WEBVTT

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- Okay, all right, good evening, everybody, thank you for coming. I'm gonna call to order this special

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- meeting of the Bloomington Board of Park Commissioners. No? Okay, they say no mic. Oh, this, oh yeah,

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- this is the... Okay, there we go. Okay.

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- I'm in a call to order this Bloomington Board of Park Commissioners special meeting to talk about future

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- facilities and investments. And Molly if you could start us with the roll call please. Here. All right.

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- So we do have three or four members this evening and thank you for coming out. We just have one item

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- on the agenda and that is to

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- take a look at some of the properties that people know and love in Bloomington and some of the trails

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- and ball fields and all of those kinds of things and how we can invest in them in the future. So our

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- parks director, Tim Street, is going to start off with some information about all that. Thank you for

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- being here. My name is Tim Street. I'm the director of Bloomington Parks and Recreation. We have a number

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- of our staff with us here tonight too who will help

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- to answer questions or provide clarification as we discuss this draft report with the board. If you

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- haven't had a chance, I assume you're here probably because you saw the press release and maybe you've

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- had a chance to view the draft plan that we put out about a week ago. It is available here via the QR

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- code. I'll have it up again later. Or if you're in the midst of the meeting and you want to pull it

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- up and you search, you know, Bloomington Parks investment report press release, it'll come up from last week.

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- So I want to talk a little bit about this report that we've been working on. This is an outgrowth of

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- our 2026 to 2030 master planning effort. So as the board knows, and many of you know, we've been working

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- on our master planning and have largely concluded our master planning earlier this year with a five-year

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- window to plan for the 2026 to 2030 investments, priorities, all based on our community survey, community

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- engagement, needs assessment,

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- all of the work that went into the master plan. When we released the master plan, I remember one commenter

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- sort of astutely noted that the master plan felt like it stopped a little bit short with some facilities

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- investment questions. And they said, it kind of feels like it's a plan that says we should have a plan.

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- And I was like, oh, that person's actually right, because that's what this supplement is.

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- We wanted to wrap up the master plan process so we could use all of the actions we identified in the

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- master plan process, all of the engagement, all of the good information to build out a plan for our

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- system. I have made no secret that our Parks and Rec system is amazing. We are really well supported.

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- We provide a lot of quality of life to Bloomington, and we have also expanded a lot.

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- in the last especially 10 to 20 years when you consider where we are right now. When you consider we've

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- added Hopewell Commons, Bicentennial projects, and even in the 2010s, there was quite a bit of addition.

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- We are very much in a state right now that we need to focus on investing in what we have. That came

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- up as one of our four master plan priorities. And find ways to sustain some of our key community offerings

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- or make critical decisions about how to invest in them.

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- We have two pools. One is from 1957 to 59. It was built and opened, Bryan Park Pool. Mills Pool was

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- 1963. The Frank Southern Ice Arena was 1967. Winslow Sports Park was 1979. These are all facilities

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- that are 40, 50, 60 years old and all have various needs. And part of the reason why we designed some

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- of our community engagement in the master plan was to get

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- sense of what the needs are and what the community feels about these facilities whether they're in support

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- or not in support of them. So to be honest we had a wrench thrown into our process about two weeks ago

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- with preparing this report. We had been working on this report and this report is basically a reflection

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- of how staff feel we can best represent the community needs respond to the community needs based on

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- the assessment and condition of our facilities

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- and the funds we have available. So building this report, we are building it, working with the office

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- of the controller with the assumption that we could issue around a $7 million bond. Parks municipal

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- geo bond, which the parks board has the authority to do along with city council. Last issued one in

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- 2022, which is nearly paid off, would be paid off in 2028. So by issuing this bond in 2027, the payments

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- would start in 2028

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- in the same year that the payments from the previous bond would be paid off. So we wouldn't really be

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- adding much to the tax rate. It would basically be a wash. However, right as we were literally putting

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- the finishing touches on this report, we received some really great news from the Indiana Community

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- Parks Initiative that they were releasing a grant opportunity statewide for municipal park agencies

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- for about $400 million. This is for invited communities across Indiana. It's a lot of municipalities.

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- And Bloomington is one of the invited communities. So we all of a sudden have an opportunity to also

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- go for a 200K Community Parks Initiative planning grants, which would be required to be eligible for

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- a $10 million CPI project grants. And those grants are being funded very generously by the Lilly Endowment

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- throughout the state of Indiana. So this is sort of a game changing opportunity.

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- in terms of what and how much we can fund as we look at these needs. When it came up, we debated whether

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- we should still keep this meeting tonight, and we decided, yes, this is really good, let's talk about

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- these needs, let's get these in front of the community, even if we know we're obviously gonna go for

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- the grant opportunity, it's a huge opportunity for us, but the work we do tonight can help us inform

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- where we go next, what kind of priorities we build out,

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- And then we as a staff will be looking at which of these funding opportunities are a good fit for the

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- grants opportunity and which ones might necessarily need to remain part of a municipal geo bond issuance

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- if they're not in line with something that the grant is designed for. The good news is that the grant

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- overall is very much designed and inspired by revitalization of parks and rec systems and learning about

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- the grant, which we're still doing, but we've heard a lot of words revitalize

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- nature, access, parks, history, culture, arts, community, all of these things. So a lot of what our

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- parks and rec system has to offer. Maybe not every aspect, but a lot. So that is where we're at with

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- our funding picture. So rather than working directly off a list tonight that we were going to recommend

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- to fund in a GEO bond, this is going to be a recommendation of our overall top priorities. It is not

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- a comprehensive list of every capital need,

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- But it is rather a representation of some of the more major and substantial things that we really need

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- to work towards. I said it's a non-exhaustive list. I wanted to make sure that timing on this before

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- I get into the recommendations, we have to have a planning grant application in for the CPI grants by

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- the end of October. So tonight's meeting will be really helpful as we look at that.

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- And then we have to have the $10 million project grant after we do the planning phase in mid next year

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- with an award late, probably about a year from now. So late to 2027, we would know about an award of

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- all or some of the $10 million. So very exciting. Like I mentioned, it's a wrench in the plan. We kind

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- of had this plan going. We're going to figure out how to do seven. But this opportunity is amazing.

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- It's well worth.

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- you know, if we need to retread a little bit of area, if we do another meeting like this in the future

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- because we need to do it for the planning grant, great. We value the community engagement and we'll

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- just try to build the best package possible to apply for the grant. And potentially, I'll continue to

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- work with the controller's office and the park board to see about our debt capacity and willingness

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- to bond in addition to or in tandem with any grant award. But we would necessarily want to wait for

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- that grant award to know

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- about any potential bond issuance. It just wouldn't make sense to put that beforehand. That is everything

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- I wanted to say as an introduction. This report is really an attempt to put all kinds of background

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- information from the master plan, use statistics, cost recovery statistics, all of the things that our

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- staff are looking at as we think about how to prioritize and make decisions into a report that is readily

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- available for the board and for the public.

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- So I hope you have a chance to look at it. I'll mention it now and I'll say it again at the end. We

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- will have an online comment period after this. We are not asking for this plan to be adopted this evening.

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- This is an introduction of the plan and a chance for public comment. We will have public comment for

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- those of you that are here tonight. Thank you at the end. But importantly, the conversation will go

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- on after tonight. And this is just really, you know, I won't say it's the beginning of this conversation

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- because that was really with the master plan, but it's the next step of where we're going.

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- Let me present the recommendations and then we can have a discussion with the board and then we will

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- move into public comment after that. And I want to say that the number on the recommendations is not

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- indicative of a ranking of the recommendations. There are 15 recommendations here. They are meant to

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- be viewed comprehensively not as a ranked order. I'm going to just briefly go over them and then we

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- will have discussion. So number one we would like to recommend that we

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- basically resolve when we adopt this plan to increase our annual capital investment to six percent by

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- 2030. We call this category four in our city budgeting. This is budgeting for capital expenses. This

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- is the type of funding that helps us replace vehicles and do smaller capital projects that we need to

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- do to keep up with our properties. Roofs, utility vehicles, on the road vehicles,

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- replacing our aging fleet. We've had a couple vehicles basically age out on us this year. And part of

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- that is we, along with most of the industry, municipal governments, have underfunded annual capital

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- investment for quite some time. And that has averaged around 2%. We are basically recommending that

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- we increase that by a percentage point each year to get that up to 6% by 2030, the end of our master

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- planning period. And the reason being that will help us to keep up

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- with ongoing needs and equipment needs that our staff need to make these repairs and upgrades. The second

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- recommendation is that we look at the Parks and Recreation ownership of 349 South Walnut Street. So

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- this building is the current project school. The Parks and Recreation department has owned this building

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- since the 70s as a result of the Bloomington Adult Community Center formerly being located there. We

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- just want to, we received a couple of assessments that said,

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- This property is valued at about 2.7 million. This is not a surprise to the project school. I've talked

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- to their leadership about this. I didn't want them to be surprised by this. But we really need to look

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- at whether or not the Parks Department needs to continue to own this building and whether a sale of

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- it or if not that at least a shift in the rent scheme would help us with our annual capital investment

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- meeting some of these needs as well.

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- Aquatics, this is a really big one, and I'm sure we'll have some discussion on this tonight.

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- Our recommendation at this time is that we prioritize investment in a Bryant Park pool renovation. We

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- have already, as the board knows, been working with a landscape architect company with expertise in

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- this area called Ratio Architects. They are giving us insight into how much we would need to spend to

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- solve things like code compliance, updating the bath house, to have

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- gender neutral, family changing rooms, better facilities, dealing with the spray pad, ensuring water

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- slides can continue for years to come. Those are all the priorities we've been talking about. And at

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- the same time, we are not recommending the same level of investment at Mills Pool right now. In fact,

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- right now, Satoshi Kido and our sports staff have been investigating

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- exactly what went wrong with the leak last year and what we need to do to make sure we can make comprehensive

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- repairs to open it on time and make it comprehensively open for years to come. But at the same time

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- we know that that facility is aging and without investment like we would do at Bryant Park Pool we will

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- reach a conclusion at some point of what we are able to operate there and that is just a reality of having

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- you know, multiple outdoor pools. The IU outdoor pool is facing very similar issues with its age.

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- You know, we're comparing notes with the university to try to figure out if there's any opportunity

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- for collaboration there. But at this time, the recommendation is to invest in the renovation at Bryant

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- Park Pool, which is used three to four times as much as Mills Pool and perform the sustaining repairs

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- at Mills Pool, which we think it could maybe be up to 100K.

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- Fourth recommendation is investing in turf infields at the junior side, baseball fields, and LED upgrades

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- throughout Winslow Sports Park, as well as looking at some stormwater improvements in partnership with

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- City of Bloomington Utilities at the parking lot at Winslow Sports. That parking lot is three acres

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- of runoff, so environmentally, it does not do very well. In addition to that recommendation,

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- We are suggesting that we maintain the recreational diamonds as grass only at Butler and Bryan Parks

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- due to overall low usage that our sports staff are seeing as well as the ability for those to function

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- as multi-sports spaces if they are maintained as grass. And then the third recommendation is to officially

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- decommission and remove the lower cascades ball fields and hold for future reuse. We just do not have

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- the baseball and softball numbers and interest that we used to.

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- by strategically investing in Winslow Sports to make sure we have a nice home facility to partner with

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- Twin Lakes Sports Park to host tournaments, things like that. We're not trying to compete with a grand

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- sports park up in west side of India or anything like that, but we should be able to attract some regional

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- and local play to a facility that has experienced a lot of rain outs, in part due to our changing weather

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- patterns and in part due to just how old it is and how poor the drainage has become over the years.

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- Number five, playgrounds. The priority here is to replace Alcott Playground, which is now one of our

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- oldest and most well used because Alcott is a community park that sees a lot of people with a new inclusive

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- themed playground. Since we removed the old Push Place playground at Winslow Sports, excuse me, at Winslow

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- Woods, we have not had a playground dedicated to any type of inclusion. There's a community partner

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- we could work with to design that. There's more details in the report.

