Parks and Recreation Committee - Regular Meeting

Good evening. I'd like to call the City of Fenton Parks Recreation Committee Tree Advisory Board meeting to, and we'll have first with the Pledge of Allegiance. Okay, we'll begin with the roll call.

Gary Johnson.

Here.

Cassidy Sties. Mary Heinemann. Here. Thomas Byron.

Here.

Mike Abbott.

Here.

Jennifer Mueller's excused absence, and Jay Ahrens is not here at the moment. We have three, five for the quorum.

Okay, thank you. Public comments?

No public comments. Public comments.

So committee meeting old business discussing football courts. Jay will be here a little later, I guess. Can we go to new business then?

Oh, wait.

Oh, I'm sorry. Did I skip over the approval of the minutes?

I believe he might be coming in.

Okay, good. Well, those of you who've had a chance to look at the minutes, are there any additions, changes?

I would make a motion that the minutes be accepted as presented if there's no changes or alterations.

OK. Thank you, Mike.

Seconds?

Gary's seconded it. All in favor of the minutes of May 4th as written, raise your hand and say aye. Aye. Opposed? No? Okay. Minutes are approved. Now we have public comments. Still don't have public comments, right?

Okay.

Committee minimum items. No old business. New business discussion regarding reorganization. Do you want to go back to the old business? Okay, yeah. Discussion of pickleball courts. There we go.

Thanks for waiting. So I've been in touch with Dan quite a bit on what's been going on. I don't know how much up to date y'all are, but we've been having a lot of vandalism. Is everyone aware of that? Okay. So a number of things from the numbers on the courts have been smashed regularly. People smashing their paddles regularly. So I play out there most mornings and there's trash literally on, on the courts themselves. Sounds silly, but sunflower seeds doesn't sound like a big deal. But when there's pounds of them all over the courts, when I say pounds, like the big bags, it's been spit all over the place. They're pretty nasty. It's been a regular thing. And, um, I've been in touch with Dan and, uh, talking about getting maybe some cameras, uh, on the lights and, shining down on there uh you'd be amazed at what we see there a lot of gum a lot of beer cans a lot of trash in general um and so it's unfortunate but people are just really abusing the courts hardcore and i think a lot of this is happening late hours is my guess and i've talked to the I've got the officer's name that is out there regularly, and there's only so many hours in the day where he can be there. But it's becoming a real challenge. And in my talks with Dan, I talked to him a while ago. I didn't get a chance to be here for the Mays. meeting um but my last discussion with dan about i think he's going to be proposing to the alderman about getting some lights or getting some cameras on the lights which i think that'll help a whole lot because we obviously put a lot of money into those courts and they're being used i don't know if anyone sees it but they are being used to the max which is awesome and it's great to see um but the vandalism has just gotten out of hand And other than cameras and, you know, we all try to do our best to tell people who are doing stupid stuff to stop. A lot of kids are riding skateboards and bicycles and taking their soccer balls to the nets. It's just kind of one thing after another. And it's been pretty brutal on the courts. And we're all trying to do our best to... spread the word. I just want to those who don't go down to the courts very often don't hear about it. Um, it's become a real challenge down there and hopefully, you know, with some cameras will help and maybe some signage even just saying the courts are under 24 hour surveillance. I don't even know from a city standpoint if that's legal or possible, but that'd be really nice to have some signs up to say this is under 24 hour surveillance. Mickey in the bud if you didn't make a mess. But anyway, so that's, I just want to make everyone really aware of what's going on down there. The courts look great. They're playing great. Everything's really awesome. But it's just the challenge of what, and I want to say kids because I know there's adults leaving a lot of trash out there. Like before we can even start in the morning, we have to do a pickup of anywhere from 10 to 20 plastic bottles or beer cans and bottles to get started to play because there's so much debris out there. We're actually bringing our own blowers now. battery-operated blowers because there's so much sesame seeds everywhere. There's just such a huge mess. Now we're doing our best just so we can play pickleball. But I've been keeping Dan in the loop on what it's like daily. It's almost a daily occurrence. The big thing is seeing people smash their paddles, which is kind of crazy. But I just want to make you all aware of it. So they're smashing their own paddles?

Correct.

This sounds like middle schoolers.

And I'm only saying that because I taught middle school.

Yeah, could be. Yeah. But the other, and then you have a lot of debris from the paddles themselves that are just all over the place. Yeah. Pretty crazy.

How do you ever check them later in the evening or are we sure it's all overnight damage or?

Yeah. Cause there's people playing there till like 10 o'clock at night. So a lot of, cause they close at 11. The lights go out, the park's over. But I think people are just staying late. I know it's got to be some adults leaving adult beverages out there, leaving their water bottles and all that stuff. But the actual abuse is coming in, I think, just late night.

And they're busy in the evening. They are. I mean, they're full. Yeah. Because I live in Riverside and I drive by there all the time. Yeah. And they're full. All the courts, you know. Yeah. If it's decent weather, every court's got people on it.

