Loading...
Adhoc Committee for Rec Facility Minutes 2012 01-30-12 APPROVED 2/13/12 UNITED CITY OF YORKVILLE Ad Hoc Committee for Recreation Facility Alternatives Committee Meeting City Hall Conference Room Monday, January 30, 2012 7:00 p.m. Call to Order: Chairman Chris Funkhouser called the meeting to order at 7:02 p.m. Establish a Quorum: Present : Chris Funkhouser, Chairman, Alderman Ward 3 Larry Kot, Alderman Ward 2 Jackie Milschewski, Alderman Ward 2 Ken Koch, Park Board Debbie Horaz, Park Board Quorum established City Officials Present : Gary Golinski, Mayor Bart Olson, City Administrator Laura Schraw, Interim Park Director Other Guests : Dr. Scott Wakeley, Yorkville CUSD 115 Brian Willis, River’s Edge Tony Scott, Record Newspaper Citizen Comments : Brian Willis said he’s just here as an observer to listen to what’s going on with the recreation ideas going around. Previous Minutes Correction : Previous minutes were corrected – changed Purpose from “open the investigation” to “openly investigate, evaluate,” etc. Minutes have been corrected. New Business: No new business. 1 Old Business: Recreation Facility Alternatives: Chairman Funkhouser said that staff has provided the committee with some additional information that was requested at the last meeting. He noted that also present was Dr. Scott Wakeley who was there to talk about some alternatives and answer any questions possibly pertaining to the schools. Alderman Kot told Dr. Wakeley that one of the things they talked about at the initial meeting was the cooperation between the city and the school district. Obviously, the city doesn’t know where they’re going with a recreational facility yet; but, as an option it would be nice to know that they could work with the school district and utilize their facilities without creating a burden on them. He further noted that even if they keep the Rec Center, they may need to use school facilities. Mr. Koch confirmed especially the gyms are busy during the height of basketball season (first thru sixth grade). Mr. Kot than asked Dr. Wakeley there was some talk of the school looking into a field house and asked if that was still a possibility. Dr. Wakeley said they had no intention of changing anything in terms of allowing the city to continue to use their facilities, it is not a problem. They don’t mind having kids in the building – that’s why they’re there. They have a lot of groups using the school’s facilities and he thinks that’s the way it needs to be. After the school, top priority is Parks and Rec. They are looking at a possible expansion of the high school due to enrollment (currently just over 1600). Expansion plans include possibly looking at: an auditorium and field house (approx 40,000 sq. ft.); additional classrooms; and widening of hallways. Mr. Koch told Dr. Wakeley that in the short time he (Dr. Wakeley) has been here, he feels the relationship between the city and the schools has improved immensely. Chairman Funkhouser explained to Dr. Wakeley that part of the intent for asking him to attend the meeting was to discuss one of the alternatives which would be a possible partnership with the school district in terms of a facility and whether or not it’s feasible to tandem with the school district’s project of a field house and expansions (if they were to happen) as a recreation facility of sorts. Some of the elements they would like to discuss are feasibility, logistics and broad stroke options – in other words; what type of scenarios they have. He knows city staff has put together some information and they were discussing some options as far as what are some of the methods they could utilize to do this. Part of it depends on if the school district goes to referendum or not is a very large part of it. Then the city would get into their discussions on how to fund their part and what mechanisms they have to assist and provide for a facility. Chairman Funkhouser then asked City Administrator Olson if he would go over the requested information he provided in the packets. Mr. Olson said there were two catalogs from the Parks department; one catalog from before the city obtained the Rec Center and the other was the current catalog. From that, you can see the number of programs they’re offering; at which facilities they ran the programs; staff levels (full time levels are somewhat lower now – part time up slightly due to staffing the Rec Center). Mayor 2 Golinski asked how many more programs they are currently running. Mr. Olson told him twice as many. Mr. Olson addressed a question that was posed at the meeting – “Where can we site this?” Are there commercial or industrial properties in Yorkville that could be substituted for the Rec Center? Mr. Olson said Lynn Dubajic is his knowledge base when it comes to properties in town and she has been of vacation for the last couple of weeks and would be better able to provide the information when she returns. Currently, there are six feasible sites which the city already owns (one of which is the current site). Mr. Olson looked at anything above five (5) acres which would include the Beecher Center, Blackberry Creek, Bridge Park, Bristol Bay regional park and Kendall Marketplace and briefly touched on any potential issues there might be in citing a facility there and some of its possible strengths. Mayor Golinski then suggested that if - instead of talking about separate facilities - would Dr. Wakeley delve a little more into the field house. He wanted to make sure that what they currently do at the Rec Center could be done in a field house. He deferred to Mr. Koch and Ms. Schraw to know what facilities would be needed. Dr. Wakeley said that in his last district, in terms of a small fitness center, they made a nice space within the high school and they tried to adhere to time lines for sharing (school/park district). Alderman Funkhouser proposed if they took the 35,000 sq. ft. facility proposal and tacked it onto the school district field house – using their timeline for the construction process – it would make it more streamlined and cost efficient. Ms. Horaz asked how schedules would be set up in order to keep things running smoothly. Dr. Wakeley said that, by-and-large, there would be a certain time of day that school things would be done. Mr. Koch brought up the question of use during the summer months, and Dr. Wakeley said the field house would remain open. Mayor Golinski suggested that if someone wanted to observe a joint operation perhaps they could visit somewhere like DeKalb or Oswego where they currently have such an operation and that could answer a lot of these questions. Ms. Milschewski said she is familiar with the Oswego operation. Chairman Funkhouser asked the group if this is considered one solution or two ideas with the shared facility or tandem operations. Mr. Koch asked if taxing issues would come into play and Mr. Olson did not think there would be any “double jeopardy” or double taxing. It could be set up that the parks department would be a tenant to the school district. Dr. Wakeley said the School Board was open to having these conversations and they were waiting to hear the scope of the operation. They, too, want what is best for the community and the kids. 3 Dr. Wakeley said there are five (5) architects vying for their business and if the city wanted to combine facilities, now would be the time to let them know. In addition, these conversations between the school district and the City are important to have so residents know they are working with each other. Dr. Wakeley told them to call him if they have any questions and left the meeting. Mr. Koch brought up the point that they need to discuss what their minimum needs are for recreation and whether or not they will continue being a fitness center. Again, he pointed out again that the purpose of this committee was to explore all of the options. Mayor Golinski said they needed to start narrowing options and delving into them. Chairman Funkhouser summed up the meeting that there was a good discussion with Dr. Wakeley about the school district and tying down the scope a little would help. Rental spaces should be a pretty simple discussion of: 1) what services can we offer based on just programming; 2) the need to look into pricing and spacing; and 3) bringing to the next meeting the information already gathered. Mr. Olson asked the question, “Is the metric that we can’t be financially worse off than we are right now?” The items for the next meeting are: talking about the different locations; narrowing down a couple of scenarios – tightening them up; if the city were to partner with the school district, to come up with a plan of what the scope would be; locations if the city were going to rent them; what are going to be provided; whether or not to work in a fitness program in the new space. Mayor Golinski said the committee could probably eliminate one option – building a $5.9 million facility. Alderman Kot said ultimately the decision would be made by the City Council and the committee needed to show them all of the options then go from there. Mr. Koch asked staff for “just pool memberships” and pool expenses be brought to the next meeting. Adjournment: The next meeting is Monday, February 13, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. The meeting was adjourned at 8:15 p.m. Minutes respectfully submitted by: Bonnie Olsem 4