Parks & Recreation Advisory Board - Regular Meeting

And Trish Sturges, staff liaison. Let's all stand for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag

of The

United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Okay. Do we have any public comment? None. Okay. All right. Approval of 01/15/2026, Park and Recreation Advisory Board Minute.

I'd like to go ahead and approve the nominee. I would like to go ahead and make a motion to approve the minutes from January 15.

Anyone want to second that? Second.

Okay. Second, Gavin. All right. All in favor? Aye. Okay. Moving on. Presentation of the 2025 Parks and Recreation Impact Report. All right. I have provided this for each of you.

You have a copy in front of you. This is this year's impact report and takes, into the entire fiscal year for last year, which ran from 10/01/2024 to 09/25/2025. Within this report, there's a lot of really good information for you guys to see. But some of the most important things will begin on page five. And that is one of the factors that has been an initiative from commission to the Parks and Recreation Department is to have a cost recovery rate for what we provide.

So this year, we were able to obtain a 51.3% cost recovery rate. So obviously, that's significant, and it is nearly double the national standard, which is 27% in recreation.

I'm sorry. Does that

include Warm Mineral Springs part of that?

Or is that is Warm Mineral Springs separate?

It includes everything we do except for free events. That's the only thing that's excluded from that. Obviously, because there's no ability to have a cost recovery. So it does recover everything. If you look at individually, we have them broken down. Warm Mineral Springs is about 148% cost recovery on its own. So it does subsidize some of the other amenities that we're able to provide. Then you look at the aquatic center and seasonally, that cost recovery changes. So that's just the average of the entire fiscal year. We secured $72,000 in sponsorship support.

And that is through whether it be in kind donations for people providing things to us, cash donations or sponsorships for specific events. There was over 3,700 youth athletes that we processed through our fields and and all of the leagues and organizations. And, 2,300 marketing assets were delivered. So those are things like we were able to provide a marketing sales support for one of the sponsors, sponsors or we were able to have their display up at something that they sponsored. So we had 2,300 marketing assets delivered throughout the community during that time.

So it's an important factor for those people who continue to sponsor us to see that we are putting it out there for them. So that's one of the first ones, the impact at a glance. There's some other information on here of some of the things we did, like the beginning of the power of parks, which is a big thing that kind of motto is that the power of parks is something that is widespread and it hits many people in different ways. The drug free youth and its success that it's had and how it's grown since us taking it over. You see that in there.

And then on page eight, again, is another really big one by the numbers. So this is where it breaks down a little bit more to hit your question, Paul, is $1,900,000 in revenue was generated from Warm Mineral Springs Park and 6 and $45,000 was generated from our recreation department and $1,100,000 was generated from the North Port Aquatic Center. That is made up of 153,000 people who were at Warmanow Springs Park last year, which is a record from the time that we took it over. It's unbelievable. And from the time we took it, not just us running it, but from the time the city purchased it, that is a record setting attendance.

There was more than 350,000 visitors to our community centers and one and fifteen thousand visitors to the North Port Aquatic Center. So again, very big numbers there. Inclusive of the parks as a whole, we were able to purchase some software this year that is called City Data. And what that allows us to do is to have a general idea of how many people entered an area, which we set the area as each park. So we have 16 parks monitored.

In addition to that, we have door counters for the amount of people who enter into the recreation centers. And that total this year in Northport was 850,000 people visited our parks. So for a population of 96,000, it's pretty significant.

Means our community enjoys the parks.

Right. It's obviously a valuable part of our community's life. Three ninety six participants in our out of school care camps. This year, we just held spring break camp. It's underway right now, which is a new addition. So we'll see that number go up. And that camp was filled for the entire week this week. We expanded summer camp coming up this year by an additional 30 spaces. And those spaces are almost all full already. So those programs are also showing much need in the community.

We had sixteen sixty eight participants in Learn to Swim programs, 3,500 athletic field reservations, 58,000 attended the special events that we hosted, and seven zero four hours of volunteer service supported all of this. So that's kind of the year end review. On the second to last page, page nine, you will also see we had two lifeguards that were honored for life saving efforts at the Red Cross National Meeting as we did have two lifeguards at War Memorial Springs, resuscitate a a woman from the from the water. So there's a lot. There's some of our awards that we won, this year, And, and that's our year in review.

So this is for you guys. Does anybody have any questions on it?

I think it's fantastic. I am so proud of our parks. I mean, truly, you know, when I see the number of sixteen sixty eight people learn how to swim, you don't know whose life you've saved. You know? You don't know what little toddler because we go to, the five ks race, which is because of kids that have drowned, babies that have drowned, and there's way too many of them. And so this is so vital. And people who can say, Oh, well, we should need to make more money. Well, they better realize who's likely might have saved.

Oh, yeah. Well, and it looks like we're making a lot of money with our parks and rec as twice the national average. So that's great to see. When did we take over DeFi?

We took over DeFi this past year.

Kevin Mays is a friend of mine.

Yeah, Kevin Mays, I believe he was hired in July. Our first intake was in August, where we were actually running the program as an in house program with Parks and Recreation.

Fantastic. That's great to hear.

Going back to the swimming, will Northport ever offer rescue swimming classes for the younger ones?

Are you talking about the infant survival swim? I have to be very politically correct in this and set my aquatics background behind me. The program is not an authorized program through the Red Cross, which is our authorized provider. So that's the first piece is we wouldn't be authorized to provide that. You would have to go through different agencies to do that. And unfortunately, none of them are nationally recognized. So I would have to pay for specific insurance just to run that program. So it wouldn't be cost effective for us to do it. Okay.

Okay. Just note that Omni, our representative that just got back from Washington, DC, has arrived.

All right. Any other questions? Just to catch you up, we just reviewed the impact report, which you have in front of you, and that's yours to take and share with anybody you would like to share. There's some other good information and articles in there about kinda who we are and what we do.

Yeah. Some of the the like, even the first picture there of the Green White Trail. Okay? Any of you that go by there and see all the cars that are there every single day? It's unbelievable. I mean, they're

not being tracked there, are they? Yes. I actually have just installed people counters on that. So I can see there's there's on average 3,000 people a month that are walking that trail. Wow. I mean, it's just

it's just unbelievable. I mean, how many people are on that trail? Is that

one side or both sides a year tracking them from

So there's counters at each end so that we can see. And then we have to deduct by half because people, many times, will walk out. So we take the overall number and take 50% of it.