Yeah. Yeah. I've just heard about a number of kids that have been chased off because they're riding their bikes or skateboards and whatnot out there on the courts. It's become a regular thing. But hopefully with cameras and some surveillance signs, we'll, you know, bring it down and put it in check, I guess, a little bit. I just want to make, for those who weren't aware, that that's the situation we've got out there.

If you guys want the board to take up cameras, signage, and stuff, someone will have to make a motion to forward it to the board so that they can look at it.

I'd sure like to make a motion to have cameras, please.

Okay. Cameras, signage. Cameras, signage, I'll second.

Cameras and signage.

One last item, is it possible to have some of the lights be motion lights that might draw attention to the lights are on over there and help the police know when to come in or out?

I don't even know if that's possible.

I wouldn't think in the big lights overhead, but something a little lower, just enough light that, hey, lights are on. Something's going on. Maybe not, or look into it anyhow.

I don't know. It sounds like it's the pickleballers that are being destructive, not necessarily like people coming in at 1 a.m.

I think it's a combination, actually. You've got people coming in after pickleball is over, just hanging out and doing silly things they shouldn't be doing, especially with the sesame seeds. It sounds silly, but it's a massive mess. You see how much is in a big bag, and it's strewn all over the place. And gum. It sounds also silly, but gum is a real nuisance when you're trying to play ball. Do the lights dim at 11? So the way the lights work is at 6 a.m., you can actually push the button, and they'll come on. They'll stay on for about an hour. When they're about to go off, the little flasher goes off, and it's a five-minute warning. You can hit it again. And in the evening, I think it's around 8.30, 9 o'clock, where you can hit the button, and it'll stay on for an hour. At five minutes, it flashes. You can hear it again. But at 11 o'clock, lights are out. No lights. So I don't think there would be anything as far as a light thing. But that'd be a good question for Dan, if that's a possibility, where like a motion sensor, perhaps. Yeah, I mean, we've got our own. It could be a detect motion. No one should be on the courts after 11 o'clock.

Two or three around our house, and they come on, you can have them stay five minutes, ten minutes, and they go off and reset. But, you know, that's hardware store kind of stuff.

Right, right.

In a small yard. But they would at least draw attention to somebody's out there. Anyhow, I didn't want to interrupt your motion. I'm sorry. Go ahead.

No, it's all good. And I don't know from an alderman perspective if that's another motion to have a sensor light or not in addition to.

We have to look into it. I know that there was a request made by the mayor that on the, not the small parking lot closer to Hitzert, but the main pavilion side of the parking lot, we noticed one night when we were down there, it is very dark down there. There are no lights down kind of on that end. There are no parking lot lights. So the board is looking into getting parking lot lights down there. So maybe there can be something, when they put those in, maybe that can be something that's looked at.

Yeah, that's a great idea.

But I mean, when people do leave at 11 and the lights go out, they're walking to their cars and it is very dark. So we want to get some lights on that situation as well.

That's great. Maybe that's drawing people after hours because it's so dark and someone driving along, Mark and Williams, law enforcement wouldn't see them.

Yeah, the bid for the lights, our electrical contractor got us a bid, so we're taking that actually to the board next Thursday to look at getting parking lot lights put on the northern side there. That's a great idea. That may assist with the issue in that area because like the rest of the parking lights, they will stay on.

Totally agree. That's a really good idea.

I think you were there, Mike, that night that we talked about the, when we were sitting down there about how dark it was when the lights went out. Yeah.

Okay. I don't know who got to the vote.

Yeah, that's all I've got. If anyone's got any questions for me, I just wanted to bring it up to everybody.

Motion included lights, parking lot, maybe motion lights, signage.

And security cameras.

And security cameras.

Yeah, security cameras inside.

All right. And somebody said Tom's?

Tom.

Okay. So all in favor of the restated motion for the actions around the pickleball courts in favor, raise your hand.

Aye.

Aye. Opposed? Okay.

Lights.

And motion lights.

And motion lights. Okay. Okay.

Thank you. Okay. New business discussion regarding reorganization of the Parks and Recreation Committee advisory board.

That would be me. So last, not at the board meeting, but the meeting before that, the board had a discussion about this park committee only because it has seemed that it needs direction. We came in for an eight minute meeting. There's been times where the meeting's been canceled. I just think sometimes, you know, we have the park reports of which each person reports on their park reports, but beyond that, and you know, things like the pickleball, but then there are other things. We've got two for sure arboretums that we can have in the city. So that would be more tree advisory. But I guess my question to this park committee is what would you like to see this park committee going forward so that we can have meetings, they can have agendas, that the agenda items can be taken up instead of just I know we do our budget and then once the budget's set and those items that you've chosen in October, then that's on staff to take care of. And then we have things like programs and events and that's on staff to take care of. In the beginning, with the park committee, the way it worked was when River Chase was here, there was a lot more to do. We had a parks director. The parks director was actually the person that's at Nikki's chair now. And everything that River Chase and everything parks was run through the park committee. But now that River Chase is no longer, I mean, now that River Chase is a YMCA, we kind of took every, unfortunately, Dan, we just kind of took everything that was left over that we weren't doing. And we said, okay, this is now our parks. And Dan, you're going to do the park stuff because we don't have a parks director. So I guess I just wanted to hear from this parks committee, what direction would you like to see? Do you want to keep doing it the way it is? Would you like to take on a bigger role? Would you like to focus more on invasive species in the Arboretum? I just wanted to get your thoughts and see what direction you all wanted to go in.

