HomeMy WebLinkAboutPRB 2004-02-02 Minutes MINUTES OF THE PARK AND RECREATION BOARD
OF THE CITY OF NORTH RICHLAND HILLS, TEXAS
HELD AT THE PRE COUNCIL CHAMBERS
LOCATED AT 7301 NORTHEAST LOOP 820
February 2, 2004
ATTENDANCE
Present: Board:
Mark Haynes Chairman
Brad Greene Vice-Chairman
Janie McGuigan Board Member
Marlin Miller Board Member
Marty Kusmierski Board Member
Fred Durko Board Member
Kim Kirby Alternate
Absent: Virginia Stencel Board Member
Present: Staff:
Jim Browne Director of Parks and Recreation
Britt Flaten Park Planner
Vickie Loftice Assistant Director of Parks and Recreation
Christina Lopez Administrative Secretary
Chris Swartz Aquatic Park Manager
Bill Thornton Assistant Director of Parks and Recreation
Dalan Walker Parks Capital Projects Superintendent
ITEM 1.
CALL TO ORDER
Mr. Mark Haynes, Chairman, called the meeting to order February 2, 2004 at 6:02 p.m.
ITEM 2.
APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES
APPROVED
MOTION:
Mr. Miller made a motion, seconded by Mr. Durko, to approve the minutes of the
December 1, 2003 meeting.
Motion to approve carried 6-0
Guests present at the meeting, who were introduced, included Mr. and Mrs. Don Tipps
and their daughter Tracye Tipps.
ITEM 3.
PR 04-03 REVIEW POSSIBLE ALTERNATES FOR PROPOSALS FOR
TWO NEIGHBORHOOD PARKS
Mr. Thornton stated that City Council, at their January 26th Council meeting, awarded
the construction contract for Liberty Park and Tommy and Sue Brown Park to Dean
Construction. Dean Construction has done a number of projects for us in the past
including Green Valley Community Park, Cross Timbers Park and J.B. Sandlin Park.
When Liberty and Tommy and Sue Brown Parks were bid, staff included additional
amenities that, if they received good pricing for, could be considered to be included in
the construction contract. Staff reviewed these items with City Council at their January
27th meeting and they recommended that the Park and Recreation Board review and at
their discretion to determine if they feel like these alternates are feasible and if they
would like to select any, or all of them, or none of them.
Mr. Thornton presented each of the alternates for consideration.
Liberty Park:
Alternate 1: Pre-fabricated Bridge and Trail $37,000 -This alternate was
included to provide pricing for a bridge crossing the drainage ditch at the
northwestern portion of the park.
Alternate 2: Flag Poles and Landscaping $24,600 - This alternate was
included to provide pricing for three lighted flag poles surrounded by a small
decorative paver area.
Alternate 3: Stone Veneer on Culvert Wall $10,500 - This alternate was
included to provide pricing for a stone veneer finish on the exposed opening of
the extended culverts.
Alternate 4: Stone Masonry on Arbor Column Bases $11,300 - This alternate
was included to provide pricing for stone masonry wrapping the steel arbor
columns with a decorative finish.
Alternate 5: Additional Small Playground Equipment Piece $20,200 - This
alternate was included to provide pricing for an additional small modular piece of
playground equipment to compliment the standard playground structure included
in the base bid. The infrastructure for the smaller piece is included in the base
bid.
Park and Recreation Board Minutes February 2, 2004 2
Tommy and Sue Brown Park:
Alternate 1: Pre-fabricated Bridge $36,000 - This alternate was included to
provide pricing for a bridge crossing a tributary of Little Bear Creek at the
northern portion of the park. The inclusion of the bridge was in response to
citizen requests received during preparation of the design.
Alternate 2: Additional Concrete Trail $16,000 - This alternate was included to
provide pricing for a section of concrete trail that provides a secondary loop
around the practice field behind the fire station.
Alternate 3: Planting Around Public Art $3,000 - This alternate was included
to provide pricing for additional planting to enhance the area immediately
surrounding the public art piece, similar to the treatment at Dick Faram Park.
Alternate 4: Additional Small Playground Equipment Piece $22,000 - This
alternate was included to provide pricing for an additional small modular piece of
playground equipment to compliment the standard playground structure included
in the base bid. The infrastructure for the smaller piece is included in the base
bid.
The Budget Department has identified $152,231 in project savings from two completed
project accounts. These are projects from the previous CIP budget fiscal year that have
been completed and there are savings available in those projects. Staff has also held
discussions with the contractor which have resulted in additional savings. Tommy and
Sue Brown Park is being constructed through a$363,000 grant from the Texas Parks
and Wildlife Department, so in essence there is no cost for the construction of the park
to the City. The City uses the dollar value of land being donated by the developer for
our matching share of the grant.
