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HomeMy WebLinkAboutParks And Recreation Board - Minutes - 07/22/2020 PARKS AND RECREATION ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR Date, Time: Wednesday, July 22nd, 5:30pm Location: Zoom meeting 7/22/2020 – MINUTES Page 1 1. CALL TO ORDER Jessica MacMillan called the meeting to order at 5:37pm. 2. ROLL CALL • Board Members Present o Jessica MacMillan – Chair o Catherine Carabetta – Vice Chair o Ken Christensen o Shari Heymann o Sam Houghteling o Bob Kingsbury o Mike Novell o Mike Tupa • Board Members Absent o Mary Carlson - Excused • Staff Members Present o Mike Calhoon – Director of Parks o Marc Rademacher – Recreation Manager o Craig Kisling – Landscape Architect, Park Planning and Development o Honore Depew – Sr. Project Manager, City Manager’s Office o Salina Hemmen – Business Support III/Board Support 3. AGENDA REVIEW • No changes to the agenda 4. CITIZEN PARTICIPATION • No citizen participation 5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES • Bob Kingsbury makes a motion to approve the minutes from February 27, 2020 as written. Shari Heymann seconds Motion passes 8-0 PARKS AND RECREATION ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 7/22/2020 – MINUTES Page 2 6. UNFINISHED BUSINESS 1. P & R Master Plan Update – Honore Depew This project that began in the fall of 2019 is now about three quarters of the way through. The Board reviewed the same information that was presented to Council. Staff is now seeking feedback on that presentation. Board: I am curious as to how you arrived at the goals? Who had input and where was it derived from? Staff: These are the results of several months of stakeholder, staff, other Boards and Commissions members and Council input. There was also an Our City page along with community meetings and pop-up engagement sessions. Board: Funding is such a significant piece; we will not be able to accomplish the goals without a consistent source of funding to maintain the standard that the community has come to expect. We have been behind in the amount that Parks has gotten from the general fund and tax revenue and I don’t think you can ask people to raise the taxes at this time with the economy being the way it is. Staff: The larger visions of the proposed plan are more long range and not as actionable in the immediate future. The total cost of ownership also needs to be considered when planning parks, there are four elements to this: operations and maintenance, new parks and facilities, park and facility refresh, and lifecycle replacement. There should be a willingness to spend 3- 5% of the total investment in asset maintenance and there is currently a major deficit in the area that needs to be addressed. Board: I noticed in the presentation that 41% of residents said they had not participated in Recreation programs in the past year. Perhaps lowering that number should be a goal? Staff: There are many more specifics in the goals than there are in the presentation slides. I believe there is a satisfactory level of detail and attainable goals that do address this issue. Board: About the bike trails, if we are looking at the whole Master Plan holistically and incorporating the trails vision in how the parks are laid out, we need to look at how someone can safely get somewhere on a City trail. Staff: We do. The trails network is very important, but they also have their own Master Plan which was last updated in 2013. This plan is not intended to replace the Trails Master Plan but incorporate it more holistically. We are also noting the importance of partnerships with organizations in regard to safety PARKS AND RECREATION ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 7/22/2020 – MINUTES Page 3 and maintenance. 7. NEW BUSINESS 1. 2020 Budget Reduction Summary An extensive exercise was undertaken to determine how deep the cuts would go and how long the recovery would be. The City determined that shortfall would be in the 35-million-dollar range. Thankfully, the City went into this about as fiscally strong as we could with a very healthy reserve balance. We were asked to do a 15% reduction in the overall budget for the remainder of 2020, this was done City wide. This also included furloughing over 600 hourly employees in Recreation and Cultural Services. Parks: $414,000 in cuts for Parks, there is also more in Cemeteries, Forestry and Golf. Cuts included 4th of July activities, reducing the median lifecycle budget by $45,000, no ball field prep, irrigation savings on potable water sites and eliminating the memorial bench program, to name a few. Recreation: $544,000 in cuts for Recreation. The Trips and Travel program was cut which was an easy decision because of travel restrictions due to COVID-19. Mulberry Pool will remain closed until after Labor Day. The Senior Center pool will remain closed for the remainder of 2020. All other facilities had their hours reduced. We have some open positions that will not be filled due to the hiring freeze, and the popular free coffee program at the Senior Center was also one of the cuts, amongst others. Board: What about City Park Pool? Staff: Yes, we had to close for the year. We did want to open, especially because of the community need, but the