Park board open for conversation? Yeah.

Well, I was kind of wondering why our agendas have been so light here lately. You know, when did the responsibilities of the committee change? We had reviewed the public input on park names for Bud Wild Extension in the past, but last night, last month, we were not given the update on the proposed Stonegate name. That could have been an agenda item. The Board of Aldermen changed that park with the name of Stone Gate, if you hadn't heard.

Well, the four names that the park committee set forward.

In the past, we had reviewed and made recommendations on the new bathroom at the Fabric Nature Preserve, but the committee was not involved with or informed of the new bathroom and its location in Fenton City Park that the aldermen decided on in February of 26. That could have been a March. and item seems to me. Our monthly inspection sheet the city provided us has numerous items to check for playground condition. The committee was not updated. No chance to provide input or learn from the independent inspection report that the alderman received early March of 26. Park committee had input, made recommendation on signs that went up at park entrances. but we were not presented with the options for the new signage at the park lakes that the alderman reviewed and voted on early March 26. Benton code 130-05-OC states, you know, that the directives of the park committee can change, but there would be it made at public meetings. I haven't found that or any minutes change in our directive, That's my comment. I like being involved with the city and having an input on the parks where I can.

And that's part of it. Without a quote-unquote parks director, someone actually bringing these items forward, it's... Sometimes, and I'll explain the four names that this committee chose were brought to the board for consideration. When Amy started doing the research for MSD, she found out that before Budweil was named Budweil, it was originally Stone Gate Park. And so as just a asterisk at the end of the memo, Nikki put in the memo that that area where Budweil was, was originally called Stone Gate Park. And the board kind of went, oh, kind of like Stone Gate. And it was just a decision that was made. It wasn't something that was overtly done to say, hey, we're not going to take this to the park committee. It was just a kind of a last minute addition. Hey, oh, by the way, this is what it was originally called, this area. And so that was the name that the board decided that they would choose. I mean, if... I guess my whole point is that things like that, is that what you want to be involved in? Do you want everything to say, as long as it's not a staff's job, because we can't be doing Candace's job or Nikki's job, Dan's job, but what would you like to see the direction of this board to go in?

Yes, I'm the elder statesman here.

I think when I look around, that's not all that long.

When I first got on, it wasn't long after that. We had a couple board members resign, part board members resign, over some disputes about what they wanted versus what history had and was that right or wrong. I'm not familiar with all the details behind it. We had a couple board members leave. Then we had COVID. didn't have enough people to do anything for work around the parks. And Dan didn't have people. They were going away to higher paying kind of parks jobs in cities. So things didn't get a lot better after that. We couldn't spend any money, have people to execute the job, put contracts out, I guess. It seemed to have taken a big step forward in the last couple of years. make recommendations and we see things get done. It just, that didn't seem to happen very much for various reasons in the past. But I'm somewhat familiar with the list Mike mentioned there. And I guess, I don't know if it was intentional or unintentional, if things get brought to the Board of Aldersmen and they are happy doing that, that's one thing this committee I know it's a draw, it's a bit of a bother probably because you all or a couple of you have to be out here several times a week and that's, Not a waste of time exactly, but it's just one more thing you have to do in the off hours. I don't know that it's reasonable for us to meet during business hours, on the other hand. Probably some of us got real jobs. I happen to be retired, but that wouldn't be the thing for everybody. I don't know if meeting every other month would be a recommendation we could consider and take a look at. help keep the agendas a little more meaty, or we intentionally look for things that could be recommendations for improvements, you know, re-examine the capital plan. But it has gotten better, at least I'll say that, in a couple of years. Things get done around the city now a lot more than they have.

I guess my question would be, is what do you think our role is?

I think you're an advisory board to the Board of Aldermen. I think that, again, this committee has gone through so many changes over the years. I mean, it started out as, I think it originally was implemented when Fenton City Park came on, when Fenton City Park was purchased to get Fenton City Park up and running. And then it switched to more river chase. It was so River Chase focused, so heavily focused on everything that went through River Chase, and then the YMCA took over, and like I said before, everything that was left over just kind of got put in that, okay, this is what the YMCA is doing, this is what the city is doing, okay, well, these are our jobs, these are what we're going to do. So, again...

So is there a need for a park board anymore?

