West Chicago Park District Regular Meeting of the Board of Park Commissioners Minutes
September 8, 2009 Administration Office 6:30pm
The meeting was called to order at 6:30 p.m. Present were Commissioners Banas, Brauer, Gunderson, Hunter, Jones, and Lenertz, Director Major, Superintendents Felix, Hoffmann and Krause. Commissioner Voelz entered the meeting at 6:40 p.m. President Lenertz resided. Public Participation - None President’s Comments President Lenertz thanked Gary Major for putting together the tour on September 1, 2009 and for his moving forward process at the District. Staff was thanked for their participation in the tour and for all of their hard work all summer long. Consent Agenda Commissioner Jones moved to accept all items under the Consent Agenda. Commissioner Hunter seconded the motion, roll was called, and motion carried 7-0. Commissioner Banas requested that he be provided with a balance sheet reflecting the financial status for each month. Commissioner Banas cannot determine the financial status clearly from the monthly reports he is given. Vote: Banas, Brauer, Gunderson, Hunter, Jones, Lenertz, Voelz – Yes Director’s Report Much of August was dedicated to planning for the upcoming year. As discussed during the Committee presentation, it is felt the District should continue moving forward with special emphasis on Easton and Manville Parks. In so doing, a determination needs to be made relevant to the design and placement of a proposed recreation center at Manville Oaks. Hiring an architect for schematic design purposes needs to be discussed, along with the reality of a potential referendum. In October, the District should be made aware of the status of both the Bike/Trail Grant for Manville, as well as the outcome of the initial OSLAD evaluation for Easton. Over 93 grants have been submitted with a total of $17M to be awarded by the Department of Natural Resources. Results for the pool appear to be quite positive, final numbers will be available in October. Results after July pointed to the pool being about $20,000 ahead of the previous year‘s pace. This summer saw the District‘s venture into theater. Based on the success of this season, it would seem next summer a similar commitment will be made. Athletics has entered into an agreement to host six baseball tournaments next year in conjunction with the same facilitator used this season. The District has interviewed possible candidates for both a grant writing and marketing position. Each is slotted as a part time position for now. A broken gas line at Manville slowed the installation of the water line. Nicor had to repair this line as it fed FermiLab, and extended the water main installation by 2-3 weeks. The Pioneer Splash Pad installation will begin shortly, Forest Trails Park is completed, Park Signs are being completed, and Cornerstone Park has had a new shelter, softball field, volleyball court and trail benches recently installed. The City of West Chicago has waived required letters of credit for Pioneer Park and Manville Park in recent weeks, and has preliminarily agreed to loan the District $400,000 to be used for the OSLAD portion of the Pioneer construction. These monies will be paid back through the OSLAD grant and will require an intergovernmental agreement of sorts. Staff has contributed greatly to an excellent summer, their efforts and abilities of ‗going beyond the call‘ are invaluable. Discussion regarding the October Board meeting needs to take place because of the NRPA convention conflict. Superintendent of Recreation’s Report Safety around Town We had 10 kids for this program. We visited fire, police, pool and train/bus. I had 2 volunteers helping Taylor Medeiros and Emily Majewski. National Night out We started on Friday, July 30th with a flashlight walk and ended with a movie in the park. The movie feature was Sand lot. We had 20 families at the walk and 75 for the movie. Sat, August 1st we had planned Splish Splash Crime Prevention Bash and that was cancelled due to weather being too cold. Sun, August 2nd was the Police (Guns) vs. Fire (Hoses) Softball game held at Reed Keppler. The park district supplied music. Tues, August 4th was the National Night Out itself. Estimated 2500 came out. Seniors July Social Gathering Red, White and Blue We went for a patriot theme. I had various games trivia, word search etc… We supplied Fried Chicken and dessert they supplied sides. Dessert was triple berry pie ala mode with sparkler type candles for a firework theme. We had 19 participants. Bowling had around 18-20 participants each week. Lunch and a Movie- we went to Red Lobster for lunch and then a movie. Had 10 participants for this activity. Bingo had 15 participants. Fitness Station We have 405 current members We are offering a ―Friends and Family Week‖ at the Fitness Station to help promote memberships and fitness classes. During September 812 members can bring a friend or family member with them to work out for free. If they refer a new member during that week they are entered into a drawing to win a free one month membership. We are also offering a free week of fitness classes so anyone can drop in and try them out before they sign up. Turtle Splash We sold 2,730 season passes to Turtle Splash Water Park for the 2009 season
We received a lot of compliments throughout the summer about the renovations that were made at Turtle Splash Water Park. Everyone loved the new slide and the play feature. Railroad Days Beer Tent The Railroad Days Beer Tent made $15,100 this year that was divided among the Park District, the Lions Club, Sister Cities and the Foundation for Fire and Life Safety We had over 20 volunteers go through the BASSETT certification class or take the class on-line to help pour and serve beer this year. All the volunteers were a huge asset to the success of the beer tent selling over 77 kegs of beer and 60 cases of Mike‘s Hard Lemonade! Dance Summer concluded after 11 classes ran from May-August with a total of 71 participants. A parent handbook has been created to help alleviate multiple handouts throughout the sessions. May recital and December performance planning is in full swing. looking into teaching workshops at the local schools as a way to market dance program. Athletics Our first 5K went very well. We had 69 runners/walkers for the Railroad Days event. The Last Blast Baseball Tournament had 60 teams. It was a huge success and really promoted our parks and fields and facilities. The Parks Department did an outstanding job of getting the fields ready for play after the rain on Friday evening. Football has record numbers this year that we could not ever imagine. Over 280 players, 16 teams, 64 coaches; making us the one of the top five largest franchises in the Bill George Youth Football League. Cheerleading is at 58 girls. We have lowered the fee this year to try and get more girls interested. Community Theater Attendance o Thursday Night 179 people o Friday Night 160 people o Saturday afternoon we ended up with about 85 because the fire alarm went off 5 minutes before show time due to a faulty sensor and the show did not start until 2 hours later. Lots of positive feedback and participants and parents want the theater back next year. Beverly Brennan was hired as our part time Marketing Manager. She has a marketing background including being the VP of marketing and advertising for Olson Rug. She started on August 31. Superintendent of Park’s Report This report is a highlight of staff activities from July 15th thru September 3rd, 2009. The activities highlighted are separate from the scheduled maintenance work, mowing/weeding/watering, performed during the week. July 15th thru July 18th. Weather: Rain occurred on the 15th, .30‖. Staff concentrated on recovering Reed-Keppler Park from Rail Road Days. I scheduled seasonal staff to be off on the 16th and full-time staff on the 17th. We all agreed that the extra volunteer help in the Beer Tent helped with keeping the parks staff on rotation and less stressed from the event. July 19th thru July 25th Weather: Light rain on the 21st and 22nd. Rain on the 24th, .30‖. Staff began preparing for the Last Blast Tournament and completed landscape restoration at Pioneer Park. The infield was cut out at Cornerstone Lakes Park. The sand volleyball court was laid out at Cornerstone Lakes Park. July 26th thru August 1st. Weather: Light rain on the 28th and 30th. Staff constructed footing forms for the new signs. Staff began hauling the stone signs from Mundelien to the shop. August 2nd thru August 8th. Weather: Staff began installing the footings for the new signs. Twelve footings were constructed with wire and re-bar. Staff mixed the concrete on site for each footing. A tree was removed that was partially dead by the new sign location at the north drive of Reed-Keppler Park. The Forest Trails Park playground project is underway. August 9th thru August 15th. Stones were set on the footings at various park sites. Schwake was notified to alert the sign installer to go ahead and begin installing this Thursday, the 13th. A 10‖, high pressure gas main ruptured in Kress Creek at Manville Oaks Park on the 9 th. It was estimated that it would take three weeks for the repair because they could not turn off the main. The reason for this is the main feeds Fermi Lab. This delayed the start of the water main project at Manville Oaks Park. Seasonal staff began leaving this week to return to college. August 16th thru 22nd. Forest Trails Park playground project is moving well. The footings for the swing set were drilled in filled with concrete. The engineer, from STS, set the footings at 15‘ down from the surface. The sand volleyball court was beginning to be excavated on the 22nd. August 23rd thru August 29th. As of August 24th, this was the driest August in the last ten years. On the 26th, that came to an end with 1.17‖ of rain, the 27th, .87‖ of rain and the 28th, .24‖ of rain for a grand total of 2.28‖ of rain. Cool temperatures slowed the drying out and brought our projects to a complete halt.
