Good afternoon, everyone.
It is 12 31 and I would like to begin our first virtual parks and recreation board meeting.
We have a quorum present and one excused absence.
And if I would, do we have any presentations from the public?
No, we do not.
Okay.
Thank you, Rachel.
Well, first, let me just say hello to everyone.
It's really good to see everybody.
It's been a while and I have missed you all.
Okay.
I know I'm on protocol, but all right.
First item is consider approval of the minutes of March 2nd, 2020.
Any questions, concerns, comments?
I'll move to accept.
Motion to accept by Dave Shupp.
Second was, who said it first, James or George?
I think I did, I'm not sure.
Second by James.
Okay.
The minutes for March 2nd have been approved.
Item B, receive a report and hold a discussion and give staff direction regarding an update
on the City of Denton Parks and Recreation Board COVID-19 response.
Thank you, Frances, Gary Pack and Director of Parks and Recreation.
Obviously, Drew, Laura, Heather and Eddie are on here as well and we don't have a presentation,
but just wanted to verbally kind of walk you through our life in the department over the
last three or four months with COVID.
On or about March 13th is when things really started changing for us.
We've tried to keep you up to speed every week with the emails that Eddie sends out
and what's going on, but there's been a lot of things going on behind the scenes.
Obviously, we closed all of our facilities and playgrounds, ball fields.
We shut just about our entire leisure services department down.
It's really been the tale of dual personalities between leisure services and parks.
The leisure services standpoint, everybody was basically working from home and we had
to reinvent our business.
So staff was very busy transitioning from in-person activities to virtual activities
to eventually lead to a virtual recreation center where we're doing video training online.
We're doing bag in the box type of programming, leadership guided programs online.
We did a substantial amount of refunds for aquatics and rec centers.
That has taken a lot of time.
So staff's been very flexible in going through this process.
Actually nobody, none of us have dealt with this type of situation before.
So things were changing not necessarily every day, but more or less like every couple hours.
As well as I'm sure they did in your life and your business.
So it was frustrating, it was scary.
Everybody was unsure what was going to happen on top of the scare of what are we going to
do budget-wise.
We reduced by shutting down, we had to adjust our budget by about 2.6, 2.8 million dollars
roughly in lost revenue and then we had to make additional cuts.
In total we tried to achieve 1.9 million dollars in savings after that six months into the
budget to help with the anticipated loss in sales tax for the city.
Actually sales tax comes two months later, so we weren't sure how that was going to impact
the city long-term with things being shut down.
So we're trying to brace for impact and preserve our full-time staff as much as possible.
So we gave staff assignments, some of it was the virtual programming, our athletic team
went out and painted all of our restrooms, all our concession stands, all our foul poles
to help park maintenance.
So that was extremely challenging for our leisure services side and I really want to
thank them for being so flexible.
The other side of the house, park maintenance, this all happened at the busiest time of the
year.
We typically have contractors that mow the majority of our park system and then we do
some of the detail work on the fields and those type areas, but we were short one contractor
and we opened up bids, we hired a new contractor, the contractor was on for about a month and
then quit.
So during this time, we had to go out and mow the grass when we typically are not mowing.
In addition to spreading staff from park maintenance out to four or five different locations and
try to thin our staff to try to preserve everyone from being sick and reduce the opportunities
to get ill.
And then it was raining, so that made it worse and so the grass was growing and we're still
trying to keep up with it.
So we have not rehired that contractor that quit to date.
So we're still mowing.
We're partnering with the airport and we're helping mow the airport and then their maintenance
staff are coming out and helping us mow as well.
So we've been pretty fluid with constant adjustments throughout this entire timeframe.
Trying to figure out how we're going to manage staff potentially getting sick, coming up
with new protocols for every facility and how we were going to reopen and how we were
going to deal with if someone got sick and then whether we should open or not.
We had a lot of consternation in regards to how and when we would reopen.
There was no parks and recreation department that we were able to follow that did everything
the same.
We actually worked with another city and put together a spreadsheet and shared it amongst
all the departments in DFW in Texas so we could follow who had playgrounds open, who
had restrooms open, who had rec centers open and when they anticipated opening.
We were taking the position of being more conservative than most departments.
A couple cities in DFW opened their rec center the day the governor opened Texas that quickly.
We decided that some of our facilities may not open until calendar year 2021 and they're
really unsure at this point in time.
So we developed a reopening plan that had North Lakes opening first and we opened up
on June 22nd to members only so it's just drop in fitness and then we also opened the
driving range in the tennis courts.
I think that was June 5th.
So those are the facilities that we have open right now.
We do serve lunches out of Dina and MLK.
That was a partnership with our lunch provider in DISD.
Actually we were closed so we had to revamp that entire program in partnership with DISD
and they were coming off the process with schools being shut down or serving over 80,000
meals a week.
So that was a lot of planning and coordination there.
Obviously we're not serving that many for the summertime.
So we do have that ramped up and it takes place every morning and then on Saturday we
actually opened up a cooling station with temperatures being over 100 degrees at the
Civic Center.
We do have voting taking place tomorrow so they're getting set up today, Tuesday's voting
and Wednesday's shutdown or teardown for the voting.
So we had to move the cooling station to MLK for Monday and Tuesday.
So it's been a constant flux and the need to be flexible for everybody.
Most of our staff have been working from home until we started reopening.
Our leisure services staff have been coming back and now they're operating the rec center,
North Lakes, the breakfast lunches that we serve.
We also operated the CCP for most of the summer.
We closed it on July 2nd as a hygiene station since MKOC and some of the other nonprofits
were closed because they didn't have volunteers.
We ramped that up and provide showers and sanitation for people to come in.
We also had a laundry trailer there for a number of weeks providing that service.
And then Carly, who's our volunteer coordinator, coordinated volunteer efforts across the entire
city to help support our daily bread every day, preparing meals from eight to one.
And then we also delivered meals at the hotels that the city is helping with some of the
homeless, the people experiencing homelessness to stay.
And we had staff go over there and deliver meals.
We helped with a childcare area at a local church.
And then we also did some interpretation for another nonprofit.
So staff, when they were at home working, we did offer that for them.
So they came in and helped out, and that was not just Parks and Recreation, but most of
the departments across the entire city.
So that's another effort that we're doing is we really transitioned from Parks and Recreation
to social services over the course of the past few months.
So that was one adjustment.
But while we did that, we were still developing programming virtually and maintaining our
parks.
There was one report that actually Brooke had shared that park usage in Denton County
was up 87%, and we did have a lot of people using our parks.
We still had a lot of people complain about things and call if there were some issues
too.
So we were trying to keep up with that as much as possible.
When COVID hit, city management immediately froze all positions that were vacant.
So we stopped all hiring.
And then we stopped all hiring of our seasonal staff.
So that was challenging.
And then as part of the anticipation of budget challenges, the city offered a voluntary separation
program where people could leave the city and get paid out X number of months voluntarily.
So we had, I think 10 people take that from our department.
So for example, Drew's department alone between VSP, part-time and vacant positions, he was
short 16 people out of 52, I think is what Drew's number is.
And that's on top of not having my contractor in dealing with COVID and rain and mowing.
So it's been a crazy few months.
And again, I can't say it as much as I could say it all day is we've had to be very flexible.
So let's see, we had to communicate with staff, obviously staff's concerned, worried.
So we had numerous Zoom meetings with staff across the organization trying to update them
on what's going on.
A lot of cities were furloughing employees.
We did not furlough our full or part-time employees.
We did not rehire a lot of seasonal positions, obviously, because we weren't open.
So that was a challenge.
And when we were deciding what we should reopen, it was like a 50/50 split.
50% of the community wanted us to reopen and 50% didn't want us to reopen.
So it was really no matter what decision we made, it was going to be a challenge for the
community.
We took a lot of lumps throughout that process of opening tennis courts, playgrounds.
But at the end of the day, I think the decisions we made as an organization were probably right
on because a lot of departments across DFW are starting to backtrack where they've closed
their pools, they're closing rec centers because of cases that are occurring.
So I really think we did the right thing.
And we had some of the challenges up front.
We were conservative, and I think we took the right path.
We can always second-guess ourselves on a lot of our decisions, but I think we did the
right thing.
Obviously the concern for not just the health and wellness of our staff, but our mental
health of our staff, people working from home every day, not seeing their customers, not
socializing with each other was a concern.
So we've done a lot of Zoom meetings across the organization.
Our senior center staff, we have one person that's been calling, a couple people, have
been calling our senior members and talking to them because they're shuttered and they've
been there since March, where they can't see, and Francis, we talked a little bit about
it as well, where they can't get out and see their own families.
So we've been making phone calls to our senior members and trying to keep them active and
come up with bingo and those types of activities to give them an opportunity to socialize.
So that's a real quick summary of four months of work.
Drew and Laura, Heather, we had to rebuild our entire budget.