I mean, I think there is. I think that even if we were to go to every other month, and I'm not saying that's what I... I'm not suggesting that, but I still think that your individual park reports should still be done and sent in, even if we don't have a meeting that month, that way you're at least... if you see something, instead of waiting for the next meeting and saying, oh, you know, this is... And it could be the kind of thing that by the time that meeting rolls around, that item could have already been repaired, taken care of, whatever. And, you know, you've waited a month. So I don't really know what the answer... I just know that with... the forestry cutting machine and clearing out all the parks and us having a possible two arboretums. And we need to have to have, we have to have a tree advisory board in order to keep our Tree USA status. So we have to have two arbor day events a year. So that is coordinated through the park committee. I'm not saying it should go away. I just don't know what this group wants to see. Again, coming in for one item on the agenda. I know that that's,

And I would agree because I think people want to make a contribution and want to be productive. And I think that we, I can't speak for everyone. I haven't felt that way in some time being on this committee.

And I've heard that from others.

And because there's just, there doesn't seem that there's much decision-making that's falling underneath our realm or advising that's falling underneath our realm.

And if I may. some of the items that were brought up, the new bathroom, even the remodels of the bathroom, those items were not brought to us by the park board. They were brought to us by the board and the board gave staff direction to start looking into that. That's what we do. That's our job. If you would like for the board, then to send it back to you for further review when they've already made that motion, but that would just be doing is a stall tactic as far as not as tactic, but that would be stalling the progress that's being made. But if that is what you're asking for them to do, that would be the statement to the board is that when they make the decisions, to the staff we would like to that was brought up at a meeting we would like you to start looking into putting another restroom in Fenton City Park specifically for the pickleball area because that's what we're hearing the lights at park they bring it to staff they say this is what's going on that's not coming from this committee it's coming from the board and the board states that these are the items we're going to look into that's what we do that's our job but I think what I'm hearing is that you're asking that the board send it first to this committee for review before going back to the board

I don't know if we're necessarily saying that, but I think that probably finding out things in the newsletter that are park related before you hear about them, before you hear about it at a meeting, that's always disappointing.

And we do with the review, I mean, I've been with the capital items, we kind of try to keep you posted of what's going on and what's, but I will tell you with the bathroom remodels, that was a decision made by the board. It's not currently budgeted. Currently, we have to take back any changes. that happens with that for their approval. Partly that's how the budget works. Some of the items that are happening in the parks is that we are hiring contractors. We still have a very light staff for public works. So you're seeing a lot of items happen by contractors. The staff has to go to the board to get that approved over a certain amount. That's just us following our budgetary restrictions. That's not us stepping over the parks board. That's following the financial policy. These are items like the rebounder board. Public Works, we're going to build that. They can't. So I had to take a quote. I had to take it to the Board of Alderman for approval on that. But if you would like that to come here first, all staff is doing, well, the Rebounder Board did come here. It was approved. But getting a contractor to do so, I don't believe is an item that would need to come for your permission to go to, as it's based off the financial policy. It's just trying to get the project completed.

I believe in streamline. I question what my role was on the advisory committee. And I wasn't sure if I really should be here or not, because I felt like there really weren't a lot of things to do. That's just my honest opinion. There wasn't much on the agenda. I went back and watched last month's Alderman discussion. It seems like we have a little bit of input, but not a lot. And my question was, what value do we bring to the alderman? Because it seems like we provide information. We provide some feedback, some observation, some suggestion. And if that's needed, if we bring that value, great. Again, I'm open with streamlining. I don't think we need to know about whatever we called it, the board thing. Things just need to get done. We don't need to know about it. Just get her done. But if it's relating to the trees and the bushes, and if we need to give some advisory on that, great, let's do it. And if that means every other month thing, that's fine. I think what might be helpful, and you made a good point, that we don't read about maybe important things in the newsletter. Maybe we can get some sort of update because if we're not reading the minutes and we're not following what's happening at the Alderman meeting, then we don't know. There's a lot of things on the agenda for the Alderman meeting. Maybe we're just kept somehow in the know of the things that are related to Parks and Rec. So coming full circle, If we bring value to the Board of Aldermen, I'm in favor for let's stick with this on some level, whether that's, I don't think it's necessary for monthly personally. I almost think it could be quarterly where it's a collective of things. We're kept in the loop of what decisions are being made. And if something's really relative, We come to a Board of Aldermen meeting and have some discussion. We stand up and say, hey, we're representing the Parks and Rec, et cetera. And one of us is acknowledged as the person that's sort of like, Robin, you represent the alderman here. Maybe someone comes to an alderman meeting from our committee and says, hey, these are some of the things we're discussing right now. We want to share with y'all. Does that make sense?

Mike comes to all of them if he's not out of town anyway. Yeah.

I want to make sure that I'm bringing value. And if I'm not, I don't really have a need for me to be here.

