Parks & Recreation Commission - Regular Meeting

So we do have the, um, the recording is good to go. So Patrick, whatever you feel moved to start the meeting.

Yeah, that sounds good. As long as we're okay. So recording is good to go. Um, we'll go ahead and call to order the July 27th, 2026 meeting of the, uh, parks and rec commission. Um, and with that call to order, we'll move right into public comment by persons in attendance, seeing no public in attendance. We will go ahead and close public comment and move to report of commissioners. Michelle, do you wanna kick us off?

No report.

No report, okay. I'll follow that with no report as well.

All right, and I will, since I was, couldn't be here last meeting. I just wanted to, I know a lot of other folks mentioned this as well, but I just wanted to continue mentioning it. Um, kudos to Sarah on the work with the farmer's market. It's been a really, I think bright spot in this season and, um, definitely, you know, some great work last year, but I think even this year has made it even better. So, um, the fact that Sarah has done such a good job in recruiting vendors and it's been a thing every Thursday to,

to see lots of neighbors and it's just really cool so kudos to sarah and staff for that yeah i'll echo that the farmers market's been great and then i think um last meeting was just before the reeds lake run um which was great it's a fun event every year and i think the parks and rec It's cool. It's a Parks and Rec event and it's a big one and from my perspective everything went off without a hitch and it was great. It was a fun event. So props to the staff for doing that.

Nothing to report but I just wanted to again echo the farmers market. I definitely see more visibility, new exciting vendors and I also heard people talking about the art fair which I know we covered in the last meeting but some discussion around town I've heard from buzzing about people now hearing that it's back.

I just wanted to mention I've been to Manhattan Park several times and it's been packed with kids which is great to see after all the hard work the commission has put in to help give input for the play structure and the pickleball courts have been great. I've used those a few times. So great job there and looking forward to using it some more this summer. So thanks.

All right. So with that, we've got our reports of commissioners completed here. So we've got next on the agenda is approval of the last month's or last meeting's minutes. So June 22nd, 2026, I believe we have those and closed here. Any changes, comments, questions on the minutes? Or do we have a motion to approve? So moved. Okay. So we have a motion to approve, a motion to second. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? No. All right. Motion carries. Minutes pass. Or minutes are approved. And then with that, I think, Derek, do you want to go in order here? So we have the 2026 EGR crew team port and pencil event first, right?

Yeah, that'd be great, Patrick, if we could kind of do these one at a time. And then you all can make your decision following my presentation and Q&A. on each event. So the first one here is included within your packet is a new event. The EGR crew team, it's a port and pencil event. I also did include a copy of our special event policy just to help as a general reminder. when we're talking about new events coming up and particularly for this event because you do have to read into the details of the policy to understand why this is being brought before you. And I did include a short memo. as well. But just for the group here, you may recall that we have a two event per limit for our special event policy. So that's two events per month, where special event permits can be issued. And then there's also the limit of eight road closures per month or per year, excuse me, that'd be a lot to be associated with those permits. And when you look at the special event calendar that's listed within the packet materials as well, you'll see that in September we already do have two existing special events. But that's why I included the policy. So just to draw your attention to guideline number seven underneath the special event permit guidelines. It outlines that certain events don't count towards the two events per month, like the 4th of July, the tree lighting ceremony, the homecoming parade, and then school events sanctioned by the East Grand Rapids School Administration. And so that's important in this conversation because one of the events that already does have a special event policy permit in September is the middle school regatta, which clearly is sanctioned by the schools. It's a fundraiser for the middle school. They utilize the school's insurance for that event. So in reading the special event policy, there would be the opportunity for an additional event in September because of that event falling underneath the school event exemption. And I say all that first because this proposed event, the Team Port and Pencil event is proposed for September. So it would at face value be a third event, but if we're looking at the policy, this would be allowable underneath that policy. So it's outlined in the memo and they did include an event write up for your review as well. This would be a fundraiser for the EGR crew team. Typically when they are having events in John Collins Park, like their regattas and their practices and their camps and things of that nature, we don't issue a permit because that's more along the lines of like a programming and part of our joint facilities agreement. But I felt as though like a fundraising event that does kind of take up a portion of the park would be better suited underneath the special event policy. So they're proposing to have on Sunday, September 27th, to have an event in that space in between the restroom building and the crew team building in that green space there. They have commissioned a special piece of art that has already been purchased by someone in the crew team community. So that is part of the fundraising of the day, but then also they'll be selling additional prints of that specially commissioned artwork to help raise funds. This is an event that is not a ticketed event. It's open to the community. They'll have light refreshments and snacks there that are open to anyone attending the event. And then as outlined in my memo, they're not providing any alcoholic beverages, but because John Collins Park is within the social district, event attendees could go to any of the participating businesses on Gaslight Village and bring down their social district beverage as allowed through that policy. So that's really the event in a nutshell of a fundraising event. They would handle all of the the set up and tear down. There's no road closure required. We do have insurance policies from the crew team because of our relationship that we have with them that's pre-existing. And I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have about this event or how it aligns with the policy.

So is the crew, the crew team is outside of the school, the way it's structured.

So. Yeah. So the crew team is a club team. Um, it's not a fully funded like high school varsity sport in, in the way that some of the other programs are. Um, so they are like their own entity. Um, they do have, um, relationship with these team boosters to help with some of their finance accounting type purposes but they that's part of the reason why they do the fundraising is because they are like a self-sustaining program that fundraising helps offset the cost of participation.

