Library Board - Regular Meeting

Alderman Camacho. Sorry. Steve Johnson.

Here.

Sarah Roth is absent. John Schmitz is absent. Alderman Wells? Here. Erica Yoss?

Here.

Jennifer Walner?

Here.

And Eric Hummer? Here. All right, that completes roll call.

Great, we will open it up to public comment. And it doesn't look like we have anything today. So we will move on to the approval of minutes from May 18th, 2026. We have a motion.

I'll motion to approve.

Motion. I'll second. Motion from Eric Hummer, second from Alderman Camacho. Any further discussion? We will take it to a vote. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And that passes unanimously. Moving on to discussion decision items. We will review and possible action on 2026 fall season recreation program fees, charges, schedule.

All right, we have recreation staff here, uh, as we do 3 times a year, we review the fees and charges going into the upcoming season. It's been a very helpful practice for us that way. We can always stay on top of any changes that might be needed, et cetera. And, uh, we have, uh, we got Logan Gala and Mark. As in Thompson, here tonight to go through the fees. Take it away, Mark. Thank you very much, Ron.

So in front of us, we have our 2026, or excuse me, that should be 2027. I'm sorry, winter fees and charges. We're not going off there. Not a good start. all right so we're gonna have a total of five hundred eighty eight classes of youth classes we have two hundred eighty one hundred nineteen before and after school offerings to include day off programs special events uh... and then early release programs with the day off as well ninety nine adult classes seventy one adult all the clout older adult classes and then eighteen family classes so moving on next with our sports focus programming i'm happy to share that this will be the last time that i will be presenting this and our next will have our new recreation supervisor in charge of sports uh... but in front of us we have our instructional classes for uh... winter spring So with regards to the classes, this is going to be the same lineup of classes that we did have this last time around. The only increase that we have with our offerings are going to be with our Skyhawks contractual provider with a small increase in 4%. The only league that you will see on these fees and charges is going to be our men's basketball league as our soccer prices were all approved during summer and that season will be starting here shortly. Are there any questions on the sports fees and charges? All right, so next we have some special offerings. So we have our 55 plus paint open studio and then also the trips that we will be experiencing here in fall with our older active adult programming. And then also some of the free classes that we've done. So trauma sensitive yoga and then also ballroom basic for balance. And a couple of those have been started with initiatives through Waukesha County CHIP. And then we're continuing on with these classes being funded free of charge through grants through Pro Health for Ballroom Basics. And then Trauma Sensitive Yoga is a continued partnership with the Resilience Center offering those free of charge. Are there any questions on this page's fees and charges?

What is Instant Piano for Busy People?

All right, thank you for asking. So Instant Piano for Busy People is an online Zoom offering. So you are going to be Zooming with up to 50 other people and then one instructor. And by the end of the one session, you should be able to play basic songs. So it really is a cool, easy way to get in. It's, you know... There's not a lot of barriers to it. If you have one day and a couple hours, you can get into this class.

Any other questions on this page?

All right, thank you very much. I'm going to turn it over to Gayla now.

Good evening, everybody. Youth development continues to be extremely busy. Parents are very happy this summer. We've had a tremendous summer. Kids are doing well. Even with the heat and the poor air quality, we are managing well. So all things good. But looking forward to 2027. We only are going to have a price increase for before and after school, just extremely minimal, just to keep up with staff wages and rising supply costs, of course. So you'll see a dollar per month increase for both before and both after school. And then I'm really excited to announce that we will be at Summit View starting in the fall of 26, 27. So we'll be in all 10 of our elementary schools. We will be introducing a new class as well, utilizing our part-time adaptive and inclusion specialist. We'll offer an adaptive class for younger students called Friends and Fun. So it'll be a six-week class. We're gonna start the course off at $5 a class to keep it extremely affordable for families. Other than that, as you know, the Hawthorne Elementary closed at the end of the school year, so we were able to petition to the Department of Public Instruction, and that fifth year of our Hawthorne CLC grant will move over to Lowell Elementary, so families We're very, very happy to hear that we will be able to extend that over to Lowell. At this time, the Department of Public Instruction has not made applications available for the next cycle. Of course, that is contingent upon federal dollars, and we are still waiting to hear on that. We will be very fortunate to be able to finish out our fifth year with that grant, and should that become available, we will absolutely be applying again. It is such a benefit to our families, yes.

Why the difference in the price between the before and after? Is it due to the hours? It is.

