Parks and Recreation Commission - Regular Meeting

I'll make a motion to start. Okay. Okay. I'll second when we have to do the pledge of allegiance. Ericas will lead us. Yes. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, and liberty and justice for all. Roll call. John Jones here. Dennis K here. Sharon P here. Kate Smith absent and excused. Bridget King here. Jennifer McConnell here. Robert Smith here. Kathy K. No, she's absent too, right? Yeah. I don't absent and excused. I have not heard from her, but we'll give her a couple minutes to see. And Rob Jones. Good. Oh, there she is. Come on, sneaker. I I think we changed your We changed your seat. You're right. Front and center. Happens. You caused trouble. Get over here before you get another timeout. I didn't know I had to allow an extra 10 or 15 minutes by yourself. Now, that's right. You have to do the pledge of allegiance by yourself. You get to stand and we get to watch you. Um appro I think we have to do something with the parks and wreck minutes meetings for the one that says approval of a approval of agenda. Well, approval of agenda, but we got to go back for the

approval of the April minutes delayed until the June meeting. Don't we have to approve the agenda? We have to Which one do we have to approve first? Well, first you approve the agenda. Okay. April 29th and May 27th. I make a motion to approve the agenda for June 24th, 2025. Second. Who was that? All in favor? I 8 Z and then did we make the change for the April minutes? They are on the agenda for approving. So you can approve April and May tonight. Okay. Oh, okay. I see you got Okay. We need the approval of the minutes for April 29th and May 27th. I move to approve the minutes. I need a second. Second. All in favor? I. 80. Again. Does anybody move these? Are we done? Is there got those? Well, you're supposed Did everybody get one that way? Okay. If everybody got one that way, then We can send them back to Erica again. Yeah. I don't know. She might not have got them. Is it? No, you didn't. Take one. Okay. Just take one. Take one of each. The same price. Take one. We don't charge you more if you take two. Presentations. Any none public hearing? Do we have anything?

No. Anything it would be on your public comment again? Public comment again. Anything? No. Miller items for consideration. Old business. I did have a quick update. Uh we did have the Manor workday, but we didn't finish it. So we actually have another uh and this will be in my report that I passed out. We'll go back to Manor on July 26 to complete that project. And then Kowuanas Park, uh if you remember, we had scheduled it and then Kowuanas Club was going to do it and then Kowuanas came back to us. They had to reschedu their date from last weekend. So we're partnered again. We're providing wood chips and tools. We're recruiting volunteers. That is this Saturday from 9 to 11. So, um, and then Mhler Park, if you remember, we had set a date for that. And then we canled that due to the heat and we don't have a date yet. We're going to do that maybe in August. So, we want to get through Manor. We got to get through Kuanas because there's a ton of wood chips coming for that project and we may not finish on Saturday. So, what time is Saturday? They did a good job of September. Yeah, they did a good job of cleaning out the playscape area. Yes, DPW was brought into Kowanas because the weeds were like grass sodlike, very very severe. And uh at Manor Park where uh Sharon was and who else was there? Yes. Okay, I know there's two of us. Yeah, there it was kind of the borderline. was pretty thick, but a lot of volunteers shoveled, but we didn't get to all the wood chips. So, it's kind of needs that followup, but a and that one, you know, that was a tough part because we had to go up over the burm um

you know, on the wheelbarrows. It was and it was hot, but it was a lot uh accomplished. So, that was exciting. So, that's the update on those park days. And again, I typed them out on your um on the report that I handed out. And that's all I have on old business. Looks like new business. We've got the commemorative tree program. Yes. So, I did email uh some information and gave you a handout. Um there's a couple things. One, we do have uh a tree species list. Even though it says approved, I'm looking tonight for approval from um the parks and recck commission, all of you. Um I did share this with Kathleen a couple weeks ago and I know you had one concern with the ginko, so we could talk about that. Um but basically, we're looking to provide a list of pre-approved trees um that are primarily native. Um, but the chart has some additional information including their height, the bloom, uh, soil, uh, preferences, um, and some of those things because currently our website we only offered, I think it was a maple was the only tree. So, this is just, uh, taking some research I had done before and, uh, proposing that we update and provide a list of approved trees that are good for the parks or that we want. Um, and I don't know, we could talk about the ginko because that is technically a non-native. Um, but it's a very old uh thousands of years old tree. And remind us what maybe your concern was with the goko if we want to take that

off. I had um read about uh if you happen to get the female of the species. Yeah. that it puts off seeds that have really noxious odor. And you know, you don't know until, you know, it's 30 years old and the tree is large. You don't know until it's funny because male, right? Right. Right. But you're saying you don't you don't know it's a female until it's, you know, reached maturity to put off. You'd either be trusting a nursery who maybe Yeah. You don't know. So, I mean, we could remove that one. I don't know if anyone else has any feelings about the gingo tree. It is a beautiful old tree that's been, you know, like 150 million years old. Uh, it's pretty old species, but um there there definitely is that male female species uh concern. And I don't know. I know in the past we've planted the nursery says it's male but yeah I guess what you're saying is I would hope that all nurseries just carry the male of the Yeah. What it says here species in the thing it says only males permit it. Yeah. Female trees produces foul smelling. Yeah. And it says they do produce foul smelling. They do. So that's what I've read. So it Yeah. You know, there was another tree that I thought of that would be kind of a cool tree that you really need a lot of area to plant. It's the dawn redwood. And it's, you know, unusual. It's not native though. Okay. But a dawn redwood. Dawn redwood. Yeah. It's but you need the wide open spaces of like a park in order to be able to plant it. Not a very good tree for I mean residential. Yeah. And this would I mean the idea is

