Parks and Recreation Committee - Regular Meeting

Okay. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the October 20th meeting for the Parks and Recreation Committee. And could you call roll, please?

Yes, Chair. Chair McBride?

Here.

Vice Chair Sanchez? Here. Committee Member Olchek? Here.

Thank you. Shea, the gentleman who used to sit over there.

Shea.

Shea.

Shea. Shea. I believe.

S-H-E-A. Shea. No T. She corrects it all the time. And then Josh. So the commission needs to step it up.

Do you step down?

Yes.

He was removed due to his absence.

I'm sorry?

The person was removed due to his absences.

You can't miss three consecutive meetings in one year.

Well, not three consecutive, just three in general meetings.

Three in one year. And he was appointed by?

By Commissioner Dostoyevsky.

She was from Gerardo.

I wanted to say Gerardo.

Gerardo, you got me on my east one. No, no, no.

Yes, okay. Agenda, does anybody have anything to add to the agenda?

Martha, anything? No. I have a few items that I forwarded to Cindy, thinking they could add just to their meetings. But if it's all right with you, I'd like to just, I just need some information. And I'm sure you don't have it, but you will get it for us. I'd like to add asking the commission to assign a public service aide to the school bus. I question Cindy about, we have a massive problem with iguanas at the top lot and I want to know when was the last time it was serviced and how often are the services from the company that we actually hire through the town. My standard question for is on the kayak concession, how many kayaks have we rented and what revenue has been generated for the town. I got that here for you. Okay. Attendance at camps. We had two teacher work days and we have another day coming up. How is attendance going for that? You with me? Yep. All right. All right. And has there been any discussion that you've heard for the generator that this committee brought up months ago before budget closed for the community center and the 96th Street Park? if it's all right i'd like yes please that is five items to add to the agenda well carlos has some answers on them already and i noticed that i saw something on the agenda i just want answers and obviously rudy doesn't have the answers

yes but you are you are making a motion for five items to be added correct is that what you want correct second somebody's to make a motion the trick economic emotion second so the items will be item 5a which would be public service a to the bus 5b um inquiry regarding iguanas 5C, inquiry regarding the CAIA concession. 5D, regarding attendance at camps. And 5E...

Generator.

5D, generators in parks.

Thank you very much. Did everyone have a chance to review the minutes from the... All those in favor say aye for the motion.

Aye. I believe you made the motion and you seconded it.

Approval of minutes from September the 15th. Does anybody have any changes, deletions, additions?

We're good.

Yeah. Can someone make a motion to approve them?

Motion to approve minutes.

Aye. Do you second the motion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries.

Rudy, you're up.

Yeah, question. Okay. Generators for 96th Street Park Community Center, what exactly are you asking?

When the commission was developing the budget, we had, you had two major power outages at the community center at that time. One from a transformer, I understand, and one from the construction next door. And I just thought it was common sense that the community center, with the amount of equipment you have, technology, the pool pump, Lighting.

You have a generator on site. Do we want to talk about that now?

No. I was just questioning. I just wanted to make sure I was thinking about the same issue. It could be related. I figured it would be something like that, but I wasn't here. Right. Okay. So I wanted to make sure. Something like that or weather-based or construction in the area.

5E will be right there. Okay. Spooky Spectacular. How are we coming up?

from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. The main attraction will be the Haunted Maze, which will open for residents at 7 p.m. We have a total of six attractions. We have some foods like mini donuts, popcorn. We're giving candy bags to every single kid. And we also have a pumpkin patch where every family will get a pumpkin. And in the first 100 families, we'll receive a carbon pumpkin to take home.

Have you contacted the fire company so we're all set? Yes. With the maze, you've got to have the fire company?

We just scheduled a permit today. We should receive it tomorrow, and then the fire watch will come right after. All right.

And all of that takes place at 962, correct?

