Board of Park Commissioners

Board of Park Commissioners Regular Meeting Minutes Monday, July 10, 2017 3:00- 5:00 P.M. 455 N Main O IT Y OF City Hall, 11th Floor Park & Recreation Conference Room WICHITA Wichita, Kansas 67202 Members Present: Cindy Claycomb, Hoyt Hillman, Bill Ramsey; Tori Deatherage Absent: Troy Palmer, Ron Allen, Eddie Fahnestock City Staff: Troy Houtman (Director, Park & Recreation), Elizabeth Harlenske (Assistant City Attorney), Penny Garding (Clerk), Greg Olmer, Troy Hendricks, Larry Hoetmer, Mark Elder Item Descril!tion call to Order Cindy Claycomb, President, called the meeting to order at approximately 3:01 p.m. Public Comments Patrick Vo, 10606 E Lockmoor St. There is a need for a soccer field at W.B. Harrison Park. We are part of a group of 70-80 people who play soccer at least four times a week at the park. The group consists of many different ethnic backgrounds and has a diverse group of players. More than 80% of the group live.within a five mile radius. Oftentimes we take our kids to play on the playground while we play soccer. Currently play is on.a rugby club field when it is available. For the past month we have been unable play due to w.eed a.nd seed activities. The rugby field is much .bigger than the soccer field and right now there are no soccer goals. We need a soccer field at Harrison park and have identified an area within park that could be used. Looking at the lower right corner of the handout (SE corner), the rectangular border in red is the rugby field. The area identified as potential for soccer field.is the one to the right of the rugby field. The problem currently faced is there·are trees as shown on the second page. We could use this area if the marked trees were removed. Additionally on the bottom of that page is an area of uneven ground. We would need help leveling that area. The area is30x50 yards. On the last page is a picture taken from Todd Street on the east end of the field showing the trees in the way. Since we cannot use the rugby field rightnow we are playing in this area. The trees are in the way. We are requesting assistance from the board to allow removal of.the five (5) trees, level the area and installation of soccer goals. Tu Nguyen, 1115 E Tipperary St. We have been using the rugby field for about seven (7) years, The rugby players do not appreciate us being on their field. They play 2-3 days and we play four days. The field is badly damaged right now, there are potholes everywhere. We have looked for fields in a five mile radius. There 80 public soccer fields and 80% of those players live within a five mile radius.. This is the only park we can bring our families to. There are amenities for families. We. have been playing there four times a week and have had zero (0) incidents with police or anyone. It is a safe park, which is why we are requesting the board to set up the field so we can use it. Hillman inquired aboutthe difference between an official regulation size. field and the red square they are asking for? Vo responded this will be a little smaller. The regulation field width is 50-100 yards in width and the length is 100-130 yards. This will be smaller, but we do not have other options. BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING / July 10, 2017 Page 1 of 6  Houtman stated before we get into details, the currenfrugby field users pay a fee and do a lot of the maintenance themselves. The second smaller box on the presentation is the proposed location for our new dog park. Hoetmer and Olmer are helping to find another location for a soccer field. In addition to the rugby field and the new dog park, we are also adding in a basketball court. We do want to help you find another park location that might meetyour needs. Claycomb asked when the construction would start. Houtman responded we are working on the plans and they are doing the fundraising. We hope to have the dog park there next year. Claycomb stated construction then would start sometime this year. Houtman responded probably after Christmas. Claycomb stated to Nguyen and Vo they should continue to work with Houtman on finding a different location. Houtman added until the.dog park is in place, they are more than welcome to do what they can to accommodate their needs. 1 Approve Minutes Recommended Action: Approve, sign and file minutes of the June 12, 2017, Board of Park Commissioners Regular Meeting. Motion by Ramsey, second by Hillman, IT WAS UNANIMOUSLY VOTED to approve, sign and file the mim1tes of the June 12, 2017 Board of Park Commissioners Regular Meeting (4-0). 2 Recognition of Citizen Visiting Parks - Houtman Houtman stated we have someone in the community who is planning on visiting all 115 parks in the city this summer. When they complete visiting every park, he would like toJnvite them to a Park Board meeting and give them some type recognition certificate. 