Park Board Minutes 2009 08-27-09 Yorkville Parks & Recreation Department awe
Administration Office 201
W. Hydraulic St Yorkville, IL 60560 6305534357
Park Board Meeting Agenda
Parks and Recreation Administration Office
August 27, 2009 7:00 p.m.
Call to Order: Ken Koch called the meeting to order at 7:20 pm
Roll Call: Ken Koch -Yes, Kelly Sedgwick- Yes, Garrick Gillette-Yes and Vickie Coveny- Yes
Introduction of Guests, City Officials and Staff:
Interim Director of Parks and Recreation — Bart Olson
Superintendent of Recreation — Sue Swithin
Superintendent of Parks — Scott Sleezer
Ward 2, Alderman Gary Golinski (arrived 7:51 pm)
Public Comment:
None
Presentations:
None
Approval of Minutes:
Park Board-August 13, 2009"
Ken Koch asked for a motion to approve the minutes of August 13, 2009. Garrick Gillette made
the motion and Kelly Sedgwick seconded the motion. The motion was unanimously approved by
voice vote.
Bills Review:
Cosh Analysis & Bill List"
Bart Olson noted the memo that Barb put out, listing the reasons why people received refunds for
classes they signed up for. Olson said that they made up a column for reasons for refunds and
one evaluation was for expectations not met. One unmet expectation included people getting into
a class which was different than they thought it would be. Another complaint was that running
was a part of the curriculum, and there were individuals who did not like to run.
Ken Koch asked for a motion to approve the cash analysis and bills list. Kelly Sedgwick made the
motion and Vickie Coveny seconded the motion. The motion was approved by voice vote: Ken
Koch - Yes, Kelly Sedgwick- Yes, Vickie Coveny— Yes and Garrick Gillette—Yes
Old Business:
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Fox Hill West Park Naming Request*
Bart Olson asked for the Boards direction on what they to do with the naming request put forth by
Bob Allen. Olson recommended submitting the new policy to Allen.
After the Board discussion, they felt that Allen should invite one of the Bretthauer's to come before
the board and ask Allen to submit the additional materials per the revised Park Naming Policy.
Olson said he would go to Allen with the Board's direction.
Jaycee Pond Ownership
Bart Olson said it was still available for purchase from the YSBD. Olson said he talked to Ralf
Pfister and he had expressed some interest in trading the ownership of the Jaycee Pond parcel for
the waiver of fees that the YBSD paid the City for a number of years. He said the YSBD paid
about $70,000 per year to process and collect all YBSD bills, and the number was expected to
increase to above $125,000 next year.
Olson said that they could pay for an appraisal for the property and then start negotiating for a
payment. He noted that the Mayor was not in favor of this. He said if they did that, they would
have to acquire their own funds for the properly. He went on to say that if this were long term,
Pfister was willing to take a decrease to his fees perhaps over 20 to 30 years then the City then
would consider it. However, the Parks and Recreation would take most of the financial hit. Olson
said that is something the City would look at however just to do the appraisal it would be a
couple hundred dollars.
Scott Sleezer said that they had been mowing the property for at least four times a year and had
kept it usable for the last 18 to 20 years.
Olson said it was not really something they should pursue right now because of the budget. It is
open for public access and someday it would be a good idea to take title of it.
Park Review— Grand Reserve Parks A & 8, Stepping Stones Park & Rotary Park
Bart Olson asked the Board if they still felt the way they were reviewing the parks was acceptable
to all of them. They agreed that it was easier for them to look at the parks on their own time
rather than decide upon a time they could all get together and look at them.
Scott Sleezer said that they would like to take video of each park. Ken Koch felt that those videos
should be posted on their website with directions on how to get there so they could be available
to the public. Olson said it was something they definitely would like to do.
Koch asked after Park A & B, Stepping Stone Park, and Rotary Park was completed how many
parks in Grand Reserve had to be done? Scott Sleezer said that there was Park C in Grande
Reserve but he did not believe it had to be developed. He said that there is nothing wrong with
having green space there where kids could go out and play and fly kites. Sleezer said it was 5
acres about a block away from Stepping Stone Park.
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Athletic Field Policy Revisions*
Ken Koch said they changed some wording in the policy. Bart Olson went over the changes
outlined in his memo.
First of all, Olson said, they combined categories "D" "E" and "F" into one category "D". This
was done to simplify the categories. He also said that all participants in category "A" had to be
Yorkville residents.
