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HomeMy Public PortalAboutP&RAC Minutes 1992 08/06PARKS AND RECREATION ADVISORY COMMITTEE 1992/93 BUDGET WORKSHOP AUGUST 6, 1992 I. ROLL CALL AND CALL TO ORDER Chair Killen called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Committee members Martens, Grote, Coyle, and Scott answered the roll call. Chair declared a quorum present. Also attending were Recreation Director Baker and Parks Director Chalfant. II. DISCUSSION OF CURRENT PARK PROBLEMS Mr. Chalfant informed the committee of the following finished and continuing projects and problems, that were brought forth in the Committee's Spring Tour of Parks; LEGACY PARK 1. There is no venting in the bathrooms. 2. The flower area near the road is going to be a high maintenance area. Chalfant believes the flowers should be replaced with grass. Grote disagreed, noting the heavy mulch laid down for weed control and pointing out that the flowers are perennial, hardy and self perpetuating. 3. Two (2) bollards are in place at Sportsmen's Entrance and two (2) more are being built at this time for the marina side entrance 4. There remains a dangerous situation at the South end of the park, cars vs. people vs. dumpster. Chalfant recommended city be encouraged to enforce screening of dumpster ordinances. 5. Mr. Chalfant informed committee that the rebar has been removed from the South, West beach area but the only thing that could be done with the cement pillars would be to build forms and cement them into one retaining wall, with the thought of building a deck over the top of said wall, sometime in the future. 6. Public works is sodding and putting in a sprinkler system today and the first of next week just East of the Volleyball Court and Walkway. 7. Mr. Chalfant informed the committee that he believes the park is in need of more security lighting. ROTARY PARK 1. Rotary Park is in need of sand but it is very near the river and a 404 permit would most likely be rejected due to fish spawning areas. 2. Committee asked to have several logs and rocks along beach removed. Mr, Chalfant informed the committee that those logs have been placed there to create a breakwater in front of the retaining walls and that removal of the rocks might stir up clay which would affect fish habitat. 3. Recreation Director informed committee and Parks Director that there was an inappropriate type of sand (it's road mix) or other padding material under the playground equipment that poses a safety hazard. MILL PARK 1. A new flag for the park has already arrived and will be in place first of next week. (Chair notes that the flag was installed Friday, August 7th) 2. The eroding bank is in need of a retaining wall Chalfant believes he can build one with rock, therefore no cost except labor and machine power. ART ROBERTS PARK 1. Dead spot on top caused by the Winter Carnival sculpture and ceremonies. Following ideas could be used: a. Cut out grass on street level terrace, replace with landscaping and tables. b. Cement in (Grote noted that cement would frost heave under city ice sculpture). 2. Sea wall major problem. Chalfant believe it will need to be replaced next year. 3. After discussion of sprinkler system, eroding sea wall, dying grass, old bathrooms, and the high maintenance grading, Committee, Parks Director, and Recreation Director all felt the park is in need of a rebuild. Therefore committee felt monies should be budgeted to include engineering and designing of this park. Mr. Chalfant recommended that committee should include $5,000.00 in its budget for the redesign of this park, and the three other, smaller, pocket parks located in Lakeforest Subdivision, Evergreen Terrace Subdivision and Samson Trail. DAVIS BEACH 1. Parks Director informed committee that he had proposed monies to survey Davis Beach to discover the property lines. Parks Director believes that part of Davis Beach lies over a gravity feed sewer line and if so it would be possible to build a permanent restroom facility. 2. Committee discussed the need for ropes and swim buoys. Parks Director informed committee he had not included a request for monies to purchase swim buoys for Davis Beach. GENERAL PARK CONCERNS 1. Committee recommended funding for a map of city parks and park ordinances published in the Star News Visitor's Guide. (20,000 distribution) 2. Committee would like to know if there is a need to have maintenance monies for the Net Pen site and the S.I.T.P.A. site. 3. Chalfant commented on the no open container law in parks. He felt and committee agreed, that other laws were in place to deal with problem and that reasonable consumption of alcoholic beverages should be permitted. Committee to address at next regular meeting. 4. Plan of development schedule on bike paths. $17,000 has been budgeted for next year. Committee questioned why additional funds are needed beyond those already allocated in the park bond budget. III. SPECIFIC BUDGET NUMBERS 1. PARKS BUDGET A. Already included in the department requests. $6,550 - Half of salary for full time Public Works person who in the summer would head the Parks Department summer personnel. $5,000 - Swim buoys at Legacy Park. $600 - Two green welcome signs - Legacy Park. Note: Chalfant said that survey costs for proposed Davis Beach permanent restroom included in Public Works budget B. Not currently included in Public Works or Parks & Rec. Department requests $3,800 - 1 additional 17 week summer employee for park maintenance. $600 - Two bike racks - Legacy Park. $3,400 - Eight log picnic tables - Legacy Park (present tables to be moved to needed areas in other parks) $440 - Pole fence along upper rim of steep bank to prevent damaging traffic on bed plantings - Legacy Park $400 - Drinking fountain (handicapped approved)-Legacy Park. $5,000 - Art Roberts Park engineering & recommendations on 3 possible pocket parks (Sampson Trail, Lakeforest Subdivision, and Evergreen Subdivision). $500 Retaining walls to protect tree roots and improve safety-Rotary Park. $200 - Cushioning sand layer under playground equipment - Rotary Park. $500 - Map of parks and publication of park ordinances in Star-News Visitors Guide (20,000 copies) $5,000 - Swim buoys for Davis Beach Note: The park board also requests appraisals of Fairway Park and the Clubhouse site be added to the appropriate general fund line item. The appraisals are necessary to determine the destiny of these parcels in the board's master plan. 2. RECREATION BUDGET After review and discussion committee acknowledged the proposed Recreation Budget as being adequate except for part time personnel. Committee believes that department's allocation of $8700 has been proven inadequate by the actual 1991 expense of $9,000. Committee recommends $9,000 for this line item. IV PROGRAMS UNDER CONSIDERATION FOR INCREASING REVENUES 1. Raising fees on cart storage at Old Clubhouse (minutes - June 17, 1992: Councilman Van Komen's comment of $100.00 minimum/year for each cart should be the appropriate net return to parks per cart). 2. Concessions in Legacy Park. 3. Fee on new homes built in city dedicated to parks. 4. Increase Recreation Program fees with discounts for city residents. 5. Park rental fees placed into parks budget rather than the general fund. 6. 0Id Clubhouse rental. Respectfully submitted, Kathy Killen, Chair August 10, 1992 To: Mayor Smith and City Council From: Parks and Recreation Advisory Board Re: Recommended amendments to park & rec budget The full membership of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee met last Thursday night to discuss our coming-year budget with Larry Chalfant and Craig Baker. Attached are the staffs origi- nal budget requests with a column added that enumerates and explains what we've added. The board is united in our concern about funding for maintainence. Our three principal requests are: 1. Plans for a remodel of Art Roberts Park to cure use and maintenance problems ($5,000) The park board will be finalizing its master plan this year and this roadmap will give us an inkling to the future of this underused (and ill-used)park. The cost estimates will give us a starting point for fundraising and budget allocation requests. Without it, we will be shooting in the dark. The board feels that all our existing parks should be living up to their full potential before it is prudent to add new parks. The $5,000 also funds the necessary steps to grass over our neighborhood pocket parks at Samson Trail, Lakeforest & Evergreen Subdivision and put them in usuable shape. 2. Relocation of docks and purchase of swim buoys for Davis Beach ($5,000) The increased traffic of personal watercraft and ski boats interspersed among the young swimmers at Davis Beach poses a huge safety hazard. The board feels that relocating the docks to channel boat activity and installing swim buoys will take the pressure off law enforcement needs at the park and prevent the tragic accident that begs to happen there. 3. Another 17-week laborer (there are now two in the staff's budget, we ask for a third) dedi- cated solely to park maintenance. ($3,800) Our observation is that Legacy Park has not relieved pressure from our other parks, all our parks are being loved to death. We are pleased that a new full-time Public Works staffer is proposed to spend April-October dedicated to parks, but we are convinced that the percentage increase in maintenance staff in this year's budget does not keep pace with (1) the increase of park lands Legacy represents and (2) the increase in tourist visitor-days that has made this a record summer. If the escalation of visitors continues this coming year, it threatens to push all of our parks to the limit. As Hugh Cooke, former McCall recreation director, observes, "remember Mill Park looked new once". With the national attention McCall has gotten as a resort town, and the recent prosperity we have enjoyed as a result, we can't afford to watch the luster of Legacy Park---or any of the parks we've all worked hard to build and re- store--fade through lack of maintenance again. We are very sensitive to the fact that in order to spend money you must make money. True, our amendments to the budget requests are all expenses, but that is because the inspiration to ask for input came far too close to the budget deadline to complete credible projections on several income- producing ideas we're considering. Next year, if you agree with us that this has been a productive exercise, we plan to hold our budget work session in June. When we talk about what we want, we'll also be prepared to tell you how independent funding will help. Even though the expense we've added to the budget is a third again the staff request, we stuck to the basics. The increases amount to $19,840 for parks and $300 for recreation to correct inadequate allocations for the items discussed above and for the following: $t~¢}0 - Two bike racks - Legacy Park. $3.400 - Eight log picnic tables - Legacy Park (present tables to be moved to needed areas in other parks) $44{} - Pole fence along upper rim of steep bank to prevent damaging traffic on bed plantings - Legacy Park $400 - Drinking fountain (handicapped appmved)-Legacy Park. $5{)(} - Retaining walls to protect tree mots and improve safety-Rotary Park. $2¢)0 - Cushioning sand layer under playground equipment - Rotary Park. $500 - Map of parks and publication of park ordinances in Star-News Visitors Guide (20,000 copies) $5.