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Park Board Minutes 2007 03-08-07 APPROVED UNITED CITY OF YORKVILLE YORI(VILLE PARKS & RECREATION DEPARTMENT BOARD MEETING Parks & Recreation Administrative Office Riverfront Building 301 E. Hydraulic St. Yorkville, I160560 Thursday,March 8,2007 MINUTES CALL TO ORDER: Meeting was called to order by Chris Rollins at 7:00 p.m. ROLL CALL: Chris Rollins, Ken Koch, Van Trrurran, Debbie Horaz, and Kelly Sedgwick GUESTS/CITY OFFICIALS/STAFF: Dave Mogle, Director of Parks and Recreation Sue Swithin, Superintendent of Recreation Scott Sleezer, Superintendent of Parks APPROVAL OF MINUTES: The minutes from the Regular Park Board Meeting of February 22, 2007, were approved on motion by Ken Koch and seconded by Debbie Horaz. The motion was unanimously approved. BILLS REVIEW: Cash Analysis & Bill List Checks were signed and there were no changes. Van Truman asked if there was a resolution to the decision of Alderman Marty Munns refereeing for Parks and Recreation basketball. I-Ie had seen him refereeing last Saturday. Sue Swithin believes he has not been told he cannot referee city games. Attorney.John Wyeth last year strongly advised Mr. Munns against working for Parks and Recreation. The Park Board has done what it was advised to do—to point out the possible conflict of interest. The Board thought he officiated this year only because other referees could not be found. Dave Mogle said Alderman Bock offered to bring this issue up at a City Council meeting, but to Dave's knowledge, has not been done-it publicly yet. Dave can follow up with Alderman Bock, Van Truman motioned to approve the cash analysis and bill list. The motion was seconded by Kelly Sedgwick. Roll call vote: Chris Rollins-Yes, Ken Koch—Yes, Van Truman—Yes, Debbie Horaz-Yes, and Kelly Sedgwick-Yes. The motion was unanimously approved. OLD BUSINESS: School/ParkAgreernent Tennis Courts Report Dave Mogle distributed to the Board tonight(and in an email to the Board earlier) his memo given to City Council druing last Tuesday's meeting. It summarized the Board's input regarding building 4 new tennis courts for the high school and public use. Dave was ready to discuss the memo, but he was not asked to do so when the budget item discussion was postponed until the COW that meets on March 20°i Before Board discussions started, Ken Koch recognized that people may have differing opinions, but he doesn't want the conununity to think the Board appears negative toward tennis courts somewhere. Mr. Koch doesn't want to be pushed to say that the Board is in favor or not of the new tennis courts. The memo consisted of points from the previous Board meeting and added connnennts from the Board members not present after°Dave talked to them. Van Truman read Dave's email and thought it was a fair representation of opinions. The Board doesn't want to jeopardize own funding of well researched projects. Building 4 more tennis courts near the existing 6 coots will be the City Council's decision. Council is just looking for input. Issues like needed stoplights and sidewalks will may likely be prioritized first,. Cluis Rollins informally spoke to Dr. Engler at a Sport Booster Banquet. Chris is concerned with the level of need for the tennis courts since the School District is not building them if the City does not provide the money. His second concern is if the City spends non-park board finds, Parks has no say in design or programming of the new courts. Mr Rollins wonders if the obligation to refurbish 6 current courts will be extended to 4 new courts to maintain. Chris would like focus to be on the existing 1975 agreement. It obligates the City with little checks and balances by allowing only one City Council Member and the Superintendent needed for a decision. The Park Board was not formed at the time of this agreement. The tennis courts agreement needs to be viewed by the City Attorney. Before Dave Mogle became Director, the Park Board updated or nullified nearly all outdated agreements except for the above agreement. Chris Rollins read part of the minutes from the last meeting paraphrasing Dr. Engler. "The School Board feels the City in good faith could put money in school facilities as a thank you., Dr. Engler feels the City should recognize without the School District, a Park Department would not be there." Mr. Rollins thinks this tone of the comment and the tennis court agreement tone are inappropriate to the relationship wanted with the Schools. The City has an agreement with the School Board to use its facilities. Van Trumlan thought under 1 C in the School/Park Use Agreement Draft, tennis courts is included. Sue Swithin said the Hoover Agreement has good language that the new agreement supersedes all other past agreements. In the last paragraph of Dave Mogle's memo he stated, "a new agreement should be executed that updates construction, maintenance and use issues." Van Truman also believes the School/Park Ad Hoc Committee call incorporate that any old documrents are obsolete. The new School/Park Agreement will be for 3 years. The School District should have notified the City months ago that