Board of Park Commissioners

Board of Park Commissioners Regular Meeting Minutes Monday, May 14, 2018 3:00- 5:00 P.M. 455 N Main C IT Y OF City Hall 11th Floor WICHITA Park & Recreation Conference Room Wichita, Kansas 67202 Members Present: Troy Palmer, Ty Tabing, Tori Deatherage, Hoyt Hillman Members Absent: Bill Ramsey, Eddie Fahnestock City Staff: Troy Houtman (Director, Park & Recreation), Penny Garding (Clerk), Elizabeth Harlenske (Assistant City Attorney), Stacey Hamm, David McGuire, Regg.ie Davidson, Shana Appelhanz, Angela Buckner Guest: Alejo Cabral Item Descrietion call to Order Troy Palmer, President, called the meeting to order at approximately 3:02 p.m. Announcements Therewere no Announcements. Public Comments Aaron Pero, 910 Park Glenn St., Clearwater. Pero stated Murdock Park, and adjacent land is nice and well maintained, Also, owned by this board is the Oakland Addition and the Murdock Avenue Addition. It does not look very good. The reason is because it is located in a FEMA floodway. As a result all the houses currently within it or have been in it have been destro.yed or severely damaged enough thatthey have been condemned. Going back to 1978, many of the vacant lots have been sold to various owners because they have interest in developingthem. Since the land is in a floodway it is the same classification as the Big Ditch, when it rains it floods. He has been in contact with the City because he had big dreams of buying the land and developing it. The reason the taxes were so low was because it is worthless. After receiving seven pages of code violations, he has picked up the land and made it look good. However, he does not want to be the City's maid for the rest of his life. He has talked with the flood plain manager and director and the City has no plans for that area. They just want continue to use it as a tax revenue source. The lot adjacent to his is in the·same situation. It has been sold three times since November. About every three years the.City has repossessed it. After a few years it sells back to the public, knowing full well that the land is worthless. He is coming before the board because he wishes to sell this land to the Park Commission. If money is tight, he is willing to donate it free or at the lowest minimum allowed so that the land can be in proper hands. He has two neighbors and one other individual who have expressed BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEffiNG May 14, 2018 Page 1 of&  interest in owningthe.land as well. He could get $500-$1,000 and continue the cycle over and over. He wants it to stop and is willing to take a complete loss on his project in order to stop this process. Hillman asked if a map was available. Pero responded yes and shared a copy. Hillman inquired what the Public Works and Stormwater departments say about the property. Are they willing to take it over and maintain it? Pero responded they have said there is no money earmarked for it. Back. in 1998 the City applied for, a demolition permit and offered more than $132,000 in FEMA money to about 15 properties on the west side. This land, they have just ignored. He has been told by the floodwater department there is no money. Hillman stated he should continue to pursue that process with them. They might find money.. He does not think Park is going to wanno take over a flood plain. Houtman stated he is not a board commissioner,there are lots.of properties the City owns all over the City that are maintained at a very low level because-we don't have the fundingto maintain it. A lot of these properties are in the flood plain where you can't build on it. Could you put a park on it? Yes. Could there be something that is a special design that would still allow the flooding to go through? Yes. That takes a special type of design, because theywant the water to continue to flow the way it is supposed to flow. We can talk to Stormwater and ask about this particular piece of property. He would not want his department to take this on because we would be in the same situation. We can't maintain it. There is nothing we have that gives us the resources to build on it. Palmer added he would have a better opportunity to sell it to his neighbor for more money. Pero responded for applicable reasons he does not want five more people to take it over and then they get screwed. Palmer added if they own the land around it, they know what the land is. Palmer stated on behalf of the Park Department, we don't have any money to buy it. Houtman asked to make a copy of the map. 1 Approve Minutes A. Recommended