4. Parks and Recreation Advisory Board (PARAB)

PARAB Board Meeting Wednesday January 11, 2023 ─ Attendees Patti Dukes/ Bridget Perry / Ryan Ford/ Josh Rudy/ Linda Sheppard Katy Keller, Parks Planner Agenda New Business 1. Introduction – Determination of Quorum 2. Approval of November 2022 Meeting Minutes 3. Roll Call 4. Public Input 5. Discussion: a. Directors Update i. Budget FY23-24 ii. Department Updates 6. Vision Session: What’s Next for PARAB? a. Prioritize Goals for 2023 7. Questions & Comments 8. Adjournment a. Next Meeting: February 8, 2023  2 Notes ● Call to order: 6:10pm ● Josh motioned for approval of November 2022 minutes; Linda seconded. Approved minutes Budget Updates: Katy reported that: ● Pittsboro Town Commissioners approved in their January meeting that 52 acres allocated by Chatham Park Development off Pittsboro Moncure Road will be added to the agreed acreage for Town parks. Katy will work with staff to get public input, but noted that it was not in the budget for 2023 to have work begin on this parcel. ● The pocket park land allocated to Town by Chatham Park was also approved by Town Commissioners, and at this date will not be developed. ● The shelter and Knobby Knoll site will be prepared by Chatham Park and $50k is allocated for this site. Department Updates: ● Katy shared they hired a Recreation Coordinator and start date is February 2023. A Park Superintendent also has been hired and starts in February 2023. The Pittsboro Town Planning office will be relocating February 2nd and 3rd to 2FL of Main Street Station on East Street. PARAB Meetings will shift location to the Main Street Station office beginning February 2023. ● Katy advised she has been superintendent of parks and doing trash pickup; Patti suggested PARAB provide Katy with community contacts she can reach out to for volunteer trash maintenance assistance. ● Katy confirmed receiving Patti’s report that the Mary Holmes Park EV charger was vandalized. The Town filed a police report and has been in touch with ChargePoint for making the repairs. She shared feedback that ChargePoint has been slow to respond and was not sure on a date for the repair. Patti offered to reach out to ChargePoint as a user and member of ChargePoint to request a repair status.  3 Park Updates: ● Kiwanis Park: Katy shared that the park opening went great. Ms. Johnson, donor of funds used to purchase the upgrade materials, was present and happy with the foam pad replacement. ● Barrs Recreation held a Trivia contest on their Facebook page in December, and Katy won the prize of a new Barrs Recreation playset! She indicated the equipment will be added to the Kiwanis Park, and a timeline for installation is to be determined. ● Freeman Park: Katy was given a $55k quote from Surface to modify their original design of the park. Katy has advised the company that amount was excessive and advised them she will be putting the redesign out to bid. Katy will look at the original agreement to confirm if any procedure was agreed upon for any redesign. Josh asked if the trash cans were going to be installed. Katy indicated she would place the order for benches and trash can, and was waiting for Surface so they could be selected to match the design. With no confirmed design, she will move forward. Ryan offered his sister’s expertise with redesign, as she is a landscape architect in Winston-Salem. Vision Session: ● All board members present were given 5 sticky notes and ranked their selections of the top PARAB Goals from the November 2022 meeting. ● The topics were prioritized and in February PARAB will develop a strategy to complete them ● Goals ranked as: ○ #1: Town Lake Flower Seed/Park at Town property on Midway St./Community sponsored gardening ○ #2: Make actions; see results in 3 year term ○ #3: Future Parks ○ #4: Community involvement ● PARAB agreed to set April 22, 2023 on Earth Day as a goal for initiating a community planting event. Seed sources were discussed, and Debbie Roos was suggested as a starting point. ● Other community-centric dates suggested for Park events were: ○ National Take a Walk in the Park Day: March 30, 2023 ○ National Hop-a-Park Day: 1st Saturday in June ○ The Great American Campout: 4th Saturday in June ● Katy indicated she has more of the Park color brochures to distribute, but some parks are missing and the piece needs to be updated. Patti asked to use pictures showing diversity in the revised piece. Meeting adjourned: 7:16pm, Linda motioned to adjourn, Josh second