- is 5.03. So I will call to order this, what month is this? February meeting of the Bloomington Board
- of Park Commissioners. And we have three here in person. We'll get our roll call in a minute.
- And do we have, Kim, do we have Jim? No, he's not going to be here. He's not going to be here. OK. I
- thought I didn't know if he was virtually. OK. So could you start us with the roll call then?
- Kathleen Mills. Here. Ellen Rodke. Here. Israel Herrera.
- And Jim went watch his accent. Okay, so we do have a quorum today. And we will start with, as always,
- our consent calendar. And this is all of our usual business report, credit card refund, not really any
- surplus this time, but some templates and smaller agreements that we've had
- a chance to see over the last few days. We do need to pull out one of our items to vote on separately
- because there was a typo. Sure. I'll make a motion to remove A-15 from the consent calendar. Do we need
- to do roll call? No. All those in favor of removing A-15?
- Aye. Okay. So that is removed. And then the remaining consent calendar items. Do you want to move? Yeah,
- I can make a motion to approve the consent calendar. Okay. And all those in favor? Aye. All right. Motion
- is carried. And then a 15 is a Winslow Sports Park 2026 concessions agreement.
- Um, which we just need to correct the amount on that and then we can vote on that separately. Okay.
- So I'll make a motion to amend that, uh, the contract amount to $2,500 for the Winslow sports park,
- 2026 concessions agreement. Okay. And all those in favor of that amendment. Aye. All right. Motion is carried.
- Kim, do we need, is that enough on A-15? Okay, all right. Okay, and then we will move on to section
- B in our public hearings and appearances. And first up, we have the Bravo Award that Julie Ramey will
- tell us about. No umbrella for the Bravo? Oh, okay, all right. I was like, because, you know, it's gonna
- storm, so.
- Good afternoon. I am Julie Ramey, the Community Relations Manager. It is my pleasure to present today's
- Bravo Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service to David Skirvin. David has been with the Bloomington
- Parks Foundation for 23 years, and he recently ended his tenure with the Bloomington Parks Foundation.
- In 2002, he was invited to volunteer with the foundation by
- our legendary board of parks commissioner member, Les Coyne. And David had recently retired from Indiana
- University after 35 years of service to the university. And his recruiters recognized his strong interest
- in parks and recreation and his skill in logistics and organization, which made him an ideal candidate
- for the foundation.
- He joined the foundation board in 2002 and remained actively involved for more than two decades, including
- service as president in 2024 and past president in 2025. And when I asked David to reflect on his time
- with the foundation, he said that when you're on the board, you tend to get wrapped up in the challenges
- that an organization faces. However, his passion for parks
- and his behind-the-scenes dedication to, as he says, dot the I's and cross the T's has helped make the
- foundation more efficient and effective. And the Bloomington Parks Foundation's successes are highlights
- of the great work done by the Bloomington Parks and Recreation Department.
- We are deeply grateful for the years of service by David Skerven and all our Bloomington Parks Foundation
- members, and are especially happy to present David today with, yes, an umbrella and a commemorative
- certificate. And I'd like to invite David to the podium to say a few words. Okay. Thank you very much.
- Thank you, Julie, and thanks to everybody, Tim, and everybody with the Parks Department.
- There's little more that I can say in terms of what Julie has just said. It has been a labor of love
- over the last two decades plus, thanks to Les Coyne. Joanne Alcott, I remember, was very instrumental
- when she selected me or posed the opportunity for me to join. But as I've said to Julie and I've said
- to others over the years, it's easy to be on a support board for an organization that is so successful
- and so prestigious.
- And I've also mentioned to you, Tim, and to your predecessor, Paula, and even to Mick Rinneisen over
- the years, if I were living my life over again and I chose a different career path, I worked at Indiana
- University, which was a great career, by the way, but I think people that work in parks and recreation
- are truly the salt of the earth. I really enjoy working with you all and the things that you do to make
- Bloomington such a great community. It truly is
- an asset to living in Bloomington, Indiana. So thank you. Thank you for everything. And thank you for
- this. It's very opportune on a day like today. I think we have a tornado warning till 9 o'clock. So
- hopefully I won't be Mary Poppins and have to use it. So thank you again. I really appreciate it.
- Thank you, David.
- Thank you for this decades of service to the board. And next up in our B2, we have a staff intro from
- community events intern, Grace Olson. Hi. First, I want to say thank you for allowing me to come up
- here and introduce myself. My name is Grace Olson. I am the new intern in the Recreation Services Department.
- I'm finishing up my degree at IU studying parks, recreation, and the outdoors.
- And I have developed a very strong passion for outdoor recreation, conservation, and community outreach.
- And growing up in Michigan, I would frequently take trips to the Upper Peninsula, where I discovered
- my love for hiking, camping, and being outdoors, and therefore became a Parks and Rec major. I am excited
- to apply what I have learned in my coursework and hands-on experience to support moving to Parks and
- Recreation, and I've loved my experience so far.
- Through my studies at IU, I've gained valuable knowledge in several areas, such as event planning, ecosystem
- management, resource development and fundraising, and many more. As I'm exploring career opportunities
- post-graduation, I'm excited about the variety of learning experiences coming my way to prepare me for
- a life in the field of Parks and Rec. My time here so far has been truly inspiring, and I'm very excited
- to be a member of the team. I'm looking forward to continuing this journey and contributing to the enrichment
- of the community through recreational opportunities and environmental stewardship. Thank you.
