Board of Park Commissioners

Board of Park Commissioners Regular Meeting Minutes Monday, March 9, 2020 3:00- 5:00 P.M. CITY OF 455 N Main WICHITA City Hall, 1 st Floor Boardroom Wichita, Kansas 67202 Members Present: Hoyt Hillman, Bill Ramsey, Eddie Fahnestock, Tori Deatherage, Ty Tabing, Alejo Cabral City Staff: Troy Houtman (Director, Park & Recreation), Elizabeth Harlenske (Assistant City Attorney), Reggie Davidson, Troy Hendricks, Gentry Thiesen, Lisa Grissom Absent: Troy Palmer, Penny Garding (Clerk) Guests: Dale Goter, Calvin Cupp, George Kolb, Loretta Buckner Item Descri11tion Call to Order Eddie Fahnestock, President, called the meeting to order at approximately 3:00 p.m. Announcements - There were no Announcements. Public Comments Calvin Cupp - April 4 at River Vista Boathouse, joint regatta with Wichita Rowing Association with youth and collegiate rowers from across the state of Kansas. May 3 Regional Championship at River Vista with eight teams from six states committed. 1 Approve Minutes Recommended Action: Approve, sign and file minutes of the February 10, 2020, Board of Park Commissioners Regular Meeting. Motion by Cabral, second by Fahnestock, IT WAS UNANIMOUSLY VOTED to approve, sign and file the minutes of the February 10, 2020, Board of Park Commissioners Regular Meeting (S-0 with 1 abstain). 11 Director's Update Houtman - Law Department asked to remind board members to get with Councilmember to be reappointed for next year. Cigarettes in parks and artificial turf. At Stryker we have about 15 acres of artificial turf. Concern is damage caused to artificial turf if lit cigarettes are on artificial turf. He will bring a presentation on an internal policy that would unauthorize cigarette smoking in places where we have artificial turf. Cabral asked how are we educating the public. Houtman responded we have questions from users and stakeholders of Naftzger Park asking if we are putting any prohibition on cigarettes. This isn't tobacco and not all parks. It will be any situation where we have artificial turf like Westside Athletic, Stryker, Naftzger and others, including McAdams. It will be enforcement and education. Education would include signage. Coronavirus- we are putting together information and best practices. Working with staff and recreation centers to ensure taking all steps possible. We will plan for worst and hope for best. BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING March 9, 2020 Page l of 10 2 Riverfront Legacy Master Plan Houtman stated he has not received any updates from WDDC. Fahnestock asked if he was talking about the Penumbra LLC group. They have not reached out to us at all? Houtman responded no. They have not shared any information with anyone from the City or anyone who has park land. Fahnestock asked when they were planning taking that to Council. Houtman stated it still needs more presentations and interactions. He thinks they are coming to Park Board next month. Cabral stated he heard it was moved to March 24. It is to be a joint meeting with the City and County. It is just a presentation of the final report. Fahnestock stated they won't be voting on anything at that time. Houtman responded no, that is why they are coming here in April to give more information. Dale Goter - we keep hearing golf is in a great decline and everyone is struggling with the numbers. Looked at communities around Wichita for ideas of how they are doing. He.contacted Tulsa, Oklahoma City and Lincoln. Tulsa does not compare well. It has four courses but it is double our population and a different model. Oklahoma City has seven courses and organizationally different. Lincoln is strikingly similar it a lot of ways. There seems to be some lessons that could be absorbed, particularly with our budget crisis facing the Golf Division and as we look to revamp the Advisory Committee, what direction to go. We looked at these two communities. Based on MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area) Lincoln is about half the population of Wichita. Both have four courses. Both had five about 10 years ago. Lincoln hired the National Golf Foundation to come and turned one course over to Junior Golf and then addressed the issues with the remaining four courses. Kansas is ranked 13th in golf per capita, Nebraska is ranked 5th . Wichita has 13 area golf courses, Nebraska has 16, somewhat similar again. Lincoln has generated 155,000-165,000 per year. Wichita had 138,000 last year. Their golf season is three months shorter. One difference is the way they run the golf courses. In Wichita all golf personnel are City of Wichita employees. Professionals are salaried. All revenue flows to the City of Wichita. Maintenance crews are City employees. There are minimum incentives to the golf pros to drive traffic. They are salaried and make very little income outside of that. In Lincoln they have a contract with each course with the pro similar to what we used to do. They have one course that is not operated that way because it has a bond issue. They show an average, each golf