The total for all the alternates is $180,600. In addition to the project savings, staff has
worked with the contractor to value engineer some items to save construction costs.
Staff and the contractor have identified $29,450 in savings which could be made
available to fund any of the desired alternates, if any. If the Park and Recreation Board
desire to pursue implementing any of the alternates, funding has been identified.
Discussion was held:
Mr. Miller commented that he doesn't see why we can't go ahead with this. He is
concerned about increased vandalism, but he knows staff is addressing that. He
doesn't see how we can afford not to have two exits out of these parks for emergencies
and fire trucks (referring to Alternate #1, the bridge connection and looping trail). He
does not see anything in the alternates that we can let go of. He is in favor of all of the
alternates.
Park and Recreation Board Minutes February 2, 2004 3
Mr. Browne responded to the safety issue. Both of these park sites have a lot of
frontage on existing road ways. Tommy and Sue Brown Park has one entire side that
has access for emergency vehicles and Liberty Park has Holiday Lane and
Industrial/Tecnol Blvd, on both sides which provide really good access, visibility and
security which leads to reduced vandalism. As use increases, vandalism goes down.
Ms. McGuigan commented that in reading through the entire agenda for this evening, "it
is pretty weighty", "lots of good information" it appears that later on in the agenda we are
being asked to take a look at some park amenity requests for the upcoming year. It
wasn't clear from some of the discussion how much money would actually be available
for these two potential projects, The Dog Park and the expansion of the Bursey Road
Senior Center. Both of these are very worthy projects and it would be a difficult decision
for anyone to make so her question to the Board is do we want to begin to make
decisions about amenities to parks that we have or do we want to delay our decision
about that and look at it in the scope of all the potential "asks" that we may have this
evening.
Mr. Miller said we don't have the parks yet.
Ms. McGuigan realizes that, but thinks we are at the point that staff needs to make
decisions, and work with the contractor as to whether we need to consider these
additional alternates in the packages.
Mr. Haynes commented that it is just a matter of priorities within available funding.
Ms. McGuigan commented "right". Staff has identified some additional funds that may
or may not be available in the whole scope of all the things we are being asked to look
at this evening.
Mr. Browne said that was a very good observation and it is something that we have
talked about in house with staff. Staff is starting the CIP budget process for the next
fiscal year this week, and how it impacts subsequent years - and that is why at this
meeting staff has the ranking of park amenity requests on the agenda later this evening.
Staff doesn't know what the sales tax forecast is going to be yet, and they don't know
how much money they will potentially be working with for those future projects. In the
case of these two projects (Liberty and Tommy and Sue Brown Parks), if the Board
wants to add these enhancements in then the City needs to be positioned to move now
and make a recommendation one way or the other to Council so the contractor can
implement the change order and keep the project on schedule. Theoretically the funds
identified would flow back into the overall fund and could potentially be used for other
things later on in the future if the Board chooses not to use it for these alternates.
Ms. McGuigan wanted to know what the amount of money available was last year.
Mr. Dalan Walker interjected that we had approximately $100,000. Mr. Browne
responded that we had enough to include the additional playground at Linda Spurlock
Park and the'/2 court Basketball Court at J. B. Sandlin Park. We were able to do two of
Park and Recreation Board Minutes February 2, 2004 4
the three requests from last year. Jim clarified; they are in this year's capital
improvement program budget. The sales tax forecast for the year that we are currently
in was very conservative.
Mr. Miller wanted to know if the $152,231 is available, money in the bank. He feels we
should just take care of as we might not have the funds later on.
Mr. Greene said that he would like to finish the parks 100% and finish what we started.
Mr. Haynes agrees, and also commented that all the amenities are very worthy, and we
should go forward with it. He also commented that the Board can prioritize the other
projects that Ms. McGuigan pointed out later in the meeting to possibly be included in
the capital improvement program.
Mr. Miller asked what we needed now. Mr. Browne responded that we need a motion
and a recommendation, and what ever the Board's recommendation is, staff will have a
cover sheet prepared tomorrow morning to go to Council next Monday.
MOTION:
Mr. Miller made a motion, seconded by Mr. Greene, to go ahead with all the alternates
that were presented and make a recommendation to City Council for their consideration
of all the alternates.
Motion to approve carried 6-0
ITEM 4.
PR 04-04 NRH2O MLIC THEMING AND CONSTRUCTION UPDATE
Mr. Chris Swartz, Park Manager for NRH2O Family Water Park, presented a power
point presentation on the new attraction at NRH2O, "Frogstein's Splashatory".
The new attraction will be five levels high, include seven slides and a 317 gallon tipping
bucket. There will be 130 different interactive activities for guests to enjoy. "Frogstein's
Splashatory" will be the largest multi-level interactive complex in the world. The
manufacturer, White Water Inc., highlighted this attraction at the International
Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions Convention and Trade Show this year.
