Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee

City of Marco Island Florida 51 Bald Eagle Drive Marco Island, Florida cityofmarcoisland.com Meeting Minutes - Final Tuesday, June 18, 2024 3:30 PM Community Room Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee Chair: Allyson Richards Vice-Chair: Dolores Siegel Members: Adrian Conner, Lisa Hogan, Doug Kelly, David Shagott, City Staff: Daniel Smith, Samantha Malloy, Martha Montgomery, Thomas Keisler Parks and Recreation Advisory Meeting Minutes - Final June 18, 2024 Committee (1) CALL TO ORDER Chair Richards called the meeting to order at 3:30 pm. (2) ROLL CALL Present: 5- Member Conner, Member Hogan, Member Shagott, Vice-Chair Siegel and Chair Richards Absent: 1- Member Kelly ALSO PRESENT Samantha Malloy, Manager, Parks, Culture and Recreation, Heather Reed, Coordinator, Fleet and Facilities Coordinator, Councilor Rich Blonna, Daniel Smith, Director, Community Affairs Lazaro Pomier, Project Manager, Fleet and Facilities (3) PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Led by Chair Richards. (4) APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA Chair Richards asked the committee members if they were ok with moving the Perez Planning Board presentation up above old business. Committee members agreed. Chair Richards would like to discuss the owls and the rodenticide under New Business. MOTION by Vice Chair Siegel, seconded by Member Connor to Approve the amended Agenda. MOTION CARRIED BY THE FOLLOWING VOTE: Yes: 5- Member Conner, Member Hogan, Member Shagott, Vice-Chair Siegel and Chair Richards (5) APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES ID 24-3633 PRAC Draft Meeting Minutes for April 16, 2024 MOTION by Member Shaggot to Approve the April 16th, 2024, PRAC, Minutes seconded by Member Connor. MOTION CARRIES BY THE FOLLOWING VOTE: Yes: 5- Member Conner, Member Hogan, Member Shagott, Vice-Chair Siegel and Chair Richards (6) OLD BUSINESS Merchant Marines Char Richards highlighted that after the discussion took place at the previous PRAC meeting, she sent an email to all city councilors concerning the Merchant Marines on behalf of the Parks & Recreation Advisory Committee, and requested for the Merchant Marines to be included in the events for Veterans that take place on City property. Smantha Malloy, Manager, Parks, Culture, and Recreation stated that the committee should vote to recommend to the city council that staff develop a Memorandum of Understanding (M.O.A) with the American legion with regards to including all veterans’ groups in their future ceremonies. Ms. Malloy also suggested that they the include their request that the Merchant City of Marco Island Florida Page 1 Parks and Recreation Advisory Meeting Minutes - Final June 18, 2024 Committee Marines Flag, paid for entirely by the Merchant Marines, be installed in the area at VCP. Ms. Malloy noted that there would be some logistical concerns to work out with the facilities team about the physical install of any flags at VCP. Ms. Malloy, Manager, Parks, Culture, and Recreation suggested that the Chair of the Parks & Recreation Advisory Committee should draft an official letter of recommendation for consideration by the Marco Island City Council. Once the letter is completed, staff will request that it be added to a future City Council agenda. MOTION by Vice-Chair Siegel to propose to City Council to “include the Merchant Marines with a flag at Veterans Community Park”. Seconded by Member Shaggot. Motion carried by the following vote: Yes: 5- Member Conner, Member Hogan, Member Shagott, Vice-Chair Siegel and Chair Richards Pickleball Court Noise Chair Richards stated that previously, the committee had heard from residents of the San Marco Villas condominiums about their discontentment regarding the proposed expansion of the racquetball center. Samantha Malloy, Manager, Parks, Culture, and Recreation stated that this was discussed the night prior, June 17th and asked that Daniel Smith, Director, Community Affairs provide an update. Daniel Smith, Director, Community Affairs stated that the City Council had given a directive about converting two tennis courts into eight pickle ball courts. The plan drafted by the designer needed a couple of variances before it could proceed. One of them being parking and the other being the buffers along the north and east property line where the residential areas are located. The City Council asked that there be no variances to the number of parking spaces required as well as the landscape buffer. The state of thew project is that one pickleball court needs to be removed to accommodate the increased number of parking spots and the increased buffer zone size. The consultant is now reworking the plans to make these accommodations. Mr. Smith stated that acoustic sound barriers are part of the current proposed design, these are part of the buffer zone. Chair Richards asked about making the perimeters larger around the pickleball courts, Daniel explained this was done to half the courts, but not all due to property size constraints. Vice Chair Siegel invites Michael O’Leary to speak about his knowledge of pickleball and the steps to improve the game by using different balls and paddles. Mr. O’Leary mentioned that the balls and paddles change the game too much to get people to adopt the change. Mr. O’Leary stated the acoustic fencing works and makes a huge difference in the noise created from the paddles. Citizen, David Cadwell, mentions visiting the Pelican Landing facility and states how the facility is not comparable to the Racquet Center on Marco Island. Mr. Cadwell spoke to a resident at Pelican Landing and stated that the noise is still causing disruption even with the acoustic panels. Member Connor asks Mr. Cadwell what the best-case scenario for the residents of San Marco Villas would be? Mr. Cadwell states that the residents would appreciate reduced hours and want to not be disturbed due to younger children living in the community as well. City of Marco Island Florida Page 2 Parks and Recreation