Parks & Recreation Commission - Regular Meeting

I did not hear it say recording in progress. It is recording. But why is the audio Is it this thing that is the outlet up here? Let me do a test. Okay. The speaker isn't right. It's moving. The speaker's moving. The owl is not moving. Oh, you're saying it's powered on here.

The test. Here's the test microphone. Test test test. Okay, the microphone is owl.

Okay, that worked. And then the video is the owl. So, let me just make sure the video is It says integrated webcam. That is not correct. Oh, I think I have to select the owl. Um, so Isl

All right. What What What time is it? 7:20. We've started later. We have a very short agenda. Oh, now I see the Okay. I was What? to be honest. The I know Zoom is not working. Okay, here we go. The Zoom's not working. It's Let me try it again. Let me I'm going to stop the share. Okay, we Let me try one more time.

I see you joining. Here you are. Okay. Um, but I need to share my screen. There you are. And then I'm going to um share my screen

to go walk to pass. Where's my controls? Okay, here we go. All right, I'm gonna share my screen. Yeah, but they're they're spaced out like you know they're all right. Look at that. We're ready to go. Man is sharing the screen.

Excellent. We're just gonna leave it on Darren. He doesn't know. Great. Okay. All right, Bill. We are ready when you are ready.

Well, that's the although I do I do log in hearing quite often just so people All right. Uh, I call this uh meeting of the Parks and Recreation Commission to order at, uh, 7:18 p.m. Uh, for a roll call. Uh, let's see. Uh, Parson is not here. Rich is not here. Uh, Commissioner Todd here. Uh, Commissioner Garrett here.

Commissioner Neil is not here. I'm going to butcher your last name. Oh, thank you. That's close to what I would have said. Uh, present uh, acting commissioner commissioner uh, chair Hansen is here. You are vice chair. Vice chair. You don't have to be acting. You are the chair. You're the vice chair. Acting is vice chair and chair. Excuse me. Uh, we also have in attendance uh, parks and recreation director Beverly Knight Tucker. Uh, and we have council member Maxine Web. Excellent.

So, we have a quorum. Um, do we have any uh we have no citizens here? And no citizens online. Okay. Any written communications? Do not have any. No. Uh, related to the minutes from the last month. Yes, I did have a comment. Sure. It wasn't present, but under uh section five, annual work plan. Yes. Uh section E green team, it says green team-b

Oh, yes. The uh draft uh green operations plan was was approved. That's what they reported. So, you can So, what you can do is have someone can approve as amended. Yeah. May I have a first? Oh, I I I I move to amend section. I just had to accept the amended last week. Except the amendment the last one. All right.

I right. Um all in favor I any opposed? All right. Uh we will minutes uh with the amendment. Uh annual work plan updates from working groups. Uh I don't have an update on dark sky. Uh Stephanie, do you have anything? No. So I have a question about that. So I could not figure out a way because I was going to go and fill it all in. built. Oh, the readings the pre the pre application. Okay. We haven't even done that.

Okay. But I could not figure out a way to do it and then just and then save it and give it to them. Okay. I um How about you make set up a meeting with me? Come in. We'll figure it out and we'll do it together on my computer. All right. I have to get all the data. I got to go and get you know all the the boundaries of the parks. I got to do that. So I was I was almost thinking I mean if that's what you want to do otherwise I can get all the I can get it all and then send it to Bill and he just Okay. Okay. Yeah. Just do that. All right. Let's do that. Okay. Because I can see it. I know what's needed. Okay.

Yeah. Just do that. Just say just like space it for each question, you know, then and then the information the next space and then Yeah. Then I've got any questions I can let you know. Yes. Okay. Okay. Yeah. I thought I sent you It was It's been a while. I thought I sent you an email or text box. I I thought Well, I thought I thought we were do that. Oh, okay. I never Well, I've been It's okay. But it's it's good to talk about it because our annual report, this is we're coming up on the time we have to write our annual report that Oh, yes. Yes. Yes. You're right. Yeah. So, I've been saving photos and I have data. So, yeah. Okay. So we don't need any of that for the pre-applic. We don't, but we need to keep our eye on the

correct. We do need to have the dates that we've done something over the last year. Yeah, I would say. So yeah, we final. Yes. So once we get this pre thing and they accept us, we can we can pretty much submit the final pretty quick active. Okay. Okay. How about we commit that the three of us will meet before the next meeting? Okay. Just to have like a a No, you're right. If I have time, then I'll do. Okay. Awesome. We're all the same. Why don't we talk afterwards to see if my name work? I'm actually taking PTO. Oh, okay. So, that'll we can figure out after the meeting. Okay.

Sounds good. Great. Great. Moving on for outreach opportunities. Yes, outreach opportunities. Um, I wanted to pull the group and find out who is planning to be here on the 25th to assist with Harvest Festival. Under the impression I didn't have a choice. You don't. Okay. You're You're solid. You're leading the Aren't you like leading the parade? He's leading the parade. Yes. I do, but not everybody's necessarily this costume. I just want So, will you be there? I'm sorry. Okay. You're a maybe. Okay. Okay. How about you? I'm there. I'm gonna have Okay. Oh, I got

Oh, so you'll both be there with your family. Okay. All right. Great, Stephanie. So, I've got some other people. But anyway, but here's my thing. Do you want me to help or do you want me to have a dark sky? I don't care. For some reason, I was thinking that, but a dark sky table would be fantastic because we made a picture of it. We need more pictures of it. Yes, let's do it. Yeah, that's a good idea. Yeah, because we get a we get a pretty good pile. So, we do. Yeah. Okay. And by the way, my grand really Oh, good.

