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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes_PAREB_04.8.2021Minutes of the Meeting of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board City of Georgetown, Texas April 8, 2021- Virtual Regular Session (This Regular Session may, at any time, be recessed to convene an Executive Session for any purpose authorized by the Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code 551.) A Call to Order - Katherine Kainer, Parks and Recreation Advisory Board Chair The meeting was called to order by Katherine Kainer at 6:01 pm. B Roll Call - Katherine Kainer, Parks and Recreation Advisory Board Chair Staff: Kimberly Garrett, Eric Nuner, Jill Kellum Board: Katherine Kainer, Chad Holz, Jolene Melancon, Jack Flatau, Brazos Fielder, Peter Bahrs, Lindsay Cooper C Update from the Friends of Georgetown Parks and Recreation - Kimberly Garrett, Parks and Recreation Director Kimberly Garrett stated the Friends of Georgetown Parks and Recreation met last Monday. She stated they have not been able to fundraise and they have not had as many expenses due to not helping with swim lessons. She stated they are doing a family masquerade ball Saturday, October 301h. D Project Updates and Staff Report - Eric Nuner, Assistant Director of Parks and Recreation Eric Nuner reviewed the project updates and staff report. For the ADA Trail Reconstruction, staff will take this to City Council on the 271h of this month. The Heritage Gardens project is making progress and demolition will start in April and parks staff will serve as general contractor to extend the budget. Staff has begun the planning process for redevelopment of University Park and a public meeting is being scheduled to discuss amenities with the homeowners. Staff bid 4 ADA projects that will receive updates to provide ADA accessibility and they are for Summercrest, Old Town, Edwards, and the Bark Park. Staff is sending plans through for the Wolf Crossing Trail. That takes about 3 weeks for approval and construction could start in the fall. On the Parks, Recreation and Open Space Master Plan there will be more information coming soon and the project team will meet in late April. Jack Flatau asked about the ADA Trail and the ADA Modification projects and Eric Nuner explained that an inventory was done and prioritized so now staff can start moving from the ADA Trail reconstruction to the Park ADA modification projects. Kimberly Garrett stated in the master plan process, she met with the consultant, GreenPlay, and there will be a meeting in April with the project team. The team consists of staff and Parks and Recreation Advisory board members Katherine Kainer and Chad Holz. Page 10 of 15 E Overview of Parks and Recreation Department - Kimberly Garrett, Parks and Recreation Director Kimberly Garrett stated she wanted to provide an orientation and training with the board members. Normally there is a park tour but due to Covid we have not been able to do it, and a lot of information is given in that tour. She reviewed the following information: Parks and Recreation's Mission — PMP and Metrics, Park Inventory, Trails, Recreation Programming and Facility Rentals, Marketing, Parks CIP. She stated there is a mission statement for each area; one for Parks and one for Recreation and they drive the performance measures. She stated we are refining those and making them public facing. Kimberly Garrett showed data on parkland and explained the different types of parks and trails. She explained land banking and Peter Bahrs asked about the Westside Park. Kimberly Garrett gave a brief overview about Westside Park. Kimberly Garrett stated in the past, trails have been the number 1 requested amenity when we do a master plan or any community engagement. She stated we do not have a big loop trail because the trail system is focused on the rivers. Peter Bahrs asked if there is another group in another part of the city that has a map for bike friendly roads. Kimberly Garrett stated that the transportation department has a bike master plan. She stated they presented it to the parks board in the initial phases and we can have them present it again. It will be important to look at that as we go through the master plan to look at the connections. They tried to take our off- street trails and make connections with the roads. She stated the trail system started in 1996 and there has been over 2 million in funding through TPWD to build the trails. Jolene Melancon asked if we work with Williamson County to connect trails. Kimberly Garrett stated we do, and they are in the process of doing a trails master plan update and staff recently met with Williamson County and have provided them with information on our trails. Kimberly Garrett stated the recreation programming extends outside the recreation center, and the recreation center is a customer service hub. She stated we also have a Tennis Center that offers pickleball and tennis. She stated we have aquatics with the outdoor pools, indoor pool, splashpads, and programming; teach lifeguarding, swim lessons and water aerobics. We have youth and adult athletics and camps. There is also group fitness and personal training available. There is an adventure program and a challenge course. Special events such as the 5K went virtual, and we also offer a variety of special events such as the Halloween festival and movies in