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Park Board Minutes 2007 07-26-07 Yorkville Parks & Recreation Department APPROVED Administration and Recreation Office 201 W. Hydraulic Street, Yorkville, IL 60560 630-553-4357 Park Board Agenda Thursday, July 26, 2007 7:00 p.m.—Park Board Meeting Administration and Recreation Office Call to Order: Ken Koch calls meeting to order at 7:02 pm Roll Call: Ken Koch,Van Truman, Debbie Horaz, Kelly Sedgwick,Vickie Coveny Introduction of Guests, City Officials and Staff: Director of Parks and Recreation—David Mogle Superintendent of Recreation— Sue Swithin Superintendent of Parks—Scott Sleezer Park Planner—Laura Haake Alderman Plocher Public Comment: None Presentations: None Approval of Minutes: Minutes—Regular Park Board Meeting—July 12, 2007 David Mogle wants to amend the following. All places that say Park District should say Parks and Recreation Department Under old business first paragraph down it should read vision statement where it says mission statement and mission statement where it says vision statement. Under old business fifth paragraph down Mogle would like the verbiage to be "short,to the point, and visionary" "and sweet" should betaken out of the sentence. Under future staffmg needs on page three, second paragraph down it should say "recreation supervisor" and not"supervision"and the eighth paragraph down where it says the rationale is to meet the standard of 1 work per 20 acres it should read 1 worker per 20 acres. In the next paragraph"carpentry"background should be changed to a "trades background." On page four the top sentence where it reads"there's a spot"the verbiage should be changed to "a position is being recommended by staff for a recreation coordinator." Page five last paragraph second to last sentence the word"direct"needs to be "direction" and in the last sentence the verbiage should read the City may have to hold a referendum if it wanted to levy a tax for these purposes. 1 Page six the third paragraph down second sentence it should read"the director of the United Way approached Mogle about finding funds to help those families." Next paragraph first sentence verbiage should be amended to read, "Mogle said the City needs to look at whether it would be more beneficial for the City to service small amounts of the City's population or get involved in a special recreation organization." Laura Haake would like to amend the new business section second paragraph down with the verbiage"would be an"being taken out and replaced with"is an existing." Page five eight paragraphs down where it says "a postcard has been sent"the verbiage should read "a postcard will be sent." Ken Koch wants to vote with the changes and then have Mogle go back through and touch them up because we have to keep them on file. Mary will make the changes. Mogle discussed the changes with Jackie Mishewski and changes we want made should be taken to the Board and have all park board members present. Van Truman makes the motion to approve the minutes of the Park Board Meeting of July 12th, 2007 with amendments made and Horaz seconds the motion. The motion was unanimously approved by voice vote. Bills Review: Cash Analysis Ken Koch points out that Home Town Days has it's own line item because it has it's own budget. Van Truman asks with the City changing over their garbage service he asks about all the portable toilet charges. Truman wants to know how those charges break down. Sue Swithin says that we look at that yearly and we missed the date for the deadline when the City decided to change over to another company who did not have portalettes so she continued to go to Waste Management(WM) for the portalettes for the remainder of this season. Truman clarifies that the rates right now are better with WM. Swithin states come this next Fall and Winter they will review that again. Bill List Debbie Horaz asks if they did the pond treatment every month. Scott Sleezer notes that four treatments are done a year and it works well. Van Truman notes that there are a large volume of checks and that are due for Home Town Days. Vickie Coveny asks if we go by fiscal year or calendar year and Swithin answers with fiscal year. Ken Koch asks for a motion for the approval of the Bills List. Kelly Sedgewick makes a motion and Van Truman seconds the motion. The motion was unanimously approved by a roll call vote; Koch-yes, Truman-yes, Horaz-yes, Sedgwick-yes, Coveny-yes. 2 Old Business: Parks and Recreation Dept. Vision and Mission Statements David Mogle brings back the vision statement to the Board members and asks for any changes and notes that he wants to keep it short. Mogle reads the vision statement as follows: "To be recognized as an innovative and efficient parks and recreation system skillfully maximizing a variety of resources to achieve its mission." With amendments made unanimously by the Board the vision statement will now read: "To be recognized as an innovative parks and recreation system utilizing resources to their maximum potential to achieve it's mission." Park Development Standards David Mogle states that the park development standards dated 2007 will eventually become part of the master plan. The plan tonight Mogle notes is to get feedback from the park board and we'll go back and adjust it further and we'll bring it back for further approval. Laura Haake goes over the major changes between the 2004 document to the 2007 document. Haake explains that the first major change is the format because it was changed to follow the same format as the landscape ordinance which follows the same format as a lot of the City ordinances. They are actually trying to compile a book of ordinances so they are all together and in all the same format because it is considered part of a subdivision control ordinance; it still accepted into everything it just didn't quite flow with everything else, Haake explains. Section 2 - Open Space System and Guidelines: Haake explained that some of the language was changed and some of the philosophies were taken out. Under part three, recreational capacity, we wanted to have many community and neighborhood parks. And under the community parks have those classifications but have the understanding that we can have a small athletic complex that is only an acre. If you want to call it an athletic