And I can get back to that would be great. Yeah. I asked last night after the She did. And last night, um, two commissioners said, I mean, two council members said, "Oh, do we know about that?" And I said, "Yes." And they said, "Oh, yeah." They then they both said, "Oh, yeah, we do know about that." So, I will email the council leading up because I know Jennifer's out of town, but I'll email. And as soon as possible, Yes. Okay. Or did uh She probably did. Okay. What? Six to five. 5 to 8. 5 to 8.

5 to 8. Yeah. So, if you could get there at 4 table. Okay. All right. Very good. Okay. Trash bash is the Oh, should I be there? Um, if you could be there at by 4:30, that would be fan flipping. Yes. Starts at 5. Yeah. If you want to come earlier and make sure you've got parking, you're welcome to. We close the upper lot. a park in the back back way

and we're closing the community center early that day in order to get we need we're getting cars out of this upper lot and then we're going to close this down because we are also the backup location in case it rains. So um the not so spooky trail is going to be amazing um this year and the hayride is going to go all the way down the new section of the greenway before it turns into Indian Park. So it's going to be really cool. So where best place the park? Down in the solar lot. Yeah. And there's is there a overflow lot? The overflow lot is up in the upper part of the park. Yeah. Like where the old

Yes. Yes. Absolutely. We're um we have a lot of volunteers. You can also park in the um uh business park like where School of Rock is off the street. Park School. You can park at Miriam School. So it's right actually next to the park. It's so where the where our parking lot is. School of Rock is right there. So, you go in off Bower. Yeah. And there's a whole bunch of parking there.

Yeah. And there's a path and a little staircase and a little bridge to come right into the park. It's how the dog walkers from APA walk the dogs into the park. And then all the people that work in the business park walk the green. Bring a flashlight, but not on the spooky trail, but that Yeah. Okay. Um Yes. Yes. I hope they they swap out the chips. They um

they they're doing um I can't remember what they're doing. They're they're still offering chips, but they're adding I can't remember what it was. The fruit cups are cost prohibited, but they're doing I think it's either applesauce or something. They're they're doing something. We're also doing veggie dogs. Um I think there's going to be a glutenfree option because we had a request for that at uh party in the park. So, they're augmenting it a little bit. And the Gus's pretzels are coming back because those sold out last time. Yeah. So, those those are coming back. Parents, kids are eating healthier now.

They they we absolutely agree because all the people here who have kids, that's what they feed their kids. But when we're looking at our budget, yeah. Yeah.

We are. Felons is selling beer, wine, and canned drinks. Yeah. Fallon is doing it. It was too, it ended up that um it would have to be me getting the liquor license from the state with my name on it and all of my personal information. And um then we'd need all the commissioners to serve out and we'd only give they'd only allow one license. We can only one location. We can they can move around. We can do whatever they want. They already have a liquor license. So it was just easier. But we, you know, we're we still aspirationally hope in the future we can do it because then we could take a lot more money, but the inventory control and all the rest of it.

Yeah, we might have. Yes, that also there's a potential for that. So, in the future, if the nonprofit were able to do it, it's totally different ball game. It's much easier. But, um, that is down the road aspirational goals. Um, but also no one wants to be inventorying alcohol and watching it here and then tracking it and so it's just much easier to have fountains do it. They'll keep Yeah. Yeah. They're having stocking issues. They're having a Halloween. Oh, they are.

Okay. Well, that's great. Okay. That morning is a trash bash. You are not expected to be there. If you want to be there, it'd be fantastic. It's just two hours. It's from 9 to 11 down um they're meeting on North Price at the Murphy Company and walking into the river to pair from there. This is we we've done this a few times. This is the first time we're doing it this time of year with one STL. So, um Oh, so it's not part of stream. It's It's not It's one STL this time. I don't know. It's affiliated, but the stream team logo is not on the flyer. I don't I don't

Yeah. Uh, don't forget People's Choice movie night is November 7th. That is with ET. We'd really love to have you all here. Turkey trot November 27th. Already talked about that. Um, the green team has not had a meeting. They are working however um to get the annual report and that is coming up due. So, they're working hard to get that done. The um Clear Stream um recycling bins that'll be used as special events have come in. So that's exciting. And then they're about to place the order for the trial new recycling bins at Stacy to see if we can get better compliance with recycling at Stacy. So that that's that's funded through the grant from the St. Louis Jefferson County Municipal Trash District or Metropolitan Trash District. So that that's exciting. Um and then I'm going to turn over to Bill.

Did you get my email that I sent? Excuse me. No, I did not. That is okay. Do you want me to pull it up? Uh, if you can. I try to open up my laptop. Uh, install something. Sorry. Uh, so we did have some big. Yeah, I've got it, but it's I've got an old tablet and it's I've got it. Thank you. I've got it. Yep. Thank you. Okay, you guys can see it but um Zoom can't Zoom so but but for the tape. So I will just reshare just share your

That's my good ear. Why are we going? It's this one right? That's it. Yes. Okay. last time. Oh, they have. Is that your Is that your first one? That's the first one. Yes. Excellent. Uh so, first of all, a round of applause for David. Uh we had one additional commissioner that is uh documented on the park. So, thank you very much for that. Apparently, you can't yet, but we we'll get that fixed. It's excellent.

I I noticed it. He was he was doing he was doing it from France. So this is good. Of course Sue uh our our infamous leader and keeping our our trails nice and safe uh is leading the pack which is not a surprise. Next slide. Uh again you can see here the most Centennial Greenway uh by far uh has the most reviews which is good. That's a pretty big change. Indian Meadows, uh, second highest. Uh, it used to be Villa. So, that's exciting to see that we're branching out in in park. That's exciting. Villa. Yeah. No, I thought dark blue.

Oh, is it light blue? Oh, you're right. Either way, we still have more parks. Yeah. Yeah. Either way, whether my numbers or not, you're visiting more parks. You know what? I'm I'm going to say I'm color blind and we'll go with that even though it's not true. I was going with you. Yeah. Yeah. I totally I I was right there. Yep. Uh so we're you know getting more parks. I'm also excited. This is the first time I remember seeing veterans park. So we are definitely getting whatever. I need feedback at park. I didn't buy it a lot. I drive by it all the time. Yeah. off time.

We had an issue with the um someone uh someone adjusted the sprinkler system out there that was not us and so it could have been from a power outage so it got crispy and then we we were able to get back in there because the controller for it inside the fire the bay the auto bay over Firestone but they were also working on those four corners. They are they are treacherous to it is treacherous. Yeah. Yeah. And and you know Firestone um doesn't own that building. and another real estate company does and so it's difficult to get um some of it cleaned up. Uh but we're um we've introduced ourselves to the new store manager. So we're working on that. The Olivet and Bloom ladies go in and tell them a lot of time.

They do and they go in and they say, you know, the sea is going to site you if you don't take care of that. So then all of a sudden it gets cleaned up. So that's it. It's at fire. I thought it was at the BP gas station. No, it's at the corner from McDonald. No, there's work at every corner. There's work at every

And you know what? I I mess up because I I don't I don't I go to the park. I don't see I haven't done any this month. Uh But I haven't seen anything. I don't Yeah, if I don't see anything. Yeah. A resident called in or put in a response yesterday that the dog park bowl wasn't draining. So, we went out to look at that. Oh. And then um

at her side. And then a week ago, um someone called us in the afternoon. Um a man had been walking at the synagogue and tripped on the steps and hurt himself pretty badly. And he was walking home and he to the dog park to clean himself up. So there was blood everywhere. So uh the woman called us late in the day after the parks crew had gone home. So the next day they cleaned it up. But the people that night thought that there had been a dog fight. So if you hear rumors, make sure everybody knows that it was not a dog fight. It was someone that was injured and they offered to call the ambulance and he refused and walked home. So

it was pretty probably when he got home. was probably but and so far I believe he's okay. We don't know his name but the woman who called Gates. So Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And without rain but then you know it's so dry right now it just stayed Yeah. steady rain. It's very bad. So I took my bike pass there all the time but I don't usually go into the park. You're not supposed to unless you have a code. Yeah. No, no, not the Oh, into the park itself. What are you supposed to do like when you're like at Yeah. Stacy Park. What do you see like people like on like the uh the ebikes?

Yeah. If it if they're if they're operating in a safe manner, they can be there. If it's if they're on the pavement and they're under they're like on the grass or they just Well, the grass I mean it's it's the it's the dirt trails where I really don't want them. So, the hiking path on the paved path, but they are not allowed on the on the um uh Cottonwood the Cottonwood trail. Not allowed. But but it's they're allowed to like get on a field with the grass. They're not really supposed to, but I mean, I don't know how you're going to stop them. Now, if they're unsafe, if they're terrorizing or doing something, chasing dogs or, you know, then you call the doctor.

Then you call Well, you could call 911. It's the same number that dispatchers sit next to each other. If it's severe, if you think Someone's going to get hurt, call 911. If you see a dirt bike on the hiking trail, call 91 because they are really trying to stop. Like at the back of the park, in the woods, right? Or in the prairie. If you ever see any bicycles or motorized vehicles in the prairie, that's a extremely sensitive habitat comment because they can also start a fire in there if they get sparks. Well, they're required.

It's the law. The helmet will all any vehicle any bicycle whether it's motorized or not you must wear a helmet before motorized vehicle that is go get your yeah no they're supposed to because even any bicyclist in all that is supposed to have helmet yeah and that's not new as a park is that something just for him or like you don't like is that aggressive I mean there's want to stood in the middle of the We don't recommend that. We don't recommend.

Yeah. So, you know, think about like when I was little, if I was in the park and I was behaving unsafeely, if I wasn't wearing a helmet and it was the law, every mom in that park would tell me to do it and then probably call my mom and tell me I wasn't wearing my helmet. So, I mean, that's the kind of that's the community policing, the community policing that used to happen. So, um, your com whatever your comfort level is, you know, don't put yourself in danger. Don't step out of your comfort zone, something like that. Unless it's a it's, you know, a truly bad situation where someone is going to get seriously injured, then you feel free to spit to speak up or call 911. Yeah, absolutely.