professional is making about $60,000-$85,000 per year. Another difference are the administrative costs. Wichita's Golf Administration budget totals $792,000. That same description in the Lincoln budget was only $460,000. The transactions are almost the same number but we require a lot more money to go to the City as opposed to what Lincoln does. Within the budget is the Central Services line item. That is for Legal, Human Resources, etc. Lincoln has a $91,000 charge for that, we charge $251,000. Golf incomes are about identical. Their membership strategy is different than ours. They do not like to discount golf rounds. When Mark Manning made his presentation to the Council he identified a negative number of $300,000 for 2020 and a projected half-million deficit for 2021. That includes a $400,000 subsidy that the City put into Golf last year. The question last meeting about the choice between choosing privatization or a subsidy, the subsidy is going the wrong direction. There was a subsidy from the City, if you look at the administrative costs, it was a subsidy in the other direction. Lincoln showed a profit in the same year with the same number of revenue, same number of golf courses, 30,000 more rounds. In 2007 the City of Wichita's Golf Division had a $1 million cash balance at the end of the year. Now we are looking at a $500,000 deficit in 2021. Lincoln showed an increase in golf revenue for that period of time of $1.1 million while we went backwards. They had a National Golf Foundation study in 2012 that changed their perspectives. After we looked at that, our committee decided there are two recommendations. One is to restructure and redefine the GAC. The solution seems to lie with the National Golf Foundation. They said in the last 10 years they have served 170 communities who have asked them to look at their systems and provide guidance. One thing they look at it is finance. They BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING March 9, 2020 Page 2 of 10  would look at those administrative costs. If you took that one item, the difference of $300,000- $400,000 in administrative costs, and if what Lincoln is charging is appropriate and we use the same model, you would have $400,000 more in the budget and it would be balanced. Fahnestock asked about Lincoln and their golf system. Why is there season three months shorter than Wichita? It seems like a similar climate. Goter responded they generally have snow and are not able to play December through February. Fahnestock asked how many private and public/private golf courses are there. Goter responded he asked and it is similar to us. They have a number of private courses around. They have a couple that try to compete with the city courses. The city courses do pretty well, they generated 165,000 rounds last year. Nebraska has a lot of golfers, ranked 5th nationally per capita. Fahnestock asked Houtman if we have looked, in the past, at incentivizing our golf pros. Houtman responded they sell all of the equipment and items out of the club house and pro shop. They receive 95% of that. In some cases some have been receiving $20,000-$25,000 per year, depending on how well they sell. Tabing asked Houtman about Wichita's administrative costs, can you provide some explanation for the higher costs we have. Houtman responded the department does not set the admin fees. They are set by the Finance Department. We ask for items to be discounted or waived. An example is our water. We have asked for that to be discounted. That water comes from user fees. At one time the golf course was making money and there was a need for more money going into the Police Department, which is why there is such a high admin fee for Police. Those revenues were getting redirected into their budget. Those things have not changed and eventually they go Council who ratifies the budget. There have been many cases when we have tried to get lower fees charged to us. Cabral asked how the new membership program is doing. Houtman responded our goal was to get 1,000 passes in one year. That is going to happen in August. We are up to almost 600 passes. Houtman stated Mr. Goter did a great job on his presentation. We did have a positive bank account but had to use a lot of that money for repai_ring infrastructure. We have old golf courses in the central part of the city. We have to put money back into infrastructure and investments into these courses. Fahnestock asked if we have talked about putting some sort of CIP in place. Houtman responded we have an equipment repair fund that we implemented a year and a half ago. In the future we want to have a replacement fund for our golf courses. At the same time do something for infrastructure as well. Even though we are enterprise we have been lucky to get some dollars from the budget office last year for our golf courses and golf carts. We got visitor and tourism dollars, somewhere around $1 million to do some improvements. 