Board of Parks & Recreation

Parks Board Minutes APPROVED 8/28/23 PRESENT: Jimmy Head, Mike Pike, Jeremiah Bennett, Bubba Perry, Bob Montoya, Lee Peterson, Thom Golden, Andy Gilley, Keith Bruce, Trevor Cole, Wade Evans, Orey Fugate, Cindy Hamblen ABSENT: Ken Hesson, Mahlon Hellman, Jill Rathert CALL TO ORDER / OPENING PRAYER: Jeremiah Bennett called the meeting to order and Mike Pike opened the meeting in prayer. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Thom Golden 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 July 7, 2023, minutes made by Thom Golden, 2nd by Jimmy Head. All in favor. OLD BUSINESS Park Project Updates – Andy Gilley • Lightning Strike on June 30th – We are dealing with repairs from this incident and will have to replace a playground between fields 2 & 5 at Drakes Creek Park. All this has been approved by insurance and will be about a $30,000 repair. It damaged the irrigation system at soccer, so we are having to do a lot of watering by hand. It has caused several leaks and is about a $60,000 repair. It blew out the transformer beside field 12 so we had to have Keith Bruce and maintenance guys go and turn them on and off every night. It’s been frustrating. • DC Fields 12 & 13 restrooms – An HVA system has been installed in these restrooms. That is a huge thing that has been needed for a long time. • AED Machines – We have purchased two new machines, one for fields 12 & 13 and one for the trailhead restroom as you go into soccer. • Top Dressing Project – This was approved by BOMA and was completed in the first two weeks of August and has made a big difference. • Memorial Park Field Lights – The lights have now been turned on at this field and are ready for use. This is a big help to our Lacrosse and Flag and Tackle Football programs. 1 Parks Board Minutes APPROVED 8/28/23 NEW BUSINESS Broken Paddle Outfitters – Andy Zimmerman Andy Zimmerman stated that they are proposing to come into Memorial Park and do rentals for non- motorized watercrafts like canoes, kayaks, jon boats, and possibly paddle boards, starting in the Spring of 2024. We would like to have our own building there as well. That would be provided by us. It would be a 12’x20’ building with gift shop, vendor services and rentals. We could also expand into Mallard Point and Sanders Ferry Park. The main operation would be Memorial Park. Andy Gilley stated that this is something that would have to go to BOMA for approval. He advised that the Parks Board would be voting on recommending approval of the concept and location. They have provided a possible contract which is in your packet. They have proposed the standard 7.5 percent of sales would be a rebate back to the Parks Department and have also proposed donating twice a year to park improvements. This will also have to be approved by The Corps. of Engineers. Andy Zimmerman stated that as the contract is currently written, they would take care of the maintenance of the building. The way we envision the operation will be the same as how we operate rentals at Montgomery Bell. We do work with boy scouts and girl scouts and church groups currently and do require all our renters to wear life jackets. Motion to recommend this for approval with the addition of a 5-year contract and a 5-year renewal and that the primary location be location B in the proposal by Jimmy Head, 2nd by Bubba Perry. All in favor. Officials Background Check Policy – Andy Gilley Andy Gilley stated that on page 13 of your packet, is an email I put together and sent to the Mayor and our COO. On your table is also a staff report that includes some wording for a possible suggested motion. Over the years we have been trying to improve our policies and most of our leagues utilize official’s associations that either employee officials through the TSSAA that already run background checks or the state association that they work for requires a background check. There are some that don’t fit into either of those categories and we want to make sure that they are in line with what we are requiring from the coaches. The best place for this new requirement is in the athletic manual which is in your packet on page 22. We are suggesting that there be a number 12 that states that all youth leagues are required to utilize game officials, referees, and umpires that have been subjected to a background check, in accordance with the Park’s Departments background check policy or must be employed by an official’s association that requires background checks. We don’t anticipate that the cost for this will be over $1,000 a year. That is a small price to pay to make sure everybody is safe. This is not foolproof. As you know there is a shortage of officials and there might be times when all our