that someone could put forward another tree that we could look at based on the space and other factors. So if you want we can remove the ginko from this and and if somebody really felt strongly we could recon you know we could look at it case by case. So this is a list of people who want a tree planted they could go off of this list. Yeah. So, it's kind So, if someone comes to the city and says, "We want to donate a tree." Uh, sometimes people have ideas for trees that maybe don't have they're either not native or have other drawbacks that are maintenance related or uh, you know, maybe not suited for the soil or have droppings that aren't great over a playground or there's all sorts of things that um to think about when you're planting a tree. So, the idea is to have some that we know we want more of um and give people something to work from. I think we give them two choices. The dogwood and the tulip tree. That's it. That's all you get. One of two. What are the main trees that are in Why would we not want to bring the butterflies and the bees back? Cuz each one of these has value. Oh, yeah. But I guarantee you those two have more value than anything else on this list. for butterflies and bees. A chinka pin. Have you seen a chinka pin? It's like the most gorgeous. Yeah, it is. Tree. I mean, all of these red buds, those are all great. Yeah. Oh, why would you do that? Who would do that? Are you the tree expert or are they? Yeah. Let's take a vote. Are you an arborist? Yeah. The oak trees, you know, provide food and they they bloom. Usually diversity is great because if you get some kind of We don't have any dog woods or tulips in our parks. We don't have Well, we have some parks that don't have any trees. So, usually a variety is good because if some kind of uh you know disease, you

remember the elm stuff or the ashbor, you know, like that's what we learned is good to have a variety, you know, especially when some have a spring bloom, some have the fall colors. So, it's nice to and if somebody wants to donate a tree, it's nice to have a a large number of trees they can pick things from. Right. Well, right. And, you know, based on the soil conditions or, you know, availability. Yeah. Availability and what people Yeah. That's half the battle is trying to find some of these. Yes. Yeah. So, well, does anybody know when it when they can determine if it's male or female? I mean, it seems Yeah. I I mean I like the idea because obviously I looked at the list and it drawed it drew my attention for the two that were not native. So I went to Google. I did a little search and I noticed that the the female it said something about the the seeds and slimy and obviously smell. Um it seems like even uh when you buy these trees, what are they? They're four years old or so or they're I don't know, right? Or are they just real small? I don't know. I only I remember we plan in my previous job we planted a ginko tree before but I wasn't I don't know I didn't I remember knowing it had to be male but I don't even right here I mean if they happen to plant a female we we can cut it down right that is true but you got to smell that coming down to think the other one that the hackberry says it has small edible fruit so I I assume it has flowers on it then Mhm. Well, even the oak trees have flowers at some point. You just don't see them. Yes. Anything that bears a fruit would have a flower at some point. So,

you I'm fine with all of them. Yeah. I like your list. I like the sugar maple. Mhm. So, do we want to um approve this and we can add it to our website? I mean, or do you want should we take the GKO off? What do you all want to do? Take the GKO off. Okay. Or do you want to vote on that? Actually, we should vote on it. I like the variety. I don't care either way. I vote it. I'm good with Well, somebody has to make a motion to vote. Okay. I'll make a motion to approve the list as presented. Second. Seconded. All in favor? I I 80. Okay. So, keep the ginko keep our eye on if that comes forward. Tree in mind. I would think any reputable nursery is not going to sell the female of the I mean, it is a neat tree. So, yeah. I think if you tell them you want a ginko and you want I'm gonna look into the dawn redwood for sure. I'll look into that. I'm with you because I'm curious. Yeah, look, it is an interesting tree because it it it does shed some of its um needles. It's It's different. It's just you have to see look it up on the internet. And I like the way you say donors and residents are welcome to propose planting a species that is not presented on this list. So that gives them a chance to present something, right? Yeah. Okay. So that's the tree species list. So the other thing is our tree program. So currently we actually took down our program from the website. There's a couple of challenges right now just having done one tree planting in the last eight months.

um our fee when it came down to pricing out a tree from a nursery. Uh for example, the tree that we just planted at uh Florence Park was a sugar maple. Um that cost $900. So we're right now it was like $800 to donate it. So we're not quite covering the cost of it. And I did try to find other nurseries to see if we could find one cheaper, but those nurseries it was like first come, first available and after about a month of like calling every week and um I just had to go back to Davey the tree service and say, "Yeah, we want this." And they did a great job, you know, because then we have to do a misdie. So, we said on our website that we have a bronze plaque that gets cemented in and that's for $200. Well, that you cannot get a bronze plaque for that. So after doing some pricing on that um and doing a little bit of research on tree recognition because we talked about this before, I am of the preference to not allow uh sort of inground plaquing just because over time it tends to look like cemetery. Um and I researched I just Googled and I didn't bring my research with me. Um, but I checked about 10 websites just kind of looking across the country and I think about seven of them did not do on-site recognition and three did. So, you can go either way. And I thought of a few possibilities um either for recognizing on site uh like Mike had an idea with parks to

maybe under the park sign add a small like hanging plaque to the sign that recognizes a tree donation in the park. Um you know, we looked at boulders and other things, but the boulders have to be big enough to not be carried away. and get into boulders. They're actually quite expensive to get the ones that you can't carry off and you still got to plaque them. Um, another option, which I don't think many people like, but is online recognition where we could take a photo of the tree um and allow the donor to make a a tribute or something and then it could be available to family and friends across the country or, you know, not local and either updated every year or, you know, showed the tree growth somehow. So, I wanted to get your input because, you know, I think it would be nice if we could allow for more tree donations because some of the parks really are uh low on trees, you know, but you have there is an approval process. We have to make sure that it's not in the middle of a soccer field or an area that other people are using for different things that we don't know about. Yeah. Put one on a pitcher's mouth. and you know and and then you know all the considerations of species list and the one thing that you know I do know is it's very time consuming for staff so just this one tree donation I counted over 45 emails just in coordinating with the nursery with the donor on the plaque on the so just over like eight months it's really time consuming so you know I'm like I don't know how many we could do in one year for example but I also think it's really important that we encourage, you know, tree donations um and and plaque uh and I'm sorry, benches which do have the plaque on them. So, I just wanted to get your thoughts of um because we've sort of talked about this, but I haven't really come to any conclusions. So, what I

