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HomeMy WebLinkAboutParks And Recreation Board - Minutes - 05/22/1991CITY OF FORT COLLINS CULTURAL, LIBRARY, AND RECREATIONAL SERVICES PARKS AND RECREATION BOARD MINUTES: Regular Meeting -- May 22, 1991 President Bob McCluskey called the public meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. Board Member Mary Ness called to say he would not be able to attend tonight's meeting. Agenda Review: No changes to the printed agenda. Minutes: The minutes of the regular meeting of April 24, 1991 were unanimously approved on a motion by Bob Alexander, seconded by John Barnett. Citizen Participation: No citizen participation. Parks and Forestry Operating and Maintenance Funding Strategy Director of Cultural, Library, and Recreational Services Mike Powers started the discussion by stating that the Parks and Forestry 0&M Funding Strategy has been on staff's agenda for several years. The presentation before the Board tonight will be done by one of the department's Quality Improvement Teams. This team has been working on this project for one year. There are three major problems that need to be addressed in Parks and Forestry Maintenance as follows: 1. Maintenance dollars for new growth. 2. Renovation and replacement dollars for existing assets. 3. Define appropriate level of maintenance. The team's first step was to prepare a survey to send to 1,400 residents in Fort Collins in all four zip code areas. City Forester/Team Leader Tim Buchanan reviewed the survey results with the Board. Of the 1,400 surveys sent out, 50 percent were completed and returned to staff. Staff performed an intercept survey. These one-on-one surveys were conducted at the community parks and at the majority of the neighborhood parks. Of the 223 surveys conducted, 87 percent were Fort Collins residents. As taxpayers, 67 percent surveyed would be willing to pay more for additional park facilities. In summary of the survey, the community is highly pleased with the park system in Fort Collins. The desire for more open space is evident and the trail system is most valued by the greatest number of people surveyed. The complaints that resulted from the survey were the restrooms, drinking fountains, followed by picnic -related facilities. Loose dogs and geese are considered a large problem and better litter control is desired. The next step was to tie the survey results to the money spent. Park Planner Leslie Bryson presented an inventory plan as appeared on Page 6 of the draft report. This inventory comparison from 1985 to 1990 is a framework for the development of the maintenance plan. After the inventory was developed, staff tied a cost accounting system to the inventory. Parks Supervisor Bob Loeven and Park Project Analysis Chuck Ainsworth Parks and Recreation Board Minutes May 22, 1991 Page 2 addressed this. Chuck took the average of playground equipment costs and maintenance over a 15-year period. The playground equipment must be maintained at a level to provide for the safety of the children using the equipment. An average cost of all playgrounds in the city amounts to approximately $1,800 per area. Of those surveyed, 69 percent rated the playgrounds in the good to better standard.. On the other hand, Bob Loeven said the survey indicated that only 40 percent thought we did a good job on the restrooms. Their major complaints were that the restrooms in the community parks are not open through the winter and some park restrooms are not clean enough. The total cost per year for Parks Maintenance restrooms cleaning is $80,533. Parks Manager Virgil Taylor gave a history of the components of the facilities' and vegetation life cycle. From the time a facility is completed, the deterioration begins. The examples highlighted were a section of the Poudre Trail from Shields to College, which was constructed in 1978 with a cost of $100,000, and has a life expectancy of 20 years. The crack sealing costs $650 per mile per year. Another example was a 2 inch caliper deciduous tree is planted and the cost to maintain that tree when it reaches an 8 inch caliper is $75 per year. Mike Powers reviewed the recommendation. There are three areas that will be recommended to City Council. The first is the service level adjustments. The areas where the survey indicated an "excellent" rating could potentially be dropped in maintenance to a "good" level spending more time on the areas that received "fair" levels of maintenance. The second area is the financial management policy. While the City has done a good job in planning for new facilities, we have not been successful in developing a funding strategy for the on -going maintenance of these new facilities. These costs need to be adopted into our budgets. The third area is the capital renovation and replacement. There needs to be operation and maintenance money budgeted into capital construction. Board Member John Barnett said he likes the approach staff took to this problem. The decision Council needs to make is do they want to make this funding a commitment. He said the construction of a project is generally only five percent of the life -time expenditures over a 30-year period. K-Lynn Cameron likes the philosophy developed and applauds staff. Rene' Clements Cooney agreed with the other two Board members and asked what happened to the Adopt -A -Median program? Staff replied that it is still in operation, but isn't as popular as Adopt -A - Trail program. Karen Schubert said the plan is well done. The criticism of the restrooms should not be of a major concern. When people criticize the restrooms, they don't take into consideration that there might have been a major event that just occurred at that particular facility. Virgil replied that the major concerns of the restrooms is that they are not open during the winter months. On a motion by Bob Alexander, seconded by Rene' Clements Cooney, the Board unanimously (6-0) approved the concept of the Parks and Forestry Maintenance Plan. Parks and Recreation Board Minutes May 22, 1991 Page 3 Discussion on Community Pool Replacement Recreation Manager Jean Helburg updated the Board on the options for the pool replacement. On March 19, 1991, City Council adopted a resolution authorizing replacement of the Fort Collins Community Pool instead of renovation. Council directed staff to prepare various options for replacement, and to include information about design, location, and programming of a facility that would meet the needs and desires of the swimming population. Staff has relied on information gathered from the Senior Center Feedback Network and Building Team, and information from other recreation center/pool operators in the state. Staff recommends that a replacement pool include eight -lanes, 25-yard lap pool with a diving well. EPIC pool is a 10-lane 50-meter pool. Options for