Parks and Recreation Commission - Regular Meeting

Welcome uh everyone. I'll do that again. I'd like to call this meeting to order and uh welcome everyone to the city of Emerton Parks and Recreation uh Commission meeting. Today is Tuesday, December uh 2nd. Thank you everyone for being here. Um first up on our agenda tonight, we have approval of minutes from our September 23rd meeting. Um hopefully commissioners have had a chance to review those. Um, I will make a motion to approve the minutes as uh they were written. I make a motion to second. All right. All in favor of approving uh the minutes from the September 23rd minute uh September 23rd meeting, please say I. I.

I think I have to abstain. Ben, you were okay. You were not. Okay. I'm sorry. I don't I didn't remember that. I'm sorry. Okay. Okay. Well, that so that will pass unanimously with three commissioner members voting I and what a abstension. All right. Thank you, Commissioner Waterman. All right. Next up, we have approval of tonight's agenda. Any commissioners have any questions or comments on tonight's agenda? We move that we accept the tonight's agenda for December 22nd or 2nd, 2025. All right. I will second that motion. Uh, all in favor of approving tonight's agenda, please say I. I. I. I.

All right. That will pass unanimously. Thank you. All right. Next up, we have public comment. So, this is uh folks here tonight. If uh they would like to uh speak, um please just identify yourself and I will give you the floor. If not, if you just want to hang out and see what we're doing, that's fine as well. Okay. So, we're in the agenda section now. We are in public comment section right The owl's not working. Okay. So, yeah, if there is any more use maybe so not working. Yeah, I'm the scout master for the troop that is located in the park

and I remember dealing with the other two individuals and thankfully that's a no longer. Um, I've heard good stuff about the leadership now, um, for the parks and so obviously some things will change at the park and that will change how we do business. So, not completely, but mostly that's why I'm here. And my name is Rob Miller, by the way. I should probably Yes. Well, thanks for being here, Rob. Yeah, thank you. Sure. Yeah, sure.

All right. Anyone else have any anything else? All right. Thank you guys for being here. Appreciate it. All right. Anyone Do we have anyone else? Uh other than commissioners and staff, I think it's just us. All right. All right. Well, let's move into uh staff reports and updates. Uh the first one up, we have the Forest Ridge Park update. Director, is this something that you're speaking to tonight? Uh, we'll have Brian lead this one, but Brian, on your video setting, um, on the bottom left, uh, click the arrow up and see if the owl is an option for your video.

It's on there now. You're you're speaking through the L, right? But like I don't All I'm seeing is you. I don't see anybody else in the room. It's not picking up other people in the room like it usually does. Gotcha. Yeah. I'm thinking maybe that right there. Personalized audio isolation. That's audio. If you want video, you know. There we go. So, with within the Zoom app, you should be able to click up on the video and it might give you integrated webcam option or owl option. Hey, there we go. Now, we're here.

Let me do some work on my end here. Yeah, I get rid of your background. That's what I've got to do. Whoops. That's my bad. On the fairy. It's kind of There you go. There we go. Look at your it now, Brian. I'm not it yet. Okay. So, first up, we have a Forest Ridge Park update. Yeah. Okay. Um, as you know that we have placed some rocks. uh at least in my um my view of the park and my my time of visiting there, it seems like there's been uh less presence of people there.

Correct. Um we've had some folks move around some rocks and and we kind of figured that was going to happen. But to give you an update on where we're at with the gates, I spoke with uh Jeff this morning and all of the um materials have come in. They've already been uh laser cuted, laser cut, and uh degased u and pretty much laid out. So, we're at the fabrication uh part of things. Uh he just got pulled off on an emergency on a different city job. though he's going to wrap that up for a different department and then he's right back on our travel again. So perfect.

Um still coming soon. So that's kind of the update that I have for Forest Ridge at this time. Okay. Any other commissioners have any u questions, comments? Did um Carlos mention to you I texted him about those signs that are the road going up to Hartford. There was some um saw horses there that says blocked. Yes. Did you Did they find where they got thrown into the bushes? Yes, it did. Okay. Thank you for that. Yeah. Uh anybody online? Commissioner Watermer, Commissioner Dawson, anything online? No, it's just great to see it moving forward. Yes.

Yes. Okay. All right. Thanks for that update, Brian. You bet. So, next up we have uh the pros plan update. Okay. And you can see the screen, right? We sure can, director.

