Minutes: Park Board: December 2006

City of Evansville, Wisconsin
Park and Recreation Board Regular Monthly Meeting
Evansville City Hall Council Chambers
December 18, 2006
Draft Minutes

1. Call to Order at 6:05 PM and Roll Call: Chair Juergens & Members Carlsen, Jacobson, Krueger, Merritt and Sendelbach present. Staff members Anderson and Hamacher present. Member Farnsworth absent.

2 Minutes of November 28, 2006 meeting were amended in item #9, changing the words "Pool operation" and "Pool Operations" to "Pool Store Operations". The amended minutes were unanimously approved on a voice vote.

3. The agenda for this meeting unanimously approved without alteration on a voice vote.

4. Citizen Appearances.
None

5. SOLE Committee Report.
Gib Wiedenhoeft of SOLE reported that the erosion-control fabric and rock rip-rap above the V-notch in the dam has been re-arranged after discussion with the City Engineer. It appears that this modification has resulted in a significant reduction of the depth of the pooled water upstream.
Wiedenhoeft reported that after August 2007, an extension of the DNR permits, obtained to do the initial work on lake restoration, would be required. He also commented that getting further permits to complete the anticipated restoration would take about a year, based on experience from similar projects in Cazenovia and Westfield. He urged that the city move forward quickly to a decision about funding the project. He noted that the permit process could be expedited for payment of an additional fee on the order of $2-3,000. He urged PRB to move forward on completing the project in 2009, as the recently adopted Capital Expenditure plan provides for.
Wiedenhoeft reported that the SOLE website is not yet ready to go online He also reported that the next SOLE meeting would take place on Wednesday December 20th 6pm at the Library.

6. Development of a "2006 Park and Outdoor Recreation Plan".
a. PRB again went through the latest draft of the plan page by page, incorporating the changes for typographic errors, etc., that were spotted by the individual members. Chair Juergens will make the appropriate modifications. Staff was asked to verify statements in the plan about the accomplishments of previous plans, including accessibility improvements.
Juergens discussed the three maps of bike trails, one from the Smart Growth Plan, one from Public Works relative to the "Bricks" project, and the one provided last month by Tim Schwecke for this Park and Outdoor Recreation Plan. It was generally agreed that the city should have one bike-trail map, incorporating the best features of the three. Krueger moved, Carlsen seconded to authorize Juergens to discuss this with the Public Works Committee and develop such a map, which could be approved by PRB and PWC and amended by City Council into the Smart Growth Plan.
b. Juergens presented a worksheet showing a potential schedule for the park projects proposed at last month's meeting for the five year plan. This incorporated information on the funds available, based on the "Fees in Lieu of Parkland Dedication" balance and expected future payments, and the annual budget allotments expected to provided by Council. . It included the 2007 Capital Budget 5-year plan figures as adopted by City Council. It also incorporated cost estimates for various aspects of the West Side Park, as calculated two years ago by the City Engineer and adjusted for inflation into the future.
It appears that funds will be available to meet the Council's plan for 2008, includes $125K for a shelter/restroom and $75K for a playground for a total of $200K. However, the PRB is tentatively planning for paving the access road/parking lot and putting in the playground in 2008, and leaving shelter/restroom until a later year. This will cost about $200K in total as well. However it is clear that this expenditure will consume essentially all the funds available, and without additional funds provided by Council, no further work can take place on West Side Park.
Juergens noted that the tentative schedule includes work in Leonard/Lake Leota Park: dredging the lake, restoring creek wall stonework, etc, but no capital projects for any other parks through 2011. It is clear that if the lake is to be restored, and/or other park projects completed, Council will have to provide further funds.
c. Discussion ensued about how to proceed to finalize the 5-year plan. It was agreed that the PRB would provide a plan for what it believes should be done in this time frame, primarily to complete West Side Park and restore Lake Leota Park. It will of course be up to the City Council to approve the plan and provide funding as necessary.
d. No motion was made to approve a final project schedule.
e. It will be the objective of the PRB to approve a final project schedule and approve a final draft of the plan at the January 2007 meeting.

