Parks and Recreation Commission - Regular Meeting

Welcome, everybody. Thanks for volunteering. Adrian, can you hear us?

Yeah. I can hear you guys.

Sorry. Should call you Commissioner Shafflin. Apologies. All right. I call this regular meeting of the Parks and Rec Commission to order at 06:30. All members of the commissioner present with the exception of Commissioner Bowen who is excused. Approval of the Parks and Rec minutes, 12/10/2024. We have one set of minutes for approval. Are there any objection any objections or changes to note, Commissioner Schafflin? Okay.

Seeing no Thank you. I gotta be more patient with the over the air you know, cross the airwaves. Seeing no objection, the minutes stand adopted. Public business from the floor. I am guessing public business from the floor. It's time for members of the public to address the commission on non agenda items. Is there any public business from the floor? You guys, I think, are going to come under the agenda part here. So is is that alright with the director?

Yeah. That's fine. I I just have a a brief update on the disc golf course, and then, Nate had brought me some information. So that's fine if we do that.

Okay. As far as public business from the floor, seeing no one coming forward, we'll move on to our next item, new business, which is the disc golf course. And this item, I hadn't realized I had thought this had been brought by the group and by the director, but I only learned tonight that it came from the director, but the group can get on with the director. Yeah.

Yes. Just at the last meeting, we did have an agenda item when when they had come. I just wanted to address that we we do intend to replace those. Since we spoke last, Nate Nathan has brought brought me some information on some baskets that that their group would like to see out there. And then we do have a a standing meeting on Friday, the twenty fourth, I believe.

Yeah. It's alright.

That's alright. That's alright. And so we'll we'll meet and kinda talk about that, and I'll I'll bring more updates as we go along. But, depending on how much, exact funds that we have, kinda will determine that, and we'll identify the baskets that they want and make sure it fits within our budget that, was approved just recently. So you're that's my report.

All right. Do we have any questions for the Director from the Commissioner, Commissioner Shafflin? Nope. Any of the other Commissioners for the Director? Can we ask questions of group since they're here?

If the public wants to speak on it.

Is there something you guys would like to mention now under this topic? Yeah. Do you mind if I I don't mind at all. That's my question.

Go ahead and state your name and address.

Yep. That's right. Yeah. So please state your name and the residence. My

name is Nathan Davis. I live in Valdes, Alaska on in Delta. Good to go. Yeah. I wanted to bring up, found out that the disc golf was on the agenda today and thought it was important that we showed up as, golfers and participants in the community to help support the the commission in, what the progress and updates and such.

And I provided a small little pamphlet just to kinda outline, costs of different types of dispatchers and such. So that way, with the budget and, you know, the community, we can try to be as transparent and open to what's going on. And, again, to put forward to that our our community, the disc golfers, are still interested in trying to potentially fund a little bit, you know, fundraising, maybe get some sponsors from town, and, figure out a way that we can grow this together. Do you guys have any questions?

Councilor Schafflin, did you hear the question? Do you, have any questions for the Disc Golf Group?

No. Don't have any questions. I just would like to voice my support for anything as well as trying to help get a tournament back on the books for next summer, something I really would like to get done. But thank you for bringing this up.

Any of the other commission?

Thanks for the additional information. What what baskets do we have currently just for the sake of comparison or, you know, if you're to put them into this category?

So, Ken might have more specific information, but, from what I've seen, they're they look like they're possibly, earlier version of a Discraft Chainstar Pro where where they only have a single set of chains that aren't necessarily used for tournament. They're more for, like, backyard, activities and practice. And then I believe you guys have a a a black hole, which is do you know which manufacturer that is?

There's there's,

Axiom. So that's, like that's MVP. Right?

The other one are Okay.

So they're okay. Yeah. Kelly Kelly runs the the website on Facebook, and he he's an educated, discolfer that that we've been relying a little bit of his information to help move this forward. He's apparently brought a few things to the commissioner in the past, and and we're trying to cultivate all that together. But yeah.

So so the disc catchers on the course right now are just a different quality. And at the bottom of the page, there's been recent activity in the PDGA, which is the governing body for disc golf, where certain disc catchers aren't grabbing basket you know, grabbing the discs properly, and so they're they're attempting to reestablish, like, a standard. And since we're Valdi's community is thinking about doing this, we're trying to why not update them to to the current standard while we have the opportunity?

Okay. Thanks. Yeah. I've I've been down the course. It's been fun, but I don't I don't know the standards and ask it's look like baskets to me. So it's nice to have more information. Thanks for the compiling all of this. Yeah. Thank you.