there was need of refurbishing courts. This would have allowed more time to plan the City budget. The School District knew land adjacent to the high school was not available, but did not share this information. Scott Sleezer wishes the relationship with the School District would improve. A tennis complex could have been built if given a year to plan it. With advanced notice, Sue Swithin could have planned an alternate location for her.Iuly tennis camps—possibly new parks and recreation courts. She is disappointed that her July 2 camps are on hold this year due to the 6 current courts closed for resurfacing. The public ( uses the courts at night as well. Cluis Rollins noticed that the last Park Board minutes said that some cemetery land was offered to the School District in exchange for the maintenance of the cemetery (including mowing around the tombstones). The School District didn't like that idea. Chris wonders why the City cannot be offered this proposition. Scott Sleezer said that Parks could maintain the area. Chris Rollins emphasizes that point 1 of the memo states the 10 counts are positive and not until the end of the memo it mentions the agreement should be updated and that the minority of the Board does not endorse the 4 proposed new courts. Dave Mogle talked over the issue with aldermen and the mayor, He wanted the memo to sound positive in tone so Parks and Recreation would not be seen as against new tennis courts for the community. Van Truunan feels confident that Dave will offer comment during the City Council meeting regarding this issue. Chris Rollins would like Dave to verbally amend the memo to City Council that the Board wants to revisit the current tennis courts agreement. The School/Park Ad IIoc Committee can address the agreement from 1975. School/Park Use Agreement and Ail Iloc Committee Report Sue Swithin, Van Truman, Dave Mogle, Seth Schoonover, and Dave Dockstader are on this committee. The consensus of the committee is the agreement is close. Tom Engler will take it to the School Board late March. The agreement draft was distributed and approval will be asked at the next Board meeting, Chris Rollins read section a. wider Development of Future Facilities and Parks. "As established by this agreement the Parks and Rec, Dept, of the City and the School District will share when possible, the concept design for the planning...." He would like to strike the phrase "when possible".. Section 5a includes highlighted changes. The School District would like facility requests by May 15°1 instead of in July since in the summer the principals are not present in the building. Section 5c reads, "Therefore, upon a minimum of 14 days written notification by School Superintendent or Executive Director of Park and Recreation, either party may request of modification of the usage schedule set forth." Chris compliments this language. However, he reads further in the paragraph, "Under these circumstances, both parties hereto, agree that the scheduled event shall take priority of any attempted change." There have been past problems when the Rec. Dept. has submitted and been approved for a requested event earlier, but the School District stated they already had an event planned unknown to the Rec. Dept. Chris Rollins would like to have "scheduled even(' defined. This should mean any event that has been mutually agreed upon as scheduled. Quarterly committee meetings should help alleviate scheduling problems. Van Truman points out that in the first paragraph a"master schedule" or"Master Calendar" is mentioned He suggests using that language fluoughout the agreement to be consistent. For examples point c reads, "If special circumistances make it impossible to either the School District or City to cancel or change the scheduled use ...". Van is requesting that"scheduled use" be changed to Master Calendar. A Master Calendar does not take preference over one party or another, but consists of mutually agreed on events.. 3 Chris quotes paiagiaph a, "Once the master schedule has been developed, it shall be the responsibility of each party to schedule their respective activities and events within the agreed upon time frames." Sue Swithin said scheduling conflicts with the School District happened about a handful of times last year and 3 times already this year, Operational Costs (Section 6),part b ieads, "The School District and the Parks and Rec, Dept. will provide respected adult staff with a key...". "Respected" should be struck. It is a given that a dependable person would be chosen. On top of page 4 there is an error, "the use of the their respected facilities... "The" should be taken out and replace respected with respect. Within Operational Costs,points c and d were added. False alarm fines are paid to the City currently at $30. The amount of the fine and who pays could be added to agreement, but that might change. Item d was a result of conversation. "The City will give consideration to interested off duty school personnel when hiring for program staff, though final determination will be based upon several variables including but not limited to an applicant's qualifications, background