- Okay, it's four oh seven, so I'm gonna call to order the November meeting of the Bloomington Board of
- Park Commissioners. Oh, and here comes Israel, right on time. So, all right, okay, okay. So we'll let
- him get up here before we do the roll call. Hello.
- Okay, Kim, could we do the roll call, please? Here. Here. Jim Whitlatch here. Okay. All right. So we
- do have all four members here tonight and we are going to start with the fairly lengthy consent calendar,
- but we've had a chance to look over all of these agreements and
- contract renewals and surplus and all of that sort of thing. So do we have a motion to approve the consent
- calendar move to approve the consent calendar. Second. All right. And a roll call vote of those in favor.
- Oh we don't. Oh we we don't have to do. Oh that's right. We're all here. Oh OK. All those in favor of
- approving the consent calendar. Aye aye. All right. That motion is carried. And then in section B we have
- Public hearings and appearances Emily book has the Bravo Award All right, good afternoon everyone Emily
- book community relations coordinator and I would like to recommend Eli McCormick for the November Bravo
- Award Eli is a fantastic volunteer with the urban green space team his dedication to his adopt a green
- space role and
- and his former role as a park ambassador at RCA Community Park have provided the opportunity for many
- hours of thoughtful observation, action steps, and help to our park staff and native habitat. Eli has
- targeted Asian bush honeysuckle, garlic mustard, and purple winter creeper for invasive species control
- and has offered mentorship to many volunteers during our group events.
- In addition to caring for RCA community a park Eli attends weed wrangles at lower Cascades Park in the
- Bloomington rail trail frequently as well as tree planting events when he can He brings his positive
- attitude and sense of humor to every event. He attends and is undaunted by the effort we share together
- We are very grateful for volunteers like Eli who encourage others and bring more than they take away
- And he passes on his thanks, but he's a bus driver So he couldn't make it but he says thank you to everyone
- and he appreciates it. Okay. Well, thank you Eli
- And then next up, we have a staff introduction from Aaron Biggs. Good evening, everyone. My name is
- Aaron Biggs. I'm back here at the city of Bloomington Parks and Recreation. I'm the new Recreation Services
- General Manager. I've got a little description about me, so just bear with me. Having grown up in Northwest
- Indiana, I pursued my profession for recreation at IU here in Bloomington, where I earned my Bachelor
- of Science in Recreation and Sport Management.
- See, my journey with this department began as an intern back in 2009, where I had the privilege of helping
- with the reopening of the Twin Lakes Recreation Center. So that was awesome. And I also worked with
- a few people that are here now. My career has since provided me with some diverse experience. I spent
- almost five years at the Indiana State Fairgrounds and Event Center, and then almost three years at
- Indiana University Auditorium as the guest services manager. And most recently, almost five years with
- money may know it as the chocolate moose company. So it was great there. I am excited to be back here
- with Bloomington Parks and Recreation and I've been here a week now learned a lot read a lot and I'm
- excited to meet you all and get to know you all better. Thank you. All right. Welcome Aaron. Yeah it
- sounds like you have a really good range of experience. Thank you. Yeah. Happy to be here. All right. Okay.
- On to our section see other business first Amy Lane Beck has the contract with B&L sheet metal for industrial
- fan installation Operations coordinator I'm here to recommend that we approve the contract with B&L
- sheet metal to install the high-volume Low-speed fans. They are a product known as big-ass fans. That
- is the product name and
- The Donovan energy report came back with a recommendation that we put these in at the switch yard maintenance
- building It's a really big like warehouse style building and the heat just gets trapped at the top in
- the Winter and in the summer. There's not a good airflow. So these fans will do a good job of circulating
- air better and controlling the temperature in there so
- We be an L sheet that'll did a really good job putting together a very professional proposal Took extra
- steps to make sure they got all the pieces together and I think they're gonna do a really good job Okay.
- All right. Any questions for Amy about this? Okay Move to approve the contract with B&L sheet metal Second
- All those in favor. Hi. All right. Motions carried. And then Amy has a couple of other items tonight.
- C2 is the service agreement with HFI for 2026 services.
- So this is just our regular service agreement to pre approve us working with HFI throughout the year
- on various projects. We will have each of those projects separately quoted so that we know what the
- price is before but it just kind of gives us the approval to go ahead and work with them so that we
- can get things taken care of quickly when it comes to HVAC things that's usually pretty urgent to get things
- online so We haven't actually had to use them this year very much thankfully But we we know that they're
- a great vendor and we've had a good working relationship within the past So we look forward to working
- with them if we have to hopefully we won't Okay, all right any questions about this service agreement
- Move to approve the 2026 service agreement with Harold fish second All those in favor
- Finally Amy has the service agreement with Houston electric for 2026 services Same as HFI. We just like
- to have a service agreement ahead of time with Cassidy It's Houston is known as they're doing business
- as Cassidy They do great work with us. We have a lot of various
- Projects like putting lighting in at the new shelter building that we just built at building trades
- park Those kind of little things here and there We've worked with them on and off for years. So and
- we do have several vendors So we do try to continue bidding things to keep things competitively priced
- But we know that we will likely need them at some point
- I make a motion to approve twenty twenty six service agreement with Houston electric holding court.
- Second. All those in favor. Aye. Aye. All right. Motion carried. Thank you very much. And then in C4
- we have Sarah Mullen with the community gardens template agreement for twenty twenty six.
- I'm here to recommend the approval of the 2026 community gardening agreement. And just for some background,
- the purpose of the agreement is just to outline the responsibilities of anyone who rents a plot at the
- community gardens. We have 281 plots that we rented this year. It fluctuates just a tiny bit every year
- depending on the plots that we need to close or open. So,
- I'm estimating around the same amount for next year. So we rent those plots out there generally all
- filled and then we also offer some educational classes and events. So this year we did about 19 and
- we hope to do about the same amount next year. Happy to answer any questions.
- All right. I'll make a motion to approve the community gardens template agreement for twenty twenty
- six. Second. All those in favor. All right. Thank you. Thanks Sarah. And then C5 Rebecca Swift has the
- contract addendum with milestone for Rail Trail Rogers Street crossing project.
- That's right. Rebecca Swift operations development division director and I'm here to recommend a contract
- addendum with milestone contractors for additional scope of work for the rail trail Roger Street crossing project.
- These additional scope conditions are just once we start digging, you never know what kind
- of soil conditions. So we had to dig a little bit deeper to make sure that the substrate was going to
- withstand the rail trail corridor. And we also identify that the county was interested in improving
- their stormwater infrastructure. So we added that onto our scope with the county will be paying for
- that additional work and just a little bit of extra removal of some damaged
- Asphalt and concrete so some things you don't know ahead of time until you the concrete or the construction
- starts So this is just to extend an additional scope of work as well as add another thirty three thousand
- six hundred and ten dollars to the contract Happy to answer any questions Yeah, I mean it just our total
- spend is only the 17 nine correct Okay
- Yeah I will make a motion to approve the contract addendum with milestone for the rail trail Roger Street
- crossing. Second. All right. All those in favor. Aye. Motion is carried. And then Rebecca also has C6
- which is the contract with land works for stormwater detention design detention for retention detention
- detention. Okay. So depending we're going to retain it. Yes but we're hoping to keep it on site and let it
- settle as much as possible. So I'm here to recommend a contract with Land Works Engineering, and this
- is for design and consulting work on a future detention project at RCA Community Park. Hopefully you
- all are aware, I'm pursuing constructing the power line trail, hoping to put that out to bid here in
- January. And through that review process, our utilities department said, we're gonna need, we're gonna
- have an extra runoff, so we need to do some more stormwater management. I cannot put detention within
- the power line utility
- Fortunately for us our CA community park is located just south of that construction site and we have
- a lot of opportunity there to actually put in some detention features and Again, keep the stormwater
- on site before it goes even further south into the neighborhood. So Land works is is very familiar with
- the site and is already coordinating between us and our utilities department So looking forward to working
- with them on this Okay All right. Any questions about this one?
- Okay. Make a motion to approve the service agreement with land works engineering for RCA Park detention
- design services. Second. All right. And all those in favor. Aye aye aye. Motion carried. Thank you Rebecca.
- I'm going to stay here and represent Haskell. Okay. See seven then is the addendum to the partnership
- agreement with canopy Bloomington.
