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HomeMy WebLinkAbout09/22/2016 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 SEPTEMBER 22, 2016 CALL TO ORDER: Chair/Grundy called the Parks and Recreation Commission meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. in the City Hall Windmill Room, 21810 Copley Drive, Diamond Bar, CA 91765. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Commissioner Sulakhe led the Pledge of Allegiance. ROLL CALL: Present: Commissioners Lew Herndon, Kim Hsieh, Vice Chair Manisha Sulakhe and Chair Dave Grundy Commissioner Benny Liang arrived at 7:10 p.m. Staff Present: Ryan McLean, Assistant City Manager; Anthony Jordan, Parks and Maintenance Superintendent; Christy Murphey, Recreation Superintendent; Alison Meyers, Recreation Coordinator, and Debbie Gonzales, Administrative Coordinator. MATTERS FROM THE AUDIENCE: None CALENDAR OF EVENTS: As presented by ACM/McLean. ACM/McLean stated that tonight each Commissioner was provided a bag with Restaurant Week promotional items. 18 restaurants have signed up to participate. The City has provided a dedicated website for the event which is www.dbrestaurantweek.com and provides information on all of the participating restaurants which includes menus, location maps, types of food, information about the restaurant and foods offered. In addition, discounts and special menus created specifically for Restaurant Week are included on the website. ACM/McLean congratulated CSC/Knox and CSC/Tarazon who have been reclassified to Recreation Supervisor positions. At its Tuesday night meeting, the City Council approved changes to the personnel structure. RS/Knox will be supervising at the Diamond Bar Center and overseeing the rentals, contract classes, and senior programs. RS/Tarazon will be at City Hall overseeing special events, athletics and youth programs. Both RS/Knox and RS/Tarazon will report to RS/Murphey. He is very excited and positive that they will do a great job in their new positions. Chair/Grundy said he appreciated the good information. There are restaurants in the City that he enjoys and he is very pleased that the City is recognizing their contributions to the residents. He congratulated RS/Knox and RS/Tarazon upon their reclassifications. SEPTEMBER 22, 2016 PAGE 2 P&R COMMISSION VC/Sulakhe congratulated RS/Knox and RS/Tarazon and asked what took the City so long. VC/Sulahke said she did not know RS/Tarazon but knows RS/Knox and congratulated her. C/Herndon noted that he would be out of town and absent from the October meeting. 1. CONSENT CALENDAR: 1.1 Approval of Minutes for the July 28, 2016 Regular Meeting. Upon motion by VC/Sulakhe, seconded by C/Herndon, the Regular Meeting Minutes of July 28, 2016 were approved as presented with C/Hsieh abstaining and C/Liang being absent. 2. INFORMATIONAL ITEMS: 2.1 Recreation Program Update — RS/Murphey C/Herndon said he noticed that for Concerts in the Park the City is renting equipment each summer for $4,500 and wanted to know if it would be better for the City to purchase the equipment. RS/Murphey explained that the City pays the bands that perform. The City pays a contractor to provide the sound system in order to provide a consistent sound system for all concerts rather than relying on bands to provide their own equipment which can result inconsistency. C/Hsieh asked if the City received a percentage of sales from the concessions and RS/Murphey responded that the reimbursement is to cover staff meals throughout the summer. C/Herndon asked if the City would make something off of food truck sales if they were implemented. RS/Murphey said the City has not looked into doing this but she knows that other cities have arrangements where they get a certain percentage of the sales. C/Herndon asked if the non -profits were willing to provide food at the concerts and RS/Murphey said there is not a good response from them and they have to be encouraged to participate and as a result, they continue to be the same vendors so there is not the desired variety in food items. 