- Right. I'd like to call to order the September meeting of the Bloomington Board of Park Commissioners.
- And could we start with the roll call, please, Kim? Kathleen Mills. Here. Israel Herrera. Here.
- Jim Whitlatch. Here. And Ellen Rodkey is absent. OK. Ellen is absent. We do have a quorum this evening.
- And we've moved just a little bit from our usual time to make the meeting work this month.
- So first off as always we have the consent calendar so Some things that we are used to seeing pretty
- much every month and then also some smaller agreements or addendum or update to agreements. So do I
- have a Motion to approve the consent calendar move to approve the consent calendar All right, and Do
- we need a roll call vote? Okay? Oh
- Virtual, okay. All right. So all those in favor of the consent calendar Hi. Aye. All right motion carried
- And then next up in Section B our public hearings and appearances we have quite a few staff intros but
- first a Bravo award that goes to Kate Smith and
- Good evening everyone Emily book community relations coordinator and I would like to recommend Kate
- Smith for the September Bravo award I would like to recognize Kate with this award She began volunteering
- with us in July and has already amassed almost 36 hours of volunteer service She has been involved across
- all facets of our volunteer programs weed wrangles community events bugfest Leonard Springs nature days
- and more myself and all of our program staff appreciate Kate for always arriving on time for her scheduled
- shifts and
- Completing any tasks with a smile and going above and beyond to assist staff and ensuring that
- all participants have the type of great experience our events are known for So thank you Kate for all
- of your hard work Thank you, and I just want to say really quickly I just want to say thank you to Emily
- and everybody at the parks and rec and especially the community of volunteer coordinators um
- It's a lot of really great work. I also want to make it I want to share that like I'm a part of this
- program because of the opportunity that was granted to me by the Monroe County pretrial diversion program,
- so I think the work that they're doing Emily included is Really incredible and gives us an opportunity
- to not just move forward but make progress as well, which I think is really important. So Yeah, thank
- you very much. Yes. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. I
- That your handsome dog up there in the slide cake. Yeah Okay Okay, and then in b2 we have a staff intro
- of Daniel Melwood Hello Daniel Melwood Been working at Cascades for as part-time for four years now
- and just now recently got the full-time labor position and
- About a month ago working here with Brad Scroggins as the superintendent So I'm just really grateful
- to both him and keto and Jason Sims and everyone that cascades everyone here for the opportunity and
- We look forward to making cascades even better than it is Okay. All right. Great. Thank you Okay, and then
- We have next in the staff intros, we have Tristan Berube? Berube? Berube, yes. Berube, okay. So hi,
- my name is Tristan Berube. I'm a first year master's student at the O'Neill School at IU. I'm getting
- my master's in environmental science with a concentration in water resources. I got my undergrad bachelor
- at Purdue University in environmental geoscience with a minor in environmental politics and policy.
- And I'm excited to work on projects with the Parks and Rec Department.
- Okay, welcome Tristan. Thank you All right, and then our next staff introduction is Stefania Should
- I try you you tell me how to say your name. All right, Stephanie Agama. Okay. All right. So My name
- is Stephanie Agama I am a freshman at IU studying finance and international business at the Kelly School
- of Business and I got placed here as a cogs scholar and
- So I'm basically here to help out and just I guess attend events and do whatever I can Okay, great.
