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HomeMy WebLinkAbout07-21-2014 Minutes SOUTH BEND BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING JULY 21,2014 The Board of Park Commissioners of the Park District of the City of South Bend, Indiana met on Monday July 21, 2014 at the O'Brien Administration &Recreation Center, 321 E. Walter St., South Bend, Indiana for its regular meeting. Notice of the date,time and place of the meeting were duly given as required by law. Park Board members present were as follows: Mr. Robert Goodrich, President Ms. Amy Hill, Vice President Mr. Garrett Mullins Mr. Bruce BonDurant Park Board members absent were as follows: None Staff members present: Phil St. Clair,Director of Parks; Bill Carleton,Director of Finance; Susan O'Connor, Deputy Director;Randy Nowacki,Director of Golf Operations; Mike Dyszkiewicz, Maintenance Superintendent; Mark Bradley, Marketing Director; Paula Garis, Special Events Supervisor; Paul McMinn, Assistant Recreation Director; Cheryl Greene, Park Board Attorney I. The meeting was called to order by Board President Robert Goodrich at 4:03 p.m. H. The first order of business was the interviewing of interested citizens. a. Jim Szucs, Teamster business agent,reported that a bargaining agreement has been reached with the employees of Potawatomi Zoo and the Potawatomi Zoological Society. He thanked all involved in the negotiations for their cooperation in the process. The agreement was approved by the bargaining unit and will be in affect by the beginning of August. III. Report By Organizations No representatives were present. IV. The next order of business was unfinished business. a. Update on Five Year Master Plan-Matthew Moyers and Chris Chockley Mr. Moyers gave an update on the progress of the project. He presented the raw data from the City Voice telephone information. This is a voluntary call-in system to review various parks and facilities. Mr. Chockley, of Jones Petrie and Rafinski, gave an update on the public input. Over 1,100 citizens have participated so far. A draft copy of the document will be sent to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources for review by the end of July. - - I - - V. The next order of business was new business. a. Request for Use of Parks-Paula Garis i. Greater New Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church-July 26, 2014-Martin Luther King Jr. Center(outside in park)—Rev James E Minor Reverend Scott described the outreach program they want to do in the park. They will hold a church service at 6 pm. It is open to all that wish to attend and will last 2 to 3 hours. Ms. Hill made a motion to approve the request by the Greater New Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church. Mr. Mullins seconded the motion and it was approved. b. Request to Approve Arborist Licenses i. Joe Cruz Tree Service-Renewal Ms. Greene inspected the application for renewal of the arborist license for Joe Cruz Tree Service and it met the legal requirements for approval. Mr. BonDurant made a motion to approve the renewal of the arborist license for Joe Cruz Tree Service. Mr. Mullins seconded the motion and it was passed. VI. Approval of Maintenance Vouchers A motion was made by Mr. BonDurant to approve maintenance vouchers for June 2014 totaling $1,276,536.55. It was seconded by Ms. Hill. There being no further discussion, the motion was passed. VII. Business by Director St. Clair a. Director St. Clair gave the Board a draft copy of the 2015 Park Department budget. He briefly went through them for the Board. b. The Department will be implementing a facilities management and work orders computer program to better track maintenance efficiency, accountability and costs. We will be able to schedule regular maintenance as well as unscheduled repairs. This will require a large amount of upfront data to set this program up. c. He and Ms. Greene have been meeting with representatives from Notre Dame regarding the boathouse along the river. There have been some challenges that require rethinking how the building is laid out on the property. d. The national softball championship tournament will be held at Belleville Complex again next week. e. The Country Fest concert was held last month at Coveleski Stadium. Turnout was good, but a thunderstorm shortened the event. He felt the groundwork was put in place for partnerships for next year's event. f. The Kid's Triathlon was held and participation was almost 300. g. The Kelly Park project is underway and we are working with a variety of partners. The park has been cleared and fund raising is ongoing. The committee is working with some contractors to sponsor various portions of the project. There have been no negative comments that we have heard so far. h. He thanked all the Park staff that have been working so hard on the storm damage - - 2 - - from last month. The damage was not wide spread, but he said that some of the areas that were affected were the worst he had seen in his tenure, especially Keller Park. VIII. Comments by the Deputy Director of Parks a. Mr. McMinn introduced Brother Louis Hurick who has been helping train life guards for the Parks Department and other agencies in the community for over 50 years. Deputy Mayor Neal presented him with a plaque recognizing his service. A representative from the Red Cross was present to recognize Brother Louis' service to their organization for 56 years on behalf of the American Red Cross. b. Ms. O'Connor reported attendance at several programs from this summer- i. Country Music Fest-3,138 tickets ii. Summer Playground Program-3,650 iii. Summer Lunch Program- 5,098 iv. National Parks &Recreation month Great America Tickets- 100 sold v. Kid's Triathlon- 388 vi. Summer Concert Series-East Race- 925,Potawatomi-465 vii. Howard Park Trip to Mount Rushmore-49 c. Twenty-five interns were hired for the summer in conjunction with the Mayor's office. Fifteen work at the Martin Luther King,Jr. Center and ten at the Charles Black Center. The response has been very good and Notre Dame has inquired about hiring some of the interns during the school year. d. Two full-time part-time employees have been hired at the WK Center to work in the violence prevention. They are in training in San Francisco. e. The ASA national softball tournament starts next Thursday. Fifteen teams are in the tournament. f. She will be going to Kitchener, Ontario, Canada to observe the International Softball Congress World Championship tournament. g. She presented the Board with a schedule of 2015 fees. She asked that the Board look at them and contact her with any questions. She will ask their approval at the August meeting. h. Total programming attendance through June is 154,93 5. i. Aquatics attendance is down due to the weather. j. The City Employee Wellness Challenge will be held tomorrow night at the East Race. IX. Comments by the Marketing Director a. Mr. Bradley reported that the Park Foundation Board met last week and agreed to be a pass through for funds to replace trees that were lost during the storm. A tree replacement program will be established to solicit funds. b. Passport to Play was held last Saturday at Howard Park. 160 children and parents attended. c. City Voice ended two weeks ago. d. The Superintendent's Golf Outing will be held on August 1 at Elbel. e. A photo contest will be held to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of Rum Village Park. - -3 - - X. Comments by Maintenance Superintendent a. Mr. Dyszkiewicz reported that 1,088 hours have been spent on storm damage cleanup. There are huge piles of debris that have been piled in parking lots in various parks. It will take quite a while to haul everything to Organic Resources on the north side of town. b. Court repairs have been completed. c. The East Race has been running very smoothly this year. XI. There being no more business to come before the Board the meeting adjourned at 5:10 p.m. by President Goodrich The next regular meeting will be held Monday August 18, 2014 at 4:00 p.m. in the Boardroom of the O'Brien Administration Center. Respectfully Submitted, William Carleton Executive Secretary