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HomeMy WebLinkAboutParks And Recreation Board - Minutes - 01/27/2021 PARKS AND RECREATION ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR Date, Time: Wednesday, January 27, 2021, 5:30pm Location: Zoom meeting 1/27/2021 – MINUTES Page 1  1. CALL TO ORDER Catherine Carabetta called the meeting to order at 5:31pm. 2. ROLL CALL  Board Members Present  Catherine Carabetta – CoChair  Mary Carlson  Ken Christensen  Shari Heymann  Bob Kingsbury  Mike Tupa  Jesse Scaccia  Jeff Haber  Board Members Absent - Excused  Mike Novell  Staff Members Present  Kevin Williams – Senior Supervisor of Parks  Aaron Harris – Interim Director of Recreation  Kurt Friesen – Director of Park Planning & Development  Shanae Core – Business Support I/Board Support 3. AGENDA REVIEW  Welcome 2 new Board members: Jesse Scaccia; Instructor/PhD Student at CSU, and Jeff Haber; Founder/CEO at Kenxus.  Board elections will be held next month, February. 4. CITIZEN PARTICIPATION  No citizen participation. 5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES  Catherine suggested the following edits: Other Business – PP&D Update: Change and correct language in third sentence to “We noted it had some challenges with tree roots within the sanitary sewer system, but overall it is going well.” Kurt accepts the change Mary makes a motion to approve the minutes pending edits Ken seconds Motion passes 8-0 PARKS AND RECREATION ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 1/27/2021 – MINUTES Page 2 6. UNFINISHED BUSINESS 1. P & R Master Plan –– Kurt Friesen We are thrilled to announce that the P&R Master Plan was approved and adopted on January 19, 2021 by the City Council. We thank the Board for your review, thoughtful comments, and assistance with the plan. We feel very good about the project and are now looking forward to implementation of the plan. One of the the first steps is a review of potential funding source for asset management and refreshing our parks. We have conducted a meeting with key finance staff to brainstorm funding options (tax increase, special tax districts, amenity fees, etc.) and we will be updating the Board as the options develop. Board: How do we locate that plan? Staff: You may access the Parks & Recreation Master Plan by clicking this link: https://ourcity.fcgov.com/parksandrec We also have an executive summary that is about 30 pages. I would encourage the Board members to review this as it is a critical document that will be used to guide us over the next 10-20 years. Board: When is the next budget planning cycle? Staff: Normally, we have a 2-year cycle, but due to the pandemic the 2022 budget cycle planning will begin this spring in March and any adoption would take place in the fall of 2021. 2. Twin Silo Community Park Vandalism – Kevin Williams Unfortunately, vandalism has been continuing at the Twin Silo Community Park. The last major event was on Jan 8, 2021. There were racial slurs and inappropriate images painted on the restroom walls. In the past, the vandalism included the turf and trees being destroyed, large cobble stones being removed or displaced, broken windows and glass, fires being started, and the playground netting has been destroyed. The Director of Parks and the Chief of Police met recently to walk the park and to review a plan of action. In this action plan we are looking to enhance the rotations of our police force at our parks. The park staff will also be closing the restrooms at 6pm and slowly push back the closing time to something more manageable as we progress into the summer months. We also began implementing an action item through CPIO by using our social media outlets. On our social media platforms, we expressed concern for the Twin Silo Community Park and requested assistance from our neighbors. We are encouraging the public to act and if you see something, to please say something and reach out to alert the appropriate authorities. The response that we received was overwhelming and very positive. It was due to this action item that led the Channel 4 News Outlet to run a 7 second piece on the Twin Silo Park vandalism which has assisted us in raising additional awareness. PARKS AND RECREATION ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 1/27/2021 – MINUTES Page 3 Board: One of the best ways to mitigate vandalism is to add artwork like what the Art in Public Places does for our City’s utility boxes. Is this something that we have considered for our Parks? Staff: The Art in Public places works closely with other Departments to mitigate vandalism and we will certainly pass this suggestion up to leadership. Board: Have we attempted to work with the Fossil Ridge High School to assist us in our efforts to minimize the vandalism? Could we partner with the student council for assistance? What about offering multiple night programming events? Could we look into raising citizen awareness and engagement by offering a reward? Staff: We do work with the community services officers at the Fossil Ridge High School and we are working towards enhancing our partnership with them. We also use a contract security service and are looking to increase nightly patrols for our parks. We will pass on the student council, night programming and reward suggestions to leadership for review. 3. Annual Report Approval – Catherine Carabetta  Bob suggested the following edits: Remove the duplicate names for the 2020 Board Members in the first paragraph of the first page. Shari suggested the following edits: Correction the spelling of her first name to “Shari”. Catherine accepts the change Bob makes a motion to approve the minutes pending edits Mary seconds Motion passes 8-0 7. NEW BUSINESS 1. 