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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCSAC.2023.1023.MinutesCOMMUNITY SERVICES ADVISORY COMMISSION OCTOBER 23, 2023 VERBATIM MINUTES TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING COMMUNITY SERVICES ADVISORY COMMISSION OCTOBER 23, 2023 A Regular Meeting of the Community Services Advisory Commission was convened at 16705 E. Avenue of the Fountains in open and public session at 5:00 p.m. Members Present: Chair Natalie Varela; Vice Chair Carey Reddick, Commissioner Craig Rudolphy; Commissioner Rory Wilson, Youth Commissioner Kevin Williams Absent: Commissioner Stephen Barnes, Commissioner Ron Ruppert Staff Present: Interim Community Services Director Kevin Snipes, Executive Assistant Patti Lopuszanski Audience: None -1- https://otter.ai COMMUNITY SERVICES ADVISORY COMMISSION OCTOBER 23, 2023 VERBATIM MINUTES VARELA: All right, we're going to Call the Meeting to Order. Let me start with a Welcome to Kevin our new Youth Commissioner. Kevin, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself, please? WILLIAMS: I'm currently a Senior at BASIS Scottsdale. I live in Fountain Hills. I probably could have walked here today if I wanted to. I'm very interested in nature and environmental science. So that was one of the other reasons that I wanted to be here. VARELA: Oh, great. We will definitely add you to our work group. Well, welcome. We're happy to have you and you know, hope you get a lot out of it this year. Sure. Okay, so now we'll do a Roll Call, please. LOPUSZANSKI: Chair Varela? VARELA: Here. LOPUSZANSKI: Vice Chair Reddick REDDICK: Here. LOPUSZANSKI: Commissioner Rudolphy RUDOLPHY: Present LOPUSZANSKI: Commissioner Wilson, WILSON: Here. LOPUSZANSKI: Youth Commissioner Williams WILLIAMS: Here. LOPUSZANSKI: *Note Commissioner Barnes and Commissioner Ruppert Absent. LOPUSZANSKI: Thank you. VARELA: All right. Do we have any Reports from Commissioners? REDDICK: Well, I think this would be the time that we can discuss Rory's report or set up that she had us do or are we saving that? LOPUSZANSKI: Was that regarding the playground? REDDICK: No, this would be regarding the group. VARELA: So, the workgroups? REDDICK: Yes. So, should we save that? VARELA: I think that might be down on the agenda. SNIPES: Yes, number 7. VARELA: Okay, yeah. Anyone have anything to report? Okay, no. All right. Call to Public. LOPUSZANSKI: No Call to Public. VARELA: Okay. All right. Did everyone have a chance to review the minutes? And if you did, can I get a Motion to Approve them? RUDOLPHY: Move to approve minutes. VARELA: Can I get a second? REDDICK: I Second to approve minutes. VARELA: All in favor? ALL: Aye. VARELA: All right, passed unanimously. (7-0) Thank you. Next is the Consideration of and Possible Action of the Community Services Strategic Plan, which is in our packets. SNIPES: I'll give a little bit of information on this for you. So, we did a Strategic Plan three years ago, and at the end of that one. Our Strategic Plan is kind of our platform on which we base everything off of for the next three years, we started with our managers and supervisors having the discussion, and then - 2 https://otter.ai COMMUNITY SERVICES ADVISORY COMMISSION OCTOBER 23, 2023 VERBATIM MINUTES we took it out to everybody who works for each one of the managers or supervisors to discuss it with the group so that we get a full buy -in from all of our employees, then it comes back to the managers to share what they gained from their employees. This is meant to be a 5000-foot view, not a 10-foot view. So, you'll see that everything is worded that way gives us a way broader umbrella to work under by having it be in that style of being a 5000-foot view. If you start getting too close, then you end up saying at the park so and so we're going to do such and such, or at the Community Center. But trying to keep it as broad as possible makes it so that everybody can kind of see its Community Services, not any individual group, right? So, the idea of this is to be as diverse as possible. And then when we go to Town Councill with initiatives that we're trying to do, it's based on this for our next three years. It doesn't mean that we'll get everything done. There are some lofty goals in here and we certainly didn't finish everything that was in our last Strategic Plan. However, it does give us that push to try and achieve as much as possible through this period of time. We did get 100% buy -in from all of our staff. The last thing that we did was bring back the final product down here last Wednesday and we shared it with all our employees. We feel like it's a really good plan, we're very happy to present it to you guys and have you put your eyes on it. What we'll do from here is providing we get your approval, then we will take it to the Town Council by the end of the year to get their approval as well. And then that will set us in a good spot to start the new year. RUDOLPHY: Did you develop it? Or was this developed by your predecessor? SNIPES: This was a combination of both as we just completed it last week. So, it was a combination of Rachael and myself working as the Director and Interim Director at the time, because I didn't know where we were going to end up. And I told her I didn't want her to not be involved in it because if she ended up back in the Director's role, then I wanted her to be confident in it as well. So, it was a team approach and we had everybody involved. RUDOLPHY: So, as CSAC is looking to provide you with information or outlines, this would be what you would like us to focus on. SNIPES: Yes. RUDOLPHY: As opposed to us dreaming up some new things on our own and giving you more work to do. SNIPES: Correct. For the next three to five, this is kind of where our wheelhouse we think should be it doesn't mean now it's still a living working document. So it doesn't mean after year one, that we won't find something that either fits within a section of this and or needs to be added to it's not a limiting, it's more of a base. VARELA: Did you roll over what you didn't get completed into this, then Is that how it works? SNIPES: Kind of. So, there could be things that were in the last one that are no longer viable. And so they may get eliminated and move on. For the most part, the visions are very similar, we changed a couple of them. Because the last one that we wrote, we were looking to become a national leader. Well, during that time, we did become a national leader and so now it's continued to rewrite some of those to fit that role. You know, we expect to be instructors at our conferences, be the people that are reached out to, which happens all the time now. From other municipalities to try and help others to achieve some of the things that we have as well as it helps us because now we're hearing more and more from others as to how they did things and what they did and why they did it. And we use that as well. So it's a two-way street when you become more involved at the national level. 3 https://otter.ai COMMUNITY SERVICES ADVISORY COMMISSION OCTOBER 23, 2023 VERBATIM MINUTES RUDOLPHY: At our last commission meeting here, we developed several workgroups and work plans. Were those considered incorporated or discarded in this plan of yours? SNIPES: No, I think that everything that we've been talking about certainly fits within what we're looking to do and what we are doing. If I had thought at that time that they weren't in alignment, then I wouldn't have had to waste your time up until now to do it. VARELA: Thank you. SNIPES: Any other questions? VARELA: All right, thank you. So, do you want us to make a motion? Can I get a Motion to Approve the Community Services Strategic Plan for 2024- 2027 as written? WILSON: Move to approve. VARELA: Can I get a second? REDDICK: A second to approve for Community Service Strategic Plan 2024-2027. VARELA: Thank you. All in favor, say aye. ALL: Aye. VARELA: Okay, thank you passed unanimously (7-0). All right. Okay, now we're on our Update and Discussion for the Environmental Plan Workgroups. VARELA: So do you have an update on yours? REDDICK: I do. I had Ron and Steven a part of my group and we were part of Goal 7, which is to Support the Waste Reduction Program. During that time, I know that we had some individuals who were not able to meet so I took it upon myself and went around the local community. And I think for point number 1, we have a list of parks on our end that we can target. I noticed that a lot of our recycling trash bins are not strategically placed. So that's an area of opportunity that we can hone in on. I started with Four Peaks Park, the Avenue of the Fountain, and then around local schools as well. So strategically, that would be a great place to start, specifically with the kids and the young youth. Point 2, we have a list of business locations, definitely throughout the Town that have no recycling setup at all. I found in one particular area near the Shell gas station, that there are several businesses there, and there are no places for recycling trash at all. I mean, you'd have to walk to the Shell Gas Station, just to even do recycling, which I thought was a little alarming. Point three connecting with other local organizations such as the BA, Senior Center, and the Boys and Girls Club, I think would be a great way for us to improve different channels, where we can have more individual support for the recycling stations, and then for logistics, we just need to draft out and ensure locations have a proper pickup and tools to make this happen. So that's all I have in regard to Rory's amazing project. VARELA: Yeah, no, thank you. That's great information and a good plan as to where to start. WILSON: I have a question. So I'm for Point 2 to the business locations that need recycling. Is that the Town's responsibility? Or is it the business's responsibility? SNIPES: So each of those would definitely come under the private business and how they have their pickup scheduled. WILSON: So Carey, maybe there's like a way that somehow it would be more of an encouraging initiative of how you cannot like, manipulate them into doing some sort of recycling thing, but maybe like, somehow, you know, ask them if they'd be interested, or if there's some way that the Town can work with them to educate them on the benefits of recycling. And that would maybe help. - 4 - https://otter.ai COMMUNITY SERVICES ADVISORY COMMISSION OCTOBER 23, 2023 VERBATIM MINUTES REDDICK: I mean, even adding to that, maybe adding some sort of incentive from a Town Council perspective, I don't know what that incentive could be. But our businesses don't have proper trash and recycling set up. And it's pretty consistent with a lot of our establishments here in town. SNIPES: Unfortunately, with the town not being the owner of our trash and recycling, its private business contracted, which plays a big part in how much influence we have on how that's done. And I don't know if it would be more of a Public Work side question as far as when they redo the contract if that's something that they could get into the contract. But I don't, I don't know for sure how that would be outside of our community services. RUDOLPHY: But couldn't Council, you know, kind of like, make a Proclamation for a month and then recognize or identify those entities that are helping in that effort? SNIPES: Potentially, yeah I mean, they could do a Proclamation. I think it'd be very difficult that the hard part about doing something like that is if you miss some, you know, and then they announce and recognize a whole slew of what about me, we do it what about me, we do it, you know, and then back and get sour in a hurry. I think they could do a Proclamation to encourage it as a whole. That could be possible. When you start listing things, you better be very careful that you get everybody who's doing the right thing listed. Which is always the fallback to trying to do something positive like that. REDDICK: So instead of listing it for that Proclamation, could it be something that businesses are... Gosh, like....looking for the word where somebody... RUDOLPHY: How about encouraged? REDDICK: Yeah. I mean, seriously with is that an option as well. So, therefore, yeah, absolutely. You know, you're not pinpointing a particular business. SNIPES: I mean, yeah, you I mean, you can look it up totally do encourage local businesses to recycle. And do a proclamation for that that would be up to the mayor and council to decide. VARELA: I do see an eye it's must be like on the connection. People are always looking for places to recycle. So, like I know my condo complex, we don't have recycling. I know. And in like the apartments and around I guess there's just a lot. There's, yeah, there's very limited recycling. SNIPES: Yeah, a lot of times with apartments, they don't have a dual space to put two and then when they put two eight ends up being mixed, and so then they end up just dumping it anyway. And that's why I know a lot of apartments don't do that. One reason anyway. VARELA: No, I understand. And I do think like if, you know, community -wide recycling bins I think would have the same thing would happened. People would be dumping everything. So yeah, I think it has to be like encouragement. WILSON: Empower maybe, or something. But no, I agree. I think the pro -proclamation route could be something worth trying. But everything else looks good. I think you did a great job, Carey. VARELA: Yeah, me too. All right, any other comments? Okay, thank you. Let's see. Outdoor Equipment at Desert Vista. Well, wait, because we don't have any, we don't have an update right now. So sorry, go on. WILSON: No, it's okay. Um, so most people know this already. But for those who do not, our work group does not have an update at this time we will continue to work until the next commission meeting, and let you all know. VARELA: Okay, so now we can get Outdoor Equipment Update, please. - 5 - https://otter.ai COMMUNITY SERVICES ADVISORY COMMISSION OCTOBER 23, 2023 VERBATIM MINUTES SNIPES: Well, I put some pictures and diagrams in our quote that that we have currently going at Desert Vista in