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- And also fund some other critical playground repairs, switch our turf in other locations. And then as

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- funding becomes available, if we're looking at the grant and we have the opportunity to go for more,

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- we would look at these other playgrounds, which are our other oldest playgrounds. Building Trades, Highland

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- Park, and Schmalls Park are our other oldest playgrounds. I should mention I didn't include the amounts

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- on these brief slides, but there are amount recommendations and some ranges included in the report.

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- Trail and asphalt repair, as our master plan showed in the previous, at least two master plans showed,

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- trails are the number one thing our community is interested in. Luckily, we are also meeting that demand

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- fairly well, as our needs assessment showed. They remain a strong community interest. We need to continue

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- to invest in just ongoing upkeep and repair of those to maintain accessibility, to solve issues that

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- come up when we get tree root heave and asphalt cracks and things like that.

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- There are some some locations listed in the report where we we know we have some issues that would be

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- priority issues but we would also do a condition assessment based on the available budget to make sure

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- we're prioritizing the areas where they need it most across our very extensive trail system. Number seven.

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- The critical need is to replace the elevator there. It is getting quite old and it's having increasing

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- issues as we get it inspected. It's constantly needing little things and I know our elevator repair

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- company is telling us it's time to think about replacing it. If we lose that, we lose a lot of accessibility

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- in that building. So this is a critical repair. We would also look at replacing the drop ceiling in

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- the gym, which has

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- water stain issues and a drop ceiling in a gym is not the best thing for balls being sent up to the

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- ceiling. So we could replace that with a more modern insulation, spray insulation system. And then with

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- the news of the Lilly grant, we also expanded that to say if we can fit it in our ask, we can work on

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- renovating the gym and replacing the flooring.

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- ice arena. This is obviously another one of our really major areas of need and talking points as we

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- work to maintain the ice arena. Chris Hamrick, our manager there, Satoshi Kido, our sports director,

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- have done a really wonderful job responding to the ammonia leak that we had last year. It was my worst

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- fear for the ice arena, but the good news is it all happened according to our protocols.

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- went as well as it should have. That said, we really don't want to have to deal with that in the future.

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- We have had a couple of stakeholder meetings already this summer with people who have a vested interest

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- in the ice arena, including IU, our blades groups, our figure skating groups, other hockey groups, other

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- skate groups. And we want to continue that to determine a direction by 2028. What we've largely heard

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- from the community and the stakeholders is,

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- And even the board, actually, when we brought up the initial report was, should we really look at developing

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- something new? Because the ice arena is not on city-owned land. It is on MCCSE-owned land. And there

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- was sort of this idea of, are we throwing good money after bad by investing in this really old facility?

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- It's a big ask. It's a tall order. A new facility is going to be $15 million-plus, probably, and we

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- would need to locate a new property.

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- If that is not feasible, I think we need to give this time to really investigate and see where we can

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- get with that. But by 2028, I think we need to make a decision because we can't just let this ammonia

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- system continue to be there and continue to age and potentially have another issue down the line. So

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- the rough estimates that we have, sorry, I keep going loud for some reason,

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- The full ammonia replacement for the ice arena and getting rid of the direct system and replacing the

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- ammonia with a modern refrigerant would be about 4 million. Partial ammonia replacements, which would

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- mean we get rid of the direct system so the ammonia would not go out under the ice and it would stay

00:20:15.192 --> 00:20:20.911
- in the boiler room. It would also reduce the amount of ammonia we would use by about 75%, which is a

00:20:20.911 --> 00:20:26.686
- great intervention. That would be about 2 million plus. Either one of those would take us out of the,

00:20:29.122 --> 00:20:35.498
- How do I want to put this? The rarefied air of when people come visit our ice arena and they say, oh,

00:20:35.498 --> 00:20:41.873
- you still have ammonia and you're still a direct system. You're one of the last in the country. We've

00:20:41.873 --> 00:20:48.624
- literally heard that. So by either getting rid of the direct system or getting rid of the ammonia together,

00:20:48.624 --> 00:20:54.750
- we can remove that unique moniker from our ice arena. Sports courts, what's recommended initially

00:20:55.074 --> 00:21:01.548
- There's some very low-hanging fruit of investing in RCA Park pickleball conversion. There are two tennis

00:21:01.548 --> 00:21:07.714
- courts there that were not converted to pickleball. There was already a lot of pickleball played at

00:21:07.714 --> 00:21:14.374
- RCA Park. So the idea is to convert and continue to channel that positive use to RCA Park. There's parking,

00:21:14.374 --> 00:21:20.478
- there's restroom, there's activity there. We want to invest in building trades court improvements.

00:21:20.770 --> 00:21:26.499
- Building trades phase one improvements last year that focused on accessibility. As part of that, we

00:21:26.499 --> 00:21:32.285
- were looking at a master plan for the park that included use of the building trades sport courts and

00:21:32.285 --> 00:21:38.014
- how we could rehabilitate that. During our master planning, we talked about a multi-use games area,

00:21:38.014 --> 00:21:43.801
- which is really a way to design a sports court that can be used for all different kinds of games and

00:21:43.801 --> 00:21:47.582
- facilities. There's actually an image in the report of an example

00:21:47.746 --> 00:21:53.022
- I don't believe there are a lot of these in the U.S. right now. I think it's a little bit more of a

00:21:53.022 --> 00:21:58.826
- European English concept that we've seen, but they're really cool. They provide opportunities for basketball,

00:21:58.826 --> 00:22:04.207
- for soccer, or futsal. You would still have open space, so you could play roller hockey with the nets

00:22:04.207 --> 00:22:09.694
- on the end. You could play bike polo, as we know happens there, and do a lot of things there. The other

00:22:09.694 --> 00:22:15.076
- thing that we were not gonna initially recommend for the bond, but keep as another next down the line

00:22:15.076 --> 00:22:16.606
- option that may be different

00:22:16.898 --> 00:22:22.683
- grant opportunity now would be to invest in converting Switchyard Bachi, which was a great idea,

00:22:22.683 --> 00:22:28.647
- very cool, but we just don't see it getting used. That could become more pickleball and continue to

00:22:28.647 --> 00:22:35.028
- invest in what we have by putting these type of amenities where we have activity, where we have restrooms,

00:22:35.028 --> 00:22:41.170
- where we have parking already available. I'm droning on. I got a few more to go. Bear with me and then

00:22:41.170 --> 00:22:43.198
- we'll get to the discussion part.

00:22:43.970 --> 00:22:50.460
- The Buskirk Chumley Theater, so Parks and Recreation is also the city's landlord for the Buskirk Chumley

00:22:50.460 --> 00:22:56.642
- Theater. The initial need on us as we partner with the city's EST department, they work on and fund

00:22:56.642 --> 00:23:02.823
- some more of the operational theater aspects, more or more building systems. We need to replace the

00:23:02.823 --> 00:23:09.128
- new fire, replace the fire safety curtain at the theater with a new one for fire code reasons and for

00:23:09.128 --> 00:23:11.230
- safety reasons, that's about 55K.

00:23:11.458 --> 00:23:17.134
- We also want to consider building envelope and marquee rehabilitation. We recognize in talking with

00:23:17.134 --> 00:23:23.038
- theater management that the Buskirk Chumlee Marquee is a really iconic part of Bloomington's landscape.

00:23:23.038 --> 00:23:28.827
- It needs some rehabilitation. It needs some repair. We're actually going to be bringing a contract to

00:23:28.827 --> 00:23:34.674
- do a structural inspection of it to the board here soon so we can understand more about the needs that

00:23:34.674 --> 00:23:40.350
- the marquee may have. This, I will mention the marquee, I think would be a great fit for the grant.

00:23:40.514 --> 00:23:46.776
- portion of what we're talking about funding, the arts and culture and things that the grant wants to

00:23:46.776 --> 00:23:53.225
- look at. This one is fairly straightforward at Rose Hill Cemetery. We have two soldiers' monuments that

00:23:53.225 --> 00:23:59.735
- have not had attention in a very long time. One is to soldiers of Civil War. One is to soldiers of World

00:23:59.735 --> 00:24:06.184
- War I. We would like to do some rehabilitation on those, similar to what the county did to the memorial

00:24:06.184 --> 00:24:08.478
- on the southeast side of the square.

00:24:09.250 --> 00:24:15.727
- I think they did that just last year, maybe the year before. Number 12, Twin Lakes Rec Center. This

00:24:15.727 --> 00:24:22.529
- one's kind of interesting. It's more or less an update and a recommendation of how we will proceed soon.

00:24:22.529 --> 00:24:29.006
- But for Twin Lakes Rec Center, we are closing in on paying off the revenue bond that bought that in

00:24:29.006 --> 00:24:35.807
- 2009. It was a 20-year payoff. That will be retired in 2029, which is all of a sudden not that far away.

00:24:35.807 --> 00:24:38.398
- We will have one payment of it in 2029.

00:24:38.722 --> 00:24:46.606
- and then it will be retired. So in 2029, that will save the department about $240,000. And then in subsequent

00:24:46.606 --> 00:24:53.772
- years, that will free up about $480,000 a year in our non-reverting budget. That can really, really

00:24:53.772 --> 00:25:01.011
- help us go and support some of these other needs, including the Cascades need that I'm going to talk

00:25:01.011 --> 00:25:03.806
- about in just a second. Cascades Golf.

00:25:03.970 --> 00:25:09.852
- I will mention Cascades Golf continues to run with zero subsidy of tax dollars from the department.

00:25:09.852 --> 00:25:15.969
- It generates more than it receives. While it does run partially through the general fund, for at least,

00:25:15.969 --> 00:25:21.851
- I didn't go back farther than five years, but for the last five years, the golf course has finished

00:25:21.851 --> 00:25:27.791
- in the black every one of those years. But everything is expensive and there are capital needs there

00:25:27.791 --> 00:25:33.438
- as well. So as we transition and sunset this Twin Lakes revenue bond, we really need to look at

00:25:33.538 --> 00:25:40.994
- probably a little bit of overlap of bringing a revenue bond online for the golf course to focus primarily

00:25:40.994 --> 00:25:48.028
- on 18 holes of irrigation that were put in in 1981. That is a wonderful life span for an irrigation

00:25:48.028 --> 00:25:52.670
- system. It is one year older than me and it needs to be replaced.

00:25:52.962 --> 00:25:58.761
- Other needs there that we would look at would include, as part of that bond, potentially cart path repair.

00:25:58.761 --> 00:26:03.909
- Important to keep those cart paths up to protect our investment and potential maintenance cart

00:26:03.909 --> 00:26:09.491
- bar improvements or replacements. Two more. Sponsorship and naming. This is a recommendation we wanted

00:26:09.491 --> 00:26:14.964
- to bring to the board as we look at this option. We really want to pursue a contract with an outside

00:26:14.964 --> 00:26:20.438
- expert to investigate major sponsorship and naming opportunities. This is something we've seen other

00:26:20.438 --> 00:26:21.630
- parks departments do.

00:26:21.762 --> 00:26:27.881
- We believe there's an opportunity here for us. It's not like for like, but we saw Columbus recently

00:26:27.881 --> 00:26:34.000
- built. Columbus is very into youth sports, focused on youth sports. They built their new big indoor

00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:40.303
- field house arena, and it's named Circle K. That's a huge company, a huge sponsorship opportunity. I'm

00:26:40.303 --> 00:26:46.728
- not saying that exact opportunity is here, but there are opportunities that we should pursue while still

00:26:46.728 --> 00:26:51.134
- recognizing that our staff do a great job with a lot of local companies

00:26:51.234 --> 00:26:58.177
- relationships with local businesses and longtime sponsors who help us sponsor a whole lot of things,

00:26:58.177 --> 00:27:04.570
- events, concert series, performing arts series, things like that. So we also want to protect

00:27:04.570 --> 00:27:11.582
- those relationships. And lastly, and again, not exhaustively, but lastly, Griffey Lake Trails, one of

00:27:11.874 --> 00:27:17.520
- I would say the most popular projects we've done in the last few years was the Bicentennial Bond investment

00:27:17.520 --> 00:27:22.748
- in the Griffey Loop Trail system. We really want to go back. We were not able to complete the North

00:27:22.748 --> 00:27:27.976
- Shore improvements based on available budget. There's a potential to use some remaining of the 2022

00:27:27.976 --> 00:27:33.674
- GO Bond that was issued through the Park Department, which included Griffey as a site location for expenses.

