Board of Park Commissioners

Board of Park Commissioners Regular Meeting Minutes Monday, June 11, 2018 3:00- 5:00 P.M. 455 N Main City Hall 11th Floor WICHITA Park & Recreation Conference Room Wichita, Kansas 67202 Members Present: Troy Palmer, Ty Tabing, .Hoyt Hillman, Bill Ramsey, Alejo Cabral Members.Absent: Tori Deatherage, Eddie Fahnestock Oty Staff: Troy Houtman (Director, Park & Recreation), Penny Gardin11_(Clerk), Elizabeth Harlenske (Assistant City Attorney), David McGuire, Reggie Davidson, Shana Appelhanz, Angela Buckner Guest: Calvin Cupp, Lonnie Wright, Rep. Gail Finney, Donna Wirth, Vernette Chance Item Descri11tion call to Order Troy Palmer, Preside11t, called the meeting to order at approximately 3:03 p.m. Welcome to the Board Alejo Cabral, Director of Young Professionals of Wichita at the Chamber. Joining the board representing District I. Announcements There were no Announcements. Public Comments Gall Finney, State Representative.841h District. Here today because of concern.about McAdams Park. Her family has always participated in the park. There is always something there that attracts our citizens and things that we want to see grow and flourish. We're.happy to have the ball park, but.adding the pool and maybe a splash park will keep our com_munity growing. ltwill be a great addition to our community and our constituents will.heavily support it. Pa.lmer inquired if that speaks for all three of them. The other two guests (Wirth and Chance) agreed with what Finn ey said. Palmer asked.Houtman if he was going to talk about this specific or just the Master Plan. Houtman stated he can talk about it now, he was going to talk about it in his report. Tomorrow is a big day. We have been working with Councilmember Johnson regarding the location of the pool in District I. When the budget was taken to Council .last September, they were going to ratify with the addition of $4 million added to District 1 for a swimming pool. Councilmember Lavonta Williams was charged with finding the right location for the pool. That task has now fallen to Councilmember Johnson. We have been giving him statistics, data, demographics and other information. He has also done some public engagement. Tomorrow we BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING June 11, 201B Page 1 of9 are putting forward his.recommendation to the City Council. His recommenclation from the green sheet we put together is thafit goes to McAdams. There is a lot of information and people view the data in,different ways. Council will d_i_scuss that and make the decision. Palmer stated tomorrow would be a good day to be at City Council. Finney stated they had seen Aquatics Master Plan on todays agenda arid they wanted to see what was said. Palmer responded that is on our agenda every month. Houtman added that is what he.would have said on that.item. He continued and finish the topic. Houtman stated we have hired a designer for the design of all the splash pads and the renovation of pools. We are meeting Friday to start that:work and;hopefully can start working on designs to bring back to the,board. In 2019 we have at least one splash pad and maybe two, dependihg on what happens tomorrow. We .have $750,000 for Edgemoor and McAdams spla_ . sh pads. One. thought is if we renovate either one of those pools, we put the $750,000 along with the $4M to geta much better pool. We need to get as milch as we possibly can dollar wise, that is the reason these poois are not being used much, they are just not a lot of fun, they are just a square pool. Theywould rather goto:the YMCA that has the.big.·siides and big wave pool and.such. With $4.75 million going into renovation, hopefully we can do something that will be attractive for people to come use at whatever location itis at. Palmer stated_ it is a. lot of money to spend on something in an area where we had pools before, granted they were just square holes in the ground with water. Ramsey added and not.well attended. Finney stated she has gone there several times and when she gets·there, there is no staff there or no hours posted. One thing that was also bothersome were the restrooms. Not only were they dark, but unclean. It was scary sometimes. The upkeep was also very poor. The maintenance and upkeep was very terrible, even tall grass. Wirth added, the-women's restroom did not even have ifoors until we started complaining about it. When·you close a facility on weekends, when you don't have morning hours for swim lessons and you close before families get home from work, they cannot bring their children to swim. We have conducted promotional activities in the park, in that neighborhood and we get.anywhere .from 150to 450 people. The community is there and ready, we just need to give them the facility·and the programming. Chance stated you can put all you slide there and open, but if the.lifeguards don't show up you are going to have a lovely architectural... Houtman shared all the pools have had reduced.hours, not just that location. We used to have 10 pools and we had funding just to operate five. To do that we had to _reduce the a_mount of hours. Strategically weJooked_,at attendance, revenue and expense recovery from