4 Subcommittee - Golf Advisory Committee Fahnestock stated Deatherage attended an Ad hoc Committee meeting. Have they come up with solutions? Deatherage stated she met with the Ad hoc Committee a couple weeks ago trying to figure a way for them to help that would be productive and constructive. She told them we are looking at the future of the GAC and asked if they had recommendations on bylaws, rules, or duties. They created a new version of the bylaws with amendments to the current one. They revised the mission from "to promote high quality golfing opportunities by providing excellent customer service, maintaining course conditions and ensuring affordable golf on a self-sustaining basis". She is not sure how they were ever supposed to do that. Revise it to say "to promote high quality golfing opportunities by requiring excellent customer service, expecting well maintained golf course conditions and ensuring affordable golf within Wichita's public golf BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING March 9, 2020 Page 3 of 10 system." They added a few duties saying that the GAC shall participate in developing annual goals of the City Golf Division, assessing implementation and the outcomes of the previous year goals and review and provide input towards the proposed annual budget. It is not giving them authority over anything but opening the communication between staff and the GAC and creating more transparency. They also recommended we move meetings from every six weeks to monthly, but allowing them to be scheduled less often during the off-season. The only other notable changes were a three year term limit on the President of the GAC and recommended a new reporting system from the Golf Division Manager. Currently they get the Rounds Report and days of rain, etc. They created what they thought would be a good report that is more revenue oriented. Fahnestock asked Hendricks if they had seen it yet. Hendricks responded no. Fahnestock asked Deatherage if it had been sent to them yet. Deatherage responded no, it is brand new. Fahnestock stated he would like to get feedback on this and if it would be productive. Fahnestock asked Deatherage who it has been sent to. Deatherage responded it went to everyone on the Park Board except for Ramsey. Houtman and Harlenske stated they did not get it. Deatherage responded it was just to Park Board members. Fahnestock stated it looks good. He would like to have more time to look at it. Deatherage added it is helpful in determining what we want the GAC to be focused on. Fahnestock stated the second recommendation was to hire the National Golf Foundation. We have looked at that before. Last year we brought in the PGA of America to take a look at our golf system. What is the difference between the NGF and the PGA and what they look at? Have we thought about moving forward with the National Golf Foundation? Houtman responded we did last year and asked the Park Board to vote. The Park Board voted to go with the PGA. One of the bigger issues is the cost. PGA is free, NGF is about $50,000. At the time the biggest concern was the aspects of what are we doing with Clapp. We had strong accounting information that told us what we needed to do regarding the amount of rounds we had. It was a simple decision without having to go to the NGF. We are willing to go back and get more feedback and information. He worked closely with his friends in Austin. They went through the process. They sent him a copy of their request for proposal. He has talked with others who have used their services as well. It is beneficial regarding customer service and to compare and benchmark our operations with other cities. A big focus is how does the City come up with their internal fees that are so high. It is up to the Finance department, the City Manager and Council. We have a good idea of what we need to do, it is just a matter of getting Council to do it. Cabral added last year we had.Clapp open and this year it isn't. We have also updated the fee structure, which bumped up the amount for most adults. It kept the senior price pretty low. This year it is going to look different. It is great to update some of the bylaws but we don't need to spend $50,000 if we just changed a bunch of things last year. We should see how that plays out before we hire another group to study a system that is still evolving. It is great the Ad hoc Committee has put these things on paper. Ramsey added if we went back and looked at what we said last year was that we wanted to start with the PGA since that was a no-cost option and see where that took us. Then come back and evaluate whether we wanted to move forward with recommended allocation of funds. Fahnestock stated we keep talking about the Golf Advisory Committee and pointing them in the right direction. This is a good start for them. Do we want to give them direction today or talk about it? Should we look into allocating funds for the National Golf Foundation? Ramsey stated we should look to them to review those recommendations from the PGA and see where we are now and see what results that has gotten us. If it hasn't moved us forward then they can make the