Recreation Center Governing Board

CITY OF TALLMADGE RECREATION GOVERNING BOARD Minutes For Meeting Of May 7, 2020 @ 10:00 a.m. Teams Live Meeting Rec Board Members In Attendance: Mayor Kline, Law Director Raber, Finance Director Gilbride, Svs. Dir. Rorar (4 voting members present) School Rep. Tim Mosher, Community Rep. Salerno (not present) (2 voting mbrs. added later) Rec Center Staff In Attendance: Parks/Rec Superintendent Simons, Ass’t. Superintendent Bozic, Adm. Assistant Enos (non-voting) Meeting Chaired By: Mayor Kline Minutes: Karen Morgan Approval of Minutes: Gilbride moved to approve the Governing Board minutes from the January 16th, 2020 meeting; seconded by Raber. Vote to approve: 4/0. Old Business: Past Event Updates: Simons: The only real event that we’ve had since we met in January was the Family Fun Night in February. That event went very well, our attendance was similar to what it has been in years past and it was very well received, so we will be planning to have it again next year. Staff Updates: Simons: We have no staff updates because right now we have no staff working. All of our part-time staff are not working any hours. It’s just Adam, Dan and I keeping the department going right now. New Business: A. Additions to Program Grid: 1) Virtual Craft Classes: Simons: So one of the things that we are trying to do since the facility is closed is adding some things that we can do to keep people engaged. One of the things that we thought we could do pretty easily were virtual craft classes. Our instructor that teaches these says she would be interested in doing it so we would put together ahead of time a bag of the different things you would need to complete the craft. People would register for the class and come and pick up their supplies and then log in live at some point that would be pre-scheduled and that way the instructor could provide feedback and all those other sorts of things during the class. We could propose doing a $5 delivery fee if someone couldn’t pick it up and maybe someone from our department could deliver it for the $5 minimum fee for a Tallmadge household. This price that we have on here is what we already charge for our art classes and it would be basically the same stuff, the supplies, the live instruction so we left the price for that the same. Mayor: Any discussion? 2) Camp In A Box: Simons: This would hopefully serve as sort of a replacement for summer camp now that it has been cancelled. It’s certainly nowhere near what we are able to do at summer camp, but we would put together a different themed box each week and have different craft items in it specific to those crafts that would be done  that week. Things that would not be in it would be things like paint, glue, scissors – things that we would generally think people would have. But we would have -2- different crafts, different activities and other things related to that theme in the box. (School Rep Tim Mosher enters screen saying he was able to watch the meeting online but not able to join in as a participant). Mosher: I’m good on the phone, I can watch what you’re doing and hear you, so we’re good. Mayor: Mark Salerno, if this same thing is happening for you, dial in on the phone number that was provided. Raber: Thanks for that, we’ll try to correct these issues moving forward. Mosher: It is what it is, these are crazy times . . . Mayor: Yes, thanks for joining us! Simons: The different things for “Camp In A Box” could either be live screened as needed or we could do the pre-recorded videos and post them for that specific week and all those different things. So we have a cost associated with that, we kind of figured it to be in the same realm as those one day art classes as well. Potentially we also were going to include just a general craft item box and that would include those different things we would not be including in the weekly boxes like scissors, glue, markers, crayons, paint, paper, and then kind of let people go from there. Putting those things in the boxes would cost us anywhere between $10 and $15 to produce so this is not a money making thing, it is just a way to keep the kids engaged and give them something to do once they don’t have their school work they’re trying to work on anymore. Parents are kind of concerned about what their kids are going to do in the months ahead once their school work is done. We would also offer the $5 delivery or the boxes could be picked up at TRC. Mayor: The maximum of participants would be 40. Simons: Yes, I think that would be a doable number for the boxes. If we get much more than that, it would be difficult to prepare them and get them out or picked up. Rorar: Would it just be you, Dan and Adam putting these boxes together? Simons: Correct. If we brought some of our staff back in, we could increase the number but with all that we’re trying to do right now, I think this would be the best. 3) Virtual Mileage Challenge: Simons: This will be a way to get people out and get them moving. Instead of doing a 5K or a race where people think they have to go out on a certain day and compete, this is more of a “do it at your own pace” kind of a thing where you could bike, you could run, you could walk, whatever you’d like to do. The 3 different distance levels would get 3 different prizes. I kind of tried to keep it in an Ohio theme, using the Freedom Trail, the Summit County Hike and Bike, the Cuyahoga Valley park trail. (Community Rep. Salerno comes into meeting). Simons: So we were going to have a tracking log that people would fill out as they complete the activities and then turn them in at the end and then depending on the mileage that they completed they would receive either a medal or a medal and a short sleeved shirt, or a medal and a long sleeved shirt. We’d charge $20 to $25 for this and maybe get t-shirt sponsors as well. We kept it at that price because regardless whether they get the long sleeved shirt or the medal or whatever they would get, it would cover the cost of that and we’d be kind of “taking people at their word” type of program. Mayor: Any questions? 