Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017 06.07 PRC MinutesCity of Apache Junction Parks and Recreation Commission 300 East Superstition Blvd. Apache Junction, Az. 85119 A regular meeting of the City of Apache Junction Parks and Recreation Commission was held June 7, 2017 at the Apache Junction City Hall pursuant to notice as prescribed by law. Present Theresa A. Nesser, Chairman Wayne Standage, Vice -Chairman Nancy Burgess Jesse Gage Heather Moeller Frank Schoenbeck Absent Marit Runyon (Excused) Staff Present: Liz Langenbach, Parks & Recreation Director Mary D. March, Administrative Assistant CALL TO ORDER: Chairman Nesser called the meeting to order at 6:03 p.m. and led the Commission in the Pledge of Allegiance. ACCEPTANCE OF AGENDA: Wayne Standage motioned to accept the agenda a presented. Nancy Burgess seconded the motion, which passed unanimously. ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES: Frank Schoenbeck motioned to accept the minutes of April 5, 2017 meeting as presented.Wayne Standage seconded the motion, which motion passed unanimously. DIRECTOR'S REPORT: Liz Langenbach, updated the Commission on department activity as follows: The summer issue of the "Citizen" brochure is in your packet.Last year we had experimented with expanding as well as scaling back our Learn to Swim program by offering 5 sessions in the evening and 3 daytime sessions that coincided with the Open Gym program schedule.This was received very well and will be offered again this summer.Open gym will startup in another week,with one location at the MGC where we are offering a new program to cover the gaps between when school gets out and begins in the fall and when we are allowed to use the schools for programs. The second open gym site will continue at Cactus Canyon as in the past, and is very popular with parents who have their children in swimming lessons, sports camps and the summer nutrition program. Jesse Gage inquired how or what is used when deciding on what programs/activities to add or remove. Liz Langebach advised, that our registration software program has great statistically reports we use for this purpose. Movies in the Park will be held at Flatiron Community Park this summer, while Concerts in the Park at Veteran's Memorial Park will take a break due to the heat, and attendance declines during the summer months.Ice cream,snow cones and food trucks will be available during the movies. We have purchased keychain poo bag holders to encourage park program participants and users to pick up after their pets and keep our parks, user friendly for all. The Sewer District has provided, and this has been installed at Flatiron Community Park restroom facility,"The Sewer Story" an interactive, educational display on how the sewer process works. It is located on the east wall of the restroom facility and is very well done. Flatiron Community Park contractor, Blount Contracting is in their 90 day maintenance period for the establishment and replacement of plants and other landscape related issues.Our staff has taken on responsibility for everything outside of landscaping.We are still in our one year warranty period. We are waiting on park rules for Flatiron Community Park, especially since we have never had a splash pad before and everything else falls under our existing rules and guidelines.We have been providing a big Ranger presence at the park and have been very surprised on how few issues we've had. The City has been a Silver Sneakers provider since shortly after the MGC was opened.Silver Sneakers is a third party management company that is contracted by fitness centers and insurance companies to pay daily entry fees up to a certain amount for seniors who have this benefit on their insurance.We receive between $4,000 and $6,000 monthly, great revenue source. Another group, Silver & Fit has been trying to negotiate with us for several years but, there has been a no compete clause in place, which the court recently declared unlawful.So we are in negotiates for a contact with Silver & Fit, and we will also be checking out Optimum, a fairly new provider. City Council has tentatively adopted the budget.We received, two positions one fulltime ranger, for general assistance in all areas community wide and one fulltime person in recreation for senior services. Additionally increases related to full year operation costs for new park, small improvements to existing park facilities and playgrounds, upgrades and replacement of outdated playground equipment in all parks and to work on our ADA compliance goal. Additional shade structures for playgrounds was not approved in budget but, by requesting it allows us the opportunity to apply for grants for this purpose.Friends of AJ received a vary generation donation of $32,000.00 from the Apache Greyhound Park Owners Foundation for one playground shade structure at one park, we are very appreciative of their generosity. The initial plan for events at Flatiron Community Park for this coming year will be limited, so we can learn what we need to put in place prior to having an outside group come in and have an event.We currently do not have a fee structure in place for outside agency to come in and use the park.This coming year we will be focusing on moving our existing programs like the Holiday Event and Halloween