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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPRM101603CITY OF CENTRAL, POINT Park Commission Meeting. October 16, 2003 • REGULAR MEETING CALLED TO ORDER The meeting was called to order by Jim Harleman at 6:00 p.m. ROLL CALL and INTRODUCTIONS: Pete Brown, Casey Clark, Eleanor Holbrook, Jim Harleman, Mack Lewis were present. Patrick Socia was absent. Parks and Recreation Director Nancy Hanson and Karen Roeber were also present. Parks Maintenance Supervisor Don Dunn was introduced by Nancy. III. MINUTES A. Approval of April 17, 2003 minutes, City Park Commission Minutes Pete made a motion to approve the minutes as presented. Eleanor seconded and the motion was unanimously approved. IV. PUBLIC APPEARANCES There were no public appearances. ® V. BUSINESS A. Dog Park Discussion Nancy passed out copies of the 2003 survey that was conducted prior to the Park Master Plan showing that 81 people responded stating that a dog park would be very important to them while 122 people stated it was not important and 77 said it was somewhat important. Nancy stated that in the Portland area they allow dogs in their parks for a few hours early in the morning and a few hours in the evening. It was suggested we could have specific parks for "dogs only" as they have in Medford or maybe work with the County to get some open space or land on one side of the Expo by the small ponds behind the Family Fun Center. Bill Stults said he would talk with Lee Johnson about putting up a 3' chain link fence on a trial basis to see if the area is used and give a report at the next meeting. B. Youth Activity Center Nancy would like to have a program that targets 6th, 7th and 8th graders. When she attended the OPRA (Oregon Parks and Recreation Association) conference earlier this month she learned some great ideas from other attendees. She discussed with Julie MacDairmid how this age group is not being served. Nancy mentioned that she knows a youth pastor from the church on 10th Street who would be great working with this kids in this age group. She asked for the Commission members opinions as to wether kids would attend activities if they were held at a church since we may not have the Rec. Center much longer and the city may consolidate all old buildings in orderto purchase new ones. It was thought many kids would not attend because of being held at a church and parents might discourage attendance because of that even though the activities would have nothing to do with religions or faiths. It would have to be a parental decision. It would be emphasized that all activities would be recreational only -the church would only be a building to hold these activities. Activities would be held once or twice a week. Promotion; if done properly, might .work and many said it would depend on what activities were offered. The City Gym was also mentioned as an alternative site and it would not be much further than the Rec. Center. The Scenic Middle School gym is not available -they have more groups than they can accommodate. Nancy said she would explore the possibilities. C. Foundation Formed Nancy handed out a copy of the Articles of Incorporation forming the Redmond Parks Foundation - anon-profit corporation for the City of Redmond, Oregon. Nancy also handed out the By-Laws for this corporation and asked the Park Commissioners to seriously consider forming anon-profit corporation for the City of Central Point so that we would be in a better position to obtain grant monies for things like a Community Center. Grant monies typically go to non-profit organizations and not cities. Redmond's Foundation is made up of their Park Commission members. If formed and once monies were obtained we could funnel other grant monies through the foundation for a community center, swimming pool, etc. Nancy has step-by-step guidebook that shows what needs to be done to form this corporation. If the Park Commission members are willing to become this non-profit foundation they would still be under the City Council and the meetings held prior to Park Commission meetings. Nancy would like to put together this foundation as quickly as possible, in order to put in for various grants. The City Gym needs lots of work -plumbing replaced, brought up to ADA standards and it might even be cheaper in the long run to rebuild. Nancy said the City qualifies fora $300,000.00 Block Grant for a Senior Center. Nancy stated there would be no compensation for this foundation. Mack made a motion to form this foundation, Eleanor seconded and the motion was unanimously approved. D. Park Master Plan Nancy handed out copies of the Park Master Plan for all Commission members stating it went to the Planning Commission last week. Nancy asked the Parks Commission members to look over their copy of the Park Master Plan so it could be discussed at the next meeting. The Planning Commission recommended to adopt the Master Plan and it will now go to the City Council for final approval. The only thing noted by the Planning Commission was the lack of baseball fields although it does show that, within the ten