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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMMPC.2018.0828.Minutes 10,AIN,Rr ko � TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS j t N MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE z � n MCDOWELL MOUNTAIN PRESERVATION COMMISSION AUGUST 28,2018 (hat is AvVi AGENDA ITEM#1: CALL TO ORDER AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE A public meeting of the McDowell Mountain Preservation Commission was convened and called to order by Chair Bill Myers at 5:00 p.m., Wednesday, August 28, 2018 in the Council Chambers at Town Hall, located at 16705 East Avenue of the Fountains, Fountain Hills, Arizona. AGENDA ITEM#2: ROLL CALL Present at roll call were Chair Bill Myers, Commissioners Tom Aiello, Bill Craig and Klaus Schadle. Vice-Chair Tom Barberic and Commissioner Stan Ruden attended by phone. Absent at roll call was Commissioner Ken Thornton. Staff members present were Community Services Parks Supervisor Kevin Snipes, Senior Services Supervisor Jennifer Lyons and Executive Assistant Angela Padgett-Espiritu. AGENDA ITEM#3: CALL TO THE PUBLIC No one from the public wished to speak. COP AGENDA ITEM#4: UPDATE ON THE 2018 MMPC OBJECTIVES Chair Bill Myers reports on 2018 MMPC Objectives: 1. Grand Opening of the trailhead: Still in the planning phase with a dedication possibly November 17, 2018. 2. Two Town Fairs: No new updates 3. Adero Canyon Trailhead: Update on agenda 4. Emergency markers, signage and helicopter landing zone: Update on agenda 5. Trail counters: Update on agenda 6. Budget: MMPC submitted a budget a year ago for $19,000 for this fiscal year end of June 30th, 2019. The approved budget is back and it is about $37,000. Ground repair will cost $2,000 and electric will cost $2,000. We have to pay the electric at Golden Eagle trailhead for the restrooms. Rental and leases for about $13,000 that includes either four or six Porto-potties for a year. Printing expense about $3600, contract for $6,500 to rent a water buffalo for watering of plants. Landscape contract for $2,700 and small tools for $1.000. All of this added up totals $37,000. What was submitted and not included in approved budget was Adero Canyon opening funds. We might be able to get some other donations, since it is not in the approved budget. An approved copy of the 2018-2019 fiscal year budget was requested to be sent to the MMPC Commissioners. Other item included in budget was $5,000 for sign repair. 7. Scar on Mountain: no update 8. Fire wising: Town has a three year rotating plan 9. Test 911: Thank you to Commissioner Schadle for testing and it is a safe preserve. 10. Five Layers of Protection: Done 11. Golden eagle Trailhead Entry Sign: We have a rendering of the sign and a preliminary verbal bid Stow McDowell Mountain Preservation Commission Page 1 of 6 G:Commission MMPCIAgenda&MinuteslMinutes12 01 8/082 8 1 8M � C • • of$1,200 that is not in this year's budget and may be moved to next year. We do have a beautiful large sign that will be erected on the Adero Canyon Trailhead. 12. Recognition of the Conservancy: The conservancy does most of the work with building, designing and maintaining trails and always need to have more recognition. 13. Recognition of the Values of the Preserves: no update 14. Preserve the Preserve: City of Scottsdale's studies have shown economical benefits of having a preserve. Supposedly, their 30,000 acre preserves benefits their town and maybe we will look at that again another year. 15. Coordinate with Scottsdale and the Regional Park: Ongoing deal. Chair Myers talks with one or both entities frequently and one of them about trail counters. 16. Quarterly Update: No update and we may talk to the Town Manager and others for a 10 minute quarterly update from the MMPC to the council. 17. Determine if one or two new trails should be established in the Preserve: Chair Myers presented to the commissioners a map (see attached) to determine if a new trail in the south leg of the preserve should be established. Estimating from the Town border to the end, the trail is approximately a mile. Mostly Commissioner Craig has walked this trail and suggested a loop or lollipop trail and anticipates presenting this before the council for approval. AGENDA ITEM#5: UPDATE ON THE LOWER SONORAN TRAIL SIGNS • Parks Supervisor Snipes confirmed receipt of the signs, poles and hardware. Installation of 50 or 60 signs will occur, when the weather is cooler. • Chair Myers reported: By then, we can drive all the way up to the end of the Promenade Trail, which is the beginning of the Lower Sonoran Trail. We will coordinate with the MMPC and the Conservancy. The $5,000 in the current budget for sign repair and replacement that might be used for additional signs or replacing the Sonoran Trailhead signs. • Commissioner Craig posed a question to Parks Supervisor Snipes about purchasing of concrete and submitting a bill or utilizes the normal procedure. Parks Supervisor Snipes confirmed to use the normal procedure. • Chair Myers reported: Hopefully, will have signs up before the trail gets'busy. • Question posed from Commissioner Schadle: "Since there is nothing specifically in the budget for the trailhead opening costs, what freedom do we have to move money from categories or combine categories