Parks & Recreation Commission - Regular Meeting

Okay. All right. It is 7:05. We are at Five Oaks on Lorson. This is the park and rush commission meeting November 19th. Uh Beverly, will you call the roll, please? I will. Chairperson Rich here. Commissioner Pson present. Commissioner Kerry here. Commissioner Todd here. Vice Chair Hansen. Neil absent. Bualter absent. Okay, you have a quorum. All right. Thank you. And also present on

also present but do not count towards the quorum, right? Is vice chair Maxine Wild and Parks and Recreation Director Beverly Tucker Knight. All right. I'm not a vice chair. Chair pro taxes. You're not vice chair. No. No. You're item number two, hearing from citizens. Do we have anyone on me?

And do we have any correspondence? I don't see any participants. Nope. No. No one said no one said any written communication. We have none. All right. Minutes. Did anyone get a chance to look at the minutes? Any corrections or comments there?

Was was he was busy robbing? Yeah. Robbing the when you read through, did you have any did give you enough information about everything? Okay, good. Okay. All right. Someone motion to accept and approve the events. We move to accept the oppos.

All in favor? I. Any oppose? Any abstension?

Okay. Item number five, summer camp annual report. Okay. So, this evening we have a a a report for you on our summer camp program. So we have some new commissioners. So what um what we do is every large program division within the parks and recreation department gives an annual report to the parks and recreation commission. This is an opportunity for the commission to hear about the programs to hear the feedback uh what went well, what didn't go well and our fees. And we moved to this model when we removed the fees from the city ordinance so that we could be more flexible and um stay stay more in keeping with the times with our programming. So this was a way for the commission to really get um a good understanding of what we're what we're doing in the department. So this evening we have the summer camp program and in future you'll have youth sports, we do facility rentals, all of that. So this evening I'd like to introduce TJ Beasley, our recreation supervisor in charge of programs and five Oaks on Morrison and Jill Vote, our recreation coordinator who's in charge of recreation programming. So take it away. Let me uh make sure I have my screen shared. Just one moment because that would be bad if I didn't share the screen. Share. All right. Share. Okay. We are now sharing online and I have a little I will try and uh forward the uh presentation. Here we go. Okay. Good to go. Thank you.

Um so we'll be looking over our summer camps in Alvette. Um this is the so we do contract camps in all of that and program camps. Um our contract camps are uh they are our camps that like through math science through um oh my gosh Josh through Lego that's um so the differences between the two is um with staff program camps are we staff that the city does contract staff is hired by the contractor our pricing structure. The difference between those is that prices are set by the city to recover direct program cost and then um contract camps vendor sets a base price. We add on to that percentage for overhead and then with fee waiverss these are only offered by our program. So, those are our free and reduced lunch, um, sibling discounts, and a huge discount.

And fee wavers are is our answer to scholarships for children that are unable to afford. Um, next slide. Um so our contract camps that we had over um last year were um we had a spring break camp with circus kaput that um we ran and there was 29 out of 30 campers signed up. Um that is for 5 to 12 years old. The camp runs from 9 to3 and then our pricing is similar to um uh camp boats with it being $199 for members of residents and um $224 for the general public.

The 29 and 30. It's a capacity of 30.

Yes. So the 29 is how many signed up? 30 is the max. Um and then we also ran this one in the beginning of the summer. So we did this during our training week so that parents still have an option to send their children to camp. Um 16 signed up out of the 30. So we run that at at least half. So with 16 signing up we um did that. And then math science we did at the end of the summer in August. Um it was called nuts and bolts. It was full uh with 20 out of 20 campers. Um all of these we try and keep within that 5 to 12 year old um uh range and um that one again ran from 9 to three. Now this one is with Mad Science. They have a price that they give me that they're looking to make per camper and then I have to put a percentage on top of that. So, um that was $315 for members and residents and $350 for the G, uh general. Um we also did Bricks for Kids, also known as Lato Camp. Um we did a Super Mario Brothers Lego camp. That one unfortunately only did have four out of 20, but they did still run. And then, um Matt, but Minecraft camp, we did 22 out of 20. Um

Oh, that worked. Whenever I start getting a little bit of a weight list, I reach out and ask, is there any way I can put more people in it to get these kids off of this weight list? And they gave me the okay to do that. Um, and then with that though, with Lego camps, it's only a half day camp. So, they either run 9:00 a.m. to noon or 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. And um $164 for member and residents, $189 for general population. So, um we'll be holding another circus to put camp this spring. So, we'll do that over spring break. And then we're going to move them a little later in the summer to August next to see if we can get a little more um buildup of of campers into that. And then um we're also I have booked math, science, and Crayola camps for next. And I'll add in with our contract camp, we use those um before and after our program camp um to again give parents options when school is out. Um, and the ones at the end of the summer were much more popular because there's just not kids out there for for parents to

Yeah. So, is there a a reason that members don't get a more of a discount than residents on these things? Oh, it's just members slash residents because they're both paying into No, I understand, but I'm thinking of another feature that we can get more members. Well, The base rate is is doesn't go. No, I understand that. I'm just saying it'd be cheaper for if you were a member. Cheaper if you're a member. Yeah, it would be if you're a member and a res.

No, I mean if you're a member, you would have one rate if you're a res but not a member member. Soation. And I'm just thinking in terms of helping the marketing. Yeah. confusion when you're a non-resident member. You still get the member rate. Non-residents that are members still get the member rate. Okay.

So for um mad science um last year it was they were wanting 260 a child and then for bricks for kids it was 124. So we're marking it up. We're that's what happens. So I guess it why don't we have a program? So it becomes an issue of staffing. Oh

because you have a lot of staff that is going back to college or getting ready for high school um or they're starting their um sports like I can generally maybe get them a week into August and then that's it. Right. And even that last week at camp, there are a lot of college students who are ready and getting ready to go back to school. Yeah. It's not just us, right? Kids parents will need to send their kids to our program, which is why we do the contract camps.

And what you'll find also is that um a lot of other contract camps have difficulty getting staff too. So the the options for the contract camps diminish as well. And that's why our camps tend to fill up in August because we're we're one in the only agencies able to kind of feel the team during that time. So I try and reach all the way up to that first day of school for them. Okay. Yeah. We try we do the best we can. And how do those how do those prices compare to housing around us? Um they are very comparable. Some are a little less, some are a little more. It really just depends on what percentage people are putting on top of.

When we set the fees, we look at the other cities. Some are heavily subsidized. So florisoncent traditionally is very very cheap. Um now there are a lot of camps in this region and a lot of them are much more expensive than ours. MICs does camps that are We do have a spreadsheet coming up. Oh, we do. All right. Thank you very much. Get ahead of the game before you get there. So how do we decide the number we think we can fill? So that is based upon what they said. So I when I reach out to a contractor like Mad Science, they tell me what their minimum number to run, what their maximum number to run so that they stay within a ratio. Okay. Right. Yeah. It's their their staff to camper ratio.

Okay. And generally it's a minimum 10 campers, maximum. Now with circus kaput, uh oh my gosh, Josh is willing to take on that 30. So that's why it can get a little bit more in and he uses the gym. Yeah. Whereas math science, they're doing science activities. They use a room. Yeah. So you get into room, you get into materials and all of that. Yeah.