drafted was kind of an updated version. Um but again, want to get your thoughts on uh pricing because I was proposing like $1,000. I think that would cover at least the tree, the delivery, and the planting. Um, although it may vary by species, too. Who brought us a tree? Who brought us a birch tree? Didn't someone try and bring us give us a birch tree? Oh, really? I don't know. That was probably before my time. Or fill me in on any history that I don't know. I plan The other Oh, did you? Okay. Now, if you put the other thing is could you have an area at Radcliffe where you recognize people for different things like this? So then that way you could put it online. Then it's at Radcliffe. You just keep when people get it, you just put it there and they're always there. That way it's like put little leaves that Well, the other thing you could do is you can take a picture of the person standing next to the seedling if you wanted to and then tell them anytime you want a picture when it gets bigger, we'll take another one. Who cares? I actually like that. And you'd have to put on it what park it's have like clusters. Yeah, you could have you could and then you could as they do it in the different parks, you can just have it for different parks and if you get a second or third tree, you just start putting them underneath each other. Mhm. I like that idea. So, you get like a little engraving leaf. Yeah, because you could still you could still do some engraving then it's then it's probably going to be cost effective, right? Yeah, we actually did something like that at my church where if you wanted to commemorate, you know, for something and they just have a little engraved plaque that's about this

size depending on how much you wanted to pay. You want you bigger, the more money, the bigger the plaque. But anyway, and they had a whole board of people that, you know, have we just And the city doesn't have anybody who can do um we don't have anybody who knows how to do the uh blank like brass tags or anything like that. We don't have anything. No, but we have a local vendor. Um probably the trophy stadium. It's got to be one of it's got to be one of the places that you get shirts or whatever down here. Yeah. Right on for road is stadium trophy that does that kind of stuff. Have we discussed how many were done in like 24 and 23? How many have been historically done? I So this is the first one that I Well, in my time it's the only one. And when I asked DPW like, "Hey, where what's this? Here's what our website says." And they're like, "Oh, we've never done that." I'm like, "So I think it's like a new or was unveiled as new." And I just don't think many either we haven't promoted it or people didn't really know. So, okay. I don't really know much history on who on where. I think there was one tree donation already at Florence, right? Or wasn't it Kate's tree? Did Kate donate that? Okay. I think it's a fairly new program because I had asked about it years ago and no one had there was no don't commemorative tree program at that time. So maybe it is fairly new. It just hasn't actually gotten a lot of Yeah. uh interest because yeah, I couldn't find a single other tree that had been done. I think it's been around for a while, but just with the changing of the guards, people forgot about it. Well, I feel like there's been some done. I just don't know if they've done were done through the city or not. Definitely like our neighbor um who used to be a council member years ago, like his family has one at Rotary and there's a plaque in the ground.

Yeah, there's a plaque. Was it Bristol? Yeah. And then I know years and years ago when we were in soccer, a family a soccer family um dad had passed away and this like Cub Scout them they they planted one but I don't know if it was done through the city or not or they just it was I know it's planned at Rodeia also. Okay. We have done the benches though. We have a bench, right? Yeah. Benches. I know there's been some recent ones. Yeah. Yeah. There's two at City Park. the benches by them. Yeah. And those are easier to plaque and recognize. It's more common. Do they pay for this all at once? Was that Do they pay for it all at once? Yeah. The donor? Yeah. Is there any way they could make payments over a fourmonth period? Maybe some people are looking at I just can't afford to put $1,000 out there for a tree, but if they did it over a few months, maybe you would get some traction with it. I don't know because I'm looking at this and if it's a new program, and I think this has been around a lot longer than we all think it has been. And I think if we're not getting any traction with it, obviously our marketing has been terrible and we haven't really done anything to do it. Yeah, I think that's a fair right. I mean, it takes almost a year to get it going. So, we could definitely do the payment partial payment plan. Well, I mean, because if you look at it, a lot of if you look at what people see today when they're on Amazon and marketplace and all those other places, a lot of times you'll see four payments over four months, you know. Oh, yeah. You know, payments over six months, right? And it's the same amount. But but the thing is if we do what she's saying and we take it for four months, we don't have to order the tree till we have all the money. Well, yeah. That's what I was saying. The nursery is going to want their money up front. They're not Yeah, but we're not going to order it till we

get all the money. Yeah. But really, like if if you come in the summer, you know, we want to do a tree, it can take almost to the whole next spring before we Well, if they if they've sold out of them, if they've sold out of them and they got to grow them or they've got to get them in from one of their growers, Right. Yeah. But is that going to be a real hassle to keep track of that financially? You know what I mean? Well, I don't think so if you only got one or two, you know, I mean, if you got a hundred of them. Yeah. That's going to be that's going to be brutal. And I think what would happen is your capacity could be like two per season. And typically it's either spring or fall. You know, the one at Florence didn't happen till June, which is not ideal, but that was because we had trouble getting the trees. And maybe I'm missing. What size is the tree when they plant it? Um, the one at Florence is quite nice. Um, I think typically we want them an inch and a half. Does it say in here? That's what I was looking for. You mean the trunk diameter? Inch and a half. Okay. Yeah, because sometimes like the uh the sapling or whatnot. Yeah. Higher chance of dying. Get mowed over. Yeah. and the wind can hurt it. But yeah, so you're saying the one that they just put in is didn't need to be staked or anything. It was already big enough around and everything else. It's still staked. Okay. Okay. That's quite nice. I'll send you guys a photo of it. And Dave st everything. Put it all together. Yeah. Yep. They did all that. And then the field trip to sports venue. I'm added is that the donor has to help us water for the first two years because that's the city staff really. We don't have staff to do that. So that's part of the donation is helping keep an eye on it when it's dry to get out there. Have we looked at those water tree bags? Do they work? Yeah. And we have those out

