City of Charleston SC Committee on Recreation, 6 Sep 2022

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From YouTube: City of Charleston Committee on Recreation 9/6/22

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City of Charleston Committee on Recreation 9/6/22

A

Okay, great looks like we're on youtube. Now. If there's no objections, I will uh go ahead and open the uh open. The meeting call us to order for the meeting and recreation committee for tuesday september 6 2022 tuesday, for a tuesday for a lot of us.

A

It feels like a monday, and we do appreciate our employees, those who were asked to work over the holiday weekend, but I hope everybody had a good holiday weekend and uh thank you all for for joining in today, and thank you for uh traffic and transportation for kind of switching times. um Jennifer in the clerk's office has a set up where we're going to be meeting the third tuesday, I think, of each month now on a regular basis.

A

That way, she's done that with all committees where we're on a regular um schedule so um and um if he would, I will call on councilman gregory to either give us a moment of silence or prayer. Please.

B

uh Mr chairman, let's take a moment of silence.

B

A

Amen. Thank you very much. All right and uh next on the agenda is the approval of minutes from may 23rd 2022.

A

go move, mr chairman.

A

Second, okay, I have um all all in favor, aye aye. So um next on the agenda, we have our uh master plan. um Discussion and um amy has done a great job of uh putting together a presentation for us on the master plan, so amy. If you would please.

C

Sure good afternoon, um just to go through where we are on the master plan, real quick um currently- and if you all remember in 2021 when it was completed, we um a referendum was considered and we were council wanted to have a workshop to develop a plan on the projects, but we never scheduled that meeting. That meeting ever happened.

C

So in the meantime, jason and laurie in concert with the consultants, went through the entire plan, which is extensive, as I think you all know, and came up with some projects that would be representative of all of our our boroughs. If you want to call it, they called they were calling them plan planning, districts and kind of that was where we're going to start the conversation with council at the workshop to kind of go through and figure out what which projects we we thought were the biggest and highest priorities.

C

um If you remember, the full master plan was about 177 million dollars in projects. What jason and laurie had come up with was about 117 million and, like I said it, it was representative of each of the planning districts so for peninsula projects.

C

These were the projects that that they pulled out from the entire huge master plan, total cost for peninsula projects. Just for those projects that they pulled out was 20 million dollars and those were the the projects. It was karen jones, mcmahon playground, coach stanley, chisholm park and shaw community center brittlebank park and whitecoin garden.

C

I'll just keep going through the districts, and let me know if I'm going too fast. If you have any questions and like I said this was just for kind of a first step and what staff's kind of their knowledge of what might be the most high priority just for a discussion, it wasn't anything that had been decided at all. It's just like I said for us to bring forward us to start the discussion on what the priority projects would be.

C

I think I skipped did I no. I didn't west actually projects it's about. 46 million dollars in projects is um forest acres, which is really the pool, um because we all know that the pool needs a lot of work, not a fully new pool, willie gaines playground, ackerman park park shore park, interwest, ashley, recreation center woodland park, bear swamp and long savannah and then improvements to the charleston, charleston tennis center.

C

So the biggest items there were forest park, which is really a new aquatic center and two new recreation centers, the interwest ashley recreation center and their swamp among savannah recreation.

C

C

Okay, we'll move on to james island and those projects were the harborview fort johnson park, james island recreation, complex some expansion, expansion to the low country, senior center and ferguson village park and expansion.

C

And then we have john's island projects because we really don't have we have our park on john's island, but we don't have a recreation facility. What was recommended was a recreation center and an aquatic facility.

C

We have purchased land um adjacent to where our current property is and which we can utilize for for any further expansion. There's one more parcel, so really the land acquisition cost that's included in here has already been covered. We purchased land for 1.274 million, there's one other smaller parcel that we would like to purchase if it were to come up for sale. That would help with just a little bit extra land for the expansion, but that's that hasn't really come up yet, and then we also purchased land with the large lake.

C

That was uh the griffith property, if you all remember, um which will someday be a like a nature park with water, amended amenities like kayaking, kayaking and fishing etc.

C

So those those are two two things that we have done for john's island. So far,.

C

Okay and kane hoy that's really kind of up in the air right now um they had five hundred thousand dollars to acquire land in the master plan um and they were hoping for some partnership with with the green belt program. Those discussions haven't been super successful, thus far, but we're still working on that and then once we get a better plan in place. Obviously we'll need a recreation facility up there as well, which don't have any cost estimates so far.

C

And then there was a one whole section of citywide projects as well, and these were some of the more um imminent things. um Court replacement field improvements, fitness equipment out for uh through outdoors in the parks, lawn master planning, which we've already covered parking improvements.

C

There was um a lot of extra city-wide projects which we need to have a bigger discussion about. Some of those costs are already budgeted for in parks operating budget, so we just need to really kind of look through all of those and determine what is the best path forward for those items.

C

Any questions on any of that.

C

Okay, so in this past, when we closed out our 2021 fiscal year, we had some additional funding that we always usually put towards capital project items. So we have allocated some funding towards some of the items that we just went over. So I just wanted to kind of highlight those um we have put funding away aside for coach stanley chisholm park that hasn't been fully allocated. Yet we are reconsidering adding lights, um because that was part of the master plan, so we're getting a cost estimate on that.

