Parks & Recreation Commission - Regular Meeting

good not have watch all right today's January 15 701 we're at the five vot on poron following the par monthly meeting to order Patrick for me please sure missioner person present missioner Todd M here you said no commission commission I thought you said Mis yeah that's why I have before hon Mr or commissioner Mr your commissionary uh commissioner Sean Helman present and chair Sue rich and Travis Neil is excused with and vaccine is in route and may be joining us on on zoom on Zoom so just no one's excused they're either here or not here okay okay thank you and we have an in attendance Patrick assistant director [Laughter] right all right thank you for doing that any written communication mid put there is no written communication item number three hearing from citizens we have none in the room are there any on Zoom there is no okay we have no communication from citizens meeting minutes we have two sets of minutes to approve so we have the

November 2024 minutes and the December 20 24 minutes does anyone have any corrections to either of those two minutes not necessarily a correction but a question so the minutes from the November meeting um when it under the hearing from citizens it the summary is that the residents came to express their opposition but it doesn't say um the reasons why they have opposition okay is that something that is normally included should no it it should be included and the people that spoke should also be included so we will we will correct that can we approve that with pending correction you can say approved as amended okay perfect okay can we have one vote for both or we have the vote subar uh I believe you can make one vote for both okay someone want to move so moved approve can you move to approve that as okay okay I I move that we approve the U the minutes of the November 20th meeting 2024 meeting and the December 18th 2024 just as amended the November meeting as amended minutes as amended the December as they stand thank you I'll second that thank you all right all in favor say I I all oppos any abstain now pass item number five meeting dates you were sent the list of the pending meeting dates

and then there were two in question on your list right correct and we have now you want to explain the March date what the issue was yeah the March date is the Leo School District spring break so we wanted to make sure if people were traveling we would we have a quorum does anybody prefer that that date be moved to the week prior or the week after I will be done yeah I'll be done as well okay so what is the after so the week before would be the 12th the week after would be the 26 the the meeting would be on the 13th the normal one for 2025 no it'll be the 12 I'm sorry you got the wrong no I no I have the wrong so the week prior is purum is that okay Forum yeah forum sorry don't do that the 12th is the would be the normal one so that's for the 12 no the normal one is the 19th but if we move it to that's form hang on I'm looking right now Jewish Federation of St Louis it's March 13 and 14th now we okay because it would be on the 12 oh it would be the 12th that's right okay we're okay okay all right we do we so that when will that be moved moved to the 12th the 12th yeah then we could do the 12 all right and then and then there was a potential issue with October 15 but we're okay with Sim it's okay that's the very end okay actually said Okay okay so then the

motion needed is to approve the 2020 5 meeting schedule as amended I move to approve the uh 202 2025 meeting dates as amended I second thank you ask a question on there on the agenda it says in location were we going to change location or we just no it just confirms it it just left over from last year okay thank because last year we for that we're going to be here so so all in favor I I any oppos n pass thank you Beth can you send that list out with the I will I will resend it and then uh before we move on would everyone like me to send an Outlook meeting recurring meeting with all of these states in it yes okay here that way they're on the calendar all right we good can you hear me yeah we can hi Maxine hi so I've been here but I have a question the the do you have slides on the screen because all I can see where it says parks and rack on the 15th it doesn't say it's not showing the slides you're actually on oh you're not seeing the calendar right now all right let me stop it and I'll reshare it's tough because we see it all here how about now Ma okay perfect thank you thank you thanks for telling us thanks for joining oh I've been here but all right item number six annual

work plan we want to go over and I pass out and see you should have this I think in an email area the wor um with who is on which committee correct um so I took um yeah Bill spreadsheet and he uh kind of put that together and we these were the some of these were the priority ones that we went for but these were also the ones that we have people to volunteer for you'll see some that are all green those are ones and we'll kind of talk about those a little bit more for some of these uh that they're all green those are ones that we will cover in our monthly meetings and we'll address those things but the rest of them were ones that you signed up explicitly for the all green ones are on the back too as well can I ask one question before we ask there's a couple that have all read you know one is assigned to are those going to drop off of here some of those um like for instance the annual report on glom partnership those things are going to be done by our staff like Brian would be you know that there would be things that we would cover on here too but they were on the priority was for so can you indicate that on the chart yeah I can that would be great sure so we'll change the color and that that's a staff report so and is that the same for wayf finding and for business collaboration no no right so do we need to assign someone or it's going to fall off well it it's up to you if people want this remember this was self select in so if there is an interest to be on it then yes it could fall by the wayside um or you could ask for a report from staff so last meeting we picked the top ones that we were going to do and there are maybe three or four at the bottom that we're not going to be worked on at

all so we can probably take those off this list right we could yeah I just want because there were people who signed up for for on weren't on that kind of chart we went through and then we picked out which ones we're going to do right so stuff that we said we're that was lower on the priority list we can probably just take off us yeah so we have basically everything I think was 11 and above was what we had picked and the rest of those were some of the ones that we don't have to yeah but I wanted to put them all in here for complete Clarity okay so my understanding from the response is that no one has met on any of these topics no no and I think that's understandable because yeah yeah Green Team so we would like if possible for each of these groups to meet sometime before the next meeting at least just to kick it off among your work group um and ideally if you accomplish something that you report back on it at the next meeting so can we ask that you let Beverly with a status so she can update the agenda before the next meeting so that sound good yeah a question on the ones where we're all it seems that those are come under our our Duties are we are we do we need to meet to plan how those are going to Happ would I would say want to do those in this meeting I would say community outreach uh does not need to meet and Eagle Scout projects does not need to meet what about monthly Park visits monthly Park visits something needs to happen there that that's a schedule to be developed with Park chairperson so I don't know how I I do not want to direct you to tell you when to go to a park visit I really want that to be an internal process that you guys figure

