Library Board - Regular Meeting

Looks like it's 06:00. So

and welcome to the Apache Junction Parks and Recreation Commission meeting. Tonight is Wednesday, March 4 at 6PM. And I would love for you to join me with the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you so much. And may I have roll call, please?

One: Manny Vega. SPEAKER Here. Diel Kine is excused. DUMOULIN: Felicia Madrid? Here. Heather Moeller? Here. JULIEN Frank Schoenbeck?

Here.

JULIEN Lamont Clever?

Here. JULIEN DUMOULIN: Here.

JULIEN Thank you very much. The commission may, at this time, take single action on any or all items listed as consent agenda items. These include acceptance of agenda and acceptance of minutes. Any member of the commission may remove any item from the consent agenda for discussion and cause a separate vote on the matter later in the agenda. May I have a motion for the approval acceptance of the agenda and meeting minutes?

I Go move

ahead.

I move that the Parks and Recreation Commission accept the agenda as presented and approve the minutes from the 02/04/2026 regular meeting.

And may I

have a second?

Second.

May I have

a roll call,

please?

Frank Schemeck?

Yes.

Lamont Klipper?

Yes.

Manny Vega?

Yes.

D. L. Kine is excused. Judy Borey? Yes. Heather Moeller?

Yes.

And that motion passes.

All right. Thank you. Commissioners, if you have any information to report on, any activities you've taken part of for Parks and Recreation, now is your time to share with us.

I worked on the race crew at the marathon. That was a good time, too. Nice bunch of chill high school students were on the track and field team from Combs High School.

Oh, Combs.

And their coach came. And I think it was their leader of their cheer group, support group for their team. And they all were very nice young people, very respectful. And they did a good job.

I did know. I did find out that mustard is supposed to help with muscle cramping. I didn't know.

Sitting on the sidelines, I passed up all the mustard. That was complete.

And I worked on the parade at the chamber. And it was a great parade, as usual. It seems like we get more and more entries every time. So great job on all the floats, all the marching bands. So it was a lot of fun.

I was also at the race, volunteered on Saturday for the fun run, which was pretty awesome, pretty good crowd. Think we had about 100 participants, and our airbase seemed to enjoy their time. And then I did the eight ks on Sunday. So that was really fun, great course. The only thing I would say towards the end I think you guys have heard this before is it gets very soft, around mile three, mile four. So just some feedback.

SPEAKER

Oh, Okay.

That makes sense. I was like, I'm not a runner. All right. SPEAKER Yeah.

That makes sense.

And I know it's not an official AJPR event, but it was at our rodeo grounds. So me and the girls went and watched the rodeo on Friday. And it was really cool to see phase one in person, some some of the projects that got finished, especially the sidewalks. Seeing how the vendors were set up, it just looked really nice. And yeah, it was really nice to see everything.

And we had a lot of compliments, I think, too. I worked the food bank booth there. The Park and Rec's booth was great, right there at the front. And so also, I think everyone that was using those sidewalks couldn't believe how nice it was. And we could hear them complimenting all the time, and especially people who were disabled. Trying to get down those sidewalks was really easy for them. All

right. Well, thank you very much. All right. The presentation and update on projects and opportunities in the parks and other service areas, and Dave Butler will I was going to say represent will present.

All right. Good evening. Did I click the wrong one? Yep.

Now you broke it.

Now it's broken. Good evening, everyone. Surprisingly, have a very short list tonight. February, the Parks team is fully involved in many of our activities and events. So from Little League opening day to the marathon to the rodeo, our Parks team is just fully consumed with getting ready and prepping for events and activities. I do want to say that we have finally completed everything at the pool. All of the projects from the deck to the shades, everything is done. We are done. It's ready to go for pool season this year. The Little League renovation is completed.

Everything in there, we got done just in time to open up for Little League opening day. And phase one of the Rodeo Grounds is halfway done. The Ramada did push a little bit just due to some manufacturing issues. So we're looking April, May to put up the Ramada at the Rodeo Grounds now. We're also going to wait until that time frame to do the lighting that's coming.

Instead of bringing out lighting in March and then opening and closing. We're just going to do it all at once. So all of the lighting and the Ramada will be at the Rodeo Grounds starting in late April. I do have one upcoming project that I want to let everybody know about, and that is the shade at the dog park. I do have a photo.

I don't want to get out of this. There it is. I just wanted to show this. It's not the greatest layout, but that is the shade that will be starting this coming Monday, March 9 at the dog park. So there's four massive structures on the active dog area and then we have two smaller shade structures going into the passive section.

They start construction Monday morning and they should be out of there by Friday. And then the following week we will still be closed for our annual spring maintenance for the entire dog park. And then the park will reopen Monday the twenty third. Other than that, we have no other major projects going at this time thankfully. We are trying to catch our breath a little bit. So that is all I have this evening unless you have any questions for me.

Yeah, have some questions. The aquatics, the pool deck, is that the same deck as we've been using the last few years or is this different?

Same deck, different color layer. Okay. So every five years we three years. Every three years, we recoat and reseal. We just decided on some new color layers.

Yeah. That's really especially from above. Is there a temperature difference when, like, layering it over time? Because I know, I think, when we first put it in, it was pretty hot. And

It it's actually cooler than cool deck. The material that we have is real similar to playground surfacing, so it's I'm not gonna call it shock absorbing, but it's really similar to playground surfacing. But it is cooler than the cool deck we had in the past.

Okay.

Did you already say how long it would take to put up the shade area in the dog park?

About a week. They'll start Monday and they'll finish next Friday.

Thanks.

I just wanted to say also the handicap parking out at the rodeo grounds was great too for a lot of people. So it just looks really nice that front of that rodeo grounds area.

It did make parking cars this weekend a lot easier. Yeah. So

And I think is I don't know if there's a question for Riley or not, but do we have any new large events at the Rodeo Grounds this year?

So as of right now, we haven't opened up events Okay. For the following year because we were waiting on construction, budget, timeline, stuff like that. So we're gonna open up events, in March for the upcoming year and we will book them until lost Dutchman days of next year so we won't let anything book past lost Dutchman days of next year so that we can start if we're ready phase two of the rodeo grounds.

