Library - Regular Meeting

Good

evening. I'd like to call to order the 04/22/2025 meeting of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board. My name is Patrick Raftery. I'm chairman of the board. I would like to take the opportunity to introduce to you the members of this board that are all volunteers. To my far left is Stephanie Siste. To my immediate left is the vice chairman, Kelly Kelly. On my right is Candace Gardner. And to her right is our newest volunteer, Tim Burnham. I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome Tim to the board as well as to give him a few minutes to tell us a bit about himself and his motivation for becoming a member of the board.

Thank you. I'll keep it brief. So professionally, my background is in emergency safety, public safety. I've worked here in Pinellas County for eight years as a firefighter paramedic. I left and went to Tampa Fire for an opportunity where I work in quality assurance. I have my education in public administration. I have a master's from Florida State University. I'm currently working on my PhD in the same subject. I'm married, I've lived here for the last fifteen years, and Parks and Rec was an opportunity for me to reach out and start serving the community in a different way. Okay.

Thank you very much, and welcome. Welcome. For those of you in attendance, we have an agenda that's available to you, and if you would like to speak on an item that is not on the agenda, we will have an opportunity for you to do that. If you do choose to do that, simply approach the podium and give us your name, and then you may begin to speak, and you would have three minutes to speak. If there is an item on the agenda that you wish to speak to, please wait for that item to come up, and we will give the public an opportunity to speak on that particular item as well. And joining us just now is our last member, Angelica Alonso. There's a copy of

the Is stuff over

this one pulled? I think it might be. I'm not certain. Welcome, Angelica. Nice to see you. By the way, we have a brand new member, his first meeting, Tim Burnham, down here on the first right of me, and he just introduced himself and spoke a little bit. The first item on the agenda is the approval of the minutes from the January 28 meeting. We're going to make a correction to it by adding Candace, Gardner's name to that meeting as attending it, but other than that, if there's no other changes necessary, may I have a motion to adopt the minutes as written and published?

I make a motion.

May I have a second?

A second.

Thank you. All in favor say aye. Aye. Minutes are adopted and submitted. Moving on to item number three, citizens to be heard regarding items that are not on the agenda. If you have an item that is not on the agenda that you wish to speak about, please approach the podium, give us your name, and, restrict your comment to a three minute time period.

Hi. I'm Blaine Enderleek. You're all volunteers. God bless you all. Well, I'm gonna speak of something that's not on the agenda. Outside at the amphitheater on the West side is a gate.

Can you can you speak up a little bit?

Yes, ma'am. On the West side of the amphitheater, there's a gate. That gate is owned by the citizens of Clearwater. That gate is currently closed. I've had a meeting with Art about this, and he explained to me, hey, we'll make them change it. They're not allowed to wall it in. It's right in front of Scientology. They walk right out. They come right in here. They walk right in. The other one's open. I asked Art to open them both. He's got one open. This other gate, still closed. Went up there and looked.

Closed right now. They have no business closing this gate. And Art promised me many times that this gate would never be closed by Ruth Eckard people. Now it makes it easier just to wall it in and not go down and open it up. I understand, but that's not the rules. I wish Art was here. I truly do because this is me and Art. And every time I'm on my electric bike, I shoot a picture of it and send it right to Art. You know? So it's like, come on.

What's going on? Right. Okay. The second thing, if I got time, is why don't we stock anything in Clearwater? Why don't we stock any ponds? Why don't we stock any fish? Why don't we stock the and the other thing is why don't we buy seaweed I I mean, seagrass once a year? Plant it. Our volunteers will do it on a low tide. We like seagrass.

The world's hooked on seagrass. Just buy it. Clearwater has $50,000 grants. I'm sure that's a lot of seagrass, and I don't know if they make a combine or not to to put it into the ground. I can surely hope somebody out there does.

And the last one is you're gonna talk about it on Missouri, and it's a water tanker. You need a water tanker like Dunedin because this reclaiming water department is incompetent. And they breaks and they those that get fixed in 95 degree weather, it kills them within three or four days. A water tanker can at least say, hey. I'm gonna save your life. So that's my ideas.

Very good, thank you.

Bless you.

Is there anything you'd like to say about those items for him to be aware of, should we just wait and take it up with Art?

Well, I cannot speak on the gates at Coachman because I was not involved in those conversations. Stocking of ponds and seagrass, I've made a note of it, and it's something we'll definitely discuss. We have a senior management meeting once a month, and I have meetings weekly with Art about specific new topics, and I'll certainly discuss pond stocking and seagrass. With regards to water tanker, we do have a water truck in Parks and Recreation that we utilize to supplement the watering of irrigation when we have issues with reclaim. So far, we have not had any this year. If they arise, we do, infill with that water truck, so we'll continue to do so.

