Parks and Recreation Commission

PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES MEETING DATE: August 24, 2022 LOCATION: Recreation Complex CALLED TO ORDER: 7:01 p.m. MEETING ADJOURNED: 7:52 p.m. NEXT MEETING: September 21, 2022, 7pm ROLL CALL NAME PRESENT ABSENT David Addison, School Board Liaison X Josh Bowlin X Andrew Clapper X Tracy Downing X Ben Eckler-Chair X Mike Johnson X DR Kate Krieger Dan Meehan Lindsey Michaud Karen Alexander, Council Liaison Scott Davis, Staff Liaison APPROVAL OF MINUTES X X X X X Eckler moved to approve the minutes. Johnson seconded. Minutes were approved by voice vote with no dissent, abstention. VISITOR COMMENTS None OLD BUSINESS None NEW BUSINESS F Davis: David Addison sent an email to discuss the terms of employment for lifeguards as they’re contract employees and not city employees. He’s surprised they have to pay for their own training and gear and then only paid $11/hr. Does this have a bearing on them leaving and the pool closing earlier? Michaud: is he aware that most are college kids and leave because they’re going back to school Johnson: their pay doesn’t change based on pool, right? Davis: no. and that’s they’re starting pay and typically you don’t have to buy whistles and suits. Michaud: and it’s a one-time thing, right? Training? Meehan: I worked there a long time ago and worked for the same company and didn’t have to pay for any of that. How long have we used Midwest Pool? Since: since 1994. Usually a 5-year contract, but this one is a 3-year contract, which should end at the life of our current pool. Eckler: what’s the downside of hiring in house? Davis: I can’t find the people and we don’t have the dedicated staff to cover it. We do pay more ($13 and change, which is going up to $14). $230k to Midwest which allows them to cover everything. Michaud: I just don’t see this making a difference. They’re going to have to go back to school. Meehan: it would be interested to see what $230k goes for per hour we’re open. Davis: $50k management fee is subtracted from that total. The 230 is our maximum account paid, but it could be less based on rain days. The make a few dollars off the top is my understanding. Michaud: do we have any lifeguards around at the end of the season? Can we open certain pools like Kirkwood? Davis: we didn’t bid it like that. If we planned to, they would staff it. Michaud: would it be worth it? To keep folks from complaining? Davis: Financially, no. We looked at the numbers and it doesn’t work. If you look at other pools, you’ll see similar things happening – closing early, less staff. Johnson: the city website says that the pool is still open the normal hours and days, which confused my son Davis: we missed that; it shouldn’t be there. I apologize for that. DR Johnson: besides the weeks we were planned to be closed anywhere, did low staffing close pools? Davis: Not really. The last 2 years we’ve had better staffing than any of the other pools around town. I know Shrewsbury is struggling this year – staffing and maintenance. We’re lucky to have a good swim team and those kids feed into working at the pool. And because we work with a company, they can cover staff loss if all our usual staff want to go on vacation. Eckler: I did the math and it’s not too bad. Johnson: I may feel high schoolers deserve more pay, but that’s not my job on this commission. Meehan: how did we end up overall? Davis: last year we made 101% recovery. The pool along made 100% recovery last summer. Meehan: if we’re not losing money, then maybe we look at it and ask the company what staffing longer would look like? If we’re making money and not losing. Eckler: or figure out a way to pay for their training. Davis: I’m personally not in favor of looking for ways to spend more money with the cuts to the budget by the city Meehan: I agree with that. Is the cost of the training standard across the city? Johnson: would we sponsor them to pay for their training? Davis: the problem is that the company can pull our guards and send them to O’Fallon Johnson: is there anything in our contract that prohibits us from opening the pool for adults w/o guards? Davis: that’s a liability. We even have a lifeguard on duty to watch the swim team. I AM in favor of adult swim time, though. F I can look into the contract again, but this is THE company that’s contracting to folks. Eckler: any updates on the new pool? Davis: still waiting to hear back from others who are helping with the master planning process. We’ve hired our vendor for the planning process, and we’ll soon get our surveys out to the community and what they’d like to see. Then we need to pass a bond issue to fund it. Design/process next year. Bond issue for ~5 million. Eckler: some swim clubs want to make offers for indoor pools Davis: they are welcome to make offers. It would have to be A LOT. Indoor pools are loss leaders. The utilities eat you up: electricity Meehan: Webster U is pretty crowded, and it would be great to have another option Davis: I’m not opposed to it, but it would greatly add to the operating expenses. $386k operating costs as it is. Eckler: $150k is pool and utilizes? Davis: that’s not even utilizes – that’s in another budget. Pools are expensive. They’re fun, but they’re expensive. Johnson: we have a good crowd Davis: we do, and we’re one of the few who break even. Most others operate at 85-90%. I hope we’re able to build a bigger, nicer pool and keep folks coming. Michaud: I’ll say that the bathrooms