Board of Park Commissioners

Board of Park Commissioners Regular Meeting Minutes Monday, August 13, 2018 3:00 - 5:00 p.m. C I T T D O F 455 N Main WICHITA City Hall 11th Floor Park & Recreation Conference Room Wichita, Kansas 67202 Members Present: Troy Palmer, Bill Ramsey, Hoyt Hillman, Alejo Cabral, Ty Tabing, Eddie Fahnestock, Tori Deatherage City Staff: Troy Houtman (Director, Park & Recreation), Penny Garding {Clerk), Elizabeth Harlenske (Assistant City Attorney), Reggie Davidson, David McGuire, Larry Hoetmer, Matt Townsend, Shana Appelhanz, Angela Buckner, Corey Lyons (Park Staff), Rick Stubbs {PWU - Facilities), Gordon Ramsay (Chief of Police), Troy Livingston (Deputy Police Chief), Wendell Nicholson (Police Captain), Bryan Frye (City Council, District V) Guest: Chris Stark, Calvin Cupp {WSU), Charles McAfee, Justin Graham {SJCF), Joe Johnson {SJCF) Item Descri�tion Call to Order Troy Palmer, President, called the meeting to order at approximately 3:01 p.m. Announcements There were no announcements. Public Comments Chris Stark, 720 S Hiram. He skates at Aley Skate Park would like to have a water fountain and a picnic table to use while allowing other patrons to use park. 1 Approve Minutes A. Recommended Action: Approve, sign and file minutes of the July 6, 2018, Board of Park Commissioners Special Meeting. Motion by Hillman, second by Ramsey, IT WAS UNANIMOUSLY VOTED to approve, sign and file the minutes of the July 6, 2018 Board of Park Commissioners Special Meeting {6-0). B. Recommended Action: Approve, sign and file minutes of the July 9, 2018, Board • of Park Commissioners Regular Meeting. Motion by Ramsey, second by Cabral, IT WAS UNANIMOUSLY VOTED to approve, sign and file the minutes of the July 9, 2018 Board of Park Commissioners Regular Meeting (6-0). Deatherage joined meeting at approximately 3:08 p.m. 2A Cypress Park - Police Substation Rick Stubbs, City of Wichita Public Works, Facilities, along with Wichita Police Department Senior Staff, and Justin Graham and Joe Johnson, Schaefer Johnson Cox Frey Architecture. They have spent some time developing some site profiles and possibilities. Originally it was at the Bristol site, located on Central just east of BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING August 13, 2018 Page 1 of 15 Greenwich Road. The handout provided to each of you gives a chronological history of what has been happening with development of a new police station for the City of Wichita; as well as our steps in looking at land possibilities. The Bristol site was acquired in early 2000's and designed from a land use for park use, a potential new fire station and a police station. The slide to the left and outlined in the dashed white lines is the land purchase that was done in early 2000's. Through a series of studies the potential of a police station is outlined on the right, for the Bristol site. That location showed all of the programming efforts for a police station with a separate parking lot for park use. The site is just a little over four acres of total land use. The study languished from 2008 through 2016, not much activity. In 2017 we met with Chief Ramsay to discuss a new station design concept and programming. They were working through a police staffing study dealing with adding more officers to the force. At that time we brought in SJCF and other consulting architect dealing more with police stations on a national level to integrate best practices. Several months were spent coming up with a new concept for a police station. They came up with a station about 23,000 square feet in size. The current police stations range about 4,500-5,500 for the four patrol stations they have now. Chief Ramsay added it is critical to know those were initially designed for 20-30 officers and now we have over 100 that work out of them. Stubbs added in addition to that they have far more equipment needs. Right now they are all_ dealing with the Axon cameras, more community policing, SWAT response, etc. This site has turned out to be something that is too close to the Sedgwick/Butler County line. They are wanting to move the station location further back into east, east/central Wichita. We started a quest looking for land that is city-owned that could meet the size needs. Everything we had from the City that was large enough acreage was not meeting police needs as far as response to the areas they need to get to, higher crime and traffic issues, as well as their limitations on getting onto the major thoroughfares with some ease. With that and the desire to keep a community policing network in place from the current station located at Edgemoor and Kellogg, and support of the neighborhoods, it has circled back to looking at the current location and building the new station there, which would involve encroaching into Cypress Park. We are here to talk about that possibility and what we can show for potential layouts in support o that. Justin Graham (SJCF) showed an aerial view of Cypress Park and the surrounding properties and indicated the left image shows Edgemoor on west perimeter of the park and Lexington Road on the south. The existing fire station and police station is located in the referenced building with the fire station occupying the larger piece. The Girl Scouts Headquarters is located to east and north. The boundary of the park is mostly natural green space. There are some site developments such as a playground and park benches. One of the large attributes of this park is the drainage way that runs up to 13th Street to the north and goes underground at Edgemoor. The image on the right is a FEMA map. The pink region shows the area you would definitely stay out of and the blue and tan areas can be built in with appropriate BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING August 13, 2018 Page 2 of 1S building pad elevation. The parking to south is dedicated to the fire and police stations. The eastern parking is dedicated for the