City of Lawrence

Parks and Recreation Advisory Board

March 11, 2019 minutes

 

MEMBERS PRESENT:

Chair, Marilyn Hull, Bart Littlejohn, John Blazek, Pat Phillips, Sandy Hull, Val Renault, and Jacki Becker

MEMBERS ABSENT:

Patricia Collette, John Nalbandian

STAFF PRESENT:

Derek Rogers, Roger Steinbrock, Lee Ice, Mark Hecker

PUBLIC PRESENT:

Stuart Boley

 

    I.        Meeting called to order by Hull

Introductions for new board member, Sandy Hull, were made.

 

  II.        Approval of February 11, 2019 minutes

Becker made note of the correct spelling of her first name.

Approval was motioned by Renault; Littlejohn seconded.  Motion carried 7-0.

 

III.        Public Comments

None.

 

 IV.        Highlights/Concerns

a.    Staff follow-up Items from Previous Month

Wi-Fi at Indoor Aquatic Center

Rogers reported staff ordered equipment needed to provide better Wi-Fi and are in the process of getting it installed.  It will hopefully be completed by the next meeting.

 

b.    New Concerns/Items of Interest

Hull inquired if LPRD takes care of the surfacing at the levee trail.  Hecker said we are aware of the problem and really can’t do maintenance in the winter. Rogers said it will be shared with staff to address concern.  Hecker said the levee maintenance is in transition from moving the responsibility from Municipal Services Office to Parks and Recreation.

 

Blazek was approached by an acquaintance who swims two or three days a week at the IAC. He said she is asked to leave when swim teams are using the space. Blazek will follow up and get patron name for staff to follow up.

 

    V.        Clarification of Meeting Procedures

Hull had asked staff for clarification regarding meeting procedures because of questions raised after the last meeting.  At the agenda meeting, it was discussed to follow the City Commission model for public comment for things not being addressed on the agenda at the beginning of the meeting.  For public comment on agenda items, comment would be asked for after staff has presented an item and board questions have been asked of staff regarding the information provided.  The public is to address the chair of the committee. After public comment, the board my have further discussion and ask staff additional questions; however, it shouldn’t become a debate between the public and staff or the board and public. Once questioning is exhausted, action (if any) may be taken by the board and then follow on to other agenda items. If there are other item(s) brought up during discussion that are not germane to the agenda item but has standing, those item(s) should be deferred to a future agenda for proper research and discussion.

 

 VI.        Review of City Ethics Policy

Steinbrock reviewed the City Ethics Policy for the board to understand what they as board members needed to follow.

 

VII.        Summer Lunch Program Update

Steinbrock presented information on the 2019 Summer Lunch Program, providing the City sites selected for this year, which included: the Library Lawn, South Park, Broken Arrow Park, Holcom Park, and East Lawrence Center. The Community Building is a rain location for South Park.  Each location needs to have at 100 kids participating in the free lunch program for it to be viable.  Steinbrock said the main initiative is to get the word out about the lunch program.  Steinbrock said he applied for a grant for the nutrition education program primarily, but the grant had a caveat that allowed grantees to address one of three areas.  The area selected is an issue for Lawrence and that is transportation - getting kids to the food sites.  Steinbrock put in the grant to get 500 summer bus passes for youth who meet the qualifications for the free/reduced lunch program through the schools. It would be run as a pilot program to see if it would be viable and we would have to work on making it sustainable if it worked. If we are awarded the grant, more information will be forthcoming.

 

Board asked questions about how the grant would work and how it would be sustainable in the future.

 

Public Comment: Commissioner Boley passed out information about the number of free/reduced meals through USD 497.  Boley believes we will not get kids in to the lunch program with marketing, we need to have good programming and feed them while they are at the programs. Boley said even though the Free Summer Lunch program saw increased participation in 2018, he believes there is still a large gap of those who need meals. Boley suggested the department might engage with groups in the community like the school district and the health department to get more information on disparities within the community.  Boley said some of the information we have today wasn’t available at the time of the master plan and that when decisions were made in developing parks and recreation priorities.  He said when making budget decision for the department we need to be looking at where in the community a significant impact can be made in people’s lives.  He believes it is most significant with young people and specifically the group who fall into the gap of not having access to meals.

 

Hull asked staff what would it look like in terms of budget to build some new programming around the lunch sites and how would go about writing that into the budget? Staff said summer camps had already been planned for this year and discussed some ideas/suggestions. Hull suggested staff look at what is being done at other places in the state or even in the country because this is a widespread issue.