park if you had something like botchy ball. Haake explained that she wanted to have it all under one category instead of many separate ones. Kelly Sedgwick wants to add some verbiage to #5 under land cash(on page 9) about the areas of NO credit. Sedgwick wants to add"to remain public" in the section. David Mogle states that they took out the verbiage "measured at the top of the bank"in part b. of#5. Mogle wants to change the verbiage in the first sentence on#4 to: We would prefer the developer to donate the land cash for park development upfront . . . The benefit would be that they would have that park facility in place for when they were ready to sell homes. Truman doesn't think that is a big selling factor. Scott Sleezer gives an example and explains if developers are willing to front fund this municipal building fee we'll let them perhaps wait on the road fee or other fees. Sleezer notes that does get 3 negotiated on at City Council and explains lot of time we have asked for that land cash to be paid upfront for a lot of reasons and it's one of those that sometimes it worked and sometimes it's negotiated for something else. Sleezer also states that if developers are willing to pay front funding such as municipal building fees then it's a different fee if you pay it later; it's a higher fee. Our fee is based on a set per acre price if we have that ability. Truman explains that they can't account for debits and credits. Sleezer states that this may be a way to defer costs for some builders. Sedgwick wants to know how the City's land cash ordinance works and wants to know if it goes up every year. Haake explains that they do assessments of municipalities and land cash fees then they'll increase it per what the area is. Mogle states it's not locked in and they look at that pretty closely. Truman notes that you'll never see the dollars listed here because those are going to be kept in a rate table somewhere else because they're more fluid than these documents intended to be. Koch thinks we should talk to every developer about front funding that comes in. Sleezer said that they already do that. Alderman, Arden Plocher feels that it would be better from a negotiating stand point to come up with a number that could be front funded. It makes it more negotiable if it's kind of an unsaid thing because if you get them to say I'll knock 10% off then everyone that comes in will think that will happen. Plocher feels from a council standpoint that will alleviate some of the negotiations that they have with them right now. Truman agrees and states the only question is what value does it bring to the developer; that is tangible and having that property in place and viewable for the potential resident to see. Truman states that what it comes down to is the cost of capital and gives an example of what ever that percentage is could be front funded and what ever the land cash is we'll discount it 3 or 4%. Vickie Coveny brings up concern on page 7 of part section 3:C. Coveny states that parks aren't just for children but they are for the elderly or for the people that are impaired and in wheel chairs or for mothers pushing baby strollers. They are for all ages. She feels that if you don't have pathways to the parks then those people can't get there to enjoy them and it's those areas that really can't be defined as a neighborhood parks or community parks. Truman states that we have walkways that connect our parks and some of the neighborhood parks and we would want walkways depending on what amenities we have situated there and we need to make some common sense decisions about that. Sleezer said that they could add walkways and paths to link elements so people of all types could get over to the area where there is something going on. Mogle said in practice they've been doing that; it just hadn't been written down right. Coveny also asks about the parking and Sleezer states that when they develop a site that's when they look at parking. Sleezer doesn't want to just say, for example, if the park is over five acres then we must provide ten spots for parking. Haake notes that when it's been necessary we've added parking. Sleezer brings up the fact that all parks meet ADA rules because Coveny brings up her concern that still people who are in wheel chairs aren't able to reach the parks. 4 Section 5 -Detention and Retention Basins: Haake states that they needed more guidelines because the detention and retention basins that we were getting constructed there weren't enough regulations. Haake notes a few more pages were added covering the buffer yards. Maintenance was expanded to give pretty clear guidelines as what's expected every year. Haake notes that even if the City and Parks Department does not physically accept detention and retention basins all of the landscape plans that are coming in are using these guidelines to hold the developers to them. Debbie Horaz wants to talk about ponds on page 15. She feels the builders should be able to plant some trees along these. Haake states that they are required to plant trees if the retention basin is in the rear or side yard of the lot. It doesn't always require planting but Horaz feels it should be a requirement no matter what because it is inexpensive. They should use the large rocks that they haul out of there to be used as part of the landscaping and that wouldn't cost anything. Haake said that would have to go on the landscaping ordinance so when they come up with any more revisions to that we can add that in. Section 6 - Woodlands, Greenways, or Conservation Areas: Haake explains this was added because after the woods that they started looking at in the Black Berry Woods were in poor condition. Haake states that they created these guidelines for woodlands or natural areas including or for site management in and along Black Berry Creek so that they knew what we were looking for. We had to define healthy woodland and natural areas, Haake noted. Vickie Coveny states a concern regarding part 3C about the common chemicals used in the woodland areas. Coveny's idea of woodland is that it is for nature and if we start using chemicals and pesticides then we start harming nature including animals. Haake explains we may not have a choice at some point because the USDA may regulate that we have to. Haake goes on to say if they have a chemical we may have to use it and we need the leverage to tell the developers that your woodlands infested and we need to make sure that everything is out before we take over. This is something we are required to have done by the department of agriculture. Sleezer said that there are natural practices like what we did in Black Berry Woods however we have to give ourselves that option depending on what we're faced with. Haake's biggest concern is that she doesn't want the developer to never be expected to spend the money to do the proper management techniques. Section 7 - Planting Specifications: Haake explains it is to again outline what we are looking for and expecting. Section 8 -Pathways and Trails: Haake states that they are planning on expanding on this more. We need to have this be cohesive with our master plan and another set of standards before this section is finalized she explains. 