Board of Parks & Recreation

Parks Board Minutes APPROVED 7/24/23 PRESENT: Ken Hesson, Jimmy Head, 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: P.A. Bowler CALL TO ORDER / OPENING PRAYER: Ken Hesson called the meeting to order. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Mahlon Hellman led the Pledge of Allegiance. APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Motion to approve the agenda as it is by Jimmy Head, 2nd by Mike Pike. All in favor. CITIZENS COMMENTS: None APPROVAL OF MINUTES: A motion to approve June 26, 2023, minutes made by Mike Pike, 2nd by Thom Golden. All in favor. OLD BUSINESS Park Project Updates – Andy Gilley • Memorial Park Field Lights – All we are waiting on is for NES to turn on the switch. They are now installed. • Volunteer Park Concession Stand – We now have some connectivity for ADA access here and we have created a new grill area. • Rugby Restrooms – Site work will begin this week and delivery of the concrete building is targeted for September 1st so hopefully they will be up and running by the end of the year, if not the end of the fall season. • Drakes Creek Park Soccer – the Soccer Complex reopened today and there were about 19 large piles of sand that will be used for top dressing, which was approved by BOMA for this year’s budget. • Lightning Strike and Wind Damage – On July 1st we had a lightning strike somewhere in Drakes Creek Park and on June 30th a tree fell on a playground which will be a major repair coming up. Our entire irrigation system at soccer was burnt up so that will be a major repair coming up. We are still working on wind damage repairs from March. • Pickleball Courts – We had a meeting on Friday to go over some final touches for construction drawings. We hope to have those back to bid in the next month and hopefully start construction this fall at the Senior Center. • LPRF Grant for Rugby Lights and Turf Soccer Field – We are still very far down the road. Our staff has approved the bid book and we are waiting on the state to approve the bid book. Once we get it approved, construction will hopefully begin in the fall. • Sanders Ferry Park Repavement – the road leading into the park is scheduled to be repaved as part of the list that BOMA approved. Hopefully, that will be an August/September project. 1 Parks Board Minutes APPROVED 7/24/23 Mary’s Magical Place Hours – Andy Gilley Back in May we approved looking at some hours where we recommended those with special abilities be able to go to Mary’s Magical Place during the summertime. We had these hours posted as 6:00pm – 8:00pm on Sunday nights and Wednesday mornings 8:00am – 10:00pm. We were also able to have some of our program supervisors staffed there during these hours. Our Special Needs summer camp went almost every Wednesday morning during the weeks of camp. There were days when there were zero people there and days where there were forty people there. As stated in our report, we couldn’t tell you who was a special abilities person there because we didn’t ask. We need to decide if we are going to keep doing this and if so, what the hours need to be. After talking to the mayor, Mrs. Hamblen, and some of our staff, our recommendation is August through May, have special hours on Sunday 5:30pm – 8:00pm and Tuesday 5:30pm – 8:00pm and adding in Wednesday night 6:00pm – 8:00pm. There is no way at this point that we can guarantee that we will be able to staff the playground every time during these hours. That is not feasible. We will look into adding more educational signage. Jill Rathert inquired about whether equipment could be added to our other existing playgrounds to make them all-inclusive. Andy Gilley stated that with talking to people with special needs children, our other playgrounds would not work well do to the sand and wood chip flooring which to replace would be a great expense. At MMP the blue poor in place flooring is about a $200,000 expense. To go in and retrofit or add to our existing playgrounds would be very expensive. Andy Gilley said he heard from less than twenty special needs parents back when there was a big discussion over this issue. Thom Golden stated that he believes these hours are a marketing opportunity by encouraging other people in the population to visit other playgrounds and still maintain the original intent of it being an all-inclusive playground. Motion to continue the hours of Sunday night 6:00pm – 8:00pm and Wednesday morning 8:00am – 10:00am by Jill Rathert. No second for this motion and motion is dead. Motion to update the hours based on the recommendation of the Parks Department with an amendment to put this on a 90-day trial period by Jimmy Head, 2nd by Thom Golden. Pike, Golden, Bennet, Perry, Head, Hellman, Hesson, Peterson & Golden in favor. Jill Rathert opposed. This motion passes. NEW BUSINESS Site Map for Pour Taste Sumner and Wine Festival – Jon Yeager Jon Yeager stated that they are using Rock Solid Security for this event. Fusion Sites is providing portable restrooms and parking will be done through PMC. Andy Gilley stated that he has gone through all the steps we require for approval. Motion to approve this site map by Jeremiah Bennett, 