Board of Parks & Recreation

Parks Board Minutes APPROVED 6/26/23 PRESENT: Ken Hesson, P.A. Bowler, Jill Rathert, Mike Pike, Jeremiah Bennett, Bubba Perry, Lee Peterson, Thom Golden, Mahlon Hellman, Andy Gilley, Keith Bruce, Trevor Cole, Wade Evans, Orey Fugate ABSENT: Jimmy Head, Lee Peterson CALL TO ORDER / OPENING PRAYER: Ken Hesson called the meeting to order. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Jill Rathert led the Pledge of Allegiance. PRESENTATION: • Hendersonville Lacrosse Donation Check – Greg Mitchell Greg Mitchell with the Hendersonville Lacrosse Club stated that about 3 ½ years ago they were able to help participate in raising funds for field lights at Memorial Park and given the size of that project relative to the size of the club, we knew that was going to be a challenge. They knew that lights at the space was important, so they presented the project to parents and club members to start a capital campaign just to contribute and have “skin in the game” towards this effort. They kept adding to the pot little by little and when they got word from Andy that the city had the money to complete the project, they felt that it was the right thing to do to make that contribution. The Hendersonville Lacrosse Club wanted to take this opportunity to present this check for $6,000 that was raised by our club for this initiative. APPROVAL OF AGENDA: The Eagle Scout Presentation will not be given tonight. A motion to approve the agenda by Mike Pike, 2nd by Jeremiah Bennett. All in favor. CITIZENS COMMENTS: None APPROVAL OF MINUTES: A motion to approve May 22, 2023, minutes made by Mike Pike, 2nd by Bubba Perry. All in favor. OLD BUSINESS Park Project Updates – Andy Gilley • Memorial Park Field Lights – We hope to be able to turn the lights on in a week or so. • Soccer Complex at Drakes Creek Park – We have recently installed about 30,000 square feet of sod in the soccer complex during this summer shutdown period. The guys have been watering by hand and by irrigation and have mowed several times. • Rugby Restrooms – The bids for sitework came back and we think we have found ways to fund it through the Hotel Tax and hope to get those in place sometime this fall. 1 Parks Board Minutes APPROVED 6/26/23 • Pickleball Courts – I’ve gotten drawings back for the Pickleball Courts that are 50% complete. It looks like we will be able to fit eight courts out at the senior center. That doesn’t have anything to do with how much it will cost but as far as the space, we can eventually have that many courts. • Golf Cart Barn at Country Hills – Hopefully, material will be delivered to the site this week and the building will start going up this week. • Field 4 at Drakes Creek – The state is currently reviewing the design to add turf so as soon as that is approved, we anticipate that going out to bid late July or early August. NEW BUSINESS Art Council Art Festival – Rene Shepherd Andy Gilley stated that the Art Council is a city committee, so this is actually a city festival. I think tonight we are asking the Board to approve the event. Rene Shepherd stated that she is here on behalf of the Arts Council, which is a newly reformed council. This is our first project. We just really want to ask your permission to use Sanders Ferry Park for this 3-day festival. It’s a significant chunk of time but we really anticipate a lot of attendance and bringing people from outside in. We are focusing on a variety of different art forms. We will have a kid’s zone area and a youth art installation of some sort. We are still in the planning stages and are working to get aligned with a festival management company to help us make sure we do everything we are supposed to do to market it and get it set up, etc. Wade Evans stated that the management company is “Good Neighbor Festivals” that did Highland Games. If they book this company, they will handle the logistics of parking, etc. Motion to approve event by Jill Rathert, 2nd by Thom Golden. All in favor. “Adopt an Access” Program – Josh Harris Andy Gilley stated that we recently had our Fishing Rodeo that we have every year and Josh approached me at that event with this idea. Josh Harris stated that he would like his club to adopt Mallard Point for our club to do volunteer work and cleanup duty to gain service hours. Across the state, we have approximately 15-16 different access points that have been adopted by other teams that are part of the TN Bass Nation High School and Youth Program. We are looking to expand into Sumner County so we can show our presence as a High School and Junior Team as well as offer community service. TN Bass Fishing is well known and in 2015 we started the TN Bass Nation High School and Youth Program in order to give kids from 2nd grade up until Seniors in High School an opportunity to fish competitively in tournaments across Tennessee. We fish approximately 8-12 tournaments a year. This is an outlet that they can participate in that can allow them to earn scholarship money. Part of our program is about helping with conservation, and we thought it would be best to have a specific area that the Sumner County