Board of Park Commissioners

Board of Park Commissioners Regular Meeting Minutes Monday, January 14, 2019 3:00- 5:00 P.M. C I T Y o OF 455 N Main WICHITA City Hall 1 st Floor Board Room Wichita, Kansas 67202 Members Present: Troy Palmer, Bill Ramsey, Alejo Cabral, Hoyt Hillman, Eddie Fahnestock, Tori Deatherage, Ty Ta bing City Staff: Troy Houtman (Director, Park & Recreation), Penny Garding (Clerk), Elizabeth Harlenske (Assistant City Attorney), Mark Manning (Finance), Reggie Davidson, Larry Hoetmer, Troy Hendricks, David McGuire (Park Staff) Guests: Ella Baccus (Arts Partners), Renee Duxler (Douglas Design District) Item Descri11tion 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 were no Comments. 1 Approve Minutes Recommended Action: Approve, sign and file minutes of the December 10, 2018, Board of Park Commissioners Regular Meeting. Motion by Fahnestock, second by Ramsey, IT WAS UNANIMOUSLY VOTED to approve, sign and file the minutes of the December 10, 2018 Board of Park Commissioners Regular Meeting (7-0). 2A Village Neighborhood Assoc/Cypress Park Dog Park - David McGuire/Lisa Krider Agenda item cancelled at presenter's request, unable to attend. 2C College Hill Keeper- Larry Hoetmer/Renee Duxler Hoetmer stated they are here today to give an update on the Keeper of the Plains sculpture, an item that the Board reviewed last summer. He and David McGuire have since met with representatives of the College Hill Neighborhood Association. They had presented the Board with several options of ideas of where the sculpture could go. He attended a neighborhood meeting in College Hill and today have'Renee Duxler is here as a representative of that group. At that meeting, after looking at several sites, they determined the placement of the sculpture would be best suited in the northeast _ section of College Hill Park, north and east of the existing tennis courts. Since that time they have done a lot of work and have the sculpture ready. We need to work with Renee to get her set up with a contractor to do the base work. We have a final site that we think will work nicely for the park. The neighborhood president BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING January 14, 2019 Page 1 of 13  has made the neighborhood aware of where this new sculpture is going and everyone is accepting and excited about this donation. Renee Duxler stated back in April.of last year Jill Docking wanted give money to the Design District in her late husband Tom's, memory. We were able to complete the streetscape that you now see on Douglas Avenue. The other part was to give a Keeper of the Plains to College Hill Park in memory of Tom. We worked through the process with Larry, meeting with College Hill Neighborhood Association, working with the Park Department, the Docking family and an artist to pull the project together. The first set of photos is the design concept. We brought this back to College Hill Neighborhood Association to approve. They initially approved the Keeper and now have approved of the design. All of this is also approved by the Docking Family, as well as the Blackbear Basin Foundation. There are four different sides of the Keeper, you are only seeing three on this presentation. Each side is a different season and correlates along with the children's book. Each seasons of the children's book has some architecture and different landmarks of the College Hill neighborhood. The back of the headdress is an homage to the Osage Nation which was originally found where College Hill is now. We went to the College Hill Neighborhood Association and they want the Keeper at the park entrance on English Street, in the triangle that opens two pathways into the park. Houtman stated this is just an update, you have already voted on putting it in. 2B Arts Partners - STEAM Reimagining - Alejo Cabral/Ella Baccus Ella Baccus, Executive Director, Arts Partners, provided an introduction to Arts Partners. They provide arts integration with pre-K through 12 curriculum. They are in 136 schools in and around Wichita, serving about 2S,000 students each year. Arts Partners has about 35 teaching artists that provide performances, workshops, residencies and field trips. Today she is presenting the Generation STEAM Project. It involves bringing STEM education to students who do not have access to those types of things. They will be working with L'Ouverture Elementary/McAdams Park and Jardine Middle/Planeview Park. Students will be presented with real challenges at those parks that have real capital improvement needs. They will have mentors who are college students and industry professionals to help guide them towards viable design solutions. She showed examples of designs in other cities where this has been done. Students will be drawing and using technology like CAD to produce prototypes that could be built in the park. They will introduce examples of solutions using alternative energy. An example of kinetic energy was shown. In Brazil in 2014 a soccer field was built where every footstep powered the electricity for the field. All of the pads that power the electricity are under the grass, making it self-sustaining. Technology