Board of Park Commissioners

BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING AGENDA City Hall, 11th Floor Park Conference Room 4S5 N. Main Wichita, KS 67202 July 11, 2016 3:00 pm Present: Hoyt Hillman, Troy Palmer, Ron Allen, Chris Clark, Tori Deatherage (arrived 3:12) Absent: Chris Highfill, Cindy Claycomb Also present: Troy Houtman (Director of Park and Recreation), Penny Garding (Clerk), Elizabeth Harlenske (Assistant City Attorney), Larry Hoetmer, Matt Townsend, Troy Hendricks, Greg Olmer, Brianna Caldwell, Stacey Hamm (Staff), Lonnie Wright (Citizen) Hillman called the meeting to order at approximately 3:06 pm. Item 1: Approval of Minutes Motion by Palmer, second by Clark, IT WAS UNANIMOUSLY VOTED to approve, sign and file the minutes of the June 13, 2016 Board of Park Commissioners Regular Meeting. PUBLIC AGENDA Lonnie Wright, 1721 S Lulu. Mr. Wright is concerned about the tax lid and the impact on the Boards. He is concerned that the Board may have to become a budget cutting board. He is concerned that Park and Transit will be getting less money than they have had. He asked for an opinion from Houtman. Houtman responded that fortunately we have a good Council and strong community that support Park & Recreation. We are working hard to be the best and as we do that we have made changes and improvements. Hopefully that will continue and the public will stand behind us. Your opinions and thoughts should also be shared with the folks in Council. Ultimately the budget is signed off and approved by Council. They move things around and prioritize items throughout the City. Wright inquired if the State stopped that. This year we are looking at $900,000 that we will be over. So the Council could decide to do that. We are going to have to have public votes every year. Regardless of how much they support Park, when it comes to voting to spend more, it seems like it will be at risk. Hillman provided an opportunity for Wright. We have an upcoming election. If you can get the right people elected, we could remove the artificial cap put on by the legislature. Wright stated that is an insufficient answer. I've got to look to see what has happened and the public mind. Even though I have hopes. Looks to me like you are going to be into cutting the services you are offering now. Thank you. Hillman thanked Mr. Wright for his comments. REGULAR AGENDA Hillman stated the President has arrived and turned the meeting over to her. Item 2A: Update on Accreditation - Matt Townsend Houtman gave an update on the accreditation visit. There are 151 criteria. We can't miss more than 15 standards overall. We missed two mandatory standards that need to be fixed in by October. We missed BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS MEETING July 11, 2016 Page 1 of3 five others that we have 4 years to address. Townsend stated the visit went well and the visitors were impressed with the City of Wichita and our programming, parks and various amenities we offer. We did miss two fundamental standards, one related to the PROS plan, which is going before City Council for vote tomorrow morning. If that is approved then we can check the standard off as complete for the visitors and the CAPRA Commission. The second one is our Recreational Programming Plan. He and Olmer have been revising and will have those corrections and suggestions incorporated and ready for review by the end of this month. In October, Olmer, Houtman and he will be traveling to the national conference to sit in on the vote. Clark asked if the Board needed to provide assistance in correcting. Houtman said the support is very helpful but the corrections need to come from internal. Houtman added the Mayor's visit with the team was a learning experience for him. The team also found out how supportive the Mayor is of our Park and Recreation Department. The time you spent with the team really showed a keen interest and your support was very helpful as well. There are 147 accredited agencies across the country. There is probably about 9,000 communities that operate park and recreation department or agencies. If we do get our accreditation, that is something that will help us to continue to gain exposure and resources. Item 2B: Update on Pracht Wetlands - Larry Hoetmer Hoetmer stated there were three finalists from interviews of contractors. LK Architecture, Confluence Design Group, and RDG Planning & Design. The decision has been made to go with RDG. Pracht Wetlands is already getting national recognition. We should be go to Council in 2-3 weeks. The project has been ongoing for the last couple years. We have our 404 permit and be our springboard. Houtman added we need to get public input and engagement from the community and asked how the Park Board can assist with that. Hoetmer responded RDG has already