Board of Parks & Recreation - Regular Meeting

This guy on the radio that hates North Carolina. I told him I hate Oklahoma. Hey, Mr. Spike. Can you do the prayer for us? Please.

Just don't cuss.

I'd like to call the order of the Board of Parks and Rec meeting for June 22nd. Open in prayer, Mr. Pike.

Will you do that for us, sir? Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this day you've given us. Thank you for this group tonight as we meet to try to get some more – as we try to just meet and get some more things done for the parks. Thank you for all the blessings you give us and guard us and protect us every day. In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

Amen. Told you. Pledge of allegiance. What about you, Mr. Butler?

All right.

Pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

If you've had a chance to look over the agenda, I need a motion to accept it as it is. Mr. Golden first and Ms. Hellman second. All in favor say aye. Aye. If you'll look at the minutes of the last meeting, if you find it okay. I need a motion to approve. Mr. Head was first. Mr. Montoya was second. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed? All right. Are there any public comments, sir? None tonight, sir. Thank you, my friend. All right. Items for discussion. E-bike discussion. I'm assuming that would be you, Mr. Gilley.

Yes, sir. The only thing I want to let you all know is that it was discussed in the Public Works Committee. that e-bikes throughout the community have become an issue in different places and within our parks, to be quite honest. So it was asked by Alderman Robertson in the Public Works Committee if the Parks Board would have a discussion about this. So I didn't want to just put this on an agenda on short notice and then nobody be prepared. So all I would say is in July, we will come back. If you don't mind, y'all take a look and see what you think. You can look around, talk to people in your community. I don't know that we'll take any action or do anything, because it's a very tricky subject. There are three classes of e-bikes, class one, two, and three. Classes one and two are basically, according to state law, just like a bicycle we got for Christmas under the tree when we were growing up. So you can't come in and just say, no more e-bikes, I don't think. We're a community that has a thriving bicycle community. Um, you know, Gillicksville at Moss Wright Park, you can't ride a bike on the Greenway at Moss Wright Park. That would never fly here, I don't think. Um, so, I'm just letting you know that we probably will have an in-depth discussion in July. Um, be prepared for that.

That's it. Just very, just very, no, go ahead.

Go ahead, I'm sorry to interrupt.

Uh, just very belieffully, what, tell us what is the problem with the e-bikes?

Um, e-bikes, um, Can can almost sound and at be at the speed of motorized bicycles You know we have a lot of signs up this that say share the trail all kinds of things But it's not just in the parks It's a city issue to a lot of neighborhoods are having issues with sidewalk people and you know our biggest thing is we We don't want anybody to get hurt whether that be the kid riding the bike or somebody walking that doesn't hear them or see them coming

Andy, I know we don't want to discuss this, but I do want to ask one question, which will help me think about this. Do we have signage, and are they prohibited on the trail going down Saunders Ferry?

No bicycle is prohibited. A Class 3 e-bike is prohibited on any trail.

Right.

But no bicycle is prohibited at Sanders Ferry.

Okay. And what's the difference in the Class 3? Is it just more power?

More power and speed, yes, sir.

I know that in our neighborhood we've had a lot of accidents, a lot of trouble with them.

It's a growing concern.

We don't have any legal responsibility if they get hurt in our parks, do we?

Other than if they're doing something they shouldn't supposed to be doing, then it's.

Okay. All right.

No.

I'm not sure. I'm going to make somebody mad right now. Because I'm sure that there are people on this board that ride bikes. I understand that. But I think we've fallen over to the other side on bicycles as far as what they do with them. And you mentioned the Saunders Ferry thing there. I've witnessed several actions about to happen coming down Saunders Ferry because It's not the biker's fault. It's not the car's fault. It's the road's fault. And so with the e-bikes and with regular bikes, I think we've just sort of, and I'm not depriving anybody of riding a bike, for goodness sakes. I'm going to learn how one day, I can tell you that. But let's put that out just for general stuff. So there you go. That's all I've got to say about that. All right, for discussion, Cindy Hamlin. Who is that? Okay, Cindy Hamlin and Brandon Jones' years of service presentation. Wow. Look at this.

Look at this. You want to come up, Braniff? So this is a proclamation from the board of alderman, the mayor, and I'm just going to read the first two. Whereas it says a proclamation of the mayor, whereas you are observing the 25 year service anniversary with the city of Hendersonville. And whereas the board of mayor and alderman appreciates your commitment to excellence for our city. Uh, it's just a small gift of our appreciation. just a little keepsake box so you can put what you want in there, and a proclamation from the mayor and the Board of Aldermen. So thank you for your service. We really appreciate it. Thank you.