Heather did a lot of work in the course of a few days where we had to dissect every one
of our HPUs, every one of our specific budgets and come up with $1.9 million.
Obviously that's a net.
We had to cut, we lost $2.8 million in revenue.
So you add it to that, it's much more complicated in getting to that 1.9 net in savings.
So it was an experience.
We went through some reorganization scenarios three or four times from scratch and taking
it differently.
We looked at cuts from 10% to 25 to 50% across the department, depending on how bad it was
going to get.
Ultimately, we went to the 10% reduction, which was the $1.9 million.
It was quite the experience.
I hope none of us have to do it again.
I hope eventually we get out of this soon, but we just don't know.
Many cases are starting to rise again, and we're starting to look at maybe we push our
timelines back.
But from day one, we said we're going to open up North Lakes first, MLK would be the second
rec center sometime in September, and then we thought we would open up the civic center
in October, and then Denia and the senior center in December, January.
That's still kind of penciled in.
I think the civic center is probably going to be pushed back tentatively, but the senior
centers being the last ones that we open just because of the vulnerable population, it just
doesn't make sense.
Then from an operational standpoint, you know, North Lakes is open, but we're not running
at pre-COVID numbers, so it may not make sense from a capacity standpoint and from a budget
standpoint to open up all the rec centers.
So Denia may be the last rec center to open, and it may not open until after January, depending
on how things go.
We just don't know.
So we penciled in those dates just so we could plan and budget for it and have at least a
starting point or a foundation to work from, realizing that we're going to have to take
each day, day by day.
So that's been a challenge, but if Drew or Laura, Heather want to chime in with anything
I may have missed, that would be great.
I can't hear you, Laura.
Laura, I think you're on mute.
Put the headset on.
It's probably plugged in.
Okay.
Can you hear me now?
Yes?
Yeah.
Okay.
Just wanted to give you kind of a little glimpse into where we are today in terms of our operations
on the leisure service side.
As Gary mentioned, North Lakes is open.
We've got modified hours.
It's being run right now by our full-time staff, full-time and part-time staff.
We have a very detailed reopening plan and practices and operations on a daily basis
for that facility.
It is only open for members and pass holders right now.
We're seeing about 150 people coming in a day on average throughout the day.
So we've got occupant loads for each room.
It's spaced out.
We've got a disinfecting protocol that the staff is working through and documenting every
day.
We did open up the driving range and we have opened back up our golf and tennis instruction
that's done by our contractors.
We did have to pause the tennis instruction for two weeks, but we're scheduled right now
to resume tennis instruction on the 20th as well as trying to open up a little bit on
some fitness instruction and also some athletic contracted services.
But again, those are really things that we're looking at on a day-by-day basis.
We've got them planned.
We've got a process in place, but those decisions sometimes change within a matter of 24 hours
or so.
So that's where we're at today.
This is David Shuck.
I've got a question.
It sounds like it's available for members only.
Is that existing or are we also selling new memberships and are there new memberships
being sold as part of this?
Yes, both existing members and new memberships are still available.
Any additional questions, concerns?
Anything else, Gary?
No, that's it.
I mean, other than, you know, we'll try to continue to provide you your updates on Monday.
If you have a question, need some clarification, always feel free to chime in with us and ask
us.
We'll provide real basic information for you, try to make it short and sweet.
But you know, as the case is, hopefully, start to plateau and close and shut down, you know,
I guess go more the positive direction as opposed to the direction ahead right now.
We hope that we can reopen, but again, we'll be continuously flexible in reevaluating our
next steps.
As of right now, we were set to open up some programs starting next week, so that's a discussion
that we need to have today with CMO in regards to what they feel the city's direction is.
I guess it was July 3rd.
We had a meeting with all the city management and decided that we were going to send people
back home for two weeks and see how things went.
So this is this is the second week.
So I assume we'll probably have some more discussions this week to figure out how we're
going to handle next steps, but trying to keep our staff safe as possible and spread
everybody out and work for people from home as much as we can.
It's been a learning experience.
I think it's been pretty productive for staff and it's it turns out to be a benefit that
we can offer.
So that's something that we'll continue to look at as we move forward.
But I appreciate everybody's patience.
You know, we haven't met for so long is a little awkward and but it's been it's been
a challenge.
Do you have a question?
I was just curious what you expect moving forward in the fall as families.
I'm sure you'll have some who are wanting to work from home and keeping their kids home.
What is kind of the city's policy or what do you guys have in place so that people can
still maintain a job and keep their children and family safe.
So that's been that's been a lot of discussion there.
The positions that have the ability to work from home, as long as they can do that and
be effective and efficient with their work life.
We are providing that that support.
Obviously there's some positions that that can't work from home.
We can't cut grass from home, but you can work individually.
We did spread everybody out into individual vehicles as much as possible.
So you may see some park maintenance guys driving around and 15 passenger vans.
So we are trying to do that.
But we still have to run a city, whether it's police and fire, solid waste or water or parks.
We have positions that can't work from home with, you know, with school being out.
Obviously that's a challenge for people because a lot of childcare were shut down.
So we're trying to be as flexible as we can.
I mean, we're we're willing to shift hours to weekends and evenings if we have to try
to accommodate some staff.
So we are trying to be as flexible as we can still operate the city as best we can as efficiently
as possible.
Thank you.
That was like the best answer possible.
Thank you.
And then you have a question.
Yes.
Hi, everyone.
First of all, thanks for the update.
That was really a lot of information that I've been wondering about.
I have one question, though, is there I know you said you're not going to open Civic Center
until probably like October, but with the schools opening up, I know a lot of people
need that after school care is the are the parks planning on anything for that?
So a great question.
That was another area of consternation that we had in regards to summer camps, because
we know how important they are for kids for social aspect, but also for childcare for
parents and with school with school being out.
We took the road of if if one kid gets sick, and we have to shut it down for two weeks.
Now we have taken families that were dependent and counting on that and putting them into
a situation with potentially, you know, an hour's notice that they have to come get their
kid and they're not going to have that service for the next two weeks.
So we decided that we were going to do it at all.
And then so we're kind of still in the same place for after school.
Obviously the ISD announced that they're going to delay school by a couple more weeks.
And then there's still an option for stay at home learning.
So it'll be interesting to see how much of the the school students are actually staying
at home.
I think I saw somewhere at Fort Worth, 50% of the people are students were working at
home or planning to be at home this fall.
I'm not sure if that's accurate, but that it's another challenge that we have to face
and figure out how to deal with school is right around the corner.
But in COVID time, it's a long way away.
So we haven't made any decisions yet.
We're trying to figure out we were anticipating opening an auditorium around mid August to
accommodate the swim team and just open it for them.
And the ISD hasn't been able to make a decision on when they're coming back to the swim team
yet.
So and that's just a few weeks away.
So it is something that we're struggling with and how we're going to handle it.
We have been without all of our seasonal staff, too.
So there's there's some operational challenges that we have to consider on how quickly we
can get staff back, get them hired and keep them safe at the same time.
So it's it's really pick, you know, pick a direction and do your best.
As of right now, we're anticipating that we probably aren't going to be doing after school,
but we haven't made a final decision on that yet.
Any questions?
Hi, it's you know, and I have a quick one over at I think on 288 at one of the city
facilities.
There are this new digital thermometer.
This is the first time I've seen those.
Will those digital thermometers also be extended to the parks and rec centers so people can
take their temp?
Right now, we're not requiring anyone to take their temperature, you know, to be allowed
entrance into a facility.
We do have a lot of signage that is specifically at North Lake since that's our operating facility
right now, asking people to stop before they come in, you know, kind of ask themselves
these questions, whether or not they've been ill recently, if they have the symptoms that
are being, you know, updated as COVID symptoms, and essentially being asked not to enter,
if they have any of those symptoms, if they have a fever, if they've been sick or around
somebody that's been sick recently, but they're not required to actually take their temperature
prior to being admitted into the facility at this time.
We are following all of the other recommendations and recently did implement the requirement
for wearing a mask.
So when you enter North Lakes rec center, you do have to have a mask on once you enter
into the fitness areas and begin to actually actively work out, you can remove it.
When you are done, you have to put it back on to walk through the facility again to exit.
And there are those masks are also available to the public.
So if somebody forgets their mask, as they come in, we do have some available for individuals
to use when they're coming in and out of our rec center.
I'd just like to throw in, you know, I work for a commercial gym in city of Denton, it's
the exact same protocol that we're following.
We had a lot of debate internally, whether we were going to require masks, if we could
do that, if we could require them during specific programs, since you're kind of opting into
that.
And there was a lot of discussion back and forth, including temperature, whether we can
do that, whether we put staff in an awkward position with people that refuse to do that.
And we didn't want to have confrontations either.
So there was a lot of discussion about about those steps.
Okay, if there are no additional questions, thank you, Gary and Laura, and staff for the
update.
