Youth and Rec

YOUTH AND RECREATION Tuesday, May 19, 2026 – 8:00 p.m. Council Chambers – Olean Municipal Building Present: Members: Chairman Forney, Vice Chairman McCall, Alderman Robinson, and Alderman Anastasia. Others: Alderman Bennion; Alderman Keary; Mayor Amy Sherburne; James Sprague, Director of Public Works, and Tiffany Taylor, Managerial Confidential Administrative Secretary. 1. Roll Call Alderman Forney called the meeting to order at 8:00 p.m. and asked that the record show that all committee members were present except Alderman Crawford, who was excused. 2. Approval of Minutes of the Previous Committee Meeting (Tuesday, May 5, 2026) A motion to approve the minutes of the May 5, 2026 committee meeting was made by Alderman Forney, seconded by Alderman Anastasia. Voice vote, ayes all. Motion carried. 3. Unfinished Business a. War Vets Pool Alderman Forney explained there was some communication from Clark Patterson Lee via email. Mayor Sherburne explained we have not received quotes yet. And explained they are still working on them. She explained we hopefully will have the assessment and quote for the wall by the next meeting, as well as a price for a cover that was not in the original quote. Alderman Bennion asked about reducing the footprint to a zero entry point. Director Sprague explained that was discussed, but the initial reaction was it would cost as much, if not more, as it would more or less involve starting over completely. He explained they are going to gather information from fellow professionals and then go from there. Alderman Robinson explained the pool is not going anywhere and we have the funding so we should move forward. He explained we made Marcus Park to be inclusive, and now we need to consider that for the pool with the zero entry aspect as well. He explained the splash pad is more accommodating to people with disabilities but it would be a benefit if the pool was as well. He explained this is a question we should ask and something we should look into. Alderman Keary added that there may be additional grant funding available if we were to make the pool more accessible. Mayor Sherburne explained if we change the plan to that extent, we will need to go back out to bid and would need to pay engineering costs again. Director Sprague explained that is correct, and although it is not a 100% redesign it is a substantial portion. Ms. Taylor noted we would also want to ensure that changing the scope would not affect the funding from the NYSWIMS grant, and Alderman Bennion explained we should see if other grants are available. Alderman Forney asked about the current design and ADA compliance and Director Sprague explained he believes the current design has a lift for ADA compliance, but zero entry would be more accommodating. b. Portable Toilets / Opening Bathrooms in Parks Alderman Forney explained this is partially about portable toilets and how many we need, and the second part is about opening bathrooms in parks. She explained it came up in conversation at a previous meeting about not opening Lincoln Park, and the Council passed a resolution that park bathrooms are to be open from May to Octobe4r from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. She explained she wants to put that out there that this is a law the Council passed that needs to be followed. Alderman Robinson explained he does not know the exact number, but he was hoping to get portable toilets going based on numbers from the prior year. He explained it is almost June now and we need to get this done. Alderman Bennion explained when it was discussed at Forness, historically softball paid for their own in addition to having a key to the restrooms. He explained a soccer league also provided a portable toilet for their players that the City did not pay for. He explained to get an RFP we need to know how many toilets are going in what parks and for how long. He explained in the past he provided for King Street and Boardman Park, but never Gargoyle because there are restrooms there. He explained if one is placed at Gargoyle, it will be quickly destroyed, and explained they do not even leave them overnight at Gargoyle anymore. Mayor Sherburne explained we have had extensive discussions about park bathroom openings and portable toilets. She explained the reason Lincoln Park was not being opened during the week is because it is being abused and not just a little, a lot. She explained people lock themselves in there and they are not used for the purpose that we have them. She explained they are then not in good shape when we need them for the farmers’ market and other events when people rent the pavilion. She explained there was a meeting with the farmers’ market and they were not happy with the way the bathrooms were, but we cannot clean them every hour. She explained it is also impossible to watch them constantly. She explained Lincoln Park does not have a playground and if someone needs to use the bathroom they can come to the City Building across the street. She explained she has discussed this with the Police Chief and this is the decision that they came up with. She explained criminal behavior is happening and the locks have been destroyed. She explained Oak Hill and Marcus Parks will still be open, even though yesterday it took two employees hours to clean graffiti from the one at Oak Hill Park. She explained we want to keep them open but we need to make the park more secure if this continues. She explained we have a plan in place, and although we are not there yet she is hoping by mid-summer we will have things in place so we can monitor bathrooms better. She explained she doesn’t think taxpayers want these to be abused but that is what is happening. Mayor Sherburne explained there have been discussions about portable toilets and where they are going. She explained the reason we would put one at War Vets Park is so it is there if someone rents the pavilion; otherwise we need to pay an employee to sit at the recreation center with the restroom open when it is otherwise not. She explained at Forness they discussed having one at one end of the park both for softball and also the pond. She explained there was one for Gargoyle for Frisbee golf, but beyond that it is up to the council. She explained we do have a limited budget. She explained she knows there was an issue with the toilet at Boardman Park in the past, and if the budget allows for more we can discuss. She suggested placing on the website a list of parks with restroom access. Alderman Forney explained an argument for every bathroom