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HomeMy WebLinkAboutParks And Recreation Board - Minutes - 11/09/2011Parks & Recreation Board Meeting – November 9, 2011 Page 1 of 14 BE A GOOD STEWARD: Protect & Respect your Parks, Trails & Recreation Facilities Call Meeting to Order: Michael Chalona called the meeting to order 5:30pm Agenda Review & Items of Note: Agenda Review: None Items of Note: None Citizen Participation None – no citizen’s were present. Approval of Minutes: Discussion: One change noted, Page 5 – Recreation Updates – “can do group” needs to change to is CANDO; it stands for Coalition for Activity and Nutrition to Defeat Obesity. Selena Paulson made the motion to approve the Parks & Recreation Board minutes of September 14, 2011, Rob Cagen seconded – Minutes approved 9:0 AGENDA ITEMS: Environmental Best Practices Manual Update – (Craig Foreman) There are many ways to structure these manuals, the idea we can up with was to make it a working manual; so someone coming in new to the City into Parks & Recreation could pick it up and, for example, find out how we protect our wet lands. We structured the Manual to address, “why do we do things”, “how do we do it”, and “what people are needed to make it happen”. The Manual is based on the Sustainable Site Initiative document which is extremely detailed and has a lot of documentation and a lot of formulas developed from around the Nation. The idea is for the Manual to become a working document that we can continue to refine and monitor. We sent out the rough draft for you to review and tonight we want to discuss it with you to see if it makes sense and make sure we’re on the right track. Discussion Board – What is the time line? Staff – We would like it to be completed by the end of the year. Board – It says Parks & Recreation Best Management Practices, I was wondering if we need Trails in there? Staff – It came out of the Policy Plan wording, trails are always included in it. Board – I saw they were included, I just wondered if it should be in the title? Staff – It’s better to keep the title generalized; since we have Cemetery, Forestry, and Golf included in the Manual, the title could get long if we tried to include all the aspects of the Manual into the title. PARKS AND RECREATION BOARD Minutes of Regular Meeting Wednesday, November 9, 2011 (Rescheduled Meeting from Oct 26 Cancellation) 5:30 p.m. Council Liaison: Kelly Ohlson Staff Liaison: J.R. Schnelzer, 221-6301 Craig Foreman, 221-6618 President: Michael Chalona Phone: 970-490-2335 (home) / 970-472-8954 x1 (work) Parks & Recreation Board Meeting – November 9, 2011 Page 2 of 14 Board – I like that there’s room for development. Staff – The Manual is really well structured for that, we had to add information regarding O&M and programming. You can apply the Manual to the expansion of the Senior Center or a neighborhood park, trail expansions, anything out there in the construction realm from then on it gives you a starting point, for weed control, recycling, water use and programming. I think we’re pretty close on including all the pieces that we do. Board – Is this something we will need to approve? Staff – It’s really an administrative document, for information. It’s a way for us to monitor how we did, make adjustment and the key point is a way for continual improvement. Board – I like that there is a philosophy to keep peaceful areas in park not everything has to be developed. Great Outdoors Colorado Rivers Corridor Initiative Grant Update – (Craig Foreman) GOCO came out with a Grant request for what they called river concept papers. The concept papers were due the first week in November and they were focusing on access to the river. The criteria was access to the river while protecting the environment, so we worked with Natural Resources on the idea of taking on the river, from Shields to Linden, as a project. The project concept would start at Shields, the County will be replacing the Shields bridge in 2013 or 2014 and we’ll be creating a parking lot with access on the north river abutment. Then Natural Resources has a plan for the Salyer and McMurray open space areas to restore a lot of that area and create some trails and good access points to the river so folks can enjoy that area for recreational purposes. We would then look at taking Legacy Park and making it a safe place for people to get to the river and put in a picnic shelter and hardscape it with a parking lot to the north. This would make Legacy Park a nice place for people to enjoy the river. We also looked at having a trail bridge by the Discover/Museum, for a better link, coming north up to the College bridge. In addition, the lake canal diversion could be adjusted for better tubing. The whole project came in at around $10M, so we did take out the bridge by the Discover Center and other items which brought the project down to about $6.6M. Since GOCO would only be providing funding for about 50% of the project, we would be requesting about $3M, of the $14M-$18M, they have available to grant. This project is the chance for the community to come to the river in a very nice, focused way. We’re waiting at this point for GOCO to have their Board Meeting in December to decide who gets to go forward with a full grant application. The word is there were 80 applications and the portion GOCO was asked to fund is over $100M. In northern Colorado we heard that Lyons, Berthoud, Loveland, Greeley, Larimer County and Fort Collins put in applications. If we get asked to do