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PR09-01-2020Min PARKS AND RECREATION ADVISORY BOARD LONGWOOD CITY COMMISSION CHAMBERS 175 WEST WARREN AVENUE LONGWOOD, FLORIDA MINUTES September 1, 2020 (Virtual Meeting—Webex) Present: David Putz, Chair Jim Vogel, Vice-Chair Judi Coad, Member Lori Rice, Member Teresa Ray, Member Amber Sackett, Member Chris Capizzi, Leisure Services Director Ryan Rinaldo, Recreation Coordinator Donna L. Alt-Bowes, Recording Secretary Absent: Jessica Peters, Member 1. CALL TO ORDER. Chair Putz called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Mayor Morgan and City Clerk, Michelle Longo presented the Board Members with an appreciation gift from the City of Longwood for their time and dedication to the City of Longwood and the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board. 2. PUBLIC INPUT. None. 3. ACTION ITEMS. A. Approve Minutes from August 4, 2020 Member Rice moved to approve the minutes from August 4, 2020, as presented. Seconded by Member Vogel and carried by a unanimous voice vote with Member Peters absent. Chair Putz said he listened to the August meeting and some people were too close to their microphones and were garbled, but others were just fine. He said the meeting was 2 hours and 7 minutes long and the minutes were eleven (11) pages long, which is a lot to read. He commented that we should speed the meeting up a little bit and mentioned that if your report is going to be longer than five (5) minutes it should be an agenda item. He said it is a long time to keep staff and everyone here for this meeting. P&R 09-01-2020/1 Member Coad said even if you move it to an Agenda Item, the same discussion is going to be held so it does not change the time. Discussion ensued about the length of the Board meeting. B. Fall/Winter Events Mr. Capizzi said we are postponing the Pirate Seafood Festival to March 27th and 28th in 2021. There was a concern about the number of people that could potentially attend the event. We are canceling the Trunk or Treat event and we will be postponing the Chili Cook-Off to February 13, 2021. We have filled October with some small scale events. October 10 will be a Project Opioid Event at Reiter Park. There will be vendors and speakers for this event. It will be from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. but could be expanded. On October 17, we are doing Movie Night with a Purpose and are teaming up with Operation Underground Railroad. They advocate against child trafficking which is a serious situation throughout the world. We will be showing "A Dog's Purpose". It will take place from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. There will be food trucks as well as a couple of speakers. On October 25, we will be hosting the Concert in the Park and the Citizens Emergency Response Team (CERT) will be at the event. On September 19, there will also be a Concert in the Park. The band is Color Blind Dinosaur and they play Rock 'n Roll music. He said Orlando Health will be present as the event sponsor. Mr. Capizzi advised the Board that the Orlando Health signs have been installed at Reiter Park on the amphitheater and the splash pad. He said it looks great. The Car Show, Farmer's Market, and Food Truck events are doing well. We have until September 21st to decide on whether to hold the Fall Festival. Staff spoke with WTDI and asked them what the last possible date would be to make this decision. They want to make an informed decision based on what is going on around us in society as far as COVID-19 safety is concerned. The longer we can hold off, the better informed we will be. We will have to decide on the December events not too much later. Regardless of whether we have the December events, they will have to be amended a little bit. He said Member Coad is aware of this situation about a possible change for Celebrate the Season. Bounce houses are not feasible at this time. We are doing a lot more than other surrounding cities. He said we were one (1) of two (2) municipalities that had a successful Summer Camp Program. Member Rice asked staff to discuss National Night Out. Mr. Capizzi said we will be postponing National Night Out in the best interest of the actual event. He discussed the decision to postpone the event to a later date. Member Coad asked if there were any fees for the aquatic program this summer. Mr. Capizzi said we did have a $4,000 fee for Longwood Aquatics that he is going to roll into next year since it was not used this year. P&R 09-01-2020/2 Member Rice asked if that comes out of the Community Relations budget. Mr. Capizzi said it was erroneously not put into the budget this year which prompted us to take the $4,000 from the Miscellaneous New Event fund. Member Coad asked for clarification of Mr. Capizzi's statement about where the money came from for Longwood Aquatics. Mr. Capizzi said it is not in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2020/2021 budget because we paid for it in the current FY budget and did not use the service due to COVID-19. Discussion ensued concerning the line