I want to stop you a minute and apologize to you. When we had the Board of, you know, getting on the thing there, My sorry butt came up and asked him who he was, and that has a lot to do with what I'll say maybe a little bit later, but for one, I sure appreciate what you do, because I hear people talking about now, and that's what makes a difference, so I apologize.

Oh, yeah, I will. My wife would.

Go ahead, Tom. Sorry.

Thank you. And this next service award is 40 years, but Ms. Hamblin has actually been here more than 40 years, so... We don't have a 40-plus, but this is for 40 years. So this, again, is the proclamation of the mayor, whereas you're observing the 40-year service anniversary with the city of Hendersonville, and whereas the board of mayor and aldermen appreciates your commitment to excellence for our city. So, of course, everyone knows all the great work that Ms. Hamlin does and the huge impact she has on the community. So thank you very much.

I'm done now. Anybody else back there want to be in the picture?

Just asking. All right.

Items for approval. USA Prep, Josh Robeski. I believe he's on Zoom. There he is. Afternoon, sir. Can you hear us?

Yeah. Can you hear me?

Okay. State your name and tell us what you want.

Uh, I'm Josh. I got my counterpart here, Blake steel. We're with USA preps. Um, and we're, uh, we're looking to come and bring some softball tournaments to Hendersonville in 2027 and want to start, um, running tournaments in your guys's city.

Mr. Chairman while there, while you're looking through that, um, our calendar is hard to get on as you can imagine. I think our task here tonight is to look at Josh, hear what his organization does, and approve them if we want to as a tournament director with dates to be worked out with the staff. They have agreed to make a donation to the Civitan Club as part of their approval. Saw that, yeah. So that would be where a motion might head should you all see fit.

Okay. Mr. Chairman, he's... Why don't you tell us a little bit what you're doing and how you're doing it, sir.

We've been around since 2011 running youth softball tournaments. We primarily focus on high school-age athletes during the travel season. We bring them out to tournaments, and we bring out college coaches from all different divisions, Division I, II, III, NAIA, junior colleges. And our goal is to help every single one of the players that comes to our events get a scholarship to continue playing at the next level in college. We've been around for a while, but primarily West Coast base, and we're really trying to branch out and grow some roots in some different places here in the future.

Do you have questions to this young man?

Anyone? So fully built out, if you had your magic wand and you could have as many spaces as you wanted, how many tournaments are you talking about? I see a number of showcases that you've mentioned here, but Just how many are you looking to actually have here?

We're really wanting to get one staple event year over year, you know, in perpetuity. Our honey hole season is June, July. So I think we're kind of honed in on a July date right now in the local area. Your guys' fields look outstanding and amazing. So we were hoping to get a magical July date, but we're open to whatever you guys have during our busy seasons to try to grow something out in the area.

I say we just approve him being the tournament director, and if he works it out with the staff as far as the tournament, I say let's do it.

Okay. Is that your motion, sir? Yeah. Okay.

Pretty good.

I think it would be excellent for the city.

I'm sorry. Motion was to approve USA Preps as a tournament director and dates to be worked out with staff. Got you. Mr. Chairman, for reference, he's not asking for this year. He's looking for 27.

Basically, we won't make those decisions until November of this year is normally the process. We will get all the applications to

play this year, see what weekends they want, and then see what's available, and that usually is October, November dates, and we'll know something. Does this guarantee him a spot?

This doesn't guarantee anybody anything. Like Keith said, we take all the applications for dates for next year, try to look at recurring events first that went well. If somebody canceled on us or it didn't go well or whatever, then we look at new people.

Okay.

Sounds fair. Okay. Who seconded that? Ms. Hellman seconded on that. Any more discussion again? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed? Good enough. Thank you, sir. Thank you for coming.

Thank you, Josh. Appreciate you joining us from California. Oh, man, stay there.

USS A Baseball, Mr. Smith.

I believe he is also on Zoom.

There he is. State your name and tell us what you need, my friend.

My name is Darryl Smith, and I'm with U-triple-S-A, and we're one of the largest sanctioned baseball organizations. I mean, we have way more than baseball, but me personally, under my umbrella, I'm only baseball. We do youth baseball from 8U up to 14U. My current office, we run in eight different states, and we're growing in y'all's area, and I was just up for approval to be a director.

Similar situation here.

Almost identical.

Almost an identical situation. He's got a date or two that look pretty good to us, but the number of fields that we might have available is to be determined. Correct me if I'm wrong, Josh, from where you've talked with, I mean, I'm sorry, Daryl. Correct me if I'm wrong from where you've talked with Keith and Natalie on this, but very similar situation here. Gotcha.

Yes, we're doing the donation, and we do have a couple of dates in mind right now, as long as I get approved with you guys, and we'll take it from there. We will be bringing travel teams in, so we do make a pretty good economic impact wherever we go. So we hope to build a relationship, be successful, and maybe in the future get one day a month into every spring and fall. Or one weekend a month, sorry.

I like the part that you put lots of fun and great baseball experience. No, I'm serious. For somebody to put that on there and that way heavily with them, I appreciate that. All right.

Questions of this man? I'll make a motion that we approve pending further approval and working with the staff to find an agreeable time. Okay.

Does that cover the motion, Mr. Gill? Mm-hmm. Gotcha. Do I have a second? Mr. Head, second. Any more discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. All in favor. I sure appreciate you coming.

Thank you, sir. Do I need to stay on or free to go?

Oh, not unless you want to dance or something. No, we're good.

Well, I look forward to meeting you.

Thank you all so much. Take care of yourself. Bye-bye.

Thank you.

Eagle Scout Flag Project, Mr. Riggs. I'll do this for every one of y'all walk up here. I appreciate what you do, son. You're showing a light to the world, my friend.

Thank you, sir.

Go ahead. Tell me who you are and what you want.

My name is Grayson Riggs, and this is my proposal for my Eagle Scout project. I'm from Troop 75. For my Eagle Scout project, I will be doing new flag holders at Memorial Park as well as an informational kiosk. The flag holders will be here's a picture. The flag holders will be placed on the inside of the path, as you can see on there, due to the addition of the two new benches as well as the sign for the 9-11 memorial. The flag holders will be surrounded in concrete so the grass will not cover them up, as well as they will be low enough to where they can be mowed over. The informational kiosk, which I'm planning to put it right here in this area circled, will have a waterproof cabinet on the front where information can be stored. Anyone from the park can store it for any upcoming events. My goal is to have a lockable cabinet on the back where the flags can be stored at the park so no one has to take it to and from the park.

Thank you. That's it. I like it. Good, strong man. Questions of this guy? Do you have an e-bike?

What answer do you want?

Don't pressure. Look.

I just wanted to tell him how good he did. I'm very, very proud of you. He's one of my former students, so a little special there. Always a great student at school as well. Thank you.

Now his head ain't going to be big enough to get out the door. Yeah. I need a motion to approve. I'll make a motion to approve. Mr. Golden first. Mr. Montoya second. Any more discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed? Y'all keep on coming. Awesome. Good job, Grayson.

Thank you.

Mr. Riggs, while your leadership is here back there in the back, I want to thank them for all they do on the holidays to help us put the flags out. Appreciate you guys and your troop. And also let you know that there was apparently an old Eagle Scout project along the library greenway that marked certain things. Trevor Dallas, y'all might know about this a little bit. I don't know, but The people with Gertner Management that manage that have asked me to get with you all to see if it might get a refresh. So next person you have come up for that, we might talk and see. That's not a portion of the Greenway we manage, so I really don't know what the project was, full disclosure.

We sure thank you for coming, young man. Appreciate you, buddy. Thank you. You did great. Especially with that thumbs up from this lady. That was a good one. She told me it wasn't really. No, that's fine. Hendersonville Citizens Police, Ms. Holt.

I think we got Ms. Isbell here tonight. Say that again.

Ms. Isbell.

We got Ms. Isbell here. Oh, there you go. We got County Mayor Royalty here. She's the better part of running the county.

There you go. State your name and what you want.

Jeannie Isbell, we are looking to get approval for a, to open it up to the community. We're doing photo shoots for our, we're doing a calendar for a fundraiser for the police academy. And we are doing different dates for photo shoots for the different officers and stuff. And so we're going to open it up to have free ice cream and everything, and we got rained out last time, so we're just looking for approval for a next date. We're not looking to do that on every month's term, just to kind of bring awareness of the calendar and do something for the community as well.

There you go. Mr. Chairman, their event is called Meet the Mounted. I think that's the point of this first one, June the 24th. You can see the flyer there. ice cream, meet the mounted patrol. It's all at Memorial Park, I believe, if I'm not mistaken. So we wanted to make sure that the CPA got formal approval from you all, since it's not really a city group. Even though it is tied very closely to the police department, it's important that they get approved as a group. And now if we want to meet whoever, we can meet them going forward anywhere we want to.

Okay. All right.

I'd say we just make a motion to approve this. This is awesome.

Mr. Pike, did you make a motion? He made the motion. Mr. Perry made the motion. Mr. Pike, second.

They're just like a tag team down there.

They're doing fine. Ms. Hellman jumps in there once in a while. Mr. Montoya, I need to get on in there some down there if you don't mind. Any more discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed? Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. I hope it turns out better than that movie. You remember that movie that was on years ago about Police Academy or something? No, never mind.

I'm just saying. Bless all you guys do is mention ice cream and you're usually a shoo-in.

All right. Park Master Plan Approver, Mr. Gillian.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. For about the past six months, we have been going through the five-year park master plan update. Your packet that you could probably see is so large is because of the master plan update, 100 pages worth of work where our friends with Kimley Horn spent a lot of time with stakeholders, with staff. You all remember we had a combined meeting with the Parks Board and BOMA. What I want to do, I'm not going to go through 100 pages, but I am going to go through, if I can, the slides that we shared last week with the public at an open house sort of format, if we can get them pulled up. kind of hit the highlights and then we'll take any questions. Your task here tonight would be to make emotions. So do you see fit to recommend that Boma adopt our five-year parks master plan update?

Gotcha.

Uh, why is this important? This is important, not only because it helps drive our priorities as a staff in terms of projects, programming and events. Um, exactly. Good example. Things can, things can, this, this is not, you know, this is not set in stone. That doesn't mean that we can't do something outside of this. Um, five years ago when we did our master plan, pickleball was not even on the list. Within two years time, we had to build pickleball courts. So there are things that can come up. I would say also just because it's high on this list, doesn't mean we have the funds or the means or the facilities or the, or the land to do things appropriately. or the staff to man it. We knew, as I think I said several times coming into this, we knew very likely that anything aquatic would be high on the list of requests from the community. Do we have the place or the funds to build a community center that has a swimming pool? Probably not right now. Do we have land that's not in a floodplain that would be appropriate to build a splash pad? We probably don't right now. But does the community want it? Clearly they do. I mean, all you gotta do is go on the Facebook group Moms of Hendersonville and mention the word splash pad and you'll be going down a rabbit hole all day. But that being said, it doesn't mean that we don't need to know what the community wants. And we had over 1500 people reply to the survey in terms of community engagement. That's really good. I thought that was a great number of people. It's not as many as we had five years ago, but that honestly, probably in some cases, because of the responses that we had five years ago, I could probably tell you that that means we're doing a better job in some areas. Five years ago, you had a whole slew of soccer families say the soccer fields needed improvement. We didn't really see that on this year's master plan. Maybe, maybe they didn't get the word that there was a survey out. I don't know, but, or maybe we've invested a lot of time and money. with the maintenance staff and the Board of Mayor and Alderman in improving the conditions of the soccer fields, which if you go back there right now, you would see that. So on the slide in front of you is the community engagement public survey highlights. You can see kind of the top attractions that bring people to the park, and you can see the special events that people attend that filled out the survey the most. The next slide shows programs assessment. It kind of shows that 71% of our programs that we offer are growing. Why is that important? Because, um, we continue to grow in terms of enrollment in the programs. We have 65 ish thousand people in the city of Hendersonville. But if you look at the enrollment numbers of our programs, the number of people that participate in our programs are such that that really reflects more of like a hundred thousand person community. So that's important to know because our facilities don't necessarily reflect that of 100,000 person city. Our staffing doesn't necessarily reflect that. So what I'm trying to say is we're doing more with less, and our leagues and events and things are continuing to grow. So that's something to be cognizant of. If we go to the next slide, we talk about benchmarking. They benchmarked our community against cities around the country with the National Recreation and Parks Association that have 60,000 people and Here's what it shows acres of parkland We have 11 acres of parkland per resident in the 50 to I'm sorry I said 60,000 we did the 50 to 99,000 so little more little less we're at 11 acres the median for that is a 7.7 the upper is 16.5 so not not too bad there we have some land that where it's not in use yet such as the fort forest park and heritage park the only qualification i would say to that is those those two pieces of property are massive pieces of property that do not include baseball softball football soccer fields so we have to be careful when we're looking at you know Yes, we have 11 acres of parkland per person, but in terms of our active park space, which is where the majority of our people use the parks, we've got to be looking at how do we get more facilities on the acres that we have that are active. Operating expenditures per capita, we are currently at $67.99 per residence when it comes to our operating budget. And you can see there we're probably a little bit behind in terms of the median average on that. Full-time equivalents, that takes your full-time people, and it also adds up the total of your part-time people. Once you get to 2,080 hours, let's say we have four employees that work 2,080 hours. That's the equivalent of one full-time person. So we're at the equivalent of 41 people. So you can see there that we're a little bit behind in that in terms of the median or even the lower quartile, they call it. So the next slide, implementation plan. So what the master plan will do is it, as those of you who have read it will see, it will take every facility that we have and talk about what is a high priority that needs to be done immediately and what are lower long range priorities. And these help us look at, okay, we've got these funds available. Here's what we need to do in this park. When we apply for these big state grants that we've applied for, these items that are called out in our master plan are critical that we address those as part of our application process. So I'm not going to go through these here for the sake of time, but there's Country Hills Golf Course, Drake's Creek Park. We can keep going through the other parks here on the next slide. Some have a longer list than others, obviously. A lot of the issues talk about signage, adding shade structures, marking trails, upgrading facilities. Restrooms is called out quite frequently, which, yeah, we need to upgrade our restrooms. We're about to take care of our major issue with that, with rebuilding the concession stand at Drake's Creek Park and upgrading the restrooms there. This goes through every park that we have. And I think you can kind of keep going on this one as well. And then there's a plan. How do we get there in terms of existing parks and facilities, programming, and adding new facilities? And then if you look at the footnote there, system-wide priority recommendations were developed based on a combination of public survey feedback, stakeholder interviews, site assessments, and the planning team's professional expertise and best practices. So if you go to new facilities, you see add swimming and aquatics related facilities, such as a community pool or multiple splash beds that was not brought up in our, uh, Boma and parks board meeting. It was not a recommendation of staff, but it certainly was a need called out by the community survey. So that when you see these things, it is a combination of everything put together over the past six months. That may be the last slide. I can't remember. That's the last slide. Your all's job is not to approve or disapprove or anything like that. Your job is to make a recommendation to BOMA that they adopt the master plan five-year update. If you have comments or feedback, we can talk about them here. This does go to the Public Works Committee tomorrow, and then it will go to BOMA at the end of July. So there could be a couple of tweaks here and there if everybody felt really strongly about something. But this is where we are after six months of working on this.

Andy, thank you for the summary of this, and thank you for hosting the conference. the community to come in and give comments about it. As part of this, you read the SWOT analysis in here, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats. I'm curious if there's anything that stuck out to you. I mean, I think the strengths, we all talk about them, but I don't know, is there anything that relates to maybe the threats or the weaknesses side that you'd like to call out or like to point to, things that were particularly important to you?

I mean, not at this time, I don't think. All I would say is The group, they had a staff of about three people working with us on this. And most of these sections were reviewed for accuracy after meetings, you know what I mean? Like when we had the SWAT meeting, they put together a plan. I took notes. They took notes. And the things that are in here reflect what people stated at the meeting, I feel. And then... they were reviewed by the mayor and the COO at some of these sections were, and like this, this footnote right here, we thought was important that our, the COO called this out and said, we need to probably make sure that everybody understands this is something that was a combined effort here. So I don't know if that answered your question, but yeah, I mean, no, there's nothing I don't think needs to be called out right this minute.

I mean, my, my, my interpretation in seeing the, the different, um, comparison benchmarking of funding, noticing that funding and staffing were specifically called out as barriers to growth. I would like to note that as something that is recognized, that it's one thing to be responsible and fiscally responsible and clear that the team is and you guys are with your resources. But if that's going to, you know, we know that investing in parks leads directly to revenue for the city and a ton of opportunities that I think we've you guys have worked really hard to establish. I'd want to call that out when I read through this, that that stood out to me as something that we should be paying attention to as a city.

And I agree with you. I have to be careful being the one to call that out. Um, today is a beautiful example of where investing in the parks has made a difference today. We had, uh, over 60 softball teams that started today for the U triple S a softball nationals. It rained yesterday, last night. They all were able to go over to veterans park today on the three new turf fields that we had and get their skills competitions and everything done. And then at noon, it rained again, and they all poured into every restaurant in the streets of Indian Lake. So we took care of them with the athletic facility, and then they, in turn, were over there investing. They're there right now at the streets of Indian Lake, having a good time at a coach's reception. So certainly when you reinvest like that, it can come back tenfold, hopefully, over time.

Okay, do I hear a motion to... I'll take this to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen to approve us going forward with it. Mr. Head made the motion. Mr. Pike made the second. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Andy, let me ask a question, and this is something because I don't know this, and I don't want to open any worms here, but Several years ago, as a matter of fact, while the Parks Department was still in the old building over there, we were having trouble between the Parks people and not trouble, but just understanding between the Parks people and the Board of Mayor and Aldermen. And I suggested at that time, and we came up with an idea to actually take the people on a tour of our park system on a busy day to see what we do. Has that... I see you're smiling about that. I just wonder, and we're asking people to approve something. I want to make sure they understand why and how they're approving it. In other words, if they... read the information, because this is wonderful information. Good Lord. I don't know who comprised this, but man, they did a wonderful job of this. And I just want everybody, I don't want anybody just going into this just because they think maybe we should or not. Do you feel, and I know you don't want to say anything, and you're probably not going to say anything, but I guess all I'm saying is I want all the people here, all the people here, and all the people on the Board of Mayor and Aldermen to understand just how important this is.

Two-part answer.

Good.

Don't get in trouble. I feel like the current and every Board of Mayor and Aldermen since I've been in this job has been fully supportive of what we're trying to do. Good to know. I feel that way. I can't speak for everybody. That's right. We've been able to do some things that have never been done before and things that other cities wish they could do. I have suggested a few times that we need to do a tour and a lunch and learn and offered to do that, and I will continue to suggest that that's a good idea and hope that someday my offer will get taken up on. I'd love to get a bus and take the Board of Mayor and Alderman around and give them a sandwich and talk to them about what we're doing.

When I suggested that when I was over at the other building, I actually had one person show up. Well, I'm...

All I need is the green light to be able to do it.

Well, if I had the power, I would have already done it. Well, hopefully we'll get to do it. Maybe we can get that.

And we do. I will say this. Every time there's an election. And we have new people on the board. We bring them in and hand them the master plan and go through it all. But there's nothing like being there in person either sometimes. So we welcome that at any time.

For fear of, I don't know, it hit me. Would it be possible? to do something like that for this board in the near future?

Sure.

I think that would be a great idea so we all have an equal understanding of what we have. You could be like our guide. You could be the...

I'll be cruise ship Julie or whatever she was on the love boat. That's right.

Yeah, and you could let us know where we're at. I mean, what do we need to do that? Do I need to make a motion?

No, you don't need to do that. We'll just get it scheduled. Let's do it. All right.

Yeah.

I think it would be a great idea. I think the job of an elected official or an appointed position has the it's the onus on them to know what's going on around them. You know, I would hate I would hate to go to a board of mayors, and it's my fault. I should have already been to some, but I would hate to go in and then sit there and try to okay something I didn't understand. And I'm just, that's the only reason I brought this up. I just want, and I'll preface it again, I just want everybody to understand just how important this is. Just how, not only, it's for our whole city, not just the park system. This is important in this day and time for everything we do. So, okay, well I'm off of that now.

I'll say this too. Cities are looking at this as a way to compete. They're no different than the way that a business, I know cities are different than businesses, but you're competing for tourism dollars. I mean, that is competition. So when you look at how much, what we're spending in the staffing, we need to look at it as an investment. Because we invest there, we can have nicer things. We can have things that actually compete and draw those tourism dollars. That's what that is. And so, you know, I understand being responsible, but we are in the competition.

You don't have to look farther than the, city down the road exactly starts with a g yes who just hired a full-time employee whose only job is to recruit sports tourists yeah that's his only job so if that's not direct competition i don't know what is thank you mr golden yes indeed yes indeed oh and unfortunately a big part of what you said is unfortunately what's happening every

Bottom line is dollars when you get down to it and how somebody wants to spend or use their disposable income. And, you know, the G word, G-N-G, I mean, if somebody can – Both Gs on both sides. Yeah, it's from both sides. And, I mean, if somebody – not only do they know about something, but they perceive something about what we do. The perception is awful, and it only takes a few people to go, man, those so-and-so's suck, you know, somewhere. Or those people are, and it doesn't take a lot of truth to get it out there. So I'm just saying, Jill and I had a conversation a while ago about this board. I'd back anybody on here, anybody on here at any day of the time, and I want to feel like the board is that way. So that's all I'm saying. I just want to make sure it's how important it is. Mr. Gilley, is that all you had on that, sir? Yes, sir. Thank you. Now that I spoiled your speech there. Verbal updates. Ms. Hamlin and Ms. Important Hamlin, bring your award.

Oh, they left this on. Raptors kickball has ended. We were able to get our pictures made right at the end. Right now I'm looking for an inside place to have their year-end party or a pool. It can be cooler because last year we tried to do it over at Mary's Magical, and it was so hot. We just couldn't even really stand being out there. Kids Club, the special needs program, we are on week three, believe it or not. Things have gone smoothly. I want to say thanks to Mr. Mann for letting us continue to use Wynton Elementary. On Wednesday mornings, we go over to Mary's Magical Place and use that for about an hour. And then usually on Thursdays, we swim, but the weather hasn't really been cooperating for us to go swimming yet. Tomorrow, we have a field trip to Peyton's Place Farm in Cottontown, which is geared to the special needs population. And upcoming is our annual Tom Battle cookout that we usually do. And then our program ends on July 16th. June 5th was a special needs fishing rodeo at Memorial Park. We had quite a few more show up this year. Those who participated seemed to be having fun. They were catching big fish, little fish, and turtles. And then our next event coming up will be our preschool track meet that I'll be working on.

Have you set a date for the cookout?

I don't mean to put you on the spot. July 7th. Thank you. Yes, July 7th, because we are closed July 6th.

Any questions, Ms. Salmon? Thank you once again, ma'am. Congratulations on your honor. You deserve it. Recreation Supervisor, Ms. Bickerstaff, down there on the end.

Thank you. Last week we wrapped up our spring adult softball season and just want to say congratulations to our men's openly gold division on your screen. That's AAA glass. Our silver division champions were the Sumner County sluggers and our co-ed division champions was power surge. They all had a great season. this past spring. Fall baseball registration officially ended last Friday. We do still have a few late registration spots available in select leagues. We have seen really strong participation, so we're excited to welcome new and returning players this year. Tonight, the opening match for our summer adult pickleball league began. We ended up with 10 teams registered this season, which is great since this is our first time doing a summer league, so we're really excited about that. And lastly, fall adult softball and kickball registration opened last week and will remain open through July 19th. And that's all I have. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. Okay. Ms. Langston down there. Is she down there anywhere?

She's over at the coaches convention or whatever they're called.

Does anyone have her report?

She wanted me to let everybody know that USSSA softball is here this week, 60 teams. Next week we have the Freedom Festival or not.

Is it next week?

Yeah. Yeah, it is next week. Freedom Festival, July 3rd. Should be a big night. A lot of cool things planned for America 250. Then the week after that, we have Tennessee Fast Pitch, another 50 to 75 teams. And then the week after that, 180, 160 softball teams will be back in town in the middle of July. Baseball, we just finished Game 7 World Series. They had 130 teams this past weekend. So everything is rocking and rolling with the events and the Freedom Festival and all the things. Wow.

We got enough hotel rooms for all that?

No.

We do not. They go to the G's sometimes. That's a conversation for another day. All right.

Maintenance, Mr. Cole. Yes, sir. Thank you. We are in the middle of our turf management plan back at the soccer fields. About two weeks ago, we were able to do about an acre and a half of sprigs on fields 7, 8, and 13 back there. And then this past Friday, we got lucky enough that they were able to harvest a sod, and we got about 6,000 square foot of sod put down on Friday. Everything's looking good. It's all growing in pretty good. These next few weeks, we should start to see a lot of progress on that, so I'm excited to see that. Golf management, Len Ray, he does a great job with us, and he takes care of us, so that should start looking great back there. We're finally seeing some movement on our maintenance shop. We are working with the vendors right now to get everything finalized, get the site work done. So we're hoping to see a little bit more movement in the next month on that, and hopefully get started on that. It's been a long two years, but it's going to be worth it once it's all up and everybody's in there. And then, you know, talking about the master plan going through and seeing some of the ADA stuff in there, we've been going through our ADA transition plans. We have about six binders, about 2,000 pages of ADA improvements that we need to make, you know, being as old as we are in the parks, you know, the ADA stuff really wasn't a thing back then. So we're, we're trying to make the corrections that we can right now is, you know, it's going to cost a lot of money to do everything, but we're also trying to be very cognizant of any new projects coming up that we're making sure that we're taking care of the ADA needs when we build these. So we're trying to go through these books, seeing what's wrong, And whenever we build something new, make sure that we get it right on the front end. So that's kind of what we're going through right now.

Thank you, sir. Questions? Assistant Director, Mr. Long.

Thank you. This past month we hosted the Tennessee United soccer camp. We had about 80 kids out for that in early June. We had 65 teams in town for the Lacrosse America tournament. And then the following week we had about 110-ish teams for our 3v3 soccer tournament. And then as Trevor mentioned, the soccer complex is now closed until early August for the sod repairs. A couple of summer programs ongoing. We have the Civitan Club's free community conditioning to anybody in the community can come out on Tuesdays and Thursdays to the Jake's Creek football field for that. And then, uh, Tennessee United is also hosting their summer junior academy on, um, Tuesday nights and Saturday mornings on the turf field. And, um, a couple of registrations ongoing right now is interval soccer club and tackle. And then starting in July flag football will begin accepting registrations for the fall. That's it. Thank you, sir.

