Library Board - Regular Meeting

Yeah. Alright. We will call to order Monday, May 18, city of Waukesha Parks, Recreation, and Forestry board meeting. And we'll call to order with, roll call.

Alderman Camacho. Here. Steve Johnson is absent. Sarah Roth. Here. John Schmitz. Here. Alderman Jack Wells. Here. Erica Yas is absent. Jennifer Wallner. Here. Eric Hummer. Here.

Great, we will move on to public comment if there's anyone here for public comment this evening. Seeing no public comment, we will move on to the approval of minutes for the board minutes from 04/20/2026.

I'll motion to approve.

I'll second.

Motion by Eric Hummer, second by Sarah Roth. Any further discussion? Great, we'll take that to a vote. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? And that passes unanimously. Great, moving on to item four, we have a presentation in recognition of our nation's great semi quinceanal.

Very good.

Acknowledgement Not of the Park Foundation of Waukesha for its sponsorship of a commemorative flagpole at Lowell Park.

Well, the key to pronouncing that is the Quince Park.

Quince. Semi Semi Quince.

Just gave you a hard time on that. Yes, actually in all seriousness, we're very excited about this opportunity. This project was very organic and it came out of a realization that we do not have a flag at Lowell Park and that's Headquarters Ground 0 for fourth of July, Jamboree events, etcetera. And the other thing that's happened online is it's the 200. So long story short, a flagpole was in order And not just a little flagpole, but we're looking at a big flagpole.

And so just a very brief background on how this came together. We look to partner with our Park Foundation of Waukesha, the Park Foundation of Waukesha, who has helped us out in many other projects over the years and thought this was an exceptional opportunity for them and for the park system. And we started the search as far as how big and where at Lowell Park and we'll go well, some of the background with that is just to give you an idea, it's an 80 foot flagpole. We don't have a picture, it'll keep you in suspense, I guess, with that. So imagine an 80 foot flagpole, most flagpoles that you see are maybe 30 or 40, maybe some 60, but 80 is getting into that category in itself.

And it's a black anodized pole, will have eagle ornament on top, resting on a ball. It should look extremely nice and it's an internal Hallard system. I won't bore you with that but it's the best system as far as lesser wear and tear and vandal resistant. And location was one of the toughest things. And because of the height, we are restricted as far as where it can go.

There we're within three miles of the airport. So there's a certain zoning considerations. So we went through the process of getting a permit through Waukesha County, and that went through well. A lot of discussion with the airport manager. He was very cooperative and helped us out with this whole thing.

In fact, we had a contact with the FAA and also get a filing with them to ensure that location would be in compliance with FAA as well as Waukesha County. So those things have been accomplished since the idea really just started around December, January, and we approached the Park Foundation to see if they would have some interest to do this. And well, here we are tonight. The flag, it's a 20 by 30. It can support a smaller flag, but it can support a 20 by 30 foot flag.

So that's a substantial flag. The location, one of the maps we showed you is right on the crest of when you start going uphill, basically centered within the park. The idea here is accessibility for the public. We visualize this future projects would be ADA pathway to the flagpole, staging area. We could visualize veterans groups, etcetera, having ceremonies at the park as well.

Having it on top of the hill, cost, pretty astronomical and plus access really would be very difficult to have a general public. So the flag is going to be very visible to those at the site and beyond. And fireworks, you can have fireworks in the background. If you're familiar how the fireworks work over at Lowell, you're up close and personal. So, we'll have like the Star Spangled Banner live to the point where the flag is fire retardant and I'm serious that just in case.

We didn't want that much of a reenactment. But again, it'll be a centerpiece of the park and certainly a centerpiece of Fourth of July activities and for hopefully many years to come. And again, in celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth. Installation will be due no later than June 5, and then we start working on the lighting. The flag would need to be lit.

And we're right on track where we want it to be. There will be a ceremony, so I'll put everyone on fair warning in the room here, especially the Park Foundation and of course the Park Board and other members of the city that we're going to work into a program and our fourth of July fireworks are on the third, so July 3. So if you didn't have plans, now you got some. So July 3, much more to come on that ceremony, But things are really lining up quite nicely and they really do official opening of the flagpole. So that's a brief background on it.