2.1.1 PowerPoint Presentation —Day Camp— RC/Meyers C/Hsieh asked the ages of the Volunteens and how the program has existed. RC/Meyers responded that the ages are 13-15 and must be available for the entire summer. In August the Volunteens were given certificates and a small stipend (Target Gift Card) as well as a "To Whom it May Concern" letter they can use for their SEPTEMBER 22, 2016 PAGE 3 P&R COMMISSION college transcripts. VC/Sulakhe asked how long the program had existed and how many hours they can volunteer. The program began long before she came on board with the City 11 years ago. The Volunteens are limited to no more than 20 hours per week and the least number of hours recognized with a stipend is 15 hours. Chair/Grundy said that there has been a Volunteen group during the 15 years he has served on the Commission. He praised RC/Meyers for the great job she does with the Volunteen and D134 - Youth. It is tremendous effort she puts into both programs. C/Liang said his son was a Volunteen and really enjoyed the opportunity. C/Herndon said he is blown away by the kids and their great attitudes and he is proud to say he knows about the program. 2.2 Maintenance Report— PMS/Jordan 2.2.1 Diamond Canyon Park Walkthrough — PMS/Jordan. 2.3 CIPProjects— ACM/McLean 2.3.1 Diamond Canyon Park This project is in the final stages and the Mayor will dedicate the park to the community on the morning of Saturday, December 3. There were a couple of delays with this project, one of which was the bridge crossing the channel which required permits and approvals from the LA County Flood Control District. Both project managers were away for extended periods of time which pushed the project back. The bridge is now in place. The second item which has been resolved was related to an Edison pole on the corner of Brea Canyon Road and Diamond Bar Boulevard that needed to be moved which neither the City nor the contractor could do. Edison was delayed in determining how they would move the line but were able to complete the work last week. The contractor and City can now move forward with the final punch list items. There will also be some street improvement work in the area in the next few months including street widening, one lane addition, and installation of new signal poles (matching the poles at Diamond Bar Boulevard/Grand Avenue). The fence posts are in and the wrought iron fencing is being fabricated for installation by December 3. The punch list walkthrough is next week and staff anticipates the remainder of the work will be done prior to December 3. SEPTEMBER 22, 2016 PAGE 4 P&R COMMISSION 2.3.2 Stardust Park/Peterson Park Playground Equipment The Stardust Park Improvement project is a high-priority capital improvement project which is grant funded and has a deadline of the end of 2016. The project is well underway. The existing playground equipment has been removed; drainage improvement is underway, the playground equipment has been ordered and will be installed shortly. The City is on pace to complete this project by the end of November. The Peterson Park Playground Equipment project is underway. The playground equipment has been demolished, new equipment has been ordered and once in, installation will move forward along with the poured -in-place flooring. This project should be completed by the end of November or sooner. (non -agenda item) C/Hsieh asked if the City could do something such as a mini -park with the greenbelt area adjacent to homes across from the Diamond Bar Center on Summitridge Drive. PMS/Jordan said that the area is Summitridge Mini - park and is one of the District 39 mini -parks. C/Hsieh asked if the City planned to do anything with it because it is a beautiful site. ACM/McLean said that at this time he is not aware of any capital improvement plans for that site. C/Hsieh asked if the City could come up with a way to use the site. ACM/McLean said the City could take a look at the site. One of the issues with the site is that in any case it would be a very passive location because there are parking issues and it is immediately adjacent to homes. If it was developed as a park there would be no vehicular parking available and people would be parking in front of homes. It would be a difficult site to develop in a park capacity, particularly with the mini -parks spread throughout that neighborhood and the Diamond Bar Center and Summitridge Park immediately adjacent. VC/Sulakhe said she was thinking that since the Diamond Bar Center is there and there are steps leading down toward that area she felt the two could be joined together. RS/Meyers said there is a trail that comes from the Diamond Bar Center and goes across the back. If anything could be done, it might be interpretive panels and a bench to make it part of the trail. C/Hsieh asked people in the audience to come forward to discuss what they felt would work. Keileen Allen, DBHS senior said she believed that because there are so many playgrounds in the area that the City should not use money toward new equipment. Access for the trails or exercise equipment