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HomeMy Public PortalAboutCouncil Minutes 1993 10/21MCCALL CITY COUNCIL MINUTES OCTOBER 21, 1993 I. ROLL CALL AND CALL TO ORDER: The Mayor called the meeting to order at 7:20 p.m. Councilmen Wallace, LeBrett and Larson answered the roll call. Councilman VanKomen was absent. The Mayor declared a quorum and announced the purposes of the meeting. II. SPRING MOUNTAIN RANCH, RESTATED AGREEMENTS: The three agreements, respecting the Golf Course addition, the water system, and the road development which were distributed on October 14, redlined versions of which were distributed were discussed. After questions and discussion, Wallace moved to approve the three restated agreements and authorize the Mayor to sign with the change indicated by the Attorneys on page 3 of the right-of-way agreements. Larson seconded and the motion carried unanimously. III. PUBLIC FORUM ON RECREATION PROGRAM: The Mayor opened the forum and invited the Park and Recreation Advisory Committee Chairman, Tomi Grote, to sit with the Council during the discussion. Recreation Director Baker gave a staff report on the 1992-1993 Recreation program activities (copy attached). The Mayor then opened the floor to comment. The following persons appeared: Cheryl Knowles who noted scheduling problems and the use of alcoholic beverages, cursing and smoking by adults at youth events and recommended that policies be adopted to prohibit such behavior. Dean Martens who noted scheduling and equipment supply problems. He noted the Director's lack of responsiveness to the public, failure to return telephone calls, and recommended the adoption of differential fees for city residents and non-residents. Richard Taplin who noted scheduling problems, the inappropriate use of volunteers, the lack of attendance by the Director at a softball rules meeting, and advocated for the creation of a recreation district, training for coaches, better equipment and facilities. Alison Nelson who supported adding more games to the softball program for each team, supported the new "Recreation Camp" program, suggested summer use of the Senior Citizen's center, and suggested the name of a potential program volunteer. Ron Flaubert, who asked that the emphasis be placed on the children having fun rather than winning. Duane Smith who advocated that developers contribute to providing public facilities for the community. Cheryl Hickman who advocated for training for volunteer coaches, sportsmanship training and emphasis, the priority of youth programming over adult play, and noted the lack of responsiveness of the program and acknowledged that space for programs is a problem. Cheryl Knowles again appeared and commented. The Recreation Chairman commented and thanked the participants for their suggestions. The Administrator suggested dividing the Park and Recreation responsibilities in the organization. IV. ADJOURNMENT: At 8:47, without further business, Wallace moved to adjourn, Larson seconded and the motion carried. McCALL RECREATION PROGRAM COMPREHENSIVE REPORT 1993 Over the course of 1993 the McCall Recreation Program has provided citizens with 22 programs, generating 13,632 user hours which is approximately 7 hours of use for each resident. In addition to programing, the Recreation Department has been in charge of Payette Lake's No Wake Zone Buoy installation and removal, the City of McCa11 Park Reservation Program, has staffed the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee meetings, instructed Red Cross First Aid and C.P.R courses and has maintained the McCall/Donnelly tennis/basketball courts and Fairway Park. Furthermore, the Recreation Program solicited 14 youth baseball/softball sponsors, 7 youth basketball sponsors and 6 softball tournament sponsors for a total of 27 sponsors. During the year there has been programing success and failure. During 1993 the McCa11 Recreation Program had a successful x-country ski program. During the season 31 youngster took ski lessons and 12 McCall/Donnelly Elementary classrooms went on ski tours. In addition, the Recreation Program acted as race secretary for the Payette Lakes Ski Marathon. The fifth and sixth grade youth basketball program grew from 6 to 7 teams. It is my desire to expand the basketball program and include grades 2 to 4, but due to the lack of available gym times, this is not possible. For 1994, the Recreation Program is working on a 4th grade basketball camp, which will take place in the McCall/Donnelly Elementary School Multi -purpose room. The adult open gym basketball program continues to be well attended. The adult volleyball program which starts November 1st will include tournament play with other local communities as well as the usual drop in sessions. It is my desire to provide both the basketball and volleyball users with as much gym time as possible, but due to a lack of available time there tends to be some conflict between the adult users. The McCall/Donnelly Multi -Purpose room cannot provide for either user effectively because the basketball court is undersized and there is only enough room for one volleyball court with a low ceiling. It is my feeling that McCa11 is in serious need of a conununity gym to accommodate and expand the city's adult and youth programs. Spring Soccer was held indoors in 1993 due to the normal snow season and the outside field not being ready for use. The program was a big success with Mr. Jeff Sheldon and Mr. Jim Beaver coordinating the 150 youngsters, 2nd through 6th grade. In 1994 the Recreation Program has agreed to have another indoor soccer season utilizing Mr. Sheldon and Mr. Beaver, but will start earlier in the season to accommodate the increased number of games due to including the 2nd grade. The youth baseball/softball season was a very busy and had several problems. The Heartland Baseball/Softball Program which includes Cascade, New Meadows, Biggins, Council and McCall scheduled 149 total games with McCall teams playing in 78 games and hosting 43 