- Yeah, so I'm here representing Haskell Smith, our urban forester, and we're just recommending an addendum
- of the existing contract, the partnership agreement with Canopy Bloomington from 2024. Really just because
- of some delayed invoicing, we're hoping to use the funds earmarked for 2024 to pay for the work. And
- ultimately this funding actually comes through ESD. So ESD is funding and paying for these invoices.
- We just need to extend the contract addendum to
- allow for a little bit more flexibility. We already have an existing twenty twenty five partnership
- and we absolutely plan to continue this partnership in a twenty twenty six. Okay. All right. Yeah it's
- been a good arrangement with Canopy. So I don't think so. All right. I'll make a motion to approve the
- contract addendum with Canopy Bloomington. Second. All those in favor. I motion carried. Thank you Rebecca.
- C8 is the elimination of 12 redundant parks and rec policies from Leslie Brinson Who's the queen of
- policy, you know gotta be a queen of something I suppose Leslie Brinson recreation division director
- here to recommend again the elimination of 12 policies from our parks and recreation policy manual the
- policies being eliminated are listed there most of them are Staff oriented that are now located within
- the city of Bloomington's human resources policy manual
- which was just recently updated in March. So we didn't feel the need to just repeat the exact same policy
- in our policy manual as is in the HR policy. So we've decided to go ahead and just eliminate these out
- of our policy manual just to clean it up a little bit so that the parks policy manual are things very
- specific to the parks department and things that may differ than what our city of Bloomington human
- resources policy might be. I'm happy to answer any questions about any particular policy that you might have.
- As you know, we review the policy manual quite frequently and we have some additional ones that we will
- be having updated in the next month or two. But for now, we're just want to eliminate these. Okay. So
- these are all just overlap with the city's correct. There is no difference between what our policy said
- and what the HR policy said. Everybody has access to the HR policy manual through our knowledge base
- or a printed document if you choose. So it just really didn't seem necessary to iterate them in ours.
- Okay. I've just got a couple of questions or comments. So I don't have any problem with this elimination
- based upon the fact that they're covered by the city policy. What I keep getting confused upon is what
- policies we have and I go if I go to the parks website I find the one that is entitled general policies
- and that's
- 49 pages long which I know doesn't deal with any of this stuff. Right. So we have that one and then
- there's a cover page on that that basically says we have other policies but that the general public
- needs to do or public records requests to get a copy of those. What I guess I'd like. What other policies
- do we just as a parks department have. So what you'll find on the Web site are what we call external
- facing policies. And so
- Those are ones that are important to the public to know about your behavior in parks how you rent parks
- things that the public would need to know the ones that are the other ones included in our policy manual
- are specific to staff responsibilities dress code how we handle the purchasing of land and what we do
- with land how we handle emergencies our own action plans if you will are in our regular policy manual
- and then the
- And they include those that are also in the external but we just give the city or the public view of
- those that involve what their behavior and what their responsibilities might be. They don't need to
- know that you can't smoke on parks that staff aren't allowed to smoke in their vehicle or things of
- those sorts. So and I and those policies do we do we as the
- Park commissioners approve those review and approve those you do I've brought several of them to you
- in the past any policy I bring to you is in our parks policy manual It just isn't online for the public
- to see per se. I'm happy to give you access to yeah It seems to me we as the commissioners or at least
- I would like to have
- either a copy of them or have access to those policies so that we can look at this. It's kind of hard
- in a vacuum. So we're eliminating these. Well what do we have left. And you have a lot. Yeah I know
- the fact that it's part of the HR the city makes sense to me and I don't have any problem with eliminating these.
- But I do I would like to have access as the park commission as a park commissioner and maybe all four
- of us would at least have access to those other policies so we could refer to them. Absolutely. We keep
- them in a Google Drive and so they are working documents internally. So I'm happy to share those with
- you so that you would have access not only to that parks policy but we have other plans emergency action
- plans that are in that same folder that you could have access to as well. I think that would be helpful.
- Of course but otherwise I have no problem with eliminating these policies. OK. Sounds good. OK.
- All right. I'll make a motion to approve the elimination of 12 redundant parks and recreation policies.
- Second. OK. All those in favor. I. Motion is carried. Thanks Leslie. And then C9 we have feed changes
- for next year which Tim will tell us about.