I was just curious why I wouldn't fall under that the school special event policy number so that I'm assuming that's why that it's like a club event rather than a

That is an area that we probably could have looked at a little closer, like if we felt like, especially if the other two events already approved in September, if one of them weren't a school approved function, we could have considered that route. But since I was able to align one of the pre-approved events with that, we didn't go through that additional step to run it through the Board of Education. but it's certainly one of those like nuance things. Yeah.

I think it's a great event and idea and I'll move to approve it unless there's more discussion.

I will second that. So with that, we have approval second. All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Any further discussion? Motion passes.

OK, moving on the list of our special event permits for tonight, we have the Corwell Health Irish Jig. This is a 5K event that is one of our is our largest 5K that we have here in East Grand Rapids. The in the past, this has been organized by the Corwell team, and typically they would hire like some event management staff to assist in the planning and coordination. Recently they have partnered with other community members, Rob and then Greg is also listed on the their event application. And Rob is involved in a variety of races in the community and so it was this last year was the first time that officially that Rob was kind of the lead of that, but he's been involved in a number of years. So I'm happy to say that although like sometimes some changes behind the scenes happen for not for just this event, but also some of our other events that happen in the community. I do see that relationship with Rob and his knowledge of the running community and this event in particular is a very positive addition to the operations of the day. This event recently, you may recall, has changed course as far as the literal race course. They used to start closer to the hospital and kind of run down Gaslight Village and a couple of years ago, an adjustment was made to have them start out front of this building and kind of running out towards Woodcliff and utilizing a portion of Hall Street for an out and back course. That was due to some of the you know, it's a big race like that. It's hard for the Gaslight Village to be shut down for that duration of time. But then also it was just really hard for start finish management perspective. And so I can share that that change in course has been a positive change for not only for the business district, but then also just for the general event operations of the day. But we've partnered really closely with Corwell. Their security team is involved in the planning and implementation of the event alongside the city public safety team. They're very appreciative and understanding and making sure that they're not asking for forgiveness, asking for permission. And so for all of those things combined with the longstanding positive relationship I recommend approval, but happy to answer any questions you may have.

I just had a question. It says, and I think this is Greg's comment here in the application, that says about the route, because of the track closure, he said something about maybe it would need to be altered a little bit. Is that something that's already been taken into account? Is that something that they're still working through?

Yeah, that's something we're still working through. At the time, they weren't as clear that there would be parking available on the track, which in the next week or week and a half, the city crews are going to mobilize and build a parking lot within the track area. And so that helps relieve some of the concern there. But we've, I think they always try to help make sure they're showing their flexibility and keeping options open. But the intent would be to use the same course as last year, knowing with the parking lot issues or resolution, I should say that. I forget the number of spots that are being built there, but it's gonna be quite substantial temporary parking on that east end of the track. for the next couple of years will be available.

Nice. Thank you.

Thank you.

All right. Any further questions or discussion on this one? Hearing none, do we have a motion? So moved. And a second? I'll second. All right. We have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? None opposed. Any further discussion? Hearing none, we'll go ahead and say that the motion passes.

Perfect. And then the last event for your review this evening is the resolution run. This is a 2026 event because it's the last day of the year. This is another one of the longstanding events that we've had in town that have gone through some planning and organizer changes. over the last couple of years. But again, I'll echo that I think that some of these adjustments that have been made have been for the better of the race. This is run through the Stella Fly team who has a significant presence in the running community. They've definitely have increased the number of participants in the last couple of years. So they've just been doing more promotion, more getting the word out there. And so I know that they have the goal for next year to be up to a thousand runners, which I think is potentially a doable goal for them. This is one of those interesting events that a lot of our events always are like the last Saturday in September or something that's on like a, Like usually on a weekend, this is an event that does fall on, depends on the day of the week because it's always on the New Year's Eve. And so that was actually this last year, I think was the first time for me that it was on a weekday that the city offices were open. And we all said, whoa, this is different than what we're used to experiencing in a good way. And so that's something that I think the planning team and the public safety team and the city team will definitely have some additional conversations going forward to help resolve some of those just nuances. Again, it's the city, people move and flow throughout the city differently on a Thursday versus a Saturday. And so just making sure that we're thinking about all the safety measures that are in place. But longstanding event and happy to answer any questions you might have.

We had talked about this after the one last year. But I think just increasing the volunteers and people watching it because there was a car that came on the course during the kids' race and several during the full race. So just making sure they've got enough people staffing at those intersections and knowing what to do and working with public safety on that. But I don't think it ultimately created a safety issue, but I think people got a little nervous.

Yeah, absolutely. We all kind of freeze a little bit when that kind of stuff happens. And to your point, yeah, absolutely. The public safety team, some of these events have been happening for so long that it's like, oh, yeah, let's use the same barricade plan and that type of thing. But when we've been having adjustments and changes in leadership, we've been bringing in like having like pre-planning meetings and talking through it. and the public safety team always does a good job of having a post-race debrief. So they have like a written, cause they're the ones that are there like during the event and onsite where, you know, if it's not at one of our reads like run or triathlon, it's not always me there throughout the day. So we definitely rely heavily on their expertise and we'll continue to do so.

All right. Any further comments, questions on this one? Nothing further. Do we have a motion?

I move to approve.