NRH2O owns the rights to the design of this MLIC for 10 years. The new attraction will
also provide for an additional 7,600 square feet of new shade which includes a portion
of the pool. There will also be additional seating for 550 people which will be mostly
picnic tables. (This was a specific request by guests). Staff also added a web cam to
view and record the construction of "Frogstein's Splashatory" and surrounding area and
can be viewed at NRH2O's web site, www.NRH2O.com.
Park and Recreation Board Minutes February 2, 2004 5
ITEM 5.
PR 04-05 VANDALISM REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The Board opted to discuss Agenda Item #6 prior to Agenda Item #5 since there were
guests present specifically for the Park Amenity Requests.
Mr. Bill Thornton presented the Vandalism Report and Recommendations.
Staff has developed and implemented a formalized proactive vandalism program to
ameliorate the impacts of vandalism. Steps taken to implement this program include:
1. Documenting and tracking all costs associated with park vandalism.
2. The development of an Immediate Action Plan.
3. Survey analysis of areas communities for benchmarking policies/action
plans.
4. The development of a long term action plan and recommendations.
Staff began diligently documenting and recording acts of vandalism and associated
costs of materials and labor in FY2001-02. They also developed an "Immediate Action
Plan" which included: a partnership with the Police Department, installation of security
alarm systems at maintenance facilities, installation of "dummy" surveillance cameras
and posted warning signs at Cross Timbers Park and installation of vandal proof
security lighting at community parks. Overall results of the "Immediate Action Plan"
were a 13.5% reduction in costs associated with vandalism.
Staff also surveyed area communities to see what they were doing to prevent
vandalism. None of the cities surveyed formally tracked their vandalism costs or have
vandalism prevention programs. Most of the cities surveyed relied on general police
patrols and neighborhood watch groups that were established but all cities
acknowledged that these groups seldom continued participating in the watch program.
Staff decided to develop a long term action plan based on the immediate action plan
and results of the surveys from area cities. Staff explored the following options:
Option 1: Developing a Park Police Program - Staff contacted the NRH Police
Department to assess their position on curbing vandalism and they noted that crime in
parks is usualty a crime of opportunity. In Chief Shockley's experience, patrols seldom
make arrests because they are seen and heard by vandals who simply run or hide.
However they do know that police patrols deter crimes in parks, but have a difficult time
measuring the effect. The consensus reached was reached that such a program could
result in expenses for park police without a reduction in vandalism costs.
Option 2: Implementing a Neighborhood Park Watch Program - This program would
increase citizen's awareness of crime and encourage citizens to cooperate with law
enforcement agencies in reporting crimes. The survey results of area cities indicated
that Neighborhood Park Watch Programs were often difficult to maintain on a long term
basis. A unique park watch program, "SEEMORE the Eagles""", established in Illinois,
has drawn national attention and includes educational emphasis in grade schools
through the use of its mascot SEEMORE. While this approach may not have an
immediate impact, it focuses on education, beginning in grade school, for long term
benefits. Possible considerations include using Professor Frogstein from NRH2O.
Option 3: Install motion sensor lighting enhancements at restroom and concession
buildings - This option discussed installing motion sensor lighting enhancements at
restroom and concession buildings, but while this approach could potentially scare
younger vandals, it is not always a guarantee to deter other vandals.
Option 4: Employ technology in developing and implementing a higher level of
security - This option considers the use of high tech surveillance cameras. Staff
researched the use of wireless video cameras with digital video storage for use in parks.
The cameras could be accessed via the internet for viewing and recording and can
store data for up to 21 days. The cost is approximately $15,000 per site and camera
systems could be systematically added to existing parks at a relatively low cost. There
would not be any annual expenses. Staff said Police Chief Shockley advises the use of
monitored surveillance cameras that might help identify individuals.
Discussion was held.
Mr. Browne recommends putting cameras in three or four parks and monitoring them for
one year and see how it goes. If we just put cameras in one park, staff thinks it would
just relocate the vandalism.
Staff commented that one of City Council's objectives includes security systems built
around technology.
The Park and Recreation Board reached the following consensus on the Options:
Option #1: Park Police - The Board did not want to pursue this option.
Option #2: Neighborhood Park Watch - The Board feels it would be a good idea to
educate children.
Option #3: Motion Sensors - The Board would like to pursue this Option combined
with Option #4.
Option #4: Wireless Video Camera Surveillance - The Board would like to pursue this
option combined with Option #3 and when funding becomes available.
MOTION:
Mr. Durko made a motion, seconded by Ms. McGuigan, to move forward with Option #3
and Option #4 and over time build Option #2 with available funding.
Motion to approved carried 6-0
Park and Recreation Board Minutes February 2, 2004 7
ITEM 6.