team can be responsible for doing volunteer work. Motion to approve by Bubba Perry, 2nd by P.A. Bowler. All in favor. FOR YOUR INFORMATION: STAFF REPORTS Recreation Coordinator – Cindy Hamblen stated Raptors Kickball has finished. We didn’t have as many play Kickball or show up as we would have hoped so we got creative and had all the parents that came get out there and play with all the players that came and the kids really loved that. Kids Club is at Whitten Elementary, and I would like to give a shout out to Mr. Mann who let us use that facility. We are now into week three, so it is flying by. We are usually on site on Mondays, go to Mary’s Magical Place on Wednesday mornings and then head back for a movie in the gym. Upcoming activities will be our own July 4th cookout. We will bleach some shirts and make ice cream Sundays and snow cones. The people that we have hired for camp have been great workers and have experience because they were peer buddies in high school or have siblings that are special needs. We had the special needs Fishing Rodeo on June 9th and that took the place of our Kickball game and many of them provided their own fishing rods and we provided the bate for them. 2 Parks Board Minutes APPROVED 6/26/23 Athletic Coordinator – Orey Fugate stated that the Spring Softball Championship ends tonight. Summer Baseball is going great, and they wrap up their league on July 15th. The Summer Basketball Tournament begins tomorrow with the Championship scheduled for July 18th. Fall Baseball late registration began today, and all leagues have some spots open except 12U. Adult Coed Kickball, Adult Coed Softball and Men’s Softball registration ends July 14th. Special Events Supervisor – Wade Evans stated that we had 2,000 people come to the Isaacs Concert. The The Academy with TWRA donated $1,000 for prizes to give away at the Fishing Rodeo. The nets stayed in the water this year. The Hendersonville Jam Concert last Tuesday was moved indoors due to the rain. A big thanks to Barry Lee for providing his facility. Last weekend was our first World Series, and we have four of them back-to-back. It’s going to be a very busy couple of weeks. The Freedom Festival is coming up next Monday. Parks Maintenance Superintendent – Trevor Cole stated that we are working right now on Mary’s Magical Place restroom after the fire. We are hoping to have that open Wednesday or Thursday. It took longer than we wanted but we had to wait on Servpro. We put down over 32,000 square feet of sod at soccer. A big thanks to Public Works that are making some much needed improvements to the greenway. Last week we were able to turn in a bid for the bathrooms at field 12 and 13 to get an AC Unit. The backstops were put up on fields 6 and 9 after storm damage. Assistant Parks Director – Dallas Long stated I’m going to start off by congratulating the Civitan Flag Football Program. They were selected as the team from the state of Tennessee to represent the Titans at the NFL Flag tournament. All other programs are currently taking registrations for the upcoming fall seasons. Civitan has started their Community Conditioning Program out at the rugby complex. Starting in two weeks, Civitan’s tackle will begin practice for their fall season. Drakes Creek Soccer Program remains closed until July 24 and Volunteer Park will remain closed until August 14th. The Memorial Park field just opened back up today after the light installation. Assistant Parks Director – Keith Bruce stated that tennis lessons are going well. Senior Men are still ongoing. Rhythm baseball is going great. They won all their games last week. The Game 7 tournament had 103 teams and a lot of baseball was played on our fields at Drakes Creek. GMB is this weekend, and the Lipscomb tournament is on field 3 and Civitan is hosting the Cal Ripken State Tournament. Parks Director — Andy Gilley thanked the entire staff and several people in the community who helped keep the Hometown Jam from being washed out. The Game 7 World Series was a lot of baseball in a short period of time. We had a lot of Hendersonville teams that were in their division. We have turned in the Inclusive Playground Grant with the State and another Grant Application with Kaboom. If you ever want a job as a grant writer on the side, let me know. This staff is amazing and have done a tremendous job all summer and I’m grateful to have them. ROUND TABLE P.A. Bowler – The maintenance staff, the coordinators and directors do a great job every month and sometimes unusual circumstances pop up. The Parks give back to the community and tonight the community gave back and that was such a good feeling. Thom Golden – Thank you again to all the staff for all you do. Jill Rathert – None. 3 Parks Board Minutes APPROVED 6/26/23 Mike Pike – None. Jeremiah Bennett – None. Mahlon Hellman – None. Bubba Perry – None. Ken Hesson – None. Motion to adjourn by Mike Pike, 2nd by P.A. Bowler. All in favor. Meeting adjourned at 6:45 p.m. Respectfully submitted, __________________________________ ________________________________ Ken Hesson, Chairman Kristen Emerson, Administrative Assistant II 4