Black top path, they're not supposed to go over 15 miles an hour. 15. Yeah, that's our operating And you know, we there's a kid that we were the first one that did that, but all of the green all the cities with greenways are starting to look at it. I I think we're going to start seeing um regionwide speed limits because everyone's grappling with it and you know, just like the school has now banned all of them. Oh, they have 100%. Oh, well that is a magnet. I know. I know. But that's good. I mean, that's good. you know. Yeah, that's good because that helps us. Yes.

Yeah. Um because that really sends a strong message and the school was having even more problems than we were. So, okay. Thank you for asking. It's an excellent point. Next slide. Next slide. Uh so, months we've had the most visits, it's pretty evenly spread. Uh we started in March, so that's why it's lowest. Oops. Sorry. That's okay. Yep. Next slide. And uh number of people observing the park uh 0 to 10 is our highest number. And I know a lot of times when I walk, uh, it's been in the morning and I see more people just on the sidewalk than in the parks. Yeah. It also depends on the size of the park. Yeah. So Stacy, you're going to see a lot more people than you are at Villa or Ver. Exactly.

Yeah. I've noticed a lot of people uh in Villa lately in the evenings. The evening's been nice. It's been a lot of kids playing there, so that's been good. When is the bathroom? November 1st. They open up April 1st. April 15th. Every park worker will tell you when I ask them to open them earlier. Beverly, every time we open them earlier, they freeze solid and we they break the toilet pools and we have to replace them. So, we wait until we we get fooled all the time. Yeah.

All right. Next slide. And then uh we'll go through you can see you know again pretty good mix uh from what we're seeing for people doing in parks. A lot of walkers which is good there and walking trails we all remember was our number one request on our parks master plan. Yeah. So I saw park excellent. We have a good population there and here too. Yeah. Yeah. it was hops.

Yeah, we've been we've been so we've been doing a concerted effort to increase the bird diversity in all the parks and so we're Stacy and Warson were seeing a huge huge diversity. In fact, we had in this good solid bluebird population here, they stay year round. Um but this year we spotted repeatedly um indigo buntings for the first time.

How do you increase bird diversity? through the habitat through through the plants we do by leaving the seeds by leaving leaves by leaving uh dead logs and standing trees for cavalies. So we have a good flicker population here as well and we have owls and then the last two weeks we've seen two we've seen a mated pair of the hawks in this hunted which is really cool we have a lot at my house and we have a great horned owl that lives um in the trees that border Warson on the other end on barber Scott's yard

oh he's used to see And and at night um if you walk at dust uh there's all those there's all those swallows. Slips. Sorry. We got Thank you. Thank you. That's right. Uh all right. So any questions here? the walking. Maxine, if you want to a slice in this and you want to add your comments, we would love to help. You are welcome to. The only catch is I need an email. That was my fault.

That was Yeah, we tried. Yeah, without an email account. It doesn't let you log in. I I keep my phone. You still my phone? No, I'm not on my face. My hair is older than All right, I'm going to go back to reshare. Hang on. Please stand by. Go back to this one. Here we go. I have to I apologize to the I saw I saw something the other day at the park doing um like ham radio part.

Well, that's exciting. Yeah, I got all these like South America. I have someone in South America. Oh, that's pretty cool. That is really cool. Really cool. Did we skip meeting dates? Nope. We haven't gotten there yet. Okay. Oh, that is number six. Yep. Here's number six. Yep. What's uh spring break? Sorry. Sorry. I saw it. I didn't below it. That's okay. So, in your in the um in your packet was Yeah, it's in your It's in your packet. Well, I didn't print I don't remember. We don't print the whole packet anymore. Print that out.

No, no, but I have I have a copy of it and it's up here. So, but I did print out the reduced school district and the um 5-year calendar of major Jewish holidays. So, the first time in a long time, we don't have any um high holy day conflicts. No, no Passover. No Passover. No. No. Shot. Yeah. No, we're good. We're good. Well, that means next year probably they're all beyond Wednesday. Um but uh this year they're all now. Um it's the week before. That's the week before.

Yeah. Now, um we do have a lot of commissioners now with young families. So, my assumption is we probably want to skip that spring break date and then what you could do is you can meet the Wednesday prior, the Wednesday after, or you can just say we're not meeting that month. It's it's solely up to you. We when we were renovating the parks, we had to meet every month and have extra meetings. But right now, that pressure has lifted because we're not doing active construction. So, you have more leeway. So, when do you want to start?

Uh, well, that'll be um Yeah, that'll be next year for sure. So, should you put a tenative date like the week after and then in March with the ground, you could always say, "Okay, we're not." Yeah, we could. We absolutely could. Yeah. So, um, does anyone have preference about week four or week out? I talk about March before. Yeah. April.

Yeah. So, that would make it then I'm going to I'm going to change that to March 11th. Okay.

Great. Okay. So, that one there and then um before before the park master plan, the commission would take one month off in the summer. So, again, it's up to you. We can right now leave a summer dates on there, but as we get closer, if there is a majority of people out of town at a certain time, then we should probably cancel the meeting so that you don't have to worry about trying to get a camp if you have majority of people traveling. So, um, so I like Maxine's idea of just letting it ride. We'll put them all on the calendar and then adjust as we go through the copy.

Yes. So you've got um yeah, this is 2026. They I did back to back. So So that goes with this. This is 2026. And then I have um 2025 is somewhere. Uh oh, here it is. That's on the back side of my memo, but I'll move that. I'll write it on here. Never mind. I'll write it on. So March 11. 27. Yeah. So now um if you are all satisfied with that, you can entertain a motion to adopt.