to handle costs?" Parks Supervisor Snipes responded that if necessary, we will have some ability. AGENDA ITEM#6: UPDATE ON THE UPDATED MAP STATUS • The maps are now updated. Chair Myers, Vice-Chair Craig and Commissioner Aiello met with Ken Valverde in connection with updating the main preserve map. All together about thirty changes were made that included some of the map changes requested were to add the Lower Sonoran Trail and removal of an Adero Canyon gate that no longer exists. All together, about 30 changes were submitted, Lower Sonoran Trail, where the helicopters are located and the removal of Adero Canyon gate that no longer exists. • Chair Myers confirmed with Ken Valverde that the maps are now updated. • Chair Myers posed a question to the commission as to whether or not to go from black and white maps to colored maps. Chair Myers showed the commission a colored map of the Lake Overlook Trail and Botanical Garden and they look good. If we could go from the current black and white ram, map, which is about 8 1/2 inches by 17 inches and make it colored would make it have a little more McDowell Mountain Preservation Commission Page 2 of 6 G.Commission MMPCIAgenda&MinuteslMinutes12018/082818M r � • • • 3 pizzazz, as well as possibly more information. Ken Valverde is going to get more costs color verses non-color. Depending upon whether to go black and white or colored is what pictures to put on the new map upon. AGENDA ITEM#7: UPDATE ON TRAIL COUNTERS • Chair Myers reported: We have four counters now and talking about putting a fifth one up. Each one of the counters takes 4"D"batteries, so we will need 20 "D"batteries. • Parks Supervisor Snipes confirmed that the Town will supply the batteries. • The MMPC Commissioners will take care of replacing the batteries in the trail counters. • Vice-Chair Barberic posed a question to the quorum on how long the battery life is in trail counters. • Chair Myers addressed the concerns of battery life in trail counters and that Scottsdale has the same type of counters and replaces them twice a year. He suggested if we could replace them more often that this might resolve the issues with the counters. • Commissioner Ruden reported that the trail counter reports are in tabular format over the graph format and is in the same format as Scottsdale and makes more sense than the graphs. Commissioner Ruden commented that Community Service Director Goodwin preferred the graphing but will not be doing the graphing but doing the tables. • Vice-Chair Barberic stated that the trail counter tabular reports would needed to distribute by the town. • Commissioner Ruden stated that only Two counters are working, the Botanical Gardens and the Lake Overlook. He mentioned that the Sonoran Trail counter at the North end was working as of last month and the Western Loop counter has not been working since April 2018. • Commissioner Craig commented that he has a counter in his garage that works. • Commissioner Ruden mentioned that the problem is the heat and no one has been up there to change and likes the 6 month changing idea. • Vice-Chair Barberic brought up that the batteries may need to be changed more frequently in the summer because of heat and check every 3 months during summer. • Commissioner Craig mentioned about consulting with Commissioner Ruden on engineering a metal shade over the trail counters. • Commissioner Ruden mentioned using something like a reflective aluminum. • Commissioner Schadle proposed the idea of only using the trail counters only part of the year and not using them in the summer. • Commissioner Ruden brought up using another battery instead of a regular"D" that is not lithium but will check. • Chair Myers mentioned of speaking with Scottsdale regarding this issue. AGENDA ITEM #8: UPDATE ON THE NEXT TRAILHEAD VISIT BY COUNCIL AND OTHERS • Chair Myers reported that Supervisor Snipes coordinated a trailhead visit and Paul Garvey, who is in the audience, accompanied them and shot a seven minute video that Chair Myers emailed to the MMPC. All commissioners confirmed receipt of the emailed video. • Supervisor Snipes reported that the paving of the parking lot is now complete, scheduled to be installing the roof on the restroom and Ramada, next week. Original colors selected were chosen about 10 years ago, when the design of the trailhead began and are now dated. We are selecting r McDowell Mountain Preservation Commission Page 3 of 6 G:Commission MMPCIAgenda&MinuteslMinutes12018/082818M new colors for the paint and the architect sent over their recommendations and getting those approved and back to the architect. Selecting appropriate plants and trees soon from the nursery. Varieties have been preselected, just a matter of choosing specimens that we like. Some of the rocks will be moved to make room for the trees and plants that will be installed at the trailhead. Bob Burns from Fountain Hills Times came with us and took some photos for the paper. It is moving along and looking good. • Chair Myers reported that Commissioner Aielo, Commissioner Craig, myself and Paul Garvey joined Supervisor Snipes today for the site visit and it looks good. • Commissioner Aiello commented that they are doing a great job and that Supervisor Snipes is doing a great job. It really looks good. • Commissioner Ruden