Zionsville Board of Park and Recreation

Summary Minutes of the Meeting of the Zionsville Park and Recreation Board February 11, 2015 The Zionsville Board of Park and Recreation met Wednesday, February 11, 2015 at 7:00 PM. The meeting took place in the Town Hall’s Bev Harves room. Steve Bullington, George Abel, and Dorothy Hitchins were present. Manda Clevenger and Phil Howard were unable to attend. Also present were Matt Dickey, Park Superintendent and Roger Burrus, Park Board attorney. Minutes Dorothy Hitchins made a motion to approve the January 14, 2015 regular board meeting minutes as amended. George Abel seconded and the motion passed unanimously. Public Comments/Presentations Mr. Mike Maguire, Golf Course Manager, was present to give a summary of the 2014 year at the course. The Park Board had received his written summary and Mr. Maguire proceeded to highlight a few specific points. Mr. Maguire noted the course was open 181 consecutive days in 2014, which is very unusual. Most of the organized leagues will be returning to play at the golf course, along with a couple of high school tourneys, Early-bird pass buyers are beginning to come in already so that’s encouraging. Green number 8 reconstruction design is in process, and there are plans for the staff to paint the exterior of the pro shop. Mike thanked the course staff for their dedicated service the past year and looks forward to opening the course on March 13th. 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 his verbal update by noting the bicycle grant was submitted by the January deadline and he hopes to hear something either way by mid-March. Mr. Bullington asked about the next newsletter. Matt reported that he and Mindy Murdock ahd had two meeting working on it in the two weeks previous to the Feb Board meeting. This Spring Newsletter should be out by the last week of Feb or probably no later than first week of March if some unforeseen issue should arise. The Bicycle Challenge start date has not yet been set, but May 9th will be the Bike Rodeo. Mr. Burrus asked if a specific bike jersey would be available. His thought is that there may be sponsorship opportunities available if so. 1 Mr. Burrus began his report by updating on the appraisals relating to the Starkey Park area. He was able to cancel that work without charge. He noted a meeting with the school corporation on the related matter should take place later this month. The Starkey Park creek bank stabilization project contract details have been ironed out and a revised contract is under review. Mr. Burrus reported he has finished the memorandum concerning repairs to the splash park and will send that along to Matt for review. He suggested Mr. Abel might also want to look at this and add his thoughts. Mr. Abel agreed. New Business Mr. Dickey began by discussing the quotes for mowing contracts. There were four proposals received, and Assistant Superintendent for Maintenance Services, Al Smith recommended awarding the contract to the lowest quote: EA Outdoor Services. The quote and contract are structured to take into account slow mowing months. Ms. Hitchins made a motion to approve the quote from EA Outdoor Services to provide contract mowing. Mr. Abel seconded and the motion passed unanimously. At this point, a member of the audience approached the Board and suggested they hire a local contractor. After some discussion on the matter, board members decided to keep their original decision to award the quote to EA Outdoor Services. Old Business Mr. Dickey presented information regarding a request from SullivanMunce to grant an extension on reimbursements for their 2014 Rec-Grant. Mr. Dickey noted a few considerations to keep in mind, should the board grant this request. First, it was specifically mentioned in the grant application paperwork that there was no guarantee that funds will be available across ‘granting years’, and if the request was grant this there reduces the available moneys for grants and recreation in this line-item for 2015. Having said that, Mr. Dickey made the staff recommendation that for this one event, and as long as the Board understood the dangers and the potential precedent, that the reimbursement extension be granted to SullivanMunce. Mr. Abel made a motion to grant the request. Ms. Hitchins seconded and the motion passed unanimously. Next, the Park Board discussed amending the Recreation Grant Program to require all projects, and their associated reimbursement requests, be completed and filed well before the end of the same fiscal year as the grant award. This would avoid having to utilize funds in a second year to fund grants from the previous year. Another discussed change revolved around the challenge that the Park Board should not authorize/announce a grant round each year until the Towns total budget is approved by the State authorities. This final State budget authorization usually occurs sometime in Feb or March. As just one example, in 2015, this still hasn’t been resolved even well into March, and the Town is awaiting appeal to the State’s ruling or possibly find a place to cut $400,000 dollars. This came about because of incorrect assessed valuation information being sent to the Town from official sources (and outside the Town’s 2 control). So the challenge is some potentially grantable programs might be scheduled in the first part of year before the Park Board even knows if it officially has the State’s verification of funds available with which to have a grant program at all. The Kite Day Program held (variously) in Late March and early April would be an example of a program that could