Board of Park Commissioners

Board of Park Commissioners Regular. Meeting Minutes Monday, March 12, 2018 3:00 - 5:00 P.M. 455 N Maih fC: !I T- ·-1" D fl City Hall.11th Floor WICHITA Park & Recreation Conference Room Wichita, Kansas 67202 Members Present: Troy Palmer, Bill Ramsey, Lawanda Deshazer, Ty Tablng Members Absent: Tori Deatherage, Eddie Fahnestock, Hoyt Hillman City Staff: Troy Houtman (Director, Park & Recreation), Penny Garding (Clerk), Elizabeth Harlenske (Assistant City Attorney), Stacey Hamm, Troy Hendricks, David McGuire; Angela Buckner Guest: Calvin Cupp, Lonnie Wright Item Descri11tlon call to Order Troy Palmer, President Publlc Comments calvln Cupp, Wichita State Rowing, 1845 N Fairmount. Thank you for working with us and helping to ·make good contact with Pearson Construction for the bike that is going in. We are launching from ,BG Products and that is where that bike path is. They have been great to work with and having the contact to meet with everyone so we know what is happening. Houtman added he walked it on Friday and saw they laid down some gravel so it is easier for you to get up and down with your wheeled dollies. Cupp responded it is going to be nice when it rains otherwise. it will be just mud. They also said they would let us know when they are ready to pour the concrete where we launch from so we can coordinate that and not be blocked access. It is going to be a great looking project. Houtman stated they will probably pouring sometime this week. Tabing inquired what the anticipated opening day is. Houtman responded it has not been established but probably within the next six to eight weeks. 1 Approve Minutes Recommended Action: Approve, sign and file minutes of the February 12, 2018, Board of Park Commissioners Regular Meeting. Motion by Ramsey, second by Tablng, ITWAS UNANIMOUSLY VOTED to approv e, sign and file the minutes of the February 12, 2018 Board of Park Commissioners Regular Meeting (4- 0). 2A Retreat Preview Houtman stated what he recalls is that the board will review the golf situation and talk about.pros & cons, some specific issues and update. Also there was some long term planning on some of the CIP Projects. Palmer agrees with the planned agenda. BOARD OF·PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING March 12, 2018 Page·1ot9 2B Future Status of City & Department Budget Houtman shared a PowerPoint. Thiswas shared with Council. It was put together by City staff. There are some concerns on the budget, more on the revenue than the expense side. 2014-2017 was not a normal year, but it is the new reality. Our revenue growth is flattening from 3-4% to 1-2%, General Fund Revenues from 2000-2017 are still rising but flattening. General Fund Growth percentage in the past was 3-5% then averaged 5.6%, the economic downturn brought it down a little bit, now during this last five year stretch it is 2-3%. 2017 had only a 1.7% increase in revenue. On the Adjusted Revenue Growth, depends on where you average from; but the average is just about 2% where we were once at about 3% or more. Expenditures are also going up at the same time. Reasons why some of these things are happening is we a_re_becoming more reliant property taxes. Sales tax is going down because more people are buying online and they are also purchasing-less expensive products. Fines are down (court and tickets), gas tax has gotten flat. Over the past 10 years cars have become more efficient and using alternative energy. Ail of these things we relied on in the past are flattening out. User Fee Study- we have been looking at different way to try to recover costs through user fees. That is always issue about how much of our fees should be translated into each of our services. People often saythat is why I pay my taxes. We are going to continue looking at these studies. In Park & Recreation we have talked about do we charge more for rentals, classes or a non-resident user fee? We have always been told in the past to keep the prices low but make sure you provide great services. But, we need to have revenue to make sure we are providing those services. Sales Tax - we have gone down from 2016 to 2017. Then relatively flat. Franchise Fee - Cable 1V is losing the market to online 1V and satellite. Our revenues that we were getting when homes were getting cable 1V have. now dropped and flattened and will continue to drop as more people use cheaper ways to watch 1V. Court fines - It is an interesting conceptcand philosophy in helping the disadvantaged people in the community. Typically court fines tend to fall on the shoulders of those that don't have the means. They already are having a hard time financially keeping up with the maintenance. and. operation of. the home, equipment and cars. It then f becomes a question of how do we make it air and equitable across the city? It is a known fact the more you increase fines the less advantaged who don't have the means take the brunt of. it. Gas Tax -this is really flat.because people turning to more fuel efficient cars and finding alternative transportation. Assessed Valu·ation of Homes - it is relatively flat. There was·a slight increase which may continue.but itis a concern. BOARD_OF·PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEmNG March 12, 2018 Page2of9 Assessed Value and Growth- We are not doing any annexations. We have grown to the point where we are touching other cities. North -Valley