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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPRB 1998-08-03 Minutes MINUTES OF THE PARKS AND RECREATION BOARD OF THE CITY OF NORTH RICHLAND HILLS, TEXAS, HELD AT THE NORTH RICHLAND HILLS PRE-COUNCIL CHAMBERS LOCATED AT 7301 NORTHEAST LOOP 820 August 3, 1998 ATTENDANCE PRESENT Board: Sharon Battles Vice Chairwoman Sherry Christensen Board Member Pam Jackson Board Member Dwayne Leslie Board Member Sherry Milano Board Member John Pena Board Alternate Ann Perchard Board Member Rick Work Board Member Staff: Jim Browne Director of Parks and Recreation Sharon Davis Assistant Superintendent of Recreation Christina Lopez Administrative Secretary Chris Swartz Aquatic Manager Bill Thornton Assistant Director of Parks & Recreation Monica Sue Walsh Assistant Director of Parks & Recreation ABSENT: ITEM 1. CALL TO ORDER Ms. Battles called the meeting to order August 3, 1998 at 6:01 p.m. ITEM 2. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES Ms. Jackson made a motion, seconded by Mr. Work, to approve the minutes of the June 1, 1998 meeting. (Motion passed 7-0) ITEM 3. PARK BOARD ORIENTATION WORKSHOP Mr. Browne facilitated a Park Board Orientation Workshop for Park & Recreation Board Members. This orientation will be beneficial for the new members as well as existing members. The Orientation included a presentation that Mr. Browne has made numerous times at various State and National Conferences; "Qualities of the 'Perfect' Parks and Recreation Board Member". Mr. Browne will set up an orientation time with new Board Members and a tour of facilities. ITEM 4. ELECTION OF CHAIRMAN AND VICE-CHAIRMAN Ms. Battles opened the floor for nominations for the election of Chairman and Vice-Chair for 1998/99. Mr. Pena nominated Rick Work, seconded by Ms. Jackson, for the office of Chairman. (Motion passed 7-0). Ms. Perchard nominated Ms. Jackson, seconded by Mr. Pena, for the office of Vice-Chair. (Motion passed 7-0). ITEM 5. RECREATION, ATHLETICS, SENIOR ADULTS AND TENNIS CENTER REPORTS Ms. Walsh updated the Board on the following: The Recreation Center experienced its largest registration this summer with 86% of the classes making. Ninety youth/teen classes and specialty camps were offered with 83 of these classes making. Thirty-six adult enrichment classes were offered and finrenty-five made. The Recreation Center is planning a 10t" Year Anniversary - Registration Party on August g'h from 9:30 a.m. - 1:30 a.m. The party will include a discount of $2 off any weekly class, entertainment, bounce house, free introductory classes and 25~ hot dogs and drinks. Any Board members that would like to volunteer to help at the party please talk to Monica or Sharon. The Recreation Center Staff have completed their ESCOM computer training for class registration, facility booking and membership management. The new software will go live in August. The "Time of Your Life" brochures should be mailed out on Monday, August 10th. Look for them in your mailbox. The Bursey Road Senior Center Gad-A-Bouts went to Granbury to see "Annie". In June and July groups went out for dinner and dancing at the Ramada Plaza for "First Friday". The Bursey Road Center exercise class has been well attended. Several men recovering from stokes have benefited from taking the class. Fifty-seven seniors from Bursey Road Center went on a trip to Bossier City. The Bursey Road Senior Center is organizing a golf tournament for interested seniors. Due to the hot weather a program on combating heat was offered to try and help keep the seniors cool. The Dan Echols Senior Center began a new Hula class with sixteen participants. North Richland Hills hosted the 1998 Texas Amateur Athletic Federation Men's Church State Softball Tournament on June 26'n & 27th. Thirty-finro teams from across the state attended. The economic impact for the tournament was $40,000, according to figures provided by the Texas Department of Commerce. The City, in association with the Dallas Mavericks hosted the Dallas Maverick Basketball Camp the week of July 20th with 80 kids participating. The Camp was held at Richland High School. NRH received $1,500 for hosting the event, which will benefit the Teen After School Program. This summer four new programs were offered for teens, Overnight Campout at Lake Mineral Wells, Girl's Night Out, Canoeing on the Brazos, and Sandy Lake Outing. Three of the four programs filled. Friday Night Out was held on May 8th with over 450 in attendance. A survey was taken at Smithfield Middle School to see if there would be interest in an after school program there. Out of 309 surveys returned 275 students said they would be interested. Staff is proceeding with the implementation of the program. The Richland Tennis Center held the 2"d Annual NRH Junior Open June 26tn _ 28'n with 165 juniors participating. Fifty-six juniors participated in the Mid Cities Tournament held on July 10`n Both the 7.0 and the 8.0 BMW Mixed Doubles teams, from the Richland Tennis