Board of Parks & Recreation

Parks Board Minutes APPROVED 6/24/2024 BOARD PRESENT: Jeremiah Bennett, Jimmy Head, Lee Peterson, Mahlon Hellman, Bubba Perry, Mike Pike, Ken Hesson, Jill Rathert, Bob Montoya, Mahlon Hellman, Thom Golden BOARD ABSENT: None STAFF PRESENT: Andy Gilley, Keith Bruce, Dallas Long, Trevor Cole Called to order at 6:00pm Motion to Amend the June 24, 2024 Parks Board Agenda to add Sumner Mini Stock and delete MMDL League. Motion: Mike Pike Second: Jill Rathert Vote: Unanimous Approval – 8-0 Motion to Approve the June 24, 2024 Parks Board agenda with changes. Motion: Jimmy Head Second: Bubba Perry Vote: Unanimous Approval – 8-0 Motion to approve the April 22, 2024 minutes. Motion: Mike Pike Second: Bob Montoya Vote: Unanimous Approval – 8-0 PUBLIC COMMENTS: None ITEMS FOR APPROVAL: Private Outdoor Activity Policy Discussion: Dallas Long stated that the Parks Department is presenting a new outdoor policy for groups who want to have programs in the park that are outside of our special events and athletic leagues and camps. This would be programs like fitness classes, nature programs and camps, arts in the park, etc. We did some research and spoke to some other Parks Departments in Middle Tennessee and developed a new policy that fits with what other Parks Departments are doing. We are getting contacted by a lot of different groups. The first page is a breakdown overview of the highlights of the whole document. We are looking to do background checks for these types of instructors and all their staff. That is something that we have never done before. Andy Gilley stated that he wants to thank Dallas for all his work on this because he did a lot of work and a lot of research and did a very good job. Motion to approve new private outdoor activity policy by Jimmy Head. Second: Jeremiah Bennett Vote: Unanimous Approval – 8-0 1 Parks Board Minutes APPROVED 6/24/2024 Disc Golf League Proposal – Nate Landreth Discussion: Andy Gilley stated that Nate Landreth has made a proposal to host a Monday night disc golf league at Sanders Ferry Park. In a case like this he is a citizen that wants to help take care of the disc golf course and wants to operate a league that will take money from that league to give funding to take care of the course. We don’t really have a mechanism for that, but he completed the application, and we do have a waiver that our insurance company provides us where the participants can sign a waiver. Nate stated that this would just be inviting people to come play. To be transparent this group has been meeting for probably 20 years. We get together and play every week with a little bit of money involved. The only difference is there is also a section for course fund maintenance. Disc Golf is becoming much more popular, and the course is being utilized much more. My friends are out there on weekends weed eating and pulling branches out of the woods, etc. to help maintain the course. Andy Gilley stated that my hope, if this passes, is to make the case that we do need more in the budget to help maintain the disc golf course. Motion to approve disc golf league without a required donation by Jill Rathert. Second: Mike Pike Vote: Unanimous Approval – 8-0 Freedom Festival Alcohol Sales Discussion: Nathan Newton with Half Batch Brewing stated that they have been selling beer at events for seven years. We are a responsible vendor. We don’t sell to vendors. We don’t overserve. In my opinion I don’t think that selling 8 ½ pint glasses of beer is going to cause any uptick in incidents at an event like this. I know that probably you’ve heard people argue for a small, enclosed area where the beer will be sold but they tried that a couple years ago and it almost put a local business out of business. People want to enjoy beer and the food and be able to check out the vendors. Ken Hesson stated that he is going to suspend the rules slightly and allow discussion before a motion. Andy Gilley stated that the way they have proposed this map is that the blue check marks would have hired security. A person would not be able to go through those exit points with alcohol. The places with the white shield are places where nobody comes in or out. Where it says police set up is where the police command center is every year. Added security would be hired by the Chamber of Commerce at those entrance and exit points. Your job is to decide if you think alcohol is appropriate for the event and if so, is the site map in compliance with the city ordinance. Jill Rathert stated that she loves Half Batch but that she has gotten calls from people in Ward 4 who are not in favor of this as they would rather keep it a family event. I also feel that if we don’t require one person to have a beer garden then that is going to open the door for other people to come forward and ask for the same thing. I