- Great. Welcome. Thank you And finally in our staff intros we have Zoe mine urban green space fellow
- Zoe Oh, okay. All right Okay, okay
- Okay, and then we will move into our section C other business Where Sean Marler will tell us about the
- agreement with Marvel lighting for switch our pavilion LED lighting Good evening. I don't think I've
- ever been first before Sean Marler switch our recreation facilities general manager. I'm here to recommend
- for approval contract with Marvel lighting for the
- amount of sixty one thousand two hundred thirty six dollars This money and the contract is
- for the installation of secondary lights and the pavilion at switch yard park. It'll add It was 12 Excuse
- me 24 24 additional fixtures to improve the lighting there since we open switch yard the two complaints
- we were always getting in the pavilion
- Were the sound and the lights so we addressed the sound a couple years ago with the dampening panels
- And now we're going to take a shot at addressing the lighting The complaints were that it just was too
- dark around the in the evening. We often have some events where they need lighting and it is a little
- dark the 12 existing lamps there are very attractive. They're very nice but they're actually meant more
- as accent lights than actual
- Heavy functional lights, so it is a little bit dim for some events. Okay All right Happy to answer any
- questions on All right move to Approve agreement with Marvel lighting for switch yard pavilion LED lighting
- All right, and all those in favor. Hi. All right motion. Carry. Thank you Sean. Thank you. I
- Then next up and see to Frank Southern ice arena rental agreement template Chris Hamrick Except it's
- keto. Yep, this is busy today. So I'm pinching again for Chris. Okay, Satoshi keto sports service division
- director stuff recommends approval of Frank Salson Center facility rental agreement form after analyzing
- and evaluating previous partnership agreement at FSC and
- Staff indicated that there are no partnerships, but rather simple rental agreements. Therefore, the
- arrangement should be terminated and new facility rental agreement form was created. Just to give you
- background, Frank Salson Center will accommodate five to seven rental groups each year. Staff previously
- created partnership agreements for each rental group, but will now use this
- rental template agreement instead Any deviation from the terms laid out in the template agreement would
- require the approval of the board? Happy to answer any questions Okay, that sounds like a good way to
- streamline things What kind of partners are these or what kind of kind who rents this for this under
- this agreement? Braids organization
- Skate a hockey group braids junior senior. Are you hockey club? figure skating what else okay, so So
- somewhere I may have misread it, but it said that was typically six times a year I must have misread
- that as a six groups or because I would think that these all those groups were in it a lot mm-hmm okay,
- then my other my other question is I
- I think it's two hundred ninety five dollars an hour or something like that is what the fee is How did
- we come up with that amount? Have we looked at? Similar I mean, I know it's so expensive to operate
- that facility and I just want to make sure we Thought through how much we're charging for that. Yeah,
- we look at other areas Columbus fishers they have ice arena and that they look at look at a
- Their fees and try to make it competitive All right. Thank you. Thank you Move to approve the Frank
- Southern ice arena rental agreement template Okay, all those in favor aye Motions carried. Thank you
- keto. Thank you. Thank you and then in C3 we have the agreement with adventurous play for Brian Park and
- Ages two to five playgrounds surfacing replacement Amy. Hi, I'm Amy lion back operations coordinator
- and I am here to recommend approval of the contract with adventurous play to remove existing Surfacing
- and replace it at the Brian Park two to five playground The contract is for thirty seven thousand one
- hundred that was well under budget for what we had put aside So that's gonna allow us to do a couple
- of other projects
- And we're got great recommendations for this new company. So we're excited to have another vendor that
- can do surfacing And is the since the one there is 17 years old is the type of surfacing different from
- yeah right now It has rubber tiles right they pull apart and then weeds grow in them and they start
- to really break down So this is going to be a solid rubber surface one Uniform surface they're gonna
- it's called poured in place
- So it will be just solid. Okay. And do you have to shut down the playground for very long? There will
- be a short closure, he said. He estimates about four days, so not too bad. Okay. So this is the first
- year with this company? Yes, this is the first time we're using them. And they can highly recommend
- it? Yes, I actually did ask for recommendations and talked to someone, one of their, who they've worked
- with in Ohio.
- Yeah, they're pulling out the rubber tiles that are there that are really old and they're gonna just
- break that down to the there's concrete underneath we're gonna power wash the concrete get it really
- clean and then they'll pour in the new surface and
- the same same footprint path or footprint That's the existing playground surface right now No, just
- this one project, yeah All right move to approve agreement with adventurous play for Brian Park and
- 2-5 playgrounds surfacing replacement All right, and all those in favor aye All right motion is carried.
- Thank you. Thank you All right, and then we have some more LED lighting in c4 Rebecca Swift will tell
- us about that agreement
- Yes, Rebecca Swift operations development division director. This is the one we just couldn't do in-house
- The ceilings are just too tall at Banneker Community Center Thanks to funding from our economic and
- sustainability development department They are funding this project as well as the LED conversion and
- multiple city-owned properties including the animal shelter sanitation fire station four and five so
- they are funding this project and put together the contract packet but as a park property we wanted
- to make sure we
- Gave it through for your approval Happy answer any questions Move to approve agreement with Cassidy
- electric for LED replacement at Banneker Center All those in favor. Hi. All right motion. Carry.
