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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1996-05-06 - Minutes•
FAYETTEVILLE
THE CITY OF FAYETTEVILLE, ARKANSAS
DEPARTMENTAL CORRESPONDENCE
TO: PARKS AND RECREATION ADVISORY BOARD
FROM: DALE D. CLARK, PARKS & RECREATION DIRECTOR
DATE: APRIL 29, 1996
SUBJECT: PRAB MEETING ON MONDAY, MAY 6, 1996 AT 5:30 PM IN
ROOM 219 OF THE CITY ADMINIS [RATION BUILDING
******************************************************************************
I. Approval of PRAB Minutes - April 1, 1996 Regular Meeting
II. Donna Porter - President of the Botanical Garden Society of the Ozarks
III. Denice Airola - Progress Report on Jefferson playground equipment
IV. Parks Tour - Johnny James
• V. Public Relations Committee Meeting Report - McCutcheon
VI. 1997 HMR Budget - Dugwyler
VII. Sally Stone's Resignation [Procedure of Replacement]- Clark
VIII Other Business
•
* At 7:30 in Room 326, a University of Arkansas School & Community Recreation class will
present to the Fayetteville Youth Center Board an administration review project. The Parks and
Recreation Advisory Board Members are invited to this presentation. The review will include a
risk management study of Wilson Park andWalker Park.
General Information
Tentative Park Tour dates: June 12th, 5:30 - 8:30
July 4th, Veterans Memorial Park Dedication, 2 hour tour
August 14th, 5:30 - 8:00
Attachments: Written Resignation of PRAB Member, Sally Stone
Cooperative Extension Service information on leisure's relationship to health
Ordinance Proposal and Development Plan for South and East Acreage of
Lake Fayetteville {from Donna Porter}
Greenspace Quarterly Report
•
PRAB
REGULAR MEETING
MAY 6, 1996
The meeting was called to order by Bill Waite at 5:30
room 219 of the City Administration Building.
Members Present: Driver, Mackey, Richard, Waite, James
Members Absent: McCutcheon, Ackerman
Reason Absent: McCutcheon and Ackerman are out-of-town
Staff Present: Clark, Dugwyler, Orzek
Media Present: Rusty Garrett - NWA Times
Jennifer Pinkerton - Morning News
Guests Present:
Pm
in
Denise Airola and Alisha Turner, Jefferson
Elementary, Donna Porter, Maryetta Carroll,
Fran Alexander, Steve Parker - Botanical
Garden Society of the Ozarks, Paula Marinoni-
The Flower, Garden & Nature Society of
Northwest Arkansas for BGSO, and Andrea
Fournet - Friends For Fayetteville for BGSO
MOTION: JAMES/DRIVER
The Minutes from the April 1, 1996 PRAB meeting were approved
unanimously 5-0.
II. Denise Airola - Jefferson Playground Update
Waite - I am going to take the liberty here, we make want to
discuss longer with Donna Porter, so we might want to ask Denise
Airola to go first by changing the Agenda around. I heard an
encouraging report with conjunction with this playground
improvement. The Jefferson Student Council last week had a thank
you to the Park's in which they spent their labor in cleaning up
Walker Park. They had an enormous turn out of 75 people who worked
quit extensively. It is much appreciated.
Airola - We didn't expect the number of people that responded to
the permission slips. We want to tell you what has been going on
with the basketball court and then we have a couple of questions.
1 / May 6, 1996
Turner - The basketball goals have been started. We have the
• gravel and the layout. They are going to put asphalt down as soon
as we get some sunny weather so they can put the poles and the back
boards up. It might be done by the end of this week or the
beginning of next week, depending on the weather. We wanted to
have a sign put up in dedication to the Jefferson Student Council
1995-1996.
Airola - Some students asked at their last meeting about putting up
a sign in recognition of their hard work. We don't know the
procedures on getting signs.
Waite - I will have to give that to Nancy Dugwyler and Dale Clark.
Clark - I think that it is feasible, but I can't give you an answer
right now. I will have to research it. I can't tell you what it
would look like at this point.
Airola - I talked to Standard Register and they may raise some
money to help out. We called some sign companies and they gave us
an estimate of $125 - $175. Standard Register said they would help
raise that.
Waite - Please work with Dale and Nancy on that. We do have
certain regulations.