We're going to move to the next item, item C, receive a report, hold a discussion and
give staff direction regarding the five year capital improvement project plan.
So I'll bring up the spreadsheet.
But since at the beginning of the meeting, we talked about having conversation where
everybody can see each other.
So if you do happen to have the attachments, I know we have some members maybe sitting
in their car that may not be able to do that.
And that's fine.
I'll try to keep it up as much as possible and go back and forth.
But if you could bring up that spreadsheet, I can walk you through a little bit of it.
And then we can have some discussion.
So give me a second, let me pull that up.
Okay, that might be a little small, let me make this a little bit bigger.
I'm just gonna kind of scroll up here.
Can you guys see that okay?
Yes, no?
All we see Gary is the list, the folder list.
Okay, hang on.
There we go.
Okay.
There you go.
Okay.
I'm gonna make this as big as I can so you guys can see it.
Just let me know.
So let me just kind of give you a layout.
So I'm not sure what we had as a CIP plan down the road or in the past.
I never really saw anything that was detailed that kind of forecasted our projects other
than just what we had in the works at the time.
So a few weeks ago, we started putting together a list of everything that we're working on
now and what the budget was in the year roughly that it started.
Some of these started before fiscal year '18 and then outlined what we wanted to do over
the next five years.
So we could line up funding projects and then go after grant money as well.
So what you have here is column A is all of our projects that we have underworks and planned.
Obviously our department, the type of construction, the status, whether it's in progress completed
or not started yet for the most part, and then each year what we anticipate the project
to cost or what we have in funding.
So for instance, American Legion Hall, this started a few years ago from a planning perspective.
We did start construction this spring.
So that is in progress.
It's listed under fiscal year '18, '19.
So some of these are, these two columns here are a little bit of a catch up in regards
to when the project actually started, so it's kind of a catch all.
But all these projects here are from fiscal year '18, '19.
As you see, most of those are completed except for American Legion Hall.
We anticipate that to be completed next spring, provided we don't have a lot of rain at this
point.
Then for fiscal year '19, '20, that's where we're at today.
These are some of those projects that have been ongoing or have been planned.
Carnegie Ridge property, that's completed.
Dallas and Teasley meeting, that's completed.
Industrial Park is done.
We replaced our irrigation controllers and our park maintenance.
A number of playground structures have been built, North Lakes Park, a maintenance shed.
We did some soccer fencing.
We're still working on the master plan.
That took a major hit with some staff leaving and COVID, it's come to a pause.
So we're trying to get that back up and running.
We redid the Dina Rec Center parking lot and put a dumpster wrap for the dumpsters there.
Quaker Town playground.
So those are a number of the projects that we have been working on to date.
Now as we start going down here, I'll just scroll down a little bit and starting here,
our projects that we're starting to look at for 2021, so next fiscal year starting October,
we're already started a number of these.
We're in the bid process right now and going to council for Joe Skow's playground.
All the playgrounds in here are part of our playground replacement plan and when they
were projected to be replaced.
We did apply for some USTA grants.
Staff is replacing 18 scoreboards 24, 24 scoreboards on all of our athletic fields.
We have some property acquisition that we're working on McKenna Park improvements.
That's been an ongoing thing with the construction of Bonnie Bray and some actually three of
the roads around the park are under construction and eventually removing that dirt.
So we're replacing the playground there and we'll be installing a loop trail on a parking
lot.
We're doing some renovations to Bowling Green with a new playground and some trail improvements
there.
Let's see, a few master planning projects that we're starting to work on.
So for instance, villages of the Carmel property in Southeast Denton, just off of 35E.
We don't necessarily have enough money to do that.
We have a lot of 9, 15, 16 funding.
So we're going to go ahead and do a couple of parks and have them master planned so they're
shovel ready so we can apply for a grant through Texas Parks and Wildlife.
So we're trying to get some projects that are fully planned and ready to go and we just
put them on the shelf until we find funding for it.
Emergency action plan for Lake Forest, hopefully this fall we'll be heading into dredging and
repairs of the dam at the pond at Lake Forest.
Our athletic field lighting, we're proposing to replace systematically over the next five
or six years and then just kind of on and on over the next five years is a list of projects,
whether it's sculptures, media improvements, maintenance at our cemeteries, trail development.
So there's a list of projects here that helps us forecast what we're going to be working
on.
It doesn't mean we have money for everything at this point in time and it doesn't mean
that this is the final project.
This thing changes on a weekly basis.
We tweak it here and there.
As things come and go, we'll make those adjustments as needed and be flexible with that.
But we wanted to share it with you guys so you could look at it.
A number of these things we have pulled from discussions during our master plan process
and meeting with the community.
Some of these things that have come from staff in regards to, hey, this playground is in
bad shape, it's on the playground replacement plan that we forecasted.
So we've taken a number of communication aspects from the community and tried to build this
plan and make adjustments as we can, as well as look at where we have some funding.
We're trying to use our land dedication and development fees as much as possible.
So that's another consideration.
So you may say, well, why village is a Carmel over this park?
It's like, well, there's money sitting in that neighborhood for that park, so that helped
us make that decision that we're trying to utilize that money and get it into action
for the community.
So a lot of those things were considered, not just public feedback as well.
So I'm going to stop sharing and then just open up for conversation.
Questions, concerns?
Brooke?
I was just going to say in regards to the master plan, I would imagine that that probably
would look very different now than even people's responses were six months ago.
So are you guys kind of taking that into consideration as you're moving forward with the master plan
and whoever is conducting it to reevaluate where people stand and what their priorities
are or how do you go about doing that?
That's a great, great point.
We're not sure what we look like post COVID.
We know what we feel like in COVID, but what does parks and recreation look like after
this is over?
Obviously, a lot of, if you go to try to buy a bike or a canoe right now, good luck because
they don't exist.
So a lot of people are doing outdoor activities that they can do in small groups by themselves
or with families.
So the question of, you know, do we need to build a rec center anytime soon is a very
good question.
Obviously, we did a needs assessment survey a year ago, last July.
And those questions may be dated at this point in time.
With staff being shorted, with us being short staffed and Glenn left in February and that
was doing our master plan, we are putting out an RFQ to hire a firm to help us get to
the finish line and finish that.
That's going to be a discussion that we're going to have.
The items that are in the five-year plan are mostly outdoor amenities.
So I think we're fine there.
The things that aren't on here that we do have kind of in an outline are the big ticket
items, replacement of the senior center, a field house that was talked about a lot, a
southern rec center.
So all of those things have to have more discussion.
Those are bond-related initiatives.
So the biggest thing you see on here roughly is probably land acquisition and maybe some
neighborhood park development and then the tennis center, for example.
Those are the biggest ticket items on here.
But the 25, the $50 million renovations, the renovation or construction for Southwest Park
is probably $25, $50 million, depending on what goes in it.
That's not on here.
So those big ticket items we didn't put on here purposely because there needs to be some
more discussion about that.
I have a question.
Did we lose a board member?
Mr. Emmerich?
James and George.
Oh, George is still here.
Okay.
Oh, there he is.
Sorry.
I have a lot of things going on.
I apologize.
I'm not leaving.
I'm right here.
So our virtual host, did Mr. Emmerich get knocked out?
And also, I'm sorry, I'm drawing a blank on her name, the other board member that joined
when he joined.
Denona, she was just here.
I think she's off as well.
She is gone as well.
Well, we still have a quorum, so we can continue.
We'll keep an eye out for when and if they try to get back on, it could be a connection
issue.
Okay.
Does someone have their phone numbers and can reach out to them?
Eddie, do you have that capability?
I'm sorry, you have to use the Russian.
I just walked right in.
You have the phone numbers for Denona, and Mr. Emmerich, they have dropped out of the
meeting.
I do.
I have it.
Let me pull that up real quick.
And I think I sent forward you an email about James Emmerich, I missed the email earlier
this morning, and he said that he was going to leave early for a work meeting, but he's
going to dial back on.
Okay.
Oh, okay.
Okay.
All right.
So we do have a hard stop at 2.30, because there's another public meeting at 3 o'clock.
So just want to...
Okay.
Everybody is working on that, so Gary, you are needing us to give feedback and approval
of this five-year plan, correct?
Yeah.
Feedback is great.
Make sure that we're heading in the right direction.
If it's not on here now, it doesn't mean it's never going to be on here.
We'll keep adding things as things come up, and this helps us keep track of projects so
we can forecast and balance our revenue, as well as it can be used as a platform for our
next bond initiative.
So they have kind of somewhere to start.
We are working on some new software in the city that's going to help us track all our
capital projects, so that was another reason why we started doing this.
But it really provides us a baseline foundation for us to work from and communicate those
needs and start planning.
We've made a considerable amount of progress on our trails master plan, and I know we brought
that to you probably six months ago.
