Arts in Public Places Advisory Board - Regular Meeting

All right, good afternoon, everybody. Let's get started. We'll call this meeting to order. First item on the agenda, public comment for any topics not currently on the agenda. OK. We'll go to the next topic, which is business. So first item, approval of minutes from the June 11, 2026 meeting. Any discussion on those minutes before we move forward? Okay, someone would like to make a motion to approve those minutes.

I move that the Board approve the attached meeting minutes from the June 11th, 2026 meeting as presented. Anybody second?

I second.

All right, we'll vote. I don't know that we need to do a call for this one. All in favor? I think Jerry, you're abstaining because you weren't here. Okay.

Thank you. Jasmine.

Aye.

All right.

Thank you. Next item is working group discussion. This is one of the topics that we had talked about the last week for the last session, that we would just kind of make this a standing session on work group discussion, assignments, anything appropriately, anything appropriate to either discuss or to make assignments. Does anybody have any topics they'd like to bring up? New items? We did have, I want to make sure we don't have this later on. DON'T THINK SO. SO WE'LL TALK. SO WENDY PASSED OUT THE PARKS AND REC BOARD THIS DRAFT FOR REQUEST FORM. A DRAFT CIRCULATED FOR THIS. I THINK EVERYBODY HAS A COPY. obviously take time, but I guess for just general discussion, we had talked at the last meeting about a little more of a formal process for either working groups requesting or volunteering or kind of soliciting an endorsement to do new items or new topics, or for the board to discuss and assign and then kind of capture that formally. In previous discussions, these working groups should have relatively clearly defined tasks or assignments, and those should include some deliverables that are relatively measurable and a timeline for those. Hope this would maybe fit that. I think this is kind of an adaptation of what Art in Public Places is using. Is that accurate? Okay. Thanks. Any discussion of the members on this? You know, are we for kind of capturing these items more formally or preferred format that may be different?

I think it's a good idea to get a clearly defined subject work for each of the working groups. And I think this is a good way to maybe approach doing that. In the next month, we can try and fill these out, come back in a month and discuss them at that point. Maybe you can then have a clear idea of exactly what you want to task each of the working groups with.

Yeah, and I think that is kind of the idea, just so it's both clear what the assignment is and then it's bounded and well understood and easy to discuss and, again, for transparency for the public as well.

Sure. Would we foresee this being a paper form someone submits, an online form, yes to both?

Yeah, probably yes to both, I'm guessing.

Yeah, probably yes to both. We can make it a paper form. We can also convert it to an online form as well. However, workflow makes sense for the board.

If the board is using this and we have some, you know, kind of legal requirements and obligations, does this become kind of a public, does it become like a record? Do we have to keep it and track it and manage it?

We would probably have to keep a record of it.

Okay.

Which we'll do within CSD.

Yeah. I don't think that that's necessarily a bad thing. No. I also don't want to add to the burden of, an administrative burden to staff.

I think if we have a paper equivalent for folks who just don't do the computer thing, but primarily having it be an online form, working in an organization that uses way too much paper and is getting away from that, it's so much nicer when things are all typed out. People's ideas are expressed better and are able to be absorbed better in the most readable format.

Any other thoughts, general support? Okay. Well, I guess I don't know that we necessarily need to make a vote or take an action on this, but let's go forth using this kind of template and format maybe for the next month. And as Jerry, as you said, we can, do a little bit of a pilot on it and see how it works and see what we think. And we can always adjust or adapt if needed. But I do like the idea of capturing this just to make it clear for all the board members what we're talking about and what we're assigning and for the working groups to be very clear what the scope of the assignment is. So, OK. Maybe we kind of covered that, but any other discussion on ideas for projects or assignments that we would want to discuss now or maybe make some assignments for any working groups? Any topics?

I think as far as the working groups I work with, I'd rather have a month to confer with people within the working groups before I try and come up with any particular items I'd like to propose. I think it gives us time to get things ordered and go through and make sure they fit the criteria that this form sets out for those tasks and then bring those in in a month. Okay.

Everyone okay with that? All right. Thank you. Okay, next item we will go to under Presentations, Proclamations, and Recognitions, Grand Canyon Playground Discussion.

