Mar 08, 2021 Parks, Recreation and Beautification Board on 2021-03-08 3:00 PM

- Good afternoon everyone and welcome to our March meeting for the Parks, Recreation and Beautification Board. We are live and our first order is to ask if there are any comments from the public, which I have been informed there are none. So we will move forward and announce that we have one excused absence currently for a member and one unexcused absence for a member currently. And with that, we will begin the meeting. Welcome everyone. It's good to see all of you. Our first order of business is to consider approval of the minutes from our February 22nd meeting. Could I get a motion to approve those minutes or do we have any comments beforehand? - I'll make a motion we approve. - Okay, Mr. Jerry, Mr. Dooley has motioned. Can I get a second? Ms. Francis? - Second. - Awesome, all in favor of approving the minutes? Say aye. - Aye. - Awesome, wonderful, okay. Any opposed? Okay, seeing none, we've approved the minutes, thank you. Our second order of business items for consideration B is to receive a report, hold a discussion and give staff direction regarding the Parks, Recreation and Beautification Advisory Board annual 2021 meeting schedule. - All right. - So Eddie, why you, or whenever you're done talking, I'll bring up the calendar. - Sounds good. So just, oh, Eddie Valdez, Management Analyst. So brief background, every year the board's commission and committees approve their annual 2021 meeting schedule. So it's that time of this year and you guys will have to vote on the meeting schedule. So this is required by ordinance number 19-2865, which you'll see in exhibit two. Exhibit three is also the attached proposed schedule, which includes those meetings held today. So as you can see in the attachment from between January to May are the dates considering we will continue to move forward with virtual meetings and that's in your attachment. These dates are based on room availability that I've gathered, which is the city council room and also based on members availability and also trying to stay consistent by keeping the meetings on a Monday. So also in the calendar, starting from the month of June and moving forward to December, I have set the meetings dates back to the original meeting on the first Monday of the month. Now, again, the first Monday of the month is still not a guarantee. Just kind of just depends where we're at with COVID and also where we're at in the city. So I don't know if you, did you pull up the, oh yeah. Yeah, you pulled up the calendar. So are there any questions that you have? Obviously the meeting times are not there. We're flexible on that. But again, from June, moving forward from June to December, we're hoping that we can go back on the evening time. But again, we're not quite sure. This is just an estimation. Any questions? - I had a question. I'm not seeing anyone else's hand raised. Is that correct? Okay. My question was, so you had said Eddie, that hopefully starting in June, we can go back to that night meeting. Is there any way to, I was looking at the schedule and thinking to myself, like for a lot of us, it's hard to get on a meeting, one to three or three to five on a work day, specifically a Monday, 'cause those are difficult work days. Like my schedule allows me to be off today, which is nice, but that's not everyone's situation. And I just wanted to see if there's any way to put in a request if we're gonna continue this for longer to do a later meeting, or is that because it's outside of the hours of city council that it's not, or city, excuse me, outside of the nine to five hours of city hours, work hours. Is that why? - It's, yes, that's a part of it. It's not because it's the business hours, but it's about staff availability. So we have to consider staff resources as well. So it's not only your time. It's also gathering all staff, park staff that's available to meet that time, but also there's also a lot of the back ends. We had to work with the city secretary, also DTV, also other people that would be utilizing the same room, because so far I think we have one or two rooms that, and they try to kind of consolidate those two rooms when they're videotaping, but right now it's only been one, and they try to keep it within those business hours, 'cause those are when staff is available. So it's a little bit of juggling around. It's considering all your time, staff in parks, and also everywhere else in different departments to get it running. So that's the main reason why it's before five. But again, we were flexible the last time we met. We went way beyond six, but that, I'm sorry, way beyond five and ended at six, but that was by request, and they were available. - Also, I'm sorry, Gary, I just saw your hand. - Yeah, no, go ahead. - Apologies. - Go ahead. - Georgia, so you know that has been discussed. And I think Eddie has worked really hard at trying to get us the late slot, the three to five slot. And so I know this is a challenging area. - Yeah, we're hoping that we can go back to a couple hours. - Yeah, I'm sure we all look forward to the 6 p.m. meetings again, and the in-person ones too. It was always nice to sit at a table with everyone. But yeah, I think it's the free food that really attracts everybody. So just to add to what both Francis and Eddie said, this is, we've had numerous conversations internally about it, and since we have to record it, we only have so many staff that can do that. And based on all the committees we have, some committees are not meeting regularly. We are trying to meet regularly 'cause we have so much stuff that does occur and trying to keep everybody updated. So they were trying to refrain from having staff work every single night to have to record them. So they've really tried to limit it to 5 p.m. by closing meetings. I'm hoping we'll get closer and closer to having in-person meetings sooner than later. As soon as we hear something, we'll let you know, we can go back and modify that if that's your preference. - And everything that you see on the calendar is easily modified. We could either do it two ways. We can bring it back and you can re-approve or I can just make it as cancellations ahead of time. So we just cancel the meeting and then we post every other meeting moving forward to a special meeting if some of those dates does not work for all of you. But again, we thank you that you're making this time that is during business hours and you have to be flexible. And we're hoping that we're trying to make it as easy as possible for you guys. And I know it's hard 'cause it's been hard on several boards and commission and we're hearing it and we wanna make sure that we accommodate all your time as well. - Absolutely. And I wanna uplift what Ms. Francis said. That's a good point. You guys have worked really hard on this schedule and have accommodated a lot of things. So I wanted to uplift that and say, yes, thank you all for being so flexible and for working so hard. And we do have a lot of stuff to get done. So I am thankful that we get to meet each month and that we have that space to do that while other boards are kind of trying to figure out when they can meet, we at least get to know that we have a meeting once a month. And you avoided all holidays and all that. So you've been very thoughtful and I appreciate that. I just wanna throw it out there to be like. So yeah, anyways, does anybody else have a comment on the schedule or are we ready to motion to approve this schedule for the year? (mouse clicks) Okay, seeing no more comments. Can I get a motion to approve the schedule for the 2021 Parkstone Rec. - Motion to approve. - Thank you, Ms. Francis. Can I get a second? - I'll second. - Okay, thank you, Mr. Jerry. All in favor of this schedule, say aye or raise your hand. Awesome, wonderful. All opposed? Seeing none. The motion passes. Eddie, before we go to the next item, I'm not seeing one of our members here. I have Mr. Dave. Is Mr. Dave joining us? Do we know? - Not quite sure. I didn't get an email, but I can post you towards the end. And if so, then I'll modify the minutes for the next month for your approval. - Okay, 'cause we've got our four members. So we do have a quorum and