Loading...
PR03-01-2022Min PARKS AND RECREATION ADVISORY BOARD LONGWOOD CITY COMMISSION CHAMBERS 175 WEST WARREN AVENUE LONGWOOD, FLORIDA MINUTES March 1, 2022 Present: David Putz, Chair Amanda Sackett, Vice-Chair (arrived at 6:35 p.m.) Judi Coad, Member (arrived at 6:33 p.m.) Lori Rice, Member Larissa Morgan, Member (arrived at 6:37 p.m.) Teresa Ray, Member Rachael Carroll, Member Chris Capizzi, Leisure Services Director Ryan Rinaldo, Recreation Coordinator Donna L. Alt-Bowes, Recording Secretary 1. CALL TO ORDER. Chair Putz called the meeting to order at 6:32 p.m. 2. PUBLIC INPUT. None. 3. ACTION ITEMS. A. Approve Minutes from February 1, 2022 Member Rice moved to approve the minutes from February 1, 2022, as presented. Seconded by Member Ray and motion carried by a unanimous voice vote with Vice-Chair Sackett, Member Coad, and Member Morgan absent. 4. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS. Member Rice reported and said that she attended the Movie in the Park last Friday night and there was a great attendance. She was there with CERT volunteering and the weather was great and the movie seemed to be popular. It was co-located with the Food Truck event. She said she did not know what brought out that attendance but it was great and good to see. Member Carroll said she did not have a report. Member Ray said she did not have a report. Member Coad reported and said she sent staff a text regarding Celebrate the Season but that she did not hear back from anyone and asked staff to share with her about that. P&R 03-01-2022/1 Mr. Capizzi said that they will be able to order those items and they should be able to take that out of a miscellaneous event line because we don't have any money from the Celebrate the Season line. He went over with the Board what was discussed at the last meeting with regard to the sponsorship line. Discussion ensued with regard to the budget and how Mrs. Rosado is working on getting the account lines fixed to allow the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board to use the funds taken in for sponsorships of events. Member Coad explained to the Board that she starts prize planning right after Celebrate the Season when items go on sale. She is able to find cheap prizes this way for the following year's event. She said unfortunately the Christmas ornaments she hoped to get were unavailable because she waited too long and prices are already back up to $19 or more per order. Member Coad commented that she still did not have the inventory list. This is important to have so she can match the current inventory up with what we have, in order to be able to purchase new materials. She said she is looking forward to receiving the inventory as soon as possible, please. Member Coad said she did not get to attend any of the recent events this past weekend, but she did hear about how great they were. She asked staff if they were going to talk about the campout. Member Coad spoke about sponsorship going into the general fund and said that she would be contacting her commissioner about being able to remedy this. She encouraged other board members to speak to their commissioners should they have the opportunity to do so about the matter. Vice-Chair Sackett reported and said that she went and looked at the parks and they all look good to her at this moment in time. She said Smallworld has no lights and asked if we could start looking at lights for that park. She said it is completely dark after 6:00 p.m. Mr. Capizzi said that it is a dawn to dusk park right now. Vice-Chair Sackett said she know this but she still sees people out there playing basketball way after that time. Discussion ensued with regard to Smallworld Park lights as well as other street lights within the city. Member Morgan reported and said as far as the Hawaiian event goes, she still has not heard back from the Community Relations Director for Hawaiian Airlines. She said she sent another message last night and she is trying to figure out another way to get them to respond. It is kind of odd that her sister is a Manager and the correspondent from the airlines is actually a classmate of hers. She said other than that her life has been sucked up P&R 03-01-2022/2 by Longwood Babe Ruth. Opening day is this Friday and then we have the games on Saturday. It is going to be fun and she knows a lot is going into this. She feels overwhelmed but is excited because she is one of the coaches for the 10U and 12U teams. Getting them ready is tough because a lot of them have not played before. Discussion ensued with regard to getting in contact with Hawaiian Airlines for the Hawaiian event. Chair Putz reported and said he did not know about the event on Saturday until someone told him about it. He asked when that happened. Mr. Capizzi said the event was not going to be at the park this year but the Prowlers came to us and asked if they could use the park. He said it was a last-minute event so there was not much time to advertise for it. Discussion ensued with regard to the Prowler event. Chair Putz said he looked into a grant and found one we might be interested in. He said it is an Orchard Grant. They supply the trees and the equipment and all we have to do is supply the manpower to plant the trees. Discussion ensued with regard to the Orchard Grant. Chair Putz said he found another grant called the Skate Park Project Grant and asked staff if we have received that grant before. He went into more detail about the grant. Mr. Capizzi asked what