Zionsville Board of Park and Recreation

Summary Minutes of the Meeting of the Zionsville Park and Recreation Board December 9, 2015 The Zionsville Board of Park and Recreation met Wednesday, December 9, 2015 at 7:00 PM. The meeting took place at the Town Hall’s Beverly Harves Room. Steve Bullington, George Abel, John Wollenburg, Tim Casady, Manda Clevenger, and Jeff Edmondson were present. Also present was Matt Dickey Park Department Superintendent and Roger Burrus, Park Board Attorney. Minutes Manda Clevenger made a motion to approve the November 12, 2015 regular Park Board meeting minutes as presented. George Abel seconded and the motion passed unanimously. Staff Reports The reports from the Superintendent of Parks & Recreations, the Park Naturalist, and the Assistant Superintendent for Maintenance Services were part of the Park board packet and were open for review. Superintendent Dickey referenced that his items of discussion were further along on the agenda and unless the Board members had any questions the meeting could move along. Hearing none, the President moved forward. For the report from Park Board Attorney Roger Burrus, he updated the board on a couple of items with the Vonterra Project. Public notice was given in the Zionsville paper back on November 18th in which the Park Board would hear any public comments on the proposal to exchange 1.075 acres of land that the Parks Department owns with 1.075 acres that Ryland Homes owns. Also, an appraisal has been done indicating that those two parcels were similar value. The reason for this is so that Ryland can put an entrance to their subdivision across the parcel upon which Park Board currently has ownership and also, so that the parcel we receive can facilitate the continuance of the Zionsville Rail Trail. This swap is being done in order to comply with the Indiana Statues that says a municipality should never sale or give away land without complying with certain requirements. President Bullington announced this would now be the official time for pubic comment in case anyone cares to do so and the Public Hearing portion of the meeting was then opened. No comments were offered by the public and the Park Board President stated that the Public Hearing will now be closed. Mr. Burrus went on to clarify that at the last meeting the Park Board approved proposed findings regarding the approval of credits to the Park Impact Fee as requested by Ryland. He received a letter from the town attorney who had been researching the issue and making sure that everybody understood how that was going to work. Because of that follow-up with her, Roger did make a couple of changes and had the approval re-signed. Attorney Burrus also had one more follow-up with the Vonterra Project. He had asked Ryland for some clarification on some survey issues and they are working on those. Ryland Homes is hoping to close on the whole property December 1. Mr. Burrus continues working on the Goodwin Parcel which is the next parcel for the Rail Trail to extend northwest from Heritage Trail Park. The Friends of Boone County Trail have agreed to temporarily serve as a land bank until the Park Board is ready to take title to the property. The gift deed has been signed by two out of the three Goodwins. He expects to get the third signature soon. Old Business Superintendent Matt Dickey updated the Park Board members on the LARE grant process. When the board went through the LARE grant process the last time and applied after we had gotten the study that had identified the four major areas. At that time the board discussed that they would strategically apply for 4 grants over a time window of about every other year. As part of laying ground work for future potential grants, Matt has been promoting what’s been done so far. He has been meeting regularly with the LARE coordinator. He has 1 also met with a contractor from Ft. Wayne, who is working on a project up there and really liked ours. Superintendent Dickey invited the head of the whole LARE program and his boss, who is a divisional director, to the Eagle Creek Bank Stabilization project. Those two worthies really enjoyed the visit and there is talk at the DNR that the head of the whole state organization my visit in the spring. Superintendent Dickey informed the Park Board that the actual engineering survey work on this single grant alone ended being almost 92 feet longer in the bank than the survey two years ago. That needed to be addressed because the arch had been cut 10 feet deeper from the last two years of flooding since the survey work had been done. So that sets the stage then in January 2016 for the next grant application. Mr. Dickey wanted to check with the Park Board before preparing for the application because this would be coming from the Park’s Non Reverberating Capital Fund (NRCF) and the Town Council and Park Department now has a different plan for $300,000 of that money. The minimum that the Park Department would have to ask for to get the maximum would be $125,000. Originally the Park Department plan was to take two of the other smaller areas of the Eagle Creek Bank Stabilization project and add them together. Now though, with the increased length that is needed on the next one, Mr. Dickey is not sure if we can lump two together. It is going to be quite a bit more. Matt would certainly ask for the full amount and let them tell us no, but we would have enough even with the $300,000 now being target elsewhere, to have a $120,000-$130,000 grant project. Mr. Dickey want to check with the Park Board to see if their will is still to go forward and apply for a $100,000 reimbursable grant (so $125,000-$135,000 total project) to take the next one of the three remaining areas on the