Yeah. This is the first year we've been able to do it in the park. The new park. The new park.

the uh through the chair so just curious in the old days the uh a lot of the staff would dress up in the haunted house who who does that today is that all farmed out so that's cool our vendor which he's the one building the the hunting maze and he's providing the staff as well to the people

We used to have it at the old community center on the bottom floor. It was actually Mayor Novak's sister. It had a lot to do with… Mayor Novak was a mayor twenty-some years ago, and his sister's family was into movies, and she was an actual performer, singer, recording artist. And they had the contacts of getting the coughing and the blood and everything. But it was people like us who would… be in it. It was a lot of fun. It was a real community event.

But I'm sure this will be great too. Absolutely. So Parks and Rec has their hands full with the events. Those are recurring events every year. But there's a town-wide activity. There's a lot going on in the entire town. with trick-or-treating, and we do attract a lot of other people from other areas, so it's an old place, it's family-oriented. Parks and Rec has their hands full with the 96th Street. Are they in any way involved with the town-wide activities that take place?

It's not scheduled on the 31st. The school track? Yeah, it's on this road.

That's something we should write to the chief about. Maybe he doesn't know that police always give out candy when they're riding around with their lights on checking the kids. The police give out a lot of candy too.

Maybe he doesn't know that. Yeah, it's a great event for people to participate.

so i'm happy are we are we checking at the gate like we for a like a family fun day we would check at the gate is this going to be residents only or so the event itself is open to the public but all the giveaways and goodie bags are strictly for residents so we do have a check-in booth so the resident wants to get any goodies they'll have to check in first make sure they're residents They'll get their card and then once they go to each station, we'll stamp out their cards to make sure they get it one time.

You know, there's basic rules with the county parks that have kids. How do you, you go by, I guess the rule would be you have to have a kid with you if you're an adult, right? So it's not open to the public to the extent that anyone can go there in a costume. Is that correct?

or yeah right it's just open to the public um any anyone's more than welcome to come just the goodies are just tricky for us i mean i know we've had when we headed out the street here last couple years a lot of the hotel people would come

seniors that do want to participate anyway just to be a part of it yes festivities but I don't think it's strict to that sense that you need to have a child with you to attend the town but there'll be police on hand anyway and your staff our department is fully going to be all on day to be present as well

Right. Just like Oliver's always, we're always careful of our kids. You don't need a great event to be harmed by somebody doing something wrong.

PD presence will be on our back.

And the track record asserts that there's never been a major incident during Halloween, Fourth of July, PD's always on site making sure everybody's... And the residents are very vigilant, too. They play a good part, too, with the children. They're very self-aware of what's going on.

4B, charter up school bus headcount for September.

Do you have anything? Yeah, so I have every single number. Do you want every one or just an average? No, just an average. An average is 3035. I know today we started with a bigger bus, so we have an official yellow school bus that holds up to 55 passengers. It started today, so hopefully we haven't gotten any feedback yet. School bus with...

flashers guard gate yes yes this same company same company same company which is upgrading the yellow school bus i'm sure you saw the video very bad i'm a former school principal 757 children dozen buses I am I've been against the bus since the day they talked about it but I'm feeling a little better now that we have a school bus yes I started today hopefully fingers crossed yeah okay so you're getting a bigger amount of children a larger amount of children attending because it normally it was like 25 average

time started today first day first day would you before we go on would you like to share something about yourself uh i think we could have started with that i'm very rude i've been in parks and recreation for over two decades i started part-time uh the town of star side was one of them i had a great time here obviously i decided to pursue my education i got a better opportunity as well I moved on. I spent six years city of North Miami Beach and a few more years at City of Miami Gardens and then this opportunity came up. I went to school with Adrian, the former director. Always kept in contact with him. Well respected, he's very knowledgeable. I mean, we pretty much shared the same passion. He was here at the time I was here. It's crazy how he left, I stayed, and I left, and it's vice versa. But I come to a great town. I believe in this town. I've always enjoyed this town. So once the opportunity arose, I said, I mean, I might as well give it a shot. I don't want to lose anything for trying. And Mark took a chance on me, and here I am. You're welcome. Thank you.

