Deer Park Community Development Corporation - Regular Meeting

Okay, I'd like to call to order our quarterly meeting for the Deer Park Community Development Committee. Do we have anyone signed up to speak today?

No, ma'am.

Okay, we're going to move to our first business item, which is consideration of an action on approval of the minutes of the meeting for the Deer Park Community Development Corporation meeting on 01/29/2026. Can I get a motion for that?

Make a motion. Second.

Okay. All in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? Okay. The motion's passed. Item number two is consideration of and possible action on the quarterly report for the period of 01/01/2026 through 03/31/2026.

Good evening. So attached is the normal report that you're used to seeing. Here are the quarterly activities that the PARC and part staff had related to CDC for January through March. Lots of good stuff as you all can see. And then the financial information. There's been no new debt issued for CDC. But then there's the typical revenues and investments that have I mean, and expenditures that have come in and out for the quarter. Does anyone have any questions?

We're still solvent, right?

Absolutely, yes. The CDC is

in a

very good place. In fact, we'll talk about budget a little later on in the meeting. We have an agenda item for that.

Okay. Does anybody have any questions?

No. Are we trying to approve

this? Yes.

I'll make a motion to approve the quarterly report. Second.

Okay. All in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? Okay. The motion's passed. Item number three is discussion of issues relating to the status of the Deer Park Community Development Corporation projects for the period of January 1 through 03/31/2026. Hello.

Hello. Good evening. How are doing? We're good. Good. I just want to update you on a few projects. A lot of the stuff that we've been doing, funding from CDC, a lot of the bigger projects have come to completion like the DAC. You see a list of a lot of things, soccer complex, girls softball field, the additional parking over at Spencer View, the bridge, Glenwood The Park. There's lot of things that have been completed. Just kind of update on the Dow Park Pipeline and P Street parking lot project.

So basically the if you remember the P Street parking is an asphalt lot. It's very old. And there's a pipeline that runs north to south through Dow Park that's basically kind of sunken in. It's not functioning. And as part of one project, we have to replace that pipeline. And it goes underneath the P Street parking lot. So it's tariff lot anyway. It was a good time just to do the entire parking lot. About a year ago, we hired MHS Planning to do the design. And that's gone back and forth several times with the city and with engineering.

Well, design is complete. They have a design that the city has approved. So the next step is to go out for to bid for construction. We actually are currently working with another company, Cornerstone, that we worked with before to provide a cost estimate. And we just received that this morning.

We took that and we're having our engineering team review. And if they review that and find that acceptable, then we'll go straight to putting together a contract with this company. And we won't have to go out for bid. But if we're happy with it and we think it meets the budget, all the specs are included, then we'll move forward. And if that were to happen, that construction project would start early in the summer and will be done before the end of the fiscal year. So that's the plans right now. The pickleball courts, you can see they're done. We got people playing on them. You go out there any day at 06:00 and it's going to be crowded. So one thing that's not done yet is the lighting.

So CenterPoint just today actually let us know that our request for the additional poll has been approved. We're on the schedule. We didn't have a date, so we're waiting them to go and actually install service. And then once they install the pole for service, then our electricians will go out and run power from there to the pickleball courts. We anticipate lighting to be done there sometime during the summer to have lighting at the pickleball courts. And once that's done, this project will be closed out. Later that's done, the laser grading at Dow Park, that was done about a year ago.

I'm sorry. That was my mistake.

That's okay. I think that's all the pending projects. The Spenceview Bridge, we're just waiting on one final inspection and then we'll close that one out as well. But I think as far as yes, that's the bridge waiting on the TDLR inspection.

Yeah. And you are correct. That is the last one.

Okay. And I think that's all. Any questions about any projects we're currently working on? Did you say that, Pat?

I'm sorry. Go ahead.

The pipeline underneath the P Street parking lot, you're replacing it or removing it?

Yeah. We're refurbishing it. What is it? So basically, yeah, we're pulling it up and putting the whole new pipeline. What's in a pipeline? It's basically, it's a drainage pipe underneath. I'm sorry, it's a drainage pipe underneath and it's cracked and it's bent and we're just replacing that whole pipeline.

When the parking lot's through, will there still be part of it sectioned off like right now? I think there's isn't there mulch and gravel over there for the city? Yeah,

that area is still going to remain. Yeah, we're not touching that area.

That's the parking spot, the park.

There's a lay down yard over there.