can keep going and vote on things. Awesome. So then that takes us to our next item. Item C for consideration is to receive a report and hold a discussion regarding employee introduction within Parks and Recreation Administration. - Gary Pack and Director of Parks and Recreation. So this is something that we thought we would add to the agenda. Something that would be, it's important, but it could be fairly quick just to give you guys an opportunity to see and meet some of our staff. Obviously, there's a lot of people that don't come to our park board meetings that I think it's good for you guys to see and know. Just so you can put a name with a face, who runs this facility, who runs these programs type of thing. And I thought it would be a valuable one or two quick minutes of who am I and what do I do? And then you guys could ask a couple of questions. So the thought process would be have this on the agenda every meeting, if you guys are okay with that, and then invite somebody. We started inviting more staff to come so they could learn a little bit more about park board and how it operates. So when they have to give a presentation, it's not the first time. So we have had some more people kind of participating in the background, but first and foremost, I wanted to welcome Nikki Sassenes to our organization. She joined us on the worst possible week she could with cold McGiton or ice McGiton, whatever you wanna call it. And she was very flexible. She actually got an Airbnb. So she was here in Denton and didn't have to drive in it. So kudos for Nikki for that dedication right off the bat. She joins us from Mesquite with years of service in a similar position and grew up in Mesquite's organization. So we're fortunate to have her and we're fortunate for her to come back after that first week of orientation. So at this point, I'll just turn it over to Nikki. Have her say a few words. Tell us about yourself. - Again, Nikki Sassenes, Assistant Director of Parks and Recreation. First, thank you. I'm very honored to be here and to work with the parks board. Gary, thanks for the introduction. Yes, I did start during snowmageddon. That was quite interesting. But it did allow me to see the dedication and what a great staff we have and how well the city works together as a team and being able to provide the services during that time. I did come from the city of Mesquite. I worked there for 11 years. I started in the afterschool and summer camp program and did that for a few years and then went to supervise a recreation center. And from there, I moved over to athletics and aquatics. So I got my feet wet in aquatics there and over athletics. And then after a few years moved into the manager position overseeing special events, adult 50 plus programs, all the youth sports leagues, all the athletics, aquatics and youth programs and the recreation centers. So we did not have an AD level over at Mesquite. So I never really thought I would leave, but it was an opportunity to come here. And I did go to UNT for my master's program. So I get to come back in green and I do have a fondness for the city of Denton. And after exploring more about what the Parks and Recreation Department does here, I was very excited about the opportunity and even getting in, Gary warned me, it's like drinking from a fire hose. Well, he wasn't lying. We are very quickly moving to develop and continue programs and acquire land and build new parks. And there's a lot going on. I'm very excited to be part of it. Any questions? I'm happy to answer any questions. - Family? - I do, I have three kids. I live in Richardson. I have an eight-year-old daughter, a five-year-old son, and then Emily just turned two on Thursday. So busy at home also. - Well, sorry, go ahead. - They are Parks and Rec kids. So I will be bringing them along to special events. - That's what I was gonna say. I was like, man, you've got some things to bring them to. - No, they think every time they go to mama's work that they get to ride a horse or bounce in a bounce house or something. Can we go to your work and swim? That's not exactly where I work. You get tagged along to a bunch of those different things. So I'm sure you'll see them around and I'll make sure to introduce them when we see you out there. - Well, thank you. Yeah, on behalf of everyone here. Yeah, welcome, Nikki. We're really excited and we're thankful for your service and your time. Does anybody else have anything they wanna say or ask? Okay. Thanks again, Nikki. I appreciate you. - Thank you. - The next item is item D, is to receive a report, hold a discussion and to give staff input regarding updates on the construction and renovation of the American Legion Hall or the ALH. - So Gary Pack and Parks and Recreation. I'll go ahead and start this and then Nikki and Drew can jump in as well. Caroline Seward was going to present this, but she's out this week on spring break. So she's been attending the construction meetings on this. Drew, if you could bring up the PowerPoint. - Yes, hold on one second. I had it up, it didn't share. Okay. - So this project started a few years ago. It actually started before, right after the city manager started. And if you can remember, we had... Go ahead, next slide. We had two buildings. The original building was built in 1957 and that was the building that was torn down. It was approximately 2,500 square feet. It was a drop-in, you know, cars, dominoes, very passive in nature. We had lunch in some meeting space and then we had lunches and then some of the restaurants or I should say grocery stores would bring stuff over as well. You can see some of the cracks in the building, on the walls that were pretty obvious that some repairs needed. And then we actually had two by fours bracing up one of the pedestals for a period of time. But then here's a couple interior shots of the building. Again, just basically an open room for very passive recreational opportunities. Overall, we're gonna take the building that was torn down, the original one, and add it to an existing building, which Drew's kind of circling. That's where the restrooms for the park are actually attached to that building as well. So the new building that replaced the old one will have one large room that can be used for special events and meetings, but it also be able to split into two smaller rooms. There is a kitchen that can be used by both with some storage area and then some small office space. And then the front entry point, which we have there in the kind of khaki color will be at the corner of the intersection of the street. On the outside of the building up on the top right, that we have a terrace that will be additional overflow for people for events that can go out and if it's nice weather, they can kind of spill outside into the park. That does overlook the basketball court, which is adjacent immediately to the east. On the existing building, there'll be some interior restrooms that are renovated and then some small program space. So we have computer labs, some classroom space, and then a little fitness area and a rec room for specific programs that will be offered by the Parks and Recreation Department. Then from the outside, this is kind of what it would look like from Wilson and Lakey. Give you an idea of what you're looking at when you see some of that height going up on property. And these pictures are probably two weeks old. So they've done a lot more. They've had a lot of progress. We have had some significant delays during the construction. Obviously we've had COVID construction delays where one or two people get sick and they have to shut the entire crew down. So that's an issue. They've had some material issues, but really the biggest challenge we've had has been in regards to its design and request for information, where the engineer drawings weren't as detailed or missed some items. So they had to go back and ask a lot of questions for a follow-up. We did hire a second engineering firm to replace the one that did the original design. So they have been working to identify where those areas that need to be tweaked and improved are. And some of those things are a little more challenging than just, you're missing a bolt here or something of that