Parks and Recreation Commission - Regular Meeting

I called the meeting to order at 06:07PM. Members, present, it's Meg Weber, Kathy, Tammy, and is anybody online? Okay. Okay. And, Donna?

Hello, Donna. Okay. Alkina is absent at this point? Okay. Okay. Any public business from the floor? Okay. Hearing none. New business,

approval offer

recommendation of city, to city council to fund Beehive's 2025 beautification matching grant project in the amount of $700. Do I get a motion to approve?

I'd like to make a motion to the city council to fund these high twenty twenty five matching grant projects in the amount of 610, which is 50% of what she's projected. That might have just gotten rounded up.

$6.10 $6.10.

Second. Okay.

So Kathy approved the mow approved the motion to, at 610 and, McWeaver second. Oh, open for discussion. Any discussion? She seems to have

everything in order. It

was on.

Everything looks in order, and she's got her approval from the landlord. And I don't have any questions about it.

Where were we At the beginning of this month. April.

Okay. So let me look at my notes. So when I'm looking at the applications, like the guidelines, It mentions, like, significant improvements, landscaping, removal of old signage, And then things that are not, eligible are things that are just regular maintenance. We're just painting the trim. I know we did it before, but, like, buying a flower basket.

I'm at the Beautification Commission. I'm I'm listening to the Beautification Commission.

Just, buying, like, baskets that just last, one season. I it just kinda for me, it doesn't fit.

You got your books that you can tell?

Of the to the owner. But it's just my comment. I just don't like those, little things.

As in, like, temporary things.

Right. They are temporary. To me, they are not there to stay.

Have we have had that discussion before and ended up approving things because they're part of, you know, a a bigger picture. And I guess, you know, especially, you know, like painting, we decided it is maintenance, but it definitely lifts up the facade of any building. Covered well. And I I don't have any big issues with that because it's so part of landscaping even if, you know, if it is a temporary addition, like, you know, the chairs that we approve. And yeah.

Yeah. And that you know, actually, we should probably make some notes about that so that we can change that for next year if we feel like that's getting a little out of hand.

I I feel like it should be more Mhmm. Because we're just buying temporary things that are not, accountable for Mhmm. Anymore, and we might

not Sure.

That's just my my Any other comment? Anyone online has comments about that application? No? No? Donna? Yes?

Do you have any comments about this application?

The beginning of this month.

Hold on just one second, please. Where were we at the beginning of this month?

Yeah.

May?

Yeah.

We were driving home.

Donna, any comments? Are you good?

Donna, I muted you because you had background noise. Alright. You can need to unmute yourself.

Okay. Well, I'm unmuted now.

Donna, do you have any comments about this application?

No. I think I I'll just go along with what you guys have said.

Okay. Thank you. Okay. So I make a motion.

All in favor. So

can I repeat everything?

You can just say call for the vote. Then I can So all you have to say is call call for the vote. Call for the vote, and then I'll say Okay. So the vote is on approval of recommendation to city council to fund Beehive's 2025 beautification matching grant project in the amount of $610.

Okay.

And the next item is approval of recommendation to city council to fund QuadShot Espresso 2025 beautification mat matching grant project in the amount of 7,388, and 92¢. Do I get the motion?

So moved. I move to approve the recommendation to city council to fund quad shot.

I'll second. Okay.

So Kathy made a motion and Tammy second. Open for discussion and discussion.

I have a couple of questions, actually. This freestanding sign, is it supposed to be directly off of the sidewalk, or is it back on your property? Because there's a state right away, and I'm just wondering where some of this stuff falls on your property and then on theirs.

Talked about where is an appropriate spot to set that. And so where it is on the picture is by the permit of the city. So I I don't have it in front of me. I thought I had it on my laptop, and I scanned it, and I gave her a hard copy. So I couldn't tell you off of what I have because you have the copy. But I did I did check with Nicole. I've made sure that we went through the, like, where is the appropriate appropriate spot for this specific freestanding sign. And she showed me where, and we drew it in. And so as far as I know, it's what, the city office has guided the direction for that spot.

Okay. Well, I guess my only comment is that sometimes city and state, don't agree because that is a state road, not a city road. And so your sign may get destroyed with snow removal if it's right off the sidewalk. So I would probably check with them before you put it in concrete in the ground.

Okay. Perfect.

Yeah. I can definitely do that.

Is it is the sign going to be, fixed with the property or it's freestanding?

It'll be it'll be like she is saying we'll put a hole into the ground with cement, and it'll be.