00:27:33.674 --> 00:27:38.902
- We're going to look at that opportunity. And then the other opportunity we really want to pursue at

00:27:38.902 --> 00:27:39.582
- Griffey Lake

00:27:39.970 --> 00:27:46.516
- that we've heard a lot about is designing and installing an accessible trail that is accessible to people

00:27:46.516 --> 00:27:52.692
- of all abilities, chairs, all kinds of uses and that could run east from the Griffey Lake Boathouse

00:27:52.692 --> 00:27:59.238
- towards the Wetland Trail. There's a great opportunity to put that in there and that could be a potential

00:27:59.238 --> 00:28:05.599
- grant option as well. So that said, I'm going to get a drink and I would welcome questions or comments

00:28:05.599 --> 00:28:07.390
- from the board and I'll just

00:28:07.522 --> 00:28:13.263
- mentioned we have different staff members here with us tonight. I'll point you out. You can raise your

00:28:13.263 --> 00:28:18.892
- hand so everyone knows who you are because they might want to have a conversation with you after the

00:28:18.892 --> 00:28:24.465
- meeting, too. Rebecca Swift, our operations director, is here. Julie Ramey, our community relations

00:28:24.465 --> 00:28:29.649
- manager, is here. Mark Sterner, our Twin Lakes manager. Jason Sims, our golf course manager.

00:28:29.649 --> 00:28:35.333
- Satoshi Kido, our sports division director. Chris Hamrick has a chunk of this because he manages both

00:28:35.333 --> 00:28:36.894
- aquatics and the ice arena.

00:28:37.250 --> 00:28:44.234
- And Kevin Terrell is our Banneker manager. Oh, Alec's back there too. Alec is also in our pools and

00:28:44.234 --> 00:28:51.706
- aquatics. And if you want to talk to our lawyer, you can talk to Taylor. He's back here too. Legal advice.

00:28:51.706 --> 00:28:58.690
- So that said, yes, I'm going to get a drink. And board, we would welcome questions or comments. And

00:28:58.690 --> 00:29:05.953
- I can have different staff respond to those as well. Thank you, Jim. I don't want to take a lot of time

00:29:05.953 --> 00:29:07.070
- to talk because

00:29:07.426 --> 00:29:17.483
- You know, people, you came out here on a beautiful evening and we should all be outside. So any shortish

00:29:17.483 --> 00:29:27.061
- comments from the board before we open up to public responses, public comments? Israel, do you have

00:29:27.061 --> 00:29:36.830
- anything you want to share? Sorry. Yeah. So thank you, first of all, for the presentation and this is

00:29:37.090 --> 00:29:46.929
- moment for a good discussion because we have seen in this summary of recommendations that we need to

00:29:46.929 --> 00:29:56.964
- take action, pay attention to some issues that for some time, certain years, have affected some of the

00:29:56.964 --> 00:30:05.342
- facilities in our parks and also in recreation venues and this should be something to

00:30:06.434 --> 00:30:17.227
- to analyze for an outcome that we can act and do the processes so we can have and improve some of the

00:30:17.227 --> 00:30:28.337
- resources that we have. So thank you for the opportunity and thank you for this conversation. I'd really

00:30:28.337 --> 00:30:34.686
- appreciate the community participation that's here tonight.

00:30:34.882 --> 00:30:41.534
- really looking forward just to hearing from all of you. I think as a board member, some of the things

00:30:41.534 --> 00:30:48.056
- at the top of my mind are things regarding equity across all of the different programs in parks and

00:30:48.056 --> 00:30:54.643
- rec, and then just making sure we're optimizing our resources. So just want to all of them hear from

00:30:54.643 --> 00:31:01.426
- the community and anything else Kathleen? Yeah, and I think this is a pretty big list and we can't make

00:31:01.426 --> 00:31:03.774
- everybody happy with their favorite

00:31:03.938 --> 00:31:11.743
- parks facility, but we can do our best, as Ellen said, to use the resources wisely and make sure that

00:31:11.743 --> 00:31:19.624
- five, 10 years down the line, people aren't going to a pool or an ice arena saying, oh, what sad shape

00:31:19.624 --> 00:31:27.582
- this is in. We don't want that. We want to take care of these assets. With that, we were allowing three

00:31:27.582 --> 00:31:31.102
- minutes per person for comment, and we have a

00:31:31.234 --> 00:31:36.915
- Do we have a microphone going around, or do we want to ask people to come up? So you can come up here.

00:31:36.915 --> 00:31:42.431
- I would ask if you're willing to start with your name. Sign in here if you would. Molly, our office

00:31:42.431 --> 00:31:48.112
- manager, I'm sorry, I should have introduced you as part of staff as well, has a timer that's up there

00:31:48.112 --> 00:31:53.848
- so you can see your time you have available. And I'll just close by saying if there's no other comments

00:31:53.848 --> 00:31:59.474
- or questions for the board. Again, this is an endpoint of a process, but it's a jumping off point for

00:31:59.474 --> 00:32:00.798
- conversation from here.

00:32:01.090 --> 00:32:07.201
- And we will continue to have that conversation. And if you haven't had the board or the public haven't

00:32:07.201 --> 00:32:13.194
- had a chance, we really made an effort to include a lot of the numbers behind things in this report.

00:32:13.194 --> 00:32:19.246
- And at the back end of the report, you can access via the link, you know, you can see rental hours by

00:32:19.246 --> 00:32:25.298
- facility. You can see the cost recovery that we've experienced at these facilities by percentage. And

00:32:25.298 --> 00:32:29.214
- then at the back end, you can also get to some of our master plan

00:32:29.346 --> 00:32:35.501
- community engagement that was revealed, and including some of the numbers from our statistically valid

00:32:35.501 --> 00:32:41.596
- community survey about what the community said they're using the most, what they're interested in the

00:32:41.596 --> 00:32:48.050
- most, and then what they would support in terms of potential renovation options. And that's just scratching

00:32:48.050 --> 00:32:54.205
- the surface. If you go to our actual master plan, there's way, way more. So I'm just trying to provide

00:32:54.205 --> 00:32:56.894
- the highlights there. But it is all publicly

00:32:57.314 --> 00:33:06.913
- accessible and available, and I would be happy to help point anyone towards it. I think so. Yeah. Yeah.

00:33:06.913 --> 00:33:16.142
- Yeah. So, yeah, whoever would like to kick us off, if you could come up to the podium and just tell

00:33:16.142 --> 00:33:26.110
- us your name and any comments you have about any of the priorities here for renovations and modernizations.

00:33:31.970 --> 00:33:41.609
- Good evening. My name is Bob Costello. I'm a business owner and resident of Bloomington, Indiana. I've

00:33:41.609 --> 00:33:51.247
- owned a business here for over 30 years. I'd like to say thank you to the Parks Department for putting

00:33:51.247 --> 00:33:56.862
- forward an investment in the pickleball courts at RCA Park.

00:33:57.026 --> 00:34:05.527
- I would like to challenge the board as well as the Parks Department. $45,000 is a generous amount, but

00:34:05.527 --> 00:34:14.027
- doesn't really put much of a dent in what's actually needed at that facility. We were promised $45,000

00:34:14.027 --> 00:34:20.382
- last year for repairs on the asphalt. The facility still needs wind screens.

00:34:20.578 --> 00:34:28.577
- which could be paid by sponsorships. You could also generate revenue for the Parks Department and the

00:34:28.577 --> 00:34:34.302
- city by holding tournaments. Greenwood, Columbus, Vincennes, Evansville,

00:34:34.402 --> 00:34:41.498
- Noblesville, Westfield have made all of these investments. They've seen a return on their investments.

00:34:41.498 --> 00:34:48.456
- The most recent tournament I attended in Greenwood had 465 people at the event for three days. Those

00:34:48.456 --> 00:34:55.758
- people traveled to the event, they spent money in the community, and it also serves the community members

00:34:55.758 --> 00:35:03.336
- of Greenwood that were participating in that tournament as well. So I challenge you to look at the pickleball

00:35:03.336 --> 00:35:04.094
- community,

00:35:04.386 --> 00:35:11.031
- active it is, how many people in this community participate. It's an ageless event. There are people

00:35:11.031 --> 00:35:18.006
- that are as young as 12 to 80 years old. And it's all walks of life. And it's a very welcoming community.

00:35:18.006 --> 00:35:24.849
- People are willing to teach each other how to play the game, how to get better at the game. And I think

00:35:24.849 --> 00:35:27.678
- it's nothing but valuable for Bloomington.

00:35:27.778 --> 00:35:38.553
- And I appreciate your time, but I would ask for you to reconsider the amount of money that you're budgeting

00:35:38.553 --> 00:35:48.031
- towards this and come up with a long-term plan for a pickleball in Bloomington. Thank you. Hi,

00:35:48.031 --> 00:35:55.614
- my name is Abe. I just came to talk about the baseball fields being turfed.

00:35:56.130 --> 00:36:03.581
- One of the things that I don't have to sell is how great Bloomington is, especially with how good our

00:36:03.581 --> 00:36:11.033
- football team now is. And so we seem to be at that cusp of families coming into town from out of town

00:36:11.033 --> 00:36:18.630
- and deciding whether or not they want to stay here after college. And a lot of that comes down to youth

00:36:18.630 --> 00:36:25.278
- sports. So the baseball fields at Winslow are not turfed, so we're susceptible to weather.

00:36:25.410 --> 00:36:31.829
- I don't expect us to be a grand park and have tournaments, but as a guy that owns a restaurant downtown,

00:36:31.829 --> 00:36:38.125
- the summers are also super slow. It would be great to have all of those people come into town, see how

00:36:38.125 --> 00:36:44.361
- great it is down here, stay in our hotels, visit our businesses. It just seems like an opportunity to

00:36:44.361 --> 00:36:50.596
- have more people decide to move into Bloomington because of the level of our youth sports, not decide

00:36:50.596 --> 00:36:54.814
- to go to Avon or Fishers or somewhere up north that has all of these

00:36:55.170 --> 00:37:03.105
- very basic things that are available like turf fields that last forever. And just on a personal note,

00:37:03.105 --> 00:37:11.274
- it's super unfortunate year after year to not be able to simply play or practice because of the weather,

00:37:11.274 --> 00:37:19.442
- because we don't have those available. The high schools have them now, and so that's a great opportunity

00:37:19.442 --> 00:37:21.854
- for us, but the middle schools

00:37:21.986 --> 00:37:27.537
- we have three middle schools and none of those have an actual baseball team either. So again,

00:37:27.537 --> 00:37:33.678
- the opportunities are kind of endless and it's just one of those things that I think would be a benefit

00:37:33.678 --> 00:37:39.700
- for more money, not just in the slow periods of the summer when a lot of the businesses downtown just

00:37:39.700 --> 00:37:45.841
- basically try to make the black to save up for the next year, but also with the success of our football

00:37:45.841 --> 00:37:50.270
- team and how great Bloomington is and people wanting to move back in here.

00:37:50.658 --> 00:37:59.201
- and do a lot more building, it's an advantage that their kids have a place to play that they know is

00:37:59.201 --> 00:38:07.744
- not going to constantly be canceled or rescheduled, and then they go outside of the city. And that's

00:38:07.744 --> 00:38:16.372
- it. So thank you. Thank you. Hi. I'm Dan Smith. Also, I want to speak for the baseball field upgrade,

00:38:16.372 --> 00:38:20.094
- just to kind of expound upon what Abe said.