nature. So that has slowed some things down, but they're getting it under roof at this point in time. So if it does rain, they can keep moving forward. Go ahead, next slide. And here's just some general pictures. Again, these ones are probably from January, just to give you an idea that the walls are basically lined up. They wanted to do all the sheetrock all at one time. So that's why you don't see the sheetrock in there, to just have the company come in and blast it and get all the walls put up at one time. Overall, right now we're about $97,000 short on our budget. So we're working to identify where we had a couple overruns. We wanted to make sure that we had all the technology in place. So we're gonna be putting all the wires and all the infrastructure in, and then some soft costs that we needed to add some tables and chairs. So we're working on getting that all identified and getting that ordered here in the near future. And then also trying to find some extra money just in case we have some additional change orders, whether it's be from the RFIs in the architect or the construction company. As of right now, originally estimation was April 8th, we're looking at May at this point in time. The big date that we wanna make sure this is open for celebration is Juneteenth for sure. We've kind of penciled that in as a grand opening date. We're reaching out to members of the committee to see if that's something that they would like to entertain or if we would wanna have a separate date. So we're coordinating efforts for that grand opening and dedication. And we also wanna try to tie in the mural at Robertson as well. Whether it's maybe during that week, it's a week of celebration or if it's on the same day, I'm not sure yet, but we're trying to figure out when we could have that ribbon cutting as well and try to get people back from the community that may even not live here for those types of activities. And Drew, Niki, do you have anything you'd like to add to that in regards to the status? - Just to go back to what you said on why we have, why there's so many delays, like Gary said, we had an original design engineer. They left out a lot of details. And so we're trying to find- - Excuse me, Drew. Excuse me, Drew. Can you take that down, please? - Yeah, we're trying to find all the pieces, the missing pieces to the puzzle. Our contractor that we have is really working to find those pieces and make everything work and really make that building just as wonderful as it can be. They're really trying hard. And that's why we've seen so many delays. A lot of it has to do with, it's not as simple as, it's just building a home. And this is something cookie cutter where they may build, especially with the developments that we see, every 10th house is the same house. So it's pretty easy for them to do. This is a true remodel of one building and add on a new construction of another and really how to marry those together and make those work, whether it has to do with electrical, HVAC, the civil engineering side where all the walls and roofing ties in together so there's no leaks and we don't have any issues in the future. So they're working really hard. We had a great meeting last week and came out with a lot of good features on how to fix this, that or the other. So I think it looks like we're really headed in the right path. Contractor did say they're shooting for mid to late May. That's their date. They just needed a few answers or questions answered from our design engineer that we've replaced the other one with. And so we're getting all those back this week. And so we'll be right on track across our fingers. - So Gary, you said that the cost, we are short, close to 100,000. And remind me, could you repeat again where we're looking to make that up? - So the difference is primarily some infrastructure for IT and some soft costs, so tables and chairs. So we're gonna be pulling that out of, we're looking at a couple project accounts that have some extra money in them that's not needed. So we're getting those cleaned up to move over to ALH. And then we'll probably pull some out of our operating budget to make sure that we have enough. If for some reason there's not enough there from a change order perspective, then we'll go to finance to get that money appropriated. - But it shouldn't delay moving forward. This is not a structural cost. - No, those costs are basically IT with wires and equipment, cameras, and tables and chairs, those types of things. We knew we were gonna be a little bit short, but we wanted to see a little further along just in case we had some change orders. So we were asking at one time as opposed to going back a couple of times asking for some additional funding. - Okay, and when we first talked about this, we talked about shade because those big windows are gonna be big windows in Texas. And so we were gonna look at, if I remember correctly, correct me if I'm not remembering details, we were gonna look at somehow generating some shade for those big windows in the front. - Yeah, originally we had all glass and we cut them back to smaller windows. But let me circle back around with Caroline to see where we're at on the shade for those so I can get you an answer. - Okay, and can you remind me why the atrium, Drew, can you go back to that? - Yes, sure, again. - Why the atrium or if, 'cause we had talked about small events like weddings, why that was facing that one, the terrace, why it's facing the basketball. - So I think I can help answer that. So when we went through all the public meetings, the main thing that they wanted is whenever, a lot of family reunions happen at ALH. So I can go with my family reunion and Nikki's kids can come and my kids can come and we can celebrate on the porch and our kids can play basketball and play on the playground and we can still see them and we're all in the same area. That was the biggest thing that we got out of all the public meetings, so. - I remember that now, is that shaded? - I need to go back and look at the design. I'm not for sure if there was, I don't believe there was a pergola over there, but I do know that's on the east side. So if you're having events in the afternoon, that sun will be down and you'll have the roof that'll help shade it. And that's something that we can always look at, if it's something that we need to look at, adding some type of shade cover on there in the future, we can do that. We really wanna hold what we have now and get all the funding. And so the FF&E, the furniture and equipment for sure, get that in there so everyone can enjoy that space other than it just being a blank, empty room. And so you probably know me by now, we'll figure out the funding and we'll figure out how to add things to it in the future. - Like possibly trees? - Yes, yep, planting trees. So we did talk about last week, landscaping. And so landscaping is in the plan. We kind of looked at taking it out, but since it was already in, contractors already purchased all the materials, we can't change that. But we can obviously look at planting more trees or doing other kinds of shade in that area. - So we did have a requirement to add so many trees. I can't remember what the exact number was per planting. - Yeah. - Okay, and my last issue or last concern was, we talked about a name change and talking with the neighborhood association there. Were we able to do that or? - We had one person that went through a former council member and brought it up at a council meeting. And then we had a second person reach out to Caroline, but we never received any formal applications for a name change. So as of right now, we're hesitant to put American Legion Hall on the building, just in case that was gonna be coming maybe shortly thereafter, right? When people start seeing it reopen. So we do not have a formal request or application for any name change. It's open. We have not gone through the formal process yet. We did get the applications. We talked about it. It seems like maybe it was December. I think we talked to park board about it and we had it scheduled for city council and with the delay in getting new council members seated and some other things that came up and the city manager leaving, it got pushed back