good evening I'm going call the meeting to order for the board of parks Commissioners for Thursday March 7th 2024 roll call Billy Davidson Christy Isaacson here Chris Moxley here Elizabeth Ross here Mary S here Cheryl Sheriff here Ellen usri chrisy Wright here okay first item consideration of approval rejection amended and or postponement of minutes from January 11th 2024 Park Board special meeting did yall get a chance to review those do have a motion to approve or reject or amen I'll motion to approve okay second all in favor I okay have been approved discussion items consideration of approval rejection amended and or postponement of previously approved Council action items Council actions go over these real quick as you can see we had a very busy month in February uh on the 13th meeting uh we did have a once again we're in charge of all Building Maintenance so when when uh we have an emergency at one of our buildings that kind of that does fallen into the parks department with a building maintenance but we had declaration for emergency repair at the Norman Transit uh Center of about $124,000 uh the we did uh end up buying some property for uh normal affordable housing um uh on the south part of town southeast part of town um that might be a project that a building maintenance um Pro uh might have be involved in as that that comes up a contract between uh city of Norman and our Norman Art Council for Artful inlets which you'll hear more about tonight uh we also had a uh $125,000 um put in a capital account for uh trees and this was a uh mitigation agreement uh because the next era that is putting power lines through through Norman um had to remove some um trees on some city property so they gave us $125,000 in mitigation so that's capital money that we can use for tree replacement anywhere on City prop property within the city uh we had a resolution for uh our uh trail with ODOT um this is kind of going along um connecting a path of Legacy Trail multimodal path between tumsa and flood up near the airport this is a norm for project that was $1.6 Million the state's actually doing that for us and that's the uh portion that we're paying them uh Proclamation for Earth Day uh on the 27th we also had uh a uh special events ordinance which might um eventually uh flow down to to Parks if we have any uh filming um that takes place in Parks um there was an ordinance to that to make us a a film friendly City uh we had two contracts for snow removal uh uh all snow removal on any city property falls to part maintenance congratulations W um so uh now with the addition of the wfac and uh the senior uh adult Wellness I'm supposed to get shocked every time I say senior so I apologize adult wellness and education center uh we want to make sure that we have enough manpower to to remove that we also remove um snow from City Hall uh the depot uh I think this is going to be mainly focused in downtown areas um so if we do this it can be any city of property but we're going to um f focus on Transit uh City Hall uh adult wellness and the depot if we do that I might have missed a location downtown also had a a resol uh this was kind of a funky one if anybody keeps track of city city business but uh there was a resolution uh for a public hearing to basically Abate a a property um this was near uh Vineyard Park and you probably ask what that has to do to us I mean we really don't know but have a sneaking suspicion this could have been what happened to um uh Vineyard getting set on fire a couple times in the past couple years this is a house that had that constantly had police calls out there and problems and and um it was a nuisance correct um uh also our our last one right here which got rejected um would have been a a project that we would have built for a uh a $940,000 purchase of property on the north side of town which uh could have been a potential location for homeless shelter so and that's totally off the table now right yeah that got rejected so that is not going to come back to uh any questions about items is that Southeast development the one on the other side this side of Hitachi yes are you asking about the property that they just bought where is that what they might kind of inhoff uh close to inhoff Highway 9ish uh they brought brought some property just to it was a finalization of contract we actually talked about that a council member or a council meeting um previously might have been in February or late January but it's this property they will um eventually build affordable housing on um we have a contract with that they talked about at the back of or is that something else that's something completely we have to do snow removal like the old Senior Center uh shaking to said yes more it is our property we don't want to be at fault for somebody getting hurt it's a that one that one is a we have an operation agreement with the ab house and that finally went through yes that passed uh few months ago and that item was just for discussion so we don't have to vote on that right okay action items three discussion regarding the Artful inlets program do we have presentation hi some of you I know some of you don't I'm Michelle lenbach and I'm the environmental and sustainability manager and we're going to talk a little bit about The Artful inlets program um I think when I say this I think I can say for everyone it's really a well-loved program it's a lot of fun it's a way to educate the public but also bring in the Arts and it's a great way to collaborate across many departments and many um different divisions so it's exciting right all right so I'm just going to go over a little bit of what the program is how it got started where we are okay will you hear that since you're going to do you want to start here you want to start all right so how did we start well the first thing we had to do was establish a partnership did we miss a slide you hit it I did I hit it too hard I'm sorry yes so if you remember Carrie Evon some of you guys might remember Dr Carrie Evon she was a storm water program manager um and when I came on in 2017 as a stormw program specialist we had seen some of these beautiful pieces in Northwest Arkansas and we really wanted to actually do it here in Norman cuz what a great place to to have that program it was a little more difficult to get it started at least just within our siloed area luckily in 2018 2019 one of the council members became excited about it and so with the council member Champion we will we were able to actually get with the Norman Arts Council with with all of our different departments and get that Council support that we needed to make an actual program um it's been pretty