Parks & Recreation Advisory Commission

Bristol Tennessee Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes July 9, 2020 6:00 P.M. Slater Center/ Zoom Present: Susi Chandler, Mahlon Luttrell, Sherry Willinger, Clyde Butch Downs, Bennett Cowan, David Akard, Amy Shi Staff: Terry Napier, Adrienne Osborne Absent: Justin Hutchinson, Ronda Baker, Kate White, Curt Rutherford, Caden Meyers I. Called to Order: 6:00 pm by David Akard II. Approval of March 5, 2020 Meeting Minutes: Susi Chandler made a motion to approve the minutes and Mahlon seconded the motion. Motion passes with unanimous vote. III. Commission Appointments/ re-appointments  Curt Rutherford  Ronda Baker  Susi Chandler  Amy Shi is a junior at TN High. She start TSS, Teens Supporting Sustainability. The goal is trying to make the school more environmentally friendly. They raised and released trout. IV. Introductions V. COVID 19  Facility Closings: At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Steele Creek Park Nature Center and Slater Center were temporarily closed. The Nature Center is open, and administrative offices at the Slater Center are open to the public, but classes and other activities remain suspended. Future plans are dependent on guidance from Governor Bill Lee and public health officials.  Activity Closing: Programming was shut down. The pool, paddle boats, splash pad and train didn’t open this summer. The basketball courts and playgrounds shut down and reopened. The governor allowed for softball and baseball. We contacted the little league. We agreed on a plan. However, they couldn’t get enough kids to play.  Staff Assignments: City operations continue behind the scene. o We manage the custodial staff for city. We shifted gears to convert all buildings to COVID-19 zones and shuffled custodians. There are now 3 custodians at city hall. One custodian only does COVID-19 sanitizing. o There is now a single point of entry at Bristol’s city hall. We built a desk for police to check temperatures and to screen people who enter.  o We installed 60 hand sanitizer stations at entry points, buses, etc. We’ve used 30 gallons of sanitizer so far. o Another task we are participating in is mask distribution. o We’ve been working with the nonprofit groups. We attend a weekly meeting to assist in organization of their efforts and reduce duplication for homeless population. The group reserved a block of hotel rooms for potential positive COVID-19 cases in the homeless population and United Way has provided meals. So far there has only been one person housed. That individual lived in her car and works at hospital. The group housed her through her period of quarantine and testing. o The group brought in a shower trailer at the Haven of Rest for the homeless population. o We also booked another block of rooms at another hotel for staff, including the fire department. These are the individuals transporting patients. This will ensure fire department members don’t have to go home to their families if they test positive. o The water plant runs 24/7. We built a stock of 30 day provisions in case the plant workers need to be locked in for 30 days. o The same plan was instituted for the Slater Center, as half of the police department command staff is working from there. o There was similar splitting of the fire department command staff. o We still maintain a supply store for the city. A second store was set up for hundreds of thousands of PPE; gloves, masks, lemon zip. There’s a three month supply of paper products, including toilet paper. o We have been setting up Zoom meetings. o The recreation staff was tasked with staying connected with the public. They’ve made exercise videos, fort Friday, sidewalk chalk. They will keep positive messages coming out. o The farmers market is up and running by the recreation staff. It is going well. Products are starting to come in, attracting more customers. o A lot of the staff is working from home most of the time. o The senior department is making weekly calls. They never stopped delivering meals on wheels. They are still providing van services, but have scaled back to transporting seniors to doctor appointments and grocery stores. We are not providing transportation to hair appointments. o We hosted COVID-19 testing in the Slater Center parking lot. o On Mother’s Day, we gave flowers away in the parking lot.  Staff Shortages: Hiring for the summer was frozen due to budget shut down. We are short a lot of summer maintenance staff. We can’t find bodies to hire. The current staff is trying to keep up. We normally have 2-4 community service  workers, but those positions have been eliminated due to COVID-19. There’s a loss of manpower in parks, resulting in some projects being postponed.  Budget Changes – FY20 and FY21 o All capital projects were cut, with the exception of the dog park and pickle ball courts. o The budget for capital equipment, trucks and mowers was cut. o The parks and recreation budget went through 7 revisions before it was approved. We are going into this year with low expectations. We are still not spending money at the rate we normally would. o We are shifting gears to the country music mural proposal to remove the current stage, repair the wall and repaint it. Parks and recreation workers repaired the wall, due to lack of outside funding. The repainting began yesterday. VI. Old Business  Nature Center Expansion Report: The nature center expansion has been put on hold so we can focus on the dog park and pickle ball courts. We don’t expect to get back to that for at least another month.  