Our next meeting, we'll probably share that with you because we're just about done with
that portion of the master plan, and there's a spreadsheet that looks similar to this just
for the trails.
So we are getting very detailed with things that we can be doing, so we can plan and really
sell what we're trying to do for the community.
So since this is, I'm sorry, David.
Just a quick question, I noticed in the agenda there was a pretty good explanation for a
number of the items that were on that spreadsheet.
I don't think they were all on there unless I missed some.
Is there a comprehensive list where if I was looking at that spreadsheet, I could pick
any item off of it and get just a quick description of what that's about?
Is there a document that might have that?
Because I know what the majority of those are, but there were a few that I wouldn't
be able to answer if somebody asked me for sure.
So I know probably a year or so ago, shortly after you started, we started doing a project
kind of spreadsheet that had some of that detail.
Yeah, I remember that.
We weren't able to keep up with it.
So what we're doing with our software is it has descriptions for each one of these projects,
and we'll be able to literally print you out a report, and it'll give you tracking to
that day, progress from a percentage, a Gantt chart of all the steps within that project,
and where our budget is, and when we anticipate it being completed.
So we're working to be able to provide that.
We can probably put something together for you for the park board that has that outlined
and get it to you fairly soon that gives you a little more detail.
Well, I wouldn't want to waste inordinate resources on it.
If it was something that was available, I'd like to see it, but I hate to diverse you guys
for something that may not provide a lot of value.
I think we have it.
I think I can cut it, paste it into an Excel document, and share it with you guys.
It won't be that much.
You guys are always open for questions, and we have it anyway, so that's right.
Okay, so this is an ongoing project.
We are proving you just moving forward with it and presenting it to the council.
What are you asking for us?
If you could, based on what you provided, give us some support, a head nod or a thumbs
up that we're heading in the right direction.
If there's anything that you see is concerning, please let us know.
If not, we're going to keep moving forward, and probably every year during your budget
time we'll be coming to you hopefully maybe more like May, June with an updated five-year
plan to show you.
If anything significantly changes during the year, we'll give you an FYI or more than likely
if it's that significant, you're going to get a staff report, a master plan, or whatever
it would be.
So you'll see those changes along the way.
This is not a document that's kind of stamped and said done, this is it, but I want to make
sure that we're communicating to you where we're going from and where we're trying to
spend the money and the efforts and how we're coming up with that process.
So it would be great to get that thumbs up from you guys that we're heading in the right
direction, or thumbs down we're not, and change accordingly, and I think that's kind of where
we're at.
I've got a comment on that if you're open to it.
I think, one, it's a great overall holistic view of what's going on.
I think it's going to help you prioritize and triage as variables change.
And I think it's informational, yet it's also open-ended enough that it's going to be flexible
for movement.
So from my perspective, I don't think you could provide a lot better direction based
on what we have.
This is a very aggressive plan.
If anything, we may end up spreading things out a little bit more.
So it can be challenging trying to pull off all this construction effort and improvements
that quickly, but we feel like we're trying to make a substantial effort for the community.
So that's our approach.
Okay.
And I want to commend you on that.
And so if you could, if it's okay, can we use the reactions or do you want a physical
hand?
I guess you could just use a thumbs up, it'd be fine.
All right.
Thank you all.
Next item, receive an informal report regarding the playground replacement plan for Bowling
Green, Joe Stiles, Mack Park, and McKenna Park.
Okay.
Give me a second.
I'll pull that up.
Eddie, while he's doing that, did we find Danona?
You're in the process of trying to get in touch with her now.
Okay.
Thank you.
So Drew, Drew Huffman is going to lead us in this discussion and I'm going to work the
controls.
Okay.
Thank you.
All right.
I'll let Gary pull it up.
So we just wanted to make sure we brought this to you and showed you the amount of playgrounds
and the amount of planning that's gone in to get these playgrounds.
Like Gary said that, you know, we were working on our capital plan.
Well, this changes because whether we get funding from another source or we find funding
and we try to bundle these packages together to get more of an economic scale for purchasing
power, and this is kind of where the playgrounds went.
I started with two playgrounds and I think we have five now.
So it's been pretty exciting.
So we're four on this spreadsheet and there may be another one numbering you in August.
So you know, we developed the playground replacement plan that was on this sheet also.
And then we kind of went over that last year on how we went through and decided, you know,
or showed where the playgrounds when they were installed, put them on a 15-year life
cycle and, you know, and how they get installed throughout those the following 15 years.
Some playgrounds last longer than others, and we've really seen that also, you know,
due to shade, you know, abuse, use, and all the other things that go along with using
playgrounds, how that really works.
So you can go to the next slide, Gary.
Here's the replacement plan.
I know we went over that, you know, about a year ago and it kind of shows you, you know,
what our anticipated cost for those playgrounds.
Those do vary just depending on size, whether we change the whole footprint of the playground
or maybe we move it like we're moving to McKenna, it costs more to go in and add all that extra
concrete and all that extra work to actually move the playground from its existing location
to a new location.
Gary, you're on mute.
Okay, sorry, just to get quick rundown of what you're seeing here.
So obviously all our playgrounds to the left, manufacturer, the age, the square footage,
and when they're due for replacement and the anticipated replacement cost.
That is with a 3% escalator compounded annually.
The blue are playgrounds that we've replaced since 2018.
The orange are playgrounds that we have funding for.
The red playgrounds are ones that are set to be replaced or anticipated to be replaced
in that calendar year, but are past their 15-year lifespan.
That does not mean they're dangerous.
That just means it's past the 15 years.
Some playgrounds are 20 years old and they're fine based on what Drew said, if they're in
the shade, if they haven't been vandalized a lot, they can last longer.
But this at least gives us an idea of what we have coming and what we need funding for.
And then the greens are replacement on schedule.
So that's what you're looking at.
All right, the first playground we want to show you was bowling green.
So bowling green kind of goes back to, hey, we're going to put it in the same exact footprint,
but the footprint is too small to really get the number of play features that we really
want for a playground.
So we're going to cut the concrete, we're going to make that area larger inside the
border to really get some good play features in that playground.
This playground actually right here will be one of the first ones installed in the nation
of this design.
So also the kind of the colors, which we've really utilized this COVID time of going back
and forth and sending emails, and then we'll jump online and show each other screens and
kind of share, hey, here's color options, help me pick, or what are your kids, what
is their most favorite play feature of a playground?
And then obviously, we need shade, the shade here at Bowling Green is really good.
We have some really nice trees on the southwest side of that park or that play area there.
So it'll be really nice.
Also, you remember that the community gardens are there.
That's another reason why this color scheme kind of went with this playground, and we
really look forward to getting this installed.
It was originally installed in 2001, so it is over its lifespan.
It has had some issues over the years just with maintenance and its durability.
We're not going back with the same vendor, we're going with a vendor that gave us that
full 15-year bumper-to-bumper warranty.
So that's really nice too, especially on a maintenance aspect.
Next one's Joe Skiles.
Question for you, Drew, on that previous park, I saw the tables and benches, is there need
for shade structures for those, or is it set in a way where it's shaded naturally by trees?
It's set in a way where it's shaded at times.
Okay, thank you.
And a lot of those are already existing, so it doesn't, you know, this playground doesn't
give you the joes or the bow and green, doesn't show you the trees that are already there,
but you have the bench that's between the playground and the swing set, the trees are
there.
And so you'll have the shade on one of the picnic tables, and then one of the picnic
tables that will be, you know, in sun probably in the morning and then shaded in the evening,
and then you have shade over here for this bench that will be on the south or the west
side of the playground.
Perfect.
Thank you.
Joe Scowles.
So, Joe Scowles is over, you know, about 35E, kind of across from the mall in that area
in the Southridge area, so same time frame, really it's almost the exact same playground
that was at both playgrounds currently.
This is obviously a different color, different play features, kind of the same shade top,
but here's another playground, we went through and picked colors, like I said, we went through,
you know, lots of us in the office, kind of, hey, what are your favorite colors?
What would you really like here?
How does this really fit in?
So that's how these colors were picked, but this also is just a, it's called a Vente,
that's their Vente version of their playground, so that's the name of it, and it really has
some really nice play features for all ages, and I think the kids are really going to have
a lot of fun on this playground.
Just to add, this is a combination of 9, 15, 16 funding and some bond playground money
that we are going to, hopefully using, we're going to be going to the bond oversight committee,
ask them to redirect some extra money for playgrounds to this site.
That looks like just bare or brushed aluminum or something, is that what that's actually
made of, or is it a plastic kind of covering that's just that color?
The metal?
Yeah, I mean, is that actually metal metal?
Yeah, it's metal metal, and it's powder coated that color.
Okay, that's where I was going, I wasn't coming up with the right terminology, okay.
So it, yeah, it's metal metal, but it's powder coated that color.
I understand, thanks.