the grant application, we would do a public outreach and then come back to the Board for a recommendation and support. GOCO asks for a resolution from the Governing Body as part of the grant application, so we come to City Council with the resolution and we would present board recommendation, etc. We should probably be able to get something out electronically in December to let the Board know if we received the go ahead from GOCO, and then at the January or February meeting we would need to have the Board recommendation and input for the application. After full applications are received, GOCO will make the awards in June. If we are selected, the project would start in 2012 and it would take about 3 years. The first year would primarily be hiring consultants and working through all the analysis of any issues changes in the river would cause. Discussion Board – The Land Code issues as far as development along the river, does that fall into the 200’ set back or how do you argue that with Council? Staff – We’ll play by all the rules in terms of buffer zones, we’ll look at all of those and part of the process would be to determine what is allowed in the buffer zone. Many improvements will be far away from the zone due to the flood plain. We want to do the right thing for the community and the environment. Board – That was really set up to be a wildlife corridor, but inviting people down to the river and creating trails and hangouts is that really a valid set back, should that be look at differently? Parks & Recreation Board Meeting – November 9, 2011 Page 3 of 14 Staff – John Stokes was asked this question in a work session. Is this neutral, negative or positive for the environment? John said it would be positive, because it’s such a mess right now, with people making their own paths, so in his mind it makes it structured so people are contained in an area, and wildlife has its own place. http://citydocs.fcgov.com/?cmd=show_related&vid=72&dt=SUMMARY+AGENDA&rid=September+27%2C +2011 Board – How will NISP affect this? Staff – This is the backdrop of all of this, we’ll develop with normal flow and we’ll have to react to decisions made with NISP. To plan for it would be difficult, because it could be years before NISP would be an issue. Board – Wouldn’t they have to have some end stream flow anyway? Staff – Well, that’s the piece we don’t know, how will they mitigate. If these things are in place, then there might have to be some mitigation. There are also some environmental issues that are being talked about as far as the river overflowing the banks, flooding so there’s a lot just in that area. We’re looking at it esthetically as the river looks great when there’s water flowing for trail users, park users, fishermen, rafters, tubers, we’ll go on as if the river won’t change and then we’ll figure out what to do if NISP goes through. Board – Are people with GOCO going to accept our application with NISP being a factor? Staff – We had conversations about this whole issue. John Stokes has been saying what we have right now, we’ll plan for normal flows and worry about NISP when or if it happens. Board – If I were part of GOCO, I would be wondering if NISP was a factor and affect the changes Natural Resources is wanting to make. The whole NISP thing has made the river a giant question mark. Staff – It would be bad for NISP get into our nice project and do something damaging to it. We worry about it. Board – I think it’s appropriate to go ahead since you’ve done the work and submit the grant and see how it goes. Board – I think that if it would come down to it, we could have NISP write a letter in support of our Grant. Board – I think GOCO would know this is unpredictable thing, a NISP type project could happen along any river. Board – I think it’s a good idea that if it comes that, to reach out to NISP, as Danna said. Disc Golf Course Update – (Craig Foreman) The disc golf course at the Stadium is coming along. If you drive out that way you’ll see we have a couple hundred trees planted already and access road being shaped in off of 42C, and a portion of the parking area for about 40 cars. Bill Wright is taking the Northern Colorado Disc Golf President and the CSU Disc Golf President out to walk through the site. It’s a nice big piece of property and then we’ll visit about taking Edora down to 9 holes. That’s all coming together at the same time; this is the way we went into this. Bill said they knew it was coming. Now we need to get folks excited about the new course at the Stadium. Bill thought maybe a really nice grand opening next spring to showcase the course. We’re coming in early next year to plant shrubs. Discussion Board – Besides the grand opening, is there a communication plan with the disc golf community to get the folks use to the switch. Staff – We’ll do a news release in December, and again if we have the Presidents of the two Boards involved that will help, but there is a lot of drop in use so we’ll put up signs at Edora to talk about the changes and encourage them to try the new course at Hughes. Board – I was wondering about communication at CSU also because I would imagine a core of golfers come from CSU. Staff – That’s a good point, we should put something on their web page. Board – The majority of the people that use Edora drive, so if they’re going to drive it will be just as easy for them to go to the stadium. Board – Do they ever have a tournament that would be good for the grand opening? Staff – Bill would probably want to have something