WEBVTT

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- Okay. All right. Sorry for the little delay there. Um, I will now call to order. We good. Okay. Um,

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- our August meeting of the Bloomington board of park commissioners and, um, Molly, can you start us off

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- with the roll call please or Tim or somebody over there on that side of the room? You're good. Can you

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- hear me? Yes. Okay. Uh, Israel Herrera, Kathleen Mills here.

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- Okay, all right, so we do have everyone with Jim there remotely And as usual in our section a we have

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- all the things we see recording in progress the payroll and claims Credit card refunds minutes from

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- the last meeting and That sort of thing and then some some smaller contracts. So do we have a motion to?

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- Move to approve the consent calendar Move to approve the consent calendar Okay, and do we can we do

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- do we have to do roll call because Jim's up there, okay All right, so roll call vote of those in favor

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- Is really over half Kathleen knows I Ellen Rocky I Jim Whitlatch I Okay

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- Motion is carried past the consent calendar and then we move to section B our public hearings and appearances

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- and There is a Bravo award All right, good evening everyone Emily boo community relations coordinator

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- and I would like to recognize Alex Weissman with the August Bravo award Alex has been an adopted green

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- space volunteer since 2022

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- Focusing on the north end of the beeline trail from Fairview Street to Lampost 170 his punctuality and

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- thoroughness in his monthly reports have been a great asset to my records and to our urban green space

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- team in their efforts to locate and remove invasive species and hazards along his parcel because of

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- Alex's dedication to removing invasive species along this section of trail over 100 other volunteers

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- have experienced the importance of protecting our urban green space during weed wrangles and

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- other neighborhood outreach events and

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- We are very fortunate to have Alex as an adopt a green space volunteer for his longevity and consistency

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- for his reporting concerns and positive suggestions and for his care about the quality of our shared

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- environment Yeah, just like to say thank you very much for this award I really appreciate the recognition Yeah

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- Yeah, I started doing this, I guess, eight years ago when I first bought my house. And my yard was overrun

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- with Japanese knotweed and other bush honeysuckle, so I cleared all that out. And then I realized that

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- it was just coming in from the adjacent parcels and the beeline and everything, so I thought I should

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- do something about that too. So that's how I, you know,

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- got connected with Jillian and Joanna and the rest of the gang. So yeah, I realized invasive plants

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- don't really care about property boundaries or anything like that. So if I wanted to get my own yard

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- under control, I would need to help out with my neighbors and my surroundings. So that said, I'd actually

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- also like to take this opportunity to

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- To thank the city for everything it does to support the work of me and other volunteers And also, I

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- hope the city will consider expanding support for homeowners to tackle some of the bigger invasive plant

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- issues on their property especially large invasive trees that are more than I could do with a with a

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- handsaw and loppers I know we have a tree tree assistance program. So

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- It would be cool if we could you know expand that if the funds are available Yeah, thank you so much.

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- I really appreciate it. Thank you Alex really appreciate your Never-ending battle against invasive species

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- Okay, and then we have a staff introduction this evening so we will meet Molly who's New in the office. Yes

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- Hello, yes. I'm Molly. I'm the new office manager. I come from Illinois. My background's actually in

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- athletic training. My master's is in public health. And I originally started working managerial-wise

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- in physical therapy. So I managed a physical therapy office for four years. And then I came over to

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- Indiana with my husband. He's getting his PhD in education from IU. So then I worked at IU Health for

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- the past three years in primary care.

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- as their office manager. So I'm just excited to start with the Parks and Rec Department for fun. My

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- husband and I like to foster dogs. And then I also still do some athletic training on the side with

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- the local middle schools in the area. So that's me. All right. Welcome. Thank you. Yes. OK.

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- All right, and then in number three here in our public hearings and appearances We have an honorary

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- naming request for less coin, which Mick will tell us about It's odd to be back on this side of the

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- microphone Not that I haven't been on this side, but it's a pleasure to be here for this reason for

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- sure I'm Mick Renison former Parks and Recreation director Deputy mayor and now current golfer at Cascades

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- golf course and park user in general Molly are you gonna run the slideshow for us?

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- Sure First I'd like to thank Kathleen you for receiving the letter and taking it to this level to getting

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- it to the park board meeting and then also I want to thank Tim and Julie Ramey for their assistance

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- in helping us do some research when you have someone with the career as long as less had less coin that

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- was a parks board member for 44 years and

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- Tracing back some of the history takes a little bit of time and effort and grabbing some pictures that

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- were from the early years of his His work as a parks commissioner all the way to his last years were

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- something we wanted to capture in this presentation. So our request Because of those 44 years of service

00:07:05.676 --> 00:07:11.962
- less also served on the parks foundation almost that entire time is to rename or name the Griffey loop

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- trail in recognition of less is 44 years of service to the park board and

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- My colleague in crime is Mary Catherine Carmichael a former commissioner herself for a decade as well

00:07:24.489 --> 00:07:32.006
- as a former deputy mayor for the city There are a lot of accomplishments we could list but we try to

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- capture just some of the more salient and important ones Less was not responsible for 2,242 acres of

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- land being acquired here, but his footprints on the park system

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- to go back in time and say in 1978, what was exactly the number of park acres? Someone might be able

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- to research that. Maybe AI can find that for us, but it's been added to considerably since the 1970s

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- to today's acreage total of 2242 acres. That, by the way, is a significant amount for a park system

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- of our size, and I'm finding that out in my part-time consulting role I do when I travel around the

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- country and look at other people's systems.

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- I would put this one up against any of that I've seen Les was offered also particularly interested in

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- program expansion at the Banneker Community Center and the Allison jukebox Center Basically areas that

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- serve children and sometimes underprivileged populations as well I've already mentioned his decades

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- of service to the parks foundation board and we would not have our burgeoning Continuing trail system

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- without less is vision we started with the

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- trails and then added obviously the beeline the rail trail Cascades Park Trail and now I see the power

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- line trail being added to the system as well and the first significant trail addition short of the original

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- rail trail system was the Clear Creek Trail and the first phase of that was in 2000 so 26 years ago are now

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- pretty large trail system was started and that was in large part due to less is vision and Our interest

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- in and I'll get to a slide that talks about this community. Well, there it is the community engagement

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- efforts My first year as director was 1996 I was coming from the sports world if you'd have asked me

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- what I thought our community wanted I would have said a new ice arena or more basketball courts or Ten

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- more softball diamonds or something along that line because that's what I knew we did a survey again

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- at less is

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- urging in 1995 in preparation for one of the many master plans five-year master plans that the part

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- the department does and that survey said number one build trails It said that every five years throughout

00:09:48.052 --> 00:09:54.985
- my tenure for 20 years. It said build trails So thanks to less is kind of urgent or urgency or making

00:09:54.985 --> 00:10:01.850
- sure we were listening to the public our master plan has produced exactly what our public has wanted

00:10:01.850 --> 00:10:03.006
- six of those and

00:10:03.810 --> 00:10:09.975
- Less's tenure. I think this is kind of an interesting statistic. I didn't survive five mayors But but

00:10:09.975 --> 00:10:16.443
- less did and that's saying something because you all know you were appointed by the mayor of two four-year

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- terms so he was he went through a lot of mayors going back in time to Actually, his first one was Frank

00:10:22.729 --> 00:10:28.773
- McCluskey. That's his first appointment started in the McCluskey area here's some of the highlights

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- I think of

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- Facility assets. There's also program things but just some of the things the trail system we talked

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- about both municipal pools at Mills and Bryan Park were renovated The Twin Lakes ball fields were built

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- and the indoor sports complex now known as the Twin Lakes rec center was acquired The new golf course

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- at Cascades. I say new that was built in 2000 that was constructed at unless it does not play golf,

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- but he was good about listening to the community that wanted to see another asset constructed there and

00:10:59.682 --> 00:11:05.308
- the upper cascade skate park. None of us in the department knew much about skating. Again, we listened

00:11:05.308 --> 00:11:10.769
- to the public, and the users told us what they wanted, and that resulted in the upper cascade skate

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- park. But it was particularly interesting to watch Les attend those meetings with the audience that

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- skates in our community. And then Alcott Park, all of our playgrounds have been upgraded during Les's

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- tenure. Switchart Park, which the crown jewel, the last one I think he and I both saw it,

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- come to completion during our tenures with the city. And finally, the Griffey Lake improvements, and

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- those meant a lot to Les. Particularly Griffey Lake was a close, well-loved asset by Les Coyne. And

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- then these are just some of the results of, again, I think a leader who made sure that the department

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- and all of the staff knew that we should be doing things not just good, but with that extra 10% of effort.

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- And the next slide kind of talks about that. That's less in a nutshell. He was always like, just do

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- that extra 10%, Mick. That'll get us over the top. That's kind of the old good-to-great concept,

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- and for less, it was the extra 10%. And these are just some of the characteristics that we all benefited

00:12:14.931 --> 00:12:21.572
- from for less. Some other personal qualities. We had lunch every Thursday, and to talk about things,

00:12:21.572 --> 00:12:23.742
- I personally witnessed all those

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- Things from less I'm sure our staff did too. I'm sure they still do today and then here's just enclosing

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- some pictures of Some events that less attended. This is one of the Crestmont neighborhood events. I

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- Don't know what year All Cot Park you can see Joanne and Lloyd all caught at the dedication. This was

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- right around 2000 a very much younger version of me And less I supposed to would say that

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- This is less at the golf course grand opening of the new nine at Cascades where I do spend a lot of

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- time but he was good about As a non golfer making sure that that we were paying attention to the needs

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- of all of the residents recreation interest in our community This was mayor Allison with their hand

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- in the air That was former director norm Merrifield and this is celebrating the now Waldron Hill Buskirk

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- Park renovations that happened, you know I think this was like early 90s or so and

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- and the very beginning of our burgeoning trail system, the Clear Creek Trail, the very first phase.

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- This one probably not many people would remember, but this is the Seminary Wall Project, Seminary Park

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- Wall Project, the historic wall. Unfortunately, it doesn't look as nice today as it did then, but there's

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- Lloyd Alcott again, and Ted Deppie from our Parks Foundation, and Miles Brand, president of the Indiana

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- University. So it's a very historic site in Bloomington.

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- the original home of Indiana University as a seminary. Les and some fellow park commissioners, when

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- we were initially beginning to get people excited about the first phase of construction on the Beeline

00:14:00.410 --> 00:14:06.739
- Trail, that's right behind City Hall. Doesn't look that way today. And finally, our friend and colleague,

00:14:06.739 --> 00:14:12.709
- Les. So we really appreciate the opportunity for you to consider naming the Griffey Lake Loop Trail

00:14:12.709 --> 00:14:18.142
- with Les's name on it. I called him today and said, I don't want you to read about this or

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- Your brother who works at the city now tells you, hey, I didn't know they were going to name this.

00:14:23.633 --> 00:14:28.916
- I'm like, we don't know that they will name this. But in case someone asks you, Les, out in Oregon,

00:14:28.916 --> 00:14:34.358
- we are requesting that you all consider this naming request. And I'd be happy to answer any questions.

00:14:34.358 --> 00:14:39.747
- Well, thank you, Mick. And yeah, I would just add, when I first joined the Parks Board, I served with

00:14:39.747 --> 00:14:41.438
- Les in everything that you say.