And I will second. So we have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Any additional discussion? No additional discussion. Motion passes. All right. So next week, let's see. All right. So it looks like next Eric, and you're going to have to remind me of the exact process. Cause I know we went through logistics of this last year. So it looks like we're at that time again, where we are electing chair and vice chair for next year, correct?

That is correct, yes. So the city operates on a July 1st fiscal year, and because of that, the mode of operation has been to have chairperson and vice chairperson elections to align with the fiscal year, which also generally aligns with appointments to boards. And so it is that time of year again. And so we do need to have an election for both the chairperson and vice chairperson. We can do these one at a time. And so how this will work is when Patrick, the time is right, he'll open up a nomination period. to see if anyone wants to nominate someone for, we'll start with the chairperson position. And then after a period of nomination, if there's one or more people that have been nominated, hopefully at least one, then you can close the chairperson nominations. And then if there's more than one person that has been Recommended we would have a vote on it and he'd start with whoever was Nominated first we would vote to see how many votes they got you only can vote for one person at a time and within that period and so then if there was not enough votes, not a majority for that first person, then we would vote on the next person. And then we'll repeat that process for the vice chairperson. So just to back up, when you're ready, you can open up nominations for the chairperson. give a couple moments for people to state their thoughts. And then once that time is elapsed, you can close the nomination period and then we'll bring it up for a vote.

Okay, perfect. Thank you for that, Derek. That's super helpful. So if everybody is ready, I guess we'll go ahead and open up the, starting with the chair, we'll go ahead and open up nominations for the chair role.

I think Patrick did a great job. I'd love to re-nominate. Well, thank you.

I appreciate the vote of confidence, and I would accept. I'd be happy to continue serving if that is what the commission would desire. So I appreciate that. But that said, any other nominations? Do not feel shy about that at all. The other nominee. I agree with Steve. There we go. All right. Just wanted to make sure everybody, everybody was good, but I will, I mean, it's in your name.

Appreciate it.

My friends. That is true. That is true. The name can come in handy for something.

Sounds like a landslide. Yeah.

I appreciate it guys. I appreciate it. It's been fun and definitely appreciate this group and all the great discussions we have. So thanks guys. And, So I guess with the hood, do we have to, we don't have to vote, right? So do we close? You do.

So if you could, you can close the nomination period and then bring it for a vote.

Okay. So, uh, with that, we'll close the nomination period. And this is awkward to say, but, uh, I guess we will, uh, vote on Patrick parks as chair. of the Parks and Rec Commission. So we will go ahead and open that.

And you can do all in favor. Oh, okay. So all in favor? Yeah. Aye. Yes.

Any opposed?

I wouldn't make you the one. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Yeah. If we had two, then we would, we'd do the roll call vote, but, um, I'm just kidding.

All right. So, so all, all in favor, none opposed, uh, any further discussion with that motion passes. Um, and then I guess with that, we can move right into opening up nominations for vice chair. Correct. Correct.

Who is our current vice chair out of curiosity? Michelle. Hey, Michelle. Well, looks like you're nominated again.

Congratulations.

Well done.

Before that, I was going to second that nomination. I think you've done a wonderful job, Michelle. And it's been fun working with you, not only this year, but previous years. So if you would accept, I would nominate you as well.

I will accept.

All right. Any other nominations? All right. So with that, we will consider, we will vote, excuse me. We will move to vote on Michelle as vice chair for 2026, 27, um, all in favor. Excuse me. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Not opposed. Any further discussion? No further discussion. Motion passes, all right, congrats. And then with that, looks like we have consideration of East Basketball Club registration led by Derek, correct?

