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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-10-18 Transcription Page 1 Council Present: Alter,Bergus,Harmsen, Taylor, Thomas,Weiner Council Absent: Teague Staff Present: From,Jones,Kilburg, Goers, Fruehling, Seydell Johnson,Barker, Havel, Sovers Others Present: Zeimet(USG Alternate) Recreation Facilities and Programs Master Plan Alter: Welcome. This is Iowa City City Council work session agenda for October 18, 2022 at 04:00 P.M. Welcome everyone, and we will begin our work session with,um, a presentation by Juli Seydell Johnson on the Recreation Facilities and Programs Master Plan. Thank you. Seydell Johnson: Thank you,um,Mayor Pro Tem. Thank you Council members. I'm Juli Seydell Johnson,Director of Parks and Recreation,here to talk to you tonight and walk you through the proposal for the Recreation Facilities and Programs Master Plan. Um, as you can imagine, I know you've had a lot of input and a lot of correspondence from the public about this plan. And it's been something that people have been talking about. As Parks and Rec Director,the biggest part of me says,yay,we're talking about Parks and Rec. That's awesome. Um,but in this case, there's a lot of information out there that is maybe not accurate or doesn't follow what you're actually looking at as the proposal tonight. So I'd really like to walk you through this,talk to you about the process,how we got to where we're at. Remind you of what the master plan is actually,what steps we're at and what comes down the line and how this is all laid out to work. So as we go, I'll kind of have it in different sections and please,you know, ask questions if that's if you want during the- during the presentation. It is kind of long,but I'll try to,uh,keep you entertained in going through the whole thing. Uh,this presentation builds on the one that you saw back in June from myself and the consultant team. We had the consultant team from BerryDunn who worked on this plan with us. And the fust thing that's not working. Okay. So BerryDunn Consultant team is a consulting team based out of Boston. Uh,the staff that we worked with was primarily out of the Chicago area. We worked with Williams Architects,which is out of Chicago. Uh,the WT group,John McGovern has done a lot of ADA assessment work here in the community. He tells us his granddaughters swim at City Park all the time so he's very invested in, and interested in what's happening here in Iowa City. And then Hitchcock Design Group,which previously did work for the City with Eastside Sports Complex Master Plan, and then the lower City Park Adventure Play. So we have a really great team. More importantly than that, at the start of this process,when we interviewed consulting funis,we had every major parks and recreation consulting firm in the country. And for those of you that don't know that,know how many that is, it's five or six. Um,the they were all very interested in coming to work here in Iowa City because we are a little ahead of the curve in a lot of things. And we asked them to do things a little bit differently for this master plan that This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 18, 2022. Page 2 challenged them and we felt that BerryDunn was the one that was the best one to help us go through that process. The scope of the plan. As any master plan,this one in particular looked at recreation programs. It looked at our outdoor athletic facilities so baseball, softball, soccer,pickleball,tennis,the active,um, outdoor athletic facilities, the two recreation centers,Robert A. Lee and Mercer Scanlon, City Park Pool, and then the two indoor swimming pools. What's not on the list? It did not look at any of our park, neighborhood park facilities. As I think you all know,those were covered in the 2016 park master plan that we've been implementing ever since then. So this was one thing that was different than other communities. Very often those are all combined into one plan. This one was a behemoth just for us to look at recreation facilities and programs so I don't know how he would give all of those things equal justice. So this was just the recreation side. It is a 10-year vision and direction setting document,uh,more for the public. This is not a binding decision or a binding acceptance on any of these things. What we do is the projects that are proposed in the directions that are proposed. If they're facility-based,they come back to you as part of the capital planning process-capital budget planning process each year. A project gets approved in the capital planning process. Then an architect or landscape architect is selected to help staff with the work. And then we go through a whole another public input process, similar to what we did,but specific for the facility. So with each of those parks in the master plan,the parks master plan laid out a plan over 10 years that was how do we address and renovate all 50 parks systematically?We've been going through three or four of those parks each year. And as you know,with each one,we go out and have a neighborhood meeting. We have an online input form. When we have a second meeting,we have the Parks Commission weigh in on it, and then it comes back to you for approval. So there's a public process that happens with each one of these projects. We are at no means at the end of the public process on anything in the master plan. So summary of the things that we're at-the executive summary lays out and that we're looking for Council-if you accept the plan tonight,these are the more specific things and the scope of what is entailed in that. For the athletic outdoor athletic- athletic fields,we're looking at Mercer ballfields and pickleball court being the top priority, followed by future renovations of Napoleon, Kickers, City Park and consider- continued consideration of Eastside Sports Complex in the future. This one,we're a little ahead because as you know,we already have the design contract initiated and we actually have a kickoff meeting later this week for determining the public-public input process for those facilities. The next step that we're looking at is ongoing changes to our recreation program and adjustments based on the public input that was received. Several of those things,we started this public process over a year ago. So some of the comments we received,we actually changed things almost as soon as we got the comments because we were like, great idea, let's do that. So you'll see recreation programs and events constantly changing but covered in this report. Decentralization of recreation program spaces. This one is a little broader concept in that there isn't a corresponding capital item at this time. But this would look at additional indoor recreation spaces away from the two rec centers to help move some of the recreation programming out into the parks. Think of it as kind of a step up from an indoor shelter and not a full rec center,but indoor space that's usable year-round. Some of the fust ones we're looking at would possibly be in the Wetherby area,maybe a partnership with a non- This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 18, 2022. Page 3 profit down there. Or if we move forward with City Park Pool and changes to the bathhouse there, actually adding an indoor recreation space there as well. City Park Pool. We'll have a lot of information coming up on this one. But here's what you're actually looking at tonight. Um,the plan does recommend replacing the pool, and I want to be really clear about that. There's a lot of conversation about should we take the concrete out of the basin or not? The plan will recommend that we start fresh. We take the concrete out and we rebuild. Could be in the same exact shape that it's in now. But the concerns with the structure and the leakage and the piping underneath is such that we've been kicking the can down the road for quite awhile. If you want a pool that's going to last for another 50, 60, 70 years,this plan says it's time to really address that and look at building a new pool. Lots of other decisions coming down the road with that, and we'll talk through that later in this presentation. It goes through an extensive design process in the end of'23 and through probably '24,with construction not until 2025. And you say,well, what if we start that process and we find out differently,that maybe we don't need to replace the entire basin. Okay, let's consider that too. But right now it's pointing to the fact that we should do that. The fourth one. Sorry-the fifth one, Mercer Scanlon, replacing the roof, continuing with annual maintenance repairs as planned there, and then consider expanding it with gym indoor walking track,warm water pool and assessible hot tub in 2026 or beyond. So after City Park Pool, come back, consider this and then also consider the next bullet point,which would be the future of Robert A. Lee Pool. Same thing. Continue with annual maintenance things. Continue with um, some of the-the regular things that need to be do- done to keep it operating. Track and report the attendance and this is at Robert A. Lee,we would actually do this at Mercer and Robert A. Lee. Report it each month to the Park Commission and then consider the future of the pool in 2026 or beyond. So once again, after the City Park decisions are made and we're- we're through that. And then finally, continue to monitor housing developments on the far west side so past 218. Some of the areas we've been talking about with Carson Lake or some of those developments. Once those become reality, looking at what recreation possibilities or needs are out there as well. So those are the actual summary of things that you're being asked to accept tonight. So what's not on that list that you've probably heard a lot about?A design for the new City Park Pool. That's not on the list for acceptance tonight. We have a concept design,but the actual pool design is not in there. Closing Robert A. Lee Pool.Not in the -not in the acceptance of this plan tonight. Um,making the additions at Mercer,not in the plans tonight. Continuing to evaluate and look at those recreation needs?Yes. A vision of how we can do that differently and serve our public differently in the future?Yes. But specific items and specific diagrams of different things?No. Is there any questions about that before I go any further? Alter: I do have a question that's just one before that,when you were talking about the order of events, and,uh. I know that Parks and Rec Commission recommended um,that after the, saying that City Park pool gets changed... SeydellJohnson: Yeah. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 18, 2022. Page 4 Alter: ...one way somehow right? That at that point, Mercer Scanlon and Robert A. Lee would be considered together in order to figure out the priority, correct? Seydell Johnson: Yeah. And that's [OVERLAPPING] Alter: Because that will dictate then what changes might be happening. Seydell Johnson: And that's kind of what those are-why those two bullet points are [OVERLAPPING] say together and they both say 2026 or beyond. Alter: Okay. Seydell Johnson: So you would look at those together. Yeah Bergus: I have a question,Juli,just about the other, I think it was another recommendation from Parks and Rec relating to um, like the aquatic section of the plan itself,which aquatics is throughout and in all kind of elements of the plan interspersed. So do you understand what their intention was with that recommendation? Seydell Johnson: So I have them right here. So I think you're talking about the motion that says recommend the Council approve a vision of all the areas shown for the impact or Mercer Scanlon master plan with the exception of the aquatics portion. Bergus: Correct. Seydell Johnson: So they were specifically talking about the Mercer Scanlon building. They like the ideas of the expansion of the wellness facilities,the gym,the walking track,those type of things. But they wanted to make sure that the pool needs were considered at the same time as the future of Robert A. Lee. Bergus: And it indicated the vision,was that limited to the section in the plan that actually specifies vision?Do you know? Seydell Johnson: I think it was meant, and Missie Forbes will be here to speak on behalf of the Parks Commission at the regular meeting... Bergus: Okay. Great. Seydell Johnson: ...so you can ask her too. Um, I think they were specifically talking about the future vision for Mercer Scanlon. Bergus: Got it. Thank you. Seydell Johnson: Okay. So the influence- influencing factors on the overall master plan; so back to the start of this master plan,we did not go out saying what should we do with our This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 18, 2022. Page 5 indoor pools?What-,what should happen any-to that?We said,what can we do better to serve our community with our recreation facilities and programs?And when we talked with all the different consultants that we brought on board,we said,here's something that's a little different,that's emerging and Iowa City ahead of a lot of other communities but we have equity as a focus. We have access to our programs as a focus. Climate change is one of our main visions and goals and we want to make sure those things are included in the recreation plan. I don't know of any other city that's done that yet. So,um, that made our plan a little different and a little, I think forward thinking. I'm going to talk about those things in the next slide so I'm going to move on down to some of the other realities that we have right now and worker shortage and national life guard shortage are the next two things. Since the pandemic, I think we're all aware of the worker shortage overall. This hits us in full-time positions for maintenance,parks positions,but lifeguards. And the lifeguards thing is more of a national shortage and I think we're going to see this in two parts. Right now we see it as a result of the pandemic and people maybe not wanting to work and not wanting to do jobs where there's that close personal contact if they needed to do a rescue or needed to teach swimming you know some of those kind of things. I think some of this is we're lucky here. We've got,you've approved a larger, higher wage,which has helped us keep a pretty good staff. Um,Kate, our aquatic supervisor, does all kinds of unique things with how she trains staff and how she schedules them and things that are really like immediate draws to get us from the lifeguard staff that's out there now,the pool of lifeguards. Looking down the road though and seeing what's happening around us, it's the bigger question of how many kids learn how to swim. Quite honestly,we don't,not going to have as big of a pool of lifeguards in the future. We're worried about that and that we're asking them to come in proficient in swimming and with it not being taught in schools and with it competing- swimming lessons compete with dance classes and soccer practice and baseball and basketball and everything else that parents are trying to run their kids to right now, it's going to be a tough go. So what that means for us is no,we're not giving up. I love aquatics and I think there's a great future and I think lifeguarding is an awesome fust job for kids to enter the workforce with. But it does mean we have to be smart in how we build our facilities and for the fust time we're saying to swimming pool architects,not only do we want things that are really cool and fun and all that,but do it in a way that uses the fewest lifeguards possible and keeps the safety level high. So that's-that's a really different thing that this plan looks at that I don't think any other plan has looked at until recently. And then finally,there's been some desire for larger indoor spaces. This plays out more with these satellite recreation facility areas or the Mercer Scanlon improvements. So some of the difficult questions, and maybe difficult is not the right word. Maybe it's unique questions that we used in this process. First of all, and the reason I want to go through these is because these terms have been brought back to us in public comments and I think that their versatility in these comments is as versatile as their use in- in normal public language. But here's what we meant. We said we want to plan th-that looks at equity in our community. Specifically,how do we get out and contact historically underserved populations?People that haven't felt welcomed in our facility,maybe they are lower income,maybe they are new immigrants. What can we do to really make sure that their voices are heard?And there was a very much-we'll get to that,but a big part of our This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 18, 2022. Page 6 efforts in Phase 1 was to do just that. Secondly,we have this word access. And in terms of this plan, access means three different things. We talk about access as in true ADA access or accessibility for people using mobility devices, or that are vision impaired or have cognitive,uh, differences in cognitive functions. What can we do that makes our facilities so that people can get into them,that can get into the water and swimming pools as independently as possible, as inconspicuously as possible? If they have a caregiver with them,how do we make it so that's a seamless process and so that they can use our facilities?And then how do they have comfort navigating?Do we have different levels of water, different types of water and specifically in the aquatic centers and then getting to fully compliant locker rooms and pool decks. The access then to location is kind of more traditional access. How do people drive there?How much does it cost to park? Is parking convenient? Can they take the bus, can they walk, can they bicycle?Had lots of comments about that kind of access. And then the final access is about entry and program fees and we've been doing a lot to reach out to make sure that our programs are accessible to people of all income levels,have quirky work schedules,have difficulty getting their kids to different programs. So we're trying to hit those access things on all levels. The final one that is not really talked about in this slide is for the LGBTQ community. We have a lot of staff from this category that work for us and we've said,what-what's wrong with our facilities. And the restrooms and the shower facilities come up time and time again. So moving towards more of a- a single user changing space,places where you don't have to walk into a facility and decide, do I go into male or female side,there's other options. Or if you're walking in with a father with his young daughter,you've got a changing space you can use. Things that make it more universal for all of our users. And finally,what about climate action and what does it have to do with parks and recreation? When we look at redoing any of our facilities,we're looking at things like water use.Not only how much water we put into a pool to fill it, but how efficient are we at filtering it and keeping the same water in there?How much does that cost for chemicals and what kind of chemicals do we have to use?Utilities, everything in our facility from water- saving fixtures,to LED lights,to possibly so- solar or other alternative energy uses. I know here in Iowa City we've been talking about this for a long time. Adding it to a recreation facilities plan might be the fust time in the whole country this has been done. And the fact that we said this was important as we looked at our facilities. So just noting those as some differences.Now,more specifically,how did using this equity lens change our process?How is this different and maybe why are you getting the level of responses that you've gotten in the last few weeks or months?What was different about using this equity lens?Well, fust of all,we had a lot of specific and additional outreach specifically for residents who haven't historically used our facilities-- our city recreation facilities. Kinda the same list I just went through,historically disadvantaged,people of color,recent immigrants,residents whose primary language is not English. Our initial efforts,uh, for the master plan input went out in five different languages. Our surveys had options to be translated. Our website had options to be translated. We went out to community groups that-that serve those different populations. There was a huge effort to try to reach the people that don't just walk in the doors every day at our facilities. Um,residents in lower- income neighborhoods. And there's a whole lot of other things that maybe make people feel not welcome in our traditional rec center. Maybe it's the way they dress,they want to This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 18, 2022. Page 7 swim,but they have religious preferences that say they need to wear a certain- a certain garment,things like that,that we can look at. We also collaborated with community groups who successfully serve residents from these categories. So a lot of outreach in our steering committee and some of our focus groups on that. Um, and then actually weighting the responses so as to acknowledge the barriers have quieted some of these voices in the past. Way different than a lot of other master plans. Um, it's not just all about the numbers in every survey and the number of people that responded. It was looking at some of the responses we got from these quieter voices and saying,how do we amplify those so that their needs get captured in this overall plan?And then finally, taking actions that bring equity to rec services and facilities, creating facilities that are welcoming to a broader range. So swimming lessons,we have this goal of every child learns how to swim. So Kate's been working through some very generous donations to work with some of the after-school programs from the south district and some of the other schools. Here's what we found. We had to provide transportation,not a big deal. I mean,we figured that one out. We got the kids there. We ended up having to provide swimsuits and in some cases, laundering those swimsuits. So it takes some few extra steps and once we get them in the program,their families come with them. We offer some- some less expensive weekend times,things that we can do to try to reduce the barriers to bring more people into our programs and facilities. So let's go through what the community engagement was. Okay. So what's on the screen went out in all the water bills about 14 months ago. We announced the fust phases of the public input. We had a number of just drop-in events where people could drop in,no invitation needed. We were at things like soda- Sodafest, am I saying that right? That was in the north,um,north side along with their Octoberfest. We were at the Doggy Paddle,we went out to the dog parks. We were at City Park Pool in the last two weeks it was open,not this summer,but the summer before. We had displays at both recreation centers in the lobbies and had paper forms available there for people to fill out anytime they walked in. We also did several very popular days in the,um, in the library, in the little walkway through the library where we got a lot of families over there too. So we went out and we really tried to catch people where they were,we tried to catch people that use our programs and that don't. Then we specifically went out to neighborhoods that we felt were underserved or lower-income, and we did specific events in those areas as well. The engagement types that we had. And this is where it's gotten a little confusing for everyone. So let me just take a minute to walk through this. Phase 1 where we had much more of the equity focus, we had focus groups,which were groups like we had aqua fitness participants. We had like swim team and youth athletic associations. We had non-profits,we had religious groups,we had,um, other community groups that serve,um, diverse neighborhoods. We had ten of those type of meetings with the-where the consultants gathered input. We had the pop-up events that I just talked about. We did a statistically valid survey. It's not all about the numbers, I just said that. It's kind of about the numbers with the statistically valid survey. We hired a company that-that did a mail out survey. You had options when you got it to either mail it back in or to do it online. And they tracked the responses so they got a response base that matched our demographics in terms of race, in terms of income, and in terms of location in the city. So we really feel like the statistically valid survey gives us some realistic information that's a broader reach to all of our residents. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 18, 2022. Page 8 Are they all users of rec facilities?We actually don't know. Probably not,but it gives us that baseline of what does the full community,think of some of these topics. That same survey, once we reached that point of having the demographic mix that matched our community demographics,was then made open to the general public. Anyone that wanted to fill it out online could fill it out online or we had it paper copies available in the rec centers. And there was 216 people that took advantage of that. Interestingly,the feedback on those two,the statistically valid and the public survey,weren't that far off far off and that different. A little different than public survey,which you'll see, and our consultants told that-told us that that was pretty typical in communities. That actually, whether you do statistically valid or you do the just open-ended on the broad sense,yes, once you get to a specific facility or specific program, it tends to lean towards interest groups or really high-level advocates in some of those areas. So- and the final thing,we had a community engagement website that was open to anyone to give their ideas,to give their feedback. It was called Social Pinpoint. A lot of people participated in that. This is where you saw the pickleball players come out. For every question that we asked in there,whether or not had anything to do with pickleball,there was pickleball answers over it. So that's-that's an example of where we had one group really advocating for one thing and found a way to do it, even if the questions really didn't have anything to do with pickleball. But we got a lot of feedback. So we took that Phase 1 feedback,the consultants took it,they compared against other communities,they kind of melded it all together, came back to our steering committee,talked to the steering committee, some staff members. That's where the Phase 1 recommendations came from. And that's what we focused on mostly in what we've presented to you and to the public is Phase 1 recommendations. But that's not where the story stops. Because of this being such a large process and because there were some surprises to everyone involved in Phase 1,we wanted to make sure we gave the public a chance to have comments afterwards, so that's where you get to Phase 2. As I mentioned in Phase 1,we didn't go out to ask the question of what should we do with the indoor pools? We asked the questions of what can we do differently with our services that might serve the public better and might fit our future better based on a lot of other factors like staffing and- and the conditions of the facilities and all those things. So that's some pretty big changes to say that maybe in the future we wanna do aquatics differently. So those came out in Phase 1 recommendations. The commission has only recommended the Phase 1 recommendations to you. So I wanna make sure the public has said,Hey,wait, commission approved this before all the public comment in Phase 2. Well,yeah,because they were recommending Phase 1. I think the best way to think of Phase 2 comments is this is what we build on as we move forward with the recommendations from Phase 2. As we go into each of those specific planning cycles for each of these items,we've gotten a whole lot of information from Phase 2. Some of it is stuff we've been able to act on right away, some of it is longer-term as we look at the future of the facilities. But Phase 2 started with the Public Works Open House. We had input and surveys there. We once again did press releases, let everyone know the information was out there. We hosted two open houses. And then once again,the community engagement website was available. Um,no direct focused outreach on this phase. This is all self-selected,people that had specific- largely specific interests in various parts of the plan and you've seen that through a lot of this feedback. Doesn't mean This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 18, 2022. Page 9 it's not valid at all. I mean,we've got a lot of people with a lot of passion and thoughts about where the futures are going and we want to capture those. I think those all play into the vision as we move forward that we don't want to lose sight of what the broader recommendations were in Phase 1,but I think we can use the Phase 2 ones to help shape those as we go forward. Some of the other high-level investment priorities that came specifically from the statistically valid survey--in the Rec Center,that's hard to read,um, we talked about there was a need for more adult wellness things. So indoor walking track or jogging track, an additional gym at Mercer Scanlon,weight room or fitness room coming back. We used to have a very small one there,maybe doing that again, and meditation yoga studio space possibly. The outdoor pool amenities. Here's the interesting part about this, and we'll talk about how we thought about what was keeping City Park character the same. Here when we ask people what was most important, it was shade, deck chairs, lap lanes of things that we already had,um, and then lazy river,which we'll talk about why that's not in the future recommendations at least at this point,. But in- in this survey,the things that people enjoyed seemed to be more about the atmosphere when they went to the pool. The overall experience rather than a particular,um, shape or type of swimming other than lap swimming, obviously. Uh,recreation programming more in the adult fitness area,more nature programming,people love the farmers market,more adult art classes. Once again, some of those things are already been implemented right now. Pool-pool programs,water fitness classes were very popular, lap swimming, senior aquatic programs which kinda relates back probably to the the aqua fitness and arthritis classes, and then swimming lessons. I'm gonna walk you through very quickly the recreation assessment. So is there any questions before I go on about public input and how we did the public input process? Okay. So the recreation assessment looked at our programming mix, our events, our programming, everything from farmers market to swimming lessons,to adult sports,youth sports, all that fun stuff that we offer. Uh,we found our core programs. Look at how big aquatics is. Aquatics,we agree, it's important to our community. That includes youth swim lessons,which is probably our number 1- is our number 1 registration-registered program,um, and also aqua fitness is in that level. And you can see a smaller youth sports. That's partially because the Youth Sports Association take care of most of the larger soccer and those kinda leagues,but we do have quite a bit of youth sports. STEAM incorporates science,technology, engineering, art, and math into our recreation programming. That was something that was a highlight of our Park's Master Plan adding more of that, so we continued with that. Plan overall recommends expanding adult fitness and wellness activities, outdoor education, and then inclusive, and