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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPRMinutes_2021_05_03Parks and Recreation Advisory Board Minutes Monday, May 3, 2021 5:30 PM Call to Order Erika Saunders called meeting to order at 5:30 PM. Verbal Roll Call - present: Steve Berseth, Andrea Hogie, John Maynes, Carson Cody (GoTo), Doug Smith, Jay Larsen, Erika Saunders, Ashley Ragsdale (GoTo); & City Staff Dusty Rodiek, City Mgr Paul Briseno, Greg Redenius, Al Kruse, Stacy Claussen, Darren Hoff, & Ronda May. Not present: Board Member Isaac Schulte & City Staff Al Kruse. Approval of Agenda Motion to approve amended agenda by John Maynes (add 6D-Biden Funds), seconded by Doug Smith; motion carried. Approval of Minutes Motion to approve minutes by Jay Larsen, seconded by Steve Berseth; motion carried. Staff Highlights Dusty: Last Friday Arbor Day Run at Nat Park–appx 100 in attendance & went very well. Enjoyed the route. Jay said 80 runners & walkers – it was a good celebration. Hiring is a challenge. Rec Guide – printed & the Spanish version of the brochure is ready. Multi Cultural Center getting these & we have in office. Human Rights Comm will help get distributed. Our immigration community requested the guide many times. Steve asked how going to get to the families in need? A lot of dairy farms said they’d help. Darren mentioned our ActiveNet also translates to Spanish. Sled hockey at LIC – played hockey for 2 days, very appreciative, & no issues whatsoever. Already wanting to book ice for next November & want to make it an annual thing. Forestry helped w/clean-up, marking trees, & hard time finding seasonals. Greg – lost drive on 75 hp pump so down to 25 hp pump to water but sounds like maybe sometime this week we’ll get a new drive put on – unexpected. John – cost? $11,000 so will have to underspend in other areas. Hoping to aerify Wednesday but possibility of rain. Membership sales have been significantly stronger than last year & strong to this point as well. Old Business: Reported by Dusty Rodiek unless otherwise noted A. Bob Shelden Field Update: Couple weeks ago had ribbon cutting & went very well. Darren helped w/some neat ideas & Shelden family there. Did another walkthrough w/engineers last wk & 1 of things getting taken care of from earlier punch list is drainage area – E of field itself. Asked eng to go back & look at some other options. City would like to keep the storm water capacity but at same time we don’t want a mud pit so opting to disconnect to the valley gutter – if capture the steady flow, it could dry out. Project eng working w/City Eng to come up w/solution. John – where does trickle flow come from? Dusty said rain event on field & w/drainage on field, not all soaks down. Also on N end, BHS roof drains into this area so multiple sources. Had conversation w/artist today & had concern w/plans as made some infield modifications but artist didn’t see the changes but now resolved. Did get text today from Cody Wright, FOB President, & said stadium huge hit w/fans. Sod not fully grown in outfield. B. Parks Master Plan Update: Online survey closed last Wed so consultants complying info. Have prelim report on statistically valid survey May 17th as consultants in town & will do presentation to this Board. Will send it out from now until then so Board can review it. John asked if also meeting w/City Council? Yes, & we’ll invite public to our meeting too. Will probably do some visioning, meet w/staff on operational items & any adjustments would be prudent in future. C. Tree Program – Brookings Urban Forestry Initiative: Going very well, about week into it, about 1/3 of way into the funds, & well received! D. Community Games: As of right now, we don’t have any packets turned in but have some verbal confirmation – BISA, City Mgr doing team, 1st Bank & Trust. As first year, we may extend the deadline. Erika – how many teams hoping for? Dusty said at least 8 this year and then hopefully 30+. E. Food Truck Use: Last time we met, asked for some consideration. Dusty’s also thought about it more & Paul Briseno came up w/interesting idea. First want Board’s thoughts: Jay – wonder what process is, do they reserve? There is a process – any food truck wanting to use munc lot has to fill out request form w/dates & hours of operation which goes to Dusty, City