Open Space Parks & Recreation Commission - Regular Meeting

All right, I'd like to call to order the Open Space Parks and Recreation Commission meeting.

First, I'll read the land acknowledgment.

The land that Eureka rests on is known in the Wiyot language as . Past actions by local, state, and federal governments remove the Wiyot and other indigenous peoples from the land and threaten to destroy their cultural practices. The city of Eureka acknowledged the WIOC community, their elders, both past and present, as well as future generations. The acknowledgement demonstrates the city's commitment to dismantle the ongoing legacies of settler colonialism. Can we have the roll call, please?

Commissioner Mays? Here. Commissioner Bareilles? Here. Commissioner Brenner? Here. Commissioner Hitchcock? Here. Commissioner Sims? Here. Commissioner Smoker? Here. And Commissioner Klarner?

Here.

Thank you.

Next, we're going to approve the minutes from the July 23rd, 2026 regular meeting as submitted. Commissioners, are there any questions, corrections, or comments on the minutes for that meeting?

I have one. I would like the young woman, it says her comment and it has her name, Suvez, but she also asked to talk about Cesar Suvez's signage.

So are you saying, does there have to be a change?

Do we have to vote on that?

Anything you want to change about the minutes, we voted on.

Okay. And in the future, for my information, could I just email it to you ahead of time and then have everybody?

The way the minutes are done is it's not everything everybody says. They're just action minutes. So it's just when somebody's speaking.

Right. That part I noticed. It's just that I went back and read all our other meeting minutes and saw that everybody had two words about their comment. Every time Carl talked, it mentioned Cooper Gold's whatever. And this woman, all it had was her name. Did I do that meeting?

I don't remember. But, yeah, I will double check.

Okay. Okay.

And we definitely just made note that we are pursuing the Cesar Chavez. So that's definitely being followed up on.

Yes. So will we be voting on that? OK. Anybody else have corrections or comments? All right. So any public comment on this item? Is there anybody on Zoom tonight?

The staff tonight.

OK. And so do we have a motion from the commissioners to approve the minutes as corrected?

I'll move to approve the minutes as corrected. Do we have a second?

I'll second. I second. Okay, let's please vote. Aye. Aye.

Aye.

And the motion passes and the minutes from the July 2026 regular meeting as corrected has passed. Next, we'll go to the commission reports. And are there any commission reports? And it's my understanding there wouldn't be. So we'll move on to public comments. Are there any public comments tonight? Nope. Okay. And there wasn't anybody on Zoom. And so now let's go to old business. We've got the Carson Park Improvement Project. And it looks like only Donna is here.

So I am flying solo tonight. Okay. And staff continue to work on our fundraising campaign for Carson Park. We have some things in the works, but nothing to report out for tonight. You can expect an update next month. And that's it for Carson. Okay. And next is Grace Martin Park. Yes. Lots of movement. Has anyone been down a lot? Yeah. Yeah. Please, if you haven't, get on the trail and walk by. It's still closed and fenced in, but you can get quite a view. And it is changing daily. If you haven't seen the octopus, holy smokes, he's so cute. The boat is in the ground. Next week, the PIP poured in place, the soft foundation that we have at many of our parks. That will be going in. The trail itself is complete. There will be some tree planting taking place next month, or in October, actually. And we'll bring back more details for you on that. There'll be about 10 trees planted with a volunteer effort and working with Keep Eureka Beautiful to remedy some of the trees that did have to be removed when the trail was upgraded. updated um the let's see what else to share the cool thing about the port in place um faux it's kind of a foam um type of material you guys familiar with plague most playgrounds these days rather than um well in addition to um for example at dyos underneath the egret all of that colored that's that's pip poured in place uh surfacing and um all of the surfacing under the boat and around the boat will look like it'll be blue and look like the boat is in water and um The whole little space is just really coming together. So I'm excited to encourage you to go take a peek. It's pretty magical. So that is, we're thinking mid-October for a grand opening. We'll keep you guys updated on that as well. But we're getting close, very close.

And then as I was walking the dogs, I've noticed you guys have done a ton of work on the trail itself. It's smooth going all the way.

Oh yeah.

Quarter mile ish.

Yep.

East of there, I guess towards, towards target. Yeah.