- Thank you, Rebecca and then Haskell Smith has a couple of items c5 is the agreement with Davey resource
- group for Kirkwood tree planting
- Good evening Haskell Smith City Forester staff recommends the approval of this agreement with Davie
- tree expert company to remove five poor health trees and replant 20 trees around the downtown square
- and along Kirkwood and some of the raised bed planters The mount not to exceed eighty five hundred dollars
- and the funding source is the bicentennial bond There's been Some work to improve some of the downtown
- the Kirkwood corridor and
- One of the suggestions was to plant more trees. So we've worked to increase the number of trees along
- Kirkwood and I thought it'd be a good time to get some of the old ones out that aren't looking very
- healthy and Yeah, happy to answer any questions about that And are these trees the ones that you see
- that have the metal grating around them? Okay, not all of them some I think five of these are the and
- then 15 are in the raised bed
- planters on like corners and they were flowerbeds 13 of them used to be flower beds and landscape beds
- and now we're converting them to tree pits Okay, and I assume trees in that environment don't expect
- to last quite as long as Trees in a more natural environment. Yeah, I mean with any urban tree. Yeah.
- Yeah the lifespan is likely shorter than the natural environment
- World trees in what sense like they're dying they're damaged they've been Brutalized over the years
- of just living in an urban environment Orment or just missing. Yeah To some extent yeah, if somebody
- gets a hold of one too hard potentially And then there will be 20 20 new ones, right?
- The fiber being replaced and then there's 15 additional trees planted that didn't exist before Yeah,
- 20 total so 15 additional trees between the square and Kirkwood corridor East Kirkwood
- Move to approve agreement with Davey resource group for Kirkwood tree planting All those in favor aye
- Motion is carried and then Haskell also has c6. Just the third quarter risk report for urban forestry
- Yeah, so we're
- Chugging along here this year. We had 50 high-risk trees identified by tree keeper earlier this year
- I think we're down to just a handful of those. I've reassessed all of them Some are on a pruning list
- for deadwooding actually scheduled for next week Fewer being removed. I've got some on a plant health
- care program and One's getting a cable in it to alleviate. So here shortly the 50 trees will be not
- The high-risk list anymore outside of that just as a few key points We're up to a little over 1200 trees
- pruned on the year 260 removed a schedule of 730 to be planted and we've Between all that and then our
- inspection and inventory. We've worked on about 5,000 trees this year. Oh And then I have
- Seven new tree grates to go in and the downtown area. We'll get that scheduled just as soon as we can
- Okay, never a downtime No the tree. Okay All right. Any questions about this for Haskell? I noticed
- in the report you had that information or the picture and I've seen them on the as I've been walking
- around the this is not a pedestrian and
- Walkway on the greats if it's I think your report said if it's more than a half an inch off I'm just
- I mean I get why that's there and I'm aware that People trip on that and there have been lawsuits and
- it probably came from risk management or the insurance company or something like that I'm just a little
- curious about the wording a little bit why it doesn't just say caution or something like that. I
- We have since changed stickers. It should say caution if there's one that still says pedestrian walk
- away It was supposed to be removed. It might have just been one that we missed Yeah, there's one actually
- where in the city building over by force. I saw it this morning. So it In the city building over by
- 4th Street Or the my old office on 4th Street that the city now owns where the fire department
- was temporarily So, okay, so did they do say caution now and then I guess is there a plan for
- Repairing those or making sure that we don't and instead of putting a sticker on all of them Can we
- get do how do we and I don't know how easy that is I assume it's a little bit of a hassle that changes
- every time we have some flooding or Who knows what happens if they get out of whack again?
- I'm sure yeah, everyone's a little different. We we do a lot of different things We can expand the tree
- grades to if the roots are pushing them up if it's something where there's just been
- Soil build up we pull them back remove the soil and readjust them Sometimes they just have to be replaced
- or removed We're looking at different things for long term rather than mulch to go in there But yeah,
- everyone's a little different slow and steady the caution is just to kind of Let folks know in the meantime
- until we can get get there to fix them. Yeah. Thanks Appreciate that Move that we
- Approve the quarter three risk report for urban forestry All those in favor, hi All right motion carried.