Center, advanced to sectional play in Corpus Christi on August 21 S` _ 23`d The Richland Tennis Center has been named one of the outstanding public tennis facilities for 1998 by the United States Tennis Association. ITEM 6. PARK OPERATIONS AND CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM STATUS REPORT Mr. Thornton updated the Board on the following: Calloway Branch Trail is in the preliminary design phase. Staff anticipates approximately three or four more months of design. The review process will begin as well as the acquisition of easements. Once this is complete the plans and specifications will be prepared. Construction continues on the North Electric Trail through to NRH2O and Davis Blvd. intersection. Completion is anticipated to be at the end of August. Newman, Jackson, Bieberstein continues with the preliminary trail alignment of Little Bear Creek. Staff anticipates approximately three or four more months of design. The route map for the hike/bike trails is under final revisions and final sign plans are being completed. Staff is working with the contractor on punch list items for the Girl's Fast Pitch Softball Complex and trying to keep the fields as green as possible due to the water rationing. The consultant is proceeding with the completion of the plans and specifications for the 100 acre park site and waiting to hear from TPWD and Architectural Barriers. Standard Park Signs have been installed at Northfield Park, Richland Tennis Center, Green Valley, Richfield Park, Walker's Creek Park and Linda Spurlock Park. Staff has received lots of compliments on the signs. The contractor is completing punch list items on the NRH2O 1998 Improvements. The DART Agreement for the Cottonbelt Trail will be taken to a City Council meeting for formal adoption in the near future. The written survey is in production for the Park System Master Plan. The survey will be sent to citizens for responses. Landscaping Today has removed the old playground at Richfield Park and is completing fine grading and getting ready for the installation of the new playground. Ms. Milano wanted to know how we are going to promote the hike/bike trails. Mr. Browne responded that with the completion of the North Electric Trail, it would be visible and bring awareness to the trail projects and, with the publication of the Hike/Bike Trail System Map, which will be printed after TxDOT approval and distributed. This map will show the entire on- road hike and bike trails and future off-road trails, as well as educational information. Staff has also offered to meet with neighborhood associations who have any questions or concerns. Mr. Leslie wanted to know what our status is on the 100 Acre City Park. Mr. Thornton responded that we are working with the consultant on getting preliminary bid estimates to fit within the allocated funding. Adjustments may have to be made according to the estimates. We are also waiting to hear from the TPWD and Architectural Barriers after their review. By waiting on TPWD and AB we position ourselves in the market place to where there will be a more competitive bid market. During the summer there have been many construction projects going on that there are not enough qualified bidders and the concrete market has been very high. Mr. Leslie also wanted to know if there was a picture of the basic design that could be distributed. Staff will provide Mr. Leslie with an approved master plan for the development of the park. He also wanted to know what the future development is for the park. Staff responded that a large portion of the park is native grasses and will be preserved. Ms. Milano wanted to know if we were focusing on baseball/softball type fields for the revenue. Mr. Browne explained that when the Park System Master Plan was developed in 1991 citizens input help created a list of priorities that included outdoor swimming, soccer fields, baseball/softball fields and neighborhood parks, and what we have done is address those priorities. The only priorities not addressed are, an additional recreation center and adult athletic fields. We addressed, to some degree, a portion of the priorities not that we won't build more of the same facilities in the future. We have received almost nine million dollars in grant funds in the last five years, it is very important to address these priorities in the grant process. There are also national standards that we refer to in addressing these priorities. We have also received data from youth sports associations and from our own programs. There are many factors involved in setting the priorities. Mr. Leslie wanted to know if we have land acquisition for a new recreation center if it is approved and does it also include a library. Mr. Browne responded that when the update for the Park System Master Plan is completed he anticipates identifying the need for three recreation centers. We have land set aside at the 100 Acre Park Site for a recreation center if that site becomes the best location for this option. We