Public Arts Board - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call to order the premeeting for the April. Park and Recreation and the board call us to session and like to introduce our guest officer. Would you like to introduce

yourself? My name is sergeant Robert Caruthers. Sergeant, thanks for being with us.

Sorry. Sorry. I didn't say sergeant. That's okay. Just thought I addressed you. Sergeant, my apologies. Sergeant, so we have several agenda items here, construction projects, subcommittee, and updates from Park Board members. But I'm going to be respectful of your time and just first off, thank you for being here because I know that's a special request since Jay was almost run over on the trail. Mhmm. And so we appreciate you accommodating that special request. So I'm gonna change up the order here a little bit and go straight to that agenda item. So, Jay, do you wanna sort of tee this up for us a little bit? Yeah.

I had a too close to call incident happened between me and a electronic motor scooter while running on the trail. And I I got you thinking that I'd

like

to better understand the ordinances and laws that govern car usage by those motorized vehicles and understand both ordinances and laws that govern that as well as hear an update from the PD about the challenges and the I don't wanna be an alarmist or a old guy that nearly got hit by it. I I don't wanna be that guy. But I'd like to understand that from your perspective, how big a issue is it? And then most importantly, is there anything that this board and or we as community members can do to support the PD in helping?

Real quick, though. My wife had to her, and she submitted a request or through the app, an incident and sent it to the park. He said send it to police, but send it to Cody instead. But it did happen to her too. Same thing. Yeah. I have frequent.

Whether it's related or not, when I asked for this be included in the on it as an agenda item, I've now had three incidents where I've seen a nice lighted sign that at least says they're not allowed. I don't know if that's helping or or what, but it's it's a it's better than that.

Some sort of A sign. Okay.

There's an electronic sign on a trailer that I've seen twice up here at in the Bear Creek, or Bear Creek intersection.

Over at the node, the killer node.

Oh, okay.

We moved it today.

Okay.

That that's our side.

So Uh-huh. Way to go.

That's good awareness.

That's a start. Good.

And yours was a scooter, an elect electronics.

It was a electronic two wheel, no pedals.

Okay.

No pedals. Sergeant, why don't you why don't we start at the high level here with maybe just, you know, what kinda take Jay's question from the the let's go 10,000 foot level and work our way down. What what are the what are policies? And and then and then and then we can talk about enforcement and then get some of the other parts of this question.

So, the pamphlet I'm handing you out, that he's handing out is something we've created for education purposes, because it has been a big problem, statewide. It's not just Keller. Yeah. Any city that's got any kind of park system or roadways is having this issue. We saw, you know, it's a it's a new technology, the electron electric e bikes and the e motorcycles.

So there's this explains in detail the difference in the different kind of things that we're seeing, and we're seeing all of it. Okay? E bikes, there's three different kinds of e bikes, class one, two, and three. Basically, that just means probably more money, you know, the higher the class. But a class three, in order to ride a class three motorcycle or class three electric bicycle, you have to be 15 years old, and you have to wear a helmet.

The others, there's no restrictions on those. The thing about the electric bicycles is you'll see them. They don't they're they're pedal assisted, but they they also most of them, what you're gonna see is they have either a thumb or a a twist grip that propels it without them actually having the pedal. They can they can sit there with their feet on the feet on the pedals and just go. Mhmm. And the class threes will go up to 28 miles an hour, which is it it's crazy, but the that's the technology that's out there. And and these kids, I see them all the time. I'm sure we all do. Right? We all see the the electric bicycles.

Probably seeing some electric motorcycles too Mhmm. Because those are very prevalent. I think every 12 year old got an electric motorcycle or an electric bicycle for Christmas

Mhmm.

This year. We see them everywhere. So electric bicycles and, essentially, as far as the law is concerned, is a bicycle. So anything that a bicycle can do or is restricted from doing, they have to follow those laws. So if they're on the roadways, electric bicycle has to follow the traffic laws just like a regular bicycle on a roadway would. If they're on parks, they they can be on park trails. They can be on sidewalks. There's no restrictions as far as that goes because it's considered a bicycle. It's in that category. Category.

The The electric motorcycles that we are seeing. So if it's an electric motorcycle, which means it does not have working pedals, and and I say working pedals because I I've been told that they've come out with aftermarket pedals that you can put on these electric motorcycles to try and make people think it's a bicycle. Mhmm. But they have to have working pedals. Otherwise, it's an electric motorcycle, and those are not legal anywhere.

Unless it's registered, inspected, insured, you have to have a driver's license to to ride one, which what we're seeing on these kids riding are not. They're they're they don't meet that category. They do make electric motorcycles that you can register and spec whatever that are they're more than 750 watts. We don't we're that's not really what we're seeing. What we're seeing are the the the smaller ones. And sometimes when they pass you on the road, on the park trails, it's hard to determine at a quick glance as they blow by you. Is it a motorcycle or is it a bicycle? I have a hard time when they pass me. I'm I'm looking.

Does it have puddles? Right?

So that's kind of the difference. Electric motorcycles are not allowed anywhere. And let me let me categorize that. They're not allowed in public. If you live in a gated neighborhood, there's no restrictions as far as the law goes that we can enforce. So they can ride electric motorcycles and get inside a gated neighborhood, and we can't do anything about that because On the streets and sidewalks or the streets? Streets, sidewalks, anywhere inside of a gated neighborhood. Okay. Because those become private roads and private so the the traffic laws are not enforceable inside of the gated neighborhoods.

K. But they could put it in, like, their HOA?

They could put it in their HOA, but it would be on them to enforce the we couldn't enforce HOA rules.

Right. Because they own the

roads Right.

Pretty much.

Yep. I mean, it's it's Yep. Right. Those are the the technicalities and and kinda the nuances. You know, we get complaints every week. And sometimes most of the time when I talk to them, they they can't tell me if it was a bicycle or a motorcycle. All they know is they got run almost run over or going you know, they're jogging on the trail or they're you know, whatever the case may be. But most of the time, they're not able to tell me. And and I get that because they very look very similar. The electric bicycles, especially the smaller ones, and the electric motorcycles, they look very similar.

