Parks, Recreation & Tourism Advisory Board

CHESAPEAKE PARKS, RECREATION AND TOURISM ADVISORY BOARD Meeting Minutes May 4, 2023 This meeting of the Parks, Recreation and Tourism Advisory Board was held on May 4, 2023, at the Deep Creek Community Center. Chair Leedom called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. ANNOUNCEMENTS Mr. Barber told the board about an accident at Indian River Community Center that happened a few hours before this meeting. A car drove through the glass doors at the front of the building, went through the lobby and broke through the concrete block wall into the gymnasium before coming to a stop. A community center staff member was seriously injured but thankfully no others. Please keep the staff member and her family in your prayers as she recovers. School staff came to assist with the children that were there for Stay & Play and they were a big help with contacting parents and organizing pickups. The site has been cleaned up and boarded up and the center will be closed for a while. Programs and rentals will be moved to other locations. ROLL CALL Ms. Fuqua took the roll. Attendance reflected a quorum with 10 voting members present, 7 were absent. Members Present: Donna Cannatella (non-voting ex-officio/CCC, Kevin Cole (non-voting ex- officio/CPS), Susan Dixon, Paula Faivre, Deloras Freeman, Phil Johnson, Annette Kelley (Vice Chair), Bob Leedom (Chair), Chris Lowie (non-voting ex-officio/GDSNWR), Patti McCambridge, Richard Pippin, Neta Stephens, and Michael Williams Members Absent: Christine Arrasate, Catina Bondhill, James Brown, Bryan Carey, Jean Carideo (non-voting ex-officio/GBBWHF), Terrence McDuffie (non-voting Youth Liaison), Casey Shackleford, Susan Starkey, and Jessica Woodyard City Staff Present: Mike Barber, Thurman Diamond, Kim Murden, Shawn Hopson, and Cori Fuqua MINUTES: A motion was made by Mr. Pippin and seconded by Ms. Stephens to approve the April 6, 2023 minutes as presented. The minutes were unanimously approved by the board. HEARING OF CITIZENS: None. SPECIAL PRESENTATION: City Event Coordination and Permitting Mr. Josh Fisher, Parks, Recreation and Tourism City Events Coordinator, gave a PowerPoint presentation with an overview of special events coordination and event permitting. REPORTS: a. Ex-Officio Reports:  • Chesapeake Public Schools – None. • Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge – Mr. Lowie said that the Bird Festival was a success last Saturday. Great day, lots of vendors. • Chesapeake Conference Center – Ms. Cannatella gave the following updates: o There are several events coming up in May: The Chesapeake Sports Club guest speaker this coming Monday will be retired VT football defensive coordinator coach, Bud Foster. Then Cinco de Mayo at Lunch with Chef tomorrow, the Chesapeake Regional Awards dinner, Norfolk Shipyard Job Fair, Chesapeake PD CarFit for senior citizens, a smorgasbord Lunch with Chef on May 26th, and the Chesapeake City Service Awards on May 29th. Check out the calendar of events on our website for a full listing. Then the Conference Center will be closing for a few months for renovations from June 1st – November 1st. • Great Bridge Battlefield & Waterways History Museum – None. b. Tourism Report – Ms. Murden gave the following updates: • Staff continues to travel to conferences as well meeting with travel and tourism partners. Wendy is attending training for our new Zartico product which will provide visitor analytics to measure the impact of the visitor economy. • We are also supporting Go Chesapeake! in their Tuesday and Friday welcome activities for boaters. The first one was Tuesday and there were around 50 attending so great showing. Mr. Johnson added that during the month of May there could be up to 5,000 boats coming through and the GoChesapeake! folks are there to help them if they have questions about restaurants, shopping, etc. Ms. Murden said the partnership between GoChesapeake! and Tourism has been a great way to be able to connect with the boaters. Mr. Williams asked if the museum had a welcome center and Mr. Barber said that there is currently a kiosk with information on the other side of the water and that the old fire station by Battlefield Park South will be renovated in the future as well to act as a welcome center. • Hotel occupancy remains strong. One of the first things we will look at with Zartico will be an evaluation of how Something in the Water impacted Chesapeake. Hotels reported that there were not a lot of SITW attendees staying in Chesapeake but there were a number of supporting vendors that did. • Please refer to the Tourism section in the Department Report for additional updates. c. Parks and Recreation Reports – For more information, refer to the Department Report and Park Project Updates. • Grounds Services – Mr. Hopson gave the following updates: o While we were fortunate enough not to be in the path of the tornado that hit Virginia Beach, but we did have some minor tree damage to take care of. o Preparing for several upcoming Special Events and making sure the grounds look good. 2  o Athletic grounds staff is busy