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Park Board Minutes 2012 08-09-12 APPROVED 9/27/12 Yorkville Park and Recreation Department City Hall 800 Game Farm Road August 9, 2012 at 6:00 p.m. Call to Order: Ken Koch called the meeting to order at 6:03 p.m. Roll Call: Ken Koch – yes; Deb Horaz – no; Kelly Sedgwick – no; Amy Cesich – yes; Dan Lane – yes; Seaver Tarulis – yes; Mark Dilday – no. Introduction of City Officials and Stuff: Laura Schraw – Director of Parks and Recreation Tim Evans – Superintendent of Recreation Scott Sleezer – Superintendent of Parks Other Guests: None. Public Comment: None. Presentations: None. Approval of Minutes: The minutes from the July 12, 2012 meeting were approved. Motion made by Dan Lane and seconded by Seaver Tarulis. The minutes from the July 24, 2012 meeting were approved. Motion made by Seaver Tarulis and seconded by Dan Lane. Bill Review: Dan had a few questions on bills related to Hometown Days. Ken asked about several different refunds. Tim stated the refunds were from a variety of programs. Dan asked about the Ribs on the River advertising costs. Tim stated it was for a radio station to advertise the event on the radio and they attended the event that night. Dan asked if that was a worthwhile cost. Laura stated that staff's opinion was they probably won't do that again next year. There was a discussion on how much the Ribs on the River made. Laura stated there is not a number as of yet. Tim said we will probably make somewhere between $500 and $1000. Tim said that sponsorship on the event lacked or more money would have been made. There was discussion among the board on how to improve the Ribs on the River event for next year. The board said there was a very positive feedback on the Ribs event and many would like it to become a yearly event. Motion was made to approve the bills list. Dan Lane made the motion and it was seconded by Amy Cesich. Bills list was approved. Budget Report – The board looked over the budget reports. Old Business:Meeting Schedule – Laura said she wanted to get the board's opinion on when to hold the park board meetings. Laura said in the summer there was only one full meeting held and one meeting for bills review. Laura asked the board if they want to continue this schedule or go back to a two meeting schedule. Laura said she feels that things are going fine with one meeting and it gives more time to get materials together. Ken stated if there is a need to make the bills meeting a full meeting that can be done or the board can call a special meeting. The board agreed to keep the schedule the same as it is now with one full meeting per month at 6:00 p.m. and a bills meeting once per month at 6:00 p.m. They are held on the second and fourth Thursday. New Business: Waiver of Fees Request – Laura said this waiver is being asked for by the Sense of Samadhi yoga studio to hold a special event at Riverfront Park. They want to have 50% of the proceeds to go to the Kendall County Food Pantry, so they don't want to pay the other part of the vendor fee. Ken asked their reasoning. Laura said because half the proceeds will go to the food pantry and the city would get the other half, but the organizer of the event would like to have the other half. Laura said they rented the park and paid the fees. Scott said the city has done this for organizations in the past like Junior Womens Club, but they gave the city several thousand dollars to build the park in Heartland Circle. When the city has reciprocal relationships we might do that, but if not, the city does not do that. The company wants the city to waive the vendor fees of $35.00 per vendor. Amy stated she feels they need to pay the fees, the 50% donations should be from what they sell. Amy said proceeds are what people make from what they sell. Laura said the company is collecting $70.00 per vendor and $35.00 will go to the food pantry and they want to keep the other $35.00 and not pay the city. Amy said she doesn't think they should make money off of the fees. Amy likes they are giving proceeds to the food pantry, but not in that way. Scott pointed out they paid the park rental fee. Amy said the money should come from the proceeds because they are taking from the city to give to the food pantry, which is not appropriate. What it comes down to is they are not giving money to the food pantry, we are because they are taking it from the city. The board agreed to deny the waiver of fees request by voice vote. Field Use Agreement Discussion – Ken stated he wanted to bring the current agreements to the board to look them over and make sure things are worded properly since there were some problems this year. Ken said this will help the staff add the appropriate things to solve the issues we had this year. Scott said the reason for the agreement is originally it was with YYBSA, which is basically an organization made up 100% of kids in Yorkville and the city has always given them priorities on the fields. Scott stated over time they started getting more travel teams within YYBSA and other travel teams popping up, so a few years ago the city worked with the Reds organization for travel ball, so the city made an agreement with them and other organizations split off of YYBSA. Scott said from a staff point of view, there are other groups like outside soccer leagues who