Zionsville Board of Park and Recreation

Zionsville Board of Parks & Recreation Meeting Minutes For Wednesday, March 8, 2023 At 7:00 P.M. EST ONSITE MEETING 1100 West Oak Street In Attendance: John Stehr, President, Jill Pack, Vice President, John Salewicz, Secretary, Coralie Palmer, Ryan Cambridge, Kris Barksdale Staff attending: Amy Nooning, Attorney Jarod Logsdon, Superintendent of Parks & Recreation Chris Flanagan, Director of Maintenance Mindy Murdock, Director of Parks Programming OPENING Call to Order/Roll Call Stehr Calling to order the meeting of the Zionsville Board of Parks and Recreation for Wednesday, March 8th. We do have a new Board member joining us tonight. Coralie Palmer is filling a one-year term as an appointment of Mayor Styron and in keeping with the new policy on taking the oath office at the beginning of a term – thank you – I’m going to ask Coralie to stand and our legal counsel, Amy Nooning, will administer the oath of office. Nooning Coralie, if you could raise your right hand and then just repeat after me. I, Coralie Palmer – Palmer I, Coralie Palmer – Nooning Do solemnly swear – Palmer Do solemnly swear – Page 1 of 35 Nooning That I will support the Constitution of the United States – Palmer That I will support the Constitution of the United States – Nooning And the State of Indiana – Palmer And the State of Indiana – Nooning And that I will faithfully, – Palmer And that I will faithfully, – Nooning Honestly and impartially – Palmer Honestly and impartially – Nooning Discharge the duties of the office – Palmer Discharge the duties of the office – Nooning Of Zionsville Park Board Member – Palmer Of Zionsville Park Board Member – Nooning According to law and to the best of my skill and ability. Palmer According to law and the best of my skill and ability. Nooning Thank you. Stehr All right. Thank you very much. And, Coralie, welcome. Palmer Thank you. Stehr Would you like to say a few words about joining the Board? Palmer Yes, thank you and I’m honored to, honored to be able to serve upon the Board. I’m very excited about, about what I can hopefully bring to this. I’m a, a biologist by background. I serve as a Director on the Indiana Wildlife Federation and the President of the Indiana Native Plant Society and I’ve been involved helping to coordinate the Zionsville Community Wildlife Habitat and yes I am, I also serve as an environmental consultant Page 2 of 35  and specialize in designing landscape designing with native plants. So I’m very excited to see what you’re doing at the, at the parks and with the Parks Foundation and I’m excited to have this opportunity. Thank you. Stehr All right, thank you very much and I think you’re going to bring quite a bit to the Board. I’m so glad you’re, you’re able to join us here and that you’re seated on the Board. We’re going to begin the meeting then by taking roll. Vice President, Jill Pack? Pack Here. Stehr Secretary, John Salewicz? Salewicz Here. Stehr Coralie Palmer? Palmer Here. Stehr Ryan Cambridge? Cambridge Here. Stehr Kris Barksdale? Barksdale Here. Stehr And I’ll make a note that Sarah Moore is out with a medical leave tonight so we have six, we have a quorum and we can go ahead and continue. Approval of the Minutes The first thing we need to do is a point of order. Last week when we approved the minutes for the prior meeting, we approved saying that the meeting occurred on January 11th. As we recall, we had to move that meeting due to a couple of logistic reasons. That meeting actually took place on January 18th. So, I’m going to begin by making a motion that we amend our approval of the minutes to say that the meeting occurred on January 18th. Do I have a second? Cambridge Second. Page 3 of 35 Stehr Ryan Cambridge seconds. All in favor say aye. All Aye. Stehr All opposed? [No response] Let the record show that that carries unanimously. The next order of business is the approval of the February 8, 2023 minutes. Did everyone get a chance to take a look? Salewicz Yes. Pack Yes. Palmer Yes. Stehr Does anyone have any questions? Salewicz No. Stehr Can I have a motion to approve? Pack So moved. Stehr Jill Pack makes the motion. Do I have a second? Salewicz Second. Stehr John Salewicz seconds. All in favor say aye. All Aye. Stehr All opposed? [No response] All right, that’s good. Public Presentations/Comments Page 4 of 35  Next item on the agenda is the Public Presentations and Comments. Do we have anyone in the room who would like to make a presentation tonight or make a comment? Anybody online Jonah? Nope? Okay, we’re good to go with that. Pathways Committee Update Next item on the agenda it says Pathways Committee Update and we don’t have a Pathways Committee Update. Our liaison to the Pathways Committee is Sarah Moore. She is not with us tonight and she tells me that the Pathways Committee has not met since our last meeting so there wouldn’t be a whole lot to report there except that Kris Barksdale is going to be taking over as the liaison to the Pathways Committee as of tonight. We do have some changes with the Parks Foundation. Jill Pack is the liaison to the Parks Foundation and would you like to make a brief comment about what’s happened since our last meeting? Pack Well they, they’re continuing to work on their strategic plan so that is ongoing for them. They ended 2022 very strongly. Their 2022 donations were about $60,000 which is about double of ’21 so they’re moving in the right direction. One of the Board members, Molly Donofrio, is moving so she will be leaving. That’s about it. Stehr Okay, all right. Any questions or comments for Jill? All right then, let’s move on. Staff Reports We’re going to move on to Staff Reports and the first person to present is our Superintendent, Jarod Logsdon. Jarod – Logsdon Thank you, John. I just wanted to highlight one thing from the, the packet this month. You might have noticed a letter concerning a donation. So in December, the Parks Department received a donation from an anonymous donor for $100,000 towards our mission in Parks and Recreation in Zionsville. So I wanted to publicly thank that anonymous donor for their contribution to, to our efforts and identify how we will utilize those funds in the future. So, being a Parks and Recreation Department, I feel it’s important that we divide this money between our parks and also our programming and outreach. So, for our parks, we will earmark $50,000 towards improvements and utilize these funds for small to medium sized capital projects that will have a large impact on our operations and community. Some examples of upcoming projects include a proposed Page 5 of 35  native plant nursery hoop house at Heritage Trail Park. This hoop house has been in the plan