Recreation & Parks Advisory Board

Advisory Board of Recreation and Parks Meeting October 11th, 2023 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 (Chair) called the meeting to order at 7:04 p.m. Members present were Jenna Schroeder (Vice Chair), Leslie Rye, Brendan Kelly, Kathleen Tysse (School Board), Sharon Friedlander (Planning Commission) and Caroline Lian (City Council Liaison). Staff members present were Danny Schlitt, Director Recreation & Parks (R&P), Corey Payne, Recreation Program Supervisor of Special Events for R&P, and Katharine Wakeley, Senior Administrative Assistant R&P. 3. Receipt of Public Petitions and Board Member Petitions None. 4. Minutes for Approval: Charley O’Hara brought forth draft minutes from May 10, 2023 and September 13, 2023. Sharon Friedlander moved to approve May minutes, seconded by Leslie Rye. May minutes were unanimously approved. Leslie Rye moved to approve September minutes, seconded by Jenna Schroeder. September minutes were approved by majority, with Sharon Friedlander abstaining. 5. Recreation & Parks Director’s Report A) Danny Schlitt spoke about the following: i. Farmers Market: planning holiday market for months of November and December. Will have at least 9 additional vendors scheduled to take part. 9 SNAP transactions last month, which is the highest number, we have ever had. Distributed $610 in SNAP and Matching funds which were spent on the vendors. ii. Events: Falls Church Festival was postponed by a day due to severe weather and held on September 24th. One third of the originally scheduled 95 vendors were able to participate, with 6 of the original 13 restaurants. Attendance was also about one third of the normal attendance (3,000 people). The R&P team, along with its volunteers, still managed to run a successful event for participants. Sunset Cinemas in the summer have been popular with 300 plus participants for the past two weeks. Preparations for Halloween Carnival, Veterans Day Ceremony, and Holiday Gift and Craft Show are well under way. Wednesday Early Release Program has been successfully running for four weeks at Mount Daniel and Oak Street with 15 children in each program. Staffing for the program is predicted to improve, with recent applicants and scheduled interviews. iii. Farmhouse: Farm Day occurred on October 7th with some rain in the morning. Brought in roughly 800-1200 with people participating in corn grinding, scarecrow making, a petting farm, pony rides, blacksmith and beekeeping demonstrations, Farmhouse tours, and pumpkin and birdhouse painting. iv. Sports: 336 kids enrolled in house basketball league and 122 kids enrolled in the clinics. Grade split for the younger age groups (2nd-5th all now have their grade specific league) is going well. Youth soccer games are underway. 883 kids enrolled in our K-12th grade soccer leagues. Flag football games are underway with 133 kids. Women’s volleyball will be finishing up their season at the end of the month.  v. Senior Center: indoor pickleball starting up on October 16th in Community Center Gym. Currently have 98 players in the pickleball club. Meeting will be held in near future to discuss league and tournament play. Rich Fruchterman is the Pickleball Ambassador. There will be a Halloween Ballroom Dance on October 19th with live DJ, JoAnn Hutchison. Fall Foliage trip on October 26th. Andrew Acosta Trio on November 1st. Marymount Class on Short Story starts November 2nd. vi. Camps: named Best Camp in Falls Church for 2023. Served 1385 campers with over 3800 registrations. Offerings included cooking, dance, STEM, sports, and more. Now gearing up with new programs for the Winter/Spring camp season and prepping for summer 2024. vii. Tennis lighting project: Community Center and Meridian High School courts are waiting on Dominion Energy to flip switch on new lights. Once on, they will help spread out classes among courts and divide nighttime hours among courts. R&P will examine pickleball play in the evening as well, to ensure it is fair to both neighbors and players. R&P will also ensure that court lights are off at 10 pm. viii. Berman Park Status: temporary shelter will be taken down soon as Department of Public Works moves away from using the permanent shelter as a staging area. Danny Schlitt will check with project manager on the status of the Berman Park Boardwalk. 6. New Business A) Meet Corey Payne, Special Events Program Supervisor: Corey Payne comes to us after working for Meadowlark Park for four years, and also Pohick Bay campgrounds. They graduated from George Mason University with a degree in Parks and Recreation. Charley O’Hara officially recognized Corey Payne and R&P staff for the effort they made in moving the Falls Church Festival after it was postponed. B) Quinn/Homestretch project update and discussion: after the ABRP discussed its questions and concerns regarding the proposed 33,900 square foot park in the Quinn/Homestretch development, Leslie Rye moved to approve the Board’s proposed comments (once compiled and reviewed by Katharine Wakeley and Charley O’Hara, respectively) which was then seconded by Brendan Kelly and approved unanimously. A copy of the Board’s official comments which were submitted to the Planning Commission on October 13th can be found here. C) Members leaving ABRP: Charley O’Hara officially thanked Leslie Rye for her countless years of service to the Board and Liz Weatherly for her three years of participation with the Board, before leaving to interview prospective ABRP board members to fill the two vacant spots. D) Administrative updates: Katharine Wakeley brought forth an updated remote participation policy pursuant to Va. Code § 2.2-3708.3. Jenna Schroeder moved to approve the policy, Brendan Kelly seconded, and the policy was unanimously adopted by the board. Katharine Wakeley also presented a draft of updated Rules and Procedures which the Board agreed to discuss during November’s meeting. 7. Adjournment Brendan Kelly moved to adjourn, Jenna Schroeder seconded the motion. All approved, and the meeting was adjourned at 8:23 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.