- Thank you Haskell. Thank you guys and then in c7 Tim Street will tell us about the general budget for
- 2026 Good evening park commissioners Tim Street director of Bloomington Parks and Recreation Kim is
- gonna pull up budget presentation here tonight
- This is basically the same presentation that I gave to City Council a few weeks ago regarding our general
- fund budget I've trimmed out a few things that the board of park commissioners would already know about
- our departments and I don't need to go over with you, but it is still a great overview of Where we are
- at this moment in time and where we are going So just a reminder that for parks the board of
- park commissioners has authority to approve our non-reverting budget of which I will actually be back up to
- Our first version of that for 2026 to you in section D And the park commissioners basically present
- a recommendation to the City Council On whether or not to adopt the general fund budget, but the City
- Council is the fiscal authority for the general fund budget Things working That's all right
- While walk him is pulling that up. I'll just mention In the packet is the full printout of every account
- and there's about 20 something parks general fund accounts. Forgive me. I'm forgetting the exact number
- right now That range from you know sports divisional accounts, you know, there's a general fund account
- for the pools There's a general fund account for community events. There's a general fund account for
- gardens and
- That full breakdown of the budget is in the packet if you'd like to see exactly how things are allocated
- for 2026. But the presentation is meant to give you more of an overview. I always love this slide that
- Julie Raimi puts together for us just as an overview of everything we have to offer and everything we
- represent to the community. We're a big part of keeping our community running and making Bloomington
- a vibrant place to live.
- Some of the numbers that stand out to me on there is the almost 24,000 public trees that we have inventoried.
- As Haskell said, never a dull moment. The 38 miles of trails, the 11 pickleball courts, and we are currently
- at 64 full-time staff. And ultimately, if I had to just parse our mission down into a short statement,
- as I did for the council, I would say we make Bloomington a healthier, greener, and more connected place
- to live and play for everybody.
- And that is more connected both in the physical sense We build trails literally connect people through
- the community and also of course through a programmatic sense And that our parks offer places for people
- to connect with one another and to connect with the environment in a wide variety of ways Just to highlight
- a few 2025 successes we completed a whole slew of park success ability projects with our final ARPA
- dollars and
- One of which will actually be celebrating this Friday four to six, which is the building trades Accessibility
- improvements which are complete and lovely There were other things like the the tactile map here at
- switch our park that we unveiled this summer I want to thank Sean Marler He put a lot of work into the
- research along with the Community Council for accessibility on coming up with this tactile map which
- is just an incredible way for us to represent our inclusive values to everybody and
- We are in the midst of working on our master plan for 2026 to 2030. I'll touch base on that a little
- bit more. We've had great success with some various studies and grants for the Banneker Center, including
- a Ball State Historic Architecture Preservation Study that has given us recommendations on how to take
- care of the building from a grad student in historic architecture there, as well as a DNR grants to
- replace the front steps that the board has approved and will be starting soon.
- We of course Becky Higgins retired and Leslie Brinson has stepped in as our recreation division director
- She's very busy right now while she waits to fill her previous position But she's doing a great job
- excited to have her You've seen even tonight a number of sustainability improvements like the LED going
- in in the various facilities Completed some infrastructure projects. Those are a lot of those are still
- finishing up yet this year paving RCA court basketball court
- crack repair at the pickleball at RCA Miller showers paving repairs and a new cemetery path connecting
- to West Adams and Let's see planters and growth you've seen that be a topic Joanna has has led
- Great revival of the the downtown courthouse square planters It's very tricky to balance being native
- forward and of course pleasing opinions of everybody But I think that has been a big success and I think
- the Kirkwood planter project that you just heard about Replacing trees is exactly the type of project.
- We need to be thinking about it
- brings more trees, the environmental benefits of those, the heat island mitigation benefits of those,
- while also reducing the incredible burden that we discovered we had in taking care of 60-something.
- What was that number? 93 downtown planters. That is a lot of planters to be taken care of. So we're
- trying to really work smart and focus on quality, not quantity, of things.