Yes, and thank you everyone for your volunteerism and for your leadership roles here, but also for everyone that's on the commission. So thanks for working through that. administrative process, right? So yeah, so before this evening, I'm seeking some feedback related to the East Basketball Club. And just so to back up a little bit for you, as you may recall, we started the vertical alignment pilot last year, a collaboration with the East Grand Rapids Public Schools. with the goal of creating more connections between our youth programs up through the high school programs to really have a more unified experience for athletes in East Grand Rapids and to kind of minimize some of the nuances between participating in a youth program and middle school program and high school program. So to have more consistency there was one of the goals. Also, Another one of the goals was to create additional opportunities for participation. And for each sport, that means something different. That could mean more sports camps. It could mean trying to find other area teams to play against. But for the basketball program for both boys and girls, what we've heard over time is that there's the families that like basketball because it's a great lifetime sport for their kids to participate in and they love the rec program. But then there's this other group of families that were interested in something more. And if you have kids who've been participating in sports in the last recent years, you're probably familiar with club level sports. There's a variety of for-profit programs in the area that provide what they tout their offerings as a higher level, more competitive, a higher training opportunity. for athletes that maybe are really basketball centric and and that doesn't really align well with the Parks and Recreation model of you know, just everyone getting out and playing and having fun and making friends and and being with their classmates and we recognize that there is a difference between the the interests of those groups and so one of the goals of the vertical alignment for last year is was to research the opportunities to have a club-level basketball here in East Grand Rapids to provide all the benefits that the for-profit clubs offer, but with keeping the kids here in town, keeping kids playing together instead of kids dispersed among all different programs, and keeping the cost effective through using qualified volunteers to help. And so we we started that research in August and we really started looking at there's a program called The Rock. It's Rockford's version of club basketball. And we had some great conversations with them in August. And the two varsity coaches, Mason and Jane, here in East Grand Rapids at the time said, do you think there's any chance we could get something like that rolling here in East for this year? And the, uh, to the credit of, uh, both those coaches, but then Elijah down in the parks recreation department, uh, we, we were able to implement, uh, an East basketball club last season. So not only did we, research it, which was our goal, we made it happen. We had approximately 110 kids participate in that program between boys and girls. We had the gyms were nice and packed here in town. Each team had multiple weekly practices, and then they would go participate in games down at the courthouse in Byron Center. It's a basketball and volleyball facility with lots of courts, hence the name the courthouse. That did confuse some people thinking we were going down to the the courthouse to play. But so that program really did provide the opportunity that some residents in town were seeking. We ran that in parallel to our recreation program, so athletes that wanted to do both could. It was certainly a time commitment, but they could do that if they wanted to do both. But we made it and we tried to make it as cost effective as possible. And so our program was approximately $450, which is quite a bit more expensive than our normal recreation programs. But if you were to price compare that to other clubs in the area, you'd be looking closer to $2,000 or more for the same experience. And the reason we're able to offer that lower price point is because of the gymnasiums, because of our joint facilities agreement, we're not being charged for gym space and the volunteer coaches and the support of the varsity coaches providing some of that leadership and direction. Whereas at other clubs, those would be paid personnel that would be getting paid additional for their time. And so it was a really successful season. And I think sometimes when you're successful and have a great price point opportunity for participation, others, people want to be part of that. And so the reason I'm bringing it to all of you this evening is For me, the reasons why the Vertical Alignment Initiative was created was for the betterment of East athletics. It was for creating those connections with kids in the community who are gonna stick with their basketball classmates over time. and then other sports as well too, but really to help grow and support the East basketball program. And when you think about our Parks and Recreation programming downstairs, we have resident and non-resident pricing. We have certainly residents receive, they get to register first for our programs and then residents get a slight discount on our programs versus non-residents. But we do typically for all of our other programs, Middle school athletics aside allow for anyone to participate as long as there's room in the program and what I'm envisioning happening with this successful program that we have we've already had some folks reach out is that People really want to be part of that and so what we're concerned about and we're trying to get ahead of is potentially restricting registration for the East Basketball Club to be only allowed for residents, non-residents who live within East Grand Rapids Public Schools boundaries, so the Golden Triangle by Manhattan Park. and then non-residents who attend the East Grand Rapids because of school of choice. So keeping the registration open just for the athletes who have committed to attend the East Grand Rapids public schools in the future by virtue of where they currently live or by being an enrolled student in the program. And because one of the concerns that we have is And for this program in particular, I need to mention as well is that registration is limited. There's a trial procedure that's part of this program. The number of teams that we can field are limited somewhat due to level of competitiveness. There is a point in which some of the athletes would be better served in the recreation program than being part of a a club level or the East basketball club team that might not fare as well going down to, to Byron center at the courthouse. And so there is the potential where some folks might not make a team or some athletes might not be placed on a team and would be recommended to move to the recreation program. And I think for me, based on what I've put into this program and also the vertical alignment and knowing the goals are supporting East Athletics, we wouldn't want to get in a position where there were kids who weren't living in East Grand Rapids that had no intentions of attending East Grand Rapids Public Schools would be essentially earning some of those spots from kids that are within the community and are going to be attending East Grand Rapids. So that certainly is different than our normal parks and recreation procedures. Again, besides we do already do that for the middle school athletics. This level program to me leans closer towards the middle school athletic type dynamic competitiveness and trying to, again, align vertically with the high school program more so than the more recreational based. But wanted the input of all of you before we as a parks and recreation team Officially implemented that procedure and just one kind of caveat for just so last year again It was our first year. We rolled it out. We had the tryouts. We had a great season and That wasn't even on our radar and we did have one Participant ended up and we ended up finding out later that they were not currently enrolled in and east and so it did happen last year but then already this year we've had multiple people reaching out so i think that last year we kind of got by because it was so new and fresh and wasn't on the radar but it is going to be something that we need to address one way or the other so with that i'll pause on my talking and

I just had a question to Derek and just for the record, I fully support your thinking on the, especially given the vertical alignment. I think like the, obviously, as you said, like the goal of the vertical alignment is to benefit East athletics. And it just doesn't seem like having people who aren't planning on participating in East athletics. It doesn't seem like that's beneficial to even the, consider that possibility. Right. But I guess my question would be as kind of a, um, you know, alternative for if, if folks outside of the area had some other reason for wanting to play some kind of basketball in East, whether it's like, oh, we like the East facility, or I like to walk reach Lake while my, kid plays basketball or something random like that, they would still be able to participate in the community basketball league, correct? Correct.

Yes. So this would be intended only for the East Basketball Club and the recreation basketball program that we offer would still be the resident, non-resident. They'd be different pricing. I think it's $20 difference, but it would still be open to anyone that wanted to participate.

And then I guess another, and it sounds like we had tryouts last year with the East Basketball Club, but is the tryout feature new this year in terms of kids receiving feedback? Like, oh, you're not necessarily at the level of the club team, but we recommend you go to the community team. I was just curious how that went last year if we've already done it and how maybe we anticipate that going. this year if we haven't done it.