Out of

curiosity, is there a preferred entrance that you're seeing more from usage of?

No, not really. So they come from both ways.

So there's one that's doing it that we don't know about, right? Yeah. We watched it.

Yep. Alright.

Well, maybe that's gonna be good too when you need to go after the e bikes and that.

Exactly. Yeah. So all of these numbers, and I know there's, you know, some people don't like to be watched. People don't like that we have the technology to count in parks. But honestly, when we're facing the budget seasons that we're facing right now, potential loss of property taxes next year, parks and recreation is the low hanging fruit. I've been doing this for nearly four decades now. And at least once a decade, I've gone through the challenge we're going through right now. This year, we're asking for a 5% reduction. 5% reduction in parks and recreation's very modest budget is going to affect people, parks, and the things that we can do. And by next year, that could be even worse.

So it's definitely things that we need to keep in the forefront so that people are aware of how much use there is. And if we weren't counting it, there's really no way to quantify how many people have been at Boundless Playground or why should we replace Hope Park when it's aging equipment? But 37,000 people last year went to Hope Park. So I need to make sure that that's still valid.

Show the validity of the expense to restore and maintain.

Right. Yeah, we have to be our own best supporters, okay? Because it's insane that when you see Northport and you see what's going on and take out the parking rack and we're done.

Right. And a lot of people don't kind of understand that millage rate is what directly comes to our general fund, which funds parks and recreation. And the millage rate here has not increased since 2019. But we've seen a 30% overall growth in this community. So we've served 30% more people with that same millage rate.

And then in that same time, if we think about the inflation that we've all faced, I mean, imagine going back before COVID and back before even a project now, you try to get window or door change at your house, those costs are over 10% in inflation rates. So when you add that compounding, it's already a tight budget. So it's going to be a challenging few years for us.

Well, we got to just keep it up and you know, our you see the people, you know, anytime you've been to any of these parks or anything else, I mean people that are growing, the numbers are growing. You can see that. And so, hey, I'm glad we have what we have. Any other questions for the impact statement? I think this is a great this is great. Thank you. Okay, anything else? Okay, new business discussion, possible action regarding paid amenities at city signature events.

So this was asked for me to put on the agenda and come back with some information. One thing to know is this year, because already budgeted, we will have the standard events that we always have. But as part of our budget reductions, some of these events will be cut. And these special amenities would be one of the first things to go. So, yes, we do believe that putting a fee in for these years is probably a good idea, but not guaranteeing that they will be there forever.

So, average children's zone with the bounce houses that we put at a Freedom Festival or Poinsettia Festival costs about $10,000 We would have to have 2,000 people pay $5 to use that to recover that cost. So I know that that was something we talked about and we had of interest, But number one, it would never fully recover that cost. So I did put together a couple of opportunities, which were the bounce houses and children activities at Poinsettia Festival, the bounce houses and special features at the Freedom Festival, and then potentially, the trick or treat bounce houses as well, which would have a fee. The city of Venice currently has, rides that they charge for at their Italian American festival. The city of Cape Coral currently has a game area that they charge for.

The city of Sarasota at the Pineapple Drop has an area that they charge for. Miami has an area that they charge for. Coco Beach, Florida has bounce houses specifically that they charge for, but that was the only one that I could find that was a municipally run, not a private entity. Take some of the things like you see in Lashley Park where they'll have the bounce houses. It's a private entity, you pay for that.

And then most of the other ones I talked about have ride and carnival ride components. So they're $20 for the day pass or $25 So we did find the only one that was close was the one in Miami, which was a kid zone, very similar, and it was $5 per child to participate in the bounce house area. I think parents are used the first year, it's going to be a shock.

It's sticker shock. But on the other hand, after that, they're going to just think this is the norm. And frankly, that most parents, when they go to these things, you know you're going to be paying. I don't think that's a bad thing to do because look at what they've had for free. Mhmm.

And and what what overall that they are still receiving for free. Mhmm. You know, if we're, you know, just trying to get a little money back from just mountainous houses, anything that can help the bottom line. Offset. I mean, what are you gonna do for movies in the park? Is there anything we can you know, that's still gonna be a free thing.

They're probably not gonna be there. Those are the things that are gonna have to go first because those are the things that don't hit the cost recovery. They're just a straight drain. So you're going to see things like movies in the park, concerts in the park, those things. The bigger things will have to be reduced.

The Freedom Festival alone cost me indirect cost before we put any staff in $75,000 because the fireworks alone are almost $40,000 And then we bring in the other things that come into play, like police have to have people there and fire has to have people there. Widespread, we're probably looking at $200,000 cut. And every department is looking at this 5% reduction right now. So those are things that are really going to be the likes to have, not the must haves.

What about, like, this weekend's Easter egg? Is that just a drain on you? Yeah. It's a pure cost for us. Okay. Is there any I'm I'm trying to think how I don't know how you do that.

Some of those things, like the the Easter egg hunt, there's there's other entities in the city that offer them. Those ones don't bother me quite as much as the things that we have that that aren't offered by other organizations.

How can we, you know, How can we think of some more money to get back for the fireworks in that decade? That's the biggie. Let's talk about the biggie. The fireworks are great, and they're wonderful, and ours is the best. Henry Jackamer started a great tradition there. But, you know, how can we any other ideas? Well, we're

looking at a few modifications to it. Obviously, it's not our first thing is not to take away the things that especially the things that mean so much to people. But just to be at Cool Today Park, it costs us $10,000 because that's what they charge us for the staffing that they have to provide for that day for parking attendance and for the security and for the use of the space. We could look at another location like we used to. Actually, today I spoke with the fire marshal about Atwater Park because the high school is no longer a location that's approved because they put in a turf field, right?

It's field, but that is prohibited to having fireworks there. So looking at maybe an interlocal partnership with Atwater Elementary, where we could utilize some of their field for people to view from and some parking, and maybe we could use our own property to set the fireworks off, and then we're saving that $10,000 So we're looking at all of the pieces, but what the department's tasked with right now is the 5% reduction to be presented this coming budget for those upcoming because we're going to go into 2027 budgeting now.

So we go into each of these events, would it be possible for us to be And

question.