since the 2018 Master Plan documents and would provide an area for a gardening program as well as a location to foster native plants that would be repurposed in our parks. Other projects for this $50,000 could include accessible? improvements, permanent game tables at Lincoln and Heritage Trail Park and small projects to benefit the amenities within our park system. The other $50,000 we have decided to allocate over a 10-year period. So each budget process we will allocate $5,000 towards that year’s growing recreational programming. So this, this donor has provided 10 years of programming in Zionsville as well as improvements in our park system that’ll have a, a longer reaching effect. So I just want to thank you again. Stehr And, and I would want to say too that while the donor wants to remain anonymous, they were very pleased with this outcome with splitting the money this way and having the money last and I think that this is a testament to what our department has done over the last couple years and this donation came because this person was impressed by Overley- Worman Park, by the trail extensions and, and by all the things we were doing and wanted to play a part and generously gave us $100,000 with absolutely no expectation that they would be recognized for this donation. So I want to thank a good citizen and thank you, Jarod, for putting together this idea to make it last over, over a number of years and, and touch many different areas of the park. So thank you. Logsdon Thank you. Stehr Anybody have any comments or questions about that? Salewicz ________ 11:46. Inaudible off microphone Stehr Okay, all right. What’s next Jarod? Logsdon Next would be our next staff’s report to that’ll be our Director of Maintenance, right? Flanagan Good evening. Alrighty, so we welcomed Ian to the team as our full-time maintenance technician. For the month of February we used 32 hours of holiday pay and 8 hours of floating holiday. We only had three instances of graffiti totalling a little over 3-1/2 hours to take care of that and repair at Mulberry Fields in the skate park, Overley-Worman and along the Nancy Burton corridor. Natural Resources Technician, Sam, and I Page 6 of 35  attended the Purdue Pesticide Applicator Core Certification training. We both passed that examination. Next up we will be studying and taking the examination for our category 3A ornamental pest management. Our maintenance team has coordinated with the golf course team to move golf courts, golf carts, pardon me, from winter storage to their spring maintenance and then transfer, transport those over to the golf course. We cleaned up some plastic at the Perkins property just south of Heritage Trail Park that had been damaged in the storm from the greenhouse there. We took some time to make sure that was presentable to the public. At Lincoln Park, we replaced a damaged globe that had fallen in a storm. I’m still waiting to hear back from LED Indy for the replacement corn cob LED bulb there. We also did some minor repairs along the gazebo railing. The park staff has removed all the sand from the Winterfest ice rink and that is stored up at the Perkins property. We are now working to repair the ruts that have been created in Mulberry Fields from that project. And then we also repaired a medium sized pothole on the main drive there at Mulberry Fields and other than that, outside of our regular routine duties, the team has spent a lot of time cleaning up storm damage throughout our various park systems from just the winter weather and high winds we’ve had. Stehr Any questions for Chris? Salewicz Good work. Stehr All right, thank you Chris. Flanagan Thank you very much. Stehr The next item on the agenda would be the Director of Recreation Services, Mindy Murdock. Murdock All right, good evening everyone. Just a few highlights of, for the month of February. All of the programming staff were re-certified in CPR and first aid so we want to get that up to date and keep it going, especially with all the programming we do, especially with summer camp so it’s fresh in everyone’s mind as we need to. Our Naturalist, Molly Shrock, attended a one-day IPRA camp summit that was held down in Avon so she came back with a lot of great ideas that she’s already spread to the team, a lot of good training ideas and protocols that we can use towards our seasonals as well. We, unfortunately, had to, although it doesn’t fall in February, it’s the beginning of March, we had to say goodbye to Wendy Schrepferman. She Page 7 of 35 did take another position so her last day with us was March 3rd. So we will be looking at kind of updating that job description and trying to get that position filled before the summer hits to help with our events and our outreach and everything else that Wendy was doing with us. Just a few other things as far as with programs, our Naturalist staff held their first merit badge program since they’ve all become certified merit badge counselors and so they did one on environmental science which was very well attended, had 22 boys attend. Molly has been doing, this is her second, she did coffee and canvas which was very well received, filled very quickly as did the first one so that’s one that we will continue, of course, not during the summer when it’s real busy but we’ll also bring that in back in the fall. Our Indiana Master Naturalist program has been going very well. We’re actually working on our application for the Junior Master Naturalist and trying to get that into the state so we can plan that one for the summer and then Wendy held a Valentine luminary walk at Elm Street Green which we had almost 220 participants go out and enjoy the walk through Elm Street in the middle of the winter. The other thing that was in your packet, you would’ve received a Nature Connections, kind of a mid-year report from Rachel Felling and that is the pilot school long program that is currently going on at Eagle Elementary School for the four 3rd grade classes, so that one is being supported by the, the, the Parks Foundation so they had asked for just kind of a mid-year, since it’s halfway through of how things were going, and so just kind of a little touch base on that. There are about 80 kids in that 3rd grade and we did an outreach session in October which she focused on ecosystems. The second one that was done in February focused on really the interaction between those ecosystems, natural ecosystems and humans and both the positive and negatives that go with that one and then we’ve just put on the schedule for, so there will be a spring outreach where we will go out and meet the kids in Zionsville or the Zion Nature Sanctuary and do an onsite program dealing with watersheds and water