Yes. May I have a motion to accept the amended uh 2026 parks meeting dates? Oh

and second all in favor motion passes. Excellent. Can I ask a labor question? Yes. I'll do it again. We're in it right now. We have calendar requests out right now. It's really weird. When I sent them to Curtis and Daniel, they got individual emails and I don't know why. I don't know if it's because we already had the series established and it just did that to you. So, I apologize. Um, yeah. Okay. Thank you. So, yeah, I'll do I'll do that again for 2026. Yeah, sure. Absolutely.

Yeah, they got to close. Oh, sorry. I love this calendar I found that has all five years on it. This is It's from um It's from uh Milwaukee. Yeah, I noticed that. I'm like, why are you getting things from Milwaukee? Because the Shabbad one locally is this giant page and page and page of all these illustrations. It's like, no, I just really want Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Very good. All right. Uh next agenda item, five votes on forcing monthly updates.

Yes. So, what Patrick did this time is he changed up the information that we're giving a little bit to make it a little bit more dynamic. And then I also um have one of the things you asked TJ to present to you. Um I'm hoping he's I did not proof it. I think it's in here. Okay. So the first thing up we um he revised the memberships to show that since our last meeting we have 51 additional memberships. But you notice our overall total has gone down because he pulled out renew active because we felt Renew active gives a false number because they're they're members but they don't pay us. They're the reimbursement we get from United Healthcare. So he pulled that out to kind of give more of like an actual paying members. And I believe he also pulled out the employee memberships as well. So you can see a truer number of residents and non-residents.

How often are all employees free? All employees are free. Yes. We use it as um kind of a talent retention tool. Yeah. Because you know medium bucks. You know how many?

We do. I think He actually has it in here for you as one of the the things. So, I'll show you. So, here we go. Uh, he wanted to show Oh, he wanted to show the amount sold, the breakdown um the difference between daily fees sold this year because we're seeing a remarkable increase in daily fees. So, these are non-residents that are buying daily fees and sometimes residents. So, the total for all of last year was or for last fiscal year was um 3,960. Right now, we're halfway through the year. We're already at 1710. We've had significant increases. You can see here. Um, and then the other number that you asked TJ for when she gave her presentation was how many people took advantage of bringing free members in, bringing bringing a person in for free when we did that special promotion. And what we found is that 19 members took advantage of it and they brought 31 guests. Our software doesn't allow us to see how many of those 31 guests bought a membership. So, what they're doing now is extracting them out, putting them into Excel, and building a pivot table to see if we can figure it out. But, they're going to have to go through a lot of it by hand because unfortunately, we're not able to run a report that just spits out that information. So, we're going to have one of our front desk staff do it for us manually. So, we'll have that next month for you. We go. So, oh, any any questions on this? Um, we're going to continue to refine what we show you because we really wanted to give you a little bit more information than just regurgitating the numbers of memberships sold. I mean, it's still exciting to see the increase. I mean, every month we are selling a minimum of 30, which is really nice. That's almost a new membership a day.

Um, but we really want to get a more nuanced regular information for you. Ask about because you know coming up to the ann of the Well, second anniversary. Second anniversary. Yeah.

Yeah, we absolutely can. We can give that to you next month. Well, actually in the new year, but what happens is when we first opened, we weren't able to keep people and just automatically renew them, right? We change we were able to change that through the course of our first year. So now people have a choice to just be on a recurring billing. Not everybody wants that. So, um, so then we do have to reach out to people and say, "Hey, your year's coming up. Do you want to reup?" And we have a pretty good response rate for that. But it'll be nice to show show you the stats on that.

Yeah. And then last year, remember, we also made it cheaper that if you pay for the year upfront, it's cheaper than paying every single month because it costs us a lot more to pay every single month. Plus also people's credit cards or debit cards constantly change and so the staff spend a long time calling and saying your card no longer works. Would you like to give us a new card? So if they pay for the year all at once, you only have to make that call once. But if they're paying monthly, it's shocking the number of people whose cards, you know, are continuously going on in and out of service. Yeah.

Is it is it more per month? It's a discount. Yeah, it's a discount. When we first opened it wasn't, but through a year through our operations, we realized this is ridiculous. We have Yeah.

Right. Right. So, you know, when we opened, we used the all the numbers that were in the perform with the exception of the the pricing levels that were changed through the parks commission and the council um reducing the cost. But the way we set up all the things and the breakdowns was was all dictated by the performer before we open. Well, as we were operating, we realize, well, that is not. So, we're learning better practices as as we stay open. Yeah. Um, I wasn't able to be at last night meeting, but So um but what's going to do is some exciting things done where um stories those three um other areas um we have tomorrow night going there and so excited about that um going there and then also sty It will be four building the area that it could be up to five stories and um you can see that the owners own the property there across kind of categories writing to go to enter 170 um grass and um to get their starting to shape up the next couple months. They're really working on schedule

action. And there will be like an ongoing um you know the water it's like like an air like an airatory water and then does that mean like there's like one by the self storage there's one there's like one more retail that's coming up by the like Domo Domo and they're going to take the remainder.

