HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-06-21 TranscriptionPage 1
Council Present: Alter, Bergus, Taylor, Teague, Thomas, Weiner
Staff Present: Fruin, Jones, Goers, Fruehling, Seydell-Johnson, Barker, Hightshoe, Kubly,
Knoche, Havel, Sovers, Davies, Ford
Others Present: Zeimet (USG)
Review of Parks and Recreation Facilities Master Plan
Teague: It is now 4:00 PM and it is June 21st, 2022. And this is the City Council work session,
the City of Iowa City, um, City Council work session. And our for- I hope everybody had
an awesome and amazing weekend. Uh, lots of celebrations happening in our city,
Juneteenth, as well as Pride. Um, we're going to start with the first item on our agenda,
which is review Parks and Recreation Facilities Master Plan. And we're going to invite
our Director, um, Juli Seydell Johnson. Welcome.
Seydell-Johnson: Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Uh, Juli Seydell-Johnson, Director of
Parks and Recreation. I'm excited to be here today to talk about the Recreation Facilities
and Program Master Plan. This is a process that's been going on for the last year and
we're excited to have this checkpoint with you today to talk to you about where- where
we've been, what we've listened, what we've heard from the community, and what some
of the big picture recommendations are. Um, so a couple of things about today. First of
all, remember, these are big picture concepts that we're gonna talk about today. Big
picture, long-term. It's kinda big price tags along the way. Just like when you heard from
the Senior, um, Center Plan a few months ago, a lot of our ideas that you're gonna see in
this master plan come with pretty hefty long-term price tags. Um, we'll talk towards the
end about what's in the budget right now and what can be accomplished with what's that -
what's there. But this was longer-term, 10 or 15 years. So I'll also talk about that. We're
hoping to get some guidance as we go through some of the short-term planning as well
though, we have, um, on and off, we have some renovations and maintenance things that
happen in our buildings and this will help- this plan will help guide us to how much
investment we make in the current facilities, uh, versus waiting for something new that
may come down the road. Um, this- what you're going to see in this presentation has been
available to the public since May 21st. It was at the Public Works Open House. It was
online. There's been two public, um, open houses with their consultants from BerryDunn,
as well as a presentation to the Parks and Rec Commission meeting. So this has been the
Phase 2 part of the plan, the recommendations, and we've given the public a chance to
give us feedback on those recommendations. You'll hear about that feedback as we go
through and I know that you've gotten some letters and comments from the public as
well. We'll be addressing with that. Um, but realize the phase 2 input or the phase 2
recommendations is based on all the information that has been gathered over the last
year. So that includes a robust outreach efforts to not only our current users, but also into
areas of the community that we know weren't accessing our community or our services.
So we went out to the parks, we went out to the neighborhoods to gather additional
feedback to find out what the barriers were to using our facilities. I included an online
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component. People have asked about how accurate this is since we've been in the middle
of a pandemic. And I don't know if anyone knows the answer to that because this has
been a weird time for the last two years, uh, but we have had a very good success with an
online format of having public input through the online format. We got outside whenever
we could in the parks and get feedback outdoors and the parks, we've had it at our
community centers. And we did a statistically valid survey, which you'll hear about.
We're gonna walk through how we got from those to the recommendations today, that
public input with an equity focus then actual conditions and uses of our current facilities.
And there were some big surprises to us. I- I think we all knew that the age and condition
of City Park Pool is what it is. You know, 72 years old, we know that that was gonna be
an issue. Staff was actually very surprised about the numbers we saw for Robert A. Lee
and we'll talk about that more, especially the Indoor Pool at Robert A. Lee. And then
current realities of operations, that has changed in the last couple of years. We'll talk
about that. And we'll talk about, um, the updated express community needs. And once
again, from all of the community members, um, you'll find that some of the phase 2 input
was very focused on a few user groups. Um, and that we're glad that we heard for them.
We know they're important users of our facilities, but we did more and we got more
outreach too from groups that aren't there as well. So, before I turn it over to the
consultants, I'm gonna go real quickly through some of the common things that I've heard
from the community in this phase 2 feedback. And you've probably heard some of these
things too. So I wanna give you this information upfront. So we heard from several
people that they felt that there wasn't a chance for public input on this plan. That's one of
the things we're gonna walk through and show you how much feedback and how that was
solicited through phase 1 and phase 2. So there was actually a very robust outreach
through a number of channels, a number of different languages, a number of different
locations. Um, there's a common question about why are we recommending closing
Robert A. Lee Rec Center? That is not a recommendation m this plan at this point. The
Rec Center itself is not recommended to close. It is saying there may be some things we
wanna do differently in decommissioning the Indoor Pool at Robert A. Lee, but the Rec
Center itself has never been a part of that recommendation. Um, people wanted to know
why they weren't asked about closing the pool during the phase 1 input? Uh, honestly,
because that wasn't a recommendation or even a thought when we started this process a
year ago. It's been an outcome of the facility, um, assessments of the input that we've
received from the public and the actual use numbers we've been seeing in that facility. So
it wasn't asked early on in the plan because it- we didn't know until we got through phase
1 that it seemed to make sense as a rec- recommendation. I love this one. [LAUGHTER]
What about the bomb shelter at Robert A. Lee? Um, indeed, here's what we know. So the
building was built in around 1963, and it was part of the civil defense program for the
state that made it a nuclear fallout shelter. How do we know that? We actually took the
signs down in 2017. They were still on the outside of the building at that point. Uh, we
also know that, from when we've done minor renovations of the restrooms and anything
on that main level, the concrete is extra reinforced with the extra thick, so it follows that-
kinda that main corridor down through the lower level, was probably built as a nuclear
fallout shelter, for that reason. There's been concerns that we said there was a bomb
shelter under the pool. I don't think- I'm not sure if that was the actual wording use, but
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there's no space under the pool. It's that the entire building was built with that as one of
its contexts from when it was built. Um, some questions about why close the pool when
it's such an important part of the downtown atmosphere? We agree we want Robert A.
Lee to be a really important part of the downtown atmosphere and used by families and
young adults. We're just not seeing that use in the swimming pool. And so we're saying
that maybe the space used by the swimming pool can be used for something else that
more appropriately meets or has an even bigger draw for young people, adults, families,
and we've had all kinds of suggestions for that, but that would be a further phase down
the line to go into. If the pool went away, what could it be? But there's lots of suggestions
out there, I can tell you that. Um, and then finally, there's been a lot of comments back -
and -forth about specifics of some of the- the concept designs that we showed, uh, both
for City Park Pool and for Mercer expansion. I just wanna reca- remind everyone those
are concept designs. We gave people something to react to. Each one of those projects, if
they were to move forward, would go through their own separate design phase with
whole another round of public input. So the number of lap lanes, the type of locker
rooms, the depth of the water, the price tag for all this, none of that has been etched in
stone, we were just giving people something to react to based on the feedback that we
received in phase 1. And the overall feedback in phase 1 was wanting more adult
wellness, more adult aquatic. So lap swimming, aqua fitness, um, the walking track idea,
Mercer was huge and then a- a realization that we have limited resources and how do we
prioritize those? So I'm gonna let our consultants, uh, Danielle Wilson and Elsa Fisher
come up. They're gonna walk you through part of the process. Brad Barker will take you
through our athletic fields and then I'll take you through the facility information as we go
through.
Teague: Welcome.
Wilson: Thank you. Thanks for having us today. We're excited to share with you all of what the
firm BerryDunn has done with your staff team, er, to help try to develop this plan for the
future of your recreation facilities and programs. And so today, just a quick agenda, we
want to introduce you to the process and that thank you for the lights being dimmed,
appreciate that. We want to walk you through what process we have undergone to date.
We want to make sure we convey what community engagement feedback process
entailed and also the results of that. We will share a little bit about the recreation
programs assessment, then the outdoor facilities assessment, the indoor facility
assessment, and then what next steps are involved in this process. We wanted to share
with you that BerryDunn has had a full team of experts engaged in this process to help
develop this plan. We have had architects, landscape architects, aquatic engineers, and
statistically valid survey experts, all a part of this process. And the goal was to create a
roadmap for future recreation programs, aquatic facilities, indoor recreation space, and
outdoor athletic and specialty use areas. So that's what we're charged with and that's what
we want to share with you today. So we underwent a four phase process and you'll see
that the last phase, the planning part, is where we are right now. I would say we're at the
very beginning stages of that. We've started to develop that plan. But before that, we have
also undergone an entire engagement phase of the process. We've done a lot of
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assessment work and analysis work, some visioning, and then now where we are in the
planning stages. Some of the influencing factors that we want to share with you, that
we're at the very top of- of our minds when we started this plan with your staff and with
your community. At the very top of that list is equity. That was made very clear to us
from the beginning and we've really, really latched onto this project and because of that
extra effort and intention on equity through the entire process and plan. Access was also
critically important. The city already has a very strong approach to climate Change, and
we want to respect and honor that. There is also nationwide and really worldwide a
worker shortage. Want to remember that as we continue to think about things like
innovation, operational facilities, and also pre -pandemic. There was a lifeguard shortage
in our industry before any of this even came to be a few years ago. And as a result of the
pandemic, what we've seen nationwide is a desire for larger indoor spaces and better
ventilation within those indoor spaces. So with that, we want to f- share next to the
community engagement ph- phase and results with you, and Elsa Fisher is here to talk
with you about that part.
Fisher: Thanks Dani. Hi everybody. Um, so community engagement, as Dani mentioned, um, big
DEI focus from the very, very start. In the first document that you're looking at on your
screen is an insert that went out in a utility bill, um, to- to kick off the process. So all the
dates that are listed on this card were opportunities where residents could interact with
department staff. There was a list of questions, there were surveys, there were many ways
that residents could share their thoughts about the future of parks and recreation,
specifically recreation programming and facilities in Iowa City. So that insert was the
start of the process. So on this slide, as Juli mentioned, there were two separate phases of
input. The first, at the beginning of the process, included focus groups. Dani and I did 10
focus groups with a variety of different people throughout the community- community.