PR 04-06 CONSIDERATION OF PARK AMENITY REQUESTS FOR FY 04/05
CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM BUDGET
The Board opted to discuss Agenda Item #6 prior to Agenda Item #5 since there were
guests present specifically for the Park Amenity Requests.
Mr. Thornton presented the history of the Park Amenity Request Policy which was
established to help address requests for additional park amenities and improvements in
existing parks.
On March 5, 2003, the Park and Recreation Board prioritized three items to be included
in the FY 2003/2004 Capital Improvement Program Budget, if funding a{lowed. These
items included a half-court basketball court at J.B. Sandlin Park, playground expansion
at Linda Spurlock Park and expansion of the Bursey Road Senior Center. Funding was
allocated for the first finro items. There was not funding avai{able for the expansion of
the Senior Center so the request was carried over to the FY 2004/2005.
The following park amenity requests for FY 2004/2005 CIP Budget have been made:
• Bursey Road Senior Center Expansion
• Off-Leash Dog Park
• Expedite the Design and Construction of Phase 2 of the Girl's Fast Pitch
Softball Fields at Walker's Creek Park
• J.B. Sandlin Electrical Service
Staff evaluated each of the projects and is presenting the list of requests to the Park
and Recreation Board. The Board is requested to review the requested projects,
determine if they should be included in the CIP Budget, pending availabie funds, and
then prioritize the requests.
MOTION:
Mr. Mil{er made a motion, seconded by Ms. McGuigan, to include in the FY 2004/2005
C4P Budget, pending avai{able funds, the following prioritized projects: 1. Off-Leash Dog
Park, 2. Senior Center Expansion, 3. Expediting the Design and Construction of Phase
2 of the Walker's Creek Park Softbalf Complex and to not consider the J.B. Sandlin
Electric Service Request.
Motion to approve carried 6-0
ITEM 7.
PR 04-07 REVIEW REVISED YOUTH SPORTS ASSOCIATION CONTRACTUAL
AGREEMENT
Ms. Vickie Loftice presented the "revised" Youth Sports Association Contractual
Agreement.
Park and Recreation Board Minutes February 2, 2004 $
With the growth of youth sports leagues along with increasing requests for use of City
facilities which has had an impact on our maintenance and operations budget, it has
become necessary to have an enforceable contract by which to guide decisions and
ensure equitable use of City facilities.
Staff has revised the Youth Sports Association Contractual Agreement with input from
the City's Risk Manager and Attorney for the City. Changes to the Agreement include:
• Requirement that each youth sports association make a presentation to the Park
and Recreation Board once a year.
• Requests that all game and practice schedules be in calendar format
• Enforcement of the non-profit 501-3C status.
• Requirement that all youth sports association boards be comprised of at least
51 % NRH residents.
• Liability insurance requirements.
• New budget and fiscal controls.
• New guidelines for use of City owned concession facilities.
• Determination of field allocations.
• New language regarding tournaments, camps and special events.
• Revocation of contract.
Discussion was held.
Mr. Durko serves as a Park and Recreation Board member and is also the President of
the Green Valley Soccer Association. Mr. Durko is concerned about electrical use,
budget/fiiscal controls and insurance requirements. The GVSA may need to amend their
by-laws and it may take some time to implement all the changes in the Agreement. Ms.
Loftice said the youth associations would be allowed sufficient time to implement all
changes. She also noted that the City of NRH will be switching back to TXU Electric.
Pertaining to the insurance requirements, Mr. Durko was advised to submit his
certificate of insurance so she can review it with the Risk Manager to verify that it will
meet the new guidelines.
Ms. Loftice said she will look at all the areas discussed in the revised Agreement and
make the necessary changes.
ITEM 8.
PR 04-08 RECREATION, ATHLETICS, SENIOR ADULTS, TEENS,
TENNIS CENTER AND CULTURAL ARTS PROGRAM REPORTS
In the interest of time, Ms. Loftice updated the Park and Recreation Board on the
foHowing:
The Daddy Daughter Dance is scheduled for this Saturday.
Park and Recreation Board Minutes February 2, 2004 9
ITEM 9.
PR 04-09 PARK OPERATIONS AND CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT
PROGRAM STATUS REPORT
Mr. Thornton updated the Park and Recreation Board on the following:
Everything is going great.
ITEM 10.
OTHER INFORMATIONAL ITEMS
Mr. Miller commented that the contractor is making good progress on the Cottonbelt
Trail.
ITEM 11.
ADJOURNMENT
MOTION:
Mr. Greene made a motion, seconded by Ms. Kusmierski to adjourn the meeting at 8:57
p. m.
Motion to approve carried 6-0
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Mark Haynes, airman
ATTEST:
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Christina Lopez, Administrative Secretary
Park and Recreation Board Minutes February 2, 2004 10