Parks and Recreation Commission - Regular Meeting

It's 3 o'clock. We'll go ahead and get started. Let's go ahead and begin with the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Commissioners Jacob and Sean will not be here today. They're out of town. Thank you everybody for being here. We have just enough for a forum. That's very good news. And we'll go ahead and is there anybody online? Okay, we'll go ahead again then with the adoption of the agenda and approval of the consent calendar. Is there anybody that would move that we do so?

Is there any comments from the commission first. No comments.

Would someone like to move that we accept the agenda.

I make the motion to accept the agenda.

And the consent calendar.

Second.

Seconded. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, good. And that includes the approval of the minutes from the previous meeting, right? Right.

Okay.

So we're already ready for the report from staff. Mr. Director.

Perfect. Thank you. I'm the library director. I also oversee the historical museum and the El Dorado Western Railroad. So we'll start with library news. So staffing. El Dorado Hills They are currently in process of recruiting for a library assistant. I suspect in the next month or so, we'll have somebody on board. So fingers crossed. They recently secured an extra help library assistant. I think that, Crystal, does that person start next week?

That person has been trained and started last week. Oh, yes.

Okay.

They have been working at the various branches.

Excellent. That's Paige, right? And so very library appropriate name. I'm excited about that. But happy to have Paige on board. Training. So during in-service day a few years ago, we subscribed to an online training that was the trainings are created by a person that has run a homeless shelter in Chicago for decades. And I first came across this training when I worked for Sacramento Public Library, and it's still the best training that I've experienced related to just human behavior, people experiencing homelessness, working with a variety of populations, folks from different backgrounds, just different life experiences. And so we offered that training a few years ago, and it was well received by staff. Of course, our fiscal situation changed a bit, but I'm happy to mention that we've reactivated that training series again. So all library staff have access to this now. It goes over de-escalation practices, being trauma-informed, working with individuals that may be experiencing homelessness, working with teen and youth populations. There are live training events. I think they happen once a month. And there are also recorded trainings. So it's another tool to help support staff as they continue to focus on welcoming spaces and also how our behavior policy interfaces with behavior and just our spaces in general. But that is, again, active, and our subscription is good for one year. We have a somewhat new technology piece, so the public might see a few slight differences at our public service desks and as far as some of the software that we use. So it's just really related to best practices as far as or information technology and patron privacy, IT security, and it's much more internal, but the public might see at times staff log out from a machine and another staff member log in, or not the machine, but a certain program that we use. So we'll likely start rolling this out in the next few months system-wide. So the The public might see a difference here and there as we make this change, but Placerville will be the first site, so it'll be a bit of a pilot site. Kelly, did I see, did you want to add anything? Okay. And that brings us to museum happenings. So the Friends of the California Archives have featured the historical photo database. And Crystal will. And the webmaster did a fantastic job. Beautiful. It's beautiful. And as you scroll down, so you see one of the images from our database. And it mentions how we're importing this existing collection of approximately 30,000 photos. and it gives more information about that specific one. It also has a link to our database. And as we continue down, it goes into further detail related to the photograph that was used to highlight the database. And as we go down a little further, a little further, So fantastic piece to share, mentioning that most of these photos have never been seen by the public until now. And as we continue down, there are all sorts of great facts about the museum. And as we go down a little further, it also highlights the El Dorado Hills Friends of the library and how we were able to secure this platform to build this database through their generosity. And as we continue down, it also mentions that we'll be adding artifacts and cultural items, and you can keep scrolling. Quite the comprehensive piece. Yeah, and it has some additional stats. Really a beautiful job by that webmaster. It mentions more about the museum, and as we continue, source of our hours and other info.

Are you going to use a new logo there?