7. Chair's report on actions of other city committees and Council. The new City Administrator, Dan Weitecha, is expected to begin his duties on January 2nd. No committee or Council actions relative to PRB were taken since the last PRB meeting.

8. Updates on pending park projects:
a. Leota Park: Re-roofing the Boy Scout house is being postponed until Spring, because winter weather makes work difficult.
b. Franklin Park: Water & Light Department completed the removal of poles and installation of services on the new pole.
c. Countryside Park: One more course of concrete block remains to be installed. Once it's done (and this may occur before Christmas, depending on weather) addition of roof trusses and other construction can begin. The latter work is not as weather-dependent. A contractor will be hired to do plumbing work after the building is complete. d. Westside Park; Nothing new.
e. No other projects pending at other parks.

9. Aquatic Report: Rick Hamacher; pool director.
a.The Director led a discussion of reduced pool fees for low-income city residents. Since new Federal guidelines will not be available until February/March 2007, he presented the 2006 income figures that the schools use to determine who gets free milk/lunch etc. He also presented a new fee-structure that low income residents would pay, at one-half and one-quarter of the regular cost of such fees. H reported that 8-10 passes are usually sold at the reduced rate each year, while about 90 full-rate passes are sold.
Jacobsen moved, Carlsen seconded, to change the fees low-income residents would pay from one-half to one-quarter of the regular fee. This would reduce the cost of a low-income family pass, for example, from $70 to $35, which wouldn't hurt the income side of the budget too much. The motion passed unanimously on a voice vote.
Jacobsen moved, Krueger seconded, that, on a one-year trial basis, 10 free family passes and 10 swimming-lesson sessions be offered to low-income residents, with the AWARE agency facilitating the offering of such passes and lessons. Details of how this would be accomplished will be worked out with the AWARE director, whom several board members felt would enthusiastically support this. Hamacher stated that this was a good idea and could open the pool to a previously un-served section of the public. Jacobsen noted that some free passes are available at the new Madison pool, though Hamacher mentioned that they were funded by a private donor. The results of this one year trial will be reported back to PRB at the conclusion of the 2007 season. The motion passed unanimously on a voice vote.
b. Hamacher reported that engineers need to evaluate the structure of the pool-house to determine how best to support the additional solar panels planned to be installed in 2007. He requested that the chair call Dave Sauer to expedite this evaluation, so that design for construction can begin.

10. Park Maintenance and Improvements report: Ray Anderson; maintenance supervisor.
All items in his report were covered in item 8, project updates.

10. Old business:
a. Juergens reported on the initial meeting with architect Melissa Destree to discuss a Franklin Park shelter/gateway design. Destree subsequently sent a proposal to provide some concept drawings on a time/materials basis, not to exceed $500. Further, if PRB accepts and approves a concept, construction documents could be provided for $600-1,000. The 2007 Capital Budget for this project is $10,000 for all expenditures. Discussion followed on this proposal. Since Franklin Park is very visible, it would be good to have a professional design that captures the essence of Evansville and attracts people into its downtown area. Destree is working on the "Old Ace Building" design, and is also in discussion with those involved with the Baker Building, so she knows something about the character of the city. It was pointed out that if this facility were to be vandalized, it would have to be repaired quickly, since it is so visible. Other suggestions were to have the design done by volunteers, perhaps at the high school, and buying a pre-designed gazebo for a shelter. It was noted that the initial landscaping design done by Kendall Wethal included a sketch for a possible fence, were one to be incorporated into the design. Juergens said that he had suggested to Destree that any fence design should be similar to the new fence on the Nelson-Young property diagonally across the street. It was also noted that accepting the proposal for a concept does not obligate us to ask Destree for construction documents, that perhaps such documents could be worked up by volunteers building on the concept. However time is of the essence here, to complete the project within the next construction season. We have seen that relying on volunteer help can result in slow progress.
Krueger moved, Carlsen seconded, to accept the Proposal from Destree to provide "preliminary architectural designs" for this project at the proposed cost of no more than $500. The motion passed 4-2.