And the next one, Mack Park, this is the playground that's currently there, as you can see, as
you can see, you know, you go back to the playgrounds that we've replaced in the past
couple years, and the playgrounds I just showed you, it doesn't have, you know, near the amount
of play features or really an ICD to it, it's starting to really get warped to where, you
know, that coating is coming off all the platforms, we're having issues with the slides, it's
just hit its lifespan.
So we're in design right now, we've narrowed it down to two designs that we really like,
those two designs have, you know, whenever you're looking at things, things are going
to cost differently, so they're about a $30,000 difference in the two designs that we have
at the moment, so we're trying to make up our mind whether we spend the extra $30,000
to get a larger, more, a larger playground there, kind of go with a more conservative
playground for less money.
But still, in this area, you have two playgrounds, so we have the Mack North, which is this playground,
and then you have Roberts or Mack South, which has a really nice playground also, so we're
going through that decision making process at the moment, but we'll, we'll have bundled
in these playgrounds, Mack will be in that bundle, and so we should make our decision
this week, and I can bring it back in August, or I can send you an ISR and show you which
one we picked and all the colors, so we work with DBBI also, because, you know, these,
this one's at the ball fields.
So next is my favorite right now, is really, we were really happy to put this one together,
this is not a playground in their catalog at all, we just, we took about three or four
different designs, and, you know, Gary said he really liked this, and Laura said she liked
this, and Jason Bunnell, our park planner, liked this, and, you know, we had a couple
other people in the office put it together, and we went back, and, you know, us with small
children said, "Hey, what's your favorite play feature, what do you really like to play
in?"
Because, you know, our kids are all different ages, and what, what, what they really, really
like to do, so, this one's going to be at McKenna, it'll be, of course, this one's completely,
you know, we went over the McKenna reconstruction a couple months ago, this is going to go up
by where the cedar trees are, closer to the, to Thomas Street, at Thomas and Scripture,
versus where the playground is now, the old playground will be removed, and this new playground
will go, will go in.
So, I have a general, I have a general question, and David, you know, alluded to this, the
metal on the playgrounds, how, when you, you say it's coated, the heat, the Texas heat,
and the effect of metal, I know you've, you probably told us this before, but I have forgotten,
tell us, what do you consider when you look at the metal pieces for the playgrounds?
So really it has to do with durability, and of course colors go into that a lot, so, you
know, we try to pick a lot of, you know, kind of neutral colors and softer colors so they
don't absorb as much heat, and also we wrote into our new specifications, we changed them
for what we, last time we had playgrounds versus this time, where we required 50% shade
to cover playground features, and you can see, especially if you're, if you go back
to the McKenna playground, it kind of gives you, that rendering gives you a look on how
much shade's coming down from the shade cloths, and of course it'll depend on the time of
day that we're playing on the playground, I guess Gary's gonna bring it back up.
But you can see how much shade is over the big section of the playground, and of course
how much shade really puts on the ground and puts on those features, and then of course,
you know, with that playground there, the two to five area that has a smaller square
shade cloth, you can see how much shade's going down on top of that two to five, that
taut area of the playground.
Just to add one additional comment, you know, I've encouraged Drew, and we've talked a lot
about using reds and purples, if you look at McKenna, I think we have reds and purples
there right now, and they do not hold their color very well in the sun, so it makes them
look a lot older than they are as well, so we're trying to stay away from those colors.
The lime greens and the steel colors and the dark blues have really, and the yellows have
really come in trendy, so that's kind of like a new wave, and they're going to more climbing
type of playgrounds that we're trying to incorporate some of that too, so we're trying to get out
of just the regular traditional slide, you know, real basic things, try to do things
a little bit differently and add some new play features to our community.
Okay, thank you.
Any additional questions?
Hi, I actually have a few questions about the design of the playgrounds, I appreciate
that y'all have been working hard on them and talking internally about the design, but
I feel like a lot of the things we've talked about in past meetings were forgotten about
or not incorporated, like having more natural looks to the playgrounds, or I know some of
the designs that Glen brought to us incorporated, like, leafs and different natural shapes.
I didn't see like any boulders or stomps or anything like that, and I just, these are
our spaces, we're spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on these spaces, and our children
are running out of like, places to play in nature, and when we just have them like, blue
and plastic and metal, without very much nature around them, that's not preparing for our
children to have those natural spaces around their homes, and that's very concerning to
me, personally.
And I also, I feel like places for parents to sit while the kids play are just as important
as the actual equipment that they're being played on, and I understand there are all
kinds of cost points, but if the parents don't have a shady place to sit, they're not going
to take their kid during the day, because it's so uncomfortable and miserable.
So I guess I would just like to know if like, the parent's sitting place has been considered
and like, the idea for natural playscapes is being considered.
So to answer, I guess the last question first, what you see on those designs are computer
generated, they're not necessarily, the benches aren't where we're going to specifically put
them, so that, it's just more or less what the play feature, kind of inside the woodchips
is going to look like.
The shape structures are pretty expensive.
We looked at a shape structure that would go over Nettie Schultz, and it is $92,000
just for that playground, and there's really not much to it.
We're trying to balance replacing old equipment and kind of get caught up with structures
and balance as much shade as we can put in there, as opposed to putting a tent completely
over it, similar to Denia, where it's almost like an event tent.
From a nature themed standpoint, I agree with you, we do need to put more into that.
We can still put boulders in there, we can put stamps in the concrete.
Grand Prairie specifically took leaves, and they made stamps of leaves that are trees
in their community and stamped them in the concrete, so it incorporated some play into
a concrete, something as simple as concrete.
But we can do some more of that.
There are some designs, I think Drew had shared with us, that some of the companies are working
on that's more nature related, that we can definitely look at for the next ones.
Drew, shake your head.
So there are some new structures coming out.
Some of the features that are out there, nature related, are specifically designed, and they
are going to be a lot more money.
We can continue to look at those in the future, for sure.
Based off of your feedback, we can head in that direction.
We are implementing a play feature at the Nook, similar to what you're talking about,
that's under the trees at the library that's more kind of, it's not tree stumps, but there's
circles and rectangles, those are made out of concrete, based on kind of some of Glen's
ideas of incorporating improvements into existing terrain.
But we can look more at that direction, for sure.
I would really like to see some of that at McKenna Park.
It's in the trees, it could be a really nice, natural looking area.
We are going to be putting in more trees, I'm not sure if we finalized how many and
exactly where.
I think there's two trees that need to be relocated.
So we are looking at some natural shade over there as well.
We just can't provide enough shade.
And then at the same time, in the wintertime, when it's cold, you want the sun too.
So it's kind of trying to provide a balance.
So Drew's implemented, I think that 50% shade for the design.
So we have some sort of balance there.
I would just like to say, can you please consider changing the blue to green or some kind of
like camouflaged color into the natural background, if it's not too late?
For which one?
For McKenna.
It's the only one I think that was blue.
Yeah McKenna is like a turquoise with the poles and then more of a royal blue top.
I totally get what you mean by natural style.
I feel like when playgrounds were closed, we had to get really creative.
So we used all kinds of boulders and stuff as our playground.
So I think that probably goes to kind of, when we're looking at the master plan moving
forward, that I think people's opinions on what playgrounds are going to look like are
going to be a little different too and be open to more of that style that you're referring
to.
I think it just also goes with our city sustainability goals.
Are you referring to the colors, Alana?
Yes, when I'm talking about sustainability goals, I'm talking more about like having
natural things incorporated into the playscape.
The color, it is what it is.
It's my personal preference that the playground kind of like blends in with nature, but you
could also argue that it's the color of the sky, so I mean I can see it both ways.
That's not really as big a concern to me as like having natural things for the kids to
touch and play on because they can't just go out in the woods like kids used to be able
to do.
They can't go jump on rocks and I mean all those things, there are study after study
after study that shows that jumping on rocks and playing is good for their development.
And I think that's where Gary alluded to, some of those play features are changing from
just slides and normal things that we're used to seeing on those playgrounds.
We always alluded to when guys show Gary a playground, I was like, "Look, the floor is
lava."
How do I come from one section of the playground and never touch the floor on all these features
to get from one end to the other without having to crawl down or if I do crawl down, I crawl
down and I hop on a stump or a platform and then I hop from another section.
So it's really cool to go out there and see those kids play on different features and
it all depending, no matter how old they are, if they're five or if they're 12, the floor
is lava.
So it's really neat to see that.
And we can, Drew and I can look at bringing some boulders in and periodically placing
those where the concrete ribbon would be as long as it's out of the fall zone for the
equipment to really almost look like we worked around the boulders that were in the earth,
make them look like they were naturally there and maybe incorporate some tree planting around
it.
So it looked like we incorporated nature into that.
So we can tweak some of that design to provide some of that as well.