may also have an opportunity with the Town Center/Arcadia Project to include a recreation center there, which creates a good geographic distribution with the current recreation center located on Loop 820. Mr. Browne extended an offer to the Park Board that if they would like to come in to the office and sit down and review the Town Center/Arcadia Project in detail, staff would be available. ITEM 7. AQUATICS REPORT Mr. Chris Swartz updated the Board on the following: 1998 has been the busiest season for NRHzO so far. Staff anticipates hitting 250,000 in attendance for the season. Currently attendance is up 23.08% from last season through July 19th. NRH2O has received lots of inedia coverage this season due to the Green Extreme. The first day that the Green Extreme was open to the public Mix 102.9 radio station sent two Disc Jockey's to ride the Green Extreme live on the air at 7:15 a.m. In addition, the first 100 riders received a free t-shirt. Channel 11 also covered the opening with a news piece at 10:00 p.m. Channel 11 covered the Southwest Regional Lifeguard Competition in which the NRH2O team finished in first place and will advance to the National Championship to be held at Disney World in Florida, on August 7`h _ 8`n. The Star Telegram and Dallas Morning News also covered the event. Alan Wang, the "on-location" reporter for Channel 4's Good Day Dallas, featured a segment on riding the Green Extreme live. He and Marcia Minnies rode the slide with a live microphone. Good Morning Texas, WFAA Channel 8, broadcast live from NRH2O on Tuesday, July 28 from 9:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. The park opened art 8:30 a.m. and allowed the first 100 guests in free. NRH2O hosted the 1S' Annual Texas State Junior Lifeguard Championship on Thursday, July 30th with twelve teams competing in two different age divisions. First place overall was College Station Team 1 and second place was NRH Team 1 and third place was NRH Team 3. Both Channel 4 and 11 covered the event. NRH2O held a Beanie Baby auction earlier this year with portions of the proceeds going to the Community Enrichment Center -$500 and the Tarrant County "Safe Kids" Campaign - $250. Mr. Swartz showed two news clips, Alan Wang's "live ride" and Channel 11 news coverage the first night the slide was open. Mr. Swartz commented that these are two examples of the outstanding media coverage the park has received recently. ITEM 8. FACILITY USE AND YOUTH SPORTS ASSOCIATION ISSUES Ms. Walsh updated the Board on several issues related to youth sports. The first issue "Use of athletic facilities in city parks from users that are not under contract with the city". We have received several calls from groups that are not under contract to use athletic fields requesting use of the fields. At this time the youth associations under contract do not allow their teams to practice on the fields due to current schedules. With the development of the new facilities such as Green Valley and Walker's Creek Park and future development of the 100 acre Park Site which have maintenance fees we have been receiving numerous requests from private schools, individual teams and youth association for use of these facilities. Scheduling for all groups involved, maintenance fees, background checks for coaches, NYSCA coaches training for coaches, and electrical fees. Mr. Browne stated that staff is not looking for a recommendation this evening, we would like to make the Board aware of the requested use of all these facilities and give you time to think about and prepare for more discussion. Staff is looking for direction in what our priorities should be and how to balance the needs versus the use of the facilities. Mr. Pena wanted to know if the ESCOM software staff is implementing has the capability of doing priority booking for the facilities. Ms. Walsh stated that the program would do facility booking but not league scheduling. All of the youth association schedules would need to be input by staff and monitored and the software does not support this. Staff is looking at an additional program that may have that capability. Mr. Browne presented the next youth sports program issue which is "What should the City's role be with youth sports programs". Currently all youth sports programs are administered through the youth associations. If there is a breakdown within the association, staff directs individuals back to the elected board of directors for that association. There is a misconception that the youth associations are ran by the City, actually the associations have a contract to lease fields from the City and the associations are run by an elected board of directors. Staff is looking at the full range of options available to determine what the City's role should be in youth sports programs from having a more active role in the operation of the youth programs to running the entire program ourselves or keeping the current arrangement as is. Mr. Pena said it sounds like the direction staff is currently