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HomeMy WebLinkAboutParks And Recreation Board - Minutes - 08/23/2017Parks & Recreation Board Meeting – August 23, 2017 Page 1 of 6 BE A GOOD STEWARD: Protect & Respect your Parks, Trails & Recreation Facilities Call Meeting to Order: Kelly Smith called the meeting to order at 5:48 PM Agenda Review & Items of Note: Thank Kurt for the great tour of Twin Silo Park Citizen Participation: None Approval of Minutes: Bruce Henderson made the motion to approve the Parks & Recreation Board Minutes of July 27, 2017. Seconded by Kelly Smith Passed 8:0 Meeting Summary  Staff provided the Board with a progress tour of Twin Silo Park.  Recreation staff presented proposed changes to the Reduced Fee Program which makes programs available to permanent residents who have a demonstrated financial need.  Staff provided an update on the Emerald Ash Borer following a tour of the damaged area in Boulder at the peak of decline. The City of Fort Collins Forestry staff is developing a relationship with Boulder staff to educate in preparation and aid Boulder in plans and preparations. PARKS AND RECREATION BOARD MINUTES Regular Meeting Wednesday, August 23, 2017 5:30 PM Board Chair: Scott Sinn – 2017 scott.sinn@ymail.com Council Liaison: Ken Summers - ksummers@fcgov.com Staff Liaisons: Mike Calhoon, 970-416-2079 – mcalhoon@fcgov.com Kurt Friesen, 970-221-6618 – kfriesen@fcgov.com Bob Adams, 970-221-6354 – badams@fcgov.com Parks & Recreation Board Meeting – August 23, 2017 Page 2 of 6 Full Minutes AGENDA ITEMS: Reduced Fee Program Improvements – Janice Saeger and John Litel  Proposed Changes for Reduced Fee Program – Highly supported program by City Council for scholarships for activity support for low-income participants  Large team of people working on this project in the department to provide a full scope of the program from administration to coordinator’s implementation  Program to allow for low-income residents to register for discounted activities & get passes to attend any facility. Limited to 4 programs per year, only one day camp per child. Based on a calendar year which caused administrative issues in processing all applications at once.  Goals & Challenges o Minimize financial barriers for low-income residents to participate in programs. o Simply the application, approval & eligibility period, program administration process. o Create consistencies in discounting programs and methodology. o Enable online registration for those participating in the program. o Review and improve communications and awareness of the Reduced Fee Program.  Recommendations o Develop a plan to move toward an online application process. o Allow applications to be accepted year-round. o Activate automated discounts within RecTrac (Recreation’s database.) o Define discounts by assigning levels to all programs (intro, intermediate and advanced.) o Allow unlimited enrollments to all recreation programs. o Expand and improve the program’s eligibility period. o Create Reduced Fee Program communications & awareness plan o A pass purchase is required for benefits to be activated (includes unlimited drop-in visits.) The pass will be annual, at the same cost as the six-month pass we currently use.  Proposed Discounts o Activities: Beginner – 90% Discount, Intermediate – 70% Discount, Advanced, Competitive, Private – 10%. Adult Sports Teams & Tournaments are excluded. Ticketed events excluded.  Reduced Fee Passes o Youth, Senior, ARO - $6. Adult - $25. Family - $40 (2 adults, no limits on children, same household.) o Unlimited visits to Recreation facilities (excluding City Park Pool) o 90% discounts on Fitness classes for Youth, Seniors & ARO. 70% discount for adults  Public Outreach o Phase I – Research & Establish Needs – Research peer cities and consider best practices. Deploy survey to all current Reduced Fee Program participants. o Phase II – Present & Listen – Visit with boards and other City departments to discuss proposed changes. Present information during community open house and listen to feedback. o Phase III – Compile & Present the information received from the open house, peer review & participant survey.  Survey Results – Direct mailed & emailed to over 1,000 households in both English & Spanish. 