Parks and Recreation Board - Regular Meeting

Is this this thing again or is this something different? Well, I have mine.

Yep. Yeah, we are ready. Yeah. So, good morning everyone. Good morning. I'd like to call this meeting of the Hancock County Parks and Recreation Board to order. Today is November 20th, 2025 and the time is 10:01 according to my laptop. Should we go with just 10 o'clock since it's 10 o'clock is fine.

10 o'clock. Okay. Um, this meeting is being recorded and streamed live by participating. You acknowledge that your image, voice, and comments may be captured and made available to the public. This meeting was properly noticed in accordance with Indiana Code 5-14-1-5. Um, I, Miriam Morales, will call the role for attendance. Please acknowledge as I call your name. Heather Van Djk here. Kelly McLaren here. Amy Shiveley here. Terry Gotchuk here.

Okay. Let the record show that a quorum of board members is present. And then we're going to have the approval of the minutes. We didn't have a meeting in October. So, um we um have the minutes from September 18th of 2025 as presented. Are there any corrections or discussions? Motion to approve minutes from September. Thank you, Heather. Second, Terry. Second. All in favor? I.

All right. Motion motion passes. New business is the um Hancock County Impact Fe board. We're going to discuss that. Um as a courtesy reminder was sent out or I sent a courtesy reminder out to the commissioners to identify three citizen candidates for the Hancock County Impact Fe. One needs to be an engineer, a realtor, and a CPA. Um the review board will be appointed during the December board of commissioners meeting and the timing of them doing it now um is to prepare uh that that new board to become familiar with the impact fee ordinance and their responsibilities um before it takes effect on February 5th of 2026. Um, for those online and in the public attendance, um, if you're not familiar with the impact fee, the amount is $412. The impact fee was determined through a professional study by Baker Tilly, who calculated the cost of future park and recreation infrastructure needed to serve new growth. And then they divided that cost across the projected number of the new housing units. this um the building permit itself, that fee um applies to only new residential construction in unincorporated areas of the county and it's paid by the developer. So, um and the purpose of the review board is to ensure that those impact fees are calculated fairly, they remain legal and transparent, and that new development rather than current taxpayers um help fund new parks and amenities. But it's also important to note that these funds are restricted and they may only be used for specific amenity types outlined in the zone improvement plan. And the public may view that zone improvement plan. It's uh ordinance. Um it's 2025-8A

and it's on the parks and recreation board landing page. So you can look that up. I've actually um I can pull it up if you if the folks needs it later. they can they can come see me um or reach out to me online and I can help you navigate to find that. But um with regard to the impact fees and our internal processes um I have reached out to the city of Greenfield and their parks department to learn how they manage their permit workflow the tracking um installment options there's so many different things late payments appeals credits in le of payment and fund management. So although the permit process will run through planning, uh the planning department, our board should understand all facets of that process. Um and I would like Heather Van Djk, our our board vice president, to work closely. She she works closely with the auditor's office. So I would really like for you to help us navigate through that process and attend that meeting if you could. Um here yeah the process needs to be understood by uh February 5th. That is when the ordinance takes place. Are there any questions or comments from the board regarding this item questions?

No.

Okay. All right. Well, we will figure that one out. Um I am going to move on to the five-year master plan. The county commissioners officially adopted our five-year master plan on October 7th of 2025. The plan will serve as our guide um for the park development and improvements over the next five years. It will help us locate areas with natural, historical, and cultural significance. It ensures compliance uh with regulations, engages the community, and strategizes spending and identifying um additional funding opportunities. So, the first draft of the 2026 2030 master plan was submitted to DNR on October 23rd in advance of we beat the notice or we beat the deadline. It was November 15th. Um, DNR approval is critical because it allows us to qualify for key grants and funding opportunities. It reduces the financial burden on local taxpayers while creating beautiful green spaces and amenities. So, um, and again for those joining us online and or learning about our plan for the first time, the five-year master plan serves as our guiding document. It outlines our our priorities, funding strategies, and long-term vision for parks. Um, and all must be aligned uh obviously with the needs of our community. So, that's super important. Once the plan is approved by the DNR, it becomes our road map. It guides the board on making well-informed decisions to create the best parks and the best locations, one beautiful park at a time. And it's truly our big plan. It's the board's big plan, you know, um for long-term sustainability. Um we have received feedback. So, I'm going to move on to the amendments to the plan.

So, we received feedback already from DNR on our draft master plan submission. And the good news is is that DNR has provided a clear direction and given us the green light to amend and resubmit the plan. And our deadline on that now is April 15th of of 2026. So that's great news. Um they've outlined the requirements um the amendments and we're going to continue to work with Pros Consulting to incorporate these updates according to their standards, DNR standards. Um, was there any changes like significant changes that they

Yeah. Um, I was going to say that if any board member is interested in participating in the amendment focused meetings, please let me know because since we're such a small board and our quorum is three. Um, we we only can have one additional board member that can attend these meetings. I'm happy to rotate those meetings with the board so everybody gets kind of like a meeting um to help understand those amendments because there are a few. So yeah, um I was going to ask if if you guys had any more questions about the submission. Oh, that's great because the feedback that you initially got was going to be put on a list and it it might not happen for a while.