Clerk, & Paul -$50/year for transient merchant. Paul’s idea – the long parking lot is most requested. Paul suggested doing parking lot by horseshoe area, & we develop Page 2 it so attractive to use. The gray line on picture Dusty provided would be a sidewalk. Could have up to 3 food trucks, patrons park in park lot, & then walk over to food trucks. We’d potentially provide electricity so pretty easy to provide power & opt to cover some of our costs. Per event fee or annual fee & then create calendar when those lots are available. John – what do you do if have 4 apps? At that point, 1st come 1st serve. Apply on weekly basis? Yes. Erika – how many parking spots in that lot? Al thought maybe 10-12. Erika asked if could still be there during large events? Swim meets, no, as they have own concessions. Tennis maybe – by user groups. Erika thinks 3 is small number. Darren asked how many food trucks do we have? Paul said quite a few. Wanted food trucks in 72 hr parking lot but everyone goes to HC lot currently. John – if more than 3 apps, maybe go to drawing for fairness. Doug said Food Truck Night in Phoenix – maybe do in 72 hr parking lot? Jay – area businesses being considered, being updated in process? Dusty said coming to this Board first. Jay said there are some that park in the horseshoe parking lot. John asked what Dusty’s response would be to Cottonwood – Dusty said can currently do it right now, not a change. Dusty said there would be operating agreement for each entity & be able to track. PD is made aware of anytime lot getting used. Erika – no safety concerns? Not that Dusty foresees at this time. Steve – kids using park & having food trucks there is a neat deal & Doug agrees – bring more people into parks & outdoors, that’s great! Erika wants to keep noise down. Jay asked if app lists hours? Yes, & we can set parameters. John asked if sales tax license? John asked if running by Chamber? Yes. Doug motion to move forward w/food truck concept, Jay asked to expand it in agreement w/Park & Rec & City; Jay Larsen 2nd;; motion carried. New Business: Reported by Dusty Rodiek unless otherwise noted A. Event Requests: a. National Guard: Dusty would like to reschedule as Jason didn’t show. Tabled. b. Dakota Dragons: Courtney Jones, Pres of Dakota Dragons – women FB league. Terry on GoTo phone – Dusty asked for event, dates, times. Terry from Jacksonville FL& with the league looking for way to centralize event & 1 place for support. Came to Brookings & fell in love with it – spent 3-4 days here. Loved Pioneer Park & vision to make Super Bowl event – make it week event. Thurs & Fri nights – local musicians at Pioneer Park, kids camps, & concluding w/game. Don’t ask for money, looking for partners. Game at SDSU July 28 – Aug 1st. Doug asked if would encompass entire park or just section? Courtney says band shell & some green space but not entire park like Arts Festival. Food trucks there, if allowed. Nothing to damage park, Doug asked? Terry said no & he works w/NFL stadiums all over US. Jay asked if already contracted w/SDSU? They can’t officially sign contract but have verbal agreement. Erika asked what dates would be for park – Thurs & Fri nights – Legacy Bowl. Family friendly games? Yes, no alcohol & patronize city businesses. Dusty comfortable moving forward & work w/Courtney locally. Terry – Visit Brookings on board & offered up grant, & Courtney said met w/Chamber, Visit Brookings. Etc. Doug motion to go forward w/this as long as Park & Rec & City Council approves. Darren said it’s also state softball tourney that weekend at Southbrook. Terry sees this as positive note. Jay – game scheduled for evening? Yes, kickoff 5 -6 PM, not determined yet. Jay – played on turf? Terry hoping by starting at that time to miss out on hottest part of day. John 2nd; motion carried. c. Humane Society: Brenda Buus – poker run, food truck at Pioneer Park. Jay asked if conflicts w/car show? No, June 22nd is Car Show & June 5th is this request w/poker run from 11 – 12 w/food trucks & games. Motion to accept by John Maynes, 2nd by Doug Smith; motion carried. d. Biden Funds: John said gov’t giving money & asked Dusty last few weeks how much money the City of Brookings might expect? 