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.