requested the status on the road by Toll Brothers. • Supervisor Snipes responded that we don't have a status at this time. • Chair Myers responded the road is turned in to the town for their review approval and disapproval. Know they are working on it but not aware of a timeline. • Vice-Chair Barberic stated the last time we talked about a road, Toll Brothers is suppose to provide access while they are building the road. • Chair Myers requested the development agreement between the Town and Toll Brothers be sent to him for review. He stated that when he looked at the preliminary, Toll Brothers is supposed to put the road in by 2020 and when they are constructing the road, they are supposed to provide pedestrian access up to the trailhead, which is probably about 8/l0ths of a mile up to the trailhead. Chair Myers addressed concerns regarding access for the Grand Opening and said that if we have the Grand Opening November 17th, 2018, there will not be an issue with driving up to the trailhead for the Grand Opening. • Commissioner Schadle requested a projected current completion of the trailhead. • Supervisor Snipes responded that we are looking at probably the end of September 2018. • Vice- Chair Barberic posed questions that if Toll Brothers says that they are going to build the road in October prior to the November Grand Opening, how will this affect the final date? • Supervisor Snipes confirmed that this should not be an issue with the Grand Opening with the ways things are progressing. • Commission Ruden posed another question, "Wouldn't they have to provide access for the water buffalo and to maintain the Porto-potties?" • Supervisor Snipes responded "We've discussed that we them with being able to get our stuff through. • Chair Myers stated that the budget for landscaping was $165,000 and thank you Kevin for being involved with this because it now it is going to be about half that cost. The next visit for the council will happen in about another 2 weeks. AGENDA ITEM#9: UPDATE ON THE SONORAN CONSERVANCY • Commissioner Craig reported that women that are planning the hikes this year do have a definite schedule and it is on the Sonoran Conservancy trailhead. AGENDA ITEM#10: DISCUSSION ON OR CODES AND SIGNS Chair Myers reported that Ken Valverde has the QR Codes are done and installed on existing signs. Will test at the next site visit. Probably in connection with putting up new signs, will have a few more to add. 46w- McDowell Mountain Preservation Commission Page 4 of 6 G:Commission MMPCIAgenda&MinuteslMinutes12018/082818M • AGENDA ITEM#11: DISCUSSION ON THE MMPC 2018-2019 BUDGET Chair Myers stated that this was discussed early in the meeting. (Please see agenda item#4) AGENDA ITEM#12: UPDATE ON THE TRAILHEAD GRAND OPENING Chair Myers reported that he had a meeting with the Town Manager to get the group together and will have some money from somewhere to handle the costs for the Grand Opening. AGENDA ITEM#13: UPDATE ON ACCESS TO THE TRAILS FROM THE TRAILHEAD • Chair Myers reported that One of the 50 or so field changes of the plans that J2 made a decade ago showed the entrance to the trails veering off to the northeast but a change was made to make the entrance to the trail go up the existing road which is better than going through the restroom area to get to the existed trail. • Commissioner Shadle reported on that access to the trails, the plans are now for the gate leading out to the trailhead from the trails as a staggered gate, so that you can walk through to prevent vehicles from getting through. The access to the alternate bike trail and the access to the town overlook trail that we looked at when we were up there. Seems the access to both will be outside of the trailhead and trail builders will be able to make the new cut into those mentioned trails. AGENDA ITEM #14: UPDATE ON THE ADERO CANYON TRAILHEAD CONSTRUCTION PROJECT Update addressed in agenda item#8 f AGENDA ITEM #15: CONSIDERATION OF MOVING THE SEPTEMBER 25TH MEETING TO fir• SEPTEMBER 19TH Chair Myers made a motion to move the September 25th meeting to the September 19th and Commissioner Craig second the motion passed by unanimous vote. AGENDA ITEM#16: CONSIDERATION OF ADJOURNMENT Chair Myers made a motion to adjourn at 5:51 p.m., Commissioner Schadle seconded and the motion passed by unanimous vote. Mc o e Mountain Preservation Commission By: Bill yers, Chair 4iiir Reviewed by: McDowel Mounts Preservation Commission age 5 of 6 G:Commission MMPCIAgenda&Minutes lMinuter12018/082818M • (or Rachael Goodwin, Director of Community Services Prepared by: Angela P dgett- spin , tive Assistant CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the m'nut of the McDowell Mountain Preservation Commission Meeting held on August 2 2018. furthe c rti y that the meeting as duly called and that a quorum was present. By: gels adgett-Espiritu E cutive Assistant Dated this 2nd day of October 2018 tiof McDowell Mountain Preservation Commission Page 6 of 6 G:Commission MMPCIAgenda&Minutes1Minutes12018/082818M � � V • • •.. .... .. .. 0 -•• i''.:'''•:.'',,', •4 i.'' L'-'" 1* 'j,''.::.....„.„....,: ':: .. ..„.„ . ..•..,4• ... ... .• Cc:.' .', ";,',''1.• ' '. • "---,,,, ' ,'•, i '''r -• /.:4' , ,,, - . ' .I . „ .' .' --,I • . .. ,,. .,. , •'. ,'i. 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