Parks & Recreation Board - Regular Meeting

Okay. Well, I think we have anybody that we're may likely expecting. So if you wanna go ahead and have a call, John.

Janalise So to?

Here.

Charles Higman?

Here.

Jordan Lane?

Here.

Benjamin Patt? Here. John Samides? Here.

I hopped on to my board meeting. So if you hear me talking, that's why. Jojo? Pardon?

Oh, your mic was still on. I apologize. That's okay. Derek Griebling? Yes. Is he in the box? It's not present, and Dan Alton is not present at this call.

Dan in attendance is online.

Or He he emailed us back that he would be virtual, so he may hop on at some point. Alright.

Well, let's go to item two.

Citizen comment first.

Yeah. I know we don't have anybody signed up to speak that citizen comment, but if you wanna go ahead and read that, I don't if that was provided.

So Melanie Howard sends in a public comment and I'll read it into the record. I am in support of moving the Little League fields to the East Side Of San Marcos close to the existing ball field complex. It makes sense to group sports in one location for attendees, maintenance, etcetera. Additionally, moving the fields allows for the beautification of that stretch of I 35 Frontage Road that is currently compacted dirt for parking, and I understand a single championship field would be established. Another significant benefit to moving the Little League field is moving a parking lot that lies so close to the river away from the river and closer to the championship field.

That would reduce litter and dirty storm water runoff while allowing the establishment of a vegetative buffer to decrease the erosion that is currently happening along the river stretch. This is a win win solution, and I thank the parks for it for being creative and proactive. Melanie, how are they?

Okay. So nobody else signed up to speak.

Consider approval by motion of of the 11/20/2025 regular meeting. Do

we have a motion to approve? Motion? Motion second. And a second.

Peter Sheerhart?

Aye.

Derek Griblin? Aye. Biz Rampak? Aye. Jordan Lane?

Aye. Jojo So to? Aye.

Charlie Haven. Aye. Johnson Mayes.

Aye.

Motion passed.

Sorry. With the board members, let's go to item three, see if Dan arrives while we're talking about item three. Okay.

Alright. Receive a staff update and hold discussion regarding current parks and recreation project.

Do you want us to go over each one? Because somebody just wanted y'all questions. I just wanna make sure. Okay. So they wrapped up the same park project and and all the playgrounds, the new playground exercise equipment. And it looks really great. It was open in time for sights and sounds, and rumor have it, it was very popular during sights and sounds. We do have our

It was actually amazing how many people were playing on

You're right.

Yeah. The new pictures. And because at this rate, we're probably gonna tear it down.

I think

a lot of kids were having fun there. So

they so we have a ribbon cutting scheduled for that in January. I don't know the date off the

top of my head. Either one of y'all know the date.

We'll I think we have the date last meeting.

Yeah. You'll be you'll be getting an invite from us for that. Actually, I think it's the seventh. I think it's January 7.

Is that a second project, or was that just

Well, it started it it started off as a as a well, there's multiple things that went on there. We have we have insurance money from incident where a in person drove into the playground and knocked out good chunk of it. We also had funds in our CIB for for re redoing of the park, and we got a grant from the playground company to match our some of our things that we bought bought.

Is that the first kind of physical fitness move we've done?

Yes. I think it is absolutely the first move. And, yeah, it's it's great. And in in addition to the main part, the playground part, you know, it has the around the walking path, it has where you can stop and do an exercise. It's a long way.

There's actually three components of the of the the large section. One of them is an adult workout component. Then there's a a five to 12 and a a three to five section. So it kinda covers all the ages. Although I see more kids playing on the adult.

Yeah. My my kids got to be the first kids to play on it, so they were very excited. They loved every bit of it. So and in addition, of course, it's not just the playground. There was some ADA improvements in

the area, access to the river, things like that. So that was

a great project. We're glad to see it wrapped up. Ribbon cutting is on January 7 at 9AM. So that will be you know, we'll send that invite out so y'all will also get it in your emails. What

was the date again?

