Kankakee Valley Park District Committee met July 10.

By Lhalie Castillo

Sep 5, 2017

Here is the minutes 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; Ariana Padilla, Attorney John Coghlan

Public present: Helen DuFour, Dondi Maricle, Robert Snipes

Communications:

Written:

Kilbride Thank you letter-

There is a thank you letter from the Kilbrides. They had their event at Cobb Park.

Public Comment:

n/a

Old Business:

Selection of Audit Firm Discussion-

As of the last audit, we are $60,000 negative in that fund. We are supposed to receive $12,700 in taxes for the audit, if we collect 100% of the taxes. Thinking from a financial standpoint. We cannot afford to exceed our allocated revenue. Dayna will work with whoever is chosen but we need to be financially responsible. She has worked with all 4 of them. Commissioner Hollis said we would like to stay local if possible. Director Heitz said we would be paying out of operational fund if we go with a local firm. Commissioner Skelly asked how long is the contract? 3 years. They lock in the audit fee for 3 years. Commissioner Spriggs asked if all auditors would meet deadlines? Yes.

Commissioner Mullady said it is about saving money for the taxpayers. Commissioner Skelly said we sent out bids so it’s not like we didn’t try to stay local. He would like to save the $14,000. It’s a 3 year deal, then reevaluate. Commissioner Tucker asked why are they cheaper? Director Heitz said they have more people employed and do everything in house. Attorney Coghlan said Knutte & Associates is even under what we levy for. Director Heitz was instructed to put it on the agenda for the next board meeting.

A motion to send the selection of audit firm to the board meeting for Knutte & Associates was made by Commissioner Skelly, seconded by Commissioner Spriggs. Upon voice vote, all ayes. Motion passes.

New Business:

Women’s Club Tribute-

Helen is with us from the Women’s Club. They would like to do a tribute wall with headshots of the past governors. They will have the 3 faces on it. They are looking at Bird Park or near the Civic Center. They are unable to get pricing until they know what area they are working in. Would probably need lights to cut down on vandalism. Commissioner Hollis said for the board meeting we should put it on for an action item. Think about where the commissioners want it. Then Dayna can let you know. We appreciate you wanting to honor them. Commissioner Spriggs asked if they had talked to Connie at the museum, to make her aware. Could go next to where the Women’s Club sign is or at Bird Park.

Unity Fest Request-

They are working to get their 501c3. They have a 501c4. It’s still a nonprofit. They need their insurance. Commissioner Hollis got a call from George Ryan. They want the fest to get their vendors first, then will give them the right insurance. Will they insure the bounce houses? Yes, Items they have requested from us are bleachers, garbage cans and bags. The portolets are $135 per unit. They want them cleaned and sanitized each day. That’s an additional $100 each day. We could try to borrow from another ballfield. They would have to only pay for the cleaning. He requested the long tables and chairs. Usually we give them picnic tables for an outside event. Commissioner Mullady said there is a lot of manpower in this request. Commissioner Spriggs agrees. Commissioner Hollis said the key is when we used to do the Steve Hunter fest, we did the same thing. If we can do some of this, we should. We shouldn’t be spending extra money. But if it won’t inconvenience us too much, let’s do it. Commissioner Mullady said he doesn’t remember with other fests doing repairs with infrastructure. Director Heitz needs to talk with the city tomorrow to let them know what we decide on. Commissioner Hollis said the mayor is excited about this event. Commissioner Skelly asked how much is it to rent Pioneer for nonprofit? They are going to pay $300. Commissioner Tucker asked what the security plan? That’s the city. We would be able to pull garbage because it’s on a regular route. They should pull the bags and have them set out. Commissioner Hollis said they are going to have a lot of volunteers. They could have them ready to help load the bags on our trucks and make it smooth for us. They need to pay for the cleaning if we can move some portolets. $135 a day and/or $100 to clean. $715 for all 3 and cleaning.

There are 2 bathrooms inside the building at Pioneer. They would need to go through the city to have pot holes patched. The board is ok with giving trash bags, 2-3 bleachers, garbage cans, pull garbage daily, and give them picnic tables. They can pay for the portolets. That will be the extent of our donation. Will look to see if we have portolets to move over. We will type it up as to everything we agreed too. If we have to spend extra time picking up etc, write that into what we give them. Commissioners asked how much the community is involved? Commissioner Hollis said a lot. Working hand in hand with them.

Commissioner Tucker talked about Old Fair, the bathrooms are inoperable.

Journey of Womanhood/Manhood Request-

She’s asking for donations to help cover food. This is a request for donation of the pavilion at Cobb Park. Commissioner Hollis asked how much the non profit rate is? $42.50. She is working on her 501c3. She gave us a booklet on what she’s done. The daily journal did a write up on her. Commissioner Hollis said she is going to have to pay for the pavilion. She would need insurance. If she is providing food and it’s a special event, then that requires insurance. Commissioner Spriggs said we are asking other groups for insurance, need to get it from her as well. Has to pay full price and insurance.

