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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMarch 16Town of Los Altos Hills Parks and Recreation Committee SPECIAL Meeting Minutes Meeting Time: Monday March 16, 2015 from 6:00 – 7:30 PM Meeting Place: Parks and Recreation Building 26379 Fremont Road, Los Altos Hills, CA 94022 1. Call to Order/Roll Call (Full Committee = 9, Quorum = 4) 2 open positions Welcome Council Liaison and Committee Present: Chair/Secretary: Kathy Evans, Vice Chair: Champa Sreenivas, Members: Val Metcalfe, Patty Radlo, Scott Vanderlip, Julia Zarcone. Staff Sarah Gualtieri. Council Liaison John Radford. Absent: Kavita Tankha, Associate Members: Kit Gordon, Rebecca Hickman 2. Approval of Past Minutes - (Feb. meeting – approved unanimously as ammended) 3. Presentation by Alex Atkins – AAD Designs Alex talked about what he does to produce the Our Town Newsletter and how to submit articles. We should send in several potential articles as soon as we can. He may spread them out over the year. It helps to get additional press to increrase attendance at P&R events. Some articles are seasonal. We get 25 + new residents every month, and 75+ per quarter. Some articles need to be repeated to reach these residents. Alex will mock up and lay out a page design, then shoot it back to the article author. The author needs to provide the text, which Alex will edit and fill in to the layout. This takes some time, so articles should be sent in as soon as possible, to allow for this collaboration. 4. Discuss GOALS for 2015 and search for new P&R Committee Members Increased Programming for Activity Guide: Think of suggestions for programming and instructors and submit to Sarah by June 15th to be in the Fall Guide. Increased access to programming for LAH seniors: Julia Zarcone discussed the work she has done on the Sr. Committee to jointly work with Los Altos and their Senior Center. We might need to submit a grant for funding for a van to drive our seniors to the available programs in Los Altos in order to really meet the needs of our residernts who are aging. A grant for this would be expensive and we might look into contracting this out rather than wait for a grant. Our senior residents need to be surveyed, possibly as part of our P&R upcoming survey. Toilet / Sink facility for camps at Barn: This remains a priority for Parks and Rec. but John Radford, our Council liaison, asked that we meet with the Barn Manager, and find out if it is something that is also a priority for the concessioner, who operates the barn for the Town. P&R has been asking for restroom and washing facilities at the lower arena for the last 4 years. The first year we did not get the request to the council in time for that budget year. The second year the Town had just completed expensive renovations at the barn, and we were asked to put it off until the following year. The third year we lost our barn manager and we were asked to put it off until we had gotten a new manager and the barn was stable again. This year, the 4th consecutive year, we still have it as one of our main Parks and Rec. programming priori ties. It is unclear if we are meeting with passive opposition from staff or just an unwillingness to proceed with this important facility improvement based on cost. John Radford has asked us to work with the concessioner and come back with new proposals. Parks and Rec. programming with camps is in addition to the riding programs operated by the consessioner, so the Parks and Rec. programming needs should take priority over anything run by an outside organization. The cost to add plumbing will be very ex pensive, but it is still necessary to grow and manage our current programming and use of the limited outdoor facilities at the barn. Our use has grown over the last 4 years and our need is greater than ever. There may be some fundraising competition between the riding programs who want to begin fundraising for a covered arena, and P&R because we are trying to fundraise for a toilet and sink for our outdoor programs. Both are very expensive and may compete for fundraising dollars. Building Additional Classroom FLEX space at Town Hall: Champa attended 2 Heritage committee meetings at Town Hall where the architect who designed Town Hall came and spoke on ideas for unused Town owned land. There seems to be a great deal of discussion over the need for additional classroom space that could be used a number of ways by various committees. Flex space could be used for classrooms for P&R programming, CERT classes, Committee lectures, Youth Commission activities, Emergency preparedness teams and more. If we had the classroom space we could offer more programming for preschoolers, teens and seniors. School groups could meet for their history of LAH discussions and nature walks, The History committee wants to preserve the History House, but might consider moving it to change the orientation. Another flex building, similar to Town Hall could be built, smaller and less expensive. It is less expensive than purchasing land and building, because the Town already owns the land. However, P&R has already made a list of p roperties in town we would like to acquire if they ever become available to add to our available facilities. Building flex space on Town land may be the first step in a larger plan for adequate P&R facilities for our residents. 