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HomeMy WebLinkAbout4th Quarter (October-December)MINUTES OF THE PARKS & RECREATION BOARD OF THE CITY OF THE COLONY HELD ON OCTOBER I PTH, 2000 A REGULAR SESSION of The Parks & Recreation Board of The City of The Colony, TX. was called to order at 7:30 p.m. with the following board members present: John Sanders Chairman Donna Baggett Member Susan King Member Rich Lewis Member and with members Shaw and Henderson absent, thus a quorum was established. Also in attendance was Pam Nelson, Director of Parks & Recreation, Sam Fitzgerald, Asst. Director of Parks & Recreation, and David Swain, Recreation Supervisor. I• CITIZEN'S INPUT. None. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF JULY 26TH, 2000. Member King made a motion to approve the minutes of July 26`h, 2000. Member Lewis seconded the motion. Ayes: Members King, Baggett, Lewis and Chairman Sanders. Noes: None. 3. WELCOME NEW MEMBER JIM BRIGGS. Jim was welcomed even though he was absent from the meeting. He had a previous commitment which was made prior to his appointment to the board. 4. CONSIDERATION AND APPROVAL OF FEE STRUCTURE FOR NEW FITNESS ROOM AND FACILITY USE CARDS. David showed the board a picture of all the new equipment that will be in the new fitness room. There will be 2 treadmills, bike, cross-trainer, 4 strength circuit stations, and 15 pairs of dumbbells ranging from 5-75 lbs. and a rack. The old equipment was transferred to the police department, public works and the fire station. Construction should be completed in the next couple of weeks and the equipment will arrive shortly after that. We hope to open it between the 0 and the 15"', so we would like to get the fee structure approved so we can get the information posted and get the public informed and start selling passes. Member King made a motion to approve the fee structure for the new fitness room and facility use cards. Member Baggett seconded the motion. Ayes: Members King, Baggett, Lewis and Chairman Sanders. Noes: None. 5. DISCUSSION OF GROUNDBREAKING CEREMONY FOR RIDGEPOINTE PARK. Sam informed the board that Dennis Sims is working with Dean's Construction to see when they can bring equipment out to have the groundbreaking. The consensus of the board is to have the ceremony held on a Sunday afternoon. 6. DISCUSSION OF NAME AND THEME FOR COMMUNITY COMPLEX. Pam gave the board some samples of a nautical theme that has been used in other parks. The nautical theme has been suggested because The Colony is known as being the City by the Lake, but that does not have to be the theme. The theme is more for the playgrounds, concession stand and pedestrian areas, not necessarily the playing fields. Everyone should remember the complex would include more than athletics. Pam instructed the board to continue to work on ideas because we will soon have to start designing the park and meeting with architects that can do what we want. 7. ASST. DIRECTOR'S UPDATE. FRIENDSHIP PARK - The sidewalk at Friendship Park is currently under construction and is almost complete. We will be putting up signs on Newton and Malone. New fall zone will be put in after the sidewalk is completed. Public Works and Parks & Rec. crews are, working on this project. BLUE SKY - The foundation is down. The water well is in but they're having trouble keeping the amount of water high enough to water the fields and keeping enough water for the fire department. A third 5,000-gallon tank will be installed. As you go in the gate, the field at the top is the field the Burn will use. To the west of that and below it is another field and below that and to the north is another field. Two of the fields have sod and one of the fields has mulch. On Sept. 27d', they began putting up the sidewalls, beams and roofing. HAUNTED HAYRIDE - The Haunted Hayride is Oct. 27t" & 28d' and it will start at dusk. If anyone wants to help they should contact Rose Brewster at Hidden Cove. FOOTBALL FIELD LIGHTS - There was an inspection on Oct. 2°d to see if there were any dark spots and there were none. The lights are 30-ft. candles for the fields and there are 3ft.