Yeah, we did do tryouts last year and that's why I appreciate the vertical alignment piece because the varsity coaching staff for both the boys and girls programs, they completed the tryouts. And they're the ones that are really the subject matter experts related to skill development for basketball in the community. And so they made selections of the teams and the Parks and Recreation Department has helped facilitate the registration process. And so we did do it last year. It was such a new thing. We were developing our frequently asked questions page while we were planning for the tryouts because it was really a couple week turnaround. It was a vigorous effort to get it going. Last year, we had great numbers again, I think around 110 between boys and girls programs combined. And I think that with the success that was had last year, the tryout numbers will likely be higher this year than they were last year. And so we did have to have some tough conversations with some athletes last year on the boys side. The girls program, similar to the middle school program, we're still trying to boost those numbers. So none of the girl athletes that wanted to participate ended up being redirected to the rec program because we frankly needed the numbers. But for the boys, we did have some scenarios and I anticipate that potentially to increase. And just when I talk about the space available or the number of teams, these are grade level teams. So like the fifth grade, we try to keep all fifth graders together when we can. There are some circumstances where maybe we have a full fifth grade team and a full sixth grade team, but we have some other athletes that could compete at that level. We could do a combined fifth and sixth grade team. Uh, but really once you start getting past two to three teams per age group for, for, for boys and also for girls, then that's where, um, those teams just won't be competitive at the courthouse to be frankly, and we want them to still have a fun experience. But I do think to your question, Patrick, we're going to see more numbers at trials this year than last year.

And then with that, I would anticipate then that we would have to also then grow our community teams as well too, because you would maybe have more rejections for the club team and then maybe have to kind of open up more spots. on the community teams or do we not see that?

So I think that with this being year two, I believe that more families that did both last year are going to pick one over the, over the other is what my thought is. It was a, it was a lot for the East basketball club, again, two practices a week and at least one, if not two games a week, they're always on one day, but you may be a double header on a Saturday or whatever day of the week each, each age level played on different days. Um, but that's a lot of basketball. And then if maybe you are in band or something else, um, and then adding another basketball opportunity. So I think that over time our numbers are going to settle out a little bit. So I do think we'll, we'll have less people that do both. Um, and then maybe with some, um, some more openings in the rec program. Maybe there will be some other kids that maybe didn't want to participate in the past cause it was too full or, um, or too competitive maybe cause they're, uh, we're trying to help balance out that competitiveness in the rec program as well. Um, but I, I don't see, uh, um, an issue with having too many in one or the other at this point.

Okay, cool. That was my main question is like, if, you know, the East basketball club is growing in popularity, then do we need to also be prepared for the community league to grow as well? Because we would need to find a place for some of those athletes too.

I don't believe so. I think we'll kind of reach that saturation point between the two, and people will kind of figure out which. Really, there's like two tracks that you can choose from now, or maybe you could start in rec and then move up to East basketball, but I think that will balance out over time. Gotcha. Cool, cool.

Thank you. What are some similarities and differences between the East basketball club and the East FC club? well, it's the football club.

Yeah. So the, um, some of the similarities would be like the, the idea of, um, having it here, local utilizing the local fields would be the similar between the two. Um, maybe I'll start with some of the differences. So the, um, The East Football Clubs for soccer is a private business that is run and owned and operated by at least one of the owners is Fabian, who's the varsity boys and girls soccer coach. But that's privately run. When they utilize facilities here in East Grand Rapids, they're considered a rental group. So they're paying rental fees because they are a business operation. They do not currently limit participation to only East Grand Rapids athletes. They allow for team selection based on their evaluations and they are separate from the Parks and Rec Department. So we do, When opportunities arise, try to collaborate with them on certain pieces. So we did have an indoor futsal program that we offered. And so when we have that collaboration, our rules apply. So then the residents get first participation opportunities. Non-residents are allowed to participate if space is available. But there's really, I would say there's more differences than similarities between the two outside of them both being sports clubs.

Are there other clubs for other sports that compete at that same type of level? outside of soccer and basketball? East Pride would be one, right?

Yeah, East Pride, lacrosse. Lacrosse, Waves, I would say, is a similar type organization that is, I would say, more aligned with the East Basketball Club in that they are still their own entity, but we partner with Waves we help the city helps subsidize costs for waves For pool time and then the same for the East Football Club those are and those are both parent run organizations That have like a parent board Waves and pride waves and pride.

Okay, and do those two have limitations for or restrictions for being a a student of some sort?

I wish I could speak to that. I don't know that level of detail on their registration process.

Where I'm going with this is we have the vertical alignment movement, right? And it's gaining traction, which is really exciting. And we're up to four sports, it sounds like, that all have East in their name. and then differences in terms of who can compete, who can participate, fee schedule, that sort of thing. And I'm concerned about some confusion across those. I think that the idea of having the basketball club fully in the vertical alignment plan is, I think it's great. I'm just thinking of parents who are like, well, wait, my kid, you know, it's like I live just outside the border of the school district border and I can have them participate in soccer but not basketball. I think it would be nice if we could have some cohesiveness because I think the plan, right, is to continue to scale up for vertical alignment, right?

I see your point, it's a good one, but that would be more maybe a conversation with East FC than anything, right? Because they're not to pick on them, but they're the one that is not resident driven.

Yeah. Sure, yeah. And certainly we, as noted, we try to collaborate with them and can share suggestions to them, but with them being a private entity, we... that we don't really have a say in how they operate.