examples such as wayfinding, wireless connections, light poles with wind power and motion detection were shared. Generation STEAM is a program in which students will create viable design solutions and prototypes that will include plants �or public spaces, specifically parks and playgrounds that incorporate green technology and public art. We are asking for your support and endorsement of this project. We want to give them real problems, fundraise and hopefully be able to build some of these things the students design. We would bring the student designs back to you for r�view. The program will launch February 1 at McAdams Park, then starting February 8 there will be nine weeks of curriculum, a fundraiser and a STEAM fair BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING January 14, 2019 Page 2 of 13  where judges will pick the best solar, wind and kinetic design. The students who win will come back to present their designs to you. Then that summer will start working on those designs. Palmer inquired who came up with this. Baccus responded Alejo had an amazing idea for McAdams Park and making it an educational opportunity for students. Educators are excited that the students will be able to meet people who are in a STEM field because just knowing someone in one of those fields can make a big difference. The other piece is 5 th and 6th grades are critical times for math attainment, by 7 th grade you have to pick what type of math you are going into. That then is your whole trajectory. Palmer asked how one would get involved and volunteer. Baccus responded in the handouts is a form that shares how to become involved and volunteer. They have corporate sponsors of the activities and volunteers who are good at computer science, design, math, etc. Houtman added they met once and discussed this and he and Alejo have discussed it several times over the past year. They have some ideas on implementation. Motion by Cabral, second by Ramsey, IT WAS UNANIMOUSLY VOTED to endorse Arts Partners to move forward with Generation STEAM (7-0). 3A Auburn Golf Course - Manning Houtman stated at the last meeting you asked for background and information about the bond that was put together for Auburn Hills and the finance behind the debt service. Mark Manning stated he will give a quick overview of Auburn Hills focusing on the financing. It was approved around 1996 and the concept opened in May 2001. On July 1, 1997, City Council approved the initial financing of Auburn of Hills. On that Agenda Report they approved $4.7M for the golf course; it cost a little bit more than that when done. They approved the concept of $2.7M from the Golf Fund to be reimbursed by the golf fees and $2M in Tax Increment Financing (TIF). This legally is not a Tax Increment Financing deal. This conceptually was designed to be like a TIF, which says the City contributed tax funds to the project under the theory that a lot of new houses would be built at Auburn generating property tax revenue to reimburse the City. We started at $4.7M, the City provided $2M up front. This was not a legal TIF, but a conceptual TIF. Property taxes from new homes and commercial development around the Auburn Hills area will generate revenue for City. The City was willing to take the risk at the time and fronted the cash. The Agenda Report makes it clear that after the City recoups the initial $2M investment that they were planning to use the property taxes from that area to provide police, fire, and other services typical in new developed areas. Manning quoted City Council minutes "After the initial 10 year period, the 10 year period that we would finance the debt, the City would receive the whole value of the property taxes, estimated at $500,000 annually, to support the whole range of municipal services in the City." This what the policy was when this was done in the 1996 timeframe. The very preliminary cost estimate for Auburn Hills was $4.7M, when it was all done we spent about $11.SM. That is totally inclusive, it includes the valuation of the land that was donated by the developer and special assessments used on the clubhouse. The takeaway is the City ultimately contributed about $2.7M in debt service cash and BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING January 14, 2019 Page 3 of 13 another $300,000 out of the General Fund, so the City ultimately was into Auburn Hills for close to $3M. The golf course in there turned out to be about $7.3M. To summarize on the debt, there is no more debt on the golf system, it has all been retired by the debt service fund. Typically enterprise funds would reimburse the debt service fund each year as debt payments were made. That did not happen. We financed the debt through the debt service fund but we did it without being reimbursed by the enterprise fund. We have not accrued interest on this amount owed to the debt service fund. As of today the Golf Fund, on an accounting basis, owes the debt service $5,668,413.84. That is a liability on the Golf balance sheet. The consequence of this is the debt service fund has less cash available for general obligation projects which are park projects, roads, bridges, buildings