Without without really looking at for the pedals and seeing them as having working pedals and sprocket, hard to tell. So that's kind of

Oh, go ahead and get her first. Yeah.

The electric e bikes, given that they have to follow the same rules as a traditional bicycle, for our trails, am I remembering correctly that there is a max speed limit on our trails?

There is a 15 miles an

hour. 15.

So they can go 28, but they should only be going 50.

By ordinance. City ordinance says 15 miles an hour on park rails.

So so there's bicycles with 3,000 watts. Can they ride them on the trails?

It's a bice if it's a bicycle It's a bicycle. It's a bicycle.

Pedal assist. Okay.

As far as the law is concerned Yeah.

But Spanish is still 15.

The the law of the Texas, they're they're trying to catch up. They're behind like everybody else. Right? You know, eventually, they may be regulated more. But right now, if it's got working pedals on sprocket, it gets a bicycle, and they can do anything a regular bicycle can. They can go anywhere, do anything that they can.

But our main thing is the speed limit's 15.

Speed limit on trails is 15.

Whether it's electric bicycle or not, still 15.

Regular yes. Regular non electric bicycle or bicycle, it's 15 miles an hour. They they ordinance that was created says 15 miles an hour on the trails.

Gotcha. So, sergeant, do you you know, the it all comes down to, you know, enforceability. Right? And you, you know, you're out on the trail in the middle of, you know, back in the wood back in the deep into the Bear Creek or wherever and you're maybe a phone call away if you can get it out of your spandex, your if to get the phone out, you know, to get to Keller PD who could then maybe get to where I mean, but then, you know, it's it's kinda difficult to to to figure out. And I'm sure this is a relatively low priority call maybe for you guys, but, you know, what's the practical side of this being able to essentially do something about it?

You know? I mean, we do have a problem because we're actually having people we're having people we're hearing about this all the time. You know, it's two things. One, you know, the it's one that you know, what's the what's where's

the teeth in this?

Because, you know, if you catch them and it's a 12 year old kid, what what what are the consequences? Do they get a ticket? I mean, they're probably not only not supposed to be riding it, but then they probably don't have their helmet on either. So there's probably multiple offenses here. So then what are the consequences? And so could you just kinda frame that for us? Like, how enforceable is it? And then if we even do catch somebody, what

what do we actually do with them? So our goal as a police department right now is education. We're we're trying to put education first. Mhmm. Obviously, there's the enforcement aspect, but our goal is to educate the public because a lot of parents who bought these for their kids don't know what they bought Right. And they don't know the rules and the laws that go with that. So we've created this. Right? This explains all the different things that we're seeing, you know, from electric bicycle to a motor assisted scooter to a moped to a put mini bike, minibike or pocket bike. So our officers have these. We've we're handing these out when we

can. Good.

The school district actually got with this came this actually started with from one of our school resource officers who was seeing it and dealing with it, and he came up and created a lot of this. The the basis of this came from him. The school district liked it, and they said, can you give us something that we can put out district wide? Not necessarily as Keller PD, but something that we can put out to inform our parents and students of what the laws are and what what people are writing. So we've done that.

It's put and put out. We've done this. Killer ISD has put something out. We're working on I'm working with our social media person here at Citi to put some she's she's got this along with some other stuff that she's developing, something that we can put out on social media to help inform people. The the sign that you have seen, the electronic sign that you've seen that we're putting out in parks.

We've that's a new sign for us. We we've only had a few months, and that does a lot of different things, but I can put whatever message I want. So we're moving that around. We put it down here in Bear Creek right now so they know next week, probably end of the week, we'll move it over to the main Bear Creek Park. We'll move it around so that it's visible people that visit different locations. Right? And that's, again, that's an education portion of this so that maybe these parents will say, oh, I didn't you know, maybe I should look at it.

Here's here's another question kinda following what you said. Is there a law that they can't go over 15 miles an hour on the books

to write up ticket? So there's an ordinance. And, yes, you you can. Okay. Now to to address the enforceability portion of this, that that is very challenging. Pleasure. I mean, especially when you're talking about kids are back up in the park trails and getting it's it's very gonna be very challenging to be able to to, enforce this. Yeah.

Do you have a way to identify the location if somebody does call if they're deep in the trail? Mhmm. Do you have a way of identifying if they say, I am at such and such point? I mean, how do you identify? So

there there are signs throughout the parks Mhmm. Throughout the trails that give you locations. And if you if you're near one of those and you can tell my dispatch, hey. I'm at this location and they're headed towards Rusna Snow or they're headed towards Keller Smithfield. That kinda gives us an idea because we have a map. We have a park map, a trails map that gives all those different locations where the signs are throughout the trails, throughout our a complete trail system from Sports Park all the way over through Keller Spentfield. They they're The waypoints. Waypoints, basically. But it's like a g two, and I I don't know if that's one

of them.

But that's It is.

So it's g, but I don't know what the g stands for.

Right. So you give that to our dispatch. Our dispatcher can look at a map and say, okay. They're e. Number on them.

And it's just a reflective number? I guess I didn't know what those were. Yeah. Yeah. Those are those are just markers.

They're not

They're they're kinda like mile markers that you see on the roads, but then they're just then the trails.

There's there's just a few of them.

I think they were put in when the trail was built in the mid nineties.

It was.

And some have disappeared. Oh, some

have we put speed limit signs on the trails?

There are some on route.

On the on the trail itself?

There is? They're they're on Mount Gilead Trail too.

Yeah. On the new ones that we've done with TxDOT grants

Yeah.

They require the speed limit signs.

There you go. Okay.

So that's something our subcommittee included in our presentation to counsel was reaffirming wayfinding or expanding wayfinding, including these markers, and putting up signage with information like this consistently throughout the trail starting with high usage points, the same kind of places where they're moving their sign right now and, obviously, using that as a test case for K. Moving out more broadly over time.

But it's the last time we've done a survey to see if we have our our markers, you know, up to date.

It's been quite some time. Yeah.

Because that wouldn't be a bad thing to do is to go sure go through and make sure that we, know, we have we have, you know, have that up to date and and and It's it's so simple. Yeah.

