Park Board Minutes 2014 06-12-14
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Yorkville Parks and Recreation Department
ARC Building
201 W. Hydraulic Avenue
June 12, 2014 at 6:30 p.m.
Call to Order: Deb Horaz called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m.
Roll Call: Deb Horaz – yes; Kelly Sedgwick – yes; Seaver Tarulis – yes; Mark Dilday – no; Amy
Cesich ‐ yes; 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
Other Guests: Diane Teeling – Alderman
Robyn Sutcliff – Foxy’s Ice Cream
Public Comment: None.
Presentation: None.
Approval of Minutes: The minutes from the May 8, 2014 minutes were approved. Motion to approve
the minutes made by Seaver Tarulis and seconded by Dan Lane.
Bills Review: June 12, 2014 Bill List ‐ Informational Purposes. Deb asked about the Chamber
sponsorship for $1200. Tim said that instead of the city buying a band and competing against them for a
music night, we shifted to Chamber.
April 2013 Budget Report – Informational Purposes
April 2014 Budget Report – Informational Purposes
Old Business:
Riverfront Rentals – Tim said this is on the agenda so that all the buildings are discussed. Tim said two
of the three are open now weather permitting. Tim said Geneva Kayak is paying the bills and making
payments and he feels by the end of summer that will be taken care of. Tim said the building issues
were taken care of by Geneva Kayak. Scott said the city had their inspector go in and check it all out.
Diane asked about when the businesses are open. Tim said mostly weekends, but getting into summer,
the hours are expanding.
Robyn said things are going well at Foxy’s it is better than last year. Robyn said she thinks that people
are used to the construction and it will be done soon. Scott said the crowds have been better and things
have changed a bit.
APPROVED 7/10/14
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Robyn said Music Under the Stars was last week and Jason Leslie gave out 1,000 cups of frozen custard,
which is a little bit of a competition. Robyn said she gave everyone a coupon for a free cookie or free
water and they came into me with their custard to get the cookie or water, so that did not really work,
but I understand that he is a sponsor.
New Business:
131 E. Hydraulic Avenue, Unit C Facility Recommendation – Tim said City Council approved letting River
City Roasters out of the contract. Tim said the board needs to discuss what we want to do with the
space. Tim said several people have contacted him about using the space, so the board needs to decide
if we want it for programming space.
Tim said a coffee place, a catering place and a Taste of Main contacted him about using the space. The
board discussed how these people would use the space. Tim said they are all supposed to submit a
proposal this coming week. Diane Teeling asked if these people are interested, she feels a short term
lease for the summer, but concentrate on those that are already ready to go with licensing. Tim said
they all have permits and are ready to go.
Tim said it will take some time, at least a week to get things ready. Tim said those are things that we can
discuss once the proposals are submitted. Tim said he hopes by next week they will all have proposals
in. Tim said the city needs to decide how long of a lease and how much rent and discuss the short term
lease. Tim said Bart can sign off on a short term lease so the city doesn’t have to go through all the
normal procedures.
Tim said when the city had the REC Center, the space was not needed by the city, but now the city has
maxed out the space that we have. Kelly said maybe the city can remodel and it could be used as child
development during the week and then use it for concession on the weekend. Tim said that is an option.
Kelly said during the week concessions would not be big, but child development during the week and
concessions on weekends. Tim said there is an area for a conference room that could be used for kids
programming. The board discussed how to use the building space. Tim said city council would prefer
using it as a business.
Diane Teeling said if there is kids programming in there, the bathrooms will not be open to the public
and as a business it is open and accessible to the public. Deb said the city is desperate for programming
space.
Deb said the city is going backwards, and Diane agreed, but she said that space is best used as a
business. Deb said there is a lot of issues, Eric left purely as a business reason because it is not a good
location for business.
Diane said there is a business that is working. Amy said if it is going to be a business, she would only feel
comfortable with Upper Crust or someone that is already a functioning business and been established
awhile. Dan said he thinks that would help out Foxy’s too. Tim said the city needs to see the proposals
before the city decides.
Diane said the city could have been working on this a while ago, if Eric would have let the city know his
numbers earlier. Diane thinks that something needs to be there to sell food/concessions for the public.
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Deb said the city is subsidizing the businesses with low rent and the city could make more off of
programming.
Tim said city council is going to go the direction of a business. Tim said making a concession stand work
will be difficult and the city would have to invest in more equipment. Tim said a business would do a
better job. Amy said an established business would be something that she is comfortable with. Dan said
he doesn’t think that programming belongs there in that location.
Kelly suggested charging a higher rent and not take part of sales. The board discussed how to charge
rent/sales. Tim said the board needs to make a recommendation for the city council agenda. Deb said
she thinks they already made up their mind. Amy asked if we can see proposals. Tim said we can
schedule a special meeting to discuss it.
Tim said the recommendation needs to be if we want a business or programming space. Amy said she
wants an established business. Tim said as Parks and Rec he would like to do programming because that
is my focus or a short term lease to give someone a chance, and then next year discuss how the city
wants to move forward. Kelly recommends short term lease.
Dan said programming belongs someplace else even if we want to rent the space. Amy said the space
used to be preschool and programming. Tim said a place to store things would be nice too for our big
events. Tim said with bigger events having space down there would be helpful.