can happen, and it is the City’s job to manage it and take care of it. Alderman McCall explained one was previously placed at Franchot Park and King Street Park. Mayor Sherburne explained you can place one at every park, but there is a cost associated with it. Alderman Bennion explained Lincoln Park does not have a playground, but King Street Park has a playground so to leave that off the list means that if faulty logic. He explained there is damage to the restrooms, but City taxpayers have paid for those restrooms. He explained damage occurs to the portable toilets as well. Mayor Sherburne explained personally, she feels it is always going to be a problem, and it all depends how much we want to expose the City to until the security of the parks is better. She explained we do not have a lot of employees for the parks, and we have to ask if we want to open up every bathroom to have this issue. She asked if they are an attractive nuisance, or an actual asset to the park. Alderman Forney explained we are trying to create a welcoming community and this PL was passed because of our residents and community. She asked why we would have all of these beautiful parks and not open the bathrooms. Alderman Robinson explained this conversation has gone on too long. He explained there is an Ordinance that we have to follow and we can’t pick and follow which ones we will do. He explained the Council creates these written policies and laws. He explained the original reason this was passed was because there was an event in a park and a wheelchair-bound constituent found a restroom was locked. He explained he knows there are issues with people doing the wrong things, but to him it is crazy that we do not look to another City to see what they are doing to fix the issue and then move on. He explained we cannot let a few bad eggs regulate what we do for our taxpayers. Mayor Sherburne explained we want to make it known that if people will be abusing the restrooms that there will be consequences, but we also do not want to keep opening the door for issues. We need to divert the issues. She explained when meeting with the farmers’ market board, they are paying rent and having issues with the restrooms because of the abuse of them. She explained people are locking themselves in them and committing criminal acts, and we need to have supervision of it until we have more security there. She explained with the amount of police calls to the parks we should have addressed this before to make things more secure. She explained people don’t want to go to Lincoln Park because of what has been happening. She explained this is an attempt to control the behavior of people who don’t seem to understand that the bathroom is there for use, not abuse. She explained she does not want to face almost every morning problems with our bathrooms. Alderman McCall explained before we did this, we looked to Batavia and Jamestown who had all kinds of creative solutions. She explained Jamestown pays someone minimum wage to lock things up. She explained we need to get back on the project of security cameras in the parks. She explained there were extensive conversations with Batavia and Jamestown about how to manage things. Mayor Sherburne asked the Council what they want, and Alderman Forney responded they want the bathrooms in the parks open, and that does not need to be decided on. She explained portable toilets need to go where they are needed. Alderman McCall explained one needs to go at War Vets if we do not want to open that facility, and we need to have a larger discussion about spaces that we have and making that usable. Mayor Sherburne explained she has talked about this endlessly with everyone who works in the department to try to come up with a solution, so the Council needs to tell her want parks to put portable toilets in. Alderman Bennion explained they should go in every City park where there is no toilets. Mayor Sherburne explained there were issues at Forness with the toilet the league rented as others were using it, not just the teams. So we were going to put in a portable toilet to attempt to give people a restroom on the other side of the park. She explained if we do not want one there we will leave the restrooms open and let them know there will not be an additional restroom. She explained restrooms can be put at King Street, Boardman, and Polo parks. Alderman Forney explained one should go at War Vets if the facility will not be open. Mayor Sherburne explained as long as the building is open for use the restrooms are open, but if the building is not then there is an issue having to have an employee come it to sit at the recreation center while the restrooms are open. Alderman Anastasia asked if all of the bathrooms will be open starting tomorrow, and Mayor Sherburne explained they have all been open except Lincoln Park. c. Oak Hill Park Landscaping Alderman McCall explained it has been an ongoing saga trying to get this done. She explained we have dollars left from the Oak Hill Park project to dedicate to this, and the only thing holding us up is having a plan in place. She explained at this point in time we should do something that is simple and easy to maintain. She explained if we can come up with a plan it can probably be a community project to get done if it needs to be. She explained she would be happy to encourage this and spearhead the project. Alderman Robinson explained he previously recommended hardscaping which, although has a larger cost up front, is easier and costs less to maintain. Director Sprague explained he has had some discussions with the Mayor regarding this, and they feel hardscaping would be appropriate, but with some vegetation. He explained there was a conversation around some sort of retaining wall or steps to deal with the grade and make it easier to maintain for the parks staff. He explained we are finishing up Marcus Park and through that project we have a relationship now with a landscape architect that we can have take a look and then determine what a possible scope would be. He explained we can go about this in a couple of different ways. He explained he has also involved some of the parks staff in the conversation, but has not gotten much feedback from them yet. Alderman Forney asked if we can follow up on this in a month with a plan and potential costs. Alderman Robinson explained we should be able to get this completed this year. d. Franchot Park Alderman Forney explained we were working on some things, but then winter happened. She explained she would like an update on what the next