there like Dave donate or included that. But you still have to fill. No, no, but that would see that would be good. If somebody would donate that then it's not out there every day watering it. You just got to figure out, okay, I'm going to figure I'm going to fill this tree bag now. Is it going to last a day, two days? Is it going to last longer when it's hotter? Or is it going to last not as long when it's hot? Yeah. You just need to figure out what it is. Water the bags weekly. Yes. And I would hope it would be on the effectiveness of the bags, but I mean, I think they're worth doing. And how do you fill it? I mean, you just take a watering can. I mean, yeah. I mean, it's just as cumbersome as like filling it with a water jug, you know? I mean, getting water there. Usually, I would say like get a couple gallon like milk gallon jugs and then fill them up and bring them out. Water twice. Um, does it also include the mulch? Yeah. Okay. Yep. All right. And Davey, now are they choosing the supplier of the tree then? They're finding it. Yes. So Davey handles all of that. They're a one-stop shop. Yeah. And I think that's why they're more expensive because I called elsewhere. It was cheaper, but I could not get it reserved. I couldn't get a date. I couldn't Right. And as the month, like as we got to the end of May, I'm like, we're just going to have to pay for Dave and get this in. And they have a machine, I assume, that digs the whole dig and hand dug it. Did they? Well, the root ball must not have been that big, was it? Did you see? Well, funny thing was I had to leave before the tree arrived, but I was there when they were digging it or the first guy was digging it and then when I came back it was planted and no one will show me the photos, so I'm waiting for Zach downstairs to send them to me. Um, so mysterious. I didn't see it behind

the but usually I mean it is a big tree bigger not like now. Can I ask you though, sugar maple? Okay. Did you ask Davey about the varieties of trees and the availability of them? No. Okay. Cuz a lot of times all they can get is maples. Yes. I've definitely run into challenges of finding specialties because they might be seasonal one time a year or they're out. But some of the more popular ones are easier to get. Sure. Yeah. And I mean there are trees like I think we talked about like the red bud. I know Costco had red buds this spring that were like $65. Yeah. Good deal. You know, so like I think there could always be exceptions, right? But that's not quite the same size and scale as so it okay for instance if somebody did find you know it happened to be spring they wanted to do the and they wanted this tree planted it wouldn't cost them the $1,000 though would it? No. I mean, I would be fine if people were wanted to donate a tree that was either inch and a half or like a a decent size if they paid for the tree, paid for delivery and either uh either install or help dig and then watered it and maybe like a $100 admin fee just for like some coordination because we still have to do a misdig and all that. Like we could totally work with that, you So, I don't know if we should put that into the program as an option, you know, but we also don't want just people bringing saplings and willy-nilly. Yeah. You know, and ideally, we would have a nice tree inventory of all our parks and have like a plan of what we want to plant like more of in certain areas. So we don't have any of that right now, but it

would be nice especially I mean even city park or Rotary which have not Rotary Kowanas which have nice older tree canopy like to still have a plan for planting now for the next 20 30 years. I can maybe check with the garden club and see if we can maybe help us Yeah. help you with because actually in city park they um the garden cult planted those purple uh sand cherries I think they are okay they're the it's a lower growing shrubby bush you know it's around the parking area uh by Cherry Hill Road they're actually sporadically uh there's some near the post office there's some by by Marman okay it's all around the park they did like I I think we did about 30. Okay. About that tall. It might be a little taller now. That they they were, you know, probably that tall when they planted them, but they they're doing well. Yeah. Without a lot of care. I mean, nobody's been watering them. But we chose those because they're because they are kind of hardy. You got to find those drought tolerant baked. Well, and that's why native trees usually are preferred because they're accustomed to this environment environment. Typically, they do better in the winters. They withstand, you know, the elements and the Well, yeah. And Barson's has that uh butterfly um habitat that they have there. Have you ever been there? In Barson's. Yeah. At the a house. They have a butterfly. And they let them go at the end of don't they let them go? At the end of the season at the end of season at the end of the season I think they grow them all and then they let them go so they can but in there they have where the

butterflies like milkeed and even you know and maybe we should you know I mean if somebody wanted to put in some Are you on the Are you on the the garden club? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Put this in the back of your notes. See if you can make um a way station in the park. Do you know what a way station for? Make a Yeah, make a butterfly way station for them. What's a butterfly way station? Well, what happens is is you have to um you have to have so many plants. Just for conversation purposes, let's say you got to have 16. So, you'd have to have like four uh butterfly weed, uh four joewed plants. You have to have plants that attract the bees and the butterflies. And it's more it's more the it's more the monarchs. So then once you have your 16 plants planted, you can call it a butterfly way station and I think for about 20 bucks, there is a website that you can send in to and they will list you as a butterfly way station. Now, do you get anything more out of it? Probably not. But you know what? If we all, I hate to say this, if we all don't start looking at that, we have just killed our bee and butterfly population. And it may not be affecting us now, but down the road and then going to electric cars, you're not going to get anything to grow or turn green if you go to electric cars. You're done. And but I I would think it would be cool for Garden City to have something like that. Or maybe we do have a butterfly garden in Garden City Park. But you know what? Maybe check it out. Maybe it qualifies for a way. We have um I think the one of the things is you have to have uh it might have been a source of water,