replacement are to replace on the same site; replace as a stand-alone facility on a site to be determined; replace east of Rocky Mountain High School; or attach to the new senior citizen center planned for construction in 1993. All of the options reviewed would take close to four acres of land. Presently, there is $1,360,000 in the budget. The amount needed for an eight -lane pool would cost three times that amount. In reviewing the outcome of the survey, the top option would be to build the pool with the senior center and the least preferred option was combining the pool with one of the schools. Citizen Katie Anderson asked if staff has considered building the pool in one of the existing community parks? Rene' addressed her question stating that would take away from parkland that some citizens are using. It is also against the Board's recommendation to utilize already developed parkland to build a facility. Bob McCluskey asked when the indoor pool was functional was there room to grow in swim programs. Jean replied that before EPIC was built the pool was full at all times of the day and evening. After EPIC opened, there was a steady decline in participation at the indoor pool. Poudre R-1 dropped its 4th grade program in 1988 which caused a large void in day -time swimming at the pool. If the public has a choice, they will choose EPIC to swim instead of the indoor pool where the water temperature is never the same and the overall conditions are poor. Poudre R-1 Representative Dave Danielson asked if there is a location determined for the senior center. Jean replied that the Building Team has looked at 29 building sites in Fort Collins. Staff is in a holding pattern until Council decides if the pool will go with the senior center. FAST Representative Wayne Brothers said his group looks at three key variables. The first is the size of the new pool. It needs to be at least an eight -lane pool and the City should target a larger pool for growth. Secondly, the timing of the closure of the indoor pool will have a major impact on the competitive swimmers in Fort Collins. The third concern is the location of the pool. With the majority of growth to the south part of the city, Wayne feels it is only logical to build in the south area. Locating the pool next to the senior center is not a good idea to the FAST group. Discussion was raised as to shared costs of this pool with Poudre R-1. Parks and Recreation Board Minutes May 22, 1991 Page 4 Bob Alexander feels it is a better sell to Council to build the pool separate from the senior center. Karen Schubert suggested this pool be built with the senior center and when the new Fort Collins High School is built, add a pool to it. Therefore, the City would have three pools as is suggested in the Parks and Recreation Master Plan. Karen encouraged the FAST parents to talk to Poudre R-1. John Barnett said as a taxpayer, it doesn't matter which pocket the money is taken qut of as long as the citizens' needs are met. Citizen Katie Anderson questioned Poudre R-1 and the City working together? She questioned who would pay for what? Dave Danielson said there is a City Council/School Board Task Force in place to discuss these issues. Staff will bring a full package to the Board at the June 26 meeting and ask for the Board's recommendation at that time. Waste Wood Update At the April Board Meeting, City Forester Tim Buchanan talked to the Board about the problem of waste wood disposal and spelled out the steps staff was taking to alleviate this disposal. At that time, the Board voted 4-3 to approve the Waste Wood Utilization Plan as submitted by staff. The three no voters stated they would like staff to explore privatization of this idea with other cities and the county. If this is not cost effective with the other cities, they would then support staff's proposal. Staff has explored this possibility and presented their findings at the Board meeting tonight. There is no private company in the State of Colorado that does wood processing for municipalities. However, there is an individual in Colorado Springs who processes the wood after the City chips it. The City of Colorado Springs processes 7,000 cu. yards of wood where the City of Fort Collins processes approximately 2,000 cu. yards of waste wood annually. Hence this privatization would not be beneficial to any individual. Therefore staff would like to proceed to locate funding to purchase a chipper to do on -site wood chipping. After discussion, the Board, on a motion by John Barnett, seconded by K-Lynn Cameron, voted unanimously (6-0) to endorse the program of purchasing a wood chipper. They would recommend that staff continue exploring the privatization of this function in future years after the program is established. Review of Natural Areas Policy Plan Natural Resources Administrator Tom Shoemaker previously sent the Board copies of the Natural Areas Policy Plan for their review. Tonight he is looking for the Board's comments on the report. Rene' had taken the Natural Areas tour and said that was very helpful to her. K-Lynn asked if another tour is scheduled? Tom said the Storm Drainage Board is touring on Wednesday, June 12 at 7:00 a.m. and that the Parks and Recreation Board is welcome to attend. Karen Schubert, K-Lynn Cameron, and John Barnett will take this tour. The tour will leave from City Hall West. The Board suggested that an executive summary of the report be published. John Barnett suggested a vision statement as it is the sharing of the vision that is the important element of the report. Tom has a 20-minute slide presentation to share with the Board. However, because of the lenght of tonight's meeting, the Board chose not to view the slides, but asked that they be Available at another time. He said he would be back to the Parks and Recreation Board in July or August for an endorsement of the policy. ' Parks and Recreation Board Minutes May 22, 1991 Page 5 Other Business - Bob McO uskey attended the Poudre Heritage Meeting. He said the major concerns were water and agriculture. People were leery of the way the plan is laid out. The Greeley people feel it needs a better balance. - John Barnett is a member of the Larimer County Parks Task Force Committee representing the Parks and Recreation Board. He was very impressed with this group and feels they will make a positive impact. The meeting was adjourned at 10:30 p.m. Res ctfully su tted, ?1ael, Administrative Aide II Meeting Attendance Board Members Staff Guests Bob McCloskey Robert Alexander John Barnett K-Lynn Cameron Rene' Cooney Karen Schubert Michael W. Powers Jerry P. Brown Jean Helburg Tim Buchanan Virgil Taylor Bob Loeven Leslie Bryson Chuck Ainsworth Tom Shoemaker Pool Interest Citizens (FAST Reps): Beryl Yonkin Kris Brothers Katie Anderson Rob Uhlrich Wayne Brothers Rowland Wasgatt Tom Ullman Barb Ullman Joy Batley