And there's another reason that I wanted to go all the way down to the bottom, because I want to touch on that topic. And I have everything sorted out here with the report, but item M5. So we'll talk about that in just a second. Yeah. Oh, and if you scroll down to the very bottom, Actually, up a little bit. Sorry. Up a little bit more. Yeah, and then we have the El Dorado Hills Friends of the Library mentioned again. So the site supervisor at El Dorado Hills will share all this with the friends at that site as well. But a very lovely highlight, and it's for the entire month of August. And then related, Crystal, if you want to go to catalog it. So we have a new category, Chinese community in El Dorado County. And you'll see that we have some artifacts included as well. And if you want to scroll down to the bottom of this, all the way down, let's click on the artifact to the very left there. if you click it. So this just provides an overview of some of the first records that we've imported. So we're still working on all these pieces, but it's exciting to have artifacts and cultural items. included because it adds a whole additional you know an additional dimension to the database and that brings us to the museum yard tony from facilities continues to do an amazing job next time you're at the museum and you you enter through the gates, if you look to the right, there's added pea gravel in that area. It looks very professional and well-maintained. Tony continues to add to the space, and that way he's also taken the initiative to, he had a cauldron or two that was holding water, and he used a pump to drain those. So the The outdoor space, with help from Tony, continues to look fantastic. But there's been some added gravel. Yes, I was going to mention there's two trees. Let's see. I think one to the left of the front gate and one to the right of the front gate. One is completely dead. And so that will be removed, I think, sometime. this year. Facilities takes care of that. They contract with the company, my understanding. And then there's another tree that is partially dead. And that will be removed as well. Even though we love trees and we don't like to remove them, this will be a positive for the space. Because one tree is dead and the other one is dying. And let's see. I don't think they're native trees. I think it'll help with some of those areas and just the debris falling onto some of the artifacts. So after those are removed, then we'll continue to evaluate the space and see if there's something else that we should put in those areas, either planting or moving some plants around. But two trees are marked for windfall. Display spaces. So we have a few areas that have been defined by the department as dynamic spaces. So currently one of those spaces, remind me of the collection we have there again, Kelly, is this related? It has the drum, the couches, it was parade related, wasn't it?

That's the civic celebration. It'll be there through the end of 2016.

Okay, perfect. Yeah. So that is one of the areas that the community will see different displays come through. So it'll be a more dynamic space. And I think, too, when you first walk in to the left, right now, we're highlighting a lot of items from the Chinese collection. I think we marked that as being a more dynamic space as well.

that one display case and then the one that has the women of distinction in it right now. So that I'm hiring that display case to display items that are new to kind of highlight that. So that'll be a faster turnaround for that. So right now I'm working on Dr. Burge's collection that we've got, the 18-piece, Dr. slash dentist. Yeah, we just got to it. So working on that right now.

It's very exciting. We haven't had space or spaces in the museum for some time that were truly dynamic. So this brings a new energy. We also have opposite one of those display areas, there is a mural. So we're gathering some more information around the history of the mural. And it could be that that's one of the spaces, one of the elements that we change. So we would bring that idea back to the commission in time as far as that space and being refreshed. refreshed and looking at a lot of the items in that area, a lot of the Native American items, there's a lot of opportunity for added display cases, also visually becoming more minimal so those items stand out. So that's one of the things that we're looking at right now. But in the future, it'll be a topic on the agenda is the mural and what the commission's thoughts are on that. but that is something that the department is discussing. And then do you have another item kind of related to display spaces?

No.

No? I missed, is the mural outside or inside?

It's inside. It is inside. Yeah. And there is one of the support poles has bark around it. And, of course, then on the other side you have the mural. So just looking at that space all together, we also don't want to have bark in the space. So we want, of course, to remove that. And so that would also be attached to that project. So more minimal visually, then the focus is truly on the artifacts and cultural items. And then two, you know, we don't just bark. So the bark's been there for a long time. So we're going to remove the bark.

Is that a fire hazard? Is that the rationale of the bark is fire?

Insects and bugs.

Bugs like being in the bark. It's just not a best practice at this time.

It's the bottom of the platform that they're on.

We haven't had any issues with the BART, but just moving forward and as a best practice, there's no need for BART.

Let that be written. Oh, thank you.

I think I prepared this before that was maybe installed.

We have, did you want to share this piece or do you want me to share?

This is a great example of something something relatively small that has a huge positive impact. I'll let you show this piece.