like a tournament. He’s been great to work with. Parks & Recreation Board Meeting – November 9, 2011 Page 4 of 14 Board – So when exactly is it opening? Staff – We’ll have a soft opening in December and then a grand opening in the spring since we’re not quite done with everything. Board – Is there water on the east side? Staff – We’ll have a drip system in place, but we would have to work with CSU for domestic water if we needed to install a drinking fountain. Board – No I meant at Edora by the rail road tracks. Staff – We haven’t talked that through, we might have a drip system installed, but we haven’t had any discussion about watering that area. Board – It’s nice to see it finalized. Staff – We thank you for your help in getting the grant to make this happen. Finalize 2012 Work Plan & Schedule – (Board) Discussion Board - If we measure ourselves by the content of the work plan and our success is contingent upon completing the items on the plan, maybe we should tier it and focus on key aspects. Or perhaps there's an item that an individual Board member would feel strongly about and that is what we work on. I think that’s better than keeping the whole list as there are so many items on the list. Board – Many times we just moved things to the following year, or there’s a back log if a new “hot” topic presents itself. Board – I didn’t really know how you used it, if it was a check list to work from or a tool that the Board measured itself against. How much did we complete? Board – It usually is a way for us to set the agenda and have things brought to the Board at different times when staff knows of items that will be coming up in the year. Board – I still think we need more organization with it, so we can be more efficient with the important items. Board – Maybe like a rolling list. Board – Have top priority and then a back log of items. Board – So how are we structuring this? Are we taking what we have and trying to change it based on the emails or is this an open discussion? Board – I think the idea that Bruce had was similar to Transportation. They set a goal, had visioning guiding principles and have those overarching ideas and then drill down to specifics. So, he redrafted that into this other form and then Danna also stepped in and added more organization. Board – I think we will be doing a lot of this, because next year is a budget year, and we have Keep Fort Collins Great and at least one GOCO grant we’ll be supporting, so it seems pretty reasonable. Outreach has been an underlying theme and we’re reviewing the Environmental Best Practices over the next month, Staley Park has to be on there, when I read it again, it seem very reasonable to me; seems very realistic. Board – From past experience, we have gone through this many items. Budget will take a fair amount of time, but I think communication should be happening every month especially with City Council giving us the flexibility. Board – I like adding the goal at the top, it makes it stronger. Do these all relate to that goal? Board – One of the thoughts I had was for each of us to look at this and see if there’s an area to focus on so we have the same person looking at this on a regular basis. This would get us all involved in a particular area we have an interest in or for an educational experience and rely on staff and the Board officers to keep an eye on the work plan overall to keep us on track and then at each meeting we could go around the table for updates on each persons area so we don’t loose track of any item on the work plan. Board – I agree with a lot of that, but a possible issue might be having too many people trying to contact the same person looking for answers. Board – I think this answers Kelly proposal to be more involved and I think staff would welcome the questions. Staff – We don’t mind the Board asking questions. Parks & Recreation Board Meeting – November 9, 2011 Page 5 of 14 Board – I just want to make sure we have this on the table that questions will be coming to staff from many Board members. Staff – We don’t mind the questions and the interaction with the Board. We want you to have good information. Board – I like the idea, because I think it allows us to be more proactive. Board – I just wanted to present the idea as something to think about, we can discuss this further later. Board – But we do have to approve the work plan tonight, correct? Staff – Yes Motion: Danna Ortiz moved to approve the 2012 work plan, seconded by Bruce Henderson. All in favor: 9:0 STAFF UPDATES Parks Updates Discussion Board – What about all the terrible tree damage? With all the needed pruning is that in the budget? Staff – We have all hands on deck with the tree damage. We have approximately 44,000 City trees we maintain and Forestry is reporting that about 15%-20% of those have had significant damage. Our first goal is to take care of the highly hazardous trees and we have three City crews and two contracted crews working on this. We’re hoping to have this done within the next couple weeks. Then we’ll move into a grid system, street by street going through the entire system and clean up all the City trees that have damage. We have asked for, and received, $92,000 in emergency funding that will get us through 2011. We’re estimating this will allow the contractors to continue to work with us through 2011. All of the Forestry crews and Park crews will shift their energy to cleaning up the debris. Parks is in the process of finishing out the irrigation blow outs; and, of course, if