¢)00 - Swim buoys and dock relocation for Davis Beach $300 - Restore allocation for pan-time recreation personnel to actual '91 expense Nt~te: The park board also requests appraisals of Fairway Park and the Clubhouse site be added to the appropriate general fund line item. The appraisals are necessary to determine the destiny of these parcels in thc board's master plan. We also recommend that the $9,000 manager's request for repair of the clubhouse rot,f only be spent when a contracted tenant has been found for the facility. Wc expect that these additional expenses will be offset in part in the coming year by several new revenue producing programs we are currently studying. As mentioned above, we did not include income projections in this budget request because we don't yet have numbers we're comfortable with. However we do expect to put before you some of these programs in the '92-'93 budget year and we do expect an increase in revenue as a result (by the way, there needs to be a change in the city's chart of accounts to accommodate income to the parks department. As we understand it, the use fees and the golf cart storage fees we've been charging are swimming around somewhere in the general fund. They need to be moved to the park budget). Some of the income-producing programs we expect to send to you this year are: 1. _Increased Fees for Golf Cart Storage. The park board misunderstood the terms of the agreement (our fault, not staff's) with the golf course last year and plans to ask you to increase the charges for golf cart storage dramatically this year. If you approve the fee increase we're discussing and the golf course contracts to it, it will yield an approximate $1500 in additional revenue earmarked for park maintenance. 2. ~rk Concessions. We are researching two management options for park concessions: independent contract and city-mn. We expect to have a council-approved program in place and ready for the '93 summer season. 3. t~,ecrcation Pro_re'am Discount Card. It is our opinion that the residents of the parks' impact area should pay more for recreation programs than do the city's residents, because non-city property owners do not pay the taxes that support and maintain the parks. You will be asked to approve a program of increased fees for youth programs. City residents who apply will be issued a card (like a library card) that entitles them to a discount on the fees. Likewise, we're leaning toward recommend- ing a tiered fee structure for the private closure of our parks for fund-raising functions. The fees will be higher for non-local groups than for local groups. 4. ~,/ew Recreation Pro,ams, The board will be recommending to you a list of new programs in- tended to introduce creativity and dynamics into our staid list of youth-oriented basics. We will be looking at programs to attract use of the parks by people of all ages. All these programs will be fee- based and we expect to research the market potentials well. We expect the programs to mm a profit. 5. A New Building Permit Fee dedicated to parks. Park & Rec staff are researching successful assessments already in place in Boise and Moscow. 6. Exploration of Special Tax Levies dedicated to parks and recreation. We have received consider- able feedback on the failed bed and booze tax. The comment is that had the tax been earmarked for parks and related needs popular with both the business community and the public, it might still be in place. Sales taxes allowed in recreational communities are another option as is a recreation district. The park board will not recommend any of these until we have conducted enough research to be reasonably confident that the public will buy it. 7. Needs Catalogue to Attract Donations: We plan to develop a presentation piece cataloguing all the park needs and their expenses in all price ranges. We think it will be attractive to individual donors and improve the effectiveness of our fund raising efforts to civic groups, foundations, corporations, etc. 8. Create a Park~ Fund-raising Subcommittee - to attract memorials, large, private donations, etc. The park committee is up to our eyeballs in our own ambition. A fundraising subcommittee chaired by a member of the park board can concentrate energy into this critical area of grant applications, donations, etc. This is an aggressive list. We won't guarantee that all of this will come to you in a year. As volun- teers, we are limited in the time we have to devote to park business, and the routine, unanticipated business that will hit our agenda will surely mire our progress more than we'd like. We do hope that knowing all these things are scheduled for our agenda assures you that we are just as serious about making money as we are in spending it. For this year, though, we will have to rely on an effective presentation of our increase requests as part of your Troth in Taxation advertisements. We request input into that presentation. Our confidence that you will receive public support for adopting our increases is based in the plain fact that the public is tickled with Legacy Park in spite of the time it took and shares Hugh Cooke's thought that McCall's parks should always look brand new. Respectfully submitted, McCall Parks and Recreation Advisory Board