January 7 at 9AM. Of course, it'll be.

Yeah. And part we

should probably have part more board members and stuff like that.

That was is good for the newspaper shot and all that.

Yeah. I think remember Derek came to call Pena? Yes. Yeah. So, yeah, we'd love to have you guys there. If you are able to join us be good. And it's always hard to nail down a date with with council and city manager's office, so that that was the best one we could find. So

deeper. What else we got?

Oh, that's,

yeah, I think that's kind

of our big project.

So we we kinda wrapped up the year with the big one, and and we're taking a breath right now. We're working on just some small maintenance things. We've been installing some new fountains. We installed the new fountain over at Mill Street. Park over there, we've installed some new fountains at the softball fields right now, and we'll install a new fountain on the baseball fields probably starting next week. So,

you know,

these are these are fountains that are they they have bottle fillers, and then they we also put in a a fourplex well, we had a fourplex bottle filler at the tennis courts, which was kind of a a trying to get that in for the summer. That was what we could do immediately. We've taken that one away from the tennis courts and put in just a single bottle filler in a regular fountain, And we moved the fourplex down towards Pavilion A, which is closer to the river and where more people are, so they have the ability to go down there.

And those are filtered? Yes.

Another big thing we have coming up is the activity center audio visual upgrades start in January. Yes. The large meeting rooms will be done by council visioning. So

they your microphone to work in there.

I'm telling you. So we did they did try to change the schedule on me today and put the meeting rooms last, and I was like, nope. It needs to be done by January 29. So that way, we'll be good to go for for council visioning.

Do you wanna take just one or two minutes and explain what your

team does besides this house?

Or Yeah. I think

Well, this year was a Yeah. Really good change for us because we're pretty much what we do what what we do as of this new model is our our guys have set up the temps that we traditionally set up for any event that goes on in the park. We move some some things around, some of the big limestone blocks around in the parking lot to provide the ability of the the carnival to set up. We gave support in helping their organization understand what we had traditionally done, where things were set up, and how they're set up. This year, they had inmates from the prison in Ohio that came down and helped set up the event, and it was phenomenal.

How quickly it went It came together and got put put in place. Our our guys just kinda stood back and said, you know, this goes here and this goes there. Nice. And so greatly reduced the amount of time and effort that we had put into that. So that gave us time to do things like putting the fountains that we've put in the last few weeks. So And lots

of field maintenance? Field maintenance.

We've been doing field maintenance on on our soccer complex, things like on the Baseball Complex now is where they're at this week. So Reduced staff, sights and sounds. Yeah. Absolutely. We

did because it's normally

All hands on deck.

All hands on deck. And yeah. I mean

Eight to five for them and then five to midnight and five.

Yeah. And we don't we didn't do that this year.

Oh, we weren't there at all during the festival.

All during the festival.

Which normally Bert's out there working the drag drop off. And so they we and they had because they had CERT, I think, doing the.

They CERT working. They had volunteers.

So Yeah. It was. So

this year We we did we did help out yesterday because the some of their the the help from the prison was not able to come back because they're in the process of changing out works, and so they did not have the ability to send those people back down to help.

So So because I was a little alarmed at first when he said,

you

know, prisoners, but they're all within

20 most of the guys that they had working down here were within twenty days of release.

So Very close to the end there.

Yeah. Not fresh in there or anything.

It was pretty amazing. I every one of those guys had class a driver's license since they all have had training on different equipment. It was really amazing to look what those guys accomplished. So Yeah. That's great. Really good thing.

I'm glad that I got to put it on the record because it is such a behind the scenes. People don't normally see all the staff effort, time, and hours and sweat and tears, but it sounds like it might be getting better.

Well, will say that I think it I think they felt it. I think the board felt it. You know? Like, as far they're just so used to it. You know? So I think I think there's gonna be an adjustment period.

