Loading...
Park Board Minutes 2006 02-23-06 UNITED CITY OF YORKVILLE YORIMLLE PARKS & RECREATION DEPARTMENT BOARD MEETING Parks & Recreation Administrative Offices Riverfront Building Thursday, February 23,2006 MINUTES CALL TO ORDER: Meeting was called to order by Chris Rollins at 7:00 p.m. ROLL CALL: Chris Rollins, Ken Koch, Heather Fiala, and Gary Golinski GUESTS/CITY OFFICIALS/STAFF: Scott Sleezer, Interim Director/Superintendent of Parks Sue Swithin, Interim Director/Superintendent of Recreation David Mogle, Executive Director Travis Miller, Community Development Director Wendy Yaksich,MPI John Philipchuck,MPI, Attorney John C. Martin, JEN Land Design, MPI ( Jim Menard, Pacific Development Ina PUBLIC COMMENTS: None PRESENTATION: Bristol Ridge—Concept Plan .Tim Menard presented the Bristol Ridge concept plan. There are two parcels of land that they have assembled. One is 135 acres and the other is 55 acres. In the surrounding areas there seems to be a lot of big active parks including the MPI Grand Reserve park and the Bristol Bay subdivision. They are, therefore,planning a more natrualized park and have incorporated a bike trail that will connect to the regional bike trail. The school district is looking for a larger school site than they can possibly give them for a middle school. They will continue to discuss this with Dr. Engler. There is a good chance that they will want cash in lieu of a school site. The School Board is looking for a site of 30 acres north of the river. Bristol Ridge's donation requirement, however, is only 25 acres,. They are limited on the location of the school,too, so it would probably end up by the railroad tracks, which is not an ideal place for a school,but they are willing to work with the school board on the location of the school. The overall idea is to get a trail system that will have a connection point from Cannonball Road to Blackberry Creek to potentially get across the street to the park. They have 420 units, predominately single family. There are some duplexes and a small pocket of multifamily. They are working on obtaining land to the east, but this is not 1 i ( under contract yet. With this in mind and the multifamily homes currently planned to come in, it may be necessary to have another nearby park because there will be heavy population there. The park to the east is a very beautiful area by the creek with trees for passive recreation and is a nice wooded buffer of the MPI Development. Parks and Recreation would like to capture that wooded area on both sides of the creek. So they will need to manage their contribution for park land to make sure they buffer that creek corridor on both sides of the park. 'This may not, however, be conducive for more active play in this area. The land set aside for a park to the north is nearer the denser multiunit housing. But they may prefer using the land in the lower southeast quarter so that it will be closer to the trail. The ComEd and Burlington Nor them easement harbors natural wildlife so that people can still enjoy the open space but is still far enough away for safety. Jim Menaid indicated that he had no problem with moving the park and that he could make the park area more square and in the location with the opportunity for adjacency if they acquire the land. This placing should give good corridors for people to reach the park and will have road frontage. There was some discussion on the trail going towards Galena Road that will tie us into the Fox Valley Trail System. At this point they do not know exactly which way the trail will go, but they do know they will need to get across Galena Road. With bridges being so expensive and there not being much elevation, it may be easier to do an underpass to get across Galena Road. There is an area of land privately owned that Bristol Ridge is leading roads to just in case this person ever decides to develop this land. They have thirteen acres of land cash obligation in which Parks would like to use five acres. There is a regional trail along Cannonball Trail in which Parks would like trails in lieu of sidewalk on the west side of the street. They would like to link this trail through the development. MPI Yorkville South—Annexation, Zoning mad Planned Unit Development MPI Yorkville South has now filed for thew annexation agreement and concept plan with the city of Yorkville and has added a high school site. The entire site is 916 acres. There is a total of 18 acres of park in the transitional area with one park being 13 acres and one park five acres. The biggest change is the 59 acre high school site along Route 47 instead of a middle school. With this change they have moved the community park facility where the middle school was going to be adjacent to the high school location. The community park site will be 14 acres. There will also be a three acre park site in neighborhood one giving a total of 35 acres dedicated park sites. There will be a trail buffer system starting at neighborhood one all the way through the development to Caton Farm Road. Along Wheeler Road,they will be able to have a trail , in lieu of'sidewalk with a buffer between the ti ail and the housing. The trail system will also link to the Aux Sable Creek condor trail system. 