 

VIII.        Master Plan Update

Steinbrock said he is working on the comprehensive mini-master plan handout and it shows last year’s accomplishments, what we’re doing this year and what our plans are for 2019.  Rogers said the City Commission will be provided master plan updates from departments at a future meeting. Rogers reported our master plan was adopted February 2017, prior to that the last plan was completed in 2000.  He said the process included public input, professional analysis, multiple public meetings and reviewing of facilities.  Rogers said the horizon of the plan was ten years and the expected outcomes of the plan were: what are the public improvements; how are we going to change the service levels with increased programming (which we’ll need to address with additional programming that was discussed earlier); the organizational structure for the benefit of the community (changes to the organizational structure have already taken place that were proposed in the master plan); development and new funding sources (some of the ideas that were in the comprehensive master plan panned out and some didn’t bear fruit or we hit dead ends).  He said we continue to look at how we can expand and work with partnerships in the community, which have been going well and produced win-win situations. He said we’re in year two of a ten-year process and that it is our plan to have it reviewed, at a minimum, annually by the advisory board, as well as a full review at the five-year mark of the plan. 

 

Funding – Hecker said the CIP process has been a good process for funding the big projects.  He said in the maintenance budget, one of the keys is maintenance and projects less than $100,000.  Hecker said we’re trying to do a better job this year of filling out the CIP requests with what we are going to do.  He said the maintenance fund this year will show typically what we have done in what would be a normal year; however when something unexpected happens, like the roof on the Administrative Building started leaking this year and the estimates were around $80,000 to fix, it impacts the budget priorities for the funds available to do projects throughout the year.  He said a lot of the money goes to small projects like a bathroom on Burroughs Creek Trail or at the arboretum. He said we try to accomplish a lot of the smaller things in the master plan by way of this budget line.  He also said partnerships come into play for assisting in funding projects and said sometimes things that wouldn’t be a priority if city funds would fully fund a project are assisted by when partners bringing funding to a project. Hecker said items meeting the master plan objectives with funding support will be taken into consideration.  He said the CIP proposals are a way of moving ahead to the develop future opportunities that may arise. 

 

 IX.        Staff Reports

a.    Parks – Hecker said due to inclement weather a few construction projects have been delayed.  Lawrence Loop signs will be up by April; working with consultants on the RFP for the Lawrence Loop section of downtown; arboretum parking lot should bid tomorrow and be on the city commission agenda the following week to get the contractor going on that; the roof project will bid tomorrow and hopefully on the commission agenda the following week; working on the downtown pavers; working on a big project at the Oak Hill Mausoleum, re-roofing and weather proofing (on the CIP); arboretum restroom, has been ordered and need to do the site work on the utilities.

Hecker gave an update on the police facility and park planning.  Masterplan for the park will be presented at the public meeting on March 20. 

 

b.    Recreation – Ice reported winter programs were completed.  Getting ready to switch gears to outdoor sports.  Have held three volleyball tournaments at SPL; arts and crafts festival with 140 exhibitors, with an estimation of 3,000-4,000 people in attendance.  Youth baseball starts up next week, but the fields will not be ready for practices.  The competitive leagues start up mid-April; Sporting Kaw Valley is getting ready to kick off their outdoor soccer season at YSC (after spring break);  have a bunch of spring break activities going on this week at the nature center, SPL, Holcom Park Recreation Center and the Indoor Aquatic Center. Adult softball registration deadlines will be coming up soon; Gayle and her granny basketball team played at halftime of the KU Women’s Basketball game on February 27 – very well received by the people in attendance.  Lawrence will be hosting the National Granny Basketball Tournament at the Amber Student Recreation Center on July 20. 

 

c.     Marketing – Steinbrock said the Summer/Fall Activity Guide is at the layout stage with the designer right now.  The Summer Camp edition is completed, which will be online only, and will be on the website tomorrow with registration for summer camps only beginning Monday, March 18.  This is a new option for citizens.  Steinbrock said we have discussed eliminating the activity guide, this is the first step to see it is viable.  As we age, we’re going to see a different demographic taking over the methods of communication and the current generation is used to digital information and less paper.  It currently costs approximately $50,000 for two activity guides per year; however, it is a small investment for the return on the investment.  Steinbrock said the department will begin working on this year’s Bill Self Golf Classic held in June, which is a fundraiser for our Wee Folks Scholarship fund. 

 

d.    Staff –Director – Rogers said our CIP projects have a lot to do with infrastructure, parking lots, and the streets in our parks. He said parking lots are becoming issues because of the freeze/thaw that happened this winter.  He said patching has been done to a somewhat successful level. Rogers said he haven’t received any complaints about any cars falling into any potholes in parking lots.  He said the department needs to get on top of our asphalt projects and parking lots.  Rogers reviewed the Daddy/Daughter Date Night program after it was made public that a mother was not being allowed to attend with her daughter.  He said he had staff change its decision immediately and also discussed with staff the administrative policies and being fair/equitable throughout the department with all programming.

 

   X.        Other

 

Next Board Meeting, Monday, April 8, at 5:30 p.m. 

 

Meeting adjourned.