00:38:20.610 --> 00:38:27.797
- found a couple notes that I thought were worth sharing. Greensburg, Indiana had 24 tournaments at the

00:38:27.797 --> 00:38:35.054
- 12 and under levels in 2025, which is about an hour and a half drive from here. Bloomington has a much

00:38:35.054 --> 00:38:42.311
- better infrastructure than Greensburg, Indiana does. I dug up some documents, a document that the 2020

00:38:42.311 --> 00:38:47.454
- Bloomington Housing Authority cited that hosting one softball tournament

00:38:47.682 --> 00:38:54.652
- national softball tournament in July of 2020 had an estimated $500,000 economic impact on the town.

00:38:54.652 --> 00:39:01.623
- I think that it's fair to say that with turf baseball fields at Winslow, I don't know that we would

00:39:01.623 --> 00:39:08.803
- have $500,000 economic impact for a weekend of baseball, but it could be, you know, maybe a percentage

00:39:08.803 --> 00:39:16.122
- of that. I did kind of an estimate of a 20 team tournament, 11 players on a team, let's say three family

00:39:16.122 --> 00:39:16.958
- members per

00:39:17.282 --> 00:39:25.404
- I know this for a fact, I spend an average of $200 to $250 a weekend at a baseball tournament. That

00:39:25.404 --> 00:39:33.688
- mats out to about $175,000 per weekend. In addition to the rain outs that we would no longer have, we

00:39:33.688 --> 00:39:42.054
- could expand our seasons, ball baseball could become longer, we could have tournaments longer into the

00:39:42.054 --> 00:39:46.846
- fall. I think that would lead to fewer departures of kids.

00:39:47.042 --> 00:39:58.398
- that are currently only playing travel baseball. They would stay in our home leagues. We could develop

00:39:58.398 --> 00:40:09.864
- more athletes in our community. And that's all I have. Thank you. I'm Dan Smith. I'm sensing this might

00:40:09.864 --> 00:40:14.494
- be hockey related. Throw my name in here.

00:40:19.042 --> 00:40:26.042
- I have spelled my name, so this isn't going to go well. So I just want to start off. I'm William Baker.

00:40:26.042 --> 00:40:32.975
- I'm absolutely terrible at speaking in front of large groups, so bear with me. I am a 35-year-old Army

00:40:32.975 --> 00:40:39.975
- veteran. I was disabled during service, and I was able to find that running and doing a lot of physical

00:40:39.975 --> 00:40:46.975
- activity for me was challenging. However, I finally just kind of bit the bullet and decided I was going

00:40:46.975 --> 00:40:48.254
- to try out hockey.

00:40:48.770 --> 00:40:56.568
- I went for the worst position in that case as a goalie. However, you know, being able to be on the ice

00:40:56.568 --> 00:41:04.367
- and play and move has helped me maintain my flexibility even with some of the issues that I sustained.

00:41:04.367 --> 00:41:12.089
- But a big thing for me is the fact that hockey doesn't, you know, end in March. So I've been pursuing

00:41:12.089 --> 00:41:17.086
- hockey in other areas, primarily having to go to Indy during some

00:41:17.378 --> 00:41:23.757
- sessions, Perry Park, even over in Hamilton County. And I feel like Bloomington has, you know, we've

00:41:23.757 --> 00:41:30.389
- got the Blades, we've got the IU teams, we've got the ability to have more people involved in our hockey

00:41:30.389 --> 00:41:36.831
- programs and the figure skating programs, any ice-related programs. And, you know, being the way that

00:41:36.831 --> 00:41:43.526
- it is, you know, having to shut down in March really takes away from, you know, in the heat of the summer

00:41:43.526 --> 00:41:46.494
- being able to go, you know, skate on some ice.

00:41:47.010 --> 00:41:53.572
- Just pools are great and I wouldn't want to take away from any of that, but being able to actually be

00:41:53.572 --> 00:41:59.749
- in a cold environment during the heat, that's something I don't think you could beat. But yeah,

00:41:59.749 --> 00:42:06.440
- like I said, I'm terrible at this, so I just wanted to put my support out for looking into the upgrade,

00:42:06.440 --> 00:42:12.938
- at least the partial upgrade to get us away from the ammonia. I've got friends that are firefighters

00:42:12.938 --> 00:42:16.734
- saying that's one of their biggest worries is the ammonia.

00:42:17.154 --> 00:42:24.107
- maintenance tech myself, doing partial replacements of anything is usually a good starting point for

00:42:24.107 --> 00:42:31.129
- further problems. So I just wanted to throw out at least a full replacement, if not looking at buying

00:42:31.129 --> 00:42:38.150
- a new property and building up a new ice rink, opening up the ability to maybe have two sheets of ice

00:42:38.150 --> 00:42:43.038
- or any form of expansion we could have, start pulling more people from

00:42:43.586 --> 00:42:50.717
- From the Indy area from they're traveling to the Indy area. They're traveling to the Hamilton County

00:42:50.717 --> 00:42:57.777
- ice we're kind of Isolated out here and I feel like maybe we can draw some more people in if we had

00:42:57.777 --> 00:43:04.766
- a bigger or more robust ice facility, so I'll leave that where Thank you guys, thank you very much

00:43:17.218 --> 00:43:24.205
- Hi, I'm William Bain. I'm the president and director of the Bloomington Pickleball Club. And I wanted

00:43:24.205 --> 00:43:31.260
- to echo what Bob said earlier. Seems that Bob had to take off. I think a lot of what he said was right

00:43:31.260 --> 00:43:38.247
- on as far as the things that we need to think about as we're doing the development of the pickleball.

00:43:38.247 --> 00:43:45.097
- I wanted to add two other things to that as well. One, basically really just questions that I think

00:43:45.097 --> 00:43:46.878
- we should be thinking of.

00:43:47.170 --> 00:43:54.032
- One being who do you have that you're able to talk to about Pickleball and the Pickleball community?

00:43:54.032 --> 00:44:01.099
- Because building courts is one thing. We know, though, that we can't build enough for everybody to have

00:44:01.099 --> 00:44:08.097
- their own court. And so being able to share the courts that we have and being able to do that in a way

00:44:08.097 --> 00:44:14.960
- so that everybody gets a chance to use the courts is important. And one of the things that's missing

00:44:14.960 --> 00:44:16.862
- in Bloomington has been the

00:44:17.090 --> 00:44:25.826
- the ability of people to rotate off and on the courts, which exists in almost all of those communities

00:44:25.826 --> 00:44:34.646
- which Bob mentioned before. So just, I think as we're moving forward with this, if you can keep in mind

00:44:34.646 --> 00:44:42.110
- some of the issues that exist with pickleball, especially because it's a pick-up sport.

00:44:42.338 --> 00:44:50.266
- If there are ways that we can help with that in just offering advice or offering some information about

00:44:50.266 --> 00:44:58.117
- how others do it, that would be great. And so then the other thing is that also if there are ways that

00:44:58.117 --> 00:45:05.054
- we can offer pickleball in other parts of the city that do not involve taking away tennis.

00:45:05.602 --> 00:45:12.814
- I think we do understand that it would be nice to have a facility at RCA which is just for pickleball.

00:45:12.814 --> 00:45:19.817
- That's where most people go. There's a wonderful facility at Winslow Park just for tennis. We don't

00:45:19.817 --> 00:45:27.239
- want to take anything away from that, but there are ways that we can offer pickleball which don't involve

00:45:27.239 --> 00:45:34.942
- taking away tennis as well. Park Ridge East I think is the best example that I know of in the city right now.

00:45:35.394 --> 00:45:42.089
- If there's ways that we can help or people that we can help the city talk to in this, we would love

00:45:42.089 --> 00:45:49.118
- to be part of that. And just to be able to bring some of these things up and keep it in mind. Thank you.

00:46:12.354 --> 00:46:20.695
- Good evening. I'm Dave Martin, co-founder of the Bloomington Pickleball Club. In August 2025, I came

00:46:20.695 --> 00:46:29.531
- before the board and asked you to add courts at RCA and include pickleball in the five-year plan. Tonight,

00:46:29.531 --> 00:46:37.872
- it's in the plan. I'm going to say thank you. This matters to me personally. I discovered pickleball

00:46:37.872 --> 00:46:41.918
- in 2014 while walking my dog past the RCA courts

00:46:42.978 --> 00:46:52.264
- and today RCA is the city's main place to play and the courts are full. So one thing I'd ask you to

00:46:52.264 --> 00:47:01.550
- keep in mind, your own survey shows pickleball interest is only 71% met, lower than most amenities.

00:47:01.550 --> 00:47:11.486
- The city's count of 13 courts includes three temporary ones at Hopewell. Six more at RCA is a great start.

00:47:12.610 --> 00:47:23.135
- and the switchyard conversion would help close that gap. So thank you for listening and for investing

00:47:23.135 --> 00:47:33.455
- in the courts where so many of us found this sport. That's it, thanks. And definitely, as Tim said,

00:47:33.455 --> 00:47:39.646
- the bocce ball was a creative idea, but has anyone actually

00:47:39.842 --> 00:47:47.471
- Has anyone out here played bocce? Oh, there's a bocce person. Okay. Oh, all right. Yeah, yeah. Hi, I'm

00:47:47.471 --> 00:47:54.952
- Autumn Marshall. I'm an advocacy fellow at the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce. And I'm here

00:47:54.952 --> 00:48:01.767
- today to voice our support for the investment priorities plan. So as the park system grows,

00:48:01.767 --> 00:48:09.470
- our responsibility for maintaining those assets grows with it. And we're just super excited to see this

00:48:09.602 --> 00:48:16.705
- support for investing in what we have. We especially see returns on the Winslow Sports Park, including

00:48:16.705 --> 00:48:23.878
- the proposed turf and fields and lighting, voicing many other voices of support here. We just see great

00:48:23.878 --> 00:48:30.912
- returns in Winslow. And this is an opportunity to improve an existing community asset. There are also

00:48:30.912 --> 00:48:35.326
- great economic development and local growth opportunities here.

00:48:35.778 --> 00:48:42.988
- Sports, ooh, sorry, I'm also not a great speaker. Sports facilities can bring in visitors into Bloomington

00:48:42.988 --> 00:48:50.130
- during weekends and months when our hotels, restaurants, and retailers have additional capacity. Building

00:48:50.130 --> 00:48:57.272
- more of that business helps Bloomington operate as a 12-month economy rather than just relying so heavily

00:48:57.272 --> 00:49:03.134
- on peak IU weekends and events, which we still love. All right, we can point to local,

00:49:03.650 --> 00:49:09.746
- inequities here with the Cutters Soccer Club, which hosts roughly half of its travel tournaments in

00:49:09.746 --> 00:49:15.842
- Bloomington. By comparison of the 14 travel baseball tournaments our local team played last season,

00:49:15.842 --> 00:49:21.938
- only one was in Bloomington. And that is not a scientific economic impact study, but it illustrates

00:49:21.938 --> 00:49:28.095
- the gap between families that are traveling elsewhere and spending those tournament dollars in other

00:49:28.095 --> 00:49:32.606
- communities. This also gives us the opportunity to think more regionally.

00:49:33.090 --> 00:49:39.855
- Monroe County has made a major investment in cars and soccer and field hockey facilities. Winslow allows

00:49:39.855 --> 00:49:46.363
- the city to strengthen the baseball side of our regional sports infrastructure rather than duplicate

00:49:46.363 --> 00:49:52.999
- what already exists. All right. Be disciplined about the entire park's portfolio. Maintaining existing

00:49:52.999 --> 00:49:56.478
- assets should be part of the cost of adding new ones.

