Parks & Recreation Commission - Regular Meeting

out. Okay. All right. Now I have to share my screen. So it's okay. Yeah. is I haven't [Music] screen didn't say it but you know myself this let's go go back yeah but I mean we're having any problems And let's see if anybody's in the um Where's Let's see who is Darren. Oh, me. Okay. All right. Welcome. This is the park and recck commission meeting on June the 18th. We're at Five Oaks on Wars. It is 7 oh 7:05. Uh, call the meeting to order. Roll call. Oh, weird, I guess. Stephanie Todd here. Bill Hansen here. Jim Person here. Travis Neil, is he not here? Daniel also not here. S Rich here. And we still have an open slot. So, anyone who's interested in listening, you're welcome to put in an application for our open spot on the park commission. All right. Oh, yeah. I'll forget the other people. Maxine Wilds here representing uh the city council. Beverly Tucker Knight the park director is here and Brian I don't know is here as well to do a presentation.

I'll I'll leave you. I don't want to butcher any names. All right. Um item number two hearing from citizens. There's no one online. Do we have any communication? No. Any written communication? Uh well the only one you have is item six. Okay. Okay. Well, we'll table item number six minutes. Uh recommendation is to approve the minutes from the May 21st regular meeting minutes and the document was attached. So any I'd like to bring up an issue. Yeah, there were some acronyms in there. It would be good to include. Okay. You had the OPERD and the parks and I recreation department and then the what was the other one? Uh there's another one in there that I saw that wasn't JBS and I John Burrow it was one labor but um but if if when we put acronyms in yeah typically the first time I write it out so I'll check and if that's not the case I will uh I will change the minutes so you can Oh I know the other one was UNP urban night sky place No, I I understand all those. Yeah, no problem. Good idea. So, we'll I'll I'll go through. So, you can um move to approve the minutes as amended. Any other corrections or comments? All right. I'll entertain motions. Make a motion to approve the May 21st, 2025 regular meeting minutes. I will second. Oh, sorry. As amended. As amended. All right. Uh vote. All All in favor? I All oppose. Any abstensions?

All right. Presentation. Oh, I should have looked out. I didn't want to butcher the last. It's okay. Presentation by our city list. Ryan is part you're gonna talk about park habitat restoration and a current update on the cartons. Yes. So first I'm gonna stop sharing this because we're going to open Brian's presentation. Okay. So stop the sharing. I would also add Rockstar. That is correct. I would I will second that. That in the record. Absolutely. Absolutely should be in the record. All right. So now I'm going to open Brian's presentation and we appreciate you taking the time to show ours. Yes, we do. The presentation. Well, um I presented to the art commission. It may have been like winter 22 or would have been I think it would have been no it was over Zoom. So, it might have been over Zoom time and uh I think I went really long, so I'm going to try not to do that. Can I see the screen? You can I'm going to put it up. Um Here we go. I've got your I think I think this is it now. So, if you came to coffee with the mayor, there's some overlap between this last the last I believe. Um, but I'm here I'm I'm I'm going to try to go more quickly through process and because towards the end of the presentation are like some of the specific new projects and that's what I really feel. I apologize Brian I am not I have two PowerPoints open and the computer is confused. So it'll just take

me a quick second. I have to also last time I was presenting it was the winter and where you know uh now it's the busiest time of the year. So I have I haven't put the sort of prep that I would in the winter into this pres. All right, we're going to try one more time. All right, so got it open. We're putting it on share. Okay, we have it. Okay, now I have to but now I have to actually share it. Come on. Come on. It is. That was correct. Try one more time. It was going. No, because I haven't said share yet. Share. Okay, now that's I believe. So Sue, how do I know? Well, that's screen two. So I need to be there, right? Yeah. So it bounces. Okay. Now, but you need to click on screen two before you share it. Okay. So if I'm here, go back for a sec. Go back. That could be the worst path. Okay. All right, hang on. I need to find my There we go. If I do this, let's see what happens. There we go. Okay, we're good. Okay. Okay. Can I give one more second? All right. So, uh, one, I just like to, you know, we do we have like out throughout we have native gardens. Uh, but the restoration is is different. We're not it's not a garden. Um so uh um you know there's we we there

is sort of I call it the ecological inheritance of of our parks which mainly consists with uh with the old trees that predated the establishment of all that parks and um um you know those were sort of that's sort of the foundation that I'm typically working around. Um and uh uh the goal is to uh uh try try to make specifically target Missouri habitat types. Um you know, so we have a tall rest prairie. Uh it's not just putting a bunch of pretty natives together. Um and uh we're and we do we do a lot of woodlands more more woodlands prairie definitely more acres and woodlands here and uh and then the savannah is a new thing that I'm going to uh talk about later on. Um and u places like gardens and native area are right next to each other. Um, so I'll try to keep certain like a garden more formal u with a clear edge and uh you know I'll I'll try to control for height and um uh you know give it make it look a little more ordered. Um but I'll be taking seed from gardens. I'll be digging up volunteers from gardens and and using them in restoration projects. So if you look at like uh Villa, the front bed of Villa by the parking lot, like that's where we get all our purple comb flower for the entire park system comes out of uh it looks good. That um they Okay, they are very happy there. Um

oh wait, I can just click that. Yeah, there we go. Okay, so the restoration process uh starts with site selection. This is the site selection I'm starting to appreciate as time goes on is super critical. You got to pick a good spot. Um where you can have success and where we can maintain it. uh if it's inaccessible then we're it's just not just not going to be visiting as much because these require like repeated uh monitoring um and uh interventions uh site preparation is also essential uh to get that right or you won't have it won't have success and so that's the removing the invasives uh you have to deal with like leaf debris in order to seed Um and then the followup uh invasive removal as well as like uh planting a seed. Those actually really shouldn't be in sight prep. It site prep is all the stuff you do before you plant seed. Um habitat structures are are going to be the uh the non-living components of the habitat. um which might, you know, could kind of relate to grading or something like that. But definitely um any sort of brush piles or kind of humanmade birdhouses, uh rock rock piles, rock walls, those sort of things. And uh and then the the monitoring, the maintenance, that's a big aspect of the work. Totally for sure. As well I'm just sort of playing. Okay. Um I also here I've added so yeah trying to like incorporate volunteers and not and not just in they they play a big role in invasive removal but I'm trying to use find ways to involve them

more. I'll talk a little bit about that later. But here here in this picture um you know this was uh these led honor society was kind of helping in the maintenance work which we haven't had as which I haven't had as many volunteers do. Um, so we were they were, you know, pull. So I had them pulling honeysuckle, you know, not cutting it, not removing it, pulling it the stuff that comes back. Just smaller and you can pull by hand. And um, and here they're moving logs, they're moving the woody debris. So that was part of the site preparation. again. So, just finding ways to uh use volunteers, especially high school students, um to do more than just cut honeysuckle. And um this spring in particular, I felt like we had more success with that because it's you it's not always cutting honeysuckle is not always ideal uh depending on the time of year or how much time you have and how many people you have or variety of reasons. Um so and I do find that they this is the kind of work that they love volunteers uh love to do. Um, and I think we actually have got and it's going to turn in July like there's a student who wants to work with us throughout the summer who obviously had, you know, got something out of it and uh so and long-term volunteers can be really great assets, you know, because that then I have a chance to train them um and uh um they can really help get things Jim person Jim like uh Jin uh and maybe uh maybe Frank Chin.

