6.5.2024 Park Board

all right we got 5:30 everybody's good yes we all are all right like to call this regular meeting of the Park Board of Commissioners to order today's Wednesday June 5th 2024 uh before we get started pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings

or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or UNP perceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible roll call of Commissioners state your name our VI commissioner Nicholas cilio here Victor farius Amber Burns alen Rigo BJ McDonald sorry skipped myself it's been a long day do you have any citizens input No my only citizens input is Happ birthday to Helen Happy

Birthday everyone see you in 10 years I hope so uh next is an acceptance of the minutes from the May 8th 2024 regular Park board meeting I make a motion to accept the minutes from uh May 28 May 8 May the 8th sorry 2024 motion to approve made by commissioner farious seconded by commissioner rioo all in favor hi new business request uh item a request from the Burns Foundation to change the block

party back to school backpack giveaway event at Kennedy Park is now to be held on August 10th 2024 I abstain from this vote I make a motion to accept that second motion to approve made by commissioner farias seconded by commissioner rioo all in favor I I I motion carries item C Item B request from Michelle Bergos regarding the use of Kennedy Park Broadway for unite the community event

from 10:00 a.m. to 6: p.m. on a date to be determined by the board okay so M Virgo is here if the board has any questions my only question was and I had asked her before because it says overall preparing and serving the food um I did let her know that you cannot prepare food um somewhere else and bring to the park so that was one thing and is this the event that you normally have in

coffee row right but you just want to move it out yes to KY so um I guess they'll be working with Mark Conrad who is pretty familiar with these kind of events so um I don't have any issue the only issue I do have is um because the 4th and the 11th of August we we just know that we have an event on the 10th and then the feast comes in

after that my suggestion would be the July 20th date so that that neighborhood is not influx with events for the entire month of AUST how many people do you usually get at the corki row um I would say like anywhere from I haven't counted but maybe like um under 100 maybe okay oh yeah that's are you expecting more at Kennedy hopefully because people they come but a lot of them couldn't because of the parking okay

Saturday July 20th is Saturday is it yeah yeah I think so yeah Saturday and you're okay with the July 20th day too okay that would just be my suggestion to the board just because there's so much going on in that neighborhood in the month of August and we don't have anything else that day uh not that I know no um I know I know Mark usually like grills and stuff in the park but I think

the big thing is just make sure that you abide by all of those food especially if at Kennedy cuz they they've been sending people out to um inspect all the food now they started that last summer so if you do have stuff that's pre-prepared they may tell you you can't use it oh course yeah know we always um cook everything at the park at the park okay yeah that that works for me so Nancy

you'll get whatever you need from them and yes and I will double check the July 20th date but I'm pretty sure that that that that was available because I Insurance she's going to have to get the insurance have to get the the you know the sign off sheet that she does she's they do that when they have that event in poy gr this is going to be the same thing it's just a change of where the

event is going to take place okay I make a motion to approve second it motion to approve by commissioner Burns seconded by commissioner faras all in favor I I motion carries thank you good luck uh item C is a request from the Portuguese American war vetes to have a ceremony at Kennedy Park on the corner of South Main and Middle Street marking the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion I'm going stain from

that this is for June 6 I'm sorry I didn't put on that uh tomorrow tomorrow right is tomorrow I have been in contact with them um they are aware that it was going before for the board tonight I did not think the board would have an issue it went through all the proper like channels yeah yes and I do have something um Seth aens is filling in for the um vsso and you know we've had that

whole thing where the vso has to approve I do have documentation and an email from U Mr Akin saying are you reacting vso and you approve and he said yes I am and I do so okay the board coming as far as that concerned so um that was the one thing that I did ask for um to make sure everybody was on board can I make a motion to approve second motion to

approve by commissioner Burns second by commissioner rioo uh all in favor I I I motion carries to be noted commissioner fias abstained item d a request from the trustees for the use of Griffin Park Fourth Street for a DCR summer nights event with activities for children uh Nancy I spoke to Nancy about this last week they tried to do it last year there was a lot of rain outs I

