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Minutes 08-28-00 MINUTES OF THE RECREATION AND PARKS BOARD MEETING HELD IN CONFERENCE ROOM C, WEST WING, CITY HALL, BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA, ON MONDAY, AUGUST 28, 2000 AT 7:00 P.M. PRESENT Betty Thomas, Chairperson James McMahon, Vice Chair Mike Fitzpatrick Bali Ramnarace Tom Williams Dan Winters Elizabeth Pierce, Alternate ABSENT Ed Harris Charles Jackson, Alternate ALSO PRESENT Wally Majors, Acting Recreation Director John Wildner, Parks Director I. CALL TO ORDER Chairperson Thomas called the meeting to order at 7:02 P.M. II. ATTENDANCE Chairperson Thomas called the roll and a quorum was declared present. III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF JULY 24,2000 MEETING Chairperson Thomas asked if there were any changes, additions or deletions to the minutes. There being none, Chairperson Thomas declared that the minutes would stand as presented. IV. UNFINISHED BUSINESS A. Hester Center Breezeway Enclosure Mr. Majors reported that his department is waiting for the permit to be issued. When it is, some comments are anticipated that will require attention from Mr. DeBeck, and some modifications may need to be made. Once the modifications have been made there will be approximately 120 days for the paperwork to go through, and another 120 days for the actual work itself to be completed. Meeting Minutes Recreation and Parks Board Boynton Beach, Florida August 28, 2000 B. Senior Center Mr. Majors stated that the Senior Center sign had run afoul of the City's newly tightened sign ordinance in that it was too high. Mr. Majors passed around a picture of the sign at Meadows Park on Congress, which was an acceptable height. Chairperson Thomas spoke of the Board's desire to continue working on the Senior Center expansion and the fact that to do so would require funding. Chairperson Thomas read a draft of a letter to Mr. Bressner and the text follows: "Dear Mr. Bressner, Based on our discussion at the last Recreation and Parks Board meeting and your recent visit, we strongly recommend that funding be sought for Phase 2 of the Senior Center. Additiona funding through the grants will increase priority in the CIP process. Thank you for your support and consideration in this matter. Sincerely, Betty Thomas, Chairperson". The Board gave its approval of the letter. Mr. Majors stated that one of the employees in the Recreation Department was charged with the responsibility of looking for grants and funding for the Senior Center on a weekly basis. The Board discussed the ways and means of accomplishing the Senior Center expansion and some "brainstorming" thoughts that came from the Board's discussion were as follows: Is a lobbyist available that could assist to advance the interests of the Senior Center? Begin lobbying effort on the part of Senior Advisory Board members, with their making calls and pursuing funding on their own. Recreation Department offered their van for use in lobbying effort. Inquire as to whether some part of the Senior Center could be eligible for United Way funding. Inquire into possibility of private funding - someone may really like the idea of having their name on the Center. C. Boat Club/Intracoastal Parks Mr. Wildner reported that he, the City Manager, and the Development Director, Quintus Greene, had visited with County Commissioner, Mary McCarty, recently on this issue. Commissioner McCarty was very interested in the timeline on the Boat Club Park improvements, which was given to her. Mr. Wildner continued, saying that on the next City Commission agenda there would be an item, which would give the City Manager authority to negotiate the Master Plan and consultant revision process for this project. There was a compromise that the City Commission made of moving 25 parking spaces from the Intracoastal Park site to the Boat Club Park, so now there will be 75 parking spaces. We did this by putting 50 spaces in the green space to the southern front of the park and another 25 spaces around the semicircle, which extends to the eastern side of the park. We reported that to Commissioner McCarty and she was very pleased and is looking forward to a timeline on the Intracoastal Park site as well. Based on that Intracoastal Park site timeline, she would anticipate that we would be able to recapture the remaining $1.7M. She conveyed that meeting deadlines on the timeline was crucial to the continuance of the grant. Mr. Wildner commented that as long as reasonable progress was being made, this should not be a problem. 