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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCSAC.2018.0418.Minutes r r ,.tvcAIN4.1 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS o X MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE COMMUNITY SERVICES ADVISORY COMMISSION ' APRIL 18,2018 'hat is My" AGENDA ITEM#1: CALL TO ORDER AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE A public meeting of the Community Services Advisory Commission was convened and called to order by Chair Don Doty at 4:29 p.m., Wednesday, April 18, 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 Don Doty, Vice-Chair Ron Ruppert, Commissioners Amy Arnold, Jerry Gorrell, Sharron Grzybowski, Jim Judge and Youth Commissioner Hayden Arnold. Absent at roll call was Commissioners Pat Canning and Natalie Varela. Staff members present were Director Rachael Goodwin, Recreation Manager Corey Povar, Community Center Manager Mike Fenzel, Customer Service Representative Leigh Heise and Executive Assistant Jennifer Lyons. AGENDA ITEM#3: CALL TO THE PUBLIC No one from the public wished to speak. AGENDA ITEM #4: CONSIDERATION OF APPROVING THE MARCH 26, 2018 MEETING MINUTES Chair Doty made a motion to accept the March 26, 2018 meeting minutes and Youth Commissioner Arnold seconded and the motion passed by unanimous vote. AGENDA ITEM#5: UPDATE ON STAFFING AT THE COMMUNITY CENTER Director Goodwin reported that Senior Services Supervisor Kelley Fonville and Activity Center Coordinator Marti Lemieux retired last Friday. Senior Services Supervisor Fonville had been with the Town over 10 years. Activity Center Coordinator Lemieux had been part of the original Council when the Town incorporated and she had been a role with the Town in some form or fashion for well over a decade. They both did a tremendous job of setting us up for the summer and we are going into a slower season which is helpful. We have a number of recreation staff supplementing over there to try and help out. We are also working with HR to decide how to handle recruitment. Commissioner Judge commented that the average age in Fountain Hills by the 2015 census was very close to 60 and the average age in Arizona is about 38 or 39. The fastest growing age group in Fountain Hills right now is 65 and older. To whoever goes into to those jobs, they will need experience in dealing with seniors. Right now there are over 1,300 members of the Community Center which is a tremendous number for a Town our size. I Community Services Advisory Commission Page 1 of 6 G:Commission CSACIAgenda&MinuteslMinutes12018/041818M AGENDA ITEM #6: UPDATE ON THE WORK GROUP TO DEVELOP GUIDELINES FOR SENIOR CONCERN/WELLNESS ISSUES Chair Doty at the last meeting gave Commissioner Varela information from the Crisis Group. The Community Center has a large list of resources in the state as well. The work group has not met yet. AGENDA ITEM#7: UPDATE ON VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES WITH TOWN EVENTS Recreation Manager Povar announced that on Saturday May 5th, Major League Baseball and Pitch, Hit and Run have choosen the Town of Fountain Hills to host a sectional for their competition. The valley will have two sectionals with one at the Cubs Training Facility and the other one will be here at Golden Eagle Park. We will be hosting about 75 kids that have made it to the next level of competition and we need help with this event. There is an array of jobs and it will be only a couple of hours in the morning. Pitch, Hit and Run is an initiative to get people involved in the sport. This is a way to get people involved without having to play the entire game. The kids get scored in each one of those elements and the high scores continue to move on. The next level from here is at Chase Field and if they win there, they move on to compete at the All-Star Game. Contact Recreation Manager Povar or Recreation Program Coordinator Bryan Bouk if you are interested in helping. Commissioner Grzybowski announced that another volunteer opportunity is for the Fourth of July. Chair Doty added that help will also be needed on the fifth of July. Director Goodwin explained that staff will be on site on the fourth from noon to about 1 a.m. so having a volunteer group to come in on the fifth and take on a section of the park to clean up debris, especially at the east end of the park would be a huge help. To sign up contact Executive Assistant Lyons. .fird Vice-Chair Ruppert recalled that our last meeting there was some discussion about street closures and asked how the car show was received by the Town and others. Director Goodwin replied that the car show itself was well received but they did not get quite the participation they were anticipating, but that is typical for a first year and it does take three years to grow an event. There were 117 cars and they were hoping for 150. There were a few access issues with accessing the government lot and assumed they were the primary when we had other programming going on at the Community Center that we needed access to. The difficulty we are having is when folks shut down both sides of the road, having consideration that your event should reach from end to end. Ending two-thirds the way up the road makes it very difficult for the businesses because the road is closed and they don't get anyone in front of their store, so they don't get the foot traffic. We are working very diligently with the event planners to say if you are not big enough to stretch the whole way then close only half of the road and if you are going to close the whole road then you need to make concerted efforts to fill the whole road. AGENDA ITEM #8: UPDATE ON THE COMMUNITY SERVICES DEPARTMENT STRATEGIC PLAN Director Goodwin proclaimed that we have been a bit derailed with staff leaving, so staff has taken on more of the day to day shouldering of those responsibilities. Once we are back to full staff we will return to working on the strategic plan. Community Services Advisory Commission Page 2 of 6 Gs Commission CSACIAgenda&MinuteslMinutes12018/04I818M AGENDA ITEM#9: UPDATE ON FOUR PEAKS PARK MASTER PLAN The plan that was adopted by Council originally had the basketball courts and tennis courts flip flopped from where they are currently. When we got the grant funding for the tennis courts we decided to leave them in place because we didn't have the funding to relocate them. Council has had a push from the community to make some improvements but we don't have the 4.6 million to do the big picture, so they said if we gave you a little bit how would you make the biggest impact? Director Goodwin and Parks Supervisor Snipes worked together and identified that the biggest issue is the playground that is original to the elementary school. When the elementary school was operable that made sense but it is not part of the school anymore. People don't know that it's there, they don't know that it is public and they don't know how to get to it. It becomes a place to hang out because people don't know it's there and becomes a prime target for vandalism. We are addressing vandalism probably three times a week over there. Sometimes its graffiti and over Christmas break it was fire that melted a bunch of the playground equipment. The kids climb up into the shade canopies and lay in them like hammocks and then they rip. The first issue we would like to address is potentially relocating the playground space so that it is more visible that would reduce the vandalism and make it more accessible. If you are mom with kids that wants to go to the playground how do you get there? The one parking area has steps that aren't going to work with a stroller, another parking area does not have a walking path and you can come across the bridge but again there is not a walking path to get there. What we would like to relocate the playground to what is now the basketball courts. The basketball courts are original to the school and are in very poor condition. Relocate the big kid playground (5-12 year olds), do a tot-lot (2-5 year) playground where the existing volleyball court is right now with several ramadas in between and the existing bus barn space would be parking. We had to come up with a five year plan for Council. This is a CIP fund that they would look to give us, essentially $100,000 for the next five years, so a total of$500,000. This would be Phase I. The idea then would be to put in a basketball court next to the Boys and Girls Club which would make sense since they run the Town basketball program. We would love to work with them to potentially support that financially and maybe bring lighting down there because it is very dark. It was suggested to also put in a single basketball court with accessibility to parking. The last phase of this would be as much as we could do to create this accessible walking path from the bridge to the playground area and ideally connect from the playground area to the basketball space, then eventually connect is so the whole park is accessible. Last night at Council we put forth a $50,000 grant for playground equipment to help supplement this project if we were to get it. Right now the pickleball courts are not part of this plan. That could potentially be part of the plan in the future. The maintenance area could maybe worked into an area where the pickleball courts would buffer it. This is the overall concept that will be brought to Council on Monday and ideally it will be redrawn if we get the green light. The alternative is to leave everything where it is and refresh it, but that doesn't address the root problem of vandalism. There is the potential of$100,000 per year over five years of CIP funding, so $100,000 per year and in that case we would try to bookend a lot of the work so we could do a bulk of$200,000 over one fiscal rr., year into the next. There is discussion now that they may lead out with $200,000 to start and then Community Services Advisory Commission Page 3 of 6 G:Commission CSACIAgenda&Minutes\Minutes12018/041818M m ba llpark$100,000, $100,000. We do not have any quotes yet,just some bll park numbers based off of "411) the tennis court demo and reconstruction, but we are going with conservative estimates. Vice-Chair Ruppert asked if anyone in the Town has ever approached the Diamondbacks about their "Field of Dreams Program", because there are 35 communities that have it and Fountain Hills is not one. Director Goodwin responded no,but this would be a perfect project and that sounds like a really good idea for our new work group. If the Diamondbacks came through then we would work with them to rehab this whole space. The space gets use during the Little League season but not so much outside of that. Vice- Chair Ruppert added that part of the reconfiguration of the fields that you see now would be to make sure they could be multi-fields for a combination of either soccer or girls softball or little league and they is pretty paramount to get more events in there than you can get today. Director Goodwin agreed that we want to be able to use this as needed. Ideally if we did overhaul it and they said it has to be ball fields that would not necessarily be a deal breaker for us. Since our tournaments and the use of Golden Eagle ball fields has skyrocketed so having two supplemental fields would not be a bad deal at all. Right now if the fields are in use there is no way to get around them, you have to cut through them. The thing about this park is that it often forgotten because it is out of sight unless you live in the neighborhood. The Boys and Girls Club utilize the park and we use the space for practices and summer programming since it is one of the few parks that has potable water. We do "Wacky Wet Wednesdays" where we set up a 100 ft water slide and the Fire Department comes out and sprays water, which is an outlet for the kids to have an outside activity during the summertime. "Back to School Bash" is there and it's huge. The tennis courts are almost always used in the morning from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. *This item was discussed after item #13* A copy of the Master Plan and a layout of the suggested renovations that Director Goodwin are referring to is attached to the minutes. AGENDA ITEM #10: DISCUSSION AND CONSIDERATION OF CREATING A WORK GROUP TO RESEARCH GRANT OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE PARKS This is potential project at the Commission level to help us find grant opportunities, the timelines that are required for them and if there is matching funding required. We get caught in a "Catch 22" in our budget process where if you did not put in the potential for getting that money then even if we get it, we don't get to spend it because we have to have the spending authority built in. Most of the grants are for CIP but not all. We just got approval last night for a playground grant to replace playground equipment which is a $50,000 grant. CIP grants are usually $100,000 or more. One of the biggest grants we have gotten as of recent was the Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority which is what paid for the tennis court replacement. It was not a CIP identified plan but when we got the money we said this is what we want to do with it, but it was not something that was pre-identified. We would like to look into more opportunities, for instance the Diamondbacks have a grant program to redo ball fields. We don't have that in our CIP because we have no plans to redo them as of right now but if we got the grant we would do it. All the major sports teams have grant opportunities. There are plenty of grant opportunities out there it's just doing the leg work to see what we qualify for and what we would do with it. At the Commission level if you find something that would be a good fit for us, let us know how it would work and when we would need to apply by. ,41) Community Services Advisory Commission Page 4 of 6 G:Commission CSACIAgenda&Minutes1Minutes12018/041818M Chair Doty made a motion to set up a work group to pursue grants and Commissioner Judge seconded and the motion passed by unanimous vote. Volunteers for the work group include Chair Doty, Commissioners Judge and Youth Commissioner Arnold. AGENDA ITEM #11: DISCUSSION AND