2nd by Thom Golden. All in favor. Greenway Storyboard Trail – Charlotte Gerard Charlotte Gerard stated she is a representative from the Sumner County Health Committee and works for the State as a health educator. We are hoping to provide a storybook trail that would help with physical and social health, getting families out there exercising together and helps with literacy. She stated that she and Andy Gilley had discussed the idea of installing this at Memorial Park due to the large number of kids. We got the idea from Nannie Berry that has one well established there and we would be using the exact same equipment from a company that they used. We would need the Park maintenance staff to assist with installing these posts, but our committee would provide the funds to buy the posts and we are waiting to hear from the local library to help maintain the posts themselves, to change out the story. Andy Gilley stated that the installation help is not a problem, and we would be happy to help with this type of project. Motion to approve installation of this project at Memorial Park but with contingency that the Parks Board must approve the books that are added to the panels by Jill Rathert, 2nd by Jimmy Head. All in favor. Draft Experience Ball Hockey – Nick Fleehart Nick Fleehart stated that the Beer League Players Association is a like minded adult athletes that mainly lends itself to ice hockey. We do about 40 events a year all over the world and our mission is to make the world a 2 Parks Board Minutes APPROVED 7/24/23 better place by playing sports. We have a Facebook group of about 25,000 players from all over the world and it has been leading us into inline events. We have friends in the Nashville area. One is Colby Collier who does another inline event at your facility. We would like to do inline teams on one surface and draft experience on the second surface. If I were to guess, it would be 4 teams on one side and 8 teams on the other. Andy Gilley stated that if you use a third-party booking group, please have them connect with our Hendersonville hotels and tourism board. Nick stated that we provide a certificate of insurance. We always use local refs and pay them directly. Motion to approve this tournament by Thom Golden, 2nd by Mahlon Hellman. Perry, Bennett, Golden, Rathert, Hesson, Peterson and Hellman approve. Mike Pike and Jimmy Head oppose. This motion passes. Southern Select Mustangs Box Lacrosse – Elliott Bender Elliott Bender stated that the Southern Select Mustangs is a Box Lacrosse organization. The goal is to start a league in the Nashville area. Keith Bruce stated that we do already have a Box Lacrosse group that uses our facilities, but they are adult only whereas this is a youth/high school organization. He advised that they plan to give back a donation to HIHA. Andy Gilley clarified that they would pay the resident/non-resident player fees as well. Motion to approve by Jeremiah Bennett, 2nd by Bubba Perry. All in favor. Bench in Honor of Tom Battle – Andy Gilley Andy Gilley stated that Coach Tom Battle worked for our Parks Department for 40 years. He umpired my baseball games as a player and as a coach. He worked with our Special Needs Kids Club and Raptors program for years and we lost him when he passed away recently. As a staff we thought it would be a good idea to dedicate a bench somewhere in the Civitan quad in his name at Drakes Creek Park. Motion to approve by Mike Pike, 2nd by Jimmy Head. All in favor. Bench in Honor of Harry Fuqua – Andy Gilley Andy Gilley stated that the family of Harry Fuqua asked to pay for installation of a memorial bench in one of our parks. There is a need for new benches at Memorial Park near the duck feeders and this would replace an existing bench that needs to be replaced there. Mr. Fuqua and his wife were long-time citizens of Hendersonville. Motion to approve memorial bench by Bubba Perry, 2nd by Mike Pike. All in favor. Pickleball League – Parks Staff Andy Gilley stated that we are going to put our toe in the water with staff run Pickleball league. The last few months you guys have approved some open pickleball play at the tennis courts, but it wasn’t fair to always expect the same citizens to show up every time to set up the courts for play. We wanted to try this league and all the information is on the sheet in your packet. I also think this is a good barometer, as a city, as we continue this path of building pickleball courts, it will show if we need to spend all this money to construct the courts. The league registration will start July 31st and run through August 25th. Motion to approve by Jimmy Head, 2nd by Mike Pike. All in favor. ANNUAL FINANCIAL REPORT/DISCIPLINE REPORT UPDATE: • Tennessee United Soccer Club – Jonathan Wayland Lee Peterson asked about the status for the indoor facility. Jonathan Wayland stated that there are still some things that are to be determined and up in the air, but we have met with the residents, and it appears that if the indoor facility is part of that discussion than they no longer want to meet with us and we will be scheduling another meeting before we go to BZA on August 7th. Andy Gilley stated that TN United is