Yeah, I think my concern almost is more in the name, in that it sounds like it's related to Parks and Rec or school, but it's not.

Is there a way in the guide you can put like a private entity versus like run by Parks and Rec? Byline after the title just to clarify the people who are looking through the booklet where you know That this is private. This is run by the schools. I see what you're saying It is a little confusing and I didn't realize East FC was private actually so that's Right case in point, right? Yeah, I think you know a lot of these clubs do a great job with the integration I just think it might be a nice to highlight a As we have all these across, it is a little confusing. And if you're not familiar with the sport and not really deep into it to know that, if there's a way to sort of put in the description or something, just who runs it and is it part of us or is it a private group might be helpful just for parents who are looking through and to help categorize it.

Yeah, certainly we have Kira downstairs, another one of our Parks and Rec All-Stars, creates the guides. So we have full control over that. I'll have to think through that a little bit. So we actually don't even, we don't promote for East Football Club for, because we run our own soccer programs. And so when we collaborate with them, it's for things that we don't offer already. So that, hence the futsal is what we collaborate with them on. So I'll look at it through that lens. And then also we do have the handbooks that I included a link to that in my director's memo. I'll talk about that a little bit more later. But we're trying to have like that player handbook for each sport to help give that roadmap of, hey, if it's for football, well, it's flag football to then the parks and rec program for youth, et cetera. Um, for basketball, we'll now be able to explain the two separate tracks and how there's different opportunities. And so we're going to develop one for soccer as well. And that would be certainly be another good spot for us to put that in, but I'll, I'll think through the, um, the program guide piece as well.

I had one just quick question for the basketball. Um, if a player doesn't make the,

more elite team will they automatically be given a spot in the rec team or do they have to sign up for those as separate entities you know what i'm saying sure so yeah it is it is a separate registration if they sign up for the um the east basketball club and if they aren't placed on a team there and we do require a tryout fee it's 25 for a little bit of commitment there and also for us to help plan how many numbers to expect And if they're not placed on a team, they get that $25 towards their registration for the youth program. And the way that we do tryouts early enough in the season, there's still ample opportunity for them to join the rec program if they desire.

Super. Thanks. Derek, I was just thinking through something really quickly in terms of the guide itself and kind of getting to the point, because I think it is a good point that Michelle raises about Information and just confusion and what's sponsored by the city and what's what or you know, what's part of the city? What's not maybe it's simply a matter of just listing out here are all the programs that parks and rec sponsors and East FC being Off that list would be the signal enough to say we don't sponsor it. It's it's separate Right? So you wouldn't have to, like, call them out and say, like, we do not sponsor this. This is a private ‑‑ I mean, it could be an option. But maybe it's as simple as just listing everything that we do sponsor and the implication would be that the things that we don't are not on there. Okay.

Yeah, certainly we'll, yeah, we'll think through the best way. Thank you for that suggestion. And, um, yeah, trying to just, cause what we don't want to get into is having like promoting something, but then not promoting someone else that might be similar and saying, well, why did you promote them? They're not part of your program versus others. We'll, um, yeah, we'll talk through that and come up with some good ideas to resolve that.

Sorry, so who's running East Basketball Club?

so the parks and rec department is uh i would say we're the the operations and admin piece of that the the varsity coaches have a hand in helping with the tryouts and helping with coaches coaches trainings um josh shaddock who's the vertical alignment team member that we share with the schools he will have a hand in helping with that coach training But a majority of the work's done by Elijah down in our department.

I guess I was asking, like, if it's run by the city, have we run this by the legal team? Is there any... concern for discrimination by limiting it to certain students who are either in the GRPS school system or residents? Is there any concern that if this is a city run program that by placing these limits there's concern for discrimination issues because it is city run?

Yeah, so as long as we, and I'll certainly, I'm not the legal opinion here, but we do have some programs already that are for East residents only. And so we have that ability to limit that as long as we're following our policies and sticking with that. Now, certainly if we were to say this is our policy and then didn't follow it and we're only letting certain people in, that would... I mean, we wouldn't do that, but that would be a problem I'm sure for the community wouldn't want us doing that either. But yes, we do have the ability to limit that provided we're not basing that on any protected status or classes.

I think this might be an okay time to ask this. peripheral question when we talked about the fee schedule for I Think it was the middle school sports. Yes, and I think that went to city and I'm just curious how what resolution where did where did we end up with that?

Yes, so that's a dynamic answer for you so as you may recall the we run middle school sports and And with the increased costs in running programs, I brought to all of you looking for feedback on, should we go to a flat rate model? So that means all programs would cost $250 for middle school interscholastic sports. Or if we should continue with the model of each sport kind of being self-sustaining. And so some sports would have a lower price point if there's lower costs. So like track, for example, would have been closer to $180, and then swimming could have been upwards of $500, and it's based on actual costs to run the program divided by the number of participants. And so when I presented to the Parks and Rec Commission, the preference was for that flat rate model of $250 per sport, and which aligns with what the high school does for all their interscholastic sports. It did go to city commission. They had talked it through. They had requested some additional modeling to be done of maybe some like demand weighted pricing. So sports that had higher participation would pay a little bit more and sports with lower participation would pay less to kind of offset to find that balance. Ultimately, the City Commission did settle on the flat rate model that was the preference of the Parks and Rec, or a majority of Parks and Rec, at least, was supportive of that. But alongside that, additional work was put in with the schools and the school foundation. And so now in our guide for the first time, alongside the middle school registration fees, there's verbiage there. The East Grand Rapids School Foundation, through their friendship fund, is helping pay for family members in need. So, there's a QR code where anyone who's requesting assistance can fill out a very short form that goes to the middle school principal and then myself and Shannon downstairs. We have a Google Excel form that is, so we're able to track that. And so, a lot of the cases where there might be financial need will be covered by the school's foundation. Sorry, if I had said community foundation at all in that, I meant to say schools foundation. I don't think I did, but just in case. And I'm happy to report that we've had at least five of those get approved already, if not more. I was out a couple of days recently. So it's already being utilized and helping families in need. But it's the flat rate, 250 for every sport for this year.

