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Park Board Minutes 2010 05-13-10 Yorkville Parks & Recreation Department Administration Office - 201 W. Hydraulic St Yorkville, IL 60560 630-553-4357 Park Board Meeting Agenda Parks and Recreation Administration Office 7:00 p.m. May 13, 2010 Call to Order: Chris Rollins called the meeting to order at 7:07 pm Roll Call: Chris Rollins - Yes, Debbie Horaz- Yes, Kelly Sedgwick - Yes, Vickie Coveny—Yes Ken Koch (arrived 7:12 pm) and Tom Nelson (arrived at 8:00 pm) Introduction of Guests, City Officials and Staff: Interim Director of Parks and Recreation - Bart Olson Superintendent of Recreation — Sue Swithin (left at 9:15 pm) Superintendent of Parks— Scott Sleezer Park Designer— Laura Schraw (arrived 7:14 pm) City Council Liaison to Park Board — Diane Teeling, Ward 4 Alderman (left at 8:30 pm) Guests: Jon & Dana Windsor (left at 9:15 pm) Carole Leifheit Public Comment: None Presentations: None Approval of Minutes: None Bills Review: Bill list* Chris Rollins called attention to one item on page 4, in the amount of$150,000. He stated it was a repayment of a General Fund loan to City. Rollins read a memo from Barb stating that a copy of the manual check#206872 was dated 4/29/10. He noted that it was attached for the Board's review and the repayment transaction had to be completed before the end of the FY 09-10. Chris Rollins asked for a motion to approve the bills list. Kelly Sedgwick made the motion and Vickie Coveny seconded the motion. The motion was approved by Roll Call Vote: Chris Rollins - Yes, Ken Koch —Yes, Debbie Horaz - Yes, Kelly Sedgwick—Yes and Vickie Coveny—Yes Old Business: OSLAD Development Grant— Riverfront Park Laura Schraw presented the revised Riverfront Park Design and Revised Budget for the Boards final comments before they take it to City Council to decide if they will apply for the OSLAD Grant. 1 Schraw said they this week they were trying for an EPA grant to improve the parking lot. This went along with the Boat Access Grant would give them the parking lot but the EPA 319 grant would provide its own storm water retention area with a bioswail in the center, Schraw said. Schraw pointed out in the park's conceptual plan that they took out the water fountain and put in a playground and a sitting area. She showed ideas of some playground equipment that looked more natural and explained how it could be a fun way to incorporate what the riverfront area looked like. Scott Sleezer said that they took into play what the public had to say when they held the town meeting on the park design. Schraw said one of the changes was the fishing pier and they may go with natural stone. She said it would be a concrete structure with limestone on top. She noted that it was more natural looking and would not float away and stop the ice flow in the winter. Schraw said not much else had changed however the picnic structures that were by the playground now would relocate to the wooded area. She said they would restore the woodchip path and restore the natural areas. They would create a larger access canoe beach area. She said they would extend the gravel area of the road to asphalt and extending their road. She noted they would add a memorial area where the existing playground was and restore the existing shelter. She noted there was some landscape restoration to be done as well. Schraw said that this was a 50/50 grant and went over the conceptual design costs. She explained that they were going to match the $400,000 with a land contribution from Corlands. Schraw noted what Scott's time and the total City's contribution would be about $67,950. She said those things included application for railroad easement, design and project management fees, brick work and removal of small shelters. Ken Koch felt they should find out soon what the Corlands property would appraise for. He felt it would not appraise for as much as it once did before. Deb Horaz raised a concern about the parking lot not being big enough and expressed concerns if there were to be large events held at the Riverfront Park. Rollins agreed and he said the state had already inquired about how they could use the space for events. He was in favor of keeping flexible green space for large events however keep in mind how they would provide parking for even the local public. He said that they should not over plant or populate the area with hard structures. Rollins said the State would follow their own fluctuating standard about dam safety and the only signs they would post would be at the approach to the dam and at the canoe chute. So that meant the interim space, that is a no fishing zone, they would have to incorporate what kind of signage they wanted there. For example the signage could read no standing or no fishing. Rollins noted they could possibly apply for a public safety grant to help get the signs funded. Schraw said that they might be able to include the signage in the boating safety grant. Ken Koch questioned who would be enforcing the signage. The state would enforce the waters and they would manage the land side, Rollins said. Whatever language crafted for their signage they should work with the police department to make sure they work with the conservation police on what kind of tickets they could issue. Bart Olson noted the area would be used at peoples own risk. 2 Vickie Coveny questioned the parks playground equipment and sitting area. Sleezer said that it was all conceptual right now and that they did not have to go with the natural looking tree like structure for the playground. They could go with something else but they would all meet the safety guidelines. Schraw said if they got the grant they would bring the conceptual plans back to brainstorm for ideas. Sleezer said they would go through the same process of bringing it back to the Board for ideas and take it back to the public for their input and they would move it forward. Coveny