don't think they got it really off the ground um and I think the weather was just the biggest deterrent for them yes and this was we had approved this with the previous um person from this organization this was that Megan Dixon and she had that they say it's like a bookmobile that they bring these things around so this is the same thing they did it the year before they had a lot of

issues with the weather Megan Dixon has now left so this is the new person and instead of doing it at different locations it seems that they want to do it on Tuesdays um in I think she wrote Griffin Park yes but I was also going to let her know that the May has the summer in the Park events that jump from place to place on Wednesday night so if that was something

that worked for her because the board had any objection with her moving out of just Griffin now whether her Grant makes her go to one spot I don't know so I I just would the suggestion be to go to whatever Park the mayor's going to on Wednesday on Tuesday so that it's like that is Tuesday you know what she she's going to be Tuesday I think these are you're right the things are Wednesday so let's

let sleeping dogs Li she's so leave her at Griffin on Tuesday we're going to give her exactly what she wanted and we're not going to I just figured there would be more activities I mean I guess I think she's got to do it on Tuesday if she has to do it on Tuesday I think keep it on I don't think she should combine it with the mayor stuff but if she wants

to move it around like he does I don't have an issue with her bouncing around the part different part for her to leave it at one spot so I'll just leave it and if it comes to a point where she's doing it July to August 20th so that's a good six weeks so if she comes to me I can let her know you know if there's an issue and you want to move from Griffin

or you know if you want to see if you want to take it around and get a little bit more exposure we can do that as well because I think what the mayor does is they have all kinds of different act kids activities at these right summer uh nights in the parks on Wednesday so I just f it would be one more activity there that the May would be able to you know

have at part of that event but I'll have a conversation with her as long as the board doesn't have an issue with us tweaking her request to fit both her needs and you know the city's um you know might maybe something with Grace or you know whatever but I think I will have the conversation with her okay board has no issue with it we'll leave it at this so I guess the motion

would be approve it and if there needs to be any type of a change that she can work it out with me and not have to come back to the board in August or July I mean she's got two meetings still while she's doing her she's got a July meeting and an August meeting yeah so motion to motion to approve made by commissioner rioo second seconded by commissioner farious all in favor and so that's contingent on

whatever you know if she wants to tweak where she has it uh she'll work with you to do that um item e The Mill City Hitman are requesting use of Lafayette Park on Eastern a for two dates June 22nd and 29th to host double headers for from 10: a.m to completion um that used to use it for it's an adult league right um no they're like a Twilight League 14 to I think 13 18 like

that but um they did give me their rosters they did give me liability insurance they just need it for these two dates do you have to line the field and stuff for them they do it all that was what they did before they're going to do it again okay I make a motion to approve second motion to approve by commissioner Burns second by commissioner rioo all in favor I I motion

carries item f is there review in award bid for the Father Kelly Park lighting project project um came in under budget I don't know have you talked to Jack since we got this in I have I sent Jack an email I informed him of you know that we would keep him in the roof of what was going on I do know these lights are I did have a conversation with the gentleman who is

the low bidder um and the lights are a good eight weeks still um time so once we approve it take them eight weeks to get the lights in and so he wouldn't be able to start for at least eight weeks won't start till AUST sometime okay it's the same and it is the same contractor that did May same company that did Maplewood um I have no issues with them

they were very good um and then I had said to Jack based on I mean there are some drilling issues because there's some ledge over there so we don't know if that's going to change anything but based on what we have we are within our scope of work and within our price so any of those items that he brought to us before can be brought up after the fact if we have money okay the writing

project is first to be completed and and what are his thoughts have as far as like getting he's going to get his stuff out of there and all of that told him not to worry about it yet yeah but once I hear from the contractor this is what my stop time is I think he said he made arrangements with um Henry's Tire to maybe store some of equipment over there or some of his

stuff over there but he will have to empty out that particular building once they start how long will it take did they give you an estim they did not I have not on once we award the bid we can have a pre bid um a pre construction okay and I'm assuming they can't use the field while they're that's going to be not say that that's what I would talk about the other one was kids that's why

