Parks & Recreation

Advisory Board Minutes

June 9, 2009              

 

MEMBERS PRESENT:  

Chair Kevin Loos, Vice Chair Jana Dobbs, Kelly Barth, Joe Caldwell and Andy Clayton

 

 

MEMBERS ABSENT:  

 

 

 

STAFF PRESENT: 

Ernie Shaw, Mark Hecker, Roger Steinbrock, Cynthia Boecker, Lee Ice

 

 

GUESTS:

 

 

 

I.              Meeting called to order by Chair Kevin Loos.

 

II.            Approval of May 12, 2009 minutes – Motion to approve by Kelly, second by Andy.  All approved.

 

III.           Live Well Lawrence – Marilyn Hull, Program Officer for the Douglas County Community Foundation.  For the last six to seven months, steering committee members, including Roger Steinbrock, have been meeting to begin to talk about some community planning around nutrition and physical activity.  

 

IV.          Concerns of the Board – Kelly said that a friend of hers wanted to compliment the parks and recreation staff on the handling of a fort being built by kids on the DeVictor trail.  After the complaint came in, staff acted quickly in the dismantling of the fort. Kelly also expressed that it is too bad that the kid’s hard work and ingenuity had to be compromised. 

 

Loos had a concern about shortage of ball fields for youth.  Discussion to follow – item VIII.

 

V.            Lee Ice – Proposal to name a Holcom field for Mr. Heinrich – we have the Houk League playing on Houk Field now, and there is a Heinrich league playing on Holcom Red and the Ice League plays on Ice Field.  If we can rename Holcom Red to the Heinrich Field, it would tie-in to the overall Holcom Association which is another gentleman in Louie Holcom and all these people tie into and they all knew each other and just one more piece of the puzzle.  Heinrich family is definitely a good fit.  Dobbs made a motion to rename Red Field to Louie Heinrich Field, second by Caldwell.  Motion passed.

 

VI.          Advisory Board/Parks & Recreation Public Forum – Potential revenue increases/concerns discussion – A draft memo was handed out to board members.  Ernie briefly went over the recommendations that staff has approved of.  Brief discussion took place about the memo.  Barth motioned for approval, second by Dobbs.  Motion passes.

 

 

Golf fees – Fees have not been increased since 2006.  Our true competition is Alvamar and Lake Shawnee.  Fees have not been raised lately with the way the economy has been.  During the week, there are plenty of times to play, but on the weekends we are turning people away and have been for the last year or so.  We are recommending raising weekend rates by $2.00.  Cart fees weekday and weekends by $1.00 for rounds.  This would take place immediately after our rollback prices on July 2nd.  Dailies would start July 3rd – annual passes and playing cards would start in January 2010.  A lot of this is supply and demand.  Dobbs motioned to approve the recommendation with the amendment to explore the amounts of the impact of the $50.00 annual pass and implement all the others.  Second by Caldwell.  Motion passed.

 

VII.         Burroughs Creek trail update – Did a walkthrough last week with the design engineer and the storm water engineer.  Identified a couple of areas that needs improvement, but still going for a July bid date.

 

VIII.        Youth Sports Complex projects – Just finished irrigating soccer fields 5 through 9 – all soccer fields are irrigated now.  Working on three additional practice fields for baseball / softball, just south of the current football fields.  Our programs are bigger than our facility needs at the moment.  We are very short on practice facilities.  We are getting to the point of where we have to limit the number of teams that we can accept.

 

IX.          IAC roof update – In Legal hands at the moment.  Slow going process.  Moisture is getting in between the roof panels and the rubber membrane.  As it heats up, it bubbles.  We have a warranty on the roof, rubber part, but not the under part.  That roof will have to come off and the whole substructure will have to be resealed.

 

X.            USD 497 new tennis court lights – Working on putting proposals out there on how to light the tennis center without infringing upon the neighborhood.  We have a couple of proposals through Musco that does that.  Tennis courts are built by the school district but we are installing lights.  Proposal to the school district that they will maintain the courts and we will maintain the lights.

 

XI.          Staff reports

 

a.    Recreation/Golf Revenue/Expense Report – reports passed out to board members – revenue and recreation report is good.  We’re at 105%.   Golf Course has been doing well.  Down a little bit in May due to deposits for Memorial Day weekend not in until June. 

b.    Parks/Projects Report – EBGC, installed Zoysia on Hole #7.  PPNC clean-up in landscape with Marty’s help.

c.    Marketing Report – Up five percent in enrollment.  Gearing up for the winter/spring activities guide before too long.

 

XII.   Miscellaneous – Cynthia mentioned as some of the debt for parks projects are going off-line, we would look at utilizing that savings and then hopefully the savings of being able to move out of this location to having administrative offices in a recreation center, using those funds for debt service for a facility to serve the west side of town.  We are looking at the planning phases, but wanted you to be aware there would be involvement from the advisory board.  Mark mentioned working on some preliminary numbers on operational impact. 

 

Meeting  adjourned with next scheduled meeting Tuesday, July 14th, at Noon, Parks and Recreation Conference Room.