quality and then another part of that component is then the kids will actually do a service project with us handling invasive species so that’ll be one that will be in coordination with Chris and Sam in the Natural Resource Department and then also doing some native seed planting as well. So, just wanted to kind of give you guys a recap of that. The goal is, the feedback’s been very positive but the goal is to continue that next year so we’re trying to figure out how, how that will look and then possibly adding an additional school. We’ve kind of batted around which school we might look at seeing if they’d be Page 8 of 35  interested with the goal of towards the future that all elementary schools will be participating in this program so. Stehr Great. Murdock That’s all I have unless you have any questions. Stehr Well, just a comment – I, I had heard that Wendy was leaving and I think we owe her a great debt. She did a, a great job and was very innovative in her programming and, as are you, but I think you guys were a great team. Murdock Yes. Stehr And she’s going to be tough to replace. I wish she were here so we could say goodbye more properly but I’m sure you’ll pass that on. Murdock She, she’s probably watching online. Stehr Yes. Murdock You never know. Stehr Anybody else have any comments for Mindy? No? Okay. Thank you, Mindy. Salewicz Good work. Murdock Thank you. Stehr And before, Jarod, before we move on to the legal discussion here. I know Mike is in the room. Mike Wall, can you come up for a second? And I am not here to put you on the spot it’s just that it has rained a lot in the past week or so and I’d like to have some assurance that the golf course is in okay shape and we, you know, we’re going to be opening close to schedule if that’s true. I mean whatever, whatever the case is. Wall Yes. Stehr Yes. Good. Good. Wall Yes, the golf course is intending to open next week. You know Mother Nature always wins but – Page 9 of 35 Stehr Right. So we’re ready? Wall If you can call your friend down at, Chuck Lofton, down at Channel 13 – Stehr Yeah, see if we can help out – Wall A couple of favors that might help but – Stehr But I noticed the carts are in place and – Wall The cart, the carts are in place. The mowers are in place. The employees are back in place. We’ve gone through reorientation of current employees the past two days so employees are back in place. We’ve created operations manuals for the employees. We’ve actually had an overwhelming turnout or applicants this year for the golf course. I think we’ve had about 20 applicants for jobs at the golf course. So, unlike in years past where it’s kind of been please, please come work for me I’ve had kind of my pick of well-qualified applicants down there at the golf course so. Stehr Great. So, barring anything unforeseen, we’re good to go and everything is in good shape. Wall Yeah, we’re in good shape. Stehr Okay, that’s the message we want to send out. That’s great – Wall Yes. Stehr To hear. Wall Yes. Stehr All right. Thank you, Mike. Wall Through foreUP we can, we’ll be notifying, you know, I’ve been giving updates because people – Stehr Okay. Wall When it was 70 a couple of weeks ago people thought it could go from 30 degrees to 70 degrees and magically the course would open or last week when we got 3 inches of rain and then on Monday when hole 4 was more Page 10 of 35  conducive for ducks they thought maybe the course would open Monday as well but, unfortunately, it was not ready to be opened so. Stehr Okay. Wall Yeah, so through our system, Instagram, we will notify people but the intent would be Wednesday, March 15th that the course would open so. Stehr Great. Good to hear. Thank you, Mike. Wall So, I mean, we, as far as season passes for the year, we’ve sold a record amount so we’re up over 65 which – Stehr Great. Wall So we’re doing pretty well. Stehr Okay. Wall Yeah. Stehr Let’s pray for dry weather. Thank you, Mike. Wall Cool. Stehr Appreciate it. All right, next item on the agenda is our Parks Attorney report. Nooning Sure. We have been in very regular communication with the Spring Knoll HOA and their legal representative recently to try to negotiate a temporary construction easement for the widening of the trail as well as attempt to button up and finalize some lingering real estate records issues that have been kind of hanging out there for 30+ years now. We just want to get everything finalized once and for all. We’re in the middle of those negotiations, we’re making progress and Jarod is also speaking with the Cobblestone Lakes HOA along the same lines. Our goal is to get a temporary construction easement just to allow the, the construction and then to button down the finalized permanent easement for the trail area. So if the Board is so inclined, I would recommend that you consider a motion tonight to authorize John to negotiate and execute those temporary construction easements so if we get those finalized hopefully within the Page 11 of 35  next few days then those can be executed rather than waiting until next month. Stehr Okay. Anybody have any questions about that? Salewicz I’ll make the motion to give John Stehr the rights to sign the agreement for easements, construction easements. Stehr Okay, do we have a second? Barksdale Second. Stehr Kris Barksdale seconds. Let’s take a roll call vote. Jill Pack? Pack Aye. Stehr John Salewicz? Salewicz Aye. Stehr Coralie Palmer? Palmer Aye. Stehr Ryan Cambridge? Cambridge Aye. Stehr Kris Barksdale? Barksdale Aye. Stehr And I say aye as well making that pass 6 to nothing. Thank you. Amy – Nooning Okay, great, thank you. Stehr Anything? Nooning A few other items but they will be addressed later on in New Business. Stehr Okay, sorry. Nooning That’s okay. That’s all, that’s all I have for now. Page 12 of 35 Stehr Okay, okay. All right. Nooning I can speak about the other things later on. Stehr Okay, great. Now back to Jarod. New Business foreUP Software; Golf Course Logsdon All right, one item I would like to add to the New Business is the consideration of an agreement with foreUP for their payment processing. So foreUP is the software we utilize at the golf course and have for years. Mike and his team are very much approving and in love with the foreUP system. It’s revolutionized how we do business at the golf course and made everything much more efficient. For the previous seasons there has been a third-party payment processor, Worldpay, that the, the Town has utilized for credit card transactions at the golf course. So, foreUP has actually created their own payment processing platform that is integrated into their system and if we move our payment processing services to this new platform, we will get a better