C

But right now we have allocated that funding that will go toward the cap. It will go on the capital improvement plan which we're trying to finalize and we'll bring that back later, the shaw community center I'll. Let jason and lori talk about that. A little bit. This there's a 1.6 million dollar cost to that in the master plan we have 500 000 allocated towards that from from just leftover funds that we have from 2021 um for an interior renovation.

C

It didn't include all the improvements that were included in the master plan like the elevator or things like that and outside improvements, but this will take care of the interior renovation. Without the elevator bridle bank park. We have allocated a million dollars, but that is only for the all access playground, improvements and then white, point garden. We had 406 000, budgeted in our 2022 hospitality budget for restrooms.

C

Any questions on any of that.

C

West ashley projects um we have allocated 825 000 for ackermann park and one milli a little over a million dollars for park shore park. The main scope for the million dollars is for pickleball course, which changes the scope a little bit and it would not include the the tennis and basketball court improvements.

C

And then the charleston center attendance center we have 175 000 allocated for lights,.

C

Any questions, okay for james island, we have a hundred thousand dollars put away just for the shade structure for the pool. um One thing to point out with this is that we also have money allocated for fort pemberton, which was included in the master plan. We have a hundred thousand dollars just to get the work started over there out there, but we also have green belt funds and we're anticipating getting additional grant funding for that project and then also for plymouth park.

C

That's included on the master plan, but um wasn't on this list that laurie and jason had come up with, but we're also allocating funding for that part in concert with contributions from the neighborhood.

C

So those are two different two additional projects on james island that we are allocating funding towards to just have been part of the first prioritization that laurie and jason have put together.

C

Any questions on that.

C

Okay and then citywide we um for field improvements. If you remember, we allocated 150 thousand dollars in our funds for field improvements, so that is some some funding. That's that we put away for that and then master planning that was part of this contract, and we have the funding for that portion of the contract with the consultants. For that.

C

So right now just utilizing 2021 general fund reserves. We have allocated about 5.2 million toward projects included in the parks and recreation master plan, and that doesn't include the other projects that I have mentioned um plymouth park and pembroke fort pemberton and the griffiths track and the ross track that we bought on john's island.

C

So future funding considerations.

C

You know we have general fund reserves that we've already allocated um a future bond and tourism funds just wanted to that's kind of my key that I had earlier in the presentation which I probably should have pointed out that I didn't I apologize, but um we noted several lesser cost projects that we could probably fund with general fund reserves which totaled about 3.5 million dollars um I'll just go back, so you can see what I'm talking about. I'm sorry. So those are the highlighted in green.

C

I feel like those could be things that we fund in future with future general fund reserves, because they're lower dollar amounts. So there were several of those throughout this that I had sorry that I had so the crin jones playground. That's probably something we could fund with future general fund reserves, um willie gaines playground, some of these smaller renovations projects we could probably fund with future general fund reserves harborview fort johnson park. You know some of that we've offered we've already got.

C

um Is it coming jason this coming or was it the past council meeting that we've? No, this next coming council meeting that you'll see a grant acceptance for harborview fort johnson park, so we're already starting some with that with um with grant funding and then yep ferguson, village park and expansion is a smaller dollar amount too, that we could probably fund with future general fund reserves and same with the like, when I was talking about the citywide projects.

C

Some of these, like the field improvements, you know we budget agricultural supplies and the parks budget every year in their operation budget, we do court replacement as well in their operating budget.

C

um Some of these things we need just to look at and have a good replacement plan and start planning for those every year and really look at the funding that we're providing for budgeting for now see if we need to use some some general fund reserves to get caught up from wherever we may during the pandemic have cut back a little bit and and just gonna get a good feel for what we should be budgeting on an annual basis for um for those items.

C

If that makes sense,.

C

Any questions, sorry, I'm going to go back forward, so that was the same with when you go through. All of these that we went through. Let's just go back and do this.

A

Amy may or teklenberg has a.

C

D

Yeah no problem so um when you say those city-wide items like 3.7 million dollars for bathrooms, um I presume the plan. It was specific as to where those restrooms would be what I mean. This is just a summary, but but the plan had had this pretty well detailed as to what needed to be done where correct.

C

Jason I'll, let you kind of talk about that.

E

Yes, the yeah, the citywide projects are, did identify locations for new, but it also focused on deferred maintenance type projects. So whether it was like in those line, items parking improvements or playground, replacements, shade structures sometimes are new or just sometimes need capital style, maintenance, site furniture would include backstop fencing that was constructed, but never replaced and are all very shabby. So it's a little bit everywhere.

E

But, yes, it had identified specific locations for restroom structures.

C

Right so that wasn't new right jason! That's just upgrades and that's.

E

C

Renovating the current things that we have.

E

D

So um if I may just finish out um on on the funding side, there's probably only a couple of examples that I could think of, but there might be a couple that tiff funding would be eligible or available for a few of these projects.

