Parks and Recreation Commission - Regular Meeting

All right, good evening. Like to call this uh meeting to order. Thank you everyone for being here. Today is uh Tuesday, June 24th, and you are at the Birminton Parks and Restoration uh committee. This is our regular monthly meeting. Thank you for being here. My name is Ben. I'm chair commission. Thank you for those that join remotely. Appreciate you being here, Commissioner. Uh, first thing we have up is approval of minutes from our last meeting which was May 27th.

Hope the other commissioners have had a chance to review those minutes. And Commissioner Waterman, I would just ask that you refrain from um, you know, approving or saying anything on the minutes honestly as you were not present. Yeah. No, no, you're right. Um, but uh, with that I will make a motion to approve the minutes for May 27th as presented. All right, got a a second on that. All in favor for May, please say I. I. All right, thank you, Commissioner McDonald. That will pass unanimously. It's been huge. All right. And then next up, we have approval of tonight's agenda. So, hopefully everyone has had a chance to uh review tonight's agenda. And

when what anybody got any questions or Well, Oh, it made the noise. Yeah. Yeah. I just don't want anybody to have Oh, okay. It's not picking up priorities. The eyes are right. Can you guys hear us online? All right, though. Yes, we can. Yeah, they're just having to look at me. Okay. It's a pretty picture. Approve the agenda for tonight's meeting. All right, I will second that. Uh, all in favor of approving tonight's agenda, please say I. I. I.

All right. Anyone opposed say nay. And that will uh approve unanimously as well. Thank you. Oh, let me see. Okay. Next up, we have public comment. So, this is the public's chance um if anyone is here tonight. Not that you have to say anything, but if you would like to um address the commission um now is your chance. If if you would like to do that, please just identify yourself and um I will give you the floor. Oh, no. You're fine right there. Okay. My name is Ken. So, Ken, if you could just maybe come a little bit closer uh just so we can pick up just so they can hear you at

at home. Yeah,

we're fairly informal. My name is Penny Belong. For those people online, I live here in Birminton and I am the president of the bike polo club here. I started it last year or looking for a place struggle to find place to hold our normal pickup. seems like they've been kicked out of most parking lots and open spaces all through downtown Birminton. Currently, we play overflow parking lot. It's on the corner of 11th and Elizabeth. It's the overflow for OC College and um been playing there every single Thursday. We meet at the farmers market and we have play as a group. So my concern is uh having a place that that's occurring.

Kenny, I'm Did you say bipolo? Is that bipolo? Bipolo. Oh, okay. I I'm sorry. I never heard. So yeah, could you explain that question please a little bit? Uh yeah, I mean I can share a little bit. Um, yeah. And then al also I I can't really go on all the history here and just take it as a homework perhaps to look it up

afterwards, but bike polo is essentially polo without horses. Bikes popularized uh in the 90s in Seattle. Um, and I'm part of a club in Seattle. I've been traveling there, taking the ferry and attending their their meetings. and I decided I'm kind of tired of doing that and I wish there were something over here. So, um took it upon myself to start something. So, I started the club and we've uh have perhaps like 30 some people in the club, but only um maybe like 10 show up regularly or so. And bike polo is uh very similar. It's less than polo because it's since it's evolved a little bit. We uh play a hardcourt version. So it's on the hard surface. It's typically three on three. We're all on bikes. Try to stay on. We have mallets and a ball. And just like most goal sports, whoever scores the most goals wins. And uh games are 15 minutes or so. And I mean it's as much as a fun sport to play than it is to, you know, to spectate. We've been we're watching this. The first time I had experience of watching this, I was kind of impressed uh how people can move around on a bike just with one hand. Um invite everyone here to come check it out. Like we said before, we meet on Thursdays after the at the farmers market at 5 or so and then uh we ride to the court at 6. Court is a block away from the farmers Um, Kenny, I imagine this display is played on a flat like the parking lot you are using is flat,

correct?

Have you identified somewhere in the park in the city park area, you know, um something that the parks and wreck owns that you that you're interested in getting our approval on? I mean I I know other cities, other major cities have bipolo um clubs and they have organized I think might be early for our group but they organized with the city and to create courts that is by proposal specific. So lots of the courts that we need is not just the space but we need a perimeter. You know this could be fencing, this could be uh kind of like a roller rink where there's actual like physical boards just to kind of contain the ball but also the people playing provides safety and it also um it just kind of isolates the area.

So that court you're using does have a fence then you can contain the ball then right? Yeah. Currently at this location we're at it is has a perimeter of um three walls and then a fourth wall is back. Yeah. Okay. Vinnie, how big is the court? The actual court area. Uh, I can give you more specific on regulator regulation size if you want to get it. Get back to you. But it does have rules and regulations if you want to compete. Yeah. Like to So you're attract

for clarity. You're looking for asphalt and not grass. grass. So, asphalt or um what is it? Concrete tennis court. Two different versions of it. So, I think the preferred type of surface would be a finished court like a tennis court. Exactly. You're looking at 490 ft by 330t otherwise 150 by 100. Yeah. I mean right around roughly the size of the tennis court is the ide

the surface um like I mentioned it should be flat concrete is the best also not just concrete but like it's in the forest

just longevity we noticed the courts uh Seattle we play at Judkins Park and it is a retired tennis courts and served them well for many years I Just noticed with ports that are asphalt over time the wear and tear of just like the asphalt itself shifts and moves rain gets to freezes over just breaks apart. Right now we plan on asphalt sufficient we have to think about this huh. Yeah. And so just so you're aware the commission's aware Kenny and I have spoke um and Kenny's reached out to the mayor too. So both of us are aware of the interest and

great. So mayor and I have been talking too. Great. Okay. Hey, thank you for being here. Y um any other commissioners have any any questions?

Yeah, I was thinking um the city owns a decommissioned water tank at uh East16th and Iron Sides and we tried to sell it but we never could. But it was an old tennis court and it's totally flat and um you know just seems like an unused thing right now. And when we tried to sell actually the neighbors didn't want it sold because they didn't want it developed into housing. So maybe just look at E16th and iron sides. It's a old abandoned water tank but it's totally flat on top because we did use it as a tennis court at one time. Yes. Can I respond to that?

Yes, please. Hey, Jim. Can you again have been to a location? Um, we've played there before. Um, we as a clever nickname that plays iron sights. Um, and we have played on it. The surface is a little chunky. You over time the water gets pulled in there and that just eats away at the surface. So, it is flat, but uh, it may not be flat enough. It eats up our mallets and um, also our tires after some time. But we we like that area. Another downside to that section is there's no guess availability to restrooms. The closest thing would be that that park that's attached to the senior center.

Yeah. That's not always open and it's and it's ideally it' be like have restaurant that's closer. Any other commissioners have any other questions or comments on this? I got to do some research on this myself. I never heard of bike. Okay, thank you for being here and talking to the commission about this.

I have one one question actually. Have you checked out the uh that old resistance that's off of Sher Road near Sherman Cherry? Is that large enough for yours? Sherin shadow area. The property belongs to the um to the hospital that's being sold. The uh reservoir belongs to the city. It's fenced. Used to have basketball courts, but they removed those across the street from the baseball field. Yes. Okay. From the Legion baseball, I guess ground level.

Okay. And it's uh in a big field. I think that uh area is there's a fencing around it and there's like barbed wire fencing. Yes. It's not it's not open for use right now. It's not accessible, but I would like I I would like to check it out if I had the opportunity. Yeah. Go look at it. Yeah. They just mowed everything down this last weekend, I think. Yeah. Yeah. So that's a old reservoir. Yeah. Yeah. It's below ground. Yeah. Great spots. Yeah. Check the surface.

Sure. That can be resurfaced perhaps. Yeah. That's the restroom that you got. And I'm racking my brain for you, Kenny. I'm pretty familiar with our heart system. Now you're gonna lay there sleeping tonight. I know. I am. I am. I'm interested in this. It's pretty neat. I've never I've never heard. Got to watch it. It's cool. Yeah.

But maybe conversation have some prints here. I'll leave you guys. [Music] Yeah, let let know what you think about that. If it's interesting, Danny, thanks again for being here. Appreciate it. All right. Yes, please, sir. You could identify yourself.

Matt Kerber. live on North Walk Avenue in place into Forest Reach Park and um of course Kathy lives next to the park as well. Yeah.

And I've been there about a year and a half now. So, I'm just, you know, been immersing myself in what's been going on with the park over the last, you know, start trying to learn about the history of the park, but also just observing what's been going on over the last um year and a half that I've been there. And there's a number of issues that need to be addressed. I know that there is probably a park renovation that's going to be scheduled at some point in the theme. I have no idea when. I'm not familiar with the uh the renovation plans. I know there's other parks being renovated right now, but uh hopefully it's not going to be too much longer because it that park needs a lot of help. And um I think the main issue that I wanted to address is the fact that um the park is sort of a dumping ground. people bring in their garbage, their household garbage or their homeless garbage um and furniture and drop it off there in the park. And that happens mostly at night when the park is supposed to be closed and there is um still access to the park. People drive in. It seems like they just are appear right about dusk. People start showing up driving into the park. Uh most of them are there to drink in the park. Um there's also a lot of drug use that goes on in the park every day picking up drug paraphernalia every day in the park. I generally take a walk in the park every day and and pick up trash and some of that trash is drug paraphernalia and beer cans and whiskey bottles, things like that. Um there needs to be some kind of um Well, at the very least, there needs to

be a sign at the entrance to the park, which there is not that says park closed from dust to dawn. And um I don't think that'll discourage the people that go in there for nefarious reasons, but um that is one start. I think ultimately the answer is to close the park off at night with a gate. Uh that's a little bit of an issue because there's a uh gentleman that uses the park road for access to his property. And um that is um it probably have to be some kind of electronic gate of some type that he has access to and that the police have access to to get into the park. I've recently uh talked to um Joe Saxton at the police department and he put the bug in the area of patrol and they've been doing it a lot more frequently just in the past week. Fact they had detained somebody in the park a couple nights ago and um so something needs to be done to keep people out of the park if not when it's closed. Um I think that would be you know I I don't know if that's something that will have to wait until you do the the renovation or whether it'll ever get done. I hope it does. Something there's Wouldn't hurt to put a video surveillance system in as well. Um I think there is video surveillance at the U at the Boy Scout building, isn't there? Or there's not. Okay. I thought they had said there's a sign up that says video surveillance, but maybe they didn't actually put up on

I don't think there is. You know, someone people just do it. Yeah. Because that building was brokered into like sometime last year.

