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Park Board Minutes 2009 11-14-09 � o Yorkville Parks & Recreation Department Administration Office 201 W. Hydraulic St Yorkville, IL 60560 6305534357 Park Board Agenda - Special Meeting Saturday, November 14, 2009 9:00 a.m. — Special Park Board Meeting Administration and Recreation Office Call to Order: Chris Rollins called the meeting to order at 9:30 am Roll Call: Chris Rollins - yes, Ken Koch . yes, Debbie Horaz - yes, and Kelly Sedgwick — yes Vickie Coveny (arrived 9:45 am) 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 Park Designer — Laura Schraw Mayor Valarie Burd Alderman Joe Plocher (arrived 10:35 am - Noon) New Business: Goo/Selling Bart Olson noted that he wanted to hold a goal setting meeting and reminded the Board that they did not have to solve the goals in this meeting however they would work on the goals with staff. Chris Rollins went over their mission and vision statement, which is in the Master Plan. He said that in the last year they had some real success in meeting and realizing the vision. He said there had been recognition for the quality of their efforts and design efforts. He said that more than anything that going forward they needed to get their resource system stabilized. He noted that they however did not want to decrease their quality efforts. Discussion: 1 . Operations during new economy Programs and Services that meet & renew projects 1 Balance of park planning without new developments 2. Land-cash budgeting Accurate picture of budget slate Long term planning 3. Grant Administration Completion of current grants Rollins said that there had to be a match with grants etc. He would like grants in the pipeline and spend more attention and resources towards getting our paperwork done so that they could get paid by the state. Mayor Burd explained how the grant process worked. Deb Horaz said going forward they should save more money and not go out on such a limb on some projects. 4. Fund Balance in Parks and Recreation. New Programming — event disaster possibilities mitigation Build it Olson said they needed to put some of their own money into the fund. He said they needed to have 15 or 25% of their yearly operating budget in a fund balance for a rainy day fund. 5. Programming Financial Reporting Staffing Levels vs Financial Performance Resources vs Financial Performance Public Use vs Financial Performance Kelly Sedgwick said bringing in more programs would allow them to make more money. Rollins noted they should look at all sides of programming; what are their strengths and weaknesses were. b. Program Agreement Continue current agreements 7. Festivals/Events Kayak/canoe & White water Frisbee Golf tournaments Softball 2 Antiques/Flea Market Hunting and Fishing tournaments Bike Races Car Show 5K and 8k run/walk races Triathlons/kayak's on the river Basketball/ 3 on 31 travel team Ethnic Festivals Oktoberfest Haunted house/Halloween festival/Fall Festival Tractor show PNA Camp Lumber lack Activity Indian Heritage Day Sue Swithin said that she would look into getting some of these programs kicked off especially the kayak and canoe activities were going to be their priority. Rollins said we should do something more collaborative but to put on the activities ourselves. 8. Program/Event Marketing Tim Evans said that they should do better marketing and play off of events already planned. Pork Planning Processes Laura Schraw handed out a memo; Olson requested be put together, on the Park Planning Process. Laura said her report listed which parks were left to be done and where they were at on each one in the planning process along with their deadlines. She noted they were also listed in priority as discussed with Sleezer however she said they could change. Chris Rollins thanked Laura for the memo because it gave them a better point of interaction and let them know where they stood in the planning process; he encouraged the Board to keep this with their master plan information. Laura then highlighted her project list and noted that she felt that the master plan did not need to be updated. She felt it was not a priority at this time and the Board agreed. 3 Laura said they would update trail maps and some documents had to be updated, for example some parks now had names and the transportation plan would need to be added. Rollins recommended an appendix be added to list the changes before they did a whole full blown updated master plan. REC Center Chris Rollins said they should revisit some of the metrics of the business plan they put into place in the beginning. He felt they should try not to look at balancing that budget. He wanted to know what they could do to subsidizing the facility. He said we need to look at programming space and noted before the leasing of the REC Center they did not have a facility for their programs. Rollins reiterated they need to be good managers of their situation. Sue Swithin talked about maintenance issues that they have had at the center and said that there would always be some kind of issues. She said there is a lot of equipment, HVAC units, water heaters and water softeners and they were her responsibility to get them fixed when they need it. She noted those things were not going to go away. Olson said that they would have to make emergency repairs and those could not be budgeted for. She explained she had to spend money to make money and noted that people would not buy memberships to a club that was not in tip top shape with updated equipment and clean locker rooms. Kelly Sedgwick said that they should look at sponsorships so they could get upgraded equipment. Swithin said she would continue to look into that. The Board discussed on whether or not the REC Center would ever make money. Sue explained everything that went on at the REC Center and she encouraged any of the Board members to come out to the Center and see what it took