Assistant director, Mr. Bruce. Thank you, Mr. Hess. Um, a couple of things, the Civitan all-stars are still practicing. I think they're going to state tournament this weekend. It's a big weekend for all those age brackets. The HIHA has already set fall dates, and that is out on their website. So I think there's an early bird discount if you want to sign up for hockey. We talked about Game 7. We talked about U-Trip. Full count games ongoing. Got a game tonight, so if you get bored on your way home tonight, you can stop by Drake's Creek, Field 3, watch that, and then go home and watch the College World Series if you wanted to. Senior men, we've had two divisions finish, the 40-year-olds and the 52-year-olds, and he's going to try to get a picture. I'm not sure I could get it to him fast enough, but he was going to work on getting those on the screen for us, but Those two divisions have finished up, and we finished those up because of all the week-long tournaments. We basically told all the adult leagues, there we go, fantastic, Mr. Jason back there. That is your 52-year-old division, Team Orange, surprisingly team name. And there is your Sumner Roofing, 40-year-old division. Top right there is Dale Payne. He owns Sumner Roofing, good guy, and sponsors the team every year. So those two divisions finished up last week. The third division, 65s, will finish up in a couple weeks. Evidently, Bubba is umpiring every 65-year-old game just about nowadays, I hear. So he's part of it. Yeah. And then we've had the baseball camps this past month, Hendersonville Baseball Camp, Full Count Baseball Camp, and the Full Count Baseball Camp. And another part about the turf – The full count camp basically got rain four out of five days or three out of five. And usually they're at the baseball quad field six through 11. They were able to condense it down and go to veterans park without those turf fields. You had no week, no camp, no week of camp for the baseball kids. So it is another situation where the turf field has helped tremendously. Thank you, sir.

Thank you, sir. Director, Mr. Gilley. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Quick update, Heritage Park, we are like an eyelash short of getting under contract with Boger Construction to start the project there, local contractors. So that means they'll have a little buy-in to how it turns out. Hopefully we'll break ground here in the next couple months on that project. Bike pump track at Veterans, same thing. We've seen a first round of designs. That's a little more tricky because it's kind of a specialized install and we have to get on a schedule, but hopefully by this fall we'll be under construction there. We will have a lot of park paving coming up over the next few months. We'll give updates as things are closed. We're gonna try to time out all the paving going on in the parking lots around schedules. Park concession stand project rebuild there at Drake's Creek is under design, and we should find out in mid-July if we get our next round of LPRF grant funding. That's the latest update I have on that. And then, once again, reminder for the Freedom Festival on July 3rd. Hope to see all of you all out and about at that. And that is all I have, sir. Very succinctly done.

Mr. Chairman, I forgot one thing. A new league coming in this fall. The senior men have added another division, and that is going to be the senior women's division will be having a league this fall, 40 and over. If anyone's interested, probably Wednesday nights or Thursday nights, and they're going to start here in August. So if you're 40 and over, female, give the office a call, and we'll hook you up for contact. Probably feels 12 and 13.

I'm on the turn.

Thank you, Mr. Gilley. Mr. Head, you got anything to say down there?

Thanks for the swag shirt, and it's going to be a busy next four or five weeks. So if you want to see the park in full action, come join all of us down there cooking hamburgers and stuff over the next four or five weeks.

Mr. Montoya?

I just love this board. I don't know what else to say.

Yeah, Mr. Spike. Yeah, just appreciate everything y'all do with the staff, with the heat coming up, the heat and the rain.

I know what y'all do, and it's unbelievable what you get done. And thank y'all for the shirt, too. Appreciate it.

Mr. Perry? Just if you ever get a chance and you see these 65-year-old seniors playing softball, there's also – A 90-year-old out there that still plays. There's several in their 80s. It's just amazing to watch these guys still. They may not have the skills that they used to have, but they're so dedicated. They hit all the time. They don't do anything else but play ball all day long. Thank y'all for what you do for those guys. That turf really means a lot to those guys.

I think at one time or another that tonight everybody's mentioned seniors and then look right at me, and that's a little unnerving, I can tell you that. Mr. Golden? Ms. Elvin?

Thank you for the shirt. It's really nice. And to add on to what Bubba said, there's a little boy at school, he's in first grade, and his granddad plays on that senior thing, and he checks them out of school like, every Thursday early so they can go hit.

Um, kudos to the department. You all do a fabulous job, like Johnny on the spot service. But I did want to tell you that, um, like most of, you know, I go to the dog park a lot and this week when I was there, there was a young lady there with her dog and our dogs were playing. And it turns out she works at a boarding and daycare facility in Nashville for dogs. And she told me that she often brings her rescues here because it's the nicest dog park around. So kudos to everybody.

And thank you for the shirt.

Yeah. Coupled in with what I said a moment ago about the bus, the tour bus thing, we're always, or at least I'm always, making fun of the three people that watch us on here And we need to let people understand it's not only on Channel 3. It's on YouTube, and it's on, I don't know who's got it, but it's on Amazon's Channel 99. So you go. I mean, it falls with what I'm saying. If more people... God, they don't want to watch me, for God's sakes. But, I mean, if more people could watch this and hear what we are doing, maybe things would be a little better, I think. Don't you think?

Yes.

I need a motion to adjourn. That would be Pike down there waving everything he's got. And Mr. Montoya down there is waving lesser stuff. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, out of here. Good job.