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- Yeah, the memory that he had for all of the projects and yeah, as you mentioned, I mean, always pushing

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- things to be better. I definitely witnessed that, so yeah. Thank you for presenting that and I think,

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- any questions for Mick? I would second the, and fully support 100% this naming of less for this loop and

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- it seems to me the least we can do. When I was first asked to serve on the Parks Board, the only thing

00:15:18.234 --> 00:15:25.357
- that I've ever known about the Parks Board was Les Coyne because Les Coyne was the Parks Board as far

00:15:25.357 --> 00:15:32.340
- as I was concerned with apologies to all those others who have served on it well and done wonderful

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- things over the years, but Les was, is, and in my mind continues to be the Park Board. So I fully support

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- this naming of this loop trail in behalf of Les as a minimum recognition of his services over the years.

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- All right. Thank you. Thanks, Mick. You're welcome. Okay. Let's see. And then we move into our section

00:16:00.231 --> 00:16:08.414
- C, other business. And first up, we are going to have the election of secretary. So

00:16:09.282 --> 00:16:15.885
- That's Molly Yes, okay And just a note on the last item two that I've talked about with some

00:16:15.885 --> 00:16:22.986
- folks individually But today we accepted, you know, the third party letter as the recommendation We

00:16:22.986 --> 00:16:30.512
- can have conversations follow-up as needed and then I believe what we would do if we want to move forward

00:16:30.512 --> 00:16:38.110
- And the board is comfortable with that would be to introduce that via resolution. Yeah at a future meeting

00:16:38.498 --> 00:16:45.480
- So just wanted to give that procedural note there. And then in terms of moving into section C, election

00:16:45.480 --> 00:16:52.194
- of secretary, obviously, Kim Clapp has been retired since April. And Molly is here now and ready to

00:16:52.194 --> 00:16:59.108
- take on the reins of secretary. So I think we just need a motion, a second, and a vote on electing her

00:16:59.108 --> 00:17:05.822
- as secretary. All right. I'll make a motion to elect Molly Cochran as secretary of the Parks Board.

00:17:07.490 --> 00:17:17.664
- And a roll call vote of those in favor I'll do it Israel Herrera Kathleen knows I Ellen Rodkey. I Jim

00:17:17.664 --> 00:17:28.037
- Whitlatch He said I okay Okay. All right. Great. Well that passes unanimously and again, welcome Molly.

00:17:28.037 --> 00:17:37.214
- Yeah. Oh Jim can you say your vote again? It didn't quite come through I in favor Thank you

00:17:39.074 --> 00:17:47.490
- You know how lawyers are. Well, I know, and I noticed I was on mute. I apologize. OK. All right. And

00:17:47.490 --> 00:17:56.490
- then in item two, we have resolution 26-03 for adoption of some bylaws for the Board of Park Commissioners.

00:17:56.490 --> 00:18:04.823
- And it's my understanding there's just a push citywide to make sure that bylaws are in place. Yeah.

00:18:04.823 --> 00:18:08.990
- And we have some pretty obvious ones listed here.

00:18:09.954 --> 00:18:17.673
- Let's see, Molly, is there anything else to tell us about the bylaws here? No, the bylaws are what we

00:18:17.673 --> 00:18:25.467
- have been following in the guidance of the state of Indiana. We just need something officially written

00:18:25.467 --> 00:18:33.337
- down to be able to put on onboard so it's public accessible that we are following these bylaws and they

00:18:33.337 --> 00:18:38.558
- are the same as the code of Indiana already states. Okay. All right.

00:18:41.666 --> 00:18:54.189
- Motion to approve resolution to adopt resolution 26-03 All right in a roll call vote of those in favor

00:18:54.189 --> 00:19:07.198
- Israel Herrera Kathleen Mills aye Ellen Rodkey. I Jim Whitlach. I Okay motion is carried bylaws are passed

00:19:07.778 --> 00:19:15.108
- And then in item three, we have the agreement with Championship Greens for port-in-place repairs.

00:19:15.108 --> 00:19:23.112
- And Amy, you're not Amy. I am not Amy. Thanks for noticing. Mark Moratz, operations superintendent filling

00:19:23.112 --> 00:19:30.816
- in for Amy. And I'm here to recommend approval of a contract with Championship Greens to complete some

00:19:30.816 --> 00:19:35.678
- repairs for port-in-place servicing at five different locations.

00:19:35.874 --> 00:19:43.633
- for the amount of $69,957 we've we went around all of our playgrounds this a Couple months ago looking

00:19:43.633 --> 00:19:51.393
- at all the conditions of these surfaces and deemed that these were five that needed to be repaired for

00:19:51.393 --> 00:19:59.152
- a lot of safety reasons RCA is one of them that is currently a tiled surfacing there that kind of like

00:19:59.152 --> 00:20:04.350
- Brian taught lot last year where there was forming gaps and a lot of

00:20:04.994 --> 00:20:12.642
- It's a curling of it causing trip hazards That will be a complete removal and redo of that area And

00:20:12.642 --> 00:20:20.290
- the lower cascade and the swing set area. There'll be complete removal and repairing that replacing

00:20:20.290 --> 00:20:27.938
- that actually Southeast Park and Highland Village, and I feel like a mr. Crestmont is the other one

00:20:27.938 --> 00:20:33.598
- Okay And is that I can't remember from the previous ones is that is that?

00:20:33.954 --> 00:20:40.037
- There have to be closed for a number of days to let it kind of settle and some of these will have to

00:20:40.037 --> 00:20:46.120
- be closed for a couple of days Yeah, RCA will definitely have to be closed down for a couple of days

00:20:46.120 --> 00:20:52.202
- Crestmont Should be able to just be a repair. It's just the top cap that they're doing really no sub

00:20:52.202 --> 00:20:58.586
- base removal So all they got to do is add that new color code on top, okay? All right any other questions

00:20:58.586 --> 00:20:59.550
- about this one?

00:21:02.754 --> 00:21:14.166
- the contract the championship greens for foreign police repairs Okay, and a roll call vote of those

00:21:14.166 --> 00:21:25.578
- in favor I Jim Whitlatch, I Okay motion carry. Thank you All right, and then in number four we have

00:21:25.578 --> 00:21:30.942
- the Duke easement agreement Which you're gonna

00:21:31.234 --> 00:21:37.940
- Director will be covering this one for Rebecca this evening This is a very minor easement acquisition

00:21:37.940 --> 00:21:44.712
- for Duke Energy They brought this to us. They requested they said along Leonard Springs Road just west

00:21:44.712 --> 00:21:51.353
- of the Nature Preserve They need to drop a new guy wire for their line it's tens of square feet They

00:21:51.353 --> 00:21:57.928
- just needed to extend their easement a little farther to be able to do that They will pay the Parks

00:21:57.928 --> 00:21:59.966
- Department a sum of one dollar

00:22:00.546 --> 00:22:09.400
- Okay, and we're okay with that we are yes, it's it's the edge of the preserve it's right along the road

00:22:09.400 --> 00:22:18.255
- There's very minimal impact. Okay All right any questions for Tim about this one Yes, yes, they brought

00:22:18.255 --> 00:22:26.854
- it to us with a request for that for their line integrity they needed to add this Yeah Probably cost

00:22:26.854 --> 00:22:30.174
- more money to record this than it does

00:22:30.882 --> 00:22:41.141
- Thankfully, we'll send it I'll make a motion to approve the Modified easement with Duke energy for guy

00:22:41.141 --> 00:22:51.599
- wire placement Okay, and a roll call vote of those in favor is real Kara Kathleen Mills. I Ellen Rodkey.

00:22:51.599 --> 00:22:59.966
- I Jim Woodlatch. I Okay motion is carried and then in number five in this section I

00:23:00.450 --> 00:23:06.731
- Tim will tell us about the 2027 general fund budget as it is budget season Yes, thank you Tim Street

00:23:06.731 --> 00:23:13.073
- parks director I am asking tonight that the board of commissioners provides a positive recommendation

00:23:13.073 --> 00:23:19.354
- on the passage of this budget Just a general reminder that the board of committee park commissioners

00:23:19.354 --> 00:23:25.759
- is responsible is the fiscal legislative body for the non-reverting account City council is the fiscal

00:23:25.759 --> 00:23:30.174
- legislative body for the general fund account So we will approach that

00:23:30.402 --> 00:23:36.126
- Accordingly with the two staff reports here But it is always helpful and I like to bring you know to

00:23:36.126 --> 00:23:41.793
- you what I'm gonna be presenting to council So the park board can can see and be behind what we are

00:23:41.793 --> 00:23:47.631
- presenting to council. I have 20 minutes to present to council We will be presenting on Mondays budget

00:23:47.631 --> 00:23:53.298
- hearing around 530 or just thereafter I'm gonna try to not give you the full 20 minute presentation

00:23:53.298 --> 00:23:58.965
- right now because you as board of park commissioners Do you already know a lot of the stuff that we

00:23:58.965 --> 00:24:00.382
- do? You're a little more

00:24:00.546 --> 00:24:06.486
- Insiders than the City Council is but I would like to just kind of tell you What it is we're working

00:24:06.486 --> 00:24:12.485
- towards so parks and rec makes Bloomington a resilient healthier and more connected place to live and

00:24:12.485 --> 00:24:18.366
- play We're gonna talk about our master plan I know you all have heard me talk about our master plan

00:24:18.366 --> 00:24:24.248
- and the priorities that came out of it I'm going to be sharing those with council again An overview

00:24:24.248 --> 00:24:28.894
- of our department as it currently stands. We have 64 full-time staff positions

00:24:29.474 --> 00:24:36.073
- We have 87 permanent part-time employees Permanent just means there's no time limit on their part-time

00:24:36.073 --> 00:24:42.543
- employment with us That's actually a change that the department's made in the last year plus when we

00:24:42.543 --> 00:24:49.270
- got that category of employment allowed by our human resources department That does not count additional

00:24:49.270 --> 00:24:55.869
- seasonal temporary staff all told unique staff members that we have in a year Excluding full-time it's

00:24:55.869 --> 00:24:56.638
- in the 400s

00:24:57.090 --> 00:25:03.750
- So it's a lot of people that work for us across a year With uncertain revenues and property tax and

00:25:03.750 --> 00:25:10.410
- local income tax things yet to be determined and swirling We set out to prepare as flat of a budget

00:25:10.410 --> 00:25:17.336
- as possible Very difficult right now with the rising cost of everything with wage increases with things

00:25:17.336 --> 00:25:24.062
- like that So some total our budget is up about 4% in terms of the budgeted amount year over year and

00:25:24.322 --> 00:25:30.913
- and key budget needs and issues we're gonna be talking about in 2027 are maintaining and enhancing our

00:25:30.913 --> 00:25:37.312
- level of service. This goes back to our first master plan goal, continuing our meaningful community

00:25:37.312 --> 00:25:43.903
- impact, revenue streams are tighter, things are more expensive. We've seen partners, nonprofits in the

00:25:43.903 --> 00:25:50.302
- community even shutting down like Curls Inc. It's a tough time and so maintaining what we offer the

00:25:50.302 --> 00:25:52.414
- community is our first priority.