All right. So we have one item that you've made a note of that will be discussed, and the gate situation we may have to take up with our separately, or you could take it up with him to see what the latest status is.

Yes, sir. I will be bringing that back

to Any questions from any of the board members on that particular subject that we brought Yes, sir. Go ahead.

Hi, my name is Raymond Harrison. And first, let me say that, I live on the beach, got flooded like some like most of my neighbors, and the city did a great job, unbelievable in helping us with the cleanup and all the things they've done. It's been great. My, my comment is, will you please raise the raise the timing to fix the beach rec center? So, I know the county got $813,000,000 from FEMA and all I'm and this just a personal thing.

If you believe in climate change, then we got a lot of people from the beach that are expanding their carbon footprint having to drive to Morningside or Long Countryside or any other place to work out and it's a very small facility as you know and I know they got they have the the rooms that they rent which are really neat and the library, but that's okay. But if we could get the rec center that agenda item pushed up to the top, it'd be great for me. So I can just ride my bike to rec center and my wife and all of our neighbors. That's it. Pretty simple.

Do you know what the current timing is for it to be completed? Try something. I'm just curious.

I have no idea. I called at one time down to the rec Parks And Rec Center and somebody I talked to and I don't was probably more just an administrative person said we think it will be the end of the year before we even start because we're waiting for FEMA money. And I understand the FEMA, don't know if FEMA money is actually in or

it's just been, they said hey, this

is what you got, come in your way. And I know the city's got a

lot of things that they have

to do. But since y'all are Parks and Rec, you should cheerlead for Parks and Rec to get the Beach Rec Center fixed. Finished.

Alright? Alright. Thank you. You. Matt, do you have any comment you'd like to make on that particular subject?

I do. I had CBRC in my director's report, but I'll go ahead and address it now at this time. So the CBRC Rec Center was a challenging site for us post storm. We got the building demoed, cleaned out all the flooring and drywall, got it all dehumidified. And the issue we ran into is with the FEMA 50 rule. At the time, we did not have enough ability to repair the building as is. We had worked with some consultants and found out that there would be the ability to have a newer appraisal done on that, because of the facility and the condition was in pre storm. So we had to wait. We got the appraisal done. Once that was completed, we found out we would be able to repair the building.

We started down the process of selecting an architect to do the repairs. In that process, it was triggered that the bathrooms did not meet ADA compliance, and there was various other things that had to be brought up through this process. We had a the front door was not impact resistant and we're taking this opportunity. Once that door and the window above is replaced, the whole building will have impact resistant windows and doors in it. We are looking to go back with flood dams at all the door entrances to prevent, obviously you'll never prevent all of it, but it will certainly help in preventing, storm surge in the future.

I know a lot of the banks in different places utilize those flood guards, so we're looking to have those installed. New LED lighting will be installed throughout the building, which is more cost effective and lasts longer, which is better than incandescent bulbs. So we are using this opportunity. We had certain things we had to fix, and then there's things that we're also including just so when we open the rec center, which we're hoping to have it open at the latest of March 2026 at the rate, we have to go through the architectural process, and we've got to go out and bid for the construction, and it's got to get built. So unfortunately, it has nothing to do with FEMA well, it does have to do with FEMA reimbursement in the sense that if we don't follow these steps, it would not be potentially FEMA reimbursement.

So, that's the overall process of what we've been dealing with since the storm. So the rec center pool is open, but the rec center itself is not yet.

Is that an item that's on our project list presently, or is it one that would be added at the Pincus?

It'll be added once we get through this architectural phase, and we'll have a little better scope on a timeline. We're at about 50% on the planning right now. We've got some drawings back. We work through making sure all the items that we're putting back into the restrooms and everything match our overall plan for building wise to make sure everything, the hand dryers, the toilets, everything matched. We're at that point, we'll be moving on. We're hoping by the May to have that final setback and can start looking to putting it out to bid.

We shall keep an eye on it. I think you did say that the swimming pool is open, is that correct?

Correct. You

may have to exercise on swimming only for a while, but we'll keep an eye on it.

That's okay. That's very good. Thank you.

Let's see if we can't move it along.

Thank you.