Um, as I mentioned, staff did the pop-up events. There were 13 of those that Brad and his
staff lead. And then you had a statistically valid survey, so ETC Institute was part of the
project team. All they do our community surveys. So they did a statistically valid survey
for Iowa City. And there were 450 responses to that survey. So that- that was a very
successful, um, endeavor. And then the same survey was also available online. So people
who didn't get it in the mail but wanted to participate had the opportunity to- to fill out
the same survey and they were tabulated separately, but when we did our analysis, we
looked at the results of the statistically valid and the results of the other and ironically,
the results are very- very similar. Um, and then the- the last big part of engagement, we
had a, um, an online tool, er, called Social- Social Pinpoint. And this was an opportunity
for people to weigh in from home so they could fill out a survey. There were two
different surveys, one was designed for users; people who participate in programs, go to
your parks, go to your facilities. And then there was a survey for people who non-users,
why don't they come, what are the barriers? So two different surveys. There was also an
ideas wall and a forum and- and questions about City Park Pool. So many opportunities
online for people to participate. And the- the notion of Social Pinpoint is, is that I go
online, I fill out my thoughts and I look and see how other people feel and I can comment
on other people's thoughts, give them a thumbs up or a thumbs down. So it becomes an
engaged process but virtual. So that was the- the first phase of the engagement. And then
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as Juli mentioned, after we did all of our analysis, then we had an opportunity for people
to engage again. So we brought things back and said, Okay, this is what we heard. Now
here's some- some designs, take a look. So for the- the second phase, there was the Open
House, as Juli mentioned, the Parks and Rec commission meeting, there were two open
houses. And then we also put, um, the designs up on the Social Pinpoint site so people
could take look, fill out a survey, say what they liked or didn't like and we ask specific
questions about, you know, does this meet community need getting back to the DEI
component? And that was, um, and then there were many people who reached out with
emails to staff sharing their thoughts about the designs a- and the planning going forward.
So ETC, um, they have what they have called, uh, the priority investment rating. And
what they do is they combine programs and facilities that people have an interest for with
unmet need. So interest and unmet need combined. So this slide shows you the priority
investment rating for four different categories, the first one being recreation center
amenities, top and- top of everyone's list is an indoor track. People in this community
really want an indoor track, and that's not uncommon across the country. Um, there's also
interests in the weight room. There were many comments and the Social Pinpoint site in
the first round of engagement that people really missed the, um, weight room that was
removed from Mercer several years ago. Um, that was- it came up as a high priority
investment and then fitness room and then meditation and yoga studio were also in the
top four. And then moving across the page, outdoor pool amenities, the top one is shade,
the second was lazy river, which you won't see in the plan and I'll- Juli will explain why.
Uh, deck chairs, very important and lap lanes, we know that lap swimming is very, very
important in Iowa City. From a recreation programming standpoint, the top item was
adult fitness and wellness programs, which obviously isn't an inline with the indoor
walking and jogging track. Nature programs are also of importance. The farmers market
is a very beloved program in Iowa City people love it, um, and they- they- they want to
keep it and, um, it continues to be really popular and then adult art classes rounded out
the top four. In regard to pool programming, water fitness classes and water aerobics was
the top item. Lap swimming, again, very, very important in Iowa City. Senior aquatic
programs and then swim lesson programs. So those are the top priority investment -
investments based on community interests combined with unmet need. So City Park Pool,
obviously hot topic in Iowa City, are you going to ever 72 years? Are you going to
renovate it and keep it as is, or are you going to renovate it with a new design? And the
top line on this slide, the statistically valid survey 67 percent desire a renovation with a
new layout. And then at the bottom, the average percentage that is a combination of all of
the different engagement. So the events, the online, the focus groups over 55 percent, um,
desire a new pool layout. So pretty resounding that people would like to see some
change. Now we heard over and over and over again that people don't want a water park,
but people do want some new amenities at that facility. So there were several high level,
um, engagement themes. The first one, City Park Pool, it's time for repair, um, and
despite many, many different ideas, pretty clear that people want a new layout. From, er,
fitness and wellness, unmet needs, indoor track, and programs for adults, very important.
There's a high value on aquatics in Iowa City, obviously you have three pools, lots of
people involved in swimming. So aqua fitness, lap lanes, and instruction are all really
important. Special interests, user group opinions. We heard from a lot of pickleball
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players in the first Social Pinpoint survey, regardless of what the question was, the
answer was often pickleball even if the question related to something else. So pickleball
is a big deal in Iowa City and- and that user group came out loud and- aloud and clear.
Same thing with aqua- a- aqua fitness and lap swimming lots of lap swimmers, um,
expressed their opinions about, uh, the designs. Farmer's market, I've already mentioned
that people love that event. Future program ideas, a- a comprehensive list was generated
and that'll be reviewed in a couple of minutes. And then we also learned about people's
preferences for your outdoor athletic field complexes and what people would like to see
moving forward with your outdoor-, um, outdoor complexes. With that, I'm going to turn
it back to Dani so that she can review the information from the recreation assessment.
Wilson: Okay. Thank you so much.And so one of the questions we get often as well, what is a
recreation assessment? What do you do when you assess programs. So really what we do
is we help the department look at what they're doing really well. We look at opportunities
to strengthen what they've been doing. [NOISE] Where could some growth occur? We
also help them look at some performance measures and then alignment with community
need. We look at your core programs that have been offered to date and the list on the left
demonstrates what those key program areas have been so far. And then we look at the
most recent full year of data. So in this case, it's 2019 is really when we can see what a
historically traditional year would look like and how that breaks out. Grea-rea- really
great percentage of your programming has been in aquatics. That is often because there
are so many different sections of aquatics offered and a bunch of different levels. Second
to that is youth sports, steam programming, etc, as you move around the pie chart. So it
helps us look at of those 5,600 programs, where do those lineup? And then we also
looked at enrollment. We look at your participation. So one ultimate goal is to
continuously try to meet the needs and interests of your community through recreation
programming. And we use enrollment to kind of gauge that well, how many people are
interested actually enroll and commit to participating with you. So our ultimate goal
along the way is to always help you plan ahead to keep residents interested in the newest,
sometimes the latest and greatest. So you'll see that from an enrollment perspective, you
still have a very heavy participation in aquatics, youth sports, and then inclusive and
adaptive recreation, really impressive participation numbers from those different areas.
We can also break those down by season that's what you see on the bottom right-hand
side, is by season across the year, how it shakes out and when people participate. The
nice thing is in other communities, aquatics, you might have varied a lot of people
participating in the summer and not as many in the other months. You've got a nice round
participation rate there. And also, youth sports, consistently every season you've got
youth sports being offered and by the way, enrolled into youth sports. The other question
we have when we think about equity is where- what parts of the community are we
reaching and one of the concerns was the east versus west. Here we have the River
dividing the community. Are we reaching the folks that live on the west side of town?
Are they participating with us? And so when we do this analysis and you see the heat
map in front of you, when you look at the blue areas, that's where people are not
participa- the households in which they're not really as participatory as. As you get more
densely populated areas that have a lot of participation in your programs, that's where you
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move to those red colors into the yellow. [NOISE] The yellow program areas mean you
have a lot of folks corning from that part of town. Actually much to our surprise, you're
meeting the needs of the folks on the west side of town really well. Now we are speaking
in generalities, but when you look at total population and overlay this heatmap with
where your population resides, you're actually doing a really great job. As we mentioned
earlier, this particular assessment really tried to focus on DEI outcomes. And not only did
the staff look inside and internally as to, well, how were our programs doing? And we
won't get into the details of all those specific analyses. But the staff really wanted to look
at the different programs areas and say, how are we meeting the needs from an equitable,
diverse, and inclusive perspective? And they also looked how -into how they are
operating. How do people register for programs and is that as inclusive as it could be? So
we've got a spectrum of opportunity for growth for the staff. And I commend them for
digging deep because not a lot of communities across the nation are actually undergoing
this level of DEI assessment. So kudos to your staff are committing to and following
through on that. What we then do is we take what we learned from the analysis of all of
the programs and we start to connect what we're learning to what the community is
saying. So what we found is from an adult fitness and wellness perspective, there is a
growth opportunity there. There are a lot of households that asked for more over 10,000,
almost 11,000 asked for more adult fitness and wellness opportunities. And when we did
that pie chart and looked at the percentage of the program menu in 2019, it was actually
very small. So there's an opportunity for growth there. Inclusive and adaptive recreation
programming is doing really well and is very strong. So we want to encourage the
continued growth of that because we still see evidence that there is continued need and
more need. So there is opportunity there. From an aquatic programming perspective, you -
the city is meeting the needs of a lot of participants. We would say that from a high
priority of the pro- pool programs, a lot of the folks wanted more aquatic exercise. So
that's why you'll see in the design processes how can we try to incorporate do- more for
the aquatic exercise folks and also swim lessons continues to be an important initiative on
the behalf of the department and the city. And so we'll- we'll have Juli review some
opportunities for more growth of swim lessons in a little bit. And fmally from a youth
sports perspective, what we see as an opportunity to refine, redefine rather what you
sports looks like in the city. So yes, there are the traditional sports and those needs seems
to be being met. There's an opportunity to expand what that defmition of sports for youth
means beyond the traditional three. So when we think about the key programming
opportunities and identifying fitness and wellness, adult programming, inclusive and
adaptive programming, aquatic exercise, teens, and culture. We then look at the
supporting facility spaces. Do you have the facility space to be able to support the growth
of these different areas. So we see the opportunity to make sure that you have fitness and
wellness spaces like the indoor walking and jogging track, weight room, and fitness
room. Also, what sort of indoor space can support continued opportunity for more
programs for folks that need it, maybe adaptive equipment, or some sensory space. The
warm water pool can help support the aquatic needs. Multipurpose use multifunction sp-
spaces will serve over 65 percent of the categories- of program categories listed in the
surveys, the results. So the more- more multipurpose room space you have available, the
more of the staff can program and meet the needs that were identified through this
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process. And finally, we have an opportunity to decentralize some of your indoor spaces
geographically and spread them out through the community to offer indoor space closer
to people's homes. So to recap, when we learned what these program growth opportunity
areas were, these categories. This is where in Phase 2, the image you see on the right
might look familiar, this is what was posted at the open houses and also online to say,
hey, give us your ideas on what specific program titles you would like to see within these
categories. And we now have a whole list of oppo- program ideas for the staff to be able
to pull from and offer specific programs in these categories. You also might remember
seeing this des- concept drawing. It's the idea here is it's a satellite facility so that you've
got two very centralized large recreation centers now. But how do you continue to meet
the needs of folks on the north side of town, the south side of town, east, and then west?
As we continue to describe the other areas of the plant, you'll start to see that, well, you're
already planning to do something with City Park Pool when you do that, could the
bathhouse also have an indoor program room as a part of that design process built into
that change? And then now you have a program space on the north side of town.
Opposite of that, we heard a lot about the south district. How can we offer more
opportunities on the south side of town? Something like this, perhaps in Weatherby Park,
perhaps somewhere else, could offer local neighborhood children a place to go for
summer camp, for example. East Side Sports complex has in its master plan space for an
indoor facility that is not yet defined. But now that we see that multi-purpose space could
be of real value to decentralize and half -space throughout the community. That could be
an east side location. And then fmally, the west side. As growth continues, as the city
continues to explore possible acquisition on that side of town keeping in mind, how can
we continue to meet the indoor space needs on the west side, perhaps, it is a satellite
facility and not a great big, another recreation center. And so with that, speaking of our
spaces, Brad is going to talk about our outdoor facility assessment.
