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 >> Hello everyone and welcome to the parks board meeting for the 22nd day of February

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 2021. I am Frances punch, the chair of the parks board. Today we have no board members

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 absent and we will have one member joining us late. It should be noted that the parks

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 board did not have a meeting in January 2021 and the February 15th meeting was moved to

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 today, February 22nd. And before we get started I would like to welcome our newest board member

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 Jerry Dooley. Welcome and thank you for your service ahead of time.

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 >> Thank you very much. >> As a reminder to the board, please wait

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 to be acknowledged by the chair before speaking. First item -- before we start, do we have

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 any participants from the public? >> No, not today, ma'am. Thank you.

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 >> Thank you. First item, consider approval of the minutes for December 14th, 2020.

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 >> Thank you, George. George, you have a question, concern?

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 >> No, I just -- I motion to approve the minutes. >> Prior to that, are there any concerns or

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 questions? >> No, ma'am.

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 >> I'll second. >> Thank you. George, motion has been made.

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 All in favor? >> Aye.

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 >> Anyone opposed? All right. Minutes approved. Second item, receive a report, hold a discussion

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 and give staff input regarding the parks, recreation and trails system master plan update.

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 >> Good afternoon, Gary Pack and director of parks and recreation. We have some members

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 of our half associate team, Lenny and Kendall, present to talk about our plan. Obviously,

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 we started this in January of 2019, doing it internally, and we had some staff leave

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 and then also COVID hit and we came to a screeching halt outside of our trails planning. So in

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 order to get this done efficiently and effectively, we decided to hire half to help us get to

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 that point, and so we kicked that off a few months ago and we're moving right along with

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 hopefully an anticipation of completion by the end of the calendar year. So Lenny Hughes,

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 I'll go ahead and let you talk and then we can go from there with Kendall.

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 >> Sure. Thank you, Gary. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Lenny Hughes, the regional

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 director of planning and half associates and we're going to be presenting today, giving

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 you guys an update on the parks and recreational space master plan. This will be a series of

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 meetings that we're going to be holding with staff and also with the public at large to

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 look at kind of going through our visiting process, giving the background for the plan,

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 but also looking at next steps for the future there. So we have a brief presentation at

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 the end that we're going to open it up to question and answer session here with the

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 park board. So just quickly, the agenda, we're going to look at the project purpose, an overview,

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 what's been done to date. Like Gary said, there's been a lot of significant work that's

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 been done by the staff as well as other consultants, and so we're going to be looking at compiling

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 this information and developing a planning document for the city. Here we'll also look

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 at the existing system and just also kind of share with you some of our initial observations

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 from our citywide tour that we held back in January. Then again, as I said before, go

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 through a brief vision and exercise. So a little bit about ourselves. Half Associates,

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 we're a multidisciplinary firm. Our home office is located in Richardson, Texas. That's where

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 I reside out of, as well as Kendall and the rest of the other planning team. We are full

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 service company that covers everything from architecture to architectural planning, to

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 civil engineering and transportation. So again, we are full service and we'll be providing

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 park planning services here for the city. I myself, I'm the project manager. Also on

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 the line here today is also is Kendall Howard. She'll be the deputy project manager. And

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 then we have a whole host of others that will provide support for us from planning to QAQC.

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 And also we teamed with Mike Svetz of Approach Consulting. They've done some previous work

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 with the city looking at the aquatics facilities review. And so we're going to be weaving all

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 that information into the overall planning document. So just a little bit of the plan

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 on purpose. Again, as Gary said before, there's been a lot of significant efforts that's been

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 provided in the past. And so we're going to take this information, compile it all into

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 an overall planning document. There's also been a significant amount of public engagement

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 that has occurred over in the past as well. And so we want to make sure that we're getting

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 all this information in, testing it, make sure that people's thoughts and opinions are

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 same as was initially gauged back in 2019. And also to look at some of the other, any

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 other upcoming planning and recreational efforts for the city. This will be a guiding document

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 for park development over the next five to 10 years. It will look at ways to enhance

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 or improve the existing system, but also make sure that we are in lockstep with the growth

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 and development that's happening and occurring in and around Denton. There's a lot of things

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 that's happening in the area. And so we want to make sure that we're planning for parks

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 in the future. One of the other key components of the plan is an action plan. And so this

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 will provide guidance on what areas we developed, how much these things are going to cost. And

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 so this is, we have a systematic way of looking at future development items here for the city.

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 One other resulting aspect of the plan will be having this plan being compliant with Texas

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 Parks and Wildlife, or TPWD, but also having this plan CAPRA compliant. So looking at the

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 planning process, there are basically six different state phases here. The first phase

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 was really as important as community understanding, where we review existing data, make sure that

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 we understand what plans are in place, and go through a very exhaustive review of the

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 current facilities and inventory of the current system. Phase two, we look at the community

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 vision. Again, there's been a lot of information that's been gathered in the past. And so we

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 want to make sure that this plan meets those goals, are really and truly what they've heard

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 in the past. And if there's ways of looking and acquiring additional input, then we're

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 going to look at engaging the public even further to provide additional information.

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 Phase three looks at the overall needs assessment. This looks at the overall park conditions

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 and level of service. I look on it per capita for citizens per acreage there in the city.

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 Step four will be the parks and recreation trail system recommendations, where we'll

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 kind of vet out the different areas for improvement for the community, as well as how these things

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 would start to lay out for future park development. Then once we've already gotten all this information

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 together, then we'll start to develop a draft plan where we will review this with staff

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 and also with the park board. From there, then we'll look at plan adoption for final

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 approval by the board, as well as by city council. We kicked this project off in January

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 where we had a series of meetings to lay out the plan. We also had a two-day tour of all

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 your park facilities at the end of January. So right now, we're looking at the community

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 vision, where we, again, have several meetings that set up over the next few days and extra

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 few weeks to gather additional input for the plan, and then have other subsequent meetings

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 or touches to make sure that we're meeting the city's goals for the overall project.

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 As we had said before, this is probably about a 12-month process, and the project will conclude

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 in the month of December. As far as this engagement process, we've got several groups. We've got

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 a master plan focus group. There are three meetings scheduled for that. That looks at

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 the overall project initiation, a midpoint review, then a final review. This is also

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 going to happen to occur with the department staff leads, and then also we have briefings

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 to city council, as well as the park board, to make sure that we are, again, in lockstep

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 with your goals and vision for the park plan. We have a series of public meetings. These

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 will be held virtually. I believe the first public meeting would be held sometime in early

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 March, and then a subsequent meeting later on in a process to present to them our plan

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 recommendations. Then part of this process, we're going to have an abbreviated community

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 survey, gathering additional input from the citizens.

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 At this point, I'd like to turn it to Kendall to talk about what's been completed so far.

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 Great. Thank you, Lenny, and good afternoon, everyone. As Lenny mentioned, there has been

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 a lot of staff-level effort to date to assess the existing system and conduct some initial

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 engagement efforts. We wanted to briefly touch on what has been completed so far and what

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 will serve as the foundation for this master plan as we work to finalize it.

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 First we are taking a lot of credence into the existing plans and documents that have

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 been done to date. Some recent efforts and studies that have been completed include the

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 trails analysis, the urban forest master plan, and a whole host of other plans, as you see

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 here. So as we work to put together the finalized master plan, we will be incorporating the

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 key recommendations from these efforts into the overall park system master plan.

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 The draft master plan also took a look at the existing needs assessment. So looking

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 at what parks are within Denton today and how that translates to service areas and level

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 of service. So these are early estimates back from 2020. So as we work to update the needs

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 assessment, these numbers will change. They will be refined as we take into account some

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 additional acreage that has been added to the system. But this is just a snapshot in

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 time of some of the key needs assessment factors that we'll be looking at. So currently there

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 are about 4,600 residents per park. Another way to look at that is about 10.3 acres for

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 every 1,000 residents. So this level of service metric is used by the NRPA to try to start

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 to compare benchmarks for similar communities. And then parks account for about 2.5% of total

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 land area with the city. And then also through this process, we'll look at refining these

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 deficit numbers to determine what the target acreage will be out to the year 2030. Staff

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 has also created a very extensive design guidelines document for parks. So they worked with lots

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 of subject matter experts to come up with very specific guidelines related to all these

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 different topics. So as new parks are developed and as parks are renovated, they will have

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 a very clearly defined guidance for how to develop and maintain those parks. So as part

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 of this process, these design guidelines will be incorporated into the final master plan

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 document as an appendix. And we will work to review and make any final refinements as

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 necessary. Lenny mentioned there's been a lot of engagement to date for the master plan

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 process. So we are taking a very critical look at what's been heard and are there any

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 gaps that we need to go back out and get additional input from the community on. So this slide

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 shows some preliminary vision characteristics that was developed as part of the draft master

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 plans. It's really focusing on what sort of key community benefits parks and recreation

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 can bring to a community. So some of those are community revitalization, promoting tourism,

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 enhancing quality of life, creating a destination or experience. So these are really serving

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 as the primary characteristics for the overall master plan vision. So as we conduct additional

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 engagement, we will look at refining these as we move forward. So in terms of previous

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 engagement efforts, over the past couple years, staff has done extensive engagement throughout

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 the community. Back in mid to late 2019, there were five community wide meetings held at

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 different parts of the city. So they did some dollar voting exercises and then had some

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 input stations focused on different aspects of the parks and recreation system. In addition

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 to those community wide meetings, there are also over 35 focus group meetings held. So

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 these were held with user groups such as aquatics users, sports associations or leagues, recreation

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 center users to really get targeted input from those key user groups about what they

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 perceive to be the needs and issues moving forward for the park system. So lots of great

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 input received from those focus group meetings. And then you'll also likely recall that there

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 was a statistically valid survey done administered by National Service Research. So this was

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 done in the first part of 2019. And there were just over 2000 total respondents. So

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 they were able to respond online or through mailing and paper formats. So we're not going

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 to get into the statistics or key findings from that survey. We just have a couple top

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 responses there looking at most frequently used facilities. Those include the natatorium,

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 waterworks, the dog park, Clear Creek, and then the senior center. And then there was

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 also some questions related to why residents may not use city of Denton facilities. And

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 some of those top responses were that facilities aren't conveniently located. They're not aware

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 of programs or facilities. They don't have personal time and they do not meet my needs.

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 So these are just a handful of, I think, 20 plus questions that were part of that statistically

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 valid survey. So as part of this process, Lenny mentioned, we are going to be looking

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 at doing an abbreviated online survey. So this will help to fill in any gaps from this

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 original survey and also help to inform how people's use and perception of parks and recreation

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 facilities have changed, especially since the pandemic began. So in looking at all of the

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 engagement effort that has been done to date, this slide summarizes some of the top desired

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 amenities or programs that has been identified to date. So those amenities are trails, open

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 space and tree preservation, splash pads, nature programs, outdoor events, and then

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 more from an indoor programming aspect, we have fitness equipment and fitness classes.

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 So again, as we go through that online survey and additional community input, we'll work

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 to confirm these top desired amenities and programs.

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 Can I ask a question if I could? On the last slide or two ago, it looked like the green

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 was related to things they wanted and red was related to things they didn't. But in

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 this case, you're just identifying, I'm sorry, blue and red. In this case, it was just outdoor

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 versus indoor is the color designation on those? Yes. On this one here? Yes. Okay. So

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 these all seven of these are amenities or programs that are desired. This pinkish color

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 just represents indoor amenities. Okay, thanks. Sorry if that was obvious to others. Oh, no,

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 that's a great question. Thank you. All right. So then moving forward, really where the half

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 team comes in is, again, to look at confirming the overall vision, updating the system needs

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 assessment. As you can see, just driving around Denton, growth is happening very, very quickly.

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 So we want to account for all the population growth that has occurred. And also, there's

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 been quite a bit of land acquisition for additional parkland. So all of that will translate into

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 an updated needs assessment to really help identify where there are still gaps in providing

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 access to parks within Denton. Then we'll work to review existing recommendations and

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 also add in additional recommendations for parks, recreation, and trails based on the

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 needs assessment and the engagement. And then finally, we'll work to prioritize implementation

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 actions and compile the overall master plan document. So we're sure you all are very familiar

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 with the existing system, but we have just a couple slides that gives a brief snapshot

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 of what Denton looks like today. So there are about 40 developed parks. So these are

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 parks that have amenities within them. In addition to that, there's about 15 undeveloped

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 or open space parks that don't currently have amenities within them. And the total park

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 acreage is about over 5,000 acres of total parkland. And this increased significantly

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 recently with the addition of the Clear Creek Heritage Center now under the Parks and Recreation.

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 And as part of this process, we'll also look at access or accessibility to parks. So we

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 look at, and I'm sure staff has talked a lot about this with you, the Trust for Public

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 Lands 10-Minute Walk to a Park. So currently, about 47% of residents within Denton live

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 within a 10-minute walk to a park. So as part of this process, you know, we'll be looking

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 at some ways to increase that percentage, either through strategic sidewalk or trail

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 connections to increase access to existing parks or finding where there are gaps within

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 certain neighborhoods in terms of accessing parks. And then trails is also a component

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 of this master plan. Currently, there are about 53 miles of trail within Denton. And

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 with the draft trail recommendations from the trails analysis that was done and completed

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 in the fall last year.

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 I think James has a question.

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 Yeah, thank you. Yeah, hi. Thanks, Kendall. Just a clarification. You're saying the Clear

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 Creek Heritage Center has 3,000 acres. Is that included in the 5,095 or is it not?

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 It is included in the 5,000.

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 Okay. That's one. Okay. Yes. That's a great question. Yeah, and in terms of the trails,

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 the trails analysis that was completed in the fall, it recommends a whole host of additional

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 trails throughout the city as well.

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 So something else this plan will look at is to refine the different park classifications.

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 So the list there are the current park classifications within the city. And so the purpose of defining

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 park classifications is to really set some predictability in terms of what sort of amenities

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 might be found in that park. So it can be directly tied to the design standards that

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 staff has produced in terms of what type of amenities are found in different types of

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 parks. And it also ensures that as new parks are developed, the amenities within parks

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 are equitable throughout the system. So as part of this process, we're going to be looking

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 at refining some of these park classifications to better streamline them and ensure that

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 they reflect what's existing in Denton.

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 And then we'll also be taking a deeper dive into 10 parks throughout Denton to do more

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 of an on the ground extensive audit. So these parks here, 10 parks represent a different

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 types of park classifications and different locations within Denton. So we'll be taking

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 a closer look at these 10 parks. Many of these haven't undergone a master plan effort recently,

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 so we wanted to take a deeper dive at these parks. And when we're doing so, some of the

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 attributes that we're going to be looking at to ensure that these parks continue to

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 be quality parks in the future are looking at things like accessibility. Are the parks

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 safe and comfortable? What do they offer from a social perspective? Are they activated at

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 different times of the day? And are they maintained over time? So some of the more specific components

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 that go into these attributes of quality of parks are things like location, connectivity.

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 Is it visible to surrounding areas? Are there any hidden parts of the park? Is it oriented

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 to specific types of users like children or adults? Is it meant for different generations

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 to be able to use? Is it engaging? What type of facilities and amenities are offered? What

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 type of programming or events are available? What sort of maintenance issues are there?

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 And then looking forward, how can the park be revitalized or rejuvenated in the future?

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 So as we go visit these 10 priority parks, we're going to be looking at all these different

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 components of what makes quality and complete parks. So with that, I'm going to turn it

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 back to Lenny to talk through some of the initial observations from our tour back in

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 January. Thank you, Kendall. And a lot of the images

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 that you're going to see, as Kendall said before, we did a two-day tour with the city.

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 And you know, really good information, a lot of good background on the types of parks and

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 amenities that you have here in Denton. But also, as a team, we came out beforehand and

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 took several photos, visited a majority of your parks during the summer and fall months.

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 So a lot of the imagery that you're going to see is probably going to be from the summer.

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 But you know, one of the things that we really highly noted, the next slide, is when we think

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 about the strengths of parks in Denton, that your parks are well maintained. And so as

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 we traverse the city and looked at your facilities, that didn't matter if it was in the summertime

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 or if it's even the winter, you have a well-maintained park system. Also looking at the level of use.

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 Your parks were highly used. For example, they're here at Fredmore Park. Again, citizens

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 are out there on different times of the day. And even back in the wintertime, a few weeks

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 ago, there were citizens out there at the park. It's also a growing trail network. Your

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 parks are well-connected. As Kendall said, there's about 53 miles of trails that's on

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 the ground right now. But the city also has embarked and recently completed a trails master

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 plan. And so as we continue to look at the park development and trail development here,

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 we want to make sure that we're providing access, connectivity to a lot of your major

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 destinations here within the city. There's also a very diverse type of group of facilities.

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 River Creek. Again, this is a hidden gem. This has now become part of the park system

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 preview. And so, again, 3,000 acres that's been acquired, but has been handed over to

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 the city parks department. Again, this is a great opportunity to really enhance and

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 provide better visibility and access to the park itself. There's also a significant amount

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 of existing partnerships, specifically with ISD with an auditorium. We see that there

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 is a growing opportunity to further enhance this and provide access to an expanded park

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 network system as well as expanded partnerships there. You've also really started to include

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 the educational features such as park signage that looks at some of the different vegetation

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 and tree characteristics there within the city. We saw this in several parks where you've

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 incorporated educational aspects into the park network. But one thing that really we

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 took notice of was the overall tree canopy. Being in the -- next slide there. You've got

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 such a tremendous amount of trees here. You're right in the heart of the cross timbers area.

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 And so that is highly reflective of your parks. Again, they're not only well maintained but

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 also just the amount of tree canopy that's been preserved for your park network. As we

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 driven all across Denton, there's a lot of roadways very active. There's a lot of roadway

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 projects that are happening and ongoing. And, you know, we mentioned that partnership earlier.

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 So you guys have -- parks has really embraced the partnership with some of the engineering

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 and the roadway projects. And so I really applaud the city and being proactive and incorporating

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 these types of pedestrian access and connectivity with their roadway networks. Then lastly, it's

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 a progressive outlook. There's a lot of things happening in Denton with community gardens.

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 There's a paddling trails initiative that you guys have really taken the leadership

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 on. And so being -- having that progressive outlook even with the wildfire plantings.

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 And so that will help transform your current park system to something that will be marveled

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 by many of your -- you know, competing cities within the DFW region. So with the great strength

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 there's always opportunities. There's always opportunities for making sure that we address

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 the significant growth that's happening, occurring with the community. Make sure that we're planning

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 for parks and trails and connectivity. With that, there's also a demand for additional

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 recreational facilities. And so one of the things that we've taken a look at is, you

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 know, what's the -- as Kendall mentioned before, there's those 10 parks that we look at audits.

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 And so what type of additional recreational facilities are needed? What is the condition

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 of the current park? Are there rooms for improvement? Then again, also what is the overall vision

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 for recreation for Denton? There's also the unique amenities with the splash park. And

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 so other opportunities to really enhance that. And we see that there are plans in place to

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 add additional spray grounds and splash pads for some of your other park facilities there

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 in the community. We want to look at, you know, signage. You know, what are some of

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 the signs that's there? Are there ways to help clean up and maybe modify, look at some

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 top unified branding or signage improvements for the city? Looking at ways to -- next slide

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 there. Enhancing pedestrian access or connectivity to your parks. You know, this is Mack Park

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 here. And, you know, you've got parks on either side of the road. But are there ways to provide

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 safe crossings for park users? You know, incorporating art and culture. You guys got some really

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 unique and eclectic venues around town. And so there may be a way to incorporate art into

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 your parks. And we talked about connectivity earlier. You know, make sure this is well

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 connected. Providing wide enough sidewalks to handle to the pedestrians and cyclists

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 or other many users there within your trail network. And are there opportunities to refresh

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 or enhance your existing rec facilities and aquatic facilities? And so to be competitive

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 with other communities, a lot of cities are having these multigenerational facilities.

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 And so they're much larger. It has a larger capacity. But also they offer more program

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 items. And so, again, as part of this process, we're looking at how do we enhance or expand

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 upon your current recreation aquatic amenities here within Denton.

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 The lastly is destination parks. You know, we've had a chance to drive around and look

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 at your facilities. And, man, you've got a lot of great amenities here within the city.

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 And you know, for us destination facilities, you know, this is the park here. It's City

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 Hall, Quickertown Park. And it gets used by for several community events. And so, is there

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 a way or are there opportunities to really enhance these parks to make it more multifunctional

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 year round and for multiple activities for the community?

302
00:34:04,160 --> 00:34:08,600
 Excuse me, Mr. Hughes. There's a question. Mr. Amory?

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00:34:08,600 --> 00:34:12,440
 Yes. Can you hear me okay? Yes, sir.

304
00:34:12,440 --> 00:34:19,040
 Thank you. Yes, Lenny. Thank you on that. My question for you is, did when you were

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 looking around and at the trails and the connections and so forth, was there a look at what our

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00:34:25,120 --> 00:34:32,040
 surrounding communities are doing so that there are if there are any connection possibilities

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 with them? And I'm going to use an example. For example, the Cottonwood Trail, which coming

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 up from Fort Worth and supposed to go all the way up to Oklahoma along the 377 railroad

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 there. So I just wondered if you guys took a look at the surrounding communities for

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00:34:52,520 --> 00:34:56,480
 possible connections to their trail systems and vice versa.

311
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 As far as process, we will look at the internal connections as well as the external connections.

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00:35:01,680 --> 00:35:10,000
 So I know that the trails plan was recently completed. And so we'll look at and evaluate

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 where those connections are. Really importantly for us, are the other communities talking

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 to or are we talking to our adjacent neighbors? Then how do we facilitate those connections?

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00:35:21,600 --> 00:35:30,340
 And so yes, that will be part of our process. Hey, Lenny. And staff has reached out to all

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 our surrounding cities also. Great, great. So now looking at this preliminary

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 vision concept and we talked about destination parks and we talked about connectivity access.

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00:35:50,040 --> 00:35:55,800
 There's also a lot of significant growth that's happening and occurring in and around

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 Denton. And so we've identified what we see are really four, you know, as we see these

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 destination parks, one there is Clear Creek Nature Center, as North Lakes Park, as South

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 Lakes Park, as Quaker Town. There's also some of the major destinations such as the universities

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00:36:16,240 --> 00:36:21,360
 and downtown. But, you know, the growth and development that's happening and occurring

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 in and around Denton is just incredible. And so, you know, one of the visionary concepts

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00:36:26,560 --> 00:36:33,320
 we talked about is, you know, how do we provide access and connectivity, you know, specifically

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00:36:33,320 --> 00:36:40,920
 from, you know, from Clear Creek Park in the downtown or to Quaker Town? And what are those,

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 you know, opportunities to enhance the green belts and provide greater access and connectivity

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 through the trail network? And then really, you know, something that's really unique for

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00:36:51,640 --> 00:36:57,620
 this region is the paddling trails. You know, and they've done an excellent job of reaching

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 out to their neighbors and surrounding communities on the lakes to provide, you know, additional

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00:37:05,160 --> 00:37:12,040
 trail access and paddling access, canoe access to in and around the area. And so the overall

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00:37:12,040 --> 00:37:19,880
 vision for the plan is, you know, looking at a series of connection points, access, how

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00:37:19,880 --> 00:37:26,720
 do we enhance and really look at these destination parks? What type of amenities or facilities

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00:37:26,720 --> 00:37:31,840
 should be incorporated into those? And then, you know, look at, you know, how do we provide

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00:37:31,840 --> 00:37:36,240
 parks and access to accommodate, you know, all the development and growth that's happening

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00:37:36,240 --> 00:37:45,000
 and occurring in Denton? So next steps, again, as mentioned before,

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00:37:45,000 --> 00:37:50,680
 we've got a series of engagement meetings. We've got an engagement meeting tomorrow morning

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00:37:50,680 --> 00:37:58,160
 with staff. Then also on March 4th, we have our first virtual public meeting, and we'll

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00:37:58,160 --> 00:38:05,200
 get the invites sent out. And you guys, again, welcome to attend and to participate in that.

