Kankakee Times

Kankakee Valley Park District Board of Commissioners met March 13.

Here is the minutes as provided by the Board:

The Committee Meeting was called to order at 5:05pm by President Hollis. Those present for

roll call were Commissioner A. Hollis, D. Tucker, M. Mullady and D. Skelly. Staff present:

Director Heitz, Rick Collins, Superintendent of Buildings & Grounds; Melissa Woodard,

Superintendent of Recreation; Angie Tousignant, General Manager of Ice Valley; Attorney

Coghlan. Public present: Lee Provost, The Daily Journal; Joe Culkins; Scott Tertes; Thomas

LaLonde, Williams Architects and Aquatics. Absent: L. Cooper.

COMMUNICATIONS

Written: In committee packet there is a letter from Peter Murphy and Jason Anselment (IAPD)

regarding what’s happening down in Springfield. Email from a gentleman about Washington

Park. He would like some improvements and will be meeting with him on the 22nd. He’s

willing to do some fundraising and volunteering. Spoke and met with Bill Yonuka regarding the

race (Cobb Park Criterium). He sent an overview. Bruce Clark sent information regarding the

election. Our buildings will not be available on the Monday and Tuesday during election.

Public Comment: NA

OLD BUSINESS

NA

NEW BUSINESS

Splash Valley

Tom Lalonde (Williams Architects and Aquatics)

Director Heitz introduced Tom. He will assist with plans and will have some community

meetings. Handwritten survey will go out this week. Would like to have a round table on

Saturday, March 25 at 9am & Wednesday, March 29 at 6pm at Bird Park. There is a sample

letter included in packet. Commissioner Tucker asked who will get the survey? The paper

survey will get mailed out to past membership pass holder from Rec Trac. All are welcome and

the dates will be on the website. Public needs to RSVP so that we know how many we have

coming, and do not over occupy the room. It will be posted as a special meeting so that all

commissioners can be present.

Tom: He presented a power point presentation. Williams architects has been in business since

1974 and are currently in Itasca. He joined in 1990. Have been doing aquatic projects since the 80s and the company have done over 300 aquatic projects. He talked about some of his recent

projects and things that can be incorporated. What are our thoughts about moving forward?

He understand there are some structural issues with the lazy river. He asked about making the

lap pool bigger for swim team opportunities. Spray grounds or deep water would be good

options. Commissioner Hollis would like to see more teenagers and young adults into the pool

and would like to see the lazy river removed. Put in Olympic size pool and diving boards. Tom

said everyone struggles with a certain age group. Might not get everyone by adding those

features, but would help. Also the zip line would add interest. Commissioner Hollis said this

pool has never been self sustaining. Maybe some after hour parties or themed events would

attract people. There really isn’t anything close by. Tom said you should be able to draw people

to your facility. Commissioner Skelly asked how many pools are self sustaining in Illinois? Tom

said the recent ones are doing well. It can be difficult though. Commissioner Tucker asked

what features do they have? Lazy rivers are expensive to build and to operate. Creating

different experiences is what we’d want. Usually aim for 10-12 experiences. Slide, current

channel, deep water, diving board, drop slide, zip line. We have a lot of those things, just need

to enhance. He is a fan of spray grounds because it extends the season. Commissioner Hollis

would like to stay open a little longer. Lifeguards go back to school which would make that

difficult. It will be hard to become self sustaining all the way. Bring some things there for a

different age group. Commissioner Hollis asked how much the zip line would be. Shared water

would help with the cost. It has only been done once in Illinois because of the strict rules. John

asked about insurance about it? They were with PDRMA and had no problem. It’s much safer

than the diving board. Commissioner Skelly asked how we would find an assessment on what

went wrong and a cost comparison. Then we can eliminate. Tom said some studies on the

pipes to see if and where the breaks are. Sound testing would be another good step.

Commissioner Skelly asked if it was worth doing that prior? If you have to replace the entire

lazy river it would be over a million dollars. $20,000-30,000 to do the testing to figure out a

solution. Tom thinks the lap pool would make more sense financially with diving boards. Could

be looking at 2-3 million for whole project. Tom is here to help facilitate a study at a low cost.

Then the board can make informed decisions. Could think about a current channel or

something scaled down if the lazy river were to be removed. Commissioner Mullady asked how

much the current channel would be. Could be close to $50,000-$100,000. Commissioner Skelly

asked about the study and how long would it take to get results? Tom said about 2 months.

Get going right away. Permitting and bidding process can take awhile. Still would be about 6-7

months out. Commissioner Hollis said the board would like to be open in 2018. Last time the

job was rushed and that’s what we are paying for now. John asked if in 3 months or so, would

we have a plan to go to outside resources for financial assistance? Tom can have a plan

available if they get started relatively soon. Could formalize the agreement at the next board

meeting and move forward. It’s possible to be open in 2018 but need to have the right contractors to do winter construction. Put qualifications in the bid documents to make sure

you have qualified people doing the work. They have to be certified to build pools in Illinois.

There is education and testing for that. If the pool is designed correctly, no reason it wouldn’t

last 40-50 years.

DEPARTMENT REPORTS

Building & Grounds

Rick Collins: Ice Valley is running properly. No issues with compressor or ice. We brought back

4 maintenance staff on March 6. Been working on branches and garbage and had a couple

trees down. We have had some community service guys helping us. Holohan came to look at

furnace at the Civic. Got some quotes to fix. Elections were at some of our buildings.

