Parks and Recreation Commission - Regular Meeting

Welcome to the September Parks and Recreation Commission meeting. Uh would somebody like to um somebody else calls to order or do I do that as the chair? I thought somebody else always did. I believe you can call to order and then start with the pledge. Okay. Starting at 6:31. 6:30. Pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Okay, I will take roll call. John Jones is absent and excused. Dennis Kapalinsky here. Sharon Parka here. Kate Smith here. Bridget King here. Jennifer McConnell is absent and excused. Robert Smith present. Kathy Copchek here. Rob Jones here. Uh would somebody like to approve the agenda? I'll make a motion to approve the agenda. I'll second it. All in favor? I

opposed. Motion passes. 7. Would somebody like to approve the minutes? I make a motion to approve the minutes from July the 29th of 2025. I second. I heard Sharon and a couple others. Well, we're right done, Sharon. Okay. Uh, all in favor? I.

Motion passes. 70. Um, no presentations. No public hearing. Public comment for agenda items only. Maybe on the next one. We have talked about taking this out multiple times because we haven't even talked about our agenda items yet before. were asking for public comment. It used to just be public at the bottom, one for all and we had talked about going back to that. So maybe for next month that way we we're not changing the agenda today. Yeah, we can put that on the next agenda for consideration.

Uh any So I'll just take public comment at the end then. Is that okay? You pro it's in your rules and your bylaws. You probably need a vote to approve to be able to do that. I would uh do the public comment now. Okay. And then if there is comment at the end about the agenda items, make the motion then to change it to any items, not just excluding the agenda items. Let them. Yeah. Okay. Give them the opportunity now. Let's go through everything and then give another opportunity at the end. Okay. Uh public comment for agenda items. Okay. Moving on. Items for consideration. Nothing under old business. New business. fee schedule recommendation.

So, this one's kind of simple. Uh, we are opening up the fitness room for adult ages. So, that's 18 to 49. So, those are what you see in red. It's only on that one page. I also took out the computer lab because the computer lab doesn't exist anymore. Um, I also added a senior fitness one-month membership uh to allow this wasn't this wasn't something previous because it took a lot of administrative work to do a one-month membership. Now it's all automated in our new system and a lot of people budget monthtomonth. So I figured it was a good option to add uh for the seniors. We also changed the fitness room drop in rate. That $3 rate that's for everybody now, not just seniors. So that's why you see that one in red. And then we added that resident and non-resident pricing. Um this pricing is kind of all based off that $100 for the one-year membership for the adult fitness room uh for the resident and then everything else is kind of based off that one number. So again, this is the recommendation that staff is putting to you guys and now you guys are going to send to council. So if you have any changes, suggestions, thoughts about these numbers, now is the time that if you'd like to make changes, we can do those. We can talk about them all individually if you'd like or if you just want to see a different that $100 for the one-year adult fitness room resident uh pricing. That's kind of where I started and based everything off that which is $30 more than the senior one-year membership.

And you still accept uh silver sneakers? We do. Yep. Silver Sneakers and uh Renew Active. Yep, those are both still active for the room. Yeah, we're kind of changing it from not just the senior center to just the fitness center, but then having prices for our seniors and prices for adults and then hopefully prices for youth. We're just not at the youth part yet. Um yeah, I I looked at it's really it was really put together well.

Yeah, the room the with the expansion, you know, the room d more than doubled in size. having the rubber floor on one side, the carpet floor on the other. It allows a lot more for like we were trying to do some fitness classes in the room as well. So, actually, I don't know if you guys seen, but we started that introductory hour with Lenise. Uh, Monday was our first day with that. We posted a ton of pictures online. That went really well. So, they actually met inside the dance waiting room, then walked into set into the fitness room with with Lenise. They did some stretches together. There were already some people already there in the room that she also worked with. And I don't know, we actually I don't know if we post them or not. We actually got some testimony testimonials from the people that did that that morning and how much they loved it and want us to continue doing it. So, and that's included with their senior fitness me or actually any membership, but currently right now the senior fitness membership.

Kind of nice having the big windows there that you can look out while you're working out. Yeah. And we have big plans for that courtyard too to be also another fitness center area, but a little bit further down the road. How how do the rates compare to like a commercial like Planet Fitness or Yeah. So, Planet Fitness and Garden City for the $10 a month is $160 a year after you pay that yearly thing, too. Actually, Planet Fitness is $15 a month now is their minimum. Yeah, they upped it maybe two or three months, six months ago. That's their minimum right now. 15 a month. Okay.

So, considerably cheaper. It is also we have limited hours and it is a smaller room, but this is also we're catering to a different setting. There are people that do enjoy our gym more and would we have a plenty of members that register for this and say, "I would never go to Planet Fitness." So, we are a different clientele in this center, too. Okay. Any questions about the changes? And I think I mentioned it, too, but I also just removed the computer lab because that that's no longer in the building. That's now our activity room. Do we have to approve these these changes and send it back to council?