So, yeah, that is exactly what it is. Yeah. We try to keep that same hourly rate, of course, the same, but depending on the number of hours. Yeah. Thank you. Can I answer any other questions? Awesome. Thank you all.

Evening, everyone. Participation remains strong across Fitness and Your Fitness, Pickleball, Foxtail Preschool, and our homeschool programming. The only major fee structure that we'll be adjusting this year is for our 3K Foxtail programming. That's going to be seeing an 8% increase. But generally, the majority of the other programs are going to see the same fees as last year, just because we changed so many fees last year. So that's where you're seeing the rest of the fees being the same. Some programmings that did see a high enrollment and restructuring after speaking to some of the instructors is Tai Chi and our Pickleball programming. Those are still seeing very major growth in enrollment from our residents and non-residents, which is great. So we're definitely looking at those programs and enjoying their growth. Again, general other programming are doing very well. Like I said, Pickleball is still seeing some growth. We did a little bit of restructuring just to try to get more players and participants in those programs. And then another older adult enrichment program that we're restructuring is our American Mahjong class. We're actually adding a general adult one and a senior one. We've had a lot of people reach out, very interested in Mahjong. So we're both doing a day class and an evening class, and then an evening and a day meetup for those as well. So Mahjong continues to be an interesting program for that. With that, the rest of the programs are pretty much what we traditionally do.

Yes? What is driving the 8% on Foxtails? Because that's a pretty big jump. Usually we see more... reasonable increases.

Thank you. The main driver on it is staff wages. We went from employees making $13 an hour to now we're having to pay them $18 an hour. And we've been trying to kind of nudge away at it over the years. But we do now have one of our instructors that is moving on from the program she's moving out of state and in order for us to offer those same competitive wages we're having to give everybody a bump again um well not everyone but our assistant teacher and then also our our main teacher is going to get a small increase as well but it's to support staff wages okay thank you

when you look at what other providers are charging throughout our community. And that's one thing that, I mean, it's a painstaking process. It's really, we only want to increase when we absolutely have to in order to cover those costs. It's a phenomenal program and still has such an amazing reputation in the community. But yes, we just want to remain as affordable as possible.

And just looking at the, usually when we're increasing, it's more than that, 3% to 4%.

And that concludes it, right?

Yeah.

So if we don't have any other questions, then we would entertain a motion to approve the 2027 winter, spring fees and charges.

Thank you all. Who knew Mahjong was the new pickleball? I will make a motion to approve the program fees charges schedule.

I'll second that.

Motion by Jennifer Wallner, second by Eric, yeah, Eric Hummer. Any further discussion? Great, we'll take it to a vote. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? And that passes unanimously. Thanks, you guys. Appreciate it. Moving on to board president report, just reporting that we did have, I think, a very successful workshop on Saturday. So everyone who was able to attend, I think we had a really good discussion and it was really nicely facilitated. So thank you, Mark. But other than that, nothing else to report. So we'll move on to director and staff report.