- Good afternoon park commissioners Tim Street director of parks and recreation for the city of Bloomington
- This evening we have before you several fee changes for 2026 We have just laid out the changes that
- we would like to make for 2026 and I'd like to give you a little bit of background on our Process on
- this with the master plan just so you can kind of understand how we came to this point so you may recall
- from some of our work sessions with 110% our master plan is ongoing and
- And we are in the process of revising exactly how we look at and set up our cost recovery. So previously
- we had cost recovery goals per area that quite honestly had not been really reexamined in some time.
- And we are moving instead to cost recovery categories where like purpose activities are grouped together
- with various cost recovery goals for that type of activity. So for example,
- the more an activity serves the broader public a parade a community events a Concert that's free and
- open to everyone the less cost recovery there is and then the same applies At maybe some of our traditionally
- higher cost recovery areas So just because something is taking place at the TLRC Doesn't mean necessarily
- that it's going to have a high cost recovery. Maybe it is a community event and
- being held at the TLRC. Maybe the cost recovery we have for swim lessons at our aquatics facilities
- is less than general admission, right, because there's community benefit in teaching kids how to swim.
- So that's the philosophy we are working towards. We have developed our service categories, we've developed
- our initial goals, and we've even started to develop our specialized business service categories, which
- will include the Twin Lakes Rec Center,
- the golf course and burial services. Actually, we've identified as specialized business services. And
- so we aren't quite done with that. And our master plan process is continuing into the new year. I'm
- hoping that we are standing before you here in either February or March at the latest with our new master
- plan, with all of this in it, with our cost recovery policy strategy updated, with all of that
- Strategic goals that we're meeting in January to develop as well In the meantime as we turn the calendar
- to a new year We knew it was critical to look at some pricing for next year with an eye towards where
- we're heading with this And so we put out to staff. Hey is there if there's any? Critical updates you
- need to make to your pricing now for next year This is a chance to bring them before the board so we
- can have these price changes lined up with the turn of the year
- So that is what these changes are Staff identified these as sort of critical needs for price updates
- I'm not the best person to speak to the specific updates necessarily, but we have various staff here
- this evening That can speak to any questions you might have about some of those price updates before
- we hopefully motion for approval Any general questions for me about process before you may have specific
- fee questions? I
- You may have explained this, and I may not have been listening closely, but when you come up with this
- pricing, most of these are inconsequential increases. And in fact, the fees themselves are relatively
- inconsequential. So I guess my question is, do we do some kind of survey to determine if we're competitive,
- either too high or too low? And I'm thinking about things like the golf
- fees and things like that. So I guess that'd be my first question. Yeah, so yes, we do. And as part
- of our master plan process, we're actually looking to formalize that process a little bit more. We've
- always done that. We even talked in a meeting a week or two ago about what are the things that go into
- pricing? Well, what are your competitors doing? What can the market bear? What can our population,
- Afford to pay that is certainly a consideration and then of course, that's where things like fee waivers
- may come into play as well and then of course our new cost recovery strategy, so as As we finish the
- master plan process over the next three months. We're going to have a new pricing strategy written out and
- That will come before you for approval as well that formalizes that a bit more But for example tonight,
- you know, I know Jason is here and I had a whole conversation with Jason and I know keto did as well
- But hey, you know, we see the price changes you're proposing. How do we feel about these? What are your
- competitors doing and Jason has a whole list of that that he has looked into and considered certainly
- as part of that pricing strategy That's that's helpful and that makes sense the other
- Comment I have is just looking at the kid city Original and kid city quest which is the only one that
- makes a distinction between residents and non residents my comment or question there would be that We're
- talking about five different dollars difference between a resident non resident which seems again pretty
- inconsequential
- I guess I wonder for five dollars one why are we even making a distinction or two should the distinction
- be greater because it's a facility that's being paid by Bloomington City taxpayers and non residents
- seems like maybe they should pay more than a five dollar differential or
- Not I mean, I don't know that I feel strongly about that one way or the other, but I think it's something
- I'd like to know What our thought process was regarding that and whether or not there should be more
- of a differential there I agree. I think it's something we need more consistency on and it's something
- we've also talked about with all of the annexation everything still pending and out there and
- We didn't want to eliminate any resident non resident pricing where it already existed in this iteration
- While we work on that pricing strategy and while we get the master plan numbers back in the full financial
- sustainability analysis that we're having done through 110% so They have a finance expert who is literally
- loaded every single transaction. We use 2024 as our last complete year and
- To analyze and look at how we're performing and all of these different cost recovery categories that
- we're moving towards And so that long term and these are sort of the immediate staff. Hey, what immediate?