out what you're doing so are you are we okay with asking people to go make the visit and then at the meeting I can get a status from people you can but I think you want to know who's going where so that you don't have multiple people going to the same park like everybody can't go to Stacy so what's the objective of those oh yeah my thought is that we just see what's going on in the Parks and and help staff be another set of eyes on it and perhaps create some kind of a checklist that people can use now Beverly what is that your concept that was my concept is that kind of check out the parks but also say how they're being used like what you observed and then I thought that you had also discussed having if people felt comfortable some sort of intercept survey like oh I see you're using the new Splash Pad how do you like it or that kind of thing but but that's everybody has a different Comfort level so I also think this time of year this time year might as well wait until at least what March yeah although if you go out in the Parks right now you'll see all the footsteps of everybody in the snow and you'll see have lot of Park visitors going on you'll see cross country seing tracks there's a lot of good stuff happening on that trail yeah there are a couple of tracks yeah so I think we should we should somehow write down what we expect or or a template or something so when everybody goes to the park we're getting the same kind of feedback like I think that's a great idea and my suggestion would be is there someone who cares passionately about this that would like to develop a tool for the commission and Jim I can work with you easily yeah develop a very simple Google form that people can just you go to the park then you come back and you blunk in you just answer the questions on the

form and then it'll summarize all the data for us perfect I just checked off that Kate and Jim are going to work on that and then we will take the green off everybody because then you guys are now working green and and we'll look at what other parts are and can I ask for one other thing so to so to your first question bever how are we going to know who's going where can we just develop a really simple form where you can say I went to herbs ey in the date that we can open and see if someone's been to that park in that month then I think that's a great idea then you can and if you go as well I mean if everyone went to the same park that's fine but also try to get to the other part yeah go does any of us live near like Indian Meadows right so no but we still need somebody still needs I know so I guess that's my point we should if I go look at that form because I don't live near aart right if I look at that form and I see everyone's gone to Stacy this month I'm gonna go to Indian Meadows I'm gonna go toide or whatever right see point I was thinking we shouldn't leave it ad hop like somebody because now it's in Reverse oh nobody's been there well I better go well but I want I don't the intent isn't for you to go to the same park every month the intent is to move around to the different Parks right I mean I think different perceptions from different people yeah cuz I think kids you're going to focus on the playground likely you know you're you might go to the part near you the first time but maybe the next month you go to a different part yeah so that you get a different perspective yeah feels good enough you just go to a different Park every time yeah is it so would it be more

helpful for each of us to just like if we created a calendar and everybody was just kind of randomly assigned to a park so that we had even distribution like this month jym you're going to Villa next month you're going to IDE like there's a schedule or because I'm not sure what the best tool would be for us to communicate we just like show up put the date and that you went to a park I just recorded yeah but it's like I I walk by Stacy Park every single day so I have to make an effort to come up here to Warson or to we all would have to do make an effort to do that yeah to some of the parks because I don't think anyone lives close to here for example right so someone would have to drive here no matter what so My worry is that that those two parks are going to get left out and I don't think they will I I like your idea of basically just random assigning by month and say that here's here's the reports and are those reports going to be talked about in this meeting or do we send it do we send them to staff or how do we hand well I think sending them us to would be really helpful and then we can compile a high level touch just under the reports so that like say you see something that's an immediate thing we need to address like when Mike sent us the Tall Grass we took care of it right away so I don't want to wait till the meeting to report that but we can just say you know commissioner solenov figured you know reported Tall Grass te took staff took care of it or someone could say oh we spoke with people in Warson Park and they're really interested in the master plan so that's really just to say hey longterm you know people are interested so just really quick little sound bites that we'll put in the report but if we get them right

away then we can address anything that's crucial take care of right away why don't Kate and I work on on some and then we'll probably put a deadline so that your your the review of the park would be a week before meeting before the meeting dat that gives you three weeks yeah two three weeks so so we can do that we may not get it done for for the February meeting but we won give it a whirl SS perfect I think that's the great way to do it is you guys bring develop something bring it back and everybody can also with seven people like we only have five Parks you have somebody gets vet friends also we got the pathway so it is yes I'd like to see everyone get to one part the mon at Le yeah just to do some well we do we now have seven because if we add veterans Plaza and we add the the pathway through the neighborhoods then bam that's seven so and do you feel like we also need to be responsible for the greenway well the greenway is in two parks so we're okay okay because it's in Warson and Indi meow whoever goes there is going to see got it okay yeah you're on and I walk along that bike trail you know yeah that's the five days the pathway and I tell report all the time what's going on fing Jamie fingerman is my other person that reports to me regularly and I love it she tells me the minute a tree goes down it's great yeah yeah and I love being able to get it done like within 24 hours she oh my God they already took care of it and so like it's a it's a you know it's a three4 of a mile so if you walk back and forth It's a half mile so I would say just leave that one to me and but but we want you we want you to we want you to you see it every day so

someone else who someone else who walks it who's never seen it they're gonna have different feedback okay I'm not I'm not saying I'm not doing another part I'm just saying okay that so there's one other part on here just separate from that conversation I'm listed as Stacy Park parking soccer congestion and I I don't I did not intend it's it's Travis and I okay may have just got a little fing you just G me more all right anybody else have any updates yeah is there anything that people want to add or subtract from I guess question for staff I mean we second on the list from I'm assuming this is in the ranking we had it is is grant writing assistance and searching and nobody volunteered do we need to have a discussion I mean I'm assuming we need funds well um if it's if it's not something someone is passionate about I don't want to assign that to them because that means we can still look for volunteers to it in fact Brian's doing a grant right now or hold apprach list and he has a a volunteer that's helping him so I think that you know that's fantastic and that's a better way to do it so when you have a grant that might be of interest to someone you you'll bring that up and ass sign or if you in the course of you know as you talk to people now that you're a commissioner someone you know someone that loves to do research about grants some people love it so you can just say hey would you be interested so maybe you guys can recruit someone because people can work on these groups that's not a commissioner thank you all right we good with that all right item number seven city council report Maxine

jurs good evening um I I don't I don't know where the camera is on this I'm not used this is a different mechanism I I apologize Maxine there was a committee update that uh Pat forgot to give he's GNA do it right this minute my apologies don't go Gotta gotta yeah yep sorry Maxine okay but can you tell me how to turn the camera on on it's your computer oh and something's wrong with my computer tonight sorry so if you go down to the bottom and do video well you guys keep keep talking I'll I'll keep looking go on Pat Max at the bottom there should be a video link yeah and if it's not at the bottom look up at the top might be over the lower left just max do you have a laptop yeah okay I zoom all the time but this is different than zo okay oh this is not in Zoom what are we in no it is it is zoom it sure is really this is a different go in Maxine did you go in through the browser or the app I went off the link on the agenda okay it do we have to have video I don't know if you have to have video for me when I oh yeah did you turn on video Maxine can you see the um I can see all of you and I can see the the the screen Max I think it's okay we can probably keep going without video for you okay great so do you want me to get my report now or you want Pat to go first Pat needs to go first but he's trying to figure out why we can't see his screen so I think there is something oh I can see his what do you see right now um the accomplishments and

Innovations with the Olivette Parks and Recreation Green City challenge yes yeah you can see it but we can't there there it is can you still see it Maxi yep geez let's go all right sorry about that guys um I wanted to put it on the to show this as put it in the slideshow just because you can see it a lot better uh but the Green Team and that um a couple of our commission members on Beverly's on and several of our full-time staff are on as well uh they wanted to highlight some of the accomplishments that they had um done here in alabed and um it's again includ staff Commissioners citizens um they developed a sustainability polic we can let them you want me to give I I have did you see my minutes I did and Kate added so they had a meeting yesterday they met so we were kind of getting our our bearings in terms of what what's going on here but we' checked in and we've talked about things one of the things that we talked about with the uh election sign recycling thing we got a lot of signs and I think we're still trying to get stats from a public on that to kind of figure out what's going on and they're this the staff here is doing an amazing job working on um uh environmentally F friendly I uh practices one terms of trying to figure out how to remove snow without salting the Earth and also um trying to get away from disposables within the within the umin Five Oaks Jim could we maybe um I'm just recognizing that Mike is probably unaware of what the green team is and

what the green business challenge is um as new Commissioners no so because the other the other new Commissioners are on the Green Team oh okay so well thank you yeah I'm just gonna try to catch up okay I I was getting to green the green U challenge so go ahead yeah so just kind of a high level overview the green business challenge is a program run through the Missouri Botanical Gardens and it works with both businesses and cities throughout St Louis um and the the goal is basically to um educate promote and um build sustainability in the region by targeting the work of businesses and of cities so allette Parks and Recreation entered um it's so it's not the city of olette it's just olette Parks and Recreation as a department um entered the challenge um so we're kind of somewhere in between the Green business and the green cities because it's not really at the full level of the city but we're not we are kind of a business but kind of not um anyway anyway so as part of the challenge you submit your list of accomplishments through the year um and some of the Innovative things that you have done and they put together these one pagers into a book that is um I guess disseminated to the community and is used to share information about what other businesses and cities are doing as it relates to sustainability okay so as a part of that in order order to enter the green City's challenge we needed to set up a green team for the city and that includes uh council member not council members commission members uh staff and

uh citizens yeah and the Green Team met yesterday which is what Jim was talking about earlier take it away thank you and and we have we have representatives of all all of those groups and we just discussed what we're doing I mean the the important piece is is this in terms of what we did last year and there's a nice little graphic out in I don't know where it is out in the lobby that that uh commends us for doing the work that this year I think the the more important part of it is we were talking about what we were going to do in 2025 and how we can work closely with the commission to uh in terms of some of them we will overlap I mean there's one thing about recycling at at events which is one of the things that we talked about uh staff will be doing a number of things with with energy audit of this building working on different pieces of of uh sustainability for Five Oaks as well as the parks uh the other piece is is this the second page this is the the first page so this is what's showing on the screen is all ofet page the back side of that page P the backside which is not shown here is general information about the challenge itself not all of that spef okay because now Jim is talking about what we're going to do well I'm talking about what we discussed yesterday right okay and so and um I got the minutes done today so anyway uh we were ALS talked about how we can interface with International dark sky and Stephanie has been doing a great job of of working on that and one of the things we were talking about

talking about doing Warson Park but the work is about the same for both to do one park so we're going to probably go for all the parks dark sky of the dark sky ceric uh Urban certification and that was at um Stephanie's recommendation so we'll see how how that goes in um working on that um the other thing that we're that we're looking at for the year looking at trash problems in the Parks and that's a whole that's a staff that's volunteers that's taking care of things that we'll need to coordinate and as we get those trash pickups there there will be some work on the new Green way there will be some work with streams and I don't know whether it's just River to pair or whether it's also some of the tributaries that that are going through like the lellan piece or what where is Bruce talking about doing the the U cleaning right now he's only talking about River to pair River to pair yeah so we would start uh organizing a Citizens thing and we would look to Commissioners to one help out and two uh to help recruit other people for that um that be outside of el oh no it's right here oh right yeah this is the headwaters to the river toar right here River depair starts here and then goes down uh behind Warson Park and I don't know where's it going indows goes into City and then goes into you City we would probably stop at 170 I would think we don't go that far we don't go that we stop at deal a d okay so there there's some different kinds of things where we need to clean up

Beverly's also requested that we create um a day in some of the parks to clean up we've have some areas down down Warson north of the driveway down here that have some some challenges what what do you mean by clean up pick up trash oh yeah okay Pi up TR so continuing The Greenway cleanup but then expanding it to the parks as well okay yeah and that's in addition to what the weed Warriors are doing this point and uh one thing we just put in a plug for next Wednesday There's A Home Efficiency um uh Workshop here that uh Kate is uh coordinating and getting homeowners from within all of that to talk about what they've done with solar geothermal other kinds of things that do and to get a discussion going so that's what the what we're talking about doing we'll be back we have all of your numbers and uh we'll keep you up up to date as far as how we're what we're doing but I think just looking forward to 2025 this year the focus um as a result of our green team meeting yesterday is primarily on waste reduction waste reduction yeah so reduction the trash that's in the Parks and trying to improve our uh trash and recycling systems um in the Parks as well well and I would say reduction and management yes yes are we GNA try to expand that to the to the like the city center it's up to the council if they do that yeah I I can't force that I can only talk about parks and wck we're

