Planning and Zoning - Regular Meeting

Emily, can you hear us on online? Yes, I can. All right. Ask her. Can you talk real quick to make sure we can hear you if need be? Yes. Testing. Do you hear me? Perfect. Thank you.

Okay. There we go. Test. Test. Okay. Yeah, we're flying without Rachel today, so we will We're just about there, though. Are we up and running? Um I didn't Garrett, usually we hear the this meeting is being recorded thing. Did it didn't do that?

Okay. So, we are recording, Mr. Chair. We are recording. We're live on YouTube and we are good to go whenever you are. Looks like we have a quorum. Wonderful. A quorum being present. Uh thank you for joining us this evening. Uh today is Wednesday, December 10th, 2025. This is the Meridian Parks and Recreations uh December regular commission meeting. Uh we will begin with the call of the role. All right. Dom Jamino, present. Jennifer Bobo, present. Mandy Roberts, present. Joe Greer, present.

Terry Dennington. Uh, Brie Sandal is absent. Alan Helms here. Here. Helen Muscow here. And tell me if I'm pronouncing it correctly. Is it musculo or musculo or mus muscolo? You put an emphasis on the o the sec on the second syllable. Muscolo. Okay. Muscolo and Torren Taylor. You're okay. Wonderful. Thank you, Steve. Uh qu being present. Uh I would adopt I would call for a motion to adopt the agenda for tonight's meeting. Mr. Chair,

uh Commissioner Greer, I would like to make an a motion to adopt the agenda. A motion has been made. Is there a second? A second. Uh second has been from Commissioner Dennington. All in favor? I. Any opposed? So ordered. Next on our agenda is the approval of the minutes from the November 12th, 2025 special meeting. Uh do I have a motion for the adopt for the approval of the November 12th special meeting minutes? Mr. Chair, Commissioner Greer, I would like to make a motion to approve the minutes from the November 12th special meeting. A motion has been made. Do we have a second? Second. Seconded by Commissioner Helms. All in favor?

I. Any opposed? So ordered. Announcements. We have a new commissioner uh with us who has um joined us with the uh retirement of commissioner John Nesmouth and we have with us uh uh Commissioner Helen Muscolo Skolo Skolo. Okay. See, I'm Italian. So, it's

however you uh I will I will begin with how we had we had a very broad batch of candidates for the commission. Uh each bringing their own experience and and perspective. Uh the mayor and I agreed that Helen brought a profound depth of knowledge and experience into the parks and recreation uh field. Uh and I will I won't steal her thunder, so I won't go into her uh extensive background, but I will say that uh it is a an impressive impressive um resume as far as parks and recreation. So, Commissioner Muscolo, uh, welcome to the commission and please, uh, tell us a little bit about you.

I wasn't expecting to speak, but um, yeah. So I my undergraduate degree was in recreation education many years ago and uh I spent um most of my well a great many of my years uh in recreation um from running pools to working with um government agencies uh with contracts with agencies uh as concessionires to run marina operations, picnic parks, wedding venue use restaurants, bars, um so a lot of that. So I did that. I uh kind of worked my way up from park manager in that capacity to vice president of the California Parks Company and um I did that for I believe well prior to that I was an executive with the Napa Girl Scout Council. Um I was in charge of wore a lot of different hats there. PR director, property director, um the list goes on and on. When you're working with um agencies like that, you do a lot of things for very little pay, I might add. Um and um so after many years with uh parks and recreation, doing all sorts of things like that, I switched my focus. I went back to school, got my master's degree in um counseling. Um I'm I'm a licensed marriage and family counselor and uh so I spent the next part of my career doing that. So this is full circle for me. I love parks and recreation. Always have. It's just um I'm just so honored to be here and thank you so much for the opportunity

that I think you might want to be aware of. So, just know that that's kind of what this part of the meeting always is. Um, this year again, as as you maybe walked in the front lobby, we've got that little angel tree. That's a Salvation Army toy drive angel tree. We've hung hung tags with gift suggestions uh and are asking people to bring new unwrapped toys to donate. They can either take a suggestion or we would accept any new unwrapped toy. And so we've got just another couple days to collect toys and then we will haul them all up, package them up and and take them over to the Salvation Army. I think they spread them out and then have the the qualifying parents from the families that qualify come in and and choose what would be appropriate for their children. I think that's how they do it. So that's going really well this year. We even had a couple bicycles and razor scooters and and some annoying things that make noises. I don't know what it all is. I don't have kids, but they're very I'm excited by all the toys. Um, Santa's mailbox. We have Santa's mailbox out in the front. It's pouring in. The letters are pouring in. And so, we'll be doing that until the 17th of this month. Then we take it down. And that way, we're sure that every child that gives us a legible return address gets a personalized letter from Santa before Christmas. So, that's up until the 17th. Um, there are two things this Saturday. one, I gave you the little half pager on the children's winterland festival. We do that over at the Meridian home court, which is our hardcourt kind of basketball and volleyball and pickleball sports facility um a couple miles down the road. We deck it out for Christmas and let families come for free. We do ask that they bring a donation of either a small cash donation or maybe canned food or non-p perishable food uh that we collect there for the Meridian Food Bank. But once there, they've got arts and crafts and Christmas themed games