00:25:52.834 --> 00:25:59.176
- Also planning and investing in capital needs the board will be hearing much more about that at our special

00:25:59.176 --> 00:26:05.103
- September meeting And then this one's kind of broad but implementing priorities and actions that we

00:26:05.103 --> 00:26:11.149
- determined from the master plan Some quick 26 highlights that we're gonna mention to council as a way

00:26:11.149 --> 00:26:17.076
- of just sharing, you know a slice of everything it is that we do We've had these really great grand

00:26:17.076 --> 00:26:21.758
- balloon partnerships with IU arts and humanities There's a third one coming up

00:26:21.954 --> 00:26:29.023
- August 29th at switch yard Lots of natural resource and nature and urban green space highlights We achieved

00:26:29.023 --> 00:26:36.157
- Bee City USA certification for the first time thanks to Joanna and a group That worked on that certification

00:26:36.157 --> 00:26:42.833
- had another prescribed fire have maintained our bird town certification And in spring, I thought this

00:26:42.833 --> 00:26:49.575
- was a great highlight of the way that we provide connection with nature There was a very popular great

00:26:49.575 --> 00:26:50.622
- horned owl nest

00:26:50.786 --> 00:26:57.778
- on the Jackson Creek Trail that drew a crowd every day for probably a month. Sports, I wanted to mention,

00:26:57.778 --> 00:27:04.704
- I'm very proud. We have reduced rainouts at Winslow Sports Park by about 50% since last year. Of course,

00:27:04.704 --> 00:27:11.762
- some of that is weather dependent out of our hands, but a significant portion of that, I can't say exactly

00:27:11.762 --> 00:27:18.491
- how much, is also management practices by the staff, figuring out how to take care of and keep things

00:27:18.491 --> 00:27:19.678
- from raining out.

00:27:19.810 --> 00:27:26.357
- We've had far fewer frustrations, complaints, things like that coming to us from our baseball and softball

00:27:26.357 --> 00:27:32.659
- teams this year. I stopped by Twin Lakes recently, and there was a really, really strong seniors class

00:27:32.659 --> 00:27:39.022
- Wednesday mornings with about 40 seniors doing group exercise. Really great to see the different things

00:27:39.022 --> 00:27:45.386
- we do for the community. Community events, you know, by the end of the year, we'll have probably around

00:27:45.386 --> 00:27:49.118
- a million participations in our various events and programs.

00:27:49.474 --> 00:27:55.627
- sports leagues, things like that. A lot of those are our large community events, like the 4th of July

00:27:55.627 --> 00:28:01.719
- Parade, which is not exactly the 4th of July Parade seen here, but it's the aftermath on the beeline

00:28:01.719 --> 00:28:07.811
- of everyone coming and going from it. Youth Day at the Market, we will have four of those this year.

00:28:07.811 --> 00:28:13.903
- Those have been incredibly popular, and it's really fun to go visit and see what the kids are coming

00:28:13.903 --> 00:28:18.910
- up with and sharing. We've been able to get $60,000 plus in grants from the state,

00:28:19.010 --> 00:28:27.229
- for Banneker repairs, thousands of participations at Banneker camps. Other highlights, Urban Forestry's

00:28:27.229 --> 00:28:35.448
- had a $40,000 tree assistance program that's gone out to 17 households at or below the AMI to deal with

00:28:35.448 --> 00:28:42.718
- hazard trees on their property. That's through funding from the ESD department. City Legal,

00:28:42.946 --> 00:28:48.650
- Parks and engineering all work together to save about half of the trees that were slated to go out for

00:28:48.650 --> 00:28:54.464
- an in dot project on 10th Street. That is a significant win. We're gonna have the power line trail built

00:28:54.464 --> 00:29:00.500
- in another year or another month or so here. Installed new lights at the switch yard pavilion and operations

00:29:00.500 --> 00:29:06.093
- division has been working with ESD on a significant epic grant for energy efficiency improvements at

00:29:06.093 --> 00:29:08.862
- the Busker Chumlee Theater. Lots of great things.

00:29:09.378 --> 00:29:15.372
- The goals I'm going to be talking to council about include maintaining and enhancing our community impact,

00:29:15.372 --> 00:29:21.199
- investing in critical capital needs, updating our website registration and communication systems, which

00:29:21.199 --> 00:29:26.969
- that goal is a bit of an amalgamation of several different strategic actions that we identified in the

00:29:26.969 --> 00:29:32.796
- master plan, and updating our reporting on core performance metrics. So just to talk to you about those

00:29:32.796 --> 00:29:38.174
- four I'm gonna be talking about. The first goal, maintain enhanced community impact aligns with

00:29:38.498 --> 00:29:44.803
- almost verbatim, our first master plan priority. Significantly, we had to reabsorb security costs from

00:29:44.803 --> 00:29:51.109
- ARPA funding, which is no longer available. That is about half of the budget increase we're seeing for

00:29:51.109 --> 00:29:57.414
- next year, so we saw about a $500,000 increase. 250,000 of that is park security. It's still important

00:29:57.414 --> 00:30:03.658
- that we have park security, but we have made a cut from 2026 levels, knowing that we have to reabsorb

00:30:03.658 --> 00:30:07.454
- this back into the general fund. We've cut between 30 and 35%

00:30:07.650 --> 00:30:14.566
- of that budget, we believe we can continue to have effective security at that level while I hope, eventually,

00:30:14.566 --> 00:30:20.916
- to not need park-contracted security, at least not in any great quantity, or not for special events.

00:30:20.916 --> 00:30:27.454
- You're gonna hear me and staff talking about a focus on quality and partners and collaborators. We have

00:30:27.454 --> 00:30:33.993
- some really good examples of ways that we've focused on quality over quantity. For example, we're gonna

00:30:33.993 --> 00:30:36.382
- be thinking about that with concerts,

00:30:36.866 --> 00:30:43.298
- The Juneteenth example that happened, well, on June 19th was, I think, a really great example

00:30:43.298 --> 00:30:50.483
- of collaborating with partners for a really big, really great event, looking for ways to combine forces,

00:30:50.483 --> 00:30:57.667
- put on really high quality events. Grand Faloon is another example, and continuing on that trend. You're

00:30:57.667 --> 00:31:04.578
- gonna be hearing from us about investing in critical capital needs, a plan to issue a potential bond

00:31:04.578 --> 00:31:06.494
- in 2027, around $7 million.

00:31:06.722 --> 00:31:13.720
- we will be issuing a report and talking about that in September about the department's recommended priorities

00:31:13.720 --> 00:31:20.081
- for investment so we can get board feedback and public feedback on those priorities. In our general

00:31:20.081 --> 00:31:26.633
- fund for 27, the $245,000 in there does cover some critical things we need like backflow repairs, some

00:31:26.633 --> 00:31:33.758
- equipment, a new dump truck to replace an aging dump truck that's on the fritz, and some roofing related items.

00:31:35.714 --> 00:31:41.673
- Lastly, I mentioned this goal is a bit of an amalgamation of several different strategic actions. The

00:31:41.673 --> 00:31:47.631
- master plan did identify some needs in this area and we worked on some actions from that to modernize

00:31:47.631 --> 00:31:53.473
- and improve our reach and user experience across platforms. We've had a software action team really

00:31:53.473 --> 00:31:59.490
- diving in and looking at the software we use for registration, for promoting programs, whether we need

00:31:59.490 --> 00:32:04.222
- to enhance the one we're currently with or whether we need to move to a new one.

00:32:04.322 --> 00:32:10.109
- We've already been looking into that. That ties into broader efforts across the city that we've heard

00:32:10.109 --> 00:32:16.237
- about to update the city's website, which is desperately needed, and we're really hoping that that advances

00:32:16.237 --> 00:32:22.024
- in 2027, as well as relates to how we mail out the program guide and what's in it. If you notice, the

00:32:22.024 --> 00:32:27.924
- program guide you receive this time is about half the pages that it was before. Julie and her team have

00:32:27.924 --> 00:32:33.598
- been working on that to communicate critical information while also finding ways to save some cost.

00:32:34.786 --> 00:32:40.856
- I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the great success of our digital content team too and the reach and

00:32:40.856 --> 00:32:47.104
- engagement that they continue to have with social media and growing our presence there. And then lastly,

00:32:47.104 --> 00:32:53.293
- updating our core performance metrics. We were talking recently in our leadership team meeting and sort

00:32:53.293 --> 00:32:59.422
- of kind of had an epiphany and a recognition that you know what, over the past three, four years we've

00:33:00.162 --> 00:33:06.086
- Changed systems a lot in terms of how we report on goals to City Council and we had at first we had

00:33:06.086 --> 00:33:12.188
- Trello goals we had budget goals and Our department I think more than any other department in the city

00:33:12.188 --> 00:33:18.112
- is very diverse in terms of what we do the type of metrics and goals we're going to be tracking for

00:33:18.112 --> 00:33:24.037
- urban forestry are very different than community events are very different from cemeteries are very

00:33:24.037 --> 00:33:26.110
- different from Winslow Sports Park

00:33:26.338 --> 00:33:32.183
- But each area does have key things that they track and we're gonna be looking at that to bring it together

00:33:32.183 --> 00:33:37.865
- into a dashboard Universalizing as much as possible some of those metrics and then creating a dashboard

00:33:37.865 --> 00:33:43.546
- I'm not gonna say it's gonna be live because that's a lot of work but frequently updated dashboard That

00:33:43.546 --> 00:33:49.173
- we can have to share our community impact Those are the main things I wanted to hit on from the budget

00:33:49.173 --> 00:33:53.598
- presentation here I think the rest of the things you're somewhat aware of I will

00:33:53.698 --> 00:33:59.992
- We'll go through this slide and then I'll take any questions that you have. Overall, if you look across

00:33:59.992 --> 00:34:06.044
- our inventory of programs and initiatives from 26 to 27, they're largely the same. We're focused on

00:34:06.044 --> 00:34:12.095
- maintaining quality, partnerships, collaborations, all of those things that I just talked about. We

00:34:12.095 --> 00:34:18.147
- do plan to invest further in resiliency towards the city's climate action plan with electrification

00:34:18.147 --> 00:34:22.686
- funding from ESD. There'll be another $100,000 investment there next year.

00:34:23.362 --> 00:34:29.848
- the rec division is currently really reevaluating the direction and Purpose of our health and wellness

00:34:29.848 --> 00:34:36.146
- area and our partnership with IU School of Public Health They have a new Dean and potentially a new

00:34:36.146 --> 00:34:42.695
- emphasis on health and wellness again Which we're really interested in exploring from a recreation lens

00:34:42.695 --> 00:34:48.993
- And we're going to be partnering with City Bloomington utilities in looking at Stormwater detention

00:34:48.993 --> 00:34:53.086
- drainage at Winslow Sports Park. There's a three acre playground

00:34:53.442 --> 00:35:00.442
- playground parking lot there with zero type of stormwater interventions at all. And so every bit of

00:35:00.442 --> 00:35:07.931
- rain that falls on that parking lot runs off and out of that park, sometimes quite rapidly. And partnering

00:35:07.931 --> 00:35:15.210
- with CBU, we can do something really great there that can serve as a model for the community. I do have

00:35:15.210 --> 00:35:21.790
- a chart. This is our 2027 budget overall. You can see our personnel expenses are up about 3%.