D

Do you know, did you think about that?.

C

C

D

Is the one that comes to my mind but yeah.

C

Because of the development agreement we have, though, so most of these on this list, there are some other in the master plan that we could consider tip funding for, but most of the ones that we included in here. I don't think there's funding available anytime soon, anyway,.

D

Yeah, and so of course you have the big ticket items in blue for a bond.

D

Ultimately, we have to pay back the bond with general funds or some sort of funding, so um have you put any thought into how what size bond we we might realistically be able to float for lack of a better term.

C

Yes, I have that coming out so I'll just kind of move forward with this. So like those things that I had shaded, so the general fund reserves the 3.5 million. We could probably cover with that 100 of the whiteboard garden project could be funded with hospitality funds, so that would be an additional and ninety four thousand. I think we have four hundred and six um put away right now and then some portion of redoing could also be funded with tourism. You know possibly twenty five percent.

C

That would be another three million dollars, so total amount of tourism funds could be about almost 3.8 million. If we're looking at that, um so.

C

If we were for the bonding cost for the items that are big ticket items that we could fund, we would probably want to get a bond, for these were the items that we talked about. If we just took one project from each of the planning districts, I'm sorry jason. You want to say something.

E

Oh no, I was okay, sorry.

C

um This would be what it would look like, so um brittle bank park would be about 8.2 million dollars. I feel like I missed something, but I guess I didn't um forest park. That's the full 12.3, the 4.2 million for for james island wreck. It was originally 4.3, but we've already put 100 000 away for that. The brittle bank was the 12.3 less the amount that we could do in hospitality funds.

C

So I took other funding options and subtracted that from the total amount basically of the project and then um the johns island, um I kept the land acquisition cost in there only because of that other parcel, I wasn't sure if we were able to obtain it, how much that might be. So I just left that amount in there to be on the safe side, so it'd be about 44 million dollars in the first first bond bond that we would get for this master plan.

A

I think councilman sacrament has his hand.

F

Thank you, chair um just quick question. I guess maybe this is not the time, but I know jason you and I chatted um about you know, there's a there's, a piece of land over in west ashley on shelly, shelly ave or it's like a pocket park that they wanted to create. Do we set aside some money for like these types of you know, one-offs where you know jason needs some discretionary uh funding to to do some of that.

F

um Just wondering where, in the budget that that lands and jason you- and I chatted about that, you remember: do we call that conversation.

E

I do but you'll have to remind me on shelly the actual location.

F

All right I'll follow up with you after this, but I'm just, I think, one of the one of the things I heard back from you was, you know, just don't have it in the budget, but this would have been a very small task, basically just to clean up that little parcel of land and basically create a green space for for the neighborhood. But that was one question. The other question I'll wait till um to laurie comes on and does more of the wreck piece. But thank you.

C

So with those types of things um council, member sacrament, we wouldn't actually budget for that in an operating budget in our general fund budget, those would come through usually through the mayor's office asking you know when we're kind of allocating this funding would come through. That way.

F

Thank you, you're welcome.

C

F

C

Is just an example based on you know what we have what they have put together last year? It's just for further discussion. Obviously we need to bring this forward to make sure everybody's on board with the prioritization of projects, but it's just an example.

C

So I think the next steps would be to schedule that full council workshop to go through the master plan and, like I said what jason and laurie and the consultant have put together, would be a starting point to that to that to that conversation and then strategize how the projects can be funded once we prioritize those projects, um we need to get obviously considered our current debt and when the bond can be prepared, based on the current obligations that we have um 2024, we do have some debt coming off, so that could be a possibility which might if we were to do a referendum kind of all fall in line together, because that would be november 2023 and then uh option to bond in 2024.

C

So, just as an example, but we would need a listing in the projects to include in the referendum um and that needs to be finished by august of 2023. So.

A

I think council member parker has her hand raised.

G

Thank you, mr chairman. Yes, I'm sorry y'all, my internet dropped, but um I may be going a little bit backwards, but um I didn't see anything so the plan that you just showed me those are sort of the priorities that were already drafted. You know written out in the plan because I didn't you know, I didn't see anything for you know stephen washington park, um I mean medway.

G

I get that fort pep, that's not in my district anyway, but westchester park is well on james island. um So first, why are all parks so like steven washington, for example? Is that not on the list? Because it's not a priority or so.

C

G

C

G

C

The beginning, this was just kind of a list that you know just based on and jason, where you speak to this because you, I was not a part of this part of it. It was just kind of a conversation starter. So it's not like anything, was necessarily left out on purpose or anything. It was just their knowledge of the prioritizations, based on what they're hearing in the community and based on what the consultant's work did and jason laurie.

E

C

E

So we went through each district based on the plan and pulled out some kind of big ticket kind of regional kind of items that would serve more than just each district.

E

um The one line item that which is city-wide improvements would take some of those older park locations, knowing that there's lots of deferred maintenance everywhere and then, through a process with the council, we could determine you know what types of park improvements, whether they're turf improvements, shade structure, improvements, fencing you know: replacement of old fencing improvements to ada access with walkways and parking lots. So there was a line item or a page in there that identified needs throughout the entire city that were less project specific that we would hope to fund through this process.

G

Okay and that was sort of the second part of my question so in the lineup you might have been speaking about what's the field improvement.

G

So when you just say you have you know, field field improvements again where where's the prioritization list of you know what fields are we improving? I mean, as you said, there's a ton of deferred maintenance. I mean all of the ball fields. You know whether it's lines dirt landscaping. Whatever is that part of that line? Item field improvements and if so, what allotted monies are going? Where.

E

Right well, like amy, said this is kind of the start of the process to to develop that prioritization plan. um We know we have needs in every single park.

E

We know we can't get it all done in one five or ten years, so we just have to come up with the plan, whether it's through a workshop and determine what the needs are well, we know what the needs are, but then we need to look at programming and see what locations are programmed mostly, where are the highest needs based on the social needs and conditioning index and then the actual usage. So some of those places that you identify our recreation programs don't program there.

E

So um typically we try to focus our daily maintenance based on the the programming list of our recreation department. So they issue us a weekly schedule. That says this is where our games are held. These are the priorities for the for that daily type, maintenance, stuff.

H

And councilmember parker I'll kind of jump in on that point. So the way we determine our schedule is: where do we have lights?

H

Where do we have fields that have got irrigation um and are going to be maintained in that way, so that when the community comes out to play soccer games, for instance, they're playing on lighted fields that have irrigation and have had um you know chemical treatments and things like that? We don't have the ability to schedule on all of our fields number one, because they're not all kept at that same point, because some of them may not be competitive fields, but also the way we schedule our recreation staff.

H

If I've got soccer games at five locations, I don't have enough staff for that. If I play all the games at bayview, then I can handle five fields at bayview going at one time. With this, with the staffing level we have so that's kind of how the schedule comes to the parks department is where I have regional facilities that can handle multiple games, multiple cars being parked there restrooms that are there lights that are there and and enough room to spread out and use. That's kind of how we've done that in each of our boroughs.

G

Okay, all right thanks and I I don't know how it's working in other parts of the city, but um I know over here on james island, so y'all, please tell me what west actually looks like I mean we have the field space. You know we can. We can accommodate the people that sign up. um Sometimes we have coach enough coaches. Sometimes we don't but again not having the these fields maintained, I think, is the problem. So again, all right.

G

Can I ask one more question about the bond referendum amy sure so when when and if you do this, is it city wide or is it area specific.

C

It's a city-wide on referendum that that would be a city-wide, so it would.

G

Anybody that goes.

C

To the polls to vote would vote on that referendum if they wanted to.

G

So there it's just a parks and recreation referendum. It's not you know there aren't it's really not tied to like specific items or locations or anything like that. Well,.

C

Usually, when you have a referendum like that on on the ballot, then you would have to have some type of um project list or something like that usually is included with it on the referendum.

G

Okay: okay, thanks.

A

Okay, remember gregory: were you trying to get our attention.

B

uh Yeah- um and I was going back to um a response that amy gave a little earlier uh to try to respond to some of the concerns um that councilmember parker has, and it really goes back to the answer that was given to councilmember sacrament. Some of the things that I think uh our concerns.

B

uh Councilman parker are things that may be able to be funded out of the operating budget and not necessarily the bond referendum and correct me. If I'm wrong amy.

C

No, that's right. I think we need to look through more of those city-wide items. Like jason said when we well, he didn't say this: we jason- and I were talking about this and lori. You know the pandemic when we went through the budget cuts in 2020 and all that we just need to kind of look at where we are in those budgets and what we cut back. I know we've been trying to put those funds back, but just having the issues that we've had the last couple of years.

C

We just need to look at it to see what do we need to do to try to get caught up? What does that look like and how much is a good, I hate to say price point, but you know what I mean in terms of making sure we have the right amount budgeted annually to allow them to get the job done. If that makes sense,.

B

And- and that would be the time for for council members- I mean like, for instance, council member parker mentioned westchester, um and, and we all know that westchester has been requesting lighting out there for years.

B

I understand that there are other issues in in the park that needs to be addressed, but much of what I see over there are things that can be taken care of through the operating budget. If, as a council member, we recommend accordingly.

C

Right and even if it's, if it's lighting in a smaller dollar amount project who councilmember gregory, that you know we might be able to handle the general fund reserves, we would want to think about that too. Save the bond for the big ticket items.

B

C

Come up with a good plan like cover, you know five year plan ten year plan on what we're, what we're going to do or try to accomplish as well.

E

And, thank you add one point to that. um You know identifying and funding projects is one thing, but you have to have the people to do the work and that's where we're struggling across the board. You all know that, so we can identify money for field improvements and fertilization and infield repairs, but you've got to have the people to do the work right now we're 30 down staff.

E

So even if we had all the money in the world, we couldn't get the daily maintenance done. So that's why we use the recreation department's schedule of programming and follow them around the city to try to keep everything maintained in the fields and parks that are actually being used from a recreational, competitive basis.

A

Council member parker.