a little bit. So Eddie, we have that on the agenda for what date as of right now? - For which one? - For the naming review with council. - I believe it was in April. Let me just double check. - I wanna say it's April 6th. - Yeah, I think you're right. I think it's April 6th. - So at that meeting, we were gonna present the applications that we had as well as the applications that were submitted, walk through the process with council to get their feedback. They'll have to appoint a subcommittee including members from park board and then see how they wanna handle that with public meetings, how many meetings it's gonna take to work through the process and then promote and advertise any additional comments from the community. So that's kind of like the first run with city council in regards to the new policy. So I fully expect some questions and some discussion on how they would like to guide us through that process in addition to how it's formatted in the ordinance itself. - It is April 6th. - And that is for the name change application that you have received. - Yes, and if we get any in between now and then and when that committee is seated, I'm sure we could add to that as well if anything comes through between now and then 'cause I'm sure as there's more discussion and more in the newspaper and social media, some people may have some ideas and wanna submit some additional follow-ups. - And I know there is a Southeast Denton Neighborhood Association. Is it possible to meet with them? I can remember having a conversation and they didn't even know a name change was possible and that what provoked me asking the question. - Yeah, we actually, we're trying to meet with them every month or every other month just to kind of keep them in the loop 'cause we have so many things going on in the park. And then we actually had a meeting with the neighborhood on Thursday. Unfortunately, there were only like three or four people there with all the 2019 road packages that are gonna be under construction in Southeast Denton. And then we talked a little bit about ALH as well as the new signs on the DCTA trail. So they did have that, but we certainly could share that with them and remind them that is an opportunity. - Thank you. - You're welcome. - What about the restrooms? Is there direct access to the restrooms inside the building or does everyone have to go outside? - No, there's two sets. - I can bring that back up if you want. - There's two sets and they're back to back. The existing restrooms that are on the north side of the building have the kind of like the garage door, the stainless steel roll-up door. That's right there where Drew is highlighting. And then from the inside, there's a men's and women's restroom for the interior users of the facility. So they're kind of using the same plumbing chase for both indoor and outdoor restrooms. - That's right here. - Any plan to put the signage now that you've got this nice blueprint or floor plan outside so that the neighborhood or the community people can see what's coming? - You're talking about the actual footprint in the drawing. - Inside or the outside of it? - We could definitely laminate it and put it somewhere on a board out there. We've actually have talked. If you see more of the road signs, there are four by eight sheets of plywood that will be white and say, this is a 2014 bond program for a road. We've talked about doing that for our construction projects. And truthfully, by the time we're so focused on getting the project moving forward, we forget about it. But example, Bowling Green or Joe Skyles, as soon as you take a playground away or a backhoe shows up and it starts removing the playground, we get a few phone calls 'cause people start to get worried. And as soon as we tell them what's going on, they get excited. So they're excited about that. We probably need to do a better job of advertising that. I mean, it's also a good kind of thank you to the residents for supporting a bond project too and reminding them of what they voted on and what the cities promised them and what we're following through. So that's a real good comment and we'll make sure we get that going on our projects. 'Cause we just started Joe Skyles last week and we had someone call immediately. - Did anyone else have a question? Wonderful, those were all really great questions and I have one of my own. So I see that you said the estimated completion date has changed to April 8th. - Yeah, it's mid-May. - And then, yeah, estimated opening is mid-May and that you wanted to work with the Juneteenth Committee to discuss like doing a grand opening. I also wanted to kind of uplift something that Ms. Francis had said is with the name change, maybe approaching the Juneteenth Committee and also asking them if there's a name they'd like to recommend and then they can formally submit that as a committee or as individuals from that committee to give them an opportunity to have some representation. I think that might be another really great way to work with the Juneteenth Committee at the grand opening if the name change were to be presented by them and that was the one that was approved, that could be a joint thing, that might be. - Yeah, but that's a good comment, George, that it'll be interesting this year 'cause we had the original Juneteenth and then we had a grassroots Juneteenth step up last year because there was discussion about it not happening because of COVID and that was kind of like at the onset, really early on and they wanted to have that celebration. So a new group kind of stepped in and helped. So we'll reach out to the existing committee and kind of see where things are and then we'll definitely follow up with a new group as well. I know they started having some discussions with our special events crew before the governor came out with his announcement last week, last Tuesday. So I'm sure they are eagerly planning for this coming June. - I will say yes, they are because we are their fiscal sponsors and so I've already gotten a few invoices to pay off and they did receive hot funds for this year as well. - Awesome, wonderful, thank you. - We'll work through those details and as soon as we get our dedications and kind of grant openings, I'll make sure that you guys get, obviously, an invitation and appointment for those. - Wonderful, anybody have anything else on this action item? Okay, then we'll move on to items for consideration. B, which is to receive a report, hold the discussion and give staff input regarding updates to the amendments to the code of ordinances as modified by ordinance 19-2866, which is the revised absence provision for boards, commissions and committees. - That would be me. So, just a quick background on November, I don't know if you guys all remember. I know, Duly, you weren't here for that but if you look back, there was a park board meeting where members voted to submit the memo, which was written from Francis Punch, chair at the time, to the city and city council that will consider the modifications of the absenteeism policy for boards, commission and committees. And this is what the update is for. So, the latest update I have on that is the new boards and commission handbook was scheduled this month in March for city council review and consideration to amend the handbook, which included the presentation and consideration from that memo that you all voted for for city councils regarding the modification to the absenteeism policy. However, this time, this item got pushed back to April 6 because there are several incremental weather updates from several departments that has to update city council on. And also this got pushed back because there's also a restructuring of city council work session items from six items to four. So, thus, this is the reason why it's being held in April 6. Now, I just spoke to Rosa, the city secretary, what the timeline is on this. Just say if everything goes smoothly, it's gonna still go on April 6. She will present the memo and also the handbook that you all voted for. It's up to city council to decide on what modifications they wanna make to the handbook and also the provisions to the absenteeism policy. And whatever they decide from there, Rosa would have to take all