Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee

MINUTES PARKS & TRAILS ADVISORY COMMITTEE January 19, 2023 5:00 P.M Joint Meeting of PTAC and Friends of the Parks Board 111 Opera Street, Suite A 1) Roll Call of Committee Members Committee Members present: Julie Nix, Bob Reddish, Rick Dwyer, and Larry Williams. Excused: Ann Kendrick and Samantha Christian. P&T staff present: Anthony Whittington, Kathleen Fason, and Hannah Rice. 2) Approval of the Agenda Rick made a motion to approve the January 19, 2023 agenda. Bob seconded. Motion carried unanimously. 3) Approval of the Minutes Bob made a motion to approve the December 15, 2022 minutes. Rick seconded. Motion carried unanimously. 4) Introduction of Guests: Heaven Whittington and Todd Shiver 5) New Business A) Hot Springs Creek Greenway Trail Updates: Southern Trail and Jean W. Wallace Wetlands Trailhead (JWWWTH) Anthony explained where we are currently with each project. Cate Construction is currently working on roughing in the trails and we are in a holding pattern to pave until after the bridges are received and installed. We expect the bridges to be delivered in April. The JWWWTH will have 24 parking spaces and a wetlands fountain feature in the middle at T.V. Hill. There will be a kayak/canoe launch on the other side of the overpass in the future. We will need to do some work to stabilize that area in order to construct a trail or construct with a boardwalk. Anthony went over all the trail connections to neighborhoods and explained the Tatum Street connection to the JWWWTH will once again allow residents access to a trail within a 10-minute walk. B) Velocity Park Updates: Construction of Ph. 1, Dedication Date, Grant for Ph 2&3 Anthony explained that construction of the pump track was finished and once Christmas decoration removal was complete Parks Crews would be working on installation of the outer skills trail around the pump track, landscaping, etc. Dedication will be in spring. A date was not yet able to be established. An Outdoor Recreation Grant application will be completed and submitted this year in August. We will be combining both phase 2 and 3. CBDG funding has been received for the restroom that will be located on Runyon Street near where the phase 3 toddler skills trail will be. Due to an increase in prices we are currently working to secure additional needed funds from Friends of the Parks and Complete Streets. The restroom will provide service to two parks and the greenway. C) Stokes Creek Greenway Trail Update: Ph.1 Construction Anthony explained that we have received funding from Arkansas Department of Transportation TAP Grant for $350K. Additional funds of $50K have been secured from Complete Streets and HALFF and Associates, out of Little Rock, plan to stake Ph. 2 soon. We will be applying for TAP and RTP grant funding for Ph.2 this year. D) Community Programs for 2023: Tikes, Trikes, and Trails; Stories in the Park; Adair Park Concert Series, and Arbor Day Kathleen explained that we will have an additional Tikes, Trikes, and Trails event this year in Springtime. It will be held on Friday, March 24 at the Farmer’s Market from 10AM-  Noon. Participants will enjoy a trail tour along the Hot Springs Creek Greenway Trail where they will learn about trail etiquette and safety. We will still be doing the Entergy Park Tikes, Trikes, and Trail event in the Fall. The Garland County Library will be hosting Stories in the Park again this year in various city parks around town. Scheduling and locations can be found on their website and on Facebook. The Adair Park Concert Series will be expanding this year to include full time slots from 11AM-9PM on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from March 3 through October 29. Parks & Trails staff will be hosting Arbor Day at Entergy Park again this year on Friday, April 21. This event is specifically for 5th grade students from area schools and focuses on teaching all phases in the life of trees. City Landscape Superintendent Brian Fisher along with parks crews has done a wonderful job planning and executing this very successful program for ten years. E) Other Park Project for 2023:  Anthony went over additional parks projects happening in 2023. There are 2 CBDG, one has already been mentioned, the restroom at Velocity Park and a second is the new 5-12-year playground being installed at Linden Park. This will be our first playground with a turf safety base.  Thanks to Friends of the Parks we will be able to fund a new 55’ zipline playground at Family Park. One side will be the traditional rope/donut style and the other side will be ADA compliant with the ability to buckle a child in a chair.  We will also be having some work done at Linden Park soccer fields. Anthony told the committee he will be inviting Sport Recreation Manager Adam Ussery to our March meeting to discuss those improvements. 6) Parks & Trails Director Reports, Announcements, & Items for Discussion Anthony explained that due to his wife having a Carpal Tunnel surgery requiring him to be out of the office in February during the week of our meeting, we will not be meeting again until March. 7) Parks & Trails Advisory Committee Reports, Announcements, & Items for Discussion Larry Williams commented that in the time he has been on this committee he has heard of many grants to fund new construction but wonders about maintenance. He said that he was a National Park volunteer for years and they had an Adopt A Trail program. Kathleen stated that we do have a Trail Watch Volunteer program and we do clean-up events as well as multiple volunteer groups who assist us each year. Larry went on to state that the Baseball Trail Park restroom has soap dispensers regularly ripped off the walls and is often in bad shape. Anthony stated that our Parks Cleaners make regular daily maintenance visits and we continue our attempts to keep the restroom in good working order. 8) Adjournment: The Parks and Trails Advisory Committee will hold their next regular meeting on Thursday, March 16, 2023 at 5:00 p.m. ATTEST: ___________________________ APPROVAL: ____________________________ Anthony Whittington, Director Julie Nix, Chairperson Parks & Trails Department Parks & Trails Advisory Committee