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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-13-16 PARC0.", OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK KAREEMAH FOWLER, CITY CLERK PARC COMMITTEE Committee Members Present: Committee Members Absent: Other Council Present: Others Present: Agenda: JUNE 13, 2016 4:20 P.M. Randy Kelly, Dr. Varner, Oliver Davis, John Voorde Dr. Fred Ferlic, John Mazurkiewicz Tim Scott, Karen White, Gavin Ferlic, Regina Williams - Preston, Jo M. Broden Kathleen Cekanski - Farrand, Adriana Rodriguez, Kareemah Fowler, Alkeyna Aldridge, Jennifer Coffman, Aaron Perri Dept. of Parks and Recreation Briefing, Aaron Perri - Superintendent of Parks & Rec. Committee Chair Randy Kelly called the meeting of the PARC Committee to order at 4:20 p.m with one (1) item on the agenda. Aaron Perri, Department of Parks and Recreation, briefed the council on the status of the Department of Parks and Recreation. The full presentation is on file in the Office of the City Clerk. Mr. Perri stated that the South Bend Parks Department is a member of the Indiana Parks and Rec Association, and a part of the NRPA, and we're one of 130 park systems in the country that is CAPRA Accredited, which puts us in the top one (1) percent of the country. There are four pillars of a parks system. The first is health and wellness. If you live within ten, (10) blocks of a park, you're fifty (50) percent less likely to see an ER visit, and more than eighty (80) percent less likely to be obese. The second is social equity. The parks program in South Bend has made sure that people have equal access to programs and all of the recreational amenities. You'll see that our sixteen (16) park facilities are well spread out over the City. Conservation is the third pillar, and it is very much up to the parks system to lead in this area. We haven't put a lot of focus in this area in the past, but environmental sustainability and the protection of our natural resources is pretty important and I think we can add a new level of sophistication to the way we treat our parks. A 455 County -City Building • 227 W. Jefferson Boulevard • South Bend, Indiana 46601 Phone 574- 235 -9221 • Fax 574- 235 -9173 • TDD 574- 235 -5567 • www.SouthBendiN.gov JENNIFER M. COFFMAN ALKEYNA M. ALDRIDGE EMILY SEXTON CHIEF DEPUTY/ CHIEF OF STAFF DEPUTY/ DIRECTOR OF POLICY ORDINANCE VIOLATION CLERK There are standards for fertilizing, the amount of trees we expect to see in every park, and amount of canopy covers that we work to maintain. We have Rum Village, a nature conservatory in the middle of our City. Not many other Cities can boast that. Sometimes parks are viewed as extra - curricular, but there is a case to be made for the impact green space and recreational amenities have on the economics of the City. The total acreage per 1,000 people in South Bend is 11.95. The national average is well below that. Best practice is about ten (10) acres per 1,000 residents. We're doing pretty well in terms of the amount of park space we actually have. We are resource rich in terms of the number of golf courses, the quality of our zoo, the minor league baseball stadium, the ice skating rink, those types of amenities aren't always seen in a City of our size. We have fifty -nine (59) playgrounds, which is above national standards, which is about forty - eight (48). That doesn't even count the school playgrounds. We have great partnerships with the schools and share responsibility as far as maintenance goes. There are close to 1,000 different offerings happening this season. We also have programs such as forestry, central mowing and code mowing. There are eighty -nine (89) full time staff members, twenty -five (25) permanent part time staff members. This time of the year we have a lot of seasonable employees, which puts us close to three- hundred (300) staff members this time of the year. The Parks Department has an $11.2 million annual operating budget. The annual capital budget is only $150,000 annually. That's a problem that we want to continue to talk about. The park bond the council approved for $5 million went to a lot of capital projects, and we're holding the bulk of it for the Charles Black Center expansion. A list of the capital projects is up to date and online. In terms of maintenance and repairs, we are significantly behind. Operationally to fund our programs, we are about in line with where we are supposed to be. Our tax base makes up eighty -one (8 1) percent of the Parks budget, fees and sponsors make up nineteen (19) percent. In other cities, it is closer to seventy -five (75) percent and twenty -five (25) percent. There are certain things we do not charge for. Things that highly benefit the community such as the trails or the river walk, or swings at the park come at no cost. The zoos, mentoring programs and community centers are almost fully subsidized as well. Special