Action:. Approve, sign and file minutes of the March 22, 2018, Board of Park Commissioners Special Meeting. Motion by Deatherage, second by Tabing, IT WAS UNANIMOUSLY VOTED to approve, sign and file the minutes of the March 22, 2018 Board of Park Commissioners Special Meeting (4-0). B. Recommended Action: Approve, sign and file minutes ofthe March 23, 2018, Board of Park Commissioners Retreat Meeting; Motion by Tabing, second by Deatherage, IT WAS UNANIMOUSLY VOTED to approve, sign and file the minutes of the March 23, 2018 Board of. Park Commissioners Retreat Meeting (4-0). C. Recommended Action: Approve, sign and file minutes of the April 9, 2018, Board of Park Commissioners Regular Meeting. Motion by Hillman, second by Tabing, IT WAS UNANIMOUSLY VOTED to approve, sign and file the minutes of the April 9, 2018 Board of Park. Commissioners Regular Meeting (4-0). 2 New Items for Consideration Therewere no New Items. 3 Naftzger Park (Troy Houtman) BOARD OF PARK COMMl�SIONERS REGULAR MEETING May 14, 2018 Page 2 of 8  Houtman stated we are closing the park on May 21. There is one question that he will present atthe next meeting, regarding a utility easement that the developer wants to share with the park. McGuir.e has some items he wants to start working on including removing the benches. Palmer inquired if those were going to be used somewhere else. Houtman responded yes. Deatherage inquired aboutthe impact the construction will have on the neighbors. Houtman responded it is going to be big because it is not just the park but also the buildingthatwill be next to it and the Spaghetti Works building too. Deatherage asked about noise and hours of construction. Houtman responded it will probably be during business hours. He added St. Francis will stay open, it will be the parking lot just east of the park. 4 Recreation Update (Stacey Hamm) Hamm stated the Spring classes are going well. Orchard Park-Miracle League kicked off their.10th season. - 8 teams - 94.kids - Saturday morning games - Volunteer angels help kids on field Great Plains Nature Center - EastHigh A.ces Community Day on April 12 - Four Classes - Cleaned up the park - Removed bush honeysuckle Lawrence Dumont Stadium - Spring Cycle Spectacular Event on April 28 - Partnership with Genesis Health Clubs - 3'" Year - 120 participants due to rescheduling and other activities - Next Get Fit event will be Yoga in the Park in July Lynette Woodard -Adult Balloon Bouquet Workshop Sunday April 15 - 6 participants - $13.00 per person - Participants requested more one-day workshops during summer 5 Golf Update (Appelhanz) Appelhanz stated April was the worst April in 11 years, with a total.of only 11,245 rounds. The biggest contributor to that was only one playable weekend. YTD rounds are down 10% from 2017 with a revenue decrease of 12%, again because of April. There are positives though. Even though rounds and revenues declined in April we are seeing a lot of improvement in programming compared to 2017. Player Development • Hook-A-Kid on Golf - $75 per child -receives with new golf clubs after 5 days - 76 participants - Due to overwhelming demand will.double enrollment next Spring Breal to .150 kids. - Ages are 8 -16 BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETl�G May 14, 2018 �age 3 of8  - Wichita Junior Golf Foundation has agreed to allow participants to bypass the beginner program and start at the 3-hole program. • Wichita Junior Golf Foundation - 2nd year in assisting with online registration � First day of online registration was April 16, 263 registered in on one day. - Auburn Hills filled up by 7 pm that Monday. - Currently at 480 kids and the program does not·start for another two weeks. - Last year there were 415 total participants • April SNAG Auburn Hills and MacDonald - 6 participants • April Goddard Schools SNAG - Four Pros went to Amelia Earhart Elementary and taught PE for two days as SNAG lessons - 400+ participants in the two-day period - Brought a lot of awareness to Wichita Junior Golf Program • April Intro to Golf Tex Consolver -1 participant Lessons • April Drop in Clinic Sim - no participation • April/ May Beginner Lessons Auburn Hills - 20 participants • April/ May Beginner Lessons MacDonald - 9 participants • May Beginner Lessons MacDonald - 6 participants • May/ June Beginner Lessons Sim - 7 participants • April Putting Clinic Clapp - 2 participants • May Putting Clinic Clapp - 4 participants· • May Scoring Clinic for Beginners Clapp - 1 participant • April Beginners Lessons Ladies Clapp - 9 participants • April/ May Beginners Lessons Ladies