Great. Well, I certainly support this. I have been really interested in the support by people, the number of people in town. When I've asked how many people use this, the idea of a competition in tournaments is obviously something pretty good too. There's definite benefits to having, especially if it's starting to bring people here. Thank you Yes. Very

Thank you.

Just overall, I mean, set them as portable. So, we do remove those each year. So I mean, how we set them, we'll definitely work with the group to make sure that we're within the guidelines that they'd like to see, but we want to make sure that they're removable. We don't leave any obstacles out there, during the snow season. But, absolutely, we'll work with you and and, look forward to our meeting.

Yeah. And in addition, it's not out of the ordinary for certain areas with difficult climates that they do remove baskets. And sometimes courses are placed in areas that are protected, so they're only allowed to be installed for certain periods of time. So, yeah, everyone supports, you know, removal just to make sure that we preserve

the course. Absolutely.

Right. Just before we close, for the director, have a question. As far I know you have a real interest and it's valuable for usage. I know with things like the pool, the Civic Center, you have a good way to monitor that. And I did ask the group, but I didn't know, we had somebody here that it was it would be possible to monitor through some kind of a social media way so that as people used it, if there was some way that then the department could get an idea of usage. So that was just that was a question I had

for you. Yes. I mean, we could put out periodic surveys. We could run some options and do some things. But, yes, we can and when we have events and activities, we can post on our website. And I mean, I think the gentleman wants to

come up and There's an app on the U. That had it. Oh, there you Okay. You have a really good idea. At some point through this, I think. It sounds like this is still early stages. You guys have a meeting.

Yeah. I think

So that would

be Yeah. Nate and I talked about it to where they go out and use it. Use the course. It it highlights it. It kind of almost maps it out for you, doesn't it?

Yeah. You just use the app on on, you know, the World Wide Web that that has GPS coordinates, and so you can actually follow yourself on a map. And in addition to to what Pete's suggesting about monitoring usage, it's also possible that we could have, like, a QR code, like, on hole one that you just scan with your phone and it just goes straight to, you know, Valdez or whatever, you know, some compiling things that hey, we're on the course today. I believe that that's totally possible working with the city

Okay. Potentially.

Idea? How many discolffers do we have in Valdes?

At the last meeting, I have some papers over there. There I believe there's only six or seven registered PDGA members. So, like, in the governing body that are either current or, they basically have a PDGA number for the platform. But currently, as far as how many individuals play, we don't really have a good idea. I know that, Kelly may have better numbers with the with the viewers on the website.

I I personally have only played with potentially 10 to 15 people at any given time. And then I know that during my participation, there's been families and such there as well during our during our experience. In the last meeting, I discussed a little bit about how the course crosses over a little bit. And so when you play one direction and come back, you don't always know if there's somebody there. So we're trying to address, like, overlap and potentially throwing against somebody else. So I think I think once some of these things are remedied, we'll have more participation.

It's it's anecdotal, but I've only been out there a handful of times. And every time I am out there, there's always another two or three parties, it seems like. And I I I've been surprised just talking to friends and peers. Just everybody's, you know, just kind of thumbs up. But Yeah. I'm surprised how much usage seems to be getting.

Yeah. And and this sport's definitely growing, and and it's accessible to to many user groups, kids, adults, you know, families and such.

Alright.

Thanks again. It sounds like you have support here from the commission as well too. So Thank you very much. We're going to be going on to reports. I don't know if you guys want to sit around through the reports part, but you're more than welcome. Title 16 is something interesting. Right. First report, we have our Madam Clerk is going to present on our roles and responsibilities.

And just so as you know, was some questions at past meeting that kind of what is our role, what are we striving for here. So I'd asked Sherry to come and present and kind of give us the direction and we had talked about it today. And we talked about workshops last meeting. And so hopefully, Sherry will light us out.

Hey. Hi. I noticed that you guys already had the wire for the boards and commissions training, I think. So now we're doubling up on that. Now you have two. And I think Ali sent that out to you as well. So you actually have about three of these. This training, council is requesting that all boards and commission members attend this training. Even if he's attended it before, we ask you to attend this annually, because every year, we try to present something a little bit different. And during the training, people have questions that come up, and so there's always there's always an opportunity to learn from this training.

It's, in the evening on Tuesday, the twenty eighth. If you can't attend this, I'd like you to email me and let me know, like, why. Because I need to, let council know how many of my boards and commission members actually attended the training. So they're very, they, they're very serious about this. And so, again, I'd ask you guys to please attend this training unless you really have a conflict, a good conflict I'll be there.

