Parks and Recreation Advisory Board

The Parks Advisory Board met in regular session on Wednesday, August 11, 2021 at 6:00 p.m. in the City Hall Annex. MINUTES Board Members Present Kathy Boswell Mandy Edwards Kim Houston Board Member Absent Amber Kunes City Staff Present Andy Tarkington, Parks and Recreation Superintendent Terrie Ortiz, Parks and Recreation Clerk Guest Present Joseph Russell, Owner of Flying High Bicycle Shop Larry Colvin, Sr. Civil/Landscape Designer David May, President/CEO of the Chamber of Commerce Rose Jordan, Director of Tourism and Marketing Mindy Robinson, President of Swim Team Booster Club Heidi Ritthaler, Swim Team Treasurer AGENDA ITEM 1.0 Call to Order The meeting began at 6:10 p.m. Joseph Russell, owner of Flying High Bicycle Shop and Larry Colvin, Sr. Civil/Landscape designer and representative of the Weatherford Mountain Bike Club came to the board meeting and want to talk to the board about a bike trail out at West City Park. They will be making a formal presentation at the next Parks Board meeting September 8, 2021. AGENDA ITEM 2.0 Approval of Minutes Kathy Boswell called for motion to approve the July minutes. Mandy Edwards made the motion. Kim Houston seconded the motion. The minutes were approve by unanimous vote. AGENDA ITEM 3.0 Hear Discussion From The Parks and Recreation Superintendent on the City Council’s Fiscal Year 2021-2022 Budget Meeting Andy Tarkington presented the budget that the City Council is voting on. Andy told the board that the City Council will make the final decision August 17, 2021. Andy informed the board of the amenities that he presented to the City Council. He let the board know about the budget packets he submitted for the City Council to be approved. Andy told the board that he submitted 13 budget packets. He explained that anything about what the department normal, or any new item it has to be put in a budget packet. Andy told the board that there was the first budget workshop was on July 28, 2021. He went on to tell the board that there will be another budget meeting on August 17, 2021. Andy explained that the recommendations he made were not final. Andy went on to tell the board that the two recommendations that the Parks and Recreation Department did get was the Parks and Open Space plan. Andy told the board that he thought it was due to them Parks Board members showing up and giving their recommendations to the City Council. Kim Houston thinks that the bike trail that Larry Colvin and Joseph Russell suggested could be added to the Parks and Open Space plan along with the parks. Andy told the board that it would be October before we could do anything with the Parks and Open Space Plan. Kim told the board that she thought we could add the phases Larry talked about. Andy went on to tell the board that the other budget item approved was the increase in the lifeguard and pool manager’s salaries. Kathy asked Andy what the increase would bring the salaries up to. Andy told the board that the lifeguard would be $9.50 an hour and the pool manager will be $11.50 an hour start out pay. Andy told the board that the returning staff would get a 2% increase every year. Andy told the board that the other items on his list were cut immediately. Andy went on to tell the board that he wanted to increase our phone budget. He told the board that our phone system went up and we only have $3400.00 in the budget. Andy told the board we are at $5000.00, so we are $1400.00 over budget right now. Andy told the board that the lights at the West City Park and Fort Wolters ballfields need to be updated. He told the board that this request was denied as well. Andy wanted to get the lights at Fort Wolters in this year’s budget and West City Park in next year’s budget. Andy explained to the board that he put the lights in the budget because it needs to be know that these lights need to be replaced. Kim told the board that the lights need to be done especially at West City Park. She went on to tell the board because there are so many people that go to the park, plus the Little League has games out there. The board asked about the security of the lights on the pole due to one falling off in the middle of the day. Andy told the board that we have paid Richards Signs to go in and secure all the lights. Andy told the board he had a representative from Musco come and look at the lights. The representative from Musco told Andy that a recreational baseball or softball lighting should be at 20 foot candles. He told Andy he estimates that we have less than 5 foot candles. Andy told the board that he knew it would be very expensive to get these lights updated and he understood why it did not make it on the budget. Andy told the board that when the City Council goes back on the second budget meeting that the sand filters will be put in the budget. Andy explained that if the sand filters break that will be the end of the pool for a while. Kathy asked if City Council understood if that happens it will either end the pool season or the pool will not open for that season. Andy told her they understood all of the ramifications. Andy explained to the board that he had made a presentation to the City Council back in March of 2020 to get the sand filters replaced and the cost estimates were shocking. Both quotes were quite a bit over $100,000. Andy told the board that we could get the filters done a little cheaper, at around $90,000, but we were taking a chance on some of the companies not have much experience with replacing the sand filters. Andy told the board that the City Council decided to wait on a premier company. Andy told the board about his third priority request on his budget list, and that was a seasonal parks worker. He told them if one of the parks crew was out sick or a surgery there is not any back-up. If the grass needs to be mowed there is no one to mow it. Andy told the board that the grass will continue to grow, it does not care if we have no one to mow it. Andy went on to tell the board with the