Parks and Recreation Committee - Regular Meeting

All right, we'll call to order the meeting of the Parks and Recreation Committee for Monday, July 20th. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. All right, roll call of membership. Let the record show all members are present except for Alder Stancil-Martin, who is excused. I will entertain an approval of our minutes from our previous meeting. So moved.

Second.

We have a motion and a second to approve. Any discussion? Hearing none, we'll vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes 4-0. We have no public hearings or appearances this evening. We'll start with our action items. 26-0974. Approve the installation of a peace pole with an Ellen Court Peace Park as recommended by the Appleton Public Arts Committee. Do we have a motion?

Move to approve.

We have a motion to approve.

Second.

And a second. Any discussion on this item? Any questions? All right. Hearing none, we'll vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed?

Abstain.

Oh, I'm sorry. Any abstentions?

Yes.

Yes, one abstention. All right. That motion passes three to zero with one abstention. We'll mark Alder Schultz as abstaining. The next action item is 26-0976 to approve installation of kinetic wind sculptures in Ellen Court Peace Park as recommended by the Appleton Boulevard's committee.

Move to approve. Second.

We have a motion to approve and a second. I'm actually going to go to Director Flick on this because I would like to hear a little bit about it. You said that you had District 2?

Yes, there you go. Thank you chair. Um, if you're familiar with these, they were an icon in downtown Appleton on college Avenue for a very long time. And, uh, we all know that they were removed for, for advancement of college Avenue, uh, developments within buildings. And before you tonight is an opportunity to have them reinstalled. Um, artwork like this, uh, is something that we support and would like to see along our river trail system. It's artwork that was a part of the community and reinstalling it kind of like we did with the metamorphosis along the law street trail. So our department supports the installation of this, of this artwork and it's 100% being donated to the city to reinstall the foundation work, make sure that they're operational when they're turned over to the, to the parks department. there's just one item that I'd like to just bring up and have in the minutes is that just want to make it aware that there may be the potential that they would have to be moved within the park. If there's future development that would cause, you know, that to happen, IE being a future bridge and trail, um, connecting from Pullman's restaurant to Ellen court, peace park. That still is, uh, an endeavor that we'd like to see happen within the parks department. And, and if that does happen, um, we don't know the exact landing spot at this time without engineering and design. So just wanted to make it aware to everybody that they could possibly be moved within the park.

If another project were to cause that to happen, what type of anchoring and things are we talking that if we had to move them, um, that we would have to look for funds elsewhere or how hard will it be to move them if, if we must?

Not very hard. The most expensive part is the engineering, which was donated. So they're roughly about 24-inch diameter sonotubes, about four feet in the ground, with I think it's maybe a two-by-four base. Not very expensive to hire out five sonotubes to be bored, pour the concrete. Our guys can actually do the concrete and the flat work if needed. Now that the engineering is done, that's the big part. So very minimal cost to relocate them.

Great. I hope we really locate them at some point, actually. Any comments, discussion, questions?

I'll just add that I'm just excited that we're able to repurpose these. And having walked by Elancourt Peace Park, I think that it's going to be a great addition.

Is there anybody in the public who wants to make a statement on this item? Step up to the microphone. Go ahead.

I'm Jennifer Stefani. I'm the executive director of Appleton Downtown Incorporated. I'm also the current chair for Sculpture Valley. And this is really a cooperative effort between Creative Downtown Appleton Inc. and Sculpture Valley to bring the funding to the table and work, of course, hand in hand with the Parks and Rec Department, the Public Art Department, Hearing the comments about potential relocation, would it make sense for us to work with the Parks Department to find a better spot within the park that might be less likely for them to have a future move? And would that require us to start this process all over? Two questions like that.

Director Flick. Thank you chair. Uh, I would hope that we wouldn't need approval to relocate them that, you know, if they do get approved to be in the park, I think, uh, leadership can work on appropriate places that can, you know, get the wind and make these things spin. Um, as for picking out the location now, it'd be very challenging. Uh, there's a lot of different angles that this bridge, if we do build, it could land. Some of it has to do with if we can cross an island that's currently in there. So there's just a lot of shoreline that we wouldn't be able to narrow it down at this time.

Okay. Obviously we, the goal is just to get them up and get them in an appropriate place and get them back in our community. So we're, we're happy to work with whatever works best for the park and rec department. So thank you for the consideration.

Thank you. So, Director Flick, what I gather from this, too, is that if we were to just try to choose to put them in another area, they may not be able to be as enjoyed by the public in the park.

Would they, because of wind?

Yes. So, where we're placing them right now, we're putting them there because, let's say we guess, and we throw them, like, this is the place that's optimal right now for people to enjoy them in the park.