might be appropriate. C/Hsieh asked if the young people would use a stage to recite SEPTEMBER 22, 2016 PAGE 5 PSBR COMMISSION Shakespeare or whatever. Ms. Allen said most likely not because DBHS and Walnut High School have music and sports. Perhaps the band could perform there but building a stage would probably be a waste of money in her opinion. Chair/Grundy said the City and Commission appreciates input on how to use open space areas and park facilities and asked students who were present at the meeting to forward their ideas to the City or Commission for future development and redevelopment especially with respect to redevelopment of Heritage Park and the Trails Program. Some of the parks that exist today such as Sycamore Canyon Park are based on ideas that were forwarded by citizens within Diamond Bar. Julianna suggested making the area part of the trail system with benches because it is a nice area with nice views. RS/Meyers said that on nights where there are meteor showers or fireworks people visit that area with their telescopes so perhaps a platform along with additional exercise equipment could enhance the area. Chair/Grundy wondered if there would be room for an official Diamond Bar program such as a "meteor shower event' that is published and where ¢ people are encouraged to participate. j¢ C/Herndon said he would be very concerned about parking on such a busy street and the more people are drawn to that area the bigger the problem is and he would hate to have people and especially children, crossing that busy street. This should be looked at very carefully. C/Hsieh said she believed the Diamond Bar Center parking lot could accommodate the site. VC/Sulakhe agreed except if there is an event going on at the Diamond Bar Center. She was there for the eclipse and observed people running with their binoculars and it became a very frantic situation because so many people had gathered there. The Center is very popular and booked with events. 2.4 List of pending Commission requests — as presented on the list - ACM/McLean Chair/Grundy asked if there was an ETA on Item 1: Review of the Heritage Park Special Needs. ACM/McLean reiterated that some of the priorities on the CIP have had to come forward due to grant requirements (Pantera Park Trail, Stardust Mini -park, Peterson Park) and until those are substantially completed, the City is not likely to move on to the other CIP items until later in the Fiscal Year. VC/Sulakhe spoke about the lighting at the back kitchen entrance at the Diamond Bar Center. ACM/McLean reiterated that staff attempted to have SEPTEMBER 22, 2016 PAGE 6 P&R COMMISSION it be part of a separate lighting project that was budgeted this year. Unfortunately, when the contractor went in to do the background work to see what was necessary to put it in it required much more intensive work than originally anticipated and there was not money set aside in the budget to cover the item as a change order. A project to add a light was not included in this Fiscal Year's budget which would have required the City to go through a public bid process and have funds budgeted, etc. 3. OLD BUSINESS: None 4. NEW BUSINESS: None 5. ANNOUNCEMENTS: C/Hsieh thanked staff for their reports and for the audience participation. C/Herndon again said he felt the Volunteen Program is exceptional. The Concerts in the Park series is very well done and it is always nice to have an enjoyable summer evening in the park. He appreciates the mention of the donation by the Diamond Bar Foundation to the Concerts in the Park and it seems to him that a letter of appreciation to the Foundation would be in order. C/Liang thanked his colleagues and staff for their presentations. VC/Sulakhe thanked everyone for their participation and staff reports. She looks forward to be walking in the parks. She thanked her colleagues and staff. Chair/Grundy said he too appreciates staff's reports. As always, they are very informative and help the Commissioners to understand how things are progressing in the parks. He particularly liked seeing the PowerPoint presentation on Diamond Canyon Park which this Commission has seen from conception to reality. He can't wait to go in and walk the park. ADJOURNMENT: C/Herndon moved, C/Liang seconded to adjourn the meeting. With no one objecting and no further business before the Parks and Recreation Commission, Chair/Grundy adjourned the meeting at 8:07 p.m. SEPTEMBER 22, 2016 PAGE 7 P&R COMMISSION The foregoing minutes are hereby approved this 22_ day of September , 2016. Respectfully RYAKIV1(,'LEAN, SECRETARY