Loading...
Park Board Minutes 2011 11-17-11 APPROVED 12/8/11 Yorkville Parks and Recreation Department River City Roasters 131 W. Hydraulic Yorkville, IL 60560 November 17, 2011 Call to Order : Ken Koch called the meeting to order at 7:12 p.m. Roll Call: Ken Koch - yes; Debbie Horaz - no; Kelly Sedgwick - yes; Amy Cesich - yes; Vickie Coveny - yes; Mark Dilday - no; Seaver Tarulis - no. Introduction of City Officials and Staff: Laura Schraw - Director of Parks and Recreation Scott Sleezer - Superintendent of Parks Tim Evans - Superintendent of Recreation Others Present: Tony Scott - Kendall County Record Bonny Mattison - Yorkville Resident of Autumn Creek Public Comment: Ms. Bonny Mattison contacted Laura earlier in the week and she came to address concerns about special needs children. She stated she has a special needs child and they tried swim lessons through the REC Center and it was a horrible experience. The instructor told him he could not be taught. She stated that we found the Special Rec of Fox Valley, which is a blessing, but costs over $400 for swim lessons, if you are not part of the group. She stated that she came tonight to see how we can get Yorkville to become part of their organization because she knows there are others have this same need. She stated most counties have something like this available. She realizes it does cost money. Ms. Mattison asked why we are not a park district. She stated she realizes that we do pay for that with taxes. Ken Koch stated that we are a city department and we get dollars from the city budget. Ken stated in the past we had a partnership with United Way. Laura stated The Fox Valley Special Rec Association is a special group and different communities are involved and they pay them money, which is over $30,000. She stated at this time, they are not accepting any new communities. Laura contacted them and said that they told her since we can't be members, they could help us find some ways to train people or help us in Yorkville. Ms. Mattison asked if there are any funds that help pay the offset of the costs. She said that she has used some of those and they are helpful. Scott stated this issue has been brought before the board before. It was looked into and it was very expensive, but the board felt it was better to help fund those that are in need, so we partnered with United Way. Scott stated he doesn't know if we still have funds for subsidizing some of those things or not. Scott said there was a cap put on it, so it was fair for all to use the funds. Laura said we are at a good point right now to look at this because we are working on the budget. We can decide if we want to add extra funds in there. Tim stated that there would be two different budgets. Tim said we are running a deficit from the 80 budget. He stated that the 79 budget would have scholarship money. He stated that it is not necessarily for special needs, but for those with financial hardships too. Tim said that it would be easier to use the 79 budget than the 80 budget. Laura said when she spoke with Fox Valley SRA, they suggested maybe train and budget for a part- time staff member to work with these kids. Tim stated the SRA is a park district that specializes in special needs kids. Amy asked about sending our instructors there to be certified or trained. Laura said this is bigger than pulling someone out of our staff and teaching them. Tim said we would be better off hiring and paying a staff person instead of joining a group. Tim stated that Shay has that degree, but wouldn't have time to do those things with her responsibilities. Scott said special needs incorporates everything, so to train an instructor for swimming, doesn't help with other activities. He stated that he had a daughter with special needs. He stated the spectrum on this is too broad. He stated the better way is to subsidize the programs and send them where they can get each of their individual needs met. Amy said it would be good to have someone on our staff with that background, so when these issues arise, we have someone on staff to help. Vicki said we won't know how many kids will have this need. Scott said the issue is working with these children everyday you learn how to work with kids like this. Scott said we would spend more money trying to train rather than just subsidizing these kids to go where there are those that are trained and can handle the needs. Laura said the first step is to send the letter to Fox Valley SRA and see if they will offer a way to help us and our residents and then go from there. If Fox Valley SRA can help, we will put it on our agenda for further discussion. Presentations: None. Approval of Minutes: The minutes from the November 3, 2011 meeting were approved. Motion was made by Kelly Sedgwick and seconded by Amy Cesich. Ken Koch - yes; Kelly Sedgwick - yes; Amy Cesich - yes; Vickie Coveny - yes. Bill Review: Amy asked about the Chili Chase Tent rental. Tim said in the past we used the Legion and paid them a fee, but there was a conflict. Amy asked if it would be cheaper to own our own tent. Scott said it is 30x60 foot and to buy it is very expensive. Tim stated we have nowhere to store something like that either. Scott said we might drop the tent next year and not have to