and visits with Santa Claus and free professional photos with Santa and it's very fun and festive and it's it's kind of for the we call them the littlest merry makers. Kind of for the little kids. So, we've got that going on from 10 to 2 Saturday at the home court. Bam. I'll be there, but then I'm going to sneak away. And I emailed this to you also. It's it's new this year. Um, the Daughters of the American Revolution, they've kind of been befriending the city more lately and being involved with the Rock of Honor and the the nation's 250th birthday coming up. And one thing they want to do is uh on Saturday, they're going to have a little 20 minute ceremony where they're going to lay some wreaths at the Rock of Honor as part of the Wreaths Across America initiative. And so they're going to do that and have have a few words spoken. And so this is kind of just an FYI or if anyone's curious and would like to attend, you're certainly welcome. The Rock of Honor is located inside Julius Kleiner Park kind of over over beside the Meridian Senior Center. So anyone's welcome to that. Um beyond that, the the parade went well. I saw some some of your smiling faces on the float. That's kind of a hoot. I'm sorry the weather wasn't a little bit nicer, but I'd rather have a little drizzle than um we've had some real cold some years. So, really, as the photographer especially, I was able to click more pictures than usual. Does anyone have any questions, comments, concerns, anything at all about upcoming events or activities?

Do we have any questions from the commission? Commissioner Roberts? Uh, thank you, Shelley. What is the timeline for the angel tree and bringing gifts in for that? I might have missed it. What What's the deadline? Well, Salvation Army's been a little willy-nilly giving us a deadline. Okay. I would think that we were going to take most of them this Friday around 11:00 because Steve's really booked up on But again, if if some come in over the weekend and and come on Monday, I can always I've been known to make a special little run over with some extra toys. So, by Monday at noon, we'd say, well, I think we've advertised it uh through Friday. It's through city hall as the 12th. Right.

Yeah. Exactly. But like I say, there's always a couple stragglers and I never say no to a a toy for a child. So if if do what you can if you want to. We will be making a run to the Salvation Army on Friday afternoon with Yeah. The majority of the majority, but like I say, there's always super generous. Can I just say it's been amazing. Uh anyone that wants to come see what we have upstairs, it is more than we've ever had. It's really inspiring.

Big generous things. It's just like I'm just stunned every morning. So anyway, thrilled with that. Well, anyway, welcome Helen. Glad you're here. Torren, you're the dude. And um thank you all for showing up for the Christmas parade. You're a good sports um despite the weather. So next year we'll order partly sunny.

Thank you so much, Shel. With that we will uh move on. We have no old business and uh so for under our new business items we have our Christmas presentation by Steve Sidway. Ho ho ho. That's me. Um I think you all already have have seen it but I just wanted to formally uh point out that you have a small gift at your chair. It's a a city Mium bag and a Christmas card. We just want to say merry Christmas and thank you for your service and just a small gift as a token for our ongoing appreciation for all that you do to help us keep parks and recreation moving forward in Midian.

Wonderful. Thank you, Steve. Uh our next item is the parks and recreation volunteer program update with uh program coordinator Jackie Smith. And I need just a minute to get the PowerPoint up for Jackie. So hang on one second.

Good evening, commissioners. I think I believe we are screen sharing now. Can people see the

the PowerPoint on your screens? Oh yes.

And if I There you go. Now, Jackie, you should be able to control it yourself with the arrows.

Okay, awesome. Uh, so again, my name is Jacqueline Smith and I'm an administrative one and a volunteer coordinator and I have been working with the city of Meridian for a little over a year now and I was offered the privilege and honor to be able to work with our volunteers and it has been a truly an honor and I am so happy and I love this position. So, thank you for the opportunity to do that. And uh this is just a presentation on celebrating our Meridian volunteers. And we are honoring our community champions in 2025. Major program highlights. We have the third grade tours. That's tours that run between March and May. And I work with Jacob Kluff up in uh the mayor's office. And I provide the volunteers that help take the tours from the children for the classrooms. and they go around the city and each area does like a little presentation and uh this provides hands-on civic education to many of the local students. I also help the front counter coverage and these are dedicated volunteers assisting the community daily at the city hall helping guide people to each of our different departments answer any questions they have or anything that they might need. And we also work with park ambassador program and that's volunteers that are enhancing and beautifying our our local parks and our front counter coverage. That's Miss Nancy that's sitting at the front counter right now. And uh they assist with greeting and directing visitors. In addition, volunteers extend front desk coverage to the community development, parks and recreation or mayor's office. Uh what that includes is if there's a Christmas party or a celebration or a reason why they have to be away from that front desk, my volunteers will go up there and help cover for that. Uh mayor's office um also helps with coverage for lunches up there if they need the program stats. As of December

1st, 2025, I have 32 active front counter volunteers with a combined hours of 2446.25. Our park ambassador program empowers volunteers to enhance visitor experience and support park staff. Program stats as of December 1st are 13 active park ambassadors with 554.25 hours contributed. The locations I have uh volen or when it's warmer the locations that they cover are the Kleiner Park memorial park cart and walking the discovery park. We have a golf cart out there as well. And then I have people walking at settlers and heroes. And I'm hoping to expand that in the next upcoming season. Celebrating our outstanding volunteers. These are volunteers that have over a thousand hours and actually two of them are over 2,000 hours. Uh Billy BS, I I not everyone has got the chance to meet her. She did retire out this year. uh uh just getting to the age where it's getting harder to get out here, but she accumulated a total of 3,733 hours from 2016 to the current year 2025. Bill Bowman is still currently working with us. He started in May of 2014 and his hours are 2521.75 hours donated. Bill works in the front counter and he also worked in the parks ambassador program. And then William Heler is another one that had um retired out of our program. He worked 2017 to 2025 with,046.25 hours. And I want to do a a special celebration for our event volunteers. These are people who come out and contribute their hours beyond and outside of my normal park ambassador program and front counter. And no, I'm sorry I didn't give you a heads up. I was doing this. But