Olson said they also changed the lighting times of the fields. He noted that they moved the
lighting shut off times to an earlier time due to resident complaints. Olson said that the games
had to end at a certain time and the lights had to be shut off at a certain time so they could get
everyone out of the parks at a reasonable hour.
Garrick Gillett recommended getting the software to get the lights shut off at a certain time if it
became a problem getting people out of the parks at a reasonable hour. Sleezer said it would
be a possibility; however, they would have to purchase software for that.
The next change Olson reviewed were the rental fees outlined in his memo. Olson noted that they
had to raise the fees due to the cost of maintenance. Sleezer said that they looked at what other
City's were charging.
Olson talked about the non-resident fees and went over the changes in the categories.
They increased the tournament fees by $50.
Scott Sleezer said that he would like to add the verbiage in the Athletic Field Use Priorities
regarding the drop-in use play. He would like it to say, "Drop-in use is limited to 2 hours once a
week to any organized group."
He said there were a couple of reasons he and Tim would like to add this to the policy. He said
that they are starting to add to the premium. They were starting to get baseball groups and other
groups wanting to use the space every day. He further said that the issue they were having is that
practices by these groups were putting wear and fear on their fields. He said they felt that they
should have some control over how much use they get. Sleezer said his concern did not include
the hypothetical dad who wanted to pitch to his son every day. His concern was with the eleven
soccer players that want to show up every day to play or groups that wanted to do line practice
or baseball drills every day for a month long.
He felt some organizations could get around their fee schedules by saying they know no one is
out on the fields every day, meanwhile they are creating wear and tear on the field and for that
they should be paying fees.
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Vickie Coveny wanted to know how they would monitor these groups. Sleezer said that they knew
they were out there because they see them while they are working. Sleezer said it was a matter
of them going up to them to address them regarding the athletic field reservation policy. Sleezer
said he would like this to be added to the policy. That way, they would have an ability to tell
them it was not allowed and that they needed a way to control it.
Sleezer reiterated that the major change he wanted to make was to limit play and practice to
once a week to organized play.
Sue Swithin brought up a good point in that this is an Athletic Field Space Policy and now there is
an issue with field space versus open space.
Sleezer said that parks had not been torn up but said it would happen. For example, the front of
Beecher would be used for drills. He said they had to find some way to control this. Swithin said
they could define areas that could be used as athletic fields and there was some Board discussion
about combining the Park Policy to this one.
Sleezer said organized groups should pay and Garrick Gillette agreed. He felt he should get
ahead of the problem before the problems came to fruition.
Coveny felt that if a park was getting over use, they should post a sign saying this park is not
being used for organized play at this time.
Sleezer reiterated why he wanted to do it now. He said that there was an organization out there
right now doing this and he wanted to stop it and was looking for Boards approval.
Kelly Sedgwick wanted to have Sleezer come up with a couple ways to add the verbiage he
wanted to add to the policy and bring it back to the next meeting. He felt that the wording
needed the to state
"organized groups."
Sleezer said that he welcomed the Boards ideas and said he would bring it back.
New Business:
YYBSA Agreement for 2010*
Bart Olson said there were five significant changes and they were listed on the memo.
1 . Olson said the first concern was the concern over fields being reserved by the YYBSA but
not using them. He said that they suggested they be required to notify the City of any
changes by 9:00 am the Friday before the week in which their changes would take place.
Sleezer said that they are making up rain games within the same week when it would be
much more efficient to do them the following week. He felt that they could have one field
they held out that they rented out and that would solve the problem of other organizations
that wanted some filed time. Ken Koch felt that was a good idea for them to make up rain
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games the following week and said it should not be a big deal since they used to make up
the games at the end of the year.
Vickie Coveny felt the available fields should be listed online and organizations should be
able to pay with their credit card right on line for convenience. Sleezer thought it would
be a good idea to list them every Monday what fields were open.
2. Alderman Gary Golinski said that there should be two separate agreements here and that
the travel section should not even be a part of this agreement. He noted that Yorkville tax
payers were subsidized 50% of the children from other areas in Kane County to play on
our fields. He felt they should be paying rental fees. Sleezer agreed that it was a good
point and asked the Board how they felt if they doubled the fees for travel players.
Golinski felt 50% in the fee was not unreasonable and said it should be addressed
somehow and it would create more revenue.