rent it. Amy stated every time we have an event we pay for that. Scott said it would be around $15,000 and we would have to pay people to set it up. The company sets it up for us and the tents are hard to put up. Scott stated it is cheaper to rent it. Tim said the preschool did a fundraiser that went outstanding. It was just the families in the preschool. Motion was made by Vickie Coveny to approve the bills list and seconded by Amy Cesich. Old Business: October Budget Report - Tim stated that the REC Center is about $42,000 better than we were last year at this time. He stated it should be even better because we are going into the winter months. Ken said if there were not taxes to pay on it, we would be up $20,000. Tim stated there are 1,400 paying members per month, not including those that just do classes or play basketball. New Business: 2012 Meeting Schedule - The board discussed the dates for the upcoming year. The board agreed to eliminate the January 26, 2012 meeting and just combine the agenda items into one meeting in January. The board discussed the December 27, 2012 date also. Ken stated to remove that date and do one meeting in December. Motion by Kelly to approve the calendar for 2012 and seconded by Vickie Coveny. Calendar was approved. Land Cash Appraisal - Ken stated tonight we need to come up with a recommendation as a board. Ken stated he plans on attending the EDC meeting on December 6th. Ken said he talked with some of past board members about their thoughts on the land cash. He stated he worries about the retroactive part and allowing people to renegotiate their original deals, that is not a good idea. Laura said that she will write a memo and include what was said to the board at the park board meeting . She stated that she went through to see what land cash is still owed to us. Ken said if this happens the parks will be every six or seven miles, not like we could do before. Laura said Autumn Creek is fee locked at 80,000 and still developing. Laura said they could come and state they want the new fee. Kelly said a list would be great so they can see the dollar figure of our potential losses. Laura said that will take a lot to get together. It would have to be recalculated. Laura said she did figure out which developments were not started at all and have an annexation agreement in place. Laura said Krysti made some good points in the memo to look at development approach and every three years or every year it could be raised by 10% every year . Laura said there are other options. Ken asked if you raise the fee if the value of the land didn't go up. Laura stated if it is set up that way. If we say land cash is 50,000 now, we can make it go up 10% every year. Scott said previously it was every couple years we hired someone to give us the values of the land. Laura said in 1977 it was $15,000, in 1990 $25,000, 1996 $45,000, 2003 $58,000, 2004 $73,500, 2005 $80,000, 2006 $101,000, but every single year we were having an appraiser do it. Laura said her concern is if we don't' evaluate it every one or two years, we miss that jump and we are behind the curve. Scott said you could have an active developer they may want to go ahead and pay you a hundred percent on the spot knowing it will go up the next year and pay it all up front. The board discussed different subdivisions and the values and future park development. Scott said there is good and bad about paying now and avoiding an increase. Scott said we took a 50/50 approach to build parks, that could be renegotiate things to give us a site, but no money to develop it. Developments might want to meet their obligations and pay them off to avoid cost increase. Laura said that is where she thinks there needs to be an incentive. The Park Board should say look at re-evaluate this every year and budget for that. Laura said right now this is developement driven. Ken asked the board about their feelings on a new development. He stated that does not effect us as much as someone coming in later to renegotiate a deal, at least we can plan the parks. Kelly said the problem is that the price of property is going down, but the park equipment is not. Kelly asked if we want to lower our park standards. Kelly said if we keep our plan the way it is, they might be better off donating the land instead of cash. Laura said it is written in that the developer can submit to us for a consideration on what the land cash value is. Laura stated she sees this as a double edge sword. Ken stated he wishes we were not the first to do this. Laura asked what the board recommendations are. Amy said don't do it at all. Amy said she is concerned that we are the first to do it. Laura said if we do this, we need to look at this again in two years. Amy said it should be reevaluated every year. Ken said if this doesn't spur the development they think, do we still reevaluate it each year. Laura said yes because the value will go up. Laura went over the memo and the numbers of what developments are affected. The board discussed different developments and the affects. Kelly said with the limited resources and the time we have can we come up with a ball park figure with how much money we can possibly lose. Laura said she doesn't know if they thought about if we don't