Parks and Recreation Commission - Regular Meeting

Together the goals and, to present to us. I'm looking forward to hearing all that. Just overall looking forward to meeting with you and other community too just to, you know, understand what you guys are doing, what you're prioritizing, and

then making

sure that that's all, you know, we're aware of it going forward. So I'm glad you guys took the time to do that. And I think, Ken, are you gonna start things off with an overview of the presentation? Sure. Sure. We'll do a discussion and q and a after that. Yeah. Okay.

Honorable mayor pro tem Mhmm. Council commission. I think, Sherry puts me up here. I feel like Mikey from the live commercial. Let's get let's get Mikey to do it. So I am the first of, of many that you guys will see over the next few months. But, what really got this started was the Parks and Rec Commission kinda says, what what is our role? And which was a really good question. And and because we'd kinda been stagnant, we hadn't any projects going or anything like that. Mills Hill was dead, for the winter, and and so it was kinda like we couldn't really get anything going.

And so I said, well, that's that's a great time. And then Sherry Pierce kind of talked to us and said she wanted to have a meeting, go over roles and responsibilities, which which helped out a lot. And then in February, we had a work session to go over their ideas for goals. And in that timeframe, Parks and Rec staff did a set of goals as well. And then we followed up, we had an assignment to go out and kind of talk to our constituents and see what they wanted us to be working on.

And then we came back and met again in March and we talked through the goals and kind of finalized them. So we weren't quite sure we were going to make it through those things, but we did and it went good. We wanted to I just like to go over the city's mission and vision statements, our core values now. They've kind of changed, you know, to cultivate an environment, opportunity, sustain prosperity and well-being for the people of LDs, then integrity, stewardship, sustainability and service celebrate. You guys set those, so, we wanted to make sure we talked about that.

And then the mission of of the Parks and Rec is, inclusive high quality parks program and utilize our unique resources for a fun and healthy community. And then we talk about people parks programs and foster experiments, experiences with renew the human spirit and promote community vitality. And so, I further wanted to kind of dive in and from the national standpoint, it is about health health and well-being through the National Recreation Park Association, equity and environmental resilience. And and we have all those aspects within our community. Our our staff priorities, as you know, we have a new park superintendent and and we feel like our number one priority is take care of what we have.

And so we have facilities that are out there that we wanna enhance park cleanliness and safety. We want to update parks and trail maps. Currently, we're working with Slate, which which does our printing for the compass and everything like that to do our our new updated maps. We want to identify trail maintenance needs. We want to we're very focused on employee retention because it's been really difficult to keep people on on staff.

ADA compliance, as you know, or may not know, I mean, the HR department is working on a ADA transition plan, which is a a big deal for mobility around the community and things like that. We're working on a department GIS mapping, system for, the cemetery so so individuals can come out to the the cemetery, pull up our, hit a q q r code, identify a plot, and then find out what their loved one is within within the cemetery. So it'd be some really neat technology. So we're updating that process as we speak with our current civic rec program that we have in Parks and Recreation. And we want to improve services already provided, focusing on quality and improve improving and developing policies that will better support frontline staff when enforcing facility and rules.

And and we got into kind of a situation this year where we had to to adjust some rules based on transgender and things like that with at the at the pool, this year. So, we're just going through all our policies and procedures to make sure that we're we're up to date with current trends. Then when we sit down with with the Parks Commission, they came up with with these goals. And and they're they're really focused in line with our our Parks and Recreation Master Plan. I know that at at council the other night, guys seen the new software that the the planning department has within within, I I guess, overall goal settings.

We got our master plan in there. We have all our goals within that setting. And then it spells out within in that where we are. And so the trail development is interconnectivity. We're going to work with planning and community development on the Title 16 as far as easements and partnerships and working on trail ordinance development during the during the process of of enacting Title 16.

Walking trails, partnerships, and and maintenance on on DOT right of ways. As you know, there's been some Mr. Sacks has kind of come to City Council talked about maintaining from Main Street out to the DOT right away. And so if that's something that the council wants to do or direct us to do, I'll need to get additional quotes from from our vendor, or if they want staff to do that in house, that will need to be a different conversation as far as getting additional equipment to maintain those areas. Keeping in mind when we do those new areas, we're setting the precedents within DOT right away.

It's okay to partner with DOT to do those things, but where do we stop? Because we do expand out 22 miles. And so that would be a whole different conversation. But I do understand why we would want to do that. It is the gateway to our community as you come into town.

So and and and I understand that Parks and Rec has has done that, prior to me, coming into town. So, it's definitely a conversation, we're we're willing and able to have. We're going to start within our department. We've commissioned kind of like some more updates, we want to do monthly commission trail reports on staff maintenance plans. And so we're going to develop maintenance plans and then come in brief on the progress that we make throughout the year, whether it's winter, summer, and any kind of grooming activity that we do on those trails.

We want to we want to start another bike to work program, focused on health and wellness within the community, and then work with DNR and state parks on possible, partnering with them on paddling trails within within the community.

Sorry. What are paddling trails?

It's it's where where you identify a location within your community that that you have say you wanna go kayaking, and and it it has a map a map and a route for you. You hit that QR code, and it it'd give you a route to go out and paddle, whether it's out all the way out to Shoe Bay, if it's out to Gold Creek or anything like that. But it's it's another opportunity for, to have different kind of of trails and mobility within your your community.

And also too, we have there is already an an issue in the sound going on for this trail and cabin and camping. Is already ongoing, so it's part of that. I

don't know if you guys remember, but the SCORP, the statewide Parks And Rec Trail program is is a state function. We're going to the trails conference tomorrow to kind of discuss the that and and to see where they are with those. They're they're gonna map out all the the recreation trails within the the state of Alaska with cities, states, and DNR property. Option two is our goal number two is to develop some pop up park programs with existing facilities so that we can get people out and about and do recreational programs at different areas of location where, say, on whim a we want to take the, I don't know, just just a trailer full of things out to Alpine Woods. And we have games and activities in that trailer.

And then we program that neighborhood with the games and activities that we have for those areas. We could also do things at the Civic Center with a bounce house and different things like that. And then we can do the same thing in all the different school locations around the community.

Mainly for when, like, the weather's bad, and there's nothing else to do around town. We can have pull ups indoors and just for the kids since With Especially summertime.

Yeah. Within this goal, the the feasibility study for for possibly covering a playground area. I do have some conceptual drawings that that I'll show you of a black and gold park that that kind of has a pavilion type facility where you could put a playground area underneath that and you could split the facility in two different, pieces, so that one side is an active area where you you may play pickleball or do, court games on one half and then you do a playground on the other half so that you can still stay active when it's snowing. And then we could have the ability to groom to those areas to where you could have access throughout the winter. And then and then implementation of a playground capital replacement program.

Within our, you know, that this has to do with ADA and and also just just making sure that we're staying current with current trends. If you look at current trends now, you're and then you go out to one of our playgrounds, you know, you have a trail that takes you out there, but that you then you don't have any any way if you're in a wheelchair or if you're on a walker, if you're a senior citizen to get to that playground. You have an 18 inch lip to get into the playground. And so our accessibility for those those areas is is difficult. And and then all the fall zones are pea gravel.

We do have, some wood mulch at at some, and then we have some rubber that is undulated and not not ADA surfacing. And so it'd be it'd be great to to get to where we can have access to all our playgrounds and park areas in in a just a fluid fluid motion when you go through there. I guess I and this is kind of what I'm talking about. You could have ramp ups into your into your playground areas. You have a walking trail for for moms that wanna go and walk around or dads that are are stay at home dads that wanna walk around and and, they could stay active while their kids are playing right there and still have, eyesight on their their kids.

We will identify the area addressing, any any needs and develop an action plan. And that's that kind of goes in conjunction with a transition plan for ADA accessibility for our city facilities. And that would include the library as well. You know, we have limited access to the 2nd Floor at the library. If you, if you are not mobile, we do are working on policy that require staff or to to assist those, you know, so we make accommodations for them.

