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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSeptember 8Town of Los Altos Hills Parks and Recreation Committee Approved Meeting Minutes Meeting Time: Monday September 8, 2014 from 9-10:30 AM Meeting Place: Parks and Recreation Building 26379 Fremont Road, Los Altos Hills, CA 94022 1. Call to Order/Roll Call (Quorum = 4) 1 open position Welcome Council Liaison and Committee Present: Chair/Secretary: Kathy Evans, Vice Chair: Champa Sreenivas, Members: Rebecca Hickman, Val Metcalfe, Patty Radlo Kavita Tankha, Scott Vanderlip, Julia Zarcone. Staff Sarah Gualtieri. Associate Member: Kit Gordon Absent: Council Liaison John Radford. 2. Approval of Past Minutes - (August) – Kathy Evans August Minutes were approved unanimously with 2 typo corrections. Kavita abstained from voting because she was not at the meeting. 3. Public Comments: (List Members of the public present) None Present 4. Fall/Winter Guide Review Numbers: Sarah Gualtieri Sarah indicated that the Winter Activity Guide was already in peoples mailboxs as well as available at the Chamber of Copmmerce, Westwind Community Barn, Town Council Office, On the LAH Website, at the Library, Sr. Center, Deer Hollow and to Tori Dye’s students. We have already started getting sign ups for fall classes and are off to a good start. 5. Fall Programming and Marketing Update: Spring/Summer Guide – Discuss goals The deadline for the spring Activity Guide is in December. We should think about what classes we want to see and try to get instructors, blurbs and photos to Sarah by Thanksgiving if possible. Val Metcalf suggested a Puppy Playgroup. They could meet at the new dog park and have some socialization and play time. Champa Sreenivas – playgroup membership recruiting efforts Champa said the best place to get sign ups for the playgroup was at the town picnic because there were so many new families. She has been working on adjusting the schedule so that more people can attend. They have changed the time to after school. The fall playgroup starts next week. She will also try to get some photos and info to Sarah in time for4 the December newsletter (Deadline Oct. 1st). Review class and facility inventory Discuss Wish List for LAH facilities to meet the needs of the community This is a continuing ongoing disxcussion to assess the available facilities in town and maximize their usage for public classes and activities that are importtant in the community. Kathy and Sarah and Heather Rose will be meeting with LASD to come up with a contract for afterschool classes and activities at the LASD school sites like Gardner Bullis and Bullis Charter School. Pinewood and the Town already have a good working relationship but may look into a more formal working contract for regular use of facilities. (Guide Sub-committee: Kathy Evans / Kit Gordon) Review ongoing marketing effort: Facebook / Newspapers / Online Town Newsletter Submissions (September / December / March / June) We would like to see 2 articles in the December newsletter: One on the Playgroup and another on the dog park and doggy Playgroup. Rebecca Hickman said she would write the article on the dog park and Champa said she would write the article on the preschool playgroup, and will coordinate with Sarah. 6. Events: Recap 2014: Hoedown 9/6 - Kathy Evans / Sarah Gualtieri This was the largest turn out for a Hoedoan – Ever! Very successful. Lots of good comments. Great Food. Craft area was busy the entire day. The Leather Guild was a huge success, and they brought a lot of their own tools and samples for the kids to learn leather crafting. Custom Handweavers was also present and ran the weaving table which was very popular. The food truck had fantastic tri tip sandwiches, pulled pork pizzas and BBQ ribs. Their corn on the cobb was especially good, and fitting the theme. The Bryan Family vineyards poured 2 cases of red wine and the pony keg was drained early! We filled the lemonade 6 times and ran out of supplies – a sign of a good event and turn out. The vineyard would like to be supplemented next year with purchased wine because they did not have enough for the event. P&R Council Presentation at September Council Meeting 9/11 - Review Everyone who is available should try to attend the Council meeting on Thursday for the Parks and Recreration presentation. It is mainly photos with a brief positive message. 2015 Events Confirmed Dates: Hoppin Hounds 4/4 and LAHfamily Spring Egg Hunt 4/4 Earth Day 4/26 Pathway Run 5/9 Town Picnic 6/7 4th of July Parade 7/4 Youth Commission Update – Sarah Gualtieri The Youth commission is back at school and has started meeting. There are several events planned for the fall and there will be a longer presentaiton at the next meeting with the dates. 7. Facilities Update (10:00 a.m.): - Sarah Gualtieri Westwind Community Barn –Report from Barn Manager – Torie Dye Status on YRRP, fall programs / Holiday camps, 4-H, PRPC, Other users Status on rodent abatement, barn owl boxes, hill path maintenance Byrne Preserve - Programs / Maintenance (weed abatement - Acterra) Sarah gave the update because Tori was unable to attend. She said that Tori would be adding 3 turn out paddocks to increase the turn out area for the horses that are currently in the barn. This is necessary to do immediately because it needs to be done before it rains. The barn has accepted more horses and there is not enough turn out at the moment. Julia and Scott brought up the composting toilet recommendation from Parks and Rec. It was voted on last year but missed the budget cup off for the Council budget. We would like to revisit this idea in time for the summer camps next year. We would like to restart the composting toilet project and could make it