associations in different sports may have to call some other group out of another city for the use of an official on the spur of the moment. Motion to approve this new requirement be put in the handbook with a start date of November 1, 2023 by Jimmy Head, 2nd by Mike Pike. All in favor. Louis & Clark Circus – Logan Jimenez Logan Jimenez is the booking agent for the Louis & Clark Circus. He stated that he was looking to bring the show to town in October and was looking at either October 10 & 11 or October 12 & 13. We are a big top show and will need about 150’x 150’ space to set up. We will have our own bathrooms, our own generators, and the only thing we would need access to is a hose spicket in case there is a fire. It is a very family friendly show geared toward kids with comedy and magic acts. We also have acrobats but do not tour with any animals. The big top seats 500 folks. Andy Gilley stated that their suggestion is for this to go to the old hockey rink area at Veterans Park. I’ve done a bit of research online about this circus and they appear to be very credible. They have agreed to donate 15% of all ticket sales back to the Parks Department. Logan Jimenez said that online tickets are $15 for adults and $5 for children. The price goes up at the gate. Each adult ticket also gets one child in free. The show is 90 minutes in length. Motion to approve this event by Thom Golden, 2nd by Bubba Perry. All in favor. 2 Parks Board Minutes APPROVED 8/28/23 Power Wheels Grand Prix – Wade Evans Wade Evans stated that he has seen some other cities that have done something like this. We are hoping to have this event and have children race their Power Wheels. I’m planning to have this event on a Sunday in November. We will make sure that the cars have not been modified and have two different age groups in different heats. We will create a racetrack probably on Memorial Park’s field and just make it a fun day for the kids. We will have battery chargers available. I’ll make sure that when the parents sign up that they agree to use a certain voltage of car. He also stated that the children will be required to wear a helmet. Motion to approve event by Bubba Perry, 2nd by Bob Montoya. All in favor. FOR YOUR INFORMATION: STAFF REPORTS Recreation Coordinator – Cindy Hamblen stated that the Special Needs Expo took place on August 19th. I was there and it was a great event. We were able to share information with several people. They had a fashion show and singing, and it was well planned out. Our Preschool Track Meet is coming up on October 15th at Drakes Creek Football Field. Registration is open until October 2nd. This event is for 3–5-year-olds and the age is determined by how old they are as of October 31, 2023. There will be a 25-yard dash, mini hurdles, and a tennis ball throw. The maximum number of participants in each group is 40. If any students need service hours, please contact me and you can help with this event. Trick or Treat at Drakes Creek will be Monday, October 30th from 6:00pm – 8:00pm. We can also use some students that night as well to get some service hours. Breakfast with Santa is December 9th and will also have three sessions. The location for this event will be Whitten Elementary and the cost is free. Registration will be required. The Special Abilities Visit with Santa will be on December 11th here at City Hall and has no age limit. It will be a more relaxed atmosphere for those with special disabilities. Athletic Coordinator – Orey Fugate stated that Fall Baseball is underway, and the games are going well. Adult Kickball and Softball have also both started, and we are in our third week. Adult Pickleball registration has ended, and we had 14 teams to sign up. Registration for our High School individual and open teams and Men’s Adult Open Basketball will start this Friday and registration will end on Friday, September 29th. Special Events Supervisor – Wade Evans stated that Heroes Day is coming up on September 9th which used to be the Spencer Bristol Softball Tournament but now they are also incorporating cornhole and a hotdog eating contest. The Highland Games is coming back the same weekend so there will be some traffic at Sanders Ferry for sure. We have a music festival called Iron Fest coming up on September 16 & 17 at Veterans Park. The Sumner Food and Wine Festival is being hosted by the owners of the restaurant called Edit and that will be on September 22-23rd. You can go online now and get tickets. I am hiring Program Supervisors that help us with some of our Special Events and some of our programs. The Touch a Truck event was a success. We had 34 vehicles on site which included a helicopter. We had about 1,100 people come out. Parks Maintenance Superintendent – Trevor Cole stated that the lightning strike and the irrigation problems have been a mess, but we have been working with all of the manufacturers to get their specs in order to get the grounding right. It’s important to get this right on the front end so that hopefully we can avoid this happening again. We are currently working on the bid for front and back soccer to have pretty much all new irrigation. We’ve also been cleaning out the Hwy 386 fence row. It looks great over there and we plan on keeping it that way. We have been picking one park at a time and working on the trees and raising the canopies for better curb appeal. 