rate, less fees associated with every credit card charge and that’ll actually be tangible dollars we’ll save over the course of the season in, in the thousands. So, for your consideration, it would be after Amy’s full review of the agreement to shift from Worldpay to the foreUP integrated payment system at the golf course. Stehr Is there any difference in the user interface? Logsdon So, Worldpay was integrated into foreUP as well but it was a third party so if there were technical issues, we would have to contact Worldpay to resolve those. Now with foreUP having an integrated payment processor that they control, that customer service is going to be much more immediate and easier to resolve. So, better customer service as well as a better rate of return for those fees on each credit card process. Stehr Okay. Anybody have any questions, comments? All right, we need a motion? Nooning Yes. Stehr Would anyone like to make a motion that we change our provider, that’s essentially what we’re doing, right? Page 13 of 35 Nooning Uh huh. Stehr Okay. Cambridge So moved. Stehr Ryan Cambridge makes a motion. Do I have a second? Salewicz Second. Stehr John Salewicz seconds. Let’s take a roll call vote. Jill Pack? Pack Aye. Stehr John Salewicz? Salewicz Aye. Stehr Coralie Palmer? Palmer Aye. Stehr Ryan Cambridge? Cambridge Aye. Stehr Kris Barksdale? Barksdale Aye. Stehr And I say aye as well making that pass 6 to nothing. Thank you. Playground Mulch Logsdon All right, the first item on the, on the agenda the playground mulch. So, routinely the mulch on our playgrounds has to be refreshed to allow us to have the compaction rates necessary for accessibility as well as just raising the level of the mulch within the playground structure so that it is flush with the entrances and egress to the playgrounds. So, our Director of Maintenance, Chris, was able to find a fantastic quote calling the region for our suppliers and finding an operation that not only will deliver the mulch but actually blow it in which is a – I’m, I’m just really impressed with this quote – usually just the mulch is near this cost – Page 14 of 35 Salewicz Right. Logsdon So the fact that we’re able to get it delivered and blown in saving our crews having to shovel it and wheelbarrow it into there is huge. So, before you tonight is a quote for $7,560 to replenish 210 cubic yards of mulch at Heritage Trail Park, the original playground, as well as the Mulberry Fields playground. And, again, this mulch is, this is the routine maintenance that you need for playgrounds with mulch settings. This is, as we have future conversations about poured-in-place surfacing and alternatives to mulch, these are kind of the costs we consider as this is the routine upkeep of mulch versus those structures which have a much larger initial investment but are, are told to last longer so. Still waiting on more data before we fully invest in poured-in-place but for now this is the upkeep necessary for our playgrounds. Barksdale And how often do we re-mulch? Logsdon It’s, it’s been a little neglected over the past so we’re kind of playing catchup. Some years, it just depends on decay, how, how wet the season is, how often we turn it over, which is part of our routine maintenance now, Chris, this year received his certified playground inspector licensing so he is now up to the standards of what the international community agrees upon for our playgrounds so he is holding our park system to a much higher standard than before so thank you for that, Chris. Salewicz And that’s the playground cut right for the mulch? Logsdon What’s that? Salewicz The playground cut on the mulch? Cambridge Yeah. Logsdon Yes, yep. Cambridge It’d have to be. Salewicz Okay. Cambridge Yeah and I love, Jarod, first of all it’s great that we got that kind of a quote for that and, and I applaud your effort to maybe think differently about surfacing and things like that as we pursue things in the future and that’s Page 15 of 35  often a conversation I have with our clients, my clients as well when it comes to playground design and would love to help in any way I can on the data side or best practices side if, if you think that’s relevant – Logsdon Absolutely. Cambridge So just let me know how I can help. Logsdon Thank you, Ryan. Cambridge Okay. Pack I, I just have one question – are they actually going to truck this in from Michigan? Logsdon No, so they do have Indianapolis – Pack Great. Logsdon If we had this quote from Michigan, oh my goodness. Pack I was going to – I was like we don’t need to put that kind of friction in the air. But that’s fine. Logsdon Yep. Pack I thought it was good question. Logsdon Yes, yes it was. I actually asked Chris the same thing. Stehr So do we need a motion then to approve it? Logsdon Yes, this will come out of our operating line so our park maintenance operating budget for $7,560. Stehr Okay. Do we have a motion to accept the bid? Palmer So moved. Cambridge So moved. Stehr Coralie Palmer was first. She makes the motion. Do we have a second? Page 16 of 35 Cambridge Second. Stehr Ryan Cambridge seconds. Jill Pack? Pack Aye. Stehr John Salewicz? Salewicz Aye. Stehr Coralie Palmer? Palmer Aye. Stehr Ryan Cambridge? Cambridge Aye. Stehr Kris Barksdale? Barksdale Aye. Stehr And I will say aye as well. Passes unanimously. Thank you. All right, next item, Jarod. Skyhawk Summer Camp Partnership Logsdon The next item before you is a Field Use Agreement with Skyhawks Summer Camp programming. So, last month we discussed three contracts with our local sports organizations. In 2020, there were, there was no activity out at Mulberry Fields, no organized sports so that has certainly been a priority of ours to re-invite our community organizations back and we discussed the fee and it, it was truly a, a, a discounted welcoming back of our local organizations and, and we will look at the true costs of maintaining the fields and, and adjust those prices in the future to accurately recapture more of those costs and this is kind of the first step of, in that direction. So, Skyhawks is a, a private organization that is structured to provide summer camp services around the nation. They’re originally out of Washington. We have been coordinating with an Ohio branch and this year they are providing camp services to Fishers park system, Noblesville, Indianapolis and then they gave us a call as well. So after reviewing their platform and asking some questions, also reaching out to the other park systems, this seemed like a good fit for Zionsville. Page 17 of 35  So we are a small but mighty team and we certainly don’t have to do it all to provide a higher quality of life here in Zionsville. So when we have these opportunities