I that's a

I

the city as citizens and members of the community. Like, hey, this is the city of Northport doing this for us for celebration. But the other events, anything that has the bounce houses as such, is there anything that we might be able to come up with that we could add to that that could make us some revenue? So like the bounce houses, we would charge to recoup some. But is there something else that we could do that we might be able to make an arrangement with a local business that could offer that might donate their services, and then we could charge for those services? And that would be a way to recoup.

We do have a very, very concise sponsorship and policy around that stuff. So we did just go in front of commission for some revisions, which would open up the door for more sponsorships and more opportunities that way. So, sorry. We really are looking outside the box at all of these options, as well as reaching out to other communities that have gone some of the same challenges with budgetary restrictions. I got a this is kind

of like off the subject in that. But I remember when grandchildren were in swim meets and all this kind of stuff. When we went at participants just to go to their swim meet at a school and all this

kind of stuff, we paid, I

think, almost like $10 I mean, it was not cheap. Yeah.

Usually the club is what receives that money as fundraisers to support the club. I know when we've hosted ours here, that's the high school gets that money. Okay. Alright.

Because I was thinking, you know, charging for parking is always a nad.

Yeah. That's hard. Fireworks.

I think they need to be brought back into city proper. I will I personally like, I avoid Westport. Oh, yeah. Welland Park, I mean. Sorry. As like the plague. I don't like to drive down 41. I don't like in there. I have been to the stadium once, and there was nothing going on. Nothing against what you've done. I've seen the vodo. I've seen the videos. I've seen the pictures, and everything else. It's great. I think Gatwater Park, unfortunately, is the exact opposite.

Go from one extreme to the other. We've got to figure something in this area, which is

That's the problem. Speaking with the fire marshal, there's just not the land. Because you have to be 50 feet from a building before you can even get to an area where they can be set off. And then you have to be three fifty feet from the area they're set off before you can have a person in the area. So that puts us at a spot where Gotcha. Yeah.

That's football field away.

Right. But at water would cover that? Could

do At water would cover that if we actually, Peter and I looked at it today. If we were to set off in Clover area and then have the viewing from the school. But we require an interlocal agreement with the school, but I'm not afraid of that. We have other ones where there would be enough parking. Because even at Water I mean, our Freedom Festival last year had over 12,000 people at it. So it would not be the same scale. We would not be able to accommodate that level of people anywhere.

And it wasn't even on the July 4? That was August, wasn't it?

We we we may have

to redo it? It was Labor Day because we had the weather delay.

Weather. And and for the fireworks, you have a lot of people stopped at the Publix up at Walden Park or the park Publix and everything. And parked at Costco. Yeah. And and and and and everything else and just see him from a distance and then at water, that won't

be possible. Right. Yeah. So there's a lot to think about with it. We're always open to those. Any ideas, again, conforming with our sponsorship policies and those partnership policies we have to do. We did ask for an extension of the sponsorship policy, which would give us different tiers, which would allow for more sponsors to come in and be able to spread that wealth a little bit more and give us more income on it. We looked at increasing vendor fees. That might be another thing we have to do is the the food trucks and things that come in make a lot of money when they're there because there's 12,000 people walking by.

Well, they won't make anything if we cut

the Yeah. Right. So it's just the revenue streams are very little with what it is. So at this point, things are just at that proposal. Like, these are things we could do. Where do you want to do it? And ultimately, it's the commissioner's decision. When they look at the budget and they look at the things they want to cut and the things they want to keep, all we can do is present to them what we would recommend to cut. And when you come into swim lessons and you come into programs like DeFi, there 's a lot of very core programs that we don't want the community to lose because those are the participants that really need that engagement. What about when the kids come over to second graders for

the swim lessons and that the school pay?

Actually, the Monda Foundation pays for that. So they pay for the busing, transportation, and they pay for our instructors. Is it 100% recovery? No. But we also have many of our instructors who come in and volunteer and aren't paid to do those.

So we are getting know, because We

are getting very valuable thing.

I don't want to see it go away. But I'm just thinking that maybe we are getting the most we can out of it right now. We are.

It's about a $10,000 return on those. Okay. All right.

Where can we find the sponsorship policy?

It's going to be coming up on an agenda soon because we did just have it. But I can make sure I also get it to you. Let me see if it's on my upcoming list. No. It's not quite back on the agenda for permission, but I'll get it to you. Okay.

Thank you.

So going back to the Freedom Festival, so we pay the Brave Stadium to have this event there, but they don't contribute at all. We're just, like, paying for a venue.

Is that correct? Yeah. We pay for the space. We pay for they have security on-site, which is a requirement. If you rent their facility, you have to use their security. We pay for their parking attendance because if you rent their facility, you have to pay for their parking attendance. And then we pay for the space. So it works out to about $10,000 for that. And that is after discount because of the agreement with the Braves for the city. If we weren't the city, that's about $32,000 more than what we pay. It would be about $42,000 for an average person to do what we do there.

That's why the North Port High School can't have graduation there because it was way too expensive. Yeah. Because I went through all that with some of them.

Got it. So how much parking is there at Atwater?

Atwater Park itself, there's not a ton. There's enough for a baseball game happening out there. They probably should have had double what they had just for the use we have. But the school has a significant larger parking lot over there. So still working on it. Not sure if it would even work, but it's preliminary. But I just want you guys to know that we are looking at all the levels of cost recover, things that can be charged for. And we also have to look at what our families can afford. Know, I worry even when we talk about bounce houses charging $5 a child, if somebody comes with five kids, you know, it can become more difficult for them to participate in things. So making sure we have that balance between that.

Well, passes, things like that, you know, you offer discounts if you want the whole group, all your kids to go, you $10 or $12 or something as

opposed

to I'm $5 per

thinking of Atwaterway and the new Imagine School is going to be probably the closest big facility to there. Maybe we could arrange some parking there too and bus Yeah. Them that's the only big thing that's going to be near there where we could bus them. There's no big churches even around there that we can use.

Like I said, I still have the fire marshal forensically looking at property that we own in the city to see what else is there. We also have Italy Avenue parcel over there. So there might be Yeah, but there's not going be any parking over there, really. No, but if we might be able to utilize some of the land for maybe for letting the fireworks off and then use more of the fields for people. He's looking at all of the options right now. But we're open to any suggestions at any time.