we didn't want them using the field because Maywood was you know 13 to 17 year old kids so not um based on if he's going to be on the field or or you know if he's behind the fence it's not going to matter they might just have to play more day games than night games you know we tweak their schedule a little bit but okay Jack is aware of that I've had the conversations

with him and said the minute I know more I will okay whose call is it if they can play or they can't play is that going to come down to the contractor like if he says I would assume so I would think it would be a well it would be a call based on information provided by the contract yeah because if they mess something up and then it's going to be that yeah

under under M's law so when the bidder uh has that bid and we give them the opportunity to stop work he is responsible for the whole site so in other words he can say I don't want people working in here I playing I because he's liable at point and I would assume if it were me I wouldn't want them there playing right like they close up shop for the day now guys are there

all night like but there are people that cognizant that there is a field right yeah so there are people that would be okay with that and I've had that situation but then I've had those that said just that I don't want any yeah so okay we'll lean on the contractor for that yes Bas be a to say can play whatever I would definitely base it on his information anything else on that we need a motion

that contract uh I make a motion to approve to Island lighting and power second motion to approve by commissioner Burns seconded by commissioner faras all in favor I I so that is in the amount of

$294,900 so you'll contact them and let them know uh item G is a request from Christian mclusky regarding the summer basketball league dates times and locations to be determined um Nancy and I spoke about this last week too this is was The League last year that was uh that Bobby Bailey ran Sports Network yeah so so he in my conversations with Christian he said he was going to speak

with the mayor because he wasn't sure if he was going to do it at Kennedy coock like Bobby did may move it around okay so um based on that information I'm not sure when he's going to stop um if he stops before your next meeting I don't think it will I was just in meeting with him the other day I don't think it will okay so if he said if it stops you know

if if it doesn't stop before your next meeting he can get us those dates and times and places of where he's going to move around to and we can do it that way if it does then I guess we can approve the one or two dates or you guys can give me the permission to approve the one or two dates prior to that and then he can bring the rest of it in yeah yeah

I mean I don't have any issues with as long as he you have what you need from him and he's going to you know he basically has the howto essentially of what to do it's just I think three on three yeah it's it's a lot more work Bobby did a lot and I don't think anyone ever recognized that or realized it so now that Bobby can't do it I think people are scattering and

frantic um so yes I make a motion to approve because I really want this to I don't want to hold it up because this is something that the kids in the city absolutely need um so if comes one or two dates before you I have no problem with you approving but then obviously if we get more information prior to July and it's the middle of July then it can come back welome I'll second

it so the motion to approve by commissioner Burns was that just contingent on uh Christian getting Nancy whatever you know documentation she needs and if he needs to get it up and running before our next meeting as long as nany's good with it we're good with it so that's the motion made by commissioner Burns seconded by commissioner rioo uh all in favor hi hi motion carries um the next one is just a item H

is a notification uh regarding a billboard that's going in the Deval Street area at 101 president a so it looks like it's the bottom of President a and it looks like the city and the park board is just being notified as an abutter of Bicentennial Park being right the abutter of this location that the owners of the property are looking to put up a billboard so I think this was

more of just an FYI for us that it's happening um make a motion to place on file second it motion to place on file made by commissioner Burns second by commissioner farias all in favor hi hi uh the next item item I is a complaint regarding the tennis and pickle ball Courts at Kennedy Park in Bay Street the new courts down there so um I did call this woman um had a conversation with her last week

regarding the situation down there we've you know had uh we've beaten the pickle ball conversation to death on these meetings but basically what happened in this particular situation is kind of what we had outlined to Mr Cross in previously so this woman does at times play with his group and the group of pickle ball people that are down there all the time this particular day she had some friends

they weren't comfortable playing with the more experienced group wanted to play by themselves kind of back and forth whatever long story short then they were going to play tennis there was an issue with who was allowed to use the tennis courts um so I spoke with her she has spoke with Mr crosson things seem to be smoothed over I told her that the board has not giv out any permits for the pickle ball