made the commented they would like to do a 2-3 day working charrette. Hillman added there is a group of master naturalists locally to draw upon for assistance. Hoetmer responded they have already initiated communication with the Westar Green Team. Clark asked where RDG is based. Hoetmer responded Des Moines, but we work primarily with the Omaha office. Houtman stated they will be subcontracting with several local firms as well. Hoetmer stated the biggest factors is the need to be careful how we implement restoration efforts for the wetlands and one of the subcontractors is very good at that. Item ZC: PROS Plan Update - Troy Houtman Houtman is taking the PROS plan to Council tomorrow. There is a question on Aquatics Master Plan that is encompassed inside the PROS plan. We made a presentation to Council at workshop about two months ago and got a cold reception to closing five pools. We were directed to do some additional research on the impact of closing all pools and have no aquatics. What if we closed all but College Hill. He spend some time with the YMCA. They feel like they can absorb all of our swim lessons and pool activity. Would they be willing take over operation of any of our pools? Their response was why would we take something that is losing money? The idea for us is if we consolidate ten into five, make improvements and add splash pads. They have some interest but not strong. Still going to take it to Council in the next month or two and provide them with this feedback. The plan we brought to you a couple months ago with five pools and splash pads is still a strong option. What we did in the PROS plan to get past this was put in a caveat that the Aquatics Plan needs to be addressed and approved by Council. Item 4A. Recreation Update {Greg Olmerl Olmer introduced their new intern Brianna Caldwell. She will be attending WSU this fall, getting her Master's Degree in Exercise Science. For June we had a lot of park events. Barry's Mobile Recreation station is in the field usually on Thursday evenings. June 9 was our first one, at Osage Park with about 75 in attendance. We have had three events so far, Fairmount Park was next with about 35 in attendance, and then this Thursday we will be at Harrison Park. On Saturdays, we are at Naftzger Park, trying reactivated that park with additional programming. Some of the event that have been held there BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS MEETING Juty 11, 2016 Page 2 of 3 are End of School Bash, magician, Touch a Truck, Cars in the Park. Other upcoming events are Yoga in the Park this Saturday, Naftzger Park with a carnival theme and National Night Out. Item 4B: Golf Update (Troy Hendricks) Hendricks presented the Rounds Report for June. Rounds are down 1%, revenue is up 1%, Net Income down 36%. June took big hit because of all the rain. Revenue is down $142k. Rounds are down at Tex Consolver 2%, LW Clapp 11% and MacDonald 7%, Auburn Hills is up 7% and Sim is up 3%. July is already starting off with record rainfall. We have four months in a row exceeding average rain fall. Good weekend this past weekend due to no rain. Golf Committee meeting last week. It was one of the more active in a long time. Houtman added there was a lot of discussion about future of our golf courses. Across the whole department, not looking at just next year but looking 5-10 years down the road. These numbers are unsustainable. There is concern if we stay at this level we cannot reinvest back into the golf courses. The Golf Advisory Committee wants to meet with the Park Board to discuss these issues. They have serious concerns to bring to the Park Board attention. Hillman asked about equipment still at Clapp, it gives the impression there is still under construction. Hendricks replied the work was completed prior to the end of June. Item 4E: OJ Watson Park Committee Update {Hoyt Hillman) Hillman had no updates. Houtman added that we did an RFP for the Haunted Island. That has been awarded and we will keep you updated. We will start looking at how we will spend next year's CIP monies. Palmer inquired about how the train is doing. Houtman responded it is doing well. Hillman asked about island clean up. Houtman responded he has not heard anything yet. Item 4F: Aquatics Committee Update {Tori Deatherage) Deatherage stated the Buffalo splash pad ribbon cutting went well. Item 4H: Director {Troy Houtman) Houtman closed out by stating the accreditation is going well. He will celebrate with staff at the end of August. They work very hard and in the heat and he really appreciates them. Rec staff have good ideas for the fall and winter time. Our camps have been doing well this summer. ting was adjourned at approximately 3:50 p.m. BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS MEETING July 11, 2016 Page 3 of 3