girl scout headquarters. We are not aware of any parking available to this site. We have gone through an exhaustive programming process that started last summer. We have seen tremendous growth in the police station functions and needs. We started with a program of about 26,000 sq. ft. As the City has worked through its budgeting process and what can be available for a new station we have got it down to 22,250 sq. ft. today. Graham stated the next slide is the proposed police station on the site. The left image is showing the context of the entire park and what has been proposed within it. The right image is a blown up view so you can see it more clearly. The yellow footprint is the 22,250 sq. ft. proposed police station, located at the south end of the park. We have tried to maintain the proximity to the existing station, encroaching to the minimum extent possible. A new drive and approach is proposed off of Edgemoor for public and police access. You would have public parking on the west side in the smaller lot and then an ornamental steel fence that would secure the perimeter of the building and police vehicle parking on the east side. There are about 65 personnel vehicles and 60 police vehicles involved with the station. There would be a secured gate accessed by access card. They would also utilize the existing drive on the east side to access the back of the building through a secured gate as well. The south row of parking in the new parking is actually overlaid over the existing parking lot. The fire station will continue to function after police move out. They need parking for about 22 vehicles to handle shift changes. They will occupy a good portion of the existing parking lot. There is also existing gas service located under a canopy on the east side of the building. They are proposing to maintain rather than relocate. One question is what happens with the existing patrol station once it is vacated. There is a large squad room that could be utilized as a community room. The main entrance to the building is at the south end with public parking. The parking count can fluctuate depending on the number of spaces that Park might desire to have available for park usage. At the north end of the building there is a sally port. There would be an ornamental steel fence around the perimeter. There is a zone of greenspace to be preserved for future training or activities that might happen. This is not a central site for police training. Stubbs stated the 15 public parking spaces could be used by park patrons. This site situation with the building and parking maintains the greatest number of trees currently on the site, particularly the ones along the small drainage ditch. We talked with Stormwater staffing; typically a site of this size would require detention/retention ponds, but in this case they are allowing to drain to the drainage ditch by going through a bioswale assembly, which we would engineer into the process. There would not be a separate pond or water feature. Graham stated they have overlapped the existing playground so that would be relocated. BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING August 13, 2018 Page 3 of 15 Hillman inquired about the footprint for the police station is partially sitting on the 500-year flood plain. Wouldn't it make more sense to turn it east/west and move it to the other end of the area, out of the flood plain, and leave better parking and public access to the parks? Graham responded there is room for consideration of sliding things east or west. As a police station, this becomes a symbolic public building. There is desire to have some frontage along Edgemoor. A look at the overall area involved and with rotating the building east/west and then parking around the north side, it ended up about the same amount of area. Based on the premise that we could build, with appropriate building pad within that area, they are comfortable suggesting the current layout at this time. With this type of layout they envision maybe just removing trees at southern tip. Tabing added from an urban planning perspective the building should be at the property line, so the closer to the street the better. It becomes a suburban development when the first thing you see is parking. If there is an opportunity to move the building closer to Edge moor, from an urban planning perspective that makes sense, as does screening the parking that would be the first thing you see when you see this important public building. Palmer added you can't get too much closer because that river runs through there. Graham added compared to the Bristol site, they have really pinched the green space trying to compress it as much as possible. Palmer asked how far it would be from Edgemoor to the building. Graham responded close to 100-100+ feet. Also the north end of the building, the approach into the sally port has potential to be explored further. They tried to establish the maximum area that can be worked in. It is all very preliminary, there are no site surveys yet. This is about the appropriate amount of space. Palmer stated isn't the fire station going away? Stubbs responded he met with Fires staff last week and asked specifically about Station 9's status. Although the CIP shows five new stations for consideration, Station 9 will stay. Chief Ramsay stated while we are losing part of the park land; that frees up the Bristol site to remain park land. There are over 100+ people a day that walk into that station. When this was built in the late 1980s it was about 20-30 people that worked out of this area. There is a meeting room in the old station that they want to continue to utilize. The community rooms have been cut out of police stations and we want to have a place where we can meet with community members. It would be available for Park Board, other community groups and police. The savings with gas and having a site where the infrastructure is existing is significant