- Yeah, welcome, Grace. Okay, and then on to our section C, other business. At the last meeting, we neglected
- to elect our vice president. Don't take it personally. So in C1, we need to elect the vice president
- for 2026. So I will move that we elect Ellen as vice president.
- All right. Okay. All those in favor. I Motion is carried All right, and then Leslie Branson and C2 will
- tell us about the N right East partnership agreement for the year Good evening, Leslie Branson recreation
- division director I'm here to ask approval of the partnership grant agreement with area 10 on aging
- for the N right East active living center this grant partnership is in the amount of $20,000 and
- Due to the continued popularity and community sport and senior participation the department would like
- to continue support of the area 10 and right East active living community center our funding helps support
- the daily operations of the center which is located in the college mall in right East is open Tuesday
- through Thursdays from 11 to 3 and includes a daily lunch option the center continues to see consistent
- and promising numbers in both the membership and class participations
- Park staff and area attend staff work closely on some joint programming and marketing of events that
- have similar demographics. Currently we are hosting a walking program there three times a week and look
- to increase our health and wellness opportunities at the center as the year goes on.
- I've also included a few of their numbers from 2025 with their lunch meal served. They have 18 different
- programming options, including several strength and balance, flexibility, walking, and of course, Euker
- Bridge and Mejong, as any senior center should. I'd be happy to answer any questions about this grant
- opportunity. All right. No, it looks great. It's always been a good arrangement. So any questions for Leslie?
- Now make a motion to approve the partnership grant agreement with area 10 on aging for Enright East.
- Second. Okay, all those in favor? Aye. Motion carried. All right. Thank you, Leslie. And then in C3,
- Sean Marler will tell us about the agreement with convergent technologies for switch yard camera repair.
- Good afternoon. Sean Marler here. Staff recommends the park board approve the contract with convergent
- technologies.
- for the repair and replacement of parts of the CCTV security system at Switchyard Park. There
- are approximately 50, not approximately, there are exactly 55 cameras and approximately 38 of them are
- non-functional due to a variety of issues from environmental exposure and component failures over time.
- That flood we had a couple of years ago really hit that particular piece of technology pretty hard.
- This is a project we're working a lot with IT. Michael Crump from IT is here. He's the lead for the
- IT side. They're doing a lot of the specs and helped us quite significantly in determining what was
- needed, and they will work with Convergent on the repairs. I'm happy to answer any questions. Oh, and
- the amount is 68,896.
- The original cameras from 2019, were they with this company or a different conversion or they were different
- companies? It was a different company. Presidio was the subs, but yeah, I don't know. Okay. I think
- they were just the subs for that. And since 38 of the 55 are not working, I mean, you mentioned the
- flood, but I mean, was there any sort of like,
- Did we get anything for those ones that aren't working? Is there any sort of warranty, I guess, is the
- question. They are out of warranty. The warranty is only for a couple of years. I forget if it was two
- or three years, but it was not that long. OK. OK. All right. Other questions for Sean? Do they have
- an estimation of how long this set of cameras? Well, it's a great question.
- If you were able to hear Michael, Michael said that it would be very hard to predict the life cycle
- on technology like this. Do you have other questions? No. OK. OK. We'll make a motion to approve the
- contract with Convergent Technologies for the replacement of security cameras at Switchyard Park. OK.
- And all those in favor? Aye. All right. Motion carried. Thank you, Sean. Thank you.
- And C4, Kevin Terrell will tell us about the addendum with LRT for Banneker step replacement project
- change order. Thank you all. Kevin Terrell here, the program and facility coordinator of the Banneker
- Community Center. You guys approved our steps project with the Lithco restoration technologies toward
- the end of 2025.
- And this contract add $12,250 to that original contract agreed with them for the replacement and the
- refurbishing of our historic Banneker Community Center limestone steps. All this in accordance with
- the guidelines of the grantee, which was the IDNR, and the Division of Historic Preservation and Archeology.
- This additional funding, on top of what we already got,
- is needed based on the recommendations of LRT and with the approval of our principal investigator, Doug
- Bruce of Tabor and Bruce. After they inspected the steps, after they did the initial demolition, they
- will fill the existing limestone blocks with grout, form, and pour concrete under the first step, under
- the one block, and then under the landing and replace 23
- concrete masonry units blocks and the support walls under the steps and the landing and fill space in
- between the blocks. Essentially, this will make it much safer, sturdier, and hopefully much longer lasting
- than what was done the last time. And I'll answer any questions that I can. OK. All right. Any questions
- for Kevin? I'm going to make a motion to approve a contract agenda with Lithco Restoration Technologies.
- All those in favor say aye All right. That motion is carried. Thanks Kevin. Thank you and c5 is a partnership
- agreement with the Bloomington community orchard that Pascoe will tell us about Good evening commissioners
- Haskell Smith urban forester Staff recommends approval of the agreement with Bloomington committee or
- community orchard and for continued use of city parks and recreation property and
- cooperative program partnership through 2030. Slide updates have been made during this iteration, including
- language on some fencing and BCO's desire to build an educational shelter. There's no funding being
- supplied, just a cross partnership. Mr. Josh Davis here if you have any questions in regards to the
- orchard itself or any programming.
- within the enclosed, the fenced in, okay, yeah. Before it snowed, I was over there, I don't know, more
- than just looking around, it's really nice, yeah.
- My name is Josh David I'm ex officio board chair for the Bloomington community orchard so I see some
- new faces up here so I actually know it's been a couple years since our last renewal and I just wanted
- to share some of the other accomplishments we've talked about but then I'm happy to field any questions
- you have about what we're calling the outdoor classroom but shelter. So we're big about food justice
- food access.