it snows this is our first concern because we need to clear all the trails and public spaces so we take care of that immediately. In 2012 we’re hoping to continue with the two contract crews and Forestry will use all of their resources for about six months for the clean up. We’re looking at about $200,000 in extra funding for this. Board – Where does the funding come from? Staff – The General Fund. Just so you know, the Streets department has contracted with Hageman to do all the chipping work; so that is all Streets. We do not do this, we have a site for the City trees and those will be chipped there so we will have about 30,000 cubic yards of mulch and we’re looking for ways to use this. Board – Do you have a give away? Staff – We do have give away days, but we have to decide how to liquidate what we have now. Board – The road to the Archery Range is in need of repair. Staff – We are aware of this, but it’s not high on the priority list right now while we’re concentrating on the tree damage. Board – I’ve noticed places where trees were damaged but landed on City property. Staff – We don’t usually deal with private trees, but if it’s on City property and it’s a hazard we are dealing with it. We’re also helping PSD; but it’s not a normal occurrence. Board – Is mulch available to neighborhood associations, maybe haul it into one location and let the neighbors pick up from there. Staff – We’re not quite there yet, but that’s a good idea. We do provide nice mulch, as we do a double grid on it. This storm is worse than 1995. Staff – We’ll probably loose a lot of trees, but we won’t know for sure until Spring. Board – Big thumbs up to the City for the clean up effort. Staff – Thanks and it is an effort from many departments. Streets, and Larry Schneider, have been great to work with. Board – Who made the decision to pick up limbs from all residents? Staff – I’m sure there were several people involved in the decision, but ultimately it was Darin Atteberry. But, everyone involved knew this needed to be done and we needed to take care of the community. Parks & Recreation Board Meeting – November 9, 2011 Page 6 of 14 Staff – If it wasn’t for Forestry, Treatsylvania wouldn’t have happened either, it was a great event and they made it happen. Recreation Updates • Winter Recreator is out, if you haven’t seen it. Registration is next Thursday, November 17 at all facilities at 7:00am and we’ll be up and running all the winter programs. • If you have any questions of me feel free to e-mail or call me any time and I would be happy to chat with you about some internal changes we’re making to simplify things. Membership is one of those things, so this is something we’ll be looking at, and I’ll probably share this with you as we move forward. Discussion Board – I just wanted to let Bob know that I really like the progress reports you do and that you have an iphone app is extremely cool. In October my elementary school son brought home three different things that showed there is more communication between the School District and the City. There was an ad about basketball, and the City working with CANDO and the Hospital, so you can already tell there is a difference; nicely done. Staff – Thank you, we’re still meeting with the PSD and I’m gathering information from the parks and recreation side of things on all the things we do as collaboration to get this in writing instead of just a “handshake” about what we can get out of the whole thing and we may come back to the Board because we talked about having an outreach type program. Board – Do you know anything about the Living Social super pass? Staff – We made over $9,000 on that, we sold about 500 passes; we did very well. Right now we’re doing a Facebook one where if you’re a friend of Recreator on Facebook you get a $5.00 off coupon, to try to get more people to follow us on Facebook. Park Planning Updates • Next Tuesday night, Nov 15, the e-bike ordinance will come before City Council for the proposed 1-year trial period from April 2012-April 2013. We’re ready to go if it’s approved. If the Board has any thoughts on that, we can get those into their packets prior to the Council meeting. Discussion Board – There was an article in the paper, I don’t think she has all the information about what’s transpired. Would it help to have one or more of us there? Staff – It would be a discussion item, I’m not sure where we’re on the schedule and there will be a public input section, but you can certainly come as the Board and discuss how you feel about it. Board – I didn’t see the article. Board – It was against having any e-bikes on the trails, and I think it needs to be made clear that our Board had more than one meeting on this, and did a lot of work to understand this. I hope Council knows what we did. Staff – I’m sure Council is aware of your input. Board – I would like to go to the meeting, and I think it shows we put thought into our recommendation. Board – Have you done a trail survey? Staff – Yes, what I’ve noticed in the ½ hour block is that it’s about 15 bikes mostly going the same way. I haven’t seen any conflicts or near misses, so we’ve got some good data going on this. If it’s passed we’ll have to then decide how we’re going to track this and communicate the need to know how it affects people. Board – Has there been any help from Police or Rangers as far as developing a reporting system? Staff – I haven’t had a chance to get back with them. We added onto our form – have you observed a safety or trail