Parks & Recreation Advisory Commission

Bristol Tennessee Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes March 5, 2020 6:00 P.M. Slater Center Present: Susi Chandler, Mahlon Luttrell, Sherry Willinger, Butch Downs, Justin Hutchinson, Ronda Baker, Bennett Cowan, David Akard, Kate White, Guest: Steve Sheffield Staff: Terry Napier, Adrienne Osborne, Chuck Fleming, Cameron Clark, Beth Carter, Karen McCook, Absent: Curt Rutherford, Caden Meyers, Lance Tudor I. Call to Order: 6:00 pm by David Akard II. Approval of January 9, 2020 Meeting Minutes: Butch made a motion to approve the minutes and Bennett Cowan seconded the motion. Motion passes with unanimous vote. III. New Staff Introductions  Chuck Fleming - Parks & Facilities Superintendent  Cameron Clark – Parks Crew Chief  Beth Carter - Recreation Programmer / SCP Manager  Karen McCook - Recreation Programmer  Adrienne Osborne – Department Secretary IV. Old Business:  Nature Center Expansion Report: The children’s space is complete. The wildflower exhibit is designed and fully funded. Now it’s time to roll it out. There has been progress on refurbishing downstairs. Everything is framed out and the electrical work is done. Outdoor classroom is unfunded but a couple people are looking at it. It isn’t in the budget.  Beaver Creek South Greenway Progress Report: The preliminary report is complete. The cost is 1.5 or 2 million less than originally thought. Terry is trying to set a date so we can present and have a joint meeting with parks commission and city council. After the presentation is complete we must present to property owners because it’s private property. We currently have a sewer easement but also need a recreation easement. The trail from Rooster Front to Bristol Motor Speedway is 5.4 miles. Approximately 4.5 to 5 miles is on private property. There is money in this year’s budget to start purchasing right-of-ways. TDOT also does alternative transportation grants. There are also recreation grants. Park grants are 80/20, and TDOT grants can be anywhere from 100% to 50%.  Trail Maintenance Report: The primary focus for this year is to put goals in place and next year to do planned overhauls. Our goal was to do three miles this year but we have already completed five miles. Reroute and drainage on the East Ridge trail is a big improvement. We replaced two bridges on other side and will start on third bridge next week.   Park Maintenance Report: Steele Creek Park and parks in general have lots of trees down due to storms. We have removed all the trees and most of the stumps. Mr. Sorah asked for a facelift of the downtown in beds, which is in progress. They are also working on ball fields. Workers completed the Friendship concession renovation, replaced a scoreboard, and completed cut ins on the field. More work will continue as weather allows. There are three more tractor trailer loads of dirt coming. At Holston View we replaced broken water lines, replaced the A/C unit and will replace windows in score tower. V. New Business:  Bristol TN Little League: President Steve Sheffield discussed the curfew for the older division, which is the 11-12 year-olds. The curfew is currently 9:00 P.M. He was sent by the parents to discuss the curfew again, and to request the little league curfew, which is 10:00 P.M. Steve asked for a 9:30 P.M. curfew. Mahlon inquired if Steve had spoken with some school principals. Steve said he spoke to one, Ms. Coleman. In e-mails from Jennifer Rouse and Ms. Coleman, the consensus was that they were not comfortable in supporting a curfew change. They did agree the time was fine if the parents agreed on it. Saturdays don’t work because of the lack of inadequate volunteers to umpire. Post-game team meetings with the coaches are no longer permitted, as these prolonged the amount of time spent at the ball fields. Completing the required 4 innings per game is a prerequisite for All-Star participants. In the past they tried to start games at 5:00 P.M. They have tried to cut the first games for the younger team and have reduced times between innings. They would like to complete 6 innings but are having a hard time completing the required 4 innings. They currently practice Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Games start around first of April and the season ends around June 1st. David said, “The kids get out of school in June. It effects 21 days.” Terry said, “Parents won’t leave at 9:30 and the players have younger siblings.” Steve composed a form that players and parents can sign that allows students