That allow, doesn't allow you to attend. And if you can't, just send shoot me a email so I know. So this is the training. We're gonna talk to the training. Obviously, it's some parliamentary procedure. I've kinda changed up my, training on that. I presented at newly elected officials in AML this year and, geared this more towards small boards and commissions. Conflicts of interest, and, of course, how to run effective meetings. So we'll see you guys there for that. Ken, asked me to come and just talk to you about a couple of things tonight.

So I thought what we'd do is just kinda go over briefly, you know, what is the role of the Parks and Rec Commission, and, where can you find that? So it's written in code. And what I handed you tonight is that specific chapter that talks about the Parks and Recreation Commission and their powers and duties. So I'm not gonna go over these one by one with you, but this is exactly the code language, regarding that speaks to parks and parks and rec commission. Ordinances can be changed.

So if, you know, I've asked you to read over this, and, you know, if you have, questions about it, if you think that we need to do some updates on this or some clarity, then I would, you know, welcome your feedback on it. But this is exactly how this is written in code, regarding, Parks and Rec Commission and what your duties are here. What I do wanna, go over with you is council has established policies and procedures. And in those policies and procedures, are adopted formally adopted by them, they have sections in there that talk about citizen advisory groups and the role of those groups. And so they're they're pretty, pretty specific about that.

So I wanted to go over these with you, regarding, you know, what is the function of an advisory group. So the main function, and you are an advisory group, is to receive citizen input and administration staff advice formulating public recommendations. So we had a demonstration of that tonight where people come to you and they have issues regarding parks and rec facilities and whatever it is that this particular commission is responsible for. To assist and advise council in the development of program policy and budget for the city. I think they've scheduled parks and rec for when is their meeting with council?

Do you remember when comes to

I wanna say it's it's, April 22.

Yeah. In April. So the city council has asked to meet with all of their boards and commissions this year and to meet with you to talk about what are your goals and objectives, if you have any questions for them about how that they can assist you, and maybe how if you have questions about, you know, what would make your job easier or as a parks and rec commissioner. So we'd like to make sure that when we have that meeting with the city council that we're not having the council on one side of the table and you on the other, and we're just staring at each other with nothing to say. And so Ken and I talked a little bit today about, you know, now is the time to probably get together and talk about your goals and objectives as the commission and, to talk about those and, you know, get those in some sort of a written form so that you have them, and have an idea exactly, you know, what those are so that you can have that discussion with counsel in April.

Also, I think it would be a good idea if you worked on your own establishing your own policies and procedures for this particular board, and they don't have to be, you know, 15 pages long. Your policies and procedures can be pretty succinct, but it's just a guideline for you about how you, you know, how you, do your meetings, developing a policy for, as I said, how you conduct your meetings, when maybe when you look at your, goals and objectives every year. So establishing some sort of written policies and procedures for you or guidelines, I think, is gonna be really helpful. And so that's another task that I would ask you to consider, doing this year. And I told Ken, when you get ready to do your your goals and objectives, that Lisa and I would be happy to come to your meeting, help facilitate, you know, that in a workshop or a work session format for you.

So we're here to help you do that, but I would I think that that's extremely important that you attempt to do that before or do that, complete that before you meet with the council in April so you actually have something to discuss with them. So that's my suggestion for that. It, you know, it also just helps you stay on track as a commission. It gives you it gives administration can an idea of, you know, what to put on your agenda so that you have agenda topics to discuss throughout the year. So when you're doing those, you might decide this particular month, this is the this is what we need to take up.

This is what we need to discuss. So it really gives you some guidelines for preparing your agendas as a commission. What else? What else do I have? The other thing is that Ken talked a little bit about the commission, was looking at maybe forming subcommittees or task forces.

And so, council actually has established some guidelines for that in their policies, and I've given that to you in this document from their policies and procedures. And, what they've done is they've just, provided some formality around that about when you form a particular task force, whether it be a citizen task force, or three of you on a particular task force. What they've just what they do this by resolution, but, of course, you could do this informally. But when you do that, make sure that you define what the scope of work is for that particular task force, what you expect them to complete, give them a timeline for that work to come back to you, and then develop a sunset date for that task force so that they're just not continually meeting and running out of things to do. So when you put that task force together, it's really important that you develop those particular guidelines for them.