5. Public Comments: (List Members of the public present) Elizabeth Hitchner (Liza). She had applied to the Pathways committee but decided to join P&R instead. She has run our pathways system extensively and has ideas for possible classes or programming using our pathway system. She will process paperwork with the Town to formalize her request to join this committee. 6. Fall/Winter Guide Preview / Spring/Summer Review: Sarah Gualtieri Sarah reminded us that the instructors need to be finalized by June 15th in order to be listed in the Fall Guide which comes out in late August. 7. Programming and Marketing Update: Spring/Summer Guide – Mailed out late February / Classes start mid March Working with Foothill College for classes and facilities. Several new programs in the new guide. We have added pages and it looks great. We might need to advertise in the Town newsletter for more local exposure for some of the Sr. Programs, as most seniors do not turn to the guide for their programming. There is still interest in adding the New LAH Speaker Series – championed by Kavita Tankha – but this needs to be tabled until Kavita can attend and give an update on progress. This program would not start until next Fall. 8. Champa Sreenivas – playgroup update for Spring Activities & Publicity The Pre School Play Group (PSPG) met at the library and had a great time! Their next meeting will be at the LAH firestation. She will be unable to attend the Town Picnic, so will need someone to collect names and emails of parents with young kids who attend so they can be invited to upcoming preschool playgroup activities. Sarah also said that we could put fliers out on the P&R table for new parents to pick up. 9. Request for NEW P&R Commissioned Survey: We discussed the need for a comprehensive P&R survey, to discover the real needs and wants of town residents, in terms of expanding classroom space for P&R programming, senior access in the way of a van to drive them to programs and activities, space for Youth Commission activities, and other possible P&R facility needs. We should commission a survey before going ahead and assuming we know what residents want. A survey should have the ability to write in suggestions, because the last survey we found out a lot more based on what people wrote in – and that was how we discovered the desire for a dog park was very strong. It was not even one of our questions, but was the top write in request. John Radford suggested that we request Council to commission a survey to determine what P&R facilities our residents want to see in town, and to see if there is desire for a new flex space building on town propeerty. As a committee – we can also think of possible questions we would like to see on the survey, and bring them back to the next meeting to discuss in April. 10. Events: 2015 Events: Hoppin Hounds 4/4 Rebecca Hickman will continue to run this event as an associate member. YC will send volunteers to assist. LAHfamily Spring Egg Hunt 4/4 Champa met with Kavita and Helene and Jennifer Carlstrom and they are set for the Egg Hunt. YC will send volunteers to help. Supplies have been ordered. Earth Day 4/26 Nancy Couperus and Kathy Evans will continue to run this event. Big Cats have been contracted. Sarah will look into getting Lindsay Museum to bring their birds of prey. Pathway Run 5/9 Scott discussed the upcoming Pathways run and said things are going well. Patty Radlo will help find volunteers. Town Picnic 6/7 – Needs Table Volunteers / Preschool Member Drive 4th of July Parade 7/4 Hoedown 9/12 (Saturday after Labor Day) Daytime event – NO Fundraiser Halloween Pumpkin Carving 10/25 –If No Leader or will cancel Youth Commission Events – LC 3/22, Dodgeball 3/27 11. Barn Facilities Update byWestwind Community Barn Manager – Tori Dye tabled. Tori absent. *This is a placeholder and will only have an update quarterly. We did discuss that the P&R committee barn sub committee will meet with Tori before Tori makes her presentation to the Council at the end of thes month. We would have liked to meet with Tori and see the presentation in the DRAFT form before it became final. Tori has missed the last several meetings of P&R and has not been present to ask questions of, or hear updates from. This is because we decided to make her presentations to us quarterly, but this has resulted in less input or feedback from us. We have asked that she give us a report at our next meeting in April. In the meantime, Val and Julia will meet with her as a barn sub committee and try to give some input on the direction P&R would like to take in regards to the current riding programs and future fundraising efforts so that we are coordinated and on the same page prior to the council presentation at the end of the month. 12. Direction was given to Sarah to **SET MEETINGS** so that we can discuss progress with LASD and Foothill College contract for Facilities Use – Needs / Wants. What do other cities have in their contracts with their schools re facilities. Discuss results of Sarahs meetings with the Gardner Bullis Princip al and after school programming at Gardner. This has been carried over for the last 3 months and needs to be addressed at the April meeting. 13. Ongoing Park Facilities Responsibilities: Nothing to Report 14. Old Business: None 15. New Business: None 16. Set Next Meetings: 4/20/2015 6:00 – 7:30 pm All Members asked to Bring Potential New Members 5/18, 6/15, No meeting in July, 8/17, 9/21, 10/19, 11/9, No meeting in Dec., 1/19/2016 confirm Associate Members, *Special meeting. New Officers announced to Council each July(We elect in June) Associate Members confirmed each January. Present status report to Council each September. 17. Adjourned Time ____7:34pm_______