Parks and Recreation Advisory Board (Formerly Parks, Rec and Senior Services)

City of Royal Oak Recreation Department 1600 North Campbell Road Royal Oak, MI 48067 248-246-.3180 Minutes Parks, Recreation and Senior Services Advisory Board Thursday January 3, 2019 at 7:00p.m. Mahany/Meininger Senior/Community Center 3500 Marais Avenue Royal Oak, MI 48067 Introductions of new board members: Sarah Kindinger, Crystal Chow and Nicole, McEachern Meeting called to Order 7:04pm. Members Present: Crystal Chow, Tim Ciechorski, Maya Harris, Paul Kanan, Sarah Kindinger, Commissioner Melanie Macey, Nicole McEachern, Jeffrey Plachta Also Present: John Fedele, Superintendent of Recreation. Greg Rassel, Director of Rec. & Public Service Members Absent: None I. Approval of Minutes: Tim makes a correction under public comment to correct last name to “Wagman” Motion by Tim Ciechorski, second by Commissioner Macey, unanimously approved II. City Commission Comments: Commissioner Macey reiterates that she wants this advisory board to come up with items for commission. The budget process is coming up in April and while Greg and John are working on it now, she would love to have the board and its members talk more about the needs of Parks and Recreation and would like to include Paige in on the needs of the Senior Center as well. Commissioner Macey mentions that tax revenue from the Robertson Brothers property is supposed to go to the maintenance of Normandy Oaks and other parks and notices residents already moving into that property. - Paul Kanan makes a suggestion and recommends talking to Melanie in support for Parks and Recreation needs.  III. Public Comment: - Janice Wagman: Nothing is being done with senior services, the center has Wi-Fi, we talked about a senior center newsletter going out to residents for free. Mentions the lack of communication throughout the city and holds up an item. Item presented is a “file of life” card. States that not many people know about it as well as other items offered by the City. Recommends going to commission to bring back the Senior Task Force.  Paul Kanan mentions the e-blast from the city’s website, the monthly newsletter that goes out from the Senior Center that residents can receive via e-mail. End Public Comment IV. Elections: Greg states that since Mike Ripinski who was previous chairperson of the committee and has since stepped down and Jill Robinson was the vice chair and has recently stepped down there needs to be an election to elect a chairperson, vice chair and secretary. - Nicole McEachern asks the term length - Greg mentions that the term is a year  Jeff Plachta makes a motion for Tim Ciechorski for chairperson, second by Paul Kanan; unanimously approved.  Jeff Plachta makes a motion for Paul Kanan for vice chair, 2nd by Nicole McEachern o Tim makes a motion for Sarah Kindinger for vice chair, Paul Kanan seconds it; Sarah Kindinger is unanimously approved for vice chair - Commissioner Macey makes a motion for Paul Kanan for secretary, second by Sarah Kindinger; unanimously approved. - V. Business: a. Royal Oak Golf Center Awarded Business Beautification Winner: Greg introduces Glenn Pulice, General Manager of the Royal Oak Golf Center - Glenn states that they did some renovations starting in 2016 and finished in 2017. They had 79 golf tees, 10 of them were covered and heated. The renovations included an automatic ball feeding system and increased the golf tees from 79 to 89 with 20 covered and heated. - Glenn mentions that mini golf is different than the past, they added new carpeting and waterfall mechanics as well as made the course more “mom and dad” friendly. Believes they earned the reward from these two improvements b. Royal Oak Golf Center Rate Increase Approval-Presentation: Greg states the city gets a stipend based on gross revenue of mini golf and driving range. - Glenn makes a presentation for a small price in crease on its golf basket prices. They offer 4 sizes (small, medium, large and Jumbo)  Asking for a $ .50 increase on all buckets and $ .50 increase on all adult mini golf rate excluding an increase on the senior rate and child rate for mini golf. - Sarah Kindinger clarifies that it is only an increase on adults from $8 to $8.50 - Glenn mentions that Carl’s Golf Land does not have a jumbo bucket so this falls in line with the comparative analysis  Paul Kanan asks if Top Golf is any competition  Glenn states that if Top Golf were to move next door to them it would help out the golf community. Top Golf is target golf, it is more about entertaining than anything else.  Paul Kanan asks if there would be a comparison with Top Golf?  Glenn says no, it is a completely different business.  Sarah Kindinger ask how much it would increase the revenue  Glenn mentions that he hasn’t crunched out the numbers.  Sarah asks if there was a request for price increase in previous years?  Glenn states that there was a request to increase pricing last year but for the renovations to be completed but have not asked for a increase in previous years.  Tim Ciechorski ask is there was an increase in users from last year to this year?  