Parks, Recreation & Open Space Commission - Regular Meeting

in progress.

All right, quite focus without my glasses. I think we can call this meeting to order. Uh shall we have the roll call? Yes. Commissioner Chan here. Commissioner Chang Frank here. Commissioner Logan here. Commissioner Martin here. Commissioner Trinkle here. and Chair Abbott here. As of right now, Commissioner Kent is absent. Um, and we do have our new commissioner starting tonight, Commissioner Jennifer Logan. Welcome. Welcome. Uh, did Commissioner Kent say he wouldn't be here or he may show up or we don't know.

Um, I didn't get a message saying that he was not. We didn't send out a We'll see. We have certainly have a quorum though. That one's unmarked. Okay. I will read the uh land acknowledgement. Uh the city of Albany recognizes that we occupy the land originally protected by the Confederated villages of Lejon. We acknowledge the genocide that took place on these lands and must make strides to repay the moral debt that is owed to this indigenous people, specifically the Aloney tribe. We thank them for their contributions which have transformed our community will continue to bring forth growth and unity. City of Albany commits to sustaining ongoing relationships with the tribe and together build a better future for all that now make this their home.

There we go. And we are going to welcome Commissioner Kent. Excellent. We'll give him a moment to uh get settled. Actually um while he's getting settled, I just wanted to give an update that um we are going to bump uh item 4.4-2 4-2 from the agenda. Um, our Dena, our community development director who is presenting this is sick and I think um I think it's a good project for her to introduce herself to the commission and so um uh we're going to push it a month. Fair enough. Thank you. Sure.

And let's get the minutes roll of the minutes from the last meeting. Any

I move to approve the minutes. All right. Have a second. You may want to view them or uh you have a comment or No, that just our newest commissioners probably abstain from this one because wasn't here. But otherwise, um I I second. Okay. Very good. Commissioner Chang. Yes. Commissioner Chang Frank. Yes. Commissioner Ch Kent. Yes. Commissioner Logan's going to abstain. Commissioner Martin. Yes. Commissioner Trinkle. Yes. And Chair Abbott. Yes. All right. Very good. Motion passes. Motion passes. All right. Public comment. I see no public in the room. How about virtual people?

Uh, no hands raised online. Okay. Very good. another few seconds. All right, moving on then. Presentations. I believe one is Prop 68 measure M funded projects update. Jamar to Yeah, I hope you have it. welloiled machine.

Sorry. Trying to get it to the There we go. All right. All right. All right. Good evening, commissioners. My name is Andre Sterling, project manager at public works. Here to give you an update on our Prop 68 projects uh for this year. So, we can go to the next slide. So, we're going to discuss specifically uh Pier Street Park uh the access and landscape improvements project, Jules Terrace Park shade improvements and dog amenities, as well as a brief update on the Dartmouth tot lot uh seating element upgrade. So, next slide, please. So, we just wanted to highlight uh one project that was completed since our last uh update uh with pros commission. Uh that's the path lighting project at Memorial Park. That those were the five new lamp posts that were installed there. Uh completed in August of 2025. So, it gives obviously more security there at night at the park as well as a warm color temperature uh lighting there. All right, next slide, please. So, our first update is on uh Pier Street Park access, landscape, and shade improvements, and it's all based on the recommendations uh from the pros master plan. So, next slide, just as a review of the project scope since it's been a while uh since our last update. So, new entry stairs, two sets of stairs with handrails. Uh and that's made from repurposed eucalyptus tree lumber from Albany Hill. uh new landscape boulders, a native plant material and trees uh that will be planted uh new asphalt path with a ballard new shade structure for uh the play equipment.

Here's our uh conceptual layout. So, it's going to be done in two phases. So phase one would be the access improvements and as we said with the with the scope uh a new asphalt path that's in the north side of the park uh there we're going to relocate some of the existing boulders and also install new landscape boulders uh to direct traffic to the new entry uh stairways there. And then uh of course uh the plant material with the trees and also installing uh phase two the new shade structure for the play equipment. All right, next slide please. That's a rendering there of the south uh side of the park uh with newly planted trees, new landscape boulders, the new lumber uh staircase there. Then next slide. And then the north side with the asphalt path uh another lumber entry stairway and then new trees planted near the benches as well as throughout the hillside. All right, next slide. So for phase two, we're looking at three options for a shade structure uh cantal lever style as well as a shade cell. And the considerations uh for this decision will be uh based on which one is more cost- effective but more importantly which one provides the best coverage for the play equipment. Uh there will be a shade study performed uh to help us make that decision as well. Uh since these are somewhat substantial structures, they're going to be based on uh engineering plans. All right, next slide please. Here's our our tentative schedule. So, we're we're in the uh the bid phase at the moment and hoping to award the contract the end of this month uh and start construction

in March and completed uh in about a couple months. All right, our next slide. So, our next project um in the queue would be uh the Jules Terrace Park, a shade improvements uh and dog amenities project. So, looking to install shade elements uh there in the picnic area uh which could be a grove of trees or material furnishing. And then the dog amenities upgrade would be installing a new signage indicating dog and dog owner etiquette as well as developing a system that defines the dog play area that's there. All based on recommendations from the pros master plan. All right, next slide please. So the preliminary scope involves uh obviously the picnic area and just planting additional trees there uh to provide shading for the the picnic tables and then at the the southwest corner of the park uh which is usually used for dog play or for like a dog play area there. Uh there could be a possibility of uh installing a fence there to basically make it an official dog run uh for the dogs there. Uh next slide please. Then our tenative schedule uh again would be uh design completing the design phase uh sending the project out for bid in March awarding the contract shortly after in May and then starting construction in June and since it's a smaller uh project it should be completed within a month. All right, next slide please. All right, just a brief update on the Dartmouth tot lot of the seating element uh upgrade. So basically to replace

uncomfortable seating elements that are the existing uh seating that's there and prioritizing community and comfort. So the considerations for that again uh the most cost-effective option but also considering comfort and uh most importantly safety for the users of the tot lot and looking at also what best fits the space as far as size dimension but also aesthetics of the tot lot and that concludes the presentation.

All right, thank you very much. Bring it to the commission for questions. You have any questions? the dates. Um yeah, I had a few. One was for Pier Street Park. Um the um plantings, you said there's going to be drought tolerant plants or native plants or something.

Native plants. Yes. And uh I know the first round when the park was first built and commissioned the bunch of the trees that were planted died and it was um John Hawkage the city urban forester said there was it was freeway soil. It was just bad news and um maybe there wasn't a sufficient um watering or something irrigation. Do you know if there's any plans for um doing a different strategy that will hopefully lead to better success on the landscaping?

Yeah, that's a good question. I know that we were discussing we do have some quick couplers that are there and we're not going to add irrigation at this point. That's not in this project scope, but we are discussing another solution for at least watering. But the soil, I know we we've done amendments in the past and we can probably discuss that looking into improving the soil quality, but we're not sure how much that's going to improve.