Uh I don't think you guys need to see this. This was for the other presentation, but the um War and Gramie, that's where most things are going on. And we're starting to get into Indian Meadows a little bit with the greenway. Okay. So here I'll point out something. Thanks. Um so the Pwood Trail is down here at Stacy and the new action has been up here and up here. We have a big clearing that was seated uh this winter and we're going to expand that. Expanding that. Um, and there's another big branch over here right to the other side of this. We're kind of expanding that. That's the sort of goals there for this year. Now, also less known. Well, first, so here's the tall grass and we're working along this hillside. We've already done some of that. Now, we switched to this hillside and we just cleared it out just this week. Um, also this tree line, uh, I do a little small projects over there. Um, and then all around the pond. Uh, really this is the only remaining honeysuckle is right through here. So maybe using an eagle scout or something, uh, might be able to try to finish that like the finish of the whole pond area. Um and then at uh they have worsened uh the path right here is like the oldest project where I've continuously been working. Um and now we are working over here. Uh we're doing a lot of stuff in Wor now. You know, now that the greenway is

open, Warson's getting a lot more people and um uh so we want to make it nice. Uh the invasives removal that's the thing we've been kind of doing the longest. Um so I'm not going to go if you guys later have any questions you want to know more about that but I won't really talk about it now. I will say something new you know that you get rid of these honeysuckle and often what comes right behind it are native invasives or native aggressive species. Uh, and that includes poison ivy. Um, and so we've had some just enormous pockets of poison ivy that have come in and, uh, we're dealing with that this year, but it's just, you know, the things that replace it are can be worse. Um, so, uh, as far as, uh, planting goes, so this would this would be doing this after sight preparation. Um, you know, I I like to mention the uh where we get our plant sources. Um, and force relief, force Keeling are the two big ones. Forest relief, we their plants are donated to us. So, they're all uh for free. Um, they do just have a limited selection. So forest relief uh forest keing is where I go to get a a wider array of of plant species of tree and shrub species and also that they're just like depending on your species they could just forest peeling can be a lot better quality. Um and we can get big we can get big trees from them. Everything is just three gallons. Those are three gallons out there and that's the biggest you can get from forest uh

relief. We do get some bare root stuff. Um also uh you know this year particularly I've grown quite a number of shrubs from seed. Um uh it's been really hard to get wild hydrangeas lately. So I grew like 10 of them. Um, and um, uh, there's some other shrubs that I just can't find, like Hercules Club and, uh, some, uh, American bamboo. Um, and, uh, that, you know, that I've just grown myself and, you know, and we do a lot of that over the winter. Um the um uh as far as planting areas, it's kind of goes back to that site selection thing. One of the things that um you know I I I like to improve sort of these wooded areas and then build them out a little bit. Building them out uh into turf and um uh where the turf isn't useful. you know, we don't build them out into our balls fields and stuff like that, but we're where turf is just creating a maintenance curve and not really offering anything. Um, I'm also always looking for like the best soil. Uh, so if I find like a, you know, a pocket of really high quality soil, I'm going to want to get trees in there. It makes a it makes a huge difference on how fast trees will grow when they're in great soil. Um and uh uh planting you know it does have a number of challenges um as far as uh you know how much we can how many trees we can get in the ground. Um and uh deer are a big thing. That's why you see cages. We don't put cages on

everything, but we put cages on most things that the deer prefer. Or we put them on when plants are young so they can get established and they can handle some browsing. Um, you know, I don't like the look of cages at all, but I also I don't like the look of uh, you know, a tree that's been killed by a deer even less. um you know there's some accidental damage in parks or or there can be you know just sort of use conflicts. Uh the um but watering is the big deal. Uh especially in these restoration projects we're there's not really a hose bib nearby. So it's doing it's done by tank. We did get the water dog though and that's gonna you know that thing waters fast. Um and uh you know sometimes there's some uh it's not supposed to be social problems. Oh so soil soil there's there's some areas where the the soil is just as bad as you can imagine and and that typically stunts the plant's growth. Uh every once in a while I have to just pull something out of the terrible soil and find another spot for it. But um we competition uh volunteer skill level. I just mentioned that when volunteers are planting, you know, I really have to uh kind of keep an eye on things. Um and um um but uh I think I think we we do it we do it right. And just it it with the uh you know with the restoration work I I have to balance that with the other demands of taking care of garden beds or or tending to a tree um you know that that needs you know if we have to get a contractor to come out and remove it or um you know resident concerns that sort

of stuff. So, it's a it's a big balancing act in that um you know I always have to kind of um just manage manage all those different demands for forest if there's it's the I mean great resource great resource I don't know if they have these in other cities you know I mean just a pl where you can just go online and fill out a simple form it's like shopping at a nursery and just select the species you want and how many and we get like 80 trees a year from uh trees and shrubs a year from um forest relief and um you know I I just it kind of just it's like one of those places that just make me happy. It's out there by Creekore Lake. Uh they have an arboritum there and it's just fun to go pick it up. Um, and they always need donations, you know, and they and they they they love volunteers, too. Yeah. Yeah. They they love volunteers. Uh, donations and um just have a have a great mission, I think. Um, and Whoa. Hey, you go back. Okay, there we go. All right. You go back and forth. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Sorry. All right. So, here here's one of the specific specific high school groups that we work with, and I put them in here because it's it's now it's been two years that we've been working with them. um the planting shade, you know, it's a it's this high school group that uh wants to get trees in the ground and um

um they have worked in Stacy and now they've worked in um and um they provide they provide the it's all bare root so it's small small trees um but but they you just I donate them and do the labor. Um and they've helped with like site preparation and other things. Um this year um you know I met with the leadership planting shade and they kind of were involved in the planting process um of the the savannah and uh you know that they they were you know I shared the grant with them um and they weren't really interested in providing editorial comment or anything like that but that I just wanted them to be involved and see how you know how it how these things progress. dress. Um, and they came out uh they came out at like you know it had rained like three inches or something in a day and I didn't know if anybody was going to show up but 10 students came out the next day and it was muddy and um uh you know they did the work and they were having a good time and and I got them using that the grant which I'll talk a little bit more about later but uh for this project um they planted some larger trees some of these three gallon containers. They also planted a couple of uh 15gallon trees and they had never like that, you know, they've planted the bare root things, but you don't even dig a hole for, you know, you sort of slip them in the ground. So, this was the first time these high school kids had really like properly uh planted a tree. um you know and I give a little uh workshop so to speak um and just educate

them about trees and how we plant them and care for them and um they seem to really be into it. They had, you know, we we inoculate our trees with microisi, the bit beneficial uh beneficial fungi, you know. So, I was talking about symbiosis and they said and just like that week before in their science class, they had learned about symbiosis. So, they were excited to, you know, see that school does teach some useful things, you know, and um Um, so that that was really and I was just great to see them in the mud, you know, just fighting through the mud. Um, planting perennials. Uh, we get some things. We get some perennials from local nurseries. Um, we'll get some people will donate perennials from time to time. Um, and then, uh, here we have the, uh, you know, I mean, we have our own nursery. Now, we've always had a nursery, but now it's like a lot more propagation. I grow baileing plugs as you see there. And um and if you look this the uh uh that little cage around it, right, that was like essentially trash that Beverly didn't eat anymore. It was part of But we use that stuff like when it comes to growing plants. And I think it just sort of kind of symbolizes that trying to be as resourceful as possible. Plants can be extraordinarily expensive. Each one of these those little trays there would cost $80. That's wholesale, you know, and by getting $8 worth of seed um and using, you know, our sunlight and

