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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPRM041006^~~ CITY OF CENTRAL POINT ~~ PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION MINUTES CENTRAL April 10, 2006 POINT REGULAR MEETING CALLED TO ORDER Chairman, Jim Harleman called the meeting to order at 6:10 p.m. ROLL CALL AND INTRODUCTIONS Parks and Recreation Commission Attendees: Chairman; Jim Harleman, Eleanor Holbrook, Cheryl Cummings, Richard Halley (Council Liaison), Kerry Bradshaw, Neil Olsen, Patricia Alvarez Staff Present: Katherine Boxer, Parks & Recreation Director Matt Samitore, Development Services Coordinator Shelly Brown, Secretary MINUTES Minutes from November 15, 2005 were approved. Eleanor Holbrook motioned to approve minutes from November 15, 2005. Jim Harleman seconded the motion. Minutes from January 24, 2006 were approved pending a change that Kerry Bradshaw was in attendance. Eleanor Holbrook motioned to approve minutes from January 24, 2006. Kerry Bradshaw seconded the motion. PUBLIC APPEARANCES: Julie MacDiarmid, Options Project Manager for School District #6. Julie gave a presentation regarding the Options Project and Art & Science Camp. Options Project: m Began in 1998 when School District #6 received a 215 Century Community Learning Center Grant, a Federal program centered on opening up the schools so community members as well as the students could benefit from the use of school buildings and facilities in non-school hours. Page 1 of 6 • Through the partnerships developed during that time, largely with the help of Director, Kristine Reising, Options has been able to keep an amazing number of programs going. Programs that provide services to families, after school programs, summer enrichment programs, and a variety of programs that provide support for kids. • The City's Parks and Recreation Department has been involved from the beginning on the Options Project Advisory Committee. There was always someone from the city on the options project advisory committee. Began with Tom Humphrey and Nancy Hanson joined later. • Over the years since 1998, the Options Project Advisory Committee has gone through many changes. You have to consider how many people are needed on the committee, at what level do you need people, what the members can contribute, etc. So it's gone through a lot of changes. • In 2001 a grant was received from the Ford Family Foundation in Roseburg to help with family support programs. • Received another grant from the Ford Institute Community Building to help re- vamp the steering committee. A consultant was hired to help plan the meetings, form the committee, and move things forward in order to provide the most needed programs for kids in the community. • Worked with Health Department to get a school based Health Center at Hanby Middle School with a Nurse Practitioner and through another grant, added a thereapist. This program serves Sams Valley and Patrick as well. • Options Project was selected for Ford's 5 year Community Building Program. • Sams Valley Picnic Pavillion and improvement of their field was the group project selected. • Taking on Fund Raising is a goal of the Options Project to attain enrichment pieces by being able to pay artists and instructors of various media. • The Art Council has been a phenomenal partner. • Strengthened YMCA connection to take advantage of the things they can provide. • Expanded membership participation in committee. Community Works, City of Central Point, different school districts, Arts Council and YMCA participate on the committee. Art & Science Camp: • Art & Science Camp came out of the summer program concept. The Academy is a week long summer program at SOU that cost somewhere around $500-$600 per week. Very few of our kids took part. We looked at it and found it financially out of reach for most District #6 kids. We were in need of a program that kids could become immersed into a week long program where they can explore science, art and be kids. The camp was developed using Camp Latgawa, a Methodist camp 13 miles outside Lake Creek that we rent for a week. Kids are bussed there, stay in cabins, a commons eating area, they swim, jump off the Page 2 of 6 waterfall, sleep in teepees, make new friends from all over the school district, explore art and science, have campfire time where there are jokes, skits and play games. They get to push things past their comfort zone and yet have time to really explore things at their own speed. ® Art & Science Camp was picked up by the City three years ago after budget cuts made it impossible to continue the camp through the School District. Since that time Art & Science Camp has grown every year. Started with 32 kids going to camp and last year we had 63 kids. The camp fills within a week every year. The camp is for kids in 4th-6th grade. This year we will also offer camp for 7th-9th graders. ® We have a wonderful local artist and instructor, Christoph Buchler, who does a lot of work with kids. Every year he incorporates the kids' art created at camp into the t-shirts given out after camp. ® This camp offers an affordable week of enrichment camp for School District #6 kids. CHANGES TO AGENDA No changes BUSINESS Grants Awarded for scholarship funding: ® Rotary $2,000 ® Horton Family Foundation $1,000 secured by Julie MacDiarmid ® Carpenter Foundation $2,500 / $2,500 matching Pending Grants: ® Gordon Elwood Foundation $20,000 (scholarship funding) © G.I. Joe Foundation $1,500 (scholarship funding) ® State of Oregon Capital Development Grant for $200,000 to help fund Don Jones Park. ® State of Oregon Capital Development Grant for $50,000 to start building Blue Grass Downs. ® We will continue to be active in seeking grants. It is a very rigorous process. Parks Planning: ® There are 20 acres next to the Boes subdivision in Central Point that Jackson County has considered giving to the City. Paul Korbulik, director for Jackson County Parks, will make the recommendation to give this property to the city in late April or May to the Board of Commissioners. We are hopeful that will be Page 3 of 6 approved. If it is, we will begin a community forum planning process to see what the residents of Central Point would like to see that area developed into. We know there is a need for a dog park and would like to designate a portion of that area for that usage. The national standard for parkland acreage is 10 acres per 1,000 residents. At last count our acreage was about 90 acres, including the eenway. Our current population is about 15,000. By adding park acreage, we are able to benefit from more SDC funds. Dick Halley has been involved in the Bear Creek Greenway committee. With the support of RVCOG we have developed an operation and maintenance plan for the