Okay so potentially you're saying for 2026 could have the Ramada is finished

right yes

then there could reservations will open

yes

okay but for sorry for 2027 or we could do it you they can book for 2026

so they can book so they'll book what do we say June so from June to February 2027 we'll take reservations

got it okay

March 1, we won't well, depending on tractor show. When tractor show falls. After the tractor show, we won't have any reservations until we know what our construction timeline looks like. Okay. Because we don't wanna book something and then say, oh, sorry. We're putting in a water line and you can't have water.

Yeah. Okay.

Thank you.

And I think also just as a reminder to everybody that that is gonna be the struggle with the Rodeo Grounds improvement. So the goal is to bring new events and things like that. But it's also event planners. They want to look for consistency. And they don't want to have momentum coming. And then they don't get to have it. They have an event one year, they don't have it the next year. So we're really working hard. We're very lucky to have a great contractor, Chase, who was agreeable to mobilize or have two completely different mobilizations. Help us to be able to stop mid construction so that we could be ready for a very small special event season.

And so we'll do our best. But our number one goal that our counsel has desired is that we don't infringe on lost Dutchman days in any year. And so that does make splitting up some of these projects into tinier pieces and other things a little bit challenging. So we're trying to work through some of that of attracting new people. But until they know for sure when they can rent, I think it will be a little slow going in these first couple of years.

Yeah, that makes sense.

I had a quick question. I was just thinking, obviously, it's a really good event for the city. And it's well run. The upgrades were amazing. Like, you could just see people were very happy. I'm sure the vendors were very happy as well. Has there been any talk about extending, like, instead of, like, three days to, like, four or five days? Or making, like, at least, like, the rides, that kind of stuff go longer?

So for Lost Dutchman Days? Yep. So Lost Dutchman Days is actually managed by SNPC and the Mounted Rangers. So it's not a city event. I have heard nothing about them extending. They've been three days for as long as I can remember. But I have heard nothing myself.

And I think also another thing, it's an all volunteer board and committees that put it together. So it's a lot of work for all volunteers. We certainly support them in a lot of ways. But there's a lot that goes into that. They do have Thursday Slack. So they do have some smaller events that go into other facilities. So they have their big broth fest. They have their golf tournament. They have a lot of other things in that week leading up. And so the events at the facility itself are limited to those days.

Additionally, when there's weather like this so sometimes we have great weather. Other times we've had snow. This year we had record heat. And so the carnival, you want them to come, but they have to make money. And those are the things they're looking for. So the more days that we last, the more chances of risk of some of those things are, I think, from their perspective. So those are just some of the reasons that might prevent them from doing it too much longer.

All right. Thank you very much. Presentation and discussion and update on upcoming events and activities from Jamie Sullivan.

Please stand by.

Is that boys? Okay, I was like, oh, who is that?

Sounds like my twin sister did that video. No.

You sound like Emma.

Yeah. So I just did want to share with that was put out on our social media, just a little recap of February. And I thought they did a really great job in that. Our Borough Run was super fun. It was our Prospector Play Day. That has kind of morphed back and forth between a few different events, but it did very well this year. They had picnic games. We had music out there. And then we had the Borough Run. And we're already starting to work on plans for next year.

That used to be our kite flying event as well. So that was a standalone event. And it's kind of bridged into that event as well. I want to share with you that our pickleball league is full. So if you didn't get in, you can't now because it's full. But if you would like pickleball lessons, we have a few spots left. But they are almost full as well. Our Cooking with Kids class are full this month. Our Fishing Fridays are full this month. Maybe a few spots in that.

Our Neighborhood Sports class for three to six year olds, which you guys are too old, can't be in that. But guess what? It's full. So you can't get into that program either. Anybody who was thinking about registering for lifeguard class at the last minute, guess what?

It's full.

It's full. You can't register for that either. So I would tell you to become a junior guard because there are spots left in our junior guard program. But you're all too old for that program. But if you know anybody between the ages of 12 and 14 years old, we still have spots left for that. That's a great program as a gateway to becoming a lifeguard, to see if they enjoy that kind of job. It's a great way to not sit at home all summer long and to make friends. And that class will start in April. But if you wait too long, it might just get full. So I do want to thank those of you who were able to come out and help with the Lost Dutchman Marathon.

Just like Lost Dutchman days, it is a volunteer committee that puts on that event. It is a very long weekend. But all you have to do is find anybody who's run that race and read their feedback, either on socials or their testimonials. Nothing makes me more proud. And I get a little

choked up

sometimes. I mean, these are people from all over the world that come and run this race, and then what they say about our community, about our volunteers. We haven't got the official numbers, but we really hope that we're close to a million dollars going back to our community from this race. So just remember that if you do hear people in the community who talk about it was hard

to get out of their neighborhood,

or they had to, shelter in place, or oh my gosh, somebody's out there running on the road getting fit. Remind them that all of that comes back to our local community. So this weekend, we have our superstition sleepover. It's out at Prospector Park. Super excited.

It's not full, but it's just because we have a kind heart and we take as many people as we possibly can. So if you have a dusty old tent that you want to get out and come out to Prospector Park, we still have spots left for that. And it is going to be a fabulous weekend for it. Could not ask for better weather. Couple of things in March beyond that is our swim lessons registration starts on March 16 for residents only.

So that's important to know because they do tend to fill up quickly. So if you know folks who want to get their kids into swim lessons this summer, takes a little bit of prior planning to get registered early. And then those lessons and then all of the rest of our summer programming will open for registration on April 1. If you're looking for something to do over spring break, which also St. Patrick's Day is coming down.

So we have Leapin Leprechauns that will be headed to Scilly Mountain. And they'll be out there the week of St. Patrick's Day. And on St. Patrick's Day that morning, our staff will be out there as Ireland ambassadors, passing out gold Oreos and green Gatorade. So you don't have to hike up to the top. You just come by and say hi. Elliot will be out there. So come get some green and some Oreo cookies. Dino Days is coming up this month.