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00:38:05,200 --> 00:38:11,880
 From there, we're going to continue our needs assessment of the recommendations for the

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00:38:11,880 --> 00:38:18,280
 plan. Then as part of the process, again, is look at an abbreviated online survey to

341
00:38:18,280 --> 00:38:24,480
 reach out to the citizens, make sure that we're addressing any other needs or concerns

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00:38:24,480 --> 00:38:29,720
 and for the project. So before I start on the next phase, are there any other additional

343
00:38:29,720 --> 00:38:40,800
 questions or comments that you may have here? >> I have a comment, question, kind of something

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 to consider. You were talking about adding art and culture into the trails and the parks.

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 And I would just like to add that I think we should be looking at cultural history of

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 the areas of those parks, and also making sure that the natural history is preserved

347
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 as well. One of the things I worry about, especially with areas like Clear Creek, is

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00:39:15,040 --> 00:39:22,040
 as they become more of a destination, they lose some of the nature feel that they have

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 right now. So I don't know how to put things in place to preserve that natural feeling.

350
00:39:29,720 --> 00:39:36,040
 Because if you go to like one of the big preserves and say like Plano, I think Arbor Hills is

351
00:39:36,040 --> 00:39:43,080
 one of the ones, it just doesn't feel like you're in nature. Right now, Clear Creek feels

352
00:39:43,080 --> 00:39:49,280
 like you're in nature. And I would just like to know how we could preserve that feeling.

353
00:39:49,280 --> 00:39:56,760
 >> You can take that one on Clear Creek. >> Clear Creek is unique in its own because

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 it is a lease with the core of engineers. And anything that happens at Clear Creek has

355
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 to get special permission. Clear Creek is also designated as an environmental sensitive

356
00:40:09,160 --> 00:40:19,600
 area on their mapping systems and all their GIS maps. So obviously, most of us know anything

357
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 that has to do with an ESA, you can't change. And especially with the Army Corps engineers,

358
00:40:25,240 --> 00:40:32,200
 there's no permits to change their ESAs at all, and that is their property. So happy

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 to say that Clear Creek will stay as natural as it is.

360
00:40:37,240 --> 00:40:44,960
 >> What about the other areas that are maybe in the future park area that will definitely

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00:40:44,960 --> 00:40:49,960
 be growing really, really fast with lots of concrete? How do we make sure to preserve

362
00:40:49,960 --> 00:40:55,120
 some of that nature? >> So we're working on that right now. Gary

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00:40:55,120 --> 00:41:02,320
 and I and other staff, we work with developers weekly on property, for instance. We hope

364
00:41:02,320 --> 00:41:09,280
 to bring you a property soon that's actually a nationally recognized wetlands property.

365
00:41:09,280 --> 00:41:14,880
 And you know, so it'll have something like, you know, Louisville has. And then we have

366
00:41:14,880 --> 00:41:19,240
 other property, especially like with the, you know, prairie restoration and wildflower

367
00:41:19,240 --> 00:41:24,640
 planning program that I brought a few months ago, you know, restoring those properties.

368
00:41:24,640 --> 00:41:30,940
 You know, Haywood Morgan, our urban forester, is doing a tree transplanting project right

369
00:41:30,940 --> 00:41:37,520
 now to remove post oaks from a property that's going to be developed. And now we're getting

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00:41:37,520 --> 00:41:43,000
 those properties and we'll continuously, you know, try to work on saving as many trees

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00:41:43,000 --> 00:41:48,760
 as we can from developed property into our undeveloped property that we have designated

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00:41:48,760 --> 00:41:53,720
 as undeveloped. And the only thing it'll have there is that experience for you to go like

373
00:41:53,720 --> 00:41:58,600
 Clear Creek and soft surface trails for you to be able to go and experience nature. And

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 of course that includes, you know, the wildflowers, the prairie restoration, wildlife habitats

375
00:42:04,560 --> 00:42:09,160
 and wildlife corridors.

376
00:42:09,160 --> 00:42:23,920
 A quick question. This is Denona. I'm just wondering, and it just goes back to the last

377
00:42:23,920 --> 00:42:31,840
 question that was asked about the preservation piece. Is there a city or a suburban city

378
00:42:31,840 --> 00:42:39,760
 or a large city or small town that we're kind of benchmarking ourselves against? You know,

379
00:42:39,760 --> 00:42:46,920
 a lot of times when we look at a lot of the plans, you know, it's hard to see the larger

380
00:42:46,920 --> 00:42:53,400
 vision of it. And so I'm just wondering, is there anybody that we strive to be like? Or,

381
00:42:53,400 --> 00:42:57,960
 you know, of course we want to be like ourselves. We want to be like ourselves. But if we knew

382
00:42:57,960 --> 00:43:07,040
 if the vision was more urban versus more sprawlish, then we could, I think as a board, at least

383
00:43:07,040 --> 00:43:11,400
 have an idea of where we're all trying to go.

384
00:43:11,400 --> 00:43:19,160
 So as part of the process, and we'll bet that with staff to determine, you know, what are

385
00:43:19,160 --> 00:43:25,840
 the other comparable cities or cities that you would strive to be like, or better yet,

386
00:43:25,840 --> 00:43:32,320
 let's be uniquely Denton. And I think that, again, you know, I've worked with many communities

387
00:43:32,320 --> 00:43:40,600
 in around the state of Texas and beyond, but you guys have a such a unique geographic position

388
00:43:40,600 --> 00:43:46,520
 and location with, you know, these extensive green belts, but also, you know, the vegetative

389
00:43:46,520 --> 00:43:53,320
 quality that you have here in Denton. And so, again, there has to be a strike of balance

390
00:43:53,320 --> 00:44:00,840
 and really and truly, you know, the footprint that is that you guys have laid already with

391
00:44:00,840 --> 00:44:05,600
 the current parks. And again, I'll go back to know some of the strengths that you have

392
00:44:05,600 --> 00:44:11,760
 here in Denton and the quality of trees, the way the trees were preserved. And, you know,

393
00:44:11,760 --> 00:44:17,960
 to me, that is what makes your city, you know, unique. And so we will definitely be looking

394
00:44:17,960 --> 00:44:24,100
 at now what other cities that are out there, either locally, regionally, or nationally,

395
00:44:24,100 --> 00:44:29,760
 that we would compare ourselves to. Then in that same vein, how do we get there? You know,

396
00:44:29,760 --> 00:44:34,100
 what steps need to be put in place? What preservation measures are there right now that we need

397
00:44:34,100 --> 00:44:40,720
 to enhance or put in place to, you know, to make sure that we're preserving, you know,

398
00:44:40,720 --> 00:44:45,800
 the natural character and vegetation here in Denton.

399
00:44:45,800 --> 00:44:47,600
 Thank you. Brooke, did you have a question?

400
00:44:47,600 --> 00:44:52,480
 Lenny, I was curious in regards to kind of public art, if you guys were looking at any

401
00:44:52,480 --> 00:44:58,280
 kind of graffiti art in our interactive art places, we have acne brick, which could build

402
00:44:58,280 --> 00:45:05,840
 a really cool wall or Peterbilt, and just kind of like you think about Cadillac Ranch,

403
00:45:05,840 --> 00:45:11,040
 or like Peterbilt Ranch, and you can come spray them. It's an idea that I've talked

404
00:45:11,040 --> 00:45:16,440
 to Gary about previously and presented to some groups, and everybody seems really like,

405
00:45:16,440 --> 00:45:23,400
 "Oh, that's so Denton," and a little Austin as well with Hope Garden there, or Hope Park.

406
00:45:23,400 --> 00:45:26,280
 But just throwing it out there, I don't know if that's something that you guys have looked

407
00:45:26,280 --> 00:45:27,280
 into as well.

408
00:45:27,280 --> 00:45:31,800
 We haven't looked into that yet, but I think, you know, comments like these will start to

409
00:45:31,800 --> 00:45:36,320
 spur conversation, and, you know, and look at ways how do we incorporate that into, you

410
00:45:36,320 --> 00:45:41,560
 know, the park vision. And really and truly, for me, it's creating the vision that makes

411
00:45:41,560 --> 00:45:47,560
 -- you already have such a unique and eclectic city already, but how do we weave that into

412
00:45:47,560 --> 00:45:54,240
 the park system? You know, my thought, my vision is, you know, going back to that map

413
00:45:54,240 --> 00:45:58,760
 that showed all the different developments and the dust station parks and the series

414
00:45:58,760 --> 00:46:04,120
 of trails there that you have in the city, but how do we make this -- yes, that image

415
00:46:04,120 --> 00:46:10,280
 right there. So how do we make and weave in, you know, the qualities of preservation, art,

416
00:46:10,280 --> 00:46:16,520
 culture, history, connectivity, and so that we can make this uniquely Denton? And to me,

417
00:46:16,520 --> 00:46:21,400
 I think that's that overall vision that I have for the system is, how do we create this

418
00:46:21,400 --> 00:46:26,960
 series of uniqueness here within the community?

419
00:46:26,960 --> 00:46:31,200
 So I think that will start to spur our questions. If you guys want to go there.

420
00:46:31,200 --> 00:46:39,240
 >> If I could just add one more comment to follow up Danona's thoughts. We have, in fact,

421
00:46:39,240 --> 00:46:46,000
 Eddie has been working on this, identifying the cities we want to be like Mike. And it's

422
00:46:46,000 --> 00:46:52,160
 not just one city per se, but we've started to narrow it down to the cities that do trails

423
00:46:52,160 --> 00:46:57,040
 best. The cities that do rec centers best. So we -- because not everybody does everything

424
00:46:57,040 --> 00:47:03,140
 well. I mean, there's definitely some highlight cities out there for sure. But there's different

425
00:47:03,140 --> 00:47:08,320
 things that we would like to pick and choose from different cities. So we started that

426
00:47:08,320 --> 00:47:12,000
 and then we've been on a couple projects. So it needs to circle back around and get

427
00:47:12,000 --> 00:47:15,880
 some more attention. But that is something that we started to do. And as soon as we get

428
00:47:15,880 --> 00:47:18,480
 done with that, we'll definitely share it with our consultants.

429
00:47:18,480 --> 00:47:27,160
 >> And can I add to that, Gary? You might. It's Eddie. And just exactly what Gary was

430
00:47:27,160 --> 00:47:32,760
 saying. I think some of the criteria we're looking at as well is if there's like a university

431
00:47:32,760 --> 00:47:37,320
 nearby very similar to population as well. You know, all very similar characteristics.

432
00:47:37,320 --> 00:47:44,600
 But again, just not all cities, just like Gary have said that, you know, some do things

433
00:47:44,600 --> 00:47:47,560
 a little bit better than others. So we're just kind of trying to follow that track that

434
00:47:47,560 --> 00:47:54,280
 fits Denton, because there's not one particular city that is like Denton as well.

435
00:47:54,280 --> 00:47:59,200
 But on another note, I'm not sure who's controlling the PowerPoint, but I think you might want

436
00:47:59,200 --> 00:48:05,240
 to pull it down so the public could see, you know, the faces and the people who are asking

437
00:48:05,240 --> 00:48:19,120
 the questions as well, just noting that. Yeah, so if it's Kendall, then, right? Are you the

438
00:48:19,120 --> 00:48:20,120
 one who's controlling that?

439
00:48:20,120 --> 00:48:24,200
 >> Yes, I didn't really understand what you were saying.

440
00:48:24,200 --> 00:48:28,960
 >> So the PowerPoint presentation, this is being viewed by the community. We can't see

441
00:48:28,960 --> 00:48:34,560
 everyone's face when they're asking a question. So do you mind pulling it down whenever there's

442
00:48:34,560 --> 00:48:35,560
 a question?

443
00:48:35,560 --> 00:48:40,400
 >> Oh, yes. I got -- yes, I understand.

444
00:48:40,400 --> 00:48:41,400
 >> Thank you.

445
00:48:41,400 --> 00:48:45,840
 >> Thank you. Okay. I think Jerry, you had a question?

446
00:48:45,840 --> 00:48:50,920
 >> Yeah, and I want to drag you down because I'm trying to catch up here. But can you clarify

447
00:48:50,920 --> 00:48:55,680
 what you mean by connectivity? I mean, you keep bringing that up, and I'm not sure what

448
00:48:55,680 --> 00:48:59,520
 you're thinking about the connectivity aspect of it.

449
00:48:59,520 --> 00:49:06,280
 >> So one really good example, and as we did our two-day tour, and, again, I was marveled

450
00:49:06,280 --> 00:49:16,080
 by Clear Creek Park, just saying a destination, but also Quaker Town. There's a lot of history,

451
00:49:16,080 --> 00:49:22,760
 a lot of culture. This is where the city does their business there. And as we went from

452
00:49:22,760 --> 00:49:36,680
 Quaker Town out to, you know, we drove along, right, Mingo Road. There's several other potential

453
00:49:36,680 --> 00:49:45,720
 park opportunities there along Mingo. And so if we can enhance that, the connectivity,

454
00:49:45,720 --> 00:49:50,160
 if there are roadway projects that's happening and occurring now with the engineering and

455
00:49:50,160 --> 00:49:56,440
 streets department, and we can piggyback on that and provide now this pedestrian connectivity

456
00:49:56,440 --> 00:50:03,200
 and connect to Clear Creek, connect to Quaker Town, and connect to other parts of the community.

457
00:50:03,200 --> 00:50:10,320
 To me, that's connectivity. How do we connect either through our bicycles, pedestrians,

458
00:50:10,320 --> 00:50:15,400
 and various ways to incorporate and weave in art, history, and culture, education? I

459
00:50:15,400 --> 00:50:22,320
 mean, there's some really nice, cool educational opportunities there along Mingo Road. And

460
00:50:22,320 --> 00:50:27,360
 so how do we weave that into, you know, our network, our park system?

461
00:50:27,360 --> 00:50:31,760
 >> Well, thank you. That's awesome. Yes, thank you.

462
00:50:31,760 --> 00:50:32,760
 >> Sure.

463
00:50:32,760 --> 00:50:38,720
 >> I have just a quick question. I joined late. Sorry about that. Lenny, I was just

464
00:50:38,720 --> 00:50:46,000
 wondering what organization you are from. Met you before.

465
00:50:46,000 --> 00:50:51,520
 >> I'm with Half Associates. I've been with Half now for about 25, 26 years now.

466
00:50:51,520 --> 00:50:52,520
 >> Okay.

467
00:50:52,520 --> 00:50:59,440
 >> I lead our recreation and planning teams in North Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas.

468
00:50:59,440 --> 00:51:01,440
 >> Okay. Thank you.

469
00:51:01,440 --> 00:51:06,920
 >> Yes, you're welcome. Yes, sir.

470
00:51:06,920 --> 00:51:10,120
 >> Yes. Yes, Mr. Freed.

471
00:51:10,120 --> 00:51:16,560
 >> Hi. Sorry. I couldn't get myself unmuted there for a second. Hi. Thank you, people

472
00:51:16,560 --> 00:51:21,880
 at Half, for your presentation, first and foremost. So this is set to be complete at

473
00:51:21,880 --> 00:51:23,840
 the end of this year. Is that correct?

474
00:51:23,840 --> 00:51:25,480
 >> Yes, that is correct.

475
00:51:25,480 --> 00:51:30,800
 >> Awesome. Blossom. And yeah, I just wanted to uplift kind of what I'm hearing from a

476
00:51:30,800 --> 00:51:36,040
 lot of people on the board about I'm all about having those benchmarks like Gary mentioned,

477
00:51:36,040 --> 00:51:40,040
 like who's doing the best at this, who's doing the best at that, and then also staying very

478
00:51:40,040 --> 00:51:45,240
 uniquely Denton to our own identities and wanting to uplift the preservation side in

479
00:51:45,240 --> 00:51:50,680
 that I feel like there can be this marriage of both, right? Where we find parks where

480
00:51:50,680 --> 00:51:57,280
 more interactive, very cool Cadillac Ranch style. I've been there, actually. I went during

481
00:51:57,280 --> 00:52:01,320
 COVID because it was an outdoor activity where you could just go do something, right? Brooke,

482
00:52:01,320 --> 00:52:08,160
 I totally hear that. I went there and went to Palo Duro Canyon and went, you know, backpacking.

483
00:52:08,160 --> 00:52:12,120
 But also having those like Clear Creek being preserved, right? Not adding in elements that

484
00:52:12,120 --> 00:52:18,320
 kind of take away from the natural aspect of what we want to keep. And I know that we've

485
00:52:18,320 --> 00:52:24,360
 had lots of meetings and that you guys have had over 40 was listed in the, you know, the

486
00:52:24,360 --> 00:52:28,280
 advisory sheet. So I know that you're doing the due diligence. I just wanted to uplift

487
00:52:28,280 --> 00:52:33,760
 that and like keep that as a fun, like, center focal point. But yeah, thank you all for your

488
00:52:33,760 --> 00:52:38,080
 presentation and your hard work. So I think there's a few more slides and I think, Lenny,

489
00:52:38,080 --> 00:52:42,280
 some of those questions are going to tie into some of this. So why don't we go ahead and

490
00:52:42,280 --> 00:52:47,720
 work through that so we can collect that data in your presentation. Yeah, thank you, Gary.

491
00:52:47,720 --> 00:52:54,520
 So as far as process, we've got three questions and, you know, I would like, basically, I'll

492
00:52:54,520 --> 00:53:00,800
 read the questions to everyone. And if you guys can either jot down your thoughts, you

493
00:53:00,800 --> 00:53:06,160
 know, can they be your top three, right? And so they will go around the room, they will

494
00:53:06,160 --> 00:53:09,640
 ask everyone to kind of present their idea. And, you know, I know we have limited time

495
00:53:09,640 --> 00:53:16,960
 here, so we want to make sure that we use everyone's time as best as possible. But thinking

496
00:53:16,960 --> 00:53:23,660
 about the big vision and, you know, there's, we heard a lot about preservation and protection

497
00:53:23,660 --> 00:53:28,600
 of our natural resources and connectivity and, you know, how do we weave in our culture,

498
00:53:28,600 --> 00:53:37,380
 how do we make this plan uniquely Denton? But how do you envision Denton in 10 years?

499
00:53:37,380 --> 00:53:42,920
 What is your, how do you foresee your community 10 years from now? If you had a crystal ball,

500
00:53:42,920 --> 00:53:49,560
 can look into it. And, you know, so we've, we've brought this one, what is, you know,

501
00:53:49,560 --> 00:53:55,560
 what do you envision for your community? So I'll give everyone, you know, I'll give it

502
00:53:55,560 --> 00:54:00,840
 a minute or two for everyone to think about it, jot some answers down. And, you know,

503
00:54:00,840 --> 00:54:08,720
 I know this is, we're doing this COVID, we're COVID friendly. But if you can, if you have

504
00:54:08,720 --> 00:54:15,400
 something that's on your notes, and maybe you can take a photo of that, email that to

505
00:54:15,400 --> 00:54:21,200
 Gary and Drew or the, or to your, actually to your, your cardboard chair, that way we

506
00:54:21,200 --> 00:54:24,320
 can still collect all the information with that.

507
00:54:24,320 --> 00:54:30,120
 So Penny, I have a question for you. I'm a fundraiser. So whenever I hear these questions,

508
00:54:30,120 --> 00:54:36,640
 I assume that cost is no limit. Is this what we're going on the basis? Okay. We're dreaming

509
00:54:36,640 --> 00:54:41,280
 big. I'm a dreamer. So you're asking the right person. I just needed to confirm that cost

510
00:54:41,280 --> 00:54:45,440
 is no limit. Okay. Thank you. Make sure that, you know, when we, at the end of the day, that

511
00:54:45,440 --> 00:54:49,500
 Gary and his folks have funding in place to support it.

512
00:54:49,500 --> 00:54:50,500
 Sure.

513
00:54:50,500 --> 00:54:54,320
 This is Texas. Everything's big in Texas. Okay.

514
00:54:54,320 --> 00:55:00,480
 Right. So everyone's had that opportunity to write their comments down. And so the first

515
00:55:00,480 --> 00:55:07,240
 question is, how do you envision Denton in 10 years? And so I want to bring up the, you

516
00:55:07,240 --> 00:55:15,520
 want to type here or do we want to bring up the, the full view of everyone? What's your

517
00:55:15,520 --> 00:55:23,120
 thoughts on that? There we go. Great. So the question is, how do you envision Denton in

518
00:55:23,120 --> 00:55:30,960
 10 years? And so I'm going to start around the horn and on my screen, we have Mr. Whitmore

519
00:55:30,960 --> 00:55:37,200
 to the, to my, to my left. And so I'll let, and the rules of engagement. You only give

520
00:55:37,200 --> 00:55:43,400
 one answer right now. And then if they're in effect, yes, I know that we have a lot

521
00:55:43,400 --> 00:55:47,840
 of overachievers here, right? So, but we're going to give one answer. Then we're going

522
00:55:47,840 --> 00:55:51,600
 to go to the next person. They're going to give one answer. But if that answer is on

523
00:55:51,600 --> 00:55:55,760
 your sheet, strike that off and go down to your next comment. Okay.

524
00:55:55,760 --> 00:56:01,520
 Hey, Lenny, do you just want to focus on the park board, the park board members? Yes. Yeah.

525
00:56:01,520 --> 00:56:06,800
 Okay. Okay. So John's a staff member. I'm sorry, John. I'll go ahead. I'll go ahead

526
00:56:06,800 --> 00:56:11,520
 and lead it just to help with that. So I'll start with the most important person on the

527
00:56:11,520 --> 00:56:21,040
 screen is Francis as our chair. I see Denton a continuous place of growth and education

528
00:56:21,040 --> 00:56:28,880
 and diversity. So growth, diversity, diversity and education. All right. All right. Jerry

529
00:56:28,880 --> 00:56:42,480
 Dooley. You put me on the spot day one, right? Gary, that's slick, man. No, I'll see. I mean,

530
00:56:42,480 --> 00:56:45,840
 there's a lot of growth happening in Denton and I don't want to see that growth inhibited

531
00:56:45,840 --> 00:56:51,000
 by any means, but Denton has a unique character with the arts and the culture and the diversity

532
00:56:51,000 --> 00:56:57,360
 and the history. So if there's a way we can balance the growth and still maintain the

533
00:56:57,360 --> 00:57:11,280
 Denton-ness, does that make sense? I don't want to turn into Frisco. Okay. Okay. Alana,

534
00:57:11,280 --> 00:57:19,960
 I should have said you second as a vice chair. So vice chair. Well, since I can't repeat anything,

535
00:57:19,960 --> 00:57:37,520
 I see Denton as a place where children can play freely in nature. Okay. Didona. I'm sorry.

536
00:57:37,520 --> 00:57:46,760
 I'm at work. So I've got two things going on. When I saw that question on the screen

537
00:57:46,760 --> 00:57:53,040
 just a few minutes ago, I thought about, you know, cities that I've lived in before. I

538
00:57:53,040 --> 00:57:58,760
 lived in Portland, Oregon. And so that's a city that, you know, has lots of mass transit.

539
00:57:58,760 --> 00:58:05,800
 We are developing mass transit with our rail system, our train system. And I love that.

540
00:58:05,800 --> 00:58:13,040
 And I would love to see development around that and parks and rec have an influence and

541
00:58:13,040 --> 00:58:20,640
 footprint around the train line. Yeah. And that's a very important aspect of it because

542
00:58:20,640 --> 00:58:26,840
 again, if you go back to the map, I won't go back to it now, but there's a lot of development

543
00:58:26,840 --> 00:58:32,840
 opportunities in the city. And I think, Gary, I pointed out before that there's potential

544
00:58:32,840 --> 00:58:43,280
 to expand the DCTA line and, you know, it goes further out. But, you know, one thing

545
00:58:43,280 --> 00:58:48,600
 is that, you know, how do we weave in, you know, there may be a new classifications when

546
00:58:48,600 --> 00:58:52,600
 we talk about urban parks. You know, I said I have pocket parks or maybe urban parks that

547
00:58:52,600 --> 00:59:02,160
 could be part of this new network of amenities and facilities here in the city.