Okay, perfect. So, obviously, we've been uh making it through our process and checking things off. Um, first of all, I didn't apologize for not being there. You don't want me there right now. I've been sick the last couple days. But hopefully, we'll be back um and doing doing well for the presentation tomorrow night. Um, if not, you might get some interesting things out of me on medication. So, it could it could make it really fun. Uh, so we've been making it through the pros plan. Uh, obviously all the work that we've done u this fall submitted it to SEPHA um the SEIPA checklist to the department of uh community development for their review and comment. Have had some conversations with public works uh regarding some of the mapping. um the timing of a lot of our um mapping and and various plans within the city. Um you wish they would all coincide kind of similar to uh community development going through their uh update to the comp plan last year. It would have been great if we did it simultaneously. So in their comp plan last year, they referenced the 2020 uh pros plan uh just because that was the most recent approved plan at the time. Uh same thing goes with the mapping for uh some of the engineering uh maps that were provided back in 2007 as far as uh trail systems and and connecting paths. Um basically the the bike ped plan uh they're looking at updating that but it won't be started before the pros plan moves forward. So, uh, the current maps that we have in place are really the what's there and what has been approved. Um, and we'll look at, uh, doing a potential amendment once they update those because there are a significant number of maps in the pros plan that

come from, uh, engineering. Uh, they just don't have them approved or or worked on at this point. So we'll have to continue which is in the plan right now continue um with the 20 uh 2007 maps that are there but otherwise internally that's really the kind of the major conversation that I've had um with with city departments. Uh we uh had a study session in uh November with city council. Um so went and presented to them um about 45 minutes to an hour. Received a few questions. Um councelor Mockler uh provided some comments related to um some conservation and environmental uh aspects of our goals. And so those will be updated prior to uh the plan being officially approved on the 17th. But tomorrow will be an opportunity for uh the public to be able to provide comment. It won't necessarily be an interaction uh between staff and council as far as questions. The study session was really their opportunity to do that. Tomorrow I'll have a presentation for uh probably about 20 25 minutes or so on the pros plan. Very similar to what you've seen the last few months from me. Um really more of a summary as we know a 200page document. It's hard to summarize. So, we'll key in on on the public process that went through uh the the that the pros plan went through um what was taken into account um and some of the maybe some major u changes or additions that that we are um proposing for the 2026, but otherwise we won't go um page by page at all on the plan tomorrow. Um, like I said, I'll create a a presentation and then it'll be an opportunity for the public to ask comments uh at the meeting during that public hearing tomorrow. Um,

this is one that if we have council me or commission members that are able to be present would be great. Um, not that you need to get up and comment if you feel obligated to um uh would really appreciate it. Uh former commission member uh Jim uh sent an email to uh council last week which was awesome just sharing his support and the amount of work that the commissioners put into the uh process and into the plan and that it's a well-written plan and his opinion. Um I didn't reach out and ask him to do that. He did that on his own which was awesome. Um but yeah, any anybody that can make it tomorrow would be great. Um the council meeting starts at 5:30 at the Norm Dicks building and uh we are essentially the second item on the agenda. There'll be a brief presentation about the budget. Um and I'll get into that a little bit later during the budget discussion, but um I would suspect that I'll be up and talking probably by oh 6 6:15 or so is my guess. Um, so if you can make it and you're you're going to be a little bit late, no problem. Um, but yeah, so the public hearing is tomorrow and then um two weeks after that will be uh is the scheduled adoption of the plan. So there won't be a presentation necessarily at that. Uh council will um provide comments at that point if they have any. Uh but most likely will open it up for uh approval as long as there aren't any major questions or concerns from their end. So,

any questions on on pros? Uh, director, do you know if the mayor's already seen the plan? He has. Yep. Yeah. Okay. Yep. Yeah. I've provided it to him and discussed uh especially items that coincide with his um oh with his uh his mayor priorities um that he sets. So just to make him aware of various projects that coincide with with what he sees as um key items that need to be addressed.

Yeah. I I see somebody with their hand raised online. Um just to let you know, this really isn't if you've got public comment, this really isn't the uh time for that. Um not I didn't know when they joined, but just wanted to throw that out there. Do any um commissioners have any other questions or comments on on the pros plan update? No. Thanks. All right. Thank you, director. All right. Next up, we have uh 2026 budget update.

Okay. And I won't take real long on this. U just as a reminder, uh 2025 was the first year of a two-year budget for the city. Uh city's never really done a two-year budget process before, so this was kind of new. Um I've done them before and uh every everything has uh great intentions, whether it's a one or twoear. Um so it's been kind of an interesting process for this second year. I think a lot of people have realized it's hard to just copy and paste. um what was in the previous year just because you have a full 12 months of changes that have occurred. Um obviously negotiations with unions um staffing changes um a lot of different internal changes to budgets have occurred. Uh but really the whole process this year for the 2026 budget has been pretty streamlined. um this the 2025 year was um the budget was approved uh essentially at a deficit. So they ran uh this year's budget uh using reserves um and this next year is balanced based on the use of reserves as well. With that said um they do take into account um opportunities where we do have uh staffing changes and delays within those staffing. So there are some savings that come throughout. Um but really um it's you're still going to have to pull from the reserves. So, one thing that I do know that council is going to focus on uh this next year um that they didn't have as many discussions on this year is looking at what are some ways that the city can look at addressing um different types of revenues that they're not uh taking advantage of at this point.

