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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPRB Minutes090110WUP Parks and Recreation Board MINUTES SEPTEMBER 1, 2010 6:30PM TYPE OF MEETING Monthly Meeting CHAIR Russ Schulze SECRETARY Mardi Turner REC CENTER - CONFERENCE ROOM Russ Schulze, Mardi Turner, Teresa Edmondson, Janine Schueppert, John ATTENDEES Cadena, Leah Ragiel, Sona West, Charles May, Kevin Boyle, Tim O'Connor (staff) VISITORS Dick Yehle, George Boehme (Council) 1. Call to Order: The meeting was called to order at 6:33 pm by Russ Schulze, Chair. II. Review and Approval of Minutes of the August 11, 2010 meeting: The minutes were approved as submitted. III. Citizen Comments Dick Yehle: Wants to address the alcohol issue. He generally supports making it available, but suggests that we need to consider several cases: 1) distribution or sale in association with an organized event; 2) personal use at organized events such as concerts; 3) commercial sales through the Colonial Park concession stand. IV. Proposed 2011 Parks and Recreation Fee Schedule Tim has submitted a summary statement from our last meeting along with a revised schedule to Council. There were no changes and no opposition to the proposal. However, this was a workshop session and two further public readings are required before the fee schedule is officially approved. Council wants to wait until after budget workshop later this month, so both readings will probably take place in October. Staff is pulling together missing parts of 0&M budget and has requested direction from Council on desired level of recovery of expenses. Teresa thinks we should make a recommendation on the recovery level to Council, based on information from other communities and on actual costs. There was a discussion about extending the hours at Colonial Park, both during the summer and during the "shoulder" seasons in the spring and the fall. • Tim and Brittany are trying to get commitments from lifeguards to be in as early as 9:30 am on Saturdays. Friday evenings are difficult. • Leah and Janine suggested that residents might want to sponsor school events both for the end of the school year and for "meet and greet" parties at the beginning of the year. • Charles asked about extending hours during the summer. Leah and Teresa agree. Tim said that it's primarily a cost consideration. It costs about $1100 per hour for staff. We have pretty good data that tells us what days have lower attendance, Parks and Recreation Board Minutes page 2 which would tell us what days to open earlier, stay open later. They have identified some slow days as well and may consider switching in-service and maintenance to those slow days. • George Boehme: The first season is basically over. It's hard to imagine how anyone can look at the two facilities and say they are anything other than a great success. It is really unusual that we have as good cost recovery as we do. Cities have goals in the 35-50% range. We need to get the message out. Nobody else does this. • George also said that he is really happy with the way fees have turned out and he doesn't think that Council will have any issues with the new fee schedule. V. Discussion regarding sale and consumption of alcohol at Colonial Park Pool, Community Building/Senior Center, Scout House, and Recreation Center Russ started by saying that this shouldn't be one blanket discussion. There are a number of different situations which need to be addressed separately. Tim urged us not to exercise just our own beliefs. We need to find out what the community at large wants. The large majority of adults at Colonial Park thought it would be nice to get a glass of wine or a beer. Janine stated that we need a process and we need concrete legal advice. What do other communities do? Perhaps we could survey the community. Tim will distribute the information from the 2006 discussion and we will discuss this at the next meeting. We can then make a report to Council and ask for direction. VI. Appointment of a Parks Board Sub-Committee to assist staff in developing "Party Packages" for municipal rental facilities Tim distributed a flyer for packaged themed kids' parties from the Frisco Athletic Center. He is looking for a group of people to put some thoughts together on what kinds of packages our community might be interested in, and how best to market the service. Janine suggested asking the Friends Guild members to brainstorm with some folks from the Parks Board. Charles, Janine and Sona volunteered to represent the Parks Board. Sona agreed to organize the meeting. VII. Discussion of Parks Board duties and responsibilities Janine suggested that we need to get improve attendance at meetings and that it might be worth making some phone calls to find out about board members who are not attending meetings regularly. She said that we need to make decisions about how and how often we liaise with the community, such as visiting our parks and talking to park goers. Kevin indicated that he was comfortable with starting at the