It's the end of the month. That event is four to six Here's the secret on that event. If you know people who have kids who love dinosaurs, tell them to come at five and not at four Everybody comes at four And they do essentially two same shows. So they'll do a show at four And then they'll do another show around 05:00. It's the same show.

I mean, you can come for the whole two hours if they absolutely love dinosaurs. But that's just kind of a little trick to have a smaller crowd and a more personal feel with those dinosaurs. Itty Bitty Olympics is on March 21. We will also be at Blossom Rocks event on the twenty first in the morning. We'll be hosting a booth and doing some crafts and handing out information on our programs at that event.

And while Easter is technically very end of the month, we do have I know everybody looks forward to this. But you can take pictures with your dog with the Easter bunny on March 29. So make sure that's on your calendar. The last little bit that I want to give you is just more of a little bit of information. It's not about programs. We have a ton of those coming up. But I wanted to share a little bit of our role at some of those big events that maybe you're not aware of. So you see Liz out directing traffic in the parking lot. And Dave's working on the rodeo. And Riley's fixing everybody's problems.

The marathon, we're all over the place as well. But for those larger events, we work with the fire department. We work with public works. We work with our police department. And we do have not at every event, but those big events we do have an incident command center that is off-site. And we are watching those events through drones. We're watching them through other cameras on-site, traffic cameras. And we're all talking to each other. We're helping find lost kids when we have a drone. We're helping find extra parking spaces when we think we don't have any more left.

So it's kind of a cool and unique thing that we well, unique. A lot of bigger cities are doing it. But I just don't think that people are aware of the extent that somehow goes into some of those bigger events. And so I just thought that would be a little tidbit to share with you guys. So if at that time you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them.

I just appreciate the extra information. Nice to know the things that we don't necessarily see. Yeah.

All right.

Sounds like great events. I mean, you know, just a lot of

And always remember, if you're looking for something to do, contact me. Let me know. And I will partner you up with a program or a facility.

If I'm going to work the Junior Olympics, AWB Olympics, the long jump for two and three year olds, I need a package of firecrackers. Firecrackers.

I don't think that's in my budget, Frank. I literally don't think I can buy firecrackers.

Doesn't hurt to ask.

Doesn't hurt to ask.

Thank you very much, Jamie. Next, we have some old business, a presentation and discussion on the parks and recreation fee study by Ms. Riley.

I'm stealing your mic. All right. Good evening. I know Jamie presented to you last meeting kind of on the process of our fee study. So this is one of my projects that I get to work on, so you will be seeing me present. She just got to do it for me last time. So this is your guys' first opportunity to see all of this data. And I don't expect you to be able to read it all right now and have questions for me. So I will be back for you guys to ask questions. So you will have time to look through this and digest it before you have to have all of your questions answered.

And then Liz did send you guys out you, right? Yeah. Liz sent you guys out the current fee study that had the red line so you could see what we implemented last time we did this fee study in 2021. And so the background is that we do this every five years to make sure that it is within our market and our look at the community needs and then if any other changes to our laws and stuff like that. And then it includes our programs, memberships, reservation, and equipment fees.

Jamie had said that you guys had asked to see our income per capita to our market cities. So ours is 35,000, and then we did list all of the other ones in there for you guys to look over and kind of see where we fall within our market cities. We did just learn about a house bill. It's house bill 4,030, and it could affect our fee study. If this does go into effect, no city can implement a new tax, a new fee, expand fees, change fees.

Sorry, we can do a new fee. We cannot change any of our fees, and we can't create new fees that are very similar to our other ones. So we can't say, well, we're changing it from a month to two months. We're changing the fee that way. So it can only be we have a new amenity, we're adding a new fee. But we cannot change fees until 06/30/2030. So if that goes into effect, the only thing that we'll be able to do is implement new fees, and it'll keep so if it does go into effect and we do change fees, our fees will just go back to what they were before this bill was passed.

And then we just really wanted to make sure that you guys are just aware that we are aware of this as we go through this. But we feel it's really important. We are required by state law to review our fees every five years. And so we are going to do what our requirement is. We will make suggestions and changes. But we'll be following this bill. We'll make sure that we make decisions based on that. But regardless, we have new amenities, as Riley said. So for us, the law dictates that we would not be able to increase any of our fees if it were to pass. And there's a lot of things that would have to happen for it to pass.

We don't know all the details of that. We just want you to be aware that we're tracking it in case you do hear something about it. And there are new fees, as Riley said, amenities at the rodeo grounds that we've never had before that we would have the ability to create. So this whole study is going to do all of those things. We'll make sure we keep you apprised as we go when we know what we know.

So if we were to increase our fees, those potential increases would be caused by personnel increases. So how much our personnel costs are. We have seen an increase in credit card and transaction fees to the city. This is not just us, it's all cities. It's something we have to do.

And then rising costs of materials, supplies, utilities, so everything is going up in price for us. So we would look at that to see if we need to increase our fees to keep up with those. So this is our you'll see grids with our benchmark data in it. So what you're going to see is you'll see what we have. You'll see what our price is, and then you'll see the benchmark average.

So this is just the average of all those cities put together. And we did our very best to compare. It is very hard sometimes to compare because as cities are the same, they're also very different. So some centers offer 10 different memberships. Some centers offer one different membership. So we do our very best to try to look at that and get you these average numbers. So the top one is our multi gen center passes. That's what that top grid is. So you'll see our youth, adult, and family membership prices, and then the average next to it. The bottom grid is our aquatics fees.

So our swim lessons, swim team, and then how to get into the pool, pool entries. I did want to note that when you are looking at these, five of our cities are recreation centers and pools together. So your membership is getting you access to both of those. It's not just a rec center or a pool. So that does kind of skew the benchmark average when you're looking at it.

That's why it is a little bit higher because five of those cities have that combined. This is our Recreation and Aquatic Center facility rentals. So again, you'll see what we have, the average and the current price for both the MGC and the Aquatic Center. All of our facility rentals are done per hour, so you'll see those rates per hour. And then our program fees.