548
00:59:02,160 --> 00:59:12,840
 James? Yeah. Well, I, my vision is that we have a, you know, I've also been in near Portland,

549
00:59:12,840 --> 00:59:19,000
 Beaverton, Oregon. I lived out there for several years. I didn't know that, you know, but anyway,

550
00:59:19,000 --> 00:59:25,280
 but I, my vision is that we have a large, we have one of the best music schools in United

551
00:59:25,280 --> 00:59:34,220
 States of America right here. And my vision is that it's a very, very large park, 50 plus

552
00:59:34,220 --> 00:59:41,680
 acres in the areas that is most accessible, that these musical groups and talent can be

553
00:59:41,680 --> 00:59:47,320
 brought in, kind of like South by Southwest, but a more culturalized version of it, you

554
00:59:47,320 --> 00:59:55,200
 know, with more artistic venues and a better, you know, a trail system that comes into that

555
00:59:55,200 --> 01:00:04,160
 area wherever that becomes. My opinion is, is that I think that Quaker Town is one of

556
01:00:04,160 --> 01:00:09,840
 the most beautiful parks around. The only problem with it is it's too small for a city

557
01:00:09,840 --> 01:00:18,120
 to size or don't even be smaller as it gets bigger. So my vision, I wish for, I know I'm

558
01:00:18,120 --> 01:00:23,800
 a dreamer outside the realm here, but that we have a 50 plus acre. They, for example,

559
01:00:23,800 --> 01:00:28,800
 they have Zilker Park down in Austin, which is huge. And you got plenty of room for parking

560
01:00:28,800 --> 01:00:34,640
 and music and all that. I'll tell you, the musicians up here are just low. I mean, they're

561
01:00:34,640 --> 01:00:42,680
 just 10 times better music up here. And I think we should take advantage of that.

562
01:00:42,680 --> 01:00:54,400
 Sorry, trying to unmute. Okay. I want to throw another angle. What I wrote down was actually

563
01:00:54,400 --> 01:01:00,560
 just kind of a short phrase of living and working and experience. And I think that one

564
01:01:00,560 --> 01:01:08,100
 of the things that I wish Denton had a little bit more of is the ability for people to stay

565
01:01:08,100 --> 01:01:13,880
 in Denton for all of their things. I know too many people who have to leave Denton for

566
01:01:13,880 --> 01:01:23,140
 work, for activities elsewhere. I would love for the Denton experience to be everything

567
01:01:23,140 --> 01:01:27,800
 that somebody needs. And that requires pretty good balance, right? I mean, you don't want

568
01:01:27,800 --> 01:01:33,860
 to turn it into urban sprawl because one of the things that we need is also experience

569
01:01:33,860 --> 01:01:39,480
 and that experience being parks or outdoors and all of that. So, I think it's a tough

570
01:01:39,480 --> 01:01:43,360
 balancing act, but one of the things I would really like to see is it not, I hate to call

571
01:01:43,360 --> 01:01:46,480
 it a bedroom community because there's a lot of people that work here in Denton, obviously,

572
01:01:46,480 --> 01:01:50,480
 but there are so many people, myself included, that have to commute 30 miles away for my

573
01:01:50,480 --> 01:01:56,280
 job because of specific opportunities. And I would love to see a balance of that in Denton

574
01:01:56,280 --> 01:01:59,640
 in 10 years. Thank you.

575
01:01:59,640 --> 01:02:07,400
 Thank you, George. I get to go last. What's great about that, thank you, Gary, is I got

576
01:02:07,400 --> 01:02:14,400
 to hear all of my fellow board members' opinions. And I think to Dave's point, that brings up

577
01:02:14,400 --> 01:02:20,240
 a really great word that Mr. Hughes kept using, which is connectivity, right? How do we solve

578
01:02:20,240 --> 01:02:25,040
 a lot of these issues? And it's with connectivity. We've talked about the master plan having

579
01:02:25,040 --> 01:02:30,900
 that giant connective oval of Denton from park to park. Eventually, 10, 20 years from

580
01:02:30,900 --> 01:02:36,500
 now, that could be a possibility. I think part of it is, and what I wrote down is equitable

581
01:02:36,500 --> 01:02:43,520
 availability to green space. And I think uplifting what Dinona was saying, with mass transit

582
01:02:43,520 --> 01:02:49,420
 being developed, it's also bike paths, connectivity of paths to get to work. If people could get

583
01:02:49,420 --> 01:02:54,480
 around without a car, maybe they would have a different job. They could be in Denton.

584
01:02:54,480 --> 01:03:01,580
 They wouldn't have to X, Y, Z. They'd have easier transport. Lower our footprint. Connectivity

585
01:03:01,580 --> 01:03:07,860
 to me is the buzzword of this conversation. And I think that that would help solve a lot

586
01:03:07,860 --> 01:03:21,580
 of concerns and would also uplift our status on the map of Texas, right? What we hold and

587
01:03:21,580 --> 01:03:26,700
 how much value we put in these spaces and how we can connect our community better.

588
01:03:26,700 --> 01:03:33,380
 Very good. Appreciate that. Lenny, we have two more questions, correct?

589
01:03:33,380 --> 01:03:39,180
 Yes, sir. But before I move on, is there anything that someone wrote down that has not been

590
01:03:39,180 --> 01:03:46,300
 mentioned before? I wrote clean our parks only because I clean

591
01:03:46,300 --> 01:03:51,100
 up trash in our parks all the time, which usually comes down to the type of trash cans

592
01:03:51,100 --> 01:03:56,740
 we have. Some of our parks have really terrible trash cans, but it's very expensive to replace

593
01:03:56,740 --> 01:04:02,060
 trash cans and that's a hard sell. Well, I wrote composting. You're fine.

594
01:04:02,060 --> 01:04:15,700
 I think Drew and I had a very extensive conversation about cans. Good. All right. Anything else

595
01:04:15,700 --> 01:04:21,100
 to add? Anyone? All right. Let's go on to question number two and I don't know if you

596
01:04:21,100 --> 01:04:30,660
 could pull that back up again, please. So question two is a two-part question. And

597
01:04:30,660 --> 01:04:36,060
 the first part of that is what is the biggest challenge that Denton faces related to parks

598
01:04:36,060 --> 01:04:43,300
 and recreation today? What is the biggest challenge that you guys face in parks today?

599
01:04:43,300 --> 01:04:47,660
 And then also part of that is what do you anticipate the biggest challenge will be in

600
01:04:47,660 --> 01:04:54,780
 the future? So we're thinking about today, parks and recreation, one of the challenges

601
01:04:54,780 --> 01:04:59,120
 that you guys are seeing right now currently, but also one of the challenges in the future

602
01:04:59,120 --> 01:05:06,940
 that you see parks and recreation having. So we'll leave that up here for about a minute

603
01:05:06,940 --> 01:05:15,420
 or two. Everyone can jot down their questions or their answers. But think about what are

604
01:05:15,420 --> 01:05:22,580
 the challenges that we face now and what are the challenges that we face in the future.

605
01:05:22,580 --> 01:05:32,620
 And this is dealing particularly with parks and recreation. All right. So let's bring

606
01:05:32,620 --> 01:05:39,800
 the full screen up. And Gary, you want to kick us off again? And this doesn't have to

607
01:05:39,800 --> 01:05:44,260
 be in that same order. If you want to mix it up a little bit, that's fine.

608
01:05:44,260 --> 01:05:51,420
 That's okay. I'm ready. I'll get it started. Today, I think the biggest challenge is access.

609
01:05:51,420 --> 01:05:56,540
 In the future, I think the biggest challenge is going to be parking.

610
01:05:56,540 --> 01:06:01,820
 So talk a little bit about that. You said access. What do you mean by access and parking?

611
01:06:01,820 --> 01:06:11,140
 Access, we don't have enough parks yet. We are acquiring them. But we don't have enough

612
01:06:11,140 --> 01:06:17,800
 parks yet that everyone can access a park within 10 minutes. And I know that is part

613
01:06:17,800 --> 01:06:26,380
 of the plan. And parking in Denton is an issue now. And I think it's going to be a larger

614
01:06:26,380 --> 01:06:33,640
 issue in the future. So would you say that either the parks that

615
01:06:33,640 --> 01:06:43,620
 you currently have, they don't have adequate enough parking now? Or do you -- or do the

616
01:06:43,620 --> 01:06:50,980
 parks -- and I didn't get a chance to do the visit. Probably 95% of your parks. Or do they

617
01:06:50,980 --> 01:06:58,060
 not have parking at the parks? So it's kind of a twofold -- two different things. There's

618
01:06:58,060 --> 01:07:04,780
 not enough parking. And some of that may be by design. So typically your neighbor parks,

619
01:07:04,780 --> 01:07:10,020
 people traditionally would walk there. And so I didn't notice several of that. And so

620
01:07:10,020 --> 01:07:16,140
 whether there is parking, it is smaller. But the idea, you know, we talk about this 10

621
01:07:16,140 --> 01:07:21,140
 minute walk, is to encourage people to get out and actually walk or bike to a park.

622
01:07:21,140 --> 01:07:24,260
 So -- >> That is correct. The future parks seem

623
01:07:24,260 --> 01:07:32,860
 to be larger parks. And destination parks. So that's where the parking comes in as an

624
01:07:32,860 --> 01:07:37,620
 issue. >> Definitely at Quaker Town, when any type

625
01:07:37,620 --> 01:07:47,460
 of events would happen at Quaker, I can see parking be an issue. And also a premium. So

626
01:07:47,460 --> 01:07:55,700
 yeah. >> George?

627
01:07:55,700 --> 01:08:00,180
 >> I also want to double down on the 10 minute park plan. I think that's -- when I first

628
01:08:00,180 --> 01:08:05,300
 heard that, the first time I came out of Gary's mouth, I was like, this is it. You know, that's

629
01:08:05,300 --> 01:08:10,900
 exactly what it is, Gary. That's 100% what equitable access looks like. That's so important

630
01:08:10,900 --> 01:08:17,220
 and so vital. I think our future goal, because that's our current, our future goal needs

631
01:08:17,220 --> 01:08:29,300
 to be along that path, thinking about more adaptive play, more accessible ADA, compliant

632
01:08:29,300 --> 01:08:36,300
 or ADA, just being more open to alternative designs to ensure that everyone gets access

633
01:08:36,300 --> 01:08:43,620
 to play at these playgrounds that are supposed to be, you know, near their homes.

634
01:08:43,620 --> 01:08:55,860
 >> Ms. Taylor? You're still on mute. >> You would think since I've been on Zoom

635
01:08:55,860 --> 01:09:03,860
 all day, I would have that down. Okay. So the current challenge I think we face is definitely

636
01:09:03,860 --> 01:09:09,260
 funding, especially like short-term. We don't know what's going to happen with COVID and

637
01:09:09,260 --> 01:09:16,820
 now all these other things. You know, new parks don't seem as important when people

638
01:09:16,820 --> 01:09:24,540
 don't have clean water to drink. So I think that's currently one of our biggest challenges.

639
01:09:24,540 --> 01:09:31,580
 In the future, I feel like extreme weather is going to be one of our biggest challenges

640
01:09:31,580 --> 01:09:41,060
 as our summers keep getting hotter and we have less shade. I don't even hardly go outside

641
01:09:41,060 --> 01:09:50,140
 during the day in the summertime because it just hurts. And the more we develop and the

642
01:09:50,140 --> 01:09:55,820
 more we concrete everything, the hotter it keeps getting. So I think, you know, we have

643
01:09:55,820 --> 01:10:01,140
 our tree program. That's good. But we also have to think of, you know, other ways to

644
01:10:01,140 --> 01:10:10,620
 shade connectivity areas, trails, or they just don't get used for a large portion of

645
01:10:10,620 --> 01:10:21,620
 the year. David. All right. I put down that the biggest challenge of today is trying to

646
01:10:21,620 --> 01:10:28,260
 meet a very dynamic and quickly moving target. We're dealing with absolutely incomprehensible

647
01:10:28,260 --> 01:10:35,260
 growth that the best planners 10 or 15 years ago didn't see. I mean, they knew there was

648
01:10:35,260 --> 01:10:39,780
 going to be growth, but who would have ever anticipated what we're seeing today and what's

649
01:10:39,780 --> 01:10:48,320
 on the map for the future. So I think trying to hit a moving target and not look like you

650
01:10:48,320 --> 01:10:55,900
 had no plan is probably a pretty big challenge. I think for me, what I wrote down for biggest

651
01:10:55,900 --> 01:11:00,340
 challenges from the future is, you know, I suspect we might not even know what those

652
01:11:00,340 --> 01:11:06,140
 challenges are. They may be challenges that don't even exist today. But one of the challenges

653
01:11:06,140 --> 01:11:14,500
 I think is from even from a maintenance side, trying to decide what to invest in, because

654
01:11:14,500 --> 01:11:21,780
 technology is moving so quickly, trying to make the right decisions on maintaining our

655
01:11:21,780 --> 01:11:27,900
 assets with both bringing in things of new technology, but not investing in the wrong

656
01:11:27,900 --> 01:11:31,780
 ones or ones that are quickly outdated. And I think that's probably a pretty significant

657
01:11:31,780 --> 01:11:43,620
 challenge in the future. Thank you, James. Thank you. Sure term. I also agree with the

658
01:11:43,620 --> 01:11:49,940
 10 minute access. I think Gary summarized that extremely well. You know, that access

659
01:11:49,940 --> 01:11:56,940
 be 10 minutes away for anybody in the city, which leads to my, you know, my big thing

660
01:11:56,940 --> 01:12:05,380
 is I'm a real big planner on getting this much park land as you possibly can up front.

661
01:12:05,380 --> 01:12:12,900
 And I know that money and all that good stuff. But I think that the city's doing now buying

662
01:12:12,900 --> 01:12:18,500
 land and hopefully buying some more in the future is the way to go. Because, you know,

663
01:12:18,500 --> 01:12:26,500
 you can't I know the we all know that the demand is going to be changed very dynamically

664
01:12:26,500 --> 01:12:32,020
 if you say David, David, but if you don't have the land, it doesn't matter what you

665
01:12:32,020 --> 01:12:37,900
 want, you know, your needs are you have no land to do it on. So to me, I'm just a fundamental

666
01:12:37,900 --> 01:12:44,180
 kind of guy, get the land, get the land, and when in doubt, get the land. So that's where

667
01:12:44,180 --> 01:12:53,460
 I stand. That's my future. That's where I'm at. And Jerry. Well, I'm going to piggyback

668
01:12:53,460 --> 01:12:58,580
 on George that like, yeah, the bike trails to give access further access to it will alleviate

669
01:12:58,580 --> 01:13:05,580
 a lot of the parking if the connectivity is there. The biggest challenge in the future

670
01:13:05,580 --> 01:13:11,180
 is I see the growth. I mean, you can't you can't stop the growth. And I don't want to,

671
01:13:11,180 --> 01:13:16,700
 but it's inhibiting the green spaces. Clear Creek is dear to my heart. I spent a lot of

672
01:13:16,700 --> 01:13:24,680
 time out there. There's a lot of talk about development out there, which I mean, there's

673
01:13:24,680 --> 01:13:30,620
 got to be a way to balance. And as one Elena was talking about the heat, if you had the

674
01:13:30,620 --> 01:13:37,740
 trails through the protected green spaces, as well, let people get out more. So it's

675
01:13:37,740 --> 01:13:42,620
 balancing the growth against retaining the green space. And like James said, yeah, by

676
01:13:42,620 --> 01:13:47,020
 the land protected, however you can. So I'm just going to give a thumbs up to all the

677
01:13:47,020 --> 01:13:54,220
 questions and answers before me and say it was my idea, too. Well, I will say something

678
01:13:54,220 --> 01:14:02,820
 that, you know, again, when I first saw Clear Creek, it's a marvelous property that you guys

679
01:14:02,820 --> 01:14:09,620
 have. And, you know, it's it's me thankful that you guys is now parks preview. And it's

680
01:14:09,620 --> 01:14:14,700
 really is one of the largest green space areas in a Metroplex. The other one that that's

681
01:14:14,700 --> 01:14:19,660
 kind of comparable to that is Lila. Yeah, Lila. Yeah. Lake Louisville environmental

682
01:14:19,660 --> 01:14:26,060
 learning area. And you think about the footprint. And again, it's a core property core facility

683
01:14:26,060 --> 01:14:33,380
 is leased by the city of Louisville. And, you know, if you look at some of those same

684
01:14:33,380 --> 01:14:39,780
 principles there, they've got the core road access, they got designated parking areas.

685
01:14:39,780 --> 01:14:47,560
 It is gated. So you start to limit the amount of traffic and, you know, that that happens

686
01:14:47,560 --> 01:14:54,700
 in an internal property. But again, just knowing and understanding how the core works. It is

687
01:14:54,700 --> 01:15:01,560
 a very light footprint that's there. And so keeping those that ideology in mind, you know,

688
01:15:01,560 --> 01:15:05,500
 keeping those same principles there of, you know, treading light, land, preserving what's

689
01:15:05,500 --> 01:15:14,060
 what's important. But, you know, how do we make it accessible to the public? Lenny, we

690
01:15:14,060 --> 01:15:22,300
 have one more question. Yes, sir. All right. Last question. We pull that up real quick.

691
01:15:22,300 --> 01:15:26,240
 And so we talked about, you know, and some of you guys have brought this up from your

692
01:15:26,240 --> 01:15:32,100
 previous stays and living in other communities. But what park and recreation amenities have

693
01:15:32,100 --> 01:15:36,740
 you seen in other communities that you think would be feasible or would like to see in

694
01:15:36,740 --> 01:15:41,940
 Denton? Now, what park amenities and recreation amenities would you like to see within your

695
01:15:41,940 --> 01:15:51,060
 community? So again, I'll give it a few minutes. You know, one of the things that I do is whenever

696
01:15:51,060 --> 01:15:54,760
 I go on vacation, you know, I'll look and see, well, what parks can I go to? What trails

697
01:15:54,760 --> 01:16:00,100
 are out that are out there? You know, how can I see what the city is about other than

698
01:16:00,100 --> 01:16:05,460
 restaurants and shopping? You know, there's a lot of great nature and recreational areas

699
01:16:05,460 --> 01:16:11,340
 in a lot of communities. But, you know, what is what is unique? What is what is it that

700
01:16:11,340 --> 01:16:22,900
 you'd like and what would you like to see here within Denton? All right. We'll bring

701
01:16:22,900 --> 01:16:36,180
 the screen back up. Francis? Amphitheaters. Amphitheaters. Now, is there one in particular

702
01:16:36,180 --> 01:16:45,340
 that you like or have seen before? No. No. Okay. You just want an amphitheater in town.

703
01:16:45,340 --> 01:16:53,060
 I mean, I've seen several, but yes, but none that I have to have here in Denton. I just

704
01:16:53,060 --> 01:16:59,940
 think we would benefit from more amphitheaters to tie into the music that we do have access

705
01:16:59,940 --> 01:17:08,700
 to. Great. Great. Alana? So I have a favorite amphitheater, but there's no way we're going

706
01:17:08,700 --> 01:17:19,460
 to get one like it. And that's the Red Rock Amphitheater in Colorado. Okay. So for me,

707
01:17:19,460 --> 01:17:25,900
 I said I would like to see more natural play things like big boulders to jump on and equipment

708
01:17:25,900 --> 01:17:35,420
 that mimics trees and things that you would see in nature. I kind of sound like a broken

709
01:17:35,420 --> 01:17:51,180
 record. We heard you. That's the next presentation. You're consistent, Alana. That's all. Danona?

710
01:17:51,180 --> 01:17:57,380
 You know, going back to the whole having the parks, and parks has a great footprint right

711
01:17:57,380 --> 01:18:06,380
 now along the rail. We've got some education signage along the rail. We've got trails along

712
01:18:06,380 --> 01:18:11,900
 the rail, but even a larger footprint from parks and recreation along the rail. Maybe,

713
01:18:11,900 --> 01:18:22,340
 you know, trees and tree canopy, something like that. But going back to Frances's amphitheater,

714
01:18:22,340 --> 01:18:29,260
 even an amphitheater with, have you ever seen those amphitheaters, you know, where the stadium

715
01:18:29,260 --> 01:18:39,780
 or the audience is layered and it's made from the ground? And you've got, I don't even know

716
01:18:39,780 --> 01:18:47,020
 how to describe it. I'll have to draw a picture of it. But I'm sure you've seen those at,

717
01:18:47,020 --> 01:18:55,020
 you know, the ground is not flat. You know, it goes up. It's at a diagonal at a 45 degree

718
01:18:55,020 --> 01:19:03,020
 angle. And, you know, all of the seating is just grass. It's like a grassy area. So that

719
01:19:03,020 --> 01:19:14,100
 would go in your amphitheater, Miss Punch. Like a coliseum? Yes, like a coliseum. I like

720
01:19:14,100 --> 01:19:26,140
 to go out. James, you want to go ahead? Sure. Well, I'll just say that one of the things

721
01:19:26,140 --> 01:19:33,180
 I really like as far as parks is, a lot of people don't realize it, but the river walk

722
01:19:33,180 --> 01:19:39,260
 down there in San Antonio, it was started as a park trail. And it was a linear park

723
01:19:39,260 --> 01:19:44,660
 trail and had, they started putting little playgrounds along the way so that parents

724
01:19:44,660 --> 01:19:50,340
 could, you know, bring their families. So the businesses down there said, where's all

725
01:19:50,340 --> 01:19:58,060
 the people? And he said, they're down there on the trail. And eventually hotels and restaurants

726
01:19:58,060 --> 01:20:03,100
 and, you know, taverns and all sorts of things start showing up along the trail there. I

727
01:20:03,100 --> 01:20:08,340
 wonder why? Because that's where all the people were going. So I'd like to make a destination

728
01:20:08,340 --> 01:20:15,900
 trail. I just have a trail system that connects together, but also that has destination trails

729
01:20:15,900 --> 01:20:25,100
 to go to that could be like a river walk. That's a great analogy there, James. And I

730
01:20:25,100 --> 01:20:30,580
 think what you just, you know, having destination trails, I mean, that's not only trails act

731
01:20:30,580 --> 01:20:36,700
 as a way of conveying people and pedestrian and bicycle traffic, but now these trails

732
01:20:36,700 --> 01:20:42,700
 have become a destination. It's branded. You know, if you have the signage, the educational

733
01:20:42,700 --> 01:20:49,060
 components of it, areas for interpretation, you know, to me, that is what makes that a

734
01:20:49,060 --> 01:20:55,340
 trail unique. It's not just, you're actually stopping on the trail and enjoying it versus

735
01:20:55,340 --> 01:21:02,740
 passing through. George. Yeah, so I lived in Brooklyn for a little while. And one of

736
01:21:02,740 --> 01:21:07,620
 my favorite things to do would take the train and go to the West side to the Highline Park.

737
01:21:07,620 --> 01:21:11,740
 If you've ever been in Manhattan and you've been to the Highline Park, you know, it's

738
01:21:11,740 --> 01:21:18,540
 up, it's elevated. You walk, you get to see a bunch of plants and greenery along the way.