Thank you, Chair and Board. We're currently in the public process for a couple of playgrounds. Last night we had the dinosaurs, San Ildefonso, Conceptual design and we're a little earlier in the process with Grand Canyon during our public input Surprisingly we found a lot of people had no idea we had this playground This graphic will kind of show you just to Orient you the road on the far left is Sherwood the one above the area's Grand Canyon and The little orange triangle in the back is where the playground is actually located right now. You have to access it off of Sherlene Street back there. It's a very narrow sidewalk coming into it. And it does look like it hasn't been used in a while. As we expanded our public process, we talked with the community about potentially moving it up to Sherwood. There was quite a bit of support during our surveys and our continued public meetings about that. And what it would mean is the entire parcel, all the way down to where you can see the contours for the canyon edge, that is all currently now open space passive. And all this would do is change the two, it's approximately two acres in the green box, would change that to parking. still protected area, it would just be cleared up as parkland. We would do this through the community development's updated land use map that they're working on as part of the comprehensive plan update that would be sometime later this summer or earlier in the fall. And what we're asking tonight is for your support to carve that piece out, rezone it, and we can move on with the design work to get that playground going. Another advantage of moving it up there for the visibility and accessibility is it also provides us now some parking for those that may want to access the Red Dot Trail, which we currently don't have in the community. So I think that would be another big plus there. So with that, I'll answer any questions you may have.

And so this design would include parking for that? Presumably would be ADA compliant?

Yes, sir. The entire project is designed to be ADA accessible. Thinking of parking, it's 15 spaces or less. I mean, it's not a huge footprint of parking, but it still serves the neighborhoods like it originally did, so you can still access it through the existing trail system there. It just provides some ability for visibility and a place for people to want to access the trail system that they typically don't have now.

Would the design include restroom facilities?

We have talked about it.

Sorry, Wendy.

We've talked about it. At this point, I do not recall the exact public input on restrooms at this point.

Member Bowman, did you have a question?

Yes, I just want to, I'm looking at the graphic that was included in the agenda packet. I just want to make sure I'm orienting myself. So the green box where, Corey, you're proposing to relocate the park, is that Sherwood that's running right by that green box or is that Grand Canyon?

Chair and member, you are correct. That is Sherwood Drive there. It would have frontage to Sherwood Drive now.

Okay, thank you. Just wanted to make sure I understood.

Couple questions for you. Why not? Why here? Why not move it down to that cul-de-sac that goes farther down? Or that roundabout a little bit farther down the trail? It's not on here, but if you keep sort of following that same path down, it runs into that cul-de-sac at the very bottom. Is it Kimberly? I'm not quite sure what it is.

The existing position is really close to Kimberly Lane.

Yeah, it's at the bottom of Kimberly Lane. Yeah, correct.

The challenge there is there's no ability to park on street. It's still hidden from view from a lot of people, and it With our professionals and talking with the community, they seem to want something that's a little more frontage and a little more high-visibility.

So my other question, because right at that location, you got literally Pinon about a block and a half away, and then you got Rocket Park. That's literally a couple blocks right up the road as well that we just redid. Is oversaturation of playgrounds a thing within that small area?

Typically, we can design it with different elements, so you get a different experience at each park. One thing also to remember is at the Pinion School Park, during school years, it's closed during operational hours. So it gives the opportunity for people to have a different experience in that same general neighborhood.

And then my last question is, Red Dot's pretty far away from that parking lot. Like, it's about a mile away.

Currently you don't have any place to access it if you were to choose on the trail correct Yeah, there's no way you have to park right off the road right so this would give an access point for those that are Interested in taking that trail you can see there's an existing trail through there Which have all been positive comments that we've heard from the community as we've gone through this I

Going back to the access to Red Dot, you know, hiking down that trail, you come out to that overlook and you've got Pajarito Canyon that drops steeply down and then back up. And there is a small little trail that goes down through Pajarito Canyon, comes back up and goes over to Piedra Loop. But as far as a direct connection to the top of Red Dot, that actually doesn't work that way. I mean, that trail goes out to that overlook that's on the north side of Parrito Canyon.

It's an access point for the trail system that we don't currently have. Okay. If it doesn't exactly clean up to Red Dot, we can have conversations with Eric and see if we can make that connection better. But the only place we really have to park and access any of those trails is Overlook Park.

Was there any opposition to this location in the community meetings other than maybe somebody that lived directly next to it?

We've been working with those that back up next to it to ensure that their concerns are tried to mitigate it. There's been a couple of comments similar to members about the proximity to Pinion School, but there's five or six out of 40 But there's not been any regarding moving, denigrating open space for this. It's all been just a question of location.

Okay. Any preliminary ideas on kind of design elements? Would it be kind of like a natural one? Was that 38th Street? I don't remember which one you all recently did that kind of blends in nicely.

Chair, we're still gathering feedback. We'll probably have a couple of preliminary concepts. probably in August for the public to review based on their current feedback then I will say that the natural elements have been a high priority for all of our parks and still honoring some of the original elements this one had a submarine in it originally that seems people remember submarine type structure We really, if you saw last night or had a chance to look at the meeting notes, Dinosaur Park, we're still keeping that one, a dinosaur, and we got a real dinosaur in there pretty much right now that was very favorably received. So we try really hard to theme it based on what the youth would go out to see at the school and what the neighbors wish.