to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The other thing talked about is trying to work better with the park and little tweaks with the land area that we cold use. They want to work with the Board to make sure that happens. They met with Cabral last week and discussed whatever they can do to make the site work. In the east bureau it is one of the more central locations. The far east location is not practical unless they add other stations. It is a working police station not just the current substation. This location has a significant community benefit. It keeps them in the neighborhood and maintains their presence in the area. Keep police there will help stabilize that neighborhood. BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGUlAR MEETING August 13, 2018 Page 4 of 15 Deputy Chief Livingston stated at Patrol North they have playground equipment behind the substation. They like seeing families come there to play and they get to interact with the kids. The like being part of the park, it is a great location and the fact that kids come there to play on the equipment. Captain Wendell Nicholson added they are very flexible and it is what the community wants. Some of the space he indicated on the display, could possibly be a dog park. Open to what the community wants. Our work, if we could get the community input on any art. They could utilize some elementary schools throughout bureau and maybe put some artwork or murals on the bridge in front of the station. Ta bing asked if they set aside budget for those types of public art enhancements. Stubbs responded there is money in the budget for art. Design Council indicated they would like to see art as part of this project. They have laid out what they believe to be design costs, building construction costs, furniture, IT and various things to align to a cost that is keeping with what is in the CIP. The dog park potential is a strong candidate. There have been previous discussions about liking a dog park here. In that particular case, they would fence off just from the north/south line of the large parking area so the triangle area would become a dog park and the rest would be fenced as appropriate for dog park activities. This project, while doing everything from programming and initial design, has not been released or approved by Council for the budget. That is slated to be discussed tomorrow. Pending that approval design RFPs would go out for architectural costs and final design. It would be based on the programming work and what would be established with Park Board as to final requirements and parameters. The work being dealt with trying to shrink the north so taking as little of the park land as possible would still be going on. Could possibly still drive the building a bit farther south by taking the bottom row of parking. There is a bit of excess parking in the existing lot. It currently has 55 parking spaces, 22 of which need to be kept for the fires station, we are overlapping the top row. It leaves maybe 20 stalls open. They will continue to work with capturing as little park land as possible. This shows a maximum effort into park land encroachment. The area exclusively of triangle is about two acres. The Bristol site was reported at 4.2 acres. Chief Ramsey has indicated that police have no need for that Bristol parcel, it could go back to park property at this point and figure out what to do with it in the future. Palmer inquired who is maintaining that Bristol land. Stubbs responded it is not maintained, it is wildlife area. We were taking the south end, it is very developable land. McGuire inquired if it could be a possibility of just putting the playground in triangle instead of dog park. Dogs parks can be confrontational, the police might be called on to "referee" the disputes. Stubbs responded they would be very open to suggestions from the board or Park staff. Palmer inquired who owns the land in front of Girl Scouts. Stubbs responded he does not know. Deatherage stated Google Maps says the Girl Scouts own it. Palmer added moving the park over into that triangle would be better served. You could use the Girl Scout parking lot. It still keeps the police involved and close buy. Cabral added if we do that bridge and incorporate artwork you would be able to connect people across the park. That creek separates BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEmNG August 13, 2018 Pages of 15 everything so people don't go back and forth. If we put that playground on the back, it will block people in, instead of allowing them to have access to the whole park. Houtman added a lot of our park users use girl scout parking then use the rest of the park, or they will use the fire station. Palmer added now they are going to use those 15 public spaces. Houtman added they can still use the Girl Scouts parking lot to access the rest of the park. The biggest issue is we spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to manage this park, what can we do to improve it. The dog park is a good idea. Hoetmer and he have spent time out there and the creek is dividing portion of the park. If you are on the west side you can't get to east, and vice versa. We've been talking about a bridge. It would also connect things closer to that park. It would connect to the police station. There could be a bicycle trail going through the park by the Girl Scout building. Then you have access from the top to the bottom of the park. Palmer asked where are you thinking for the bridge. Houtman indicated there are couple open spaces with good connecting points. By putting the police station there it reduces access to east side of the park, it is important connect both sides of the park together. Hoetmer added that is a good thought. You have this natural dividing line, you make the park more useable by having a connector. It is a passive use park, not a park with ball fields that accumulates a lot of people. You don't have the kind of parking you