the past 10 years. Time and time again, McAdams was always BOARD oi= PARK crniiM·1sS:10NERS REGULAR MEETING June 11, 2018 Page 2 of9 the lowest. We worked hard on trying to get more kids there. We had busses bringing kids from other neighborhoods and we would get one or two kids on the busses. We promoted it, we gave free lessons, and also free access to the pool. We worked a lot of different ways to promote it and did not get a lot of response. We are hoping with Councilmember Johnson's recommendation, and we put something super fantastic there, "you build it and they will come." Eventually as we start closing pools at other locations and replacing them with splash pads, that gives us more staff to have longer hours, not just at McAdams, but at the remaining three pools we have. Instead of having 10 pools we will have four pools and be able to consolidate and focus on promoting the pool, getting more swim lessons in there and make it more viable. Palmer asked if there is a way to put in a splash pad to start and see what the response is. Houtman responded each of those things you do for contingencies moving forward costs'you more dollars. One of the reasons why McAdams and Edgemoor are locations we have been looking at for the new or renovated pool is because that infrastructure.is already there. If we were to put it by the Boys & Girls Club or another place that we could put it, we would have to build a parking lot, put lighting in, build a new bathhouse and put in all the utility infrastructure. A $4. 75million dollar pool starts to lose its value. If it was to go to a new location then we are talking about a $3 million dollar pool. The thought of putting something in its place and testing in the meantime, is possible. Palmer clarified, not in its place, but next to. When we made the suggestion on the' original plan with only three pools before the decision to put the fourth pool in place, a splash pad would go in over at McAdams at the same location as the. pool. Eventually, whether it is McAdams, Boston or one of the other pools that we are closing down, we have to fill th·e hole. Edge moor has had this hole sitting there for six years. The reason is because Council would not make a decision on the Aquatics Master Plan. If we put a splash pad there, it can be incorporated with the future of what we are going to do'there. But then we still have to create the permitting and do it correctly, in a way that is safe and will be used; and still preserve the possibility for the future. We will still have a hole there, we will still have a lot of things to take care of. We would not be efficiently leveraging dollars. It could happen, it just means we won't.get as much out of those dollars. Palmer stated he is concerned, just like a particular golf course, we have this big conversation hereto go about closing a golf course, and everyone came out in droves to save the golf course. They played it one year and they quit coming the next year: That is what he fears will happen over there. You push and push to get this beautiful pool, then there is no interest anymore. Ramsey stated it was put out at one point that there was a plan and there was a big push made to start using those pools and the attendance went up for one year, then back down the following year. Houtman responded we got a small spike just a few days out of the year at McAdams. He has been talking to the community a lot, aboutwhat they want to do for the future for McAdams if the pool goes there. There is a strong commitment to put in volunteers to help with swim lessons. We need to get more promotions and more marketing into District I to get more people there. The commitment is almost as dire as knocking on the door and dragging the kids to the pool. It is going to take BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING June 11,.2018 Page 3 of9 those folks.in that neighborhood to,really be involved every day, If they are willing to make that commitment, that is somethingworth listening to. It is 1;:oing to be a difficult decision tomorrow. We have the statistics, the information and the data on one side that favors one pool over the other. We will. see how the explanation from the stakeholders and those very interested in McAdams, how much of a persuasion they have on making that decision. Palmer expressed thanksto the guests for all of their time they have put into it. Chance stated they went into it with two things in mind. First, that pool has architectural value. When we started doingresearch we researched the problem of drowning with black.kids. In so many of their'communities there are not swim lessons and when they get into a situation they are more likely to drown. Forgetthe pool and think .about the kids, That is where we have been all along. It .is not an ego thing, it is about offering something to the kids in that neighborhood that they need. They may not understand it at this age. Going to·WSU is not an option, because who is going to take them over there. We workedreally hard to tryto get the community to believe there will be help for them there. We made a four year commitment. We had weekly meetings for months to organize this. Palmer asked if we. sell