water, you know, it can could can grow several trays. So, it uh it saves a lot of money. It's something to do to really get started in the winter. Um and um so, you know, I I want to keep up the the nursery growing. It is it is the sort of thing. It doesn't require a lot of work every each day, but it does require something each day. You can't ignore it like you can other things. But, uh where is it? Oh, that's right. By um the maintenance building. Do you remember in the winter we showed the pictures of the plants under the grow lights that's inside the park ops building and then at this time of year they come out and there there's a gravel pad there that they sit on and that and that p I mean that actually goes back to the design of that building that little space was designated yeah as the nursery area. Um and then we saved an old fence from the old dog park that'll eventually go in there when we're done with our other fence projects. We seem to be continuously working on fences. So, yeah, fencing and unfencing, you know, plant. It's easy to get uh help when it comes to like planting perennials. Um so, we have had a lot of volunteer assistance there. Um and um um sometimes also all of us sustainability advocates and sometimes people just want to come and volunteer. And we also do a lot of transplants both trees and uh uh perennials. If you look at the well I I'll say save say that a little slide. Um so as far as like challenges go the big thing I think that I find they require special effort is like attending to

diversity. they they often plants want to homogenize uh over time and um so keeping you know there's the the aggressive plants that uh sort of like to try to take over and uh so also diversity things aren't always available commercially and uh this year in particular I grew some some some plants that you can't buy. You know, I find the seed and I want to, you know, be sort of a pioneer in introducing new plant species, new Missouri plant species like into sort of these managed urban uh landscapes. Um, so, uh, it's a long odd wood grass. That's the one that I got. So, sure. Um, but yeah, I want to keep doing it. Uh, so it it one of the ways I kind of separate a a sort a restoration project from a garden is that the perennials are going to be more established by seed in uh uh a restoration area. Um, I will use plugs, we will use transplants, we will use quartz, but but most of them are going to come in by seed. And there's going to be there's not it's they're not going to be these areas aren't going to be weeded. I do some hand weeding and all of them, you know, and I and I cut weeds and stuff like that, but there's just a higher tolerance for weeds in this because they're uh I mean, for one, they're larger than a garden. Um the uh that's all I'll say on that.

um you know seating strategies again the site selection is critical sometimes I'll kind of test a site I'll just seed a little area in it just to see if you know of basically get a sense of how much weed seed is in the site and if if it would if if a broader seeding would work. Um, and uh, I'd say the preparation, you know, has to be done pretty exhaustively. Um, the the seed mixes are pretty expensive. Um, but, uh, so that's always a limitation. you know, we uh we you know, we could probably spend like $4,000 in seed every year if we, you know, I'd find a place to put it, but it's you know, we just we don't we don't budget that much for it. Um and uh we have enough because I collect a lot. Um but that is time consuming. However, that's kind of how I like to spend my free time, so it works out. Um that that's the thing about the restoration work. This is like where my heart really is. So, I'm thinking about it and doing it when I'm here and when I'm not here. Um, and after seating, you know, there is there's a fair amount of maintenance that could come in. Um, volunteers in seating. Um they're I I I find especially you know sort of noviceses are more useful in seed collection especially like doing it together in the parks. A lot of it's just sort of monotonous. Um and doing the same thing over and over again. Uh but if somebody brings me a bag of mixed seed I'm not going to take that because I don't really know what's in it. So, you know,

I have to uh m you know, maintain quality. If you have the wrong seat in in your uh bag, it could be disastrous. Um and um um you know, like sewing, you know, I again have to be thoughtful about how I use that. We I volunteers do not sew the commercial seed. One, it's just too expensive. I just don't there's few I don't even trust my co-workers with it, you know. So, um not even I I do I mean it it doesn't really take that long. It's a big to put down the commercial seed. Now, if we're like putting down a bunch of rivers grass in an area and we have bags that we have collected from our parks, like that's a great way to that of something our kids can be involved in. Um and um uh so yes uh I get physical habitat structures that go into it. Kind of talked about that. I think I have a thing. We have we haven't added any rock or anything like that in a while. Um they're uh but it is some it is something to consider. um like this, you know, this this rock wall also serves as an edge. So, you know, it's likely to have some sort of function. Um you know, and and and to provide some kind of aesthetic benefit, too. Uh brush piles are are not quite as attractive physical structure. Um they are useful though. They do one they're, you know, in order to put the seed down to blow leaves off and and and basic

repair like you kind of have to get a lot of debris off the ground. And so it's actually easier to just stack it on site than to haul it off, you know, down the Dealman. Um and uh and animals do love these things. They're always, you know, uh can be toads, there can be uh all sorts of things living in them. Um and um it's there's there's always something in it. It really is. In the winter time, we see a lot of birds in, you know, they get birds, they get, you know, things that are just hiding temporarily. They get things that are that are sheltering there. Um there I mean that's great protection from anything that's you know like worried about an owl or something. Um they can be tough to make you know we try to make them not hideous. Um and and they need to be compact and that kind of and that works too because it's going to look better if it's compact and small and um you know so they kind of dual use animals. the maintenance part and uh and eventually plants grow around them and they're not as they're not as visible. Uh logs and snags, you know, we we leave a lot of logs from the uh from tree removal. I wouldn't say especially in these in the restoration areas, we leave a lot of logs, but we'll haul some off because we don't, you know, you don't want it to be cluttered. Uh, and like logs, the more logs you have on the ground, the less room you have for plants to grow. Um, but, uh, they can they can be sort of smoothly integrated, I think, in the landscape. Um, and they are and they're great for I mean, things live in them, things live under them. Um, you know, I like to

mention that, you know, one in 10 trees in in a healthy forest is that is standing is going to is dead. uh is a snag, standing dead tree. Um and then there's always logs on the other tree. If you go into a healthy forest in the winter, you know, it kind of looks trashy. There's so much wood on the ground. Uh and we we actually try to have a little less than you would find, but um uh but it's a part of the landscape. Um the uh uh I won't I won't say anything about bird boxes right now, but I will say that or my co-workers really want to build a chimney squid house. Uh so that's like the next thing. We haven't introduced a new bird box in years and and we lose them over time. Um, so what is a chimney? Uh, it's like a a tower. Chimney swifts like have to live at human structure that's up there. No, no, that's that's for woodpeckers. But that one's gone because uh we lost that tree. It got hit by lightning. So they they do get thin thinned out over time and faster than I thought they would. Uh um you know, we do signs. I did also you know with as along with involving volunteers something I'm thinking about and trying to sort of improve is the public education part um you know if it's talking to people on site or if it's writing something uh up or if it's generating a better sign um you know it it is an opportunity for public engagement um monitoring and maintenance Um here I'll just say the one new thing we're doing or at least one new thing we're doing is in this picture uh which

was a woodland burning. We burned the prairie for years. Um and uh uh we started we burned around the pond, you know, which is a woodland burning where you're burning leaves more so than grass. And leaves don't burn as intensely. And uh what I would like to do this coming winter is do some burning here at Borson, which we uh have not done. And the fire department's very supportive of us burning. And it's um um it's it's kind of exhausting if only gym helps out every time. But it's it is like a feel-good experience. Uh, you know, and I mean, fire just, you know, does something for the psyche. Well, it's also amazing how quickly it Yeah, it's it's amazing how quickly it goes. It's amazing how hot it is. It's incredibly hot. So hot. It's feels like you're And that heat just drains you. Yeah. Um, and uh, uh, anyway, that's just a general thing on volunteers, which I've already talked about, but I just, this seems to be what a lot the volunteers that pref prefer to be involved in. Um, and okay, so some new some new uh, project areas. Okay, so I showed you the wor path up there. um what is not new, but what I've done is add these bookends. Um so it runs continuously from the parking lot to Barb's bench. Um and uh so you have a long and continuous uh primarily wooded uh landscape, but um and the blooms along it right. I walked it today. It is stunning. So definitely walk it. You

