Peoria Standard

City of Carbondale Park District Board met April 13.

Here is the minutes provided by the board:

MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS OF THE CARBONDALE PARK DISTRICT HELD AT 5:30 PM VIA ZOOM ONLINE MEETING. 

ROLL CALL: Upon Roll Call, the following Commissioners’ were present: Adams, Trimble, Flowers, Suarez, and Sergeev. Commissioner Absent: None. Staff present: Renfro, Childers, Day, Montgomery, Anderson, Burns, Melzer and Legal Counsel, Mike Twomey. Staff Absent: None. Guests Present: Some guests were present. 

APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Commissioner Adams made a motion to amend the printed agenda, to add the Strategic Plan to item VII B under unfinished business. It was then seconded by Commissioner Trimble to approve the amended agenda. Upon roll call vote the following Commissioners voted aye: Adams, Trimble, Flowers, Suarez, and Sergeev. Commissioner Absent: None. President Flowers ordered the motion passed. 

ACTION TAKEN: The Agenda was approved with amendment. 

GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS : Commissioners’ stress the importance of the 2020 Census and would like Census information to be mentioned at all advisory meetings. 

CITIZENS COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS : : None. 

REPORTS OF PARK DISTRICT CITIZEN ADVISORY COMMITTEES AND DEPARTMENT REPORTS 

Administration and Finance Advisory Committee - - Commissioner Suarez states that the Administration & Finance Committee reviewed financials at their meeting, Commissioner Suarez also attended the IAPD budgeting webinar that was extremely helpful. 

Child Care Advisory Committee - - Vice-President Sergeev reports the Committee met on April 7th, the committee discussed COVID-19 and Spanish club at KK and yoga at AWECC being moved to the summer. Attendees loved the digital meetings and mentioned that they may be able to attend meetings more regularly if we offered digital options for meetings. 

Golf Advisory Committee - - Commissioner Adams reports that the committee met on April 7th and discussed the slow rise in number of players, women’s league, seasonal plans, and HRGC revenue generated. 

Grounds, Facilities & Recreation Advisory Committee - - Commissioner Trimble reports the committee met on April 6th and discussed permanent structure guidelines, the Food Forest Project was withdrawn by Carbondale Spring, and the grant award for basketball hoops at the Super Splash Park.

Treasurer’s Report: None. 

Directors Report: Director Renfro reports that Work on the OSLAD grant continued in early March. Preliminary plans are being made to create a bid document for the project. Area leaders are meeting by conference call on Mondays and Thursdays. Preliminary conversations with Jackson County indicate the first tax collection in 2020 will be delayed by 30 days and the second payment due sixty days later. The District received personal property replacement tax payment of $19,675.61. There has been some interest expressed in posting the entire Park Board agenda on the web site, is this something you would like the staff to pursue? The District received a tax assessment appeal from the Jackson County Board of Review on January 1, 2019. This was provided in your packet last month. In the past members of the Heads of Government committee have joined forces to explore these appeals as a group. An outside attorney has been engaged, each taxing body contributing a portion of the attorney’s fees. The contribution is calculated on a sliding scale, based on the amount of tax dollars that taxing unit receives. Staff has been working on cash flow projections in the wake of the COVID 19 outbreak. This will be reviewed by the Admin and Finance committee next week. To date the only funding available would be issuance of additional tax warrants. The 2020 budget includes $500,000 in warrants, and additional $300,000 could be bid to cover any short falls resulting from COVID 19. As of April 9,2020, $150,000 worth of Tax warrants have been issued. On March 13, the Governor of Illinois issued a shelter at home order. Effective March 23,2020 full Time Park District staff began to work from home but remain on call to preform essential duties associated with the District. On March23 all Park District facilities were closed to the public. The sports fields, playgrounds, and basketball courts are also closed to the public. Social distancing guidelines and illustrations have been posted on the District’s website and social media pages. 

Superintendents’ Reports: 

SUPERINTENDENT OF RECREATION: Superintendent Childers reports that the Winter/Spring 2020 session 1 programming ended on March 6th. Session 2 was scheduled to begin April 6th but did not. We had 96 registrations for various programs. Summer programming is open online, we currently have 20 registrations. The Life Community Center was sanitized the week of March 15th. The facility is closed. The Aquatics Coordinator is maintaining the pools needs. The Recreation Coordinator is handling phone calls Mon-Fri 84:00. We continue to prepare for Summer. Midwest Pool Management is accepting applications online and interviewing using Zoom. We are not taking any new reservations for athletic fields and shelters. The Annual Egg Hunt has been cancelled. We are encouraging our community to decorate and place Easter eggs in their front windows so families can hunt for eggs in their own neighborhood. The Easter Bunny will be out and about town April 10-11, searching for Easter Eggs in windows. She will post pictures on our Facebook page for all to view. We are also encouraging community members to post pictures of themselves and their families dressed is their Easter attire on the Easter Parade post. Staff remains healthy. We miss seeing our co-workers and patrons, but morale remains high. LIFE Center strong! 