3 Naftzger Property Sale - Mark Elder Ho_utman stated Naftzger Park is owned by the .Board of Park Commissioners. That creates intricacies we need to deal with. Mark Elder has updates today and each.time we ha_ve a meeting going forward he will bring an update. Elder stated the meeting notice is about the sale of the property, but that part is more of a clarification of previous meetings when we brought forth the proposal how the developer is looking to straighten out the boundaries. That step requires publication of an urban renewal notice. We are going through that now. It should.be published this Friday and gives a 30,day notice for any others interested in making an offer to do so. At the August meeting the Board will be presented with any other offers that may have been made on that piece of land. If, at that time, there are no offers, we can go forward with the proposal that has been made by the developer. This morning was the review meeting which went well. On July 20 will be a charrette to.start presenting design ideas and getting feedback from the community. Tomorrow the City Council will be asked to set the date for a public hearing for the park side of the project. That would be setting August 15 to consider the proposal. That would be 30- 35 days in which there can be public input on the funding mechanism (TIF) part for redevelopment of the park. It includes the concept ideas we have ana in that time we will be working on additional design features. This is the funding tool the City will use to finance those improvements. Houtman added going through the selection criteria, we received 11 proposals and narrowed it to three (3). All three are good proposals. We are very ambitious and will get the right designer.on board and will have a new park in the next year. Ramsey inquired if there is any estimate onwhen construction will start? Houtman responded if design is completed by fall, we bid in November, and begin construction in December-March. Construction is estimated to be about 24-30 weeks. The intent to meet the NCAA in March 2018. We probably won't meet that. If we have substantial completion of some of the infrastructure, some of the plantings of trees and vegetation can come in later. The time of the.season does not warrant planting. It is all going to depend on design. BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEITING July 10, 2017 Page 2 of 6 4 Recreation Update (Greg Olmer) Olmer highlighted events from June & July • Friday, June 2 Riverfest Parade • Saturday, June 10 Barry the Bison Truck Expo-Naftzger Park • Thursday, June 15 Barry's Recreation Station-Osage Park • Saturday, June 17 Housing Expo.-Century II • Thursday, June 22 Barry's Recreation Station-Buffalo Park • Saturday, June 24 Cars in the Park-Naftzger Park • Thursday, June 29 Barry's Recreatio.n Station,Fairmount Park • Saturday, July 8 Yoga in the. Park-Central Riverside Park Upcoming events • Thursday, July 13 6-8 pm Barry's Recreation Station-Orchard Park • Saturday, July 15 9-11 am Carnival Games-Naftzger Park • Sunday, July 16 at 1:05. pm Barry the Bison celebrates Spinner's 10th birthday­ Lawrence DumontStadium • Saturday, July 22 1'4 pm Splash Party-Osage Park Two new staff members have joined Recreation • Jessica Jones -Administrative Aide II • Alexandria (Lexi) Miller- Recreation Intern 5 Golf Update (Troy Hendricks) Hendricks stated rounds are down Y-T-D 6%. Auburn Hills down 1%, Tex Consolver down 5%, LW Clapp down 15%, MacDonald down 8% and Sim down 4%. Revenue is down 1%, which is good considering rounds are down 6%. Encumbrances and Expenditures are up 12%, labor has increased by 6-7%, half of that being full-time and seasonal staff. Seasonal staffing is up due to special projects this year. Materials are up in expense mainly due to chemicals. They are up about 4%. Revenue is down only 1%. We used to use the PGA rounds report. They have quit doing that and now Golf Datatech is doing it. For May rounds were down 7%, which compares to 4.2% nationally. Public access golf courses being down 5.2%. We.had less rain in.June than last year. Last year we had 7 inches of rain in 6 days. This year we got 4.5 inches but it was over 13 days so we had seven more days of rain events that kept people from playing. Deatherage inquired about the Young Professionals activity that had been talked about previously. Hendricks responded they are working on that. One thing was to do a top golf thing. We can do a scoring system through the mobile app. We have targets at two ranges, up to 100 yards. They are difficult to hit. We are looking at some different types of targets to utilize. Deatherage added she had received an email that referenced memberships and punch cards. Hendricks responded they will be talking about that tomorrow at the Golf Advisory Committee meeting. One thing Dr. Williams brought up was having a prepaid punch card for rounds vs. gift cards. Young Adults are interested in possibly having a monthly fee for ages 24-30. looking at it pessimistically that would mean they would buy their pass in the spring and cancel it in the fall, using it. only when the weather was good. Hendricks put together a proposal ofa cost of $480-$490 for a year round pass. They would then pay the $5-$6 when they go to play, just like. the other passes do. 6 Golf Advisory Committee Update (Hoyt Hillman) Claycomb stated the Golf Advisory Committee ·meeting is tomorrow. Hillman stated at the last meeting they talked about golf carts and that they are doing really well. BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING July 10, 2017 Page 3 of 6  Hillman stated one issue is bridge concerns. That will be covered tomorrow, We had an engineer look at the bridge at LW Clapp, and there are alternatives. We have had a history of damaged carts at LW Clapp. Over the last two years, 24 of the E-Z-Go carts were damaged and so far seven of the