the park. We also manage the rentals for the park pavilions, Community Center, Garey House, the pools and certain areas of the recreation center. Our marketing is huge, and we have a wide variety of social media outlets. Our website is the number one way our clients find out about our programs. Live and Play Georgetown is our brochure and is a comprehensive list of all our memberships, programming, and rentals. Kimberly Garrett stated the purpose of the board is to review and recommend acquisition and uses of parkland. She stated if the city were looking at acquiring parkland for a southeast regional park, staff would bring that to the board to look at the location to see if the city should pursue that purchase. Additionally, staff would come to the board with any facility improvements, programs, or activities to meet our current and future needs of the city. That is where it will be important that we get that feedback from the master plan and the community engagement. We will find Page 11 of 15 out what the community wants and allow staff to make changes and evaluate what they are doing to make improvements. Kimberly Garrett stated after the master plan is complete it will give a detailed timeline and list of projects and dollar amounts that the parks board could recommend to city council to ask the citizens to pass a bond for various projects. We also have cemeteries and the columbarium. The board also reviews and recommends purchases over $50,000.00 and then it goes to city council for approval. There is also another board in our department; the Georgetown Youth Advisory Board, that is made up of young people from 81" grade to seniors in high school. The board liaison for that board is Arica Kolb and is the recreation supervisor over programs. She directly works with summer camps and youth programming. We also have parkland dedication and park development and have an updated parkland dedication ordinance that was passed in 2019. If there are any variances to the parkland dedication or park development, staff would bring this to the parks board for approval. The department is looking to become accredited, and this will assist standardizing processes and procedures and help with succession planning. There are approximately 20 agencies in the state that are accredited through the NRPA. It will be very rewarding to know we have this designation, and the city can be proud of it as well. Kimberly Garrett stated the parks tour will happen in the future and the tour is important for the board to understand the magnitude of the parks and open space that the city manages. Kimberly Garrett stated the parks maintenance staff manages all the open space, the parks, restrooms, trash, and about 40% of the parks mowing is contracted. The parks maintenance staff installs playgrounds and perform a lot of the capital maintenance and facility maintenance. Peter Bahrs stated we could add a class on how to make home yards look like the football fields. Kimberly Garrett stated the department has won awards in the past for the ballfields and the maintenance staff takes pride in their work. Peter Bahrs asked if safety is something that we track in the metrics. He is speaking to crime on the trails. Kimberly Garrett stated we do not track that, but the police department could provide the information. Kimberly Garrett asked if there was a problem. Peter Bahrs stated he knows people that go out early in the morning and run on the trail and wondered about safety. Kimberly Garrett stated there was a safety campaign on the trail in the fall and stated staff could reintroduce that. Lindsay Cooper stated she is used to seeing a lot of data from serving on other boards and stated that it brought good conversations among the board. Kimberly Garrett stated the financials are not brought to the board and that in the past some metrics were brought to the board. She stated staff went to new software and are looking at the dashboards to be able to bring more information and staff can work on bringing the information to the board. Lindsay Cooper asked how often the board meets with the Georgetown Youth Advisory Board (GYAB). Kimberly Garrett stated those 2 groups have not been brought together but staff can see if they could meet. Lindsay Cooper asked if the GYAB liaison could meet with the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board. Lindsay Cooper stated she would like to see their voice being heard. Kimberly Garrett stated the GYAB liaison comes to present to the board about once a year. Peter Bahrs asked about the Live and Play brochure and why it is not downloadable and printable. Kimberly Garrett stated she will get with our marketing employee and ask about that. Page 12 of 15 F Presentation and discussion on proposed 5-year Parks Capital Improvement Plan - Kimberly Garrett, Parks and Recreation Director Eric Nuner stated the 5-year plan is brought to the board every year in April. He stated last year with Covid the projects were frozen or postponed. Some of the items that were in FY21 are being proposed in FY22. This will be for the design for San Gabriel Park phase 3 and in FY23 will be the proposed construction. In FY22 there would be regional trail development, and this would be for connections to mostly sidewalks and trails where there are breaks. He stated looking in the out years, you will see Blue Hole Park Improvement which is unfunded. He