Parks and Recreation Commission

PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES MEETING DATE: May 26, 2021 LOCATION: Rec Complex & Public Access via Virtual Zoom Meeting CALLED TO ORDER: 7:06 p.m. MEETING ADJOURNED: 7:52 p.m. NEXT MEETING: June 23, 2021 ROLL CALL NAME PRESENT ABSENT David Addison, School Board Liaison X Josh Bowlin X Tracey Downing X Ben Eckler-Chair X DR Dana Gilgrist X Tammy Hoyt X Kate Krieger X Lindsey Michaud X Peg Pedersen X Sarah Richardson, Council Liaison X Scott Davis, Staff Liaison X APPROVAL OF MINUTES Eckler moved to approve the minutes. Hoyt seconded. Minutes were approved by voice vote with no dissent, abstention. Downing moved to change the absences from last month to not count as they were due to technological issues. Davis explained excused absences. Approved as not counting as absences. Hoyt motion to approve. Pendersen seconded. All approved, no dissent. No visitor comments. STAFF REPORTS-presented by Scott Davis PARKS Blackburn Park Trail is nearing completion. Keeping it in-house (public works) saving P&R lots of money. We are short one full-time parks maintenance position right now. We will be conducting interview to back fill that position in the coming weeks. Council has been working on the budget process with staff over the last several weeks. The first public hearing on the budget is scheduled for next Tuesday. Luckily there have not been any major cutbacks needed of parks and recreation, other than Council has lowered the placeholder amount of the new park that we discussed at our last meeting. Big ticket parks items: Davis shared some designs for the new park, place holding some $$ for park – bringing down from 250k to 50k. Not even sure if we’ll get to construction next year. Council has also asked the timeline of renovation enhancements at Ivory Crockett Park be moved forward (built up within one year instead of five years) to try to accomplish the renovations in the next fiscal year. We’ll be looking for community input on structures the neighborhood would like to see. Commission discussed public input process, what will be done/redone in the park, the involvement or lack thereof of the Crockett family, the possibility of a dedication day with the Crocketts present. Commission discusses the Parks Improvement Fund which was approved in 1998. The revenue brings in ~800-900k per year. It’s probably overfunded right now, we probably need to use some of the balance. We’ve DR budgeted it out for 5 years in our capital improvement fund. The operating budget is completely different! This is only for parks. RECREATION Recreation is also short one person in Rec – Asst Rec Director, apps due in last week and we’ll be interviewing next week and hope to get it filled ASAP. Not a ton of apps as it’s a pretty niche position with lots of night and weekend hours, which makes it hard to fill. The commission also discussed gossip circulating about the job and how it’s organized and whether or not that makes it more difficult to fill. Those persons fully vaccinated are no longer required to wear a mask or social distance at Parks and Recreation facilities. Those individuals that are not fully vaccinated must wear a mask at all times. This has allowed us to return all the fitness center equipment into service, and allow more users to the fitness center, ice rink, meeting rooms, pavilions, and the aquatic center. The Aquatic Center is set to open this weekend. Recreation wide we’re seeing.a lot more folks and new memberships. Also losing members because of the loss of the masked mandate. Overall, a net positive for Parks. P&R is refunding memberships for folks who want to leave because of discomfort regarding masks. Day camps start next week. We have over a 1000 registrations for the summer so far. Masking is required of day camp participants, guardians, and staff at certain times and instances. Mask are required during drop off and pick up, before and after care, while traveling to field trips, while indoors, or while at any facility that requires mask. Mask are not required while outdoors, in their own age cohort, or while eating and drinking. Only internal camps are using the pool currently. We hope to open it to the public, but we don’t want to overfill the pool and not have room for our members. Commission discussed staffing for pool (outsourced, we have 30 but would like 40), and pool concessions (opening both, struggling to find staff). Community Days discussion. Fireworks Sunday and parade Saturday. Lions submitted permit to use Eden Seminary. We’re using Gateway for fireworks – same company that does the fireworks for the Cardinals. Pool renovation: Davis says it’s still in our budget and that the city manager met with bond consultant to get started. Public input master plan beginning next week during pool season so we