um Kathy Templeton has been working with us for over 10 years supporting multiple Meridian special events throughout the year. So you'll see her at movie night. I saw her at the parade. She's kind of got her hands all over helping us. And then parks commissioner Joe Greer. We want to thank you for coming out and helping us with our annual Christmas stage decorating, the annual winter land festival, Santa photo area setup, and photo booth helper. And I I believe I was told over 10 years helping with that. Well, thank you so much for all that you do for us. Is it 10 years? Microphone's on. I think Christmas and Meridian, I don't know how long you've been doing the winter festival. Great. I've been doing since 2013. Yeah,

been on the commission since 2015 and then somewhere in there.

It's pretty awesome. And thank you so much for all that you do for us. We absolutely love having you with us. In 2025, our volunteer gatherings have been the spring kickoff, uh the annual event that launches the new volunteer season, and it brings together returning volunteers and new volunteers to reconnect, meet each other, receive any updates, and prepare for the year ahead. The C kickoff sets off the tone for the year, celebrating the team, reinforcing our mission, and ensuring volunteers have the tools and information they need to succeed. This last year we had it come down and do a presentation regarding uh scams and safety and trying to help prevent anything like that happening to our volunteers. We also had the mayor's appreciation lunchon where the mayor had come out and barbecued for everybody and we had the appreciation pancake breakfast um when it warmed up and that was a wonderful way to say thank you and honor those that have come out and how much volunteering they do for us. And then upcoming on the 16th is our holiday wrap-up party. And the holiday holiday wrap-up party is a combination of thanking them and celebrating for all they do for the entire year. And it's also an opportunity for us to wrap presents for the Meridian Head Start program. And we get all the gifts prepped and wrapped up and ready to go. And then Maggie picks them up and delivers them to the Head Start program. Uh new volunteer recognition challenge toys this year. So during the pancake breakfast, um I uh offered these to our volunteers based on how many hours that they've contributed. This is a new program that we have. Um the challenge coins honor the dedication and contributions of our volunteers symbolizing their lasting impact on the city and the community. Introduced in 20125, they recognize outstanding service as a key milestone, 100 hours, 500 hours, and a thousand hours. And I likened that to the Olympics. Bronze, silver, and gold. So up here I have, and

if you guys would like to see them, there are coins in bron, silver, and gold recognizing 100, 500, or 1,000 hours. And they were based on where they are in their accumulation. They were provided this as a thank you for all that they do. Celebrating our volunteers, recognizing dedication and community support. Currently, I have 46 volunteers that I'm working with um in 2025 with a combined hour uh combined hours of 3,255 reflecting the commitment of our community members. Any questions?

Wonderful. Thank you so much, Jackie. Do we have any questions for from the commission? Commissioner Roberts? Yes. Thank you, Jackie. Uh just uh you guys are doing such a great job and I guess I'm a little surprised. I I would have thought we've would have more volunteers than 46, but how does that number feel? Is that feel good or are you looking for more? I'm always looking for more. Right now with the winter, the park ambassador program has gotten a little bit smaller. I have some of my hardcore volunteer that are out there throughout the year. Uh we have

almost the entire calendar filled for our front counter. So there's barring it being Christmas time, usually somebody at our front counter uh helping to move people here and there. Next year I am hoping to expand the program in the park ambassador pro program. It they did not have a cart out at Discovery, but now uh through Tenacity we do have a cart out there so our volunteers can get out there and help with that 3:00 time when you know some shenanigans are a foot. And I'm hoping to get some walking volunteers out in our other programs at Settlers and Fuller and some of those other big parks.

And as far as like our time on this commission and other commissions from the city, do you count that as part of the hours and and then people because we're volunteers. I mean, we we get invited to the appreciation lunch, right? So, yes, absolutely. I actually don't count those because you guys don't log in to me. Okay. So these are the logged hours for just the park ambassadors and just the front counter. And even with Kathy, they weren't able to provide me a full logged amount, but they said guaranteed over a thousand hours that she's dedicated. But I do thank you guys for your time. If you provided me the logging, I would love to to thank you for it.

Just in terms of recognizing the overall commitment of volunteers, it could be helpful just to have that, you know, somewhere in a column. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Thank you, Commissioner Dennington.

Yes. Um, thank you. It was a great presentation. One of the things on the U when you were saying that you bring in the third graders for the tour and I was wondering I'm serving on the America 250 the mayor's committee for the city. So, we're going to be promoting a lot of that stuff. Will that be something that you'll be focusing on this year in that education kind of thing taking them through in the addition to whatever things you're doing? Uh, Jacob Kluff is in charge of the program and I can definitely bring that to his intention and ask if he'd be be willing to focus on that for you.

Yeah. I just didn't know if is this something that you want. I mean, we're already focusing on a lot of stuff. I just didn't know in your education bringing those third graders through what that entailed as far as when you said you educate them. Um, so I I provide the volunteers and Jacob does the training with the volunteers. So, this being my first year as a volunteer coordinator, I unfortunately had had plans where I wasn't able to attend those. I saw some of them going through, but with coverage at the front desk and everything that was happening, I was not able to attend. He did he did tell me they go to community development center, the fire department, they go to the mayor's department, show them the initial point gallery, and then I believe they do a spiel in healer as well. Okay.