whether those are statemandated revenues that the city has the ability to um to levage leverage for or if those are, you know, various local taxes, those types of things. Uh they're going to look at any opportunity they can to try to uh increase some revenues into the city without looking towards um making any sort of uh program reductions or staffing reductions. Um so uh they will be like I said getting a a presentation tomorrow um from the finance department on what the proposed budget looks like. Um as far as our department for this next year uh the major changes that we have is last in in this current fiscal year in 2025 uh we did not have any proposed rates and fee changes. So I've gone through all of those and we did propose uh some changes. Uh most everything was about 3 to 5% increase. So nothing astronomical or we were rounding some numbers off that made more sense. Uh those types of things to try to increase some of our revenues but to try to also um stay competitive in in the various markets that we're involved in. So, council did approve those rate changes uh in November and so those are going into effect um uh starting in uh on January 1. So that also includes uh rate changes at cemetery, rate changes at uh Gold Mountain Golf uh complex. Um so any rates and fees that are managed within our department um did see some changes. Um, like I said, nothing nothing astronomical um at this point that we've we've addressed more just kind of keeping up

with um trying to keep up with inflation uh for the most part. So um department capital uh is something that um we aren't taking on a lot of new projects this next year. We have a few projects, as you're you're well aware, that are currently in motion. Um, and a lot of this last year was spent on the development of our six and 20 year capital plans uh as opposed to implementing anything right away. But we're going to try to take advantage of any opportunity we have um to um match something that is in our pros plan that we may not have budgeted for, but there could be um some funding available through grants. and Colette will speak to that later on when we're talking about the dog park. Uh so we don't have any new capital projects that are planned at this point for 2026. Uh but we can still do a mid-year adjustment and include those um into our budget. Uh but the current capital that we have in 25 that are incomplete will just roll over into 26 so that we can get those those projects completed. Um, and it really give us an opportunity this winter as a commission to talk about priorities um, and where we want to uh, look at um, as far as those those key um, projects that we want to hit um, moving forward in 2728 especially. Uh, let's see. So, yeah, just kind of talked about some city general city bud budget notes. Um and then the budget meetings uh council had one work session in November. Um it did note that there was going to be two separate um no uh two separate um budget meetings. Uh but they decided especi

mostly because it's a year two of a two-year budget that they only wanted to meet on November 13th. So the November 14th meeting did not happen. And then they did already hold their first um public hearing on November 19th. Uh their original plan was to adopt the budget um December 17th. Um but with a few council members coming to the end of their terms, they wanted to uh get it locked in so then they could submit to the county the adopted budget and not have to try to get that processed. The last couple weeks in December, they received very few comments. um at their public hearing on the 19th. So then they chose to move the adoption of that budget to tomorrow. And so that's what we will follow at the meeting tomorrow. Uh we there's essentially two items on the agenda tomorrow. The adoption of the budget and then the pros um public hearing.

Tim, I got a question. I'm going to venture to say that the the answer is yes, but I wanted to just confirm. Are uh athletics going up as well for fees next year? Softball, basketball, uh, pickle ball. Yes. Yeah. Okay. I mean, yeah, pretty much across the board. Um, how about like rental fees here at like Sheridan or say, um, yeah, every single Yeah, every single room. Um, and again, I'm talking 3 to 5%, so small some small changes. Um, as you know, our our adult athletes, um, you know, any change is tough.

U, so we'll we'll make sure and I'll I'll join Scott in, um, coaches meetings, manager meetings, and help explain reasonings for those um, and support him on that. Um, yeah, shelter rentals, um, plots, everything. Um, our senior center, we are uh we are upping our annual fees. Again, not by a whole lot. I think we I think right now um an annual membership to the senior center is $20. It will now be 25. Um and so it'll we'll work on getting some various marketing out there. Uh that helps explain the the reasons for our changes. Good.

Great. All right. Any commissioners have any other questions or comments on what the director's uh presented on budget? Thanks, Tim. Appreciate it. Yeah. All right. Next up, we have commissioner openings and recruitment. Okay. And Ben, feel free to to chime in, too, but I figured we could tag team on this one. Yeah.