00:49:56.994 --> 00:50:03.531
- At the same time parks should keep an open mind about whether every property or facility needs to remain

00:50:03.531 --> 00:50:10.005
- in the city's portfolio. If an asset no longer provides enough public value to justify its ongoing cost

00:50:10.005 --> 00:50:16.293
- sale partnership or another use should be on the table. So bottom line from the chamber we support a

00:50:16.293 --> 00:50:23.390
- plan to take care of what we own invest in assets like Winslow that can provide both community and economic value

00:50:23.554 --> 00:50:34.505
- and be willing to make choices about assets we can no longer justify maintaining. And thank you so much

00:50:34.505 --> 00:50:45.350
- to the Parks Department. Hi, my name is Allison Morris, and I am yet another member of the Bloomington

00:50:45.350 --> 00:50:52.510
- Pickleball Club. I wanted to thank the board and the Parks and Recs

00:50:52.898 --> 00:51:00.216
- folks here for the proposal to expand additional pickleball courts at RCA. However, like Bob suggested

00:51:00.216 --> 00:51:07.676
- earlier, I would suggest that that is not gonna be nearly enough by 2030 and possibly before. The courts

00:51:07.676 --> 00:51:15.136
- we have now are full pretty much every single day. They're used, I would say, six to seven, if not eight

00:51:15.136 --> 00:51:21.246
- hours every single day, and they're often 10, 15 people waiting, and I know the parks

00:51:21.346 --> 00:51:27.566
- Folks have somebody coming by every afternoon snapping photos, and they can see how many people are

00:51:27.566 --> 00:51:33.848
- waiting. It's been the fastest growing sport in the US for the last five years, and it shows no sign

00:51:33.848 --> 00:51:40.130
- of stopping. There are going to be more and more and more people wanting to play and expecting to be

00:51:40.130 --> 00:51:46.785
- able to play. And as it stands now, it's not possible for a lot of people. And they get frustrated because

00:51:46.785 --> 00:51:51.326
- they have to stand around and wait. The wonderful thing about pickleball

00:51:52.226 --> 00:51:59.923
- is that it's a fast game. You can finish a game usually in 10, 12 minutes, sometimes less, if your opponents

00:51:59.923 --> 00:52:07.055
- don't play very well. But it's a fast moving game and it has that appeal over tennis, which can take

00:52:07.055 --> 00:52:14.188
- several hours if you're gonna play three sets. And I love tennis, I'm a former tennis player, I have

00:52:14.188 --> 00:52:18.142
- nothing against tennis. But the allure of pickleball is

00:52:18.594 --> 00:52:24.500
- how quickly it moves, how you get to play with so many different people from so many walks of life,

00:52:24.500 --> 00:52:30.407
- so many different ages, and it has such a low barrier of entry, it costs all of, what, now 15 bucks

00:52:30.407 --> 00:52:36.313
- maybe to buy a pickleball paddle and a decent pair of shoes and you're off. You don't have to learn

00:52:36.313 --> 00:52:42.219
- a complicated overhead serve to play to start a pickleball. In fact, that's illegal, right? So it's

00:52:42.219 --> 00:52:45.822
- an easy game to become competitive with right away and it's,

00:52:46.274 --> 00:52:53.401
- Frankly, just a lot of fun and a very social game, in part because you're closer to each other than

00:52:53.401 --> 00:53:00.884
- you are when you play tennis. So it encourages a lot of socialization. So I would just like to challenge

00:53:00.884 --> 00:53:08.153
- again the board to think beyond the six additional courts at RCA, which will be very, very welcome in

00:53:08.153 --> 00:53:15.422
- helping ameliorate the waiting times. But I would suggest it's not going to be nearly enough by 2030.

00:53:15.554 --> 00:53:29.536
- Thank you so much for your time. Hello, my name is Tad Spurka, Bloomington resident, and I just want

00:53:29.536 --> 00:53:43.102
- to voice my support for the Frank Southern Ice Arena and ice in general, if it is a new facility.

00:53:43.490 --> 00:53:49.638
- Being an engineer, I agree wholeheartedly that you start doing a partial replacement, you're going to

00:53:49.638 --> 00:53:55.665
- find more issues, and it's going to end up costing more. So I believe a minimum of full replacement

00:53:55.665 --> 00:54:01.874
- is due. With my kids enjoying the ice, my son playing hockey, we've got everywhere out there from four

00:54:01.874 --> 00:54:08.082
- years old up to adults playing. And again, I'm just talking the hockey side. We've got figure skating.

00:54:08.082 --> 00:54:12.542
- We've got a lot of other public skates are always very popular out there.

00:54:12.802 --> 00:54:18.845
- And actually this year our youth program has suffered, again, through no fault of any person, but with

00:54:18.845 --> 00:54:25.005
- the uncertainty of what was going on with the Frank, we had a lot of people decide to leave the program.

00:54:25.005 --> 00:54:30.931
- And if that continues to happen or if there is no ice, you're looking at people that want to do that

00:54:30.931 --> 00:54:37.150
- are going an hour plus away. Talking to some people from the Indianapolis area, Perry Park's in a similar

00:54:37.150 --> 00:54:41.726
- situation where if that goes down, they don't believe that they'll be able to

00:54:41.858 --> 00:54:47.665
- get the funds to support that, especially with the new facility up in Westfield, that they feel all

00:54:47.665 --> 00:54:53.645
- the money is going to be filtered to that. So now you're going even further. Ice time over at Columbus

00:54:53.645 --> 00:54:59.626
- is almost impossible to get because they have their youth programs. They have now a semi-pro team. And

00:54:59.626 --> 00:55:05.607
- so keeping things local and giving us an opportunity to have that in the community, I think, is a huge

00:55:05.607 --> 00:55:11.646
- benefit to Blue Bloomington. Again, talking to people, when we say, oh yeah, we've got ice hockey here,

00:55:12.642 --> 00:55:19.127
- You've got hockey in Bloomington. Yeah, I used actually won a national championship at the club level,

00:55:19.127 --> 00:55:25.613
- which not many people know. So we have the people willing to play. We have the ice. If you want to go,

00:55:25.613 --> 00:55:31.910
- the ice is booked constantly. We're finding times when you can get a game in, finding times when if

00:55:31.910 --> 00:55:38.269
- you want to have a birthday party, it becomes very difficult because the ice is popular. And so that

00:55:38.269 --> 00:55:42.110
- gives another outlet for people to do winter activities that

00:55:42.594 --> 00:55:51.040
- aren't available everywhere else. And I think that is very important to give some variety and just choices

00:55:51.040 --> 00:55:58.302
- to people for their activities. Thank you. And that perspective of those other communities.

00:56:21.730 --> 00:56:28.160
- Good afternoon, good evening. My name is Tyler McCoy, 47 years old, been a resident of Bloomington all

00:56:28.160 --> 00:56:34.403
- my life. Thank you board and Mr. Street for putting this on and allowing us the opportunity to come

00:56:34.403 --> 00:56:40.771
- talk about things that we're passionate about, right? And I've heard a lot of great people talk about

00:56:40.771 --> 00:56:47.013
- a lot of great things and I'm here to advocate for the Winslow baseball turf. One common theme that

00:56:47.013 --> 00:56:48.574
- I seem to draw upon both

00:56:49.570 --> 00:56:56.883
- presentation and amongst people here is how do we do more with less, right? Resources and personnel

00:56:56.883 --> 00:57:04.197
- aren't finite. We know that. And so the ability to turf the field at Winslow could effectively help

00:57:04.197 --> 00:57:11.510
- mitigate personnel and resourcing issues. I know a lot of times it's tough to get people to show up

00:57:11.510 --> 00:57:18.750
- at 11 o'clock at night, 10 o'clock to drag fields. For the next day, line them, get the grass cut,

00:57:19.234 --> 00:57:27.939
- and make sure that the diamond dry is put down if it's raining, things like that. Diamond dry is not

00:57:27.939 --> 00:57:37.074
- cheap if you've had to buy diamond dry before. The ability to turf the fields could effectively eliminate

00:57:37.074 --> 00:57:45.865
- a lot of those issues by allowing a personnel staffing to be consummate to the need, which would draw

00:57:45.865 --> 00:57:49.054
- less of a personnel resourcing issue

00:57:49.410 --> 00:57:57.426
- And it could be directed towards another resource like helping the pickleball courts or the ice skating

00:57:57.426 --> 00:58:05.749
- rink or whatever other need that the Parks and Rec might have. There's, you know, constant need to maintain

00:58:05.749 --> 00:58:13.534
- dirt skin fields. And it's not an easy thing to do. It's a laborious, arduous task, especially after

00:58:13.534 --> 00:58:19.006
- it's rained. So the need to line the fields to get the bases installed

00:58:20.002 --> 00:58:26.795
- to make sure everything's prepped and ready to go. By turfing those fields, it can effectively mitigate

00:58:26.795 --> 00:58:33.523
- any of that prep time. And as long as you got the grass mowing the outfield, you're good to go, right?

00:58:33.523 --> 00:58:40.382
- It makes it much, much easier for the people, the community, coaches, parents that are involved in those

00:58:40.382 --> 00:58:47.306
- games to do that more effectively and make sure things are ready to go. And we're not necessarily waiting

00:58:47.306 --> 00:58:48.286
- on somebody to

00:58:48.706 --> 00:58:58.689
- rake out third base or lay down, dive and dry. There's a lot of things that are positive from that.

00:58:58.689 --> 00:59:08.871
- So thank you for your time. That's all I got. Thank you for your comment. I'm John Arbuckle. I'm here

00:59:08.871 --> 00:59:18.654
- tonight on behalf of Bloomington Bike Polo in support of the multi-use game area, I think is what

00:59:18.882 --> 00:59:25.793
- you said in the plan, at Building Trades Park. I know most people in here probably have never heard

00:59:25.793 --> 00:59:32.843
- of Bike Polo before. You're probably thinking about how many people even play that. And that's one of

00:59:32.843 --> 00:59:40.238
- the great things about this proposed use case for a multi-sport game area or a multi-sport court, whatever

00:59:40.238 --> 00:59:46.942
- you want to call it, is that you're able to provide a single facility for a lot of niche groups.

00:59:47.106 --> 00:59:56.929
- It's a great way to do more with less. You invest in one single facility and you're able to serve a

00:59:56.929 --> 01:00:07.244
- wide variety of user groups. I also, while I'm here, want to just say I support the continued investment

01:00:07.244 --> 01:00:16.478
- in a public ice rink here in Bloomington, increasingly in the Midwest and across the country.

01:00:16.834 --> 01:00:27.321
- There are fewer and fewer public ice rinks, and it makes it more and more expensive to be able to play

01:00:27.321 --> 01:00:37.910
- hockey. I don't play hockey myself, but it's something I support. Yeah, whatever ends up being decided,

01:00:37.910 --> 01:00:46.462
- I think it's money well spent. Thank you. Hi, good evening. My name is Dave Miller.

01:00:47.010 --> 01:00:53.958
- Came to Bloomington about 50 years ago, raised my kids here, have lived here most of those years, kind

01:00:53.958 --> 01:01:00.772
- of off and on past few years. I'm also on the Bloomington Pickleball Club Board. And as you can tell

01:01:00.772 --> 01:01:07.653
- by our other speakers, we're a pretty passionate group, believe in pickleball. And you've heard a lot

01:01:07.653 --> 01:01:15.006
- of the great sides about pickleball and the needs that we have. And I just want to touch on a couple others,

01:01:16.034 --> 01:01:25.181
- One of the things about pickleball that makes it so appealing to all ages is the social side. It's not

01:01:25.181 --> 01:01:34.151
- just a sport where you go and you play, but you interact with all the people that you're there with.

01:01:34.151 --> 01:01:43.210
- And it can be a very healing thing. Just personally, my wife passed a couple years ago and pickleball

01:01:43.210 --> 01:01:44.542
- has allowed me

01:01:44.866 --> 01:01:51.105
- to get out, stay active, and have a great social network of folks to deal with. And that's a side of

01:01:51.105 --> 01:01:57.468
- pickleball that you talked about anybody, and they'll say, yeah, I love playing. I love competing. Bob

01:01:57.468 --> 01:02:03.770
- talked about tournaments. We've all played in tournaments. That's great. But the recreational side is

01:02:03.770 --> 01:02:10.009
- something that we really like. Allison touched on the fact that we often have a hard time getting on

01:02:10.009 --> 01:02:12.542
- courts. And one of the reasons for that,

01:02:12.642 --> 01:02:21.213
- and most of the pickleball players here have traveled all over the country and played. Every other park

01:02:21.213 --> 01:02:29.454
- system has signage that talks about getting on and off the courts. And we really would like to work

01:02:29.454 --> 01:02:37.943
- with the park system in putting signage up. And what it does is, if the courts aren't full, people can

01:02:37.943 --> 01:02:39.838
- do whatever they want.

