Park Board Minutes 2014 05-08-14Page 1 of 5
Yorkville Parks and Recreation Department
City Hall
800 Game Farm Road
May 8, 2014 at 6:30 p.m.
Call to Order: Deb Horaz called the meeting to order at 6:31 p.m.
Roll Call: Deb Horaz – yes; Kelly Sedgwick – yes; Seaver Tarulis – yes; Mark Dilday – yes; Amy
Cesich; Dan Lane – yes; Matt Konecki – no.
Introduction of City Official and Staff:
Tim Evans – Director of Parks and Recreation
Scott Sleezer – Superintendent of Parks
Shay Remus – Superintendent of Recreation
Ken Koch – Alderman (arrived at 7:00)
Other Guests: None.
Public Comment: None.
Presentation: None.
Approval of Minutes: The minutes from the April 10, 2014 minutes were approved. Motion to approve
the minutes made by Amy Cesich and seconded by Dan Lane.
Bills Review: May 8, 2014 ‐ Informational Purposes.
Budget Report 2013 – Informational Purposes.
Budget Report 2014 – Informational Purposes – Tim asked if he thinks we should do a budget report
training to make it more understandable. Dan said yes. The board agreed it would be a good idea.
The board discussed using up their seasonal employee budget and Scott said they can go over, as long as
they can pull the money from another area. The city just cannot go over the entire budget. Tim explained
the budget goes from May to May and he explained how the budget works to the board as far as budgets,
surpluses and salaries.
Old Business:
Parks and Recreation Survey – Tim said these are the questions with the changes that the board made at
the last meeting. Tim asked the board to review the questions again. Tim said he would like the survey
out no later than August.
The board agreed the survey is good and discussed when it will go out. Tim said he will work with Bart
Olson and get it on the city water bill so the community will know where to take it. Tim said he would like
to time the survey coming out when the catalog does so it can be in there for a bigger response. Deb said
to put it in the front of the catalog, Tim agreed.
APPROVED 6/12/14
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Amy asked about the number 18 question about a Park District and if that has been approved. Tim said
yes. The board discussed how many responses to the survey there were last time. They thought around
800. There are 17,000 people in Yorkville. Tim said there is also the city Facebook and the sign
downtown, catalog and water bills, so there will be a decent response. Tim said 1,000 responses would
be outstanding.
Motion to approve the survey made by Seaver Tarulis and seconded by Kelly Sedgwick. Deb – yes; Kelly –
yes; Seaver – yes; Amy – yes; Mark – yes; Dan – yes.
Riverfront Rentals – Tim said Eric contacted Scott last Wednesday to inquire about getting out of his
lease. Tim said if the board decides to let him out of the lease, it will then go to city council. Amy asked
how many years on the lease left. Tim said around a year and a half. The lease is $250.00 per month.
The board asked if there is a standard as to what happens in these situations. Tim said they can check
into that. Eric said the construction killed the business and he said they have never gained steam. His
shop in Wheaton in 5 months has taken off. He said the location is the problem with Yorkville. He said
there is no hard feelings.
Eric said he will miss the summer things that go on down there. He said he enjoyed being there and it
opened up more opportunity for him, but he can’t see any way to make it work. Eric said it is tough. He
said he did invest $20,000 into the building and a $1,500 investment of the kitchen. Eric said it is purely a
business reason. He said if the board wants to hold him to the lease, he will understand, but it would be
helpful to let him out of it.
Amy asked when Eric would like to leave. Eric said as soon as possible. Eric said he would be willing to
help find another tenant. Amy said staying open through the summer would help get some revenues
back because of festivals. Eric said the revenues have never hit more than $120 a day and festivals are
lucky to make $500. Eric said there is not enough revenue coming in.
Seaver asked if the district has a need for the building. Tim said when the city began renting these there
was the REC Center. Tim said now we could use the space. Tim said the child development area could
use more space. Tim said the city might have to spend a bit to change the building, but the city could
expand our programming to our benefit.
Scott said the city always needs accessible storage. Tim said as the city expands programing, we could run
our summer camps out of that facility. Tim said that building would be used. Seaver said that was his
concern when losing the REC Center and he thought we would need that space. Deb said she is in favor of
letting him out of the lease because we need the space for programs.
