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HomeMy WebLinkAbout20 09 PRB minutesMINUTES SEPTEMBER 16 , 20 20 6:30PM TELECONFERENCE TYPE OF MEETING Monthly Meeting CHAIR Peter Billipp SECRETARY Mary McCulloch ATTENDEES Members Present: Peter Billipp, Will Bertron , Mary McCulloch, Mardi Turner, Maryann Grahamann, Lindsey Swiger, Laura Turley, Nina Pilson Members Absent: Brett Bingham, Sami Morrison, Jeff Chen Staff: Susan White Council Liaison: Mayor Pro Tem Kevin Trautner was unable to attend VISITORS I. Call to Order: The meeting was called to order at 6:35 pm by Peter Billipp . II. Approval of May 6 th Meeting Minutes: Laura Turley made a motion to approve with Mardi Turner seconding the motion . The minutes were approved. III. Citizen Comments : No citizen comments . IV. Friends Update: Sami Morrison Sent by email from Sami : We made the difficult decision to cancel F athers and Flashlights (FNF), but are encouraging families to camp at home on Nov 7th, in the spirit of the event. The Camp at Home event is being generously sponsored by Gibson Dunn. Please stay tuned for more details to follow. We are encouraging families to donate to Friends given the cancellation of our second largest fundraiser and the uncertainty surrounding Park Lovers Ball. A link was sent out with the constant contact email announcing the cancellation of FNF. Kara Schaefer has rolled off the board. She was appointed to the b oard in January of 2014 and served as FNF co-chair in 2015 and 2016. We are grateful for her years of service. Anna Stewart is rolling off the board and onto the advisory board. She wants to stay involved and we welcome her continued support, just in a n ew capacity. Anna has been like a right hand to Donna and has been instrumental in the ball each year going back to 2014 when she was first appointed to the board. She has been the primary person to oversee mobile bidding, check in and check out at the bal l. We cannot say thank you enough for all that she has done for Friends over the years. We have some board members who have agreed to renew their board positions and their reappointment is on the Council Consent Agenda for September 14. They are Michelle Huth, Matthew Foytlin, Stephen Olson, Judy Cheng and Mark Prescott. V. Council Update: Mayor Pro Tem Kevin Trautner Unable to attend. VI. Parks & Rec Update: Susan White 1) COVID Impacts – heavily impacted with operations and new ways of doing things. Thankful to get the pools and rec centers open at 50% occupancy to control capacity Parks and Recreation Board Minutes page 2 levels. Running the colonial park pool season later than usual is possible because life guards have more s chool and activit y flexibility due to COVID. Resurfacing of the pool went great. Nina commented that she has been there a lot and everyone is very positive about the experience and how well the pool has been done this summer. She loves the new slide and Wally to o. 2) Colonial Park East – Beginning to install the new sand area. Brooks is doing a great job coordinating all the vendors on this large project. There is a website for the public to check out updates. 3) Survey Update - Dr. Walker recommended waiting on the surv ey because questions need to be revised according to the situation in order to provide valid data. Meeting scheduled for the 24 th, ahead of the senior board meeting. Seniors have been doing an excellent job with virtual programming and d rive up options. On the other hand, traditional programming for children has suffered. More updates on the survey will be available as they happen. 4) Playground Openings – West U is within precinct 3 and many playgrounds around are open. Chief Aaron Taylor and Susan are working together to fully understand orders in effect and ensure we would be in compliance to reopen our playgrounds. The next city council meeting is expected to address this concern. Maryann explained that she thinks it should be a priorit y, especially as the weather continues to improve . She emphasized the need for playgrounds to be open sooner rather than later. Laura asked about the tennis courts and basketball nets. Susan said the amenities are actually open for tennis reservations and there is signage for using things at your own risk. Lindsey said that the tennis courts are being used more than ever and it’s great that they are open. The basketball hoops are still off because that is a contact sport. Lindsey wondered if there have been any discussions about sanitation stations. This was explained as an issue with maintenance and possible vandalization . Mary asked about capacity issues and how to manage the number of people in a playground. This will be part of the research Susan is conducting. VII. Events This year the Fun Run fundraiser needs to be cancelled. $28 -30k typically comes from this so it is an unfortunate event to have to cancel , but it is too congested with too many age groups who like to run together (spacing out groups not ideal). The county orders still say “no more than 10”. It will be brought back in 2021 for the 10-year anniversary. Working on options for the Halloween events and tree lighting ceremony. Brittany and staff are coming up with unique ideas. VIII. Park Ambassador Assi gnments:  Colonial Park East (Will) – it’s being heavily used and nice to see!  Colonial Park West (Nina)  Colonial Park Pool (Mary) – it’s all great!  Friends Pocket Park (Sami)  Huffington Park (Maryann)  JEH Park (Laura)  Judson Park (Jeff) Parks and Recreation Board Minutes page 3  Recreation Center Playground (Mardi)  Whitt Johnson (Brett)  Wier Park (Lindsey) No issues to be reported on the playgrounds that have been closed . IX. Order of Business: Peter Billipp, Chair Peter shared his screen to show everyone an interactive view Huffington Park, which is the next one slated for redevelopment project s. Looking into a rehab kind of tweaking vs. a complete overhaul of the equipment and layout. Great park for the younger kids and budget should be reasonable within $250k. A landscape architect wo uld be helpful in creating a new vision for this park that has good bones! Mardi pointed out that the crepe myrtles are trimmed and should not be. Susan explained these are in bad shape and may be removed anyway. Paver area needs to be redone due to retain ing water and should match the pavers in other parks. Roots under the tree area need to be addressed to prevent trip ping hazards. Will mentioned we should reduce the number of trees, raise the canopy of the trees and do something about the south edge of th e park being so dark. He said it would be nice to lighten that up with a lighter colored fence maybe. Will also said Texas A&M might be able to assist since we are already using them for the survey. X. Adjournment: Meeting adjourned at 7:30 p.m. Next meeting is tentatively scheduled for October 7, 2020.