Park Board Minutes 2006 07-17-06 (Town Meeting) UNITED CITY OF YORKVILLE
YORIMLLE PARICS & RECREATION DEPARTMENT
TOWN MEETING
Raintree Clubhouse
Monday, July 17,2005
MINUTES
The Town Meeting was called to order by Scott Sleezerat 6:35 PM at the Raintree
Clubhouse. The meeting is to tall-about the Raintree Park Sites A and B.. The Raintree
Park Site A is adjacent to the clubhouse. The Raintree Park Site B is seven acres by the
water tower that will be adjacent to the school,
Laura I Iaake, Park Planner,presented Raintree Park Site A. This park will have a
dinosaur theme and will be a tot lot for children aged 2—5 years old. They had put the
request for proposal out and received back some creative dinosaur designs. The proposal
they decided to go with will have palm trees, a rock chmber, independent dinosaur play
pieces, two tot swings, a sitting area with picnic tables and benches, a sandbox with a
dinosaur fossil in it to dig to, a dino bouncer, and a sandbox digger. Around the sandbox
will be a paver seat and some additional landscaping. The concrete sidewalk will connect
the sidewalk and the trail, This park site should be constructed this fall.
Park Site B will be constructed in about a year to a yeas and a half; This park will have a
castle theme as each park in Yorkville has a theme. It is for children from 5 _ 12 years
old. There will be an eighteen foot space net climber,some bridges, and a shelter. The
overall site design will have four tennis courts and arnulftipurpose field. With the school
being so close and putting in sports fields, Parks is v7dwing to see what the school is going
to do first before they put in all of their elements. They plan to put in a sledding hill and
a walking path. The park- will be next to the Junior IE9h School. The school will have a
football field/track facility, and soccer, The school and Parks are working on
complimenting each other.
A woman asked if Parks would put up the park by the school even if flee school were not
built within a year and a half, Parks watches how quickly the subdivision is growing and
adds parks accordingly. The school, however, is scheduled to be built.
There was a suggestion to add a drinking fountain. Typically the City does not put in a
drinking fountain in parks that are this small. They are very expensive because of the
sewer and water requirement and would take away from the ability to spend money
effectively on other features for the park. And once there is a drinking fountain,people
tend to want a restroom,
Another suggestion was to have a water sprayer to keep the children cool. This is a
feature that may be able to be added to a nearby park-
The City maintains all of the parks. The City has two full-time staff members who are
trained certified playground inspectors and take safety very seriously. All of the parks
meet ADA, GCSP,and ASPM guidelines.
There was a request for at least four°tot swings instead of just two. This will be looked
into. Swings take up atremendous amount of space because of the safety zone. There
needs to be twice the height in front and in back of the swings. The traffic flow is part of
how the placement of savings is determined so that people do not walls in front of the
swings and get hit.
Am individual asked for stroller panting and a bike rack. Scott Sleezer indicated that it
has been found that overtime the bike racks are not usually used and that moms usually
keep their strollers next to them or next to the benches. The individual also pointed out,
though, that there is no a shaded area for the strollers and bikes. The rrroney has been
invested in play value,but in a few years the trees that will be planted will be large
enough to give shade-
It was questioned if a park will be built in the open area by the pond. The response was
that it is not an area identified as a park site to be built up. It is a trail connection. There
is a plan to cormect the trails. The goal is to connect the trail all the way to the Riverfiont
Park.. A few trees can be added in the wide trail easements, but the City does likes to
keep the trails without any hidden zones.
There will be a schooUparkc site in the Wyndett development. It will have an elementary
school.
The City does a Reduea for Proposals to get ideas for the parks. They then need to send
it out again to get the cost for construction. They do have a very good estimate that this
park will be doable for$75,000 however. The parks are paid for by land cash
contributions negotiated with the developer. Once accepted by the developer that they
meet the City's standards, all of the trails in Raintree will be owned by the City. The
plans for the park are based on the projected number of people in the area.
Parks and Recreation-will be taking a look at the corrammity as a whole to meet the
national standards for what is needed for the parks, how many, and how they are spread
out,including items such as terms courts, basketball courts, etc. They are also looking at
dividing Yorkville into four quarters so that each section has a wheelchair accessible
parks a spray park,anak skate park, etc, so that everyone can go to a park in their area for
the same features.
The City Council and Park Board are in favor of the water park that is coming in. It is a
private group building the pool who is very community oriented„ This group will be
-working with the Par Ss and Recreation Department to entrance this recreational
opportunity for Yorkvr-➢le. Yorkville residents will receive a signiticarzt discount on
passes to use this fati9ity as a thank you for the City allowing the group to come in. The
group is hoping to open by next Memorial Day. It will be located south of Galena Road
and east Route 47 and is a 42 acre site. There will be multiple waterslides, a wave pool,
and a lazy river. The traffic flow off of Route 47 will be monitored.
There was a concern about a five year old that was allegedly molested where the Raintree
Park A is to be built. The Park Board was unaware of the situation,but they will look
into it. This area is already a park whether there are facilities there or not. Building a
park there maybe a good thing,because it brings more people wound which may make it
more difficult for this to happen.
The bidding process for the park is followed by the City's own ordinances. Generally,
they have sealed bids. It will be advertised that the City is accepting bids. The City does,
though, have certain requirements for assurance that they have done this type of work
before. Building parks is a specialty and they need to have the safety knowledge to keep
the parks safe for the children.
Parks and Recreation thanked everyone for coming to the meeting and for their input.
They can be contacted for any reason. The website will have everyone's e-mail
addresses.
The town meeting adjourned at 7:10 p,m.
Minute Taker— Jeanne Arbet