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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06/27/2013 PRC MinutesCITY OF DIAMOND BAR MINUTES OF THE PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION DIAMOND BAR CITY HALL - THE WINDMILL ROOM 21810.. CAP_LEY. DRIVE, -DIAMOND BAR, .CA _91765. JUNE 27, 2013 CALL TO ORDER: - Chair/Grundy called the Parks and Recreation Commission meeting to order at 7:01 _ p.m. in the City ball Windmill Room, 21810 Copley Drive, Diamond Bar, CA 91765. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Vice Chairman Owens led the Pledge of Allegiance. ROLL CALL: Present: Commissioner Lew Herndon, Dave Roberto, Vice Chairman Ted Owens, Chairman Dave Grundy. Absent: Commissioner Benny Liang was excused. Staff Present: Bob Rose, Community Services Director; Anthony Jordan, Parks and Maintenance Superintendent; Christy Murphey, Recreation Superintendent; Alison Meyers, Community Services Coordinator; Mickey McKitrick, Recreation Specialist, and Debbie Gonzales, Administrative Coordinator. PRESENTATION OF 2013 YOUTH.. SOCCER SPORTSMASHIP AWARDS: RS/McKitrick. RECESS: ChairlGrundy recessed the meeting at 7:11 p.m. RECONVENE: Chair/Grundy reconvened the meeting at 7:22 p.m. MATTERS FROM THE AUDIENCE: None CALENDAR OF EVENTS: As presented by CSD/Rose. 1. CONSENT CALENDAR: 1.1' Regular Meeting Minutes of the April 25, 2013 Meeting C/Roberto ,moved, Chair/Grundy seconded, to approve the April 25, 2013 Regular Meeting minutes as presented. Without objection, the motion was so ordered with C/Herndon and VC/Owens abstaining. 1.2 Correct and Approve "draft" minutes for May 23, 2013 Regular Meeting C/Herndon moved, VC10wens seconded, to approve the corrected "draft" minutes for the May 23, 2013 Regular Meeting. Without objection, the motion was so ordered with C/Roberto abstaining. June 27, 2013 PAGE 2 P&R COMMISSION 1.3 Transmittal of Thank you -Letter to DBHS students for work at Silverti Mini Park 2. INFORMATIONAL ITEMS: 2.1 Recreation Program Update — RS/Murphey 2.1.1 PowerPoint Presentation on Grants awarded to the City for various projects — CSC/Meyers C/Herndon applauded CSC/Meyers for a great job on the grants and encouraged her to keep moving forward with her work. He asked if with some of these grants"there would be future funds that the City could tap into and CSC/Meyers responded yes, that three of the five grants are annual programs that will have funding available assuming that the monies are appropriated. 2.2 Parks Report — PMS/Jordan C1H'erndon asked PMS/Jordan if he had researched the possibility of using a more rugged and durable turf at Lorbeer and whether staff was - moving forward and were expecting better results. PMS/Jordan responded that in the past the City used a blend of turf that contained a perennial rye which is nice looking grass but tends to grow in clumps as opposed to a Bermuda which is the creeping variety. Staff has eliminated perennial rye and is now using the Sports Field blend that has more bent grasses and more Bermudas and staff is hoping to get more of the creeping effect from the new blend. Remnants of the perennial rye are still there and the grass is being mowed as short as possible because once it gets a little bit tall it begins to create tripping hazards for the kids. VC/Owens said he noticed that the ball fields at Lorbeer and Pantera closed about the same time and wandered how it affected the field schedule. PMS/Jordan said closing the fields at this time has been a. typical practice for the past several years and could not speak to any negative impacts the user groups might be .experiencing. Peterson Park is open. CSD/Rose said the Girls Softball Tournament ends on Father's Day weekend and AYSO does not start until the middle of August so it is a slower period between those dates and to have both parks closed is not a problem. The City Baseball program .uses Peterson and Heritage so it gives staff the opportunity to take care of Pantera and Lorbeer parks at the same time. VC/Owens asked when staff noticed the graffiti at Washington Street Park and PMS/Jordan said it was about three weeks ago. It was not very visible unless one walked right up to it because the tops of the picnic tables and play structures were covered with dark red crayon. C/Owens said he saw teenagers he had never seen there before sitting at the back June 27, 2013 PAGE 3 P&R COMMISSION tables watching him and hoping he would not walk back toward them. 2.2.1 Power Point Presentation on the Pantera Dog Park Improvements — PMS/Jordan C/Herndon asked if staff had an idea of the Dog Park costs to date. CSD/Rose_ said that as 'of now, everything including design, construction, etc. amounts to about $255,000. There is additional work to be done to extend the walkways from the existing walkways to the dog parks the cost of which is covered using a combination of CDBG and General Fund monies. In addition, a staircase will be put in at the large dog park near the original drinking fountain at an _ engineer's estimate of about $40,000. VC/Owens said that PMS/Jordan has a pretty handy crew. Does the City rent the equipment? PMS/Jordan