Center, West - Goddard, South - Haysville & Derby. We are getting constraints to wher.e our growth is at. Without growth we are not getting more volume into the city and therefore no additional property taxes. General Fund.Expenditures - In 2000 we had $1.46M general expenses. We are now up to $227M. From 2010to 2017 we have only gone up $26M. We have become extremely efficient. We are very thin in staffing and in operations. Staffing has gone down since 2000 but the expense of health care and other benefits have gone up. Percentages are staying between 2% & 3% but revenues are staying less than that. Police & Fire-46% of budget in 2000, 57% in 2017. It has gone up in the demands for more safety within the city and more services provided. If they are using 57% tha1 means Public Works, Library, Park & Recreation, Administrative Services and all the other things take up the rest of the budget. General Fund Expenditures by category - Police and Fire keeps increasing; all other General Fund are pretty flat. Salary & Benefits Growth - 2000 to 2008 saw a growth average of 5.6%. 2009 to 201Tis seeing a 1.7% average. Looking Forward - Expenditure growth is expected to be modest. Revenue growth is expected.to be lower, which means there is a concern for meeting budget constraints. Adopted Budget Forecast- 2018 should be neutral; 2019 is projecting a $2M deficit; $3.SM in 2020; $4.6 in 2021, etc. We need to change something because we are not getting the revenue to match our expenditure increases. New Projected Outlook- The bottom line is the City Manager and City Council are concerned that the bottom line continues to be negative numbers and keeps increasing as we move forward. Using the adopted revenues and expenditures, it is the same thing. Again the bottom line is really concerning. We carry an annual budget of $S00M, and it is budgeted down to the pennies. We try to look for savings, but the one time savings we have used in the past are all gone. We have tried to sell property, looked at cutting services or workforce and not paying people as much as we have paid them in the past. Those all have unintended consequences. The adjusted outlook with no police staffing plan. Police have asked for 30 additional officers this fiscal year, which was not adopted. We now have a reversal ofwhat we want. In 2018 we.have more revenues and expenditures. As we go into future years it reverses. BOARD OF. PA_RK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING March 12, 2018 Page 3 of9  2019 Budget -As we prepare the 2019 budget we are focusing on our mission statement, stressing zero based budgeting and implementing user fees that have been recommended in the past. We need to change the way we do business. We are focusing on what are the core services that this department wants to provide. Each department is listing their core services canit be touched. Park did this 7-8 years ago. Our services are basic and very lean, there isn't much else we can do without an impact on the communities. This doesn't come down to a program, it comes down to people. If we cut staff we would have to dose centers and stop programs. We have done that in the past as much,as we can, Council realizes the importance of the department so we are relying on other departments to get us where we need to go. We are going to look a look at the things we do and see.where we can create more revenue. Can that be done through more rentals, more programming or implementing a non-resident fee? No one likes to do these things, but something needs to give. It is not just Park & Recreation, all departments have a stake in this. Tabing inquired how this correlates with the CIP budget. Is it as gloomy? Houtman responded yes and no. The.good thing about capital dollars is.that there is infrastructure like streets that need to be put in place and upgraded. Water and sewer come out of an enterprise fund. What is impacted are recreation centers, new fire and police stations, The new library is in place, but if more capital dollars are needed to support it, that would be impacted as well. Houtman stated there are things we can do. We are saying what are some of the things we can do. And also protecting our core services. Each recreation center has different needs to give back to their communities. It may be one big drastic thing or a combination of several.small things. Deshazer shared how her department at the County does-their budget process. Houtman responded it is a similar philosophy but we have our priorities, those things we want to protect and our core mission. Tabing stated it raises questions about how to grow the economy, increase population to grow the revenue side. Houtman responded our population is pretty flat right now. We are not increasing property within the city limits. Those all have impacts. 