those modifications from city council and had to work for legal. So it doesn't, whatever they decide on April 6, what I mean, they, city council decides on April 6, does not take effect. There would be a future date on that because Rosa would have to work with legal on the little nuances on how the new amendment to the handbook has to be rewritten. Does anyone have any questions on that one? - So Eddie, just a quick add-on to that. So if a board member had any concerns about this item or even the discussion that we had last month about the timeline for new board members and voting in the officers, this would be the time between now and April 6 to get with Rosa and provide or get with their appointee or council member to give them feedback, correct? - That is correct. So if you have anything that you would like to modify, you want your voices heard, this is the best opportunity right now because right now it would have been probably, I think, estimating it would have been last week that this should have been out. But now since it got pushed back for another month, this is a good opportunity. So if you guys wanna, not you guys, you guys and gals would like to look at the board's commission handbook and also things that you would like to amend, this is an perfect opportunity because it's not only your board as well, but it's also other committees. They're starting to feel some of the pressure of some of the absenteeism as well. And, you know, working during business hours while trying to provide their voluntary time to the respective boards and commission committees. So it's been a challenge not only for this board, but for a lot of boards, so. So that's the latest update. Sorry, I don't have any more updates on that, but I'm crossing my fingers. And so does, you know, Rosette, you know, it's all up to how city council wants to amend the handbook, so. - One last comment. So we, I know they are meeting virtually. Are we allowed to attend virtually? - So you can't attend, there's opportunities to speak at the beginning of the meeting, at the work session, at the beginning of the meeting and at for each item. So you can go online and we can have Eddie send out the link to where you can fill out your card, basically, and provide feedback or input on those items and how to do that. - Drew, do you mind if you go to the city council website real quick, the ones where they include the minutes and the council agenda. And I could kind of show you where you would see it, but I will send you a link as well. But just in case, if you do see it before I send out the link, you know, you would see the white cards. So they're called virtual white cards. Yeah, so on the very top, yep. Yep, keep going right there. Oh, you go down, upcoming virtual meetings with public comment opportunities. So those are the provided links. So as you can see, the Parks, Recreation and Beautification Board for today's meeting, that's where someone would click on, if they wanna fill out a white card, so they have a public comment. But you could also go there where it says speak at a public meeting as well. You know, it gives you a little bit of the guideline on how to, you know, click on the virtual meeting. So, but again, I will send out the link for the virtual meeting and also the white card. So you can fill that in ahead of time. But if you do see that, it's on the city website, you know, so, you know, you can take a look at that. - Thank you, Eddie. - Yeah, you're welcome. - Yes, and also I'm always prone to doing the phone call. You can also call, there is that number under the white card. I always call in and then they can even say, we'll call you back when it's your turn to be in line. That way you don't have to sit on hold for a long time and be heard in the meeting. If you're more prone to wanting to be heard instead of just your little paragraph being read. So I look forward to attending that April 6th meeting as well to hear what council's direction is going to be for sure. And are there any other questions for staff? Mr. Gary's got something. - I just think there were, you know, with just kind of a little bit follow-up of last month's meeting. I think Rosa was trying to find an efficient way to allow council some time to get new board members appointed. I think we've been very fortunate where we've had new board members appointed fairly quickly and start in, you know, August, September timeframe. I don't recall since I've been here, anybody really starting later than that. And Francis, please chime in if I'm incorrect on that. But I think there's always enough people that are interested in parks and recreation that want to be a part of it, where maybe some boards are a little more challenging to find people to be appointed to. And I can't speak for all the other boards. I can't speak for public art since we've taken that over this summer. We had two people that turned out, well, one person, actually they both resigned because of commitments. They couldn't be there during the daytime because of job commitments. And they were replaced pretty quickly as well, just as Mr. Dooley has. So it is an issue in regards to getting people to commit their time and volunteer, especially during the day we're trying to balance work and then family as well and be at a meeting and commit a couple of hours. So we realized that's a challenge. I think she was trying to find by mentioning January as an option as a way to provide some wiggle room for getting board members appointed. That may or may not be the best decision. I can't say it's worked out great for us to have people start, September, it's kind of like new school year, everyone's getting started. I can't speak for the other ones. So that's probably something that she's trying to entertain what the best role is for everyone and trying to get everyone started off on the same page. So I just thought I wanted to add that. I know the January thing may have confused people as an idea that she had. It's nothing that has been approved by city council at this point in time. - Okay, thank you, Mr. Gary. Does anybody have anything else to say about this action item? Okay. - I'm sorry, George. - No, not at all, please Ms. Francis. - That I'm glad you brought this information, Gary, 'cause this is new information because I was under the impression that it was a mandate. That's why we acted as such. So the fact that it hasn't been approved by council is new information for me. - The mandate was that whenever a, when a mandate is once the board, new board members are appointed or reappointed, that shortly thereafter an election should be held on the executive committee, the chair and the vice chair, which in our case has typically been around September or October once everybody is appointed and we're at a full board. What upset the axis this year was the fact that the election was delayed and council didn't, and then there was an extended election that that really didn't happen until January of this year. So at that point in time, we had to have the discussion about the new elected official, the new executive appointees. To make the matter more confusing is there's been a history in parks that we have done that by term. And technically that was incorrect. We should have been doing it every year whenever all the board members were appointed, which in our case was typically August, September. So we've done it on a two-year cycle. I think the two-year cycle had worked out great 'cause it really gives the chairperson opportunity to get into a routine. But the way the ordinance is written, it should have been every year. So that's where we kind of have this temporary January appointment this year or February discussion since we didn't meet in January. And it was on the agenda for February to do the meetings itself, the calendar, as well as appoint a new chair and vice chair. So we had to get up to date because of the delay of COVID and the elections. And then we had to get back on track because of the actual ordinance stated has to be done annually. (silence) - Frances, does that help it or is that muddy the water? - I think at this point, it is what it is. And we've already voted in a new chair and vice chair, and we're ready to move forward. So in