Yep. So, this is our recommendation to council. We might actually wait to take these to council because I'm I'm looking at some of the room rates, too. That's something that's been brought to my attention this last week. So, I might come back next month with a few more rate changes for some of the rooms. Um, am I not? We We'll see where we go. We We can go to council twice, but it might be easier just to go at once. But I want to get these numbers in front of you and it kind of ties into the conversation we have on other business as well today. Um, so but I wanted you guys at least see these because this is something we already kind of advertised but didn't realize we had to do the fee schedule. So now we're catching up and doing the fee schedule.

I wonder if you should maybe go to council twice only because you can get these prices started because currently they're a little bit higher than this. Correct. like in the fee schedule. Uh so currently the senior fitness room that none of that's really changing. The only thing I'm adding is that one month. So no, those prices are all set and we had to pull the adult fitness membership. So only one person signed up for it. We did refund them and any adults right now are just paying that $3 drop in fee.

Okay. because we can essentially my understanding so far is we can set program fees but anything that's membership reoccurring anything that's more of a fee has to go in front of council but programs and events those can be the discretion of really we just need to make sure we break even. So those can change and we don't have to go in front of council for those but anything that's a membership reoccurring we do have to go to front of council for I um for the resident prices I think that's a really good price point. Um, for the non-resident, I would maybe like to see it just a little bit higher. I feel like, you know, as Garden City residents, they pay for it out of their taxes, right? So, it's only just a couple dollar difference. So, maybe just

What do you guys think? Yeah, currently it's I would I would agree with you on that. I just don't want to price it out to our if there was not too much more. I think that's where where we're get more parents at maybe is um through dance for a year for a year cuz let's face it geographically it's closer to westland than a lot of garden city res have a lot of parents that are there because of dance express that will maybe pay but it would be again nice to see that they're because it's wear and tear still on equipment at our building. Yeah, that is definitely reason to go sooner than later. We do have a lot of uh dance express parents asking, "Yeah, should I keep paying the $3 or should I just wait because there's going to be a membership here shortly." So,

that's why I think, you know, like once we do set a fee, we should get it to council soon because I'm assuming parents are going to want to especially those that, you know, have younger kids in the program that want to sign up sooner than later. So, then what do we want to make the non-resident fees for one month, three months, and one year? I wouldn't consider I I would ignore the one month and three month. If we just look at the one year, I can base all the pricing because it's all just a formula after that. So, if you guys are fine with $100 for a year for the adults for the resident fee, let's just decide on how much more it should be for the non-resident and then I can fix it all from there. Okay. Should be 150. Robert said 140. I'm good with 140 also. I'm good with that. Yeah. right here.

So, someone would just like to make a motion then if that's like the consensus for uh you know the resident one year is good but the non-resident we like to see 140 and we can vote on that. I move to make a motion to change the adult fitness room non-resident one-year membership fee from 120 to 140 and then we base the three-month and one month off of the 140. I second it. All in favor? I opposed. Motion passes 70. I will make that change and get that back to you guys. Thank you. Well, I won't bring it back to you guys, but I'll make that change and we'll take it to council. Okay.

Um, and I will I'll update you guys whether we go straight to council with at the next meeting or if we hold off a little bit. Let me get through a lot of the other changes because I think some of the room rentals, uh, we tried higher pricing and they're not getting rented. So, we might try and bring those down just a little bit and see if we increase our rentals. So, thank you. Okay, moving on to other business. A Florence Park playground.

All righty. So, this one's kind of a sad update for us, and I'm just going to kind of read that first paragraph on the letter that I uh included in the packet. Um uh after careful review of the playground equipment at Florence Park, public works and the parks department have growing concerns about safety and condition. The structure has served the community for many years. But with constant exposure to weather and long-term use, it is deer de uh deteriorated

deteriorated to a point where no longer provides the safe reliable play environment we expect for our parks. Um I did put some stuff in there. Some key findings from our parks department and DPW of the issues like the structural components are showing rust, cracking, uh material uh material issues. Um cell fixtures are loose or unstable. the current equipment no longer meets the modern safety standards and there were a few minor reports of injuries on the equipment. Um I did include some photos on the next page of some of the really uh sore spots on the equipment and really I just want to put in here kind of the next steps. Public works department will demolish the current play structure at Florence Park and the parks department and you guys uh will move forward with moving uh the Florence Park playground structure towards the top of our priority list. Um so that's kind of an update. I don't know if you guys have anything you want to share about it or uh share about the priority list, but I want to get this to you guys and to the community before we take it down so people know that when DPW cut does come to take it down. That's what we're doing.