We'll go up, get the books, bring them down what they're looking for. But you can't just, you know, kinda go search for your own thing. And then work with Public Works to address pedestrian community walkability. I think that, one of the big things is is during the winter, we are we're in the streets. And so you you come out of the I I I guess I use my Myron Park.

You you come out of the high school and and or the junior high there. You come across, there's, there's a walking area. We just want to make sure that we have access across, those areas and then be able to shoot them off into their individual neighborhoods and have, have a walkable space for people coming in and out of school so that they don't immediately have to come out and walk on a on the on the street. So it's it's a big order for sure. And then, goals four and five are are innovative innovative outdoor, recreation.

Disc golf is is one. We're working on a partnership with Disc Golf Association and Valdez Adventure Alliance, where they wanna raise, half the funds to to put new baskets, new competitive baskets out at the disc golf course. And so they want to raise about $7,000 and then we would purchase the other half so that we could have 18 new new holes out at golf course. We have funding for this, but I need the agreement so that I can get, the additional funding that's required for the the competitive type baskets. We want to see what we can do to improve and get additional usage out at the ski hill.

You know, we put the ramps back in this year. It was successful. We had an instructor out there all year, so it was a good year out there. Consider, you know, in the future doing a pump track, additional improvements at the gun range and and and try to find a group that'll take on that that will actually clean it up. Because we spent a lot of time, during cleanups, going out there.

We had some some churches come out, do some do some volunteer work and things like that. We get to coast guard during during our community clean out to come out and help. But it's odd how trashy it gets out there. And then the outdoor pickleball, is is we wanna be able to expand that in the winter and and things like that as well with a covered area, which would be nice. And then continued collaboration with Alaska Sea Grant organization.

Where they train, they train our instructors and then they come out and do two week camp for us. So we want to continue that. During, during the because because all the parks commission are so involved in community service organization, they really had a desire to to, up the communications between the the the city and the communication with with the CSOs, just just to enhance the relationship. And and, you know, so that so that we all know what everybody is doing, what's going good, what's going bad, what we need to improve on, what they need to improve on. And and so overall, I I think that's that's a great goal.

Anytime we can continue to enhance our our partnerships and and work together to become have common goal in in mind. It it's been really good. I mean, our partnerships overall have really increased over the years. We we work with with Prince William Sound quite a bit as far as he's Ben is doing some kayaking stuff that bringing a conference into town. And in turn, we kind of help store their kayaks over the winter.

He's presenting we're bringing APRA, the Alaska Parks and Recreation Association conference here to Valdez in September.

And they're

going to present a session there at our conference as well. And so and and maybe maybe maybe host a kayaking training there as well during the annual conference for us. So with that, I think I'll just go over the overall five goals as trail development, options for indoor covered playground spaces, ADA compliance, innovative outdoor recreation, and CSO pre and post event meetings to enhance relationships and communications. With that, I kind of turn it over to y'all to ask questions or kind of give us some direction on some things that you might want to see. I know that Mr.

Sacks might want to talk about the RV park and the maintenance of those areas. And we had a conversation today. I definitely understand the need because it is a gateway to our community. So

Yeah. Thanks, Ken. Thanks for that presentation. Appreciate it. I think maybe can you go back just to the the slide with the staff kind of priorities first? I was thinking maybe we'll work through from there through the goals to that. Then we've got kind of the whole story from you. So, I guess first, you know, counsel, did counsel have any comments or questions regarding kind of staff priorities and goals for their commission or for for Ken? Okay.

I guess I I can just add. What are you doing to, I guess, increase employee retention? Well,

last year, Bridget Irish, our recreation manager, she did present at APRA. She put together a presentation on incentive programs different things that we can do to kind of entice those employees. We've really focused on training in the past year year or two, I guess, couple years. I mean, Bridget has, completed her director's school, and so she she is certified now. Robert has has completed his training as far as event management over at the Civic Center.

Cole and Jamie are over at at the trail conference this weekend learning about trail maintenance and things like that. We've got Brian Rusma that got the certified playground inspector, certification. We have a certified applicator in Jamie Goudreaux now, as far as chemicals. We've we've completed the, IPMP, the Integrated Pest Management Program, which which kind of identifies and follows state law as far as where we we apply and when. And then with our our younger staff, you know, we we buy swag for them and T shirts and sweatshirts and cool whistles and, you know, just I cook a lot of barbecue.

You do. You do.

So just just any kind of incentive program that we can tie some to stick around. Sure.

We can feel like family.

And one thing too is, the cultivating from within. So during this tenure, it's been really good to see the retention that way as well too. And certainly, whenever I interview the younger staff or the people that I meet, I will reiterate that they're they're happy. Yeah.

I I actually I would like to comment on that. I I I one of the things that I'm very proud of our parks and recreation department for doing is cultivating within. They've been one of our most successful departments of that. Almost everybody right now that's in a leadership position, people that started there as teenagers. And I think that's incredible.

So, Ken, I I had one or two questions, I think, in this section. So one one of the things that came up was the Beautification Commission wrote us a letter regarding specifically the Park strip, and and it was mostly centered on kind of the timeliness and quality of, you know, cleanliness of the Park strip as this, you know, melt came out. That seemed to be, you know, kind of the driving factor was kind of the the cleanup, and I think that was maybe associated with, you know, maybe some of the contracting associated with that. And then, you know, second secondarily, it seemed like there's also they're also talking about and this is related to another one of one of the goals is, you know, updating the park facilities there too. You So speak could you speak to that, like, of how maybe this is capturing that concern?

And I have two slides that I'll go over. One of them is black and gold, which is a renovation of that that particular park area. I think that I think some of the questions that came out is what are other cities doing? Well, other cities don't have quite as much snow. That's one thing.

If I talk I talked to Paul Palmer, Saldana, Kenai, Parks and Recreation Director. They they push on the parks as well, but they don't go as deep. So they they have 15 foot and then that's as far as they allow them to go. And and once once it gets to that level, they they haul it off. So they once it gets to capacity, they haul it off, ship it somewhere else, dump it on another city property.

But that's what Saldotna does. And then, Keene and I pushed it to the center of the road. They take it out, and they immediately haul it off. And so but but, again, we we're not talking about three and four foot dumps.

You talking about instead of terracing and basically pushing up, would haul at that point?

Yep.

Okay.

And so the the other thing is is is we just need to establish boundaries. Right? So if we we need to have trail access, or we would like trail access in the park, we need to establish those boundaries. And then we need to make sure we keep those boundaries. So I think we worked to a solution this year. We did get some good feedback about it once we finally got the trail punch through Myring. But we were stacked up and blocked. We couldn't we couldn't do the typical trail that we did for quite some time this year. So we want to make sure that we have walkability access through there. And so that would be be something we need to do in specific areas.

And and maybe identify some of those areas as parking areas to where we push. I mean, black and gold at the west end, you know, just gets inundated and it peel off all the topsoil. So we can revegetate it this summer and then the winter will be the same way with high stacks and gouged out because by the time we push it out, I mean, if you look over here at my ring now, it's it's getting muddy again in those sections. And so we'll have to level all that out again and and and re vegetate.

And then my other question for this section two is what is the commission's kind of involvement and, you know, the feedback for the staff priorities? Is it something that you present annually to them and then have a discussion? Or how does that work?

Well, I think we we do an annual we do an annual report with them just like I'll bring the annual report to to City Council kind of talk about the things that we've done, the things we have upcoming. We talk about some of the things that we're doing within the budget that that are approved. The difficult thing is is is that, not not saying anything negative here, but when your when your goal when when council's goal is status quo, no rise in the budget, it's hard to do new. And so we we we try to maintain the level of service that we currently have. And so you you we can't we can't have any any extra.

I mean, we're we're we're going to open up Hills Hill this at the end of this summer. So we'll have have maintenance plans and things that we need to think about there as well. And so capacity is a big deal, especially this coming year. So that's why we're looking for funding for if it's the desire of the council to direct us to go, maintain DOT right away from Maine to DOT turn, we'll need additional funding for those. And and we want to, you know, we want to mimic it. We don't want one side to be good and one side to be bad. We want.