After some discussion the Board felt that it would be acceptable that the fees should be
outlined as follows: $10 per player and $20 for each traveler player.
3. Scott Sleezer asked if they wanted to raise the tournament fee to $1000 from the
proposed $900. Kelly Sedgwick said felt if the maintenance fees had not gone up they
should not raise the fee to $1000. Coveny felt they should raise it to $1000 and Koch
said they should keep it at the proposed $900 this year and raise it gradually and
perhaps raise it another $100 next year.
4. Sleezer noted that they would like to change when YYBSA paid their fees. He felt 50% by
March 1" and the other 50% by May 1" rather than 100% by March 1". He said they
wanted to do it that way for budget and accounting reasons. He said it would end the
fiscal year strong and starts off the new year's line item with revenue.
5. Sleezer said that the other change was that tournament dates must be set by November
30'h of the previous year.
6. Olson said that they would be clarifying the standards for allowable advertising by TTBSA
on the City ball fields.
Advertising on Bosebo//Pie/ds
Bart Olson said they touched on advertising on baseball fields it before, and they had talked
about putting side banners on their outfield walls at Beecher Park and Bridge Park. He said that
the proposed banners would be placed under the scoreboard from March through October; two
at Beecher and three at Bridge field.
Olson said that, per the zoning code, advertising is not allowed. He stated that he would take the
Board's proposal to the City's Economic Development Committee to amend. Currently, the YYBSA
has been violating the City's sign code.
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Olson iterated that they could do anything on their own property as long as it was related to the
program or event.
Olson asked for the Board's approval to amend the sponsorship policy that was included in the
packet. He said they would include an approval to put advertisements on the actual outfield and
we could start soliciting for it.
Garrick said he was not a fan of littering the back stop with signage, but is in favor of using the
outfield fences for advertisements. Koch also felt that signs would clutter up the back stops and,
felt they should start with selling fence space. Olson said that they were missing out on revenue if
they did not advertising on the backstops.
Olson proposed that prices for the banners on the fences should be $600 per season. He also
noted that they were proposing $2,000 per season for a banner to be placed under the
scoreboard.
Sue Swithin passed out an idea of what the signs could look like and thought they should be all
uniform in size and look. The Board said they liked the uniform look and concluded that the size
of the banners were acceptable.
Swithin said that there were three spots to a backstop and felt that they could advertise on the
immediate left and right. Olson said that the staff would decide where to place the advertisements
once the space was sold.
Olson is looking for a recommendation to amend the code to say where the signs could be
posted. Ken recommended getting banner space sold on the fences first to see how it went.
Ken Koch asked for a motion to allow staff to pursue banner space to be sold on the backstops
and fences. Kelly Sedgwick made the motion and Vickie Coveny seconded the motion. The
motion was unanimously accepted by Ken Koch, Kelly Sedgwick, and Vickie Coveny with Garrick
Gillette opposing to selling space on the backstops.
Code Blue Unit— Update
Scott Sleezer said the unit was up and operational and it was currently getting hooked into the
emergency equipment. He said that the camera was operating and was hooked into Ameritech
and could be viewed remotely. He said he had tested it and looked at it from his computer. He
did say, however, that it was not open to the public for viewing.
Kelly Sedgwick asked if it was a fixed camera. Sleezer said it was a fixed camera that pans.
However, when someone hits the button, the camera is programmed to look down to record who
pressed the button.
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Sleezer reported that by next week the unit would be fully operational.
Leose of Riverfront Buildings—Discussion"
Bart Olson said that he had two separate companies interested in touring the preschool building
and river front building. He wanted the Board's direction on whether or not they would entertain
the idea of leasing either of these buildings out.
Olson said he was looking for a user agreement from the Board. He further said they could talk
about a price in closed session but had to talk about use in open session.
Olson noted that he would rather not lease the buildings because there is a lot of undeveloped
land around the outside in the TIF district. He said the one thing that they would lose, in a TIF
district standpoint, is that if anything is located on a City property, the City would not see any
jump in property value there because they could not charge property taxes. He said there would
not be any added benefit to the downtown as a whole for redevelopment. The other thing, from a
logistical standpoint, is that there are two perfectly situated buildings right in the middle of the
park on perhaps one of the biggest kayaking attractions around. He said there would be plenty of
opportunities for others to move in elsewhere; however they had talked about renting out kayaks
and perhaps leasing it out to a business.