G

Thank you, mr chairman, so again to that point, mr cronsberg, I mean this is where you know: when do we start looking at you know the private sector collaborations I mean this is that that is a huge problem that we're having in parks and rec. So when, when do we start looking at sort of those next steps, as I understand that we can identify the money, but if we continue on this, you know we just can't do it because of staffing I mean: when are we going to look at you know the I mean.

G

Obviously, there have been other instances where the private sector and the public sector have worked together on these improvements. But when are we going to, you know really look into that. As far as some of this deferred maintenance goes, I mean we have the space. We have the fields, you're saying you know. If we can pinpoint the money you know, how can we get to that next? Step of you know finding maybe people from the private sector to collaborate with us, whether they're sponsors or whether they're you know whatever they might be to help us.

G

You know with the upkeep of these fields, you know so people, so citizens can use them.

E

I mean that's a great question and great points um as far as collaboration with the private sector goes right. Now, like some of these satellite and more neighborhood parks that don't get scheduled and structured and structured programming, we just don't have the ability to take care of them if we want to identify contract maintenance to have private contractors come out and maintain these other parks that don't get as heavily used. Then again, that's another effort and funding and and budgeting you know we can. We can.

E

Our contract maintenance program has grown considerably over the last 10 years to supplement what we're able to do in-house there are. We have probably a million dollars a year that goes to contract maintenance throughout the city, so, for instance, all of our daniel island, athletic field and park.

E

Maintenance is done by contracts, because we don't have the staff to go to daniel island and provide that maintenance on a daily basis, and it works pretty well, but it's a considerable sum of money and um if we determine what our priorities are from, you know these smaller satellite or neighborhood park locations and there's requests for usage. You know we can look at that, but again it's a budgeting and funding mechanism.

G

Okay, um well, thank you for that. May I ask mr mayor if it's appropriate, if it's an appropriate time, is this something that we could see about. You know the town and or the county. You know just collaborate. You know some some type of collaborative effort, especially with the town here on james island.

D

Well, we collaborated with them in the creation of a park over on folly road, so we're certainly open to that. You got a specific um project or idea in mind. Let's talk about it. Okay, thanks generally speaking, yes,.

H

Mayor teklenberg, you may also recall that um that we work with the town of james island so that if a town resident signs their child up for one of our youth sports, that the town reimburses the city back for the uh for the outer residency costs, so that all the all the kids on james island play for the same price. So we already work with those folks that way. One of the challenges councilmember parker, is that there are more residents period on james island.

H

Then there are facilities so right now you know, I can't add any new usta teams at maybank tennis center, whether they're city or non-city, or anything else. I just don't have enough for space, so we really start getting kind of kind of hammered in that direction, but we have been working with the town of james on and I think that's a great idea to continue to reach out to them.

B

Mr mayor, I mean mr chairman, yesterday councilman gregory, um I I you know going back to um councilmember parker in terms of the issue of staffing um and it's it's just not um our parks and recreation, but it's it's across the board and and in that regard, um as chairman of human resources, I've been going to the various department heads started discussing things that they've already discussed with the mayor, of course, but discussing thinking outside the box in terms of how do we staff up so that we can address the issue of staffing which affects the maintenance of many of the places that that that that you just just described um and so far I've I've had those meetings um with two departments and the next schedule meeting in that regard would be with uh parks and recreation.

B

And you know, hopefully through brainstorming and discussions. We may be able to come up with um an outside-the-box way of perhaps uh trying to staff up uh so that the kinds of maintenance issues and- and I think, they're all legitimate questions by the way um can can be addressed to to the best of ability uh based upon staffing.

B

So there are ongoing discussions because the issue is staffing uh and and and not just in in recreation and parks, but across the board, and I think until we we really um figure out what we need to do in that area, to try to staff up as much as we can.

B

I think we'll be talking about this again next year, so I'm with you, uh we've got to find a way of staffing up our various departments so that they can address many at least some of the issues that that that you raise as concerns- and I think they're the concerns of all of us and let's not go to environmental services addicted, ditch digging. So I mean I I hear you and and as the chairman of human resources, those dialogues have started and hopefully will result in and and some kind of progress.

B

I appreciate your question as well. Thank you.

A

Councilman gregory.

A

A

C

Only other thing I'd like to say about all of that, too, is that you know our capital improvement plan is probably one of the biggest capital improvement plans of any municipality. So we have a lot of bigger projects going on too, which kind of falls on on parks as well. So some of it is is yeah staffing, of course, but it's also it's also the number of projects that we have too so.

B

Yeah they are building the international african-american museum.

C

And the brand across the brazilian river, you know.

B

C

B

I can go on yeah.

C

So I mean you just look at our look at our capital improvement plan. It's it's pretty big fire stations. We've got all kinds of stuff going on so anyway, just everybody. Keep that in mind. There's a lot a lot of responsibility there.

C

um So anyway, that's really! I think that's really all I had if anybody has any any other questions um again.

A

C

Remember this was kind of a just.

A

C

That was put together to start the conversation, so nothing set in stone at all right.

A

Mayor tickleberg.