Yeah, it does seem like a good move, just, I mean, the access to the current location is obviously not ideal and clearly public awareness is not strong, so this seems like a great improvement. Okay, any other questions or discussion on this? Okay, we do have a recommendation for a vote on this. Any discussion on either amending that language or recommending as is? I do believe we would get another opportunity to see the design elements. I mean, this will be a continuing discussion, I suspect.

Yes, Chair, you are correct. This is just part of an in-process preliminary sidebar we need to do to keep this moving forward. You'll see it's very similar. Your next one is we're kind of towards the end of the LA Mesa. We'll have another one as we get closer to Dinosaur Park. We're trying to tentatively get that one in a couple of months, and we're also going to try to bring you back. but North Mesa picnic grounds here very soon too. Excuse me. And we're working through the public process with these and we can make sure that you guys have, I think we get all the invites if you want to see what we're doing in process.

Yeah, that'd be great. Thank you.

All right.

Recommendation to move forward? Someone like to make that recommendation, please.

I move that the board approve and support the relocation and rezoning of the Grand Canyon playground to its proposed new location.

Second. Let's vote. Do you mind calling the roll on this one?

Yep.

We'll start online. Member Stephens?

No.

Member Bowman?

Yes.

Uh, member Aldersabas?

No.

Member Knepper? Yes. Member Marsden?

Yes.

Vice Chair Cohen?

No.

And Chair Watkins?

Yes.

Motion passes four to three.

Thank you. All right, next agenda item we have is BHI presentation on LA Mesa project.

all right good evening chair and board members i'm eric peterson los alamos county space i'm here tonight to introduce sierran who is a senior planner with bhi sierra has been working with us for the past few months helping us come up with rehabilitation drawings for la mesa and she'll be giving a presentation on what we have been doing, next steps, all the public involvement we've had, and any other information that we have gathered during this process. So I will let her give this presentation.

Thank you so much. My name is Ciaran Lithgow. I'm a planner with Bohannon Houston. And online, also, we have Tyler, who is our engineer at Bohannon Houston, too. So we can go to the next slide. The project team we've been working with, of course, includes Eric and Corey, and then on the Bohannon-Houston side, myself. We have Jared Lee, who is our engineering principal in one of our engineering groups, and then Tyler Smith has been the project manager on this, and he'll be available to answer any kind of engineering-specific questions that you have. And I have been leading the community engagement aspect of this as well. So the scope of work from our perspective, we have been developing construction documents for the rehabilitation of the existing Mesa Trail. So that is primarily so that we can bring that trail up to ADA standards. The trail right now has a few issues. There's been cracking on the existing asphalt as well. So the new project will aim to address tightness on a curve and then make it accessible for folks in the area. So if you can go to the next slide, I'll show you a little bit of the project area. So the Mesa Trail connects to East Park. It also adjoins to really close to the Los Alamos Assisted Living Facility. And then it also connects to the neighborhood and near the Los Alamos Airport. So the engagement that we have done to date, back in March, we had a public meeting at Fuller Lodge And that was attended by, I can't remember off the top of my head, I think it was about 10 people, 10 members of the community. And so at that meeting, we presented the project. We talked about some existing deficiencies along the trail, which I'll show you a little bit later. And then I identified what the proposed realignment was on the switchback that's a little bit too tight right now. The community really raised some concerns about material selection as well during that meeting. So they wanted to understand exactly what kind of materials that we were going to be using to rehabilitate the existing trail, whether that was going to continue to use asphalt. Gravel was suggested by a couple of folks there, or concrete. Concrete didn't seem to be very preferred by the community because of its hardness. And then some folks who were proponents of gravel wanted a kind of softer surface. And we kind of talked through the issues around what Crusher Fine presents for an accessible trail, especially so close to an assisted living facility where folks might be using assisted mobility devices. But generally everybody was positive about the rehabilitation of the trail because they know that there are some existing conditions that need to be addressed. And at the end of the meeting, we had kind of that conversation and left our inbox open for additional comments. We didn't receive any after that meeting. So then our next public meeting session with them between March and June, if you can scroll to the next slide, we continued to work on design documents. So at the second community listening session, we presented 90% design document drawings. kind of the firm alignment, what we were proposing, and which I'll show you next slide. But the folks who did join us were proponents of the, they liked the existing softness of the asphalt, and they were just curious a little bit about vegetation management along the trail too. Some people have noticed a dead tree or two, which will be addressed during or after construction by the Los Alamos crews. So generally some support there as well. So our planned improvements here include a switchback that's currently too tight, both for people who are in wheelchairs. It's also a little bit too steep for folks who are in wheelchairs from an accessibility perspective. And then also it's a really tight switchback for anybody who's using a bike, too. So by widening this, you can kind of see the existing line there where the arrow is pointing on widen switchback. That's where that existing one is. It's really tight. So we've widened that a little bit to make it accessible, ADA compliant. And then we're adding a tie-in at the living facility. Right now, there's kind of an informal one that seems to be tread by the people who are making their way to and from the assisted living facility. So that's being formalized. That'll be a four-foot pathway to connect to the living facility. And then the project team has been coordinating with an ongoing project at the Los Alamos Airport as well. So they're doing some road work in that area. And they plan to improve and make a tie-in to their parking lot and their existing sidewalk along their road there too. So that's not a part of this project. It's a part of the airport project. But we're coordinating with them to make sure that those improvements can be done in a way that makes sense and tie into our work. Along the path, the existing path is a 10-foot path. We're going to be able to include a one-foot bench, which is also known as a shoulder, along the path. And as I mentioned before, that tie-in at the assisted living facility is going to be about four feet. This is that tight switchback. You can kind of see here that it's got some crumbling asphalt in the area and that it's a pretty steep grade change. And so you can see that in the existing condition photo. And then you can see kind of how we're widening it further south towards the East Park. The existing guardrail, which is wooden, is also, you know, not standing up in all the places that it should. So from a safety perspective, we wanted to make sure that we're adding some new guardrails. So that will be a standard saddle pipe rail. There's existing gym equipment along the trail. All of that is going to remain except for this kind of info booth slash you can kind of do pull-ups there on your own by grabbing those handlebars. So that's going to be relocated to a place along the trail that is to be determined, but that'll be at the county's discretion. But they'll continue to have that gym equipment along the trail as well. The surfacing that we selected, we're going to continue to use asphalting for that surface. Key drivers of that decision, which we kind of talked the community through at the last meeting because that seemed to be a matter of importance to them, was really that accessibility was a main driver for us. But also maintenance. Asphalt is lower maintenance in the long term, especially for a trail like this where there are grade changes. When you have a lot of gravel, it can get washed away. And when there's asphalt, the county is able to come and plow it and make sure that it's continued to be usable during snow events. And some of this is shaded. So during the winter months, it can ice and create dangerous conditions, which is not great for folks who might be already mobility limited who are using those trails. So our implementation timeline. So we, Bohannon Houston, will be complete with our design later this summer. We have The county is aiming to bid this pretty quickly after that. And so they may be able to get to construction in winter, possibly spring, really depending on what kind of a winter we have. And then we'll reopen, aim to reopen the trail in the spring or in the summer of 2027. So that's my presentation. Do you guys have any questions?