- growing the ability for people to grow food for themselves, their neighbors, and each other. So while
- fruit is not always growing on the trees, we installed a little free pantry in the orchard to create
- year-round food access provided by us and the community. We installed a propagation station to transplant
- things that were growing at the orchard into people's private and public properties.
- to grow more food collectively for each other. We also installed ADA accessible pathways through the
- orchard because we are designing to or we're trying to be a model of access without financial capacity
- for food, which we see as a fundamental human right. And in doing that, we also wanted to make sure
- that people of all physicalities were also able to access the site and our educations. So we add more
- educational signage for self-service. We also let
- launched a class sponsorship program to help pay local educators to teach free to the community classes
- at the orchard and around the community. And through that we've been able to offer thousands of hours
- to thousands of volunteers to help cultivate this incredible one acre public food forest.
- which now serves as actually a model for both national and global audiences. Over the past five years,
- we've been contacted by more and more groups that are looking to start this. Originally it was individuals
- in their communities and now it's city officials who are actually reaching out to us. So through that
- feedback, we created not only a two-page worksheet that helped guide people through the processes that
- we thought successful,
- We also developed a how to start a community orchard handbook, which we've drafted and is out for feedback.
- So to help empower more and more communities based on the Bloomington model that you all have helped
- create a foundation for. And beyond that, I'm just pleased to announce that we're actually, even as
- an all volunteer organization, celebrating our 15th anniversary.
- So a major accomplishment for us. But looking forward, we want to add more self-service activities,
- including for teachers in the community, to use the orchard as an ongoing resource for their classes,
- youth groups, and otherwise. And then the outdoor classroom, which we see as a great space for refuge
- for volunteers, for meetings, for classes, and other smaller orchard events there at the site.
- That's a little update, and I just want to say thank you all. And a big thank you to Tim and Haskell
- and Rebecca. I know Dave and Lee left big shoes to fill, and they have filled them very nicely and been
- a very wonderful group of leaders to work and collaborate with. So thank you all. Well, thank you. Yeah,
- I'm glad it's going well. Thanks for the details. All right. All right, do you want to? Yeah, I make
- a motion to approve the partnership agreement with Bloomington Community Orchard.
- and all those in favor aye all right motion is carried c5 passes and then in c6 it's almost mowing time
- again so joanna sparks will tell us about the renewal with green dragon yes good afternoon joanna sparks
- serving green space manager and deep breath spring is almost here okay
- But yes, I'm here today to present an addendum to the existing and the pre-existing contract mowing
- agreement with Green Dragon to mow 20 properties for the Parks Department that will be first entered
- into in 2004.
- This is a renewal that was included option that was included in the contract. And this contract is for
- one hundred. I'm sorry. We pulled the other one. The next one one hundred and eight thousand four hundred
- and five dollars. And this basically is for twenty seven mowing cycles between April to the end of October
- early November to maintain turf with mowers and string trimmers. All right. Any questions for Joanna.
- Yes. Yes. And we have the option to renew in 20. Yeah. It's written into the contract the option to
- renewal with the set price. So we have 20 24 pricing for performance has been great for 10 years. They
- were contracted with us prior to that for different areas for mowing services.
- The renewal is three years. Green Dragon has contracted with the city for I think about 10 years. They've
- had contracts with different areas. With the way it's contracted, there's a three-year renewal clause.
- So once you get outside of that three-year renewal clause, it goes back out
- and gets bid again. And the same contractor may win it again, which is what's happened here. And they've
- continued to do a good job. Yes. Yes, I'm sorry. I didn't quite understand what you were fishing for.
- OK. All right. Yeah, I'm in commission to approve the agenda with Green Dragon Lawn Care for 2026. OK.
- And all those in favor? Aye. Aye. All right.
- Motion C6 is carried and then Joanna also has renewal with for you lawn and landscape for twenty twenty
- six mowing. Yes and rinse and repeat with 16 different properties for a different vendor for you lawnland
- landscape company for the amount of twenty three thousand eighty five dollars.
- And this one is new correct. We haven't contracted with for you before. No no this one is the same situation
- as the previous contract. It is a part of a renewal of the twenty twenty four contract the request for
- quotes in twenty twenty four. We asked for two separate packages to be quoted and we contract and there
- were two different vendors that got the lowest bid for respectively.
- So Green Dragon got the 20 properties we previously discussed, and For You, Lawn, and Landscape got
- the 16. 16. OK. Yeah, it's for two different. Yeah, it's for two different.
- groups of locations. I think the services are essentially the same. The services are identical. It's
- 16 different locations, which are really small. They're basically public works properties throughout
- the city. Yeah. Most trips here and there. Yeah, little spots. Yeah. Okay. Any other questions?
- I make a motion to approve the denim with for you lawn and landscape for twenty twenty six. And all
- those in favor. All right. All right. Motion C7 is carried. Thank you. And then in C8 Mary Wells has
- the agreement with eco logic. Good afternoon. Mary Wells here natural resources manager here to recommend
- approval of the contract with eco logic.
- for ecological consulting and restoration services at Griffey Lake Nature Preserve, Miller Showers Park,
- and Switchyard Park. As you may remember, Egalogic is a trusted ecological restoration consultant and
- service provider here in Bloomington and has worked closely with Bloomington Parks and Recreation for
- over a decade. Since 2016, they've delivered a range of consulting and ecological services, including
- floristic inventory,
- plant community, mapping, deer browse monitoring, and ecological restoration and various vegetation
- management services. Excuse me, I'm a little choked up. Under this contract, Ecologic will build on
- their past work and expertise for various types of improved land management. So that will include
- The contract will be an ongoing deer browse monitoring survey that they started back in 2018 that is
- helping us make decisions on the success of our deer hunts by monitoring the vegetation at Griffey.