Advisory Meeting Minutes - Final June 18, 2024 Committee Member Hogan states the hours can’t be reduced to due the later hours being reserved for non-members to participate in free play. Carla Cadwell, resident of San Marco Villas, asked if the weekend hours of the racquet center from 8am-1pm would remain in effect. Samantha Malloy, Manager, Parks, Culture, and Recreation clarified that staff leaves at 1pm but the center is open for play until 8pm on the weekends. Councilor Rich Blonna took a moment to comment that he visited Pelican Landing and agreed with the citizen who spoke earlier that it is not comparable to our Racquet Center. Councilor Blonna believes the City should build a standalone pickleball center. He is concerned with the number of people playing and waiting at the same time. The noise is not very pleasant and he understands the residents of San Marco Villas concerns. Daniel Smith, Director, Community Affairs says the city staff is very sensitive to the neighbors’ concerns. He stated that the acoustic panels will work and do work based on his own research. Softball Field Maintenance Tom Polston, Commissioner of the Softball League provided an update on the winterberry fields maintenance. The league is in contract with the company Hurricane Proof for two shades over the bleachers that is funded by the league itself. They estimate installation around November. Spray Park Chair Richards asks for an update regrading the Spray Park maintenance Lazaro Pomier, Project Manager, Fleet and Facilities states they are under contract with a company called Quality Pools for Less, working through the procurement stage. This is the latest update on the Spray Park. Dog Park Chair Richards asks for an update on the sod for the dog park. Heather Reed, Fleets and Facilities Coordinator, informed the committee that they have a quote for the sod and are going through the purchasing process currently. Ms. Reed expects the process to be complete before August. Member Shaggot asks about blocking off half the larger section of the dog park to preserve some of the grass by putting up a barrier. Ms. Reed says this would help the grass but would be an operational implementation standpoint. This will be going on a future agenda for public comment. (7) NEW BUSINESS Perez Planning & Design presenting Master Park Survey Results Representative from Perez Planning and Design presented the survey results as well as financial data findings from the Needs and Priorities assessment and content analysis phase of the project. The 5-step approach was outlined, and the presenter went through the steps Perez Planning was taking to reach their conclusions about the Marco Island Parks and Recreation division. The needs and priorities phase was highlighted as the most important phase of this project. Perez Planning listed the ways they gathered the qualitative, City of Marco Island Florida Page 3 Parks and Recreation Advisory Meeting Minutes - Final June 18, 2024 Committee quantitative and observational data used in this project. Data and survey results were then presented. Chair Richards asked if there were any questions. No questions were brought up to the Perez Planning and Design representative. Owls and Rodenticide Chair Richards said she met with the head of the Beach and Coastal Resources advisory committee, and they were concerned with the rodenticide boxes placed around the city. The concern is that the rats are going into these boxes, coming out, dying, then being picked up by the owls, eaten, and then the owls are dying as well. The suggestion is using a contraceptive for rats that prevents the rats from reproducing as well as not killing them. Heather Reed, Fleet and Facilities Coordinator stated that her department is collaborating with the City’s Environmental Planner to implement the contraceptive traps at Mackle Park specifically. This is being added to next month’s agenda. Samantha Malloy, Manager, Parks culture, and Recreation reminds Chair Richards that she invited the Beautification Chair, Shelli Connely, to come speak and present about the vacant lot next to the Racquet Center. The Beautification Committee would like to turn this into a park. They are actively seeking donations. Member Hogan wants to investigate the issues with the lift station located there and all the issues with the underground infrastructure and equipment. (8) STAFF COMMUNICATIONS ID 24-3675 June Staff Report Samanth Malloy, Manager, Parks, Culture, and Recreation provided an update on camp registrations. Current camp registration sits at 162 campers. Summer camp is fully staffed. Daniel Smith, Director, Community Affairs stated the Winterberry beach access is shutdown and being repaired for the July 4th holiday. It will need to be shut down for a while to be completely redone after the July holiday. The design will be a key factor in the timeline of this project. Samantha Malloy made a quick reference to the Master Park Survey results stating that the City of Marco Island Parks & Recreation team is small but manages to accomplish a lot. She made a shout out to the Parks and Recreation team as well as members of the Fleet and Facilities team for their dedication and commitment. (9) CITY COUNCIL COMMUNICATION None (10) PUBLIC COMMENT None (11) NEXT MEETING: CONFIRMATION & ATTENDANCE Next PRAC Meeting will be July 16, 2024 @ 3:30 pm. Chair Richards confirms the next meeting for July, 16th, at 3:30pm. All members present will be at the next meeting. (12) PROPOSED AGENDA TOPICS FOR NEXT MEETING Leigh Plumber Park Crosswalk and Beautification (September) City of Marco Island Florida Page 4 Parks and Recreation Advisory Meeting Minutes - Final June 18, 2024 Committee Owls and Rodenticide Beautification Committee Chair to come Present on the Proposed Park. (13) OTHER COMMITTEE COMMUNICATIONS None (14) ADJOURNMENT There being no further business before the Committee, Chair Richards adjourned the meeting at 4:50pm _______________________________ Thomas Keisler (Administrative Assistant) City of Marco Island Florida Page 5