Um, so we had we received six applications, which was awesome, uh, for the commission. Um, we set up interviews. Uh, we had five that ended up interviewing. Uh, we held those the week, uh, I think it's toward the towards the end of the week of, um, like around, uh, November 20th, 21st, I think around there is when we held those. So, I thought we had some really great people uh that applied um various passions and uh open minds and and looking at locations of where they represent within the community. Obviously, trying to keep this commission diverse and uh working on uh you know, finding some new members that um we think can be strong collaborators to the group. So, um so we held those meetings. I have one other one I haven't told you about yet, Ben, that's reached out. Uh, previous commission member that's interested in coming back. Hasn't been on the commission for about uh 15 uh years or so, but has interest. It's actually one of the first people I met when I came to town, set up a meeting with me, has a strong passion for for dog parks. So, that's a project obviously we're we're looking at. Um but uh yeah, so we currently have three openings. Uh one potentially anticipated. Haven't heard on that yet. Uh we may have a a longdistance traveler that's planning to come back because wherever she's at is is horrible and she misses us probably. Uh but the plan, the ultimate plan is to have everybody on board and at least have six members uh ready to go for our uh end of November meet or end of January meeting. And so most likely our new members uh will make recommendations

to the mayor this month and it'll go in front of council probably in early um January for um for council consideration sometime in mid January before our next meeting. But yeah, Ben, any comments?

Yeah, I just appreciated you uh even reaching out to me and offering me the chance to be part of this. Um I unfortunately I couldn't make it in person. Um but I was able to uh do it over teams with the director and yeah just like he's um he talked about we had some some folks that are definitely uh names will be be put forward for sure. Um yeah I thought the process went very well. Unfortunately we uh we had one applicant that um we didn't show up and rescheduled and then they didn't show up again. So they will not be joining the commission. tell you that. Um, but uh yeah, I thought it went I thought it went very well and uh I look I look forward to uh having some uh some new faces at our meetings.

Cool. So, uh what's what's next? Uh we got one more maybe then, director. Yeah. So, I'll uh I'll chat with you about that and get up get a time set up um to have that conversation and then um we will decide who we would like to have um all for me to take forward and have a discussion with the mayor. That sounds great. Any commissioners have any other questions or comments on how this process has gone or No, excited. Yeah, it's great. I mean, it's good we even had applications. It's been We've had openings for a long time. So, hope we get them all filled up.

All right. Uh All right. Next up, we have a new business. So, uh it's the Penerg Regional Park Field Improvement Project. Yes. I'll take this one. All right. Thanks, Glad, please.

So, this concept is a 30% concept drawing that was uh um completed in April of 2023. This project has been a big priority for the city for a long time. Um, so this is just an FYI. We're we're moving it forward um with with the uh same consultant Bruce and Associates who um designed this concept. So it's actually a change order to their contract. It's going to city council um December 17. Uh the project h had already been identified as um being funded within our parks capital fund or plan for this year. We just hadn't gotten to it yet with all of our other projects. So this will take the um concept from 30% to 90% get us a little bit closer in terms of knowing what our cost estimates are going to be.

Um potentially looking at phasing the project. Um it's it's At this point when it was estimated the cost estimate 30% it was like 3.3 million and I'm sure it's gone up since then. So um yeah so we uh yeah just moving moving the project forward essentially is what we're doing. So design so next up is council on the 17th to just show them what we got going on. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We're just we're just uh increasing the scope of work to the to the contract that's already funded. Yeah. Um cool. Yeah. Exciting.

Right. Any commissioners have any questions or comments on what's going on up at Pennas? Good stuff. Looks great. All right. Uh next up we have kids at Lake Park renovation project. Uh some playground concepts.

Yeah. So we had 11 concepts that we um got uh feedback on through survey monkey. We had 114 responses um during that time window. And uh the combined results we kind of asked uh what is your favorite playground? And then besides your top choice, what is the other one ones that you like? And um the combined total 66% uh liked option F. Um, and so we looked at and then the next uh highest one was 44%. So it was it was by by far and away the the the preferred concept. Um, next slide, but when we asked in an open-ended question, what play features would you like to see in the future playground swings was the top top choice. Not, you know, that's

that's not not surprising. There's no other kind of play equipment that really equates to that feeling of being able to swim through the air like that. The challenge too. The challenge is that it is a small footprint. You know, the playground that upland area of Kitap Lake is is pretty tight. You know, it's a destination park actually.

Yeah. I mean, that upland area had never been developed before. This is the first time. Um, and there just wasn't a lot of space for a playground, but we wanted to provide some. So, our next task is um, we were hoping to have a concept to show tonight, but we're still massaging it. We're working with the playground rep of that concept F and seeing what we can do as far as adding swings and what that's hoping we can keep the flavor of what is existing there. Maybe just uh, I think in the next slide it shows uh, the preferred concept large. So taking away the the climbing rock and some of those those rocks in front, keeping the rest of the structure hopefully intact and seeing if we can fit swings. So we're still massaging that. So we should have something for you to look at the next meeting.

What do um what are we thinking, Colette? Like like two swings like if we were going to do Yeah. Yeah. Just one bay of two bay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. It's just tied on space. Yeah. Do they get to pick the colors of the equipment too or is that just a set? No, we can pick the color. So, um yeah, I would um like to see some some different color options. Yeah, I'll be bringing those to you as well. Yeah, great. That's awesome. Yeah, it's exciting. What's the uh ballpark on cost on that? Uh 230. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Right. And this these are the are I'm sorry, is this the same folks that just did Haden?

No, it's a different playground manufacturer that we've never used before. Okay. Yeah. Um, our last six playgrounds by far and away landscape structures have been the one voted in and they have really good equipment. But yeah, they were they were in the the running as well. But no, this is your Burke Bule is the is the company and there is some equipment and Brian's familiar with the with the company that it's been installed in in um kids county parks before. So yeah. Okay. Awesome. Awesome. This held up all right, Brian. I mean, in your experience. Yeah. Yeah. Something new. Do you know where they're at? Do you companies?

Um, do you know how this is right across the water? Yeah. I think Yeah. I don't know where it's manufactured, but Yeah. local rep. Yeah. Well, all right. That's exciting. And they were they were good to work with. Good. All right. Any commissioners have any other questions or comments on Kitab Lake? Yeah, exciting stuff. We got a lot going on. Yeah, we do. Yeah.

Only other thing I'll add is just so you're aware, um, as part of the the feedback process, we did we were able to work with the school district and get the survey into Kitap Lake Elementary School, so those that are affected right in that area. And it went through the Kitsap Lake neighborhood group. Um, so that that active group that they have there. So, we really tried to reach out and and get feedback from those that'll be using it more day-to-day than those that are just there uh for boating. Yeah. No, thank you for adding that, director. That that's smart. Sounds good.

All right. Uh last up in new business, we have a proposed Stephenson Canyon off leash area.

Yeah. So before I get into the survey results, um we have an opportunity to apply for a department of commerce grant. Um and every so often our lobbyist, city lobbyist comes to us and say, you know, we're in a good position to apply for some money and this is the district that we should that we should be looking at. So for the past two sessions, it's been in the 35th district, which has been Kitsap Lake area. we've been successful at getting funding to help with that project. This time they said focus on the 23rd district which is East Breton. Um and also as you know as being commissioners uh centralized dog park has been a high priority uh for the past three pros plans. So about 16 years or 18 years um that it's been a high priority. We've never identified where in the city it could go. Um, but Stephson Canyon, the property, I mean, the city the city has had it for 67 years, it's never been like officially programmed for recreational use. You know, besides the small trails, informal trails, which are limited, unlike Forest Ridge and Madrona trails that have some like longer loops, there are flatter stuff Canyon is a canyon. So, you're kind of going down and then back up. I think it's used mainly by people kind of using it as a cross through, you know, like they live in the neighborhood and walk through. That's how I've used seen it used. I've seen some people like walking their dog and stuff there, but it's not it's not a very active place. Um, and I would love to be able to make it more active and having an off leash dog area is one way of doing that. So, um, the grant application um that we would submit is

in January is the timing. We wanted to get feedback from the public. What do you think? We've never asked the public and we would we've asked the public, you know, do you want to adopt centralized park? Yes, but we never asked them what do you think about um steps and cannon. So, we put together a little video so we could show where we're talking about and um based you did you guys get to see the video that asked people to provide the survey? It was on our Facebook. No, I'm sorry. Okay. Sorry. Do you want me to try to Yeah. It's cute. It's another video of me. Yeah.

You're famous. I'm starting to get recognized in public. Uh oh. Better take off. Yeah, you're that you're that guy with the duck umbrella. Yeah, definitely a target. Yeah, that that was funny the reactions that we got. Let me know. Let me get it pulled up here. So the other thing about Stson Canyon is it's primarily been used as sort of a lay down area and for maintenance. You know, green houses are there. So it hasn't had a lot of like public use um for that reason as well.

Definitely. Um is that what we're still really using? I haven't been up there in a long time. But we haven't uh public works needed to use the lower area as a layown area when they were doing some Yes, I remember that. Yes. Years ago, but since then we cleaned it up a lot. Yeah. So, it's been cleaned up. Nice. We can see that director. Okay. Let me know if you can't hear it. Okay. Yeah, the music's not going. I cannot hear it. Okay. I can hear it on my end. Yeah. Let me fix that.

Speaker. And this is like the main entrance I'm looking at here where you drive into the stairs. I see the industry listed there. Yeah. Yeah. What road is that off of? Thank you. Yeah. I was getting shared. Yeah. Did you hear that? No. No. Okay. Damn. That's that very first left going off when you come off the war break. Yeah, is that where the will they have the flowers growing?

Up there. Yeah, they're probably all back in there now. They've all been taken down for the winter. Yeah. Yeah, I think I remember how to do this. Just a second. That's probably quite the job. Clut. Do you know how long it takes them to round all those up? All those flowers. Oh, yeah. I mean, that's a major problem. See if I can do it. Um,

I think I think I got it. I just need to It's in the screen when I go to screen share. I think Yeah, share sound. There it is. That's the one I kept screwing up for the PIP meeting. Oh, okay. Okay. So, if it doesn't work now, I can't I don't know what to tell you. Okay. You can see the screen now. Yes, we can. You want to start? Director of parks and recreation for the city of Breton. We do have sound. Yes, we do. Yes, we can. We got sound. Yes.

Hi, everyone. I'm Tim Barker, director of parks and recreation for the city of Breton. Today we're here at Stephenson Canyon evaluating this open space area for an off leash dog park. A centralized dog park was identified and as a high priority in our recent update to our park recreation and open space plan, which is scheduled for adoption by city council this next month. We'd love to hear what you think. Please take a short survey and share your thoughts about developing an off leash area here. The results will be reviewed at our December 2nd Parks and Recreation Commission meeting. Thanks for taking a few minutes to share your input. We really appreciate it. Nice.

Yeah. So, it's on Facebook like it. How many people uh did we hear from on that survey? 221. Wow. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I just closed it yesterday to get the results together. Um, so Colette, we're talking about that lower area. Yeah. That was used as a layown area during the project like you were talking about. Yeah, we let public works come in there. It was former like housing project um with that culdeac there. Um,

did you guys get the survey results that I sent you in today? Yeah, this is basically a duplication of that. You know, getting getting a sense of how familiar everyone is with Stephsson County, how often they visit, do they own their dog? Um, I kind of have a summary of these of this information in a next slide. So, let's just keep moving so you can kind of go through these more quickly. um finding out how likely they would be to use it, how supportive they are of of um adding an off leash dog area, and then um what benefits do you think it would bring? A um

obviously recreation, exercise for dogs, social opportunities for dog owners, activating this space. A lot of people said, you know, um just they don't feel safe to go there now. So having having some activation um in that was the increased park use and community engagement.

Um what concerns I mean these are these are kind of the most of the concerns that I saw other than the ones that were specific to the site like concerns about um impacting the wildlife or impacting the stream or concerns about impacting the steep slopes. Most of the other concerns were kind of more just general dog park concerns. you know, aggressive dogs or or dog owners that aren't picking up after their dog, that sort of thing. And and so I think the key thing here would be um to develop like a volunteer group that could kind of help us with the the management and sort of the

the you know, having having them part of maybe it's a a committee that helps us design it. you know, if this goes through that they can kind of be part of the development and kind of take some ownership of it. That'll help us with that. Was that mentioned in the survey and hoping to have a

No, not it was not mentioned in the survey. I wish we would have to see like what is your interest in in being part of that. Yeah. But I think that if this project moves forward, we can we've got opportunities to reach out for people and say see if they want to be involved. Um uh let's keep moving on the next slide. Um and then what features would they like to see and you know I I see this as a kind of what are all the features and then like like let's look at how we could phase this based off of the funding opportunities that we have. But sure um obviously fencing is the big one. I mean that's it's going to require a lot of fencing for kind of the area that

I have in mind. Um and then uh water having drinking water and or water for can maybe a dog wash area. Yeah. Um seating and uh potential you know there is some shade there with trees but there could be a shelter there in the future I think would be would be well used. um not as much interest in like the agility play equipment than I thought, but um people just people just really need space and I think that the walkability being being that it's in such a you know dense neighborhood space there there was a lot of

um oh that I lived near there or people would say oh I live near there I'm not sure how I feel about that you know because they live if you live next to a public open space that hasn't really been utilized for a long time you know there is going to be a big change there. Um so the next next slide kind of gives my synopsis of kind of the looking at the survey results. So 76% support it you know 62 strongly 13 somewhat um 60% 62% said that they would be very or somewhat likely to use it and then we know 78% own a dog. So based on that seems to kind of those those results align with what we also see for people wanting a centralized dog park in the city. Um the top benefits identified by by the um survey respondents. So we've kind of gone over these. Um, so many of the comments though said that they think that it would reduce off leash dog off leash dogs conflicts in other parks. If there was a centralized dog park, maybe you'd see less people using other parks as off leash areas. Um, and then yeah, like I said, providing a central walkable amenity that's that's kind of missing in that area. Um the major concerns were um impacts to wildlife, impact to vegetation, steep slopes, erosion, creek proximity. Um most of those can be addressed through the the the design and and the location. Some of the other uh concerns, like I said, the more of like more of how you manage it, kind of the social concerns. The other big impact to the neighborhood um you know barking noise is yeah that's kind of would would would definitely be

an impact and then um parking limitations we uh there's Lewis Avenue is is a low volume road um in order to get um that lower area. Maybe we can go to the next slide because I have a map on this next slide to show. So this is the this is Lewis Street here. So the area that we're looking at where Tim was walking is this this open area here. To access it, you would need to we I think we would direct the if this were to proceed direct most of the traffic here to Birch Street.

There's um a parking lot here potentially could be expanded and then you walk down a trail to get to that open area. So, it's not there's it's not accessible if you're using a wheelchair. So, the accessible entrance would be this Lewis Street uh uh area where there could be an accessible uh parking stall at that lower because that's how ste because of how steep it is. Okay.

Yeah. And in fact, because it's so steep, if there were this were to go through, I would recommend that the bullpin gate entry be up at the top. So you can let your dogs go in and have that have that trail actually fence stop because it you it's not something you want to navigate with excited dogs on a leash kind of pulling you down, you know. Um so so these are kind of the recommendations to site it in this already already disturbed open space. So we're avoiding this. You can see the contour lines here around the creek. Those are the steep slopes and we're completely avoiding that steep down there.

Um uh fully fence stubblegated entries. Um you know we don't use this upper area. We have a a structure up here that we used to sort our like our bark with our um playground chips and stuff and we don't use that anymore. So that it's something that we've been wanting to remove and that will open up some area that there could be a small enough space for like a small dog off leash area up there and then the large dog area below because that's something that was also requested is having that separation. Yeah. Um

nice. Uh yeah, there's some there's some drainage issues you could see in the video. There was some standing water there that that could have to be addressed. Um um kind of the amenities that that uh kind of address the top concerns are the um waste stations, receptacles, year-round drainage solutions, shade, seating, water, and then like I said um the parking kind of mitigating the impacts to that Lewis Street trail head would be to direct the traffic um up to that Birch Street trail head. And I think that it would also provide a lot of people that could just walk there too that would in the area would would use it.

Um, is there parking at the um like where you were talking about where the handicap parking would be? Is there already is there pavement over there? Um, picture. No, this this would uh this there's pavement. Are you talking about over here? Yes. Yeah, there's a road and then we would need to create like an aa spot on the road. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. There's currently like a chain across it. Yeah. That would need to be modified. But if but we did that then we'd have ad we'd be like ADA compliant to where those folks could Yeah. We'd have access at the lower pretty level there actually when you that area.

Yeah. Yeah. So I mean the it is the the there is a crown to the road. So to actually make it ADA compliant will require overlay there, but um it's it's doable for sure. Yeah. Colette, uh what's ne what's next? Well, so we're looking for the commission's recommendation as to whether or not to apply for funding for this project.

Any commissioners have any other questions or comments on this? been to the canyon before. So, how isolated is it? Is it It sounds like you would park and then you walk down a hill and is it visible? I mean, if you're a young woman with a dog wanting to take your dog off leash,

you're definitely in the woods. Um, but at the lower area, if you want to stay visible to the upper upper area, I don't know if you probably can't see where I'm pointing to, but yeah, where where the cursor is, there's visibility from the upper parking lot down to down to the culde-sac at that spot if you wanted to stay visible right there. Yeah. But yeah, you're definitely in in a wooded area. Okay. Yeah, the parking area the parking area is pretty wide open view looking down into that spot.

Okay, great. Thank you. Um, also, uh, what is the status of the dog area at Pend Pendergrass Park? Is that still I have been gone a few months as you know. Is that still something that it's being used by residents for off leash dog play? Yes. Yes, it is. Yeah. But still open and that's more, you know, on the, you know, way other side of town from where we're talking about right here.

Yeah. The reason I was asking it's I wondered if we would get some comments from the community if we just had one space, but we have that as well. They're in opposite parts of the city, which is nice. Um. Yes. Okay. All right. Thank you. Yeah. No, thank you, Commissioner Waterman. Commissioner Dawson, you have something, please. Yeah, I just curious, you mentioned Amy mentioned Pendergas Park. What's our experience with the dog park there in terms of of uh costs and sanitation and things?

Brian, did you want to speak to that as far as a maintenance side? From a maintenance side, we we do repair work to the fencing and and any damage that's done to the park. Currently, um I'm working with a group uh called KAP Leadership who is wanting to take on that park as kind of a sponsorship

and raise some funds to do some improvements there. So, that's kind of in the works, but nothing uh totally official on that yet. Uh but yeah, it's a highly used area and being on opposite sides of the city, I think would benefit the citizens. Um but as for maintenance, we would probably look to partner with a nonprofit uh dog group to to to help manage that because we're we're not set up as M to to manage that.