So it'll it'll fill the space really

taste of non is that what it is? I think it's Jang Nan. Jen Naan. Yes. J A I N. Yes. Now, there's one with a similar name in Singapore, but I don't know if it's someone that is Yeah, I found it in Singapore. It's coming from Yeah. And then there are there are some other ones in New York that have the same name, but it seems like this one is more like the one in Singapore, which would be so exciting. Those Singaporean ones are amazing. Yeah.

And um but when we talk about That's the one where I thought there's one between where

it was going to be a whole lot working on the partners but we wanted them to move forward with the hotel because the finished then they pop off another development

probably that is a retention It should be filled with water because the point is when it rains it fills up. Well, it it does go it does go up and down, but there's water there constantly because there is an old screen. So, it's it's had but it's all it's all programmed with MSD. MSD water slowly disperses it out. I know, but if it's got water in it 100%. No, it's not going to hold water.

It's not the same level. They say yeah, but I think that's why they need the spray and I think it's helps air. So there's two that makes it look pretty

I believe. So they built and they kind of built it they built the bas itself and MSD when they first kept seeing all these big concrete um things on the land and it was land right and all that. Yeah. Then they cleared the lot. You could see the long.

Um so that's pretty much as far as like all that actually we went over. We did some revisiting gold um that was set um with the final line with our budget and budget July July. So we're looking this coming March already like things are going very smoothly and a lot and I think one of the most exciting things was this. I mean when you see you the traffic on Saturday going into park.

It's crazy but it's exciting. Well, yeah. Because the number of kids I mean when when came I think we were struggling to get you know 400 and now we're double-edged sword. Yeah. We're still working on the park double but not as bad as the first. Yeah. Yeah. So um yeah. So what we we've been reconfiguring the games. So I'll move into the department report this. So um

yeah thank you. So parking is our biggest concern out there. Then we are issuing a lot of tickets. We have sent out emails encouraged people to carpool. Um you know we put the 15minute buffer in between the games. Uh so we were able to relocate a lot of the little kid games over to Warson. Um, Warson still also has um has parking congestion, but it does not have the number of tickets being issued that Stacy has. Um, so seeing fingers crossed that the construction at LU completed next year because having the fifth grade center again will eliminate all of that, that congestion because that really was our our problem this year, not having the fifth grade center. So, um, and this weekend is very light because it's kind of a mini break. So,

a lot of we're I think we're having maybe only five games this or four four or five games because most teams are out of town. Did not, you know, people didn't want to have so we didn't schedule. Yeah. So, okay. Um, we have a lot going on. Your report is in two sections. So, this time we put the text in one and the photos in the other.

Um, So, just kind of going through it quickly. Basketball, youth basketball is registration is going on right now. It practices start in December, games start in January. We we will be using five more this year because a lot of people ask why we weren't doing it last year. We're really trying to get that balance between allowing members to use the building, but also we do pay a hefty price to use the school gyms, so we're going to be a little bit more games here. Yeah. There's no no free use of um school facilities. We pay the top dollar. Um we are advertising for limited mainten maintenance technician position. This is a new position right now.

Limited building maintenance. Yeah. Oh. Oh, here Maxine. Do you Yeah. Maxine. Yeah. Make sure you can take that with you. Okay. So,

what what happens at city hall the last few years and here is we have contracting um companies that come in the evening and I'm sure you're all familiar with your own workplaces that it's subplot um it's very expensive. So, we decided uh when we went through the budget process this year that we would eliminate those contracts and hire a full-time person to assist our our existing maintenance staff to do cleaning with a full-time staff member every day at city center here. We will split the cost between the two places. So, that employee will cost less than what the two contracts were. However, there are other things that we'll pay a little bit more for. So, it's kind of a wash, but we're hoping that the service level will be significantly higher. So, once this person is on board, we will terminate both contracts. Both vendors are aware of this already and um the cleaning will be done and we're doing a lot of things here to prep for that. So, we're doing a lot of wall patching, a lot of different cleaning things. repairing some wallpaper in here um ahead of that because we know that when that person comes on, they're going to be focusing a lot on City Center. The city center is very um it it's really backlogged with dirty things. It really needs good floor cleanings, needs wall cleanings, it needs paint touchup, all those things. So, they're going to probably spend a significant amount of time over there. So, we're really trying to get this building in a good spot so we can balance it. And then we will continue to use our contract cleaner here for weekends where we have heavy rentals and a quick turnaround. So, if someone has a wedding reception that goes until, you know, 11 o'clock and the next morning we have the church group coming in and there isn't enough time for that full-time person to come in and do it without incurring huge overtime costs. We'll just have our contractor come in and do just the cleaning of the

bathrooms and this these rooms ahead. And that'll that we think that'll be a a good way to kind of tackle that and do um but we only do it on a basis. So, we're very excited about this. Um, I think they're going to do interviews next year. So, fingers crossed. Uh, fall into fitness is going on. This is the an annual program that we started last year with lot you'll see lots of special emails coming through your inbox with different things that Hannah is cooking up for us there. We had the art gallery opening. Um, you'll see there's a beautiful show up right now. It's Maria Oh, who is a local artist. She lives in Brookwood. Um, and then in the emerging artist gallery, Maria also teaches she teaches art in a lot of different places. Um, all of the work in the hallway here is hers, but on the emerging artists are is a display from these students she works with from in prison performing arts who are men who have re-entered society. They are citizens that have come back to live with us and they go through an artsist healing program to help them with their re-entry process and mental health as they and reestablish their lives in the community. It's very powerful. So, I encourage you to kind of look there's self-portraits that are very interesting to see those. And then there's pictures of the artists u with Maria on the wall too as well. It's she's really a remarkable we lucky to have her show. We had a lot of people here for her show and um she was an artist in the talk but very well attended. Um our next show is opening December 5th and it's another local artist and she has beautiful abstract painting. So, I'm very excited about that. Susie Farren open mic. So, if you look in here, there are some pictures of the I had to put the open mic pictures. It was phenomenal. We had 11 performers and a poet. Um, everything from We had a quartet, we had duos, we had an organist come in and played