And there is a plaque of rules over by the golf club, but I don't think any of these are in in the that list of rules.

All those the green rule sign?

The green sign?

We've got them all over the place,

but I don't think there's anything they haven't been updated for No. Purposes.

They I think it just says electric vehicles. I don't

on on

the one over in Fall Creek,

I'm not so long ago.

Yeah. Some say no motor vehicles. Yeah. Two different two different signage.

Are the motor assisted scooters allowed on sidewalks? Okay.

If if say where there's

no regulation for those. I

don't know. Alright.

So so so just if

I could just get the one question I asked just clarified, just one more. So can you write this is just an ignorance on my part. Can you write a 12 year old a ticket? Yes, sir. Okay.

You can. So yes. Anybody so they have to be 10. Mhmm. Anybody under 10, I can't

write a

ticket to.

Anybody 10 or older can receive a citation. Now if I catch a a 12 year old who's riding a electric motorcycle, what do we do? What I do is I call parents. Yeah. You need to come get your child and their electric motorcycle. This is not allowed, and then we do education. Your child is riding this, whether street, park trails, sidewalks, whatever.

Right.

Education. This is this is what your child's doing. It's not legal. They can be issued citations if we catch your child again. They will be issued a citation for

whatever it may be.

Understood. Right.

Because it is on the parents. I mean, they bought it for them. They're allowing them. They need educated.

Right.

Right. And and I think it it

we see it as an education problem first, and enforcement option second. You know, if you get the the parent that comes over there and and is just not having it and you're picking on my child and okay. We'll go tell it to the courts. Mhmm. I mean, we we have that option. I think, you know, most of the ones that we've come across and that we've dealt with are receptive. Oh, you know, I didn't know. And and it's it's an education. So that's what we try and do first. Absolutely.

What kind

But can

we write tickets? Yes.

Worst case scenario is if an accident happens and somebody in an electrical bicycle, like, slams over Oh, gin. Pedestrian. Like, what what happens there? And, like, the person gets hurt and it's a 11 year old.

So that becomes a civil issue, really. I mean, it's not it's not a criminal issue per se. It's kinda like accident on the roadways. You've got two cars that hit. Most of the time, it's a civil issue. And, you know, we can respond and absolutely, you know, make sure that there's information exchange and we can handle that, but there's no criminal offense necessarily. There could be, but most of the time, there's not gonna be a criminal offense for us to investigate. Right? We will make sure that people get treated, make sure that there's information exchanged so that if,

you know,

they this injured party wants to go after the family that was you know, caused it.

You would like would you write a police report the same way you would for a car?

Probably not.

Not to even create a record for them?

Unless it's on so an accident report has to have a motor vehicle involved. Electric electric bicycle is not considered a motor vehicle.

Oh. Oh.

It is not a motorized

not getting up

with this to

your point.

It is not a yes. It is it is considered a bicycle.

Even an electric motorcycle.

An electric motorcycle is a motorcycle. Mhmm.

So you could you could write a police report

with that? We could do potentially do a crash report for that. Yeah.

Well, that's typical.

And it's the the only thing is the the functional pedals.

The functional pedals. Yes. That's the difference. And and if you when you leave here, just start looking. When you see them, look and try and see if you can see the the pedals. Because most of the kids, even the electric bicycles, they're not pedaling. They are not their feet are they're not moving, and they're just on the gas and and going. And if it's got functional pedals, even though they're going without pedaling, it is a bicycle. There is no no difference in the law as far as that goes.

Somebody should have meant that probably

at some point. State level deal maybe.

Yeah. I mean, that that's gonna be for sure be a state level thing.

Yeah. Given that city of color is not the only one experiencing these issues, are there are there movements afoot at the state level to some way help you guys?

I couldn't tell you, to be quite honest. I'm sure legislatures are part

of that. Working on it. Yeah.

I'm sure. But I I don't know what

I I

honestly don't know what the answer is.

Unfortunately, there has to be enough precedence with enough accidents for, like, somebody to, like, actually pay enough attention to make

No doubt.

A change.

I did I do like what you're saying, though, with the, you know, the proactive piece where you're out there trying to do the education. Right. And I do think that that to to Jay's earlier question about how can this board help or assist, you know, there that could be something that we could get involved with our, you know, the PO your PO and and our the the city's public information, you know, Rachel here to maybe the park board could you know, we could work on something like that with them. I can, you know, I I can envision some video campaigns and things where we could, you know, get out on the trails. I think that would be kind of that'd be kind of fun to to do that, and it'd be a proactive thing that, you know, we could get out there and

Do a reenactment?

Well, you know, I I just but I do I do think we have plenty of people where we could get out and and try to to do something that's a little more on that proactive educational side and just make a campaign out of it and and really try to push for a little more. I I see it. I'll get you. I I think a little more on the you know, to, like, you know, a little more constructive. And and, know, we're not gonna get we may not reach everybody, but, you know, we've got the summer coming up where they're not gonna be in the schools, and they're not gonna be getting the messages through the school like you talked about.

But, you know, I think the KCAL has a couple production studios set up over there that we could take advantage of probably, and we have some pretty good connections with those guys. You know, might be able to get some of that done.

Yeah. There you go. That's what

I was gonna say. My recollection is that this was an issue on the Thursdays in June. Like, that that parents were dropping kids off, her kids were riding over here, and that because they weren't in school, it was more noticeable on those Thursday nights than most other days. So maybe we're here with a tent talking

to

people about it.

I think it's a great idea. So we could actually some of these blankets. Maybe that's how we set that as an an objective to you. We actually, that was one thing I was gonna bring up later some because I wanted to do been wanting to do this for years and where we do a summer nights thing where we plan one for the the park board commits to together that we do. So maybe we when we combine those two ideas and and do a little information together with you guys. Or I love that idea.

Nice. Because it's out to everybody. Make sure everybody has the ebook.

Yeah. We do a joint table where we're out there and try to do an information deal, and we can maybe get an announcement from the stage or something and and and do kind of a maybe kick off a bit of a campaign and and then try to run a series with maybe we can sit with Rachel and and and figure out a way to have a cadence where we have, you know, something come out monthly or whatever. And then, you know, you have other events that will roll through the fall. Know, we do have our different festivals and things where we try to be purposeful at those things and just be repetitive. You know? Right. And and just kinda keep hitting the message and spend the rest of the year driving this thing home a little bit.

And our signage needs to be updated, and we need to have better way finding.

Yep. Which is all part of what your committee is talking about anyway.

So does dispatch have a different trail map of that we have of some sort? You know?

With the bottom line?

With way with way points on it? Because way points are really not on our trails. We're very, very good

right now.

I had no idea that they were there or I've seen numbers or something on the side, and I had no idea what what

about I've seen the trail that you have the map that you have because fire has a same one, and it it's from the nineties. Yeah. It's from when the it's from when the main trail was built

from It

doesn't even have all the trails on it. It just has mile

markers on it. And it's really on that one trail

that goes eastward. It's mainly that one.

It's a it gives the park gives

the trail subcommittee more ammo for

Yes.

Our way finding Yeah. Recommendations. It's it's it would be and police and fire, we did it in Arlington on the trails. City didn't do it. We did it.

So related to that, I still have the app on my phone, the siren GPS app. Is that an obsolete thing then?

It is. It's gone. I I'm pretty sure that's gone away.

Oh, I can delete that then.

They they Delete? But there's different technology You know, if you call 911, there's different things that track your location. Okay. Whereas the siren GPS, it was a good idea when it came about. Oh, the fact the technology has has grown and evolved. So I I think don't think that they're using that.

Well, that I mean, that but that was the whole idea around that was to try to triangulate, you know, location or whatever, and that would have been sort of a solution, you know, when you're out in some remote area on a trail, it would find you.

Well, if you call 911, we're gonna

Earlier in the discussion, you mentioned if someone called from the trails and could say, you know, roughly where they were and what direction someone's going, you guys, you know, assuming someone's available, could try and find them, especially if they were going very excessive speeds or, like, there was a concern for not only for the driver's safety potentially. I assume it's something where if we were to talk about that, you would want them to call the nonemergency number because it's not like their safety is at risk, but no one's been injured yet. Like, how what you don't wanna say, like, if you see a motorcycle, like, you

know Right.

The nonemergency number would be a much better option.

Yeah.

You're gonna get the same people, the same dispatchers that that answer 911, answer the nonemergency. Yeah. So it's the same people, and it's the same system, but it's

Lower in the queue or something?

Yeah. I mean, depending on what they have going on. You know, if someone calls 911, are we gonna chastise them? Probably not. But, yeah, the the nonemergency number would be a better number.

Yeah.

Further probably answer the nonemergency and say, Ashley, you again.

I got your number.

I just as we're talking about this and talking to people and they're asking questions, I just wanna give consistent answers.

That's a good question. I'm just messing with but I think it's

a because everyone knows 911. But I while I have this nonemergency number saved in my phone, I'm not sure

Me too. How many number. Now see I was a kid, and now you do have son.

I'm gonna say, I just never if I need it.

So so I think we have a For have one kind of thing that we talked about here, which is potential with the summer nights, which I like this idea, I like kinda building on that. So we can chat about that and maybe make a plan for it and do something collaborative with you guys, and we'll follow-up with you and and and work with staff to to do that. Anything else that you any other suggestions or anything that you would suggest for us as a park board that that we could do to to help you with what you guys are trying to do and and to help better, you know, inform you or help better you know, so we just so you know for your information. So with the park board, we consider ourselves a working board. We like to get out and get our hands dirty and be out there, you know.

We are not one of those sort of titular boards that comes in once a month and then kinda goes away and waits for the next month to roll around. We get out and and get involved in the events and and are are active, with our staff. And and so part of that is we, we have different things that we're working on and we break into subcommittees. And we do have one of the subcommittees, which is a trails subcommittee looking at our master plan and trails, looking at sort of the trail development, what we have in place, what we wanna do, you know, with the the plans that we have in the future and in collaboration with the development that's going on in the city. So Jay leads that that subcommittee up, and we you know, we have the Texas Open Meetings Act that only allows three of us to get together outside of the meeting.

If you have four, then you're violating state law. So we keep those subcommittees at the the purposeful size of three so we can get out there and actually get some work done. But they have been doing great work to to kind of map out trail plans and ideas and thoughts, and part of it is this wayfinding signage signage and all those things that they're thinking about. And this sort of fits perfectly into the ideas that that you've heard here, and they can kind of rule that into what they're proposing to council. You know, ultimately, everything has to be approved to counsel, as you know.

But Right. But but we're getting some of that work, you know, done and some of these things proposed. And so if you have any thoughts or anything that kinda comes up even if you kinda walk away from here and you're sitting around over there at at PD and go, hey, maybe this would be a good idea. We're all ears and we'd like to get involved and help. Well,

signage, obviously, you know, we're if the 15 miles an hour. But you have to be very intentional about that because most people don't understand that an electric bicycle is a bicycle Yeah. For all intents and purposes. And they're, oh, you know, you if you put on there, elect e bikes or electric, motorcycles are not allowed on park trails. Well, people see that, they're gonna call. Well, I just saw you know? Yeah. You have to be very specific and intentional about what you put.

Right. This gives us a good guide.

It does. It it's a very good guide, and that's why if you the the sign that we have out says electric motorcycles Yeah. Are not allowed on charts.

Yeah. This is a good neighborhood initiative to to campaign on.

Oh, yeah.

You know, signage is the that we kinda informs people when we update that. You know, the older signage on the that's been around forever doesn't have that. I know. The green signs that we were talking about

earlier. Yeah.

So the newer parks may have more.

But, really, it was that whole confusion confusion that went around was it last year when the whole discussion came up about the golf carts, you know, and and the what neighborhoods are they allowed to be in and not be in and and, you know and then you guys had to deal through a similar process there where you had to educate everybody about, you know, can you can you ride it in a in a you know, with and that that was a process. And so still is, I guess.

It is. Yeah. There's still because you get people like Trophy Club. They allow them everywhere, and it doesn't matter in Trophy Club. Right? Yeah. We're a little different than Trophy Club. We've got some larger roads and, you know, there's more restrictions. But, yes, this is a process and this is a we're all learning. You know, we're we're trying to all trying to figure out what the best way to go about this. And and we're Rachel's developing our you know, we've given her the information, and she's developing what we're gonna put out on social media, and post that. I think she's just about there and ready to post it. But

It would make sense with her current c series because she just did it on golf carts. So she's in that vein of topics at the moment.

But, you know, anything we can do, if you guys set up a booth and you want us to come partner with you at summer nights, you know, a tent, we'll we'll make that happen one way or another. You know?

You know, it would be fun sorry. It would be fun to look like do anytime we do we have a tent up and we do, like, knickknacks distribution, We should do quizzes. We're, like, if we if this day we're, like, this is the information that we want to distill, we're gonna quiz the kids Sure. And then they get, like, a knickknack or something. Exchange.

You liking these ideas? Yep. Mhmm. Sound sound like another committee that might be forming here, Luce.

So I mean,

those ideas ideas from

the committee. Alright.

So sergeant, any other questions related to this topic for sergeant? Mm-mm. One other thing

What Oh.

Go ahead, Tom. Yeah.

Can you hear his thing? Yeah. Go back there. Oh. Sorry. No. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. Go ahead. I didn't

see anything.

Sergeant, so for us, just if you could before you leave, because I've got other agenda items to get to you, just just parks in general, safety, Ken, since we're here and you're in the Park Ward, we have a rare opportunity to have you police as a guest. Can you tell us a little bit about things in general? How are things going in the parks overall? And and, you know, how are how are how are people doing as far as adhering to, you know, park rules and things shutting down that when parks are supposed to shut down? And, occasionally, we hear about people hanging out and staying after lights go off and pretty much are things pretty going pretty well or where do we stand?

Overall, they're pretty well. You know, we don't have any major issues. Summertime's coming up and obviously, you know, the kids are out of school and we'll get more of that people hanging out in parks after hours. And again, generally, you know, we do education. We pull up, roll up, and, know, you're in the park, park's closed.

You guys need to go find somewhere else to hang out. But really, overall, we don't have any major problems with our parks. You know, this this city has done very well with the trails and the parks and and and it's a it's a nice place to be, a nice place to to you know, the the parks are great. And people love that and people move here because of that, you know. So we don't have any major issues to answer

to that.

So for simplicity. We do get stuff from time to time, but,

you know, that's

Well, for the most part, we're in pretty good shape?

Yes, sir. Okay.

Well, we appreciate everything that you do, and we appreciate the the Keller Police Department very much and the and the service that you guys provide, the excellent service. And I thank you very much. You have a question specifically for sergeant? Is that what you're reading?

I apologize for being late. About helmet loss? Obviously, you have to be 18 before you can remove a helmet on a motorcycle. What about implementing that with the e bikes also?

Because So that's the I'm sorry.

Go ahead. I've I've seen some of these e bikes getting forty, forty five, 50 miles an hour now. And and so that's something I think would being an avid motorcycle rider, my my wife and I are too. Think think that would

Is that outlined in here? I

don't know

if it's in here, but the the city ordinance addresses helmets.

Is it 16 in it?

16 has to wear a helmet.

Yep. Gonna go specific on a helmet like a dog like you and I wear?

It it just says a helmet.

Okay. Bicycle helmet?

Bicycle helmet. I mean, there's I I don't know how regulated bicycle helmets are, but It's when you get into

the competitions and the Tour de France.

Yeah. Right. That's a whole another one. That's whole another story. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, 16 has to wear a helmet.

Yeah. Alright. Okay.

Well, sergeant, we really appreciate you taking time out of your busy day. We and thank you for coming over here and helping us out. And we, I think there'll be some some neat things to come out of this. So thanks a lot for joining us. Appreciate it. Appreciate it.

Thank you for having

me in. Thank you.

If you guys have any questions, you know, feel free to pass

them on.

Well and and, again, too, if you you get back there and you guys think of something, we're we're here and we look forward to collaborating with you. Yeah. Thank you very much. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you. Alright. Next up on the agenda here is a construction update, construction projects.

Pretty much the only item is the sports park. Everything else has been completed or else is in a planning stage, around 91% complete. That number is stagnated because we've added additional items, the legacy restroom and all those other things, so the the number hasn't moved much. It actually went down, but I'm I'm leaving it at 91. All the synthetic turf is done. The baseball fields one through four have all been sodded. Just waiting for the new sod to take root and be safe enough to play on. There's still some gaps in between the sods. So when you go out and look at it, you're like, why aren't we playing? This looks great. Actually, learned there were people on it this weekend, so we had to put locks on the fields,

which we

hadn't because we hadn't we didn't even have gates till last week, on some of the areas because there were new gates and and new fences installed. So, trying to keep everyone off until the May. My team is trying to get do some top dressing, and the contractor was rolling, the sod, today and doing some last minute prep just to get those looking as good as they can and and rooting in by the by the time May gets here. The water feature is still under construction. Shade structures were installed and and painted.

We've got some of the pump equipment or some of the equipment in the pump house, but not everything is is wired up and connected, but they're they're working pretty much nonstop on that amenity. And Legacy Restroom Utilities have been started. They're getting ready to do the the, concrete pad here shortly. Maintenance screen wall is still ongoing, and we have our ribbon cutting on the twenty fifth, nine to noon. And more information will be coming out about that.

Cody, assuming all goes according to plan, when is when will the baseball fields begin to be utilized? In May.

May 1. First week Yeah. Of

So I don't even know

what what May what day May 1 is. It's a Friday. I mean, that'd be great if we could open it up for the weekend.

So are you thinking that the the water feature is gonna be incorporated into the is it all do you think that'll be done?

I don't think it will be. Mhmm. Pretty good what is it all? I mean, they they still gotta turn everything on and test it, and then they've got all the landscaping. I mean, they're they're still pouring concrete around the the perimeter of it. Every day you go out there, there's there's something new that's changed.

Yeah.

But it it's got several more weeks before it's ready.

With that in mind, are you stationing the ribbon cutting away from that? Yes. Okay. Yeah. Just to not

Yeah. We'll either be near the Fieldhouse or near the Miracle Plaza. Probably the Miracle Plaza. Perfect.

When you, you said the agenda is forthcoming on that so they'll Mhmm. Gonna give us more instruction? Yes. K. Alright. And we

have some goodies for you for that. They just haven't arrived yet, so you'll be getting those soon. Sure.

It's exciting. I was

hoping we'd get them today.

So okay. So nine in the end, April 25, that one on your calendar. And then we have the ribbon cutting Monday for the Mount Gilead Trail extension, so that was that was great. Thanks for those who came out and joined us for that. So so we get two roofing cuttings in this month. That's exciting. Okay. So from a are we is it premature to talk about the matching grant and the little project going on there? Is that cool?

We can talk about that. Met with, KDC, for the matching grant that, Bear Creek Running Club presented to us. KDC actually wanted to go larger with the shade structure, so they they approved the concept. And then since then, I've gotten quotes for a 20 by 24 post shade structure to match what we have at, the dog park. And the four post is pretty much what we've got everywhere instead of just the one post.

And then we also got a quote for a 22 by 22 concrete pad, with a connection to the the sidewalk. Got those in and working with finance right now to get the project set up. The donor has dropped off his check. He did that today. So now it's just a matter of finance pulling the funds from KDC, combining it with that, issuing POs to the the two vendors, and getting started. So

So so, essentially, your your the the bids you have in are are the ones you're gonna go with? Correct. Okay. So so you're beyond you're at you're beyond SD and bid you're ready you're ready just to light it up.

Ready to go as soon as I get approval from finance.

Great. That's really So projected ETA on ground pad?

They it'll probably be to order the shade structure will probably take a month or two for them to come in, and the piers have to be set for that first. Once that's done, then the concrete pad can be poured, then they can come back and finish the the shade structure. So it'll be just planning the two out the two trades out when they're when they're ready to go.

So realistically, probably sometime end of summer? Probably. Yep. Yeah. K.

When we need the shade.

Yeah. Alright. Great. Awesome. Any other construction projects? Nope. Alright. Any questions for Cody on construction projects? No. Alright. Subcommittees. I will say that we let's let's go ahead and start with this will be an abbreviated from a subcommittee standpoint from reports, but I'll start with the trails.

Trails subcommittee has prepared our presentation, and our plan is to hopefully be able to make a presentation to counsel sometime between post election and pre budget.

Post election on pre budget.

So post May once the new council members, whoever they are, are instilled and budgeting begins for the summer and the budget is improved in September, so we would like to present to whoever the new

council is.

So prior to the retreat possibly, if possible?

It it depends on the timing. But definitely, we'll have to wait until they

do that.

The the retreat is planned for June 19. Okay.

That was June 19. So that might not be practical.

Because that would mean I think they'll be sworn in, and then I don't know that there's even there may be one meeting before the retreat.

Okay. Okay. Yeah. That might not be practical. Okay. Alright. Anything else on trips?

I don't think so.

How about Johnson Road?

The RFPs with finance

Yes.

And it's gonna be published this week?

Be advertised Sunday for the first time. It's gotta be advertised, like, two consecutive Sundays. Anything that we do has to be in the newspaper. That old Talk about old fashioned. Yes. Every bid we do, everything like that. So they're doing that. It has to run for the allotted time, and then we'll start getting response responses back. And once those come back in, we'll we'll reconvene with the committee and let them go through the responses and decide which ones they wanna bring in for further analysis.

They have

to be five board. Right?

They don't have to be.

Well, they don't

have That's what part of why we're doing this Yeah. Is the the person the company that designed the last version in Johnson Road isn't on by board

Right.

Because they don't construct it. It's a hybrid.

Oh, because we're

only We're basically doing design build.

We're gonna entertain that

Yeah.

A little bit. Okay. Potentially. Yeah. Okay. Potentially. Got it. Okay.

And we will try and get it in front of them and some other companies that we had found in the area that have done either some of our other playgrounds or other playgrounds in the area that were mentioned in the survey so that we can have a holistic picture of our options, both price point, design, things like that. And that looked different from the tubular Yeah.

Options. By next meeting well, you won't have bids back then.

We won't have bids. No.

We'll know how many have

We should have responses, and maybe cull the list down to the the top ones we wanna interview.

We'll be able to give you an update on this progress.

K. Great. Alright. So anything from seniors?

Not really. I've been up there quite a few times, and everything's going on pretty good. Seems like. So

more feedback on survey?

Oh, it is something. The survey has not been released, has it, to the public?

It has.

How? What forum?

It's there's links available.

Because I was asked last night by a person at the forum about that, and he says he was waiting he's been waiting for the

Survey to be released? Yes.

Survey to released.

Sorry. Did it get sent back out via the same means that was published?

It's just the it's just the link that

you can go to those the link that

the link that we reviewed is the link that you go to to to view it.

But I'm thinking some

of those people there at the Killer Point may not be able to do a link. Is there any way we could print?

Or Mike said they've got signage up, and it runs on the TV.

Okay.

Yeah. Were they expecting a separate email or something? I've not done No.

There was there was gonna be no other

Maybe something printed that they could look at. I don't know.

I think the challenge with the printing is don't you toggle to see a lot

of stuff? Or toggle to

see it. Right. You can change settings based on residency age Okay. Quadrants. If there's not real it's not a printable survey.

So at the the link is published at the both at the senior center and at the point? Or no.

Just No. The senior center.

Did I

say point?

I thought you said point.

Then I meant senior center.

Did I say point? So Thank you. So see, at the senior center, there's it says you could

They had signage up.

Alright. Well, they didn't they'd be refer them to that.

Yeah. Okay.

K. Okay. Okay. No. Not alright. Fine.

I'm a high school kid.

I'm sorry. I I do gotta go.

My That's fine.

My daughter is

I didn't expect you here. So I thought yeah. We we thought you were we knew your daughter had that in concert. So let's open that.

She's being inducted to the National Junior Honor Society.

Congratulations. Congratulations. Thanks after her.

Don't know if any other way easier for them because some of those people up there may not even operate cell phones if they can get these lanes.

But here's the thing. They took the survey.

Yeah. Had they took

the survey. They got the link.

500 exact same link.

But I mean, if it's this individual that's interested in the results of the survey took the survey, they had to get to the link.

I guess they did.

So if he got the link Yep. Then he can get to the link. He can figure it out. Yep. Open the link and look at the results.

I'm not

sure at the senior center if they ask someone

to help him Like,

I guess. I mean

They will.

Yeah. There are computers there too, Like, in the lobby?

Mhmm. Yep. No. I'm just saying it's I'm I'm trying to I'm trying to go through you know?

You know? 500 people took it, but then maybe 3,000 people want to

see But I'm I'm I'm what I'm saying to you is I can understand if it was someone who didn't take the survey Right. Coming in and saying, I don't know how to see it. Right. Then that would be I'd I'd have a little more you know, I would take a little more pains to go, okay. Let's try to help you see it. And and but if it's a person who took the survey, we would say you They took it. Could be the same mechanism you used to take it to see the results.

Gotcha. Alright.

That that's just I'm just trying to equip you with the response. Okay. So Northeast Park, well, Caitlin's not here. So by the way, Lou's just left the year if we vote on tonight, which is basically to adjourn, you're voting. And that's So you're in a mix. But so, Caitlin, I bet you're not here. The I will say that coming up though since like, to your point about the new council being seated, I do wanna get the park pavilion amenity rentals back up in front because we will you guys will be going into budget session again. Yeah. So So I wanna get that formalized again because we we we rolled it out, but it didn't get

it didn't get and if I could if I may, we kinda paused sports park, but we still have we saw a tournament.

Yeah. That that well, yeah, that needs to

get started. That and then, the arena as well. We're getting a lot more use, a lot more requests for staff time, evenings and weekends, and just to make sure we're we've looked at those since the arena was introduced in the nineties just like our Brazilians.

I mean, I do.

I know you have.

But I have them trusted.

I know. We just need to

Matter of fact, I got it ready. And I have it digitally too.

I've got it.

Understood. But, I

mean, we're ready. So when they're ready to discuss it. But, I mean and and so we unless we have a compelling reason where we wanna revisit it.

We're kind of my understanding is we're on pause.

Yeah. I mean, we've submitted our recommendation. So it's just a matter of them Right. You know, wanting to to to look

at it. And there's too much unknown with Yeah. Election coming

and everything.

That that part's got that part of it's got to play itself out. To that end, in May, Jay will be chairing the Jay's gonna chair the May meeting because I will not I'll miss the first my first meeting that I've missed in how many years. About a lot of years. My daughter is graduating from Texas. Oh, nice. Awesome. I will be

from here. It's pretty important.

Yeah. So I will be there. And so but so any controversial stuff that we need to cover, let's pack it in.

Put it on the May agenda?

Okay. The

agenda. So no. So

The other

the only so but I do on the June though, so I really wanna hit hard, for the June deal. Prior I I'm still looking for my pavilion people that, you know so Raeleen left, as you know, she moved to KBC. So she was one of my committee members.

I

you volunteered to come over. So it's you and me right now.

I've had Kaitlyn Kaitlyn Bain.

Well, Kaitlyn did say she was gonna come back or she was she was on it before. So she's gonna stay. Okay. So Kaitlyn. Okay. Good. Alright. Alright. That's fine then. We're good. Then I have a full committee.

So so the pavilion rentals, that new building of the concession, it's really not a concession stand. There's a meeting room there.

The field house?

Field. Yeah. Is that a rental area? Is that a rental space or not?

To be space. It's a big space. That's to

be discussed and determined.

It's in our we've got It's in there. Any kind of factored part of that into this a little bit, I think. Right?

I mean, the the purpose of it was, you know, for the associations to have meetings

Okay.

Uniform fittings, all of that kind of stuff Gotcha. To have a a specific place to do that.

Yeah. We've got part of that sort of tied into some of the narrative and some of those other agreements. But

But there's been comments of, can you rent out the interactive water feature? So there's a big water discussion.

That is a that that that that we should probably put into the that pavilion discussion thing because that will be separate and appropriate.

Is there a pavilion next the water feature?

There's the two shade structures, but not really a pavilion.

Okay. I not that we should go too far down this rabbit hole, but I'd be curious what other city precedent is because I no other water feature that I've been to or official splash pad can be rented out. The pavilion can be near it if there's one for birthday parties.

And maybe it was maybe I'm misremembering. Maybe it was the areas adjacent to There

have been comments even in the KDC meetings. People have there was some preliminary discussion about it when when the design concepts were put forward because there are the the the the greens there's that green space on each side.

That maybe so there were some of the around that.

But it

could be this it could be something that maybe that needs to be kinda put in case he just got anyway, we got we need to test that and see if we even wanna go down that road. Okay.

I would definitely advise against renting out the actual middle section because then how would you communicate

How would you police it?

And how would you communicate it out to people so that they don't show up and get disappointed

that it's

not available? You say it's available from early May to mid September and then but except on days where someone pays

to block you

from it. Yeah. That's

I say we only ran it in February.

Maybe on January February.

That's a nice thing.

We want a fair competition. So, yeah, we that's a lot to consider there. But I mean, I think that, you know, it would also be an extraordinarily different expense, you know, concept too because to run that into, you know, just the the whole thing is a different calculus altogether. So but that that's probably a discussion to have separate from a subcommittee to see if we wanna entertain it. So that's unless there's anything else from a subcommittee standpoint, I think we're good there. Alright. Last thing is update from park board members. Anything? Okay. Alright.

So, that's the last on the agenda. So we would, I will entertain a motion to adjourn, then we'll move next door to the regular session. So

Motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn.

Second.

I move second. All there? Alright. Alright. See you next door.

The April session of the Park and Recreation Board meeting. First up on the agenda is persons to be heard. This is a time for the public to address the board on any subject. However, the Texas Open Meetings Act prohibits the board from discussing issues which the public has not been given three business days notice. Issues raised may be referred to city staff for research and possible future action. We do have a person to be heard. Brad, do you want to come up and address the board? I think you know the drill here, Brad. So first, just introduce yourself with your name and your address, then you can begin with your remarks and clock on the.