detail level, but that we might need to start at a higher level. What does the charter for the Parks and Recreation Board say? What were we told when we signed up to serve? Each of us might be able to contribute in different ways. Tim said that he hears from only three out of the eleven board members on a reqular Parks and Recreation Board Minutes basis. From a staff standpoint, they would appreciate a little more feedback. Kevin provides lots of feedback and seems to go to all of the parks. It's painful to get a report card from the board once a month. He would prefer to hear from us more often about what is going on. Sona feels that the board members need more direction. Are there specific tasks or projects at hand, or even long term, that we need to focus on? Kevin thinks that we need to get direction from Council and staff. Teresa feels that we need some specific goals and objectives, so that we can assess how we performed as a board. Tim stated that the alcohol policy, party packages and input on hours of operation are all important initiatives. Teresa suggested that we might need some inspiration, like a land acquisition project. She recommended that we appoint a subcommittee to develop goals and objectives. Leah thought we might be able to do some scientific polling. Teresa suggested we might look at PR for the parks in general. Janine proposed an end of season bash at Colonial Park to celebrate its success. Tim remarked that the goals and objectives need to be for the board itself. Staff is fully occupied with their existing duties. VIII. Friends Board Report - Leah Ragiel - see attachment #1 IX. Staff Reports - Tim - see attachment #2 X. Board Reports Kevin: A Russian nanny has posted an advertisement on back of one of the park signs. Teresa: There is a piece of PVC coming out about a foot from the floor in the ladies shower at the Recreation Center. It is not grouted or caulked. John: Some of the people using the weight/cardio area don't know what they are doing. They need to be trained. Tim asked that any issues be reported to staff. John suggested that there need to be some signs regarding proper use and care of equipment Sona: The yoga classes are getting rave reviews. John: Gave a brief overview of what might be included in Park Ambassador goodie bags: sunscreen, Junior Park Ambassador badge. He also suggested that we sell branded items, such as water bottles and towels, as part of certain classes. XI. New Business - none XII. The meeting was adjourned at 8:55 pm. The next meeting is scheduled for October 6, 2010 @ 6:30 pm in the conference room at the Recreation Center. Parks and Recreation Board Minutes Daae 4 ZEIi 1 Friends of West University Place Parks Fund, Inc. CHAIR OF FRIENDS REPORT TO THE PARKS BOARD Submitted by Leah Ragiel September 1, 2010 Organizational • Robin McGowan, who has moved to London, has resigned from our board, • A motion was made and seconded to appoint Anne Freeman and Courtney Archer to our board. This will be taken to City Council on September 13tH • Tim has formed the Judson Park Renovation Sub-committee which will have its first meeting on September 24th to begin the selection process for that project. • We signed a check today to the City for the last remaining monies pledged for the Colonial Park Pool project. It is for just shy of $200,000. Fathers & Flashlights • After 11 days of registration, Fathers & Flashlights has sold out and has 15 families on the waiting list. • We have 268 dads and 478 kids set to attend the October camping event. • Underwriting is still open. We have raised $31,250 in underwriting and are still approaching businesses. October 1 st is the payment deadline. • A new fundraising tool has been introduced: The Century Family. Families donating an extra $100 get a special sign on their yard sign and tent. Eighteen families have decided to be Century Families so far and we can foresee this growing with future events. • Chairs for next year's Fathers & Flashlights event have been secured. They are Sarah and Chip Edgecomb; Dax & Maggie Garzas and Amanda and J.R. McGee. Park Lovers' Ball • Auction letters have been mailed. • Underwriting packets, which we have changed up with a fresh look and less paper, will be mailed in October. September 26th Event • The recognition event for retiring chair, Joni Fichter, has been moved to the Rec Center due to weather concerns. It will now be held from 7 - 9 pm. • City Council has given us permission to serve alcohol. • The event has three purposes: to recognizes Joni's significant contributions to Friends during her 9 year tenure as Chair of Friends (2001-2010); to announce her and her husband Mark as the Honorary Chairs of PLB 2011 and to thank past underwriters for their support. Business Partnerships • We have secured an arrangement with REI to provide 7% of sales to Friends for all on-line purchases made via our website link to theirs. It should be unrolling soon. Parks and Recreation Board Minutes Board Updates - September 1, 2010 ERROR: syntaxerror OFFENDING COMMAND: STACK: