The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink About1995-04-03 - Minutes• • • Members Present: Staff Present: Guests Present: Media Present: BUSINESS: PRAB REGULAR MEETING APRIL 3, 1995 Driver, Savage, James, Knight, Mackey, Richard, Stone, Waite, Clark, Cox, Dugwyler Jimmy Luper, Joyce and Max Rusty Garrett, Ron Wood McCann I. MOTION:KNIGHT/MACKEY The minutes from the March 6, 1995, March 13, 1995, and March 21, 1995 meetings were approved unanimously 6-0. II. SOFTBALL REPORT These numbers are above and beyond what we also spend for youth sports. Our work order system does not give us what we want. The concession is separate from these figures and it makes three to four thousand. We irrigate Lake Fayetteville ballfields from the lake. This is very efficient. The registration fees goes into an account that pays for umpires, scorekeepers, trophies, etc. This year we paid for the fence on field two with money from this account. Cox: We had about $2,000 from last year after we paid for the fence. Driver: Is there any advertising money? Clark• Bambino sells space for advertisements. We have not done that with adult softball. If we go too high with registration fees, people might leave our league . Hopefully with our program coordinator, we will be able to host more tournaments. There is not an assessed fee per individual; it is per team. Mackey: I feel it is better per player fee. Are we going to be this much deficit this year? Clark: This figure includes all fields even youth. Mackey: Youth teams have to come out in the black. They have fundraisers if they need to. They don't ask the city for money. Clark• The $50 a day for field rental is to prevent people from making money. There is not as much money made as people would think. Friends of Youth make money because everyone volunteers their time. Muscular. Dystrophy, service clubs and March of Dimes also have tournament. Babe Ruth was having problems financially. This age group does not like fundraising etc. They asked for help. I feel that this is a good reason for our money. Babe Ruth continues to grow. • • • PRAB Page 2 Mackey: My main problem is for people to use public fields in order to make money instead of the money going back into the program. Clark: I believe coaches or players would make up the board and a PRAB member, umpire in chief. We would set mandatory meeting and have evaluations. Other meetings would be on call. James: What is your at large meaning? Anyone or someone with softball? Clark: Either. I was thinking of Jack Luper or someone from the community. This third page is our current policy on field rental. It has been $50 since 1988. We have 81 teams signed up. There will be a coaches meeting this Sunday, and the league will kick off Monday. Jimmy Luper has been our umpire in chief for a year or so. This is who I will be working with this season. Jim Scarbrough is currently making the schedule. Waite: What is status of program coordinator? Clark: Negotiations are going on. Luper: There will be five tournaments where money will go through the youth center. I have said I will be responsible for these tournaments. If I make money it will be through umpiring. I want to show that softball can make money. We are planning double elimination tournaments where the third game will be played against someone else who has lost two. I will come back to you throughout the summer with number of teams, tournaments, and how many rooms were rented, etc. We will buy each team two softballs and they pay $5 for any others We have one of the best parks for women tournaments. We have to go down into D for mens. Our first women's tournaments is at a time when there are no other women's tournaments in the area. Nike and Bud Light tournaments are in the summer. Teams will travel to good facilities and we have them. I am determined to make this happen. With a little hard work and push we can bring money into Fayetteville. James: If we move the fields back how will that work with upper division? Luper: We would need at least two fences moved. Clark: This has moved to 1996. It is not in the forefront. Luper: Fun Valley in Hutchinson, Kansas was originally private. They had two or three national tournaments every year. They were so successful that the city bought it. I will get you some literature. Driver: Why would they sell if they were making so much money? Luper: It is a huge headache to hold these tournaments. It is probably too hard for one person. PRAB Page 3 Mackey: I know we can fill the hotels with a tournament. I still don't think a private person should coordinate tournaments. I think the program coordinator should do all. Clark: I think it will get to where every weekend is filled with our tournaments. Waite: It is totally under your control so I feel okay leaving this open. Mackey: Harrison has all their tournaments organized by the program coordinator and they make money. Driver: I think that this will be in the hands of the program coordinator, but in the meanwhile, Mr Luper has agreed to take over III. ELECTION OF OFFICERS NEW MEMBERS: Brian Richard: I have lived in Fayetteville for three years, and I work for Proctor and Gamble. I live by Gulley Park and am interested in parks. I want to see park land acquired as the city grows. I am from Charlotte, North Carolina and they did not have adequate land. Children could not find a place to fly a kite. I have a 15 year old son who plays sports. Sally Stone: I have live here 47 years. My children enjoyed the Youth Center and parks for year. MOTION:MACKEY/WAITE The PRAB recommends Susan Driver as PRAB Chairperson. MOTION APPROVED UNANIMOUSLY 8-0. MOTION:DRIVER/MACKEY The PRAB recommends Johnny James as PRAB Vice Chairperson. MOTION APPROVED UNANIMOUSLY 8-0. Committees: PROGRAM/PR: Knight (C), Mackey (softball rep), James, Stone BUDGET/FINANCE: Waite (C), Savage, Richard, Stone FACILITIES: James (C), Knight, Mackey, Richard, Savage IV. NATIONAL TRAILS DAY Dugwyler: National Trails Day is June 3, 1995. I have been working with Trails committee. We would like to dedicate the Lake Fayetteville trail. Bridges will probably not be completed but rest of trail should be. I hope everyone can join us and give us a hand. PRAB Page 4 Driver: What has happened with the blue paint? Clark• There is a lot of blue on the trail. I visited with Lee Martin. There is a nice trail on the water's edge that has been developed by the study center. They wanted some poles for a bridge structure. James: Is it permanent paint? Clark: Yes, but Nancy says we can fix it with blue and purple. Driver: Let's keep in mind that future trails need to be marked with Dale's guidance. Clark: We need to set a standard and have everyone adhere to that. Driver: Our purpose was to go around the perimeter of study center to stay our of their control center. Did they intend for this water edge part to be part of the trail? Clark: No, this is just for environmental study center. James: Tim made a mark on the map and Wade was going to work on it. Driver: I would like someone to contact the eagle scouts on the paint. Driver: Even at Wilson you can see the trees with white paint even though it is small marks. It takes away from the naturalness. Dugwyler: I can work on this with Tim. V. HMR TAX Driver: Bill is going to work on CIP graphing for expenditures over the last 10 years in conjunction with population and maintenance budget. Basically we have the unfunded capital improvement to work from. We are talking about setting up members from this board to actively educate the public on HMR tax. I would like Sturman to help educate at the ballfields, and Sally with the schools. We will also call on the rest to help with civic groups. We want the information to get to everyone. We will educate the U of A. Waite: We will have some assistance. The Parks Trust Fund will help with professional advertising. Johnny, we need a good listing of projects this will fund, senior citizens and everything in between. Richard: Do we have any correlation with Chamber of Commerce such as owners of hotels and motels? Waite: Susan has already made a presentation to the A & P committee. Richard: Have they done any research from other cities? Driver: We hope the advertiser have a database with this information. Waite: If anyone can think of good projects that are unfunded now let us know. Knight: Does Brian and Sally know about ad hoc? Waite: We need to get handouts to them. • • • PRAB Page 5 Driver: We will expecting feedback when we go to the schools etc. IV. GREEN SPACE BANKING POLICY Driver: I wanted this included because there has been a concern about taking drainage ditches, etc. Questions from Council and Planning. I would like to schedule a joint meeting with those interested from Council etc. My personal feeling is that banking is useful if you have a developer that is coming through with several phases and donates on the front end. Unless it is specifically in the master plan, I feel drainages should not be taken. Waite: Will this meeting include the Trails Committee? This is part of the reason for this problem we have taken some drainage areas to assist the trails plan. We need some guidelines. Should Parks green space be used for trails objectives? The future needs more guidance on the trails when it falls outside normal park use. Driver: A lot of the proposed trails are in new areas and it is hard to have a plan. Driver: Some cities have no banking. Richard: I don't like the idea of taking land. I think we should take cash and buy land. Developers are using the ordinance to their advantage. Mackey: As long as we can continue to take money we can bank the money and buy land in high density residential area. Savage: If you buy it after it is developed, the price is sky high. Stone: You don't have to have a lot of property. The Root school basketball lot is small but is used tremendously. Driver: The city is considering a drainage easement ordinance. We need to get with Council for a joint meeting. We need an open forum Waite: I think we need Planning Commission and Trail Advisory Committee. VI. Mud Creek Trail Driver: We voted not to accept the land at a value of $8,000 and there was a motion on the floor not to accept the land at all. City Council has voted to take it at $4,800. That has taken it beyond recommending from this board. What I would like to do is work with the citizens along that creek bed to make the best possible decisions for this property. I would like to include time frame of development, and most immediately would like to know vegetative screening that could go in now for privacy. We are interested in working with you for the benefit of the neighbors. PRAB Page 6 Richard: Did Council say what the or did Driver: will be Stone: Driver: James: Driver: James: land would be used for they just accept it? They talked about it. Mayor Hanna said there a public meeting when making the trail. I though the intention was for a trail. I believe it was. Where did the offer come from? Sweetser made the offer. I understood that was his last offer. What influenced him? Waite: If this land was taken for the trail, who will hold the public meeting? The parks or trails committee? Mackey: When I found out about this pre-emptive strike, I was surprised. I thought we were going to vote on it tonight. I am amazed that our vote was cut off. Why did we even talk about it? Driver: I think there has been some benefit from the discussion of this board. Concerns have been aired. That is one of the functions of the PRAB. Waite: Some people feel they should air their concerns to the people making the decision. If we weren't going to make the decision the people should have been able to air their concerns to the people with the vote. Mackey: If we are going to be an advisory board, I would like the chance to advise. Richard: I thought it was strange they felt it was necessary to hold a special session. OTHER BUSINESS: Clark: Davis Park has 42 trees planted. The benches are on back order, and we have located spots for grills. Driver: What is the plan for the pond? Clark: The plan is to drain it and that is as far as we have gotten. To leave it like it is is not good. It is pretty marshy. It could be wetlands. I am open for suggestions. I don't think it will serve a purpose except for frogs and mosquitoes. James: If it is that marshy, how much fill will it take? Clark: The drainage ditch feeds farther down the line. It would take quite a bit of fill. Davis Park needs to be a full blown park right now like Gulley. It needs staff's full attention and PRAB recommendations. Driver: Who said the sewer line could go through? Clark: That was before we got the parkland. James: Could we meet out there? Clark: I could probably fill it in six months. I think this park needs a trail and volleyball court. We need to take quick action. We have applied for a grant but we are not going to get it this year. • • • PRAB Page 7 Dugwyler: we did not receive the LWCF for this year so we will need to have another public meeting in May. I think we should meet on site. Mackey: At the last on site meeting someone asked about the wildlife pond. They wanted to know if we were going to harm the pond? I cannot remember the response. I would like to save it if at all possible. Clark: It would have to be cleaned out. Richard: It there a plan for additional parking at Gulley Park? Clark: Twenty plus spots will be added to the current lot this year. Meeting adjourned at 6:00 pm. Minutes Approved: