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Park Board Minutes - 03/26/2009Wichita Falls Park Board Meeting March 26, 2009 W.F. Recreation Center Room 202, second floor of the Library 60011"' Street 1:30 P.M. Presiding: Alan Donaldson /Chairperson Members Present: Alan Donaldson, Elmer Emory, Sharon Roach, Penny Miller, Peg Marquardt, Ben (Chip) Filer, John Hirschi, Robert Riddle, Stephen Priester and Stephen Garner Members Absent: Mary Ward Staff Present: Jack Murphy and Genice Wilson City Council Representative: Jim Ginnings CALL TO ORDER: Meeting was called to order at 1:20 p.m. The minutes of February 26, 2009 were put before the Board. Penny Miller made the motion to accept the minutes. Elmer Emory seconded the motion. Approved unanimously. DEPARTMENTAL REPORT: 1. The federal economic stimulus project with TXDOT to complete the 2.6 mile Holliday Creek Trail from Scott Street to Hamilton Park is in the works. The City will be paying for the engineering part of the project which will be around 3 hundred thousand dollars. Total project will be between $2.5m to $3m dollars. If all goes well this trail section could be completed in 14 months. The money the City saves on this project will likely go toward other trail projects. 2. The slab for the new Sports Complex maintenance barn was placed this morning. 3. The Softball Complex Spring /Summer league started March 23ro. 4. The first City adult volleyball league will start April a at the new Scotland Park Elementary school gym. Nine teams sign up. 5. This Fall the Jefferson Elementary school gym will be finished. 6. In other projects, the Parks Department finished transplanting all the trees from our nursery to replace the approximately 250 trees that have died. 7. We are hoping to finish landscaping the Flyover area as soon as TXDOT finishes the north to west ramp, which, is under construction. With that finished, Parks hopes to cover one of the traffic control cabinets in that interchange. NEW BUSINESS: 1. Request by University Kiwanis Club for matching funds for bleacher covers at ball fields in University Kiwanis Park license to the YMCA. Staff recommends approval. Penny Miller made the motion to recommend approval for spending the $7,000 for the bleacher covers at the University Kiwanis Park from the special University Kiwanis Park revenue account. Peg Marquardt seconded the motion. Approved unanimously. OLD BUSINESS: 1. Report of Park Improvement Committee. The committee did not have a meeting in March. Jack Murphy informed the Board that there was a request for a park at the recent Mayor's Town Hall meeting at Fowler Elementary. It was nice to be up to date and tell them that the committee had taken a tour of the area between Gregg Road and Sisk Road for a possible park. We are looking for ways to acquire this property. Dave Clark and staff are looking at this site identifying geographic areas and property lines. The next meeting we might look at other parts of the City that we think need parks. Jack Murphy suggested taking a tour of the 80 acre Burns place now that the City has acquired it. On eastside it was the goal of the Park Improvement Committee tour to try to see if land becoming available due to flooding two years ago could be consolidated in a way for it to become useful for parks. The City is moving on that, it appears that the City will be acquiring a couple more houses that may expand Lincoln Park. There is a church that had damage from flooding adjacent to Spudder Park and the logic is that if the church decided to abandon its property the City might be interested in acquiring it to round off Spudder Park making the park more accessible. The Lake Wichita boundary survey project should be finished this summer. The Lake Wichita Committee will be interested in the results. A tour for the Board was suggested. 2. Report of the Lake Wichita Committee. Robert Riddle is chairman of that committee. Mr. Riddle wants to set up a meeting of the committee, maybe April 1 in the afternoon. Elmor Emory recommended to the Lake Wichita Committee to check into acquiring the land across from the State Hospital down by the Lake. There was a detailed discussion about this property and why the Board thinks it would be a must to acquire. A motion was made by Ben (Chip) Filer to recommend to the City to figure out what it would take to move forward on buying this land located by the lake across from the State Hospital. Peg Marquardt seconded the motion and it was approved. Robert also made the board aware of the use of different web sites to get information from the citizens about what they want done with Lake Wichita. It was also suggested maybe town hall type meetings. Jim Ginnings let the Board know that there would be a town hall meeting on June 9 at the Heritage Assembly of God on Southwest Parkway at 7:00 pm. 3. Report of draft rental agreement of the two Disc Golf Courses and the Skate Park. Input received from a potential commercial renter. Jack Murphy will present a final draft to the Board. 4. Discussion regarding the benefits of using various internet web sites for communicating with the public on park and recreation projects. Alan Donaldson spoke with Steve Tucker of Hirschi High School. He seems to think the students would be interested in doing a web page for us. The Board needs to present this to the students the first of the school year in the Fall for a My Page video of the Parks. This should be added to the agenda for the next couple of meetings. OTHER: Alan Donaldson and his store did a park clean up at Kiwanis Park two weeks ago. He would love to see covers on the trash cans. The Master Naturalist picked up around the Plum Lake after the Kid's Fishing Rodeo. ADJOURNMENT: Meeting was adjourned at 2:40 p.m. Signature: Alan Donaldson /Chairperson RECE! v CIT`t °;L'_­.r:f°, :; OFFICE Date mqlwff� &O