Thank you for the presentation. There are, I think there's trail connections, like non-paved trail connections at both ends of this, so it kind of forms a bit of a connector. Well, I guess first question, like will those connections be preserved?

Yeah, definitely those connections will be preserved. I don't think that there's any wayfinding improvements around this, but the connections to the existing trails that go down into the canyon, those are going to be maintained as a part of the project. Okay, thank you.

Yeah, thanks for the presentation. Very thorough. Quick question on guardrails. Are you anticipating putting those in just where existing guardrails are at this point? Are you anticipating doing guardrails all along the length of it on the downhill side? Is that part of the discussion at this point?

I'm going to go to Tyler online for that answer.

Yep. Can everyone hear me? Yes. Awesome. Yeah, so the guardrails will be placed – where some of those, I guess, wooden ones are right now that aren't in great condition. And then there will be some spots where there's the drop off is too sheer that we will have some guardrail there too. But it will not be throughout the whole length of the trail.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Other questions, comments?

This is basically my backyard. So, yeah, no, it all sounds good. And, you know, I have the opportunity of watching some of those folks from the assisted living that use that trail and the idea of having that be just a little bit better for them. There's one woman who's probably in her 90s that has a motorized wheelchair who's my hero who comes along there and comes up through my neighborhood and then looks back around East Park and heads back. And the idea of that being accessible to her as often as possible, as easy as possible, sounds like exactly what we should be doing. Online.

Right. So I was, I think, at the initial listening session, and it sounds to me like you guys, Bohan and Houston, captured the issues and did a good job of addressing it. I also like the fact that the people from the Assisted Living Center don't have to go over that improvised trail to access the network. I think that's a nice touch. So I just want to try to get clear. I remember from the initial listening session, and I think as the presenter noted, there seemed to be a preference on what I call the crusher fines and things like that. What I heard the presenter say is maintenance, snow plowing, crusher fines on maybe some of the steeper grades. made asphalt a better idea. When you had your second session, did I hear you say people seemed to be understanding of that?

Yes. The folks who were proponents of Crusher Fine did not come to the second meeting, so we didn't get a chance to hear from them again. But there was a new attendee there who did ask about the surfacing and she was interested in something like she liked the existing asphalt because she thinks it's easy and nice to run on for her knees. And so that was the feedback we heard on the surfacing.