would need at a higher use park. If something like this were to be done to make the park more useable with a bridge that makes it more connected to the community, it would be a benefit. Palmer asked where people will park on that side to get over there. Cabral responded they won't necessarily park, they could ride their bikes there, walk there. Palmer indicated where the sidewalk ends and inquired if they are going to ride or walk up Edgemoor. He is not disagreeing that it doesn't need to connect, but if it is not going to get used it seems like a waste. Ramsey added it is great until the Girl Scouts finish off fence and then no one can walk through their parking lot to get to the park. Hoetmer added early on that was one of sites that was looked at for a dog park. Hillman stated if we are going to give up land that the Park Board owns, how about we either take over some of the previous land they have showri us in exchange or_ use our power to create a parking lot in the north and make all of the area indicated a dog park with easy access; or do something different over in the area indicated. We own it so we have the power to give it to them or exchange it. Palmer responded he understands we have the power, but do they have the money to give us to build a park. Hillman responded they have an amenities fund. Palmer responded when you start talking parking lots and drainage and all those things it becomes more than just. Hillman responded the parking lot he is talking about would not be that big of a drainage area. Hoetmer stated one thing important in this, the land that was purchased at Central and Bristol was a shared purchase. Hillman asked with whom. Chief Ramsay responded the police department. Ramsey stated so we are talking about giving them this land for in exchange for the entirety of the other land. Palmer added we already own part of the other land. Hoetmer responded it is a shared purchase. Stubbs stated originally the area indicated was set aside for the park. With this going away, the four plus acres indicated in exchange for two acres there it is a two-for-one deal. Ramsey added the value on the land is not the same. Hoetmer BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING August 13, 2018 Page 6 of 15 added we have a develop plan now and it is developed as a park and will be maintained as such. This land (the Bristol site) is developable but it is going to be expensive to develop. Palmer asked if this land is worth anything. Hoetmer responded yes. Houtman added it is on Central which could be good street front property that could be sold. Those proceeds could then be used development of a park. Development of a park behind a strip mall probably isn't a good idea, but there are other things that can be looked at. You could sell the whole thing. We are not in the business of selling greenspace. Palmer added half of it is in our money now, but if we could sell it... Hoetmer added there is a lack of greenspace on the east side of town. Ramsey asked what we are looking for. Is this presented for our information so in the future we are aware? Or are we supposed to be voting on something? He asked to go back to the new location slide. One of the immediate issues he has is the parking for the public is away from the actual park. Houtman responded in front of the building we have 15 spaces. Ramsey said it seems like a very long distance to get over to the playground or into the park. It is not very inviting to get them to actually use the park. If turn the whole thing clockwise, where parking is actually next to the park. Stubbs responded with that it is going to end up in the fenced area controlled by gated access. Ramsey added you liked having the playground equipment by the patrol station so that we can talk to the kids and such; are you going to talk to them through a steel fence. Overall it is a great thing. Citizen (later identified as Charles McAfee) stated he goes through that area all the time. He keeps looking at the creek separating the park, why don't you put some parking spaces on Edgemoor with some little bridges going across so they can access directly across the creek. Ramsey added that is his point, we are saying we want to split this up and these are the things we want to do. The parking isn't accessible to the park, it is probably the most inconvenient place for accessing the park. We are cutting off where the Girl Scout parking lot is and that is a private lot and not public parking anyway. If they decide to close that off we cut out the only two places people were parking before. Palmer stated they can still park over there. Ramsey responded if they ever put up a fence, that is not our property to make that call, or to depend on that to be available for public parking. That is private parking that people are using. From a police perspective it is amazing, from a park board perspective we are not making it very accessible to the people for the park. Either put a parking lot up by the bridge or we need to find a way to get parking closer into the park. We are making it less accessible. Cabral inquired if we are recommending... Ramsey responded he is not recommending anything, just saying it is the most inconvenient. Tabing stated there is conceptual support for the concept of moving forward of conveying park district land to make this project happen. Maybe the hope is that some of the planning issues will be addressed and we will see those later. Palmer inquired if we would see those later. Houtman responded what you do is share what your expectations are as owners of the property. Palmer asked if they would get to see the plan before it gets... you are asking us to give our blessing to move forward with the plan, but we've seen it before where we give our blessing and that is the last we get to see of it. Stubbs responded our process, which depends on where you BOARD OF PARK COMMlSSIONERS REGULAR MEITING August 13, 2018 Page 7 of 15  build in the