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Park Board Minutes 2006 01-12-06 UNITED CITY OF YORKVILLE YORKVILLE PARKS & RECREATION DEPARTMENT BOARD MEETING Parks & Recreation Administrative offices Riverfront Building Thursday, January 12, 2006 MINUTES CALL TO ORDER: Meeting was called to order by Chris Rollins at 6:59 p.m. ROLL CALL: Chris Rollins, Ken Koch, Van Truman, Gary Golinski, Tammy Smock, GUESTS/CITY OFFICIALS/STAFF: Scott Sleezer, Interim Director/Superintendent of Parks Sue Swithin, Interim Director/Superintendent of Recreation Mayor Art Prochaska David Faganel, Faganel Development Alderman Joe Besco PUBLIC COMMENTS: None PRESENTATION: RA Faganel Builders, Inc. Dhuse Farm David Faganel presented his development of 167, twelve thousand square foot single family home lots which will be developed in two to five years. Currently, the concept plan has the two acre park area centrally located and connected by a trail system. Mr. Faganel wanted the BoardÓs input regarding the park site and how quickly they can start the park. Scott Sleezer wanted the Board to note that south of this development there are 13 acres of park land for the proposed school/park site in MPI south. A park will be within the half mile radius. Therefore, an option could be to take the cash so that there is money to develop the four parks in MPI. It appears there will be a roadway connection to the south which goes through the school park site. This may be acceptable if a high school were being built in this location, but it would not be ac high/grade school. The Board needs to know what type of school is planned to be built on this land and what their intentions are to determine whether they want the two acre park. If it is a high school, they would most likely want it for the younger children. There are too many things up in the air for decisions to be made so they thought the first approach should be to talk to the MPI developer to see what is possible regarding the configuration and about their flexibility. If this has already been discussed with Dr. Engler then we need to find out what his intentions are regarding what type of school he would like for that site. Scott Sleezer suggested having trail instead of sidewalks along Ament Road. This will enable us to connect some of the trails going east/west. In this situation the utility 1 easement will provide enough easement for the trail. Parks and RecreationÓs trails that go through a development have different standards, however. Scott Sleezer can provide these standards to the developer. In response to the developerÓs question regarding how soon Parks and Recreation can develop the park if a park were to be built, the board responded that it is up to the developer. If the land-cash is front funded, the park can be built even before any houses go up. Mr. Faganal has a contract on the Dixon Farm on the north side of Gelena. This is unincorporated land at this time, but he was interested in what the Board thought of the land. Parks and Recreations would like a trail connection because this would connect us to Fox Valley. Mr. Faganal stated that this is all still in the early stages as there is a large challenging area he needs to figure out. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Minutes from the December 8, 2005 board meeting were approved on Koch and seconded by Van Truman. The motion was unanimously approved. BILLS REVIEW: Cash Analysis & Bills List From the November 10, 2005 Board meeting there was a discussion regarding the Hoover Boy Scout Camp Land Cash Reserve and wanted Traci PleckhamÓs explanation. The Board decided that funds should come out of the reserve set up for Hoover expenditures. If there is a surplus at the end of the year in a land acquisition account, then we can fund the reserve account for the next budget year. Heather Fiala motioned to approve the bills list and was seconded by Ken Koch. Roll call vote: Chris RollinsÏYes, Ken KochÏYes, Van TrumanÏYes, Gar Yes, Heather FialaÏYes, and Tammy SmockÏYes. The motion was una approved. OLD BUSINESS: Rail and Light for Parkview Update Sue Swithin received a verbal quote for the rail of $1,500 for the slab at the back door of Parkview. There is a shed that is too close to the ramp for proper access to use the ramp so if the rail were put up everyone would need to walk up the ramp as it is railed. The light, however, can be received as a donated item. Sue Swithin then called Rena Peterson to tell her the findings and to get her okay. Rena Peterson wanted to make sure that this is a good source of the tax payerÓs money and thought maybe everyone should go in through the front of the school. Chris Rollins indicated that since parking is in the back people would then need to walk around the building which is not well lit. He feels using the back entrance would still be best for safety purposes, but the cost is still an issue because this is an unbudgeted expenditure. Even though the karate program will be being moved to another site, Sue Swithin feels that she could use the gym for other programs. She will go over the agreement with Rena Peterson if this is not the case. Sue Swithin can program out this facility even more if she updated the north basketball