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Minutes 11-26-01 MINUTES OF THE RECREATION AND PARKS BOARD MEETING HELD IN CONFERENCE ROOM "C", WEST WING, CITY HALL, BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA ON MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2001 AT 7:00 P.M. Present Betty Thomas, Chairperson Wally Majors, Recreation Director James McMahon, Vice Chair John Wildner, Parks Director Ed Harris Elizabeth Pierce Tom Williams Dan Winters Margaret Murphy, Alternate William Orlove, Alternate Absent Bali Ramnarace I. CALL TO ORDER Chairperson Thomas called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. I1. ATTENDANCE Chairperson Thomas called the roll. II1. MIN UTES APPROVAL - OCTOBER 25, 2001 Mr. Majors suggested a change to the minutes. On page 2, third paragraph, the last sentence should indicate that since 1993 the City excluded (text said "included") all revenue-generated programs from (text said "in") the General Fund and requested that they be self-sustaining. Chair Thomas stated that the minutes would be accepted as amended. IV. UNFINISHED BUSINESS A. NEEDS Assessment The Board spent most of its meeting reviewing and making recommendations for revisions to the NEEDS Assessment. This was a product of Dr. Ananda Mitra of Management Learning Laboratories, a consultant retained by the City to assess the recreation and park needs for the Ci~ of Boynton Beach. The survey is four pages long and asks detailed questions about preferences for recreation and parks. Mr. Majors indicated that it would be sent to 3,000 homes in Boynton Beach, with another 2,000 going to the western region. Meeting Minutes Recreation & Parks Board Boynton Beach, Florida November 26, 2001 Mr. Winters asked Mr. Majors if the City had gotten feedback from other cities before procuring Dr. Mitra's services. Mr. Majors responded that they had and that all the feedback had been very positive. After much discussion, the Board agreed to retain the order of pages in the four-page survey submitted by the consultant. Motion Mr. Harris moved to keep the order of the survey pages except that the General Information page should come last. The motion was seconded and in the discussion that ensued, it was determined that what Mr. Harris had proposed was in fact the order in which the consultant had provided the survey and Mr. Majors had changed the order before giving it to the Board members for their rewew. Mr. Harris withdrew this motion and made another one. Motion Mr. Harris moved to keep the order of the pages in the same sequence as when the consultant gave it to Mr. Majors which was 1) Recreation Interests, 2) Time & Attendance, 3) Information About Parks and Recreation Opportunities, and 4) General Information. Mr. Winters seconded the motion that passed unanimously. The consultant provided two letters to be sent out. The first was a cover letter from the City to the survey participants. The second was a follow-up letter, encouraging the recipients to fill out and return the survey. It was generally felt that the letters should be visually appealing, with a header such as "WE NEED YOUR HELP", and at least be reviewed by someone with a knowledge of promotion and publicity. The Board suggested that the number to call the consultant in the initial letter should be an 800 number. Also on the initial letter, the Board suggested that Management Learning Laboratories be spelled out rather than MML. The following detailed changes were made to the survey text: 1) On the Recreation Interests Page, Add "holiday parties" to example next to Family Programs 2) Change athletic fields to multi-purpose fields 3) Change basketball fields to basketball courts 4) Change bicycle track to bicycle trail 5) Add "of local attractions" to Tours 6) Add a question about singles events 7) On the Time and Attendance Page, use Meadows Park in place of Forest Hill Park 8) Add "playground" after Kid's Kingdom 9) Make Pools a separate line item instead of Beaches and Pools on same line 10) On the Information About Parks & Recreation Opportunities page, change "Computerized information about the city" to Intemet or web site based 2 Meeting Minutes Recreation & Parks Board Boynton Beach, Florida November 26, 2001 11) On the General Information page, for the question "How many adults, including yourself, age 19 and above, currently live in your household?" add a "zero" category. 12) Add a #4 for widowed as a category on same page 13) Add 5) Multi-ethnic after the Asian category On various pages the Board felt that the text should read "Please circle" instead of "Please indicate" or "Please indicating by circling." The Board realized that some of these changes might not be possible since Dr. Mitra might have a computer program with fixed parameters, but the above represents their opinions and requests. Mr. Majors and Mr. Wildner will work on a map that will be on the back of the cover letter. Ms. Murphy shared the opinions of the Community Relations Board, the Advisory Board on Children & Youth, the Senior Advisory Board, and the Neighborhood Specialist representative that the survey was too lengthy and that people would be unlikely to fill it out and retum it. People of all ages were in attendance at the Advisory Boards Forum where Ms. Murphy shared the draft needs assessment and got this opinion. There was some feeling on the Board that the survey was quite wordy but the consensus seemed to be that the survey would be filled out and returned by the people who really had an interest in and/or need for recreation and parks. The survey author expects a 10-20% return rate. Mr. Majors stated that Dr. Mitra's average survey is four pages in length. The Board noted that there did not seem to be many programs for singles in the City. Ms. Pierce stated that the Amedcan Lung Association makes a lot of money on a fund- raiser they have, charging $25.00 per person, where s~ngles meet and mingle and the event is always completely booked. Mr. Wildner echoed this comment, saying that several people had asked him about it. He was surprised that there was no question about this in the survey. Mr. Majors