I can I can maybe jump in since I was sort of involved in the sort of the initial construction as well as the the the tree issues. Um some of the trees are doing okay and other ones um it is a difficult environment because it is a hard pack soil plus there's lots of um lots of debris in it. So um once a tree takes hold like it it tends to stay it tends to go but there we have replaced a lot of the trees over time. So that's something we'll find one that works and um we are trying to water them more on a more regular type basis but without an irrigation system. Um in terms of amending the soil um we we did for lots of years and it's it's it's really just a difficult a difficult location. So, I'm I think there are some plants out there that are doing well and we'll try to um use those, but um I think that's going to be a ongoing challenge. Um right now it looks great. We were out there today with Calrans, but it uh uh the native plants, you know, um once uh without an irrigation system, they they kind of go brown pretty quickly.

Okay. Um it says the bid phase was in December with breaking ground in March. Um for the shade options you showed us three. Uh how is that decision going to be made? When is that decision going to be made and who will be making that decision?

Well, we're we can look to your recommendation as well for input on that decision. uh based on the cost u because we do have uh a limit to the grant funding as well as the matching funds. Um but we're working with a contractor that's providing a shade study that's basically going to give us the best look at the best uh shade coverage for the area. So with those factors um obviously aesthetics, we don't want something that's going to be an eyesore. Um but the bids went out in December. Does that mean the plan somewhat people were bidding on it with an unfinished plan or I'm sorry you said the bids went out in December. Yes.

Does that mean the request for um proposals or whatever the the bids um does that mean that they didn't know which option it was going to be, but they're still going to come up with a dollar figure or how does that work?

Good question. So we sent out we sent out the RFP and basically with a recommendation uh for a shade structure but uh they can present an as equal um option and looking at those um again it's going to be a slightly uh varying cost in each one. Um but each contractor does know uh that's going to whoever's going to submit the bid they know that is we will accept an as equal to whatever recommendations that we sent out. Right. Um and for Jules Terrace Park, that area where you've um said might be fenced off, uh who's going to make the decision as to whether or not it's fenced off and um you have a sense of roughly how big that area is compared to um the Memorial Park, dog park?

Yeah. So, we're going to still we're still developing the project scope and once we have a more finalized scope, we can come back to pros and present uh present that to you basically to make that decision. Um, that's an option. Um, I don't know how much public polling was was done involving or in the past with the park, but that's just an option. We're not saying that's the final decision. Um, and then for the shade for the picnic area, said it could be plants or it could be like the awnings or something. Um, do you know who decides that and and how that works?

Yeah, that could also be presented to pros for recommendation, but there were trees planted there previously that were removed. So, it would make sense to keep it a more natural area and just replant some trees, native trees there. We're going to work closely with John Oidge as well with that. Okay. Thanks. Okay. Other questions?

Sure.

Thank you. So, the boulders up top are to keep people from driving cars on or keeping control access. Yeah, that's for vehicle traffic. Um, it's going to be a six foot wide path with a ballard uh in the middle. So, similar to the path that's there. I know there's two ballards there, existing ballards on the other path. that's not included in this project scope.

So I can jump in on that. The path the future path will connect into this um a little further to the north. I think well it's going to connect to the south and then come connect to it's it's connecting on both sides. But more serious test.

Um, we haven't done soils tests. Um, I Oh, yeah. Yeah, my speaker was off. There we go. people can hear me. Okay. Um we haven't done soil stress. That might be something we could do. But it is heav so it's it is the old um highway offramps. Yeah. So I know other places like that where it's just almost impossible to grow and some arborists they just don't even try. They walk away from it that it's our park. So we have to can't walk away from it. It's not an option. Can we augur down you know and just drill a big hole through it? get some get the roots down deeper or is it just like 20 feet and

we could we at this point we could try almost anything and it's what like what what we're doing is marginally effective like there's there's some trees that are doing okay and and and others that just no matter how many times we replant them they were kind of getting the same thing. So I'm I'm open to almost anything and I'm sure John would be too. I don't have any solutions on the trees that are doing well. Are they specific varieties or just whatever that right place and right

right right place right time. I think I think one of the struggles you know there um so we did amend it um several times and every time we would try to rotoill just more pipe and rock and broken up everything that chunks of concrete from the the highway keep So so it's it's it's not great material. Yeah. Right. Okay. Um, we could I like the idea of the augur. I can talk to John about that. Yeah. I mean, often we if we're working in industrial sites, you dig dig a hole and they fill it with water and see how long it takes to if it takes two days and water's still sitting there, then it's a drainage problem. Then you augur and

Okay. Yeah, maybe be that. It's also obviously bad soil. Not that it's not like it's going to get down 18 inches and find good stuff, right? Okay. Other uh other questions? Yeah, I just had a question. Can you show the um Jules Terrace Park diagram and go towards that? You we talked a little bit about that dog run. That's what um Commissioner Martin was asking about the fenced off area. Is that right? Is it okay?

So I don't I mean um maybe I'm not recalling correctly. Was that in the master plan as Okay.

Okay. As recommendation. Okay. So I don't remember talking discussing that in depth at any point here on this commission. So just warning warning. I feel like that might be a big issue potentially for neighbors. And not to say that overall the city may totally support it, but it's just something we should be um we should make sure that the process is good and that there's a lot of public involvement and a lot of notification. Um not to say either way, but just to make sure everybody who has a stake in it feels like they've they've been heard.

Definitely. I and I would just say that especially if we're going to put a fence up, even if just signage, we should probably be sure and reach out, but but if there's going to be a fence, I guess this is no longer a question. All right. Uh any other questions? We jumped right to discussion. I think questions I had have been asked. So, uh go to public, open up for public comment. Uh no hands raised. No hands raised. Okay. Very good. Now we can have our discussion. I mean, you're not really looking for anything from us right now, right? You're just kind of an update. You don't need Just an update. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um

um I mean there is no irrigation, no plans to have irrigation or did you try to? No, there's no plans. And I guess part of that would be I know we did discuss briefly that we have existing uh quick couplers there and just developing either a schedule um in that hillside there's yeah there's no irrigation that's actually for the field area. So

that could be completed under another project in the future but not with this. I think one of the the issues in the development of the project was um not being irrigated because this was done in the midst of a drought and the idea was to have drought tolerant plants and not have an established irrigation system. Um and um did take the opportunity to put some quick couplers in there to handwater things, but it's not a developed irrigation system. And it's and it's based off the um water service serving the uh the restroom facility. So it really doesn't have, you know, the capacity that you would have to for a developed system.