felt $132,000 was a lot of money for a playground. Sleezer said that the liability in the playground equipment is what makes it so expensive. He said that the $132,000 was actually not a lot of money. Schraw noted that this is what the public wanted versus a water fountain because the water fountain would only be running only 3 months out of the year and the playground could be used for about 9 months of the year. Schraw noted that they could change around the conceptual designs and could end up using less money in the playground. They did have the ability to adjust the design and use of the park. Resident, Carole Leifheit felt there should be a fence between the playground and river like there was now. Coveny agreed with Leifheit and agreed that it would provide some safety to children. Sleezer said that they would defiantly look into putting in a fence however it currently was not budgeted for. Chris Rollins asked for a motion for an approval of the proposed design and proposed budget for the grant application. Deb Horaz made the motion and Kelly Sedgwick seconded the motion. The motion was unanimously approved by all Board members but Vickie Coveny. She noted she would like to see the budget numbers reworked. New Business: Fall 2009 Program Performance Report Sue Swithin went over her memo of fall programs. She said she was not pleased with the number of cancellations. She said that they were due to the economy and that there were too many classes. She pointed out that 37% cancelled however the profit margin was kept up real well. She said when their revenue went down so did their expenses. Swithin pointed out what programs did the best and which ones made the most profit. She noted that the men's league and soccer did very well. Bart Olson said that after the audit was completed they would see that the revenues under the operating budget would be under what they expected them to be. He said this was the first time they would be doing this and they could budget better next year. Chris Rollins said he would like to see roughly how many people are served by each of these programs. Swithin said that she could easily get the numbers on most of them and an approximate on some of the classes they did not take attendance on. Tom Nelson asked if any of the programs they lost money on. Swithin said that there might be some but they did not make the top ten. She said some programs wash each other; some subsidize some others. 3 Rollins stated that the Parks and Recreation always try and make money. Not to lose money. They try to be as self funding as they can be. He said that they program fees for their programs and higher program fees for people outside the community. He said the reports are to show what programs do the best and which ones make money. He also mentioned that the REC Center allowed them to make money and offer programs to the community. April 2010 Budget Report— Discussion Bart Olson said the report in the packet included twelve accounting periods for the fiscal year and there would still be more bills list and some invoices that that would come in late May or June. There would also be other journal entries possibly into July. They would not know the final numbers until the audit was completed in October or November. Olson said that in land cash they did not include any of the OSLAD Grants they had been waiting on. He said that the operation side of the Parks and Recreation showed a surplus of $139,422.12, however that would go down as the bills list got approved. Olson said he did expect there to be a surplus in the ending of about $20,000 to $30,000 and said that would go a long way to replenishing their bank account towards paying their bills. Olson reported that on the REC Center side they did make the deficit worse this year than last year primarily because of their program fees. He said that this is something they are taking into considering how they would run this next year. They still have a year and a half to figure out if they would write the ship financially or if they cannot if it would be acceptable to the City Council. Whispering Meadows subdivision and Bristol Station Park—parking discussion Bart Olson said a couple residents called him complaining about the parking on the street east of the park. He said that there were two options and the first real option was to talk to YYBSA and ask them to be courteous to the residents in the area and park on one side of the street or they could make a city ordinance that would allow no parking on one side of the street. Olson said that they really did not want to go to option number two because that would not allow even residents to park in front of their homes. Olson said they tried option number one and it worked for couple nights. Scott Sleezer said that there was a third options and that would be to perhaps getting a temporary easement to do a gravel lot that may accommodate about 20 cars. He said that they were looking at about a $3,000 to $4000 project and they would have to work with the school district. He pointed out that it would only be a short amount of time the residents would have this problem. He noted they could put some signage up that said parking only on one side of the road. Resident, Jon Windsor expressed his concerns about safety and constant traffic. Windsor felt people could park on Faxton Street. He said his biggest concern was safety because his children played in the front yard and driveway and people would use his drive way to turn around. He said with so many cars parked on the street they could not safely see if their children playing in their drive way and using his drive way was dangerous. Windsor also noted that because cars were parked on both sides of the street it only allowed for one car to drive down the street at a time and he had seen near accidents because of this. There was also a concern expressed that would not allow an ambulance or fire truck to get down the road in case of an emergency. 