5 Section 9 - Playground Improvements: There were some details added in there that were pretty simple, Haake states, however we talked about how the turf will be fully established before the City takes property. Section 10 -Developer obligations: This is just kind of a reminder to them of the things that need to do, Haake explains. Haake asks that this be brought back next month with changes. Koch wants to make sure Chris Rollins gets a copy of this. Recreation Programs for Special Populations David Mogle explains that this project has been going on for about a year. United Way stepped in and donated money that would assist children in our community with disabilities to allow them to participate in special recreational day camps which are quite expensive especially for nonresidents. Mogle states that we have a policy that we pay the nonresident part of the fee for certain programs such as day camps. United Way wants us to come up with some kind of a number of people who would benefit in Yorkville so they can get an idea of who could benefit from the special recreation programs. Mogle shows a slide show covering statistical information on individuals with disabilities residing in Yorkville. The City has to bring recreation services to these individuals and funding alternatives. Mogle explains he would like the Park Board's feedback before he takes it to the City Council. Mogle went to the county records and it shows that eight hundred two children in Kane and Kendall Counties are actively enrolled with the Illinois Department of Human Services and ages 3-18 are currently participating. More than 5% of Yorkville children are in special education courses. Seven hundred eighteen adults in Kane and Kendall counties age twenty-one and over participated in senior services program for home bound individuals. The statistics of mentally retarded persons in the state are over twenty thousand. Statistically 1.8% of total population has developmental disabilities so two hundred sixteen in 10% of Yorkville's population based on twelve thousand persons would have some kind of developmental disabilities. Between the years 2005 and 2006 approximately four hundred fifty children were added to the population. First step is to establish what we feel is a significant number of individuals in our community that could benefit from special recreation services. How can we address that, Mogle addresses? He explains first we could offer services through an outside special rec. association such as Fox Valley Special Recreation Association (FVSRA) or through Joliet — Bolingbrook Special Recreation Services (JBSRA). Without being a member, both are very costly. Next are the steps that would have to be applied to FVSRA membership. a. Prepare letter requesting membership. b. Agreement for admission would be created. c. We'd have to have a certified copy of the ordinance approved by the City along with signed agreement. 6 d. There is a board of directors which is made up of 1 or 2 individuals from each community involved in the special recreation and they would have to approve Yorkville's admission. What we figure what we'd pay is based on our EAV and right now our EAV is fourteen hundred eighteen million dollars. The percentage of the contribution equals Yorkville's EAV, the individual percentage divided by the total districts EAV. So they take all the districts EAV and add them up and divide that number which is ten billion by our fourteen hundred eighteen million dollars and that comes out to be 4.15%. Then they would determine how much money they would need. We're at about 4.15%which would put us at$52,000 per year. There is a$5000 home exemption figured into this. For example for a home with an assessed property value of $100,000 their annual taxpayer cost would be $40.00. The JBSRA are not a true SRA and Mogle didn't have a lot of information on them. Each of the communities is levying the tax because they had joined together by a contract agreement. It's a little different than the FV SRA so Mogle doesn't know what it would cost to join. Another option would be to hire our own personal full time employee, such as a therapeutic Specialist or a Recreation Coordinator, administration position, and the going rate there starting would be $33,500 or a therapeutic recreation specialist starting at $30,000. Mogle personally thinks that this is a better option. Funding: There is a Park District code and a municipal code stating there is an ability to levy a tax that is .04 cents/$100 of assessed value of property. This is a taxable value of the property. That taxable property is going to be about a third of the market value. Mogle says this is not a burdensome tax because it's not a large amount to fund our contribution to the organization. If we were to do this then levy requests are due the last Tuesday in December 2007. Yorkville is still looking into whether or not the funding for this project will need to go through referendum. If the request has to go through referendum the written referendum is due sixty days prior to February 5th, 2008 election. Swithin wants us to think of what our needs have been in the past and what our current needs are and requests are for the future. Swithin asks with some of the camps and some of the other SRA's other offerings can we even touch that and that answer is no because of the nature of those programs and the angle and the way they are developed. They are developed with Special Education Programs on individual kids. They will gain so much more in atmospheres where there are other children and adults with the same situation. There's so much more there. Swithin says a therapeutic rep. wouldn't be able to give those individuals a 100%of what they needed. Children need that one on one even with a full time person. 