3 Continuation of Prior Business No Continuing Prior Business 4 Recreation Update (Stacey Hamm) Hamm shared 2017 final attendance and programming numbers BO�RD Of PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR ME_ETING March 12, 2018 Page4of9  I 2017 2016 I Total# of Classes 1,563 1,660 Total# Successful 1,079 995 Total # Cancelled 484 665 % Successful classes 7096 6096 Total Re ·stration 22,394 20,502 I Total# New classes 176 155 Total# Successful 76 66 % Successful new classes _ � 43% 43% Special events were up in 2017. Attendance overall in 2017 increased by 75,504. That attendance includes everything, recreation centers, pools, special events, classes, etc. Edgemoor held an indoor pickleball tournament in February. It was very successful. It had two divisions, intermediate and advanced. It brought in $690 in revenue. Linwood and Orchard Recreation Centers partner with Senior Services and AARP to provide free tax preparation. They have been providing this service for about 7-8 years. March kicks off our special event season. Saturday, March 17-Walk in the Park-Pawnee Prairie Park-Free for all ages Two additional events coming up Saturday, March 24-Bunny Blast & Egg Hunt-Watson Park-ages 2-10 - $5 per car load Light up Reflection Square - 3 events-Free for all ages - Cash Bar Thursday, March 29-Open House BBQ-Free hot dogs Friday, March 30 -Dockum Sit-in-Sip - Coca Cola served over the counter Saturday, March 31 - Black & White Affair-Free silent film and Phlox fire show Houtman added Fan Fest is on Thursday next to Naftzger Park. We will be closing St. Francis street. There will be food trucks, beer tents, large 1Vs to watch the games. Staff will be there with games and there is a basketball court as well. 5 Golf Update (Troy Hendricks) Hendricks stated February was not a good month, it was winter. Rounds were down 20% year-to-date compared to last year. Revenue is down 40% y­ t-d. Expenses were down 13%. Net decrease revenue is down 36%. The courses are sending email to Hendricks to get approval on any expenditures. There were 6 days in the month of February that courses closed and had zero rounds. There was one other day where only one person played. BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING March 12, 2018 Page 5 of9  Next week we star:t our Hook a Kid on Golf program. Recreat_ion d_iscontinued the program in 2014 and Golf took it over and started hostil)g it. This ye<1r it was m_oved to Spring Break week. At the middle-of February registration closed. We had 76 kids signed up. We provide each kid a free set of clubs. They pay a'$75 fee to participate and it costs Golfabout $150 to do the program. We raise money by hosting a couple employee golf tournaments during the year. The entry fees are donated back to Hook a Kid on Golf. 6 Golf Advisory Committee Update (Hendricks) Hendricks stated the committee talked about rounds. 7 Wichita Parks Foundation Update (Troy Houtman) f:lamm stated they are getting ready to initiate scholarships for the second year at Edgemoor Recreation Center. That _will roll out next week. They are also planning July 4 event. They are looking for vendors. 8 OJ Watson Park Committee Update (Troy Houtman) Houtman stated we got the recommendations from the board for committee members for tomorrow's meeting. They will talk about adjusting the master plan. Townsend is moving forward with the irrigation project. 9 Aquatics Master Plan Update (Troy Houtman) Houtman stated they mettoday and shor'tlisted design consultants. The selected consultantswill come visit us in 3 weeks to do their presentations. We are still working with District I on where to place their swimming pool. Council.member Johnson is trying to get some community feedback. We have presented the pros and cons, the major cost impacts and are looking for the recommendation on whe_re that pool goes. We are looking for designs to be done by the end of summer. The designer will come to this group at least once or maybe twice. We will do another public meeting to share some ofthe designs for the splash pads·and pools. Deshazer inquired when the final decision be made on where the pools go. Houtman responded it is up to Councilmer'nber Johnson to find the best location. When we get that we will make that presentation to.Council. It is a Council decision to make. We will probably bring the recommendation to this board as well ·for input. Tabing inquired if the primary consideration is whether or not to close McAdams. Houtman responded there are several ideas and options. Prior to this past budget year we had $18M and McAdams was planned to be closed_andtumed into a splash pad. When we closes out the capital requests f arthis past budget yearit was put back in that $4M would go to District I. It was not decided where it would go. One of the options is to go back and renovateMcAdams·and another·is to renovate Edgemoor. Those two locations make a lot of sense because there is already existing utilities and infrastructure there. A couple other ideas are.building.a new pool at the Boys & Girls Club and let.them operate it. or·maybe there is another location? There are.several options to look at. Everyone is interested in seeing how can we operate it and do the upgrades at McAdams. We will help Councilmember Johnson with his.listening sessions and where we can with a Council presentation. We will bring it to this group as well for thoughts and opinions. 10 President's Update (Troy Palmer) BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS'REGUlAR �EfTING March 12, 2018 Page 6 of9  Palmer stated we had a short list for the Recreation Superintendent and had four really good candidates come in. Houtman add we are going through the process to make an offer to one of the candidates. ltis premature to make any announcement. 