hoop in the gym. The hoop is extremely outdated. It is on a rope system and is held in the ceiling by 2 only two large bolts. With a basketball hoop they can have open gym in there, basketball practices, and house leagues. However, Sue Swithin is very apprehensive to using the hoop as is. It would cost $5,000-$6,000 to update this. There is the possibility that the principal in the school would share is the cost. Chris RollinsÓ concern is that the expenditures keep going up and this is not a building that we own. Mayor Prochaska suggested asking if we could use the expenditures for improving the building in lieu of rent. From the schoolÓs point of view, the school will benefit done to the building. Chris RollinÓs would feel better is they would share in the funding. The Board unanimously agreed to give Sue Swithin the latitude to have the discussion with the ownership of Parkview to reach a satisfactory resolution in making the improvement. Land Acquisition Fund/Reserve Update This was discussed under ÐBills Review.Ñ NEW BUSINESS: RFI Discussion Sue Swithin asked the Board for their recommendation for her to proceed. They would like to expand their current agreement with Pepsi. They are just going to keep on file the St. Francis proposal and would like to proceed to get more information from Harvard Construction. Sue Swithin will work on this after the catalog d Letter to School District Chris Rollins had forwarded a letter to Sue Swithin. She had thought the letter was great and put it on letterhead. Unfortunately, Chris Rollins did not receive the letter back. Chris Rollins will re-forward the letter to Sue Swithin. The letter requested reinstating a school board liaison to the Board because of the many the issues that are coming up about joint school/park sites. Mayor Prochaska agreed to cosign the letter. Chris Rollins had informally mentioned the letter to Dr. Engler and after consideration Dr. Engler had indicated that this was a good idea and would appoint Seth, the athletic director, to be the liaison. Chris Rollins felt this was a good decision. A letter will still be sent to make it formal to get the liaison appointed and to clearly state that they would like to have a liaison that will make a commitment to attend both meetings. Sue Swithin will e-mail the Board a copy of the letter before it is sent out. Set Date for Richard Korinek presentation Sue Swithin will arrange the presentation on January 24, 2006 at 7:00 p.m. at the City Council meeting. She will call Richard Korinek to let him know of the date. She will also call to make sure that it gets put on the agenda. Joint School/Park Sites Chris Rollins presented a concept regarding joint school/park sites that a colleague of his shared with him. He will give a fuller report when he has more information about it, but the theory of it is that in the interest of joint/school park sites they agreed that whenever a school was going to be built and there was going to be a joint site, they would treat their land balances differently. Basically, all the green spaces of the site were the responsibility of parks and recreation. All of the hard spaces (the building, the sidewalks, and the parking lot) were maintained by the school district. During the day 3 the entire site was fully for the school to use only. As soon as the last bell rang of the school day, it was for park and recreation to use. They had a land cash agreement. If there was a joint requirement for space, the park would automatically reduce their requirement by a percentage. They would take the balance in cash to make a donation to the school system to design the building in such a way that it would be conducive to recreational activity (different entrances to the building, different positioning of the parking lot, etc.). Because of the monetary contribution towards construction this guaranteed them the use of those spaces for recreational purposes and to address any additional costs that the school may otherwise claim would cost too much to build that way. So they used the balance that way and felt it was a win-win situation. During the day when primarily people would not be using the park it was a school site. All summer and when school was out, it was a park site. So during the time when they had the greatest recreational need they had a bigger park. The school district thought that it was a win because they were not responsible for mowing the lawn and taking care of he landscape, etc. Although we may be a long way from having that kind of arrangement, he thought that we should start putting the ground work in motion to have exactly that type of arrangement. He did not want the school district to think that Parks and Recreation is just a land bank for the school where we want to put up a fence to clearly define the two. Instead, we want something were the community g full use. Chris Rollins asked his colleague how they were able to get to that point, and his colleague stated that it took a period of really concentrated development where a lot of building was going on and neither of them had enough money to do anything. Everyone was looking for some way that each could help the other, but it really took some trust. Chris Rollins thinks that the