The parks department, I always say it. been through, I don't know how many managers, how many police chiefs, and the Parks Department has always been one department that nobody touches. Because the parents love you, the community loves you, Marta keeps the pool temperature straight and it's, you know, how do you compete with other municipalities up and down the coast where we have a beautiful community center that's ours, a pool, a beach, great lifeguard department.

no issues like you say we don't have any issues here nope so nobody touches the parks and that's the way we like it that's why i always volunteer for this committee um prior to their appointment um there there was a position and i think we touched on this last meeting or assistant director Is that decision still being eliminated? What's going on with that?

From what I understand at the budget, and I stayed for the last meeting because I took our comments back to the meeting, that Cindy placed full-time, not removed from her other department, but placed so she could develop herself here. But I understand that all assistant directors of all departments have been omitted at this time. Through the budget.

Okay.

Not sure how that came about. We're not broke, but it's helpful on the plus side, having assistance to directors. You don't need ten of them, but you need one for backup. on the record that hopefully more I think he can we can answer

Because I agree with you to the point where Rudy gets elected president in a couple of years, we've got to have an assistant. Just like we had Tim and Adrian stepped in. So there's succession there. If you don't have an assistant, you're really starting at square one again.

They play a vital role. Assistants play a role not only in believing lesser duties, but also learning and being responsible Huh?

Rudy takes vacation days?

Or is he a sister? Medical leave, man.

following every detail obviously but just so that's something that stuck out with me when i read the budget maybe explain maybe like why we don't have that okay good point um 4c vending machines yeah so items sold ice cream 371

beverages 298 and snacks 227. within a month yeah and this was for the month of september okay and then the total revenue for the time was 462 dollars with seven cents okay so that's nice to see they're being utilized and the food's just not sitting there or are you it's both locations yes we have three in the community center we have two at the park you have food at the park also yes so we have food and beverages and ice cream we have about three at each location huh yeah just the park only has one machine that does both beverages and snacks the community has one for each i've seen any con any concerns of the residents or the guests

I don't think we finished it. And we went to the, great to have the school bus, great to have our own. There was some snarls at the last meeting. We learned that in a cost saving effort, it went with a new contractor, new vendors. They were inadequate. Those contracts were terminated. The new people were brought in. And the question then was, is the old vendor, which was the new vendor, is it the same old contract or a new contract? I know you had concerns about the cost. The cost remained the same. So we did save a bunch, but then we didn't save a bunch. And one contract was... Very short-lived. I believe it had an out. There was an out for the town. So that remains a question, and I don't necessarily need answers to that now, but the committee should...

We'll ask Mark, but I'd have to say there'd be a new contract. Because their contract, it ends. When school ends, the bus contract would end. So they would have to relive the contract to get started again.

As long as the kids are happy.

Well... And the parents. Exactly. Children need to sit on a bus and keep their mouths closed. Parents need to be happy that we're having this service because it is $120,000 a year.

So that Rockstar bus, that's gone, right?

Well, I just found out. With the advertising, you know... Correct. Because there was an incident a few weeks ago with that bus where the children were dismissed off the bus, ran in front of the bus, ran down the side of the bus, the bus actually backed up into where it dropped off, and this is all not... Right, not legal. It's not a school bus. A school bus has flashing lights. A school bus has a guard gate in the front so if children pass, if you've ever been in the driver's seat of a school bus, you can't see over the nose of it. So if a child stops to pick up their book bag, And the bus takes off. It's happened before. That's when they put those swing arms out in front of the buses so they can make sure that the child is beyond that guard gate. So, but now we have a real live yellow school bus.

Without all the, without the advertising. For the other. Oh, it's a daily thing. You drive around with ads plastered on the bus. Right.

Do you know if we get the same driver consistently?

From what I understand, yes, it's the same driver.

