Parks & Recreation Advisory Board - Regular Meeting

Yeah.

I don't have that much credentials to play with the mallet. Approval of the agenda. Does anybody have anything that needs to be added or altered in the agenda? Hearing none we will move forward with the agenda approval of the minutes from our last meeting on December 2 there's a copy of the minutes with you

read them I move to approve the minutes as they stand

Do we have a second? I second. And any objections? They pass unanimously. All right. You're up.

Good evening. We have the update on the sales surtax revenue. As of 02/21/2025, Wellington has collected $950,020 in surtax revenues for this fiscal year on a $550,000 budget. The additional funds are due to Palm Beach County allowing municipalities to receive additional revenue through the end of fiscal year twenty five. The initial agreement we discussed this last time was for sales surtax to end by the earlier of 12/31/2026, or upon the receipt of approximately $38,800,000 We will be submitting a budget amendment, probably at the April council meeting to adjust our revenue for the additional sales surtax revenues that we anticipate coming in.

So that's a good problem to have.

Revenues For a change.

Exactly. Those revenues will be the recommendation will be for us to use those to replenish funds from the general fund that were used for the Aquatics complex. Because the intention was for the majority of the Aquatics complex to be built using sales surtax funds. So that will be our recommendation before council. And since inception, so far we've collected $40,400,000 in surtax revenues, and we've earned $1,800,000 in investment earnings.

Our only expenditures right now are for the aquatics complex, and the other projects that we have currently underway, the South Shore Community Park, that is basically in the growing period. We have some paving and fencing. We anticipated opening in May for that renovation to be completed. The aquatics complex, as we were discussing, is well underway. We were just out there actually last Thursday. It's moving along well. And right now, we're anticipating that it will open December 2025.

Aquatics were Uh-oh. Uh-oh.

Aquatics, we're expecting September. Okay. And we don't have an exact date on Wantagh athletics, but we're hearing December ish. We For which one? Wantagh athletics. This is assuming that there's no delays and whatnot.

We'd prefer July 4.

I was gonna say, I was like

We'll see.

I don't know. It's

going very

I was at the opening. We had we had goals set.

Yes. Fingers crossed there. And so that's where we are right now. I'm happy to answer any questions. When

is the South Shore Community Park officially gonna be closed to the public?

It's still closed.

Closed now.

Yes. It's in the growing period right now. And there's still the active construction out there with the paving and some other fencing to go until that's completed. They really don't want to go there.

Yeah, that's been closed and the bathrooms are there. The fields are growing in as miss Quickle alluded, and we'll put the basketball hoops and stuff back together. So that's coming very, very soon.

Lighted? It is lighted? The basketball hoops. Yes.

Okay. The funds that were spent out of the village of Wellington general fund for aquatics and sports academy were advances to be repaid by the sales surtax?

I wouldn't say advances because we weren't anticipating this additional revenue from the sales surtax project. And our procedures are we cannot award anything unless it is fully funded. So that's where we came up with full funding for it. But based on this additional revenue coming in, that'll be our recommendation before council.

So if that recommendation moves forward, how much village money will have been spent on aquatics? How much sales are taxed?

I'll have to look back with that. Because I think need to look back at that, but I think we ended up putting around 15 ish million from a couple of different places in the general fund in there, some reserves that we had. So I'll double check by the next time we meet, I'll have the exact numbers.

And same question for Sports Academy.

The Sports Academy was funded with a bond issuance, debt issuance. So the village of Wellington has not put funding into that from that perspective. Our proportion was to do South Shore Park, that was our commitment, and just to do basic site prep for that location. So the majority, almost all the funds are from the bond issuance.

Will the sale of K Park, will that or South Shore Community Park rip cover the bond or is that going straight to the fund general fund?

Okay, we're not selling South Shore. South Shore still remains a village park. Are you talking about K Park?

K Park.

K Park. No, the sale of K Park standalone and it will be their determination of what to do with those funds. There's not been any specific commitment what will happen if that comes to fruition.

There's no current deal though in that, correct?

We have two purchase and sale agreements for the it's approximately a 70 acre site. There's the one for the East. I'm gonna say half, it's approximately half that abuts State Road 7 that will be the commercial piece that we're working with related Ross Group on the mixed use development in there. And then the West piece is with the, education in motion school portion, and with the purchase and sale agreement with them. It'll probably we're in probably a twelve to twenty four month period before they have to go through all of the development phases with that. It has multiple approvals. So it's gonna be a while before.

And it hasn't gone through zoning yet. Correct? Correct.

Okay.

So this is just a process that is anticipated but not okay.

Yes.

Other questions?

What's the status on the athletic center? I know that there was now mention of a private school being put in that facility. What's the status of that? Does that cause any issue regarding Parks and Rec or the use or limitations on use of that facility now?

It shouldn't cause any issue on Parks and Rec. The academy was, always a portion of the project. They're gonna have two classrooms, so to speak, a part of their, building structure. And the academy they're starting with is for baseball. So they're gonna have academy portions of the baseball element. It'll have education during the day for those kids that are in the program, and then they'll have baseball after school hours. They shouldn't they shouldn't have an issue with Parks and Rec, no.

Okay. Or the I guess there was an agreement regarding the use of the facilities. Will there create any additional limitations? If it's now a school structure instead of just an athletic center structure, would that cause any issue? Because I know that there was some type of an agreement where the general public is supposed to be able to use it at certain points or for certain, you know, specific times.

So To my knowledge, it shouldn't affect our gym use or anything like that, that we have already agreed with them. This is just a component of Wellington Athletics during its entirety from the beginning was gonna have an academy portion. Their academy portion for the beginning, as I said, is for baseball. So, yes, they'll have a school program during the day of eight to two, fundamentally during school hours. And then they'll have an, you know, baseball program after that or athletic program after that. It won't affect parks and rec. I don't see it being an issue. And then our current use that we've already established with them should not be affected.

Okay. Thank you.

Is there any agreement on the size of it, of the portion of the school?

Not not that I'm aware of.

Two two classrooms is the limitation?

I I believe it's two classrooms, but I don't yeah. No.

This is not intended to be a private school as we're seeing floated in social media.

Mhmm.

That's This is intended to be a sports academy. And while some athletes are dedicated to their athletics, they get regular educational hours during educational hours.

Correct. Any other questions?

Could we go over there and take a look at it?

You can. If you guys would like to take a look, let me know. We can coordinate that, and we can get you all together. We can do it individually. Some of the stuff that I was gonna say was about that project, but we like we said, this week last week, we had the tilt wall portion of the project. The aquatics portion is underway as well, so some people got to look at both. Right now, all you see is a hole in the ground for aquatics, but it's much more than that. It's But it's a grand hole. It's it's it's significantly more than that. You'll start to see that building being constructed very soon. The tilt wall we knew was gonna go up very quick because that's the nature of the business. So but, yes, if you guys would like to see, we can coordinate that. Absolutely.

It'd be worth trying to do again. Mhmm. I think so. Yeah.

We can even tie that into all the other stuff that we talked about if you'd to do that. So we can definitely do that. Yep. Okay.

Alright. No other questions?

Thank you.

Alright. Thank you.

Thank you. Alright. Staff updates. Okay. My first update was gonna be the new aquatics complex and Wellington athletics, which I already just spoke about. Those are both underway. Any other questions on that?

Is have they run into any unusual problems? Or

No. I wouldn't say anything unusual, just near normal construction stuff. But everything that would have been an issue, I think they've figured out a way to get past it. We've had a couple of tournaments I'd like to talk to you guys about. We had our Colts Travel Baseball Tournament, February at Village Park, Olympia, and Tiger Sharks, so all three facilities. We had 85 teams for that. It was a great tournament. Our traditional soccer club tournament that we always do in January was at Village Park And Wellington High School. We had 350 teams for that, which is fantastic. That went very well.