- And then they will also be continuing restoration services at various
- parks, including a new area in the wetland at Griffey, about nine acres, where they're currently contracted
- to do some winter work. They're going to do some follow-up work under this contract. And then they will
- also be resuming their restoration activities at Miller Showers Park, as well as Switchyard Park. Happy
- to answer any questions at this point.
- Oh, and I did not state the amount. So it's fifty seven thousand seven hundred forty nine dollars and
- thirty nine cents. Thank you. Yeah. All right. Well, I make a motion to approve the service agreement
- with Ecologic for Griffey Miller Showers and Switchard Park. OK. And all those in favor. All right.
- All right. Motion carried. Thank you. Thank you.
- Then in C9, we have the appointment of Erica Eason to the ERAC that Heidi will tell us about. Yes, Heidi
- Schumacher, Natural Resources Coordinator for the City of Bloomington. Just a brief update on this.
- Since the application came in, Erica has experienced a name change. It is now Erica Myers. But all the
- qualifications still stand. So staff recommends approval of the appointment of Erica Myers.
- to the Environmental Resources Advisory Council. This is a two-year appointment, and the council is
- made up of nine members. We currently have two openings. Erica is qualified for this position
- as a conservation specialist in soil and water conservation for Monroe County, and we believe she would
- be an asset to the council. We're always lucky to attract people with such good experience and education.
- Yeah, absolutely. I think it's a really nice fit that she's got that experience with the county. We
- still have one seat open. We have received one application, but no one will not before the deadlines
- for this meeting. So hopefully we will have the next appointee at the next board meeting. All right.
- I'll make a motion to approve the nomination of or the appointment of Erica Myers to the Environmental
- Resources Advisory Council Okay, and all those in favor All right, thank you Heidi and in c10 Looks
- like Cody Martin will finish it out here in the last three versus the agreement Bloomington Junior League Baseball
- Hi, Cody Martin, Sports Facility Coordinator. Today I'm asking for the review and approval
- for our partnership agreement we've had for the last few years with Bloomington Junior League Baseball
- Association. They're housed mainly at Winslow Sports Park. They outgrew the park toward the end of the
- year last year and so had some overflow at Twin Lakes Sports Park as well. Really good symbiotic relationship
- we have with them. Our revenue from Winslow was about $18,000 last year just from Bloomington Junior
- League Baseball.
- Is that the first time they've needed to overflow at Twinlake? This was my first outdoor season. I know
- they didn't need it the season before, so I don't want to say definitively that it's the first time
- ever, but in recent memory, yes. Okay. All right. Great. All right. I'll make a motion to approve the
- agreement with Bloomington Junior League Baseball for 2026. Okay. And all those in favor? Aye.
- All right, motion is carried for C10. And C11 is the similar agreement with Monroe County Senior League
- Baseball. Yes, so same situation with Monroe County Senior League. We've been a partner for many years.
- They're housed mainly at Winslow Field 6, which is our larger baseball field on the complex. Rental
- fees revenue last year was about $4,000. Would have been more if the rain would have stopped at any
- point in the first three months of the season. But again, great partnership.
- long-standing and we just seek to keep it going. Okay. All right. I'll make a motion to approve the
- agreement with Monroe County Senior League Baseball for 2026. All right. And all those in favor? Aye.
- All right. Motion is carried for that one and C11. And then finally C12 is a similar sort of agreement,
- but this time with Bloomington Football Club.
- Yeah, Bloomington Football Club utilizes what used to be Winslow Field 5, primarily used for soccer
- for BFC for the last few years. Revenue generated is about $8,000, another really good partnership where
- there's a lot of give and take both sides. So again, we just seek to renew the same agreement. Make
- a motion to approve the partnership agreement with Bloomington Football Club for 2026.
- All those in favor. Aye. All right. That motion is carrying C12. Thanks Cody All right, and then we
- move into section D reports and first up Tim is going to tell us about the strategic goals update Good
- evening commissioners Tim Street parks and rec director for the city of Bloomington. Good to be with
- you tonight It's always stormy every time we do this. It seems like so why make an exception this time?
- Hopefully we can get out of here before
- It starts raining too much. I also want to shout out Cody, just for those last three items, it's a lot
- of work working with those partners and managing relationships and expectations and all those things,
- and I think that's going particularly well. So first up, agenda item D1 is just, we've done this periodically
- for the last couple years. An introduction of a progress update on our strategic goals. A reminder,
- these are sort of our last set of goals.
- from our master plan that is well now done. We are in new territory now that it is 2026, and we'll be
- under the umbrella of the master plan that we are finishing now. But 92 of 114 goals on that list, it's
- a lot of goals. It does get into some tiki-tac stuff a little bit, but it's important stuff that we're
- tracking and monitoring. And we'll say as we look to
- present our overarching master plan goals for the next five years to you soon, you're not gonna see
- this amount. This is a more granular approach. Just a report for the park board and something we like
- to bring before you for lots of reasons, including transparency, accreditation, feedback, all of those
- reasons. So I'm not gonna dwell on that. These are goals you've seen before. About 80% of them remain
- in play. Even if they're not done, they're on track to be done soon.
- here in 2026, and we'll of course entertain any questions that you might want to get into on those.
