Board of Park Commissioners

Board of Park Commissioners Regular Meeting Minutes Monday, September 10, 2018 3:00- 5:00 P.M. C I T Y D O F 455 N Main WICHITA City Hall 1'' Floor Board Room Wichita, Kansas 67202 Members Present: Troy Palmer, Bill Ramsey, Alejo Cabral, Ty Tabing, Eddie Fahnestock, Tori Deatherage Members Absent - Hoyt Hillman City Staff: Troy Houtman (Director, Park & Recreation), Penny Garding (Clerk), Elizabeth Harlenske (Assistant City Attorney), Stacey Hamm, Larry Hoetmer, Troy Hendricks (Park Staff}, John Philbrick {Property Management), Rick Stubbs {PWU - Facilities), Troy Livingston (Deputy Police Chief), Wendell Nicholson (Police Captain), Bryan Frye {City Council, District V) Guest: Charles McAfee, Justin Graham, Joe Johnson Item Descri[!tion Call to Order Troy Palmer, President, called the meeting to order at approximately 3:05 p.m. Announcements There were no Announcements. Public Comments There was no Public Comment. 1 Approve Minutes Recommended Action: Approve, sign and file minutes of the August 13, 2018, Board of Park Commissioners Regular Meeting. Motion by Ramsey, second by Deatherage, IT WAS UNANIMOUSLY VOTED to approve, sign and file the minutes of the August 13, 2018 Board of Park Commissioners Regular Meeting {5-0). 2A Naming of McAdams ball field - Robert "Bob" Thurman Field Palmer stated last month we were presented with this opportunity. Houtman stated staff is supportive but it has to go through the procedures. We wanted to ensure it meets all the criteria and that this person has made significant impact on the community, which he has. Mr. McAfee shared a really good story and information about his background. To name a facility after an individual, that individual has to be deceased. It is now a matter of board recommendation and then take it to Council. They will give us the authorization to name it or not. Council is always looking for approval from the board. Cabral made a motion to rename the ball field at McAdams Park to Robert "Bob" Thurman Ball Park, located at McAdams Park on 13th Street. Second by Ramsey. BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGUtAR MEETING September 10, 2018 Page 1 of 9  Harlenske asked that the motion include the information that Mr. McAfee provided, that is what will go to Council. Cabral amended the motion to rename the ball field at McAdams Park to Robert "Bob" Thurman Ball Park, located on 13 th Street and to include the materials provided by Mr. McAfee. Ramsey agreed to the amendment. Motion carries (S-0) Motion by Cabral, second by Ramsey, IT WAS UNANIMOUSLY VOTED to rename the ball field at McAdams Park to Robert "Bob" Thurman Ball Park, located on 13th Street and to include the materials provided by Mr. McAfee (5-0). Houtman stated it will be placed on the next available Council agenda. It will go on Consent, but if there is a need for a presentation he would make that with Mr. McAfee. 2B Fairmount Park - Westar Houtman stated staff is here to present information about Westar adding poles. Philbrick stated Fairmount Park is owned by the City of Wichita. Westar is upgrading their transmission lines per the Innovation Campus. There are already transmission lines and distribution lines running along Fairmount Park. What they will be doing is replacing wooden poles with new steel poles, shortening the easement to get the poles away from street. Right now they are right on the curb line. They are keeping them on the north edge of the park to avoid taking out any of the established trees. There is about 26,000 square foot of easement and they are offering $1 foot. Council will have to approve this because it is owned by the City, but bringing to Park Board for information and comments or recommendations you would like shared with Council. Houtman added when we have done these in the past, the proceeds from \ the agreement go back to the park. He is making the recommendation to the board so they can make it to Council. Typically they follow through with that, but it is always great to have something that impacts that park and have some kind of proceeds coming to it to go back into that park. Palmer made a recommendation to accept the proceeds from the sale to go back to the park. Ramsey second. Unanimous, motion carries. Motion by Palmer, second by Ramsey, IT WAS UNANIMOUSLY VOTED to make a recommendation to accept the proceeds from the sale to go back to the park (S-0). 2C Cypress Park - Police Substation Stubbs stated on August 13 they brought to the board some concepts about building a new police station in a segment of Cypress Park. The Board agreed to go ahead with the allowance of constructing that station on park land. We agreed to bring other ideas and concepts on what the station could look like, its siting and so forth within the park area. We have another concept plan that might offer some slight improvement to what we had shown earlier. He provided handouts that show a revision that takes into account some of the comments heard and in fulfilling what the intentions are as to bring ideas and concepts back to the board as development of the plan and concept continues. Justin Graham, Schaefer Johnson Cox Frey is here to explain the minor revisions and why they are important for the station development. Graham shared the schematic from the previous meeting. Today it looks like this (showing a new schematic), it is a smaller footprint. The main di_fferences are in the reduction of the greenspace behind. The north end of the building was reorganized so the sally port is accessed from the east side where is was BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING September 10, 2018 Page 2 of 9 previously accessed from the north. The building has been pushed back another 20' from the street, opening up the space in front of the police station. It was asked in the previous meeting how far the building is from the street. It is proposed at about 165 feet in this version. The public parking located on the west side has been extended another couple of stalls to 17. The police department anticipates utilizing seven or eight max for public at one time. That would leave roughly 10 spaces available for the park. There is also shown an extension of the sidewalk in front of the public parking to the playground, which would be relocated to the north. By opening this up the secured portion of police property is pulled back to allow public access to the park. We are proposing a patio area along the north side of the buildini, to allow the police department to engage with the public with access to the park outside the fence. At the back side of the property there was concern about the potential of the girl scouts extending the fence and isolating that area of the park from their property. We are proposing the fence line be held off the property line on the park side to prevent fencing off park access. There would also be better direct access from girl scout parking lot. This reduced secured parking by five spaces. This is only a schematic layout, the next step will be to get site surveys. Tabing inquired about previous discussions having artists involved in the design team, especially around the playground, are there any updates on that. Graham responded not at this time, the RFP has not yet been written for this project. This has been a preliminary design arrangement. The next step will be a more formal design and the City would issue an RFP and if they chose to make that a requirement to have an artist as part of the team, they could do that. Tabing inquired if that is anticipated. Stubbs responded it is, Design Council has requested that police facility have an artist impact. We have a funding amount set aside as part of the overall project for that artist inclusion in the project development. Typically they want it either for the building itself or whatever, but we can look at latitude as to does it impact just the building itself, does it look at the site overall. Artists would still be involved. Ramsey requested to look at the original schematic and asked if there was a slide tha had them side by side. Graham responded no. Ramsey just wanted to see them in comparison. Palmer stated some of the big concerns were allowing people to get back to that playground and a sidewalk is the least expensive way of doing that. Getting a couple more parking spaces is helpful for the public. At the last meeting, it was said they have close to 100 people a day come in there; 17 parking spaces probably isn't enough. Graham stated that is over the course of a 24-hour period. Nicholson added it is throughout the day and feels it is adequate. Houtman stated we need a motion to support it and have them move forward so they can start planning and put out the RFP. Livingston stated they will come back and give a report on the RFP once that is written. Stubbs added the previous discussion we reiterated we would bring concepts and things back to the board. Even though this change is minor it picks up some of the things we heard and could quickly formulate and put on paper. If this direction is keeping with what we agreed on earlier, that is what we are looking to continue within the process. This allows us to use this template as part of the RFP. Fahnestock joined meeting 3:25 BOARD OF PARK COMMlSSIONERS REGULAR MEITING September 10, 2018 Page 3 of 9  Ramsey stated it is slightly more accessible, and pointed out the , actual motion says this is contingent on final approval from the Park Board. We are blocking off such a huge section of the park, would still like to see it more accessible. It's better. Palmer asked if there was any public comment. No response. Ramsey asked if this is final and the RFP will be based on this. Stubbs responded this gives the design firm the opportunity to not have to second guess a lot of information. This gives them some very good bones, both the floor plan layout as well as siting for the amount of parking, security, etc. What the actual design of the building might look like, those things we would bring back to the board once those have been developed. We said in the first meeting we expect this to be the maximum impact into the park. We want to continue to try and lessen that. This is what would be the boundaries. Ramsey stated he wants to make sure any changes come back to the board. Palmer motioned that we allow them to move forward with an RFP based on this design, with final approval coming back to the board. Second by Cabral. Fahnestock· abstained. Motion by Palmer, second by Cabral, IT WAS VOTED AND APPROVED to allow them to move forward with the RFP based on this design, with the final approval coming back to the board (5-0 with 1 abstention by Fahnestock). 