you know, for the but for the butterflies. There was either that or we might have already applied for it and just waiting for the plaque. Sure. I I'm I'll have to check with Pat on that to see, but you know, there already is a gu a butterfly area there. There's a plot out there, small plants. What I was getting at more was cuz since we were on the tree subject was uh more of the shrubby, you know, uh kind of lilac size trees like the arrowwood viburnum. I know the butterflies, certain butterflies love those. those kind of plants instead of like a full mature tree. Yeah. Kind of thing. Yeah. I mean, maybe I should meet with the garden club sometime and just talk about some ideas at some of the parks for either more native things or even tree suggestions. You know, that one that one section they really that's been there a long time near Cherry Hill and Henry Ruff, right? That's the butterfly garden. Yeah, that's been there for Yeah. Long time. And we've really, you know, put a lot of effort into trying to keep that maintained because there was quite a few years where we Oh, yes. It was there wasn't a whole lot of time put into it and it didn't look very good. Well, I think that was during co No, it was before that. You know, speaking of the native plantings, have you ever been to the park in Westland? It's off a joy and I think one of the elementary school teachers might have, you know, initiated and started it, but it's such a cool uh native planting. It's off of Joy, right across from Franklin High School. Oh, Curado. Is that the name of the park? I think so. It's off of uh Flamingo and Joy. There's a light right there. Anyway, in the one

back corner of it, they must have gosh, I bet you it's close to an acre planted of just like native wild flowers. Now, it looks pretty unruly, but you wouldn't believe the birds and the insects and butterflies that it attracts. And I even went there last fall, really late after everything was bloomed. Yeah. And there was just birds that galore there. Yeah. Gathering the seeds. It was cool. I'm like it if you plant it, they will come. Yeah, for sure. Definitely. Yeah. I mean, maintenance is always the challenge. You go one year if you miss maintaining it as go. But if they're wild flowers, they they usually can survive. But yeah, but it would be nice to, you know, have more gardens and and just the greenery because it is for the habitat, the environment, you know, all those things. It is an important part of the park's purpose and benefit. So, and you're right, most of those butterfly packets for flowers and stuff like that, I can tell you this at my house two years straight. All I did was just open up three packets, sprinkle them in November, and then let the magic happen next year. And they they do. It just happens. They're they're They're not hard to take care of. It's like Field of Dreams. If you plant it, they will come right up, right? And then like you guys said, the wild flowers really don't need that much water. So, all you have to do is just keep an eye on them. And if you see them getting a little lean, then you just give them a drink. No, it's just keeping the the the stuff that you don't want, the weeds and stuff. And then it just looks like a big patch of weeds and nobody knows it's a butterfly like rain gardens. Yeah, I mean because a lot of parks have water issues, right? I mean

like our cola definitely's got so rain gardens are a really good option, but those again are really you got to stay on them or else next thing you know you've got invasives growing and weed trees and y then they just look like a weed pile. But they're really beneficial. Yes. Yeah. We could actually use a rain garden over there along Cherry Hill where it always has collected the water. It absorbs excess and we know just with climate changing and rain comes so fast and hard now and you know get these like flash floods. So we it's so important in our parks. All right. Are we getting off track? Yep. Sorry. All right. I forget. What do we um we were on new business and we were talking about the tree. Should I should I add something about if you want to donate a tree, you know, like as a case by case, I think your best bet is to do exactly what you just said. If say I wanted to go and that somebody had trees for whatever 50 bucks and I brought you four of them and said plant them, then you guys are going to have to come back and tell me what it's going to cost to put them in the ground or we're going to have to go back to you guys and say, "Hey, we got these four trees and they're not very big and no, I think if somebody wants to give us trees to plant, we should try and figure out how we can accommodate them." Yeah. especially if they're not willing to pay that $1,000 price. And I get it. Is there a way to like put that in there? Then if there put in there if you if you've got trees that you want to donate, I mean that meet the criteria. You need a minimum size. So I would uh confirm that. I mean, yeah, I'd be open to that. And can we vote on like the tree program now and then addendums to it later? Yeah, that's a good idea. I mean, at least have it

out there so people want to This is what it is now and then we can work on something more in the lines of donations and size requirements and that. I agree. I I like it. Somebody make a motion to uh we'd have to adjust the uh tree amend amendment and put it in there and just somebody's going to have to make a motion. Come up with an additional uh donation option, right? Somebody's going to have to come up with a motion so you can add it. We can do that later though, can't we? Yeah, I think we can. Let's just do the commen commenative tree program right now as it's written and then we can make an I can work so I can follow up with the addendum sort of option two. Yeah. Um and also maybe the uh recognition idea. I'd like to look into um something like that where we could do a little engraving, but we have like a home base where we recognize them and we could have a QR code where you could go look at the trees, right? We like Yeah. on our website and plus not anyway. When you start the plaque thing grow Yeah. Yeah. I think that'd be kind of when you start the plaque thing, you can use it for different things too. Not only that, I mean trees. Well, if people want to make a donation or something like that, you know, in the shape of a tree, you know, with a little tree. I like that idea. Me, cuz then it would promote itself, too. Yeah. You know, tree leaves. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sure you can buy a bronze leaf and have it engraved. Yeah. No, I've actually seen one at a library. So, in my mind, I'm going to go find out where they got that. And so, I'll do some research. Okay. Novi. Okay. Because Farmington made they have like a memorial tree that you can do in a family name and you just get a leaf.