sponsorships at the pools. Houtman responded yes, we have the mechanism in place to do it. We just need people to go outand knock ori the doors. Wirth stated she would be willing to doing that. We have a list of people we have alreadytalked to; businesses.and organizations that are willing to commit to this pool. A lot of the knocking on. doors has already occurred. Palmer stated they should bring that with them tomorrow. Chance stated Councilmember Johnson has a copy of it. Houtman stated he is just putting facts out, not trying to.sway one way orthe other. The same arguments you talk about with water safety and having lessons, etc.; those could satisfy either pool. .Edgemoor has those same needs and is just as available. Chance asked why it has been sitting there for.six years with no one doing anything. Houtman responded it is because everyone has been waiting on the Aquatics Master Plan. Six years ago it was identified there was a need to upgrade our pools. Every f time staf would bring a recommendation to Council, a strong recommendation one direction or another, it did .not satisfy the needs of .Council. Council is the one that makes the decision, not staff. No one wants to make a difficult, unpopular decision. Finally, a decision was made. Now there is a directive to follow through., That changes if Council says to go a different direction. However, tbe information received from the community engagement and the things we want f�orn the community's voice are probably not the same thing that Council is trying to get done. It is-interesting when we.ask. "do-you. want a new swimming pool," everyone says "yes." ''Do you want a new swimming pool with extra diving boards and splash pads and zero depth entry and slides...yes, yes, yes." But can we afford all of that? Those are the reasons.it kept getting kicked.down the road, BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING June 11, 2018 Page4of9  We have been working on the bathroom stalls. Several years the doors were taken off ago all of our bathroom stalls at all of our parks; simply because of so much vandalism. Our Public Works staff were repeatedly.repairing those doors, cleaning the graffiti, and the doors kept getting torn off. Their thought was to save the City money and just take the doors off. That is the thought process that comes from people that have limited funds and limited· resources. We had discussions this past year, particularly regarding the female restrooms at McAdams, and we have been working with Public Works. About three weeks ago the doors were notin place yet. He gave Public Works a nasty email because one of the promised made was that we were going to put those doors back on those restrooms. He will .double check to make sure those doors are back on now. Finney stated they moved the tennis tournament to WSU last year because of the restroom doors. Houtman responded that makes him mad. But no one came to talk to him about it. We could have done something about it prior to that. Those tennis courts are fantastic and in great shape. Chance stated part.of it is the public doesn't know where to go and who to talk to. It is a very confusing system. Houtman added onthe tall grass, it sounds like they are making excuses and tie does not like that. We use contractors to do most of our mowing, are only allowed so much money and a certain amount of cycles, If the grass gets too long during that point in time, we just have to bite the .bullet until we get the cycle to that point. This doesn't come from staffing not wanting to do their job or bad planning. The commitment is really strong, but with limited resources and directi.ves from those that control resou�ces, there is o.nly so much we can do. The feedback and concern is appreciated. It is not because a lack of caring or interest, or work or commitment. 1 Approve Minutes Recommended Action: Approve, sign and file minutes of the May 14, 2018, Board of Park.Commissioners Special Meeting. Motion by HIiiman, second by Tablng, IT WAS UNANIMOUSLY VOTED to approve, sign and file the minutes ofthe May 14, 2018 Board ofPark Commissioners Regular Meeting (5-0). 2 New Items for Consideration There were no New Items. 3A Naftzger Park Update Houtman stated we now have a fence around it. The parking lot next door was demolished lastweek. McGuire has done a good job of pulling out the items we need to save. We have a lot of the metal picnic tables, benches, etc. He has "rescued" the time capsule and it is in a hidden place. It does not open up officially for another 12 years. The expectation is that the park is notgoing to open until all the construction is completed with the developer. That is a good 14,lS months down the road. Palmer added it already looks better after the metal and the wall on the one side were removed. Houtman added there is going to be buildings around it. Palmer responded yes, but opening·it up looks a lot different. BOARD,OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING June 11, 2018 Page 5 of9 3B Golf Courses Houtman stated he previously talked about the plan the. City is working on. We know the Golf system in bad shape. We are projecting some major lossesthis year. Golf is not