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Park Board Minutes 2018 03-22-18 Special meetingAPPROVED 6/7/18 Page 1 of 6 UNITED CITY OF YORKVILLE SPECIAL PARK BOARD MEETING Thursday, March 22, 2018 6:30pm Go For It Sports 9231 Galena Road, Yorkville, IL The meeting was called to order at 6:30pm by Deb Horaz. Roll Call: Deb Horaz-present, Mark Dilday-present, Gene Wilberg-present, Sash Dumanovic-present Absent: Amy Cesich, Dan Lane Others Present: Director of Parks and Recreation – Tim Evans, Superintendent of Parks – Scott Sleezer, Superintendent of Recreation Shay Remus, City Council Liaison to Park Board – Joel Frieders, Ward 3 Alderman, and Ken Koch, Ward 1 Alderman (arrived at 6:44). Citizen Comments: None New Business: Requested to move up agenda item Friends of Clark Park Proposal – Discussion Tim gave background prior to Gail Gaebler, representative of the Garden Club speaking. Tim explained that Mark Southern came to the city board wanting to buy the house right next to Clark Park and turning it into a restaurant. During this time Gail and Friends of Clark Park gave a proposal to Mark Southern to do some clean up. They are looking to move forward with this proposal. Tim wants to make sure the board is ok with what they are proposing. Gail said that they formed the group Friends of Clark Park and partnered with the Community of Fox River Valley. The Community of Fox River Valley is a 501(c)(3) and they established a fund with them so Mark Southern can make a donation for services and has agreed to do one year. Gail said that they need to get started as soon as possible. They have a group of about 100 people that would like to help with this project along with other organizations. They have a meeting coming up on Monday, March 26th at the Library with ENCAP representatives to discuss the process and how it works. They put together figures after the first year if the city would like to continue it would cost around $4,000 a year. They would like to focus on getting all of the bad stuff out of the park first. She would then like to work with someone from the City and pick areas out to work on and get permission if it would be ok to work on said areas. She would like to focus on APPROVED 6/7/18 Page 2 of 6 four different areas and really work on them to make it look nice to show some results right away. Then it will be just a waiting game to see what will grow back. Gail is looking for permission that if ENCAP said they are ready to come we can give them the ok to come. Deb asked if there would be a vote on this. Tim explained that Bart Olson said he wanted to give the residents and the board some say in this before they move forward. Tim said that Bart will be speaking to the city attorney to discuss how the best way to go about this. Tim said he will talk to Bart tomorrow to get his recommendation. Scott Sleezer said that he met with Gail and he is completely comfortable with this proposal. Scott said this is a win-win. Even if ENCAP walked away or we didn’t continue this next year we at least got rid of the invasive species. Once the plants are down they still don’t know what will grow back. It will be nice to see what it could look like. Scott explained that yes his staff can cut down the invasive species, but weeding and planting new items they are not able to do. This is a good opportunity for staff to be educated. Deb asked if they are accepting fundraising. Gail said that they currently have $500 to make their fund with the Community Foundation. They also have a website with a funnel if people would like to donate. They will probably do some fundraising. It was mentioned that it would be helpful to tap into the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, 4H, and Kendall County Outdoor Education Center to find like-minded people and people who might be looking to help with projects like this. Tim said he would talk to Gail tomorrow and she excused herself. Tim asked the board if they were all on board and they said yes. Minutes for Correction/Approval: The minutes from October 12, 2017 are approved. Motion by Gene Wilberg and seconded by Sash Dumanovic. Bills Review: Bill List – November 2017, December 2017, January 2018, February 2018, and March 2018 – Informational purposes. Budget Report – September 2017, October 2017, November 2017, December 2017, January 2018 and February 2018 – Informational purposes. Old Business: Riverfront Park and Bristol Bay Regional Park Grant Updates: Tim said Bristol Bay is 90% done and has to be done by end of June. One of the issues they have been asked about is the access drive, parking lot, and trail. These items are not part of the grant so they are currently unfunded projects. They are working with the city engineers and have a RFP out. Scott said that they are going to try