Coralville Civil Service

Coralville Parks and Recreation Commission Minutes, March 25, 2013 In attendance were: Commission Members: Fred Fevold, Marti Mount, Laurie Goodrich, David Thayer. Council representatiave: Jill Dodds. Staff: Sherri Proud, Amy Faulkner. Citizen: Kevin Seydel. A regular meeting of the Coralville Parks and Recreation Commission was held on Monday, March 25, 2013. The meeting was called to order at 7:06 p.m. and was held at Norman Borlaug Elementary School. There were no citizen comments. Thayer pointed out in minutes from February 25, 2013 that there were 2 different points that need to be made about the new tree permit that were running together in the paragraph about the tree permit discussion. He also asked if the meeting minutes could be written in more simple sentences with points being made shorter. Proud will make corrections to the paragraph and Proud and Lestina will work on simplifying the notes. Frevold noted that under the Community Gardens, the “no” can be removed under the 100% synthetic chemical free bullet point. Mount made the motion to accept the minutes with corrections as discussed. Second to the motion was made by Thayer. Amy Faulkner, Recreation Program Supervisor, gave a tour and report on the partnership at Borlaug Elementary School. Borlaug Elementary School was built as partnership school with the City of Coralville and the Iowa City Community School District. There are 80 students in the Before and After School program and 45 on the waiting list. Some of these students will not enter Borlaug until 2014. Programs that have been offered this year to the community include Adult Co-ed Volleyball, Jr. High Volleyball skills practice sessions, Friday Night Lights, and open gym times on Sundays and Thursdays. Eight volleyball tournaments have also been held at the school by renter groups. Faulkner gave a tour of the facility including the spaces used by the BASP which are the cafeteria, gymnasium, and an area for homework time on the 2nd floor. Commission also toured the rest of the academic spaces. Proud introduced Kevin Seydel, a Coralville resident who is also a board member for the Iowa Coalition of Off Road Riders, a local off road biking group. ICORR has about 100 members in the Iowa City/Coralville area. They formed in the late 1990’s and are responsible for the building and management of the off road riding trails at Sugar Bottom by an agreement with the US Army Corp of Engineers. Sugar Bottom has fourteen miles of off road biking trails which are also open to trail runners and hikers. Commission members asked questions such as what is the biggest challenge of multiple users and how do users know what skills they need for which trails. Seydel indicated that the different user groups really coexist well together at Sugar Bottom; the only real challenge is getting users to not use earbuds on the trails as verbal communication and being able to hear that communication is very important. Off leashed dogs can sometimes be a problem. Proud shared that Coralville’s leash law would be in effect for any trails in Coralville. Seydel shared that trails are marked similar to skiing slopes with green as easy, blue as moderate, and black has difficult. The trails in Coralville will be green and will be located north of Clear Creek and west of the trail going south of Highway 6 from 12th Avenue. There are currently 1.25 miles of trails that have been built in the past in this area and ICORR has plans to expand to approximately 3 miles of trails. Seydel spoke on management and building of bridges and trails and Commission reviewed pictures of the trail area. Proud distributed a draft of the management agreement, which will be on the April agenda. Proud distributed a policy for tennis court use and reservations. She shared that the intention is to always have a minimum of one court available for drop in play. The policy shared includes the following points:  Defined when east courts will be lit and when courts are available for play.  Gives priority to recreation programs and ICCSD physical education classes and tennis programs.  Gives an opportunity for reservations to be made for courts for a fee.  Gives rules for use of amplified music and bans any wheeled devices from the courts. Commission suggested rewriting the area for reservations to be clear that part of the courts will be available for reservations and when not reserved, it’s first come, first serve walk in traffic for use. Goodrich asked if an inclement weather refund/plan should be included in the policy. In the same keeping as shelter reservations, a renter can reschedule due to weather but cannot get a full refund. Because the courts open as soon as the snow clears from them, Thayer suggested that the policy changed be made, e-mailed to members, and approval by Commission be made by e-mail. Council member Jill Dodds gave an update on Council activities. Work continues on plan review for Old Town. Dodds and Council member Tom Gill will meet later in the week with the County and representatives from North Liberty and Iowa City to once again discuss SEATS, the paratransit system. An open house was held for new businesses coming to the Iowa River Landing. New water wells are being installed in the North Ridge Park area and west of Kirkwood School. The project has impacted the trail at North Ridge Park and that section from Holiday Road to the “y” intersection west of the tunnel, will be closed until end of July. There were no Commission Comments. The meeting adjourned at 8:55 p.m.