Board of Park Commissioners

BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS RETREAT MINUTES Auburn Hills Golf Course 443 S 135th St W Wichita, KS 67235 November 7, 2015 8:30am Present: Tori Deatherage, Chris Highfill, Cindy Claycomb, Patti Vizzini, Troy Palmer, Hoyt Hillman, Ron Allen Also Present: Troy Houtman (Director of Park and Recreation), Michelle Haun (Clerk), Greg Olmer, Matt Townsend, Stacey Hamm, David McGuire, Troy Hendricks (Staff) Deatherage called the meeting to order at approximately 8:40am Item 1: Chisholm Trail (Hillman) Hillman stated that the Chisholm Trail 150th Anniversary will be in 2017. Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas are heavily involved with the national park service. There will be a regional meeting on Monday to solidify the dates for celebrations planned in 2017. Wichita is planning various monthly events. Asking Wichita Parks to help place.the Jesse Chisholm trading post monument, enhance the Chisholm Trail marker alongside the bull and assist with approvals for cemetery tours. There is a list of improvements needed for the Keeper of the Plains and other improvements, for 2017, that the City and park department can provide. Houtman stated that the park department has already written a letter to support creating the Chisholm Trail into a national trail. Claycomb asked if we got a national park, would we get a huge sign saying that we have a national park. Houtman stated yes, that if this passes we would have a national park, which would be huge for tourism in Wichita. Claycomb recommended thatthe board select one item from the list to support, such as the national park. Hillman stated that the process has already been started. Designation should be made by spring. The park department can help with planning. Park maintenance will be needed. There will be more specific projects needing the board's approval at a later time. Vizzini asked if any schools have been approached to assist. Hillman stated they have not, but he would bring this idea to the committee and would welcome involving Vizzini in this. He also stated that a Knight Foundation request has been submitted, and also application for a grant, to develop the original Chisholm Trail pathway as a bike trail. BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS MEETING November 7, 2015 Page 1 of7 Item 2: PROS Plan (Houtman) Houtman asked staff to introduce themselves. Matt Townsend is the new management analyst. Greg Olmer is the new recreation superintendent. Stacey Hamm marketing and development. David McGuire division manager of park maintenance and forestry. Troy Hendricks golf division manager. Houtman stated that Monday will be an interesting board meeting with the topic of the confederate flag being replaced with the Kansas flag and the plaque. Ultimately the decision is the mayor's and City Manager's. Their decision will be based on the board's recommendation. The second item·will be the reconciliation monument. The veteran's association will be present, along with Mark McCormick from the Kansas African American Museum. If the board is comfortable, we can make a motion on Monday. Claycomb asked for clarification on what is being proposed regarding the plaque. Houtman explained that we are proposing putting a plaque describing the Kansas flag and its history at the base of the flag. Claycomb asked what happened to the confederate battle flag. Houtman stated that it has already been returned to the Sons of Confederate Soldiers, who donated it. Vizzini asked where the monument is going. Houtman described the area. Allen asked if there will be a vote on Monday. Houtman responded yes, if there is a motion and a second. He stated that the motion will be just for replacing the confederate battle flag with the Kansas flag, since the confederate battle flag has already been removed. We will be limiting speakers to two minutes. Regarding the PROS plan, he stated that one of last year's goals was to update the PROS plan. We have been working on the aquatics master plan, the golf 2015 business plan, the OJ Watson plan and reclassification of the recreation division. With all of this going on, we only started working on the PROS update this pa_st month. We are basically looking to remove the old information and ad.d new information. We are planning on a line by line review in January and February. He asked the board if there is anything they want to see in the master plan, to let him know. Item 3: River Ordinance Olmer stated that the presentation is ready for Monday. Still needing determination on whether or not to allow radio controlled boats, or limiting them to certain locations. Houtman stated that in the past year we have been reviewing river ordinances since many of the BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS MEETING November 7, 2015 Page·z of 7 ordinances were not being enforced. Mark Lowry has been working with police and fire to establish enforcement guidelines. Basically, we will make the river non-motorized only, with special exceptions and permissions. Claycomb asked if they present on Monday, if the board can have time for consideration. Houtman replied yes. Olmer stated that Elizabeth Goltry said that we will not be ready for a vote on Monday. Houtman stated that we can wait and take it to council in January. Item 4: Aquatics Master Plan Deatherage provided explanations of the handouts that were distributed. Olmer stated that the survey results are very mixed. Most of the results favored leaving things as they are, replacing the pool at Edgemoor and adding an indoor facility. The target date is in 2022. Most of the pools are dated and needing repairs and.updates. Option A.involves repairing the neighborhood pools and closing the low attendance pools to improve