experience, and budgetary limitations." Air example of this is an employee of the District to teach in a computer lab for a program or to run a program within a school and the individual already has keys. The above is not binding language. The Periodic Review of Agreement has been changed to be reviewed quarterly or as needed. The original agreement was reviewed one meeting per year. In regards to 7b, Chris Rollins believes there should be review on the shared margins of both parties. Dr. Engler was asked by Chris to document the extra costs of custodians and electricity, but this hasn't happened. It seems the School District implies the cost of use of facilities is increasing so much. Chris asked Dave Mogle if City charges the School District for extra police officers. It has never been a free use policy agreement. Schools energy costs and the city police officers costs could be shared. Van Truman discussed paildschool sites. Yorkville exceeds the requirement of needed school land for school sites. It would be beneficial when Parks offers a park site adjacent to the school, that the School District could build additional space for Parks and Rec. Some school district/paik agreements partner gym usage, separate bathrooms near an entrance, and paiking in exchange for green space maintenance of a school. The clause of supersedes all past agreements should be added to the School/Park Use Agreement. The track was built on part of city land, so there is an issue with that. The north 10 yard line of the football stadium is on city land which caused Parks and Recreation to start reviewing past agreements. This area may have been deeded to the commrurity and not the City. Kendall County may own the Game Farm area by the school that they deeded to the school. Sue Swithin will try to find copies of any other past agreements. The School/Park Use Agreement will be brought back to the Board on March 22°r. 4 School District Liaison Statas for Park Board ( Dave Mogle reported that the School District thinks a regular-basis person is not needed on Park Board. Only when pail/schools business is on the agenda a person could come, making it a commitment of just a few meetings. The voting ordinance will need to be amended because it was increased to 7 people so the School District representative could vote on Park Board. The School District Liaison started positive and was thought to be a valuable position. The Schools were given a voice for City Council regarding budget and decisions. The Board meetings were changed so not to interfere with the School District. The exception of a nonresident of Yorkville voting was allowed since the school district boundaries include areas outside of Yorkville. The Planning Commission consists oft or 3 members that live outside Yorkville. Possibilities to fulfill this liaison void were voiced. An alderman attends School Board meetings as a liaison from City Council Maybe a member from the Ad Hoc Committee could serve as a liaison. Debbie Horaz recommended her neighbor that is a teacher at C.O.D. that she believes may serve well as a liaison. A School District representative brings back information to the District and expresses the District's thoughts to the Park Board. Dave will suggest to the mayor to write a letter stating the importance of a School District representative for the Park Board. The liaison does not have to serve on the School Board, but he or she should be a resident of the district. FY0708 Budget Documents were distributed to the Board including a recent draft from the Finance Department(municipal building account), projections for 2007 that is Dave's wonting document as of 2/27/07, and the land cash budget. The Board should review these documents by March 22"d, and more details will be discussed at that time. The COW meeting on the 20°i will allow Dave Mogle to provide updated information. One challenge was finding a full years worth of-funding for 15 new city-wide employees that were added during the current fiscal year are now on hold. This includes Parks and Recreation positions of a part time assistant turning full time, part time media person, and 2 additional park maintenance employees. The budget is balanced without new hires. Parks master plan and community survey is combined as an one line item for the budget together to balance the budget. The NIU survey was estimated at $12,000 and the master plan updates were estimated at $10,000. The master plan will have to be completed more in—house by Staff with some parts contracted. The budget allows for$13,000 for both expenses. Chris Rollins reconunended checking when the City renews their master plan. Perhaps City Council and Parks and Recreation could work together on some parts and share expenses. Dave Mogle will explore this with Travis Miller. At midyear, adjustments can be made to the budget. It was asked if grants could be used for statistical surveys. Dave will look into that question. The City did not receive some anticipated money. For instance, a couple of developments and an auto dealer did not come through. Land cash is slow at this time. Caledonia has not paid yet and