Would there ever be a consideration of having more than one location just because, obviously, Atwater's not going to hold the amount of people that,

the Braves Stadium? Probably not, just because of the cost And to secure a person, insured person to get them, it's costly. What we pay for there, like I said, I think it was $37,000 last year just for the fireworks component. Because they have to have certified technicians. They have to have all their fire inspections. They have to have all the insurance to do what they do. So to double up that fee would kind of be cost prohibitive. And chances are every year that goes up, right? Yep. Guaranteed. It

seems that I mean, it seems that 5% should be a doable thing for us to be able to manage if we were to just do a little bit of extra charge, not so much on the fireworks because that unless we can find a place. Because if we find a place, that's $10,000 less, right?

Yeah. So the 5% I'm talking about is 5% of my overall budget. So from our recreation department and what they spend, which is where our fireworks budget lives in, they have to cut 5% of their entire budget. So it worked out to about $130,000 And when you look at our little programs that take us $500 and $1,000 to provide all year and you get to that one, that's just a big cut when you're looking at that amount of money. And without touching those ones, we won't get to that number in our budget. Our budget is very tight.

Okay, here's another place because our rates are so reasonable for using the aquatic center net, especially for the year long path. And I hate to say it because I'm charging myself. But on the other hand, maybe they could go up a

little bit. We raised them last year. Not that much. Not that much, but we raised them last year.

You're dealing with Centennial Park.

We're countering that pool that's just as far from my house as the aquatic center is. I know. And that's why

they actually did the Hydrofit. They lowered it because of the fact of the competition with the same thing.

So we're at that touchy point with it where we've gone up. It's been in existence for six years. We've gone up twice. And it's just not quite the right time for another one. Warmineral Springs as well. It hasn't gone up in a number of years. So when the buildings are complete, that's a good thing. But we have to be incremental with it. So we do have a few fee increases going forward with the fee schedule next week. You'll see. But we have to balance that. We're not

going to price ourselves out

of those same families coming, too.

It is amazing. The number of people that go to War Pitle Springs always amazes me. It is. It is. It's unbelievable.

Was in 'ninety five, and that was there as a small private entity. And was still crazy. People came from all over the world to go jump into the water.

Even with the hurricane damage, it's So just back

to this area, I still agree that your theories of putting some fees on the balance houses while they have them is there. And we can make a motion to implement some fees for the balance houses in your recommendations. Absolutely. I just kind of want to give the whole picture as we're talking about that because Okay. So is it time to make a motion?

Does anyone want to make a motion to put fees on the bounce houses or look into that idea? I'll make

a motion to look into fees for the bounce houses.

I'll second that motion.

Okay. Any more discussion?

So just a bit of a question. If if if possible, when can we, like, look at the financial aspects? Because I we obviously, we're talking about just general areas, but I want I would probably like to know, like, the actual, like I want actual numbers with these costs just to ensure that if in any case, any emergency case that we have to cut something possibly, I want to see what numbers we're looking for so we can all make a collective decision on how we can improve the budget. So any possible way we can get a financial report or something?

I can provide you with the full budget, yes. But the decisions that are going to be made won't come from even myself, we will make recommendations on where they come from. But that'll go through myself and Sandy. First, it starts with our managers. They see what their operating budgets are, what they are. They make suggestions. We have to put together proposals. The proposals go through finance department. Finance department says, Okay, we're going to move forward with this. It goes through the city manager's office. City manager's office reviews them, and then he decides what goes in front of commission and commission ultimately makes the decision.

Yeah, okay.

It's And

so I did bring, like, the numbers I'm talking to you about are actuals. I deal with it every day and I've just spent the last eight hours today actually in front of it. There's not much that I haven't seen. But a little bit on that I can give you is we just did a budget workshop with the commission. And a

lot of

the things that they talked about were freezing some wages. So there's going to be beyond what I'm talking about and what we're talking about. There's going to be caps on increases for people. There will be but we have union contracts, so we have to deal with them, too. There will be a lot of things that come as part of this.

With the property tax reduction that is in the forefront right now and past Senate on its way to the House, that's going to come with a whole lot of decisions to be made. Because they said flat out that we have to preserve police, we have to preserve fire, we have to preserve utilities, and public works. So those are the four main components. So as much as we would love to say we don't want to make a cut, it's inevitable that there has to be some cuts to move forward. So we're just trying to make that best decision possible.

And once we get that to that point, I'd be happy to bring back to you the suggestions that are made and moving forward. But with a meeting even once a month, there's no way that I would have the time before that budget process hit to get you guys all up to speed on what every line in that budget was. Okay. Was just

just to have all the factors, like, right in front of us. Because obviously, when you're talking about all the factors, you can forget about some things. But when you have all of everything everything right in front of you on, like, a actual report, it's just easier to make considerations and suggestions. See, like Yeah. Which ones which ones, obviously, we have to preserve and which ones we can sort of, like, around the edges for a bit for.

One of the recommendations that went through as part of this proposal was to consider have the commission consider a parks district. I don't know if any of you are familiar in a lot of places, a parks district.

Oh, okay.

So Parks District is a little different. There's not one established in Florida as of yet, but Illinois is famous for them. A lot of northern areas are more in tune with the district. So kinda operates a little bit like our fire district, our utilities as a district. They become a taxable entity separate from the general fund.

Right now, when easiest way for me to explain it to you, and I'll leave you with some information before I go, is if you take your $1 of property tax, right, your $1 that I pay or you pay on your parents pay on a house, there's a percentage that goes to the schools right off the top. There's a percentage that goes to the city, there's a percentage that goes to the county, and then there's a miscellaneous percentage that goes to districts and other things that are happening. Unfortunately, what your tax dollar in Northport goes to is the bigger chunk goes to schools. And then there's about a 26% and a 28% that goes to the city and the county, each just about equal. But the city's providing all the services.

The county's not providing. The county's well, they are providing some services, not the ones that we're talking about today. And then that little 9% is that district stuff. So that's where you see on your tax bill, you have ad valorem and non ad valorem. And so those things, when they cut the property tax portion, those districts still exist.

So even though my taxes will be reduced if it goes away, I will still pay school taxes. I will still pay that 9%. So that bigger chunk, it's only that remaining 50% that will actually go away with the property tax reform that they're talking about. And so what would happen when they create a district is first the commission creates an ordinance to establish it. They attach a millage rate, which is the percentage per $100,000 that your house is worth to be paid, and it would go directly to that district.