three workers we have now we can barely keep up. Andy told the board that was denied. Andy went on to tell the board about his fourth item on the budget was the play structure at Southeast Park. Andy told the board that Beth Watson asked him at the first budget meeting, how much it would cost to put a small piece of playground equipment out at Southeast Park to replace the existing one? Andy told the board that he checked into putting a piece at Southeast Park and that got cut as well. Andy went on to tell the board that Beth spoke up at the City Council budget meeting and it got put back to be discussed. Andy went on to talk about more items that he had on the budget that got denied. He told the board about getting a new vehicle for Parks and Recreation. Andy explained to the board that he wanted to get a small SUV for him to use and give his truck to the parks crew. He told the board about Gary Christian, Parks and Recreation Maintenance Technician, having a 2003 truck with nearly 300,000 miles on it. Gary has had to drive his personal vehicle to work a lot of the time. Andy went on to tell the board that Gary is pretty stationary but if he does have to drive it is not as much as George Cliett, Melvin Flores, or Terry Perkins. Andy told the board that he wanted to retire the 2003 truck, and make it a back-up. He told the board if we would have been funded a seasonal worker they could have used it. Andy told the board about his fifth prioritized request, a small S.U.V. at about $25,000, would be perfect for the things that he does. He informed the board that he does not need a 4X4 truck. He told the board if he has to pick anything up it is usually t-shirts for leagues or supplies. Andy told the board that the truck is horrible on gas mileage. Kathy asked Andy does he use the truck to go to T.A.A.F. meetings out of town. Andy told the board that he does. Andy told the board that the travel and training item on the budget was not increase either. Andy told the board that the staff does not get to go to T.R.A.P.S. or all T.A.A.F. meetings, he feels it would benefit not only from the education but from the interaction with other professionals. Andy told the board that Parks and Recreation is a changing field. Kim told the board that it would benefit us growing as board members. Kim asked about when we were going through COVID-19 that Parks and Recreation did not get to do ZOOM meetings. Andy told the board that we did get to do ZOOM meetings but T.A.A.F. was just not doing many meetings at all. Andy moved on to the activity center budget. Andy told the board that he wanted to add new tables and chairs to the budget for the activity center. He told the board that the wood tables we have are very heavy and the plastic tables are coming apart. He explained to the board that the tables and chairs have been at the activity center since we have been open. He told the board he would like to purchase new tables and chairs over a two year period, but it was cut out of the budget. Andy told the board that he could add it to next year’s budget. Andy showed the board what was funded in the budget and what was not funded. Andy told the board out of 13 budget items we got two of them. He explained to the board that City Council is having the second budget meeting and we may get some other items added. Andy told the board that Councilman Doyle Light requested a cost of putting a bathroom out at Southeast Park. Andy told the board that he thinks the City Council will have a final decision on the budget on September 7, 2021. Kathy told the board that she was happy that Parks and Recreation board at least got the Parks and Open Space Plan. . AGENDA ITEM 4.0 Discuss and Take Appropriate Action on Recommending a Policy for the City Council to Consider Concerning Memorial Benches or Trees to be Placed in Mineral Wells City Parks Andy told the board that he spoke with Melvin Flores and we want uniformity on the plaques and benches. Kim said she agreed with that, they all need to be the same. Andy told the board that his recommendations would require the trees to be 30 gallon trees. He told the board that the price at a Stephenville nursery was $215.00. He explained to the board that the tree, bronze plaque and planting the tree, he recommended the price to be $300.00. He went on to tell the board that for the benches they would do 6ft long and some type of metal. They had not decided on the type of metal, but we would make it uniformed and depending on the pricing. Andy told the board that with the bench, concrete pad to mount it in, were looking at $650.00 range and that could change. Kathy asked when Andy said a 30 gallon tree, is there going to be a certain type of tree? Andy told the board that the person purchasing the tree would have a list of the types of trees and the ones that will grow in our area. Kathy asked would this be done at Southeast Park, West City Park or Zappe Park. Andy told the board that he has talked to Mr. Weaver since he sent out the letter, and he told Andy that he talked to Myndi Muncy, the City of Mineral Wells Main Street Manager. Andy told the board that he has not been able to track her down to speak with her. Andy informed the board that Mr. Weaver does not know where he would like that his memorial bench. Andy told the board that he thought it was going in at Zappe Park, because he told Andy the downtown park. Andy told the board that he talked with Melvin, and Melvin told Andy he could be talking about where Randy Nix, a business owner, is putting in a park in a development of his. After Andy spoke with Mr. Weaver he does not know which park because he does not live in Mineral Wells, he just wanted to do something for his parents. Kathy asked what they need to do since they have this information now. Andy told the board that if they want to go ahead with this then he would take it to City Council now. Andy explained to the board that if Mr. Weaver wants to go where Randy Nix is then he can hold off going to the Council. Andy told