to benefit our park system and allow the, the majority of the work to be done by a third party, it’s just a win-win for our community so. The representative from Skyhawks did get in touch with Eagle Rec as well to ensure that there’s minimal overlap and conflict between their programming and ours and it, well, Skyhawks – so the, the request tonight is to utilize the Mulberry Fields pickleball courts as well as the open space throughout the summer the, for – sorry, let me get my notes here – for a multi-sport baseball, flag football and soccer camp as well as a pickleball camp. So those would run throughout the summer and not conflict with our programming and minimal conflict with, with Eagle Rec as well. So, they structured a price point based on their costs as well as splitting revenue 70%-30%, so our park system will actually receive 30% of the total registration from this camp being held at Mulberry Fields and 100% of the non-resident rate which would be a flat $15 in addition to registration fees. So this is an opportunity for us to utilize Mulberry Fields when otherwise it would just be available to the public but this would only utilize one of those open fields so even if the public did show up in numbers there would still be plenty of space outside of offering another recreational opportunity for our youth during the summer. So as part of all of our sports fields agreements, they will need to list the Park Board as well as the Town of Zionsville as additionally insured with their policy of up to $1 million dollars of coverage in the area specified in the agreement. They have confirmed that that won’t be an issue. They are changing insurance providers at this time so any action tonight would be contingent on seeing those certifications as well. I did ask extensive or exclusively about their background checks and they do perform an FBI background check. There was a document from the President of that organization in your packet confirming that so ensuring that as we trust these other organizations they’ve done their due diligence as well to protect our community. So with your approval, I recommend that we make a motion to approve sports use at Mulberry Fields for the Skyhawks group with the conditions that they will list us as additionally insured and that there will be a 70%-30% revenue split. Happy to answer any questions. Stehr Is this a one-year contract? Page 18 of 35 Logsdon At this time it is just until the summer of 2023, yep, so just for this pilot year. Stehr And if there is a conflict that emerges between this and Eagle Rec, who takes preference? Logsdon Eagle Rec doesn’t utilize these facilities so it’s not like there would be two groups showing up at the same place. They’re just, Eagle Rec has their summer portfolio – Stehr Right. Logsdon That are offered and this is also offered during the summer. Stehr Does that include pickleball? Does Eagle Rec include pickleball or are they just doing tennis? Logsdon I’m unsure about that. Travis did mention that he spoke with Eagle Rec about their programming. He didn’t mention a conflict there. Stehr And I, I think I’d like to see something in writing or at least some expectation that this is a, a trial basis for this year before we jump into a similar contract next year to make sure that everybody is comfortable with the lack of overlap between the two. Logsdon Okay and, and within our agreement the term is from March 8, 2023 through August 1st. So this would sunset – Stehr Through August 1st. Logsdon Yeah. Stehr Okay, okay. Anybody else have any thoughts or comments? Barksdale So, during the two weeks that the pickleball courts are used for pickleball camp, it would not be available to the public so we need to make sure that we are clearly advertising that so we don’t have people like – Logsdon Correct. Barksdale The community upset that they’re going to play on our new courts and they’re not available, right? Page 19 of 35 Logsdon Absolutely, yes. Completely agree and as we program those courts as well, we’ll have a notification system in place. Cambridge I think it would be a good opportunity to do some pop-up pickleball at different sites – Logsdon Yeah. Cambridge To see if we can get a portable net donated and some, do some striping – Logsdon We, we actually already have two and Heritage Trail is striped and ready to go and we still have Lions Park as well so. We are, we are certainly playing catchup on the pickleball sport but we’re trying. Stehr Well – Salewicz Well, the time it’s being used there are only what three to four hours – Barksdale Yes. Salewicz In the after, early morning so it’s not like it’s being gone all day so it’s just a few hours in the morning so. Logsdon Yep. There is one pickleball camp from June 26th through June 30th and that is from 9 a.m. to noon each day of the week and then the second camp is July 24th through July 28th and that is from 1 to 4 and, and all of these camps take place before our current agreements with Little League utilize those fields as well so kind of getting two reservations out of the fields in one day for a couple of those dates. Stehr And there will be additional pickleball courts available at Lions Park too? Logsdon Yes. Stehr So it’s not like we’re shutting down complete pickleball accessibility during those times so. All right, would anyone like to make a motion to accept the agreement with Skyhawks Sports? Cambridge So moved. Stehr Ryan Cambridge makes a motion. Do we have a second? Page 20 of 35 Salewicz I’ll second. Stehr John Salewicz seconds. Jill Pack? Pack Aye. Stehr John Salewicz? Salewicz Aye. Stehr Coralie Palmer? Palmer Aye. Stehr Ryan Cambridge? Cambridge Aye. Stehr Kris Barksdale? Barksdale Aye. Golf Course Drainage Improvement Stehr And I go along with that too making it unanimous. Thank you, Jarod. All right, please tell us you have a magic bullet to drain the golf course with the next item. Logsdon I have a Band-Aid. So it was very timely driving by the golf course today. I snapped a couple pictures so our rain last week it was quite heavy but this is still what’s onsite today. That’s our beautiful new cart paths under water which nobody wants to see and this water continues to hover around hole 4 where we’ve had issues since the conception of the, the golf course. So we are taking our first step into remedying some of that. Again, working at, at this level, with these elevations, we are the catchall for most of the water in the area so just, just moving that to the best of our abilities within the normal maintenance of our course to improve the longevity of our new cart paths as well as dry out the course a little bit quicker so we can get the course open sooner. So the proposal before you