204 survey responses were received. Focused on the goals & challenges of the revamp. Parks & Recreation Board Meeting – August 23, 2017 Page 3 of 6 Discussion Board – What does Youth Sports cover? Staff – Any sports for children, such as basketball, football, track, wrestling, etc. Just sports advertised in the Recreator. Board – What are some of the top Adult classes? Staff – Primarily the Fitness classes, not only do they get the four reduced fee activities they also get 70% discount if they have a reduced fee pass. Board – Is the application process multilingual? Staff – Yes, we provide applications in English and Spanish. Board – What is the rationale behind the level of discounts based on the level of class? Staff – The beginner classes are to encourage people to get interested and participate in our programs. Youth especially could have the opportunity to sample different programs. It encourages people to get started and get involved. Also, we are trying to open programs that haven’t been as discountable in the past to allow participation. Board – Do you promote the Silver Sneakers program? Staff – Yes, we do operate and promote that program. Board – Do you have to live in Fort Collins to apply for the Reduced Fee Program? Staff – Adults have to live within the city limits. For youth, we approve within the PSD district. Board – What income level can apply for this program? Staff – Income level is based on the Federal Income Poverty Level. We accept anyone under 185% of the Federal Income Poverty level. We apply the same standard used by Poudre School District (PSD) Reduced or Free Lunch programs. Board – What will you guys do in the event this program is too popular, and you’re not able to make revenue? Staff – That is a good question to ask. That’s why we stuck with the 70% & 90% discounts. Right now, the discount is $5 for all programs. Now that we’re doing percentages we may be able to recoup costs from some programs and offset others while increasing participation. Additionally, we hadn’t required passes in the past. Requiring the purchase of a pass may help to cover the cost. We’ll keep track of how revenues change and how much Recreation is spending on the program. The next BFO process we will work with Council to prioritize this program within our budget. We want to increase their ability to participate, rather than limit it to 4 activities. Board – Would the Colorado Health Foundation be able to help support this program? Staff – We do have one grant with Vida Sana that has helped us with some of these programs. We are in our 5th year in with the Vida Sana grant, and it will likely be our last year. We do look for grant opportunities to cover programs like this. The Father’s Day 5k does get split between ARO & the Reduced Fee Program. Board – Will the new online registrations be treated like all the other registrations? Staff – Yes. This will allow them to have the same opportunity to sign up online now, rather than have to come into the facility or call in to register. Board – Would they still be subject to cancellation fees? Staff – Yes, the refund process would be the same. Board – Do you have an estimate for the reductions that are given? Staff – It’s hard to predict participation. Board – Will there be a process for youth who aren’t able to afford advanced or intermediate activities? Staff – We don’t have much Reduced Fee participation in those level programs currently, but if we get more interest will review that part of the process. Board – Does the Federal Poverty line take into account the local cost of living? Staff – That’s why we accept 185% of the Federal Poverty line, which is a standard for programs in the area. We stay consistent with PSD and we stay in contact with them to address adjusting that percentage. Parks & Recreation Board Meeting – August 23, 2017 Page 4 of 6 Board – Do you think the requirement to buy a $40 Family pass will be a barrier to those who participate? Staff – We’re trying to balance out the benefits & discounts of the program with the cost of the pass. Board – You’re able to track usage of the passes? Staff – Yes, we do track their participation. Last year we had 27,000 total pass visits, and we’re currently projected to be ahead of that this year. And that’s with the six-month pass, which is the same price as the proposed annual pass. That’s also why we created the family pass as well. That will help to reduce the burden of purchasing passes for the whole family. Board – Do you think there is a population that doesn’t know about this program? Staff- I think we’re reaching the target populations. We are attaining similar usage numbers to PSD. We do outreach with local community groups, schools, etc. Board – What can this board do to support and assist you in this process? Staff – We first wanted to make you aware of the change as there will be questions presented to city council. We wanted to make sure you agree with our direction and provide any advice or insight you have. If you want to support the program, that will help. If you want to think about it, you’re welcome to. We want to make the program easier for citizens & staff alike to understand and implement. Board – How do you reach out to seniors? Staff – We partner with other organizations in the community, such as the Food Rebate program. Ragan Adams made a motion to present a letter of support for the proposed Reduced Fee Program changes. Scott Sinn seconded. Passed 8:0 STAFF UPDATES: Parks  Sound barriers have been hung at City Park pickleball courts. Code compliance verified as sound levels were under the limit set. This was an excellent learning lesson about pickleball in the community. Citizens in the neighborhood were very happy with the response. All the sound barriers, and thus the courts, will have to be removed in the winter.  