unofficial League that's down there so it's a public park and they need to be able to police themselves and you know figure it out take turns and play uh um but I did Also let her know that it was the park board's um wishes that if you're there to play tennis the tennis courts take priority so people that go to the park to play tennis if there are people playing pickle ball the people

that are playing pickle ball should get off the tennis court and let the people that are there to play tennis play tennis until they're done because they are they should be primarily used as tennis courts so I explained all this to her she was fine she's you know like I said works and speaks with Mr cson and is a part of his group um but I I just wanted to put it on the agenda so

everyone knows that there is you know probably more to come on what's going on with the pickle ball courts they're in high demand a lot of people want them if you Google it it's not just here I mean it's every municipality in the country that puts in pickle ball courts people are you know fighting over who can play when and how long you can play and whatever so I think it's a good thing

they're getting use she seems to be working it out with Mr cron I don't think there's anything for this board to do other than acknowledge the fact that we receive the complaint guess kind of keep your eyes and ears open if there are other complaints and I think Nancy spoke with Mr Cross and let him know um that you know everybody needs to play nice in the sandbox I have two

questions they used to play at Bristol uh BCC is that not I think they they say they're still playing it okay and then my second question is and he or she had said their league is supposed to start at 5:30 but they'll show up at 5: and take over the courts prior to their league starting I told her there is no such thing as a okay I was going to say

I just wanted to put that out there there is no League there is no are people just using a public park yeah I I explained that to her so the the backstory Nick is they they have um a mechanism of creating times to play like online and that's they have an unofficial League that we've kind of said you need to police on your own right and not give them an exclusive

permit to utilize those brand new pick they realize that if they are given an exclusive permit their their time will be significantly decreased number one but this board also has an issue with how do you stop them from conect with each other on a day that's not their normal day and going down there because they do have this mechanism to to meet I mean yeah we could police in and go

you're the lead you're not supposed to be they could say well it's not a lead night we I just met up with my friends so it's kind of a catch 22 that's why I think we just stay out of it play nice in the sandbox and we're trying to just stay out of it cuz it's going to be very difficult to regulate but there I mean we can yeah but people we don't want to

do I don't think we have the Manpower I'm not going to sit down there if you want to I don't know if Helen you got some spare time but I definitely don't want I ain't got no spare time okay yeah but she was she was she was appreciative that we we called and I spoke with her I think we addressed it to her satisfaction I spoke you know I

sent her an email spoke to her I spoke to the league so hopefully with all of this being put out there and apparently in the League's defense Mr cron said he wasn't there that night and he knows who the individual was within his group that you know had words with her group and he will address it and police it within his pickle ball group I make a request to place on file second n motion to place

on file made by commissioner Burn seconded by commissioner farias all in favor hi hi motion carries uh item J is a request for the farmers market summer permit at Kennedy Park for Saturday July 6th through November 30th 7: a.m. to noon make a motion to approve this is like an annual thing that happened every summer motion to approve by commissioner Burns second by commissioner rioo all in

favor I I motion carries item K is just to discussion of the due dates uh for the fall baseball and fall soccer requests so we had a conversation at the last meeting um about our July meeting date being July 3rd and if we wanted to maybe push it out a week or skip the month of July but Nancy and I also spoke about these requests that are starting to trickle in for September October

November so I know uh Bobby didn't get in here I don't we didn't put any of the ones that have come in on the agenda because we wanted to try to give everyone a fair slate and say you know by this date whatever the date the board decides um we need schedules we need rosters you know and locations so that Nancy can coordinate and figure out because you have uh correct me if I'm

wrong you have Diamond you have Argy you have um BCC that all want to use britland Park so we just need to make sure that we give them enough time to get us the information but also make it fair so that you know it's not first one in gets uh a monopoly maybe if someone has a home game that they can change to in a way game you know if there's two guys on that you

know two leades on that field and there's one League that can change their schedule then okay we'll flip-flop those dates and I'll try to work with them um and see if we can accommodate them the best we can I mean I'm sure we're going to have some that are conflicting um but my thought was that if we ask everybody that needs fall schedules to have them in by July 15th we can address them at

the August board meeting that should give them enough time if their season starts the end of August early September it gives them enough lead time to work with Nancy make sure that there aren't you know we aren't doubling up ads work with whoever they need to work with to flip games and do whatever they need to do to utilize the facility and then we can you know approve it so we don't have

a meeting in August I think as of now let's we'll take an action on this and then we can just have a conversation about that but I don't think anybody wants to meet on July 3rd no need be in a so so what I can do let's finish this motion second and then we can that so what I think the motion should be is that they the leagues get everything to