2021 Programming Strategies – Aaron Harris The Recreation Department is now focusing on recovery from the pandemic level programming. It is exciting to say that we are adding programs back and increasing the services that we are offering to our community. We feel like we know how to manage the pandemic a little more easily in terms of what is expected of us and who to reach out to at the County and State levels. We do know that we will be able to open the City Park pool this year. We do not know what the exact restrictions will be or what that will look like, but this is something that we know we can offer now and do it in a safe way. Our summer camps were popular last summer and we were able to increase that capacity this summer by adding another facility. A lot of our outdoor programs will be coming back. In 2021, we are focusing on equitable and inclusive access to assist those who are low- income families and those who speak Spanish. We are also gearing up to publish our Spring Recreator very soon. The number to hard copy print will be limited for a variety of PARKS AND RECREATION ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 1/27/2021 – MINUTES Page 4 reasons, but this issue will be available online. We are also working with Parks Department to encourage our citizens to explore the parks and trails within our communities. 8. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS  FC Bikes – Mike Tupa No report.  Super Board Meeting – Bob Kingsbury The Super Board Meeting appeared to have some areas of concentration and those were realigning the types of boards, board name changes, joint board efforts to assist with a particular issue, absentee policies for members and how to gain interest from a variety of people to serve on the boards for the City.  Water Board Meeting – Bob Kingsbury The Water Board Meeting is currently evaluating the best way to manage the water runoff due to the loosened gravel from the fires last year. They are also reviewing the raw water shortage and attempts to prevent erosion near several Creekside sites. 9. OTHER BUSINESS  Recreation Update – Aaron Harris We are excited to announce that we are now opening the Epic Center on Sundays for limited hours. The pool demand has been so high that it is now financially feasible to open the pool there and this will help to offset some of the costs for this entire facility. The Foothills Activity Center will now be open on the weekdays from 10am to 4pm in addition to the existing open hours due to the increased demand for midday usage. This opening will also help offset low operating costs. The recreation staff are meeting with PSD to bridge some of the learning loss that has taken place over the last 11 months. We are looking to have some more learning enrichment activities to help lift and assist us with these gaps.  Park Planning and Development Update – Kurt Friesen The construction for the City Park restroom is nearing completion and should be finished within the next month. Final landscape enhancements and art installations will be completed in the spring. The East District Maintenance Facility is a new project that will be located at the corner of Drake and Ziegler. The building will be a net zero, high efficiency building. The design PARKS AND RECREATION ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 1/27/2021 – MINUTES Page 5 aesthetic is a modern agriculture building. We are currently in the design development stage. We are hoping to begin construction in the spring of 2021 and complete the project in fall of 2021. We are also working on Oak Street Plaza. The fountains have not been working for several years.. We are planning to reconfigure the ofuntains to address the issues, and anticipating the fountain renovation project will be complete by Memorial Day of 2021. There is a GOCO resiliency grant that we are pursuing to assist us with trail repairs and other exciting projects. We have a few repair projects identified throughout the city and one through the Whitewater Park. We will be submitting to GOCO this week. We typically do not hear back about the grants for a few months, but this request has a quick turnaround of one month.  Parks Department Update – Kevin Williams We are excited to say that the City Park restroom is nearly complete. The sidewalks and access areas have been seen being utilized more which is a wonderful improvement to what we had before. There will also be an adult-sized changing table at this facility, as well. We are gearing up for our summer season and we have been meeting monthly with PSD to schedule their access for the amenities and to assist them with their sport needs. We are also working on the water quality safety for our dog park within the Spring Canyon Community Park. There might be some repairs and replacements required and this is on our list. Our contractor will be removing the holiday lights from downtown after February 14th. They will have 3 weeks to complete the holiday light removal project. We have hired our Horticulture Crew Chief which is a much needed, contractual position. The creation and allowance for this position has removed a tremendous amount of pressure from the City’s engineering department and from our own department. The Parks Department has also had the privilege of providing support to the Timberline Recycling Facility due to the increase in demand due to the holidays. We were able to assist by providing staff over the weekends for the month of January to support Environmental Services. One of our Forestry workers, Rafael McLeod, helped to save a life this month. He happened to be around in one of our Park’s and heard a cry for help. He sprinted across the area to where he found a dog and its owner in an icy situation after falling through a PARKS AND RECREATION ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 1/27/2021 – MINUTES Page 6 pond. Rafael has training in ice rescue and acted quickly. He was commended by the Fort Collins PD for bravely responding in a heroic, accurate and quick manner. Board: What is an adult changing table? Staff: It is a changing table equipped for an adult person and their caregiver to provide care services. This type of table is not an ADA requirement, but we were approached a few years ago by a few citizens in the City and we pushed for this to take shape. This type of amenity is very rare, and we are proud to offer it.  6-Month Planning Calendar o 02/01 – State of the City o 02/02 – Staff Report: Mail Creek Stream Rehabilitation Project o 02/09 – Montava Water Supply Process Overview o 03/09 – East Mulberry Corridor Planning o 03/16 – Staff Report: E-Scooter/Bike Share Annual Report o 03/16 – Adoption of Our Climate Future o 05/04 – Staff Report: Nature in the City 5 Year Update The next meeting for the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board will be held Wednesday February 24th, 2021 at 5:30pm via Zoom call. The details will be out on the next Agenda. 10. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 7:39pm.