starting with the parks and hopefully the Green Team Will expand the hope is it'll be expanded to the city well that's what I was going to ask should we as one as the Green Team go ask the city to do that and include also the police department the fire department I I would say now no that we we get a year under our belts and begin to lead by example we're going to we're gonna I'm writing an article to recap this for the next city newsletter so we'll get some more citizen interest and then we have the workshops we're doing with with Osa and with all that In Bloom and I think that will help generate some interest and so I think that um I think that's good advice from Jim as we as we build a momentum yeah because I don't want to do an asking them to say no we just build the momentum and then we get the grounds that Grassroots ground yeah and how many times a year would this happen that clean up that's still yet to be I mean I I would think initially it would be spring but it may it may go beyond that I don't know with the greenway what are our requirements for Greenway cleanup well the greenway cleanups are kind of a different animal the stream team verce typically does one a year he has one he's actually just got a tenative date on um I'll report it under another item um and then uh the park cleanups happen regularly we have a lot of groups that volunteer so the park cleanups are kind of on an as needed basis so for example Warson Park uh the fence line Sorry the Stacy Park fence line we typically clean that twice a year and that would be great to have the the Green Team and maybe a larger group help us with that yeah so I think it really you know weed Warriors meets once a month during the

winter months and the trash pickup could be could be after weed Wars because I would imagine there'll be some cross pollination between the two groups and I don't want to over you know over ask but I do think one of the things we've talked about is trash pickup is a much easier Gateway for people to work in the Parks than weed Warriors some people are intimidated by weed Warriors whereas say hey we're going to pick up trash in the park a lot more people might be think oh well that's that's easy I can do that yeah and then and when we're doing it people people will say oh what are you oh what oh I could yeah yes you generate interest when they see you do that correct correct and we'll do it on a Saturday morning and we'll hand people bags and as they're there for various sporting events Etc yeah I think I think um people get really interested in it so just a suggestion it might be good when we're picking up trash just to put up a sign that says all of that volunte AB or something absolutely and include like a website or or or somewhere where they can volunteer for next time or they can see the pickup schedule great idea great idea so so can I ask one sort of technical can we put a separate item in here for the Green Team report or List It On well the green team is is one of your goals so that's why it's under this item if they're reporting on their their working group so it's a green team is on this so they're reporting as part of the right so you're asking for a monthly report from the Green Team no I'm asking that we just in the agenda list that they did a report well I'm I'm writing the notes under the annual work plan it'll be the the Green Team report this green R connections to par scos there other one uh it's represent the commission on the oprd Green Team

about yeah two third of the way down numbers next time numbers I just want to see cross I okay okay and then one other thing um that we that we talked about is we're going to be doing some research on how to recycle the fence that is coming down at Stacy to see whether it's possible or not to to uh recycle that staff has asked us to look into that because apparently it's been painted and we're unclear that a World War II fence what it has been painted with and whether it's safe to to do anything on that yeah staff's going to check for Vlad but we'll see what else was yeah that's all all right any other reports before we go to the city council report okay Maxie you're up can you hear me I'm not sure what going on with my camera tonight I apologize for that um so um last night we had a pretty uh thorough meeting and I shared the report from our December meeting and the what all the different new priorities that we're all working on um and the the information that we gathered last night which is good information is um Aldi hopes to be opening in February when they say early 2025 now we've got a month in mind um lot three of the olive Crossing is hoping to break ground um debating on this ice and snow or at least start you know um the basics of uh setting some of the parameters um at the end of January early February as well um Brass Tap will

be going in there and Paar of spaghet and there is room for another two a few small shop uh restaurants or shops and those are still being negotiated um it also is a time for the alette business Awards um last year was the first time that we participated with this with the creef core Olivette Chamber of Commerce and um we had a restaurant and a business and once again we're asking people to make nominations for each a restaurant and a business within the city of alette and they will be honored at the May Chamber of Commerce luncheon and I believe you can vote through the end of the month and there are links on that and then it's also in that weekly update that comes out and then last night Darren man did a very thorough financial statement presentation for year end of 2024 and you can see it either um by watching the video but also the actual report which is very comprehensive and he always makes um graphs that are very um userfriendly um it's about an 80 page report and that is on the website already so um it was a good meeting and uh it was cold out so we didn't have very many people present but we had a few on uh on um online on Zoom so are there any I don't know if there's any questions for me but I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year thanks all right thanks Max thank you five o onson monthly update all right um as we covered in our last meeting we have quite a bit of uh membership incentive that we've been trying to do to get people to not only to renew um it be an opening year but also to get people in here for Resolutions to get in uh before the price increases went up um in January so we we've done a lot of Outreach to

people to try to get people we've also got um you know a lot of we had a mailer that went out as well um our new brochure new program so we're doing a lot of things to try to generate some more interest and get some more memberships uh and we have had there there the numbers are kind of at that point right now where they're skewing a little bit because of what what's happening is that people are dropping from their monthly memberships and going to annual and those are starting to as those are coming out we are losing memberships on one end but we were getting a lot more in our annual memberships so those are reflected up until those membership stopped and then they went up so basically you'll see them going up a lot this month and then they'll kind of level out a little bit next month with people's membership start switching off from their monthly going to the rain so but we have sold about 70 overall new ones that I think we'll see in the last month I think the rest of them will kind of be a wash because we'll lose them here and gain them here so uh still good a lot more residents have started using the facility and getting memberships um we recently just a couple days ago actually um had a alet business come in and um get a corporate membership too which is great so we have five new members from that um and we're also still kind of we talked um recently about doing some Outreach to the businesses um around here and offering you know make sure that they know what the offering is cu during the day is typically our time when we could use some bodies in here and that's when people at the office people are you know at the warehouses so um that of taking a lunch break and come over here so we're we're finding that we're making a little bit of Headway with that and every time we sell one they kind of tell somebody