Um yeah, there's there's a lot of litter in the park. I'd like to see also some kind of cigarette butt containers put up at strategic locations around the park because every day there's dozens of new cigarette butts scattered throughout the park. I know there's a lot of it seems like smokers don't consider cigarette butts to be littered, but they are of course and um that's that's one issue plus all the other trash that gets gets dumped on the you know that gets thrown away as cigarette boxes and you name it, you know, food containers, etc., etc. Uh the butt containers are pretty cheap. We can get them on Amazon for $37. Or maybe the parks department or the city of Breton has a metal shop. They can fabricate something. I don't know if you know what they have. I know they probably do the signs or maybe they they order I don't know how you get your signs. Do you have to order those for the u um for the park for the city somehow or do they have to make those outside or what?

In the in the past. Yeah, in the past we've ordered them, but um with some turnover, I think our relationship with public works has gotten better and they have a sign shop. So, we're going to hopefully start buying the the metal signs and then having them made in house and so we can customize. There's besides the

park closed from dust to dawn at the entrance to the park, there's other places around the park where there can be where there shouldn't be signs as well. No camping signs. I think there's a couple of them, but there should be more in some other strategic locations. Um, see what else did I have? Um, homeless is an ongoing issue. There's somebody camped in the park right now as we speak. I know that We're in touch with Common Street Consulting. They're doing the um they're handling the issue of of homeless folks that are trying to establish camps. So there's a number of places in Forest Ridge Park where there have been camps in the past and you know they people trying to come in and set up camp and we're trying to stay on top of it the best we can to to get Common Street to uh contact those people and hopefully get them uh some help in some alternative housing or whatever. Uh there's also a number of trees that need to be cut down in the park. They're about holly trees that are huge. Probably I don't know 20 25 foot tall trees and um I'm not sure we've talked about that before. I'm not sure what the status on that is, but be nice to see them come in. And I mean, we do a lot of invasive species removal, including small holly bushes and ivy and and and blackberries, but these trees, of course, need to be cut down by parks department.

You have a map for of the locations? Uh, yeah, they're right behind um my unit. Actually, there's three of them. They're behind There's one behind my unit and the and the units either side of me. And um I can certainly I mean they're easy to find. You could put a ribbon around a ribbon. So I apologize for that but way within the park. Yeah, it's on the west or the east side of the park just behind the condominiums on Lafayette Avenue. Okay. Putting a ribbon around them would be beneficial. then they could see that they are big too big for us to remove. So yeah.

Okay. Um if I had my way there wouldn't be any smoking allowed in the park at all because it's a tremendous fire hazard. They drop their lead cigarettes into into tinder on the ground that could easily ignite me. And I'm just afraid one of these days they're going to burn the park down especially with this a dry summer like we're project that we have. Um, that's all I have. Pat, thank you for being here. Any uh commissioners have any other questions or comments?

Pat, thank you for bringing your concerns to this commission. Pat, I have a a question for you. You have quite an extensive list, which is great and much appreciated. Um, would it be possible for you to email that to me? Sure. So then we can use it as part of the record. Um, and then that way we don't have to go back, watch the video, and try to remember to uh grab every single thing that you mentioned. Let me see if I can get I think I stuffed too many business cards in here.

Thanks for bringing that. You did. Appreciate that. Um and the only other comment I have is that um when so we're going through our park wreck and open space master plan update this year um which will get hopefully adopted in December by the council. Um we have identified a lot of things we'd like to see at Forest Ridge. And again it comes down to funding and priorities. Um but a lot of the things you hit on I think are things that we've been seeing as well. Um yeah so it's not like it's getting ignored. We know I mean even just standing there for we were there for maybe an hour and we went with Michael Goodnau who is your um council liaison for the for your the district.

Um and even the name of the roadway um to me makes it seem like it's a parkway I think is what it's called. Um the sheer number of people Yeah. the sheer number of people that drove in I think assuming they could drive through um and having to turn around. So, a lot of go. Yeah. And even just the general access. So, there's a Yeah, there's a lot of things that um you may want to watch when we uh start to publicize the update for that park, what kind of things we've identified in there, too. Um and then give you a chance to provide some final comment as well. So, yeah, appreciate it.

Kenny, thanks again. Appreciate both of you being taking time out of your day to come here and address this commission. You're free to to hang out and watch the rest of this meeting. Um here we're gonna keep water in the fridge. Uh unless there's anyone online. We got anyone else online? We're we're all we're all here going to be here. Um one other comment I wanted to make is I did think ahead and I brought some water if anybody needs water. I would love a Yeah. It's a little muggy in here. I'm sure you guys are just all nice and comfortable [Laughter]

out in TV land. Did you want to You got water. Okay, thank you. Okay, we're going to move uh on to reports and updates. We got uh first up, we got the highlights and hurdles video. All right, highlights and hurdles. We tried to last. We tried it last month, but this the one that would get to Yes.

Yes. And so I'm going to do this really quick. Not start it yet. Pop back here. Share my screen. Seems like a lot of work for Yeah, you got it. I know. And share sound. I learned that. I I didn't do that before. I think people just heard it from the TV before. Yeah. All sorts of learning all sorts of things.

Yeah. Okay. Can you guys see the video, Amy? I feel like I can barely hear. Yeah, it looks good. Oh, okay. There you go.

Okay. Highlights and hurdles from May. [Music] It's our Arbor Day planting. [Music] our repairs back up. The milliondoll shot right there. [Music] This is the second work party. Just [Music] kick off the farmers market. Then the night market down to it. Very busy. Friday [Music] that the senior Yeah. senior center that never seems to be quiet. [Music] Just pick the ball here at the center. I don't know if we've talked about this, but we've we've locked down Warren Avenue restroom for now. uh just repeated issues. We have a port for body now, but it's getting raised and replaced with another serious

[Applause] [Music] They all recorded this year. [Music] And there's a lot of change that's happened. It sounds like trees were just put in. Oh, wow. This week um at Quincy Square. At Quincy Square. So, trees are back in which is cool. Um

yeah, a lot of lot of different things going on. Um just on the Warren Avenue. Um just real brief. Uh we decided to go with a portable restroom for now. Um until we can get issues resolved. Part of the problem besides the graffiti and destruction you're seeing um various items were getting put down through the toilets and then causing issues at the end uh with the liner um you know anything from Christmas lights to all sorts of things. And so we're actually looking at literally almost putting um it's not a digtor, but basically putting in a grinder outside the building to basically grind everything down that's going through before it goes into the line to try to help protect the line. Um the issue we've run into right now with the portable restroom is the company no longer wants to service Warren Avenue uh because their staff are having to take twice as long uh because of everything getting put into the unit. Uh they have to remove everything by hand. So clothing, all sorts of other things uh because it won't go through their suction. Uh so right now they've agreed to stick leave it there until we replace them with somebody else. But um this is now our fourth company we've worked with in the city and the issue repeated issue we run into is um the houseless population utilizing or misusing the restrooms. Um so trying to work with the mayor for and figuring out what what do we do u moving forward. We all we we have community members that come to council and tell council that they want to see restrooms put in like down at MLK and other areas. Um, and I tell the mayor that what I I love their enthusiasm and the fact that they work

with the the houseless population, but my viewpoint is is they she needs to be go on the education front and teach them how to utilize it and use it and maybe the city may reciprocate and be able to put some more units in if they're properly used. But, I mean, this is just one park where we're having this issue. Um, and it's probably going to get better once MLK gets reopened, but it's just going to shift somewhere else. So, uh, we don't have a solution necessarily how to best address it besides, um, we had to shut down those restrooms cuz our staff was spending too much time and you hate to see something that's nearly brand new just get destructed and it comes out of our budget. And very rarely do we receive insurance, you know, on the back end to to supplement what we're spending um in those parks. So,

are the bathrooms in good working order right now? I mean, some of these pictures look like some things have been destroyed. They have been. And the ports are on older. Okay. Yeah. Just getting some things together. pieces need to fall. But as of right now, it is it is locked. And there's signage on it that says that they're locked. Uh is Warren Avenue doing anything down there right now? Not yet. And so that's kind of the we're hoping by fall we can kind of get some things figured out. Um but they've been in contact with us. They're not, you know, they're worried.

Sure.

Um we did. Yeah, we near the end of last fall uh did have to reach out and have some communication with them because they rented the field. Um but and I get it for safety they of their their kids and and the parents to feel comfortable. Uh they the message they give out is that they the entire park is closed, which is not true. Um the field's the only thing that's rented, so people can be on the playground and throughout the park. Um, but I get, you know, it's it's tough. You know, they don't they want they want it to be a safe place. Um, but it's also still open to the public at the same time.

Warren um isn't a playground site for our suburb program, right? No, it's not. Okay. No, y is it Kuanas, I think, is the other one. Yep, too. Uh, they may. Yeah. Yeah. Which starts up next week, the program does. Yeah. They'll bounce back and forth between. Okay. And we haven't rented the shelter space at war either. Okay. Any other commissioners have any questions or comments on that? Thanks for those updates and that video. I like this video.