M uh Mr. chair. I can provide a little insight having been around, but the um the focus is on city operations. So, they talk about how does city government work. They get a a presentation from public works about sewer and water uh you know, water delivery and sewer treatment and um they go to the fire department, hear about the fire. Um so, it it's its focus is on city departments and what they do for the community. Okay. So, yeah. And and that makes sense. So, you're you're kind of grooming them to uh serve. Yeah. We hope they're future commissioners like you.

Wonderful. Any other questions from the commission? Hearing none. Thank you so much, Jackie. Thank you. All right. We are moving on to our um Meridian Parks and Recreation Commission 2026 leadership elections. Uh before we begin, Steve, did you want to provide any uh preview?

I will. Um and I was hoping Bri might be able to be on to speak for herself, but I don't see that she's been able to join. So, uh, Brie Sandal is the current vice chair and would be the incoming chair at work. She has had a regular monthly meeting conflict come up that will kind of take her out during this time uh, for the foreseeable future. So, um, while I'm not I don't have the official resignation, the the word the word is that basically that she will be needing to step off the commission. Um and um so uh with that there I mean uh the when we had something similar before happened when Joe was the uh the the the chair and the vice chair couldn't do a second year. Um Joe Greer did step in for a second year and do two years in a row. Knowing that we had done that previously, I have reached out to Dom to ask if he would be willing to fill the chair role for a second year. Um he has graciously said he is willing. The the nominations will be still open, but just to let you know, um I that we have had that conversation knowing that Bri would not be available to uh step into the role as chair. So that's my preamble. and I'll turn it back over to you,

Steve. Real quick question. Uh are we using the special election script or then the tradition the regular election script? I don't know the difference. Emily has a Emily's on here. Go ahead, Emily. Hi. Um Mr. Chair, this is your regular election. This is a regular election. Okay. Uh thank you, Emily. Thank you, Emily. Real quick, Emily, is there a provision verbiage within our bylaws on circumstances like this or it would it be worthwhile adding that for future circumstances like this one?

Well, I guess um to answer your question with the question is I don't think Bri I mean Bri is currently the vice chair and she's currently a commissioner. So, um, she you could either have a you could either renominate her and keep her in office as a vice chair or someone else could run for vice chair. Um, but you you do need to have an election today for your vice chair position. So,

well, no, I meant for specifically for the chair being that typically it's a oneyear per one-year uh term. So, the fact that I'm kind of restpping into it, that that's what I was curious about. Yes. Um, it's Well, it is still an election. There's a Do you have a copy of the uncontested versus contested uh elections? Does yours say that? I have regular and special. Okay. Um, if you Let me get on the same page as you. I think it still works. Okay,

Emily, while you're looking, I'll just say, you know, I think it's still an election and if someone else wants to just step right into the chair, I think there the nominations are the the vice chair gets an automatic nomination for chair, right? That's uh but there are um there are other nominations that can be accepted under the typical election procedures. Cool. All right, that works for me. Correct. And sorry to interrupt. Given that I would I would follow the just the regular election script. Perfect. Thank you, Emily. You're welcome.

Yeah, I want to make sure we get it all squared away. Um, all right. So, the next order of business is election of officers. Meridian City Code directs us to hold elections at our December meeting. Our bylaws state that officers of the commission shall include the commission chair and the commission vice chair. Our bylaws also state that the commission vice chair shall be automatically nominated for the position of chair. In this circumstance, the current vice chair has a uh circumstance a scheduling conflict and is no it is and is has pulled back her withdrawn her

declining the nomination uh her candidacy for the chair. I was look looking for the wrong word. Uh therefore, do we have any additional are there any other nominations for the office of chair for the 2026 calendar year? Oh, this is for chair. This is for chair. Yes. Uh Commissioner Roberts.

So hopefully I'm in following the protocols here, but I would like to nominate you to continue for a second year as our chair. A nomination uh for myself has been made uh by Commissioner Roberts to extend the term for one calendar year. Um are there any other nominations? The nomination table has been uh window has been closed. Uh do we have a second on that motion? Seconded by Commissioner Helms. Chairman, I'd like to second that. Yes. And all in favor? Hi. Hi. I'm sorry. Um, what is the motion? Is there a motion on the floor?

Oh, I apologize. I wasn't clear on the motion. Uh, so the the original motion was from Commissioner Roberts to to renominate me for a second one-year term. Great. So, um, nominations don't require a motion, actually. So you just do all the nominations and then the motion is the vote. So got it. Okay. Okay. Perfect. We change that to a nomination.

Okay. So yes, we have one nomination so far for the office of chair. Uh a nominee has been nom uh nominated for the office of chair. Are there any other nominations for chair? Seeing none, the nominations for chair are now closed. Oh, I guess I should have read on. I will now take the nominations for the floor to the from the floor for the office of vice chair. Do we have any nominations for the office of vice chair? Uh, Chair Delamino, Commissioner Roberts.

I would like to nominate Joe Greer for vice chair. And this might require a little bit of discussion. Does that mean then that Vice Chair Greer would then step into the chair role again? Which would you be willing to do that? Yeah. So the following year, right? So 201 nominated for chair. Yes. And there can be another one. Yeah. Do we have any additional nominations for the office of vice chair? We almost got you. Says no. I know that that's what we were teasing her about.

