Minutes: Park Board: June 2007

City of Evansville, Wisconsin
Park and Recreation Board Regular Monthly Meeting
Evansville City Hall Council Chambers
Monday, June 18, 2007
MINUTES OF MEETING

1. The meeting was called to order at 6:03 PM; Members Juergens, Krueger, Merritt, Sendelbach and staff Anderson, Hamacher present. Carlson, Farnsworth excused. Modaff absent. Ayn Steinlein, Sceone Gard, Terri Worley, Tom Calley, Gib Wiedenhoeft, Mayor Sandy Decker, Bill Alt, and Brandon Frank were also present.

2. Sendelbach moved, Krueger seconded to waive reading of May 2007 meeting and approve as printed. Passed unanimously.

3. There were no changes proposed to the agenda as printed.

4. Citizen appearances other than agenda items: None

5: ECP July 4 Report. Tom Calley reported that plans for the 5-day event are finalized. He requested that sellors’ permits be approved as noticed under item 13 of this agenda. Requesting objections and hearing none, the chair suggested that item 13 be given immediate consideration. A cluster of permits for the July 4th event, submitted by ECP, was approved unanimously. Terri Worley’s application for a sellor’s permit for June-August near the upper softball diamond was also approved unanimously. Sendelbach moved, Krueger seconded, to delegate authority for future permit approvals to the Park & Recreation Board Chairman. This passed 3-0, with chair Juergens abstaining.

6. SOLE report: Gib Wiedenhoeft presented a letter from SOLE requesting that the city appropriate $115,000 for the 2008 budget to cover design and construction engineering costs and DNR permit costs. After discussion, Krueger moved, Sendelbach seconded that the PRB recommend to Public Works Committee and City Council accepting this letter and making said appropriation. Motion passed unanimously. In another action, Merritt moved, Krueger seconded that the PRB recommend leaving the lake dry until October 2008, when the current DNR Permit runs out, and seek a new permit in the meantime if necessary. Motion passed unanimously.

7. Skate Park-
a. McKenna Group report: Brandon Frank, Bill Alt, and one youth from the group were present. They reported no evidence of bullying or offensive behavior while they were observing the facility. Anderson reported for a second month that there was little trash around the area. Frank pointed out that it is very unlikely that offensive behavior was coming from the members of the newly-formed skate club, and that its members could not be responsible for behavior of others not in the club. Alt asked about the status of the fence planned to separate the tennis courts from the skate-park area. The Chair asked Anderson to get an estimate of the cost to install fencing removed last year from Countryside park.

b. The chair read an email from Dan Brice concerning conditions at the skate park and discussing the tennis clinic to be held mornings on the courts adjacent to the skate park during the week of June 25. He also reported on a phone conversation with Amy Eager on the same topic. She informed him that the tennis group expects to hold another clinic during August 2007 for a two-week period, and that the school’s tennis courts are not in usable condition.

c. Following discussion, without objection from any PRB member, it was decided by consensus that adults in the community would observe the tennis clinic in action during the coming week, and determine if the clinic and the skate park are compatible. Alt said he would contact the police department to request a little more attention from the force during this week. Hamacher reported that offensive behavior in Lake Leota Park is not just associated with the skate park. He noted that, even with many paid staff members at the pool on duty at all times, problem behaviors still occur there. The chair pointed out that many instances of offensive behavior are “ticket-able” offenses under current ordinances. Those observing such behavior should report it to the police, identify the offender(s) to police, and be willing to testify in court if necessary as to the nature of the offense.

8. Chair’s report on items of interest from Council: A liquor license has been issued to two persons who are considering opening a new tavern on S. Union Street, fairly near to Franklin Park.

