Zionsville Board of Park and Recreation

Summary Minutes of the Meeting of the Zionsville Park and Recreation Board October 8, 2014 The Zionsville Board of Park and Recreation met Wednesday, October 8, 2014 at 7:15 PM. The meeting took place at Zion Nature Center instead of the usual town hall meeting room. Phil Howard, Manda Clevenger, and Dorothy Hitchins were present. Also present were Matt Dickey, Superintendent and Mindy Murdock, Park Naturalist. Minutes Phil Howard made a motion to approve the September 10, 2014 regular board meeting minutes as amended for minor, non-critical typographical changes. Manda Clevenger seconded and the motion passed unanimously. Public Comments/Presentations None Staff Reports The reports from the Superintendent of Parks & Recreation, the Park Naturalist, and the Assistant Superintendent for Maintenance Services were part of the Park Board packet and available for review. Mr. Dickey began the highlights of his written report by relating the Zionsville Bicycle Challenge has been very successful thus far, only 2/3rds of the way through the challenge period. He noted this program is in cooperation with AgroCyclists Bicycle Club (Dow). 85 people have registered, over 17,500 miles have been logged, and the Zionsville Team is leading the Challenge. Mr. Dickey continued his report by mentioning the Park e-Newsletter, spearheaded by Ms. Murdock, Park Naturalist. The newsletter highlights some of the nature center programming and promotes the entire department. Since going ‘live’, the newsletter has generated even more interest in the park’s Constant Contact account. Mr. Dickey next spoke about the Town’s new Instagram account. This is another highly visible electronic method of reaching out to an increasingly interested community. Mr. Dickey credited Mindy Murdock and her staff for the idea to set up the Town’s account and noted that currently, parks is the entirety of the Instagram content and also accounts for much of the Town’s news and events and other web and social media content. Ms. Murdock briefly discussed a few points on her written report before segueing into her main presentation on the Plan Development efforts for the Center (recounted below) New Business None Old Business Ms. Murdock gave a brief presentation on the various programs and visitors the Nature Center has been seeing. She noted the different types of programs and the various groups and numbers of visitors to the nature center. Her full report is part of the Board packet. 1 Ms. Murdock gave a quick overview of previous Board presentations. Her focus this evening is to present to the Board the next phase of the ZNC planning efforts. In the board packet is information regarding some new planning initiatives. The first initiative is Programming. This will be focused on organized groups that have their own goals to achieve (Seniors, Schools, Scouts). These programs will be able to be conducted at the nature center and at outside sites as well. The second initiative is Media. Ms. Murdock anticipates developing such components as an aquatic lab, forest, and meadow habitats, a Box Turtle stump that will be their new home, and enhancing the beehive area to help introduce nature into programming. There are also plans for the kitchen area, the kid’s area, and a potential Indiana Artists gallery (revolving exhibits). Various types of media – visual, electronic, printed, hand-on learning, formal displays (both semi-permanent and seasonal), etc. will be used to present various educational programs. Ms. Murdock noted the next phase will include an Action Plan dividing the initiatives into three groups based on material, time, and costs. Mr. Howard noted that the current documents didn’t discuss the outside portions immediately around the Center Building. Ms. Murdock noted that certainly there will be planning efforts and items that will be going on in that area (and in other parks as well), but that she had been mainly concentrating on the inside of the facility. Mr. Howard made a motion to approve this portion of the planning document as presented. Ms. Clevenger seconded and the motion passed unanimously. In addition to the planning efforts for the Zion Nature Center, which was the main topic under this “Old Business” section, Mr. Dickey also reported on the Town Council’s budget process for 2015 and their current stance regarding the Park Board’s requests. He also briefly passed on a report by Roger Burrus regarding the Rail Trail land situation for the home out at 400S (as Mr. Burrus could not be present for the meeting). Mr. Dickey mentioned that there was also some discussion about the possibility that the school board may want to use the Zion Nature Center for their own purposes. If that does happen, the potential is that the park board would need to find another nature center location. A possible replacement location that has been mentioned is near the Sullivan- Munce Center. Mr. Dickey will be able to explore this further in a few weeks. Citizen Advisory Committee Reports Land Resources – Phil Howard. No recent meeting. Mr. Howard gave kudos to the organizers and participants in the recent Bicycle Challenge. He noted there is already interest to do this again next year. Mr. Howard also mentioned the Town continues to pursue Bicycle Friendly City designation. Finance/ Funding – Dorothy Hitchins. Dorothy reported on the golf outing, which had to be canceled. She noted the committee did receive a couple of donations and there is some interest to reschedule an outing in the spring. Communications –Manda Clevenger. Ms. Clevenger mentioned she has some time now that messages have already been sent out regarding the golf outing and bicycle challenge. She asked board members and staff to give her information and she’ll get it sent out. 2 Recreation –Steve Bullington. Mr. Bullington was not present to give an update Facilities–George Abel. Mr. Able was not present to give an update Other Board Related Items Director Dickey presented a recent request from a resident to have a deer hunt in Starkey Park, to help reduce the number of deer that feed on his landscaping. As the Board dug into the issue, they asked the Park Superintendent if the park’s resources were severely impacted. Mr. Dickey reminded the Board that in 2010 or 2011 and in response to the question of “Do the parks have a deer browse problem?”… Zionsville Parks had requested the DNR’s wildlife biologist and district forester visit various park sites to among other tasks, determine if there was indeed significant deer browse damage. Both professionals determined there was no evidence of any severe impact. Park Naturalist Mindy Murdock also added that in her professional opinion, our parks still are not showing signs of unusually heavy deer browse and that the resource is not unduly suffering (even now, in 2014). Mr. Dickey also stated he has spoken with a few of the gardeners who use Elm Street Green, and they had noticed little deer depredation. As discussion continued, it was mentioned since deer are opportunistic feeders, even if the local population was reduced, deer may still find it easier to feed down the rows of landscaping beds because such food is so easily obtained without the animal(s) needing to expend many calories in foraging. The Park Board by consensus decided at this time, such hunts were not in the best interests of the park resources, especially considering the liability concerns and public relational hurdles that would need to be overcome. Claims Phil Howard made a motion to approve the claims as submitted. Manda Clevenger seconded and the motion passed unanimously. The meeting was then adjourned with a motion made by Phil Howard and seconded by Manda Clevenger at 8:40PM. The next regular Park Board meeting is scheduled for November 12, 2014 at 7PM, at the Town Hall’s Beverly Harves Room. ______________________________ ____________________________ Manda Clevenger, Secretary Dorothy Hitchins, Vice President 3