4) Outdoor Fitness Classes: Simons: In order to keep our members engaged in some physical activity, we were thinking about trying to offer fitness classes outdoors. We talked about using the parking lot at the Rec Center because there already is a group -3- meeting there and doing exercise classes on their own. We think it might be better to do it in a park that is separate from our facility since we’d like to have it led by our instructor through our department and we’re not charging for membership right now, they are all on hold. So the prices that we would charge for this would help recover the cost of having the instructor and the promotion. It would probably include 3 classes: dance classes, yoga, body weight - the kinds of things that do not require equipment. We could do them at Maca and move to under the pavilion if we had to. Raber: Jessica I would like to add that we have already confirmed with the Summit County Health Department that they would be on board with us doing it in the summer as long as we were distanced appropriately. Mayor: Any questions? Do we want to vote on them as a package? Raber: I do not have any suggested amendments, but don’t know if anyone else does. If we don’t, we could just adopt them together. Does anyone else have anything to add to these proposals? Hearing none, I move to approve the 4 new additions to the program grid as discussed; seconded by Rorar. Discussion: Mosher: I have one question. When would we start these programs? Simons: We will start promoting them next week and then begin them in 2 weeks or so depending on how many people we get signed up. I’m just wondering, all the discussions and regulations I’ve heard and seen from the state seems to suggest that all recreational programming both indoor and outdoor and in public parks are shut down. If you’ve talked to the Summit County Health Department and they’re on board, I think it would be fine. I just know for us at the school, everything is shut down through June 30th and those orders are from the Department of Health. It’s a little different from the state’s orders which runs through the end of May. Just didn’t want to see anyone get in any hot water over the fact that we jumped the gun a little too soon. Simons: It’s my understanding that the parks are still open so people can continue to walk in the parks, walk through the neighborhoods, and thought these programs would still be within the rules as long as they maintain social distancing. Mosher: I’m just saying that everyone will be chomping at the bit to get outdoors and people will be saying why is this allowed and that not? Raber: Parks for group athletics will remain closed but these are a little bit different from that and we are making sure that we are complying with orders as appropriate. It’s nuance, and it can be challenging for sure. Mosher: Yes, it makes sense. Mayor: But you do bring up a good point, should we put the exercise classes at the Rec Center instead of the parks because that might seem to some to be organized physical activities in the parks . . . Simons: another of the reasons we wanted to move away from the Rec Center was the lack of shade in the parking lot area as well as what could we do in inclement weather when the pavilion would offer protection. Gilbride: Keeping the programs in a park rather than at the Rec Center lot, where it can be seen at a major intersection might run the risk that people might just stop by and figure it’s free, they just need to keep 6 ft. away and they can join in.  Bozic: I know one concern why we did that was just limiting the amount of staff we are going to have here at the Rec Center to me, Jessica and Dan, who would be going out there to verify for the kids. Rorar: That would be you, Jessica and Dan until -4- we’re allowed to open. Would we then move those outdoor fitness classes onto the soccer field or basketball court when we’re allowed to reopen? Bozik: I know that in our original game plan for reopening the Center we were not going to offer fitness classes within our facility. What we were told yesterday was that we needed to have female staffing members in the Rec Center which meant Dan, Jessica and myself would have to be out on the floor in those different areas which would give us 4 or 5 staff members with 3 of them ourselves. If we’re inside, who’s going to be handling the registrations . . . Raber: the reality is that this is all subject to change based on all the orders that come out. It’s a changing, evolving situation so we’re going to have to continue to reassess depending on what the orders say when they come out. I don’t think there is going to be one status determination that needs to be made right now. I think