owes $158,000. The amount of$128,000 should be paid to Parks and Recreation for 5 reimbursement from OSLAD for Cannonball Ridge Park. The 2 grant projects of ( Whispering Meadows and Prairie Meadows are in the budget at their full construction budget because the City must fund the entire project and then get is 50% reimbursement. Several past annexation agreements did not require front-funding, and slow residential growth, slows down the revenue when payment is based on permits. The Hoover holding costs were higher than expected. An exta$60,000 was paid this fiscal year instead of last because of a Corland mistake in billing.. Within the operational area another issue is the City made a commitment to the salary survey. It was started last spring, Human Resources and Administration are having discussions with City Council. In the 0708 projections there is a line item for salary adjustments and aline for merit. There are two options for salary. One option could cost up to $300,000 which would tighten the budget. The Mayor and the Finance Director made some decisions and adjustments. Park and Recreation's salaries do not include new people. If Hoover is not included next year, then 2 additional people may not be needed. Two were added last year. If Hoover was started, help would be at a disadvantage. Seasonal staff is in the budget. The increase in parks and facilities and programs continues. The good news is the budget is balanced. The Board is to study the budget sheets for the next meeting. 2007Park Open Houses Four open houses are scheduled from.June through September. These will include games, music, showing a movie, and hot dogs. This is a new idea to try. It is good for public relations. Invitations will be sent out to the homeowners in the area,the Park Board, and City Council. This should help connect the community with the parks. During the open houses, the Park Staff and Recreation Staff will build a stronger relationship. Scott Sleezer is searching for sponsors for these events. The only cost is food. Park Board members should try to attend as many if these events as each can. Scott Sleezer mentioned another connmunity builder will be "Touch a Truck"that Public Works may sponsor. At a treatment center, a water tower can be viewed, tours are given of the treatment center, and tucks and equipment are on display. On April 22nd there is Coffee with the Mayor at the new Parks and Recreation Building. Maybe an open house could be incorporated into this. The press should be invited. The other recreation building that opened in November could have a small dedication. In late 2008 the Dam Project will be done and this can be celebrated. Review of 2007 Objectives The objective was to revisit the objectives every 3 months and make any adjustments. The Board document contains checks next to items completed and the obstacles that delayed items. Objective 1 relates to recommending sites for a maintenance building. Some property in the northern section is being researched. Dave will talk later in the meeting regarding Westbury's securing of property in exchange for waving municipal fees. 6 Goal 2— Objective I relates to Hoover. Actions 1-4 have been done. The Forest Preserve District would like to put the park agreement on hold for a couple of months until the referendurn is over and the new outdoor education is in place. The purchase of Hoover will rely on the referendum. Objective 2—community survey has 3 of the action plans completed. The 4°i action plan is delayed umtil the budget is secured by mid April. Goal 3 —new school/park agreement is on track. Objective 2 under this does not have much progress. The deadline to approve these is listed in.Tune. Staff will continue to pursue developing of new partnerships. Objective 3 —parks and recreation donatioudgift brochure-is partly done. The final draft will be ready by May. Under Goal 4, the master plan is a little behind schedule. There is progress on Objective 2 in regards to open houses.. Objectives 3 states hosting 2 new community-wide events or enhance and expand existing events. Hometown Days will be enhanced. There is a bicycle event the week before this that will be bigger than last year, This year is the 5Vi anniversary of the United City of Yorkville (with Bristol United), Tim, Scott, and the mayor are working on this. Objective 4 wants park and recreation programs featured on Public Access Television. Dave found out today that the organizer of this has March 23`d open. This can provide visibility of parks with a provided script and a camera person will be sent to location. Objective 5 —improve Park Board/City Council relationship has action plan 1 done. ( Dave Mogle would grade the progress on the strategic objectives at a B. There are some delay reasons beyond the Board's control and some items just not done yet. Debbie Horaz asked if there was a canoe event scheduled. Sue Swithin said the Adventure Challenge is in October. Debbie Horaz has a sponsor opportunity she will follow. NEW BUSINESS: Master Plan Revision Of the 20 items listed, 5 are highlighted to show they will most likely be contracted out. Greg Weber from