the others. McAdams is questionable. Linwood and Minisa would close. Allen stated that with the League 42 growth, there may be more interest in keeping the pool at McAdams. Houtman stated that the neighborhood is not helping the attendance there. Hillman stated that there is not currently a pool in district three. Closing Linwood would make it even further for district three residents to get to a City pool. Olmer stated that Option B is building a large, indoor competition pool that would take full $18 million to build. We would need to determine the best location. Paying for staffing could be a challenge. This option would keep the other pools as they are. Claycomb asked how we would convince patrons to attend this pool rather than go to the YMCA. Houtman responded that there would be competitive swimming that would draw from out of town and also high school swim teams. Most of the high schools have no seating for swim meets. Our price point would be better than the YMCA. Palmer stated that it makes more sense to spread $18 million out to improve our existing pools. Claycomb stated that it would need to be a draw and not just a place to shuffle current citizens around. Houtman stated that a natatorium like this could be a huge draw since Wichita is centrally located. It would have a ripple effect that would improve the other pools. Claycomb stated that she needs more data in order to support spending $18million on one facility. Deatherage stated that the focus on this would be more sports oriented. She asked what the goal of BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS MEETING November 7, 2015 Page 3 of 7 aquatics is in Wichita. Should this be more business oriented, or should it be more focused on kids and families. Allen stated that to be consistent with supporting healthy living for families and kids, he would be supportive. Palmer stated that those not going to the Y are participating in activities that are free, biking, jogging, etc. Claycomb stated that we wouldn't be able to get patrons from the Y to our indoor pool. Olmer stated that we could compare data to the pool at Quest. Hamm stated that Topeka also has a natatorium. Highfill stated that the data on the survey shows low interest in competitive swimming. Olmer stated that option C would add multiple splash pads, which are low overhead. Public Works would take over the water cost. Option Dis an all-encompassing option with a small indoor pool option for $800k. This option would also include replacing Edgemoor pool. Deatherage stated that there are a lot of problems with Edgemoor. Possibly looking at moving it to a new location near 13th and Rock. This option would give us a year round option and still leave us extra funds. Vizzini stated that the go big option may benefit the City and other businesses as well. Deatherage stated it would be a business investment, but it still comes down to what our goal is. Palmer stated that our responsibility is to the public. He does not think that the business option is the way to go. What will bring in more of our public? He is in support of a big facility, but he wants to know if the park department should be the one to do it. Deatherage pointed out that the survey shows 62% are interested in summer facilities and only 38% were interested in a state of the art year round facility. Hillman pointed out that 81% are willing to pay more for improved current facilities. Claycomb stated that she is interested in focusing on the health and wellness of the community but is also interested in economic development. She still wants more data before she is hfavor of the large facility. Hillman stated that cost recovery would help us. Houtman stated that council memb_ers agree that the pools need to stop operating in the red. Wichita is lacking in aquatics training programs. We could provide that. Seating is the biggest challenge and expense of building a natatorium. We need to ask for consultants to determine the regional impact. Vizzini stated that we could get extra funding for naming rights. BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS MEETING November 7, 2015 Page4 of 7 Claycomb stated that added marketing and promotion would make a huge difference for the pools, just like it did for golf. Olmer stated that he would collect more data. Vizzini thinks it would be more cost effective to start big rather than build small and add on later. Houtman stated that he would like to give council an idea of which direction the park board is favoring. Claycomb stated that she is interested in the natatorium and looking at neighborhood pools, or replacing them with splash pads. Hillman stated that he agrees with Claycomb but need room to expand. Highfill stated he supports option D with room to expand. Deatherage asked if option D with a second option, would be supported by the board. Basically, doing what we can with our budget on smaller scale, but if we get more funding "this is what we could do." Allen stated that he is in favor of regional draw, but not at the expense of activities for local youth. Palmer stated that he does not think council will go for the regional draw without local improvements as well. Vizzini stated that she favors the large indoor facility and thi.nks we need to collect more data. Houtman stated that the City Manager wants a plan to take to council by spring time. He stated that we could lobby for an increased aquatics budget. We won't spend the money before 2020. Item 5: Director's Year End Overview Houtman stated that we have $55million to spend for the next ten years in CIP funds. Council has been very supportive. We were able to double our forestry budget mainly due to franchise fees we received from Westar. We will be upgrading the old armory to make offices for