And then the other question that didn't get answered was, is there a camera on the bus? We didn't get an answer to that. I'm just curious, you know, everything's got a camera. It's a yellow school bus?

I don't know. All of Dade County Public School buses have cameras inside. Right.

Now the cameras outside got banned temporarily.

Okay. Because I know they were doing tickets for like speeding zones with the school bus. I know that's what the outside...

Passing school buses? Lots of tickets given, yeah.

But all Dade County schools inside the bus station have a camera.

Snack Bar 4D. We can't get marked at a run. I tried. Has there been any applicants?

Has it been advertised? It's advertised. We're in the process of receiving proposals. We actually have seven proposals right now. Nice.

It's just not a moneymaker, but...

They don't make any money.

How many people were at the pool today?

We were closed pretty much the whole evening.

When was it vacated? It's been empty for the whole time. After Eli has been empty this whole time? Yeah. So we have the vending machines as a stand. As a backup. Which was it? with people that they bring a little sandwich or something, you know? Yes, especially for party rentals, we allow them to bring outside food. Not for party rentals, just for individuals, that's a different thing, but if... Yeah, yeah, they're there, yeah. People can bring their sandwiches.

I know when we did have the concession, they weren't allowed to, but since we are letting outside food

Yeah.

Right, yeah, which is, in Florida they have to eat it in the sitting area. They can't just take it to the pool or the green space. Exactly.

Hopefully we'll get, hopefully we'll get somebody good. I know that a lot of people ask about it all the time.

It's advertised on the website.

When the proposal will be closed or when's the next meeting?

I'm not sure. It's open, right, just to find the right person. I just got a recent open on the website.

Last week they posted it. I'm not sure if there's a . No, I saw that.

But not a lot of details there. It's an open call. It's the devil in the details. There's a reason why it hasn't been built. It's a business model.

Have they started doing the checking in with the new code and this type of thing? Or do we still have the people can come in without having the new form of Do you know what I'm talking about?

On the website, there's a new app. Yes. And you have... You can check in with the app.

Oh, good afternoon, sir. You can check in with the app or... Or if you still have the ID, you can check in with the ID. The app supplements the ID, so you have everything in the app. So you can use both.

So you can use either one of them?

Correct, yes. Oh, okay. The app is easier. It has all the information. So you just have to carry the app with you. But you can still use the ID as well.

The app is the one that you also use? Uh-huh. I don't know whether you use it just for the parking or also for the entry or just for... You can use it for anything.

You can check in at the pool, you can check in at the park for the kayaks, you can register for programs, pretty much anything. You can find all the information at Parks and Rec. So yeah, it's pretty much all that.

They raise the temperature to 90 degrees when you walk in? I cared about the pool, but she makes sure our pool is looking good.

People are very comfortable with their phones and ordering stuff. Just a question, just a thought. Is there ever a time when you have people ordering food from the pool and you have deliveries coming there? Yes. We were each deliverers to the pool?

Yes. We get a lot of them. They come to the window. You get a lot of that, right? And they're asking us, you know, as far as like, I'm ready to go.

What's the town policy of that? You can't generally interfere with any of that, right?

No, now we allow it since we don't have the concession. Once we do have the concession, no outside food is allowed.

Find your own mate. No, so say the concession's up and running, there's nothing that you want from there, but you can't get something delivered.

Yeah, that was always the policy with the contract. So if they're in the building with the concession up and running, the contract states that no outside food is allowed.

I know you just opened the applications up. You've got seven already.

That's all you haven't had. Seven altogether. We have a number of applications, but the devil's in the details. That's usually what a lot of people are interested in until they learn about the limitations of the facility. the fact that there's certain hours of operation, whether or not there's going to be a cost or not associated with the venue, all those factors that play into the business decision.

Well, keep us posted. I think that's good that it was re-advertised.

Do we have access to those conditions?

4E, Veterans Day. How are we looking?

Yeah, we're looking good. It's scheduled for Tuesday, November 11th at 10 a.m. Veterans Park. It's going to be the same as always, you know, meaningful event, guest speakers.