So when you look in our code, you will see that our program fees are a range because we have so many different fees that are offered. So our youth break camps, that's a per week price for the benchmark average and the current price. So that's what somebody is paying for basically an all day, one week program. Our sports leagues range sports weeks run anywhere between four to eight weeks, so that's why we have that kind of different range. And then our youth sports instruction so those can be free clinics, pickleball lessons, camps that we do during spring break.

So that's what falls in those instructions. And then our adult sports leagues are the same. So our leagues run six to eight weeks depending on. And then we do have that you'll see our range is so low because golf so our golf league, they pay $5 to us, but then they pay the golf course the greens fee. So we don't take that greens fee, the golf course takes it.

So that's why you see that we have a very low point on ours where everybody else is higher. It's to do our golf league. And then adult sports instructions, the same as our youth sports, so pickleball league or pickleball instructions, free clinic, stuff like that. And then youth special interest is all of our cooking, art, dance, all of those youth classes that don't really fall into sports.

And so just as you're looking at that, so whenever you were given the fee rates that Jamie had shared last time, we do ranges for these because there's just no way to compare every single class. We do it based on what does it cost for us to run it, maybe what does the instructor want is going to get paid that we're contracting. So there's a wide variety. So we really just have to have a what's the minimum it could be? So we have a lot of free classes.

So zero has to be in that price range in our code. And then what is the max that we are willing to even offer out there? If an instructor comes to us and says they have a $250 art, it might be the most amazing class and well worth $250 But we would be working with them to say, sorry, that's outside of our code. We have to look at doing it a little different way.

Do you want me to hold questions till the end?

You can ask them now.

Okay. So other than golf, what is our lowest adult sports leagues cost? Do you know what the next is? Because golf is obviously an outlier. Then the

five Well, you guys can put that down as a list. Yeah.

I can bring

that back.

Yeah. JULIE And then the $500 is that like a team?

JULIE Yes. So our softball leagues, you pay as a team. So you're paying for the whole team to play, not just you as an individual playing. I think that's the same way with adult basketball. It is the team that's registered, not just one person.

So it's not an individual's price. Yeah. Okay. Correct.

Yeah. And softball's in the $400 ish range for a team.

Okay.

Next up is our park rental fees. So these are what you can reserve out at the park. So baseball fields, softball fields, multipurpose fields, our field prep, so when our guys are lining those fields. Staff fees, so if we have to have a staff on-site. And then, of course, our ramadas and our open spaces.

The one that I wanted to point out here for open space, each city does open space differently. Some are massive, and so the price is $300 for an open space. Some are small, and so there's no great comparison in any other city for me to be able to tell you, here's the average for an open space. So that's why you'll see that NA right there. We have looked at other cities. It's just there's no way for us to compare those.

And Riley, can you just explain a little bit about what open space would look like in our facilities? What does that represent?

Yep. So if you are at, say, Prospector Park, and you're at one of our large ramadas, you'll see the open space grass next to that ramada. If you want to have a bounce house, we ask that you reserve that open space next to it so that you can put your bounce house there. A lot of people will do it if they're doing a family reunion and they want to have yard games there and they want to make sure that that space is their space. That's the open space that you're kind of looking at.

Flatiron Park, so the green, the big green open grass field, that's considered an open space area. The rodeo grounds now, before we do updates, we split it into open space areas. So it's just really it's open space that you can play games at a bounce house, stuff like that, too. So that's what we consider an open space area in our parks.

Rylea, there numbers available for how much of these rentals we actually do?

I can get you those numbers.

That would be appreciated.

We can do an update from the one we had shared some a while back ago, but this one could be a little bit I think it was more it was by park, right, Riley, that you had given me that I shared? So by facility space is what you're talking about, Frank, right? Like the amenity itself.

Yeah, exactly. Which ones are we riding a lot? Which ones don't we do much of? That sort of thing.

Yeah, I can definitely get that information for you guys.

Thank you.

Also, park reservations, that is considered an open space. That area we consider the observable area sorry, the open space price.

I had a follow-up question on what Frank said. Something I was curious about is, what's the biggest programs that are the biggest revenue generating?

For rental wise?

Rental wise or memberships? So,

we can definitely look at that. The multi gen center memberships bring in quite a bit of our revenue. Facility rentals also bring in a good part of our revenue. So, we have Little League and Black and Gold. Their seasons, even though they're discounted because of how our fees are, they bring in a good amount of revenue.

But we also have a lot of other school soccer teams, baseball teams, stuff like that, that are not within our city that have actually been using our sports fields that have been bringing in good revenue. And then, believe it or not, our Ramadas are always booked. We have during good weather, they are always booked. But we can definitely bring back kind of the breakdown of each area and what that revenue stream looks like.

Awesome. I got a couple more questions. Yeah.

No, you can go so you don't forget them.

I know. Yeah. I got a room down, so we're good. I was just curious to you, obviously, like, there's been a lot of inflation in the last, like, few years, five years since the last time this study was done. So shout out to the team and to the city, obviously, for keeping things affordable. A lot of things out there are not affordable. And I think just looking at these rates compared to other cities really speaks to us caring about people being able to afford it financially, which is great. And then I was curious that last time there was fee adjustments, was there any feedback from residents? Was there any pushback? Did you have any impact?

We did not have very much feedback or pushback from our residents. Our fees are still very low compared to other cities. So for I do all of our facility rentals. And so every time I'm renting something, it's, wow, you guys are so affordable. Like, we're in Mesa trying to rent the same field, and it's outrageously priced. Like, you guys are so affordable. Last time, we also put into effect our residentnon resident rate, and we did not have pushback on that from for our facility rentals. We did not have pushback on that for doing that either. And we brought in a for profit rate also. And our businesses are fine, have not pushed back on that rate.

I think the businesses were actually very happy because before they didn't have us as an option. So that was a very positive thing that at the time there wasn't a lot of rooms that you could rent for a public meeting or to have your business meetings. And so opening that up and it was one more service that we could provide to our business community.