greenway that did not previously exist. The proposed amount of monies that will be requested from the list of participating jurisdictions and given the fact that the county is going to be paying the salary of a person to manage the greenway, the cities in Jackson County that fall within the greenway area are all being asked to contribute various amounts depending on the greenway mileage in their respective jurisdictions. City of Central Point is being asked to contribute $18,000 (see chart) effective next fiscal year. Historically there has not been any type of coordinated maintenance of the Greenway. There has been little security patrol, no interpretive signage, no benches and trees. There are a lot of amenities that can enhance the greenway. The pathway also needs regular maintenance. Other communities very similarly struggle with operation and maintenance issues and sometimes fund operation and maintenance through bond measures, creation of special districts and volunteer support as well. There was a recent meeting the State Director of Parks and Recreation held to discuss the development of the Rogue River Greenway. There was representation from a variety of state agencies including Fish & Wildlife, as well as all the local jurisdictions to discuss the potential of not only developing a linear greenway along the Rogue River, but also to develop inter-connecting pathways between the communities that would lead to the greenway going from Grants Pass to Ashland. The Bear Creek greenway would tie in with the Rogue River Greenway. It has been demonstrated that these kinds of amenities greatly increase economic revenues in an area. They attract people and businesses to come to an area and enhance quality of life. Shane Maxwell who is on the County Budget Committee has been spearheading this effort and it's received tremendous support from the State of Oregon Parks and Recreation Director. It's likely this project will receive state funding. Katherine will ask Shane to give a presentation on the Greenway at our next Parks Commission meeting. Draft of 06/07 Parks and Recreation Department Budget Overview ® The Budget Committee and City Council will be reviewing each department's budget proposals. ® We've been looking at our budget for the upcoming fiscal year 2006-2007 and considering what projects we may be able to get funding for. Page 4 of 6 ® It is a difficult process and we will not be able to do all the projects the City wants to accomplish this year. ® Planning on the construction of Don Jones Park and Blue Grass Downs Park. We are applying for two grants. One is $200,000 for Don Jones and the other is $50,000 for Blue Grass Downs. ® Two scenarios for Don Jones Park: o With the grant, the project phase will be around $500,000. o Without the grant, the project phase will be around $250,000. o We have to be dependent on the General Fund. It looks like we could receive $100,000 from the General Fund for Don Jones Park. o If we do not get the grant for Blue Grass Downs, we will not be able to build the park. There is no match money if we don't get the grant. ® We are proceeding with reimbursements to two large developments. Both are within our transit oriented development districts in Central Point. One is Twin Creeks Development off Taylor Road. They are slowly building out their 55 acres of parks and open space. 2 years ago, we promised to repay them for the first 5 acres they built there. o $41,000 will go towards Twin Creeks reimbursement. o Snowy Butte Station has quite a few parks in it. They are not built yet. Part of our agreement is up front cash reimbursement this year to get all the parks built out there. We would reimburse them through SDC monies for the rest of the park build out. ® We had hoped to build one restroom per year in each of our parks. That will not happen since have no matching money. We are instead advocating for chemical toilets in Flanagan, Van Horn, Twin Creeks and Forest Glen parks. ® We are also planning on starting a bench and picnic table replacement program. We will start replacing those this year. ® Katherine will be starting a park picnic bench and table naming program this next year. There are a number of ways non profits can receive additional revenues in order to acquire things or offer programs. An example is Jacksonville Woodlands Association; the benches are all named with family or corporation names as being donated by them. Hopefully we'll receive enough interest to make a difference. ® We are also going to attempt to enhance revenues through fundraising events. We will be establishing asub-committee for fundraising purposes. ® Matt will bring the plans for the various new parks to the next Parks Commission meeting for members to review. ® Our administrator has stated the recreation programs must be self sufficient. Fees charged must cover overhead and supply costs. In analyzing them, they have previously been cost inefficient. Mainly because they were in the growing process and getting established. ® We raised fees in Discovery After School Club, Summer Daycamp, Kidventure and Art & Science Camp. We will bring the increased fees to the next meeting. Page 5 of 6 o Will continue as many partnerships as we can. For example, School District #6 provides facilities for After School Club. a We will be looking closely at our classes, cutting some, growing others, developing new ones, etc. o Our core programs such as Discovery After School Club, Summer Daycamp, Art & Science Camp and Kidventure give families the affordable opportunity and peace of mind that their children have a safe place to be when the parents cannot be with them due to work schedules. They also provide a tremendous opportunity for children to learn and thrive socially. There are not a lot of communities that provide after school programs. • City Council voted to hire a Senior Program Coordinator. We hired Ellen Eichamer and she is working on developing senior programs. We are not expecting our senior programs to achieve full cost recovery because many of the seniors are not economically equipped to pay the full costs of programs and as mentioned earlier, when starting new programs you don't have the same level of participation as when they are well or fully established. ® This is a very broad overview of the upcoming budget year. We will continue to present numbers as they become more definitive through the budget process. ® You are welcome to come forward with recommendations to the budget committee on the Parks & Recreation budget. MOVEMENT TO ADJOURN • Motion to adjourn made by Neil Olsen and seconded by Kerry Bradshaw. ® I~1ext IPar~ Co~nennssnon ngeet~ng is sehedu-ed for Tuesday, .Tune 27t-n, 2006 ag the ~igy 1EYa11 Council Clx~ynhers fronn 6:®0 - 9:®0 p.tn. Page 6 of 6