Carnival to this location. Then talking with city sponsored special event providers like the Chamber of Commerce about relocating Festival of the Superstition's and then city departments like the Police Department and CAAFA's Domestic Violence Awareness kickoff event that is held at City Hall annually,that might realize some benefits by relocating to the park.The Library has program and events etc_ they may want to move to the park.Our Concert in the Parks and Movie in the Parks will be held at this park.Then we will reach out and try out a few pilot events working with partners like SACA if they would have the resources to have an event and we could provide the facility to give us an idea of what we need to address and assess as we develop fees, guidelines and uses at this facility. Chairman Nesser inquired how the parking issue in the downtown area with the business owners was going. Janine Solley and E'lan Vallender met with the land owners and were able to put a lot of their concerns to rest. Best Ace Hardware and the tax accountant have no concerns with their parking lot being use.Jim Downs has concerns with liability issues.We have talked with the School District about using buses to shuttle people from, for example, City Hall to the downtown area for larger events when parking will or may be more of an issue. The purpose of downtown parks is to utilize business parking and walk to parks and utilize downtown services. Chairman Nesser inquired if anything further has transpired in regards to the path between Horizon Health Center and Flatiron Community Park. They are still in talks, lot of concerns_ OLD BUSINESS: Senior Services Update Liz Langenbach updated the Commission on the status of Senior Services as follows: Pinal-Gila Council for Senior Services contract is through June 30th.Staff made presentation to City Council in March based on data that had been collected over a three month period of time. Advising, that we are not capable of providing meals or transportation, we can handle recreation and referrals but meals and transportation are not our area of expertise. We were allowed to bid both out. Food services proposals came back first for food to be prepared on site as well as required staff and drivers for home delivered meals. City Council signed contract at last nights meeting with Compass Group USA Inc., being the successful bidder. We will be using the division name of Bateman's Community Living moving forward. They put together an amazing proposal, are very good to work with, have allowed existing staff to have first right of refusal and stay on, reputation/program is amazing.They will be cooking meals on site Monday - Thursday and will provide home delivered meals once a week, as well as wellness checks. Frank Schoenbeck inquired, if we have information on what services were provided prior, so we know whether we are meeting all needs or need to fill in gaps. Liz Langenbach advised all entities past had to provide annual statements, and agrees in the importance of filling in the gaps. Our immediate need and what we do know that we have to provide is transportation "free of charge" as part of our funding agreement for meals with Final Gila Council for Senior Services because they are designated by the federal government as Triple A Agency. Only donations can be accepted for transportation. So, to get meals we must provide transportation to our facility, making this our current priority and right now it is going to be very tight so, we are applying for grants.We will add services as funding becomes available. The bid for transportation received interest but, no bids were received by the deadline.We have submitted for rebid with a closing date of June 20th and are putting in for lots of transportation grants. New employees and services are to start hopefully July 5th. Vice -Chairman Standage inquired who is handling Senior Services. JJ Underwood, handles all our special interest programs which includes everything except for sports, aquatics and fitness. He already had a Recreation Assistant which was very helpful. With last year's change to the school district's schedule, money was freed up because the school did not have the need for some of the school related programs we were offering. We also had an unfilled position that we filled as a Senior Recreation Leader to help in this area.We will be filling the newly approved Recreation Leader position to assist in this area, as well. Chairman Nesser, inquired about transportation costs and individuals transported. Frank Schoenbeck asked if this is only for 10 - 15 people why couldn't we utilize Uber or Lift -Van. We have a Request for Proposal for Transportation out right now let's see what we receive, we may be getting a proposal from Uber for seniors and will go from there. The School District has expressed interest but, are in transition themselves with a new Superintendent coming on. Liz Langenbach requested no meeting for July 5th due to July 4th Holiday Special Event. Commission agreed, next meeting will be August. Call to Public: None Request by the Commission for placement of items on future agenda. Employee Safety; Pool Season; Senior Services Update; Flatiron Community Park Program update Adjournment: There being no further business Chairman Nesser adjourned the meeting at 7:13 p.m.