And, of course, thinking about what that member composition is, I would caution you about when you create this particular task force not to, not to create something that's really unruly with too many members because what happens is you don't you don't get full participation there, and it's it's really difficult to, when you have a task force of more than five or six people, seven maybe ideally, it it really becomes a it becomes a problem. Let's just put it that way. So I would caution you not to, you know, be careful with your selection of those people that serve on that and, keep the number of the members, to a minimum. And, again, make sure that that particular task force knows what you want them to do, when you want them to deliver that information to you, what their purpose is. That's really important.

Okay? So put some thought into it. And then, of course, make sure that there's, your staff or administration, understands what what their role is with the task force. Make please be cognizant of their time when you establish additional task force outside of your regular meeting times, because, obviously, they have they have jobs to do as well. So that is that.

And then I wanted to talk a little bit about code of conduct, which is also in the council's policies and procedures. So this particular part of their policies, this also applies to all members of committees, boards, commissions appointed by the council. And I just kinda wanted to go over these with with you. I'm gonna go over this with all of the commissions. I'm not just visiting with you.

I'm also gonna be going to the other boards and commissions as well. So don't think that I am, you know, pointing this at a particular commission because that's just not the case. So so appointed committee board and commission members, it says that you shall be knowledgeable about your mission, your goals, your powers, your duties as established in the charter and code, which I handed out to you today. Attend your meetings well prepared and participate fully in all matters. That means read your account your agenda packets, before the meeting, please.

And if you have questions, please contact Ken. It's much better to be for us to be prepared to answer your questions if they come up during a meeting. If we have some idea about, maybe we can do some research before the meeting in order to find a answer to your questions. You know, doing a gotcha or catching us off guard is never a good thing. It doesn't help you.

It doesn't help us. So if you have questions, you get your agenda packet, you have a question, please, if you can reach your Ken or someone in his office to get a question answered, I would encourage you to do that before the meeting. K? If you think it's something that the public should know, you can certainly ask that question during the meeting, but Ken or whomever will be prepared to answer that. Okay?

Accept and respect the decisions and recommendations expressed by a vote of the majority of the members. So sometimes you don't always win, and that's that's what government is about. We're have to once you take the vote, you have to agree with what the majority decided upon. Except for the purpose of inquiry, inquiry, don't become involved in specific management, personnel, or administrative issues or give orders to any subordinate. So that would mean that, if you have a a question for one of Ken's staff, we would ask you to go through Ken in order to do that, instead of going to directly to one of his employees.

So that's that's just a rule. Council, city council respects that as well, so they go through the city manager. Not engaging any prohibited acts as set forth in chapter 2.24. That's the code of ethics, and that's what we give you when you become a, board of commission member. Elise gives you a copy of that, but you can find that in the city code under 2.24.

Not deal with an issue individually, as authority is vested in the commission as a whole. So if you have a member that learns of a issue in with a a parks and rec issue, something that you as a commission, feel is within your, your warehouse, then, we would ask that you take that, to Ken and, bring that to his attention. And then after you bring that to Ken, if you feel it's something that you as a commission needs to talk about as a whole, then, hopefully, Ken can put that on the agenda and you can have that discussion. So that's the process for that. And just remember that when you are speaking and acting at your meetings, you are, speaking and act acting in the interest of the whole organizations organizations.

So the city of Valdez and the citizens of Valdez. You may have a particular issue that you are very interested in, which is fine as a commission, but you when you're doing that, just make sure that when you're looking at that, you're making sure that, how does that affect the the city as a whole and the community as a whole. Okay? When debating a motion on the floor, you must confine yourselves to the matter before the board. You shouldn't question the motives of another member during the discussion if they have a differing view.

So we understand that motions are debatable, but we would ask that, it not get personal and that you would respect the, opinions of the other board members. When you are when you enter into discussion, once a motion's on the floor, I would ask that you please go through the chair that you respect the position of the chair. The chair runs the meeting. So please go through the chair if you have a question, and respect the fact that they're actually running the meeting. And display courteous conduct with staff speakers and fellow board members.

We also have a whole section here on what happens if things goes off the rails. And so there is, a section in in this code of conduct that, tells you, what to do if that happens. And, again, we follow Robert's rules of order, and we're gonna be talking more about that at the boards and commissions training. So with that, I am open to questions. Anybody have questions?

That was a really good overview. There are a lot

of it. I'm extremely tired. I bet. No. It was really good, and it's,

I like how you explained it because you did use, like, you kinda lamed it down. I'm not good at this kind of stuff, and so I'm learning. And so the way you explained it made a lot of sense to me. And I kinda knew most of the

stuff, but you gave me examples

and visuals to where it made a lot more sense to me. So I'm excited to attend the training, and thank you for your time.