-5ft. candles in the alley between the houses and the field. If people complain about the lights being to bright, you can explain that they compare to the brightness of a full moon. REC. CENTER RENOVATIONS - Construction is underway to convert the meeting rooms in the front of the Rec. Center into the new fitness room. The old weight room has been converted into a meeting/classroom and the storage room has been expanded. BUDGET APPROVALS - Two positions have been approved - the Senior Center Activity Coordinator position is now a full-time position with 40 hours and higher pay. There is already someone filling that position as a temporary. There is a new Park Crew Leader position that is being advertised in-house. David's position as Recreation Supervisor has been upgraded to Recreation Manager and Buck's position has been upgraded to Park Manager. The operating budget that was submitted was approved with nothing taken out. 8. ITEMS OF CONCERN TO THE BOARD. Member King asked about the status of the reprioritized list of park improvements. Pam responded that we will have a master list of every project showing its completion date, status, and cost so anyone can look at it at any time to see what is taking place. It will be kept updated and current at all times. Member King also asked about the possibility of a radio station coming to The Colony for the July 4"' festivities. David responded that negotiations are ongoing, but there is nothing to confirm at this time. There being no further discussion, it was unanimously decided to adjourn the meeting at 8:05 p.m. Kathy Neal, ecording Secretary J SZanders,-Cha:~ r MINUTES OF THE PARKS & RECREATION BOARD OF THE CITY OF THE COLONY HELD ON NOVEMBER 8TH, 2000 A REGULAR SESSION of The Parks & Recreation Board of The City of The Colony, TX. was called to order at 7:30 p.m. with the following board members present: John Sanders Chairman Susan King Member Donna Baggett Member Mark Shaw Member Jim Briggs Member Rich Lewis Member Larry Henderson Member and with all members present, thus a quorum was established. Also in attendance was Pam Nelson, Director of Parks & Recreation and Sam Fitzgerald, Asst. Director of Parks & Recreation. 1. 2. CITIZEN'S INPUT. None. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF OCTOBER 11TH, 2000. Member King made a motion to approve the minutes of October 11"', 2000. Member Baggett seconded the motion. Ayes: Members King, Baggett, Chairman Sanders Noes: None Abstain: Members Shaw and Briggs 3. DISCUSSION OF UPDATING THE JOINT FACILITY USE AGREEMENT WITH LISD. Pam informed the board that she and Sam had met with Clayton Downing recently to see if the school district would be interested in participating in the development of the Community Complex. They do not want to participate with that, but they are considering a new natatorium and the possibility of doing it in the Community Complex. Pam said Clayton was concerned about the legalities for doing something like this. She does not think that would be an issue. Clayton said the school district would want to do a 50- meter pool, which would be an 8-9 million-dollar facility. Pam told Clayton when the school begins the planning process, there needs to be representatives from the city staff and also the Park Board. Pam said the copies of the Facility Use Agreements given to the board were 10 years old and they should be updated. Some of the facilities mentioned have changed. Member Baggett voiced concern about item # 14 that says the city and LISD will meet every year to see how things are going - this is not being done and it should be. Pam added that the entire list needs to be updated more frequently. 4. REVIEW AND CONSIDERATION OF THE CONTRACT FOR THE DESIGN OF THE COMMUNITY COMPLEX PHASE I WITH DUNKIN, SIMS & STOFFELS. Pam informed the board the fees stated in the contract were based on $5.8 million for the first phase of construction. She said this is a standard contract and only a few words need to be changed, otherwise it is fine. The amount of money the 4B Board is going to contribute has not been determined yet. They will have to go out for bonds, possibly $6 million. Pam told Dennis to include in the contract that his fees will not exceed a certain amount but may be reduced according to the total development cost of the project. His fees do include all other design and architectural fees. The project will be paid out as the project develops. Most of the money will be paid the first year. This also includes Dennis applying for the grant with Texas Parks & Wildlife. There have been discussions with the 4A Board to help with the infrastructure, but they have already allocated much of their money to other projects. This will be going to City Council for their approval on the 20'h. Member King made a motion to approve the contract for the design of the Community Complex Phase I with Dunkin, Sims & Stoffels with some minor changes but to include that his fees will not exceed a certain amount but may be reduced according to the total development cost