3A MacDonald Golf Course Sale RFP Houtman stated we took this to the Golf Advisory Committee for some discussion and information. Our GAC representative is here to share what was done and to continue the discussion. Fahnestock stated the GAC met a couple weeks ago. The GAC recommends that we not move forward with an RFP until there is a Master Plan in place. Houtman added their suggestion was they want to see a Master Plan for Golf prior to putting out the RFP. Palmer asked if we put out an RFP that would not stop any Master Plan for Golf. Houtman responded no, after discussion it was said if the RFP continues they want to continue to talk about it and put into place some kind of development of a Master Plan. There is a GAC meeting tomorrow afternoon. Discussion of a Master Plan for the Golf Division is on the agenda. Tom West, 27 E Stonebridge Circle - here to represent the GAC, but primarily as President of the Board of The First Tee. Read the mission statement of The First Tee. He is here as the voice of The First Tee, its participants and parents, to talk about what are the issues of a potential RFP or a new owner of MacDonald Park. To be clear, they are not necessarily opposed to a sale of MacDonald Park, whether it is to Johnny Stevens or another entity. The concern is the current agreement if a third party buys MacDonald. There are some issues within that agreement that have to be addressed either in the RFP or in negotiations with a potential buyer. Since the time he first approached Houtman and Hendricks about the idea of The First Tee using the property on the west edge of MacDonald Park, the relationship we have had could not be better. If there is a new third party owner, it is very important to have that same type of relationship, if their project property is to be part of sale of MacDonald BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING September 10, 2018 Page 4 ot9 Park. When the terms were negotiated, all parties did so in good faith, it never occurred to anyone there could potentially be a different owner. That was not addressed in the lease agreement. Nowhere in the lease agreement does it give the City the authority to assign the lease to another party. He hopes The First Tee would be part of the process. The agreement is in fact with the Park Board. We expect the Park Board, just as we will, to abide by the terms and spirit of the agreement. The agreement states The First Tee of Greater Wichita shall share the driving range with the public. One would assume that the spirit of the agreement also includes access to the golf course for their junior players. The concern is if there is a new owner, they could greatly restrict access to junior players. It is not a stretch to believe a new owner is going to need to invest several million dollars into that property to bring to the upgraded condition and playability standards they would want. As an example, there is a quote from Stevens in the press that said MacDonald Park is once again become a gem within our region and a course the citizens of Wichita can be proud of. That implies in order to make it to that standard, it is going to require a large capital infusion. Common sense says to avoid a significant operational deficit, the owner would be forced to raise green fees. It should go up to some degree, maybe not as high as we need it to cover any operational deficits. Then the scenario might now arise from the owner, do they allow these junior golfers at $10 apiece to have access to the course or do they sell that tee spot to someone for $30-$40. Logically, in order to cover deficits that would be the first choice. What happens 5-8 years down the road and he realizes he made a mistake. Besides what he has paid and the fact that he has now laid out however many millions of dollars to upgrade the golf course, he is sick and tired of subsidizing its losses, he decides to shut it down and develop the property. Then here is The First Tee, adjacent to that golf course, we chose that piece of property for that reason. Then all of a sudden that property is not a golf course. We might as well have just picked up a 13-14 acre piece of vacant land anywhere in the City of Wichita and built our facility on it. There are a lot of issues that need to be addressed, a lot has to do with The First Tee's agreement with the City and the spirit of that agreement. He emphasized we are not necessarily opposed to a sale, there are lots of positives. But at the same time we need to tread carefully and do our due diligence. Houtman responded staff wants to protect the interests of The First Tee. If this moves forward as an RFP, and if we get proposals, and if do go through negotiations, those are all the things we want to incorporate and work with The First Tee to make sure those protections are in place. Discussions this morning included what would be the future of the golf course if Johnny Stevens, or anybody else, did purchase it. What could we put into the contract? There are a lot of things that can be put in to a contract to protect that place as a golf course. If somebody who might have interest to purchase that golf course and decides to stop the service of providing golf, we want to see if we can put into the contract that we get the first right of refusal for either purchasing back or somehow gaining ownership back. We also want to see if we can put into the contract that the golf course would always be a golf course. Those are things that could be put into a contract through negotiations and discussions. It is just taking that first step and getting there. Staff has had those BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING September 10, 2018 Page 5 of9 same thoughts. We want to protect The First Tee and that it would be a golf course forever. Palmer asked isn't it, when we purchased that land, that it would always be a golf course? Houtman responded he thinks that is the intent and that is the spirit of that agreement. Dale Goter, 2625 W Cornelison. They wanted to make sure there was input from golfers in this process so they formed a committee. They are just monitoring the process and think along the way they can contribute to the discussion. Want to make sure golfers like them are considered in the final decision. Charles MacAfee stated it is important that we keep facilities available and inner city kids have an opportunity to see and play a golf course. Ramsey stated MacDonald needs to always be maintained as a golf course. He would never want to see it anything but a golf course. The RFP process is just saying if we put these restrictions in place _is anyone going to "bite" and come back with an offer. If they do we don't have to accept it. There is no harm in outlining what we need to put into an RFP, putting in all these restrictions, we never want even one tiny sliver of this land developed. If there is someone out there who is willing to do that and always keep it as a golf course and accommodate The First Tee like they should, there is no harm in asking for an RFP to see if someone can make all that happen. We all know is losing money for us, year after year. It was the second worst performing of the courses we have. He is interested in if the buyer knows what he would be getting and is capable and willing to do it. Tabing inquired if this master plan is done with the help of a consultant or is it done in house by staff in conjunction with the GAC. How does that work and what is the time frame for that. Houtman responded we will answer a lot of those tomorrow when we have our Golf Advisory Committee meeting. The intent is not to get a consultant, we are going to do this in house. We have capable staff and great golf staff that are knowledgeable about trends across the country and in Wichita. Tomorrow when we meet with the GAC that is the number one agenda topic. We will sit down and figure where we want to go and how to get there. Ramsey asked, if we say today we want to move forward with an RFP, we are not going to stay and hash out all details here. Houtman responded that is correct. We wanted to get the intent to move forward if that is what the board wants. We want to get all the factors, criteria we want into the RFP. The more specific we are it changes the dynamics of what you put out and who is going to respond and how they respond. We will bring the draft back to the Board of Park Commissioners next month. We have a whole month to review the standards and criteria of what would go into the RFP and what we would expect and what we want. We would share information with you so you can review it, look at it and get feedback from your constituents. We can then incorporate those items into the RFP and bring that back next month for your final approval and execution if you so desire. Fahnestock stated the most important thing is to protect The First Tee and keep golf out there. Are they going to make it a better course? Possibly. He would love to see the "gem" right here in Wichita. We can do that if we move forward with the RFP and cover our bases here and "check to BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGUlAR MEETING September 10, 2018 Page6of9  see what is under the stone." If we don't like the offers that come back we can respectfully decline and move on. Ramsey motioned that we move forward with the creation of an RFP to be presented at the Park Board for final approval at the next Park Board meeting. Second Fahnestock. Unanimous. Motion by Ramsey, second by Fahnestock, IT WAS UNANIMOUSLY VOTED to move forward with the creation of an RFP to be presented at the Park Board for final approval at the next Park Board meeting (6-0). Goter commented that MacDonald is not losing every year. Last year is the first year to lose money and is recovering to some extent this year. 4 Recreation Update (Reggie Davidson) Hamm provided August Recreation highlights Edgemoor Recreation Center • Offered 54 classes during the summer session • Only 8 of those classes did not go. • Success is due to increased marketing tools • excellent and knowledgeable instructors • having clientele who appreciate and encourage others to take advantage of our class offerings. Edgemoor Recreation Center is offering some new classes this fall • Intermediate Fencing • 3 additional Dancing for Fitness classes • Pilates • Genealogy for Beginners • Genealogy- Beyond the Basics. Evergreen • Summer Activity Camp total attendance for the summer was 3,973 • Averaged 86 kids daily • There were several days where the attendance was consistently over 100 • Last day of camp was Friday, August 3 and ended with a pizza party and talent show • The last week was a lot of fun and the kids traveled to the Hutchinson Salt Cit, Splash Aquatic Center • They also enjoyed a barbecue and prize giveaway put on by the Police Department with each kid receiving a gift