D

Yeah, I just want to make the observation based on the discussion here today, which has been very good, um but it seems to me uh we ought to almost create two priorities, this one, the big stuff like the 10, 12 million dollar items and prioritize, which ones of those um are most important and that we would like to see you know the sooner sooner rather than later.

D

Those are the ones that likely would get funded through a bond and then another one that um deals with some of these smaller um park improvements, lights, lighting, a restroom here or there. You know so, as mentioned during the discussion, but just to make clear those. Those are things that um from year to year, we can kind of knock off.

D

um If and I've been doing that personally, just listening to y'all and hearing from citizens, you know that's how we came up with some of the things that we recently recommended, like the maybank lights for the maybank and the light for um the charleston tennis center and the funding for the pickleball courts over at north shore. So um that's how we came up with that five million dollars worth of stuff.

D

That's on uh the books right now was was just by um a process of of listening to y'all and prioritizing what staff recommended and- and it would be helpful to me- I think, in to uh our planning efforts for for um council to to kind of look at both of those areas, big big projects and then the little stuff as well little. You know up to five hundred thousand dollars.

C

Can I can, I add something to that as well, um because jason- and I were talking too- if you really look through the the big spreadsheet- of all the projects on the master plan like right, like right here from just left, ashley, so councilman parker, this kind of goes to james island too. There's already several things on there that were already funded or mostly funded like for west ashley, we have the charleston firefighter memorial, that's fully funded mulberry palm park.

C

You've got carl richardson the folly road boulevard park, the wapu road, that's wpal, we have the bikeway and the greenway, so all of those items are all of those projects are on the master plan and we've already funded most of them. So I think when we get together, you know to have this conversation just looking at the bigger spreadsheet to know every project.

C

That's already has funding allocated to it, because this presentation here is just a very small part of it and just things that we've kind of pulled out newer, probably more newer projects, but there's a lot more that we're already currently doing that. You know for this master plan.

C

It's already in progress, so I think we just need to when we sit down really go through that whole entire list, so everybody can see exactly what we're doing, because if you like, I said, if you look at our capital improvement plan, it's pretty big and a lot of those items are are included in this master plan.

B

It may be good to show those that have already been completed, for instance, jackson, freedom, memorial garden, downtown, it's completed, so I think I I think I think showing um what has been accomplished um would also, I think, uh probably be refreshing to see how much work um our capital um and parks and recreation uh have completed.

C

Okay, we we can kind of do that for for the, um if we have the workshop, if that's where we want to go next with this.

B

A

Anyone else on this so amy. Thank you very much, a lot of work and a little bit of time, and it's very, very much appreciated. So thank you so much for all your hard work on this, along with jason and lori. Thank you all for uh for putting that presentation together. It was a good conversation, so I very much appreciate it.

A

Thank you welcome, um okay, so moving on to, um let's see the uh municipal golf course um restrooms and pavilions we have on there um pavilion restrooms obviously been a discussion and we had a presentation two meetings ago. I guess and uh and uh just put this on here for discussion at this time and um jason, can I call on you to talk about it a little bit.

E

Yes, um so, based on some of the most recent discussions regarding the municipal golf course, we have worked with the golf course: we've identified, the utility locations, the charleston water systems.

E

Waste water lines and we've come up with locations and we are working on cost estimations for the addition of those restrooms onto the course, and um so right now, that's kind of where we are and uh we've got a model that that the charleston county prc has just constructed in some in one of their parks and we're gonna again cost estimate it and bring it back to everyone for their consideration.

A

Any other questions on that item.

A

All right, we'll move.

B

Forward- hey jason yeah- maybe maybe not on this call, but I'd like to get together with you and and see where we are with the um the park in longborough the little small park. Okay, we'll talk about it. Thank you.

A

Okay, next item on the agenda, I'll call on laurie um to talk to us about annual passes for swimmers and tennis players over the age of 90..

H

Thank you, uh chairman shealy, so this has come up in the last couple of weeks. I've gotten a request um in order to support and and and really celebrate those uh those folks that are using our swimming pools and our tennis facilities, who are over the age of 90.. I got a request for us to consider giving a free annual pass to those folks.

H

It's not a huge number of folks over the age of 90, but uh it's it's time right now, as we start every september first to pay your annual pass for the pool and for their tennis, centers and we've got a couple of folks, uh one of which is a 94 year old, swimmer that swims four mornings a week um and and really that's the poster of of what parks and recreation are it's uh having a great place, affordable, place, a safe place, easy to get to place, to go, exercise and stay young, and so anyway, I think it's a great idea.

H

We could certainly celebrate those folks. I don't think it's that much of a cost loss for us. It's it's actually more of a thing to say: hey. I hope I make it to 90 and I'll save myself that hundred dollars, so um I had asked if we could put this on the agenda and have you all make a recommendation that we do that for the tennis centers that would be maybank and charleston tennis center and our swimming pool passes and and really this is going to impact right now less than five people.

H

But um but it's a great way of saying, hey our seniors are have been exercising and coming out with us and we want to celebrate them.

A

Well, I think it's a great idea also. um Is that something that has to be brought before council, or um is that just something that we just need the blessing of this committee? We know.