4.1 million approx. – John’s of opinion that DNP needs help w/maint – $35,000; golf course & cart paths $100,000; amounts modest & understanding won’t get complete job. Dusty – right now we’re trying to learn the rules of the funds w/Finance & City Mgr’s office taking the lead as currently have up until 2024 to spend these dollars & would like to see final process w/Parks Master Plan to see what other priorities we might move forward with from it. Definitely something to explore & this group move forward w/recommendations. Erika – guaranteed funds, apply for them? Paul – still learning & ways to spend & ways not to spend w/a lot of strings attached to it. Doug asked if shared w/school or separate funds? Erika hope rules w/in 6 months. Make sure listening to budget process & Page 3 prioritize. Send Erika top 5 things concerned about in community & Erika will compile it. Dusty said good timing w/Master Plan. B. Staffing Challenges: Stacy – challenges in all of depts., mainly pool w/fact not open for year but no different than surrounding communities. Have to be certified & trained & we lost some of our returners. Currently have 36 new staff & 6 are over 18 so most are young w/multiple activities so scheduling different at pool. Have a lot of swim team kids so busy on weekends. Doug asked if age 16 at front desk? No, but we like more mature ones as handling money. Kids that lifeguard pay for own training but we’re refunding $100 on first paycheck if work at our pool. John – what do we offer as pay? Starting is $10.25 & top pay is $13.00, head life guards $12/hour start, & managers $14/hour start. Definitely need to look at this for future. We’ve had several conversations w/HR dept this spring & they’re on board for competitive wage. Fast food places paying more. Al said we’ve had people back out as not paying enough. Stacy said allowed to only give .25 raise. Al said we’re 5 short in Parks & no one hired in Forestry. Greg – pay scales set when min wage was $8.25 & thinks wages should be looked at every year as min wage gets adjusted yearly. Salary study done but not seasonal/part-time salaries. HR agreed to look at these. Darren has already put feelers out to other communities but they’re in same boat we’re in … City gov’t about last ones in pay. We may not open all components inside pool due to lack of staff. Doug said a lot of responsibility so don’t want to overburden them. John – what are fast food places paying? A lot more job oppt for kids than before & they’re even starting to negotiate. Erika said we always have challenges but we always pull it off – good luck! C. Land Transfer to BSD: Dusty referenced color printout –property right next to Bob Shelden parking lot. Currently, this parcel is City owned. School has grandstand on it, & we relocated the long jump & throwing areas down into this parcel so became more of a track so we have little use of this parcel. Thought was to transfer this to BSD. Initial conversation w/Dr Willert – they’re acceptable to it. Do we wait to see what, if anything happens w/5th St Gym? Yes, possibly. John asked if we own fee title? Steve offered background … joint use agreement evolved w/BHS & Bob Shelden. When track built only room for 6 lanes but no press area. Couldn’t do press box, 8 lanes, concessions. So joint use w/City for fast pitch but nothing on paper. John – is Steve saying could be fast pitch facility? No longer because of track area updates but field next to it could be Doug said. Steve said Southside comparable to Bob Shelden for fast pitch. John asked if FB team practices on this property? Yes just drills. Dusty wanted to make us aware of this. Doug asked if we still maintain this? Yes. Would we continue? Dusty said their staff learning to do more in their areas. Slowly we’re transitioning out of it. We simply can’t continue to maintain our properties let alone school properties. John said 1 of problems in retention area is garbage paper that comes from school parking lot & snow pile so would be nice to haul out snow pile in winter in timely manner. Dusty will talk w/BSD. Doug said pine trees problem for turf but Dusty said alternative was to cut them down but community would’ve been very upset. Upcoming Programs & Events: A. June Meeting Date: June 7, 2021 & special meeting May 17th Adjournment: John Maynes motioned to adjourn the meeting at 6:53 PM, Doug Smith seconded; motion carried. Submitted, Ronda A May Ronda A May, Park & Rec Office Manager