City, has requirements for design element review. This is something that we could bring the siting concepts back to you through Troy or some other mechanism. They could also look at the issues of, as they further refine the building looks and needs, if able to shrink that up or are able to move the station east, they could bring those back to the board. The playground located where indicated on the presentation, measures about 70 x 70. Walking from parking to playground, or if the playground was sited where indicated there would not be a very far distance to walk to the playground. The triangle could become something in support of a park. Palmer stated the location of the station and parking is as much of an issue as the park is now to get to, to activate the park. Instead of moving it over and using that public parking and then getting the bridge across makes more sense. (Multiple conversations happening at one time.) Stubbs .... you can see it narrows up with the pink no build zone where it hits the underpass that goes under Edgemoor. If the idea is that the building and the public parking lot could be shifted more to the east, and not saying it could, is this too close to Edgemoor for a playground. Multiple responses indicating yes, it would be a safety issue. Stubbs responded you would want it protected and back in the park. Johnson stated for clarification you are talking about a vehicular parking lot pedestrian bridge across street, vehicular parkin1 lot not a bridge across but a pedestrian bridge across the creek. Palmer responded yes with some kind of lot either on Edgemoor or up at the top of the park land. Johnson added a pedestrian bridge would certainly be a lot cheaper. Ramsey it is nice that we have 15 public parking spaces, but as much walk in traffic as there is those could be used up at any given time. Anyone trying to use the park is now out of luck. Graham responded that number is negotiable. Originally we had 40 public parking spaces when there was a community center attached to the police station. Without having the large meetings take place at the station we reduced that public count down significantly, but it could easily be 20 parking spaces or whatever we mutually find would serve both facilities. Hillman stated he appreciates the time taken to answer all the questions. We are sort of in general agreement that we like the idea want to move forward. If police pull out of Bristol does it become all park. Houtman responded as they look at the background information, it was jointly purchased by both the Police Department and Park and Recreation. He read from the agreement "the estimated land is $1.125M and includes the closing costs and associated fees. CIP includes funding for park land in 2005 and 2006 and the Police substation in 2006. Funding for the land purchase is proposed at $500,000 for the Park project and $625,000 for the Police project, for a total budget of $1.125M." What happened was Park put in $500,000, the Police department put in $625,000. It sounds like what Chief was talking about is he would give his portion of the $625,000 to Park in exchange for this. Hillman stated that would be a.reasonable exchange. Ramsey asked if we had an estimated value of what that is? Houtman responded it has probably increased quite a bit since then. What can we use it for? It is always great to have greenspace and park property. We have a lot of vacant park property across the city. Do we have the resources to develop it, that is the big question. That is what we get really fancy with. For example we had property fall into our laps from Cadillac Lake. We had some CIP dollars, we also had some gifted land. If we didn't have the Hyatt funds and maybe some other funds we might be looking at, we would BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING August 13, 2018 Page 8 of 15 not be able to develop that. It is always great to have that green space. With the anticipation of developing them it is difficult because we don't have the funds to do that. The other question is what will we do with this property. It is a great asset, do we want sell it, develop it. Those are questions we need to look at. We have never focused on the outer ring of the city, we've always focused on repairing and updating our existing parks. There are a lot of different philosophies to look at. Palmer stated we can talk about all that after. Houtman agreed those are all things to talk about later on. Ramsey stated his only concern is making it conveniently available to people. Houtman responded you have done this before with other negotiations. Share what your expectations are, we can look at other resources within grants and other changing of priorities and putting some other amenities to the park, whether it is a bridge or a walk-way or to add the parking lot. You can say those are some of the thing you would like to do in the park. We would want to partner with the Police on that if they can help us with some of these things. They have a limited budget, but when we go back and after they put in their infrastructure and there are additional needs, we wo·uld want the Police department to help us find those resources. Partner with us to put in grants or soliciting some different ideas to Council for changing priorities of CIP projects. Cabral within scope of the project there are a lot of concerns around accessibility. Laying all those things on the table, what is even feasible within the scope of the project? Is that even something we have looked at? Stubbs responded they have set aside money for art which can be a difficult thing to put a pin on. The original concept for the building you are looking at on land that is city owned, was just under $10M. We shrunk the building, parking and other things and are down to just over $7M to build, guesstimating now. Palmer asked if there is $7M for the building. Stubbs responded there is $7M right now slated in the CIP to be voted on by