- And of course, just our community reach through all of our various programs, after-school programs,
- community events, Fourth of July Parade, Stay Cool Bloomington pool days, as mentioned, were a vital
- part of making Bloomington a vibrant place to live. We just received official news after attending the
- National Rec and Park Association Conference last week that we were re-accredited for the next five
- years. We were also a beta standards tester.
- for new standards for national accreditation So big kudos to Leslie Brinson for leading us through those
- new standards. These are our visitors that came to us in June and it's it's a good experience to invite
- people in to basically Poke around at everything you do and find the cracks and and offer us ways to
- to maybe improve just that little bit more
- Of course, we've opened Hopewell Commons continues to be a focus for us to activate And I want to highlight
- the farmers market as a particular success this year I think about a month ago. We passed the total
- attendance that we had for the entire year last year It's a vibrant active space for the community 60
- plus vendors and I think a stat that
- highlights the real effectiveness of our community relations team is that they specifically targeted
- a campaign to Increase reach on social media for the farmers market and thanks to Caleb and Julie and
- that team We saw a four thousand percent increase in Facebook interactions on the community farmers
- market page The average visited visitors it's about
- I think at the time I ran this it was like 5200. It's maybe even inched up a smidge since then but over
- 5,000 weekly visitors to the farmers market 5000 plus Just a reminder I touched on this at the beginning
- Parks is a little bit Partitioned in the way we maintain our city finances from the rest of the city
- and that state codes are
- sets up a separate general fund cash balance for Parks and Rec. We started this year with about a $3.8
- million cash balance. We have a healthy cash balance, which I'm grateful for as we enter some uncertain
- financial times. That is what it is there for, is to help us navigate uncertainty and mitigate whiplash
- decisions and effect on the community offerings.
- We are funded through a combination of property tax and program revenues. Four of the past five years,
- our general fund has finished with a surplus. We do typically start the year with a slight deficit budget
- that allows us freedom to navigate projects and various things that happen throughout the year, understanding
- we can budget for 100% staffing all year as well, but we never actually achieve.
- They move up, they move on, positions are hard to fill for a while, and that always affects things too.
- And the non-reverting account I will talk about separately. This just shows our last five-ish years
- of budget. As you can see through the COVID years, I believe the first year down there is 2020. Looking
- over the captions.
- The last one is six, so five, four, three, two, no, the first year there is 2021. You can see a lot
- of our supplies and services did increase, as well as a steady increase in personnel those years. A
- lot of inflation, a lot of rising costs of things. Since then, we have really stabilized our supply
- and services budget. And the major increase that we're seeing, we actually prepared a budget this year
- where our supply and services and capital
- Totals were actually flat and actually a little bit down from last year But the major increase we're
- seeing year over year is the effect of the city's salary study for civil employees and the anticipated
- effect of a raises for our AFSCME employees This is just what I was talking about our category two three
- and four budgets which is everything that's not personnel and
- Actually reduced from four point five six to four point three eight million Even though that included
- support for Hopewell Commons for the first time Our park security is in ARPA for the final year. It's
- already been obligated in ARPA for 2026 that is obviously a large expense that when ARPA funds go away,
- we will have to
- Really figure out so things are great for 26 with security, but we know we've got that looming Contract
- out there that we need to figure out as we prepare for 2027 Category one increased about a million dollars
- from various salary impacts and we did eliminate one vacant position That was created before my time
- as director and that we essentially found a way to
- manage our processes and everything without this position. It had been held vacant, and we decided now
- was the time to go ahead and eliminate that position. So while we have a healthy cash balance, we have
- a healthy outlook, I have every confidence we're gonna finish this year again with either very close
- to the mark we set or right in the neighborhood in terms of finishing with the surplus. It's clear that
- with Senate Enroll Act 1,
- We're still trying to understand the property tax cap limitations of that that are gonna phase in over
- time. The city as a whole still has a lot of decisions to make about whether or not to enact a local
- income tax. So I feel very comfortable for 2026. We have a budget that will allow us to continue to
- offer all of the things we need to do for our community. But we have to be really smart
- Moving forward we are going to feel these impacts more in the future I know municipally we go through
- these periods of expansion and contraction We are looking at things like when full-time positions open
- up as vacants making sure we evaluate those Is this something that we need? Is this something that we
- have to have we are looking at things like our program offerings like our downtown planners and
- We need a real focus on quality over quantity. We've had an incredible period of growth and new capital
- items and Switchard and Hopewell and Bicentennial projects these last years, and I think as you know,
- our master plan is very much focused, and we were fortunate that we'd already selected this focus before
- we knew anything about Senate Enrollment Act 1 on financial sustainability. Next year's budget, after
- that tangent from me, sorry,
- has about 260,000 in proposed capital needs. Critically, Banneker Center building repairs identified
- from our historic architecture study to really work on solving some water penetration issues with that
- historic building. Various equipment replacement and a replacement maintenance vehicle, all just replacing
- things that we need to replace periodically. I mentioned key challenges, property tax caps, aging facilities.