00:35:21.954 --> 00:35:28.878
- That is due to cost of living adjustment, living wage increase, and tenure steps for staff. So very

00:35:28.878 --> 00:35:35.802
- much a fixed raise going across there. Supplies are up just a little bit, a marginal amount. Things

00:35:35.802 --> 00:35:43.142
- are more expensive. And then services are up largely because of that $250,000 coming back into the budget

00:35:43.142 --> 00:35:49.374
- for security. However, we've made some other cuts. The other things that have gone up are

00:35:49.666 --> 00:35:56.142
- and getting more expensive, our utilities are all going up across the board. And we've seen things like

00:35:56.142 --> 00:36:02.369
- liability, casualty, premiums going up quite heftily as well. So we have been able to mitigate that

00:36:02.369 --> 00:36:08.720
- somewhat with cuts in that area, but the 300 services line is up. And our capital line is largely the

00:36:08.720 --> 00:36:15.382
- same, similar to last year, and I touched on those items that are in there. We do project a budget deficit

00:36:15.382 --> 00:36:18.558
- again. The department typically enters a year with

00:36:18.786 --> 00:36:25.067
- a budget deficit on paper. I looked up some history of that just so we're familiar with our comfort

00:36:25.067 --> 00:36:31.411
- level with that. We have about $4.7 million cash reserve coming into the year in our general fund, a

00:36:31.411 --> 00:36:38.195
- very healthy reserve. Over the last five years, we've added about $2 million to that reserve with surpluses

00:36:38.195 --> 00:36:44.476
- in four of the past five years. On average, we started each of those five years with a $1.4 million

00:36:44.476 --> 00:36:46.046
- budget deficit on paper.

00:36:46.498 --> 00:36:53.735
- And then we have outperformed our revenue goals by about 107% and underperformed our spending to a tune

00:36:53.735 --> 00:37:00.693
- of about 88%. So starting with the deficit on paper is actually okay and advantageous to us because

00:37:00.693 --> 00:37:07.930
- we know there's some built-in savings throughout the year. This year, because of our expenses have gone

00:37:07.930 --> 00:37:15.028
- up 4%, but our property tax revenues have not gone up. They are flat. That deficit has grown a bit to

00:37:15.028 --> 00:37:16.350
- around $2 million.

00:37:17.090 --> 00:37:23.630
- We know that we will not finish, you know performance wise with the two million dollar deficit and that

00:37:23.630 --> 00:37:30.547
- we have cash reserves so I feel Comfortable with with where we are going into this year, but some longer-term

00:37:30.547 --> 00:37:37.150
- determinations are really gonna hinge on city and county discussions about property tax and still trying

00:37:37.150 --> 00:37:43.564
- to just understand the implications of Senate enrolled Act one there's a lot still not known and then

00:37:43.564 --> 00:37:44.382
- working with

00:37:44.706 --> 00:37:50.369
- The controller on their response with the county. There's some different levers that are held in different

00:37:50.369 --> 00:37:55.714
- places about local income tax, which could replace some of the growth we're going to be missing from

00:37:55.714 --> 00:38:01.112
- property tax. It's a very interesting time. We're lucky that we have stable, healthy, segregated cash

00:38:01.112 --> 00:38:06.404
- reserves for our department. I think cash reserves are meant for times like this, so we know we can

00:38:06.404 --> 00:38:11.749
- have stability, not have to make knee-jerk reactions or cuts while we figure out the bigger picture.

00:38:11.749 --> 00:38:14.078
- But there are long-term concerns lingering.

00:38:16.162 --> 00:38:26.715
- Will be happy to address any questions or concerns that you might have about the general fund budget

00:38:26.715 --> 00:38:37.790
- I Wanted to rent a shelter or on the registration process or rent a ball field and I guess my question is

00:38:39.266 --> 00:38:46.096
- Since it is wrapped up in the city website stuff. I mean is there is parks solely responsible for coming

00:38:46.096 --> 00:38:52.730
- up with a better registration system or could there be a Citywide overhaul that parks could be a part

00:38:52.730 --> 00:38:59.560
- of and this would be more streamlined this registration and good question so the the actual registration

00:38:59.560 --> 00:39:06.259
- system which we would take and use and in some regards already use the one we have is registration for

00:39:06.259 --> 00:39:08.926
- programs registration for sports leagues

00:39:09.026 --> 00:39:16.054
- Twin Lakes uses it for memberships Several areas also use it for point-of-sale merchandise Concessions

00:39:16.054 --> 00:39:23.286
- things like that. We're not consistent and part of what we want to do is one Minimize as many pay systems

00:39:23.286 --> 00:39:30.109
- as possible down into one streamlined Registration parks software. So there are softwares out there

00:39:30.109 --> 00:39:36.931
- that are basically built specifically for parks departments So that part is us You know, we already

00:39:36.931 --> 00:39:38.910
- have an amount in the budget

00:39:39.042 --> 00:39:45.045
- that we pay annually for our registration software. We're gonna compare costs with other ones out there,

00:39:45.045 --> 00:39:50.763
- features, things like that, and look at that. Those softwares typically integrate pretty seamlessly

00:39:50.763 --> 00:39:56.767
- with a city's website, and so there would be a moment where you're on our website and it says, you know,

00:39:56.767 --> 00:40:02.027
- click here for program registration, and then you would seamlessly move to the website that

00:40:02.027 --> 00:40:03.742
- is the registration software.

00:40:04.546 --> 00:40:11.200
- maybe without even realizing that you've gone to a separate system. So there's two things at play there.

00:40:11.200 --> 00:40:17.601
- One is we've gotta be reliant on the city's greater efforts to update the website in general, but we

00:40:17.601 --> 00:40:24.128
- have control over the registration software. Okay, all right, thank you for that. I hope I didn't just

00:40:24.128 --> 00:40:30.592
- accidentally reserve a baseball field, but I was just trying to see what was on there. All right, any

00:40:30.592 --> 00:40:34.078
- other questions for Tim about the general fund budget?

00:40:40.834 --> 00:40:51.296
- Yes All right, do we want to move to Put our support behind is Jim was good, too. I don't know. Does

00:40:51.296 --> 00:41:02.275
- Jim have any questions? No, okay. Okay. All right. Thanks. All right. Well, I'll make a motion to approve

00:41:02.275 --> 00:41:07.454
- or to move the 2027 parks journal fund budget and

00:41:07.714 --> 00:41:17.725
- forward to the City Council with a positive recommendation Okay in a roll call vote those in favor Israel

00:41:17.725 --> 00:41:27.546
- Herrera Kathleen Mills. I Ellen Rocky. I Jim Whitlach I Okay motion is carried to support Tim's general

00:41:27.546 --> 00:41:36.990
- fund budget for 2027 and then in item six Tim will also tell us about the 2027 non reverting budget

00:41:37.890 --> 00:41:45.042
- Yes, thank you for putting up with more of me here So this time I'm going to recommend that the board

00:41:45.042 --> 00:41:52.264
- of park commissioners Just reviews the 2027 non-reverting budget. So a couple procedural reminders the

00:41:52.264 --> 00:41:59.275
- 20 the non-reverting budget is dictated by local city code in chapter Excuse me entitled to chapter

00:41:59.275 --> 00:42:07.198
- 20 that designates certain entrepreneurial revenues to be able to go into a separate parks non-reverting account

00:42:07.298 --> 00:42:12.948
- which is then underneath the fiscal authority of the Board of Park Commissioners. This is a chance to

00:42:12.948 --> 00:42:18.543
- review the non-reverting budget. We do not need to have specific action on it tonight. The next step

00:42:18.543 --> 00:42:24.249
- would be if there are no concerns or no changes, we would bring a resolution to the board at the start

00:42:24.249 --> 00:42:29.789
- of the new year to adopt this budget. However, we've learned in past years that it's best for us to

00:42:29.789 --> 00:42:35.550
- maintain the same schedule with non-reverting and present it to you with the general fund because there

00:42:35.550 --> 00:42:36.990
- are certainly some things

00:42:37.442 --> 00:42:44.264
- can go back and forth, and the timeline that we work with the controller, it's important to dovetail

00:42:44.264 --> 00:42:51.086
- these together. I don't have a presentation on this one. It's a little more straightforward. And the

00:42:51.086 --> 00:42:57.908
- table in the staff report first really tells the story that our non-reverting account is healthy. We

00:42:57.908 --> 00:43:04.731
- do budget a slight deficit in the non-reverting as well. Not as much. I'm sorry, Tim, I'm sorry. The

00:43:04.731 --> 00:43:06.014
- link in our agenda

00:43:06.274 --> 00:43:13.562
- is taking me to a second copy of the general fund budget. So I don't think we have a staff report for

00:43:13.562 --> 00:43:20.779
- the non-reverting. OK, I can get that. It's the same thing. No, I have two different things. So that

00:43:20.779 --> 00:43:28.353
- worksheet, but then those two. But that's just the general fund budget again. It's the same amount twice.

00:43:28.353 --> 00:43:35.998
- When I click the link in the staff report, the one that says budget overview worksheet, that is pulling up

00:43:36.866 --> 00:43:46.051
- PDF of the non-reverting by category for 2027. Is that what you're getting? Yeah, so if I click budget

00:43:46.051 --> 00:43:55.236
- worksheet I get like a table, but then when I click staff report, I'm just getting the same memo again

00:43:55.236 --> 00:44:04.510
- The same general fund memo. Yeah So just didn't know if you have a separate cover sheet oh Yes, we do I

00:44:04.930 --> 00:44:11.287
- And if it's something we just want to take a look at later, if you don't mind. We can, since we don't

00:44:11.287 --> 00:44:17.520
- need specific action tonight. But if you have that worksheet pulled up. Yeah, I have the worksheet.

00:44:17.520 --> 00:44:23.752
- We generally have the same information in there. Sure. So we can take a look at that right now. OK.

00:44:23.752 --> 00:44:30.421
- The only thing you're really missing was some of the background I was just talking about. And importantly,

00:44:30.421 --> 00:44:34.846
- there's one table comparing 26 to 27. In 2026, Molly is pulling it up.

00:44:35.458 --> 00:44:44.145
- and we can make this available. In 2026, we budgeted a deficit of 172,000 in the non-reverting out of

00:44:44.145 --> 00:44:52.917
- about 2.3 million expense. For 2027, we're actually reducing that deficit. We're already outperforming

00:44:52.917 --> 00:45:01.945
- our revenue by quite a bit in non-reverting. This year, we're pretty conservative. The net budget deficit

00:45:01.945 --> 00:45:04.926
- for next year is negative 116,000.

00:45:05.474 --> 00:45:12.254
- I feel very comfortable that we've actually moved that one in a good direction, reduced the budget deficit

00:45:12.254 --> 00:45:18.590
- there, and have this going in a good direction. Most of this is similar program support as previous

00:45:18.590 --> 00:45:25.053
- years. Significantly, there's a couple expenses in category four in non-reverting, namely one at Twin

00:45:25.053 --> 00:45:31.262
- Lakes to refinish the floors, which is a regular periodic maintenance item that needs to be done.

00:45:31.362 --> 00:45:38.115
- And one at Twin Lakes Sports Park to replace degraded railing that is in poor shape So all of the category

00:45:38.115 --> 00:45:44.806
- information that the staff report really summarizes what's in this table So you have the full information

00:45:44.806 --> 00:45:51.117
- at your fingertips and we can can look at this over the coming months before we have to appropriate

00:45:51.117 --> 00:45:57.808
- Via resolution in January and resolve any questions or issues, but I will be happy to talk about anything

00:45:57.808 --> 00:45:59.070
- right now if needed

00:46:06.242 --> 00:46:14.048
- All right, any other questions or comments for Tim So we can just hold off on any action on this yes,

00:46:14.048 --> 00:46:21.778
- we'll make sure we we Amend and get that staff report out appropriately so that you can look at this

00:46:21.778 --> 00:46:29.431
- and then if there are any concerns before we make you know An appropriation resolution at the start

00:46:29.431 --> 00:46:34.558
- of the year. We would want to discuss that ahead of time All right

00:46:36.162 --> 00:46:45.226
- I Have it open and I think Molly has it open. Yes, so we will We will redistribute that appropriately

00:46:45.226 --> 00:46:54.113
- Thank you. Thanks. Okay. Thank you Tim and then in the report section this evening first one Leslie

00:46:54.113 --> 00:47:02.288
- Brinson will tell us about Benchmarking which I thought was interesting idea. There you go.