fall in this grey area. The answer arrived at during the Board meeting’s discussion is to allow some programs to “bleed over” into the first third of the following year. But only as long as A), a grant applicant whose new or expanded recreation program occurred in the first third (only) of a calendar year and they applied for their grant in the year prior to the event… B), the work on the entirety of the project’s “grant-portion” is completed in the same calendar year as the grant award… C), the full reimbursement paper work submitted by the appropriate deadlines, again in the same calendar year as the grant award… and D), so that the reimbursement funds can completely be sent within the same budget cycle as the original grant award. If a grantee missed these deadlines and the Park Board heading into a new budget year, that grantee would lose any access to the remainder of any grant reimbursement’s not yet received by them. Again this situation only would implement if a grantee missed the deadlines stated in their initial application packet and the Town budget’s cycled into the next fiscal cycle (which typically causes a department to lose access to those previous year’s funds). The April Kite Day Program (KDP) was used as a real world example. The KDP could submit a grant request by the initial grant round deadline of April 1st, 2015 for a program run in April 2016. So if their proposal was found eligible by the Committee in a particular year, and awarded a grant; that grant would only be for a project portion that would be completed in the same budget cycle as the grant award (i.e. in this example, the grant portion of KDP would have to be completed in 2015). And in addition to completing the grant-portion of the KDP work in 2015, the KDP-grantee would have to also complete all reimbursement paperwork and submit them by the final 2015 submission deadlines so the Clerk-Treasurer’s Office can pay them from 2015 funds and before the Town moves into the next budget year. Because the Town should not “pay ahead” for work or products not yet completed; this work-around would most likely be utilized for acquisition or production of “hard product” that is completed and received before the end of the year in which the grant was awarded. With proper planning on a potential grantee’s part, this would still allow grantee’s to submit for funding for events that occur throughout any particular year but without the forcing the Park Board to refuse a potential grantee whose event is very early in a year… and also without forcing the Board into the corner in which they found themselves during the transition from 2014-2015. That was the situation was where the Board was forced to choose to seriously deplete their 2015 grant funds reimbursing a 2014 grantee that did not meet the 2014 deadlines for reimbursement submission. Based upon staff’s recommendation, the Park Board willingly chose to do so, but these two program changes will prevent the troublesome situations from arising again. Mr. Abel made a motion to implement these program revisions. Ms. Hitchins seconded and the motion passed unanimously. 3 Citizen Advisory Committee Reports Land Resources – Phil Howard. No report Finance/ Funding – Dorothy Hitchins. The committee hasn’t met (due to weather delays) but expects to very soon. Communications –Manda Clevenger. No report. Recreation –Steve Bullington. Steve will be working with Nebo Ridge Bicycles on the upcoming Family Fun Ride. Steve also noted Matt has been asked to work on the central Indiana bikeways plan with a committee established by the INDOT-MPO. Finally, Steve reported he had the opportunity to walk the prospective Eagle Creek pathway connection. There is still a hole present and the Board will need to address this soon. Facilities–George Abel. The committee met in January 21st and discussed various park inspections. Creekside Park was a particular topic as the members had all visited that site. Four additional parks will be investigated in the coming months. At this point in the facilities discussion, Mr. Dickey added that there are a couple of directional signs located around Lincoln Park of which he wanted to make board members aware. The Park Department and Board had no say in the locating and this was a policy decision from the Town’s Safety Board and the situation arose based on the State’s Department of Transportation’s Tourist Destination Information Program (the Town is also not paying for the signs). Other Board Related Items Mr. Dickey asked the Board consider increasing the garden plot reservation fee. It hasn’t been raised in the 20+ years of the program’s existence. Staff would like to increase the cost to $25 for the 2015 season to help offset at least some of the increased operational costs. Ms. Hitchins so moved. Mr. Abel seconded. The motion passed unopposed. A second item concerns the NatureFest. The ZNC Friends group asked that a $20 voucher be donated to their raffle. Ms. Hitchins made a motion for the Board to donate a $20 voucher, contingent on Clerk-Treasurer and State Board of Accounts concurrence and to the standards they require. Mr. Abel seconded. The motion passed unanimously. Claims Ms. Hitchins made a motion to approve the claims as submitted. Mr. Abel seconded and the motion passed unanimously. The meeting was then adjourned with a motion made by Ms. Hitchins and seconded by Mr. Abel. The next regular Park Board meeting is scheduled for March 11, 2015 at 7PM, at the Town Hall’s Beverly Harves Room. ______________________________ ____________________________ Manda Clevenger, Secretary Steve Bullington, President 4