Commissioner Mullady asked about how much the quote would be. $842 in parts to fix and to

replace would be $4,000. Commissioner Skelly asked about the fencing at Washington Park.

PDRMA said the equipment needs to be closed. The fall zone is the problem. The ground work

is all weeds. Not enough mulch. Director Heitz said there are some tennis courts there that

aren’t used. If it’s a big skate area, there are some small elements we could incorporate. We

are going to be working on Washington Park. Commissioner Hollis said that in Manteno they

have rails and small elements. It’s off of route 50 if anyone wanted to go look. Commissioner

Skelly asked about sharpening blades, changing oil, etc. How are preparations going? Blades

are sharpened. The snow happened otherwise oil would be done this week. We do need some

more equipment. Commissioner Tucker asked about the liability with the community service

workers? It’s no different than being a volunteer.

Recreation

Melissa Woodard: Cutting payable checks twice a month. Still working with some companies

with overlapping invoices. We will be transitioning to Time Force which will download into

Quick Books. Volleyball league ends this month. Softball will start next month. Have a couple

teams registered but the deadline isn’t until March 20. Included a profit loss for MMA event

and open gym. Have booked another MMA event for May 13.

Director Heitz talked about changing payroll to coincide with board and committee meetings.

Director Heitz talked about the open gym profit loss.

Ice Valley

Angie Tousignant: Extending public skate hours for a Luck of the Irish event. Private rental for

March 30. Jeff is edging the ice weekly. Involved with the Blackhawks. Just hit the 50

participant limit and all participants get full gear. This will start April 23. Figure skating started back and classes have picked up. Ice Show practice will start the end of the month. Will attend

a judging school as well.

Commissioner Mullady asked if there was a possibility of continuing the adult league. Angie

said we can look at it for the spring.

Finance

Dayna Heitz: We are still holding firm on the $439,000 which is really good. That was at the end

of February. Do have some significant bills going out this week. Did receive another payment

of our replacement taxes for about $16,000. Included all the PNC charges in the packet.

Commissioner Hollis asked about a charge called BMI charges. That’s for the licensing at Ice

Valley for music. He said they did music through cable. Comcast would pay the ASCAP and

possibly BMI.

Do still see a PNC card for Loren even though she isn’t here. There were some agreements she

had that had a couple months left. Also the adobe is still being charged on that account. Once

we get that straightened out, we will remove and cancel her card.

Commissioner Skelly said in the past we noted things on the financials. The loan that was

previously discussed was not for the Tundra. Director Heitz stated after research, we found it

was actually the GMC and the snow plow.

Executive Director

Dayna Heitz: She discussed the project from Piggush Engineering at Water Street & Jeffers.

Commissioners requested drawings and property description.

Cobb Park replacement equipment has been ordered. Installation agreement is ready too.

Equipment will be here in the next few weeks.

PIGGUSH ENG.

Piggush engineering was discussed under Executive Director report.

ICE VALLEY

There was an issue last Monday. This person will not be returning to the facility during that

night. The parent is handling the issue as well. If there is a next time, staff are directed to call

the police. Commissioner Hollis asked why we would let him back at all? There is a week left in

his program. His parent said he will not come to the facility on Mondays. It has been requested

for Director Heitz to write letter to parents banning minor from facilities.

COMMISSIONERS FORUM

Commissioner Skelly was asked by the boat club requesting the parking lot on August 12 at

Beckman Park. They want to do a back to school bash. Just to the east of the boat club. They

will have vendors, bands, and charging to get into the event. They will provide their own

insurance, fencing, ensuring clean up. $250 is what they had wanted to give us. They are

expecting about 1000 people. Would need to block off the whole weekend for set up and tear

down.

Commissioner Hollis got some calls about the Rec Center hours. It had been closed a couple

times and now we set some parameters on attendance. Someone said they had called the Rec

Center and that it was closed at 5:45pm on a Friday. So much going on in the community but

the safe place is the Rec Center. Some of the kids can’t get there by 5pm. Could we start it at

6pm and go until 9pm. Keep the spreadsheets coming to see what our cost is. Look at how

much we are losing. The priority should be keeping the kids safe. Could we look at a grant to

help off-set costs?

Commissioner Mullady met with Director Heitz at Aroma Park with the Mayor. They toured all

the parks there. There are some things she would like to be done. There is a sink hole that

should be pretty easy to fix. At the Goselin Park there is a huge crack in the concrete.

Basketball court is in ok condition. Could do some things cosmetically that would help a lot.

EXECUTIVE SESSION

A motion to go into executive session for the purposes of 5 ILCS 120/2(c)(11) Litigation was made

at 6:50 pm by Commissioner Mullady, seconded by Commissioner Skelly. Upon voice vote, all

ayes, motion carried.

Return to regular session at 7:10 pm

ADJOURN MEETING

A motion to adjourn the meeting was made at 7:11 pm by Commissioner Tucker, seconded by

Commissioner Mullady. Upon voice vote, all ayes, motion carried.

OFFICIAL REPORTS:

1. Splash Valley

2. Buildings & Grounds

3. Recreation

4. Ice Valley

5. Finance

6. Executive Director

7. Piggush Eng.