Merchant Street Music Fest Request-

They will pick up the 2 ticket booths and bring them back to us.

Bishop McNamara Request-

This is for across country meet. They said we provided a staff member for the Civic Center? Commissioner Spriggs said this is an annual event. In the past we didn’t have staff, there was a problem with cleanliness. It’s probably a good idea. If we had someone there the whole time. Want permission from us to do this again. They would have to pay for the staff person for the entire time they are there.

Rec Center Hours of Operation-

We included a report about what’s going on at the Rec Center and adding hours. The report shows strictly wages. We are running it at a loss. Commissioner Skelly thought we were limiting hours to try and save us the cost. Director Heitz said we are trying to service the youth. We aren’t getting the kids in. We have marketed it. Website, Facebook, on the door, in the parks, etc. Have really tried to get the word out. Director Heitz said last year with full staff, in 3 months, we had lost $25,000 in the summer. We aren’t that high of a loss because we don’t have the staff. Can’t continue to run at a deficit without direction. Commissioner Tucker said we have been trying to bring the kids in, now we are going to stop it? He’s comfortable with that. Of all the things we are doing in the District are we making profit. Yes. Commissioner Tucker said if we are going to look at numbers, he wants to see everything. Just to target the Rec Center, he would like to see the bigger picture. Director Heitz stated this is what has been requested. When appropriate, we provide P&L for Ice Valley and River Road. Commissioner Hollis said this is not enough sample size. We have sat here and said if we lose something with Splash Valley, that’s the price of doing business. The kids that are coming in, it’s keeping them off the street. There is something else we can make up this deficit in. There are some things we won’t make money in, this is a small sample size. Director Heitz said we do have the kids coming in on the regular schedule. It’s the extra time we have added that they are not attending. Commissioner Tucker wants to see where we are going high and where we are going low, does that create balance. Director Heitz said we have River Road and Ice Valley. Ice Valley has been covering utilities and payroll. River Road barely makes money. Commissioner Spriggs asked why we are having that activity at the Rec Center? If we are only getting that many kids, put them in another location. Commissioner Tucker said we are here to service the kids. Let’s have some consistency and then reassess. Commissioner Skelly asked what a good timeline would be? Commissioner Hollis said until they go back to school. Commissioner Skelly said this board has been through a lot financially. We do need to service our population but also there is an agreement of things we can’t do for awhile. We aren’t talking about the utilities. Why did we start this the end of June? What prompted us to start this midstream? The board should have talked about it before it was decided. Commissioner Hollis said at the other board meeting we had some community members that had some concerns. They said the kids were saying the Rec wasn’t open. Commissioner Hollis’ personal opinion is if we lose a certain amount of money, he is very interested with working other community organizations to get some grants. There have to be some that can help supplement us. If we lose $3000 this summer on this program, and we serviced 50-60 kids, it’s worth it. Commissioner Spriggs said how much are we willing to lose? Commissioner Hollis said we all have all said it’s the price of doing business. Need to find creative ways to generate some money. He believes we are not serving the kids. Commissioner Spriggs asked why it has to be that building? Commissioner Hollis said it’s walking distance from some of their homes. We need to do better in figuring out some type of programming and how to make this better. Commissioner Spriggs said Commissioner Tucker is right, we have to finish the summer. Commissioner Skelly said the community concerns from the last meeting, we are addressing the 3 people that came. It may only be a few thousand, figure out how to make the money first, then spend it. Commissioner Spriggs said that’s how we ended up like we were. Can’t borrow to pay something else. Before we decide on something like this, let’s talk about it as a board. We have meetings every 2 weeks or we could call a special meeting. Didn’t know until after the fact. We asked her from day 1 to give us these reports, and appreciate getting them. Commissioner Hollis said we won’t always agree, at the end of the day perception is reality. Commissioner Skelly said or if we keep going, we will look bad. Commissioner Hollis said lets go through the summer and see if it’s not making money. We come back with the numbers at the end of the summer, try to make it better. Commissioner Spriggs said we aren’t supposed to lose, not trying to make money but don’t want to lose. Director Heitz asked when do you want to see reports? Commissioner Skelly said we need to be careful, that’s how we end up in a mess. Commissioner Tucker asked what can we do to make it better? Commissioner Spriggs said we have to chalk this up to a loss.

Tentative Budget & Appropriation Ordinance-

Information is not available tonight. Would the board want to have a separate meeting to go over the budget? Will look to approve at the August board meeting. Commissioner can schedule a meeting with Director Heitz to go over the budget.

Department Reports:

Building & Grounds-

Rick Collins:

Removed limestone from Beckman. Removed dirt piles at Washington. Completed mulch project there as well. Still doing well at Ice Valley. Met with the state for the splash pad. We have installed new gauges and added some pipes and got the chemicals going. They will come back on Wednesday cor another inspection. We removed the building down by the Quarry.