MacDonald - 7 participants • March/ April Beginners Lessons Youth Sim - 0 participants • April/ May Beginners Lessons Youth Auburn Hills- 21 participants • May Beginners Lessons Youth Clapp- 2 participants Lessons • Shamrock Scramble -92 players • Tex Turmoil - 116 players 6 Golf Advisory Committee Update (Hoyt Hillman/Troy Houtman) Hillman stated the Golf Advisory Committee has been looking at expenses and has come up with an idea they would like the board to consider. There has been a pretty static number ofpasses sold. Our expenses are going up but our rounds are not changing. We have been working from the same group all the time and not.bringing in new people, until we started the kids programs. The numbers across the board are not exciting. Appelhanz added it is important to point out we have s�en an increase from.2010 to 2017 in the season passes, but the revenue has declinedbecause our pass holders are aging out into the senior pass structure. Hillman stated we are trying to reach out beyond the static group we have been dealing with, not only with the kids but with other groups as well. We.are proposing an annual season pass BOARD._OF PARK COMMISSIONERS R�GULAR MEETING May 14, 2018 Page4of8 where you get billed once a month for a ,reasonable rate. Kids would be at about $6.50 for 17 and under. We have only sold 16 in the past. We hope to promote this monthly rate, particularly with the young adults and adult passes. This is a bargain when you look at the other courses in town. The passes do not include carts. It is just show up and you are ready to go. The way it is now, you show up and you have to pay a little extra and havethe.hassle at the counter. Once we establish this it is going to be a bargain. This will excite our current base and will reach out into the community and bring in more people. If this is set up and run properly .you could see an extra $200,000 per year. Appelhanz is setting it up where it can be set up on a credit card. Appelhanz stated the figures being used are based on 2017 sales. We would see the $936,000 based on what has already been sold. The $216,000 is the difference of going from an annual to a monthly pass. This is similar to what you would see at Genesis or something likethat. Hillman added these·are being used as a base for calculations and if marketed properly we can transfer most ofthem over to season passes and expand some. We are asking the board to consider it. Tabing inquired what is the season. Appelhanz responded it would be 365 days from the date of purchase. _Palmer asked _what the restrictions are, do seniors still have restrictions on dates of play. Appelhanz responded there would be no restrictions. The seniors would still be paying more than what they would have with the season pass that is in place now. An example is the Super Senior (70 and older) pays $100 for an annual pass and then a $14 green fee on top of the cart fee. With this structure and them having to pay $65 a month, every month for 12 months, plus the cart fee every time they play, we are going to see more rounds, but we will also see the additional revenue. Appelhanz added we have talked about the potential of having three different strategies for marketing campaigns. There needs to be an overall campaign to the public, but we also need to target the 25-40 year olds that we have been missing out on. That market has .limited disposable income but by utilizing a pass structure like this it is more .feasible for them to get a season pass. We need to address the.seniors because we are completely changing what they are used to. Educating them on the benefits of getting to play more, it will work in their favor. Palmer stated the risk is this year we could potentially see less revenue as people try to figure out how it will work. Hillman responded we hope not, we are marketing it. We just want your approval to go out and market it and try it. Houtman asked if it would start at the beginning of the year in January. Appelhanz responded it would most likely be the beginning of year because of the evaluation of the golf system. We don't want to roll anything out before that is completed. Palmer inquired when that is supposed to be done. Houtman responded soon. Hamm inquired if they would have the option to pay the annual rate up fro ht instead of being billed monthly. Appelhanz responded no, it will only be set up this way. The ones that are in the annual plan right now, when their pass is up they would have to convert to this. Hamm asked about the policy on cancelling halfway through the year. Appelhanz