users conflicts – I haven’t received any data or observed any conflicts myself. Board – Well I have with my wife. A walker with a dog and a biker had to swerve to miss the dog and ran into her. Fortunately, she wasn’t injured, but it happened fast. Staff – It will be interesting to see how this comes out. If we get enough eyes out there, we’ll get more data. Board – Do you have any information on people using mobility devices? Staff – Very little and sporadic, I’ve had only one or two that marked down wheelchair. Parks & Recreation Board Meeting – November 9, 2011 Page 7 of 14 Board – Will you tell everyone, again, what the proposal is in front of City Council? Staff – It is for the one year trial period and gathering of the data goes with that, and impacts on wildlife. The City is upgrading the signage on the trails next year and we’re hoping to hear what the public have to say about the trail system and signs. We’re thinking about doing something that says “high traffic area, please slow down”, maybe through Lee Martinez Park and along the Spring Creek Trail from Edora to Centre Ave. All of this should make it a nicer trail system. Board – Are you thinking about classifying the trails? Such as this is a slow area, good for kids, etc. along with the safety village? Maybe have the shape of the signs look like a turtle and a rabbit. Staff – No, but I like that sign image. We want these signs to be something people will remember. • We put in the $200,000 Grant application for the Fossil Creek Trail at Trilby Road. In 2012, we want to take the Power Trail under Trilby just to the west of where Fossil Creek goes under and tie into Fossil Creek Trail. Then the County wants to complete the trail from Carpenter Road down to Loveland by Boyd Lake in two years. Discussion Board – There’s a spur that goes off the Spring Creek Trail up to Prospect, fairly recent west of College. Staff – That’s actually the Mason Trail. Board – Are we at the mercy of the Mason Corridor project to connect this trail to downtown? Staff – We’ll get information from Transportation about how the Mason Trail will cross Prospect Street. Discussion Board – Congratulations on the Strauss Cabin. I read about some movement on this whole issue, and the County was going to get involved. Board – The City owns it now. Board – I just read something about in the paper, and thought, “wow, Brian’s dream is going to come true”. Board – I had worked on a grant to hook it into the trail system; but never heard anything. Never heard what happened to it. So, good, I’m glad it sounds like something is happening. Communication & Stewardship Sub-Committee Update I made a chart of outreach ideas, but I thought we should narrow it down to the top ten things. These are just my thoughts and ideas so I need some feedback. With the pending approval, is there a thought from anyone else on what we would like to do? I always thought a letter, of some sort, regarding stewardship would be a nice start. Discussion Board – I think it would be a good idea to start with the idea of stewardship. Board – The newspaper has a new Explorer section, so I’m wondering if we might approach them to ask about an opportunity to make a submission on a monthly basis. Each Board member would be given an opportunity to write something for this section. As an example, we went out and road bikes around the Ponds Natural Area, so I could do an article on biking on the trail system. Something along this line, as a means of giving information on our recreational opportunities that are available. Board – What about a day in our parks and trails? Board – I thinks this would be good, and I think we should always tie it back into stewardship. Board – The Natural Areas does a monthly column in Explorer for the natural areas, talking about the highlights in the natural areas. I think this was generated by the natural areas people to get that in there, so I think we could do the same thing, but be parks and recreation. Maybe we could ask them how they got into the Explorer. Board – I think if we develop a parameter on how we write the articles, we can have information about stewardship included very easily but still have the article be about the experience. So, we could write something like I spent the day at the park and the park has 23 trees which takes the Forestry crew so many Parks & Recreation Board Meeting – November 9, 2011 Page 8 of 14 hours/days to prune the trees; which will give people a sense of what it takes to maintain these places. The man hours, the expense, etc. Board – It would give people an idea of ownership. Board – Right, so the next time someone’s at the park they will think about how many hours it takes to prune the trees; and maybe when they see a kid hanging off a branch they’ll may be more apt to say something. Hopefully it will make people think differently and notice things that may not be as obvious. Board – When people see the budget, they’ll have a better sense that the budget goes toward pruning 44,000 trees, so that’s why they need that money. Board – Maybe we can talk about how many acres of parks, how many miles of trails, how much square footage of recreation facilities. We want to make sure we talk about Recreation as well. Board – Absolutely. Board – I like the idea of having different Board members writing articles, which will give different perspectives depending on if you have kids, or if you’re retired, etc. Board – So it sounds like we want to write monthly articles about our experiences to include