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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFMinutes010709Friends of West University Place Parks Fund, Inc. Board Meeting Minutes January 7, 2009 Friends of West University Place Parks Board met on Wednesday, January 7, 2009, at the West University Place City Hall at 3800 University, in the Bill Watson Conference Room. The following were in attendance Board Members Executive Director Staff Joni Fichter Donna LaMond Tim O'Connor Debora Connelly Beth Lane City Councilman Guests Sue Hanna Not Present Eugene Le Susan Garofolo Elizabeth Karkowsky Judy Bouillion Chair's welcome - Joni Fichter • Joni Fichter called the meeting to order at 11:40 a.m. • Happy 2009! We hope your holidays were blessed. Lots of PLB letters, emails, follow-up, proofing, etc. Thanks to all who have been working so hard to collect auction items, get your tables together, secure donors, etc. We could not do it without you. Our goal is always 100% board participation and each of you have donated your time, talent, and resources throughout the year and we appreciate that! • Wier and Whitt Johnson Parks - PR events will be held to do ribbon cuttings/plaque dedications soon. Thanks to Elizabeth for getting this organized. • We received the resignation of Maria Elena Herbst. She has been a dedicated board member for many years but other commitments have prompted her resignation. She will still help with PLB decor, etc. • Joni and Donna will meet with board applicant Robin McGowan on Friday, 1/16/09. Both Adrienne Gordon and Julie Foster have been invited, too, and we are hopeful they will attend regarding joining our board. • Huffington Park meetings have gone well and we are underway on plans. See sample. • CeCe McCann's sister passed away and we set up a "fund" within the Friends account to earmark donations for those we'd like to honor or memorialize. We sent CeCe a note regarding this. This will be open to any who wish to contribute for others in the future and when a significant amount is reached, a park element will be done honoring all. • Congrats to WU PARD for their recognition city's top department for 2008. Tim's leadership was certainly part of the reason for their success and we appreciate the work of all! Parks and Recreation Report - Tim O'Connor Departmental update: November and December 2008 Park Planning Project: • The Municipal Bond Election was conducted on Tuesday, November 4, 2008. The Bond Package passed and involved a single Proposal for $13.8 M dollars exclusively for the re-development of the West University Recreation Center & Swimming Pool, the Colonial Park Swimming Pool and Recreation Center and the Community Building/Senior Center renovations. Specific elements of the re-developments have been identified. Council authorized the City Manager to engage the services of PGAL to serve as the project architect. • The redevelopment process will be performed as a CMAC project. • The Parks Board will review the conceptual plans for the re-developments and develop a recommendation to move forward to City Council. • Tellepsen has been selected and approved as the general contractor for the entire redevelopment project. • Bids for the Asbestos and Lead Paint abatement will be opened on 1/5/09 and a recommendation moved forward to Council that evening. There is a mandatory two-week permitting process required before the approved contractor can begin work at the WURC. Wier Park Playground Renovation Project: • Playground re-opened to the public on 10/3/08. • Due to the compressed footprint of the new playground systems, some additional green space was realized. However, the ground specifically around the play systems does not have any vegetative cover and when wet creates issues. Addressing this issue was approved in the 2009 budget and staff has met with a landscape architect requesting a quote for the application for suitable groundcover in the "scalped" areas around the playground/park benches. • Plans for a Playground Re-Opening Ceremony are being formulated. Whitt Johnson Park Tree House Playground Element: • Play structure opened to the public on 11/13/08. • Public opinion has been very favorable. • Received one letter of concern from a resident. Offer to meet this individual has been extended, but staff has not received a response. Park Acquisition Sub-Committee: • Sub-Committee continues to investigate identifying potential parkland within the identified area of WUP, specifically north from Bellaire Blvd. to Bissonnet, between Buffalo Speedway and Edloe. Parks & Recreation Operations: • A complete Due Diligence of all forty-seven of the City's HVAC systems has been completed and an in-house preventative maintenance program has been implemented. • Operation Sparkle, a program designed to improve the overall appearance of our neighborhood parks began in late October and will continue through 2009. • Work on preparing a DRAFT of a Parks Naming Rights Policy for review by the Parks Board. • A total of 92 Case-Tracker Work Orders were facilitated by the Facility and Park Maintenance Division. • Decision was made by the Parks Board and City Council to purchase a new pool heater for the Colonial Park Pool and keeping the pool open throughout the winter months. New heater was installed on 12/23/08 and is 100% operational. Decision has been very well received by our pool users. • Agreement was reached with the St. Johns Swim Team for their use of the pool, netting over $5K in additional revenue. o Average of 19 wet visits/day (pool visits only) o Average of 25 wet/dry visit/day (membership is an inclusive membership, so could be a wet or dry visit) o Average of 18 wet visits/day (pool visits only) o Average of 23 wet/dry visit/day (membership is an inclusive membership, so could be a wet or dry visit) • General feedback from public: • Have not received any major criticisms except that Jennifer Long & Penny Kroll say it is not warm enough. • One member stated that it was a waste (the new heater) because we did not have the thermal blankets to conserve the heat. • Most are very pleased with the new heater and that it has maintained the water between 81-83 degrees, even during cold weather. • Children/families have used the pool on warmer days, but it is fairly minimal usage from this user group. • Overall consensus is that everyone is happy we are open & maintaining the water temperature at a level that is conducive to most of our users. • No suggestions have been put in suggestion box regarding this topic (or any other topic). • The Fall/Winter leisure guide was mailed-out the week of November 24`h • Senior programming has been experiencing an increase in participation, specifically the low organized - no cost programs. • Work on the development of a Grant Application Plan, specifically for augmenting Friends efforts in funding park and playground improvements, continues. Staff is working with Stephanie Roman, Friends Board Member, on this effort. The emphasis will be on our neighborhood park acquisition and development, since County, State and Federal grants all require that non-residents must be allowed admission to recreational facilities built in whole or in part with their funding. • A tremendous amount of staff time has been devoted to researching and developing documents relative to the proposed park planning efforts. • The Annual Christmas Tree Lighting Program was conducted on December Vt and was a tremendous success. • Administrative staff is working with CLEAResult in creating benchmarks for our electrical and natural gas usage. This program is funded in part by CenterPoint Energy. The development of an Energy Master Plan for all municipal facilities is the goal of this effort. • Our Recreation Specialists attended the Gulf Coast Leadership Development Institute in Alvin, Texas on 11/5 & 6/08. • The Huffington Park Re-Development Citizen Planning Committee met on 12/5 and 12/08. A final redevelopment plan will be presented to the Friends and Parks Boards in January, with a recommendation moving forward to City Council to approve the plan. • Staff has been coordinating the WUP component of the 2009 Chevron Houston Marathon. The event will take place on Sunday, January 18, 2009 and the parks Board has been invited to participate in the breakfast and to watch the event from the City Hall vantage point. • The three ( 3 ) gates at Friends Park have been replaced and appear to be holding-up to the heavy use/abuse. This work was completely funded through the warranty. • The Parks and Recreation Department was recognized as the City's "Team of the Year" for 2008, by the City Manager and the Employee Development Committee. • Recreation Manager, Brittany Bakes, has been selected to serve as the Social Planning Chairperson of the National Recreation and Parks Associations 2009 National Aquatic Institute, to be held in Houston, Texas. Staff began vacating the WURC, with the Facility & Park Maintenance offices being temporarily relocated to the Public Works facility and the Corondo Court property serving as temporary storage for all salvageable equipment and supplies. All programs ceased effective on 12/31/08, with the exception of some limited Tri-Sports use of the athletic fields. • Staff is continuing their efforts in assuring full compliance with the Grame Baker Pool Safety Act. All Boards will be updated as we move forward. Approval of the Minutes and Sign-In Sheet - Judy Bouillion A motion was made by Elizabeth Karkowsky and seconded by Debora Connelly to approve the minutes as sent to all for our last meeting. The motion was carried. Executive Director's Report- Donna LaMond • Park Lovers' Ball 2009 - Primarily working on the invitation and specifically the underwriting listing. This requires a lot of time, effort, and coordination by many. Objective is to get the copy to the printer this afternoon. Susie will provide more details on the ball in her report. Pretty much all of my time at this point is spent on the ball. Lynne Goddard, who is handling ball reservations for us, and I are meeting with Renee Jones on the 14`h to go over details of the event regarding auction tracker and their role the night of the ball. As a reminder, we do have rooms