7 Mogle believes that once an SRA is established people will use it. People are out there that might not necessarily step forward and say oh yeah we have family members that are in need of this program for various reasons. Once we get the word out we'll have multiple communities involved and your regiments are giving benefits to the facilities that are involving other organizations and we're providing facilities for them that are doing programs over here. A lot of these special ed sources have transportation so we don't have to worry about that issue. Koch wants to see that we keep the option that we underwrite the out of network fees for programs that we offer to our residents that aren't able to offer to that special needs person. Truman states so if a child wants to go to the camp he would pay the resident fee to the Fox Valley and we'd pick up the out of resident cost is how we've done it. Swithin says we have to be able to accommodate children if we offer certain programs. Mogle feels that United Way Program funding may end. Mogle states that this is a very special program and we're taking most advantage of it. So whether or not that program would be here we'll have to put budget for it. The number of families that we serviced last year to this year has doubled because more people know about it and five families had United Way picking up their transportation costs. Truman would like to find out the expenditures that United Way has covered for these families. Swithin will add to the questionnaire for residents the question: Does anyone living in your household have special needs?If yes: Are they using or would they use the facilities? Board recommends that they receive the slide show in an email. New Business: Scholarship Policy Review for Special Recreation Programs David Mogle brings back the Policy for requesting a reimbursement for non-resident portion that was adopted last year. Mogle changed some minor grammar and under general guidelines section he wants to add: Reimbursements shall be made following the submittal of a receipt confirming registration for program or service. Reimbursements are paid out after the completion of a program. Van Truman would also like it to say reimbursements shall be made following the submittal of the receipt confirming registration and participation in the program or service. The other item Truman would like the next sentence to say: The following programs and services are excluding preschool programs, travel trips, and vacation type trips, contractual camps or overnight weekend trips. Mogle will go back and take a look at it and perhaps strike the excluding part and bring it back to the board. Partnership Strategy Proposal 8 David Mogle passes out the current material on partnerships for the boards review. This is an actual proposal sent out by the Board previously. Mogle, Sleezer, and Swithin talked about what direction it would take when people come to us with great ideas. The idea would be to have some set of guidelines that we could we could sit right down and say this particular organization wants to partner with us and this would be our strategy. They want some kind of a checklist that they could go by and want criteria to go by to pursue a partnership. Mogle stated they talked about this in the board retreat and just wants to get it into a strategy type of form. Mogle's looking for board recommendations. None given by the board. Reports: Director Report David Mogle gives an update on the conversations with the Forest Preserve Board. They were beginning to question the interpretation of the agreement and beginning to think that the City needed to be in more of a funding situation for the first and last piece of land. Mogle went back and looked at the agreement and feels it is very clear and doesn't say anything about the City coming up with money. It says we are working in corporation together jointly to determine how funds could be raised. Mogle wants the board to know the situation and wanted them to know that it was just conversational at this point and that they weren't really going to sit down to discuss it until the 15th of August. Mayor, Valerie Burd, understanding is similar to Mogle's understanding in that she thought they would take a portion of that 45 million dollar referendum, buy the land and work an agreement out with the City were it would be we could have a lease agreement with a low payment. We would be maintaining that large section of land and we would be programming, active recreation, in that area. We won't maintain the property without the agreement. Parks Report Scott Sleezer just wants to remind everyone about the town meeting on Monday on the 30th at heartland circle to talk about their park at 7:00 pm. Sleezer also gives reminder about the parks open house also at the Heartland Circle on Friday night. Sleezer comments that the Cannonball event went really well. There were about 200 people. Recreation Report Swithin reminds Board of upcoming events. This Saturday night at the River Front Park will be Fox Country Players performers will be there again. Swithin announces that the fall catalog will be coming out the first part of August. Kelly Sedgwick wants park designations to be gone over for the new members. Mogle explains to Vickie that each member is assigned certain parks to focus on and when they are out and about and to report on them. 9 Additional Business: Future Meeting Schedule &Agenda Items David Mogle states that he is going to update this. Adjournment: Horaz makes motion to suspend this meeting at 9:38 pm and Sedgwick to seconds the motion. The motion was unanimously approved by voice vote to go into the executive session. Motion made by Sedgwick to go back into regular session and Horaz seconds the motion. The motion was unanimously approved by voice vote to end regular session at 10:00 pm. Next Meeting: August 9, 2007 Minutes Respectfully Submitted by: Jamie Cheatham 10