your dogs would love it over there. If you look especially especially from the parking lot like a lot of the stuff that's sort of facing the parking lot are u a lot of transplants uh you know we've dug up black oaks from Stacy or a black oak a tulip tree put them over there we've moved this glo I mean that's not a Missouri native that's spruce um that but that came from uh public works Um, so we start the corner. Yeah. So we we've used a lot. I mean, it's kind of I think it's kind of remarkable how little we bought to put in um towards the uh towards the front. And um but I did seed right over here by the building. Um you know, I have a a row of shrubs along the building. Um, and so now this you'll see like it looks weedy now because it's first year, but next year it'll look it'll look really nice. Um, in Wars is this is sort of like a hot spot where I where I tried to maintain a lot of uh diversity. Um, so the Savannah area, this is the one where I got a Missouri Prairie Foundation grant and worked with Planting Shade. And it's uh it's sort of like the savannah is more the part in the turf there. Um but all the ring around the edge were also doing a lot of work including like now you can see the creek is we've cleared all the honeysuckle from the creek and and I I love that you know my fifth year here and I'm like discovering trees I didn't know we had. So, we have like swamp chestnut oaks down there. And I didn't even think we had any of those here. Um, there's a big chinkapin oak on the

south side of the savannah that hasn't really been visible. Um, and that I've saw that that I've seen that tree in the 1930s aerial photos. Um, so it must be pretty. Yeah. So, it's it's definitely So, a lot of people don't even know there's a creek back there. I didn't know there was a creek here until I moved here. five years. So, um you're talking river to there. No, it's the one it what it it used to be a creek. Right now, it is fed. It's the runoff from all of Warson Pines and those whole neighborhoods over there. Yeah, it typically has water. It's a giant cover at the edge of the property that typically has water. Um but, uh it's not always moving, but it doesn't take much rain before it starts to move. Um, yes. And uh, uh, so then, yeah, and and just the o savannah, this is what would have been in St. Louis County. It's sort of it's a imperiled habitat. There's not very many of them left. Um, savannah just means grass with grassland with trees. Um and um uh so I think there's value in sort of creating the habitats that are rare now. Um plus this is the one that was like St. Louis County. Um and if you look at the those those 1930s aerials, you could see all these oaks out here and there were oaks down there. Uh and it seems like there was Savannah right where we're standing basically or sitting. Sure it was a farm. Um and um um so that's the new so the one of the other things we're trying to do in here too is reduce the amount of grass we have here because we have incredible runoff problems here. So by increasing the trees and the and the native perennials it reduces the amount of

runoff but then also um it reduces the amount that has to be mowed and mowing is our biggest contract. So by, you know, just we're we're being good custodians by improving it, but it also helps us operationally too. And this area is one of the hardest areas to mow. Like it's wet in the spring and it took them, they couldn't get to it for, you know, uh not for this one probably because, you know, they do the zones. Yeah. So this zone probably not right now but eventually we might be able to there's a corner of Stacy where we just took the fence down. We might be able to get to Greek fun down over in the end which I know residents. Yeah, they will for residents. Yeah. So there is there is there is an option for that but but we we are keeping an eye on it. Yeah. Um here here's a project that we've just we've been working on this week. Um, and uh, it it's a little different because I'm using restoration to try to solve a problem. Uh, and that is underneath that hillside by the prairie. Um, especially the north hillside. Um, it's just kind of been a a management nightmare. Um, and uh, that's where the poison ivy is and honeysuckle just keeps coming back. Um, so we finally just gave it a really good clearing and we'll probably just try to establish some grasses or something under uh in this area just to, you know, cuz both down below the hill on all sides of it, you know, we have like higher quality habitat and things are just going down the hill, you know, into the areas that we that we're really trying to manage. Um, are those trees native?

those plants. No, they're not. Then that's what they're so dense that it's nothing desirable seems to want to grow under there. But uh but we're gonna try and I think we could at least get some grasses. Do you think at some point we might want to just thin the trees and put these in there? Yes. And I removed we still have some mberries there. Okay. Um, some of them are kind of just too big for us at they they'll just take us a long time, but we might do the book. So, sometimes we have to take trees even though it's not you don't always want to take trees down, but sometimes it's just Well, and these they're just they're there are some that are unhealthy and we we cut one down today. I mean, it was broken, you know, we cut one down that was just, you know, leaning at like a 40 degree angle. Um so um uh so that that uh and then on the other hill, you know, that's where the hard mass corridor. There's a different logic there. There I'm just trying to I caught the hard mass corridor because there's a bunch of nut trees and I'm just trying to establish like a great food source for wildlife. Chestnuts, walnuts, pecan, um and and a burrow oak, which was a memorial oak. I'm just and I'm adding oaks and hickories to just just create the strip of nut trees. Um, you know, with some paw paws and stuff like up there. So, anyways, there's there's the general wears thing. I think that's the end. Um, so those are that's not an exhaustive list of like the new projects. I'm doing some work around the pond. It's Oh, I'm always doing work around the pond. Um but um those are things to look out for uh especially the savannah and uh uh that's all I have right now.

Is it worth it or how do you do it all the composting? No, we can't do we can't do it. We don't have the personnel to do composting. There's we don't have a site for it and we don't have the personnel. That's what I wondered if it was more work than it's absolutely if it's a ter if the soil is absolutely terrible and that there's some things I want to plant in there, I'll often amend it with some compost. That seems to help some. Um but the good soil pockets, it's not like they're not like, oh, you could just add a little compost. I mean, that's aged soil like growing around these oaks out here. You could practically dig in the ground with your hand and it's just Yeah. Just you know when you have a rake or whatever leaves and stuff like that. Yeah. It is it I mean it is a it's a fabulous concept. Even the city of Loo got rid of theirs. Yeah. So it's it and the one at your city is horrible. We don't want to get anything from them because people are not careful with what they put in it and it takes an incredible amount of work to turn it and to care for it and have it not be stinky. But we don't have a place to put it. Yeah. And when we burn through this area, so I will essentially be, you know, we'll be composting all the leaves and all the grass and that really that helps with the soil. A couple questions. the respiration process that's what three to five year from the time you start taking out the invasives to uh so a yeah after the invasives are removed and it um you know there's about a two-year period of intensive maintenance and then sort of you know uh decreasing after that um and it varies by site to site some some don't require me to visit a lot um but

generally third the third Here is when you kind of see all the climb there. There I I've noticed especially this year a lot of things pure but I put down years ago that the sea has just been sitting there uh for years. So it's really that third year is when you really start to see most of what's going to be there. So another thing I was at a big core meeting and talking to some folks that live south of south of six with the fences down. Is there any kind of discussion as far as making a connection to the platoon trail from the cemetery? Because what they're saying is they're walking to Stacy and uh we don't have an official entrance there from the south. I realize the hillside's there, but there's a very close connection. No, there's no sidewalk there. There's no sidewalk. Oh yeah, they can come down there. But apparently there's a number of folks that enter come in through through the woods there now. And I was just wondering if you I I don't understand there's still a fence along the woods. No, there's not. Which in the one we just put down? The one we just put down along the cemetery manually. We're coming in that way. Yes. That actually I think is I know there's been an Eagle Scout who's interested in doing so I mean you had you had I could show you where it is but as I was walking through there because we did notice that it might be good to do a woodshed trail to the cemetery so that then people could enter the park from

the south. That was just that's just an observation. Well, I the the cemetery maintenance person wanted us to plant trees along here. I don't know how the cemetery would feel about I mean there's a there's an asphalt walk. I mean people are going to walk through there any question is Yeah, but the cemetery doesn't want people tramping. No, because they will drive in the cemetery next to the park. Yeah. So anyway, and then you were talking about problems with the cost of seat in a question to Beverly. I know we the parks foundation primarily is related to people with inventions. and they give contributions that we can Oh, we we anybody anybody that calls and asks about it, we give them the brochure. It lists all of those things, including seeds and plants and perennials. I just wanted to make sure that we Yeah, absolutely. Everyone wants to put a bench in, but there's never been a year where I where I've said I need this much seed and Beverly has said we can't get that much seed. You know, we're it's just expensive. But but just bring up the idea of the foundation that people want to build. Okay. Thank you very much. You want me to stay for this? Yeah. Brian's gonna stay for this next item. Okay. Okay. So, so let me Yeah. So, item number six is the low 85. This just came up in the last little bit, right? Yes. I just Yeah. On the 10th, we found