739
01:21:18,540 --> 01:21:22,740
 You see art that's been graffiti on all these different buildings or art projects commissioned

740
01:21:22,740 --> 01:21:27,700
 by the city. You know, you see industrial elements, industrial play elements, industrial

741
01:21:27,700 --> 01:21:32,340
 elements that look like nature. You know, you, you get a whole mix. Plus you've got

742
01:21:32,340 --> 01:21:37,020
 places to rest. You've got places you could exit and go eat. You know, it's a, it's along

743
01:21:37,020 --> 01:21:41,980
 the line of a train. So like you've got your, your city feel to like that urban park kind

744
01:21:41,980 --> 01:21:45,640
 of feel, you know, like to what, you know, what I was saying with like these urban parks

745
01:21:45,640 --> 01:21:49,700
 near transit, like this would be a really great idea to kind of pair with that. And

746
01:21:49,700 --> 01:21:54,260
 also with buildings that are being built around this park, encouraging them to take part of

747
01:21:54,260 --> 01:21:58,520
 it, like how foliage growing outside of, you know, one side of their building that faces

748
01:21:58,520 --> 01:22:05,300
 the sun, you know, helping produce more, you know, foliage to look at or art.

749
01:22:05,300 --> 01:22:08,460
 Love it. David.

750
01:22:08,460 --> 01:22:16,400
 Yeah, I'm going to piggyback on, on a little bit of all of that. I think the, the one asset

751
01:22:16,400 --> 01:22:21,260
 that I was thinking about that, that I wish we had something like is, and that, that I

752
01:22:21,260 --> 01:22:26,340
 would actually go travel to today, if it was still open, is the greenbelt trail that's,

753
01:22:26,340 --> 01:22:33,900
 you know, just down 380. There's something really fantastic about that trail. It's so

754
01:22:33,900 --> 01:22:40,380
 well maintained. Well, not now, but it was, and you know, 75% of the time you're under

755
01:22:40,380 --> 01:22:46,980
 huge tree coverage and you only had to go about a quarter mile in before you felt like

756
01:22:46,980 --> 01:22:52,780
 you were in the wilderness and you lost the sound of 380 and suddenly you had a river

757
01:22:52,780 --> 01:22:58,180
 next to you. That is an amazing asset. And if we could have something like that, it would

758
01:22:58,180 --> 01:23:06,100
 be that, that would be ideal for me. Great. And Jerry, you know, the only thing I can

759
01:23:06,100 --> 01:23:12,220
 add to that, uh, the amphitheater ideas are great because we're just stupidly blessed

760
01:23:12,220 --> 01:23:18,900
 with music and theater where we are, you know, and I, and I flashed back on how many people

761
01:23:18,900 --> 01:23:24,580
 I know would just go play one afternoon, just had a space to go play. And then at some of

762
01:23:24,580 --> 01:23:30,340
 my age now, I remember my parents taking us to drive in movies and there was a playground

763
01:23:30,340 --> 01:23:35,980
 under the screen where my parents could watch the movie and they were watching us play and

764
01:23:35,980 --> 01:23:40,300
 we were occupied. Not, we didn't care about Elvis Presley. So we wanted to go play right

765
01:23:40,300 --> 01:23:44,660
 while they watched the Elvis Presley movies. So it's just a thought, you know, I mean,

766
01:23:44,660 --> 01:23:49,100
 we, we should take advantage of the stupid amount of talent that we have here and just

767
01:23:49,100 --> 01:23:53,820
 give people a chance to play. And, you know, it's one of those, if you build it, they will

768
01:23:53,820 --> 01:24:03,780
 come things. I think. Okay. Lenny, that's everybody. Again, there's a lot of good comments

769
01:24:03,780 --> 01:24:14,480
 and I really, I enjoy the energy that everyone has. Everyone is engaged, creative, imaginative,

770
01:24:14,480 --> 01:24:21,780
 but also you guys are really grounded with, you know, the happenings and occurings here

771
01:24:21,780 --> 01:24:28,620
 within the didn't park system. So again, I applaud you all for, for one being on a board

772
01:24:28,620 --> 01:24:35,040
 and participating, but I mean, to me, this is what makes a good, healthy quality park

773
01:24:35,040 --> 01:24:43,280
 system. And so if there are any other questions or comments or thoughts that you may have,

774
01:24:43,280 --> 01:24:50,780
 please share those with us. Share those with Gary and Drew and his, and his team. And again,

775
01:24:50,780 --> 01:24:57,100
 thank you all for today. And Kennedy, do you want to add anything to this? Oh, I'll just

776
01:24:57,100 --> 01:25:03,940
 echo the, the thank you. Got a lot of good input. So thanks for your time. Absolutely.

777
01:25:03,940 --> 01:25:09,260
 Thank you. Okay. Thank you so much for the information and all of your hard work. No,

778
01:25:09,260 --> 01:25:16,740
 thank you. Appreciate it. Okay. Shall we go to the next item, Gary? Yes. We were going

779
01:25:16,740 --> 01:25:22,260
 to skip item C and come back to that. That is correct. Yeah. We're going to move to item

780
01:25:22,260 --> 01:25:27,740
 D and receive a report, hold a discussion and give staff input regarding the Southwest

781
01:25:27,740 --> 01:25:33,540
 park master plan for the city of Denton park system. So two, two major discussions here

782
01:25:33,540 --> 01:25:38,620
 today. One is the park system master plan. The second is, you know, potentially another

783
01:25:38,620 --> 01:25:45,180
 one of those future destination parks, depending on how it's designed. So we hired TMP along

784
01:25:45,180 --> 01:25:52,100
 with some of their consultant team to help us start to outline based on our needs assessment.

785
01:25:52,100 --> 01:25:57,420
 Some of the items we just talked about and start incorporating those ideas into a park

786
01:25:57,420 --> 01:26:04,440
 plan for the 195 plus acres down in South Denton. So I'm going to turn it over to Bill

787
01:26:04,440 --> 01:26:10,140
 Smith. He's our lead consultant on the project. We worked with Bill on a couple other projects

788
01:26:10,140 --> 01:26:14,780
 throughout the year. The TMP does a lot of work with the city. So Bill, I'll go ahead

789
01:26:14,780 --> 01:26:18,820
 and let you drive the presentation and we'll go from there. Hi, everyone. Can everyone

790
01:26:18,820 --> 01:26:25,060
 see the map on the screen? Yes. Okay. So I just wanted to go back in time a little bit

791
01:26:25,060 --> 01:26:30,020
 to our last meeting and some of the things we've discussed and give a little context.

792
01:26:30,020 --> 01:26:37,540
 This is the site here and this is I-35. This is 377. We're on the southwest side of town.

793
01:26:37,540 --> 01:26:41,500
 These green blobs I'll zoom in in a moment. These are protected forest areas. There's

794
01:26:41,500 --> 01:26:47,060
 pilot knob there. So we've got over 200 acres of that around the site. Fortunately, we don't

795
01:26:47,060 --> 01:26:52,700
 have a developed forest on our site, but we're going to work on that. And you can see the

796
01:26:52,700 --> 01:26:57,820
 protected forest areas, which I think is important. I just read an article today that somebody

797
01:26:57,820 --> 01:27:02,540
 was proposing that kids should have three to five hours of outside time every single

798
01:27:02,540 --> 01:27:09,520
 day and that's really healthy for them. So with this, in addition to the protected forest,

799
01:27:09,520 --> 01:27:14,480
 that will help you move towards that. So we met with you all and met with the focus group

800
01:27:14,480 --> 01:27:19,700
 and met with the public and solicited input and came up with a list of priorities for

801
01:27:19,700 --> 01:27:27,700
 the park. And then from that, we developed a plan. You can see the, I just heard the

802
01:27:27,700 --> 01:27:32,180
 last presentation, they did a really good job, but they were talking about the growth

803
01:27:32,180 --> 01:27:36,420
 that's happening. And already these two on the south side of our site and on the north

804
01:27:36,420 --> 01:27:40,180
 side of the site are two subdivisions that are one of them is already platted, the others

805
01:27:40,180 --> 01:27:45,820
 in the process of being platted. So over here, Hunter Ranch on the west side, that is probably

806
01:27:45,820 --> 01:27:50,540
 also getting ready to plow. We don't know what yet, but you know, probably eventually

807
01:27:50,540 --> 01:27:54,260
 this will have to be developed all the way around on the site, even though right now

808
01:27:54,260 --> 01:28:01,420
 it's kind of on the edge of town. So this also, just to give you, remember this road

809
01:28:01,420 --> 01:28:06,220
 here, Rush Creek Road is going to come in, merge into Allred and this will connect to

810
01:28:06,220 --> 01:28:11,500
 35, which it does not do today. But eventually this will be a connection to 35 and this will

811
01:28:11,500 --> 01:28:15,980
 be the main road coming in and out of the park from the interstate. So for any historic

812
01:28:15,980 --> 01:28:20,380
 regional event, if someone drives in, they'll come down Allred here and then they'll turn

813
01:28:20,380 --> 01:28:25,980
 into the site. Perhaps we suggested this dash lines are all future roads and you might have

814
01:28:25,980 --> 01:28:29,500
 a future road that comes through the Hunter Coal Ranch, Hunter Ranch property into our

815
01:28:29,500 --> 01:28:35,860
 site here. It's about 200 acres. Here's of course, Bonnie Bray and these purple dots are

816
01:28:35,860 --> 01:28:41,860
 pedestrian paths, which will tie into your trail system master plan, which you're working

817
01:28:41,860 --> 01:28:49,620
 on now. Of course, all these streams are extremely good places to put a path because you're in

818
01:28:49,620 --> 01:28:55,740
 the forest and it's also the right away acquisition is easier. So from that, we've developed a

819
01:28:55,740 --> 01:29:01,780
 series of bubble plans, we call them. And there's three, we developed an A, a B and

820
01:29:01,780 --> 01:29:05,940
 a C and let me just kind of go back over that real quickly. The rec center here, the red,

821
01:29:05,940 --> 01:29:11,340
 you see that's buildings, okay. The bright green, that's like a baseball complex, maybe

822
01:29:11,340 --> 01:29:17,440
 synthetic turf or something. And these other, the other green you see is open space or forest.

823
01:29:17,440 --> 01:29:22,300
 So when concept A, we had a baseball complex up here on the north side and the rec center

824
01:29:22,300 --> 01:29:27,220
 on the south side. On all of the concept, we kept the rec center because it's a high

825
01:29:27,220 --> 01:29:31,540
 traffic. You'll get a lot of cars come and going. We kept it on the south side so that

826
01:29:31,540 --> 01:29:36,300
 it would have easier access to all red and also to the interstate. And that doesn't gum

827
01:29:36,300 --> 01:29:42,300
 up your streets with traffic on other sides of the park. So concept B then flips the rec

828
01:29:42,300 --> 01:29:46,780
 center over here on the south side and has the baseball complex in the middle. And concept

829
01:29:46,780 --> 01:29:51,620
 C has a rec center back here on the southwest corner. So it's the closest to the interstate,

830
01:29:51,620 --> 01:29:57,500
 easiest access and has the baseball, softball complex here on the southeast corner. Ultimately

831
01:29:57,500 --> 01:30:02,180
 in talking to you all in the focus group and the public, we realized the concept C was

832
01:30:02,180 --> 01:30:06,860
 really the one that you all were asking for because it allowed us to create a big natural

833
01:30:06,860 --> 01:30:14,060
 area up here on the north side. And then this baseball softball complex, it sort of shields

834
01:30:14,060 --> 01:30:19,820
 the park X as a buffer for the neighborhood and allowed us to do the purplest parking.

835
01:30:19,820 --> 01:30:23,420
 So by putting parking here in the middle, it allows it to serve not only the baseball

836
01:30:23,420 --> 01:30:29,300
 softball complex, which isn't used all the time, but also serve the open space here.

837
01:30:29,300 --> 01:30:33,660
 And so that also allowed us to create a big great lawn between this rec center and what

838
01:30:33,660 --> 01:30:38,260
 we might do a pavilion. And then you can see this dark green space here. There's an existing

839
01:30:38,260 --> 01:30:42,900
 drainage canal and an ephemeral stream. It's only wet part of the year, but there's a couple

840
01:30:42,900 --> 01:30:48,460
 natural ponds here. So I'm sorry. There we go. Here's concept C. There's a couple of

841
01:30:48,460 --> 01:30:53,900
 natural ponds here and the stream. And so that allowed us to preserve that and then

842
01:30:53,900 --> 01:31:00,620
 start to think about this as being more preservation and open space. So from that, then I'm going

843
01:31:00,620 --> 01:31:04,460
 to show you the master plan. So we concept C was the one that made the most sense for

844
01:31:04,460 --> 01:31:18,340
 y'all. It's a big image. And so here's, here's concept C fleshed out in more detail. So again,

845
01:31:18,340 --> 01:31:22,180
 you see the recreation center here on the Southwest corner. This is all red connecting

846
01:31:22,180 --> 01:31:28,300
 to I-35 to our left. And this is the sage brush development that's being planned for

847
01:31:28,300 --> 01:31:32,660
 the South side. And there's a development on the North side also being planned and entrances

848
01:31:32,660 --> 01:31:37,260
 there. And you'll notice we lined up our ends is good traffic playing one-on-one. You want

849
01:31:37,260 --> 01:31:40,540
 to, you don't want offsetting intersections. That's dangerous because you have people turning

850
01:31:40,540 --> 01:31:44,980
 into each other. So that's why the entrance is where it is there. It's a sort of connect

851
01:31:44,980 --> 01:31:48,900
 to make a safer intersection. But then you come in, we have a rec center. There's a big

852
01:31:48,900 --> 01:31:53,380
 great lawn for events here, cause I heard you all talking about how, and this was also

853
01:31:53,380 --> 01:32:00,140
 what we found in our, in our polling data, that concerts and outdoor movies and theater,

854
01:32:00,140 --> 01:32:05,140
 all of that was really important to the cities and city of Denton. So this plan is what we

855
01:32:05,140 --> 01:32:11,580
 call a balance plan. It has about 60% of the land up here is what we call the natural phase

856
01:32:11,580 --> 01:32:19,340
 or in the natural area, about a 35% or so is this active use here. And about 15% is

857
01:32:19,340 --> 01:32:24,380
 the indoor use. And I'll show you what that looks like here. And before I get into the,

858
01:32:24,380 --> 01:32:34,020
 let me show you a big picture of what that looks like. Sorry, it's just taking a second

859
01:32:34,020 --> 01:32:38,620
 to load here. I don't know why it's just a lot of, a lot going on in this image. Okay.

860
01:32:38,620 --> 01:32:43,000
 You see the natural area here, the green is out blinding green, the active area outlined

861
01:32:43,000 --> 01:32:48,220
 in yellow and the indoor area outlined in red. And this may or may not be decide how

862
01:32:48,220 --> 01:32:53,440
 you decide to phase the park. In other words, you can decide, well, we've got funds available

863
01:32:53,440 --> 01:32:58,060
 now to do the natural area first. Or that's not, we didn't necessarily do it. Or you might

864
01:32:58,060 --> 01:33:01,580
 have, you know, we want to have, we have a bond for the, for the recreation center cause

865
01:33:01,580 --> 01:33:05,340
 that's most important. Or we want to do a bond for the active area, you know, cause we

866
01:33:05,340 --> 01:33:08,860
 have that, but those are generally how it's divided up. And I just kind of wanted to show

867
01:33:08,860 --> 01:33:17,620
 you this so you can understand it conceptually. So in the, in the active area here, let's

868
01:33:17,620 --> 01:33:27,180
 go over that. Sorry, this is the, the indoor area, the recreation center. Zoom in a little

869
01:33:27,180 --> 01:33:32,500
 bit. So again, sorry, it's a little laggy. There's the rec center and this is not a design

870
01:33:32,500 --> 01:33:36,720
 zone. Okay. So let me, let me, you're going to see some images here in a little bit. Nothing

871
01:33:36,720 --> 01:33:42,460
 on this plan is designed other than the things that are going in the park and about how big

872
01:33:42,460 --> 01:33:46,220
 they are. Okay. So if you see the shape of buildings, I don't like that. Don't worry

873
01:33:46,220 --> 01:33:50,460
 cause that that's it. That is a decision for future that you all in the future is just

874
01:33:50,460 --> 01:33:57,140
 saying we have a building here and we think it'll be about, um, 85,000 square feet. I

875
01:33:57,140 --> 01:34:01,820
 believe it was something 138,000, sorry, 138. So we have a field house at a rec center 100,

876
01:34:01,820 --> 01:34:07,740
 you know, about three and a half acres, um, and an outdoor rec and we know that we want

877
01:34:07,740 --> 01:34:12,300
 it to look out over a lawn that can be used by the public and there'll be some parking

878
01:34:12,300 --> 01:34:16,940
 here and we think that there might be a playground here, an inclusive playground here off to

879
01:34:16,940 --> 01:34:22,020
 the side. Uh, so that is, that is what you should infer from this plan. Don't, don't

880
01:34:22,020 --> 01:34:27,500
 read too much into the details is what I'm trying to advise you on. Okay. So then, um,

881
01:34:27,500 --> 01:34:30,940
 so that's, that's that phase. This will probably be the most expensive part of the whole park

882
01:34:30,940 --> 01:34:35,420
 here, right? This, in this building and everything that goes with it, that'll be the most expensive

883
01:34:35,420 --> 01:34:40,740
 part of the park, even though it's the smallest phase, right? It'll be the most expensive

884
01:34:40,740 --> 01:34:44,660
 and we'll, we'll be working on some cost estimates. Not yet. We want to hear your input and we'll

885
01:34:44,660 --> 01:34:48,820
 start working on those cost estimates soon. Right? So here's the active phase here. Going

886
01:34:48,820 --> 01:34:56,420
 to look at that and talk about some of that. And then we'll look at the overall, um, this

887
01:34:56,420 --> 01:35:01,180
 is the, uh, baseball softball complex. So this is one of the, the, we talked about the

888
01:35:01,180 --> 01:35:05,460
 bigger, putting rocks in a jar. I'm going to pick the big jars, the big rocks in first.

889
01:35:05,460 --> 01:35:08,540
 So the indoor area, the rec center is a big rock. This is the other, probably the biggest

890
01:35:08,540 --> 01:35:16,220
 rock in the whole park. And so this is a complex of 11 fields and, uh, we've shown, uh, baseball

891
01:35:16,220 --> 01:35:20,980
 softball fields here of different sizes. You have different age groups and different abilities.

892
01:35:20,980 --> 01:35:27,300
 Youth fields over here with parking lots, uh, be able to access those here and here.

893
01:35:27,300 --> 01:35:30,700
 And then, uh, I made, this is a very important building here and maintenance building was

894
01:35:30,700 --> 01:35:34,180
 something that was important in polling. And that would be here so you can access these

895
01:35:34,180 --> 01:35:41,220
 fields easily. It's kind of hidden. So you've got your storage area behind it. Um, and then,

896
01:35:41,220 --> 01:35:44,580
 uh, parking, this was one of the things that we really liked. The parking here serves both

897
01:35:44,580 --> 01:35:51,120
 the great lawn and the soft baseball softball complex. So you can see there's a large pavilion

898
01:35:51,120 --> 01:35:55,940
 here and I'll show you some images on that in a minute, but then you have this large

899
01:35:55,940 --> 01:36:00,860
 axis that goes through this, through the park here that sort of helps organize the site

900
01:36:00,860 --> 01:36:05,540
 visually. And as you go through it, it helps you make sense and kind of determine where

901
01:36:05,540 --> 01:36:09,860
 you're going to go. And then also as part of the active part, we have these multi-use

902
01:36:09,860 --> 01:36:14,860
 fields here. You can have up to three soccer fields or it could be overflow parking for

903
01:36:14,860 --> 01:36:20,620
 a large event. Um, or, you know, if you've got these large tournaments, this, this type

904
01:36:20,620 --> 01:36:24,540
 of facility, you could have very large tournaments here that can bring people in from out of

905
01:36:24,540 --> 01:36:32,660
 town and provide revenue for the city. Um, so that would be, um, that would be, you know,

906
01:36:32,660 --> 01:36:38,220
 something that is very popular. Um, but if it's not being used, you still can use the

907
01:36:38,220 --> 01:36:42,700
 parking for this great lawn here. And this is about a quarter mile. Okay. This is about,

908
01:36:42,700 --> 01:36:49,020
 I think about 1300, 1400 feet from end to end here. So give you an idea. It's very large.

909
01:36:49,020 --> 01:36:54,540
 These are full size baseball softball field. So it's, it's very large. A quarter mile is

910
01:36:54,540 --> 01:36:59,520
 about, you know, size of a long golf hole, for instance, it's, it's, it's long. And then

911
01:36:59,520 --> 01:37:05,260
 behind that there's a place for a little, we want a different size spaces. So you don't

912
01:37:05,260 --> 01:37:08,780
 have every space to be a big space. So we have a little special event garden here. You

913
01:37:08,780 --> 01:37:13,300
 could have weddings or smaller events back here. City, again, could use this as a revenue

914
01:37:13,300 --> 01:37:21,040
 generator to rent this space out. Um, so that, that can be very popular also. And then I'm

915
01:37:21,040 --> 01:37:25,180
 just hitting the highlights here. Then let's go to the natural area and let's look at some

916
01:37:25,180 --> 01:37:33,860
 images here. The biggest part of the park is the natural area.

917
01:37:33,860 --> 01:37:39,300
 And so this is, we left this as forest. Now some of that will be restored for us. You

918
01:37:39,300 --> 01:37:44,100
 restore that over a period of years and even decades to what it was before. But that's

919
01:37:44,100 --> 01:37:48,780
 a process and that's kind of fun to see things change and see the rewilding that we're envisioning.

920
01:37:48,780 --> 01:37:52,700
 That will take some time, but you can see and see this axis that runs through the site.

921
01:37:52,700 --> 01:37:56,860
 There's a, there's a, there's the stream that's there. There's a fountain and pond here with

922
01:37:56,860 --> 01:38:01,900
 a couple of docks with very natural soft edges, pavilion on that side, which will reflect

923
01:38:01,900 --> 01:38:06,940
 into the pond, which will be really nice. And then going beyond that, we have restored

924
01:38:06,940 --> 01:38:11,420
 Blackland Prairie, which is what, you know, if you went back 150 years ago, Blackland

925
01:38:11,420 --> 01:38:17,420
 Prairie was what was, you know, 60 or 70% of this area. In addition to that, you had

926
01:38:17,420 --> 01:38:22,260
 post oak savanna. So we're, we're, we're proposing for storing post oak savanna up

927
01:38:22,260 --> 01:38:27,100
 here on the upland part of the highest part of the site, a restored Blackland Prairie

928
01:38:27,100 --> 01:38:36,580
 here and then forest play here. And so we might have some very wild places here at the

929
01:38:36,580 --> 01:38:41,500
 play. So I'm going to go just to the whole overall plan here and we'll look at some images

930
01:38:41,500 --> 01:38:48,900
 here. So a big part of this northern part is educational. We've got a lot of places

931
01:38:48,900 --> 01:38:53,220
 to where you can have natural learnings, outdoor learning pavilions. We've got two of them

932
01:38:53,220 --> 01:38:58,540
 here on either side. And, um, let me just go through some of the images we've got here

933
01:38:58,540 --> 01:39:03,740
 on the side. Again, I think, I don't know, I think I'm going to blame Zoom. I didn't

934
01:39:03,740 --> 01:39:08,260
 have quite this much lagginess when I was just looking at the PDF, I apologize. So there's

935
01:39:08,260 --> 01:39:12,060
 some ideas, but they, and again, stylistically, don't worry, we put one modern and one more

936
01:39:12,060 --> 01:39:16,660
 traditional in here. The idea is it's something large and it's a focal point at the far end

937
01:39:16,660 --> 01:39:25,060
 of the lawn for you to look at when you're, when you're looking here. That is the, what

938
01:39:25,060 --> 01:39:29,720
 we, you know, that's that large. So it's a large, it's a large building, but it can provide

939
01:39:29,720 --> 01:39:34,260
 like a band, it can be like a band shell. And then you can have this very large lawn

940
01:39:34,260 --> 01:39:40,220
 out here to look at. And this is again, about a quarter of a mile. So you can get several

941
01:39:40,220 --> 01:39:45,340
 thousand people out there, which would be great. All right. So let me go back here.

942
01:39:45,340 --> 01:39:49,460
 The pond, this little small pond, we envision a little, this is about the size with a lighted

943
01:39:49,460 --> 01:39:53,460
 fountain in the middle right here. So with a pavilion on the other side, I don't have

944
01:39:53,460 --> 01:39:59,260
 a picture of that, but you know, a smaller version of this over here on this other side.

945
01:39:59,260 --> 01:40:04,740
 Nature play, we envision that in the forest where you might have some natural playgrounds

946
01:40:04,740 --> 01:40:09,940
 and Gary was alluding that earlier. And that would be a great place for kids to, you know,

947
01:40:09,940 --> 01:40:13,500
 in Germany, they allow kids to play outside for several hours and they give them hammers

948
01:40:13,500 --> 01:40:17,540
 and nails and saws and all kinds of things that we wouldn't do here. But these let them

949
01:40:17,540 --> 01:40:22,420
 kind of go do what they want and let them, they don't program it at all. These give them

950
01:40:22,420 --> 01:40:29,620
 a bunch of stuff and let them play. Let them use their imagination. Outdoor learning area.

951
01:40:29,620 --> 01:40:33,780
 We just had a couple of ideas for that. You know, you could have, it could be indoor,

952
01:40:33,780 --> 01:40:40,900
 outdoor, it could be completely outdoor. The small, special event garden, this was set

953
01:40:40,900 --> 01:40:44,060
 up for a wedding or you could have outdoor education there. But again, it's the idea

954
01:40:44,060 --> 01:40:49,340
 of a smaller space. Again, we want a balanced park. You have active and passive, small and

955
01:40:49,340 --> 01:40:55,060
 large, natural and refined. So there's something for everyone all the time. And that helps

956
01:40:55,060 --> 01:41:00,340
 just like a healthy ecosystem. Healthy park has a diversity of uses. Dog park, this is

957
01:41:00,340 --> 01:41:06,900
 a grapevine and this little dog park here has synthetic turf. It is extremely popular there.

958
01:41:06,900 --> 01:41:14,140
 The bark park and grapevine is extremely popular and it gets a lot, a lot of use. And the one,

959
01:41:14,140 --> 01:41:18,780
 they have one with natural grass, one synthetic, the synthetic grass gets a lot more use. It's

960
01:41:18,780 --> 01:41:23,180
 got a splash path, the dogs and everything. So it's very, very popular. So let me go here

961
01:41:23,180 --> 01:41:31,020
 to this side. We'll go, don't worry. We'll go back to the plan here a little more. The

962
01:41:31,020 --> 01:41:35,660
 soft baseball, softball complex, including an inclusive field is something we were thinking

963
01:41:35,660 --> 01:41:41,580
 about. Trails, both paved and unpaved is important, I think, to have, again, a variety of trails.

964
01:41:41,580 --> 01:41:46,180
 Some that'd be accessible for regular bikes and pedestrians. And our trails, this orange

965
01:41:46,180 --> 01:41:49,580
 line going around is 12 feet wide is what we have, which it looks like it's about eight

966
01:41:49,580 --> 01:41:55,100
 to be wider than this. And that main trail that goes around the park, that big loop is

967
01:41:55,100 --> 01:42:03,500
 two miles. It's almost exactly two miles. Accessible playground as well as regular playgrounds,

968
01:42:03,500 --> 01:42:10,340
 outdoor activities of all kinds. Outdoor exercise, some programmed and some unprogrammed. This

969
01:42:10,340 --> 01:42:14,580
 could be, we have some outdoor exercise areas outside the rec center and those can be programmed

970
01:42:14,580 --> 01:42:18,980
 with all sorts of HIIT exercise or whatever. And then Blackland Prairie. And of course,

971
01:42:18,980 --> 01:42:23,220
 if you don't know, this is what Blackland, this is what Texas looked like in spring for

972
01:42:23,220 --> 01:42:29,420
 millions of years. And then we proposed a large part of the site being restored to that.

973
01:42:29,420 --> 01:42:35,820
 And that's always very popular with the public too. And it can be an educational system.

974
01:42:35,820 --> 01:42:38,620
 Hopefully minus the mesquite trees, is that true?

975
01:42:38,620 --> 01:42:45,620
 Yes, yes. And so you've got a lot of mesquite, you've got a lot of thorny trees, honey locusts

976
01:42:45,620 --> 01:42:49,260
 and things. They're there now. And that's a sign of a site that's been disturbed. And

977
01:42:49,260 --> 01:42:54,340
 by that we mean it was farmed. It was cattle, it was ranch land for a while. And so soil

978
01:42:54,340 --> 01:42:57,900
 gets disturbed and things get out of balance. And so you get mesquite trees and you get

979
01:42:57,900 --> 01:43:04,300
 honey locusts and other things. And those sage orange or boat arcs. So the restoration,

980
01:43:04,300 --> 01:43:08,300
 the rewilding, that's a process. You can't do it overnight, but that's something that,

981
01:43:08,300 --> 01:43:12,780
 you know, once the public buys into and they understand, they really get behind it. And

982
01:43:12,780 --> 01:43:16,220
 that's something that will happen over a period of years and decades. You know, you can't

983
01:43:16,220 --> 01:43:21,980
 create a forest overnight. But so again, you see this Blackland Prairie here with the wild

984
01:43:21,980 --> 01:43:27,860
 flowers coming all the way through here. And so that is something. And one of the features

985
01:43:27,860 --> 01:43:33,940
 of a Blackland Prairie is it is a fire dependent ecosystem, right? So you can try to mimic

986
01:43:33,940 --> 01:43:38,100
 fire by mowing down and cultivating, but if you can burn it, you know, and the fire department

987
01:43:38,100 --> 01:43:41,900
 is right there and do that, you can have an annual event every year or every other year

988
01:43:41,900 --> 01:43:46,580
 where you do a, because that's really a low intensity, frequent low intensity fires are

989
01:43:46,580 --> 01:43:50,580
 what is healthy for it. If you wait too long, you get a large catastrophic fire, it kills

990
01:43:50,580 --> 01:43:53,180
 the soil and kills everything. That's what you don't want, right? And that's what we

991
01:43:53,180 --> 01:43:57,820
 saw in California where they had did fire suppression for 80 years and you get these

992
01:43:57,820 --> 01:44:03,220
 huge catastrophic fires. If you do the low, the frequent low intensity burning, that's

993
01:44:03,220 --> 01:44:07,780
 very healthy for the, for the prairie. So we have a little parking lot here so you can

994
01:44:07,780 --> 01:44:14,220
 come in and to get this outdoor learning pavilion in the middle of the post oak savanna. Again,

995
01:44:14,220 --> 01:44:18,140
 I apologize for the blur as it just takes it a while when I'm painting around for some

996
01:44:18,140 --> 01:44:22,300
 reason, but in a post oak savanna, which is, you know, it was not a lot of that left, but

997
01:44:22,300 --> 01:44:26,580
 it's beautiful and those post oaks live for hundreds of years and we can restore that

998
01:44:26,580 --> 01:44:33,140
 there. All right. So from that, let's see, uh, nature play area, another one, and we

999
01:44:33,140 --> 01:44:37,780
 have one here and we've got another one over here, forest play and prairie play here next

1000
01:44:37,780 --> 01:44:45,140
 to this outdoor learning pavilion. Um, let's see what else we've got a big drop off area

1001
01:44:45,140 --> 01:44:51,060
 for this active play here. So you can come in, you can drop off and go, you can go park.

1002
01:44:51,060 --> 01:44:57,620
 And then this kind of, it also has a big sort of entry plaza coming in here. So it signals

1003
01:44:57,620 --> 01:45:01,940
 and this is where you drop off. This is a center of the large concession stand here.

1004
01:45:01,940 --> 01:45:06,740
 So you know, when you, when people, families that do these softball tournaments, they'll

1005
01:45:06,740 --> 01:45:11,520
 tell you, you know, often you have a child that's too young to play baseball or softball.

1006
01:45:11,520 --> 01:45:14,980
 So you want a place for them to play. And so that's why we have these playgrounds located

1007
01:45:14,980 --> 01:45:18,480
 here centrally where the parents can keep an eye on the younger ones. The young ones

1008
01:45:18,480 --> 01:45:22,900
 have something to do. And you have warm up areas between the fields. So this is envisioned

1009
01:45:22,900 --> 01:45:29,860
 as a, a top flight competition, athletic complex, smaller parking areas over here with drop

1010
01:45:29,860 --> 01:45:37,220
 off. So you can sneak into the youth fields. Um, and then we also have a, we put a buffer

1011
01:45:37,220 --> 01:45:42,020
 here on Bonnie Bray and all red. It's about a 75 foot forested buffer to soften from the

1012
01:45:42,020 --> 01:45:48,380
 future and existing neighborhoods. Excuse me, Bill, we have a question. Yes, ma'am.

1013
01:45:48,380 --> 01:45:54,100
 Yeah, thank you. Just real quick. Why not? If, if you're a mother and you've got a lot

1014
01:45:54,100 --> 01:45:58,420
 of kids, right. I'm just thinking out loud here, wouldn't it be better to have the playground

1015
01:45:58,420 --> 01:46:05,980
 up towards the concession stand? We can, yeah. A multiple kids play on different fields on

1016
01:46:05,980 --> 01:46:11,380
 some complexes they can. And we discussed doing that. We, we, and this is very large,

1017
01:46:11,380 --> 01:46:15,420
 we could put some smaller ones up here or we could spread those apart. If y'all want

1018
01:46:15,420 --> 01:46:18,780
 to put the playground there, we certainly in there. And then that is a popular option

1019
01:46:18,780 --> 01:46:24,020
 too, is to have the playground here. Sometimes they'll even put nets over it. So foul balls

1020
01:46:24,020 --> 01:46:31,340
 won't hit the heads and kids in the head, right? So yes, if you guys, that's all. Yeah,

1021
01:46:31,340 --> 01:46:37,020
 right. Shade nets. So you got to hate too, right. Which is very important in the summer.

1022
01:46:37,020 --> 01:46:43,140
 Can I jump in here? Yeah. Okay. Mr. Dooley, I will tell you that I've been to these tournaments

1023
01:46:43,140 --> 01:46:50,620
 like for baseball and especially soccer. And a thing that bothers parents is if you have

1024
01:46:50,620 --> 01:46:55,700
 it up too close to concession stands, I mean, it's a, it's a win lose. I mean, pick your

1025
01:46:55,700 --> 01:46:59,540
 poison, right? There's a lot of people floating in and out of there that you don't know near

1026
01:46:59,540 --> 01:47:06,700
 the kids. So some parents feel like it's better to have it kind of away where there's, I mean,

1027
01:47:06,700 --> 01:47:13,460
 I'm not saying where this will happen, but it's 2021. So they like having the kids kind

1028
01:47:13,460 --> 01:47:18,540
 of separated so they know who's coming in and out. You know what I mean? It's just another

1029
01:47:18,540 --> 01:47:23,700
 thought that I've heard parents expressed in the past. Can I call on Drew Huffman who

1030
01:47:23,700 --> 01:47:29,660
 does this, lives this every spring and summer? And he's also on staff, of course. Drew, you

1031
01:47:29,660 --> 01:47:35,740
 live this, what, just, Jesse was a citizen now. What's your opinion about that? It, it's

1032
01:47:35,740 --> 01:47:41,780
 really, it works out how it's planned. So if you've been to Oak Grove, Oak Grove, the playground

1033
01:47:41,780 --> 01:47:48,180
 is close to the concession stands, but it's reset into the ground. So therefore the kids

1034
01:47:48,180 --> 01:47:52,620
 are playing, if you walk next to that playground up to the concession stands, you know, you're

1035
01:47:52,620 --> 01:47:58,460
 six to eight foot over the playground and it works out really, it works out really well.

1036
01:47:58,460 --> 01:48:02,940
 You have another like where Nikki, you know, came from over in Mesquite, the playground

1037
01:48:02,940 --> 01:48:10,580
 is away from the ball fields. That works really well too. You know, typically, you know, there's

1038
01:48:10,580 --> 01:48:15,900
 times between games where parents will take the younger children over, play on the playground,

1039
01:48:15,900 --> 01:48:21,780
 let some energy get loose and then you're back to coloring and playing UNO and whatever

1040
01:48:21,780 --> 01:48:27,740
 else. Cause most of the time little ones don't, they, their attention span doesn't last an

1041
01:48:27,740 --> 01:48:32,860
 entire baseball game. So it's all going to have to work out exactly how it's planned

1042
01:48:32,860 --> 01:48:37,260
 and laid out the way it's laid out. Now they can, the playgrounds, you know, especially

1043
01:48:37,260 --> 01:48:41,900
 that larger playground would probably work to where people in with smaller children are

1044
01:48:41,900 --> 01:48:47,820
 going to migrate either between games or even, you know, in the middle of a game, you know,

1045
01:48:47,820 --> 01:48:53,060
 if their child is maybe resting, you know, and not, not in the game at the moment or

1046
01:48:53,060 --> 01:48:58,740
 whatever the case is, or, you know, mom or dad may get up and take the little ones. Okay.

1047
01:48:58,740 --> 01:49:03,460
 It, you know, I may miss the inning or two. It's okay. We'll go play for, you know, 15,

1048
01:49:03,460 --> 01:49:09,280
 20 minutes. So it, it's really going to have to work out what, what we see fit in the end

1049
01:49:09,280 --> 01:49:16,980
 on where this goes. So Bill, do you mind taking the PowerPoint down? Sure. You mean to stop

1050
01:49:16,980 --> 01:49:28,460
 sharing? Yes. So that, that's the plan. So the, the, obviously if we had all the money

1051
01:49:28,460 --> 01:49:32,020
 in the world, we could, you know, build that at one time, but the thought process is how

1052
01:49:32,020 --> 01:49:38,340
 could we face this? So it was, we unintentionally had it come out in the three separate areas

1053
01:49:38,340 --> 01:49:41,860
 in each one of those areas could be faced. I mean, if you wanted to do phase one and

1054
01:49:41,860 --> 01:49:46,980
 two for the building itself, you could do that. You could build four fields every five

1055
01:49:46,980 --> 01:49:53,060
 years as the demand in South Denton continues to grow. Or you could say, Hey, we're going

1056
01:49:53,060 --> 01:49:57,500
 to start off with a natural area. It's probably the most affordable. We could start cutting

1057
01:49:57,500 --> 01:50:02,140
 and pass, you know, sooner than later. And then build this parking a lot, build this

1058
01:50:02,140 --> 01:50:07,140
 parking a lot, you know, a little bit of a time. So we haven't gotten to the detailed

1059
01:50:07,140 --> 01:50:12,700
 phasing part of it yet. And once TMP gets some of our budget ideas together, that'll

1060
01:50:12,700 --> 01:50:17,740
 probably help that process as well. But ultimately we need to make sure that we're on the right

1061
01:50:17,740 --> 01:50:23,020
 path. So we're going to be having another focus group meeting soon to talk to the focus

1062
01:50:23,020 --> 01:50:28,660
 group about it. And then obviously park board. What are your thoughts in regards to what

1063
01:50:28,660 --> 01:50:33,300
 you saw from that concept? Is there something that we've totally missed or are we on, on

1064
01:50:33,300 --> 01:50:39,380
 the right track? Where, where do you feel we are? Bill, I have a quick question. You

1065
01:50:39,380 --> 01:50:49,020
 can't, you said you fall down to exhibit C and that was based on the survey, the information

1066
01:50:49,020 --> 01:50:55,140
 you received from surveys, correct? It was the one that accommodated the request for

1067
01:50:55,140 --> 01:51:02,100
 all the uses the best. Thank you. May I share the screen one more time, Gary, just to show

1068
01:51:02,100 --> 01:51:08,380
 these? Sure. So I want to share, we're working on some three dimensional perspectives and

1069
01:51:08,380 --> 01:51:15,580
 can y'all see that? What are y'all? Yep, I can see that. Okay. So this is to give you

1070
01:51:15,580 --> 01:51:19,860
 an idea of the scale of the Great Lawn. This is that in the pavilion here and that's about

1071
01:51:19,860 --> 01:51:24,980
 a quarter mile back up to the rec center. There's the pond to the right. So parking

1072
01:51:24,980 --> 01:51:29,300
 for the softball complex to the left, but you can get a sense of the scale of that space

1073
01:51:29,300 --> 01:51:36,020
 is really large. And I'll show you one more. And this is the looking northwesterly down

1074
01:51:36,020 --> 01:51:41,740
 that axis. This is the baseball softball complex. There is the Great Lawn in the back. There's

1075
01:51:41,740 --> 01:51:48,140
 the rec center, the pond, the Blackland Prairie back here. We're not fully rendered that yet,

1076
01:51:48,140 --> 01:51:53,020
 but those are the soccer field or overflow parking, but you get a sense of the scale

1077
01:51:53,020 --> 01:51:57,500
 of the park. It's really grand and large. There's a lot going on. The maintenance building

1078
01:51:57,500 --> 01:52:04,540
 would be over here to the left and I-35 would be way back there in the background. So that's

1079
01:52:04,540 --> 01:52:10,740
 the last thing I have, Gary, on the images. Okay. I think we have still a couple of questions.

1080
01:52:10,740 --> 01:52:25,300
 So if you could un-share. Yes, sir. Okay. Who had a question? Atlanta. Hi. So first

1081
01:52:25,300 --> 01:52:34,100
 of all, I love seeing those ideas have images to go with them. That's awesome. But I feel

1082
01:52:34,100 --> 01:52:39,660
 like one of the big rocks is missing and I'm surprised we haven't talked about it yet,

1083
01:52:39,660 --> 01:52:45,980
 but I feel like a water feature is missing for people to play in. I'm thinking like at

1084
01:52:45,980 --> 01:52:53,140
 Highland Village where they have the Amplitheater, there's like this little creek looking splash

1085
01:52:53,140 --> 01:52:58,440
 pad kind of thing. And it's great for kids. It's great for parents. And I can just see

1086
01:52:58,440 --> 01:53:02,660
 something like that being really beneficial at that park because like we were talking

1087
01:53:02,660 --> 01:53:07,860
 about earlier, it's really hot. And when you're waiting for a concert, you and your kids can

1088
01:53:07,860 --> 01:53:13,300
 go play in the water or in between baseball games or after the baseball game. It's just

1089
01:53:13,300 --> 01:53:19,080
 a great place for people to cool off. And when you were showing us the different areas

1090
01:53:19,080 --> 01:53:24,460
 of the park, I was thinking it would be like awesome if it was near the inclusive park

1091
01:53:24,460 --> 01:53:32,020
 and nature play area towards the pond. It could be like a pond or a creek that they

1092
01:53:32,020 --> 01:53:35,620
 could walk in. Just an idea I feel like we've missed out.

1093
01:53:35,620 --> 01:53:41,460
 Do you mean north of the rec center there with an inclusive gas? Okay.

1094
01:53:41,460 --> 01:53:48,780
 So there was a space we could bring back up that was on the outside of the rec center

1095
01:53:48,780 --> 01:53:54,020
 that was kind of outdoor structured play. Give me a second to get to that.

1096
01:53:54,020 --> 01:53:59,940
 I think part of that was kind of a placeholder for a water feature. It could be an outdoor

1097
01:53:59,940 --> 01:54:06,100
 pool if you wanted to go that far and that area. No, the hashed area down the bottom

1098
01:54:06,100 --> 01:54:11,480
 right. Oh, yeah, here. Outdoor rec. Yeah. Yeah. So that was that's kind of like flex

1099
01:54:11,480 --> 01:54:20,860
 space, whether we wanted to put a large splash pad or an outdoor pool, per se, or a pool

1100
01:54:20,860 --> 01:54:27,180
 and fitness space. So I think that was what the intention for that was. But we could definitely

1101
01:54:27,180 --> 01:54:35,100
 go back and look at a nature related splash pad, maybe on that north side.

1102
01:54:35,100 --> 01:54:42,220
 Is that what you meant, Alana, splash pad? Yeah. So have you ever seen the amphitheater

1103
01:54:42,220 --> 01:54:49,580
 in Highland Village? You know, they have kind of like, it actually goes along the amphitheater.

1104
01:54:49,580 --> 01:54:56,060
 I don't know if that would work here, but that's kind of what I was thinking. Like around

1105
01:54:56,060 --> 01:55:01,460
 where the inclusive playground is towards the pond. I don't know how, like, it's hard

1106
01:55:01,460 --> 01:55:05,940
 for me to understand the scale or how that would work. That's just kind of like a vision

1107
01:55:05,940 --> 01:55:14,740
 I saw whenever you were talking about it because we my family loves going to that splash pad

1108
01:55:14,740 --> 01:55:26,740
 amphitheater back when we used to go listen to live music. Great. Great idea. Thank you.

1109
01:55:26,740 --> 01:55:35,820
 Questions? Yes, I have a question, Madam Chair. Maybe I'm asking a silly question and maybe

1110
01:55:35,820 --> 01:55:42,380
 I'm asking it way too early. So please, Bill, be like, too soon and I'll help you. That's

1111
01:55:42,380 --> 01:55:48,460
 okay. No bad questions. This is massive, right? This is like 190 acres, right? This is huge.

1112
01:55:48,460 --> 01:55:53,500
 So those open spaces, those green spaces, which are great. I also like, I'm going to

1113
01:55:53,500 --> 01:55:56,940
 say something that Atlanta brings up a lot. Like, can we talk about shade and like these

1114
01:55:56,940 --> 01:56:01,900
 seeded areas? Are there going to be more places to sit, you know, along the way? Because it's

1115
01:56:01,900 --> 01:56:05,860
 so massive, like walking around all those spaces, especially during the day, it's so

1116
01:56:05,860 --> 01:56:13,660
 hot. Just putting that out there. And then also another silly question. I would assume

1117
01:56:13,660 --> 01:56:17,700
 there would be restrooms on the baseball side because you've got a concession stand, you've

1118
01:56:17,700 --> 01:56:22,980
 got, you know, a bunch of fields, people need to use the restroom somewhere. Could that

1119
01:56:22,980 --> 01:56:29,400
 also be said for the other side of this 190 acre? Every red building you see could be

1120
01:56:29,400 --> 01:56:34,420
 a restroom because you've got, you know, we've got two on the north side. We've got a million

1121
01:56:34,420 --> 01:56:38,980
 here in the dog park. I think we definitely would want one. Okay. Good. Yeah. We'd love

1122
01:56:38,980 --> 01:56:44,100
 to hear it, Bill. So yes, very important. Yes, absolutely. Cool. Okay, great. So you've

1123
01:56:44,100 --> 01:56:47,460
 thought about that in all the red areas. I love that. Thank you. Every red dot can be

1124
01:56:47,460 --> 01:56:52,900
 a can be a restroom. Cool. Thank you. Those are my questions. I appreciate it. Oh, yeah.

1125
01:56:52,900 --> 01:56:59,340
 Thank you. I have a quick question. And I know there was some talk about having food

1126
01:56:59,340 --> 01:57:04,700
 trucks having accessibility to parks and looking at that parking lot. Do you suspect that there

1127
01:57:04,700 --> 01:57:09,300
 is an area specific to food trucks? Yeah. Good question. We didn't mention that. Yes.

1128
01:57:09,300 --> 01:57:16,100
 So yeah, this here for the baseball, softball and sorry, just loading here, the Texas food

1129
01:57:16,100 --> 01:57:25,660
 truck parking here and also here as well as along here that we have parallel parking along

1130
01:57:25,660 --> 01:57:31,900
 this road here. So if you have a big thing in this, this big great lawn, you've got an

1131
01:57:31,900 --> 01:57:35,700
 event, you can have food trucks lined up all along here. So you come right to the edge

1132
01:57:35,700 --> 01:57:40,700
 of the lawn there. So yeah. And we also part of that was planning for teams that are going

1133
01:57:40,700 --> 01:57:44,980
 to be staying all day. If they have breaks, they could pull over and tailgate and kind

1134
01:57:44,980 --> 01:57:50,020
 of set up their tents and have their cookout going and go get food from the food truck.

