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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08/20/1998 MINUTES OF THE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION OF THE CITY OF THE COLONY HELD ON AUGUST 20, 1998 A REGULAR SESSION OF The Colony Community Development Corporation (413 Board) was called to order at 7:10 p.m. with the following members present: Don Goebel President Sue Walden Member Vicki Briggs Member Rick Manser Member Morris Seay Member and with Member King absent; thus a quorum was established. Also in attendance was Pam Nelson, Director of the Parks and Recreation Dept. 1. CITIZEN'S INPUT. None. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF JULY 2, JULY 16, JULY 23, AND AUGUST 3, 1998, Member Manser made a motion to approve the minutes of July 2, July 16, July 23, and August 3, 1998. Member Briggs seconded the motion. Ayes: Members Manser, Briggs, Walden, and President Goebel. Noes: None. Abstain: Member Seay. 3. DISCUSSION OF CITY COUNCIL MEETING HELD ON AUGUST 17, 1998. Ms. Nelson stated that she was very proud of the presentation Don Goebel made to Council. He did an excellent job in stating the points and he did a great job in summarizing everything. She also stated that it was devastating to have this proposal rejected by Council - when you have two Boards of volunteers who unanimously go forward and support a project like this, who have done the amount of research and background work necessary and have the numbers in place, and have the community support behind it - it's just devastating. President Goebel stated he came to this meeting contemplating on recessing this Board*. He stated Mary shot down every point John Sanders and I made. Don thought it would be to our advantage when City Council wanted to table the item - but that turned out not to be the case. Don stated that when he left the meeting, he felt as if he was in mourning - it was very hurtful. President Goebel stated he came to this meeting contemplating on recessing this Board, until the new Director arives. Member Seay asked what kind of direction did City Council give the Board? Ms. Nelson stated they want us to go to Wynnewood. Member- Walden stated that even if they changed their minds, it would be too late. Member Manser stated that the only way this would have been passed was if we had enough numbers from all sides to present to City Council along with a more detailed plan. We needed a plan saying this is what it would look like with the reasons why - this is what it would look like on the JNC land, this is what is would look like on the Wynnewood land, and this is our 3rd alternative. That was the only way to fight City Council. 4. DISCUSSION OF WORK SESSION WITH THE PARKS & REC. BOARD ON AUGUST 12, 1998. President Goebel stated he enjoyed the presentations from the planners - he thought the numbers were very helpful. Ms. Nelson stated that Consultants from Dunkin & Associates, who did The Parks Master Plan, Carter & Burgess, and Kimley-Horn came and gave presentations on how you plan for projects, how you apply for grants, what the costs were, basically the process you go through to accomplish the project. They each gave a brief history of their firms and told us what they had to offer. They gave a lot of good information. Member Walden stated she started in April of last year working on the tax election. She stated that Council needs to remember that the money we are getting from Crow-Billingsley is supposed to go for land. President Goebel asked what will become of that money. Ms. Nelson stated that there is still a 30-acre site dedicated by INC. Member Seay asked if that money could be used to upgrade the parks. Ms. Nelson answered only if it will benefit the residents of Austin Ranch. There is nothing existing in The Colony that would benefit Austin Ranch. Member Briggs asked if the money could be used to add onto existing soccer and baseball fields because they would benefit from that if they played in these sports. Ms. Nelson stated that if Austin Ranch builds out like they say they will, these fields will not support Austin Ranch. It would need to be used for new fields. There has been a lot of disagreement about how many youth will be in the Austin Ranch Development. If the majority is a young adult population, then it won't benefit them. We're looking at a Community Center for that 30-acre site. The money has to be used for recreational development. I wish City Council wouldn't have closed the door on the project - if they felt it was too much money all at once, they could have allowed us to buy one tract of the land and not 2, that would have given us some options to work with. Ms. Nelson stated she submitted to City Council a summary sheet of cost estimates for all the recreational features shown on the Concept Plan. Member Briggs asked why City Council could say that they did not have all the numbers if Ms. Nelson had given that summary to them. Member Manser stated that no one gave them any numbers on Wynnewood and that was the problem. Member Manser said they created reasonable doubt. 5. DISCUSSION OF INTERVIEWS FOR NEW DIRECTOR. Member Walden stated there were 39 applicants, most of which were pretty good. One applicant withdrew because he did not want to report to the City Manager. One applicant said he did not want to work with volunteers - he prefers to work with professionals. We narrowed our choices down to 3 finalists and chose the first person we interviewed - Gene Ramsey*. He was heavy duty Chamber of Commerce. He was very prepared for our interview. He has an outstanding attitude and is very positive. He went with a group to New York to get J.C. Penney to locate in Plano. Lanny made him an offer, and he accepted it. He starts on September 1, 1998. There is an Open House at Austin Ranch on August 31, and they will try to have him participate. * We narrowed our choices down to 7 then selected our 3 finalists and chose the first person we interview - Gene Ramsey. There being n,0 further discussion °t"wad unanimously decided to adjourn the e ting at Y5 p.m. Kath/Neal, Recording Secretary Don Goebel, President