- Okay, any questions about the goals? Other than the tiny, tiny font? No? I think it's a really great
- I mean, to see this comprehensive of a strategic plan for the year and to be at the percentage
- of accomplishment that you are at is not surprising, because this is such a great department. But it's
- just amazing to see. And I hope that the public recognizes how hard you all work. Yeah. And that is
- all down to our staff members. It all starts there. We have a wonderful staff. So all credit to them.
- Moving to D2 then, this is our master plan community survey results. So I'm going to introduce this
- and then we have Jeff Andreson online from Acuity Research. He is going to just kind of talk through
- about a 10 minute overview of the findings that we have from our community survey results that have
- come back. Just a reminder, we are nearing the end of our master plan process. At this point, we've
- done all of the community
- input and engagement. Going back to last spring, late spring we started with community focus groups,
- staff focus groups. The questionnaire through the summer that generated over a thousand responses from
- community members when we passed it out at farmers market and concerts and things like that. On down
- into some more feedback this fall and then ultimately the input from the statistically valid community
- survey which is what this is.
- It took a little longer than we anticipated, I think, just lack of emails and having to rely on the
- US mail, which I do not recommend. Just took us a little longer than anticipated, but we did get to
- the sample size that we needed. And that said, I'm gonna turn it over to Jeff. Jeff, you should be co-host,
- so you should be able to unmute and turn your video on, and Kim is gonna pull up the PowerPoint and
- share it on Zoom, so give us just a second to transition here. And then Jeff, when we're all ready,
- turn it over to you and you can tell us when to advance the slides. Okay, sounds good. Can you hear
- me okay? We can hear you just fine. Perfect. Thank you. Kim, are you good? Great. As Tim said, my name
- is Jeff Andreessen. I'm president of Acuity Research and Insights. We're a full service public opinion
- polling firm in Evanston, Illinois. We've done work for park departments, park districts, school districts,
- cities, villages, libraries, all over for about 25 years. And tonight I'm gonna provide an overview
- of some of the key takeaways from the quantitative statistically valid survey that we conducted with
- residents within Bloomington regarding the Parks Direct Department. The next slide shows just a high
- level summary of our approach. I'm sorry, there are builds in here.
- I thought I would be going through this. You might have to click a couple of times for things to appear.
- There we go. Our goal was to receive completed surveys from a minimum of 400 residents. We did that.
- The next bullet shows the dates of our data collection essentially from mid-November through just before
- the Christmas holidays in December.
- Part of the delay is that that's just a difficult time of year to conduct a survey. People are busy
- with family and events and so on. Everybody who was sampled had three options to respond to the survey.
- They could do it online. They could fill out a printed questionnaire and mail it into us. We had a prepaid
- return envelope to our office so that we could process those. And we also gave a toll free number that
- someone could call if they wanted to complete it over the phone with
- one of our live interviewers in Evanston. You'll see the vast majority of people opted for the online
- survey. And the rest completed the paper survey. Nobody requested a phone interview. In addition to
- the statistically valid survey, we gave the department the survey link and the QR code. So after we
- received responses from 405 sampled residents. The department made the survey link available to residents
- or users on the website, on social media, other channels so that anybody outside of our sample who wanted
- to reply could do so. We compiled those responses separately and those are provided in the full report
- overall. We had a very good additional response
- that open survey as well. For our statistically valid sample of just over 400, we weighted it to adjusted
- census targets for Bloomington. The census includes demographic data for IU students who are obviously,
- for the most part,
- in Bloomington temporarily and turning over every year. So we adjusted those to focus more on permanent
- Bloomington residents, both homeowners and renters outside of the IU system. And for a sample of this
- size of just over 400, the maximum margin of error is just under plus or minus 5%. A full description of the
- demographics are provided in the full report, as well as a map on the next slide that shows the regional
- distribution of our respondents. And again, those percentages for the north, southeast and southwest
- areas are the adjusted percentages for, again, more permanent residents across the city.
- In terms of the key findings, on the next slide, our surveys generally start very broad. We begin by
- asking people to give their overall opinion of the department on a zero through 10 scale. Anything that
- is six or higher is a favorable rating. Anything four or lower is an unfavorable or negative rating,
- and a five is considered neutral. The vast majority, as you can see here, have at least a somewhat positive.
- opinion of the department and that includes 39% who hold you in the highest regard, giving you scores
- of nine or more. On the other end, only 3% have a fully negative opinion overall and the remaining 7%
- are neutral. Those are generally people who are familiar with the department, but not enough to have
- formed a strong opinion either way.
- To the right of that bar, you can see your average rating is a 7.9, which is very strong, very positive
- overall. And the good news is that, for the most part, that's consistent among most subgroups. No segment
- of our sample gave an average rating below a 6.6, which is still a solidly favorable rating. So everybody
- was 6.6 or higher around that average score.
- The next slide will show the responses to a question that we asked about whether or not the respondent
- and their household feel that their household, their interests, their background are sufficiently included
- and represented by everything that the Parks and Rec Department provides in terms of
- activities, programs, events, engagement, and so on. Overall, about nine out of 10, 91% of the respondents
- said yes, we feel that we are sufficiently included and have enough access and representation in what's
- being offered. 9% disagreed. And the breakouts that you see here by age, whether or not they have children
- under 18 in the household, their region, or their length of residence,
- These are the only variables where there was a statistically meaningful difference between those yes
- no responses and you where you can see the disagreement coming up a little bit higher than that average
- of 9% is among those who are 45 to 59 at 12% households without children 10% versus only 2% of those
- with children. Residents who live outside of the southwest region so
- Folks in the north and the southeast regions are around nine and 10%. And then longer term residents
- of 10 or more years are all at 10% or higher. This reflects some of the open-ended feedback from those
- adults, older adults and those without children that if they feel underserved, it's because they're
- seeking more programs or activities for their age group or for their household.