We just had our March Madness tournament for the Wolves basketball program. That was this past weekend. We had 140 teams for that. So very good things in the parkinson rec industry, including tournaments. We're getting a lot of teams out there, and people want to come. From an event standpoint, we had our Let's Move campaign kickoff today from four to seven. I just came from that at the amphitheater. That's something that we do every year that Wellington is very passionate about. You log your minutes, residents, programs, activities, sports, everybody can do it and participate. It's something that we're very passionate about.

We've done very well. In fact, Wellington's won it, I don't know how many years in a row now, but we don't like losing. So we keep focusing our efforts on that. Taste and toast is a very is a new event that we're having, that's going to be this Friday at the mall. Tickets are on sale now. It's from six to nine for VIP. General admission is from seven to nine. You can buy your tickets now through our website, which will take you to the Eventbrite. That's a new event. It's restaurants from around the community will be involved as well as a variety of different liquors and assortments of alcohol for adults.

This is an adult themed event, clearly. And we're doing it in the food court parking lot that we will Oh. Not in that food court. We're doing it No. We're doing it in the food court. And we'll section it off. We'll have lights. We'll make it very nice.

So it's gonna be outside at

the mall.

The mall outside.

Okay.

That's this Friday. Should be a great event. We're So how was

the facility chosen? The venue.

We worked with the we worked with the mall, and they were trying there a way to help us both out. They're trying to get people to come to the mall, showcase the mall, what the mall has, and we're always open to venues. We work with the mall in various other events for shuttling for fourth of July, fall festival. We've done food drives there, so it's just another element that we're trying to create with the mall. The another event is our T Talk event for Women's History Month. That'll be at the Community Center on March 14 from two to five. The topic this year is mental well-being with women. That should be another great event. I think this is our second event for that. Last year went very well.

Bacon and bourbon, the traditional classic bacon and bourbon is March 22 to March 23 on the promenade behind the community center from eleven to nine on March 22 and eleven to six on March 23. And that is what I have for you.

Can you summarize any recent events like Brewfest?

Brewfest went very well. Yes, did. I happened to see a few of your illustrious members there. And it's a it's a great event. Well received.

Do we measure attendance or do we track it in any way?

Yeah. We measure attendance. It's very close to fairly close to what we've had in the past. It varies plus minus, but it was a great event. For those in the VIP. They had a great time. For those in general mission, they had a great time. We had more vendors there this year, which I think helped, and we were able to open it up because of the, professional center. We're able to use that grass area to expand it. So we had axe throwing over there and various other, lawn games, which created a nice little pad for that. That was a nice new element. But overall, I think the guests that came had a very good time.

Excellent. Other questions? Enrollment in all the programs where they've used to be, or are we seeing any struggling in any of the programs?

Not really. I would say post COVID, our numbers, I don't wanna I feel comfortable saying we're at close to, if not, all time highs. Our camps are sung our summer camp open today.

Summer camp registration.

Summer camp registration open today. Our numbers for sports, other programs, camps are we're pretty much getting close to capacity. We're selling out for almost all of them.

On softball. Softball went to the little league and they they grew. It was a program that was kind of almost gone, but it's grown back up

to Yeah. We gained like four teams, I think, this season. No. From a from a number standpoint, we're doing well. We're doing very well.

Excellent. It's good to see that it's still going on the upswing and not slowly deteriorating. Sometimes when they're the age starts getting older in the community, you see some of that drop off, and our other programs seem to all be going up. So it was nice to see that the sports programs aren't dropping at the same time.

Absolutely. And I told you guys all about our pickleball, our six new courts at Greenbrier Park. They're doing very well. They're doing extremely well. Excellent. They're well received. People are there all the time. We've had a couple tournaments there. It's doing very well.

Great. Any other questions? Do we have any old or new business? I don't see anything listed. And so board comments.

If anybody has anything they'd like

to bring up or talk about?

Just two things. One, keeping score in soccer, for the older divisions. That's something I know we've had some comments from the community and some council members asking if we're ever gonna do that or get the software to do it. And just wanna get your thoughts on it and see if that's potential down the road for the older divisions. Clarify which soccer. Our rec soccer.