Yeah. Be perfect for it. All right. So, I can work on that. You'll take care of that. Well, yeah, I'll get do a little research and bring that back and and the kind of option for a donation where they are going to provide the tree including the delivery of it, you know, at a certain size and as another way what have you marketed as two options, you know, a hassle-free commemorative program and then a cost hands-on cost uh uh economy economy version basically with with bullet points of that we'll take care of everything for this thousand bucks right and then the other one they definitely have to get approval and then they have to and they have to do a little more of the work pretty much all digging the hole the city's approval and placement and tree approval everything and they're they're still responsible for the tree watering it right Yep. Yeah, I think that's a great idea. And I know where I was before it was exactly like that. And no one ever did the expensive one, but the the program that ran the uh the cheaper one was adopt a park. So, you worked with the adopt a park coordinator on it. Um we just don't have a lot of staff. So, the time so we would just have to limit how many we could do a year. Um and the other thing is we don't have all the parks adopted out either. Well, that doesn't matter. No, no, but I'm saying if you did to do a tree donate, right? But if you had if you had adopt a park and people were all of a sudden if we come up with this and now all of a sudden hundreds of people bring us trees, you're going to be wishing somebody had adopted that park. Well, they would have to talk to us first. But I think that's a great idea where one option is cheaper, but you have to

do more of the work potentially digging the hole because that's actually a lot of work. Yes, it is. To dig a hole for a tree. Yes. and transporting it. Otherwise, you just pay for it. The ease of a company to do it. But I mean, I like the idea of it being more affordable and more attractive for people to donate trees. So, like the $1,000 would be the total package. We'll plant it and everything. Yeah. Thousand is like Davy tree or whoever comes in and does it. And then you have another one for like a little cheaper price, but we don't know what That's that's to be that's to be determined because the person if they're going out and let's say like you went to we'll use Randazzles. It's the end of the season. You find a tree that's on here. Randazzles got them at 75% off and you go, "Hey, I'm going to buy four of these and take them to Garden City." Well, you better talk to somebody first. They better talk to us first before they do before they go by. Right. But that's exactly it. The cost of the tree is on them and however they want to transport it. Yeah. and they're going to have to transport it here. But if they're willing to do those things, then then they donation and I would put just an administrative fee on it, like a $100. Um, and then and then the watering commitment, tell them in the fall, you really need somebody out there to approve where they're going to place it, but then you also want somebody to go back, just like a building permit, you want somebody to go back and make sure it was planted correctly, right? I mean, in the right spot. Yeah, I mean there would still have to be an approval of the tree type and location because like we run it by maintenance, right? Because they they're maintaining it. We want to make sure like I said it's not in an area that for whatever reason is not that would be what the administrative fee would be. Right. Right. So we still have to spend time like approving it and checking it out. And then I mean probably we would have staff there at

the planting site watching planet how they up to $200 administrative fees. Well, I mean he can't cover the time but I mean it's just like a more of a commitment sometimes if you have a fee like that and it does sort of show there is a time spent on this. All right. So you guys got a motion? Oh I can't make it. Somebody has to make it. I move to make a motion of the commemorative tree program as stated. Second. All in favor? I. 80. They have to uh clean the leaves too. Public comment. You have three minutes. Anything? Three full minutes. All yours. This is now back. This is now back to Erica. We're following Erica. Uh, I did pass out the director report. Uh, the first page has May participation program numbers. Um, I won't go through all of that, but uh, as a reminder, the ice rink did close at the end of May. Um, senior fitness room continues to be quite busy, over 300 visits. Still, still a lot of activity at Radcliffe, uh, even as we've cranked down into our summer construction hours. Although this is these are all main numbers so I won't go over that. Um the second page is grant overview I think a couple of notes. Um the last I think since the last meeting uh we did receive what is the fourth reimbursement from ARPA. So to date 3.2 2 million has been reimbursed. About 478,000 is been encumbered or is in progress of being spent.

Um meaning we have just around 300,000 left. Some of that is still budgeted in certain areas and that committee is still meeting um to prioritize that. uh we are getting, you know, closer and closer to the October 31st deadline, which is when we have to have all that spent. Um I guess I'll talk about projects on the back page, but the other grants, uh so the HUD grant for the 2.1 million, we finally executed the contract with our HVAC contractor, quality air. So they have been um over at Radcliffe every day uh trying to prioritize the work there as well. And at the same time, I think they cut some of the controls for about 20 rooms. So we've been dealing with no AC the last few days, which as you can imagine is of course walking the hallway was a little warm. Yeah. But as of tonight, I think they were able to repair that. Uh, so it's every day is very exciting over there. Um, and we do have some contingency money. So, we've added we're adding some things that weren't on the original scope. I know like there's no AC in the front office. There's no AC in the kitchen. And there's another uh boiler tank for the domestic water that was not on the replacement. So, there's a handful of things coming up that we're going to hopefully be able to complete with the contingency money. um the CDBG funds that are dedicated to the ADA bathroom projects. Um very exciting. A lot of progress is happening on the main entrance bath bathrooms and at the same time we had a little money left over to address the dance hallway bathrooms. So both of

those have the end of June deadline. So we had to do both of them at the same time. So if you come to Radcliffe, there's really only one set of bathrooms away on the south west corner. So not ideal, but we're trying to, you know, get this money spent and back. So um that's really exciting and things are happening quickly on that. And then I did want to report that at the end of May we got the reimbursement on the Wayne County Mill, the city park playground. So that project is fully wrapped up. Um, and then I think on the projects we just talked about a lot of these. Trying to think, you know, the community kitchen, we're kind of waiting on the laundry room to finish so we can move the laundry facilities from the kitchen to the laundry room so the kitchen work can get going. Um, still finalizing equipment and the remaining work in the kitchen. The gymnasium is really uh got a lot happening. The stage and audio box have been removed. There was some HVAC items removed, some asbestous abatement that went on uh last night. Council approved some electrical flooring, the uh basketball hoops. We've got four hoops coming in uh two divider walls and uh new audio storage doors and the adjacent room. So, all of that is um underway in different different phases. We're still working around all of the activity that's still happening at Radcliffe. And then I talked about the HVAC. Uh, a lot going on there. Miscellaneous rooms, the exit signs, that was like a compliance issue. Those got completed. The science lab is complete. That's going to be the home for the uh the thrift store. We think September or October. They're going to be moving over