We have an outdoor bulletin board with a locked door on it, a clear door, attached to the front gate of the museum. And so we put the museum hours in there. And then there's also space in there for any additional signage that we need to put up there. coming up we're going to be closed for labor day pretty soon so i'll be able to put that in there instead of uh hanging a piece of paper on there with a zip tie so it's a it's a you know slightly better way to communicate things um also any special upcoming events that we might have so it's it's just a good way to speak to the public when we're not there that's good is it is it lighted

I wonder what that would take to just put even a solar light on there so it comes in after dark.

It could be that.

It might discourage vandalism. It might encourage vandalism.

It could be that in the case, we could put a light of some sort. So kind of like the ones that they put in cabinets.

Mm-hmm.

Okay. because actually wiring it and all of that, that would be cost prohibitive. If you could do it solar.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, so anyway, it's been there a week, and I'm really happy about it, very excited that we got that put up there. That's great. And it's still up there. Every morning I come up, because we do have a lot of activity out in front of there. There's a really popular hangout spot right between the – the museum and the veterans' back parking lots.

You get a little box, and I have numbers inside, too. So many days since the last...

I know. Vandalism, yeah.

Well, now that I got there... Do we have a floodlight right in that area? Do we have a floodlight right in that area? It's broken. Oh, okay. It was vandalized.

Well, get that fixed. I found it in their stuff.

some tool, a shovel or something. And I found the handle of that broken in three pieces when I got there Tuesday.

Unbelievable.

OK. Well, we'll work on that piece and then see what we need to do as far as potential additional lighting. But the case looks very professional, well-made. Thank you to the facilities for securing it. mounting and securing it. Anything else you want to say about the case?

No.

Sounds good. That brings us to a branding and logo piece. So as you saw with the, here we go. So the Friends of the California Archives They needed materials within a certain time frame. And we didn't want to use the previous logo and branding because we're moving in a different direction. But then we haven't solidified our new branding. So this was in the middle ground. And so, of course, used the colors and the font that came from the previous process, but no symbols. And I think this worked out well for this project. I think we're closer to solidifying our branding. So I hope to bring an item next session to receive input from the Commission I think we're in a place where potentially we could even explore not having a symbol, just using text. Maybe it's very close to this. Maybe it's this. Maybe it's not. But we'll have a discussion about that. And with this opportunity and what was needed, so the department decided to move forward with some of the new elements of the branding, but then again, not including a symbol. And so we'll see where we all land with that. But I think this works well, and Webmaster did a great job with that spotlight.

Perfect answer. I was just curious, because we did all this talking about the branding, and I went, wait. But that answers the question. Yeah.

Yeah. Mm-hmm. And that brings us to railroad happenings.

Just before that, since we're still on that stuff, can I, with the commissioner's permission, ask that Tony be given a nice thank you for everything he's done up to this point, and anybody else that's worked with him. That place needed it, and it looks like he's gone a little beyond what had to be done. I truly appreciate it.

We find that folks that are, let's see, there's an ownership and pride associated with our museum. And so we see that with staff, even from other departments. So it's even when, It's IT. Yeah. It's this building aspect of facilities. It's everyone because as a county sphere and working as a team, sometimes we need IT to assist in the building of certain projects. Sometimes it's facilities. Sometimes it's others. But there's always this element of kind of amazement and wonder and kind of you might have better words for this than

I do. And it's not, I don't get the feeling they're owning it as a county employee, but I think they're owning it as an El Dorado County resident.

Yes, absolutely.

With our objective to make this a renowned museum with a community buy-in, that's how it's going to happen. It's much appreciated.

Sorry to interrupt you, but I wanted to... Yeah, next time we see Tony, you'll have to let him know that we're talking about him and saying good things. Yeah. Thank you, Bryce. Sure, thank you. That brings us to the railroad. The San Francisco Chronicle did an article on the El Dorado Western Railroad. It was a a short timeline from contact to publishing, but it happened. It's a lovely article. There's a handful of photos that are included, and I think there's a quote or two from the president of the Railway Foundation, Ed, a very well-done article

I want to say that. When she presented that she was doing the article, she said, I want to write an article to the Chronicle about the railroad program that you have there that the tickets sell out too fast. She put it that way.