have money we might not be able to develop the parks that we already planned. Scott said it is still crucial to take the land. Open space is good. The definition of park doesn't mean a playground. Ken said the developers tell them there is a park coming in the neighborhood and people are wanting their park. Ken said the developers should not advertise a for sure park to sell homes because if we don't have the funds, it will not happen. Kelly stated it needs to be pointed out we are being pushed to get rid of the REC Center losing $40,000, yet you are pushing to do something that could possibly cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars. Laura said her concern is the ripple effect on our parks and taxes etc. Laura said the board recommends first, not to do it, second to keep it increasing or get developers to front fund it and third to do a re-evaluation every year. Scott said to up it 10% each year, it would only take five years to get back to where we were. Ken asked about the school district thoughts. Laura said they did state they are okay with evaluating it. Laura said she will write all the comments and send them to the board and the board can comment back to her for the EDC meeting. Reports: Director's Report - Laura said she e-mailed the t-shirt designs and costs. She stated if it is too expensive, we can go through the company the city uses and get prices from them too. Kelly asked if the board can pick a design we can use every time so we don't pay for designing every time. Laura said Amy asked about having a town hall meeting. Bart said we can. Laura said we thought we could have it before the next park board meeting. Ken asked if we can advertise the meeting to the membership at the REC Center. Laura said we have to post it. Amy asked if we can make up some fliers and let people know that it is a question and answer session to answer questions about the REC Center. Scott asked if we would take public comment. Amy stated yes. Scott asked if an hour and a half is long enough. Amy stated longer can be drawn out. She stated we will make it a two minute time limit. Scott asked if we can hold the meeting at the REC Center that night. The board agreed that would make sense. Ken asked if we can do an e-mail blast to the REC members. Tim stated Facebook is a good way. Amy said put it on The Patch. Scott said we can put it in the Record too. Ken said he thinks there are members that use this facility every day and are not worried about this. Amy said they need to be because city council is making their decision soon. Amy said the alderman need to hear from citizens that use the facilities. Ken stated that he thinks the press has been fair on this. Laura asked how we want to run the meeting. Amy said first do a presentation and then ask for questions. Laura said we will do the history and talk about the building and the lease expiring etc. Amy said that we need to point out the benefit of buying the building versus leasing. Vickie said that most people just don't read anything or keep informed. Laura stated she will find out what we can and can't do. That meeting will be December 8th at 5:30 p.m. Laura said that we are working on revising the vendors in the park fee. Scott said to think about for the next meeting what the board thinks the fee should be. Laura said that Kennedy Road Trail was defeated in committee. She stated we are waiting now because the committee said they don't want the money, but we are past our one year time line. Lynn said she knows someone that is willing to privately fund part of it. Laura said once the engineering is done, the construction doesn't have to be happen until within 10 years. Amy stated they didn't want the 1.4 million because they are worried about future maintenance of the trail. Laura said that Grande Reserve A and B deeds are recorded so we will get our $400,000. It took almost five years. Ken asked about Whispering Meadows. Laura said we have that one too. Laura said we will get the funds this fiscal year. Parks Report - Scott said holiday decorations have been our focus the last two weeks. Ken asked about damage in parks. Scott said there is always ongoing problems with vandalism. Recreation Report - Tim said this weekend is Holiday Under the Stars weekend. It begins at 5:00 p.m. at Riverfront. He said there was not enough funds to do what we have done in the past. Tim said on Saturday is the Taste of Yorkville. He encouraged anyone that can participate in the Taste of Yorkville to do so, they would like this to become a yearly event. Sunday is the Chili Chase. Basketball is kicking off with a huge turnout this year over a 100 kids. Vickie asked if we partner with anyone to do these events. Tim stated they do and they let people know what is going on. Masonic Lodge is participating, the Caring Hands, Girls Scouts are doing caroling, Trinity Church is participating. Tim said it is on Facebook today. Additional Business: There was no additional business. Adjournment: Motion to adjourn made by Kelly and seconded by Vickie. The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 p.m. Next meeting December 8, 2011 at 7:00 p.m. *Items needing Board approval or recommendation. Minutes Respectfully Submitted by: Lisa Godwin Minute Taker