If I may speak to the commission side of the staff priorities. So in the past, historically, it's been they come, they give us an annual report. We know what's going on. We know what their staff priorities are for the coming year. A big part of what we did this past winter by presenting these goals is now and Ken gave us the staff priorities at our work session to develop our goals.

So we tried, and I think you can see, our goal the five goals that we came up with are most of the staff priorities are in alignment somewhere. They fit into one of those five. And so that's the that's the kind of new thing that we're trying to do is bring the commission and the staff priorities so that commission and staff are working together. And it's not just like staff, here's our report, and commission says, yeah, you're doing a good job. It's it's a little bit more of a part. We're trying to do more of a partnership and staff says, we need help. We want to do this. I mean, that's kind of what commission is there to do. So it

just Yeah.

That's great. Bringing that together.

That's great.

Yeah. I was definitely definitely have asked them to champion some things that they want. I mean, and that'll that'll be critical in in in moving forward. If we if we do get to move forward on on our goals, that'll be that'll be great, and and it'll be up to them to champion that stuff.

Yes. And maybe we can stick go to goal two or goal number one. Trail development. Did council have any comments and questions on this one? I had a few. You guys know. So I think, you know, trails is great. You know, I definitely support it. You know, the headliner development gave me some, you know, pause. You know, I know we have a lot of trails already, and I know that there's maintenance needs too.

So I think that's tucked in here. You talk about the maintenance plan and everything like that. So I guess maybe could you elaborate a little bit more about your guys' vision on this development versus maintaining what we have?

I think, really, it could be called trail maintenance and development. I think we were just kind of going for something a little quick and short and to the point. Don't think to your point, we're not looking at, like, let's go do another Meals Hill project. We're not doing anything like that. We're already in a development phase for adding a bunch more trails to our current system.

I think really when you're looking at goal number one, yeah, there's development in there. And the development part, I think, what believe we came what we're saying is development is developing partnerships. Partnerships regarding the easements, partnerships regarding the the DOT partnership, and programming a partnership with maybe creating a program for bike to work and interconnectivity. I think that's the development we're looking at not like going out into the woods, cutting down trees and developing a trail.

Yeah. And I'll also, if you if you look at, we're currently working on an easement through St. Patrick Subdivision on the backside for our hike and bike trail. So we're really trying to be on it at the front of any kind of development. So say, Public Works is talking about doing a additional snow lots in certain areas.

Well, we know we we have we have definitely our vision when we come off of Mills Hill on the backside and want to tie into Eagan. If we if there's any way we can get access to there to where we're tying on the backside of Eagan and, and down, and then we can tie to that that ends up getting us all the way to, to West Dike, East West Dike. So that you're you have a continued continuous trail throughout the community. It's your Cottonwood subdivision, it gets you over to Homestead, it gets you into the those areas. And so all time, when I'm talking about interconnectivity, I'm talking about when when we're redoing a street, can we consider having a sidewalk down that that street to tie us in to to Myring Park, you know, so so we can continue with safe routes to school and things like that.

It's it's all about that that overall inner interconnectivity. It's not a project that we want to do right now. But we want to let you guys know that we want to be at the table talking about it during the development phase anytime.

And some of these goals too, we talked about some goals are things that we can work on this year. Some we realize are going to be three to five years, some might even be five to ten year, you know, like if it gets brought up sometimes in our commission meetings about how can we do a bike path to Alpine Woods. Obviously, that's not something that's gonna be in a year or two or maybe even three years. That's a multi year kind of a pie in the sky maybe even goal. But that's, again, what goals are is something to shoot for and something to work towards.

So that was kind of what we came up with. And yeah, I think you're right. Trail development might be a little misleading in that it's more about trail maintenance and developments.

Yeah. Thanks. Well, is a development in Title 16 so that you guys have alluded to that. There is also a huge hole in our city. Our city, we cannot connect our city if we don't have automobiles in winter. And so that is a big issue that has to be you've got kids, but especially if kids on the other side, they can't do that, people that don't have automobiles or their automobile is not working. So that is a big issue that the city should be looking at, is getting across dark flats in the winter safely. Yeah. Thanks for

that clarification. Really appreciate it. That clarifies for me. Yeah. I think, you know, like, especially to Ken, like, what you're saying, Pete, and what you're saying about the, you know, access in the winter across the partnerships.

Like, that's certainly something that I'm glad that's being worked on and being considered. I think it's The other the last thing I'll say about this too, and I'm gonna say this about, you know, the playgrounds as well. I'd be interested in seeing the commission identifying, you know, capital improvements to trails, you know, high priorities for capital improvements. I know that, you know, Parks and Rec can only do so much, but if there's, you know, capital improvements that can be done through contracts that can be identified and brought for council's consideration, you know, one a year, two years, something that's you know, could be fit to the budgets. I know that the longer you wait on things, you know, the more it gets degraded.

So I'd be interested in seeing what those capital improvements are, you know, you know, so something that could be, you know, sustainable within the budget. So if if that's something the commission could maybe, you know, bake into this, I'd be interested in in seeing those, you know, seeing those in the budget.

So similar to a capital replacement program for playgrounds, wanna see kinda something for trails?

Capital maintenance projects for trails, you

know Okay.

Yeah. Where it's needed. So I'd be I'd be, lean on the commission to identify, you know, what what those trails are, know, what those priority places are.

I think there's a little bit of that. Not all of the parks all of the parks facilities, but a little bit baked into this is we were starting a monthly commission trail report where we're essentially assigning to all the commissioners to go out each month on a trail and then report back at the monthly commission meeting and say, okay, so this week we did, you know, this month we did shoot. What was everybody's experience? What would you know, what can you bring to the table? Like, can we do? Is there some maintenance? Is there something that we need to start thinking about for budget season? But I like that too with the parks and the other facilities.

I think it's a good way to

break that down to Austin. If we're walking a trail, it's just like there's this immediate like, we've got to

weed whack this. And then there's this long term. We can need a bridge here. This is gonna take permits and

Or dirt work or Etcetera. Drainage or yeah. Olivia?

Yeah. I think maintenance is development in Valdez because I think a lot of our trails take a massive amount of maintenance. And oftentimes, have to develop new strategies to shoot trail, for instance. Every year, it slides out there. And how can we the goat trail, the wagon wheel, whatever that is where you're hiking underneath. But there's a ton of maintenance to be done in this town. So I think developing strategies to create less maintenance over time is also a really it would be a good idea for us over time. But I don't know how you do that with the alders and

With the mountains of volunteers that we have in town.

All right. So I think goal two, moving on to that. Did the council have any comments or questions on this one? Jimmy?

I know that it specifically calls out a feasibility study for covering a playground. But did anybody have a specific playground in mind? Or is this just generally open to all playgrounds?

I don't believe when we discussed it at commission, we talked about a specific playground, like a feasibility study. I think what we would do as commission, because we're not the ones out there or maintaining these facilities, we would defer to park staff to say, of the parks that we have at our disposal, which do you think would be used the most in the winter or would be maybe easiest to get to or plow to. That's another piece. Right now, you look at Myring Park. I mean, it's kind of hard to get to those, the Pirate Park especially.

So I think we would defer to staff to say, you know, pick a park and then, you know, and let's do a feasibility study

on that.

So what we did is we we kind of laid out black and gold as a covered area. And I've I've got a rendering of it. But it's it's just a, you know, a pavilion that kinda sets back. It isn't it's it's a it's not it wouldn't be an enter in from copper, but it would be an enter in from one of the side cul de sacs. So it's a shorter distance, but we also have, I mean, just have to keep in mind about snow removal and access and the ability to do that and how the roof is pitched and how it falls off and and maintain it around that.

I mean, it it's a stretch and I mean, look at a guy from Texas saying he's lost his mind. But, know, I mean, I think the

feasibility study. It was something that we could say, hey, let's just look into this and and see. I mean, is it even worth trying to go down that route or not?

It's the ability to develop an active area during the off season. Jeremy Winters.

