Library Board - Regular Meeting

Officially out for bids. They're due back on April 7. Estuary Park construction is ongoing with completion at the 2026. And the long awaited Sweeny Trail connectors construction has started. We're working on the North Side first and then we'll construct the South 2 connectors.

Let's see here. For aquatics, we have our swim lessons for all ages, which is registration is open. It's for beginning of a day in the park, which would take spring break camps are taking place Monday through Friday, April 13 through the seventeenth. And for the spring vacation camp is offered at Harrison, and other special interest programs will take place at various locations like the Alameda Point Gym. Our teen and tweens, career prep and job fair for resumes takes place on Thursday, March 26, the Alameda Boys and Girls Club.

Teens teaching tech, this is taking place on Thursdays in March on March 26 and April 9 from four at 4PM at the Mastic Senior Center. This is a great opportunity where the seniors and the teens get together and learn how the iPhone works. So they're it's a really fun cross generational event. So then our we're also still facilitating the the Queer Teen Alameda Center, which takes place at the underground teen center at the Vets Building. This happens Fridays at 6PM.

For more information about that, you can go to alamedapride.com. We're registering for summer volunteer programs and our volunteers can earn community service hours. Every act matters, assist with events such as the spring shindig, movie nights, sand castle contest, fourth of July parade, and community rec. Our operation green sweep is Monday Mondays and Fridays, June 22 through July 24, where the groups go out and help make our community cleaner, greener, and more beautiful. And then we have our junior leader program.

This takes place Monday through Friday, July 6 through the thirty first from eight until 05:30. This is where kids can build leadership skills, gain experience, and prepare for future jobs with ARPD. And then we're currently actively interviewing potential part time employees for our summer. So if you haven't yet, visit our website. We have a lot of jobs posted for the summer.

For our sports program, our youth programs at the Alameda Point Gym, we're still offering after school pickleball. This is Tuesdays and Thursdays from four to 05:30. We have homeschool PE for k through fifth graders. It's taking place Wednesdays and Fridays from nine till twelve. And then we will have our spring break camps at the Elmwood Pointe Gym from April 13 through the seventeenth for those non AUSD school days.

For our adult programs, we still have open gym, which is taking place on Sundays, six to 10PM. And then we have our tennis, our private and group sessions are available. We're offering indoor pickleball Fridays from 09:30 to 12PM. And then we're also offering indoor roller skating, Wednesdays, 9PM till 10:30 at the Alameda Pointe Gym. And then our spring softball league's registration is closed and games begin the week of April 6.

Let's see here. So the Mastic happenings at Mastic, we're having our line dancing level one is taking place on Wednesdays, April first through the twenty ninth, 09:15AM at the social hall. How to get help with health care costs is taking place on Tuesday, April 14 at

10AM.

This is a a review of the Medicare program eligibility application process and benefits. And then stained glass and mosaic spaces are filling up quickly for the spring and summer sessions, but we do still have some availability there. Mastic members toured the guide dogs for Blind Campus in San Rafael and lunch in Sausalito on Monday, March 9. And then for parks, Littlejohn Park, there's been ongoing work to adjust the site for Little League usage, including safety upgrades and ADA improvements. In February, our maintenance staff participated in chainsaw safety training and electric mower demonstration.

As you well know for our method for going totally carbon neutral, this will be key for converting our equipment to electric eventually. Lincoln Park, Thursday, February 9, we had to do an emergency tree removal and to protect the playground and prevent any injuries. Leidecker Park on February 21, the rodeo Rotary Club and Casa along with a 100,000 trees for humanity partnered with AARPD to plant 22 trees near the playground and the ball field. We've been working at Gene Sweeney Open Space Park. Irrigation system has been upgraded to a smart clock, which will really allow us to have better usage of water.

And then we are currently recruiting for a full time gardener position. The application deadline is Sunday, March 29 and please visit the city website. So thank you.

Thank you. Questions for Director Long?

No. Thank you.

Thank you. Moving forward, our next item is Commissioner Communications. Commissioner Robbins, would you like to go first?

I do not have much to report other than being able to use the tennis facilities. And as always, they're in fantastic shape. And that's it for this month. Thank you.

Vice Chair Schwartz?

My son actually just started t ball, so I've been spending and will be spending a lot more time at Franklin than I historically have. So appreciate that opportunity to get me to just experience different parks. I know I mentioned this on and off, but, again, as a child of two working parents when I was a kid and with a son starting AUSD in in the fall, really appreciate all the programs you offer on non ASU days. I've always kinda peeked through them, at the activity guide, but, definitely, I'm trying to get myself a little bit more prepared, for for the upcoming, school year. So, again, really appreciate all those programs.

I know we got a some communication on the the Little League fencing for for Littlejohn. I haven't seen it. I haven't driven by, so I I don't really have any any questions or or input. But just thinking about, you know, the park I experience the most, which is Cruzy, which is really four diamonds with a big field in the middle. Definitely want to just make sure that, you know, we're balancing the ability to have little league, but also keeping it you know, like, there's people on the field all the time when when games aren't going on at Cruzy, and I would hate for, like, I'm envisioning something like that, you know, blocking access for that.

Might be too late for for this year, but just maybe working with the little league maybe next season or moving forward just to make sure that that access continues. So I just wanna add a clarifying

Yeah. Comment to there. So on each side of the fence extensions we put in that are temporary, there's over 30 foot sections that are left wide open so that there is access to the field from multiple locations. It and, again, you know, what we've done is to try to communicate that as well so that people can feel free to use the field anytime Little League is not using it.