Council tomorrow. He would love to say if there is money left over that they could look at doing as much park amenities immediately as we know the status of the funding. What is reasonable to expect during the design process for the building would be to explore siting of a bridge, the ideas about the parking moved for park and other public use. And also look at what would be the placement of the playground at one location versus other location. If they take the playground for space to build the station they would be responsible for rebuilding it within the park. They purposely did not try to second guess the Park side about amenities and features, they tried to concentrate on the footprint of the building and what they believe to be the maximum usage of park space in order to get it built. Those pictures show that so they don't have to come back and saying they need more space. Until it is completely figured out they are hesitant to guarantee there is funding to build bridge or other things, but they can do the site planning and possibly design of a foot bridge, etc. within the programming fund. Palmer stated it seems like a waste of money to put that park out there if you don't have parking. Stubbs responded the couple times he has gone there he has tried to find were you are to park. This is a step in a positive direction for the greater use by providing this amount of space. Palmer stated that is a problem with what we face in the City. We do a lot of things that have grand plans, then they don't develop so we settle for something with the BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING August 13, 2018 Page 9 of lS possibility of it will never happen. He is all for the Police station, it will be very frustrating if the Fire department does in fact move in the near future. Chief Ramsay added based on what everyone said suggested doing a preliminary approval to work with them contingent upon the board having final say of the site design. Palmer responded there isn't any disagreement with this plan as far as the Police station going there. Everyone is on board with that. It is more what do we do with the rest of the park, don't want to give false hope to the neighbors. Ramsay stated he agrees with Chief, his main concern is parking and accessibility to the park. We are cutting a part off and saying we are relying on a private parking lot. What he is saying is we could approve it with the contingency that we approve the site plan. Cabral made a motion to work with the police on developing the police station at cypress park contingent upon the Board's approval of the final site plan of the police station and the transfer of the land on Central and Bristol. Ramsey- second. Motion by Cabral, second by Ramsey, IT WAS UNANIMOUSLY VOTED to work with the Police on developing the Police station at Cypress Park contingent upon the Board's approval of the final site plan of the Police station and the transfer of the land on Central and Bristol (7-0). Charles McAfee, #16 Crestview Lakes, here to talk about tennis courts at McAdams Park. As a young boy the only two places they could play in this town was a sandlot at Dunbar School and what was then called McKinley Park. Came here to ask you to vacate Ohio from 14th to 15th and back to Wabash so we can increase the number of tennis courts. In addition, add a pro shop with locker rooms, showers and all the things that go along with it. It would be open 12 months out of the year. The reason asking, that tournament has been going on for about 40 years and people come from at least five states. This year they played at Wichita State. There are no restrooms and note enough courts. We could more than double the number of courts by going further north and back west to Wabash. The reason saying to vacate Ohio, after the redesign of L'Ouverture School, the new entrance is off of Wabash. There is no need for Ohio at all. We would have to cut fewer trees to add the courts going north on to what is now Ohio street. Would like to see this considered, it is important and the history of the Charles Doughty Tennis Courts is very important. This is an important neighborhood. Emerson McAdams was everything to us. One year McAfee was blessed to go to City Council and ask them to rename that park Emerson McAdams Park, and they did. He has suggested to his City Councilor that the baseball diamond be named for Robert "Bob" Thurman. Hillman stated Mr. McAfee has wonderful ideas, appreciate the message. It is twofold 1) to better use what we have and give children a controlled upbringing and teach some guidelines and rules and let them see the results of their actions. It makes sense to close Ohio down through the park. Where will the funds for the rest of that process come from? McAfee responded it is your responsibility to keep Wichita beautiful. You need to convince the folks on the first floor that you need some money to do this. He will fight with you to get additional money for this program. Palmer asked what Councilman Johnson thought about this. McAfee responded he told him was going to do this and about the Bob Thurman name for the ball park. Houtman added we are aware this tournament BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING August 13, 2018 Page 10 of 15  moved and was highly disappointed with that. We learned one of the reasons it moved is because concerns with the condition of the bathrooms. Public Works has gone in and made upgrades to the restrooms. One complaint was there was a lack of dividers for the women. He understands those have been installed along with other lighting fixtures and things like that. There were complaints and we reacted to meet those needs. It doesn't mean we have not added all the tennis courts are probably needed for a large tournament, but we have other tennis courts nearby that could be used and managed. We can also look at a bigger idea or master plan for this park. League 42 has already added one ball