Nancy by July 15th yep that would be my suggestion um and then we can take action on it in August so I don't think I can make a motion I make a mo motion that we tell all the leagues to get everything in by July 15 and then um we will vote on it in August I second it Mo hey first first one wait till the end so the motion by

commissioner Burns was to have all the leagues submit everything by July 15th um for their fall season seconded by commissioner Cecilio y all in favor I I I motion carries um and then as far as commissioner inquiries I guess the first thing is next month's meeting it's first WN wedes day of July is uh July 3rd so if there is nothing overly pressing I think that comes in um I think maybe

we'll skip the July meeting I think we've given out enough permits and stuff for July and August are we aiming for the 10th of there's something that comes in that we have to do follow Wednesday that would be what I would think is if something comes in if something comes in that we need to address then we'd have to meet on July 10th which would just be the following Wednesday okay um but I

think maybe Nancy and I can make that call yeah if you know as long as there's nothing that M as long as we have three people we can make it work right and I mean we can we can limit that meeting to this is the you know the absolute things that we need to discuss we can push the others down the road if we have to but if it's something that absolutely needs

to be done like say for example I don't know I think this by the time this Columbus Pac thing goes out it's going to be a while anyway m so but if that was something that the board had to award I would definitely want to get it not hold it up okay so that would be the only thing um and then um I already told you guys that the Columbus po bids were being thrown out

so then there's you gave us something too here yeah there's something in package so what's what's the next steps for that well the next step is I guess they tweak um either tweak the bid you know what they're looking for or they can say um they can increase the money yeah but they all exceeded the amounts did they tell you what the amount was that they were looking for well I think

the amount that they were looking at was 150 or 175 so that's a very smaller that's a smaller playground what I would estimate okay um but um um I think what they're looking to do is get it to where that they that price I think some one guy was close and another guy was just outrageous okay so I think they F if they put it out again this other guy might be a little closer

okay um so I just have one thing piggy backing off of that so obviously we are trying to we need to replace the the playground that's there um also we know that Davis and Abbott also do not have playgrounds um bertland does not have a playground we took it out to put the fitness center in but never replaced it with anything for for kids and then I know Nancy you had said there are a few

that could use some TLC TLC but obviously these would take um precedent because they they literally have nothing um so just and then you we also have the the things that lafay at that we need we need updated that you've been asking for for I don't how many years at this point have you been asking for them to like we refer um I know the you said the fence needs to be replaced at Lafayette there

was something else you had told me but I can't remember now definitely sidewalks sidewalks so I just my big thing is I want to put on record um that there are multiple things that need to be fixed within the city so when it comes to getting funding and doing a really big project at One Park you could take that same amount of money and potentially fix all of these right so I just wanted to for

example was the basketball courts I put that out there as a $300,000 project but with each Park broken down 18,000 for this park 12,000 for this park and this is what my battle is going to be upstairs tonight I don't understand why Park projects have to be capital projects or nothing at all you know we should have money for maintenance case in point we have a beautiful pickle ball

caught down there mhm I have no money to buy nets I had no money to you know we resurface any cracks if it happens they're not happening there but they're happening somewhere else the basketball cours right the basketball courts are a prime example and I mean we went to you know we put uh you know we rid the whole Cathy aad pot okay I still have to put wood chips in there these are all newc

you may have taken a dumpy location and brought it back to life but in order for it to still be revived and stay alive we got to put some money into it absolutely because that's what they said oh well down the Kennedy Park that was a dump before and my answer to them was you're right because the administration 20 years before you went down there cut the ribbon like we cut it two years ago and