The location again, there's a map that kind of shows you and lines up again very nicely within the park and blends in with the kind of landscape of it's a black flagpole or black anodized. So our fencing there is black with the tennis courts and our light poles are black. So it all works in with the, you know, the landscape and the type of amenities that we already have in place. Yeah, and the lighting. The lighting is specified for a flagpole of that size or the flag of that size.

And it's been a very interesting experience. We would have thought that a flagpole would be quite that challenging, but when you're looking bigger, I guess that's what you're going to get. So all in all, fantastic. I can't say enough again for the Park Foundation. We have some key members here tonight and we're ready to do a dedication. There's going to be a plaque, a commemorative plaque. That's a third rendering that's listed on your attachment. The it's actually how big is that Mark? Three by did we go three?

48 by 24.

Okay. Two by four. So that will be located in a strategic location near the flagpole and they will recognize again the contribution, the sponsorship covering the flagpole is a big cost. And so we can't say enough again for the Park Foundation. And we had asked them to come tonight and do a presentation to the board. And now the hard part is to get everyone organized for the official passing of the check. And so if we could organize in the front here and then we'll have the Park Foundation come on up and we're going to get some photo ops.

Put your chin out towards me and your forehead back for me, please. That's not

that's actually not that bad.

I mean, for the first Not Deb, if I can get you in a little bit, Deb. John a little bit in, John. John, can you slide in just a little more? Perfect. Beautiful. Alright. As my father-in-law would say, pretend like you like each other.

Alright. Perfect.

Excellent. Okay. Now speech. Stanley.

Thank you. Great okay moving on to the discussion decision items. First one, review and possible action on proposed revisions to the departmental financial assistance program.

All right. Mark Schramm has been working diligently on the program. We're proud to say we've had a financial assistance program for many years and the Board has taken action. If it hasn't been every year, it's been every other year to keep it very relevant and fresh. And Mark's going to share some of the proposed changes with the Board tonight. Mark?

Perfect. Thanks Ron. So to provide a little bit of an overview on our financial assistance program, This program helps residents with lower incomes be able to take part to participate in our activities. For those that do qualify, we use other programs such as like BadgerCare, FoodShare, things of that nature and require proof from the individuals on the family in order to receive whether that's the 40% or 65% of subsidy. The impact that this program has on the community is pretty great.

Depending on the year we will contribute anywhere from 74 to $96,000 to families in need which equates to at least this past year for the twenty twenty four, twenty twenty five school year, 445 families that were able to receive assistance. So definitely a big impact. The primary use is for our before and after school program, but there are other benefits as well with other general activity registrations. So for the financial assistance policy, you should see the text in red that is the track changes that we have on the policy. For the most part it's administrative changes to clarify to our customers to curb questions but the main change that I want to highlight and go over here is item number five under assistance procedures.

So what we're looking to do is when somebody submits their application and their application is pending, they would be required to pay the full amount to register for a program to secure their spot and then once the financial assistance is approved, we will refund them for that approved amount. So not everyone that submits an application is approved for our financial assistance and prior to this change we have offered a 35% deposit on a registration fee while an application is pending and what we found is that by offering that you might only receive the 40% discount not the 65% so then we're chasing after you to collect payment. You may not receive any financial assistance so yet again we're chasing after you did now complete that registration fee and we also wanted to make it clear that any type of refund that you would receive would occur from when you submitted your application and until it's been approved. So you can't submit an application and receive a prorated refund for a program you took eight months ago. So we want to specify that in here.

And that was the main change on this program. Does anyone have any questions?

Mark, if I could add just real quickly. Just wanted to note that our financial assistance account is a self supporting self special revenue account. We don't have any tax levy that goes towards this program. It is all through donations, sponsorships, events like our Bear Wants More Adventure Walk that we hosted a couple of weekends ago. So just wanted to reiterate that there are no tax dollars that are going to this program. It is a self supporting special revenue bond.

Thank you.

I mean, do question folks ability to be able to pay the full amount if they're looking for the assistance, but I understand also where you're coming from on the standpoint of having to chase when folks only get a certain amount of assistance. Just throwing up out there, yeah.

Quick question on that. So when you were chasing people down,

Sorry, bad verbiage.