Human Development may do some maps. Dave feels the department is in a better position than in the past to do more in—house work with Laura Haake helping and Greg Weber. The highlighted areas include: parks assessment, facility assessment, citizens feedback, marketing assessment, and land acquisition and open space. Chris repeated from earlier in the meeting that the 5 highlighted areas could dovetail with the city's master-plan under"master plan funds". REPORTS: Recreation Sue Swithin included her report in the packet. In next month's suunmary, the Board will see information about the Polar Plunge held last week. One hmldred forty people raised $47,000 for Special Olympics. This was the 0'year and last year's total was exceeded. The committee meets in Yorkville. Silver Springs is used. The area is fixed and maintained. It was rugged with ice on the lake that had to be cleared. Sue recommends attending next year if one hasn't, because it is "tremendous and fun to watch". 7 ( Basketball is coming to an end. The travel program went well. Spring soccer registration is happening and preparations for fall soccer. At the end of March is the new event- Easter Egg Hunt. The train will have a reserved car for the program from Aurora to Naperville. Eggs will be hidden in a park and the Easter Bunny will be there. About 60 people are signed up for this. On page 2 of the report are the February programs. The numbers are cumulative of the winter season. Those from the Board interested in the golf day, sign up and help that day. ADDITIONAL BUSINESS: City of Yorkville Annual Service Report The booklets were distributed to the Board to keep. On page 17 the Parks and Recreation report starts. The section includes a welcome to the newest board members, goodbye to past members, and information about the new buildings and park developments. A picture of Raintree Park is included and a photo of Tim as the train conductor during Polar Express on page 20. Last Saturday Dave Mogle and Debbie Horaz were at the City Focus Group with 50 people. They were to brainstorm the vision of Yorkville. Cads were posted with people's thoughts. More than 12 were related to parks, open space and recreation. Retail was the next concern. Pales and Recreation quality of life issues must have been at least 60% of the requests. The group was asked if they cane back 10 yeas later after moving away from Yorkville, what would be the biggest disappointment. It was not having the Riverwalk done (which includes parks). Also the concern was the lack of open space. More fishing was wanted too. Chris Rollins said that people are saying when work is done on the daa, Yorkville will be known as the place for premier fishing on the Fox River.. Westbin y Update Dave Mogle was at the meeting to plea for the original park requirements, Parks A, B, and C are now 5 acres. Pak D is 4 acres. Park E is 10 acres (instead of 7 acres), aid Park F is 2 acres. Additionally, Westbury is offering 15 acres across the street or for cash. It appeal that it would be $1.5 million cash-in-lieu or higher if the 15 acres are not taken. In the past,the 15 acres didn't seem like an ideal area. Scott Sleezer mentioned that he and Dave thought if the 15 acres in White Pines (8.8 acres) was reconfigured and Parks only took half of this land, the ComEd easement, and the 15 acres from Westbury could be combined. This area could be used for tennis courts or fields. Scott suggests thinking of the needs 20 yeas from now. Maybe the 15 acres could be for a field house. Dave Mogle will talk more to Travis Miller, Ocean Atlantic wants to design install and build its plaggiounds, The developer would build, the_packs. At Grande-Reserve, ParE had the final sap ocean Atlantic would have the final_say aid prornises to meet all ASTM CPSC, and ADA requirements in the parks Written invoices would be shown to the Pak Boar prror to rermbiusement The"Bond is Hesitant with hrs aran gement - 8 because of past parks built in this way_ "Neighborhood Parks" should be defined. ( WMuspering Meadows as 2 h of their own parks separate from ones built by the city. There is concern that developers may start parks and not finish_them_in a timely manner which-could have-safety_concems. Clurs Rollins thought f ghting back this development to strike a bargain is the best example of his 10 years on the Board of the Paris Department and the Cnty Council cooperating. " Dave wanted the Board to discuss if want the 15 acre piece or the cash. Staff has not had time to make a recommendation. If combine the land with White Pines, the area could be 25 acres total. This would be off Galena Road and it may provide land for a recreation center. The north section is the fastest growing part of Yorkville. Is it worth$1.5 million when land cash is short at the time? Years later, that area is going to be high density. The exceptions to that are the water park and possibly the regional detention area. The intersection of Galena and 47 may feel like 47 and 34 now with lots of retail. However, the fiscal standing weighs in too. Scott Sleezer reminded the Board, that parks will be funded by permit so the money will