Does this include the swing set, too? This does not. So, we we double checked that today. Actually, their swing set is completely separate and that one's fine. Okay. So, they're going to probably get it down as quick as they can or Yep. And I think uh even talking with Typton a little bit, their their concern is also getting it down because kids are playing on it. They're trying to play on it. Uh, and even though we did board it up a few weeks ago, it's just going to be safer to get around. It's going to be safer to take the structure down. Questions or comments?

I'm want kids to be safe. So, unfortunately, we have to lose a piece of equipment that's could be dangerous. And I'm sure we all agree that maybe, you know, uh the concern with Florence Park is make moving this to the top of our party list. I know we have our five-year master plan and Florence is in there, but maybe moving that up a little bit with, you know, city's expectations with grant money and other stuff coming in. We can look at Florence Park first. So, Oh yeah. Are you going to go after some grants? We're going to try to. We need them, right? Be good. Okay. So, nothing else on that then? Moving on to memberships, punch cards, and drop in.

So, this one uh for other business, the there's a lot of questions right now like what's best for the center, whether we do memberships, punch cards, drops in like right now uh of concern is like Spaceport. We have a membership running in there. It's just kind of a trial to see if people even like it or interested in it. Um we've heard lots of reviews on the pricing. You know, obviously it's a cost a lot for Spaceport to run. um at same uh and and all the memberships in that place uh in the past and I like to look at the ice rinks that you know they've been very successful over there with things that they've done. They don't have any memberships to be on the ice. You know everything there is drop and you pay as you go and recently they just started doing punch cards and those have been successful over there. So it's the same thing as a drop in but maybe you get one free if you buy a punch card. It also makes checking in a little bit easier. You can purchase the punch cards online and then when you come in you just have to scan your card. I kind of want to get a consensus from this board of what you guys feel is appropriate for Redcliffe. Do you want us to continue looking into memberships, whether it be like an all center membership that gets you into open gym, the game room, the um spaceport and the other things we do, whether you would like us to move down on the avenue of just more punch cards or stay in the avenue of drop in. So, we're even testing that right now. We just actually tomorrow I believe is the first day of open gym. that's just going to be a drop in fee. Um, but it also could be a membership. We could look at a family membership. So, I don't know if each of you kind of have an opinion or if you guys want to discuss this a little bit uh right now, but just kind of what you guys would like the parks department to move forward on in terms of memberships or punch cards or drops for those specialty rooms inside the center, which include our game room, the fitness room, spaceport, open gym, um, and I believe that's all of them. So, and we actually have two game rooms now because we have one game room that was the adult game room and we have another game room that's just the pool table game room which is now going to be the new adult

game room and then we have a teen game room, but those we haven't even figured out yet either. Uh, so I don't know that's just memberships do take a little bit more. Obviously, we have to update the fee schedule. We have to go to council. We don't get to just learn as we go kind of with those even though we're kind of trying that with Spaceport right now. You know, the punch cards a little bit easier to change as we go. Um, dropins can be, you know, for those that are attending dance for 30 weeks out of the year. It's a lot to pay a drop in every time you come in. Um, some of the reviews we've received on Spaceport is what if, uh, you know, they're paying u monthly right now for one kid. Could it be cheaper to add the second kid? We used to do a lot with our programming. You know, it'd be $8 to attend the program, but then six for a sibling. So, just just some of your thoughts. So, I'm going to write down what you guys have and kind of guide staff on our decisions with how we treat some of these rooms moving forward.

I kind of like the membership. A membership. What would you do with a membership for each individual space? Well, that's also a thing we could talk about. Yes. So, like right now the membership for Spaceport is only for Spaceport, but we also talked about just a wreck membership that gets you into everything. Maybe different levels of that membership. So, and that you'd have to figure out and price out somehow.

Yeah. See, but then I think of like when you get yourself into a membership now you're stuck in that membership and I keep paying for this membership. Not that that doesn't benefit the the grand business of things, but if we had more of a punch card and we make it a little bit more affordable, then like your child who signed up for that you signed up for say Spaceport, you're not like reoccurring membership when they're not going there over X, Y, and Z months. So, they're paying as they go and maybe it might be a little bit more than a membership, but then they're not stuck in this membership fee that they're constantly being charged and they got to come back up, they got to cancel it or however it might be. I mean, I know the world today we're kind of in that membership mindset, but sometimes it feels like you're paying so much for all these memberships that I just hate that reoccurring thing where I have to, you know, go somewhere, make a call, fix it to get back out of it kind of thing. But especially I feel like a lot of this is the youth up there using these game rooms and you know those types of things to drop in. So I don't think it could hurt to have the option of a membership but I think maybe that punish card might be like a secondary type and then I think it's nice when you're like okay I paid for 10 I got one free. Yay.

