Zionsville Board of Park and Recreation

Summary Minutes of the Meeting of the Zionsville Park and Recreation Board April 11, 2018 The Zionsville Board of Parks and Recreation met Wed., April 11, 2018 at ~7:10 PM. The meeting took place at the Zionsville Town Hall’s Council Chambers (Room 105). Board members Tim Casady, John Wollenburg, Steve Bullington, and Wayne Bivans were present. Jeff Edmondson and George Abel were absent. Also present was Park Department Superintendent, Matt Dickey & Park Board Attorney, Roger Burrus. Agenda/Meeting Steve Bullington made a motion to approve the March 14, 2018 regular board meeting minutes. Wayne Bivans seconded. The motion passed unanimously. Public Presentation/Comments - None Identified Staff Reports Park Superintendent, Matt Dickey informed the Park Board that the weather has finally allowed the Golf Course to open; normally they are open mid-March. Another golf related item Mr. Dickey wanted to share with the Park Board is the donation by Jeff Edmondson to the golf course. Mr. Edmondson is donating a signed Leroy Neiman print of Jack Nicklaus (called the “Tee Shot”). This will be displayed at the golf course. Mr. Dickey will research the value of this printing and to possibly assist Mr. Edmondson in case he would like a tax write off for his donation. The number of drop in visitors was up at the Nature Center last month with a total of 400 self- directed walk-ins. The LARE (Lake and River Enhancement) project had to get underway. Mr. Dickey was hoping for dryer weather, but the April 1 deadline to remove the trees was coming up. FlatLands did remove the necessary trees about 3 days before the deadline. The removed trees will be used for the LARE project and are general trees that were already dead or that were in danger of being lost due to stream bank erosion. This area flooded shortly after, but the trees are still there for now. The trail will be closed during construction of this project. There was a Facebook post from the Town mentioning Overley-Worman Park, which created some confusion as to whether the Park was open for visitors. Mr. Dickey answered a few comments from the public stating that the Park is still in the planning stage and off limits for the public. Park Board Attorney, Roger Burrus has been off work for a few days, but did let the Board know that the mowing contract with Earth and Turf Partners, LLC has been ordered. New Business Superintendent Dickey wanted to give an update on the golf course irrigation project. After a couple of meetings with a gentleman from the irrigation company, they were able to get the cost down to an estimated $400,000 dollar project. They discussed a couple of add-ons, one being the main approach to be center line heads running down the fairway and around the tee boxes and greens. Also, instead of the greens just being surrounded with heads, spraying inward, one add on option would alternate inward and outward facing heads along the edges of the green. This will be a fall project. Park Board member Steve Bullington thought the Middle School girls golf team plays in the fall and that they would need to be contacted. Another item up to discuss is the Park Boards’ previous prohibition on Out-of-Service-District programming. Mindy Murdock, our Naturalist has been asked to a Whitestown event to do some programming for their Park’s department. The Town’s policy typically is that we do not get involved in any outside Zionsville programming. The Town had said that if the Park Board decides to do this then the Parks will need to charge a certain amount. Mr. Dickey gave each Board Member a copy of Mindy’s salary and with this information, he and President Edmondson decided to charge $50 an hour for this type of programming… but only if the Park Board reversed its earlier prohibition against out-of-district programming. After considerable discussion on the impact of this type of out-of-district programming the Park Board decided not to make a motion changing their current policy at this time. Old Business In Old Business, Mr. Dickey explained that Monday is the deadline to turn in the authorization of 2 forms he presented to the Board. One was the resolution approving the 5-year Master Plan, and the other ADA (American Disability Act) assurance form required with the submission of the plan. Some minor tweaking to the plan itself were noted by the Park Board. Mr. Dickey said to email these to him and to cc Trish McClellan with the corrections. John Wollenburg made a motion stating for the Park Board to adopt the 5 Year Master Plan resolution as proposed so that it can be submitted to the DNR as the Park’s official plan for growth and development of Parks & Recreation opportunities in Zionsville for the next 5 years and that the Parks continue their commitment to annual reviews and if needed to update goals and objectives of the Master Plan; and furthermore to authorize the acting Park Board President and Secretary to sign and attest this motion. This was seconded by Steve Bullington and passed unanimously. In regards to the Park Entrance Signage project update, Mr. Dickey