and things of that nature. A couple months ago someone said the golf debt was $20M, which is not true. He shared a graph showing what the golf debt has been since 1989 - 2011. We were debt free prior to this. That is.when we did Sim and LW Clapp. The next blip is when we did McAdams. Then we amortized all that. That next blip is when Auburn Hills was opened. Then the amortization down to zero on bonded debt. He indicated on the graphic the line showing what the golf fund does to the debt service fund. That shows that as this debt was amortizing off, the debt service fund was paying it because the amount owed to the debt service fund was going up by almost the same amount. The TIF concept that was brought about in 1997, at that time we estimated there would be 850 new homes in the Auburn area. We were hopeful that would generate an increment of about $100M within 10 years. That was almost dead on. The valuation of Auburn in 2005 was about $100M higher than what is was in 1998. It worked out almost exactly the way it was projected to work in 1997. The valuation has continued to grow. Ramsey•inquired, for clarification, the Golf Service Fund owes the debt service fund $5.7M at this point. You said there is no interest on that, even though it is sitting there and we know we are not making payments. The debt will just sit there until it is paid off; is this creating any other kind of issue that we need to be aware of? Manning responded, yes, we expect to get our money back, it is booked as a liability. Houtman added because that money has not been paid back it has a small impact. We are talking about a capital improvement budget of hundreds of millions of dollars, but its $SM on the books that we can't use. If we had that $SM it would go to capital projects somewhere in our organization. Palmer inquired if we have ever made payments. Manning responded yes. Palmer asked when we stopped. Houtman responded we did not make payments in 2017 and 2018. Manning added we started off making most of the interest payments and then we started making a little less of the interest payments and then we quit. Palmer stated it was brought up at a previous meeting that because of this debt the Golf Fund can't secure any credit. When he asked the City Manager he said it has BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING January 14, 2019 Page 4 of 13  nothing to do with Golf, it is all City of Wichita. Manning responded yes, any debt issued to the golf system is issued under the City of Wichita's credit authority, which is AA+. Houtman added it is the philosophy behind it. If we haven't been able to pay that off how would we be able to pay anything else above and beyond that? Tabing stated you said it was a conceptual TIF, why not just a regular TIF? Manning responded it did not meet the statutory requirements of a TIF. Palmer asked how we stop this conversation from coming up every time golf comes up. Houtman responded now that you know the facts and the information behind it you can create a better answer to that. These are all the factors that come into that perception of our golf system. You have to come up with some creative ways to get more capital dollars back into our system. Ramsey stated it is not draining the golf system because we are not making payments. Houtman added Mr. Manning is not going to take the money away from us unless we have the ability to take care of all of our other obligations. We haven't been able to do that, we are in the red without making these payments. If and when the golf system goes back to what was projected when Auburn Hills was first built to bring in over 200,000 rounds, we would be making enough money to not only take care of our bills but also pay back the debt service and put some money aside for capital improvements. We probably cannot make 200,000 rounds or more. That's why the whole idea of consolidating our golf courses has come to this scenario. 4 Recreation Update (Reggie Davidson) Davidson shared some highlights of programs and new items they are trying. Athletics is expanding for this upcoming year. They will offer two additional regional youth baseball tournaments through USSSA at South Lakes. They will be in addition to the four we currently offer. This past summer we had one of our biggest tournaments ever held with over 80 teams. One of the other things talked about back in May was looking at expanding to offer some 707 tournaments with youth football as well in conjunction with USD 259. There has been a big concern with concussion protocols in the community with training programs for flag football. We have a buy in from the school district and being able to incorporate that with the high school level heading into this year. Evergreen Rec Center December programming had over 100 people attending activities on site. Activities included folkloric dancers, writing letters to Santa, as well as partnering with other community organizations. During the holiday break we also offered open gym on site. Over 80 kids came out to get some free programming. Great Plains Nature Center is looking to expand their program offerings. This year they did a 12 Days of Nature