- Sort of under the old way we were doing it price increases Do we need to make to start 2026 with but
- as we finish that policy and have a comprehensive new pricing strategy and tool we're going to make
- more consistent those decisions based on the cost recovery we're seeing in these categories and
- Thank you. Those are the only questions I have. That's the only questions I have. I was just curious,
- how many of these were also, and I don't know if you know this, but increased last year as well? So
- are we seeing something get increased
- a lot of times things don't change price for a few years and then you kind of bump it up. And so how
- much of this is getting bumped up every single year to where folks are gonna say like, oh, it was $8
- and not last year, now it's 12 or it was 120 and now it's 160. I do think even though it's somewhat
- inconsequential
- when you're adding a dollar or two per year, it does then all of a sudden feel like, oh, that's a jump.
- Yeah. I think it is important that we find the right balance there, that you also don't not raise things
- for so long that all of a sudden you have to do a huge jump to catch up with what your true cost is.
- And so that's what we're trying to do. I would look to Jason or Leslie. I think we've got a lot of those
- fees in there to maybe help answer that question more. Is there one specifically that you're wondering
- about, or are you just wondering in general? No, I was just wondering in general how many of these are
- people going to say, look at and say, oh, this went up again this year or whatever. Anyone who has a,
- you want to talk to that with the ones you have on there?
- can only truly speak to recreation but I have a fairly good feel for everybody's opinion that they probably
- are raising year after year in increments but as are all of our expenses and everything else in our
- community and our supplies and who we're paying and what we're paying and so if we don't do them in
- small increments we end up with big jumps which I feel like is a harder thing for a family to swallow a
- One-year jump, you know at $20 in one year as opposed to a $1. So yes, it does add up over the span
- But I think we feel across the board that it is better to do that in small steps than in big steps And
- we have found ourselves in situations the farmers market being a good example where we had to make a
- pretty substantial jump because we had waited ten years to do that and I think expenses and
- What we're having to pay for things are increasing at a much higher rate than what we are passing along
- to our customers Okay. Yeah, I guess that's where you know, like just kind of skimming here and some
- of them are, you know a dollar or two But then it's like the garden plot was a $20 increase So do you
- that one's a little bit different because we're changing the way we're pricing it and so only that one
- plot jumped that much because I went to a square footage as opposed to a general
- What we kind of felt was a random pricing to be like we don't know where it started and then we just
- were raising them like five dollars or two dollars And so we decided Sarah decided to do it
- more strategically So that one plot did increase but the other plot decreased. Yeah a different size
- decrease So that one's a little bit different in that jump because of how we are structuring the pricing. Okay, so
- Okay, I just had a couple questions about two of the things I see the senior season golf pass is Is
- that being eliminated? Yeah, and I was just curious about Eliminating the reason to eliminate it. Yeah,
- Jason Sims golf facilities manager cascades golf course the reason why I'd like to
- eliminate the senior season passes. I did a study with 11 other golf courses within an hour drive. And
- there's only two other golf courses in those 11 with a senior rate. Everybody else has got just an individual
- adult rate at a much higher price than what I am asking for at $900.
