Recreation & Parks Advisory Board

Advisory Board of Recreation and Parks Meeting December 14th, 2022 MINUTES REGULAR MEETING OF THE ADVISORY BOARD OF RECREATION AND PARKS FALLS CHURCH COMMUNITY CENTER, KENNETH R. BURNETT BUILDING, 223 LITTLE FALLS STREET, FALLS CHURCH, VIRGINIA 22046 1 & 2. Call to Order & Roll Call Charley O’Hara called the meeting to order at 7:07 p.m. Members present were Charley O’Hara, Jenna Schroeder, Leslie Rye, Kathleen Tysse (School Board), Melissa Teates (Planning Commission) and City Council Liaison Caroline Lian. Student Representatives Caroline Carmody and Anand Colby were also present. Staff members present were Danny Schlitt, Director Recreation & Parks and Katharine Wakeley, Senior Administrative Assistant Recreation & Parks. 3. Receipt of Public Petitions and Board Member Petitions None. 4. Minutes for Approval Charley O’Hara brought forth draft minutes from September 14, 2022 and October 12, 2022. Leslie Rye moved to approve minutes, seconded by Jenna Schroeder. Minutes were unanimously approved. 5. Recreation & Parks Director’s Report A) Staffing i. Senior Administrative Assistant Katharine Wakeley was introduced and welcomed to the group. B) Student Representatives i. Caroline Carmody and Anand Colby sent a letter to Falls Church News Press calling the community to action to engage in the Advisory Board of Recreation and Parks. Letter still needs to be published by News Press. C) Winter/Spring brochure has been printed and will be mailed this week. D) Events i. Holiday Gift and Craft Show (HG & CS) occurred December 3rd and 4th. The Friends of Cherry Hill sponsored a gift wrapping program which brought in many patrons during the HG & CS. The event was well-attended, at approximately 1,700 people, despite the steady rise in online holiday shopping. Improved attendance aligns with many of the in-person events Recreation and Parks has hosted this year, including its Halloween weekend in October. E) Sports and Camps i. Fall youth basketball program has begun: 71 teams, 700 registrants overall. Clinics have additional 150 registrants. In years past, it has been as high as 1,000. Slight decline may be due to post-Covid landscape, or further specialization in youth sports. F) Summer camps  i. 2023 summer in Falls Church City Public Schools will be shorter by one week. This means Recreation and Parks (R & P) will offer 40 fewer camps in summer of 2023 as compared to the summer of 2022, thus affecting revenue. The following summer of 2024 will be the same length of time as summers past, but will begin and end slightly earlier. This will force R & P to adjust its yearly schedule (i.e. spring sports, Clean Week), but should not impact staffing of summer camps. ii. Advisory board will be in communication with School Board in regards to future impacts of summer schedule on R & P. G) Staffing (cont.) i. Continues to be challenging; however, the City is starting to see some rise in people applying for jobs once more. ii. Currently interviewing for the Recreation Specialist who will work with the Cherry Hill Farmhouse (CHF) and the Arts and Humanities Council (AHC). R & P hopes to send out an offer letter before the beginning of the year. iii. Deputy Director Amy Youngs is still on maternity leave, but the department hopes to be back to almost 100% staffing by the beginning of February. iv. Amidst all the staffing changes, the current R & P department staff have all stepped up to fill gaps in knowledge and coverage so there is no impact to the community in the interim. 6. Old Business A) Fellows Property i. Charley O’Hara did a commendable job presenting to City Council on the most recent Park Master Plan and next steps for the Fellows Property. ii. DPW says the selection process of a potential landscape architect or engineer for Fellows will take at least a year because they do not currently have anyone on contract. This means a full solicitation process. Design process would be another eight to nine months, followed by further community input. iii. Once we have the design, selecting the contractor will take approximately four to six months (and will occur simultaneously with community input), afterwards, Danny estimates construction will take about eight months. iv. Overall, the process is estimated to take at least three more years. v. Until Fellows Property becomes a newly constructed Park, the land can be “used kindly” by the community. There are no plans to post “no trespassing” signs, for the time being. 7. New Business A) Berman Park i. Berman will receive new playground equipment and DPW will be re-vamping its storm system. The goal will be to align the two projects so they occur in about one year’s time. ii. If R & P replaces the playground in the same footprint, it could do an administrative review as opposed to a full site plan process to replace playground equipment. This way, it would be closer to four to six months. R & P would still like to have community input (coordinated by the Advisory Board) in future.  iii. In regards to moving swing sets, DPW says that moving them would not require a full site plan review and most likely could be done administratively. Still need to consult Planning on this. iv. Note, DPW might need to do a site review for their storm drain project first. B) Founders Row i. $150k is allotted for a new park at Founders Row C) Capital Improvement Projects i. Danny and staff will begin working on both the CIP and operating budgets in January. ii. Meridian High School turf needs to be replaced in near future. iii. Tennis court lights are coming up in FY25, but high school would like to advocate for the lights at their courts for FY24. iv. Shade sails for Cherry Hill Park are quoted at under $50k. Might be able to use current Park Master Planning funds. If not, there might be some wait time until next Park Master Planning funds. v. Gateway sign for Cherry Hill Park (CHP); DPW said they are two years away from the Great Streets project, so if we wanted to push the sign towards the street (into their construction zone) it will take two years. If we move the sign far enough away from their construction zone, we could start it sooner. There is potential for it to be a community project; however, there is not a clear public art policy yet. This could be a part of the CHP gateway sign process. 8. Adjournment Leslie Rye moved to adjourn; Kathleen Tysse seconded the motion. All approved, and the meeting was adjourned at 7:50 p.m. The City of Falls Church is committed to the letter and spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act. To request a reasonable accommodation for any type of disability call (703)248-5027.