Airola - We were wanting to have a ribbon cutting when the
basketball court was finished because that will done by the end of
the school year. Th"e Student Council wanted to have a special
event. We are going to issue you all invitations. We did have a
question about the playground equipment. We are trying to keep
• people up on a time line. We understand now that it has to go
through the City Parks bid process as well.
Clark - I would say early to mid June.
Airola - That is pretty much on schedule as of installation anyway.
It seems like everything is falling in place. We appreciate all
your support.
Waite - We thank you for your efforts as well. Next item on the
Agenda is the Botanical Gardens.
III. Donna Porter - President of the Botanical Garden Society of
the Ozarks
Porter - It has been almost three years since I approached this
Parks Board about the development of a botanical garden in
Fayetteville. Since that time, the organization now has 12 member
in the Board of Directors, the organization has 6 standing
committees and at this time we have over 135 members. We
incorportated in January 1994 and we are a 501 C3 organization.
After that, we decided to clarify our intentions and we created our
mission statement which I feel clarifies our purpose. I would like
to read our mission statement; Our mission is to establish and
operate a botanical garden in Northwest Arkansas where a diverse
411 2 / May 6, 1996
selection of plants will be displayed, utilized, and preserved for
• educational, environmental, recreational, and scientific purposes.
Thereby, promoting public awareness of the vital and unlimited
roles that plants perform. Since our bottom line is educating
people about plants, we immediately started implementing
educational programs. We brought in Jim Wilson, former host of the
Victory Garden for two lectures at the Hilton in September, 1995.
In Fall 1995, with this Board's help, we started our trail labeling
project at the Lake Fayetteville South trail. We are attaching
tree defication labels to about 28 species of trees along the trail
and we are also publishing a tree trail guide which will be
completed by the first of June. That guide is being published with
the financial assistance through a Grant through the Arkansas
Forestry Commission. In 1994, this Board gave us concept approval,
but no other commitment was given from the City for land use. This
was actually contingent on us trying to acquire some private
property that adjoins the City property on the south shore of Lake
Fayetteville. We have had difficulties contacting the property
owner, but we feel strongly that these two sites in combination
would be a prime location for this botanical garden. So we are
still pursuing both the private property and the City property. We
looked at quit a few sites. We had opposition of acquiring Lake
Fayetteville South, so we started looking at alternative sites. We
also looked at other parks. We concluded that the south shore
acreage would be a good location for this development. We had some
• guidelines as to favorable characteristics and we acquired these
guidelines through the American Association of Botanical Gardens
when trying to find a site for the gardens. I also walked this
site with Dale Clark. We would like to get further commitment from
the City through adoption of an ordinance that would designate and
reserve approximately 103 acres on the south and the east shore of
Lake Fayetteville for this development. I think originally we were
looking at 50-60 acres. The reason for this is pretty much spelled
out in the handout with your Agenda's. In case that the private
property does not come through to us, we needed a location that was
clear. The south shore is a totally wooded area, we don't want to
go in a mow down trees to build a botanical garden. We found this
alternative site to build the core development being the visitor
education center, conservatory, the cultivated gardens where the
plants would be housed. We felt we needed a site that was already
cleared. That is why we started looking at the east acreage. That
is why the additional acreage is needed. This organization is here
for the good of the community. We have put in thousand of hours,
and I do mean thousands, in trying to get this thing off the
ground.
Richard - Is your intention included fencing off this property?
Porter - No. We have talked about the Park's improving the trail
and at one point in time we were thinking about how we would keep
3 / May 6, 1996
people out of the core of the gardens. The wooded acreage would
not be contained in any way. It would be left open. The core
gardens where facilities and cultivated gardens would be, might
have to be contained to some degree - a watchman or something so
vandalism doesn't occur.
Richard - You mentioned trails, how does this impact Lake
Fayetteville?
Clark - The trail goes around the lake. The plan is that it starts
at the pavilion and runs to the east.
Porter - We would like to work with the City on the trail. I don't
know the actual plan. We would like to make sure that none of the
plant life is destroyed. We would like to introduce some other
species of plants along that trail. That is where the tree
labeling project is. There is some Japanese Honeysuckle that is
going to destroy one whole part of that property. It is killing
the plant life. We would like to help get rid of it. The wooded
area would pretty much be left in its natural state for the
botanical garden. We would be interested in putting in some
benches, widening the trail, and to do things like that. We want
to work with the City.