adaptive programs. We have one of the largest inclusive and adaptive programs in the state. They- I think because Iowa City is home to a lot of group homes, um, a lot of the rural areas have people that come to live here for the services. So our used to be only Special Olympics. It's now more than that, it's now more skill development, social programs. Um,those kind of things are very important. And our enrollment, once again,we show aquatics is one of the top ones,youth sports,um, and events. We did a heat map to show where our participants come from. I'm- I'm happy with what we see here. So we get a really good mix of participants from across the entire community. If one area stands out as maybe fewer participants, it would be around the University/downtown area. Um,that's to be expected though,because University students This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 18, 2022. Page 10 largely- are probably recreating with University services rather than City Parks and Rec. But overall,we have a pretty good in average or even reach across all areas. And another thing that we did that is a first- as far as this consulting team knew of any community, is we specifically had our Rec staff go through and rate each one of our programs on several different areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion. So this was everything from how many different places do we offer a program so you get access to it. Do we offer it in different languages?Do we offer it at different times of the day or different times of the week to add-to promote better access? It gave us an internal score, and the idea is that we will go back to this periodically and work on increasing our new DEI scores. So I think in five years you're going to hear about this as a national standard that we got to start here, which is kind of exciting for all of us I think. Um, so the key programming categories or the key thoughts that came out- or priorities was fitness wellness, and that relates to the fitness and wellness spaces primarily at Mercer Scanlon. The indoor walking,jogging track,weight room, and fitness room. Uh,young adult, adult, active adult programs. Same thing mainly focused on wellness,but also with some arts and crafts in there too. Having inclusive and adaptive expansion. So having room for inclusive and adaptive spaces or programming areas. I don't know if you know this but our Halloween event that's coming up, our family Halloween event. For the hour-hour and a half before the event starts, it's a quiet time for families that have sensory concerns that want to come and experience the Halloween event,but without all the noise and the extra,the activities are all toned down so they can have and experience,but maybe one that's more tailored um,to their cognitive needs. Um, aquatic exercise,this is where the warm water pool recommendation comes for the addition at Mercer, along with more instruction in the pools. The teen program and cultural categories,multi-multiple-multipurpose rooms added, and then adding some additional programming spaces out in the communities. Teens are one of the hardest group to bring into the Rec Center unless they come right from the middle school after school,um,but they don't want their parents drive them. They want to get there by themselves. We think that adding some additional recreation spaces out in the community will make that easier. This is just a depiction of what the satellite facility could look like,to be determined,but basically a large multipurpose recreation space, indoor restrooms, some office and storage space. So pretty simple satellite facility. Probably,not staffed full-time,um,but staff space for things like- if there was day camp there, summer camp,that kind of thing. Outdoor athletic facilities looked at all of our outdoor active specific facilities. And I won't go into this one in quite as much detail,but will certainly answer any questions. For each one of our facilities, Hitchcock Design Group came out,toured it with staff,talked with some of the youth associations and different user groups, and came up with a site condition index. Listed out things,what's there now,what could be improved. Uh, specifically looking at ADA access, looking at condition and safety elements,um, and then also looking at things that people are requesting, like shade or more restrooms. And we came up with a large checklist for all different- all of those different facilities that we'll be working from in the coming years. Phase 2,we asked people to help us prioritize which one would go fust. Came back with Mercer,which as I mentioned before, is already um,underway to start design on the um,redoing the baseball fields there. Okay, I'm going to start City Park Pool,but do you have any other questions before I? All right, so we're going to - This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 18, 2022. Page 11 once again go through the report. Some of these slides you've seen before, some have been added to address some of the concerns are some of the issues we've heard from the public. I just want to say, first of all, it is very true. I think every single person on staff loves City Park Pool. That's been called out of how can that be true if you want to change it. We love the pool,we love seeing people active in our communities and we want to make sure that we're able to do that well into the future. It may not look exactly the same, but we think there's a real need to have this large outdoor aquatic center. We do love City Park Pool,we love the atmosphere up there. We love hearing people's memories of what it meant to them and where they fust lifeguarded and how they used to look through the window and. That's a little creepy,but some of the things that, that memory comes with it. So we do take it from the point of view that it needs major renovation and that most likely means taking out the cement and starting over with the pool basin. That comes from the very fust part of the report where we had the architects and the pool people look at it. We also had—so there's the people,there's a lot of people saying one of those reports says you could spend six to eight thousand dollars from an engineer to find out what's really wrong. We did that in 2017. We have it right here from Terracon and their recommendations are almost exactly with what it says in the master plan that there's a lot of short-term things you can do,but long term even they don't really know why it can't hold water and why it continues to shift the way it does. Because it's such a unique construction,because where it's sitting is maybe different in the soils. We just don't know the full answer,but we do know that no matter what recommendations we followed and we follow these every year, it's still leaks and it's still- there's ways to improve it that we think should happen. So I say that because in the Phase 1, as I said,we were asking more general questions there. The one specific question we did ask is we said, if money was the same,would you rather have a City Park Pool renovated to the same way it is now or to something new and different? So that was a specific question asked of City Park Pool. And here's the responses. In that statistically valid survey, 67 percent of the people that responded said that they'd like to have a design, a new pool layout. When we did the events, and this was both at City Park Pool,because we did the last two weeks of when the pool was open, we did the lobbies of the rec centers,we did the Dog Paddle at the pool. Same thing 63 percent said they would rather have a new layout and 32.7 said,keep it the same. Online responses,which as you remember,we're open to anyone who wanted to respond. Those came in a little differently 40, almost 46 percent said same layout,40.5 said new layout. So still close. Focus groups kinda tipped the other direction. Fifty-two percent want to do and 47 percent. Do I share