00:47:02.288 --> 00:47:04.510
- Is that your idea? Uh, I

00:47:04.738 --> 00:47:11.788
- It was a joint effort between Tim and I. Each year, the National Parks and Recreation Association puts

00:47:11.788 --> 00:47:18.701
- together... Was that a nice way of saying that? I forgot to introduce myself to you. Leslie Brinson,

00:47:18.701 --> 00:47:25.957
- Recreation Division Director. Each year, the National Parks and Recreation Association puts out an agency

00:47:25.957 --> 00:47:33.486
- performance review report. In this particular year, over 800 organizations, 850 agencies provided information

00:47:33.486 --> 00:47:34.718
- into this report.

00:47:35.042 --> 00:47:41.897
- We also entered our information into this metric system They pull all the data together and put it into

00:47:41.897 --> 00:47:48.619
- a report so that you can see where your parks system is Relative to other park systems. They do break

00:47:48.619 --> 00:47:55.408
- it down Not only as just general park systems, but depending on the number of people in your community

00:47:55.408 --> 00:48:02.526
- You can compare yourself to similar type organizations. So Tim and I took the report and we pulled out some

00:48:03.458 --> 00:48:10.438
- Metrics benchmarking items that we thought were appropriate and just kind of compared to where we are

00:48:10.438 --> 00:48:17.828
- with again parks departments with a similar size community The numbers are based on 2025 And it's important

00:48:17.828 --> 00:48:24.877
- to note that not everybody thinks of the terms the same so when we talk about trails it might mean one

00:48:24.877 --> 00:48:27.614
- thing another community might include a

00:48:27.714 --> 00:48:34.556
- Sidewalk message, you know what? I mean like so some of the language or so. It's not an exact science.

00:48:34.556 --> 00:48:41.796
- I guess I would say But you can see the first one in properties trails and assets a typical parks department

00:48:41.796 --> 00:48:48.904
- of our size has one park for every 2333 residents in Bloomington we have one park for every 2450 residents

00:48:48.904 --> 00:48:53.022
- so we're right on par for what we do that number does include

00:48:53.154 --> 00:49:00.563
- Parks nature reserve cemeteries, but does not include things like Banneker or Frank Southern or places

00:49:00.563 --> 00:49:08.116
- that might also have green space. It is truly just talking about parks and trails The next one a typical

00:49:08.116 --> 00:49:15.166
- parks and rec agency manages seven point seven acres of parkland per 1,000 residents we manage 28

00:49:15.330 --> 00:49:21.651
- 2.1 acres of parkland for 1,000 residents. So it's a pretty drastic increase of the amount of space

00:49:21.651 --> 00:49:28.099
- that we are managing I think it also goes to we might have less parks But our parks tend to be bigger

00:49:28.099 --> 00:49:34.547
- in size and so a lot of communities might have a lot more Neighborhood or smaller parks which changes

00:49:34.547 --> 00:49:41.374
- how many parks they have per residents we have less parks, but they tend to have larger acreage in them and

00:49:42.658 --> 00:49:52.816
- Overall agencies tend to have one playground per 3,656 residents. We have one playground per 2,975 residents.

00:49:52.816 --> 00:49:59.742
- So in general, we have more playgrounds than a typical agency of our size.

00:50:00.546 --> 00:50:07.551
- Most agencies of our size manage or maintain 18 miles of trails. We do 34 miles of trails I think it

00:50:07.551 --> 00:50:14.626
- speaks highly to what Mick was saying about how our community just continues to ask for trails and we

00:50:14.626 --> 00:50:17.470
- continue to deliver at a impressive rate

00:50:18.306 --> 00:50:24.445
- On the staffing level typical parks and recreation has twelve point two FTEs for every ten thousand

00:50:24.445 --> 00:50:30.645
- residents We have fifteen point one FTEs for every ten thousand residents So we do have a little bit

00:50:30.645 --> 00:50:37.214
- more staffing per resident. That is a combination of full-time and seasonal hours worked in that statistic

00:50:37.986 --> 00:50:45.850
- From an expense and revenue side, a typical parks agency has an operating expenditure per capita of

00:50:45.850 --> 00:50:53.950
- $131.13. We have a per capita spending of $158.12, so we're spending more per person in our community.

00:50:54.594 --> 00:51:02.126
- A typical Parks and Recreation recovers 34% of their annual operating expenditures from their non-tax

00:51:02.126 --> 00:51:09.806
- revenue. We recover 36% from non-tax revenue, so we're right on par there. So that's that non-reverting

00:51:09.806 --> 00:51:17.116
- budget you were just looking at. And a typical Parks and Rec Agency has $43.19 revenue per capita.

00:51:17.116 --> 00:51:23.614
- We have 57.8 revenue per capita. So we're making a little bit money per person as well.

00:51:25.698 --> 00:51:30.654
- Programming wise the report is way more

00:51:30.754 --> 00:51:37.424
- budget and property and less about programming, but we wanted to make sure we at least added one programming

00:51:37.424 --> 00:51:43.789
- note so that you could we could highlight our staff the typical Park and Rec agency offers 300 programs

00:51:43.789 --> 00:51:49.908
- annually and of those 80% of them are fee based we offer 325 programs annually and only 60% of ours

00:51:49.908 --> 00:51:56.211
- are free base or fee based so we're offering not only more programming, but we're offering more either

00:51:56.211 --> 00:51:57.374
- no or low cost and

00:51:57.634 --> 00:52:04.329
- In conclusion the bit this benchmarking exercise shows that Bloomington parks continues to outperform

00:52:04.329 --> 00:52:11.287
- comparable agencies across the Country in particular department manages nearly four times as much acreage

00:52:11.287 --> 00:52:12.862
- as national average and

00:52:13.026 --> 00:52:18.884
- Obviously the 1200 plus acres of Griffey Lake nature preserves plays a big part in why that number is

00:52:18.884 --> 00:52:24.914
- so high But even if you removed Griffey Lake, we would still be at thirteen point six acre acres managed

00:52:24.914 --> 00:52:30.886
- Perth one thousand So we would still nearly twice the national average even if you removed Griffey from

00:52:30.886 --> 00:52:31.518
- that graph

00:52:31.618 --> 00:52:37.156
- Compared with our average numbers of parks per residence, Bloomington actually has a similar number

00:52:37.156 --> 00:52:42.749
- of parks, but we manage, again, much more acreage. It's advantageous as in a general multiple. Small

00:52:42.749 --> 00:52:48.563
- parks take up more time to maintain as our larger parks. We have 34 miles of paved trails and also stand

00:52:48.563 --> 00:52:54.267
- out as being well above the national average. Although through this benchmark, it's harder to consider

00:52:54.267 --> 00:52:58.974
- since it does not have direct correlation to the population size of each department.

00:52:59.426 --> 00:53:04.886
- The benchmarking exercise shows that Bloomington parks continues to operate and be responsible for a

00:53:04.886 --> 00:53:10.400
- strong system of parks trails Playgrounds and more while exceeding natural averages national averages

00:53:10.400 --> 00:53:15.859
- of revenues and cost recovery However, maintaining this robust system also takes both staff time and

00:53:15.859 --> 00:53:21.535
- fiscal resources and we must steward our system carefully to maintain these standards on the programming

00:53:21.535 --> 00:53:26.887
- side we continue to offer many programs but benchmarking again shows We need to look at additional

00:53:26.887 --> 00:53:27.806
- appropriate fees

00:53:27.970 --> 00:53:34.043
- for some currently programs So it's great that we're offering more at less But we need to continue to

00:53:34.043 --> 00:53:40.354
- look at that average. I'd be happy to answer any specific questions about this report Okay, thanks Leslie

00:53:40.354 --> 00:53:46.487
- that it was interesting to see the comparisons Yeah, and the bright spots with the playgrounds and the

00:53:46.487 --> 00:53:52.679
- trails and yeah It's good to put some numbers through what we think we already do, you know how we feel

00:53:52.679 --> 00:53:55.358
- but it's good to put some data behind it and

00:53:57.218 --> 00:54:23.934
- Yeah, the green space of the cemetery does is included in our parking acreage Okay, any other questions

00:54:26.722 --> 00:54:33.722
- Thanks Leslie All right, and then it's almost the end of the aquatic season. So Chris has the 2026 season

00:54:33.722 --> 00:54:40.590
- update Hello, I'm Chris hammer come the facility manager for the pools Yeah, just have kind of a report

00:54:40.590 --> 00:54:47.458
- for you. Thank you report for you on aquatic season Obviously with the price schedule coming up We want

00:54:47.458 --> 00:54:54.590
- to make sure we got the aquatics report to you guys before we get into the the price schedule for next year

00:54:55.170 --> 00:55:01.960
- 2026 aquatic season had several accomplishments. It also had several challenges as you guys are well

00:55:01.960 --> 00:55:08.751
- aware Major focus obviously was just figuring out what was going on with Mills pool Staff discovered

00:55:08.751 --> 00:55:15.676
- when we tried to fill it up that it was not filling all the way So a lot of time was spent by mark and

00:55:15.676 --> 00:55:20.382
- his crew to try to figure out What exactly was going on with that? we

00:55:20.546 --> 00:55:26.190
- After Park staff members could not determine the nature of the leak a leak specialist company was called

00:55:26.190 --> 00:55:31.565
- in company spent several days investigating And we were able to mitigate it enough so that we could

00:55:31.565 --> 00:55:37.048
- open mills pool obviously a little bit late But we don't have an exact diagnosis and we still have to

00:55:37.048 --> 00:55:42.531
- look into it a little bit more as we get into the end of the season We've received a quote for around

00:55:42.531 --> 00:55:47.960
- $18,000 for additional leak repairs, but are not confident performing this work will until we figure

00:55:47.960 --> 00:55:50.110
- out exactly what's going on with it and

00:55:50.338 --> 00:55:57.073
- Further discussions about repairs at mills pool are warranted Staffing we've been really blessed to

00:55:57.073 --> 00:56:03.875
- have a lot of people return over the last couple years It's it's something that helps us out allow a

00:56:03.875 --> 00:56:10.744
- lot with our staff continuity this year We had 60 of our 84 total staff members were returners. So we

00:56:10.744 --> 00:56:13.438
- had 71% staff retention rate, which was

00:56:13.634 --> 00:56:19.282
- super helpful for us. We did have one staff member that I want to call out specifically that is leaving

00:56:19.282 --> 00:56:24.821
- or left in the middle of the season. Evan Gray was our aquatic specialist. He was super helpful to us

00:56:24.821 --> 00:56:30.306
- as we came in and knew very little about aquatics. We were ice arena people. So figuring that out as

00:56:30.306 --> 00:56:35.791
- we came in, he had a lot of experience in aquatics, helped us out a ton. And now he left. He went on

00:56:35.791 --> 00:56:41.330
- to start his nursing career after he graduated college. And now we have Leo Nelson as our new aquatic

00:56:41.330 --> 00:56:41.982
- specialist.