- Don't know if you guys were shared the document with that I can show you that I just have one but But
- yeah out of those 11 only only two other ones including us at the time so there's three and if we eliminate
- it just be us two Okay All right, and then this other question I have might be for someone else the
- new the skate helper I assume is
- Sounds like what it is, but is that somebody who doesn't doesn't skate but like is helping out It's
- a it's actually a tool. So it kind of that thing where you have to hold on like the walker thing The
- skate helper, okay Okay, I see we've had a lot of people ask for them and yes, right, okay I could use
- one of those. Yeah, okay Okay, that makes sense
- Any any other questions about the fee changes I just also as a refresher. I know we're kind of reviewing
- some of these but Is are we? Reviewing all fee changes at some point. I can't quite remember like what's
- our annual When we're reviewing the annual schedule because like we don't have any I I don't know that
- there's anyone in the room for public comment and so just thinking through making sure that we've also
- Advertised that people know that these fees schedules are fee changes are happening. Sure So you're
- right typically November December are our fee months that we go through the entire fee schedule make
- updates What we've done here is basically a version of that But rather than looking at everything we
- just said, hey, what are the absolute critical things? We need to update with an understanding that
- after we finish our pricing strategy
- The master plan we could reengage and look at more comprehensive updates as needed across all fees So
- this is what staff came up with when asked. Hey, what do you critically need to start 2026 with changed
- and updated? Okay, and we won't see anything else in December You will not see anything else in December
- unless there's something you want to continue from this meeting to that We could of course have a further
- discussion on that for approval in December
- It's just a few weeks away. It's relatively soon too. So OK. All right. Any other questions about the
- fee changes. OK. All right. Ellen do you want to move. Yes I will make a motion to approve the 20 26
- fee changes. Second OK. And all those in favor.
- Aye aye motion carried Thank you for that and then we don't have any reports this afternoon. So we'll
- see if we have any public comment here in person or Kim will check online for us No one online, okay
- All right Okay, then I think we are back to Tim for any other announcements Yes back to me. So thank
- you so much. I'll just give a
- a little broader update on the master plan as well since we were talking about that. It has been a heavy
- lift and I really appreciate the board's participation in work sessions. We've done some great public
- engagement. Our survey is out there hitting mailboxes right now. So folks are getting a postcard in
- their mailbox telling them, hey, you've been selected randomly from our resident list to take this survey.
- We're hoping to get to 400 of those to get a statistically valid sample size in the next few weeks.
- So you'll see some promotion for that on our social media channels and going out there. Then, critically,
- in January, we have a staff strategic planning session. We're gonna be working on goals. And then, February,
- March, we plan to bring many aspects of our new master plan back to the board. Armed with that community
- needs assessment that is in there, we hope to make some critical decisions about funding and facilities
- and the future of some of the needs we've identified.
- particularly as we've been talking about for the last year plus, some of our older sports facilities
- in particular. So the pools, the ice arena, some of our sports fields that have not been heavily invested
- in for some time. We saw, despite the fact that it's almost Thanksgiving, some great projects going.
- The Griffey Boathouse entrance was just repaved using some final bicentennial bond funds that had still
- been available. We made some pedestrian improvements there as well.
- The Roger Street Rail Trail crossing that Rebecca was talking about should be complete in the next week
- or so. That is a massive safety improvement for that trail that we've been wanting to make for some
- time. We're really pleased about the collaboration with the county on that. Sports-wise, the RCA Park
- basketball courts were in bad shape and got resurfaced and restriped. The pickleball courts there will
- get crack treatment. Didn't quite pull it off for the fall, but it is coming in the spring under the
- same contract.
- And then as mentioned the Willie Street or community garden Is also getting a new fence right now with
- money appropriated in this year's budget So we're really excited to make fence improvements that will
- improve the experience for all the gardeners there Can stop mending Holes with zip ties and keeping
- rabbits out and all of the different things that go into that and
- Events-wise, our staff did a tremendous job with a really heavy October season of events. I'm always
- amazed at how much they run around and serve the community in October with all kinds of amazing events.
- The pumpkin launch alone, I think, illustrates it had hundreds of people turn out during an IU football
- game, which I think is a challenge right now with how popular they are, but it shows just the following
- that a lot of those events have. It was also a tremendous concert season that wrapped up in October.
- Holiday Market is of course the weekend after Thanksgiving, coming up in a couple Saturdays. I'm really
- looking forward to that. Not long after that, that same weekend, actually it might be before I think
- about my dates, but the square lighting will be going on of course. I just want to say it's not quite
- the end of the year yet, but thanks to all of our staff and board members for another great year. Really
- looking forward to wrapping up
- The heavy lift that has been master planning this year and really turning the page in 2026 to executing
- on a lot of the planning and Surveying we've been doing this year Okay, our next meeting is December
- 11th So three weeks away, okay. All right. Thank you Tim. Thank you And with that I will adjourn the
- November meeting of the Bloomington Board of Park Commissioners. I