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PARKS & RECREATION BOARD 2018/09/18 MinutesThe City of Lake Forest Parks and Recreation Board Meeting Minutes September 18, 2018 I. Call to Order The Parks and Recreation Board Meeting was called to order by Chairman Charlie Kohlmeyer at 6:30p.m. The following were present: Board Members: Mr. Charlie Kohlmeyer Mr. Paul Best Mr. Rich Adams Ms. Nancy Duffy Mr. Rich Adams Ms. Shannon Maguire Mr. William Zordani, Student Staff: Ms. Sally Swarthout, Director of Parks and Recreation Mr. Joe Mobile, Superintendent of Recreation Mr. Chuck Myers, Superintendent of Recreation Ms. Dani Spann, Administrative Assistant Mr. John Eldridge, Program Manager Mr. Vince Juarez, General Manager Kemper Sports Mr. Jason Busdeker, Facility Manager Mr. Anthony Anaszewicz, Athletics Program Manager Mr. Aaron Dalzot, Lakefront Program Manager II. Approval of Minutes Meeting minutes of the August 21, 2018 Park & Recreation Board & Friends of Lake Forest Parks and Recreation Foundation Joint Workshop Meeting were presented and approved. Board member Best motioned for approval of the minutes and Board member Adams seconded. The minutes were then unanimously approved. III. Opportunities for the Public to Address the Board on Items not listed on the Agenda No comments IV. After School Enrichment Spotlight Program Manager John Eldridge talked about the new after school enrichment program now being offered at Everett Elementary School. This new program was created in the fall of 2018 after a visioning session showed a community interest in programming after school for children of dual working parents. There are currently 16 children enrolled and this program is open to anyone in the community. Mr. Eldridge went over the Mission and Core Values for the enrichment program. They aspire to promote autonomy and independence in the children. The staff are very qualified with over 50 years of combined ECE programming experience working with children and within the Recreation Center programs. Mr. Eldridge talked about the program structure including daily hours after school until 6pm and different themes for each day focusing on specific core subjects like Science, Cooking or Woodworking. There is also time set aside for the children to complete homework, read silently or join in free play. He touched on what will be offered on days there is no school and children will attend all day. They are excited to offer special field trips and special events during these days off from school. Some of the field trips include Shedd Aquarium, Field Museum and a trip to Apple Holler. Currently, there is bussing transportation set up with District 67 for Cherokee students. Some discussion followed on ideas for bussing from the other schools. Board member Duffy mentioned looking into mini busses and Board member Maguire mentioned a possible pick up point at Deerpath Middle School. Chairman Kohlmeyer inquired about the daily fees for the program. Mr. Eldridge replied it is $26.00- $30.00/day depending on how often you are attending. Board member Adams brought up the subject of volunteers helping. V. FY2020 Golf Fees Vince Juarez, Kemper Sports General Manager gave an overview of the FY19 and FY20 golf fees. Utilization increases were considered when figuring the FY20 rates. Beginning golfer numbers are up with an increase in the number of women and junior golfers. The utilization report shows we are almost 100% utilized on weekend mornings. Overall utilization is up 3.2%. with 65.3% utilized on weekend days. Weekday utilization is an average of 49.4%. Deerpath Golf Course is ahead of the local competition in utilization and is showing growth financially. The continuous cart paths have helped with these increases. We are anticipating around 29,000 rounds which is the most rounds seen since FY14. Boardmember Maguire had a question with the fees for Junior 18 holes daily fees and the Junior and Senior membership fees. Mr. Juarez replied they like to keep up with inflation; however, these rates can remain stable if decided by the Board. Brief discussion followed on the fees for lockers and Junior Memberships. Mr. Juarez talked about the various revenue driven outings and clinics held at Deerpath Golf Course. Dynamic pricing will continue to help drive revenue. He talked about ways of controlling costs. Mr. Juarez talked about the sales from food, alcohol and non-alcohol beverages at Forest Park Beach. Alcohol sales were $11,000, beverage sales (non-alcohol) were $10,000 and food sales were over $41,000. There was a total of $65,773 in revenue at the beach. Mr. Juarez went over the KemperSports Net Promoter Scores (NPS) Survey sent out each year. These show an increase from 50.6% last year to 56.4% this year in loyal golfers. The numbers are up and are moving in the right direction. He also touched on the NPS Satisfaction Factors and the TrueReview Summary. We are up to 75.6%, which is an increase from 62.1% in 2016. FY19 is shaping up with revenue growth of 12% with EBITDA growth of $52,234. The overview of FY20 is below: • “Ceiling” increase of 8% to maximum of $81 weekend ($6.00) • “Ceiling” increase of 3% to maximum of $65 weekdays ($2.00) • No change on 18 hole golf cart pricing ($20/person) • Nine hole cart fee increase to $13/per person • Driving range prices from $5/$7/$15 to $6/$8/$15 • Small increase in all membership categories VI. FY2020 Fitness Fees Program Manager Jason Busdeker went over the staff recommended FY20 Fitness Center Fees. They would like to increase all resident and non-resident membership fees by an adjusted 4%. These fees are based on actuals from September 6th. Currently they are showing 685 memberships not including the 58 active Silver Sneakers members. The Fitness Center is projected to show a $9,613 FY20 Revenue increase. These fees were only for discussion so there is no action recommended for the Board at this time. Discussion followed on the increase and how it is applied toward the program in the following year. VII. Permit Fees Discussion-Park Pavilion Rental Fees Program Manager Anthony Anaszewicz gave a brief history of the pavilion rental fee schedule. From 2003-2007 there were no fee increases. In 2007 fees were increased by $25.00 and the Regular vs Not for Profit Classifications was introduced. This classification rented any park pavilion for $25.00 less. In 2009, a new fee structure was introduced with Deerpath, Townline and Northcroft Park having a rental