It definitely needed it. There are a lot of, if you're familiar with it, there are a lot of, um, it was like there were so many different phases of the Eureka waterfront trail. And there was, that was one of the last ones that really needed some love. So it's a nice improvement.

Any other comments or questions about that? About Grace Martin? Okay, let's move on to the annual commission report.

Okay, so we chose at our last meeting, October 19th, that's the city council meeting that the OSPR, that you folks as commissioners would provide a presentation to council. And I believe Max and Carol have agreed to do that. So what I thought might be helpful tonight is, so we emailed you all the one from last year. So I just thought maybe we could take a couple minutes and I could get a little feedback from everybody as to any additional things we want to talk about or anything that we've talked about in the past that you think we should include. So then... sorry was the one that we were emailed the one from last year or a planned upcoming one the one from last year oh oh okay yeah this guy on september 16 2025 and it's it's got um it's just the slide deck from the last year's presentation so the topics um we do a brief uh And I'm just reminding everyone that staff are providing the legwork and the effort for the report part. Okay. So we've included a little background about who our commissioners are and what your duties are. And then we went into a whole overview of our volunteer opportunities. So thinking we'd probably want to do that again with an updated angle. So volunteer opportunities are reviewed. Recent park improvements are included. So again, just kind of looking for any feedback on the types of topics under our purview that we'd like to highlight to council this year. So recent park improvements, like last year, we talked about Highland and Dyoss, because that was the big woo-hoo for last year. This year, likely Grace Martin and possibly a Carson update. We may have some good news getting closer to October. I'm not going to get ahead of myself, but there may be some good news on that front. If anything, we have reached $70,000, which is about halfway where we need to get. So we can talk about that. So recent park improvements Special event highlights we highlighted some of the events that take place out of our department such as get out and play day Halloween event Easter events Upcoming projects such as dredging the bay which is around the corner And Sequoia Park is another big one around the corner for us. Let's see. Oh, we're about to celebrate the Chinatown Memorial Project. I don't have a date yet, but that grand opening or the yeah, the grand opening of it is in October, I believe. We'll make sure we get Lisa, if you're listening, we'll make sure to get an email out with some of these dates in case it doesn't isn't complimentary to this meeting time. It's Caddy Corner to the Chocolates, right there on that corner.

So in your presentation, is that a PowerPoint?

Yeah, these were the slides.

But can you do a video to summarize? You're summarizing the achievements or the messages to just share the achievements? Or what's the goal of that?

The goal is for your commission to report to city council how our department's doing and how We're how everything's going and what our goals are moving forward and what they can see coming out of this commission in our department moving forward. So it's kind of a check in with council from your commission as commissioners and Max and Carol are going to do the presentation and staff are doing the legwork with your input. Nice.

Thank you. And so how it was last year is I sit at one of those computers, and the slide deck is showing up on the screen. And I'm basically reading what staff has presented. And if the council members have any questions, mostly staff takes care of those questions. And it wouldn't be new council members quite yet, would it?

Not yet. Another area that I think we could highlight is the zoo and the fact that we are almost through the AZA accreditation process, which is a really, really big deal for our little small town zoo. And I have a couple updates I'll give you on that later tonight. Regarding the zoo, Donna? Yeah.

I mean, from my point of view, I'm curious, maybe the council have a lot more intel, but, you know, there's been this transition from the foundation to the city. And so in terms of how that's going, you know, how's it going financially? Is the boat afloat, you know, and everything well in regard to that transition?

Definitely, yes. Are you wanting to... No, I'm just thinking that...

If I was looking at a year over year, that's something that's changed, and I think I just want it touched on in terms of how it's going with respect to the city taking that over.

I think also I want to invite Jim Campbell-Spickler, our zoo director, to come to not only OSPR, but also to council to do exactly that, to make a... make a big splash with that topic because it's a big topic and I agree and I'll make a note to have a nod to that topic also in our report but I think we're going to do even a little bit of a bigger direct report to council that's a big change and it's been great and it would be great to celebrate it yeah and people need to know how that's working out for sure

Okay, so let me make a comment. Jack, did you have something you wanted to say? What about the repair cafe? Oh, sure. Do we want to mention that?

Yeah, absolutely. We'll put that in our volunteer section.