2 There will be a total of 1,764 units. The build out will be approximately eight years. It will be phased north to south except for the five acre club house facility which will be built first. There was a request for off-street parking for the park on Walker Road in addition to land cash funding, but MPI does not know if they will or not. MPI would like a conceptual plan of how the park sites will be developed. They would like a commitment to get the park sites in as quickly as they can. The park next to the club house will be the park they would like work done on first, and they would like the other parks to be completed within one year of final platting of those neighborhoods. The Board will review the agreement from Grand Reserve so they know exactly how to structure this, although this will be a little different from last time because the design for the concept plan for these parks will be in-house. The School Board would like six to nine more acres for the school site in addition to the 59 acres from MPI. Scott Sleezer's only concern is the 5.5 acres site to the south. This site is not very user friendly due to its odd shape. Our park standards aze 450 feet by 450 feet so it can be used for soccer fields. Currently the park is on bigh and dry ground, and the shape can be worked out. For maintenance issues the Park Board prefers not to have their parks connected to flood plains because of the drainage. That is also why the Park Board is not interested in the open space along the central tributary along the middle of Aux Sable Creek except for the trail. The trail will be out of the 10 year flood but not out of the 100 year flood. If it were the trail will look very unnatural like a railroad. This is a PUD so it is okay not to have the standard. The path going through this development will take the place of the Aux Sable Regional Bike Trail that runs north-south parallel to Immanuel Road that is on the master plan. Travis Miller noted that when looking at the natural barriers there are no parks south of Wheeler Road and north of Walker Road other than the clubhouse aquatic center and the trail system. He was wondering if there will be an opportunity to work in a small park in one of the four neighborhoods. The Board had talked about this in past meetings and felt that there are properties to the west that could service those areas. After the developers had left, Chris Rollins wanted to voice a few concerns. He was concerned that MPI may be somewhat impatient in getting concept designs. Scott Sleezer indicated that we probably do not need to get new concept designs, but instead use some of the designs we already have. If they have to,they can also bring in Mike Schoppe to help. Chris Rollins indicated that we should probably pull the agreement from the first MPI development to look at where the friction has been and make a new contract. He does not want them dictating expenditure—they owe it to us. Chris Rollins was also puzzled why the School Board did not push the developer to build the middle school since there will be two schools within a half of mile of each other. 3 MPI was willing to put in a school. They could have used this school as an elementary school until it was needed as a middle school. The new high school would be an ideal place to start the joint school/park site. If it is done tight, it would alleviate our immediate concern south of town f'or recreation. It would be nice to get people to the table to have dialogue to strategically figure this out. Parks would be willing to take less land and use the cash value to make design consideration in the school so it can be a duel use building so people can see that they are getting some value for their tax dollars. After this discussion the Board found out the letter to Dr. Engler regarding the liaison as a full voting member had never got sent out. Mayor Prochaska has aheady given his approval. Sue Swithin will get signatures and will send out the letter. Chris Rollins then filled in the new Executive Director on the history of the School Board and the Park Board. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: With the change of the minutes dated February 9, 2006 on page two from legal department to human resource department and the correction on the spelling of Gary Golinski's name on page four the minutes from the January 26, 2006 and the February 9, 2006 board meetings were approved on motion by Heather Fiala and seconded by Ken Koch. The motion was unanimously approved. BILLS REVIEW: Cash Analysis& Bills List Ken Koch informed the Board that the City's Finance Director, Traci Pleckham, has resigned. March 9, 2006 will be her last day. Unfortunately, she will not be here for the finalizing of the budget. Ken Koch motioned to approve the bills list and was seconded by Gary Golinski. Roll call vote: Chris Rollins—Yes, Ken Koch—Yes, Heather Fiala—Yes, and Gary Golinski—Yes. The motion was unanimously approved. OLD BUSINESS: Sue Swithin wanted