never looked back and if 18 years you don't look back it's going to be the same dump y so we have to realize that and I equ it to children the baby comes home they go oh the baby's here the baby's here well you know what you got three other kids you're still GNA put food on the table you're still G to give them shoes you can still just because they're here and they're older they

still need things and sometimes I think the mentality with with the poxes it's all or nothing it's not all or nothing just like someone calls a plumber well I'm going to call a guy that fixs cracks in a car you know a guy in a building is going to fix a roof I'm going to call someone who who fixes soccer fields mhm but I don't have to make it a $500,000

project if you put 10,000 in it one year and you know 15,000 in it two years after that you avoid that money dump you know of 500,000 on nothing at all yeah I mean and that's where we're at with these skate parks with the $700,000 skate park or whatever they were talking about which I really didn't know anything about but the $700,000 skate park in Lafia Park wow that amount of money could literally

could well this entire list the other thing that is kind of goes along with all of this is you know when we met with um the city council back in whatever it was February one of the things that came up was a comprehensive study of all the parks and how they all need to kind of work together and you know okay if we're going to put the new skate park at

lafette we do have two other skate parks that are not in very good shape so what is the the plan and what are we going to do to those skate parks so they don't just continue to deteriorate so I think that there is part of the conversation is how does it all work together you know pickle balls in high demand we have the new Courts at Kennedy is there an opportunity is there money to put a

couple more in other places where maybe we already have the footprint and maybe it's just a resurfacing and some Nets and maybe it isn't you know going to break the bank to do not a completely so I think that there's a lot of that and hopefully you know with the budget hearings hopefully they I don't know you know we'll see what happens to be 100% honest with the board they took it all

out and said we're going to see if we can find alternative funding but so when I watched the the city council meeting where the the la fiette was approved I don't remember exactly which ones but multiple asked okay cool we have this great onetime money to do this project what do we do going forward the same thing like what is the main maintenance budget going to look like is what are we supposed to do

for that when we're only using onetime monies for all of these great projects but then we leave the park board to just figure out everything on their own so I feel like I'm I'm hoping that this comes across that this cannot continue or we're going to only be able to use onetime monies and only be able to do certain things and then left rest of them are just left to disrepair I don't

think that see and and the thing that they don't realize is again CPC money normally likes to revitalize the whole thing they don't want to fix cracks they don't want to fix Nets they don't want to do these kind of things they want to take their money and do a project okay and that's the same thing Community Development money cannot be used to repair it needs to be used to renovate

completely renovate so I don't know what the parameters are on Opa money but I do know that with some Opa money I did the splash pad floor because it was a disaster so I did I'm not saying and don't get me wrong this Administration is great with putting the oper money into the Parx they put the the floor they're trying to you know they you know they're doing part of that volleyball

thing with oper money and and this the skate park thing but the problem is once that's gone how do we maintain this and I think to the point of what BJ is saying and and this is what I tried to stress to them when you do one of these comprehensive plans they're like well why can't we do it in house I go because they don't want the perspective of In-House because in-house is always

going to cut corns you can do that with two guys not six guys when you send that out to a private concern that does that for a living and that's what they do analy they take a park they go you have two baseball fields you have a skate park you have 54 acres of land you need this many people this many hours a week this much time and they tell you what

you need and I'm sure it's not going to be 10 guys MH so that's the thing they're like well that's not what they mean but I'm going to go upstairs tonight and go that is what they mean you know and if it cost money to put that out to get what we need then that's what we used to go and say this is this is the road map of how we're going to do

this is the map exactly so hopefully I mean I don't know what I'm going to be up against tonight but I can't imagine it's going to be good hey we be the first time yeah I'm hoping that you know my thing is this when we went there in February they said put it in if you put it in and they take it out we can't advocate for you if you

didn't put it in correct is that they said ABS so we put it all in let's see where it goes okay um yeah with that I yield I just wanted to put that out there for the powers that be do I have a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn to adjourn made by commissioner rioo seconded by commissioner faras all in favor I thank you