Oh, you're sorry.

The other building? The decision

Oh, is that one. Over there. Okay. Okay, yeah.

Yeah. So that'll stay. Yeah, right off of P Street on the South Side of Dow Park, that asphalt lot. There's going to be more parking.

That's what you're replacing right now.

Yes, ma'am.

Oh, okay. I had the wrong parking lot.

Okay.

That parking lot is pretty bad.

The one by the soccer fields, it recently got even worse.

Big potholes.

Yeah, that's the one that we're replacing. And nobody will be concrete.

And did you say the pipeline was a drainage pipe?

Yes, sir.

We're not replacing it? We're refurbishing or

Well, part of refurbishing is replacing the pipe, yes.

Okay. But it's going to continue to be a pipe?

Yes, sir. Okay.

Got it. The only other thing on the pickleball, I know there's another phase about the restrooms. Yes. Is that another project that's

going be Is

it on next year's budget or whatever? Or do you know?

Yeah, we're trying to identify funds. I don't know if

We're planning to discuss with counsel in June about whether or not we're going to move forward with that. And it's looking very favorable that we will. I think there's some available funds in this year's budget due to just certain projects shifting and not coming to fruition that we can most likely get started. But we're not going to get blessing from council to move forward until June. So, it will be later in the summer that that starts. But we are planning on putting restrooms out there.

Yeah. So if we can make it happen this year, we will. If not, then we would budget it for next fiscal year.

There's been no complaints about not having restroom facilities?

We've had people requesting, you know, absolutely, which was that was part of our long term when we first planned on pickleball courts. We planned on going into phases with some additional recreational components. We wanted to monitor use.

I used to play tennis over there at those high school courts when I was a lot younger. We never were concerned about restrooms. Of course, we lived. I lived on Kentucky Street.

Sure. Yeah.

I have a question. Given that most of the projects that we have been working on are coming to completion, what's the plan moving forward for the sales tax that we're collecting? Is it just going to sit until new projects?

No. So later on I have what we have proposed for next fiscal year. We are I guess there are some funds offsetting for the DAC as well.

Yeah, I can answer that. So, we have a five year citywide CIP plan and part of that was identifying projects that could be funded from CDC. And that's already been approved by council. So, is some of that that we have planned to do and that will be part of what Kenny talks about with the preliminary budget. But then additionally, we are plating every year to make a transfer for DAC and we're not sure yet how operations with DAC are going to be. We don't know how much supplementation they're going to need. And so we're a little hesitant to spend down. CDC or plan for a chunk of their sales tax revenue to go to new projects yet until just until we see how DAC is performing. But we do have a plan for future projects.

Does the sales tax expire at some point?

It's It's It's It's second one

I think you just

Right. The first time we voted it was project based but this time it's not.

Okay. All right. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. We're going to move to item number four which is discussion of issues relating to the preliminary fiscal year twenty twenty six to twenty seven for our CDC budget.

Yes, good evening. I will get started with that. So just real quickly, before we get started, Nicole is going to get up and talk about revenue and then Kenny will get up and talk about projects and expenditures. But just high level, real quickly, CDC's budget is relatively simple compared to some of the other budgets citywide. Very few revenue streams and then expenditures are pretty cut and dry.

There's transfers, which includes some for DACs, some for debt projects. I won't go too in-depth into the budget calendar simply because we have another agenda item after this to talk about future meetings for CDC. But that is a component of the budget as well. And luckily there's no special called meetings or anything that CDC needs to do. We will present the preliminary budget to you guys tonight and then it will be coming back to you in July. But with that, Nicole will just real high level give you an explanation of the forecasted revenue right now and then she'll hand it off to Kenny.

Yes. So, like Sarah said, this is preliminary. We'll come back in July with a budget to be adopted. So this is very early to make some determinations on where we're going to land on sales tax. We're basing it off recent years. So you can see just looking at you know our actuals and our budget that are estimated and then are requested here. So the actuals that's what we actually received in fiscal year 2425. You can see we brought in 5,190,000 which is very very good for CDC. That's quite a bit more than we've seen before. We obviously don't want to count on that every year.

We want to be conservative because sales tax can fluctuate. But we've seen it stay pretty healthy in the last several years. So since 2022, 2023, '24 it stayed very healthy and we budgeted pretty conservatively each of those years. So you can see we put we budgeted 4,000,000 in this current budget and we're estimated to bring about 5,000,000. And again that 5,000,000 is still a pretty conservative number as well.