01:02:40.034 --> 01:02:46.397
- You know, you want to stay in your four group, that's fine if the courts aren't full. But in every other

01:02:46.397 --> 01:02:52.578
- place that you go, if the courts are full, there's a system. So many people are waiting, winners stay

01:02:52.578 --> 01:02:58.941
- in split, two people come on. If it's super busy, four on, four off. And we have just done that in other

01:02:58.941 --> 01:03:05.244
- places. Everywhere we've gone, we've seen that. So I'd like to work with the park system in making sure

01:03:05.244 --> 01:03:07.486
- that we have that kind of signage up

01:03:07.842 --> 01:03:15.879
- I've done it in other park systems to work on that and it's just some of the stuff that we'd like to

01:03:15.879 --> 01:03:23.837
- see. We appreciate the investment. We also appreciate the forward looking and making sure that down

01:03:23.837 --> 01:03:29.726
- the road there are also more facilities that we can deal with. Thank you.

01:03:51.106 --> 01:04:16.798
- Thank you. Appreciate it. Stay. Yeah, it rolls.

01:04:21.666 --> 01:04:29.247
- Good evening. I'm Aldona Reed. I've been a resident of Bloomington for about 20 years now. I live right

01:04:29.247 --> 01:04:36.683
- down the street from RCA Park. I want to thank the park board and all of the members that have served

01:04:36.683 --> 01:04:44.264
- on the board and also in the capacity of Bloomington Parks for all these years and all the places we've

01:04:44.264 --> 01:04:51.262
- lived. Bloomington Parks are some of the best in the country. So the reason I'm here tonight is

01:04:51.426 --> 01:04:59.410
- I feel that public parks should be diversified for all the people that use those parks. And I'm an avid

01:04:59.410 --> 01:05:07.164
- tennis player when I'm not injured or had surgery and a pickleball player. And we're members of Twin

01:05:07.164 --> 01:05:14.918
- Lakes and love the facilities there. Have been to many baseball games, have ice skated in the rinks,

01:05:14.918 --> 01:05:20.446
- not a hockey player. So we really appreciate everything that you do do.

01:05:20.642 --> 01:05:28.759
- What we would like to see is, because of the diversification of public parks, is leave the tennis courts.

01:05:28.759 --> 01:05:36.799
- Let people play pickleball. Why not add pickleball courts to some of the other tennis facilities? Bryant

01:05:36.799 --> 01:05:43.614
- Park has a fenced-in area where you could easily put in, I think, six pickleball courts.

01:05:43.970 --> 01:05:51.918
- And then as some of the other pickleball people have spoken, rather than putting the money into just

01:05:51.918 --> 01:06:00.259
- temporarily putting something in that's going to run out probably sooner than 2030, let's look at putting

01:06:00.259 --> 01:06:08.442
- that money into a facility that's a standalone pickleball area. Many of the places that we have visited

01:06:08.442 --> 01:06:12.062
- and even in our own area, Bedford, Greenwood,

01:06:13.122 --> 01:06:20.214
- Pickleball courts are fenced in. The balls don't go any place. It's very well maintained. There are

01:06:20.214 --> 01:06:27.377
- signage saying that this is the way of play if there are so many people waiting or if it's a certain

01:06:27.377 --> 01:06:34.612
- time. There are certain places where you're allowed to put your chairs. So if we could entertain that

01:06:34.612 --> 01:06:36.030
- and make pickleball

01:06:36.162 --> 01:06:42.143
- because it is the fastest growing sport, not just in the country, but in the world. And it's not going

01:06:42.143 --> 01:06:48.123
- anywhere. And it's a lot of fun to go down there because I do live there. I see it, hear it every day.

01:06:48.123 --> 01:06:53.988
- Go down there and there's itty bitties out there with their grandparents learning the sport. It is a

01:06:53.988 --> 01:06:59.911
- sport for everybody. So if you could think about that, would appreciate it. Really appreciate all you

01:06:59.911 --> 01:07:01.246
- do. Thank you so much.

01:07:22.562 --> 01:07:29.478
- I'm here on behalf of BJLBA and to speak about the Winslow baseball fields. I'd like to preface my comment

01:07:29.478 --> 01:07:36.071
- or soon to be comments here by just stating that Cody Martin and Zach Earl have done a tremendous job

01:07:36.071 --> 01:07:42.664
- of helping to maintain the fields this year. I think they've done as good of a job as I've seen since

01:07:42.664 --> 01:07:49.258
- I've been here as a youth coach since 2018. So again, no reflection on them. They've done a great job

01:07:49.258 --> 01:07:51.326
- at the hand they've been dealt.

01:07:51.650 --> 01:07:58.297
- That being said, the fields themselves, I think, again, I've been a youth coach here since 2018. And

01:07:58.297 --> 01:08:05.405
- the fields themselves have, I think, progressively gotten tougher to maintain in terms of water management,

01:08:05.405 --> 01:08:12.184
- game cancellations, and even attracting tournaments. I know a lot of the softball tournaments that are

01:08:12.184 --> 01:08:18.962
- often here, if there's a forecast to rain, they just move them somewhere like Indy. And that's because

01:08:18.962 --> 01:08:20.542
- just kind of looking at

01:08:20.834 --> 01:08:26.192
- how Winslow manages the water, there's a good chance if it rains, they're not gonna be able to play.

01:08:26.192 --> 01:08:31.710
- And I think we wanna make sure we're able to attract as many players as possible, whether it's softball

01:08:31.710 --> 01:08:37.068
- or youth baseball. I think when you think about turf and you think about maintaining a field, it's a

01:08:37.068 --> 01:08:42.373
- lot like the tires in your car or the roof in your house. It's not the sexiest thing to talk about,

01:08:42.373 --> 01:08:47.731
- but they're arguably some of the most important things that we deal with when it comes to being able

01:08:47.731 --> 01:08:49.694
- to drive that car or keep your house

01:08:49.890 --> 01:08:56.202
- from having other problems. So I think youth sports offers such a tremendous opportunity to the youth

01:08:56.202 --> 01:09:02.576
- in this community. And I've always been an advocate for saying uncoachable players become unemployable

01:09:02.576 --> 01:09:08.826
- adults, right? So you learn so many things with the opportunities that you get playing youth sports,

01:09:08.826 --> 01:09:15.262
- baseball being one of them. Again, I'm glad my son's had an opportunity to play sports here and I wanna

01:09:15.262 --> 01:09:16.190
- make sure that

01:09:16.322 --> 01:09:21.694
- everybody has that opportunity and continues to have it here in Bloomington. One of the byproducts of

01:09:21.694 --> 01:09:27.013
- fields not being playable at all times is you may play one year, you get a few rain outs, people get

01:09:27.013 --> 01:09:32.437
- frustrated, they move to Ellitsville or other surrounding areas that are not is prone to some of those

01:09:32.437 --> 01:09:37.703
- same issues and we lose those players and sometimes you lose the siblings that go along with it. So

01:09:37.703 --> 01:09:40.126
- it's important to me that you know all of the

01:09:40.258 --> 01:09:45.419
- folks that live here in Bloomington have that opportunity to play youth sports, learn the valuable lessons

01:09:45.419 --> 01:09:50.290
- that are part of that. And part of that is just investing in the field to make sure, just like those

01:09:50.290 --> 01:09:55.306
- wheels on your car, that you're able to have that car drivable in the proverbial sense. And everybody's

01:09:55.306 --> 01:10:00.225
- able to have access to that field, whether it's tournament play, big red baseball that's here, or our

01:10:00.225 --> 01:10:05.049
- rec league sports that are here and making sure that all of those players, coaches, and parents get

01:10:05.049 --> 01:10:09.534
- to be part of the sports community that are here in Bloomington. So thank you for your time.

01:10:10.850 --> 01:10:32.233
- Hi, my name is Matt Dabberton. I also am in the bike polo club. I just wanted to say thank you to the

01:10:32.233 --> 01:10:38.942
- parks department for continuing

01:10:39.586 --> 01:10:48.357
- to look at improvements to building and trades park as well as to the Mills Pool continuing to look

01:10:48.357 --> 01:10:57.303
- at what improvements that facility needs to keep it running. I know both of those facilities are kind

01:10:57.303 --> 01:11:06.162
- of underutilized in the case of Mills Pool and an underserved community. And so I just wanted to say

01:11:06.162 --> 01:11:07.390
- thank you for

01:11:07.490 --> 01:11:15.342
- continuing to keep those places in your list of priorities for capital investment for the future. We're

01:11:15.342 --> 01:11:22.892
- happy to call building and trades home. We hope to keep playing polo there for a long time to come.

01:11:22.892 --> 01:11:30.744
- We're very excited about the potential for a multi-use court there. And again, just wanted to say thank

01:11:30.744 --> 01:11:37.086
- you for continuing to look at these smaller facilities. Thank you for your comment.

01:11:43.970 --> 01:12:02.322
- Is there anyone else who would like to comment this evening? Oh, I don't know. We'll have to ask Molly.

01:12:02.322 --> 01:12:12.734
- Yeah. I am here to represent the figure skating community.

01:12:13.058 --> 01:12:20.381
- at Frank Southern. I've been involved for 22 years working with the skating school, 18 of those years.

01:12:20.381 --> 01:12:27.562
- I've been a key coordinator of lessons on the ice and of instructors running that program. I've also

01:12:27.562 --> 01:12:35.099
- worked 22 years with the Bloomington Figure Skating Club as a coach, a coordinator, and also as a mother.

01:12:35.099 --> 01:12:36.734
- The part-time facility

01:12:36.898 --> 01:12:44.877
- it's just incredibly challenging for all groups, all user groups. We often find ourselves in competition

01:12:44.877 --> 01:12:52.628
- with other activities that are year-round. It's been more than once that I've had someone come at the

01:12:52.628 --> 01:13:00.455
- beginning of the season and say, oh, we're not gonna return this year, we're actually gonna stick with

01:13:00.455 --> 01:13:04.862
- X other activity that our kids are able to do year-round.

01:13:04.994 --> 01:13:13.173
- We're constantly having to reevaluate, which should be the case, I think, for any program, but also

01:13:13.173 --> 01:13:21.760
- often reinventing our programs to suit the needs of a community that is faced with a part-time facility.

01:13:21.760 --> 01:13:30.103
- And just that limited season is really challenging. It's not just the season, it's also the fact that

01:13:30.103 --> 01:13:32.638
- we only have one sheet of ice.

01:13:33.026 --> 01:13:40.116
- We have a lot of user groups and we're constantly kind of vying for how much time we can get on the

01:13:40.116 --> 01:13:47.348
- ice from week to week. I'll say that participants, not just figure skaters, but also dedicated hockey

01:13:47.348 --> 01:13:54.864
- players, are pretty much exhausted and frustrated of having to travel so far to maintain the full season.

01:13:54.864 --> 01:13:58.622
- Going to Columbus, Greenwood, and Fishers for my own

01:13:58.722 --> 01:14:05.267
- daughter's competitive years, we were driving up to and possibly over 10 hours a week. Year round, with

01:14:05.267 --> 01:14:11.559
- the season in session here, it might be a little bit less, but we still maintained that through the

01:14:11.559 --> 01:14:18.041
- week to supplement the ice we had here. By doing that, she was able to actually qualify for a national

01:14:18.041 --> 01:14:23.390
- competition at which she placed fifth. So that was big, but it took a lot of effort.

01:14:23.618 --> 01:14:31.413
- I think if you talk to anyone who's regularly involved at Frank Southern, you'll find out there's a

01:14:31.413 --> 01:14:39.364
- lot of potential. People feel that there's potential for development that can't happen with the short

01:14:39.364 --> 01:14:47.159
- season, whether it's offering competitions or developing a club or I made a bunch of notes here and

01:14:47.159 --> 01:14:52.382
- I'm kind of lost in them. Just increasing community participation.

01:14:53.122 --> 01:15:00.255
- You know, when you see skaters get off the ice and they have smiles and joy and they've learned to be

01:15:00.255 --> 01:15:07.389
- independent and successful at challenging activities, it's really, it's a really great community. So,

01:15:07.389 --> 01:15:08.158
- thank you.

01:15:27.074 --> 01:15:36.373
- It just shows that all those people perfectly timed their comments. Yeah, yeah. So, okay, great. Any

01:15:36.373 --> 01:15:45.856
- other public comments this evening? Just so you know, we can't replicate Wrigley Field, okay? We can't

01:15:45.856 --> 01:15:54.142
- replicate Wrigley Field that says on your t-shirt there. We can't build that here, sorry.

01:15:57.794 --> 01:16:04.487
- I didn't get there this year, but I wish I could have. My name is Dave Hus. When I came to town back

01:16:04.487 --> 01:16:11.113
- in 1985, I harassed the then president of the baseball league, Bud Damon, because I wanted to coach

01:16:11.113 --> 01:16:17.806
- a team. They were kind of leery about a 19-year-old kid, but I harassed them every couple weeks that

01:16:17.806 --> 01:16:24.433
- they finally said yes. So I just finished my 42nd year coaching a rec league team. I've been on the

01:16:24.433 --> 01:16:25.758
- board for 38 years.

01:16:27.074 --> 01:16:34.021
- Seen a lot of games, seen a lot of wet fields, a lot of dry fields. But this past season, we rented

01:16:34.021 --> 01:16:40.967
- the fields every Monday through Friday from April 1st to August 31st for the rec league program. We

01:16:40.967 --> 01:16:48.052
- got as much use as we could out of it. It was better this year for rain outs as opposed to last year,

01:16:48.052 --> 01:16:55.068
- which was, of course, everything was a monsoon and they just couldn't keep anything dry. We did lose

01:16:55.068 --> 01:16:55.902
- some teams.

01:16:56.482 --> 01:17:01.860
- Our numbers went down, I believe it was five teams from last year to this year. I mean, if you,

01:17:01.860 --> 01:17:07.631
- you know, one of our competing leagues is Smithville and you know, they don't pay rent except a dollar

01:17:07.631 --> 01:17:13.290
- a year for those fields. So they work those fields, they throw a ton of diamond dry and they're on a

01:17:13.290 --> 01:17:19.060
- hill. So they don't rain out very often or sometimes they just play in really wet fields. I don't want

01:17:19.060 --> 01:17:22.814
- to work the field. So I'm happy to have the city do all that work.

01:17:26.690 --> 01:17:33.370
- But sometimes they just can't keep it dry. Of course, I've been around so long, they stuck my name on

01:17:33.370 --> 01:17:39.984
- one of those fields. And everybody always said it was mine anyway, because I just started scheduling

01:17:39.984 --> 01:17:46.533
- myself on that field. And I always told everybody I don't like to walk that far. It was the closest

01:17:46.533 --> 01:17:53.278
- to my car. But anyway, that's something else. Of course, I saw, say, I believe Jim's not here tonight.

01:17:54.018 --> 01:18:01.599
- He coached the team back when his boys were young for a couple years at Winslow. With so much travel

01:18:01.599 --> 01:18:09.181
- tournaments going on, which is why we only do rec league during the week, because we've got probably

01:18:09.181 --> 01:18:16.687
- 40% of the kids that play travel on the weekends. There's a lot of tournaments over in the Columbus

01:18:16.687 --> 01:18:21.566
- area, which that's my weekend job as I umpire those tournaments.

01:18:22.722 --> 01:18:29.947
- There's been a couple of baseball tournaments here each year, which is nice to drive seven minutes to

01:18:29.947 --> 01:18:37.313
- umpire as opposed to 50 minutes. So, excuse me, turf in the fields would make it easier, make it closer

01:18:37.313 --> 01:18:44.750
- for me to stay. Um, I know we don't, we are a revenue generating income for the city and I know we don't

01:18:44.750 --> 01:18:50.558
- pay a hundred percent of what you guys put into it, but you do make money off us.

01:18:52.034 --> 01:18:58.270
- And I know you make more off the fields. If they do get turf, because if softball tournaments will come

01:18:58.270 --> 01:19:04.387
- here, they usually, they canceled six times this year, but they didn't have tournaments. Baseball got

01:19:04.387 --> 01:19:10.623
- all three of theirs in, which they were lucky with. And my time is up, so I'll say thank you for having

01:19:10.623 --> 01:19:12.542
- me. Thank you for your comment.

01:19:36.962 --> 01:19:45.595
- My name is Ron Dreyos from Bloomington Junior League Baseball. Very simple. Children deserve a better

01:19:45.595 --> 01:19:54.312
- place to play than they currently have. Drainage is the problem. You've got the money. Do the best you

01:19:54.312 --> 01:19:55.582
- can to fix it.

01:20:09.410 --> 01:20:19.025
- Excellent, thank you. I'm a local landscape architect so I'm actually here for another reason to just

01:20:19.025 --> 01:20:28.452
- kind of see what kind of work might be coming up for Springpoint Architects. But while I'm here I'm

01:20:28.452 --> 01:20:39.198
- noticing all of my old BJLBA people and so I need to give a shout out for Winslow. I'm a retired baseball mom and

01:20:39.714 --> 01:20:47.507
- My kids are in college now, but we absolutely loved the facility. Yeah, you tend to want to think about

01:20:47.507 --> 01:20:55.151
- going to Smithville or anywhere else, but it's nestled in the community at Winslow. There's trails to

01:20:55.151 --> 01:21:02.795
- it. The kids can bike to baseball games. So we stayed there, and it was amazing, and we loved it. And

01:21:02.795 --> 01:21:08.190
- I think it will draw more people to the program if they can get fields.

01:21:08.738 --> 01:21:16.128
- that'll work for these kids. There were a lot of rain outs over the years. I mean, we were there probably

01:21:16.128 --> 01:21:23.240
- 2013 to, you know, for 10 years. So it's been a long standing issue for the club. And now I'm getting

01:21:23.240 --> 01:21:30.700
- really nervous and emotional talking about it. But I just thought maybe you would want a mom's perspective

01:21:30.700 --> 01:21:36.766
- up here. And we loved it and the family and the family loved it. So that's my my plug.

01:21:42.114 --> 01:21:51.304
- And Molly, do we have any comments online? Is it? No. Okay. Yeah. Thanks. Is there anybody else who

01:21:51.304 --> 01:22:00.586
- would like to comment this evening? Okay. Well, I really appreciate all the perspectives and I mean,

01:22:00.586 --> 01:22:04.446
- I think one thing that I appreciate about

01:22:04.802 --> 01:22:10.963
- Tim and the Parks Department is that, I mean, obviously recreational opportunities change sometimes

01:22:10.963 --> 01:22:17.493
- over generations, right? I mean, where was bike polo 30 years ago? Or pickleball. Or people prefer splash

01:22:17.493 --> 01:22:24.085
- pads and or turf comes along. And I mean, I think that we're lucky that our Parks Department is definitely

01:22:24.085 --> 01:22:30.308
- open to like, what are the changing needs of things that people want and not just saying, well, this

01:22:30.308 --> 01:22:33.758
- is what we've had forever and this is the way we do it.

01:22:33.890 --> 01:22:43.105
- I mean, this is a lot of great information for us to be able to consider over the next few months. And

01:22:43.105 --> 01:22:52.141
- hopefully there's a $200,000 Lilly Foundation grant out there as well to do some planning. So Ellen,

01:22:52.141 --> 01:23:01.177
- Israel, do you want to add anything else as we look like we're wrapping up? I guess maybe a question

01:23:01.177 --> 01:23:02.430
- then for Tim.

01:23:02.722 --> 01:23:14.462
- is can you talk about what the significance of this plan means and what sort of some of the next steps

01:23:14.462 --> 01:23:25.861
- would be? So, you know, I think the plan is significant in it started off as one thing, right? Hey,

01:23:25.861 --> 01:23:31.902
- seven million dollars is what's available in a bond.

01:23:32.194 --> 01:23:38.112
- That's what we could do in early 2027, which you hear the diverse interests that we have in our community,

01:23:38.112 --> 01:23:43.643
- all the different things, all the benefits that different sports and locations bring to people. And

01:23:43.643 --> 01:23:48.731
- we could spend 10 times that amount very quickly taking care of these things. So it started

01:23:48.731 --> 01:23:54.483
- as a prioritization of, hey, what could we do with that $7 million? Luckily, now we have a really great

01:23:54.483 --> 01:24:00.125
- new opportunity. Kathleen just mentioned this $200K planning grant. So instead, this becomes a little

01:24:00.125 --> 01:24:01.950
- bit more of a jumping off point.

01:24:02.274 --> 01:24:08.283
- And I mentioned before I was debating with the news of the grant, you know, should we still keep this

01:24:08.283 --> 01:24:14.351
- tonight? And I'm really glad we did because I really appreciate hearing all the different perspectives

01:24:14.351 --> 01:24:19.888
- that we heard tonight and I wrote down some great ideas as a jumping off point for this plan.

01:24:19.888 --> 01:24:25.838
- So from here, what I would say we're going to do is we need to work on our Lilly CPI, Indiana CPI, I

01:24:25.838 --> 01:24:29.726
- should call it by what it is, Indiana Community Parks Initiative.

01:24:30.050 --> 01:24:36.934
- planning grants, which is due at the end of October. So we can give the board an update at the October

01:24:36.934 --> 01:24:43.752
- meeting on October 15th of what we are looking at as part of that planning grant. That planning grant

01:24:43.752 --> 01:24:50.503
- is not a fixed list of necessarily what will be in the project implementation grant or what we might

01:24:50.503 --> 01:24:56.318
- hold out and keep as part of other funding sources through our annual capital, through

01:24:56.546 --> 01:25:02.728
- paying off the Twin Lakes revenue bond and freeing up other annual capital that way or from the municipal

01:25:02.728 --> 01:25:08.560
- bond. There's a lot of questions still to be figured out. Additional grant opportunity is exciting.

01:25:08.560 --> 01:25:14.509
- It gives us opportunities to grow maybe some of these things that we're gonna be very bare bones into

01:25:14.509 --> 01:25:20.341
- something a little more robust and maybe gives us the opportunity to incorporate some of the things

01:25:20.341 --> 01:25:24.190
- we heard tonight as well. So it's a jumping off point. We need to

01:25:24.674 --> 01:25:30.459
- investigate and understand the exact grant process a little bit more still. As I mentioned, this is

01:25:30.459 --> 01:25:36.245
- very recent news. We're still digesting it, figuring it out a little bit, and figuring out the best

01:25:36.245 --> 01:25:42.146
- path forward to take these items, these priority items. We've said here's the priorities. It's not an

01:25:42.146 --> 01:25:48.047
- exhaustive list. It's not necessarily everything that will be in the grant. But this is a 1.0 version

01:25:48.047 --> 01:25:53.022
- that now we can work on as a plan for all of the available potential funding sources.