am very hesitant to approve as it is opening a can of worms. Thom Golden stated that we have been consistent with requiring that alcohol sales be in a fenced off area. I’m swayed by the fact that having a contained area is also the Police Department’s preference. Jeremiah Bennett says that he would love to see you sell your product but only if it contained within a beer garden. Nathan stated that there have been other events that have sold alcohol in an uncontained area like the Highland Games for example. These are family events, and I don’t think that having kids and enjoying a kraft beer are mutually exclusive. The site map at Pig Fest that you all approved was to enclose from the skate park all the way behind the ball fields over to the parking lot. Bob Montoya stated that I’m of the opinion that this might open the door down the line, and we would have no recourse. The motion by Jeremiah Benett to have the beer sales in a fenced off defined area that will be acceptable by Parks and HPD was withdrawn. No vote was made. Hendersonville Chamber App Discussion: Zach Williams is the Membership Director with the Hendersonville Chamber of Commerce. We are proposing to have a Visit Hendersonville phone app. This gives a more modern option to show profiles 2 Parks Board Minutes APPROVED 6/24/2024 for businesses, a landing page for them to show their logos and information and ways to get connected. If someone is visiting Hendersonville, they can utilize this app to help find things. Also, if anyone is new to the area this can show them biking maps, boat launches, etc. We are hoping to get all the shelters on here as well. We will use a QR code on signs and this can be used for the many tournaments that come into town. The maintenance of the signs will be done through the Chamber of Commerce. Motion to approve placement of App signs in the parks by Jill Rathert. Second: Mahlon Hellman Vote: Unanimous Approval – 8-0 Sumner Mini Stock Concert Discussion: Andy Gilley stated that Mr. Garrett came by and met with us at our office last week and he had an application that we had some questions about. He went back and made some additions and corrections and sent it to Wade who is out of the country. Jesse Garrett stated he would like to put together a music festival and this is something he has been wanting to do since he put together a fundraiser for Sumner Schools a few years ago. He stated that he is hoping to bring in young talent from college students in Sumner County and give them the chance to be able to open for people. After listening to the discussion earlier he agrees that it’s good to have a separate area for beer sales. He has a few bands lined up. Ken Hesson suggested proceeding by coming back to the staff with more details and possibly coming back to the Parks Board in the future. No motions made. STAFF VERBAL UPDATES Recreation Coordinator – Keith Bruce gave Cindy’s Hamblen’s report. He stated that the RAPTORS Kickball just ended, and they are looking for a place to have an end of season party. The Kids Club Summer Program is in its 3rd week and runs through July 19th. Campers bring their own lunch and drinks, and field trips are taken. Summer program workers are doing a great job. Also, we are in need of a bus driver for our Kids Club camp. The Special Needs Fishing rodeo is on Friday, June 7th. The Preschool Track Meet will be coming up in October. Athletic Coordinator – Dallas Long gave Orey Fugate’s report. Dallas stated that we just finished up the Adult Kickball, Adult Softball, and Adult Pickleball leagues in the past month and we are in the tournament for Adult Basketball. They will finish up next Tuesday. Youth Summer Baseball has been ongoing and thank you to Morris Orthodontics, our league sponsor, for the free ice cream day they provided this past weekend. Fall Baseball registration ended this past Friday, and we are currently taking late registrations in the office throughout this week. Fall Kickball and Softball registrations started up this past month and will run through July 19th. Fall Pickleball registration will begin registration starting July 22nd. Special Events Supervisor – Andy Gilley gave Wade Evan’s report. Andy stated that Touch a Truck will be July 29th and if you see that event on Facebook, please share it so we can let the community know. We have the Freedom Festival coming up on July 3rd and it will be another great event. We had a great tournament this past weekend with the Game 7 World Series. That was the start of a five week stretch where we have several baseball and softball teams coming into town. Thank you to the maintenance staff that work hard, and the park looked great this past weekend. You will be seeing more about our Pig Fest event in October and Dude Wipes is our sponsor. Parks Maintenance Superintendent – Trevor Cole said the