the role of this Board is to approve the program as it’s proposed and then the logistics may be subject to change depending on the circumstances. Simons: I would agree with that. Vote to approve: 6/0. B. Other New Virtual Programs (Free) 1) City-wide Clue: Simons: These are just to keep you posted on some of the other things we are trying to do to keep people engaged during this time. One of the things we’ve talked about is doing a kind of scavenger hunt. I am finishing up an outline of the plans for this but it would basically be clues hidden in different parks so people would walk around in the parks trying to find the clues – like the mystery of who killed Dr. Covid? And what weapon they used and then also where that took place. I think it would be a fun thing, I know the easter egg hunt is something people really like, it’s something they can do outdoors with their families. 2) Simple Craft Tutorials and Virtual Fitness Classes: Simons: We’ve been doing the simple craft tutorials for a couple of weeks – what it has been is me and my daughter doing a simple craft and posting a video facebook. My daughter really enjoys it so I think we’ll continue to do those for awhile. And the Virtual Fitness Classes, we hope to be able to post some things on You Tube or facebook at some point. I think Adam can speak to this but we are having some difficulty getting some of our instructors on board to do that but once we get some instructors on board to come in and film these classes, then we would be filming some classes to put up on You Tube as well. Other: Mayor: Are we going to talk about trying to do “Touch A Truck” online as well? Simons: Yes. We’re trying to find the best way to do it. Do we want to have our staff take the cameras to our facilities and having our people go through the trucks and tell us about them so we’re looking at some different solutions for this program – there’s also some free information through the Red Cross about swim lessons, or staying safe near the water that we’re looking to offer online as well since we won’t be able to offer those programs this year. One of the other things we’re looking at – and I want Adam to give us an update on it – it’s “e-sports”. And we’re looking into providing some e-sports programming. There’s a lot that goes into that and Adam has been doing some investigative work, looking at different things that people are doing so he has an update on that to share with us today. Bozic: Basically what e-sports is we would register through our system’s registration software and then we would require them to utilize a third party apt that the Rec Center would approve. Some of them might also have a registration -5- software within that apt and that’s kind of the route they prefer because 1) they’re taking in all the money and distributing it out to the Parks and Rec at the appropriate time so the way it would work is you go to this apt, it shows you who you are playing, the time you are playing, where you are playing and you would both log in after the game and record the score. I’m trying to find a system that’s not so expensive or one that would require us to give them our registration software because I’m not wanting to have to worry about another registration comp player that we don’t know and don’t have any control over. It’s like the other sports games, Madden, NBA, NLB – it’s those kind of games and they are not well player games or anything like that. 7) Monthly Reports a) TRC Membership Report – Simons: I’ve received the November 5th reports, it is a little odd that we’ve not charged any member for dues since we closed on March 16th. We did extend everybody’s membership for 30 days at that point so we do have some people whose memberships are still active and we have some that have expired already or that haven’t expired yet because we renewed them there. Because we’re not charging for any TRC memberships, or anything like that and then we are refunding all of the Maca memberships or transferring them to next year if we can. b) TRC Financial Report – Gilbride: I sent an email out this morning so Rec Center profits like Jessica stated, it is what it is – like the membership report. So far, we’ve been closed a month and a half and I have closed a reduction of revenue of just over $200,000 and clearly based on the cancellation of the camps, and all summer activities, we’re not going to recover a large portion of that. All of that revenue is probably gone and nonrecoverable. Expenses are not down quite as much – in April we were still paying a lot of March’s expenses, we didn’t take an opportunity to do maintenance with the facility closed. But we are required to do some every month … So that’s where we’re at, I expect next month to see expenses drop more significantly because of a whole month of the part-timers not working. c) TRC Donation Request Report – Enos: We did issue a lot more donations than we show on here, but a lot of those events were cancelled for obvious reasons. So, since the last time we met, the donations that were picked up were for the Victim’s Assistance Program for the mardi gras gala, the Habitat for Humanity for their In-Style fundraiser. So we did issue both of those a gift certificate for TRC that will be good for 2 years. 8. Adjournment. The meeting was adjourned at 10:31 a.m. Minutes electronically provided to Adm. Ass’t. Dan Enos on September 30, 2020/km