Thanks, Jennifer, and still a little thunder. Thanks. Thanks to you guys that those that could attend. And we're also going to be looking at ways to get for those that could not attend information in your hands to fill out. So. That you have that to look forward to, but thanks thanks again for taking time on a Saturday and sound like it was very productive. And that's great. We've been very happy with Damon Farber. They're the facilitators, the consultants of the planning process and. that very detailed and uh... so hopefully again and it sounds like it was productive makes it all worthwhile uh... more to come on that process for doing some special interest uh... facilitation that uh... fills the blanks in and some of the areas that uh... we don't have as much info uh... one example is like or springs park now we have uh... very engaged neighborhood association that they have an annual meeting and we're going to be facilitating a process over at Corp Springs to see what their thoughts and interests and suggestions are. I know Dop Park is another one. that we've had special interest in and through the UW extension. And they look at areas considered to be revitalization areas. And DOP will get some special attention as well with facilitating with the neighborhood there. I won't take too much away from Mark Schramm's report though. Because he's our top facilitator with those 2 events in particular, a lot of planning processes going on and overall the goal is to have that plan. So we have shooting for October. And they have it for board review and the overall plan. So. a lot left to be done but a lot has already been accomplished and uh you know time just flies we had uh uh three solid days they were in town that was back in may i want to say april may of uh just doing uh uh inspections and reviews throughout the park system and they had three you know total solid days of Take them around and taking a look at things and evaluating and plus a lot of other meetings and plans that putting it together and try to tie the pieces together with the other companion plans, like the bike pad plan way finding plan. Saratoga lake. There's another plan that's out there. All this is interrelated. So the real test is going to be how to tie all those plans into the master plan. And you got a little taste of that on Saturday. So thanks again. The 4th of July was an interesting one for myself. I was in England and experiencing the birth of our second grandchild, first one for my middle daughter who lives in England. And it was bittersweet because I really wanted to be here for the 4th. It sounds like everything went very well. Dodged a few bullets with the weather. So that's always the number one scare. It is a rainstorm slash wind, all not good for fireworks. So apparently we had some rain coming right after the fireworks were done. So great flag dedication went real well and looking real nice. Especially some of the photos and pictures that show the residual smoke. Not that we need smoke now, but little did we know that at the time after the fireworks, you had the whole effect of bombs bursting in air and the flag with the lights and all that. So that was a special highlight. And the parade went well, and a lot better than last year. Again, the weather caused some issues last year for us. So a great 4th of July, and again, thanks for everyone that's involved with that. Recreation staff, kudos to them. But really, everybody plays a part in making that all happen, and it went very, very well. Air quality challenges. I don't know if that's going to become the new norm. I hope not. But now it's like every other year. Two years ago we had issues as well. And so I gotta extend kudos to, again, recreation staff, Mark Thompson, and in particular, but everyone, again, plays a role in their program areas that they're responsible for to really help shape and make the call as far as we're going to modify programming, cancel programming, allow programming to go. And it's a revolving door. So kudos to Mark and his team, the recreation staff. And Mark Schramm, kudos. The admin team, same deal, communicate, help facilitate, get the word out. Got to put a plug in for the engagement team as well here at City Hall. They really are a great benefit and a boost for getting information out very quickly and efficiently, not only in traditional methods, but with social media. And so with all that, I think we've done the best we could with trying to manage through. It all kind of kicked in, what, Wednesday of last week, Thursday for sure. And Friday, Saturday was a little murky, a little hope on Sunday. So I think we got half a pool day in. But what a mess. But anyhow, thanks again to staff in particular with managing through that and just take it day by day. Budget season. last thing I'll have, that CIP, it'll be on the docket for August. So we'll be getting information out on the CIP submittals to you guys in a not too distant future. But the next board meeting, we'll be walking through the CIP submittals, capital improvement projects. And the operating budget is right behind that. The initial submittals for us is due on August 14th. October will be the board meeting that will be going through the operating budget with the board. So that's a longer process, the operating budget. So the reviews and all that good stuff take place in September into early October. And we typically have a meeting just on each department. So once we know our focus night at finance, we'll let you know. Feel free to attend or watch from home. whatever you like, but we'll keep you posted on how all that works out. And again, ultimately the adoptions, CIP, the adoption date is September 15th, potentially, hopefully. So there's several meetings involved with finance leading up to that, but that's relatively soon. So we'll be looking at it again at our August meeting and reviewing and there will be some finance meetings in between that and then with budget adoption on a schedule at this time for September 15th at the Common Council. The process with the operating budget, typical for those that have been around, the adoption takes place usually at first meeting in November, so early November is when the operating budget gets approved. So, any questions on that? All right, a lot more to come. With that, I'll pass it along to Mark Schramm. Thank you, Ron.

For an admin report, to just touch on the park system master plan a little bit more, thank you again for everyone that was able to make it this weekend. And as Ron mentioned, I'll end up sending out a survey type monkey to you all that weren't able to attend so that we can still gather your feedback and i'll send out the initial workshop documents to you as well so once um once you get that if you have any questions please feel free to reach out to me and i'll happily guide you through that process i still want to get your input um As Ron also mentioned, we are going to hold a few more engagement opportunities with the Tower Hill Neighborhood Association. We'll be doing that this weekend on Saturday at Horob, and then the first week of August, we will hold two engagement opportunities at DOP Park. See what type of amenities there are. They're interested in for future 10 to 15 years out and what's working well, what could we do better out there? So looking forward to those opportunities to gain some additional feedback from the public. Also wanted to mention to you all that we are looking at Hosting our open house for the draft master plan at Rivers Crossing beer gardens So that's going to be the end of August once we have a solidified date I'll share that with you all for anyone that's able to make it it will be our first look and share of the draft plan with the general public and where we can gain additional input to make some additional revisions. So looking forward to all that. Outside of the master plan for admin, our Jamboree website has been in a redesign process. That actually will go live tomorrow. So if you want to take a look at the redesigned website, I'd recommend looking at it on Wednesday. But purpose of the redesign was to stay up to date with trends, keep it fresh, also to help us maintain ADA compliance from a design standpoint that works well with screen readers. So that is coming here really soon. And crazy to think that we're already talking about fall. For programming so activity guide is underway making sure that we have all of our programming entered into our registration software where Creating the activity guide will be going to print later this week So everyone city resident wise should expect to receive the activity guide in their mailbox the week prior to August 17th The week of August 17th is when we'll have registration open for residents and non-residents for fall programming. Outside of that, like Ron mentioned, big focus on CIP and operating budget work to prepare for 2027.

