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Home My WebLink About09-13-2016 Parks & Recreation Commission Minutes City of Saratoga Parks and Recreation Commission Regular Meeting Minutes DATE: Tuesday, September 13, 2016 TIME: 6:30 p.m. LOCATION: City Manager Office’s Conference Room 13777 Fruitvale Avenue Saratoga, CA 95070 Call to Order Roll Call Present: Ping Li, Rick Pearce, Pallavi Sharma, Terry Ward Absent: Renee Paquier Accept Agenda Items: No items added. Oral & Written Communication No communications from the public Approval of Draft July 12, 2016 (Regular Meeting) Parks and Recreation Commission (PRC) Minutes: • Commissioner Li motioned to approve July Minutes. • Chair Pearce seconded motion. • Motion passed 4-0. Approval of Draft August 19, 2016 (Special Meeting) Parks and Recreation Commission (PRC) Minutes: • Pearce motioned to approve May 10 Minutes. • Ward seconded motion. • Motion passed 4-0. New Business: 1. 60th Anniversary Parade Issue: The Commission plans to participate in the 60th Anniversary parade which will take place in the Downtown Village on Saturday, September 17, 2016. Action: Commissioners Ping and Paquier will update the commission on the parade’s current status and The logistics that still need to be worked out. All five commissioners plan to attend the parade. Commissioner Li informed the group that the parade starts at 10:00 a.m. and that they need to be there at 9:00a.m. and meet at the corner gas station. Staff liaison Henig will confirm with Li that the karate and soccer instructors will attend the parade. 2. Age-friendly cities Issue: During the last regular meeting, the Commission mentioned it wanted to discuss ideas of how to Incorporate more multi-generational parks and recreation resources into Saratoga. Action: The Commission should create a list of ideas and/or a plan to make Saratoga age-friendlier. Commissioner Ward inquired how Saratoga’s parks can become more accessible to older adults. Pierce felt the parks are geared toward younger and/or more agile residents. Commissioner Sharma inqured what other cities do to make parks easier to use for seniors. Li mentioned in China that parks are often heavily used in the morning by seniors practicing Tai Chi. Pearce asked if it was possible to add additional symbols on the parks grid to denote if it is a senior friendly park or offers activities/amenities for older people. Li suggested providing transportation (e.g., shuttle) to pick-up and drop-off seniors at parks since that is one of the barriers. Ward mentioned looking into County-run transit such as Outreach. Henig suggested that the Commission should invite the director of SASSC who could provide a detailed list of what’s already offered as well as what other needs there are to improve park access. Old Business: 1. Parks and Recreation Commission tri-panel pamphlet Issue: Staff liaison Henig will present a draft of the Parks and Recreation Commission brochure that was designed by Recreation Intern Edgardo Lopez. Action: The Commission needs to determine if any changes need to be made and the budget that will be set aside for printing costs. Henig will also provide update on usage of sponsors. Tasked with figuring out how many brochures should be printed, Pierce asked the group where will the pamphlets be distributed? Pierce mentioned real estate offices. Ward and Li mentioned Blossom Festival, Movie Night and Chamber of Commerce office. Henig mentioned Farmer’s Market. Henig also briefed the commission on the price for printing costs. Ward motioned to approve the printing of 300 pamphlets at a cost of around $400. Sharma second. Motion passed 4-0. 2. Community Feedback/ survey Issue: Chair Pearce and Vice Chair Sharma will update the Commission on its survey findings. Action: Using the data, Commission needs to develop a plan to present the data to City Council and how it wants to move forward with collecting data in the future. Pierce passed out the executive summary to the Commission and went over the results from 157 respondents. Results showed that the biggest parks (i.e., Wildwood, KMP, EQ) were the most used while the smallest ones had the least use. Also, the most popular PRC activity was Movie Night. Pierce recommends incorporating social media more to obtain a higher participation rate. Other suggestions were to ask members of the Rotary Club, Lion’s Club and other organizations to complete it. Henig suggested tabling at the Farmer’s Market. Pierce suggested launching another survey using similar questions in order to expand the sample size. Henig suggested sharing the results and seek out more direction from Council at the annual retreat in January. 