Yeah, awesome.

Yeah, and I think as we've grown, like positions have grown and been created, you've seen we have more events, more outsider people utilizing things. And we've expanded in that way. So that's been nice, too.

Well, what's wonderful that I find is, in addition to the fees we have to charge, is we have a lot of big events that are free. And that, to me, is really wonderful because that takes away any bar. Everybody's welcome. Money's not going to keep you away. So the fees have to be there, but it's really wonderful. We do have our big free events also.

The movies in the park and the music in the park those are really, you know, I would say, well attended, too, because it's a no fee.

Yeah, I've heard of people coming from Phoenix and Tucson for events. Not necessarily ours, but I know we probably helped with permitting or something with it. And they're coming out for Easter over to Phoenix and the big cow and coffee thing. There was people here from Tucson.

I do have a question about the Little League field. Are we partnered with a school, or is that city?

-Did you answer that? I was

like, one of you

-So it is shared use facility. So it is school property, but we built all the amenities there. We as part of our intergovernmental agreement with the school, we're able to operate and maintain it fully. We do all the maintenance costs of it. Then we are able to rent it

out. Thanks.

Okay. And then our last one is the rodeo event center. So you'll see at the bottom of our slide the comparator cities that I use for this one. So our market cities, not a lot of them have rodeo and event centers like we do. So I went and tried to find other cities that have rodeo event centers so we can really look at what it is.

The hard part is not one single rodeo and event center does anything the same way. So you'll have one that has 35 different fees and you'll have one that has four different fees. They're all very different. We tried to look at kind of our rodeo arena with lights. We were able to find a couple that had that.

Only one other city had a PA system that they rented out. So when you're looking at this, we did our best at looking at other cities. And then on the other side is kind of the new amenities that we're considering that we might want to have a fee for. So dry camping fees. People ask all the time if they can park there and camp overnight. So maybe looking at that. We now have RV spaces with hookups. So do we want to have a fee that we can be able to, on Lost Dutchman Marathon, offer people to be able to camp at the rodeo grounds, hook up their RV? We now yes?

Is that just electrical or does it have sewer and water?

It is electrical and water. It does not have sewer.

Thank you. Mhmm.

We bought portable stalls for horses. So can you rent out a stall to put your horse in for the weekend? And then you camp there because you're driving through town. We put in electrical for all the vendors. So do we want to have a fee for them to use that electrical? And then we are calling our big structure a pavilion. That is what we've looked at other cities for, about the size of what we have. You'll see the range there. And so we don't want to call it a Ramada because it is massive. So it is not a size of a Ramada.

So we've decided that we're going to call that a pavilion. And then what do we want to charge for that space? Because it is bigger than our other Ramadas. And so we did look at other people who have a size pavilion of that size. It's not in their rodeo and event center. It is in their parks. So a lot of places have a big pavilion in their parks that you can rent. So that's where you'll see that benchmark average coming from. So it's not an event center, but it's similar in a park.

That pavilion will hold about how many people?

It's about 50 feet by 100 feet long. I'd have to do math on that. So I'd say 200 to $300 ish.

And then with some of these things are, say, the dry camp fee, right? Someone's like, oh, they offer that here. I'd like to go through there and stay. Are there other behind the scenes, like we talked about earlier, support that they're receiving from AJPR in order to utilize these They're, like, directly for each rental.

Our hope is, like, the dry camp fee, the RV spaces, as we're looking at access in and out, that it is if you're just coming camping for the night and leaving, that it is very hands off for us. So is there a gate code that we can give them that they can let themselves in, and they can camp, they can clean up, and they can head out for those? Obviously, big events, there'll be support from the staff on-site, getting it ready, cleaning after.

And then just remember, that's where some of those other fees on the fee breakdown that Jamie handed out last time. So there's a personnel fee in there. There's water truck fees. So if somebody was not a partner event, they'd be paying for a water truck and that driver. So there's a ton of other amenity or one off types of fees that are in the code. And when we're done going through this slide deck and wrapping up the next steps, we'll bring that back up again, because we'll want to talk a little bit about, are there some of those other items there that are not just the fees, but the policies that are part of this code? If you had any questions on that, Jamie sent it out last time. So we'll have time to look at that when

Are you talking deposits

for So the possible damage?

Structure for like our nonprofits versus resident versus nonresident versus commercial, that's all part of the same code that we're reviewing and that Jamie

JAMIE had shared with you guys on the screen last time. It's also part of your red line that we shared out again this week. So we'll have time to go through that as well. Again, we're not going to go through it, but if you had questions specific to it, we'll make sure we have it up on the screen so you can ask.

And then so our next steps. So today, I just came to share the data so you guys could get a quick look at it. In April, I will come back and get your feedback, answer any more questions. So if there's things that you want us to look at, things you have questions on as you're looking into this, I will come back in April to get that feedback from you guys. And then in summer, with when we will come with our suggested changes and get approval.

It'll then go to council for the same thing, approval. And then kind of as we move through, that'll set the dates for some of these things. So once we get approval from you and counsel, then it'll go to public hearing and adoption. And then our hope is January 2027 is when these changes or new fees would take place.

Okay. Question on the HB bill. When is that supposed to go to vote?

It would go in November.

Oh, Okay. So then we would have to retract some things if it did go through.

So if it does go through, the nice thing is January 1 is when we would start

the new fees

or the changes. And so we would just be able to do our new fees. We wouldn't be able to do any of the changes.

We just wanted to go with them. Yeah.

Got it. I see.

We will also make sure that you get a copy of the we'll send out a copy of this tomorrow morning, just so that way you'll have the thing. And I apologize. I'm usually much better about making sure you guys have something in front of you whenever we present it so you can have it to take. We definitely want you to be able to look at that over the next month and generate any other questions that you might have.

We hear you've been busy.

Riley, I'm just going to If you

have questions it. If you have questions, too, you can send them. You don't have to wait a whole month. Like, we can start compiling those now, too. But if you are like me and you do your homework the night before, bring them in April.