So that's great. Yeah. We got it turned in so early that I that allowed DNR to really look through it because they have a lot of submissions every year at DNR. So, we're lucky to have already gotten it in and gotten it back. So, that's great. Okay. So, regarding that plan, um I have attached and I really saw this this great table of contents u that was presented yesterday at um Paul, do you mind if I call you out? what was the name of the the group we were we decided on yesterday? Vibrant communities

vibrant communities um meeting and um they had this wonderful table of contents laid out uh of the plan that they are using and I'd really like to make our table of contents similar to that. But what we've got here is um I would like to give us a structure on our review so we can adjust it and move through it and we all understand it. So the master plan includes seven chapters and four appendices. It's a big document and so to make the most of the guidance document, I ask that the board members and the county staff look over the table of contents and consider which chapters align with your interests, your experience or your passion. Um, and let me know which section sections you feel best suited to help lead or help us navigate because I would like to assign chapters thoughtfully so we can get through it. So, beginning in January, we're going to review one chapter or a section of the chapter at a monthly meeting, starting obviously with the highest priority action item because we want to look at our action items, see where they fit. And this approach is going to help us track progress, encourage discussions, and ensure we fully understand and implement our plan for the community. So, um, does anyone have any comments or suggestions about how to get through that or do you feel like that's a great idea to [clears throat] go through, you know, chapters? Okay.

I would I it doesn't really matter, but like I would be mostly interested in like chapter one, but like you have that for August and August is a terrible month for me. [laughter] Okay. I'm happy to try to do anything. This was kind of like a concept to throw it out to see if we [laughter] can get through the whole plan in next year. Yeah. And then we can identify our mission, our goals, make sure those are all in alignment with the, you know, with DNR standards and all those things. And yeah, so I will definitely circle back and we can rearrange this in maybe a working board um meeting. Okay. Should we move on to the DNR surplus? Yeah.

Yes, ma'am. All right. Oh, that's a big picture.

Sure. It was done that way, too. Hey, is that all right? Can you guys see that out there? Okay. Hopefully, our viewers can see it, too. So, a gentleman by the name of Jeff Ray, he's from Healthy Communities from our neighboring Henry County. he visited my office regarding these abandoned railroad uh quarters and suggested that we reach out to DNR and um I was able to share the list after speaking with Alan Hurst at DNR um of all of these surplus parcels that DNR owns. And I um asked the commissioners who approved initiating that surplus transfer process um and they passed that on October 7th. So um hopefully this uh 65 acres of corridor that extends from Buck Creek, it's not contiguous, but it extends from Buck Creek into the town of Shirley. And once the DNR has um researched it completely, a deed will be prepared and transferred and recorded in the Hancock County government will then own the corridor and um we as a board can evaluate whether they are suitable for linear parks and um I'm looking forward to hearing back from the DNR in 2026. Hopefully early 2026 would be better, but we've got enough on our agendas, you know, for the next year to

Do you guys have any questions about that? Miriam, do you know who owns the land between these? Well, there's so many different small parcels. Yeah. Um I can get a list of all those, but um currently we're just focused on on getting those parcels of ground, you know, see if that space is good for the county, right? and what's not good for the county, we can always either sell it back to the adjacent owners or easement it back to them by dividing that land and giving it to the adjacent owners on either side. Whatever needs to happen with that, just so somebody starts to maintain it, it's literally been in the DNR's hands for 17 years.

Wow. So, um, is isn't this strip the county trails plan?

Well, because we have the Shirley Railroad bed going in. Um, and there's some work being done. Well, not work being done, but there's some um trails that are already in Wilkinson. There is a piece, See if I can just kind of zoom in on this piece. The map is being I will just go with my my cursor here. It's right in this area. So, you've got 1125 that we um have as our Hancock County trails that that goes north that eventually the trail in Shirley. The vision is to connect to 1125 east and then it goes up to 900, but this this area right here is really close to Wilkinson itself. So that may be lowhanging fruit to continue the the trail on. That's one of my hopes anyway. So all right. Anything else?

Excuse me. See if I can zoom back in. Right. So our 2026 uh board meeting calendar was presented to the board of commissioners and approved with no changes. Heather, thank you very much for preparing and presenting it to the commissioners on the board's behalf. Um, in compliance with the Indiana Open Door Law, the schedule has been sent to [cough] the daily reporter for public notice. This ensures that our meetings are properly announced and accessible to the public. The park board meetings will continue to be held on the third Thursday of each month at 10 a.m. with no meeting scheduled in December. Any questions from the board about the calendar adjustments? So, here's some old business, new business. So, I'm going to move on to our exciting collaborative and philanthropic partnership project, NinStar Park at Spring Lake. The progress continues with NinStar Connect on their generous donation to create NinStar uh park at Spring Lake, which will be Hancock County's first official county green space park.

[clears throat]

The survey has been recorded to designate the park boundaries which are down here in this area. Um the entrance to the park will be located at 100 South. So I'm going to bring this map up so you can see here is the Pensy Trail. Here will be a recreational easement that goes through uh Ninstar which uh property they are retaining into our park and then we'll have a meandering trail here. [clears throat] It will be let's see 3/4 of a mile. We're awaiting final documents um from Ninstar's attorney for our attorney to look over and hope to close December of 2025. Through our highway department, we've um applied for the Indiana Trails Program grant and we hope to hear that award in January. So, if selected, um that will fund the future construction of that 3/4 mile trail, two trail heads, and a 20 car parking lot near um 100 South down here in the red. Um with the goal having the shovels in the ground as soon as possible, um and the trail completed by or before fall of 2026. It's a kind of quick trail, but we're um hoping that happens. And as the county prepares to receive Ninstar Park at Spring Lake next month, I've been exploring ways to enhance the park's recreational and educational offerings. Um this park is a 42 acre green space. It gives us a unique opportunity to create something really special for the community. So, I have two ideas. one we're going to have um shared later, but um one idea is to develop a dark sky park that would

feature nine dedicated stargazing telescope observation areas. See how I did that? Nine star nine star gazing [laughter]