games. During the season there was 22 rained out games involving McCa11 teams. These rained out games had to be rescheduled, often times in a hurried and haphazard way due to the Heartland Baseball/Softball organizers wishing to end the season by June 1. The Recreation Program pumped a tremendous amount of water off Fairway Park's two ball fields on eight different occasions during the months of May and June. In addition to scheduling and weather problems, several dependable umpires retired or moved. During the season it was a constant struggle to find qualified umpires. As a result of 1993's youth baseball and softball problems the program has been reformatted to assign coaches teams during the first week of April. Assigning coaches to teams in April will allow staff more time to find and train umpires, maintain the fields, and secure scheduling with the four other towns involved. I would like to thank Mr. Mark Darling a Mustang Baseball team coach for coming to me and suggesting this type of format, I would like to encourage anyone with suggestion for any program, to do the same. The youth t-ball program which consisted of 7 teams was held during the afternoon hours due to the 14 youth baseball/softball teams and the 6 adult softball teams overwhelming Fairway Park five evenings a week. On weekends, adult softball tournaments used Fairway Park, further limiting practice times. Evening field scheduling will continue to be difficult with 20+ teams competing for practice times, McCall hosting 43 youth games and 9 adult softball games. At the Heartland Youth Baseball/Softball Program's fall meeting, it was decided all Heartland Baseball Teams would be registered with the Pony League to give each town the same set of rules. The New Meadows coordinator at that time volunteered to handle team registrations, but took another job during the winter and did not inform any coordinators he had moved on. As a result the program missed the 1993 Pony League registration deadline and rules for the league became confusing with some towns using the Little League Rule Book and some using the 1992 Heartland rules sheet. It is my goal to make sure all 1994 youth baseball teams are registered with the Pony League and all the youth softball teams are registered with the Idaho Amateur Softball Association's Junior Olympic Softball program. In 1992 The McCall Recreation Program scheduled the 140+ Youth Baseball/Softball games and in 1993 Riggins scheduled the 149 games. The town responsible for creating the next years schedule will be determined during the March program meeting. Following the youth baseball/softball program, summer soccer started. Summer soccer is designed to be a fun informal program held during the afternoons for youngsters age 6-13. In 1993, 150 youngsters participated in summer soccer. I have wanted to increase the size of this program to include ages through adult with the older participants playing in the evenings. However, the current soccer field at Fairway park is only 200' by 140' and the high school field is being prepared for the upcoming football season, leaving McCa11 once again short on facilities. During August the Recreation Program tried a new program called "Recreation Camp". The first week of camp 9 youngsters attended and had a great deal of fun. The second week was met with rain and due to the school preparing the gym and multi -purpose room for school, the camp had no where to go but the library. Due to the rain and the lack of a indoor facility, I decided the program needed to be canceled, the library. Due to the rain and the lack of a indoor facility, I decided the program needed to be canceled, and a refund was given to all participants. The Recreation Program is currently working on finding more indoor facilities besides the school and is planning on trying to provide the Recreation Camp again during the summer of 1994. After summer soccer the Recreation Program held tennis lessons for the first time. Lessons were provided for youngsters 8-13 years old, and 24 students participated. The program will be repeated in 1994. The Outdoor Basketball program which was new in 1992 saw a slight decline in participants. Due to the decline in participants and because the program starts about the same time school starts, the Outdoor Basketball program will not be listed in the 1994 summer brochure. Instead, sign ups will be held at the same time as fall soccer during the first week of school. The fall soccer program for 4th through 6th grades had 97 participants on eight teams. The eight teams played a total of 38 games with Riggins coming to McCall three times. The participants enjoyed playing against Riggins and I hope to have them involved in 1994. I have been exploring the possibility of turning sponsorship solicitation for youth baseball and softball teams over to the adult volunteer coaches in 1994. If the responsibility of baseball/softball sponsor solicitation was turned over to coaches, as is the case in other Idaho towns, the Recreation Program would then find sponsors for the 8 or 9 fall soccer teams. During the last few years, Melanie Krum has spent her college sununer vacations working for the Recreation Program and completed her internship in 1992. It is my desire to hire more college students during the summer, to help with the increasing number of user hours, but due to housing shortages in McCall, many students cannot afford to work here. If anyone knows someone with an extra room that would be willing to house a intern for the summer, please contact me. The City of McCall may be able to pay a stipend or if rent is low enough, the intern may be able to pay rent. To conclude this comprehensive report I would like to leave you with these policy questions; 1. When forced with shortages of facilities, staff, and money, where should program priorities be, youth or adult programs? 2. Are new programs needed or wanted? 3. Should some of the current programs be discontinued? 4. Should non -city users pay increased fees?