It's not enough. We wouldn't run it off the bathroom. Yeah. Um and and I was surprised at how much irrigation I think was something like $80,000 to establish a new irrigation a new irrigation line. Um there has been talk with East Bay Mud bringing recycled water to the area but I think that's cheaper. It's not cheap and it's I think a long way away making its way right is into Berkeley yet or

yeah I mean I think I think we've had engagement with East Bay at different times and I think they've run into struggles with how to get alignment there and and this is probably as far away you know it's it's not a huge demand and it's probably the most expensive to serve. And this also seems like an opportunity to engage the community of friends of Thompson Pier Street Park whole park was result of community involvement might be bras ever that even if it's even a bucket by the

true um any other comment Other than Yeah. Yeah. I did want to second uh Commissioner Chang Frank's comment about the noticing for the dog run. Um so because she and Commissioner Abbott and I were on the subcommittee for the um Memorial Park dog park and that was it was a huge elaborate affair. Um this I necessarily anticipate it being as as much of a thing, but it should be duly noticed and um we have opportunities for public input.

And one might think that because it's a de facto dog park now it wouldn't matter, but one would be wrong. That's why I'm saying even if the signs go up, you need to reach out. Fair enough. All right. Little little gunshy here. All right. Uh any other comments? All right. Well, thank you very much. Yeah, I I'm I think we're all excited to see uh Yeah, great to see all the progress, too. It's really fun to see these actually happening. Thank you. We know you're making it all possible. I think I have I think I have um I can make it work. Moving on to the park maintenance update if we're ready. Yes. Um

and at the beginning of the meeting, if some people just tuned in, we decided to skip 42 because

Yes, 42. We're skipp Well, you know, I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna call a chair's prerogative and say we may now reopen public public comment. If you would like to step up and and have your three minutes, please I just joined the of the USA Northern California. Um, so I'm here for a couple reasons. One is, um, I just want to make the commission aware of fact that there's a fair amount of grant funding that the national USDA makes available for, um, for local t local organizations, whether it's um, whether it's, you know, community tennis associations or cities. And so I just want to make myself a resource to thank anybody if anybody's interested and wants to learn more about that. Um I'd be happy to be or to connect you with some a staff member at the USDA Noral organization. Um so I wanted to offer myself as that. Then I also just wanted to comment that I think the courts at Terrace and uh Memorial falling into pretty like high level disrepair. um which I think is it's I'm sure you guys have noticed and probably heard from other people at some point, but I just wanted to point it out and um let you guys know that they're they get used a ton and um to the point where I don't play as much at memorial as I used to because I have to reserve reserve them if I want to. Um but uh they're great sports. It's a great park and um I would hope that at some point they get fixed up fixed up a little bit and um All

right. Well, thank you very much. And to be clear, it's US and not USDA. That's true. That's right. I work with US in my regular life and I do not want to have anything to do with that. Um just I give you a little preview of the next um presentation here talking about park maintenance and one of the upcoming projects for this uh this year. Uh we have established a annual park rehabilitation program and we're going to redo the courts at uh Terrace Park. Okay. It's a little snippet. Yeah. Julia knows who I am but if anybody wants to get my contact information I'll give you

city is notoriously uninterested in sources of money. Sure. It can be large amounts of money for really large projects or small like there's a fair amount coming that's small micro grants like in the $2,500 range for like if you want to buy like new benches or like new nets for all of the ports or things like that. So there's like there's different types of programs. I am not an expert but I'm learning about it and I can definitely connect with experts to all right to learn more about it. Well, thank you. I think they will gladly take your information. Thanks so much for coming down and making your comments.

Thank you guys. All right, we will now close public comment, move to item 43, of which we've had a tantalizing little preview. Um, I think I could just um The fonts got a little jacked up when I opened it here. So, I did I saved it as a PDF. So, that might um work. Anything's open. Maybe you can drive just take the PDF. You got it. I stop sharing because I think I was messing things up. And that's where I got stumped.

Here, I got it. I got it now. Okay. Yep. All right. We're just texting you guys to make sure you guys are still woke. All right. Back to our regular scheduling program.

Okay. So, Um we go. All right. So this is a um update on our parks maintenance. So this is something we were trying to do a number of times a year, but um due to staff staff turnover, whatnot, we got out of cycle. So, this is my attempt to kind of bring us back up to speed and uh let everyone know where we are with some of the uh park maintenance things. So, let me jump in and um so we're just going to give an overview of uh our approach to ma um park maintenance um see how it fits within the larger public works uh environment and then some of the key activities we've been doing. Um one of the things I'm really excited about is SB 1383. Um, this is something that we've talked about uh at prior council meeting or commission meetings and has uh been a struggle and there's been some recent developments and changes that are actually in our favor which I'm really excited about. Um, and then we'll just touch on some upcoming projects including the um uh the the tennis courts that uh we mentioned. So um so public works has what I think one of the broader scopes of um scopes of work within the the the city. Um we have uh what is it 16 uh FTEEs as full-time equivalents and then a single part-time person and that and that take we take care of a lot of things within the city. everything from delivering capital projects which Andre talked about to maintaining all the infrastructure and and uh things in our rightway and just from I think this is how we organize ourselves within the budgets and things of that sort. We have sort of functional areas, capital

improvements, rightway, buildings and facilities, parks and playfields, open space and then sort of departmental management. Um and so like in in right away it's everything from operation and maintenance of the storm storm drains regul regulatory uh requirements trash and graffiti um buildings and facilities. It's you know just the the general maintenance of the build of the of the facil facilities in um parks and open space. This is um you know all of our structured parks and I'll say that's like Terrace Park and and um I even include the greenway in there to a certain extent. Um uh and the open spaces are more of the bulb and Albany Hill, Cornis Creek. So that's that's sort of our our division of labor there. Um and our approach to maintenance generally speaking, we have um seven maintenance workers, three of which are lead workers. So that's um they're responsible for a functional area. So we have one person around PI Parks and we see uh Michael Michael Hog he's our uh lead worker for parks and um so he's kneede in everything related to parks and and um uh lead workers aren't ex you know we're not large enough to have people exclusively with parks. So um we do everything but as a lead worker the idea is he he's spending a portion of his time understanding what's going on in park. So when there is an issue, he has the contacts to go out and and and address it. Um and then we have a lead worker for public rideway and then a lead worker for buildings. And they're supported by four maintenance workers and these are level two. Um right now we um we have um we're down a couple people for various reasons. So we're down two