James - Part of the plan with the trail is that we talked to the
high school cross country teams. They would like to use it for
their cross country needs and practices. They want to get them off
the highways. There is a need for that. I am sure that we could
work back and forth on this. It probably won't be a narrow trail
• on that particular point.
Driver - Part of the trail is fairly well established in the
woodland area.
Porter - How wide are your plans?
James - 18 to 20 inches, Dale?
Clark - About six feet, I think.
Porter - What material would be used?
James - A soft surface trail.
Porter - I see some major need for proper pruning.
Waite - There will also probably be exercise stations.
James - That has been brought up to me by some citizens.
Waite - It would be a run -stop -exercise stations.
Porter - A pavilion of some sort?
James - No. Just a stations where you start with a diagram on what
exercise to perform now.
Porter - Along with that, we could tell them what type of plant
life was around.
Waite - Generally, wood structures.
Driver - I wanted to point out some of the strengths your proposal
has. I really like to preserve the plants existence. I am
concerned about the ordinance being a tactic to entice this private
land owner to communicate. I think a great strength is how it
• 4 / May 6, 1996
would promote Arkansas. I think we really lack a educational
• facility to look at the different regions that we have in our
state. I like it being in conjunction with the environmental
center. I do have reservations about stamping it exclusive use for
fifty years. I think there needs to be some kind of intermediate
step. I do have a question on page two. Could you clarify this.
The last full paragraph in the middle.
Porter - That would be the acquisition of the private property.
Waite - Could you give us some clarification on that. What is the
problem on finding out about this?
Porter - Contacting the private property owner. The person lives
out of state and is not easily accessible. We have tried several
times and are having a difficult time getting a hold of the owner.
We thought by having the City backing us would help in contacting
the owner.
Waite - I guess I somewhat agree with you. If we haven't contacted
the private property owner in two years, what gives us any hope of
every acquiring this land?
Porter - That is why we have looked at this alternative site on the
east side of the property. I don't want to come out and say who
the property owner is at this time. If attaining the private
property falls through, we have the alternative site. We haven't
received a response from the property owner.
Driver - Has there been contact made with this person?
Porter - Yes. It was two years ago and at that point in time they
• were ready to deal with it. That is why we laid off of land
acquisition for probably over a year and a half and dealty with
other parts of this organization.
Waite - There has to be an exact location of where you are planning
to build.
Porter - Most definitely. All we need is a Yes or a No if the
property owner is interested and we can go from there. I am not
giving up on that private property. There is not really a reason
to have the south wooded acreage without having a cleared area to
build a core of the garden. We feel with the backing of the City,
that we would get some kind of response.
Waite - For an example, Bambino league, we grant them utilization
of part of Walker Park. Some organizations don't last fifty years,
some may only last five years. There has to be a way for the City
to recover its property.
Porter - Right.
Waite - The City Attorney, of course, would have to look at this.
We couldn't recommend something that we assign all rights to this
property for fifty years.
Porter - The same as the Environmental Study Center is what we were
looking at.
Clark - If that fails, it reverts back to the City.
Porter - Couldn't that be added to this ordinance?
• 5 / May 6, 1996
Mackey - The City retained public ownership of the property. The
• City would own that? Any improvements, the City would own?
Waite - Yes.
Mackey - I am for it. I am still bound on the education aspect for
the schools.
Porter - I guess I didn't specifically state it that way, but it
would be. That is part of our goal to educate. We could bring in
school kids and provide different programs for them.
Mackey - Teachers in biology, zoology, botany need to have access
for classes at the garden.
Porter - We could go beyond that. This botancial garden actually
has in its plan to actually design and build a childrens garden
which have become very popular. In a botanical garden you have
many different gardens within your garden.
Mackey - Then the location of the building would have to be spelled
out exactly before we would ever approve it. My insistence would
be that the trail would be open to any person that wants to walk,
job, or otherwise enjoy that trail and scenery.
Porter - I think that the ordinance would be apt to changes. We
would work with the Parks Board to get it to the City Council with
whatever revisions we make.
Driver - Looking at your short range plan, five years from now.
Are there any objectives that could be accomplished without this
ordinance in place?
Porter - No. We could probably start working on it. The amount of
• work that this would require is a lot. I would like to have some
kind of agreement through the City before we put all this work
inton it.
Driver - I question the difference in the approval of the concept
and of this ordinance. I think that there is an unspoken question,
how are the people doing this work getting reimbursed? The time,
labor, and commitment involved. Are you thinking that since there
is an ordinance that there is more of an overall commitment?