Part of the discussion around this goal, was recognizing that town has

wanted this big indoor recreation facility for a

long time too. It pops up in different surveys, and it's like, great. Wonderful. That's very expensive. A whole lot more staff, etcetera, to run. Is there a way to use these facilities that

we already have and do

you know, you're entering a week of crap weather in December. Is there

a way to do a pop up thing at Civic Center, get the bouncy house, get kids out of the house? You know, just just think about using facilities we already have to to the maximum.

Yeah. And you can have civic center staff just kind of like planning super spur of the moment. But I think you could get ahead of some of this.

Mhmm. Yeah.

My biggest my biggest concern with building rec recreation center in a town of 3,500 in the winter is just the reality is that we don't want to subsidize it to the tune of a million dollars a year. I mean, I just I just don't think you wanna do that. And I've built two rec centers in my career, and and they're all revenue generating. And in order to have revenue generating rec centers, you have to have population, and we don't have population here. And so that's what's difficult. I would love a rec center, a grand rec center, that we could do all our things. But the fact of the matter is that it's an expensive endeavor.

Olivia, I think you had something.

Love that we always think about children when we think about playgrounds in the wintertime. But I see a lot of I don't want to call people elderly, but older people that don't want to go outside and walk on the ice and the snow. They oftentimes would come in the hospital and walk around. And then just maybe partnering with the walking groups around town because there definitely are walking groups that go to the hospital and maybe could go to the rec center or different places

Yeah. Are around part of the pop up programs. Pop up programs aren't for just children. They're for

And we currently do offer the civic center during the day for walking for that particular reason. We have people going up there all the time for physical therapy and things like that that walk around the civic center.

And they do the laps too because there's the stairs and then they go up and down so they have a little bit of ramp on the side of the theater. And we see them all the time when we're catering. Cool. And so, yeah, there's them. I don't think it's very known to the public apparently with the senior center and stuff like that. Maybe it's just not known to them. But it's there. Come hang out and smell delicious food while you walk.

So part of it also is a recognition of the value of covered space in a maritime climate. So everything like the covered picnic table on top of the Civic Center Hill there or maybe like you asked to do an annual capital trails, I would think that covered areas that are, once they're built, there's no maintenance to it. Like Dock Point is good year round because that is a parking area too. So that was part of that recognition of covered areas.

More counsel on this one?

I I mean, I we we didn't really touch on the pop up programs as much as I'd like to. I think I think that Jeremy brought up a really great point about how, you know, we we can't plan for everything, and we can't expect staff to be able to turn on a dime. But if we have some significant preplanning, especially if we set aside materials with these things in mind and and we have some sort of protocol developed for, like, you know, oh, man. We've had the craziest rain all summer. If only we x y z.

Well, if we if we already knew the thing that we do in that situation, then I I think that it would really be a benefit not just to staff, but obviously to the community. Just just, you know, it's I think it'd be a relatively light lift to have some level of preparedness for things like that.

Well, even spontaneity or the spontaneous stuff, we have the projectors at Pacific Center. If we if it was really crappy rainy and there was nothing going on in the theater, we could do the projections in the actual the ballrooms there and just have, like, a playtime and then just watch a movie or have a popcorn pop up or something like that. Like, there's been multiple ideas and multiple stuff that it's it's easy to do with less staff too. That's easy.

Actually, that's a really great opportunity for another chance to commend our parks and rec for, you know, good programs that they have been doing recently. I really liked the the Civic Center. They've they've been doing, like, more classic movies at a lower cost. I think that's really great because saves the city money. It gives people things to do on a boring rainy day. I I I really like that. They they did a bunch of movies all throughout the winter. But also in in on the subject of usage of the the Civic Center for community programs, they just recently have the Sound Wellness Alliance Network. They did their their sober dance party there. Mhmm.

And I think that's a really fantastic idea. I I was told by many of my friends that drink that a sober dance party is like an oxymoron.

It's so fun, though.

Apparently, it's very hard to dance sober when you're not used to it. But I you know, I'm I'm a sober guy. So for me, it was no different. I I would love to see, you know, on this subject. You you somebody mentioned that that I believe it was Sarah, mentioned that that we wanna try to target pop up programs to all sectors of the community.

I think that's another sector of the community to be thinking of. Not not necessarily a specific sector, but just that so much of our so so many of our community programs have alcohol as an element of them. And I am not a person to poo poo people for wanting to drink. I think it's, you know, great if you can do it in moderation and have a good time. But I do think that we should have more programs that that's not specifically an element of them because it almost feels like when it's at everything, we're kind of encouraging it a little bit.

Not to say that people shouldn't feel encouraged, but it shouldn't be something that we are actively encouraging. So I I would love to see if we could if we could encourage sober activities, you know, while we're encouraging senior activities and children's activities and exercise and all these great things.

I don't think the city or Parks and Rec can actually do an alcohol event. Those are all events from other

Oh, yeah. No. You're right.

But yeah. No. I agree. They've had a great luck with those sober dance parties. And I think it's an excellent thing. And I think the whole develop pop up programs, we don't necessarily have that fully baked. This is a goal of ours, to develop those and to work with staff, to develop them and develop what can we do for the little kiddos, like the Mighty Mike kiddos, the elementary, middle school, high school adults, elders. So yeah, I think that we want to hit as many sections of the public as we can.

Perfect. Yeah. And just my only comment on this is I think it's great, the capital replacement program and kind of what I said with the trails. Like, I'd like to see every year at least one capital replacement at least in the draft budget for consideration for council consideration because I know there's just, you know, parks that are old that have been around for a generation now, and people that were playing on that park are now playing with their kids. And it's you know? So if there's parts that you guys identify for, Calp for Chris, I'd really like to see that. So I think it's great that that's part of this goal.

They don't make

playgrounds like they

used to. They don't. And and I

and I

think They don't burn you like they

used to.

Yeah. They don't

No. Yeah. So I think that's that's really important. But I also think, you know, I don't think you're silly at all, Ken, for looking at feasibility for a covered playground. You know, like Pete said, it's a maritime environment, and that makes to look at it at least. Because I was actually surprised when they did the senior center with the covered parking, how act you know, it really wasn't that much more to, you know, the overall cost to cover it. You know? So I'd really be interested in the results of that. So goal three? Council have any questions or comments on on this one?

Well, I I I definitely think that it is an important goal to have ADA compliance at as many facilities as we possibly can. I I think that maybe an important sub aspect of this goal is how to implement it in a cost effective way over time. That's the only thing that I I just wanted to specifically say at the meeting. I you know, if we did every facility, if we upgraded them all today, it'd be millions of dollars. But if you spread that millions of dollars over fifteen years, we could as we in the previous goal, as we implement our playground capital replacement program, for example, you know, working this into that program as, like, a stepped approach, I think it could be done significantly more affordably.

And also, those two goals, I think, should be worked together. I think every time we're looking at replacing infrastructure for any of our recreation facilities, we should be looking at if there's a way to do it in a way that is more ADA accessible.

Yeah. And and just to speak to that for a minute. I mean, if you look at at Kelsey Dock, it's ADA accessible. If you look at our next phase, we got truncated domes at Cocross for the sidewalks. We're going to address those walkways with the Mills Hill project. So I mean, when we do new infrastructure, it's included. But all of this is is all encompassing in the transition plan that the city will put in place and are currently working on. So ADA transition plan is is I mean, it's law. So we should have a have one in place and that's overall. And I think we're doing a good job at addressing those different things.

I mean, it's thresholds and walkways and things like that.

Pete, did you wanna

And part of it can be, an improvement benefit. Like, the

library is

a major project. But I think that when that goes ADA, I think the benefit in the improvements could be really considerable. That's my rough

Yeah. We've we've we've gotten a price for for Lyft and and things like that, and it's on the on the capital improvements list. And so, you know, we'll see how it fares.