Well, I used to know some people that lived in that assisted living center, and I think it's also going to be easier on people with walkers and other things that want to get out there on it from that assisted living center, it would seem to me. But anyway, thank you for the presentation. I'm done.

All right. Thank you very much. Yeah, it sounds like a great improvement, kind of the perfect solution and the location that is going to really benefit from it. So thank you. Thank you.

Thank you for the opportunity to talk to you guys.

OK, next section for board and staff communications. Just under Chairman's report, I feel like I often say the things that you all say after in your report, so I'm going to skip that. But I will say thank you. Just a lot of appreciation to the county staff for all the listening sessions. It's like one a week, it feels like. And I know that's a lot of work for staff to show up to those after hours over and over again. The community very much appreciates it, and so do we, I think, so thank you. Okay, we'll move on to staff report.

I couldn't tell Corey was standing up here. Chair, board members, just a couple of items to update you on tonight. So first and foremost, if you've driven by Ashley Pond Park in the last day or so, you've probably seen staff out there with fire hoses watering the landscape. Our pumping system that drives the irrigation at the pond has gone down, always perfect timing, right in the hottest part of the year. So we're in a lot of conversations with a couple of companies trying to get the pump pulled out and repaired and put back in. And in the interim, we're also trying to put in a backup system. So if this happens in the future, we'll have a secondary backup to go to. But you'll see a press release come out either later today or tomorrow. And it's talking about that same information just a little bit. So if you see two and three staff members that may be sitting on the lawn and looking like they're doing nothing. They actually are. They've got hoses that are laying all across the pond right now. You'll see some with fire nozzles that are actually standing and watering and trying to take care of things as well as we can. We're pulling water out of the pond itself. And then we also, thanks to Fire Chief, we're able to use all the hydrants around the pond. So yeah, it's going to be a a pretty good effort over the next four to six weeks, and hopefully we can get the backup system in and get that going sooner than we can the actual pump that runs the whole irrigation system. So just a heads up on that. If you see a lot of craziness going on at the pond, that is why. If you also see some areas that aren't looking real great, that too is going to be the reason why we're going to do the very best that we can do to water and save as much turf as we can. that will be a primary focus, but also all the vegetation around the pond is really something that we'll really focus on as well, the trees and all the plantings that we have, because we want to make sure we don't want to lose as little as possible. So hopefully we can get something going pretty quickly. Corey talked about the playground, Grand Canyon and Dinosaur Park, San Altafonso, so I'm not really going to cover that. But I do want to talk about Brewer Arena progress. contractor's been out there for weeks and weeks on end and they have laid and poured the footers for the grandstand. So if you haven't driven out there in a while, you'll see a lot of concrete work and some rebar sticking up and that will be the footers for the grandstand itself. And then also the restrooms are about 50% complete on the renovation of the restrooms. So Manny and I went out there yesterday or day before and kind of got to a little bit of a sneak peek and and walk the facility a little bit. So those are, they're coming along really nicely. I think everyone's going to be really happy with that renovation on the restrooms. At some point they will do a hard stop. Restrooms will be completed for the rodeo this year. They'll do a hard stop and they will be removing their construction trailer, the roll-off dumpster, and a few other things for the weekend of the rodeo. And then when the rodeo is done, you'll see them moving all those items back in. We have rented the portable bleachers again. So those will be rolling in that Friday prior to the rodeo happening on Saturday and Sunday. And then they'll roll back out on Monday, just as I've done in the last couple of years. And then for 2027, we'll have our beautiful new grandstand. And we will no longer have the need to rent the bleacher. So we'll all be really excited about that. So that's kind of a quick update on that. The athletic court phase two that we're doing right now, which is up at Urban Park. Our next meeting, our next public engagement meeting is scheduled for August the 6th. More information will be coming on that soon. Let's see. Corey talked about Grand Canyon. I think we talked about the Rose Garden fence project. It is done. We've had to make a few adjustments here and there, but I think overall it's working really well. We have placed signs on the gate entries, just reminding people to close the gates behind them and, you know, be careful. Be aware of your surroundings. If you pick a rock up to prop the fence open to bring supplies in, please make sure you take the rock away and close the fence back. So just really just trying to educate and make sure that they understand that if you leave the gate open, we're going to have some snacking going on and the deer is really going to be happy. So we continue to talk about that, just making sure we do that. Our sports field renovation. We have a meeting with a contractor on Friday. We are still trying our very best to get Spirio Field up and running for fall sports leagues. We've been asked by the Soccer Association multiple times what that's looking like. They have worked on the field quite a bit, but we still have a lot of seam issues and irrigation issues that have to be addressed before the county can actually take possession of that field. And taking actual substantial completion of that field also means that's pretty much when our warranty period kicks in. So we don't want that one-year warranty to kick in until it's really where it needs to be. And I know everybody wants to get on it. Trust me, we want you guys to get on it as well. But it really needs to be. acceptable by the county first as far as the seams and the divots, the holes, missing sod, sod that needs to be replaced, and the biggest issue is just the irrigation. We still have some irrigation heads that aren't rotating properly. I believe we still have a couple of line issues throughout the Spirio field, so until we get all that addressed, the county won't take substantial completion on that project. Bunryan, on the other hand, is going really well. If you've driven by North Mesa, They have completed the install of the sod. We'll be checking irrigation on that field Friday morning. So hopefully we'll be able to get that one back in production for fall leagues. We will need to let it set for a bit and make sure that the sod establishes and that the root establishment is as it needs to be. And if so, then we'll definitely be able to get some limited play. We wouldn't want to do five, six, seven days a week, but definitely limited play back on the field. North Mesa Picnic Master Plan. That information is going to be coming to the board probably in September. They'll be doing a presentation. We have completed the community engagement sessions at this point. They're doing some fine-tuning on the plans of what they've heard. I do believe they're going to open the survey back up for a week or so to see if they can capture any additional information, but It seems clear what direction the community is going, and it's pretty overwhelming based on all the survey results that they have captured, which scenario people are most interested in. So I think we can plan on seeing that sometime in September. In the month of August, I'll be bringing to the board a quick snapshot, once again, if most of you, some of you probably weren't on the board when we started this whole median process of creating a plan, creating construction documents, and Really, Canyon Road and Diamond are the two that kind of kicked us off of, you know, what can we do to change the landscape of the median so it would be safer for staff, easier on maintenance, reduction of water, and just really kind of beautifying Canyon and Diamond. So those will be coming back to you. It is very hard to get onto the medians because of all the permitting that has to take place, especially on 502 and State Road 4 and White Rock. We have to get a state-issued permit. We also have to have transportation on site with a flagger person and work safety zone certifications and quite a few. It's a lot of steps that have to be done. So just getting everything set up to get on the medians and clean them is not a real easy process within itself. With the plans that you'll see coming to the board in August, you'll kind of see a lot of the landscaping being pulled and a little bit more of design of concrete and coloring and stamping. There still will be some vegetation, but it will be pulled back greatly. You probably noticed entry of 502 coming in right by the airport. We jumped on that probably a month or so ago, and we removed all of the vegetation that was on that little island there. So that one would be a really great example of an area that we would actually We're talking about concreting and stamping and doing some different things there with some designs of rocks and other things. But of course, nothing will be done before it's brought to the board and also county council. And we've had those discussions. But a lot of different things going on with the medians. But you all drive these roads every day just like I do. It is very unsafe for staff to be on those medians to try to maintain them with the traffic that we have. And I, for one, will be very happy when we get something moving forward on that to reduce the amount of maintenance that needs to be done on those. And, yes, we are fully aware that the meetings are not attractive right now. So it will be a nice thing to have that done. So that will be coming to you next in August. So we look forward to sharing that information with you and then also with county council at some point. So that is really my updates for this evening. Any questions?