They sell out too fast. I was able to send the article out to the what's that again? Yeah, sometimes you might hit the paywall. But I was able to send out a copy to the railroad volunteers and team. So I can always send that out to the commissioners as well as a blind copy. It's a fun article, some lovely pictures. including one that has maybe six or seven volunteers in front of one of the trains.

Does that look familiar?

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

The security car looks great all painted up. The caboose is a work in progress. Edward?

Are we going to call him Edward now?

Yeah.

Okay, so this is the quote. The big train, every week it runs, it's boom.

We don't quite understand it, but we're not running steam.

We need to get him something that's in great shape.

It's a new slang word.

I don't know if it's a big deal. I don't know whether it refers to the overwhelming... Quest for Tickets and Writership? I'm going to get a t-shirt.

Yeah, get like a little button.

That Saturday we have people from all over Northern California and out of state. You name it, it's amazing.

Dariana has a thing to say too because at the Widows Group that I'm part of, I told Keith about that, I've been networking the railroad.

So next time I should tell him about this article about that. But they were talking to mommy about it. And then she got me on the phone. She's like, send out an email because they're interested in getting a bunch of people want to take their grandkids for the October one. And then I'm just going to get some interest in the September train as well.

And she's going before the board. There's 60-some people there at our business meetings or at the meetings once a month. And she's been asked to explain how to do the ticketing and how to go about it, so she's going to be our speaker for them. Thank you.

Then we received the other day this extensive narrative letter from a gentleman representing foster children and wanting to work out tickets, donational tickets. And I'm not quite sure how many hundreds... or thousands or whatever we're talking about. So we, we're going to have to wait into that pool carefully and understand. I'm not familiar with this organization or, or any of that, but, uh, our problem is we don't have capacity to embrace large, I mean, large groups of people. And so we're, we're running what, uh, 150 people a Saturday about that. Yeah. And, um, uh, every day is sold out and people are calling the railroad phone that we have. Thanks to Daryana and Steve Carolee and Gloria, they worked on the phone, getting it all, all the back data stuff cleared away. And so that we can answer the phone in a timely way, but the people are calling wanting tickets and wanting to change rides and that. And it's amazing. And so, Last Saturday, we sold out. Tomorrow, we're sold out. Now, we're looking at September, two days, and moving on into the fall, which I'll speak to in a minute. But the response so far has been just so overwhelming and so nice to the volunteers, the people, the crews, and that. So anyway, we'll see how it goes. That article... was such a morale boost for all of the volunteers and our little backwoods gold country railroad.

Well, that's a good segue. The Railway Foundation held a volunteer appreciation and it was well attended. I think everyone had a good time. I was able to stop by and crash their party and thank everybody in person. Of course, our railroad program and all of our volunteers very much appreciated all the work that they do. And I think they all had a fun time at that volunteer appreciation. So with some of our guiding documents with the railroad and operations. There's a timetable. There's a volunteer handbook. There are operating rules. There are special instructions. And I'm currently reviewing all those documents. And with the timetable, the special instructions and the timetable operating instruction, no, special instructions, There's another document that will be included in this timetable. I have the draft. I'd say it's about 80% complete. So the Railway Foundation has a meeting next week, so I expect to have the completed draft by then, and then share it, and then they can provide input, and then we'll be further along with reviewing and updating this document And then volunteers will receive the finalized document. And then we'll also provide a copy to our CPUC, the individual, the entity from the Public Utilities Commission that ultimately observes Insular and other, I think it's just Insular relevance, actually, our contact the piece that's being done in the background. And that's all I have. Happy to answer questions.