I'm not sure when it came in, but Bruce told you about it yesterday. Okay. So, I immediately put it on your agenda. So, um, MoDOT is going to redo. See if I can get my pointer over there. Okay. So, this is Old Bottom Road and this is Olive. The And I think I can s I went the wrong way. Yeah, I can't zoom in. Okay. So, um, they're going to redo this sidewalk here. You can see that there is a junction box here, the control box. This is for the signal. And in order to get the sidewalk to be ADA, they need to move this box. So, what they're proposing is down here to take 250 square ft to make the new junction box so they can make the sidewalk bigger. Now, they are working directly with the city of St. because they're the property owners, but they are asking for public input. And I think that that is an excellent thing for us to push out. I think every commissioner should give some public input and I think we should push it out through the city channels and make sure everyone knows they can comment on it because I think this is this is my personal opinion. I think it's shortsighted to move this into the park and add the big junction box here. I think that they should, if they're doing this much effort, move it right here to the side so that it's not blocking line of sight. It's not in the in the way. It just put it right here. So, where's the sign today, Beverly? The sign is right here. You can't see it. It's behind this post. So, it's in between what you're recommending and where it is. No. Um, I wish I could zoom

in. Let me see if I So, how can they decide where you can go to Google? I I could I The whole thing is if I go to Google Maps, we lose the share. Yeah. Um, is that just like it closes? I I think that's it. I think what they want to do is the least amount because it's costly to go underground. There's a lot of other utilities there. But if it were at all possible, I would really love for that box to be over here. I I don't know if it's possible. I don't think it properly um like when you want to get it out, it's on on social media. It went on all of us Facebook page four hours ago and the comments the mode out was not about the the boxes all the it's more about oh that we want to you know widen the sidewalks for 88. that's what their focus was. Um, it gives you more and so all the all the responses are thumbs up but also very positive like they can't start soon enough and it's about time but great idea. So I don't think that people understand the that it's not just about the sidewalk, right? It's a greater issue, right? And all that we did as a conclusion that it was um repost theirs without an explanation. Correct. And that's why I wanted this commission to talk about it and come up with a statement that you know that you have a recommendation or or what you guys think because the other thing to think about too is that our sign is right. Do you see where the arrow is? Our sign is right here. And if they're moving that box here, we put our new sign in. No one's going to see our sign. Now, we can move our sign down here. But we also have a garden here. So, thankfully, we have not started this process yet. And I don't want us now to start this process until we know what

MDOT's doing because we can't move forward with a plan until we know where their items are. So, so a couple of observations. Sure. That project is underway. It is it's very interesting that they're asking for public because I talked to MDOT person at some point and it's a design design bill and so they've already started the creek court on this and so the question that I would have that is if they take this out what happens to the garden and the trees that on that corner is there any impact on that right now the footprint they're showing this little orange box. There's not. And they're being very careful to say it's 250 ft. The other thing they're saying is that it's an unused section of the park. Well, I disagree with that. It's not unused because we have line of sight. We have our garden here. Um, we have plans for this site. So, I I don't want to be obst. riferous. I am glad they're doing this. I just and I don't know if it's possible for them to move the box that much because it would probably dramatically increase the cost of the project. And how big is it now? For us, that's why it's not blocking our right because it is closed. It moved. Sorry. I mean, I can't see that it would cost that much. All you're doing is extending it another five. So, for example, when we got an estimate to build a trench at Veterans to bring electricity to the fountain there, it was I want to say $15,000. Yeah. But to make that five feet longer wasn't I'm not talking five feet. I'm not talking 5. What's been what?

Well, there so there is um the the release that I gave you has a link to a survey monkey document. So you go in, you have to give your name and address and you have to say how you use this site, whether you live here, you're you're a commuter here, you work here and then comments. So you gave us that one. I gave you that link. It's in It's in the documents that are posted online. Yes, it's right there. Yeah. So, it's a Q code. Yes. And I um I let Travis and Daniel know that I that I need them to follow up with me on Friday so that whatever you guys decide, I think that it would be wonderful if as commissioners you get the word out about really the input you want from people. We want to make sure if it stays there, if it stays in this proposed site, great. But we don't want a giant box that's going to block, you know, as accident. True. And we won't be able to see the sign that we've been talking about for years. Yes. Investing into Yes. Now, we can move our sign further down. This is all going to get redesigned. We can move our sign down a little a little ways further for that line of sight is okay. The other thing to think about is we have no electricity there. um because when they did the sidewalk the last time they cut our electricity. So I asked Bruce, could we get electricity back from them this time? And he did not sound optimistic that that would happen. So my understanding conversation with with city people that it's a challenge to work with the state with MDOT just in general. And I think your comment about the electricity was something, but I think it's to me it's not something from the commission. I think it needs to come

from council as well. Well, right. And I'm not saying I'm not I don't want commission to reach out to MDOT, but I want his commissioners to tell their friends and neighbors to take this survey. That's what that's commission should make an official. Yes. that that we need to express concern. But you have to Yeah. You have to have that to the council. I think part of the additional problem is it's not all of that land, right? City, but we lease it. But we lease it. But we're the we're the occupant, but we still need support of the city. Correct. The city of Alabama. No, the city of St. Louis city. I don't know that they care. They're indifferent. So So they're not talking to just to be a makeup. They're not talking about creating more roadway there. It's simply for the with the relocation of that. Right. My understanding is they're trying to get all the ADA things done along the stretch of all because they're going to pave next year. So they're trying to get it done now. So So and is there a reason that it has just come up or I don't know. I have only heard about it yesterday. Okay. My guess is someone decided to say something, but they realized it might be an issue. It's unusual for them put a survey out like this, I think. Yeah. I've never seen a survey. So, somebody made them aware that it could be a problem. So, so Maxine, from your perspective, Yeah. is we better explain our social media because it's not just about, right? And you know if the commission wants to come up with a statement or make a recommendation to the council right that and you as commissioners you

can all go to the council meeting um speak during the speak during the three minutes but I can also so unfortunately I am not in town next Tuesday so I won't be able to be at the meeting. Patrick is going to be there because of the proclamation for July as parks and recreation month. So, um, so it would be nice to have the parks commission there. Yeah, it would be nice to have the parks commission there anyway. 24. Yes. And, um, I'm in the office on Friday. Tomorrow is a holiday. We we closed the center's open, but I'm off tomorrow. Um, so I could put a staff report together on Friday, just a really quick short one to get on the agenda, but I have to get permission to do that um, from the mayor prom and the mayor and the city manager. So, um, from your perspective, Brian, you work in that corner a lot. Do you see anything that we have missed about Well, I I there, you know, I would at least pay attention. God speaking specifically for myself how they do that sidewalk how might the river birch the trees in there sidewalks you know but that that some brute printing which I could do myself okay might be wide okay that should probably also spell Stacy Park correctly yeah so yeah that I would say I' I'd say the main concern for that box would be the sound. Okay. And um and the sound vehicle. So a question. Is this some something that we also get stac involved with as our state? I don't know. I I that's a good question. Maybe that's a council question. I don't know. Well, our personal call. Your personal call. Absolutely. She's also a member of Olivet and Bloom. Yeah. And and who is

our who is our representative? Because it seems to me we have a new representative and they came to coffee with the mayor. Is it okay? Isn't he back? Okay. But but I would be willing to make a call trace. Yeah. Just to say there's some concern here. What what is the direction that we need to go? Because I've noticed there's u there's been some uh um that there's been some resistance on the part of Highway Park to changes that don't relate to roads. Yeah. And we we really need to be careful because we need their approval for our new sign. Yeah. And we have to be clear. Maxine said it really well. We're not we're not opposing the side the sidewalk. The sidewalk is fine. Well, that's good, but but there's there's more to this project than just the sidewalk and they're not and that needs to be understood. Because yeah, our concern really is the box box location. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So, so what you're ask what's the ask? So the the my ask is I want first I wanted to make sure that that you all had the same concerns and then Maxine what is your recommendation on how we should move forward. Well I just about today for the first out I've not talked with my other council members. I've not talked with the city. Okay. But I it's unfortunate we're close tomorrow but I will reach out to city manager on Friday.