exciting um Norman Arts Council was really in they as soon as we brought it to them they were surprised and excited um and you know went through a lot of iterations on how we would make it work all right now I'm ready thank you um so we establish this partnership and at the time the public Arts board was still around so it was between the city of Norman the public Arts board and the Arts Council um now it's primarily between the city of Norman and the Norman Arts Council um we had a memorandum of agreement that was assigned uh their initial budget for the entire program was $5,000 now that's cash budget that's not in kind Services we did do some in kind stuff you know like having the staff there and and using City equipment that kind of thing uh lots of meetings when I say lots of meetings you know like I said we started started thinking about it in 2017 we got Kate verman that was the um council member who was excited about it and who championed it she came on 2018 and then we really got it moving so that we could kick off in 2019 uh the sites were selected by committee this is uh the map of the original five sites in 2019 it was on Main Street cuz what a great place to highlight it uh this the example in the bottom that is uh there is an art Inlet in front of the sea shanty it's um one of the first it's a water droplet uh it was done by Derek Adams one of our local artists and this is the design template for what artists get so that they can put their design in and this was the original setup okay and I'm going to explain why I'm saying that in just a few minutes but this was the original and the stip in for the artist was only $400 uh but they got all the materials like the paints and things like that okay so what is the artist election you know how do we choose who they are well there's definitely a set of criteria right and first and foremost actually you know I have artistic Merit but the very first thing that we check is whether or not they're a Cleveland County artist or whether they've had that already that interaction with the Arts Council then number two is the artistic merits um but right next to that is whether they have Incorporated the theme right the educational theme so there's messaging and there's always a theme um with it and then can they do it here's what we learned you know some of the times the very first time especially we had some new artists who had never painted and so time management was a thing right so that but we learned we learned and we adapted and that's that's all you can ask right progress not Perfection but and the selection panel we meet we review all of the art we look at the BIOS and that's how we choose it okay the budget uh now we each contribute $750 per artist um that's the artist dipen and then they also get supplies of materials why well everything's been inflated right inflation is a thing um and also we found that really surprisingly these large muralist as I'm sure you guys know cuz you're probably part of the big mural or at least you've heard about the big mural project that were that the Arts Council is trying to to get going um it's it's expensive you know and they should get paid for their time and it's hard work there are two full days in the sun on the hard concrete painting so it's it's worth it um this year we're going to do six new installations usually it's five but there's an exciting reason why we're doing six so I can't wait to tell you about that wait go back because we also have three Renovations and I'll also explain that the theme this year is s blue act green no okay so why why does it matter about the six parts well because so excited about this we tied it in with the blue neighborhood pilot project you'll like this Chris I think you'll like this cuz having to listen to all that storm water stuff but we tied it in to this project what is this project Michelle what do you care about it why are you so excited well this is why because Lake Thunderbird which is our drinking water source right is impaired our city we know this right everybody knows it's impaired for nutrients and it's impaired for sediment well blue neighborhood is going to the one neighborhood within a watershed that has the highest loading so the highest amount of pollution coming off um for nutrients so in this square mile you know we have monitoring stations throughout the Watershed because we have to know what's going into our waterways right so we can try to prevent some of that and improve our water quality well this is the hottest area so luckily for us um the city manager said yeah this is a great idea let's spend some money and do this program so we've gone to every everybody within this square mile this square mile being Tacomo Rock Creek Porter and 12th within that yeah within that square mile we wrote to every single homeowner and offered them the opportunity to take part in this program it's a cost share program an incentive program if you will for them to put in either soil amendments like compost which will help retain storm water on site they can do that with or without Wildflower seeding which I always recommend Wildflower seeding right natives are nice um also they can put in either a rain Garden or pollinator pocket wow right there's habitat and there's also treatment for storm water big deal and then finally they can also put in rainwater harvesting here are the park locations so there are three parks that we identified within that square mile their Vineyard Park that you were just talking about um so that's beautify it right if it burned let's make it pretty we got rid of the bad house let's put in some good stuff at sooa trail park and chism's Cattle Trail Park so these all through are throughout that one square mile we have found two pieces of infrastructure of City infrastructure that would be appropriate for this type of installation in each Park so six artists and it will really the that's why the think blue act green theme all of it ties together so if we can keep bringing the messaging together like this then eventually everybody in the city will understand how important it is to protect our resources and here's the timeline the call for artists went out on February 15th uh the deadline is March 15th so if you know artist please talk to them right get out there and tell them yeah I'm looking at you in the back um because we need those right we have six new places um March 29th will be the artist selection April 11th and 12th will be the actual installation so if you're out and about come on to the parks and check it out it's always a good time I promise you'll see um finally we're gonna have a celebratory walkth through so that's