Parks and Recreation Advisory Board

CITY OF ELKO PARKS AND RECREATION ADVISORY BOARD 6:30 PM, THURSDAY, JULY 31, 2025 ELKO CITY HALL, COUNCIL CHAMBERS 1751 COLLEGE AVENUE, ELKO, NV 89801 I. CALL TO ORDER Vice-Chair II. ROLL CALL Present: Harmony Stahl, PRAB Member Willard Burnham, PRAB Member Mike Blythe, PRAB Member Andrew Storla, PRAB Member Arturo Ruiz, PRAB Member Josh Brake, PRAB Member Absent: Colby Curtis, PRAB Member Lynette Davis, PRAB Member Fred Beitia, PRAB Member City Staff Present: Marissa Lostra, Councilwoman James Wiley, Parks and Recreation Director Annette Robinson, City Clerk Nichole Stephens, City Clerk Technician II III. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A. Approval of March 20, 2025 Minutes. FOR POSSIBLE ACTION. ** A motion was made by Member Storla, seconded by Member Blythe to approve the minutes from March 20, 2025. The motion Passed. (3-0) Vice-Chairperson Stahl, Member Ruiz, and Member Brake abstained from voting. V. COMMENTS BY THE GENERAL PUBLIC Ms. Stahl called for public comment and did not receive a response. July 31, 2025 Parks and Recreation | Minutes Page 1 of 5  VI. NEW BUSINESS A. Review, discussion, consideration and possible selection of the Chairperson and Vice- Chairperson for the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board and matters related thereto. FOR POSSIBLE ACTION The Parks and Recreation Advisory Board By-Laws state that the Board shall elect a Chairperson and a Vice-Chairperson from its members each year in July. There is no minimum or maximum on the number of times a member may serve as Chairperson or Vice-Chairperson. JW ** A motion was made by Member Stahl, seconded by Member Storla to nominate Colby Curtis as Chairperson. The motion passed unanimously. (6-0) ** A motion was made by Member Burnham, seconded by Member Ruiz to nominate Harmony Stahl as Vice-Chairperson. The motion passed unanimously. (6-0) B. Review, discussion, and prioritization of potential projects identified within the five year plan for the Parks and Recreation Department and matters related thereto. FOR POSSIBLE ACTION The Board discussed the five-year plan at the March 20, 2025 meeting. Staff has included additional potential projects brought forward by the Board to the five-year plan. Staff is seeking a recommendation of approval to be forwarded to the City Council for final acceptance. JW James Wiley, Parks and Recreation Director, gave a brief synopsis of the five-year plan, a copy of which is included in the agenda packet. Member Andrew Storla asked if the playground replacement would include a pad or the rubber pieces or anything like that. Mr. Wiley responded that they had a few options on that. Currently, they choose to use wood fiber chips, but they could use rubber chips as well. As a benefit, the rubber chips do not degrade, but they only have grass borders, so they tend to migrate out onto the lawn. Another option is the poured in place, which is an inch to inch and a half cushion. He noted he had tried one of those about 20 years ago and it did not work very well in the cold weather climates, but they had improved drastically since then and they were considering that option. Ms. Stahl asked if the Wornek Complex was the one near Flagview. July 31, 2025 Parks and Recreation | Minutes Page 2 of 5  Mr. Wiley responded yes, directly behind the Basque House and the preschool. Mr. Storla asked about the NDOW fishery. Mr. Wiley said they were working with NDOW and have an MOU with NDOW that states NDOW will fund the construction and development. Once the construction is done, it will be just like any other park of theirs and the city will accept perpetual maintenance. He said they are currently expecting a grant through NDOW to go into some design work, and they would be passing money through the city to coordinate that effort. Ms. Stahl asked if they would need additional staff members for this, and if NDOW would be responsible for maintaining the fish. Mr. Wiley responded maybe seasonals, but most of what would be down there would be natural landscape and walking paths, a restroom and fish cleaning station, and a small watercraft launching site. He confirmed NDOW would be responsible for the fisheries. ** A motion was made by Member Brake, seconded by Member Ruiz to approve the five-year plan. The motion passed unanimously. (6-0) VII. UNFINISHED BUSINESS VIII. REPORTS A. STAFF REPORTS Mr. Wiley reported there was a fantastic girls softball tournament last weekend and utilization of the new sports complex was phenomenal. He said they received tons of compliments from both locals and people that had come to participate. He added they were working with