front of you. So you can kind of take a look. The first picture, there's kind of the overall overview. I'm still waiting to see exactly what my funding is to see if I can do more with this space. The overhead view there that you're looking at, I'll kind of show you. We're looking at a stepping machine. A bike that is both of those are connected to your phone will track, you can go in and click on your phone to tell it to give you a workout in our space, it will walk you through our space, it'll increase as time goes on to help you make sure that you're getting the most out of it. We had the concrete poured a couple of weeks ago. So we're really excited to get this moving forward. The first couple of pictures are just some pictures of several different types of equipment. But you can kind of get an idea of there's a bike there in the middle, there's the elliptical down on the end. And then we're doing an arm press machine as well. And all of those will have changing speeds and tensions and stuff like that with them. The weight machines, the weights are all internal they're all belt driven selections. They found that the belts last much, much longer than cable or chain which a lot of the companies use. These have an 11 year warranty on him I believe it was which is phenomenal for this type of equipment. And having it in the shade is going to be a huge factor as well. You can kind of see that last picture there of what our final pad looked like. I always like to go past where the poles are at because it just gives it a bigger field and it moves that shade usage area becomes much larger and doesn't cost that much more when you're doing it to add a few more square feet, all the way around the poles. This was donated from the American Legion shade structure. We sent it over and had it sandblasted re -powder coated, and then put a new tarp on it. It cost us about $30,000 Total to have it reinstalled. And it's probably about a $90,000 to $80,000 piece if we were to buy it. So we were really happy that they were willing to donate it and we had a spot for it. The timing was perfect. So this saved us a lot and made it so that we can afford to get some more and better equipment for the area. At the same time, we did this before we poured around the ramada that's over by the playground. Now that's complete as well. So we got a lot going on over there right now this was we paid a little bit more to do surface mount fitness equipment, it's about $10,000 more so it is significant. But to me, if something happens to the equipment and we got to tear out the concrete and redo it down the road, it's going to happen it's not an if it's a win. So to me we poured thicker, we did a six-inch pour to an eight -inch pour we did an eight -inch pour where we're doing the weighted machines, and everywhere else it's six inches and again it to me it's the right thing to do for longevity of the space and not having to tear out concrete and start over you can unbolt, rebuilt, you can unbolt you can cut off the bolts and then put in a different footing just makes it to where that it's a lot more usable space, in my opinion. RUDOLPHY: I'm assuming you communicated with other communities that already have something like this. What's their experience or longevity for issues with vandalism? SNIPES: Yeah, I've gone and looked at a lot of different fitness playgrounds, I mean its what I do I go and check out everybody else's stuff this so it definitely varies from place to place. There's several places that are using Kompan's equipment out here and the three of them that I went and looked at each are adding more Kompan stuff to their fitness which I think tells a big story. I know I went and looked at some Green Play stuff which people like in general in looking at it I think that there's weaknesses to it that I didn't see when I was looking at the comp and just looking at it with a critical eye Egon. Like, I'II give you an example of on the bikes having foam handles where you put your hand seems like a great idea until you know what the sun does and what the heat does in Arizona. So what Kompan did was they used bedliner still has texture has a grip it's not soft. But again to you it's going to 6 httos://otter.ai COMMUNITY SERVICES ADVISORY COMMISSION OCTOBER 23, 2023 VERBATIM MINUTES hold up and so because it's porous it has the bumps and texture to it it helps keep it cooler by like a cool deck wood kind of a scenario so just little things like that and years ago Kompan and use the foam tune it was one of the first things I noticed with this new model is that was changed. And I was like it was the one thing that I saw was a weak link and they were like and now we do too. So they changed it. So yeah, there's definitely a you know, this is I've been looking at fitness equipment for four years now trying to figure out what we would do when we did it. It was just a matter of finding the right place and the right time to pull it off. Much like the benches that I looked at for three years before we chose benches for Fountain Park, you know it's just going out and seeing them how they're used. Makes a big difference in in than looking at them in a showroom. You know at a conference or whatever you can make anything look pretty there but put it out in the weather a little bit and see how it holds up and in seeing there. They've done case studies on him and how long they last and how many repetitions they expect to get out of them. And their numbers don't lie, they build some really good stuff. So I'm really excited about bringing these in. VARELA: So, where is it? Exactly? Because thanks to you last meeting, I've been walking this park with my friend because of the overseeding. But I don't think I've seen this. So, but it could... SNIPES: So if you're at the restroom building, and you walk out of the restroom, and you look straight ahead at the far end of the park, that's where it's at. VARELA: Oh, maybe I'm going taking the outer loop. SNIPES: Yeah if you're going out by the road, you won't walk by but if you walk the new sidewalk that connects the loop, then you will walk right by it. VARELA: Yeah. Okay. Thank you. SNIPES: That's right at the top of the hill. VARELA: Okay, perfect. REDDICK: Will there be a ribbon -cutting ceremony? Since this is our first outdoor? SNIPES: Yeah, we don't miss a chance to let our council celebrate something new opening up. So yeah, we'll certainly do that at the end of this year when we get all of our improvements this year. We're also well, we'll talk about that a little bit here when we go through our CIP stuff, but so I'll save that for then. But yeah, we'll definitely be doing a ribbon cutting for this one. It's a big one. REDDICK: Yeah, I think I just want to make sure that Rory gets the proper recognition since she started this initiative and I was a part of it. But Rory did a lot for this. So want to make sure she gets the honors. WILSON: I was going to comment on that as it was Rachel's initiative, she started that we kind of just continued on. SNIPES: To pre -rotate that back, it was my idea that