Linwood • Linwood's 2018 Summer of Discovery Camp generated a total of 771 camp registrations • Total SOD revenue= $74,386 McAdams Recreation Center opened up Friday evenings for free activities • The "Evening Recreation Program" has been very successful during the summer • This free program was offered on most Friday evenings from 8:00 until 10:00 pm BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETIN� September 10, 2018 Page 7 of9  • The program was designed to give our youth and children an opportunity to attend evening recreation programs as an option to have fun with other children and youth during late evening hours • It was well attended on two available Fridays, August 17 and August 24 by a total of 71 children and youth who enjoyed organized games, contest, arts and crafts, pick-up basketball games and good clean music for their listening pleasure and dancing 5 Golf Update (Troy Hendricks) Hendricks stated y-t-d rounds are down 6% through the end of August which is a 5% improvement from end of May. Currently Auburn Hills is down 4%, they were down 7% at the end of May; Tex Consolver is down 6%, they were down 5% at the end of May; LW Clapp is down 15% and was down 21% at the end of May; MacDonald is down only 2% after down 14% at the end of May; Sim is now down 7%, down 11% at the end of May. We gained some rounds and some revenue. We are still down in revenue 6% for the year. Expenditures have been reduced by 15%. Net income still shows an improvement, but we have not made any administrative fee payments. 6 Golf Advisory Committee Update (Eddie Fahnestock) Fahnestock stated there is no update, their meeting is tomorrow. 7 Wichita Parks Foundation Update (Troy Houtman) Houtman stated the Foundation is doing well. They are gearing up for Plates for Parks and trying to get some marketing done and information out as they prepare for sales. A final report for Dinner in the Park shows they netted $831. 8 Pawnee Prairie Park Update (David McGuire) Hoetmer stated over the last month we've made progress. The new playground on west parking lot is in now, just need to put in the artificial turf surfacing. We've also made good progress on the low water crossings. Some bike paths have been completed and some equestrian improvements have been made in the parking lot. We have accepted bids from Conspec to do the bike path improvements. This is the last and final phase, hoping to have them completed by the end of the year. We have had some challenges. We installed sign blades denoting areas where we are restricting bicycle activity. We put in 18 blades and 17 of them were removed by unknown individuals. Houtman added we are going to need to work on educating park users. Timing on this is hard. Staff will do a blitz of education soon. 9 OJ Watson Park Committee Update (Troy Houtman) Houtman stated the gazebo from Naftzger Park has been moved to OJ Watson. It is almost complete. There are some roof repairs that need to be completed. It will complement the area on the west side of park for rentals and weddings. In that same area we are looking at a four-season shelter for rentals that can support activities at the gazebo. That will require two years' worth of funding to make that happen. We are still working on the conceptual plans. BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGUtAR MEETING September 10, 2018 Page 8 of9  Sand volleyball had a hugely successful season. We are looking at expanding that next year. This year's Polar Express has sold out already. 10 Aquatics Master Plan Update (Troy Houtman) Houtman stated they are moving forward with the design consultant on some conceptual ideas for the splash pads. We still have no complete direction on what we are going to be doing on swimming pools, we have not moved forward with that. We should have a presentation on splash pads next month. 11 President's Update (Troy Palmer) Palmer stated he has no report today 12 Director's Update (Troy Houtman) Houtman stated Open Streets in a couple weeks from 12:00-5:00 pm on Sunday, September 23. The Mayor will have comments at 12:30. We are rapidly moving forward on the deconstruction of the baseball stadium. Staff has been removing historical items to be saved and placed in the museum. To celebrate Lawrence Dumont Stadium, there is a committee getting together to plan a date and opportunity to say farewell to the stadium. Ramsey asked Houtman why the board didn't know about the Westar donation for Naftzger Park. We had to read that in tlie paper. Houtman responded he was not in charge of that donation, he did not know about it until a couple days prior. They did their own presentation of that. Palmer stated is was shocking to read about it in the paper. Ramsey added we were not even made aware of the ground breaking for the whole thing. It was disappointing. Houtman responded he did not know the article was going out. Deatherage stated it was disappointing that they didn't want to involve us more. Cabral asked if the Parks Foundation license plates go on sale January 1. Assuming that is when the link goes live. Houtman responded January 2 more than likely. Adjourn There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at approximately 4:06 p.m. The next regularly scheduled meeting will be held on Monday, October 8, 2018. BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGUlAR MEmNG September 10, 2018 Page 9 of9