field and they want to add another one. They have purchased property on the north part of 17 th . There is an idea regarding a water park going in to replace the swimming pool; or actually renovating the swimming pool with a smaller amount of dollars. There is a lot happening. An overall master plan is something we really need to consider and talk about instead of piecemealing things here and there. There is always a need to find amenities that will meet what our community needs. He wants to explore this more. McAfee suggested to have staff pull up Samuel Grand Park in Dallas. Tabing inquired if when the final decision about the swimming pool is made, would that potentially trigger looking at a master plan for the large site. Houtman responded there are a lot of things to look at. We need to figure out what is the best use for this property and how to manage it, what amenities do we want and what expectations do we have. No one has given him the authorization or funding to create a master plan for this park. We need to talk to Councilmember Johnson about it. Cabral would be responsible for making that happen. There are other things to consider as well. We have a strong Tennis Center already that we are looking for expansion there as well. But, to make one tennis center just for one tournament, not sure that is the right way of going about it. We would need to explore what is the demand for tennis at this location. How will it fit with rest of park? Those are all the things we need to look at. Ramsey stated for clarification we don't have the authority, the responsibility would like with the Planning Commission on vacating streets and closing streets off. Houtman responded this particular street is in the park and this is our park. Ramsey clarified that we then own the street. Houtman responded yes. Ramsey stated he is not concerned about vacating the street, he was wondering who has the authority to actually_close that street. Houtman added that goes along with partnering with Planning. Is there a demand, what is the vehicular traffic? There are a lot of things to look at. Naming baseball field is easy. That does need a recommendation from the Park Board, then it goes to Council for a vote. Ramsey asked for the name of the gentleman. McAfee responded his name is Robert "Bob" Thurman. Palmer stated we could make that motion to name the park. Houtman clarified to name the ball field. Harlenske stated this need to be on the agenda and make sure we are in compliance with Council Policy #13 on naming. Houtman responded we will put it on the next meeting agenda. 3A Naftzger Park Update Houtman stated there have been a couple meetings, we are getting closer to the final design. Hopefully he will be able to bring to the next meeting. They are talking to stakeholders and different folks who would be doing programming there. 4 Recreation Update (Reggie Davidson) BOARD OF PARK COMMlSS/ONERS REGULAR MEITING August 13, 2018 Page 11 of 15 Buckner recapped the Shocker Neighborhood Sk from July 28. There were 175 participate with 16 registering the day of the event. The event is through the Kansas Health Foundation. There was no cost to Park and Recreation. It took place at Fairmount. They did the walk, jog and run on Tuesday and Thursday morning. At Fairmount in the evening and at Go Create in the mornings. If a participant completed all the sessions they received a water bottle, backpack and paid registration. Forty five participants earned free registration for the event. Surveys indicated most wanted to participate to feel better, lose weight, community involvement and reduce stress. A lot also want to move the time earlier to start at 7:00 a.m. The participation was 68% female and 32% male for the 8 week program. The first place winner completed in 18 minutes. KAKE-TV emceed the event. We will do it again next year. The participants all want to continue the morning and evening activities. We are working with the Heskett Center and Koch to do walking and jogging in the mornings and evenings when it gets colder during the winter session. Davidson shared July Recreation Highlights Boston Rec Center Specialty Camps were well attended. • Medieval Times • Water Camp • Video Game Live • Mystery Theatre KAKE-TV did an onsite live interview spotlighting the Medieval Times camp Worked with Patrol East, they partnered with a local apartment complex to offer open gym Edgemoor Rec Center - 73 participants in Summer of Discovery on a weekly basis • 22 - Saint Francis Community Service • 10- Wichita Parks Foundation Scholarship • 20- Department of Children & Families - Pickleball classes growing. Evergreen Rec Center Unique programming and expanded some of their cooking classes Defense workshop didn't make in spring, but did make in summer Saw an increase in rentals onsite and had to expand those over to Minisa to accommodate requests. Special Events - Yoga in the Park - Riverside Park - July 7, 2018 - Pickle ball Grand Opening - Tennis Center - July 21, 2018 - Splash Party-Osage Park - July 21, 2018 - LevelUP-Sutton Place Parking Garage - July 21, 2018 - Concert Series - McAdams Park -July 21,2018 - Jackie Joyner-Kersee - Woodard Recreation Center - July 28, 2018 BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING August 13, 2018 Page 12 of 15  - Floatin' on the River - July 28, 2018 Deatherage left meeting at approximately 4:53 p.m. 5 Golf Update (Troy Hendricks) Hendricks stated rounds continue to decline from last year. We are down 6% ytd. This is the first time they have fallen under 90,000 rounds since becoming a five course system. Revenue has also declined 6%, they are going hand in hand. Expenditures are down this year by about $443,000, or 16%. That also reflects that we haven't paid any internal service fees. The Golf Division has generated 51% of its budget for revenue for the first seven months of the year, versus 53% last year. We are down a little. Rounds compared to the end of May, we