00:56:43.938 --> 00:56:50.152
- Costs about operating outdoor pools continues to increase chemical costs staffing expenses facility

00:56:50.152 --> 00:56:56.614
- maintenance All the things that we've spent several of these meetings discussing Obviously, we continue

00:56:56.614 --> 00:57:01.150
- to see the pressure on the sustainability of the current operating model

00:57:01.922 --> 00:57:08.599
- We Brian has spent three hundred thirty one thousand dollars as of August 14th Obviously, we still have

00:57:08.599 --> 00:57:15.083
- a few more weeks of the season left as opposed to three hundred twenty seven thousand dollars in all

00:57:15.083 --> 00:57:21.824
- of 2025 Despite attempts to lower chemical costs staff operating model overhauls other things that we've

00:57:21.824 --> 00:57:28.629
- tried to put in place to lower those costs Mills spent just under $20,000 less in 20 then in 2025 despite

00:57:28.629 --> 00:57:31.390
- being shut down for almost an entire month

00:57:31.554 --> 00:57:37.173
- And then there those notice those are very noticeable, especially late in the season when MCC SC returns

00:57:37.173 --> 00:57:42.525
- We just don't get enough people coming in and it's it's a challenge to deal with that Evaluation is

00:57:42.525 --> 00:57:48.197
- required to determine whether the current operating schedule remains the most effective use of department

00:57:48.197 --> 00:57:53.763
- resources Alright, so yeah, I'll pull up here I just want to show you guys a couple of the numbers here

00:57:53.763 --> 00:57:58.526
- the outline will show you how many pool patrons came in expenses versus revenue and then

00:57:58.626 --> 00:58:05.497
- just a discussion about facilities in the future going forward. So in 2025, those were the numbers,

00:58:05.497 --> 00:58:12.643
- about 11,000 at Mills, 23,000 at Bryan. Through August 14th, obviously Bryan has had more. Some of that

00:58:12.643 --> 00:58:19.720
- is because Mills was closed, so more people were going over to Bryan. And Mills obviously was not open

00:58:19.720 --> 00:58:26.110
- for a month, so that's part of the numbers there. Rentals, we had 44 hours rented this year.

00:58:26.306 --> 00:58:31.739
- 563 kids were approved on the pool fee waiver. That was a change that we made of Now the kids are the

00:58:31.739 --> 00:58:37.118
- ones that get approved and then they they bring the adults with them This year we had a we had a lot

00:58:37.118 --> 00:58:42.764
- of people come to the pool movie this year We had 73 patrons come to it last year. We had two pool movies

00:58:42.764 --> 00:58:47.611
- and only had 71 total So this was this was a little bit of an improvement and almost 4,000

00:58:47.611 --> 00:58:53.310
- camp participations this year one of the thing I want one of the things that I wanted to point out here is

00:58:53.570 --> 00:59:00.913
- Alec, who is the sports specialist, did a bunch of research figuring out how many people are actually

00:59:00.913 --> 00:59:08.400
- coming in on the fee waiver. This is total fee waiver entries. If we show up as a family, it's not just

00:59:08.400 --> 00:59:15.599
- one, it's all four of us showing up. That's the total average per day that we're open, and then you

00:59:15.599 --> 00:59:21.502
- can see as we go up in temperature there as well. Expenses versus revenue, Brian.

00:59:22.306 --> 00:59:30.094
- You can see expenses staffing cost continues to be the highest expense staffing all the lifeguards and

00:59:30.094 --> 00:59:38.110
- attendance You can see here as well Rentals and swim lessons on there and our concessions Alec our sports

00:59:38.110 --> 00:59:45.747
- specialist completely runs the concessions. He did a really good job this year That's obviously only

00:59:45.747 --> 00:59:48.318
- through August 14th as well Mills

00:59:48.578 --> 00:59:56.385
- You can see all those expenses numbers there. I'll just leave them up for a second so you guys can take

00:59:56.385 --> 01:00:04.116
- a look. All right. And then this, I think this is probably what you guys are most interested in is the

01:00:04.116 --> 01:00:11.773
- cost recovery totals. So we see cost recovery at Bryan is 76%. At Mills is 24%. And then our total is

01:00:11.773 --> 01:00:18.078
- 63% across both pools. That's part of our discussion now as part of our master plan

01:00:18.178 --> 01:00:24.274
- Goal setting is kind of changing the way that our cost recovery Percentages work and making it less

01:00:24.274 --> 01:00:30.493
- split up by facility and more split up by what programs were actually offering and that kind of thing

01:00:30.493 --> 01:00:36.711
- Yeah, so one of the things as we talk about the future of the pools This is something that we brought

01:00:36.711 --> 01:00:42.868
- up last year with the August pool numbers Obviously, we don't have the numbers in yet for this year,

01:00:42.868 --> 01:00:46.526
- but I just wanted to bring this up again as we look at this

01:00:47.170 --> 01:00:53.657
- We're seeing, if we look at just weekend days, when we get into those August times, we're seeing that

01:00:53.657 --> 01:01:00.399
- during the season, if you count just weekend days, we're actually operating in a little bit of a surplus,

01:01:00.399 --> 01:01:06.822
- and then when we get into August, we end up losing almost $40,000 in August. We don't get the number

01:01:06.822 --> 01:01:13.246
- of people coming to the pool, for one, especially now as we move into these days where it's gonna be

01:01:13.442 --> 01:01:20.251
- 80 degrees or less, there's just going to be fewer people coming. And then we also deal with, we've

01:01:20.251 --> 01:01:27.265
- still got to run all the pumps all the time, we've still got to keep the chemicals in the pool so that

01:01:27.265 --> 01:01:34.551
- it stays balanced and all that. So that's where that expense comes in. All right. Aging facilities feature

01:01:34.551 --> 01:01:39.454
- use. Mills Pool obviously caused the leak, caused the delay to opening.

01:01:40.066 --> 01:01:45.700
- We're having that meeting to discuss the capital bond spending including potential pool renovation Swim

01:01:45.700 --> 01:01:51.333
- lesson numbers continue to be a problem as we as we look going forward It's something that we've talked

01:01:51.333 --> 01:01:56.804
- about potentially doing partnerships or just completely overhauling our swim lesson program And then

01:01:56.804 --> 01:02:02.384
- our August usage of Brian pool And then in Mills Mills usage numbers just suggests that maybe a change

01:02:02.384 --> 01:02:08.017
- in strategy might be needed one of the things that Alec did when he went through and researched a bunch

01:02:08.017 --> 01:02:09.534
- of these numbers for us and

01:02:09.634 --> 01:02:15.187
- Mills revenue didn't cover the cost of staff For 43 of the 45 days it was open Just the cost of staff

01:02:15.187 --> 01:02:20.902
- not the cost of the pool chemicals and all that stuff just the cost of the lifeguards and the attendants

01:02:20.902 --> 01:02:26.509
- that are there And the two days that it did cover were the first two days that it was open when we had

01:02:26.509 --> 01:02:31.953
- an issue at Brian and Brian was closed So it's it's really it creates a challenge going forward and

01:02:31.953 --> 01:02:36.798
- like I said, it suggests we may need to change the strategy so part of that conversation

01:02:37.346 --> 01:02:43.071
- We're considering exploring an alternative operating strategy for Mills pool that places a greater emphasis

01:02:43.071 --> 01:02:48.371
- on aquatics programming So instead of having so much just open swim time where we're kind of unsure

01:02:48.371 --> 01:02:53.937
- what the revenue numbers are gonna look like Maybe using Mills as something that offers more programming

01:02:53.937 --> 01:02:59.502
- so we could run longer versions of swim lessons there we could run more Aqua fitness or different things

01:02:59.502 --> 01:03:04.803
- like that that would that would we would know how much revenue we're gonna make and we can staff it

01:03:04.803 --> 01:03:07.294
- for that specifically as part of that we would

01:03:07.586 --> 01:03:13.593
- We would still want to have certain times that are open swim times as well It wouldn't be just closed

01:03:13.593 --> 01:03:19.540
- Mills down other than this program and it would be Trying to figure out what are our prime times for

01:03:19.540 --> 01:03:25.723
- for that open swim and going forward This approach could continue could allow the department to continue

01:03:25.723 --> 01:03:31.789
- using Mills as an important community aquatic facility While focusing its operation on activities that

01:03:31.789 --> 01:03:34.910
- require dedicated water space and scheduled access I

01:03:35.330 --> 01:03:41.139
- Brian would continue to be the primary general outdoor use pool. We see that in the numbers almost four

01:03:41.139 --> 01:03:46.893
- times as many people are going to Brian as are going to Mills, but we would really prefer to you know,

01:03:46.893 --> 01:03:52.646
- we want to try to keep Mills open if we can and move forward on Just making it a sustainable long term

01:03:52.646 --> 01:03:58.232
- We want to gather initial feedback from you guys on on this programming focus model Any decision is

01:03:58.232 --> 01:04:04.153
- also continued contingent on the mills pool repairs as well I mean obviously we have to figure out what's

01:04:04.153 --> 01:04:05.214
- going on with that

01:04:05.314 --> 01:04:11.274
- Before we can move too much forward on anything We also want to discuss just aligning the end of the

01:04:11.274 --> 01:04:17.175
- outdoor pool season more closely with the beginning of the MCC calendar We talked about the numbers

01:04:17.175 --> 01:04:23.253
- a little bit We we believe that closing both outdoor pools when MCC returns to school provides a clear

01:04:23.253 --> 01:04:29.331
- seasonal operating window reduces our staff Issues that we run into at the end of the year all the all

01:04:29.331 --> 01:04:34.878
- the people that we rely on are all students either in college or high school we have very few

01:04:35.042 --> 01:04:40.906
- Not high school or college students and they all go back to school and it's just a real pain to try

01:04:40.906 --> 01:04:46.887
- to staff at the end of the year And it also would limit limit operating costs We recognize that pools

01:04:46.887 --> 01:04:52.809
- also provide an important service and outlet to the community and long-term decisions may need to be

01:04:52.809 --> 01:04:58.790
- made after capital investment priorities is set and decisions are made We obviously one of the couple

01:04:58.790 --> 01:05:04.126
- of things that are coming up we want to consider significant renovations and that upcoming

01:05:04.322 --> 01:05:10.449
- parks bond that we're having that meeting about We're considered we want to have the discussion about

01:05:10.449 --> 01:05:16.516
- closing both pools when MCC starts the the school year Transition mills to focus on that programming

01:05:16.516 --> 01:05:22.762
- side and then we want to one of the things that we really want to focus on Coming this this coming year

01:05:22.762 --> 01:05:28.949
- is redesigning our swim lessons I'm happy to answer any questions you have All right. Thanks Chris I'm

01:05:28.949 --> 01:05:33.214
- sure I've said this the last couple of years, but I mean speaking as a

01:05:33.346 --> 01:05:38.601
- someone who works at MCCSC, it's just absurd to me that the hottest month of the entire year is like

01:05:38.601 --> 01:05:43.909
- kids, for the most part, aren't going to the pool because they're back in school and they're busy and

01:05:43.909 --> 01:05:49.424
- it's so silly. But I know you don't have any control over that. I think also along with that, once school

01:05:49.424 --> 01:05:54.679
- starts back up, they all start back up their sports and all that. So they're busy all the time. They

01:05:54.679 --> 01:05:59.102
- don't have time. Yeah. So my question is about, I'm curious if you have any theories