um telescope areas. We could invite the community to help us name the initiative. Perhaps something like nine star or stars at night at Ninstar Park or that step would come later once we confirm that the concept is something the community wants and uh that it's actually feasible for this park space. Um a dark a dark sky park. I'm not sure if anyone is familiar with that, but it could provide future educational opportunities for local schools and youth groups like our Eagle Scouts and bring the community together with family friendly astronomy events and promote dark sky conservation, helping prever pre preserve the natural light sky while also supporting tourism and visitor enjoyment. Uh we could host special celestial events like new moon nights. That's the best time to be out in a dark sky is when it's during a new moon and there is no moon if that makes sense. You can you have better vis visibility for the stars and um so it this park could um with like a new moon night could maybe include a temporary o overnight per primitive camping like um with limited amenities. I really I think I need to drink some waters. [laughter] I'm stumbling my words. Anyway, I've spoken with George Pollinsky at Ninstar and he is supportive of the of this concept. And if it proves feasible, um let me see if I can get this word right. I think it's called a bortal scale. And in uh I am not dark sky yet uh fluent, but I do know that a bortal scale is um a level like the weather. So your bortal scale would go from zero, which would be great, to 10. And right now it probably is about a six outside because of the cloud coverage and whatnot. But the idea

would to be have super clear skies with limited light pollution and our scale be around three maybe. Um but anyway, we uh the reason I spoke with George about this is to the in ensure lighting there when they build a water treatment plant um that they would be um mindful of light pollution when they design their building and they were open to that. So, um, if the conditions are favorable, then we might be able to do that. So, for anybody interested in learning more about dark sky conservation, I would encourage you to visit darks sky approved, which is at darks sky.org, and you're going to find that information um on your agenda. There's a link on there. Um, and it'll tell you how light pollution disrupts the wildlife. It affects humans uh well-being. It wastes energy and money and it obscures our view of the universe. So, um anyway, I'm excited about that if that would happen. But because this um new park offers so many possibilities for our community, um I would like to schedule a public workshop um sometime in February or March. That way, we can gather input on what residents would like Ninstar Park at Spring Lake to become. So feedback from this workshop will be incorporated also into our five-year master plan before April 15th so it can be reflected in the final document. This workshop will also um create an opportunity to show the community that our board values their input um is committed to making meaningful differences and genuinely wants to hear from them. I mean I wish our room was full today, but it's not. So that's okay. We'll get there. Um, in addition,

another touted vision and potential event is moving um forward for Ninstar Park with tourism exploring the possibility of bringing a major event to the park by fall of 2026 if it's feasible. And we have Healey But here from tourism board uh to share more details and to highlight the opportunities this event could create for our community. you want to come forward and say a few words. Thanks, Keely.

Uh, for the record, I am Keely Butram, Hancock County Council at Large, and also um a fairly newly added member of Hancock County Tourism, Inc., which is the nonprofit entity um planning and expending tourism dollars derived from [clears throat] the Inkeepers Tax. And uh we are very excited about the county getting a park system. Our board uh started discussing several months ago the possibility of funding uh a you know what I would call a large scale event uh late next year at Ninstar Park. And you know it it hasn't been done before. Uh really nothing's been done like this that we know of in the county at all. And so it's been several months of discussions uh putting a team together. And so Terry is also on the board and u familiar with those discussions. Uh I started Gary P initially put it on my radar that the county would be receiving this land and since then um discussed with the sheriff if he would consider being uh the head of planning traffic uh crowd management security staffing that uh tourism would of course pay for all that so it it doesn't cost taxpayers anything but utilize our law enforcement uh for all of those needs. Uh Gary Poolool has been is very excited and has been very accommodating and agreeing to uh help ensure the site is is ready and well prepared. Um we have a couple of board members at tourism who are committed to volunteering their time over the next you know almost a year of the planning and execution. And we have uh Charlie Veters from Organic Robot Design who's also a tourism member uh

helping with marketing. And we have uh Tony Syler who owns Greenfield Music and does most live music events uh also on board. [snorts] We also are in the process of finalizing anou with a consultant who has been uh booking live entertainment music specifically events for 33 years in the central Indiana area. he has experience um you know booking everything from the Vogue to Deer Creek or Ruof or you know what whatever we call it these days and so uh we're finalizing that contractual agreement to have an experienced consultant throughout the process to bounce things off of and he would also be our talent buyer. Uh we did a few [clears throat] months ago at tourism, you know, there was interest and so we put together, a few of us put together a real budget. We priced out things like portaots, the security need, um you know, everything you can imagine down to the trash can liners and put together a real actual budget for tourism to consider. And that budget ended up at $475,000 and 250 of that is talent. So, we anticipate having a $125,000 per day talent budget on a two-day event. We do believe that we will be able to get to a fairly well-known names per day, but think more like uh Brown County Music Center more than Deer Creek, right? That's kind of where you're at with that kind of budget. Uh but but what we can get is likely a couple bands per day that sell 1,500 to 2,000 tickets at their own shows. And there is no benchmark yet for local appeal, right? There are people who are going to go to this event just to support the parks, to see the parks. Um and we don't have a benchmark for how many tickets we can sell in that node. Uh but we we do hope

to you a huge goal would be 5,000 tickets per day. it to be realistic it it may not be attainable but um we would like to sell at least 3500 tickets per day and uh we have put together and and talk to everybody about their availability including Miriam for monthly planning committee meetings. So beginning with December we will hold monthly meetings um that include Ninstar who has offered to collaborate on the provision of the power needs out there. It will be generator based power. We have uh the sheriff for traffic and security. Uh Gary P of course for site readiness. We have Miriam uh coming for the parks collaboration and other parks board members are welcome to attend as well. And then um we have a couple of our board members as I said also Bob Matsy who's kind who is our treasurer who will manage cash flow um pass everything through our attorneys handle insurance policies. We've talked to the county's insurance agent Bryant Breeze uh so that we can ensure that the county feels completely covered in all aspects when we finalize those policies. So there's been um and George Plazinski at Nin Star has agreed to serve on the planning committee throughout the whole process. So we we did go out to the site. Uh there was an initial discussion about egress ingress and Gary's plans and the sheriff's needs and and to be safe and all of that. And we will start meeting in December. Uh at our last parks or not parks board meeting, at our last tourism meeting, we did also discuss um what kind of uh budget can we commit to a parks user fee to uh to compensate parks for use of land and a $475,000 budget. It is very possible