H

I think if you, if you go ahead and do it and then we just report it out and accept the report, I think we could go ahead and move that there's some some notes from 1991 in city council records, which was believe it or not.

H

Before I got here where city council looked at doing some things like this for city employees, and so those things became a part of the minutes, and it's allowed me to understand how city council had wanted city employees to be able to use our recreation at parks and recreation facilities as well. Okay,.

A

uh Councilman gregory.

B

I still moved I'm sorry.

A

All right, um all in favor of moving this forward, please say: aye aye aye any opposed okay, nice to have it, um and- um and next I mean we've already kind of talked a little bit about staffing. But I want to call on uh lori if she would and just give us a little update on recreation, staffing.

H

Thank you. um We continue to um to struggle to keep everything fully staffed, um I'm at about 40 across the city right now and where we're seeing the biggest need is in our part-time staffing.

H

um Obviously, there's just not a lot of folks right now, given the way the world is looking for part-time work um and that's really how we have been able to have our buildings and and pools, and- and you know, programs run six days a week- seven days a week at night in the mornings, all those things. So one of the things we're working on now is cobbling together some of our part-time positions to create some full-time positions to see.

H

If we can, we can hire some more full-time people that will be able to give us some more flexibility, but we uh we're almost to the point now where we take registration like in in youth sports, for every child that registers within a certain date. We take those kids and we make teams, and then we have anything else is, after the date wait list.

H

But if we continue to have this kind of vacancy, I'm not going to be able to staff the way we have before, and I don't want to limit participation, especially in youth sports, for for those things, so we're doing everything in our power to play at places where I can have multiple staff together, where we can supervise safely and still have things going.

H

But uh you know I continue to watch and I see councilmember saccharin signs up, twelve to fifteen dollars an hour for after school care and and it's the same struggle we're having it's just those part-time people are not out there looking for jobs right now, but um our full-time people are still putting putting in good great work, and I just hope none of them tell me to go pound sand anytime soon, because they're doing great work, and I want to keep them doing that.

A

Thank you, laurie jason, uh kessler and sacker. Thank.

F

You kevin our councilmember sheila um laurie, so I guess yeah we're we're experiencing the same same play at school district and I actually it took me a year last year to get our folks to that 12 to 15 range, because we were at 10 to 11 and 12 range. I'm actually got a follow-up meeting with with our new superintendent next week, um I'm going to ask for for more, so we get closer to that 17 and 18 range, which is where the market is right now.

F

So my question to you, laurie is, um I think it's with councilman uh gregory's uh point, as you guys are discussing the budget for next year are: are you making a recommendation to increase the hourly wages for your part-time staff.

H

Well, thanks to the council vote last meeting, you all took it. You took about 170 of my employees up to 15 an hour or a little above that, depending on where their threshold is.

H

um I know that that hr is looking across the board at those things and meeting with councilmember gregory and the hr committee I know um amy wharton is our cfo has been looking at that I mean 15 an hour is great, but I haven't seen a change in the number of people applying for positions, since you all did that, um but but I'm hoping it's the start of something bigger, but we are definitely not getting a lot of new folks applying and I'm starting to lose coordinators.

H

Who are those people at that 30 to 40 range um and and those folks are going to other places. So it's really that that whole squeeze it's got to be a whole, a whole change. If you will um for what we're doing and and creating those opportunities that are going to get students and college students and maybe try tech students, those experiences they need for career things, but yeah. It's the same problem you're having um and- and I don't see it changing any, but I know the city is looking at it as a whole.

H

I don't normally, when staff does a budget councilmember sacrament, I don't put in for additional dollars for staffing- that's looked at as the whole, um but I did ask for all of our our pre-coveted budgeting to go back to the to have all that money put back in the budget. um Our numbers are back up and we needed. We need all those dollars that we had pre-co-vet to offer the same programs and activities and events. So.

F

Thank you, laurie jason.

E

Cronsberg and just to follow up because parks and recreation are together right- and I mentioned this earlier- but out of the 158 budgeted positions we have in the parks department. I have 48 openings now that that crosses between facilities, maintenance, capital projects and grounds maintenance, 21 of those are directly related to park and athletic field maintenance, so um it it runs the breadth of what we offer um and our number one priority in our budget request was increased salaries and wages.

B

And hope, and hopefully um when council member well well, chairman um healey and I sit and meet with you guys, we have to really think outside the box and I have some ideas. Okay, thank you.

A

Councilman gregory.

H

Cosby greg you, let me know when you want to meet and talk about salaries, I'll clear, my calendar for you. Oh.

B

We will mono be calling you thank you, sir set it up. Okay, councilmember parker.

G

Yes, thank you. Thank you, mr chairman. um We so is our coordinator gone on james island, correct our.

H

Our athletic coordinator left to go be the coordinator at goose, creek um for a much higher salary and having much much le many less children to serve. So um we are working on that, though we think we've got someone offered, we had just failed an adult sports coordinator position and um so now we're back down a position, but we're working hard on that. We think we have some solutions.