and do the trail, but the parking lot and drive will be too many layers and too much material for them to handle. APPROVED 6/7/18 Page 3 of 6 Bart, Tim and Scott are discussing budget and grant cash so they might be able to use a portion of that to help with these projects. Tim said between the Parks and Rec budget, Grant cash and if they need to use some of the money from selling part of Bristol Bay 65 for the Go For It Sports facility they can make it work out. They are 90% done then they need to have all of the bills and everything submitted to the state by end of June. Tim said they are 75% done down at Riverfront Park. Playground is done and they hope to have it open by the end of April. Fishing pier is in and kayaking is in. The shelter has been put in and the concrete pad for the shower has been installed. The parking lot behind it has been laid out and next is to get it paved. The parking lot should hold about 30 – 40 cars. This has to be done by the end of December, but Tim said it should be done way before that. Scott said they installed six trees around the playground. New Business: Purcell Park – Playground Equipment Proposals: Tim said that he has been talking with Scott about a few playgrounds that will need to be replaced soon. Some are fifteen to twenty years old. Once you get to twenty to twenty- five years they should be getting replaced because once things start to break the companies no longer make that equipment anymore. Tim said that they do not have any mechanisms in place outside of land cash to replace equipment. At this time the budget was looking good so Tim and Scott got together to figure out what playground is in need for a new playground the most. Purcell Park should be taken out within this next year. Scott said that if the board approves it they would like to do the same thing they did with Riverfront Park. They would remove it late fall and work in the winter putting the new playground up. Tim said there is no reason why they could not afford buying it because the budget is looking really good at this time. Scott said this playground is a Play Craft structure. Compared to the Riverfront Playground Purcell would be smaller. They asked in the RFP to fit the playground within the structure it allows so they do not have to do a new sidewalk. Scott also discussed once Purcell is dismantled they can use pieces for the Beecher Playground to keep it going a little longer. They wanted to start with Purcell because it is a smaller and less expensive project. Motion made to approve the Purcell Park – Playground Equipment Proposals by Mark Dilday and seconded by Sash Dumanovic. Unanimously approved. Windett Ridge Park – Playground Equipment Proposal: Tim said they get the most calls about Windett Ridge Park. He said that this subdivision is very desperate to get a new playground. The developer donated the land and $50,000 funded for the purchase of the playground. APPROVED 6/7/18 Page 4 of 6 Scott said that $50,000 is actually not a lot of money for a playground because you have to think about the concrete, labor and mulch on top of the cost of the playground. When it becomes time to do Beercher’s playground it will be around $100,000. Scott said that the theme is a nautical theme. One reason why Scott picked this one was it is the same manufacturer of the Riverfront Park playground they just installed. This playground will fit a large amount of kids. This playground is made for 5-12 year olds. Scott said he wants to see how the grants go but does not mind doing a volunteer build on this playground after seeing how the Riverfront one went in and knowing the manufacturer now. It would be good to get the public down there to see what they are doing. It helps build ownership and get the community involved. Motion made to approve the Windett Ridge Park – Playground Equipment Proposals by Sash Dumanovic and seconded by Gene Wilberg. Unanimously approved. Reports: Parks – Scott suggested that everyone go visit Riverfront Park when they have a chance. There are so many things finished and wrapping up. Recreation – Shay talked about Ready, Set, Go being their main revenue driver. They have nine months of consistent revenue coming in. They already have 52 students enrolled for next year. AM preschool classes are completely full. They think they will fill the rest by the end of summer. They wrapped up basketball this past weekend. They have made new additions this year and added an intramural league for 9th and 10th graders and have had parents thanking them for seeing there are opportunities for high school kids as well. Soccer starts April 2nd. Everything is ready to go and they have another 300 kids signed up. They started a 1st and 2nd grade baseball league as well and they will also be looking into a volleyball league. The