people. We're looking to kind of bring that back up. So that that's a um constraint in what we can do. Um, and then we have the public works manager, which is a vacant position right now. And then we have a project manager, Andre, who helps support projects, and then the or urban forester. And so that's that's sort of the key folks that are involved in um managing uh the the parks. Um the park maintenance, we have some sort of what I call core activities, and we call this the trash run. And it's that's more of um more than just picking up the trash. What it is, it's a structured time that we go through all the parks. So, uh Memorial Park is we have a um I think it's route A or whatever. We have a Monday, Wednesday, a Monday, Friday trash run. And this is where we go through Memorial Memorial Park, Terrace Park, uh Ocean View Park. We pick up the trash. We blow all the um the uh pathways. We make sure that the the sand in the sandboxes are at the right level and there, you know, we we make sure there's no issues with that. We make sure the bathrooms are stocked. If there's other issues in going in the park, we either address it right then. Maybe it's a graffiti issue or we put it on a list that that gets done separately. So, it's really our eyes in the park uh making sure that it's it's functional. We also have um you know in different parks different so basically Monday, Wednesday, Friday we do some version of trash run throughout the city. Um and then we also do what we call the weekend service and this was something we uh brought on I would say a couple years ago coming out of COVID where we found and this is again a good problem to have our parks get a lot of use. So we would our idea is that we would empty the trash on a Friday it would be you know and that would be enough capacity to le last us through

the uh through Monday when we get another trash run. That's not the case after sat after Saturday. In a lot of cases the parks need a little bit of a tuning up. So, we bring in a maintenance worker on overtime uh for four hours um four hours on a Sunday morning to really just make sure things are ready for the next day's uh activities in the parks. And so there's, you know, particularly Memorial Park and Ocean View parks get a lot of picnics and parties and things of that sort. So, um that's been really helpful to um that was that was um one of our largest area of complaints and I think we've really addressed that. So, the complaints are dropping significantly. Um, and I'll jump to like we coordinate with wreck a lot on this issue because um, when recreation has a park attendant out there and that that person is there to assist people doing rentals and and whatnot and that person does some of the lift. Um, but we want to make sure that we come in and do some like underlying heavy stuff. Make sure the restrooms are stocked. If there's trash cans overflowing from the year the the day before, we make sure that's taken care of and and cleaned up across all of our parks. But then the attendant can deal with sort of the, you know, wiping down tables and helping with trash, but not, you know, they they just don't have the facilities to do it like we do. Um, and then for our we also rely on contractors particularly in the landscape maintenance. We um irrigation management and uh trees, you know, we don't we don't have a tree crew. We also bring in specialty stuff. We had a storm drain issue in Memorial Park this last year and so we brought in someone to help clear some storm drains to um help with some drainage problems. So, um you know,

that's there's it's really a nice combination of work that we do in house versus stuff that we contract out. And my thought is we want to do work inhouse that we are best suited to. So things like the trash run like we know our parks. We going to go do the thing and we can identify when there is an issue and bring it up and if we if we can take care of it we can we'll do it. if we need to bring in a contractor um we will and and I think that's that's working and in a lot of cases our maintenance workers are helping make the decision of what we can do and what we can't do. Um and then we rely on community partnerships and this is primarily you know Alb Unified um particularly with the the baseball team. They take a really um uh active um engagement in maintaining uh particularly the ball field in Memorial Park as well as other things and other other people who use the fields come in and do work days and so forth. Um, so some of the key activities we've done since um, uh, last the last update, which I think was almost like a year and a half, two years ago, which so I'm want to get back on cycle on this. Um, one thing we did a restroom refresh for Memorial Park, Ocean View, and uh, Terrace Park. And Memorial Park was probably the largest largest one of these. Um and if you recall maybe what was that two 2016 2017 there was the update of the uh restrooms in Memorial Park um I would say in the last couple years they were really in a again they get a lot of use and which is good but um they were showing some wear and tear particularly with the partitions at Memorial Park we pulled all the partitions out took everything and uh we

uh redid a surface uh floor surface on it so So, it's more of an epoxy and hopefully that will last better. We got new brackets. I think Andre spent a lot of time trying to uh track down the manufacturer and get brackets to make sure one one of the things the brackets were were broken. So, the um partitions were just all over the place and they weren't they weren't functioning. So, we cleaned the graffiti, we recoted them, reinstalled them, and they look pretty good. um at Terrace Park in Ocean View, we essentially repainted the inside and outside because again they were looking tired and that was done uh with our staff. Um and then one of the things we've been doing the last couple years um uh and this is primarily in response to the SP 1383 was the winter and summer uh services for the fields. So, this is where we um close the fields. Um the winter service we're just coming out of. We close the fields uh in early uh late November and excuse me. Uh they're basically closed through December and January. We do a uh uh a top coating of of compost. We uh airate uh we we seed and it's it's this year. I've got a picture of it at at Memorial Park. It really looks good. Um, so this is an opportunity. The fields get a lot of play time. We don't use really any fertilizers or any sort of other amendments. So giving time for the fields to breathe and just um put some compost on, we water it and let it go without anyone u on it is really showing some um some uh improvement. Um and at Ocean View there were a number of uh

uh bare spots um that we were getting a lot of complaints from particularly the soccer folks about um playability in the co in the fields being super hard, no grass. Um and then we had some other issues too with irrigation where um we had some breaks in the line and areas with coverage. So with this this service, we went and um uh we had a contractor with our with Michael um we went and um uh basically did an audit of our system figuring out where the coverage issues were um and we identified a number of leaks that we fixed because there were there were areas that were consistently wet and then we have areas that were drying. So, um hopefully we're going to have much better performance on the um u irrigation side which will help help the fields. Um then we also have done this down here. This if you've been out in the bulb, we constructed a new set of ADA spaces. This came from a um a a complaint from the public, not this last July, but the prior July, with someone who was had accessibility issues, was having some struggles getting out to the bulb. And um they brought it to our attention and we realized that the spots that we had there that were ADA that we identified for ADA um weren't really um up to snuff. And part of it was when East Bay Regional Parks built their parking lot that took the pathway that these these spots um these spots use. So we took a step back and we constructed these uh two spots in the middle of the um uh in that that sort of island area between the pathway and the and the

road. Um, and so there are two nice spots with a pathway to the trail and then we uh fixed some of the issues within the trail and I think that's gotten a good response and it quite frankly opened up a little more parking spaces uh for uh other folks. So I think that was a really good thing. Um we've also done uh these picnic tables. You really can't see it too well, but uh Peter in our uh maintenance uh he's a lead worker for buildings and he's really good carpenter. He has replaced at Memorial Park all of the old sort of tres or or composite uh picnic material, you know, material for the picnic tables. And um they made it with nice wood. And he's it is much easier to maintain because as people cut things into it or um uh do we we can sand it out and repaint it and it's a much it's a much better um long term for us to maintain our plan. And we're um what he does is he buys the wood and we let it sit for a period of time so it dries out. And we're planning to um do the same thing at Terrace Park because they have the same same type of um uh picnic tables. Um the other thing that we that's it's on its way with the construction of the dog park and this is uh back to the comment about uh the dog. Nothing changed in the dog park when we uh other than switching the the gate location. The park's basically the same. baseball is basically the same, but uh balls going over the over the fence were um a big big issue and we got lots and lots and lots of comments about that. So, we we worked with uh Albany Unified and um you know trying to figure out what what's the real issue and it seems like

most of the comments come not during games because the games really aren't the problem. It's during practice where someone's taking batting practice and the coach is very passionate and and one of the time we got lots of calls. They were coming up against a a pitcher who can like throw 90 whatever 90 miles per hour and and everyone was fouling it off and so you know everyone's practicing and fing it all off to the dog park and the dog park's full and so I think that's that's the that's the sort of the use case that we're trying to um to address. So, we we found this product that that's used at other high schools and the uh Albany Unified coach said, "Yeah, that's he's seen this work." And it's called a um batting turtle. So, it's kind of this cage that that you sit in and it prevents foul balls from going out in either ways. So, we have that on the way. And as baseball's ramping up now, our hope is um and as we've talked with Sid is this this will be a requirement to use um for anyone who's renting the fields, whether it be Albby Unified, the Cyclones, I guess that's a travel ball team that uses it. Um the Albany Little League, they'll use that during practice and then games will will happen as normal. So

fold up or something.

Yeah, it's it it folds up. Apparently, it's not too hard to move. It looks gangly to me, but um uh they cleaned out an area that they can keep it up on the first baseline. And um I think I think this hopefully this will um maybe not address all the problems, but really take a take a bite out of them. So, um and then we also do um you we uh we just finished uh pruning the trees in Terrace Park today. Um so we do we've gone through most of the parks doing uh trimming work and uh we do play equipment inspections. Um this helps we actually have an outside person come and identify you know defects with this in the in the play equipment. This is the play structures at the parks and you know a lot of them are things that I probably wouldn't have had caught like um when the coating comes off of it that creates an issue for the kids and and whatnot. So, they give us recommendations and we went through a process of replacing a bunch of equipment and we'll have another inspection here in um well, not the equipment itself. We've replaced components of the the the damaged components of the equipment and we'll likely have another inspection here shortly to see if anything else is going on. Um and then we monitor all the the sand and sort of fiber um playground fiber, you know, safety surfaces in the playground areas to make sure they're up to stuff. Um they surprising how how much stuff we go through. Um uh and then our challenges. So it's this is the exact same slide other than the updated pictures that we had before. Um it's vandalism and graffiti. Uh these pictures are from last weekend where we had someone come through and basically the same style of graffiti starting at the bulb working.

that's all all the way through the parks and up and down the greenway. Um we have really made a concerted effort to jump on graffiti as quickly as we can. U we found that it goes away. Um you know someone's going to do this but if it we leave it there more comes if we take care of it quickly. Um, I don't know if you've noticed it with the columns along the BART tracks where we've we've basically taken over manage of that from BART because they weren't keeping up and it was really becoming an issue. Um, so some of the things we've done to respond to the graffiti and vandalism is um we have the weekend park checks and that's kind of keeps us on on um you know on top of things before it really spins out of control. One of the things we've done too, which is interesting, is um the bathrooms lock on a timer and we've adjusted those times um just to throw people off just um and like I I one of the things we've we open them later and sometimes it's after school after school um starts because that means people aren't going around in the bathrooms before school. And then um depending on what the rentals are, particularly with daylight savings, we shift the time because you know they in the summertime when there's b uh softball games going on, we 10 o'clock's a perfect time. In the winter it's not. And and what happens is people go in there and we have problems. Um and we've coordinated with uh Alb Unified and they've been really great to help. Um particularly one of the issues we've had was um uh trash during uh at Memorial Park during lunch and um they've been great to work with in terms

of yeah getting reminding people to do it. We we coordinate our trash to our Wednesday trash um to happen after lunch. I don't know if our students have noticed that, but um we we then you know after lunch then we go and clean up the park, make sure there's no overflowing trash cans, and that seems to have alleviated that issue. But um uh there's usually someone from the school there also reminding people to um to put away their trash. But it and I guess it's like people for it it goes in waves. Um and in some cases we involve all Albany um police department um particularly with um we have people um living you know we'll we'll spend night in the bathroom and so on things like that we have our our maintenance workers call PD to make sure it's safe to go in and clean up. Um all right SP 1383. So, this was a and just for people who aren't familiar, this was a um state law that was enacted, I don't know, four or five years ago, something along those lines. And it really it really impacted how um uh solid waste management happens. And um one of the components that relates to us is um this this requirement for purchasing and use of organic material. So it was a a way of uh developing a market for um organic material for use in you know um whole host of things you can do with it. Um so each city was given an allocation based on some formula and our initial

allocation was uh 1364 tons and this is not tons of this was I I call this tons of SP 1383 compliant organic material because and that's annual annually

and because there's this long list of things that can contribute and then a conversion factor to this this madeup up tons tons things. So um so I I have this is all in um compliant organic material. Um the 1364 was going to be a heavy heavy lift not only for us but for every other municipality. Um, and we jumped on it and tried to do our and and the way this was done, it was phased in over I think it was four years or three or four years where you would phase up and we were meeting our targets and but quite frankly if the if things didn't change I I don't know what we would have done. Um so our target our revised target is now 460 which is hugely different and I think I think um this was our local our local regulator our local agency is stop waste and they worked with um was it Cal Recycle to lower the to to make the case to lower the um uh requirements for cities. So, and and that's that's great. And now we're sitting in a great look a great position because the our bakedin uses are we do two annual um uh twice annual compost giveaway and this is through waste management. Um you can see the the pallets and we have most of our our crew out there. Um, and it's something that, um, I think people line up for pretty darn early in the morning. And it's and it's a really good thing. And that that provides about 69 tons. And our our field services, our winter is uh, almost 300. Our summer service, which is very similar, but we do less fields for less time. We only do the ball fields instead of sort of broader

in the parks. And that's that's 215. And then we support uh compost to the compost hub and that's at the gil track and that is that totals 662 which is way above our requirement and so this this is this is great for us. So now we're actually in a position where we're digging into um so when we when we started this and and I'm I don't know if you guys remember like we're just kind of throwing everything out there trying to get uses that make sense. Now we now that we've met our requirement and from what I understand this requirement is going to stay stable unless there's some other determination that we would have time to react with it. So from my perspective we're going to start organizing our effort around meeting that requirement while um I think particularly for the um field services we've gotten a lot of benefit out of um out of doing this. So, what we're going to probably do is go through and see which ones are sort of the best the best use for our money um in this and I could see backing off on maybe the summer service or some part of it and um and really dialed this in to to be the most impactful at at cost. So, um, we're in a really good spot for this and we'll we'll obviously not dial it in too tight so that we, you know, we're not, um, so we don't miss a compliance. And like other things that we've tried to do in public works, we um, we want to make sure the activities that we're doing flow into the compliance reporting so that um, the first couple years it was like, wait a minute, I remember that project. Where's that receipt? Let's get the thing. So, we want to make sure that we we're actually talking with Waste Management, our um hauler to to to help us um

and right now we buy our our compost through our landscape contractor and so that has a higher higher cost. We can buy it through Waste Management who has a company that um makes out in the Central Valley for organic farming and whatnot. So, it's really really quality stuff. um they can deliver it here. We have a certain amount built into our franchise and that could lower our unit cost um pretty significantly in a um uh in rough numbers. Um when we buy um uh compost in this switching instead of SP 1383 compliant units cubic yards normal cubic yards we buy it for about $50 a ton or a cubic yard um delivered from aapokco we buy it from our contractor at roughly 40 kind of pulling it out it's roughly 40 I think with waste management what what we have built built into our contract, it might be between 20 and 30, which really drops our costs. So, um, so this is this is like this is great. We can start thinking about this rather than worrying what's the, you know, giving it in little baggies and everyone's going to have to take some home for something. So,

just thinking how much can we dump on on Peggy Thompson, right? Well, that seriously

that that was one of our thoughts was maybe we just make piles, compost piles, and move them around and see what happens. Um, yeah. Um, so, and now we get to some forwardlooking things. Um, one of So, one of the things we've done in all of our um all of our systems, and I think you know, we've talked about the the trees and street lights and and things. We're kicking off an an uh an effort actually I think in the coming weeks um to do an ass inventory GIS inventory of all the facilities in our parks. So this will be a basis for us to start doing um a replacement schedule um around our play equipment and other things fencing so that so one we're very clear what we have what's what its condition and then we can start um putting a replacement program and this goes handinhand with a new feature that we have in our uh capital improvement program. Um the we've in other areas we've established these what we call it programs like we have a sewer program, we have a uh sidewalk program, we have a road program and the idea is we want to be investing a certain level every year in and year out. Not so much in a um like a signature project. is just in the basic stuff so that we don't have comments like we had today about you know the the playability of our courts um being in a in a in bad shape and you know I I don't think there's there's a lot of things are looking tired there could use a refresh. So this is going to be our um in the current CIP we have about $200,000 a year for a fiveyear plan. Hopefully when we get to the end of that we can we can in the new plan extend that and adjust it based on what our needs are. So this year we have a couple things in

the plan. We have at Memorial Park the back stops at the the padding on the back stop is just deteriorating before our eyes. It's um and so we're going to replace that. We're getting a quote for that right now. And then we're going to do the Par Terrace Park tennis courts. And this is one thing that I wanted to bring up with um unfortunately Dena is not here. Um but I wanted to have the conversation uh in the master plan. Um there was discussion about flex courts and what we do with flex courts and how we integrate those. And one of the opportunities to for flex courts is um when we redo tennis courts and and it's it's not a big lift to paint lines to support another use. the lift is are we all on the same page of what that other use is and one of the things I wanted to do and it's it's kind of great that um we had the commenter and Andre has contact because one of the things I want to make sure is that we don't degrade the playability for tennis because um you know the courts at Albany High are Albany High's home court the the courts at Terrace Park are used by St. Mary's College High School and um and and so we want to make sure that they're playable from a you know a match play or whatever. Um but this is the opportunity to bring that in. So um that's one thing that I want to be talking about so that um Andre doesn't have to make it up himself. Um and then uh we have the Aloney Linear Park fitness equipment replacement. Um I believe Andre has meeting with uh vendors right now to look at different options. So that should be coming to the commission here um in 2026 if not um early 2027. And then we want to do the citywide turf audit. Um this to me is one of the big things where we decide where we want turf, where we don't want

turf, what what could it be? And that folds into a couple of other studies. the programming along the Aloney Greenway and Peggy Thompson Pier Street Park which are you know slated for 27 and 28. And in my mind the Aloney Greenway programming and Peggy Thompson programming go hand inand with the um project that Dean is going to be leading on the the sort of you know what what uses can go in different places. Um, so and then so we get into the measure. I don't have budget numbers because I just quite frankly didn't have enough time. Um, I do have a um tab open to I have links. Um, all this stuff is on our website, so I can Let me see if I can get this up here. Um, and show folks where it is. Um okay. So sharing we go. So this is um on our website where we detail really everything that's going on in a lot lot of areas. This is the uh page that deals with the measure M or the open parks and open space part parcel tax. Um these reports they have reports here of um projects and pro program expenditures and that's updated annually. Um give you a heads up it hasn't been updated um with the new audit that was just completed but um we're working on that and should should be done fairly soon. But it does detail

what we spend the money, what revenue has been coming in by fiscal year, and you can see exactly how we're spending it. And um way we've budgeted things, and it's a really a a little bit of a tug a tug. It it supports both operating costs as well as capital. Um so it's um it's something we keep an eye on and and probably will adjust over time as needs as needs come. Then I have uh let me see and then um the next slides around the um construction alerts. This is another um city projects. We call it construction alerts but it's it's really um all projects on the website. We try to keep this updated about all the things going on in public works because we have a lot of them. And we have um uh every project has has a page um and we try to give um here let's see if we can get into this one. Um what we do is identify the project the project number. There's usually a um a contact a little history. Um this was the Albany Albany Hill um forest management plan. So we have the the the final uh we have documents related this one is the plan development FAQs but then we have all through the this is where the sort of the repository of the history of the projects and um so we try to keep all I think some of it's been archived but we try to keep everything on here as long as we can so that people can understand what's going on and um look to hear for the most current information. All right, let's see if we can get back to

uh Oh. All right. So, there's there's the link for Oh, there we go. Um there's a construction zone construction alert. Um and then finally, how to report issues. So, um, one of the things we do do is we've we have a, um, uh, it's actually a GIS tool that you can report an issue. You can report the location, snap a picture, upload it, and on the I guess the landing page, it's called the first page of the when you go to the website, we have these um uh tabs down here and one's report an issue and this will take you to to that and you can uh report an issue and then Jamra will tell one of us to go do it. Um, and with that, let's open it up to questions and discussions.

All right. Maybe you would like to take a breath. That was a lot. Drink water or something. Well, once I get going, I could I could I could keep going. Well, we should. All right. Uh, questions. Clarifying question. The 200,000 for the capital improvement plans over five is that each year? Yeah. So, it's a million dollars over five years. Okay. Thanks. Other questions?

Yeah, I had a few. Um, one was for for maintenance. The staffing is important and you said we're down some FTEES. You mentioned there's 16 FTEEs in your department with 16 point something with the part-time. Um, how many of those positions would you say are are vacant now and what challenges, if any, do you anticipate in filling them?

So, we have um two open open positions and one is someone's out on a different issue. Um so part of it is um uh the maintenance workers we've had some turnover because um people find different jobs and one of the things that um I think the people here have a a um a good experience and it's a good place to work but there's there's not a lot of opportunity. you know, we we have a small crew. There's not a lot of movement and um uh all the people who have left have left for like, oh yeah, that makes sense. You're going to another place, less commute, something different. And so, um I think the maintenance worker side is is something that's just always going to be one of these cycling in. The good news is we have three really good um lead workers. They're they're I think all of them have been with the city longer than me. I think some I think Michael's probably the the the longest tenure maybe pushing 20 years. Um, so we we do have some good institutional knowledge, but what we don't want to have is um uh we just had one one person uh retire um a while ago about a year ago and AJ he had been with the city for gosh and he walked out with a lot of knowledge that we're we just realized that we're relying on him. So, one of the things we're trying to do is is make it so that everyone knows how to do everything in some ways. So, it's it's um building that capacity, but I think some of the um some of the um some of it's just part of the part of do doing business and on on that in in that maintenance worker side.