Okay. to see joining first people especially mission which was up during um during public comment and I'll share during the army but I think right people when I look at Facebook having an Instagram and that is even more people right so many people on social media but seeing people be like yeah if I heard they're going to make those ADA thumbs up of course but there's no mention of of just the elect I think we need to propose an alternative don't just say I don't like where your it's located you need to say this is a bad location put it here can can it be moved further put put consideration consider reloc locating it to the southern side of the intersection on Old Bon. Yeah, you need to be clear. But is that So this is this is Old Bottom. I'd like him to just put it here and then it won't block any sight. Just right down here. There's already a big turn. Yeah, there's a big AT&T box down here. Yeah. So right Yeah, right here. I'd like it right here. issue and they did that if you guys do remember they were there forever working on that box. Yeah. On many issues with that. Yeah. Because it was a big deal doing that the way they should. A lot of fiber. Yeah. Okay. All right. Well, thank you. Thank you everyone. Um we'll work on that. Okay. I appreciate it. Item number seven. No worry. Okay. Thank you, Brian. Thanks everybody. Welcome. on something there. Go for it.

But I think that Beverly hit upon something that's important and the last time that they read a proclamation that we were not aware of it as a it's on the agenda tonight. Oh, okay. Because I think having people and people that aren't here tonight, we we had it we talked about it at the meeting um last year. Okay. Yeah, but when they did the um night night sky with Oh, the night sky one. There was nobody there. And Right. And it and we again we talked about it. There was nobody there. I believe I was there. Oh, I thought you Well, they didn't really read it, remember? Yeah, but I was there. Okay. Okay. All right. Um All right. Uh the annual work plan. Okay. So, first up, urban night sky place report from the ste from the working committee, Stephanie and Bill. Oh, no, I can go. So, um, we had a good meeting. Yeah, I'll make this quick. Uh, we had a good meeting yesterday, uh, with Beverly, Stephanie, and myself. Uh, we have a Google sheet which has all all the, uh, steps we're going to follow for our plan. by end of tomorrow all the commission members will have view access to it. Uh then Stephanie Beverly and myself will have update access. Uh so we had but we went through probably about half the details that we needed if not a little bit more are now populated. Uh we have uh so it's we're moving and making good progress there. We're looking at about uh six months to a year probably closer to a year so we can uh try to have the designation for the remainder of our parks. Okay. Question. Okay. Terrific. Okay. City council report. No, no, no, no. We have two three more things. Green team. Okay. So, we've got uh green team. So,

green team uh we've identified so as you all know our big push this year with this year's green team is is increasing recycling compliance in the parks and at events. So, the first thing we discovered is that there is a mini grant, $10,000 from the uh St. Louis Jefferson County Trash Consortium. And we are going to move forward with uh applying for that grant for these clear streams. These are the collapsible units that we use at special events. You can see it right you can see it right here. They they're excellent because you can see through them. people do a much better job and they have the right holders at the top. Then they also manufacture this which is a weatherproof one that again is clear but trash can't get in it. Um and then they have ones that have two circles, not the dog bone. We don't want to get the dog bone because we don't want to encourage paper going in there. We're just focusing on bottles and cans. So we um will apply for these to use at Stacy Park as a pilot. see if they work and then if they work we'll get more. We don't know the cost of those with these ones. We know the cost. We have to get an estimate for this but definitely it'll be within the $10,000. The other thing we are toying with is um depending on how much it costs with the $10,000. We could also purchase composters and then have a composting workshop and the people that come could go home with the composter. So that's something else we're looking at that that that we might not Yeah, it would be really cool. So those are those are the two things uh that we're working on right now. And the oh the other thing the first thing is uh we uh wrote a sustainability policy last year. We're refining it so it can be final and then adopted officially by the department and then could be a model if the city wanted to expand to other

departments or the city take it on for itself. So that's what we're looking on there. And then moving on to visit. Um, annual work plan. Yes. Oh, sorry. Oh, sorry. Park visits. I don't know why it doesn't say Oh, there it is. It's fine. It's there. It's there. Okay. Uh, it's there. Uh, so everybody, so a couple updates here. Uh, Kate, uh, who was very kind enough to create a a Google sheet that we were using for tracking, uh, business to the park. Uh, one of the problems that we had is it was created by Kate. uh now that she has moved off of parks and w and moved on to city council u we lost direct access to it. So one of the things that I have done I created a new email account which I forgot what it is but I believe I said it. It's like etc n rack uh that we will use going forward uh for creating surveys and things like that that we use internally. Uh once that has been created or that has been created, I took the survey that uh Kate created uh everybody should have that link. I sent it out today. Uh it's pretty quick to go through. I just want to kind of walk through it and everybody should also have it on your phone. Uh I actually texted it to you, but it works the same way. Pretty simple. You uh you select your name from the the name of park commissioner. Uh so you just drop down uh and then just you just want to select me. I've got everybody here uh who is a park commissioner. Uh and then the park can actually uh then what park did you visit? Uh again just a drop down which month pretty straightforward. Uh then just some things that you observed. So how many people were in the park? Uh you don't have to count just do a rough estimate. Uh what were people doing? And you know so select wherever you want or

if you want to have something that's otherred uh you can you can add a value that you know something that may included. Did you notice any problems? You can put none or an NA. Uh any feedback you receive from people? Uh you can enter it there. Uh other than any thoughts you'd like to add uh you just enter it just like Beverly is doing. And then this is the important part. Make sure you get that submit button. Uh if you don't, uh if it just sits there or if you accidentally hit clear, all you got to do is go through and you can see how quickly we can update it. You can do everybody can do this from their phone except for Stephanie. We need to talk. It will take you I only have an Outlook email for you. Excuse me. Do you have a Google or a Gmail? Okay, I need to get that. The only one I had was Outlook. Oh, so I just need to get that and then I can have it. Perfect. Okay. my email. The only feedback I would give you is and this goes back to the original Rosanna that I've been and I don't know if this is good or bad, but I'm going to the park many times in the month and I find very different situations every time. So, I'm putting in multiple entries per month. So, I don't know how that's impact me the way it it tracks it. I actually go through it now and I can in our next meeting. Yeah. Uh I can actually That would be great. If you could do that next meeting, that would be awesome. And then I don't have Yep. Uh but yeah, it actually tracks all the different You have by far the most feedback. Uh you uh I I think like 60% of it was yours, like 20% of it was Jim's. Yeah. Uh and so we can track all the responses. Uh so that that's that's good. And really the the in my mind and I'm not speaking for us. I'm more concerned about us being there. I mean we we have you know it won't