Dan said even if we didn’t need the room, I would let him out. Dan said it is a no win situation and why
put him through that for another year. Amy said she was leaning toward no, but would like him to at least
stay through summer. Amy said there should be some sort of buyout of the contract because the city
needs to do things to the building to get it ready for the city to use.
Tim said those are all recommendations that can be made tonight. Tim said the city is not going to be
able to use the building tomorrow, Eric has to get out of there and changes need to be made, so it will
probably be the fall. Deb asked how much time he needs to get out of there. Eric said a week. Tim said
city council has to approve letting him out of the lease.
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Shay said it would be good to have that space for the fall catalog. Kelly asked about running a concession
out of it for the summer. Tim said staffing would be an issue and we don’t want to compete against other
businesses. Tim said we can asked the other businesses if they want to expand and the board needs to
discuss all options before rushing into something.
Deb said what about working out an agreement to have Eric pay for paint and materials to change it. Amy
said the board needs to decide if we want to let him out of the lease, then that goes to city council and
then the board can decide what we can do with that building. Deb asked the board if we are going to let
him out without a penalty. Amy said that is not in the contract.
Tim said that the board can make that recommendation. Amy said look at what he was making and take
part of that and come up with an amount. Tim said he would have to come up with the numbers which
would be around $5,000. Dan said he doesn’t think that is worth it. Kelly said there is nothing in the
contract. Kelly said we can also hold him to it because there is nothing in the contact letting him out. Dan
asked why charge a fee to let him out.
Amy said because the city will have to fix this up and Kelly said this is getting thrown at us and didn’t plan
for it. Dan said what he has gone through is terrible and he is surprised there is anyone down there. Tim
told the board to think about the decisions because there are two other businesses. Tim said we want to
help Eric, but the reality is it is business. Tim said we might get two other businesses wanting out too.
Amy said the board agrees letting him out early is fine, but we need to look at the numbers and what our
losses will be maybe half of that as a fee. Kelly said look into industry standard for terminating a lease
early. Tim said he will get information and bring it to the next meeting. Tim said it is ultimately a city
council decision. Tim said it will be after our June meeting to have a decision.
Kelly said we can agree tonight to terminate his lease early, but the board wants to come up with
something. Eric said there was a $1,000 deposit. The board agreed that could be the fee then. Most of
the board agreed to the $1,000 as a fee. The board wants to get this taken care of and get this to city
council.
The board discussed with Eric what things he is taking and leaving in the building. Eric said he is willing to
work with the city on what things they might want to keep in the building. Tim said it is definitely a place
that someone could use for another restaurant. Tim said the expectation in the beginning was different
and maybe once the construction is finished it will pick up. Tim said it is more a seasonal location.
Kelly said we could use it for programing in the winter months. Amy said normally there are details on the
agenda as to what is being voted on. Deb said the board recommends that River City Roasters is let out of
their lease with a penalty of $1,000 effective after city council approval May 31, 2014. Motion was made
by Seaver Tarulis and seconded by Mark Dilday. Deb – yes; Kelly – yes; Seaver – yes; Amy – yes; Mark –
yes; Dan – yes.
New Business:
Yorkville Youth Tackle Football Agreement – Tim said this was before the board two months ago for
review and to give suggestions and YYTF review as well. Tim said this was for use of the space at Bristol
Bay 65, but the parking was not doable.
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YYTF came back asking to use Rotary Park for their practices. Scott said the fee is based on the field
reservation policy and for keeping up the fields. Scott said it is a year by year contract and if things are
destroyed, we don’t have to agree next year or the city can up the fee. Amy asked if city council has to
approve this. Tim said no. Tim said they pay a flat fee of $3,500 for practicing on the field. YYTF would
like a long term permanent location and the city can try this and see how it goes.
YYTF said they are looking for a place to eventually put up lights and store equipment. Tim said in the fall
it is dark earlier, so they will need lights at some point. They will probably want a permanent location.
Motion to approve the Yorkville Tackle Football Agreement made by Dan Lane and seconded by Mark
Dilday. Deb – yes; Kelly – yes; Amy – yes; Seaver – yes; Mark – yes; Dan – yes.