Spring Creek & other Trails have a campaign for bike & pedestrian safety. Thanks to John Litel & his team for their help. We’re thinking of adding the speed cameras in some areas to add awareness for how fast bicyclists are moving. We may have to consider separating trails in congested areas for separate bike & pedestrian paths.  Assisted with the 25 anniversary Creekside for the 1997 flood.  Forestry o May storm cleanup was ongoing for the last 2 months. Regular pruning just started. Streets free mulch is open. We’re working on getting rid of Streets first to get the space cleared. o John Litel helped a lot with the debris drop-off & mulch pick-up notifications to the community. o Toured Emerald Ash Borer damage area at the peak of decline. Bulk rate for treatment for Boulder is $7.50 per inch of diameter at chest height. As soon as it hits Loveland, we’ll put out press releases. We’re developing a relationship with Boulder to education ourselves now in preparation and aid them in plans and preparations. Discussion Board – I’ve been noticing new developments planting Ash trees. Is there anything we can do to prevent that? Staff – We can look into that. We haven’t planted any public trees in 12 years. Board – Does forestry purchase trees from local nurseries? Can you use that as leverage? If there are companies out there that aren’t treating citizens properly, can the city not give them business? Staff – Yes. The issue is risk management. Even if you know the risk, it’s not illegal to purchase and plant an Ash tree. We Parks & Recreation Board Meeting – August 23, 2017 Page 5 of 6 have influence and we work with those contractors. We hold educational sessions for arborists to provide information on our response plan. Board – Does EAB have a certain habitat? The nurseries that are within the areas the EAB will be is there some government agency that can prevent them from having or selling them? Staff – Boulder was able to initiate an Ash tree quarantine. However, once it reaches Fort Collins, it will be too late. We will treat trees in phases to prevent all from dying at the same time. We also may remove them from creek sides to prevent a habitat for them to persist. Recreation  City Park Pool is closed for the summer. The last event is Pooch Plunge this Saturday.  Work to update the EPIC entryway for ADA compliance is underway, including a heated pathway to reduce the need for snow removal.  Therapy Pool is being worked on and should be ready at the end of September. New tile project has started for the locker rooms. Park Planning  Trail open house at 6 PM on September 14th to inform people about the Longview Trail & the Fossil Creek Trail at the Front Range Community College Larimer campus  Avery Park grand opening had a great turnout.  Twin Silo Park grand opening planned for October 10 from 10-2 PM as a larger event  Crescent Park is earthwork is underway.  Poudre River Whitewater Park is working through permitting, scheduling and budget work. We had been exploring 2 phase/2 season construction to do the base river work & the 2nd season to come back and complete the bank improvements. It would open fully in Spring 2019. The Army Corps is not in support of that project at the time. We are now moving plans toward a one season construction with river work next spring. The kayaking group is working to find new donors for those that have pulled out. The City may take on additional fundraising to help with the budget gap. Schedule of Articles  Dawn working on Club Tico for October 8th to go in the Winter Recreator BAC Report  Wednesday, August 30th 5-7 PM Walk and Wheel Skills Hub Ribbon Cutting and Celebration at 1600 W Drake - help people develop their practical bicycling skills  About to complete e-bicycle white paper. Once supported by the BAC it will go to the Transportation board to use for policy discussion. Ragan can send it out to review before submission to the Transportation board. Bullet Points  Twin Silos Tour  Reduced Fee Program changes presentation  Emerald Ash Borer update Adjournment: 7:18 PM Parks & Recreation Board Meeting – August 23, 2017 Page 6 of 6 Respectfully submitted, Coleen Elliott Board Attendance Board Members: Ragan Adams, Rob Cagen, Bruce Henderson, Kenneth Layton, Mary Carlson, Scott Sinn, Kelly Smith, Dawn Theis Staff: Coleen Elliott, Janice Saeger, Bob Adams, Mike Calhoon, Kurt Friesen, John Litel Guest: Ken Summers