That's a really good point to bring up. A lot of people don't realize that the state right of way is 40 feet from the middle of the road. And, obviously, you can't put a permanent structure there, but for for the safety of your sign. And there might be you might, you know, think about when you're if if you do run into that problem, be being able to take the top part of it off Yeah. Bolt it in or something. I think this is a really great project, and it's gonna really dress up that corner. And I'm glad that it'll be happening this year.

Any other comments? I just have a comment. I don't like the idea. I don't think we should pay for, fake plans and string lights. So that's just my speech because it doesn't go with the guidelines of the application, but just my comment.

And, you know, I think I think lighting can be a really important part of a design feature. But, again, you know, every year we make notes, you know, when we run into something that's like, oh, is that a gray area? So that we can add that to the next year's, program so that people aren't blindsided. And it's really hard to think of every single thing. So the process has worked so far. So I feel comfortable with it this year, but if the commission, you know, in discussion, we decide we have to, you know, narrow things down if that's what we gotta do.

Okay? And,

Tina, do you have any comments?

No. I my only comment is is that, when you're when you're talking about beautification and you're and you're looking at items like lighting and flowers, in Valdez, in my opinion, it's it's best to have things that are able to be taken down and put away in storage and then brought back out in the summer because then it is more reusable. So I don't have any issue with that being part of what we help people do. You understand what I'm saying?

Yes. Thank you. Mhmm. Donna?

I agree with that. I think being able to put it away and then bringing it out again is the best way to deal with it. So I will go along with that as well.

Okay. Thank you. One more comment. Okay. Call for the vote to approve the recommendation to the city council to found Quad Shot Espresso, beautification matching grant project in the amount of $7,388 and 90%.

All those in favor, aye.

Aye. Aye.

Aye. All those opposed with a vote of six yeas, zero nays. Motion carries.

Next item, approval of, recommendation to city council to fund Captain Joe's gas 2025 beautification grant projects in the amount of 12,500.

I get a motion.

I move to approve the recommendation to city council to fund all these out biddershop 2025 beautification grant project in the amount of 12,500. We need a second. Michael's second.

So, Kathy, wrote the motion and Tammy second. Any comments? This one, I was a little puzzled when we first when we

first looked at it because we've always been adamant about you know, we don't we don't, go into areas that are like roofing or

We're on Captain

or or ground, groundwork. Are we on Captain Joe's? Yes. Oh, sorry. Never mind. In my packet, I have them stapled together in the wrong order. Sorry about that. I think this will be a beautiful project. And, I applaud, you know, Captain Jones for working so hard to really build up their facade and and their grounds. So and they were on for last year too, but we don't have you know, if if we had other projects before us, they might get scooted out even though it's a great project. But since we don't, I don't see any reason not to Mhmm. Approve it.

I don't have a problem with it at all.

Mhmm. Let me I agree.

Yeah. I think it's a good one.

Yes. I like this one. K. Ready? No more? Okay. Call for the vote to approve, recommendation of city council to found Captain Joe's gas, 2025 beautification grant project in the amount of 12,500. All of those in favor?

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

With a vote of six yeas, no one absent. Motion carries.

Great.

The next item okay. Approval of recommendation to city council to fund Valdis outfitters shop 2025 beautification grand project in the amount of 12,500. So do I get a motion? There's

Move to approve, recommendation to city council to fund all these outfitters. Or maybe I have the old old. Sorry. All these outfitters have the education grant project in the amount of 12,500.

Second.

I'll second that.

So Kathy moved to approve, and Donna second. And any discussion?

Actually, now that I look at this, I really am kind of backwards here. The the request was 25,000. Mhmm. Was it switched to $12.05 because it's one lot?

$12.05 is the maximum grant amount unless it's a double lot or a corner lot.

Okay. I thought that maybe they had a double lot. Okay. So back to the discussion about roofing. The project actually is the roofing is part of the what's visible. And so it's it's different than other projects. We did approve Valley Electric some roofing that came down to the. That's the only other time I think we've done.

Any other?

Okay. No.

Donna?

Yes. What?

Do you have any comments? No. I don't. And, Nina?

No. No comments.

I have a comment. So I'm, when I review this, I look at the our guidelines, and it says the roof, any partial of of full roof replacement is not allowed.

So

that's the thing. And, also, the application, it says in our application that, we're not allowed to provide applicant or, property owner labor, and this is what this

application is providing. I think what our guidelines are is that we don't need the owner, him him or herself. And if they can't, hire other people to do it, then

oh, this is what you're saying.

Is that

And we are okay with this that it doesn't have doesn't hire a contractor to do a labor?