Rachel took. REDDICK: I'm really happy that we were a part of your idea. It's a big deal. SNIPES: It was the old Kevin. Yep. Rachel and I have been wanting to get this done for many years. And it's certainly something where I've been pushing for this product and knowing and wanting to do some comparisons with other ones. And that's where we wanted you guys to go out and see what you could find him and I took that information and went out and did some looking at that as well, to make sure that we are getting the product that we want, and one that will be sustainable. And I think that through all that there's been some good discussion in and selection made. So thank you guys for that. VARELA: Did you have a comment? WILLIAMS: Yeah. So just to clarify, you have all of the equipment already planned out for this. - 7 - https://otter.ai COMMUNITY SERVICES ADVISORY COMMISSION OCTOBER 23, 2023 VERBATIM MINUTES SNIPES: So we've selected what I know I can afford is what you're seeing in this drawing that's here. I'm just finishing up some total numbers with our concrete pour that we did to make to see if I have more funding, then I may tweak this a little bit, but it's very similar to what this one here is so. WILLIAMS: So which age group are you planning on kind of advertising to for this? SNIPES: This will be something that will be pushed toward teens, up to 70-80 years old. I'm also looking at doing a balance fitness -type area to gear more towards our seniors. We're working out locations for that. But there's some really cool equipment for that as well. That we would like to do in the future. But this one is geared more towards our teens, young adults, and older adults area, there will be a wide range of ages that we'll be able to use it for sure. WILLIAMS: So pertaining to the balance section. I worked at physical therapy for the summer, and it was incredibly important to have somebody right next to them as they were doing any sort of balance exercise. So I feel like that would be a little bit of a safety concern. Just having just balanced exercises for older people. If there is a way to make that safer, obviously that changes things but if you're just going to have it at a park and have like a balance beam. I feel like that would be a bit... SNIPES: It's certainly geared towards the seniors and being something where it's going to. So what you were working with was physical therapy, this would be that step outside of that. So it'd be that next step up. So once they get done with physical therapy, this would be that next group that we'd be targeting when you're dealing with physical therapy you have, you have a more extreme need for that person to be there with you. That doesn't mean that it couldn't be used in that manner of having someone with you, but it's more of a, if you think about, say, the skate park, myself would probably not be a good choice for me to drop into the bold skate park, because I'm not a skater. But it's still there. And people that can use it benefit from a greatly because that's what they do. So that's kind of where the bounce equipment, the leg stabilizing type equipment is geared towards that in that in between the physical therapy to being fully mobile type of people. VARELA: Great. Good comments. Thank you. Okay. Review and Discuss our Town Landscaping Standards. LOPUSZANSKI: So this was a future agenda item that Ron had requested. And so I had gotten this from development. And these were the guidelines that they go by. So I wanted to have that included in the packet for you this month. VARELA: So do we want to table it till Ron is back since this was the item he requested? LOPUSZANSKI: I would say so. I think we should table it so that he can get his eyes on if there is anything that he is concerned about or has questions about. I'd like to bring it back. VARELA: Okay, perfect. Good. Can we just table or do you just look? I'm good. Thank you. And now let's Review Grant Opportunities. REDDICK: Okay, well, I've had the amazing privilege, not only on my lending side as a broker, but I'm well connected with a lot of organizations. So I've partnered with Patti wanting to support our town with getting more grant and funding. And I've really have to give credit, I'm surrounded by a great group of individuals that provide these tools. So we have a list of different sites, where we can actually look for funding. So we think we have four here, I think I've sent maybe one additional. And to be quite honest with you, every single site is really amazing, where we can really have a committee, a group of individuals where we can literally look for grants for the town. And I mean, these grants fall from 8 https://otter.ai COMMUNITY SERVICES ADVISORY COMMISSION OCTOBER 23, 2023 VERBATIM MINUTES community involvement, parks, recreation, housing, business development. I mean, it goes on and on. So I think we're wanting to create some sort of committee where we can either quarterly or monthly look for grants. VARELA: So I think we used to do this a while ago, and we would wait, like you're saying we would bring it here. And then with your blessing, you have somebody that can work on grants, right? In your the department produce if we get him in here tonight? SNIPES: Oh, well, it's definitely been Rachel, myself, Patty, and anybody else we can talk into helping. We don't have a grant writer here in town. So when we do it, it has to be done in house. That's where I recommended that for this committee is to help narrow down because I know that Carey said that there's 1000s. And so, getting it down to three or four, that we think we got a really good shot at that or are good towards things that we're working on would be a huge help, because that's a huge time suck in just searching for it. Then when it comes to filling it out. Sometimes that's the big tum. When you start looking into and you go well, this is going to take us six months to get filled out and it's got to be done next week. That becomes very difficult to pull off. So it's a very delicate balance of being worth it and not being worth it. But as you've seen, we've been very successful in the ones that we've gone for Are, there's very few that we haven't gotten the only one that I can think of, that we've outright not gotten has been the Diamondbacks grant and we know why that was because we don't use the right electric company for our town. And so that makes it very hard for them to give us a grant. So outside of that, you know, we, I mean, we've, we've missed on our Arizona Sports and Tourism wants, but we've gotten three from them now. So it's certainly, we just got our one for the restroom over it Four Peaks. So we're excited about that one. That one's in process. So it's something that that I think having this committee help us out with, with narrowing down, which ones are in, it doesn't the high dollar amount doesn't necessarily always make it the most important one. You know, there's, there's several, like we've got some quick grants to get to where you can get like, like our portable pitching mounds replace through stuff like