No, you're fine. You're fine. We're using it together. It's all good. So my question though is, did you not recover all of the funds once you had to reach out? Or were we still able to recover all the funds once?

Sometimes, yes. Sometimes, so.

So we weren't able to recover all the funds that okay.

And then in those situations, we tend to have to write that off.

Okay. Because, yeah, we can't okay. We there's no collections or anything of that nature. Alright. So that's why.

For the programs, like, do we

find that there are some that quickly sell out, if you will, that would then put a barrier in front of these people who potentially might need it?

Since it's primarily used for our before and after school program, I don't think that this change would create a barrier for anyone. We do everyone that registers for that does have to go on to a payment plan and then your registration fee for the current session hits fifteen days prior to the session starting. So in most instances if you are applying by or before that August 1 date, you will have been approved and then that won't be an issue for you for the upcoming school year.

Thanks.

Any further questions? Okay, we'll be looking for then a motion to approve the proposed revisions to the financial assistance program.

So moved.

I'll second.

We have Alderman Camacho a second by Sarah Roth that we've got one of those. Any further discussion? I just want to say that I'll just be interested to hear like kind of how it goes like with numbers of enrollments and things like that after this new hopefully it solves the issue of not recouping funds but yeah, just really be curious to know how that turns out.

Absolutely and next summer I'd be happy to bring a report to the board.

Appreciate it. Of course. Will take that to a vote then. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And that passes unanimously. Great, we will move on to our favorite thing, the annual election of the Parks Recreation and Forestry Board officers. Item A, election of the Parks Recreation and Forestry Board President. We will look for a motion to open the nominations for the Board President.

I will motion to open.

Second. Okay, we've a motion by Eric Hummer, second by John Schmitz. Any further discussion? Okay, we'll take that to a vote. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, we will now The nominations will now be open. We will take any nominations for board president.

I'd like to nominate Jennifer Wallner. Okay. Any other nominations?

Okay. We have to vote on that. We just close it, right?

Okay.

Okay. So then we will close nominations.

I'm sorry. We'll have to make a motion to close. Okay.

I'll motion to close.

Thank you. And I will second. Motion by Aircomer, second by Jennifer Walner. Any further discussion? We will take that to a vote. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And that passes unanimously. So now we will look for a motion to vote. We will vote for board president. So all in favor of Jennifer Walner say aye. Aye. Opposed? And that passes unanimously.

Thank you. We'll get through these I promise. Okay item B election of the PRF board vice president. I'm looking for a motion to open nominations for board vice president. I'll make a motion. Second. Motion by Jennifer Walner, second by Eric Hummer. Any further discussion? We'll take that to a vote. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? And that passes unanimously. We will now open nominations for board vice president.

I'd like to nominate Alderman Rico Camacho for board vice president.

Any other nominations? Okay, I'll be looking for a motion to close nominations for board vice president.

Motion to close.

And I will second. So that's a motion by Eric Hummer, second by Jennifer Walner. Any further discussion? Great, we'll take that to a vote. All in favor to close nominations say aye. Aye. Opposed? And that passes unanimously. So next we will take a vote for board vice president for Alderman Rico Camacho. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? And that passes unanimously. Moving on to item C election of the PRF secretary. Looking for a motion to open nominations for board secretary.

I'll make a motion.

Second.

Motion by Sarah Roth, second by Eric Hummer. Any further discussion? Okay, we'll take that to a vote. All in favor favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? And that passes unanimously. So now we'll be looking for nominations for the PRF board secretary. Well I will nominate Eric Hummer for board secretary.

I'll second.

I know they're very loud. Any other nominations? Great, we will be looking for a motion to close nominations for PRF board secretary.

I'll make a motion.

Second. Motion by Sarah Roth, seconded by Eric Hummer. Any further discussion? We'll take that to a vote. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? And that passes unanimously. So last we will take it to a vote for PRF board secretary for Eric Hummer. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? And that passes unanimously. Congratulations. We made it guys.

Great. Moving on board president report, nothing to report out of plan commission as of last month. We have our meeting next month. So I'll bring anything forward in June. So moving on to director and staff report.

All right. Thank you, Jennifer. Lots of activity, lots of plans. I'll start with the first one, our Park and Recreation System Master Plan. We've had a lot of activity with engagement with the community and a survey.