- There's a perception among many that the Parks and Rec Department does a really good job of providing
- activities and addressing the interests of children, youth, and young families. But if someone doesn't
- have children or their children are out of the nest, so to speak, there may be more that they're looking for.
- We then, on the next slide, informed residents that in 2024, just under 2% of their property taxes went
- to fund the Parks and Rec Department and asked them to rate the value that that 2% of property taxes
- represents, given the programs, parks, facilities, and services that the department provides. Just over
- three out of four respondents said it's at least a good value.
- for that 2% and that includes almost half saying that it's an excellent value. So these are very, very
- strong value scores. The average 7.7 value score is directly in line with your overall esteem rating
- on average and only 8%
- feel that you represent a poor value. Not surprisingly, those lower ratings are more likely to come
- from people who aren't using you. They say they don't visit the parks, they don't use your facilities,
- they're not attending events, they're not participating in programs. What those percentages represent
- is that for every one person saying that that share of their property taxes in their mind is a poor
- value, you have almost 10 people saying it's a positive value.
- So it's almost 10 to 1 good value to poor value. And again, there's much more detail in the full report.
- On the next slide, you'll see the results from questions that we asked about their usage of the parks
- and recreational locations. 90% said someone in their household had been to one of your
- parks or trails or playgrounds in the last year. And we asked which ones a majority mentioned going
- to the beeline trail to either Switchyard or Bryant Park. Almost half had been, or someone in their
- household had been to Griffey Lake, 40% the rail trail. And you can see the responses in rank order
- from there down. We're only showing the ones that received 5% or more.
- of the overall response. And then on the next slide, we likewise asked about your recreational facilities
- in the past year. Almost two thirds said someone in their household had been to one of your recreational
- facilities. And for those, we see more of an even spread, most of them in the teens or low 20s with
- Brian Parkpool leading the responses followed by the spray pad and dog
- park at Switchyard, Twin Lakes at 17%, the Ice Arena at 14% and so on from there. So then for anybody
- who said that they've been to one of your parks or facilities in the past year, we asked them to rate
- their overall satisfaction 0 through 10 on a number of attributes and those are shown on the next slide.
- While your overall esteem and value ratings were very high, the satisfaction scores among the users,
- the actual people going to your parks and facilities were even higher. In terms of overall experience,
- the level of cleanliness and upkeep at those locations, accessibility, the safety factor, and the service
- from staff when they're interacting with staff. A majority, or sorry, at least half, 50 percent or more,
- are completely satisfied with those attributes based on their experiences. And the vast majority are
- at least somewhat satisfied with no more than 4% expressing dissatisfaction with any one of those attributes.
- And you can see to the far right that those average ratings of 8.0 or higher are consistently very high.
- Outdoing the earlier ratings for
- your esteem and value. One thing I'll call out here is the bottom attribute quality of service from
- staff. It receives a lower average rating, still very strong, but just lower than the others. The main
- reason is to the left of that bar, you'll see 19% who are neutral. Those are mostly from people who
- say, I go to the park to walk my dog, but I don't really interact with any staff. I don't see any staff,
- so I can't give
- an opinion on how satisfied or dissatisfied I am. So the reason that average rating is a little bit
- lower is because we've got more people in that neutral response for staff service. For anybody who gave
- a rating of six or lower, we asked in an open-ended question why they're not more satisfied. I can go
- to the next slide. Thank you.
- to tell us why they're not satisfied and with which specific location or locations they're not satisfied.
- The responses to the left are from people who identify a specific park or facility. You can see the
- ones generally that come up most often are those that are most visited in general, certainly Switchyard
- and Beeline followed by seminary at a distant third.
- and then trails in general. For most of those, certainly the top three, the vast majority of responses
- regarding lower ratings for those had to do with perceptions of safety, concerns about likely drug use
- taking place in the parks, homeless people, unhoused people in the parks, and just a general concern about
- safety in those locations. For trails that had more to do with just upkeep or preferences for fewer
- paved trails, preferences for more unpaved trails. To the right, those are the few responses that were
- just generally given without being attributed to any one location or any specific location. And again,
- you can see that
- safety concerns followed by upkeep were the top responses there. All of the numbers on this slide are
- numbers of cases. These are not percentages. So you can see that beyond the top few responses, most
- of these only, a lot of these only got two, three or four responses each. We then moved on to questions
- to gauge the level of demand and interest in
- some of the, some potential recreational facilities. These percentages show the level of interest or
- demand for each of these amenities. So 75% of the respondents said they're interested or like to use
- or would like to use more trails for walking, hiking and biking. Just over 60% likewise have a interest
- in open space and natural areas, as well as amenities.
- in the parks and near trails such as benches, garbage cans, drinking fountains, et cetera. And then
- after those top three, it drops off 38% express demand or interest in some kind of water feature, a
- swimming pool or aquatic center, and then pickleball courts, ice rinks, outdoor sports fields,
- splash pads, et cetera, all hover somewhere around 14 to 27% each.