I was like, I want to do it. Um, so, uh, Commissioner Jill Greer has been nominated for the office of vice chair. Are there any other nominations for vice chair? Seeing none, the nominations for the office of vice chair are now closed. I propose that we vote on these nominations as a slate and by acclamation. Since both nominees are running unopposed, is there a motion to elect myself as chair and Commissioner Joe Greer as vice chair for the 2026 calendar year? Chair Delamino, Commissioner Roberts,

I would like to make a motion to um take a vote on your election as chair, your continuation as chair role, and for Commissioner Greer to serve as vice chair. Do we have a second? seconded by Commissioner Helms. Uh it has been moved and seconded that we elect myself as chair and uh Commissioner Joe Greer as vice chair for 2026. All in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Hearing none, the motion carries. Congratulations, Commissioner Greer. We're just going to keep going in circles. you want to just

All right. Well, thank you all so much for um the opportunity to serve again. Um the the kind of inside joke for myself, uh Commissioner Greer and I believe and Commissioner Bobo as we were uh of the members on this deis uh were nominate were appointed and have served throughout the pandemic. I uh was first elected the first time as chaired in 2020 right on the outset of the pandemic and uh and so that that was a very interesting year to to serve as chair for the first time. But uh thank you again for the opportunity and I'm looking forward to 2026. With that, we will now move on to our commission 2026 all commission goals with uh parks director Steve Sitway. Got to turn this on. I'll do my best to uh facilitate and run the screens here, but um uh let me share the screen so it's on your screens and on the computer. Here we go. All right. Can you guys see the the goals uh spreadsheet? I'm going to scroll down here. The 2025 goals that have were previously approved for the current year are on the left 1 through 10. Um, what I've done on the right is I have taken feedback uh leading up to today on uh what's been completed, what's changed um and have those changes shown in red and I'll go through them uh briefly with you. Uh

so the first one is um it said participate in the design and programming of a new community center. the the design is now done. It's out to bid and uh so we've just changed that to support the construction of the community center and the expansion of Settler's Park because we have now an 11 acre park expansion that's um also part of that that same project. Um, just for reference, um, we anticipate, uh, you know, bids later this month, uh, contracts going to council in January and a groundbreaking in the spring, followed by about 18 months of construction and opening sometime around October of F of 28, which is FY29. Did I get that right? I think I did. Um so um uh it's our it's our big uh project coming up for the the next uh couple of years on the construction front. Uh the next goal um uh it talks about uh having a connected system across the city of Meridian with a focus on user experience. And I added to that, if I can scroll over, um, there seems to be an ongoing desire from the commissioners to continue to meet with our the rest of the neighboring cities to coordinate the continuity of the the pathway system between cities. So, I tried to capture that thought in the goal. We've already met recently with um well most recently with the city of Nampa and we've also met with the city of Eagle. We'd like to meet with um uh Boisey and pro possibly

with CUNA. Um so anyway, oops, sorry. Continuing those efforts to hear from them. Um any comments or questions on that goal? Okay. Uh the third one um we've been working on the pathways master plan update. So basically changed that to completing that pathways master plan update and uh we'll imagine there will be something coming to you early in the coming calendar year on that. Um Mike may have an update for you on the when we get to the staff updates, but it's been being worked on uh quite a bit recently. The fourth one, uh, no no changes in the wording. It's, uh, for the commission to to continue to provide feedback for our ongoing park improvements and enhancements as they arise. Um, the fifth one is about the arts, our work with the arts commission and um, adding reinforcing art in in the parks. Uh the change there is our focus this year, this past year was on Chateau Park and getting started on the arts uh plan and I've just updated that to cross out Chateau um and just say completion of the public art master plan and uh art for the new community center. So, there will be a specific effort to add public art to the community center and there'll probably be a a subcommittee of folks from both this commission and the arts commission that will be a part of that. Um, number any questions or comments on that? Um, just want to make sure I'm looking up.

Yes, I I for some reason I was thinking that we were there were other parks that we were going to be looking at theming. Are we putting on the back burner because of the community center? Uh there are in future years. Let me think. The next one is Settlers Park, right? And um that one was proposed for this coming year originally. it got taken out of the budget um and asked us to bring it back next year so that it could be tied in with the theming of the community center um and happen in conjunction with it. So that will be the next one, but it's not funded for 2026. Okay, thank you.

Um let's see, the sixth one is about improvements at the golf course. Um, it did talk about encourse restrooms which are now complete. So, I crossed out the encourse restrooms and focused on the the uh three projects that are slated for 2026, which is new signage and branding for the course, uh fencing project along uh Blackat, and then improvements to the irrigation pond area where that uh area back by the the pump are is being cleaned up. So, those are our 2026 uh improvement projects. So, I've just changed the the list to reflect that. Um, number seven, um, was to pursue a future park site in Northwest Meridian's Fields District and, tada, we did it. So, um, we acquired 40 acres this last year and, uh, we now have that on the books as a a future park site. Um, what I proposed we replace that with is we want to add a new playground to what we currently call Tammy Street Park just to give it it's just that's just the name of the the the street that it's on. Um, again, this is a small pocket park. Um, not even sure it's roughly a half acre in size, I'll say. I don't know the exact size, but um, it's a small pocket park, basically the size of two uh, building lots. Uh, and we re we we acquired it from Ward when uh we got all of the West Data Recreation District's uh uh facilities and um uh it does have a current name in their system which is Settlers Village Park which is the name of the subdivision. But one, we don't we don't want two settlers parks. And two, we

have a policy not to name public parks after the subdivision they're in or they seem like private parks. So, um I'd like to uh bring you a proposal for a new name in the coming year of for that park and maybe name it in conjunction with adding the playground. So, that's a something we have on our our radar to do. Terry Oh, sorry. I'm not Mr. Chair. Terry has a question. Yes. Uh, Commissioner Dennington. So, is that something then that you'll be working with the neighborhood to try and come up with a park name?

