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HomeMy WebLinkAboutParks Authority March 24, 2025 PAKKS Parks Authority Board Meeting ��G����1 QN 03.24.2025 JEFFERSONVILLE This meeting took place on Monday, March 24th of 2025 at 5 PM at the Jeffersonville City Hall in the Mayors Conference Room on the 3`d floor. Board Members present were: Larry Jordan, Elizabeth Carter, Gus Luckert, Debbie Pait, Stacie Thompson, Pamela Clark, and Carmen Croudep. Parks Staff Present: Paul Northam, Amber Ridings, Ricky Romans, Amber Powell, Olivia Mann, Sara Nord, and Tara Young via Zoom. Meeting was called to order at 5:00 PM EST. It was noted that Gus Luckert would be leading this meeting as Vice President due to President Carter not feeling well. APPROVAL OF AGENDA- Member Clark made a MOTION to approve the agenda and Member Pait seconded.The motion passed 7-0. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Member Croudep made a MOTION to approve the meeting minutes for February 24th.This was seconded by member Thompson.The motion passed 7-0. OLD BUSINESS: NONE NEW BUSINESS: First up on the docket were several contracts for bands that will be playing in the Thursday night concert series held at The Depot which will be free to attendees. Manager, Amber Powell addressed these and noted that this would be the last round of contracts for this series. Member Luckert commented that he had researched each band and felt that Ms. Powell did an outstanding job and getting some great local talent together. Member Luckert then asked if the board would be receiving a full schedule lineup for all of these bands to know who is playing when on Thursdays. Ms. Powell stated that yes,this schedule is due to come out this coming Wednesday at noon. Member Clark made a MOTION to approve all presented Thursday night concert series contracts for The Depot, and member Croudep seconded. Motion passed 7-0. Next, Assistant Manager Amber Ridings presented to the board the designs created for a new Parks logo. She stated that our current logo isn't as fun and we feel that parks doesn't stand out with the current look. With Parks moving over to a new software, the department felt that now was a great time for a total refresh. She noted that the board had been presented with five new potential designs, as worked up by Hillary Pacheco,the departments Administrative Assistant, for the board to vote on. Each logo came with a different color variation or black and white version to display the variety that could be done and to demonstrate how each would look when printed. Member Thompson asked if this logo would then take the place of what is printed on our Parks shirts. Ms. Ridings answered that yes, this would also go on our website and the new software. Member Luckert asked if we would have to change over the seal printed on the Parks trucks. MS. Ridings stated, no that would not be necessary. Member Jordan stated that he liked option number one presented as he felt it best represented 4 Transcribed by Hillary Pacheco on 03.25.25 4 pPgKC' Parks Authority Board Meeting ��G��A��il QN 03.24.2025 JE1rdRSONVILLE everything the Parks Department does with the of pathways and trees depicted in the design. Member Thompson noted that she also liked option one but wasn't in favor of the shadowing as she felt this would be hard to print. Ms. Ridings noted that the shadowing could be removed if the board agreed on that option. Member Clark noted that she liked option number three that was presented. Member Pait noted that if we could add the date of establishment on the first option she would like that. Member Thompson disagreed stating she wasn't crazy about the date being there and asked why that date was important. Ms. Ridings clarified that the date shown is actually the cities date of establishment. Member Thompson asked if we could remove the shadowing from the trees on option number three presented. Ms. Ridings answered that yes,this shadow could be removed. The board then narrowed it down between two options and renamed them option A and option B for voting purposes. A vote was then taken wherein option B won 5-2. Member Thompson asked if the shadow gradient could be removed from the trees for printing purposes. Ms. Ridings stated that yes, this will be removed. Next on the docket was the 2024 annual report. Administrative Assistant, Hillary Pacheco created a website and had booklets printed through Budget Printing for the board members to each have a copy. Parks Director, Paul Northam asked if this is on the Parks website for people to view,to which Ms. Ridings stated, not at this time but we may eventually add it. Ms. Pacheco then went over the contents of the annual report with the board. Member Jordan noted that the revenue of eighty seven thousand shown for summer camp is amazing. Ms. Ridings stated that the revenue shown was only with us being at capacity for the first couple weeks, and registrations usually pairs down in the following weeks due to vacations that people take and stated that the revenue doesn't reflect what it could be if everyone registered for the entire eight weeks without dropping off. Ms. Pacheco finished going over the report and opened the floor to questions from the board. Member Luckert commended Hillary on putting this together. Afterword, the REC changeover was discussed. Ms. Ridings provided the board with an update of where we are with REC and getting things moved over. She noted we will be going live with the new software on April 15t as a soft launch and invited the board to follow Jeff Parks and Events on social media in order to help us share this launch. The board was given a flyer each to help promote the change throughout their areas of the community. Ms. Ridings noted that liking, commenting, and sharing makes a huge different for all of our events. She also noted that REC has a Fast Track feature wherein users can add programs that aren't open yet to their basket so they can log in and check out day of. Member Jordan asked if users had an account on the old software if they needed to make one on the new. Ms. Ridings stated yes, all users will need to make a new REC account as we can not do this automatically for liability reasons. Member Clark asked if someone would like to come complete a paper form, if those will still be available. Ms. Ridings stated that we do still have to create an account with them, but yes they could come in and we could go through it with them in