As you know, I'm still pushing to continue to have the rugby club put back onto the Parks and Rec agreement. And there, I feel that we were unfairly removed from the agreement. There were statements made that we had field damage, but to this day, I still don't have any proof that there was field damage on the new field in there. I've also been able to prove too that youth football is the most dangerous dangerous sport in America. You can even take a look at the United States CDC statistics for concussions where it also shows that youth football has the most concussions per capita per player versus rugby has one of the least pieces and concussions in that part of it.

I also learned too that our June 12 meeting that we had, the City Council did not know about it. I've had two different City Council member meeting people state that they didn't know that we had a meeting and that you guys had requested multiple things from the Rugby Club and we complied with every single one of those things, including the April 25 Eastern Regional Playoffs to be hosted here in Keller. We actually won that bid. Obviously, we can't host that now. So now we have to go to Austin for that.

So we were asked for economic development from you guys. We hope we did that and we were able to get multiple things from that. And now city council comes back and says we don't care about economic development. And I had that directly told to me from a luncheon from its current city council member in that that fact. So there seems to be a number of things that keep going back and forth that just don't gel between the Parks and Rec board and city council.

And I think that's also contributing to the Alliance Rugby Club being punished here. I'm also requesting a July 25 field reservation for the park for the two multipurpose fields to host a qualifier event for seven on seven rugby for adults and for high school. This qualifier event leads up to being able to earn points to be able to go to the national, playoffs or national championships for seven on seven rugby, which is the Olympic version of rugby as we've talked about in there. So I continue I requested Tuesday night to have a new business discussion put onto the City Council agenda to add rugby back to the fields and to the Park Rex agreement, and I'm gonna request that again tonight too. We also had some concerned citizens that ran into our mayor during the election, and he told them that the reason that we didn't get back onto the fields was because of our lack of numbers that we currently have.

But looking at the 11 page Sports Park agreement, there's not one statement in there that says that you have to have a minimum number of people to rent the fields. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. We have items there that I know staff is taking notes and I think that those will certainly be addressed either at the staff level and I think some of those also have been or being addressed at the council level. So we will, as I mentioned in the preamble there from the rules for persons to be heard, we will refer further discussion and further review of that to staff for further deliberation and on into counsel as it would warrant. So next up, no other persons to be heard. We'll move to the next item, which is the approval of minutes.

Minutes were circulated to the board. So I'm assuming that you all have the opportunity to review the minutes. So with that, I'll entertain a motion to approve the March minutes.

Motion.

I have a motion. Do I have a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. All approved? Aye. Anyone opposed? Minutes are approved from March. Next on the agenda is our staff announcements.

Good evening. A few events coming up this Saturday, ten to five at Bates Street Park. We have the art festival. Please feel free to stop by. Might get some rain in the afternoon or early evening, but we're still planning on having the event as long as we can.

I'm sorry. I missed the time of

that again. 10AM to 5PM on Bay Street Park.

Are there any key moments in that where something's happening that it might be good for us to be there? Or whenever is good? It's Come and

There's not any, like, grand ceremony or anything at a specific time. Okay. It's kinda come and go.

Is it anticipated that it'll be are

there a lot of vendors?

We have a

lot of vendors. Yes.

I don't have any

of the numbers for you. But yes, we have food vendors and we have a lot a lot of artists showing their wares. So, yes.

There's one there's one important vendor we need, right, that we didn't have last time, which I'll get with

you. Okay.

Is there a so is this a is is this a event that your staff is doing in conjunction with the arts? The art board. Yes.

There was staff changes here last summer, early fall. And when that happened, the art board fell under the Parks and Rec purview.

Okay. Great. So this is the first time that this is kind of a joint deal?

We've helped out in the past,

but not to this level.

Not to this level. So

it's it's

doing more. Well, we'll

try to get by there and and and show our support.

And then in May, on the Saturday the sixteenth, we have our camp out and our trash bash. And more information will be coming out on that. Mia has been holding down the fort while Jordan's been out, but she's gonna be back next Thursday. So probably start getting more information about events coming and volunteer hours and things like that.

Any

other any other up and coming events?

No. The rest, not till June, we have our summer nights and get back into the summer season with color lights all those.

Color lights are going be on the third again, right? July 3, yes. I do want to compliment you on the egg, I mean, egg scramble was awesome. Good event. Thanks to everybody who came out and helped with that. That was great. That was fun event. And it was really neat to see how excited that the kids were that won the golden egg prizes because they were pretty blown away by how cool their prizes were. That was that was good to see see that. So but I think you guys did well and Jordan will be proud of you for the happy

to to

far as if you need help on the other camp out trash best, you'll let everybody know?

Yes. Okay. Yes. We'll reach out.

Any questions for Cody on the staff announcements? Anything for him? No? Everybody's being shy tonight. Okay. That's it. Well, tonight is a pretty quick agenda folks. We might be setting a record here. So, any any other announcements? Anything from Park Run? Anything you got coming up? No? Okay. Steady as she goes. Steady as she goes.

I think that's I do one thing I did want to mention in there, but that kind of ties to the summer nights that are coming up. The the idea that I that I was gonna propose was that we pick one of the Thursday nights, and it could be the Thursday night that we have since we're coming here, is to actually set up a that we all go out afterward and we'll spring for some pic a picnic set up out there and and have our families if you'd like. We I I kinda like the way this is turning into maybe something tied to what we talked to with sergeant there with, you know, the information on the you know, the the bikes and the information on the trails. And so if we can marry those two ideas and if you think that's worthy of something that we pursue further, I think it'd be fun to do that. And we tend to only get to have our little celebration at the end of the year.

So I thought maybe we'd do something mid year if you guys are open to that. So, You like that idea? We'll pursue it. I needed to bring that up now because I'm not gonna be here at the May meeting. So if that if you're open to that, then we'll start working on it. That's all I have from so if there's nothing else, then I'll entertain a motion to adjourn.

So moved.

I have a motion to adjourn. I have a second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Alright. Our meeting is adjourned.