2 Meeting Minutes _L _._ Recreation and Parks Board Boynton Beach, Florida August 28, 2000 The usage of the park was discussed and Mr. Wildner said that once Boat Club Park was reopened after the improvements were made, that would be the appropriate time to consider a decal process. He believed that there would probably also be a daily fee. It was thought that a decal process could be done for a modest amount and the daily fee could be monitored on weekends only as there was no problem during the week. It was hoped that the decal, the daily fee, and the additional 75 parking spaces would help to regulate the number of visitors to the Park and keep the boats and trailers off Federal Highway. The grant runs through September of 2001 and the timeline shows completion in the summer or fall of 2001. Chairperson Thomas asked Mr. Wildner if they had received a lot of complaints about the conditions on Federal Highway from the Department of Transportation. Mr. Wildner responded that the complaints had come from the neighborhood people, who were concerned about the safety issue of people dashing across the street without a crosswalk. Mr. Fitzpatrick asked how long the Park must be kept in its current configuration according to the agreement and Mr. Wildner responded, 30 years. Ms. Pierce asked if Mr. Wildner had an answer on whether there would be voting at Boat Club Park or not. Mr. Wildner stated that voting would take place there but that it should not be a problem. Ms. Pierce said she believed that what was set up for voting so far was September 5, October 3, and November 7, 2000, all from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Ms. Pierce also inquired about whether the City was ever going to replace the lighted posts with numbers formerly used in the Park. Mr. Wildner said the City had a separate intedocal agreement with Palm Beach County to assist the City with dredging the channel, which runs from Boat Club Park out through the Intracoastal to the Inlet. Part of that process includes the engineering and placement of those markers. The ones there eroded. The Coast Guard has asked for notification when the dredging has taken place so they can replace the markers. Mr. Wildner stated that the City had applied for a grant from the Florida Inland Navigation District (FIND) to reimburse up to $25,000 for that dredging. Tennis Center (North American Corporate Games, October 26-29, 2000) Mr. Majors reported that at the moment staff was working on the hospitality tent for the games. The City will have a table at a large reception area called the Super Center where all the athletes will be checking in. This table will be the responsibility of Wayne Segal, the City's Director for Promotions and Media. Mr. Majors related that the North American Corporate Games had asked the City for sponsorship in the amount of $10,000 but the City believed this was too much, offering $2,500 instead. This was believed to be sufficient, especially in light of the major improvements that were being made at the Tennis Center. The North American Corporate Games organization has verbally committed that Boynton Beach will be the venue for the 2002 Sunshine State Games Tennis Competition. One of the Recreation Department's long-term goals is to promote more destination type events. Meeting Minutes '-~ Recreation and Parks Board Boynton Beach, Florida August 28, 2000 E. Special Events (TNT Concerts, Holiday Events) Mr. Majors reported that the last TNT Concert had attracted approximately 800 people and continues to draw larger crowds. The City met with the Town Manager of Ocean Ridge, who is allowing some parking for overflow at the beach on the Town Hall site. Mr. Winters asked Mr. Majors if all the TNT concerts were going to be at the beach and he replied that they were searching for alternate sites for the event. Various sites for events were discussed to include the new stormwater cachement area east of Federal Highway and Boynton Beach Boulevard. F. Greenways Network Mr. Fitzpatrick reported that a meeting was set up with the City Manager to determine his views on the Greenways program. Mr. Wildner stated that in a recent meeting with the City Manager the idea of a special taxing district to help cover the Greenways program was discussed and the City Manager was quite enthusiastic about it. It was believed that the western community needed to be involved and that their desire to keep their surrounding areas as natural as possible was in concert with the Greenways program. Chairperson Thomas commended Mike Fitzpatrick on the thorough job he had done on researching the situation and presenting it, believing that because of his work, the idea had a good chance of succeeding. G. Monthly Report Mr. Ramnarace asked Mr. Majors if their Summer Camp program had been profitable. Mr. Majors responded that it was not run with the idea of profit in mind but that they were filled to capacity and they were proud of the fact that they were able to allocate funds up to the full grant amount. He said that next year they would have