Okay. One comment about the Rose Garden project. That is so fantastic. The roses are already coming back like gangbusters. It's great to see. It's a very attractive project, so thank you for all of that. A question about the Brewer Arena. Now that they've put those footings in, where are the temporary stands going to go? Are they going to go?

around those footings or are you going to have to put them at the north and south end or how's that going to work yeah so chair board members we we did talk with a contractor about that so it will be a little bit catty corner in between the front footers and right on each edge so not too far off from where we normally have the the bleachers that we rent we will be able to get those in there and just take a little bit of a skill but i think we can pull it off pretty easily based on the amount of room that we have okay great

Thank you.

Okay, you're welcome.

Alrighty. I only have a few updates as well. Fourth of July went very well. Hope you guys were able to attend. We had a different... Orientation, since Spirio Field is not usable, but people seem to enjoy it, they were able to spread out and utilize all the southern ball fields. If they didn't want to be in the crowd or be in the line of sound for the band, they were able to sit off to the side. And we utilized that large LED screen to be able to show folks who use those ball fields as to what was going on in the stage and to be able to hear what was going on in stage two and that seemed to be a big hit. We only did a drone show this year because of stage two fire restrictions. So about a 25 minute drone show is what we had with two different groupings. The sad news for Fourth of July is that we saw about a third of the amount of people that we normally see. A couple factors into that. It was a long weekend. People probably left town. And then all of the surrounding areas, including Santa Fe, did a drone show and a fireworks show. So they got to see some fireworks locally, even though they didn't. But overall, I think the event went very well. There was no major issues. Also, over the 4th of July weekend, we had the ACI Golf Tournament. which is a three-day tournament at the golf course. That's been the largest event that's been held at the golf course for the renovation. I'm happy to report that the golf course has held up very well. It saw 643 rounds within those three days, so that's over 100 rounds each day. Actually, over 150 rounds each day. And also within that tournament, that means we had 92 players, 41 of which were out-of-staters or out-of-towners. So good tourism draw for that. and we got nothing but good comments about the condition of the course. People were happy about it across the board. And then 19th Hole was out there for the course of the event, and they had snackies, and they had their beer cart running, and that was pretty successful. And we released a press release today, didn't we?