3. Volunteer Work at Quarry Issue: Led by Li, Commission needs to create a plan for this year’s Let’s Work! program. At previous meeting, Commission discussed offering the event on the first Saturday of each month from October through May. Action: Finalize dates of Let’s Work! and develop a realistic marketing strategy to increase participation. Commissioner Li proposed new dates for the program—the second Saturday of every month between October through May. She would like expand advertising the volunteer program and obtain more duties for the volunteers. Henig will inquire with the Cherbone. Henig will ask his staff to create a flyer and banner for the street medians, which could be placed by the library and Prospect & Saratoga-Sunnyvale roads. Li motioned to approve the purchase of two street median Let’s Work banners. Pearce seconded the motion. The motion passed 3-0 (Sharma left the meeting at 7:45 p.m.) 4. Movie Night Issue: The Commission should evaluate the 2016 Movie Night series and discuss ways to increase public turnout, movie selection process, and improving event logistics. Action: Evaluate what worked, what didn’t and how to improve the program next summer. Ward proposed getting a food truck and coffee cart in lieu of obtaining donations and handing out the food and drinks themselves. Henig forewarned the commission by eliminating that task, the commission risks cutting off their direct communication with the public since there are no other duties that require direct contact with the public for movie night. Pierce also added it’s an opportunity for the commission to bond with one another. Ward suggested to have the food and drinks delivered and then pass it out themselves. Henig will look into getting a quote for the cost of bringing in a food truck. Since the attendance dropped for the third movie night because school had already started, Ward thinks the Commission should show a more adult preferred movie since there will be less children attending. Also, Pierce felt there should be more marketing for the third movie in hopes of improving attendance. However, he forewarned that he didn’t want the event to get to large. Ward and Pierce felt the pre-movie talk should be better coordinated with the Mayor about who says what. Overall, the commission is very pleased with this event. 5. Quarry Park Update Issue: The Commission will learn about any changes to Quarry Park that have been implemented or discussed since the last regular meeting. Action: Henig will inform Commission on updates to Quarry Park since the previous meeting. Henig went over the updates provided by John Cherbone, Public Works Director: 1) done clearing the extended trail. After city park staff finishing clearing, boy scouts will come in and install benches, picnic areas, and stairways; 2) For ADA Access, park architecture design will begin in Spring 2017 3) there is a grant opportunity to secure funds to build the pond. The deadline is 10/3. 4) Parks staff is tearing out unnecessary sod in order to cut back on water usage. Also, park staff is using more drought tolerant plants. 5) For Lets Work, public works can provide more tools, but how many and which ones do you need? 6. Nesting Box Project Issue: Commission requested an update about the West Valley College partnership with the Park Management department’s nesting boxes project. The last correspondence occurred in January 2016. Action: Henig will provide an update and Commission can discuss ideas about moving forward. No action taken. Henig had not heard back from WVC Park Management’s department chair. Paquier will follow up at the next meeting. Commissioner & Staff Reports (This includes committee updates and park reports. This section is informational only; no actions will be taken.) Commissioner Park Li Wildwood, Foothill – no report Paquier El Quito, Gardner - no report Pearce Bell Grove, Congress Springs, Ravenwood – Congress Springs had some minor issues such as graffiti and a rail from the fence missing. Henig would remind the parks manager to take care of it. Sharma Beauchamp, Brookglen – no report Ward Azule, Kevin Moran – noted the tennis courts are getting lots of use; also there seems to be a consistent morning walking group there. Park is well-maintained. Agenda Items for Next Meeting November 8, 2016 Due to the national election, the commission proposed changing the next meeting date to Tuesday, November 15. Li motioned to change the date. Ward seconded the motion. The motion passed 3-0. Adjournment – 8:44 p.m. Minutes completed by Adam Henig, Recreation Supervisor