- So once we know what the level of demand is for each of these, we ask those who are interested in each
- how well that demand is being met. And we plot that on this quad chart. So the y-axis to the left from
- zero at the bottom to 100 at the top reflects those percentages that we just saw. So if you look over
- to the far right, you'll see trails. If you draw a line over to that vertical axis,
- That's that 75% who said they're interested in trails. And then for park and trail amenities and open
- space, those were 1661% each. The X axis, the horizontal axis is the percent who said that their interest
- or usage or demand for each of those is currently being met mostly or completely. And you can see that
- when it comes to your facilities,
- Whether it's in high demand or low demand, the majority of people, roughly 60 percent or more, say that
- that demand is already being mostly or completely met. Again, this is asked whether it's being met by
- the City of Bloomington Parks and Rec Department or any other provider. Whether the folks using your
- with expressing an interest in pickleball courts are using your pickleball courts or going elsewhere
- for pickleball, they're telling us that they're able to find pickleball courts pretty readily. So none
- of these represent gaps for the city. And I'll tell you, and I've been on a number of these
- worked on another of these studies with Jamie. This is unusual. Usually there's something to the left
- of this chart that shows some gaps, but for the features that we tested here, all of them are seen as
- being in good supply. The next slide, we wrap this up by asking them to identify the top two
- amenities or features that they would like to see the top priorities for the Parks and Rec Department
- in terms of prioritization for providing or improving or adding. The dark blue segment shows the percent
- giving that their number one priority. The light blue is their number two and then the sum percentage
- is off to the side. And you can see here when it comes to priorities while trails
- still remains number one. Park amenities and trail amenities, well, initially being tied with open space
- becomes clearly a second priority over open space and natural areas in terms of priorities. And then
- beyond those, the responses in terms of prioritization drop further. You'll notice at the bottom that 17%
- feel that none of these are priorities. This is likely a combination of people who just simply are not
- active outdoors or recreationally or just not interested, or they're people who say, yes, I'm interested
- in an ice rink and my needs are currently being met. So I don't have a priority or an unmet need.
- For some facilities, we asked a willingness to pay questions and we preface this by saying that the
- Parks and Rec Department is managing several aging facilities and that major improvements and renovations
- would likely mean higher user fees and or property taxes to address those. Knowing that, would they
- support or oppose
- seeing improvements to the facilities that you can see here. Four out of the five receive roughly 75,
- three-quarters percent support, which is strong. It's highest for Bryan Pool, followed by the Ice Arena,
- Winslow Sports Park, and then Twin Lakes. I'll caution you though that you'll see from the colored segments
- of the bars that most of that support
- is somewhat support. So clearly people are favorable of the concept, but obviously the details in terms
- of what kinds of improvements, what the timeline would be, how much higher would user fees or taxes
- be to pay for those will obviously be important to them. Mills Pool rounded out the list, but it still
- has a very high level of support over opposition, just over two to one. I will call out that
- Well overall support for mills pool is a little bit lower. The percent its percentage of strong support
- is about as high as the top 2 items about Brian pool and Southern so something else to keep in mind
- in terms of this context. And then on the next slide. We again asked well if the parks and rec department
- could only do one of those what would what
- Do you think should be its number one priority, knowing that it would likely mean higher fees and or
- property taxes. In that context, Brian pool comes up most often support for Brian pool is especially
- strong in the Southeast region, but also among the newest residents of Bloomington. The second top response
- was none of these are.
- priority. And again, these are people who think that these locations or these facilities are in good
- shape, or they simply don't want to pay more to have those improved. That 24% at the bottom tends to
- be the oldest most long term local residents, those without children and people who are participating
- in the department's programs.
- With regard to the pools on the next slide, again, we reminded people that both of the outdoor pools
- are in need of major repairs and improvements, and we were interested in which of these options they
- would support more if these were the options available to them. Just over half
- would support improving one of the pools and converting the other one to a splash or spray playground
- facility versus 33% who would like to see a new aquatic center or outdoor pool that replaces both of
- the two existing pools. And then only 12% supported making improvements to one of the two pools, but
- closing the other.
- The fourth option to close both pools was supported only by 2%. So again, the two biggest options among
- these options is to improve one and convert the other or provide a new one that replaces the two existing
- pools. We then move on to questions about
- Participation and attendance in department-sponsored programs and events, nearly half said someone in
- their household had attended something in the past year or participated in something. And of those attendees
- and participants, their overall satisfaction, again, is very much in line with the high satisfaction
- scores that we saw with the parks and playgrounds and trails and facilities, averaging 8.4 with just
- over half saying that they're completely
- satisfied with those. Again, if anybody gave a lower score, we asked an open-ended to find out with
- which program or event and what the issue was. Those are provided in the full report, but it was literally
- a handful of people who were less satisfied with programs and events. We then asked about a similar
- demand analysis for programs and age-based
- activities as well as events. You can see that interest and demand is highest, obviously, for the farmers
- markets. The only wrap I saw in the farmers markets is people want more of them in more locations. I
- love the farmers markets. Outdoor concerts is a close second. Roughly a third express an interest in
- natural resources education as well as gardening and orchard programs.
- The level of demand for very specific types of activities for youth age groups is shown there mostly
- in the 3 to 5 percent range. But again, people could provide multiple responses across those. Then it's
- higher for the 18 to 59-year-old age group.
- sports for that age group, that adult age group is fairly high, but it's a little bit higher for visual
- and performance arts as well as basic recreation or enrichment programs. And then when we plot how well
- those activities are being met or readily available, the good news is that the two that are most popular,
- farmers markets and outdoor concerts, people feel that they have
- pretty easy access to and are in good supply. The bottom right quadrant also shows that for lower priority
- activities, those are likewise readily available. Natural resources education, both youth sports and
- visual and performance arts for ages five through 12.