event. They made a fun music video to promote the event. During 2018 our staff naturalists offered over 1,840 programs to 46,000 people. Because of all of the activities, they have expanded the volunteer coordinator from part-time to full-time. Linwood Rec Center offered a camp similar to Evergreen with open gym and a Kid Konnect program that is a drop in program generating revenue. There was also some adult drop in volleyball with 570 participants, generating $2,280 in revenue. Our rec centers try to be available to community organizations looking for places to host BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING January 14, 2019 Pages of 13  meetings as an affordable option. We picked up a new small church in the area that is using the facility as an outreach to the homeless community, providing meals on site on December 15. There were 158 community members who came out and participated. Watson Park Polar Express had over 1,200 people participate, which generated over $20,000 in revenue. Of that $14,000 was profit. Recently a contract was awarded to Compton Construction to redo the concession stand area. They will be gutting the inside and putting in new flooring and equipment. Woodard Rec Center continuing to be vibrant and active in the community. Volunteers come out to help offer low/no cost programming to the community. During the year 59 volunteers put in 1,652 hours of volunteer time. That equates to $30,000 in expenses we would have had to pay. On December 2 they held a music recital program with 11 people participating. An overwhelming number of supporters showed up so they had to move to a larger room. New program offerings - City Crew - Barry's Crew has joined forces with Police and Fire and is now City Crew, highlighting all three City mascots. The big kick off event will be in February at the Tennis Center. 847 kids are enrolled in the program as of today. We are expecting quite a bit more at some of the upcoming programs. Youth Technology Inc. provides a lot of STEM camps during the summer. They focus on robotics, arcade games, web design and more in the engineering field. This organization comes in and provides the service at no cost to City. We partner with them and they find staff to provide the programming. Park and Recreation is the first in Wichita to offer this program. Houtman added he was excited looking back four years ago; we have expanded our programming, but even more since Reggie has been here. He wanted to highlight his good work! 5 Golf Update (Troy Hendricks) Hendricks stated on the Rounds Report, we don't have the final numbers for the year and month to date yet because they have not closed the month and year out yet. Rounds year to date are down 9% compared to last year. Revenue is down 7%. Expenditures and encumbrances are down 11% for the year compared to last year. Our net income is 101% better than it was last year. The final numbers that might not be in there yet are the internal service payments. Houtman added the reduction of expenses means we are finding savings or different ways of doing our business. But also, some of it is a negative impact because there could be maintenance we are neglecting or things that we haven't been able to fix. It is not always a positive thing when we say we've reduced our expenses. Hendricks stated we report our rounds though Golf Data Tech, which works with the National Golf Foundation. Their report comes out one month late. Looking at their report for November 2018, public access courses across the country are down 4.6% in rounds, KS-NE rounds are down 6.7%, OK was down 11%. When you look at the rounds report from November, we were down 8%, we are not that far the trends taking place around the country. We started our registration on our Hook A Kid On Golf program. Last year at all golf courses over spring break in March, we opened that up right around the first of year BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEfTING January 14, 2019 Page 6 of 13 for registration. We decided to do a morning and afternoon session at each course, doing the afternoon sessions first and when it fills up we will open the morning sessions. At Auburn Hills and Tex Consolver both morning and afternoon session are full with 15 kids in each session. MacDonald's afternoon session has 14 people in it and six in the morning. Sim has five in it. So far, year to date we have signed up 85 kids for the Hook A Kid On Golf program, last year we had 76 kids in the program. We anticipate getting close to 120 kids by the time the program starts. Last month you asked for more information on the golf courses. Auburn Hills -has redone stuff in the clubhouse and pro shop for the holiday season. They did a fourth quarter inventory of merchandise and food and beverage. They are working on the tournament schedule and the meeting/events calendar for 2019. Maintenance closed and winterized the restrooms, non-heated buildings and above ground irrigation systems. They have been doing some goose deterrent by putting yellow CAUTION tape around some of the greens. They have been rebuilding reels and repairing mowers. They attended a seminar in Topeka with the