the title of the grant was. Chair Putz said it is called the Skate Park Project Grant. Mr. Capizzi asked who it was through. Chair Putz said it is through the Skate Park Project. Mr. Capizzi said no we have not received this specific grant, but he would be willing to take a look at it. He said he thinks that one would probably be a little more feasible than the trees. Discussion ensued with regard to the grants presented to staff by Chair Putz. Chair Putz said he also found one for baseball. He said it is a Major League Baseball Players Grant and explained what it is about. Discussion ensued with regard to the baseball grant. P&R 03-01-2022/3 Mr. Capizzi went on to advise the Board that we have received the Notice of Commencement for our FRDAP Grants for Smallworld and Candyland. He said we have until 2024 to do the work, but that it will be completed before then. Member Rice said that last year she suggested we apply for the Florida Wildflower Grant on behalf of Reiter Park and we did not receive it but it is an annual grant and the closing date is next week. She asked if we have considered applying this year. She said if we are too late this year please keep in mind that it is an annual grant and to get it on the calendar for next year. Mr. Capizzi said absolutely. Member Coad asked if we were allowed to do the one we got through the Dermatological Association again. Mr. Capizzi said he believes there is a waiting period but they will look into it. Discussion ensued with regard to the Florida Wildflower Grant. 5. STAFF REPORT. Mr. Capizzi said the Concert in the Park series starts on March 5, 2022, and we will be hosting this event in conjunction with Ladies 327. He said they will bring a kid zone, some food trucks, and vendors to the event. The events will start at 5:00 p.m. and the actual concert will start at 7:00 p.m. The Senior Matinee will take place on March 9, 2022, from 1:30 p.m. until 4:00 p.m. at the Community Building, Under the Tuscan Sun. He said we have been getting good crowds for that. Mr. Rinaldo will expand on the campout. The Downtown Longwood Cruise-In Car Show is on March 12, 2022, from 5:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. The Movie in the Park is going to be on March 18, 2022, Ghostbusters Afterlife. We have received a lot of excitement for that movie and he hopes it to be well attended. He said we finally received good weather for a movie which is nice. Food Trucks are on March 25, 2022, from 4:00 p.m. —9:00 p.m. at Reiter Park and of course, there is the Pirate Seafood Festival on March 26th (10:00 a.m. —6:00 p.m.) and 27th (10:00 p.m. —5:00 p.m.), 2022, at Reiter Park. Hopefully, we get some nice weather for that. He said that the Acting City Manager has asked him to bring something up to this Board. Commissioner Boni has come up with the idea of having two (2) places within Longwood where you can dispose of your used American flags in specially marked mailboxes. These mailboxes are going to be wrapped in a design with some wording that informs people of what they are. They will be placed in a couple of areas around the City. He is unsure at this time exactly where they will be placed. He passed out pictures of what the mailboxes will look like once they are wrapped. Vice-Chair Sackett asked who was retiring the flags after they were collected. Member Carroll asked what are we doing with them. P&R 03-01-2022/4 Mr. Capizzi said this was brought to me within the last week and did not know much about the details but that the flags would be collected from the mailboxes by city staff and that they would be burned at our flag retirement ceremony in conjunction with Heroes Strong. Discussion ensued with regard to disposing of the flags properly. Mr. Capizzi said it was brought up by the commission to propose the cost of the wrap for the mailboxes to be paid for by the funds from the Pennies for Parks program. There would need to be a recommendation from this board for how much the board thinks should be put towards the cost of wrapping the mailboxes. He said the cost is approximately $1,025.00. Discussion ensued with regard to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board paying for the cost of the mailboxes to be wrapped. Member Rice made a motion to donate $500.00 of the Pennies for Parks money to put towards the wrap on the two (2) flag drop boxes. Seconded by Member Coad. Discussion ensued with regard to how much money would be left in the Pennies for Parks fund and where the balance of the funds will come from. Member Rice repeated her motion and made a motion that the Board approves utilizing $500 of Pennies for Parks funds for the wraps on the two (2) American Flag drop boxes. Seconded by Member Coad. Member Sacket asked if we could add a condition on that to advertise the Pennies for Parks to push up the notice. Member Coad said it would be after the fact of the motion. Motion passed unanimously by a voice vote. Member Rice said now it has to be taken before the Commission because they have to approve how we spend the Pennies for Parks money. She said if they will approve which, I am sure they will, then they can have it. That is how that program was set up. She said we make the recommendation, Commission approves it. Chair Putz asked if staff was done with their report. Mr. Capizzi said no, Mr. Rinaldo is going to give us an update on the Great American Camp Out. Mr. Rinaldo said it should be a nice event and he is still taking registrations. We set a goal for