Park’s side. Park Board Member, Tim Casady asked Mr. Dickey what the big picture looks like and what is the amount budgeted for our non-recurring capital. Matt explained that our part would be $100-$200,000 of which we earmarked a $125,000 and get a $100,000 back. That is unless the reimbursed portion or nature of the grant is changed. President Bullington asked if there were any concerns about Superintendent Dickey putting in the grant application. No further concerns were given. Since the Park Board had previously discussed an application and was not changing their earlier direction to the Superintendent, no new formal action was required. Citizen Advisory Committee Reports Land Resources, Finance/Funding, Communications, Recreation, & Facilities – no report at this time New Business Superintendent Dickey updated the Park Board on the Ped/Bike Master Plan. He had sent out 15 RFP’s (Request for Proposal). Of the 15, four submitted proposals. This is also a matching reimbursement grant and the Park Board will eventually get $18,500 back after initial paying all bills. The Park Board has asked Mr. Dickey to encumber money and he has managed to follow the Park Board’s direction by encumbering $50,000 to the consulting category (due to the Nature Center no longer needing to have a house retrofit in 2015 and with Mr. Dickey managing to move another $8,000 in that category as well). So, the Park Department has $58,000 from this year and the grant as well. Mr. Dickey thought that would give the Park Board and idea of the scale of this Ped/Bike Master Plan budget funding. In reviewing the chart of the 4 proposals before the Park Board, George Abel asked Matt Dickey how he came to the maximum total. Mr. Dickey replied that he took the base bid that the firms had and added in the add alternates that those firms had and estimated that amount as per meeting. Mr. Dickey estimated six meetings total. No deductions were calculated in the total, although obviously the Park Board has the choice to implement any or all. Superintendent Dickey asked the Park Board Members if any of them would like to sit in on the 30 minute presentations with the top two choices; Remenschneider & Rundell Erstberger Associates (REA). And if not, would the Park Board be comfortable with either firm? The Park Board specifically stated they had complete confidence in the Park Superintendent. Jeff Edmondson, Tim Casady, and Park Board President Bullington stated that they would be interested in attending the 30 minute presentations. 2 President Bullington made a motion to authorize Superintendent Dickey to select from his two recommendations a design company for the Ped/Bike Master Plan and to commit up to $57,350 at his discretion and under the President or the Superintendent’s signature and after the approval of all the contracts by Park Board Attorney Roger Burrus. Superintendent Dickey was also, given the authority to schedule interviews of the two finalists if such was deemed valuable and to let the Park Board know for potential attendance purposes. (As an aside, the finalists’ interview with Park Board Members’ participation will be the final route). Jeff Edmondson accepted the motion and Tim Casady seconded. The motion was approved unanimously. Other Board Related Items Departing Park Board President Steve Bullington wanted to express his thanks to the Park Board Members and went on to say that Attorney Roger Burrus has been a great advisor during Steve’s presidency. He went on to say Superintendent Matt Dickey has also been a great partner with him, and that Matt has taught him a lot over the years about many items related to the public sector. To the rest of the Park Board Members, Mr. Bullington wishes them well and he would offer his experience to whoever is considering the presidency next. He would be happy to give any insights over the coming weeks if needed. In closing, President Bullington stated he would like to give a recommendation for the Park Board to consider in their first meeting in January. He would highly recommend for the Park Board to scrap the current advisory committee structure in favor of creating a single new advisory committee and to perhaps call it the Project 2022 Committee. He went on to explain that in 2022 the bond issue that the Park’s Board holds will be paid off. That could allow a tremendous time to leap forward in Park development. If the Park Board works now on putting together a portfolio of potential projects, addressing many current and growing deficiencies, and present these to the community…. Then, when it comes time for the elected leaders on the Town Council and the Mayor’s office and who will have to decide on a bond issue, hopefully there will be enough solid information and a groundswell of support to gainsay any few naysayers in the community. The committee with Project 2022 could begin to put together designs, regularly communicate with the local newspapers with drawings and interviews that would build excitement in the community between now and the year 2021. So in closing, Mr. Bullington would like to recommend that the Park Board discuss this and consider it as they kick off the New Year. He thanks everyone for their time and participation and hopefully a new president will be occupying the chair soon. Claims George Abel made a motion to approve the claims as submitted. Tim Casady seconded and the motion was passed unanimously. The meeting was then adjourned with a motion made by Park Board Member, Manda Clevenger and seconded by Tim Casady at 8:32PM. The next regular Park Board meeting is scheduled for January 13, 2015 at 7PM, at the Town Hall’s Beverly Harves Room. ______________________________ ____________________________ Secretary President 3