Teague: Welcome.
Barker: Hello everybody. So I wanna talk a little bit about our outdoor recreational facilities a lot
of times when you think about recreation, you think about recreation centers, you think
about pools. But in our parks, we've got our outdoor, uh, recreational amenities and fields
that are very important as the city has shown, that there's a strong interest in recreation
opportunities outdoors for people as well through sports and other matters. Um, so with
this assessment, with this project, we looked at, um, our current athletic facilities, which
we have four primary ones that we looked at and then one, uh, that Dani just alluded to,
the East Side Sports Complex, which is more conceptual in nature at this point. Um, so to
review those briefly, I wanted to talk about the city park ball fields, which is one of the
amenities that we have. So that's tied in with the lower city park master plan and we've
been doing some work with that- with that facility over the last few years. We've been
doing some upgrade with fencing, uh, shifting fields to kind of help with, um, flood
prevention, uh, some dugouts, some signage, some long-term upgrades that we'd like to
do with that amenity is upgrade the lights, do continued field improvements, and, uh, do
some work on the pickleball and tennis courts as well. Uh, Napoleon fields, we do have
some money on the CIP for some improvements with some of those fields in the future.
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Ifik,we've recently gottenallie new playgro
so we are doing some improvements to that area as well. And then the Kicker Soccer
Field, uh, recent renovations have been converting the ball fields that were out there into
additional soccer fields, uh, do keep in mind that any, uh, long-term plans with that, we
are a part of the, uh, the wastewater treatment space that's out there. So any long-term
planning that would go out there would- would need to include a master plan. Uh, and
then that brings us to Mercer Park. So we did a master plan with Mercer Park back in
2020. And at that time, we were working with, uh, city high. They've indicated that they
have an interests in having their ball field out there. They currently have a 28 -year
agreement with the city to use field Number 1, um, and we also have- have learned
through the course of the last couple of years that the pickleball courts and the tennis
courts out there also needs some work as well. There's some foundational issues, and so
that would be something that would be included with a master plan project as well. The
master plan that was created would include a pavilion area, new LED lighting, field
improvements, fencing, and shade, and we do have some funding, I believe in the FY23
capital improvement project budget, um, that would include costs to cover some of the
projects that we would need to do some improvements there, but might need some
additional funding and years ahead. And then that leads us to the E site sports complex,
which is more conceptual in nature, uh, that is currently undeveloped, 79 acre space for
future developments potentially as a specialty park, uh, one of the things that we've
looked at through a master plan that was developed about six years ago, was developing
that into a sports complex that would potentially, uh, be a site for both local sports groups
and potentially regional, uh, groups to come and utilize that as a tournament location. Uh,
we did, uh, have the, um, ThinklC grouped at an economic impact analysis to see what
the impacts would be for that study, uh, for that- for that complex over the years. And
they did indicate that it was more- it would be a great addition to the community for, um,
for additional ball fields, additional access. But as far as drawing regional groups, it
probably would not have as much impact as initially thought and that [OVERLAPPING]
Teague: Is that because of the amount of ballfields?
Barker: Correct, because there- there wouldn't be enough ball fields to- to draw the teams in from
outside the state and- and have the economic impact that was originally thought just with
the space of the land that's out there would have to be something that's larger than that.
Um, and that- that project was a, uh, with the East Side Sports Complex master plan that
was gonna be a phased development. So the first phase was around 17 million this is in
2019 dollars. And then, um, because we- we kind of reviewed that masterplan in 2019
after its initial conception, a few years prior. So 17 million for- and that's basically all
your outdoor spaces and then there would be potentially a second phase that will include
an indoor sports area that could house groups throughout the course of the year and that
brought it up to about 30, 30 plus million department so. And then so with our- so with
our, um, our project that we had, uh, we did this in phases so as- as they alluded to
earlier, we had two different phases with our community engagement plan. Our first
engagement plan, we did a lot of different concepts with asking people what they
thought, uh, what they wanted with our outdoor facilities moving into the future and what
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they indicated was that they were very interested in investing dollars into providing
recreational opportunities outdoors for people to participate in. So people were interested
in investing dollars into our fields and potentially into bringing in sports groups and
tournaments, uh, into our community as well. But they also indicated that they would
need additional information at that time. So what we did moving into the second phase
was figuring out how to prioritize that, uh, with the facilities that we currently have and
then the conceptual East Side Sports Complex. And what they indicated that Mercer Park
was their primary interests East Side Sports was the second, and then it moved on down
the list. So our recommendation moving forward, given that we have a strong interests
from, uh, the community for Mercer Park improvements, we do have some funding that's
currently in the capital improvement project plan. City high, has indicated that they want
to continue to make that a home for their ball fields and we'd like to do the same with our
sports affiliate groups and the other sports organizations in the community. And that, uh,
pickleball and tennis courts, it's a very- pickleball is a very fast-growing sport and they've
come out strong with this, uh, master plan project, indicating that they'd like to see
improvements made out to there as well. So that would be our recommendation is to
continue to invest in the Mercer Park as kind of the top tier and then moving down that
list.
Alter: With the improvements to the fields at Mercer Park, would that include expanding and
creating more baseball fields? That's an awful lot of usage that's being described.
Barker: No, the- the master plan doesn't include expansion of the fields at Mercer Park.
Potentially, it would- potentially it would increase the, uh, the tennis and pickleball
space. But the foundation is- we've indicated that the foundation's rather poor there, and
we would actually need to probably redo the courts altogether. Thank you.
Wilson: Hi, it's me again. Just wanted to make sure we explain Hitchcock Design Groups' work.
They went through a whole exercise of assessing each one of these sports fields sites and
used a site condition rating on a number of different facets and then came up with this
series of recommendations per facility. And you're never going to read them all here.
We're not gonna go through each one of those recommendations. Wanted to just express
that, that's one of our experts on the team that went through the assessment process,
leading us to ask the community about these outdoor facility priorities. Just wanted to
make sure I explain Hitchcock design Groups Work and pass it back to Juli.
Seydell-Johnson: All right, so now let's talk about indoor facilities. This is probably the most
talked about part of the recommendations we've had in the last month. As you know, we
looked at both of the rec centers, indoor pools, and City Park Pool. So I'm going to walk
you through the fmdings of those starting with Mercer Aquatic Center and Scanlon
Gymnasium. Realized that the assessments were done nearly a year ago. So some of the
smaller things that we show in this and needing to be done have actually already been
addressed by staff. So it has everything from small things up through larger things. But
the summary on Mercer Aquatic Center is it's in pretty good shape. There are some
maintenance needs to it. We know that the roof is coming due for replacement, but that's
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expected with that age of building. A number of the small things here, the crack tiles, the
rest of things, those have been addressed as part of the recent dehumidification and
HVAC projects that's been happening. So a lot of the smaller things on here have been
addressed. But the pool architect and the operations person went through the facility with
our staff, evaluated everything on age and condition. And as they said, they found that
Mercer is actually in pretty good shape. We've invested in it quite a bit over the last few
years. It's also a younger facility that has benefited from the 28th agreement with the
school district. The one recommendation is that the waiting pool be shut down. I don't
even know if most people know there is a waiting pool outside of Mercer, it gets a lot of
use by ducts. And occasionally people, but that is one thing that is recommending. Now
when you take the condition of Mercer, the other thing I looked at is how do we meet
some of the needs expressed in the Phase 1 through facility changes and several of those
are recommended for here at Mercer. So In the Mercer pool, what the recommendation
would be is to add a warm water medium to shallow depth pool, primarily for aqua
fitness and swim lessons. As you remember, those were two of the higher demand things
in the survey. Followed closely by lap swimming and my moving those things out of the
regular pool into their own pool probably have some effect on the number availability of
lap swimming as well. The other really neat part about this particular plan is that it
shows, we heard how much people like the hot tub. And in fact, they'd asked if we should
put one at Robert A. Lee as well. But this one adds a new hot tub that actually has a ramp
entrance. So if you are someone who has mobility concerns, this greatly increases your
ability to use our pool. That's something you'll see in this plan. And then also City Park
Pool is one of the things we heard over and over leading up to the master plan. And
during the plan was needing increased accessibility to the pool increased ways, easier
ways to get into the pool water to enter and exit, to get across the pool deck. So those are
largely addressed by a number of the recommendations in this plan. The other thing that
is included here is the Blackout space for the locker rooms and is called general neutral
toilets, shower changing room. We don't know exactly what that means and there has
been some apprehension from the public about that, of what does it mean? We're asking
project architects to do something they haven't necessarily done before in a facility and
figuring out how we can have both single -gender restrooms and locker rooms but also
neutral areas. So that you don't have to decide male or female when you come into the
pool. We heard this a lot from parents and kids. We actually have a number of lifeguards
for these effects and they would really like to see some gender -neutral spaces for
changing so you see that in there. This brings about some operational efficiencies. As
we'll talk later, this goes along with potentially decommissioning Robert A. Lee pool.
What that does is moves all of our indoor lifeguards to one location, but more importantly
our swimming pool maintenance staff, supervision staff, everything else that goes into
running the two pools, there'd be some real efficiencies there with that. The other part of
Mercer shows an expansion on the other half the Scanlon gym area, adding a third gym
and a walking track. Now, it's been a big point of debate through the communities. We've
shown this how in the world are you going to do two walking lanes around the gym.
Don't know exactly yet. Could be elevated, could be at the level of the- of the gym space,
could be plexiglass between there's a lot of different ways to accomplish it. Think of it as
a concept right now though we had a lot of input asking for indoor walking space. This
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shows that it could be done on the site exactly how is still to be determined. And then
reconfiguring the rest of the indoor meeting room spaces there into new fitness slash
general multipurpose room space. Do you want me to keep going? You want to ask
questions about that before I move on?
Weiner: What's the yellow piece in there that's sort of?
Seydell Johnson: That's just the corridor.
Weiner: Okay. Sorry.
Seydell Johnson: Yeah, better circulation through the building yet. Okay. I'm going to move on
to Robert A. Lee. This as I mentioned earlier, was one of our surprises as we went
through the Phase 1 analysis. As a staff, I think, you know, our administrative offices are
in this building. So low use of the pool was not a surprise to us. We can see the pool
throughout the day, every day, and know that it's not uncommon to have zero, one, or two
lap swimmers for a greater portion of the day. But the surprising part was the condition of
underground pipes, the condition of the filters, the pumps, pretty much everything that
makes the pool run besides the water. Couple that with the ongoing concerns we've heard
from the public of inferior locker rooms or unsuitable locker rooms that really need
updated. Issues with parking, issues with access into the building. Some ADA concerns.