not come at once, The $1.5 million would not be enough to develop all 7 parks. This would need to be supplemented. Without the 25 acres, $2.7 million could support 6 parks. That would be a quarter of a million for each park. There should be adequate space for baseball and soccer space within the parks. Scott suggested the 15 acres may not be developed immediately. The need would not be there yet.. ( There are 150 acres for maintenance that is adjacent to the regional park site. There is a 3 acre park in Bristol Bay. It sounds like a lot of park space, but Scott warns the density of Planning Area 1 is projected at the amount of people living in Yorkville currently. The national standards state 10 acres of useable active park space per 10,000 population. Ken Koch asked if the possible recreation building on the 15 acres would be in place of or in addition to the building of a certain church that may become a recreation center in the future if the City were to acquire it. Scott Sleezer answered in time, both facilities will be needed with the growing population. Dave Mogle said the 15 acres could be a north side recreation site. Scott said the regional area may be a Public Works site and salt storage facility. It will be on the corner with major roadways and bike trails. Scott has an issue with paying the Developer to design and build when there is staff for that purpose. Dave said it was already agreed on in the previous draft of the annexation agreement, that if the Developer follows the standards it was OK. Scott thought that was agreed on only for the private parks, not Parks and Recreation parks. The color and consistency the development wants can be followed. However, the Park Department wants to protect its reputation and takes pride in the chosen themes. It would be unfair to have no input of materials when Parks will do the maintaining of the parks. Van Truman would like to know what kind of amenities would be in the other parks (not including the 15 acres). Scott could do this. Then Van would see costs and have a stronger feeling about the 15 acres. Dave said there is no pressure to have decision about 9 the 15 acre on March 20°i The tentative park amenities will be emailed to the Board. ( Van asked what amount of money is available for the White Pines Park. Scott said there is not the option to put a building on the White Pines land. Gary Golinski arrived. Sue Swithin reminded the Board to think of building savings of land cash for future facilities. Chris suggested that the 15 acres is not a necessity, because there is open space in the area. It would be nice to have the money. Scott asked if it would help the Board to know the projections, even if estimated high. Van Truman said the information could only help make a decision. The land cash for Westbury is $80,000. This was only for the original part of the development. Currently, the land cash is now$101,000. Ocean Atlantic may wants to buy property and give it to the City for the Parks/Public Works facility in exchange for waving the municipal building fees. Chris suggested taking a temperature vote, not a binding vote. The ComEd buffer and the connection with Beecher ar e positives. The questions posed is should Parks and Recreation take the 15 acres offered by Westbury. Ken Koch—No, Chris Rollins-No, Kelly Sedgwick-No, Debbie Horaz-Yes, and Van Truman-No. The majority is in favor of cash not land. The Board does not like the lack of control of the design and construction of the parks. The land value is a huge consideration from $80,000 to $101,000. Gary Golinski said the mayor had already told Westbury the new value of land. Westbury is to come up with half a million dollars by the Council Meeting on March lath. Caboose To move the caboose to Whispering Meadows would cost $7500 by a house mover. This would be in one day. Each additional day the cost would be by the hour. The contractors of the Darn project would move the caboose to Riverfront for free, but it would have to be this month while the ground is frozen. When Dave Mogle contacted the owner of the caboose,the price would not differ if Parks mid Recreation chose to use the train in another park. There is the option to leave the caboose on the tracks for awhile or ,Tim Bock had mentioned a possible helicopter lift. The Board gave unanimous consent to move the caboose to the train-themed park of Whispering Meadows for$7500 and pay the $10,500 for the caboose, This would be close to the firture school site. Dave will take this to City Council. Dave Mogle will call Railnet to check if the caboose could sit on current tracks for awhile. Fundraising could help with the cost. Refurbishing can be done in phases by volunteers. Chris Rollins expressed that it has been an honor to serve with Gary Golinski. He has been a great colleague. He will be missed. Sue Swithin stated she is looking forward to his support for Parks and Recreation. Mr. Golinski will be appointed as an Alderman. 10 ADJOURNMENT: ( The meeting adjourned at 10:32 p.m, following the motion by Ken Koch and seconded by Kelly Sedgwick. The motion was unanimously approved. Minute Taker—Lileen Lesak i 11