Parks & Recreation Board

200 South Hamilton Road City of Gahanna Gahanna, Ohio 43230 Meeting Minutes Parks & Recreation Board Jan Ross, Chair Donna Simmons, Vice Chair Chrissy Kaminski, Secretary Scott Lofton Kevin McGinn Eric Miller Ken Shepherd Wednesday, February 10, 2021 7:00 PM Virtual Meeting Call-in Details: Tel - +1 513-306-4583, Conference ID-733356768# A. CALL MEETING TO ORDER Ross, Chair called the February 10, 2021 Parks Board meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. B. ROLL CALL Present: 6 - Donna Simmons, Eric Miller, Jan Ross, Kevin McGinn, Ken Shepherd and Chrissy Kaminski Absent: 1 - Scott Lofton Staff in attendance: Mayor Jadwin, Stephania Bernard Ferrell, Director, Alan Little, Projects Manager, Brian Gill, Recreation Superintendent, Cole Hetman, Aquatics Supervisor, Krista Johnston, Pro Shop Coordinator, and Pam Ripley, Office Coordinator. C. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Motion was made by Simmons, seconded by Miller, to approve the minutes from the January 13, 2021 meeting. The motion carried with the following vote: Yes: 6- Simmons, Miller, Ross, McGinn, Shepherd and Kaminski Absent: 1- Lofton 2021-0025 PR Bd mins 1-13-2021 D. ADDITIONS OR CORRECTIONS TO THE AGENDA Simmons - New Business - Tech Center Drive Park. City of Gahanna Page 1 Parks & Recreation Board Meeting Minutes February 10, 2021 E. HEARING OF VISITORS NONE F. OLD BUSINESS i. Cell Tower - Academy Park Ferrell shared that at the last meeting there were questions about the cell tower at Academy Park that she needed to research. Ferrell shared that in June 2017 there was a draft plan submitted to the Area Commission, no action was taken at that time. In August 2018 a request for lease agreement with TowerCo was introduced at Council Committee. Council approved the lease agreement in October 2018. In September 2020 Planning Commission made some recommendations to approve changes to Chapter 1181Personal Wireless Service Facilities. Ordinance 073-2020 was approved on October 5, 2020; Repealing existing Chapter 1181 Personal Wireless Service Facilities; Enacting new Chapter 1181 Personal Wireless Service Facilities. The Lease Agreement approved was for an initial payment of $50,000 with a monthly payment of $1,670 to the General Fund. The rent increases every five years at 2.5%. The payment is the same for the tower in Lower McCorkle Park. Miller requested if there were any public hearings on the cell tower? Ferrell said there were public meetings regarding the tower. Simmons asked if there are any additional towers proposed in a park. Ferrell stated there are no proposed towers at this time for any parks. Ross stated that the Board needs to have a clear understanding of what is in the Board's realm and what the Board should be focused on. Ferrell stated that there was information in the Parks Board minutes from 2008 through 2015; in 2015 the Board voted to not recommend the cell tower be installed in the requested location. Ferrell stated ultimately the board is making a recommendation to Council. The cell tower did not go back to Council until 2018; this has been an ongoing topic for quite some time. Ross stated that it was the Boards error for not going or knowing about the public hearings. Ferrell stated that she will keep communications open with the Board regarding Council agenda. Simmons shared that anyone can get added to the email listing for all Council agendas. Mayor Jadwin said you can go to the City website and sign up for various subscriptions and notifications. Chapter 1181a attached. City of Gahanna Page 2 Parks & Recreation Board Meeting Minutes February 10, 2021 2021-0032 1181a TowersandWirelessComm G. NEW BUSINESS i. Staff Update Ferrell shared that Zac Guthrie has been promoted to Parks & Facilities Superintendent. Instead of backfilling the position, the responsibilities will be shared among other staff. Josh Latzko and Matt Moser were promoted to Coordinator II, full time. Latzko will take on all special events and paddle boats, Moser will take over the athletic fields. Krista Johnston has been promoted to a full time Coordinator II in the ProShop. The department will see a net savings with the promotions. Simmons asked why the events person is reporting and working out of the Parks Division and not the Recreation Division. Mayor Jadwin shared that having the events person in the Parks Division better aligns the department. The events person spends approximately 90% of their time working with the parks team. Events require a lot of coordination from the Parks Division to use the parks, get the parks ready and provide logistical support. Having that position report to the Parks Superintendent makes it easier and has created a great link between the two divisions. P&R Organizational Chart attached. 