Big picture that leads us to say that maybe this isn't the best location for swimming pool
and the current facility probably isn't the best suited for the emerging needs that we're
hearing from the community. Does it serve a certain number of lap swimmers? Yes. Does
it serve deep water aqua fitness, the six or eight members of that group? Yes, it does, but
we did actual counts during the month of May And from our security cameras, you can
see there was rarely more than two swimmers in the water at any one time. So the actual
use versus maybe what you've been hearing about the perceived use is very different.
And as the parks and rec director, I hate to ever say we should close down the facility.
But I got to tell you this one has such little use that I'm not sure that it's worth the
investments and will do whichever because we love to see people swimming, we know
what's important part of our community. This plan would say though, that the amount of
investment that it's going to take to bring this up to be the facility we need it to be would
probably be better served in a different location and this space repurposed to something
else. The biggest problem we have in this building is the underground piping and the
condition of the cast iron pipes. It's causing circulation problems or collapsing in
different places. And every time we call a plumber in, we have to cross our fmgers
because we don't know if it's gonna be a one-hour or a ten-day close, it's been that
difficult to keep things in repair. We currently are working on the air conditioning for just
two of the rooms. That has a $41,000 price tag. So everything in this building is getting
more and more expensive. And we want to make sure you want to keep investing in those
things specifically for the swimming pool versus using it towards other uses in the
community. The conclusion of the study it's being 58 years old, it's going to take
continual repairs. We have some money in the budget coming up for this, but I'm not sure
it'll be enough based on what we just paid for the Mercer repairs. They could be done to
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extend the facility operations. But just like City Park Pool, getting to that end-stage where
you're either going to need a major renovation or a different use, and the estimated costs
for just the needed repairs. So this is just the filtration system, the pumps system, the
waiting pool circulation. That's about 4.5 to $5 million right now is what they're
estimating.
Alter: Was there an estimate of what it would cost to do a reno?
Seydell Johnson: Not to do a full reno. Not yet. We could- we could look into that too. The
addition at Mercer I forgot to mention was about 9 million. So that would be more to do a
new facility. And you couple that, as they said, with a low use that we've seen it becomes
difficult for staff to recommend either that we would continue to invest in this particular
pool. I'll move on to City Park Pool. I thought this would be the most controversial part
of the plan. And actually, as mentioned earlier, I think we've all seen the condition.
You've heard about the condition is probably one of the oldest and largest outdoor
swimming pools still operating in the state of Iowa if not m the region, loses a
considerable amount of water, takes pretty herculean efforts every spring to get it
reopened. I mean, we're cocking and- and, uh, painting and- and doing all kinds of
remedial tasks, just trying to keep it to hold water so we can be operational for the whole
year. The bath houses in okay condition, but needs quite a bit of repairs. And most
importantly, we've got some confined space issues in the filtration room that's been there
a long time. It's a safety issue and it's probably time to address that as well. So when we
put this out to the public after we- I should say first of all. The recommendation is that 72
years old, could you light it and get a few more years out of it? Yeah, we could do that,
but that's a fairly expensive fix. And it's defmitely not long term. The recommendation be
the better move would be to replace the current pools shell in the- the current systems that
are there. So when we talk to the public about what their needs were for City Park pool
and once again, back with a statistically valid survey on the outreach. We heard A, lap
swimming very important, especially the 50 meter lap swimming course. Accessibility,
better ways to get in and out of the pool. So you'll notice on this pool there's a ramp that
gets you to the 50 meter lap lanes. There are stairs that gets you into the main pool area
and then there's a zero depth entry to get you into the rest of the- the like the play feature
part of the pool. So there's an immensely increased adaptable- adaptability of the pool for
all kinds of people using the pool. Reduce carbon footprint. It uses a lot less water. We've
had solar panels included. It would include some kind of inclusive lack rooms again, as
we talked about at the other pool, more shade. What we heard from most people was,
okay, if you need a new pool, that's fine. But we want it to feel like our city Park Pool.
Don't mess with the trees, gosh, we wouldn't. Try to keep it about the same footprint, our
parking isn't going to increase. So we really can't increase the size or the area of the pool.
So what you're seeing here is primarily within the fence line of the current pool. The only
area that's outside is those blue cabanas, kind of that bottom little shape, the extra sha- the
extra lawn area, the rest is within the current pool structure. This would also, as you said,
have the multipurpose program space that would be available year round. We have in the
capital improvement plan to replace the upper city park restrooms and shelters. So we'd
like to incorporate those park restrooms into this building as well. So less plumbed
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shelter or buildings on the site. Move them into one location for a better ease of service.
And include that with this project as well. What are the hot topics or the hottest topic
about this has been the number of lap lanes. It's a design- design question at this point.
But one thing I want to make sure that there's not been very well -discussed out with the
public, is that although we've gone to only showing 3, 50 meter lap lanes here, you'll
notice that they are separate from the rest of the operations of the pool. So right now you
have labs swim in the morning and at lunchtime. This would allow the three lanes, a lap
lanes essentially through the entire operational day of the pool. So fewer lanes, but a
much larger time -frame for use. Um, we are tracking the use out there right now this
summer lunchtime is very busy. So I can see where the justification comes from, more
lap lanes. But I think there's gonna be some trade-offs here between family needs, lap
swimmer needs, instructional needs, all of those things, uh, corning together in one
facility. So let's talk a minute about the expense of all this. Not the capital expenses, but
how much we're spending each year to operate the facilities. This was another surprising
part about Robert A. Lee. If you look at the three facilities, Robert A. Lee, by far, it gets
the least amount of use and it's the most expensive one for us to operate. Uh base on- this
includes like capital repairs up to $5,000. So smaller pumps, smaller equipment like that.
It doesn't include larger projects like a boiler replacements or the waiting pool project at
City Park Pool. City park is a close second, but you got to remember that we have 12 to
15 lifeguards on duty there at any one time where Robert A. Lee is two sometimes four,
um, but much smaller operation. Then Mercer is the workhorse of the three facilities.
Most of the swim team practices are there, uh, big aqua fitness there, lots of lap
swimmers. You're getting a pretty good bang for the buck out of Mercer right now. Um, I
just think that that's important to see Robert A. Lee being the agent pool is probably only
going to increase in the costs as we continue to go down this road. All right, let's talk
about what's currently in the budgets for the capital plan in the next few years. So we do
have some money for general recreation center Improvements, 250,000 for next year, and
700,000. The recent dehumidification project at Mercer took about the total of those two
numbers to do. So we're talking that's one major system repair, that's not a full renovation
budget for anything. We show money to replace the Robert A. Lee pool filter and to do a
demystification of that air system at Robert A. Lee. That estimate is about four years old,
so I'm not sure that it is completely accurate on price. Mercer ball diamonds as Brad
mentioned has 950,000 slotted for next year for the baseball diamonds. And we'd also
like to include pickleball tennis courts at that time with that project. City Park pool is
currently slated in 2,000 in FY24 and 25 at about $6 million. Based on current prices
we're seeing that's probably not going to be enough. So we'll be getting some better
estimates for that soon. But it also included the upper city park restrooms and shelters
with that because as I said, we hope to include those in the same project. You would still
have shelters out in the park, but the restrooms would be incorporated in with the pool
building itself. Rec center annual improvements we have 50 thousand each year. As I
mentioned, the small AC project we're doing right now when it's a 100 degrees out, it's
41,000 to get the two meeting rooms air conditionined just to give you an estimate of
what- what that covers in one year. Then finally, we have a smaller account that we use
for park ADA improvements. Some of the things noted in the plans, uh, access into the
facilities, ramps, those things. Those can be covered by the ADA fund. And we have
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done some of that even in the past year since they were identified. So overall, key
findings of the summary. People like City Park Pool like it is, but they understand that it's
going to take some renovations to keep it as a facility for the future. I didn't mention it.
Early on you saw that there was a, um, a desire for, um.
(female): Lazy river.
Seydell-Johnson: Lazy river. Thank you. The lazy river. And you didn't see that in the plan that
was up there, you saw current channel. The other thing that we've asked project architects
and consultants on this is not only do we want a facility that meets the community needs,
we really need to be realistic about what we can do for staffing and how many lifeguards
it takes to operate these facilities. It's jut- it's- it's something we've had to deal with for the
last several years, even more so now since the pandemic. Iowa city has been really lucky
you supported our wage increase. We have enough lifeguards out there right now. The
communities around us are not nearly as fortunate and we just see this being a continual
issues. So when we looked at amenities, we said what eats up the most staff and a lazy
river can take five or six staff to run. That's not in the plans at this point It doesn't mean it
could be added back in if that was a real community priority in the future. We were
looking at ways of how do we get the most use with the least amount of life guarding
staff and the safest. Program wise, we haven't talked about that nearly as much, but
there's a whole range of program ideas and program priorities that the recreation staff has
been implementing already. Right off the bat, we heard some concerns about aqua fitness
and pool hours. Some of those things have already been addressed and we're continuing
to change our programming based on the feedback we've received through this process.
Adding programs for teens. Some of that Mercer remodel included a space that would be
for like e -sports and some other team things that we're hearing are very popular. Supply
and demand gaps exist in adult fitness, wellness, nature, aquatic and inclusive and
adapted program used. So when we talk adult fitness, that hits some of the top things
you've been hearing about. The walking track, aqua fitness in the pool, therapy in the
pool and lap swimming, and pickleball. How can I forget pickleball? They're all big adult
fitness priorities different than what we were probably talking about ten years ago. We're
not seeing adult softball leagues, we're seeing pickleball is the new adult sport and the
thing that people want, lap swim. So when we talk adult fitness, we mean different things
than we used to. Um, the warm water pool, it supports not only the aqua fitness part of us,
but it supports our every child learns how to swim. Why is that important? We're also
trying to grow our own crap of life carts down the road. If kids don't learn to swim when
they're in elementary school, they're not going to be qualified to be lifeguards ten years
down the road. So this is all part of the big master plan of getting people introduced early
in a comfortable with aquatics and swimming. Uh, additional facility spaces multipurpose
we talked about satellite facilities potentially, whether it be park, which we've been
talking with some potential partner groups about having a facility there. City Park Pool,
having a multi-purpose space for programming, something on the west side eventually,
and either space at Mercer or eSight sports eventually too. Having us be able to take our
programs and staff out to the people in their actual neighborhoods as we go down. And
then prioritization of the outdoor I'm facilities which Brad talked through Mercer being
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the top one at this point. But just a general sense of people were saying, invest in what
you have first. Before we move on to East Side Sports, make sure you invest in the
current fields and facilities that we already have in place.The the- feedback themes, I'll
just go through these one more time. City Park Pool phase 2. Now, remember, phase 1
had statistically valid surveys and a lot of equity outreach. Phase two was largely based
on, we put the information out. We did public notices, we sent emails out to all of our
aqua fitness, lap swimmers, aquatic pass holders. We did press releases, all that but we
didn't go out and do actual in neighborhood or focus groups. So we had a lot of- of
particular interest groups that are really highly represented in these but not enough lap
lanes. They prefer the traditional foot parent of the pool. And people like that- that there
is a zero depth or a beach front entry for all sorts of people with mobility issues or kids,
families. Indoor pool. A lot of people prefer the downtown location. That doesn't show up
on our actual use numbers though, but that's what was preferred in the feedback we
received in phase two. Um, worry about being cost -prohibitive and a feeling through the
input that it was more assessible. Which is just kind of the opposite of what we heard in
our phase one, feedback and Parks and Rec commission feedback they would receive
before that. Into our program space the indoor walking track was a- was a big one.