usually with the mayor in fact it's going to be the mayor and the city manager both agreed we usually have press and community members and then Arts Council provides a little Tipple toast at the end so that's kind of cool right right exactly so please join us that date actually we did find out and I should have put it in here is April 15th I do not have the time yet but I will pass it on so that they can share it and the pass not sorry sorry she'll be Dr by then by the 15th on the 15th I'll be bu it's ta day right you no that's all right afterwards come out and have a tip so Main Street uh we hit Main Street twice we had two uh selections on Main Street then we went up Legacy Trails um then we started moving to our wonderful Parks which we love uh Lion's Park which is amazing if you get out there take a look it's cool cats keep it clean which I love um and then Colonial Estates Park uh will you hit that I wanted to show you this this is just now it's being updated right now so this is the old one pop it up is it pulling I don't know did you H it yeah yeah there it is okay I want it there yes yes I think you have to hit the come on way show are these website anywhere so okay that's what you're pulling up I'm going to show you that okay but maybe not M I don't know where Mitchell is well all right if you do a Google of Artful Inlet story map it will pull up the map I'm trying to oh here's Mitchell we love Mitchell oh it's on here thank you thank you so oh thank thank goodness for Mitchell all right can you make it come down do you know how to work it cuz I really want to show you yeah there it is you see it it's way over there can you do it blind oh okay yeah I see the arrow I don't see it it's right where's it's not moving anything oh you got to close close right oh this is painful is that it over there what's happening sorry mitell sorry Wade I didn't mean to do this to you too sorry guys I'm sorry here you go I got you Artful technicians right now it's working well that's all right so come over here to the um map please maybe no other one that one yeah so if you come if you do a Google just hit okay and I'll pull up a thing then you can exit yes okay if you pull oh well Google Artful in the story map okay and then oh here we go so this will take you on a tour of the first three years that we have installed and if you go around to the different locations cuz the map will take you you can pull up all of the different uh pieces you can look at the artist bio you can um you should continue looking through the story map because they also we also have uh how the drainage flows for each of the infrastructure and how long it takes to get to The Creeks that it goes to it's pretty cool so Google it and check it out it's ARL Inlet story map like I said it's being updated but this is still live so you can look at the old one until we get it finished all right and I think I'm almost done actually woo now we got to figure this out again can you do it it popped up for you it did yeah it's on here try to close well go down and let I'll just you don't need to see the pictures right cuz I don't think I have any more pictures is it not a touchcreen no no that's what hold on there it was I've never done GL feel like you never know take try right not my laptop for computers well I'm everybody who knows me and if you don't know you'll know now I am definitely not a tech person NE neither is Wade I know how to work my own stuff he was until you know the on on okay so what about the longevity we've had these in since 2019 we've had four that have had damage enough that either need to be renovated ated or replaced one was so damaged unfortunately remember I said some of them were new and didn't know how to she layered very thickly on it we I loved it but unfortunately it just it it wouldn't stay and she could not come back and replace it so we had to have it redone and so it's a whole different one that's the one in front of Ben bonies it's got flowers now it's beautiful it was beautiful before it's beautiful now uh we do have three that are going to be renovated this year uh that's mermaids that's uh water H2 only by Laura Nelson it's the black and white I can't think of yeah is it cool um and then it's also Ribbit by the Halls so that's the frogs if You' seen them outside of the restaurant there yes ma'am are you sharing the information on what provides longevity as as to what maybe cause some of the problem yeah let me actually I was gonna no you're good um what is working and what isn't working and so what we found on those three specifically on Main Street that did have the big damage actually was the way the concrete was prepared when it was done so it's really the newer concrete that was causing a problem with the adhesion with the paint that's okay cuz we found an adaption right so now we can do that again and and it's a change in the paint kind we've been working with Sherwin Williams who's been very helpful with us and you know educating us and giving us discounts on pain that kind of thing um and so we came up with a new blend and it seems to stick better it seems to be a better option so that's a relief right um and then uh surprisingly enough some of the ones that went in in the first go are still shine still really nice still beautiful if you've seen cumulo nimbis I love that one it's the lady with the rain uh up near Porter on Main Street it still looks great uh Choose Wisely which has the fire pipe you know about they they all still look really good so we're pretty excited about these next um six and I really do hope you will come out while we're installing them on the 11th and 12th or at the very very least come out for the walkthr even if you can't then think about us while we're doing I will so and with that I'll take any questions or comments or so I guess the paint isn't toxic or anything that can chip up and go down in the storm D that's one of the big things it doesn't have any of the H so you probably know that back in the day right some of the paint had lead in it it had other types of so the kind that we're working with Sherwin Williams is actually pretty safe uh in terms of it going in you know you never want anything right I've said this I'm going to say it again only rain down the drain but as things go it's pretty harmless yeah and then and this you didn't ask but I'm going to tell you uh we do definitely protect all St water infrastructure when we're cleaning off or prepping and priming and when they're painting so none of the the wet stuff or any of the dirty stuff gets into the drain that's great to educate the artists too in future projects if they think hey wonder if my stuff