Again, this is gonna have to go back to the board. I mean, it will be on the agenda, not this week, but next week. So they will bring it up. I mean, we'll take your thoughts and the things that you have said here, but I do see a role if that's, if you want to go more conservation minded, once we get the arboretum, once we start working on that and things like that, there might be, a few meetings where it will be necessary to meet more than just quarterly, because there might be things going on that do require the input of the park committee, if that's something. I mean, I think having two Arboretums is pretty cool. I don't know if you know a whole lot about them, They're pretty highly celebrated. There's one at Wash U. There's one at Shaw's Garden. They're a pretty big deal. And it's going to take a bit to get it going. So, like I said, it'll have to go back to the Board of Aldermen. But I certainly don't think it should go away. I just felt it needed to be, I felt the frustration, and I've heard it from a couple other park committee members that, hey, this is kind of like, why am I here? You know, that's kind of what I got last month was, you mean I came in for this? Why am I here? This doesn't make sense for me to come, you know, make an effort to come in and, We're out in eight minutes. So maybe there needs to be more thought by the board, this committee, and the board of, hey, what else can we give them? What is the direction that we all want to see this going in?

And to that point, I guess one of my biggest questions would be is the purpose of this board. Are we to advise the Board of Aldermen on projects that exist, or do we need to take a more proactive role and find the projects to bring to the Board of Aldermen?

That's the idea. Go to your assigned park or any other park. I mean, you're the park committee. If you see something at Budweil or Fabic or whatever and say, hey, I was talking to some residents and they'd really like to see this. Or I was walking in the park and I had a night thought that this might be really a cool idea to look at. Maybe we should look at this. And then again, when... We start with the swing set in the playground in Fenton City Park. That's gonna be another playground pick out. I mean, we know how long that meeting was.

Again, the reason the report had to go to the board as fast as it did is because they found a default with the swings and we had to inform them that those swings had to come down. They had to come down because of the default, the actual. The actual plan is still being reviewed. One of our newest employees, she's actually a certified playground instructor herself. And so we've given it to her as her project to look through those, review it and see what needed repairs so that we can get with the board because these will just be very, with repairs, with the surfacing and other issues would be more of a financial decision on whether to go through the repairs or take them offline.

But speaking of playgrounds, so The Budweil playground, we had the long presentations by different vendors. And our role was only to move forward, I think, three or four vendors. That was our only role. I mean, that was our only input.

And what additional input?

Well, I mean, it seemed like that wasn't... We didn't have any input on design, what parts. It just seemed like we were, it just seemed a little bit, not much bang for the buck, you know? So we, you know, out of six, we moved forward X amount, and that was the end of our input. I mean, did we really need to be part of that process? I mean, what was our value to that process other than narrowing down the vendors? So I guess kind of going back to what saying like, what is our value? Like that didn't make me seem like I had much value to that conversation.

Well, I guess everybody, it sounded like agreed for Benton with the tagline, the city of parks, probably worth having some group responsible for parks. and maybe taking more of a proactive role looking for things that might need attention, grants or vendors or whatever. It also sounded like maybe once a month is a little too often where we're at right now. So I'd say, have you got some ideas to take back to the aldersmen?

I think so, yes. Thank you.

We kind of wandered around, so I don't know if we need a motion to do that because we probably don't agree a total on what we recommended.

I don't think there's a recommendation. I don't think we came up with a recommendation. I think we came up with thoughts and opinions and key points.

Okay. Let's finish with new business then. Oh, man, we're already at the tree advisory board items. Old business, no items. New business, no items. Park reports. But while...

Park looks good as usual.

I think the playground is coming along, you know, when I was there and stuff like that.

I had one resident say, why'd they put it up on the hill? I wasn't at more level. I couldn't get to the restroom, of course, because they're doing construction there and stuff. But the lake and everything else looks good.

All right.

The Greenway. So the Greenway looked real good today. The contractor was cutting the grass and trimming the bushes back. Came through Fenton Park on the way there. It looked really good, too. All this rain has really helped the grass green up. There are a couple items still needing some attention on the Greenway. And I assume these are gonna be corrected when they do some more asphalt. And there's still several 10, 20 foot long areas where the sidewalk was underwater.

which that will be addressed with the contract that'll go out for the park paving.

Right. Most of those had already been marked with gray paint and arrows, you know, from here to here kind of thing. I don't know if that was our people or my neighbor that went up with a can of gray paint.

I do not believe that was staff.

Yeah. Okay. Anyhow, there are some areas already marked for attention on that. Uh, there's one area that might need to look into though. It's, uh, a one or two foot in diameter section of blacktop that's turned into a fall hazard. It collects a little water, but it's probably a foot lower in that area. It's one, when I've not been paying attention, walking the dogs and you step on that, it does get your attention real quick. It's about 30 paces north of Riverside intersection that needs to be cut out and filled up, I'd say, sooner than later. Let's see, and the lowest pipe on the pipe fence has fallen out. Still need a trash can located somewhere between Riverside and Fabricator Drive in my mind. And there's a pile of logs and brush left over up by Fabricator Drive. Okay, this is Riverside and Valiant. Nope, not tonight. Anybody got comments on those two? Oh, okay. West side.