necessarily show the date uh you know but if we know in June you know a big concern that we had was X and we see that 15 times amongst you know then we know that's something we I just wanted to make sure that we were able to track that there multiple entries. Yes we can. Yep. The other thing I'm gonna do a little PSA here at the time. If you see something, say something. And that's for the public record as well, right? So don't hesitate. You're part of the overall community and we need people to speak out if there are issues. Uh can't fix what we don't know is broken. So I would highly encourage people to take action. be it if you're not comfortable doing it yourself, report it to somebody. Send it to me. Yeah, send it to the park director uh email address or reach out to anyone on this commission and we'd be happy to take your feedback. And and if I put something in the in the forum, are you reviewing that on a regular basis? We will start reviewing it in this meeting session. Yes. So, so stuff that you put in the form is I want everything in the form, good and bad and indifferent. But if there's something that you're putting in the form that's a high priority, please contact me separately. Okay. Okay. So, it's kind of like the tree on the trail. Yes. That's why I have this tree falling down here right from the store. So, if there's something if you see something like that, I need to know ASAP. But you should still over. Yes. Correct. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Terrific. Thank you so much for taking this on, Bill. It's a huge assist for me. You prefer the text caller. Whichever is easiest for you. Yeah. Some things I

mean some things you might want to call immediately. Yeah. Okay. Um All right. So July is So here's a quick update for you. July is parks and recreation month. We're going to do the proclamation again this year. The theme this year is build together, play together. We are doing it parks and reccomission month, I'm sorry, parks and recreation month like this year. We're not going to do as much as we did last year, but we're going to do some of those same elements. So, we are going to do all of the social media posts. We're going to do introducing the staff. We're going to focus a little bit more on the park crew and the part- timerrs this time. Um, we are doing Splish Splash Popsicle Dash. Um, we're going to give out, you know, cute little tiny popsicles at the Morrison Park splash pad. We're pushing that out. So, you'll see some some things. We're not going to do the photo contest this year. We think it's more powerful if we do that every couple of years. So, but we definitely want to highlight the benefits of parks and recreation and highlight our parks and we'll we might be doing a biob blitz as well and if that happens, I'll let you know. Um, then the other update, the bicycle Oh, sorry. The July Parks and Recreation Month proclamation will be at the city council meeting next Tuesday. You're all welcome to come. It would be great. Um and then bicycle ordinance, the bicycle ordinance, the first reading will be at the first meeting in July. So the um city managers reviewed it, the police chief and I wrote it and then the city attorney looked at it and she only had one comment on the whole ordinance, which is fan flippingtastic. Um, so we're going to add in the park section that that when the bicycles are allowed in the park and they have that speed limit, they must yield to pedestrians. So, yeah. So, that's nice. Pursuit will stop. Hey, just do what you got to do. There we go. That

you made it through your update. Moving right along. Maxine was one minute before she That's why I said Go ahead. Sorry about that. So, you can be right here. Um, last night was alet night out. It was a lot of fun. This is what good time visiting people. Um, got a little warm. Um, I was in fun car with Dev and we visited four or five different streets. Um, and it's exciting. I I wish more more neighborhoods would do it. Um, and I know it's hard to get the fire truck everywhere. I know some people want that, but we'll work with them for next year to make sure they get around. Um, the um I believe we had six there were 16 parties going on. Um, the we are finishing up the budget process. We had the first meeting and the last meeting and the um public hearing will be disciplined Tuesday. No, since Tuesday because it would go into effect on July one and um when it looks like you know we have the birth reading and are there any questions when the council sits there and says no we're not there. Um I was speaking with some people afterwards and I said you know we need to explain that we have spent March, April and May really working hard on the budget but also our first reading we never really talk a lot either. It's always the second meeting which I didn't know when I first started here. Yeah. So it's more the second reading. there will be a presentation by Darren but a lot a lot of thought has gone into this and also with having three council members we did a lot a lot of budget 101 um but it's been so because um and a lot of

onboarding which hasn't been done really needs to be done now I think moving forward with any council member um and Jennifer the city manager has really been excellent about putting that in place but Darren a lot time like walking the um through the different sessions in the different department and instead of doing it all in one night, we did like three department at a time. And so um there's some great insight and some really good stuff that's coming out of it and you'll hear about capital improvements as well. Um the um it's just it's just an exciting time in the in the city where there's a drag down. more building going on starting at crossing um where the grass are going to go at grass path and the bas and baret which we're going to talk about three years I can see the foundations in and we've moved along um gave a report in last meeting um of where that is and we hope that they'll be they'll be under cover by the end of the summer hopefully by next winter we'll be go there. Um, great park has expanded. Um, they're moved to um, you can make reservations online now. They've moved to table service, not outside, but it's um, you know, they've learned what they need and what the community asking them. And um, I know that some of the country places or other places, but there are businesses that are discussion of going places. our vegetarian will be very pleased. Um and like I said, we had a a retreat with the other with the full console in all day recently and that filled as well. So um and

it's off to a great start here. You walk in late in the afternoon and you can smell hampers. Um it does give the building a new uh sense of fulfillment. Um but I will tell you I keep hearing people within the community not just all of that because of the rentals and all like everywhere I go hearing it's amazing. I mean the feedback and both of the parks or it's just constant I mean it's unbelievable and developing very proud of the work that we've done mission um and then the last we do openings um help people last night we're passing out anywhere from what I was saying to people depending how you want to make you know like three times a month with PCD DC once a month. Well, it's more than once a month. I just talk about meetings because like part of we're making it's much more than once a month of but more than a meeting but the events and everything but you know there's some that are as needed. There's some that once once a year or twice a year. So um I a lot of people last night have a lot of those but if you are neighbors you think would be an asset to the community email you know and just say or send them a name because um It's a great way to get involved and I know that you both involved. Thank you. Two questions uh for the the different committees or commissions that are available. U people require at least one person apply but hasn't heard anything. Is there a timeline? Um they're we're going to be discussing the process. say they're trying to get through next week people

and then we'll be setting up or I believe okay that's the okay and then can you only be on one commission I haven't seen anything I haven't seen someone I think we have I thought about being on the uh personnel applying for that. But I I didn't see anything that said you could or couldn't and I wouldn't want to give up this conditions for the role. You're not allowed to give up. Oh, okay. Let's be clear on that bill. Yes. We've had people on some of these development boards and like the parks the parks foundation thing. Well, the parks foundation is the city council. No, but some of the that don't meet very often definitely sort of like that. I can look into that. Okay, because I didn't want to apply and then muddy the water for something that And last question I've had a couple people ask me why did Bette do our night out different than the national night? When we did it in August, it was very hard to get people to come because of St. Louis weather and we thought the school started earlier and earlier and it tends to be I our experience when we did do there weren't as many things because I found a lot of people like it's in between camp and the opening of school and a lot of people are doing vacations and it was it was like that makes sense to yourself and Yeah. Then then we did try um to go a little past that back when you know a little bit further in and then it got dark so quickly that like that. So it kind of settled on June

as weather's not quite as bad. There's light. So yeah. Thank you. And then earlier in the meeting it came up um about Ian Mackey being our No, it's Ian Mackey is our is our representative. Brian Williams is our senator. Our senator. Okay. But he's salvable bond which is still part of his church. Right. Right. That's right. Because we have Yeah. Yeah. The changes state highway. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um very good. Thank you, Maxi. All right. Uh the 50s monthly update. I'm going to move through this very quickly. We have 63 memberships since last month. They have been coming in. I think it's because it's summertime. So, we have kids coming out out from college or people who have graduated. We have some of the surge with younger members right now, which is very exciting. U memberships. Oh, new members. I'm not going to click the map. It is cool. It is cool, but we don't have to look at it every time. Okay. Is there any update on silver sneakers? Uh, we are not getting them. Okay. Yeah, we are not getting them. They will give us such a pittance that we are not doing it. Okay. Um, if we are still open, we will negotiate with them again, but right now it's a no. I know people ask us and uh yeah, we just we can't afford it. Um, sorry. I'm ready when you're ready. Uh, great. Uh, so that's it, right? Yep. Park and the park updates, the recreation of Yep. So, uh, very quickly, we have a new play, uh, area that we added to the indoor

