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Park Board Minutes - 01/23/2003Wichita Falls Park Board Meeting January 23, 2003 Municipal Auditorium City Council Conference Room 1:37 p.m. Presiding: Gary Patrick/Chairperson CITY CLERK'S OFFICE Date (r By Timed Members Present: Gary Patrick, Al Norris, Mark Howell, William Barnes, Kenny Haney, Elmer Emory, Steve Chaney and Brett Lee. Members Absent: Matthew Bohlen, Ed Godsey and Walter Tyndale Staff Present: Jack Murphy and Genice Wilson City Council Representative: Johnny Burns CALL TO ORDER: Meeting was called to order at 1:39 p.m. The nominating committee, consisting of Al Norris and Mark Howell, placed the nominations before the board. The nomination for Chairperson was Gary Patrick, for Vice Chairperson Kenny Haney and for Secretary Mark Howell. Mr. Patrick asks if there were any more nominations and there were none. The motion was made to accept the nominations and approved. The new member, Brett Lee, was introduced to the board and members of the board introduced themselves and told a little of what they do. The minutes of December 5 meeting were put before the board and Mark Howell moved to accept the minutes. Elmer Emory seconded the motion. Approved unanimously. DEPARTMENTAL REPORT: The City has been awarded the Texas Recreation and Parks Society (TRAPS) annual meeting in March of 2004. We have not held this meeting before and we expect 400 to 600 people to attend. As we get it a little more organized we will be getting with the board to see what type of assistance they could possibly provide. We have a very small staff for our size city and will be calling on other cities in our region to assist in putting this on. We have a commitment from CVB to help out as they can. The Trail construction on Holliday Creek under Old Lake Road is ahead of schedule. Hopefully it will be completed before summer. We had a pre -bid opening meeting today (Thursday, January 23) for the Wood Memorial Park Pond project. The 4B Sales Tax board has approved funding for a 600 -foot concrete wall on the north bank to help stabilize this area. We have completed planting all the replacement trees in parks and medians. We will hopefully start planting 526 trees along the newly constructed part of Kell Freeway on January 24h. Another of our tree planting projects is the downtown sidewalk tree - planting program. This is where the City has a signed agreement with the adjacent property owner to maintain the trees once they have been planted. We were not able to plant new trees at the Weeks Golf Course this year but did plant about 30 replacement trees. We are planting new trees at the Kickapoo Airport entrance. The Parks and Recreation Department acquired about 35 grass carp to put in the Lake Wichita Park Pond. These fish will eat the excessive vegetation in the pond and make room for other fish. These are sterile fish and will not reproduce. The gateway sign on Hwy 287 is progressing. TEX -DOT is very close to completing an agreement that the City and TEX -DOT will sign. Once this is accomplished they will go to bid and build the retaining wall. Hopefully this will be completed this summer. The City of Wichita Falls has now signed a lease with Wild Bird Rescue to lease a portion of the property on Shoreline Drive off Lake Wichita at the old boat club. The Hill project is on hold until more dirt is available. Computerized pictures of what we hope the hill will eventually look like were given to each member and discussed at the meeting. Our biggest problem right now is controlling erosion. Mark Howell wanted to know if there was any plan in the near future to control the erosion problem along the shoreline. Mr. Murphy stated that there is a plan by the City to place boulders along the shoreline to control erosion. Al Norris asked if we have received bids on flowers? Mr. Murphy said, "Yes, we went to council and the bid was awarded to Berend Brothers and Smith Garden Town." OLD BUSINESS: A. Discussion of a proposed ordinance revision to allow issuance of permits for vehicles on parkland, signs, and alcoholic beverages. These ordinances are frequently waived from time to time. There was a discussion on giving the Director of Parks authority to waive these ordinances without the park board having to vote on each one. Mr. Murphy is to do some more work on this and then bring it back to the board. NEW BUSINESS: A. Presentation of sketch of development of the hill in Lake Wichita Park. This was presented and discussed in the departmental report. B. Request by the CV13 for waiver of Sec. 82 -68 of the Code of ordinances to permit alcoholic beverages in Lucy Park during a convention event July 20 — 25, 2003. This is a firefighters statewide convention and the staff recommends full approval. The event will be held primarily in the center area of Lucy Park and around the log cabin. Kenny Haney made the I motion to table this request until February because the board needs to know exactly how many days they will be having alcoholic beverage in the park. Mark Howell seconded the motion and it was approved. OTHER: Willliam Barnes wanted to know about the property at Lake Wichita, that the Board has showed interest in. He wanted to know if the property owner's land went all the way to the Lake? The City already owns everything inside the berm. Mr. Patrick ask Johnny Burns if there was any way to get around the problems we are having in purchasing land at the Lake. Johnny suggested we form a committee within the group and find out why the property owner will not sell. A committee was formed which includes Kenny Haney, William Barnes and Gary Patrick. Kenny Haney gave the Park Board an update on where the Skate Park is and how it is going. ADJOURNMENT: THERE BEING NO FURTHER BUSINESS, THE MEETING WAS ADJOURNED AT 3:25 p.m.