Yeah. And then uh other uh other staff reports and updates. We got a Haden Park and Kids Blade. Awesome. Safety services like we couldn't keep anyone out of there.

But we're still or Brian is still working with PSC to get them to their work. We don't have electrical yet to finalize the irrigation and lighting to the restroom, but um site furniture is in. Trees are uh were delivered yesterday. We have an interpretive sign on order. So yeah, we're we're putting the finishing touches on it and planning on a road cutting ceremony in July. Mid July. Yeah. Anything else?

Um, no. Just on the on the um site furnishings. Uh, if you go to the park um under the shelter right now, we kind of have some temporary furniture uh from Fourth Street. Um, we did have an issue with the picnic tables when they arrived. There were no there was no top to the picnic tables. So,

so we're working through the process. Um, and hopefully we'll get those all taken care of soon. But so we wanted to at least have some furniture up there uh for people to utilize. Um, but like Brian said when he drove by this weekend, he said it was almost like a picture perfect setting um for an advertisement because you had people playing basketball, you had a bike at the bike rack, you had kids on the playground. It was getting well used. Um, the parking lot's small. Uh, but again, it's meant to be a neighborhood park. Um, and I'm sure once it's open for a while that the parking issue will um won't be such a big issue anymore, but yeah, it's great to see people out utilizing it.

Great success. Yeah, thank you. Um, long process to get that that thing going, but yeah, had a hand the whole way, so she's probably glad that Steve's coming to an end as well. Um just to touch on PSSE just for the group. Uh we do have them scheduled. They're on the calendar. Um we're just wrangling between contractors with subcontractors and PSSE scheduled to get them out there on the same

same time, same date, same place. And uh we'll get that hooked up. We're kind of bouncing back and forth between um early in in early July. So hopefully by uh this time next month, we will be all all thumbs up, ready to go. Great. Will there be cake? I don't know. Maybe we'll finally get donuts. Yeah.

All right. And then how about kids at Blake? How things going out there? I'll let I'll let you take that one. No, it's it's all right.

Yeah, not much has changed since last meeting. Um we're exploring a couple of different options uh with the drainage course in the parking lot. Uh we're we haven't totally written off the uh contractor and closed out that yet. So, um, we do have some wiggle room to make that work. We're just kind of looking into it at this point and trying to get some ideas, but, uh, that's about all I have to report back on Lake at this time. Or did we talk? Yeah. If anybody's interested, we'll be out in the boat next week probably. If anybody wants to do a ride along, we can just check out the lake.

No, we're going to put you to work. We're set boat. We need some divers. No, no, no. That we have we have some missing buoys that we need to get set out. Um, so we're going to test out the boat. The boat? Yeah, apparently. Does he have a name? Not yet. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. So, so Park Parks and Wreck owns a boat and public works utilizes it to do testing out at the lake and they pay for all the maintenance on it, but it's technically our boat. Like since it's the first name that went out this year, I'm not sure that name, but we come up with an

I've heard it has heard it has a mower or motor. Um, and I asked how many ores it had and they said one. Yeah. So, bring your own ore. Yeah, we're gonna we're gonna put the GoPro on for that one. Something else we're going to run out

of. So, it's exciting. Getting lots of views, though. Tons of views. One more project to report out on. Okay. Awesome, Brad. Please. Uh, the Ivy Green fencing along 15th Street. Yes.

Um, work our work got underway uh this weekend. About half to maybe twothirds of the fence is completed. All the posts are in concreted. They're just stretching fabric now. um we have a lot of time for this weekend uh to finish it up and if they get off a job early sometime during the week they'll be hard at it again. So um look for a tight turn around on that in that project. Thank you. Any commissioners have any questions or comments on what we've been updated already?

Great stuff. All right, let's get into it here. New business. We got our clothes plan inventory reviews video first. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Before we get into that, I just kind of wanted to um share our um schedule. um just so we know where we're at with everything and as motivation for tonight to get caught up because we're clo we we have the ability to get caught up tonight

which is awesome. Okay. So, here is our uh schedule and where is there it is. So, we kicked off in January uh what finishing up our facility um essentially assessment and inventory uh today. Um, so we will be working. Um, actually this isn't the updated one. I updated it elsewhere, I guess. Um, so we're finishing up streetscapes, um, and the greenways stuff today. Uh, man, special use facilities. So, we'll have three facilities we'll go through tonight. Uh, we'll talk a little bit more about the survey results and goals and objectives was really all we were going to originally focus on today, but I think we'll be good um getting to everything that we need to, which will then allow us um next month to kind of get into the needs assessment um re and which was really originally the only thing we were going to talk about next month, but we also felt that it was a good idea to add the reviewing of the draft intro and um get into the summary of findings as well. Um that'll kind of help free up some space a little bit later uh this summer. Um and then get into the action plan and capital facility plan in August. And then um hopefully in September we'll have a close to a a a draft a great draft agenda for or draft um version for you to have uh reviewed by September. So then we can start that um I think it's a 60-day process with RCO uh that they need before we would get it back in November and in time to do the the two hearings with city

council. So a bit aggressive u but I don't think it's unreachable for us. So that's my motivational speech for today. Let's go.

Yeah. Okay. So, streetscapes and special use facilities. So, we'll start with the streetscapes and greenways. And I can't remember if we tried to watch this last. This was another one we tried to watch that didn't get us very far. Oops. get it loaded up for you guys at home. Okay, there we go. Okay, you got it. Thumbs up, Amy. Yeah.

Yep. Looks good.

Got it. I lost it like right here. [Music] Yeah. spaces we maintain. Yeah.

Yeah. Heat. Heat. We'll have involved it. We just don't know for sure exactly what all at this point. [Music] All right. Okay. And you know what? I don't think I have the streetscape.

We I feel like we did on the edit. We did. Oh, we were just Okay. We were just watching. Okay. I didn't think so. Okay. Good. Okay. I was like I thought we weren't I didn't think we were needing to do that this time. Okay. Sorry. It's been a long day. Okay. So, that's the video. Hey, I had a quick question, but we didn't talk about special use facilities, did we? We did not. Okay. The new in the video, there's some of that new signage that's around the city. Where did that Where did that come from? No, I

I think it was a combination of public works and the downtown business association combo. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, if you'd notice it, all the new way finding downtown. Yep. Yeah. Cool. Thank you. Yeah. So, um for the special um facilities

Yeah. Let's Let's start with Ivy Green. Let me get back to share it. We'll probably sway away from the electronic dance music for this one. Although it gets you going. Okay. Yes. Yes. If you've never seen the inside of that little building as you enter, this is it. Yeah. Colette got out there at a great time. [Music] You guys know Mick? Mick is not as great as they get. Um the amount of time he spends every year in the cemetery just cleaning um projects. He's really our big connection with um groups that need to do service through the Navy. Uh he's former Navy.

Love it. Yeah. If you follow us on Facebook, uh we posted last week about the new um flag pole at the senior center. He helped get that all put together for us and and then did some additional landscaping around it. um saw that we had excess brick from at one of our sites and basically just took it upon himself to kind of rebuild everything which is awesome. Yeah, he's a great great volunteer.

Okay, so I cemetery and I'm not sure Amy and Jim if you have this at all. That's the disadvantage of not being here is having paper copies. Uh but if you have notes, please um feel free to chime in. I'll just go through um the what we had for ivy green previous in 2020 and then um what is new that were recommended for 2026. Um so improvement recommendations in the 2020 plan that we removed was replace entrance sign. Um what we've added in 2026 as uh recommendations uh maintenance concerns lack of staff to maintain uh we do not have any dedicated staff there. I think that's something that's would be essential moving forward if we plan to actively try to further develop the site. Um and it's just nice to have someone that's dedicated at all times. We have a staff person now that loves to work there. That's her favorite spot. Wanita. Um, but it's not her primary job. So, she tries to get there as much as she can, but really Mick does a lot of the day-to-day stuff as a volunteer as well. Um, information improvement recommendations. I forgot my glasses. This will be interesting.

Uh, improvement recommendations. Uh we added um or we kind of rewarded some things um and created their own bullets for replacing the inner roadway. Uh repairing grave sites, those were kind of combined previously. Uh repair and reign the walls at the SpanishAmerican War and Civil War plots. Um so there's work that's needed to be done there. That's a new bullet. Another new bullet right below it is the adding of the two flag poles at the tomb of the unknown soldier uh for merchant marines and first responder flags. And then we revised um that last bullet um to state develop master plan to include potential um instead of considering relocation. Um, so we felt that it would be best to to have a full design and plan of of what that should look like

and noted as such. So there's no restroom. Yeah. Yeah. So those were our staff comments related to the cemetery.

Question comments. Yeah. I guys um Hey Tim, just a second Jim. Okay, go ahead Jim. Go ahead, Jim.