Yeah. I guess just, like, to reiterate too, like, I I really, you know, hope to lean on the Parks Commission to identify those, you know, those things. You know, you you develop a list, but I think a big role is to identify what, you know, what on that list should be elevated and, you know, to lean on the fund of the commissioners to identify those things so that, you know, you can develop a narrative and then make the case so that when by the time comes around, we'll understand why and hopefully be able to support it. So

And just one more thing on this topic that I do think, you know, is important for us to be conscientious of as a community is that the age of our community is drastically increasing in recent years. The average age has gone up like twelve years in the past twenty years. So so we we do have a significantly larger number of senior citizens and also our visitorship has been increasing significantly through cruise ships. Majority of those passengers are also senior citizens. So having better ADA accessibility not only benefits all the people of the community, but it also benefits our community in being more pleasant for visitors.

I don't wanna interrupt the great conversation, but I did wanna let people know that there is pizza. So if you did want to take a five minute recess at some point so people could get pizza, feel free.

Sure. Do think people are interested in taking a pizza break?

Well, mean, golly, twist my arm.

Five minutes five minutes recess for pizza break. Let's so before we depart, are are we good on any more comments or questions on the ADA compliance? No. Okay. Let's go four or five.

Oh, actually, wait. Sorry. Not on ADA of compliance, but on the bullet you mean.

That's a rule.

On the last bullet point, pedestrian walkability. I just want to be on the record to say I absolutely agree. The points that were made on that, I'm absolutely on board. We need to especially improve wintertime walkability.

I do have a question, I guess, that that prompted the question for me was and I know this isn't city land, but walkability between pollution in town or even just out of town, you know, at least that strip on the on the Duck Flats, walkability. I see people, you know, walking out there in the winter and all that. Has has that been discussed? Or is that in any No.

That's a DOT.

DOT we need to talk to. Yeah.

That's that communication between us and DOT too that we were kind of communicating with, but more summertime.

And I I know that we had we had applied for grants to to move that trail back, but it wasn't funded. And I'm sure it's still on our list, but it's not a priority of DOTs right now.

Yeah. Would that be is that kind of on your radar in terms of the partnership collaboration?

For sure. I mean, DOT is top of the list as far as partnerships. I mean, when we talk about walkability and interconnectivity, that bike path is what links us all the way to River. It'd be nice to link us all the way to again, I mentioned it briefly, but linking us all the way to Alpine Woods would be fantastic. Again, it'd be a huge partnership. And the state would

have to Especially through duck flats. Because that would just be so dangerous. You're just walking along and then the snow plow comes.

And I I see people walking that route every single day.

Mhmm. Yeah. With black clothes and no headlamps. Yeah.

It'd have to get, like, way pushed back in the duck flats so that you wouldn't get pelted with snowplow snow.

And I believe in investing in the infrastructure too. So we would become more than just something for our community wellness. We would become an economic engine if we

had the ability to, say, go

across our flats on something like they've got out of.

It would be great to see this go entirely all the way out to,

Alpine and even further up to the canyon because there is an economic engine side to the the cost of the infrastructure development.

Can you explain that further?

Outdoor recreation is something like

a $10,000,000,000 industry. I don't know what it is in Alaska, but it's phenomenal. When I

look at the outdoor industry in, Valdez alone, it is fantastic. So,

part of it, what I personally see, is a number of cruise ship passengers who are frustrated that they can't just do a nice little walk around town.

They would love if the Meals Hill could have a easement put through somebody else's property and then a ways the dike trails and so

on could be publicized from the people walking, that is an economic engine itself. Like, people come here to do these things. People vote.

The main reason people come here maybe.

Alright. Go forward five. So for innovative outdoor recreation, does council have any comments and questions on on that?

So I'm I'm up to date on the disc golf thing. So I'm just gonna move straight to Ski Hill. What do you guys see as opportunities for innovation at the Ski Hill?

Well, I I think that that ultimately, we just have to to program it more have more robust programming, maybe extend hours. But, I mean, we have to get usage. And and so how do we get people out there? Is there opportunities to to to bring people out there? Is there partnerships with with Dom and them to to to help out?

Is there anybody in the community that wants to run it? You know, there there's a lot of different ways to look at it. I I think that that overall, I mean, it's it's it's tough to to improve it when it's free. And so it's free right now. And I mean, we added the ramps back in this year. We programmed it better this year. And so I think we've seen better numbers this year. I mean, we had every week, weekend, it was the lessons were full with the the snowboarding. And so that was that was a definite positive. And and so it was it was good to see.

So a recommendation that was brought to me by an avid lifelong skier that I honestly I would have never thought of it myself. But he made a really good point. He said, in the daytime, all of the skiers that are any, you know, good that that they just wanna go out on a day ski and they have the skill to, you know, ski ski in an ungroomed space, they just go do road runs or they go up on the pass. It's it's the for the groomed hill, if you wanted more more participation from, you know, more advanced skiers because it's such like you know, it's a it's a it's a low slope. It's a simple hill.

The the ramp is a great improvement, but but maybe some nighttime lighting would benefit because nobody's gonna go ski backcountry at night unless they're pretty experienced. I mean, I say nobody. There are plenty of people that irresponsibly make the decision to do so, myself being among them at some time. But nobody should be doing that on a regular basis. But if I if I've been skiing all day already and then the sun goes down, it's pitch black dark, and I wanna get a few more runs in, I would absolutely go to the ski hill if it was lighted.

I think a staff issue at that point.

Yeah. So it's and it's just something that was brought to me as an idea, and I thought maybe it could be rolling around in other people's heads and you guys could decide whether it seems realistic or not because you're the group to do that. Right?

So you want an Alpenglow or a hilltop ski area. Right? I mean, it's a question.

Okay. You know, where I grew up, we always had a ski for free week. And the buses would take us to the mountains, and they would I know it's different where I'm from. It's a little larger. We had ski rental areas in a lot of areas. But maybe I don't know.

Part the reason leading to to Girdwood to

Partnering with the schools,

taking kids up there, exposing them to these things that they might not otherwise ever be exposed to. I don't know.

I can tell you for a fact. I have spoken to kids at the school that didn't even know that we had a ski

hill. Yeah.

So that is actually a really good point.

A great ski hill. Even for some people that are experienced, it's fun. It's awesome to go. It's free. And they do a great job grooming it.

What's a pump track?

There's actually a picture

of it.

Yeah. I like, I figured

that was it, but I wasn't I'm like, I'm not gonna say.

I mean, it's it's kind of an oval flat track that you can you can go around and and you don't really have to pedal. You can it'll it'll

grab it. By going up and down the hills, you kind of you keep momentum and

Build your speed and k.

The kids

They had we had mentioned it at Mills Hill. It's just it would be difficult on that the section where they had the pump track to do. And

Got it.

Although, once you get to the top, you can go down without pedaling. Awesome. And so

out of Glacier Lake, there is the remnants of, for motorbikes, a similar kind of thing too. So, you know, myself, I would like to see more of that as well for vehicle sports as well. But I tell you, the pump tracks kids love that. Yeah.

I can see that where they would. The gun range, Ken, you mentioned it taking a lot to keep it cleaned up and maintained. And what about what do we do with the, you know, the lead and and that con You know what I mean? Like

That's that's definitely a a thing we're wanting to extend extend the the footprint of it to go go deeper. But there there's the hindrance is when you do that, you you have to you have to remediate all the all So, the lead that's I mean, so if we if we did something out there, we would we would need to to remediate first and then and then do it and and then you'd have to to build the mounds that are to a specification that that I'm not sure what they are. But I know that when I talked to DNR when they came out to visit, he had indicated, you know, that that was some of the issues that you face when you're messing with a gun range is is the lead.

Then just one last thing. On the way Jimmy brought up the fact that we're getting older, I'm dipping my toe in that water. My AARP cards are showing up in the mail. So pickleball seems to be the way that's going and to maybe capitalize on the on the cruise ship, you know, people and that having that would be probably beneficial, you know, if it's able to be maintained in a location and all that.

Yeah. And and like in the summer, we do we do, water aerobics and Yeah. Things like that as well. So, yeah, we we try to target all age age groups from from Mighty Mites, Mommy and Me swim lessons, different things like that. So mommy and me princess t, that was Thanks.

Did you go? Just kidding.

My princess is grown up in Europe.