Kansas Golf Course Superintendents Association. We had a major irrigation leak by the creek on Hole #8, which they fixed. We are working with Public Works & Utilities on the one irrigation line that crosses 135 th Street. It is about 7 feet underground under the street. It is leaking under 135th Street. We are working with them on how to fix that irrigation line. Auburn Hills path makes six crossings of public streets. The system is 20 years old, we may start to see other failures down the line as well. We don't have cost estimates on that yet. It is a major line that will have to be fixed. Houtman added it is a well line and not a domestic water line. The cost will come back to the golf system. This is one of those costs we need to take care of to make sure the system operates. LW Clapp -they've been cleaning and organizing the storage room and safe room. We had to put a new garage door on the cart barn. We had another clubhouse door that didn't work so Overhead Door fixed those. They are working on the 2019 tournaments and leagues calendar. They completed their fourth quarter inventory. Maintenance has been doing winter reel service. They put stakes and twine around greens to keep the geese off. They have been cleaning, prepping and painting equipment. They have been working with Tex Consolver on helping them with their wheel grinding. All grinding is done at Auburn Hills. MacDonald -in the clubhouse they are looking for new concession items to carry and have done light and ballasts repairs. Maintenance has been mulching leaves and cleaning out sand traps and deterring geese using laser lights in the mornings, putting fishing line around the ponds and driving around trying to do things to get them off the course. They have been cleaning greens and collars of goose droppings, blowing off fairways and tees, and equipment repair on mowers and cleaning up landscape around the clubhouse. Sim -in the clubhouse they have been cleaning and organizing and reviewing the cart fleet maintenance needs. They are working on an action plan for hiring seasonal stafi and building a tournament and league calendar. Keith has been transferred over to MacDonald to be the Head Golf Professional there. Cody has been transferred from Clapp to Sim. Maintenance has been grinding and rebuilding greens, tees and fairwa, mowers and cutting units and replacing four no turn irrigation rotors; repairing, BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING January 14, 2019 Page 7 of 13 cleaning and painting 144 tee markers and cutting new cup locations. They disassembled and r_efurbished two benches, mulched leaves, large limbs and debris. They sprayed greens in order let moisture soak in better. They go in and clean the parking lot along Amidon after Illuminations. We had some vandalism in December, some trash cans, flags and cable were stolen. They hosted a meeting with superintendents to talk about our chemical orders and things for next year. Palmer inquired why we are cleaning parking if it is Botanica using our parking lot. Hendricks responded that is one of the things Grant West does every morning when he comes in, it is part of his routine. Tex - we are remodeling snack bar, we moved equipment around. We are retiling an area that had broken tile in the snack bar and adding and additional prep table. Maintenance added about 700 feet of drainage in areas that the drainage had failed or never been installed. They repaired three leaks on the irrigation system. They've been mulching weeds, changing cups, mowing, working with golf pro to look at creating some shorter tees and servicing equipment, reels and mowers. So far they have rebuilt 23 reels to date. Golf Division - in group lessons in 2018 we had 220 participants which is an increase over 2017 where we had 91 participants, in 2016 we had 113. Our player development retention rate went up this year 8% from 28% to 36%. Tournament participants, for tournaments we host, this year had 555, last year we had 267. Leagues continue to increase in participation, 2016 we had 339 and in 2018 we went up to 437. That's a 22% increase over that three year period. Gift cards we sell in the clubhouses and the web store, we sold 1,939 this year for a total of $83,000. $36,000 of that is all generated at Auburn Hills. We have a Punch Card that we started a year ago where you can buy $200 and $300 and get so many 9-hole rounds. We did that for one week at Christmas and sold 63 which generated $17,000 in revenue for the golf system. Tabing inquired with LW Clapp golf course, tournaments and leagues are being booked given the uncertainty of Clapp. Hendricks responded we visited with them all last fall and again this spring letting them know we are still open and when and if the golf course closes we will work with them to get them on at our other courses to participate and play. A couple leagues have chosen to go to other golf courses outside of our City courses. Ramsey stated the Golf Advisory Committee had put forward for a plan for a subscription pass. Where are we with getting that up and running? Houtman responded it was presented to the Park Board and was approved. We are waiting to do