So, this is one of those, you know, special use areas where the cost of burial ought to support the maintenance of the facility. I I you know I don't I think it's crazy that the rest of the parks department has to support maintaining this when and I'm I know when I was on the council the burial fees here are are really cheap compared to every place else. So I think you really ought to look at the the the fees for burial that to support the maintenance of this facility because I think it's I I just think it's crazy that the rest of the parks department have to support this with a full-time position when we have so many other maintenance needs for the general public. That's it. Um last few days people have been talking about this as a park on the internet I mean and uh as a park more and they uh one of the one of the big uh topics of conversation is that it would be an ideal location for a dog park [Music]

which I I don't agree with unfortunately but uh that's that's been a developing conversation on the internet. Disrespectful that and the fencing the new fencing will keep will keep in the uh zombies was the other comment I know. Oh my gosh. So, you know, to Greg's point, I wondered about the off leash dogs. Is it already being used as a or are these just random dogs walking through the park? Yeah. So typically cemeteries tend to be no dog zones um because

people don't pick up after their dogs um unfortunately. Um I mean there's that's the hard part with this site is at any point someone could purchase a plot in any part of the part of the cemetery. Um, so to Jim's point too, I uh I've talked to a few council members um because I've been in the cemetery business previously um being in parks and wreck and um I think rebranding the cemetery is a good idea, but also um not to have too many master plans on the shelf, but I think we need to create an identity a long-term identity for the cemetery as well, which would also um go to Jim's point that it needs to have a business plan as as well. And I think the current view that I see from talking to council members about the cemetery is they don't really see the cemetery as a revenue generator when it can be. We're not talking big dollars, but at least set it up where it can be successful and at least cover um some of its costs. I mean, we do our own digging, uh, which is something that could be contracted out. Um, but we use equipment we already have, so there's not really necessarily dedicated equipment that's there. Um, but yeah, I think there it really needs to have a a business plan for that site. Um, so then we can set goals and for staffing and and just the overall management of it. And it should be I agree too. I I I wish too bad Jim's not on council still, but um I I agree too that it needs to have dedicated staff because we're we're already short staffed in the parks and

we're pulling to just try to make it look like a decent site. I mean, you look at what we have and then you look at the other alternative in town, which is a bonafide business. Um and it ours just kind of looks like an afterthought, honestly. But um I know it's required.

Yeah. you know, I'm not sure um what I haven't got into the cemetery stuff a whole lot yet as far as what our state requirements are because most states too allow you um as part of property taxes to be able to collect a certain amount that goes towards the management of your cemeteries as well, which I don't believe we're collecting at all at this point. I mean, it's it's very small, but it's at least something. Um, and I'm not sure I don't believe we um were reinvesting necessarily our perpetual care funds either. So, um, yeah, that's something I've got interest in looking at, too.

I think that's how we might have ended up in this because of Yeah, that wasn't required. Yeah. When it comes to cemeteries, um, in a in a perfect scenario, your perpetual care fund helps offsets your operating and balances the budget. And so you just draw from the the um interest earned over that year um to be able to help um help it really create its own enterprise fund essentially is what you you um really want it to to function as. have a bunch of relatives here.

I do like the the discount per city residents, but uh maybe maybe have two different uh two different charges. Sure. Yep. One for people that pay taxes and one that people just like the site. Yeah. I think once we get through the pros plan next year, that might be a great topic one month is to just kind of talk about Yeah. talk about the cemetery

and what opportunities there are. Um, so the previous cemetery I had, we rebranded it because the neighborhood used it as a park. Um, and so it became a um, essential, we refer to it as a park, but it was Norm Hill Cemetery and arboritum. So it was also an arboritum and we had a state tree grove that was there. So we had I think 45 out of 50 states represented that could trees could grow their their state tree could grow there. but just kind of an interpretive type panel. So made it more user visitor friendly, more approachable than what se the Yeah. what a cemetery should usually is viewed as. So yeah, I think we have some opportunity.

You're good. Okay. No power lines. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. All right. Any other? Yeah. Any other anything else someone wants to add to that one? Okay. All right. We'll move on to Gold Mountain.

All right. Get rid of this. And Colette, I've watched this a few times. It's like I keep thinking we need to go back when it's nice. Does tell the story.

It does. Yeah. All right. [Music] Just realize this music's almost kind of James Bondesque. This might be a fun offsite meeting at some point, too, if we ever wanted to meet out at the golf course dinner.

Yeah. [Music] Yep. This is their Yeah. Just real briefly, how do you guys have know a lot of history of the golf course at all? Some um like I mean it's amazing to hear some of the information like this originally was just going to be a cart barn.

Uh was their original plan. Uh they still haven't covered the golf carts, but they realized once they set it up um the amazing views you had looking outside of it right here and the opportunities. So, they've taken a lot of advantage of that. The other great site that if you've never been to it is the wedding in the Woods out here that they created. Uh $10,000 price tag to create it. And per use they charge $2,500 uh as a as a wedding venue. And how many do you guys remember how many events?

Something crazy. Yeah, it's something crazy. Like almost a hundred or more than 100 events out there this year at 2500 bucks a piece for a $10,000 investment. Yeah. So, a great return. [Music] So, yeah, we'd like to get back out and kind of reshoot the uh Colette and I went out on the front nine on the cart paths and uh should have either put the windshield down, but a lot of work being done out there with um the cascade improvements, the course improvements, uh some tree removal, opening things up, uh getting a lot of light to the greens that haven't seen light, which helps the health of the greens. Um, and a lot more work to be done this fall on on that portion of it. Okay, so going to the golf course. A lot of changes here. Um, I asked Daryl for his input and so kind of

asked for it a little bit. Um so there's um in the 2020 plan um individually kind of noted the different types of practice facilities. We combined all of that in the updated plan. So that first bullet point is really combining um most of the inventory

um into one spot. Um, I didn't really highlight in the description what changed because we just had Daryl rewrite the description for that and and wanted his input on that. So, that's uh the the description of the course is is basically brand new. Um, combined some other things as far as um the uh snack bar and the the food service and pro shop area. Um, a new one we added was the full service maintenance facility. As far as the inventory, that wasn't necessarily noted uh before. Um, wedding in the woods venue was added, which wasn't there. And then the option for foot golf. Um, having a foot golf course out there wasn't um listed as inventory previously. U management concerns. Um, previously we previously in the first bullet it noted uh that there was a slow growth in the number of young golfers taking up the sport. Uh, we really don't in talking with Daryl, he doesn't really feel that's an issue anymore.

U, I think especially golf is one of those sports that survived through COVID and has really thrived

um, since CO and especially in youth. So he doesn't really see that as necessarily a concern or an issue anymore. Um added um to the concerns uh continuing to find highquality motivated customer serviceoriented team members which everybody you know is kind of in that same boat and and being able to afford um good employees as well and keeping them around. also added, "Keeping both courses in championship condition while still maintaining a high level of use." Um, on a on a nice day, they average between five and 600 rounds of golf in a day between the two courses, which is unreal. Uh, my big concern is the wear and tear on the course. Um, so it' be interesting to kind of watch um from my fresh eyes to see what it looks like late summer, early fall uh compared to how it was in condition in the spring. But they put a lot of people on that course.

Um, if you were to look to go play, for example, this Friday, you may see a tea time available after 400 p.m. or 5:00 p.m., but there's absolutely nothing available starting at 6:30 in the morning on because they're all booked up. uh which is a good problem to have. Um at the same time, we should probably look at our fee structure too because there there may not to get too greedy but there may be some potential to create some additional revenue that in turn uh after 2028 when um loans are paid off will benefit the parks department in general for capital after that time frame. um at we added a highly competitive golf environment which large public course inventory. Um as a potential concern just because there's a lot of public courses in the area. Um maintaining competitive price structure like I mentioned is is going to be a constant challenge and something that we'll need to to keep our eye on. And they actually do a really good job. Um Colombia hospitality does a great job just kind of keeping their eyes um peeled on on what the market's doing. Um limited parking due to at least the portion of the parking lot. So if you're familiar with the site, um the former GM started a side business I think in the early 2010s of golf cart rental um and then sold the business and that business is still there. um and takes up a large portion of the parking lot when you enter the site. Um looking at should we be looking to reclaim that area and utilize it for additional parking? Uh because even with the size of the lot there um and having two courses, people are still having to park

on the entry road um to get in because there's that much use of the course. Uh right now I looked up the revenue for the golf cart rental company is 1,500 a month um which we can easily make up somewhere um in the long run if we um gave them time to relocate elsewhere and then um reclaimed that area back. Plus the area where the cart storage or the the cart rental company's at is close to the Wedding in the Woods site. So it it would provide better accessibility to po other portions of the course. So that's something that we want to we want to look at addressing. Um improvement recommendations. Um so we kind of combined a few different things here. Modified so developing a preventative maintenance and replacement program um for structures, equipment, parking, mechanical systems. Uh my understanding of what it seems like is we kind of look at from year to year what's what our needs are um going down the road instead of planning for and budgeting as part of um our revenues budgeting funding. So then we have the funding to purchase something as opposed to just identifying okay well we're going to we're going to buy this piece of equipment because we need it. um actually have a replacement plan put in place for each of the pieces of equipment. So then we we have those funds set aside because we may we may always have a surplus there, but we may not. And if we at least factor in the replacement of a lot of these items, that'll at least help us better budget down the road. Um especially if we hit a year where we've got eight or nine pieces of equipment that have to be

replaced at the same time. Um, so remodeling clubhouse. Um, again, some of these are all modified the next couple. Um, we're going to be looking at some opportunities to just kind of keep the there hasn't been much remodel done or improvements done to the clubhouse since the late '9s. Um, so looking at some opportunities there of of uh how we'd like things to look. Do we repurpose some of the open area or how do we want to utilize that facility moving forward? Um replacement of encourse facilities, the restroom facilities. Uh there's definitely some facilities on the course and there's a budget right now to to add a new restroom or replace a restroom that's out there right now. So that's one of the more immediate things we're looking at um is legitimizing the restrooms um that are out there. We have a couple portaotties here and there and some very small singular units. So, um making a more kind of nicer user friendly. Um the Cascade course redesigns on there and that's probably going to be a five-year project. So, over the course of the year, they're going to try to five years try to do as much in-house but do some contracting. Um but hopefully within a 5-year period we have uh we're close to to having that course all all um redone. Uh added the last two items, develop a plan for uh the covered storage facility. We do rent the carts out there um on a three-year replacement plan. Um, so it's not like we're owning them and trying to extend the life, but at the same time there's they're exposed to a lot of weather um just sitting out there um and there's a lot of carts out there. So coming up with a better long-term plan for at least um helping protect

those carts from the weather. Um and then um I forgot to ask what this was. The development plan for replacement of clubhouse FFE. Not sure what FFE is. I forgot to ask Daryl what that was, but um that was a Daryl edition. So, any comments on the golf course? That was kind of a lot of stuff with golf. I had a question on the um the le the the golf cart rental. So, is that lease cities got set up or is that through Colia? It's a lease through the city. Through the city. Yep. Okay. Yep.