could flow somewhere no it is we talk and so I I won't name any names but yes in fact because that's one of the things we do when the installation is talk to the artists with public comes we talk to the public that kind of thing and and so anyway while we're doing that yeah one of the artists said oh you know I used to just dump mine oh my gosh they were also a Potter and so I know I don't know if you know but I guess when you make pottery you have like slag water on and they would just but now I don't do that cuz I learned so you're right Mary it's it's a thing Melle can I ask you and I'm might have missed it when you said it's going to those three parks are these like areas in front of the parks yes they are I'm glad you there are storm drains actually in these and that's why we chose these locations there are actual curb and gutter drains that we can go around okay oh and that was the one thing I forgot to tell you so we also learned that adaptability right not everywhere do we have this great 10t by 4T whatever canvas so we've learned we can adapt and the way we do that is we let the artists know if we find something that's not typical if they want to come and in fact all artists are invited two three days before or actually probably a week before to come out and look at the site and make sure they know where they're putting their piece but they can adapt it to fit the the size right if you walk down Legacy Trail you'll actually see this there's a Chase 5 it's another artist one of the artist uh did the bridge and it's got the um it's it's the message is the medium but it's uh Mandela that's what they call it and then also if you keep going down that trail you'll see an area drain and that's another Lauren and and it swirls around like it's going in anyway sorry I can keep talking I won't any other questions all right well thanks guys thank youw think they're step into seen those M on to reports annual report from Westwood ten oh it I remember reading about it started to it just blur all right uh Westwood tennis had another really good year in 2023 um I can send you up 12 tournaments Junior High School USDA tournaments uh brought over 300 kids into Norman from all over the Missouri Valley which is like a seven state region up to Iowa um we have 14 teaching Pros now on staff 12 courts two indoor courts um and we have a waiting list so it's it's busier than ever which is great and the March Junior clinics right now are full they went to capacity where we have a waiting list for that too so things are good there uh warm body count which I turn into Carla every month 2023 was the highest it has ever been mostly because the indoor courts and just the crowd um that number's doubled since 2018 wow which is pretty awesome about 40,000 people so um let's see um some of the programs we run that I think are interesting Junior clinics anywhere from age three 3 to 18 uh junior team tennis is where West would have put a competitive team at each age group and we play other clubs throughout the state uh go up to Edmond they come here and vice versa up to Tulsa sometimes too uh cardio tennis we got a big TV screen not that big but about half that um the adults wear monitors you know for heart rate and calorie burn and have all these fun awards that click out through the software uh do that for juniors as well homeschool Clinic during the day uh Middle School tennis practices so both the there's two teams um one feeds into Norman High one feeds into Norman North uh two schools each and they both practice at Westwood they take the top four courts one of them does Monday Wednesday the other one does Tuesday Thursday so it's about 60 kids a day up there uh pretty chaotic um Tera Verde started a program uh pretty instrumental in that we provided a coach and we allowed them to use our courts which which worked out great they're having a team this year again competing in tournaments uh tennis on campus we host it's an OU club team that travels to play other clubs they just went up to Springfield Missouri for a sectional Championship didn't make it to Nationals but finished sixth in top three go to Nationals so out of 16 teams so um adult leagues we had about 60 matches those are adult teams usually have eight or six players depending on the age that come in to play either our teams in Norman or just meet at Westwood to play um customers range in age from 3 to 88 uh Carol McConnell if you know her is 88 now I teach her every every Tuesday I teach her let's uh 2023 highest number of unique players so we have a lot of repeats but I I always try to trct new players so the unique number of clinics and adult drills um was the highest we've ever had uh hosted a blood drive for Obi in our indoor courts and then we had several fundraisers where we raised money and gave all the money to food and shelter um it's about all I got this this staff's great they kind of see my vision of how you know stay on par or get ahead of our competition I think James has some exciting stuff uh after after I go about Norman forward uh got all new wind screens in 2023 thanks to Jason for that um huge difference those are a battle gosh there's one that's one that's what's that now if we get the wind the equit blowing yes there's one that's almost already shredded it's it's a it's a battle but we do our best with that um yeah just thanks one of the nicest facilities in the state so excited to keep it that way a wind screen is wind screen uh yeah block uh Wind Block it's basically a fabric that blocks wind for players for this outdoor yes for outo so when you're driving by on Robinson and you you see all the the the black screening that's on the fencing that's the when screens he's talking about and you even got a few logoed ones I think fac those are great you also see all the little tennis balls in the gutter on Robinson yeah we we tell the kids hit them that way but when they start rallying it's it's fun to hit them in the street I guess for yeah try to make it s question what is your capacity the um challenge you like you say we've got people on a wait list is it just instructors is it space we have five full-time and the other nine are two are getting their masters at OU students college students uh we even have a high school girl that's teaching for us she's top 50 in the nation very good but just a great person so we have her with like the five and Enders so yeah time and schedule and then get in courts you know we have we have two indoor courts so this the last three months is the hard part you know M we're not fighting over courts thankfully I we have a plan but yeah it's hard to it's hard to get a court so we don't take on a lot