tonight, Mike has been working with area contractors to receive multiple quotes. The quote before you that was selected was for the excavation and installation of three French drains Page 21 of 35  around hole 4. These drains would lead to a sump pit which would have a pump that would allow the water to be shifted on the course allowing it to keep moving away from these play areas. So the excavation as well as the installation of the French drains, the running and trenching of a power from the clubhouse to where the sump pit will be and the installation of the 2-inch pump, the total for this contracted work was quoted at $37,992. So, a good thing about this, this project is we would not need to necessarily close the course for any long durations. We’d be able to close a couple tee times as needed for the excavation and while equipment is onsite and then the contractor could work around regular play for the most part. We did budget $50,000 for construction improvements at the site and the goal was to address this issue where we could utilize gravity to improve our situation. So happy to answer any questions related to this quote. Salewicz How does the current, you know, is it, the situation – does it have to be dry, do we have to wait until summertime before we did this and or they can – Logsdon No, I think they can access the site. Their equipment is relatively small. It’s not the, the triaxles we’ve seen onsite recently so certainly want the grounds to dry up a bit but – Salewicz Ditch Witches and – Logsdon Yep. Salewicz Yeah. Logsdon So minimally invasive and then, obviously, re-seeding at the end of the project and it’s a good time of the year to re-seed so that the grass has a chance to get established over the summer with regular watering. Pack So the plan would be to start this quickly. Logsdon Upon approval and site conditions, yes. Palmer What, what will be, being re-seeded with? Are you just putting turf grass back or are you going to put plants that can deal with these conditions because it looks like this is – Logsdon Yeah, that’s a great – Page 22 of 35 Palmer This would be a good spot for some, some plants that now cope with water areas. Logsdon So this, the majority of this trench work would be within play so it’d be re- seeded with our, our seed mix actually that Mike would provide but we are all for exploring plants that are going to help us remove water from the site. We have a couple areas that are picked out that in future years we’ll work on reestablishing those species to help us out. Cambridge Did the contractor provide any alternatives to a French drain in terms of just the standard structured drain? Logsdon There, there were several strategies to this. This is one of the few areas of the course where we can utilize gravity so we’re hoping, at least to get it to that sump pit and then push it out. Ultimately the largest cure for our golf course would be to establish a water feature that we send everything to but the time to do that most appropriately would be coinciding with the future clubhouse. So as we make that adjustment, it would also be the time to develop that water feature and readjust drains so. We are lucky there is another part of the course where gravity is not an option so the next suggestion is always pumps which we have to bring out or permanently have onsite so we’re actually kind of looking forward to French drains, at least for this solution. Cambridge Sure. Yeah, I guess, I mean, I’m all, all for the, the gravity and sort of the, the easier and working with everything the better. My experience with French drains is that they, they don’t have a super long lifespan – Logsdon Uh huh – Cambridge So I just didn’t know if there was a consideration to do just still gravity drains but with surface inlets as opposed as an option. I’m not sure if that’s cheaper or – it’s just my experience that French drains typically fail – Logsdon Yeah, they’re not, the, no they’re not the permanent solution – Cambridge Right. Logsdon And I think with the clubhouse we’d have an opportunity to look at it again – Cambridge Sure. Page 23 of 35 Logsdon Absolutely. Stehr Anyone else? Prust __________ 42:19 inaudible off microphone. Stehr You want to come up here? Prust It’s my understanding you’re _______________ 42:26 inaudible off microphone. Prust The drains are going to run – Stehr For, for – can you identify yourself please, Pete? Prust Oh, Pete Prust. I work at the golf course. The, it’s about 150 yards to where the French drains will be so if we look at a surface, running it surface-wise just with the 1% grade per 100 feet and we’re going to be 4 feet underground and it’s right at a tee box so it just, that’s why we were, you were talking about doing on the surface, right? Cambridge No, I’m sorry – maybe I wasn’t communicating clearly. I am, in lieu of a French drain, as, as I understand it based on the contractor’s quote and my understanding of a French drain, it’s, you know, it’s a porous amount of gravel around this sock sleeve pipe right and – Prust Uh huh. Cambridge And as the water permeates into that subsurface condition, it makes it into the pipe and then leaves via gravity right? I guess I, what I was asking is everything would be the same in a, in a more structured system with surface inlets so drains, a series of drains that would connect vertically to that same type of pipe but then you’re not relying on the permeability of the soil conditions around the filter area which is typically what fails. It’s not usually the structure of the pipe that fails it’s the – Prust Yeah and, and if you came out and looked at the site you can see there’s, there’s water for the majority of that period so we need the permeation through the soil not just at one point – Cambridge Right – Page 24 of 35 Prust Where a drain would be, it would have to be continual drains – Cambridge Right, yeah – Prust In fact, Jarod – Cambridge Usually a series – Prust Came out today because it’s really clear where the water is and how it’s going to be done so – Cambridge Sure, yeah, I guess in, in my – if, if the, I would assume anyway how quickly we’re able to move the water is probably a premium metric, right? The quicker the water is moved, the faster the course dries out – Prust Yeah – Cambridge More people can get back in play and even if you had a series of surface inlets that’s, that’s going to move a lot more water more quickly than a French drain. May not look as good but just, just a consideration. So I, I’m in support of either solution. I don’t the manage the course so if that’s what you guys feel is best but that was just my 2 cents. Prust The other two locations where we have pumps we’ve pumped over 700,000 gallons to the