Positive overall sentiment over that fitness is great. They liked the concept of the
decentralization. So having the programming spaces in the north side, the south side, it
need a little more information on that. Then athletic field priorities, that we said, Mercer
park, first, East Side Sports, a second one, and then continuing with City Park Kickers
and Napoleon. And finally our next steps. So here we have for each one of us, what still
needs to be done with this plan. This is kind of our check-in point, but Council, we're
asking you to help confirm the priorities and strategies presented in this update. Review
the plan and document at a later date. So we'll be back late summer, early fall we'll also
go back through the park commission before it comes back to you as a fmal plan. People
have asked for all of the data and all the survey responses that will all be published on the
website along with the facility assessments that were done of the facilities. So our plan is
to have all of that publicly available. Parks Commission overview, like I said, August,
September timeline. Staff will address some of the smaller things which it's already been
doing. Some of the smaller ADA concerns some of the programming concerns will be
including the priorities from this as we go into the next budget cycle, this fall and into the
winter. You'd be seeing these kind of things come through with our, um, operational
budgets and with our larger capital asks that we do and working to educate the
community a little bit more about the plan. If anything, we heard so many, heard a lot of
misconceptions about what was- what was actually in here. So we realize there's more
outreach effort needed to say, here's what it means, here's how we got to that point. And
then the consultants will be refming this based on the feedback received, um, getting the
final plan document ready and we'll have it published at that point. That's a lot and it's a
huge plan covering a lot [BACKGROUND] of different areas. So be happy to answer
questions and the others from the presentation team?
Teague: Have at it Council.
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Seydell-Johnson: I have a quick question on the lazy river concept. Where- where can one find a
lazy river in Johnson County?
Teague: Were you repeat that, please?
Seydell-Johnson: He said the University of Iowa recreation pool, that's a smaller one, I believe.
Right. Yeah. The outdoor ones are generally much larger. You just see them like theme
parks or larger aquatic centers.
Bergus: I had a question about the portion of the survey that was- where there was questions for
current users and then questions kind of directed towards non-users. Do have a sense of
the breakdown of the volume of input of like those who use facilities and gave their
thoughts versus capturing some of those people who were non-users?
Seydell-Johnson: Now we're hearing two-thirds, one-third, two-thirds users, one-third non-users.
Bergus: Okay. And was that in- I feel like that was maybe in a later survey part or was that in a
statistically valid survey?
Fisher: [BACKGROUND] It was on the social [OVERLAPPING].
Bergus: Okay. So that was the give reactions to kind of ideas that are posting.
Seydell-Johnson: Um, actually, no, that was in phase one in the beginning of the process so that
the survey, the social- the statistically accurate survey and Social Pinpoint were going on
at the same time.
Bergus: Okay.
Seydell-Johnson: And when you entered the portal, it did ask you questions about are you a
current user or not? And they directed you through those particular questions.
Bergus: Got you. So of that 600 and some number that we saw? Okay. Thank you. And then I
had a question about the participations statistics. So are those unique individuals or like
users where if you had a participant who took swim lessons and then also signed up for
softball, those were two separate participants?
Wilson: It's each individual registrations. It was not unique users.
Bergus: Okay.
Wilson: The unique users were reflected in the heatmap.
Bergus: Okay.
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Wilson: To- to make sure I articulate the difference, the heatmap where it is unique household.
The user enrollment statistics is every single enrollment. Regardless if you sign up for a
five or a one.
Bergus: And about the heat map then while you're still up here. Thank you. [OVERLAPPING] It
looked like there was some of that blue or much less intense area right downtown. Is that
correct?
Wilson: Yes.
Bergus: Okay. So we have where people are most concentrated was one of the lower usage areas,
is that something that you expected or how do you interpret that?
Wilson: So we- we did ask the community members to say, hey, you know, we right by the river
downtown. What we learn because we don't live here, but from understanding folks that
do live here, you have a high concentration of students who live in that area, which would
align with the fact that the students historically can use the resources provided by the
university and therefore may choose that, they're already paying for that service and
meeting the needs of the- the rest of the community. Uh, you- you defmitely saw what we
saw right away. So what's going on- what's going on in it by the river? And there was
someone on the consulting team actually is very familiar with the- the community.
Bergus: And Juli, is that consistent with what we expect as far as historical user data, we just
don't capture a lot of students?
Seydell-Johnson: Right. Realize that most of our programs are geared towards younger
individuals, families, or adults and older and you're right, we don't do a lot with the
college age kids or residents.
Bergus: I have one- one last question. There was a slide with the three indoor pools and the years
and the amounts, um, what that really seem favorable with Mercer for this year was the
2022 number, is that extrapolated to what we expect the annual two be or is that year-to-
date up through-?
Seydell-Johnson: So it's actually it's year-to-date, but realize we have only one more pay cycle in
this fiscal year, so it's pretty darn close to accurate. [OVERLAPPING] And most of the
large expenses have been made for this fiscal year.
Bergus: Got you. Sony. I was thinking calendar year, so thank you.
Alter: I have a couple of questions as well. Um, with the participation enrollment slide, it was
mentioned that it was for 2019. Have there been any like more historical either an
aggregate like 2014 -2019 or like some kind of looking nearby year to see if the number
has shifted, if they grew, if they shrunk? It just seems to me that, I mean, I'm so glad that
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COVID was not, you know, included in that, but it seems like one year only to track
participation seems a little short to me.
Seydell-Johnson: Yeah. We actually only did look at 2019. We have some- had some different
changes in software that make it pretty difficult to do the years before that. And I totally
agree having more than one year would have been a better alternative. But we didn't feel
like the COVID years where at all accurate. So we did the best we could with- with what
we had.
Alter: One other question and I think this is much more speculatory if that's a word. In the -
actually relative to the heatmap saying that m fact the west side had pretty good coverage
or usage, right? I'm wondering though, is there any way to discern that if Robert A. Lee
pool was closed, if they would still be served, right? And I do know that there's, I trust
and believe I love the idea of going into the neighborhoods, but I just wondered specific
to pool usage, I don't know if you can kinda drill down and find out whether that's
something.
Seydell-Johnson: So we don't have statistical. Um, information to share with you on that. We do
have information and we've talked to a swim- a number of the swim lesson parents
because that is the primary use when you see [OVERLAPPING] people from the west
side using Robert A. Lee. It's because that's where swim lessons are offered primarily
right now. If we had a warm water pool in another location, uh, they've all indicated they
would rather go [LAUGHTER] into warm water newer facilities. So I don't know that
that would be a determining factor. Um, very few people are using transit to get to Robert
A. Lee. Um, it's people driving in and having, um, difficulties when we have other events
and whatnot having downtown for parking in that sort of thing. So -
Alter: My final question- I say right now- my final question, for now, is regarding actually
parking at Mercer because it is serving baseball fields and the park itself, as well as what
could be this, you know, much refined and multi -use area at the pool and yet- when you
were speaking about the downtown location, about one of the prohibitors to it being a
good location for continued pool use was parking. But it seems to me Mercer doesn't
have a huge amount of parking either. And if this becomes the de facto pool, i- is that
something that was taken into consideration that there would be enough parking for
swimmers to be able to get in and out and use the facilities, um, easily?
Seydell-Johnson: Sure. And I think that- that's definitely a concern. Is- is there enough parking
there? We feel like there probably is because the majority of the parking spaces are- are
used for tournaments and that's not an everyday occurrence. Uh, whereas downtown
every Saturday during the summer, you know, farmer's market takes over the parking lot
and a number of other activities. So based on the input we receive from every group,
except for this- the current lap swimmers at [LAUGHTER] Robert A. Lee, the- the other
groups all said they would rather navigate parking at Mercer than at Robert A. Lee.
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Taylor: So Juli, do you think, um, this kind of a hypothetical question if- if the city were to offer
some sort of parking permit for those folks that want to use the pool at- at Robert A. Lee,
would that help, do you think? Since that seems to be an issue, I mean, to pay for parking
and to find parking, uh, [OVERLAPPING] that's- that's an issue for a lot of folks.
Seydell-Johnson: Yeah. I- I think that's a bigger question because our parking lot is popular for a
number of reasons beyond Robert A. Lee that I think it's important to know. And I- I
know that you know, whether you're taking Robert A. Lee at Mercer, people still don't
like to park in the further ends of either one of the lots or m Chauncey at the Ramp. So
I'm not sure that anything is gonna completely solve that. And, uh, definitely not free
parking at Robert A. Lee because then there would never be any spaces [LAUGHTER],
um, based on other people [NOISE] unless we had some kind of mechanism that allowed
like the Senior Center does, um, for just use if they're in the pool area. Yeah.
Weiner: Do you have any sense if, um, I don't know what you said Robert A. Lee- what looked
like in previous years, but do you have any sense as if the- if the pool use has gone down
because of- there's a perception that the, you know, that it's not as modern a place that it
needs work, that people are- are- are less comfortable there, in the- in the locker rooms
and the pool area itself. Could that be a factor in the- in what we're seeing in terms of
usage right now? Plus- plus it has been closed for chunks of time, I think and so that
people- do people know that it's open or when it's open?