taking referring the individuals back to the source or youth association is a good one and maybe that just needs to be reinforced in a policy procedure. Ms. Christensen wanted to know when parents register their children with the various youth associations are they asked to sign any type of agreement that states that they understand that the city is not responsible and maybe that is something we could ask the associations to do. Mr. Browne did not think that the youth associations do. The youth associations have a lot of perceived "ownership" in the fields. Mr. Browne stated that the fields actually belong to the citizens of North Richland Hills and if the fields are not scheduled for league play or maintenance they should be available to the citizens for a casual pick up game or walk up use. Mr. Gary Holt, from the Little Miss Kickball organization, is present and is one of the associations looking for direction in use of Fossil Creek Park. Mr. Pena asked Mr. Holt how he felt about the concerns of the Board after sitting and listening to them. He stated that he thought you could have something signed at the time of registration stating the city was not responsible. Ms. Milano wanted to know if we have set a precedent for the Home School Groups. Ms. Ms. Milano wanted to know if we have set a precedent for the Home School Groups. Ms. Walsh stated that the Home Schooi group actually are holding their PE class and just use the outfields depending on what sport they are doing. They also bring their own equipment. Ms. Christensen wanted to know how late the lights are allowed to be on at the parks. Staff responded that the park curfew is 11:00 but there are exceptions for local and state tournaments and rain makeup's. We try to keep the lights on long enough for people to end their play and get to their cars safely. We have had mechanical challenges at Green Valley. Staff is looking at a lighting management system that could be accessed by phone. The last youth sports program issue is regarding "sponsorship signage in parks". Some youth associations have sold sponsorships to have a sign placed at the park and the signs are never put up or never taken down. Currently all signs must be approved by the Parks and Recreation Department. Staff wants to limit the number of signs placed out on the fence. Staff is requesting that all sponsorship signage be limited to one sign or banner that could be displayed during the game and then taken down. Mr. Leslie commented that in the interim it would be a good idea to have one centrally located sign that could be put up during the games and then taken down, at least until a long term solution could be devised. Mr. Work commented that advertising could be done on the back of the shirts, and not allow any signage in the park, this seems to be better all the way around. There is no clutter, you don't have to worry about maintenance fees or if someone's sign has been put up or taken down. He also feels it is more beneficial to the sponsor. Mr. Pena commented he liked Mr. Work's idea of no signs. There was a consensus of the Board not to allow any signage at the park and to ask that sponsors names be placed on the back of their shirts. Mr. Work also commented that he didn't feel that the city received any revenue from the youth associations. Mr. Browne stated that that is another misconception that needs to be clarified. The City does not receive any revenue except a$50.00 per month rental fee for the concession stand. Also the youth association pays for their electrical use. The City has partnered with the youth association in the past on several projects. Staff has implemented a maintenance fee, very successfully, with two of the youth associations at Green Valley Soccer Complex. The individual players of the youth soccer associations pay a maintenance fee and then the city maintains the fields. This is the direction staff would like to go with all the new athletic facilities and possibly with existing facilities sometime in the future. This also gives the city the opportunity to seek large sponsorships for major improvements to existing parks. ITEM 7. TOWN CENTER PROJECT UPDATE Mr. Browne commented that he could bring new board members up to speed on the town center project at the orientation. That is agreeable by all. ITEM 8. OTHER INFORMATIONAL ITEMS Mr. Pena thanked Ms. Battles for keeping the Board together, as Vice-Chair, during the interim until a new Chairperson could be elected. Mr. Browne informed the Board that we have an opportunity to move the regularly scheduled meeting to another day, possibly Tuesday or Thursday. From a staff perspective Monday's have become very hectic in trying to prepare for the meeting. He asked if the Baard would think about this opportunity. Staff will present this item at the next meeting. ITEM 9. ADJOURNMENT Mr. Work made a motion, seconded by Mr. Pena, to adjourn the meeting at 8:50 p.m. Sharo Battles, Vice Chairperson ATTEST: ~ Christina A. ~opez, Administrativ ecretary