Vickie Coveny said that they once talked about having an ice cream shop in the park. Scott
Sleezer felt they should lease it out for something to do that or do it themselves. Garrick Gillette
pointed out that if they did run their own ice cream shop they would be only making money seven
months a year.
Olson said that the lease could be short term, for example for five years. Olson said that there
had been many calls from kayakers who are interested in renting the building for business. Olson
said that there would be some limitations to their lease, etc.
Koch and Sedgwick said that they are in favor of leasing the buildings. The Board talked about
the pros and cons of leasing for a short term lease agreement and they were in favor of
discussing its pricing.
Olson said that in the next meeting they would discuss in an executive session pricing and go
from there.
Reports:
Director's Report
Bart Olson went over a visual of the REC Center reports he put together. He showed a slide show
outlining the Parks & Recreation Budget Discussion.
Olson went over the pie chart that he handed out in a previous packet. He noted that the pie
chart was for the previous year. It showed how much they were spending on maintenance versus
part-time salaries. The graph also showed other expenses and their values.
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Next, Olson showed the pie chart from the current year's budget and pointed out how not much
had changed from the year before. He then showed the pie chart for the next year's budget and
this one showed property tax at 8%.
Olson then showed a graph of the Membership Revenues Actual Compared to 1/10" or 1/12'h
of budget estimates. It showed when memberships spiked.
Next, a graph and line chart showed that there were about 30 or 40 different choices in
memberships. The graph showed the different pass types and how they differed from one another
in revenue they brought in. Olson showed some of the memberships broken down and how they
compared to each other.
Olson pointed out how the premiere membership and long-term memberships were their biggest
revenue making pass types.
Olson said that they budgeted last year for $330,000 and that they were going to end up with
about $320,000; the new fiscal year they budgeted for about $400,000 and it is really adding
on two extra months of revenue. He said their expected deficit should be about $77,000; the
amount of money they had in membership revenues that fluctuates up and down will show how
well they are doing at the REC Center.
Olson said he went through each membership and calculated how much they paid last fiscal
year, how much they paid this fiscal year as well as how much they would spend next fiscal year.
Olson said that the membership revenue could make or break the budget, however he felt
confident that they would do well.
Olson said that he would get the Board a copy of the spreadsheet; they could familiarize
themselves with it and therefore recognize changes he would be making to it.
Pocks Report
Scott Sleezer said that he pointed out that they used all the flowers off the float they put together
from the parade. He said that they planted the materials from the float around City Hall.
Sleezer reported that they had been pruning a lot of trees and shrubs around the City. He also
said that they were looking into planting certain things to keep the geese away.
Parks Designer Report
Scott Sleezer went over the Park Designer's report. He said that he and Hooke attended Go to
2040 Workshop at the Health Department on August 12' and did an online class.
He said Laura was working on the Integration Transportation Plan and noted that the document
went to to Council on 8/8 for approval.
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Sleezer said that he and Haake set up the Bristol Bay meeting for September I O'h from 5:30 to
7:00 and he would bring meeting details back to the Board.
Additional Business:
1 . Ken Koch said he was personally addressed regarding the men's basket ball program. He
said he wanted details so he could relay facts when he was confronted.
Koch was concerned that the fee went from $725 last year to $935 this year. Bart Olson
said some referee costs had gone up. Koch wanted to know what those costs were so he
could forward the appropriate information.
Sue Swithin reported that they hardly ever made 10 to 11% profit at $725. Swithin listed
all the costs of balls, trophy's, etc. Swithin said there are always two officials a game.
Referees were making $25 per game when she it broke it all down.
Swithin noted that they were looking at getting a 30% profit and they had to raise $725
to $935 to make that profit margin. She reiterated that a 30% profit was the direction the
Board had given her and her staff.
Swithin said the men's basket ball was the only program that had a significant fee
increase.
The Board had some concerns that people would not sign up if the fees were too high and
Swithin said that is something they would watch closely.
2. Bart Olson said Hometown Days was next weekend and they still needed volunteers for
Friday night's beer tents from 4pm to l Opm. Board members were asked to contact Scott
Sleezer.
Adjournment
Ken Koch asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting at 10:36 pm. Kelly Sedgwick made the
motion and Vickie Coveny seconded the motion. The motion was unanimously approved by voice
vote.
Executive Session:
None
Next meeting: Thursday, September 10, 2009
Respectfully Submitted by:
Jamie Cheatham
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