fee of $125.00 and all other parks at $75.00. Not for Profit Groups can rent any park pavilion for $25.00 less. Mr. Anaszewicz went over the purpose of the pavilion rentals to offer Lake Forest residents usage of these facilities for general gatherings, company picnics and special events. He gave a breakdown of the proposed increase in fees. Staff would like to make a couple changes to the current structure. They would like to change the capacity to 1-100 attendees with a fee of $100 and 101-200 attendees will be a fee of $150.00. This is an increase to the current rental fee by $25.00. After some research, we are still within trend and remaining competitive with surrounding communities. Program Manager Aaron Dalzot went over the Lakefront pavilion rentals current fee schedule and the proposed changes. Currently, the pavilions can be rented in four-hour blocks for a fee of $75.00. With the South Pavilion and Boat Pavilion rentals, you receive 10 parking passes, with Fire Circle receiving 5 passes with the option to purchase additional top south parking passes at $5.00 each. Staff would like to propose raising the pavilion rental fee to $100.00 for a four-hour block and raise the additional top south parking passes to $10.00 each. There has not been an increase to these fees since 2009. Mr. Dalzot did a fee comparison with surrounding communities and Lake Forest fees are showing lower than the majority of other communities. VIII. FY2020 Lakefront Fees Program Manager Aaron Dalzot went over the Lakefront permit fees for FY2020. Staff is recommending a 4% increase in resident and non-resident permit fee categories with an exception to the Nanny and Caregiver parking pass, Resident Guest Daily parking pass and the Non-resident Daily Boat Launch. Staff is requesting to raise non-resident walk in fees from $10.00 to $15.00. On weekends and holidays they had 2,414 non-resident guests visit the beach. This increase would keep us competitive with surrounding communities. Discussion followed on the total number of resident vs non-resident guests on the weekends. IX. CIP Discussion Superintendent Chuck Myers and Joe Mobile briefly went over their recommended projects and pricing for discussion and direction from the Park Board on capital expenditures. Superintendent Myers has three projects. The first is the Forest Park boardwalk path extension. Due to the major storm in June, the boardwalk became very unstable with the bluff above failing. On June 26th the boardwalk was closed. Instead of reopening, they are looking at two different concepts. Staff has proposed a first option of an extension to the path to include continuation of a gravel path. This first path is not considered ADA compliant due to the gravel path. A retaining wall will need to be built with this option. The second option includes a concrete sidewalk, which then leads to a wooden boardwalk that would be considered ADA compliant. AECOMM gave their approval of both of these concepts. Small discussion followed on ADA compliancy currently and going forward along with alternate options of a share road with a walking lane. Superintendent Myers went over a project for a West Park sidewalk addition. A few residents have mentioned West Park does not have a lot of sidewalk access. There are four different options adding concrete access to the park. The total amount to complete all four options is $110,000. The four options range from $25,000 to $30,000 each. Board member Maguire brought inquired if the sidewalk paths could be right along the road. Mr. Myers said it would not leave much room to move if left closer to the road. Superintendent Myers talked about the Deerpath Golf Course Bridge near hole 4 needing to be replaced after the damaging impact of the flooding. This project is eligible for the Park and Public Land fund. The bridge was reset last year in hopes to get several more years use, but is still in need of greater improvement. After receiving pricing this is an estimated $75,000 cost to improve the bridge. Superintendent Joe Mobile went over the Open Lands Park project. The Master plan has been designed with the improvements. A community session will be held to view the Master Plan again. This fiscal year there is $200,000 budgeted. We will begin with the park entrance redesign, an interactive fountain, tree removal and invasive plants. Next fiscal year we would like to continue with the remaining improvements to include the pathways, raised planting beds, wooded path build and woodland features with natural play and music play. Brief conversation on the history of the park followed. X. Comments by Director Director Swarthout announced Teri Laurila, the Administrative Assistant at the Recreation Center, will be retiring on September 28th after 20 years with the City of Lake Forest. Director Swarthout gave an update on the North Beach Access Road. This topic came up at a City Council workshop held on capital projects for the upcoming year and near future. Four options for the North Beach access road were presented. • Option 1- Clear the bluff and lower the grade, with the road staying in the same place- $685,000 cost • Option 1A- Continue clearing further to the south- $900,000 cost • Option 3- Soften the road and extend out on the beach with a gentler curb- $1.8 million cost • Option 3A- Removing the land to the south- $1.9 million cost City Council did not decide on an option. They were asked to submit an answer to the City Manager by Monday in time for the Public Works Committee. It was discussed to do as a design build or utilize the current design and bid out the construction. Director Swarthout talked about Kinderhaven and their request to expand in order to help relieve their waitlist. Staff is looking at some options and Ms. Swarthout will give an update on this in the next couple of months. Some of the exciting upcoming events scheduled for September and October are: 1. Oktoberfest – September 22nd from 5:00pm – 10:00pm at parking lot behind City Hall 2. Glow Ball - September 29th starting at 6:30pm at Deerpath Golf Course 3. Family Fun Beach Camp Out- September 29 – September 30th from 5:00pm – 8:00am at Forest Park Beach 4. Art Bash - October 6th from 10:00am - 3:00pm at Stirling Hall Art Center XI. Comments by Board Members No Comments. XII. Adjournment Board member Best motioned for adjournment and Board member Adams seconded. The meeting was adjourned at 9:01pm. Respectfully Submitted Dani Spann Administrative Assistant