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Home My WebLink About2007-03-05 Regular Meeting Parks and Leisure Services Board March 5,2007 CALL TO ORDER The regular meeting of the Parks and Leisure Services Board was called to order at 7:05 p.m. on Monday, March 5, 2007, in the Council Chambers of the Euless City Hall building by Chairman Eric Owens. Other Board Members present: Carroll Scott, Randy Jones, Boyce Byers and alternates John Elder and Everett Hartzler. Members absent: John Raab, Stacey Hollinger and alternate Sonja Adams. Staff members present: Director of Parks and Community Services Ray McDonald, Parks Superintendent Terry Boaz, Parks Manager Johnnie Green, Recreation Center Supervisor Randy Smith and Administrative Secretary Linda Lux. Visitors present: Billy Owens, Bill Byers, Council Member Leon Hogg and Council Member Charlie Miller. INVOCATION Randy Jones gave the invocation. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Chairman Owens asked if there were any additions or corrections to the minutes from the February 5, 2007 regular meeting. Randy Jones made the motion to approve the minutes as presented and was seconded by Carroll Scott. The vote was unanimous. I. Board Member's Reports Boyce Byers said the only Special Event in February was: • Friday, February 9th at 7:30 p.m. — the Valentine's Day Concert with Trout Fishing in America was held at the Midway Recreation Center. There were 300 people in attendance and everyone had a great time. Parks and Leisure Services Board Page 2 March 5, 2007 Upcoming Events: • Saturday, March 17th at 7:30 p.m. — St. Patrick's Day Party with Beatlegras - Texas Star Golf Course • Wednesday, March 14th from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. — Easter Egg Stuffing party—Midway Recreation Center • Saturday, March 31st from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. —Nighttime Easter Egg Scramble—Parks at Texas Star • Saturday, April 14th from 8:30 a.m. to Noon —Annual Texas Trash Off— Villages of Bear Creek Park • Saturday, April 28th from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and Sunday, April 29th from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. —Arbor Daze—City Hall Campus Carroll Scott said he walked the Preserve at McCormick Park on Saturday morning and he found some debris by the lake, the playground area was very clean and the port-o-lets were also in good shape. He found McCormick Park also clean. John Elder said both South Euless and Heritage parks were in good shape. Randy Jones said there were lots of people at Wilshire Park on his recent visit. He did not have a report on West Park tonight. Everett Hartzler said everything looked nice and clean at the Villages of Bear Creek Park on his visit and there were lots of people having fun in the park. He said he noticed a large dead tree across the creek that had fallen by the road. Chairman Owens said everything looked good at Midway Park. Billy Owens said J.A. Carr Park is in excellent condition. II. Volunteer of the Month Chairman Owens stated the March 2007 Volunteer of the Month is CRES Management. He said this local business sponsored the 2006 Halloween Event and their employees actually participated in the event by handing out candy, balloons and other treats. They also have four (4) subsidiary offices that allow our city to place our special event flyers, posters and recreational brochures in their lobbies in order to inform their residents about our upcoming special events. The following are the four (4) apartment complexes: Cindy Montgomery—The Overlook at Bear Creek, Monday Lopez—Fountain Wood, Jason Bailey—Woodchase and Angela Schmitz—The Enclave. Parks and Leisure Services Board Page 3 March 5,2007 Chairman Owens said they were not able to attend the meeting tonight and their awards would be delivered to them this week. III. Business of the Tree Board Tree Board Vice-Chairman Carroll Scott reported on the following for February: • Finished planting fourteen (14) Chinese Pistache trees along the walkway at Softball World. • Propagated about 200 trees for future use in the parks greenhouse. • Removed failed Pecan tree at Trailwood Park. • Planted two (2)new Red Oaks in the Harwood median. • Made and installed four(4)log benches at Heritage Park. • Began raising canopy of trees at Kiddie Can Park. • Planted ten(10) Chitalpa trees at Midway Park. • Rescued a Red Oak tree from construction at the police station. • City Arborist Troy Cain attended a training class at Fair Park in Dallas. The topics discussed dealt with: (1)wind and drought stress on trees, (2)the effects of construction on trees and(3)mistletoe in trees. • Selected a Red Oak tree to be planted in memory and honor of Mrs. Willie Mae McCormick. IV. Parks and Community Services Reports a. Recreation Report—Randy Smith Recreation/Aquatics Supervisor Randy Smith reported on the following: Midway Recreation Center • Memberships sold - 364 (165 —new and 199—renewals) • Current memberships—4,215 • Class hours provided— 195 Facility