Zionsville Board of Park and Recreation

Summary Minutes of the Meeting of the Zionsville Park and Recreation Board 9-8-2021 The Zionsville Board of Park and Recreation met Wednesday, September 8, 2021, at 7PM. Note: Due to the COVID-19 Emergency Health Situation, this meeting was required to be a hybrid meeting. Park Board Members, John Stehr, Jill Pack, John Salewicz, Erin Bidwell, & John Wollenburg were present. Not present was Tim Casady & Sarah Moore. Also, present was Superintendent Jarod Logsdon, Director of Recreation Services Mindy Murdock, Director of Maintenance Services Greg Dickenson, Director of IT Joe Rust, and Park Board Attorney, Roger Burrus. Minutes The Park Board by motion and vote approved the previous month’s minutes with some corrections noted. Motion made by John Wollenburg, seconded by John Salewicz, approved unanimously. Public Presentations/Comments -None Identified Staff Reports Superintendent Jarod Logsdon informed the Park Board that on August 16th the department requested an additional appropriation for the master planning of the Carpenter Nature Preserve. A decision on the appropriation was postponed until August 30th to offer each member of the council an opportunity to visit the site. Mr. Logsdon stated that the appropriation was approved at the following meeting and the department would identify a kickoff date to start the project shortly. The golf course has an 11% increase in revenue in August 2021 compared to August 2020, averaging 110 rounds of golf a day. On Sunday evenings a junior league has started up and they have 48 participates. Mindy Murdock, Director of Parks Programming updated the Park Board on the Parks Programming and the Nature Center. Walk-ins at the Nature Center were over 700. The Nature Center has surpassed their attendance for the entire year of 2019. In 2019 the Nature Center had 5,043 walk-ins and in 2021 they have had 5,053 walk-ins in the five months of being open. The department has offered 247 programs to date this year, compared to 230 for 2019. The Magical Park at Mulberry Fields is doing very well, currently they have had 119 logins and that is about 298 people using the digital playground since its open the beginning of August. CreekFest event drew 223 people in attendance with 107 volunteers who assisted with cleaning trash out of Eagle Creek. 2,040 pounds of trash was removed from Eagle Creek. Tails on Trails kicked off this month. This is the dog walking spree that is in its 6th year. 53 dogs are registered to date. The Parks has hired a new Recreation staff member. Siera Stuart started working as a part-time naturalist with the Nature Center. Currently the Nature Center has 3 naturalist staff and 1 rec coordinator. The Nature Center staff will be touring the Carpenter Nature Reserve on Monday. They are excited to take a look at the clubhouse building and see what the future might hold for the Nature Center. For the Maintenance Report, Mr. Logsdon introduced our new Director of Maintenance Services, Greg Dickenson. The interview panel unanimously agreed Mr. Dickenson was the top applicant and he accepted the position in August. Mr. Dickenson told the Park Board that he has been in the park field for about 20 years in some capacity or other. He has a strong background in natural resource management. The Park Board welcomed the new Director of Maintenance Services. Park Board Attorney, Roger Burrus is busy with the usual contract reviews and keeping up with requests from the Parks Superintendent and others. He is continuing work on the Big-4 property acquisitions and also the grant requirements for the NLT. New Business Superintendent Logsdon introduced Ian Stewart with the Zionsville Optimist Club. Mr. Logsdon met with Mr. Stewart on the 13th of July. The Optimist Club would like to serve the community in a united effort to benefit the well-being of the youth of Zionsville. Mr. Stewart said the the Zionsville Optimist Club would like to sponsor the Parks in their 5K event on October 9th. The plan is for the ZOC to raise funds to support a water station and a bike repair area in the Overley Worman Park. The Park Board is excited to work with the ZOC in the future. Next up on the agenda is the Impact Fee study of 2021. Mr. Logsdon stated the 2012 Park Impact Fee Study required an update. Mr. Logsdon introduced Matt Eckerle of Baker Tilly in Indianapolis who have been working with the department over the last year to update existing parkland inventories, benchmark against neighboring communities, and provide a new calculation for the Park Impact Fee. Mr. Eckerle explained that as new developments come in, they pay a portion of infrastructure that is already in place for the park system so that the Parks can better meet growth and demand as the community continues to grow. In 2011 the current impact ordinance was adopted. It went into effect six month following that adoption. In May of 2012 the current impact fee amount for a single-family home was $1,221. Baker Tilly has calculated that the new population that is estimated to move into Zionsville in the next 10 years will generate a need of just under 7.5 million dollars in new park amenities. This report will be utilized for the drafting of a new impact ordinance to be contemplated by the Town Council at a later date. WinterFest Mr. Logsdon updated the Park Board on WinterFest planning. Parking will be available at Mulberry Fields, and he is working with the Zionsville United Methodist Church and the Zionsville Middle School on an agreement for overflow parking. The