Coralville Civil Service

Parks and Recreation Commission Notes from the January 23, 2023 meeting The meeting was called to order at 7:04 pm. In attendance were Commission members Fevold, Mount, Tawil, and Graham, Council Member Jones, and staff members Proud and Moehlis. Also in attendance was resident Corey Washpun, 708 19th Avenue. Under Citizen Comments time, Corey Washpun spoke about concern of price for replacement passes for the Rec pass. The current price is $10 per replacement. First Rec pass is free. Currently, there are three times per year for 10 day periods that a Rec Pass can be replaced for free. She pointed out that for families with multiple kids, it can be expensive to replace the lost pass. She asked why staff wasn’t able to just look up each child as they come in to the building after they get their initial pass. Proud explained that looking up each individual student as they come in may be time prohibitive but she’d have staff look at cost of replacement pass and ideas for balancing access to center when a pass is lost with responsibility of holding and using a pass. Proud invited Washpun to meet with she and Recreation Superintendent, Amy Erickson to discuss and explore other topics related to access and culture in a diverse climate. Commission reviewed the Playground Replacement Plan. The City has five playgrounds and has contributed financially to all the Coralville elementary school playgrounds. Also on the Playground Plan is six additional locations for playgrounds. The current Coralville policy is to place a playground, either public or school playground, within two miles of every household. More recently, the National Recreation and Park Association has come out with recommendation to have a playground within a ten minute walk from every residence. This would shorten the radius to within one mile of every home. Staff have been working on how this effects current operations and how we can create play spaces within green belts as well as developing the playgrounds on the future development list to help bridge the distance gap to homes. Graham mentioned a local resident has asked her about getting more adult exercise spaces incorporated into the parks like in Europe where they are called spiel platzas. Proud will look at how these can be incorporated. Proud also recommended that the plan change the order of upcoming replacements to replace North Ridge Park in 2024 and S.T. Morrison Park in 2025 or 2026 based on condition of playgrounds and opportunity to honor a local resident who passed away suddenly and worked for Parks and Recreation in a part time position for over thirty years. Proud shared that staff at the Grant Wood AEA is interested in fundraising for a corner area of the North Ridge playground to be named for Kim Lestina, who worked for Grant Wood AEA and Parks and Recreation. A rough sketch of a face to face swing, face to face benches, and a sign language panel was shared. Estimated cost for this installment is $16,000. A fund has been established in Kim Lestina’s honor for this project. Mount made the motion to approve the plan to move North Ridge Park replacement to 2024 and to work with Grant Wood AEA on a memorial for Lestina. Graham seconded. Jones requested that information about participating in the fund be sent to all Commission members. Proud will send this information out as the plan is formulated. For Council Report, Jones reported that Council will begin working on the general fund budget at the next Council work session. Jones also said that he’s had the chance to spend time in each of the parks mentioned in the discussion and playgrounds are so important to the families and to the experience in the parks. Under Director comments, Proud reported that WinterFest was a great success with over 350 people attending throughout the day. Staff are working on the construction plans for sand volleyball at Creekside with Bolton and Menk. The Timber Stand Improvement project for Dovetail and for Colony Open Space has been posted for bid opportunity. Under Commission comments, Graham reported she had the chance to volunteer at WinterFest at the Ice skating at the arena and had a good time. Fevold announced he has to step down from the Parks and Recreation Commission on which he’s served for over twenty years due to personal reasons. Everyone thanked Fevold for his service. A tree will be planted in honor of Fevold’s service. He selected a Triumph Elm and to have it planted in North Ridge Park. Motion to adjourn by Graham, seconded by Mount.