I know I know they they really it seemed like they were taking a lot of notes on how they can make things more efficient. And so

The board is they were very involved and very good.

So Good. How about this? It was great.

Well, it's it's a big community.

It is. And loved.

People were happy to have

it there, to tell you that much.

It was awesome.

Yeah. Well, thank you for that. And I guess now we'll go to

Consider approval of recommendation resolution 2025Dash03RRDashERB of the Riverfront Parks and Eastside Creek Park preliminary design

Yeah. Need a motion for approval.

Yes, ma'am. I wanted I had one question on that. Before I

Let's get a motion first.

Oh, is this about the park project or about

the Yeah.

Oh, back at the last item. Sorry. Yeah. Right? The park project? Yeah.

The Capes Dam. Last month, we mentioned the historical nomination for that. They were Yeah.

It went. Was it council for discussion? Just it they were seeking a letter from council, and I don't remember the exact wording that council that they were gonna write a letter with some stipulations. So they were recommending it.

Who's the pay?

Council. Okay. Because it they were trying to get it on the National Register of Historic Places. K. And it had a big long discussion about what it could look like.

It was figured

out who put that request in.

The Texas Historical Commission. Right. Is that Yep.

It's sorry. Didn't have to Yeah.

It was The historic preservation commission was to put the application in. Okay. Yeah.

So counsel like I said, counsel did discuss it and are putting forth a letter. Yeah. I don't know the exact

So it is on the it is in the newspaper today.

Is it? Okay.

Okay. He looked on the daily record.

Saga continues. Yes. Let's bring us back to. We have read the caption. We need a motion to approve.

Chairman, you

did a great job of drafting this, and I'd I'd move to approve. My only request would be before we vote that I know there's been some back and forth.

Sorry. Let me just before you get to your item you made the motion.

Correct? Motion. Yeah.

Okay. So we have a motion and a second by Charlie. Perfect. Ahead, Charlie, if you wanna finish it.

I'm just gonna

say my only request would be that before we move to a vote, that we put the the two options we're specifically approving on the screen just to ensure. I don't I don't have any questions about the what we previously debated. Just wanna see what we're specifically approving.

Yeah. Well done. I

can share. Yeah. We have

Oh, okay.

Have I the So let me share my screen, and I'm gonna Charlie, whenever it's time to vote, I'm gonna stop sharing my screen because we'll need to see you and Jojo during voting. Okay?

Understood. Makes sense.

Okay. Any comments or questions on the this was produced by James.

Mhmm.

Has let me looked at the new bond stuff from the state, the new bond election stuff from the state. I need to So the way I understand it, you gotta have a 60% supermajority vote for any new municipal bonds. Anything that doesn't pass, I believe it goes it can be put back on the ballot for ten years. So the the days of easy peasy, just putting on the ballot and get this voted for and and, you know, build whatever, do whatever, that's that's gone with that new state law. I mean, when was the last time you seen a local election get 60% of a vote on anything?

I don't even think a humane society, a new dog shelter, it gets 60%.

Oh,

anyway, that's that's gonna be a huge deal in the near future. This well, great. I mean, unless we're doing budget adjustments to pay for every little thing on it, which I mean, looking at it, that's it's gonna be millions of dollars. I mean, I don't know where the budget adjustments will come through for for that. So that that new bond stuff is is gonna change a lot of municipal stuff, a lot of these projects.

So that needs to be thought about before we start tearing down stuff in towns because we'll just build a new one over here. We'll build something over here, and, you know, the voters will pay for it. They've they've put the brakes on this. And that law just come out very very recent. So that needs to be something that we talk about.

Are you saying that there's something that we need to consider before we give this to counsel, like, vote on this resolution for these two concepts and consider that what if these don't or do we not think that the that the public would accept this in a bond election? Is that what you're saying? Or

I'm saying, yeah, that it almost yeah. I mean, when once again, the 60% vote on anything, I I I don't think I've ever seen a 60% vote. I don't know how you're gonna get a bond passed now, especially a huge one that's gonna increase taxes. These I mean, it it's it's gonna be challenging times for municipal bonds. It's gonna be a lot of budget stuff.