that out there, where it's $500,000. But it still saves that much out of our budget and makes it so we have that much more that we can do. And some of those are very quick and easy ones to get put in. Whether you get it or not is another thing but they're typically not as extensive as what the larger ones can turn out to be. RUDOLPHY: Can you provide the commission with an overview of what the requirements are for going to Council if they still exist for applying for grants? SNIPES: What we typically do is, when we've done this in a couple of different directions, we will go to Council and ask for permission to put in for a grant. Once we have that permission, then we're able to do it we have our budget has funding set aside to be matching funds for grants. And it's usually a number that we haven't reached. And so there's budget, authority there that are budget availability there that we can use. But we haven't had enough grants come through that we spend it all. So that's a good thing that we that we always we always want it to be that way. We don't want to go, oh, we could have had this grant, but we didn't have enough budget authority to do it. So But typically, that's the case, once we find a grant that we like, we'll go to Council and get their permission to go for it. Because usually, they have matching funds. And if they do then we need council approval to be able to match those funds. RUDOLPHY: Have they ever not approved your request? SNIPES: None that I've asked for. - 9 https://otter.ai COMMUNITY SERVICES ADVISORY COMMISSION OCTOBER 23, 2023 VERBATIM MINUTES VARELA: So how do you see it working with this group? Do you think a couple things? Do you think we need to have a workgroup? Or can this be the whole our whole commission that maybe like monthly, we just kind of look at it on our own, then we can come here and discuss what we found? And then we can you guys can decide. REDDICK: So if I can interject my thinking throughout this process would be it's very strategic, if there was a group, and within that group, it would be very strategic if we were consistently honing in on the applying. So it could be a monthly thing. And then from there. We're either applying or not applying, but I think it should be a group effort. VARELA: So committee a small work three of us, correct? SNIPES: Yeah, I think that would make it more. It would make it so that you're honing in on on what is thought of as being the best to be brought forward. And then we can figure out how we can apply it to the Community Services Department, I think would probably be best. A lot of times when it's individuals doing things it gets lost or it gets it's easy to let slide by. So I think having a workgroup being involved in getting darker in here am I losing my vision? Go dance Patti. So, that yeah, that would be my recommendation to is to have it be a workgroup. VARELA: We want to pick workgroups now, or do we want to wait till our whole LOPUSZANSKI: That's entirely up to you, I think, because we have two commissioners out this evening, if we get eyes on it for next month if you want to take a look at it, report back as Reports on for Commissioners and then you can give your feedback at that time. I think it would be a great idea to get an overview of what you're seeing and then from there, we can determine once the other two commissioners are with us, setting up that workgroup who feels most comfortable but at least getting eyes on what all of these different resources are, that Carey has been so kindly to, to send to us. It's multitudes of different information. But I think if we got eyes on it, at least for the month, you all could report back under Reports from Commissioners, I think it'd be a good idea to just start from there and then build that workgroup. Is that OK? VARELA: No, I think I think that sounds great. Does everybody Yes? My second. Okay. Okay. So everybody has the links, go to it over this next month, then we'll reconvene in November with it. Well, thanks for all the information, Carey. REDDICK: Absolutely. I love my town. RUDOLPHY: Kevin has the town. I know at one time they were looking for a volunteer grant writer, is that still ongoing? SNIPES: I think we're always looking for that. So here's the hard part to me about having a volunteer grant writer versus a staff grant writer, there's no way it would be very rare if you found a grant writer who could share the passion and vision of what we're doing. We attempted having someone write our Gold Medal application. And it came back and was wholeheartedly not us. It didn't have our feeler our flavor. And so we ended up rewriting the entire thing. Because we are unique, we think we're unique, we are confident that we are and how we do things and the way we do it and why we do it. And catching that from someone that doesn't, you know, they may understand that the numbers and the Town and it ends up being almost the same amount of work that it would if not more work to try and correct the way that it's written from someone else than it is. For us to do it. That's been our experience. So far, it doesn't mean that we couldn't find someone that could do that. I know when I worked for another municipality, we had an internal grant writer, and it was the best thing ever, because he had the - 10 - https://otter.ai COMMUNITY SERVICES ADVISORY COMMISSION OCTOBER 23, 2023 VERBATIM MINUTES flavor of the room, so to speak. And so he was able to write the way that represented us the best, and then knowing what to write. And when you're going after grants, how it's written is as important as what is written. And so it's easy to get overlooked when you're going for the competitive ones, for sure. RUDOLPHY: But I know that Grady Miller, at one time, tasked me to try to find there are entities out there that will, given a list of criteria will submit possible grant opportunities to the Town. I don't recall I know I never did anything with it. But I don't know if anybody knows anything that's been done with something like that. REDDICK: So I will say now, we've turned to a lot of Al grant writing and I do know a lot of the workshop groups that I've been involved with on the lending side, they have Al platforms in which you can configure your algorithms or whatever the variables are that you're wanting within the Al grant writer, and they can help write the grant for you. So that is an option. SNIPES: I'll be honest, so like the Chat GPT and things like that, that help you rate are so obvious to me, I can pick it out every time it's done. In fact, one of our things was done that way not too long ago. And I have not I have not seen that specific one. It'd be worth looking at to see if it again to me is one. If you don't take the time to take the computer out of it and put the heart back in it then it's very obvious when you read it that it's been done that way. And, to me, that's the ultimate thing that you don't want someone to find out. If, I'm giving you a grant, and I look at it, and I can tell it was done by Al, am I giving you that grant? REDDICK: Even just from