person, there's just no physical form to fill out as 4 everything is online. Ms. Ridings noted that The Depot at NoCo is a separate social media page and that we do cross promote those events on the Parks page. Member Thompson asked if we were switching to this new software in part because it was more mobile Transcribed by Hillary Pacheco on 03.25.25 PAKKS drParks Authority Board Meeting ��G���� N 03.24.2025 JEFFLIISO w lLLE friendly. Ms. Ridings stated that was correct. Member Thompson stated she had it pulled up on her phone and it seemed really easy to navigate. MANAGER'S REPORT: Board members were given a sheet of updates from each manager throughout the department that tells what programs they are currently putting on, what's coming up, and any details about their venue they would like to update the board on if applicable.The floor was open for questions regarding this run down report. Member Luckert commented that he did not have a question on that but did wish to comment on The Silos park and how quickly it's progressing. Member Clark then noted that she did see the maintenance department and all of the work with do and the Big Four display fountain. She noted she was curious who covers the cost for that fountain. Director Northam answered that the Parks Department does, stating that the park was built with Redevelopment monies but was later handed off to Parks to take care of and that The Silos will be the same way. Mr. Northam continued to note that the fountain down there has caused some headaches over the years with a few issues that come with large price tags to fix but that in another couple of weeks, it should be ready to go for Thunder. Mr. Northam stated that he was considering adding a miniature version of that fountain into the lake at The Silos because there will need to be an aerator out there for fish and you can get an aerator that has a fountain in it as well. In that thinking, he got pricing on both. Member Thompson then asked if The Silos are going to painted cow-print. Mr. Northam responded that the version she's referring to was put out on social media to gather opinions but is not set in stone and that the plan is to ask the neighbors there for their opinions. DIRECTOR'S REPORT: Director Northam started by noting the recent refinishing of the Nachand Fieldhouse flooring. He stated we'd had this completely stripped and resealed since it's been a few years since it's last been done. Northam invited the board to stop by and have a look at their convenience. Mr. Northam then commented on the success of the Sweetheart Dance that was held at the Ken Ellis Senior Center. He stated that his wife and him were in attendance and the different activities that manager Olivia Mann had were enjoyable. Mr. Northam then stated that Parks is looking into a new asset management software that would work to track work orders. He noted his currently working process which is to write things down, call our maintenance or greenspace team, have them work on it, and then check back in a few weeks later.This new software system would streamline the process by allowing him to assign a job, put in all of the information needed, and then allow the appropriate worker to go in and add progress updates so Mr. Northam can then go in and check the status of a project at any time. Member Thompson noted this is the beginning of a succession plan for Mr. Northam and that it will be nice in years to come to have his notes going forward. REPORTS AND COMMENTS Transcribed by Hillary Pacheco on 03.25.25 FAKKS Parks Authority Board Meeting ��GK�P�71 CN 03.24.2025 JEFFERSONVILLL Parks Authority Attorney Report- None Public Comments- Ms. Peggy Morris, a resident near the Lottie Oglesby park was in attendance. She noted that the updates and additions made to the park are great and that everything looks phenomenal but there are still some issues that she would like to bring to our attention. Ms. Morris noted there is currently no lighting available for the basketball courts. She stated that during the winter there were some parents down there at night with their headlights on to allow the children to play basketball. She finds this disheartening since there are lights on the Pickleball courts until ten pm. She then when on to note there is also a drainage problem on the Walpole Avenue side of the park, stating that in recent weeks where it's rained heavy there's been a small lake. She also stated that it would be nice to see some benches and pathway lighting so kids can see where they are going and have somewhere to sit their stuff down. She stated she didn't feel the lack of lighting at the courts was fair since she didn't think there were other courts around for them to play on. Director Northam responded to these issues by stating that we do currently have Park Rules in place that state that all our parks open at dawn and close at dusk, meaning there should not be kids out their when it's dark. However, we have made exceptions at some of our parks and he's not saying we couldn't change that rule for this park. He went on to say if we wanted to change those rules, we could but it would have to go through the Parks Authority Board, City Council, and the Mayors office for us to make those changes. Northam went on to state that he has seen that drainage problem and he's started a discussion with one of our vendors about fixing that and what that looks like. Mr. Northam stated that it was a shame Member Evan Stoner wasn't present at this meeting as he knew Mr. Stoner wanted to discuss the topic more in the April meeting. He went on to say there are no other basketball courts in Jeff that have lights, but that we do have other courts at Richard Vissing, Kyle Vissing, and Veterans Memorial. None of these have lights at this time as we don't encourage people to be at parks after dark. To which Ms. Morris responded that in winter, dark is at five pm and this leaves kids with little to do. Mr. Northam then stated that we could revisit the discussion next time when member Stoner was present and to allow him time to think on this in the meantime. Ms. Morris was fine with this pause. Member Luckert made a MOTION to adjourn at 5:40 PM. 4 https://vimeo.com/user143987586 Transcribed by Hillary Pacheco on 03.25.25 PARKS 4Parks Authority Board Meeting ��G��Pc� N 03.24.2025 JEFFE1ISONVILLE APPROVED: (if e-ca Hillary Pache o Eliza eth Carter- Parks Authority President Transcribed by Hillary Pacheco on 03.25.25