Parks Commission

City of Manistee Parks and Beautification Commission Minutes Thursday, May 15, 2014 5:00 P.M Members Present: Mark Tomaszewski, Roger Zielinski, Lynn Vasquez, Erin Pontiac, Ed Tegler, Darci Scott Unexcused: None Also Present: Jeff Mikula, DPW Director, and Ashley Fortin, Darci’s daughter in law. A regular meeting of the Manistee Parks and Beautification Commission was held on Thursday, May 15, 2014 at City Hall 2nd floor conference room. Meeting was called to order by Acting Chair Lynn Vasquez at 5:05 p.m. Approval of Minutes – Motion by Zielinski, second by Tegler to accept April 17, 2014 minutes and place on file. Motion approved. Correspondence: Letters were given to Scott, Tegler, Vasquez, and Tomaszewski. Old Business: Corresponding Secretary - Motion by Zielinski, second by Scott to nominate Pontiac for Corresponding Secretary as of today until July of 2015. Approved by all, Pontiac accepted. Adopt a Park – Mikula updated commission stating there has been many request for applications but none have been returned. Zielinski suggested having a park endowment. Open discussion of fundraising money for parks followed. Options: Assign person for treasurer of said group of fundraiser, Escrow account, or community foundation fund. Vasquez will contact Laura Heintzelman of Community foundation to speak at the next meeting. Also to include literature in program or media for fundraising for specific park of interest was discussed. Morton Park – Scott contacted School House Day Care for their opinion if they wanted tables at park which they said yes to. Mikula will confirm water supply at park if there is not he will have one installed. He will also have the old picnic tables from 1 st street beach be bought over to Morton Park when new tables will be placed at 1st street. Ordinance Chapter 289, Sec. 09 update – Mikula made update that Ordinance commission has approved our request to remove this section and it will be forwarded to the city council. 5th Ave Beach – Mikula updated commission: Cash budget is there of $25,000. Department is brainstorming ideas of plans to use the funds. Discussion of sidewalks and picnic area with Cabanas are included. Council Cote has interest. Park Tour – Mikula approved date for August 21st Parks Commission meeting. He will arrange and will narrate. River Walk – Mikula and the department is in the process of repairing 9 sections of the river walk. New Business: Tree planting: There is a budget of $15,000 for tree planting. There are 13 trees available for citizens to purchase for $40 apiece. Trees will be available for two weeks in the spring and in the Fall Tegler would like to purchase a tree for Rogza and have it planted at Morton Park. Zielinksi and Tegler to meet on Saturday to tour parks for suitable places for planting new trees. Tegler discussed a concept of a “forever forest”. A place to plant trees to remember people who have passed on; a location was mentioned behind Lighthouse Park. Have benches and walkways of wood chips throughout “forest”. Commission would like to plant a tree or a cluster of trees for Lacy. Tegler will do more research and bring to the next meeting. Commission would like to have project started by the fall of 2014. Promoting Parks: Scott suggested a Facebook page for the Parks and Beautification Commission. Discussion followed. Everyone agreed a section on the City’s Facebook page would be a better solution. Park information can be submitted there. Also post pictures throughout the summer of events at the city parks we attend. Mikula will make sure Cindy Lokovich is keeping the city website up to date with the commission’s minutes and agendas. Tennis Court Improvement: United States Tennis Association (USTA) offer grants to local Tennis Associations. Local tennis players are in the process of forming an Association to meet with requirement per the discussion Vasquez had with Vicki from the MRA. In the meantime Vasquez mentioned the Adopt A Park program. 5th Ave. and Sands are in need of repairs. Mikula advised commission the city and School district share equal responsibility for repairing sands park tennis courts. Schools do not have funding available for this. He estimated it would cost about $150,000 to repair both locations’ tennis courts. Open Seat: seat on commission still available. Fortin was informed to fill an application out if she was interested. Lyons Pavilion: Mikula informed commission an At-Hoc group was formed to request assistance from the city to build a fireplace. The Lyons was not successful in raising or gaining enough Revenue to cover the cost to build a fireplace in the new Pavilion. The city will need to take $15,000 from their Parks budget to approve this request. There was a discussion of where and how much to take from what project if commission would give their recommendation. A Motion to recommend to council to leave the Parks’ budget the same was made by Tegler and seconded by Vasquez. Approved by all. General Discussion:  Have agenda and minutes ready and posted by the Friday before the meeting or sooner.  Parks Department has a budget of $40,000 for maintaining of the parks  Request was made in Ordinance meeting to separate Parks and Beautification Commission. Mikula advised both commissions to have Friends of Beatification use the Adopt program.  Mikula advised Vasquez that there is a budget of $7,500 for new signage for the parks.  Mikula advised commission grant had not yet been approved for playgroup for Rocket Park Motion by Vasquez, second by Tomaszewski to adjourn at 7:15 p.m. Next meeting date – Thursday, June 19, 2014 at 5:00 p.m. at City Hall – 2nd Floor Conference Room. Respectfully submitted, Erin Pontiac