Yep. Uh love that the ice arena is using punch cards now. Um, how hard do you think it would be for you to use all three of these? I can see though that like the membership for one person then the membership for the family, right? Yeah. They all benefit each other different people building membership for certain Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to say as with having young kids, I'm unlikely to sign up for a membership because I don't know if they're going to like it and if they're going to take advantage of things. It's nice to kind of ease your way into it and see how often you're going. um see what they like and what they dislike. Yeah.

And then with a punch card, if you have three kids, they can each use that same punch card. Okay, now we ran out of punches. So now we get another punch card. So you know, whoever's going up there this week, you know, each So maybe like a membership or the punch card and drop in would be That's all three still, Kate. Well, no. Membership is like one choice and then punch cards or a drop in fee, right? because still why don't we see how the because you can't essentially a punch card and drop doesn't leave the drop in you have to punch cards and dropins are very similar um something like even yoga we moved from drop in to punch cards because it reduces the amount of time spent at the desk so instead of coming in every time we have yoga to pay for your class you only come in every six times to come in and play for your class

so there's no drop in offered for yoga anymore it's strictly just punch card uh I'm I'm not sure if we took away drop in I think we just added the functionality punch card but we've noticed Because of this, we're saving time. So, because we're saving time, we can offer you that one more class for free for getting the punch card. I believe though often if you offer a six, you know, if you're going to get six classes for the cost of five, I think everyone's doing it. Whether we offer the drop in, right, if there's a um I feel like the the drop in and the membership for or drop in and the punch cards would be your two best avenues.

I just I don't know. I'm not a huge fan of the membership. But then back to memberships, if they have a gym membership, then could you offer an incentive to add on to that? Like a bump up to enjoy other activities basically just advance those other Mhm. as the dance. I'm unfamiliar with that. I mean, they're they're paying for a dance as it is, but they don't really have to pay to get into the building, right? Correct. There's no cost to enter the building. So, what are what are they doing? What other activities are they doing while they're there? Are they playing in the gym or the drop in events in the gym versus spaceport or are they

It's It seemed like it started off where there was a lot to do, but then we just went through another big phase of construction where we moved a lot of stuff around. So, a lot of that stuff that was open closed and we're seeing that now with a lot of our dance families, not the people dancing, but the families of them looking for stuff to do again, whether it's the fitness room or and that's only that's actually fairly new for adults to get the fitness room of before. previously was only seniors. So, they've enjoyed that. We are bringing back open gyms, so hopefully that's another thing. Um, it's the other rooms would be Spaceport and the teen game room. So, those would be the two places that families would probably gravitate towards during our dance season and open gym. Okay.

It's It's tough because I think all three of them it's like one size doesn't fit all, you know, when it come I mean, there's already memberships for the gym. So, yeah. Are you trying to get like what's the punch card and dropins going to be for? Like it's not for all of like even the um teen game room is it? Well, I think that's what we're hoping to get a consensus today. Even like and maybe maybe kind of focus on Spaceport a little bit like right now we are doing a membership that's $20 a month per kid. You know how many kids signed up already?

I believe around 10 plus or minus a few but around 10. Um there are some that come in that pay that there's a drop in fee for that too. So there are some kids that pay that every so often. So usually almost every day there is a kid or two uh in there um if not more. Uh so but would offering a punch card make it easier for parents to say hey you can go do this you know three times a month or we have some parents that do the membership and say he gets two hours after school to go to spaceport and that's all he gets game time. I got rid of all his games at home. We sold them all. That's what he gets. gets to go to Spaceport for two hours a day. So, she's willing to pay the membership because her kid goes there every day. And and even in that scenario, Spaceport's kind of like a daycare. Like, we do I mean, not daycare, but latch key. Like, we have someone in there watching the people with the games or the kids with the games. Um, so the $20 membership seems very reasonable to some parents and then others that wouldn't use it necessarily as a latch key service don't. So, that's, you know, kind of where we're in the middle. and those parents that don't consider it more of laxi uh don't want to pay the drop in fee every day. So,

sounds like you need all three. Sounds like sounds like you mean we need all three. I mean, it does go back to structure like the gym, right? I mean, you have a monthly fee or you have a drop in fee. Um, it What about a yearly fee? Maybe a a family membership yearly thing. Jos offered for, you know, like what if you want multiple rooms?

I'd be curious to hear what all the residents say, but they'd probably just be as, you know, all over the place. Yeah. Yep. This is the same stuff staff's considering every day. So, I wanted to bring it up and just have an opportunity to hear all your guys' thoughts because as we we're kind of tied, too. were like, "Okay, well, everything's possible." So then you look at price points for all those. And sometimes the problem, too, is like if you have a membership and you price that at a certain point, you have to almost base everything else off that. So then it kind of drives your membership price up or down and then you have a higher membership price because you have a low drop in, you know. Yeah. So that's something to trouble too. What's easier for the staff? Obviously the membership because they scan a card and they're not collecting money.