of new lessons you know in the chance when have two courts we don't like cancelling a lot but that's kind of part of it maybe maybe we'll get more indoor courts subtle hint he'll talk about that yeah that's what we're hoping for awesome any other comments questions thank you Mark no thank you congratulations Kudos Kudos oh no it's exciting it really is stop by stop by and see you Norman forward update uh just a few items for noral forward uh we did have our our art dedication out at wfac and our ribbon cutting on February 19th right kind of blurred we we had a great crowd we had about 600 or so people that that showed up uh uh good ceremony uh uh got a lot of great news coverage off of it I think every news station um covered it uh we had our front page of the Oklahoma uh the following day and uh uh unfortunately Trey was not able to to make it he um he prior prioritized his family over us which we still yeah how dare I know um but uh he did make a video for us and anybody that came that uh we did a great job of integrating the the the big screen behind us uh along with everything and we wanted to set up and show that people that it's not only a a large basketball place but it'd be a great place to host events and uh we've been uh working with uh everybody from the ossaa with the big screen that the that they plan on hosting their their uh their computer games what te Esports thank you um um state championships at wfac and um towards the end of this year November December range um we also had a recent um conversation with the Oklahoma about hosting their High School awards out there they were pretty uh impressed with with the setup so we think that we're going to start get getting some cool events and um we can integrate a lot of different things with there um the hospital space is now fully operational uh we were hoping to have the pool open by uh Monday the 11th looks like there's a few things that's kind of set in our um came up but hopefully by the end of next week the po bu open we will have U member only times that start the uh the week of the 18th uh and we'll have early morning times and late evening times as we try to coordinate everything and then have open Community times not charging anybody for that month so if you sign up for uh to become a member at that point you'll be able to go come through there and do some swimming or um uh gym activities pickleball or or basketball or or some of the classes we have available on there during the member only times and we'll still try to uh uh have some open Community times like we promised at least 100 hours per week per year per year thank you for that correction Cheryl and uh so great event I think the other other things that we have going on Bentley Park is still moving along uh our basketball or basketball courts uh tennis courts and pickle ball are uh near completion now we're we're kind of um wrapping up with everything with our starting to shelter here pretty quick uh that's done the trails was a big thing to come next the walking trails and the um final sight furnishings and the sign the L Bentley Memorial plaque and bust is done um but we are looking for a substantial piece of rock to mount it on so jud's working with us on that to wrap up the the Bentley family donation and we're kind of looking for a a spring opening of that we'll make sure that we'll inform everybody once we get all that set in place and um we'll have a cool um public opening uh for that Park and at Falls Lake View and sunrise Park uh we are uh have ordered playgrounds I got a where going on this next Council agenda and uh we'll get those ordered and hopefully installed within uh a few months after making the order uh and thank goodness our Norman Ford stuff is starting to slow down a little bit our brandwidth or growing um to do everything other things uh I think that you'll see us start meeting with Saxon um a hoc committee here here pretty quick and uh besides that uh we're you know have a park master plan and other things that now we're opening bandwidth for our staff to do so we can start doing things besides nor Ford projects which is haven't been able to do that in the past two or three years so it's kind of kind of kind of nice to get a little bit open the open time to do that kind of stuff with do we have any information about the art piece yet uh all okay so we were talking about that today yeah I talked to Aon gavagan uh last week and the art piece is being shipped currently to the United States from Australia um we have had an American engineer uh stamp and say it's a okay uh to be put in place so we will be working on the concrete base very shortly and then um I I believe it has to go in pieces on a boat so it'll take quite a bit of time to get here from China uh but um think we're pouring footer for this next week yep y yes and there will be um there will be some really nice part of why we chose this artist from Australia was he had an educational and Community uh involvement impact uh to every project he does and so that's part of uh the piece of this art work and he'll be coming with the piece at some point to do some kind of uh community outreach and education with it and we hope that involves all generations and it'll be a really fun experience to install it and celebrate it so was it always going to be a butterfly I it's a GI it's an 18t flower with a butterfly there is a butterfly attached to like a oh there is a butterfly on it it's a sunflower M color a Dalia or something yeah it seems like more of a Dalia but I don't know if it's you know what kind of flower it is but there's a butterfly attached to it yes they showed a picture of it we did a tour this week and all I could see is the butterfly and I kept thinking I thought it was supposed to be a flower yeah and wondered if they changed no changes both 2300 members at of uh how adultness cross that that Mark this week did you ever find out how many come through a day no no that's a good question um I did not find that out because these numbers are outrageous yeah so I'm just curious about not being enough yeah um you know they are serving a maximum of 60 people for lunch every day through aging services and that maximum is being reached on a daily basis so the hours between 11: and 1 are very difficult to park right now um we are Jason has put a request through the budget process to expand parking and so um if that should get approved then we will go through a process to design and uh of course make that happen but also there will be some changes to how the hospital uses the parking around there at the end of July so we anticipate that kind of clearing up and and getting some help