I did want to add, just for everyone's awareness, we implemented a few weeks ago a musical component into our train rooms. And we have a gentleman who's quite gifted in his voice and his singing and stomping around, Mark Hennington. known as Hobo Charlie, is it? Yeah. Hobo Charlie. Yeah. And, uh, anyway, he, he started on 4th of July and he came out and he had the first passenger group singing patriotic songs on the deck before they even got on the train. And he's, he's quite good at it. And he sings railroad songs and gold rush history songs, so to speak. And, uh, um, so we're still finding our way with Mark. Um, Because we've never had an entertainer actually embedded onto the train and so on. But so far, his technical singing and so on and telling stories and that, he's quite charismatic kind of guy. So we'll see how it goes. We are taking a look at our far-flung Facebook and other platform presence. trying to find all of the things that should be edited. Old, incorrect things that were okay 10 years ago or five years ago, but they're not correct today. And they appear in odd places, little things about scheduled times. For instance, we don't operate on Sundays. And somebody found that the other day. hidden away in Facebook somewhere. So we're all learning how to edit the virtual world and bring it into accuracy. We appreciate your efforts. So everybody's striving and trying to find where's our very best presentation. We do need to be sensitive to all the people who are calling us or speaking up wanting tickets or they want to have seats. And so it's kind of a juggling act. The station crew, as we say, has done a remarkable job helping people to get on a train or to find a different train or to work it out. We also have the late arrivals who come tearing down the driveway, dirt and rocks flying and Usually a 58-old. And they call in advance and tell us they're coming, like a travel log. You know, where are you now? Oh, Shingle Springs. Okay, where are you now? Oh, we're at Greenstone. Oh, where are you now? Well, we're just pulling in. Hold the train. The whole train's sitting there. And our policy is now between the station crew and the train crew, the conductors, and that the ride says 9 o'clock. okay, we put a five-minute hold in there. We all are waiting because every week somebody's going to show up in that five minutes. It's the five-minute mark. And we, if we have heard from them and there is constructive communication, we'll hold another five. But at 10 minutes, 9.40, or 9.10, I mean, we're going to roll a train. And then we try to get them on the next train. So we try to work it all out, but But we cannot just wait and have four or six different entities all coming at us at the last minute. So we do everything we can to get them there on time. Come early. Have fun. We'll entertain you. And the crew is ready and so on. So we're doing our best for PR. And anyway, just wanted to let you know it's kind of a real balancing act for me. And so we will run tomorrow and we moved our schedule up to 9am 1030 noon for the heat and so the crew is going to be there early and station crew be there early and we're just going to be ready to go and we expect to Take place, then we're going to have a little bit of a rest for the balance of August and then start of September. November, December, we have created a plan for theme-related run days. And so in September, there's a great train robbery kind of thing, hunt for clues. It takes place all on the train. The kids will have the materials necessary. Mark will play into it. It's train-based, so we don't have to do anything extra on the ground as far as the event. And then in October, we have planned three Saturdays for the pumpkin patch, which was very popular. We're right now trying to find a supply of pumpkins. And pretty much the planning is okay when finding the pumpkins at an affordable rate is a challenge. And so that's in October. Now, we moved that up from November, so November had a gap in it. So what Mark did, he said, okay, we're going to do a hoedown on the deck at the station. I've got some other people, fiddle players and so on. We're going to center the activities at the station because it's rain, kind of rain defensive, and you're not as hanging out as you could be elsewhere. And so we're going to have a hoedown on the deck at the station, and then they get on the train and take off.

You can throw turkeys on the train.

So turkeys. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. We stand a better chance.

Yeah, we're all showing our age now. Cincinnati.

So pumpkin patch train, of course, pre-approved along with the holiday train. If that's something that the volunteers have capacity for. And then some of the other ideas, if you just send me some more info, you know, an overview, then I can Give it the official seal of approval. Sounds like there's some great ideas.

Gloria and all of us are working on that. This week we were fighting from the heat in the afternoon working on the layout.

Why not have a real train robbery at the end of the robbery day? Well, that brings up the Hangtown Marshals.

And I wanted to talk to you. When we first started the large train, a gentleman approached us, and I can't remember who it was. and so what we'd like to do is sit down and discuss what would be a achievable kind of semi-peaceful approach we were worried about the gunfire and so forth if that was going to scare the kids and so on and we thought this really deserves some good discussion over a cup of coffee at our coffee shop there in Schinkel and we hold up the stage coach we have a

humorous robbery, and there's no shooting.