item for Longwood Aquatics. Chair Putz asked about the BBQ and Chili Cook-Off and inquired about it not happening until after the New Year. Mr. Capizzi confirmed that it will not happen until after the new year. Chair Putz asked if a decision was made to combine the event with BBQ and Chili. Mr. Capizzi said he thinks we are going to breach that with the Police again because they were thinking the event would occur in November. The Police Department (PD) was not wanting to do a combined event. They were wanting to turn it into a BBQ event and had several potential teams that were ready to sign up for BBQ from the PD and Fire Department (FD). He said he has not been able to speak with Lt. Adam Bryant for several weeks on the matter and now that it is postponed we will have to bring it up to him again and see what he thinks. 4. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS Member Sackett had no report. Vice-Chair Vogel reported and advised staff about wanting to take over the Parks project. Mr. Capizzi asked Vice-Chair Vogel to contact him and he would get him set up. He said most of the parks are in good shape. We are slowly trying to revamp parks as we go and try to do something every year on at least one (1) of the parks in the City. Member Rice thanked Member Vogel for doing that. She said she used to visit a lot of the parks a lot more often than she does now. She would report graffiti and knows that the staff is out there occasionally checking on things, but something like graffiti can happen and left without being noticed for a handful of days. Mr. Capizzi said as of this Spring we have a specific checklist that is adhered to every day by the Parks Supervisor about certain things like wasp nests, ant piles, and graffiti. P&R 09-01-2020/3 Member Rice asked if that was for every park, every day. Mr. Capizzi said yes. Member Rice advised Member Vogel that he should not find anything. Mr. Capizzi responded to Member Rice and said this is not always the case because if something happens after the Parks Supervisor has done his park check then he will not be aware of it until the next morning. Member Rice reported and said with the postponement of National Night Out on October 6, she would like to make the following motion: Member Rice moved to hold the Board meeting on October 6, 2020, in the Commission Chambers since National Night Out has been canceled. Seconded by Member Vogel and carried by a unanimous voice vote with Member Peters absent. Member Rice continued her board report and asked Mrs. Alt-Bowes to remove "Candyland Park" from the Agenda and change the time. Mrs. Alt-Bowes advised Member Rice that it would not be on the next Agenda since it is the next meeting. Member Rice suggested making some updates to the Facebook page in light of the Chili Cook-Off being canceled. She asked about doing a post on the page which has information letting the public know that it is still an active page. Mr. Rinaldo said yes,they just decided to postpone the event last week. Mr. Capizzi said we can do that. We did not decide on the Chili Cook-Off until about a week and a half ago and we should be able to update the page easily. Member Rice asked the staff if they wanted to speak about shade structure under the staff report. Mr. Capizzi said he feels that is something Member Rice has undertaken and she can feel free to discuss it. Member Rice said this would be the time to bring up any ideas or suggestions and if someone would like to pursue the parks and consider a need for shade somewhere. She said that she has spoken with staff recently about a location suggestion and reminded everyone that October is the opening of the grant opportunity which is why she wanted to talk about it now. P&R 09-01-2020/4 Member Coad asked Member Rice to give the Board the recommendation from the staff. She said she knows some suggestions in the past were not feasible. Member Rice said she could do that. She would like to entertain all considerations. In speaking with the staff, she learned that the shade structure can go over an eatery area. She said there is a fantastic place at Reiter Park that will serve all of the public and it is also used by children. This area is in between the new palm trees covering the new row of picnic tables. She said you can have a long rectangle shade structure over the picnic tables. The palm tree lights will be going up in a little different fashion than the last time which is good because they will be amenable to allowing us to have a shade structure there. She spoke about how it would not be feasible to do shade structures over the splash pad or playground. With the new information that she received about sizing and pricing, the aforementioned opportunity by the palm trees would be much more affordable to undertake. Member Ray said it sounds wonderful. Member Coad said she was glad to know we are allowed to put something in there now. In the past, we have discussed wanting some kind of sheltered cover there and it was not feasible under the old set up. Mr. Capizzi said he would still need to take this