Yeah, I think that that'd be great. It also involves um more citizens in the parks department. I like any opportunities for that. Colette had mentioned, you know, the idea of maybe volunteers helping with policing the area and stuff like that. And uh I just want to make sure and before we get that put in place that Brian that you have enough staff to pick up dog poop. That's where the self policing and that's where this other group is going to come in handy. And so,

um, and that's and that's going to help define the rules if we can get a a group of folks together that are going to help control that and help be, uh, involved and take a little sense of pride and ownership into that area. That'd be great. Yes, that's all I had. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Commissioner Dawson. I think any questions? No, this is exciting on this. I mean, Colette, would you like a, you know, like a motion to I think a motion would be really helpful. Yeah.

Yeah. So, um I will make a motion to uh proceed with the city uh trying to secure funds for this project via uh a grant application. That was a long-winded proposal. How about I propose to move forward uh with the Stephenson Canyon Dog Park as presented? I second it. All right. Giving them a chance. All in favor of moving forward with this proposal, please say I. I. I. All right. Green light, Colette. Thank you. That's great.

That's awesome. something that's we've been talking about for so long and I think that could be a really neat spot up there. Yeah. Um I mean I remember a time we were uh up at Olympus was on the we were talking about a dog part of I mean just initial conversation but I mean there's some great space up there. Cool. Thank you Klette. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Uh last up we have a commissioner comments. Uh let's start online. Commissioner Waterman. Anything tonight? just it's really I will first say um it's really great to be here. Apologies that I missed our last commission meeting. Um and it's wonderful to hear the updates as to what's happening and things moving forward. Um just a little insight uh here in Amsterdam. Um they're having safety issues in their parks too. Um and uh but uh dog park fenced in dog areas are everywhere and um so it would be great to have another one of those in Breton as well. Um uh but there's a lot more litter here and I really appreciate how beautiful Breton parks are. So um all the great work that Brian and his team are doing um as well as the public works department. So that's my those are my comments. Thank you. I'm really happy I was here today or this evening.

Yes. So are we, Commissioner. Thank you for being here. What time is it there? It is uh 3:25 a.m. Well, thank you, Commissioner. Thanks. Welcome. All right, Commissioner Dawson. Well, I just uh I it was good presentation. I liked the to hear about the dog park idea. That was really great to hear that presentation. Um, I'm I'm like Tim. I'm a little bit under the weather, so I'm glad that we have Zoom as an opportunity to get together without sharing germs. Well said. You're here. Yeah. Thank you, Commissioner. Okay.

Commissioner Wel,

I was um I have a a concern from um somebody that talked to me about Evergreen. I I explained to them how they're cleaning up, you know, they're doing this mitigation with this boat and everything, all that parking for the boat launch. Well, this person before all that was there was saying that they've truly had issues trying to launch put in because there'll be, you know, POVs just parked right in where the boats are supposed to go. And I wasn't sure how to address it with this person and he knew I was on the commission. And I said, "But do they just call in park?" So that's what I they should do. Okay. Because he said, "I he drove around several times with his big boat trying to put in and he couldn't and then somebody else was waiting to come in with a boat. So that's what I should should

parts will carry more weight than we can. We could advise them, but have everything to do. I mean, you have the signs up, right? You know, do people read the signs?" No. So in park. Yeah. Okay. I'll let him know. Yeah. Because I know that's tough because there's a wonderful boat launch there for him. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Unfortunately a small hiccup down there. So yeah. I mean right now you know it's um we got this other stuff going on. But that was what my one comment was and it's like I wasn't sure how to address that with him. So yeah I'll get in part. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks Mer.

Yeah. just real real briefly on that. Um Melinda Monroe with the city manages many different things and one of those is our parking. Um and so I've chatted with her and I think we're going to be able to see uh some improvements as far as wayfinding uh down there. So the candlesticks that have all been knocked over will get replaced. I'm hoping all of this these improvements will occur this next year. So it'll be much more clear where that where the parkings will be. But again, it's only as useful as people want to make it for those that need it need it the most for the especially for those boats and and uh trailers uh for their parking. So we'll work with um Melinda to see what we can do to address that as much as possible.

Thank you, Jim. Yep. All right. I don't have anything for the commission tonight. I appreciate everyone being here. Uh, meeting adjourned. Have a good night. Bye. Thanks. Go back to sleep. Go back to sleep. Talk later. Oh my god. Don't forget if you can make it tomorrow. Roger that. City council. Council city council. Little pros plan. I wrote it down. Enter.