Parks & Recreation Advisory Committee

Advisory Board Minutes

April 13, 2010             

 

MEMBERS PRESENT:  

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

 

 

MEMBERS ABSENT:  

 

 

 

STAFF PRESENT: 

Ernie Shaw, Mark Hecker , Roger Steinbrock, Jimmy Gibbs and Brad Todd, intern

 

 

GUESTS:

 

 

 

I.              Meeting called to order by Chair Jana Dobbs.

 

II.            Approval of March 9, 2010 minutes -- Motion to approve by Andy, seconded by Joe.  Motion approved.

 

III.           Concerns of the Board – Jana reported that she and Kevin will be meeting with Rick Doll on Friday to discuss the changes regarding school facilities and see what can be done to improve on communication among the two entities.  Andy mentioned the soccer fields located just west of the Lawrence Alternative High School, wondering if the school district would be willing to release those or designate them to KVSA to use and/or have KVSA pay to maintain them, thus having one additional full sized soccer field to play on.  Mark H. will determine the cost and if enough maintenance staff is available to make the offer to the school district.

 

IV.          Summer/Fall Activity Guide – Activity Guide came out Sunday, April 11. Summer/Fall enrollment numbers are down considerably compared to the first two days of Summer/Fall enrollment in 2009 and 2008. Currently, we are down less than two-tenths of a percent for the time period of December 2 through April 12, which includes all Winter/Spring 2010 enrollment with the Summer/Fall enrollments compared to 2009 and we’re up 8 percent from 2008 numbers. We may have hit finally hit a plateau for enrollment and may not see a three percent increase this year over previous years like had become the norm over the past four to five years. 

 

V.            Burroughs Creek Trail Progress and May 8th event – Mark reported that the trail project is going very slowly due to weather.  If we could get two weeks without rain, the project would be close to being finished especially (between 11th and 19th Street).  The May 8th project is a big service project involving boy scouts, cub scouts and webelo’s in the Douglas County area.  They project about 200 kids will be there.  The plan is to have them landscape the trail.  We will have our ten full-time horticulturists working with the scouts.  They will plant trees, shrubs and a variety of plants.    

 

VI.          Skate Park repairs and pending renovation -- Had concerns about the cracking of the skate park surface.  Due to the heavy winter, we had cracks three inches in diameter.  Milled those cracks out with an 18” strip and then put an asphalt patch back in.  It’s useable now, not good, but okay.  Staff will be meeting with the American Ramp Company and a local engineering firm pertaining to permanent repairs. 

 

VII.         IPM Report – Mark reported on the progress towards goals that the IPM committee has set.  They are going to try to do some paper mulching and chemical changes.  There are varying signal words for toxicity levels.  We are aiming for the caution level. All category one and category two chemicals have been eliminated.  We now have Category three and Category four, which we feel is pretty safe, as far as the use of chemicals.  We try to push this down lower every year.  Staff has not found a replacement for “Roundup” yet.  Staff uses it to chemically edge the parks. 

 

VIII.        Activity Center report – We are working with Gould Evans and trying to get a package together on the proposed activity center.  The last meeting held was last week and involved putting the final touches on the proposal.  They have refigured, in more detail, the estimates on the cost per square foot and are very favorable to the original estimate. We’re talking potentially of this happening in 2012 when the bonds pay off at the Indoor Aquatic Center and rolling those bonds over to the center so no new public moneys other than private partners would be needed. 

 

IX.          Dog pots donations – We have some of these at the dog park.  They get used and they get abused.  Responsible people use them and those that don’t, don’t use them.  We could put one of these at the trailhead and at the end of the trail but would not recommend at this time given the amount of maintenance required. Mark and Ernie said they would contact the donor in regards to the donation.

 

X.            Competitive swim clubs – Jimmy reported that the Lawrence Aquahawks has had some coaching changes.   One of the coaches has left the team and is now forming another competitive swim team.  We have gone over and updated the long term use agreements with the Lawrence Aquahawks, for practices.   Jimmy will be working with one of the assistant city managers to work towards completing all the requirements for the second team to use our facilities.  There was some questions about non-profit and for profit organizations using our facilities.  Aquahawks are non-profit and the new swim club is an LLC, which is for-profit.  Legally we are able to do this. The city managers office will have the opportunity to review any contracts for pool use/rental.  Water space is definitely at a premium right now with our classes, aquahawks and school use.

 

XI.          Staff reports

 

a.      Recreation/Golf Revenue/Expense Report – Ernie reported that recreation doesn’t look too pretty right now.  Right now we are running about five percent below our projections.  Ernie asked staff this week to set aside five percent of their budgets, put it in to contingency like we do with EBGC.  The month of March was decent for EBGC, but not as good as normal due to weather.  We’re may be putting back another $40-50,000 of expense budget in contingencies. 

b.      Parks/Projects Report            - Mark reported that we are as busy as we can be.  Projects have been on hold for so long, that there is a backlog of projects.  Flowers, shrubs and trees are all coming in, as well as grass growing.

c.      Marketing Report – Roger reported that the sponsorship information has been sent out and that he has heard from a couple of restaurants.  Has another mailing list prepared and will go out soon.  A release went out for Nature Club, in cooperation with John McGrew’s, Outside for a Better Inside.  We have had almost 40 families sign up for this, over 100 people.  We’re working on getting a survey out to those families and figure out what they are wanting in regards to a nature experience.  We also have the Pitch, Hit and Run coming up as well as the flower planting coming up in May.  The shelter rentals have started too.  The Staff BBQ Kickoff to summer will be coming up in May also.

 

Meeting adjourned.  Next Advisory Board meeting scheduled for Noon, Tuesday, May 11th, 2010, Parks and Recreation Conference Room.