new Yamaha carts'have been damaged from hitting bridge abutments. We have had an engineer come out and look at some design. Hillman.will be presenting those ideas to the Golf Advisory Committee tomorrow. They are suggesting starting with only·one bridge. Houtman stated it would be appreciated to share those with him and staff prior to making the presentations. Staff should be involved when dealing with operations and infrastructure. Claycomb asked if staff was involved in this. Hillman responded he has talked with the Pro at LW Clapp and talked about different ideas and designs out there. They are familiar with it. Houtman stated he did not know about it. Please inform him first. One thing that has previously been discussed is staff time is very valuable and they have projects to do. They take directio.n from the Director and it is important that he knows about it and let them know to manage their time and work with the situation correctly, Hillman responded it is just an advisory suggestion. 7 Wichita Parks Foundation Update (Troy Houtman) Houtman stated we had a fantastic July 4 event. There were close to 10,000 in attendance. Next year it will be bigger and better. They are also working on other projects. There were several camp scholarships awarded. This group is expanding their exposure and fund raising activities and starting to gain recognition in the community. 8 OJ Watson Park Committee Update (Troy Houtman) Houtman stated there is more infrastructure being put in place. We are looking-closely at the design of another shelter. We added a volleyball partner. We set up an MOU and they are running a volleyball league. We will be looking at trying to draw more revenue into Park and Recreation sites. One idea we are going to investigate more is looking at serving alcohol (CMB sales). There have been no decisions made.yet. Looking at pros and cons, Law is looking at it as w·e11. 9 Aquatics Master Plan Update (Troy Houtman) Houtman stated we are starting to work with the DABs. We have some scheduled meetings for design of the swimming pociis and splash pads. We are looking for community input on the design aspects. Would like to get the RFQ for a designer out in October/November so next year we can focus on final designs. Claycomb stated there is an organization that is pushing on McAdams. Houtman added they are speaking at Council tomorrow. One suggestion they are bringing to.the table is·an organization called Swim USA that handles operations, which includes swim lessons and day- to-day open swim. No one has approached us. We did approach the YMCA and asked if they wanted to do that. After looking at the numbers they said no. Maybe this private entity has a model that we don't know about. 10 President's Update (Cindy Claycomb) Claycomb stated she and Houtman discussed the potential for some board development. A non-profit chamber service offers a Board University series. It is eight (8) sessions over a year's time. Park Department could look at funding if there is interest. Claycomb will.send an email with the sessions to board members to determine interest. Ramsey has taken some before. Claycomb inquired if they were useful. Ramsey responded yes, but after you have been on a few boards he is not sure how useful they would be. They would be good for someone who has never served. Claycomb added you do not have to attend all eight but there may be a couple that would be good. BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGUlAR MEETING July 10, 2017 Page4of6 11 Director's Update (Troy Houtman) Houtman stated the department is working on several things. At the airport there are several plaques on the wall, dating back to when the Park Board was first established. A lot of people don't realize the Park Board used to run the airport. There are three plaques there about items through the airport there were upgrades and the Park Board supervised those renovations. Thatwas when the airport was not part of municipal services and prior to the Park Board being part of the city of Wichita. There is lots of history with the Park Board from layout of the city, streets being designed by landscape architects from the Park Board, to a lot of our parks. The Park Board is unique in that you are appointed by Council and have serious responsibility in legal ownership of several park areas. There is some legal ambiguity about responsibility arid authority and what is the right process when we have to go to Council to approve funding. The Park Board may have made a policy or planning decision on park land, but if it has an impact on the budget it has to go to the City as well. We are investigating the pros and cons of if there is a need or an interest or want to dissemble the Board of Park Commissioners as it is today and transferring those legal responsibilities to _the Council. This would then render the Board of Park Commissioners more of an advisory capacity like other boards. We don't know what the best scenario is. Some of the challenges being dealt with include the Board of Park Commissioners having a long history of strong protection of and interest in park land. Losing that would be a big concern. Times change and we are always looking for efficiencies and the best scenario that will work for us. We will seewhat works best for you as well. Items that are difficultto deal with like the Confederate Flag and Pawnee