anticipates with the master plan, it will inform staff what that area will look like and what year to propose it. In FY23 for Regional Trails, this would be for some construction costs, acquisition, and design from FY22. For FY24, this is additional trail work that is unidentified currently. Southeast Community Park is unfunded, but the master plan will inform staff on this. Eric Nuner explained that the projects can be moved and as they come funded, and the out years are staff's best guess. The Westside Park and Recreation Center would be in the out years which is based on growth and demand. Kimberly Garrett stated the capital program gets layered in with the rest of the city's capital projects with the general fund. They look at a bottom line across all departments. They will get a targeted amount of debt they will issue and that will help with the debt issuances. She stated staff is going to the city manager's office tomorrow with this proposal and before it goes to council it will come back to the board to look at with the final. She stated staff is on hold due to the master plan process and the city manager's office and city council is aware of this. She stated for the last few years this is what the CIP has looked like and been bare because most of the projects in the master plan are complete and because of the concern of additional debt. She stated they also pushed back the master plan three years so that puts staff behind getting the community input. Lindsay Cooper asked what the timeline is on a possible bond election. Kimberly Garrett stated we would have preliminary data by the end of this year so potentially it could be next May. We could adopt the master plan in March next year. That is dependent on city council and when they ask for that to be in the May or November election. Peter Bahrs asked about the Westside Park and what gets developed and if it will be in the new master plan. Kimberly Garrett stated after the land purchase in 2013 there was a master plan done for that park. She stated there were several public meetings and city council adopted that plan. There was a combination of open space and trails and sports fields. She said that was done a long time ago and staff would probably reconfirm with the public what is wanted. Kimberly Garrett stated that staff thought the park would be developed by now. Kimberly Garrett stated there is some commitment on what staff is doing on the property. She showed a development, the Highlands of Berry Creek, and they are dedicating 20 acres adjacent to Westside Park, based on the current master plan for that park. She stated they are going to do trails that will connect to the park trails and add some park amenities and that will eventually be part of Westside Park. Kimberly Garrett stated we needed another "San Gabriel Park" on the west side. She stated this would be a smaller park than San Gabriel. She stated there are some cost estimates shown on the CIP that are layered in and that is where some of the dollars come from. Peter Bahrs asked if a recreation center would be built here as well. Kimberly Garrett stated that was identified in the master plan, that there Page 13 of 15 was a need for another recreation center on the west side of Georgetown. She stated with the upcoming master plan, they would get confirmation that is what citizens want. She stated with the upcoming master plan there is a recreation center consultant that will give more information to see what people want in that facility. Chad Holz asked about the design of San Gabriel Park phase 3, and if it wait until the parks master plan is updated or go with the old design. Kimberly Garrett stated the phase 3 design had already started and part of it was from a public information engagement to get specific information for that piece of the park. She stated staff will have some initial citizen input information by summer and she does not see the design being totally different from what was initially planned. There was a master plan for San Gabriel Park done in 2015, which is what phases 1, 2 and 3 were based off. She stated since it has been 6 years staff wants to get confirmation on that. Legislative Regular Agenda G Discussion and possible action to appoint a Parks and Recreation Advisory Board member as a liaison to the Friends of Parks and Recreation - Kimberly Garrett, Park and Recreation Director Kimberly Garrett stated she was looking for someone on the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board to be the liaison for the Friends of Parks and Recreation. Motion made by Lindsay Cooper, second by Chad Holz to nominate Peter Bahrs as the liaison to the Friends of Parks and Recreation. Approved 7-0 H Consideration and possible action to approve minutes from the March 11, 2021 meeting - Jill Kellum, Administrative Supervisor Lindsay Cooper stated the only correction is to her name. It is Lindsay, not Lindsey. Motion made by Jack Flatau, second by Lindsay Cooper to approve minutes from the March 11, 2021 meeting with corrections to Lindsay Cooper's name. Approved 7 — 0 Adjournment Adjourn - Katherine Kainer, Parks and Recreation Advisory Board Chair Motion made by Katherine Kainer, second by Jack Flatau to adjourn the meeting. Approved 7 — 0 Meeting adjourned at 7:28 pm. Page 14 of 15 I� Katherine Kainer, Ward Chair Lindsay Cooper, Skretary t - ]ifIfell{�m, Board Liaison Page 15 of 15