Well, I would say I think that the the financing and bond details and all that stuff is really in the hands of city council. I think that's really in our purview. I don't discount it. If that's the case, I think that's you know? But I will I will point the board's attention to the twenty eighteen bond election where we got 79%.

Public

safety mostly, but there were other things. There was parks. I

mean, I assume that no matter what we put in what we put in these parks, regardless of what it is, we're gonna be seeking bond. We're gonna be in right? I mean so we're gonna need to get that approved, you know, that 60% regardless of what we put in there. So you might as well put in what you want and exactly what we need as this community grows.

Yeah.

And go for it. Right?

I think this land was a bond.

Yeah.

That's how we got the life. Right?

That was I

don't think That was a county.

It was a county. Yes. It was the The bond election. The post.

That that bond?

Yes. I believe so.

Bond election. Sorry. Yeah.

That's correct.

Yeah. I mean, I I think when the the city council gets a recommendation, they get a recommendation from us, and it's really their job to go figure out how to fund it.

And just to clear up any confusion, and I don't know if anybody could answer this question here, but it's never the intention to just get rid of the baseball fields in town before anything's happened. Like, you wouldn't get rid of those baseball fields until something was built to replace, you know, the people using that field. Right? We're not

would have to happen.

Exactly. You're gonna Coil Creek is gonna be wrapped up with a bow riding rock. Right. And then comes

And this is a phased approach. It's not all gonna happen

at

one time. Sure. I mean, it's it's gonna have to be phased because we have

to provide the baseball fields for the community Right.

In whatever capacity that is, whether it's still here or out there.

There just might be a concern of that we start to tear things down, and then that bond doesn't come into into our hands, and now we're we're left with nothing.

Not gonna Right.

Yeah. Okay. And you're saying 2029?

2029. What we're looking at for the bond election.

And, I mean, I understand where you're coming from, Derek, for sure in the sense of that that's gonna be a hard road to go down, but I think that we should ask for we we should be looking at what we want. Right? And not just, like, dumbing it down to make sure that we might get 60%. So just keep that in mind. And I, personally, my intention is never to take away from what we have as baseball little league here now, but only to improve it.

And I think that this plan is a good compromise, and it's also it grows with our city's growth. And I think we're gonna be having this conversation in a couple years when the city has outgrown those fields anyways, and we're gonna be really happy that we have this set up. Just to keep that in consideration.

Does anybody online have anything to add in, John, Jojo, or Charlie?

I don't have anything on that discussion if we're done, but I did wanna point out I, I appreciate you putting these up because I just wanna make sure we're approving what we had discussed. And this does appear to be the correct Riverside Parks. Valerie, could you go back to the Quail Creek?

Yes. Please. Mhmm.

Just trying to move real slow because get busy. Yeah. K.

There was one minor change on this, and that was, Valerie.

The Riverbank Access where it was titled differently before, and so now that got changed to Riverbank Access. That was the only change made to this month.

That reflects our last

discussion. Correct.

This this does reflect my recollection too. Thanks for showing that.

No further comment for me. And I just wanna point out on this that we have, you know, the concept of I think I wrote down sick 16 types of pickleball courts. Whether it's ends up with 16 or whatever, there's gonna be a large cluster of pickleball courts at Quail Creek, which I think is great. But for the record,

I wanna

add that with 16 there, we have eight at Rio Vista and six right now indoor at the activity center. I think we've we've we've made a very serious commitment to the current access for pickleball in future. My guess is we'll probably want more at Saint Laurent as the city grows over the next few decades, but that does leave us with just four tennis awards.

That in mind, if you remember when I had a tennis ball.

