Okay, it is five o'clock, so I will call to order the September meeting in the Bloomington Board of
Park commissioners and Molly will start us off please with the roll call. Yeah, Jim will let you hear
Kathleen Mills here. Okay, so we do not have Ellen this evening, but we do have a quorum. Um, so we
can move on from there and
First, as always, we have the consent calendar, which we usually take just all in one motion. Anybody
would like to move to approve that? Sure. I move to approve the consent agenda. Okay. Okay. And do we
need to do roll call voting or no, we don't because we have. Okay. So all those in favor. Aye. Aye.
All right.
Motion is carried then for the consent agenda. And then we get to section B the public hearings and
appearances. And first up is the Bravo Award which Emily will tell us about for Brandon Olson. Good
afternoon everyone. Emily boot community relations coordinator and I am happy to present Brandon with
the September Bravo Award. As many of you may remember Brandon is a former natural resources education
specialist with the department.
He was a regular at the Creek Station for Leonard Springs Nature Days, Bugfest, and other programs.
He also teamed up with me to volunteer coach four seasons of Bloomington Youth Basketball, which was
a simultaneously fun and challenging experience for the both of us.
While Brandon moved on from his paid role with the city in 2025 to take a role with the Cosco County
Soil and Water District He remained connected with parks from afar since moving on he has returned to
volunteer at Leonard Springs nature days Bugfest and a few nature programs, which is about a three-hour
drive each ways each way to attend We're very lucky to have had Brandon as a co-worker and now a volunteer
So I'm very happy to award him with this recognition. He's very deserving
He says hello to everyone. He couldn't make it but he says hi. OK. Yeah. And he's living where. Up in
Warsaw Kosciuszko County. OK. It's like our 15 ish from Fort Wayne. OK. Like right in the middle of
the state. So yeah he's Ed specialist with the soil and water district up there. So he has his own time
to volunteer here. He does come he's coming down on Saturday. So OK. He's getting his umbrella
and certificate then OK and specifically requested. So OK. All right.
Yes. Well thank you to Brandon and thanks Emily. Okay. And then in section C other business the first
resolution item one we're actually going to postpone I think until our next meeting if we. Yeah. If
everyone is in agreement with that. Okay. Yes. Okay.
And then item two is the agreement with native view for canopy expansion tree planting and that would
be Haskell. Good afternoon commissioners Haskell Smith urban foresters here to recommend the approval
of a contractual agreement with native view LLC for the twenty twenty six canopy expansion and replacement
project covering the installation of three hundred and twenty five trees all around Bloomington right
of ways. This.
There's likely the fifth and final phase of the bicentennial bond funding and an amount not to exceed
at ninety two thousand five hundred and fifty six dollars and fifty cents. This will bring the total
trees planted with contractually planted with the bicentennial fonts to about eleven hundred trees.
Not to say that we haven't bought and planted a lot of others. It's several thousand at that point. OK.
So a lot of tree work with those bonds. Any questions for Haskell. I move that we approve agreement
with native view for canopy expansion tree plant second. OK. And all those in favor. Aye aye. All right.
Motion carried. All right. And then Haskell also has the agreement with Ellington tree for the perennial
ash tree removal. Yeah.
Staff recommends approval of this agreement with jr Ellington tree experts covering the full tree removal
and stump grinding of 20 poor health and failing ash trees around Bloomington within the right-of-way
an amount not to exceed eighteen thousand eight hundred and fifty dollars eighty percent of this particular
part is covered by a grant from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources community and urban forest office
And this is just kind of an ongoing thing part of the grant. Okay, happy to answer any questions Any
questions for Haskell, okay move we approve the agreement with Ellington tree expert company for ash
tree removals Okay, and all those in favor aye Motion carried. Thank you Haskell. Thank you. I
Before we go on to see for could we do an actual motion on the postponement of? C1 and actually as you
and I talked we also need to postpone C7. Yes, I wondered if we needed Yeah that agenda. Okay, see one
and C7 to October, okay I move that we postpone and reschedule resolution 2604 honorary naming of Griffey
loop trail
And you can also add in number seven. We are also have to postpone. Okay, if we can, can we do those
in one says also move that we postpone item seven C seven approval of cemetery plot reclamation second.