else and we kind of keep progressing that uh corporate membership here um a little by little so that's exciting um I think we're headed in the right direction with that uh the price increase as thank you guys for your suggestion because nobody's really bad an ey I don't think anybody's been like oh I quit if anything people have g i well I'll go to annual and save some money that was the idea so thank you guys for your suggestion we were we were uh obviously optimistic that that would be the case but you never really know until you do it um but the you know the reception we got from everybody has been positive one or understanding one at the very least so just an idea real quick there's an a newsletter that'll be coming out in March right and that gets mailed to every olette household would it be possible to do like a little day pass coupon on there yeah we' we've done that we can do that yeah we can absolutely do that could be cut out and brought in or something like that just to try and in yeah exactly get them in the door once they see the facility I think our deadline is not coming hasn't come up yet either so we can definitely yeah we can get it in yeah because that's that gets mailed the beginning of March our deadlines the beginning of February yep as long as we get the space yeah space sometimes that's what yeah sometimes our things get yeah do do businesses in alabad get the mailer too or do they get their own version of something I believe that only goes to the residents right uh it depends I don't know how they're doing it when we mail Arts it goes to businesses and Residences I believe the city newsletter does but we're not in charge of it so I can't say categorically I wonder if you sent a mail a one time mailer with a free day pass sent for membership going to do a special one to to members because I mean to uh businesses within all of it our last mailer yeah our last mailer we mailed to people that were in all of

that which was exciting because we've got we did that free visit postcard and we got quite a few people coming in with that still see yeah and people are still coming in with them which is nice yeah what do you do for all those uh Apartments they get them they all get they each get their own they do okay they do all right um I I always like to keep this on there because it does start to skew a little bit uh We've noticed that more residents are using the building uh percentage wise which is pretty incredible obviously Ren active is still a healthy uh portion of our pie chart here but our residents are using the building and I think that says a lot any update on Silver Sneakers that's still we their last offer to us was not acceptable yeah um rentals are still going strong um we had quite a few over the holidays and then you know over the break and um up to 388 multi-purpose rentals we are also booking as far out you know as we can um Payton has inundated just about every day with with rentals or people just wanting to tour the facility uh to check it out obviously we're kind of getting to that point where people are starting to look towards next year so booking things in there um I think what I'll start doing is kind of forecast out like cuz we booked those and they you know where they put a deposit down that we could also show you know we have 388 that it booked and happened and we have another 300 on the books for the rest of this fisal year right um 73 playground playground rentals um in a sasf playground and those are either add-ons to birthday parties individual who just rented that space uh which is great because we still have open time and these are times when you know we can choose to rent that and make some revenue for the off the playground there uh the 30 uh private kitchen rentals

that's still something we're kind of in the works on to make increase that a little bit just uh finding finding the right ways um to utilize a kitchen and obviously don't want um to just let it be a free-for all in there so we've been very careful with that the private gym rentals have picked up a little bit we also um are working on an agreement with um STL slam which is a women's profession semi-professional football team and they are looking to use uh part of our gym and the actual Fitness area uh one night a week in the evening to do some training some offseason training and I didn't never heard of STL slam before uh but they actually won the national championship last year which is pretty I had no clue about them so they're obviously um it's a that's a big deal and they were very excited to get in here and they I think will start coming next week so and they'll be for nine for nine weeks and quite a bit of rental Revenue just from them coming it'll be $300 a day just for them coming with u you know part of their team to utilize the facility so uh the Dogwood studio rentals just a few more since last time we've also kind of had to trying to find out uh for those of you that have seen we have um we talked about in our um in our department report that we have basketball starting this weekend and we' decided to utilize Five Oaks on the weekend so Saturday and Sundays you know this place is pretty packed during basketball for a few hours and we are using the uh Dogwood Studio at some points to house our pick ball met so they aren't in the way for uh kids on the basketball court so we're trying to uh move things around so that we can done and they can play pickle them because they're a they're a hazard for the kids playing basketball we also don't want the kids on them right yeah

they they that worked okay in the yeah they they have wheels we open the double doors yeah yeah we we were trying to figure out a way to do it we didn't want to put them outside obviously we had snow out there too so we're trying to you know find ways to yeah when the weather's nice we can probably slide them out the back side of the building but yeah we don't want them in the snow have you gotten any feedback from um Regular membership folks during those basketball hours if people are upset or feel put out if they can't use the courts have you got any feedback about I talked to some of the uh the teenagers uh for for those of you I know Sue when you came in there were probably about 15 you see all the teenagers hanging out waiting to go in when youth yes they were tonight y yeah they're there every day waiting so yeah they are there up until basketball starts and then some of them will hang around and then they'll come back as soon as it's over so I I think the big thing that helped us not have a lot of complaints as we put our schedule out we notified our members and you know we it's on our gym schedule out here it's online Okay that was my followup question yeah and when they come in too we tell them like if they'll come like like because a lot of the basketball players by day passes so when they come in the staff will tell them hey don't forget you basketball's going to be on and then sometimes they'll leave and they'll come back sometimes they call and say what times basketball over well and I think it's helpful that we have Wi-Fi so they that whole gang was on Wi-Fi yeah that's probably another reason why we went there so that doesn't hurt right so they have something to do in between yeah and they're used to waiting too because they come and they come on the weekends and as soon as pickle Ball's over they're on that yeah yeah and we have a pretty under like even pickle ball if they didn't have a huge crowd they'll only put out one yeah we'll we'll open up a court and they can do half and yeah it's way better than other gyms I've been at usually they're like very territorial it

seems like everyone's kind of going the flow lucky because our volunteers Andy and Debbie with that help manage the pickle ball they run a tight ship and they sentense yeah they really make sure that the players know that we are flexible and we let them we you know it benefits everybody so that's been good yeah yeah I think we're having one gym I think everybody kind of knows that we have that it's a good culture it's a good culture That You Don't See in other places yeah right um moving on I'll let you move Advance us to the to the next part uh well there was an items of interest is that did you we just didn't I didn't have any items of interest for five folks but okay all right so now we're going to item nine parks and W Department monthly report yep um so we had our winter break Camp which was put into two sessions um we had about about 20 actually anything think of the exact number uh right around 20 kids that uh we had those spit sessions so we had a smaller group of first and then a little more um after the holiday um that was a great Camp kids loved it they got to utilize the whole facility it's also kind of another uh run for us to prepare for H being here in the summer um and kind of getting used to how we can utilize old facility and and keep the kids entertaining to keep them busy and even more so when you can't go outside which they weren't able to uh because it was pulled out um we also started our basketball practices here which was a lot of hand ringing and worrying about it and then it was also incredible to see a lot of people that have never been in the building before a lot of kids get to utilize a facility um and practices here just seem to work really well um they don't have to deal with the