Um so with our program camp, um we did have a name change from Camp Oo to Camp Five Oaks. This year um so for this summer, we offered camp for ages um 12 or sorry 5 to 12. Our maximum capacity is 60 campers a week. Um, our hours are 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. That is an 8week duration. So, we do eight oneweek sessions. Um, our rates are $199 for members and residents for 5 days, $189 for 4 days. Um, those are days where we have weeks where we have um Junth and Fourth of July. Then, um, for general, it's $224 for five days and $214 for four days. We offer acid repair, which goes from the end of camp at 3 p.m. until 530. That's $59 for members of residents for 5 days, $49 for 4 days, and then $79 or sorry, $74 for general, $64 for 4 days. Now, this is where we get into our feed waiver programs like we talked about a little bit earlier. If a camper is on free lunch at school, which they have to provide um their paper to me to prove that they are getting that, they get a 50% discount on camp. If they are on reduced lunch, they get a 25% discount. Um our other rates that we do have, we have the a family rate of um sibling discount of 10% off of siblings. Um and then we also offer an 8week discount. So if they sign up for all eight weeks at one time, they get 10% off which roughly saves them about a week.

So can they get that and the sibling? No, one or the other. And do we limit the number of kids will take and reduce the free lunch program or what? It's whatever we get. And it it fluctuates widely. Um and then we the reason we use the free reduced lunch program is so Yeah. So that then we do not have to ask someone's financial information. We really want to protect people's dignity and do it as easily as possible. They have a letter from the school that that gives the details and then they just show us that letter. So we really want to advertise that. So we make that we do everyone is aware. Yeah. We put it in the activity guide in the camp brochure. Yeah. Um

next slide.

Yes. Um, so by camp books by the numbers, we served a total of 378 children over eight weeks. Now, what that looks like is some of those campers we see multiple weeks in a row. Some we only see once uh once during the summer. Um, but that equates to 137 unique campers that pay to us. So, um, our average was 47 campers per week this year with a total revenue of $88,238. Um, camp expenses were $65,544. That excludes department costs, so like um full-time salaries, things of that nature. What it does include is any camp supplies that we buy. um our ACA membership, which that's um America

American Camping Association. Um t-shirts for both leaders and campers, our field trip expenses, staff wages, credit card fees, and um this year we partnered with the APA. Um we made a payment to them based upon sorry the um things that they provided for you. Um and then our largest expenses are for staff wages, transportation and field trip costs.

Um so some adaptations um that we made this year with camp. Um first we had all eight weeks of camp here at Five Oaks this summer. Um that included the use of the multi-purpose room, the gym, the indoor playground, the kitchen, and the course and park. Um, our pros, um, the parking lot works beautifully for pickup and drop off with with our circle. Um, more choices for afterare, so they could play in the indoor playground. They could play in the gym, they could play, um, board games in here. Like, so they had a little more feasibility of running off a little energy in the afternoon if they still had it. Um, e very easy access to Orson Park. They just walk up the greenway trail. Um they like that we made our snacks and uh one day a week we'd make our snack in the kitchen together. Um they always looked forward to it. Um they love the indoor playground. Um of course this is a newer facility than Hillrest was just just by a bit. Um we have ACA AC throughout the facility. If you've ever been up to Hillrest they do not. Um, we had more full-time staff interactions with campers this summer. We also had more interactions with the public, which I know quite a few of the public like seeing the campers around. Um, and then utilizing the greenway. Um, I've had actually a lot more campers bike and walk to camp this year.

So, um, really nice. They also used the greenway um to walk down to Indian Meadows Park and use the splash pad there in their mound. So it gave them a little bit more freedom and flexibility and um of course they walked unsupervised. We weren't just seven. Assume that say go out and play for five women. Yeah. Um our only cons we don't have a um permanent gaga ball pit um up in Morrison Park. I was able to buy a um it's a collapsible one this summer. So, we do have that. I know. Yeah. What is it? Gaga. So, it is a

that big dodge ball, but you have to keep the ball in the ground. Octagonal P. Yes. Okay. So when the camp was at Stacy, we had one that we set up with um pallets and then we also had that at the old community center. And then we were at Hillrest. They have a permanent one that's built there. When you get hit, you're out. Yep. And you played all the last

and it's just like any game that really takes off in elementary school. There's all these chivaliths and special rules and you know it can get very competitive. So we really limit the time they can play to keep it very exciting. We lay down the rules like whenever before they go play basketball, we review the rules that are camp 5 rules. Isn't they? Yeah. When I grew up, they were higher. Yeah. And then um there was um one of our other cons was just wear and tear to the multi-purpose room and Yeah, it Yeah, it was quite severe. So, is there a way to minimize that? the investment.

Is it worth the investment of looking at like the plastic chairs for the summer and do we have the storage today?

You know, we we're we're we're doing some brainstorming. You'll hear some more about that. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um so then our curriculum we um every day scheduled items, we have free play outside. We also have structured play outside. Um lunch and snack time. Our weekly scheduled items. So, we do a different theme each week and underneath that theme, we do an arts and crafts project that goes with it. We do a STEM project. Um, we our snack normally kind of matched that theme. Um, and then the um and then our field trip matches pretty close to it. Um, other things that we do um each week we have structured playtime in the gym and then playtime in the indoor playground. Our field trips this summer were um we went to Aqua Port on weeks 2, four, six, and eight. That is generally the the field trip they all love. Um it is the most stressful field trip though. And then um week we one we went to the St. Louis Zoo. Week two or sorry week three we went out to Powder Valley.

What is Powdered Valley? So that is the um Missouri Department con of conservation out in Kirkwood. It is um they have a nature center. They have a nature center in third grade. That's a really cool something else. Oh, yes it did. It was called Okay. It's like a 270 and 44. Yeah. Powder. It's a fantastic Oh, yes. I very much encourage going out there. It's very neat. They have walking trails. They have an indoor facility. Lots of animals and insects and reptiles and amphibians. Yeah, it's a the kids love it. Yeah.

The um and then on week five we went to Grant's Farm and then week seven we went to the silent center. Um okay, so here's our camp comparisons with other local camps. So we have um St. Louis County um they only charge 120 a week. Uh Maryland Heights. This says 2026. Is that So yes. So that is pricing for next year. This is for next year. So they've already done the survey for next year. Yeah.

Um uh Maryland Heights 195 a week for residents, 225 for non-residents. Chesterfield 150 a week for residents, 190 for non-residents. Um Crestwood is whenever you get into decimal points, it's because they don't do weekly camps. I Chesterfield or sorry Crestwood does um two week sessions. So that's why you get decimal points but 10375 for residents a week 11625 for non-residents. Richmond Heights is 220 a week for residents, 225 for non-residents. Kirkwood is 190 a week for residents, 235 for non-residents. Webster Bros 135 a week for residents. 55 for non-residents. Depair is 200 for residents, 240 for non-residents. Manchester 13750 for residents, two um 165 for non-residents. Um I threw one spill in there just because I had their numbers. Um they're 220 a week um for residents, 270 for non-residents. Then um YMCA's Maryland Heights is 185 for residents, 225 for non-residents. Brentwood YMCA is 180 for residents, 200 for non-residents. And then the J in Creore is 330 a week for residents, 355 for non-residents. A big thing you have to remember about a lot of these though is they have pool attached.

So the ones that have pools, are they typically higher? They are. We're running pretty close with them. Yeah. Um but they one of their things that they're not paying for that we are is to go to a pool. Oh, right. The transportation costs, right? Yeah. So, give us our numbers. Is um 199 a week for residents and 224 a week for non. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Say we're pretty on par with most of them. So you can tell when you look at Chester Chesterfield doesn't have a community center. So where do they put that camp? So up until last year it was in the mall.

Okay. Um they are at now at um one of their parks. I think they're central. And which the ones that are outdoors? Kirkwood. So Kirkwood is 100% outdoors. Um they're kind of similar to us. They're outdoors as much as possible, but they do have indoor facilities.

Okay. Right. Right. And then um the other thing that comes to play with this is which which a some agencies um as you can tell do a deeper subsidy for their programs than we do. And we really try and recoup back our operating costs. Um because like I can tell you like um Ferguson, they're charging next year $110 a week for 6:00 a.m. to 700 p.m. You can drop your kid off anytime. That that model just doesn't work for us. Yeah. Yeah. Right.

But then again, our fee waiver program really helps. So as we increase our fees, we know that that everyone can it's it keeps camp accessible to everyone. What you don't see on here are the private camps with so the private camps are typically double this. Yes. So I can tell you MICDS is normally about 500 a week. Yes. And their staff are pretty much the same staff we have. They're high school and college kids. Yeah. So um is their programming better? their facilities are better. They've got the pool on site. They do um they do advanced things. They bring in robotics and different things like that, but the leadership is very similar.

Well, we've uped our game quite a bit. We have. Yeah, we really have.

Um so, some feedback from our parents this year. So, um some survey metrics, just so you know, we sent out a survey on um August 1st, which that was the last day of camp. We also sent it out on August 15th to try and drum up some more. Um we had a total of 41 responses which is 13 more than we got last year. Um because we got 28 last year. Um some of the um the parents comments from their overall satisfaction with camp. So um we only attended one week and my daughter seemed to enjoy camp. Great camp and our daughter loved it. My son loved all of the counselors, the indoor playground and all of the field trips. He had so much fun. We can't wait to go back. My kid said the new location made camp more fun this year. Uh we love camp five Oaks. The counselors Joel being so present and involved. The activities and field trips the price point. Um this was a camper book. It's not that fun and I'd rather do other things. Uh our kid had a great time. See you next year. I know another feedback I had gotten from a um camper's parent via email was they had come to our parent meeting which was me this year um which the parents were able to come and kind of went over what camp looked like and they were able to ask all of their questions. Um I had one parent who specifically reached out and said this is um so well structured I'm signing her up for more than just the one week I started. separate.

That's great.

Um some improvements that we'll be doing next year. Um ordering our t-shirts sooner so we can give them out at our parent night. Um we were able to this year we gave out their um pickup signs. Thank you. U and we want to include the t-shirt with that too so it can just be a bundle. Here you go. Um and then planning more. This year we only planned the first four weeks of camp with the counselors. Next year, my goal is to plan almost all eight during training so that they are ready to go day one for all eight weeks. Um improving counselor training by adding more time to play games. So them learning different games, new games, improved upon games. Um learning our rules to things because like we said, everybody's got different rules. um going over scenarios, acting out how to deal with situations that do come up at camp so that they are not stunned when something out of the ordinary happens. Um a having more structured play outside. Um that's one of our goals is to get them outside as much as possible. Um and then the other thing we're going to go with is only league counselors can have their cell phones outside of an emergency at camp who don't want to see their cell phones. And then um more structured play during drop off and pickup. That was one of the things that the parents had asked that had mentioned to us was um having that structured time still during those hours.

So um can you talk about training in here? Should I mention that now?

So we do five days of training for the staff before they work with the kids and we hire a range of young people. So between kids in high school, this is their very first job to people from in college that have worked multiple camps other places or for us. Um then they also go through CPR certification if they don't have it already. And as you can imagine, the kids that have never had a job before, it is a very it's a very interesting um training. We we you know, we do it. It's the tradition that's done in parks and recreation is to do this inservice training. It's the tradition I came up with with the five days of training, sometimes six. Not all agencies do it. Some agencies do one day. So, I think that it's really important that we do that week and that's why we don't offer camp during that week and that's why we we try and offer a contract during that time. But it is pretty involved and we have definitely seen a shift in the skill sets that the kids are coming in that are working for us. So reliance on cell phones is is a problem and we work to address that. Um also the ability to stand in front of a group and speak is very difficult for them. So we do a lot of coaching with that. A lot of them come in with no no prior experience of going to camp themselves. So they don't know camp songs. So that is a very interesting dynamic to to suddenly not just teach them additional camp songs but teach them what a camp song is, how to sing it and how to do it all the time. So it is um it each year it seems a little progressively harder and the amount of information we have to give them is a little bit more. So kudos to Jill and TJ for doing a really thorough training. We had a very cohesive staff this year. It was a marked improvement over previous years. So, I'm I'm very

appreciative of that and I just know it's going to get better and better. Um, we've had previous summer camps back um many years ago that I refer to as Lord of the Flies. So, that is not something that we do now. It is very structured. There's a program. The themes are fantastic. A lot of care goes into selecting where they're going to go on these field trips. So, um, so I'm very, um, I'm very pleased with this with this camp program and and I know it's going to get even better.

The other, sorry, the other thing I was going to add on top of that, we've also had a CIT program, which is counselor in training. We take 14 and 15 year olds, and we saw a marketedly uptick in the amount of CITs I had this past summer, which was wonderful. I have I have some CITs who work with me all eight weeks. Some will do a couple weeks here and there. We all we ask from them is three weeks to commit to.

Um and a lot of my then coming up counselors I am able to do like an informal interview at that point of how are you how are you um talking to the kids? How are you playing with them? Are you sitting over here on your cell phone and not paying attention to them? And it makes it a lot easier to then hire really good counselors that then become lead counselors and hopefully one day become my director. Yes. Yes, that would be fantastic. So, do we charge for that? The CIT program, we do not because they're volunteering for us. And they So, they come for free. They get community service hours. Yes. Yes. They're not coming for free. They're required to work. They have to do jobs. We're not charging them. We don't charge service hours.

We're giving them service hours. Exactly. And And a lot of the schools require it. Yeah. Yeah. Do we give them any reading counselors? We do. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I um last year about half of my staff came back from the previous year. Right. Right. And the ones that return I mean each year they're more and more solid and then it's heartbreaking because around their junior senior year in college they get that pressure from the parents to do an internship. So we always tell them you can do an internship with us. Yes. But um it's always not what the parents

that is not what the parents have in mind. But um but you know the the skills that these young people learn in leading camp are phenomenal. We have someone here who leads our parade because you have summer camp in your in your background, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. We talk about we talk about that during because I do an introduction and I talk about how this is something that they will take forward on their resumes and that um when I see that someone's worked in camp because I worked in camp myself. I know what that entails. I know that that means that they had to learn to talk to parents. They had to be responsible for young people which is a really important thing for them to understand. These are famil family's you know dear beloved most important possessions and the trust that they have in trusting their children to us. We cannot emphasize that enough. We don't want to scare them so they don't want to come to work anymore. But we really emphasize that importance and the and the things that they do that the kids want to emulate and and they see that throughout the summer. If a leader is wearing his sunglasses a certain way, tucking his shirt a certain way, doing his hair a certain way, halfway through the summer, you start seeing some of the kids doing that. So, they can really see the influence they're having on these young people.

I had children crying at the end of because they was to miss their leaders. Yeah, we had very good leaders. Yeah, very good leaders this year. And this year we gave all the leaders um a membership to because we really wanted them to use the facility and then since then some of them actually uh bought memberships because they live locally. So that was really nice to see that. Yeah. Oh, so it's your question time. Question time. Uh I was trying not to interact with the truth. So you're probably not going to have this answer and that's okay. So one of the things you talked about was camp cost.

Uh been you I wouldn't expect you to as part of that to have the sunk cost from the building and all the people. But we have roughly have an idea what that is just I mean obviously camp shouldn't pay for that but you know how much are we helping city you know city council you know pay for our own activities? We have not done a breakdown of full-time staff. That is not that's not an exercise we've done with any of our programs. We label that indirect overhead. Okay. Because if camp were to be eliminated, our full-time staff would still be still have Yeah. Why and we don't uh the city structure does not bill us for the time of finance and HR. Okay.

U we do handle a lot of our HR tasks here with the part-time staff. So all of the part-time staff, recruitments, interviews, hiring is done here, not at HR. Um and then they send the documentation to HR and then they get them into payroll. So that all happens here. So that is a cost savings we're giving to this to um city hall. Um the cost of the time the building's not being used, we have not factored that in. We are working on getting a just an overall operating cost of what it costs to open the door every day, but they camp is occupying a time that's not super busy. We don't put camp in the gym when pickle ball's played.

Very smart. So, they go in midday when that's our lull. That's our big l. So, it is nice to have them here during that time. But we we are doing a lot of brainstorming on how to create more spaces outside. this room took a beating. We there were some very expensive repairs we did based on that we you know that that we know we know those amounts that can't continue. Um so they'll be it's coupled with um partly training, partly where we put the kids and the timing. You know what what activities are they doing when are they in here when they're really full of energy in the morning? Are we bringing them in in the afternoon when they're really tired? So, there's different things we can do to kind of mitigate some of the actions. And Maxine's suggestion about chairs, we halfway through the summer bought new covers for all the tables that are plastic and reusable. So, that has helped a lot. Uh, we didn't do any paint activities this summer. Um, but they do they do messy things outside, which is helpful. And we're we're exploring, can we do a lunch eating operation outside in one of the shaded areas and bring some of our we have tons of extra picnic tables. So, could we create a really nice place for them that's shaded and sheltered and they can have a nice place to eat lunch so they're not eating lunch in this room?

Yeah. And the other pieces we would be purchased and they donated some of the you know shelters. They can't the flies. Yeah. Like we have it ahead of Yes. Thank you. Yes. Yeah. Those we can Yes. We can explore something similar there. Um there are little you we get a lot of weather come coming through. So very

yeah we had a we had an incident during uh harvest fest. We had two weights on each of the tents and two of the tents blew up just during harvest festival. So we're buying more weights. So again that's why we're talking about finding spaces where we can shelter it, have it be nice and uh and safe. Yeah. Absolutely. We mentioned about the singing. Um, do you bring someone in during those their background to teach them some of the camp songs? I I taught the camp songs. I love teaching camp songs. There's also someone in the community that's might volunteer their time because they're doing all of that. So,

they could that would be great. I'd love to get that contact. Yeah, we also would be might be nice to have that person for the family. Yes. Maxine could absolutely Maxine could teach arts and crafts too. I was very fortunate this summer that my director, he had a lot of camp experience and had a very good repertoire of you know songs.

He had worked at a sleepa away camp too which is getting getting anyone that's worked at a sleepaway camp is a coup. So that was a big deal. and he's majoring in recreation. So, that was that was a huge fun. We really hope he'll come back next year, but unfortunately, he's really trying to find a full-time job. So, probably we do have a couple of hotspots whose house last summer that we didn't do very well. Yes, absolutely. We have a young woman that um is a member here and she's phenomenal and all of that residents. Have we looked at going to the other end of the spectrum for camp counselors like retirees or people in I mean I don't mean that in a bad way.

No, we so we advertise on Indeed and there's no age requirement like well sorry there's no high there's no cap on the age. We will hire people and we have hired people that um that are adults or retirees. They don't always stay but we have we have in the past. So would you like to work next summer? No, but Oh, you mean here. I thought you meant general. Absolutely. And you know what Jill mentioned about having the kids here

is really important because one of the things that when we were building this center, one of the things we really talked about was opportunities for intergenerational programming. So having the kids here when our older adults are here is really important and hopefully as that happens more and more some of those older adults may want to volunteer particularly with the younger kids.

So we'd love to see that. Absolutely. Because I I firmly believe that that is that just makes our whole community richer when we have those opportunities for intergeneration. One thing I noticed I may have forgotten you said ages 5 to 12 what do we we put on um the whatever the 12-year-olds are in their by themselves just so they're not running over the young ones. Um supposed to be on that. Oh they absolutely can. Adults can use it. Yeah. Yeah. I was just wondering where is there and they they absolutely but I Yeah.

Have you gone down the slide before the slide is fast. It's a very fast. Yeah. Yeah. It is a fast slide. It's not as fast as the fire departments. No, that is just ended up coming up backwards enough.

Yeah. You got to be careful in that fire department one. Um just an observation from what I was comfortable about um on behalf of the council. I would like to just thank you very uh both something last summer. We were think at one point you were walking around here with some food or something and you had camp going on and life went crazy. See, a lot of times I have my uh compression sleeve on just about five years ago I booked my phone. So,

but but you but you're a super and you live and breathe camp, which you have to do because I know that being a camp director in the past, but it's you know, it's instant. You don't sleep for the eight weeks. know that, you know, but it's a energy here when we come up to work out. The energy and the kids and you know, just you know, it was it was a questionless summer going into the summer and the kids were well behaved and they were polite and you know just really absolutely. Yeah, we put the fear in them too enough if they were to your room.

Well, a lot of it was just, you know, just it just happens. Yeah. Yeah. you know, little ones trying to open a juice box. Good God. Yeah. All right. So, is that it? That is it. Thank you so very much. Thank you. Move on. Item number six, annual work plan. I don't know updates. So, should we start? Oops. Dark. Yep. Dark sky.

Dark sky. Well, we were going to submit our application because I was I was under the impression that you could submit all the parks on one application. When Jill tried to do that, it was rejected. So, they are going to use all of that as a pilot program um to

Yes. to uh to consider like to figure out how it's going to work that we going to do all our remaining four parks at once because they would like other cities to do the same thing and there's so much that you know that's repeat for each part. Plus, it's easier for them if we do just one application because otherwise they got to review four applications. Yeah.

And so yeah, so there's so um I think and then um D was in charge of it and then Beverly was out so we need to schedule a meeting. So I think the the really important thing that Stephanie would lead with is that Bill and Stephanie have had meetings and they've been doing work. So the you know we have that result but I I think it's important to say thank you for meeting because you guys met between meetings. Well, you were there too. I was I was but yeah it was good. We had the application all ready to go for all four parts and we did submit it. I mean, so and it is progress even though it is a step forward, a step right sideways. Yeah.

Um, so yes, Beverly, do you are you are you taking because he you know, he should talk to you. So, are you taking the lead to set up a meeting? I will. Yes. And and yeah, I came back uh midweek last week and I have to get through Turkey Trot and then I will reach out to him. Oh, yeah. And who's that? The guy from Dark Sky. It's our our our our representative from the National Dark Sky Organization. And so I will or case manager to be on the call, but I'm not going to say anything because he's looking for you to give him assurance that they're all Yeah. Please. Yeah. Yeah. No problem. But I I will be setting that up. Well, I'm just

I agree with you. We're in charge. That wasn't what my lip was for until I guess what are they looking from us? And that's what I kind of haven't been able I mean I don't know either. Okay. That's what I I don't know. I don't know what they need from us

because there's so much I think I think he just wants us to to say okay you know we've got a lighting management plan that's going to be the same. Your letters of support are going to be the same. So I think I think what I think we should maybe we could talk this off light. I think we should say is we will do the sky quality measurements at each part. you know, so you got you've got darkness in the very least. So, we should do that at each bar. Um, we've got the coordinates of each bar. Oh, we should do a lighting inventory for each part, too. So, those are the two biggies. Do the sky quality meters and the lighting for other than that, I'm trying to

So, why do we meet offline? And what I'm thinking what I what I'd prefer for us to do is I don't want to go meet with him and go, "What do you want to do?" I don't know. What do you want to do? And then we spend an hour going, well, why don't we do some stuff and then why don't we lay out what we want to do, present it to him in that meeting, and then have him say what else he wants so that at least we're driving. Yeah. Because I think I think all he has to do is adjust their application to say, "We're an agency. Here's our agency lighting plan. Here's our agency policies and practices, blah blah blah." And then these are our individual sites and then the specifics for each site. I think that's all that needs to happen. Yeah,

let's write that proposal. Exactly. Otherwise, because I don't want them thinking and then oh, let's come up with a new requirement out of the blue. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So, you guys take that? Yeah, we'll take it. We're already going to meet, but let's we'll do a Stephanie and I can meet do a preme and come up with an agenda. We're good. Item 6B, outreach opportunity. Yes. Outreach opportunity. So, our big thing happening next week, turkey trout, we are on track to have about 2,000 runners. So, it's very exciting. We'd really like to be able to give $15,000 to the food pantry. We're really working on that.

What? That I'm 15,000. We're really hoping. Really hope the most to be the early We were I think we might have done that. We might have done that last year. I think we did that last year. I think I think we did 15 last year. But we really our you know everything's gone up. Every shirt's more everything's more here. So we're really hoping. You also ask people to bring hand donations. We've had four pickups already from here which is fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. Well, they need to call and get a pickup. Yeah. So are we tracking that? Well, we kind of do if they send checks. No, we can't track it. But if people people when they register can donate additional money is pretty out. Yes.

We're also a number of Yeah. We're also selling raffle tickets for two $250 gas cards for Mobile on the Run. So, Mobile on the Run gave those. So, um those are selling. So, we're hoping to get um a little bit of money from that. So, we'll be really pushing them hard during packet pickup. Packet pickup is next Tuesday and Wednesday in this room. So, we're going to have displays from because we have a captive audience. We're going to have department displays in there. The food pantry will also have information out. Uh, Great Rivers Greenway will also have their information out about the new extension. Do you need help from this committee for packet pickup? Um, packet pickup I think we have covered. We might need a little bit on Tuesday if you're interested. Which day is what time? Tuesday.

It's Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday. Yeah, Tuesday. Um, you have the time. Well, we start um it's 9 to 6 on Tuesday and Wednesday it's 9 to5. However, I have a bunch of volunteer shifts filled. So, I don't I can't tell you right now exactly when those are. Okay. It's slow on Tuesday. It gets really busy on Wednesday and there's certain times Darren sort of has a spreadsheet about when it gets super busy. Okay. I will. Okay. Thank you. Maybe if you could also figure out where you've got the holes and then if you could circulate to us. Yeah, I'll send an email out.

Um the other thing we may need help with is setting up the park. That's um we sometimes need help with that. So I'll can send that out. Yeah. Uh we're doing a big photo booth this year sponsored by Plant Haven Farms. So it's hay bales that's going to have mums and gourds and blankets for people to have a nice cute picture. day. I know you're missing out, huh? It's okay. You're It's important to go with your family. Um Jim has a need for parking volunteers the day of. It's a very fast job. It's in and out. You don't have to do the race. You don't have to stay for the race. You can just come help park ours. So, if that anyone's interested in doing that, right? Oh, good.

So, we can park cars. Like there's a Ferrari. We can go. Sadly, no. I've got a bunch of our family But always, but we always need more more help. Yep. Well, I think you're have more than 2,000 people in the You think we have more? I hope so. That's what I'm hearing. I'd like to We our numbers aren't showing it yet, but I'm here and they're showing up. Okay. Unless it's pouring. It's the Yeah, weather has a big So, if the weather is as it's saying right now, you're going to have weather. Yeah. When it's sunny, our registration goes up. If it's pouring rain, it goes down. Just like and if it's cold,

the minute we get a sunny day in March, all of a sudden we start getting picnic reservations and then the cold will come back and they all stop again. It turn it turns cold once. Not horrible. It's not as bad as every good news is that the the rain is Yeah, they were predicting rain. Yeah, rain is bad. Yeah, but it's much better. Yeah, rain is bad for parking. Yeah, very bad. All right. Okay, so green team green team submitted. Oh, are you Yeah. Um, why don't you do yours and then I can I can fill.

So, Green Team submitted the annual report for the challenge to Missouri Botanical Garden and the Earthway Center. So, that was a huge thing that the committee did. Thankfully, I did not have to write that report. I was very pleased. Um, and we sent our pictures in which is very exciting. And, uh, that's my main news. Okay. We we had a meeting with with the various municipalities, Crestwood, Brentwood, and this was at the Greenway station, right? And Jim, you and Susie represented us, right? Yeah. Very interesting to see what different places we're doing. And in some cases, people are looking to us really in terms of what we're doing.

That's fantastic. So, uh, we've got a long ways to go, but I think that it's it's a good collaborative effort. It is in terms of finding out what people are are thinking, what they what they could do. Um, I one thing that came up were goats. Oh, yeah. And Brentwood had goats. Good. And the more people that do it, the better. So when we bring them in, we don't get the complaints. Yeah. So, and they they talk about that. So, but just in terms of recycling and some of the things that those and I think we're having another meeting on Friday.

Great. Great. We want to ask the city council if the city wants to bring this to just Well, I I believe that um when they set their goals in the springtime that that will be one of the things they discuss. Okay, that's my guess because the green team members on the council. So I my assumption would be it would be discussed. But when we launched this, we knew that it was a department project, not a city project. So but I thought the the hope was that once the city saw that it's not that ownorous Yes. that they would take they would step off of

Yeah. I I believe that that that uh is always our hope, but I don't want the parks commission to be the the big one saying you need to do this. I think I think we're still kind of in the ramp up stage and to see where where we are. I think we need to I mean I would be surprised if it was selected or it was adopted this year. Yeah. Because we really have we've done Don't take this wrong word. We've done good work but we don't necessarily have a lot to show for it yet. we're on a track to. So by next year, right, a great we've done these things

and the things we're doing in the parks and rec department are phenomenal and we're doing fabulous things and we're light years ahead a lot of other parks and rec departments around here. But when the city takes it on, there's a whole host of things that have happen with public works, engineering, fire, and police that we we are not in that realm. So that's why I really don't want to be an advocate for them because I know the amount of work you'll be involved there. Um so I I'm very pleased with the way we're we're going right now and we'll let the council take the lead on that and and I think coming up that council meeting is in between. Oh, sorry. Sorry. No, it's been off. Oh, it's been out. Okay.

And come coming up with from the meeting. Uh, a lot of the cities started with parks. They did. Yeah. Webster Grove started with parks and they they did it in parks for a couple of well several years before it went citywide. All right. Commissioner Park visit. Uh, I sent you a late email. My apologies. No, there's no reason to apologize. I was I had a late doctor appointment and then forgot that I didn't send it to you. show on my way home when I dropped off my wife. I emailed it to you. Um I had a computer uh virus issue today. I don't

I will see if I can get into I might be able to get through the I'll just walk through it. So Okay, great. Don't look at me because I still haven't added to you yet. I know. As soon as I saw you, I'm like, "Don't look at me. Don't look at me." Do that. I got I still have that receipt sitting on my desk in here. Awesome. Uh we did have we had several uh people that went through uh numbers are about the same overall. There wasn't any major comments that I've seen. Okay. U overall, I mean, we're trending about the same. Okay. Uh I know that's not very exciting and I had graphs that showed all that. Yeah.

Uh again, the request is if everybody could go I know I I give your access. It's I spent longer complaining why I haven't done it than it'll actually take you to sign. Uh but if you if you go just remember the form you can actually keep it I have I literally leave it on my phone all the time. Uh then all you got to do is just go through it takes 30 seconds. Uh one reminder when you do it uh all the fields are required. So like even if there's you know there are any issues if there's none just put no you can't skip it. U you know one thing I've noticed and probably other people have as well now it's getting cooler I haven't seen as many people in the parks right I didn't add this in one of my comments but I was excited to see at least in vill mold's being put down

yes and I got watch the tractor that's always that's the 10-year-old in me watching the tractor move absolutely um but overall it's been good I did hear comments people talking about at least in Villa with the work that's been done and now the grass being put in how it looks better you know and it's getting there so that is good

yeah Um, but yeah, I mean, just please go to the parks. If you don't document it, that that's okay. You know, one of the the comments was we should all be going and we think everybody should. I I I personally am horrible at if I don't I actually have to schedule everything. I just had to schedule a meeting Jim next Thursday otherwise I would not have been there. Uh, you know, but if you need to put it in your calendar to just go visit a park, you know, do it. Uh, it's good for us and it's it's good for the parks and it's amazing Sue said and I think Stephanie as well how many people you just I keep I never put it in

and it's it's it's more important that we're out and at the parks than it is we document it. U but just being out and about is huge. Um I do have a quick update. We had some more vandalism at Indian Meadows. Um, however, it was in the bathrooms which are now locked for the season. We took care of it, but there is a trail cam at Indian Meadows right now. So, the police are, you know, we actively work with them to figure out what's going. It is kids and it's kids from the neighborhood. So, of course,

of Yeah, it always is. It's not kids from, you know, another town. It's our it's our it's our kids. It's it's all of it. Yes. Yeah. Related I guess to the parks and I guess it fits under one of the big topics we talked about quite a bit in the summer was the pavilion at Indian Meadows and an issue. Is that better or Okay. So I we haven't talked about it in a while. We haven't talked about it in two years. Okay. Yeah. We are not renting it.

We've we've taken it offline so it's not being rented. It um is something that the council will have to address in the future. It's on our uh vision to renovate that playground and figure out a solution for the pavilion at that time. Yeah. So, this commission can let the council take the lead on that. Any question for me? But the work at uh at least I've been last couple weeks at Bill and I look pretty good. They do. Their staff's doing great. They look good. There's just not I mean it's cooler so there's just not as many people working on and we've done a lot of seating. So you'll hear about that

and there's some stuff being Okay. So Patrick switched up the monthly update for you on on five oaks to make it less repetitive. So

Oh, sorry. I apologize. Um so, uh oh, little typo, but what we um what he really wanted to highlight for you is is is a very interesting thing with we've been watching and that is our daily usage fees have been dramatically increasing. So, you have this fabulous uh uh graph that he's put here. So, non-resident youth and adults are vastly more uh purchasers of the day use pass instead of a membership. We've even done uh you get a discount if you buy 10 visits. They still don't do that, but they're coming and they're repeaters and they're coming regularly. If they were to buy an annual pass, they would save dramatically, but they prefer to pay the daily fees. It is They play basketball. They work out. Uh ping pong is really gaining in momentum.

Yeah. These are what age group they are anywhere from high school kids up to 40 year olds. Not residents. So they're coming from what? Like they come from Crefcore, uh Welston, University City, Frontac, um unincorporated county. Yeah. But you know, pe people get they get their groups, the people they want to play with. Pip and trendy. Yeah, we are. We get a lot of Parkway High School kids coming to play basketball and it's phenomenal watching them tonight. Yeah. They're so good. Yeah. So it

what I know it's Yeah, it's it's it's very interesting. A lot of Leoo kids come and they buy the passes and they use a This is shocking to me. I know it's the trend, but they're using little their own little debit cards and then they go and they use their debit cards at the vending machine and then they order Uber Eats to get delivered and then they take Uber home. So, how much have they spent in the time they're here? Phenomenal amounts. So, um

hey, don't complain. So, uh, what we're seeing is because there's so many non-residents here, but not as many residents, they're they're going to do some outreach targeted to youth and adults about the day passes because they are very popular. So, they're going to little bit around that. But the other thing that's interesting to see is where you see the peaks of of huge increases particularly particularly non-resident youth and um uh resident youth. you see the the peaks happening when school's out. So, college kids coming home at break, we get a lot of kids come in um starting in December, we'll see a huge uptake in the here through January and then in the summertime. Absolutely. And then the dips, this is what's really interesting.

That's interesting. Pat found the dips coincide with an increase of membership sales for both non-residents and residents. So, there are some of these that are translating into buying a membership and then some of them will come in and out. So there was a young man from Leoo High School came in I guess because basketball season is coming. He came in and reactivated his monthly membership that he had discontinued at this in the beginning of the summer. So you know it's it's very interesting to try and sus out what exactly h is happening. How how is the looking for ID? I was going to ask when does that correlate to our

Did not lip at all because all the other centers make you do it. What? Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. The um um we started you were having some problems. Yeah.

And it totally took care of it. Totally took care of it. We had a we had a problem um before I went to California. I kicked a young man out. indefinitely because he was um uh betting on shots. So, he's out, but we had his photo in the system. I knew who he was and he was exactly who he said he was. So, the system's working. So, he's banned now. He's got a flag on his account, so it worked. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Because there is absolutely no gambling there. It didn't impact no usage at all. No. No. It's been fantastic. It's actually I think I'm guessing it may have improved our usage. No, but I do know that people like it. You know, some people say, "Oh, I'm glad you're doing that." So, I I've heard that.

Yeah. I've heard that they feel more comfortable here. I'd be very interested to know who you're talking to because that is not what I've heard, but that's great. I mean, I hear people are comfortable here, but I haven't heard that it's directly correlated to that. So, that's good. Okay. I agree. Couple comments.

Great. Um then we had a question at the last meeting about when people how often are people renewing, re-upping or cancelling. So Pat spent a lot of trying to get a lot of time trying to get that out of our software. You would think that that is a software report that everybody with memberships would want to know, but he ended up having to do was run sales reports, put them together, and then sort them in Excel to kind of find the duplicates. So what he found is that we've had cancellations and the disproportional amount of those cast cancellations are the monthly users. And when you think about it in a broader perspective, that makes sense because a lot of times people that are monthly users may not have a steady income. They don't want to they don't have the money to pay for a year at once. And so they maybe have more varying times when they have the money to have their membership. So, just like with any health club.

Oh, and they want their membership with another certain,

right? Then when we did that big push to tell people, hey, if you buy an annual membership, you know, remember we changed the rates to recoup back the credit card fees for the um monthly charges. Well, not not necessarily that, but the staff time because the staff time with the monthly memberships is much higher than the annual because the credit cards expire or go out of service and then uh TJ spends an inordinate amount of time calling people to track down their new numbers and no one answers their phones and you know we don't text. So, you know, it becomes this big thing. So by by putting the monthly memberships up higher, having the the annual membership rate be a deal, a lot of people did cancel their monthly and go to the annual. So that's another thing where you're seeing that there. And then a small number of people came in and bought memberships and then realized, oh, I have active renew or they've retired and now they've switched to active renew. So we see that happening. Um then we also have people that are snowbirds and they'll um there's a big chunk of them just started peeling off for Arizona and Florida and then they'll come back. And then um but then the other thing is uh Pat's going to keep working on this so he can show you some retention trends at the at the next time we meet. So that'll be beneficial. So it was a great question that you asked. did not think it would take this much time, but once cat got his teeth into it, he really really wanted to get you an answer.

Great. Okay, so item number eight, city council report. So, last night we um we got an update on all

um and I don't know if anyone's put on Facebook or social media this week, but Grass Cap is starting to promote that they're going to be opening this winter. They've even starting to advertise that they're coming with St. Louis. Um and um Marriott Courtyard is going to be going in there and PCDC has had a couple very long meetings past few weeks uh over the past month. They're looking at the plans and everything. Um and then that lot where the office building was going to go. Um we've been waiting for a big announcement. Some vice president of some restaurant group or some organization is coming to town. We none of us know anything that wants to see. he needs to come and see the property then they will make a big dinner. So, um we're kind of we did approve last night that um so on the form of patty corn from um Aldi is an empty building. Now that's where the seed um dispensary

right dispensary was I don't know the home dispensary door. Yeah, it's not a dispensary.

It's not a dispensary. It is um they moved over across the street. We are all by acquired that building because we're going to be we have a grant and we're going to be widening that corners for when people leave that area. And so um Alvette now owns that building and to um so that we don't have a liability till spring, we are going to tear down that building sooner and we'd rather have vacant space there than to have an empty building sitting there. So we voted last night to tear the building down. We have a a wrecking company. They will come in and tear it down. Um hopefully we'll be going down before the end of the year or right at the beginning of the year. Um I'm think we're I mean we're hoping to get done before the weather gets crapped. Um it will take anyway in two to three days and then um that area will just be blocked off you know for the time being. But that whole corner will be a whole another new turning lanes which will really help that really

and it will also help with um people going down to cut through the hilltop and it will also help with big trucks turn in and out of the industrial port or in and out of hilltop. Right. So um so well they don't belong on top. Well, I don't

um so so that was um so Bruce was there last night um to present that and we approved all of that. Um and then where um Easy Storage is the owner from Easy Storage or the realtor for Easy Storage and the owner of the bowling alley were there last night. So if you if you're facing leasing storage, there's Domo, there's three um empty shells, and then their their leasing office. So instead of leasing to three different places, it's going to be one place and it is called um Jinyang or Yang Jing

taste of Jingyang Russ and it's um Asian restaurant um and or Chinese I'm not it's Asian fusion sushi Chinese but They bought it. No, but it's it's not. It's a national. It's their furniture. It's not No, it looks like it is. No, that's not They don't have an internet presence yet. They It's a mom and pop restaurant. What?

No, no.

And there's no sushi part of it here. So um so this um they are demand um the owners and they will be moving they are they're in the negotiating but part of parking there compensation is that the is that right to rent to home either and it's a stretch right there along the edge So they're either going to rent them the spaces to start or change it so that they can park diagonal against up against it. So that when you come through there space between the buildings, not just between the parking lot to the bowling alley has like 160 blocks. They're going to sell off part of those spot

and they're a drive-thru which is already a drive-thru. the they're already connected. That part has been um we've done that with the walkable community. Okay. So um and that had already been done and the light the light helps too, right? Yes. Yeah.

So um so the owner of the bowling alley came to the meeting to just assure us that they they are in conversation there. They can work in partnership. That's fantastic for which is nice before a bill and um it it was um like I said we're going to be doing a council retreat towards the end of January to set our goal because by March we will be starting to work on the budget but you don't want to work on the budget or having the goals um

there are still some opening going on with anyone um knows of someone that might be that would be an asset to that um race and we are doing internally for January or something the first year. Do you have a date on Paris bag opening? Um we just know that it looks close. It does. She's Yeah, it looks really close. They both look close. My staff is very excited for Paris.

I I I actually went more than New York. It was pretty Yeah. Um and do you have a date on the apartments? They're trying to coordinate it with this project being done on Friday road. So that um hopefully I think it's this spring or April because they just changed the access to so they um they took the fence down and they moved the path and the parking lot like fully done. Oh wow. So

they made a lot of progress. We try to get that stuff done before it's pretty much done. They're pushing that needs to be done outside so we can just and also in the last two weeks they just there's a massive amount of work has happened and I'm sure they're pushing but their goal is to be leasing up and open by March April. So we're trying to coordinate or Bruce is working really hard to coordinate the project that Christ is being done in time. But once again, we're working he's working very closely in intimately with mod.

Good luck with that question for you on that. Uh and it's probably a mod issue or topic I shouldn't say issue. Uh if you're going west on all at north price that really irritating red uh turn like instead of a yellow or is there any talk about changing that? I mean there's been times where I've sat there like five minutes at 11 o'clock at night and it's I have sat there a long time. I have no idea why it changed because it was well it used to be blinking and I Yeah, that would be nice. Yellow candies. Which one? as the one on the price uh going south. My recommendation would be to email Bruce.

You know that mod there's a mod report of concern. That was I would tell you why that is because if there's three lanes that you have to cross, they don't flash the line. There's not. There's two. There's three. There's three to three. That's that's what because Okay. So, Deman is only just wider. Can you Can you exit down off Deman? Come in the other up Delmare from the back way.

It's It's never cut through. And it's that I would never cut through. Um the clover. Clover. Well, the clover's got the red light, too. You got to go over you got to wait. Got to wait. It's a three. But to confirm that you can put there is a you can go online to modat and uh and yeah we so when we call Bruce and tell him something he refers us to that to that site. That's how I know. Why post dispatch has a what they call the ro. They still exist. Well,

so and I think and I think what the Rapunzel is most excited about right now is park next. There you go. Okay. All right. Okay. Very quickly going to go through Oh, sorry. Park. Tell them what you're doing before you do it. Go ahead.

Very good. So, very quickly, uh, big news is we had the harvest festival. It was fantastic. It our new model worked really well. We had probably over 450 people here, which was wonderful. We only have a count of the actual um, children's tickets we sold, but they all the kids came with at least one, if not two adults. The Notso Spooky Trail was phenomenal. Did you get a chance to go out and see it? No, I was there was a picture I thought was in here, but I put it in the newsletter because I had to submit the newsletter at the same time I did this. There was a shack with skeletons coming out of it that was lit up. That was so cool.

Yeah, they did a really good job this year. Um, and the council uh did the craft, which I think the council should do the craft every year. That was fantastic. Well, actually two of us did it and the others came to visit. Yeah, but that's okay. It was great. It was great. love and interacting with people.