Um the office positions, we have a um uh public um the public works manager position open has been um open for a while. Hoping to fill it here shortly. Um but part of that was me wanting to stick my that's why you're seeing more and me more of me. Um I really stuck my nose into that end side of the house to really understand what's going on and try to try to improve level of service. So, I think we're at a point where we're going to start bringing in people. And one one of the things I want to do is uh implement a new um uh enterprise asset management program like a work order program essentially that's tied to more GIS. That's why we're supporting the GIS. Um and and that will help us be more effective on the work order side of things.

Okay. Thanks. Um the uh for irrigation you mentioned uh I said I remember irrigation was going to be rerouted and improved in the dog park was part of the plan. It was very forward thinking. That was great that you the city and you were working on that. Um the irrigation issues you discussed tonight, the dry patches, the wet patches, is that there is that what you're talking about or is it lots of other locations? It's it's it's really all over the place. And some of it is um you I walked it with Michael um and our and our contractor um like over time some of the irrigation heads because you know it's mowing they get pushed down and so um some of them get buried and some of them are at an angle so they're not as effective. Some of them are just broken and like there's a crack down below and and that's that's the persistent wet spot. So it was really just diligently going through the system and trying to correct as many issues we as we can and we've also done that along the greenway to a certain extent.

Okay. So those sounds like more like local damage and things like that whereas the dog park was a big system that dog park Yeah. dog park was a really unique thing because it different. Yeah. Be because the dog as you remember the dog park wasn't a dog park. it was it was section B and then before that it was uh an athletic field and the irrigation system for that was comingled with the the infield system. So when they did the infield system they watered you know you couldn't couldn't control them and Andre and his project they separated that so we don't

so that was a big job and the other things you're describing are little repairs here. Yeah, they're they both have impact because the area the areas where um it was wet um like it was always wet and so I I think this will be you you'll have I think we'll have better control and better performance of the of the irrigation system and therefore we'll have better um uh you know the grass will be will be much much better condition. Um you mentioned the picnic tables going to actual wood

from the trex or whatever it was and um do you anticipate any of the milled lumber from the eucalyptus trees on Alb Hill being used for things like that or benches or probably not. I think um we've used that in so Andre is using some in his part in his um his project but we've also used most of that on Albany Hill for small retaining walls and steps and things of that sort. So, um I and and I think dimensionally that's not as consistent. So, um I think I think it works better on the hill than it does in a in the park.

Um Okay. And who owns Memorial Park baseball field and what's the financial agreement with the schools for the baseball field and who paid for the turtle?

Um so, boy, there's a lot in there on that one. Um so it is it the the city owns the BA is owns the uh baseball field. It is a um there's a joint facilities agreement that outlines how a lot of the things are done. Uh not just with ball fields but um uh use of various school facilities like we host I think we host pickle ball in the in the gymnasium. Um, in as far as the turtle, we're buying the turtle um because it's we have the obligation to maintain the asset. And so this is this is this is part of um addressing an issue about playing playing as a baseball field, not necessarily a Albany High School things because it's used as an adult league. There's there's many people that use it.

Summer camps would maybe use it as well. um not so much summer camp, but there's there's um little league, there's a travel ball, and if you drive by, there's a an older like a like an adult league that uses it. So, the idea would be that whenever they're doing batting practice or practice, they would need to use the turtle. And then you mentioned flex courts and um doing something with I I'm forgetting exactly what you said was going to be updated or considered for updating in the tennis courts around town. Um I was on the subcommittee with Commissioner Chang Frank and Commissioner Kent maybe on flex courts and um and so that would be something that would be I'm hoping would come before us.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. um as you're like before actual improvements are done to the netting and yeah so I think what we would do is line out a project line out a project and hopefully and and hopefully through the project that Dena's um doing we can get some ideas of what a flex court means and then that can flow into our design that we would then come and present to you guys that then would um uh receive you know comments so that we're all on the same page with what is being constructed. Okay, great. And those that's the kind of thing you anticipate there's regular maintenance on the courts throughout like annual or whatever, but is this is this something you see happening this year? Is it Yeah, I'm I

possibly late spring. Okay. In a few months. Yeah. Right. I look forward to that.

Yes. So, so that's this this is the first year of that program that we're doing. So, we want to um like we want to start getting ahead of steam um and and took a little bit of time on the sidewalk program. Now, now we execute sidewalk pro uh projects without a lot of um they they come pretty routine, but in the beginning it wasn't because we're kind of finding our way and I think this will be a little bit of that too. But I imagine once we get the program going, once we understand sort of the assets that need to get replaced, we can we can get the decisions out ahead of time. Okay, that was it for me. Thanks.

Did anybody think of just uh recruiting better batters? Okay. Um more more comments or discussion? I I do I do say when I first got here and this is total tangent. There was I got out there and we needed to we need to we needed to raise the um uence the fence because some kid was hitting it out and breaking windows across the street and I was like give the guy a star. Oh, that's that's a good hit. And we haven't had that same problem in the field. Yeah. So

there a discussion? Yeah, please. Um is like field service for winter and summer also include like pier street like you said or like the parks itself or is that just

So in the um so it's it it is focused on turf in the winter service we do um on the south side of Memorial Park. You probably noticed that the we fence off part of the area. We sort of flip-flop one. So this is the area on the south side of Memorial Park. It's sort of unstructured play area. We host um movie in the park and things like that there. And we've we we don't want to close all of it. So we do one one side one year, the other side the other year. Um and we also do terrace park, but it is really just um the service is the same. We airrate, we try to as much as we can keep people off of it, we top dress it and and and seating. And um I would say it's probably less effective than the ball fields just because I think there's I mean it's just a snow fence keeping people out. So it's it it I don't think I don't I don't know there's there's rule followers and there's people who just do it.

But it's not like individual like or anything. No like No. No. It's it's really just blocking it off and giving this the the giving it a little time to rest. Yeah. Um, just for clarification, like what's the difference between like the normal maintenance of the tennis courts and what you're going to do with like the um 200,000 the terrace? I I didn't hear all of that, but let me I can um like what's the difference between the normal maintenance of the tennis courts and like what you're going to do with the

So, in the normal maintenance and we've been probably pretty spotty on doing some of this, you know, there's there's cleaning and and actually in a part of our trash run, we go and clear the courts. Um but there there is buildup particularly at tennis at terrace park where there's a lot of stuff from the trees coming down and sits in the corners and it builds up and that degrades the the the surface. Um, and that's that can be done on uh regular maintenance, cleaning it, and then having a contra there's a contractors that can come in and do surface um surface cleaning um to prolong the service. And we that's one thing I want to start doing um particularly at Ocean View that we redid. What we're doing here is we're going to strip the court of its posts, everything. There's a large crack on the on the eastern side of the the court, the one that's a little higher up. Um, we're going to uh resurface it with asphalt to address the crack, reinstall things. So, it's it's um it's be like a new court.