Yep. And we're not here, you know, to make stuff easiest for the staff, you know, we want to make it easiest for the resident. Yeah. So, that's a lot of times that's the that's what we're thinking when we're doing this. Um, but the the easiest in terms of transactions and how many would be a membership or punch card because it just it it's less visits the resident has to visit to us. Yeah. Okay. Well, would they still have to visit you to get a punch on their punch card though? That's just scanning into the room. So, they come in, they can scan their card, they keep going. I see. Yeah. We don't even have to be there for the scan. I'll let you off topic real quick, but that teen game room, they will be scanning to get in or you'll know who's in there. Yep. Okay.

That's currently the plan. I don't know if there's any deviations to that yet, but that's currently the plan for the team tech room. So, we're still sticking with like the Sorry, not team tech. Okay. Team game room game room. Okay. We're still sticking with like the scan cards. Okay. Yeah. Not to get in the door. Not to get in the door, but to get in certain you pay for. Yeah. And that works best with memberships and punch cards. Yes. Where the drop in, there's not really the drop in. We kind of have to let them into the room. Um there's not really a way to for them to scan in on a drop in. Well, can't you add a drop in to their card and then as they go back, they scan it and it opens the door once.

Mhm. Yeah. I mean, that's what we would have to do. Okay. Well, maybe more work then. Absolutely. Maybe you do both membership and the punch card. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because of the fact that, you know, somebody who knows their kid uses a lot, they might want the mehip membership and they've got a lot of kids. Or, you know, a punch card. Let's try it out and see. You got five times to go. Let's see how long they go. Yeah. I'm I'm actually I I'm right on board with exactly what you're saying because you don't know how much you're going to use it. So, the punch card would be what you would more than likely buy to see. Okay. Yeah, this is something I'm going to frequent. If they use it a lot, you can ask them, would you like to become a me and get a me? And yeah,

maybe something that we were kind of considering since I'm hearing almost the same stuff that we were. What if the membership was more for everything? So, a membership would be probably more per month, but would get you your entire family or one person in your family or um your family up to four people. So we don't care who the four people are but in your family um per household not necessarily the four people only because you might have a family of five you might have a family of six I mean I mean just me alone I have a family of five yeah it'd be hard uh to to make sure that it's only a household but if you have the parents and then you know that these are their children I mean in a family

yeah it would just be hard for us to guarantee they're actually in the family right you Yeah, especially with, you know, different last names and different addresses, there's really no way to say who's in a household. So, it's something we could just say household and hopefully people are honest with us, but there would be no way for us to say, well, those 10 people don't live in this household, but they say they do. Or maybe you could say five or six and then and like act like add on another family member for 10 more dollars a month or whatever. it. Can I ask what do other communities do with their rec center memberships? And uh seems like from my research everyone kind of picks one or the other or do all three. Okay.

So almost it really depends on what they offer and we're very unique space at Radcliffe. Um with a lot of different priorities, a lot of different age groups. So, and we don't, you know, a lot of rec centers that do have those large family memberships usually have a pool and they do have, you know, and then kind of what I guess what I'm trying to suggest is a a monthly membership for your family for everything and then all the individual rooms can have punch cards. So, you kind of have best of both worlds. If you only want to do spaceport in the teen game room once in a while, you can buy punch cards for those two rooms. Or if your entire family wants to participate, then they can purchase an entire family membership and get access to that. That's a good idea.

All right, let's get a grant and build a pool. I do think it's going to deter some people by just signing up for a membership. What does the Radcliffe Center really offer right now? Am I really going to use it? Like I think it's kind of a progression where the drop in would work out good until you get data and you figure out if people are going to like it and then you could possibly change that later on. But and that's a good starting point for us too because punch cards are easier for us to price without coming to you guys than going to Not that we don't want the feedback on the pricing. We get it either way, but um that would be an easier route for us to go to start with to get that data. Yeah, because you people coming in using the punch card a lot and then they say, "Well, can I get a better deal?" You know, if I

You go to the me or maybe if they buy a bunch, then you could tell them, "Oh, hey, we're going to try this out or something." Yeah. Why don't we just try it the way you wanted with the punch cards? Okay. Punch cards and drop in leading with that. It is less of a commitment too as I think some of you as some of you shared having that commitment of membership is is is the world we live in but we don't like it. So I think staying away from that is kind of nice to start with. So really convenient part is like we know we're going up to Red Cliff and that's who we're talking to a person and like take this off my monthly bill kind of thing if it leads to that kind of membership. Yeah. Not only that but for membership searching.