Glenn states that it is all about user experience and with the upgrades he has seen an increase in users. - Tim Ciechorski asks for a motion to approve price increase; Paul Kanan motions, second by Jeff Plachta; unanimously approved. c. 2019 Neighborhood CDBG Eligible Grant Projects and Parks: Greg introduces Joseph Murphy. - Joseph explains for the upcoming year 2019-2020 the city is eligible for federal CDBG money and presents a list of three parks that are eligible for upgrades using federal funding. - Joseph explains that he is here to get feedback from the initial four parks that were upgraded this year as well and would like a recommendation on moving forward with other park improvement projects. - Sarah Kindinger asks if there was a way to monitor usage of the current four parks that have been upgraded? - Commissioner Macey mentions that Grant Park is used a decent amount regarding the weather and without the soccer season going on. States that the only negative complaint she received was the cutting down of the tree at Cody which had already been planned on being cut down. Mentions that other residents ask if they can be used or installed at other parks. - Commissioner Macey is also concerned with how well the artificial turf will hold up as a “fall zone” for the play equipment but realizes replacing the mulch fall zone in the parks is hard to do so is excited to see how it plays out. Asks if the Recreation Department has received any feedback from the turf fall zone? - Greg states that there has not been any feedback yet but anticipate some feedback in the coming spring/summer months. - Nicole McEachern mentions that with the artificial turf there are less pesticides since the chemicals don’t “stick” as easy. - Joseph talks about the potential projects to be worked on at Fernwood Park to include replacing fall zone on existing playground equipment, resurfacing and fixing basketball court, replace swing set and perhaps a small outdoor fitness equipment. - Commissioner Macey asks if we can use this money to plant more trees? - Joseph says there is other money set aside from this program for trees. In the second year of the program we planted over 300 street trees and probably over 500 trees over the past 2 years. - Sarah asks if we have explored other equipment like art? - Joseph mentions that we can’t spend CDBG money on equipment that is uncommon from other areas. Can only use money on “Common features” - Joseph explains the three parks for review are Fernwood, Miller Park and Worden Park and asks the board to rank them in order of priority. Worden park has a license agreement on it for a medical office building and expansion of parking lot but requesting a recommendation from the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board to have the City Commissioners terminate the agreement since nothing has been done in the 9 years since the license agreement has been made. - Sarah Kindinger motions to recommend land use at Worden Park for Parks and Recreation use, Paul Kanan seconds motion; unanimously approved - Paul Kanan makes a motion to rank the following parks in order by priority as: 1. Fernwood 2. Miller 3. Worden Sarah Kindinger seconds motion; unanimously approved.  d. Update on Downtown Park: Greg states that the results of the community engagement were presented to the commission and the report is online if to view if anyone missed the presentation. - The bid to select the designer should go out in January and will probably need to find a replacement for Mark Ryan on the downtown park task force. - Commissioner Macey mentions to the board to e-mail Tim Ciechorski if anyone is interested. e. Update on Normandy Oaks: Greg states that a detailed RFB will be going out in January and hopefully a bid award in February. - Tim Ciechorski asks if there is a still a task force for this park? - Greg mentions that there is still a task force but doesn’t need to meet at t his point. f. Pass of Tim Campbell “Tim’s Kitchen” at the Senior Center: Greg mentions to the board that the chef of Tim’s Kitchen has recently passed away due to health issues and the lunch program at the Senior Center has been suspended until the position is filled. The senior center has posted a part time job opening as well as reached out to the schools to provide a lunch program. VI. Items not on the Agenda: a. Wi-Fi is now available at the senior center b. Cooling condenser is in progress waiting on the ground to freeze over more so the crew can use the baseball fields for install c. New Ice Arena Manager Scott McNeil, takes over previous Manager Amaan Archer d. Worden baseball field lights are in progress and should be installed soon e. John will provide master plan to members as well as a parks map. - Tim Ciechorski makes a suggestion to have name tags made for the board members and also provide an extra table at next meeting. VII. Upcoming Events N/A Next Meeting: Thursday, February 7, 2019 at 7:00 p.m. Motion by Paul Kanan, seconded by Commissioner Macey to adjourn at 8:50 p.m. Motion passed unanimously. Respectfully Submitted, Approved, John Fedele Paul Kanan John Fedele, Superintendent of Recreation Paul Kanan, Secretary