Yes, they they don't have an HOA there, but we do have some active neighbors that requested the playground to begin with. So, we will be reaching out to them and working with them to bring a name to you and then eventually to city council. Perfect. Thanks. um have a question regarding

I was curious about the signage for Lake View there on the on the course. um thought is too whatever the signage is to I mean everybody keeps talking about trying to find some art that we could put out there be part of that but uh exactly what are they trying is it just they wanted to sign in front of the building or it's I've tried to drive all through that area say well how do how does it help anybody find it but I don't know. Yeah. So, I'm gonna maybe turn some time over to to Mike who's leading that effort, but uh basically it's uh we're looking for a new we're going to keep the name the same, I think, but we're looking for some new branding with logo and signage and part of the whole refresh that we're doing. But,

yeah. Um Mr. Chair and um Commissioner um Helms Helms um it it's not really intended to as wayfinding or directional signing. It's more of um uh to add to the um sense of arrival and the appearance of the front lawn. Right now, there's no there there's a sign, but it's on the building and it's behind a bunch of shrubs. And it doesn't do much to enhance the property. So, that's really its main intent. Yeah, I think so.

Okay. Thank you. I was just kind of curious just

Yeah, great question. Thank you. Imagine imagine we'll be bringing uh once we have a solid proposal you know bring bring something to you to show it. So we have trademark sign company working on ideas and once we have uh something to show we'll be bringing something next year. So uh let's see the item eight is these next three are pretty much unchanged wording wise. Uh so I just carried over engaging other task forces, commissions, entities and agencies through workshops and other outreach for partnership opportunities. Basically, there was there's been a desire to uh hear from other uh entities and commissions, which we do uh periodically and quite often. Uh number nine is to support the ongoing operations of the Meridian pool. Uh didn't change that. We don't have any big capital projects coming up. We've kind of completed those over the last couple of years, but we're in um you know, full operations mode. And then uh number 10 was to purs pursue improved communication tools and opportunities to engage the community and diverse interests and I carried that one forward as well. Um, so with that, there can be other changes, additions, but um, uh, so I'll just maybe turn it back to you for a moment, chair, and, uh, Melamino, and you can, uh, if there are no additional changes to this, I'll walk us through a a scoring program, but let's first see if there's any additions or changes to these goals.

Thank you, Steve. Uh do we have any additions, revisions to the goals that and or to the existing uh revisions that Steve has made. Commissioner Dennington. Yeah, I I just I like the layout that you know what's there already. Although I'm not sure and I don't know if everybody agrees with this or not, but reversing DNA. Oh, that we we'll we'll we'll take a vote on the order. Well, that's my vote. Okay. Yeah,

perfect. So, no revisions or amendments being offered or suggested. Uh Steve, please feel free to walk us through the scoring.

So, I I'll need just a moment to copy and paste up above and then So, just hold tight for a second. try and get rid of the strikethroughs, but I can finish cleaning this up later. Let me get rid of the obvious ones so it doesn't confuse things. All right. Okay. So, we have 10 proposed 2026 goals written here. Um, and what I'd like everyone to, and we have a couple that haven't been through this, so I'm going to uh but what we'll have you do is um just write down for yourself. Um, oh, let's see. They are they should be the ABCDs. You want to give them an example? Okay. So, um, uh, Joe's going to give an example of your highest priority should be number one and your lowest priority should be number 10. The reality is we work on all of them, but we just try and give a general sense of of priority and we add everyone's priorities together and that becomes the cumulative priorities for the commission as a whole. So, um,

uh, we're going to go top to bottom, and Joe, you can give me your scores. Microphone be good. Um, one, one, six, four, four, seven,

five, three, two, eight, nine, 10. Okay. So, you can see from Joe's personal scores that the first one is number one, but she jumped down to what was currently number seven as the second one. Um, and I don't know if uh, Commissioner Dennington, if you want me to take your vote as just switching D&E, but um, that would be uh, if I if I understand right, that would be a 1 2 3 and then 54 6 7 8 9 10. You happy with that? Okay. I'm going to give you all a couple minutes just to you don't have to feel rushed. Uh let's just just take a few minutes and you can come up with your own personal priorities for scoring and um uh and then I'll come back to you in a few minutes and we'll take your scores. Thanks. years ago. I did

If anybody has theirs, you can raise your hand and I'll go start with uh Commissioner Jelamino. Let me right spot first. Thank you, Steve. And you can just do a copy and paste of Joe's. Oh, really? Yeah, they're pretty in in sync on that one. Okay, Jennifer, I saw you raise your hand. All right, go ahead. Four. Or

wait. Yeah. Okay. Four 2 1 3 7 8 6 5 9 10. Thank you. Uh, Commissioner Roberts, were you ready? I think I saw you raise your hand. Yes, I'm ready. Okay. 1 5 4 8 2 6 3 9 7 10.