Okay. And all those in favor. Aye. Aye. All right. Motion carried. Okay. And then now Rebecca Swift
will tell us about the agreement with REA for trades district planning.
Yes Rebecca Swift operations development division director here to recommend and really just show support
for this the city hiring REA to provide design services for enhancing enhancements to the trades district.
So really this is a project funded and being project management is all through ESD. But because some
of this redesign work will have impacts to the beeline crossing right here on Roger Street. We felt
it was best to make sure the board was aware and also in favor of
continuing to work with R.A. and E.S.D. on the trades district realignment and some additional enhancements
for the trail crossing there at Rogers some additional rework of the bike parking area and some landscape
works along that area. So while I'm not the project manager I'm happy to answer any questions you might
have. OK. Any questions for Rebecca. So move that we approve the agreement with R.E.A. for trade district
planning. All right. And all those in favor. Hi. All right. Motion carried. Thanks Rebecca. And then
item five is the agreement with ecological for invasive treatment and monitoring Mary Wells. Hi everybody.
Mary Wells here natural resources manager to propose the approval of an agreement with ecological.
for restoration services in twenty twenty six through twenty twenty seven kind of a multi approach agreement.
The amount is not to exceed eleven thousand three hundred and eighteen dollars. And under this agreement
Ecologic will perform various ecological restoration and consulting services from November twenty twenty
six through March twenty twenty seven.
These projects are a continuation and expansion of the work that Ecologic has performed for Bloomington
Parks and Restoration since 2016. The first project involves clearing an additional five point five
acres of invasive vegetation in the wetland areas at Griffey east of the boathouse.
To build upon the prior work they did in winter and summer of 2026 in which they cleared nine adjacent
acres to this new parcel that they're going to be clearing Egalogic will also work to remove invasive
and other an undesirable woody vegetation to main what we call early successional restoration areas
that Miller showers or switch our park over this winter and
Additionally they will provide monitoring and consulting services for the continued management of the
woodland understory areas at Griffey and Upper Cascades Park in which invasive woody vegetation has
been removed from the understory internally by park staff and volunteers Happy to answer any questions
Any questions for Mary
I move that we approve agreement with echo logic for invasive treatment and monitoring at Griffey Lake.
And all those in favor. I motion is carried. And then let's see. Mary also has the next one for the
prescribed burn monitoring at Griffey.
C6 yeah, so here to recommend approval board approval of this contract with ecologic under this agreement
Ecologic will perform vegetation management services prior to and after upcoming prescribed fire activities
at Griffey The total cost of this agreement is not to exceed seven thousand one hundred and seventy
dollars The monitoring project will take place and a proposed three point nine acre prescribed fire
Fire unit located southwest of the Griffey Causeway Data and information collected during this monitoring
will assist in decision-making and will affect
future prescribed fire activities at this site and potentially other sites monitoring where measure
the frequency and percent cover of herbaceous species in late spring of each year and then the poster
burn data will be taken during the twenty twenty eight growing season pending the completion of a twenty
twenty seven twenty twenty eight dormant season burn. Happy to answer any questions in regards to this
agreement. OK. And am I remembering correctly that there have been
prescribed burns out there before. Yeah this will be our fifth burn unit that we're considering but
we're kind of trying to move forward more with more intention. Hence the monitoring pre and post. Okay.
All right. All right. Move that we approve the agreement with echo logic for prescribed burn monitoring
at Griffey Lake. Second. Okay. And all those in favor. Aye aye.
Motion carried. Thank you Mary. And then Joanna Sparks has C8 the integrated pest management plan update.
Good afternoon Joanna Sparks urban green space manager here today to recommend the approval of the updated
version of the Bloomington Parks and Recreation Department integrated pest or IPM plan.
Our parks IPM plan was originally developed in 2016 to direct pest management activities for staff and
contractors on parks owned and or managed properties. The parks pesticide use policy number one three
one nine zero was used as a guiding document.
Our as part of the integrated press management plan we have a working group that has we've worked together
over the past few months to reformat the original document to meet federal accessibility standards.
So it can be not in a PDF form on the web so people can can use it more easily. Everyone. And we also
reviewed sections and updated a few things just to
make it more current staffing changes turnover late in positions updating positions and additions and
subtractions of pesticides on our approval sheet. And I could go on and on as you know. So just let
me know if you have any questions. I'll be happy to answer them. OK. So this had not been updated since
2016 not officially. OK.
We because it is a living document as the IPM coordinator. I keep the pesticide List updated the department
approved list of pesticides up on an updated Excuse me ragweed is killing me. I
This week, but I also am responsible for tracking staff pesticide applications Which we also post on
our website is the chemical applications on the parks are available the day day of most generally and
when we do that and just ongoing adjustments to signage improvements for signage just yeah little little
things like that that
Our official but but help us keep moving into a more efficient and effective More clearly communicative
Way, yeah, okay All right. Great. Yeah, I always appreciate the sign so I don't walk my dogs through
the middle of the area Yeah, yep Dogs are very important. Yes Okay, any questions for Joanna?
Move that we approve integrated pest management plan updates. Okay. And all those in favor. Aye.
All right. Thank you. Thank you. All right. And then in our section D the reports first we have the
twenty twenty seven price schedule for our information not for a vote. And Molly is going to tell us
about that.
Office manager staff requests the board commissioners review the following fee changes for the 2027
season These fees will be updated based on board feedback and brought back for approval at the regular
October meeting of the board of park commissioners in the staff report It is listed just the changes
that are made from the 2026 the 2027
price fee schedule and then you can also see the attached proposed twenty twenty seven price schedule
which will show everything that is listed as a price. Any questions will be directed towards the director
of that area. Okay. And I appreciated the peer reports. There's some expensive golf on that sheet. Not
around here but yeah.
Yeah, that was very helpful to see so all right any we'll have this back again next month,
but any preliminary questions Okay, if the board does have questions, I mean we can of course entertain
them now or I mean I think it'd be helpful if you have things you want to email sent to us ahead of
time for next time if there's things you'd like to see elaborated or you're concerned about a certain
amount of increase in an area or what more justification as
Kathleen mentioned we did attempt to put in there a couple of those peer comparison tables for both
golf courses and aquatics because we know those are frequent ones That the board is really curious about
you know wanting to know where we stand in terms of other communities I'll mention in terms of aquatics.
We still have the fee waiver program continuing as well. That is Recently been supported by the Parks
Foundation and some private donations that we still need to work to recognize and
But yes we would welcome questions and if not now please let us know before the October meeting and
we will attempt to adopt this fee schedule at the October meeting because that is our deadline to get
the new fees into the program guide that will go out for the winter. OK. All right. Sounds good. Thank
you Molly and Tim. And then the second report this evening is a report on aquatics investment opportunities
from Quito.
Good afternoon, Satoshi Kiro, Sports Service Division Director. Racial Architect and Bloomington Parks
and Recreation signed a consultant agreement in June for a project involving evaluating Bryant Park
Pro and assessing how to renovate the facility and estimate cost for potential improvement, including
the bus house, accessibilities, the pump room, and more.
Before the Bryant Park Pool presentation by ratio, I would like to provide some updates on Mills Pool.
After delaying the opening of the pool for four weeks, we received more than 17,000 quotes from Landmark
to repair the leak at the Mills Pool in July. However, the leaking repair will not resolve all issues
at the aging facility.
After closing the pool for the season, we extended the investigation of the pool, not only for leaking,
but also checking performance of the mechanical room. Before contracting for repairs, we want to make
sure that the repairs will allow Mills Pool to safely open and operate for 2027 season and beyond.
These investigations are ongoing now and we will report back to the board soon hopefully October or
November meeting. Okay. Okay. Do you have any questions. Do you have any questions. No. Okay. No but
obviously Mills pool was able to open but you're just not convinced that all the problems have been
solved over there. That is correct. Yeah. Okay. All right.