Something that was brought to my attention in regards to the gun range by actually one of the members of the local rifle club. They said that one of the problems out there is that people just take garbage out there and shoot at it. Is there anything that we can do to try to stamp down on that a little bit?

Sure. I I've I've I've tried. I mean, we're we're still working on it. We we we placed targets out there. Last year, we purchased a couple thousand dollars worth of targets and everything.

And within the first two or three weeks, we had a couple targets pulled up and taken away from the facility. I mean, And have big concrete blocks on the bottom and everything. And so it was now I'm punishing them, you know? I mean, I don't I don't know. I mean, it it is frustrating to where what you you get to a point where your only other option is to to fence it all in, lock it up, and then then open it. And they have to come get a key. And in order to get a key Sign away. We have to we have to go out and inspect. And if it's clean, you can

Well, then they'll just drive down the road that half mile

and shoot at Yeah.

Then they'll shoot our signs.

Yeah. So

I mean, it's it's a

It's typical. We did we worked with that group and or with Rhonda and her and her group. And more fencing I mean, I don't know when the last time you folks were out there, but fencing has been put up to try and deter people from dragging refrigerators and things out there. And I think, hopefully, some of the big stuff isn't going out there, but there is still garbage and people are still kind of vandalizing it and until there's, I guess, reliable way to maybe put in twenty four seven monitoring or something like that.

And we're getting a lot of beer cans, pallets, trash, boxes, all things that are are just and and and so it's I mean, we take a roll off dumpster out there to pick up all the all the debris.

The the one thing just on this number four that came to my mind was just, you know, motorsports. Motorsports is really big in town, and it's not something that Citi, you is, like, too heavily involved. I mean, we have trails that are motorized trails, and there's that. But I would just be curious, you know, I don't know. I'm not looking for specific ideas right now, but if there's opportunities where it makes sense for the city to

be

involved in facilitating motorsports activities, I'd be interested. You know, Pete brought up, you know, the dirt bike track and things like that. You know, I was talking to high schoolers at the career fair who used that. Mhmm. And, you know, I'm not saying this and you shouldn't get involved in all of it, but if there's opportunities where it makes sense for motor sports users because it's, you know, it's a big thing in town. It's a big thing in Alaska. You know, it's people come here from all over the place, bring their four wheelers and bring their dirt bikes. So if the commission in the future has things like that, I'd like to hear about it.

I think a good sorry, Olivia. I think a good portion of that is when we redo the maps, we can start getting that out to the public because I know the snow machine club goes into the elementary school, middle school, and high school and talks to them about trail etiquette, especially for the snow machine side of it. But a lot of those kids, you know, it goes in one ear and out the other, and they're like, well, where am I supposed to ride? Or you know, and stuff like that. So I think, I know that you've been talking. I know that Cole's been talking about getting more trail signage, say, motorized, motorized, please be respectful for other users. And we've even talked about getting mile per hour signs or something very similar to that on the motorized trails so that way it's it's more of a trail

And I think I think that that should all continue absolutely. But I'm talking about beyond that of, like, you know, project type things or,

you know

because I think we all

improvements that could be made. You know, maybe it's interconnectivity on, know, things like that or, you know, just things like that where it's more like a project type thing. The education on, you know, motorized is wonderful, but, like, I'm talking about a little different. I think Olivia had something too.

Well, I would agree with you on that. I think specifically creating mechanized trails. Like, these are snow machine trails. These are for you. This is where we can build trails specifically for snow machines. Here's how we where we have really cool trails for side by sides. Like really focusing on specializing them specifically for motorized users.

Somebody already brought up the Motorsports Club. I think they're probably our most ambitious volunteer club in town. Do you think that maybe it would be worthwhile for the Parks and Rec Commission to have a work session just talking with them about ideas and suggestions?

We actually Yeah.

We we we And we

That's part of the CSO kind of.

Yeah. Beautiful. Exactly. The sort of

That's You've was spoken gonna

my

be my next question.

Yeah. The communication between the motorized club and Ken and Parks and Rec has been awesome.

That's perfect. Yeah. That's really good to hear.

Yeah. I'll speak for the number five. You know, different organizations get money. It involves city staff, city assets, and just trying to have a little bit better standing communication protocol. You know, city staff's gonna you know, Ken's staff is gonna interact with those folks, but, like, let's pull in the commission a little bit more. We just wanna understand what folks are doing with our money, you know, what sort of, yeah, numbers are getting, how is it going, you know, how we can improve on things next year. But basically, just try to get that dialogue going ahead of an event because a little bit accountability for the CSO money that's out there. And then, yeah, obviously, it involves parts and rec staff and assets and just comms.

And luckily, I mean, it touches I mean, it's it's just just so mean, I I'd love to think that we do everything. Public works is definitely involved. Economic development. Martha is is, and ports and harbor everybody. It's a it's a team effort, throughout the city on and everybody's involved. And so when we we say we want to we want to have a more active communication, mean with everybody. And

luckily for our commission staff, I think a lot of you know, many of us, I mean, all of the major events in town. I mean, we're all involved. You've got Gold Rush. You've got all of the VAA. So, like, it's nice that, you know, and we try I we strive really hard to have, like, a makeup so that we have those good relationships.

So actually, on on Ken's point about just enhanced communication generally, I am so frustrated every time somebody says this to me, but I hear it probably once a week in this town. Somebody will say to me, I just wish there was more to do here. And I'm like,

there's so much to do.

There's so many opportunities. But I I think that a lot of people genuinely don't know this stuff is going on. Like I was saying, just like last week, a kid at the school was like, we have a ski hill? And I'm like, how how has somebody not said this to you already? And so I'm just wondering, how can we I don't have an answer, but how can we better facilitate reaching all these people and telling them what actually exists here? Because I I swear I hear it every week. Somebody says, well, would just wish there was more to do in this town. Everything's great here, but there's just not any activity for me to be a part of. And and I I try I'm like, what do you like? What do you wanna be doing? But I I wish that there was a way that we could reach them more than one at a time when they happen to complain to me at a restaurant.

I think with the collaboration between the schools and Parks and Rec or City or whatnot because I feel like a lot of the parents coming from a parent's side, they send out the seesaw messages, all the parents are like, oh, there's rock climbing this weekend at 02:00. Oh, let's do that because it's supposed to be crappy out. But I don't think that that bridge is met yet because they're doing there's a lot of after school sports.

There's a

lot of

after school this. There's a lot of doing that. And so but I feel like, you know, it's not we need to reach out just past Facebook.

Oh, And and and beyond the school too because, you know, our school population has been shrinking. And as we were just discussing, our our adult population has been growing. And so we need to we need to figure out how to reach people at all walks of life. And you're exactly right about social media. Social media very much reaches the people right in the middle group, but they don't it doesn't as much reach the youth and it well, certain social media does, unfortunately. But and it doesn't reach the older people as well because they're just not as plugged in.

Definitely, our communication plan is is I mean, we do calendars. We do the compass. We do we do

I know what's going on.

So this is the part that I find so confusing because I'm aware of all of the tools that we have. You know? I I receive a text message, like, five times a day telling me, oh, the rock wall's open and and the swimming pool is open and this is the movie this weekend and, you know, this is the commission meeting on Thursday or whatever. You know? And but somehow, we've we haven't managed to get the community to do it.

People

especially and I've seen this with some of the younger folks. They have gotten used to kinda being spoon fed. Information comes to you. You're always getting notifications and things. And folks get used to being spoon fed, they're not looking looking for the information. It's hard. Listen. I I've done communication for multiple businesses and organizations, and this makes me every time you bring this up, it makes my ears want to bleed. I I don't know. You know, there's only so much you can do besides, you know, grabbing people on the street and saying, okay, these are the things that are going on in town today.

Yeah. You know, mean, there's not

always boggles my mind and and I agree I with don't know what more could be done because it feels like everybody's already doing so much and we have like a million opportunities, But for some reason, people still aren't doing it. So I'm I'm like, this is this is I'm just casting it out to you. Like I said, I don't have any answers. But is there any other, you know, any other corner, any other way? Maybe maybe we literally do hand things to people in the street. I don't know. Like like, you have somebody on the corner with flyers. I don't know. I mean, it's right? I I I genuinely can't think of a better way because it does feel like we've really I feel like we do better communications than communities significantly larger with significantly more resources.