information on stewardship. Board – In the past we talked about some type of appreciate or recognition program, that’s why I have that in there. Do you think this is something we can do, or should we focus on other things? Board – I think that’s pretty easy, in terms of thumbs up/thumbs down on an irregular basis when we see people doing something. I had seen some guys cleaning up the natural area by the car wash on Lemay. Board – We still need to pursue electronic media for Parks. Recreation has a pretty good presence. Staff – We are hoping for a communication person to take on more of a role hopefully so it’s more parks and recreation. We don’t have all the details worked out, but it’s coming soon. Board – I wonder if we could have something added to a web page, where people could report on what someone’s done; like maybe a schools gone out and done some trash pickup at the adjoining park. Do a little soliciting. Board – For the subcommittee meetings, do we need to have them as a work session or talk about it during the board meetings? I think it’s good to have it during the Board meeting so we can get some feedback and take away action items. Board – So are we talking about dissolving the subcommittee? Board – I think we should, I don’t know how everyone else feels. Board – Maybe we try it with all of the Board, and then if it doesn’t seem to work, we can look at doing the subcommittee again. I agree with you, at this point, we need to get everyone involved. Board – Would it be appropriate to send a thank you letter to Council and/or Kelly for supporting us. Board – Both Michael and Rob sent a thank you card to Kelly. Board – I think this is a good place for Disc Golf. I do have information on other boards, but that they didn’t want to do bullet points? Board – We think the bullet points are valid, so we can continue to send out. Board – I think it’s good to have youth stewardship on here to talk with the schools. Board – All of these were items I felt were key things we wanted to work on. Does anyone else have ideas? Board – Maybe do something about the KFCG money. Board – Would something about KFCG money be in Explorer? Board – I think it would be an editorial from the Board. I’ve written several letters as the Chair from the Board. Board – Maybe we can keep a list of items we want to write for the newspaper so we can create a time line of when some of these articles should be written. Board – I think we should do our homework, so when we approach the paper they don’t say no. Board – We should have an article done and in the format we want on the subject matter and then talk with the paper about doing this once a month and present them with the article. That way they’ll know what we want to do. Maybe Natural Areas has an idea of how to approach as well. Board – I write all day, so if anyone wants help with editing I would be happy to help. Parks & Recreation Board Meeting – November 9, 2011 Page 9 of 14 Board – Maybe our first article could be about how lucky we are that people voted on the KFCG money, as opposed to Aurora and Colorado Springs. Board – I’m not sure that’s a good first article. I think a softer article, maybe something about the broken trees and the efforts being done. Once we have our foot in the door, then we can come up with more political articles; because there were 40% that didn’t want the tax. Board – I think it depends on what section of the paper we’re writing for. We want to highlight the parks and recreation areas in an area like Outdoor Living. Something political would be more editorial. Board – I think we’ll get support to submit our articles. Board – This is why I think it’s good to have these discussions as a whole board. Board – We also want to make sure we keep in mind public outreach so if we hear about events or things we want to attend on behalf of the Board. Board – We need to have staff keep us updated on events where it would be a good idea for us to be involved. Like the Jazz event at the Gardens. It would have been great to get up and thank people for coming and bring to their attention the Rock Garden and the need for the Great Lawn. We’re always looking for input from citizens and as the Board we’re citizen representatives. Board – I go to event with Natural Resources, but they have their own display board/table and people can stop by and chat with them; so we would need to have some type of funding to create a display board. It wouldn’t cost a lot, but there would be some expense. Staff – It would have to come out of John’s marketing funding; we don’t have any budget available for marketing or advertising in Parks. And, I’m not sure if John has any additional funding he can share. Board – If it’s not in the budget, we should get in the budget, but in the meantime we should figure out how we’re going to make this happen. Board – We could just have a map available and point out where their neighborhood park is located at and then share a map of the trails they can use. Board – I will volunteer to maintain a list, if everyone can let me know what you want to do. Board – When is our next meeting? Staff – December 7. Board – Then at our next meeting we can talk about what we want to do in the Explorer. Bicycle Advisory Board Liaison Update One item, I needed to call your attention to is Valmont Park in Boulder. The Bicycle Advisory Committee took a trip to the park last month and it is a 40 acre bike park. It’s really cool, for more information the link is: http://www.bouldercolorado.