new catalog is being worked on. This catalog will have about 40 pages with the amount of items they offer. They have many instructors asking to start new groups/classes so they are continuing to grow. Shay said that she is working with KAT (Kendall Area Transit) to help with transportation for campers this summer. This way they can do off-site visits. Farmers Market is back this summer downtown at the town square. Shay said it sounds like 12-15 vendors every weekend. The meat vendor for Crusade Burger wants to have a vendor space at the Farmers Market as well. They are looking for suggestions and more vendors. Additional Business: Alderman Frieders brought up that the YMCA in Plano had a summer camp at Grande Reserve. They ended up not having enough people to make ends meet so they are not APPROVED 6/7/18 Page 5 of 6 going to be doing it again this year. They have one in Sandwich, but about 75 kids will not be going to summer camp this year due to it only being in Sandwich. There is a market in Yorkville for summer camps. Shay did say that they have looked into it but the cost to cover something like this was high to make ends meet as it involves a lot of resources and programming. Alderman Frieders said that he had seen another camp that had sports during the first half of the day followed by lunch then a trip to one of the parks. They did also offer programs they offered all year but in smaller groups for extra fees. The YMCA in Plano offered this camp and people would drop off their kids at 7:30 a.m. and pick them up around 6:00 p.m. Scott said the cost is around $30 a day. Alderman Frieders called Oswego, they offered the same program but $100 more than Plano so he is suggesting something priced in the middle. Shay is going to talk to a few people and look around at staff to see if they could have the coverage before making the next step. This will also help bring more families downtown. If you have to bring your kids downtown and your children are downtown five days a week they will be taking advantage of more of the city. The YMCA offers a kindergarten through 8th grade camp. Tim said that they have been working with Oswego and will be combining some events. June 14th is an event at Raging Waves that will be offered at a discount for Yorkville and Oswego residents that day and a movie that night. The August 2nd joint event will be held in Oswego at the Metra Station stop to highlight the need for the Metra Station. Bart is going to send the information out to our elected officials to get them involved. They will be doing a drive-in movie that night. Gene mentioned that the Kendall County Outdoor Ed is partnering with Oswego and Yorkville Parks and Recreation to launch some programs this summer for canoeing and kayaking on the Fox River. This will help bring more people to the river. This will be in the new catalog if anyone is interested. There is a program for grandparents to take their grandchildren out on the river, bird watching group, and a family trip cost is only $20. Gene mentioned they are also partnering with the Boy Scout Council. They are going to offer continuing education programs and merit badges for canoeing and kayaking. By doing this partnership they also partnered with Chicago White Water association. They really know the kayak shoot and said with flooding boulders can be moved. The boulders play a huge part of making the rapids. The Chicago White Water Association would like to come present to whomever. They are willing to come reset the boulders but then would like to present on putting a permanent structure and put poles in to do races. They would like to show what they have in mind. Tim and Scott said before a meeting they would like them to draw something up to show them how things would look. Gene said that he has seen snowmobilers on Kennedy Bike Trail. He did talk to the police department and they said that if you see anyone on there to call them right away. Since then he went back to the trail and could see damage. He can see scratches and gouges into the trail from the fire station to the rail road tracks. He also started walking more trails and saw the same damage. Scott said that they could plow the trails which would help deter the snowmobilers from using the trails. APPROVED 6/7/18 Page 6 of 6 Tim said that he and Shay have met with Fox Valley Special Recreation Association. It’s $150,000 for the first year and $75,000 to $80,000 every year after that. There are about 25 – 30 families that use it on a regular basis. At this time Tim doesn’t think they can afford it but wanted to let the board know. Adjournment: There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:00 p.m. Motion by Sash Dumanovic and seconded by Gene Wilberg. Meeting adjourned. Minutes Respectfully Submitted by: Jori Behland