Okay, Commissioner Helms, were you ready? I was born ready. Okay. Yes. Um I'll just go with Joe's also. I'm all over here. I'm running out of power.

All right, Torren. Okay. Uh, one 2 3 4 6 5 7 8 9 10. Okay, thank you. And Helen. Okay, I'll see what I do here. Um, so or or Yeah. Two. It's two. Oh, it's two.

Number one. Oh, I I see what I'm doing. Oh, okay. All right. Got it. All right. Yeah, we're going top to bottom. Okay. I'm just Okay, here we go. Um, one is two. Three. Did I miss one? Four. 1 7 8 9 5 10 and six. Okay. Did I miss anybody? I think I got everybody.

Um, give me a minute to run some scores. 12 12. Thanks. It's It's covered up on my I've got a screen sharing thing on the bottom and it's blocking my Okay, so that is 12. I may have to have you read it off for me. 32. What is it? 32. 32. Thank you. Okay. 27. 27

42 42 41 41 42 Oh, we have a tie. Okay. 38 38 59 9 Oops, just typed over. Let's try that again. Just a second. Do that again. What's that number? 59.

It is 59. Okay. 59 71 76 All right. Now if I can move the me undo that I think this is where I need Rachel. Anybody? Yeah, you can help. Come help me how to sort the table so that everything moves with it. I need to

grab these. That's what you got to do. And then sort here. It just moved those. So it didn't. They're still the same, didn't it? Or did did it move?

Okay. So So let's look at the third one. The master. None of these moved. Um I think if I do it up here Yeah. He's away. Okay. Well, I'm just going to propose that I I will get the the order corrected, but you can see the scores on the left. the lowest score is the highest priority and we will move the goals in accordance with those scores. So just to show Thank you. the um uh the construction of the new community center and the expansion of Settler's Park remains the the first one, but then the looks like the second one would go to completion of the pathways master plan. Um followed by uh developing the connected pathway system and meeting with the other communities and on down the list. I won't hit everyone, but you

can see the the order based on the score. So the scoring will dictate the order. Um lowest to highest being the lowest score is the highest priority. And uh with that I would just like to request a motion to approve the cumulative scores as the combined commission priority. And um I mean actually I can I notice I can fill in this column right here. This would be number one. Uh, two.

No, no, no, no. I'm sorry. I I did that wrong. Yep. 27 would be two. And then 32, I think, is next. And then we have two. Oh, we have 41. So that would be number seven.

We have a 38. Thank you. 38. So that one is four. And then five. And then there's 242. So I'll just take them in the order that they are. Six, 7, then 8, 9, 10. So those will become the the order and we will do the shuffling when I can get to a computer that makes it easier. Um, with that I would like to have a motion of the approving the the commission priorities in the order shown.

Thank you, Steve. Um, I would entertain a motion to approve the um the goals as they are shown in the ranking order that they are shown to effectively serve as our commission goals for the 2026 calendar year. Uh, do I have a motion? Mr. Chair, a motion has been made by Commissioner Greer. Oh, sorry, Commissioner Greer. I'd like to make a motion to approve the all commission goals as listed for the commission scores for 2026. Uh, Commissioner Greer has made a motion. Do I have a second?

Seconded by Commissioner Bobo. All in favor? I I. Any opposed? So ordered. Thank you. Perfect. Thank you. All right. We do not have any workshops tonight, so we will lead on to our final item of the night, staff reports. Steve, the floor is yours again.

Well, I mainly want to thank the commissioners for showing up in force for the a rainy parade that turned out not so rainy at the end. it. Uh, but it was pretty scary leading up to it. It uh um we weren't sure what to expect. I sent out that email early in the morning kind of hoping that the hourly forecast held true that it was it would break a little before and it it did. So, very grateful for that, but grateful for everyone uh showing up and supporting it. Um we had we had still had a a good turnout. Certainly not as strong a turnout as the the good weather years, but I was pleasantly surprised at the number that showed up and didn't get frightened away by the uh by the rain. We had some unique additions this year. Some live streaming from the Chamber of Commerce that was going on. Um that was a nice addition to the parade. Um we had these watch parties going on at different locations around the parade. Um, we were able to move Santa to an indoor location, so it wasn't just in in the rain outside, and that seemed to work out well. Uh, the tree looks uh uh a little different. It's white instead of multicolored, and the multicolored lights are around it. I don't know if anyone's had it, if anyone hasn't had a chance to see it yet, drive by it on your way home. But I think it's beautiful. Um, but I just wanted to give a shout out to uh the staff that, you know, put this on and to all the commissioners that participated. U, I do think it was the right call to combine floats with the council because, uh, uh, Torren's dad was the only council member that was able to show up that night. So, we had Councilman Taylor and uh, um, we had we also had the, uh, uh, the band Red Light Challenge. They weren't able to set up their electric set um in the rain, but they had acoustic guitars. It

was still a lot of fun, I think. Um so, uh like Shelley already mentioned, not to repeat, but the the next we do have another big one coming up this weekend with the Children's Wonderland Festival. So, if you know of any This one's aimed for the little ones. So, if anyone knows of any little kids that like some Christmas arts and crafts, um, bring them to the home court on Saturday, uh, I think she said between 10 and two, if I remember right. And, uh, uh, Christmas and Meridian is what it's all about right now. And, uh, with that, I'll stand for any questions.