01:05:59.650 --> 01:06:05.961
- the swim lessons being downed if you know our people do you think kids are going on their let their

01:06:05.961 --> 01:06:12.272
- lessons to the YMCA the IU outdoor pool or they're just not as many kids taking swimming lessons or

01:06:12.272 --> 01:06:18.772
- We've had some conversations with Bill Ramos who has been a big part of IU Pools in general for a long

01:06:18.772 --> 01:06:25.273
- time and so we're kind of hoping to pick his brain a little bit on how we can improve our swim lessons

01:06:25.273 --> 01:06:29.438
- I in my personal opinion one of the biggest challenges we face is

01:06:29.826 --> 01:06:35.796
- We get our staff about a week and a half before the pools open And so and we've got to train them all

01:06:35.796 --> 01:06:41.942
- and the lifeguard duties and all that kind of stuff And so swim lessons has kind of been an afterthought

01:06:41.942 --> 01:06:48.147
- on that We just we need them we need them to make the pool safe first before we can focus on swim lessons

01:06:48.147 --> 01:06:52.478
- versus if you look at a YMCA or an IU pool they can train their staff and

01:06:52.770 --> 01:06:57.803
- any time throughout the year because they have access to the indoor facilities. So that has

01:06:57.803 --> 01:07:03.273
- been a conversation topic that we've had internally. We haven't talked with IU yet, but potentially

01:07:03.273 --> 01:07:09.127
- doing some kind of a partnership or something like that where we might be able to improve our swim lessons

01:07:09.127 --> 01:07:14.925
- that way. But to me, that seems like the biggest focus. My wife used to teach IU swim lessons, and that's

01:07:14.925 --> 01:07:20.724
- one of the things she's talked about a lot too. OK. That's interesting. Thanks. Yeah. Any other questions

01:07:20.724 --> 01:07:21.982
- or comments for Chris?

01:07:24.674 --> 01:07:34.671
- meals or the options in order to solve this situation. And the other activities, the aqua fitness or

01:07:34.671 --> 01:07:44.966
- the lab swimming, that won't be just for children but also for adults and for students who are not part

01:07:44.966 --> 01:07:54.270
- of the YMCA. So I think that is one thing that we can do for solving that problem with meals.

01:07:54.658 --> 01:08:04.718
- Because the balance is very high, it's visible. Something is happening. Something is happening there,

01:08:04.718 --> 01:08:14.679
- and something should be done to see what is working incorrectly there. Oh, not incorrectly, but what

01:08:14.679 --> 01:08:22.174
- could we offer to have more people there? Yeah, I was curious, the revenue,

01:08:22.818 --> 01:08:31.813
- Like on one of those slides the revenues kind of down on mills. Is that do we include? Like fee waivers,

01:08:31.813 --> 01:08:40.893
- I guess like we know like our Do we think about like how many users are still using that pool even though

01:08:40.893 --> 01:08:49.630
- maybe we don't we're not Like accepting admission fees from some of those we do We don't consider fee

01:08:49.630 --> 01:08:52.286
- waivers as part of the revenue

01:08:52.418 --> 01:08:59.545
- Anymore it was something that we considered in the past when we had People the Parks Foundation was

01:08:59.545 --> 01:09:07.243
- funding. Yeah. Yeah was funding it where we had the stay cool numbers and stuff like that We don't consider

01:09:07.243 --> 01:09:14.513
- fee waivers as part of the as part of the revenue I would note that overall more fee waiver users are

01:09:14.513 --> 01:09:18.718
- coming to Brian and they are to Mills and I would say that

01:09:19.522 --> 01:09:26.339
- It was kind of surprising to me. We have 563 kids approved on the fee waiver, and we only are averaging

01:09:26.339 --> 01:09:33.090
- 26 at Bryan and 18 per day at Mills. That seems crazy to me. It seems like it would be way higher than

01:09:33.090 --> 01:09:40.103
- that with as many kids as are on the fee waiver program, but it's just something that I wanted to include.

01:09:40.103 --> 01:09:41.086
- I don't have a

01:09:41.538 --> 01:09:48.518
- An answer for you really just other than just I just think it'd be interesting to see like so then like

01:09:48.518 --> 01:09:55.365
- what's the ratio there like I know there's more 26 people maybe per day coming to Brian and it versus

01:09:55.365 --> 01:10:02.144
- 18 at Mills but like so what it what is the percentage though of the total user group though so like

01:10:02.144 --> 01:10:06.238
- 26 of I don't know if there's 150 people coming to Brian and

01:10:06.434 --> 01:10:13.226
- 40 people coming to Mills per day, but just kind of like understanding what the you know What the what

01:10:13.226 --> 01:10:20.215
- is the percentage of pool users that is using a fee waiver to enter each pool? I don't have those numbers

01:10:20.215 --> 01:10:27.007
- today, but I know yeah, just something that we could like maybe look at as well and then yeah, I think

01:10:27.007 --> 01:10:30.238
- just getting a little bit more information about

01:10:31.170 --> 01:10:39.338
- peak hours for open swim at mills just to because I do think I agree that the programming for introducing

01:10:39.338 --> 01:10:47.198
- that to to Mills as an option to kind of boost revenue and just overall use of the pool but then just

01:10:47.198 --> 01:10:50.974
- ensuring that you know we've got we're still got

01:10:51.170 --> 01:10:56.047
- Plenty of open swim time for kids to show up. I'm hoping that it drives interest in Mills again, too.

01:10:56.047 --> 01:11:00.828
- Yeah, absolutely. I think it's something that... Hey, Mills is the programming. Yeah, I think a lot

01:11:00.828 --> 01:11:05.848
- of people just don't know about it. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. We'd be super excited to go do our swim lessons

01:11:05.848 --> 01:11:10.868
- over there and stuff. Yeah. I think that... Well, and frankly, the people I know who use Mills are like,

01:11:10.868 --> 01:11:15.553
- love it because it is not brand. I much prefer going to Mills with my family. Yeah, same. I mean,

01:11:15.553 --> 01:11:20.478
- it's like... Yeah. It's much quieter. It's so much quieter and just more chill. Yeah. Yep, absolutely.

01:11:23.618 --> 01:11:29.517
- rental 40 hours, rented this year. So can you explain more about the rentals, Chris? Yeah, so actually

01:11:29.517 --> 01:11:35.416
- that's part of the conversation about the programming as well as we would hope to open up a little bit

01:11:35.416 --> 01:11:41.372
- more rental space throughout the week. Because one of the challenges that we deal with with our rentals

01:11:41.372 --> 01:11:47.386
- is if a little kid wants to rent the pool for their birthday party, they have to wait until after seven.

01:11:47.386 --> 01:11:53.342
- And for some families, that's way too late. I wouldn't rent the party, rent the pool for my little kid.

01:11:53.986 --> 01:12:03.100
- We had 44 hours of rentals this year split between the two pools. It's down a little bit But also we

01:12:03.100 --> 01:12:12.394
- missed almost a month of mills that would have normally been open And right. Yeah, go ahead right now.

01:12:12.394 --> 01:12:22.590
- There's at 715 to to 915 930 and they Start They start in June and They're Thursday Friday and Saturday evenings

01:12:23.522 --> 01:12:30.607
- Just for people or companies also renting the space It depends sometimes we have Church groups that

01:12:30.607 --> 01:12:37.834
- rent it sometimes we have school events that rent it and then sometimes it's just an individual wants

01:12:37.834 --> 01:12:40.030
- to rent it as a birthday party

01:12:42.498 --> 01:12:48.326
- Like an individual family will say, hey, we're gonna have our birthday party here. Oh, that one person?

01:12:48.326 --> 01:12:54.098
- Yeah. No, no, no. That's a lot of money for one person. Yeah, that's what I like to do, yeah. Just get

01:12:54.098 --> 01:12:59.758
- those pesky kids out of the way. Yeah, exactly, yeah. My one lane. That'd be funny, yeah. So I guess

01:12:59.758 --> 01:13:05.361
- on that note, too, the town I grew up in, we had night swim, seven to nine, actually, like the pool

01:13:05.361 --> 01:13:10.965
- closed for a portion of time. I'm sure we had that at some point in Bloomington. Not sure if we did

01:13:10.965 --> 01:13:12.478
- or if that ever went away.

01:13:12.578 --> 01:13:18.738
- And obviously, we're extending staff time, you know, for lengthening the number of hours that were open,

01:13:18.738 --> 01:13:24.605
- but just curious if we have, like, ever thought about adding that as, like, an additional source of

01:13:24.605 --> 01:13:30.472
- revenue, like, and just, I don't know if, like, some families, like, it's like, if their parents do

01:13:30.472 --> 01:13:36.456
- work and can't take them to the pool during the day, come home, have dinner, and then could, like, go

01:13:36.456 --> 01:13:41.502
- swim in the evenings, like, since it's so late, so late. We have considered it. Yeah.

01:13:41.826 --> 01:13:47.535
- that makes me particularly nervous about that is just a lighting situation currently. I haven't done

01:13:47.535 --> 01:13:53.243
- enough research on it, but you're required to have a certain amount of lighting if you're gonna have

01:13:53.243 --> 01:13:59.009
- night swim. And I don't think that we meet that requirement right now. So I just would worry about it

01:13:59.009 --> 01:14:04.774
- being unsafe with being that late. But I mean, even seven to nine, we're open for pool rentals. So we

01:14:04.774 --> 01:14:10.878
- could probably do like a seven to nine, but it's just something that the pool schedule has kind of been set

01:14:11.234 --> 01:14:18.386
- 11 to 7, so we haven't added that, but it's something we could consider for sure. Okay. Yeah. I can

01:14:18.386 --> 01:14:25.109
- add something else, but I can't remember. All right. Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Chris. Awesome.

01:14:25.109 --> 01:14:32.475
- Thank you. Yep. And then Chris has also got another report this evening about the slightly beleaguered

01:14:32.475 --> 01:14:39.198
- Frank Southern Ice Arena. Yes. We finished painting today, so it looks like an ice arena now.

01:14:47.010 --> 01:14:54.231
- You guys know we had the ammonia leak in March of 2026 two days before the arena scheduled shutdown

01:14:54.231 --> 01:15:01.452
- date We've been preparing to safely open for this season We were obviously we've talked a lot about

01:15:01.452 --> 01:15:08.890
- different things that we had been doing we had been working on the II AR standards We had been working

01:15:08.890 --> 01:15:12.862
- on just making trying to put things in place more more

01:15:14.274 --> 01:15:20.429
- Computer records of different maintenance items that we're doing and stuff like that just so we have

01:15:20.429 --> 01:15:26.645
- all that in one place After the league staff members completed mandatory reporting to the EPA We held

01:15:26.645 --> 01:15:32.922
- an incident debrief with the Bloomington Fire Department Monroe County emergency management and Monroe

01:15:32.922 --> 01:15:39.077
- County schools We've prepared we prepared a list of things that we have presented to you guys in the

01:15:39.077 --> 01:15:41.758
- past of things that need to be done in this

01:15:41.858 --> 01:15:49.628
- This report was presented in March of 2026 We have worked through a bunch of these things that we were

01:15:49.628 --> 01:15:57.550
- supposed to get done before we open Staff met with representatives of the EPA in early June and received

01:15:57.550 --> 01:16:05.169
- a report of recommendations from the EPA in July that is linked within your Park board items here We

01:16:05.169 --> 01:16:11.582
- met with the Bloomington Fire Department this week to do our tabletop discussion and

01:16:11.906 --> 01:16:17.721
- Had some conversations with them about a couple more things they'd like to see But they seemed overall

01:16:17.721 --> 01:16:23.535
- pretty happy with everything that's in place We met with MCC to provide an update on you know work and

01:16:23.535 --> 01:16:29.350
- what we've been doing We'll continue to have those conversations going forward facility checklists and

01:16:29.350 --> 01:16:35.051
- and reporting procedures have been updated like we talked about to just make sure that everything is

01:16:35.051 --> 01:16:41.374
- standardized in a document that we can see and we can present or pull or whatever we need at any given time and

01:16:41.538 --> 01:16:48.068
- And we've started our conversations with our stakeholder groups to discuss one of the two options of

01:16:48.068 --> 01:16:54.663
- reinvestment, either building a new ICE facility or reinvesting in our current facility. The table on

01:16:54.663 --> 01:17:01.516
- the, I think it's the third page, contains all of the items that have been checked off. Three significant

01:17:01.516 --> 01:17:08.046
- items remain in progress. Installation of the iWash station, which you guys approved as part of your

01:17:08.046 --> 01:17:09.598
- consent calendar today.