pretty shortly through both of those options some overflow into the yeah yeah so they don't keep like a tab I'm sure that they do I'm sure that they do I will get that information to you you have to check in when you come in you got fig I don't know why sort of fascinated by how many cuz these numbers are yeah is really awesome and I think they're at uh 6,000 Plus in Oklahoma City so the uh I think their bandwidth is still uh we were over there for our monthly meeting about 3:00 today and there was plenty of depending on what time you go there's still plenty of open like said the busiest hours are in the morning and around lunch early morning and around lunch so you just have to there are available times for them to go I'm just already thinking about expansion so you know that's I'll find out I will definitely let you know that's an interesting fact yeah I went to do a day like a pay to go in for the day but I did it in the evening there was a class I was interested in and it was a lot more empty I mean there were still people there but I mean I had the place I could have gone and like swam and well assuming the things were open swam and done my weights and done I mean I could have just taken there was no weight to do anything late after late afternoon the pool's pretty much empty and then then it picks back up about five or six I was there was a guy in there talking that said that they there's there's one or two men in the morning classes usually but he said that there was like 12 men in the class he went to the other day and in the evening so and we have our aim meetings over there once a month and it is fascinating how you um even it those start at around 6:30 and we get in there and it is the center is full it's not it's not parking lot it's not packed but it is interesting to see even at night there are the classes have 20 people in them and or people going all hours of the day it's I'm just liking this very much so that's why I'm just curious today the health department was there giving covid vaccinations so there's lots of great Partnerships already happening wonderful miss that of course I had my C shot so I didn't even one I was there this mon I sent an email to Catherine about the possibility of getting a piano in the near the stage and sent her a picture and some quotes maybe for a rental I don't know if they could write a grant or anything but I haven't heard back from her okay I will talk that they hadn't really explored the Performing Arts but evidently simron Opera Company is doing something in there this weekend on the stage oh really you're not up in with Opera news no no you didn't mention that today we got a lot of things going on any other questions about Norman forward items divisional updates great I will be happy to go first so Jason already talked to you about our our young family Athletics Center community open house period of time as well as our member only hours um to Define some of those classes he was talking about um we've got open lap walking which has been pretty popular people coming from there's a big group of people that walk indoors at the mall when weather's bad and so we are getting some of those folks interested in coming and walking in wfac which is really nice um the floor would be a lot easier on your knees than walking will that be for member only though right now we've got community Open House hour open lap walking Monday 9 to 11 as well as Thursday 9 to noon so come check it out the distance about 2 miles around 2 yeah so five five laps is a mile almost a quarter of a mile good question um so we've got uh like I said lap walking pickle ball going on pick up basketball um we've got some recreational and then uh also uh senior pickle ball so pickle ball is one of those games that lots of people want to learn where the pickle ball um the pickle ball is on top overlaid over the quarts we have indicator lines so we actually tape the pickle ball quarts down when we do pickle ball and bring out the Nets so is that what those square like pieces of wood are that don't match the other wood no those are those are electric boxes they going eventually get painted uh we had had to have somebody come in there I thought it was our volleyball those will all match eventually sooner sooner or later we get our floor contractor back down there yeah so if you are someone who wants to learn pickle ball like everyone else in the world right now come and learn it at Wii so when are they going to are they going to have a regular pickle ball out there they will they're working on that right now with a couple of different groups um we don't have exactly when that schedule will be um we're really testing out a lot of different open gym activities working with local groups to see you know who wants to come in who doesn't have space and then we'll right now we're working on a finalizing all the schedules with those groups and figuring out how the weekday will work yeah we do have a uh a RFP out for pickle ball outdoor pickle ball and depending on the pricing uh cuz we do have a little bit left remainder money uh if we can fit that in the budget we'll do six courts outside as well left over from more parking not enough for that you have Co co-share agreement with uh they did we tried to get one with Embassy Suites and they preferred not to have one they uh they said they want to see how the first year goes so them maybe that they won't be the preferred hotel for tournaments so if we parked at Embassy sedes and walked over we could possibly get towed no not going do that they have agreed to let people park there for the first year without a contract just no no contract right they didn't want and so no promoting it uh talking to the general manager is very complicated getting stuff through their corporate office and he was having a little kick back from from their attorney so he said let's try this out for first year and find out if we even need a contract I'm guessing with a couple of our vents they probably were prefer to have one at certain point is there going to be basketball tournament or anything going on when the swimming I think they've got a swim meet coming up don't they they do have a swim meet coming up April 5th I believe it is it's going to be it's possible that they might have two events going on it's possible you should track the uh your sales before and after you should I bet their occupancy and their shells go way up at Embassy so it's like kind of like you you know you have a grand kid playing I have my kid playing uh we we went out almost every single time that on Thursday nights for dinner and it's interesting talk we went to a variety of different places but