have actually gained ground. Auburn Hills is up 4%, Tex Consolver is up 2%, Sim is up 4% from where they were, Clapp is up 6% in rounds from where they were. But the big gain has been MacDonald where we are up 10% in rounds since the end of May. Junior Golf Tour • 42 kids • 6 tournaments • Wichita Junior Cup, top 4 players play for the Wichita Cup. • 4 players from the Tour have gone on to receive college scholarships • $3,635 in revenue generated for the Golf Division. Parent-Junior Tournament • Hosted at MacDonald GC • Sunday, July 29 • 9-hole shotgun, 2-person teams (parent and junior) • Adults limited to 3 clubs and play an alternate shot • SOLD OUT (36 teams)! • 3 flights, top 4 placers awarded Wichita Junior Golf Foundation • 2nd year online registration • 535 kids registered, $20 per. Up almost 100 kids from last year • Beginner programs sold out (120 kids at both sites - LW Clapp and Auburn Hills)! • Highest registration in 8 years • Weekly participation increased 24%. Each week volunteers keep track for the Foundation who sends a check for a portion of the greens fee. • Wichita Open Pro-Junior Tournament • Progression for 2019. The kids who completed the beginners program and pass a rules test have the ability to move on to the next program. GPS Mobile App • New graphics, more detailed than any other app • Driving range exact yardage BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING August 13, 2018 Page 13 of 15  Ladies Beginner Group Lessons • Several requests • Transitioned some classes with no registration over to Ladies • Promoted the Ladies Beginner on Nextdoor app • SOLD OUT in 45 minutes! • Offered a second, SOLD OUT in an hour! • Scheduling a third for October Driving Range at Mac. 6 Golf Advisory Committee Update (Hoyt Hillman/Troy Houtman) Hillman stated the Committee is available and will be responsive to the Board's needs. Palmer stated Hillman is going to the Clapp Golf Course Master Plan Committee as the Park Board Representative. Fahnestock is going to the Golf Advisory Committee. Their next meeting is September 4. 7 Wichita Parks Foundation Update (Troy Houtman) No updates. 8 Pawnee Prairie Park Update (David McGuire) McGuire stated we are waiting on the playground to be designed. They are building the forms. The big thing accomplished this last few weeks is getting the bid back on building the bike paths. Hoetmer stated the base bid for the bike path is shown on the pink line. It goes to the west parking lot. We were able to accept that bid as well as Alternate A, from the end of Carrwood up"to the Prairie Sunset Trail over to Harry Street and Seville. The total sum of those three projects came in at $370,000. We had about $400,000 to work with. That will allow us to pay for engineering, field staking, field services and such. We are at the tail end of the funding. McGuire added the bid on the bike paths includes putting in the five kiosks, and the design of the parking lot. Hoetmer stated we are expecting to be finished with a lot by end of the year. McGuire stated still slated to get the playground construction at the end of August. Hoetmer added preconstruction has not started on the bike path, it just bid. It is important to get the low water crossings in before the trail work starts. McGuire added the culverts have been purchased and are waiting to be installed. 9 OJ Watson Park Committee Update (Troy Houtman) Houtman stated the grey water irrigation site is moving forward. We are starting to put together some plans for the four season shelter and doing some concession stand upgrades. Hillman asked if the concession stand will be bigger or is it just reworked? Houtman responded reworked to be more efficient. 10 Aquatics Master Plan Update (Troy Houtman) Houtman stated the big thing is making the decision on where in District I will the pool go. There has also be thoughts about not adding any new pools and just doing a large water park at McAdams. Once direction is received he will make a presentation to Council. We are moving forward with the splash pads. We have some story boards for each of the splash pad location. When we get a better visual he will hopefully bring to the next meeting. Palmer inquired about the large natatorium at McAdams. Houtman responded a large water park. Tabing asked about the splash BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING August 13, 2018 Page 14 of 15  pads, there has been an artist involved who feels like he was part of an RFP response. Has that been resolved? Houtman responded we do not have a contract with him yet. A proposal was made today. They are still in negotiations. Palmer asked why would we make a separate offer when we accepted Water's Edge proposal with Connie as part of that. Houtman responded he is not able to answer that. 11 President's Update (Troy Palmer) Palmer stated Hendricks and Shana were so fantastic at the tournament making accommodations and making things happen. 12 Director's Update (Troy Houtman) Houtman stated most summer activities are completed, camps done, pools closed. All of our staff go above and beyond. Successful summer. Still a lot going on. Ramsey asked if the dog park at Meridian closed. McGuire responded it is closed just for a day for chemical application. Ramsey stated he went there yesterday and they were in use but there were big signs up saying they were closed. McGuire responded we will do better at communication. Palmer asked if we have a baseball team. Houtman responded he does know they are working on an RFP to do demolition of the stadium. The assumption is they would not be doing that unless we had some kind of thing going. A designer has not been hired yet, it has not even gone out to bid. Adjourn There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at approximately 5:19 p.m. The next regularly scheduled meeting will be held on Monday, September 10, 2018. BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEmNG August 13, 2018 Page 15 of 15