to leave after the first two innings if they have test or other reasons that they need to leave. They only play two games a week. There are 6 teams in the 11-12 year-old division and 7 teams of 9-10 year- olds. David asked, “Is the 9 P.M. curfew our law?” Terry replied in the affirmative. Ben said, “Scientific studies show kids learn poorly when they are tired. Adolescents need more than 6 hours sleep. Kids need sleep and we can’t ignore the facts. The real stakeholders are parents and teachers. I don’t want to make the job of parents and teachers harder by allowing this. I vote 9:00.” David said no because he isn’t convinced that there is an issue. Terry said, “Do you check grades for players?” Steve said, “Anything below a C and they get suspended.” Steve stated that they are required to play 12 games but he wants to play 16. They must hit 60% to play travel ball. Lance asked, “Does soccer or basketball go past nine?” Terry replied in the negative. o David said, “Does anyone make a motion to make a change?” o No response o Steve asked if the 16 year-old girl’s teams could be changed to 9:30. Several members stated, “No.” o Mahlon asked, “Is there a cost for umpire training?” Steve said, “$250 and travel to GA. But you don’t have to take this course to be an umpire. Little league has a chief that will teach a training course.”   2020 Work Plan: Summer will see continuation of the status quo. One subject that will come up soon is the Steele Creek Golf Course. We are going to hire a company to come in and do a strategic review of Steel Creek Park to decide what we should do with it. They will collaborate with the community. There will be a 5 and 10 year plan. Recreation is important for economic development and attracts people to the community. It’s in budget for July 1st.  FY21 Goals o Comprehensive Review / Plan for Steele Creek Park & Golf Course o Continue Trail Maintenance at Steele Creek Park o Replace/update park signs: Most of the signs are broken down. We will do a facelift on the parks. o Complete Phase II of the dog park. The (restroom) phase 1 at the dog park isn’t going well due to rain. 80% of the grading is done. It will probably be next year before the restrooms are done. o Complete Phase II of Pickle Ball Facility (Restroom). There will be 6 pickle ball courts. We have all sleeves for the nets but temperatures dropped before the resurfacing was done. We need 5 days of above 50 degrees ground temperatures to complete that. We will add small restroom there. o Look for new home for Farmer’s Market. We need a new home for the farmers market. There needs to be a farmer’s market board. The commission is now that board. Downtown center is not ideal due to weather. We want an indoor location. We hope to find something that can be multipurpose. Hopefully, this will happen in the near future.  Mobile Stage Trailer (24x20) Council approved the stage on Tuesday. We will invest in the wall behind the stage and have the mural repainted. The cost was $128,000 for the stage. It can be used for a variety of events. We want to reimburse the city within 5 years. The repainting of the mural will start as soon as the weather allows. The first priority is the repainting of the wall. VI. Board Comments: Butch: I’m glad to hear we are moving forward with Steele Creek. Come up with something for farmer market. Mahlon: Nothing Sherry: “I wanted to make you aware of Earth Week Bristol 2020 in April. The Friends of Steele Creek, King, Bristol Public Library, Keep Bristol Beautiful and Believe in Bristol are collaborating. It will be April 18-25. Steele Creek will have a cleanup and hike. There will be lectures at library. There will be an Arbor Day celebration at Fairmont school to plant trees. Trees are being distributed to all the elementary schools. We will be having children’s story time about the environment. It’s the 50 anniversary of Earth Day. Susi: Complements the trail workers. They raked mulch in the snow. She asked for the latest on Quarry Cave Trail. Terry said, “We must finish the reroute to get equipment to it. There is a spring in the middle of trail that is bubbling up. We must reroute that creek. Charlie Robbinette will repair ruts until public works paves the trail.” Justin: Nothing Ben: Nothing Kate asked if there could just be coverings for the farmers market. Terry said, “There’s just not enough space either.”  Ronda: Nothing David: Nothing VII. Next Meeting Date: May 7, 2020 VIII. Adjourn: David at 7:40 2020 Meeting Schedule January 9 March 5 May 7 July 2 September 3 November 5