Yeah, they served 400 people.

Awesome. They served 400 folks, which is great. MAIN POOL PROJECT UPDATE. WE HAD A PROJECT KICKOFF MEETING FOR THE DEACCESSION OF THE ART THAT IS IN THE AQUATIC CENTER, AQUATIC FIGURES. THAT WAS APPROVED BY COUNTY COUNCIL FOR APP TO MOVE FORWARD. WE ARE INCORPORATING THAT INTO A LARGER PROJECT SO THE INTERIOR of the building where the main pool is and the therapy pool is going to get a fresh coat of paint across the board um and we had that kickoff meeting earlier this week um so that plan is moving forward they start on that next monday and then as for the main pool project itself they have cut out um concrete spots for new handrails and they're going to be cutting out new concrete spots for the new diving platforms on the deep end. And they have also cut in the new concrete slabs for the new handrails in the therapy pool as well. So they're moving forward with that. A couple events that are coming up. Fair and Rodeo is our next big event, August 7th through 9th. Kicks off with the Summer Concert Series on Friday. We have the parade on Saturday morning along with the two fairs, Arts and Crafts Fair and the Rodeo Fair. Then we are having a night rodeo on Saturday, so that starts at 6 to give people a little bit of a break from the heat. And then the afternoon rodeo on Sunday, which I believe starts at 2. And then finally, just an update on the potentially next biggest event that we're going to have. It is the Trans Rocky Single Track Mountain Bike Race. That is September 19th. We have been advertising it and the company, the organization has been advertising it as well. We're going to start ramping up our advertising for that. The day of the event, so we are leg one of that event. There are three legs. The day of that event. It is open to the public. We are having it at Ashley Pond. So we are welcoming the community to come out, take a look, hang out, enjoy the music. There'll be vendors. I don't know which vendors yet. There'll be food. And we're going to be advertising that. And I actually sent out an email to the Tough Riders and the Bike Working Group. Hope you guys got it. To help us advertise and maybe participate in a couple parades that are coming up. And I will send questions.

Questions? Is the golf course, like, fully open all days now, or is it still on a somewhat limited schedule?

They're still on a somewhat limited schedule. Wednesdays, yeah, Wednesdays through Sundays. So Mondays and Tuesdays are still closed, just to kind of recruit people.

excluding the tournament weekends, is the kind of playership back up to where it was before? Do you know?

Yes, the playership is back up to what it was. We saw 3,000-plus rounds for the month of June. That's almost every single tee time booked up. And Mike is – he wants to expand it out, but he also knows – that we need to take care of the course. There are still a few problem areas out there, but hopefully we'll be able to expand that again. But right now we're seeing full usage of the tee times and the course.

Is it discounted pricing still, or is it normal?

No, it's been, it's normal for this year.

Okay. Quick question about the liquor license out at the golf course. Is that,

something that's going to be resolved soon do you guys have a we have did you want me to we have submitted all the paperwork that is required from this to the state we are just waiting on them to add the 19th hole to our liquor license and that was anywhere between a four to six week process can i add to that yes

So where it stands with the state right now is all the paperwork that they've been asking little here and there for is then moved over to their attorney's office. And so it's now sitting in the state attorney's office waiting for the final stamp of approval. So we're hoping within the next two weeks, or they're hoping within the next two weeks.

Great, thanks.

I have a quick question. With the Trans Rocky bike events, it does conflict with the homecoming activities?

So homecoming parade is on Friday. That's one of the parades that we're asking folks to participate in to help with that event. And then the event itself runs from 7 a.m. to basically 3 p.m. of that week. Saturday, there really isn't a conflict other than we are going to be utilizing Ashley Pond, but we're not programming all of Ashley Pond. So there's still going to be space for people to come take their pictures against the pond, against the waterfall and the fountain and whatnot. So I think... I think it'll be okay.