recommendation. They need to review what was said, where we are and then come back to us with a recommendation. Hillman asked if you are going to have the Golf Advisory Committee review this, they probably ought to meet. Fahnestock responded he was just getting to that. Is that a meeting behind closed doors? We don't need to vote on anything right now. Hillman stated there was some thought about expanding the BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING March 9, 2020 Page 4 of 10 committee. One was, rather than give each of us two votes would be to go back to the City Council. It was their charter. Maybe councilmembers could appoint one or two if they wanted, then you have more of a breadth of the community, more golfers involved. You might get more information. Fahnestock expressed agreement. He attended a few meetings last year and one of the struggles was showing up to a meeting and there would only be three or four people there. Let the City Councilmembers appoint someone else along with us. We would have more of the community, more of a vocal leadership on the golf front. We'll get better feedback and attendance. They changed the bylaws and making it almost mandatory attendance. Deatherage stated that has been there, we just haven't enforced it. There has not been a report back to us on attendance. Fahnestock stated that is something we need to look at. Is there an attendance report quarterly or semi-annually? Ramsey stated if you want to get something done, have a meeting. If you want to get less done, invite more people. Not saying it's a bad idea. "Fresh blood" if nothing else, is a good idea. You just don't want it to get too large. It gets out of hand. Deatherage stated another alternative would be if they had a couple different specific chairs, leading specific topics. Fahnestock suggested a membership chair, course conditions chair, etc. Cabral asked if that could be implemented now with the current people we have. Fahnestock responded we need to look at what we want. Cabral asked if we keep the seven roles as they are. Deatherage added make sure they are showing up and engaged. Cabral stated part of that is giving them a reason to show up. If you don't have a reason to be at the meeting and can miss it, why show up. Giving responsibility gives them the engagement piece. It gives us a reason to say you are not doing what you are tasked with and not showing up to meetings, we recommend we appoint someone else. Deatherage stated she is a fan of less people less meetings. Her thought is everyone knows there are issues in the golf system but nobody can pinpoint what and have different opinions, so it was more of an all hands on deck type of thing. The report will have a lot of information, getting people to start brainstorming, more than just the formality of showing up to a meeting. Fahnestock stated the Ad hoc Committee has done a nice job of pinpointing the pain-points for us and determining a plan of action. That would help in moving the GAC forward. Does that mean they have a representative or multiple representatives on there, not sure? They have been at this for two years. They know how difficult it is to run this enterprise system and the daily difficulties. They have i_nitiative and good ideas. He is a proponent of less people less meetings too. You have to have the right people there too. Houtman added they brought this information many times to the Golf Advisory Committee. We've shared the budget with them, we've shared what are our struggles are. We've also shared with the Ad hoc Committee. He had a meeting with staff and Mr. Geter going through the financials, step by step. We need action, somebody to take the lead, share it with Council. We need Council to make changes. In the meantime, we are going in the direction that had been given by the City Manager. Until something changes there is not a lot he can do. We've gone through many exercises on cost savings, cutting expense, doing more marketing, changing fees. The major things we need to change are regarding philosophy of the golf system. Are we going to continue to be an enterprise, are we going to privatize it, are we going to put more money into infrastructure and get more CIP dollars, are we going to reduce the overhead costs we are being charged. He has no control over those things and we have shared this over and over. He would love to have the Ad hoc Committee or the Golf Advisory Committee or a combination of both, with the support from the Park Board, to address the bigger issues that are giving us a hard time being successful. As Mr. Geter shared, we are looking at a deficit for this year. His direction from the City Manager is to find a way to close the gap. That means we are going to have to cut more. Whether that means personnel or other materials or operations. That just continues to damage the system. We need major decisions to be made, but it is not at the staff level. It is at the policy level with Council. We do that with the support of the Ad hoc Committee, the Golf Advisory Committee and