Thank you. Anybody else from the public would like to speak on an item that is not on the agenda? If not, we shall move on to the next item, new business items, item 4.1. This is an item that I added. The Florida Department of Transportation has awarded to the Parks and Recreation Group a grant that would be used for Missouri Avenue right of way landscaping. Thought it would give Matt a chance to tell us what the details of that are.

So we applied for, a reimbursement grant through FDOT to redo the landscaping out of Missouri Avenue. Currently, there's, landscaping, palms, lower vegetation. What we're looking to do is we're going to go back and remove what's existing, put back in more drought tolerant plants. We're going to relocate the palms to a location that would be better suited for them. The Bismarck's out there are very large. The fronds are heavy, they're self pruning palm. So liability wise, we want to remove the potential for fronds to hit cars. We're going to go back with crape myrtles, which are a flowering accent tree. They're highly drought tolerant. They require minimal maintenance, so it will reduce our maintenance requirements out there in the medians.

We had some issues with soil settling in those landscape islands. So if you go down Missouri, you look, and it's probably 12 to in some places 18 inches from the top of the curb to the soil and the bed. So we'll be going back in with new soil, bringing that up to the proper grade for safety. So those are all aspects of the project. We hired a consultant to go back through and help us with that design to make sure we get the best soil, the best plants, and the best outcome for the grant money.

We will the grant total is $435,772 It will take potentially $114,228 from the general fund to fill in the gap that is left by that grant, but we will ultimately have a new drought tolerant landscape for all 13 medians down Missouri Avenue when this project's done, with the goal of reduced maintenance costs. And

I think you've already mentioned that the Parks and Recreation Department has a water tank truck that if needed, conditions justifying it, could be used to keep that area

Correct. Yep, we use that to we have a supplemental water route during drought times, we utilize that truck. And we should we put in for CIP last year an additional water trailer, same situation as a truck, but it can be hooked to a different vehicle and towed. So if we needed to, we'll theoretically have the ability to send out two different units to water supplementally if we get a drought situation like we've had in the past. The goal is to keep everything alive that we get in the ground.

Excellent. Any other comments or questions from the board on this particular item?

How much was the grant?

The grant was $435,772

Okay, thank you.

Yes. If there's no further questions, we'll move on to item 4.2. This is an item I added which was an additional grant that we got actually from Pinellas County, a rather significant amount of money to upgrade significantly the Eddie Seymour Sports Complex. So if you could give us some detail on that, that would be excellent.

This project, the Eddie Seymour renovation was the highest ranked project in the Turf Development Council's group that they did this past year. They gave out a little over 24,000,000 total. We got 7,750,000.00 for this project. What we're doing with this money and then additional funds, we'll basically have a '21 a little over $21,000,000 project that will completely renovate the Eddie Seymour 1 Through 4 site. Currently, there is a four field clover out there with a very old building in the center.

That facility is highly used by ESPN and other national sports tournaments. The goal is to not only make that experience better for that tournament, it's a big dollar generator for the community, but also bring in potentially some other tournaments that are similar to that and have additional economic impact. So this grant's going to allow us to turn those fields into really a destination for college softball. And that's our goal through this. Sports tourism is a large driver in our department, and for the community economically.

So this grant and the additional funds that go with it will help us redo those four fields, the facilities, and then we'll also redo the soccer fields that are out there. We had a separate project from that, but we're going to combine it in with this and just do it all at one time. Since we're going to have it closed and under construction, it makes the most sense to just do everything in one shot, so.

Sounds very good. In addition to the athletes participating, you have their families, you have visitors, you have other people coming broadcasting by ESPN, it'd be a great showcase in the Clearwater area. If I'm not mistaken as well, I believe the County Commissioners indicated that this award of 7,750,000.00 was exactly what was asked for, I think.

Well, we actually asked for 10,000,000, so we did not get the full ask, but we got very close.

Okay. That's wonderful. That's a significant amount, I know it'll be put to good use. Any questions from the board on this particular item? No. Moving on to item 4.3, I beg your pardon, also if anybody from the public would like to speak on an item, I shouldn't skip it, I should let you do that as well. As we finish the item, you can speak at that time. I forgot that. I was wondering. Yeah. Hi.

I'm Blaine Enderle. Let's talk about this Missouri Avenue. Foreign for this grant. Did anybody talk about how much it's gonna cost to get the reclaimed water put in?

Could you repeat that?

Did you ever explain how much money it's gonna cost to put in the reclaimed water in that area?

I I cannot speak to the specific water, but we currently have irrigation, valves and meters out there that feed those islands already.

So it's already in there?

Correct.

Bless you. That's what I need to know.

Very good.