Yeah. And when is that um anyone you know the I think it's a I think it's a year to year um but it's it's got a um a separation clause like anything else that's out there whether it's 90 or 120 days uh that we could end that agreement and this was uh this was Scott Alexander and then he sold it he sold the he sold the business he sold that okay yeah I want to say 2017 or 18 and ideally That would have been the time that the city separated with the company. Um, but they just continued and I think the the new owner just took it over.

Yep. Any commissioners have any questions or comments? Yeah. So, we're looking at a revenue of about 18,000 a year that comes in for that. Um, and like I said, even just adjusting some of the pricing structure minimally would cover Yeah. That is furniture and equipment. Okay. Yeah. Google, right? Jim's got his hand. I know.

Um, you know, my my big concern with this golf course thing is, you know, this is one of the premier public courses in the United States. I'll say it's maybe top 10. I mean, it's a fantastic course. My my concern is they have set their sights on sucking up all the excess revenue when our bonds come due. And I think you need to slow them down on their course redevelopment so we can share some of that windfall. I think it's asinine that soon as those bonds pay off, we dump all that money into the course redevelopment when it's already doing very well. And I also think that, you know, they ought to look at some kind of software like a lot of companies are using. I know my airlines uses it. Um kind of variable pricing based on demand. So, the price goes up when the weather is nice or the price goes up when everybody wants to play on Saturday. I I think they can do a lot better that way. And I just I think for the parks department as a whole, we have this huge opportunity when our bonds come due. And I think the golf course is lobbying the council and everybody else to say, "We're going to spend all this new money because it's going to come due on the golf course." And I'd rather that redesign take 10 years or 15 years because it's really not going to make that much difference to

the revenue they get in. Um, anyhow, I think I I I just I think you need to slow their their ambition down just because they're the golf course. That's my saying. Okay, I'm done.

No, I I appreciate that and I can comment on that. Um, so when when I came on board, um, Brian and I and Mike sat down because the renewal was up and they were looking for a longer term agreement and we agreed or basically told them we want a three-year agreement. um essentially so Brian and I can kind of get our feet on the ground and um there's things I don't like in the contract that really benefit Colombia hospitality. Um I think that they're um obviously we want some incentives built in so then they work hard to promote the course but I think that from based on other agreements I've seen um and manage within golf with golf courses um I think Columbia Hospitality makes out pretty well at at Gold Mountain. Um, so there's definitely some negotiation that needs to happen and and as well on the end of what that contract looks like and what the benefit to Parks Capital looks like once that bond is paid off. Um, so those are items. Uh Jim, we don't have the solutions, but those are items we're looking at um in this next really it's um next year because uh we're going to need to be looking at putting the contract back out um about a year from now.

Yeah, it comes up fast. It does. Yeah. Director, who dictates um fees for a round? Is it called? Essentially, we we take their recommendations because they're the hired hand, but we could walk in and say this is these are the fees that are getting charged ultimately. The city the city council adopts fees.

Um oh, and then one other point, Jim, um they do have a dynamic pricing structure now. Um so if I was, not that I ever have, but if I was to go play at 7:16 in the morning, it's going to cost me one price. And if I go play the exact same 18 holes at 9:15, it's going to cost me a completely different price. Oh, well that's good. Thank you. That's So they do have a dynamic pricing structure in place right now. Okay, that's good.

Yeah. Yep. Not that I've ever done it for research purposes. Yep.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it's and it's different. I mean, it's a different play, too. I mean, um, when I went and played on Sunday, um, seeing people with their travel bags, not like travel golf bags, but their travel bags because they've come here from somewhere else. Um, it's it's still still blows my mind to go out there midday on a Wednesday and have the course absolutely packed and the parking lot packed on a Wednesday. Um, and that would be neat as a a little uh a little uh place to stay off the course,

right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Almost create condo units or something uh where the call cart card area is or Yeah. Yeah. We can Yeah, we we could do ADUs. Yeah. And there's four approved plans right now. the city has out there. Okay.

Oh, there Josh. Oh, I went out of order. So, we'll move on to Jarstead. I saw the uh golf pro out there at Gold Mountain Senior British Open. Was that what it was? Yeah. Mark. Yeah. So, he's one of the Colombia hospitality staff and he oversees their golf operations, right, Brian? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's pretty cool. Pro anymore. PGA Pro out there. [Music] Yeah. Yeah. So he's um I think he's in basically works out of their head office now, right?

Uh see local guy. Yeah. Okay. So this one should be pretty straightforward. Now, just a reminder, Jarstead Park is uh uh we have it on our asset list as a public amenity and park, but it's managed uh maintained by public works.

Yeah. Square teeth. [Music] Yeah. You see a lot of people will park right outside. They utilize the pathway system. Yeah. The cool spot. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] So no staff has to go and maintain like do the lawn or other?

Nope. Are we storing anything out there? I mean before you know we had the green houses up here. I know the green houses were out. That's where they were. We don't have anything nice. Nice.

All right. Um, so under the 2020 plan up above, improvement recommendations, it noted development, develop a trail plan and consider historical signage. We kind of feel like that's been addressed um out there um because there is signage and uh they do have a complete trail that's out there. So um we have removed that. As far as inventory, we added the last two bullet points. Pleasant Valley walking trail and interpretive signage. Um, and then as management concerns, we kind of revised how it was worded. It previously said confir con fusion over public works managing park and have it saying now public confusion over access and management of park is a concern.

As they see it as a park, if they know that that's within the city limits, they may call us and ask questions. It's not super clear that it's managed by someone else, not that it's a huge issue, but just something to note. And then that was it that we had for volleyball standards. What are we talking there? Just the post. There's no net. Is that what we're getting at there? Okay.

B yo n if that's a thing. Is it is there What am I trying to get? Why do we even have this on our end? Uh because I mean my my take on it and it was there before I got here was that it's a city park. Uh we may not maintain it. There's a couple other spots too that we don't maintain that's on there. Okay. Um,

yeah, Lily and James Walker. Uh, when we're looking at a 10-minute walk, you know, it's an advantage to have these types of facilities listed on there, uh, because they are utilized as parks. I'm going to talk about the kids. It is orchard there. It is. Yes. Yeah. Orchard do that. I mean, I'm the other side of the tracks. Yeah. Anybody got anything? Good old jar.

All right. You need a reservation. Donuts get keys. making sure you're still there. Okay. So, on to the goals.

Let me see if we had supporting. Oh, yes, we do. Okay. [Music] I wonder if I can do it from there. I'll do it for just bear with me talking to myself here. Okay. I don't know if that's even worth looking at for you guys at home. If it's even big enough to see. Um, yeah, you should be able to zoom.

I've got it on my laptop. I can see it. Okay. Go. Oh, I can do that. That works, too. I don't know if it's clear or not. No, no, no.

Okay, now I'd have to figure out how to get back out of that. Oh, there we go. Okay. Um, so we'll kind of just run through the goals just in general. We didn't have any additional goals or really changes to the wording of the goals. Um, but we did have some comments um within the goals. Um, and I don't know if do we want to tell them where some of the comments came from? So, we thought for fun we would use chat GPT and look at the results of our uh, pros plan and submit information from the pros plan that's related to the different goals and see what GPT spews out. And so, um, and obviously it's just kind of like a starting point. Um, and so that's kind of where some of our updates and then each goal has a new, uh, objective. And so it's the last one on each uh, that was an additional objective that was recommended through that review process. Um, so that was kind of the basis of where we started. Um, we've been curious about chat GPT and figured it was time to test it out and see see what it can do.

Um, and honestly, it was pretty pretty accurate. Um, so for example, 1.6 in goal one, uh, develop a park and wreck system that is functional, diversified, attractive, and available to all segments of Breton's population. Previously it stated emphasize acquisition and development of park in parks in I think that's a new one underserved

underserved areas um is what it said previously and now the updated recommendation was emphasize acquisition and development of park and underserved areas using equity based mapping and community feedback to prioritize locations. And so it gave us just a little bit more detail about and not just what but how um which was which was yeah um so that was one update. We didn't have any other general updates um that we wanted to make to the other um objectives. And then the additional recommended objective was uh to continue to provide restroom facilities that area available and that are available and well-maintained

and yeah and all high use parks to meet public demand for basic amenities. So again, through the the surveying process, obviously restrooms was a big uh concern or or comment that was made. And so that's what um it pulled from the survey responses related to this goal. So that's what we came up with. Any commissioners have any questions or comments on goal one? Great.

Okay. So, goal two, uh 2.4, um we're recommending changing, um 2.4 to establish replacement plan for department small tools and supplies. Um and it's just the wording that we wanted to change. It originally said upgrade the department's rolling stock and mechanical equipment. So just kind of Yeah. Just words. Yeah. Making it more clear what it is.

Yeah. 2.4. So that was something that that we uh that we came up with. And then um the revised recommendation was for 2.6 six. Um, it originally was remove encampments, vandalism, and graffiti as quickly as possible. The recommendation is to remove encampments, vandalism, and graffiti, and hazardous waste. Um, drug paraphernalia as quickly as possible in a coordinated effort. Uh, continue cleaning restrooms twice daily, I think, is what we added to it. Just to clarify that we do get in there, uh, twice a day. So, um, and the coordinated effort, we weren't working with, um, Common Streets previously and now we have this organization that the city, um, partners with, and so we thought it was important to include that in there. And then, uh, 2.10, which is a new recommendation, continue proactive safety plan in collaboration with local law enforcement and social services to monitor improve park safety. again coming out of comments that came up in the survey of people's uh concerns with safety uh within our park system.