Porter - Not necessarily of your funding, but the organizations
funding. It is going to take the Botanical Garden's money too.
This may require a fee. The first thing to ask for is the land.
The commitment from the City is a big part.
Waite - Will there ever be a portion of the garden that charges
admission?
Porter.- Yes. This will be more toward the core garden, education
facility, cultivated, and conservatory area. There would be other
access to the garden so it might need to be guarded. It is hard to
say right now.
Richard - I would be much more comfortable with a site plan stating
specifically what your intentions are so we can tie in trails and
other appropriate uses.
Mackey - I am uneasy about the fifty year portion. I would like to
see an option with both parties, a five year plan and submit it to
• 6 / May 6, 1996
•
•
show accomplishments and objectives obtained. I would like to see
an annual or semi-annual report.
Driver - I think there needs to be some sort of intermediate step
that can give you the support you are looking for. I understand
your frustration and appreciate your work.
Porter - I think we can work with you on that.
Waite - We and the City are going to have to have a strong say in
what type of structures. We need specifics on the fee area. Who
sets the fee. How it is changed. We can't write all of those
things right now. Your not ready yet with not knowing what
property you have.
Porter - We have reserved on our Board for three City
representatives.
Waite - It is going to have to be very specific.
Driver - We have talked as a Board on the subject of having a
person on the premises at Lake Fayetteville South to increase the
feeling of security of the Park. I encourage you to explore or
create a decision that might benefit the botanical garden as well
as benefiting the Parks and Recreation overall. I encourage you to
discuss options with Dale and Nancy to look at how you might
excelerate the development of the garden under your five year plan.
Mackey - One more thing. I would like to be assured that we are
not trying to create a bureacracy of the taxpayers of Fayetteville
to support. I say to look to the school district and see what they
are doing with the environmental center. How they operate that and
what the problems are, who is in charge, etc. It is used a lot.
Porter - We don't actually want to repeat what has been started
there.
Mackey - It would be a starting point.
Clark - We do some fence repair and things like that. There is
some overlapping on the map. In the fifty to sixty acres before
was mostly in the middle.
Driver - Did you want to mention the survey?
Clark - The survey is being done for all of that area to define the
boundaries for the environmental study center and other boundaries.
Porter - This is the close of a map as we could get.
Driver - We do have a legal description so fairly soon there should
be some good markers.
Porter - What do you feel the next step would be to take middle
ground?
Driver - I think a short range plan would be a good place to start.
Discussion with Dale and Nancy on the position that might fit the
needs of Parks and Recreation and for the concept of the Botanical
Garden would be a good place to start. I think getting Sturman
Mackey on your Board would be a good thing too. He is a big fan.
Porter - I will warn you that it is a working Board!
Driver - I think specifically contacting members to see if they
• 7 / May 6, 1996
would sit on the Board is also a good idea.
• Porter - Then that is what we will do.
Driver - Do you feel that you have authorization to proceed with
the short range plan?
Porter - I would like to talk to the Botanical Garden Board before
I say yes or no to that question. This would be a lot of time
involved. We have planned to write applications for grants this
summer. This is totally done on volunteer work.
-Driver - I would recommend you concentrating on Arkansas biomes as
far as grant writing.
-Porter - I have a -suggestion to the Parks Board, that if you ever
pass by a botanical garden, stop in. I don't think it is quite
understood. Their programs that they -offer the school children are
unlimited. The potential is- only limited to your imagination.
There is Nothing in this area that compares to the opportunities
that this garden could offer to this community and also the
visitors to this area. You can't compare it to St. Louis's since
it has been around for about 150 years, but there are some other
gardens like in Kansas City, Missouri which is a fairly new
established garden -which is about 400 acres. They have festivals
there too. It is very inspiring.
Waite - I am familiar with the garden in St. Louis. There is an
enormous amount of investment, time, and effort that goes into
these. I want to ensure that both me and you are well aware of
what we are biting off at each stage.
• Driver - I was very glad to see the the Garden and Nature Society
has given you some support. I think that is going to be an
essential component of your plan.
Porter - I think so too. These gardens start somewhere. It is not
always a well known person or entity that is trying to get them
-going. Most start with talking with their Parks Department first.
We will work with you as much as we can.
--Waite - Great to hear from you.
Porter - There are many in every state except in Arkansas.
-Waite - Is there anyone else here to speak on this?