And at this time I would like to introduce Tommy Freiburn from ratio presenting existing conditions
and the future opportunities of Brian Parkpool. OK Tommy. That looks bad. That's a very thick packet.
Well OK. All right. Good.
Yeah, no, we do. I just thought that was like everything wrong with the pool Well, good afternoon like
keto said my name is Tommy freeborn I'm with ratio architects a landscape architect working on this
project for keto Tim in the Parks Department I wanted to give you guys a brief overview of where we're
at in this study. I'm gonna Oh awesome, man. You've got these cute up Molly and
So myself, I'm Tommy Freeborn. Like I said, I'm a project manager. John Jackson is in the room as well,
principal in charge on this project. So we are both representing Ratio today. A quick overview of what
we're here to talk about, a few welcome introductions obviously, but then really we want to get into
the meat of the study. So there's a lot of information in that study that I think you'll find helpful.
We're just going to kind of hit the highlights today, give you kind of a summary of the executive summary
in there, go into the opportunities analysis, and then talk about budget and cost.
So the consultant team on this project is obviously us ratio and then we have an aquatics consultant
as well, which is WTI Oddly enough. They were the ones who renovated the facility about 20 so years
ago. So they're back With us this time and blundell associates is doing cost mating cost estimating as well
So a quick overview, you guys may be well aware this is your facility after all, but just in case you're
not, Bryan Park Pool was built in 1959. It was renovated again in the early 2000s as well as in the
80s. So this is about in every, what we're seeing a lot in this industry is every 20 to 30 years these
facilities need renovated and need some upgrades. So that's kind of where we find ourselves today. What
we did is we looked at both documents and then we went out there and we looked at existing conditions.
We've been out to the site a few times.
We've also met with with keto and Tim and done a lot of Kind of interview process and to understand
more of what the community needs and what what what their needs are from an operation standpoint as
well And then we've we've sort of identified all of the key deficiencies the opportunities for improvement
and future investment as well and
So I'm just going to go through this executive summary here. Like I said, there's a lot of information
in that document. As you mentioned, it's a fairly large document. But really, the key highlights here
are the pool shell is actually in pretty good condition. A new liner was installed in 2024. The wading
pool is in slightly worse condition.
And it's currently being envisioned to become maybe a beach entry into the pool one day, possibly a
splash pad feature, something like that, as it's not seeing as much use. The mechanical room has some
mechanical equipment that needs upgraded, and then it has some flood concerns that we are investigating,
elevating equipment and upgrading equipment to mitigate those issues. In total, there's different ways
to look at this. We'll study this in a second here,
The deferred maintenance code requirement issues total to about half a million to $700,000. A full renovation
for the pool, just the aquatics component looks like a $2 to $2.3 million project.
The bath house is structurally sound, but it has a lot of space. I'll show you an exhibit here in a
second that communicates that point. There's a lot of real estate in there that I think was built at
a time where people behaved differently in bath houses than they do today. A lot of changing area space
in that bath house on both sides. It does have fewer fixtures than the current pool code.
Requires however, we have had a conversation with the State Department of Health and they have said
as long as you are not increasing the total surface area of Pool of water then we don't need to upgrade
or add any more We we don't need to add any new sanitary fixtures. So that's toilets and sinks and labs
And then the concessions building as well It's it's a fine building, but I think functionally it's not
doing the best for the concessions needs
So I wanted to look at the existing bathhouse layout with you real quick. The women's is on the right
in purple, the men's is on the left. Obviously when you come into the facility, you check in at the
entry vestibule there and then you pick a direction. Again, this is something that we've seen facilities
kind of going away from as we've kind of progressed as a society and realized that you need more options
than just male and female. Not just gender neutral options, but individuals with disabilities in the
community that need a place to go and have a helper and things like that.