2021-0039 Parks Rec Org Chart 2-4-2021 ii. Golf Course Year End Review Ferrell introduced Krista Johnston, Pro Shop Coordinator II. Johnston shared that due to COVID-19 the course opened about six weeks late. During the first month there were no cart rentals, walking only. Carts were later restricted to one person unless in the same household. Staff disinfected the carts between each rental. The inside of the Pro Shop was closed to players. Staff utilized the side window to assist players. The rentals of the clubhouse took a huge hit to cancelled reservations due to COVID-19. The course closed the last weekend in November 2020. New in 2020 was online tee times and requiring reservations to play. The course made $139,847 in revenue at a 153% cost recovery. Golf Course year end report attached. City of Gahanna Page 3 Parks & Recreation Board Meeting Minutes February 10, 2021 2021-0034 GolfYearReview2020 iii. Donation Request Ferrell stated that Three Creeks Church is renting the Friendship Park shelter and gazebo on Sunday mornings, May 9 - August 22, 2021 for 13 dates and are requesting the Board to consider a 25% fee reduction. They anticipate100-150 people in attendance for each service. The full price of the rental would be $3,900 the cost with the discount would be $2,925. Ross asked if there have been discounts given to churches in the past. Ferrell shared that in the past if an organization has scheduled a series of rentals they have been given a discount. Several board members agree that it would be nice to support this and have the guaranteed money. Donation request attached. Motion was made by Simmons, seconded by Kaminski, to approve the donation request of 25% reduction in fee to Three Creeks Church. Motion carried with the following vote: Yes: 6- Simmons, Miller, Ross, McGinn, Shepherd and Kaminski Absent: 1- Lofton 2021-0033 ThreeCreeksDonReq 2-2021 iv. Splash Pad GSP Update Ferrell stated that at the City Council meeting on February 8, 2021 the department took forward a request to bid the Splash Pad project. Little shared three different designs of a splash pad for GSP. Staff is still working with the vendors on designs and features. Staff has reached out to neighboring communities that have splash pads for recommendations. Little shared the following additional information regarding the splash pad: - City Council approved a budget of $500,000. Half of the money is in the play elements and the other half is in the build materials and installation. - Additional play elements can be added and is designed to add additional elements. City of Gahanna Page 4 Parks & Recreation Board Meeting Minutes February 10, 2021 - All of the designs are ground play with ADA accessibility. - GSP has sixteen cameras at this time that are motion activated. Staff is working on switching vendors; with the new vendor the Police Dispatch has the access to the cameras. - The splash pad will be available to members and guest during the pool season and open to the community outside of the pool season. - The Splash Pad will be located just east of the front concession stand in the grassy area by the two buildings. Splash Pad designs attached. 2021-0035 GSP SplashPadPics v. Tech Center Drive Park Mayor Jadwin shared that the Buckles property has been in discussion for many years. The Mayor and Ferrell have not met with the developer. There have been some preliminary plans that there would be a donation of 34 acres of park land. The land is located just south of Tech Center Drive; between Tech Center Drive and the Columbus Golf Course along the drive into Pizzurro Park. The plan shows a proposed amphitheater, an eco lab that the high school students can use. The land is a wetland and can never be developed. The donation of the park land is contingent upon the rezoning of the north side of Tech Center Drive and that project moving forward. Simmons requested why the city needs more park land and how much of an expense it will cost to maintain. Mayor Jadwin shared that the original proposal was for a place to hold events. Mayor Jadwin shared that there are so many small areas of land that are considered park land; however they can not be used for anything. For example Rock Park at the corner of Mill and Carpenter. It has a rock that signifies a really important part of Gahanna's history regarding the big flood. We maintain the rock and show case it as part of Gahanna's history, however it is not really a park. The land at Fleet Run that is in the middle of a neighborhood. It is just a parcel that can't be used for anything but the City is responsible for mowing and maintaining it. If the City was to get this additional 34 acres of park land do we then consider getting rid of some of these other parcels that require maintenance but no one can really use them for anything. The area makes sense from the overall development standpoint; the campus that is being proposed for the north side Tech Center Drive is about 50 acres with a stream running through it. The whole campus would truly be a live, work, play area. There would be medical buildings, offices, commercial, hotels, retail, an City of Gahanna Page 5 Parks & Recreation Board Meeting Minutes February 10, 2021 event center some residential and the park all right there. People would never have to leave, this is the current trend in development. H. CORRESPONDENCE AND ACTIONS NONE I. DIRECTOR'S REPORT Ferrell shared the Director's Report. The Parks & Facilities team have been working very hard on snow and ice removal. Gill shared that camp staff has been reaching out to other municipalities to see who ran camps last year and what worked and if they are making changes as well as to those that didn't if they are going to run some type of programming this year. A survey was sent out to past participants to get their opinions on a couple of camp options. The guidelines for camps and pools have not changed since last summer. Staff is still working off of the restrictions in place from last summer with the hope that some of the restrictions are relaxed a little bit. Camp has several options; the biggest thing is keeping the groups of kids down. At Friendship Park there were typically 50 - 60 campers with staff that met ratios; Hannah Park was 110 campers. Due to the restrictions those numbers will have to be much smaller and staff is