So I don't know how to reach more people, but I do get the impression that somehow we still have like I said, all the time people come to me and they go, I didn't know we had blah blah blah. I didn't know that was today. And I don't know how to get them to know that.

I'm wondering if this could be a request of the rebranded VCVB that has an inward focus because I'm thinking of the calendars, the senior center activities calendars. I'm thinking of the museum activities calendars. The I don't know. Anyways, I

was thinking of a few of these things,

and maybe that's something they could be asked in a VCVB gets save money. Maybe they that's something they could get, you know, the parks and recs have put it in one place maybe. I don't know. It's just

Well, they send out that magazine. Right? The compass? I mean, goes out.

Well, I think ultimately, when you when you have multiple calendars, I don't know. Just our calendar alone is jam packed, and we have to have two of them. We have to have one for the recreation side. We have to have one for the pool side. Then we have to have one for the civic center. I mean, there is we are just in inundated with activities and events throughout the year. And so for one single single place to to have one calendar.

Yeah.

It's it's it's a unmanageable calendar.

It's online. I find it online. Yeah. I look up the calendar online. It's easy. It tells me what's open, what days it's open. I get pissed You're being proactive.

Yeah. You just know.

You forbid that. And

you know, I really thought that the notifications was the answer. Like, I signed up for the Rockwall, for example. That was the first one I ever signed up four years ago because at that time, it was a little more sporadic than it is today. It was it was based on staffing or something. So I'd be like, oh, I'd set it up. They'll just alert me when the Rockwall is. It was so amazing. It was convenient. I started going every single time they were open for a while. And I thought at that time, I'm like, oh, everybody is gonna wanna do this. The the city alerts, they're so convenient. And then I talk to people and nobody uses it. I even try to walk them through how to download it on their phone, and they're like, yes. It's too bad. I don't wanna.

And so I just don't know how to get people to be proactive. That's and maybe maybe it's like maybe it's not even a communications thing. Maybe it's like a community thing. Maybe we just need to maybe we maybe we need to change people's attitudes about being proactive. But how do you do that?

Joe, did you say that?

I was just gonna say that on number five, just I I definitely see the value of the pre and post event meetings. I mean, I wondered if, you know, after the events, is there is there issues with, like, not managing expect you know what I mean? Like, when a when an event's over, is there a massive cleanup kind of thing that or is that kind of laid out in the pre event? You know, what your responsibilities are kinda I just wondered if there was any value when having any of those like, managing expectations up front. Like, here's what

we

expect, you know, event you know, whoever's running the event kind of thing. These are the go ahead.

I mean, I think that that I think pre and post, we do have meetings we do. If it's if it's gold rush, we'll have meetings on-site. I will talk about it. If you know, if I'm dissatisfied with with something that is on Myron Park, and I do a drive by after the event, I'm like, y'all need to get out here and fix your ruts, you need to pick up trash or pick up port potties, do different things. I I think it's just, you know, that lead up time, just making sure that we're communicating with no. Sure. And and it it's it just just so it's planned. Sometimes yeah. Go ahead, Martha.

So being in charge of the CSOs and their events and coordinating with the actual event coordinators of their events, we do that. Now have we we send out work orders. We've tried, like, multiple multiple things to do, but something always happen. You know, there's always a pre and post, and maybe it's the type of thing where we just start including all the the city departments with that pre and post. But then there's the the does is it man you know, whoever wants to show up type of thing.

And then kinda like the communications thing. If you don't show up, then you don't know. And so maybe that would be a solution is get the key people in the room pre and post. We used to do that, but a lot of people would just slack off on it. And so then it would I mean, Sarah and I talk very frequently Yeah. Pre, during, and after Goldrush. And Lynette and I, the same thing. And so that's kind of I'm the point person. And so maybe it does. We go back to involving the departments in it and saying, hey.

What could we do? What could we and have the actual event coordinator in the room with it. Because we typically it's a city thing, but maybe that's the solution is involving the actual event coordinator.

And just so you know, I'm not talking about any specific event. I'm just saying in general, is there anything to be gained maybe from re

managing expertise? I absolutely think so.

Do you guys, as the Parks and Rec Commission, think that it would be a benefit to have the community service event organizers meet with the commission at approximately the time of their event before or after?

I I don't know if we need to get two in the weeds. I think Good. The the the purpose for goal number five when we when we discussed it originally was, hey, we have these CSOs. A lot of them use parks, either parks facilities or parks labor or parks equipment. This kinda comes back, again, to number one, trail maintenance and relationships.

Number five is really about us having a relationship with these community organizations that use our equipment and our facilities and just communicating with them. I don't know if we necessarily have to I don't think that commission needs to be involved when they meet with Martha and I'm standing there at the dock with Martha saying, we want the dumpster here and we need the sound stage here. Commission doesn't need to be involved in that. I think commission wants to know gold rush days. You're planning something.

We see that you're having you know, these are all the parks facilities that you're using. You know, do you have any questions for us? Is or do you have any concerns about the parks department to commission? That commission can go to the Parks Department. And then afterwards saying, how did our Parks Department help you? Did they meet expectations? Are there some things that you would like to see for next year? We're just trying to be the liaison and have relationships with these groups.

So so what about this as a concept? Do you think that it would be a benefit when Martha gets an event plan from one of these organizations that the event plan be included in the reports for your commission meetings at the bottom. And then perhaps after the event has happened, the organizers could come in and make like a from the floor presentation five or ten minutes.

I think that's that is essentially what we're looking at. I I think I mean, we hadn't really necessarily sat down and said this is what we want to do pre and post. But that's kind of what I what I would like to see. I don't think it needs to be something that takes up an entire commission meeting because that would just be half of our commission meetings. But, yeah, having a little report knowing, oh, this event is coming up. They're going to be using the My Ring Perks strip. They're gonna be doing this and this. And then they can come in and give us a post event recap. Hey, Goldrush days was fantastic. We thank the Perks department for helping us out with this, this, and this, and this. Next year, we would like to maybe do this, that kind of thing.

Jeremy, I think that's great.

Yeah. We keep talking about events too, but I just see this as

Yeah. We

have the Disc Golf folks come

in and really good two different meetings to commission. And, you know, just talking about the baskets and how if they were a different style of basket, you could run tournaments, but they're not tournament legal. Just the whole design of the course, like,

we could set things up differently so we're

not disrupting hikers and throwing over heads. It's like, oh, okay. Yeah. End of the disc golf course. But, like, I'm not a professional disc golfer to know these things. And it was just nice to have that dialogue and realize for what's, you know, not that much money. So you've got this official course, and you can have your tournaments and do the stuff.

Relationships. Just that

relationship. You would

have never known that otherwise.

That's a great point.

So did anybody else have anything else on the last goal of the commission? And did you have anything else specifically that you wanted to add for any closing comments?

No. I I could I could show you just one layout of one of the parks. And somebody You want me to get you right? Yeah. Yeah. Somebody's a little more.

Is it in this area?

Which one is that? Yep. That's the one too. Yeah. So it just this is just a general layout of a park. This is at at would be In The Gold. Well, this one's at well, one of them is at the Gold Rush. One or one's at Black And Gold and one's at Just

go back to here. Right? Just the other

Not Not top. The other tab. There we

go. Oh, there we go. Okay. You wavered

over them. Was it that hard? An IT guy.

So, I mean, if you look at it, so so you have a a two to five is in the upper corner, two to five year old player, and then you have a five to 12. You have swing sets and and and different things that that are that are within an area. This is the kind of covered pavilion area that we're talking about that sheds off the sides. We won't look at exactly how much it costs because that's just a quick number. But anyway, you have ADA ramps that go up and and then swings, and then you have a mommy and me swing set that that is there where you could have an infant and and yourself swinging, which is is kind of a cool aspect overall.