Yeah, it was really good. Really good. Um, we have a lot of stuff coming up. We're going to start doing our membership membership promotion as we get into the holidays. We have a Susie Farren is coming in. It is our um artist coming in in December. Her work is beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. And she does all sorts of mixed media and she's an established artist. So, it'll be a nice nice uh program. Winter camp uh registration is open. We have um Puzzle Pulooa this Friday. Sold out. We really think we need to start upping the cost of Puzzle Pooa a little bit. We had goat yoga last Saturday. I do not have pictures. It was a hoot. It was great. Um the kids cooking classes, the parent and me cooking classes or caregiver and me cooking classes are doing extremely well. Um turkey trots coming up. Founders Cup, we actually have both Clayton and Leoo have teams now. So, we was a little worried because Clayton wasn't coming in. And then, um, uh, our leader of the turkey tart reached out to them and they threw a little shade and said, "Well, we've been kind of busy because, you know, they went to the States and Luke didn't, but they're going to be there." So, the challenge is on. So, hopefully Loo will win because Clayton has swept each one. So,

so this we're coming kind of into a little uh downtime for us. We do have the winter camps coming up, but this is a time when we don't do as much programming, but um there's a lot of lot of programs going on. And then our as we get into the promotion time, then suddenly during the holidays, this place is hopping with kids and adults and everybody on vacation coming in. Um parks division. I don't have a lot of pictures from the parks division. They've been very busy, but this is huge. This is the new mini split at Stacy Park. If anyone has ever volunteered at Stacy Park, you know that that room is either the surface of the sun or the North Pole. There is nothing in between. And in the winter time, we can't get the door open because it freezes shut. It's just unbelievable. Even with the new doors, so this mini split is a game changer. People volunteering at Turkey Trot will not have to wear gloves inside the building and maybe they can take their hats off. We'll see. But I'm I'm very excited.

They won't have to worry about water freezing.

Yes. We don't we didn't have to winterize the pipes. And then the other thing is all of the supplies we keep in there freeze solid and or they separate. So it makes it much better for the paint and everything else we keep in there. So that I'm just so happy about this. Um, parks crew's been really busy getting the parks ready for, you know, the winter, getting everything prepped. You know, they have to tune up all the the cars, get them all ready. They got the salt in, all sorts of things. But they've also, it's a really busy time to be helping at recreation. So, they they were an integral part of the harvest festival. Many days did they labor, getting the lights up and working on the trails, getting that all done. Now they're prepping the uh pathway for turkey trot, making sure everything's cut back and runners can get through. Um and then they also assisted with things like the shred and e-waste event. So um they don't get a downtime really.

We have any numbers on those? Not yet. It's Yeah, we don't have them yet, but uh please put us in charge of that. So as soon as we get them, I'll give them to you. Yeah, we have lots coming up. Can more absolutely can. Yes. see each movie. How was their attendance? We had 40. That good or bad? It's okay. Wait, I take that back. We had 40 pre-sale. 19 showed up, but then they bought a lot of snacks. Yeah. So, yeah. Something to add. You might notice the Greenway Trail. They've decided that it's going to cross Olive by um Chevys. Yes. It's already It always has.

Yeah, that's where it is. Yes, it's already painted. There's an old trail head there. That's built up. It's always been there. Yeah, it's going to cross. It's going to cross here, too. It needs to cross Ali somewhere. Yes. Um yeah, that happens. Just to be clear, that's why they moved the crosswalk about 20 yards to the west of Hilltop. They moved it just west when they did the Yeah. Yeah. There was there was a lot it instead of right at Hilltop at Aldi's, they moved it up the sidewalk about

Yeah. I know. I feel great rivers greenway has been so that's been they work they work with mod a lot the leader they do they they they had it took forever to get permission to do the painting on the and then they also re remember they redid that whole sidewalk underneath the overpass it's a little goofy you know right now but once they get the greenway it'll make sense when they Yeah. But right now you're like why' they do that? Yeah. The trail head by CVS was built years ago. Yeah. Yeah. In anticipation of this. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah. And then they're now they're starting to work on the engineering from here in the next phase uh east, sorry, west. Um and there will be a traffic light going in out there. When we have more information, we'll I'll give a presentation on Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I I have I have one question. Where does the commission come in terms of planning and goals? I mean, we we did a lot of work on parks and so forth. Where what is our role in looking to see where the parks are going in the next couple of years? I I do not I have not seen that in the

It's so funny you should ask that because it's on your future agenda items. Wait, where are the future agenda items? Oh, sorry, I skipped them. I apologize. Yes, new projects. That's an annual capital improvement plan. Those two are where we talk about that. Okay. And then do we need to put together a group to kind of is that something present to us or what what role do we play in what projects we want to Well, you already you already identified the projects

and you and you gave you gave the priority ranking previous years. We built we built the capital to reflect that. So then we're going to look at them again in the coming year. So we're looking at them in January to set your work plan for the year and then we're going to look at the um the annual capital improvement plan. Now we can move that up. It doesn't have to be April. We can we can push that back up into another into an earlier date based on your conversation in January. Got it. Okay. Yeah. So other feature

Yeah. The the other thing that Sue and I um talked about briefly is that um we don't have any presentations scheduled in December and you don't have any decision- making. So, would you like to um cancel the December meeting? How does it really?

Yeah. take off on Friday. Um in daycare is still right. Yeah. I think but the public Yeah. So is everyone okay with that? Yeah. If we cancel the December meeting, we have a motion and a vote December 17. Yeah, we could. I don't think I don't think you have to. We just cancel I think you can just cancel. Yeah. Yep. Great. Yeah. No vote required, but I'll put it under um the minutes under uh and make sure we fill the Yeah.

Yeah. You can send everyone calendar invite. Yeah, I'll cancel the calendar invite too and send everybody an email. Yeah. Okay. All right. Is that it? uh dates of of upcoming importance and uh there's you know it's we're not as busy as um okay it's not as busy a time but there's there are things happening um future agenda items can I know we're already anxious to go just a general question so I'm going to pick on paint and sip I'm not a paint and a sipper

a What a fun December paint and sip. So like as council members, can we just like stop by and see how things are going? Absolutely. And that's you can peek in the window. Okay. You know, it's just a group of ladies drinking wine and painting. Okay. There you haven't seen her painting skills. Yeah. Pictures in the last activity guide. There's a picture of all the ladies. No, it's not. No, it's not. It's freehand. It's freehand. That's why I don't. Yeah. Um, there is a picture in the last activity guide of the paintings the ladies did in the class. I mean, it's it's actually it's quite a lively group.

I measure you can just pop your head in. That's Yeah, I'm like I I really don't want to pay and go, but then I think it would be the visibility. in that kind of politics. Well, you know, the other thing the other thing I would highly recommend that when they do the next open mic night, that's a really nice night to come because they'd love to have more audience there and it's it's quite good entertainment. It really is. Yeah. And you never know who's Seriously, you never know who's going to show. She was a professional. We did. There was a professional organist this last time. Yeah. And a symphony member was here at the first one.

Yeah. And then with you we have a woman that studied piano at Julliard and she plays I mean it is it's it's professional people show up. Really nice. Kind of amazing. Yeah. Well, all of that is very diverse as we all know and there's a lot of talent here. More PhDs in all of that than any other area of St. Louis, right? I did not know that. I believe that's true. You know say it is until it is. I can I understand like four professors. Oh, I think there's more than that. Oh, yeah. Those are ones that I personally know. Yeah. Oh, I'll make a motion move for us to adjurnn. I will second that. All in favor? I. All opposed. We're

Thanks everybody. Let me let me um Hang on. I got I got to stop the I got to stop the recording. Where's my there at seven? What do I need to bring? I asked her and she was like, "No, we're miles if they have to do the mile run." Okay. Cuz I got like a light up.