the point of having it as a blueprint shirt? SNIPES: Absolutely. And that's why I say you just gotta be very careful how you use it to kind of add and remove the gut to how we're wanting wigs a great place to start if we don't have an official writer. Yep. VARELA: Right, thank you. Now we'll get an update on our capital improvement projects, please. LOPUSZANSKI: If you click on the PowerPoint presentation, it should be on your screen as well. If you want to bring it up for see it up there RUDOLPHY: How do we do that? SNIPES: will use these and as SNIPES: So this is just this year's capital improvement projects and where we're at. This was the presentation we did the council. That's why Justin's on there. I'll stop short to him to spare you that. So we had certain capital projects that were approved to go from the get -go in July, and we had some that were put on hold until they returned from their summer break. And we had some that are put on hold waiting on funding and that will happen in November, Dave Pock will be sharing where the numbers are. And we're very happy with where they are. The first project was a continuation from last year, Golden Eagle Park getting our lights in. We came in about $20,000 under what our budget was for those. These have made a huge difference over there already. I know that our staff love them when they're working out in the middle of the night and they can dim them so that doesn't feel like you're on a like you're under the spotlight. They have three dimming capabilities, which is great, they're all phone app oriented so you can turn them on and off from anywhere. They're immediately on immediately off. There's so directional that we got a complaint the first night that one of the lights the up lights. So if you kind of look right here, you can see this light here on the pole over there, that one right there. Right there are up lights on and because when the lights get outside of the height of the pole, which is 90 feet, then the ball disappears because they're so directional, there's no wasted light like there were on - 11 - https://otter.ai COMMUNITY SERVICES ADVISORY COMMISSION OCTOBER 23, 2023 VERBATIM MINUTES the old ones. So the up light catches the bottom of the ball and makes it so you can see it even if it goes above light poles well what there was a few of those that were shining on somebody's house that was up on the hill above the ballpark area. So we went out we made a three -degree adjustment to each one of those lights and he thought we turned them off. I was talking to him on the phone while we were doing it. And he goes well they're off now and I'm like well no it's on I go that's a three -degree adjustment so he was super excited about him. He's like it's so much better with than the old lights and now that you made those adjustments, I couldn't be happier, so it just shows just how good MUSCO is and I do sing their praises a lot and there's a reason why they the best way. VARELA: Is this the person that called all the time and complained about the lights? SNIPES: I haven't heard from him at all this is up somebody that lives up on notice that he was very nice about it and was super appreciative, but I haven't gotten my normal call from from that guy in a while. So hopefully he's happy now to we'll see. We're just starting our season. So this is the Desert Vista we just talked about. You can kind of see we spent about 40 grand over there so far. That number is going up. That was the number before we did the concrete. I think we're 32 on the concrete I'm at that park. And so like I said, I got to get some final numbers in on it. But the other thing besides the fitness area that we'll be doing is we will be doing lights on the sidewalk that runs along where the fitness Park is going because there was never a sidewalk there. So there weren't any lights there. So that's the next thing that I'm working on right now as well. And then there's a bunch of landscaping stuff that that's in process that will be being done this year as well around the Ramada, as well as around the skate park area. That just needs to be cleaned up. If you guys have any questions, as we're going through, don't hesitate to holler. So this is along Panorama at Fountain Park. There's a real steep hillside there. Originally, it was supposed to have a pony wall along the sidewalk, it was never installed. And I just found that out by looking through some of the designs. I don't know what happened that it didn't get put in, but it didn't. So it was too steep. And so every time it rained, all kinds of dirt was running out into the street. And there was a lot of shoveling involved. And apparently, my guys think that's a lot like work. So they came up with adding these boulders and rocks and stuff in here to slow the water flow down, which worked great, but visually, it's not necessarily the best. So that's what this project is. It's just still in the planning stages. I haven't gotten to dive into this as far as I would like to yet. But we're just playing I have been working with the Sanitary District, they have some sewer lines that run through the top of the hill. And so we're trying to find out some depths of how deep those are to see how much I can cut the hill down to make some adjustments there. This is our Four Peaks Restroom Grant. As you can see, we have a 4.4% match that we had to do on 500 that well and 500 on 250,000. On 500,000, we had 250,000 that came from one grant and we got another grant of $250,000 to cover the match. Between the two we had a 4% that we had to pay. So the town ended up paying $11,000 grand to get $500,000 for this grant. So, this was this is a big one. Patti worked on this for a day or two. This was two years, we worked on this one. It was a struggle. But we got it so we're happy. We went from not happy to very happy that the park really needed Yeah, and it's going to go so it's going to go in this location here right next to the new playground in between the playground and then the sidewalk that blue square there it'll be four. It's a four -stall setup design unisex and each one of them as well as we have a storage unit in the back of it with a roll -up door and a side door so that we'll have some area to store some of our equipment and stuff like that as well for the ball fields and for use in the park. So we're excited about it. And this will be a drop in place, so you won't see or hear anything - 12 - https://otter.ai COMMUNITY SERVICES ADVISORY COMMISSION OCTOBER 23, 2023 VERBATIM MINUTES about it for nine months. And then on the 10th month, it'll be installed and done. So it'll be very fast once we hit the ground it'll be done. This is a project that was approved to start after the council returned. And so I have now officially sent in a request for our final quote for this so it's updated this week I'll be sending it over to get our puzzle pieces started and we planted what are we playing over there we planted 12 trees over there I think for make a different stay in the Centennial Circle seem to be the centennial pavilion as it's going to