were better this summer. COUNCIL REPORTS-presented by Karen Alexander No news. STAFF REPORTS-presented by Scott Davis PARKS & RECREATION New brochures are here! They’re live on the website. We’re not mailing out again – available online and at city hall and here. We do mail upon request. Ice opens next week we are building up the ice right now. We’ll be done with that on Sunday night and open DR on Monday through middle July next year. Currently installing new flooring ($250k in flooring) and it looks great. It’s a lot of area. I attended the kickoff meeting for the next phase of the Deer Creek Greenway and new park (big bend & oxford) today. They’ve contracted a design team to design it, construction on park to start in 2024 and greenway in 2025. The new park we don’t know what we’ll be doing with it yet, but we’ll come to the community and the council. The idea is that Great Rivers Greenway will renovate it and the city may help to fund it and then they’ll give it to the city, who will take over operation. Same as with the Marshall pocket park. We hope the park will be low maintenance, but I’m excited to see what it will become. It’s a focal point when entering Webster, so I hope it’ll be something that welcomes people. We had $250k budgeted towards this but it has yet to be actually funded by city council. Michaud: did you show us designs at one point? Davis: there are a few ideas out there that I shared, but they were just ideas. Like a clock plan that takes the idea of Philly Naval Park Meehan: is this like an acre? Davis: it’s maybe 3 acres? McDonalds gifted it to GRG and they’re working to make things more cohesive with the rest of the community. Michaud: concerns with speeding in the area Davis: we’ll have barriers or fencing to keep things safe Johnson: will this go up Oxford? Davis: Yup F We have been receiving a fairly high rate of complaints about ROW mowing services: as part of the new fiscal services, we no longer have a company mowing right of ways, islands, etc. Parks division is now mowing all of that. Both of our primary mowers have broken down and been in the shop, then we got rain to everything is growing, and then we lost an employee who moved to another section. We’re sorry and we’re working on it. I actually got the backpack blower on and helped the other day. Our second mower is out of the shop this week and we’ll get things back in shape soon. Johnson: do we have mobile turf that we’re maintaining? We could use native planting that need less maintenance Davis: that’s where we’re moving. We’re pitching that and coming up with ideas (buffalo grass, sedges, wood chips, etc.). All of this is on the table. We just started this on July 1, but it’s the goal for next growing season. BUT we also need to talk to residents who live nearby. Johnson: I assume something like Blackburn would entail a replanning to add native plantings Davis: we’re looking into that now actually, making small changes in areas of the park Johnson: I like the buffalo grass idea Davis: me too, but I don’t have a lot of experience with it. I do know Forest Park has it in front of their visitor center. If irrigated, it’ll grow to 8” and if not 4-6”. The problem is that it doesn’t hold up to foot traffic. Michaud: what about ivy? Davis: yup, we’re looking at that. Ivy, milkweed, etc. My park staff and horticulture staff is looking into options Meehan: is there a priority in what gets mowed first? Davis: Parks first, and then the areas that need it most and, unfortunately, the squeaky wheels. Our goal is to hit every location within 21 days but try to not mow your lawn for 21 days and see what happens. Meehan: parks first is good, as a lot of soccer games will be happening in parks soon and we want people to see them looking good. Johnson: we putting the nets out soon? Davis: we don’t do that. We put up the posts and the CYC adds the nets. Volunteers at Deer Creek Park right now. We will publish another list of action items soon. There is also a possibility of GreenSpace and Sustainability commissions getting together to work on larger volunteer DR programs. I think it might be a good idea to get a committee member from this group involved in that too. If anyone is interested, shoot me an email and let me know. We’re debating brining in house versus where we usually source it – our volunteers usually run through the Greenskeepers. Make a Difference Day is also coming up soon. At the front desk we’ve got bags and gloves to give away and we’re focusing on Deer Creek post-flooding. Into the woods and cleaning it up. Johnson: did you get the picture from the beach? That would be a permanent display, maybe near the playground? Davis: I question whether this stuff will walk away? I mean, are they sponsored by a hardware store? Buckets are buckets, but those picker uppers are $!5/pop. Johnson: (recap of the photo) wooden display on beach with buckets and grabbers, sifters, etc. in case folks want to clean a piece of beach. Meehan: looks like a good Eagle Scout project Johnson: and maybe a hardware store donates to get it started Michaud: and you could put up a camera Davis: Last time we did that we got a lot of moonlight if you know what I mean. But yes, a good eagle scout project. SET NEXT MEETING F The next regular meeting scheduled for 7 pm. Wednesday, September 28th. Michaud second ADJOURNED Eckler moved to adjourn, Johnson seconded. Approved by voice vote with no dissent, abstention. Meeting adjourned at 7: 52 p.m. DR F