responded that the equipment is rented and that he has worked at a number of cities and by far this is the most talented crew he has ever been privileged to work with. 2.3 CIP Projects — CSD/Rose 2.3.1 Dog Park at Pantera Meadow — CSD/Rose reported that as previously reported by PMS/Jordan, the shelters, two additional drinking fountains and six additional benches have been installed. It took about three weeks to complete the project. It was amazing to watch the guys work and he was very proud of their effort. There will be one ramp, two walkways and a staircase installed to finish the dog park. Plans and specs are completed and were just reviewed by CDC, so the project will go out to bid and a contract will be obtained to begin this phase of construction about September. This is contemplated as a 35 -day project absent any special circumstances. 2.3.2 Grandview Trail and Grandview Trail Link — CSD/Rose stated that in addition to CSCIMeyers presentation, TKE contacted staff today and will be bringing in the Plans and Specs tomorrow for plan check. This project will go out to bid with an estimated date of bid opening the end of August/beginning of September and construction commencing late September/beginning of October. Staff just found out it received the $89,000 Habitat Conservation Grant which finally completes the funding to build the entire two- part trail before next summer. 2.3.3 Site D Public Park-- CSD/Rose reported that Lennar Homes is still working on the concept plan for the park. When staff receives the concept plan it will be presented to the Commission as part of the June 27, 2013 PAGE 4 P&R COMMISSION review process. One of the issues is the rain garden and the Public Works and Planning Departments are reviewing this portion of the park to determine who will maintain the feature before this project moves forward. 2.3.4 Larkstone Park — CSD/Rose sated that Lewis Homes is working on the redesign to mitigate the ancient landslides and any changes to the plans will come to the Parks and Recreation and Planning Commissions for final approval. 2.3.5 Diamond Bar Center Improvements — CSD/Rose said that the Diamond Bar Center looks completely different as one enters the premises because the offices and front counter areas are under construction. A temporary wall that has been constructed in front of the front counter that extends down the hall to what used to be the Willow room. The construction area is blocked from view for special events. However, people are complimenting staff= on the temporary wall which looks very good. It is a steel wall that is covered in drywall which was mudded and painted and has a graphic of and scenes from the Diamond Bar Center itself. Staff has relocated to the Sycamore Room and it looks finished and permanent. The project was scheduled to take 90 days to complete; however, the contractor stated he can complete the project in less than half that time. And now that thEk project is into its second week the contractor now claims he can finish in a week or two. That said, all of the carpet is being redone and must be installed when the facility is not being used. There is a three day period of non-use after the week of July 4 and the contractor is planning to complete the carpet installation during that time. After construction is completed, it will be a matter of getting the furniture in the facility, part of which will not be available until the first week of August or so. The City was nervous about the very low bid but it turns out that this is an outstanding contractor and work is going very well. VC/Owens asked what staff was trying to address with the construction and CSD/Rose said the biggest issue had to do with office space. When staff moved the computers out of the Willow Room to City Hall it created available space so not only is there an office space, there is a conference room that can be used for staff meetings or as sales office when folks visit the center to reserve the facility. Chair/Grundy commented that the microphones are set a little to the right of each commissioner so perhaps in the future they could be positioned to the left so as they turn to talk they are more naturally positioned to speak into the microphones. June 27, 2413 PAGE 5 P&R COMMISSION CIHerndon. _asked.. RS/M_ rphey_ if she_ would Diamond Bar Center when it is finished and staff would be going back to the Center. 