It would come out of that general fund. So it wouldn't come in here. Parks doesn't share it with well, the other big draw in our general fund is police department. So we wouldn't share it. It wouldn't be a distribution. That funds would come straight to parks.

And what's nice with that is then we can make our own money, too, instead of what we earn for Parks and Rec with Parks and Rec events. The money right now just goes

back into the general

everyone else said is in the general fund. Whereas if we were in a district, then we could put on events as fundraisers, to speak, for Parks and Rec to offer more things throughout the year.

So when we talked a little bit about at the beginning, the one other than the Warm Mineral Springs, because I want to specify, that is what's called an enterprise fund. It's its own fund. Where Mineral Springs sits over here, the money it makes has to pay for itself. It doesn't come back over. Every other entity, if you gave me a $5 donation today, that money goes back into the general fund.

It does not come back to a park. And then the distribution of the general fund is parks is about 3% of it, PDs, the rest. So when you look at that, it's a harder thing to understand all the kind of inner workings of it. And that's kind of why breaking down that budget piece is a lot harder. It's not just like we can say, Okay, we'll cut that and we'll make more money and that'll offset that fund.

But the district is a good idea. I believe this community is very into their parks. We saw the attendance numbers. It's just gonna have to be the right way because it's another referendum vote. And unfortunately, last year, we weren't successful with referendum votes. And now there's a very as being a clerk, I will tell

you there's a very negative, negative, negative response. If we put out another referendum right now for any money for anything. I guarantee it wouldn't go. I hate

to say it. Especially when the average person is thinking they're going to get rid of all their property taxes next year. Why would I put something more on?

And they're not going to do that anyways. People people people don't use half their brain.

They don't even use 3%

of brain.

The only people that are gonna get a break are the one those of us that are homesteaded for one.

And it's it's gonna be a break. It's not gonna be all your taxes.

Correct. Because you're still gonna pay school. Mhmm. You're still gonna pay hospital. Yeah. It's

And our taxes I'm sorry. Our taxes are not that bad here. No. They are not. No.

I mean, I taxes is, like, I got the taxes there

are insane.

I mean, I'd tell you what, they're not that bad.

Oh my god.

I mean, even in other companies are

I paid just shy of $2,000 in my taxes last year. I have a 16,000 square foot under AC home, two lots. The house next to me, I can put their entire house, including their garage, inside my air conditioning. They bought their they spent. Their taxes are double because they paid double. It's not Mhmm. Taxes is not the problem. The problem is the inflation on everything else that people are paying way too much for. I mean, they're paying a $101,150,000 dollars for these old Maclebrother homes that aren't worth $50. That's the problem.

To bring it back, Gavin, if you would like me to do a presentation on budget for the next meeting, I'd be happy to.

Okay. Yeah. How is this? We'll bring it up, and you

can make a motion during that discussion. Yeah. Okay.

That would be great. So would it be possible for us to make a motion that we could get them to look at the idea of sponsor expanding our offerings at our events to be able to create some new revenue to cover our losses.

So you could make a motion to recommend that commission look at expansion of the sponsorship rates. But what you motion is for them to make a recommendation for them to do something. And like I said, they have been presented with it once. We have to bring it back. It does have expanded opportunity, but that would be a part supporting that.

Okay. Well, I'd like to make a motion that

We still have to We haven't finished Laurie's motion. We have

to do Laurie's motion first.

Yeah, we have to finish that one

out. So

all in favor? All in favor of Lori's motion?

Aye.

Okay. You're back to you knew what it was? Yeah, please. Okay. Yeah. Can we amend the motion?

Okay. First of all, we'd have to take back the motion kind of?

No, we can just amend it.

Who Okay. Would like to add an amendment to the motion?

What are we adding? What do you want to amend?

So what we need to add is that the Parks and Rec Advisory Board recommends fees be utilized to offset costs of both houses at events. And if you want me to bring back what those fees would be, then you would add that as well.

Second it.

Okay. And it's to recommend that fees for bounce houses or specialized activities at special events have a fee charged for use in order to offset the costs. And we'll leave it at that, and then I'll bring them back to amount after we look at what can be I want to make sure there's a family amount on that. Okay. All in favor?

Aye. Kevin, now your motion. Alright.

I'd like to make a motion that we expand our offerings at some of these events so that, we can help to in further offsetting those expenses of the events.

I will second that motion.

Okay. So motion by Kevin, seconded by Gavin. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye.

Okay. Anything else? Did anybody else want to add on this, item?

I'm just gonna comment that unfortunately, people are gonna have to

understand that this is a kind of unpredictable economy. And unfortunately, we're going to have to raise prices on certain things or even in emergency situations, customer things. They're just understand that we're in not the I mean, I'm not going say we're in a horrible position, but we're not in the best optimal position.

That's all I'm going say.

The problem is anyone will take less property taxes and say thank you, okay, and not realize what we're losing. That's the problem. Yeah. And that's human nature, unfortunately. Yeah. You know what's in it for me?

Well, then everybody's caught up in a lot. And it's hard to see the whole big, long, down the road picture of what effect things like that will have. Instead, they see the struggles they're having. And they think, oh, I'm paying less now. This is great. And that's all

they think. I

can pay less when get my brand new cell phone. Right.

But then the numbers we were looking at before to see where we make twice the national average for recovery in our parks and rec. That means our community loves their parks and rec. That means it's a very important dynamic for our community.

It also means we do it well. Yes. Yes. And we do and we do it frugally. Yes.

Yep. It's it's it's just what we're here for. We are here to be here because people obviously can't see the full picture of the consequences down the road for certain effects and the because they're just going to see the short term, just like, as you said, less property taxes. But we might lose a certain event that people are really going to love. So that's why we're here. We're just going to look at all the long term effects, look at all the consequences, look at everything. That's why I just wanted the budget request. I to just a good long look at everything and see what we can recommend to improve. Trish?

Yes. Summer Kent?

Yes. 107% cost recovery.

That, I know from past experience, the cost is wonderful. I don't know what it runs for the full summer now.

So we're looking at the field trips and things because it's kind of compartmentalized the costs. But it makes, like I said, dollars 7 on every dollar or $07 on every dollar that I spend on it. So it's an offsetting cost. And that's something that's such a need for our community, that would be the last thing that we would look at.