Parks Department met with MapleLawn today as they begin to plan out their programming for the month of December. They discussed how their two operations can complement each other. Ice skating will begin after 4PM on the weekdays while school is in session and around noon once school is out. All month long the event will feature programming, groups, and presenters. Santa will be making a few appearances as well as live reindeer, and the Indy Nitro. There will be up to 4 food vendors per day. Fire pits and outdoor heaters will be available for warming. Two final large purchases are required to complete the event. The first proposal is from NBE Event Group for the installation and rental of a professional sound system and lighting package. The lighting package includes 8 fourteen-foot-tall vertical tresses and a programmable lighting system to provide visibility and visual entertainment. The proposal is $27,408. There is money in the general fund to accommodate this. Mr. Logsdon would like for the Park Board to consider accepting this proposal from NBE Event Group for the lighting and sound services for WinterFest. Jill Pack made a motion to accept this proposal from NBE Event Group. John Wollenburg seconded the motion, and this was passed unanimously by the Park Board. The second component needed is the base for the ice rink. Mr. Logsdon has been working with REA to design the foundation and based on pricing of lumber, the Parks decided to build this in-house. This will be essentially a large deck with a very simple design to distribute the weight of the ice rink, the equipment, and the skaters. It will be 70 feet by 56 feet with a small rise from the ground and a ramp for accessibility and entrance onto the ice rink. After shopping around, the Parks decided that Lowes had the most competitive bid at $37,836.35 which includes delivery. The Park maintenance will be building this platform for most of November in preparation of WinterFest. The platform will be stored and reused in the future, so this is not a one-time use. After discussing details on the specifics of the platform, John Wollenburg made a motion to approve the Park Superintendent to move forward with the bid from Lowes to get materials for the platform. John Salewicz seconded that motion, and this was passed unanimously by the Park Board. Also, on the agenda to discuss is the Golf Course Pathway Improvements. Mr. Logsdon reminded the Park Board that this was for the improvements to the existing infrastructure at the Golf Course. Over time and due to seasonal flooding, the cart paths have deteriorated, and this project is to rehabilitate those pathways and also provide some grading solutions to improve both the layout of the course paths and improve safety on some slopes. Last month the project was put out for bid. The bids closed today at 1PM and one bid was received from Citywide Paving. This bid was in the amount of $509, 569.00 – this is about a 3 percent increase from what the Parks estimated. Mr. Logsdon is asking the contractor to begin and end the project this fall so that the Golf Course will heal over the winter and be ready for the 2022 season without impact. John Stehr made a motion to accept the bid from City Wide Paving subject to legal review. This motion was seconded by John Wollenburg and was passed unanimously by the Park Board. Old Business Superintendent Logsdon explained the next item on the agenda, the Heritage Trail Park utility easement. This is an easement for new services related to the lines that service the shelter that was completed with phase one development of the park. Mr. Logsdon asked the Park Board to approve this easement. John Salewicz made a motion to allow REMC to access their equipment within the easement and this was seconded by Jill Pack. This motion was passed unanimously by the Park Board. Attorney Roger Burrus gave a brief update on the southern rail trail extension and trailhead property. He is hoping to get the schedule for closing soon, but this is moving along as planned. Documents are prepared, just waiting on some more information. Mr. Burrus will need the Park Board President or Superintendent to be present for two closings. Mr. Logsdon added another update to the southern rail trail extension. He will be meeting with HIS Construction and REA and the Department of Public Works to coordinate the road closure of Starkey Avenue and the bridge will be replaced and to get a firm timeline on the operations of the southern Rail Trail closure. Once that is established, information will be communicated out to the public. A brief update on the Tennis/Pickleball courts are that the hybrid courts are resurfaced, and progress is being made on the dedicated pickleball court. Asphalt has been laid and has had time to cure and surfacing should happen within next weekend. Mr. Logsdon stated that he is excited to get this project wrapped up so that the community can start enjoying the Park’s first pickleball court. Claims A motion to approve claims was made by Park Board Member, John Wollenburg and seconded by Erin Bidwell. Motion was approved unanimously by Park Board. Adjournment The meeting was then adjourned with a motion made by Park Board Member John Salewicz, seconded by Erin Bidwell & the vote was unanimous at ~8:06 PM. The next regular Park Board meeting is scheduled for October 13, 2021 at 7PM, at the Zionsville Town Hall’s Council Chambers (Room 105). _____________________________________ ______________________________________ Tim Casady, President John Wollenburg, Secretary