Marinoni - I am from Fayetteville, I lived in Kansas City, Missouri
for 21 years and recently moved my family back to Fayetteville.
Waite - I have to interupt you. I haven't seen you in a long time
since you were a cheerleader for the University of Arkansas in the
early 70's.
- Marinoni - I have a long history of gardening in Fayetteville and
in Kansas City. -I led tours at the Botanical Garden in St. Louis,
Missouri. Our tour leader was from Venezuela and he commented that
the best place in the world to study the plants of his country was
-in -St. Louis, Missouri at their Botanical Garden. We also saw
their rare book collection. I was able to hold Darwin's journal.
We saw books that were worth millions of dollars. This was not
normally open to the public. They had one of the largest orchid
• 8 / May 6, 1996
botanical garden in the world. I got to watch it progress in
• stages. Since I have moved back to Fayetteville, I have started a
Flower Garden and Nature Society of Northwest Arkansas. I
committed a annual garden tour to benefit the Botanical Garden
Society of the Ozarks efforts. I feel that it is essential to
validate their efforts in this early stage. It is part of the
vision of Fayetteville. I would like to see it here. I think it
is an appropriate site for it. It is not very visible from
intersections as far as people enjoying the nature. I would like
to see more encouragement from the City of Fayetteville and from
the Parks Board than for them to already have worked three years so
now go work another five years and come back to us and we will see
what we think then. How can we ask them to keep working with no
commitment? There is plenty of money in Northwest Arkansas. Once
there is a commitment, I know there won't be any trouble raising
money and in sponsoring the childrens garden and I want to name it
after my grandchild. I think this is a tremendous asset to the
community. If you don't get on the bandwagon, it may end up in
Springdale instead. I found that there is virtually no place to
meet in Fayetteville to have a meeting. We have met at the Bernice
Jones Center in Springdale and I applaud that they have made this
available to the community. I walked the trail with Donna last
week and I have to admit that I was horified to see the neon blue
blotches of paint on the trees. I heard that that was a volunteer
e ffort. Please don't go into one of the only remaining natural
• areas available to people and put in an artificial surface for the
cross country runners. It is not natural. How can Donna ask for
the private land owner to donate their property when the City can't
commit? Thank you.
Driver - Have you checked with the public library on a meeting
space or any of our elementary schools?
Marinoni - I have been to a meeting at the library and the
accessiblity was limited.
Driver - I think that if you talk to any of our elementary school
principles that they may be available for a meeting space.
Mackey - I know for a fact that Ozark Electric and SWEPCO also
o ffers facilities for small meetings.
Marinoni - In the first two months, I have over 70 members. So I
invision the group getting quit large. When I left Kansas City,
the group had 850 members and had expected over 1,200 members by
the end of the year. Gardening is real hot right now and this area
is prime for this. Once the City gets behind them, they will get
the support that they need.
Driver - I am with you on the neon blue.
Waite - Thank you.
Alexander - I was asked by the President of Friends of Fayetteville
to make a statement. She has a degree in Horticulture and is quite
the Botanist herself. Friends of Fayetteville would like to go on
• 9 / May 6, 1996
the record of being in support of this ordinance. It is hard to
• get started when asking for volunteers and asking for money to do
something in a nebulus environment. That is the basis of our
support for this ordinance. At this point, I would like to speak
for myself. I have dealt with volunteer for 27 years. I worked on
the Wilderness Bill and worked on getting it through Congress when
I was in Alabama. It was all volunteer work. I was head of the
docent program in Houston for several years leading nature walks
through the sanctuary. I have seen first hand what people and
children need. I urge you to understand their needs and do what
you can and get them going.
Driver - Is there not an action required? I leave this up to
Donna
Waite - I was assuming since the advice was to come back with more
of a concrete proposal on the short range that it would be
deferred. Does anyone here propose an action? Or should we vote
on the proposed ordinance?
Driver - Donna, is that what you would like?
Porter - I think we will come back and will try to work with you on
that.
Waite - Okay. We will be looking for that as soon as it can be
done. I don't want to do anything negative. With that, I move to
Johnny James and thank all of you for coming here and spending
so much time on this. We are eager for success in this venture.