advised that the cover letter for the survey would be given to Chair Thomas to sign when it had been amended and the members agreed. Chair Thomas suggested that the other agenda items be deferred until the January meeting, unless there was an urgent need for discussion. B) Monthly Report Mr. Majors mentioned that the Season of Peace would begin with a tree-lighting ceremony in front of the Schoolhouse Museum on December 1 at 6:30 p.m. Also, the Holiday Parade will be on Saturday, December 8, 2001 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. and will beg~n on S.W. 12th Avenue at Federal Highway, traveling north to Ocean Avenue and disbanding at S.E. 4th Street. There will be a special Holiday concert on Friday, December 21,2001 at 6:00 - 9:00 p.m. at Mangrove Walk at the Manna on the extreme easterly end of Boynton Beach Boulevard. Meeting Minutes Recreation & Parks Board Boynton Beach, Florida November 26, 2001 V, NEW BUSINESS A. Barton Memorial Park Recreational Trail - A Greenways Expansion Project Mr. Wildner re[~orted that his department was applying for a Greenways and Trails State grant for this project. He referred back-to the Palmetto Greens Park Expansion, a linear park along the southern part of the C-16 canal. The current grant would be to extend that park south through Barton Memorial Park, which is to the south of the C-16 canal, close to 1-95. There would be a new bikeway extending past Seacrest Boulevard, west to 1-95, linking up with another trail that leads south, parallel to 1-95, as far as Galaxy School. At Barton Memorial Cemetery an educational kiosk is planned describing the historical value of the cemetery. Although the City did not sell plots for it, the citizens began to bury people there many years ago. A new fence would be erected to define and enhance the cemetery. To the south, the bikeway goes through a natural scrub area where another educational kiosk would detail the native plant materials in the area. Chair Thomas remarked that the City would not have to research the scrub area educational exhibit because the Galaxy School children had already researched it and prepared a notebook, photographs, and a tape. Chair Thomas offered to deliver the material to Ms. Debbie Majors. Mr. Williams noted that the area just to the south of Barton Memorial Cemetery had been a dump for many years. Mr. Wildner spoke of an oral history project that Reverend Lee and Sam Kendrick had been involved with in the past where the young people each took a person who had been buried at Barton Memorial Cemetery and gave a presentation about his or her life. Mr. Wildner was trying to obtain a copy of it and it was suggested that Ms. Blanche Girtman or Mrs. Ods Walker might have a copy. Ms. Pierce inquired about the possibility of obtaining another Greenways and Trails grant for the area over by Mangrove Walk at the Marina and Mr. Wildner thought that this would definitely be possible. The City Manager has requested that the Recreation & Parks Department aggressively pursue grants, since most of the grants have 50/50 funding and can double the City's ability to fund such projects. A grant for the area Ms. Pierce mentioned would be to extend the Mangrove Walk to the Intracoastal Waterway and have it go north and link with Mangrove Park, the boardwalk to the north of Mangrove Walk at the Marina. Motion Mr. Williams moved to approve the grant request for a Barton Memorial Park Recreational Trail, a Greenways Expansion Project. The motion was duly seconded and carried unanimously. B) December Meeting After discussion, the following motion was made. Meeting Minutes Recreation & Parks Board Boynton Beach, Florida November 26, 2001 Motion Mr. Odove moved to suspend the December meeting and consider the annual Board dinner as the December meeting. He further moved to have a regular meeting in January 2002. Mr. Williams seconded the motion that carried unanimously. The January 28, 2002 meeting will probably be at the Senior Center as Conference Room "C", the usual meeting place, will not be available. The Recreation and Parks Department will advise the Board members of the place prior to the meeting. VI. OTHER Ms. Murphy commented that there had been several critical comments about the appearance of the Intracoastal Park site at the Advisory Board Forum recently. Mr. Wildner explained that part of the delay in this project had been due to conflicting ideas for how to use the park, all of which had been settled several months ago. In the meantime, when the area formerly known as "Pond B" was being built, permission was given to spread the earth excavated from it over several projects. The contractor and the Utility Department determined that this site was the most convenient location and put all of the earth on this one site. The Utility Department wanted to level it but the South Florida Water Management District, on a flyover, determined that there was some sort of building going on and cited the City for not having a permit for the work. The City applied for a permit to level the property and the request was denied. The SFWMD said they wanted a permanent disposition for the site. Before the City can apply for that, the plans have to be finished, and they expect to submit them to the City by December 31. The City Commission will approve the plans in January and after that, they can apply for a permit and begin the construction process. Ms. Murphy also commented on the idea of a tennis program for the youth and was told that such a program already exists in the school after-care program. The boat launching fees were discussed. Mr. Wildner related that the biggest problem was the number of families who had multiple vehicles pulling a trailer to launch the boats. Ms. Pierce thought the registration sticker should be applied to the trailer because regardless of how many people might launch a boat, each would probably be using only one trailer. VII, ADJOURNMENT There being no further business to come before the Board, the meeting was duly adjourned at 9:00 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Susan Collins Recording Secretary (two tapes) (11/30/0 ~)