pay the full freight and it is a lot more money than baseball to use our fields and less work. Scott said with some of the other groups there are such a small amount of games being played, there is not a point of having an agreement with us because the city is trying to focus on the masses. Scott said the city doesn't need to have an agreement with everyone. Scott said the budget is strained and the city could use the extra money to manage the fields. Scott said there are fees set up per game. Tim said the agreement itself is fine, the city has to decide who they want to offer it to and who gets the opportunity for these agreements. Tim said there needs to be a minimum number of games before you get an agreement. Tim said if it is only five or six games no agreement. Tim stated a minimum of 50 games to have an agreement. Tim said he thinks the city needs to do this because he feels there is going to be more break off teams that want to use the fields. Tim said YYBSA has what we call in house baseball, which means everyone plays no tryouts. Tim said travel teams are tryout teams and no guarantee for playing time. Tim said YYBSA has travel, but it is all Yorkville residents, so the city gives them a lower fee. Tim said that YYBSA wouldn't be able to exist with the normal fees. Tim said the travel teams can pay the freight. Ken said if YYBSA didn't offer these programs, the city would have to pick up and offer these programs, so that is why the city treats them so well. Tim said YYBSA and the Reds will be here in a few years, the other groups there are no guarantees. The board agreed when a team plays 50 or more games they will have an agreement. The board discussed how to word things in the agreement. Laura said she will come back with a new agreement and she stated some of these groups are going to be upset about it and she wanted to make sure the board is behind this decision. Scott said the city doesn't have the budget to do what is needed on all the fields. Scott said he doesn't feel the city is gouging anyone at all. Scott said this year there is a lot of grass that is not coming back at Bridge fields and it is going to have to be replaced. Scott said even at these rates, the city is still subsidizing them with our costs. Ken asked if we should add any thing into the agreement regarding the safety issue we ran into last year. Scott and Tim said no they don't think it will matter. Scott said this last time it was because of the dry weather. Scott said some of this is honestly preference and our fields were never dangerous. Scott said every coach out there will have an opinion on what they think, but they are not professionals. Ken said he doesn't want the staff to spend their time on addressing these issues. Scott said then put in the agreement to play at your own risk. The board finished up their discussion on what to include in the agreement and what dates should be in the agreement. Reports: Director – Ken asked about a meeting with Raintree HOA on ponds. Laura said they have a management group that wanted to meet and talk about their ponds. Laura said she has worked with the HOA for the past 6 years on the ponds, so they wanted to discuss where things should go on these ponds. Amy said there are city standards for how the ponds should look and Raintree has to adhere to the standards per basin. Amy said each year there should be a maintenance list, so Amy asked Laura to come out. Ken wanted to see if they were trying to get the city to take over and maintain the ponds. Laura stated no. Recreation – Tim said he could really use some help with Hometown Days. Parks – Scott said the city is working with an organization through Cross Lutheran called the big day of service. He said these are a group of kids coming in to help lay a parking lot for us and help revamp the landscaping by replacing some shrubs and doing some work for the library. Scott said the labor is completely free and they are supplying the mulch. Scott said there will be two full time staff to supervise the parking lot work. Laura has volunteered her time to oversee the landscaping. Scott said he will be involved from the other side, if this is successful, it will be done every year. Laura said if the city keeps the Rec Center, we have some ideas of some future projects. Scott asked if the park board wanted to do a competition for the Friday night beer tent with each side picking a charity to donate their money to. The board was in agreement that they would like to do it again. Additional Business: Dan asked about an issue with the police being at the Rec Center. Tim said they were meeting with them regarding national night out. Dan asked about how things are going on the Rec Center. Laura said there should be a few public hearings and then it will go onto the ballot then the council will vote whether or not it will be purchased. Laura said the city needs to come up with information to give out to the public with the facts on the Rec Center. Laura asked for the boards input on that. The board discussed getting the appropriate information out to the public before it goes on the ballot in November. Adjournment: There being no further business, a motion was made by Seaver Tarulis to adjourn the meeting and seconded by Amy Cesich. Meeting was adjourned at 7:28 p.m. Minutes Respectfully Submitted by: Lisa Godwin