•
IV. Paz* Tours
James - Our second installment of the Park Tours started at the
south side of Wilson Park where we looked at the vehicle traffic
problem. People are parking on the new walking path. They are
tearing up the sod and seeding. It was suggested to put up a
asphalt bumper up in this area to prevent parking there. Our
second stop was at the Lake Fayetteville damn where we discussed
how we would like to see the trail run through this section of the
Park. Over the damn area was suggested and also around the base of
the damn down around Locomotion and back around the spillway. The
consensus seemed to be to use the top of the damn as the trail.
Staff agreed that we should get with engineering as soon as
possible to design and develop a bridge to span the spillway. We
drove around the perimeter of the lake with Dale pointing out
several areas how he saw the trail being laid out. Most of this
area will be brush hogging or hand trimming. The next area of
concern was at highway 265 where Clear Creek runs into the Lake.
A couple of questions needed to addressed already. One question is
what is the water elevation at this point? Would it be over the
trail much of the time? Do we need some sort of elevated bridge
and trail? The second question addressed was what would the
• 10 / May 6, 1996
widening of highway 265 do with our effort of putting in the trail.
• We then went to Lake Fayetteville South to look at the construction
being done on the pavilion there. Staff hopes that it will be
completed by the July Fourth celebration. We then went by Finger
Park which has, among other things, an outdoor basketball court, an
open play area, a pavilion, playground equipment, nature trail, and
a hiking trail. We stopped at Greathouse Park. This Park has five
acres and includes an open play area, playground area, picnic
tables, and a water feature. Our next stop was at the horse shoe
area at Walker Park. Staff informed us that they are working with
the Horse Shoe Association in putting in lights in this section of
the park so it can be used for evening play. Discussion, while at
Wilson Lake, on how best to clean up the spillway area and the
possibility of putting in a boat ramp. Right now, only small,
light fishing boats can be launched in that body of water. After
a drive around Babe Ruth Park, we made our last stop of the day at
Combs Park. At the present time, a model airplane club is using
this Park. It is prone to flooding. Staff is not sure what other
activities could be planned at this Park. In summation, we took a
tour of eight Parks during this segment of our tour which included
over 1,000 acres of park land.
Waite - Where do we stand on the engineering of the bridges, Dale?
Clark - All damns must meet certain guidelines. Getting an answer
to that is going to be a stumbling block. I think after we can get
an answer on what we can do, the rest will be fairly easy. Last
. time I talked to him, we would have to have some type of debris
catcher at the top of the spillway to keep logs from getting there.
They are assessing the damn from time to time because of some
seepage there. They anticipated at some point on doing some major
repair. Getting them to tell us on what level we can build a brige
is the next step.
James - Does that simply take a letter from us and giving them our
intentions or do we have to send some type of design to them?
Clark - We need both.
Driver - How can you get a design without their specifications?
Clark - We know some of their specifications like having a barrier
in front of the spillway and heigth above the spillway top.
Driver - Do we know how much clearance above the spillway?
Clark - It is like eight feet.
Waite - Is this something we could bounce to the engineering
contractor to get at least a concept plan on these bridges?
Clark - That is right. We need to get engineers plan.
Waite - The bridge at highway 265 is going to take some
coordination with the Highway Department.
V. Public Relations Meetina - Richard
•
• 11 / May 6, 1996
Waite - I believe that John McCutcheon is out-of-town.
• Richard - I am going to report for him. I am going to update you
on a meeting we had on April 4, 1996, Public Relations Meeting.
John McCutcheon, Dale Clark, and I met at this meeting. Please
refer to the handout. We want to educate the public in two major
areas being generally and HMR related. We feel it is important to
update them on how funds are being spent. Our second goal is to
receive feedback. We talked about proposals on ways to carry out
these goals. We discussed four ways to get feedback, such as;
monthly cable access television show, weekly newspaper column,
speaker's buraue and newspaper inserts two times per year. All of
this is in the handout. If you have any suggestions they would be
welcome. We may want to discuss this at the next Board meeting.
Driver - That might be good since John McCutcheon would be here.
Waite - Do you have these listed in any order?
Richard - No, not really. Just how they occured to us.
Driver - I think this would require more than just the Publicity
Committees.
Waite - Yes. They all look pretty good to me.
Richard - We discussed the security and safety at Lake Fayetteville
South at the last meeting. I do have a second document/memo for
you. John McCutcheon did go meet with the Chief of Police and that
is what this memo is. It just recaps that the Chief of Police
feels that the situation has really improved. The police are
responding to any calls out there. They have increased patrols out
•
there and the Parks Police has also started their routes now.