Great. Sorry, I'm trying to remember that you can't see it. Uh but maintain parks and facilities to protect assets and ensure the park system is clean, green, and safe is the goal.

Yes. Yeah. Have any questions or comments on goal two?

Okay. Goal three, provide uh provide andor facilitate a variety of recreational opportunities for a spectrum of ages, interests, and abilities. Um 3.5 we're recommending to revise uh that one. Uh it says to work collaborative collaborative collaboratively with the YMCA to promote um use of Glen Jarstead Aquatic Center uh by city residents. Um, we recommend revising that to um, oh wait, I forgot 3.5, sorry, 3.6. So, um, I didn't like the word work collaboratively um, without saying continue to because to me work collaboratively means we're not doing it right now if it's in there as a um, as an objective. And so I just felt even adding continue to meant that we're already doing it and it's very important. Um 3.5 um is a revision suggestion uh to solicit feedback from both users and non-users of recreational programs to identify and address gaps in awareness, accessibility, and content. um also revised the 3.7 um continue to grow adult athletic programs and utilize a portion of the revenue to make enhancements to facilities. Uh that's kind of something that we're looking at too with our park shelter rentals. Um I think we have an opportunity even though it would reduce the revenue into the general fund if we

can create um some internal funding. So then we aren't having to annually ask council for um um general tax funds uh for a project. If we can generate revenue and utilize some of it that we're generating now instead of it going back to the general fund at least pull a little bit of it and be able to utilize that to put back into our system. Um I think that would be especially for softball players as example would be very valuable. Um we're not talking big um capital type projects but like adding distance markers on foul poles. Um putting caps along the fence line make it look a little bit

new bases. Yeah. Yeah. New bases. Um making just smaller improvements where we just don't have the general budget right now to do that. Another great example of that is the netting that we've just put up there. I mean, obviously that's going to have a lifespan on it. So,

yeah. On the shelter side of things, um, my previous job, I had a park reservation program where, um, all of the revenue from the park rentals didn't go back into the general fund, but went into a special revenue account, uh, that was used to build more shelters, which created more revenue. And so we had our own internal funding source that if we didn't use it annually and you wanted and it was managed by the parks and recck commission, uh you could hold off for a year, two years, and you'd have a couple hundred,000 built up to be able to put into uh the development of something. Again, going to council and asking for 200,000. Who knows when that might happen? or we'd be having to write grants and do other things just for these special amenities. So, it's something that it would be nice to propose and see, you know, see what sticks

um as as options. Um because I feel like anything's on the table for now until you're told no. Yeah. So, Yeah. Um, right. Yeah. And or that that objective and Yeah. Does the objective then go away? And that's the hard part is does the does the goal go away before the object do the objectives all stay until the goal is reached completely?

Yeah, it would be. Yeah. And that would be because otherwise we're gonna it's going to be a continual unless the city decided that they wanted to self-manage the pool. No, I I get that. Yeah. Yeah. And that's kind of too why expanding some of these um descriptions for me, I felt like it gave something but it didn't say a why, which a why is more measurable than just stating a fact to me. But yeah, no, I I get that.

Yeah, for sure. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah. So, goal three again provide and or phys facilitate a variety of recreational opportunities for spectrum of ages, interests, and abilities. And the new one we already said the ex I think right? Yeah. Okay. Any questions? Nice. So, I have a a question about 3.8. Um Uhhuh.

So, in relation to the pool, I mean, there's a lot of coordination with um the school district and the swim teams as it relates to the pool and um I just got the summer schedule and I'm like, "Oh, bummer. I have to swim between this time and this time when I'm lap swimming." But it's great that we have this. Um I I you know from my perspective it's great to see this sort of interaction with uh the school district to encourage sports and recreation for uh the young population in the city. One, you know, what else are we doing? And in particular, I'm thinking, you know, we have this, it sounds like I don't golf, but it sounds like this, you know, worldclass golf complex. Is that an area we've explored or should we

with looking at? Yeah. Um, and that's something I probably need to get. I don't know if you know anymore, Brian, about whether high school programs are if they utilize that or if they're utilizing.

Yeah. Um, a good example I'll give you Amy on something that I'm working on right now is um one of the uh planning commission members reached out to me about a program she had heard about uh related to um essentially soccer court facilities. Um that's this company, this nonprofits putting together and they wanted to do 26 courts by 26 related to FIFA World Cup. They've already hit 26, but they want to do 26 more. And so I've reached out to the school district and am hoping that we can create a partnership up at is it Ridge View?

View Ridge. View Ridge. Close over there.

Uh up at View Ridge. um before they start really doing I know they've got their plan in place but what if we partner on a facility district 2 um is um does not have sufficient um park spaces but what if we partner in the development of and they would manage it on their side but it would be open to the public um a facility on site up there at Vidge that was open to the general public. It wasn't just for the school. Um, so looking at, you know, joint efforts to develop and maybe we help manage, I don't know. Uh, but I was looking at the opportunity of a site that's already under development and how can we partner as a city to not only improve what they've got there, but be able to meet the need within that district. Um, and so to me, that kind of speaks to that that one too. That's a proven, okay, we've done this. uh we don't have a joint use agreement with the school district. I'd love to see what we could do um to come up with something where maybe we can start offering certain programs and utilize their facilities and obviously in turn we'd have to bring something to the table that they could benefit from. But, um, I think even just us getting this, um, survey into the mail email boxes of every parent in the district was a huge win for us this year. And I think that's kind of was step one was just getting communication out there. Uh, because we went from under 300 to over well 900 responses. And I attribute a lot of that to getting information into the hands of the parents

that we didn't have before. So yeah, so I think those are some of those things that we can utilize as measurable pieces. Yeah, that's great, Trent. Tim, just you know, both entities looking at their resources and how we can, you know, expand programming for everybody. That's that's wonderful. Yes. And we we get fed from the same from the same location too. That's one thing we I mean even internally we forget sometimes between departments is um we're getting fed from the same pizza.

Yes.

Oh, it is. Yep. Yep. Okay. Anything else on goal three? Okay. Goal four, foster public involvement in the operation and programming of park systems. So, um 4.2 added a few words. Um nothing crazy. Um continue to update the department's internet presence by making the web page more interactive. And then we added accessible and provide a simplified online registration added reservation and programs evaluation and then added the word proc. So added three words to that. Uh 4.3 was revised um to diversify marketing through enhanced use of social media and word of mouth campaigns to increase visibility of parks, facilities and recreation programs. Um so uh social media and word of mouth were two of the um more suggested ways uh through the survey to get the message out. And then the new one for this goal um 4.6 develop a community ambassador program to inspire volunteerism um meaning uh stewardship groups um trash pickup um opportunities and strengthening community pride. So, we've already kind of started with stewardship groups um I think all of our for forested areas.

Um a designated group that's that's working on making improvements. Um but there's also some programs that um a program Colette's going to champion a trash pickup program that she wants to Yes. Yes. All right. Yeah, that's true. Maybe get the service folks to buy a bunch to get away or Well, we have people all over that are doing it on their own now.

Yeah. Yep. Legitimize it. And honestly, a lot of people that I've ever interacted with that pick up trash don't really want much recognition, but at least uh they feel like they're part of a group. Yep.

Yep. Yeah. So, more just streamlining and and legitimizing things that are for the most part already being done. But, um again, this is just an extension of our ability to be able to get everything maintained and taken care of. Um I'm still amazed at the forested areas how much um we both rely and appreciate on volunteerism to help keep things maintained.

You know, one thing I tell people that come through Forest Ridge Park, even if they cannot come to our work parties, you're walking in here, you're using the park. And I tried to I stress that a lot of people are afraid to call 911. I said they have a system only because I know because I volunteer for the police. But they have a system. If it's not a high priority, they do listen. They record it. They document everything. And that's what we also need is that it's just see something, you know, say take a picture. Say something. Yes. And it does make a difference. For sure. Yeah. And Colette, you know, related to the Sorry. No, go ahead.

Someone else was talking. Okay. um the garbage pickup, you know, it's just been my experience uh raising a Eagle Scout. Um the young people are looking for this to add to their applications for jobs, college applications, all of these things. So, having some recognition of that they've joined a program and in their city and are working to clean up the park system. I just think that there there probably is an if we don't have something like that now that's something um that some of our young folks are looking for

another opportunity to partner with schools because we can see if there's anyology clubs or something that want and it would get us in the door of the schools a little more absolutely yeah Okay. Goal five, uh, develop cost recovery and expense tracking for revenue generating facilities to ensure financial financially responsible operation. Sounds great. Um,

yeah. Uh the only change is an addition of 5.5 that we have and that's to evaluate the feasibility of offering tiered pricing or subsidized recreation programs for low-income residents to increase equitable access. Um so we don't really have any opportunity right now for uh reduced costs and I think this is something that could be a partnership with the foundation. I would love to see the the Parks and Rec Foundation take this on as a as a project. They're not a a they're small small but mighty group. They're not a high producing um foundation, but I think this is something that could be a real realistic and attainable goal for them to help um take on and and help manage. Mr. Any questions or com nursing software or pizza price using a shelter for example in the middle of winter during the rain as a discount.

Oh, there you go. Fourth of July fire. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And we I mean ours it's it's a good point. I mean it's the primo times or graduation seasons. Um getting shelters.

Okay. Goal six provide trail opportunities uh connecting parks, natural lands and neighborhoods. Um so 6.3 we had a revision. Um it states provide and secure additional resources to better manage and then the revi revision is maintain and clean trails especially in high use and natural areas. uh 6.7 we had a small revision um enlist community organizations and then the revision part is or develop stewardship groups to perform trail improvements um improvement work on a regular basis and then the addition under this goal is uh 6.8 eight, prioritize expansion of multi-use trails for walking, biking, and running and connect them to neighborhoods and community destinations. Um, so that again that came from the surveying, a lot of lot of trail and um access um connectivity uh type responses that we received within that.

