Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutPRMinutes_2024_07_01 Parks and Recreation Advisory Board Notes Monday, July 1st, 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, Steve Berseth and 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 and Park, Recreation and Forestry Office Manger Ashley Johnson 2. Approval of Agenda Steve Berseth makes motion to approve amended agenda, Jay Larsen 2nds motion; Motion is carried. 3. Approval of Minutes Brenda Andersen suggests amending June 3rd 2023 meeting minutes. Jay Larson motions to approve amended minutes adding the dates to #9 and #10. Brenda Andersen 2nds motion; Motion is carried. 4. Call to the Public There were no members of the public present 5. Discussion & Possible Action on Upcoming Events A. Daktronics Company Picnic: July 24th at Pioneer Park. This event has been an annual event. There will be alcohol at the event that will be brought in by their employees but will not be sold at the event. B. Jackrabbit throwdown 5, PGDA Sanctioned Singles Tournament. It will be put on by Disc Solutions. It will be Saturday July 27th at Larsons Park. C. Larsons Manufacturing company picnic will be held August 2nd at Pioneer Park, this will be a private event. D. Camaro Fun Days is a public event and will be held August 10th at Pioneer Park. E. Brookings Health Systems Company picnic will be held August 15th at Hillcrest Park. They rent all of the shelters. (This event was canceled) Jay Larsen motions to approve all of the events listed, Nathaniel Condelli 2nds the motion; Motion is carried. 6. Project Updates Pickleball Courts: The scheduled completion is Fall of 2024. Pouring of concrete will be next week. After the concrete is poured there is a 30-day cure time where no one can be on it before they are able to seal it. We have been delayed a little bit due to rain, but we are still on schedule to meet the September 2024 Opening. Lights will be coming in, in July. The public Arts commission is still going to be meeting to discuss the art for the pickleball screens. Bandshell: We did a walkthrough of the bandshell last week. We did find a couple of items. The grating and the seeding in front of the bandshell needs to be completed and the handrails also need to be painted. We do have a couple of spots in the floor that need to be caulked but they should have that completed this week as long as we don’t have any rain. We do have a surveillance camera in the dome of the bandshell and on the outside. There is also a motion light installed. The entire bandshell will be painted a light brown color. The inside of the bandshell will be painted a very light blue. Prairie Hills Trail phase II: Completed Golf Course Water Sourcing: We are still working with Banner; they are sending me updates every two weeks. Because this is the start of their project, we don’t really have a lot of new information. The last update I received they were putting a couple of sematic overviews together so that we can look at where the water is going. It looks like if the waterline ran from the Outdoor Adventure Center to the Golf Course. We would need to look at those costs. If we are going to bore over. We would need to pay LG Everest for the water that we use, so we need to keep that into mind. July 11th the USGA will be on the course to look at our water situation. They will look at seed mixes for the rough and fairway to see if we can find mixes that are more draught tolerant. That wouldn’t be a quick fix it will be a longer-term solution. We are hoping they will help us to use our resources better. Banner will take into account how long the water will be available to the ball fields as well as if we used it for the Golf Course. When lacy Well Drilling Page 2 originally did the drilling, they only went to the sand and gravel layer. They weren’t able to get enough water that would be usable. However, there is another sand layer below that and they are looking at water quality issues that we could be below that or if we are able to even get water if we did go to that layer. The wetlands that are between the Outdoor Adventure Center and the ballparks is dependent on the aquafer at the ballfields. The challenge at the golf course is the ponds get water but they are just recharging the aquafer and when the water gets to a certain level it starts to come up. The ponds are pretty high right now. We will have easements on the streets that we would have to bore under and are working with BMU and their water team. They know more about the lines and costs. We could make it a partnership program and work with Banner to reduce our costs. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but there is a lot of work going on behind the scenes and we are making progress. 7. Directors Report Darren completed the Equity in Practice this month. NRPA commended the City of Brookings on what we have been doing to make sure that everyone feels welcome and included in our parks systems. We are one of the few agencies across the country that have comprehensive programs including the Disabilities Advisory Committee and the Human Right Collation. An information packet was included in our handouts about Emerald Ash Borer. With EAB getting closer to our area it’s important that we begin to look at our EAB Management Plan yearly. Kristin is taking a Sustainability in Practice cohort. This is similar to the Equity in Practice that Darren just took, however it is more on the environmental impact. Learning best practices on what cities are doing across the country and other initiatives that we can look at. One thing that was brought up was the “No Mow Mays”, these are pretty common across the country. With this type of program there is the good, the bad and the ugly. So, this program will hopefully help with coming up with more environmental programs that we can include into our Parks System. Josh and Kristin met with Brookings School District specifically about Hillcrest. We spoke about the drainage onsite and were told that it’s not fully completed and will have a final grade. The grading will help and there is a detention basin that hasn’t had a grate installed yet. We will be maintaining this, but the school district is responsible for grading it. We will keep an eye on it, it is still considered an active construction site and we haven’t signed off on it yet. Last meeting, we discussed the Hillcrest Shelters and the school district paying for the relocation of those shelters. The school district has come back and said that they will not be paying for this. This has become something that City Council and City Manager Paul Bresino are going to need to get involved with and we will update you when we know more. Kristin had sent out an email regarding a situation that happened last week. Edgebrook Golf Course and the softball fields sold alcohol to an underage undercover officer. I asked that Gary Moen come to the meeting tonight, he has been very responsive and we all take this situation very seriously. Immediately after we found out we did our own separate investigation. We were also able to work with Brookings Police Department to find out particulars and with Bonnie Foster who is the alcohol compliance person with the City of Brookings. We sent out an email to all of our groups that use alcohol laying out our expectations for all entities that serve alcohol. Everyone has the exact same expectations and everyone is held to the same standards. These include: 1. There needs to be compliance with age restrictions 2. All staff and volunteers involved with alcohol sales must verify the age of every customer by checking valid Identification. 3. Training and Certification, everyone serving alcohol will need to go through training. This is all online. This email that shows the link to the online training has gone out to every establishment in the City of Brookings that has alcohol. 4. Licensing and Permits are all through the City Clerk’s office. 5. There needs to be a designated area for alcohol consumption. 6. Safety and Security measures. It will be a requirement for having security for large events. 7. Clear communication of Rules and Expectations to Staff, and event attends. This includes legal drinking age, designated areas for alcohol consumption and the consequences of violating these rules. 8. The City of Brookings had a zero-tolerance policy for noncompliance with these guidelines. Violation could jeopardize contracts, use agreements and or permits not being issued. Any group found in violation will Page 3 face penalties, loss of use of city facilities, revocation of permits, fines and potential banning of City of Brookings locations. Gary Moen spoke with members of the Park Board regarding the incident that happened at Edgebrook and apologies for what happened. It was mentioned that this is the first time that this has ever happened at Edgebrook and it was a unique situation because a golf course isn’t a bar and the people working the counter are not bartenders. They feel very badly about what has happened and agree that they hold a higher standard at the golf course since it is a city facility. Kristin wants everyone to know that this is a very serious situation. Everyone is still incompliance with liquor laws. When someone is found to be in non-noncompliance there is a little bit of a different process when you are up to get your renewal license. Kristin also wants to reiterate that The Softball Association is the program that runs their concessions. This month is Parks and Recreation month! This year’s theme is “where you belong”. This theme really focuses on providing spaces where everyone feels welcome and wanting to play and recreate. We have events planned for everyday this month. These events are everything from nature hikes and the Uncle Sam Jam out at the Dacotah Bank Center. The Hilcrest aquatic center hasn’t been open as much due to the rain and the cooler temperatures this season. We are looking at our Salary bottom line to see if we can extend the season at all. We could potentially be open later with the Brookings School district not starting school until after Labor Day. We will need to make sure that we have the funds and staffing available for that. We are looking at a couple of different scenarios. We are hopeful that we can be open at least weekends only. We haven’t announced that date for the Soggy Doggy until we have made a final decision. We are currently looking at 3 trail replacements. Two locations at Dakota Nature Park. We are looking at about 450 foot of trail replacement off to the east end around the curve between the ponds and the other is off the main bridge behind the main building. This area is a little bit wetter so we are having more damage. We will do about 100 feet. The other location is Arrowhead Park, we have a walking bridge and it is near the middle of the park by the playground the northside needs to be replaced because of tree roots. We also have a couple of locations for brand new trails. Sexauer Park walking bridge on the park side not the camping side. This would follow the creek line and tie in with 11th street. Another area that we have talked about is not on City Property but School property. It would be on the west side of Mickelson middle school that five-foot sidewalk that is currently there we would widen it to the east and get an 8-foot shared use path since it is pretty high traffic. We do have trail kiosks around town and will plan to add 3 more. We could be able to possibly put them where people can understand the trail system that leads into SDSU. We hope that the Nature Park, Sexauer and Arrowhead we will move forward with that this year. The Mickelson middle school trail will require more discussion with the school to see what more we can do and when we can start. We would need to look at numbers as well, if we have unused funds, we would just roll it over to next year so the project can continue or be completed. We have been approached by different groups to have different liaison members if you would like. Kristin will leave it up to the board. Some of the commissions that were mentioned was the sustainability council and the disability advisory committee. They would be a non-voting member. 5th street Gym: The last that Kristen has heard is that they are talking with a real estate agent to see what it is worth. The school would like to get rid of 5th Street Gym. The fear is how much is it going to cost us to purchase it and whether it is worth the cost. The community wants indoor recreation space so the question is should we actively pursue the school district. We do need to know the cost of the purchase and the cost of updates. We need to know if we can do the updates in stages. The fear is that someone else will buy the building and tear it down. The school district does use it during the basketball season and the Special Olympics uses it and Gap uses is as well. We do use 5th street gym for Volleyball, the activity center has used it as well. There are groups that could use it. We will just need to maintain it. Kristin said that she has spoken with school district and asked if we could utilize some of the new gym spaces that were just built. The 5th street gym does need a lot of work. We are going to revisit with the school district to see if we can work with them to get some gym space. We do need to know how much the 5th street gym will go for because we are not willing to spend a large amount on the gym. We did have people look at the building and it was about 2.6 million to just get it started. We really aren’t sure that the school will gift it to us. The question is should we be pursuing the 5th St. Gym? We need flooring, roof, HVAC, Sprinkler System and bring it completely to code. It will cost a lot of money to remodel the facility. We are looking at where our programs are and what programs we need to Page 4 grow. This is a part of our 10-year plan. Right now, our capital budget can’t sustain an indoor recreation facility. However, we can utilize other facilities, can we use the Larson Ice Center in the summer? Can we do partner programs with other programs to use their facilities like the indoor soccer complex. There are ways that we can utilize spaces better and still have more recreation programs. Our programs fill up very quickly. We are still working on a study for the cost of programs as well. We do need to get more information on the 5th st Gym to decide where we can go with it. We will put the 5th street gym on the agenda for August and try to get more information to have a better discussion. We do have some upcoming events: Uncle Sam Jam, we will have the rededication of the Pioneer Bandshell on the 7th, we will also have the Summer Arts Festival as well! Bugs, Bees and Blooms will also be put on through the Nature Park. 8. Adjournment Doug Smith motions to adjourn, Nathanial Condelli 2nds Motion; Motion carried.