It's a

good time.

So this is the our code that Jamie showed you and that is what we go by. So this is all of our prices just kind of listed. We do have special services and equipment. They I we didn't do a slide on. I did look at other cities. And other cities don't offer equipment rentals like we do. So there's no comparator data. But this is our special equipment and services. So this is where you'll see the tractor loader. Our water truck driver is in here somewhere.

You're right at it.

Oh, yeah, I'm right on it. So our water truck driver. Our marquee, so electronic messaging board fee is in here. So that's what those fees are.

Okay. And that's what's paid on the Trail in Phelps there? Okay. And then it looks like a lot of these are for bigger events, obviously, maybe not. Smaller events probably use chairs and tables.

Is the electronic messaging board, is that for residents only? Or is that also including non residents?

No. The marquee is for nonprofits only. So only nonprofit entities can put and then city and the school, so stuff like that. We don't allow private residents or non residents to put messages up there. Or we would be nobody would see anything because it would be packed.

And then it does have, like Liz said, our policies that we go by. So our refunds, our discounts, and then our fee categories, which is the full, non resident, commercial, and then you serving agency.

So groups like Little League, or Black and Gold Football, 4H, any of those. We have a really set criteria that was decided on many years ago by counsel and our commission that we wanted to have a rate to partner with them to make it easier for them. And they have to meet these criteria though. So just any old nonprofit can't get this rate. They have to have to receive the rate that is for the youth serving nonprofits, they have to have an all volunteers, no staff.

They have to be a five zero one(three). They have to have a percentage of their members as AJ residents. So it has to be open to the public without cuts. So like, there's certain things that can't happen in order for them to get those fees. A couple of other just I wanted to mention really quickly about our no fee category.

So our intergovernmental agreements with the school district, or there might be other groups. We just had to go at one time to counsel and to commission to decide what are those fee categories. And then those are set up with what the percentage, based on our code, what percentage of that is what we would charge for those types of fees. Riley, can you scroll down to priority reservations and registrations? So the other part so while we do have resident and non resident fees for facilities, We don't do that for any of our programs as of now.

We do have a priority reservation and a priority registration time frame for residents for our most popular things, such as aquatic season coming up. As I mentioned, that will be opened up well in advance of the brochure coming out. For everybody else, residents will get to register early. And so those are the ways that we do that to kind of manage. We have a lot of areas in our city that are county islands that are not technically residents. We have a lot of surrounding areas that don't have parks and rec or other services. And so it's just very difficult to do resident and non resident. But we try to find some ways to sort of get into that a little bit. See how that goes. See how we can manage some of those different things.

And then, so that's the end of our code. So that's again another area that I would just recommend that if you have questions on, or if you feel that there's something you're not sure why we do it that way, or you think it should be changed. We're not at this time. There's really nothing in there that is too different than what anybody's been doing. But we're certainly open to if you have questions or concerns, we can certainly look at that.

And then the last point I wanted to make is our scholarship program. So again, that's not really part of this. But the fee system is so that the idea is that our public taxpayer dollars pays for a good portion of passive use of a lot of our things. So special events and parks where they can just go and sit at a picnic table or play ball with your kids and things like that. That is what is paid for through those regular general fund dollars.

We charge fees for things that are more exclusive use. So if somebody wants to guarantee that they get to have that ramada, they don't just have to show up, or they are monopolizing an area of the park that now the rest of the public can't use, then they should have to pay a fee to do that. To relieve some of the pressure and the stress on the rest of the citizens in the community. Same as programs. So again, same idea.

Special events, things are just open to we want to have lots of opportunities for everybody to enjoy without paying any fees. But there are things that require more money. They require instructors, more exclusive use of an amenity or a service, those are where our fees are located. We offer a very robust scholarship program, thanks in large part to Lost Dutch and Marathon, but also other donors as well over the years. Any child so we have a really good scholarship program where families can apply for that.

They just have to have the financial need. It's all part of our scholarship system. And we're happy to share that at some point in time if you want more information. And we use the school district boundaries only so that we can use the region. It has nothing to do with the school district itself. We just want to make sure that people that live in this region that are most likely our customers and our youth so they have to be 17 or younger. And then they have to live in that boundary area. And they have to show the proof of need. And there's lots of ways that they can do that. Then we have a very different system of scholarship, depending on what it is.

So everything from the multi gen center day pass, an aquatic pool pass, daily entries, our programs those can all be scholarships in some way, shape, or form. They're all very different. So that's another way that as we look at fees and we start to worry that these are too high, or we start out pricing folks, there are other options for people who can't afford it. It's really important to have your fees set for what you need your fees to be. And then we have worked really hard with partners to make sure that we can offer other opportunities for youth, to make sure that they don't get they're not what is the right word? They're all included. I was going say discluded, and that's not a real word.

Don't think.

And the county islands, those are counted in the scholarships, too.

JULIE Yeah. So basically, we just have the outside boundary of the whole school district, which is well beyond our city limits. And yeah, they would be included in that.

Yeah, that was a question. So for our fees, we are following the actual map, the actual resident map, where we have the weird little county islands

Or and

for sorry.

So our non resident resident fees are the Apache Junction boundaries?

Yes. Yes. The ones

that So are if you live on a county island, you pay non resident. If you live in Gold Canyon, you're paying non resident.

Yeah.

So for the facility fees. Right.

Yeah. But because that may price some people out, the school district boundaries are available for scholarships.

So I don't want to confuse us. So facility rental fees are the only ones that we have resident and non resident fees. We do not offer scholarships, obviously, for somebody to rent a facility. We do not have resident and non resident fees at this time for programs or for entry into the multi gen center or the aquatic center.

Okay, perfect.

So there's no difference anyways. And everybody that lives in the school district boundary is eligible if they qualify for the scholarship program.

Okay. That helps. Thanks.

Any other questions on fees for me?

I just wanted to know on the rodeo ground, because it seems there's going to be kind of a little it's going to be pieced together how it can be rented. Do we have very basic map or an idea of this section is an open area? And this, obviously, not just for us to see and you guys to know, but for potential customers to see.