change names as we install the 80-foot shade structure. This two -level shade structure I think is going to be amazing. It's so different. If you've never been under a double -level shade structure it like a shade structure itself is amazing. When they double level it is next level it'll probably be 15 degrees cooler under the structure than it will be outside. So it's going to greatly increase the amount of time that this area can be used. We'll be moving some of the statues over there. redoing the vegetation over there as well, in the inner area, just kind of random and hodgepodge of the way it is right now I think, doesn't make any sense. It doesn't follow any guidelines. So we'll take some of those plants and plant them other places. Others will be bringing in new one. RUDOLPHY: When do your estimated completion? SNIPES: July 1 of 24. This year? Yeah, yeah. 24. Yeah, I, I'm sure we'll be done before then. But that's our, that's when we have to be done by I guess we could roll it over. But I certainly don't want to my hope is we're about 12 weeks probably, from order to get the shade structure. And when that's going on, I would like to be tackling everything else at that same time to between now and 12 We're getting the statues moved, and then doing all the landscaping, right around the time that we're getting that put in so it's all done at once. VARELA: I'm super happy that this one's happening, I really wanted this. If for any extra money that you would need for this, would you consider naming rights for this, like keep it the centennial pavilion, but like, I don't know, SNIPES: We could it's a huge number that someone would have to come up with, I don't recall for sure. But I think it's three quarters of the price of the area. And so it would be a gigantic number to do that. But with the puzzle pieces, we're covering $100,000 of the $250,000 through donation, we're charging $1,000 per puzzle piece, there's 99, I think that is that we decided to there. So it's a little understanding 9000 that we're looking to gain off of doing that, and it's going to be a huge piece, it'll be a piece of art in itself, it'll be I mean, we're seven or eight feet tall, and he retired eight feet tall, and eight feet wide piece. So I think it's going to be cool to watch the puzzle pieces go on, we'll do like 10 at a time to make it to where that it's feasible for them to do the cutting, they prefer that we do 10 at a time. So let them at the very least we'll do is 10 of the time we're going to do where Fountain Hills is that we're going to take that piece out. That's why it's 99 instead of 100, we're gonna do a cut out of the fountain and put that on where Fountain Hills aside is that, and the rest of them will just come in as they go and fill in with donors names. And it was really cool too, because our this is being done with Steelcrest, who did all of our cut-out metal work that's on the avenue. They also did our rotary Splashpad sign. They did our new banner signs they've been awesome to work with. And I saw they add a post of just some puzzle pieces. And I was like, Man, this, this could be so cool if we did it as the shape of the state because it's the Centennial Pavilion. And so I started talking to him about it. And at first they didn't get it. And then when they did they were like holy cow. This is awesome. This is a great idea. And they're like now we can do that with other this and now they want to use that on other - 13 - https://otter.ai COMMUNITY SERVICES ADVISORY COMMISSION OCTOBER 23, 2023 VERBATIM MINUTES projects with different shapes. But the state works great for this location. I think it's going to be super cool. I'm excited about this. WILLIAMS: What would this be used for? SNIPES: So that this structure will be it could be anything from an extension of premises for the community center, where you could do an indoor -outdoor event. A lot of times we do we've had several weddings out there now and you're just in the sun all the time. Could be munching music where we have a band come in and serve lunch. Dark Sky observatories coming in. They're very interested in it as well because they already use the space for doing night observations. And, and so having something like this is certainly something that's going to, we think has a lot of a lot of different uses. It'll be a rentable space, where you could do anything from a family reunion to concerts to anything that we wanted to do out there. The library's interested in bringing the kids out and doing Storytime with them you know, it's certainly something that I think there's going to be way more ideas than we've ever thought I'd because it's huge. I mean, it's 80 by 80 is going to be a massive shade structure out there. It's going to look neat. And you know, you could bring in tables, chairs, that sort of stuff to have it be a more formal type of deal or you can have it be open and be a dance floor and have it be that guy First set up, you know, so it could be used for anything, but it's something that we don't have is a huge shaded space. That's reservable. VARELA: So if you want to, like, have a wedding or whatever there was, how can you have alcohol there? Do you have to rope it out? SNIPES: Yep. Yeah, you always have to have an enclosed area, like, VARELA: Yeah, like that yellow tape, or can it be anything like we use, what we started using this year for our events is we use the SNIPES: mechanical that's caught off on my head. But it's like the string that has the triangular flags that hang down from it. And so that's what we've been using now. And they anything that shows that the boundary works. So it's entirely up to you on how you do that. VARELA: Thank you. SNIPES: So this is one of the projects that is tabled until we find out funding, which I hope now goes through. I'm in the process of meeting up with the business owners at Plaza Fountainside, this is at Fountain Park, known as the dirt area because there are so much toxins in the soil up there that it won't grow turf. From when they drained the lake the last time they dumped the sludge right there, which was a great choice of location. The other spot they did was over at the amphitheater, which he also knows is a dirt area, we're starting to get grass to grow over there, we've brought in about 26 to 28 inches of dirt over there to cover to we're getting it to grow, we did about 10 inches of soil here and it leached back through and killed, we started to get grass to grow and then it killed it off because it leads back up. So I think this is going to be a fantastic space as well. This one's going to have a 60 by 60 foot shade structure, that'll have little pods is what that's designed to be like, there's 20 to 21, picnic tables, something like that, that'll be increased around the area, it's the number one complaint that we have over there is that there are not enough picnic areas. And then there'll be two shade structures that will go down right by the splash pad. And those are going to be just two -legged cantilevers to where they don't take away as much of your visual. We