SUPERINTENDENT OF CHILDCARE: Superintendent Burns reports that there are currently 33 children enrolled in the after-school program, March 9-13 was Spring Break for Kids Korner. Children were taken on many field trips this month including Chucky Cheese, Ferne Cliffe State Park, Herrin Park, Fish tales Ceramics, ultimate gymnastics, and swimming at the Life Community Center. Kids Korner closed March 16-31. No report submitted for Alice Wright. 

SUPERINTENDENT OF PARK MAINTENANCE: Superintendent Montgomery reports that Mowing of the parks and trash pickup are being completed routinely mowing has begun in all parks. All playground equipment and basketball courts have been closed. Signs have been installed and caution tape has been put on all entrances. The soccer fields have also been closed. At AWECC a new back door has been delivered to the shop. At Super Splash light bulbs were replaced and conducted minor repairs in the facility. Our Mechanic has been servicing vans and maintenance trucks as well as inspection. 

SUPERINTENDENT OF GOLF MAINTENANCE: Superintendent Anderson reports that March would normally be the beginning of the seasonal part-time labor at the golf course maintenance department however 2020 will not be a usual year. March is when the cool season (green) grass around the golf course is starting to be mowed just like many of your lawns. The warm season (tan) zoysia grass starts later and is usually mowed the 1st or 2nd week of April. These happen in conjunction with putting greens being mowed daily, bunker maintenance, chemical spraying and fertilization, landscape maintenance along with debris cleanup and general course maintenance. A golf course is an extremely hard thing to press pause on at this time of year. Going for more than a week would likely mean damage in the short term and a harder time restoring playing surfaces to normal in the coming months. Fulltime staff has been practicing social distancing and employing increased sanitation. Our revenue generation capacity has decreased to zero and hard choices are being made. Full-time staff is putting off what is possible and trying to keep up with basic maintenance and mowing. Part-time staff has not been recalled for work for now and that will likely be put off until we have a better idea of when and how we will be opening again for business. 

SUPERINTENDENT OF GOLF OPERATIONS: No Report. 

CONSENT AGENDA: It was then moved by Commissioner Trimble and seconded by Commissioner Adams to approve the consent agenda as printed. Upon roll call vote, the following Commissioner voted aye: Adams, Trimble, Flowers, Sergeev and Suarez. Commissioners Absent: None. President Flowers ordered the motion passed. ACTION TAKEN: The consent agenda was approved. 

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

DISCUSSION/APPROVAL SIU WOMENS GOLF INTERGOVERNMENTAL AGREEMENT: 

Staff has reviewed and recommends changes to section 4 regarding the re-evaluation time frame for the fees and adding Hickory Ridge Golf Course as the venue for the life of the Saluki Invitational contract. Commissioners would like the fees to be re-evaluated every 3 years instead of 5. Revise language and send to SIU. It was then moved by Commissioner Adams and seconded by Commissioner Suarez to approve the SIU Women’s Intergovernmental Agreement with said revisions. Upon roll call vote the following Commissioners voted aye: Adams, Trimble, Flowers, Suarez, and Sergeev. Commissioners absent: None. President Flowers ordered the motion passed. 

ACTION TAKEN: SIU Women’s Intergovernmental Agreement was approved with revisions. 

DISCUSSION/ STRATEGIC PLANNING: Surveys are being distributed to all staff, board members, and committee members for input and ideas and discussed further at a future Board Meeting.

ACTION TAKEN: Strategic Planning will be further discussed at a future meeting. 

NEW BUSINESS: DISCUSSION/APPROVAL POLICY MANUAL CHAPTER 4.01 NAMING UNNAMED SITES AND UNNAMED FACILITIES: After some discussion Commissioners decide to have the Ground Facilities & Recreation Committee review and draft a new policy for review at a future meeting. ACTION TAKEN: Grounds Facility & Recreation Committee to review and revise a draft copy of the policy to be reviewed at a future Board Meeting.

 DISCUSSION/APPROVAL OF CITIZENS ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING GUIDELINES FOR MAY 2020: After much discussion Commissioners decided that it is important for Advisory Committee’s to continue to meet via the Zoom portal in order to continue to discuss and plan for the coming months. 

ITEMS FOR FUTURE AGENDAS 

1. Strategic Planning : 

2. Asaturian-Eaton & Associates Contract 

3. Policy Manual 

BOARD COMMENTS ADJOURNMENT: : None. 

There being no further business it was moved by Commissioner Trimble and seconded by Commissioner Suarez to adjourn the meeting. Upon roll call, the following commissioners voted aye: Adams, Suarez, Trimble, Sergeev, and Flowers. Commissioners Absent: None. President Flowers ordered the motion passed. The meeting adjourned at 7:28 p.m. 4

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