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Home My WebLink About2016 10.05 PRC MinutesCity of Apache Junction Parks and Recreation Commission 300 E. Superstition Blvd. Apache Junction, Az. 85119 A regular meeting of the City of Apache Junction Parks and Recreation Commission was held October 5, 2016 at the Apache Junction City Hall pursuant to notice as prescribed by law. Present Absent Theresa A. Nesser, Chairman Mona Barton (Excused) Wayne Standage Jr., Vice -Chairman Judy Borey Jesse Gage Marit Runyon Frank Schoenbeck Staff Present: Liz Langenbach, Director Kelly Martin, Park Ranger Supervisor Mary D. March, Administrative Assistant CALL TO ORDER: Chairman Nesser called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. and led the Commission in the Pledge of Allegiance. ACCEPTANCE OF AGENDA: Wayne Standage motioned to accept the agenda as presented. Judy Borey seconded the motion, which passed unanimously. ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES: Wayne Standage motioned to accept the minutes of September 7, 2016, regular meeting as presented.Frank Schoenbeck seconded the motion, which passed unanimously. DIRECTOR'S REPORT: Liz Langenbach updated the Commission on department activity as follows: October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month - Kick off will be tomorrow at 6:00 pm in the City Council Chambers. Our Department of Public Safety is hosting the event. The Youth Advisory Council will be participating and have chosen to raise awareness by purchasing purple light bulbs to be displayed as your porch light at night or wherever someone would feel it would be most useful.Each bulb has a name tag of a person or animal that has been the victim of domestic violence. Our Department's very popular Mud Run will take place on October 27th, registration has surpasses previous years already.This event is a great, inexpensive way @ $10.00 per person for families and friends to get out and have a great time together. Our Halloween Carnival has been moved to the City Hall Complex Park and adjacent areas. The date has also been changed to the Saturday prior to Halloween October 29th, for several reasons, vendors have a harder time participating during the week, families can participate at the carnival and in their neighborhoods.We surveyed other cities and most have moved to weekends for the same reasons.JJ Underwood is looking for volunteers for judging if anyone is interested, please give him a call. About five years ago our City requested and ADA audit, largely due to major changes in ADA requirements. The City already had a progressive plan in place prior to the change many of our facilities were also developed prior to the change. The results of the audit were broken down into three basic areas, first were things we could address within our regular annual budget, second were things that would need to be requested during our annual budget process but are still not major items and third improvements to be done during next renovation.We have included these recommendations into our existing plan. To date we have brought all our parking lots into compliance and this year we will be replacing sand in our last two playgrounds, one at Prospector Park Phase III and the City Hall Complex Park playground with ADA compliant manufactured woodchips. Liz Langenbach thanked Judy. Borey and Mona Barton for their years of services on the Parks and Recreation Commission and advised the commission of two new members in the audience tonight that we will introduce at our November regular meeting. OLD BUSINESS: Status of senior services provided at the Multigenerational Center. Liz Langenbach advised the Commission that we have received commitment from PGCSS for meals and transportation for our seniors. The City will be able to make our annual contribution of $28,000.We will be helping with staffing to keep costs down. This will provide us the opportunity to learn operations enabling us to share what we know with the City Council as we learn what is needed. Right now we have a commitment to be able to provide the most critical services. We will be presenting at the City Council's next meeting. Update on Flatiron Community Park Development. Liz Langenbach advised the Commission, we have some great news, the Sewer District reached out to City Management inquiring what it would cost to put the restrooms in at the new park. They were provided the cost that Blount Contracting, Inc. had included in the original bid for the restrooms.The Sewer District said they could come up with half the cost. So, with the savings we will realize because we received a $100,000.00 grant from the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community for the splash pad, which frees up the development fees we were going to expend on the development of the splash pad, plus subsequent development fees we are accruing monthly, we can include the restrooms in this phase of the development. We also need to thank Blount Contracting for going back to contractors for this part of the development and getting everyone back on board. This will push the completion date for Phase I to February 6, 2017, with ribbon cutting the beginning of March. Frank Schoenbeck, asked if the park had perimeter fencing. Liz Langenbach replied no, they will have gates at entry ways, like all our parks. Theresa Nesser mentioned she has heard concerns related to bathing, sleeping etc." in the park and most have mentioned fencing.She is not necessarily in favor of fencing, but inquired about lighting, low level, security lighting. Liz Langenbach relayed that these are concerns we are hearing from the community also.We will be relying heavily on our Park Ranger Program who have processes in place and already handle these types of issues and Department of Public Safety as well. This park is a community park and we will be asking the community to be advocates.We will need to address issues as they arise. Park Rules Discussion Liz Langenbach provided information on park rules and procedures research from 18 different cities, consisting of our City Council identified market cities, cities that are similar in size and nearby in proximity. Research information includes issues we have heard and have been identified by the community and commission. Our goal is to have the rules updated and approved by the time the new park opens. Homeless population is a concern, our current City Ordinance already addressed some or most issues of concern like bathing/cleaning/washing in parks, sleeping in parks, begging/soliciting in parks, these rules already exist. A lot of concerns can be addressed starting with clear concise signage specific to usage of individual parks and tightening up general language. In general parks that have splash pads have individual splash pad rules. Most splash pads have a set of rules that come along with them. We will start with those and check rules that other communities have put into place. One thing to keep in mind is our system is not a recirculating system, so it is not very conservation friendly water goes to the sewer system and gets recirculated at the plant. The positive is we will not have to shut down due to blood borne pathogens etc_ which is a benefit related to health issues and cleanliness. Frank Schoenbeck expressed interest in more information related to guidelines for firearms at the parks and how the Park Rangers feel about firearms in parks. Kelly Martin, Park Ranger Supervisor advised the commission rules related to firearms vary at all of our facilities, we need input from our attorney, etc_ on what we can or cannot allow or prohibit. Smoking and E -cigarettes, currently we view as smoking as do most cities, a couple of City's Maricopa and Goodyear do not allow any smoking at all in parks.Our rules allow smoking in our city parks except on school property. Other cities have smoking restriction like no smoking in proximity to an activity where people might congregate or a designated distance from a structure or ramada. Frank Schoenbeck expressed he would like to see no smoking in our park.He feels we should not have smoking around our children with the splash pad this is going to have a lot of children around and it is our charge to protect our children. Theresa Nesser suggested maybe having designated smoking area. Oro Valley and Queen Creek do not allow alcohol in parks at all. All of the cities except for Florence and Apache Junction allow alcohol only with a permit.We allow alcohol in a park with-lout a permit for up to six individuals, seven and more need to have a permit for malt beverage.Nobody allows hard liquor. Our park rangers would like to see our current rule changed to by permit only. When we bring this back to the next meeting, we will have specific recommendations, based on your input, Park Ranger input, City Attorney input, City Risk Manager input. All the research and input provided will serve as backup to the recommendation. Call to Public: None Request by the Commission for placement of items on future agenda. Flatiron Community Park, Senior Services at the MGC, Park Rules review and update, Status of Dog Park with Pinal County, Holiday Event, Wellness Event Adjournment. There being no further business, Chairman Nesser adjourned the meeting at 7:25 p.m. ViceChairman