3 Parks Board Minutes APPROVED 8/28/23 Assistant Parks Director – Keith Bruce provided Dallas Long’s report. Keith stated that the rec soccer, Middle School Soccer, TN United, Lacrosse, Rugby and Flag and Tackle Football are all going well. Tackle Football just started games this Sunday. Middle school soccer is playing tonight. TN United has already started and rec soccer starts this Saturday. Assistant Parks Director – Keith Bruce stated that Fastpitch games are starting Monday, September 11th. They have been practicing for a couple weeks. Civitan open team baseball is starting on the Tuesday after Labor Day. With the Senior Men, one age group has finished up their tournament and the other two are finishing up in a couple of weeks. Hockey is ongoing. The Full Count Baseball league is up and going and they play on Mondays and Tuesdays. We also started meeting about Basketball with Civitan so they are getting ready to start signups. They will be taking on grades 1-8 and the Parks Department will handle the grades 9-12 and the adult basketball league. Parks Director — Andy Gilley stated that he appreciates the board for asking everyone good questions tonight. I want to thank all our leagues and parents in dealing with the heat and our policies. Everybody worked with us. Nobody complained and everybody went along with what we had to do. Some of our staff met with Principal Sawyers at HHS and we wanted to let our staff meet him because they play a lot of home games in our park, and we use their school building. We talked about their bleacher situation, and we will help them if we can. We talked about his athletes over there coming to work with Mrs. Hamblen’s programs, particularly the Preschool Track Meet. When it comes to bleachers you can’t turn on your cell phone without reading someone’s quote about bleachers somewhere in our county. Sumner County is a little different because those concrete structures, we don’t really have a lot of those. I want you all to know that every year our staff goes around and looks for things that need to be fixed with the bleachers, things that need to be taken out of use, and to be on the safe side we are bringing in someone who is going to inspect everything. It is going to cost around $3,000 but better to be on the safe side. The Pig Fest has kind of become an “animal” but in a good way. As of today we have 46 BBQ teams signed up and last year we had 21. The desired outcome of this event is to raise money for some good causes and have fun doing it. Pig Fest is coming up on October 27-28 at Veterans Park. ROUND TABLE Thom Golden – Welcome Bob, we are glad to have you. Looking forward to working with you. There are a lot of great things that are going on in our parks. Jimmy Head – I would like to welcome Bob to the Board. Bob Montoya – I’m excited about the Pig Fest that’s coming, and I love the KY Headhunters. I do look forward to hanging out with you guys, learning from you and moving forward together. Lee Peterson – Welcome to Bob and thank you to the Board for passing the background check initiative. This is a great board and an exceptional staff. Thank you for keeping the parks looking good and safe for our residents. Mike Pike – I also wanted to welcome Bob to the Board and I will second, don’t be afraid to say anything up here. I wanted to thank Wade for coming up with some innovative ideas that helps people who might be playing athletics, participate in fun activities. Jeremiah Bennett – Welcome Bob, it is great to have you on here. I want to give Full Count a shout out for 4 Parks Board Minutes APPROVED 8/28/23 winning their league. Thank you to P.A. Bowler for all the years and for everything he did as a member of this board. Bubba Perry – Welcome Bob to the team. I wanted to tell the maintenance guys, that the green paint on the concession stands looks really good. Motion to adjourn by Mike Pike, 2nd by Jimmy Head. All in favor. Meeting adjourned at 7:00 p.m. Respectfully submitted, __________________________________ ________________________________ Ken Hesson, Chairman Kristen Emerson, Administrative Assistant II 5