller venues kind of more quiet, private.
Speaker 1:How many people?
Speaker 3:So that facility has capacity of 55 people.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's bigger than I thought it was.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I feel like that one is especially perfect if you have like a birthday party for kids or maybe an adult's getting their birthday party and a lot of family kids are going to be there because there's the playground. If it rains, you can all be inside.
Speaker 3:It's a front porch as well, that's a great facility and it's not expensive.
Speaker 4:It's like $50 an hour. Right, correct, yeah.
Speaker 3:Resident Milton's. It's only $50 per hour, so it's a really good value. Also, the Bravo Pavilion it's the same price as well, too. For a resident Milton it's only $50 per hour.
Speaker 3:And then we also have. I will say our popular space for meetings or for business events is a community place by City Hall, so that's a smaller kind of like a classroom setting so you can have your seminar or a majority I will say a lot of local people who do retirement classes. They prefer community place because it's a good location. It has everything you need. It has a computer, it has a projector, it has a screen.
Speaker 1:That's awesome I had no idea I'm learning so much. That's the best part about this podcast is that I get to learn so much more. I mean, everybody gets busy in their own world and it's. I had no idea. I knew we had facilities.
Speaker 3:I mean basics, but that's really cool yeah, and we also, and and chrissy, I will say we do have some really cool features as well too. So, like at broadwell, if you have a night rental, we're able to set lights, so it's a base for rental. If you want to have a rental from seven to 10, we can set the lights around those times, so they can.
Speaker 1:Right on.
Speaker 3:So you don't have to.
Speaker 1:Have us dance party, kind of have a rental in the dark. Right on Anybody else, have anything they want to throw in there, and real quick. Matthew, how do you book that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so it's kind of the same way you actually do reservations for for our programming. We have a catalog. It has has a tab where you can see the facilities that we all have, and then we have the calendars as well too, so you can see that, the days and times that the certain facilities available and with our facilities. We have application process. You have to submit the application first, and then we have to approve it so once we approve it, if it available then you're able to make the payment. It's pretty quick and easy.
Speaker 1:So I know, on the dropdown, when you go to our website wwwmiltongagov and you go over to the government tab dropdown into parks and rec, there's a sub menu item in there that is rent a facility. Is that correct, correct? So any of the information that we're talking about right now can all be found in that same menu. There's a slew of information. Click on a tab If you have questions or anything. There are phone numbers and emails attached just about anywhere. So they make it really easy for you to get your questions answered, get your facilities secured or get registered for a program. So y'all are very efficient at that. Anything else you want to include, thomas?
Speaker 2:Yes, I would like to just give a shout out to Rush Union. They are an adult soccer provider but they also have a really cool program at their facility that the city really likes to help the market. It's not a direct affiliation with the city of Milton but they do offer the Rush Union Milton Top Soccer Thunder Program and that program is our participants five to 16 years old with special needs. Oh wow, amazing, really cool opportunity over there at their facility. The information is in our activities guide. The information in the activities guide will point you in the right direction to get in touch with one of their staff members so you can sign up. But they typically play on Sundays, have a couple different time slots.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's really really cool what they have going on over there.
Speaker 1:I love that Y'all are really good about inclusive programming.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:I love that.
Speaker 1:So if y'all are interested in any of this programming, you want to get on that email list and sign up so you can stay up to date on what's new, what's coming. Go ahead and take a look at the show notes and I'll have a link in there as to where you find that information and you won't be disappointed, because then you'll know everything that's going on in Milton and it'll be fun and you can patonk or soccer or mahjong your way into a new community. So since we have this new parks and rec guide coming out, where are people going to find it? I know we've got a digital version already loaded on the website, but if somebody wants a physical activities guide, where do they go?
Speaker 3:that's a good question. Thanks, yeah, that's a really good question.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I'm really good at those. Those are those good questions. Uh, a really good question.
Speaker 3:I'm really good at those good questions but yeah, so obviously you can find them at the facilities that we have here in Milton. So you can find them in the lobby area here at City Hall.
Speaker 4:Okay.
Speaker 3:Also at the Milton Community Center, at the Milton City Park and Reserves. You can find that Sometimes you can find them over at the police station as well. But yeah, so we always try to pass it out to all facilities around Milton just to help try to get the word out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, easy access.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because sometimes you have a person who likes to read something like in front of them instead of on a laptop or a phone.
Speaker 1:Well, listen, if it's not attached to my refrigerator, I'm going to forget about it. So if there's anything important, it's going to be magneted to the side of my refrigerator, because I have to see it. But I'm a little old school on things like that.
Speaker 4:No, I love paper. I'm a paper person. I don't like doing stuff on the computer.
Speaker 3:It's really easy to forget. I have to print it off and read it.
Speaker 4:Me too.
Speaker 2:And we'll always have a box full at all of our city events. Oh yeah, definitely pick one up, yep yep.
Speaker 1:Speaking of city events, there are plenty coming up in the fall and I want you all to stay tuned because I have our social I call it a social director or the shenanigans director, but emily salerno is going to be on in the next couple of weeks and she is going to talk all things events because fall is coming and it's packed full of stuff. She's getting ready to get into busy season. We want to make sure y'all know what's going on. So with that, thanks again. Michaela, Matthew, Thomas y'all are always fun to have around. Thanks for joining me today and for all the work that you do to help our community thrive through Parks and Rec, so important and not going to lie, I learn something new every time I talk to you, so thanks for having us, Of course. Of course you can view the full fall and winter activities guide and register for our programs anytime on our website. That link will be in the show notes, and be sure to follow the city's social media pages for updates, highlights and reminders.
Speaker 1:We'll be back soon with more conversations about life in Milton, but until then, I'm Christy Weeks and thanks for listening to Milton in Maine. Thanks for listening to Milton in Maine. We hope this episode gave you fresh insights into what makes our city so special. Stay connected and don't miss an episode by subscribing to this podcast on your favorite platform and following us on social media for all updates. And, of course, if you want to learn more about the city, visit us online at wwwmiltongagov for resources, news and upcoming events. Until next time, thanks for being part of the conversation and we'll see you on the next Milton in Maine.