You have a great speaker. Mark Blumstein. Not me. I brought in someone who is in charge of the Miami Military Museum. And he's be a very insightful speaker for the town.

And this will be the first time in probably a long time that I won't be there.

You could watch the tape.

I will.

It's our grandson's birthday, or birthday.

Okay. We won't be back. He's Dr. Atwood. Dr. Atwood.

A-T-W-O-W-D.

Another... Is he a friend of Paul's?

The short guy? He's a short guy. I don't know if he's a friend of Paul's.

Anthony is his first name. I just want to add that there's another resident veteran that will not be there, Peter Neville. So maybe there's a place in the program to mention him because he was always there.

Yeah, we typically have mentioned a lot of our past veterans.

Any luck on contacting Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts? We still get no answer. Still from Bay Harbor, because they're still active. Or Rosa Lima, St. Rosa Lima in Miami Shores.

Every time we reach out to one of them, they're always booked. We reach out two months in advance and they always give us the same answer.

What are you trying to get them, for the veterans and that?

Yeah, the scouts used to come. Our kids were little, the scouts used to come. Why do you let them grow up? I try not to. I keep mine under wraps. I don't know about you, but I keep mine little. I keep mine closed. They're not leaving my house.

They're not leaving my house, Frank. Give me some tips. You only got two now at home.

The girl's home too? Yeah, I got them all. Oh, I don't see her.

Yeah, she comes.

2025.

Dang.

I'll tell you a story off the record about me not leaving home. All right. Senior trips.

And the brunch. Why are you looking at her?

Because she knows about it, I don't.

I was wondering whether you have it all together because I've been calling Jorge for a while and being organized until So I was wondering, is it already organized in the way that somebody is going to be in the booth? And today I went, especially after swimming, to pick up the flyer. so that I can take the flyer to other places, other condominiums. But I haven't heard anything. I mean, I thought I was supposed to be talking to him, but I don't know what happened to me now.

That's all. Definitely follow up with George. He should be comfortable. But yes, we have the November trips and brunch. So the November senior brunch is scheduled for November 14th from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. as always. It's going to be a buffet style, and we're going to be playing bingo that day. And then the trip is going to be on the November 19th, and we're going to the Frost Machine of Science. And then George will be the one going with you guys on the bus.

So he will be going there, yes sir. And are you going to say that we're having theater for the following month?

Yes, he's looking for the Actors Playhouse already for the December trip. He was working on it earlier when I went over there.

And do you know what kind of a booths are we going to watch?

I know he's trying to get the coach bus, since they have to be ADA, so he's working on getting that coach bus for you guys. They have the ramp for the wheelchair and all of this stuff, I guess.

Because we have two people that are always, yeah.

Yeah, so I told him to get that bus, so he's working to acquire that bus.

Carlos, you may want to also ask Charter Up and see if they have one.

I believe that's the company that we're talking about. Okay, good. Let him call you, okay?

Yeah.

If not, Rudy will call you.

Today I went to meet you when you weren't there at 10 o'clock when I finished streaming. I was in here.

Ah, because I went to meet you when they told you you weren't there. I was here, just not at that time I wasn't over there.

4G, movie under the stars.

So we have the second movies scheduled for Saturday, November 8th at 7 p.m. at the 96th Street Park, and we're gonna be showing the new Little End Station movie. I know I just saw a comment that you would like to bring back the surveys for the community for picking movies.

I like that when you put the survey out, it gives the community input a little bit.

We'll definitely do that for the third one, absolutely. We'll pick a couple and then survey the communities and get their opinions on it.

I think the kids will be excited about Lilo. It's a good movie. Do you go to the movie wonder as far? You have to bring your own blanket.

we do have refreshments and um popcorn as well for any um guests that will like to see the movie all right new business we have item 5a assignment all public services okay i was glad to hear that we now have a full bus with proper

Yeah, average of 35 kids a day. Yeah, yeah, it was 25 last year.