2.4.. List of Pending Commission Requests - CSD/Rose - - 3. OLD BUSINESS: - 3.1 Pony Baseball Facility. be returning to th.e. she responded that CSD/Rose stated that the written report provided to the Commissioners attempts to show the amount of time that may be available at the Pony League Field should it be available for different organizations. When he met with the Pony League officials they told him the full availability is in the fall and partial availability is in the summer depending on their All-Star schedule and how many games they win. There are many teams that move on to All -Stars and during the summer it limits availability of the Pony Fields. Therefore, he did not list specific hours in his written report. Obviously, during June and July by 8:00 p.m. fields are still light enough to use and by August it probably drops down to 7:30 p.m. The report also includes September until about a 7:00 p.m. average time, October about 6:00 p.m. on average and during November and December it is usually dark by 8:00 p.m. Daylight Savings time ends on November 3 this year so after that date it is pretty much dark at 5:00 p.m. from that date through December. Each field has lots of open time on Saturdays and Sundays so it adds up to about 346 hours per field of available time. CSD/Rose reports that the YMCA has a new director coming in and during the interview process he mentioned he had visited the fields that are across from the Sunset Crossing YMCA and he was interested in those fields being upgraded and possibly being made available for different types of community uses. Of course there is a learning curve before any of that can happen but there may be some opportunity at that site as well. C/Herndon thanked CSD/Rose for the information and asked. if it was possible and practical for RSIMeKitrick to give the Commission some idea about how he might use these fields during these specific hours. Fall is a critical time when the City has a shortage of fields. He said he was not sure how critical November and December were for AYSO and others. Chair/Grundy said that the peak field use for AYSO is August through October and then high school has to stop playing AYSO so the field usage begins to taper off. In November AYSO goes into playoffs and December is when they are down to the few teams remaining in the playoff structure to get to the finals and semi-finals. June 27, 2013 PAGE 6 P&R COMMISSION Chair/Grundy asked if RS/McKitrick could report back to the Commission on hours of usage and also prepare field overlays to indicate in different configurations how the different fields could be used for different sports. CSD/Rose said that this assumes that the organization would make the. fields available for soccer and he does not know that that is the case at this point. He knows that they have allowed Pop Warner to use the facilities so it may require follow up with the Pony League to see what they are willing to do and to first make sure that the City is dealing with the same people or whether staff would need to meet with a new set of officials. As far as configurations, there are grass fields and infields that would probably be similar to Peterson Park's grass fields. Chair/Grundy said he felt it would be helpful to have some discussion with the Pony League to see if the usage could be extended to football and/or soccer because he would like to determine if it is practical to consider scheduling. C/Herndon agreed and said that if it is practical, the Foundation would have to look closely at the cost, etc. He said he is enthused to know that at least this is a possible partial solution to the City's field shortage, if all of the elements can be worked out. 4. NEW BUSINESS: None 5. ANNOUNCEMENTS: C/Roberto thanked staff for their reports. Everything that we do in the City from this area of parks and service to teens has been good to see. Parents are very proud and it is kudos all of the time for all of the programs RS/McKitrick runs. Kudos to CSC/Meyers for the work she does on the City's grants. C/Herndon thanked staff. Staff does a fantastic job and he told RS/McKitrick earlier this evening that he was doing a great job. He is very encouraged that the Commission is exploring additional opportunities to eliminate the City's shortage of sports fields and he is getting more and more enthusiastic about what is happening. He received some very positive feedback from a council member that has spurred him on as well. He hopes and feels that at some point the City will resolve this problem and again, thank you to staff. VC/Owens thanked staff for the PowerPoint presentations which are very informative. He asked PMS/Jordan to thank his staff for the fine job and quality work they did on the dog park. Chair/Grundy said he would not be present for the July 25 meeting and will miss all of the Concerts in the Park during July but should be back in August. He added his appreciation to staff, particularly when one sees the reports, the grants that CSC/Meyers is able to get, the programs that RS/Murphey is running, the work that PMS/Jordan's crew was doing, and the heartfelt appreciation that the coach gave for RS/McKitrick. One can really tell what a great staff this City has and how much work they are doing. It really shows and he wanted to thank staff so much for the hard work they put into their jobs. June 27, 2093 PAGE 7 P&R COMMISSION VC/Owens con ratulated CSCIMeyers for going after the grants so aggressively 9 _ and her continuingeffort that saves the City a lot of money. ADJOURNMENT: C/Roberto moved, C/Herndon seconded, to adjourn the Parks and Recreation Commission meeting. With no one.objecting and no further business before the Parks and Recreation Commission, Chair/Grundy adjourned the meeting at 8:35 p.m. The foregoing minutes are hereby approved this 19 day of August Respectfully Spbmitted, B0i3'R (SE, SECRETARY . 241 3.