And then, Alana, if you go back to look at McKenna, if you look on your pictures that
you have there from McKenna Park, so you have the top picture, you'll see that ribbon in
between the, I guess Gary's going to show it, the ribbon between the swings and zipline
and the playground, that's also a sitting feature.
So if you look at the very top feature, you have shade there and then depending on the
times of the day, you're going to have shade along that sitting feature there.
And that's where, you know, you could have shade as a parent.
We could incorporate some boulders like for instance here or even in here as long as it's
the right distance away from the fall areas to provide some of that natural look and,
you know, plant some trees fairly close so it looks like we, you know, we worked around
the tree and it wasn't, you know, designed and cleared and starting from scratch.
So we can try to make some of those adjustments.
We actually looked at this one almost like as a treehouse kind of concept for both of
these and this one, this was kind of more like a rocket but it's also like a treehouse.
That was one of the things that we kind of liked about it from McKenna Park because it's
kind of sitting up high.
This just lets kids get a little bit higher in that park.
I think you guys are doing awesome, I'll say we have Mulch Mountain at Avondale or we did,
I don't know if it's still there, but like the kids freaking love it.
I don't care how old you are, they're up there at the top of the Mulch Mountain and going
down to it.
We do have quite a few.
The best kids are going to love it, you're doing great.
I've seen adult kids at North Lakes Park too.
Oh yeah, exactly.
Yeah, we played on the boulders near the dog park the other day.
I guess they're by the animal shelter, but they're cool because they have all kinds of
moss and lichen growing on them and we had like this whole science lesson because of
those boulders.
So it was just like, I love that.
I want more of that for our kids.
And there's naturally going to be more of that happening starting this fall.
I can guarantee it happened at our house this spring and it will continue as I feel like
people are going to have to move outdoors into our parks and playgrounds as part of
their education plan.
One last question about accessibility, Drew or Gary.
How is that incorporated in the parks, these parks?
As far as this playground, are all the playgrounds?
The ones that we are discussing, yeah.
Yeah, so these aren't any of these playgrounds, they're not set up as, I know we talked about
a future all-inclusive playground and it's actually not on our five-year CIP list on
paper, but it is something that we are working on behind the scenes on exactly where that's
going to go.
That was part of our master plan.
Normal playgrounds do have, you know, these do have features.
We did look at McKenna and actually all four of these playgrounds you saw today to add,
you know, the rubber, not rubber mulch, but the rubber matting down for all the playgrounds,
McKenna alone was $120,000 extra.
So instead of doing wood fiber that we have at our playgrounds right now, it was another
$120,000 to put that rubber down and that rubber is, it anticipates the heat during
the summer.
It doesn't absorb like the wood fiber does.
So they do have features that wood fiber is ADA accessible.
It will have ADA ramps into the playground.
It does have platforms for ADA accessibility.
So it does meet those requirements.
If you look at, go back to McKenna, it has one of the ziplines is an ADA seat for the
zipline.
So instead of it just being one zipline there, which McKenna has at the moment, it's two
ziplines.
So a normal zipline that you jump on and sit, kind of like the ziplines that we have at
Eureka 2 right now.
But it also has an ADA seat for the second zipline there at the new McKenna playground.
Just to add to Drew, the engineered wood fibers, it's not just a regular mulch that you can
buy at a landscape.
No, it's not.
It's specifically for so you can get a wheelchair in there.
So that is ADA accessible.
But that playground doesn't mean that every kid that's in a wheelchair can get into the
play structure and reach all of the play features.
There's a certain amount or percentage of features that have to be accessible from the
ground.
There is a transfer station for kids to be able to pull themselves up into the play structure
if they like.
But that's part of the ADA accessibility rules that are out there for playground design.
But we're trying to incorporate as much as we can.
There is a retaining wall and steps in there.
If a child or adult in a wheelchair that wants to get there, they can just go around the
perimeter to get to the other side.
So it is accessible and it will be.
But we do have an inclusive playground in the five-year plan for design for '21-'22.
That is in there with anticipation of building it a few years later.
Thank you.
I appreciate that information.
Any additional questions and concerns?
I was just curious if there are any other things that could be added, say like to Mack
Park, if it's a smaller park, if that style of flooring could be placed there to make
it a more accessible park and utilize some of that accessibility funding that we have
to help so that there's something now to meet the current needs?
We can look at it.
I know Drew had gotten a price for each one of them.
I can't remember what the price was for that additional poured-in-place feature.
I would have to go back, but typically, poured-in-place is anywhere from seven to ten times more than
what 5R is, and 5R is what we normally have or what we have in there.
That doesn't mean that we can't change it.
I have really looked at how much it costs and which poured-in-place they are all created
equal.
I looked at their heat retention, I looked at how hot they're really getting, I looked
at their costs, and I looked at which company is lasting the longest all over North Texas
depending on what city and how much use they're getting.
School districts really go with that poured-in-place.
They have different funding.
Of course, their traffic is all at once and then they're off, and then all at once and
they're off where ours is more sporadic.
I'm going to continue to look at it and continue to hopefully get it in one of our parks.
It just has to do with cost.
For the amount of play features that you really want to get on that playground, you'll have
to sacrifice play features for surfacing.
Sure.
George, did you have a question?
Yes, ma'am.
Thank you.
I guess I just wanted to also uplift and bring to the attention if we do a lot of surveys
and ask a lot of communities and groups for their inputs, if we're specifically asking
citizens with disabilities or citizens with children or family members with disabilities
about features they'd like to see in parks.
I know Valvera at the Disability Inclusion Society would be a good person to reach out
to in the community who does a lot of work.
I know that we had a meeting in the before time about a center, an inclusive center.
I don't remember the names of those folks, and I know you will remember Gary, Laura,
et cetera.
But reaching out and just seeing what else could be put into this five-year plan, because
as Gary said, it is very aggressive, and I think it's great to put the stars, go for
whatever we can.
And I think including this would be at the top of my list to make sure that we're really
hitting those marks and trying to reach those as well.
That's all I wanted to uplift.
Yes.
George, we did have a meeting with accessibility individuals in regards to whether it's physically
impaired, mentally impaired, in regards to what we could do for our park system.
That was pre-COVID.
It seems like it was so long ago.
And we did talk about an inclusive playground.
At one point in time, we were thinking about Southwest Park.
The feedback that we got was it's not on a bus stop, and it is kind of far away.
That doesn't mean we wouldn't put one there.
It wouldn't be our primary one.
So maybe we kind of thought maybe we have a north and a south one as South Denton starts
to grow, those residents could go there.
So we kind of penciled in North Lakes as when we go to replace that play structure up there,
there's a lot of pine trees in that area that that first inclusive structure would go in
that location.
So and that was based off the feedback from that group.
We still have a lot of work to do, and we need to circle around with that group because
we were going to put together a focus group from that larger group that attended that
meeting, and we never got to it and then COVID hit and it just everything got derailed.
So that is something that we want to restart.
And then in this five year plan is an ADA transition plan that based off of some quotes
we got, it's we broke it into three phases at $75,000 a year where they would go in and
evaluate all of our parks, all of our trails, all of our buildings to make sure that they're
ADA accessible and if they're not, what do we need to do to get them into an improvement
plan?
So that is something that is on our horizon as well.
All right.
Thank you so much.
I just want to commend you guys on all the hard work you are putting into the upgrades
of the equipment.
The next item, if there are no additional questions or concerns.
The next item is to receive a report, hold a discussion and give staff direction regarding
the proposed amendments to the naming policy guidelines.
Okay.
Give me one second and let me hold that up.
I know Heather had worked on this a lot.
I think Eddie put this specific amendment together.
I think Eddie was going to present it and then Heather's there for backup and I'll operate
the slides.
My name is Eddie Valdez, management analyst for the Parks and Recreation Department and
good afternoon.
So I will be covering the temporary naming procedures.
And so a quick background and history about the temporary naming is throughout the past
year the park staff has been working on revising the current naming policy, including gathering
feedback from the Parks and Recreation Board and city council.
After many revisions, city council approved the resolution to amend the naming policy
on January 7th of this year.
The new naming policy will define the naming rights, also clarifies naming rights for a
defined period of time and also specifies once a naming right term has ended and facility
may be renamed.
However, the new naming policy does not address when internal staff use temporary names during
the acquisition or development phase to identify building facilities or land.
Can you go to the previous slide, please?
Thank you.
Almost there.
So on February 21 of this year, park board chair Francis Punch requested a discussion
regarding the use of temporary naming for internal use for staff.
Staff brought the discussion of the temporary naming procedures in the March 2nd Parks Recreation
and Beautification Board meeting.
We ended the discussion with staff coming back with a draft template to address temporary
naming and staff has addressed this issue with a temporary naming procedures that will
be incorporated into the naming policy for city buildings, facilities and land.
So if you look at exhibit three, you'll see an attachment and that's the proposed draft
amendments to the naming policy that addresses this issue.
