HomeMy WebLinkAboutFebruary 19, 2024 Neeting MinutesSouth Bend Board of Park Commissioners
Regular Meeting
February 19, 2024
The Board of Park Commissioners of the City of South Bend, Indiana met on Monday, February 19, 2024, at Howard Park Event Center, 219 S. St. Louis Blvd and virtually on Microsoft Teams
for its regular meeting. Notice of the date, time and place of the meeting were duly given as required by law. The public was provided with a link to join the virtual meeting.
Park Board members present were as follows:
Mr. Mark Neal, President
Ms. Consuella Hopkins, Vice President
Ms. Georgianne Walker
Park Board members not present:
Mr. Sam Centellas
VPA staff members present: Jordan Gathers, Interim Executive Director; Anastasia Smith-Davis, Executive Assistant; John Martinez, Chief of Park Operations; Maurice Scott, Chief Community
Officer; Macey Hanna, Director of Recreational Experiences; Malcolm Coates, Group Violence Initiatives Project Manager; Amy Roush, Director of Development; Bailey Murphy, Marketing
Manager; and Garry Harrington, Rum Village Manager.
Other city representatives present: Michael Schmidt, Assistant City Attorney; Canneth Lee, 1st District Councilmember.
Call to Order
Mark Neal called the meeting to order at 5:01 pm.
Minutes of the Regular Board Meeting held on December 11, 2023.
Motion to approve the meeting minutes of December 11, by Consuella Hopkins, supported by Georgianne Walker, motion carried. Roll call vote 3-0.
Consent Agenda
Motion to approve the consent agenda of February 19, 2024, by Consuella, supported by Georgianne Walker, motion carried. Roll call vote 4-0.
Outstanding Partner: REAL Services
Jordan Gathers begins with sharing REAL Services offers vital free programming and resources for community members throughout their lifespan. He continues by giving a brief introduction
to the current CEO, Karla Fales, honoring her for her dignity and passion while serving so many people with grace. He invites Karla up to share a few thoughts.
Karla thanks Jordan for the introduction and goes on to reiterate that REAL Services is both a community action and an agency on aging. The agency serves people across the lifespan and
is currently proud to be able to partner with different organizations for the Senior picnic this summer. She continues to say this last year was one of their most successful years,
offering more services like vaccine clinics and resource fair.
Interviewing of Interested Residents
Patty Shrock of 4122 N Hickory, Mishawaka 46545, and the South Bend Racquet Club. Patty shares she is at the meeting to advocate for the Leeper Park facility and offer partnerships.
She commends the city and all its current amazing projects. She spotlights two guests that have joined her, Kelly Moore, owner of the South Bend Racquet Club, and Pam Moshier, mother
of the late David Filer who would be talked about later. Patty shares she has been in the tennis industry for over 40 years, as a Player, Coach, Tennis Professional, Tournament Director,
USA Representative, and has served as Leeper Park Tennis Director for 15 years.
Patty speaks highly of her experience while working as the Director of Leeper Tennis. She prides the tennis park on being a place where lifelong connections are made, and where dreams
come true. She continues by stating the current state of partnership is at a tipping point due to the facilities not being suitable for use or events being hosted. Causing the team
to seek use from other facilities. Patty continued on to talk about David Filer, a skilled tennis player who has recently passed. Sharing his loving spirit, positive attitude, and love
for tennis connected him to so many players. In the light of David’s passing, Patty has placed a bid for the National Tennis competition to happen at Leeper Park Tennis Center; after
being selected to host the competition, Patty wants to see what the City plans to do with the courts since they are currently in bad conditions.
Patty hopes the City (VPA) can match the provided funds of $5 million to complete the renovations of the tennis park by the competition in May of 2025.
Mark Neal, President, confirms that Jordan Gathers, Interim Executive Director provides an update at the next Park Board meeting, March 18, 2024.
Reports by Organization: Ecological Advocacy Committee
Andy Schabel opens the report by stating both he and the Committee’s secretary, Charlene, are both new to their positions. He continued to express his gratitude for hiring a valued team
member, Mary Wojcik, and the positive developments happening within the Committee. Andy celebrates Barbara Dale as well, as a valued member of EAC. Mentioning another positive development,
Andy says the communication between VPA, and the Office of Sustainability has been positive and promising. Now that communication has strengthened, there is an overlap in goals and
views which segue to opportunities as large as the USDA Tree Grant. The tree project is an enormous project, where EAC is working alongside the VPA Arborist team. Andy invites Garry
Harrington up to finish out the report.
Garry Harrington, Director of Rum Village Nature Center, and Rum Village Park Manager begins by stating that along with his titles he is a humble naturalist, celebrating his 30th year
with Rum Village. He brings up that issue of the riverbanks and the policies surrounding them. He mentions he had a previous meeting with John Martinez, Chief of Park Operations, and
others from Community Investments where VPA has been given authority to make the decision on the riverbank issues. Garry continues a new project, 35th Street Wetlands, a possible $400k
project. Would be VPA’s newest park, located on the intersection of 35th St and Jefferson. He went on to say, the goal is to have a park within a 10-minute walking distance of each
neighborhood in South Bend. The second half of this goal is to maintain a
wetland, since it’s been found that nearly 90% of all wetlands in Indiana have been lost compared to the 25% in Michigan. Wetlands within City limits are a rarity, and it would be in
South Bend’s interest to maintain the wetlands as much as possible. Garry explains the Wetlands are 10 arches of land and the plan is to use the dry land surrounding the wetlands to
build a playground, adding a trail, and some possible parking. He continues by mentioning that there are possible plans to add a trail that will go from the Wetlands to Judy Creek.