Because I was, I brought up that I was asking for a PSA to be assigned at the arrival and dismissal time, but now that we have flashing lights and the guard gate, I don't think that that's really necessary anymore. Hopefully they'll continue to monitor the kids getting off the bus and stuff, but I think that is, I feel a lot better. I don't like the cost, but like Oliver said, we're not broke. Going for the kids, seniors are free, we're making progress. Yeah, but you participate, I don't.

Item 5B, inquiry regarding iguanas.

All right, got an update on iguanas?

So I know we weekly pressure wash the toddler, just to give you any that we're doing right now.

What's the service that we have for removal? It's bad.

I know what it is. It's bad. That's another thing to talk to Rudy about. We get Rudy a pellet gun, he'd take care of it. Well, listen, then that's an option. It's legal.

It is legal, but we want to get it on business. Some of the residents would like that. Here's a new park director with a BB gun.

We have to look into a way to deal with it because it's overrun the community.

It's just South Florida. It's in the community, yeah. And Tim and I have discussed that it's a lot of the au pairs, the nannies, that are feeding them. You know, they have the snacks for the babies in there and, hey, here comes what's done. Is that yours?

Is that your pet? I shouldn't get on the record, but I did relocate this one. To the park?

To the mainland.

Oh, good. To the park. To my business. Maybe we could get all of them just to relocate them across the Bay Harbor or something.

I heard Adrian loves them. There's a lot of them. But it's just been, and I guess maybe because the rain let off in the last week, but coming home from school, there's just

Well, they call it chicken of the tree.

Yeah. I came home from school once and I had one on my front step.

And I'm freaking out.

I don't do animals. I do 700 kids a day, but I don't do animals. So the gardener was next door. So I said, hey, you, oh man, that's great. He went over.

And they do populate, but it gets out of control. It's just the messes they make too. People are in their homes a lot, they're not really out in the yards as much, and they have the, all the conditions are there, the water's there, you know. Andy, your neighbor was saying, Andy was saying there's a big family that lives in the tree right on your, between...

Sadly, you know, Andy's father, Richard, is not there, because he would take him out.

Richard?

Yeah. We had to write Richard over. I know, I know, he showed the children his gun points when they were little. There you go.

But sadly, he turned the house over to Andy, so Andy's not as much of a...

So we got slingshots. You got that too? And they just bounce right off. You can't knock them out with that? They don't care. You tried it? It just bounces right off of their hide. Maybe we need to have some kind of campaign and offer some kind of reward for how many you captured.

Like they do with the snakes? That'd be a good community activity.

No amount of... No gates will not stop them. Rents will not stop them.

There's things that will stop them. I see the iguana busters or whatever it is, the trucks all along Bay Drive. He comes out with his air rifle.

On a different question, Mr. Manager, do you know how long we're going to have all the trucks here outside the community center?

It's for that project that 90, you have two projects going on right across the street from one another. There's a lot of construction activity for both of them. How long? A lot. The rest of this year for sure and into next year for sure. There's one big concrete pour coming up for 93 Ocean. They already had one. They're having another one I want to say around December. You know, because they got to get out of, they're almost, you know, they're going up. Once they start going up, then you'll see less trucks. And the one across the street at Kushner, that'll be up faster than the ocean. It's only three stories, four stories. Right, but they don't have to deal with the coastal construction line and all the things that you've got to deal with on the east side.

Do they do the megapores at night?

No. During the day. The megapores are during the day and they can take sometimes the whole day.

I mean, you really have to open the middle of the street.

Well, that shouldn't be the case. Remember, I had that sidewalk fixed.

And you did it right away. Yeah, yeah.

But the trucks, they park parallel to each other. Well, they're supposed to be parallel, but they're supposed to keep the sidewalk free to allow for pedestrian. Now, there'll be a flagman. There'll be a flagman at each end. So that if you're coming out of Marbella, you need to get to the center, they're supposed to stop the trucks so you can go. That's how it's supposed to work. If that's not working like that, then I'll deal with that.