So we have that right now. We have it split into four different open areas. The arena is its own because it has lights and stuff like that. So it has its own price. So the area behind the bleachers is one. The area in front of the concession stand is one. So one, two. And then the two different parking lots. So the one big parking lot and then the other overflow parking lot is what we call it. So technically, there's five areas if you count the arena. But that's kind of how it's split as of right now into those areas.

Okay. And then one more was just to get an idea, because Lost Dutchman Days is the biggest event held at the rodeo grounds. Like how many days of prep? Therefore, we'd know how much someone might be. And although maybe we don't charge them because it's a partnership, I just wonder if another event came in that was just as big and needed just as much prep before and after, because I'm sure we do some after support, too, how many days would that look like? Therefore, how much would a large event cost for someone?

So something like Lost Dutchman days is it takes us anywhere from two weeks to a month to prep for that event, because we're doing so many things that aren't just in the arena. As we make improvements to the facility and we're improving things like the footing in the arena, we're adding all these other things, that time will come down. And that's also remembering that our Rodeo and Trails team is two people right now. So we are pulling from all three of our parks teams to get ready for lost touchment days. As we improve the facility and as we add new amenities, that team will most likely need to grow so that time will come down.

Yeah. Something I see being popular in this area and that I've heard residents talk about is festivals and concerts, like big, multi day music attractions or kind of a mix of both. So I'm just wondering what that all in one package might look like for someone and then comparatively to somewhere like another place they held

A good another event. That was already out the rodeo grounds. And they have a Friday, Saturday, Sunday is the Bluegrass Festival. So they come in the Sunday before. And they do Sunday to Thursday. They're there setting up, getting ready. They do have people that come and camp in the parking lot for the week while they're setting up. But really their setup is Sunday to Thursday. And then Friday, Saturday, Sunday is their three day festival. If that helps.

As far as our staff though, for the Bluegrass Festival, can you give an example of like how long it takes them to get things ready for that? Because it's not the arena.

Yeah. So the Bluegrass Festival, probably spent, I'm going say two days to get ready for that

event.

Just

this weekend, it's boots and barbecue at Flatiron. That might take us three days with a crew. Blues and Brews takes about three days to set up for. It's hard to just say there's one size fits all, because everything needs something a little bit different.

Yeah.

But if those events are any indications, a couple days.

Is that something you guys could do, is get some ballpark figures of just like what we're looking at for like the barbecue one, the bluegrass one, just to have an idea moving forward.

Do you want like our staff time? Or do you want like their setup to Like entirely. Entire an event.

Whatever they're paying to the department for that event.

So just keep in mind, they're not necessarily paying us for all the so we are trying to make sure, just like we would have any amenity, that it's ready for events. And so there's a lot of things that our guys are doing that would normally have to happen just to have the public at it.

Yeah.

So we don't necessarily charge for two or three days of Bluegrass Festival preparation. Is that wrong?

No. So we would charge so say Boots and Barbecue that's coming up on Saturday, we're really charging for I'm trying to think.

The use of the area.

Like our guys A

day of.

Yeah. Our guys are setting up barricades. They're paying for those barricades for our guys to set up. They are

The setup fee plus the barricades, right?

So however long it takes our guys to set up those barricades, it's normally an hour, two hours, and then for those barricades. The stage, the fee for us to set it up is included in the stage. So they're not paying an extra fee. Last time when we did the fee study, we made that stage fee a little bit simpler because it was kind of confusing. And so and then we included what it costs for staff to open it, close it, set it up.

And does that include porta potties and the So they're paying for or the dumpsters. They're paying for porta potties themselves. They're paying for dumpsters themselves. They're paying security themselves. So really, what we're charging them is what it's taking our guys to set up the facility. So we don't charge them to clean the bathrooms before they come in.

Okay.

Our park bathrooms, we want them clean no matter what.

Maintenance.

So we're not going to charge them for that. We're charging them for what we're doing extra for their event, not what we already do in that park.

JULIE: And that's what I think would be good to know is just I mean, it sounds like we're, in some ways, creating our own benchmarks because it's very it's special. It's different than just what other cities have.

And I think, too, keep in mind, what you're asking for would go through the event process. And those amounts would be determined in that event process. Because a lot of people don't understand the true cost. And so they would come and they would be like, Riley, I would like to rent the rodeo grounds for a two day rodeo. We would go through and say, well, if you need the whole area, currently they have to reserve each of those areas individually to be able to have that whole area.

If they need their rodeo prepped, the arena prepped throughout the day, we would figure how many hours our staff would be out there. So it's really kind of hard without knowing an event parameter to give you the price of what the cost an event would be. If I were to be like, I want to go out and get married at the rodeo grounds, what would that cost? Well, are you Okay with four H doing barrel practicing behind you? Because if you're not, you have to rent out all those areas.

But maybe you're doing a two hour 4H training and you want to just use that pavilion and you don't care what else is happening. So again, an event process would come in and be like, well, if you want the rodeo grounds to look like this, this is what it's going to cost you. For dust control, we have to have the water. So you could go very minimal. You could go very high, depending on what the needs are specific to what type of event you're asking to be put on. So I think you have a pretty broad question. We could give you a couple scenarios to narrow it down for you. Like, this is what it costs for a one day, six hour rodeo. This is what it would cost for a

And I think that's what you're saying is if we could give you a few examples of ones we've already done of what that would cost, we can definitely do that.

Yeah. And we know LDD doesn't cost what another event might have to because of.

Well, it would still be fine to share with you that if some event was like that so again, that's a partnered event that the city has committed to not having fees for. We are the partner in the event. But we could certainly share with you what those costs would look like if they weren't a partner in the event. And why they do what they do for our community. So yeah. We can definitely do that. Any other questions that you have now? Remember we will send this out to you tomorrow morning just so you'll have it. And we'll be coming back in April to talk about any other questions you might have. You know, take a look at the old fees.

Take a look at the red line version. We'll have some ideas of some things we want to have changing. And that we will have some thoughts. But it won't be until after that date that we'll have a true recommended code changes and all that kind of thing.