responded they will have an agreement in place, similar to what we do now, but it will be a buy0out policy. The figure that is being looked at is $300. Palmer added it is like a gym membership. Appelhanz stated they are working with Club Prophet Systems to figure out how to implement this. We know we cannot BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING May 14, 2018 Page S of 8 utilize the Webstore. We would like to use ACH, which is the check system so we don't get hit on the credit card charges. Palmer inquired if they can charge more if they want to use a credit card, like a convenience fee. Deatherage stated her gym offers a monthly discount if you provide a voided check. Palmer added a consideration that would be good would be a discount if you paid it all up front, then you have the guaranteed money for 12 months. Appelhanz responded those are good ideas. Palmer stated this is a great idea having a pass that is all. included, except for a cart. Appelhanz stated we are reducing the number of passes they would have as well. Deatherage asked Appeihanz to remind them of the·current rates. Appelhanz responded all of the courses except for Auburn Hills it is $25 on weekdays and $27 on weekends. At Auburn Hills it is $27 during the week and $32 on the weekends. Carts are $12,50 for 18 holes and $7 .50 for 9 holes. Houtman stated a senior going 31 times will break even. Tabing added it should reduce some of the month to month volatility. Hillman asked for a motion from the board to support the plan. Deatherage asked if it was supporting the idea of the pass orthe specific numbers.. Hillman responded no, it is supporting the season pass restructure.. It will still need to go to Finance and City Council. Deatherage stated her biggest concern is the Young Adult, She would like to see consideration in increasing that age from·3o. Appelhanz responded the young adult is proposed to be 30- 61 years old. Right now it is 18-23. We could look at altering the young adult so it goes from 18 - 61. Deatherage added she and her friends in their lower 30's don't have time to golf 50 times in a year. Appelhanz restated 18-30 would be $75/month and 31-61 would be $90/month. Palmer asked Deatherage for clarification on. her question. Deatherage stated .20 somethings paying $75/month is a lot outside of the summer months. Palmer asked if they should lower the price. Deatherage responded yes and also raise the top age to 35. Hamm stated agreement with Deatherage that rate is tough for those in their 20s. If you could lower the rate.and maybe carry it on to another age group that can afford that payment, it would help entice that age group to purchase the pass. Appelhanz added if you focus on 18 holes this is true, but if you look at 9 holes or even look at the fact you can go and play as many holes as you can in the time you have. This would be a great opportunity to utilize the same thing. Hamm responded that age group will mainly focus on the dollar amount, morethan how they can.utilize it. Deatherage added the hardest part with that age group it the sale. If they can justify it as a good deal, a lot of them will likely sign up and won't even use it that many times. Palin er asked if they would even buy a pass. Deatherage responded if that is the group you are wanting to go after, it is going to take alot of shaping and strategy. Hillman added we are hoping to expand on the current 61 young adults. That would only make $1,000 difference if we were to lower itto $60. Appelhanz stated we pulled this information from courses around the area and what they are currently charging. All of the ones we looked at, there is only one pricing structure per one course. We ha.ve five courses and we have to factor that into the pricing structure. Tabing asked if they were able to hear from these people directly. Hillman responded they have had several meetings with golfers and groups. The feedback is we think thi.s will work. Appelhanz stated our next step is to go out and get more BOARD OF PARK_COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETIN� May 14, 2018 Page 6 of 8  customer feedback on the specific structure. We want to switch from an annual price to a monthly price. Motion by Deatherage, second by Hillman, IT WAS UNANIMOUSLY VOTED to support moving from an annual pass to pass structure being billed monthly with the consideration we will look more into the pricing and age brackets (4-0). 