the board they could go ahead and make a recommendation and if we need it then we would have it. Andy feels that someone will come back to us and ask for a place to put a memorial. Kathy asked could we use Zappe, West City and Southeast Park to put trees and benches at. Kim asked about the area along the Rails to Trails, and Andy told the board that could be possible. Andy told the board that one important thing he wanted to add was limiting the amount of trees and benches per year. He told the board that 3 trees and benches should be plenty per year. He explained that we do not have enough staff to make benches or plant trees all the time. Andy told the board that he would like to applications through September 30 and start work on November 1. Kathy called for a motion to approve recommending the policy. Mandy Edwards made the motion. Kim Houston second the motion. The approval for recommending the policy was unanimous. AGENDA ITEM 5.0 Discuss and Take Appropriate Action on Recommending Possible Revisions to the Parks and Recreation Fee Structure Andy told the board that Mindy Robinson, Parent/Coordinator President for swim team booster club, would like to make a presentation for swim team. Mindy told the board that she feels that the swim team is a great asset for the community. Mindy also told the board that swim team is for all ages. Mindy told the board that swim team is a health benefit for the community as well. Mindy asked the board to keep in mind that there are multiple families when considering the fee. Mindy also pointed out to the board that the Parks and Recreation Department are detrimental when swim team host their meet. She told the board that getting the pool ready is a tremendous help to swim team. Mindy told the board that swim team does fund raisers, private donations and sponsorships. Mindy told the board that if they had any more questions she would be glad to answer them at any time. Andy talked to the board about the fee structures that they approved last year. Andy informed the board that the department heads were told to get with their advisory boards to discuss fee changes. Andy let the board know it has changed and he presented the new fee changes. Andy told the board that what they approve will be sent directly to the City Council and they will let them know if it is too late to change some of the fee structures. Andy asked the board if the only fee change was the swim team. Andy told the board that the fee for swim team is not enough for what we pay out. Andy explained to the board that as a department head is a lot of subsidy. Andy told the board that he understands about the benefits of having a swim team. He told the board that it is not unprecedented to fund activities. We subsidize the Little League, we pay their utilities, and we maintain the ball fields as well. There is a bigger subsidy if you count the utilities to Little League than swim team. Andy went on to tell the board that Little League does bigger projects than swim team. Mandy Edwards told the board that Little League built bleaches and added a shelter over the bleachers. Kathy asked Andy about the use fee for Little League. Andy told the board that Little League is not charged for the use of the fields. Andy told the board that nearly every city in the state has a use fee for their ball fields. Kim told the board that it would be interesting to see what the utility bill is for the field lights. Andy told the board that he could look into that and get back with the board. Kim suggested that a new lighting system could also cut down on the utility bill. Kim suggested a printout of the utilities costs for a future board meeting. Kathy suggested having the swim team pay for their own swim party. She said that is $300.00 they can pay to have the party. Mandy asked Andy if he had a recommendation for the swim team registration. Andy suggests a meeting in between the actual cost and the current cost for price. Kathy talked to the board about cutting the swim teams practices down to three or four days per week instead of five. Kathy asked Andy what he was interested in charging. She wanted to know does he want to prorate for multiple people in a house hold. Andy talked about taking $5.00 off for additional family members. Andy suggested $120.00 for first member and $110.00 for additional swimmers, drop practice down to four days a week. Andy told the board that would help in not losing so much money. Kathy asked Andy if lowering the registration, having swim team pay for their pool party and having each additional swimmer pay a lower fee plus practice four days per week instead of five. Andy told the board that would save the department about $4600.00. Kathy told the board that swim team did buy the lane lines for the pool and the starting blocks they use in competitions. Kathy suggested they also look at a use fee for the Little League fields, and maybe even charge people to go watch youth volleyball games at the gym. Kathy asked if they would save money to have the swim meet on a Friday so that the pool can be open on Saturday for open swim. Andy told the board that T.A.A.F. prefers the meets to be on Saturdays. Kathy wanted to know if we pay for swim team regional entries. Andy told the board that we pay regional and state entries. Kathy told the board that they should pay for their own entry fees. Mandy asked Andy if we’re keeping paying the individual registration for T.A.A.F. but if they go to state or regional they pay their own entry fees. Kathy asked with the cuts they suggested if they could charge $100.00 for the first swimmers of a family and $95.00 for any additional swimmers from the same family. The board decided to cut the state and regional fees, swim team party, have swim team practice 4 days a week, we will charge $100.00 for first swimmer of a family and $95.00 for each additional swimmers. Kathy asked as far as they rest of the proposed fees is there anything else to look at. Andy said that the swim team was the only change