Prairie Park. The question is.should that authority be rendered at this table or at the dais downstairs. Legally it can happen, it is just a matter of us following through with the right steps. We would need full support one way or the other from both Council and Board of Park Commissioners. Right now we are just putting together a pros and cons list, Claycomb inquired about, as an example, the Confederate flag decision, was that because Board of Park Commissioners owned that property. Houtman responded the Board of Park Commissioners does not own that property. There is a lot of inconsistencies.and ambiguity about what is the authority and who should _make the decisions on planning issues, selling property and operational issues that represents rriany stakeholders and concerns and thoughts from the public. Claycomb stated there is an ordinance that stateswhat the duties of the Board of Park Commissioners are. As we look at this, we would want to clean that up and layout responsibilities. Houtman responded if there is a strong desire to disband the Board of Park Commissioners as it stands now, we can do that. It Would just take a vote from the Board of Park Commissioners saying we are going to transfer a 11this over to Council and continue our role, but our role will be in an.advisory capacity. There are interesting situations that can occur where the Board of Park Commissioners decides one thing and then when we go ask f or funding the Council can ask for something totally different. Although you are appointed by your council members, it is has been inconsistent and difficult for some to follow through on who has authority and are we using this board to its fullest extent? Have we overburdened the board? You are all volunteers and took a lot of time and effort and "arrows" during the Pawnee Prairie Park conversations. The same thing happened when we discussed the Confederate flag. In either case, if it stays as it is, we need to clean it up and react clarify and add strong policies on responsibilities and who_ has authority. Deatherage stated one issue she sees is part of our meetings we take the time to listen to the community and feedback. How many voices would be heard if all of it went to the City Council and how much longer and busier would that make those meetings. Houtman responded you would. still have that expectation as an advisory board. You would not only advise the Park & Recreation department, you would still represent the public. Deatherage stated they would then most likely go straight to the decision makers. Houtman responded Council should still rely on the board, they do this for other boards. That won't change, it BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING July 10. 2017 Page 5 of 6  would just be a matter of who has final authority. Right now on two-thirds of the parks, the Park Board does not have authority. Claycomb added whichever way we go, the policy needs to be cleaned up. It does get confusing. Houtman stated there was a pre-proposal meeting today on Stryker, to turn that natural grass into artificial turf. Deatherage inquired if Houtman is familiar with Nitro Joe's Coffee. Houtman responded no. Deatherage added the guy who started it came to her about a week ago asking about selling coffee at the building in Hyde Park. He has someone in YPW who wants to partner with him and sell coffee at the local building there on weekends. They don't brew anything on site, they have an ice cream cart type cart that could be wheeled in. What steps would he need to take to look into that? Houtman respond we have vendor permits. We charge a certain percentage or it might be a flat rate that would be negotiated. He should come talk with David McGuire. Hillman stated at Linwood park we used to have events. They had a venue and theater setting. It is really dilapidated now. Are there any plans on doing something with that? Houtman responded there are no plans and no funding. If someone has resources and interest, we would willing to work with them, similar to the dog park at Harrison Park with Together Wichita. They are raising the funds to get it done. Vo inquired about Harrison Park and earlier hearing there is a plan for a basketball court, which is great. The tennis courts are complaining about the dilapidated condition. Is there a plan to resurface that? Houtman responded that is part of renovation we are looking at. Hopefully in next 4-6 months and it could also possibly include adding a futsal court as well. We did this at Fairmount Park and it was very successful. Vo also inquired about any plans for new parks on the east side in the Kellogg and Greenwich area? Houtman responded unfortunately not at this time. We are working through the Community Investment Plan. They have set some goals and priorities. The first goal is to repair, replace and upgrade the existing. If we work with developers and they include and incorporate new parks in their new development that would be great. As for purchasing and developing new property it is low priority. Our highest priority is to repair and upgrade our existing parks. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at approximately 4:10 p.m. The next regularly scheduled meeting will be held on Monday, August 14, 2017. Cindy Claycon(,Presint BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGUIAR MEETING July 10, 2017 Page 6 of 6