And that is my admin report. Thank you. All right, thanks, Mark Schramm. Mark Thompson, anything else on the recreation scene? There's plenty. Absolutely.

so as i hinted at before our new recreation supervisor who has yet to be selected should be joining us here in the new future applications closed out we had a very competitive process we had sixty seven people apply out of those sixty seven people who applied thirty four of them had direct experience in a sports position either working for a municipal setting a private setting or a school district out of those 34 people we pulled in the top nine for interviews we conducted those last week and we did ask back the top two candidates and those second round of interviews will happen tomorrow so we anticipate a job offer going out near the end of the week with the new recreation supervisor starting sometime in august we're looking at august 11th which is corresponds with when we can allow people to start with city hall trainings So in addition to that, summer has been in full swing with all of our programs and special events. One of the things that I am proud to announce is the Remember Our Fallen exhibit, which is going to be coming to us August 19th through the 23rd, is fully funded. With our sponsors on that one, with this being a new event, I just wanted to share with you who those were. We have in-kind donations from Mission Barbecue, Meijer, and the Cobblestone Hotel. $500 donors from Oberlin Filter and Metal Tech, and then $1,000 donors from Curry Insurance, Eaton, Midwest Industries, Habush Habush, and Rottier. And then we also got a $600 donation from the Sussex Service Club. So that event will be brought to the residents completely free of charge to the taxpayer, and I think it's going to be just an awesome, really special event and really goes towards paying tribute to those who sacrificed everything for us. Thank you. So moving on with the pools, the pools has been a very interesting season. We had an extremely cold June. So attendance in June was dismal. And then once we turned the calendar to July, the 90 degrees plus came and it's pretty much been here nonstop. So pools have been slammed since the start of July and we really need it to help make up for how cool of a June we had. But overall, attendance is doing really well out at the pools. We just hope that the air quality remains good. Nothing hurts me more than seeing closed pools when it's 90 degrees out. It absolutely stings inside. So going along with that with the air quality, we are actively monitoring the air quality on a daily basis. I really do need to give kudos to the team members. They're really the ones that are in the trenches getting all this done. So to use some examples, Gayla and her team, after the first day of suffering through air quality, they went out, purchased mobile air conditioners for the shelters that don't have those. We're getting those installed, or those have been installed the same day that we bought them. we're doing program modifications to not allow youth outside on days when the air quality is extremely unhealthy and it is challenging and my hat is off to all of our youth enrichment staff and everyone else who is locked inside a building with 40 kids and nowhere to go all day long And some of those kiddos get dropped off as early as 7 o'clock in the morning, and they can stay with us until 4, 5, 6 o'clock at night. So it is truly a thankless job, and my hat is off to all of our staff who are out there getting it done in less than ideal conditions. um so also going along with that we did have to cancel a couple events last week due to the air quality one of them was youth appreciation night which we had scheduled out at wro we are rescheduling that for this thursday so an announcement we've been talking with our sponsors and everybody who's going to come help us with the event we have at least half our sponsors who can come back so we are going to move forward with that and officially make that announcement tomorrow we also did have to cancel um Jazz was canceled on Wednesday, and we are looking to reschedule, just confirming that the act is available on the date we're looking to reschedule for. So we are looking to make up the two special events that we did cancel. So other than that, I mean, then the curveballs that, you know, get thrown at us on a daily basis. Summer has been extremely successful. We're seeing the community out there moving, participating, attending special events. Fourth of July attendance, I think, was the highest we've seen, or at least I've seen in my 10 years here. So from that perspective, I think the community is happy and moving, and we couldn't be more excited to be delivering these programs. That's what I have. Does anybody have any questions for REC?

Thank you. Speechless.

I was just going to say kudos. I mean, I don't have much more to add on that. That is a lot of work, and it's really important for the community health, so I appreciate it.

Thank you very much. All right. That concludes our report for tonight.

All right. If there's no further discussion, we are adjourned. Thanks, everyone.