to remind the Board that Richard Korinek's presentation will be on February 28,2006 at City Council at'7:00 p.m. The Human Resource Commission agreed with the Park Board's recommendation to not waive the fee for the school referendmn rally. Heather Fiala questioned if the Frisbee Golf was supposed to be put in at Fox Hill. Scott Sleezer informed her that this has not been approved. There are people who are willing to offer their design services for flee. It is relatively inexpensive and it uses space that is otherwise not usable. This will be brought fonward. Scott Sleezer received a letter fiom John Bosnian of Sente-Rubel regarding the design and construction of the new Park Maintenance and Administrative Facility. The conceptual design fee will be $24,000. They will credit this fee if we give them the authorization to proceed into the schematic design phase within 30 days of completion of the conceptual design, Scott Sleezer is going to ask if we can have 60 days instead 4 because we will need the time in order for us to go through the approval process. It may also get slowed down with Traci Pleckham leaving. There is money in the building fund for this. The Board had a rmarrimous consent to move this forward to the COW meeting. Travis Miller updated the Board that the Park Planner position went to COW this week, and they agreed to put it on the consent agenda at the February 28, 2006 meeting for approval. After this,he will be able to advertise the position. NEW BUSMi SS: Overview Parks and Recreation Dept. Budget 2006-09. The Board had requested to see an overview from Sue Swithin and Scott Sleezer for the upcoming planning of the budget. These are not balanced yet. Sue Swithin presented the recreation portion.. The biggest change in salary is changing the part-time special program coordinator to full-time effective May 1, 2006, She needs this position to become full-time because she would like to add a new preschool. With the closing of Small World Preschool and the growth of the community there is a huge demand for• more preschool facilities. She is currently keeping a waiting list which is up to 70 people. Sue Swithin and Tim Evans have put together a proposal to Trinity Church, Trinity Church,however, is tallcing about bringing in a Christian based preschool instead, So we,therefore,will not have an opportunity to use this space and may even lose the daily classroom space. Sue Swithin will go to the Congregational Church this spring to have a larger agreement with them and have a daily classroom there. Sue Swithin would also like to redo the building by the riverfront and turn it into a preschool during the day and fitness and instructional classes in the evenings,`It will be something that we will own and will not need to pay rent on and can be programmed out all day long. She hopes to have four preschool classes of fifteen. She may only bring in$2,000 profit from the preschool but the sixty toddlers will bring in families for participation in other programs. Chris Rollins was concerned about the rehab costs of the building, but it may be less using it as a multipurpose room. The fagade portion of the rehab seems to be the most costly. Scott Sleezer had talked to Mayor Prochaska about fixing the inside of the building first to see how it is utilized. First we need to get it up and usable and looking nice, but not canned away. Some of the work will be able to be done in house. There is also $12,000 sitting in the Riverfront Foundation that can possibly be used. Scott Sleezer is currently trying to find out what the requirements are for a preschool. He will also find out about making it into.just a recreational building. But if we will use it for the general public,there will need to be a locked storage area for the preschool equipment. There are different rules when the City runs it because we are a government association. Sue Swithin will bring back a proposal on this. Chris Rollins also questioned the proximity being so close to the river. A fence will be put around the school for that reason. Chris Rollins asked about using the Post Office building for the preschool. This location does not have a park however. Sue Swithin would rather see this as a recreational office instead so we can get out of our rent situation. Scott Sleezer had mentioned that Mayor Prochaska is talking about using this building for organizations. The Board indicated that organizations would be able to use the building around the scheduled programs, Hometown Days Festival will hopefirlly be a profit malting event and will reflect on the budget. It was given a$30,000 revenue expense line item and a $25,000 expense line item. Although it looks like the munbers went up, it should be a wash. 5 i The recreation office has one vehicle, but has been using the executive director's vehicle until the executive director was hired. Sue Swithin is asking for two more vehicles—one for Sue Swithin's needs and two for the recreation office. Currently,the custodian, recreation coordinators, secretarial staff, and Sue Swithin will all be using the one vehicle. Of the two vehicles requested, one is on the replacement schedule and the other one would be an increase. They would keep the current vehicle. There is a significant increase in scholarships. It is increased from$1,500 to $3,600. The general programming and special recreation will be$1,800 and another$1,800 will be for the proposed preschool. 