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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06/14/2005 Adjourned Meeting169 ADJOURNED MEETING JUNE 14, 2005 - 7:30 A.M. - 9:00 A.M. YAKIMA CONVENTION CENTER - ROOMS A & B 1. Roll Cali Present: Council: Staff: Absent: Mayor Paul George, presiding, Council Members Ron Bonlender, Neil McClure, Mary Place, Bernard Sims, and Susan Whitman (after 8:45 a.m.) City Manager Zais and Acting City Clerk Watkins Council Member Edler (excused) 2. Study Session regarding report from Parks and Recreation on options for future aquatics facility Mayor George opened the study session and introduced Denise Nichols, Parks and Recreation Manager. Mrs. Nichols outlined the goals of the session as: 1. Share information on what other cities are doing in the area of aquatics. 2. Give an update on status of the summer pools. 3. Encourage dialogue on the future direction of aquatics in Yakima. In a Power Point presentation, various cities' aquatic facilities were shown. Kennewick, Washington has three aquatic playgrounds, with 28 features in an 1800 square foot area. It is fully computerized and is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Memorial Day through September. It is very well used and cost efficient having become a destination park. Also shown was the facility in Auburn. It has been operational for about a year and their parks director says it is the best thing that ever happened to their park system. They spent approximately $165,000, for a 60' x 80' facility. They spent an additional $30,000 to install two tanks to re -circulate water for nighttime irrigation in their parks and feel they have had their investment returned by doing that. Water usage and costs are dependent on the number of features and how long the water cycles are on when hooked into the city water system. Each feature is rated by gallon per minute. Every city they talked to has put these in as an alternative when closing the wading or swimming pools and have saved enough money by closing their pools, that they weren't concerned about their water usage. It is much cheaper to operate than the pool. Mrs. Nichols noted that a re -circulating system doubles the installation cost and of the eight cities she spoke with, none have opted for a re -circulating system. The presentation then covered some of the elements that we asked to be included in the design for Yakima; 60' diameter, approximately 2800 sq ft with 24 activity zones. The target price for installation and construction was $125,000. The Moses Lake facility was shown next. It is a very successful outdoor aquatics center consisting of a sand area, a 50 meter pool, water slides, diving boards, and drop slides. It has green space incorporated into the park. It was built in 1994 for a cost of $2.8 million. They used councilmatic bonds with payback from general fund sales tax. Moses Lake does not have a full time dedicated aquatic staff on duty. They have a recreation supervisor that takes on the swimming pool in the summer time and hires 80 to 90 life 170 JUNE 14, 2005 — ADJOURNED MEETING guards and pool staff to work the summer months. The attendance went from 18,000 swimmers in the summer months to 140,000 swimmers once they opened and has maintained that level ever since. Next shown was the North Clakamus Aquatics Center, an indoor center. It is about ten years old and cost $7.3 million to construct. It has five pool areas, a drop slide, a meter diving board, a 25 yard lap pool, a wading pool, two water slides, one open and one enclosed water slide, a tot area, a wave pool and a number of amenities adjacent to the swimming pool such as a Jacuzzi hot tub, locker rooms, child care playroom and four community center rooms. Water play toys are unsupervised, unstaffed, have no standing water and are very safe. In speaking with the other cities, there have been no problems with injuries. The concrete is not slippery as they use a special texture. Maintenance goes in once a day in the evening, washes them down and takes out any debris that fell into the play area. They are winterized like an irrigation system. They are free to the public. Following the Power Point presentation, Mrs. Nichols updated the status of the closing of Miller Pool. Huibregtse Louman is currently in the process of preparing the bid package. The earliest estimated completion date of the project is the first of October. Layouts of the planned new basketball courts were distributed. There has been some interest raised about a second water play toy area and it has been suggested that Miller Park be considered for the second site. There is concern about the lack of green space at Miller Park. Council Member Place noted that there are some vacant lots nearby and could we look into purchasing those. Council Member McClure emphatically spoke about the desire to serve the Miller Park area with aquatics. He disagreed with Randall Park as the second site rather than Miller. Mrs. Nichols spoke to Randall Park as a location for a second water spray toy site noting that we are also taking out a pool on the west side with Eisenhower being closed. Randall Park is a heavily used park and its very passive in nature in the upper part. There also is a parking lot. Water spray toy locations become a destination site; people tend to drive to these from other locations. It is their recommendation that if there is a second site, it would be at Randall Park. Mayor George asked about the possibility of working out a deal with the school district and putting a spray toy facility at the Barge Lincoln School. Council Member Bonlender suggested a linear facility might work at Miller if space is limited. Discussion then turned to the status of the repairs at Franklin pool. Budgeted repairs were $25,000 for a major crack down the center of the main tank and also repairs to the slide structure. Those are completed. Two weeks ago a major water leak was discovered as a result of a meter read. This resultedin a $70,000 water bill based on consumption. It required a contractor coming in to re -pipe and re -plumb. Even after receiving a discount on the water bill, they ended up with approximately $47,000 in unanticipated costs. Council Member Sims requested this be brought back to a Council meeting for approval of the expense. Council Member McClure brought up the cost of purchasing and installing the play toys and mulled over the idea of more, smaller locations in the city. He spoke about the potential opportunity of having service clubs or citizens help contribute to construction costs. He is anxious to see these facilities come to fruition soon, not three to four years from now. 2 JUNE 14, 2005 — ADJOURNED MEETING 1.71 Mrs. Nichols then brought up challenges when considering building an outdoor and/or indoor aquatics center. We do not have any vacant park property other than five undeveloped acres at Randall Park. If we were to build one, we would need a minimum of five acres, preferably ten. The financing of one is another item needing discussion. Either outdoor or indoor there are a number of options to look at for financing. City Manager Zais addressed Public Facilities District dollars if this were to become a regional project. The PFD has other tax options available to them under state statute. To build an aquatics center, indoor or outdoor, will require a lot of participants to bring it together. It was his suggestion to make a presentation to the PFD about this idea and concepts. He also recommended the formation of a committee that would include potential partners to be involved in the analysis. Others that would be invited into a partnership with the PFD would be the school districts, the YMCA, the community college, and the Yakima Athletic Club. He suggested Council Members McClure and Edler, or possibly Bonlender, co-chair the committee. Working together, this could generate a clear roadmap on how to get this done. They could choose between an indoor and outdoor facility. That would initiate other evaluations needed on the remaining pools. Mrs. Nichols described how the city of Boise entered into an agreement with their YMCA to develop a community aquatics center attached to their YMCA. The advantage to the city was they had no ongoing operation costs as the YMCA assumed fiduciary control of the facility. At this point, Mrs. Nichols reviewed the planned activities for the pools this summer. Washington and Franklin pools will open June 17th. She spoke about the free transit passes and the marketing materials that have gone out. She said they hope to come back during the budget process with a policy issue to retain a consultant to guide them in the feasibility of an aquatics facility. That is expected to cost to be between $50-$100,000 Council Member McClure questioned whether they should ask staff to look into creating a plan to install two or three locations with water spray toys this year. Council Member Sims suggested that staff should bring options and alternatives for other activities than just a nine week swimming period. He would like to see a variety of different options supporting recreation programs for kids throughout the year rather than just the summer months. It was the consensus of Council to get the committee established to start researching the options. 3. Audience Comments (8:45 a.m. — 9:00 a.m.) Alonzo Marquez, 613 North 3rd Street, claimed, by closing pools on the east side of the city, this is all discriminatory and dishonest. Dave Roberts, 4206 West Lincoln Avenue, is the pastor of The First Baptist Church. He said he doesn't see middle and high school kids using a spray park. He also questioned how kids can learn to swim without pools. Mike Murphy, 4411 Snow Mountain Road, expressed concern about the closure of the pools on the east side and the potential of an increase in crime and drownings. Maud Scott read a letter from Russell Montiero who expressed disappointment with the Council meeting times and with the pool closures. He suggested the pools be left open until there is an aquatics center. He requested that spray toys not be put in. 172 JUNE 14, 2005 — ADJOURNED MEETING Leni Skarin, 213 South 28th Avenue, spoke as a member of the Budget Strategy Team. She said the city spends about $45 a year per citizen on parks. And it has to be kept in mind that there are budget concerns when you want everything. One suggestion of the BST is to look at regionalization as consolidation and sharing resources and costs is beneficial. Parks in high family population areas need attention paid to them and we should keep track of what kids are doing year-round so we can supply the right kind of facilities. She pointed out that it is not just the southeast and northeast areas of Yakima that have heavy family populations, but north central Yakima is an area that has a lot of difficulty with finding green space as well. Bob Busse, Parks Commission, gave some history of issues over his 25 years on the commission. In 1980 they voted to close the old Lions pool because the roof was falling in. Over the years they have discussed closing pools, the problems with them, boilers, pipes, water costs, etc. yet they have kept them open. He applauds the Council and the Commission for recognizing that we need to do something. He agreed with the need for more water toys. He also agreed that spray toys are for the younger kids so what do we do with kids from twelve on up. Speaking for the Commission he said, let's provide something for everyone with the money we're saving. Mike Gulick, Executive Director of the YMCA, said they are interested in being a part of the committee. Russ Kelly who lives by Franklin Park said an aquatics center needs to be seriously looked at as a way of bringing in people from outside of Yakima. He likes the outdoor aquatics center in Moses Lake with water slides as that would be a great place for teenagers and it could also be used to hold swim meets. Mayor George thanked everyone for coming and said that we would be establishing an Aquatic Advisory Committee. He expected they would hold sessions around the city to get input from all segments of the community. 4. Adjournment r Mayor George adjourned the meeting at 9:0,8 READ AND CERTIFIED ACCURATE BY ATTEST: ACTING CITY CLERK DATE ATE PAUL P. GEORGE, MAYOR Minutes prepared by Linda Watkins. An audio and video tape of this meeting are available in the City Clerk's Office 4