4 Ken Koch felt that it was a big public safety issue and they needed to address the problem immediately. Chris Rollins questioned if there would be any reason the school would not work with them. Rollins said that they had to move quickly and first try to post parking on one side of the street and felt they should talk to the school district as soon as possible. The Board agreed the side where parking should be limited to would be the park side. Resident Windsor agreed. Sleezer said that they cannot restrict parking and make it for residents only. Rollins said the last thing they want is for a park to create a problem for anyone. He said that they should talk to the police department about posting signs for parking on one side of the street only and red out curbs so no one would be parking in front of fire hydrants. Rollins suggested they needed to talk to the School District in perhaps an exchange of services so they could get help in a problem that they have in turn with help with a problem we have. EPA 319 grant application— Riverfront Park pavers Laura Schraw went over her memo on what the EPA 319 Grant was. She said it was for Nonpoint Source Pollution Control. The maximum federal funding is 60/40. They would be responsible for the 40%. Schraw said that the Boat Access and Development Grant application called for an asphalt parking lot at Riverfront Park, with a bioswale to catch the storm water runoff. The EPA 319 grant would upgrade the parking lot from asphalt to eco-pavers or permeable pavement to help reduce the pollutant and sediment loading of the Fox River. Both grants could be used for the same area the funding would be 40% from the Boat Access and Development Grant, state funding, and 60% from the EPA 319 Grant, federal funding. Schraw said she had the estimate on the pavers and what it would cost to get the curb and gutter for the parking. She said that the draft application had to be submitted by May 15th to the FREP. She said she was still working on the numbers but she was also hoping that some of the money could be used towards signage. REC Center maintenance tour— selection of date Bart Olson said that they would have to post for it and Board members could always call Sue to get in to get a tour. The Board agreed that Olson would talk to Sue to set a date. Reports: Director's Report 1.Bart Olson said that the Administration Committee meeting would be talking about REC Center memberships for all employees. Chris Rollins said the City has negotiated free services for a class its employees at the REC Center where they were known to currently be in a money loosing situation. So they would be contributing to the deficit by allowing people to use the facility for free that otherwise they would have at.least paid a discount. Rollins wanted to remind the City Council that it is not progress in the right directions however it is recognition of a benefit of having the facility. Specifically a benefit of City workers and he felt they should keep a record of that. Olson said that there is there very limited incremental cost in having employees using the facility. He said if we had more healthy employees the health premiums would go down. 5 Rollins said that it might be a mutual benefit and City employees would hopefully get their families to join. Rollins reiterated that the Board felt in the long run it would save the City money. He asked that Olson mention to the City Council that the Board looked at it as a net benefit to the City but that it is a well defined benefit because healthy workers are a benefit because that deducible that the City pays that is their money too. That is tax payer's money he said. Kelly Sedgwick suggested they offer corporate memberships to companies. 2. Olson noted that the School District had approved another intergovernmental agreement with the City for another year. Recreation Report, Parks Report, Parks Designer Report Chris Rollins asked the Board to read these in their packet at their leisure. No questions were raised. Additional Business: 1. Bart Olson said that the Executive Session was not needed for land acquisition because there was another entity interested in purchasing that property. 2. Kelly Sedgwick wanted to know if they could put signage at Beecher Center that restricted parking for only those using the center. Scott Sleezer said that he did not know if they could but because it is a public lot they could not restrict public lots. 3. Chris Rollins said that Major Burd had called him about how they could improve the quorum odds for Park Board meetings. He said that she should appoint as many people as she could to the Park Board, but he expressed his concerns that due to his work it was causing him to miss more and more of the meetings. He said that he would like to remain on the Board but said that he would like to formally step down as the Board President and said if it was not within their selection cycle yet that Ken Koch would be taking over as the Boar Chairman. Ken Koch brought up the school board position and felt that the Mayor should appoint someone to that position. Rollins felt that with a new school superintendant they would see the value in having a liaison. He felt that the new superintendant would want to work with them and felt that it should be on the top of his agenda. He said that they should invite him to a Park Board meeting and they could talk about their intergovernmental agreement and talk about the school park sights and talk about where they sit with joint school activity. Rollins felt that he would appreciate that. Executive Session: None Adjournment: Chris Rollins asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting at 9:45 pm. Deb Horaz made the motion and Ken Koch seconded the motion. The motion was unanimously approved by voice vote. Next meeting: Thursday, May 27, 2010 Minutes Respectfully Submitted by: Jamie Cheatham 6