to the Commission and let them know this is what the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board would like to do. He said he feels it is prudent to get their opinion and approval on the situation. Member Coad said she is in total agreement with that. She said from the information that was sent to them and the dollar amount we are talking about, she does not think we can do something big enough to even contemplate the splash pad properly and have a proper look, although that would be nice. She would like to have a huge rectangular/triangle shade structure where the play area is but that is massive and would need to span a large distance over the playground and hill. She thinks Member Rice came up with a good solution. Mr. Capizzi said that he and Member Rice along with Mr. Rinaldo noted if it is not feasible because of the lighting situation, the grassy space right next to the decomposed granite, could be used as a picnic area. If we do that, we could certainly put picnic tables under there too. Member Rice said we would not qualify for a grant with a sail structure. She said they do not allow those types of shade structures to qualify. It has to have four (4) poles. Member Coad said three-pole structures would not have worked for them even if we had the money. Chair Putz asked if everyone understood where these are going and said that he does not understand where they are talking about. P&R 09-01-2020/5 Member Rice explained to Chair Putz where she is talking about and said they would not be covering the whole area due to the palm trees. Mr. Capizzi told Chair Putz that the structures would potentially be ten (10)to twelve (12) feet wide and twenty (20)to thirty (30) feet long. He said this is all contingent upon the lighting. Chair Putz asked about moving it over to the grassy area. Mr. Capizzi said we would probably take the grass out underneath the structure. Chair Putz asked if it will be the same size structure if moved to the grassy area. Mr. Capizzi said we would probably have a little more space over there because it is more open. Chair Putz asked if it was more costly to do a bigger one. Mr. Capizzi said yes, it is more costly. Anything past fourteen (14) feet tends to get a little more expensive. Member Rice said they all received the email that had a lot of examples of sizes and pricing. Mr. Capizzi said he would resend the email to Chair Putz and Member Sackett. Discussion ensued about having the correct email for Chair Putz. Member Coad asked if the grant was for$3,000. Mr. Capizzi said the grant is for up to $8,000. Member Coad asked if we have to match whatever we get from the grant. Mr. Capizzi replied yes. Member Rice moved to have the shade structure grant for the eatery area at Reiter Park sent to the Commission for approval and to apply for a matching grant through the American Dermatological Association. Member Rice said staff has already found a Dermatologist that is willing to write a letter to satisfy the grant. Over the last two (2) years staff has plenty of sun safety examples which is part of the grant requirement on how we have become a Sun Safe City. Seconded by Member Coad and carried by a unanimous voice vote with Member Peters absent. P&R 09-01-2020/6 Member Ray had no report. Member Coad reported and thanked Member Vogel for picking up the other parks and Member Ray for taking on the Chili Cook-Off and moving it forward. She asked about the dollar amount for the parts of Reiter Park's banners and if we still had the same dollar amount. Mr. Capizzi replied yes, and asked if Member Coad was going to talk about the banners. Member Coad said yes, briefly. Mr. Capizzi advised Member Coad that the Commission had followed up with him about the other banner program and asked for additional information. He said he reached out to CGI Communications and they updated their contract and he has been asked to put it back on the next Commission Meeting Agenda. He said we are looking at banners along County Road 427. Member Coad said Celebrate the Season will look different this year if we can put it on. Due to COVID, we may have to eliminate the games to adhere to social distancing guidelines. She suggested starting the event with the lighting of the Christmas Tree. Then we could have Santa and Mrs. Claus arrive and sit on the Arbor Deck. Instead of children sitting on their laps, we could have Santa and Mrs. Claus facing out towards the audience with an elf holding the microphone so each child can share their wishes for Christmas. This would provide the social distancing allowed. We can hand out an ornament to them when they are done. She also suggested having entertainment on the stage, a short Christmas movie, and having someone read The Night Before Christmas from the stage. Food trucks and characters roaming around could be a possibility as well and then end it with a Laser Light Show depending on the volunteers and what is going on during that time frame. Mr. Rinaldo shared with us at the last meeting that the train and the ice skating rink are hanging ten and we have to decide