Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout04/28/2016 PRC MinutesCITY OF DIAMOND BAR MINUTES OF THE PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION DIAMOND BAR CITY HALL - THE WINDMILL ROOM 21810 COPLEY DRIVE, DIAMOND BAR, CA 91765 APRIL 28, 2016 CALL TO ORDER: Chair/Grundy called the Parks and Recreation Commission meeting to order at 7:02 p.m. in the City Hall Windmill Room, 21810 Copley Drive, Diamond Bar, CA 91765. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: C/Herndon led the Pledge of Allegiance. ROLL CALL: Present: Commissioners Lew Herndon, Kim Hsieh, Benny Liang, Vice Chair Manisha Sulakhe and Chair Dave Grundy C/Hsieh left the meeting at 7:59 p.m. Staff Present: Bob Rose, Community Services Director; Anthony Jordan, Parks and Maintenance Superintendent; Christy Murphey, Recreation Superintendent; Crystal Knox, Community Services Coordinator; Alison Meyers, Community Services Coordinator, and Debbie Gonzales, Administrative Coordinator. D134YOUTH — RECOGNITION OF OUTGOING/INCOMING BOARD MEMBERS — CSC/Meyers MATTERS FROM THE AUDIENCE: None CALENDAR OF EVENTS: As presented by CSD/Rose 1. CONSENT CALENDAR: 1.1 Approval of Minutes for the March 24, 2016 Regular Meeting. VC/Sulakhe moved, C/Liang seconded, to approve the Minutes of the March 24, 2016 regular meeting as presented. Motion carried by the following Roll Call vote: AYES: COMMISSIONERS NOES: COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: COMMISSIONERS Herndon, Hsieh, Liang, VC/Sulakhe, Chair Grundy None None APRIL 28, 2016 PAGE 2 P&R COMMISSION 2. INFORMATIONAL ITEMS: 2.1 Recreation Program Update — RS/Murphey C/Herndon said he noticed there were problems with the softball groups and asked if those problems had been rectified. RS/Murphey responded that to her knowledge the field attendants were able to take care of the problems. Chair/Grundy asked if there were any crowd control issues at the Easter Egg Hunt and CSD/Rose responded that there were no major issues, but someone did yell "go" early so next year staff will not allow attendees to enter the egg hunting area until 10:00 a.m. 2.1.1 PowerPoint Presentation —Bridal Show— CSC/Knox C/Hsieh asked how many weddings are performed each year and CSC/Knox said she did not have an exact number but the Center is booked every Friday and Saturday until 2017. The majority of the events are weddings and some are booked on Thursdays as well. Reservations are open two years in advance for residents and 20 months in advance for non-residents. The day of the Bridal Show the Center booked four new events. C/Hsieh said that sometime back she attempted to book an event and was encouraged to book at least one-year in advance. However, it appears that folks should book at least two years in advance. CSC/Knox explained that the policy changed in the last couple of years from a year and a half in advance for residents to two years in advance. To be safe, one should plan to book an event a year and a half in advance particularly for a Saturday event. Otherwise, about a year in advance for Fridays and Sundays. C/Liang said it seemed that registration was down and asked if staff believed more guests would attend if the $5 registration fee was waived. CSC/Knox responded that there might be more guests; however, brides do not attend these types of shows by themselves. They bring their family members and bridesmaids so she does not believe it would make much of a difference in attendance. $5 is a very decent price compared to other bridal shows and in addition, attendees receive samples, gifts and raffle tickets for opportunities to win prizes. VC/Sulakhe said there was a reduction in the number of vendors attending the show and asked if the date could be changed to the 26th with the Victoria Garden on the 19th so more vendors would be available. CSC/Knox said that was staff's intention not to offer it on APRIL 28, 2016 PAGE 3 P&R COMMISSION the same date so that it would provide an option for other vendors to participate. She received phone calls from potential vendors but they were already participating in other shows. Likewise, this being held earlier this year than last year it impacted the show so staff plans to begin promoting the event earlier in 2017. C/Herndon asked if the City was charging enough for the facility since the Center is being booked so far in advance. RS/Murphey asked if C/Herndon questioned the overall rental price of the Center or for individual booths and C/Herndon responded "the overall rental price for the facility. RS/Murphey explained that Diamond Bar is still a little pricier than most other city -owned facilities in the area. Fees will be reconsidered for the next fiscal year. CSC/Knox added that the show is a "feature" and that is why the Center books so far in advance. The pricing is pretty reasonable for how beautiful and popular the venue is as well as the fact that they can bring in their own vendors. 2.1.2 PowerPoint Presentation —Car Show— CSC/Knox C/Herndon said he was asked by the winner of best in show why there was not a "truck" category. CSC/Knox said she had not included it in the past few years because there are not very many trucks involved and she did not want to limit an award to one or two individuals. However, with all of the other judging criteria, trucks are eligible. The categories are not limited to cars versus trucks. 