1135
01:57:50,020 --> 01:57:58,540
 All that kind of excitement. Yes. So we tried to, we tried to be, whenever you're trying

1136
01:57:58,540 --> 01:58:01,860
 to do a part, we tried to be as flexed, tried to design space. It'll be as flexible as possible

1137
01:58:01,860 --> 01:58:08,860
 as you get as many users as you can. Right. So that way you can program more things. We

1138
01:58:08,860 --> 01:58:15,140
 did, we did have some green, some previous pavement in here too. There's a couple areas

1139
01:58:15,140 --> 01:58:22,940
 that we've just shaded green. So that, that could be increased as we go as well down here

1140
01:58:22,940 --> 01:58:27,460
 overflow parking, you know, so you might just, it might be all grass or it might be paved

1141
01:58:27,460 --> 01:58:35,340
 aisles and grass parking that reduces runoff. Also, also overflow parking over here. So

1142
01:58:35,340 --> 01:58:39,340
 you can have more or less, you know, if it's, if it's five years before you do, you can,

1143
01:58:39,340 --> 01:58:43,820
 again, when you design this, you can actually go to construction documents ready to build

1144
01:58:43,820 --> 01:58:47,500
 and you can, you know, you can add more grass or take it away as you need, as your needs

1145
01:58:47,500 --> 01:58:55,780
 change. Okay. Bill, if you don't mind taking that down again before. Yes, sir. Yep. Concern

1146
01:58:55,780 --> 01:59:04,020
 about the food trucks. Is that in not indirect competition? I like the food trucks. Is that

1147
01:59:04,020 --> 01:59:12,980
 not indirect competition with the concession stand? It is. That's a happy medium. You know,

1148
01:59:12,980 --> 01:59:16,820
 we're not sure what the business plan is for the concession stand. If we are going to run

1149
01:59:16,820 --> 01:59:23,020
 that ourselves or farm it out to a third party that would operate it for us. Typically they're

1150
01:59:23,020 --> 01:59:28,020
 not providing full service amenities. It's more like more of the basics, but if we have

1151
01:59:28,020 --> 01:59:33,780
 a larger event, we could definitely have a couple food trucks supplement that, especially

1152
01:59:33,780 --> 01:59:37,180
 for the concerts. If there's something going on in the great lawn, people aren't going

1153
01:59:37,180 --> 01:59:41,540
 to walk all the way to the concession stand in the ball field. The convenience of having

1154
01:59:41,540 --> 01:59:47,220
 those trucks mobile is you can move them around as you need them and still generate some revenue

1155
01:59:47,220 --> 01:59:53,180
 from them as well. Okay. David, thank you for waiting. Yeah. It looked like there was

1156
01:59:53,180 --> 01:59:57,020
 a perimeter trail that went all the way around the park. And I'm just curious. We're talking

1157
01:59:57,020 --> 02:00:01,180
 about scale. Does anybody have any idea what the distance of that is? Yes. It's two miles

1158
02:00:01,180 --> 02:00:06,940
 almost exactly. Okay. Thanks. Bill, could you tell them what the total mileage of all

1159
02:00:06,940 --> 02:00:11,140
 the trails in the park is? Yeah, I think we have about three miles of paved trails and

1160
02:00:11,140 --> 02:00:15,300
 another mile or mile and a half of unpaved and paved. You know, it depends on how many

1161
02:00:15,300 --> 02:00:20,060
 someone could create while just creating a footpath, but two mile perimeter, another

1162
02:00:20,060 --> 02:00:27,140
 mile of trails within paved and then about a mile, a mile and a half of unpaved trails.

1163
02:00:27,140 --> 02:00:31,980
 So I'll give you an idea. I think we have seven and a half acres of trails in Clear

1164
02:00:31,980 --> 02:00:37,500
 Creek, if I remember correctly. So that's about half of that. And there's 3000 acres

1165
02:00:37,500 --> 02:00:45,700
 over there and we have 200 here. So there's a good amount of trails based on this plan

1166
02:00:45,700 --> 02:00:58,060
 as we see it. I do have one more comment. It's okay. So

1167
02:00:58,060 --> 02:01:03,660
 given the options of the, of the three sort of general layouts that, that were given and

1168
02:01:03,660 --> 02:01:07,540
 the feedback that was taken, I think you guys did a really good job capturing that and coming

1169
02:01:07,540 --> 02:01:13,420
 up with this plan. I think that it definitely encompasses much of what was brought up. And

1170
02:01:13,420 --> 02:01:21,220
 I think it's, it's a good picture of what was discussed. So thank you.

1171
02:01:21,220 --> 02:01:27,180
 So I guess our next steps moving forward would be to take this back to the focus group, have

1172
02:01:27,180 --> 02:01:33,860
 a similar discussion with them on this, provide some feedback that you've provided as well.

1173
02:01:33,860 --> 02:01:38,100
 And if we need to make some changes, we could, you know, talk about the splash pad and making

1174
02:01:38,100 --> 02:01:42,620
 sure that's identified there. There's still some small rocks that aren't necessarily on

1175
02:01:42,620 --> 02:01:49,580
 here that we can add. And then from that point, go back to city, go to city council and get

1176
02:01:49,580 --> 02:01:56,620
 their ideas. And if they approve it, then, then we're kind of at a holding pattern at

1177
02:01:56,620 --> 02:02:01,260
 that point in time until we identify a funding source. Once we have funding, then we would

1178
02:02:01,260 --> 02:02:06,020
 move forward with construction drawings of whatever that phasing plan is. So that's something

1179
02:02:06,020 --> 02:02:11,180
 we'll come back and talk to you about at that point in time. But we'll, we'll go through

1180
02:02:11,180 --> 02:02:15,300
 that before it's adopted. So we could go back to everybody and say, okay, here's how, here's

1181
02:02:15,300 --> 02:02:20,700
 the plan to build this. What do you think? The natural areas could be done sooner than

1182
02:02:20,700 --> 02:02:25,340
 later. Obviously, if we wanted to get people out there and the property open, get out there

1183
02:02:25,340 --> 02:02:30,700
 and see the space we could put, you know, you are here type of signs out there so they

1184
02:02:30,700 --> 02:02:36,220
 can understand what this park might look like down the road. And we'd have to find a funding

1185
02:02:36,220 --> 02:02:41,620
 source longterm for that, whether it's phase one, or, you know, multiple phases at one

1186
02:02:41,620 --> 02:02:51,740
 time. Can I ask one quick question? Okay, Mr. Dooley. I noticed I'm a soccer guy, and

1187
02:02:51,740 --> 02:02:56,540
 I'm not like going to preach at you about the beautiful game or anything, right. But

1188
02:02:56,540 --> 02:03:02,100
 I noticed like we're baseball heavy here with just a little area for the soccer. Is that

1189
02:03:02,100 --> 02:03:10,620
 on purpose? Or do we have numbers to back that design up? Yeah, we talked about that

1190
02:03:10,620 --> 02:03:14,880
 specifically and there's some other locations that we may look to put some of those other

1191
02:03:14,880 --> 02:03:22,140
 square rectangle fields in. The challenge there is while it's still 195 acres, we didn't

1192
02:03:22,140 --> 02:03:28,100
 want to, you know, end up stuffing the box too much. There's a little bit of a balance

1193
02:03:28,100 --> 02:03:33,060
 there that we're trying to provide. And Drew, did you want to add anything? No, no, I totally

1194
02:03:33,060 --> 02:03:38,940
 understand. Like I said, I'm catching up. So sorry if I'm wasting your time. Great question.

1195
02:03:38,940 --> 02:03:45,540
 No, it's a good question. So just to add to what Gary says, Gary's always looking at it

1196
02:03:45,540 --> 02:03:53,860
 from a park system. So the soccer is very important, and it is a growing sport. So not

1197
02:03:53,860 --> 02:03:59,460
 all the soccer may be at Southwest Park. There'll be other places too. We'll have two city parks

1198
02:03:59,460 --> 02:04:04,220
 over in Hunter Cole Ranch. And then we do have some city property just north of this off

1199
02:04:04,220 --> 02:04:09,660
 vintage that we thought, well, maybe if that's not going to be used for all municipal purposes,

1200
02:04:09,660 --> 02:04:13,740
 we might be able to put, you know, four or five fields back there at some point in time,

1201
02:04:13,740 --> 02:04:17,740
 which would just be in the south side of vintage. Yeah, well, that's great. I'm just catching

1202
02:04:17,740 --> 02:04:22,300
 up on your guys discussion. So if I waste your time, I'm sorry. Not at all. And one

1203
02:04:22,300 --> 02:04:28,300
 more quick question. Are we, you do consider like ADA compliance about these trails? And

1204
02:04:28,300 --> 02:04:33,620
 I mean, yes. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Not so much at this phase, Jerry, because this is master

1205
02:04:33,620 --> 02:04:40,900
 planning. However, in design, yeah, 100%. You have to, the site's relatively flat. It's

1206
02:04:40,900 --> 02:04:47,260
 not going to be that difficult to have accessible trails. But yes, they will have to be accessible.

1207
02:04:47,260 --> 02:04:55,940
 Excellent. Thank you. Any additional questions or concern? Oh, see, George has one. I apologize.

1208
02:04:55,940 --> 02:05:00,300
 I wrote my notes down. I read through this all yesterday, so I might've missed it. I

1209
02:05:00,300 --> 02:05:07,180
 thought funding was coming from the bond package. Am I incorrect? No, we did have bond funding.

1210
02:05:07,180 --> 02:05:11,140
 That was for the master planning process. Understood. Okay. I was like, did I write

1211
02:05:11,140 --> 02:05:19,540
 that down wrong? And we do have, there's $800,000 in that account as of right now. It's more

1212
02:05:19,540 --> 02:05:24,000
 than we need now, but it's not enough if we're going to do construction drawings at that

1213
02:05:24,000 --> 02:05:28,700
 point in time. So we, right now we moved it over to the tennis center just in case we

1214
02:05:28,700 --> 02:05:32,980
 need it for the tennis center to make sure we complete that. We took that to the bond

1215
02:05:32,980 --> 02:05:38,100
 oversight committee and it's there as a holding pattern. And if it's not used, we'll bring

1216
02:05:38,100 --> 02:05:43,460
 it back and use it for either this project or recommend for something else. Wonderful.

1217
02:05:43,460 --> 02:05:52,780
 Thank you for that clarification. Very good. Any other questions, concerns? All right.

1218
02:05:52,780 --> 02:06:01,300
 Mr. Smith, I want to thank you for that presentation. Thank you very much. And are we ready to move

1219
02:06:01,300 --> 02:06:09,980
 on to our next item, Gary? Yes, ma'am. All right. The next item is we back up to C. Receive

1220
02:06:09,980 --> 02:06:14,740
 a report, hold a discussion and give staff input regarding nominations for membership

1221
02:06:14,740 --> 02:06:21,860
 on the Parks, Recreation and Trail System Master Plan focus group. Gary Pack and Parks

1222
02:06:21,860 --> 02:06:29,500
 and Recreation. When we were working and kicking off the Southwest Park Plan, we put together

1223
02:06:29,500 --> 02:06:34,460
 a group of residents, tried to get everybody that was involved in different aspects of

1224
02:06:34,460 --> 02:06:40,460
 our park system and not involved in our park system on that group. I think John, we have

1225
02:06:40,460 --> 02:06:49,780
 about 25 or so people on that group. And for ease of sake and time and effort, we thought

1226
02:06:49,780 --> 02:06:54,300
 we could try to flip that group to see if they were interested in the Park System Master

1227
02:06:54,300 --> 02:06:59,700
 Plan. So we sent an email out to everybody. And I think we got maybe half or a third of

1228
02:06:59,700 --> 02:07:04,180
 the people that were interested in doing the next step. And in that time frame, I had a

1229
02:07:04,180 --> 02:07:07,820
 discussion with Frances. She expressed some concern that this didn't come back to the

1230
02:07:07,820 --> 02:07:12,540
 board. So I told her that we definitely put it on the board for an agenda to see if there's

1231
02:07:12,540 --> 02:07:19,380
 anybody that the board would like to recommend to make sure that we had a good cross section

1232
02:07:19,380 --> 02:07:26,180
 of the community. So this is here for that discussion to get a general sense of kind

1233
02:07:26,180 --> 02:07:30,980
 of where you feel we need to go, if there's people that we need to recommend or organizations

1234
02:07:30,980 --> 02:07:38,300
 that we should reach out to to get some people to participate.

1235
02:07:38,300 --> 02:07:42,700
 Are you looking for nominations at this point or are you looking for us to follow up with

1236
02:07:42,700 --> 02:07:50,100
 nominations after maybe talking to someone? Frances, did you want to say something real

1237
02:07:50,100 --> 02:07:57,100
 quick? I was getting ready to call on George. I'm sorry. No, no, Dave. Dave asked a question.

1238
02:07:57,100 --> 02:08:01,860
 Please. Yeah, absolutely. We're all good. If you have somebody that you think would be

1239
02:08:01,860 --> 02:08:07,380
 a good fit and a good ad for that process that would provide good input on whether it's

1240
02:08:07,380 --> 02:08:14,340
 a specific topic, item, need, interest, or it's just someone that has, you know, vast

1241
02:08:14,340 --> 02:08:19,140
 knowledge of just generalities that you feel would provide some some really good input

1242
02:08:19,140 --> 02:08:25,140
 and envisioned for the city. That would be great either way.

1243
02:08:25,140 --> 02:08:34,860
 Okay, George. Yeah, I absolutely feel like after this meeting, I might put out something

1244
02:08:34,860 --> 02:08:38,820
 on like all my channels, right? To be like, hey, calling on those that really wish to

1245
02:08:38,820 --> 02:08:43,500
 like be more involved. Here's an opportunity to serve. And I also, this also brings up

1246
02:08:43,500 --> 02:08:49,060
 it within this same vein, like anytime, you know, there's like a, once these meetings

1247
02:08:49,060 --> 02:08:53,180
 are decided, like, hey, there's an interest meeting about Southwest Park. I know I've

1248
02:08:53,180 --> 02:08:57,300
 seen it before, but if we could get maybe an email saying, hey, parks board members,

1249
02:08:57,300 --> 02:09:01,260
 there's an interest meeting about Southwest Park that the city's holding next week. Y'all

1250
02:09:01,260 --> 02:09:04,940
 need to blast this, help us get people come to this, like help get interest out, help

1251
02:09:04,940 --> 02:09:09,900
 get the word out. I'd be happy to like keep hounding folk to show to these things. So

1252
02:09:09,900 --> 02:09:15,640
 I know that I also need the push sometimes too. But yeah, with that, I will start reaching

1253
02:09:15,640 --> 02:09:20,180
 out to some people because I know I've heard people want to be more involved.

1254
02:09:20,180 --> 02:09:25,620
 That was actually something I wanted to bring up is at the end of the meeting is exactly

1255
02:09:25,620 --> 02:09:34,020
 what George just said. Thanks, George. I have a question. Do we have anybody who is under

1256
02:09:34,020 --> 02:09:43,660
 the age of like 20 on that group? Cause I think we need more input from the children.

1257
02:09:43,660 --> 02:09:49,460
 I think that's funny you say that. Gary, you can answer this, but that was brought up in

1258
02:09:49,460 --> 02:09:55,900
 our annual meeting for the parks board. And one of our board members suggested making

1259
02:09:55,900 --> 02:10:02,780
 a second kind of faux parks board, but for kids so that we could kind of take their input

1260
02:10:02,780 --> 02:10:08,340
 and then share it back with you all and other folks. But just something along those lines,

1261
02:10:08,340 --> 02:10:16,380
 I totally am down with that one. We definitely could add a children's group

1262
02:10:16,380 --> 02:10:20,220
 as part of that, or maybe it's just a separate focus group that we could bring in and pull

1263
02:10:20,220 --> 02:10:25,260
 information from them. That would be fairly easy, especially in the summertime when we

1264
02:10:25,260 --> 02:10:31,100
 have some of our camps going, we could sit down with them and have those, you know, Hey,

1265
02:10:31,100 --> 02:10:34,220
 here's some cookies, but you have to answer some questions first.

1266
02:10:34,220 --> 02:10:48,140
 And it's civic engagement. I'm curious. Have you had any response from parks board members?

1267
02:10:48,140 --> 02:10:55,580
 You mean the foundation board members? Yes. No, I have not. Okay. Let me back up. Yes.

1268
02:10:55,580 --> 02:11:03,740
 There is the finance. Okay. Yeah. He's on there. Perfect. I can't remember. Am I on

1269
02:11:03,740 --> 02:11:10,340
 that one? You are on this. Yes. You're on the South. You're on the South. Did I flip?

1270
02:11:10,340 --> 02:11:18,180
 I thought I flipped. I don't know. I don't remember a lot. I've got you down for both.

1271
02:11:18,180 --> 02:11:29,420
 For what? Okay. We can't hear you. We can't hear you, John. Okay. Is it too light or I

1272
02:11:29,420 --> 02:11:33,980
 have to yell at it. Okay. You can hear me now. All right. Good. I have you down for both of those

1273
02:11:33,980 --> 02:11:40,860
 focus groups. Okay. Thanks. I thought so. I just want to make sure. Okay. Mr. Dooley,

1274
02:11:40,860 --> 02:11:45,500
 did you have a hand up earlier? No, I was just like agreeing with what Eleni was talking about.

1275
02:11:45,500 --> 02:11:53,660
 I'm all in for cookies. I'll send my boys, my grandkids. So, okay, George, you have a question.

1276
02:11:53,660 --> 02:11:58,940
 Yes. One I should probably should ask first was when are you looking to secure these folk

1277
02:11:58,940 --> 02:12:06,140
 to help you, Gary? That would be a deadline would be good for me to give up. From a timeline

1278
02:12:06,140 --> 02:12:11,900
 perspective, we'd like to start having a meeting in March if we can. So we do have, I think,

1279
02:12:11,900 --> 02:12:19,820
 Eddie, we have another park board meeting in two weeks. So maybe if we could put it back on the

1280
02:12:19,820 --> 02:12:28,700
 agenda or if you could have that to us within two weeks. Yeah. So by the eighth. Yes, sir. Thank you.

1281
02:12:28,700 --> 02:12:35,900
 That's a great deadline. Thank you, Gary. And we can send that in a follow up email.

1282
02:12:35,900 --> 02:12:44,140
 Okay. That's that was my question. Do you want us to just send information to you via email for

1283
02:12:44,140 --> 02:12:49,020
 nominations? Yeah, that would be great. If you know who the person is and their email and phone

1284
02:12:49,020 --> 02:12:53,260
 number, that would be fantastic. So that way it's easy for us to pick up the phone and call them.

1285
02:12:53,260 --> 02:12:58,380
 We definitely want to get a little bit extra people on the group and have a little bit

1286
02:12:58,380 --> 02:13:03,500
 larger because everyone's schedules, it's tough to get everyone to show up all the time. So we

1287
02:13:03,500 --> 02:13:09,180
 understand that. So, you know, we could have a little bit extra, you know, 20, 25 people is

1288
02:13:09,180 --> 02:13:15,020
 probably a good number. If you think not everyone's going to show up to get some good feedback and

1289
02:13:15,020 --> 02:13:20,860
 we'll continue to do our focus group meetings and pull information from those groups as well.

1290
02:13:22,620 --> 02:13:28,620
 Okay. And you will review this again and next month. Yes, we'll put it back on the agenda.

1291
02:13:28,620 --> 02:13:32,700
 Okay. Any additional questions or concerns?

1292
02:13:32,700 --> 02:13:42,860
 Okay. Next item. I'm sorry, I have a question. So someone who's a teenager.

1293
02:13:42,860 --> 02:13:51,580
 I'm sorry. Could you repeat that? Can I nominate someone who is a teenager?

1294
02:13:51,580 --> 02:13:53,340
 Sure. Yep.

1295
02:13:53,340 --> 02:14:02,620
 Danona, did you have a question of concern?

1296
02:14:02,620 --> 02:14:08,060
 No. Is there a specific age range for the nominees or

1297
02:14:08,060 --> 02:14:12,060
 no, I mean, we're two teenagers.

1298
02:14:12,060 --> 02:14:16,940
 Yeah. Yeah, I think that's good. I mean, we'll definitely try to pull the younger kids from some

1299
02:14:16,940 --> 02:14:23,020
 of our programming and maybe some from the library programs once things get started back

1300
02:14:23,020 --> 02:14:28,140
 up hopefully in the summer, but we definitely need to have people of all ages and abilities.

1301
02:14:28,140 --> 02:14:39,420
 Okay. Any other questions or concerns?

1302
02:14:39,420 --> 02:14:45,420
 All right. Thank you all. The next item is item E.

1303
02:14:47,020 --> 02:14:53,500
 Received nominations and elected chair and vice chair for the parks recreation and beautification

1304
02:14:53,500 --> 02:15:05,820
 board. And I have a question before we do that. And can somebody clarify why we are doing this?

1305
02:15:05,820 --> 02:15:11,260
 And since my term is not over until August.

1306
02:15:11,900 --> 02:15:18,620
 So we have a special guest, Rosa Rios from the city secretary's office to provide a little bit

1307
02:15:18,620 --> 02:15:24,380
 more insight on the process and the fact that we have been doing it incorrectly.

1308
02:15:24,380 --> 02:15:34,300
 Rosa, could you put your speaker down, your microphone down? There you go.

1309
02:15:34,300 --> 02:15:37,500
 You know, and as many of these as I've been on, I should know to do that.

1310
02:15:38,700 --> 02:15:43,740
 So this provision has actually been on the boards and commissions handbook

1311
02:15:43,740 --> 02:15:52,140
 since its original adoption back in like 2012. And the way that the records are stipulated,

1312
02:15:52,140 --> 02:15:58,780
 it stipulates that after the appointment process for boards and commissions, or annually as soon

1313
02:15:58,780 --> 02:16:05,580
 as possible, that the officers of a board and commission be elected. And so what that means,

1314
02:16:05,580 --> 02:16:12,460
 normally the election cycle kind of dictates like when the board appointments come into play,

1315
02:16:12,460 --> 02:16:17,740
 depending on whose terms come up in a given year. And that will normally happen around the

1316
02:16:17,740 --> 02:16:24,620
 appointments kind of come in about, you know, about September, October. And so the officers,

1317
02:16:24,620 --> 02:16:30,220
 meaning the chair and vice chair, because there is a secretary by each administrative department

1318
02:16:30,220 --> 02:16:35,900
 that kind of takes over that one specific position. And so the requirement is that the board

1319
02:16:35,900 --> 02:16:43,420
 officers be elected as soon as practical. So it is the appointment is not term related. It does not

1320
02:16:43,420 --> 02:16:48,540
 apply. It does. You have to kind of do it annually every year because some members do come on board

1321
02:16:48,540 --> 02:16:54,940
 each year because we have staggering terms for all our boards and commissions. So it comes into play

1322
02:16:54,940 --> 02:17:02,540
 every basically every year. It is not that a board member will be appointed when elected as chair or

1323
02:17:02,540 --> 02:17:09,260
 vice chair, that it is based on their term as far as the length of service and that as a board

1324
02:17:09,260 --> 02:17:16,300
 officer. So it's really that it has to be done, you know, at least annually. And I know that,

1325
02:17:16,300 --> 02:17:21,980
 you know, some boards, because it did come, this isn't the first time that it's come up about,

1326
02:17:21,980 --> 02:17:29,100
 you know, why are we electing, you know, officers now? But again, it is not based on the term

1327
02:17:29,100 --> 02:17:34,940
 of the officer, but rather that it be done as soon as practicable after the appointment process

1328
02:17:34,940 --> 02:17:42,860
 or annually. And as you know, last year for the 2020, what we call the 2018 through 2020 term,

1329
02:17:42,860 --> 02:17:51,500
 members remained in holdover due to the elections having been postponed due to COVID

1330
02:17:51,500 --> 02:17:58,060
 situation. And our runoff election was in December, and we immediately began the appointment process

1331
02:17:58,060 --> 02:18:08,460
 for what now became the 2020 to 2021 through the 2023 term. So I might be confusing it a little bit,

1332
02:18:08,460 --> 02:18:17,580
 but so now the need exists to go ahead and elect your officers for what remains of the 2021 term.