Hopefully, you saw the handy link that Mark has distributed. And I'm sure Mark will want to report on that, but we're getting last as of last week, I know we were over 500 responses already with the survey and we're closing not until the end of the month. So I'll let you keep people in suspense and where things are at. We have also had a pop up engagement at various events that has been very well received and they'll continue to gather information and the firm that we're working with, they're called Damon Farber and they're also working on our way finding project. And if that's not enough, they're also working on a project with community development called Artscape project with part of the Riverwalk that's being investigated through our community development initiative.

And so those plans are well on their way. The wayfinding is very much trails oriented and that includes not only off road, but even more importantly on road trail connections and how to get from point A to B. The signage is pretty much non existent throughout the city and it's been something that has been talked about for years and we're happy to have the opportunity to finally do something more concrete about it. So it'd be a standardized signage shift system throughout the city. This isn't gonna be in conjunction with public worksengineering department because of the road aspects of it and then off street trails would really fall on our responsibility.

But we're networking Waukesha County, get their input. We're all in it together. State, can't forget the state, Glacier Old Drummond is a state trail. We have a bunch of county trails and of course, we have our city trails. So that's all part of that plan.

The Park and Recreation master plan is to integrate all that together. So we have companion plans to the major plan. That plan is to guide us through ten to fifteen years. Our current plan that we've been working off of this goes back to 2007. So we've had a lot of mileage out of that and we've accomplished quite a bit from that 2007 and those years go by fast.

So that's kind of a short in on the planning aspects with projects. We were out to bed for a prairie and the results were favorable, pretty much right on budget and you'll hear more on that. The prairie project again is doing more or less a revamp of the entire park that includes, like I said, it would feature redoing the courts. So the four tennis courts that exist there will become two tennis and eight pickleball over at Prairie Park. Southside location, we don't have pickleball courts currently on the Southside And that should complete our pickleball armada throughout the community.

So we have the different locations, Banting, Lowell, Buckner and Nile Prairie. We're also doing the ball fields, total redo, the fencing, backstop, etcetera of the baseball diamond that's also utilized by, for example, for JV baseball and our programs. And there's a softball field that's also in the park that's going be redone with brand new fencing as well. Lights, we have a multi sport field primarily used for football, some soccer, etcetera. And the oldest lighting system that we've had in the city, that's where it's at.

That will be changed. It used to be Buckner Park. And what else we got? That pretty much covers Prairie. There's Mineola still working on the final design going out to bid on the building.

There's been some we needed to do some, we call it value engineering to get the project to fit the budget. But a very nice building, staying true to what our priorities were. Restroom facilities be equal to what you what we have over at Cutler Park and that accommodates crowds from 2,000 to 3,000. We still would have auxiliary portable toilets. Most sorts of facilities will have that, but it will be supported now by actual restroom facilities.

Community room is still part of the project certainly and concessions. So that'll be a big piece of the revenue picture on that. Other projects, well, pools, lots of pools. It's right around the corner. We're going to get pool like weather starting sounds like now next week, it's supposed to get cold again.

But next week, it looks like more like summer. Know you hear that all the time. But opening day is sneaking up June 6. And so, Memorial Day events, don't forget about that. We have we have different ceremonies. There's a march that starts at the State Office Building, works its way across Barstow Bridge, down Main Street over into Cutler Park. So it's a short it's called a a march versus a parade. And then there's a ceremony at Cutler. There's a river ceremony at at nine, I believe. We have it.

And then we have this another ceremony over at Cutler Park. And that is the VFW and Allied Veterans are cosponsoring, working together on Advent. So great to see, and that's, you know, that's really what all about. So hopefully, can get out and take advantage of that remembrance. All right, lots more going on, but that's kind of the highlights that other projects we can probably save for meeting time, I can say that for another time.

We're making progress though. Last I'll say is in the formal gardens. That project has been something. So but I believe the new servicing went in with the trails. So we're kind of excited about that. So keeping in further suspense. So Mark Thompson, Recreation.

All right. Thank you, Ron. So as Ron stated, summer is coming and the team has extremely busy. So Logan and his team have been out of the pools, just making sure that we're prepping things in anticipation of the season. We have one of the pools full. Buckner is going to start filling here in the next week. Hiring is ongoing. We still have a couple of positions that we have open at the pools, but we're really only looking for a few lifeguards at this point. Usually, we're still looking for like 10 plus. So it's looking very good for the Aquatics team schedule.