That doesn't really allow for that today From the guard office check-in is in the center of the of the
space there and there's some office space off the back of that to Then some mechanical and staff entry
as well If I'm going too quick or you guys have questions, feel free to jump in or we can pause at the
end So basically what we've done is like I said We've met with the Parks Department team here a couple
of times and talked about things that they're seeing as needs and functional deficiencies
And here's really the main priorities that we heard from the team here. So balancing operational and
functional needs with community impact was item number one. I think really not just looking at this
as an operational study, but a community impact improvement as well. And then obviously code requirement
deficiencies are right up there with it. That's obviously something we have to address if we find any.
The good news is that there aren't any code outside of that sanitary fixture count. The bath house doesn't
have any code
Required deficiencies and the State Department of Health has told us we don't need to fix those So the
pool has a couple of code issues that we're looking at the best ways to address but are fairly minor
And then we moving on down We talked about overall guest experience. We heard a lot about functional
capacity of the bathhouse and that space that's in there and then evaluating that waiting pool again
was a was a key kind of priority for the Parks Department and
So then we went out there. We've actually been out quite a few times. We've taken a lot of photos. We've
looked in and under different things. We've looked in the mechanical room quite a bit. And these are
the key things. There's a lot more in that document of things we observed, but these are the key findings
that we wanted to share with you. So the bathhouse building has an aging envelope. It's not surprising,
but there's moisture damage and things like that that are starting to appear. So that's clearly just
a deferred maintenance item that can continue to be
rehabbed and fixed the the interior space Reconfiguration could be really beneficial because of all
that extra space like I previously mentioned for different uses And the aquatics infrastructure feature
updates would really be a helpful Enhancement to the guest experience the pool itself. Like I said has
a new liner It seems to function really well
We do need to add another ADA accessible means of egress in and out of the pool But that's a really
simple and easy thing to accomplish with a lift or a stair or a railing addition to a stair So nothing
too major there So for as far as cost recommendations go we've sort of broken this down in two different
ways of thinking about it one is fix what's broken and the other one is a full renovation where you
really maximize the benefit to the community as well as the efficiencies and functions of the
the facility so You can see right there at the top the aquatics renovation if we were to just fix what's
broken We're looking at a half million to a million dollar project If that's if you fixed everything
and then if you went for a full renovation based on what we found in the study It would look more like
a two to three million dollar project again This isn't us asking you or telling you what we're what
we're proposing. This is just fact-finding is all and the bath the bathhouse renovation
If you were to just fix what's broken leave everything, you know, that's there just fix what what needs
fixed It's a fifty thousand to a hundred thousand dollar project But the bath house renovation if it
were a full renovation, we think is more like a one and a half to three million dollar project And those
are construction costs So those don't include soft costs and permitting and some contingency as well
because this is all a study and not the set of construction documents
So if you were to look at the whole facility and say, what's the cost of just doing everything? If you
wanna fix everything there, you wanna fully renovate it, not just fix it, not just keep what's there,
but really renovate it, maximize it, make it a brand new, feeling like a brand new facility. It's still
renovation, but feeling very new. This is what that would amount to, about a nine million dollar project.
Again, not what we're here to ask for, not what we're proposing necessarily, just sharing the numbers with you.
And we have started to look, we're just in the early stages of looking at, okay, now we know all this
information, what would a phase one project look like? And this is kind of the breakdown of what we're
looking at there. Again, this hasn't been decided on or anything like that, but aquatics construction
could be around a million, a bathhouse construction could be 1.5. Site construction really refers to
that waiting pool and doing something with that and maybe making that a better experience, it's more
accessible to the community.
And then soft costs and contingencies are added here to where a total project budget for phase one could
be around four and a half million dollars. So one other thing I just wanted to show you was kind of
an orientation of the facility here. This is just, I don't know if how many of you are really familiar
with it. We do use a 3D modeling software, so this is our 3D model of the facility and the bath house
is right there coming off of the parking lot.