Are they showing like a magnetic strip card for scanning or I mean how is that how are you proving you have a membership? They have so everyone that comes into the center at one point we were giving them all a little scan card that looks like this. Okay. Yep. A barcode on back. Yeah. So they have one of those they can scan like our fitness room right now. It's it's solely off that system. When you sign up for a senior fitness membership or here student the adult fitness membership, the first time you come in, we'll give you one of those cards and then you just go up to the room, you scan yourself in, the door opens, you go in there, you can work out, and then you just the door closes behind you and you leave.

Can I ask how are the kids with remembering to bring cards? My son took a picture uh see I keep his card with me, but he took a picture of his card. So then he and then I took a picture of his card and all my nephew's cards. So if they're ever with me, I just pull it up on my phone. Okay. Or I think um and that will work on the website where we register for all these things. There's also a QR code on there. So yeah, you don't have Yeah. That once we scan that barcode in, if you go on to the computer, you can also see a QR code of the same thing and those will scan our scanners as well. Oh, okay. Yeah. So just like going into Planet Fitness, it's on your phone on the app. Same thing with us. You sign into Sportsman, you'll see it on your phone.

Yeah. So often I do see though where the parent will have all the cards on their keyring and they'll scan one then the next and then the next and we'll go in. Yeah. Because they could see a kid losing the punch card and you know Well actually punch card would work. Punch card will be that little card and when they scan it it takes one off of their account. Oh okay. So it's kind of the same way. It's old term but they're also electronic. So yeah they wouldn't actually carry the punch card around. It would be the same thing. They have a card or just us looking their name up. We type their name on. We can we can punch the car digitally and then they can go online and see how many punches they have left. Yeah. If he ever forgets his phone, he just tells them their his name and then they just look it up. All right. Yeah.

Okay. Any other questions, comments, concerns about memberships, punch cards, or drop in? Okay. Moving on to public comment. How formal are you? Should I stand? Just so they can hear you.

Yeah, sure. Sure. Um, I'm Angela Gilbert. I am the school superintendent at Typton Academy. Um, so thank you so much. Um, I wanted to come tonight. Uh, one of our parents shared with me that the meeting was happening today and, um, I just appreciate that you moved Florence Park up to a priority situation. Um, I was super sad to hear that it was also in disarray this summer. Um, simply because no one had been reporting to me that there were problems with the park. Our park at the East Campus was also in the same situation. It was very unsafe and had to come down this summer. So, that was where our funding went. Um, but I'm not sure if all of you know that as a charter school, we do not receive city taxes to pay for our facilities. So anything we put into the facilities comes out of our education budget. Um and so we worked really hard to kind of save up to replace the east campus. So as I was sharing with regard to Florence, we love being a part of the community. We're always looking for opportunities to come and clean up and do those things. So um I did share that um you asked about grants. My hope is to I've already started looking for uh community partnership grants that maybe we could partner together um to be able to do that. Um and so I just wanted to take a few minutes to say thank you for making it a priority because although we are trying to keep the kids off, as soon as school gets out, they go right over there. And so um we don't want anybody to get hurt just like you don't. So we just really appreciate the partnership and the support.

Great. Thank Thank you so much for coming and speaking. Uh any other public comment. Moving on. Report from parks and recck director.

Hello. Hello. Um as you know, Erica left and I'll be working in the interim. So nice to meet you all for the I've seen you all but nice to meet you guys here today. Um thank you for your comments by the way and coming from Typton. We do appreciate it. uh the partnership there. They have been with to all of our community days cleaning up the park and stuff. So, it's good to have their partnership with that. Um some of our upcoming events and programs looking at the calendar. Uh of course, we are in our hockey season. So, we have our open skates and our um stuff running every day, our six and pucks, and um looking at a calendar here. There's one other in there that I'll forget. Um we have our pumpkin spooktacular on October 11th. We have our Halloween open skate ice skate on October 18th. Um the parks and recck department is partnering with the community coalition to bring trunk or treat on October 23rd to the Radcliffe Center. Um and that looks and we have on October 31st on Halloween our Halloween dog party. Um so a lot of Halloween festivities this month in October. Um I want to give an update on the Chili Cookoff community festival that went really well. Parks and Rec was very involved this year. um not only myself but Sarah, Katie, Mike Downey, um the parks department running our cornhole tournament that day, running our kids activities that day, running the volunteer check-in. Um it worked really well with having police and fire and DPW all there and our department there as well. We kind of piloted a little bit last year. Erica was there. Um this year we brought some more staff in, had a lot of interactions with the kids. They had a good time. So, it was very nice to be a part of that festival of parks. Um and we plan to continue that uh running hopefully even more next year just running the entire kids activities uh as the parks department. Uh very successful day and um we're glad for everyone that came out. Also, today marks the end of our pavilion rental season. We had 180 pavilion rentals uh through the season. So that's very good for us. Um and today today was the last day. We didn't have any rentals today, but today's the last day of that season. Um but other than that, I have nothing else.