of the project. Member Baggett seconded the motion. Ayes: Members King, Baggett, Shaw, Henderson, Briggs, Lewis, Chairman Sanders Noes: None. 5. DISCUSSION AND CONSIDERATION OF THE NAME AND THEME FOR THE COMMUNITY COMPLEX. Pam informed the board that a decision of the name and theme for the community complex needs to be decided upon very soon. Dennis is preparing the grant and there is still a lot of information he needs to have. The only theme that has been presented to date is the nautical theme. A suggestion was made to meet with the 4B Board to discuss this issue. Member Baggett made a motion to table discussion and consideration of the name and theme for the community complex until the next meeting. Member Shaw seconded the motion. Ayes: Members Baggett, King, Shaw, Henderson, Briggs, Lewis, Chairman Sanders Noes: None. 6. UPDATE FROM DIRECTOR - Blue Sky - Sam informed the board the metal and insulation is complete on the outside of the building. They have started putting up the inner walls for all the rooms inside. There are 2 gravel parking lots - one on the north side of the building and one to the west of the building. They have started the heating and electrical inside and are waiting on the city for approval. The lights for the indoor arena should be up by Thursday, next week. Peter still wants to open in December. There has been a lot of interest and they are receiving phone calls from everywhere. There will be a grand opening. Friendship - There is now a sidewalk all the way around Friendship Park. New fall zone will need to be put in. This was the first project for the 4B Board. Haunted flayride - This year we only made $4,100. Friday night was very slow and there was some rain in the area. Saturday night we gave money back to people, about $600, because of the rain. There were some people that told us to keep the money anyway. There were 713 people that attended this year. Ridgepointe Groundbreaking - There were about 30 people who attended. The Mayor, John Dillard, and Pam all spoke at the ceremony. Scout Park Pond - During the drought, the pond level dropped. There is a major silt build up in this pond. The main storm drain from Stewart Peninsula runs into this pond. This was on the 413 Master Plan but it is not eligible for 413 funding. It has been on Pam's CIP list for 3 years. She went to City Council with this issue and got a consensus from them to have a consultant come and evaluate the ponds. They will probe the ponds to determine the depth of silt to determine how much it will cost. They will need to test the silt for toxicity and they will send that information to the EPA. The silt could be about 4-5 ft. deep at Scout Park Pond. It may cost close to $300,000 to dredge the pond. Pam said 413 could pay for aeration of the pond. Rec. Center Renovations - The fitness room equipment should be delivered next week. Early registration for the fitness center is in progress. Renovations to the center are almost complete. Aquatics International Award - Elise submitted her staff training manual and won. This has brought national recognition to the city. She also won an individual award by the Red Cross this year. Grant Application for the Conference Center - We had a site visit from a representative from Texas Parks & Wildlife. He gave us a list of items we need to resubmit with our application, which is normal procedure. He seemed very positive; he liked the project, our facilities, the plans we have for it, and the close proximity to schools. Memorial Dr/Office Creek Drainage Improvements - We are still working on this issue. It hasn't been determined yet as to how this will be paid for by the city, 413 or 4A. We are trying to get the plans completed because we apply for the grant in January for the Community Complex. 7. ITEMS OF CONCERN TO THE BOARD. Member Baggett said there is a tree down at Lions Club Park. Pam said we are aware of it but the ground is too wet to put a dumpster in, but it will be taken care of as soon as possible. Member King asked if we are on target with the grant application for the Community Complex. Pam said it hasn't been started yet, that is why she asked the board tonight for ideas. Decisions will have to be made very soon. Chairman Sanders said the new lights on the football fields have made a big difference and he expressed his appreciation for them. Pam said she has not received any phone calls from residents complaining about the lights. There being no further discussion, it was unanimously decided to adjou th meeting 8>30 p.m. K thy Ne 1, Recording Secretary John S ders, Chairman