We expect like a 10% decrease or a 5% decrease in those numbers. So we're probably going to see 5,000,000 again before the end of the year. So to remain conservative yet not you know but we're optimistic but conservative we're pushing that up to about 4,500,000 this year. We still have a lot to record for this year. Sales tax comes in arrears so we're about two months behind.

So we've only recorded about four months I believe you know at this time of the year and so we don't even have half of the year yet for us to really determine how we're going to trend but just based off history I think it's pretty safe to do the 4,500,000 When we come in July that may shift a little bit as we have more information come in. But right now I feel comfortable with that number. And then the investment revenue we do have about half of CDC's money in our local government investment pools which brings in at this time about three to 4%. It fluctuates with the fed funds rate as that fluctuates and so pretty healthy investment income coming in. We will possibly shift some more over there to bring in a little bit more as well.

But right now we're anticipating ending the year about 150,000 and then next year as rates will start to come down that's the expected you know it'll stay steady for a little bit but we expect rates to come down by the end of fiscal year twenty seven. So we put in 120,000 there. So any questions on revenue?

I believe Kenny has a presentation for specific projects for the preliminary budget.

Yes, briefly here. So these are some items that we have preliminary budget for next year. Sarah had mentioned the long range capital improvement plan. So these are all items that are on that plan that are designated for fiscal year twenty six-twenty seven. Annual fence replacement, we're estimating about $85,000 just to update and replace some fencing out of some athletic fields and parks that are in need of repair.

We want to start adding more shade, shade canopies in local parks. We're estimating about 65,000 and adding some more park lighting at a lot of local parks as well. We're estimating about $100,000 for those projects. In addition, we're requesting $250,000 for a concrete skate park. We did have one at Dow.

It was a metal park, and it utilized as much as it should. It really designed well. And it was taken away several years ago. Don't remember exactly how long ago that was before my time. But we think we have a need in our community. And we're currently identifying certain locations at local parks add a concrete skate park. We're estimating about 250,000 for that project. So Field 5 at at Minchin Park, it's a smaller field. It's underutilized. Pony doesn't use it too often due to smaller size.

They do a few things on there. They went a couple seasons without using it. We want to take that area and renovate that field. We've had several discussions with Parks and Recreation Commission about the project. And we're requesting 550,000 to take that smaller field. It's right next to JBAC. Literally right out the back door JBAC, it's right there. So making that more green space, recreational space, we think it would be a lot more use currently at the ball fields. There's not a lot of playgrounds or recreational space for families that go out there and they have siblings or they have an hour break between games. There's not a whole lot to do.

It would also be nice for events that we have outdoors at the JBAC to have access to recreational space as well. So that's a project that we're identifying for next year. And then we have one rollover project. So the adult sports complex enhancements, this is budgeted for this year. We've been working with MHS planning all year on design. And that's still going through. We're about 30%, 40% design. So we still have a ways to go. This is two projects. We've kind of rolled into one big project, taking the parking lot at the adults complex and expanding it further north towards the water tower, but really going all the way around towards that multipurpose field.

And then the restrooms there are in pretty bad shape. And it's to basically just tear those down and build brand new restrooms at that site. So it's total over a little over $2,000,000 total for that project. So it's a big project. We've had several walk throughs with the design firm. And once we get that we think it's going to probably take the end of this year to get design done. It probably will be next year until construction and most of the money is actually spent. So we're going to roll this over into next year as well. I think that's the last one. Any questions?

Have you met with the Pony League to make to they're fine with losing

Yes, some

we have. So in January, met or sorry, in October, we met with all the youth athletic at the athletic leagues to discuss the contract for the next year. And in that meeting with Pony, we expressed that this is what we wanted to do, and they were fine with it. They were on board.

That's the field that used to be called Brownfield or something. But is that the small field beyond the Pony League field?

So we currently Brownfield is currently at Dow Park.

Okay. Where is Mention Field?

This is it's literally right behind the new JBAC. I'm sorry? Right behind the new Jimmy Burke athletic center. Right behind the new Jimmy Burke Got it. Got Got I'm familiar with it. Okay. Yeah. So it's at Mention, next to JBAC and the theater complex and the new court building, yeah, it's over there.

I'm sure families would like that, having something for the kids to do while they're there.

I think so. Playground is one option. We're looking at a lot of different options. We just want to make it some good recreational green space that we think would be heavily used.