- as well as slightly to a lesser extent recreational and enrichment programs for that age group, as well
- as teen sports for ages 13 to 15. To the left of that in the lower left quadrant, these are where the
- gaps are, where the percentage who are expressing an interest or demand on the vertical axis are also reporting
- less than a majority saying these are readily available to them. And you can see most of these, again,
- are centering around adult and active older adult programs, especially recreational, basically all the
- categories for the 18 to 59-year-old. Recreation enrichment, visual performance arts, and adult sports,
- as well as programs for those ages 60 and up.
- The gardening and orchard program is close to being a majority of needs being met or interests being
- met as is preschool programs at the very bottom there. So the biggest opportunities here are for adult
- programming. And again, we have other questions in the full report, open-ended questions that articulate
- this in respondents own words.
- When we ask what the number one priority should be for the Parks and Rec Department to add, improve,
- or expand in terms of events and programming, again, they love the farmer's market, they love the outdoor
- concerts, they want to see those maintained. And then each of the remaining categories garnered between
- 5% and 9% of a priority.
- So it's beyond those top two events, it's really spread out in terms of the types of activities and
- programs that people are interested in. Again, the full report provides profiles of those who place
- gardening and orchard programs as their top priorities as opposed to sports for adults 18 to 59, as
- opposed to programs for adults 60 plus.
- And then we wrap up the survey by asking residents where they go for information about the Parks and
- Rec Department, its programs, the parks, its services, the light orange responses are multiple responses.
- So we ask them to select as many as possible. You can see here that
- A lot of these, a lot of residents are omnivores. They're going to multiple sources and again, those
- are skewing more toward the more engaged park and facility and program participants. A slight majority
- rely on word of mouth. Almost as many go to the department or the city website or refer to the printed
- program. About a third
- rely on signage at your locations or your social media posts. And then after that, 21% mentioned the
- digital program guide. So the printed versus the digital guide as a source gets better than two to one
- usage or reference over the digital guide. We then wrap up by asking, well, which one of these is your
- primary source?
- Initially, word of mouth was the top multiple response. It quickly drops off and is replaced by the
- printed guide as the top response as their primary resource at 29%, followed closely by the city and
- department website at 23%. And then everything else receives just 10% or less of the overall response.
- I'm happy to answer any questions or talk about anything that surprised you or didn't surprise you here.
- Just kind of echo, having looked over the slides earlier, how wonderful it is that people feel like
- they have such good interaction with the staff. I mean, that is not surprising, but it's really
- You know, nice confirmation to see and a lot of other positive things for us to think about. So any
- other comments or questions for Jeffrey? Okay. All right. Thank you again for that. And then in section
- E, do we have any public comments here or online?
- If you're online and want to make a comment, please raise the hand icon. Okay, so no public comment
- this evening, and then we'll go back over to Tim for any additional announcements before we adjourn.
- Yeah, first of all, thank you again to Jeff from Acuity for being on with us. I think there's a lot of
- really great information in that report for us to draw on. We are currently in our master plan working
- on identifying our priority goals, which we'll be bringing up with the final plan. And we know those
- surround our community impacts, investing in what we have, financial sustainability, our staff, those
- are main themes that we're looking at with our goals. And I think looking at the community survey gives us
- even more information and affirmation that we're on the right track with those goals that we can see
- a high percentage of the community. There's things people want, but there's things that are being met
- pretty well. And so I think it's our task to continue to meet those expectations as well as we can and
- answer those community demands with our resources. So that said, just shout out a few other things going
- on. A few projects are ongoing or wrapped up that you might see or encounter.
- There's some new interior lights at the switch art pavilion Brightening up the space especially on some
- of these dark winter days. Those are great As Kevin mentioned the bannacher front steps are nearing
- completion and soon We'll be starting a roofing project a roof and gutter project at bannacher. That
- should help with some water penetration issues there energy efficiency investments have continued and
- There's new LED lights at Banneker at the Allison Jukebox building, and this year we're gonna be pursuing
- solar panels on the Allison Jukebox building as well. The power line trail is out to bid. We're very
- excited to bring that project to fruition this year, hopefully during the summer construction season.
- The tree assistance program is ongoing and having a big impact. I know the board has heard about that.
- And we haven't met since this all happened, but obviously we had a pretty significant snowstorm
- Over the the last week there of January and our staff had to do a lot of work both at our Rec and sports
- facilities and are getting our programs going or keeping them going all the snow moved in like freeze
- fest winter Palooza those things and then of course snow removal efforts afterwards and I think you
- know the the impact of that large snow on the community really showed a
- how important some of these rec facilities, especially our trails, walking paths, things like that,
- having those cleared for folks can be very impactful to our community health after a big snow like that.
- So thank you to all of our staff who worked on snow. We're spending a lot of time thinking and working
- on digital accessibility stuff right now, dealing with an upcoming federal government deadline to work
- on things like board packet materials and website. Julie has been leading the way on that.
- And of course we are in a big seasonal ramp up right now to performing art series and concerts and the
- market and all the things that go into that. Really looking forward to getting those again. Obviously
- the template agreements tonight, big part of starting to get our vendors and performers and concessionaires
- signed up to be a part of these community events.
- I'll just shout out Twin Lakes continues to be really busy between basketball and volleyball on alternating
- weekends. It seems like a lot going on there as well. So that brings us to the end tonight. Our next
- meeting is slightly adjusted because of spring break. So rather than being on the week of spring break
- as it typically would be, we are adjusted to the following Monday, March 23rd at 5 p.m. All right.
- Thank you, Tim. And thank you to all the staff who participated this evening.
- I'll adjourn the February meeting of the Bloomington Board of Park Commissioners.