their new bus and would do even better. They were in the process of getting bids to have the bus painted white and the Board discussed various Iogos that could be put on the side of the bus. Chairperson Thomas remarked that there had been a volunteer recognition night at the Woman's Club recently and that it had been a huge success, with a nice dinner and many awards for the volunteers. She said that this was going to be an annual event. V. NEW BUSINESS 1. Appointment of Permanent Recreation Director Mr. Winters broached the subject of the permanent Recreation Director, recommending that the Board send a letter to the City Manager strongly recommending that Mr. Majors be appointed permanent Recreation Director. After a brief discussion, a motion was made. Motion Mr. Winters made a motion that the Advisory Board on Recreation and Parks send a letter to the City Manager stating that the Recreation and Parks Board highly 4 Meeting Minutes Recreation and Parks Board Boynton Beach, Florida August 28, 2000 recommends the hiring of Mr. Wally Majors for the permanent position of Director of the Recreation Department for the City of Boynton Beach. The motion was seconded and carried unanimously. 2. Cricket Field Mr. Ramnarace thanked Mr, Wildner for his able assistance in bringing the cricket field at Rolling Green School to fruition. Mr. Ramnarace stated that the cricket field was unique in the United States and that he had spent over 600 hours getting the field into playing condition. He was able to get some help recently from the Probation Department who sent someone to work with him. A little more work remains to be done. Mr. Wildner stated that the City had an interlocal agreement with Rolling Green to use the south part of their property for the cricket field. He stated that Mrr Ramnarace had been working on the surface of the playing field and that the irrigation system had not worked for a long time. He stated that the School Board had agreed to fix this. Once that is working the City intends to laser grade the surrounding field around the pitch and lay new sod. Mr. Ramnarace stated that more facilities needed to be provided for adult cricket. Ultimately the field will have to have lighting and this issue will be addressed when the time comes. He said the County accesses the field via a gate and when they do, the field is damaged each time. Mr. Wildner stated he is working with the School Board to move the gate farther to the east to alleviate this problem. Mr. Ramnarace was hoping to get the area businesses to help finance the cricket field ultimately. 1. Sculpture Garden/Art Area on Industrial Avenue Mr. Rick Beaulieu and Mr. Ray Marsakovski were in attendance at the meeting and wished to acquaint the Board members with a project they began two and a half years ago to clean up and beautify Industrial Avenue. They cleaned up and hauled more than sixty trailer loads of trash from the sides of the road, working full time on the project at their own expense. The City cooperated to the extent of providing trailer dumpsters. The business owners graded the area, built it up with fill, erected a new fence, brought in coral sand, palms, palmettos, and began to place some art work along the street. The area has gotten some publicity and recognition from such sources as Associated Press and Gary Schwann from the Palm Beach Post, who likened the area to the Norton Sculpture Gardens, the Boca Raton Art Museum, the Morikami Museum and Eaton Fine Arts. It is basically an outside painting and sculpture exhibit, which now consists of about 70 pieces, which are on display. It is free. It supplies entertainment and education. There is a HeadStart program for young artists who need a place to put their first piece of artwork. They asked for the City's cooperation in the form of a sign that would direct people down the street and make it easier for people to find. Mr. Beaulieu showed them a prototype of a sign. Mr. Wildner suggested using the right-of-way for a City-sponsored sign and making it using the City's sign machine. Mr. Winters stated that Mr. Beaulieu was being much too modest and suggested that the Board meet one half hour early for the next meeting, take a bus and tour the art area on Industrial Avenue, saying that one picture was worth a thousand words. Mr. Winters said that this area was "the best kept secret in Boynton Beach". Mr. Wildner will have 5 Meeting Minutes Recreation and Parks Board Boynton Beach, Florida August 28, 2000 his secretary call the Board members the day before the meeting to remind them of the change in time. VI. NEXT MEETING SEPTEMBER 25, 2000 6:30 P.M. (Tour Prior to Meeting) VII. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was duly adjourned at 8:30 P.M. Respectfully submitted, Susan Collins Recording Secretary (two tapes)