Bettendorf Park Board Meeting Minutes for February 11, 2002

Board discusses fee changes for Life Fitness Center membership

MINUTES
BETTENDORF PARK BOARD
SPECIAL MEETING
FEBRUARY 11, 2002


The Bettendorf Park Board held a special meeting on February 11, 2002, at 4:00 p.m. in the Canteen Room at the Herbert D. Goettsch Community Center.

Present: Adamson, Kamp, Hutter, and Makoben
Absent: Glenn

Rita Van Wetzinga introduced to the Park Board Kassandra Killip as the new intern in the Recreation Division.

Rita reviewed the monthly recreation report, which is annex #1 to these minutes.

Rita requested permission from the Park Board to allow usage of the cross-country course in Crow Creek Park to Pleasant Valley High School for their MAC Conference Meet and their PV Challenge.

On motion by Makoben, seconded by Kamp, to allow usage of the cross-country course in Crow Creek Park to Pleasant Valley High School for their two track meets.

Roll call on motion: Ayes: Adamson, Kamp, Hutter, and Makoben
Nays: None
Absent: Glenn

Rita submitted the latest recreational insert in the Quad City Times and the refrigerator magnet for the Life Fitness Center to the Board.

Rita reviewed the monthly log-in totals for members and general admission, stating that the average for the month of January was 1,023 people per day. She also requested discussion of the fee options proposed in her report for the Life Fitness Center.

Chairman Adamson asked Rita that even if there were money to expand the womenís locker room, would it be possible?

Rita stated that yes, it would. She was in the process of having someone look at it and give her some estimates and suggestions. It involves knocking out the west brick wall. They could gain some dressing area and more lockers. It may involve losing the sauna. All other walls are weight bearing walls.

Steve Grimes mentioned that they had talked about the entrance where they currently enter the tennis courts from the locker room. The womenís locker room is fairly close to the tennis courts already, so this is another option where we could try to pick up the extra locker space. The concern of expanding the locker room is that it would take basically our entire fund balance. Since we are not sure of the impact of the pool or the development of the Y has on us yet, this option could temporarily help the situation without having to draw down on our fund balance as much.

Commissioner Kamp asked how many lockers we could get?

Commissioner Kamp asked if the lockers would be short ones?

Rita said that they come in packages of 2 short and 1 long. So if we ordered 8 long ones, we would get 16 short ones to rent out.

Steve mentioned to the Board members that a decision was not needed today for price options at the Life Fitness Center, but that one should be made by the March meeting. They would need to notify members if fees were going to increase in October. Carol Barnes stated that it would be a reduction of work in their department if we went to a 12-month automatic withdrawal plan instead of a 5-month automatic withdrawal plan, if it were for an ongoing basis. We would need to change some things on our end as well, because we currently re-invoice them every year, and they have to notify us if they want to continue. This new option would mean that their membership would automatically continue unless they notified us within 60 days that they do not wish to continue.

Commissioner Makoben asked why we have to charge a $15.00 service charge for automatic withdrawal?

Rita and Steve both stated that the banks charge us a standard fee for setting up the automatic withdrawal.

Steve stated that he could find out from the finance department by next month what percentage of members used the automatic withdrawal payment option.

Rita asked the Board members for their thoughts on the proposed plans due to the fact that a decision needs to be made by next month.

Commissioner Makoben stated he would like to go with Option #2 for two years.

Steve suggested not putting any kind of timeframe on the decision. This way you have options in the future of increasing or not increasing fees without any timeframe restrictions.

Commissioner Kamp asked the Board members what they thought about having different fees for residents and non-residents.

Commissioner Makoben stated he would like to get rid of the difference.

Commissioner Hutter stated he liked having the differential rates. It was his experience around the country that most cities charged different rates.

Chairman Adamson stated that there should be some difference.

Rita commented that if they were going to keep the resident/non-resident rates, she suggests keeping that difference small. She receives complaints especially from people that live in the 52807 zip code and send their children to the Bettendorf schools.

Chairman Adamson stated that they donít pay city taxes.

Steve stated that right now, the difference ranges from $30-$100.

Rita stated that we had several charges as a city-operated facility that we cannot control that the Y does not have. These charges are from other City departments, i.e. Information Services and administration charges. Adding the lap pool put a strain on our staff costs and utilities.

Kamp asked if there was anyway we could figure revenue on any of these options.

Rita explained that there is no way to project how many packages may be sold. A lot of families and seniors would take advantage of the package options with golf.

Steve stated that this is something we may have to adjust after one year. See which package is being used more often than others. The fees may have to go up or down depending on the usage of these as well.

Rita stated that if we could put together a nice package for these families, it would be a good benefit for us.

Stu Smith reviewed his monthly parks maintenance report which is annex #2 to these minutes. He stated that they were currently on hold on projects at this time, but were working on repairing picnic tables, repairing trailers, rebuilding a couple of boat docks, and repairing some equipment. He also mentioned they were getting prices and ordering supplies for the upcoming season.

Commissioner Makoben asked about the dredging.

Stu stated that he would hear something around mid-March. He did not want to award anything until they heard more about the grant.

Brad Peterson was absent and will review the golf course maintenance monthly report at Wednesdayís meeting.