CONSIDERATION OF CREATING A WORK GROUP TO EVALUATE THE DOG PARK HOURS Director Goodwin revealed that we had a call from a citizen requesting an extension of the dog park hours; to open earlier and stay open later particularly during the summertime. The conversation that was had with the citizen was that when the dog park built, with respect to the surrounding community we would respect quiet hours. The homeowners around that area do have trouble with the dogs particularly this time of year when windows might be open. Since this group has worked with the dog park we felt it was worth some discussion. Chair Doty explained that he was quite involved with this and we decided not to change the dog park hours. When the dog park went in those were the hours that were agreed to and we should not deviate from them. People were still using the dog park after hours and that is what was causing problems with the community. Generally in the middle of the summer people get there very early and there still some noise that is created. We ran out of money when we were doing the work last time. There is still some fencing that could be completed with some blinders/screens that could go across the front section over to the large dog park and around that cubical. That is a source that is left where there still is a lot of barking. The Town may want to consider spending a couple hundred dollars and finish that fence. It would probably elevate community problems. Skov Director Goodwin explained that beyond the noise however; there is a problem with making sure we have the opportunity to get in there to clean up, do trash and run the irrigation. With the irrigation window we have particularly in the summer, we need to let that dry or it results in a muddy mess. Commissioner Gorrell as a dog park user commented that at night there has been a lot of discussion about doing something in the summer as we only get about an hour after sundown. Park users are looking for some extra time at the tail end of the day due to the heat. Another issue is that people are walking their dogs after 9:00 p.m. on the soccer field and leaving deposits behind. Chair Doty recommended that we keep the dog park hours as they are and the rest of the Commissioners unanimously agreed. AGENDA ITEM#12: UPDATE ON SPECIAL EVENTS Recreation Manager Povar announced that the Dark Skies Event is this weekend. It is a partnership with the Town, so we offered them space in the Community Center as well as Centennial Circle. There will be speakers throughout the night, food trucks, a beer garden, star gazing, a planetarium in the lobby and a lot of fun things going on throughout the evening. There are going to be things going on at the library, the museum and the Community Garden. The event runs from 3:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. on Saturday. AGENDA ITEM#13: UPDATE ON PUBLIC ART • We accepted a couple of flat art piece that are going to be hung in Town Hall on the second floor. L. • The "Fountain of Light" piece is starting to be fundraised for but however; there has not been a location chosen. It maybe a little bit of the "cart before the horse", where they are fundraising for Community Services Advisory Commission Page 5 of 6 G:Commission CSACIAgenda&MinuteslMinutes12018/041818M + a somethingthat we don't know where or how it is goingto work. We are reachingout to the Public Art Committee to see what they have in mind for that. • We had one piece that was vandalized but now is repaired and should be reinstalled in Fountain Park which is "Quackers". AGENDA ITEM#14: UPDATE ON THE ADERO CANYON TRAILHEAD PROJECT Chair Doty and Commissioner Grzybowski stayed and listened to the update during the MMPC's meeting, it was not addressed at the CSAC meeting. AGENDA ITEM#15: CONSIDERATION OF ADJOURNMENT Commissioner Grzybowski made a motion to adjourn at 5:24 p.m., Commissioner Judge seconded and the motion passed by unanimous vote. Community Servic• • s visory Commission By: a _ ► 0 Don Doty, Chair Reviewed by: Rachael Goodwin, D , ector e f Community Services Prepared by: ,/ ''( _�' Je fifer Lyo , Execut' e Assistant CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the minutes of the Community Services Advisory Commission Regular Meeting held on April 18, 2018. I further certify that the meeting as duly called and that a quorum was present. By: Je ' er s, Exec 've Assi Dated this 9th day of May 2018 NI Community Services Advisory Commission Page 6 of 6 G:Commission CSACIAgenda&MinuteslMinutes12018/041818M r , ,;' VNOZIati `S11IH NIYINflOJ AO NMOI "'"—.h • Z Li0 II./zI. Nivnid dllSVIA1 )IdYd SNV]d dfl0I ii., -) ......_____ (,,, -----„,-------- --77,-------- - . ..... k \\:\ c. 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