And then you would have because it would be a covered area, you could have a port in place type playground surfacing because then you could actually keep it warm while you're doing the board in place type surfacing. But you would also be able to add along that walking trail, you'd be able to add adult fitness areas to where you could do pods of of different things to where you could do stations that are are sit up station push ups, any plow, plyometric type exercises to where the parents can can exercise and do their thing in the in that kind of setting. So it's, it's a great opportunity just to get your mind thinking because that is one of our goals is to improve the park areas and make them accessible. And if you look at parks, if if you go out to the softball field, you know, you you just have a piece of playground equipment out there, and and it's really not it it it if you can't climb, you you're not on it. You know?

And and same thing over at oh, forget the first subdivision as you're going out. There's a there's a small area where the footprint of the park is is where do you live, chief?

Corbin. Corbin.

I was gonna say it sounds like Corbin,

but I I don't know. I'm like, whoo.

So so out of out of Corbin, you know, it's just on a there's no there's no walkway. There's no fall zone. There's there's nothing there to to get you there. If you go over into Robe, there's there's an area to where you have a swing set. You have a landing, but the the landing area on the swing set is short.

And so then then you have a ramp. And so if you launch out of that swing set, you launch into a a 12 inch rise at an angle. And so that's a violation of of of your ADA requirements. And and so we just need to be looking at those things. And now that we have a playground, safety inspector, we probably should get in compliance.

And so that's what our goal is, is is to to transition, those those playgrounds and and make sure that we're we're following the guidelines. And then Beautiful. You know, that's that's that's all it is. I think we've got some great parks, play areas, and and, we can share with Public Works. I just want Public Works to share with us when it comes to the wintertime and and, accessibility.

Olivia, did you have anything else to add?

No. Nothing. Joe?

Yeah. I just, you know, I just wanna say thank you for developing the goals. And I think that, you know, there's overall support for what you're doing. So I really appreciate your time for doing that. You know, I did just briefly look at, you know, the the master plan plan, the parks rec master plan, and I think one of the the major themes from that one was, you know, maintaining and sustaining our current infrastructure.

You know, Ken alluded to, you know, budget wise, you know, keeping this, you know, kind of service levels, you know, somewhat flat. And so that, you know, it's challenging. But I look at it really differently. I think main you know, maintaining and sustaining and optimizing and improving things, there's a lot to be done there, a ton to be done. You know, people don't think that maintenance is very sexy, but it's gotta be done, especially in, you know, our environment.

And I'm just glad that, you know, you all are there to help do that. And I just wanna say that's that's really important. You don't always have to build a new rec center to just have, like, really important things like just updating parks and doing stuff like this is incredible, you know, not hopefully changing the overall scope of work for our staff, but, you know, giving them facilities that are maybe easier to maintain in the long run. And then also maybe will be used more by, you know, this swath of demographics that we have now and in the future. So, yeah, I just kinda wanna just, like, you know, that overall, you know, where we're at budget wise, but, you know, I think there's just a lot of things to be done in innovative wise.

And also just in you know, another thing you might are there things that we can pivot away from and things that we should be emphasizing? So always interested in hearing what those things might be. So yeah.

And just remember anything like this is it can can take a phased approach. And so it could be a two to three year project where you build a pavilion one year and then you add the playground and then, you know, mean, it's not.

I I mean, a lot of people would do stuff.

They find things to do. Yeah.

So did you have anything?

I just wanted to say thank you for letting us bring these goals to you. I want to, as chair, thank Jeremy for kind of spearheading the whole goals and like what should commission be doing. And it'd be nice for us to have some goals to work towards. And so I just want to thank him for kind of spearheading that. And then it kind of worked out perfectly because we had this meeting with you folks so we could say, here's our kind of intentions and our goals.

And everybody brought something to the table from the waterways. And then we have motocross and everything. So we all brought our passions and what we would like to see to improve our community. So yeah, we look forward to working with you more, finding, kind of spearheading and pinpointing those things that we really need counsel's help as far as capital projects or maintenance projects.

There was a couple of options mentioned to you about some stuff that some direction for city staff pertaining to that parcel of land, basically, out to the DOT Mhmm. For grooming. So if if you could just provide staff with some direction there that we could bring back the appropriate stuff for you, that'd be great. So this is for the the the lawn maintenance out between between Main and DOT, essentially?

Correct.

I mean I mean, for I mean, from my perspective, I'd like to know, you know, history of, you know, what we did in the past. I think we used what we used to do, what it would take for us to be involved with it, you know, what discussions have happened with DOT and why they're not taking care of

it. DOT is probably maintenance numbers. They only do a certain number of mowing and maintenance annually. I did get a quote that included one side and so we could get the other side. And so that'll be a number based on that. I know that we mowed all the way in from the pavilion in at one time. And so I can definitely get you some history on it.

Yeah. And I guess just, know, what it would take to do, you know, externally versus contract, which is what you already mentioned. Yeah.

Would it I would like to know if it would be a, like, a big draw on staff if we were to do it internally. Like, you know, I I mean, I I've I've done some landscaping, and it can be pretty time intensive.

I mean I mean, I think that you could do more more economically with a contractor on the on the existing contract that we have. We would probably need, you know, 8,000 to 10,000 annually to do that. Believe my number was somewhere in that. There was a little bit added, so I want to make sure that I get legit numbers based on an actual quote. But I did get some preliminary numbers on the front end of it. And so it's something. It is a gateway to your community. And we do have a, you know, the Coast Guard sign right there, city of Valdez. Welcome. You know?

And he's done a great job getting a good stand of grass there. Give him that.

Anybody else want anything else from staff?

Austin, I think what we're looking for kind of is, like, how do we bring this back to you as a council as a whole? And so whether that's, you know, Ken bringing bringing back a contract amendment, just bringing that forward and saying this is how much it is to do that, and then having you weigh in on that. And then in doing so, you know, he could bring you back all that background information that you're talking about. But just trying to figure out how to actually bring this forward so there's some action on it.

We I mean, get it started with a discussion item and just the information item just for all those different perspectives that we talked about to see where that's at and just, you know, have some estimate of numbers, but before an action item product. Is that okay?

Can we do them together or not?

I'd like to I mean, personally, did better understand it before we're taking action on a contract. But unless there's some timeliness issue, I mean

No. I mean, I think that I mean, we're fixing to start going. Just I mean

it's it's not a lot of snow out there.

But but, yeah, I mean, I I I can I can definitely do it either way? So I can I can you guys like discussion first? That's fine.

Counsel, what do you

I'm well, see, I'm I'm honestly okay with approaching it as an information item first just because we don't really know the the figures. But I I honestly, I think, realistically, we're probably just gonna land on a a contract amendment just because it's it's such a small percentage of all of the loans in the community. I imagine it wouldn't it's not gonna skyrocket the amount for that contract. So I guess, really, the question is, you know, is it a reasonable amount for the amount of coverage that we would include?

Well, the you know, just do it as an action item for the contract. Let's do it that way. And we'll just have it and have the discussion that we can decide there if we wanna not move on it. We won't wanna

Yeah. And and just so you know, we did we did meet with a contractor this year preseason. We we had a conversation telling them our expectations and what we wanted in that. We did take over fertilization in house. And so we do have some funds that may be available, but not all the funds. But I'll I'll let you know the savings as well when from us already adding the fertilization part. We don't think we were getting our bang for our buck on applications, so we took it over.

And can the contractors have the capacity to do this extra, you know, both sides?

Yeah. I mean, that's who I called and to get the new information. And they've got some new equipment that they just purchased. Okay.

Yeah. So if you change the action item just

I'll I'll defer to the city managers. I don't know. They're huddled over there. But I'm just trying to figure out what action it is that you wanna bring forward we should bring forward.

Probably to approve a contract with a contractor. Right?

Yeah. That's perfect. We'll have that. We should have that ready by the twenty ninth, actually. We'll be able to bring something forward for you when we approve the contract as Ken and I talked off on.

K. Well, thanks again. Appreciate it.

Thank you. You too. My best. Thanks.