Kankakee Times

Kankakee Valley Park District Committee met June 12.

Here is the minutes as provided by the committee:

The Committee Meeting was called to order at 5:00 pm by President Hollis. Those present for

roll call were Commissioner A. Hollis, D. Tucker, M. Mullady, B. Spriggs, and D. Skelly. Others

present: Dayna Heitz, Executive Director; Rick Collins, Superintendent of Buildings & Grounds;

Melissa Woodard, Superintendent of Recreation; Angie Tousignant, General Manager of Ice

Valley; Angie Tousignant, Ariana Padilla, John Coghlan. Public present: Debra McCurry, Curran

Clark, Carolyn Mitchell, Marcus Terrell.

Communications

Written:

Letter from Ms. Rebecca Winquest

She’s requesting Snow Park name changed. How did Snow Park become Snow Park? What is

the history behind the name of the park? Dayna will research and this can be talked about at

the Board meeting. Could Ms. Winquest come give a presentation?

Immanuel Baptist Church

Immanuel Baptist Church cleaned up McBroom Park. Several kids and adults cleaned up

branches and garbage. Commissioner Spriggs said they usually call him before they go out.

Next time if we need to get them waivers, we will. Commissioner Tucker asked if we had a

presence during this? We didn’t know, we were not informed. He also asked how we will

thank them? Director Heitz said we will send a thank you card. Kenny took some garbage bags

to Commissioner Spriggs so they could use them for cleanup. They were grateful for that.

Public Comment

Debra McCurry: What are you doing with the money? Did you get the money? Why is the

Splash Pad not running? It’s 96 degrees out and they have to take their kids elswhere. The

parks have weeds and dead branches. Nothing is being done. Are you paying the employees

cell phone bills? Do the employees have cell phones? Attorney Coghlan said if you have cell

phones they are used for park business. Maybe can fix something for the kids? No

programming for the kids. Used to see the stuff on facebook but now nothing.

Curran Clark: Going off what he sees and hears a lot of things. He has questions about

facebook. All we see is open gyms. Are we going to have other programs for youth? With it

being summer, should be more for them to do in Kankakee. It’s not being built up and progress

isn’t being made. Not sure what you are doing with the Splash Pad, just see it’s not up. He’s a

concerned citizen wanting to know. Director Heitz responded regarding the splash pad: We

have 4 pumps. 2 of them work. Pump 3 and 4, the motors blew. The water lines have major

leaks under the cement. We were going to take pump 4 off and not use the lines until we could

figure out the leaks, so we are not digging up all the concrete. In addition the filter pump is

burnt up. Will are purchasing new, this just happened this week. Once the pit is filled it has to

be filled and emptied and then an additional 3 times. Then have the state out to inspect and

permit. Permitting should have been done in 2012. The state was here last fall and said they

knew we had the splash pad and knew we needed permits. Can’t get permitted until all is fixed

and inspected. Debra said this has been going on and nothing is getting done. Nothing on the

website about what’s going on. We pay taxes for us to get nothing? The park district gets

money to pay their employees basically.

Carolyn Mitchell: Here as a resident. Brought up concerns about Beckman. Went back and

forth with Rick with. He didn’t get the keys and he shut our bathroom water off. Called the

office, didn’t get Dayna. The parks are such an eye sore. There are parks the worst they’ve

ever been. The weeds on the benches are so high. Cobb has a gazebo, there used to be wild

flowers, it’s now a weed pile. Memorial Day weekend drove by all the parks. Washington Park

has snow fence. The fence is down again. It’s been mowed over. It’s a liability. Bike ramp at

one point, the weeds are so high there. The parks in Mary Crest are disgraceful. When do you

come back and manicure it? Pull some weeds. Read the article at River Road about that you

are doing the best. Rick, Melissa, and Dayna have failed. Use community service workers.

School District, or the city has volunteers that could pull weeds. Would be reaching out. We

pay for a program director. This is parks and recreation. There is no recreation so why are we

paying a recreation director. Provide services to the community. Parks are not an enjoyable

experience. Go to the parks last summer, free activities ran by Sam. Would be nice if the

recreation programmer could see and get to know. Need some engagement. That’s failure. If

we are going to continue the program director, we expect programs. In the years past we have

had other programs. If you never have programs, there will not be funds. The open gym has

been a failure now, it’s never been a failure. The Rec Center can make money. You aren’t

investing in the Rec. You can ask volunteers to come in. She read the email from Melissa about

Ice Valley being able to self-sustain themselves. There is a whole other demographic that you

aren’t reaching out to. The recreation center is home to lots of children. Let us continue to

volunteer and keep them in a safe environment. Is the Rec open as a cooling station? It has

always been in the past. Commissioner Skelly said it’s not regularly open. Carolyn said it’s

excuse after excuse.

Marcus Terrell: He’s been a basketball coach at the Rec. No activities at the Rec. Why aren’t

there any activities for the kids? We all grew up here. These kids getting locked up, losing their

life. Is there anything we can do?

Commissioner Hollis thanked them all for coming. We would like to hear from the community.

We as a board take it under serious consideration. We will find some funds. Could we have a

cost analysis for the Rec Center. Director Heitz will do a cost analysis of the Rec Center.

Old Business

NA

New Business

Prevailing Wage Ordinance

Yearly task we do for the State of Illinois. Anything we do related to construction or tradesman

wise, the prevailing wage takes place. Including tree trimming or tree removal. We have to be

sure the companies pay prevailing wage. Prevailing wage will be mailed to the state and posted

on our website once approved.

Audit RFP

Finished the 15 and 16 audit. All are submitted. Submitted the RFP for fiscal years 17,18, 19.

Sent to 7 firms. Received 4 back. Next meeting will discuss.

Foundation

Would like to know what’s happening with the foundation. Don’t want to move stuff out but

don’t know what’s happening with them.

Attorney Coghlan: We should treat it like an eviction. Give them a notice. 5 day notice to

vacate. At the end of that, we can move forward. Give notice to the registered agent.

Commissioner Skelly asked do we have anything written like a lease? We do not.

Commissioner Hollis is in agreement with Attorney Coghlan on the letter.

BMX Land Use Agreement

Spoken to 2 different people, they have insurance when they have their sancted meets. They

did get the EPA permit. They do want to use the grounds and build a track. They have put a

container on site and they still have to build the track. Insurance only covers only their races.

No insurance for practices or the facility with the public. Commissioner Spriggs said they

brought the container out there without anyone’s knowledge. Attorney Coghlan said the

insurance is an issue. Would need an umbrella liability policy that would have the District

named as additionally insured. Commissioner Skelly asked if they are wanting to continue this?

Do they have a timeline? Director Heitz said they know their agreement has expired and they

have a lot of passion for BMX. They have grand ideas. Commissioner Spriggs has issues with 6

sections in the agreement. We have agreements and concerns that are higher priority like the

Rec Center. We have enough on our plate. Commissioner Skelly asked who wrote the

agreement? This was the existing one. Commissioner Tucker said let’s look at it in perspective.

The BMX track isn’t a priority. Zero in on and connect with the people of the community. A

face to face and make more effort. Hearing what’s going on and observing. Let’s not put the

energy in the BMX track. Commissioner Skelly said he knows the people involved in this. They

are maintaining the track and it shouldn’t cost the park district anything. Why wouldn’t we

continue this? Check in with them occasionally. If they have a vision, let them run with it but

cover our costs. Commissioner Spriggs asked how will we police it? We will never know who is

there. Commissioner Skelly asked what the difference is between that and Washington Park?