beautiful pieces for us on the piano. We had harmonica, doulamer. It was phenomenal and really well attended. Lots of applause and the people working out in the fitness area. They stopped and applauded for part of it. I mean, it was really remarkable.

Um, so we're doing it again in the new year. I encourage everybody to come. It is so much fun. You just never know who's going to show up. And we talked about Harvest Fest. We know Turkey Trot's coming. The food drive is coming along. We have um we had a huge star party, the Dobson Fest. There's another photo of that in here. The Dobson is a is a specific specific type of telescope and we had over 100 pe like 135 people. It was amazing. Where is that number in here? Oh yeah, 125. 125. Yes. Um it was wonderful. I hate the pictures of the park though. You can see how crispy dry it is everywhere with the drought. Yeah.

Um now um as you know, we've talked a lot about dark sky. We do a lot of events with the astrological society, sorry, astronomical society, um, and with dark sky and with Ottabon. We do that to really help educate people about the importance of dark skies. And it all ties also back in with us trying to increase our bird populations. That's the lighting is very specifically designed in this building not to contribute to sky blow and to light pollution or as they call light trespass is the is the current term for it. and to really help migrating birds. So, um all of this work we do, we also track because it goes into our annual report to the International Dark Sky Association as to maintain our um good standing and our certification. Um InBody Scan is up and running. If you haven't seen it, it's down outside the um workout center. The first weekend we had it, we already had 10. Very popular. Um so, we're very excited about that. I encourage all of you to use it. It's a remarkable tool. You can take the report to your physician. Um it is really an amazing amazing thing. We're so fortunate and we're so thankful to the Clarks Foundation for funding that. Um ET we talked about already. Um weed warriors. You probably all saw the email about weed warriors. We've had to postpone kicking off weeds warriors because of the drought. The park crew is spending so much time watering. They do not have the time available to do all the chipping and hauling that weed warers generates. Plus there's the we have a lot of a lot of our young plants and trees are very stressed. So we really don't want to do ground disturbance the ground's getting very compacted from the drought. Um we are even though with all the watering we're doing there is a chance we will lose um some of our young trees. So we're we're fingers crossed we're going to get through that. There has been a shift. Now with the cooler weathers, the exp

the um evaporation rates have greatly reduced. So Brian's able to take a little side belief because he's really been working himself to the bone to get this taken care of. Um so he will come out with some some dates for weed warriors in the winter, but not as many as we've done in the past. Plus also we've been very successful with our weed warriors. We don't have as much to do thankfully. Um seasonal water shut off. So, just a reminder, uh, we we kind of mentioned all the fountains are off now. The drinking fountains and the restrooms will be turned off by November 1, except Stacy. Stacy stays open throughout the winter. However, when the temperatures drop below 20°, we really have to watch it. And often times we will close it for a week or so because even with the heater in there, the heater's on the roof, it's not enough to prevent the pipes freezing. Also, when people go in and out of there, they oftentimes leave the door open, and we've had toilet bowls freeze and crack. The um pipes are frozen, and the driven fountains frozen. So, um the last two years we've started doing that, but we are going to put a mini split into the concession stand area. We're hoping to have that installed by by Turkey Trot to keep that area cooled in the summer and heated in the winter because we store so many supplies in there that freeze solids. Um, also in the winter time when it gets below 30, the door freezes shut and we can't open it because the um the heating of the concrete.

So, we're hoping that we'll be able to the having the heat in there will help with that. So, pretty exciting about that. Uh, the cemetery fence, as you know, it came down. Um, we we talked about it in an earlier time, but there's a photograph in here. was finally finally able this um week we planted some um new trees along the side there. We worked with the staff from the cemetery. Their original preference was to put a row of arbor vidings there and um our parks crew was able and our horiculturist was able to kind of counsel them about why that would be a poor decision. They wouldn't grow there. There's a power line and you can see the line the foam line right there. They would grow into that and then um they don't do well. They you know, you always see a row of arboritans with like two in there a day. So um so we put native selections in there and they will grow. Now hopefully we're going to get some rain this weekend and hopefully it won't wash them out. Um but we are going to put down um before this weekend I think Brian will be putting down some of those um waddles, the straw waddles to help prevent runoff in there.