Okay, thank you.

Perfect. Any other questions, comments? All right. So with that, I think we just have your larger report, correct?

Yeah. I'll just do a brief, I said verbal update, but I'll just use this as a guide here. So as you may recall, at a couple of meetings ago, I'd asked for feedback from all of you on Waterfront Park. I took that feedback back to the Avon Marsh design team who made a couple of small edits that I'll point out here before this went to the city commission. And so the two edits that were made, and they're a little bit hard to see even on this bigger photo here, Some of the dialogue and requests I'd heard from all of you at that meeting was to have like a fishing dock slash overlook on the channel that connects Reeds Lake to Fisk Lake. So that's what this greenish thing is here is the channel. And so there's a fishing dock slash overlook here that we put in the best position that we could, that it wasn't in the floodplain that kind of comes up higher here, but also kind of angled to maybe not be looking at the back of the operation facilities and would provide for, yeah, the purposes that you were all looking for. The other discussion item that had come up with this group last time was that there was the idea of maybe having this pathway along here to provide for a loop experience. And for the obvious reasons of it being right along the road, it wasn't really preferred as maybe part of the nature trail system. It's hard to see even for me here, but what they've done is... Like, for example, if somebody comes from the parking lot and they either choose to go this way and around or if they choose to go over the little island and get up to here, the trail splits. And so it does go to the east here and there's a loop around that would connect you to that dock. So there's a loop in here and then also there's a loop in here. So there's kind of like a figure eight opportunity instead of just an out and back that had been previously showing that kind of represented some of the requests that you were looking for. So I did present this to the city commission at their first meeting in July, I believe it was. And they essentially approved for design to move forward with everything to the north of the Penn. There was a couple of discussions about the parking lot, which you may recall from the feedback and the surveys that we had. The parking lot was certainly not a unanimous consensus on what should happen with that. So the city commission wanted to have some additional time to think through some of that before having to make a final decision. Also, on Wednesday of this week, we have our meeting with EGLE, that's the state department that deals with wetland permitting. And so we wanted to see if this parking lot that's shown here would have any sort of permitting restrictions or implications tied to it. I also, in the meantime, had talked to the DNR staff, our grant coordinator. You may recall when I wrote the grant application, I left it open-ended saying that we'd be looking at doing parking lot expansion, but didn't make a promise as to what size that meant. And so they have confirmed we do have some flexibility on the sizing of any parking expansion here. and so all of this work here all of the trails and the boardwalks and the overlooks those are all currently in design mode by the abon marsh team following that meeting on wednesday with eagle they'll kind of put a little bit higher intensity of effort into that planning this is currently on pause while we um work through some additional conversations with the city commission we're still on track for project agreement this fall and then ultimately lighting a bid in later in this year but i mean i should oh I almost forgot this as well. So I guess that was maybe right on the line. This was supported by city commission as well. And they'd like for me to bring back some options for them to review as to what that might look like a little bit further in detail. And those will certainly be brought forward to the parks and rec commission as well before any sort of final design decisions are made.

Would you be willing to slide slide up this way? Yeah. I just wanted to see what, Oh, okay. So for H... Where is K?

Is that off the... Oh, yeah, it's right here. It's this kind of this row here.

Oh, I see. I see. Okay.

So that's where the... Playground. the feedback that we received from the community was there was some support for something like this, like a smaller scale structure. There was alternative opinions that things of this nature would fit in better. And so that's kind of what we're working through with the Avon Marsh team is saying, okay, give us some more, like, obviously we're just looking for general input with this, but give us some design options as to what that could look like and like some, maybe some renderings for, people to wrap their heads around what that might look like.

And would you be willing to trace the very, very faint blue line where the trail is slated to go south of Durant?

South of Durant.

I think I see blue. Yes. Okay. Thank you.

I can see that. It comes all the way down to here.

Okay. Thank you. That was really helpful earlier because like we see it and then it's gone. Thank you.

So, yeah, so that all I really wanted to share this evening related to this is that the request that you had asked for had been incorporated into the design. The City Commission has authorized for most of the design work to move forward, and we'll know a little more after our meeting with EGLE related to what level of permit that will be required, and you can continue to expect waterfront park improvements on the next couple of Parks and Recreation Commission agendas.

Awesome.

Cool?

Cool, cool. Thank you, Derek. Yeah. And... Was there anything else you wanted to share from your report, Derek, or was that I think the stuff just for our own kind of information?