I took an informal survey of my neighbors, of what they liked best about the zoo and everything. I mean, about the open spaces and everything. Okay. Definitely on the older side is my neighborhood. But Get Out and Play, which was my favorite, was not mentioned by anybody else, but Bark in the Park. If you guys do Bark in the Park, they loved it. They also like the painters that are out there just to bring tourists and to bring their neighbors just to walk and see people doing watercoloring. And anything with the bubble machine, every time there's a bubble machine, please announce it. Everybody loves that bubble machine.

Can I add, I do not have the name of the bubble group in my head, but every time we have an event, it's not a machine. It's human-generated by our local Humboldt bubble gurus. Just there may be there may be machines in addition.

No, it's not it's it's not a machine. Yeah And Compost under the canopy that was brought up But that was in relationship to I think Earth Day was happening at the zoo and the zoo had a lot of events Yeah, that one was really

They really like that? Okay.

One called Forest Moon Festival, which I don't even know what it is, but that came up. And Cooper Gulch came up, but that's – Daylighting salmon was a popular topic. Okay other popular topic was the man that was Killed died there 13, you know because I think it's because it was in the news again and also my neighborhood I lived at 15th Street. So we were okay, you know, that was a big event that neighborhood but But the bark in the park I just everybody like bark in the park

And that is not a city event.

That's not? No. Oh, no.

And at the same time, we host them and provide a facility rental and we'll continue to do so.

Okay.

I love all this feedback, though. That's great. If you have a chance, if you wouldn't mind putting a few of those in an email and shooting them our way, that would be really helpful.

Thank you. And I will pitch in. Oh, I just wanted to add like people and dogs. They're always, you know, especially at the dog park that I don't know if that was already mentioned in the review that, you know, the year in review.

Oh, actually, no, that's a great, we could totally do something on the Dole Park.

You know, you guys have done so much work behind the scenes with how many tons of waste that you've removed, how much sustainability. Okay. You know, your carbon footprint was last year. You know, people like that kind of geeky stuff. Okay. Just to know, like, oh, they are, like, mindful of, the environment. You know what I mean?

And I'll piggyback on what Sarah said. Cooper's Gulch, because Carl's fingerprints are all over it, with all of the enormous amount of stuff that's been done. And you guys are doing that pretty much with in-house resources. You have the new bridges there. I'm guessing that might have been grant funded. But the rest, the work, I've talked to people and they've noticed about it so much more wide open. And so I thank you so much and thank you the city team because you guys are you know without getting a six million dollar grant really making significant and positive changes there thank you i absolutely agree and yes we should definitely highlight the the ripe movement yeah um i'd like to help write the part about cooper gulch park we'll reach out to you that would be great

Because staff writes the script.

We can write it in tandem with you. We can do it together.

Oh, I thought Maxwell and Carol were going to write it.

We do the presentation.

We don't write the script. Do you want to jump in and do part of the presentation on the Cooper part?

Yeah, definitely.

How does that sound, Max and Carol? Yeah?

Sounds great.

Okay, cool. Okay, this is a great input, guys.

I was thinking it might also be nice to highlight some of the big fundraising successes we've had the past year, because I noticed there wasn't really any fundraising highlighted in the presentation.

Great input, yes. Love it.

With respect to fundraising and at Carson Park, if there was on the fence or something like a URL or somewhere to connect into donating funds, that might be.

Code on the banner.

Is there? Okay. I'll take a look at that and make sure. There better be. Well, I will look.

I'll look too. Okay. Yeah. But yes, that's a great point. Yeah. Okay. Good, good. Should be a QR code.

I'm reconsidering. I think two people presenting is is good. I think three people makes it a little too Okay, will you still help us?

Will you still help us write it?

Yeah.

Oh, yeah, cool But the invitations still open because it I think it goes smoothly because Lisa's great We did a run-through ahead of time and she you know She basically showed me how to do it all, and it went very smoothly. So it's up to you.

All right. I don't want to step on your toes.

There's no stepping on your toes. You do bring an extra sparkle with the Cooper Gulch topic, though. I would all enjoy. I think it'd be fun if you would join us. I do.

I think council would like it, too, actually.

Yes, I think so. It would be more entertaining. And then they would get to know you.

But Maxwell is, you can't get more entertaining than Maxwell.