Commissioner Spriggs asked about Washington Park? Is there a plan to get rid of the rest of the stuff? Yes. What about the berm at Cobb Park. Could we level it? Lots of weeds. The tree at the bandshell? Dangerous and terrible eyesore. Trash cans at Fisherman park? They have been missing the cans. Rick will look into all of these.

Commissioner Tucker asked about Pioneer Park? The hedges are growing high. Rick said it’s already taken care of.

Commissioner Hollis said thanks for the work at Washington Park.

Rick said they will get all the way down past the concrete at Washington Park. Also are replacing the slide in Pine Park.

Recreation-

Melissa Woodard:

Started working on the summer softball tournament schedule. Have had some rainouts so the schedule has been pushed back. Youth Basketball Fundamentals class will start on July 12 and run for 3 weeks. Been working to increase our presence on Facebook. Have done several boosts and special posts. Our page “likes” have gone up. Continue to stay on top of bills and completed tournament billing for Gerry.

Ice Valley-

Angie Tousignant:

Hired 4 new staff. Trained and on the schedule. Talked about the upcoming events. Building maintenance in the process of painting. Done the 2 party rooms and the lower lobby. Met with Kankakee Irish for a 3 on 3 tournament. Commissioner Tucker asked about the assistant gm position. She has one currently. He asked about the training she mentioned? It’s for her skating instructors, it’s free. Commissioner Spriggs commended Angie on that she looks him in the eye and always have an answer.

Ariana Padilla-

Facility rentals are booking up for the summer pavilions. Trained the new Rec Center open gym monitors. Parking passes are selling. Addressing all splash pad calls. Campground is open. We have a box where they can leave the money if not prepaid.

Commissioner Skelly asked about a gentleman that is homeless and has an RV. Has solar panels to power his trailer. Would we want to entertain him for camp host? Would have someone there 24/7. He also asked how much money we have gotten from the meters? About $1800 and that’s only 1 meter.

Administrative & Finance:

First month of the fiscal year. We are being very frugal because we haven’t received our taxes yet.

Have we looked into the credit card system for the rewards? Director Heitz will follow up.

Executive Director:

Dayna Heitz:

School district did sign their agreement. Talked with the BMX and they know we didn’t approve their agreement. Prevailing wage was posted on the website and mailed to IDOL. Commissioner Tucker asked about prevailing wage? Does it affect if a sponsor agreement wants to put up a fence? It’s through the sponsor group so doesn’t have to go through the district.

A baseball went through a car window of a resident that lives across from Alpiner. Commissioner Spriggs said maybe get some signage about us not being responsible.

Splash Pad will be inspected again on Wednesday. Checking chemicals and flow meters. Commissioner Spriggs asked if we really need to get it up and running in the middle of July? We don’t have anything for the kids with water. If we have it open like you did before in the morning for rentals and then 12-4pm for the public. Then possibly from 5-8pm.

Will start to have some tree work done. Will start at River Road. Estes Tree Care will be doing the work.

Commissioner Tucker said we have hired in maintenance and Rec Center. Could we get a number of how many we have hired since the summer.

Commissioner Mullady left at 6:42.

Dayna, Rick & John met with Larry Ozinga, Dave Crawford, and Cliff Cross. Will research River Road bathrooms to see if there was something we could get to fix the bathrooms. Will have another meeting next Wednesday at 8am. Commissioner Spriggs said Larry Ozinga initiated this and everyone was receptive.

Commissioners Forum:

Commissioner Hollis said he and Dayna will meet to go over her evaluation this Wednesday or Friday. Will have executive session at next board meeting to report back. Talked with Angie with compliments that she is doing well at Ice Valley. Commissioner Hollis stated there are some things that we do they are never going to hear, but we are stepping up what we do for the community. We are actually now starting to build relationships again. We can start to grow and work together.

Commissioner Skelly said he wasn’t super happy at the last meeting with changes to agenda. He has been asking as a board member to get the foundation on the agenda. At the last meeting we had a gentleman that came 2 hours to talk to us. Commissioner Hollis said when that was moved around on the agenda, he felt that at the time of making the agenda, we were expecting a lot of people to be here for public comment. After they had driven 2 hours, didn’t want them to listen to the public comment. Commissioner Skelly said we also had a 6pm meeting with Blue Ribbon and they were pushed back. We work for this community, lets serve them. Consistency is key. If we are expecting trouble or not, take the criticism and move on.

Executive Session

Adjourn Meeting:

A motion to adjourn the meeting was made at 6:52pm by Commissioner Spriggs, seconded by Commissioner Hollis. Upon voice vote, all ayes, motion carried.

Official Reports:

1. Audit Firm

2. Women’s Club

3. Unity Fest

4. Journey of Womanhood/Manhood Request

5. Merchant Street Music Fest Request

6. Bishop McNamara

7. Rec Center Hours of Operation

8. Budget & Appropriation Ordinance

9. Buildings & Grounds

10. Recreation

11. Ice Valley