11 Director's Update (Troy Houtman) Houtman stated David McGuire would share a presentation on Pawnee Prairie Park. McGuire, Superintendent of Park Resource Management Division. Mr. Houtman asked for a presentation on Pawnee Prairie Park. There was about $1M set aside from the Hyatt sale. The plan was to create some additional trails and a bike path and.some improvements on the existing concrete paths. When we started this, we puttogether a spreadsheet of a timeline when items would be completed. - Butterfly garden - Existing parking lot improvements - Adding equestrian watering stations - Adding benches and picnic tables - Adding lighting at the west parking lot - Adding a dog watering station The Butterfly Garden is in a spot by east shelter building. Chris Stark has obtained some plants that are favorable to butterflies. He and some volunteers planted the and nowwe need to fence it to declare it a butterfly garden. Stark has put in a request to make it an official butterfly way station. We have put in a new driveway and new signage for the equestrian parking lot. There will be a one- way in and a one-way out. Trees have been removed. It has almost doubled in size. We improved the watering station. A new spigot has been added and you can tie the horse and wash and cool them.down. There are hitching posts along the back. McGuire shared examples of benches, picnic tables and dog watering stations. Both shelters have been replaced. We are going to use solar lighting on the west parking lot and can be put on timers. ABCreative was selected to do the playground over by the west shelter. It will be on the same side of parking lot as shelter. It will have a nature.oriented designs. We hired a structural engineer to start looking at the bridges. One bridge was able to be saved, there was some erosion under the trestle bridge. Some will require expensive repairs. Some of the existing concrete path has broken over years. We have added reinforced concrete on some of the sections. We have put up signs stating it is designated walking path, not to be used by equestrians. BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEmNG March 12, 2018 Page 7 of9 There is a low water crossing in the back that needs improvements. Cost could be a problem. We have started clearing trees to create the bike paths. A SO-foot wide strip along Carrwood was cleared of green cedars to create•a fire break. Which also created a space for the bike paths. We are going to have to be good signage at the intersections. The National Forest Service uses a really tough sign. Wewill purchase the same type of sigh. We will use in strategic location_s. Then we will use delineator signs spread throughoutthe park. Houtman added by making this park multipurpose, signage is the most critical part to make that happen. Our timeline is to get all the trails done by.September. Palmer inquired how the horse folks have responded. Houtman responded they responded well to the, parking lot and watering areas. We still get comments that they are seeing bicycle tire tracks going through there. We may need to get some enforcement out there. We have talked to the mounted patrol. They want.to.come out and help teach the equestrian folks how to deal with bicycles, They have a lot of training with their horses being in big public spaces, crowds, special events, between cars, etc. Their horses are used to seeing bicyc_les. They spend a lot oftime training on that and wantto share some of those pointers. We will help coordinate that and probably do it in the fall. We had three weekends-of rain last fall that cancelled some programs. Lonnie Wright asked if the signage will go before,the Design and Bike and Pedestrian boards. McGuire responded we have a design, they would probably take iHo the Design Council to look out. Houtman responded he was just going to bring them to this group. Deshazer inquired how Stryker field is going. Houtman responded we started moving dirt 2-3 week ago. We finalized the design for the building, which will be going to Design Council in a couple weeks. We will try to do a presentation with that here .next month. Ramsey inquired about Pracht Wetlands? Houtman responded we have finalizedthe design and posted interviews for the construction. We will be making the final recommendation this week. There is $1.4M to spend on that for Phase I. We will get the bids from contractors to see if they can make that happen. Lonnie Wright inquired if Stryker is still being financed by star bonds or is the City spending money on it? Houtman responded star bonds. Tabing had questions about how the equestrian operation works. Was it guided or on your own. Houtman responded we.did some programs, but they got cancelled due.to weather. We had a vendor that was going to do.some guided rides. McGuire added in the 1980's the east shelter was a stable. The Park Department ran a stable.out there and you could take a trail ride out there. Palmer inquired if WPD does their·horse training out there? Houtman responded they.use to have their stables out there. They have moved.closer to town where BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR_MEfTING March 12, 2018 P3seBof9  they have better access to their horses. They train all over for different scenarios and situations. They have gone out to Pawnee Prairie Park. Palmer stated this is DeShazer's last meeting. Adjourn There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at approximately 4:09 p.m. The next regularly scheduled meeting will be held on Monday, April 9, 2018. BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING March 12, 2018 Page 9 of 9