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PRB051099minutes PARKS AND RECREATION BOARD MEETING MINUTES CITY OF MUSKEGO Monday, May 10, 1999 Approved The monthly meeting of the Parks and Recreation Board, City of Muskego, was called to order at 6:06 p.m., by Chairperson Jerald Hulbert PRESENT: Howard Schneider, Rich Manchester, Ald. William LeDoux, Debbie Carlson, Ron Stephens, Toby Whipple (6:10) Craig Anderson (Parks and Recreation Director), and those per the attached sheet. The meeting notice was posted in accordance with the Open Meeting Law. APPROVAL OF MINUTES - Mrs. Debbie Carlson moved to approve minutes of the April 12, 1999 meeting. Seconded by Mr. Rich Manchester. Carried by all. ELECTION OF OFFICERS President: Howard Schneider nominated Jerald Hulbert. Ron Stephens seconded. Carried by all. Vice President: Howard Schneider nominated Toby Whipple. Debbie Carlson seconded. Carried by all. Secretary: Rich Manchester nominated Debbie Carlson. Ron Stephens seconded. Carried by all. PERSONAL APPEARANCES Renaming Leisure Park/Leisure Park Plans for Food Court - Renaming of Leisure Park - Chief John Johnson, Ald. Chiaverotti and several members of VFW Post 8171were present to discuss this issue. The park know as Leisure Park had been named several years ago by the Lions Club who had paid for the improvements within the park. The Muskego Festival Committee and the Muskego VFW have recommended the renaming of the park in honor of veterans. The Muskego Lions Club endorses this change. Several civic organizations are coming forward to help with the procurement of signage and accessories (flag poles) for this new designation for the park. Toby Whipple moved to change the name of Leisure Park to Veteran’s Memorial Park. Seconded by Ron Stephens. Carried by all. Ald. Chiaverotti, on behalf of the Festival Committee received a check from VFW 8171 for the new Veteran’s Memorial Park. Leisure Park (Veteran’s Memorial Park) Plans for Food Court - Chief Johnson and Ald. Chiaverotti presented the Board with a drawing of planned lighting for the food court area. A sample photo of the lighting fixture to be used was not available. The Committee would like to have the wiring for a maximum of 5 lights be installed immediately even though the lights may be installed over a period of time. Toby Whipple moved to approve the conceptual plans for the wiring and lighting within the food court area. Seconded by Howard Schneider. Carried by all. WRITTEN CORRESPONDENCE Police Department Incident Reports - Craig Anderson reports that no incidents occurred. OLD BUSINESS Kurth Park - At last month’s Public Information Hearing, Craig was directed to survey the residents who have property abutting the park to ask them what type of fencing they would prefer. Craig has received 11 of 15 responses. Currently, a natural fence line is the number one preference with a 6 foot chain link fence being the lowest in preference. Discussion regarding the use of blended, different fence types around the area. Ron Stephens reminded members of the Board that the residents in any particular area do change over time and that efforts to please one particular group may not satisfy the Minutes, Parks and Recreation Board Meeting - May 10, 1999 Page 2 new residents. The Board would like to ensure that foot traffic is kept to a minimum on the properties. Rich Manchester is in favor of chain link fence due to the low maintenance of the material. A plat of survey will be provided by Craig Anderson for next months meeting. Leisure Park Community Festival Contract - The contract has been viewed by the Mayor as well as the City Attorney. The version that was presented to this Board is ready for their approval and forwarding onto the Festival Committee for their signature. The Board discussed the amount of time that the Festival Committee would actually reserve the park area for before, during and after the Community Festival. Craig reports that approximately 2 ½ weeks would be dedicated to this event due to the set- up and tear-down of equipment and rides. Discussion regarding the sleeping arrangements on the grounds before and after the festival took place with the members of the Board questioning how long an individual could sleep on the grounds. The Board determined that this has not been an issue in the past and it can be addressed if it does become a problem. Toby Whipple moved to approve the Leisure Park Community Festival Contract and recommends forwarding to the Festival Committee for adoption and signature. Seconded by Ron Stephens. Carried by all. Miller Development - This issue was discussed at last months meeting with Ald. Patterson making a motion requesting that the parcel Miller Development has offered to the City for purchase be removed from the Open Space Master Plan. The Plan Commission sent this motion back to this Board for further consideration due to the impending settlement forthcoming to the City which may make additional monies available for the acquisition of open, green space. The parcel is 9.68 acres in size with 2.63 areas of wetland and a generous estimate of a 2 acre detention pond. This leaves approximately 5 acres of land that could be developed. The intent of this acquisition would be to preserve the area and not have a specific use in mind (i.e., soccer, baseball). The Board needs to determine if they may consider purchasing the land or if they want to remove the parcel from the Open Space Master Plan and submit a Resolution to SEWRPC to the affect, thereby allowing Miller Development to proceed with their development of the adjacent area. Ron Stephens moved to rescind last months motion of removing this parcel from the Open Space Master Plan. Seconded by Rich Manchester. Carried by all. The Board indicated that this action does not negatively impact the priority projects already in place for other parks within the City. Chairman Hulbert encourages Board members to conduct their own site visit to the area in question. DEPARTMENT REPORTS RECREATION Statistics - Craig provided several reports to the Board that gave the group a great resource to see how class offerings and usage has increased/decreased over the past seasons. Craig reports that 12 of the 16 offerings had enough interest to conduct the class/event. In the past 3 brochures, all of the preschool programs have been filled. This indicates to his staff that the saturation point for these type offerings has not yet been met. New summer programming has received very positive response. Craig attributes this to the new water-based activities (sailing, kayaking) offered. Youth programs seem to be saturated, especially the arts/crafts based offerings. One-time offerings such as Flag Day art and the th 4 of July special were the first to be filled. Craig also reports that his department will be sending out news releases 3 weeks prior to events to showcase them and increase interest and coverage by the local media (Sun and Journal/Sentinel). Evaluations continue to be positive. In the case of fair/poor class ratings, the instructor has been given peer-to-peer instruction and guidance and this has increased the ratings. Ron Stephens pointed out that he had received two complaints regarding a Landscaping course offered by the City. Craig reports that only 4 individuals were enrolled in the class and requests that those individuals contact his office directly to obtain additional data. Internet hits for the brochure for the month of March was 28 and April 31. Credit Card Registration - Testing has been completed with Élan. Ready to go on line to accept both Visa and MasterCard registrations for courses. The fee Élan is charging is 2.5%. Minutes, Parks and Recreation Board Meeting - May 10, 1999 Page 3 Tour of Denoon School - Craig, Tammy and Irene went on a tour of the new school and found great areas for the use of the P/R Department for class offerings. Bike Paths (Janesville Road/Parkland Drive) - Craig talked to the Mayor regarding Janesville Road bike path. The Mayor has suggested placing the bike path into the budget that will go into the DOT road program. The City would pay the fee in lieu of going through the City Engineering firm (R&M) to help defray costs for the program. Parkland Drive is approximately 85% complete with seeding and tree planting to be performed. Chairman Hulbert stated that at Plan Commission a resident who has property along Parkland Drive is ready to begin developing the property within the year. This development will help to close the loop with the bike path all the way to Woods Road. PARKS Maintenance Fees - Craig provided a written 1999 maintenance/usage fee calculation for the users of the fields (attached). The fees have been increased to $7.00 per hour to staff the salaries for the baseball workers due to the difficulty they have had in finding workers at the $6.00 salary. Ron Stephens moved to approve the fee schedule as submitted. Seconded by Toby Whipple. Carried by all. Idle Isle Back-up Plan - Resulting from a request from Chairman Hulbert and Debbie Carlson, Craig has created an emergency plan to deal with staffing at Idle Isle in May. Finding staffing for the weekends in May has always been difficult due to Prom, parties and school functions. Options include subbing amongst Idle Isle staff, combination of Parks staff/Parks Ranger, Parks Supervisor and finally the Director of Parks and Recreation filling any staffing holes. For the year 2000, the hiring of just Parks staff for the summer employment which will add together all of the employees necessary to fill 40-hour week seasonal positions. Idle Isle coverage will then be rotated by everyone. This will improve the coverage for the end of May-August. Luther Parker Cemetery - Craig has received a phone call from the landfill indicating that they are able to maintain the cemetery with controlled burns. Currently, the cemetery has several cracked, toppled over and lopsided headstones which the landfill would not be able to assist in restoring. In order to restore the site to perfect would cost $4,000-5,000. In order to get the cemetery to an acceptable look a cost of $1,000-2,000 would be incurred. Additionally