Ken Miller Field Naming at Cannonball Park – Tim said this was a person that worked for the city for
years and passed away last September. Tim said the city had approved naming a Fox Hill baseball field
after him, but decided that Cannonball would be a better location.
Motion to approve the naming of Ken Miller for Cannonball Park by Seaver Tarulis and seconded by Kelly
Sedgwick. Deb – yes; Kelly – yes; Seaver – yes; Amy – yes; Mark – yes; Dan – yes.
Heartland Meadows – Rezoning and Special Use for Planned Unit Development – Tim said they want a
land cash donation of $30,000 an acre. Scott said land cash is based on the fair market value of 1 acre of
improved ground for hiring an appraiser and appraisals done to arrive at a dollar figure.
Scott said there is a ratio to figure how much land any development should give you based on the
population of the development. In the master plan, the city would have liked to have purchased all of it.
Years ago, the city approached the owner and it was out of reach at that time.
Tim said per land cash calculations, you get $101,000 per acre, but that was a better time and they are
proposing the $30,000 and they are asking the board to accept or reject it and it will still go to city council
for approval.
Dan asked what Tim thinks. Tim said it is a difficult decision to make because the city wants to encourage
development right now. Tim said all cities are evaluating land cash at this time. Tim said it is a hard call to
make. Staff would rather have money than the land. The board discussed the space there and what is
already there.
Tim said if the city asks for land, city council will probably approve the development. Tim said the school
district is waiving the normal fee, but they will get tax revenues and no extra kids in the schools. Amy said
this would be 46 single family ranch style homes on 8 acres. Amy asked for the total acreage. Tim said
the issue is if we demand the land, you can’t really give us the land.
Tim said the options are a recommendation for a different amount than $30,000. $18,000 per acre plus
$12,000 improvements. Ken said Oswego is going to drop their land cash numbers down too. Ken said
there was a time when a lot was on Rivers Edge was $190,000 per lot now it is $90,000. Ken asked if the
county numbers are still high. Amy said the county came down to market value to reevaluate annually.
The board discussed different developments and how they were funded. Seaver asked what is the chance
to have another subdivision built half way. Ken said this one is different because it is 55 and older. Amy
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said go with the recommendation of $30,000 front funded. Deb said why can’t we ask for more. Ken said
you can always ask, but the 1.7 acres is probably not going to float for land. Mark said to take the cash.
Amy thinks it should be at least $50,000, but she doesn’t think that would happen. Ken said it goes to
Planning Commission on the 14th. Tim said if the board recommends $50,000, someone from the board
needs to attend the meeting. Tim said if the board member attends, you have a vote. Tim said he will
send the recommendation to Bart tomorrow. Deb said they can always say no, but we can try.
The board discussed why not ask for more. Tim said there is no reason not to ask. Tim said these are
recommendations. The board agreed to ask for $50,000 per acre front funded and discussed who could
make the planning commission meeting. Park board is recommending a counter offer to Heartland
Meadows $50,000 per acre ‐ front funded. Motion made by Seaver Tarulis and seconded by Kelly
Sedgwick.
Reports:
Recreation Report – Tim said the city has have a new full time employee, Crystal. Tyler passed the test
for Parks and Recreation, so our staff is running well. Tim asked if the weekly reports are helping. The
board agreed they like them.
Shay said preschool is going strong. Shay said they would like to expand the child development and asked
if the board knows anyone who would like to apply. Ready Set Go registration for next year is going and
can register for an entire year.
Soccer is underway and as long as weather is good, it ends next weekend. Softball began last week on
Tuesday and Thursday. First baseball tournament went well and another this weekend. Catalogs went
out and compliments on them. Shay said online registration already surpassed what we have had before
and is going extremely well.
Parks Report – Scott said the spring maintenance keeping up grass and baseball fields is in full swing.
Scott said he is hiring seasonal help to get the parks looking better. Clark Park shelter is finished and looks
great. Scott said the shed at Bridge Park for storage is very helpful. Tim reminded the board of the golf
outing on May 30th. June 6th is the first Music Under the Stars at Riverfront Park.
Additional Business:
None.
Adjournment: There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:31 p.m. Motion was
made by Dan Lane and seconded by Amy Cesich.
Minutes Respectfully Submitted by:
Lisa Godwin
Minute Taker