a presentation to Council because they need to approve it. They want to wait until we find out what is going to happen with Clapp. He is hoping to make that presentation in spring or summer. We are losing out on about 3/4 of a year so we don't know ifwe want to implement in the fall or next January. Council and the City Manager gave the direction not to bring it until we figure out what is going to happen with Clapp. All these things we have been working on the past two years, not making these improvements, have been sliding back because of all the upheaval of whether we are going to sell Clapp, is it going to say open, are we going to sell MacDonald. These things have had an impact on all the plans we have been wanting to BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING January 14, 2019 Page 8 of 13  implement. If we consolidate, are strategic and smart about how we do this, and with some elbow grease, we can get past it. One step at a time, but we keep getting all these impediments and rumors and people making things up. We are trying to correct all that. A lot of this goes to Council and they don't want to act on anything because they want to learn more about the facts. We are moving forward and have some great ideas. We met with First Tee, they are excited that we finally got over this hump with MacDonald and that we are going to be strong partners. We are excited about getting more youth golfers into the system. We are moving a lot of folks into our programs and lessons, but there are not enough golfers to be sustainable. Palmer asked Hendricks when you talked about rounds in other cities, is that municipal courses or golf over all. Hendricks responded it is golf overall. Ramsey asked at MacDonald did we restock the clubhouse with merchandise. Hendricks responded when we transferred Keith, effective last Saturday, he will take his merchandise over there and Cody will restock Sim. We had Steve Blaske at Tex Consolver who would put inventory in over there, balls, gloves, hats, the basics. Houtman added now that we have a clear route for MacDonald and we know it is going to stay, we are going to work hard on making it the best it can be. Deatherage stated Cody was very involved with First Tee and the kids programs, right? Hendricks responded he was very involved at Clapp, he is going to Sim. Colin is the assistant at MacDonald and has been very involved with First Tee and is staying there. 6 Golf Advisory Committee Update (Eddie Fahnestock) Fahnestock stated the next meeting is January 22. The week of January 28 PGA is coming to Wichita. Houtman stated he met with Mr. Schodorf last week and they talked about the role and involvement of the Golf Advisory Committee. He has some really great ideas to make improvements to the golf system. We are looking at maybe trying to find sponsors and donors to make improvements to the clubhouses. We are excited about renewed enthusiasm from the GAC now that we have a direction and a lot of answers. The biggest one left is Clapp. The Park Board had asked for a third party to come do a review of the system. He contacted the National Golf Association and the PGA. The PGA provided us an opportunity to come here at no cost. They will be coming the week of the 29th . They will be visiting each of the golf courses independently, interviewing all of the golf pros and superintendents. They will be spending time with Houtman, working on sharing information and data. After their three days they will have a review of what they have seen. They will also meet with the Board, Mr. Schodorf and Mr. West to get folks from outside the department. After that they will go away and then come back with full report with market reviews, operational reviews and comparisons to other benchmark cities. • The National Golf Association provided an estimate of $40,000 to do a review. Theirs is more extensive and more involved. The PGA uses a lot of the information that they would be bringing to the table. After we see what PGA brings, if it is not beneficial and satisfactory we still have an opportunity to spend the $40,000 and go to the National Golf Association. Deatherage asked what made PGA offer to do it for free. Houtman responded they offer it free to all their PGA members across the country. BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING January 14, 2019 Page 9 of 13 7 Wichita Parks Foundation Update (Troy Houtman) Houtman stated they are working on getting information out and promoting Plates for Parks. They are planning for Stacey's departure, and changing some staff duties; Garding will be taking on a larger role. They are getting ready for July 4. They are looking at some other revenue generating ideas for the summertime. We had one Dinner in the Park, we are going to try to get them for spring, summer and fall. Hillman stated Open Streets has been very successful. Are you considering more than one in any year? Houtman responded we are looking at one in the NOMAR area in March. We will measure the success of that one. It was their request and interest to do something there. We are working with them to make that a positive event. We want to explore doing it twice a year on Douglas, once in the spring and again in the fall. For 2019 we are going to have this one in the NOMAR area and then the fall one on Douglas. For 2020 we might do one in the spring and in the fall. Also in 2020 is the Sesquicentennial, 150th birthday for Wichita. We have had discussions about what we could do with Open Streets and that as well. The actual birthdate is July 21. 