playground for the little tiny kids that can't quite get up into the climber, and they're loving it. It's very cute. Camp, it's very interesting having camp here. We're using all aspects of it, working really hard to make sure our regular users are not impacted by camps. Um, and then camps can still get their things done. But it's been wonderful to see the kids. The program is much improved this year. The camp staff are really good this year. It's one of the best staff I've seen and we have a fantastic camp specialist who came very experienced. So you could, what's fun is for them to be able to use horse and park. So they're out on the trails. They are making uh cooking things in the in the kitchen and they're able to walk down to Indian Meadows. Yesterday I was over at Indian Meadows. We do a lot of prep work there in advance of all of that night out and I was overchecking there and our campers were there. So it's really fabulous for them to be in this location. Um now is that staff members? He's a he's a part-time staff member for this. So he's seasonal for the summer. Very seasonal. Yeah. Oh, his name's Jeff. Yeah. I don't know his last name. I can't remember. Okay. No, we have staff that's extraordinarily good. Yes. Yes. He's great. And he's still in college, so hopefully we'll get him back next year. Yep. Um All right. The parks crew has been incredibly busy. So, we've got the new sidewalk extensions here. They did that with the public works crew. It's uh they look beautiful. I'm so impressed with the job they did. Um, and we really are thankful to Travis for working on that. Now, this is what Jim was talking about. So, when we first took down the fence between Stacy and Emanuel Lutheran, this is what it looked like. We've seated it and it's coming with the rain we've had. It's coming in beautifully. This is their grounds crew

was in there. They did not mow this yet thankfully, but it's still very thick vegetation right through here. You can see the the Cottonwood Trail. So, you can see it's very enticing. There is no sidewalk on Warson out here on this side even to get to the cemetery. Everyone walks on the other side of the street. So, I really don't want people crossing here. There's no crosswalk. So, I don't care if they walk in through there as long as they're not irritating Emanuel Lutheran. But, I don't think we want to put up a welcome. Yeah. But um but people are going to people are going to do what they wanted to. Yeah. No. Yeah. Now over at the dog park we had this big you this is it's hard for you to see this but this was a big mudslide. It was coming out. So everybody gathers with their dogs here. They chitchat and this gets churned up. We can't keep the grass growing here. So what the crew did is they dug it out. They put in a rubber topped um border in there. They put in the wood chips. And hopefully this will make um you know less mud and be a bigger improvement. We're still trying to figure out what to do here because we want it to be grass. We don't want to put in astroturf. But um we'll see see what happens. And this is true in any dog park, not just us. Anywhere the dogs it's been so wet and it's been very wet, right? So okay. This is the project on the corner. Refreshing this corner at Stacy has done is beautiful. What an improvement in this historic U memorial here. What you It's very hard to see here. This is a new young dogwood tree. They've cleaned all this up. They're going to continue taking this down. We couldn't go further um at this point because we don't want to stress the boxwoods. So, we'll take it down again next spring. Um this is the perennial garden on both sides. This again native garden. So, it's looks a little scruffy. In two years time, it look very nice in there. Um, so that I'm

really happy with this project and the family's very happy. They put a beautiful post on Facebook and tagged the city for it. So, this is a memorial for a young woman who passed away who has killed um very sudden. So, very, very sad. Um, then we have lots coming up. Open mic night next Friday here. And a lot of our pickle ball players are participating. So, we're there are three pianists. One of them went studied at Giuliard. There's vocals, there'll be harmonica. So, I encourage you all to come. There'll be I think probably beer and wine. So, I think it'll be a nice evening. Um, and it's free. So, and you could always you could always pick up the mics. Oh, sorry. It's the 27th. I think I think it's Friday night. Do I have it right? Oh, I do say the 26th. I did say that last night. So let me sign up 26 is still right. So are you doing that? So I just reserved it for I have a couple questions. Why do you require a birthday? software requires that we have to do it to verify who you are and to make sure that because we have age things in there, but the software demands that we can't put anybody in without an age. You don't have to put your age. If you don't put your age, we put in usually 1970 or 1950. You can't Well, so if you don't have to put your age, why can't you have to put your age? It's just people don't want to just have a box that says, "Are you over 18?" We can't because it's our software. It's a requirement from the software. We can't Yeah, we b we have a package and there's there's lots of reasons they do it. Um, it has a whole a whole host of reasons behind it and it also helps us verify that someone's really giving us correct information. You don't want to modify the Okay. No, I

don't. Uh, my other question, I was shocked that they kept my credit card. I do not think we should we have we have um we don't have access to your credit card. We only see the last four digits and we do that because we have all those ongoing payments. A lot of people pay monthly for their memberships, but we follow all we are PCI compliant. So, it's a double blind. We don't see it. Yeah. And then we want to be able to put your deposit back on this. I know. I can see it because the deposit, but again, it's hard for us to go in and strip it out. It's it we don't we don't have access for that type of thing. Yeah. So, um but I but we follow every federal guideline. So, please feel confident in it. Yeah. It is Thursday. I apologize. It is Thursday. I'm It's correct. All of the things are correct. I just keep saying Friday, but it's Thursday. So, what? It's uh 6 to 8. Here it is. Yep. Yeah. So Debbie Schwarz is playing. Pat Cho is playing. Pat Show Cho went to Giuliard. Studied piano at Giuliard. They're they play here periodically and so it's I think it'll be really nice and I'm very disappointed to miss it. You're disappointed. I'm disappointed. I'm going to miss it. So I'm disappointed to miss it. So that is correct. That's the correct date. It's just I'm saying the wrong date. Yeah. That's the 26th. Mhm. Yes. All right. So that is it everyone. All right. One thing that I would bring up consider court is considering what they're going to do

on the east side. And so we don't have direct voice in it that we're impacting and so we make sure that that we're involved with that tree ordinances and lots of trees in there and stuff. I was at a creek coral meeting on Monday Monday night and so they were discussing did they have opportunities for public input that this was first NBA or what whatever the same group that we put comprehensive they're trying to get feedback there were probably 75 people that so there's a lot of lot of concern It's just that easy track of what's going Are you um are you signed up to get those updates? I have not signed up yet. I I did not see anyone city government there. I saw a lot Jgo from planning but he lives across the street. Right. We had so we had a conversation about it but it's something that needs to be on everyone's radar. Yeah, I agree. Um I was going to go, but I went ahead and went to bed. It just No, but I So I am I'm very interested in that. I've um I have a meeting when I get back from vacation with the parks and recck director because he's the recreation director in Creef Corps. But I you know, there's 125. There is. Yeah, there's a lot. There's a lot in there. See lots of predators. That's where um wildlife rescue releases animals. Fox, that's where they release the fox. They release things that come from this area and also so they start.

Well, that's one of the reasons we wanted to remove the fence so we have that wildlife corridor because it's so important. Yeah. Um but yeah, so so it's just it's it's a long-term thing. It probably won't be developed even in my lifetime, but Oh, I don't know. I mean, look how fast the other one went. They did the well. They cleared everything down the west. Reinforce um city manager just resigned. He's going to be the new head of Great Rivers. Oh, really? So, anyway, so anyway, I just think that you would tell we we we as parks since Stacy is our premier park. Absolutely. Yes. I know a a council woman there that that got on the council after the west side was already sold and she is very pro-environmental. So, you know, they all need support anyway. So, well, Jim, I really appreciate you going and please keep us informed anything you hear. Yeah. Yeah. And so, it would be great if the parks commissioner could go to each meeting. Yeah, I think we're going to get another one. Good, good, good, good. All right, thank you. Future agenda items, you've already hit those items. Uh, I have not. Oh. Oh. Uh, next next month TJ's going to come and give you the results of our uh user survey and what we've what we've done since we with the feedback. All right. We'll enterain motion to second. Thank you. Everyone opposed.

Everyone in favor? I think. Okay, let me turn off the recording. See if I can figure it out. Stop the show.