soon. She said we put out a lot of money for those two (2) items and she does not like having to waste it if it is something we do not have to deal with. She asked if anyone had suggestions on an activity that might be feasible to do with social distancing but there was no response from the Board. She said if you come up with something, and we are not here, please feel free to let Mr. Capizzi and Mr. Rinaldo know and we will try to work it in. The food trucks should not be an issue if we decide to have food that night. She commented on sponsorship being a concern. She said as you know we get a lot of money at this event by contacting a lot of our local businesses for sponsorship. Because of COVID-19,this current year will be different than what a lot of businesses have seen and she is not sure how staff wants to handle that. She asked the staff if they have had to deal with any businesses on sponsorship right now and where they think they stand. Furthermore, we will not have games where business names could appear to give that kind of advertising. She asked if anyone had any thoughts. Mr. Capizzi said he thinks there might be an opportunity for sponsorship because there have been so few events in the area and businesses might be willing to sponsor the events. He said it certainly cannot hurt for us to inquire. He said Member Coad does have a point P&R 09-01-2020/7 and this is an unprecedented year compared to previous years about business. The worst they can say is no. We can follow-up with previous sponsors and see if they are willing to do something. Further discussion ensued about activities for the Celebrate the Season event including a DJ and possibly utilizing our Movie in the Park contact. Mr. Capizzi said he spoke with representatives from 103.1 The Wolf and they are more than willing to work with us on a Christmas event depending on what goes on with COVID. Member Coad said we are all hanging ten and we will make a decision within the next forty- five (45) days or so. She commented on having the laser light show or something similar. Mr. Rinaldo said a lot of the laser companies are still up and going. He offered another suggestion about doing fireworks. Member Coad asked if this would be in place of the laser show. Mr. Rinaldo said yes and that it may be more impactful because if we do condense the event,the money spent on a laser light show is still going to be the same price whether we do it once or six times. Member Coad suggested eliminating the laser show and going with fireworks. Mr. Rinaldo said that is his suggestion. Member Coad said she does not have an issue with going with fireworks, however, we have to lay it out correctly. The event may have to start a little bit later because if we are lighting the tree is has to be dark. Discussion ensued about time frames and fireworks. Member Rice asked staff to bring that information forward at our October meeting so we can further this discussion. Mr. Capizzi said he would. Mr. Rinaldo said that Member Rice inquired a couple of weeks ago about what the other cities are doing. He said many other cities are just flat out not doing anything until the first of the year. He said Lake Mary's Christmas event is going to be a pre-recorded tree lighting that they are going to air on their social media and website. Mr. Capizzi said they are not the only ones. He said some cities (especially with it being an election year) are not going to risk anything so they have canceled things until after the first of the year. Other cities are doing things like us. You cannot argue with safety and if the situation gets worse we will have to re-think things. P&R 09-01-2020/8 Member Rice asked what the date would be for Celebrate the Season. She commented that the parade would probably play a factor in the day, but would like to see Celebrate the Season on a Saturday one day. Mr. Rinaldo said maybe next month we discuss the dates in detail. He said there are a lot of moving parts. If we end up having to scale down or cancel the parade and Breakfast with Santa, we could move this event closer to Christmas or maybe halfway in between. Member Coad said the only issue with that is the lighting of the Christmas Tree. She said we can light it up and not light it for the night of the event. She does not have an issue with that personally. She said Member Rice was talking about Saturdays and there is the 5tn, 12th, and 19th. Mr. Capizzi said we can make the date determination next month. He said we are wide open right now and nothing is stopping us from moving it. As of now, we have not canceled the parade and that is always the first Saturday of the month. Besides that, we are wide open to what we can do. Member Coad said she has been working on banners with Mr. Rinaldo. She said that she found out that some of the banners that were previously picked out by the Board in the August meeting were on vinyl and some of them were on a marine fabric. The print might not look as nice as the picture when switched to a different type of material. Because of this, she remembered what was brought up