8 Pawnee Prairie Park Update (David McGuire) McGuire stated December and January have been challenging due to the weather. We have completed the pedestrian foot bridge. That was done in-house with staff. It is much safer now with rails. The paving company has put the two concrete abutments at each end. The low water crossing was a significant project. With all the water and rain we have had it has performed well. On the back of that, those steps going up need some help. We will figure that out in-house. The bicycle path is the main project going on. They are starting to get that done. Hoetmer stated the pathways are completed for the most part. We are now focusing on that staging area on the east parking lot. Palmer asked if the signage was up. Hoetmer responded not yet. McGuire stated there are other areas that required some concrete path put in. We put in concrete connectors on the main drive coming in off the east side of Pawnee Prairie Park, they've put in some drainage areas to connect that to the main drive. They are working on a bike path that cuts across the parking lot on the east side of the park and all the delineators that will help control traffic and parking. Right in the very center of the picture is a green sign. That will be the kiosk that will have significant information about the park and how it works. There will be a bicycle pump there and a place to lockup bicycles. It should make a nice safe connector across the parking lot. We have a significant amount of signage to be installed. We are going to have directional signs, informational kiosks and safety emergency signs with location information. We have been communicating with the emergency response groups on how it is going to work. Once we get the map we will supply them with maps so they can respond more quickly. There has been significant effort put into making the park as safe as possible. There are going to be several intersections where horses and bicycle riders are going to come together. There is going to be little small areas they BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING January 14, 2019 Page 10 of 13  may have to share a little bit to get through the intersection. There is going to be pedestrians in there. This portion of it is on the contractor to install. We are doing the safety signage. The kiosks are like what the National Park Service uses. Larry and staff have worked on creating the graphics that are going on the sign that includes maps, some rules and regulations. There is information on trail courtesy. Then there is more information on who to contact if you have problem. All trails will be marked with the same system of W -walking; H - Horse path and B - Bike Path. There are 12 parks that are considered Wichita Wild, maybe we can implement something like this in some of those parks. 9 OJ Watson Park Committee Update (Troy Houtman) Houtman stated they are doing some upgrades to the concession stand. We've been meeting with a designer for the west side four season shelter. We have irrigation coming from the other side of the river. We are hoping to get a small irrigation system to start with to meet some of the needs we have for one of the well-used paths of the park. The plan is to have the park completely irrigated with gray water in four to five years. 10 Aquatics Master Plan Update {Troy Houtman) Houtman stated there is light at the end of the tunnel. They have been meeting with the City Manager, he has been getting a lot of feedback from the Council about Option 3, which is six swimming pools and six splash pads. They did a presentation about three months ago. Next week on Tuesday they are doing a presentation to Council following up on that with more details on Option 3. We are looking at basic improvements, the filtration system, the disinfectant system and some of the ADA issues we have to do. Each of the six pools, which includes McAdams, will get some upgrades. Option 3 has six swimming pools and six splash pads that we will add. It is in the range of about $16M-$16.SM. One point of contention is that there has been $22M set aside for it, why can't we use that? This is the direction given from the Mayor and Council. After the Workshop presentation we will take it to each of the DABs in February. We will also to present in February to the Park Board. After that, in March he can take it to Council and hope they give us a green light, whether it is Option 1 which is three swimming pools that get a lot more added to them and College Hill which gets minimal improvements and then splash pads too; Option 2 is the big water park at McAdams and then add eight or nine splash pads; and Option 3 is the six swimming pools and six splash pads. Each has pros and cons, but he prefers Option 3 even though it is not drastic improvements to the pools, we at least have six swimming pools in the community. That is what we hoped from the very beginning, is that the community and the people wanted to keep their neighborhood swimming pools. They expected a lot more improvements that what we are able to do, but that is kind of the best of both worlds, with some splash pads as well. We are hoping for good direction after Workshop. 