maintaining fields for soccer and softball. At Greenbrier Sports Park, our staff hung new nets between the YMCA and the softball field. o Lots of fertilization going on and irrigation systems are getting up and running. o The NWRP campground opened April 1st and staff added stone and graded the Deer Island Trail at Northwest River Park. d. Director Updates: Mr. Barber gave the following updates: • Recreation & Environmental Services o We are continuing on with the gym floor replacements. The floor here at Deep Creek is about finished and the purple padding was ordered. We are trying to do each center with a few of the local high school colors. • Events & Misc. o Paddle for the Border is this Saturday and BikeFest is on Sunday at the Dismal Swamp Canal Trail. First 250 kids will get a free helmet. Next weekend on the 13th is the 50+ Chesapeake Senior Games at the Indian River High School football stadium. This year it is a one-day event and will be only track and field events. If you want to come, we would love to see you. Chesapeake Jubilee starts on the 18th, and we are very excited about that! Memorial Day weekend will feature the Gold Star Memorial Dedication on Sunday the 28th at 1:00 p.m. at City Park, and the Memorial Day Ceremony at 11:00 a.m. at City Hall on Monday the 29th. • Gold Star Monument – the infrastructure is finished (lighting, concrete work, base) and the monuments should arrive and be installed next Tuesday. We are going to try and cover them, so the monuments will not be visible until they are unveiled at the dedication. • The Aquatic Center and the Equestrian facility at Heritage Park designs are moving along. We are making comments back to the architects on those two projects. We received some great news last week for the Historical Village - the Department of Historic Resources has approved our renovation plans for the Cornland School so we can move forward to the next steps with permitting, the contract documents and then get it out to bid. • Mr. Barber showed the board the exterior elevation drawings of the new Gold Star Memorial and the Ranger Station/Interpretation Center at Northwest River Park which is beautiful and getting ready to go out for bid. UNFINISHED BUSINESS: • Bylaws and SOPs – Ms. Fuqua reported that the documents were with the City Attorney’s office for review. If there are no changes, it will go to the City Council for final approval. NEW BUSINESS: • None. 3 HEARING OF BOARD MEMBERS: • Mr. Johnson attended the Department’s Remarkable Tree Tour on April 29th led by Byron Carmean, who is a retired Chesapeake science teacher, and Gary Williamson who used to be a Park Ranger at Northwest River Park. They saw 10 trees on the tour – 2 national champions and 6 state champions and a couple of co-champions. Some of the trees are 350-400 years old, 25-30 ft. in circumference, very tall, and some are hollow. It is well worthwhile if you get a chance to go on the tour. The Stewartia trees are in bloom now. They look like dogwoods and are gorgeous. The lady slippers will be in bloom next week at Battlefield Park along the trails. • Mr. Pippin said the Chesapeake Jubilee will be held May 18-21 at City Park. It begins with the 44th Annual Kiwanis Shrimp Festival on Thursday night. He will put together packages with some passes in them for board members and they can be picked up at the PRT office. Ms. Fuqua will send out an email when they are ready for pickup. • Ms. McCambridge has invited Lauren Ragsac, PRT’s landscape designer, to speak at her garden club. If anyone would like to attend, it is at Great Bridge Presbyterian Church fellowship hall on the 16th at 6:30 p.m. Lauren is very knowledgeable about native plants. Raffle items will be given away after the program. • Ms. Faivre wanted to know how the Master Gardener’s plant sale went. Mr. Barber said it was packed on Saturday even though the weather was not that great! • Mr. Williams said that Tidewater Winds completed their very first 3rd grade targeted Reading In Music Education (RIME) Program with the Virginia Beach public schools. They wrote their own lesson plans and then worked side by side with the teachers in the classroom presenting the book of Pinocchio. Tidewater Winds published their own version of the Pinocchio book using some of their musicians as characters with puppets and other things. It then became a lesson plan for the teacher in the classroom, the kids then came to the Sandler Center for a matinee performance. The teachers loved it! They will be going to the next level and are working on the next book, The Little Prince, and targeting 5th grade students as well. The Tidewater Winds summer concert series will be coming up at City Park on Wednesdays July 12th and 19th – more information to come. • Chair Leedom wanted to compliment Monica Christiansen on her recent speaking engagement at the Chesapeake Sports Club. Great job! ADJOURNMENT: The meeting was adjourned at 8:03 p.m. NEXT MEETING: The next meeting will be on Thursday, June 1, 2023. It will be a facility/parks bus tour and signups will be required. Minutes submitted by Cori Fuqua, Secretary 4