steps are and where we are at. Director Sprague explained we have not made any progress on continuing to install aspects of the Franchot Park plan. He explained he has discussed with the crew tackling the walking path to make corrections to that, but right now that crew is patching streets. He explained he did get an email about new parks signage so the parks crew is working on some of those items. Mayor Sherburne explained she has been to the park several times and has found that we need new roofs on the pavilions. She explained she is thinking of getting a quote or referral for that as it is too large for us to do in-house. She explained metal roofs are not good on pavilions. She explained there is a large issue with drainage on the walking path and to do it right we really should have a small bridge in the area that it goes very low. She explained if there are millings we want to get dibs on we may be able to fix the entry road to make it more presentable. She explained she would also like to move towards a carry in, carry out policy in the parks because there are a lot of issues with garbage that are a whole different discussion. She explained studies show that the more garbage cans you give people, the worse the littler. She explained she has a plan that she really hopes will be helpful with garbage issues moving forward. Alderman Forney explained $50,000 was originally allocated for the Fourth Street entrance. She explained it was discussed in the fall doing some small things that could be done immediately with those funds. Such as improving the basketball court and looking at lighting over the court, including retrofitting some of the lights removed from North Union Street. She explained these are little things we can do now with the existing funding that we do not need to go out to bid for. Alderman Bennion asked if we can just use our own millings from CHIPS, and Director Sprague explained if we are going to commit to that work, then he will ensure we keep more of our millings than we have in past years. Alderman Robinson explained numerous times the Council has asked for furniture and equipment for the park and if we can utilize the funding this year, it would be great. Alderman Forney explained she would hate to go another summer without getting things done. She explained she understands there are bigger issues than the scope she is requesting, but there are simple things that could be done that the community would appreciate. Alderman Forney explained she will send the list of requests to Mayor Sherburne. Mayor Sherburne explained she will look into the shade sails and furniture for the park. She asked that the Council give her an opportunity to see what was originally asked for so we can move forward and see what we can fit into the $50,000. 4. New Referrals for Consideration a. PL #47-26: (Crawford) To designate the admission fee for the Splash Park to be $5 for two hours. Alderman Robinson explained the fee is $5 in Tonawanda, which has different demographics and income. He explained the Cattaraugus and Allegany County area is low income based, and this feels too steep. He explained he would rather have the fee be lower to attract more people. Alderman McCall explained she feels we can partner with some agencies on scholarships and approach social services to purchase passes. She explained we also need to consider fees if the school wants to rent the splash park. She explained she feels $5 is okay but she does think we need to have a family plan. She explained since the park is not opening yet, we should wait to decide this. She recommended a small committee with herself, Alderman Forney, and Mr. Shewairy to come up with fees and bring it back to the Council. A motion to postpone PL #47-26 to the next Youth and Recreation committee meeting was made by Alderman Forney, seconded by Alderman Keary. Voice vote, ayes all. Motion carried. b. PL #49-26: (Sherburne) To authorize the Mayor to execute the Intermunicipal Agreement for the Allegheny River Valley Trail between the City of Olean, Town of Olean, and Town of Allegany. Mayor Sherburne explained this was proposed by Chris McPherson and it makes sense. She explained we do need to maintain our part of the trail, and they maintain theirs. She explained our City Attorney has approved the language. Alderman Robinson explained he is all for any agreement we come up with but if we are not going to follow them, it is a moot point. He explained there are points in the trail where the roots are pushing up on the blacktop, and he thinks we need to do our part. Alderman Bennion explained the way it reads, the Trail Advisory Committee determines when maintenance is needed. Alderman Keary asked if representation on the committee is based on distance of the trail in the municipality. Alderman Robinson explained when the Council asked about doing things on the trail in the past the prior administration said it was not our responsibility or we don’t partake in that, and liability questions have popped up. Alderman Keary explained this shows Allegany as the designated administrator. Alderman Robinson explained if the board identifies issues they will tell us we need to take care of that, and he would not be opposed to that as it might force us to fix things we would otherwise ignore. Mayor Sherburne explained the financial obligation is discussed in this as well. She explained she does not feel we need to have an equal say on the committee. She explained this is an agreement put into writing to share the enjoyment of the trail and to outline an agreement between municipalities to expand the trail and connect with other parts of the state. Alderman Keary explained he agrees with this in principal, but he does not like the way it is written. Alderman Robinson explained the City Attorney looked at this but did not identify any language issues. A motion to refer PL #49-26 to the City Attorney to clarify language questions about the agreement was made by Alderman Forney, seconded by Alderman McCall. Voice vote, ayes all. Motion carried. c. Marcus Park Pavilion Fees Director Sprague explained we have a new pavilion at Marcus Park and we are requesting to charge $85 for the pavilion which is the same fee for other parks. 5. Committee Reports A motion to approve committee reports was made by Alderman Forney, seconded by Alderman McCall. Voice vote, ayes all. Motion carried. 6. Adjournment A motion to adjourn was made by Alderman Forney, seconded by Alderman McCall. Voice vote, ayes all. Motion carried. Meeting adjourned at approximately 9:15 p.m.