staff. Working projects include League 42 field and Cadillac Lake wetlands. In talking with peers across the country, we are doing well. Continue to work on getting exposure for our department through events like Slide the City. Claycomb stated that she appreciates all that Houtman has done this past year. Houtman responded that it is all about developing relationships. We have recently taken over the contract for Lawrence Dumont stadium, it was under Public Works. We will spend $700k in upgrades. This will not be from our budget. Golf is looking up. He stated that Hendricks uses statistics well and tries new things. Footgolf and the new golf app have been successful. Hendricks stated that October was fantastic. Rounds were up 1400 over last October. This has also been the best October in the last five years. Cash is 39% better than last year. All courses are up for the month. Auburn Hills is still down 2% year-to-date, mostly due to the rain we had over the summer. Mr. Ferris sent a letter to Council Member Clendenin on behalf of the golf committee regarding the condition of the bridges at LW Clapp caused by erosion. He is asking that Stormwater pay for the BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS MEETING November 7, 2015 Page 5 of7 repairs. Houtman stated that the City Manager feels thaHhe bridge is a golf course asset and therefore golf should pay for it. Hendricks stated that there will be additional problems with the drainage if Quik Trip builds at Harry and Oliver. Public works will be reviewing the flow rates. He stated that golf division will be attending the planning commission meeting to oppose the Quik Trip. Houtman stated that we are still going through the accreditation process. Visitation will be June 27- 29th. We will have a meeting for them and would like the park board to be there on the 27th to welcome them at 8am. There are 140 municipalities, out of 5000, that are accredited. We will also be hosting the KRPA conference in 2017. Item 6: Review of 2015 Goals Houtman stated that we will start focusing on the PROS plan after the holidays. We have not done a state of the parks report yet. We will continue to work cin building relationships and engaging citizen and advocacy groups. We will incorporate the Goody Clancy park elements into the PROS plan when we work on it in January and February. Enlisting staff in using the cost recovery pyramid has not been a focus. We have been sustaining and supporting the park board sub-committees. Due to Pattie's time constraints she cannot be present at all of the golf meetings. He asked if anyone else would be able to take on that responsibility. Palmer stated that he would be able to do it. Motion by Claycomb, second by Vizzini, IT WAS UNANIMOUSLY VOTED to that Troy Palmer be the representative from the park board on the golf sub-committee. (7-0) Houtman stated that item three on the goals was intended to involve the park board more with budget and CIP issues. He stated that that did not happen very much this year, but will involve them more in the coming year. We will need the park board to connect with their respective council members. The parks foundation has been having a hard time keeping board.members. He asked the board members to help enlist new membership for the foundation board. He stated that the parks foundation has the potential to be so much more. Claycomb asked what type of people would be good for this. Houtman stated that the foundation is putting together a job description. Hamm stated that someone with a passion or interest in.park and recreation. Someone with good connections in the community to help with fundraising. Also, someone willing to oversee various committees. Vizzini recommended Wayne Chambers. Claycomb suggested the young leader's organization. Hamm stated that she would send the job description to the park board members. She stated that the foundation is looking at.rewriting the by-laws once new members·have been recruited. The foundation BOARD OF PARK COMMlSSIONERS MEETING November 7, 2015 Page6of7 has joined the National Park and Recreation Association for Foundations. The association is assisting with writing the job description. Houtman stated that the last item on the 2015 goals was river bank revitalization advocacy. He stated that this is not something that has been worked on this year, but that we will incorporate some of these ideas into the PROS plan. Item 7: 2016 Goals Houtman asked what the board would like to see. Claycomb pointed out that in the past the goals have been the goals of the board. She asked if going forward if the park board should set their own goals, or should they be the goals of the park department. Houtman stated that he expects the board to support him on the department's goals, but he wants to see what the board's goals are as well. Hillman stated that he would like to see improvements to areas along the river. He stated that there will be a lot of property open there in the near future for developing restaurants, etc. Houtman stated that this would be a good idea, but we need developers to express an interest as well. Claycomb stated that we currently do not have any restaurants on the river. Hillman asked what department would handle development. Houtman responded planning. Regarding 2016 goals, he asked the board to email him items, He stated that Christmas with Santa is coming up. Hillman stated that the board can support a tree for $75 per tree.and it will say Board of Park Commissioners on it. The event is December 3•• at Century II. Item 8: Adjourn There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at approximately 11:46am. Tori Deatherage, President Michelle Haun, Clerk BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS MEETING November 7, 2015 Page7of7