Seydell-Johnson: I- I think there's a lot of hype- hypothetical parts of that question. What I can
say is that in the six years that I've had my office in that building, I have never seen that
pool fully used except when either the Quaver pool or the university pool or Mercer was -
was closed. So those times we saw a huge increases in people wanting to swim there. It's
not acceptable as a competitive pool any longer, so we don't ever have a swimming
component or anything like that to it. Prior to this plan, we had, uh, users coming to the
Parks Commission asking for things like better locker rooms, concerns about the other
locker room uses, the access, the parking, and then more importantly, the access actually
into the pool water itself. So- and until recently, we had a lot of issues with temperature
up and down. It seems like we've been able to manage that better since some recent
repairs. But it is warmer water. It's not always [LAUGHTER] warmer water because it's
an older system that breaks down fairly often. So I think all of those things weigh into
this, whether Robert A. Lee is used as much as it's used to. Our statistics from 2019 say
that on an average day we had 35 people using that pool from six in the morning until
nine at night. That's not much when you spread it out over that whole time. Um, uh,
looking at the security cameras back in May, a lot of the time, zero, one, maybe two
swimmers. A few times we have six laps swimmers but only for about 45 minutes at a
time. Um, Aqua Fitness does bring in more people at- at different times based on the
instructors and popularity. Um, but overall use of that as something you're investing this
much money into, as a director, I have to say is that our wisest course? Yes, it provides
another aquatic facility. Yes, people love aquatics. But if it breaks- something significant
breaks down tomorrow, do you want to put a huge investment back in that pool or put it
somewhere else, is the question we're getting too.
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Weiner: One of the other things that- that me- do you- didn't really- that wasn't really touched on
because it's not part- really part of this- this vision, is when I think of more modern
facilities in the area, I think, for example, North Liberty. Um, that North Liberty has
managed to sort of create an all -in -one facility with indoor pool, outdoor pool, a library,
rec center, everything altogether. And then I think of the land and the- and their- their
capacity that we potentially could have at City Park, um, that- that, um, you're talking -
already talking about putting a building in there, uh, which made me wonder, would there
be potentially the possibility to sort of create a dual pool there so that there could be- and -
and then you could have, um, somehow enhance bus loop if, you know, in the best of all
possible worlds? Um, because really you're talking about a pool right now that's only
open a few months a year. Um, that- that takes a lot of expense and all- and- and there's
gonna be a huge investment. And is there a way to [NOISE] sort of increase both the use
and utility of that whole area?
Seydell-Johnson: I think that's an excellent question. It's not one that we really entertained in this
plan. Uh, primarily because of the love of City Park Pool as a historical place that people
love for its outdoor space under the trees. And I- I didn't get any feedback saying that you
know, maybe do indoor. It doesn't mean it wouldn't be a possibility, it just wasn't part of
really what was brought up during this planning process.
Teague: I did have a, um, maybe some questions related to the geographic decenter, uh,
decentralization to promote access. Um, I know that the council prior to the plan being,
um, kinda, researched, we do know that there's a facility space challenge, you know,
within the community. And we talked about those partnerships with non city on facilities.
Can someone speak a little bit more to what the- what the plans are and what does it
mean when you're talking about graphic, um, decentralization? I wasn't exactly sure.
Seydell-Johnson: Sure. And I think it's because we don't have all the details figured out. Um, on
the South District side with a weather B, I think it would definitely will be a partnership
with neighborhood centers or some other non-profit. We have an interest in seeing
recreational opportunities brought out to those different neighborhoods. It doesn't
necessarily need to always be through parks and recreation staff. So we think that that
could be a real nice component, some kinda partnership facility there that has potentially
their uses during the day, and then it's available for either recreation programs or
community uses in the evening. Um, the other way I've been describing these facilities is
think of it more like an enclosed park shelter than an actual rec center. Now if it was a
partnership with another group that had additional needs, it might be more fancy. But
we're really talking about a basic indoor space for about 50 people to sit down. If you
were gonna do a potluck and maybe a catering kitchen type thing. But just a really, uh,
flexible space for us to bring out. Either we bring out smaller recreation programs are
some of our steam classes, some of our maybe it's an indoor space for some of the use
sports to start their programming in, maybe it's girls on the run needs a- a meeting space.
Those kind of things. Or the actual neighborhoods actually need, um, space for their
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community meetings, um, their neighborhood potluck those kinda thing. So a real multi-
purpose space at this point.
Teague: I know that, um, at the beginning of the presentation, you talked about this being, you
know, a- a long, long term big picture. But in the presentation I didn't hear it as much,
um, when it comes down to our growth areas spaces well will be annexing. And so I
didn't hear that in the presentation. So are we-
Seydell-Johnson: So we have been talking extensively about what might happen out towards the
West. Um, but those plans have really not developed in the timeline that was in concert
with this plan. So although it says if- if something would become available in the areas,
say west of 2- 218. Here's what we should look at next for putting out there. And we left
it at that stage.
Teague: Okay.
Fruin: Um, if I could just- just add to that. There is a line item in your CIP anticipating
acquisition of Parkland on the west side probably around that Carson farms area west of
218, south of Iowa. But because that annexation is still pending and we're still going
through some master planning in that area, really hard to- hard to commit a concept or
idea to- to ground that we don't own or we don't know will be part of the city. But clearly,
I think there is an opportunity for, um, a destination style park. A larger park feature that
could include a rec center, could include indoor, decentralized space, uh, along with
potential annexation out there. As we look at our other growth area on the- on the east
side, that's where we really see the East Side Sports complex corning in and- and serving
that growth area there as well.
Teague: Thank you.
Weiner: So one more sort of what if question for you which is-
Seydell-Johnson: My favorite.
Weiner: Have there- have- there- have- you've talked at all, are there been any conversations
with the university? Because I don't know how heavily the pool at their large fitness
center downtown is used. I don't know if there's say times there that would really- there -
there could be a good fit of the- the city were to contribute some to have to- to be able to
do sort of downtown swimming there. Yeah.
Seydell-Johnson: We haven't. I would say based on the number of swimmers that we get at
Robert E. Lee, I'm sure that they have the capacity to- to include those if- if that was the
direction we wanted to- to attempt to go so -
Weiner: But I'm aware that there- there are also swim lessons there. I think they're- they're led by
students, but they're- because we're- we're talking about a relatively small area with at
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least two large pools right now and a- and a- and a pretty small, the larger scheme of
things, pretty small urban area. When you look at polls and Coralville and North Liberty
and elsewhere, we've- we've got a lot of facilities in- in a pretty small area,.
Seydell-Johnson: We do. I mean, we also have a lot of lap swimmers, and now COVID is bad
doesn't it? Mean it's aquatics here is. We've heard from the consultants, unlike any other
community, they've been in the strong feelings towards it so -
Teague: All right. Thank you all for presenting. Any other questions for staff, and then well have
council just kinda, um, give any, uh, further remarks.
Alter: I have one question and it's actually, it works really well because it's about this sort of,
what are the next steps? And it was about council confirming [OVERLAPPING] like -
like so what- what the priorities. Are you talking at a large scale about sort of that- that
trying or that pyramid? The pyramid of equity and access and then moving down. Is that
what you wanna or about the priorities about like the pieces.
Seydell-Johnson: The second to- the second to the last slide where we had the about the seven
different areas. We'd like some feedback on those areas. Are we headed down the right
road with City Park Pool. Not with specific design, you know, number of lanes, number
of this, number of that, but are we headed [OVERLAPPING].
Alter: Modernizing it, for instance, okay.
Seydell-Johnson: As we look to our programming, are we headed in the right direction, looking
at some satellite programming spaces if they become available and working on our
program mix that way. Athletic fields. Are we looking at Mercer as being our top
priority, which is in the budget right now. And then the big aquatics questions, what is
the future of aquatic look like? And it's not a tomorrow answer. I think even if we were to
move forward with some kind of additional complex or additional indoor pool, that's
gonna take some time. There is no funding right now for that price tag. Um, but you're
probably going to be confronted first with some kind of large-scale repair maintenance
item that needs to be done at Robert E. Lee and- and will need some feedback about, do
we do that or do we wait and do something different? And they may be asked Jeff if he
wants to add any other.
Fruin: Yeah. I think- I think it'd be helpful to maybe just do a quick, uh, comparison with the,
um, parks master plan that was adopted in 2016. Um, and that focused on your
traditional, your parks and intentionally left out the facilities that we're talking about
today. But with- with that, implementation, staff could really just charge ahead and- and
go through because most of those improvements are at a 300, 500 maybe $700,000 scale,
which is all very manageable when it comes into working into the budget over a 5, 6, 7
year period. This master plan is on a whole different level here. As we move forward, we
wanna make sure that you- you generally agree with the direction that we're going.
Because the last thing we wanna do is get into a multi-million dollar project and only to
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fmd out that the council really didn't want to go that way. Um, so, you know, our next
steps are going to be to refine our budget proposal to you in September. We're going to
fmish the plan, will present the plan and share with the community. But then we have to
take some pretty big next steps. And what we've signaled, uh, in anticipation of this plan
with the last budget is that city park pool is the first major reinvestment that we need to
make. And by major, I'm talking multi-million dollar investment that we need to make.
It's gonna be really important that over the next several months, we- we we're on the
same page between staff and council and what you wanna see. That doesn't mean that the
exact design that the- the concept that was shown is- is the answer. Again, that was a tool
to get some more feedback. We can refine that and there'll be public input in that design
process. But we need to make sure that you're comfortable going down that path. Um, we
also have to do long-term planning for revenue sources. This isn't something that we can
just- just shows up in a budget. A nine million dollar expansion to Mercer just doesn't
happen overnight. You could take new revenue sources, it could take pursuit of- of grants
that can take several years. It could take a- a referendum. Um, there's multiple paths or
can go down, but each of those paths could require a year or more of planning. Unlike,
again, those more sim- simplistic park's, playground replacements and shelter additions
and things like that.
Seydell-Johnson: I wouldn't say they are also simple. [LAUGHTER] Just kidding.
Weiner: I have a sort of a revenue question which is you- you mentioned it a couple of places
that there's 28 agreement with city high and the- and the school district for use of the- the
pool at Mercer and the fields at Mercer. Does that include, um, fmancial?
Seydell-Johnson: It does for operations. Um, it has changed over the years. The history of that
pool is it was built originally so that they could have junior high swimming lessons as
part of the pool, and it had a significant use from the school district. They stopped doing
that 7, 8 years ago maybe. So they still pay us money through the 28E, but they don't
have quite the use interests in it that they used to.
Weiner: All right, thank you much.
Teague: So council, this is a major, right? This is a- a- a major thing to talk about. What I might
suggest, um, is certainly that we, um, feel free to make any comments, but we know that
the public is still gonna want to, um, comment on this presentation now that it's gonna be
made, uh, even more public through media. Um, I would suggest that we also have this
on our next work agenda, work session just, er, to continue the conversation. Uh, we can
certainly have it now, um, but I think it'd be more- it will be continuing this conversation
a little bit, but I'll open it up.