7 Wichita Parks Foundation Update (Troy Houtman) Houtman stated the Foundation has July 4th going. Another thing they are working on, happening on June 29th , they will be doing a Dinner in the Park at Reflection Square. They are asking $25 per ticket. There will be entertainment, a food .truck will be providing a scrumptious meal, and the booze truck will be there. It will.be a.cash bar. The Mayor will be speaking and also trying for one of the WSU coaches. They are going to try doing this on a quarterly basis. The funds raised will go toward scholarships. They are looking at capping it at 200 tickets. That should net about a $1,500 profit going to the scholarships. 8 Pawnee Prairie Park Update (David McGuire) McGuire stated they have been working more on Pawnee Prairie Park. The update sheet shows completed tasks. They will be putting in two light poles with LED for $18,000. They will have motion sensors so when someone enters the park the lights will come on. The playground is being worked on. ABCreative got that bid. Houtman added it takes a while to build so it won't be installed until September. McGuire stated the bridges were inspected. The north bridge passes inspection. ltjust needs a little bit of welding. The other bridge would not pass. We are looking at what would be the best way to repair it. It could possibly be rebuilt-in-house. There is.a low water crossing over by the west shelter. We are going to re-look at thano see if it can be improved. We are getting closer on the design work on the trail system. Blubaugh met with them on Thursday. We are trying to get this work done before fall so we are pushing to get the design finished. We were trying to figure out how to dothe connection west to east. Using the parking lot, they are looking at putting bollards in and moving parking lot spaces over. We are getting closer to completing the signage work. Hillman inquired where the horse trailers will be parking. McGuire responded there is a big parking lot with water on the other side. 9 OJ Watson Park Committee Update (Troy Houtman) Houtman stated as part of the Naftzger Park construction, we are moving the Gazebo over to OJ Watson Park. We got final plans on the location and pad. That should be happening in June. We are moving forward with other projects through the Master Plan. Tabing inquired ifthe Gazebo will be in a prominent entry location, or where will it be going. Houtman responded it will go on the west side of the park in grove o trees, a great picturesque area. Hillman asked about the. water pipe. McGuire responded it has been pressurized and tested and is working. Houtman stated this past Saturday morning we had an obstacle course. There were about 350 kids. It was 1.25 miles of obstacles. Kids ranged in. age from 5 - 12. BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING May 14, 2018 Page 7 of 8  Saturday evening there was a Movie in the Park, with about 200 attending. 10 Aquatics Master Plan Update (Troy Houtman) Houtman stated tomorrow he is presenting to Council the recommendation on the designer/consultant. The idea is to get all of the plans done this year. Once we get them on board it will take about six months to develop all the plans. The bid came in close to what we expected. Water's Edge Aquatic Design, out of the Kansas City area, was selected as the designer/consultant. Palmer inquired about McAdams. Houtman responded he went to a couple meetings with Councilmember Johnson who is coming up with his suggestion. 11 President's Update (Troy Palmer) No update today. 12 Director's Update (Troy Houtman) Houtman introduced Reggie Davidson, the new Recreation Superintendent. Davidson stated he started on Monday, May 7. He is currently meeting with his team, one-on-one, to see what we have going on and what we can do to grow and enhance what we already offer. He is coming from Round Rock, Texas. Tabing inquired about marketing of programs and what that looks like. Houtman responded we have our quarterly guide. We have a mailing list that it goes to. It also goes into grocery stores and is available on line. We send out email blasts to remind them to look at it. We send it to the school district so they can share it with the kids. We use a lot of social media to target individual activities on a weekly basis. Deatherage added Stacey Hamm is in charge of marketing for the department, she would be happy to answer any question. Buckner added we also use Google Ads, Nextdoor and radio. Adjourn There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at approximately 4:05 p.m. The next regularly scheduled meeting will be held on Monday, June 11, 2018. BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING May 14, 2018 Page 8 of 8