1333
02:18:17,580 --> 02:18:21,820
 And then as we enter, you know, the next appointment cycle, which is going to be around

1334
02:18:21,820 --> 02:18:28,300
 September, October, then again, at the first of the next year, then you'll have to do so again.

1335
02:18:28,300 --> 02:18:35,340
 Again, it's annually, it is not based on the term of the member who is elected

1336
02:18:35,340 --> 02:18:41,340
 as one of your officers. So going back, I think in parks and recreation,

1337
02:18:42,300 --> 02:18:50,700
 I think before I even got here, we were following terms. So Alana, I think you're probably the one

1338
02:18:50,700 --> 02:18:57,580
 that's been here the longest. And Francis, yeah, Francis and Alana, both of you, if you can remember

1339
02:18:57,580 --> 02:19:04,380
 the prior term, if you have any input on that, please chime in. But that was our mistake for

1340
02:19:04,380 --> 02:19:13,260
 not catching that. Yeah, I've been here the longest. And I, from prior to you, prior to

1341
02:19:13,260 --> 02:19:25,340
 everybody on the screen, actually, except for you, I don't know, John. And this has never come up,

1342
02:19:25,340 --> 02:19:37,660
 it has always been termed because, well, many things come to mind. If we're selecting someone

1343
02:19:37,660 --> 02:19:44,780
 every year, I think it interrupts the flow of the board. These are my personal opinions. And

1344
02:19:47,180 --> 02:19:58,540
 it just generates, I think prevents continuity. Not that I'm trying to remain the chair,

1345
02:19:58,540 --> 02:20:13,980
 I'm speaking from being on the board since 2015. And I see that it may, I see a lot of potential

1346
02:20:14,780 --> 02:20:21,660
 problems, really, with electing someone every year. After you've been a chair,

1347
02:20:21,660 --> 02:20:25,420
 they do, they just leave the board and you then you have to replace somebody.

1348
02:20:25,420 --> 02:20:31,740
 After being a chair, you go back to being a member. What happens?

1349
02:20:31,740 --> 02:20:39,180
 If I may, so I know that for city council, because the appointment process kind of is the same for

1350
02:20:39,180 --> 02:20:45,100
 the mayor pro tem. After every election cycle, after every election, we do elect a mayor pro tem

1351
02:20:45,100 --> 02:20:52,940
 and the process that we're going to use tonight is basically the same. So we elect our mayor pro tem,

1352
02:20:52,940 --> 02:21:00,060
 every year we will have a new mayor pro tem. It is not to say that that person could not continue,

1353
02:21:00,060 --> 02:21:04,940
 or even as a mayor pro tem, or be it chair or vice chair, you can also, of course, nominate yourself.

1354
02:21:06,220 --> 02:21:11,740
 And so it's kind of like the same process. And I think from the council standpoint,

1355
02:21:11,740 --> 02:21:16,700
 it affords everybody the opportunity to serve in that official capacity to kind of

1356
02:21:16,700 --> 02:21:24,780
 allow for that, you know, kind of each member, an understanding of what the role is. Again,

1357
02:21:24,780 --> 02:21:30,620
 I'm going for mayor pro tem. So it gives each member an equal opportunity to serve, you know,

1358
02:21:30,620 --> 02:21:36,940
 kind of in a full capacity, not just as a board member, but also possibly as a chair or vice chair.

1359
02:21:36,940 --> 02:21:41,820
 But that's not to say, again, that it couldn't be, you know, the same because again, you know,

1360
02:21:41,820 --> 02:21:47,820
 you can serve up to technically, you know, six years on a board. So it's not to say that

1361
02:21:47,820 --> 02:21:52,700
 the same person couldn't be elected time and again, every, you know, every time that this comes up.

1362
02:21:52,700 --> 02:21:58,540
 But there's the different viewpoint that it affords every member to gain that experience

1363
02:21:59,180 --> 02:22:02,620
 in the event, you know, for some reason, the chair or vice chair can't make it,

1364
02:22:02,620 --> 02:22:07,740
 then other board members would be able to step in, you know, as a presiding officer should the need arise.

1365
02:22:07,740 --> 02:22:17,980
 Yes, Mr. Schuch. I guess I've got two questions from the from chair's comments. It almost sounded

1366
02:22:17,980 --> 02:22:22,700
 like we're trying to debate whether or not we're going to do this, but there's no choice, right?

1367
02:22:22,700 --> 02:22:28,540
 I mean, this is this is rules as established with the city. If I understand right, we're not going

1368
02:22:28,540 --> 02:22:34,300
 to decide as a body whether we do this. That's my first question. I got another one. Sorry.

1369
02:22:34,300 --> 02:22:43,660
 The second is you mentioned that we would be doing this annually. And but we're doing one now in

1370
02:22:43,660 --> 02:22:52,300
 February, we'll do another one after September. And I guess the the intention is we would stay

1371
02:22:52,300 --> 02:22:57,660
 on that cycle of September, barring any weird election scheduling like we've had this past year.

1372
02:22:59,260 --> 02:23:08,700
 All right. So as far as and just so you know, so I can, you know, I can tell you this again,

1373
02:23:08,700 --> 02:23:14,380
 this provision has been there and it is adopted by the city council. So yes, it is you are required to,

1374
02:23:14,380 --> 02:23:19,020
 you know, remain in compliance with the requirements set forth in the handbook

1375
02:23:19,020 --> 02:23:24,460
 because it is council adopted. But again, kind of considering the issues that have come up.

1376
02:23:25,980 --> 02:23:31,580
 And you know, chair punch makes a lot of viable, you know, points to there's always, of course,

1377
02:23:31,580 --> 02:23:39,020
 you know, two sides. So to further clarify the term of, you know, that what does annually is,

1378
02:23:39,020 --> 02:23:44,220
 I will I am scheduled to present some proposed changes to the boards and commissions has

1379
02:23:44,220 --> 02:23:50,460
 had book. Most of those changes will be relating to, you know, we've added a couple of boards

1380
02:23:51,740 --> 02:23:56,860
 and named the, you know, renamed another board. So we have to, you know, kind of get the handbook

1381
02:23:56,860 --> 02:24:02,060
 caught up with some recent decisions by the city council. And one of the things that I'm going to

1382
02:24:02,060 --> 02:24:07,420
 seek is to really clarify, you know, what is annually rather than leave it kind of like as

1383
02:24:07,420 --> 02:24:13,260
 soon as practical after the appointment process is actually just go ahead and say that every year,

1384
02:24:13,260 --> 02:24:18,380
 no later than the end of January or, you know, some time period that actually will make it really

1385
02:24:18,380 --> 02:24:25,020
 clear in the event, a scenario like this comes up. So we are to address that.

1386
02:24:25,020 --> 02:24:35,740
 I'm sorry for interrupting. You mentioned the updates and the changes. And can you explain to

1387
02:24:35,740 --> 02:24:43,420
 us how these updates and changes are communicated to the board? Because frankly, I hadn't received

1388
02:24:43,420 --> 02:24:52,460
 this information until now. Yes. So I will. Okay. So after the the boards and commissions handbook

1389
02:24:52,460 --> 02:24:57,820
 requires that the city secretary's office send the boards and commissions handbook

1390
02:24:57,820 --> 02:25:03,660
 to all of the board members. I cannot speak for my predecessors. Okay. But I've been here

1391
02:25:03,660 --> 02:25:10,460
 about a year and a half. And, you know, there was the need to review the handbook to make sure it

1392
02:25:10,460 --> 02:25:15,900
 was consistent, you know, with state law and some of the the current practices and there was some

1393
02:25:15,900 --> 02:25:22,380
 changes that were made. And so this handbook after it was adopted, the most recent handbook,

1394
02:25:22,380 --> 02:25:26,700
 and again, keep in mind to this provision has been there for a while is have many other provisions

1395
02:25:26,700 --> 02:25:33,980
 have as well, is that I did send it out to all of the board members. We have, you know, mass email

1396
02:25:33,980 --> 02:25:42,540
 group for all of the board members. Everybody was blind copied on that. And what we also do is,

1397
02:25:42,540 --> 02:25:49,900
 as individuals are appointed and or reappointed, it has become part of a reappointment, you know,

1398
02:25:49,900 --> 02:25:55,500
 appointment packet that we sent to everybody all over again. So we would have sent that not I know

1399
02:25:55,500 --> 02:26:00,620
 that I, I did send it via, you know, via email, everybody was blind copied because of the, you

1400
02:26:00,620 --> 02:26:06,380
 know, the need to not disclose everybody's email to everybody else. So it was distributed. And I'm

1401
02:26:06,380 --> 02:26:09,740
 sorry, Chair Punch, if you know, maybe you didn't get it. But I know that, you know,

1402
02:26:09,740 --> 02:26:16,380
 we use the same email group that I've used, you know, for other notifications to board members.

1403
02:26:16,380 --> 02:26:25,420
 Now, I'm sorry, I did receive it, but I received it recently. Right. And my understanding that the

1404
02:26:25,420 --> 02:26:36,300
 updates happened last January. Yes, I read somewhere. So I, I, that's over a year ago. And,

1405
02:26:36,300 --> 02:26:44,540
 and I'm just now receiving it. All right. Update. Okay. Well, and again, you know, I can only say

1406
02:26:44,540 --> 02:26:51,980
 that I did send it out not long after the council, the city council sent it out. And it was sent out

1407
02:26:51,980 --> 02:26:56,700
 to the same distribution list that I've sent other notices to. But, you know, we'll certainly, you

1408
02:26:56,700 --> 02:27:05,500
 know, we've gone to an electronic board record keeping system. And that's what we'll be doing,

1409
02:27:05,500 --> 02:27:11,100
 doing now. Again, you know, so now it is a little bit more automated, but I'm not sure why you

1410
02:27:11,100 --> 02:27:17,180
 wouldn't have received it. I do know that it was provided to you recently, but again, not long after

1411
02:27:18,060 --> 02:27:22,380
 the city council adopted the newest version, it was sent out again to whoever would have been on

1412
02:27:22,380 --> 02:27:26,700
 that board. And I'm just sorry that if by chance, maybe you didn't get it. And if you didn't get it,

1413
02:27:26,700 --> 02:27:35,020
 it certainly was not intentional. Okay. And so you're saying that you, your plan now is to go

1414
02:27:35,020 --> 02:27:42,380
 before the city council with some, you said, can you repeat what you said earlier?

1415
02:27:42,380 --> 02:27:47,340
 Yeah. So, so every year, you know, we're going to be reviewing kind of just to see if we need

1416
02:27:47,340 --> 02:27:52,780
 to make any changes. So, you know, we've added a couple of boards. There's been a couple of boards

1417
02:27:52,780 --> 02:27:57,580
 and commissions that have been added and that we need to add into the boards and commissions,

1418
02:27:57,580 --> 02:28:05,580
 you know, manual. So, you know, there's a need to kind of update and then put that membership

1419
02:28:05,580 --> 02:28:09,900
 information in there, what the purpose of those boards are. So this is kind of just a routine.

1420
02:28:09,900 --> 02:28:16,620
 There's not anything major. However, you know, in discussions with Gary, you know, I do agree that

1421
02:28:16,620 --> 02:28:21,500
 the appointment process for officers for each board and commission kind of really does need to

1422
02:28:21,500 --> 02:28:25,900
 be a little bit more clear. So that is one of the changes that I'm going to recommend that wasn't

1423
02:28:25,900 --> 02:28:31,820
 initially on my list, but, you know, to make sure that, you know, we do clarify the timeframe

1424
02:28:31,820 --> 02:28:38,860
 that officers should be elected. Rosa, if a board member wanted to make a recommendation on,

1425
02:28:38,860 --> 02:28:45,340
 on an operational thing in a manual, do they talk to their council member that has appointed them

1426
02:28:45,340 --> 02:28:51,820
 or do they send a memo to city council? How do they communicate concerns, questions? I know we

1427
02:28:51,820 --> 02:29:00,380
 did that on the agenda item that's next in regards to absenteeism, where the board wrote a letter,

1428
02:29:00,380 --> 02:29:05,420
 but is that the same process if an individual board member would like to communicate a concern

1429
02:29:05,420 --> 02:29:10,860
 on a process? Yes, sir. As you know, everybody has a nominating council member, so you can certainly

1430
02:29:10,860 --> 02:29:17,260
 communicate with them on any changes that you as a board member kind of feel that maybe, you know,

1431
02:29:17,260 --> 02:29:22,620
 need to be addressed. The council members are very open to that receiving input from their

1432
02:29:22,620 --> 02:29:28,780
 representing appointee. You can also, of course, reach out to the mayor individually. We would,

1433
02:29:28,780 --> 02:29:33,740
 of course, ask that not as individual board members, you're not reach out to the full city council,

1434
02:29:33,740 --> 02:29:37,980
 because this is an item that will come up for, you know, their decision making as a quorum, and you

1435
02:29:37,980 --> 02:29:42,940
 could get into some legal concerns there. But certainly, we do encourage you to communicate

1436
02:29:42,940 --> 02:29:49,580
 directly with, you know, your nominating council member. And, you know, as you did with the

1437
02:29:49,580 --> 02:29:54,220
 attendance policy, you can certainly, you know, place an item on the agenda and decide if there's

1438
02:29:54,220 --> 02:30:00,380
 some, you know, recommendation that the board as a whole wants to take, in which case we would

1439
02:30:00,380 --> 02:30:09,500
 present it to them. So my concern is this, my nominating board member is no longer here. It was

1440
02:30:09,500 --> 02:30:19,820
 Mayor Chris Watts. Yes, and I'm sorry, yes. So by, just by practice, then your nominating

1441
02:30:19,820 --> 02:30:26,460
 council member would become our newly elected mayor, Hutzpeth. And so he would be, if, let's

1442
02:30:26,460 --> 02:30:30,220
 just say that if your term was up, and you were coming up for reappointment, he would be looking

1443
02:30:30,220 --> 02:30:35,980
 at those individuals that, you know, that Mayor Watts possibly had nominated and appointed before.

1444
02:30:35,980 --> 02:30:40,940
 But you could certainly reach out to the mayor as a whole. He's available. Keep in mind,

1445
02:30:40,940 --> 02:30:46,620
 you know, he represents the whole city. And again, you know, if you choose to, you could

1446
02:30:46,620 --> 02:30:51,740
 certainly communicate, you know, with another member. But since he's representing technically

1447
02:30:51,740 --> 02:31:04,300
 place seven, you can certainly communicate with him. So what are we doing tonight to behalf,

1448
02:31:04,300 --> 02:31:10,940
 we have to move forward and are we going to wait for you to go to the council and come back to us?

1449
02:31:10,940 --> 02:31:16,460
 What are we doing? So in order to stay compliant with the requirements of the handbook,

1450
02:31:16,460 --> 02:31:22,700
 we do need for you to go ahead and elect a chair and vice chair. Again, there's no saying that it

1451
02:31:22,700 --> 02:31:30,140
 cannot be the same, the same people. And, and because we do, we have notified all of the boards

1452
02:31:30,140 --> 02:31:34,460
 and commissions as they've been submitting their agendas for their first upcoming meeting this year.

1453
02:31:34,460 --> 02:31:38,780
 We've asked all of them to put this item on the agenda. Council committees that comprise,

1454
02:31:38,780 --> 02:31:43,500
 you know, of at least three council members, they're also appointing, you know, putting this

1455
02:31:43,500 --> 02:31:49,420
 item on their agenda to make sure they remain in compliance. So, so yes, um, again, in order

1456
02:31:49,420 --> 02:31:53,420
 to stay compliant, you would need to take action on this item. Mr. Shook.

1457
02:31:53,420 --> 02:32:03,100
 You're on mute. David, you're on mute.

1458
02:32:03,100 --> 02:32:12,940
 I was speaking so elegantly too. Um, I, I moved to nominate Francis punches chair for the board.

1459
02:32:14,300 --> 02:32:16,220
 I think that's in order. I second.

1460
02:32:16,220 --> 02:32:21,260
 There's no motion. It's just by majority vote.

1461
02:32:21,260 --> 02:32:31,820
 So vote. Rosa, did you, do you want to, is there a rule or something you wanted to clarify?

1462
02:32:31,820 --> 02:32:39,020
 You don't even know how to do this. No, and it is, it's a little bit new to everybody. Um, so,

1463
02:32:39,020 --> 02:32:43,820
 um, what you can do again, you know, there's a process that the city council had established

1464
02:32:43,820 --> 02:32:49,020
 for election of the mayor pro tem. Some boards have opted to kind of follow that. Um, the key

1465
02:32:49,020 --> 02:32:54,060
 is for the chair, the under Robert's rules of order, the chair would, would open nominations

1466
02:32:54,060 --> 02:33:01,020
 and acknowledge, you know, whoever wants to make a nomination, um, one nomination per board member.

1467
02:33:01,020 --> 02:33:08,140
 It does not have to receive a second. Um, you would ask the, whoever is nominated, um, as chair,

1468
02:33:08,140 --> 02:33:12,940
 and then again, later as vice chair, uh, if they want to accept it, because obviously you want to

1469
02:33:12,940 --> 02:33:17,740
 consider somebody that does want to take that position. And once it's accepted, then you would,

1470
02:33:17,740 --> 02:33:22,780
 you would go ahead and ask for, are there any other nominations on the floor? Just in case somebody

1471
02:33:22,780 --> 02:33:27,980
 wants to come up and maybe nominate somebody else. If you hear nothing, uh, or you, maybe you

1472
02:33:27,980 --> 02:33:33,420
 might get some, uh, you know, other nominations and sometimes very rarely will you at the board level.

1473
02:33:34,620 --> 02:33:39,820
 Um, then if, if, you know, you clarify, are there any other nominations when the other nominations

1474
02:33:39,820 --> 02:33:46,540
 on the floor, the nomination process is closed. And, um, then you would go ahead and take for,

1475
02:33:46,540 --> 02:33:52,300
 uh, election the nominations as they were submitted. So for right now you have received

1476
02:33:52,300 --> 02:33:58,220
 a nomination for yourself, uh, chair punch and, um, and then, so you would be the first one that

1477
02:33:58,220 --> 02:34:05,660
 would presented would be presented to the board for appointment or election. So right now there

1478
02:34:05,660 --> 02:34:10,700
 is one nomination. So you would want to ask, are there any other nominations for the position of

1479
02:34:10,700 --> 02:34:15,660
 chair? And then if there's none, then you would go ahead and say, you know, kind of ask again,

1480
02:34:15,660 --> 02:34:20,220
 are there any nominations for chair? And if there's none forthcoming, you go ahead and close

1481
02:34:20,220 --> 02:34:27,660
 the nomination for chair. And then you would, you would present yourself for the board to vote.

1482
02:34:27,660 --> 02:34:31,660
 It's a given, obviously there's no other nominations come in and you only have one

1483
02:34:31,660 --> 02:34:36,460
 that that is, you know, the board is kind of in a consensus, but you would want all of them to vote

1484
02:34:36,460 --> 02:34:41,500
 and then you would go around, you know, and do voice vote for your reappointment as chair.

1485
02:34:41,500 --> 02:34:46,300
 And we would have to do this again in August or September, correct?

1486
02:34:46,300 --> 02:34:52,220
 No, it would likely be in January. Again, I'm, I'm going to be taking the boards and

1487
02:34:52,220 --> 02:34:57,260
 commissions handbook around, around April to city council. So you would likely have to do it again

1488
02:34:57,260 --> 02:35:02,300
 in January. But again, it's not to say that council will concur with my recommendation

1489
02:35:02,300 --> 02:35:08,380
 that we established January is kind of like the appointment month for officers, but you would need

1490
02:35:08,380 --> 02:35:17,820
 to do it again after all of the, the 20, we would have the 2020 2021 to 2023 terms that we would be

1491
02:35:17,820 --> 02:35:23,980
 doing in, you know, kind of like September, October timeframe. So yes, you would need to do it again.

1492
02:35:27,980 --> 02:35:33,180
 Josh, am I allowed to speak right now? Because we're in this voting pattern.

1493
02:35:33,180 --> 02:35:42,540
 All I want to say is I want to kind of uplift this confusion. And I also would like to like

1494
02:35:42,540 --> 02:35:49,340
 validate the chair chair punches feelings and also say like, if we're nominating now,

1495
02:35:49,340 --> 02:35:55,900
 because Mr. Dooley has joined, which welcome. Hi, you know, we have three members who are going

1496
02:35:55,900 --> 02:36:01,340
 up for reappointment in August, because their term ends in August. But because these new rules might

1497
02:36:01,340 --> 02:36:08,380
 change, it might always be January. It just, it just is a lot of confusion, I guess. And then also,

1498
02:36:08,380 --> 02:36:15,500
 I just checked the website and Mr. Shuck is listed as expired. But, you know, so it's like, I don't

1499
02:36:15,500 --> 02:36:20,780
 know, I just, there's a lot of confusion. I just want to validate that. And then I'm also confused.

1500
02:36:22,060 --> 02:36:27,660
 And I'm glad that we're seeking clarification now. And I, you know, I just, I also feel that confusion.

1501
02:36:27,660 --> 02:36:37,740
 Yes, I had a question earlier before we started the nomination process. Since we've already been

1502
02:36:37,740 --> 02:36:45,420
 doing it wrong, and we're off, who's to say, like, why can't we just extend this until August,

1503
02:36:45,420 --> 02:36:51,820
 and then we can just be back on track beginning in August? That's just my question. Why can't

1504
02:36:51,820 --> 02:36:57,820
 we do that? Well, there is no provision for the board to determine that they're not going to take

1505
02:36:57,820 --> 02:37:04,460
 action on the as soon as practicable the language in the handbook is specific that it should it reads

1506
02:37:04,460 --> 02:37:10,460
 election of officers shall be annually as soon as practicable after the annual appointment process.

1507
02:37:10,460 --> 02:37:16,380
 And we have just passed that recently, especially for the for the park board, because as you know,

1508
02:37:16,380 --> 02:37:21,100
 you you know, all of the the barring that you have a new member, and that's only because the

1509
02:37:21,100 --> 02:37:26,860
 other member did not want to continue, you know, that your board is now ready to to do that

1510
02:37:26,860 --> 02:37:31,820
 appointment. So there's no there's nothing in the handbook that says that, you know, the board

1511
02:37:31,820 --> 02:37:43,180
 itself has the authority to put aside that requirement at this time. And so if my

1512
02:37:43,180 --> 02:37:51,100
 reappointment in August, then we would have to nominate a new chair. Well, again, because

1513
02:37:51,100 --> 02:37:57,020
 you're doing it annually. And today is like right now we're in 2021. So the logic would say that

1514
02:37:57,020 --> 02:38:04,700
 you would go ahead and do it in like in any time in 2022. But by then, I'm hoping, you know, we

1515
02:38:04,700 --> 02:38:09,260
 would clarify with City Council, that, you know, they would do it and it would, you know, we would

1516
02:38:09,260 --> 02:38:14,540
 make sure that stipulates the language properly, that it would be like, you know, that it shall be

1517
02:38:14,540 --> 02:38:19,980
 in 20, like, hopefully the January, it might be the January, February timeline. So really,

1518
02:38:19,980 --> 02:38:27,020
 you would still do it not in 2021. Okay, my recommendation is you do it in 2022. And that

1519
02:38:27,020 --> 02:38:32,860
 would be my recommendation to counsel. So it's not to say that you would do it again in 2021.