You have more rentals this year than you had the year before. Don't you know? I do not know that. But I can let you know. Okay. Anything else? Uh, the chili cookoff was awesome. Uh, there was so many free things for, well, the car show of course, but like free things for the kids. I was just so impressed. Um, King Cone always shows up. They were handing out free ice cream. Um, even the bags that our DPW and police department and all them fire was handing out were it was just such a fun event and I think absolutely it needs to be festival now, right? It's not just chili.

It's really become an entire city and even to mention you mentioned the bags in the police department. Those were put together by F FRC staff in parks. F FRC had a chili team this year so we represented in parks. Um, so yeah, it was very very well-rounded full every department, every you know, all the community put together. So, and plenty of kids activities. We hope to expand on those next year, especially at the parks getting involved. But yes, we had several bouncers, the rock wall, face painting, um, the petting zoo, mini golf, and then our parks and rock activities, our tent, and our staff. So, it was packed. Tons of people, great weather. Perfect for weather. Yep. It was pushed up this year quite a bit, right? Isn't it usually in October like second Thursday?

It's normally the second Saturday in October. Two years ago they moved it to the beginning of September. Last this this year we did um the end of September. I think we were trying to find a date that we liked most and I think we're going to stick with this date. So we're looking at the last se Saturday in September, but we'll finalize that date actually this week and publish that. Weather was awesome. Big thank you to everyone that made it happen. It does take a team. Huge team. Yeah. Okay. Um, is that all for you? That is it. Thank you. Okay. Commissioner comments. Kathy, do you want to start us off? Uh,

you know, I I would I I don't really have much to add except for I do have um I wanted to report a maintenance issue in City Park with some poison ivy, but that's more or less something I kind of have to show where exactly it is. So, I didn't fill out the form. Um, that's all I have. Do you know like what building it's near? Um, it's it's city park. It's off of the It's right going right into the uh if you go in the shot entrance and it's to the left off the path. It's a growing up a tree. Oh, yeah. I always

You will find it. Yeah. I always see kids like wanting to grab it and pull it down. So, that's a disaster waiting to happen. Thank you. The chili cookoff was really nice. It's the first time I've been to it. And the weather was perfect and I'm excited about all the stuff going on at Radcliffe. Getting close. Maybe um next meeting we can share you know information from our subcommittee meetings. Anything else? That's good.

Uh I just wanted to say Erica will be greatly missed. We really enjoyed working with her. Um she started shortly before I came onto this committee. Um and she will be missed and we'll miss her. Um Zach has big shoes to fill over there. I also want to say the chili was amazing. I mean it started the day with a pancake breakfast. Um, pancake breakfast was amazing. It was done by the Rotary Lions and Kuanas Club with the community coalition um to raise funds for Straight Barn House Pavilion Pavilion Gazebo.

Um, then we had bands from noon to 10. There were I'm a big advocate and volunteer for Haven of Love and I begged people to come volunteer. We had lots of volunteers. I had some seniors from the towers that volunteered for us and for Goodfellows. I appreciate them. I didn't get their names and it was a great day. We had cornhole tournament that Mike Downey ran. Um Chile cookoff 13 teams. It was a good time. I highly suggest everyone come out next year and see what else that EDA and parks and wreck has done.

I just wanted to say welcome Zach. Um excited to see what you will do for the parks and reccks department. Thank you. Um, also, would you look into movie theater licensing? Yep. I would like to see that room at Radcliffe get used.

Yep. I've already uh talked with the staff. They're looking at doing something as early as next week. Some stuff in there. We've looked at some licensing. Uh there's a lot you don't need to run. You don't need licensing to run some movies, you know, so the stuff that's in public domain. So, we're going to try and start with the senior center and work with around bingo doing movies before and after um to capture people that already in the building, maybe have some time to burn. Um but yes, we're looking into a license. Actually, I'm I prefer to find a license that allows us to do not only that room, but movies in the gym again and then movies in the park during the summer again. So, we're looking at allound license for that. It takes some time and there's a lot of choices. You can go anywhere from $1,000 to $15,000 a year for license like that.

Wow. Um, so it'll take some time. We got we got to find out a few different vendors that do the licensing. Every vendor has different movies you can play with that license. So, um, we're I'm I'm actually in the middle of looking into that. And once we hear back from vendors, get some more pricing, we'll move forward with it.