events, leagues, and other similar programs have cost recovery programs to pay for things like umpires. Special classes like Zumba, archery, and others are meant to pay for themselves. We may cover the capital or the investment in the property. Concessions, bus tours and individual memberships help recover funds. The East Race Waterway, this hemisphere's first man made white water course, is probably one of the most progressive things the Parks Department has done. 2 Mr. Perri stated that in the future, he wants to continue to improve and expand the impact of the programs. It's not just how we make the East Race a better experience for people; a lot of details go into each program. We are also going to be conducting experiential auditing of our programs this summer, for example we'll take someone from maintenance and someone from the golf course to see how easy it is to register for camps. We are working to increase public - private partnerships. For example, we are looking to leverage about $20 million in private investment along the Riverwalk. So far we've put in about $2.9 million in grant money into what is called the Blue Ways Trail. We currently have an RFQ out to further design the area between Howard Park and the Farmer's Market. The Regional Cities money will be leveraged for that project. We have a few really small parks that people haven't heard of. Some of them have a lot of opportunity for us to recreate them. We find ourselves in a position where we have a few resources. We have some dedicated funding for the ice skating rink, we have a partnership at Howard Park with the Pokagon Band of the Potawatomi's, we have the Regional Cities grant money, and Notre Dame installing the hydroelectric turbine at Seitz Park. All of the capital projects are in the packet on file with the Office of the City Clerk. Councilmember White asked if there is a sense of when the expansion of the Charles Black Center would take place. Mr. Perri stated that they are waiting on the findings of the EPA investigation. We've been meeting with the users of the Charles Black Center to assure them that the funds set aside for Charles Black would still be there for the project. The plans for the Charles Black Center are almost finalized, but the timing of the project will depend on the EPA's investigation. Committee Chair Kelly thanked Mr. Perri for coming, and asked for an update on Elbel. Mr. Perri stated that about a month ago, the USGA Agronomy Team was in town to look at Elbel and Erskine Parks. They have a draft conclusion report that they are putting the final touches on right now. We've found out that our golf courses are in pretty good shape. They are cross referencing their findings with the environmental experts. We'll have those recommendations posted once they are finalized. We just kicked off the South Bend community golf study to look at how to make our operations identify a business model that's sustainable for golf. Consultants from Keegan and Associates were in town from Colorado for a kick off. The consultant used it as an opportunity to show that we were not even functioning at the top of the bottom quartile of golf courses in the country in terms of our financial performance. We've had about 400 people already take a community survey, which is a pretty impressive response rate. We sent that out to as many contacts as we could. We just wanted to know how often they golf, their evaluation of each course, and the types of ideas they may have for sustainable business models. 3 The Orbis Envirnmental Study, which is a year -long study, has been on site a few times at Elbel. There was a night sky study, so we are making progress on the environmental aspects. Councilmember White asked that as they begin to roll out the results of the consultants and the survey, could we have information prior to that so we are in a position to respond once we start getting calls. Committee Chair Kelly added that Mr. Perri would visit at least monthly to report on Elbel. Council Attorney Kathleen Cekanski- Farrand asked if the reports would be added to the Elbel Dropbox, and Committeemember Broden added that it probably isn't necessary. They decided that the other departments and parks have their own pages, so they can make it available through their own sites. Committeemember Broden asked Mr. Perri to address the distribution of the community survey. Mr. Perri stated that the survey is live for three (3) weeks. It was sent to the entire golf database as well as the entire Parks and Recreation newsletter database, and other groups like ` Elbel for Everyone' shared it as well. We also pushed it out to other golf courses to get a feel for what they think of the City courses. It will give us a feel for who is using our courses and who isn't. no other business before the committee, Committee Chair Randy Kelly adjourned the nit 4:49. A - Randy Kelly, Chairperson M