01:17:09.794 --> 01:17:15.677
- We're working on installing a panic door exiting the compressor room And then we need some diagrams

01:17:15.677 --> 01:17:21.618
- that we're waiting on from our ammonia contractor These items are are technically not required to be

01:17:21.618 --> 01:17:27.560
- completed until 2029 But as part of our discussions we wanted to get get them done before we open up

01:17:27.560 --> 01:17:33.502
- for this year We I have another discussion that I would like to open up with you guys so staff would

01:17:33.502 --> 01:17:37.502
- like to begin to also begin a discussion with the board regarding a

01:17:37.858 --> 01:17:42.948
- potential shared stewardship model for the ice arena. The goal would be to explore ways for the ice

01:17:42.948 --> 01:17:48.241
- arena and its primary user groups to share responsibility for certain aspects of arena operations while

01:17:48.241 --> 01:17:53.382
- helping control the cost of ice. So one of the most important things for us, we don't want to charge

01:17:53.382 --> 01:17:58.675
- exorbitant fees. Hockey's already a really expensive sport. Figure skating's already a really expensive

01:17:58.675 --> 01:18:03.764
- sport. So how can we keep the ice price as low as we can while also not losing a bunch of money and

01:18:03.764 --> 01:18:06.462
- putting ourselves in danger of losing the ice arena?

01:18:06.658 --> 01:18:13.714
- as an initial concept We would charge whatever price we just be determined in the price schedule next

01:18:13.714 --> 01:18:20.908
- month And then we would say if your group wants to volunteer this many hours We'll bring that ice price

01:18:20.908 --> 01:18:28.033
- down a little bit and that would help us because one of our as you saw with the pools the biggest cost

01:18:28.033 --> 01:18:33.982
- for us is our staffing and and obviously anything that's required as far as safety or

01:18:34.114 --> 01:18:40.297
- Supervisors that have keys and all that would still be our staff but We could have somebody that can

01:18:40.297 --> 01:18:46.542
- stand out there and make sure that kids are being safe while they're doing Public skate, you know, we

01:18:46.542 --> 01:18:52.786
- don't necessarily need to have us especially train some person to be out there for that This would be

01:18:52.786 --> 01:18:59.276
- developed as a structured program with clearly defined responsibilities training requirements supervision

01:18:59.276 --> 01:19:03.806
- appropriate limitations We want to make sure that we're doing it properly

01:19:03.938 --> 01:19:11.103
- And it's something that has been used quite a bit in Minnesota, which is kind of the gold standard for

01:19:11.103 --> 01:19:18.269
- ice arenas and specifically community ice arenas where they, they're almost all in Minnesota are owned

01:19:18.269 --> 01:19:25.573
- and operated by their parks departments. And that's one of the, we are one of the dying breed, honestly,

01:19:25.573 --> 01:19:33.086
- with ice arenas that are owned by a parks department because so many places have given them over to private

01:19:33.218 --> 01:19:38.564
- Entities and then the prices go through the roof and kids don't get to play for for as cheap as they

01:19:38.564 --> 01:19:44.068
- were and that kind of thing so it's something that we really want to focus on keeping and We think that

01:19:44.068 --> 01:19:49.626
- this is something that would help us do that We would be interested in hearing any concerns or questions

01:19:49.626 --> 01:19:54.972
- that you guys have with this potential path Well, I think that's a creative idea and I don't know if

01:19:54.972 --> 01:20:00.794
- the YMCA still does this but years ago they had something similar where you could get it sort of a discounted

01:20:00.794 --> 01:20:03.070
- membership if you volunteered in there and

01:20:03.490 --> 01:20:10.695
- As you say sometimes you just needed some people to you didn't need to any special skills, right? Just

01:20:10.695 --> 01:20:17.899
- needed humans there Yeah, so yeah, I think that's a creative suggestion and I also appreciate that You

01:20:17.899 --> 01:20:25.453
- know the feeling that as parks are I mean it you want to keep the prices down you want to keep it available

01:20:25.453 --> 01:20:29.790
- for everyone so yeah, we've had a lot of success this will be

01:20:30.146 --> 01:20:36.942
- In the report as we get into the end of the season, but our house hockey program Thanks in large part

01:20:36.942 --> 01:20:43.805
- to you guys Approving the prices that you have our house hockey program has grown tremendously in 2023

01:20:43.805 --> 01:20:50.468
- We had five total kids that were registered for just house hockey Outside of the travel program and

01:20:50.468 --> 01:20:57.264
- this past season we ended up with 57 kids And we're continuing to expand that program going into this

01:20:57.264 --> 01:21:00.062
- year so I'm really excited about that and

01:21:00.258 --> 01:21:06.284
- You know, we've seen a lot of success with that. But like I said, we just want to make sure that we're

01:21:06.284 --> 01:21:12.134
- we're operating it in a way that Allows us to continue doing it forever and doesn't ever get to the

01:21:12.134 --> 01:21:18.452
- point where hey Why are we losing so much money at the ice arena? We just need to be done with it volunteer

01:21:18.452 --> 01:21:24.419
- share program is great and kind of in the same spirit as You know everything else of just making sure

01:21:24.419 --> 01:21:28.222
- it's a community space I mean the only thing I would say is like

01:21:28.802 --> 01:21:35.312
- from a liability standpoint, just making sure that people are trained and that we're covered that way,

01:21:35.312 --> 01:21:41.632
- so that if there were to be another leak or something else happen that it's all above board. What's

01:21:41.632 --> 01:21:48.016
- the open date for the? September 1st. Coming right up. We're going to be building ICE all next week.

01:21:48.016 --> 01:21:54.399
- You guys should stop by. It'll be great. I'm very excited about it. That's awesome. Yeah. Did anyone

01:21:54.399 --> 01:21:57.054
- else have a question about the ICE arena?

01:21:57.474 --> 01:22:04.969
- Okay, I just was gonna I thought of the thing This has made me remember the thing about the pools too,

01:22:04.969 --> 01:22:12.245
- which is do you get a sense that most of your guards are also guarding at IU or the why or and like

01:22:12.245 --> 01:22:19.667
- working in multiple places and it has there ever been like a lifeguard share like Partnership of like

01:22:19.667 --> 01:22:23.742
- those employees or yeah would staff both you know could

01:22:23.874 --> 01:22:30.689
- Could float between different facilities or something like that like shared with and I guess and I assume

01:22:30.689 --> 01:22:37.247
- our rates are probably also Comparable with what like like most lifeguards in Bloomington are getting

01:22:37.247 --> 01:22:43.740
- paid the same amount no matter where they work We pay our guards significantly more more. Okay other

01:22:43.740 --> 01:22:50.555
- places do so we have seen we have seen a lot of guards come over from The why specifically I think people

01:22:50.555 --> 01:22:51.262
- are pretty

01:22:51.554 --> 01:22:58.558
- Stay at the at the IU pools because it's a you know, they've worked there during their while they're

01:22:58.558 --> 01:23:05.493
- going to school and that kind of thing but We have seen several guards that have come over from the

01:23:05.493 --> 01:23:12.428
- Y And we we do we pay our staff significantly more than they're getting paid at other places Living

01:23:12.428 --> 01:23:19.432
- wage it's all living wage requirement. Okay. Yeah, we just pay them what the living wage requirement

01:23:19.432 --> 01:23:20.542
- is so But we we

01:23:21.218 --> 01:23:28.766
- do have a few guards that work at both the Y and our pools. And some of them are swim lesson instructors

01:23:28.766 --> 01:23:36.099
- at both or different things like that. But it's something that going forward, we really wanna explore

01:23:36.099 --> 01:23:43.288
- more of that partnership idea. I know, like we talked about with talking to Bill Ramos, just trying

01:23:43.288 --> 01:23:49.470
- to figure out what ways we can work together and try to offer, for our pool at Bryan,

01:23:49.570 --> 01:23:56.897
- And Mills we're the only pools that really have slides that people that kids can come and use So what

01:23:56.897 --> 01:24:04.225
- can we offer that's not necessarily competing with these other pools, but we can all join together to

01:24:04.225 --> 01:24:11.696
- share Sharing the resources that we have so that we can offer everything that possible to our community

01:24:11.696 --> 01:24:19.454
- Thank you Chris, thanks for all that information All right, and then then we come to public comment which I

01:24:20.226 --> 01:24:27.208
- Any unknown faces now Leslie says no public comment. So is I don't know if Molly if there's anyone online

01:24:27.208 --> 01:24:33.795
- No one online. Okay Okay, and then back over to Tim you have any reminders? I'm gonna keep it short

01:24:33.795 --> 01:24:40.382
- and sweet because we've talked at you a lot this evening our next regular meeting is September 17th

01:24:40.382 --> 01:24:47.166
- a normal Thursday 5 p.m. Meeting that will be for normal business including any follow-up we have from

01:24:47.166 --> 01:24:48.286
- this evening and

01:24:48.386 --> 01:24:55.635
- As well as the first look at fee schedule updates We're going to do that again in two phases where we

01:24:55.635 --> 01:25:02.885
- bring them to you one month get feedback And then look to adopt those in October And then we have the

01:25:02.885 --> 01:25:10.134
- special meeting on September 28th Which will be focused on the facility and capital investment report

01:25:10.134 --> 01:25:15.678
- Which we will get out to the public and you via a press release on board, etc

01:25:15.842 --> 01:25:21.731
- probably a couple weeks beforehand is what Julie and I were talking about. So that report could be reviewed.

01:25:21.731 --> 01:25:27.458
- We'll invite public comment at that meeting. We'll have an online public comment period after the meeting

01:25:27.458 --> 01:25:33.292
- as well to just ensure folks can have their voices heard. And Chris and others have been inviting different

01:25:33.292 --> 01:25:38.911
- stakeholder groups involved that might want to be there to give public comment to that meeting as well.

01:25:38.911 --> 01:25:44.638
- Lastly, the link to the non-reverting report in the agenda has been fixed. So you can now see that there.

01:25:44.898 --> 01:25:50.702
- and that will be posted to onboard as a follow-up. Okay. All right. Thank you, Tim and Molly, and thank

01:25:50.702 --> 01:25:56.282
- you to all staff who presented. With that, I'll adjourn the August meeting of the Bloomington Board

01:25:56.282 --> 01:25:57.566
- of Park Commissioners.