If they comply with our terms, why wouldn’t we move forward? Commissioner Spriggs said we

have an audience that wants to get kids downtown. We have priorities and need to get back on

our feet. Commissioner Mullady said they were requesting the park district to pay for lighting

and want to tear into ground for parking. Commissioner Hollis asked if we can get with the

BMX people again and see if they will get the insurance. Director Heitz said they have

intentions of getting insurance. Attorney Coghlan said commercial 1-3 million, standard liability

that cover us, then we have a talk with them. Move it to the next board meeting and vote on it.

Commissioner Spriggs said forget about it for awhile. Commissioner Hollis said give them a call

see about the insurance, then put it on the agenda for the board meeting for an action agenda.

Can also let them know some of our concerns. Commissioner Spriggs said we should seriously

review sections 2, 4 6, 7, 13, 14.

Boat Club Parking Agreement

Would not have a separate agreement for their special event. Would remain the same as it did

in prior years. Put on board agenda as action item.

School District 111 Agreement

Agreement where we are combining the original agreement and adding Jeffers Park. They have

agreed to pay a nominal fee. End of August through the end of the school year. No rentals

during the year but in the summer we could rent it out. Commissioner Spriggs asked if this has

worked out? Yes. Commissioner Skelly asked how the fee was reached? They offered this.

They are working on life skills and like the facility. Both felt this was a fair fee. Helps offset our

expenses that we incur with having them there.

Department Reports

Building & Grounds

Rick Collins: Ice Valley is maintaining. Today the dehumidifier was sweating the glass. It’s

resolved now. Branches and bushes were pulled out at the front of the building. Get some

mulch to put down. Received some cold patch that we put down in front of Ice Valley and

some of River Road. Received more today and will continue patch work this week. Swings

were put up at Pirate ship. Have had some rentals at Campground. Have been working on the

Splash Pad. Waiting on state to come out for inspection. Had a mishap at the Civic Center.

Window was broken by a rental but that’s been repaired. Lights at Boat Dock were repaired.

River Road lights were repaired. Alpiner had lighting issues. Rec Center air conditioner needed

some Freon. Working well now in the Charlton room. Spoke with a compnay about having

some trees taken care of. Mike Cassagrade came out for inspections of the buildings. Set up

for an event at Cobb Park. Fireworks for KCC, we provided the fencing for it.

Commissioner Skelly asked if we do anything for the rental that was in the Charlton room when

there was not air? Maybe refund some of the rental fee as well. Commissioner Tucker asked if

there is a checklist? Could we add the air conditioner to the check list? No one knew the air

was down that day.

Commissioner Spriggs said when you go down Calista, there is a dead tree leaning over the

street. Is that ours or the city? It’s close to the street. Maybe we could make that a priority if

that’s ours.

Commissioner Hollis asked if we can get the dirt in front of Washington Park taken care of.

Tired of looking at it. Director Heitz talked with Alderwoman Kennedy about it as well. If we

could talk with someone at the City to assist us in getting it out of there faster.

Commissioner Tucker asked what we did for the fencing for KCC? Are we still doing in kind

services? Yes.

Commissioner Spriggs asked if the building down at the Quarry could be moved? Rick said it’s

locked up. Commissioner Mullady asked if there is any way to utilize it at the campground?

Commissioner Spriggs and Skelly want it removed.

Commissioner Spriggs said the Garden Club is coming to clean up the front of the Quarry

building. Will have waivers for them and they are eager to clean their mess up. He also said he

was at the Perry Farm the other day. They rope off the picnic table and paint them out there so

you don’t have to move them anywhere. Would save mobility and time.

Recreation

Melissa Woodard: Altered the spring league tournament due to rain and communicated with

the teams and umpires. Spring league finished up. Summer league has started and we have 56

teams. Several came in at the last minute so there were lots of changes to the schedule.

Updated some on the website. Been working with Puter Pros on the design of a new website.

Should be more user friendly. They will do the formatting and then I’ll do the content updates.

Ordered meter signs for the boat harbor. Completed front desk interviews with Ariana for the

Rec Center. Several rentals of River Road for the fields. We also sent the final payment for the

Pirate Ship playground so that is completely paid off.