Right. There will be plenty for all three of you. How about that? So we still have time to work out the details. So we'll keep, we'll coordinate. Okay. We'll get working on some of the feedback that you gave us and get a draft pulled together as soon as possible. And then we'll talk the logistics at our next meeting in September about, you know, doing a run through and things like that. Okay. So anything else about the annual commission report?

Yeah. Could we get the date on that one more time? October 19th. October 19th. Thank you.

That's a council meeting. City council meeting. Tuesday. Yes. Tuesday.

6 p.m. 6 p.m. Yeah. Okay. That's what I'm looking for.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Excuse me in the deadline for feedback.

Let's see. This is going to go by really fast, isn't it? And also, I am about to tell you in a little bit that we're not going to have a commission meeting in September because staff are at a training. Oh. Might as well say that right now. Okay, let's talk about that right now.

That suits me perfectly. I just made a conflicting plan.

The meeting we were going to have in September, it has to be canceled because also in September city council is also canceled because CITY COUNCIL AND DEPARTMENT STAFF GO TO THE LEAGUE OF CITIES CONFERENCE, CALIFORNIA LEAGUE OF CITIES, WHICH IS MADE UP OF ALL CITY, ALL 400 PLUS CITIES. ALL THE MAYORS, COUNCIL, AND DEPARTMENT DIRECTORS ATTEND. SO OUR TEAM WILL BE THERE. SO THAT MEANS WE WILL HAVE TO GET CREATIVE AND CONNECTING WITH YOU GUYS ABOUT THIS REPORT. We'll prioritize that for next week. And in terms of feedback, Sarah, why don't we say any additional, any fresh ideas by mid-September? We should be able to add anything in. But we'll try to get some. Yeah, a couple weeks.

Yeah.

Thank you. But we can be flexible, too.

And our October meeting then, when is that tentatively?

After the presentation to the city council. Now let me look real quick.

October.

It's one of those weird months. It's either the 22nd or the 29th is what I'm asking.

Let's see.

It is, let's see, we're on Thursday, so it must be the week before. It's October 22nd.

Thank you for clarifying that, Jack. That's helpful. So there is no new business. So now we will, the next agenda item is the McKay Community Forest Advisory Group. And we did have a meeting on August 11th. And there is a Humboldt Area Foundation, it's called the Field of Interest Fund. And the advisory group will make the decisions of how the funds will be distributed. The fund is expected to be set up in September. And the plan is to promote the fund, hoping to get businesses to donate. And we did decide on what type of investment strategy will be used for the donated funds. One of the big conversations was about dog waste. Spent a lot of time discussing the problem of dog waste. There are no dog waste facilities at Redwood Acres for that kind of disposal. Now, Northridge, that area does have bags and a dumpster. So we did discuss the strategy for collecting the waste and the types of receptacles. But the county staff just does not have the capacity to service those dog waste receptacles from the time period of April to Labor Day. So we need to formulate a plan and that will be something, an ongoing issue that the advisory group is going to have to deal with because there are a lot of dog walkers in the community forest. And so then we also discussed problems in the use of both e-bikes, the e-motos, which are the electric motorcycles, and we're seeing young people who are using these types of transportation. They're out in the forest. And the problem is that we're developing bike trails. And people who are using some of these other transportation modes are creating a lot of problems with those new trails. And so how do we, you know, some of these transportation modes are more powerful than an e-bike and so can do a whole lot more damage. Plus, there are safety concerns because the speed, besides just that they're tearing up the trails, then there's the speed. So we will keep monitoring the situation and staff will keep monitoring the situation. And we did discuss signage to try to discourage speeding and trail destruction. But the problem is that an e-bike is a bicycle. And an e-moto is a motorcycle. And it's hard sometimes to tell the difference easily. So we did have a long discussion about that. And of course, there is the issue of etiquette, because the trail is multi-use. We've got horses. We've got bikes. We've got hikers. We have people who have mobility issues. And so we're hoping that signage can help, but it is something that we will have to discuss probably at every meeting, I think. We're still building trails. The Bike Skills Park at Northridge is intended for riders of all ages, and they are going to be having quite a number of events, which will bring quite a lot of tourists into the area, which is a real benefit. And they are still working on, there's going to be a bridge at the Harris Street entrance, and they're still working on that. And let's see, the state won't have to use the logging road to get onto the McKay trails, but the cost of materials is high, $80,000. And the county might have the funds. And we will have volunteers do the construction of the bridge. There's also three habitat enhancement projects that are ongoing to improve the salmon habitat. And then lastly, we discussed benches. Because we are looking into, we've decided on a style of bench, concrete and redwood benches. They will be built locally. And then they will be available for fundraising, you know, dedications, things like that. So, Barbara, you were there too. Do you have anything to add? No, that's a great report, Carol.