Okay. I thought that a lot of families did photos and special things at the pond as part of their homecoming practice. And then if the Trans Rocky event continues and they look to the community in the future, hopefully... like the, the date is more negotiable. I don't know if it was a negotiation or if it was just, this is the date, um, because there's also, um, a NICA bike race, um, out of, out of Los Alamos. So all of our NICA, our national, uh, Interscholastic Cycling Association athletes, and that's about 100 kids, will be, which was programmed over a year ago, they will be at a race in a different part of the state. And so it would be nice to be able to deconflict some of those opportunities so that our youth cyclists can participate.

Good to know.

All right. Any other questions or discussion? All right. Thank you. Next item, work group and task force assignments and updates.

So nothing to bring to the board from any of the working groups. And I will get in touch with them about working on this form for some submissions for within the next month or two so we can get things solidified there. Thanks.

And the Bike Park Working Group has a couple of taskings that they're working on. Is that right? I'm not sure who would be the best to talk to that.

I think that all of our taskings have been complete. We were asked to obtain several letters of endorsement for a grant. And I think we have provided everything back to Corey that he has requested, and I think county staff is now working on that grant request.

Yes, and I believe that grant request went before council for recommendation this Tuesday.

Okay, great. All right, any other discussion on that topic? All right, we'll go to the next section, Council Communications. Councilor Cole.

Thanks, Chair. So I'm just going to go back three meetings. and hit some highlights. On June 23rd, we had a work session, although we did do some approvals at that work session. We waived the rules to do that. We did hear about the North Road-Urban Street intersection study that resulted in a four-way stop there. We had a pretty long update on the county housing projects, so if you're interested in getting a pretty thorough review, go back and take a look at that. We had a briefing on the Foxtail Flats solar project. They did do a groundbreaking, and construction is underway. We increased the funding to expand the drone show on July 4th. We heard about LIDA projects involving the old CB Fox building and the former Time Out Pizza slash McDonald's building in White Rock. And then on June 30th, we did approve the county applying for a cultural properties restoration grant for the Manhattan Project dorm. We approved amendments to the Department of Public Utilities water service rate schedules. We approved a code ordinance amendment to allow for an inclusivity board. We had a presentation with a lot of discussion and public comment and concern on cameras and data collection within the county that will probably come up again at some point in the future for additional discussion. But we did approve the funding and contract for automated speed cameras. They're a little different than the other cameras that are used for other data collection. We approved the purchase agreement for the LA School of Gymnastics. That may be something you want to put on your to-do list because we didn't approve what it's going to be used for. We approved the Ashley Pond safety improvement design, the boulders that were recommended. We approved a services agreement for the Betty Ehart HVAC replacement and approved the salary increases for the county manager, county attorney, and the department of public utilities manager Then we had our meeting this week. It was a regular meeting. We approved the submission of a grant application for the North Mesa Bike Park for a million dollars. We had a public hearing on the $35 million bond for Fire Station 4 and other projects, including Betty Ehart, the Manhattan Project Dorm, the North Mesa Bike Park Health Action Center, and the Athletic Court renovations, and that was approved. We approved moving forward with charter changes, including the makeup of boards and commissions with regard to political affiliation, the exceptions being that planning and zoning personnel and the Board of Public Utilities would still have those restrictions. That goes, there's another step for all three of the charter changes that are being proposed, and that'll be in August, and then if that gets approved, it'll go onto the ballot this November. And then we had a discussion on the expansion of recycling services. We will be talking about the plastic bag. Possible ban next Thursday at the environmental sustainability board meeting It's it's it's really just a public information session and to get feedback But that's also tentatively on the agenda in early August for the County Council So some of that entered into this discussion about enhanced recycling And so we're going to continue to probably have some conversation about that and that's all I have. Do you all have any questions? I

With the Health Action Center, I guess I'm not familiar with what that project will be.

So it's the social services project where you may have heard it as a social services hub, but I'm trying to call it the Community Health Action Center because that's what they want me to call it. But it's basically putting all of our social services in one area. So they're looking at various locations for that.

So was this then approving a study to figure it out, or was it actually approving funding for it when a location is identified?

It would probably be for construction at some point. So they're in the process of doing the study for the location, but we haven't approved a location yet. And it could potentially be an existing building that's renovated, or it could be a new facility. I suspect that $35 million bond would just kind of get us started when it comes to construction. Anything else?

Quick question on the school gymnastics purchase. Is there a process that you've already outlined for determining what use it might be? Is that going to go to public hearings? Is that going to go to county staff? Is that going to come to Parks and Rec's board? How's that going to work? Do you know? No, I don't know at this point.

That's something I'll follow up on, though.

Great.

Thanks. Anything else?

All right. Thank you, Councillor Cole. All right. Preview of next meeting. We talked about a few topics already that would be on there. Anything else that anybody has, recommendations, suggestions for topics?

Okay.

If you think of anything else, please send that in. We'll do the agenda setting meeting in a couple weeks. With that, if there's no other comments, we'll adjourn. All right. Thanks, everyone.