You said there was Go ahead. No, I was just going to ask. You said there was you have not identified somewhere for the skate park yet?

We have some ideas, but we haven't confirmed anything yet. But yeah, we have a couple ideas that we're considering. But we haven't confirmed anything yet.

It took a while for us to notice it wasn't there because we have a I have a son that is into skating.

Oh, okay.

So I was curious about when I saw that on the budget. Was like, I have a 10 year old who wants to skateboard.

Okay. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. So

what Kenny just showed you, there's almost 7,000,000 roughly suggested and proposed expenditures for next year. Kenny went over $3,000,000 of that in potential capital outlay, which again came from our CIP plan. The other expenditures, services and supplies are very minimal like printing and audit fees and things like that. And the other operating expenditures, 1,000,000 of this is just a placeholder to transfer to the general fund for DAC's operations. And then the remainder of that, the majority of that remainder by far is for CDC's debt, transferring the equivalent of their debt payment.

And other than that, is the budget. And we will bring this back in July, which this is subject to change, hopefully not very much. There are we do throughout the budget process when various departments request certain expenditures or projects, sometimes we do shift things around and we identify things that would be better utilized or placed in CDC versus general fund or something like that. But in general, don't anticipate this to change a whole, whole lot.

The maintenance for? I saw ground maintenance. What is that?

Sorry. Right

here? Yes.

So this Kenny do you know or So

there's nothing budgeted this year. So you can see we this was actually had about 250,000 in grounds maintenance last year. Those were items that were put as capital but really were more maintenance items. Think it could have been fences or something along those lines. It was just it's an accounting mechanism so it was budgeted in capital. It really needed to go to like a repair and maintenance account so it got plugged there. But this year we don't have any grounds anticipated.

That's what

I was curious about because I didn't see any for

this year and I looked at a past report and I

think twenty twenty three, twenty four it did show that there was some requested but not used.

Correct. We can

was just curious what it was.

We can research that and and get back with you. Off the top of our head, don't remember.

No. That's that's okay. Was just curious why it wasn't requested again if there was actual spend.

Sure. Sure. The addition. Yeah. We can certainly look it up.

The addition of a restroom at San Jacinto Park. Wait. Where is is

that is that the cookable?

Yes. Yes.

Okay. So there's $50,000 for a bathroom. Is that

right? It

That's right.

It's actually gonna be Did you say 50?

No, that's what it says. It was 150,000, but it says proposed for the coming year of 50000.

Yeah, if you

go to this page, Sarah. Yeah,

right here.

It's probably split between two fiscal years. Yeah, So, it probably can get some done this year, but we can't get all of it done. Oh, awesome. Some of it's pushed to

next year. We were anticipating it's $200,000 total right now is the estimated cost. And we're thinking we'll get 150 of that spent this year.

Thank

you. With the remaining 50 in the next fiscal year.

Okay. Thank you.

Okay.

We're going to move to item number six, which is announcement of upcoming Deer Park CDC meetings for 2026. Actually, do we do I need to Do want

me go to the agenda

item? Okay. Our we have the rest of the meetings is April 27 which is tonight and our next meeting is July 27 at 05:30 unless it changes and that's when you will adopt your fiscal year twenty twenty six twenty twenty seven budget and that gets submitted to counsel And then your next regularly quarterly meeting will be October 26 at 05:30 unless that changes. And then counsel will review and adopt the CDC budget at the August 18 council meeting. At the July 27 meeting as well, we will be recognizing our departing member, Eric Ripley, who is leading us to join city council.

And then we will be recognizing our new member who has not been adopted yet by council. That will be on the May 19 council agenda to adopt a person to replace Mr. Ripley. And we did send out the email today about changing the times from 05:30 to five and I have not received any negative responses from any of the three boards. So everything seemed to be positive.

And if that's the case, then at the July 27 meeting, we would still hold that at 05:30. But then we would have something on the agenda to change the time going forward to approve the change in times going forward for all the meetings. Anybody have any questions? No? You'll get a meeting calendar invite just to make sure it's on your calendar. But we do also have the budget calendar in two different places here on the agenda. And you got the full packet last week by email. And if you ever lose that, you can always go to our website. We have the full packets on our website as well.

Okay. Thank you. With that being said, are we done?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay. Okay. We're gonna adjourn.

Hammer time. We're done. Hammer time.