the Park Board. Tabing stated he feels he needs the GAC to advise him, he is not a golfer. He has learned a lot being involved with Park Board but this conversation BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING March 9, 2020 Page S of 10  emphasizes the importance of the GAC's expertise and that they can advise and we can take on . some of the larger policy issues because we are the ones to do that in the current structure, becoming more of an advocate to City Council. We get caught up in things get recommended and we discuss them and they don't go anywhere. We have to commit as a board to have those big picture discussions. We are just spinning our wheels on a lot of this. Cabral asked Houtman what areas did the PGA not look at that the National Golf Foundation would look at. Houtman responded the NGA provides more information. They may get deeper into the finances and can evaluate some of our overhead costs. He was supportive then and still is, whatever we decide to do, we will go ahead and do it. We are talking about a $50,000 bill and we know the overhead charges are too much, we know we probably should be forgiving the debt at Auburn Hills. Those are things that should be done. We don't need a consultant to tell us that. What we do need is the next step to get Council to act on those things. We need to do something. If we keep doing what we are doing now we are going to keep spiraling into the abyss. If we are not putting money back into infrastructure, staff, not adding quality into our program, they are going to find someplace else to golf. We also need to create new golfers. Our partnership with First Tee is beneficial but is not going to save us. We are working hard at getting new programs for youth, getting more diversity into our courses, more marketing and there might be things our regular golfers see. The idea is to get new golfers into the golf courses. At the end of the year we will be evaluating how successful the past program was and evaluating the impacts of closing Clapp. He thinks we will be better than we were before. It might not be a positive number but it won't be as deep of a negative number. Fahnestock stated our action item moving forward is to talk to our City Councilmembers to see if they have anyone they would like to appoint to the Golf Advisory Committee. In the meantime we need to sit down and review what the PGA came back with last year. Are we making progress or are we not. If we are not, do we look at going out to an RFP to look for a team to come in and give us more recommendations? Ramsey stated if we are going to do that, is that something that needs to go into the Bylaws to expand and allow for that. Fahnestock responded most likely, yes. Deatherage stated regarding the monthly report, is that something we have any say over. Can we request different information or modifications? Houtman responded whatever you want we will be open and provide. Deatherage responded we appreciate the information and have had ideas for other things we would like to hear about. But having someone help us shape a specific report has been helpful. Houtman responded if there is something specific you want to see in the report, let us know and we will make sure we get it. The important thing is that whatever it is we report on consistently, so we can see trends. Deatherage suggested they all look at this between now and the next meeting and come ready with ideas on what they want on the monthly report. Fahnestock stated to come to the next meeting to share thoughts on what we want to see and not see on the monthly report and shape it from there. He wants Mr. Hendricks to look at it so he knows to have the Pros looking for the information being asked for. 3 Sponsorship Opportunities -Thiesen Thiesen shared the Sponsorship presentation she will be giving to 1 Million Cups next week. The hope is by presenting to local businesses we can find sponsorships for upcoming events, especially for our busy summer season. • Over 1 million visitors at recreation centers city-wide in 2019 • Business can sponsor a time limit event or program at multiple or individual facilities, both temporarily and long-term. • OJ Watson Park had 209,000 visitors. This summer Coleman is sponsoring a camping series at the park BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING March 9, 2020 Page 6 of 10  • Tennis Center had over 37,000 visitors and held the largest pickleball tournament in the Wichita area. Expanded facilities coming next year, the tournaments will attract more players and larger crowds. Possibly more sponsorship dollars. • Nearly 5,000 youth participated in athletic programs. We are developing tournament sponsorships now. • 39 teams and 500 youth are part of League 42 that practice and play on six fields at Linwood and McAdams parks. • Facility partners can display logos at athletic facilities, on outfield fences, on scoreboards and other options. • Over 55,000 attendees at special events, including Red White & BOOM, Snow Day, Dive-In Movies and plenty more. • ICT Cinema