Yeah, I'm the alternate. And so this month or this quarter, I guess we only meet quarterly. This quarter I went and it was a good meeting. And so, yeah.

Can I ask a couple questions? Of course. You mentioned tearing up the trail. Are there actual – are the e-bikes – this is the first I've heard of this. This is actually really – everything you just talked about pertains to all of our other trails, and I've got more information I can share tonight about that. But we haven't had any knowledge of them making damage to the trail. But there were reports of that.

It was reported that there has been some damage. It's the Thai who is, I can't remember the name of the organization.

It's the organization of the mountain bike people. Mountain bike people.

They're the ones that are seeing that because they're building the skills park. And so then they're seeing that some of their work is being, you know, having to, you know, fix things.

Can I also ask, do you know who the artist is that's doing this concrete benches for the McKay tract?

I don't remember. I'll email you. Can you find out? That would be great.

Because we are doing the same thing, working with another local artist for the new memorial bench. I know he's located out of Arcata.

That I remember.

OK. That would be great to learn more about that.

Let me see if it's in my notes.

And then the bridge that you were talking about, that it's at the McKay, I mean, near Redwood Acres, is that to facilitate the logging that they're going to do?

No, that's for people. That's for people so that we don't have to use the logging road. Because that way the trailhead will, because right now, It's always been that people start using, you know, the logging road. And so this bridge will make it so that, no, you start, the trailhead will start at the sidewalk and you'll go right into the woods over this bridge.

Oh, OK. So the bridge is right near Harris Street. Exactly.

Exactly. You kind of go down into a gully a little bit and then come back up. And it's going to be nice. I'm looking forward to that. So Dennis, remember Dennis? He's working on that, our old compadre from the commission. So are there any comments or questions?

Yeah, I had another question. I'm not... I just can't say I'm familiar with the e-motorcycles. Is that just like a normal... Does it look like a normal motorcycle and function as such, or... Looks like Jack knows.

Oh, I'll take a stab, yeah. You'll... There's the e-bikes, the e-assist, all that. Then there's the ones with the fat tires. And more recently, there are ones that now look like motorcycles. I've seen kids running because I see them at school and things like that. So they're functionally small motorcycles is what they are. And I can see them tearing up because they're just – different weight, different size of a mountain bike design thing. Our Sequoia Park trails are not designed for mountain bikes exactly, so maybe there's not the option, but you still shouldn't. They're pretty dangerous.

I think the e-motos, I think the e-bikes, they... The way it was described is the e-motors have a clutch, and that's a distinction between the two as well, as well as speed and the weight of the bike. But yeah, I think they have a clutch.

This whole e-bike topic is blowing up. across the country. In fact, I believe last week, the Eureka Police Department put out a campaign. And I think if you go onto the EPD's Facebook page and go back just a little bit, they put three posts where they explain the classes of three different e-bikes. And I'm going to talk about e-bikes a little bit more as I wrap up tonight. But that was an awesome report, actually. By the way, I learned a lot. And yeah, let's keep the e-bike topic. I think it could be a really great topic for us all to get your input and guidance as we go through it. Because we're definitely at the beginning. And I'll tell you more in a little bit. Great.

Okay. Well.

Sorry. Just a little more on the e-bikes and the McKay. I think the issue there is that, I mean, the trails, a lot of them are steeper than any Eureka City Trail trail. like even in sequoia park the dirt trails there they're not that there aren't that many dirt trails and they're not very long and they're not steep usually but in the mckay i mean some of the some of the elevation just differences there are like 150 feet from the top of the trail to the bottom of the trail and there's so many places that get really wet and stuff. So when the e-bikes go over it, it really damages the trail a lot more than I think any Eureka trail.

Any other comments? Thank you, Carl, on that. OK. And next, we have upcoming volunteer opportunities. Donna?

OK. We have many volunteer opportunities coming up in September. There's an Old Town Beautification happening on the 5th. There's Sequoia Park Ivy League on the 12th. Dyoss has a volunteer effort happening at that park on the 19th. And there is a volunteer appreciation barbecue and party at Sequoia Park at the Gazebo that the city is hosting for all of our volunteers from 12 to 3. It would be lovely to have you there. That is September 26th, Saturday at the Gazebo at Sequoia Park. Volunteer appreciation. And also for, spread the word, if a volunteer attends all four events, they are entered into a grand prize drawing for a $250 Pearson Building Center gift card, which is quite cool. And that is what I had for volunteering. I don't know if Carl had anything he wanted to add.

Yeah, I have stuff to add. First, a few questions. On the September 26 volunteer appreciation, are groups going to have booths and stuff or is that not part of the i don't think we have tabling but we i'll have staff i'll have them send you a report of what we're okay cool and then um upcoming events um so we kind of put together real last minute um event at sequoia park this coming saturday from nine to two i ran it by hannah of course um So, yeah, we'll be in a different part of the park than the Sequoia Park Ivy League events are generally. It's at Q Street and Glatt Street, whereas usually it's further to the east by the fountain on Glatt Street. So, yeah, upcoming event this Saturday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. I forget what date that is. Add to to whatever today is. And then every Wednesday, we're at Cooper Gulch Park from nine to two. We did get somebody there. I think last Wednesday, you know, yesterday, somebody showed up and I think it's because they saw the stuff on the city website. So that's great. Right on. Yeah. And then also Sunday, September 13th, Cooper Gulch Park from 11 to 3. Awesome.

Things at Cooper Gulch are rocking and rolling. One little connection we had with our park superintendent, Greg, who you work with. We have gotten some community feedback about the piles of the debris and concern over how long they're staying there and how often they're going to be either chipped or removed. So, Jeff, our deputy director, is going to work with you and with Greg to figure out the timing of that so that we can communicate that to the public and address any concerns of fire swarms.

Yeah. Chad was in there last Wednesday and he removed all the green waste. Awesome. But yeah, there will be more green waste. Yes. But things are running a lot more smoothly now that the bridges are up and stuff. There's still a huge pile to be chipped. Not my department, though.

Where is that from?

Oh, I mean, it's Cooper Gulch Park stuff. Well, the thing is, so they're saving money by chipping stuff there and then using the chips. Okay, so we take out invasive plants, but there are other plants that are cut down there, like there are whole trees cut down that are non-invasive trees and things like that. So that's not something I deal with at all.

Yeah, no, I'm only talking about what your volunteer group's working on, which is going real smooth.

Well, but the public wouldn't be able to tell, they wouldn't know the difference between.

So that's why I'm saying we're working with you and with Greg to make sure that both piles, whatever piles.

No, I was answering your question. I was answering your question. Okay. But yeah, there is still a pile of stuff to be chipped. Awesome.

Thank you.

Cool.

And then the Ivy League event on the 12th, where is that?

Ivy League is at Sequoia Park. At Sequoia Park.

Okay, thank you, Donna, on that. And now, again, Parks Capital Projects, Donna.

Yes. Well, we really have two big capital projects in the works right now, and that's Grace Martin, which is actively in the works. And then the other one is Sequoia Park, and we are... Having ongoing meetings with our landscape architect, MDG. They are the architect firm that guided the process for DIAS, so we're feeling confident with what we have going on with them.

And as soon as we have anything to report, we will bring something to the commission.

And that is that on capital projects. Who did you say was the landscaper? MDG is the... And are they local? No, they're out of Chico. Okay. Mm-hmm. The landscape architect for Grace Martin is local, although I don't think she's doing it anymore. I don't remember her last name offhand, but that one is a local one. And remember, too, Grace Martin, a lot of the funding, half of the funding came from Grace Martin, who required a lot of local stuff be considered for the project, which we've been following.

Well, thank you for that. Are there any other questions about that? Okay. Next, we've got the recreation revenue summary for July 2026. Are there any questions or comments from the Commission on this report?

It is looking good. I will point out that the revenue goal that was established by the finance department is the same as it was last year. And I'm assuming the thought process is because we did remove outside the box program. But they chose to keep the projection the same. So just pointing that out.