Thomas: All right, well, I'll start - and then maybe I'll start with City Park Pool because that- that
is the one that's the most- most likely to move forward, uh, first. And I- I will certainly
open to the idea of- of changes to City Park Pool. Uh, with- with that significant, you
know, question as to will it alter the aesthetic character of that facility? And, uh, again,
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we're looking at a preliminary drawing. But I have to say, when I look at that preliminary
drawing, the- that aesthetic character of the pool, uh, which I kind of view as a sort of
classic simplicity of a pool in a forest, um, isn't represented in that proposal. Um, so my
feeling is there's a lot of work that needs to be done if we're gonna bring it into
consistency with- with that character. Uh, I've- I've talked to a number of people about
how they have kinda navigated, you know, the- the aquatics with regard to City Park Pool
and- and the idea of an aquatic center element. And- and what they would say was, well,
we- we love City Park pool. And we went- when we wanted to go to an aquatic center,
would go to Coralville. And that makes a whole lot of sense to me given what- at least
what I'm seeing in the City Park Pool concept the trial- the- the attempt to integrate that
quality is extremely challenging and I'm- I'm- I'm not seeing, uh, an outcome which I
could live with, uh, in that current proposal. Uh, one- one suggestion I would make is that
the, um- and this applies to all the facilities in my view, uh, it's- we're trying to provide
things for people to do and we're trying to provide safe, equitable access to those
facilities. Uh, one concept that- that I think might be worth exploring would be since
we're only talking three months out of the year, providing some kind of summer session,
uh, public transit access to Coralville so that we, um, address that equity gap if - and
access gap, if we have that. Um, I have a name for it. I want to call- I- I would like to
suggest we call it the aqua bus, um, as a way of- of bridging that gap that we have now.
Um, but that pool is only three miles away from City Park Pool. It's really pretty close. It
seems to me we could- we could bridge it. Um, Robert A. Lee, um, again, the idea that
we're trying to provide with our recreation, lots of things to do and provide safe, equitable
access. With a citywide facility like an indoor pool, it seems to me we really need to
focus on public transit as an important element of how we provide that access. And the
centrality of Robert A. Lee, uh, in my view, is far superior to Mercer in terms of really all
modes, but especially transit. So I'm very hesitant to give up Robert A. Lee because of
that centrality. I understand there are issues with the existing condition. It's a 58 year old
facility. I mean, I - I really do feel that some of the issues we're seeing now, in addition to
COVID, are related to the fact that it's a- it's a facility or a pool which is at that point in
its life where we need to reinvest in it, um, and revisit the program. So in my view, the
idea would be to simply, um, commit to the location and then re- rethink what that pool is
so that we better- get a better match, uh, between what we're hearing in that report, which
I think had an outstanding information regarding, you know, programming issues, uh, and
apply that to Robert A. Lee. I- I would also be interested in seeing if we can identify
something that's missing in our regional systems of indoor pools that might be able to fit
that Robert A. Lee so that has that additional appeal. I mean, it's an- an indoor pool. That
means it's open all year round, right? I feel that all year round access is extremely
important through the winter. And if we can offer something that is not found anywhere
else, I think that would help promote the- the use of the pool beyond, you know, its kind
of current everyday use that we see now. And- and maybe I'll stop there. I mean, I- I have
other thoughts, but I- you know [LAUGHTER] I want to take up two and we'd have
limited time before we have to break.
Taylor: I would just sort of take on to what Councilor Thomas said as far as the Robert A. Lee.
Uh, you mentioned that it seems like it's not used that much, but I think maybe Councilor
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Weiner, uh, questioned about, uh, the aesthetics of it and perhaps that has deterred people
from there. But, uh, if- if we were to modernize it and make those improvements and
make sure that the water temperature was the same and consistent and it was more useful,
uh, perhaps the use would go up, because as a West sider, I see using that pool versus
going- cro- across to the east side of town uh, to- to do Mercer all the time. So, uh, I- I
prefer trying to do what we can with Robert A. Lee.
Weiner: So, uh, on a different to- topic on the sort of in terms of prioritization of, um, what we're
looking at outdoor facilities. Um, I- I personally would agree with- with prioritizing
Mercer outdoor facilities. I would probably skip the East Side Sports Complex. We have -
we're coming into a time of real- of real fiscal constraint. Um, and my - my personal, um,
preference would be to focus on facilities we have, expand facilities we have if possible. I
mean, may- maybe you could even put in a ball- ball field. I don't know if they're
interested in putting in a field or a soccer field, at- Whetherby, for example, there's a lot
of- there's a lot of room there or other- other places where there is room, rather than
creating a whole new facility that- that would- would have to be accessed by car when
we're looking at climate issues and trying to- um, trying to get people to, um, not, we
hope not drive as much.
Alter: Actually, I'll follow up on your comments. Um, I don't actually have a lot of specifics to
add in terms of, um, prioritizing specific pools or whatnot. I really want to listen more,
learn more. Um, I commend the work that's been done already. It was incredibly detailed
and- and dug in at several levels. And I was very impressed by the number of times in
which we said, "Well what about? " and I was like, "Well, we've thought- we did
consider this and I just- I wanna commend everybody who worked on this, that was a
huge effort. Um, but one of the things that I keep circling back to you and then I keep
hearing is just the monumental price tag to all of this. And so I think one of the things
that I need to keep myself aware of and- and- and honestly to- to let the public know as
well that probably not 100 percent of people are going to be happy with what the final
solution is, um, or solutions. But I'm- I like very much the framing of what does the
future of aquatics, what does the future of our facilities look like? And I think that that to
me is a really good Northstar along with the priorities that have been enumerated by all of
the different ways that we've had public input. So I don't have any specifics to comment
on right now, um, because I really want to gather more input. Uh, but I just- these are the
things that are striking me. I absolutely agree that I think we need to make- not make do,
we need to improve upon and create a better future of our existing facilities, um, first and
foremost. But just be aware that even that is going to have a huge price tag. And so we're
really gonna have to consider that in a- in- in a very realistic way. Um, what the cost of
all of this is going to be, and what we can do that we'll create the best effect for, um, our
really, really varied community. So
Weiner: I- I'd just like to- to echo what- what you said in terms of thanking you all for all the
work that's gone into this and the- and all the detail and all the outreach. Really, really
grateful.
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Bergus: I'm just wondering on the revenue side. I- I hear staff and Jeff, you've done a good job of
saying, tell us what you prioritize and we'll figure out how to fund it, you know. And-
and- and I feel like something like the possibility of a future recreation facilities
referendum is kinda categorically different than anything we've dealt with yet. And I
don't know if that's sort of so- part of our strategic planning or, you know, but I- for me
as- as a decision -maker, I feel very differently about these price tags, you know, when
you're talking $5, $7, $9 million if that means trading out other capital improvements
versus finding a funding source that would be for that particular thing. So that's just new
territory that I don't- I'm not really sure how to go on that.
Fruin: Yeah, I think that's- that's part of those next steps as once we understand that vision, then
we come and we figured out how to- how to put all those pieces together. But, you know,
keep in mind that's how- that's how Mercer Scanlon was built, was community
referendum. That's why we have the library downtown because the voters approved it. So
there are points in time in which if you strongly believe in something, you go and you ask
for that support and you see if it's there. There are other ways to fund it. Um, uh, can be
more difficult, can take a longer period of time. But without that vision, without us being
able to tell the story to the public, and this is where we're going to- to get support is- is- is
a nonstarter. So that's- that's kinda this early phase that we're in. Let's figure out what
exactly where we want to be and then we'll- we'll develop the paths and we can explore
which one is- is, uh, maybe the best one, uh, down the road a little bit. But what's also
important, sorry, um, is- is something that Juli alluded to a couple of times in her
presentations. We have master plans that we haven't fully executed on. Uh, City Park is
one. City Park master plan was I don't know $20 million master plan. But while we
haven't been able to carry out that entire plan when we make incremental improvements,
we're doing so in alignment with that plan. We're building the playground further away
from the river, we're making ball fields improvements to make them more flood -resistant.
All of those things are in concert with the plan and that's probably an expectation here,
especially with the- the two rec centers as we may not be able to do this in $9 million
chunks or $10 million chunks, but when it comes time to invest 2 million, we're gonna -
we're gonna know where we wanna go and that money is gonna be used very wisely and
be a building block to the next investment.
Teague: In the interests of time, I think I'm certainly gonna be gathering more input from the
public as now, this will be, um, a hi- a hidden that here is of a lot of people within our
community. The one thing I will say is this is the long-term, you know, goal. So for me,
when I hear about the East Side Sports complex, immediately, um, I would say, you
know, we need to have it in the plan because we're beginning with the end in mind, but
also realizing that, uh, the funding opportunities we're going to have to figure out along
the way. So I- I do believe, um, in a lot of what's happening here. Again, I just want to
hear a little bit more from the public. You know, I have some initial reactions. Uh, I
think, you know, the staff with the RAL, uh, they report on the usage. I think that is
important. But also, you know, in the same breath, think about the partnerships that we
talked about with non -city -owned, facilities. University is near. So that's where my mind
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goes to what opportunities, uh, can we explore there. If you don't ask, you'll never know.
Other than that, I will, uh, say I'm done with my comments there. Anything else?
Thomas: Well, I'll just touch on the outdoor facilities, uh, and the satellites. Um, I know Council
has heard me say many times you know that I'm- my- my vision is- is kind of framed by
the idea of what has been called the 15 -minute city, which is essentially that we try and it
has- it has to do with access that, er, every- everyone in Iowa City, no matter where they
happen to be within 15 minutes, can be most of their everyday needs by either walking or
bicycling. Now, when we're talking about the indoor pools, the- that's a citywide facility.
So it- it probably ne- needs to be adjusted to, you know, 20 minutes by transit or
something to that effect as- as the other piece. So I'm- I'm- I'm pleased with the idea of
the- the geographic decentralization thrust. I think that begins to capture the idea that we
need our facilities to scale at different levels. So we have city-wide, we have district rain
level facilities, and then we have neighborhood facilities. And- and so there are ways in
which people can engage with one another in our recreation system in different ways and
at different scales. Uh, I think it's very important for children, in particular, to benefit
from that neighborhood -scale focus because they, in my view, desperately need to be
provided spaces which would allow for self-directed play in outdoor settings. Sort of, you
know, we- we as a city can provide the- the setting and the context, but let them play
without that adult supervision hanging over their head. And so that- that has to happen in
my view, in a neighborhood context. So to the degree we can achieve that fme grain, you
know, it can be micro soccer, doesn't have to be a full-scale soccer field. I saw at the
video of the Juneteenth, they set up a little soccer field on Chauncey Swan Park. So- so
it's possible at the neighborhood scale to scale things down, uh, to fit the settings so that
children have easy access so that they can entertain themselves a- away from adults. I- I
just feel that that's really essential as we move forward.