can get info while users are here. COUNCIL REPORTS-presented by Sarah Richardson We’re deep in the budget process, Tuesday is the first hearing for the year’s budget. Still a lot needs to be done, but we’re in a good place so it’ll be ok. Starting to get an idea for what the Douglass Hill development project will look like. The city’s process will start in the summer and go thorough fall with decisions made by the end of the year. Planning commission would like additional input. Those meetings are the 1st Monday of the month and every 2 weeks afterward. It’s on the city calendar. You can subscribe to the city calendar and all meeting will appear on your calendar. A good way to keep up with what’s happening, and it also links to the meeting notes. Pederson asked about the high number of resignations Sarah: Yes, we hired a new city manager, a very central figure in our city. Our old manager hired 95% of the staff so we expected turnover. It’s not surprising when a new manager comes in with different philosophy and outlook and office culture. I’m not alarmed by the resignations aside for the fact that she came into a position DR during budget season with certain employees in positions that need to be filled. Time will tell, but I have a lot of faith in our new leadership. Admin assistant leaving was the previous manager’s assistant, so not shocking. Pederson: did the city pay for the new manager to move here and to bring her staff from Arizona? Sarah: she’s in charge of all hiring except the clerk and judge who report to Council. It’s really her call. She hired someone she has worked with previously in Arizona. Pederson: Does the city pay for the moving? Sarah: I’m not sure, I’m guessing it’s part of their employment contract. I think we built that in I believe. Excited for people to meet her and get to know her and her ides. She did a Facebook live on the city’s Facebook page. Might be linked on city’s website as well. OLD BUSINESS Secret Shopper reports Secret shopper: Ben: Larsen: looked great, almost saw a kid fall down the hole by the slide. Have you considered a bar to prevent falls like at Blackburn? Davis: normally we don’t modify playscapes because then we have to deal with lawsuits? Hoyt: we could paint it red? Sarah: Blackburn: graffiti at the entrance to the bird sanctuary on the sign Davis: greenspace commission is working on that. Also some graffiti at Blackburn after the second bridge by the ballfield. We’re getting so much graffiti around here. We can’t keep up with the graffiti at skate park. We repaint the bathroom weekly and they ripped down the video camera. We caught one individual and they had to pay $600 restitution Pederson: should we put an article in the Webster Times? Davis: we’ve written an article and we’ll see if it goes in Krieger did not secret shop. Downing asked how to secret shop. Michaud: I went to Rou park which is taken care of by a gardening club and it’s lovely. Southwest: the bathrooms are great, when is the water feature turning on? David: bane of our existence, it’s a German-made product and we can’t find anyone to fix it, but it should be. Southwest: Michaud: I looked for the mushy spot per Pederson, but I didn’t see anything un-walkable. It looked good now, but it wasn’t a rainy day. Pederson: it’s messy on a rainy day. They did add new foliage which helped Michaud: the sinks didn’t work exactly right, but this happens Davis :also European! We won’t replace them with the same thing when they hit their life expectancy Lockwood: Could we take out one of the pumpkin swing and add a big kid swing? Davis: no, they have to be the same Could we add another bay? Since it’s 2-5 it’d be nice to have a bigger swing option. Barnacle Park: It’d be great if that park had water because of the tennis courts. Because of all the exercise options, it’d be helpful to have water accessible. DR Davis: it would be a lot of money, north of $20k to add it and $30/month in water. It’s not likely to happen soon, but I’ve added it to my notes. Pederson: request for a trashcan in Blackburn when entering the park from Park. A lot of folks walk by with their dogs. Davis: two more things 1. Some of you are new here and you get free access to everything. Go to front desk and they’ll help you out. 2. We have a program called the splash pass, for $50, 20 participating pool, 2 visits per pool – 40 visits for $50. Available to general public. Only 300 tickets city wide and all profits runs to state association for educational stuff NEW BUSINESS None SET NEXT MEETING The next regular meeting scheduled for 7 pm. Wednesday, June 23, 2021. Bowlin moved to approve, Michaud seconded. Approved by voice vote with no dissent, abstention. ADJOURNED Pederson moved to approve, Downing seconded. Approved by voice vote with no dissent, abstention. Meeting adjourned at 7:52 p.m.