to run the place and to see what it means to so many people. Deb Horaz said they were close to where they had to make decisions on the REC Center. The Board felt a referendum would fly in this economy. Swithin said at the end of this next fiscal year they could look at the deficit and see if things are turning around. She said 4 that every year she was hoping she could reduce the deficit every year or every two years. She said her goal was to reduce that deficit. Mayor Burd said that she was still 100% for the REC Center. She said she that she never thought the Center would be 100% sustainable and noted that they would always need a facility for recreation. Swithin went over her changes that she is making now until April and what next years plans were. She said that she was making staff changes on staff and operations budget. She noted she reduced staff hours and would be moving staff from this building to the REC Center. Swithin noted that she needed two people on at the REC Center at all times. Swithin said she would a better handle on her budget this year with her instructors and noted they were at 50% right now and 50% of their budget. She said her general maintenance would go down because she had large onetime expenses this last year that they would not have this next year. She said the budget is quite different and she said she would be watching the budget very closely. Swithin felt that the budget would get better and better every year. Meeting Schedule for 2010 Bart Olson said there were some thoughts of having one meeting a month versus two. Ken Koch said that the two meetings they have now run long so he felt that they should keep it at two. The Board members felt that they still needed two meetings a month especially with the lack of board members and two meetings were needed in order to get the bills paid. Kelly Sedgwick said they may have to come up with an attendance policy. He felt if you sit on the board you need to be committed board meetings. The Board went over the meetings for 2010. They decided the November meetings for 2010 would be the 4' and 18" and December would be the 2na and 18". Directors Search Chris Rollins talked about the process in searching for a new director. He felt they were not in a huge hurry. Koch said he read in the paper that they were not replacing the director. Mayor wanted to know the Boards thoughts on this. 5 Rollins wanted to know if there would be a best time for the search and wanted to be sensitive to the City's budget. He wanted to know if getting a director in at a prorated salary would be the way to go. Mayor Burd said that she was hoping to hire another financial person. She said the Director and the City Administrator positions were appointed positions and she was appointing Olson to the City Administrator Position and there would be a City Council vote. Mayor Burd said she was in support of the search of for a director. Rollins said that they need to set criteria on what kind of person they are looking for. Rollins was in favor of making a more extensive search and felt that they could possibly promote within. Rollins felt we could spend the majority of one of our upcoming meetings on what they were looking for. Sue Swithin said she felt that things had gotten better with Olson and got the privilege of finding out where numbers where at in working with him. Rollins talked about hiring within because after all a new person would have to learn what was going on and be able to work closely with Scott and Sue. He said he did not want to overlook any possibilities. Rollins said that they should possibly look at reorganizing responsibilities for everyone especially with the let go of certain personal. Code Blue Internet Viewing Scott Sleezer said that they were having problems viewing the camera from their home however they could pull it from any city computer. Sleezer said he would email the board the address so they could log on and look. The unit its self is up and running Sleezer said. They do weekly maintenance on the unit as well. Protocol, Policies, and Procedures Vickie Coveny said she would like the Board to put their ideas into new parks before they were planed out by staff. Bart Olson said that they should maybe have a global discussion on concepts of the parks in the future. He said that any time the Board wanted to change the process in which they plan a park that was up to them. 6 Deb Horaz said she would like to see the direction of parks change a little bit because she felt not every park should have a playground. She said there should be open space or trees in some and something more for the eye. It was brought up, stated in the Mast Plan, residents wanted parks with playgrounds. Ken Koch said that the Master Plan was more of a plan and it did not have to be followed and they were free to change anything within its guidelines. Sleezer said they take concepts to the public and then takes them to the board. He noted they would not want to have a sculpture park in the middle of a neighborhood. He said that people are telling them they want play grounds. Horaz said that they would like more of a variety of parks. Sleezer reminded the board that the reason they theme their parks is because that they did not want every park to be the same. Coveny said she would eventually like to see the code blue device in every major park. Additional: Kelly Sedgwick noted he gave Bart some information about some portable lighting devices. He said the nice thing about the devise is that it tells you how far away the lighting is. Adjournment: Ken Koch asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting at 1 :05 pm. Deb Horaz made the motion and Kelly Sedgwick seconded the motion. The motion was unanimously approved by voice vote. Next meeting: Thursday, December 3, 2009 *items needing Board approval or recommendation Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Jamie Cheatham 7