creek in the last, since what Friday when it started to rain? So we have a, we pump a lot of water. Cambridge Yeah, for sure. Stehr Thank you, Pete. All right, do we have no more comments? Does anyone have a motion to accept the bid by PJP Construction to install some mitigation to the drainage issue that we have at the golf course? Pack I will move to approve the PJP, PJP Construction quote of $37,992. Stehr We have a motion from Jill Pack. Do we have a second? Salewicz Second. Stehr John Salewicz seconds. All right, let’s take a vote. Jill Pack? Pack Aye. Page 25 of 35 Stehr John Salewicz? Salewicz Aye. Stehr Coralie Palmer? Palmer Aye. Stehr Ryan Cambridge? Cambridge Aye. Stehr Kris Barksdale? Barksdale Aye. Carpenter Nature Preserve Option to Purchase Stehr And I say aye as well. Thank you. That passes unanimously. All right, the Carpenter Nature Preserve. Logsdon As we, as we get closer to the, the goal of acquisition of the Carpenter Nature Preserve, we wanted to ensure the Option to Purchase was in hand prior to the funds available for that transaction and Amy has developed this document that was circulated with the Carpenters and their legal representative for the terms of that Option to Purchase so this would be that, kind of that final step before closing in negotiations of the, of the Preserve at the time of us having the funds to do so. So with your review and recommendation would be for John to execute the Option to Purchase Real Estate for the Carpenter Nature Preserve with Soaring Feather, LLC which is the entity of the, with the Carpenters. Stehr Anybody have any questions? Salewicz No. Stehr Amy, could you, could you weigh in on the importance of this step? Nooning Sure. Stehr That we’re considering tonight. Page 26 of 35 Nooning Yes, so over the past couple of months the Board has taken multiple steps to move the process of obtaining the bond for the Carpenter Nature Preserve forward so the new focus now, your next step is to focus on the actual acquisition of the real estate and negotiating that with the Carpenters. So what is in front of you now is just an Option to Purchase to secure your exclusive ability to purchase that should the funds come through from the bond. Like Jarod said, this is, this step now and then should the bonds be approved and that money come through, you would then, as a next step in the acquisition process, enter into a Contract for Purchase with the Carpenters and then you would close after that so at this point it is important just to ensure that you have the Option to Purchase the property through the remainder of this year. We have the option going until December 31st. Stehr Okay and I’d, I would add it appears that we’re going to be going before the Town Council on the 20th for the first reading and then the second reading would be April 10th? Pack 10th. Stehr Is that right? Logsdon Yes, April 10th. Stehr April 10th. Okay. So, we, we’re on our way and if, if we are successful on the 20th that, that’s a good sign and we’ll be able to move forward to the final vote. Salewicz There is one question so I guess letter E – so if we, we don’t, if we default and not buy it, it says the earnest money we paid them like $10,000, is that correct? Nooning Well I did clarify that with their legal counsel so the, the fee for the option itself is $500. Salewicz Uh huh – Nooning Should you not move forward toward and execute a Contract for Purchase, you would lose that $500. At the time that you enter into a Contract for Purchase, then they would expect the $10,000 earnest money to be deposited. So after that point, after you sign the Contract for Purchase should you not fulfill that and not move forward with closing, then you would lose that $10,000. Page 27 of 35 Salewicz Okay. Thank you. Nooning Sure. Stehr Not unlike purchasing a home. Salewicz Yes, right. Yeah, I wanted to clarify that. Nooning Yes, yes. Good question. Stehr So do we have, so the motion will be to accept the Option to Purchase? Nooning Yes. Stehr Okay. I’m going to go ahead and make that motion that we accept this Option to Purchase the Carpenter, the land known as the Carpenter Nature Preserve. Do we have a second? Cambridge I’ll second. Stehr Ryan Cambridge seconds. All right, let’s take a roll call vote. Jill Pack? Pack Aye. Stehr John Salewicz? Salewicz Aye. Stehr Coralie Palmer? Palmer Aye. Stehr Ryan Cambridge? Cambridge Aye. Stehr Kris Barksdale? Barksdale Aye. Stehr And I enthusiastically say aye so that will give us 6 to nothing. Thank you. Anything else under New Business, Jarod? Page 28 of 35 Logsdon Nope, that’s all from New Business. Old Business Rail Trail Widening Stehr Okay. And now moving on to Old Business. Logsdon Just a couple comments. Phase 1 of the Rail Trail widening continues. Crews have still been onsite tearing up sections of the trail and reestablishing with stone prepping it for when the asphalt plants open up and paving can complete so making excellent progress. As Amy mentioned, we are working with the subdivisions within that stretch just to clean up a couple things from the past and have everybody moving forward at the same momentum. So that is once Phase 1 is complete after paving, the contractor will then shift to Phase 2. They won’t be allowed to do that until Phase 1 is complete because we don’t want to close too much of the Rail Trail at one time. Salewicz I have a question – so, I was thinking about this. So the shift that we’re going to do, obviously, we’re coming off the original railbed and going off the railbed so, is there, I know we paid a good chunk of money to redo the road programming so is there more work that has to be done to beef up, I mean – Logsdon Uh huh – Salewicz Is there, is there a contingency cost that we’re going to have to look for that move, shifting of the, the trail? Logsdon There was no added cost for the excavation. There was always some grading involved with tying back in to the, the existing ditches so this just kind of shifts that. In some areas there is still trail bed, railroad bed – Salewicz Uh huh – Logsdon So it’ll just simply be a shift. In other places they will have to do a little bit more dirt work to tie back in. Salewicz Okay but there’s, at this point there’s no – Logsdon No anticipated cost. Page 29 of 35 Salewicz Okay, thank you. Stehr Okay. Logsdon All right. Stehr Is there action required? Logsdon Nope. Rail Trail Trailhead Stehr Okay. Anybody have any other comments or questions? All right, then let’s move on. The Rail Trail Trailhead. Logsdon Yep, so the contractor at the trailhead is making excellent progress as well. The parking lot is taking shape and they’re actually starting to block the restroom facility. So the foundation was