That's our thing. Yep. Yeah. And obviously we got to we need to work with the transportation plan as well. I think that's the key partner there is make sure our needs are noted. A block that's been revised and then suddenly the next block you can't get your wheelchair off the sidewalk. Yep. You know,

yeah. even looking at the the tip the transportation and and improvement plan and trying to help um steer some prioritization towards those connecting areas to to schools and to uh park space. Okay. Number seven, protect and manage natural resources while encouraging appropriate public access and enjoyment. Uh 7.1 is a res revision um and simplification. Uh preserve and protect natural areas while addressing encampments and public safety issues to maintain these areas as accessible assets. Um and then the addition is 7.7. Enhance public access and visibility of natural areas while ensuring safety and environmental protections are in place.

Next.

So those are the two changes that we have for goal seven. Make sure there quick goals. Yeah, I think um to your point, Greg, too, I think in future meetings, it would be great to set aside or plan for times to do goal reviews kind of like what council does and then we can discuss the different aspects how we're trying to achieve those or not. And

um I think any of those that feedback will help us six years from now. For sure. Yep. There we go. Cool. All right. Wow. Good stuff. You ready to get into survey results? Well, we didn't do that already. Okay. So, I did send out to you last month. you received kind of the full and I think maybe I put it in the packet again this time just for fun. You did. Um just because I knew you wanted to see it again.

Uh so what we'll go over is the summary which again I don't know if Colette you want to say anything about this summary. This was another document where we said, you know what, let's see what chat GPT comes up with. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

But it was really helpful.

Sure. Yep. All right. Page 12. Okay. So, I'm just going to kind of highlight some things through here and just kind of explain some of the summary pieces. Um, so first two questions. Um you know it's always positive when you can note that um 93% of the respondents rated that the overall quality of our uh park system is um either good or average when you've got a good average below. Um so 93% had us above average um or at average or above. Um this is one I really like to especially after you read there's there were some critical um constructive comments people made but at the same time to know that of even those comments uh 97% of people still feel that parks are important uh to the creation of community and um for the city of Breton um which is great to see. Um, so top reasons for park use. This is kind of there'll be kind of a theme throughout some of these. Um, that it kind of helps explain this a little bit. Um, so top reasons for park use. Let's say that they had 10 different options to choose from. 78% of them chose enjoyment of outdoor recreation or outdoors and relaxation. That doesn't mean that only 70 that that um 22% don't. It's just that's 78% of them

chose that as an option. And that's really apparent in the uh improvements residents want, you know, improved safety at 41%. It doesn't mean that the other 59% don't want safety improved. It just means that 41% chose that as as one of their top um top reasons. uh things that they wanted to see within the parks uh system. So if you really want to look at it, you could say the top five improvements residents wanted to see and then just ignore the percentages on that. So improved safety, cleaner facilities, uh more program and events, which I think is is great because uh we've we haven't really introduced a whole lot for a while. Uh better trails and pathways and reduction in homelessness. Um nothing really a a big surprise in in those comments there. Um safety perception. So at the bottom there um overall safety uh 82% of people um at least said that again they could have been critical about condition of restrooms or other things but still 80% of the respondents still felt safe within our park system. If but they don't know this in front of you.

Oh, shoot. All right. What do you Amy, are you seeing the document I'm walking through? Yeah. Yeah, I can see it. And I've also got it up in Okay. Laptop. We're good. They just have the residual up there from Yeah, I forgot to close that. That's the thing I learned last last time I did this or last month. Do you still see that same document? Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. I think last month I learned that I needed to close it out every time because when I reopened it, it would just want to go to the previous one that was shown. Um, but since we changed programs, she still saw. Okay. Overall system grade. Um, and that's where that 84% comes from. It's not that um 40% feel that we're above average. at least uh 84% feel um that essentially they grade our park system at a high C uh right now. Um neighborhoods needs being met. Um you can kind of combine those two and you know 78% feel that their needs within their community are being met. um themes. Um within um the feedback that we received um the three big themes were good variety and number of parks and facilities, accessible and conveniently located. Um parks are wellmaintained and cleaned were the top three that came up there. Uh criticism. Um again, nothing super surprising. Um uh concern with the um the restrooms uh needing improvement. Um park maintenance um and renovations to certain areas. Um and safety and encampments uh remain a concern. And then this next page is just kind of a

summary of summary of the of that piece. Yeah. So it kind of gives you a little bit of a snapshot. Yeah. Um different information but still summarizing what was there. Um and then the comments. Did I get Yeah. Um, so the top priorities uh within the community, um, this was kind of a little bit of a surprise to me, but I've talked to some people about it and they totally see that they that it makes sense to them, but I haven't been here when there was a skating facility. Um, city.

Yeah. But the most comments we received of anything was for roller skating facilities to be established. And so the way I look at that, you know, outdoor uh roller skating facility or flat surface facility would would be okay, let's say that 5% of the community roller skates. Um what else uh can we look at um utilizing this space for? And a great example we talked about tonight is bike polo. Yeah. um could you develop a outdoor skating rink that met the needs of individuals but is something also designed that bike polo could be on?

And now we've got an opportunity where we can combine some usage and now we meet the need of more um people within the community as opposed to developing a $200,000 um amenity that meets the need of less than 5% of the public. Um, so just that as kind of an example. Um, um, let's see. Pickle. Yeah.

Um, you know, you probably don't know this since you're new, but we used to have an indoor roller skate facility that um, closed in the last couple years. It got bought out by a storage facility and it was just above the Lowe's complex in East Birminton. So that may be that you said that may be the reason for these comments. You said we used to though, Jim, right? Yeah. Just my understanding is that was outside of the city limits. Yeah, it was. But Right. Right. Yeah. No. Yeah, I did learn that. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. That I'm just saying that might be the source of some of those comments because it was it it is. Um but I also think skating is coming back too. Yeah. Yeah. But I do think skate facilities um unfortunately they've you know gone by the wayside in a lot of communities. Um I think the interest is definitely coming back um for that. But yeah, that's definitely I think where a lot of those comments came from is at this point I think I think the 2020 plan maybe it hadn't been gone for very long and now it's been a little while and I think missing having it around.

Yeah, just I didn't know if you knew that. I did. Yeah, thanks. Okay.

Yeah. Um pickle ball courts. Uh obviously I don't think that's a surprise to anybody. Um and the note on there as well um looking at dedicated versus non-shared. Um an example uh that's going to be a battle for us for a while just because it's pickle ball's not slowing down is uh like Manette Park which is a neighborhood park meant to service the neighborhood. Um most mornings it's being utilized for pickle ball um by outside individuals that are coming and playing with locals, but you may have two um Breton um residents and 10 residents from somewhere else in the county. Um, and the good or the good or bad of a um of a um connection tool that's out there for um I think mostly they use it for pickle ball in this area is you can go online, see where pickle ball's being played. They'll actually list the level of play um if you're a 2.0 to a 5.0 know um who it is they're trying to round up and you can meet new people and play with them for 2 three hours um but play at your skill level. I think that's great. But the problem we run into is when we don't have dedicated facilities, now they're monopolizing. And we don't currently have any sort of rule in place um of etiquette of use, how long someone can be on a court uh before the general public can come in. And oh, by the way, if there's also a basketball and tennis court, now you're talking about three user groups trying to use the same space. And I'm really glad in the design process at Haden that we went away from the pickle ball lines and just left it

dedicated for basketball and then a couple smaller kids games. Uh because again, not that we don't want to support pickle ball, but uh we could be overrun very very quickly. Um the interesting thing is you know and that's that's underutilized retail facility they prop it up by putting pickle ball in there and then when the uh the business area recovers a little bit the city can shed itself. Sure. you know, so it's kind of a good way to keep retail facilities from running down

all the other business down with it. Yep. Yeah. It's Yeah. Pickle Ball Kingdom. Yep. Yeah. And I and I talk in terms of outside people coming in. Uh but we also need to remember economic impact. They're coming here. They're either going to gas up here or they're all going to go to lunch together. and that's 10 people that weren't here to have lunch before. So, it's it's not all negative. There's benefits uh that are that are built into um build into these systems and and what's going on. So, we just want them to spend the money in the right place and leave a donation before they leave.

Yeah. Yes. Um, okay. Pump track. Um, I think it's been a few years since you're going to see an article. If you look at the Kitsap Sun, they're doing an article on a pump track. Um, potential. It's kind of regaining some momentum. I think it's been about four years since I've really seen a lot of traction on that. And so, I've met with a few people in the community um about some potential options. There's nothing surprising hopefully, I don't think. In the article, I didn't really say anything. It was more like, yes, we're talking. We don't know where. Um but we've looked at some locations and um but pump track is something and I talk in terms of the pros plan is um I think remind me Colette pump track was noted in the 2020 um so it wasn't really a priority and and uh they got out and and um filled out the survey and so now pump track and and bike infrastructure for beginners and youth is something that's going to be in the pros plan as a as a priority. I'm sorry, Tim, just to interrupt. I'm not even sure what a pump track is. I guess I didn't grow up with one.

What is So, a pump track and originally they were they were um dirt um is so essentially the the concept behind a pump track is that you get your momentum going and then you get into a small course uh that has bumps um and and banked corners in it. And so you shouldn't have to um pedal while you're in it. Your momentum should feed you throughout the entire course. Interest.

Yeah. Yeah. Like I said, they they originally were a lot of dirt um courses because they were easy to set up um just the labor. Uh but anymore asphalt is kind of the way to go uh with those so it becomes more permanent. and then even taking it beyond that for landscaping. A lot of places now are just surrounding it with synthetic turf. Um so then you develop it and then you back away and then you just maintain as needed and there's not constant maintenance that's required of it. So it's like a roller coaster for bikes. That's great. I grew up on a farm so I didn't have any of this. Yeah. Yep. Oh, for sure. Yeah.