the theme for next years Pathways Run – and it could make an interesting T-shirt running to the outhouse! Julia also brought up the recent surge of mountain bikers who are coming into Byrne Preserve and the Artimis Gintzen Trail – 25+ at a time and speeding on the trails. They are coming at dawn before sunrise and at dusk, near sunset. Both times violate our town ordinance. They are a large group or club and they are harming our fragile foot path trails with their tires as well as posing an imminent threat to all the children we have riding trails near Westwind Community Barn. Julias son was riding around 8am and was in a dangerous situation becauss the horse trails near the barn are single track and not passable from 2 directions – especially when there are 25 mountain bikes and 1 horse. There is no place for the other to go in a head on confrontation. The town ordinance needs to be changed immediately to address the hazard with the increased riding on the trails by children and horses with the success of our programs at the barn. There are some paths that should be labeled for horses only and NO BIKES. Other trails are wide enough for both to cross safely but the ones neaqr the barn need to be kept for walkers and equestrians. Kavita also said this was being discussed in the planning commission and that action was already being taken. Follow up at the next meeting. Update on Dog Park: Rebecca Hickman Rebecca said the dog park is going well and the council will be voting to approve the expenditure at the Thursday 9\/11 meeting. If it is finally approved then they will go out with ah fundraising push on Frida y 9/12 to get something in the Town Crier the following week 9/17. Several residents have already donated to the park and they will make some special tiles available on the donor wall at Town Hall if people want to make a tile photo of their dog for posterity. Money raised from the sale of these dog tiles will be used to off set the costs of the dog park. P&R goals for our public park spaces: Review possible class list / Review property wish list. This is an ongoing discussion that will be continued at the next Parks and Rec. meeting. Everyone is supposed to be thinking about the classes they would like to see in the Activity Guide and begin to poll neighbors and past class attendees to see what the residents would like to see. Sarah will be working on polling past class attendees. **Discuss LASD contract for Facilities Use Discuss whether or not to endorse the LASD Bond based on the contract and availability of facilities. The committee discussed getting a regular ongoing contract for facilities use with LASD for regular use of the Gardner Bullis and Bullis Charter School facilities, after school and during non school times. We would like to get a contract to run the after school programs at these campuses, as well as run our own programs on the fields, basketball courts and multi purpose rooms. We need to set a meeting with the facilities maintenance person (Randy Kenyon) at LASD and discuss further. There was reluctance on the committee to recommend endorsing the upcoming Bond measure because of the numerous issues with the language in the bond and the lack of a contract with LASD, and historical difficulty of facility use for our public programs. Purissima Park Fields – Programs / Maintenance: Kit Gordon asked that P&R look into the water use at Purissima Fields and consider using an alternative to high water usage. Purissima Park Riding Arena – Programs / Maintenance / Arena Footing No issues Currently Edith Park – Programs / Maintenance No issues Currently O’Keefe Preserve – Programs / Maintenance. There was a grant that was received to do some work on the O’Keefe preserve to restore the creek. We think it is the same landscaper who did Edith Park. The O’keefe preserve could use some benchs and garbage cans. Neighbors use it regularly for dog walks and like it with a rural neighborhood feel. 8. Discuss the need and preference for donated art near P&R building and WWB Each committee member was supposed to review the art binders at the front desk at town hall and come to the meeting prepared to discuss our needs and wants for art pieces for Parks and Rec. – Continue to discuss. The art binders were not available to look at for our meeting or for the last several meetings. We will continue to bring this up at each meeting until resolved. 9. Old Business: It continues to be discussed that Parks and Rec. needs more staff help at events and as regular ongoing business to meet the needs of our growing community. The Community Services Coordinator has maxed out on hours, and could use a part time assistant, leading to a full time assistant. It was nice over summer to have an intern, but it was a temporary position and required work to train then all the training was lost when the internship ended. A regular part time person could be retained and would be helpful to grow our programs and handle increased registrations when we finally have a contract with LASD to run additional after school programs on their campuses. If our goal is to add programs to meet the needs of residents, we need to put the staff in place to make it happen. 10. New Business: Kit Gordon brought up a new class called “Lets go Birding” that will take place on September 21st from 9-11am and will be taught by Lisa Meyer. Talia at Acterra has more informatrion, or you can contact LetsGoBirding.com or Acterra.org 11. Set Next Meetings: Special meeting 10/6*, 11/10, No meeting in December, 1/12/2015 confirm assoc. members, 2/9, 3/9, 4/13, 5/11, 6/8, *Special meeting. New Officers announced to Council each July(We elected in May 2014) Associate Members confirmed each January. 12. Adjourned Time ____10:30am_______