Thanks. And again, I would encourage you, to, work on developing some policies and procedures. And, again, if you you know, it it doesn't have to be an inch and a half booklet of policies and procedures for the board. No one looks at that. Okay?

It needs to be something that's easy for you. You know, if you have a question, on on how you do a particular thing, it should be a document that you can easily find, something that you can bring with you to the meeting if you need. Nobody's gonna carry around a big old book of policies and procedures. And so I'm kinda excited to work with Ken and with you guys on developing those, and also on your goals and objectives. I mean, that's huge for you to do that.

And January, February is a great time to do that. Also, I forgot to mention, also, you know, looking at your master plan. You guys need to obviously be reviewing that, making sure that, you're aware of, you know, are we on track according to that master plan? Where should we be? And when you're doing your goals and objectives, of course, you're gonna work within the with that document in order to help develop those.

So I'm excited about helping you to do that. So I think that'll be a great help. And so I expect when you guys meet with counsel that nobody's gonna sit across the the table from each other and just stare at one another for a half hours. You know, this actually happened. And so it's like, swore this would not happen again next time we had a meeting with the commissions and council.

So you're be prepared for that in April, and anything that I can do or my office can do to help you, we're glad to do that. If you have questions regarding parliamentary procedure, regarding anything I talked about tonight, I mean, please feel free to email me or call me or come and see me. My door is, you know, always open. I'm I'm busy as hell, but I'll make time. I'll make time for you.

So Are there any other commissioners

or Any

other questions?

Commissioner Shafflin?

Nope. I don't have any other questions.

I have a couple. I'm really happy to hear about the structure side of things, and it does fit with other commissioners who I've discussed with, on our commission. I guess the biggest one is, is there a template for these, policies and procedures? Have you got to that would be a great start for us then?

Yeah. I mean, there is. And Ken and I talked about it a little bit, this afternoon. Obviously, there are other parks and rec commissions, you know, with other municipalities. You know, I I always say, you know, why reinvent the wheel if there's some other examples out there that we could, you know, take from. So I think that, we're gonna take a look at some of those and bring back some suggestions for you. But, yeah, there there are other examples out there that I I think will be really helpful for you.

Okay. Excellent. I guess I have just two comments. And one is I hope that the meeting with the council is a table meeting. That I've to other ones where it has been sort of like that. It's been much better. The other one is I really appreciate the work of your department because I personally have come to your department since I've been on this commission numerous times with many questions, and you've been very helpful. So thank you

again. Okay. Thanks. Thanks. And we appreciate what you do. You guys do. All our boards and commissions do a wonderful job. And we oh, one more thing. We are doing the, boards and commissions dinner again this year. So we're gonna have a dinner.

We're going to feed you a marvelous meal, and we're looking at doing that now in, probably, in May after the municipal election, because we have Karen Kirk who's our strategic, she does strategic planning. She's our facilitator. And Karen, gonna try to get her here to do she doesn't know this yet. Strategic planning, for the the council during that time period because right after the election, it probably have two new council members. So if I can grab Karen, I can also kinda steer her into the dinner that night and, have her, you know, just, not do anything heavy because it's just it's a dinner for you, to enjoy the evening.

But, I think Karen can just, you know, do a little presentation for us, and that would be great. So, anyway, that's in May. It's, last last week in May is what I'm looking at for that. So so that'll be fun. We haven't done that in a number of years, and so we're gonna do that civic dinner. It'll be a great dinner. K? Oh, and your spouse's significant others will be invited as well.

They have to pay $30? They have to pay $30.

No. That's fine.

Last week in May, you're thinking the date to be determined?

Yeah. It's a what's worth looking at, I think she emailed me today, and, I don't have a calendar with me, but it seems it's that weekend, thirtieth. Yeah. Yeah. She would be here that Friday and Saturday, I think. That's that last weekend of okay. Thirty thirty first. Yeah. And we're looking probably at this Saturday for that.

Right?

K. Super. Yeah. I'm just I am navigating life life that far out stinks.

Yeah. Tentatively mark that on your calendar, but I'll get it out to you as soon as I know for sure.

Thank you. Our next report is from the, Director of, Planning, Director Huber. I am guessing, so I looked up the title, 16, Planning and so on, and I'm guessing where it really matters for us on this commission is to do with easements, walkways, and our master plan, which is talking about connectivity.

Yes. Thank you. So we did change our department name back to community development. So for the record, we're community development department again. We like to keep you on your toes with our department name.