So here's a quick summary of the amendments, the naming policy.
If you look at, I don't know if we can, well, we already have, but if you have it pulled
up, you'll see everything, all the changes in highlighted in yellow.
And what we did is we defined, in section two we defined a definition that defines temporary
naming and then we also included a certain section dedicated for temporary naming procedures
and that's going to be section six.
Now we'll talk about section six real quick.
So the first part to this is staff will use a geographic location such as the street name,
frontage road or major intersection and then staff will use an identifier such as a property
or building after the geographic location.
So for example, you know, if we were to name Main Street, we would say Main Street property
or Main Street building, you know, as a temporary name.
And one last thing to add is that staff is encouraging citizens and the public groups
or organizations to submit nominations for naming so that this temporary naming that will
be seized essentially, you know, so it's not going to just carry on over.
So next steps, if you, you know, Park Board members were to approve the amendments to
the naming policy, we will proceed with our internal process and try to get this to city
council for their approval.
Thank you, Eddie.
Thank you so much for working so hard and the staff are working so hard on this amendment.
Do you, are there any questions, concerns, comments?
A full disclosure, Francis, we were going to be ready to bring this back in April.
So we had a couple extra months to get it done.
So I just wanted to let you know.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
David.
Yeah, this question is actually for you, Francis.
I know that this was a concern that you brought and I just wondered if this kind of filled
your concern and met what you're, you know, met what you were worried about.
Absolutely.
They have been, we've been in discussion and they have listened to my concerns thoroughly
and I think they are being applied appropriately.
Thank you.
If you look at the five year CIP plan, we do have some parcels on there that we're working
with from the development community and we've tried to utilize that.
So you'll see, you know, X property listed on there.
So we're trying to implement that and get that into a habit ahead of time.
Okay.
If there are no concerns or questions, I need a motion to approve the new amendment, the
proposed amendment.
Was that you, George?
Yes, some move.
That was my only request was that you were, that all the things you wanted to get clarified
were clarified and changed.
I'll second.
Okay.
Did you get that, Eddie?
I second.
Eddie, you're on mute.
Can't hear you, Eddie.
You cannot hear me?
Now we can.
All right.
Yep.
I got that.
Okay.
Thank you.
Next item, receive an informal report regarding Denton Parks foundation updates.
You're on, Brooke.
All right.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Nope.
I don't think we actually took...
I'm out of practice, Dave.
I'm out of practice.
Thank you.
Thank you for keeping me honest.
All right.
All in favor?
Raise your hand.
I need a physical hand.
Anyone opposed?
All right.
Wait, Denona Lee, are you voting?
I'm in favor.
Okay.
Thank you so much.
Eddie, did you get all of that?
Okay.
And thank you, David.
All right.
Next item, Brooke, are you ready?
Yes, ma'am.
So, just like the rest of Deepard, we have been on the pivot dance of trying to react
appropriately to our community's needs, originally with COVID, and doing our bunny delivery service
instead of a big party that everybody came to, to civil unrest, and acknowledging our
anti-racist policies and efforts that we're moving forward.
And then trying to maintain fundraising and supporting people when it's a difficult time
to ask for money.
But we're really trying to take this time to take a step back in evaluating our processes
as a nonprofit organization, evaluating them with all of our, instead of just smart goals,
smart e-goals, and making sure we're inclusive and equitable in the decisions that we make
on that includes evaluating our board recruitment efforts, evaluating how we disperse our scholarships
and funding towards the city, and making sure that we're collecting information so we truly
know who we're serving, so we can make sure that we are serving our community as a whole.
Of course, we're still working on the dog park, just added the first shade structure
there, and we're taking efforts, thanks to Drew, of reaching out to Toy Yoda, have been
reaching out to the guy.
I'm this close to just showing up to Toy Yoda, just being like, "Hey, how are you?"
With masks on and everything, see if we can't negotiate something without me leaving with
a car.
And so that's really our main focus is the dog park, and then of course scholarships.
And right now we're really trying to evaluate how do we, I can't fundraise for scholarships
when nobody's getting them, how do we make sure that we have that funding readily available
when the time comes when we really need it, or do we utilize that funding to currently
meet the needs of people who maybe want those camp packs, but they can't afford the cost
of it, and really reaching out to those areas that we know are most in need in providing
those camp packs to them.
Or a possibility of working with some mobile rec centers, so talking with Carolyn and Deena
about that right now, making sure that we're serving that community in a safe way.
And then Denton Women's Interracial Fellowship, we are jumping on with them as their fiscal
partner, financial partner, and helping in fundraising for what could ultimately be a
great art piece to memorialize the effort of these women, and it would be placed in
a park facility or location.
So that's one of the areas that we're also looking to fundraise for moving forward.
And then, of course, just kind of keeping our focus on our advocacy volunteers' investment
and just keeping those in the front and forward, making sure that as we're evaluating our calendar
for 2020, 2021, that we're staying in line with those areas and what's most in need.
I don't suspect, no, I know we're not going to have Splish Splash Doggy Bash.
I suspect we'll have other things that will certainly change in this fall, but our fundraising
efforts will still be there.
So right now, I'm just trying to get creative to see how we can provide that fundraising
for our community moving forward.
And then lastly, there was a lot to talk about why aren't parks offering hand sanitizer in
parks, because it's in need.
I talked with Gary and talked to several people.
Yes, it is in need clearly, and not everybody can afford it.
And it really came down to our board and stakeholders of saying that's what we're not in the business
of doing.
However, we are in the business of doing good, and so we certainly can meet the needs of
people who cannot afford that and may be providing park packs.
So similarly, our family, Redheads, we always take sunscreen with us.
I don't have a sunscreen station at the park, and I never expect them to have it at the
park.
And it's just something I always have to have.
So a thought that we had was developing park packs that we can give out to individuals
who can sign up for it for free.
It's also a great opportunity to get people who maybe want to make a donation for one
or want to buy these park packs for a number of individuals who need it, but essentially
offering them a mask, a water bottle, all the things that we know is going to keep somebody
safe when they go to a playground.
And just providing it for somebody who otherwise wouldn't have it.
And that's honestly where we are right now.
It's a lot of great ideas and just trying to get with the board to make sure that it's
not a one-person show and managing expectations.
Just to add what Brooke had said, and I could have mentioned it in the COVID report, too,
there was a lot of discussion on what we should be doing or what we shouldn't be doing in
regards to providing safety.
It was a balance of budget, but not the primary reason, availability of products, the staff
that would be available to constantly monitor the inventory and replace empty containers
of hand sanitizer.
Actually getting the product was another issue.
Theft of the product, since it was kind of at high demand at that period of time, too,
was all things that we looked at, and we decided that it would be easier based on the staffing
that we have and the budget that we're dealing with.
We were cutting budget, cutting staff, product was hard to find, that we would take the avenue
of take the responsibility, bring your own with you, and take that.
So that way, if it wasn't there or it was stolen, then we wouldn't be in a position
of not providing it when we said we weren't.
So that's been the direction that we've been taking.
It may change down the road, but that's what we've been sticking to, and it seemed to work
out.
Ultimately, and I think Brooke and I talked about it, and suntan lotion, was that a good
example, is when you know you're going to be out for an hour or two, you know you need
to get the sunblock on, and hopefully people start treating hand sanitizer in the same
fashion.
I'd like to just say I think that's a really smart decision you guys made.
Not every need is meant to be filled by the parks board, right?
So not denying that it's a need, but I can tell you even in the gym that I spend a lot
of time in, that's fully staffed, we can't even keep hand sanitizer available there in
such a controlled environment.
I can't even imagine across all of the parks in the city what that would entail, and your
point about it being removed without authority is valid, you know, especially when you don't
have people on site.
Yeah, the same thing was with the playgrounds too, are we going to go around and sanitize
the playgrounds?
You know, it's impossible to keep up with that.
You know, we could, it would take us, I think Drew said, two people, three days, three or
four days to go through the park system, and we have 28 playgrounds.
They could be contaminated, you know, an hour after they were cleaned, so we didn't want
to give anybody a false pretense that everything was safe, that when you go to use your parks,
you have to take that responsibility and understand that there's a risk, you know, we try to minimize
that risk as much as possible, but we can't make it 100% safe at all times.
Well done.
I have a question about sanitizing, doesn't, like the UV from the sun, do you all have
like the data on how that sanitizes the equipment because I imagine it does, at least I tell
myself.
Yeah, so there was a lot of discussion about that before the summer, you know, that UV
and then the heat was going to kill it, but you know, it looks like the south was, is
all spiking, you know, when it's the hottest.
So I guess I'm not sure what the true answer that is.
Obviously, there are some areas on playgrounds that aren't in the sun, you know, whether
it's inside a tube or under a shade structure that may not get that UV too.
So you know, it just, you know, take the precautions with yourself and your family as best you
can.
If it's a concern, maybe it's not the best time to be out there, but ultimately leaving
the decision to the users and trying to communicate our kind of policies and where we're at, at
the time.
I just have one more thing to add, we've been really enjoying all of the painted rocks at
North Lakes Park.
They're really, really great.
They're fun.
We've started making our own now and taking them out to the park.
Yeah.
For any additional information.
No, ma'am.
The only other thing I was going to say an idea that was thrown out was, you know, there's
little mini libraries throughout communities.
The other idea was little mini park spots.
So if you had a house that was by a park and you wanted to provide sunscreen, wipes, you
know, all the different things that people could use at a park, that could be another
grassroots effort of neighbors helping neighbors.
But not really knowing kind of how long this will last.
I think the little park packs are a better option.
That's all I got for you.
Okay.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
The last item at our last meeting, we had three things that we wanted information and
we have received one.
The first one was a temporary naming policy that has been completed.
And then I think it was Atlanta that wanted the aquatic update and I think it was David
that wanted the proposed free park property list.
And I just wanted to remind the staff of those requests and if we can work those into the
upcoming meetings and if there was anything we needed to add to the list.
Yes, David.
Yeah, I actually had emailed Gary about this a couple of months ago and it was just a it's
a probably a touchy and sensitive subject that that talks that that touches other departments
within the city.
But it certainly touches within the parks.
So you know, we went out to use the frisbee golf course at North Lakes and I hadn't walked
that thing in a long time.
And as we got around to the backside of the dam, there's there's a hole that's you know,
the trees are cut back, it's cut back into the trees and the hole actually sits inside
the trees, which is kind of a cool little place.
But when you get back in there, you're right in the middle of somebody's kitchen and living
room.
And I felt like I was walking into somebody's house and almost didn't want to get our frisbee.
And we were with, you know, a couple of girls who didn't feel safe at all in that environment.
And so, you know, I certainly am not trying to demonize anybody who has has had to make
that choice to, you know, to live.
But we need to figure out some kind of a balance that makes our parks safe.
And and, you know, hopefully can work with the city to address that problem at the same
time.
But but it was, it definitely caught me off guard and you know, I'm not too bothered by
too many situations, but I certainly felt uncomfortable and I'm sure I wouldn't be alone
in that.
So something to consider.
Are you wanting an update on that to be added to the list to the did you say the frisbee
park?
Yeah, it's the frisbee golf course and it's on the backside of the dam.
I don't remember the specific hole, but I'm sure that these guys could tell you where
I'm talking about.
And I knew I know Gary was aware of it and you know, and his response at the time was
appropriate that, you know, when when stuff hit things, priorities shifted a little bit
on that.
And so but but I think it's something for us to keep on the radar.
Because I mean, I would never want my my kids being in an environment where I felt like
their safety was in question, you know.
So so David, I can shine a light on that.
So we did have some areas that being one of them that we went through the complete process
of sending the outreach program or outreach individuals out to those areas, giving the
provided necessities and care that needed to be given to those individuals and giving
them the option to be able to, you know, to get to reach those facilities or, you know,
services that they needed.
We went in completely cleared that area up, posted signage to make sure they knew that
there's no camping allowed in the parks.
And due to things that kind of happened during that time, I know that you saw them during,
you know, when COVID first started happening, we brought up that issue with the police and
with our outreach services, they've gone back out, the police are supposed to be removing
them, making sure that they're removed very shortly, we'll go back and clean.
And then they have the authorization to issue citations and or trespassing, you know, trespassing
to them as they continue to camp there.
I would just say if it's not feasible to to keep that as a under under a little bit better
control from a safety standpoint, I would almost recommend just rerouting that course
off of that because it's a it's a it's a weird clash of your I mean, when I say in somebody's
living room, I mean, it was it was very, very well established, they had a netty box in there
and all their all their camp stuff was on shelves. And I mean, it was not just
Oh, no, I understand we, we see it and we were actually work with the disc golf, the
two disc golf groups, and they redesigned the course and that's where they wanted it.
And then, you know, under different circumstances, someone moved into that I think it's hole seven
into that area. So they've they've contacted us and let us let us know about the same time
you did that someone had moved in completely moved in where, you know, typically they were
a little further back in the woods and weren't near one of the holes. So they didn't really
cause any issues for disc golf players. But we are in in process of dealing with it at
the moment.
Okay. And I don't know if it's worth putting on a future agenda. I just wanted to bring
it up to make sure there was awareness for it. And I don't, I certainly don't have a
proposed solution. That's a complex problem. But
Just just to add real quick, we have, I guess, 15 minutes, but so the interactions with with
people experiencing homelessness is growing, we do have more of it in the park system.
And truthfully, our staff are trained to deal with that, you know, we're becoming more and
more social workers as well. So Laura has been working with United Way to create some
training with with in partnership with United Way, so we can train our staff. So they know
what to look for how to handle a situation that they come upon something, and what the
right processes internally on how we're going to handle it. So it's something that we need
to work on as an organization, we realize that it's not something that's that's temporary.
And it's a challenge that we all have to face. So it's something that we're trying to figure
out how to move on.
Gary, oh, sorry, James. Sorry. Yeah, James.
I just real quick to two issues. I had a met with some folks impromptu at at the, the Moor
Park, and Fred, Fred Moor Park. And most of them were asking questions on they turned
out the building was torn down. So asking me what the timeline of replacement building
was, I guess that was their main, their main concern. And I want to share that with you
and see if you have an answer for them. And number two is, I did have requests that there
they had another. And we had another, we call grill, grill is none of grills there. There's
only one grill that usually gets served up pretty quick. So they were asking for another
grill. So just a little input. Using the two years and the one mouth that the good Lord
gave me.
Sorry, ALH is supposed to be completed early 2021, early 2021 that q1 or q2, it's supposed
to be, technically, it's supposed to be like February, but they're, they're a little bit
behind. So February, March ish.
Okay. Thank you. So any feedback on the additional grills?
That's something pretty basic. I don't think we can work through his team and
Yeah, because we have we have several girls there Fred Warren, then we have that really
large smoker. Okay, it's on site also. So we'll look at them. I don't know if any of lately
if any have been carried off. But we'll we'll make sure that the ones that are supposed
to be there, there, or see if we need to add any more city smoker. Is that actually somebody
owns that? No, that this was purchased about four years
ago. Okay, placed there for for public use. Wow. That was a community ask. And so it was
put there about four or five years ago. Thank you, Drew. Yes. Thank you.
Alana, you have a question. I just wanted to say don't worry about the aquatics update
because I think we've been updated. It was sad, but you know, flexible fluid, whatever.
Okay. I had two things that I would like to be brought up in future meetings. Just, I
emailed Gary, and I think Francis about this, but I had an incident where I lost my children
at North Lakes Park for like 20 minutes. And it was so scary because there's so much water
there. And I didn't know what the protocol was. So I was just wondering if we could maybe
it kind of goes with what David's ask is maybe like a safety kind of protocol thing. And
there is the one I don't know if there needs to be like, education at the park somewhere
like a sign like, if you lose your kid, this is what you can do. I don't know. I don't
know the answer. I just something to think about and discuss and something that could
possibly make your parks better and maybe potentially keep a kid from drowning. I don't
know. Like, I don't know if there's cameras. So that's just an idea. And then I was also
I've had a request from sorry. I've had a request from someone in the community for
an update on the IPM. So you want that to be added for? Yeah. Yeah, potentially the
next meeting. Yes. And I have just on that. I've noticed like some of the mowing has like
the grass has been getting longer in some areas. I personally like it. I think it looks
good. Just throw that out there. Okay, any any additional items to be added for future
meetings? Say hi. Brooke, are you waving your hand? Are you waving at the child? The child.
Okay. Okay. Any additional concerns? Comments? All right, I need a motion to adjourn the
meeting. I motion but also I just actually I do have one thing. Sorry. Oh, sorry. Sorry.
Sorry. I just wanted to say thank you. Sorry. I know that I miss all of you guys. I don't
know. I mean, I really do. I miss seeing all your beautiful little faces. And I just wanted
to say thanks. I know this has been really hard. I know cutting budgets is very difficult.
And trying to keep people's jobs is important and hard and difficult and can be incredibly
grueling and emotional. So I just wanted to say thank you guys so much for all your hard
work. I know you guys have been strapped and things have been hard and people have been
so angry. And I think people are forgetting to give grace right now to themselves and
to others in a really difficult time. And we all should just you know, be thankful that
we're alive and that we're healthy. So I just wanted to put that out there on the world
and say thank you. I appreciate your time and your efforts. And I know you're working
your butts off. And with that, I motion to end the meeting. Thank you, Francis.
I need a second. Second. Okay. Eddie, you have that? All right. All in favor? Aye. Anyone
opposed? Thank you, Danona. The ayes have it. Meeting is adjourned. Time is 221. Amen.