I'm just you know, what I'm I'm I'm oh, I'm not cutting that. Oh god. No. I'm talking, you know, cost of it now. How much is it? What about a small increase in there to help?

You're going to see an increase come in the fee schedule this year. Yeah. It hasn't gone up in a while. The problem with it is, again, our competitor is Charlotte County, and we're right at the same level as them right now. So we're gonna go up a little bit. I think one of the things that we're gonna look at doing is expanding some specialty camps so that people will pay a little bit more for a specialty camp or bring somebody in that does something specific. We've increased more enrollment in our junior lifeguard camp because that's especially when people will pay more for it. So that's where we're looking at that evolution. But it is 107% cost recovery. So it makes every dollar back and $07 on every dollar.

And it's a great program. My daughter did it for four years over here and two years at Teen Extreme.

Oh, cool.

So it's How

many oh, I'm sorry.

I had a question. It can hold off.

You were talking about the specialty camps. And I was wondering how many things do we have within the city that are like toddler things. And, I know you said one time we'd have stuff for, like, homeschool. But, recently, I was at Centennial Park and they have, a lot of flyers for They have music classes, dance classes for toddlers. There were so many. I was surprised at how many things that they offer there.

So we run them. We don't run them consistently. We change that out. But we have Midday Motion. We have their baby ballerinas was my class that they now are offering. But it's about the instructor. We had an instructor. That instructor left. We'll bring another instructor back in. But we kind of try to flip them through. But we do offer them all the time. And we're a little bit reduced going into this coming year because we will be taking the senior center programming all into the Morgan Center. So that will be running or Mullen Center. Sorry, said Morgan. Mullen Center.

And so that will be taking up nine to four in those rooms every day. So it'll only be what we have moving over to the Morgan Center that will be continuing to run.

They have

that one scheduled.

Yeah. They have nine to four every day, Monday to Friday. Wow.

So that should bring us

a little more revenue, maybe? Yeah. The same $200 a month that we're

gonna have. Yeah. Don't Yeah. Membership is atrocious.

Dollars a year.

I was volunteering services over there. And when I started hearing the budgeting and

Yeah.

At $200 a year for a membership, membership. And And I thought to myself, that's the reason why we're not fixing the building.

Yeah.

If they would charge some kind of a reasonable annual fee, then there would be some equity in that. You know? We'd be able to work with that better. But that's surprising that they're actually filling nine to four.

Yeah, nine to four. So, we'll see where it goes. They're gonna come in August and then we'll see where we are at the beginning of the year and what that looks like. So that will affect a little bit of it. But we do have our taught times. We have little Picassos, which is a painting class for the little one. And we just sprinkle them in and out so that we're not constantly running one. They kind of evolve and change as the seasons change.

And all that information can be found, like, at the Morgan Center? There's flyers

in Playbook. Playbook. And when you walk into those centers, they have the same kind of board with all the flyers.

Playbook has so much stuff in it. It's amazing the things that we offer.

Playbook?

Yeah. There's some right out here out by the chamber. Okay. There's some right on the wall. So

could I ask the question? Sure. All right. So it's kind of going on what Mr. Jackman said, like, way before about the movie nights. So was that, like, a free amenity? Yep. And the target audience, I'm assuming, were like kids, right?

It's families. There's usually about, on average, 175 to two fifty people that attend, and it's usually families. They come with their kids on a Friday night. They set up movies free. Movie and screen cost us money. We have to pay for the rights to have the movie. We have to pay for the setup. So it's about a $3,000 cost to our department and we make no revenue from it whatever whatsoever.

It's just a a fun time. So at the Boys

and Girls Club in Sarasota, like, know it's a nonprofit, so it completely works differently. But we kinda do the same thing, like a kids night out type of thing, and we charge money. So I've just asked the board members here, do you guys think, like, we could maybe have a cost or, like, maybe, like, 5 to $10 with So again, when

we talk about the budget cuts that I have to make right now, the cost doesn't come back to me. Because the government, it goes back into the general fund. So even if I made more money on that, I still have to cut the expense that I have right now. So that's where the district idea is where they would change that We're ways off of that. But that's why I can't just fix those problems that easily.

Yeah, that's wild.

When you look at those numbers in the report, look at how much we actually put back in to that general fund But each it still costs the business. It still costs us more to do it, right? So even though we're putting back in 51% of what we spend, it's still at a deficit to that general fund.

It seems that the budgeting for that general fund is off a little bit. When we see different things, I see constantly seeing new undercover police cars and all kinds of amenities being spent in the police department. Not to say that we shouldn't be supporting the police department, obviously, not only the officers, but also their requirements of what they need. But at the same time, I feel that we should be as frugal as possible possible and still be able to do that job. So that's just a concern. And I know that's something that we

There's many places for you to voice that concern.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for that.

I highly suggest that you take the

you took it.

Citizens Public Safety Academy.

Yep. Okay.

I highly recommend

a it. Very good course.

They're taking applications right now.

Yeah. You would like it.

Yeah. It'll show you a lot more.

I would think lot of friends Just just here.

I've been

friends with officer Sullivan for twenty plus years.

Also, A

lot of these officers, they're great. And I love our police force. And it's nothing about that. It's honestly just that it seems that if we're at a place where we're going to be looking at, hey, the community, which is where our tax revenue comes from, is going to start losing services that are making profits, that's where the concern comes in. It's to say, well, now we're going to actually lose more from that general fund, which supports and finances the police department.

They're going be cutting the same 5%.

Right. Right, which is unfortunate.

All of us are challenged with the same one. It's just proportionately, it's a much harder hit to that smaller budget, right?

Okay.

Any other discussion on

that? Okay.

Revenue and review and discussion of recent and upcoming parks and recreation department. Did the vote. The vote on the last motion.

Oh, I thought we did.

Oh, we did. They did. Vote on

that one. We did. Second

one. Yeah. Alright. On the second one on Kevin's motion? Yeah.

Then All favor?

He did.

And Gavin was yeah. All in favor?

Aye.

Okay. Okay. Keep us honest.

Thank God. She's here. Review and discussion of recent and upcoming Park and Recreation Department events. Alright, we're gonna end tonight's meeting on a very happy note. We're gonna talk about some of the good fun things we've been doing. We had 28 patrons participate in the Eco Adventures tour, which is our kayaking tour at Bob Johnson Landing. The twenty twenty six seasonal recruiting for lifeguards is underway. We had really great turnout. We had 30 kids return from last year, so that's great when we do that. It means they had a good experience, means they enjoyed their role.