tourism uh could possibly net negative on a firstear event if we don't sell you know 3500 or so tickets per day. Tourism will not come out net positive. Uh but that's like any business fairly typical and expected in your first few years. And so uh but we did discuss how much could we budget uh to give to parks as a as a user fee. And uh without knowing our outcomes, the board did vote and agree on $25,000. And then in the coming months, as we determine who the talent is and what we can officially price our tickets at, uh we intend to create tiers so that if we hit certain ticket sales that additional monies would be um allocated to parks for selling a certain number of tickets. So it would kind of pencil out that once we get out of the red uh there would be a profit sharing. so to speak, to the parks. Um, this is in no way official, but you know, my my cocktail napkin math, I'm hopeful that that once we get into the weeds on that in the coming months, that if we were to sell 5,000 tickets a day, that we could get up to $150,000 parks contribution, financial contribution. Uh but 25,000 would be the minimum regardless if we don't hit our sales goals. Uh [clears throat] as of right now, we are looking to do um a Friday event that is um classic rock and Saturday likely to be country. That is not official until in the coming months we see what kind of talent we can get, what the pricing and availability is. But that has been the will of uh people so far as far as genres go feeling like for this geographic area there will be decent appeal for that and that it draws the right kind of crowd

familyfriendly crowd uh that we want to have at this event. And we hope to add things like free activities for kids and and uh other other engaging opportunities but we are um still in the early planning phase for that. So, I'll stop there. I could I could talk all day, but I would love to answer your questions about it. Let you know if you have any apprehensions or concerns. I know uh all three commissioners have said that um we are welcome to bring this to the commissioners meeting after the closing of the land and that as it stands today, they are all supportive of uh moving forward. Yeah, I believe Ninstar is

Ninstar as well. Yeah, very excited. They've offered to be a collaborator. Um I've been told that if they can in fact provide all the generator power needs that we will end up having that that is worth a substantial contribution as well. Um as opposed to going out and and securing those items at market cost. So, so with regards to the infrastructure of like the stage, the sound systems, all those things, I know the consultant will design that out for everybody beforehand, but it this is temporary setup is what I understand. Is that correct?

Everything about it will be a temporary setup. Um, it will we we will contract we are likely to contract through a company called Mid America that does staging and sound and lighting. I mean everything from the setup, the tear down, the crew, that is their area of specialty and they do events much larger than ours. Uh in fact, the consultant reached out yesterday that uh he already has um his representative from that company wanting to sit down and talk about uh the expected needs. So, yes, that will all be taken care of through somewhat a company that that does that professionally and on a much larger scale than ours. [snorts]

Great. That sounds good. Sounds like they're looking nickel and dimming all the things. So, yes. Yeah, our budget um is a not to exceed budget and so we will see in the coming months. We did get actual quotes on a number of things, but we hope that, you know, as we actually make decisions and source additional quotes, maybe we can find some savings in there and allocate it further to more advertising and things like that. Do you know what size volunteer team we might need that day? I mean,

so we are budgeting and the tourism board discussed this very early on. um you know we we'll get volunteers and um several of us felt strongly that while we do want volunteers and that would be lovely that we cannot plan on covering significant labor through volunteerism uh both just because of dependability and also previous uh experience or skill level. And so there there will be several opportunities where we hope to um put together volunteer groups, whether that be in collaboration with parks, whether it be in collaboration with different community philanthropy groups. Uh but that would be things more like um manning the free kids activities tables. Uh something that if if your half your volunteers didn't show up, it doesn't change the feasibility, you know, of the event. But we have budgeted to hire the appropriate labor for um needs. Now we will um and I know you guys are a small board and God love you for agreeing to serve because I know when you start up something brand new it's a lot more work than jumping in after the balls really rolling. So thank you for that. I don't want parks to feel like this is any burden on them. Uh I talked with Miriam a little bit about uh in what gays way she would like to be engaged. uh but also don't want you guys to feel like anything falls in your lap. But as we get down the road, we may look for volunteers to um help direct traffic or to scan, you know, tickets into VIP and just to take some shifts, but again, we have budgeted to pay people to do all those things should that be the need. So, where are you with hiring or have you already contracted with the promoter with the

So, we have um agreed now to the price and scope of service. Um we've we he did before he agreed anything want to see the site and so Gary Pool took us out there and he was excited about your site. We're still uh going to be meeting to determine, you know, with the flood plane and what's safe to bank on using and what's not and think through that really thoroughly. But um we have agreed to the price and scope. We have put together a first draft of theou and um our attorney for tourism is going to review that before we ask him to sign and um it his his fee will be in three installments and so I'm hoping to have that signed in the fee the first uh cut in the mail before the end of the month because

right I plan to start calling him quite regularly [laughter] and you're talking [snorts] about two days. Two days just Okay. So, Friday and a Saturday. Likely Friday and Saturday.

Uh we are likely also going to try to shoot for the last weekend of September in 2026. And the only way I can see that changing is let's say by, you know, January, February, we're trying to book talent and for some reason that's a terrible weekend where you can't get good talent within our budget, but you could have this guy for a steal if you go the weekend before. that could sway us, but we would like to be the last weekend of September mostly because um the weather is traditionally good and uh we obviously don't want rain, [laughter] right?

We will have an insurance policy um to help out with that, but there are some loopholes in those. So, uh ideally the last weekend of September, and interesting enough, uh by coincidence, that weekend is the harvest moon. So, I think it would be neat to to see maybe not the dark sky. You want to see the stars, but that could be that could be cool as well. Well, you know, astronomers like to look at the moon, too. So, yes. [laughter] Yes. Um I'm thinking of the winery in McCordsville. Do we know how the neighbors feel about this?

So, um that has come up a little bit. And you can tell I actually live in Spring Lake myself. I'm pretty close to the site. Uh there aren't a whole lot of houses on the back half of Spring Lake that back up to the creek. Uh on the based on the initial site review with the consultant and Gary Pool, um the stage will likely face uh it would be kind of on the south end, not the end, but on the south side of the park and face kind of north. So speakers would be pointing more towards US40. We do intend to um I I'm acquainted with the town council in Spring Lake being a resident there for a number of years and Commissioner Spalding is also acquainted uh with some of the board there. And so once things are finalized, we actually have a date. We actually have details. Uh Commissioner Spalding andor I will go to the town council just to give them notice. And um and we have also talked about mailing a letter to the few people that live on 100 south that might have traffic for a given time. Uh I think if if you were talking about building a permanent amphitheater and having regular music, I do think it would need to be a a long communitywide discussion about whether it's appropriate for the area. Uh but so far in the planning, we've all agreed that we're going to uh our intention is to stop music at 10 p.m. There is no county noise ordinance out there. Uh but we intend to stop at 10:00 p.m. to be good neighbors. We've already talked to the consultant about keeping the keeping the volume at the minimum needed to have a quality concert experience, nothing more. And uh we have some folks that have like decibel readers and we intend to go out during sound checks and get outside of the the area and see what the impact is. But

because it is only a one-time as of right now two-day event, it would also give something that came up talking to Gary P and uh Bill Spalding is it kind of is a great opportunity for proof of concept for parks because if it goes well, if it's not intrusive, if people um love it, then you know maybe when you apply for other grants for you know can we want to put in permanent restrooms or we want to put in other other things. It gives you a one-off opportunity that you actually have data from to make those asks without putting um a permanent fixture that the community's perpetually going to have in place.

You could uh when I when I meet with you in December, we could discuss adding this to the next public meeting. As I spoke of earlier, I think it would be great to have public input at that time as well, just to make sure that everybody knows what's going on and transparent. When is this? Um, we're planning on either February or March. Okay. It hasn't been ingrained yet. Um,

but we do want to have that completed so we could submit that second public meeting into our master plan's final um document. Okay. Are you suggesting that um contracting of artists and other inputs shouldn't take place till after that? I'm not suggesting anything like that at all. I just uh thought since we're having a public input session for this particular park. Oh yes. That we could have the dots available and do you want this? What do you think about that? Yes. What are your visions? And it's more of a input vision board for the community about this park. Oh, excellent.

Including the dark sky certification that I'd like to get for the park.

Wonderful. We are just so you know on timeline the goal and whether or not the goal is attainable or it will um the timeline will happen perhaps slightly uh after my goals is possible. But my goal is to have um headliners confirmed by the end of January and their support artists confirmed in February. And in a perfect world, I would love to launch an early bird ticket sale mid-March. Now, we may get into the planning and the booking and find that that's a little overzealous. Uh, but you do on a first year event like this in particular, I want five months of of promotion and ticket sales. Um, and so I would say by April for sure we need to be selling tickets and all the inputs need to be secured because we get much beyond that and it it could be a an inadequate marketing window for something like this. So Key, you live in Spring Lake, you said. Okay. Well, I'm off of 350 West, so I'm between 100 and 40. Oh,

okay. Do you hear uh the bands at SNH campground all summer? I do not. Okay. I do. Really? Oh, yeah. And we hear outside all the time and I have never heard music. Okay. I was just curious because we hear them all and and it's not bad, but you could definitely hear it. But last year they had a uh they wanted to break the Guinness Book of World Records for playing song. So, we heard Free Bird for eight hours. [laughter] I knew that. Mhm. Nothing wrong with that. Well, [laughter] they did. Oh, I'm sorry. They did break the record. But you know that that that seems excessive. That neighborhood across the street from SNH. I just wonder how their opinion

their opinion of that and how they get around the decibb. And I mean that goes on all summer. So better than the metronome at the high school all summer long. Yeah. Marching band. That's true. I used to live on Boyd Avenue between the high school and Harris. And I've heard I heard more Greenfield Central marching band than anyone. I know they were wonderful. Um, no, we are only going to have three bands per day.

So, uh, and with music cutting off at 10, you know, you're really only probably talking about a 4hour window each day of music. And we promise not to play the same song more than once. [laughter] Are you gonna MC? Will you be our MC? No.

No. I would I would find someone much more suited to be MC than myself when we get to that. Um, so I there is a possibility that certain neighbors could hear, but Gary P pointed out um early in these discussions that there are there are hardly any houses within 300 yards and the consultant told us that um you know the the tree barrier is good the way it's wrapped in trees and a lot about how far the sound will travel will depend on the weather. Um it the weather can change with wind and stuff how far that was what I was told how far the sound travels. So we don't believe uh to be honest if anything were intrusive about it. I think it would more so be the time period when cars are coming in or leaving simultaneously more so than the sound. I could be wrong. Um, but again being a one-time event, we intend to be good neighbors and then also have an actual event to to look at. Um, you know, should we make it even earlier next year or did it did it travel further than we thought?

Do we move the location? Have you have you thought of food and drink and that sort of thing as well or we're only concentrating on the music aspect of it?

We have thought about that as well. And so what we will do is um secure one alcohol vendor to do, you know, they'll need to do the licensing and provide the maps and get approval from um the alcohol commission and all that. Uh I have been involved and a couple other people have been involved in that at other in other spaces before. And so we will find one alcohol vendor to take that on. They'll need their own insurance, you know, and and all those boxes checked. As far as food goes, the intent at this point is to at some point uh open it up for food trucks to sign up. Now, there's not running water at this site, but a lot of food trucks do have their own water tanks. Uh we would provide power, but that's also still need to be worked out with Ninstar on the generators. So, we intend to have a window of a few months next year before the event where we will sign up food trucks. Um, but honestly, that probably won't take place until after the tickets are launched, the events out there. This is the event. Do you want to be one of our food vendors? And then we'll ensure um that we have a solid application that includes uh submitting your certificate of insurance and anything else our attorney says or the county says is needed. [snorts]

All right. Does anyone else from the board have any questions? No. Are you ready? [laughter] You had your traumatic just a few frames maybe [laughter] strum there. Does anyone else have any questions? Thank you. Yeah, thank you. So, I would likely go before the commissioners before I were to see you all again and ask for their official consent. Is it fair to say that the parks board is in agreement with allowing the event when we approach the commissioners? Um, I agree as long as it's feasible. Yes, I think it sounds great. Yes.

Going to have senior citizens ticket sales. [laughter] You know, we're we did talk about a child ticket not being a full price ticket cuz, you know, for a a family with two young children, all of a sudden two adult tickets turns into four tickets and becomes financially less feasible. And so, we did talk about a child's ticket, but I had not thought about senior discount. Well, sounds great. Thank you. Yeah. If you look at the map here real quick before Key jumps off, if if you see this tree line, this tree line surrounds the whole 40 acre area all the way down. So, there is that tree line barrier, right? Um all the way up. I just wanted to throw that out there. But, um

yeah. Do you have anything else for us, Key? I do not think so. Not off the top of my head. Please feel free to reach out if other questions come up after you digest it and um I'll be going to the commissioners in December to make sure we get the official nod from them and and u once I get a closing date on the property I will contact you right away. So hopefully we'll get those um closing documents finalized by both attorneys and uh get that closing date settled to get it done before 2025. Yes. Yeah. So, thank you so much for giving us these exciting details and um

what this event could bring for our community is sounds pretty good if we can make it happen. Yeah. The statutory purpose of tourism with the inkeepers tax is essentially to uh create, promote, and enhance attractions and events to attract out of county visitors. Um, so that is our purpose, but we're really excited about being able to couple that with something that we think will bring visibility to the new parks board, maybe get new volunteers, new donorship, and shine a light on the work you guys will have put in. Yeah. Well, thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. That's exciting.

So, moving on to a new agenda item that I've not ever put on the agenda before. Um, we have a open board discussion, but today we also have a guest speaker. Um, I've added this item to give the board an opportunity to raise topics for consideration and to be aware of public discussions that happen outside our meetings. Um, I'd like to begin sharing a couple of recent correspondents, including the guests that we have here um from the community regarding potential future park concepts. So, first there was um Mike. He didn't give a last name, but he is a co-founder of Whenever Water Sports regarding kayaking opportunities. And I explained that kayaking is identified as a high priority item for our 5-year master plan. Um though we anticipate it will be at least three years before a program like kayaking can be realistically begun. Um and then the second and I'm going to announce you here is um from Aaron Spalding who earlier this year he proposed uh a sports complex and Aaron's here today. He's formed an exploratory committee to further develop his concept and I'd like to invite him to share those updates since we last met. Um in your packet um there is some handouts from him. It's going to be in the last packet. Um, Erin, if you'd like to approach the the Ben the podium and um I was going to say Ben. I don't know if you can plug that in there. You should just be able to plug into the um USB and I will switch the computer. It

is. All right, you've got the floor.

Thank you. Uh for the record, my name is Aaron Spalding. I am the athletic director at Eastern Hancock Schools. Um, obviously I'm here on another agenda item today and that is uh to bring the progress we've made on the indoor facility concept uh focusing probably in the eastern part of the county. Uh since the last time I was here, uh we've put together a steering committee. Uh I've got that on the board there just quickly. Uh I won't read all through that, but uh Corey Rainbolt, she's our assistant AD at Eastern Hancock. She uh is a longtime athlete uh and coach. She uh what she brings specifically though, she has started a volleyball club called Nitro Volleyball Club. And uh that's one concept we'd like to integrate in this new facility. Uh Jenna White is the Indiana uh excuse me the executive director for the Indiana Youth Diabetes Foundation. She uh brings a lot of uh wealth of knowledge of nonprofits and those types of things. She also runs our youth cheer program which we would like to integrate in this as well. Uh Jim Jackson is currently the president of our school board at Eastern Hancock. Uh prior to that he was our booster club, athletic booster club president. Uh but he was been in was in the business world. He is retired now, but he's been in the business world and he works a lot with uh business planning, those types of things. Uh and thought that that would be a a great addition to to this uh committee. Uh moving on, Dave Poff. Uh probably most of you have are familiar with Dave, but he was a uh over 40-year educator with Eastern Hancock. Went from teacher and coach uh to the

principal and finished his career as the superintendent. Uh and just brings from the school side all kinds of knowledge. Uh Rory Wilson, Rory is uh the been a realtor in Hancock County uh for a long long time, over 50 years. he told me the other day um and uh was an Eastern Hancock grad. He's in our alumni hall of fame. Those types of things. And so on the real estate side of things. And finally, Tom Wright uh was the president of Star Financial Bank. His son is now the president of Star. Uh he now serves on their their board and those types of things. Um so we wanted to get him banker involved. So that's kind of we tried to get a lot of diversity and different expertises uh with our board. Um through this board we uh developed a mission statement both a mission and a vision. Um [snorts] and our mission uh we we settled on is building East Central Indiana health and wellness by helping local youth sports thrive and promoting community fitness. Uh we're looking this to be kind of the whole package, meaning all the way from, you know, young children all the way to senior adults. Uh different ways this center would serve uh the populations uh of Hancock County. And then our vision we we settled on as an acronym as CHAMP. Uh and we want to focus on community [snorts] uh hope, athletics, mentorship, and purpose. uh and building champions in life and sport. We want to kind of build the whole uh individual uh both uh physically, emotionally, spiritually, all those concepts into this uh concept. Uh since our last time, we've gotten uh