first step that we need to take is to build that trust. He hopes that having a liaison at the meetings to tell the school board of the vision of how we would like to see sites jointly developed and ultimately we want to work toward some goal like that and that everyone will see the benefit in it. He thinks it could start with Parks and Recreation having the vision. Parks and Recreation can adjust their way of doing business as long as they find it beneficial for them and think that it can be beneficial for the school too. There will be many details that will need to be worked out but the willingness to move in that direction has to be there and to express it. Chris Rollins feels that this is something that is worth thinking about. The community, the developer, the schools, and the parks could be happy. We are all trying to service the same community. Now is the time to re-approach the idea and wit entitlement, not just the ability to use, because we are invested with them for a lifetime. Hopefully the heavy development will push us together out of she be an item on the next agenda and Chris Rollins hopes to have more information on examples of agreements like that and how we initiate them. School Referendum Lynn Burks of the school board would like the school referendum committee put on the agenda for the next meeting for a short presentation so that the public sees it. Sue Swithin will call and let her know that this would be fine. REPORTS Park Report Scott Sleezer will have the Year End report for the next meeting. His computer crashed but it did open their eyes on the need for a server. The information on his computer 4 could be recovered but by having the person who recovered the information do this, it has voided the warranty. Now he just needs someone to put a new hard drive back in the computer and to get it going again. There is money in the budget for this. Scott Sleezer is using Laura BrownÓs computer for the time being. Recreation Report Sue Swithin presented the recreation report. Basketball season is going great and Becky is doing a great job with the program. There is a new program at the Trinity Church called Ready, Set, Go for two years olds to give an example of a preschool setting. They may run another one. The part-time special event person, Lisa Morton, is doing a great job. She is taking over most of the one day and special event activities. They are in the process of finishing the interviews for the 20 hours receptionist/secretary position. Most of these hours will be spent at the recreation office until an executive director is hired. They are working on next yearÓs fiscal budget, making revisions where necessary. Traci Pleckham will put this all together. Concession Report After two years with less staff and less pay we are still only making $3,000 net and there is $1,000 worth of products still sitting in the concession stand. Sue Swithin now has a good handle on how much to order, who to hire, and the number of people to work the shifts. She is not sure if she will be staffing the concession they should have the water fountain and washrooms open. It will depend on the number of people attending, the weather, and if she has staffing ready to make the concession stand profitable. Ken Koch suggested having the concession open on baseball picture day because there are people everywhere and everyone is just sitting around waiting. Sue Swithin is not sure where outside the picture taking is going to be held, but she will keep the idea in mind. Chris Rollins also suggested getting the mess tournaments that concessions are available because many of the teams may not know that they are available. They main problem was that Sue Swithin was not informed when a tournament is being played. There are plans for a concession stand to be at the park in Grand Reserve. Scott Sleezer is discussing this with the developer because the developer has cut it out of the budget. Scott Sleezer is working on getting it reinstated. ADDITIONAL BUSINESS The community developer director now lives in Yorkville and his first day in the office will be next Tuesday. He has met with various staff members and has found out about the various projects that are going on and is very excited about jumping in and getting started. There will be a coordination between him and Mike Schoppe. Alderman Joe Besco inquired about an update regarding the joint facility with Public Works. Scott Sleezer is drafting a letter indicating that the Park Board will move forward with the Public Works Committee to continue looking into a maintenance facility for Parks but to use it jointly for a time with Public Works until Public Works has the ability 5 to build their own or until Parks grows into all the space. They will then look into how they will fund this. When they have a conceptual building plan they may plan another joint meeting. ADJOURNMENT: The meeting adjourned to Executive Session at 9:00 p.m. following the motion by Van Truman and seconded by Heather Fiala. The motion was unanimously approved. The meeting reconvened from the Executive Session and adjourned at 9:43 p.m. following motion by Van Truman and seconded by Ken Koch. The motion was unanimously approved. Minute Taker—Jeanne Arbet 6