Steve Grimes reviewed the administration monthly report, which is annex #3 to these minutes.

Steve mentioned that the city had been approached by a cellular company about putting up a 180-foot cellular tower in an area by Leach Park. He told them we were not in favor, however, the aesthetics of the park would not be affected too much, nor would it have a direct impact on the park. He stated further that this area was not on the list of areas the Park Board disapproved of in the past. It was private property, so it was their choice.

He also mentioned the state of the City budget currently. He explained that next year they are looking at a $0.25 levy increase to cover the cost of liability insurance and health insurance premium increases. They may even look at an even higher levy. They are also reducing overtime across the board, not filling vacant positions, looking at early retirement, making a 30% transfer from gaming monies into the operating budget, reducing the fund balance down to 20%, freezing the operating budgets for all departments, allowing zero capital purchases due to hotel/motel tax being reduced, local sales tax and interest revenue being down. They are also looking at a sewer use fund, reducing bonding on capital projects by two million per year, and reducing vehicle and equipment replacement funds. They are taking some dramatic cuts and if the hotel/motel tax doesnít improve, next year will be the same, if not worse. They will either come up with another levy increase, transfer more from the gaming funds, or implementing a garbage fee. These are all recommendations at this point. Just to keep the Board aware of what is going on due to the difficult financial times currently.

Steve also commented on the Band Shell Road Project. He would like to re-bid that next month since the money was set aside in the CIP and we should know about the pool bids and funds at that time. He and Stu recommend bidding only for asphalt this time since it was sufficient enough and cheaper.

Chairman Adamson asked why not just get the bids anyway?

Steve said that we did get the bid last time and it was approximately $30,000-40,000 higher for concrete.

Chairman Adamson stated that he thought it would look better if we had concrete to match the existing concrete. He thought putting in asphalt would look like we just ran out of money to finish the job.

Stu commented that that was exactly the case. We canít afford concrete at this time, but would like to have a hard surface.

Chairman Adamson asked how far the asphalt would cover?

Stu said it would cover all the way to 25th Street.

Steve stated that they would look at putting in speed "humps" in blacktop. Vehicles would have to slow down to 15-20mph in order to not bottom out.

Chairman Adamson agreed to obtain bids for the project.

Steve discussed the schedule for the Splash Landing Renovation Project. The pre-bid meeting is February 27th where they would discuss the timeframe, all the details, the liquidated damages, and the summer schedule with all the contractors. The bids are due March 6th, and they would award the project at their March Board meeting.

Steve also discussed the letter sent to the pool pass holders two weeks ago stating the fees were $2 for adults and $1 for children for the upcoming year. We had actually approved to go with last yearís rates of $3 and $2. Monty had made the revenue projections based on that approved rate. Last year, we brought in around $20,000 during the months of July and August, so it would be a potential loss of up to $10,000 this year. We could send a post card correction out to the season pass holders letting them know it was $3 and $2.

Chairman Adamson asked if we are doing season passes this year?

Steve said that we are not selling season passes this year due to the limitations.

Rita asked the Board members to be sure to read her report where she recommends not selling season passes next year as well. She would like to get rid of them altogether.

Chairman Adamson asked if any of the Board members had any thoughts about this.

Commissioner Hutter stated that he didnít have any problem with leaving it at $2 and $1.

Commissioner Makoben agreed to leave it alone.

On motion by Hutter, seconded by Makoben to lower fees for the summer 2002 general admission into Splash Landing to $2 for adults and $1 for children.

Roll call on motion: Ayes: Adamson, Kamp, Hutter, and Makoben
Nays: None
Absent: Glenn

Rita expressed concerns with having the zero-depth pool open during this season with blowing dirt and it limited to being open for only two months.

Commissioner Hutter said we will have to see what the pre-bid meeting brings.

Steve reviewed the final portion of his report regarding the schedule for the upcoming Iowa Parks and Recreation Association conference in Waterloo, Iowa on March 25th, 26th, and 27th. He has not received any information on it yet, but he will need to know who is interested in attending before then.

Steve mentioned the results of the bid for the retaining wall along Duck Creek which took place at 10:00am this morning. There were seven bidders and Hawkeye Paving submitted the low bid at $34,400. He recommended approving to award the contract to Hawkeye Paving for this construction.

On motion by Hutter, seconded by Adamson to award the contract to Hawkeye Paving for the construction of the retaining wall along Duck Creek in the amount of $34,400.00.

Roll call on motion: Ayes: Adamson, Kamp, Hutter, and Makoben
Nays: None
Absent: Glenn

Steve reviewed the results of the bid for the concessionaire of the Crow Creek Concession Stand. Only one bid was received from Hungry Boy Deli in Moline, Illinois, proposing to receive 10% of the gross revenues. He will be meeting with the owner of Hungry Boy Deli, Louis Poulimas, at the concession stand Tuesday, February 12, 2002 to review everything and answer any questions. Greg Jager has reviewed the lease agreement. Steve suggested waiting to award the contract until Wednesdayís meeting in case any questions arise.

On motion by Makoben, seconded by Hutter, the meeting was adjourned at 4:57 p.m.


Adamson (Chairman)

Kamp (Vice Chairman)