explained the quotes that were requested by Allen Shaffer for this project. The total cost is estimated at $52,546. The next step is for the Town to re- appropriate funds for this. Updates on Park Board’s Citizen Advisory Committees - None Identified Other Board Related Items Park Board Member Tim Casady told the Park Board about a Westfield developer, Mr. Steve Henke who has proposed and will have the first hearing before the Planning Commission on Monday, April 16, 2018, the Holliday Farms Planned Unit Development (PUD) zoning proposal that relates to generalizing their extensive proposal but that it extends the Holliday Farms property from Eagle Creek all the way east to Michigan Road up to the north boundary of the Holliday Farms and south to the Turkey Foot Park. Mr. Dickey informed the Park Board that he had been attending the previous meetings and pointed out some concerns he had with this. One being is what trails and other areas (in looking at the travelways for the homes) are going to be open to the General Public (or not). Much of this area is a flood zone and in some places, the creek itself has widened at least a 100 feet in the last 10 years; wood chips or gravel would be washed away or buried; paved trails would be necessary. Also, Mr. Dickey noticed that on the west side there is just an easement agreement only and who will be receiving the rights to this easement for off-site improvements, also, who would be building the trail? The Park Board decided to wait and see what the developer does, but to propose a motion in support of certain public access trails are made available. A motion was made by John Wollenburg for Park Board Attorney, Roger Burrus to draft a statement on behalf of the Park Board indicating our support of public usage identifying the questions that Park Board member Tim Casady had written and indicating generally support from the Park board provided that listed amenities retain public access to the residents of Zionsville. This motion was seconded by Steve Bullington and passed unanimously. NRPA Annual Conference is here in Indianapolis for the first time. This is not in our budget due to not knowing who on staff and Park Board would want to go and what the registration costs were actually going to be. Mr. Dickey would like to allow the full time staff to attend at least one day of training if there is a logical fit similarly, he would like to allow interested Board members the same opportunity. Mr. Dickey stated that funds would have to be moved around in budget to do this. He will get the conference details to the Park Board as soon has he receives the registration packet from NRPA. Another item Mr. Dickey to discuss is the capital projects that he and the Park Board have been talking about which in all totals about 14 million. Park Board President Jeff Edmondson showed a 7M Group-A priority which is on the top section of the capital projects information given to the Park Board. Mr. Edmondson also similarly developed a Group-B (4M) and Group-C priority listing. Superintendent Dickey explained that this was presented to the Mayor for a bond issue discussion meeting. In attendance at this meeting were the heads of the Waste Water Department, Street Department, Town accountants, deputy mayor & the Mayor. During this subsequent meeting, the Mayor considered whether the Parks has the capacity to run 11M worth of product. Mr. Dickey explained that he believes this can be done in a 10 year span especially if consultants are hired and used. Another meeting is coming up with the same group; the Mayor wants to know what can be done with this whole ala carte listing; Parks, Streets, the Town’s and to be able to keep the overall tax rate pretty close to the same and if they need to expand the tax rate a little, what projects can be cherry picked off the list. The Mayor pointed out projects that are ~$100,000 to $200,000 could be picked off as part of the regular budget process; Mr. Dickey agreed with this statement with the caution that that only works if the elected officers support this at budget-setting time. Also, in speaking about budget, Mr. Dickey would like the Park Board to start working on the budget in June and have it finalized and ready to be presented in July. Mr. Dickey stated that he will be participating in the RAINSTORM (first time in 9 years for RAINTSTORM) and RAIN (Ride Across Indiana) rides; both rides will to be together this time. These will be two weeks long and the ride begins July 16th. He will be riding 100 miles each day approximately (100-1200 miles over 13 days). Claims Wayne Bivans made a motion to approve the claims as submitted. John Wollenburg seconded and the motion was passed unanimously. Adjournment The meeting was then adjourned with a motion made by Wayne Bivans, seconded by Steve Bullington & the vote was unanimous at ~8:45PM. The next regular Park Board meeting is scheduled for May 9, 2018 at 7PM, at the Zionsville Town Hall’s Council Chambers (Room 105). _______________________________ ____________________________________ Jeff Edmondson, President John Wollenburg, Secretary