PARKS COMMISSION MEETING
April 6, 2006
ROUTINE BUSINESS: Wynn Cudmore called the meeting to order at 9:00 am. Jeff explained that Public Works is combining some of their departments to provide better service to customers. This will include ES moving their office location out to the Silverton Rd. complex. With this move, Diana will be staying downtown and the PC would be getting a new admin support person. Carol Ault was introducedto the PC group as she will now be providing their support.
MEMBERS PRESENT: Wynn Cudmore, Michael Higgs, Jyll Smith, John Brandt, Robert Garrett
MEMBERS ABSENT: Laura Dowlan
RECORDER: Diana Shamberger
GUEST: None
STAFF PRESENT: Jeff Bickford, Tanya Beard, Diana Shamberger, Carol Ault
APPROVAL OF MINUTES:Motion: Jyll moved to approve the previous meeting minutes. The motion was seconded.
Results: Minutes approved as written.
PUBLIC COMMENT: None
PARKS COMMISSIONER INPUT: None
Parks Coordinator interview results: Nine applicants were interviewed and Russ Dilley was selected. He currently is working for Silver Falls State Park and will be starting for us next week after attending NEO on April 11 and 12. One of the first projects Russ will take on is the first development stage of Auburn Park. This project needs to be completed before the end of June or we could lose the park. Because the park was initially gained from a grant, we are required to do a certain amount of improvements. These improvements will include a soccer field, regular mowing, and then the installation of play equipment. We will be installing some used and some new play equipment. Tanya has prepared several spreadsheets lining out park maintenance tasks so the new parks coordinator will have a good idea of what needs to be done, which includes a list of immediate tasks and then a next step task list. These documents should provide some guidance for him. The parks coordinator position was modified to include a broader range of more technical duties, i.e. management planning, grant writing, financial planning, etc.
Final results/discussion BMX track: Jason estimates it will take approximately two months to build the new facility after they get some good weather. The final approval process went smoothly. Tanya thanked Mike for representing the Parks Commission during the board presentation. Tanya has already previewed the actual site and walked through the area to be used for the BMX area. One of the park’s adjacent landowners was on hand when Tanya was reviewing the site. He still wasn’t pleased with the project in the proximity of his property. Tanya explained that the project has been officially approved and that we would appreciate any feedback from the facility if there are any problems. She also reminded him there will be an annual review of how the facility is impacting the area and to determine if there are any problems with the new park use. Tanya is working on limiting parking to keep folks parked in the appropriate areas.
PARK UPDATES:
Cain property issue: There was initially a concern that the property was not actually deeded to parks. The question has been resolved and it is definitely a parks property. The discussion centered on how to decide what to do with the property. Because of the county’s new weed ordinance, we need to consider the cost of controlling any noxious weeds on the property. One suggestion was to sell and use the money for some other parks acquisition; however there are still access issues. Jeff asked everyone to take a little time to come up with some ideas on what we might do with the property. John was in favor of just holding on to the property as an investment.
Tanya gave the PC a brief update on the newly created Weed Advisory Board. With the reimplementation of this board, the county will now have the authority to work with property owners on weed abatement. Some property owners were disappointed that some weeds such as blackberries won’t be included on the noxious list. Currently, there is virtually no way to contain blackberries, reed canary grass, or even scotch broom. Tanya explained that the County would like to concentrate our efforts on weeds that we still have a chance to contain. The group will be working in cooperation with Marion County Soil and Conservation District and other associations. The combined effort can pool resources to help contain weeds and gain grant monies. We would also work towards re-vegetation of areas cleared of weeds to fill in open spaces with appropriate vegetation. Tanya also talked about how private maintenance agreements function and how we will be working with property owners. John asked about how we will be handling weeds adjacent to non-county parks, i.e. Keizer Rapids. Tanya explained that we do have an easement in place to gain access. That would be the same situation for the Stayton Park as well. Jyll asked about any plans for weed education. Tanya said because the formation of the weed advisory board hasn’t been completed yet, no plans are in place yet. She explained that a lot of materials on education are easily available on-line and through other agencies programs. Tanya plans to work with the Statesman Journal to come up with an educational outreach program. With the public being aware of these problems, they can pitch in and help to control weeds. Wynn mentioned using bugs to controls weeds. Tanya said that would of course be part of the county’s plan. We would also be working with the invasive weed species organization for funding. She will also be working with a cooperative weed management area and may be gaining a $7,500.00 grant to control False Broome at Minto Park. For that project we will be using Aqua Master to treat that weed as it is approved for use near water.
SDC (System Development Charges) presentations: Jeff said we are currently reviewing SDC’s. There was a work session scheduled at the end of March, unfortunately it was postponed to late May or June. Tanya and Jeff put together a plan to raise our current fees to $800 as they are currently way below market compared to other regional areas. Currently we are only generating $35,000 per year. If the proposed increase in fees was confirmed, it would almost quadruple the current funds.
Parks Budget: Jeff explained the direction he received was anything extra from general funds included in this year’s budget, i.e. parks patrol and parks master plan, would not be supported. We should consider asking for Spongs Landing equipment in next year’s budget. Good news, we will still be funding Aumsville Pond trail project with this year’s SDCs.
Staff Updates: Tanya recently provided a presentation on Boonesteele Park for the native plant society. Last month, she talked in Eugene and next month she will be providing a tour on native plants for a Mother’s Day walk at Silver Falls State Park. She is planning a “mommy and me walk” and will also be working on a “find me” project for her tour. In July, she will be speaking for the Master Gardeners group in Polk County, which is now cancelled until Fall.