paid very close attention to the sightlines of all the businesses, the only businesses that will change their view of the fountain will be the yogurt place and trying to think of the place next to it. But neither one of them have outdoor seating. Like, if I'm the yogurt place, I love this because you can come in and go out and sit there, why wouldn't you? So I think this is - 14 - https://otter.ai COMMUNITY SERVICES ADVISORY COMMISSION OCTOBER 23, 2023 VERBATIM MINUTES going to be a huge benefit to them, we're going to take out all the Sisue trees, they are going to be redoing their sidewalk at the same time, and we're using the same vendor to do it. So it'll be a fail swoop come in. And as they're coming out, it'll make it so they can use ours, our property to do their sidewalk that's had tons of trips and falls, and sure that if you haven't heard of it, there's a story every month about someone tripping and falling on Facebook. So it has been bad since 2016 when I started here, so they've done lots of little things to try and fix it. But you're never going to fix it with Sisue trees being there. And they planted the Sisue trees and they developed on the town's land as part of the development agreement, but the tree that was selected should have never been selected. So we're going to get rid of all those we're going to bring in some new trees, and new landscaping along with this project. I think I think this is going to be a huge asset to the town and again, a space that can be reserved, rented it can be an extension to premises for all the restaurants that are over there, if they want to come out and use that space, they can reserve it and then they can serve alcohol at it because it's they can use the boundary of the shade structure as their boundary. And so that does work for them as well. Like for any day they could do that any day. VARELA: Like no special permit or anything so you can like get your food in there and then go and sit out there with your SNIPES: They would have to reserve it okay. So it would be very reservation only that they could do that and then they would and then it would be set up a lot like when you ran a Ramada they that you can get a liquor permit if you're having it depends on the number of people determines what you have to do exactly. But like, yeah, they could absolutely go out. And they could have concerts out there, done by their, their place of business, which they rented the space in the turf many times over the years to do an extension of premises for stuff like that. So I think this will just allow them to have an established place to do that. And I think that's it for me. That's what we got going so far. VARELA: Great. I love every single one. So thank you. Thank you. I mean, that's a lot of work. I'm glad I'm so happy you guys. Yeah, no. All right, any other comments on that? Okay. Review Upcoming Events and Volunteer Opportunities. SNIPES: This coming weekend, we have our Spooky Blast, which has grown into a rather massive event from when it was on the avenue. Moving it over to Four Peaks Park has proven to be a fantastic location for it. It is also an event that requires a lot of volunteers. So, if any of you are interested, I am positive, they would love to see you there to help out. And you can reach out to Ryan or Kim. If you're interested in it, they can get you on the books and get you a spot scheduled to help out with that one. There are just a lot of different things going on and the more volunteers you have the smoother the event runs. So, we'd certainly appreciate any help we can get there. As we discussed, we're going to keep sending out the special event calendar every time every meeting so that you guys can see what else is coming up. We're certainly getting close to our Turkey Trot. We got our shirts in this past week. So, we're excited about that and hoping to have another big turnout for that one. We have three days' worth of packet pickups for that, right? The week before, we do three days where the packet pickups we can always use volunteers on for that one. If you see any of those Christmas celebrations, the holiday celebrations, we're always in need of volunteers for those as well. So, if any of those dates work, we'd love to have you come out and give us a hand. Like I said, if you just reach out to Kim she can set you up for any one of those I think that's about it for now. VARELA: All right. Any comments or questions? Did you have something? Okay. - 15 - https://otter.ai COMMUNITY SERVICES ADVISORY COMMISSION OCTOBER 23, 2023 VERBATIM MINUTES LOPUSZANSKI: I just wanted to let you know I when I did the agenda, I knocked off Future Agenda Items. And so in case you do have something that you would like to add, at this time after you're done looking at the calendar of events, please let me know and we can jot it in Okay? VARELA: All right. So then next month, we have Patrick Garman, this is what I talked about last month, so he's going to come and present here. He's with the Strategic Planning Advisory Commission and then I'm going to present to their commission after the New Year. We haven't picked a date but it'll be January. I think it's going to be February, which I suggested because Rory is going to help me on that one. Yeah, I was very excited about it. I thought she was going to say I was coerced into it. enticed, encouraged. WILSON: Now I'm going to do exactly that whenever anyone else asks me though. VARELA: All right, can I get a Motion to Adjourn? SNIPES: Before you do, like Patti was saying if there's anything that you want to have put on the next agenda this would be the spot to do that if you guys have anything. If not, you can, always shoot an email or something to Patti to let her know. So, I think we are for sure going to Table the inner core committee for the grant writing for the next meeting. VARELA: Yeah WILSON: Nope. Does anyone have anything they want to talk about next year? Okay. If you think about it, and you can, since Ron's not here to remind everyone, can we figure out a park or some sort of entity that we want to visit or to in the next couple of months, maybe? SNIPES: Yeah, we can certainly do that. VARELA: Thanks. Okay, so now can I get a Motion to Adjourn? WILSON: I Move to Adjourn REDDICK: I second. VARELA: All in favor. ALL: Aye VARELA: Thank you! Having no further business, Chair Natalie Varela adjourned the Regular Meeting of the Community Services Advisory Commission held on October 23, 2023, at 6:14 PM ATTEST AND PREPARED BY: atti Lopuszanskl, Exec4five Assistant COMMUN i Natalie Varela, Chair - 16 - ES ADVISORY COMMISSION https://otter.ai COMMUNITY SERVICES ADVISORY COMMISSION OCTOBER 23, 2023 VERBATIM MINUTES CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the minutes of the Regular Meeting held by the Community Services Advisory Commission in the Town Hall Council Chambers on the 23rd day of October 2023. I further certify that the meeting was duly called and that a quorum was present. this 27th Da of November 2023 101,*: . iTO Patti Lopuszanski, ' ec e Assistant - 17 - https://otter.ai