essence, to get back on track, I don't have, you know, whose terms are up. Frances, I know your term is up this year. You've served your six years, and then I'm not sure who else is. But whoever's term is up this coming summer, there'll be a reappointment. And then as of right now, we would typically do the voting for the chair and the vice chair around the September or October meeting once the entire board is appointed, just to get back into that annual routine. What Rosa had mentioned at our last meeting is possibly delaying that until January to make sure that all the seats were filled and appointed. And so that was an added kind of item that was up for discussion. That has not been approved. That was something that she was thinking might be helpful. There's goods and bads to it. So as of right now, until council changes something, it would be the vice chair and chair would be voting on annually after the board appointees are appointed and approved, which is typically that early fall, September, October, maybe even sometimes late August timeframe. - Okay, so then we know that if things move forward as planned with the April 6th council meeting, then legal will draft language to reflect a January annual re-voting of chair, vice chairs for all boards and commissions moving forward, which would also include terms ending and being reappointed in that January timeframe. Is that correct? - So unfortunately, Rosa couldn't be here. So I'll try to answer this the best. What typically happens whenever we propose an ordinance change or a developer agreement or whatever it is that's going to council, we draft up an AIS, which is basically a staff report, a contract or agreement and/or an ordinance and a resolution. And all of those are all tied together. The staff report basically explains some background and what we're asking for council, just similar to what we provide you. And then a copy of, in this case, it would be the ordinance for the boards and commissions and probably the manual as well. And stating that based off of discussion and things that need to be cleaned up, here are some recommendations that are being proposed for council consideration. And she'll walk through those and see if they have any questions. So it's important for you guys to provide that feedback. In writing, I think it would be good for your council member and even CCing Rosa. So she knows that that has been sent and she has a record of that so she could see what's being asked. So if that needs to be added or not, she can take that into consideration. I have not worked through an amendment to the manual since I've been here. That's typically handled by the city secretary's office. So I know she's been making a lot of changes since she's been here trying to tie things up and get things kind of back on track. So I would strongly suggest that you send your feedback of any of that, whether it's absentee policy, appointment of members, or even when members are appointed, however you guys feel should be amended. Now's the time to do that and get that on record so you could share your input to council and staff. It's similar to what we do with even like a park development where we go to a neighborhood and ask them for feedback. We design it and then we go back to them again and ask them, is this still work? And try to satisfy as many people as we can. Sometimes we can't satisfy everybody, but at least try to provide that communication and understanding of why or why not we kind of designed the park in that nature. This is kind of the same thing as the manual. Similar what we did with maybe the IPM manual that we put together. And that's constantly being looked at on how we can update it. How we find errors as we go through it and say, okay, that needs to be tweaked with the intention of going back. Maybe not every year, but maybe every two years. And obviously the environment changed, chemicals change, practices change. So it's a working document. - Yes, thank you, Gary. - And since we don't have a board member until after that meeting, we'll make sure that we get that in your Monday email to remind you that's on the agenda. That would probably be coming on the fifth. So we'll make sure that we get that maybe in the next two every week, since it's an important discussion that you guys are having to make sure that we send some reminders out to you. - Wonderful, thank you. And I'll be sure, I know I myself will send some questions and more clarifying questions to the city secretary to kind of gain a little more insight on what changes are being proposed, since I know that that is her duty and what she's tasked with. So I'll make sure to reach out to her to follow up. - And I take full responsibility because I didn't catch the one year annual. So I mean, I should have been at least the last one to catch that. And obviously it got by a lot of us, but I take full responsibility for that. And that's on me for not catching that earlier on. I know it's been a practice in our department, but that should have been caught sooner. - All right. - I have a question about the emails. Is it better that we have individuals or we write one as a group? Any thoughts about that? - I'm not certain if, and correct me if I'm wrong, Gary, I don't know if the parks board as a whole can send an email because that would mean like a quorum is communicating or is that allowed? That's a good question, Ms. Francis. - Yeah, I mean, can I answer this, Gary? I mean, based on Rosa's feedback, she says the fastest route will always be you're going through your city council appointee. You know, that would be probably the fastest route. I mean, you can send them an email and also see seeing, you know, Rosa as well. I mean, that would probably bypass, you know, any concerns about holding a quorum, you know, 'cause at this point, I mean, you guys already took a stand on, you know, wanting to amend certain things on the handbook, particularly on the absenteeism policy. And if there's anything else, that's what was Rosa's recommendation 'cause she can pretty much get their attention immediately and then also show up on the April 6th meeting, you know, to provide your concerns as well. I don't know if that answers your question, Francis. - It does, thank you. - Yes, thank you all so much for your candor and for your guidance, I appreciate that. And I also will be reaching out to my city council member and Ms. Rosa. Any other comments or questions on this item, everyone? - Just one quick one, 'cause I'm new at this and I'm catching, I'm breaking like out of that same fire hose that we talked about earlier. So let me know if I can do anything when I'm getting caught up, okay? But I got you guys back, whatever, just keep me in the loop and we'll make it happen. Thank you, George. - Thank you, Mr. Dooley, I appreciate that. And with that, we'll move on to our final item of thorough consideration, F, which is to receive a report, hold the discussion and get staff input regarding Denton Parks Foundation DPF updates. Ms. Brug. - Hello, everybody, happy spring break. So let's see, we had Galentine's Day in February. Originally we were thinking we would just kind of skip it over with COVID and I had volunteers who came to me and said, "Oh no, we have to do this." So we did it with a twist with Suzanne over at the chestnut tree and we just had a good time. We took a tour of Paris, it was a virtual tour and we got to see the Eiffel Tower and things like that. We ate delicious French food and just gabbed. We also did some fundraising and we raised a little over $1,700 to be able to go to general funds and be able to put it towards whatever project Denton is most need in. I believe we'll probably end up putting that to DWIF to continue that effort and support it. And that was something that we mentioned to the women as well, is the campaign of raising more money and awareness about the DWIF art piece. So hopefully we'll get some more kind of action on that one. We also had our annual meeting with our board members. We've gotten some changes in our board of directors. We had a few step down. We also had a new one added from Denton ISD. Her name is Sarah Hallen. She's a teacher there and longtime Denton folk. So she'll be a good addition. And we still are looking for more. Sorry, I have a new puppy. I don't know if you guys can hear her whining, but we are still looking for other board members in the areas of technology, as well as in district one. And George, I need to follow up with you since our last convo. So those are really the main highlights. We are still trying to figure out if we're gonna do the home hop egg drop. It's just so different this year than last year. There's a lot more to have to consider because not everybody is home and people are just more engaged in outside. And so we're just trying to evaluate if the amount of effort that goes into it, if it's worth it for the amount of dollars back. We are also working on our fiscal partnerships and sponsorships. So we are sponsors for Juneteenth, Cinco de Mayo, Denton Area Ten Association, and then Senior Center. We've also recently added on 9-4-0 Disc Golf. So we are working with them to do some updates at the North Lakes Disc Golf Course and getting some sponsors to cover baskets and signage in the second area. And that's really what I got going on right now. - Just as a follow-up to Brooke's comment about the Disc Golf, David had a question at the end of our last meeting about signage at Disc Golf. And that's something that needs to be updated. So we're working with that company as well as the foundation in making sure that we're following our advertising and donation policy because there'll be sponsors on those holes. So we're working through that process and we should have some more information for you in the future. - Absolutely. That's all I got. - Awesome, thank you. Yeah, I'm so glad Mr. Gary brought that up 'cause I think Ms. Francis and I both had that same thought like we need to remind someone about what Dave said at the last meeting. And yeah, so that would bring us to our concluding items for Mr. Duly and other folk that are new to watching this. Concluding items is an opportunity for you to bring up concerns maybe someone in the community or yourself may have that you'd like to hear some feedback on at the next meeting which gives staff an opportunity to do their due diligence and their research to answer some of those questions. For example, one thing I want to bring up for my concluding item is I wanna check in on Mr. Gary. How are we doing on that? Is it the parks rec and trail systems master plan focus group? I know that I fell down on my pushing people to join. How are we doing on that? Do you need some more folks? - So we do. So if you have some people you'd like to recommend, please email them over. Alana had sent over two youth and a professor at TWU. So if you have anybody you'd like to recommend, love to have those recommendations so we can get that group together. We are planning a public meeting and we'll send that advertisement over to you. It is going to be March 18th. At 6 p.m. that's all on Zoom. And that's just a kickoff to the public meeting and then we'll have a focus group meeting as well. So if you have some recommendations, more than merrier, love to have people engaged for sure. - And that focus group meeting will follow the public meeting? - We haven't set a date. - Okay. - Yet. - Wonderful, okay, yeah. - Because we wanted to make sure that we got people from you guys and didn't know if you were still working on all of that. - Got it, so search and send ASAP. - And remind me, are we sending, I do have a youth that I would like to throw his name in the hat. Do I send, remind me, do I send it to you, Gary? - Yeah, just email me. In that way there's no forum or quorum issues. Just send it to me and we'll add those people to the spreadsheet and then I'll send it out to you just as an FYI so you have the entire focus group. - Okay, thank you. - Wonderful, and then uplifting what Ms. Brooks said for Denton Parks Foundation, they're looking for a new board member who specializes in the IT realm and district one as well. Cool, I just wanted to lift those up. Anybody else have any concluding items or things they want added to the next agenda or questions? - Well, just one question. Gary, I sent you one name. You'll be contacting these people? Are you following up with them? - Yes. - Okay, and while I have the floor, Eddie, thank you so much for these emails you're sending out, man. I had no clue, there was so much going on. It's really exciting, thank you very much. - You're welcome. - On that, I wanted to get something kind of restarted that I think David had mentioned this summer and we had put together a spreadsheet on Smartsheet of all of our projects. And we had shared that and he asked for some description of can you give us a little more detail where that's at? Because sometimes it's hard for you guys to identify what that is if you're not living in that project. So Eddie has been working on a number of initiatives for us that are all in Smartsheet that will kind of feather up to a Power BI software platform that pushes it out onto a dashboard. So we are working to get that all finalized and get all of our facts in place regards to how long our trails are, how many acreage, how many parks we have that are developed, undeveloped, those types of things into a Smartsheet inventory database of everything. It sounds fairly simple, but it's been challenging because trying to get all of the facts as close as we can get them. So as soon as we get that finalized and get it cleaned up, we'll share and we'll give you an orientation on that as well. Eventually that will be public facing. Right now it's just internally facing. The city is working on a new website and that's been a little bit delayed because of COVID and ice and weather. But I think their goal was to have a new website out. Maybe it was by the end of the year, early next year, so we can have more information available to our residents. And we are also working with a trails map so people could have all the trails and how long they are in our parks. And hopefully that's a little bit more interactive than you would typically see as a normal PDF. So staff is working on that. And I did mention that we were placing the playground at Joe Skiles. We did replace the one at McKenna, but that construction to that park is underway. Drew's been working on that with a new loop trail in a new parking lot and moving some of that dirt that is leftover from Bonnie Bray around. So that's kind of those major things. And then Southwest Park that we shared with the board last month, it went back to the focus group on Thursday of last week. We didn't have a huge turnout, so we're gonna be reaching out to the members to try to get a phone call with them just to make sure that we get any feedback that they may have. And then our goal is to take that to council. As of right now, we've penciled in March 23rd to share that with council. And then if they have any major changes, then we'll start that process back over. We'll go back to the focus group with changes, come back to park board, and then go back to council for official adoption. And what that adoption means is that everybody agrees in moving in that direction at a date to be determined. So it's basically "on the shelf" until it comes up for a bond program discussion. We will have items to share with you in regards to feasibility of that project, as well as estimated costs in today's dollars. So we'll have that to share with you the next time we get that on your agenda, which will probably next month. And it's a big number. It's not getting cheaper to build things. It's getting more expensive. But it could be a really cool park. And it doesn't mean we have to build everything right away. It doesn't mean some of those things may never be built 'cause our changes and needs may change, but at least it gives us some vision to start working towards. And then we had shared with you, I guess, probably in the fall on some of the properties that we are working on acquiring. We do have some that are not general public information, that there's some negotiations going on that would benefit parks and libraries, as well as some of our capital projects that need some additional land for those projects. But then there's also a number of parcels that we did share with you that are part of developments that