Hidden costs. If they don't speak about it, ask.

All right. Very good. Thank you. Moving on to Item 4.3, long term sustainability plan for Parks and Recreation. This was an item that I added because at one of our work sessions with the council, Mayor Rector proposed this item and he wanted to brainstorm with Parks and Recreation, request input from residents, Parks and Recreation Advisory Board about things that could be done long term to sustain Parks and Recreation, including ideas that might be revenue generating ideas for Parks and Recreation, as well as looking at the fees that are charged at the various rec centers for people to use them as to whether we should be increasing them slightly or this thing or the other thing.

So it was just an initiative the mayor put out there that I thought would be good for the board to hear about, get some input from Matt on it as well, and the viewing public would be aware of it as well.

Well, we we have a, general plan in parks and recreation. It was set up, in the past. We were given direction, on how to proceed. Some of that was changed, during COVID. A lot of the events and things that we put on were encouraged to be free, to get people back out in the community once COVID, was settled. And and it would seem right now we're at a new point where that direction very well may change. We are looking at all aspects of our organization. So a lot and a lot of people don't understand parks and rec is very big. We're not just big budget wise, but we're big responsibility wise. So we maintain 109 parks, which is over 1,700 acres.

We've got rec centers, athletic fields. We do daily maintenance, three sixty five days a week at the beach. So any of the raking trash operations, we do them. There there's no days off. Someone is working. Same with downtown from, Coachmen Park up to Crest Lake. The downtown core team, they work seven days a week, three sixty five. So, a lot of people don't realize that that falls under Parks and Rec's purview. We have a rapid response push team that works during hurricanes. We do a lot of different things with hurricane cleanup and restoration.

And that's just one piece. Like I said, you've got rec centers, athletic fields, special events, so all the different events is put on through parks. So we have an all encompassing, work group. I think the big thing is, we're going to continue scope and figure out how we can make our plan better that we've already been working on. And as things are brought up, like revenue and things, we can certainly look at how, we can address those things. So fees are something that we had already been taking a look at. We looked at our profit loss statements percentage wise compared to other communities. We're very comparable, not just locally, but nationwide. But that's certainly something that we can improve on if that's the direction we're given. So we're going to continue to focus.

We have, like I said, a senior manager meeting once a month. This month's meeting is Thursday. This is one of the topics that we'll be discussing on. Everybody was sort of tasked to go back, brainstorm and come back with some ideas, you know. The question of Parks and Rec's essentialness has been kind of thrown around here and there, and I would certainly say we're an essential department in a lot of different ways. We enrich communities and the experience that our citizens have and our visitors. So we're just going to continue to build on the plan that we currently have, make it better. We're working with public communications on marketing and better ways to market, not only the concerts and things, but also all of our other programs and what our staff does daily just to make the parks as beautiful as everybody expects.

Okay, sounds good.

One of the things I would remind the residents as well as the board members to be aware of is that as we approach the budget preparation process for the city, it always helps if people can show up in person to speak at council meetings on behalf Parks and Recreation because, I believe it is fundamental to the success of the city and the attraction of the city and the residents that live here is is important as the police department, fire department, I rang, Parks and Recreation right up there with them. So hopefully we'll have an opportunity to let our voice be heard on the budget preparation as well. Is there any other comments, questions from the board?

Yes, you brought up marketing and I'm glad you did because online there's a video of Lake Park that goes all the way down, and I thought that was wonderful, because when I first got on the board, I suggested videos. I've never been all the way down to Moccasin Lake, so now I got to see what it was like, but are there plans for doing more videos like that of different parks?

Yeah. That's one of the things that we've been working with public communication is the best way to not only prioritize what we wanna show, but how we show it. So that video was an example of of one of the potential things that we will probably be looking to do, and it's good to hear feedback on it. Because I wasn't sure how many people had seen it. It just got posted.

Oh, I'm sure.

Yeah. I'm sure. Brought it to us. That's great. I mean, I'll certainly take that back to public communication.

For sure. It had aerial if haven't you seen it.

It had

aerial and walking along all the paths. Wow. That's great.

It's a fabulous It's very good. Yeah. Okay.

I had one question on that. So it's a very broad topic, and I'm assuming we have, like, a certain way we get from a general fund, and it's dispersed to each individual department, much like other municipalities. My question would be, is there any taxation on visitors when they come in for a destination location? So is there any opportunity there to where, if there's a vacation tax that we could give to the hotels and other facilities maybe that would help recoup some of that money spent?

We have bed taxes that are collected through the county, and that's actually, what helps fund that TDC grant. So there's I don't I can't really get into deep detail on it, but there is taxes that are collected through bed taxes and other things for visitors. I can get you some more information on sort of how that works. One thing with the fees, we're looking at fees on places like our rec centers, athletic field rentals, and those types of things. Those are the fees that we can control, whether to charge or not to charge for specific events and what that looks like.

Do we set an event up to break even or do we set an event up for tenants to have people come out? So those are kind of all the things we can look at and control in Parks and Rec. But the bed tax, like I said, I'll work to get you some more information. I'll get it emailed to you after the meeting. I can have it sent to all of you all. Any

other questions or comments from the Board? No. Any questions or comments on this item from the public that you'd to address? If not, I'll move on to Item 4.4. This is an item relative to the shuffleboard and lawn bowling facilities and looking for a status update from Parks and Recreation as to where does the repair, renovation or whatever activity might be planned for that site.

The Longbow Shuffleboard, as you all are aware, took significant flooding from Hurricane Helene. We had to go in and remove drywall flooring and things out of the Shuffleboard Building. Lomboles had issues as well. One of the things we looked at, much like the rec center, was trying to figure out how or if we could repair the buildings. Unlike the Collider Beach Rec Center, the Lombos and Shuffleboard is a lot older facility, and the pre storm condition did not bring it to an ability to be reevaluated like we were at the CBRC.

So unfortunately, the amount of money we could put back in to repair the buildings will not allow for repair of the buildings. I know that Artis had a lot of different conversations with both user groups, with city management. And to my knowledge, he put a proposal together with some different options, and it's currently being looked at by city management. And that's really, as far as I know, it's gone. There will certainly be follow ups once those final meetings are had at that city management level. It may come back to council on those options, but I don't have specific details other than currently we are not able to repair those buildings with the FEMA 50 guidelines.

I believe it was the FEMA decision essentially that said, this is what you're going have to look at if you think you can rebuild these, that you just couldn't simply repair them, so.

Yeah, they take the depreciated value of the building, and it's, you can do up to 50% before it's considered a substantial improvement. And with a substantial improvement, you have to raise the building above base flood. And in Clearwater, we have to go two feet above base flood. They want two additional feet for freeboard. And I believe that facility is at 10 feet, would be base flood, so you'd have to elevate that building to 12 feet.

Now you're getting into elevators, and various other ADA compliance items. We could not repair the buildings for that 50%. It was quite low. Think total for both buildings was around 165,000. But there will be more information brought back once some of those final decisions are sorted out.

Very good. There anyone from the public that would like to speak on item 4.4?

Hi, I'm Blaine Enderle. Did I just hear that you're not gonna give us the update? I mean, you asked for the update

Yes. As to where we are presently. Yeah. Well, we asked for

an update. Yeah. It's in still in discussion.

And that's that's the update with them?

That's the update.

That the update is that he's had, as he said, Mr. Cater's had meetings with interested groups. He solicited from them ideas, recommendations as to how they might redo that area with the restrictions they have from FEMA, but they're still under discussion to finalize what those will be. And that is a change from the last time we had an update. At that previous time, they were just telling they weren't certain what they could do because they were not going to be able to repair facilities.

So this is the update that we are looking for is to say, where are we today? And I think he has provided where they are today with it. Be under review, decisions to be made, may go before counsel, we just don't know, but it's under review right now. And suggestions from the community are is what's under review as well.

A suggestion. I just found out about the place. They taught me. They made me fall in love with the place. It's remarkable. It's remarkable.

Mhmm.

Went on YouTube, watched a 100 videos. It's remarkable. It's very, very popular, but it's not gonna survive without alcohol. And the only way you can have alcohol is you take that footprint and take it out of the city park. Take that footprint and rezone it out of the city.

Once you do that, you can have alcohol and you can thrive like Saint Pete went from zero to 1,500. That place can go from zero to 1,500. If Clearwater wants to thrive, they've gotta get over this alcohol thing that we've had for fifty years. We've chased out almost everything alcohol in Clearwater. I understand.

But done eating, they're thriving. Every place is thriving. So this place can thrive too. If you go on the Internet, watch these videos, they have a bar going down the whole length of one of them. Everybody's having fun. And why isn't this taught in elementary school and junior high? Why isn't that being used? Blows my mind. It's a very great game. And you've got a multimillion dollar facility.

For him to tell me you can't go out there and get that thing rebid up there, I disagree. I think, yes, you can find people to give you whatever you want, especially when it comes to estimates. Thank

you very much. I was remiss in not asking the Board for comments or questions on this item, so I'll do that now.

Well, I was just gonna ask, can these two clubs be moved to a different park, such as KPOC or Cliff Stevens or even the Kings Highway Rent Center? A lot of land there, I don't know if it's big enough, but has has that that been brought up at all?

That, to my knowledge, has not been brought up relocation. We, you know, Horseshoe is over Wright. I'm not saying that it could not be done, but that to my knowledge has not been brought up.

Okay. I just wondered if anybody floated that idea or not. Okay.

Is that something possibly at the senior managers meeting that you could bring that up just to see if it has been discussed or been discussed and dismissed for whatever reason, or if it's not been discussed, maybe just put it on the table for discussion possibly?

Yeah, absolutely. I will bring it up and see if it's been brought up, it was not to my knowledge.

Any Okay. Other questions or comments on that particular item? No. Moving on to item number five, old business items, there are none. So we will move on to item number six, the Director's Report.

So I've given some of the updates already on the hurricanes. I go want back to Pier 60 because I was not able to address that yet. We've already addressed, CVRC and Lombol. So with Pier 60, we opened the pier back up to the bait house on March 1, which was a big step for us. So people have been able to walk from the pier, the base of the pier out to the bait house and turn around. They've been able to move sunsets at Pier 60 back onto the pier. It's been open during sugar sand. It's been very successful. We just received, a guaranteed maximum price to, repair the bait house internally. So the exterior of the bait house was repaired as part of those repairs to open the pier up.

But we're working to get the bait house open, which will allow us to go back to renting fishing poles, all the different merchandise that people come out and get. And it will also allow us to open the pier westward to where the T is. So on the pier, the biggest issues were on the T itself. That's where the most wave action was received. So the current GMP is gonna allow us to put temporary railing up all the way out to the T.

It will block the T off, and then we'll be able to let people access the pier for fishing and a lot of other things, sunsets, which is gonna be a really big step for recovery process. Currently, we're working through the permanent repairs, which will involve potentially some modifications to the T. We're going to bring to council three options. One will be to permanently repair the pier in its current stance. One will be to repair the pier and remove the tee.

And the other one will be to repair the pier with a frangible deck out on the tee, which would allow the deck to come up in waves and not get destroyed. And they've used that technology at a lot of their peers throughout the state that have been damaged by hurricanes. So that is a future council agenda item that will be coming up in the next few months. So that's really the update on the pier. We're pushing to get it open, get our staff back in the bait house and get people back to normal business until we can come up with that permanent solution. Does anybody have any other questions about that before I move on?

How much was the guaranteed maximum?

Do you

know? It is currently sitting at $299,000 to permanently repair the interior of the pier and then open up the pier west to the T with additional ADA compliant handrail. And that should go to the June 2 council meeting. It's the June 2 work session and then June 5 council meeting. We're currently in preparation for next storm season.

Unfortunately, it'll be here June 1. Didn't give us a whole lot of time from the last storm still here, but we're constantly improving our emergency operation plan. We took a lot of the things that we learned that went well last storm season and didn't go well, and we're making the modifications on our emergency operation plan to make sure we're ready for this coming storm season. So, that will be finalized prior to June 1 and will be distributed out to the other departments, as we do every year, pre storm. We're working on our capital and operational budgets.

As Patrick mentioned, that will be going in front of council. We're going to have a flat budget this coming year, so we will not increase it. It'll be the same as last year. And that's one of the ways that we're working to sort of flatten out for this year, you know, in somewhat of a holding pattern, I guess. We're working on not increasing things, we're working on maintaining and making sure that we're keeping that level of service as best we can.

We're also looking at our fee structure, like I mentioned. That's a big part of the budget process. Is there ability to increase fees? And if we end up whatever we find out will be brought back and presented to you all along with counsel. So that is one of the things that will be out in the open once we get to that get that study finished.

We talked about the TDC grant. There's one other grant that, we had applied for and things are looking positive for. It was a U. S. Tennis Association grant for our McMullen, tennis complex. It received fencing damage, lighting damage, and other things. And USTA had a grant opportunity, and we've applied, and we're in the final stages of finding out if we're going to receive that or not. So depending on the outcome, we will bring that back as well to let you guys know. The work has been completed out there, it's a reimbursement grant, so one way or the other, we will most likely get reimbursement, whether it be through FEMA or USTA, but that is one of the additional grants that we went for.

That's on the McMullen Booth Complex did you say

or not?

It's McMullen Tennis, it's out on Druid Road, Eden Drive I believe is the road that goes back in there to it.

Do you know how much the grant is that's been applied for?

40,000. There's a new dashboard that's going to be unveiled on mycloworder.com, and it will allow everyone to go on to mycloworder.com and access all the capital improvement projects the different budgeting aspects of it. It's going to come available here in the next month or two. I know they're finalizing the things, making sure the updates. That will be updated quarterly by each project manager, department person in the department that is over those projects.

So people will be able to go in and see. It won't just cover our CIPs, but you'll be able to go and see what public utilities is doing, go in and see what public works is doing. So it's really going to give a whole another layer of transparency to our capital improvement projects citywide.

When will that be available?

I talked to, the budget director, and she said in the next month or two. They're sort of working out all the kinks and making sure everything is up date before they go public with it. The long center natatorium project, we're it's expanding beyond just the natatorium. There were some issues with pool leaks and things, and those are all gonna get addressed as part of this project. That way when the Long Center reopens, it'll essentially have a brand new pool.

We're not going to do any structural to the pool, but the surfacing, and various other things with inside the pool, are going to be rebuilt. So it'll be really a nice upgrade for that facility. We just completed a large homeless project, cleanup project actually today at one of our it's not a park, but it's park land, and it's up north of Enterprise. Crews removed 120 yards of debris that had been, hauled back in the woods, and basically a large camp had been set up. So it five roll off trucks to get that out of the woods.

It pretty impressive, the amount of debris that was back there. Anything from, you know, trash to, I think it was barbecue grills back there, so it got returned back to nature. This week, starting tomorrow, we're going to get back into our tree planting program that got delayed due to the storm season. Delaware Park is the first location that's going to receive new trees. They're going to get 14 trees, four different species.

Black olives, pig nut hickory, green ash, and pink tabobouillas. So it's a variety of different sized trees, and, you've even got the pink tabs that are a really pretty flowering tree. They're very showy, so it'll be a nice addition to that park. And then we've also been working on landscape replacement plans for Clearwater Beach and Memorial Causeway due to the storm surge flooding. We lost a lot of plant material down there, and we have basically finalized the plans, so we're working through budgeting on that, and the different bids and things that we would need to do to be able to achieve that goal. And that's all I have, other than I can answer questions if you

have Any questions on the project list as well that they submit to us to give our updates on? Thank you very much. Thank you. Yes. The next item is board members to be heard, and I shall start with Stephanie.

This is the project list. I can make a comment on that.

Oh, yes. Absolutely.

That's it. Yeah. That's what he was talking about. Yeah.

So at the bottom, it says about Seoul Road Park and Forest Park, they're getting new playgrounds.

Yes.

Last time Art had mentioned Forest Run getting a new playground, I asked about Woodgate Park specifically, I'm a part of that HOA community because I visibly it looks old to me and he said there's a spreadsheet that keeps track of when playgrounds were put in, how old they are, when they're due, and I was interested in the age of Forest Run versus Woodgate. I failed to email him. But if I just send him an email or you an email and ask for that spreadsheet or information on

Yeah,

I'll the figures of the send it to you. Okay. Yeah, so Sewell Road is actually one of our oldest playgrounds in the city. I believe it was installed in 1998.

Okay.

Which, it will no longer be the oldest playground. Woodgate is newer, if I'm not mistaken, in Forest Run, but I will get that specifically for you from the spreadsheet.

I'd be interested in that list as well.

Sure. I'll have Aliyah send it to all

To of piggyback off to that question, I also wanted to ask about the Countryside Rec Center Park, because it's is also kind of cold and dangerous. Yeah. The bouncer, seesaws are a little dangerous.

This is a CCP? Yeah. Okay. I'll have to look, because we have CPSI certified playground inspectors that inspect them monthly, and to my knowledge there's not been anything at Countryside that has been brought to my attention that needs addressed, but I'll certainly go back and look. I know seesaws or something along with the spring animals. We've removed all the spring animals. I know there's plans to take out any seesaws left, you know, just due to safety. They're safe in the sense mechanically and structurally, but I certainly understand your concern with seesaws, so.

Yeah. Like, I had my son playing on it, and he bumped his head on the center post. And also saw that there were there's not a climber for children that are under five. There's only a climber for children that are five to 12. And I noticed that quite a few parents of young children and toddlers bring their kids there, and all they're really playing in is the wood chips on the floor, and they don't really have anything to do. I was wondering if that could

Yeah, we try to diversify the playgrounds with two to five, and then five to 12. We just, on footprints and things certainly did drive those factors, but certainly something we can definitely look at in the future. But every playground, even the ones that we are currently installing at SORO and Fores Run, they have a replacement date in this spreadsheet. I'll get that to you

spreadsheet has all the expirations or when they'll be replaced?

Yes. Yep. It's got installation dates and replacement dates on them, and it's scheduled out. You know, some years we may do two playgrounds, others we've got playgrounds like Pier 60 Park and Long Soda that are huge playgrounds that we just feasibly can't do more than one and are currently budgeting for those replacements. Yeah, I'll get you that spreadsheet.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

Any additional questions?

I was told that the water tower next to the Kings Highway Rec Center is coming down, and I was just wondering if there was any plans for that space.

Currently, we do not have any plans for that space. I did not know that the water tower was coming down until you spoke to me earlier. So, will get with Art on that, and we'll definitely talk about what that would look like.

Any additional questions? No. All all set. Thank you very much, Matt.

Absolutely, thank you.

And now we will move on to item seven, Board members to be heard, and we shall start with Stephanie.

Okay. And this is anything?

Anything you'd like to say except keep it

I asked neighbors if they had anything. One person was mentioned at Woodgate Park turning the tennis courts into pickleball. I know that's an over, you know, but everyone loves pickleball, so I'll just throw that out there. And the second, a neighbor asked, there's a baseball field at Woodgate Park, and they said the infield is like you can't use it, I guess, like a baseball field. They said there's ground wasps near the home plate. I didn't go check it out, but that's what they said. Mean, it is it's pretty So beat up maybe just a little bit of TLC there.

We have Woodgate in for CIP in future years. The field out there is an open space field. It's not maintained as a field. It's for open people can just come and play pickup games and things like that. With regard to the tennis courts, there are pickleball lines on one of them, but we just had them resurfaced for tennis, and that's going to last at least another five to seven years with the resurfacing we did. There's no plans to turn those tennis courts into pickleball at this time.

All right.

But there has been some done already. I think you said lines have been set for pickleball out there already. Is that correct?

Currently, yeah, correct.

Yeah, one of the courts.

One the courts.

Yeah, before we resurfaced the courts, there was already pickleball lines, so when we did the resurfacing, the pickleball lines that were there before went back down. Anything

else? Angelica?

I just I wasn't here last meeting, but I did compliment you, other parts of the rec department on the new sidewalk on from Forest Run Park I'm to the there a lot. My kid goes to school at that at Curlew Creek, so the grass has really improved. Like, the the the beauty of the corner of that park has increased dramatically. The all of the grass has grown back in, and it looks really good. So I thank you.

Absolutely. I'll pass that on to staff.

Kelly Kelly?

Well, I spoke out of turn. My water tower question was meant for this time.

You may use the time to say

anything you like. Oh, that's okay. Well, I would just like to see more of those videos because that was phenomenal. And if I could ask this question, there was a private videographer that did that video. Is, and I know that the city has allowed me to share parks, pictures, videos in the past. Is it okay to share that one or is it privately owned or?

Moccasin right now?

I mean, I've I've shared it on social media, but on on

Yeah. Mean, once it's on social media, to my knowledge.

What about

my site? Isla Clearwater? Is that I've shared videos and photos with city's permission before, but No. He's not here. Okay.

Yeah. I'll have to ask PC. I don't I don't I don't want to say I don't see a problem with it, because I really don't know, but I will reach out to Joelle

and her It's phenomenal, and I encourage everybody to take a look at it. It's on Facebook under the City of Clearwater. Oh, okay.

That's Yeah. It. Okay. Candace? Nope. Nope. Tim? Nope.

This would be my first meeting. I was kind of here just to feel it out.

Very good. And I be the last. And basically, like Stephanie has done and others, I would encourage the board members to visit parks in your neighborhood, solicit information, request for information from the residents that know you are a member of the board and visit the parks yourself. If you have something you'd like to share with us, you can certainly send a note out to AARP in between meetings, if you will. I'd always encourage you to do that, as well as the residents to send us any requests for information or suggestions they may have.

On one final note, one of our members, Marty Armstrong, has indicated that he will be withdrawing his membership on the board. So what that means is that we will very shortly officially have a vacancy, but I would like to encourage the board members if they know of anybody that would like to apply or the public viewing this on television or the audience, if they know of any person, resident that would like to apply for that position, that shall be open very shortly, and we'd love to have them on the board. And with that, I shall adjourn tonight's meeting.

Thank you.

Thanks. Good stuff. Yeah.