Rec soccer.

Yes. We're we are currently doing that. We have not done that in the past. This is the first season that we are tracking scores and records of games. We put that out Oh

my gosh. We put that out to the

coaches today. It was received all the coaches received that today. And the playoffs will still be a blind seating so that those that wanna have a, quote, unquote, noncompetitive atmosphere will still get that from the regular season. But the playoffs are we are having playoffs for rec soccer for the first time this year. And it'll be a blind seating, and we have given all the coaches the records and scores from all the games.

What was the feedback from the coaches?

We put that out today, so

I would love to tell you about that.

We'll hear that at the next meeting. Okay.

Alright. Look for an update. Alright.

And which divisions for rec soccer will that be?

U ten, u 10 and up. Yeah.

Are you gonna

coach u six and u eight. I was like,

didn't get that memo. So

are you gonna use a like your own software? Are you gonna use like a Team Sideline or some kind of something online for the kids and the parents and the coaches? Are you just gonna send it out to them? Or how is it how are you gonna keep track?

We use Excel program and the coordinator for that sends to all the coaches today. So they'll email and they can disseminate it to the parents. Okay.

Part of the education, if you handle it right, sports has winners and losers. So keeping score is not the end of the world as long as everybody handles it appropriately. So let's hope for sportsmanship and education. Let's hope for that.

And I'm glad I'm not coaching this year.

Was that all of yours?

No. I also wanted to bring up one more thing is the fields over there, Field 910, eleven and twelve, potentially having a conversation with the Board and everybody about permanent shade. I know that they rent it out to lacrosse, soccer, the battle tournament comes here. Just has that ever been come up? If you look at other parks, if you look at Parkland, they all have that. Is there any reason why we don't look at having permanent shade on those fields?

That's something we could absolutely look into. It would be a capital item, but that's something that we could look into.

One of the issues in the past with it is that if you put permanent shade, you then have to make it a permanent field for that sport, or you have to limit the number of fields. Like, you can't if you put up permanent shade, it's hard to go from a u six game to a u eighteen game because all the fields are laid out completely different for the goals and everything. So it was a problem that we had when we went through all the logistics of it. So it does limit the flexibility of a lot of our multipurpose fields, but it's always something that should be relooked at every so many years.

Or if you wanna have mixed use as you mentioned on that same field for something else that this shade would need to be at a different location.

Right. Or it has to be a non permanent permanent shade that you can move it between seasons.

If you had permanent shade, wouldn't you have permanent dirt?

Yes. The grass? Well, the field's not gonna the field sizes and locations are not gonna change.

Are you doing that for spectator?

No. No. Not spectator. I mean, for the players on the field.

Oh, that makes it even more difficult.

So right at the edge where the fences are. Right where the fences are. So you're not really fence. Inside right inside the fence. There's different structures. And the only reason I ask, it's a big expense. I mean, I know the WCFL spends $67,000 on those tents. They blow away. They they break. It's a just a question that was been brought up and I wanted to bring to the board attention.

About the football fields, not all

the Only the football fields in the back.

See Those fields stay pretty constant to their size. I thought you were talking about all them.

Just nine, ten, eleven, and twelve inside the fences.

Gotcha. That

was something we can look at.

Any comments, questions, or discussions? Intrigued. I'm gonna look up permanent shade

and Yeah.

Should check check out Parkland. It's beautiful. Have they have these awnings that come up. It just looks really nice. I know that the we we do the battle tournament every year, which is a huge revenue source for us. They're always asking. They've been here three years. They're coming for a fourth year. They always ask about it, and then it's extremely hot. I mean, it's brutal out there. So we're just talking about player safety, coaches safety and having them be a little cooler.

Definitely can see the value in it. Any other comments or topics?

I'm full of comments, but I, seem to have tonight.

Alright.

Well, I

have none. So with that, we can take a, motion to adjourn.

So moved.

Any objections? Thank you, everybody. We will see you in a couple months.

Thank you all.

Thank you.