And we have 40 interested in applications in for this summer's lifeguard season. They had 31 learn to swim between private lessons and public lessons, 31 participants in this last round, so 31 more kids in there learning how to swim. The community outreach and recruitment was completed at Northport High and at the Imagine School. They also participated in the night at the New Welland Park for just general information to talk about what we do. There was over 10,100 patrons at Warm Mineral Springs in just the month of February.

And then fence maintenance was reinforced at the perimeter of Warm Mineral Springs. And we also installed a fence at Atwater Splash Pad. We were having a lot of problems with the kids getting on there with the bikes and doing tricks and running the surface of the splash pad. So we put a nice little fence so that the bikes can't get on there so easy. In recreation, we hosted the rock, run and roll with a lot of help from our chair as every year I'll tell you what, it's

a very successful race and it went beautifully.

Yep, two sixteen participants were involved in that race this year. We launched our new eSports Lounge at the Morgan Center where the kids can participate. I don't know if everybody knows what an e sports lounge is, but, you know, video game world is upon us and they love it and they can be there in a safe environment and they have tournaments where they play other rec centers and other municipalities. We actually mirrored ours off of Sunrise, Florida, because they had a really great program. And we have them in there all the time doing that right now.

Where is that at?

It's at the Morgan Center in the teen lounge. And that's open every day. So it's a very cool additive, meeting the needs of you guys who love that stuff. What do you think about that?

Yeah, actually, was there once on one time after academic practice. Just had to stay over to Morgan Center. Not

really of like a, how do I say, a social person. So when I go over to the Morgan Center, it's like, it gets a bit awkward. But honestly, when I went over to the Esports Lounge, like, it was it was it was a pretty cool experience,

to be honest. I did I saw a couple of guys. They seemed to enjoy it. They seemed to have been going there.

I think that's a very good addition, to be honest. I think people really liked it.

Have you been? No, not yet. You got

to check it out. Yeah.

All

right. After the next Holly's Hope meeting, I'll go in.

All right. And then we hosted the nature walk at the Mahakahatchee Greenway Trail with the local scout troops. And they went in and helped us with invasive species removal along the sides of the trail, which we're kind of hitting some of our go greenwood parks and our nature walks for some of the scouts right now because we're helping them get some badges and different stuff, which is really cool. They had over 45 people at Marina Park to participate in a very, very interesting Dylan, our supervisor in rec, he's so environmentally his degree is in environmental studies. He's just taken his master naturalist.

He's now working on a C program. But he was very passionate because he was able to do something with water. And they had interactive stations that focused on salt water and the difference with salt water and brackish water ecosystems. And then they had created this whole wave pool that showed how the mangroves actually protect the erosion from the shore. And they had 45 kids involved in that, which was a great participation for that program.

So very proud of that new program. The community yard sale in Newcomers Day had over 1,000 people. Wolfstock drew two eighty attendees and we had 19 different merchandise vendors there. In maintenance, we installed new signs for the Little League field at Atwater Park and laser graded fields 1 and two, installed the new scores tables at the Naramore Softball Fields, getting ready for their kickoff coming, painted over graffiti on the concrete at Skatepark, installed wood fencing and prepared for a grand opening of Boca Chica, which we all opened. Nope. I didn't see you there. But it's a very, very cool new park and very happy that we finally got that one opened.

And it's being used. It's being used a lot.

It is being used a lot. Actually, I had a lady, an interesting story about Boca Chica, a lady who said she bought her house in 1992, three blocks from there. And she said when we bought it, my daughter was young and we saw this and oh, it's Parkland, great, we're gonna have a park in our neighborhood. And she walked in with her daughter and her daughter's two children and said, Well, at least my grandchildren will finally get to see the park.

Hey, my kids were seven and eight when I wanted to start a pool. My grandkids graduated from high school before it was built.

So long awaited park in that area. I mean, it was a it was a desert for parks. There was nothing between Salford and Atwater. So we finally have something in there that gives a little bit to that neighborhood, which is nice. They also repaired a broken line waterline at the canine club. For administration, we have the grand opening of parks and recreation parks and recreation grand grand opening of Boca Chica. And upcoming, we have the Easter egg hunts this Saturday. They will take place on at two in a row. At 06:00, they will begin on Saturday. National Parks, Prescription Day, which is on April 25, and that will be on the Greenway Trail.

Splash into Summer and May Day, that's the free event for the community. If you're a Northport resident, you'll get free into the aquatic center that day, and that is on May 9. Northport's got talent coming up on May 9 as well in the evening at the performing arts center at the high school. Miss Joan is going to be a judge Yep. For us with a couple of other friends in our neighborhood, and that's always a good time.

Kids to park day, which is on 05/16, and that is that's running at a few different parks. So other than that, I guess the last one for me is what's coming up on commission. And on April 21, we have an amendment to the resolution to include Boca Chica Park, Maikahatchee Green Trail as two dog friendly locations. Right now, our ordinance has listed what parks are and what parks aren't dog friendly. So in opening these two, we have to actually change the resolution to add them.

My Akihatchee is not dog friendly?

The trail is not. Because it was never it was just never added.

I just assumed because

At the grand opening of Boca Chica, there was almost as many dogs as people. So it's not going to be something that's enforced. It's just it has to be added to the list for that purpose. There's also an amendment for a C MAR agreement for services at Marina Parks to finish off what's going out at Marina Park. There's two remaining Hurricane Ian repairs. That is one of them for some work at Marina Park and one more kayak launch. That's it. And we're finally done with Ian. Tell me about it. That sent my world crazy for a few years.

And then we have an amendment to a resolution for updating fees to our athletic officials contract because it has not been updated in a number of years. And for our youth basketball, we pay our officials and they're being underpaid right now. So we have to move that range a little bit or we're not gonna have any referees to be there for basketball. We also have an award for an RFP for Hope Park Playground Replacement. Hope Park Playground Replacement is 100% funded by a CDBG grant.

So it's being replaced and upgraded at this point, but at no cost to the taxpayers. So I'm gonna make sure whenever I have those, I'm specifying to everybody that they know when somebody says, why are we replacing another playground? The average life expectancy of a playground is ten years. After the ten years, they say that your cost in replacement and parts become more significant. Your occurrence of injuries become more increased.

This one, Hope Park, was actually installed thirteen years ago. So it was installed in 2013. So it's it's up. We've we've pushed our replacement schedule out to about twelve to thirteen years is what we're on. And on June 9, we also have another one that will go in for the amendment to Wharton Smith for the Warmanillo Springs Park building renovation.

And that should be once we get that amendment and we should be well underway with them starting. They're just at this point finalizing that contractual agreement for that work at Warm Mineral Springs.

I got a couple of

things too. I wanted to add to that. First of all, I see some of you still have the sunshine thing here. Make sure you get that signed and give it over to her tonight to make sure that we get that in. The other thing is that, I wanted to talk about just a couple things that are happening here with our D5.

We've talked about Kevin Mace being hired and just how phenomenal he is and some of the things that he's coming up with a leadership conference where we're gonna have drug free Lee, drug free Colliers, drug free Henry, drug free Charlotte coming here on on July 25 and all sorts of stuff happening. So we're bringing them in. We now have a defy club at because of him and our defy officers at the high school, those kids are phenomenal. Okay? They are they now have a defy unit at Heron Creek Middle School and also at Woodland Park.

On November 15, he's gonna have a Clear Path Festival. And we are going to be bringing in a lot of groups like Doug Drug Free Charlotte, Tobacco, Chad, NAMI, the Rotary Clubs and celebrate recovery groups, and NAMI, and all sorts of the Englewood Community Coalition in that. He's also starting kickball and other activities where we have the kids actively moving, actively having fun, and it's all going to be under the defy. So we are getting a lot of stuff going on there.

You gotta say, on the kick butt stay, which is the smoke quit smoking day, that's when they're gonna play kickball. I think that's hilarious. Yeah. Celebration of the kick butt stay.

His whole philosophy, he's starting a Northport Ambassadors. He's gonna have six kids, which are going to be the ones that are kind of the coordinators for these programs. He doesn't wanna come out. He doesn't come out and hear, Oh, look at me. Look at me. No, it's the kids. He's pushing them and working with them and that's so wonderful. And they are responding totally for that. He's very proud of the fact that we have now not only the new area for them to use at the Morgan Center, but also a new bulletin board so we can keep them up to date on all the stuff that is going on. So, I'll tell you what, it's all very, very positive.

We're getting more and more kids into that group and making the vaping stuff. You know, we keep on talking about all these kids that are vaping and what are we going to do, but we really have to realize 88% of the kids do not vape. 88% of the kids are doing it right, but these 12% seem to get all you know, the publicity and all the people working on them. But let's celebrate the 88% that are doing the right thing, and let's make that group 95%, 97%, you know? And that's what we're doing because we're making the other side look better, okay?

Reaching to the choir. The ambassador program is very, very near and dear to my I worked very closely with Kevin on development of the ambassador program. It's really going to work on that peer to peer teaching and mentoring so that the message isn't coming from us old people. It's those people that we're celebrating their what does he call them? The have nots. They have not done that. So celebrating that piece of it and having them champion each other to say, you can be a have not as well. And

a lot of the kids, a lot of the DeFi leadership in that, they are at that Morgan Center every single day. And what they are doing is spreading the goodness, okay? They are talking to these other kids and all of this kind of stuff, and kids are saying, Hey, I can have fun and I can be drug free and maybe this is the way I should be. And so, I think it's just a very, very positive thing. I all of you, I hope you read that we got in the emails about the fact that the commission, what we proposed to them, to, write an ordinance and things like that, but they're waiting on the e bikes.

And I think you all got that in your emails. But anyway, I was at that meeting and all that kind of stuff. And their whole idea behind it is the fact that let's wait and see what the state laws and the new rules are going to be in that, and then we'll work underneath that. Not that they're, you know, overlooking it.

They did not push it off. I wanted to if you have any questions about it, they did not push it off. They realized the importance of it. And actually, when I was up there speaking to it, the chief came down and stood with me to support in that. They just wanted there's going to be big regulation changes coming in July. They're talking the state is talking about implementing some solid rules. And that's going to give better enforceability to our police department. So they're afraid if we put an ordinance in place now that doesn't address that new stuff, we would be amiss to not have what they need. So we're going to let that stuff come down. And we had an occurrence this weekend where I had another call.

I was on the phone Saturday night with the chief. And they're going to put some more patrols out on the Greenway. They're going to do the things that we're seeing where those problems are just to try to counter it in the meantime because it's very important that they can catch it. They can talk to them. They can deter it. And then it sets us up when we get into July for some enforceability.

Again, probably 88% of the kids are doing it right and doing it nice, but those other 12% are making everybody nervous. And unfortunately, there's accidents happening. Anyway, some things when you look at a year ago and now with some of this stuff because of Kevin Mace and DeFi and what the city has done and what the recreation department has done, we would have been nowhere. DFI wouldn't be here because we were out of funding. Okay? And now look at it, it's just growing in leaps and bounds and, all else we can say is thank you, you know? So okay. Any anything else? Okay. The next on the agenda, future agenda items?

Future agenda items, that's it right now. Review and discuss parks and recreation agenda items. Okay. Anybody? Oh, we did that. We did that. Yeah. Okay. Now future agenda items. Anybody have anything? We did have some stuff. Gavin, let's go with what you were saying.

Yeah. I was just talking about the the next meeting for a presentation on the entirety of the budget, all the factors going into it. And as

always When talk about entire budget, do you want the parks and recreation budget, or do you want the entire city budget?

Parks and recreation. That's what I meant. Entire parks recreation. Sorry. Just for

Parks and rec.

Just for, just for, we can so we can have a full look at what we can do with, what we can work with and what we can do to

Would you like me to create a presentation on kind of an overview of what the city budget looks like, how it kind of works, what percentage we are, and then bring you into the numbers of ours for a better understanding? Or do you just want to see the parks and recreation budget?

I just want to see the parks

and recreation budget. And it's just,

I mean, we all we all know, well, you know, I feel like that's just I just just straight to the point, just I want to I just think we should all see what we're working with, I guess, just so we can make some very make some educated recommendations.

If I could add to request that we actually have a little bit of the overall budget just so we can have some understanding

The context.

Yeah, the context of what we actually get from where. Okay.

Any other items for the future agenda?

Okay. Any other public comment while we're here? None. Okay. Then I say we are adjourned.

Thank you.