'They now will support a scholarship program for preschool. The $1,800 will be forthe two preschools. Theses'cholarsbips will come out of the limiting general budget. It will be special recreatio slightly because thew policy says they are only supporting the difference between resident fees and nonresident fees. Chris Rollins questioned if there was enough for scholarship expansion, especially with the growth. Sue Swithin believes there is as she is breaking down the funds quarterly and as we meet the limit quarterly,people will have to reapply for the next quarter. They are also requiring proof of"financial hardship now. One computer at the recreation office will be being replaced under the replacement plan and the outdated server will also need to be replaced. This old server will be brought to the Riverfiont Building which does not have a server. Sue Swithin was also asking for$4,000 capital outlay for the start up of the preschool. It will be used for equipment for the school. Sue S Mthin would like to ask for a reserve line item for profits made fiom programs.. She often gets sponsors for programs but cannot account to them what the funds went to. She would like the funds to be earmarked to go to the purchase of something. She has asked to have a$15,000 reserve and this can keep being carried-over to build for a special agreed upon budget purchase. In principle, the Board agrees with this but this probably should not be called a reserve. David Mogle recommended calling it Fundraising Proceeds because it shows that there is a purpose for raising that money. Sue Swithin recommended having someone from the Board attend all of the budget meetings and COW meetings to answer questions and support the needs for the staff, The Board will ask Van Truman if he would be willing to be the representative for this. Chris Rollins will e-mail him and update him on the information. Scott Sleezer then presented the Parks portion of the budget. Under the operations budget for new hires and equipment, Scott is asking for two new lures and two promotions and$10,000 for a full-time mechanic. The mechanic budget will be split between water, street, sewer, and parks. This will help control cost on equipment maintenance. They are hoping that next year he will take on the maintenance of police vehicles as well. 6 He is asking for additional money for park maintenance because each time we build a park, it adds to the total number of parks to keep to the guidelines on such things as mulch levels, etc. The Master Plan update will be done in house. Ken Koch thought that if we are going to charge it, it should probably show in the budget. The first year will come out of land cash, but the following it won't. Scott Sleezer made a few modifications to ease the first year. He was very conservative in order not to bankrupt land cash. The land cash dollar amounts are watched every few months. Currently, it is at $80,000. Scott would like our capital fee to be developed. It was designed for us to get mowing equipment, but this is never enough. It is consistent with Plainfield, Sugar Grove, and Oswego. Ken Koch wanted to note that the Kimball Hills grant needs to get started this fiscal year. Chris Rollins is concerned about Traci Pleckham's departure so that there is not an information void now in budget. Scott Sleezer has asked her to come to the March 9, 2006 meeting so that we can go over this at least one more time with her. He will ask her to provide us with a memo identifying revenue sources. REPORTS None ADDITIONAL BUSINESS The City is hiring a new person to do the website. On the website they would like to post the Board members e-mails. The Board members would be glad to do this if they can have City domain e-mails.. The registration for preschool did not go well on Saturday. People arrived at 4:30 in the morning at the Congregational Church to make sure that they get a slot by 7:30 a.m. Because they were in their cars, they needed to make a made dash to get into the building. There were two or thine people who were very disappointed. They thought that the process was terrible. Sue Swithin is aware that this did not work well and is trying to correct it. Next school year she may do a lottery system or add a four year old three day program in the afternoon.. Currently,there is just a Monday/Wednesday, afternoon program. She will do some research on how to handle the situation. ADJOURNMENT: The meeting adjourned at 9:46 p.m.. to Executive Session following the motion by Ken Koch and seconded by Gary Golinski. The motion was unanimously approved. The meeting reconvened from the Executive Session and adjourned at 10:48 p.m. following motion by Ken Koch and seconded by Heather Fiala. The motion was unanimously approved. Minute Taker—Jeanne Arbet 7