I've had several meetings, but but two specifically want to highlight. Uh, as I mentioned prior, I've got the, uh, backing of Fellowship of Christian Athletes and got a letter there of support from their, uh, Central Indiana Multi-IA director, Todd Townsen, uh, that's there to share. Also met with the founder of the Pensy Run Club, Alyssa Eckholtz. uh she's really excited about the possibility when weather is inclement or dark uh that we and our our plan is to have a running track around this facility where they'd have a place to run uh people could walk those types of things and and that is her level of endorsement or her excuse me letter of endorsement and then obviously with uh one of our committee members Cory Rainbow Nitro volleyball and the spalding basketball training that I've been doing since I give up coaching three years ago. Uh this is just a sample of uh outline of how basic structure would work, how the uh time frames would be of how this would be open to different uh levels of the community. Early in the morning, 6:00 to 10, we would focus on uh adult fitness, [snorts] uh pickle ball courts, uh walking track, those types of things. We have also, this would, uh we just added or just talked about in the last few days, adding uh golf simulators in there, uh where people could go in, especially in incle inclement weather where they could uh utilize uh golf things. But that would be 6 to 10. For about 10 to 2, we would focus on uh maybe serving the homeschool population as well as uh maybe some preschool activities. Those types of things would

be in the kind of that midday uh type range. After school, we would uh want to do trainings uh of various things, whether that be volleyball, basketball, uh athletic development, those types of things. I've actually talked to both our superintendent and Greenfield superintendent and they were uh felt that was a positive pot where maybe you know kids could even come there right after school with a bus route or something if the location fit where parents would have a place for their kids to go as opposed to maybe traditional child care. Um and then there and then at evening from about 5:30 to 8:30 would be various leagues whether that be uh volleyball leagues, basketball leagues, those types of things. Uh would be from 5:30 to 8:30 and then later in the night we could move back to some adult type whether it be volleyball or basketball leagues or or other type of things. On your weekends, we would kind of look to do wrestling type tournaments, especially in the youth. Our our primary focus is going to be K through 8 uh with a specific focus on K through six because those are some of the underserved in the east part uh eastern part of the state. Uh we do cheerleing competitions, wrestling competitions, those types of things. also basketball and volleyball type tournaments. All those would be possibilities. In the summer, that would switch over a little bit uh due to school being out. So, the the schedule would shift just a little bit with that. So, that's just a sample of some of the things we're thinking about. Uh since uh our last time and with the committee's guidance, we're probably leaning this towards a nonprofit uh type thing. I have a meeting in December

scheduled with a lawyer to kind of uh make sure we got all our ducks in a row there and make sure we're meeting all legal requirements. Um we have made business protection plans where we know it is going to be uh financially you know stable uh with no there'd be no taxpayer thing but through donors and we really believe once we get the building built it would be self sustaining uh through various things like admission fees, concessions uh fees and prices for trainings those types of things. Um [snorts] we will probably are looking to in the next month to start uh seeking donors to get the initial startup things to get this ball rolling. Uh we are looking at uh some properties uh specifically in the eastern part of the state. Uh we we've been with Rory uh to to a few places to check out and I guess my my request from you is that maybe you would consider just writing a letter as a board for support. Uh if you would consider that, I think that would be uh just to let the community know that this is something that we might be interested in pursuing. So, you know, I'll take any questions that anybody might have. [clears throat]

With regards to the demographics, there's a reason that you're wanting to put it on the east side of the the county. Can you be elaborate on that?

Yeah. Uh, well, I number one, I have a lot of experience with understanding the gym space at the schools right now. I mean, I I book our gyms pretty much all winter long from 3:30 to 8:30. And the only reason we're done at 8:30 is that's when we say have to be done. Okay. So, it's just the and and youth kind of gets pushed to the side there with our our various school teams. Um, and there's really a lack of we we have tried to have really good uh elementary programs and I think we've done a good job of that. We are constantly turning down people from other school corporations to come to our leagues just because we don't have the space. So, I know from other schools, not only in Hancock County, but uh east of Hancock County, uh there's kind of a kind of a starved uh for this type of thing, especially at the younger levels. Uh what I see happening in a lot of places is various kids who have means uh in in the eastern parts will go to very like uh trainers on the north side, Hamilton County, those types of things, but that's a limited number of kids. Uh so they come back and the rest of their teammates haven't really done much and they're not very good. And what these kids say, well, they're not very good, so they're leaving. [snorts] Now with the new transfer rules, you could go wherever you want. So I think you see declining student populations in some schools because they have the ability to leave. I think if we bring quality programming, I think those uh schools athletically could be a lot more uh desirable. Also, I believe uh I mentioned last time there is a uh in the you sports world there is kind of a really wreck type program

where it's basically fun and those programs are very very important but they're not really overly competitive. And then you swing to the other pendulum where you're crazy. you're going to Kentucky and Louisville and uh I guess Louisville is in Kentucky, but uh and Michigan and all over the place every weekend, it creates a big financial burden for families and those in the middle don't really have a place to go. So, it's either we don't do much competitively, it's just really wreck based, or it's crazy. And I think there's a strong uh desire to come back to just local community competitive athletics. So, do you see this like taking the place of programs? Like I I know, you know, I know you've got like a a elementary basketball program going on right now. So does Greenfield. So, do you see that as like taking place of those programs or providing a location?

