Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutPRMinutes_2024_05_06 Parks and Recreation Advisory Board Notes Monday, May 6, 2024 5:30 PM 1. Call to Order Chair Erika Saunders called the meeting to order at 5:30 PM. Board Members present: Erika Saunders, Doug Smith, Jay Larsen, Nathaniel Condelli, Steven Berseth. Board Members absent: Stacy Zerfas and Brenda Andersen. City of Brookings Staff Present: Park, Recreation and Forestry Director Kristin Zimmerman, Assistant Director Parks, Recreation and Forestry Joshua Bauman, Recreation Manager Stacy Claussen. 2. Approval of Agenda Steve Berseth motions to approve May 6th, 2024 agenda. Doug Smith 2nds motion; Motion Carried 3. Approval of Minutes Doug Smith motions to approve April 2024 Minutes. Jay Larsen 2nds motion; Motion Carried. 4. Discussion and Possible Action: Summer Sol Summer Sol will be June 22nd from 8am to sundown at Sexauer Park. This is a repeat event that we work with Eric Beckendorf on. City staff recommends approval with insurance, with the city listed as additionally insured. This will be the 2nd year they have held the event. Last year we had 18 teams, it went really smooth. This year we will have 7 more new teams. Brookings hasn’t had a volley ball tournament in a long time so this is something that looks to be becoming bigger. Eric states that they had teams from other states and with SDSU alumni, they want to come back to participate. This is a grass volleyball tournament. If it were to rain, we would have to do it in the sand. Eric just asks that the city mows a few days out and not the day before. They won’t need additional picnic tables but they will bring porta pots in this year so that they will have closer restrooms. Kristin just mentions that if there is any alcohol at the park, she will need to approve it. She asks that, that is put in the application. Eric spoke with Dakota Gold Insurance and will get that taken care of. He has players sign a waiver but was wondering why insurance is needed with the waiver. Kristin explained that the insurance covers everyone if someone were to get hurt during the event. It will cover them as an organization as well as the City of Brookings. Eric states that he does have the insurance. Josh said there were no concerns after the event and was thankful that they cleaned up after the event and had no negative feedback on the event. Eric would like to know if there will be any future changes to the park that will help with parking. He has concerns about where the road is between the playground and the volleyball area. Kristin states that they will look into that when that playground is up for replacement and put the location into consideration. The original placement also had a kickball field so that is probably why the playground was placed where it was. Doug motions to approve the event, Nathaniel Condelli 2nds; motion is carried. 5. Aquatic Center Updates Stacy Claussen states they lost 12 lifeguards but have hired 10. She does have a few others that may be interested in lifeguarding. She has another lifeguard training class set up for the end of the month. The class is free so that has helped with people showing more interest. Wages are competitive and we have interviewed some really good kids and we have picked up 4 college students that have 4 to 5 years’ experience so that will be very beneficial to us. The pool will open on May 28th and we have an all staff meeting on May 22nd. We are planning to play it by ear as far as closing but we hope to stay open one more week. The pool is getting new flooring, and the pool is being sand blasted. We should be ready for water the 15th. This glass coating should last at least 25 to 30 years. The pool will also be white this year. We have about 700 kids registered for programs. Some of the programs are already full and some we are needing more, but this is really good. We have about 93 t-ballers and we have stuck around 100 the last few years. So, we will be able to have 10 teams. We have a new intern that started and will be in the office and helping us with programs. We also have two interns at the Nature Park. One is a Fish and Wild Life Major and the other is going to school for education. This will help with our programs at the Nature Park because we really need the educator as well as someone that is interested in the wildlife. This will be a good balance at the nature park. We also have 4 high school students that want to work there as well. We do have an agreement with the Outdoor Adventure Center. We work side by side with them but we do not pay them. They will have some programs out of the nature center. We get two of their people during the winter, not the summer. They do fishing in the nature center and hunting. They are able to do the archery and other types of things that they can do during the winter. Last year Page 2 we didn’t have enough snow for snowshoeing but they have helped with other programs. There will be an activity at the Outdoor Adventure Center coming up May 15th. We do have staff there and will push the programs and try to get more kids interested. We have 19 rentals for the month of May at the Nature Park. 6. Capital Project Updates Pickleball construction has started, there was a slight delay due to rain but the project is still on time to be completed at the end of August. Change order number one is going to city council tomorrow to get approval to change the buffer size around each court. The public Arts commission is requesting for a project to do the windscreens around the pickleball courts. Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department would like that to be a public art bid. They will go out to bid for an artist to do the art. We would like someone from the park board to sit on the committee. It should be pretty minimal; Kristin will email the information out. We are just asking that the art be pickle ball related with the City of Brookings logo on it. We still want it to be artistic. The windscreen will be two sides, but the art will run along 17th Ave. The backside will be a solid color. New playgrounds were installed at Hillcrest and Camelot, they are the 2–5-year-old toddler playgrounds. Surfacing will be installed and we did add a shade to the park at Camelot because there wasn’t any. The elephant will be staying at Hillcrest! We signed a contract with Banner and Associates to do additional surveying and ground water study and engendered drawings. That was the next step with the water sourcing project. The USGA is set to visit Edgebrook. They will be coming in on July 11th. They are going to do an assessment of the course and look at more draught tolerant seed mixes that we can work with on our fairways. With the recent rain that we have had the ponds have been raised about 18 inches. That is great, but we are still addressing the water situation. Our contractor discovered when they took the bricks off the exterior of the bandshell they found that the facade is scalloped. At this point we don’t know if the cost to keep it will be more labor intensive and they are recommending a single pour with the cap. The State Historic Preservation Office is onboard with the direction that we are going. 7. Open Houses There will be two upcoming open houses. The first one is May 13th at 5:00 P.M., in the council chamber. We asked the public to come out and talk about park design and accessibility. Everyone is a little different so what are the needs of our community? How can all of our park spaces be a lot more welcoming? The next open house is on May 14th at Edgebrook Golf Course. It will be a Golf Course Q and A. It will be league night at the course so Gary Moen thought that would be the best night to meet. He will be sending out emails to all the members so that everyone is aware of the open house. I would encourage all of you to attend. 8. Capital Projects List 2025 We are already planning for the 2025 budget, so we wanted to go through a quick capital projects list. It’s broken down by cost center. Parks: Fishback Soccer splashpad, resealing the interior wood at the Dakota Nature Park, a new skate park replacement by the high school, a new recirculating system at the aquatic center and tennis court resurfacing at hillcrest and a new playground. The tennis court resurfacing cost is coming in high but we are able to look into grants. We would need to do the whole surface at one time. We are looking at relocating two of the shelters at Hillcrest Park closer to the pickleball area. The Larson Ice Center: Generator replacement, replacing pumps 1 through 8, HVAC controls and roofing membranes and a fire suppression replacement. Golf Course: Cart paths, replacement of fairway mowers, sweeper vac, toro workman and smithgo sprayer. These are pieces of equipment that get used pretty regularly and need replacements. Miscellaneous: Tree planting reimbursement, or the Urban Forestry Incitive. We launched on Earth Day. This year the public can get paid up to $125.00 for their tree. As of right now we have spent just over 1/3, we have a little less than $20,000.00 left. We are also looking at bike trails with the Dakota Nature Park trials and the bike masterplan implementation. We try to work with the public works office as much as possible so that it is partnered with street improvement at the same time. Page 3 9. Department Update We are already looking into 2025 budgeting. We are looking at staffing needs, deferred maintenance and how we can really leverage grant dollars to complete projects. Seasonal and Part time employees are hired, we are in a really good spot. We are full, we only have a few that need to be hired for the pool. Parks are going to be looking great! Part time Senor Services interviews are this week. We have some great candidates. We made an offer on the full time Park Tech position and right now all the pre-employment screenings are happening. We will be fully staffed very soon. The inclusive playground and splashpad we are making the formal announcement during the study session on May 21st. ID8 is helping us with the drafts of the playground and we will see those this coming Thursday. I just want everyone to also be aware that the Fishback soccer complex where we plan to put this destination playground will be a national demonstration site. There will be a report before, 60 days after it opens and do a survey to find out more about what people are thinking of the park and what they like the most about the park. They did an assessment of Brookings. Parks and playgrounds are one of the few spaces that everyone gets to go to for free. Everyone is equal on the playground, so this addresses the critical need of play spaces in communities. 26% of our users of Fishback Soccer Complex come from out of state. This Park can also add to our economical impact. This playground can help increase physical activity. We submitted a grant for the Land and Water Conservation Fund a couple of weeks ago and are asking for $500,000.00 to go toward the playground. We are hoping for this to be done by late summer early fall opening in 2025. It will be just around the corner that we will be doing mayor awards, both individual and group. This would be a good time to start thinking about those nominations. 10. Adjournment Doug Smith Motions to adjourn, Nathaniel Condelli 2nds; Motion carried.