Reservations • Total reservations— 185 Parks and Leisure Services Board Page 4 March 5,2007 Parks at Texas Star • "A gue" Lea "AA" League "AAA" League Blastball—9 teams 8U—5 teams 11U—6 teams T-ball—8 teams l0U—5 teams 12U—5 teams Coach Pitch—4 teams 12U—5 teams 13U— 10 teams 10U—4 teams 14U—7 teams 14U—8 teams 12U—3 teams 14U—2 teams 18U—none(these register after UIL season ends) Upcoming Special Events • Wednesday, March 14th — 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. — Easter Egg Stuffing Party - Midway Recreation Center. • Saturday, March 17th - 7:30 p.m. — St. Patrick's Day Party concert featuring Beatlegras - Texas Star Golf Course. This event will be held outdoors in the parking lot. • Saturday, March 31St— 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. —Nighttime Easter Egg Scramble — Parks at Texas Star. Simmons Senior Center • Attendance— 1,272 • Trips—2 • Meals served—268 Chairman Owens thanked Randy for his report tonight. b. Community Services Report—Ray McDonald Director of Parks and Community Services Ray McDonald mentioned the following updates: • Said Suzanne Hendrickson's last day with the city is Wednesday, March 7th and our department will have a small going away function for her on Tuesday, March 6th at 3:30 p.m. at the Texas Star Conference Centre. She is going back home to Bartlesville, Oklahoma as the Director of Parks and Recreation. • Baseball League — we have been overwhelmed with registration and participation for the new league that our department is now handling. Randy and his staff did an excellent job with the registration process at Midway. As of today there are over 950 kids registered and we may in the future need more playing fields for future leagues. We also conducted a Parent's Positive Participation meeting this past weekend with over 200 parents and they had great comments after the meeting and they are looking forward for their kids to have a positive experience this summer. Parks and Leisure Services Board Page 5 March 5,2007 • Saturday, March 17th at 9:00 a.m. will be the Induction into the Walk of Champions for Ed and Marie Harrison at the Parks at Texas Star. The induction will take place inside the athletic complex and we also plan to notify the newspaper and have an article ran on the Harrison's and their many years of involvement with girl's softball and boys baseball. • Ray met with the engineering department last Friday regarding a possible location for the dog park. He will keep the Board Members updated on this project. • We plan to advertise for bids for the trails project through Midway Park soon. • Bids were opened last week for the tile wall project at Midway Recreation Center and this should be forwarded to the council within the next couple of weeks and we hope to have the repairs completed before the end of the school year. • Arbor Daze will be held on Saturday, April 28th and Sunday, April 29th at the city hall complex. We will have some good quality vendors and concessions, speakers and demonstrations for the Forestry Village and great entertainment. There will also be lots of free activities for the kids. The Dr Pepper StarCenter will sponsor the Kidz Zone and Chick-Fil-A is sponsoring the bounce houses. Ray said there will be a city tent and he would like for the Board Members to volunteer at Arbor Daze to promote city events and also to get more citizens involved in the upcoming Texas Round-Up Fitness events. He will prepare a list of time slots for the Board Members to sign up to help in the city tent and the list will be e-mailed to everyone. • The new Texas Round-Up Fitness event will kick off at Arbor Daze and in June we will celebrate the success of citizens who participated in this event. Chairman Owens thanked Ray for his report. V. Other New Business Chairman Owens mentioned the Park Board Appreciation Dinner was canceled due to not enough employees being able to attend and said we will try and reschedule for a later date during the year. VI. Input from City Council Members and Visitors Council Member Leon Hogg said we are seeing lots of good things happening in our city and also in our parks and recreation department. Parks and Leisure Services Board Page 6 March 5,2007 Council Member Charlie Miller commended the PACS staff on the variety of events that are held in our community as well as all the things that are done for the kids. He further stated that the Park Board and staff has done a lot of work in salvaging EAA and saving this program by having our city staff take over the baseball league. This will now let every child be able to participate, play and have a great experience. Council Member Miller expressed his thanks for all the new development in the city and in their keeping our parks open and available for all the new neighborhoods being planned. He further mentioned we have excellent employees working in our city. ADJOURNMENT Chairman Owens gave the benediction. There being no further business to conduct,the meeting was adjourned at7:55 p.m. 4/1/ Chairman Attest