Yeah. Two things. Oh, this kind of highlight just cause they, um, I know when a long packet things at the very tail end can, um, fall off here. So the vertical alignment update, the city commission did authorize for a one year renewal of the vertical alignment pilot. Um, so that was, um, something that last year around this time we did a one year agreement just, uh, to kind of understand exactly what we were working with. And we learned a lot. We accomplished a lot of our goals. Um, and I do have, um, uh, a webpage that we stood up that has a lot of those, uh, player handbooks or family handbooks really that have been posted on there for the sports that had been the target areas last year. And then we did select some new sports. Actually, I should have just sent you that whole memo that I wrote. So I will forward you that memo that I sent to city commission that kind of outlined some of the key deliverables from last year and how we met many of those benchmarks and even some of the ones that weren't on that list. I think the one that we have completed, I think the one that I'm the most proud of, other than East Basketball Club, certainly that was a huge undertaking to get that rolling. But we worked with, the high school has recently hired a full-time strength and conditioning I'm not sure what his exact title is, but strength and conditioning professional to guide all of those training efforts for the district. They not only offer programs for high school, but also for middle school and like the fifth and sixth grade age group as well. And we get a lot of requests from coaches and families like, hey, what can my third grader be doing or fourth grader to help get them on track? And there certainly are things that you can be doing, but there are things that you should not be doing at those age levels. And so the strength conditioning staff person put together a handbook specifically for strength and conditioning that's posted on that page to help families understand like age appropriate strength and conditioning, like at what age should you actually be doing lifting weights as opposed to just doing speed and agility. And so then that way it's a consistent message from a professional with that training and education as opposed to maybe just more alignment, right? Just like ask the professionals what they should be suggesting. And then families can certainly make their own decisions, but future programming for those age groups will be aligned with the recommendations from that professional. So take a look at those when you have a moment. And then lastly, I did want to just give an update. The splash pad, I can't recall exact timing, but we did have an issue with the push button at the splash pad that is like a foot sensor that you step on that to turn it on. I'm told we're not the only ones that have been having an issue with that. And so for a period of time, we had to, as opposed to relying on that button to activate the splash pad, we had to program a schedule. If anyone was out there, you might have seen we had an A-frame sign with a schedule on there that it was essentially it would run for 20 minutes on the hour, then shut off for 10 minutes, run for another 20. And then off for 10, so it was more of a consistent time schedule because we couldn't rely on that activator to work properly. We have since had that replaced, and so it's back to working as designed. And where it's interesting, we can track our water usage by the day, actually by the hour if we target right into it. But there were some days where we actually were using less water by having it on on a regular time schedule than we were on days when it was foot pedal activated, which tells you how busy that splash pad is if it's running more than 40 hours a minute per, 40 hours, excuse me. Let's say this correctly, more than 40 minutes per hour for the whole day on some days when it was up to the users. So definitely very highly used, especially in those hot days, which we've had quite a few of. But we'll continue to monitor that button. That was a warranty replacement. There was no cost to the city for that. Certainly was a learning curve for us. And I guess sometimes when you're pushed to make adjustments, you can have some improvements. So now we have the controllers hooked up to Wi-Fi and we can control it. So if we ever did have that issue that it failed on a weekend, I can log in remotely and reset the schedule and at least get it working right away instead of people being disappointed waiting for the splash pad to turn on. So some good came from the issue as well.

Would you consider skipping the push button altogether and just sticking with the schedule?

You know, if it weren't for like days like today, or I guess maybe even hours like on days like today where Um, so when it's raining or maybe it's a little bit chilly that day, and if we don't have somebody there at the park watching, which we don't all the time, then we could be wasting water that, um, you know, wouldn't be used on the push button, uh, model. And so like in some, like on the stretch where it was super nice and super hot for that whole week that we had it. It would have made perfect sense then, but we try not to use more water than we have to. And unfortunately, yeah, if I'm not there to say, okay, it's probably raining in East right now, so I'm going to do that, then it's hard to make that adjustment on the fly.

Thank you.

Does the warranty reset for that piece that was replaced? Because you said there were other people that had issues with it. Long-term that there is their concern.

We're still having discussions related to that the the reason why ours was covered by warranties because it was the in our contractor who Installed it we get a one-year warranty on everything from the substantial completion date, which hadn't passed yet it's my understanding that they went back and forth quite a bit with the manufacturer and so I I don't I I don't expect that timeline to reset. That might've been a one-time thing, but we're, we're continuing to, to monitor that. So, yeah. And that was the only other thing that I wanted to highlight there, Patrick, just so if, if you had anyone saying, Hey, we used to see it popping on all the time. Well, now it's back to back to normal.

So cool. Thank you, Dirk. Thanks, everybody. I think with that, we can go ahead and move to adjourn, correct?

We can. I'll let you adjourn, and then I'm going to say one last thing, actually.

Are you sure you don't want to? I mean, we can wait.

Okay. The concert, it looks nice now. I just remember the concert got moved to downstairs. So if anyone was planning on going to the concert tonight, we saw the lightning and everything, and it's a solo artist. So we're like, that can fit downstairs. So it's started 13 minutes ago in rooms 101 and 102. We didn't hear, I haven't heard them jamming, but they're down there, so.

Cool, cool. So if anybody's watching us and wants to come to the concert, feel free to. But if our virtual attendance is any better than our public comment attendance, along the same line that our public comment attendants. I don't know that.

Maybe they're all downstairs.

Yes, hopefully so. All right. So with that, I think we can go ahead and adjourn our tonight's meeting.