But, yeah, I'm just here to talk really kind of high level and briefly about our title 16 subdivision code revision project. And commissioner Carter is spot on with some of the areas that I see overlap with your work and this project. But I will just step back a little bit. I think you're probably all aware of this process. But, really, this project goes back to our comprehensive plan update that we did the bulk of the work in 2020 and then adopted the comprehensive plan in February 2021.

And so a big takeaway from that process, because we hadn't really done a full comprehensive plan update in many, many years at that point, was that we really needed to also take a look at our, land use codes to make sure that we're implementing the vision that we set forth for land use in the community in the comprehensive plan. So there's a lot of overlap with recreation. And actually, the first step for that type of implementation in the comprehensive plan was the title 17 zoning code revision. So I think you were all probably, whether it was filling out a survey or coming to a public meeting or whatever level of involvement you have had, I know we had good engagement, especially from the recreation, community. So we made a lot of changes in title 17 to really, allow our zoning districts to reflect the different types of recreation uses that we have in our community.

One that comes to mind is, you know, in the old zoning code, most of the recreation was just looking at public lands, which, of course, we have a lot of, and we have a lot of recreation on public lands. But we also have a lot of small guiding companies and providers who are facilitating recreation, especially for our visitors through commercial businesses. And they need land to do some of their activities on commercial private land, which really didn't fit in our old zoning code. I'm So going on a little bit of a tangent, but if anyone ever wants to get into the changes that we made to facilitate recreation in the zoning code, there were a lot, and we had a lot of good public input around that. So that was our first big project out of the comprehensive plan to help update all of our rules around land use, and Title 16 is the next project in line.

So we Title 16 is our subdivision and plotting code. So it holds most of the rules around how you can do a subdivision, lot size, things like that. And then as commissioner Carter mentioned, also easements. And so our roadways, connectivity, we have our streets title as well, which is a little bit different. But in title 16, it shows when you're plotting and planning the subdivision and development of a new area of land, some of the rules around the sizes of roads and things like that.

Also, snow storage plays into that. So the subdivision code project is up next. We actually just officially kicked it off this week with the consultants that we're working with. So it's very early in the project. I don't have much to report back to you yet.

But I will say that, you know, we're we're taking a really good look at this code because it's something that hasn't been updated in a while. And as city staff, we've definitely run into some challenges, and we know, you know, our public members have been doing developments and subdividing and have run into some particular challenges with the subdivision codes. So that's gonna be a big focus of the revision. But there are also other areas that the current subdivision code really is silent on. And some of that has to do with just administrative processes on the back end that we want to define a little bit better.

It's stuff that we're already doing to facilitate the use of the subdivision code. But for better public transparency, we wanna make sure at least the basics of those processes are laid out in code so that everyone agrees upon what they are. The other thing is easements. There's not a lot of information about easements, particularly those on city property in the code. And so that's a topic that we're definitely going to get into.

And, you know, currently, we've we've got a process that we work through with our city clerk and, you know, city for city council to approve easements. But we wanna get some guidelines and have some examples because there's there's different types of easements, and one that we're totally silent on is trail easements. And so I think we talk a lot about one of the great things about living in Bellevue's is that we do have a lot of informal recreation that occurs on public lands. And and that's great. And that's not something that I think we're we're going to change in our community.

However, we do also have a lot of really established and well used trails that aren't necessarily documented. Often, they start out informally and then become higher traffic and things like that. So we wanna talk about those kind of processes for in the situations where it's appropriate establishing more formal trail easements or, you know, any kind of guidelines that there should be around that. So I don't have a clear picture of exactly what that's going to look like, but that's a process that we're gonna be working through with some really great consultants that we've brought on board to help lead the project team on the city side. And then, of course, we want as much involvement as possible from the public generally, but also from you all, and your expertise on the commission.

So I think Ken and I will work together to further refine the ways for the commission to be involved in the process as we move forward. But right off the bat, I want to get one date on your calendars, because it will definitely be a really important opportunity for your voices to be heard in the process. So on May 8, the city council no. May 7. I keep doing this wrong because it's written down in my paper wrong, and I'm going to fix that right now.

So scratch that. Wednesday, May 7, which is actually a city council night due to the election being the day before, We're going to have a work session at 6PM in this room for it'll officially be a city council and planning and zoning commission joint work session. Because the planning and zoning commission, I should have mentioned earlier on, they're our planning authority. So they're the ones who are primarily working in this code. So that's gonna be the main group that we work with through this project.