Series is a minimum of 10 movies, running May through September at locations including Naftzger Park, OJ Watson Park, golf courses and public pools. Food trucks and concessions are at the events and an average of 100 people gathered to watch free and low cost movies. Packages start as little as $350 for the whole season of events. These are available as a Cinema Series Sponsor. Platinum Sponsor is included in a press release and listed as presenting sponsor for the series as well. • Open Streets ICT and Open Streets NoMar are community building events that have grown over the past few years. The NoMar event is held during Cinco de Mayo weekend to bring attention to the unique services and culture of the north end, not found anywhere else in Wichita. • Sponsors will be tied to two high profile events with incredible attendance and high traditional and social media reach and impressions. • Sponsorships start as low as $100 with logo display on the website and t-shirt design. Benefits increase as the business invests more. At the Tier 1 level of $10,000 for the co­ sponsor label of the event and opportunity to have a member on the planning committee. • Business benefit because of their connection to Open Streets ICT, a beloved youth sports team, local recreation centers and the mission of the healthy Wichita population. • Sponsorships are a great opportunity for local businesses to get connected, get engaged and get a lot of visibility in the community. Tabing asked if we have a dedicated staff, what does the sponsorship operation look like. Thiesen responded Katie Dawes, Assistant Recreation Supervisor, handles most of the sponsorships. Houtman added we do not have a position dedicated to this. We have staff that help with other activities. Katie does a lot of this because it falls within the realm of what she is doing with special events. We do not have a person that actively goes out. We are hoping the Park Board might be able to help us find people who want to do sponsorships. 5 Recreation Update (Reggie Davidson) Athletics • Kicked off the partnership with Friends University at Kansas Sports Hall of Fame (WSAF). We were able to get $400,000 field improvements at no cost to the City. • South Lakes Tournament-February 8 -45 teams - Benefit family of play and father killed on New Year's Eve in Newton. Evergreen Recreation Center • Continue to offer after school rec programs. 270 kids in February-K-12 th grade-3:30-5:30 daily-Free service for students. • Flooring will be updated throughout the facility during the summer. • Gym floor has been striped for pickleball. Great Plains Nature Center • Staff attended the Region 6 Conference in Oklahoma. BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING March 9, 2020 Page 7 of 10  o Cassie Standley, GPNC volunteer coordinator, Excellence in Interpretive Support o Rachel Roth, Naturalist, Excellence in Interpretive Media Award - "Solitary Royals" • 20th Anniversary Birthday Bash -1,000+ guests Orchard Recreation Center • Pickleball class expansion • New flooring throughout • Golden Age Club -137 participants at 4 dances in February McAdams Recreation Center • New pickleball flooring Kansas Recreation & Parks Association Awards • Reggie Davidson -Administration Leadership Award • Brian Hill -Innovative Aquatics Program for Dive In Movies event • Barbara McGuire -Recreation Branch Professional • Sara Rasmussen - Sports Branch Professional Naftzger Park • Grand Opening -Thursday, March 12 -5:00-7:30 pm 6 Golf Update (Troy Hendricks) Hendricks stated they still do not have financials for January or February. Rounds are up through the first two months of the year by 53%. Based off revenue showing in point of sale system, not the City financial system, January was up 64% and February was up 160% over last year. Year to date up 46% in revenue through POS system. Memberships through the end of February we had 72 Adult, 43 Couples, 22 Junior, 318 Senior and 39 Young Adult, for a total of 494. We took the revenue generated through the sales of those passes for February and it is being distributed out to each of the golf courses through journal transfers out of admin. We will be transferring from Golf Admin approximately $32,000+ with $9,000+ to Auburn Hills, Tex Consolver and Sim; and about $4,600 going to MacDonald, based off the rounds played at those facilities by the members. Revenue for February was $28 more than for January. The Superintendents and Golf Pros report are provided. The information on the Rounds Report is much more in-depth than it was in 2013 when he took over the position. Previously it was only rounds played per month. He is willing to make any changes you would like to have. Hillman asked about golf carts. Hendricks responded they are doing well. Hillman asked about the electric powered ones. Are they due batteries? Hendricks responded the carts purchased in 2013 are all batteries. They are all original batteries and we are looking at replacing most of those batteries this year. They are about $1,500 per cart and there are 37 of