The board discussed the short term lease be a bit higher and not part of sales. The board discussed
bathroom space and how to use them. Tim said there is damage when restrooms are not supervised.
Tim said the city can look at Porto‐Lets to use. The board discussed having a changing area/shower. The
board discussed how having a playground downtown will draw more people there.
The park board recommendation to city council is a short term lease to an established business. Deb
Horaz – yes; Kelly Sedgwick – yes; Dan Lane – yes; Amy Cesich – yes; Seaver Tarulis – no. Motion passed.
Bristol Bay 65 OSLAD Grant Agreement – Tim said the board knows the city received that back in April.
They set an agreement signed by the Mayor and it needed to be approved by city council and we did not
have a park board meeting before it got approved. Tim said it was sent back to the state last week.
Tim said it was a little different this time they wanted a project list, several other things, and a
completion date. Tim just wanted to give the board an update as to what was going on.
Plan Commission Assignment – Tim said when issues come up we need to make sure that someone
from the park board is at planning commission, it helps both sides. Tim said Dan was nominated before.
Deb said she would like to nominate Amy and if she can’t go, then Dan. The board discussed the land
cash and it was denied for many reasons. Amy said park board has a vote in those situations. The board
agreed that it is a good idea for someone to be there to represent park board.
The board discussed making Amy Cesich and Dan Lane assigned to Plan Commission Meetings. Horaz –
yes; Sedgwick – yes; Lane – yes; Tarulis – yes; Cesich – yes.
Reports:
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Recreation Report – Shay said this week started summer programing. The city held Safety town and
Red Cross classes and we will put a thank you in the paper. She said in May there was a preschool
graduation there were 21 students. Shay said there are four spots left in the preschool for next year,
which is the best we have ever done.
The interviews are complete for new teachers and we will be offering the positions soon. Crystal is now
full time and will be assisting with other events. Shay said Ready Set Go finished. Shay said the summer
registration is open for Ready Set Go for next year and it is going well.
Soccer ended May 17th. The city did an electronic survey this year and it tripled the response from
previous years. Shay said it works better than the papers sent home. Shay said it also saves money.
Softball has been a bit rough for coed because of rain. We have fit in all the games to make up so far.
Parks Report – Scott said a repair on a mower will have to be taken care of. Probably a new motor,
which will be expensive. The board asked how much a new mower costs. Scott said $50,000, so less
expensive to fix it. Finishing things at Clark Park and hopeful to be done by end of July.
The playgrounds are inspected once a week looking for broken things and making sure they are safe.
The board discussed the news that week about having problems in parks with people putting razors or
things in them in other towns. Scott said he makes sure they get out once a week to look for problems.
Scott said there have been some issues with a couple slides and the city hired a company to patch them
up.
A couple slides at Price Park are developing the same issues, those slides are going to be replaced and it
is about $4,000, which is in our budget. The slides are removed, but we blocked them with plywood, so
it is safe. Scott said one of the staff went through the CPI Training course last month and passed. Scott
said he will take it in October along with one other staff member, so the city will have three certified.
Grande Reserve B is hoping to be installed by October this year by volunteers. The staff will do the
concrete and sidewalks ahead of time. Scott said grant stuff is busy. The city is working with EEI on
construction documents with Riverfront. We hope to have a fishing pier done this fall and hopefully by
spring we can get Riverfront Park started.
Scott said the board needs to discuss what they want to do in Riverfront Park. Scott said for ideas in
Bristol 65, he contacted a local construction company to get some grindings to save money. Scott has
been talking to some skate park companies. Scott said we are trying to involve the community and get
their input on what they would like. Scott said he likes the company that Oswego uses. Concrete is
better and never has problems like the others do.
Scott wants to do a drop in and a bowl that others don’t have. Scott said the city is talking to several
people. Scott said it is for roller blades and scooters and bikes too. The board discussed the BMX park
and if it is used. Scott said it needs clay to make it better. Kelly asked about Bridge Park can we get a
sign at the shelter about no alcohol.
Kelly said at one of the games it was raining and people pulled out alcohol and he stopped them. Shay
said she will tell staff to watch for that. Tim said the golf outing went well. Tim said in the future if the
board can come it is a good environment to get the community together in a different way. Next week
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is River Night and the 4th of July letters should be out in the mail. Tim said next Saturday is the pancake
breakfast.
Tim said the community is coming together to help out with the 4th and it is going great.
Additional Business:
Tim said it was brought to his attention that some board members are having a hard time making it to
this meeting at this time. Amy said she starts meetings at the county at 2:30 and she is at meetings for 6
hours and it is hard for her to make it. Deb suggested a different Thursday. Tim suggested Tuesday at 6
before city council. Kelly said he can’t do that early Tim said he will make a list of Thursdays and we can
discuss it at the next meeting. Amy said if you want to keep it this day make it 7.
The board discussed first or third Thursday. Tim said he will talk to staff and put a couple options
together different days and times and vote on it.
Adjournment: There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 7:41 p.m. Motion was
made by Kelly Sedgwick and seconded by Amy Cesich.
Minutes Respectfully Submitted by:
Lisa Godwin
Minute Taker