And then my last, um, thing is Radcliffe hours. Now that it is fall, I would like to see us go back to being open Friday nights and for longer on Saturdays. Um, I feel like if we want people in the building, we need to expand our hours with the new renter at Radcliffe and F FRC bringing in more money um for the general fund and you now being here kind of pulling double duty a little bit. I feel like financially we should be able to do it now that we're bringing in a little bit more revenue. So, um, maybe you could just pass that along

Yep. to the higherups. Yeah, it's definitely something uh I have actually already talked with staff a little bit about and it it often is going to the decision will be the the benefits versus the cost and if it you know what it costs to bring a staff member there and how many people visit the center. So it might be something we pilot again to see how many people do show up and if we don't see those numbers then we might not you know so that's really the as we find classes to fill that space we will definitely be open to for those classes. So, that'll be the first thing. Fill with programs and classes for those time slots. When we do, we'll staff it. And I have budget questions, but I'll email you all that. I'm just kind of curious. Uh, and that's all I have. Thank you.

In the theater. Oh, yes. It was a beautiful event. Yes. He's not wearing his medallion. Got a beautiful medallion from Erica. I was just going to say finally they repaired the roadway into the Radcliffe Center. Oh, the middle school like Broadway. Yeah. Yeah, that was a school districts. They've repaired it over the summer. It was very nice. And the speed bumps work really well. They a lot better than before. That's all I have. I want to say the chili cook off was really, really nice. Really nice. And to welcome you, Zach. Thank you. I missed I missed seeing all you guys apparently on Saturday. I was too busy. position. Yeah, I saw our girls all painted up.

I was there running around working for someone that works for Welcome on your new position. I wish I got to spend more time at the chili cook off, but I was at the high school all day long cuz it was a homecoming for GCIAA. So, uh got got to spend a little bit of time. I saw you guys. I will say it's awesome that any event that goes on, I see the tent, parks and w tent up. You usually see Mike Downey somewhere. I know you're around. It's just awesome to see the exposure that uh I mean we held a what a uh an event at uh at Mhler for GCYA and Mike brought the tent. You know, it's just awesome to see parks and wreck being involved. Yeah, maybe we can work the date of the next chili cookoff around not being homecoming for Is homecoming always that same weekend?

I don't know. I think they're talking about changing it, too. I would like some chili. I will say the homecoming has always been October for many, many years. They moved their date up. Yeah. And then Chili Cookoff moved their date around. Seems like the chili cook off would be when it's a little cooler outside, right? When you want chili, but it is what it is. Um, yeah, we just have to plan it for someday in July for our homecoming day. Well, and that's the other thing is uh the fire department and the police department, they normally would have the open house. They didn't really do that this year. It was more the touch the truck. Yeah, we keep calling it the open house, but yeah, we moved them downtown in hopes to make it

uh easier to staff, but also just everything in one place. That disconnect, we found that many people would go to the open houses never even knowing the cookoff was happening and would just be, you know, just wouldn't even go down there. And then vice versa, that people the cookoff just had no idea. Uh so it kind of was floated out an idea of, you know, putting them on Central Street and even though it's not an open house, it's more of a touch to truck event for everybody. um they really did like it and they did those bags instead being able to pass out bags and uh stuff for the kids. So um it ended up in more ways than one working out really well. We we wish we could actually put them a little bit even closer. Uh but we haven't figured that out with that layout yet. But um no, it worked really well with having them near down there with us. So I like the layout because it helped to like bring the putt putt, you know, like kind of got you moving

expanding all the way. It wasn't the petting zoo like right across from them too. Yeah, that would be neat. Oh, and I guess the the one thing with the movie room, what my understanding was, as long as it was a private event, you could go in there and log underneath your Netflix or whatever, watch whatever you wanted to. You could rent it and it's there's no legal obligations outside of that, right? So, yeah, that's correct. As a private party that is finance when you open it to the public. Okay. I just meant for like programming purposes, you know, like he's talking about offering it to seniors or like a family, right? Pizza and movie night or just Yeah, that' be nice. Does it rent? Does it rent a lot? The movie theater. Oh, it does get rentals. Yes. Yeah. I've heard how many people can fit in there.

There are 16 seats and some bean bags. Okay. And you're I'm not sitting on Yeah. Kids birthday party or something would be great. And put often find Yeah. A lot of people do food down in the center and we do that or do a spaceport a movie. So, it is getting rented as the it is getting rented privately. That's that's doing fine. We just a lot of people want to see it as a program of parks and wreck. So that's what we're trying to work on now. So and a lot of challenges, you know, it looks like we pointed to this licensing as the challenge. The challenge really has been staffing and getting staff getting staff to program it and get to work. So there's a lot of those challenges that I've been able to get staff to just kind of move past and we're going to um we're going to start programming that type of stuff. So Sarah, we want to see it. Yeah. No, Sarah's excited for it. So Okay.

Anything else, Rob? No, that's all for me. Anything else? Nope. Somebody like to make a motion to adjurnn. I'll make a motion to adjurnn. Second. I'll second it. Done. I'm just trying to take notes. We said last time. Just take an all in favor vote. Oh. All in favor? I I opposed. Motion passes. 70. That's right. Forgot that part. We got to add it.