maintenance teams don’t have a lot of projects going on right now because of what Andy just talked about but with our soccer shutdown we have about 22,000 square feet of sod coming in. They will start the prep tomorrow and lay it out on Wednesday. We have about an acre’s worth of sprigs put in a Volunteer Park a couple weeks ago so you will notice a big 3 Parks Board Minutes APPROVED 6/24/2024 difference in those fields. We have a few irrigation repairs going on but other than that we are trying to get ready for these next few weeks of tournaments. Assistant Parks Director – Dallas Long stated that the soccer fields, other than the turf field, and the rugby complex remain closed through the summer for field maintenance. TUSC has continued practicing on a regular basis. They have several teams who have qualified for some regional and national tournaments. TUSC is also offering their free popsicle nights on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Civitan continues to hold their free conditioning program on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the tackle field. Lastly, tackle football will start practicing this month. Assistant Parks Director – Keith Bruce stated that the Nashville Ignite Box Lacrosse are going to begin practicing over at the hockey rinks. Spring fastpitch softball has finished up and Civitan Baseball Open league still has tournaments and then they will wrap up their season. Civitan is also hosting the Cal Ripken 9U and 11U State Tournaments at Veterans Park this weekend. Fields 1, 2, and 4 were shut down after the flood because so much clay had washed off the infields. Trevor and his guys have got those back up to use. The Senior Men Softball are ongoing. Adult Baseball is coming back and will use field 3 a few days in August. The Rhythm is about a month in their league play. Parks Director — Andy Gilley stated that he wants to thank everyone for this past weekend, particularly the Sumner Tourism office that helped lure Game7 to come here. We are going to meet with them this week and make sure we can keep the same level of funding from them as we have had in the past. You will see some upcoming discussion of the UTV in our parks. On July 1 we will be able to get that back on a regular basis but we will seek some direction from you guys and BOMA on whether to keep the UTV in there as it has been the last four years. We have made a lot of repairs. We had about $70,000 of funds left from tornado insurance that we were going to do some nice upgrades, but we needed that money to do some immediate repairs from the flooding until we get into the new budget year. We had to order all new sand for the volleyball courts. It was $21,000 to put new sand in that area. We are still waiting on a final decision from FEMA on tornado funding and have a few more steps until we get to that point. We are working with Public Works who are taking the lead on the new Maintenance Shop designs and then we will put it out to bid. You will start to see movement on the Pickleball courts at Veterans Park. We have the net post sleaves in the ground. Rogers Group is going to be out there tomorrow because you have to mill it. You will see asphalt go down before the surface. So it looks like late summer or early fall before that is completed. We have invested another $25,000 in sod in the soccer complex at Drakes Creek Park and at Volunteer Park. We are working with the county that passed a resolution to allow us to have inmate labor back. ROUND TABLE Jimmy Head – None Bob Montoya – I don’t think this position lightly and I think this board and department are a great thing. Bubba Perry – None Jeremiah Bennett – Congratulations to Station Camp High School Baseball team for finishing second in the state. Great job and great season. Lee Peterson – None Jill Rathert – None Mike Pike – None 4 I Parks Board Minutes APPROVED 612412024 Ken Hesson - I go down the parks from time to time and I get disappointed sometimes because I think us as a society miss the point of what we are doing sometimes. I see people belittle umpires and or kids. Often the attitude is that they want to win. In walking around, I see the little 6-7-year-old kid after his ball game just as happy as they can be. It's more than dollars and cents and there is more than winning. You make an impression on kids just by the way that you treat them. Lee Peterson - The Hendersonville High School soccer team had a great run. I appreciate all of your input and your thought process. I would like to recruit you all for BOMA. You all do a great job. Trevor, your fields look incredible so thank you so much. I'm so impressed with the soccer turf field. Mahlon Hellman - None Motion to Adjourn Motion: Mahlon Hellman Second: Mike Pike Vote: Unanimous Approval 8-0 Adjourned 7:05 p.m. Kristen Emerson, Administrative Assistant II 5