um some other rooms. Uh a relocation of the cardio room. Uh that project is starting. The uh fitness room is going to be moving. I think we went through a lot of this last meeting. Yeah. Okay. I don't want to go repeat too much. So, all that's happening. We do fitness room's bigger. It's going Yes. the fitness room is going to be moving to what was the game room and then the game room is going to move to what was kind of my office area in that area. Um, so all of that should be happening this summer, late summer. Uh, the renter is I think the lease is getting finalized to bring in the renter which will be Imagination Station and some of those rooms on the very west side of the building. Um, and then, uh, the, uh, road between Radcliffe and the school is going to be under construction, I think, next week or possibly later this week. They sure need work on that road coming into Rag. Yes, the Terra is very bad. So, that'll be closed down for a couple weeks, but you So, you just can't go through there. You either got to come into Wildwood or go back around the south side of the building. So, so a lot of stuff going on. We still have um we have camp this week. Let's see. Wait, let me Well, I'll get to Okay, I'll go to the last page. The mural if you didn't see it. Um great job to all of the painters. Dennis was there even though he's not in a photo. I heard about these 10 minutes ago. If it's not in the photo, you Dennis went to the bathroom and he got cut out of the photo just like Robert. Robert went to the bathroom. You got to Yes, I was there too. But I think it turned out really nice. Certainly very transformative and and I've been getting some nice feedback from people that Yeah. So I like I mean

I doubt everybody wants this in your house, you know, but but obviously this is a public place. It could not have looked worse than what it did when we started. the small photograph in the center with the fellow with the unruly beard is the one who put it all together. Yeah, that's Ivan, the artist there, a local artist. So, so that was really nice to see. Yeah, he did. Um, yeah. So, a couple other notes. The summer hours have started. So, as a reminder, it's just Monday to Thursday 9 to 2. There are a handful of other things that are occurring after hours. So, a lot of the other operations are still open. We still have dodgeball on Wednesday evenings, for example. We have some rentals, so there is still a lot of activity at all hours. Uh, but our front desk is really limited to those 20 hours. Um, we did pilot the spaceport camp last week and we had eight kids sign up which was great. And then this week our camp gu is at capacity with 30. So that's really nice to see. Parks of course are very very busy. I think uh Mike had said all of the uh the big pavilion is rented every weekend now through September. Um very busy. Uh the Manor Park volunteer was a success. We had I think 23 volunteers show up. Some people we recruited that were just like visiting the park, but that was perfect. And then Dance Express was uh a really fantastic recital. any of you saw that or have family or friends in that. I think they sold $10,000 in ticket sales in those two days. They sold out. They did their registration and have filled like I wish I knew how many classes already, but it just goes to show the demand um and loyalty people have to the program and uh really really nice to see. So uh even with reduced staff, reduced hours, there's a lot of good things happening at Parks and Rec. good things at

Radcliffe. And there is where I noted the upcoming park volunteer event. So, if you can make it, great. If not, there'll be more down the road. And I think that's all I have. Any other questions or anything I didn't cover? We're going to try to keep Mo Park around September, maybe first part of September because I won't be here in the month of August. Okay. Yeah, I think September would be great. I think we've got our hands full. you guys. Yeah, between now and maybe I'll they'll be they'll be done. So, I'll get with you on a date and we can try to get it on the calendar. The the Kowanas Park um this Saturday. Yeah. What What's going on? Like what exactly are they doing? Like how should you come prepared? It is going to be a giant pile of wood chips. Okay. Dropped off for primarily the playground. That is going to be the main task because they dug it out. So, it needs like 8 to 10 in of wood chips in the whole playground. So, like if you have a wheelbarrow should you bring a wheelbarrow? Yeah, we will have wheelbarrows and pitchforks. I mean, if you have one, you can throw it in your vehicle. Okay. That would be great. They need at least 30 people. Yeah. I mean, it'll get done signed up because we just, if you remember, Kowanas was like, "We got this. We got this." I'm like, "Okay, all right." And then, you know, they needed a little more supplies and then I saw the condition of the park. We had to get it skimmed and then we needed more wood chips. And so, I think it's going to be an overwhelming pile that they're not going to get through. Um, wasn't it it was a Florence that went so fast because we had so many people that day. Yeah. And a tiny pile. Rotary. I mean, it took us the full amount of time, but we had so many people that it went the key is in a good turnout because it's very physical work. And yeah, being able to do hopefully it won't be so hot. Yeah, it'll be at 9 in the morning. So, it's better than that

was the problem with our Muller work day. We had it for 1:00 on that 95 degree day. It was like an hour. And if it if it rains, it will be cancelled. Cancelled. Yeah. Yeah. I I guess so. Maybe someone will be there. Who went in and skimmed the mall? DPW did. Yeah, they were there about half a day. Yeah. And they power washed it. So, mulch. And there's not a front end loader we can borrow or have DPW be out there. No. I mean I mean seriously, what happens is they have a bunch of them over there. It doesn't take long to think like, wow, some equipment would really make this go a lot faster. But anytime you bring in equipment now there's like uh either we have to have staff that are trained safety things. When we have volunteers what we have are numbers and if we have able body we just have to do old-fashioned labor. The biggest equipment you have is a wheel. Every time I do workday, people are like, "Oh, if we only had a, you know, a front ender, you know, which is true. I mean, it is." But volunteers, you know, it doesn't kill us. Do a little bit of physical activity, you know, two hours. You can do a lot of physical activity loading that front end loader cuz that's going to take a long time to load that up versus a wheelbarrow. You want to work, you can do it. All you really need is like a football team. No, not me. Not anymore. Can't do it. Team work. No kidding. Yeah, it's a dream work. Good to It's very satisfying, right? Good to do manual labor. Oh, it is good. Good. You know, you're a little sore the next day. You know you've done something. You know, yep. So, anyway, okay. So, we're done with the up andcoming events. I won't be there. Yeah, I don't think I included question. We're we're done with the upand cominging event programs. Uh, I do know