Well, let's talk about that.

So that can be done.

We're the Keystone Cops, kind of.

Well, we just have two totally inept guys trying to rob the stagecoach, and one guy that's trying to train them. So they're OITs, Outlaws in Training. Trying to train them. And we get the people in the stagecoach involved, and We would love to sit down with a few people in the train, especially if you have any sound assist. We do.

We just installed a speaker, another speaker.

That doesn't have to be shooting. We do lots of stuff without shooting.

Well, I think it's time to sit down and put our heads together. And we've got a year under our belts and we've got our kind of act better defined. And now we have this musical spoke. And so if we could start to talk about another quality spoke to add to the ride, because We may be small. We may be in the backwoods. We may be short, only an hour ride, so to speak. But you know, there's special things we do that they come a long way to experience.

You know, if you announce that there's going to be a robbery, which a lot of people like that, then the shooting is not a problem because it's an expectation. So that's another way to look at it.

I grew up watching the Knott's Berry Farm train get robbed.

every month when my family would go over to Knapsberry Farm for their chicken dinner and we'd wander around in time to see the train catch the train, go for the train ride and on the way back here come the guys so feel free to explore ideas with the railroad volunteers and other potential participants but yes to exploring those ideas And then if you want to bring an official proposal to the Railway Foundation meeting or send it to me, then I can review everything. And then we can either approve it, deny it, or provide some guidance to where we might be able to.

It takes a while to get all of the writers to sign a release form.

Yes, we're learning, we're apprenticing on the waiver signing process again tomorrow. And we've come up with some ways that we were able to process and take care of that business without holding the train schedule really too long. So we're working on that and whatever else we have to develop to have signatures or whatever. but we appreciate it, and everything comes to you, sir. We will not just do something. I mean, one of the things for next year, they're also developing theme ideas and so forth for next year, and one of the ideas was dinosaur park.

I'm going, whoa, what is this about? What does that mean? Talk about living history. Anyway. Train beat.

well we're trying to put some some love into the whole thing and people have a good time and want to come back more than once and so on bill and something for the next uh railway foundation meeting i'm curious um what the thoughts are on potentially adding uh another black car I know that there's been some talk of that in the past. And we wouldn't be able to pull another flat car and the caboose. There's a few different entities where maybe we could secure another flat car through a lease or something of similar nature.

Is there a base for a flat car?

Which museum? at our museum? At our museum? No, no. We lease the flat car chassis that we have, and we've had that for 10, 11 years. And we have it through the Folsom El Dorado Rail Historical Society, Bill Anderson's group out of Folsom, because they didn't have room for the extra flat car. And they have the sister flat car at Folsom, but it doesn't have any superstructure. We have potentially a lead on a surgeon car that's ready to roll. I mean, it's already got the walls and the roof and the seats and the whole bit. It's in use, air brakes, the whole bit. And it's at Niles Canyon Museum. And they have it. They've made it a nice car. And they're increasing the capacity of their train of lights at Christmas and so forth. So they want to replace this car with a larger car on their railroad. And so we have had open conversation as to would they consider a nonprofit to nonprofit transfer. And then it would just be a truck haul over. And it's not heavy, about 25 tons, because there's no engines in it. I mean, it's an observation car. So that is a lead that we're pursuing. If we have to use a flat car, it'll take at least a year to build the thing out. Because that's what we went through with the one we have. So we're hoping now the other aspect is to run a second train out of Shingle. We need the excursion car to drop in between the locomotive and the caboose. We have a locomotive, we have a caboose, we don't have the excursion car. So all these things are being looked at. There's also another locomotive in the Bay Area that is running. It's owned by a government entity that may wish to dispose of it. It's actually a center cab two-engine diesel. It looks just like our one at Shingle. It's green. And we have been, if you will, pardon the term, chasing them because they are a government entity. But we have a gentleman who is pursuing active discussion with them about would they consider us if the moment comes where they decide to move to a more modern locomotive under lease and then they want to dispose of the one they have, which they own. But it's the same engine that we have. It's shingle that's green. Side rods and the whole bit. And so anyway, we keep an eye on just about any vehicle Buckets of fried chicken we can put our eyes on, you know, no matter which museum or where it is. But we're very careful to go after those items of rolling stock that make sense and they're affordable and they can be brought in because we're not going to Ohio to get a cruising car. And so we... We're on the hunt, and it all depends on if we can put the pieces together. But we did other times, and that's how we got the one locomotive from Santa Clara, and that's how we got the flat car to begin with from Folsom, and that's how we got the two SP Cabooses from Private Citizens. So if you just keep looking for gold nuggets, sooner or later you're going to find one.