ProHealth hosted their Cancer Walk on May 2. We had over 800 people, 800 runners and walkers at Frame Park and it was a beautiful day and it was a great event for an awesome cause. Joanna and her team have been working with the Remember Our Falling Committee. So the committee was formed with local veterans who served during the global war on terrorism, city staff who served during the global war on terror and then also Park Rec and Forestry staff. We're working on the ceremonies, program layout, sponsors and logistics.

And the opening ceremony is planned for six p. M. On Wednesday, August 19 at the Shutesy Recreation Center. And there'll be more information to come as we get closer to that event. Deb has been working very diligently in securing sponsorship banners. We have great example out at WRO. WRO has sold very well. So we have a good variety of banners out there, great colors out there. I just think that it was tactfully done, where it doesn't look like we just shotgun blasted banners out there. They all look very professional and they're very well designed and the program is going very well.

Cheryl, she's been busy. Youth softball, baseball and T ball, we have 48 teams full of 12 players, so the program is at capacity. With our adult softball, we have 115 teams playing this summer, and then we have 10 adult kickball teams. In addition to that, youth spring soccer leagues wrapped up this past Saturday. Well, we do have a couple of games that kind of spilled over into this week.

But we had 75 teams registered for that program, And then we're anticipating 75 plus for this fall as well. So our youth sports program continue to grow. Gayla and her team are working very hard on the Summer Explorers program. And we did get verbal confirmation from DPI that we are able to move the Hawthorne grant over to Lowell for this next school year. So we are able to continue that grant offering free after school care over at Lowell with a transfer of that grant.

And registration has opened up for next school year as well as summer programs. So lots and lots of youth enrollments. And last but certainly not least, we just renewed our contract and partnership with the School District of Waukesha for four ks services. So just a friendly reminder that we have been in a partnership with the School District of Waukesha for fifteen plus school years now over at the Shutesy Recreation Center offering four ks services. Have a great relationship with the school district and just looking forward to continuing that partnership. And that's what we have in Recreation. Thanks Ron.

Thank you, Mark. Now I'll pass on to Mark Schrampp. Thanks Ron.

All right. So I get to speak a little bit more on the master plan. So like Ron mentioned, we attended or had three different pop up engagement activities to gauge some public input and feedback. The first one was at the library where we were connecting with teens. Our second one was at our cool school run to connect with children and adults, families.

And then the last one was at senior bingo at SRC to connect with our seniors. Had a great turnout at all of those programs and events, lot of feedback and participation, so it was great data to collect. And also in conjunction of having our pop up engagements, we've had a survey circulating for a week and a half. The survey is live until May 31. As we stand right now, we have 582 responses as of this morning and a good response rate that we've been told from our consultants is 500 to 700 for a community of our size.

So we're doing really well, working really hard on getting the information out there whether it's on a website, social media, displays, newsletters, emails, signs in the parks. So a lot of effort has been going into that so that we can gain as much public feedback and input as possible. Outside of master plan updates for the admin team, it's been a busy month for us. We've assisted with two eighty five rentals this past month, which 87% of those are in person. So far, we've also sold five thirty five pool memberships and assisted with 5,291 program enrollments.

So it's been a busy month for us.

That's what I have. Thank you. Thanks Mark. And this to add on to what Mark indicated as part of the process, again, with the Park and Recreation System, master plan is the Board. You're not excluded from the process at all.

Once we have the initial gathering of information from the public, we are looking at putting a workshop together as we've done with strategic plans for those that have been on the Board for a bit. And so keep that in mind. I know the summer is always tricky, but we usually look for like a Saturday. Saturday morning seems to work pretty well. And that would be with our leadership staff and with with you guys, with the Park Rec Forestry Board.

I'm also gonna be reaching out to all the aldermen. Does it get their ideas about parks and everything parks and rec and forestry. And so more to come. I guess that's what I'm saying is that there's definitely a piece of that puzzle that involves specifically board. Okay, that concludes our report for tonight.

Great. And with no further discussion, we are adjourned. Thanks everyone.

Thank you.