are under construction. And a lot of those are around the Hickory Creek Trail area. And so we'll hopefully have something for you in the near future on those as well. And Razor Ranch, that's something that we presented to you. I think it may have been January, March, 2019. And they've built the park and we're still, we were waiting on feedback on the developer agreement to take that to council. The park is virtually completed. There's just a few minor things that need to be updated, but then a developer agreement to take the council to officially accept that property. And that's Razor Ranch property. It does not have a official name yet. - Okay, that's awesome, Gary. Thank you. - Okay, I have one item that I would like. I have a question. Is there a database that exists that chronicles previous or the history of board members for the city of Denton? - Good question. I know we have spreadsheets with people's names that we keep in an inventory, but I don't know if there's a mass database, but we certainly could merge those documents and create one. I think that would be a wonderful way to acknowledge the work that's being done by the volunteers that are giving their time for the boards for the city. - Absolutely. Eddie, that was something we could put in the smart sheet pretty quickly. - That's a fantastic idea. I really like that idea, Francis. Thank you. Yeah, I'll try to gather that out. I'm not quite sure where that's at. It might be in our hard drive somewhere. Not all, I'll reach out to a few departments like the city secretary. Maybe they might have an archive, but we'll try to get that and we could put it in a smart sheet or in Excel so we can start keeping tabs at those as well. And we'll be happy to share as well. - I think it'd be nice to have somewhere on our website so the public can access it. - Yeah, that's a fantastic idea. I like that idea. - Awesome, yeah, I look forward to the smart sheet, thus getting a new website. I love hearing that there's more virtual ways to access information. I'm all about that, I'm all about that transparency. Yeah, thank you guys so much. Is there any other concluding items, questions, comments, concerns? - I'm sorry, just one more thing. Just to kind of add to that, we have a database of people that are buried in our cemeteries. And I'm not sure if we've talked about this before, but we, as part of our public art initiative, and specifically the DWIF initiative, that is a engaging monument where people can open up their smartphones, scan an image, and it'll recognize, let's just say, George, there's a picture of you on there, it recognizes who you are, and it takes you to a video about you or something that you're involved in that can be linked to that. Long-term, I'd like to do that with our cemeteries. And this is not a short-term project, but as people do research on the history of Denton, our founding fathers, our military that are buried there, that research can be put into a database. There's a number of websites. Find a Grave is a public website that you can put pictures about a headstone and a person. So I'd like to use that platform or a platform like that to store information about our residents or people that have been buried in our cemeteries, whether they're famous or not. So if I passed away and my family wanted to put a bio about who I was, they could do that, put it on that website, and through image recognition software with people's phone, they could scan the headstone and it would take you to a Find a Grave website or whatever that would be, and it would be a summary of my life, maybe even with pictures, that type of thing. So we could preserve our residents' history and what they've done with their life. And obviously, we can't go back and get history on everybody that's buried now. We can do our best moving forward, but if there are still family members that are here that wanna write those bios, they could do that. So it would really take a lot of the community to step up and help with that. But at least if we could get our veterans going, I think that's a good kind of step forward of preserving that history. So that's something that we'd like to do long-term, and maybe it's a little bit at a time. And as technology changes, who knows what the options are? But that was something that we've talked about. - Okay, awesome. Thank you, Mr. Gary, for that update. Anything else, anyone? - Just one quick question that just occurred to me. That's a great idea, Gary. I like that idea. Are we in discussion with surrounding communities on this trail connectivity? Like I mean, I know we're pretty much connected with Hickory Creek down the rail trail, but as we move forward, are we talking to surrounding communities about even further connecting the area just outside of Denton? - Yeah, Drew, do you wanna take that one? - Yes, so we've sent out multiple emails to really all our neighboring cities. Gary and I did meet with the city of North Lake. They were the only ones to respond so far. And so with our trails and their future trails, they're moving north. We're moving south with Cole and Hunter Ranch. So we met with them to make sure that our future planning for the trails that will be at Hunter and Cole meet up with their trails as it crosses Robeson Ranch Road. And so we're meeting with them. Spoken with the city of Highland Village with a meeting coming up next month with them. We're both really busy. So we're trying to find time on each other's schedules to meet with them. And then we've met with the Green Belt Alliance, Texas Parks and Wildlife. We've met with how many cities do you think there are Gary? Eight or nine that we've met with the paddling trails. So we have interests with the paddling trails. Now we're trying to seek that interest with our walking trails and hiking trails. So we're trying to reach out to those cities. Some are a little bit more responsive than others. So we keep poking them. So eventually they'll answer us. - So I'm way behind on this conversation. So that's good. I was just asking. The only reason I was asking if it's one of my master naturalist friends is on the parks board in Hickory Creek. As I was trying to find somebody on the focus group, she said, oh yeah, we need to talk about this and this and this. 'Cause I think they're deep into the paddling trails and the connectivity also. I thought, well, yeah, we need to connect with everybody around and get one massive trail going. It'd be great. - Then Gary and I met also with the North Texas Council of Governments, North Texas Cog. We met with them to make sure. We wanna make sure that they know what we're doing. We know what they're doing. That way everything is connected in the end versus sometimes when you see those roads, they don't quite line up. We don't want that in the case, five, 10, 20 years from now. - Exactly. I was just curious. So thank you. Good job, guys. - And TexDOT, I think we talk with TexDOT, you know, if not bi-weekly, at least monthly. So. - Thanks. - Yes, sir. - I just wanna have a comment, going back to Gary's idea of find a grave and starting with the veterans. I know that that's gonna be, that grave sites are gonna be a sticky issue for, that graveyard just left my head. And Southeast didn't. - Oakwood, Oakwood. - Yes. I know that's gonna be a sticky subject for them, but I do agree. It's a wonderful idea. I know the technology exists. I've been to an art exhibit where that occurred. And it sounds like a graduate student project. Find a grave app. Just give me credit. - Yeah. I think we can work something out. - Well, wonderful. Does anybody have anything else they'd like to say, comment, questions, concerns? All righty. Well, that is the end of our concluding items. I'd like to thank everyone present today, staff and board members, and we will, our next meeting is set for Monday, April 12th. And I look forward to seeing you all. And as of now, I would like to entertain someone to motion that we adjourn the meeting. - So moved. - Thank you, Mr. Francis. Can I get a second? - I'll second. - All right, all in favor, say hi or raise your hand. - Awesome. And with that, we adjourn the meeting. Thank you all so much. Take care. See you soon. - Thanks everyone. - Bye. - Thank you.