Beaver Creek South Greenway Progress Report: The final engineering report on the greenway is complete, along with details of the route, cost, and phases. We were ready to meet with the community, but the COVID-19 pandemic led to postponement. The community is well aware of the project. One resident expressed opposition to the project at the July city council meeting. There have been 8 calls, 4 against and 4 in favor of the project, for a current 50% approval rating.  Trail Maintenance Report: Downed trees are being removed and potholes are being filled. Early rains have delayed progress.  Park Maintenance Report: One of the planned projects for 2020 was to complete a comprehensive review and plan for Steele Creek Park and the golf course. There’s no money to complete that project this year. That has been reassigned in-house to the planning department.  Comprehensive Review/ Plan for Steele Creek Park & Golf Course o Will be completed in-house  Replace/Update Park Signs: We will replace park signs this year.  Dog Park: While doing construction, workers encountered some larger concrete and 3 inch rebar, but it’s now 90% removed. They will need 60 loads of topsoil, which will need to be leveled. The fence will be installed soon.  Pickle ball Courts: The maintenance crew has been working on the pickle ball courts. They cleaned the court up, filled cracks, and then let it sit over the winter. The spring the crew has refilled the cracks and is now ready to put down court product. The product has to be poured and spread with squeegees. All the material is here. The surface coat cost $9,000.  Look for new home for Farmers Market: We are still looking for a new home for the farmers market. Due to COVID-19, the market has been moved to the city hall  parking lot. There is fencing and directional arrows. The vendors are happy. We know we need to rehome the market long-term. VII. New Business  Mobile Stage Trailer: The mobile stage arrived from Canada. Two weeks ago, four staff members were trained in its operation. It is ready to be used for musical performances. Angie and Terry met with Maggie from Believe in Bristol. They put together a triple music series for next year. This will provide needed funding for Believe in Bristol and cover costs. There will be 42 different music events. These will be all around the new stage. We will set up the stage one day next week. We contract with the company Front Row Music for sound. They are coming in next week to test and set up the sound.  2020 Work Plan – Adjustments: The capital funding cuts resulted in changes to plans. We are taking advantage of not having major plans and focusing on smaller projects, such as improving the ball fields.  Downtown Landscaping: Plans were to obtain bids to redesign the flower beds, but funding was cut, and the in-house crew worked on removing plants and replacing them with large rocks. The rocks were salvaged from ditches along Highway 11W. This resulted in a savings of several hundred thousand dollars for the city.  Country Music Mural Sign Project VIII. Board Comments:  Sherry: Commends Terry and staff for being ingenious and for the improvisation. She is proud of the parks and recreation department.  Ben: Ben said, “I tip my hat to the planning commission and the skill set to make changes in plans minute to minute and hour to hour. Planning ahead is difficult and it’s been great to see it in the last ten years in Bristol. I’m proud to see what the city has done. I will write a letter to the paper about what’s been done. We need to be making decisions as we go forward based on science, doctors, and CDC. It takes a lot of courage and leadership. We need to make decisions based on science not public wishes.”  Ami: Ami said she didn’t realize there was so much going on and it’s impressive.  Susi: Susi asked, “Have the Tuesday and Thursday music festivals been canceled through July?” Terry said they have been canceled through the rest of the year. Susi said the ruts are back by the beaver dam along the Lake Side Trail. Susi observed she has run into two young men on the greenway with roller blades and 4 ladies with skates. Terry said people are getting out more.  Butch: Butch asked, “Do you have enough staff?” Terry said we need custodial staff and there are mowing crew positions that need to be filled. We are down by 3 manual laborers. With the exception of a little less trash cleanup we are still doing everything we need to do. Butch said he is glad to see the pickle ball courts are coming along   Mahlon: At the council meeting on Tuesday, David represented the parks and recreation commission. He requested a bench on the section of the greenway off Shelby Street. Terry has bought the benches but they haven’t been installed yet.  David: Terry and David have discussed a negative letter to the editor of our local newspaper. David was upset over the negative letter. He wants a good way to let citizens know about the positive improvements/constant efforts made by the parks and recreation department. There has not yet been a meeting about the master plan for the greenway, and he suggested the parks and recreation board members are present at meetings in order to enhance the public’s perception of the greenway.  Ben: Ben said having been part of the Mendota Trail, it’s hard to cultivate support. We just need to understand what we can do to make this trail OK for the citizens. David: It’s amazing how pickle ball has taken over. What Terry has done on a limited budget with limited resources is amazing. The stage looks great.  Terry: We will look for sponsorship money. IX. Next Meeting Date: September 3, 2020 X. Adjourn: David at 6:56 p.m.