2.2 Parks Report - PMS/Jordan C/Herndon wondered if the City had investigated using solar at the Diamond Bar Center or at any of its other facilities. PMS/Jordan pointed out that City Hall has been fitted with solar. In terms of the percentage of load it is recovering it is a small fraction of the total use. Due to the configuration of the Diamond Bar Center roof it would be difficult to get enough solar panels on the roof to do any good. Chair/Grundy said that at the City Birthday Party a resident mentioned that the lights at the basketball court were going off at 9:00 p.m. instead of 10:00 p.m. and asked if staff had looked into that issue. PMS/Jordan said that the light timers are pre-programmed from the factory to jump ahead for daylight savings time and in most of the timers that function has been disabled. However, that one had not been disabled so staff reprogrammed the timer that day. VC/Sulakhe said there is an area at the Diamond Bar Center where people can enter from the back balcony area into the kitchen area that has hardly any lights and she has seen people trying to get in that way which presents a real problem for security guards to monitor the area. She APRIL 28, 2016 PAGE 4 P&R COMMISSION asked if lights could be placed in the area outside of the kitchen adjacent to the large generator. In the past she has seen residents putting up their own lights so that it is safe. 2.2.1 Power Point Presentation on Sycamore Canyon Trails and Trails — PMS/Jordan 2.3 CIP Projects — CSD/Rose A. Pantera Park Trail & Steep Canyon Trail — Plans have been approved and are scheduled to go out to bid next week. Once the bidding process is completed construction will commence. Staff expects this project to be completed by fall 2016. B. Diamond Canyon Park — Continues under construction and should be open to the public by the end of this summer (September). C/Herndon was concerned there was no fencing between the children's play area and Brea Canyon Road. CSD/Rose said he would look into the matter. C. Design of Heritage Park Improvements — there has been no new movement on this item. D. Design of Longview South & Stardust Park Improvements — Staff was notified that the City won a grant award for $300,000 for Stardust Park and staff is meeting with Architerra Design Group to get this project out to bid in coordination with Peterson Park. The City will award a contract to Architerra Design Group on Tuesday, May 3 to provide the design for Peterson Park. The intent is to have Peterson Park, Longview South and Stardust all go out together for a contractor to build all three of the tot lots at the same time. E. Installation of Swings at Longview Park North — nothing new to report. F. Larkstone Park Design — CSD/Rose provided a conceptual plan. The first round of plan check has been completed and staff understands Lennar is anxious to get this park built before they start building model homes. The park is divided into two sections, an upper and lower. The upper section is a more active area and the lower section is more passive where there will be a rose garden, a Yoga garden, park benches, a parking lot for nine cars with one handicap stall. At the north end is a parking lot, a perimeter walkway, a tot lot, picnic tables, barbecues, benches and a restroom building. As soon as plans are resubmitted staff is APRIL 28, 2016 PAGE 5 P&R COMMISSION G. ready to move forward with the project. H. Trail Information Panels at each Trail Head — At all trail entry points 14 (nine at trail heads and five at locations along the trails) two-part trail informational panels will be installed. One part will be a map of the trail and the other is a description of what can be found along the trail. The new panels are being designed to match panels already in place along trails in Diamond Bar. C/Herndon asked how close Larkstone Park is to South Pointe Middle School and CSD/Rose responded that it is across the street from the school. C/Herndon said he thought that there was discussion about putting the restroom closer to the entrance so that the sports groups that use South Pointe would have restroom facilities on the weekends. CSD/Rose responded that the sports fields at South Pointe are on the opposite side of the campus and he is of the impression that the sports groups use school restrooms. 2.4 List of pending Commission requests — CSD/Rose Heritage — as soon as this project moves forward again the plans will come to the Commission. Pantera Park Trail — Staff hopes to get the stairs under construction soon. Stardust Mini Park — includes the drainage in the design of the park that staff hopes to have out to bid in the near future. Sycamore Canyon Park -nothing new to report. There was an inquiry some time ago from a cell provider which was also proposing to locate at Maple Hill Park which did not go well and the provider has not contacted the City since then. 3. OLD BUSINESS: None 4. NEW BUSINESS: None 5. ANNOUNCEMENTS: C/Liang thanked staff for their great presentations and reports. C/Herndon said the Commissioners always appreciate the reports and updates. He attended the celebration of the Senior Volunteers who were honored for their time and effort. The volunteers put in a lot of hours and provide a lot of support to staff. VC/Sulakhe thanked her colleagues and staff for welcoming her to the Commission. She is happy to be a part of a great team that does awesome work APRIL 28, 2016 PAGE 6 P&R COMMISSION and the City is truly proud of its parks and so too is she. The Diamond Bar Center is a great location. Chair/Grundy thanked staff for all of their efforts and reports showing results of those efforts. The City Birthday Party was nicely done and it appeared everyone was having a great time during a great weather day. He asked if staff was aware of the number of attendees compared to previous years and CSD/Rose responded that CSC/Tarazon's report indicated 4,000 attendees. RS/Murphey stated she felt attendance was pretty similar and the revenue for the rides and game cards was up slightly. ADJOURNMENT: With no one objecting and no further business before the Parks and Recreation Commission, Chair/Grundy adjourned the meeting at 8:26 p.m. The foregoing minutes are hereby approved this 28 day of May , 2016. Respectfully ubmitted, BpB ECRETARY