I believe that's woodlawn Avenue that pulls into the parking lot there just to orient you and then obviously
There's the main pool. It has three water slides that go into it The concessions building is off to
the page left with some outdoor dining area in front of that and then the waiting pool is kind of sitting
there between that concessions building and the bath house So with that I can take any questions oh
Well, thank you that was really interesting and comprehensive and
I mean, as Tim knows, I'm over at that pool pretty regularly. But I hadn't really connected the dots
that, yeah, this locker room environment is very of a different era. I mean, it seems like the trend
is towards private changing, private showering. Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, I think a lot of people just
appreciate that. They don't use it for what it's worth. That working changing area just doesn't get
used. Yeah. And then also, I was interested.
I mean, I don't have little kids anymore. So that waiting area I didn't realize that we had some management
issues or maybe just wasn't the best experience Right. Yeah. Yeah, I think you know when you have that
depth of water that creates some some challenges Whereas you have when you have a splash pad or something
like that, you know, you don't have to have a lifeguard there all the time that's a maintenance thing
and more people can play in a thin sheet of water with sprays and Or feel comfortable playing in that
then they do with a natural body of water Yeah, the zero entry
Is great too. I mean I see people at other pools. I see quite a few people in wheelchairs that are able
to go right into the water from yeah, so Yeah, it's just 9 million Tim So any any questions or comments
for Tom it's Tommy right that's correct. Yeah, no questions for me an interesting report and I think
we'll have to look into and deal with
Thank you. All right, thank you very much. I have a question, actually. So with these grades, poor,
fair, so we don't have any very good and any excellent in the site, as you could see? Sorry,
say that again. We have only grades for fair, poor, and good, but we don't have any above. Oh.
Well, I guess yeah, that's just our system you guys have a lot of things that are good which means they
don't need addressed You know, they're in good operational order You could call them excellent. You
could call them good. But yeah That's just the system we used Okay, so in the regarding the slides a
so for a situation like these with the slides
Yeah. The suggestions is just repairing some of the slides or? Correct. We're recommending a refurbishment
of the finish on the slides, but structurally they look to be sound. The slides themselves function
well. There might be some minor mechanical equipment as we dive into it deeper to see that there might
be some upgrades that need there, but the slides we think add a lot of value. Now, if the community
tells us otherwise or Tim thinks there's one that should be replaced with something else, we're all
ears, but we think
That's one of the things this facility is really known for is the slides and they seem to be only in
need of a refurbished finish not necessarily a full replacement for the waiting I believe the waiting
there is one that you suggest just to get rid of it. There is an area that is is not seen as usable
like useful for
Yeah, I think that's the waiting pool that you're referring to Yeah, and that's the one that we've we've
seen less and less use of that type of a facility That's industry-wide. I would say, you know, we're
doing one of these facilities. It's very similar in Terre Haute right now And that's that's the type
of thing that we're just seeing less and less use on So that's where we're recommending there are some
mechanical Needs with that to repair it as well. I think there's a leak that we've that's been identified
in there So that's the one that we're suggesting could be repurposed
space really I Would take one very out It's not uncommon at all what you have is very common across
the state I think a lot of municipalities have facilities that were built in the 80s Some are built
in the 60s
And they get renovated about every 20 to 30 years to keep them going Some some municipalities are closing
a lot down just because of the the fact that they are a lot of maintenance Required and lifeguards are
hard to find these days, too. So yeah, this is I would say you're Yes, it's old, but it's not uncommon.
Yes Thank you, thank you All right, and then
In our next section we have public comment if there's any I See only no known faces there so no one
is online online. Okay. All right, and then Tim do you have anything to Add for us. Yeah. Well,
first of all, I want to thank our guests today for coming down and making this report in person I think
it's really nice to hear from them. I've been kind of a
second-hand participant firsthand in some cases and I think it's really good that we're engaging in
this type of study As keto talked about we're also being conscientious about mills pool We feel and
in talking with ratio a lot of the costs that we identify for Brian you could easily say if you want
to do a comparable thing over here, it's going to be a comparable number and
So as we work towards our special meeting next week on our investment priorities plan Which is basically
a follow-up step to our master plan About how we will want to invest our capital dollars in the coming
years this is a great report to have to give us a sense of
Okay, maybe we can't dedicate nine million right now, but we feel like we can make an effective renovation
at that four and a half to five million mark. This is informing our budgeting, so we're not having to
just pick a number. And from there, we could move into an actual concept design phase two and start
to really hone in on what we wanna do there. So just a few announcements before we go. We do have the
special meeting next Monday. It will be 5.30 p.m. at Switchyard Park.
