Board of Park Commissioners

Board of Park Commissioners Meeting Minutes of February 14, 2022 Call to Order: Mr. Kara called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. followed by the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. The meeting was held with open to the public and a call-in number for remote public participation. Mrs. Goodpaster introduced two new Park Board members. Angela Grabczak is a Hobart resident for 39 years and is a regional manager for BuzzRx. Angela is a mother of a nine year old son. She is super active in the community and sports events, as well for the Parks and Hobart events. Previous board she has sat on is: The Hobart Chamber as Vice President, BNI Porter County, Professional VP and ECIER President. Joe Such is also a lifelong Hobart resident. Joe is a project manager Aldridge Electric. He is married and has a five year old daughter and a seven year old son. Joe comes to all community events as well and is very active within sports in Hobart community. He is a board member for the Hobart Little League. Mayor Snedecor let the board know on the record that they have been duly sworn in and is now able to vote as needed. He is excited to see younger people involved in government, so having the new park members on board who are invested the community will be an absolute asset to the board. Roll Call: Commissioners in attendance: Mr. Kara, Ms.Grabczak and Mr. Such: Also present: Park Board Secretary Ms. Montes, and Park Director Mrs. Goodpaster. Council Representative Mr. Huddlestun, School Board Representative Mrs. Hillan. Absent: Commissioner Mrs. Galka Election of 2022 Officers: There was a nomination by Ms. Grabczak, seconded by Mr. Such to elect Maria Galka for president. All aye, motion carried. (3-0) Mark Kara has been nominated for the position of Vice President by Ms. Grabczak, seconded by Mr. Such. All aye, motioned carried. (3-0) Angela Grabczak was nominated by Mr. Such, seconded by Mr. Kara for the Office of Secretary. All aye, motion carried. (3-0) Approval of Agenda: Motion by Ms.Grabczak, seconded by Mr. Such to approve the agenda as presented. All aye, motion carried. (3-0) Approval of Minutes: Motion by Mr. Kara, seconded by Ms.Grabczak to accept the minutes as presented. All aye, motion carried. (3-0) Approval of Register of Claims: Mrs. Goodpaster explained that there are two register of claims. The January 10th Park Board meeting was cancelled, therefore the registers of claims were split up into two. One is for the month of December and the other for month of January. We have also put a list of rentals each month. After rentals, you can see budget reports and appropriations reports. She expressed that if the new members have any questions, to please let her know and she would love to sit down and answer any questions. There was a small explanation to where Lakefront comes out of and how is the Country Jam reported as well. Motion by Ms.Grabczak, seconded by Mr. Such to accept the December register of claims. All aye, motion carried. (3-0) Motion by Mr. Such, second by Ms.Grabczak to accept the January register of claims. All aye, motion carried. (3-0) Correspondence: nothing under correspondence Director Report: Mrs. Goodpaster reported that all of the improvements to the Community Center have been completed. There were a few pictures added to the packet so that the board could see the end results, but anyone is more the welcome to come out and look at the facility. We are all happy with the end results; it looks clean, updated and fresh. The cost for all improvements was $48,000 dollars, but it was paid off with last year’s budget. Mrs. Goodpaster mentioned that we went live with our website and we are now taking credit card payments. We will allow people to self pay and self register on-line starting May. Mrs. Goodpaster also presented the board with the plans for the bathrooms at Festival Park. She gave a few logistics of how and where the bathrooms will sit on. Mayor Snedecor added that bathrooms will be pricey but has not yet gone to bid. He mentioned that the bathrooms will be paid off by federal dollars, so it will not hit the general budget or the park department funds. The council recognized the need for the bathrooms at Festival Park and they have approved it. Mrs. Goodpaster also mentioned the project that will take place at Robinson Park. The plan is to add the old parking lot back and provide for more parking. Once that parking lot is done, she can than place the new playground that has been purchased. Mrs. Goodpaster announced that we are working on programming and camps. We just put out on social media spring break camp for 2022. The goal is to do a large summer camp and the plans are to partner up with the MRC. Mrs. Goodpaster also stated that the City of Hobart is working with Lakota Group for a new comprehensive plan for the overall city. Parks department needs an updated master plan, so we contracted Lakota and agreed to