So in my park report I sent to Nikki, probably one of the biggest challenges, the honeysuckle, the bridge that leads basically out of the park past the basketball courts, they're overgrown to where you got to duck to get into the park. I assume at some point they'll get into the loppers and just want to make just aware we saw that.

That area is on the schedule for, because you have to work in schedules with the honeysuckle as far as it is on the schedule. But in the meantime, we will get back and just get that whacked back for now before they start the treatment, before they lay on that.

Okay. So just a side note, can I go do it? Can I just take my loppers and cut it? Okay, we'll just do it. Y'all don't care. I don't know if you walk down that road. I'll help you. When you try to get into the park, it's just overgrown into the bridge and you got to like work your way through it. So I'll just lop it and cut it.

Try to organize a community day. Well, with my sons, and this is not just necessarily maybe Westside, but with my sons and the Scouts, we've participated in many events throughout the area doing honeysuckle pulls, where they go in and just rip it all out. We get the, you know, Dan down there with a shredder and to mulch it up and get it out of there. There's a lot by the bridge. Yeah, that might be something to consider as a community day person.

Yeah, and then walk up towards Riverchase. I don't know if you'll ever walk around the pond and up towards Riverchase, but it's just, I mean, it's everywhere. You can't get away from it.

And that area is not on our schedule. If that's an area you guys would want to focus on. that is not on the schedule right now with the contractor, because we're hitting the heavy, heavy areas.

Of course, yeah.

So I will tell you that that area is not on the schedule for this year for the removal. So that is something that, yeah, we could definitely talk about getting an organized day together.

Okay. Yeah, that'd be great. And there's several neighborhood residents to help too. The retaining wall, and I read the notes on the retaining wall. I think it's at some point that'll get to, it's not terrible. It's just starting to deteriorate. It's weathered.

That is on the, that is on our list for this year. We just need to get the, and there's been some discussion back and forth of which one's exactly where I think the answer is going to be most. Okay. Have them redone and we're looking at possibly doing a solid pour. I know there's a name for it and it's probably cringing right now with my terminology where it will be wall in lieu of using the blocks.

Got it. Because there's two walls. There's one by the bridge leading in by the basketball courts and the other side over by the playground. And there's deterioration. They're holding, they're doing their job. They're just getting old.

They are. So those are definitely on the schedule. There's been some back and forth about the wall behind the bathrooms. time are in okay shape as far as those remaining just because of the cost that comes with it. And then starting to landscape because we'd like to start getting some native landscaping in there as soon as possible. Those islands in lieu of grass for mow areas. Helping is to fold it and bring some beautification but it also reduces that of work needed in those areas. But the retaining walls are absolutely Actually, the next in queue to go out is that and the paving of the parks. We just got our bids in for, as you know, we have a lot of contractors working in a lot of places right now. Yeah. We just received the bids in for the asphalt for Fabic. Okay. Get that parking lot redone, the drive redone. the pull-out area redone in Fabric Nature Preserve.

Okay.

That's going to the board this month, so the next two that are going out are the pads and the west end. Okay. And at that point, we've made a pretty good chunk out of the capital for this year.

Great. I'm just curious, why is there port-a-johns out there right now? The what? There's two big port-a-johns out there right now. Are there something wrong with the toilets?

Which one?

At Westside?

At Westside? Because the bathrooms are shut down. They are shut down. New flooring. That's what that is. And now new plumbing. I must have missed that. We hope to have them open. They have all new fixtures. We hope to have them open by the end of this week. Okay, cool. Yep, just you're going to see those in I think they're in Budweil right now. That one's taking a little longer. We Okay, work we weren't aware of. Okay. But that's because the flooring has to cure for a couple of days. We're just bringing in potty so people have a restroom. Actually see him in City Park tomorrow. They're doing there this week. They'll be reopened for the weekend and then close back down next week for the remainder of the painting.

I don't know how many of you noticed the exterior of all of those.

And west side, the pavilion is still getting a new roof and gutters. Oh, great. Getting that on schedule.

It should happen this June. Oh, that'd be great. The floating islands are in. So in case you all knew that or not, but they're in, they're doing their thing.

With that, I will note that we had to get it in the lake because it was a grant. Dan was involved with that. Dan was in waiters up to his neck.

along with Missouri Department of Conservation, so with Candace getting those put together and installed.

Here soon you may see those move over to Presler Lake. We are gonna have to shock that lake. We have tried everything. And what it is is some of the plants, some of the other items that have been planted in there may have to succumb to the treatment, but that is where we are, where we can no longer. So part of that is to protect those wetlands.

We're going to have to move them.

They'll probably end up in Presler Lake for a little bit because you want to keep them thriving. The Missouri Department of Conservation is going to work with us to get that project done. But just giving you a heads up when we do the work, we'll obviously have to notify everybody that we're doing it. We may lose because the bad has taken over any of the

Yeah, heavy stuff. Yeah, well, the park's getting heavy use and it looks really good.