Commissioner Hollis said we should set up a meeting with Dayna and whoever with the new

mayor. There are some grants through the City for Youth Groups. KCCSI had another grant

along the same lines that we could use for that. Garden of Prayer would pay for programs to

participate in our programs as well. They have their own endowment. The money is there but

we have never sought it out. Need to get creative with the funding. We need to figure out the

priority. Primary reason he ran for district was to get more programming. Something small to

us may be huge to a child. There are a lot of organizations we haven’t reached out to in the

past. Commissioner Spriggs asked if these people can tell us where to go get the grant? Yes.

Need to keep our costs down but if we can still help our youth, that’s a win/win.

Commissioner Tucker said the grants are a process. Maybe there are people willing to

volunteer to rent the gym. Rent the gym for half a day, expedite some activities. We need

something to happen now. Commissioner Spriggs said we need some positivity. No water at

the Splash Pad or Splash Valley, Washington Park is a mess. Everything is doom. Commissioner

Skelly said last meeting was very positive. Recreation atmosphere is not great but it is positive

that every bill we have is paid and we are slowly getting back on our feet. It was going to take

2-3 years. If can get some funding that’s great. Important for the public to know we have the

blue ribbon committee, hired an Executive Director that made us financially responsible. We

have never been that way. Totally opposite of where we were a year ago. It’s unfortunate that

the community doesn’t see that. We don’t want to get in the hole again.

Commissioner Skelly said we have to convey to the public the positives. Commissioner Spriggs

said we lost their trust and we have to work like hell to get it back. We are in this for real.

Businesses that are willing to help us. Word of mouth to continue to prove to people.

Commissioner Hollis said we need to work on getting better. We need to find a solution and

deal with it quickly and need to prioritize. Kankakee is requiring their sports programs to do

community service. (Contact school, church groups, etc to volunteer.) The community is

starting to get involved.

Ariana Padilla: Facility rentals have picked up. Rec Center has summer hours. Open gym hours

will change back to 12-4 since 10-2 haven’t been successful. A few boat slips are left. Receive

many calls about the Splash Pad. Taking reservations for campground. Ariana said it’s a slower

part of the season for open gym. Friday’s is still successful and the adult has been too.

Ice Valley

Angie Tousignant:

Spring Ice Show was a success. 538 tickets were sold. Summer classes begin June 5. An in

house competition will be August 13. Kankakee Valley Open will be October 1. New session of

hockey started on June 4. Little Blackhawks ended June 17 and lots of those participants have

signed up for our programming. Email blasts are going out to area groups to participate in our

Schools on Ice. Staff interviews are happening now for several positions. Staff will be coming in

4 times in June to deep clean the facility.

Administrative/Finance

Dayna Heitz: Gave a report on the financials. This is through the end of the fiscal year. The

Illinois Funds for replacement taxes, that’s where she wanted tap into to get some of the trees

taken care of. Been out to look at a lot of the areas. Get calls almost every day about people

concerned if the trees come down. Will be meeting with Tim from Tim’s Tree Care next week.

Outstanding check list. Everything is balanced. Credit card statements. We still use the credit

card to pay certain bills to cut down on multiple checks going to one vendor, example 22 water

bills.

Commissioner Skelly asked about the rewards program for the credit card? Director Heitz did

talk to PNC for their rewards program. Would have to close current account and reopen it.

Main concern with PNC is each staff member who holds a card would have the credit go against

them. He said we should get something for using the card. Director Heitz was advised to go

into PNC to talk to someone instead of over the phone. BMO is a rewards program and would

go against district. Could earn anywhere from 1.5 % and up. Director Heitz will speak with

someone at PNC.

There is a check for the final payment for the 16 audit for $17,500. That total audit cost us

$27,500. Was less than the prior audit. Commissioner Spriggs asked if that’s what Alex has

been working on? Yes and working on entering everything into the accounting system. So the

auditing firm would get financial reports and everything is allocated where it should be. No

more excel.