You can I mean, you'd have to present, pay stub for the 99 to get reimbursed? Right? If you are the if you're the contractor,

if you're the only

Mhmm. Contractor they would have to it would there would have to be receipt. I was a little worried about the the roof part of it and the fact that it shows that such a part of the facade swayed me a little bit. But if if it's a can of worms we don't wanna open Mhmm. Then we could restrict it from that part of the project.

Well, I feel like because we have guidelines, we're specific with those because then we go into it that oh, but previously, we approved it, but it's but the guidelines are kinda clear. So that was my thing. Mhmm.

Is it a maintenance thing, or is it a facade thing?

It's both. I'm fine.

Do we need to amend the the motion restricted from having the roofing part of it.

Or maybe we should ask the applicants to resubmit without the roof portion?

So you you can. So last year with one of Ashley Chatham's projects for the the building over here, there was an entryway portion and then a siding portion, and you guys chose to just fund the siding portion. So you can say, you know, this portion of your project meets criteria, but this other portion doesn't. Do you have that flexibility?

I feel comfortable with that. Do we need to amend the motion, though, or just in in discussion? Can we just add that in? Yeah. Changes the cost. So

So our question is whether or not the roofing portion of it is maintenance or facade. I'm a little confused, I guess.

Not necessarily. Like, the guidelines in my opinion, the guideline guidelines for the grant exclude any roofing.

Partial Any roofing.

Or full roof replacement is excluded from the application.

Any roofing, you're saying?

Right. This is what I read in the application. It looks like Okay.

Looking at at the costs here, even if you remove the roof the whole roofing section, 12,500 will still be less than half of the other the remaining cost. So your motion should be okay as it stands, but you should specify probably that so that would just go into their acceptance letter. Yeah.

Okay. Okay.

Any other discussion? No?

Okay. Is, so there does need to be, an amendment adopted, though, if you do wanna exclude roofing. So, like, Kathy or someone, would you move to make that motion? Motion.

I would make a motion to exclude the roofing portion of the project that would be specified in their acceptance letter, but it doesn't change their grant. Well, their grant request is already modified.

I'll second that.

Okay. Call call. So I should mention that amendment in the call for vote.

So we need to take the vote on the amendment. So so Okay. Yep.

So you'll just Call for the vote for the amendment to exclude roofing from

the application.

But the, amount will remain the same, 12,005.

Okay. Bye.

Bye. Bye.

Okay. Bye.

So with a vote of six yeas, zero absent, the motion on the amendment to exclude the roofing portion of the project but leave the total grant amount the same. Passes.

Is everyone good to know?

Now you'll go to the main motion.

Now I make a motion.

Or make the motion for the same one.

That's the main motion as amended.

Oh, make the motion to the approval of the recommendation to the city council to fund these outfitters, shop, 2025 verification grant project in the amount of 12,500 as amended

as recommended. Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Okay. So

the vote on the

main motion as amended is six yeas, zero absent. Motion carries. And so for this next one, it's a discussion item, Magdalena, so you will not need a motion. So just open discussion. Read the title and open discussion.

Discussion

item needed repairs to concrete seat walls and decorative planters on Aiken Drive. Open for discussion. Any comments?

I've gone up and down the street, and they're in pretty disrepair. I know during discussion, when we were doing the the street itself, we talked about having it in the maintenance program. I don't know if it ever made it there or not, but it's pretty much an eyesore. And if we can hire somebody to at least fix the caps, that would be nice. Make it an action item next meeting or get it on CIPs. I don't know how exactly we go about it.

I have a couple of comments, because I I spoke with, my department since it's such you know? We don't usually we're not usually the ones that are on that road, but we have hit them in the past. I know that we have fixed the broken parts. Like, I fixed personally the one down on Eagan And Hazelnut. I didn't hit it, but I fixed it.

So we do try to get out there and fix them when we hit them. I can't speak for the state. But when I was talking to my coworkers, if we do go to fix them, if we could make some of them removable, like how we have made those removable down there. Because if we can move them, like the six down here, how we store them at Ruth Pond during the winter, then they don't get hit.

They just get covered. Uh-huh.

And then we put them back, and they're here beautiful for the summer again.

Well, one of the things we don't we didn't remove them because we didn't have a place to put So if you guys find a place

We we store them at Ruth Pond every winter. But, I mean,

the other ones. Would they all fit there?

They would fit in that parking lot, but I know that the fire department tries to use that, so that would have to be, like, a further discussion thing. But that parking lot is big enough to fix

them. So

Yeah. Because, originally, it was just a space issue.

Okay. K. So that would be at all. Would that become then a capital project instead of just a maintenance project? We had to contract out new planters being built.