it's interesting to talk to those restaurants like when you tell them you see the kid comes in with a wife act they like wow we've been we've been unexpectedly busy on all these week nights and has to do with this wac thing and I think it's starting to spill over and those restaurants are pretty happy with what's going on out there spilling downtown now it's hitting me why he said they've got big groups in after the tournament good filling up his filling up his restaurant had his biggest day ever good that's cool well I guess Embassy Suites I somebody posted a picture and there was like eight school buses in the parking lot and the state tournament okay I didn't and then somebody said well they're practicing at the wac and I we did have a few of the uh the state turnament teams practicing at the W pack was staying in emby Suites but the school buses are not for for our events but we let them practice okay we waved the the practice because we didn't have any membership stuff going on during the day so we let them practice if it's in the future we'll probably work out an agreement that's kind of nice to to to show off your cool cool new tool to uh people from all over the state create some Buzz more Buzz MH so this community and member Community open House hours and member only hours will run uh separately on a different schedule through April 1st at which point we anticipate moving over to our fully open schedule and then we'll start charging for memberships that is our plan for now um yeah and regarding the the first swim meet it is early April and we've yet to see really a huge overflow into that Embassy suet lot so at some point it'll be interesting to see if we can build a culture of people using it and I think the most that we've heard from the the hospital is that first basketball turn we had they said that that probably about 60 to 70% of the back parking lot was taken they still had had room for people to park there 1,700 total parking spots parking lot mm in the back of the building yeah but you can't get in back there right into the embassy oh no you got to walk to the front I thought you H the back of the we're talking about the back part of the MC Suite yeah you can't get into the back can't get into the building from back there which is kind of on open League nights they uh we had Pro the doors are still not fully operational um because they still have to be hooked up to our to uh access control so we having problems getting those doors unlocked and we were trying to prop them up open we figured that out after first couple weeks but everybody's parking the embassy and going to those uh South doors they were locked so we were propping it open that'll be fixed as soon as our Access Control problems get fixed growing paint mhm yes indeed okay other things going on in Recreation we of course have a spring break Camp coming up uh both at 12th Avenue and Whittier still some space in those and that happens uh March 15th and then the 18th through the 22nd and the 25th all of the schools out time um for our lovely Springtime events also we have a wonderful egg hunt that is loved in Andrews Park and we'll be doing that on March 29th but before that we've got a really cool event coming for adults we're calling the extreme hunt 5K so this is a 5K Fun Run and egg hunt for adults Ruby Grant Park uh I adults of all ages really I mean everybody wants to hunt for eggs so bring the kids to the 5K too and then make sure you come to the Aon at Andrews come to both um but March that's March 23rd at Ruby Grant Park um and of course that's on our our normal course there and you can choose to have a a timed or untimed experience there we have a one mile course that goes around the Foster walking trail and then of course the 5K through the cross country course so excited for that um and then let's see what else a an out of school day camp April 19th is coming up of course for the professional day um and then of course mom prom which we all tell you about every time come to M prom at the noun um this is our second year doing it at the noun and we are excited to have another really ele ated nice event for moms um and I'm excited to see who comes to our 21 and up uh black dance the Last Dance of the evening we've got three sessions for that one and it was just such a fun experience to see moms coming out with you know big groups of their friends or their own mom or whoever they brought it was it was a great time so we do have a 21 and up session for that if you want to bring your friends to Mom prom please do it um and that is May 4th Saturday May the 4th be with you that's right that's right while the boys are celebrating Star Wars day we'll celebrate mom prom um and then of course summer camp registration is open so if you've got uh folks that need Summer Camp Care let us know we're open at 12th Avenue Whittier and Irving is that all that's all um I'm repeating some of the things we touched on uh to some degree um we're working on our Park system master plan and also we have a park subsection of the plan Norman I believe this month they currently have the park questions up on the uh a Norman site so do what you can to help spread the word and give some feedback on the U on the parks uh for that effort get any questions there was all this information and I would click buttons and there would just be more information should be a link on our Facebook directly to the questionnaire I'll go to that just go to park went website H the uh we do have our own website for a few of the things but the the the norm Parks one is tied into the city one yeah but you've got so much stuff that you're doing now it's really I don't I've heard about it different way I mean I'm just so that's happening you've got because you got all the all the new stuff I mean it's going to be popular y uh like you talked about new park at Bentley is on its way and we'll keep you updated when it's going to be ready um and the sunrise and Falls Lake View historic house we doing some cosmetic work over there on the front porch and then going to get a rebid the uh the rest of the house painting project um coming up with the weather breakes our Forester has been doing a lot of winter Tree Care winter tree planting and working with Dave Resource Group on the tree ordinance review and hiring them for a uh public property tree inventory to help guide some of things we're going to do for an urban Forest master plan that's a long process um he along with our Park planner worked on actually establishing creating raised garden beds at 12th Avenue in time for the spring break Camp so they're going to start their uh Community gardening project over there