Gold nuggets.

And with a second flat car, you essentially double your revenue. From a customer service point of view, accommodating additional folks. Just have to have a bigger locomotive. From just my brief conversations with Ed, just hypothetical conversations. with the weight of the caboose and then even a loaded second flat car, it would be still less weight.

We could set the caboose on the siding and just run with two excursion cars. It's a two-car train. That's what I had in mind. The locomotive, the caboose, it's usable, but it doesn't hold the capacity of the excursion cars the way we've got them set up. if we were able to just to park that to a side for a visual uh then go with a two flat car excursion cars and the engine that we're using is plenty strong for that it's really a fairly powerful little uh 13 ton boat couldn't do three flat cars then so then you'll need some kind of cover for that caboose then right if it's well the one the one that's all steel The SP cabooses, the one at Eldorado and one at Shingle, they're both metal and so on. The green caboose down at Shingle is the one that needs protecting because that's wood and that's your artifact from Camino and that's a new construction. And so we need to talk and do work out plans to protect that one. But the steel cabooses, if we paint the roofs correctly and so on, they'll last a long, long time. I mean, they're already 1941. Anyway.

That's when she was born.

Gets a paint on her. It's a good idea not to leave her out in the weather. Jeanette's pretty weather worthy really. So thank you for your support and everybody's really trying hard and Mark Warren, And we'll find we'll find those couple gold nuggets and figure this out. Mark Warren, Actually, just as a party. Mark Warren, We have been working on the end of track of Missouri. Mark Warren, Track comes down and stops and there are railroad tie bulkhead looks very real roadie. in place and that's been backfilled and the track will sit on top of that and we just don't know yet whether that will have a caboose or a small standard gauge locomotive for display but that's the end of track and it's very visible from 35 road and the trail it's right there by the new bridge anyway this is a so that's been going on to finish that work and uh I have a feeling somebody in our group is going to show up with an idea or two for what could be parked there as a display or information kiosk.

We have a smaller locomotive at the museum.

Those are narrow gauge artifacts. They don't fit. There are plenty of standard gauge small diesels out there. And also cabooses. The caboose can serve as a ticket office and an information kiosk and so on. So anyway, the happiness will be getting to decide what do we want to put there. Something that speaks to the railroad, something that speaks to the historic part of the railroad. It can't be a modern piece of railroad equipment. It's finding the right combination and Anyway, but the groundwork is pretty much done, according to Ed and Peter.

And no doubt the small engine. I have visions of that being fixed up and people being able to crawl up in there and look and see what might be in there. Hands-on exploration. Hands-on exploration.

You're talking about the steam engine at the museum yard?

Thomas the Tank Engine.

The one at the museum yard. Yeah, the discount. The oldest one we have.

Yeah. I love that boat.

It actually was operated under air at Cal Expo one year by some railroad people who, some of them were connected with the museum way back when. And they, there were some guys at the mill who wanted to return it to steam and they got as far as they could and the officials just said no. So that engine's been partially restored. It's really in fairly decent shape. It is our oldest locomotive in the museum. Hold it in the shade.

I'd like to at least bring her up. Bring her up.

Bring her out of the gym.

Yeah. Tony will do it.

He can do anything.

Is there any other comments on the director's report?

Any comments on the report we just heard? Thank you, guys.

Any public comments? There's none online. All right.

Down to museum program update. I think we may have heard from Commissioner Berry on the El Dorado Western Railroad. Unless you had anything else to add.