Because I I

don't I can't remember, but I don't think that they had to totally rebuild them. I think that they just had to to cut the concrete for where our fork pockets go.

Oh, I thought they were different.

I could be wrong. It's probably more your world. It's been, like, eight years, so I can't quite remember. But I would definitely double check and come back with

the correct information for you. The I mean, the ones on the corner of there are different. They actually hold dirt. The ones out here just are a wall with dirt behind. Sure.

How hard was it?

Well, the piece that we broke off, it just came off as, like, a cap. So we just got some epoxy and red dye and stuffing that on. So it was pretty easy. But some of these other ones, you know, when they scrape along the side and then it crumbles, that's not. So I don't know what you

would do for that. That would be a contractor. Yeah. Might be a big maybe we could ask for the contract a contractor to come and give an analysis at least before putting it on the maintenance schedule. May I

I

speak? Speak? Yeah. Yeah. So I know when we did the museum, we had a contractor come down, from Wassilla because we didn't have any to to do concrete work in the type that we wanted. And I believe they did out there at the gazebo, the Chevron that's out there too. So maybe if we check around and try to find a contractor, you had mentioned a person that maybe that likes to deal with concrete, concrete that maybe we can get ahold of them and look at them and see replace it or just patch it. There is someone local that does. Yeah. Work.

That's what I do. He's really good at concrete. Yeah. But we might be getting ahead of her. I

do have a comment. I'm wondering, how do we get all of this stuff put on a regular schedule? Because I don't wanna put all the money into it to get it all fixed and then not have it maintained any longer.

Well, that's just it. I think, we had a in discussion that it would be a five year maintenance, but we would have to follow it to make sure. I think it's like everything else. It probably just gets lost in the paperwork.

Elise Brett is, the maintenance agreement, the original one. And the city did agree to do maintenance on the seat wall planners.

Mhmm. If I

may, chair. So, yeah, I pulled you guys have in front of you the maintenance agreement that we have with the state, and I I talked through this with, now city manager Duvall. And he had a couple of thoughts on this. We do, in this agreement, say that we're going to be responsible for the maintenance of, you know, the items that we've taken ownership of, which is the seat walls are included in that. But when you get to the second page of this agreement, there is the mutually agreed that each party agrees that it will be responsible for its own acts and results thereof.

The question is if we can ask the state to repair damage that they've caused on these seat walls, because that is part of our maintenance agreement. But if they're the ones who caused the damage, they should be repairing it. So that's a conversation that needs to happen with the state on this. And then just related to the previous contractor that was done as the big giant twenty sixteen, 17 streets project slash beautification project, and it was Dag Construction Company out of Palmer. One of the parts that they did as part of that contract when I was pulling the contract apart was they had rubber forms that they made for the seat walls.

So I don't know what happened to those rubber forms either for, and if those exist still where we're because when you're looking through the one of the change orders, talks about, you know, we're gonna create these so they can be used in the future. So that's something I'd like to track down is where the rubber forms are, for this.

Yeah.

And, yeah, the seat walls were such a little part of that project that it's hard to pin down exactly what the cost of that portion of it was. But, yeah, if there was someone local who could do repairs, that would be great. Another thing that that Nate suggested was if you another design question was that if you could how that one outer edge comes out, kind of juts out. If you could make that outer edge flush with the seat, that it might, you know,

help a lot. Actually, yeah. That'd

be great.

So because that that outer edge is really fragile, so it'll break really easily. So that was another idea from the manager. So

who would be what would be our next step? Say, we want it cleaned up. Do we have somebody, one of us, go and talk to an individual, or would we go to the city manager? So we need to invite the city manager to a meeting.

Maybe, Robert Matson. He's in charge of the state down here now. He's the one that took over. Because I'm not sure if he even he's pretty new. I he probably doesn't even know that he's supposed to repair.

Do we need to make that an action item on our next meeting?

Elise could take that back.

I think there's probably unanimous consent on that that we would want to move forward a prompt fashion.

Well, and your and your regular May meeting is coming up here in two weeks. Your regular May meeting because this is your April meeting, technically. So your regular May meeting is coming up here in two weeks. So I can see if Nate can attend the next meeting and, if if we can see if he can connect with the state on this question. Do we have a date for that meeting? It's it's it's the in two weeks. So it is the third Monday of each month is a regular meeting time. So it is the nineteenth. 5PM, not 6PM.

Did you say what? Nineteen. At 5PM.

If I won't be here for that meeting,

we'd be able to go in.

Any, commission business from the floor? None? Okay. K. We're we're adjourned at 06:47PM.