headaches that sometimes occur at the Leo schools which sometimes may just be hoops at the wrong height or you know the doors not being unlocked things like that so we were able to get him in here and it uh has worked out really well kind of a lot better than we all thought the coaches do a great job of keeping those kid kind of um busy on the courts and the parents uh try to keep them busy in the lobby too so but uh we were worried at first about them kind of taking over the facility and for the most part they they behave pretty well they're not running to the playground and running all of the facilities so um our staff has done a pretty good job of keeping those things um under wraps too um we also again um I I love when these pictures get taken of people kind of utilizing our lobby and kind of our the things that you can do um when you're waiting for basketball you can play chess uh we've had a lot of young adults and young kids playing chess and teenagers teaching little kids how to play chess so it's a very uh neat thing to see out there uh for those of you that are have a Keen Eye you notice that our Keystone uh art gallery has now switched over uh that will be opening on Friday we postponed it a week because of the because of the weather and um another great opportunity to go out there and look at some of the uh U the cool art that's on the wall so anything I'm missing we have a lot of new programs there's a lot of new programs there are Flyers um at the end of the update on a lot of the things happening got a lot of art classes coming even during dry January we already have I think think six or eight signups for Paint and Sip which is shocking um so that's pretty exciting and then um we've got the Home Efficiency Workshop don't miss that that is fan flip and tasking puzzle pla is s it is about to sell out which is

exciting we have a new evening class from 7 to 8 that's a senior dance and stretch it's retrofit so it's sort of like an old um almost like a Jane Fonda workout so we're very excited about that and then we have a new trainer that's starting which is exciting as well new personal trainer and then do you want me to do Parks is that in addition to the one we have or is that well we have we had three trainers we lost one and now we've gained another one so we're back to three okay yeah yeah and she's great trainers hired as like they're contractors contractors yeah they're contractors yeah and then they have to meet certain criteria we advertise interview yeah so the park report oh yep there go lot of snow big snow report no kidding yeah the uh The Wonder of having these two machines that we bought in the last couple years um replacing the tool cat which you can see in the top uh left that is obviously a great machine uh for us with snow removal with the plow also have the ability to keep our our staff in a warm place while they're plowing snow um they also have you know the ability to get in tight spaces with that same thing with the the ranger that also has a salt spreader and the ability to clear uh things like the greenway sidewalks um also while keeping our staff in a comfortable place uh they have done an insane amount of work uh obviously they also have a large truck with a large spreader uh they've done unold amount of hours in cleaning and recleaning uh loot from snow uh salting areas that kind of Breeze over and they help public works a lot and really did a good job I know a lot of people notice what went on with olive and I know a lot of our staff was saying that they uh they felt so bad just daging down Olive with a plow and salt and people are just

like what what do you do if put a plow down but um obviously with that being a state highway they you know they w't want to do anything but we there was a lot of a lot of people that were upset about that but it was really tough to get around for all for all of us so for the first time ever we cleared Pathways in the Parks so warsa and Stacy we used the new Polaris and went through and we we've had a lot of things from uh residents for doing that it worked well it will be better next time if we don't have that layer of ice so that is that has been a huge problem for us they have been unable to clear many of the sidewalks so they did they worked diligently to get part of old bonum sidewalks in front of Stacy down because the school relies on that they could not do the east side at all um they were able to do the west side a little bit but it's still a problem and and they've worked a lot at the city center trying to get that sidewalk cleared those are those are two of our most heavily used sidewalks so they still have not cleared morson even part of here it's there and and uh r view there is that until that ice melt so we're hopeful that this Friday that we'll see a little bit more of that so he used beat something last year Well we used the beets here on the pathways coming up to the front door so the so the Beet beet juice we do a beet juice pre-treatment and then we do beet salt granules after we get it what happens is it lowers the freezing temperature lower than rock salt but the reason we're doing it is to protect our native plants right Gardens out here but we it's very expensive we only do it from the parking lot to the front door here yeah but for the sidewalks the sidewalks is standard Sal which doesn't work at low temperatures which it doesn't well the problem is when the ice is already

adhered to the sidewalk and then the snow comes on top of it it our equipment just won't clear it yeah yeah we would risk damage to pretty much everything exactly and why did you clear yeah and our plows that we have on our park truck and on the the Public Works ones have a um sacrificial blade on it that's plastic to protect our asphalt so the big State Highway ones they've got the metal blades they also have much larger trucks our trucks are not equipped to do Olive so um yeah when modok came came by to do a pass they said they they doubled over on those yeah a lot a lot of the plows doubled over because they hit that ice yeah so even with the even the areas where we put down salt we had ice accumulation just because of the way it came down the temperature and it was like the worst possible combination we could get exactly yeah so I know there's a lot of cooperation between Public Works and parks where where is the level of what's the line of responsibility that so so Public Works are First Responders for the city owned streets right and part is the first responder for city-owned parking lots and sidewalks there's a lot of overlap because we have a small crew and when they reach their Maxim so like for example in this storm Saturday night the parks crew sorry the Public Works crew came in Saturday evening did pre- salt but didn't work and then they went to sleep at the Public Works building and they did not go home until Monday our crews came in uh Monday morning because they had enough but if they had run short like if anybody got sick or couldn't come in our crews come in and they drive those big plows so we have

two of our Park uh staff have the class c commercial licenses so then they will also spend the night or if the Public Works crew is here too many hours our guys will come in and augment so it's one of the reasons our guys didn't come in on Sunday is they held them in reserve in case they needed them then they came in um 6:00 a.m. Monday morning to start clearing here we thought we were going to open but we didn't open but they still had to come in because it took them two days to get it ready for us to open Wednesday morning is that Parks or public works or both both so then everybody was working and then we did we did lose some people the city lost a hydraulic on one of the plows so it went out of commission uh we had one guy get strep throat another guy's dad passed away and he had to get to Arkansas so we were short staff but they all worked together and they got it got yeah and then Marshall came in here at about 4:30 5: a.m. the day we opened just to make sure they' cleared it the day before but then we had more snow so he came in more ice and he had to come in just so that we were safe to open yeah and then we didn't close Friday we stayed open throughout the whole time yeah because we had already open before the snow started so yeah yeah I mean people were and people came in yep people came in on Friday we got about two calls every minute if you don't have ice you can do that yeah it's it's the ice and you know we were we were clear it was good um we've had ice every day just because of the cold temperatures it melts and then we get ice yeah yeah okay so um other exciting news we have a new bench at Stacy two two new memorial benches there's one um by the sculpture and then the latest one went in right by the pond it's above the pond looking out at it so that's a really nice bench we will have another new bench coming into to Stacy probably by the end of March sadly some

very young passed away suddenly without warning a young mom so uh neighborhoods are are going to put in a bench for her at Stacy and this one's going to go the latest one's going to go in on the corner over by Bon States and old bottom because Stacy is starting to get a lot of benches say are we are we trying to go to some of the other parts we are we always suggest it we encourage it but people have you know they love Stacy Park U but we have two memorial benches at Villa which is great one of those they the First Choice was Stacy and we really asked could they do another Park and they chose vill thankfully um so we'd love to get some in Indian Meadows we'd love to get some in heride but it's right you know it it's tough It's a tough sell so we work really hard to try and break up where they're going and are we doing anything on the pathway if we get requests we have two on the pathway right now um and then the greenway a little different animal because it we'll have to see how that works out and do we manage that or just we manage green we manage the greenway we own it now it's ours yeah another reason we got the Polaris so that we can start working on we can take it out on the greenway and not damage it anything else on the part uh we got a we're going to do a prairie burn if we the snow melts I yeah there's Jim mising misleading picture pyromaniac yes so uh we um will uh be doing a burn we've hoped in January now looks like it'll be in February sometime but we'll be doing Jim are you a burn master or it's still no I I work under the I work under the our burn boss is Gerald Axel bom yeah yeah right yeah um anything else Oh Stacy restroom the restrooms are closed we're going to keep them closed uh the temperatures are too cold we had last year someone left a door open during the

day they came to use the and we lost a toilet bow so we during this cold spell we keeping them closed and the heers need to be replaced now they have failed so they're they've restarted them they're working but they've been deemed dangerous they're trying to find money to replace those it'll be an emergency replacement um and hopefully we just if we can get through March then we turn them off and we'll be okay and we can go through the regular cycle yeah so anyway we push that out through social media and right now I don't see and I don't anticipate opening them for another week are we putting in temporary ones no no they're just closed they're closed yeah because the Porta poty freeze also okay yeah they're very miserable to these the Porta poty they put antifreeze in them but it's still yeah but you know people walk still walk in the Parks but they walk a lot less when it's yeah thank you all right item number 10 future agenda items uh everyone can see those we're g to add um I'll be adding one um since we discovered that it this 2025 is the 60th anniversary of the Parks Commission we will be um doing something probably in July's Parks and Recreation month and a little bit out of there so I'm going to add that as a future agenda item because we'd like the commission to be in the loop on that and to be and we'd love to run as the staff toel ideas bring that through so July is Parks and Recreation month every year nationally so we and it's a new budget year that starts July 1 so we do not have money in the budget this year for the 60th anniversary so what we'll do instead is Party in the Park will'll have a 60th anniversary theme to it and then we'd like to do a big event in the

next fiscal year and one of the things that staff is looking at is bringing in one of those um uh Ice uh roller skating rinks that we could set up in the gym and charge a fee to cover the cost of it and have um Roller Skating here is kind of an homage to Saints yeah so uh well we're getting pricing on they are a lot more money than we thought but if we charge for it we could probably break even we just want to cover the cost of it so it's very excited they like lay down a different floor they do they put on the floor they bring all the skates yeah yeah h yeah so they they ship in the whole thing yeah they bring in the whole thing um we think we can get it in through the double doors so um micds does it every year for the kids and some other places around here which is how we heard about it so yeah we'll see and they can do it indoors and out yeah yeah that's cool that would be fun it would be fun it would be really fun so we we the staff is brainstorming some things to do for the 60th we have a a yeah logo I was going to show that you show that yeah you want me to show it now sure we have two two those we're kind of working on uh would love to get your feedback on them for for the 60th so it's kind of a u so we have this one which is our o I got that's kind Co yeah and then kind of looks like roller skes too it does it does and then this is the other one that has so so that's the park staff or split in the opinions so it's nice because it is our our master plan logo that we use as our department logo now but it's a little busy it looks like a it better yeah so I think the first one's a little clear yeah so um I just these myself so I'd love to get anybody's opinion on them I definitely like the first one

better yeah so I the one on the left okay it's kind of mundane it feels mundane I know it does yeah question would put the put the years on yeah oh great idea 2025 in middle of the 60 put in whatever yeah so I can have it yeah I can have it go on there yeah I'll play around with that or maybe put the that the blob out to the side somewhere or have it be in the foreground background in the background I like that yeah yeah I'll see that look and I'll I'll send them around to you because I've also designed um the next meeting well I don't even know who does it I think I can just do it the the parks Foundation we need a logo for the parks foundation so I've been playing around with that too um yeah so that the board for the parks Foundation is the council so I think I may just tell the council here's your logo um because it I what I would like to do though that we talk about later is I'd like us to do an annual appeal for that and then we have that substantial donation you could do something and then say this was was paid for by the parks foundation so people know we're using the money and then start sending out an annual appeal it can't hurt right can't hurt so are you familiar with the parks Foundation yeah we talked about yeah because it's brand new yeah yeah okay um item number 11 upcoming dates are important so you have these on here um one one thing that's not on here is our Lunar New Year celebration and that is um February help me is that February is that March no it's in February it's February 9th I believe or 8th February 8th we'll I'll send an email I'll email