G

Okay and sorry, I mean I have kind of three questions, but so obviously we rely on our volunt. You know our volunteer coaches really to to you know, take care of those teams but you're saying that these so who's out there. Now, if we lost our coordinator, you do. Is there enough staff for these teams to be out there practicing? And this is this kind of circumvents my question as to why we have all these fields, but we aren't utilizing them for practice.

G

Is it because practice has to be held with rep recreation, folks on site, like at bayview, okay,.

H

That's a great question, so practices don't have to have staff present as much um certainly games. Do, though, because we want to make sure where we've got parents that I've got safety features, I've got someone with an aed somebody, that's cpr certified.

H

I also want to have a staff person that can immediately get a hold of 911 if we have a police or fire emergency. So that's that's paramount for where we hold games, you could have practices at some other spots, um but the reason why we try to do things like bayview or james lawn rec center in your two cases, is because I have restrooms and I have ample parking what happens a lot of times in a stephen washington park. If we send teams there, there's not paved parking, so there may not be enough parking areas.

H

There's a portalet people aren't happy. It just kind of starts going snowballing like that. So that's why we do that. But yes, our volunteer coaches are the ones that are the absolute. If we didn't have volunteer coaches, we wouldn't be able to do any of this, but the coordinator is the one that gets them feel times gets their rosters, make sure they have the supplies.

H

When the uniforms are done, we get them uniforms. We make sure that everything runs smoothly. So that's where I have a coordinator on site on a saturday at bayview when we have 10 fields going at one time, and so that's the importance of that person. We will have someone whether it's robin cooper, whether it's me whether it's allison weaver, we'll have someone from within our staff out doing those things when we start, um but but we did lose our coordinator on james isle,.

G

Okay, all right and um jason kronsberg do so 21. We have 21 vacancies for the park and athletic field maintenance. So this is exactly what I was talking about before so, like you already have it set up for daniel island. How much is that?

G

How much or- and maybe this might be- a question for amy what what are our savings there for those 21 positions that we have left unfilled and can we outsource some of this maintenance for the city fields.

E

Based on recreation programming right, um we could put contracts out there for athletic field maintenance.

E

The answering the question on salary savings and how it's funded is an amy answer, but um included in those 48 open positions as a contract manager. So it's it's you! You really have to keep an eye on the contractors. You have to follow the contractors around every day and make sure they're getting the work done. So um it's sometimes it's a little easier, but you have to have the people to to monitor it.

G

Is amy still on the call? I am.

C

Here, okay, so I I think what we would need to do- and you know it's september now right- um is just kind of look at his budget as it is right now and where he might be able to cover it within the budget without using salary savings for it, because he probably does have some funding somewhere that we could utilize.

C

But it's just getting those contractors um now that the season's kind of almost over maybe well. I guess it just started, didn't it. I don't even know where I am I'm sorry, um so I mean it's it's because I think the contractors are also having a little bit of trouble too right jason. So sometimes when we call them, they can't always get get there right away either.

C

So it would be all of that just kind of letting us look through the budget and see where he might have some funds available to do it and whether he can get the contractors out there to do it and then bringing a contract to council if it needed to for your approval to increase the contract amount. But you know all of those things we would just need to. We just need to look at it all and see what we could do.

G

Okay, all right! Thank you. I know that's a little off tangent, sorry, councilmember gregory, but I just thought it was pertinent. You know with the staffing you know just finding out what you know. Our staffing issues are in the in the rac department.

B

And some of what you just talked about are things that we will be talking to department heads about okay. How do we, how do we get creative about this? To make sure that we have the kind of coverage we need.

G

Okay- and I don't know if it's you know in west ashley, I mean I've been to enough of the parks over there to see some deferred maintenance as well. So I'm sure that it's city-wide, not just you, know james island specific, but.

C

Thank you we're taking all that into consideration too, when we're looking at 2023 just trying to kind of determine where we are and what what we need to do with some of these contracts as well.

C

If we do need to increase some of the contract amounts based on our staffing issues and things like that, and if it's even feasible to do so like I said because some of those contractors are having the same issues we are so we are just so you know we are taking all that in consideration when we're looking at 2023 as well.

C

Do we need to add more people if we can't hire people, or is that a con? Do we need to increase contracts? That kind of thing is what we're looking at so.

G

A

Anyone else is there anything else we need to bring before this committee before we adjourn.

B

Vote for approval, move for adjournment.

H

Before we adjourn councilmember sheila, can I make one quick comment. um I shared some news with you last week that I'm excited to say now um I heard back from the candidate. We offered the position of the business and enterprise manager position too, and they have accepted the position.

H

So we will have that person joining our staff, um understanding that I'm going to have to bring them up to speed really quickly and get going, but hopefully that's going to produce some revenue streams and some other partnerships in the private sector for the city, parks and recreations departments. um But but I'm excited that he's accepted the position he'll be joining us um here in the next month or so as he and his family relocate from florida. So that's great news.

A

Yeah, that's outstanding news and thank you for all your work on that lori, because I know it was a long process before we finally got that. Yes, so thank you all right anything else, if jason anything, nothing, okay, all right! If not, we stand adjourned. Thank you very much.

D