Thank you, Steve. Do we have any questions for Steve on his staff report?

Wonderful. Uh just before I move on to Mike, I I will uh for those of you who I didn't don't remember if I replied to all or just replied directly to Steve, I have um I would like to apologize for missing this year as the Grinch. Uh this August, a couple of months ago, uh I lost my grandmother. And so with my grandfather still living as a widowerower uh who is his uh Alzheimer's dementia has advanced aggressively in the last four months especially uh this was a a more difficult year to get into the holiday spirit. So but the the Grinch will come back next year. Uh with that Mike uh the floor is yours.

Thank you. Appreciate that. So, um, compared to Kim's not here this evening, um, but and compared to, um, her stuff, my stuff's boring, so I'm going to jump right to her stuff. We have, um, after eight years of trying to put together a project, the rail with trail that's west of city hall. We have um a, uh, state and local agreement that solidifies the grant amount. We have a budget amendment for spending authority and then we have a contract construction contract in that order on next week's council agenda. So, we're going to have a pre-construction meeting and the guys are ready to start work on on doing the piping work that they need to do on January 2nd. So, after all that time, we're we're finally we're kind of holding our breath because it's just it's been one turn after another, and it looks like we're finally getting there. So, yeah, really good. Kim's been doing a lot of work on that Highway 16 path. Um, it's getting They thought they were going to have to mobe out of there um for the winter, but because of the warm temperatures, they've been out working. So, we're hopeful that that gets finished up before really freezing temperatures set in. Um, and then the pathway pathways master plan, we we're going to see a draft on December 23rd. There'll be some back and forth and then it's our goal to come back to the commission in February uh with a presentation on what the plan contains. So, a lot of lot of action on that, a lot of good forward momentum and I'll stand for questions.

Thank you, Mike. Do we have any questions for Mike on his report from the commission? No questions, but I can't believe Kim wasn't here to make that announcement. Yeah, I know. Yeah, it's exciting. It It's really exciting. I mean, it's like it's been a long time. So, um, yeah, it's I think since I've been on a commission. Oh, yeah. Eight years or maybe more. Yeah. Okay. Like 2013 when we used to have all the committees. Remember that? Yeah. When we had workshops. Yeah. Yeah. It's We're remember back then it was like I can't believe it. I mean, we're we're excited.

Who is the ACD? Uh uh Jessica. Ken Goldthorp. Oh, Ken Goldthor. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah. So, we'll we'll get this one done and then we'll move right into phase two. Awesome. Uh well, hearing no additional questions or comments, Garrett, floor is yours.

All right. Well, thank you. Yeah, in the recreation world right now it's obviously events. The parade was a huge success. I was up at the raceway most of the time and our park staff huge help with that and obviously you guys all know Renee. Rene's the glue that keeps everything together and she was awesome. Um but right now it's it's winter land festival like Steve said Saturday and then it's planning for next year already. So we're working on that stuff. Um classes and camps. um we're doing instructor contracts and then Jenna's been doing a lot of research um through WEC one on different reporting systems and reporting that it can give us and our RECK ones are our scheduling software, reservation software um and registration software. So, um we're doing some research on whether it be non-resident resident fees and stuff like that and what that can produce through WEC 1 um as well as you know different card processing fees and stuff like that. So, doing a lot of research with that. Golf is uh working on next year's schedule already as well in regards to tournaments and things as well as we're putting together kind of our staffing plan for next year as well when we bring in seasonals when we let seasonals go those types of things. So working on that um the pool um as Torren knows pool's closed um it is now um he was a lifeguard for us this last year so recruit your your friends and anybody else that can wants to be lifeguard. We're recruiting already even though it's winter for next year's lifeguard stuff. But uh right now the pool is covered. Um we're work we've I talked to the high schools um AD today, Jason War, and kind of told them, "Hey, we're going to be sending you guys the high school swim team schedule for next year, so they can kind of start planning on when their schedules are going to be um for the high school swim teams. The other youth swim teams, the Killer Wells and those types of things, they're already sending emails out, working with um their groups that they work with to determine when their swim meets will be this next summer as well." So Willow's doing all that stuff, coordinated it all as also helping with Santa letters, parade volunteers, and um she's also working on the staff. Willow goes and

teaches all of our park staff and rec staff CPR and first aid and AED trainings um every other year to keep them up to date on all their um first aid stuff. So, um she's working on that as well. Home court is packed full of pickle ballers and basketballers right now as the weather gets cold and things like that. Um all 14 pickle ball courts are going constantly there at home court inside. Um and obviously noonball and and things like that. So Jake's just working on facility schedules and other things. Skyler is working on all the external events for next year. All the temporary use permits that come in that we don't run but use our parks. He's scheduling them as well for next year. So um just inputting everything for next year already. So with that, I'll stand for questions.

Thank you, Garrett. Do we have any questions for Garrett from the commission? hearing none. Thank you so much. I believe that is all the staff reports for tonight. Uh thank you again everybody for attending tonight. Uh welcome again Commissioner Mscolo. And uh with that I would like to call for the adjournment of tonight's meeting. Do we have a motion? Mr. Chair, Commissioner Greer. I'd like to make a motion to tonight's meeting. Merry Christmas. Yes, a motion has been made. Do we have a second? I'll second that motion. Seconded by Commissioner Helms. All in favor? I

I. Any opposed? So ordered. Merry Christmas and happy holidays. Stay warm and stay safe. Oh, next meeting on January 14th.