Actually, there was a press release that went out shortly before this meeting that Julie sent out that
has The priority investment plan in it. So that is now out to the public you all have that I have a
hard copy here for you that you can take home as well We are open to any questions or feedback on that
as well as the price schedule, of course, which you have in hand now between now and either of the next
two meetings are our special September 28th meeting or the regular October 15th meeting and
Where we will look to approve the fee schedule. So the 28th meeting we will present this report and
it is intended to be a chance to get feedback from the board about this report to answer questions publicly
And to have public comments if people cannot make that meeting which will also be on cats We will not
have a zoom option, but it will be on cats We will also have an online comment form available after
the meeting so we can hear from the public that way as well on this plan
The plan has recommendations and then a whole heck of a lot of what we're trying to put in there as
supporting information Just so the board and the public can all see Usage numbers cost recovery numbers
all the various factors that we have to consider when doing all this so importantly You know, we've
been working with the office of the controller on this report with an eye towards issuing an album general
obligation bond through the park board in 2027 the statutory remonstrance limit on that was going to be
Around seven point one million dollars in projects And then just last week we had news that there is
a massive Grant program funded by the lily endowment going out through the Indiana community parks initiative
with 400 million available in funding for municipal park agencies across the state so that really changes
the landscape in a positive way, you know, it's a it's a wrench in the works of what we were working
on but a very good wrench and
And so we're really happy to be considered for that opportunity to be invited to apply we're gonna work
on that we have to have a planning grant ready for that by the end of October and an implementation
grant by the summer next summer so the idea that we were maybe going to pursue a geo bond early next
year after completing this report is it's kind of out the window with this news because we want to apply
for the grant and see Okay, one of these projects are now a fit for the grant application
One of them are maybe a better fit for municipal bond maintenance type thing So going ahead and having
our meeting next week on the 28th will be really great to get that feedback To continue to inform how
we're going to approach these two funding opportunities which can do a lot of good For all the things
we've been talking about our aging facilities the pools all the other things we're trying to take care of so
In just some other general announcements, I'll give an update. The sycamore shelter, we've had some
questions of, hey, what's going on with the sycamore shelter? As you know, it was smashed by a very
large tree back in May, and our ops division and Rebecca have been working with Tabor Bruce on coming
up with a plan on how to restore it so we can get that funded through insurance. That plan is coming
together, so I know we're hoping in the next month or two to have that plan and bid that work out to
repair the sycamore shelter.
The ice arena is soft opened right now. The official opening will be with the start of October So staff
have worked really hard and you heard that report last month about all the action steps. They've been
taking to make sure We are opening and taking that all the safety steps. We need to take to maintain
that safely And we hope to come back to you soon with Mills pool and then just a few more events coming
up We just finished up glow weekend. We've got youth day at the market coming up this Saturday and
We continue Tuesday markets for two more Tuesdays those wrap up at the end of September for the year
Bugfest which we collaborate with a bunch of other agencies on is this Saturday at karst the following
Saturday October 3rd urban forestry is doing This would be interesting a simulcast sibling city tree
planting with Palo Alto At noon in RCA Park and then after that is the trick-or-treat trail at RCA Park
so come for the tree planting stay for the candy and
and The only other thing I'll put on your radar is October is also a busy event Season for our event
staff and one of the first ones of those will be dearly departed on the 10th with other spooky and good
events to come afterwards like the pumpkin launch and skate and scare and some other things so Thank
you so much for your time tonight and we look forward to seeing you at switch yard park next Monday
All right. Thank you Tim. And with that I'll adjourn this September meeting in the Bloomington Board
of Park commissioners and