Perfect. All right. Thank you very much. All you. All right. On to new business. Next we have a discussion review of memorial dedication process from Liz Lingenbach.

We had discussed all of our memorial opportunities and some of the different dedications that we will be doing in the coming future. And I think what was asked is just that we bring back to you what our handout would end up looking like, our graphic. And so this is a Christy gave you a copy of this as well today. But right now this is really what the RAC card or the graphical flyer would look like. It's kind of like a third of a page that we'd have available to hand out to people.

And to be able to put out in a campaign for our memorials. We really have, as we discussed last time, three opportunities. Memorial trees. Somebody could donate a bench. Both of these situations would go through Christie. She would talk with the park supervisors and Dave's team to see where is appropriate. A lot of times people have their own idea of where they want it. That may or may not be possible. And then depending on the type of tree, where it's at, the cost of that could be different. So we would end up telling them what that would look like.

It is a so they are donating to us. So this is not part of our fee structure. It is not a fee. It is a donation that goes through the Friends of Apache Junction. And it's very specific to what it is that they're wanting to memorialize somebody with. Benches, we'd love to put a price there. It's changed so dramatically over the years. We really get the quote. We share that with them, what it costs. And what it's going to cost for us to do their plaque and their bench and install it and all of that.

The third one, as we talked about before, was the BRICS at the focal point. That one is done technically through the Community Development Corporation here in Apache Junction. And so we really just want people to have a one point of contact. And so our main AJPR email is if somebody wanted information they'd reach out and they would get that information to Christy. Christy would be talking with that individual directly. She would share with them how they're going to go about that. Get all their questions answered. So right now this is the proposed document. And it is just in draft. We would love any feedback you might have or thoughts.

We will be putting this out there, you know, as soon as we are ready to go with it. So open to any of your questions.

It looks good. I mean,

Christy did this one.

And did we have a document before like this?

Not really. No. CDC has something for the BRICS on their website. I think there is a small section in the Friends of AJ website. But nothing that we had as a department. Really just people reach out all the time. And we just give them we have a process in place. But nothing that we could hand out. And we really want to make it more of a campaign so people are aware they could do it.

Yeah, I think it's nice just that we have something now to inform. And then it gives them that first step to be able to reach out.

What did CDC stand for again?

Community Development Corporation. And it's the Apache Junction Community Development Corporation. And they are a nonprofit of their own, With a completely separate board, completely separate group of folks. They just partner with us on the focal point. Frank?

It looks good. The only thing I see is maybe a double space between bricks and creating.

At the top.

Yeah, on this line? Oh, up here. Thank you.

I just noticed that.

Okay. Good catch.

I think it looks good. Why wait? Let's get it out.

Yeah. I know we talked about it last time. But I'm assuming when they reach out, if they are interested in planting a tree or a bench, we have some lists already that we're going to provide of what tree that would be, what kind of bench. I know we talked about that last time. But that's all right.

Can you

share a little bit about that process? Yes.

So we did actually just get a list of trees. And it's like a red pushpastatus.

You don't

have to remember all of them. But yes, there's

a Like a Chinese elm. They're all drought tolerant trees, hardy, and they're going to be hooked up to the drip system, but they don't need a lot of water. And so we do have a list and it's up to the location as well. So some trees are not going to be planted at Prospector, others at Super Shadows would be different. So it just depends on the park supervisor. And that's who I work with to get their recommendation and feedback on what type of tree I could recommend and let the donor choose from.

And so it's really different. So we really don't like send it out. But when they are working with us, Christy will generally send them a list of things that are viable.

Yeah, I didn't think you could put all the information on the things.

I mean, it's certainly something for us to think about for the future as we go, just so that they have an idea. But yeah. So, yeah.

And just to touch on that, while we do have a list of trees, if we send it out and someone said, oh, I want to choose a red push pistach in this location, it might not work in that location at that park. So we would work with them to say, this would be a better off of this list, these options would be better for this So it's kind of hard to just narrow it down to a standardized list.

Yeah. Also, with our high heat summers, I don't know if that affects, like, planting times as well.

Most of the drought tolerant stuff with supplemental drip, can put in typically any time of year. But we do try to, you know, do it in spring and fall, just to give it the best chance of success.

Yeah, for sure.

Very nice.

Anything else? All right, well, thank you all.

Thank you. Thank you. Do we have call to public? Is anyone wanting to speak tonight?

Is anybody here for call to the public? Nobody's here for call to the public?

All right.

All right.

It just saves Heather on a

few words.

Yeah, I like, I don't have to read this.

Just have to confirm.

A couple paragraphs

of reading. All right. For future agenda items, any commissioners, if you have anything to suggest or recommend being added to the next agenda. There's no discussion on the topic. Suggestions are taking place at this time. Anyone want additional information?

Let's go ahead and do the information on the scholarship program, if you wouldn't mind. Please, please and thank you.

And then can you guys also I guess it could kind of roll into the fee study just so we know what but the any features or what's included with the pavilion?

Okay.

And then we did know all the things that you'd asked for that are related to the fee study. Make sure that we bring back a little bit of that too in the next discussion.

Thank you.

Okay. So the selection of meeting times, dates, location, and purpose. I'll need a motion, please.

Madam Chair, I move that the Parks and Recreation Commission hold a regular meeting on 04/01/2026 at six p. M. In the City Council Chambers located at 300 East Superstition Boulevard.

May I have a second?

I'll second that.

May I have roll call please?

Felicia Madrid?

Yes.

Lamont Clepper?

Yes.

Manny Vega?

Yes.

D'Alkain is excused. Judy Borey?

Yes.

Felicia Madrid?

Yes. I think you did. Oh, sorry. Had to in here twice. Yes. Mean, guess again. Guess again.

I apologize.

No worries. We'll see.

Frank Schoenbeck.

Yes.

And Heather Moeller. Yes. And that motion passes.

Thank you. All right. Then it looks like we're going to have an adjournment now at 07:15. Thank you.