trying to find a way to compete with other clubs and provide good opportunities for this city. Jonathan Wayland stated that this is the piece of land in the city that has been planned and zoned for recreation so that is the option they are pursuing right now. 3 Parks Board Minutes APPROVED 7/24/23 FOR YOUR INFORMATION: STAFF REPORTS Recreation Coordinator – Keith Bruce provided Cindy Hamblen’s report. He stated that summer Kids Club camp finished up last week. It was 5 weeks this year and they had a really good time with about 35 campers. The Preschool Track Meet is coming up in a couple months. Athletic Coordinator – Orey Fugate stated that the Summer Basketball Championship was on Tuesday. Congratulations to our Champions, “Hville Finest.” Fall Baseball started their practices this past weekend and games start August 12th. Fall Adult Kickball registration just ended, and games will begin on August 11th. Fall Adult Softball registration has also ended, and games will begin August 7th. Pickleball registrations will start July 31st and will run through August 25th. Registration for Open High School Individual Basketball and Men’s Open Basketball will begin on September 4th. Special Events Supervisor – Wade Evans stated that we had four straight weeks of national tournaments on top of Freedom Fest, a Pickleball Tournament, grass volleyball tournaments, etc. There are more things coming to our fields and venues and our roster is at about 15 – 16 different sports. We have Touch a Truck coming up on Friday from 10:00am – 1:00pm. It’s going to be hot. We have a helicopter and the Weinermobile coming. Thank you to the Police, Fire, and other local groups for helping us out with this event. We are going to be announcing the Pig Fest music lineup on Tuesday so that’s exciting. Parks Maintenance Superintendent – Trevor Cole stated that we have been so busy with tournaments that we haven’t had time for projects lately. We are finishing up the security camera installations at Civitan. We had an HVAC installed at the restroom at fields 12&13 which is much needed. We are supposed to start painting the siding at the Quad Concessions. Assistant Parks Director – Keith Bruce provided Dallas Long’s report. Keith stated that TN United started their soccer camp this morning. They have a morning and evening session. That will go all week. Rec soccer is doing signups now and flag football, lacrosse and rugby are all getting ready for the fall season. Assistant Parks Director – Keith Bruce stated that the Senior Men’s Softball is ongoing. They took a couple weeks off. Fastpitch is doing signups and their evaluations are the second week of August for the fall season. The Civitan Open league baseball is doing signups. HIHA is also doing signups and has about a week left of registration. The Rhythm started their first round series. They start the second round tonight. If they win that series, the finals would be Friday – Sunday. They are the defending champs from last year. The SPA Senior Women’s Softball are here this weekend. Parks Director — Andy Gilley stated that in addition to Dallas and his wife having a baby we also had a maintenance employee, Jayden Straton, who just celebrated the birth of his first baby. A tremendous thank you to our entire staff for the last two weeks. The maintenance team has worked without complaint, and it has been a smooth couple of weeks. Dallas had to be out on paternity leave a couple weeks earlier than planned and everyone in the office has pitched in and taken up some slack. A note from earlier, with the Mary’s Magical Place hours, that will go into effect August 1st since you all had already approved June and July for the current hours. Over the next few weeks, I’m going to be working on some updates to our handbook when it comes to background checks for officials. Most of our leagues use certain groups that are already background checks, but we want to tighten that up a little bit. Going to BOMA this week are resolutions that Alderman Peterson has sponsored for us to apply for a BCBS Grant for a turf field at Volunteer Park and to 4 Parks Board Minutes APPROVED 7/24/23 convert that playground there into an all-inclusive playground. Also, for another Public Entity Partners Property Conservation Grant for us to continue our process to put security cameras across the parks. ROUND TABLE Thom Golden – None. Jimmy Head – We have had one of the smoothest 4 weeks of tournaments that I’ve ever seen. If there were any issues, they were handled. Jill Rathert – None. Lee Peterson – Thank you to this board for supporting this staff. They do a great job and we thank you for all you do. Mike Pike – None. Jeremiah Bennett – Rest in Peace Coach Tom Battle. He had a wide strike zone that I argued with him on several times, but he was a wonderful person and he meant a lot to a lot of people and will be missed. Mahlon Hellman – None. Bubba Perry – None. Ken Hesson – None. Motion to adjourn by Bubba Perry, 2nd by Mike Pike. All in favor. Meeting adjourned at 7:16 p.m. Respectfully submitted, __________________________________ ________________________________ Ken Hesson, Chairman Kristen Emerson, Administrative Assistant II 5