Ah, okay. Because, you know, to go to the community center, most people now, they were going in the back.

On the beach. Uh-huh.

But now the beach, uh... That should be finished this week, so you should be able to use that again. So many people, starting with me, I walk in the middle of the street. In the morning, at 8.30 in the morning, the troops are already parked there.

A lot of activity we have. Yeah, we don't have that many lots left.

No, don't say that. Progress. That's what they call it. Pain in the neck progress.

All right. Item 5C, Inquiry regarding the kayaking machines.

Kayaks. The month of September, we had a total of nine rentals, and we had revenue to the pound of $125.

As for both the paddles and the kayaks?

The kayaks started late September, so it was mostly paddles.

Yeah, mostly paddles. Did you take the paddle board out today?

I mean, people have their own equipment and they use the launch.

They're happy with it. People are happy with it. Do you think the company is going to be satisfied with saying nine? We'll find out.

I mean, listen, they've made the investment, so it's another way to use the waters, you know. Right.

Or it has been a very rainy season.

Correct. September was very rainy. This fall and winter should be a good test because now everything's in place.

Item five, the attendance of camps.

So we haven't run any kids days off yet. The YMCA required a minimum of 15 kids. The first one that was scheduled for September 23rd, we only received six. And the one for October 2nd, we only received four kits. Wow. Yeah, so we weren't getting the minimum number, so we haven't been able to get it. How's it advertised? Everywhere. Gazette, Town, Iblas, the YMCA themselves distributed along every single register in the past. Only active?

You used to get 30, 40 kids there. I wonder if the school's opening up something or the school has something on that we're losing. The religious schools have a lot of their own activities.

And the Bay Harbor School themselves are doing accounts at the actual schoolhouse.

We offer the service. And I'm glad they have a minimum. You're not having staff there for five kids. That's good.

Okay.

But I see the point of, you know, Bay Harbor, parents are used to comfortable going to the school, dropping them off. They know the routine. And then with the school, you know, the private schools, I know utilizing. Yeah. And then St. Joseph's has theirs, too, as a matter. And?

5E, generator for town parks.

Is there any discussion at the last budget meeting?

I'm sure Rudy, once he gets his feet wet, can look at the necessity for that or not. Remember, Frank, that all those power incidents were not really the town's fault. They were the result of construction activity. that killed the feeders to the facility. And, you know, we had FPL come out. They assessed the whole place. They gave a couple of minor tweaks. They didn't necessarily recommend a generator. So I'm hopeful that that's behind us with these

I'm sorry. I don't think fault is... I mean, yes, you could find fault with how it happened, but I believe that it did happen. It certainly happened twice, because we discussed it in two different meetings. And the idea, I think, we talked about backup generators reducing critical buildings that provide critical services if We're not here to make the recommendation. It's good to discuss it rather than to dismiss it because it's a piece of equipment. Again, we're not broke. Backup generators require certain investment that don't necessarily translate immediately. You don't know when that'll happen and obviously the community center If there is a power outage, there's probably some policy or protocol. Everybody needs to get out until the power goes back on. But it did happen twice. Irrespective of how it happened, it can happen other ways, other than externalized incidents, not our doing. And I think you said that there is more construction on the way. There is an ongoing, development is ongoing, so if it happened twice, it may happen again.

I cannot predict the future, and I guess anything is possible, but unlike Town Hall, that's not necessarily critical infrastructure. The pool is a pool. It can't be used because it doesn't have a heater or because of some other reason. It's not a health reason.

I was thinking more about the heat, but I was thinking more on the health reason, that if it was down for 24 hours, could there be a problem that we could incur?