9. Chair’s report on site-visit by staff from Dry Stone Conservancy: Jane Wooley the project manager and Neil Rippingdale, a master dry-stone mason from Scotland, came on June 1st. They, I, and city staff met for about an hour to discuss the situation, agreed that the desired course of action was not necessarily to restore the walls to “original” condition, if that involved mortaring the re-built walls. Dry stone is much more durable. We discussed ways to initiate the project, including a possible workshop or series of workshops, the first one in October, to train some current city staff and possible other apprentices in dry-stone masonry. Ray Anderson and I went with the DSC people to look at 3 local quarries for possible sources of stone. Footville’s quarry has the best quality stone for the walls, and it’s close by, thus minimizing cartage. After lunch, JW and NR made detailed measurements and took pictures of the entire course of Allen Creek from the dam to the bridge at Madison St. There are about 3000 linear feet of wall, including that “chicken-wire” wall just downstream of the dam, and the wall averages about 4 feet in height. Mayor Decker pointed out that JW and NR would “triage” the walls – what needs immediate attention because of safety issues, what should be done next, and what sections are in decent shape for the foreseeable future. DSC expects to send a detailed report before our July Meeting. As a very general “guesstimate”, the high end cost for having the walls rebuilt by a paid crew of six competent masons would be $400K, and would take about 12 weeks. This is about $100K less than the 5-year plan’s estimate. Labor is the majority of the cost; stone purchases would be a small proportion of the cost. Training local people to do much of the work under competent supervision (both paid) would reduce the cost, as we wouldn’t have to pay for importing workers, housing and feeding them. We could also do the work over several years.

10. Updates on pending park projects: Ray Anderson

a. Lake Leota Park: The Boy Scout house will be re-roofed after the July 4th weekend celebrations. Weeding of the 2nd St entrance to the upper park has taken place. Work to prepare for the July 4th activities is proceeding as necessary.

b. Franklin Park; Concerning the structure scheduled to be built there, the chair met with Rob Kostroun on June 5th to discuss the design drawings from Destree Architects. Kostroun still had questions about the structure, and said he would contact the architect directly, then get back to me with an estimate. He recommended that Marty Lavery be contacted about the brick work and Kyle Allen about the concrete base. The chair did so, and received an estimate of about $3300 from Lavery and about $2200 for footings and colored cement pad from Allen. Kostroun still hasn’t given an estimate for the remainder of the construction.

Ayn Steinlein requested that replacements be made for plants that have died since planting last summer. Sceone Gard reported that the park is getting a lot more use with the new playground equipment. She thanked the PRB pushing the project to completion.

c. Countryside Park; Construction of the shelter/bathroom is still incomplete. Public Works staff will assist in completing it as soon as possible. Skylights will be installed, and no electricity will be run to the shelter.

d. West Side Park: Designs and cost estimates for the playground have been submitted. Anderson showed two designs, one of which will accommodate 157 kids and cost about $53,000 installed, and the second, which will accommodate 143 kids and cost about $43K installed. In both cases, some excavating and site preparation will be required and incur some additional costs. The PRB 5 year plan calls for an expenditure of about $65K for this project, and these costs are less than that.

The city engineer estimated costs to put a road from 6th St. into the park and to build a parking lot for 60 cars, adequate to accommodate the needs of two simultaneous soccer games and other activity, at $90K, This is well below the 5-year plan’s estimate of $132K.

The grass for the soccer fields is still looking good.

e. No reports on other park activities

11, Aquatic Report: Ric Hamacher.
a. Solar Panel project: Done.
b. Staffing is complete; it’s a young group, but they are working well.
c. Pool operations and pool store. Revenue for pool, including passes and lessons is on target, while revenue from pool store is lagging. No comments about the increased cost of passes have been heard from purchasers.
d. The ten free passes and ten free swimming lessons have been distributed to low-income residents. There is some discrepancy between Federal and PSC “low-income” levels, and this has caused some minor problems in how people qualify for reduced-cost passes, etc. There have been fewer applications for reduced cost passes this year.

12. Old Business:
a. A brief discussion of the capital budget for 2008 led to a discussion of the PRB’s inclusion of a dog park in 2008. Finding land is still a problem. Mayor Decker mentioned that some land in Union Twp., south of Evansville, may be available. Dennis Wessels of the Kennel Club will be invited to update the PRB on its activities at the July PRB meeting.
13. New Business: Sellor’s permits. This item was handled under item 6 above.
14. There being no other Sendelbach moved, Krueger seconded to adjourn the meeting at 8:08 pm. Motion passed unanimously.

Meeting minutes prepared by Chair Fred Juergens. These are not official until approved at the next regular PRB meeting, scheduled for July 16, 2007.



Fred Juergens, Chair: Park and Recreation Board
City of Evansville, Wisconsin
401 Badger Drive
Evansville
882-2489