year time frame the Master Plan spans, an adequate number of ball fields were included. It is vital to our community to develop Little League fields within the City over the next ten years to replace or take over their current location. At this time Little League cannot deed the land to the City. Little League cannot keep up the fields due to the constant change of volunteers. Jim Harleman and Bill Stults will work together on this since the kids need a place to play ball. E. Don Jones Design Nancy handed out copies of the Don Jones Park design stating it will take the next 5 to 10 years to be completed as designed. Neighborhood meetings were held, as well as, meetings with the designers. The original design presented was discussed at the neighborhood meetings with the designers; torn apart and given back to the designers to re-design and then presented again to the City. This process was done a second time after the changes had been made. There is a soccer size multi-purpose field and a water play facility that will cost approximately $30,000.00 and be similar to Ashland's. VI. MISCELLANEOUS Nancy stated there is a vacancy on the Parks Commission as Ralph Hale has resigned. Nancy said we need to form the non-profit foundation first and then the SOAK contacts are available if we want to go in the direction of a community or regional swimming pool. We could put that off for now since we are planning water play facilities in Don Jones Park and the community park at Central Point Elementary school. We have $10,000.00 from the original swimming pool fund that could go towards the construction of the water play facilities at the above mentioned sites. Nancy mentioned the presentation given for the Local Government Grant monies for the skatepark. She learned that sometimes there is money left over (i.e. monies that are awarded and not used). They do not have the State budget back to see what monies are left to be allotted. They think there will be $152,000.00 left over from last year's budget and we are eligible for some of that money. We can use the $90,000.00 that we have for the skatepark or we can wait to see if we are awarded some of these surplus monies. Nancy hopes to know by January if we get part of this State grant. Nancy brought up the use of the City gym and recommended we look at non-profit organizations who want to use City facilities. She wanted to know if we should charge a fee for facility use. We also have to ask ourselves if the organization is benefitting the City - does the organization have the ability to pay? It was stated "our job is to provide park space and facilities NOT to look at financials or make money." We need to develop criteria for who gets to use City facilities. Nancy is also thinking of holding an "open gym" with a coordinator there to oversee things. Eleanor gave a report on the City Wide Cleanup that was held September 20th. She stated there were less people outside picking up trash than last year although she had more volunteers working on the inside. Twenty five businesses participated and there were 51 prizes awarded so almost everyone received a prize. Ray's Food place donated bags, the Circle K donated hot dogs, Rogue Disposal donated the dumpster, LTM gave a $1,000.00 donation towards the T-shirts, just to mention a few of the businesses who participated. She stated expenses totaled approximately $207.00 out of her budget of $1,000.00. Radio stations and the Mail Tribune also helped with the advertising. Many seniors from the Sr. Center helped with the food preparation and registration. She stated the Army recruiting office said they will be back again next year. She also mentioned banks, schools, churches including the Crater Key and Leadership clubs. Eleanor gave a letter of appreciation to Jim Harleman to read thanking the Park Commission members and Bill Stults who helped. Jim and the commission members gave kudos to Eleanor for the great job she did once again organizing the Clean-up along with Cheryl Cummings, the co-chair and Marlene Watson. Eleanor received a letter stating the State highway adoption (litter pick up program} was completed. Nancy handed out copies of the Parks and Recreation Fall program. She also stated she wants to put together a. Recreation Master Plan with the help of the Park Commission. Art & Science camp was a success and we now have a third Discovery After School Club site at Jewett Elementary this year. Some of those kids will be eligible for 50% scholarships towards tuition since the City received $10,000.00 from the Carpenter Foundation Grant. The gazebo and restrooms planned for Flannagan Park were brought up. A neighborhood meeting needs to be scheduled so the restrooms and gazebo placement can be discussed since there has been some opposition from the community about them being put in at all. The restrooms were included on the original plans for the park. It was decided to keep the Park Commission meetings to quarterly. VII. ADJOURNMENT The Central Point Park Commission Meeting was adjourned by consensus at 7:30 p.m. Next meeting is scheduled for January 15th, 2004 at 6:00 p.m.