them. That is part of the reason we switched to the fuel injected carts. We spend about $7,000/year on gas and about $2,500/year on fuel and air filters. When you divide that over a five year period that is pretty inexpensive per cart when you are looking at 72 carts. Replacing batteries is about $1,500-$2,000 per cart, that is about $60,000 to put batteries in those carts. We hope to start to trade in the next couple years. Fahnestock stated he saw a 288% increase at Auburn Hills concessions sales. Was there something other than good weather to increase that? Hendricks responded the weather is going to be the biggest thing. He didn't have any purchases there so everything that came in is going to be profit. Ramsey stated he likes the break out of Auburn Hills, the revenue, rentals, concession sales, rounds played and the total member rounds. It would be nice to see that from each location. BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING March 9, 2020 Page 8 of 10  Hendricks stated in Mr. Goter's presentation, he used to work in Lincoln as a golf professional. They have five municipal golf courses, not four. The fifth course was built in the mid-1990's. It is called The Highlands, it is the busiest course of their five. The course he was talking about they were looking at closing is Ager Junior Golf Course. It is a nine-hole course that the longest hole is 175 yards. It is a par 3 course that plays along a drainage ditch in the middle of town. It was built in 1968. That is where they do a lot of their junior programming. They play rounds there too. Houtman added the only time Lincoln is closed is the same days we are: Christmas, New Years and Thanksgiving. They have a 12-month season like we do. Hendricks added their policy is the same as it was in the 80's. They have a 32° rule; if the forecast is greater than 32 ° for tomorrow and the course is playable, they are open. Ramsey stated they probably have lower temperatures than we do, so they.are not able to play more often. Hendricks responded in 1984 the average temperature in Lincoln the month of December was 2• above o•. They get cold weather and a lot o_f snow, but we get the same thing here. When that was going on in Lincoln, Wichita had the same thing. Our courses are closed when the superintendents believe there could be damage caused to the golf course. We are still open if it is below 32" and they don't feel like there would be any damage. Houtman added just as we are experiencing milder winters they are as well. 7 Wichita Parks Foundation Update (Troy Houtman) Houtman stated they are still working on putting together a decision support tool for the Plates for Parks money. We have several strong projects that we could put that money toward. 8 OJ Watson Park Committee Update (Troy Houtman) Houtman stated the location for the Four Season Shelter has some serious soil issues. We are working to mitigate some of those concerns with the foundation. Hope to get construction going, out to bid and built by end of 2020. 9 Aquatics Master Plan Update (Troy Houtman) Houtman stated we received the green light to go forward on putting the bid out again for Phase 1 and right after that we will do Phase 2. Everything needs to be done with Phase 1 & 2 by May 2021. We are putting Phase 3 into CIP, items we don't have enough funding for. We are estimating that will be about $3 million. 10 President's Update (Eddie Fahnestock) Fahnestock thanked Ramsey for his contributions on the Park Board. Houtman stated Naftzger Park Opening is scheduled for Thursday 5:00 p.m. • 5:00 pm Auctions • 5:30 pm Ribbon Cutting • 6-7:30 pm Band • 7:30-8 pm Fireworks Ramsey stated he read there was concern over some poetry blocks and that the poet had given the wrong name for Naftzger. Houtman responded that is correct. Ramsey asked if anything was being done to address that. Houtman responded it will be repaired. Tabing stated he was on the committee that selected the designer for Clapp Park redesign. Has the process been laid out as to what is going to happen there? Are there discussions about securing the funds in the CIP for that? Houtman responded yes, we have started the process to develop the master plan, working with the consultant. They put together a calendar and map of things to happen. They are meeting on Wednesday to walk the park and look at some advantages and concerns. There will be a series of public meetings that will be published in April. He has put a draft of all the CIP items needed, close to 36 items. Typically he gets 10-12 BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING March 9, 2020 Page 9 of 10  items. He has about $40-$50 million of requests. He requested $9 million for Clapp, $3 million over three years. Adjourn There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at approximately 4:26 p.m. The next regularly scheduled meeting will be held on Monday, April 13, 2020. /s/ Eddie Fahnestock Eddie Fahnestock, President ,.. Penny Garding Clerk BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING March 9, 2020 Page 10 of 10