While Judy Creek is one of the last remaining creeks in the area, it is said that it is important to preserve it and give access to the public. Judy Creek is otherwise accessible to
members of a Country Club, but this limits access, which goes back to the importance of it being accessible by the Wetlands. Garry celebrates the 50th anniversary of Rum Village Nature
Center, as it was officially dedicated on December 15th, 1974. Currently there are plans to have a big celebration at the Nature Center, no date has been decided, however it will be
sometime during this year. It is mentioned that since Arbor Day is a largely celebrated day at Rum Village, it may be convenient to have the celebration that day for the Nature Center
as well on April 27th, 2024. Garry also informs the Commissioners that he is celebrating 30 years of working at Rum Village.
Consuella Hopkins asks if there are any issues with the Wetlands. Garry educates the Commissioners that there is a large population of unhoused cats that have been either dropped off
to the Wetlands or migrated there. He believes there are individuals that come and feed the cats daily; his plans are to continue working with Meow Mission as well as other animal control
services. Garry continues by stating these are feral cats, feral cats are known to eat songbirds and a migration of songbirds is expected in the middle of the year. He stresses the
importance of working with other organizations to come up with a plan to find homes for the cats, as it would not be received well by the public if a bunch of cats were removed from
the land without explaining where they would be placed.
Report by Chief Community Officer- Moe Scott
Moe is introduced by Mark Neal, Commissioners President.
Moe begins with sharing he’s had the pleasure of working with Garry Harrington for the 30 years that he has been with VPA and mentions he admires that Garry is filled with interesting
facts. He continues by talking briefly on the GVI and POET programs and where they stand currently. As he proceeds, he celebrates the phenomenal job Howard Park did on the Black History
events that happened the day prior, celebrating black businesses and giving the community free skate passes and a chance to enjoy a free movie. He reflects on his teenage years when
fellow classmates would visit Howard Park to ice skate, and he would always decline the offer to skate but enjoy the diversity that the park offered and enjoys that it is still the
same ways many years later.
Moe invites Malcolm Coates up to introduce himself and GVI. Malcolm Coates explains he is a lifelong resident of South Bend and is now the Project Manage of GVI- Group Violence Initiative.
He continues to state that the program used to be referred to as “Gang Violence Initiative”, but the gang world has evolved and now the proper terminology to use is group. Malcolm
shares his initial shock when accepting the position and working alongside law enforcement and seeing how much gun violence is in the City of South Bend. He stresses the importance
of this project and how much impact it can have on the city. Malcolm explains what his day to day looks like while in his position; he details the daily interactions he has with law
enforcement, working with enforcement on every level from city to country and from state to federal, and parole. All efforts are placed on planning and implementation of prevention
and intervention. He shares social outreach is a critical part of GVI and partnerships with Goodwill industries helps fulfill the outreach portion. Malcolm concludes his portion by thanking
the Commissioners.
Moe Scott, Chief Community Officer concludes the report by giving an update on the POET program. He states there has been a hiring of a project manager for the program and they will
begin to pilot a new site this spring/summer. The primary site will be Howard Park where most staff can be found, more staff will circulate between Fremont and Muessel Grove Park. The
overall hope for the POET program is to make our parks more accessible and enjoyable, the strategy from the staff is to interact with you and park attendees of all other ages to promote
positive and safe park enjoyment. Moe continues by stating if this plan of programming works out well then it will be extended to 6 more parks and hopefully be at every park.
Business by Interim Executive Director- Jordan Gathers
Mark Neal turns the meeting over to Interim Executive Director, Jordan Gathers for Business.
Jordan Gathers opens thanking the Venues Parks & Arts team for all their efforts this year. This year he has pondered on the three letters, ARC-attract, retain, and connect. ARC will
be how the team continues to attract how they retain and how they will continue to have community connection within their community. Jordan highlights Malcolm Coates and Moe Scott on
their work with GVI, he continues to state there has been a heavy focus on being able to build and develop relationships with the team and the community.
Jordan Gathers gave the following updates:
Leeper Park, Jordan says the focus is creating a maintenance package suitable for the Tennis community needs.
Seitz Park, although issues have occurred with the river wall which has caused delays in construction, the expected completion date is 2024.
Kennedy Park, currently waiting to hear if grant will be received to match funds for new water attraction and park updates.
Dream Center, construction is progressing, the elevator shaft is up, and a steel signing ceremony is in the works for March or April of 2024.
LaSalle Park has a set completion date of 2024.
Four Winds Field, moving along with the expansion with adding second deck seating and event/entertainment and networking spaces.
Charles Black Center has won the 2024 Excellent Service award.
Mark Neal thanks Jordan for the updates and congratulates the Charles Black Center on them on winning the service award.
Adjournment
No other questions or comments from the Park Commissioners, meeting adjourned at 6:00 pm by President Mark Neal.
The next scheduled meeting will be held Tuesday, January 16 2023, at 5:00 p.m. at Howard Park Event Center and virtually.
Respectfully Submitted,
Anastasia Smith-Davis