- We continue to deal with extreme weather and growth
- I'm really glad we didn't have the microburst of 2024 again this year, but we did have a tornado that
- our urban forestry and ops crews had to spend a lot of time dealing with. And of course, vandalism and
- bad behavior continues to be a drag on our resources as well. Just a brief update on master plan, and
- I mentioned this was prepared for the council board. You're more aware of this than they were, so I'm
- not gonna go into this in great detail,
- Spring and summer we went through a lot of our initial input gathering from the public in the fall We've
- been working on these items coming up for October site visit community workshop survey Provider workshop
- and then this winter will be the time where we actually take all of this community input
- it gets turned into our community needs assessment and from that community needs assessment comes our
- actual master plan goals and our decision making with how will we finance, how will we prioritize where
- our limited dollars go. I'll touch on this at the end of the meeting. So that said, that is the end
- of the presentation for the Parks General Fund. And I'm happy to answer any questions about that budget.
- Before you all make a motion Thank you Tim You had just a couple things maybe three or so in the capital
- projects Are there other things that you feel like are urgent? But the just not sure if the money will
- be there or are they're not so urgent. It's okay to wait or I Think we have a lot of other high-priority
- capital facility needs out there and equipment
- as well. I think we've identified the ones that are the most critical that we feel comfortable that
- we can fit in our general fund budget request and pay for with our property tax and general fund revenues
- that come in. There's a couple other things that you'll see in the non-reverting as well that are more
- dealing with enterprise accounts. I think critically, we are looking at the master plan and concluding
- that process before we make
- some other big decisions about investments. We've stood up here with the council and with you and talked
- about our aging facilities, in particular our 1950s and 60s two pools, the ice arena, the Banneker Center
- and the Winslow Sports are all in particular aging facilities that have a lot of needs. We're trying
- to get a better understanding of what bonding will look like,
- now and in the future, understanding when we have some capital bonds from parks that have been issued
- in the past that are going to expire on the property tax register and what opportunity we have to then
- make a smart investment, a targeted investment that considers the community needs assessment and put
- those dollars most critically to where the community has the most needs. All right, and then just another
- quick question. You've got the budget worksheet
- Report that you run down just the pools on the ice arena have lease payments on them I believe in the
- pool line that would be the solar panels that are at the pool And I believe in the ice arena line that
- would be both the lease payment for the Zamboni Okay, that's what I thought did not to purchase the
- Zamboni and lease it instead but also the solar panels that are on Frank Southern Center, so
- The 2017 solar panel deal installed a lot of solar capacity and we're still paying for that debt service
- for a while. Okay All right. Thank you. Any other questions for Tim? No, do we need a motion to I believe
- a motion to recommend approval to council. Okay move to Recognize and approve the 2026 parks and recreation
- general budget I
- All those in favor aye All right, and then we'll move into our section C Report or D. Sorry reports
- to hear about Bee City USA designation with Joanna Here to share the exciting news with you Bloomington
- is officially a bee city we
- Okay, I'll give you a little background I worked with the Environmental Commission to put together the
- the Bee City Resolution and we presented it to Common Council on September 3rd for a review and approval
- and it was approved and we are moving forward with our commitments and
- to Bee City USA and basically Bee City is an initiative from the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation
- Insects and basically we are working together departmentally to create pollinator habitat, but we want
- to connect the dots throughout the community. So the Bee City designation gives us a platform to
- to do that, and we also, you can go to the next one, Kim. We also have, okay, a unique partnership.