And are there any like plans to do that to the memorial park tennis court? Um, we're going to move to that one next. That that's on the list. It's just um Terrace Park is really the there's there's a crack there and um uh the posts were they're they're bent over and and whatnot. We've we've patched it together as much as we can. The terrace is marginally usable. Yeah.

So, one one idea I had and maybe maybe we already do this, you know, just the stuff that comes to mind that do we at lunch is over. Do we have trash cans on that end? because I know the trash cans generally are the street. Are they between the park where kids are eating lunch and the school where they walk?

So, this is interesting. Um, last was it last year? Not not this la this this school year. Last school year when this blew up, we we actually did a it wasn't really a study. We went out there and saw where the trash cans are, where they're being used because some were overflowing, some weren't used at all. and um and and including the ones that were along the the roadway where the uh cars parked. Those ones those were issues um on another because people would stuff in their cars and just overload the trash cans. So, we actually removed those and we repositioned trash cans in areas where um uh kids were or pe not not only kids but um the the people were using the park where the trash was h happening and um I think it's addressed um a little bit I don't know if it's come back but um kids would would sit at um the bleachers near the tennis courts and and eat I think and that the little trash cans inside the tennis courts were just overflowing with trash. I think we got rid of those or did we?

But the idea was we wanted to limit um trash going into those and make them put in the big bellies. And I think I think it's working easier to do the right thing. Yeah. Right. Uh, I had one more question. I forgot to ask uh for I did ask about the ballpark in Memorial Park for for the for USD. The tennis courts at Terrace Park that you were just talking about. Um, you said they're used by um St. Mary's. Yep. And uh I was wondering what kind ofou or what kind of financial arrangement do we have there? So I don't know exactly but I private entity.

Yeah. I think they they pay a rental fee like any other user. So, I think they're just like they just reserve in advance. Yeah. And that's um Joy in recreation. She handles a lot of that. And I think all the leagues whether it's soccer, baseball, tennis um put reservations for um various courts and courts or fields and she tries to come up with a schedule but um the only ones the everyone other than Alb Unified pays you know our our the rate that we have in our our rate schedules. Okay. Okay. So, they're just a a regular rental user. Yep. Okay.

All right. There uh anyone else want to weigh in? All right. See? None. We will close the item. Thank you very much. Always good to get these. Was there Did you check public comment? I forget. You did. Okay, great. We did. Um did right. I think so. I don't know. I was either way there's no hands raised. No public I I guessed that, but I was pretending. All right. Um uh moving on. Subcommittee updates. Not seeing any subcommittees. Announcements and future agenda item. You want to do your announcement? You don't have one? Yeah.

Um just to piggy back off what Mark was talking about, um the dog park is now back open. So, it's open for public use. Um, the other ball fields and stuff are open as well. Um, and that's weather permit permitting right now because if it starts storming, we will have to close it to keep the fields from getting too messed up. Um, my next announcement is the Kids and Family Expo. Join us for a fun, familyfriendly afternoon at the Kids and Family Expo, a one-stop shop for programs and services for kids and families. bring the whole family to the community center on Saturday, February 28th from 1 to 4:00 p.m. Guests can explore local programs and family services, including summer camp previews and the opportunity to sign up for our popular Friendships Club summer program, as well as special discounts available for registrations completed at the event. Enjoy a variety of activities for kids and parents alike, including tasty snacks, free face painting, a free raffle, free biking, and stro uh strolling magi mag magician from 1:30 to 2:30. Come out and connect with uh community resources and join in on the fun.

All right, announcements. I just I should have said this during the agenda item. I uh we mentioned you mentioned the uh request service or the report a problem tool. I use it a lot because we see stuff on the blue glove crew and I just have to say they're very responsive. I hope it's not because I'm the one submitting it. I trust that it's not but but oftentimes just a day or two the thing's gone. So I I kudos to that. That's great. I'm not biased. I respond accordingly. The only thing I would say is that is that um I'm a little shocked to hear they all go to you. Yes. Because the hardest part is figuring out which category to put. It doesn't matter. You don't need that. You don't need that button.

It It does because it's whether because that gives her the information to tell one of whomever to go do the work. But I don't know the right I'm not doing the right one half the time. I'm sure I I usually can figure it out. So that's the thing. Give away the secret recipe. We get a stack of All right. Anyway. All right. Uh other announcements, agenda items. So, we do have clearly we'll have the parks master plan studied edenum coming up.

Yes, we'll have the parks master plan. Um, we might have what I'm super excited about actually uh Hillary Sardinas um has been working talking with Margot and I think she's doing a project. This this sounded amazing. She's doing a project on Alb Hill and she's putting little trackers on monarchs

and um I was like really? Um, and so she likely or might be coming to do a presentation on that, which I think would be just fascinating. Um, and then, um, I I haven't heard anything about it, but it is sugarsw sweetened beverage time, so that'll be on the on it, but I'm less excited about it this year than I have in the past. I think with the the butterfly things, the hardest part is getting them with the dart to get them to go to sleep. Actually, Margot explained it a little bit. It's really fascinating. It is. I'm sure. How big is that thing? I mean, can they fly with it? Yeah, it's No, I I ran into um

Hillary. Yeah. Hillary in the grocery store and she show I was like, "Really?" And she showed me a picture. It was amazing. And then they have this thing is this very educational because then they with the GPS tracker you can see, oh, this one originated at Albony Hill and it goes here. Like, yeah, it's f it is fascinating. And I I couldn't believe that it can be it can go to a butterfly, right? Yeah. I know. And and Margot said, I guess they they attach it by cooling them, so it it kind of slows things down, but then when they warm them up, like one of them like she said it was like rolling around like a dog would be to, you know, something off its back. So yeah, we can understand. All right.

Yeah. When uh one agenda request is when you do or related to something you already mentioned was for flex courts um is when you do uh agendaize that to um make sure to look at old contact lists for all the tennis people, all the pickle ball people um because they were very engaged with all of that. But then also it should also include whoever we have on the volleyball people and then some of these flex nets can also do bad mitten. So I don't know who we would contact for that but that would be basically cast a wide net. Yep. Would be my recommendation. No pun.

Yes. Yes. Still regulation. Okay. All right people. We got to keep these things light. All right. Any uh All right. Seeing nothing else, we will adjourn and see you March 12th.