still evaluating what camp will look like. The groups will most likely be individual groups of 8 campers and two staff. Staff is trying to determine if we can operate three or four groups of campers at Hannah Park with maintaining distancing and not having groups cross paths. Staff is also looking into utilizing other parks, Headley, Academy, Woodside Green and Sunpoint; trying to provide a service to our residents. Hetman shared that he is hopeful that the pools will open for the season. Safety is our number one priority; safety for our residents and safety for lifeguards and staff. Staff will be trained to the new policies and procedures in order to stay safe. Hetman has been reaching out to other municipalities to see what they are doing. The City is being very cautious and thorough before deciding how we engage the community. A survey is going out to past members to gauge their interest. Running a community pool is going to be completely different than it has been in the past. We have to run the pools safely and smartly for guest and staff. Little updated the Board on ongoing projects. Price Road house renovations budget of $175,000 was approved by City of Gahanna Page 6 Parks & Recreation Board Meeting Minutes February 10, 2021 Council. The house is an asset that is not being utilized. The house has great bones, the roof and exterior are in great shape. The inside needs to be renovated into a space the Recreation Team can run programs and rentals out of. Request for Qualifications have gone out to architects. The facility will be made ingress, egress and ADA accessible and include ADA restroom on both floors. Parking will be added for programming. Big Walnut Trail Section 8 is the last section to complete. We are dealing with I-270 and the Airport on a lot of obstacles to overcome. It is a very expensive section to complete. Fortunately the good news is that ODOT is redoing the bridge over I-270, so we were able to get into the planning cycle early enough to get the bridge widened enough to have the multi-recreational use trail go across. This is a savings of millions of dollars. We are working with Structure Point on design services along with ODOT on the trail alignment over the bridge. Council approved the design services only in this years budget. The playgrounds at Headley Park and Woodside Green Park are over 20 years old and aging out. They will both be replaced. Woodside Green parking lot will be re-designed and paved. Some of the trees have died in the islands and the islands will be removed to allow for additional parking. Director's Report attached Projects Update attached 2021-0023 DirectorRpt2-10-2021 2021-0036 Projects Update J. COMMITTEE REPORTS i. Bicycle & Trail Advisory Committee (BTAC) NONE ii. Gahanna Active Senior Advisory Committee NONE iii. Natural Resources Advisory Committee NONE City of Gahanna Page 7 Parks & Recreation Board Meeting Minutes February 10, 2021 K. POLL MEMBERS FOR COMMENT Shepherd requested if a decision has been made on if the Creekside Blues & Jazz Festival will take place. Mayor Jadwin shared that staff has been meeting with the Visit Gahanna Team and what the Festival will look like. The event is so heavily supported by City staff, the Parks & Recreation Team, Public Service Team, and the Police Department met internally and had a conversation that nothing can happen in June, given all the emergency management information we are receiving with the way vaccines are rolling out. The ability to have any kind of event in June is premature. A recommendation was given to the Visit Gahanna Team for a date in September and to keep the footprint and the location the same. The crowd is used to the footprint, the capacity will be reduced. We know what to expect from a police and crowd management standpoint. The only other recommendation was to reduce the northern portion of the footprint along Mill Street. Instead of closing at Mill and Carpenter the street will close at Mill and Walnut. Which would elevate impacting the traffic on Carpenter Road and Jefferson Elementary. Miller asked if there can be the Blues & Jazz Festival in September could the Foundation have the Hops & Vines in September. Ferrell said yes, that Hops & Vines was part of the conversation. McGinn asked how the CORA affects the Festivals and how the businesses can be involved in sales during that time. Mayor Jadwin shared that the CORA was written it is suspended during three events during the year; Creekside Blues & Jazz Festival, Hops & Vines and Taste of Gahanna. Taste of Gahanna may not return in 2021. The City Team has reached out the event leads for the Car Show, and the Gahanna Flea Market and what their plans are for their events. Visit Gahanna is looking at Herb Day in early May to have a different type of sale, possible pre-order and pick up at Creekside. We are trying to bring foot traffic back to Creekside and the businesses. Ferrell shared that we hope to have the planned events in September, but we don't know where we will be in regards to COVID-19. i. Gahanna Parks & Recreation Foundation Miller shared that the Foundation had a discussion regarding Hops & Vines and whether or not it can go forward in 2021. The Foundation may start meeting bi-monthly. There were over $11,000 in miscellaneous donations to the Foundation. ii. School District Update City of Gahanna Page 8 Parks & Recreation Board Meeting Minutes February 10, 2021 NONE iii. Veteran's Advisory Committee NONE L. ADJOURNMENT APPROVED by the Parks & Recreation Board, this day of 2021. Jan Ross City of Gahanna Page 9