- Oh, oh, oh, I have it, pardon me. Okay, how exciting. Okay. Maybe, okay. I think we skipped one. But
- we have a unique opportunity in that IU was just accredited as a Bee City, a Bee Campus this spring,
- so they have,
- Started the process. So we are looking forward to partnering with them to sort of navigate through all
- of our requirements, but we Are also excited just to for the opportunity to work with Indiana University
- This Bloomington was their last campus to be certified They're all their campuses throughout the state
- are officially be campuses as far as I know so we also have
- Nearby city Columbus, which is a bee city. So we are yeah, we have lots of support locally So it just
- it makes sense that we would expand the network So the I'll give you some of the background. Okay, you
- guys are all pretty well aware that pollinators are struggling and Fun fact, Indiana has over 430 native
- species of bees. That's a lot and
- So, and that does not include honey bees, but they're critically important to the ecosystems throughout
- the state and region and world. So, we're excited to connect with community members such as Sycamore
- Land Trust, Indiana University I mentioned, potentially Mother Hubbard's Cupboard,
- Monroe County identify and reduce invasive species and and many others to connect the dots like I said
- to educate the community on the importance of pollinators and why We should preserve habitat useless
- pesticides and Plan be proactive because we know climates are changing habitats are changing and we
- need to adapt so together we can share our knowledge and
- Hopefully build a more pollinator Friendly community and region so Basically, I won't read all this
- but we also Prioritize insects with them through our partnership with project wingspan, which is an
- initiative of the pollinator partnership to do native seed collection events to share throughout the
- region with
- Communities and individuals to create pollinator habitat on their own properties through plants and
- seeds So we're excited to just see I build build on what the good works that we're doing so I Can you
- know me I can just go on and on about this. This is like this is exciting stuff So some of the the dry
- dry information as the the Bee City liaison I'm responsible for
- Guiding the committee and submitting annual reports and just taking care of all of the details, but
- we will encourage the committee to take an active role and
- We'll be excited to see where this partnership goes. So we do Get to us dollar sign. We have another
- sign. We have Bird City tree city Bike our bicycle friendly city. So now we're gonna have a bee city
- and we're yeah We're just looking forward to making Bloomington even better than it is We do have an
- annual fee of $400 which is determined based on our city's population and the Environmental Commission will be
- covering that through their budget, but one of the fun things that I'm looking forward to is access
- to kind of behind-the-scenes information from the Xerces Society about pollinator Initiatives and just
- new news how we can be better at what we're doing. So This is good and that will also save us money
- because we spend money to send staff to trainings and buy materials and whatnot and
- There's that and I will stop and turn it over to you Okay. All right. Thank you. Appreciate it. Yeah
- exciting news. All right. Yes And no any questions any questions for Joanna City city city and when
- we also the bike seat, you know, yes and And tree city for blooming sing. Mm-hmm
- Yeah, we're pretty great, huh? Thanks. All right. Thank you Joanna And then finally in section D Tim
- will return to tell us about the draft of the 2026 parks non-reverting budget And that is right you
- can pick right up where I left off here Okay, would you just advance it one there's only a couple slides here
- Thank you So as mentioned this report tonight is just informational you all do not need to approve the
- non-reverting budget at this time We present it to you. So you have a chance to look at it ask any questions
- And if there is a question or an issue that we want to go through more in depth we can do that and we
- will bring the non-reverting budget back to the board at the start of January to appropriate it officially
- in the new year and
- So the parks non-reverting budget is our enterprise fund that captures revenues from all of the non
- tax and non admission Revenues that we get so there is an ordinance a local municipal ordinance in title
- two that says all of the general admission funds from things like the ice arena the pools the golf course
- go to the general fund and
- but all of the enterprise funds, so things that we do, swim lessons, concessions, selling things, certain
- programs that people pay to register for, all of those things support the non-reverting account.
- This year, the non-reverting account started with a $1.4 million cash balance and is anticipated to
- finish with a surplus. It's performing very well this year.