I would like to work with schools. I would certainly I am all for school what schools are doing and I would want to work with those schools to enhance their programs and sometimes those programs the problem is they get the worst time slots. So maybe providing them a space where they could run this league. The way I uh would like to view this, I wholeheartedly believe in school athletics is I would like to have leagues like we'll say uh Harris Elementary and uh Eastern Hancock Elementary and you know the various Mount Comfort elementaryaries, they all have their own teams and this is an oldfashioned school league. I'm sure there would be some times where we'd have some open, but I would want to work with the schools to to provide that.

What size facility are you thinking? I mean, I like you would need like a number basketball courts. I I I believe my our minimum our minimum to get started, we want three courts.

Um, three. So, you're looking at, you know, a fairly large size facility. And that is kind of why we are uh currently looking at um an existing facility meaning and I don't mean a gym but like an old warehouse type thing that can be converted uh because you're the the difference uh for what you're looking at about a $5 million conversion new property or a new build is probably going to be somewhere in the midst of 10 to 15 million. So, what you're asking basically and why you're here today is to ask the board if we would consider writing a letter of support um

for this project for for you and and who will you be um showing this letter to? This would go to various donors um lending institutions just say this the community is behind this. We we feel like there's a need and we support this. So, those are the types it' be going to.

Would anyone like to make a motion that we um write a letter of support for this project? Who else are you soliciting letters from? I soliciting might be um I I basically just had more would be clubs like FCA and and I did a Pensy actually Pensy Run Club actually reached out to me. Um I guess ultimately probably be maybe some schools um getting those types of things. Uh just that they're on board with this and this is for sure 100% nonprofit. We're not.

That is that is our definitely our intentional. I said I'm meeting with a lawyer before I get I I've lived in the education realm my whole life. So I just need to talk with them and yes that that is what we're looking at doing. It looks like you have a provide us a couple of current letters of support. Yes. motion if anyone I think I would like the nonprofit to be established.

If we could place it on the agenda for the next meeting to discuss like to table it further. Yeah. I mean just to give us some time to digest and absolutely you already approached the various schools. I have had conversations with uh both our superintendent Dr. Philhower and uh Greenfield superintendent Dr. Olen. I have not met with anybody in New Power Mount Vernon yet. [snorts] I mean it's a lotable effort. I mean, my goodness, you're preaching to the choir on expanding these opportunities that currently, for the many reasons you mentioned, don't necessarily exist. Um, we're so new as a board. Absolutely. I think there is some hesitation in terms of just we want to make sure

absolutely not um uh doing anything that might jeopardize our our venture. Absolutely. I I understand completely and fully expected you to want to discuss it and not do that today. That would be my preference that we just table it if we could and then put some more discussion into. Are we all in favor? Yes. I Yeah, I I agree. Um we are working really diligently on our five-year master plan and our highlevel action is fishing first then kayaking and so forth.

Sure. And so, um, we do need to discuss this and, um, yes. So, I can, uh, let you know what we decide through our next meeting. And I wanted to reiterate, I am not seeking any financial support. It would just be like a letter of support. Yep. I got you. All right. Well, thank you for your updates and for the work and commitment that you're doing um your efforts help move our long-term planning um forward and help us, you know, with the insight for f future opportunities. So, keep up the great work and keep us, you know, all right, thank you. Appreciate your time. Thank you.

Yeah, you know, the master plan serves as our roadmap for the county's outdoor spaces and any new projects need to align with it is is why. So, um, we don't have in independent funding yet, and so our focus remains on building the foundation necessary to support the future development of long-term sustainability. So, those ideas like kayaking, a sports complex, um, the new and extended trails, a music festival, and a dark sky park, they reflect the growth that we envision, but bringing them to life will take time. So critical steps those include like governing bodies uh support from maintenance and and planning um and community input sustainable land uh or suitable land I mean and both initial and that sustainable funding which we don't have yet. So um I'm going to um ask if there's any board members now who have topics or ideas that are not on the agenda that you want to talk about. No, ma'am.

Okay. Well, with that, we're going to conclude our open board discussion and move on to the next item. Um, I would like to discuss our board's ability to accomplish work between meetings. I'm going to leave that off. Um, with five members and a quorum of three, it's challenging to make progress on projects outside of our scheduled meetings. So as mentioned earlier certain work um like reviewing and updating our master plan require board participation u but we're limited to quorum requirement. So because such meetings are subject to open door law they must be properly advertised as public meetings which involves additional steps processes and it just makes things difficult to address timesensitive and ongoing tasks. um when we need more than two present to do our good work. So um I'd like to propose that we reach out to the county commissioners to discuss increasing our board membership next year. Um expanding the board would allow us to adjust our quorum and operate more efficiently. Um so if the board is in agreement, I would entertain a favorable motion to request that the commissioners increase our board membership by two members. um

go from five to seven. Is that Yeah. So, yeah. I mean, so three of us can go to an event or go to a meeting together. Yes. We have three eyes on the on the subject so we can make things happen. Yeah. Um I feel like we a lot, you know, getting work done through emails and since we're such a small board, it's just a real big challenge and it's it's it can be exhausting for one. Uh even though we're a small board when mighty board, we just really need to be together more. Um so I'll make a motion to increase or to ask the commissioners if we can our board two members. Second.

Okay. All in favor? Motion passes. Um is there anyone from the public who would like to address the board? Well, um, we will ask for an adjournment. There's not going to be a December meeting. Um, our next meeting is scheduled for January 15th at 10:00. So, if there's no further questions or comments, may I have a motion to adjurnn? Make a motion to adjourn at 11:10. Second. All in favor? I. We are adjourned at 11:15. That was the longest board meeting ever. Have a [laughter] merry Christmas everyone. Thank you. Happy