the split rail fence and sign need to be repaired and replaced. Craig stated that there may be grant money available in the future for this project. Parks Hours - During last month’s Public Information Hearing regarding Kurth Park, several residents requested that this Board review the hours of operation of the Park as well as all of the parks within the City. With none of the parks being lit, the need for a 11:00 closing time was questioned. Denoon Park does close a 10:00 where the other parks at 11:00. Discussion regarding allowing those using the launch sites to come off of the lake was considered. Those using the launches after park hours have not caused problems and the Board determined that no special provision is necessary at this time. Howard Schneider moved to recommend the closing of all City of Muskego Parks at 10:00 p.m. Seconded by Toby Whipple. Carried by all. NEW BUSINESS Park Arthur Lease - Craig provided a copy of the lease agreement for Karl Thiesenhusen. This lease is the same as last year. Howard Schneider questioned the use of the spoils from the Linne Lac Dam project as fill within a portion of this parcel of land and would this have any impact on the agreement. The Board determined that at this time, it did not appear to be an issue but the City may need to exercise their right to terminate the agreement if it did become a problem. Ron Stephens moved to approve the lease agreement between the City of Muskego and Karl Thiesenhusen with the understanding that if spoils from the Linne Lac Dam need to be deposited upon the land, the City Minutes, Parks and Recreation Board Meeting - May 10, 1999 Page 4 can and will exercise its right to terminate the lease as stipulated within the agreement. Seconded by Rich Manchester. Carried by all. Brochure Advertising - Craig indicated that the current contract with Alliance Publishing is up on July 13, 1999. The previous agreement with Alliance was a 50-50 cut in the next proceeds which brought in approximately $3,000 in revenue. Publication Concepts of America has provided a 60-40% split in the City’s favor and has a larger staff to sell space. Craig feels that Publication Concepts should be the recommended service provider due to the larger staff. If the Parks/Recreation brochure is increased to 48 pages, an additional ½ page will be available for ads. Howard Schneider moved to approve the recommendation of Publication Concepts of America as the seller of ads for the Parks and Recreation brochure. Seconded by Toby Whipple. Carried by all. Discussion regarding the current provider and their misrepresentation of their affiliation with this Board and the potential for Craig to contact the advertisers to audit the amount they were charged for the ad vs. how much the City received in revenue to ensure that accurate accounting procedures are followed by the service provider. Idle Isle Channel Fishing - Numerous calls have come into Craig’s office to complain about the lack of access those wishing to fish off of the island have. The area is posted “No Channel Fishing”. As tax- paying citizens, many feel that they should have the same access as those living or boating within the channel. A petition was to be filed, this has not yet been done. The signs were installed in the past to reduce the amount of nuisance calls the Police Department would receive. Fishing in the narrow portions of the channel could make the areas almost impossible to maneuver a boat through. Debris thrown out of boats and lack of privacy to those living along the channel were the main objections voiced if the signs were removed. The Board determined that the area southeast of the old boat launch could be made accessible to those wishing to fish. Howard Schneider moved to remove the No Channel Fishing sign in the area southeast of the old boat launch. Seconded by Rich Manchester. Carried by all. Discussion continued regarding the area in question and those that feel that access should be limited to those not living on the lake or the channel. Amendment to A Park and Open Space Plan for The City Of Muskego - Please See Miller Development. OTHER BUSINESS Subdivision Plans from Plan Commission - None COMMUNICATIONS AND MISCELLANEOUS BUSINESS AS AUTHORIZED BY LAW Ald. LeDoux was again welcomed to the Board and he is looking forward to working with this group in the future. Howard Schneider questioned the ability of those wishing to obtain approval from this Board to provide the Board with not only their plat but how the plat fits within the entire surrounding area. The use of overheads will be considered in order to enhance the visual perspective to the Board members as well as the audience in person and viewing on cable. Toby Whipple questioned if the signage for Manchester Hill Park was in progress. Craig Anderson reports that he has an individual working on the sign at this time. ADJOURNMENT - Being no further business to discuss Mr. Rich Manchester moved to adjourn the meeting at 8:57 p.m. Seconded by Ald. LeDoux. Carried by all. Respectfully submitted, Linda Gulgowski, Recording Secretary