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2410&Itemid=4890 They have cycle-cross areas, and all kinds of mix use focused on bicycles. The park was funded by private and public money, but it takes about $150,000 a year in maintenance costs; so they’re running a bit in the negative with that already. Discussion Staff – At similar facilities, they have to keep the track wet or it breaks down really fast. The maintenance will probably double for Boulder maintenance; and they have not yet gone through the weather changes with it. It’s hard enough to keep an indoor track in good condition; so it will be interesting how the outdoor track works out for them. It’s a beautiful looking course and with some neat sections. We talked about perhaps seeing if the bike community could help fund a venue like this here, perhaps having this type of park adjacent to the Northeast Community Park when it’s built; because it would be nice for the community, but it will be helpful to see what happens in Boulder and how much it really costs. Board – Do they charge an entrance fee? Staff – Not sure. Other Work Plan Items Nothing else to discuss at this time. Parks & Recreation Board Meeting – November 9, 2011 Page 10 of 14 Bullet Points o City Council approved our expanded bylaws with support from Kelly Ohlson, in order for us to do more outreach. o Soft opening of new disc golf course at Hughes Stadium is scheduled for December 2011. o Extensively discussed Environmental Best Management Practices Manual. o Summarized extensive tree clean up efforts after recent storms, and future ways to use resulting wood chips. Adjournment: Rob Cagen moved to adjourn, meeting adjourned 8:27pm. Respectfully submitted, VtÜÉÄ etÇ~|Ç Carol Rankin Administrative Support Supervisor Parks Department Board Approved the minutes, of November 9, 2011 – 9:0 Board Attendance Board Members: Rob Cagen, Brian Carroll, Michael Chalona, Shirley Christian, Bruce Henderson, Greg Miller, Danna Ortiz, Selena Paulsen, Dawn Theis Staff: Craig Foreman, JR Schnelzer, Bob Adams Guests: None Parks & Recreation Board Meeting – November 9, 2011 Page 11 of 14 Parks and Recreation Board October 26, 2011 Park Planning and Development work items: New: The City has submitted a concept paper for the Poudre River from Shields Street to Linden Street for the Great Outdoors Colorado River Corridor Initiative. The City will be notified by GOCO if we will be allowed to submit for the grant sometime in early 2012. Policy Plan: The draft of the Environmental/Sustainability Best Management Plan Manual has been completed and staff is reviewing. Budgeting for Outcomes: The 2013/14 BFO process will begin in the spring of 2012. Building on Basics (BOB) Park improvement funds – 2009 funds to Roselawn Cemetery for improvements. Park improvement funds will be available in 2015. NISP: Staff is anticipating the Supplemental EIS to be ready in the spring of 2012? Park items: 1. Waters Way Park: Construction is underway on the park. 2. Tennis court plan for neighborhood courts is being reviewed by management. 3. Registry Neighborhood Park: Construction is underway on the park. 4. Staley Neighborhood Park: Park is in the pilot program for The Sustainable Site Initiative program. Drawings and specifications have started on the park for construction in 2012. Trails: 1. Poudre Trail at Nix Farm: Staff will be developing the trail user resting area design. Natural Resources have seeded the area with native grasses. We are sensitive to this costly effort and will plan our construction of the resting area for a later date to minimize disturbance to the new grass. 2. Power Trail: Keenland underpass of the UP in approval process and in the second step of the railroad approval process. 3. Fossil Creek Trail along Stanton Creek north of Carpenter Road is ready to be awarded to the low-responsible bidder. Construction will start shortly and continue as weather permits. 4. New: Fossil Creek Trail at east Trilby Road: The project for the trail along Trilby Road east of Lemay Avenue to a new trail underpass of Trilby Road and then new trail south to the Stanton Creek trail section is in the design phase. The project will also join the Power Trail to the Fossil Creek Trail at the new Trilby Road trail underpass. Staff is submitting this project into the fall State Parks/GOCO trail grant cycle. 5. Poudre Trail at Lemay: Mulberry Bridge to be replaced by CDOT. The design team has incorporated our trail bridge needs downstream of Lemay into the floodplain analysis. Latest from CDOT is they are planning for construction to start in the fall of 2013. The MPO has awarded $368,375 toward the construction of the $530,000 trail project. The City is working to add funding to the bridge project to create a “gateway” affect in this area. 6. Poudre Trail to Timnath: Scoping of the project in 2011. Staff will start to work with CSU/Environmental Learning Center for an easement for the trail to extend to Drake Road. New: The City is a partner with Larimer County for their GOCO River Corridors grant. The grant is for new trail and land acquisition for the trail in the Timnath/Windsor area. We are included in this grant for the trail on Arapaho Bend Natural Area and the trail underpass of I-25. 7. New: Engineering has the funds to reconstruct County Road #11 including our new trail underpass (our funding) to be constructed in 2012. 8. Spring Creek Trail east of Centre Avenue to the railroad tracks. R.O.W. is working with CSU (CSURF) about the new trail easement process. We hope to acquire the easement in 2011. 