11 President's Update (Troy Palmer) There was no President's Update. BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING January 14, 2019 Page 11 of 13 12 Director's Update (Troy Houtman) Houtman stated for Clapp Park we put together a transformation committee of stakeholders from the neighborhood, two Park Board members (Tabing & Hillman) plus another seven or eight members. They are working to get exposed to new ideas, share some of the possibilities and constraints and give them opportunities to listen from operational perspective and what could be opportunities for the future. Then also taking those ideas out to the community and sharing and listening to them, finding out what they want and what their ideas are. Our kick off meeting was about week and a half ago. We are meeting with a consultant, Houtman met with him last week. He has great ideas that can be implemented. They are just ideas and suggestions from a perspective of what has happened to other cities that area transforming their golf courses into green space. We need to ensure we have revenue to maintain it and also put some capital dollars into it. Staff is meeting with the consultant on January 28, Councilmember Clendenin will be at that meeting as well. Then on February 12 we are meeting with stakeholders and the consultant. He encourages everyone from the board to come to this meeting. After that there will be a lot of neighborhood meetings. There will be a meeting here, then the following month there will be a report back to the Park Board. The Planning Commission will get an initial meeting, then after a month of getting more community information they will report back. All the stakeholders have representatives, we will go to their DABs and Neighborhood Association meetings. There are about 14 meetings scheduled. Hillman added they are also sending out notices for the public meetings on NextDoor.com. We have about 2,000 contacts there. Tabing inquired about the May 7 City Council presentation, will that be the moment where the final decision about the course is made? Houtman responded that is where the recommendations are of what could happen there. That is not a final master plan, we would need someone to come out and survey everything, hire and architect and engineers to do a certified master plan to transform on to the ground. This is the culmination of all the public engagement and ideas. That then turns in to master plan. Tabing stated so most likely Clapp would be open through 2019. Houtman responded no, it is the expectation that it will close in May after we make the presentation. That is what we are planning for operationally. In the meantime we are losing money there. Fahnestock asked what the delivery time is for the engineers and architects. Is it a design contest? Do we know yet? Houtman responded once we get all the ideas of what it could be, we need to make specifications, we can't do that until we get community input. If and when we get funding for design, we would then use all those ideas, make it into a document with specifications, pass it on to designers so we can get bids on their designs. It would be similar to what we have done with other projects like the Library or the baseball stadium. It would probably be based on qualifications. Palmer left the meeting 4:39 pm. Houtman added LaShonda Garnes from WSU is leading the process, that way we can ensure it is a transparent process and no concerns about staff leading in certain directions. BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING January 14, 2019 Page 12 of 13  Houtman stated the issue regarding feral cats has come up a couple times. He asked if the board would like a presentation or want more information. Ramsey asked if it affected the board. Houtman responded yes, we have feral cats that have a big impact on parks, especially wildlife birds. We find feral cat colonies in our parks, people dumping them and feeding them. Then we find the remnants of what the cats do to ttie wildlife. Ramsey responded he would like presentation. Houtman responded he would make that happen. KRPA Conference is in couple weeks in Hutchinson. Our department is receiving seven awards out of the 11 categories. These include Open Streets, the design at Pracht Wetlands, a couple staff are being recognized and Cindy Claycomb is being recognized for her work on the Park Board along with the things she has done with Council and at WSU. In the past we have had Bryan Frye as well as Lavonta Williams recognized. Adjourn There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at approximately 4:42 p.m. The next regularly scheduled meeting will be held on Monday, February 11, 2019. BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING January 14, 2019 Page 13 of 13