you and then we also have a um so there'll be that will be a performance from the Chinese language school and then some food and some other it's be lowkey we're we're hoping to get a 100 people if we get more than that' be fantastic but it'll be here and then um because it's our first year we want to start slow and get bigger and we have uh uh we also have uh Ed Shu who's written a book called um Chinese fathers American brothers and he's going to do a an author talk a book yeah a book signing and author talk um it's the story of so he is from Missouri but his family immigrated from China to Gold Mountain to come across for the railroads and that that time and so he wrote a story a wonderful story it also includes some food recipes and things like that so um it's really nice that he's going to come and give that presentation yeah so I'll I'll send you all that information about that that's in February yes I would I have something back to these so I would like to see it so like half of these there's really nothing to do right now like there's a lot of annual reports and like the approv but the ones that we should be working on what are we supposed to do I mean how do we start what you know is some are we supposed to take the lead like like like yes so that that staff report that you have that has the the key the the the um the tasks that need to be accomplished there's like there was the the layout that here's here's some key what's the word not Benchmark what am I saying objectives the objectives that need to be done so the research the draf

okay so like like let's say um let's say fundraising opportunities so or or or so what or the urban dark guy I can start working on it but I need I need somebody yeah to coordinate with so so we have had um the staff report where we talked about this with the spreadsheet it shows the it shows the objectives that that should be completed for each item and it's an outline so once the com the working group meets they'll review that they'll set some Target dates for that and they'll flush it out and say you know what we need the this is what we need to do but before we do this let's do this you know so the working group will direct itself and figure out what it needs to do thanks Pat for pulling up it's the attachment that's one uh no I the right one no no it's the one uh it's December December yeah that's it this one no uh prioritization that one yeah that is a more detailed oh no it was the other one oh sorry that's it okay so here these were the commissioner suggested project items and then the task for the working group if you could zoom in is it possible to zoom in on that so you see here um Urban night sky determine any needed mitigation night sky measurements application so that's a very rough you know of uh very rough outline of what needs to be accomplished to achieve that okay so am I a working group of one and I can meet whenever I want and do it yes yes yes and call the meeting door and you and I and I'll I'll work with you okay and then like some of these others like um uh let's see so the

next one um look evening sports for adults yeah so there needs to be Outreach to find out you know survey survey members what do you guys want what do you want then comps go to other agencies how are they what are they offering how what are the prices how is it structur but I guess my my I I I understand that I guess what I'm asking is do you expect the working group to meet separate from this and do their job yes all right so we were really hoping that tonight before people go home they at least commit to either setting a date that they're going to meet or agree to communicate with each other in the next week to come up with a date to meet so they can give just a preliminary report at the next meeting now for some of these that are really far off like soccer probably doesn't need to meet right away the soccer parking I think it's also one of the more straightforward ones anyway it's pretty straight forward and we're also liting that on our end too well that's why they want to meet with staff yeah so they'll meet so yeah that's a good example Stephanie so the soccer parking mitigation the working group will meet with staff to come up with a solution yeah and that's probably a one meeting or two meetings possibly yeah now one of these goals that's on here I don't see up there there that I'm on is motorized vehicles so we want to work with staff right motorized vehicle works with staff I think it's is that on the next page no this was a oh because this was for commissioner this was commissioner suggested items the motorized vehicles you want us to work with you it's Stephanie yeah because it's a it's because it's a legislation so you have to work with step on that okay yeah the other ones you can go off on your own and and can we invite non-commission members absolutely you absolutely can and it's it's recommended so I have a question just for the of the group if

it's a non-commission and they are a non-commission member but they join the commission on the group does that change the fact that we would need to no okay just make sure yeah so any working group that has more than three Commissioners has to post an agenda and take minutes but any working group that's three Commissioners and non-c Commissioners they don't have to there's no count there's no count okay I figured I would ask that and the other thing coming out of breakfast with mayor do we need to start if we get into the situation where there's three or more uh I think the new attorney for the city said that we should copy that we should copy the she's talking about serial emails which this group is very good at not doing okay we we run a tight ship and remember when I say don't reply all that's what she she's talking about if you reply all and it's business it has to go to the city clerk sure that's why I say don't do it okay it's just cleaner all the way around don't do it all over that yeah because that's why with our training we always say here's the law but we want to be more stringent because it's the appearance because we all know Missouri has very laxed Sunshine laws very lack they're not want to go there yes so we want to we want to be better than the Missouri laws we don't we don't need to copy the clerk on right the less we do the better official yeah because if there ever were a problem then they will ask you for um all of your emails and you don't want to do that I don't want to give all my emails I really hate that public records request is is not something we want to do so what about the Green Team totally different totally okay okay because there's only three there's only three of us again we limited it to the number yeah but it's not okay so it doesn't matter how many people as long as there's not loed

there's not a corn right the issue is you can't have a corn now you can have four Commissioners emailing each other because someone's having a baby and they are asking for donations for a baby shower that's okay that's not commissioner related business but anything that's related to parks and we cast a broad brush as to what's related to Parks do not email more than two other Commissioners so is the green is the Green Team considered a commission under Parks not it's not but you have three Commissioners that have committed to serving on it so that's where if you're doing Green Team business do not email the rest of the commission only email Kate and Jim okay and the rest of the Green Team just don't add my if you want to make a report wait till the meeting but said Put it on the agenda okay so I guess my point is we can send emails out to the whole Green Team and back and forth problem at all no problem at all good that's what I thought I wanted to verify and I I know I'm a dragon about this but it's no no it just it just protects everybody right yeah yeah and the other thing I recommend is never use your work email for a commission business but a lot of people do but I always say don't don't do it and I never use my Gmail for for commission business I only use my city email you use your work email yeah my city email I but so I'm on a I'm on a I'm on a committee for the city of Leo I'm on the Boston committee for the city ofo I never use my allette email to communicate with them I always use my Gmail because that would be I use my retir so someone want a motion

forj so move I I move that we that we adjourn a second second all in favor any oppos good night Maxine good night thank you