Clarification of Agenda items
Teague: All right. We're gonna move on to clarification of agenda items. [NOISE]
Information Packet Discussion [June 9, June 161
Teague: Info packet June 9th.
Alter: I know that we are almost out of time, um, but I just want to mention that there was an
article that I sent out to council, um, on different community responses for gun violence
and I would defmitely like to revisit that, um, perhaps after our regular session.
Teague: Yeah. We're- we're going to have to come back because we have a presentation. So -
Alter: Yeah.
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Teague: Yeah. That will about the IP4 from June 16th, but anything else for June 9th? With the
exception of- we'll move on to June 16th, with the exception of IP4. We're going to have
to come back to that after.
Fruin: Mayor, just to clarify. We don't have a presentation on IP4, but we would like some
direction from the council if you're comfortable with that grant program.
Teague: Okay. If you're just needing, uh, comments, then I don't know if people are prepared. I
did have one question about that. Uh, so ex- expenses incurred after March 3rd, 2021 as
one this will, uh, eligibility process be. I'm concerned that if we only have $400,000 that,
um, I mean, people's budget could, you know, take that over right away.
Kubly: Sure. So that's the eligibility date for the ARPA funds. We could- we could revise that to
starting, you know, at the beginning of the grant period. We could- we could change that
timeline.
Teague: Yeah. I'm just concerned that this $400,000, you know, this money is to be used before
or by 2026. So that's where my concern is.
Weiner: That it's too small amount?
Teague: Well, it's too small of amount for the potential of the applicants. So if we go- if we're
going back, I think I'm more comfortable moving forward than going back. But at- that's
just my thought process because I- people would have paid whatever by then they would
have had monies.
Alter: Perhaps this could be something where, um, within the application process there's just
some place where they can explain how post -pandemic they have been impacted.
Kubly: Sure.
Alter: I mean, that then would sort of show that if, like, it wasn't for COVID, we wouldn't quite
be in this kind of a situation. Just to put it really, really generally, that might be a way
around it while being able to move that timeline up because I agree they had to find the
money somehow some way or just do away with it. And so now they're at a place saying
back in 2021 we had this need. We didn't- we couldn't fill it. We'd be like- we'd like to
have that money now so that we can fill that gap. Is that- am I understanding that
correctly?
Weiner: We're still in a pandemic whatever.
Alter: Oh, yeah. Yes. Thank you for that answer.
Weiner; We have the ability to use this money for several years going forward. So what I hear
you saying, Mayor, is that the 400,000 is not sufficient for the grant program?
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Teague: Well, it's not, I mean, it's not- it's not sufficient. We already- we already know we won't
have enough money, right? So it's not sufficient. But my biggest concern is that when the
agencies apply, if we're- if they're going to be, you know, going all the way back, there
just isn't enough money, so we're compounding the hardship on trying to, you know, help
agency. So my thought is if agencies are- they survived, you know, they- they paid some
money, uh, they figured it out. But we need to look at how can we move forward and
support them as the pandemic, as you mentioned, is still impacting services. So I don't
know if anyone, um, would agr- you know, would support maybe moving this date to,
um, right. July one
Fruin: Can we just do it when we- when we've released the over- or award grants. You know, it's
typically just- you know, moving forward, this is going to be helping your needs moving
forward and clarify that, uh, past expenses won't be eligible. That's- that's perfectly
normal for a grant program.
Alter: Yeah. That makes- and it goes in line with what we've already approved for CWJ as well.
Teague: So are people in agreement? All right. We have majority support for that.
Alter: Yeah.
Teague: Any other comments about this?
Bergus: Just promote the heck out of it.
Teague: Yeah. All right. [LAUGHTER]
Bergus: And thank you for working [OVERLAPPING] to wrap this all together so quickly.
Teague: Yes. All right. We're going to pause here and we'll return back to our work ses- work
session after our formal meeting. All right.
[Recess to formal meeting 5:47 pm — Back to work session 7:29 pm]
Information Packet Discussion [June 9, June 161 (continued)
(Returned from Council meeting)
Weiner: Where are we anyway?
Teague: [OVERLAPPING] We are at information packets. Um, so we're gonna go with June 9th,
information packet.
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Alter: Um, I just wanted to call out IP3, ah, which is that article that came out pretty recently.
Ah, there was a compendium of different community solutions, um, or ways that the
communities could address gun violence. Um, and just as takeaways, there's no single
solution, um, and that whatever efforts there are, they have to be deliberate and
coordinated among different, you know, community groups, agencies, city, county. Um,
and they're- they're multifaceted, right? Um, it is about getting to root causes. And so I
was very much in thinking of, um, John, what you talked about, you know, with- with
healthy neighborhoods because one of the first, urn, suggestions was in fact to have
public spaces and affordable housing, which- where people can feel safe, um, to allow for
simply better quality of life. Um, so anyway, I'm- I spoke a lot during formal meetings,
so I'm just want to, um, put this before us so that we can start having these conversations
in a meaningful and deliberate way. I know there's a county effort, urn, called the gun
violence and prevention program that is sort of just getting up on its legs and I know
there's a number of, um, different entities that are involved and they're taking their cues
or certainly taking some lessons from what's going on productively in Cedar Rapids. But
I would very much like for us to bring our chairs full and talk right into that table and to
talk about it so that we can, um, figure out what's going to work for our communities as
well.
Teague: I think this was a great article and I would also, um, encourage, you know, the city to
get involved with the Johnson County. I'm not sure if we have a staff.
Fruin: Our police department has been involved from the beginning.
Teague: Okay. I- I- I really do feel that we should have someone from Council on there if- if
there's still opportunity for us to jump on board.
Fruin: I- I can check with, you know, county attorney. It's- it's really the- the county attorney's
office is leading that, so will be up to Janet and her staff.
Teague: Okay. What I do know is that the Johnson County Board of Supervisors has allocated
over a million dollars. Um, and so I just feel like there should be a representative that
should be selected by the council if we do get that opportunity. One of us to be present.
Weiner: I would agree. I was- when I went to the March for our lives up in Cedar Rapids, they -
they have a prog- one of- a similar program that's been running in Cedar Rapids for
several years. The person who runs that program spoke very eloquently about how- how
they got into the community and the progress it's made there. Uh, so at the same- I'm- I'm
really happy to see it here. It needs to be, you know, like stood up. Um, and- and I'm
really happy that I'm thrilled that Johnson County is funded it. Uh, and agree that it
would be helpful to have someone participating if we are- if we can.
Bergus: One of the pieces that this article highlighted was about data collection. And I was just
wondering, Geoff, with Dave Schwindt no longer on our department, but also with the
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department being kind of staffing back- back up. Now, do we have someone in that role?
Are we- I mean, what's the status of that?
Fruin: Yeah. So Officer Schwindt was a full-time crime analyst while he was still a sworn police
officer. Um, after he retired, um, we hired him back on part-time as an hourly employee.
So he's working, um, maybe 10-15 hours a week or so. I'm just kinda guessing there, but,
um, to- to continue to pull the basic data together and Chief Liston and his leadership
team are evaluating what they wanna do with that position, um, whether to keep it a
sworn position. Obviously, Dave had some, um, very unique skills and abilities when it
came to- to data management. Uh, a lot of departments will civilianize that crime analyst
position and target somebody with background in statistics and data collection. So they're
evaluating those options. In the meantime, Officer Schwinn is, uh, with us in a civilian
ca- capacity helping us. So, um, don't have an exact answer for you on when that decision
may come and- and, uh, what that looks like. But we're still able to, you know, pull the
data that we need to inform this discussion.
Teague: Great.
Alter: Thank you.
Teague: Any other comments from IP- um, from June 9th?
Taylor: IP2 the legislative session report, special thanks to Rachel and the Corn- Carney and
Appleby lobbyists with an upcoming election in November. It- it clearly, uh, shows that
it's very important, uh, to- to vote and- and to follow up on these issues and- and hold our
elected officials accountable, uh, for these things. And I hope that we can continue to
have a lobbyist there, uh, to have, uh, ears on the ground for us.
Weiner: Yeah. I was- I was gonna call attention, not surprisingly, probably to IP2. Um, the- and
with particular focus on, urn, the issues that are highlighted at the beginning of the- the
memo that could come up- that are of concern to the city in this session, that this is the
second- the second year of the session so things have to start over. Bills will have to be
introduced a new but could be a real- could be introduced to the next session and could
be a real concern to the city. Um, so sort of take a look at- take a look at that and- um,
and- and think about it as we- as we move forward with some of our priorities.
Teague: I wanted to just bring up, um, our pendant agenda, tentative a meeting agendas. One, uh,
our next- July is gonna be a unique month or we're just going to have one meeting, uh,
for the work session and our formal meeting on July 12th. But on Monday, June- July
18th, we're going to have our joint entities meeting. And so we probably should
determine any topics that we want to- to add if- should there be any today because that
agenda will more than likely be posted by the time we get to our next meeting.
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Weiner: The- GuideLink was not able to present last time. I would hope that- that they could -
they could present in July so that we could get a better sense of how things are going
there.
Teague: Well, you have GuideLink and you also have, um, Better Together 2030. So maybe we
can just, you know, pass that along, not to say that they both, but just as opportunities for
some type of a, urn.
Taylor: Brief report.
Teague: Yeah, brief report. Any other ideas? All right. Anything else from, uh, June 9th IP? June
16th, information packet?
University of Iowa Student Government (USG) Updates
Teague: All right. USG, we saw them earlier today but they are no longer with us. So thanks for
coming and being apart. Um, any council updates on a sign boards, commissions, and
committees?
Council updates on assigned boards, commissions, and committees
Teague: Hearing none, maybe.
Alter: I apologize. I was trying to get my bearings. Um, did we- we have not discussed I think- I
think it was actually IP 4 for June 16th. That's the non-profit operating memo.
Teague: So we did.
Alter: We did.
Teague: Yeah. We- we -
Alter: I've been here too long. [LAUGHTER]
Teague: No, you're fine.
Alter: I'm sorry.
Bergus: About two minutes before the formal meeting.
Alter: Yes. Sorry for that [LAUGHTER]
Teague:It was very real quick. All right. Anything else? All right. Enjoy the rest of your evening.
It might be raining.
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Taylor: Sounds like.
Teague: It sounds like. Yes [MUSIC]
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