Commissioner Spriggs thanked Alex for his work. Director Heitz said Melissa is doing the other

part of finance with accounts payable and receivable. Commissioner Spriggs thanked her as

well.

Executive Director

Dayna Heitz: IDES will try to sort it out. IDES and day agree that the money is not due the

district because when we switched from reimbursable to taxing, they went back to 1978. They

reversed all the records therefore creating a credit. Their computer glitch.

RFP’s for auditing firm. Please look at that and we do need to select an auditor at the end of

the month.

Did email you about the ford edge lease options. We have plenty of time left on the lease.

Splash Pad is $650 for the filter. Will need to know how the commissioners want the splash pad

handled. In years past there has been a fee to get in. Not all the features will work.

Commissioner Hollis said if everything doesn’t work, shouldn’t charge. Commissioner Tucker

asked if it will ever be fully functional? Do we have a timeline? We are at the mercy of state

and health department. Commissioner Skelly said we need to do things right. Commissioner

Mullady said we have done it both ways. Put up the proper signage and had staff there. Even

at a $1 per person, wont’ cover cost. Need to make sure it’s a family friendly place and not

have the homeless people taking showers there. Director Heitz said with the permitting we

would have to do water chemistry each day. Prior years would be rented from 9am-noon and

we would have staff around during that. We would also have a porta potty at the end of the

building. One of the health department concerns was the location of the bathroom to the

splash pad.

Dr. Starks Howard’s program was supposed to start today at the Rec Center. Did not get any

registration. She hopes to start next week. Commissioner Tucker asked if there was a cost?

Yes, $110.

Did speak to someone today about starting a before and after school program at the Rec

Center. She is from Playpals Day Care.

Hollis Clark donated some cold patch but like Rick said, did have to order some.

Commissioner Skelly asked if we need to make a decision on the ford edge? It’s part of Dayna’s

contract to have a car. Commissioner Hollis said we could end the lease or purchase it in

February 20. Have to wait until the end to purchase it. Could trade it in but have to give proper

notice. Either way there is a payment continuing.

Commissioner Tucker asked how many people have we hired? The weed whipping is

something that needs help. There are still leaves around the dog fence. Would like to see a

little more results. Grass is being cut but still need things to be groomed.

Commissioner Spriggs said the current weed crew is 3 guys and they do great work. Sure it’s

hard for those 3 guys to do it every day.

Commissioner Tucker said we know we have budget restraints but do we need more people?

Have been interviewing. Let’s get some more guys. Pay is anywhere between $9-11.

Commissioner Tucker asked about the status for Splash Valley? Should have something by the

end of the month as he has been on vacation.

Commissioner Hollis talked about the Executive Director evaluations. Have some but need 2

more. Will do everything but want to go into executive session at the board meeting to discuss.

Do like the idea of doing it twice a year. The one now would be for a raise and the other would

be progress report.

Commissioners Forum

Commissioner Skelly said there were 2 porta pottys at the soccer field last year. Quite a crowd

on Sundays so could we get those back out there?

Commissioner Spriggs asked if anyone has turned in paperwork from the sponsorship meetings.

If their season is started and going, they have turned things in.

Executive Session

Adjourn Meeting

A motion to adjourn the meeting was made at 7:15pm by Commissioner Tucker, seconded by

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

Official Reports

1. Prevailing Wage Ordinance

2. Audit RFP

3. Foundation

4. BMX Land Use Agreement

5. Boat Club Parking Agreement

6. School District 11 Agreement

7. Buildings & Grounds

8. Recreation

9. Ice Valley

10. Finance

11. Executive Director

https://daks2k3a4ib2z.cloudfront.net/5902582f18d58d1bc51aea76/597ad8cd17b8aa0001cfc917_Jun-12-2017-CommitteeMeeting.pdf