But I think that's a That's the four tennis courts at Realistic currently. Yeah. And I think that this is this is good. If I'm not mistaken, Kissing Tree has, I wanna say, at least 30. It's a lot, and it's they're now covered. And Yeah. They're They have turning us there that I know that there's some overflow in our parks as

well. But

how I mean, I know we recently we just recently turned the the tennis courts at Rio Vista into multipurpose.

They've been that way for a while.

We just researched it.

Right.

It was needing kind

of care and Eight courts.

Yeah. Eight pickleball courts.

Better better professionally. Yeah.

Yeah. I saw we went

and played tennis a little while back. Remember seeing it. So

Yeah. It was needing just a baseline.

So the the other thing on this and I think I said it before. The the one baseball field, if it's just for a little league thing, that's gonna be probably not used. Nobody's gonna drive over there for one game. The only other way that would be useful is if it was a game for a minor game or something. The other side I mean, that that that single field concept, it doesn't make sense for little to have to have the the gangs across the town and then they have them come over there.

That doesn't really make sense. So, I mean, I feel like it's that it it's it's not an actual compromise. I feel like it's you trying to justify a means to the end of having a baseball over there. So I I don't think that that's an actual concept option. Once again, I think you guys are kinda cheating the deal.

And the fact that the concept that I asked for the concept changes the other day when we were doing those, and mine was the only one that didn't get implemented into the new into the new offer up. I'm not

sure what you're referring to.

When I when I offered up the the one field, north field taken away, maintain the four fields over here, change the parking, take the parking off the off the riverside. I mean, this was all stuff that that I offered as a compromise

Right.

To everybody's

There wasn't a majority support for that.

But you never even did the concept. You never even offered the concept to make it an offer. Everybody picked the concept.

Okay.

That's how

Okay. That's that's not It it ain't the one that my version of a content, my compromise on here. Everybody else is in it.

I get it. I get it, but we we had a you know, we've spent four hours now talking about it. I get I get it that you're not supporting it. I think we all do, and I think we all respect that. But I think it's also important to respect those that didn't that supported this.

Yeah. Well, like I said, you kinda jit me on my opinion of it, you know, when you do new concepts and didn't put it in there for the options. So, like I said, I think you know what that is. You know what you're trying to do with the verbiage in this, and think it's

I don't know what you're referring to, but I

I'm sure you don't. Yeah.

Okay. Anything else?

Well, I think I just wanted like, on the one thing on the on the single field, I think we discussed it last time that I think I think Aaron had said it that it's like, it can be a bigger field than what's shown here. So we can do, like, a full size field and have it be able to go from full size baseball to little league and, like, be able to do that. So then for future development, if, let's say, we grow to you know, we grow 10 x in the next fifteen years, we wanna bring a league team here. The option's there. Right?

So, like, I mean, the the option's there, but we want it to be flexible as flexible as possible to be used right now because we're not in a position to get a minor league baseball team tomorrow or even in the next four years. You know? It's so I think I think it's something we did discuss about it being, you know, not just being a, you know, 200 foot baseball field, but it being a full size field so then we have flexibility with it. Yeah.

That's I never remember that conversation. And, of course, we get the reduction in parking on that parking lot and everything as well with it. So Anybody else have any comments on the we all have this resolution in our packet, which is what will go to council. It is just a recommendation. Council can make the final decision, but it does reflect the majority conversations at our last meeting. So does anybody have any questions on the resolution or any comments? Nobody? Alright. Are we ready to take a vote? Alright.

Well, we'll go ahead and call the roll. And this is a yes means yes, and no means no vote. Correct?

Correct. Alright. Jordan Lane?

Yes.

Peter Sheerhart?

Yes.

Benjamin Pack? Yes. Derek Griblin? Charles Hickman?

Yes.

Jojo So to? Yes.

John Smaisz? Yes. The motion passed.

Alright. So we have that. None. Three. All we have left question, answer, That's it. No press or no public. Go ahead and declare us adjourned at 06:03.