they needed to look at. He told the Board that all other fees were approved at the previous meeting. Kathy asked the board for approval on action of Parks and Recreation fee structure as presented with addition of swim team fee change. Mandy made the motion. Kim second the motion. The vote by the board was unanimous. AGENDA ITEM 6.0 Hear the Presentation of the Parks, Recreation and Fossil Park Report Andy read the Parks, Recreation and Fossil park report. Andy went over the report for the board. He told the board about Shawn Gatewood starting aerobics at the activity center on August 23, 2021. He talked to the board about the pool shutting down for the season on August 14, 2021, and the youth volleyball registration starting on August 9, 2021. Andy told the board that the Fossil Park is a growing attraction and talked to the board about the Crazy Fossil Dig that will be occurring on October 16, 2021. Rose Jordan, Director of Tourism and Marketing and David May, CEO/President of the Chamber of Commerce were in attendance at the meeting to talk about the Fossil Park. Andy told Rose that he saw where they have already posted about the fossil dig. Rose talked to the board about the Fossil Park and wanted to be at the meeting to promote the Fossil Park. She told the board if she does not what is going on with the Fossil Park then she cannot promote the park well. She told Andy and the board that the Crazy Fossil Dig has always be on the Saturday of the National Arts and Science Day. Rose also explained that the Chamber had the Crazy Fossil Dig on the Saturday after the Mineral Wells Crazy Water Festival. Rose told Andy and the board that she is in charge of the Mineral Wells Fossil Park page on the website. Rose explained to the board that the Mineral Wells website has had over 90,000 views. She told the board that Facebook will automatically generate when people are checking in at a place. Rose went on to tell the board that she went on the Facebook page and claimed it. She said that she can now promote the Fossil Park on that page. She let the board know that the Facebook page is growing continually. Rose told the board that the Fossil Park is drawing people from around the state, but also people from Iran, Australia, and other countries. She explained to the board that in tourism there are two types of assets. Rose told the board that one is a primary asset. The primary asset is people that drive to the location. The secondary asset is the other stuff they do while they are there. Rose went on to tell the board that the Fossil Park, even though it does not create heads in beds, it is a primary asset. Rose told the board that people stop at the visitor’s center all the time, especially at Spring Break and in the summer. She told the board that these travelers will come from 2, 3 or 4 hours away to go to the Fossil Park. Rose said they stop by the Chamber of Commerce to find out how to get there. Rose told Andy that the Chamber and Parks, Recreation need to get together because Andy changed the hours from sun up to sun down to being open 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Rose told Andy that the brochure, website and all correspondence says sun up to sun down. She explained to Andy the Chamber gets calls all the time saying the gate is closed. Andy told Rose and the board that even if the gate is closed people are still welcome to go in to the park. Andy also told the board that there is a gentleman that lives by the park and he only closes it on the weekends. During the week, park employees close the Fossil Park and if they closed it later, the City would have to pay two hours of overtime every weekday. Rose asked if there was any way that there could be an automatic lock put on the gate. David May suggested a timed gate. Rose told Andy and the board that the Fossil Park is a primary asset and people that drive for long distances to go to the park are not happy when they get there and the gate is closed. Andy told Rose, David and the board that he would look into an automatic timer or something to close the gate. Andy told Rose that we are aware of the out of state and that there is a lot of people from the Dallas, TX area. David told Andy and the board that locking the gate really does not keep people out of the park it just keeps them from parking in the parking lot. David pointed out that the gate is really not a security feature. He stated that, “you could almost not have the gate and it will have the same affect.” Kim Houston told the board that it would be nice if there was a gate that automatically opened and closed. She said we could set it for opening sun up and close at sun down. Rose let Andy know she is available for anything to promote the Fossil Park. She told Andy and the board that if there were any questions or anything she could help with to let her know. Rose and David also let the board know that either September or October the Texas Parks and Wildlife sent a journalist out to the Fossil Park and there will be an article published about it. Rose stated that the Fossil Park is the second most visited place in Mineral Wells besides the Mineral Wells State Park. Andy told Rose and David that he would look into pricing for an automatic gate or a timer for the gate. AGENDA ITEM 7.0 Hear Parks and Recreation Board Ideas for Agenda Items Andy told the board that he would look into the expenses for the Little League. He told the board that he would Little League to provide the improvements to the fields. Andy told the board about a gentleman that was wanting the softball fields at Ft. Wolters in October. Andy informed the board that he told Jason Swindle (the person holding the tournament) he needed to present a letter to the board to have fees waved. The Weatherford Mountain Bike Club wants to make a presentation to the Parks Board. AGENDA ITEM 8.0 Adjournment Kathy asked for a motion to adjourn. Mandy made the motion. Kim second the motion. The parks board unanimously agreed to adjourn the meeting at 8:15 p.m.