Property adjacent to North Fork Park for sale/trade: Frank Lumber and a private owner currently own approximately 17 acres adjacent to North Fork Park and are interested in selling the property. They have contacted us first and the property owner estimates the land value at $200,000. They may even consider a timber for land trade. To equal the land value for timber it would be about 350,000 board feet of lumber for the property. The timber we have available to trade is located at Minto Park and is over 100 acres of wooded area. Some of this timber already needs to be selectively thinned because of the ongoing problems with laminated root rot and some of that timber could provide a portion of usable lumber to be used for the proposed trade. That would be approximately 3000 board feet per acre, which would equal approximately 4 to5 trees per acre for the required amount of lumber for the trade. Frank Lumber would be a great candidate to do a selective cut and do a good job. One other consideration is the proposed canyon trail that might traverse through the park. John asked if a trail could be constructed through the new area. He also asked who had come up with the estimate for the property. Tanya assured him that we would have a separate professional property evaluation. Mike asked about easement access. (Tape recorder malfunctioned) Tanya explained the canyon trail has been in the planning stages since the 1980’s. If we seriously consider the option to harvest this lumber, we would need to consider how the trail would lay out and use the trees harvested from where the trail would be located. Jeff asked the PC their feedback on pursuing this project. Wynn said it was interesting enough to continue with the research on this project. It could be helpful to thin the timber and control the root rot in this area. John gave a little history on a previous project proposed by another timber owner. Jeff said staff would continue to research alternate funding and get an evaluation of the timber/property value.
Park Commission recruiting/interviews: We will be holding interviews in the upcoming weeks for the vacant position.
Park host for canyon area: Laura is not here today for an update. We are currently working on a park host agreement between BLM and MC. This will provide the county a park host presence in the canyon. BLM will provide the place for them to stay and hopefully the final agreement will be signed in time to acquire a host for this summer.
General park status:· Santana Park continues to be a target for graffiti.
· Juvenile crews have already started mowing for us on a bi-weekly basis.
· The park hosts are now out at St. Louis Ponds and have been hired by ODFW. We do provide them some supplies and Tanya has visited with them.
· Crews have been working in our parks clearing winter storm damage and clearing trails. Scotts Mills Park has several trees hanging over the falls so we will be hiring someone to clear the dangerous trees in the next few weeks before the park opens for the season.
· Eola Bend is recovering quite well after spending some time under water during this winter’s heavy rainy season. Luckily, we only had some scouring and lost no major vegetation. We will be backfilling the damaged areas with compost. The picnic benches held in place and the vegetation did its job my holding the soil in place. Jeff said that any repairs would be covered by ES. The area was originally created by the CREP program and funded by ES and the USDA.
· Mike asked what was going on at Parkdale Park with the dirt. Tanya explained that a mitigation project is being completed by widening the area. However, there are still problems with vandalism there.
· Tanya explained the pictures presented to the group from Boonsteele Park. The progress shown is current as of yesterday. The NW Youth Corp group has completed the boardwalk with us supplying the material. They also felled a couple of dangerous trees and cleared a huge quantity of weeds. Wynn commented that the removal of ivy in that park has really improved the opportunity for native vegetation to return to the area. The next step is to put up a sign for the woodland trail. Mike asked if the lumber could be slippery when it gets wet. Tanya said they may have to add some tacky material.
· At Joryville Park, we were recently contacted by the Jory family to hold a family picnic. Unfortunately, current staff was not aware that their family had donated the land for the park and that an agreement was put into place for their family to use the park for annual family events for no charge. However, they haven’t held this event for possibly 10 years. Typically we would charge $75 to reserve a park for the day. They were offended that we asked to charge them for the use. We were able to resolve the issue and waive the fee. This whole event brought up an interesting issue related to alcohol. There currently is no ordinance restricting alcohol use in public areas or parks. Tanya asked if we needed to look at an ordinance related to alcohol use in our parks as it is listed on our parks reservation form. Wynn asked if there was any connection to increased vandalism because of alcohol abuse. Mike explained past experience with city and state parks and what kind of problems had come up. The group also wondered how we could enforce limiting the use of alcohol. John asked what State park policy is and if we make a limitation and said it would need to be consistent for all parks. Tanya has already inquired with our legal staff about our responsibility if we don’t have any regulations, will it leave us liable? They said no, because we didn’t provide the alcohol, or invite its use, we’re not liable. Wynn said for now we won’t take on this challenge. Jeff said we would update our parks reservation form and remove the language concerning the limitation of alcohol. Tanya asked the PC to review the current park regulations to see what might need to be updated or clarified before we print up new forms. In conclusion, any changes to our policy on the use of alcohol would need to be addressed by Marion County’s Legal Department.
Agenda items for the next scheduled PC meeting: Tanya will bring back additional information on the possible park property acquisition - Minto Park timber trade for the Frank Lumber property, update current park regulations, and meet the new parks coordinator.
Next Meeting: Thursday, Aug. 3, 2006, 9: 00 to noon. Tanya will reserve the Santiam room for the upcoming meeting. Tanya will develop an agenda for the next meeting and Diana or Carol will get it out to the group and post it on our web site.
Motion: Mike motioned to adjourn at 11:30 am. The motion was seconded.
Vote: The vote was unanimous in favor.
(These minutes are in draft copy only until final approval at the next scheduled Parks Commission meeting where they will be considered.)
Jeff Bickford approved these minutes