We have to go obviously through protocols and testing and make sure the water is right. But because it is a government facility, it gets high response from FPL. And they have been very responsive whenever that's happened. I have a direct line to the government rep, and they put us on a high priority, and we have people here quickly to address the problem. backup generators i think are more um like you know for police operations and you know obviously emergency operations hospitals hospitals yes so we do have them we have them here in this facility uh is there one or i don't know the exact uh amount um but i know it's nice to back up those operations

There's been times when neighbors lose power and we don't, and we just run a cord over and feed them. Perhaps it's something to look into where the community center can tie into the equipment that we have existing in the event that they need power over there that they can draw from the backup generator here.

Are you saying that the community center might be tied generator to another generator that is somewhere else?

I'm saying that the town has backup generators here in the event that power goes out. But it does, it only feeds Town Hall and at least, it doesn't, so it's not tied into a community center. It's a good opportunity to grow some lines.

We have lines underground. Plenty of them.

you know it's it's not it's not important until it becomes important and again it was discussed twice here now that you're here through the chair there was some discussion the last meeting and at this meeting with the elimination of assistant directors positions We have a wonderful new director, Parks and Rec, and we have great staff that is clearly well prepared and well versed and well positioned to fill in in the event that the director is gone. Why is assistant director position eliminated when it's known that it's important to have backup, to have something happen in the wings and they're able to fill in

so the commission uh dealt with this issue they uh chose not to eliminate them they just chose to not fund them for this fy um and uh the the entire structure of the organization has been remodeled and there is redundancy it's just a matter of the level

So if there was a need there, that it still could be discussed. It hasn't been eliminated, it's just been funded. It hasn't been funded.

So it's more of terminology where it's more about funding. It's about money.

It's always about money. So the position exists on paper, the position exists on paper, not funded for FY26, unless and until the commission decides to use it.

Right, because in the last meeting we had, you know, someone from a totally different department filling in for, you know, for Parks and Rec, which he didn't, they didn't have the experience for that, so I know that that was a very short-lived... Yeah, it was an acting position in light of the circumstances the town was facing.

contract on the bus? Am I correct in saying that in, say, June the contract ended with the bus company and then we got a new company that dissolved itself? That new company didn't deliver. Right. So did the old companies, which is our new company, did their contract just continue or was there a new contract?

Because it's a 10-month contract? It's basically a school year contract. Similar terms, similar costs. Similar terms, a little change in the cost, yes. It went up, not down.

So did that contract get voided or it's terminated? It got terminated. That came out of my budget? Did it come out of your budget?

Yes. I want to say it did. So the bottom line is we had this company when we did our initial contract with Charter Up. That was last school year. And then that contract came to an end. And then when the commission wanted to do it again, we went out and did a search to see if they were the most competitive. We found another company that was far more competitive, but They didn't deliver in the end. The service was bad. So we terminated that one. You leave children hanging on a corner, it's bad. And then we went back to the original vendor called Charter Oak. And that's who we're using now. It is more expensive. But they deliver.

Well, then you don't have any parent complaints. Exactly. Exactly. Well, something to learn out about educators. any public comment no next meeting date november the 17th you'll be there cool 17 yes yeah do you have anything for the committee that you want us to do i know we've been challenged by commissioner gerardo to think of things to move to move parks forward

So I just put back up the empty seats. Yeah, let's get.

Yes, those are to be appointed hopefully next commission meeting will be on the 22nd. Okay. There's one seat open from Commissioner Biloxi and the other one is from Commissioner Velazquez.

17th of Monday. Always. Always 530.

Third Monday of the month.

unless it's unless it's a holiday like martin luther king day rudy anything you want us to look into any any questions concerns that you guys see um that's been a concern uh within the town uh related to parks mercury please share with me um obviously the town is in great shape but if i could very present out here.

I just want to check on the repainting of the top lot. No parking zone.

Okay.

If not, I'm going to get to paint myself.

I'll join through that, Frank. We'll take care of it.

I don't want you to hurt yourself. I won't. I can sit on a curb. All right. Anything else? No? Good? You good?

You good?

Can I get a motion to adjourn?

I do. All right.