01:25:58.242 --> 01:26:05.301
- and maybe have a question, too, is I really appreciate everyone who participated here tonight. And the

01:26:05.301 --> 01:26:12.359
- most that we heard was from a lot of organized groups. So hockey, baseball, pickleball, right? But our

01:26:12.359 --> 01:26:19.350
- trail users or our pool users aren't necessarily in a pool-using club to say, oh, we're going to come

01:26:19.350 --> 01:26:26.271
- out here. So I guess I just would want to make sure that those voices are heard, too. And so can you

01:26:26.271 --> 01:26:28.190
- talk about where else we've

01:26:28.290 --> 01:26:35.107
- gather data from them already. And then I think you maybe mentioned there is maybe something that's

01:26:35.107 --> 01:26:42.469
- still open for comment. Is that right? All different sources of information when we're considering decision

01:26:42.469 --> 01:26:49.354
- making. I think we have a really big responsibility to make good decisions for the community because

01:26:49.354 --> 01:26:55.966
- there's so many passionate people that have so many interests that are important to them, right?

01:26:56.578 --> 01:27:02.192
- So that is why we use a comprehensive approach. That is why we master plan. And that is why we did a

01:27:02.192 --> 01:27:07.917
- statistically valid community survey to get a representative sample. There's a lot of data we can pull

01:27:07.917 --> 01:27:13.530
- out from that about what the community is using. For example, I mentioned before trails are still by

01:27:13.530 --> 01:27:19.366
- number what we hear the most from community that they value. So certainly including investment in taking

01:27:19.366 --> 01:27:20.478
- care of our trails.

01:27:20.770 --> 01:27:26.736
- The beeline trail is such a vital connector. We know there's a couple areas on that that need some work

01:27:26.736 --> 01:27:32.472
- and some help right now, as well as our other trails. So it's balancing that approach. And as we go

01:27:32.472 --> 01:27:38.266
- into this planning phase, we know, and honestly it may feel a little repetitive or redundant to some

01:27:38.266 --> 01:27:44.003
- of the things we did in the master plan, and that's okay. But that'll give us more opportunities to

01:27:44.003 --> 01:27:49.854
- balance the feedback and to hear and make sure we're making representative choices. Because even with

01:27:50.210 --> 01:27:58.900
- a max of $17 million. I'm not saying we're going to be able to get $17 million or invest that much,

01:27:58.900 --> 01:28:07.590
- but even with that, that will go very quickly. Yeah, thank you, everyone, for participating in this

01:28:07.590 --> 01:28:16.367
- conversation. And as my colleague Ellen mentioned, we could see the passion for sports and different

01:28:16.367 --> 01:28:19.582
- sports that also show the variety of

01:28:20.130 --> 01:28:33.700
- passion for recreation and for creating a new generation with different sports. So regarding the franchise

01:28:33.700 --> 01:28:46.635
- arena, so we have, it seems, maybe two years to reach a final decision if a new place is not found or

01:28:46.635 --> 01:28:48.030
- agreed on.

01:28:48.674 --> 01:28:58.758
- So in this moment, do we have any kind of potential places and actually not for the ice arena because

01:28:58.758 --> 01:29:08.644
- there was also a suggestion about creating more places for pickleball in other courts or fields. So

01:29:08.644 --> 01:29:16.158
- have the department start some kind of potential search for possible places

01:29:16.802 --> 01:29:24.500
- either for the arena, the ice arena, and also the sports that we have here in this conversation?

01:29:24.500 --> 01:29:32.594
- It really is. And we want to see it preserved and continue to be a community offering for a long time

01:29:32.594 --> 01:29:40.847
- to come. But we know the cost of building a new one as it stands right now and finding a location would

01:29:40.847 --> 01:29:44.894
- be literally all of the money we're talking about.

01:29:45.058 --> 01:29:50.813
- and would preclude us from doing any of the other things we're talking about here today. And, you know,

01:29:50.813 --> 01:29:56.623
- I think the reason we're talking about sports so much is because that's where we've ended up, for better

01:29:56.623 --> 01:30:02.545
- or worse, from the last 20, 40, 60 years, whatever, is, you know, a lot of the places that need investment

01:30:02.545 --> 01:30:08.300
- right now are those sports facilities. So we're a little sports heavy in this conversation, but there's

01:30:08.300 --> 01:30:14.110
- still general public use, general green space needs as well. Sorry, Israel, where was I going with that?

01:30:14.594 --> 01:30:22.308
- As we think about, have we looked for land yet? No. We've started a stakeholder group. We've brought

01:30:22.308 --> 01:30:30.098
- some of those stakeholders for the ice arena together and had meetings twice so far this summer. This

01:30:30.098 --> 01:30:37.888
- meeting tonight was sort of an important next step to identify where we're going. The grant is in the

01:30:37.888 --> 01:30:41.630
- mix now as well, which opens some possibilities.

01:30:42.050 --> 01:30:47.839
- However, I will say first impression, I didn't see a lot of opportunity for Ice Arena in the language

01:30:47.839 --> 01:30:53.742
- that was being described in the grant. That doesn't mean we're still asking questions, we're still fact

01:30:53.742 --> 01:30:59.532
- finding, figuring that out, but even if the grant can help us take care of it, again, I don't want to

01:30:59.532 --> 01:31:05.435
- assume we get the grant, assuming we get the grant, that can help us take care of all these other needs

01:31:05.435 --> 01:31:11.678
- and community interests that we want to fund, well then that opens up other avenues, right? So it's a puzzle.

01:31:11.842 --> 01:31:20.865
- and we don't have all the pieces flipped over yet, and that's what we're trying to work on, is just

01:31:20.865 --> 01:31:29.979
- finding out exactly how we can meet all of these community needs to the best of our ability. Yeah. I

01:31:29.979 --> 01:31:39.002
- have in my notes someone, actually several people were mentioning about what other places have been

01:31:39.002 --> 01:31:40.446
- doing regarding

01:31:41.186 --> 01:31:49.743
- some kind of similar issues that we have here in Bloomington. So I wonder if there has been any kind

01:31:49.743 --> 01:31:58.215
- of conversation or interaction with other departments where they have been able to solve in certain

01:31:58.215 --> 01:32:06.433
- way this situation is about the lack of facilities or places to develop all the scores. I heard,

01:32:06.433 --> 01:32:08.382
- for example, Greenwood

01:32:08.770 --> 01:32:17.936
- that is a big one, Columbus and Evansville and some other neighboring places. There was a conversation

01:32:17.936 --> 01:32:27.103
- about rotating fields or having kind of some fields that can be used in different moments in different

01:32:27.103 --> 01:32:35.646
- times. So have we had that kind of interaction, conversation with other departments in Indiana?

01:32:38.882 --> 01:32:44.820
- By other departments, I'm thinking maybe you're meeting other departments within the city, for example,

01:32:44.820 --> 01:32:50.700
- or other parks departments outside of us, like collaborating with an outside agency. Yeah, interesting

01:32:50.700 --> 01:32:56.410
- question. So absolutely, I think there's an opportunity here as we look at these multiple different

01:32:56.410 --> 01:33:02.405
- needs. Is there a way to combine any of them in a creative way we haven't yet thought of? I think that's

01:33:02.405 --> 01:33:07.486
- kind of what you're driving at and say, you know, some of these needs could be combined.

01:33:09.154 --> 01:33:14.830
- The most logical partner for us around would be Monroe County Parks and Recreation, and we'll certainly

01:33:14.830 --> 01:33:20.397
- have conversations with them. You know, understanding there's sort of a history here where, you know,

01:33:20.397 --> 01:33:25.964
- they operate Karst out there. They focused on the soccer improvements. Some of those were funded with

01:33:25.964 --> 01:33:31.585
- convention and visitor bureau dollars. We're absolutely looking to see if those convention and visitor

01:33:31.585 --> 01:33:37.534
- bureau dollars are a possibility for any of these other projects as well in similar fashion to how Karst was

01:33:37.890 --> 01:33:45.430
- is funded and improved, right? So I think partnerships and collaboration are really important. I would

01:33:45.430 --> 01:33:52.969
- say not, I haven't thought too much about other parks department collaborations outside of the county,

01:33:52.969 --> 01:34:00.656
- but yeah, we can think about that a little bit more. Collaborations, it's also having a reference. Yeah,

01:34:00.656 --> 01:34:07.390
- benchmarking, I think benchmarking is. And the facilities they have, is that what you mean?

01:34:08.610 --> 01:34:15.258
- where they have, you know, the outcomes for the requests from the community and they have been able

01:34:15.258 --> 01:34:21.507
- to find a solution. So it's having like examples or references about maybe things that we can

01:34:21.507 --> 01:34:28.288
- also incorporate. I understand that aspect of it now and that's certainly part of like if we're doing

01:34:28.288 --> 01:34:31.678
- planning work that could be part of planning work.

01:34:38.946 --> 01:34:47.680
- Can you talk a little bit more about sponsorship, naming rights, philanthropy, corporate involvement?

01:34:47.680 --> 01:34:56.415
- There's just a brief comment about that in number 14. What do you think our approach will be? I guess

01:34:56.415 --> 01:35:05.406
- that'd be a good thing to benchmark. I know you're probably benchmarking that against other communities.

01:35:05.666 --> 01:35:12.337
- But yeah, could we rely on that in Bloomington to play a role in all of this? And yeah, what's kind

01:35:12.337 --> 01:35:19.007
- of the next steps there? You know, critically, that was one of the 15 recommendations that we said.

01:35:19.007 --> 01:35:25.811
- I mentioned we've looked at other facilities that have received mid to large corporate naming, right?

01:35:25.811 --> 01:35:32.615
- And that comes with a certain amount of investment that can help us. And I'll answer this, and Julie,

01:35:32.615 --> 01:35:34.750
- if you have anything additional

01:35:35.010 --> 01:35:41.690
- that I miss out. So Julie Ramey, our community relations manager, currently manages a lot of our existing

01:35:41.690 --> 01:35:48.054
- sponsorships and naming rights. For example, we're doing roundabouts. We have sponsorships for a lot

01:35:48.054 --> 01:35:54.356
- of our community events, things like that. And Keto, our sports director, the two of them have been

01:35:54.356 --> 01:36:00.720
- talking and looking at, there are some companies out there that have this level of expertise that we

01:36:00.720 --> 01:36:03.934
- do not have. We're good at managing local business

01:36:04.034 --> 01:36:10.747
- relationships but not trying to attract, I'm not even going to say a name because I don't want to jinx

01:36:10.747 --> 01:36:17.331
- it or put something out there that's wrong, a bigger company. And there are companies out there that

01:36:17.331 --> 01:36:24.109
- work on commission only. So they only get paid if they are able to land something for us. So what Julie

01:36:24.109 --> 01:36:30.692
- and Kido have been talking about, they've been getting information about these companies already and

01:36:30.692 --> 01:36:33.886
- about their fee structure, commission, whatever.

01:36:34.338 --> 01:36:40.244
- From our perspective, any sponsorship or naming we get, even if we pay a commission on it, is money

01:36:40.244 --> 01:36:46.445
- we didn't have otherwise. And so likely next steps with that would be bringing some options to the board

01:36:46.445 --> 01:36:52.468
- or a recommended contract to the board of a company we would like to work with to help explore naming

01:36:52.468 --> 01:36:58.433
- rights for us and sort of a list of potential opportunities that we're looking at that we would give

01:36:58.433 --> 01:37:00.382
- to them. Did I sum that up okay?

01:37:05.026 --> 01:37:13.646
- I think that this town has a long history of, you know, some local businesses that have invested a lot

01:37:13.646 --> 01:37:22.266
- in our community and just put the word out there, we should continue to support that in this community

01:37:22.266 --> 01:37:29.630
- and see more of it. So, thanks. Anything else that you'd like to add this evening, Tim?

01:37:33.314 --> 01:37:39.893
- everyone for being here. We really appreciate it. More to come on this topic as we explore this exciting

01:37:39.893 --> 01:37:46.409
- opportunity and upon opportunity. So stay tuned. Stay with your contacts. I know there's a lot of staff

01:37:46.409 --> 01:37:53.050
- here. A lot of you have relationships or contacts with our staff. Keep those up and we're open to further

01:37:53.050 --> 01:37:59.441
- conversations outside of official capacities as well. Of course. Thank you all so much for coming out

01:37:59.441 --> 01:38:00.318
- this evening.