Yeah. Amy, like if you Googled this and if you like watched it online, like when the when the riders are going over like what you would call a jump, they don't necessarily leave the earth. They like they're literally pump they like pump their handlebars up and down while they're rolling over these and they're going to get speed off of that. It's pretty. It sounds fun. Yeah, it's cool. Yeah.

Um water recreation. This is another one that doesn't surprise me. um that there's interest in splash pads, you know, dedicated facilities where kids can interact and the systems are built for human hair and skin and all those good things.

Um and and um amenities for kids to play with. Um you know, things dumping over um but something dedicated to um water play. We have great decorative fountains that should be utilized for decoration and not necessarily always interactive. But um and then nature trails, nature and um access to trails obviously is something that was um within the top five for priority. Illehe Preserve is listed there because it was mentioned a few times, but um we don't manage Ilhi Preserve um but is something that's obviously utilized um adjacent to um Breton. Uh so common issues um obviously encampments, restroom closures. Um, I thought the closures part was kind of interesting because I don't I mean we have our restrooms open year round. Um, so the closures could be coming from maybe Warren Avenue uh if some if more people have noticed that recently. Uh, but typically if our restrooms are down, they're not down for very long um before we get them all reopened. Um um just comments related to um some suggestions. Um dog waste bags. Uh that's something we talked with public works about last week. Um they have a supply of them and would be happy to supply us with the stands. We would just put the post but they would order the the mut what do we call them?

Mut mittens. Mut mittens. every they're called different things all over. It's basically the company trash that we pick up. Yeah. Yeah. Um so we have the ability inhouse to public works already buys these things and so they said they would be willing to supply them to us the bags and uh the receptacles as well so we wouldn't have to go out and purchase them. Um so that's a good partnership that we can expand upon there. That's two today. What's that? That's two today. Yes.

Yeah. And then obviously security cameras uh is something that's suggested. Uh we have no cameras within our park system right now. Um but that's a a conversation that we're going to be having soon with our IT department because we do have some um areas that are hit fairly often um that we at least need to put a trail cam up or something. um to be able to help us uh with some recovery. And I know Brian spoke of it months ago of the stolen wire out at Pendergast. Well, it happened again. We don't have any out there. No. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So, it was hit again. Uh, public works has had about $20,000 worth of fencing, black final coated fencing stolen from multiple locations. And that's why we're a little scared with the cemetery right now because the project's not complete. Uh, but materials out there that it's going to walk away at some point. And we've warned the contractors

uh to make sure that they are aware. Um, yeah, it's crazy. Yep. Uh accessibility and inclusion for programming. Um you know, we're as we're upgrading and developing parks, we're making sure that we have accessibility included within that. Um and sensory friendly uh spaces, which is great.

Um senior center improvements. We had a a healthy group of seniors that um provided um paper copies of the survey. Um up HVAC we know is an issue that's needed there. They're bursting at the seams there. Um, so long-term again looking at, you know, where what is the future of the senior center and what might it look like whether it's there or at a a joint facility if we um develop a a rec center and senior center combined at some point. Um, and then the visibility, we kind of talked a little bit about um communication. Um, so we know that we need to uh do a better job on on communicating and getting things out to the public. Um, so and I'm the number one comment there. Most participants said they were unaware of current programs. And part of that, you know, could be I went in and talked to numerous uh middle school classes. I don't expect middle school kids to know off the top of their head uh what we offer. Uh but at the same time it could be parents too of um um students and we don't run a whole lot of um students or or young adult type programs. So um that's probably something we need to look at is look at what's already being offered out there and that'll be part of our general evaluation of our programs anyway. Figure out what's available in the community now and where are the missing holes. Um, so something like that, you know, gets identified in a survey and most likely it'll be followed up with a more in-depth survey related to programming uh that we can disseminate and get out there.

The senior, you have a membership, they have a membership uh like report that they've ever run to show where their members live. So, I don't know. Um I don't know if they've submitted a report before on that. Um but that's something we've talked about in terms of our fee structure. Um and in um Breton versus non-resident um and pricing structure

if there's larger satellite facility. Yep. Or right outside of town. Yeah. If there's an area Yeah. Yeah. I'm not sure. I'll I'll ask Lisa on that to see if she's ever run Yep. Yep. Yeah. And we should be able to because I think they all get entered into Recesk. So, we should be able to if they provide full addresses, we should be able to provide reports on a map and do that. Yeah. No, that's a good good thought.

Live in the city to be a member of law though. They just pay a higher fee. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. We have a number of non-resident members of the senior center. Yeah. If we were to relocate our Yeah.

group. Or if they're only all East Breton, what if there was something on what on the west side? would would they be more likely to utilize it? All right. And then uh again, just kind of general summary sheet. Uh we won't get into the quotes, but you received some quotes. Um these are just some summary of quotes, but these are what we'll utilize. um we'll go back and kind of pull out all quotes uh that we find and utilize that within the update to the to the pros plan um based on the different sections. So obviously like

Pentagast specific questions uh we'll plan to put those in the Pendergas page and um a lot of our comments and there's some general um more professional type things like the benefits of type statements that we'll put in there too and pull some newer stuff. But a lot of I think our comments in the current plan are 2013 to 2019 or so. So um time to get some of those updated. But so that's kind of that there. Great stuff. Yes. Commissioners have any questions or That's funny. I didn't even go by the order. I just realized that

I just jumped into the goals and objectives and let's just go.

Yeah. Thank you. didn't report to that one. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it was. Yeah, some of those were weird because it seemed like um they were simpler. I get like further down maybe people only got through they got burnt out after.

But I think our overall fully completion rate from really when the survey first went out to the end hovered right around 70%. Yeah. Yeah. It was a 14 and and on average it took 14 minutes to to complete the survey. [Music] [Music] Commissioner comments. Let's start online. You got anything for us tonight? Um I'm sorry. What was the question? Uh just we're at commissioner's comments. Do you got anything you want to talk about?

Oh yeah. just um I apologize, but the next meeting I have booked a cruise and so I won't be available to attend. Oh, okay. Life's tough. Sorry, buddy. I know. Sorry about that. So, we're just all living vicariously, Jim. Yeah, right. Yeah. Yeah. It's like I said, it just happened, you know. Yeah. Set postcards. Hey, thanks for letting us know, Commissioner. Appreciate it. All right.

Commissioner Waterman, anything for us? Uh just a comment. So um I think I mentioned earlier I had a big birthday and uh I had friends from college coming from all over the country and um we visited a number of parks. So these are people who live in Minneapolis and Boston and San Diego. Um great park systems, big cities. And uh they had a chance to check out Evergreen Park. Um, I took them on a little walking tour of the pocket parks in Manette and um and then also my closest park which is NAD Marine. And I I will just tell you they were so impressed and what they said was, you know, for a city the size of Breton, they just were amazed at the facilities we have um for outdoor use. So, so I felt pretty good about that and I think everybody else should too um especially our parks and recck staff. So, just wanted to give you that that feedback from um from folks who don't live here. And I will tell you, I took them to Olympic National Park and um the weather was really bad, but uh yeah, they didn't really say the same thing, so just you know.

Awesome. Thanks, Commissioner. All right, Commissioner Wel, I don't have anything. All right, Commissioner Dawson. Every time I come to these meetings, I'm just really a lot of our staff and we've been pretty excited about kind of revitalization and thinking about what the future might be for just really I I really am excited about you coming in and I'm also excited about really what your staff has been doing all along. I think that is amazing. Yeah.

You know, because you hear all you hear all this stuff going on and then you think about the human beings that are dealing with and making it happen. Yeah. No, I appreciate that. Good.

Yeah. Uh the only thing I had I had a training at the conference center about two weeks ago and uh on a couple of the days I was doing training um we had a crew out in the plaza outside the um conference center and the guys had up all their proper signage that they were that they were working. They were wearing all their PPE while they were working and I was just very impressed and I just wanted to give that feedback. Uh hopefully you could let them know that I appreciate them and that they were working safely. Hopefully pass that along. Yeah, we knew you were there was all staged. The only one that I know was

we do we do that for the mayor too when he's the cracks out the bricks. It was very tedious work that they were doing. They were very methodical on it. Yeah, it was appreciated. Well, we roll out red carpet. No, as you know, I mean, there's a lot of detail to some of the areas that they manage and it sometimes it takes until June for them to be able to get to them, unfortunately. But, uh, yeah. No, they work hard. Y, they're making, you know, they're out there running. They're making noise. They were letting it be known, but had all their TPU.

Cool. Guys, good.

No, it's great. And, you know, from a maintenance and operations standpoint, obviously, you know, we want to put a good product out there and we want to do good things within our parks for our citizens here at Breton. Um, but with that, when it comes to the maintenance and operations side of things, you know, that's uh the Debbie Downer end of things, if you will, is that, you know, we we do run into issues like vandalism and and age of buildings and things like that. And trying to uh, you know, maintain those at a safe and cleanly facilities, you know, takes a lot of work, but it also takes a lot of money and it t and it doesn't come with people or money when we develop these. also some, you know, having uh the commission be advocates for this too and have your voice heard is very important to this department. Um

yeah, even just reopening Haden last week. Great. But at the same time, you're like, we haven't had to we haven't really done much maintenance. Yeah. Or had to over the last while. And now this is just something we're adding on to the staff. And even right before we opened, it's like, you know, there's work that needs to be done there still, but we wanted it to look good. We wanted everything to be clean cut and and there was additional work that they had to put in to get things done, but I know. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, they work hard. Y with that meeting.

Thank you. Good luck to Ryan. Thank you. Byebye, Amy. Bye. We'll see you.