the Drillers Organization to hopefully bring a much bigger tournament next summer. He said they had put the park rehab project out to bid and the bids had been due on Monday, however they had to put a pause on it due to some technical difficulties in the bid docs and some concerns from the contractors. Once those were corrected, they planned to go back out to bid with a start date as early as possible in the spring, likely sometime in April. Ms. Stahl asked Mr. Wiley if he had any updates on the rec center. Mr. Wiley responded based on conversations he has had with Rusty Bahr, they were on schedule to have the center open the first part of January. He added they would be bringing some items forward to a future City Council to discuss shutting down the old pool. Ms. Stahl asked if the rec center was going to be able to use the building. July 31, 2025 Parks and Recreation | Minutes Page 3 of 5  Mr. Wiley responded they were working on that process, and that was why they needed to purchase additional property elsewhere, since the building sits on encumbered land. The outdoor pool was already leased to them. Ms. Stahl asked if they were tying it in with Stitzel Park. Mr. Wiley responded yes, that was the goal. If it didn’t work out, they may have to look elsewhere, but he thought they were on a pretty good path. B. BOARD REPORTS IX. SCHEDULE THE NEXT PARKS AND RECREATION ADVISORY BOARD MEETING The next meeting was scheduled for October 16, 2025 at 6:30 pm. X. COMMENTS BY THE GENERAL PUBLIC Witter Cheng, 2250 Clearwater Court, asked if they would consider putting cameras at the Peace Park due to the drugs and homelessness starting to creep in. He said he walks his dog there every day, and there are always drugs and loud music there and it is getting worse. Mr. Wiley told Mr. Cheng that he would work with him on that to come up with solutions, and they could discuss it further outside of the meeting and may bring it back as an agenda item at a future meeting. Mr. Cheng noted there were more dogs at the Peace Park without leashes than on leashes. He also suggested a sign that everyone can read for the doggie bags provided to pick up after their animals, as there were poops everywhere. Mr. Wiley responded the only place dogs are allowed off leashes is at the dog park. He noted they have a lot of signage on their athletic fields that say no dogs are allowed since they had run into similar issues, but they really did not want to do that at the Peace Park. He said he would talk to code enforcement and animal control to encourage a little bit more presence, and he would also look into improved signage. Mr. Cheng said there was something about to be demolished, and a lot of kids go there to learn how to ride bikes or roller skate. He suggested preserving a quarter or less of the concrete slab and not demolishing it. Mr. Wiley responded he had talked to Mr. Cheng a few weeks ago and said he didn’t know if anyone had seen the final designs, but there was a spot on that slab not involving pickleball. He told Mr. Cheng there may be some conflicts that occur with other people, but there should be enough room there if he wanted to continue to use it. July 31, 2025 Parks and Recreation | Minutes Page 4 of 5  Member Mike Blythe asked if the bathroom was part of the plan renovation. He also said the club would like to know about the lights. Mr. Wiley stated that one was slated for renovation. They would be using existing lightning systems down there for now. He said he had quotes readily available for retrofits, but to get the project off the ground, it was one of the aspects that they were going to defer for the time being. They did have a plan to address it at some point down the road. Ms. Stahl told Mr. Cheng it sounded like it would be awesome for him to participate in the planning process of the skate park retrofit. She added she did not know if it would spread to two sites, but maybe a slab would. Mr. Brake said the owners of the property with the E are trying to sell it. He had attended their meeting, and they had said they were trying to avoid developers, but those were the only ones making offers. He asked if there was a way to make it municipal and make it a park. Mr. Wiley said it would be quite a process. He didn’t want to say it couldn’t happen, but he didn’t think it was a likely option for parks and recreation. Mr. Storla said he did know they had some land up there for water, such as a future water tank. He thought that it would probably be a City Council question. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 7:42 PM. James Wiley, Parks and Recreation Director July 31, 2025 Parks and Recreation | Minutes Page 5 of 5