1520
02:38:34,540 --> 02:38:41,420
 But my term, my term is up in January, in August. Yes, but you could possibly be reappointed.

1521
02:38:41,420 --> 02:38:49,020
 I think, I think she hits her six years. Oh, so you're termed. Yep. So she's termed up. Yeah.

1522
02:38:49,020 --> 02:38:54,060
 Right. Okay. So then what would happen is that the, if you would elect a vice chair,

1523
02:38:54,060 --> 02:38:59,500
 right. And then if, let's just say, you know, you're termed and then they would come in. So

1524
02:38:59,500 --> 02:39:03,820
 you would stay as a holdover. Let's just say that, you know, you stayed over as a holdover

1525
02:39:03,820 --> 02:39:11,740
 for however much longer. And then the vice chair, you would still remain chair again,

1526
02:39:11,740 --> 02:39:15,100
 because you're still holdover and you are the chair until such time as you come in and you

1527
02:39:15,100 --> 02:39:21,100
 elect a chair. So the vice or the vice chair could take over, but you would wait till 2022 to elect

1528
02:39:21,100 --> 02:39:25,980
 a new chair. Cause as you know, I mean, we've had, although, you know, members are really supposed

1529
02:39:25,980 --> 02:39:31,980
 to kind of like be reappointed. You know, some members are known to hold over for a year and a

1530
02:39:31,980 --> 02:39:42,860
 half, two years. So some members will hold, hold over. Yeah. I'm confused by that last series,

1531
02:39:42,860 --> 02:39:49,660
 because I think what you, I think she just said her term would end and at six years,

1532
02:39:49,660 --> 02:39:56,380
 which ultimately would result in another person being chosen from that member. So there would be

1533
02:39:56,380 --> 02:40:01,260
 another member coming in. How would a holdover work when there are two people in that position

1534
02:40:01,260 --> 02:40:07,340
 and she would still be the chair that that makes very little sense. Well, no, she, so, so if, if

1535
02:40:07,340 --> 02:40:13,900
 she, if she was a board, she would, it is not to say that she, she would be immediate a replacement

1536
02:40:13,900 --> 02:40:20,300
 for her seat would immediately happen come, you know, September, you know, August, September.

1537
02:40:20,300 --> 02:40:26,300
 It's not to say she could literally sit in that seat right now where she is at like for a year

1538
02:40:26,300 --> 02:40:31,740
 until let's just say, you know, Mayor, Mayor Hudspeth appointment it would be. So she would

1539
02:40:31,740 --> 02:40:35,260
 actually be there. It's not that somebody else would come in in her place. She would sit there

1540
02:40:35,260 --> 02:40:40,620
 until he finds somebody else to replace her. And that would be only because obviously she's termed.

1541
02:40:40,620 --> 02:40:47,740
 So she just could not be reappointed, but she could hold over. It's just the same as the members. I

1542
02:40:47,740 --> 02:40:53,100
 think what happened this time was not no member on the park board that come whose term ended this

1543
02:40:53,100 --> 02:41:01,500
 year. What, or last year in, in, in August 31st of 2020, nobody was termed. So the issue didn't

1544
02:41:01,500 --> 02:41:08,300
 come up, but you continue to hold over. You, you sit there until your replacement is appointed,

1545
02:41:08,300 --> 02:41:14,940
 or you choose to resign sooner than that. So, so, so if the mayor finds a replacement

1546
02:41:14,940 --> 02:41:21,900
 and council approves it in September, that person would start immediately. And the vice chair would

1547
02:41:21,900 --> 02:41:28,380
 be, would elevate to the chair until the, all the appointments are done in January. There'd be a

1548
02:41:28,380 --> 02:41:34,780
 vote. Is that correct? Okay. So, so the vice chair would then become what we call the presiding

1549
02:41:34,780 --> 02:41:39,740
 officer. So yes, they would, even though maybe not entitled and the board could make the decision to

1550
02:41:39,740 --> 02:41:45,260
 go ahead and appoint a chair, or you might choose to, because you've already done it annually,

1551
02:41:45,260 --> 02:41:49,820
 right? You could actually come in and you have the option of either going ahead and doing a new

1552
02:41:49,820 --> 02:41:55,180
 chair or waiting till maybe the rest of, you know, the, the rest of the members that are up for

1553
02:41:55,180 --> 02:42:00,380
 reappointment are either elected or, you know, or something. So it would be up to the board

1554
02:42:00,380 --> 02:42:06,140
 at that point, because you've already at least met the responsibility for 2021. But normally,

1555
02:42:06,140 --> 02:42:16,460
 yes, in the absence of a chair, the vice chair would take over that role. Okay. Sorry, Francis.

1556
02:42:17,740 --> 02:42:26,380
 Go ahead, Alana. I just feel like if we get on this year where we're voting every January,

1557
02:42:26,380 --> 02:42:31,740
 we're going to run into this over and over and over again. And I just, I really feel like we should,

1558
02:42:31,740 --> 02:42:38,460
 maybe we need to talk to city council and see if we can just get an extension this year and like

1559
02:42:38,460 --> 02:42:44,540
 get it on track so that August, September is when the year begins and ends annually.

1560
02:42:47,740 --> 02:42:53,020
 Okay. Yeah, I'm going to write a letter

1561
02:42:53,020 --> 02:42:59,500
 of this concern. This is weird. And this feels kind of icky to be like super honest.

1562
02:42:59,500 --> 02:43:04,300
 I just don't, I don't like it. So I'm going to talk to my council member about it. Thank you.

1563
02:43:04,300 --> 02:43:07,900
 Thank you, city secretary. I want to like first uplift the fact that like you're sharing this

1564
02:43:07,900 --> 02:43:12,140
 information because this is your job to share this information. And like, I want to respect that

1565
02:43:12,140 --> 02:43:18,060
 and uplift that, that this is, this is just weird. And I want to reach out. I'm going to,

1566
02:43:18,060 --> 02:43:20,700
 I'm going to do what you said. I'm going to reach out to my council member. Thank you.

1567
02:43:20,700 --> 02:43:23,500
 And thank you for your time. You're welcome.

1568
02:43:23,500 --> 02:43:31,340
 So part of the, part of the challenge is that this, the appointment, just the general appointment

1569
02:43:31,340 --> 02:43:37,820
 would have happened in September, like historically, but since COVID hit and they delayed the election,

1570
02:43:38,460 --> 02:43:48,140
 it got pushed and Jerry was appointed in January. So this is, you know, four or five months delayed

1571
02:43:48,140 --> 02:43:55,100
 from when it should have happened. So that's why now we have January and September coming

1572
02:43:55,100 --> 02:44:01,980
 potentially so close with new members. That's kind of caused the compression in that process.

1573
02:44:04,220 --> 02:44:13,900
 Yeah, because, yeah, because I'm good to go till what? September of next year. And then we have a,

1574
02:44:13,900 --> 02:44:20,140
 we're juggling dual appointments, which I'm not really, I'm not getting here.

1575
02:44:20,140 --> 02:44:26,780
 So maybe we get on the same page. But I don't know, like I said, I'm new, so I don't want to like

1576
02:44:28,060 --> 02:44:36,220
 cause any, any, any ripples, but you know, but your insight is valuable. Your insight is valuable.

1577
02:44:36,220 --> 02:44:44,620
 I mean, it's just odd if we're, if we're changing board members and then three months later,

1578
02:44:44,620 --> 02:44:49,020
 we're electing a new chair. Let me, I don't understand why we're juggling two different

1579
02:44:49,020 --> 02:44:54,140
 timelines. You know, I don't know, but I didn't realize we have 10 minutes.

1580
02:44:55,020 --> 02:45:05,660
 Yeah. Yes. Mr. Schick. If I could just make a recommendation. It sounds like we are at the,

1581
02:45:05,660 --> 02:45:09,820
 you know, we're subject to the rules that are citywide, right? And I think ultimately

1582
02:45:09,820 --> 02:45:16,380
 we are to determine a chair and a vice chair based on those rules as they exist today.

1583
02:45:16,380 --> 02:45:20,780
 I also don't think that we have a lot of political turmoil amongst this board. And I have a feeling

1584
02:45:20,780 --> 02:45:25,100
 that we're going to see a very similar set of chair and vice chair moving forward. And if I

1585
02:45:25,100 --> 02:45:29,820
 could just recommend that we just move forward with the appointment and let them hash out the

1586
02:45:29,820 --> 02:45:34,300
 rules with the city council, let's contact city council people, but let's just do the job tonight

1587
02:45:34,300 --> 02:45:39,340
 and appoint our chair and our vice chair. That's just my opinion. Can I, can I second that

1588
02:45:39,340 --> 02:45:47,660
 nomination really quick? Just wasn't necessary. It was just a, they said second. Yeah, we don't

1589
02:45:47,660 --> 02:45:53,100
 second, which is also weird because that's Robert's rules of order. Oh, well, silly me. Sorry, man.

1590
02:45:53,100 --> 02:46:03,340
 I thought we did. Yes. And again, we're following this. I'm sorry, Mr. Chair.

1591
02:46:03,340 --> 02:46:15,180
 I may throw another wrench in this equation because it just seems quite convoluted. And if we,

1592
02:46:18,460 --> 02:46:27,180
 elect someone other than myself as chair and vice chair, then we could start anew.

1593
02:46:27,180 --> 02:46:32,540
 Is this correct? Cause I will be gone in August.

1594
02:46:32,540 --> 02:46:42,700
 Well, again, you, you would hold over, you would hold over, you could possibly hold over until

1595
02:46:42,700 --> 02:46:49,100
 January, February, March, April, who knows, depending on, you know, what mayor Husbits decides to do

1596
02:46:49,100 --> 02:46:55,660
 on, on place a seat seven on the parks board. So you could continue to hold over,

1597
02:46:55,660 --> 02:47:03,500
 but it's certainly your purview, you know, to, to, you know, if, if you, again, you've been nominated

1598
02:47:03,500 --> 02:47:09,900
 as you've been nominated for reappointment as chair. So it's up to you to accept it or not accept it.

1599
02:47:10,460 --> 02:47:15,500
 And you would, you know, again, under the process, and we're following the same process that,

1600
02:47:15,500 --> 02:47:19,900
 you know, we were using for the mayor pro tem with at the council level and the attorney

1601
02:47:19,900 --> 02:47:26,140
 reported that there was no second for the nomination required. And of course we always

1602
02:47:26,140 --> 02:47:32,700
 defer to legal. And so you can accept the nomination or not accept it. And it looks like,

1603
02:47:32,700 --> 02:47:37,660
 you know, the board would love for you to accept it. And then you would just to clarify, you know,

1604
02:47:37,660 --> 02:47:42,940
 are there any other nominations on the floor? And then if there's none forthcoming, then, you know,

1605
02:47:42,940 --> 02:47:48,860
 I mean, that's great. If there are, that could be great too. And then if there's none, then you

1606
02:47:48,860 --> 02:47:53,980
 would go ahead and present yourself. Okay. You know, by acclamation, you know, all in favor,

1607
02:47:53,980 --> 02:47:58,460
 or you could go around and have everybody give their voice vote in support of your re-election

1608
02:47:58,460 --> 02:48:03,340
 as chair, but you wouldn't, it's very important that you accept, you indicate whether you accept

1609
02:48:03,340 --> 02:48:14,300
 or you do not accept the nomination. It's a lot to process in this moment. It really is. And I just,

1610
02:48:14,300 --> 02:48:27,900
 I really feel led to decline and pass my responsibilities on to the people who are very

1611
02:48:27,900 --> 02:48:38,620
 capable. So I decline my nomination and I nominate Alana Taylor as chair.

1612
02:48:38,620 --> 02:48:52,220
 So now, Ms. Member Taylor, you need to indicate whether you accept or you do not.

1613
02:48:53,740 --> 02:49:00,540
 And would the chair would continue? I accept the nomination and I do feel like

1614
02:49:00,540 --> 02:49:14,460
 we need to find out what is going to happen in council to get our terms more consistent with

1615
02:49:14,460 --> 02:49:22,860
 our back on track. Once we all recover from the weird cycle and just, I would like to figure out

1616
02:49:22,860 --> 02:49:32,380
 so that this never happens again to be in this situation because it does, I'm, I am excited.

1617
02:49:32,380 --> 02:49:39,980
 Thank you, Frances, for the nomination. I would love to be chair, but it feels kind of weird to be

1618
02:49:39,980 --> 02:49:46,060
 brought in, in this kind of way. So I just wanted to make that clear.

1619
02:49:48,460 --> 02:49:54,060
 And so now does she nominate a vice chair? No, so what you would do is you would go ahead

1620
02:49:54,060 --> 02:49:58,460
 and open the floor for any other nominations for chair. Any other nominations for chair?

1621
02:49:58,460 --> 02:50:09,900
 So the nominations close. Nominations are closed. All in favor? Anyone opposed?

1622
02:50:13,260 --> 02:50:23,100
 Okay. Motion passes. Okay. And now Member Taylor now becomes the chair and therefore takes over

1623
02:50:23,100 --> 02:50:28,220
 the proceedings for the meeting. And she will open the nominations process for vice chair

1624
02:50:28,220 --> 02:50:33,260
 and takes over for the rest of the meeting. Okay. Oh, my hands are all sweaty all of a sudden.

1625
02:50:33,260 --> 02:50:45,260
 Sorry. Is this effective immediately? Yes. Okay. So I open up the nominations for vice chair.

1626
02:50:45,260 --> 02:50:51,340
 Can I nominate? Yes, you can. And I would like to nominate George Ferry as vice chair.

1627
02:50:58,220 --> 02:51:04,620
 Yeah, I also I accept that nomination. And I also just want to like reiterate that I would really

1628
02:51:04,620 --> 02:51:11,500
 like to look at this language and like circle back to this conversation when it's decided

1629
02:51:11,500 --> 02:51:17,340
 by council so that we have some resolution to this and get some closure on this icky kind of feeling.

1630
02:51:17,340 --> 02:51:25,900
 And just for clarification, this is happening all across all of the city boards right now at

1631
02:51:25,900 --> 02:51:31,580
 this same time. This is not specific to the parks board. This is happening on the ethics board,

1632
02:51:31,580 --> 02:51:38,780
 on all of the other nominating boards. Yes, they're having the same conversation this month.

1633
02:51:38,780 --> 02:51:44,140
 Yes, they are. They have the same agenda item. Again, I don't know what their specific

1634
02:51:44,140 --> 02:51:48,700
 conversation is. And we're also doing this with council committees, which are comprised of council

1635
02:51:48,700 --> 02:51:57,340
 members. Because it applies to also this requirement also applies to council committees. So yes,

1636
02:51:57,340 --> 02:52:04,300
 well, just just just as a little like, again, an outsider, but my mama always said, you know,

1637
02:52:04,300 --> 02:52:11,180
 just because everybody else was doing it, don't make it right. Yeah. But yeah, let's get the

1638
02:52:11,180 --> 02:52:23,260
 language straight. Because I'm done. Go ahead. I guess I'm trigger happy. I don't know. Are there

1639
02:52:23,260 --> 02:52:36,700
 any other nominations for vice chair? Now, what do I say? Open for nomination.

1640
02:52:42,140 --> 02:52:50,620
 Um, I'm sorry, I did not do we vote. Right. So there's been no other nominations, correct?

1641
02:52:50,620 --> 02:52:56,540
 No. Yeah. So then go ahead. You officially close the nomination process and then ask the board to

1642
02:52:56,540 --> 02:53:02,780
 to cast their vote. Okay, I closed the nomination process and it is time to vote.

1643
02:53:02,780 --> 02:53:07,900
 If you're in favor of George as vice chair, say aye.

1644
02:53:10,060 --> 02:53:13,020
 Aye. Any opposed?

1645
02:53:13,020 --> 02:53:17,740
 Congratulations, George.

1646
02:53:17,740 --> 02:53:24,220
 Thank you. And I will report back on what the city council takes on this item.

1647
02:53:24,220 --> 02:53:33,740
 Thank you. Thank you. Take care. I'd like to thank Francis. Yes. Great. Thank you, Francis.

1648
02:53:35,020 --> 02:53:43,180
 You're very welcome. Before you leave. Did she? Did she leave? I have a question about the next

1649
02:53:43,180 --> 02:54:05,820
 agenda. Eddie, Eddie, could you get her back on, please?

1650
02:54:13,420 --> 02:54:23,420
 I also had this is a schedule, right? That's what we're about to go on to.

1651
02:54:23,420 --> 02:54:31,900
 Let's see. This one is about, yeah, the schedule. And we've, we've done this year.

1652
02:54:31,900 --> 02:54:34,460
 We've done this last year. We've done that.

1653
02:54:34,460 --> 02:54:41,740
 Yeah. Do you guys all want to just do that? Are you, you guys want to vote for that one?

1654
02:54:41,740 --> 02:54:48,700
 I'm sorry. It was item G, not F, but it's, it's, but I'm sorry for interrupting.

1655
02:54:48,700 --> 02:54:59,660
 Sure. Well, what do you want to do, Elena? You want to do item F? Chair Taylor?

1656
02:54:59,660 --> 02:55:09,340
 We can move to, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. G. What do I do when we get down to four

1657
02:55:09,340 --> 02:55:15,580
 minutes until the meeting is supposed to be over? Cause we don't have that much time to

1658
02:55:15,580 --> 02:55:21,820
 talk about anything. And I know we're like, we have to be finished at six.

1659
02:55:21,820 --> 02:55:28,300
 Your items would just continue. You, what you would do is you would say that items,

1660
02:55:28,300 --> 02:55:30,860
 these items will be postponed to the next meeting.

1661
02:55:30,860 --> 02:55:39,020
 Is everybody okay to postpone the rest of this agenda until the next meeting?

1662
02:55:39,020 --> 02:55:42,620
 So that we will have enough time to talk about it.

1663
02:55:42,620 --> 02:55:49,900
 Do we vote on that? Do we say aye? Okay. If you.

1664
02:55:49,900 --> 02:55:57,100
 I support the motion to, or I motion to table the rest of the items until the next meeting.

1665
02:55:57,100 --> 02:56:01,100
 That's it. Where we will also be bringing our

1666
02:56:01,100 --> 02:56:09,100
 nominations for the master plan. Okay. All in favor say aye. Okay.

1667
02:56:09,100 --> 02:56:14,700
 Opposed. Thanks. I'll get there.

1668
02:56:14,700 --> 02:56:22,460
 Okay. No opposed. So I guess that brings us to the end of this meeting.

1669
02:56:22,460 --> 02:56:30,700
 Do I ask if we want to bring anything else to the next meeting sites? What's tabled?

1670
02:56:31,340 --> 02:56:34,540
 I'm asking. I'm not asking if I asked that.

1671
02:56:34,540 --> 02:56:40,540
 Maybe I'll send it as an email to Gary in the meantime, but I had somebody bring something

1672
02:56:40,540 --> 02:56:45,980
 to me about signage at the Frisbee golf course that, that it's no longer accurate

1673
02:56:45,980 --> 02:56:49,180
 and it can be helped. And I just want to bring that up.

1674
02:56:49,180 --> 02:56:56,940
 And real quick, I know Rosa, you were supposed to go to the city council about ordinance and I,

1675
02:56:58,220 --> 02:57:02,060
 codes code of ordinance. Is that happening this week?

1676
02:57:02,060 --> 02:57:08,940
 Due to, there were a lot of board meetings and council meetings that were had to be canceled

1677
02:57:08,940 --> 02:57:14,300
 because of the, you know, the, the inclement weather. So it's going to be in April when I'm

1678
02:57:14,300 --> 02:57:19,260
 going to take the handbook as well as the attendance policy to them. And then we'll come back.

1679
02:57:19,260 --> 02:57:26,140
 Okay. I'll send an email. I'll send an email with my concerns.

1680
02:57:26,140 --> 02:57:33,100
 Thank you. Does anybody have any other items that would like to be addressed?

1681
02:57:33,100 --> 02:57:42,300
 Go ahead. Oh, I was just going to say something I was going to mention as part of my item is that

1682
02:57:42,300 --> 02:57:47,900
 the Denton parks foundation board is looking for additional board members. And we did nominate our

1683
02:57:47,900 --> 02:57:54,300
 board and we do not have representation from district one. And so we are looking for folks

1684
02:57:54,300 --> 02:58:00,540
 in district one to join our board, whether they are a business in the area or a resident,

1685
02:58:00,540 --> 02:58:07,820
 or even an employee who works within district one in Denton parks and rec. So just throwing that out.

1686
02:58:07,820 --> 02:58:11,980
 Thanks. Jerry.

1687
02:58:11,980 --> 02:58:17,980
 Yeah. So two things for nominations to the trail focus group, pretty much saying that

1688
02:58:17,980 --> 02:58:19,660
 because I know somebody that would be great.

1689
02:58:22,380 --> 02:58:26,060
 You could just email it to you. Yes. Yes, sir.

1690
02:58:26,060 --> 02:58:31,980
 Okay. And George, just for duck on the side, I miss wine squared, man. I just realized who you were.

1691
02:58:31,980 --> 02:58:37,500
 So see you again. Thank you, Jerry. I appreciate you.

1692
02:58:37,500 --> 02:58:42,220
 I miss you. I miss you, man. I miss it too.

1693
02:58:42,220 --> 02:58:50,140
 Gary. Just just a quick comment. I know we have an agenda item on this and we can get into detail

1694
02:58:50,140 --> 02:58:55,180
 next, I guess, in two weeks when we have our next meeting. But I wanted to introduce Nikki Sassenes.

1695
02:58:55,180 --> 02:59:01,580
 She's our new Laura Barron's, our new assistant director. She joined us last week and Monday was

1696
02:59:01,580 --> 02:59:09,340
 her first day. So she was a trial by error on dealing with emergency services that we provided

1697
02:59:09,340 --> 02:59:16,940
 pretty much all of last week. So she, she had an interesting first week, say the least baptism by

1698
02:59:16,940 --> 02:59:23,420
 ice and snow. Yeah, that's hilarious. Welcome. Thank you very much. I'm excited to be here and

1699
02:59:23,420 --> 02:59:31,340
 be with all of you and serve the city of thin. Welcome. Impressive. Very impressive.

1700
02:59:31,340 --> 02:59:36,220
 We'll have to spend time with you to do like a quick interview and introduction

1701
02:59:36,220 --> 02:59:44,460
 on the parks board or parks foundation website and Facebook since you're the new Leslie Knope of town.

1702
02:59:46,220 --> 02:59:48,220
 All right, sounds great. Happy to do it.

1703
02:59:48,220 --> 02:59:57,500
 Okay, I'd like to in the meeting again, Francis, thank you so much for all you have done as our

1704
02:59:57,500 --> 03:00:08,220
 chair and hope I can fill the big shoes that you've left. Does anybody have? My pleasure.

1705
03:00:08,220 --> 03:00:10,700
 Thank you. I move to adjourn.

1706
03:00:13,820 --> 03:00:24,620
 Second. All right. I think you have to vote. Who seconded? All in favor of ending our meeting.

1707
03:00:24,620 --> 03:00:34,860
 Who's second? George. I did. Eddie. Still waiting. Who? Motion. George Ferry. Dave. I made the motion.

1708
03:00:34,860 --> 03:00:43,420
 George did the second. We're all voting. All in favor voting. Great. I'm going to go home.

1709
03:00:43,420 --> 03:00:49,580
 I'm going to stay home and read up on my Roberts rules. Got you, girl. I love you, Francis.

1710
03:00:49,580 --> 03:00:57,180
 Bye, Francis. Hey, reach out to me if you want to be on the parks board.