at the last board meeting and tried to come up with similar alternatives. She put the information together for these new banner options that were all on the same material. She then asked staff to send it out to present to the Board. She asked if this was a substitute that they were all willing to look at to put at Reiter Park. Discussion ensued about the type and style of banners to be used at Reiter Park. Member Rice moved to go forward with the three sets of banners as presented to the Board by Member Coad with no imprint on the green snowflake. Seconded by Member Ray and carried by a unanimous voice vote with Member Peters absent. Member Sackett said she was looking at it and commented on the "Imprint Here". She knows it is not going to have any verbiage but asked if there would be an additional cost for a larger snowflake. Member Coad said it would be just what it is with no verbiage. Member Rice said she thinks we should give staff direction on the one,two, and three placement as it may have changed from last month. Discussion ensued about the placement of the banners. P&R 09-01-2020/9 Member Coad said that leaves us two (2) banners left of the holidays. She said the entrance by the parking lot has a pole that did not have a banner. She asked if we should hang a single banner there and somewhere else. She said she hates to waste them. Mr. Capizzi said that would be fine to have single banners at the entranceway between the pavilions and the playground. Member Coad suggested the poles on the brick walkway leading to the other exit and said there might be two (2) poles there somewhere. Mr. Capizzi said we can certainly find another spot. Member Coad said that would use up all of the banners. Member Rice said you would also have to buy the hardware to go along with hanging those other two banners and could not recall all of the prices. She said she knows she has an email to refer to and asked if these costs would be taken from the event funds. Mr. Capizzi said that is correct. The hardware, banners, labor, and shipping will be taken care of by the funds for the events that we did not have. Member Rice said staff estimated it between $6,000 and $7,000. Mr. Capizzi said he could not remember the exact amount. He said whatever was stated in the email is there and ready to use. Member Coad said it was $7,250. Member Rice asked if that also included the Ronald Reagan area. Mr. Capizzi said he is not certain. Chair Putz had no report. 5. STAFF REPORT Mr. Capizzi said the Food Trucks event will be held on September 10, 2020, from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Reiter Park. The Downtown Longwood Cruise-In Car Show will be held on Saturday, September 12, 2020, from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in Downtown Longwood. The Farmer's Market is every weekend from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at Reiter Park and reminded the Board of all of the things we have going on in October that he already stated. September and October are looking pretty good and hopefully, we can keep the trend up. Member Coad said good job with all of that. P&R 09-01-2020/10 Mr. Capizzi said we will be starting Babe Ruth in the Fall as well. Member Rice said she would like to hear from Ryan who she knows has recently spent some time at a convention. She asked him to give them a rundown of what happened. Mr. Rinaldo said each year he attends an Event Planners Conference with event planners from all around the state to talk about new trends and meet various vendors. He had the opportunity to meet the laser show vendors at this conference last year, which saved the City some money. The trend overall was a lot of municipalities playing it on the safe side, doing more drive-in events or events that are spread out like your movies and your concerts. He said no one is doing any sort of festival around the state and that the private ones that have occurred have gotten terrible news coverage. There are quite a few examples of country music concerts that occurred with no social distancing and it backfired on the organization and the venue. He said overall it was a very good conference. It was scaled down from 400 people to about 100 people and it was a great opportunity to make connections and network. Member Rice asked if there was anything new and trending. Mr. Rinaldo said a lot of drive-through events. They talked about how once things get started back up it will be necessary to have procedures in place on social media showing the handwash stations and the distancing markers, as well as putting that out on the forefront. This will show that we as the event organizer are doing our due diligence. 6. ADJOURNMENT. Chair Putz made a motion to adjourn. Seconded by Vice-Chair Vogel and carried by a unanimous voice vote with Member Peters absent. Meeting adjourned at 8:18 p.m. Minutes approved by the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board: 10-06-2020 00404,at David Putz, Chair ATTT• Donna Alt-Bowes, Recording Secretary P&R 09-01-2020/11 This Page Left Blank Intentionally. P&R 09-01-2020/12