11. New Business:
a. Several PRB members have volunteered to supervise Community Service work to which the youth convicted of vandalizing the pool have been sentenced. Judge Alisankus has sentenced a third youth to 20 hours of community service. Other projects that these youth could do include assisting with the move of the City Hall staff to the old Dean Community Center, while interior renovation of the second floor occurs. PRB members are still willing to supervise such service, but we will wait until January to begin completing this community service work.
b. The chair reported that an ad-hoc committee [consisting of the principal and a teacher at McKenna Jr. High, the director of the Evansville Youth Center, one adult sponsor of the Skate Club, and the chair] met on December 8th to discuss how to ensure that the skate park will be an appropriately used public facility. The Police Department representative did not attend. Bob Flaherty, the McKenna principal, offered to hold a meeting of interested students on school time in early January to begin the process of re-forming a self-policing group to care for the park. Flaherty and Brandon Frank, of the McKenna staff, are both enthusiastic about using the current situation as real-life civics lesson in how people have to take responsibility for facilities provided for them. Traci Schroeder, director of the Youth Center stated that she had a small amount of grant money available to support a leadership group forming from middle school youth. Frank said he would also try to contact some older youth at the high school who might be interested in participating. Bill Alt said he would continue to be involved with a group, should it form. It was suggested that Erik Endres be contacted to talk to such a group, since he was so active in the original skate club. Since this meeting, Flaherty has tentatively scheduled the school meeting for January 9th. Endres, Juergens, and Alt, as well as McKenna staff will participate.
Jacobsen asked if PRB would continually be involved with such a group. Juergens said it was his hope that a newly formed skate club would operate as an independent entity, such as the soccer club does. PRB would disengage itself, except for the normal oversight that it has on the city's parks. Several PRB members expressed interest in attending the January 9th meeting.
c. Juergens presented data on pool expenditures and revenues for the last 5 years, noting that in the past the expectation was that revenues would cover about 50% of expenses. Because of weather and other factors, year-by-year data shows fluctuations from the 50% ratio. Juergens had calculated a three-year rolling average for the ratio had dropped from about 54% in 2003 to 49% in 2006, even though because we had a very good year in 2006 (54%) previous years had been low. The 2007 budget figures will also result in a ratio of 49%, even though we raised the 2007 pool fees. Juergens requested a motion to express the PRB's intent to manage future revenues and expenses so that the three-year rolling average ratio stays between 49% and 51%. Jacobson moved, Merritt seconded, such a motion, and it passed unanimously.
d. Juergens requested a motion to ask the City's Finance Director to develop a plan to finance the restoration of Lake Leota in 2009 at an estimated cost of $2 million. Such a plan should include an estimate of the property-tax increase/year per $100,000 of assessed valuation and how long such a specific-purpose increase would have to be in place.
Jacobson moved, and Krueger seconded such a motion. Discussion ensued with the following points being made. It is apparent that if the lake is to be restored, it must be done relatively soon. The city needs to make a decision, and PRB is taking the initiative to ensure that it's made in a timely manner. It is possible that such a financing plan could be presented to the voters in a referendum, and that in itself takes time to accomplish. Financing should be in place before we go through a lengthy permitting process with DNR. The city has taken several initial steps in the restoration process, but must move forward actively to get the work done in 2009.
The motion passed unanimously on a voice vote. The chair will pass along the request to the Finance Director.

12. There was a motion to adjourn at 8:15 PM. The next meeting of PRB wlll be at the regular time and date: January 15, 2006 at 6 PM.

Minutes drafted by Chair Juergens on December 21, 2006 and sent by email to all board members, staff and the city clerk for further distribution. These minutes are not official until approved at a subsequent PRB meeting.