as popular as it used to be. We have more courses than we have a need for. We wanted to verify the financial parameters. Staff formed a committee to put together a fact sheet and a decision tool.to make decisions on hard facts.and data. We have completed that. This will roll outto the Golf Advisory Committee tomorrow. We might be pulling.together the Park Board prior to our next scheduled meeting to talk more specifically. about Golf. We thought it was appropriate to give this information to Golf Advisory Committee first, then talk to the Park Board. Ultimately then it will probably go to Council. The land. on some of these courses belongs to the Park Board. Decisions regarding land management come to this board. Operations, financial and staffing decisions are City decisions. We have some short term and long term decisions to make. We are in a diffiqilt situation because the golf system is very much in the red. Because of that, itis having an impact on Park Operations•ahd on the Department, IT and Fleet Services because we use all of those. If we don't have funding to pay for it then it is going to.hit the General Fund. We made a promise that would not happen. The General Fund can't carry.the golf system, particularly in the financial situation the City is in. Palmer inquired if we have ever considered a management company for the golf courses, like we do SMG, the Ice Ce_nter, etc. Houtman responded there has been thought aboutthat in the past. It doesn't solve the problem because we still have. more courses than golfers. • If we did it, it would have to be with all the golf courses because we would not wantto compete against ourselves. We have fouhd that some of those are a lot more expensive and they don't take care of the facilities as well as staff usually does, The bottom line dollar is more important to them than the infrastructure. As of now, It is still in our best interest to operate them ourselves. Palmer stated.he disagrees that they let those things go because their bottom line is the bottom.dollar and people won't come if the infrastructure is not in place. 4 Recreation Update (Reggie Davidson) Davidson provided an overview of some of the activities in the .Recreation Division. • Athletics - Youth fast pitch tournament - May4-6 - Miracle League - Season concluded May 19 • 94 participants • Edgemoor Rec Center - Summer of Discovery- week two - 77 participants - Wichita Parks Found<!tion awarded.scholarships to nine kids • Evergreen Rec Center - Friends of Evergreen meeting - 45 attendees - ESOL program concluded May 7 - 96 attendees and 45 volunteers - Gymnastics classes full - Youth (10)-and Tot (11) with seven oh waitlist BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR'MEETING June.11, 2018 Page 6"of9  - Youth Open Gym - May 17-25, 1:30- 5:30 -141 participants- average of 20 per day. • Special Events - GPNC-Walk with the Wild- May19 - OJ Watson Park • Young Lions Obstacle Course- May 12 • Movies in the Park -May 12 - Tennis Center • High School State Tournament - May 11 • Party at the Net- May 20 Hillman inquired where the obstacle course. was located in OJ Watson Park. Davidson responded to the left ofthe entrance off McLean Blvd. 5 Golf Update (Shana Appelhanz) Appelhanz stated May saw an increase in rounds due to improved weather. Unfortunately, that did not transition to increased revenue. Year-to'date we are down 11% in rounds and 8% in revenue. Net income shows positive but that is without paying internal services. June has started well. This past weekend we had a $35,000 revenue weekend. There were almost 1,000weekend green fee rounds. Last Monday construction started at MacDonald driving range for First Tee. Statistics are in from Gallus Golf, mobile app provider, we surpassed 7,000 downloads last month. During the past year we have had 5,973 unique users, accounting for almost 107,000 sessions, ranking No. 1 in the world among all apps Gallus Golf services. The app was used every single day of the last year by our customers. The slowest day was Christmas Eve, used by 7 people. Christmas Day had 123 people use the app. We sent out199 Push Notifications. The loyalty program combined for 19,000 punches. The app was opened 144,396 times, which is 111,000 more than the app with the most downloads, which is 22,000 downloads, proving ours is the most engaged with users. Hillman asked how the app ranks with other golfapp companies.in .the world. Appelhanz responded Gallus Golf is the number one provider of golf apps. Hillman asked how that translates into money. Appelhanz responded they said that one-third of use generates a tee-time booked, with an average of 3.0 rounds per each of those tee-times. Houtman added imagine if we did not have the app. 6 Golf Advisory Committee Update (Hoyt Hillman/Troy Houtman) Hillman stated the First Tee launch was extraordinary. There was a lot of news media there. Appelhanz stated it will be open to the First Tee kids in the program. In Spring of 2019 it will open to the public. We talked last time about improving course conditions and utilizing an educational campaign. We are seeing positive response from.golfers through the surveys submitted after play. Palmer stated there was conversation on Facebook about conditions at MacDonald. Hillman.added it is less BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING June 11, 2018. Page 7 of9  than perfect, but it is coming along. Appelhanz stated MacDonald'is going through the transition from cool season to warm season grass. Hillman.stated the last Golf Advisory Committee meetingwas May 1. The plan for the annual golf fee increase was put together. Now they are on •hold waiting on the report: There .is a meeting tomorrow to talk about how to move forward. 