pay no more than $35,000 dollars this year out of our budget. Mrs. Goodpaster also mentioned that we have a steering committee together that she is a part of. She asked that at least one board member to be a part of the steering committee, so that there is more input then just herself and staff. Lakota will come here once they get further along with the master plan, but right now is mainly zoom meetings. Mr. Such and Ms. Grabczak volunteered to be part of the steering committee. Plan Commission Report: nothing under plan commission report Common Council Report: Mr. Huddlestun thanked the park department for helping with plowing. He saw such a team effort across all the departments. He did mention that the demand for bathrooms at Festival Park is a good problem to have because it speaks values to the work Kelly and Nikki are putting in. There was a small discuss on how the new bathrooms are going to bring more people to our community. Mr. Huddlestun also mentioned that Albanese is expanding and growing. School Board Report: Mrs. Hillan thanked the city and Mayor Snedecor for partnership in the most recent snow storm. Working together really helped with the lines of cars and buses. The new year brought new offices and Mrs. Hillan is still the school board rep and she is now the secretary on school board. She mentioned that masks are now optional in school, however, governors orders are still in place, so if our numbers go up we will have to return to masks or go virtual; the goal is to stay in school. Kids learn best when they are in school. Mrs. Hillan stated that in sports, there are four Hobart wrestlers going to state. The basketball team is doing great and the swimming team is also ready to battle for the state finals. A shout out to Brickie sophomore Ben Molchan for his fantastic performance at the JROTC Civilian Marksmanship National Championship held at Camp Perry, Ohio. The top 75 Sporter Class marksmen in Army JROTC across the country competed and Ben Molchan finished 31st in the nation. Old Business: Nothing under Old Business New Business: Mrs. Goodpaster stated that back in January she found out that we had some funding available through CDBG grants of $164,000 dollars. These funds are given to us; there are perimeters on how we can spend the money and one of the ways is ADA walkways. To get the project moving quickly we contracted BF&S to facilitate the biding process and come up with the site plans. This is a very timely matter and they need to have the project bid within a time frame and wrap everything up so we are able to acquire more funding. She explained that every even year we are eligible for $120,000 dollars and we do not want to miss out on that money this year so we need to get this past project wrapped up quickly. There was a discussion on CDBG funding through Mr. Dammarell and he provided the scope of work that will consist of providing professional engineering surveying and related services. Mr. Dammarell provided the board the site plans for the final designs of the project locations. The total contract is not to exceed $17,400 dollars. Motion by Mr. Such, seconded by Ms. Grabczak to allow not to exceed $17,400 dollars to go to BF&S engineering services contract. All aye, motion carried. (3-0) The consideration of advertisement for bids of CDBG funding on ADA walkways will be due to March 15, 2022 at 2:00pm at the clerk treasures office. This advertisement will be advertise twice, first on the on the February 21st and then again on February 28th as required for public notice. There will also be a mandatory pre-bid conference on March 3, 2022 at 10am that will be held at city hall. Motion by Ms.Grabczak, seconded by Mr. Such to approve the advertisement out to bid. All aye, motion carried. (3- 0) Mrs. Goodpaster stated that we partner with U.S. Fish and Wildlife for a grant and Sandy O’Brien did a great job executing the work. A discussion was made about the history of Fred Rose Park and the needs of controlled burns. Sandy mentioned that controlled burns do all kinds of beneficial things. They boost the herb layer plants with blackened ground that warms up early, fertilizer, knocked back competing woody plants, and bare ground for native seedlings to grow along with other beneficial things. Mrs. Goodpaster stated that Sandy is coming forward with the same grant for Robinson Lake. She believes Robinson Lake needs it and believes Sandy is the right person to get the job done. Mrs. Goodpaster wants to continue to partner up with her and wants to move forward and give her the permission to apply for the USFWS grant so that we can continue to improve Robinson Lake. Motion by Mr. Such, seconded by Ms. Grabczak to allow Sandy O’Brien to proceed the grant. All aye, motion carried. (3-0) Announcements: nothing under announcements Adjournment: Motion to adjourn by Mr. Such, seconded by Ms.Grabczak. All aye, motion carried. (3-0) ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________