City council, of course, you know, considers easements and and is gonna be the ones adopting the code. So they'll be very involved as well. So it'll be their joint work session, but our consultant team will be in town, and we're gonna advertise it widely to the public as well to try to get public presence. So I would really like for as many parks and rec commissioners who are available to be there as well. So closer to the time, we'll have more specifics.

And and there will certainly be other opportunities for public input. We are trying to capitalize as much as possible on the very robust public input processes we had during the comprehensive plan and title 17 because those were really long projects, and we did a lot of surveying. And so we're we're gonna be we're gonna try to be strategic with how we ask the public to provide feedback on this ordinance because we do, I think, have a little bit of fatigue from some of our surveys and activities. So we're gonna get creative, but also make sure that the consultants that we're working with and, of course, our staff are really looking at the surveys and comments that we received for the other two projects because there were a lot that will also help inform this project. So the overall timeline is that we're hoping to have the actual ordinance in front of council in November or December.

So we've got we've got some runway. We wanna do this right, and and that means that we will likely be having a public hearing and have the ordinance in front of the Planning and Zoning Commission in July or August. So we're gonna try to time it kind of maybe probably sometime in August before moose hunting season, maybe right around when school starts to try to catch people in town. And, yeah, I think those are the big dates that are established right now, but I'll definitely work with Ken to keep your commission informed and engaged on the process, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Are there commissioners with questions?

Thanks. I'm looking forward to this too.

Great. Thank you.

At 7PM. Can you end the

For the work session? The joint work session is six. Yep. The regular council meeting will be at seven. So we'll have it the hour before.

Commissioner Shafflin.

No questions. Thank you.

Well, director, this is really exciting. I it's actually a lot more exciting than I thought, just by going through your presentation. It's going to be a lot of education that's going to happen in four months' time here of not only us as well as all the public. There's I think the city has done a remarkable job with public outreach, especially through this, I can't remember what it's called. It's some kind of a thing where you get an email and then you go on and you get to participate somehow or you get the

Flash boat. Flash boat.

Yes. I personally really think that's a good thing. I don't know. It'd be nice to see results from that or maybe they're already posted somewhere that I haven't seen or discovered. Anyway, so it seems like there's gonna be an awful lot of education.

If the Title 17 process was as exciting as I think it sounds like for recreation. It would be great to have some, as part of the education for what's going on in the future as somehow, outlining the successes or how you know, it would be really nice to see paragraphs. The publication you print might be something that could have not only all the great other stuff that's in there as far as schedules and so on, but maybe something about process, including success of last previous process. So that's my only suggestion. You.

Thank you.

All right. We're at the end here. Good timing. Commission business from the floor because I'm terrible with this online stuff. I'm going to start with commission shot of Would

you like me to give you just a brief Oh, I totally spaced on you.

My apologies. I forgot you got your whole deal. I'm not

gonna go over the whole deal, but I'm I'm gonna talk about it.

Error. It's okay.

Oh, okay. I just kinda wanted to update you. As you know, when when all the managers came to present you with the information we were prior to budget year, and so we didn't have all the final numbers wrapped up. And so what what you have there is the 2024 parts and recreation end of year report, which which gives you all the the finalized numbers for that. Moving forward, like like Sherry said and everybody said, we're going to identify a time.

Hopefully, we'll do a workshop prior to the February meeting. So, Lisa will be sending, information out to discuss our our, goal planning. I'll try to get some, information out to you as far as, sample policies and procedures, from different organizations and and provide you a written copy of what, Sherry provided us tonight as well so that you have that digital. And then, we'll have that meeting and and kind of move on from there to to hopefully, with with February and March, we can wrap those up and and kinda have some directions for the April meeting. It'll be a late April meeting.

If we need to have a special meeting, we, you guys can call that meeting and and, identify that. And and maybe in the first meeting of February, you feel like we need a lot of, extra meetings, just, let's identify that. Because I think that you won't want a bunch of information and try to make a decision on that a single night. So I think you'll you'll want a little time to to cook it over. But in the meantime, think about what your priorities in parks and recreation are.

From a national standard, we're focusing on accessibility from a Parks and Recreation standpoint, mobility, trails and tying trails together and doing things like that, as well as as updating our playground systems and and things like that, making sure that, they're they meet, current ace ASTM standards, which is a safety code that guides those, apparatus and making sure our citizens are safe within our community, when they're out there playing. So I have a lot of money that I have in my mind that I wanna spend, but nobody will really give it to me. But, you know, covering the playground would be great and just different things. So, now's the time to be to be creative and kind of talk about those things. And hopefully, the council will like it and like some ideas, and they'll kind of give us some direction as well.