- Of course at any time I apologize that should say additional appropriations may be approved in the future
- There are from time to time needs that come up that we bring back to the board throughout the year to
- adjust the non-reverting budget But the the bottom line is that we aim to keep that cash balance steady
- the non-reverting budget
- Also pays for the Twin Lakes revenue bond that is included here We have two years left of paying that
- revenue bond, which would be a significant accomplishment when we finish that But as you can see the
- the current year budget 2.08 million with 2.3 million in expenses As mentioned it is a deficit budget
- on paper We will outperform that this year. We will finish
- in the black, I'm thinking by at least 100 grand. Part of that is we don't want to get overzealous with
- revenue estimates. And part of that is we can budget full expenses, but there's always things that don't
- finish. So I am working on this. I want us to get this a little bit more in line in the future, but
- we don't have any budget performance issues. And as you can see, next year's budget, 2.07 versus 2.2
- million is a lot closer in line.
- Part of that was the 2025 budget also included the one-time new turf investment at Twin Lakes rec center
- This year's budget still contains a few things like that a piece of equipment for the golf course that
- they're non reverting funds can support and other one-time expenses so that said
- We could take questions on the non-reverting budget now, or as you study the chart that we gave you,
- we have a lot of time between now and when we officially appropriate it in January to make any revisions
- or comments or answer any questions. Okay, any questions at this point for Tim? I don't have any. No,
- I don't either. Thank you. Yeah, thank you, Tim. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. All right, and then,
- Finally, in our section E, we'll see if we have any public comment here in person or online. If anyone
- online has a comment, please raise your hand icon.
- Okay. All right, and then we will go back to Tim for any final announcements Kim I'm gonna make you
- do work. Well, oh you're ahead of me. Thank you Okay upcoming things master planning site visit October
- 7th to 8th We will be having staff meetings on various topics related to the master plan and then three
- main events so on October 7th from 6 to 7 30 p.m. That's a Tuesday and
- We will have our community workshop at switch yard Park Pavilion. This will be a public meeting workshop
- Not open mic time, but we're gonna have some different stations where people can interact Find out what
- we've discovered so far in our master planning process from the questionnaire that we put out learn
- about the mailed statistically valid survey we're getting ready to do and also provide some other input
- on where parks should go what we should be doing and
- October 8th at the Convention Center. We are hosting a provider network luncheon. This is parks and
- rec staff and We've invited a lot of organizations that provide services that overlap with what parks
- and rec does This is in fact to identify areas in the community and
- between parks and these providers but also amongst themselves. I think we are richer when all of these
- organizations can work together, identify service overlaps or service gaps in areas like fitness and
- outdoor rec, youth programs, youth camps, and a number of other categories, arts, music venues that
- we've identified where parks touches a lot of these areas and it is a chance to bring the community
- together in what is admittedly a very interesting time for funding and
- Maintaining these community program offerings to identify overlaps gaps and opportunities for collaboration
- And then we will have the park board work session that you all have been invited to to get an update
- officially on the master plan with our consultants From 5 to 6 p.m. On October 8th in the Allison conference
- room from here. We'll do the survey and Then we will really get into the meat of developing the plan
- this winter Kim, can you advance one more?
- Since I had the slides up already, and there are so many community events coming up, I thought I would
- just put a list here of probably missing something critical, too, that you all can yell at me later,
- but Trick or Treat Trail, Howl at the Moon, Dealer Departed Cemetery Tours, Skate and Scare. The ice
- arena is actually open now. They've been experimenting with a little bit of an earlier soft open this
- year to see how feasible it is. I appreciate
- their innovation and entrepreneurial spirit. It has been going well, and we've been able to retain some
- groups here in Bloomington that would previously be renting ice time in Columbus. So experimenting there
- to see how do we maximize the facility. Festival of Ghost Stories, Bloomington Pumpkin Launch.
- As I mentioned, I'm not even touching on everything. October is a really busy time for our event staff,
- for the community connection that we provide.
- Apart from the work session our next full Board of Park commissioners meeting will be Tuesday October
- 21st at 4 p.m. Back here. So that is one of our alternate days that we had to schedule this year Okay.
- All right. Great. Lots of things to look forward to in October. All right. Thank you, Tim Thank you.
- And with that I will adjourn the September meeting of the Bloomington Board of Park commissioners