block out at the ZaZa. If you wish to book a room in this block, you need to contact the ZaZa directly and make your reservation by 30 days from the event. After that, they will release the rooms for general reservations. Our SPECIAL rate is $199. • Attended Huffington Park Re-Development Project - Citizen Planning meetings on Dec. 5 and Dec. 12. • Helped prepare for and attended the Guild Coffee hosted by Diane Cain on Dec. 9. This was a well attended event and many thanks to Diane for opening up her lovely holiday decorated home for our coffee. The next guild coffee is scheduled for Feb. 17 at the home of Linsey Hasenbank. • Met with Matt Welch who owns Engravestone on December 15. This is the company that does our pavers for us. He will back in Houston on Jan. 15 to collect pavers for engraving. • We are scheduling interviews with board candidates, Adrienne Gordan, Julie Foster, and Robin McGowan (Jan. 16). Applications have been received by all three. We have received a letter of resignation from Maria Elena Herbst who has served on the board for many years and has chaired Park Lovers' Ball. • Under Old Business - Regarding business cards for board members, I passed along information from our board meeting where we decided we would provide business cards for board members to Susan White who is working on the cards for us. Treasurer's Report - Sue Hanna Sue distributed the 2008 year-end reports. Board Reports PR/Marketing - Elizabeth Karkowsky • 1 have developed a PR plan to get the word out about Park Lovers' Ball and the contributions of Friends and to sell tables and tickets. • The plan involves sending calendar listings to regional magazines including Modern Luxury Houston, Prime Living Magazine, and Paper City; • Press releases to the neighborhood print weeklies of Village News, Buzz, West U Examiner and Houston Chronicle Zone 9 and releases to the 4 local TV stations - KHOU, KPRC, ABC Channel 13 and FOX. • We have an Article in City Currents and West U at Your Leisure Activities • We are getting some media in-kind donations: • Instant News West U has developed an online ad that they will post to promote.The Buzz has offered a complimentary % page ad in their Feb. issue, which comes out early Feb. • 1 have developed a press release, which I am circulating for approval and will send out early next week including photos of Nick and Susie. • Our Park signs are ready for our Park Dedication at Wier Park and Park on Wakeforest and Carnegie. A date for dedication needs to be decided and we will invite press. Membership and Marketing - Debora Connelly No report Development (Grants & Foundations) - Stephanie Roman No report Park Lovers' Ball 2009 - Susan Garofolo Susie reported that the PLB is approaching quickly. Invitation are going to print today. Underwriting has reached $1 Special Projects/Wish List-Susan Sample No report Business Partners and E-Store - Beth Lane No report Friends Guild - Leah Ragiel No report City Council Report - Chuck Guffey (not present) • Council has approved the construction manager, Tellepsen Engineers selected from 7 applicants, and also approved the contractors for the asbestos and lead abatement at the Rec Center. Tellepsen is a well known and respected Houston firm and builds all of the YMCA's here. Demolition of the Rec Center should start at the end of January. Funds for the project have also been released for the start of construction. Considerable discussions are underway about the location of the pool, north or south of the new building. • Planning is underway for the Mayor's Breakfast near city hall in combination with the 2009 Chevron Houston Marathon which is being held on January 18. • West U will host the February 19, 2009 Harris County Mayors' and Councils' Dinner at Hotel Za Za. • Streetlight Project Final Phase II is scheduled to begin on January 5. CenterPoint plans to have four installation crews working in West U. The first area to be completed is bound by Buffalo Speedway, University, Kirby, and Bissonnet, with the exception of Annapolis, Charlotte, Lake and Fordham. These four streets possess conflicts with aerial utility lines. Estimated completion for this area is three to four weeks. Old Business - No old business. New Business • Whole Foods on Bellaire Blvd is hosting an evening event on Tuesday, January 12`h and has invited Friends to set up a booth. We will attend and promote the 2009 PLB. Bring the whole family. • Proposed layouts for the re-development of the Rec Center were discussed. The different proposals concentrated on the location of the pool structure and building in relation to the parking lot and fields/green space. Recommendations were sent to city council. Policy and Procedures for Naming of West University Park Public Facilities was distributed. Board members are asked to review for next meeting. The next Friends board meeting is scheduled for Wednesday February 4, 2009 at 11:30 at West University Place City Hall, 3800 University, in the Chambers. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 1:27 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Judy Bouillion, Secretary