I apologize. I don't think I added those on. Um, there is the 50 and over uh barbecue on July 1st, which is next Tuesday at Radcliffe. We're going to be grilling out. It's going to be great. So, and over. Yeah. So, stop on by, sign up. It's $10. What time? I think it's at noon. Oh, yeah. So, that's coming up. Obviously, the volunteer work days. Um, and then you know we have some camp openings uh in July. You said it's this Tuesday. Oh, I'm so lucky. Yeah, July 1. I work on Tuesday. Okay, it is. It'll be like the 4th of July on July 1st, a Tuesday. Finally. So, you should definitely come. We're going to have Impossible Burgers, burgers, dogs, a bunch of sides. Can you see? We're grilling veggies. Go use the gym. We're going to be on the patio. We got new picnic table. No, it really looks By the way, it the patio really looks nice. Well, we have eight to assemble this. I saw you have boxes out there. Yeah, we got eight more tables to assemble. But you can go out there and sleep. I mean, it's really nice. Yeah, it's nice. They got a big couch. Dennis going to go by see if he can take a nap. So, those are the events that I can think of. All right, young fella. You got anything for us? The 50 and up club now, Rob? just awesome job on the M mural. I think it turned out uh better than what we were given as an example. I I think yeah, it turned out perfect. The colors are a little different. Like awesome. And I would like to say thanks to Mike Downey. I see he's not here today, but we had that uh well the GCAA put on their first color run and he had the tent, he had all the big toys out there. He loaded them up in the truck. I tried to help when whenever I could, but yeah, kept that up. So, it's good to see the presence and combination of the two

working together and the parks. Awesome. That's all. Sharon, don't have anything. The mural is beautiful. Yes, Bridget. I don't have anything. Jennifer, uh, yes, I do. Uh, so I got a I got a email today from Derek Fischer, the superintendent. I'm not sure if you've gotten this information about bounce back to school. You got that? Okay, cool. I was just going to make a note about um the presence of the parks and wreck at that event. And that's all I have. When is the bounce back? Oh, bounce back to school for um the public schools is August 28th from 4:00 to 7:00. Um and they are looking for community outreach and um you know, representation from parks and recck, PTA, um soccer, baseball. I'm sure maybe Joe's gotten that information. Hockey. Um, just to set up some tables and kind of advertise and whatnot. So, that's all I have. I have nothing. I've already said my piece. Yes. Yeah. One of my neighbors sons plays at Molerfield baseball play baseball play baseball play baseball play baseball play baseball play baseball play baseball play baseball play baseball plays and he said it was some low spots out there. I didn't see it myself but I was going to ask Mike about that. Like in the field or the field? In the field. Okay. And you guys did a great job on the painting. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to paint, but Dennis, you did a great job. I want to commend you for that. Was he really there? No. No. There's no evidence. Well, one more thing, though. I notice older people don't get on pictures anymore. What is that? I just want to know. You You cut Dennis out of the painting. Yes. You cut me out. You cut Robert. You cut Robert minutes of listening to this. You cut Robert out of the ribbon cutting. I didn't do that. I It doesn't matter. You

got to stick up for us. You got to stick up for us. If we're in a picture, you got to stick up for us. Photo photo of it now and we'll superimpose him. He's supposed to have our back. Yeah. Yeah. We got your back. A great photo of us. That one time I did like a selfie here. I It's in my office around. Oh, was that at Christmas? I'll take a photo. Was that here or was that Christmas? one the ornaments. Oh, yeah. You had the ornament. But no, I have We did one in here. Yeah. Oh, okay. They had a great turn. The photo. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. In the park. Oh, yeah. Last week, too. Went to that. Yeah. There's another one in July. Yeah. Your people with parks and rec. Yeah. We Yeah. When is that? In July. She'll put that on the upcoming events. I think it's near the end. I think third Thursday, isn't it? Maybe. Nope. Dennis, anything else? Nope, that's it. Oh, you know what? There was one thing. I don't Anybody's interested, but the Garden City Garden Club is having their garden walk on the 12th of July. So, it's the weekend after the 4th of July. Okay. So, and it's uh I think it's 15 without there's there's a price with lunch and a price without lunch and all that information. They have the tickets and stuff at Barson's and they go to different houses. So, each house like it like so the resident I can submit my find different you know people's houses. you uh drive to them or you Yeah, they give you a map and then they tell write up a little bit about each house and you know their inspiration and I love that. You know, every time I go I kind of pick up a little something like you know that's a good idea for my yard. I should do that there. It's it's really kind of you should try it once at least. Yeah, I know. I love that song. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You guys come by my

house I think once. I got a couple rewards. Did you Did you get Yeah. A couple rewards from you guys? Awards. Have you been on the walk before? No, I've never I've been invited. We're going to have to Yeah. get your house on the walk. Yeah. Is your house always looks stellar? He's all flowers and stuff. Except Tuesday morning. It's a win. Tuesday morning when you put your trash out. Trash out. Right. Right. Early. Yeah. You're going to drag it in. This is why they're not in pictures. Dennis, anything else? No, I have nothing else. And Erica, we could crop them out right now. Crop them out. Stop it. Erica, anything else? No, I've covered. Are you You've covered it all. A little bleep. All right. I can't make a motion, but somebody needs to I need a second. Second. All in favor? I 80 again?