Parks, Recreation & Cultural Services Advisory Board Meetings

PARKS AND RECREATION ADVISORY BOARD MEETING MINUTES October 10, 2018 Members present: Charlene Rios, Charles Maynard, Connor Lange, Arin Swinger, Chuck Perry, and Ryan Holterhoff Members absent: Warren Tracy Staff present: Spencer Grigg, Susan Schwiesow, and Pam Escure Guests present: 2018 MEETING ATTENDANCE RECORD Name Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Lange, Connor C X C E C X C X C X Maynard, E. Charles C X C X C X C X C X Rios, Charlene C X C X C X C E C X Swinger, Arin C X C X C X C X C X Tracey, Warren C X C E C O C X C E Chuck Perry X C X Ryan Holterhoff X C X C=Meeting Cancelled X=Present O=Absent E=Excused R=Resigned Call Meeting to Order The regular meeting was called to order by Chair Rios at 7:00 p.m. Introduction of Guests/Visitors: None Approval of Minutes of Prior Meeting Mr. Lange moved the draft minutes of August 8, 2018, be approved as submitted. Motion seconded by Ms. Swinger. Motion unanimously approved and passed. Correspondence/Communication: Mr. Grigg indicates none at this time. Program Promotion - Monthly Update Ms. Schwiesow indicates that the fall/winter brochure is out and getting sign-ups for our fall and winter programs. Reports about the Soccer Challenge and the Punt, Pass & Kick program. There were at least 130 entrants. We also had 236 kids registered for Beginning Soccer this fall and Cheer Camp starts very soon. Active Net registration are also doing very well. Mr. Grigg comments regarding how successful the Explorers Day Camp was and that we netted about a $10,000 profit on this brand new program. Mr. Grigg gives praise to Susan and Carrie for doing such a great job. Ms Swinger comments and indicates it was a great program. Discussion further held. Mr. Lange comments regarding the Soccer Tots program and that the instructor was great. Ms. Schwiesow indicates that unfortunately the soccer tots program, all the tot programs have been lost due to the injury to the instructor. Ms. Schwiesow indicates that we are not able to offer the programs anymore and that we are very sad to see the program go away. Discussion further held regarding the length of the instructor’s non-compete contract. PARKS AND RECREATION ADVISORY BOARD MEETING MINUTES October 10, 2018 Mr. Perry comments regarding the general fund and indicates that he was not aware of how much goes on with Parks & Recreation. Mr. Grigg comments. Mr. Perry questions that if the expansion of the population has an effect on the budget. Mr. Grigg responds that it does and indicates that the biggest issue that we are dealing with is the homeless and the issues of the homeless camping on any public land, including parks. Discussion further held. Mr. Grigg indicates that the majority of the use of the restrooms in our parks are the homeless and the majority of the public are not using the bathroom facilities and our 25 parks due to the homeless population moving in our parks. Mr. Grigg further indicates there are tents in the Civic Park, Ahlers Park, and Neppel Park, further comments that we cannot touch the homeless. Mr. Perry questions if Parks & Recreation are responsible for weed control on City property. Mr. Grigg responds. Mr. Perry questions about the pathway between Broadway and Blue Heron Park and that he rides that route and there are several noxious weeds. Discussion further held. Mr. Grigg indicates that many of the trails are around private property and we cannot take care of that property, however, can take a look at the trail and see what is on private property versus City property. Mr. Perry questions regarding Surf n Slide Water Park use, attendance, and did it break even? Mr. Grigg indicates that this was the lowest attendance in the history of the facility due to the smoke this year and that it did break even. Mr. Grigg indicates that we had 10 days closure this year and since marketing changed, did not see as many people as a whole. Discussion further held. Mr. Lange questions the cost of the marketing? Mr. Grigg indicates around $115,000 but is not sure if that is the true figure or not. Discussion further held regarding marketing issue. Mr. Perry comments regarding authorized personnel and the 18 permanent employees and comments on how well they do. Mr. Grigg indicates that we have outstanding employees and that they are passionate about what they do. Mr. Perry questions about temps? Mr. Grigg indicates that we hire water park employees and we do hire some temporary maintenance employees as well. Mr. Maynard comments regarding weed control and his concern about weeds growing in the streets. Mr. Grigg indicates that we start winterize the parks in the fall and it takes a long time to do this. Mr. Maynard indicates that the weeds are chest high. Mr. Grigg indicates it is for curb and gutter but not in the streets itself. Anything from the curb back anything beyond that is the streets division, public works. Further discussion held. Mr. Grigg indicates that he will put a bug in streets division about the weeds. Mr. Grigg explains that the budget narrative will be provided to City Council. Directs Board to the last page and the five items listed; resurface tennis courts, pave parking area at Yonezawa Park, replace restroom at Blue Heron Park, addition of one Park Maintenance employee, and two part-time employees at the Museum, and states that these five items are still in play to stay in. Discussion further held. Ms. Rios questions where Parks & Recreation falls in the budget percentage? Mr. Grigg responds that he believes about fourth in line behind fire, police, and public works, but is not quite sure and can look that up. Discussion further held. Discussion held regarding the soccer league and the soccer fields and the issues surrounding problems with the outside teams coming to use the fields. Discussion further held. Plat Reviews/Dedication, or Fee in Lieu of Land - Monthly Update Parkview PURD Major Plat Alternation – Update – Mr. Grigg said this was approved 6-8 years ago and this is regarding the townhouses. Indicates it is past the comment period and this is just informational. Will put $4,000- $5,000 in the fee in lieu fund. Mr. Maynard questions traffic impact when it is occupied. Mr. Grigg indicates that PARKS AND RECREATION ADVISORY BOARD MEETING MINUTES October 10, 2018 he does not know as there was not traffic study done. Just a small alteration. Mr. Perry questions when we receive the money when does that have to be utilized? Mr. Grigg explains what the Fee in Lieu program is for Mr. Perry and Mr. Holterhoff. Discussion held. Mr. Lange questions what will parks get from Sun Terrace? Mr. Grigg indicates will have to go to Community Development to find that out. Director’s Report Budget – Update – completed above Larson Recreation Center – Update – comments regarding the LRC, and directs Board to the general fund, second to last page, and goes over the proposed LRC building and that it should be built in roughly 24 months. Discussion further held. Indicates the building will be a whole new footprint. Indicates that we also just lost the TLC, however, the City will lease the TLC back from the new owner for 24 months. Discussion further held. Mr. Maynard questions what does the charges from the architect include, seems rather high? Mr. Grigg indicates that it is basically construction plans. Discussion held. Mr. Perry indicates that 12,000 sq feet does not seem very large. Mr. Grigg comments. Discussion further held. Mr. Perry questions if the building will be able to be added on to? Mr. Grigg indicates that not too much due to land availability. The building would only be able to go up and that is about it. Mr. Swinger questions if you could take out the BMX Park and use that? Mr. Grigg indicates that have potential for growth if we took something out. Discussion further held. It was $1.8 million to renovate the building but $2.5 million to build a new building and City council decided to build new building. Discussion further held. Ice Rink – Update Maintenance fired up compressor, not seeing any loss Freon and looks like a go. Mr. Grigg indicates that ice skating is right around the corner. Mr. Grigg states that all the materials for the Larson Lighting is on site and that we just retained an electrical engineer and they are working on final diagrams to install the light poles, will put out an RFQ to install the actual lighting and hopefully have the lights done by the end of this year, as well as, the scoreboards. Discussion further held. Scoreboards are to be delivered November 17th. Mr. Maynard questions if scoreboards could be vandalized? Mr. Grigg indicates that they boards are up there pretty high and would take quite a bit to vandalize them. Discussion further held. Commission Questions/Comments Mr. Maynard comments regarding survival rate of the quail is up due to the weeds and have pheasants are back, at least one is back and it is all because of the weeds. Mr. Grigg comments. Ms. Swinger comments regarding Children’s Columbia Basin Allied Arts and can it be advertised in our brochure? Mr. Grigg indicates that we have to be really careful on what we place in the brochure, if you do for one, you have to do for all. Ms. Schwiesow comments. Discussion held. Ms. Swinger questions regarding adopt a trail and if it has been discussed? Mr. Grigg indicated that it is an existing program but it has not been discussed, restrictions have increased over the years. Discussion further held. Mr. Grigg indicates that the discussion can be brought up again. Ms. Swinger indicates that she feels that it would be a good program to implement. Mr. Grigg indicates that the adopt a street program is struggling. Discussion further held. PARKS AND RECREATION ADVISORY BOARD MEETING MINUTES October 10, 2018 Mr. Perry questions that if he lives near a park and he goes near that park to pick up garbage that he has special permission to do that? Mr. Grigg indicates he could, however, a group cannot do that. Discussion further held. Mr. Holterhoff questions cancellation of programs. Mr. Grigg indicates that it does happen, and hate to cancel anything. Mr. Holterhoff questions about the cancellation of the photography class? Ms. Schwiesow indicates that program was cancelled due to lack of participants. Mr. Grigg indicates that Facebook does save the day, explains our program fees and how it is done to the new Board Members. Mr. Maynard questions the approximate cost to run a program? Mr. Grigg indicates that it is all over the board. Ms. Schwiesow indicates that a lot of the time the instructors do not want to do a program for just one or two people and it depends on the class. Mr. Maynard indicates he was looking at getting sponsors. Discussion further held. Mr. Grigg indicates that social media had changed the way that business is done, and we work every angle we can. Adjournment Mr. Maynard moved to adjourn, seconded by Mr. Lange. Meeting adjourned at 8:12 p.m.