Okay, if there's no other questions or comments, is there any public comment on this item? And otherwise, do we have a motion to accept the July revenue reports?

I'll motion to accept the July revenue reports.

Do we have a second? I'll second. All right. Let's vote. Aye.

Aye.

Aye. And so the motion passes. And so the recreation revenue summary for July 2026 has passed. Next, we have Donna again. We have staff reports. It's the Donna Show.

It's probably a little boring at this point. Added pictures to our monthly report was that that add a little bit of a Of a I thought I thought it was I liked seeing it myself Active photos Any questions or thoughts or any feedback on What you would like to see more or less of when it comes to this reporting out? Anybody have any thoughts or opinions?

I will say I do like the photos. It definitely, you know, when it's all words on a page, you kind of glaze over a little bit, but it definitely puts you in the event a little bit more. Thank you.

Or not event, but you know what I mean.

Okay, so that is what came in the report. I wanted to also add a little update on... the accreditation process for the zoo. So staff went through, we had multiple representatives from the accreditation folks come to the zoo and there were interviews with staff and staff at all levels and they definitely inspect everything we got a report back a few weeks back and the feedback was really good couple examples of some things they did point out were there was a couple of areas where there was an overuse of electrical cords and so they required and requested that we upgrade some electrical outlets okay we took care of that and then another example was Um, we have a vet on contract for emergency care and they wanted us to have a backup vet. Um, so we arranged a contract and have a whole secondary vet on, on point and, um, staff just prepared, um, a report back to the accreditation process. Um, ticking off all the little things that they brought up, everything they brought up was super fixable and, um, And now that we have responded and already taken care of those things, the next step is the director attends a hearing next month, and then that's when it becomes official that they agree to provide another five-year accreditation. It's a really big deal. Just knowing how intense it is on the staff level and every little – you know, whether or not, like what kinds of supplies we allow the public to bring in, our emotional therapy, dog, animal policy, like all of them. so many layers to a zoo and our zoo just really good they're really good and i know if you've been there you know that um it feels good i think everybody in this area is pretty proud of that little zoo um and and on top of that it's one thing to feel good about it's another thing to have an official organization say your standards are meeting the highest of standards in animal care And also, it's not just a zoo. We're hugely invested in conservation, animal conservation in all kinds of ways. And I think that really shines through for our little zoo, too. Anyway, so that was a big thing I wanted to share about the zoo. And then another report out thing, I guess the last thing I wanted to talk about is the e-bike topic and how it's impacting our parks and our trails. We might have talked about it a little bit because it's... Have we talked about it in here much with y'all? I think so. Maybe we haven't. Okay, then let me paint a little picture because it would be helpful to have your eyes and ears out and about, paying attention to little things you might read, read in other cities, any experiences you have. Okay. So the first real sign of trouble happened with DIOS. That PIP poured in place surfacing I'm talking about, which is so awesome and safe for kids and fall safety and stuff. It's also incredibly desirable to... And we made such lovely pathways at Dyoss, which has been one of the things we've loved the most. It's also created this incredible course for kids. And over the summer, we were finding a gaggle, like a dozen kids, teens, a little bit younger than that, riding around town getting into trouble and not interfacing with other park goers in the most respectful way. So that has been an ongoing challenge, lots of neighbor complaints, lots of park user complaints. We really haven't had many complaints on the from the trail perspective but Dyoss for sure. So we began discussion with the police chief and trying to figure out like how because the public is calling the police when we're having inappropriate use at parks and staff are calling the police so that where we're at right now is staff are working on an EMC code for there to be an ability to hold um folks accountable for behavior on e-bikes and to also set a precedence of what you can and cannot do on an e-bike in a public park and on a public trail so that is very much in the draft phase um while that is happening so the other piece is the is the um with our trail it's hard to just only think about eureka's portion of the trail we have to it's very it's quick for me to pick up the phone and call Emily and Arcada and ask, what are you guys doing for e-bikes? And everyone, all of us, are all on the same page. When the e-bikes first came up a couple of years ago, the regional effort where we all did come together in a county type of way was to do a share the trail campaign. You may be familiar with that there is signage up currently on all all of the Humboldt County Trail That is share share the trail campaign, which is all about etiquette Now we're talking about Trail speeds and whether or not to have identified trail speeds I've heard that there's been some consideration of not using speeds and rather using um, the type of type of bike and a certain bike that can only go 20 miles per hour. But you'll notice if you look at the Eureka police department's Facebook posts from a couple of weeks ago, there's a lot of comments. I'm starting to read the comments to understand the pushbacks and the, you know, how people are feeling about it. Um, and there's, you know, folks are like, well, I bought a car and my car goes 110, but that doesn't mean that I I shouldn't be able to drive my car. So there's, this is a lot of, and then also there's a lot of parents finding out that if your teen is out doing something they shouldn't be doing, you are going to be held accountable for what they get into if they're using an e-bike. And that messaging is definitely, that is definitely out there. As staff, though, on our level, we are challenged. We have our park staff, in particular at Dyoss, have been, you know, they're telling the kids to get off. The kids are doing, you know, the swirlies and the grass, all the things that are fun. And then our staff are calling it out, and they're being harassed and the teens are, you know, beep and driving away. And it's very, there's a lot of, it's not healthy right now. So it's not like a daily issue that's going on, but it's a hot topic for parks. And we also got a recent complaint about a woman with a dog in Sequoia Park that was nearly knocked over.

by an e-bike and then just a couple weeks ago or just in the last month there was a gentleman passed away from a teen collision on an e-bike so it's very serious topic that we need to get a handle on so not now and not tonight but it would seem this is when you're ready for us to do something because i'm assuming the process would involve us if it's park related to regs and restrictions it's

yeah i mean it's changed in the last couple of years and so it's we're not unique this is happening all over the country yep thank you jack um excuse me i just wanted to ask like you guys are talking about enforcing you know some kind of like code you know like a new one to help curb any kind of bad behavior um you think that could include Dumping or you know people desert constantly dumping garbage in the park to like something like that, too. I

Well we do have the legal dumping EMC codes already in effect and those are even posted on park signs.

With like enforcement you know like a because it doesn't seem like there it's there's any any kind of like it doesn't seem like a violation of any kind like people don't seem to take it seriously so I don't know if it's old or outdated or anything.

Do you want me to look into it and bring it back?

I just like I think it needs to be put across a little bit more serious just as serious as being safe on an e-bike. And you know I just wanted to add that I have an e-bike. Yeah. And it's pretty mellow. I mean so I don't some bikes I know like my brother has a big one. So yeah I understand some are scary definitely.

I'm going to look at into what I appreciate you bringing up the illegal dumping. I know that's a separate topic, but it's actually a huge one for us and it impacts us on the daily and it impacts almost every staff level. So maybe it is a good good for us to do much like EPD did a campaign to say, hey, e-bike stuff, everybody. Maybe it's time for us to do a little ditty on that.

Yeah, and I just wanted to follow up. Your activity reports, like, really great, summarizing just recent events. But a little bit of statistics, like this, we did this much last month, like a color pie chart. Like, for example, like, this is how many people came out. This is the average. Or, you know, just a little bit of, like, a visual on the numbers.

Participation numbers?

So when people, like, see, like, wow, these guys are, and how you hire local people. Not getting down to the details of the dollars and cents, but just kind of a ballpark idea I like it and people like to see like a How the impact is, you know. Yeah, yeah. All right. Thank you.

That's great feedback, Sarah. Thank you. Appreciate that.

You know, regarding the dumping, if it was possible to catch a couple people and hold them accountable, that word would spread real fast, too. You know, and that's the sorry truth. But if a couple people get busted, but it's hard. It's hard to catch people. And it's labor intensive. Yeah. Yeah.

The best thing we say is call EPD, call EPD. You see it happening, call EPD. It's definitely a frustration, for sure. But I like the idea of communicating with the public more about the topic, actually, and double-checking and seeing what we do have in our EMC codes. I think that's smart. Sarah, thank you.

Any other comments?

All right, well...

Thank you so much, Donna, for all your reporting tonight. We really appreciate it. It felt like a comfortable conversation. On important topics, too. And so it is time for adjournment. And so our next regular meeting will not be September 24, 2026. It will be October 22nd at 6 p.m. in council chambers at the Eureka City Hall. And now the meeting is adjourned. Thank you, everybody.