State never allowed more than 50 people at the pool at a time. If they had allowed us to operate at 50% capacity, it could have happened. Everyone was disappointed. Board: Did you get many comments about this? Staff: Yes. We also had to fill up the pool because of some plaster work, so people saw that and thought that meant it would be opening, but unfortunately not. Park Planning and Development: Trailhead Park was supposed to start construction, this has been delayed until October or November of this year. The Bucking Horse park project for 2021 has been pushed to 2022, the maintenance facility will be constructed in 2021. PARKS AND RECREATION ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 7/22/2020 – MINUTES Page 4 2. Budgeting for Outcomes (BFO) 2021 Update Park Planning and Development: We are asking for money for the Syphon Overpass/Mail Creek Trail crossing, which is across from Bacon elementary. The trail will run between a new development and Willow Springs to connect an underpass at Timberline. We are also asking for money to be appropriated for a maintenance facility which is budgeted at 6 million. Recreation: Facility hours will be changing, for example, EPIC will be closed on Sundays, resulting in $56,000 in savings. Open positions will not be filled. There will be $205,000 in program cuts, which will be tough. We are requiring some of our coordinators to work the front desk, do the ice makes and lifeguard which will pull them away from some of their programming duties. Board: What about the Recreator? Staff: The rest of 2020 printing will be cut. The 2021 cut was not accepted in the first round of offers, they wanted us to go back to printing. Board: Because it was an effective tool for registering? Staff: Yes. We have gotten a lot of community feedback that it was well read and through advertising we are able to pay for the cost of printing. Parks: There are eight different offers that are ongoing, including, Community parks, Neighborhood parks, asset management, and Downtown landscaping. These add up to about 12.1 million for all the ongoing offers, but we were asked to make 15% in reductions. 8. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS • FC Bikes – Mike Tupa No report, no meeting held since January. 9. OTHER BUSINESS • Park Planning and Development Update – Craig Kisling We are currently working with the Trailhead Park contractors and repricing some things, due to the construction delay. Eastside Park improvements are just about done, only a few more furnishings need PARKS AND RECREATION ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 7/22/2020 – MINUTES Page 5 to be installed. The Poudre Trail at Lancer Drive connection was finished this spring. This was a nice collaboration with FC Moves, Natural Areas, and our department. We are coordinating with a potential art donation to Sugar Beet park. The donor is looking to fund raise the entire project, including a plaza that would be built around the sculpture. The piece would honor Hispanic sugar beet workers and is about 14ft in length and about 8ft tall. We are working on identifying a funding source to repair the Oak Street Plaza fountains. If we get the funding, we will replace the fountains in late winter/early spring before we are able to reopen them. They have been shut off for 3-4 years due to water leaking into adjacent buildings. • Recreation Update – Marc Rademacher All facilities are back open except Mulberry Pool, Senior Center Pool and City Park Pool. During the shutdown, we were and still are working closely with Jim Byrne, the City’s Director of Emergency Preparedness and Security, to make sure that we would be opening safely and in full compliance of State and County mandates and guidelines. NACC served as a shelter for those experiencing homelessness from April to mid- June. The community center has since been cleaned up and reopened on July 20th to host our Camp FunQuest summer day camp program which had previously been held at Riffenburgh Elementary up until NACC reopened. 4th of July activities were completely different this year, but the event was really successful and we were very proud of what we were able to accomplish. Activities included a hot air balloon launch, an airplane parade, an emergency vehicle parade, pop-up concerts, and a sidewalk chalk art competition. • Parks Update – Mike Calhoon We had to shut down the playgrounds, skate parks and dog parks and then come up with a reopening plan for each of those as well. We have gotten our fair share of complaints about large groups gathering in the parks and people not wearing face coverings, we are doing our best to mitigate those. Two splash pads are now open during the week at Spring Canyon and Fossil Creek parks. This was a way to ease the trouble of not opening City Park Pool. PARKS AND RECREATION ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 7/22/2020 – MINUTES Page 6 The playground at Library Park is finally completed and has turned out very nice. We are usually able to squeak out one playground a year. • 6-Month Planning Calendar o 8/25 – P & R Master Plan o 9/1 – Horsetooth Outlet Project and Water Restrictions Update o 10/27 – P & R Master Plan Update 10. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 7:59pm.