9. Staff is working with the City Bicycle, Natural Resources, Communications Office and Park Maintenance staff on a plan to update our trail signage. 10. Plan Fort Collins action item – Trail Design Standards Amendments in 2011 and 2012. Update bicycle/pedestrian trail design standards to address use of trails for commuting/transportation purposes without impacting the recreation value of the trail system. Designate which trails these new standards would apply to and avoid impacts on environmentally sensitive areas. Staff has started a process for gathering user counts on the recreational trail system. Miscellaneous: 1. Electric bicycle trial period Code change is being worked on by several staff members. Council Work Session on e-bikes gave direction for a one year trial period. 2. Veteran’s Plaza at SCCP. Info can be obtained at the web page of the Community Foundation of Northern Colorado, News and Events section, and into Veteran’s Plaza page. Parks & Recreation Board Meeting – November 9, 2011 Page 12 of 14 3. Disc Golf: Construction has started on the course with tree plantings and installation of the course basket sleeves. The $85,000 GOCO grant was obtained for the project. 4. Water Craft Course – NISP impact unknown at this time and fund raising very slow. 5. Old Fort Collins Heritage Park stake park lights – Group of users are attempting to find funding to supply lights at the skate park. 6. Discovery/Museum Center – we are coordinating on this project. 7. Bike Safety Town location determination process continues with PSD input. Parks & Recreation Board Meeting – November 9, 2011 Page 13 of 14 2012 WORK PLAN AND MEETING SCHEDULE PARKS AND RECREATION BOARD The Parks and Recreation Board consist of nine citizen members appointed by the City Council. The Board acts as an advisory board and advises and makes recommendations to the Cultural, Parks, Recreation and Environment Service Unit and the City Council for their approval as to rules, regulations, policies, and administrative and budgetary matters pertaining to Parks and Recreation, excluding matters relating to the operation and maintenance of City-owned golf courses and cemeteries. The Board assists the City in cooperating with the Poudre School District and other organizations and individuals interested in the City's parks and recreation programs. Members serve four-year terms, and they serve without compensation. All regular Parks and Recreation Board meetings are scheduled for the fourth Wednesday of each month, except for the meetings in September and November/December. The locations of the meetings are held throughout the City at various Park & Recreation venues at 5:30pm. Please check the public calendar at fcgov.com for location information or contact Carol Rankin at the Park Shop at 970-221-6261. The 2012 meeting schedule is as follows: GOAL The Parks and Recreation Board’s goal is to advocate for the City’s exceptional parks, trails and recreation services by: • Challenging Staff to provide services in a manner that optimizes the use of the City’s limited resources. • Championing the implementation of the Fort Collins Parks and Recreation Plan and Plan Fort Collins/ • Exploring options to provide sustainable funding sources with no shortfalls. • Investigating ways to improve the City’s partnership with Poudre School District to share facilities and resources and promote stewardship January 25 May 23 September 12 February 22 June 27 October 24 March 28 July 25 December 5 (November/December) April 25 August 22 Parks & Recreation Board Meeting – November 9, 2011 Page 14 of 14 WORKPLAN Budget • Participate in the 2013 and 2014 City budget process o Provide creative parks, trails and recreation funding ideas to Staff o Explore permanent funding options for park, trail and recreational facilities operations and maintenance and for recreational scholarships • Evaluate Keep Fort Collins Great yearly expenditures and provide feedback to Staff and City Council • Provide input on Park and Recreation fees • Support grants and other outside funding opportunities for parks, trails and recreation programs and facilities Communication • Work with Staff to develop an outreach/marketing program to promote awareness and stewardship of the City’s parks, trails and recreation facilities o Investigate ways to regularly promote Parks and Recreation o Work with Staff to share more information about the parks, trails and recreation system by enhancing the City’s website, facebook page and twitter accounts and by investigating other outreach methods o Improve communication with other Boards to achieve common goals through outreach and by promoting the use of the “three bullet” process to summarize meeting minutes o Make recommendations to increase cooperation/communication with external entities o Investigate ways to improve the City’s partnership with Poudre School District to share facilities and resources o Determine if there are any opportunities to partner with CHAMP (Character in Athletics Make it a Priority), Character Fort Collins and Poudre School District to promote stewardship Sustainable Practices • Review the City’s sustainability and “green practices” efforts and use of the environmental best practices manual Parks • Review matters related to the construction of Staley Park • Comment on matters related to parkland acquisition • Assess the Parks Maintenance Plan update • Review action items related to parks, trails and recreation in Plan Fort Collins