poured and that building is starting to go up so that’s very exciting. They are making a tremendous pace to get that done, fingers crossed, this spring with no issues. So there’s all, all signs are pointing to that happening. So we look forward to that. One unfortunate item that the only way we could avoid would be to go back in time and work with the Vonterra subdivision and the developers is a connection fee from Citizens Water for us to have water service at our trailhead. So, because the two parcels of the trailhead were not a part of the Vonterra subdivision, they weren’t planned for when that sewer and water extensions came forward so any new taps onto a new segment, a developer provided segment of the water line comes with these connection fees that are, we can’t avoid so we had multiple calls with Citizens trying to figure out a way to avoid these costs or minimize them but ultimately it’s just something we’re going to have to pay so. How we improve this process in the future as we work with future development for park donations, we work to ensure that there are sewer and water connections at the entrance to our parks at the time of platting, at the time of dedication so we can avoid these fees and just tie into the existing infrastructure so. Salewicz Even with the two houses that were there? Logsdon Yep, so they were on wells. Salewicz Oh, well and septic? Page 30 of 35 Logsdon Yep. So, unfortunately, it’s just something we have to pay the piper to keep moving this project forward. So our connection fee, JBM is working with Citizens to absorb that cost so the change order tonight before you is for $19,259 for that connection fee and that is for the water service at the trailhead and with our existing credit remaining of $38,861, if approved tonight, we would still have a remaining credit of $19,602. Stehr So we’re using half of our credit and we’re not into the contingency yet? Logsdon Correct. So we’re still in the credit. Salewicz You said how much is left, would be left – $18? Logsdon $19,602 which is a long way from where we started with that $70,000 credit, unfortunately. Salewicz Yes. Logsdon But at least we were able to absorb those costs. Stehr Yeah. Well there’s no way to avoid the expense. Logsdon No we – Stehr At least it’s coming from a --- Salewicz Utilizing a well isn’t an option? Logsdon I don’t think that is an option but no, that’s fair. Salewicz Uh huh – Stehr Any questions about this, about the water tap? Do we have a motion to accept the, is this a change order, I guess this is a change order? Logsdon Yes, this is a change order. Stehr Do we have a motion to accept this change order to supply water and sewer to our new trailhead? Cambridge So moved. Stehr Ryan Cambridge makes a motion. Do we have a second? Page 31 of 35 Barksdale I’ll second. Stehr Kris Barksdale seconds. Jill Pack? Pack Aye. Stehr John Salewicz? Salewicz Aye. Stehr Coralie Palmer? Palmer Aye. Stehr Ryan Cambridge? Cambridge Aye. Stehr Kris Barksdale? Barksdale Aye. Stehr And I say aye as well. It passes unanimously. Thank you. Logsdon And, and that is just for the water service so I’ll just say that the previous Superintendent did work with the developer to have sewer service stubbed up so that was, that was a benefit to our current program. Stehr Okay. All right, on the agenda here we have Other Board Related Items unless there’s anything more that anybody needs to add? Salewicz No. Other Board Related Items Stehr Okay. As far as Other Board Related Items, the first thing is Sarah, who is not able to be with us tonight, she’s been under the weather but she wanted me to pass on her feeling that it has been a privilege working with everyone here and what she considers to be important work and to remind you that after COVID, after she is feeling better, she will be back at work at the library through the end of the month and encourages anybody to come by and say goodbye if you’d like to. March 31st is her last day there. Page 32 of 35  We do not have a replacement for her yet from the Library Board. I’m going to work with the Library Board President to make sure that we get that as soon as possible. I think it’s been valuable to have a member of the library staff as part of our Board. I think it’s been easier for moving the Nature Center to the library and also the story walk at Elm Street Green, I think that process is very smooth because of that connection there. So I’m going to encourage the Library Board to appoint someone who is on the staff at the library to, to take a seat on our Board as well and I hope that we have that position filled by our next meeting. If not, we will certainly get that done as soon as we can. Anybody have any thoughts on that before we move on? Claims Okay, the next item is Claims and the claims came to us late tonight. I hope that everybody has had a chance to at least take a cursory review of the claims. Salewicz Yes. Stehr The, the amount is not as high as it often is so it’s a, a short claim list tonight so at least there’s that right? And, everyone had a chance to develop any questions or any thoughts on the claims as they’re presented? Salewicz No. Palmer Can I ask what the pest control is? Logsdon I’m sorry? Palmer Can I ask what the pest control is? Logsdon Yep. So we have minimal services from Orkin at the Lincoln Park gazebo just to keep infestations out of that structure. Palmer Okay. Logsdon Yeah. Stehr All right, so if no one has any further questions or thoughts on the claims, do we have a motion to accept the claims as presented? Salewicz I’ll make a motion to accept the claims as presented. Page 33 of 35 Stehr John Salewicz makes a motion. Do we have a second? Cambridge Second. Stehr Ryan Cambridge seconds. Let’s take a roll call vote. That’ll be starting with Jill Pack? Pack Aye. Stehr John Salewicz? Salewicz Aye. Stehr Coralie Palmer? Palmer Aye. Stehr Ryan Cambridge? Cambridge Aye. Stehr Kris Barksdale? Barksdale Aye. Stehr And I say aye as well making it unanimous. Adjournment All right, well I want to invite everybody to sign their paperwork before they leave the room tonight. Please don’t leave the room until you do. Our next meeting is April 12th and with that I will accept a motion to adjourn. Pack So moved. Stehr Jill Pack makes a motion to adjourn. Do we have a second? Salewicz Second. Stehr All in favor, second by John Salewicz. All in favor say aye. All Aye. Page 34 of 35 Stehr All opposed? [No response] All right, thank you very much everybody. We’ll see you on April 12th. _____________________________________ ________________________________ John Stehr, President John Salewicz, Secretary Respectfully submitted, Bonnie Black Parks MAC Professional – 4/12/2023 Page 35 of 35