um Westwood uh we had a receive proposals last Friday we're doing a master plan for Westwood Golf and Tennis essentially the you know we have a new a uh Aquatic Center on one side you have the indoor tennis from Norman Ford 1 well you sort of the piece in the middle the the elephant in the room is the 60-year-old Golf Clubhouse and old tennis facility uh clubhouse so we're looking for ways to reimagine that cuz we got the C facility and maintenance are right there at the front door so we we got some great proposals from Architects to uh much like we did with Andrews Park and brought it through everybody to master plan the the not redesigning the golf course that's 100% not what we're doing so to be clear some of our our submitters were like are we doing a golf course renovation no but to reimagine that experience but hopefully be able to create some social space too so one of the things maybe create Revenue by having a you know Norman desperately needs more rental party room type stuff because they're all booked all the time so create some amount of that it is possible that we have included our our driving range putting green chipping and that so if that if they can somehow figure out a better flow from the clubhouse to those features the mesh point from the clubhouses into the course and same thing with tennis say we get rid of the old tennis Clubhouse there's room to with that and some of the remaining Green Space and maybe moving the ambulance barn and things you can add more indoor pickle ball or tennis like Mark was saying maybe help to keep that uh growing in in tennis mode too so Golf and Tennis are both kind of getting a look at so we're reviewing proposal we be interviewing firms next week and hopefully getting to council soon with a contract to uh do some master planning out there re Park we're just doing stuff finishing up the old Norman forward projects and things uh new restroom uh will be out to bid soon for the non-n norm Ford area over by the playgrounds we tore down the old restroom it was a nightmare we have a new one um designed and ready to go here soon we had to do some changes to the way they had the heaters and things speced in for them but and getting helping them helping Optimus get themselves ready to play ball they're already playing ball soon over there so we're helping them with some of the field stuff they got a new ground screw and they working uh it's not our event but the medieval fair happens in Reeves Park so soon at the end of this month March somewhere at the end of March we'll be changing the robot from a baseball robot to a medieval night robot so WS guys will will help us get that done we have the kite's helmet and sword stor at our facility so we'll switch them out I saw y'all painted the the picnic benches and Reeves or Wade's crew yeah sure I'm sad the Blue's gone very next year yeah we do it all the time we just rotate we have a group that we keep at the shop and then we'll bring those in we'll bring the ones that were out there fix them up put new wood on them paint them and then next year we'll do the blue okay it's great for pictures and just other stuff so a lot of planning efforts eating up a lot of time and doing a lot of things like that so and projects all over the place Lots going on and you we are transitioning kind of from our winter projects we finished a couple of big ones up this week we had some kids space items going on where we had a post one of the main support posts for the swing set had started to kind of settle down in the ground and was sinking so we replaced that we went out there replaced that another support beam was struggling so we had to order those are all special cut wood pieces that are dripped in some oil that conserves their from being able to rot but they do apparently still get in there after so many years actually kid space reaches its 25th anniversary this year and we think it's still the oldest kid space from that time frame still in use um so we've had a couple of projects out there we've replaced we've got a couple other playground items that we're trying to get fixed we irrigated over the winter as weather permitted irrigated two of the flag football fields at Ruby Grant um which was a pretty big undertaking um redid some bridges we red a bridge at Castle Rock recently that took a little bit of time it was deteriorating yep and now we're starting to do some weed spring and starting to get the mowers out and that type of fun stuff be time for the SK us earlier than you wanted to all the hot water it has been it has been unseasonably warm not warm enough for the grass to turn green yet but warm enough for the weeds to start going so yeah little sprigs of grass starting to come a little bit yeah this week starts lots of weeds already yeah and and I'm assuming they're preparing out at Reeves um with all the flags you know for digging um out there by the benches and Timber that's a that's Public Works project uh expanding oh it is okay expanding um I figured it was with the Jenkins widening round about that go so how is it I guess they just flag all the way yeah for a while yeah and they're undergrounding some of those power lines that are over there okay there's a roundabout going in there we're by the softball stadium yeah where imhof and Constitution don't line up it'll roundabout itself a little better any other questions comments any miscellaneous items I want to hear a report from the Mystery Dinner Theater how much money it makes I have no idea that's we had a great time but uh it's that's their business not mine I'm just there to entertain people well the cner theater I mean it's for sooner yeah I mean I really don't know how much money they make doing it but I know that it was sold out so much so early that we actually did a a uh preview night on Wednesday which we've never done before so we might move it to four nights instead of us paid for clues that night just to contribute anyway oh yeah we certainly yeah we were certainly there to to to to milk the milk the crowd for that extra fundraising we pointed it out like but now we appreciate everybody coming it was a it was a good time next year you might warn everybody like a few weeks before at the parks board meeting so we could buy tickets I'm telling you it was an inside job I think Andy rer sold about half of those tickets himself because he wrote the show so I'm telling you he he skewed the numbers night or something yeah they'll figure it out never miss an opport when you're a 501c3 you always take advantage of the opportunity to make that make that nonprofit money and how we have nobody here for public comments we are adjourned yay thank you