a minimum number as we do with a lot of our events and we are at about fifteen (15) or sixteen (16) people signed up. We expect some more in the next couple of days. He said that with all of our events, people wait until the last minute. P&R 03-01-2022/5 Discussion ensued with regard to the Great American Camp Out and what will be taking place. Chair Putz asked what they named the park. Mr. Capizzi said Arbor Park was not renamed. As for Candyland, it was decided by the Commission that the name will change to Candyland Sports Complex. Member Coad asked about the Pirate Seafood Festival and said it is all ready to go and it is going to be two (2) days and asked if we are going to need any help. She said that is this month and we won't meet again before then and asked if staff would need any Board help with that. Mr. Capizzi said that we will not need help from the Board. He said we have plenty of staff for that one. Brian and Janet with WTDI are very organized and are there both days policing things as well. Member Coad said we were talking about Mrs. Rosado who is going to help us with this fund issue and asked if we make any money off of the Pirate Seafood Festival. She said she knows we are still paying the Longwood Historic Society for the Fall Festival, but that we are getting close to the end of that deal. Once we do not have to give money to the Longwood Historic Society we would have those funds to roll back into our account lines to be doing things that we need at the parks. She said she sees that we still have the droopy lights on the handrails at Reiter Park. She asked if staff had ever seen the little square lights that go under the rails and asked if those kinds of lights could be put up in sporadical places. Mr. Capizzi said he mentioned it to Mr. Rinaldo and they found out that there is not enough room to put those types of lights on the rail. Discussion ensued with regard to the lights on the handrails at Reiter Park. Mr. Rinaldo said the fishing pier at Reiter Park is going to be replaced within the coming weeks with pressure-treated wood. He said they are going to shore up the lights for us as part of that project. Discussion ensued with regard to the replacement of the pier. Member Coad said the lights were left on the Amphitheater and asked if they were being used at all at night since then. Mr. Capizzi said they have put them on a couple of times and everything is working fine. Member Coad asked if staff has gotten any feedback from anyone outside of the Board on the new banners at the park. P&R 03-01-2022/6 Mr. Capizzi said they have received positive reviews. We have received a lot of compliments on the ones around the red brick road in particular. Member Rice said she would like to put on the record that when she was at the Farmer's Market a couple of weeks ago speaking with Mr. Rob who manages the market, he was very appreciative that we did a Farmer's Market banner. Member Coad asked staff how the market was doing. Mr. Rinaldo said it was doing good and that in April we will partner with Lyman High School to do a Jazz Festival during the Farmer's Market from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. He said Stetson University is coming out, three (3) middle schools and the high school. Discussion ensued with regard to the Jazz Festival in April. Mr. Rinaldo said there is a business called Bach 2 Rock and they will be doing a performance at the park at the same time as the Farmer's Market as well on a different day to integrate new people into the market. Member Rice said they were at our Halloween event and their organizer asked her about the opportunity to work with the City, so that is awesome. Member Coad said maybe staff could get Liane to put it out on the newsletter. Maybe she could put something in there that if someone would like to have an activity to coincide with the Farmer's Market people might have a way to contact staff to do so. She said that does draw more people to the park. Member Coad said we used to be in the elementary school and we used to do a monthly garage sale. She talked about maybe doing a garage sale that would coincide with the market maybe once or twice a year. Discussion ensued with regard to doing the garage sale to coincide with the Farmer's Market. Vice-Chair Sackett asked if there was an update pickleball-wise. She knows that the process has been delayed. Mr. Capizzi said we did finally receive the Letter of Commencement from the State just last week which is what we were waiting on to notify the companies that we are ready to start construction. He went over the process and advised the Board when we expect to start all of the projects at Candyland Park and Smallworld Park. Member Coad asked about the skate park. Mr. Capizzi said it is doing well and the asphalt is holding up. The new obstacles are sturdy and everyone is really happy. He said we have money allotted in this FRDAP grant to add P&R 03-01-2022/7 some sort of lighting feature. There is a light he is looking to possibly add but he wants to factor in if we decide to do a complete makeover which would not be done for a couple of years anyway. 6. ADJOURNMENT. Chair Putz moved to adjourn. Seconded by Member Rice and carried by a unanimous voice vote with all members present. Meeting adjourned at 7:41 p.m. Minutes approved by the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board: 04-05-2022 4460j cie t 07--1 David Putz, Chair ATTEST: Donna Alt-Bowes, Recording Secretary P&R 03-01-2022/8