Recreation & Parks Advisory Board

Regular Meeting of the Advisory Board of Recreation and Parks Held at the Falls Church Community Center 223 Little Falls Street, Falls Church, Virginia 22046 Minutes April 11, 2012 1. Call to Order Mr. O’Hara called the meeting to order at 7:08 p.m. Members present were Charley O’Hara, Kathy Chandler, Greg Rasnake, Ruth Rodgers, and Leslie Rye. Staff members present were Danny Schlitt, Director of Recreation & Parks, and Krissy Loerch, Senior Administrative Assistant. 2. Receipt of Public Petitions and Board Member Petitions Mr. O’Hara asked if there were any petitions from the public or board members. There were none. 3. Minutes Ms. Rye moved to approve the minutes from the March 7th meeting. Ms. Chandler seconded the motion. Ms. Rodgers and Mr. Rasnake abstained from the vote. Upon voice vote, the motion passed. 4. Recreation Director’s Report • The Summer Classes Brochure was published and is available in print as well as online. Registration begins on May 14th for City Residents and May 21st for Non-City. • The youth basketball season is finished. Pictures of the championship teams were sent to the News Press, Times and Patch. Unfortunately, those news sources did not provide much coverage. • Registration for youth spring soccer is completed with forty teams participating. We have one SFL team this year compared with two last year. • Registration continues for Adult Co-Ed Softball, Adult Co-Ed Volleyball, Men’s Summer Basketball and Girls High School Summer League. • The Summer Farmers Market will be open at 8 a.m. beginning this weekend. The new seafood vendor we were expecting to attend this year had to cancel at the last minute. On Saturday, April 28, the Chef Series returns. • Mr. Schlitt will speak with the NVRPA Director at a meeting next week to discuss the Railroad Avenue property. • Construction of the rain gardens at Berman, Crossman and Lincoln parks has begun. Sections of Berman and Crossman are closed. The entire park at Lincoln will be closed for a few weeks during the project. Mr. Schlitt will monitor the progress and work to ensure that Lincoln Park is not closed for longer than necessary. • Mr. Schlitt is leading an effort to coordinate communication about City volunteer opportunities. A new volunteer page on the City’s website was created as a central location to assist the public in finding projects. There will be one party each year in the fall to thank all volunteers. 5. New Business a. Operating budget • The City Council asked the City Manager to add $35,000 into our operating budget for parks maintenance issues. This additional funding can be used to repair issues in the park such as the lights at Cavalier, trash cans, park benches and more. Final approval of this funding is pending. • Mr. Schlitt is attending a CIP work session and invited the board to join the meeting. The additional operating money may be a topic of discussion. • The Assistant City Manager asked that the advisory board make an official statement for or against the additional funding in the operating budget. Ms. Rodgers moved to endorse that the department needs additional yearly funding in the operating budget. Ms. Rye seconded the motion. Mr. Rasnake abstained from the vote. Upon voice vote, the motion passed. • The $24,000 for a new van currently remains in the budget. • Ms. Chandler suggested the department explore the possibility of allowing citizens to buy park benches with name plates. Mr. Schlitt has worked with a few citizens in the past that have bought benches for Cherry Hill or Frady Park. There is an overall issue with this process because the money is taken from our operating budget to purchase the bench. The typical bench we’ve ordered for those special occasions’ costs around $1,600. b. Special Events Report • Ms. Jenny Paxton has worked for the Recreation & Parks Department for over six years. She is the Senior Program Supervisor, making her second in the chain of command. Ms. Paxton coordinates all of the department’s special events. • The Easter Egg Hunt was very well attended this year and in part due to the beautiful weather. There was a line for the Easter Bunny from before 10 a.m. to after 12 p.m. The event was free and monetary donations were accepted. Giant sponsored the event this year. We hung several of their banners in key locations. • Ms. Paxton encouraged the board to let her know if they have anyone in mind who would be interested in sponsoring. There are numerous events to choose from with different levels of monetary contributions and exposure. Over the last few years Ms. Paxton has noticed that business prefer smaller sponsorships. Therefore she is working with more businesses to secure sponsorships where as in the past companies have wanted to sponsor an entire event. Ms. Paxton also accepts in-kind donations to the event for sponsorships. • Planning for the Memorial Day Parade and Festival is underway. Harry Shovlin is the Grand Marshall this year. Ms. Paxton is pursuing Giant as a potential sponsor. Realtor Tori McKinney will sponsor a marching band again this year. c. Bike Pedestrian Plan Review • The plan was presented to the City Council and is required to endure at forty-five day comment period required by the ADA. The public hearing is April 19 at 7:30 p.m. Mr. O’Hara encouraged board members to attend this meeting to assist in becoming familiar with the plan. The board is expected to provide official comments by the end next meeting. • The meticulous plan reviews the current condition and needs of the community’s streets and pathways. It addresses ADA compliance, bicycle facilities (lanes and sherrow roads), traffic calming (speed humps and medians), spot improvements (identifies specific intersections), and safe routes to schools. 2  • The plan prioritizes these needs based on a point system. It was decided that every block should have one sidewalk and main streets should have sidewalks on both sides. Creating safe routes to the schools and the metro are also a high priority. It also addresses the need to connect all of our parks and create routes where necessary. • Several ideas in this plan are controversial such as creating one way streets and the City’s right-of-way. This plan is a starting point and will be reviewed by the Planning Commission as well as go through a site plan approval. • The projected cost of the plan is $21 million dollars. The City currently has $5.6 million towards the project from various grants. If the City moves forward with the plan, the source of funding will need to be addressed. • Mr. Rasnake has heard negative feedback from citizens about the creation of a bike lane from Lincoln to West Street. Citizens expressed that they do not want parking diminished. • Ms. Rodgers and Mr. Rasnake expressed their opinion that sidewalks are a priority over bike lanes. 6. Old Business a. CIP • Mr. Schlitt would like to move forward with obtaining bids on the reconstruction of the turf at Madison Park from blue grass to bermuda. Installation is required by late June in order to have the field playable by this fall. • In addition, Mr. Schlitt plans to move forward with improving the pathways at Berman Park. He will obtain information on options and a quote from the contractor installing the pathways in conjunction with the rain gardens at Berman Park. The board is interested in a nicer pathway rather than asphalt if possible. Mr. O’Hara, Ms. Chandler, and Ms. Rodgers stated their approval of using CIP funds to replace these pathways. • Tennis court improvements, replacement of playground equipment and signage remain high priorities to address with the CIP funds. • The Cherry Hill playground equipment is the oldest and is likely the next to be replaced. If it is replaced then it will have to meet ADA compliance. • The overall design and replacement of the park signs is a subject that needs to be discussed further. The signage needs improvement whether is just a replacement of the current signs or a complete redesign of signs. One option is to redesign each park sign to be unique and reflect the surrounding historical nature of the neighborhood. Mr. O’Hara and Ms. Rodgers expressed their preference to a redesign. Moving forward the board should develop a policy on the replacement and redesign of park signs. 7. Other Business • The board will be back to the regular meeting schedule next month on Wednesday, May 2. 8. Adjournment Ms. Rye moved to adjourn the meeting; Ms. Chandler seconded the motion. Following a unanimous voice vote, Mr. O’Hara adjourned the meeting at 8:25 p.m. The City of Falls Church is committed to the letter and spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act. This document will be made available in alternate format upon request. Call 703-248-5077 (TTY 711). 3