Driver - I took my class out there and we took the trails as long
as they would go. We encountered several children and elderly
couples on the trail. I can see that the usage has increased.
Waite - Thank you very much Brian.
Driver - I think that it would be beneficial to have John
McCutcheon contact the cable television to see what kind of
commitment they would be willing to offer and to also talk to the
newspaper to give us a column or insert.
Waite - Okay. Nancy, now for your report.
VI. 1997 BMR Budget - Ducwler
Dugwyler - First, I would like to try to bring you up to date on
the HMR tax that has been collected on the first three months of
the year and I will compare those to 1995. January is recorded if
February, so keep that in mind. January $62,831 - February $69,670
and in March $80,669 for a total of $213,000 collected for the
first three months of the year. Last years total for the first
three months was $209,000 collected. We are ahead this year.
Waite - With worse weather too.
Dugwyler - You can see that it jumped significantly from February
12 / May 6, 1996
and March. I wanted to let you know that we will be doing the
budgeting for 1997 HMR during our regular budgeting process. The
CIP part is in July. The general budget with salaries, etc. is
done in August. So it is time to start for 1997. Keep that in
mind. If that means meeting of the Facilities Committee or however
you want to handle it.
Waite - We need to have the Budget Committee to meet rapidly.
Dugwyler - One of the things that is going to hinge drastically is
on how we are going to budget for the girls softball complex.
Waite - When will we open bids?
Dugwyler - May 16th.
Driver - Do you have a list of the Budget Committee members?
Dugwyler - No, I do not.
VIII. Sally Stone's Resignation !Procedure of Replacement!
Waite - I think that we all received a letter of Sally's
resignation. Dale, please bring us up to date on this.
Clark - The City Council Nominating Committee will nominate someone
for the position. We have notified the City Clerk and she in turn
has notified the newspapers. We stand a good chance by the next
meeting that we might have a new member on board.
Orzek - The ads in the paper are running May 5, 12, and 15. The
Budget Committe Members are Susan Driver (Chairwoman), Bill
Ackerman, Johnny James, and Sturman Mackey.
Driver - Thank you.
Waite - Before we decide on all of the P & R activities, it may be
helpful to have a full Board.
,IX. Other Business
Waite - Now we are down to other business.
Clark - I wanted to mention that the bids for the girls softball
complex was coming in May 16th. Construction on the Lake
Fayetteville pavilion on the southside, the concrete slab has been
poured and are waiting on materials to be delivered on the site.
I am also looking into the possibility of a lease on 10-12 acres of
good level land for a soccer field and softball practice on the
south end of town. It is owned by a private individual and he
approached me that he would be interested in allowing the public to
use the land for that purpose. He would like lease agreement with
the City so that he doesn't occur the liability. He is trying to
get around that.
Driver - Is he not interested in selling the property?
Clark - Not at this time.
Driver - Is he interested in like a 99 year lease or did he give
13 / May 6, 1996
you a number of years?
. Clark - No. Almost on a year to year basis without putting any
facilities. Putting in a portable back stop and drawing lines on
the field for soccer. It sounds like it has some merit. This is
on the south side of town.
Waite - Keep exploring if it could be a longer duration.
Clark - I met with a property owner that owns land near one of the
Parks that we were interested in purchasing. So I am proceeding
with that, appraising the land. We might bring to you some kind of
dedication.
James - Someone mentioned that we might go to Lake Sequoyah on our
next Park tour on the June 12th date. Is that still good?
Waite - Is that still on the calendar, Kim?
Orzek - Yes.
Dugwyler - June 12th? Yes, 5:30 to 8:30. I think we need to spend
time out at the green space Parks and if we have time then go to
Lake Sequoyah.
Driver - Which green space Parks?
Dugwyler - I don't have any on the top of my head, but there are
several.
Waite - I feel that we need to go see Sequoyah too. It has been a
long time since I have been there myself.
James - There has been some articles in the newspaper about Lake
Sequoyah. It has those people a bit concerned. What are we trying
• to do, etc. I don't have a lot to tell them. I would like to get
out there as soon as we could and take a look at it and get
something done.
Waite - So it is on the calendar?
Clark - It is still on.
Dugwyler - I haven't heard about the Lake Sequoyah plan.
James - We mentioned it in the back of the bus, so you most likely
didn't hear that conversation.
Dugwyler - Okay.
Waite - If there is no other business, the meeting is adjourned.
Adjourned 7:15 pm
• 14 / May 6, 1996
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