Well, it does, but the lake turned very quick this year where we thought we had had a head start and the chemicals that we're using while trying to be delicate with the rest of the ecosystem.

Okay, thank you.

Might lose a couple fish too, he said.

Sorry.

I think one thing, if you're going to do some work on your own, I think Dan would prefer you fill out a volunteer sheet just so you're covered. and he's aware and can alert his team to that there's gonna be a fella out there.

Yeah, that'd be great. Yeah, that'd be great. And we can just be together, my mom and the scouts, maybe a couple of neighbors, and we do go out there and just have a lock day.

Yeah, to spend just a little money, he's probably gonna be able to cover that too.

And if you leave it lay, then we can get Public Works to come and pick it up.

Oh, great. Yeah, that'd be great.

We could put it right out there by the- Coordinate with Dan where you're gonna leave it so they know where to pick it up.

Yeah, we can do that. Great.

Okay, Fabic Nature Preserve.

Fabic's looking real good overall. Lakes are looking good. They are getting a little bit... Some of those American lotus plants need to be treated.

They are being treated. Oh, thank you.

In the big parking lot there, there's been... concrete blocks that looked like were dumped off in the parking lot. I don't know if somebody just dumped them or if the city's starting a new pile, but they could be cleaned up. The gravel roadways with all the rain, they've got ruts and washout. There was a barrier down at the Presser Lake Dam and I alerted Dan about that, and the city's got it in work to get that fixed. They've got a temporary barrier up there now. And in the parking lot, there's no handicap parking sign up on the handicap parking spot by the bathroom. That's missable.

Mary's up with Fenton City Park.

It's busy down there for sure. I'm not going to, so they've already talked about the bathrooms and how they're going to resurface the floors and they painted the exterior of the bathroom down by the back two shelters. It looks like they're doing some work with between fields one and two. I see a lot of gravel. They're addressing the swamp.

They're going to get ready to cut, they're going to concrete all of that so it's not going to be washed out, messy all the time.

No, it looks good. It's busy and people are using it. The only thing I would just kind of like maybe a couple things future. There are multiple park benches that are where the benches are in the grass. If there was any extra money in the budget ever to pour a pad, okay, perfect, because... Excellent. And the one Purple Martin birdhouse seems like it's been listing for quite some time. And my question, does anyone ever clean those out? Do those ever? The Purple Martin, there's two birdhouses in that field. Do they ever get cleaned out? I don't know. I only say that because we had a Purple Martin birdhouse as a kid, and that was always the big thing. My dad would bring it down, and then all the chickadees that were not supposed to be in there, he'd pull them out and hoist it back up again. Oh, he was, I don't know, my dad was pretty brutal. That might be. Well, we don't have to talk about that. That might be. And his battle against the chickadees, but.

Might be a good one to kick up to the board.

Yeah, but I don't, but.

Looking to cleaning out the birdhouse.

But I do know, but I do know Purple Martin and birdhouses get cleaned out. That's all I have.

I had a quick question. I don't know if it had been mentioned when I was gone last time, but a couple of the trees that Kristen and I planted last year by the pickleball courts died. Unfortunately, there were such nice trees. They being replaced. Oh, okay.

I'm not using my microphone. We were holding out hope that they had a little life left in them, but that's very sad.

Yeah, they're nice trees. They are. The red buds. Yeah, the red buds. And, yep, those are forest pansies.

So, yeah, we're going to get those replaced this fall. Dan and I already talked about it. Maybe we have to look at a different variety, something that will do a little better with the sun in that area.

If it helps from a resource standpoint, Kristen and I will volunteer again to put those in, those less staff hours. So let us know. We'll be happy to help.

We'll probably do it with the beautification day this fall.

Oh, cool. All right.

We'll get them ordered for that. But yeah, we've had a conversation. I was really sad to hear that. And I know we lost one recently at Heroes Memorial that it split from the weight during one of the storms.

Okay. Okay. Tom's up. Heroes Memorial in Old Town Plaza Park.

Yeah, here's Memorial, the islands, but I see that they're on the landscaping and the budget, so they're going to be taken care of. The only other thing that's going to need, yeah, is the Missouri state flag is starting to get tattered. There's about a two-inch tear on it that's flipping. It's going to rip pretty good. The other flags seem to be in pretty good shape, but it's the Missouri state flag's tattered. Once the storm season is over, I would say it needs to be replaced, so... And then at Old Town Pavilion, it's just a bunch of little things. I mean, there's some outlet covers that are missing. I found a couple of them, put them back on. They were around, but there's four or five that are missing. The number nine is missing on the stalls up top. So somebody apparently stole number nine. Not that it's a big issue, because if you can't figure out what comes between eight and 10, then you've got other issues. But... And then there was some slight graffiti on some of the picnic tables. I mean, it's nothing graphic, nothing obscene. We wrote Bigfoot, you know, but it's, you know, other than that and over by the bridge to the area that we don't own behind Walmart, we've got a camper. So they're aware of it.

They still have their pallets at the pavilion too? Sorry? Do they still have their pallets down at the pavilion too? No. Do they move them?

Yeah, they're gone.

The unhoused community uses the electricity to charge their phones. That's why they pull the outlet covers off and whatever else they have to charge.

Okay, announcements?

I didn't know if you had any. I don't know, I know that Gary was there, Mike was there, Missouri, I mean, I'm sorry, excuse me, Great Rivers Greenway came to speak to the city. If for some reason you get any questions, it's a long drawn out thing, but that is not a partnership. That area is not, well, it is not owned by the city where they wanna do the connection. They held a open house here. Last week? Tuesday? Tuesday. And that's the connection to Unger Park, to Kirkwood. But it's Unger Park, so it's not the city of Fenton. They had asked to connect to the end of Cassin's Drive, but that wasn't a feasible, I mean, where do you go when you come out on Cassin's Drive? White down the street that has no sidewalks and come out on North highway drive. I mean, it's really not conducive to really go anywhere. So they're going to try to make the connection to anger park, but that is not a city project. Um, and is not something the city is partnering with them. So just in case you get any questions because they did hold the meeting here. Missouri Native Stewardship, who is the man who is one of the gentlemen that it's companies that are involved in eradicating the honeysuckle and some of the other things, forestry cutting, will be at the June 11th committee meeting. He's gonna give a presentation on invasive species. And I could... Related to private property. because again, as we've spoken, if you have common ground behind your house and your neighbor's just letting their honeysuckle go crazy or whatever, and it's encroaching on your property, there are ordinances that we're looking at to say, you can't encroach on your neighbor's property. You got to keep it five feet away. And also there are a lot of places in the city that touch city property and it can't, you know, we're us as a community are doing our part to eradicate the honeysuckle. But if everybody else is just letting it go, it's going to be harder to get a handle on. So he will speak on that. So if anyone is interested or you can always watch the meeting after it is recorded. And the copy of the ordinance is online for the one that's proposed for residential.

So people should not be having invasive honeysuckle along their fence line?

We can't really tell somebody you can't have that.

I don't have it. What it is proposing is that no additional can be planted anymore. You can't buy honeysuckle. You can't buy Bradford pears. You can't buy burning bush and other items that have been listed as invasive. But what it's stating is, and this is for a property maintenance situation, is that if you do have it, it has to be X amount of feet from your property line that you create a buffer between you and your neighbor if you want to plant bamboo and other things but also it talks about cultivation it has to be something that's deemed to be cultivated you can't just go out and decide I'm going to let my grass grow 10 foot tall and call it by landscaping it has to have a barrier it has to create it has to be deemed to be cultivated in a in a manner so and what this is protection of neighbors protection of us we are the city has been one of the biggest offenders of that for years and years we're working to correct ours, but also, you know, what we're looking at is for those that have it on their own property creeping into their neighbor's property. And that's the purpose is that it keeps it contained onto your property. With nuisance codes, a lot of people think the reason the city tells you is your yard can't be nine inches or higher is for aesthetics, but it's not. It's for rodent control. It's for health and safety. It's not anything to do with aesthetics. So when you have, you know, overgrown areas, if they're not maintained, you're still going to continue with the same issues So it just looks at a lot of different things. But a lot of what we hear from neighbors is my neighbor's honeysuckle is going through my fence, it's going through this, it's going through that. Just a discussion with the board the other night where somebody brought up bamboo and somebody said, please don't. I think Courtney Estates subdivision had to work for years to try to get that out of their common ground where somebody had planted it thinking it was a good idea. So it's just kind of taking some, it's not, some cities have gone much further. Some, you know, then what we're looking at is just a step in the right direction to, you know, help those that don't want it encroaching into their property to have that occur.

That's all I have. Thank you.

All right, anything else from staff? Got a capital plan here? Take a look at that.

Just an update, and even in a week's time, some of this changes. But as stated, the bathrooms, they're moving along. Hopefully we have Westside, Valiant, and Budd open by the end of this week. After Benton City Park this week, they'll be working on the rear and then they're moving over to the Merrimack and Benton Sports Complex. Then they'll all be completed with the new flooring. Behind that is the interior painting and then the new fixtures that are going in. Of course, as you noted, the playground, finally, finally, finally under construction. And the reason it's located where it is is due to the grade of the hill. the engineering costs and the idea of retaining wall that would have cost a fortune. And then Gregory Lane is also in queue. That's been approved by the board for a rip-up replacement of the asphalt. If you're not aware of the building I'm talking about, it's 900 Gregory Lane. It's right next to where the playground's going to be for additional parking to be provided for that park when that's open so that at least it'll be cleaned up and available. It's had years and years of deterioration.

All right. Committee, any questions? OK. Thank you, Nikki. Next park recreation committee tree advisory board meeting, unless we hear otherwise, will be Monday, July 6.

OK.

Need a motion to close the meeting out? I'll motion.

I'll second.

All in favor, raise your hand, say aye. Aye. All opposed? No? Okay, thank you.