No, thank you.

Sorry, I will.

No, that's all right.

I was taking your job over.

I'll share my check with you.

I'm not sharing mine with you. We'll double your pay.

Put me in a new tax bracket. Do we have anything from the research room?

Yeah, we're staying pretty busy with email, research requests, a couple walk-ins, some interesting things. Still getting things organized and moving all the actual photos that we do have and that have been numbered. And so putting those in a different spot that they're more accessible and creating room for all of the unidentified photos that hopefully soon we will have identified in Canva. And also, we're this close to having a computer for our scanner. So we have scanning jobs just Piling up. We've been able, as we've been going through everything, we've been able to kind of prioritize the items that we want to have scanned first, so that we have those ready and waiting. Very exciting.

I think we're still exploring the copier setup as well. Didn't you make a request to have ... We do not have a color copier. The copier, yes. And the lease on that is up in November.

And so we'll be able to replace it then with a color. I didn't know where we were at. There's a color printer in the office. We can use that. But if I need color, but it rolls up the paper. Right.

Okay. I think it's possible that a museum might, we might be able to, for the same type of copier scanner that we have at the main library at the museum. So, James, one of our analysts. That's not so bad.

That's pumpkin time. That's turkey time.

Get a deal. Anything about exhibits and tours? Are there any questions about the research room? And there's still nobody online?

Sorry. That's okay.

So I can do my job. Okay.

There's nobody online.

There's nothing for the commissioners. Anything on exhibits and tours?

We do have a couple of larger tours that have been booked for the next couple months. One of them we have about 20, 30 people. And so that's going to be very interesting. That's on a Friday with David and Maria. And so That'll be fun.

So we'll split up that larger party and It takes them outside while we Can I inquire as to because some people are asking What is the status of the cool panning program. Is there going to be future Activity. Now that you know Richards passed away. Anyway, people are inquiring because it was a

Yeah, it was. And I do need to call. I'm sorry for forgetting his name. He was my contact first before the fair. He did say that he was putting the word out that I was looking for something to start that up. But if we did do that, it probably wouldn't be a regular occurrence. It would be maybe a special program If we start up field trips, I think that would be it.

So you just need a panner. The museum has a setup. I don't think.

I think they brought their own when I was there. They usually brought their own setup.

They brought their own setup. We just provide the water.

Yeah. Well, that's another layer to make it a little more difficult.

They bring base gravel from some stream somewhere, and then they pan it out. Using a rock or a pan. They have to bring their own gold.

But we used to buy the wall.

He would paint the rock. Paint the rock.

Oh, he'd paint the rock's gold? We used copper, too.

Chopped up copper.

Yes, it was copper.

That's what we used at Frontier Village. Because I helped build that place. The gold panning, etc. Well. There's a great story there, but I'm not going to.

Did you really just say that? Because she's just now taking a note that you built the gold painting.

I dug this huge. Do you need a phone number?

No, don't.

When we're all through, I have to tell you the story about when I went to sell it on TV. That's it for exhibits and tours. Okay. Any commissioner comments that haven't heard? Okay. Community engagement updates. And quiet and hot.

From the department side, let's see. We saved the graves and their pamphlet brochure. I think we did a quarter sheet last year. And so we were invited to do that again. And we included or were advertising the historical photo database. And so we're excited to be featured. And I think, too, we'll likely have a table at the event this year. So I'm waiting on some additional details. It was very successful last year, and so many positive comments from participants. and also the railroad. And it's exciting for the department because, again, we can promote library services and museum offerings and railroad offerings. Yeah, we'll be featured in that brochure.

Get a buzz going. That's what we need. OK. Anything from the public?

Not that I know of.

There's nobody online. If there's no more discussion, we'll go ahead and adjourn our meeting. Thank you, everyone. So, here's what happened.

Do I have to make a motion to adjourn?

No. You can just adjourn.

Do you want to make a motion to adjourn?

Do you want to make a motion? Somebody else talked. Listen to what? Yeah, I used to. I still move. Very good. All right.