Okay. Great. That's great. Thank you. And that's all I have to otherwise, I'm still at the pool a lot. Love to see how busy it's getting with the weather and hope everyone's, you know, able to enjoy some extra part time with daylight savings.

Great. Thank you. For my part on this beautiful evening, my report is simply that I was at Lincoln Park directly before the meeting playing with my son. Happy to report that the park was full of soccer players, pickleball players, swimmers, basketball players, and the jungle gym was full. So please provide that live live update. It was pretty idyllic. Made me awfully proud to be on my way to be here working with you all tonight. Really terrific. Moving forward, the next item on our agenda is to approve the minutes from our 02/12/2026 meeting. Do we have a motion to approve those minutes, please? I'll motion to approve. And roll call vote, please.

Commissioner Robbins?

Yes.

Vice Chair Swartz?

Yes. Chair Radiss?

Yes. Thank you. Thanks very much. The motion has been approved. The next item on our agenda is regular agenda item 6a, which is a recommendation to approve the updated banner policy and approve the proposed storage unit policy. And if memory serves, this is the item that came in December. Is that right?

Yes. Exactly. This is the second time you guys are seeing it. We took the feedback that we received from the first meeting, incorporated that in, and we're bringing it back tonight for approval. So we'll start with the the banner policy.

So the two major changes that that we really have here is the the duration. So previously, they were up for up to sixty days, and we're reducing that to thirty days. We've also adjusted the banner size just so that we could give people parameters for what they can put up so that we're also being cognizant of our parks and what they look like for advertising and whatnot. So that size has been limited to four feet by six feet as the maximum size. And then we've added additional locations to the the policy.

So previously, we didn't allow people to use the fence at Lydecker or at Longfellow. So we've added those two parks to our our list. So that really is the main change here, and so just call your attention to that. And then let's move on to the the storage policy because that was actually a a whole new policy. We've not had this before.

And as you were experienced at the parks and when you're out there, see that a lot of our user groups bring extra storage material with them in order to make play easier. And what what this has done for us is it it actually gives us a whole policy for trying to figure out just whose is what gives us a contact. It also gets some skin in the game so people don't abandon property with us. And I know during the conversation, you guys thought the fees were a little low. This since this is new, we thought we'd bring this out as a initial start up.

We're not using this as a revenue generator. This is really just trying to make sure that we can keep track of these storage units throughout the park. One of the comments that that came up was that you you guys thought we should have a late fee. Should they not do an annual renewal? So we've applied that.

Since the fees are so low, we put that at 50%. So if you have a small container, it's 25. If you have the large, it's 75 as the late fee. So we're trying to u utilize that to encourage people to get on an annual basis where they are renewing automatically, and we can make sure we still have your contact information. So it's not super complicated, but, you know, we do have terms and conditions in there.

You know, we do have large containers, medium and small. And so I think it's a pretty fair policy about how it will be distributed throughout the park system. And we have a caveat on there that, you know, the department has to approve it prior to anyone putting one out there. So with that, I know this is a brief. I'll open it up for I think we have to do questions or clarifying questions. So with that, please, I'm here for anything.

Great. Thank you for incorporating our feedback. Do we have any clarifying question or excuse me, clarifying questions for Director Long? No. I had just just one from the December meeting. I wanted to make sure it didn't get lost. In terms of managing keys associated with the the storage units. What what's the plan for for for that?

At least I'd I'd have to double check with Joey, but I think the Joey Carroll, who oversees the program, in a lot of the cases, we would like to issue locks so that they get a key and we get a key. Okay. Great. So that'll be the I think the smoothest way to do it. Mhmm.

Okay. Terrific. Any other clarifying questions? Do we have public comment on this item?

No public comment.

Thank you. Any discussion among the commissioners?

No. I figure we don't have any public comment. I don't know if you've if there's organizations you've communicated to. My only question is, have you gotten any feedback on this negative or positive?

So we sent this to all of our user groups, and almost every single one of them is just thought it was a a reasonable aspect. Nobody has pushed back and said, this is unacceptable. Great.

To your point, this is a minimal financial impact. It's $1,500 Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Great. Would someone like to make a motion to approve both the updated banner policy as well as the proposed storage unit policy?

I'll make a motion to approve the updated banner policy as well as the storage policy.

A second. I'll second that. Sure. Commissioner Robbins?

Yes.

Vice chair Schwartz?

Yes.

Chair Ades?

Yes. Thank you. Thank you. The motion passes. The next item on the agenda in in fact, is our next meeting on April 9. Do we have any agenda items that anyone would like to put on that agenda?

No? I

just had a question. The the other item that was on our December calendar was the memorial policy. Notice it didn't come back tonight. Is there a plan for that in the future?

Yes. So that one should be ready by April. We just it needed a little bit more reworking before we brought back. You guys had significant comments on that one. So Great.

Director Long, are there any items you'd like to add to the agenda?

Not at this time.

In that case, we can continue moving forward. The next item on the agenda is our adjournment. Can I have a motion to adjourn, please?

We'll trade off all motion to adjourn. Second.

Commissioner Robbins. Yes. Vice Chair Schwartz.

Yes. Chair Radies.

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you. The meeting is now adjourned and we'll see everybody in April.