7 Wichita Parks Foundation Update (Troy Houtman) Houtman stated the Wichita Parks Foundation is getting ready for July 4 atthe Hyatt Lawn. This month there is a fundraiser at Reflection Square Park- Dinner in the Park on Friday, June 29 for $25 per person. Official start is at 6:30, but Houtman will be there at 5:30. The cocktail truck will be there. The Foundation is doing really well on .other things also. They are getting more exposure and working on Plates for Parks. We will start promotion and marketing in September or October and start selling in January, 2019. Palmer inquired about how to get plate #1. Houtman responded he is not sure if it is possible to get that. They have a new process that doesn't guarantee a number. We are meeting with the State folks to see if we can get that #1. The Foundation was able to get additional sponsors for the July 4 stage and security staff. Freddy's Frozen Custard pays for the fireworks. We are going to.have food trucks there and they all pay to be there. 8 Pawnee Prairie Park Update (David McGuire) McGuire shared updated project improvements. • Lights for the west parking lot have been purchased and will be installed in the next 30 days. • Playground installation is estimated to begin in August. We.anticipate 30 days to complete. • Low water crossings - Box culverts have been ordered for the three different crossings. They should arrive in August. Hillman inquired ifStormwater would .be doing the work. McGuire responded no, it will be con.tracted out. - One bridge {the left·one on presentation slide) work will be done in house - Metal bridge {on the right on the presentation slide) needs minor work • Headway is being made on the trails. The bid packets are being put together now. • We are going to take part ofthe parking lot and make it where the walking/bicycle path can.cunhrough and connect'the trail around the park. • Locations for the sign blades have been marked. ExamP.les were-shared. - looking for ways to mark trail for emergency response locating - Designations'for type of trail: W - Walking, B - Bicycle, H- Horse - We will eventually do this at all wildlife parks. 9 OJ Watson Park Committee l)pdate (Troy Houtman) Houtman stated they are looking at improvements from the OJ Watson Park Master Plan including putting'in four season shelter. We are moving forward with getting BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING June·u, 2018 Page8of9  Council approval and starting to solicit designs. We will be using two years of funding, between $500,000 and $700,000. If we can initiate two years, then we can start working on design and construction. We have been doing tons of programming. We had the movie, the Gladiator Kids Run, OK Kids Day and Touch A Truck. Ramsey asked about the committee. Houtman responded it has been hit and miss. We have been trying to get them gathered and incorporate some of their suggestions. He will follow up with Brian Hill to see how the committee is working. Hillman inquired about the irrigation. McGuire responded it is on our list to start working on a design and construction documents. Then how does it fit into to the plan of redoing things. 10 Aquatics Master Plan Update (Troy Houtman) Houtman gave update at the beginning of the meeting. Houtman stated we are looking forward to get things moving forward. He is excited to do the design. He traveled to El Paso for a CAPRA accreditation visit last week. They are putting in eight splash pads and a couple natatoriums through their Aquatics Master Plan. He got some really good ideas. 11 President's Update (Troy Palmer) Palmer expressed thank you to Park Department for help with Riverfest. Houtman stated it starts about three months in advance with all the preparation, planning, etc. They are also getting more involved in their programming. Our recreation staff was there. The SayYES program was there on four days, working with Transit. 12 Director's Update (Troy Houtman) Houtman gave a shout out to Park Maintenance and Construction staff working at Dr. Glen Dey on the new playground. The global motion that was at the Pop-Up Park is now in its permanent location at Dr. Glen Dey Park. Two nights out of the week we are going to have open basketball that is free. One night at McAdams gym and the other one at Lynette Woodard. Davidson added it will be from 5-7pm on Wed at Woodard and 8-lOpm at McAdams on Friday. Adjourn There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at approximately 4:13 p.m. The next regularly scheduled meeting will be held on Monday, July 9, 2018. g, Clerk BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING June 11, 2018 Page 9 of 9