Um then I have a picture in here. It's not in the written report, but I wanted to show you some stuff that's been happening. So, we have a page here, recent park repairs and vandalism. So, I want you to kind of see what we deal with on an ongoing basis. So, um repairing our playgrounds is a priority because it keeps them safe and keeps them um you know, increases their longevity. We have and that's normal wear and tear. You can see here we the climbing structure. They lost this special toggle. So, it's under warranty. We got that got that part very quickly from the vendor and it's already been replaced. So, those are things that the park crew is continuously doing. Um, then here you see a picture of a jump that was built at Warson Park over the weekend. Um, so we had to they had to go dismantle that and then repair the ground under it. Last year we had a jump track uh jump track. some folks tried to build it or Stacey that they dug out several big trenches that we also had to fill. But we also are seeing increased um graffiti. And whenever we see graffiti, we do a police report. It's tracked. It's photographed because if you don't jump on graffiti immediately, it grows. Um this is much more advanced graffiti than we typically see. So the police department also catalog it and they watch for it and they search for it to see if it's um related to anything else that's bigger than just a tag. This one they believe is just a tag and they believe it's an allette resident. It's not someone from outside. This works all over Indian Meadows. So um when we have areas like for example um herbside last year we had significant damage happening inside the Baba Jaga hut. So, we spoke to the school because there's a high likelihood

it was students from Logos. We spoke to them and we put up game cameras. So, it took care of that. But every time we half remove graffiti off anything, it degrades the apparatus. So, we have to not there isn't really a chemical that will exactly get it off. We also have to sand and then it starts to ruin the finish. So, all of this had to be sanded. Um, and you know, it takes a lot of staff time. So, I just kind of want you to understand that sometimes when we aren't able to get jobs done, it's because things like this priority. Um, but it also is a little disheartening because we're really seeing an increase. And we go through periods of time with that. And we've had times where Villa was our hot spot. We've had times when um, herbide was the hot spot. Now, it seems that Indian Meadows is starting to heat up a little bit. We also had some set fire to the toilet bowl. We put a bunch of stuff in the toilet and we lit it on fire. But um they're stainless steel and you know we took care of it. So it's all it all leads you know everything the police come seeing is younger kids kids that live in the neighborhood. So they we now have that up there. So periodically someone will notice them and they'll call us and say what's going on. We tell them what they are, but we try and camouflage them as much as possible. So anyway,

keep an eye out for that. Yeah. So the park crew, you know, they visit the bathrooms because they have to clean them and the police open and close the bathrooms at every park every night. So we really try and stay on top of it to see what's going on. But things get missed. They like lock them at night. They lock them at night and they unlock them in the morning. And so the night shift does it. So they'll they'll close them after dark and then oftentimes they open them in the dark. So some people will think they've been open all night, but they're not because they're it really depends on what their patrol is. What if Yeah. If they're taking someone to the jail, then they can't do it. They got to wait. Yeah. So it's not exact because I have friends that block every morning.

Oh yeah. And they call us when they sign up. somebody else. Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes they have to transport people to other cities. So, you know, when someone gets arrested, if there's warrants, they they don't go to our jail, they go to another jail. So, that can draw the officers away for an extended period of time. But yes, our our Stacy Park early walkers definitely tell us when the bathrooms are not unlocked. So, that's good. They're out there patrolling and letting us know which is which is a huge benefit for us. So, all right. Yes.

Receive a delivery for the first time. Yeah. The last time I looked, I think you're up to like 50 60 something like that. Yeah. We had a call today. A woman called today because um one of her kids can't go. So, she was inquiring about a refund and we don't do refunds for special events, but she said, "Well, that's okay. You know, it's only $10." And I said, "Would you like us to set that aside in case someone can afford it?" She was so excited. So, yeah. So, we're So, now she feels very happy. Yeah. So, that's a lot when you consider it's just kids. So, it's at least double if not triple the amount of people,

right? And we keep sending out the reminders. And turkey trots really picked up too. Turkey trots closing in on 400. Um it really picks up when we get closer to to Thanksgiving when then we'll start to do 100. Yes. We'll get a big surge before Friday. Exactly. So um this year we hope to break 2,000. We were really close last year. Yeah. Yes. Well, you know, a lot of them are running. Oh yeah.

Don't see on Thanksgiving. No, I'm sleeping in for the next day so I can get to Black Friday sales early.

No, I yell.

You should let the dogs out. Oh,

we are selling. We're You're getting Don't Nope, you can't say it. I can't. It's a It's early bird special. We're recording them. There is a prize. I didn't know it was public. No, we're going to send out an email. All right. So, yeah, we're sending out an email. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, we're sending out an email announcement about it. No, the gonna show the shirt I cop with. We're doing um doggy bandanas. Doggy bandanas for turkey. For turkey trap and we only bought, we only ordered 50. So, they're going to be a collect. We want to, you know, make people next year really jump on the dog.

No, no, but you do have to pay for it. It's 15 bucks, but we got extra large and large. Well, medium, medium, and large because my dog has your dogs have big necks, you know. We didn't get the tiny ones because, you know, our tiny ones really, but we'll see how we'll see how it works. We don't want to be like the hats, you know. We bought so many hats. How are we? They are. Where are you?

We found we found last year we thought we sold out and everyone was very disappointed, but we found two boxes back in the council chief. So, we'll be selling them again this year. All right. So, lots coming up. Take a look at the calendar. Don't miss out on any of this fun stuff. And uh next month you'll have the annual summer camp report.

Oh yeah. I did a retreat now. Find out how many that he took out of the 99 Yeah. Um, yes.

October 29th.

What happened to employees and active? I'll make a motion to I was just about to ask the one and a second. Second. All right. And then we will adjourn at 8:43 p.m. Thank you everybody. Question. Hang on. Hang on. Let me make sure I um want to I want to stop recording. Hang on. Where' it go? Come back.