So that's about it.

Thank you, and apologies. Are there any questions for the director on the year end report?

I'm really excited to move forward with, the growth of of this commission. And I feel like, Ken, you've given us a really good base and given us some good some good input, and we're really excited to help you spend some money.

Excuse me. But, no, thank you for all your hard work. I really appreciate it.

The other commissioners?

I'd say the same thing for Hany. I think you have a great staff, which makes it easier for you, but you have some good young people there to help you and make things happen. It's good to see everyone working together and doing some great things for Valdez. Lots of great compliments in what you're doing and what your staff is doing. So thank you.

We're at the end here, Pete, sorry.

No. We're on the Director's report. We're at year end report. I can ask, Commissioner Schafflin why we think.

Yeah. I'd like to just echo what, Heidi said and say thank you, Ken, for everything. And I'm looking forward to seeing how these new trails on Mills Hill are gonna come up and get used by everybody. And, you know, the changes coming are all seem like they're good. And like how you said, I'm happy to throw some ideas out there to help spend some money if needed. So thank you.

Thank you.

I'll I'll just echo a bunch of what got said. No. I'm excited about the February event and just, you know, thinking through goals, objectives, and bylaws and some of that stuff. I just think it'll give us a little direction as a commission, and I really appreciate the input and help that is coming our way because, yeah, there's no sense in redesigning the wheel. There's a lot of good examples out there, but guidance is great too. So thanks, Sherry, other members of the team in advance. And, yeah. Anyway, thanks.

Thank you. I only have, one question and one comment. The question is there's been much talk and surveys and so on over the recreation center. Is there anything, that in the future we can be discussing this that you can talk about now? Well, I mean,

I don't know that there's nothing new. When I I guess the last time we met with council, I I did present the the option, couple options on fees. I also, talked about, a multiuse recreation center, and and they were that was not the primary focus of council at that particular time. And and so we'll we'll definitely need to probably test the waters in that meeting that we have with the council to because we do have a master plan that kind of identifies a multiuse recreation center in our master plan. It is identified.

You know, I think that we're currently working on a $6,000,000 project, at Mills Hill, and it will wrap up in the next year. And so, it's a recreation center. It's a long term project. So, the sooner we get started, the better off we will be and be ready, and and to go into. So So hopefully, we could get some positive direction from counsel to pursue that. And I guess we go through our goal setting and identify those things.

Yeah. Thank you. And then my one comment is how much I appreciate the cultivating from within with employment in this department. I have seen a number of improvements. Some of these things could have been challenging as senior people move along. And some even I think even I had department head this year, maybe more than one in 24 a year ago so by. I don't know how it goes. So but I what I have noticed is that the people that you have been looking at who work their way up appear to be very, very good at their jobs. So that's attaboy for the Director. You. All right. With that, we are now on to the commission business from the floor. And before I forget, I'll make sure that we get Councillor Shafflin.

I have no new business.

I was just gonna say thanks to Parks and Rec staff trying to get out and groom ski trails. I know it's been kind of a mediocre winter to say the least. I I know I've been out to skate ski a handful of times already. It's been pretty awful, though. No surprise. I think it was the last meeting too I mentioned I was up on the trails at, behind the the, you know, new Mills Hills project. And, yeah, I've just gone for a walk up there again, I'm just excited about the project. And it'll be cool to see that come together, of course. You know, I hit Bridget at some point too, just just poking at her. Hey.

It'd be nice to get the rope tail open as soon as possible. But, yes, we know there's a rainy disaster around here. That's still a goal, though. I just it's I'd love to see that kinda get rolling ASAP if we have that ability because, you know, there's always gonna be a few little ramble sticking out, but I think the hill's kinda good enough once we obviously have a little bit of a base. It's never gonna be perfect out there, and that's fine.

Otherwise, yeah. Again, just appreciate the upcoming February conversation that we're about to have. So thanks.

A brief update. We did get the tow rope inspected last weekend. So it is renewed and done. So we're getting close.

That's my question for my students. One is the ski resort. So right now, there's expecting snow. So it has to have three feet base to operate or what's the requirements for that one?

We we need to have about three feet so that that you can actually use this the tow rope. Otherwise, you're you're not able to, and it's it's up here.

What is the orders right now? Or how is it right now?

Can Oh,

there's it's you can see grass and dirt. It's ice. Like, all ice.

It's coming up.

Take them ice climbing. All right. I have no business. And with that, we will adjourn.