The water main project, at Manville Oaks Park, was finally underway and came to a complete stop when a 6‖ gas main was uncovered. Not knowing if it was abandoned or still in use, the starting point had to be relocated, south, from where it was to begin. The rain and our climber in U.S. Customs brought the Forest Trails playground project to a standstill. The sand volleyball project and backstop project, at Cornerstone Lakes Park came to a delay due to rain. Staff managed to install the posts before the rain on Tuesday. Staff completed putting the remains of the demolished buildings into 30 yard containers at Manville Oaks Park. Staff constructed forms for benches. August 30th thru September 2, 2009 The backstop was completed at Cornerstone Lakes Park on September 2 nd. Drainage was installed for the sand volleyball court and the parking lot at Cornerstone Lakes Park on the 2 nd. Other notes: It was a busy month of August for the police in the parks. Here is the list of reports. August 3rd: Criminal damage to property. Pioneer Park. Fence damaged/port-o-let in pond. August 11th: Criminal damage to property. Reed-Keppler Park. Attempted break in on concession stand by ball fields. Football shed broken into. August 20th: Criminal defacement Graffiti. Reed-Keppler Park. Concessions stand by ball fields. August 20th: Criminal damage to property. Reed-Keppler Park. Football shed was attempted to be broken into. Broken window. August 21st: Theft. Reed-Keppler Park. Football storage container. Shelving, storage totes and footballs. August 25th: Criminal damage to property. Reed-Keppler Park. Split rail fence and potted plants were damaged. August 26th: Theft. Reed-Keppler Park and Cornerstone Lakes Park. Soccer goals were removed from the maintenance shop yard and from the field at Cornerstone Lakes. August 29th: Criminal damage to property. Reed-Keppler Park. Split rail fence and potted plants were damaged. August 31st: Criminal damage to property. Meadow Wood Park. Damage done to safety surface and talking tube on playground. Superintendent of Finance’s Report The Budget and Expenditure Report from the Superintendent of Finance was delivered to the Board as part of the Consent Agenda prior to the meeting. Committee of the Whole – September 1, 2009 5:30pm Dinner 5:55pm Tour commenced Present: Commissioners: Lenertz, Voelz, Brauer, Jones, Gunderson, Hunter Public: Merle Burleigh and Jane Hodgkinson Staff: Major, Felix, Krause, Medeiros The tour started with a brief synopsis of the campus. It will run from the railroad tracks to the Fitness Station. Somewhere in there will be Celebration Park (hopefully). Fitness Station: Opened in January 2009 as a partnership with the City. We received free rent and put about $200,000 into renovations. Currently we have around 400 members. There has been lots of positive feedback from the community and has obviously served a need in the community. Easton: We have submitted an application for an OSLAD Grant. This is a matching grant for $400,000. The goal is to have a playground, gazebo, new parking, recreate trails, to make in an environment where people want to come to use the park. Possibly would be a home for the administrative offices. Easton will be on our radar for the next 2 years to develop and enhance. Forest Trails: Park is not completed yet, waiting for product to clear customs. The playground and swing set have been installed and a new sign is going in. Meadowwood: We received a grant that paid for 50% of the new playground and also added a gazebo. The playground has a rubber surface. We are encouraging residents to self patrol and report inappropriate behavior and actions. Dyer Riverwoods: This land was donated by the Dyers. Through a discovered intergovernmental agreement with the Forest Preserve, the Forest Preserve is putting in a new trail, parking and possibly entrance. New Park: The city has given us the park located on the south side of the police station off Spencer Street. When the time is right we may be getting land on the east side of the tracks by Pioneer Park. Tronox is giving the City land by Pioneer and the City will be giving that land to us. Cornerstone: This park has 33 acres, but is considered a neighborhood park. We have addressed some of the requests of that community and put in a softball/baseball field, new gazebo, new benches along the path and sand volleyball. When the time is right permanent bathrooms and a concession stand will be added. This is the main hub of soccer as well… Reed Keppler: Pavilions are being refurbished, Turtle Splash was remodeled and given a face lift, a new entry was created, a scrolling marquis sign was added along with new signage at the entrances to the park, a new skate park was built and the old one removed. Manville: What we would like to do is build our Recreation Center along the eastern side of the park off of Joliet Street as it is a very visible sight. Along with the recreation center we would like to add an energy plaza with windmills, a football ―stadium,‖ possibly a soccer field, corporate picnic area, change the entrance and add organic farming and green technology center. Another option is a 9 hole par 36 golf course. This would all result from a referendum hopefully in the spring of 2011. Manville Referendum—working towards Spring 2011 See Rendering
**Is the amphitheater idea dead? Commissioner Hunter would like that looked into. **Organic Farm—Will we rent it out and do we need security? What will the Recreation Center have to offer? This is a list of possibilities, not set in stone though. 3 gyms 3-4 multipurpose rooms Indoor soccer Fitness center Some offices No room dedicated to one particular cause Location: Have we ruled out putting the rec center at the campus… They don‘t know when the campus will happen and we can‘t wait. It would also look out of place being so large. Buy new land? Should we purchase new land to put the Rec Center more centrally located? Other parks have been looked at and the Recreation Center would not fit in them. How do we get there? Organic area $2.5 million Golf $2 million Synthetic surface football stadium $2 million Recreation Center $14-15 million Total $21million WE WILL HAVE TO GO TO REFERENDUM AND EVERYONE MUST BE ON BOARD. Support groups will be formed with the community and user groups. Staffing and operation costs would not be included, because they cannot be in the same referendum as the building. For the home that is valued at $350,000 your taxes would increase about $85. Drawings of the Recreation Center will cost about $10,000. The board okayed putting money into this. When the time is right Winning Systems will conduct a survey of the community as a feeler for the referendum. Old Business Commissioner Jones moved to allow staff to move forward in the commitment of the studying, planning and production of renderings for the Manville Oaks Park plan. Commissioner Hunter seconded the motion, roll was called, and motion carried 6-1. Vote: Brauer, Gunderson, Hunter, Jones, Lenertz, Voelz – Yes; Banas – No Commissioner Jones moved to approve an amount not to exceed $45,000.00 for the studying, planning and production of renderings for the Manville Oaks Park plan. Commissioner Gunderson seconded the motion, roll was called, and motion carried 6-1. Vote: Brauer, Gunderson, Hunter, Jones, Lenertz, Voelz – Yes; Banas – No New Business Commissioner Brauer moved to approve the changes to the General Use Ordinance. Commissioner Jones seconded the motion, roll was called, and motion carried 7-0. Vote: Banas, Brauer, Gunderson, Hunter, Jones, Lenertz, Voelz – Yes Commissioner Brauer moved to dismiss the Pioneer Park Splash Pad Bid in the amount of $168,967.00 submitted by Copenhaven Construction, Inc. Commissioner Jones seconded the motion, roll was called, and motion carried 7-0. Vote: Banas, Brauer, Gunderson, Hunter, Jones, Lenertz, Voelz – Yes Commissioner Jones moved to accept the Pioneer Park Splash Pad Bid submitted by George‘s Landscape, Inc. in the amount of $189,942.00. Commissioner Brauer seconded the motion, roll was called, and motion carried 6-1. Vote: Banas, Brauer, Gunderson, Hunter, Jones, Lenertz – Yes; Voelz - No The Board discussed the need to move the October 13th regular Board Meeting to October 6th due to the National Recreation and Parks Association Conference in Utah which will be attended by President Lenertz, Commissioner Jones, Director Major and Superintendents Felix and Krause. The October 13, 2009 regular Board Meeting will take place on October 6, 2009 at 6:30 p.m. in conjunction with the Committee of the Whole meeting. Executive Session - None There being no further business to come before the Board, Commissioner Voelz moved to adjourn the meeting. Commissioner Jones seconded the motion which carried by voice vote. The meeting adjourned at 8:40 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted, Melissa L. Medeiros, Secretary