It is, I feel, the best location. It's accessible for a contractor to get in there easy and out to auger their holes in order to put the sonotubes in. The view is beautiful, and that section of the river is pretty wide open, which allows the wind to come through there better. That doesn't mean that we can't open up more openings along that river where we have some thicker vegetation. If we needed more wind to the crossover. I don't think we'll find any difficulty in finding other locations along the river's edge to, to install these if needed. And building that bridge is a big price tag and a lot of effort. So we'll, we're continuing to hopefully build it someday, but there's no guarantees that the bridge will be built.

And the people who are donating the engineering understand this. This is not, this wouldn't be a surprise to them if, if we had to move these later.

I have not talked to the donor specifically about having to relocate them someday, just with the bridge being a big question mark.

Okay. Yes.

So we're working with bulk construction in terms of the engineering. It was somewhat of a cooperative, but it is going to be paid for through sculpture Valley for that work.

Thank you. I guess I just want to make sure that if somebody is donating those funds too, that they are aware that there could be movement in the future and why. Right.

Makes sense. Thank you.

Any other questions or discussion? Hearing none, we'll vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions?

Abstain.

That motion passes 3-0 with one abstention, with Alder Schultz abstaining. That brings us to our information items, 260977, the minutes of the advisory panel from July 14th. If you have the time, please take a look. There's really some great stuff in the minutes about upcoming events in particular. One jumped out at me. Here we go. The first community input session for the Sustainability Master Plan is going to be August 27th from 6 to 7.30 PM in the Mary Beth Ninehouse Community Meeting Room C at the Appleton Public Library. So I hope to see everybody who's interested there. And then also I noted that the vegetation survey of the city-owned properties has been completed and the collected information is being organized and evaluated. So take some time to take a look at it. Their next meeting is going to be August 11th from 3.30 to 4.30 at the Witsky Boulevard Recreation Office. Any questions, discussion on that item? We'll move on to the next one. which is, one second, the Reed Golf Course Revenue and Expense Report. Director Flick, did you have anything to add about the expense report? It's always a bright spot.

Thank you, Chair. It has been a very bright spot for well over six years, and I would be remiss without pointing out that the golf course is having another banner year. June set an all-time record for the month of June in gross revenue. Rounds of golf are up.

Even in the heat, huh?

Yep.

Interesting.

And you can see in the revenue report, you know, we're a little over $60,000 ahead of where we were last year in gross revenue. Our expenses continue to be pretty consistent year in and year out. So with that said, as a point in time, we're making more money than we did last year. So that's fantastic. And we are still middle of the road with our expense to the public for playing at the golf course. So we're very pleased to be holding fees low in order for the participation that we're seeing. Kudos to all of those that directly run the daily operations. They're spectacular.

Absolutely. Yes, Alder Schultz.

It's always good to hear the positive reports that come out of the golf course. And I guess my only question is, I usually ask this, is there any surprises this season that you didn't foresee from last year? Anything that jumps out or is it? Aside from it being an exceptional year so far.

Yeah, we've added a couple more leagues this year. So we continue to be that golf course, you know, Monday through Thursday with a lot of league play. So that's like, I won't say guaranteed revenue, but it's revenue that should be week in and week out minus weather. Other than that, no, it's been a pretty standard year. A little bit more vandalism out on the course maybe this year, but nothing too... We usually catch them. Can you remind me of what we, there was a program that we got rid of this season.

I don't remember exactly which one it was. It was either pass or a program. Do you recall what that was?

I don't recall a program that we didn't offer this year.

Maybe it was just a pass type thing that was.

There was a swag snag, snag maybe it's called. That's a youth program, but that we stopped that a handful of years ago. That's the only one that I can. Maybe that's all I'm thinking of. Think of.

I just noticed with regard to alcohol sales and catering and banquet, it seems like there have been pretty big discrepancies there, but it just seems like it's more or less the accounting allocation. If I'm looking year over year, alcohol sales to date were about $236. This year they're over $40,000. Last year, catering and banquet was just under $40,000. This year, it's about $277,000. So I just noticed that large discrepancy that those flipped.

Those should be flipped. Okay. That is definitely an error in the 25 revenue report. I see it now. The banquet and the alcohol sales should be flipped in 25. Gotcha. That would make sense.

Thank you.

It's good to see that so many industries that went crazy and COVID kind of saturated the market, and I don't see that happening with the golf course. It's really a testament to your staff, so please congratulate them.

Absolutely, I will. Thank you, Chair.

Any other questions, discussion? Hearing none, we'll go ahead and entertain the next item.

Move to adjourn. Second.

We have a motion to adjourn in a second. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

We are adjourned. Thank you.