this with you as a final answer?No. But the reason I'm sharing it is this is why you got a concept plan that showed a new layout. Because we had data from Phase 1 that said that's what the majority of people wanted to see. So when people have questioned why in the world would you come out with a concept plan that looks so different,this is-this is the reason for it, the start of it. Phase 2, which is once again, after the concept came out,the feedback is different and you've had that quoted back to you several times and we'll hit on that a little bit. But Phase 1 tipped towards the direction of saying,we enjoy City Park Pool,we want to keep it there,but we want it to look maybe a little differently that meets our needs a little bit differently. And I think that-um let's go through some of the quick assessment,we've been through this several times before. But the biggest things that are issues with the current pool is the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 18, 2022. Page 12 water loss from the pool vessel. It continues to be somewhere in that 30,000 to 35,000 gallons per day. That's about three-and-a-half inches of water from the surface every day and it gets worse each year as the season goes on. So let me back up to the Terracon report and what it said to do. It said to go through and evaluate all the joints, any of the concrete spalling each spring,have a professional company. We have Mount Vernon Construction come in every spring. They blow out the cracks,the caulking lines. They re- caulk with swimming pool level caulk. And then we go in and we repaint with tnemec paint to seal the -to seal that. We do that every single spring. It takes two to three weeks of our pretty much every maintenance staff from Government Buildings gets to go get some sunshine and work on getting that pool ready. So we don't know why that doesn't completely seal the pool because it really should. That's what all the recommendations would say, at least temporarily. But we also know by end of the season we're losing just as much water. Let me show you. Let's hope that our technology works here. We have a video from yesterday. Of course it's not going to work. Give me just a second here. Okay, um Kellie,how do I switch screens? Thank you. Fruehling: Apparently you have to close out of this one. Seydell Johnson: Okay. Go ahead. Let's try this. Okay. Sorry,that took a few minutes. We took drone footage and went out and took footage of what the pool shell looks like yesterday. I realized that this is shortly after we've drained the pool,before the winter season and the freeze-thaw happens. But I think it gives some insight into where and why this pool shell is aging. So we'll start with just an overall look at the pool. Looks pretty cool without water in it too if you're swimming pool nerd like I am. Here you can start to see some of the spalling. We have new paint but it's cracked through that. Around the main drain, most of the caulking that was just put it in the last year has cracked away. You can see some of the other spaces where we're starting to see the degradation of the concrete. It's the smaller cracks and those kind of things that we think that that's where, especially at the joints,that is soaking through and something about the water table underneath the pool. Typically,you would have hydrostatic balance, and the water would be pushing up at the same time it's pushing down from the pool. Here it's still not evened out for some reason and we're still losing water through the entire season. It will end with just a few - yeah, showing some of the more prominent. We only show a few,but these are kind of throughout the entire pool basin. Sorry. Okay,while I change the video, do you have questions about what you see in the video? I'm not an engineer,but I've got two of them sitting over here.No just kidding. Harmsen: Out of curiosity,what is the cost each spring for the- as- so far unsuccessful attempts to try and reseal. Like is there are that-that two-week period? Seydell Johnson: Yeah. I don't know off the top of my head. For instance, all of our staff time pretty much goes there. So that's like 10 full-time staff members that we put out there. We don't calculate that specifically as the cost. I know that the Terracon estimate had- and this would have been back in 2017,um, so their estimate for remove and replace existing pool finish and sealant,um,to the joints was 10,000 plus an additional up to This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 18, 2022. Page 13 120,000 depending on the amount of cracks seen. We aren't anywhere near that 120,um, and I hesitate to give you- I can get you that number that we spend every year because it's on just a few contracts and purchases,but I don't have that today. Harmsen: My other question, is there any concern,uh, about,um,uh, for the water that's leaking out, is it doing anything to the substructure underneath the pool,the thing that the pool is resting on, is that causing,uh, some washout sort of issues or any- any knowledge about or any way to detect that? Seydell Johnson: We don't know. It's conjecture,but that's what every engineer that's looked at it is worried about. Um,not only from the pool shell,but the age and the condition of the pipes underneath. I don't have conclusive evidence. I'm sure that'll come up in your next correspondence,but that's just what people know of pools this age when we get to this. We do know we get wet spots outside of the pool and down the hillside, down into the main City Park. We've never quite been able to address exactly where those are coming from before they seal up. The pressures of the ground,you know, change too, so yeah. Taylor: Juli, I didn't see in their recommendation,but I know in some of the letters we've gotten, there was talk about some type of pool liner that could be installed,have you investigated that? Seydell Johnson: It's- it's been an option that's been out there for quite a while. Um, it's going to buy you some years. It's not going to fix the-the-the pool shell. So,um, and we don't- I think there's an estimate. I don't want to quote the number again in the master plan. It's similar with inflation to what was back in the earlier report. But 5-10 years, some- some- some sales reps will tell you 15. When they've looked at our pool,they come out and they go,whoa,this is huge. Um, so it's not typically done in- in this large of pool.Not that it can't be it's just not a long-term solution. Taylor: Thank you. Seydell Johnson: Okay. So the recommendations,these aren't changed from what you saw back in June from the consultants with- is- saying that with a pool that's 72 years old, it's not suitable long-term investment to continue making the intermittent repairs. It really would say that the best thing to do is to look at this long term, and what do you want to do to provide the next 50, 60, 70 years. Pool structure is at or approaching the end of its useful life. Planning should be made to replace. And the repairs or replacement could be done by the City to minimally extend the life of the pool. And once again,those are probably- some of those things will probably need to be done to extend it three years. But if you're looking 10 or 15 years,then yes,we want to do a little more expensive things. We'll need to look at more of what's going on in the pump house. It just depends on the time frame of when we'd be looking at renovations down the line. So any-before I move on, any questions- any other questions about that part of it? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 18, 2022. Page 14 Weiner: You mentioned when we were talking about the pool liner that people-that engineers were surprised of the size of the pool. So is this an unusually large pool basin for a public pool? Seydell Johnson:Not for a public pool,but for liner probably. Weiner: Okay. Seydell Johnson: Yeah. The liners are more typically residential or hotel type. There are some done in larger facilities, I'm sure. But their- their typical uses a much smaller pool. Yeah. Okay. So, one of the things that we've had a lot of-there's been a lot of public debate about, is what does it mean with keeping the current aesthetic?Let me just walk you through what the consultants and we thought it meant at the end of Phase 1,just to let you know where the recommendations came from. So fust of all, as I showed in the Phase 1 recommendations,things people like the most were shade, deck space and space for chairs. So that tells you that it's the atmosphere of hanging out at the pool just as much as being in the water that people were interested in. They want to keep the shape of the fence line and the trees. And the fence line is not as important as the large trees. We just use the fence line as the marker because it's the easier thing to see and to maybe understand. Pool building architecture, facility, and finishes to remain similar. That's what we assumed. Maybe that could change now,we're kind of getting some different feedback about that as well. Pool remain flat water. So there were-there was input that said let's do more water park type-type features. Let's do lazy river. Let's have more of an aquatic center. We didn't feel like that was the primary thing that people wanted. They wanted to keep this flat water,meaning without waves,without the- all the extra jazzy features that it's- it's it- it's a more,um, quiet family experience. Diving boards, deep water,not always included in newe Aquatic Centers. So important that that got noted here. Providing a mix of the lap lanes. Okay. So let me just say once again,we've got the number of lap lanes wrong in that concept. We get it. Okay,we get it, right? Unknown: Thank you. Seydell Johnson: Um, I don't know what the perfect number is and I think we need to hit on that in design. But there needs to be a mix of that versus family recreation space in different water depths. And then the masterplan contract only included one concept. So that's another part of the question. People are like,how come you didn't go back in and change this?Well, it was a Phase 1 concept design. That's all we had at this point in the contracts until we moved on to the-the full-on design process when we're ready to do construction. Here is the-the plan as it showed the things that the-the consultants thought we were doing when we said,people said they still wanted to traditional pool. So that's why you still see the diving well and the rectangle shape of the lap lanes. The shape of the zero- depth is a little different on this concept plan. Doesn't mean in the end it couldn't be a rectangle again. So that's still lots of options there. What it does do though, is you remember back we talked about access and offering a whole lot of different ways for access,we want to do away with the pool lift chair. If you haven't done a pool lift chair to This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 18, 2022. Page 15 get into a pool, I invite you to come to Mercer or Robert A. Lee and ask the lifeguards to let you sit in the chair and be lowered into the water. It is not a great way to get into a pool and we would rather have a way that people can access in and out on their own using wheeled devices if they need to or want to or having a caregiver with them. But independently access. And this one adds a ramp into the lap lanes which was-had been one of the things that came out of input from lap swimmers, as another way for water walkers to get in that includes a ramp. It includes stairs into a diving well,which is fairly unusual in a diving well area. It includes stairs along the southern edge,which is stairs into kind of the intermediate four-and-a-half, five foot of water. It- it adds a stair entry on the other side of that intermediate area, and then of course it has a zero-depth which people are becoming very familiar with for young children and all sorts of things. So it actually provides a ramped access into all different areas of this pool,which is highly unusual in any aquatic facility. It also adds some options for solar, it adds an option to have a community rec space in a new bathhouse. It adds option of having the restrooms move from what we call old- it's not old brick,the gray brick restrooms in upper City Park would probably go away. And we would incorporate those outdoor restrooms into this facility so they can be heated and also help serve that indoor rec space. But then that has one less plumbing supply area in the park as well. Um, the things that are made possible; I talked about the better water access. Decreased amount of water, and this goes back to the climate action goals. The-the architect that showed the difference between the current pool and the concept design showed a savings of 180,000 gallons less water to fill the- the new design. Is that significant in itself in the one time we fill it in the spring? Maybe not. I mean, any- any water savings is- is- is good. But it's the long-term treating the water,maintaining that amount of water, all of those things would be less throughout the entire operating season. Interestingly enough,the bather load doesn't change. So bather load is based on the surface area of the water and the depth and types of water. So the pool would be able to serve the same number of people, different mix of activities, um,but with less water. Yeah. Alter: And so that was based that- that amount of water saved,was based on the cur- on the concept Phase 1 concept. Seydell Johnson: Right. Alter: So given that- I'm assuming then that less water would be saved if lap pools were expanded or is that... Seydell Johnson: It's hard to say. Alter: Right. So not necessarily, I mean, so it's- Seydell Johnson: Yeah. I think that lap lanes no longer need to actually go over the 10 or 12 feet of water. So if there's a way to build them in that 4.5-5 feet depth,there's some cubic savings right there. Is things like that. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 18, 2022. Page 16 Alter: So it would still have some savings just the idea of the way in which engineering and design now works. A new pool would allow us to have still water savings and the changes that were- Seydell Johnson: I think so,most likely depending on the final design,but you'd also have the water-saving through different fixtures in the bathhouse and different showers in- in all those other water-saving kind of low-hanging fruit things that we really haven't been able to have there so. Weiner: Is it- is it fair to assume that some of the water savings would be because you have-you have zero entry,you have-you have less really deep water,you have more water that's- that's more shallow for-both for access and for... Seydell Johnson: Some of that. The largest, saving would be changing the size of the deep water and the depth of the deep water depending on the diving boards and what we would do there. So the current City Park Pool has a very large deep diving well,that is the entire nine lanes of the pool. If you could condense that into smaller diving space ,right there you save a lot of the cubic water,but then also zero depth. But you kind of had that already with the current pool with the two wings. So it's really going to be in the diving well,the deep-water space, and then um, determining whether the lap, like I said,the lap lanes could be in shallower water within what they have been if Especially if they're not for competition, if there for recreation uses,they can be more than that 4-5 foot depth. Weiner: The wings tend to be pretty- if you're in there with a- with a child, the wings tend to be still relatively deep. Seydell Johnson: Yeah. Bergus: Just to follow up on the water savings question Juli... Seydell Johnson: Yes. Bergus: When-with the current pool leaking 30,000-35,000 gallons per day,how much would we expect a pool to lose? Seydell Johnson: About an inch to an inch and a half due to splash out and evaporation, depending on the temperatures in the water and the wind and all those sort of things. So when we say three-and-a-half, I believe that is beyond the-the one-inch,um,kind of given for that splash out. Bergus: Okay. So would that 30-35 per day also be savings? Seydell Johnson: You certainly hope so that would be the goal. Bergus: All right. To eliminate that. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 18, 2022. Page 17 Seydell Johnson: Yeah. Bergus: Got it. Seydell Johnson: That would definitely be the goal. Bergus: Thank you. Seydell Johnson: One of the things I haven't talked a whole lot about,but the bathhouse right now,the filter room is a confined space entry for our staff. So we have to have respirators,we have to have lots of safety things that aren't probably necessary in a pool space if it was designed to current standards. So if you had walk in areas,right now,you have to go down to see their curly Q stairs or ladder and I can't remember which one is there. But solving that problem for our staff would make a huge world of difference to our overall safety and availability or the-the way staff operates at the pool. Solar plant panels,LED lighting, the water-saving fixtures we talked about that. Creating a facility that meets a variety of swimming preferences. Had a lot of conversations about this I'm sure you have lately too. Um,we've heard over and over the current lap swims are the most- lap lanes are the most versatile for all kinds of swimming. My caution to that is true if you're a competent and comfortable swimmer. If you're not, if you're a family that's coming to learn to swim,you have younger kids or maybe you're a parent who doesn't have a history of knowing how to swim,you still want to bring your kids to the pool. I think we have an obligation to offer spaces that are a little more self-contained, that have access,that have areas for adults,the (can't hear) and then aren't the wide open expanse that we have right now. So that's part of the concept of having the lap lanes, having a bulkhead and having a separate,um,recreational space. It could be a bulkhead, it could be- it could be a lot of different things. But I think we have to think differently about how users use the pool. Um,be-beyond probably what you did as kids,probably what I did as a kid,probably what accomplished swimmers and swim team people and, um,yeah, I know a lot of people,um, love that pool and love to be out in the middle. But we had a lot of people in these- in this Phase 1 that said, I just don't feel comfortable there. It's too rowdy, it's too much. I don't feel comfortable with my kids. I want a smaller, easier assessible space. And when I go back to how do we teach kids to swim and how do we get people to be swimmers for a lifelong skill, it's that you have to adapt some of our aquatics so that it's inviting to them and so that their parents feel safe and that families want to come use it again. City Park Pool is built originally because a child drowned in City Park,we've heard the history there. Today, it's more and more young adults,teenagers and adults,black skin,brown skin,but they're not learning to swim and they're drowning when they get to be older. That's part of what we want to solve. We want to bring all those kids back into the water. They're coming with youth groups instead of with individual parent groups. What can we do to make it a safer space and more inviting for those. Does that look different?Probably, and we'll hit that in the design process. I think there's more than one way to do this to really serve our community as we go forward. And then the updated, inclusive single-use changing spaces. A lot of This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 18, 2022. Page 18 people are like,whoa,wait a minute. You're not going to make me change in a big open- air space with everyone else?.No The idea is somehow devising this into individual changing spaces with a toilet, the shower and the sink,probably having a bank of lockers in-between,but making it so that nobody has to choose male, female it's all inclusive to everyone. Once again, something that is not been done a lot anywhere else so if we do it here,we'll be one of the fust to offer that as a full- a full new feature for our pool. Okay. A few other things that have been noted about City Park. We talked about the engineering study that everyone says,why haven't you done it?Because we did. The timing of the Parks and Rec Commission recommendation people said,why did they do it before there was public input?Because they did it based on Phase 1, and you're getting the input that would come in after that. So the input in Phase 2 is being recorded. I think it's going to be very important as we move forward,but it was beyond the scope of what Parks Commission was really doing. And then once again,the phase,the feedback mechanisms through Phase 1-we've been through this a couple times,but just the- the point that Phase 1 was very much targeted. Phase 2 has been self-selected. It doesn't mean one is-they're both important,but I just want to point that out as a difference. So when people say they haven't felt like they've been heard from,um, some of the Phase 2 feedback,yes, I think- I think we are hearing them. But that's exactly what we also heard from Phase 1, is that people that were really grateful that they hadn't- felt they'd been heard ever before,we reached out to and got their input on. I don't want to lose that as we move through this entire process. When we-when we take the extra steps to go out and really solicit feedback from groups that haven't been using our facilities, I want to make sure that we take that into account and give it some weight, as well as our- our tried and true users that have very specific opinions as well, if that makes sense. Okay, so here's the things to be decided in the future. Appropriate number of lap lanes,the lap lane people. Lap lanes is- should it be the separated area with additional hours or should it be part of the pool and open for general swim? The-the concept design showed it so it could be available from basically sunrise to sunset specifically for lap swim. That wasn't particularly received well, so I think we need to drill into that a little bit more to see if that's still might be helpful. Mix of the water depths, location and shape to be decided. Play features. We still have people that really would like to see slides uh,we have it kind of curbed down to fountains,possibly a current channel,not a lazy river but current in one corner, smaller slides,um,things in that zero depth area,kind of like splash pad features,but in the zero depth area. But still to be determined. The future steps or City Park Pool. So once again, the public input and design process. This is a change of the date. We had been advertising it all along as `24. My boss said today,make sure you say '23 —Geoff— `23 and '24, because likely we would be choosing the consultants at the end of`23 and trying to kick it off. Knowing just even now how much input people want to have,we want to make sure we have ample time throughout all of 2024. So that is a change from what's printed in the,um, executive summary and everything else you've seen. But we will have a whole new public input, it could be this statistically valid survey again, focus groups,public design charettes,kind of our typical park or pool design process with lots of input from the public,the Commission, and ultimately Council before final design is chosen. Any other City Park questions? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 18, 2022. Page 19 Harmsen: No questions,but just want to express gratitude for the way the Phase 1 methodology in reaching out to groups. I think that's -that's a laudable goal and accomplishment, so. Seydell Johnson: Okay. So with the process,we also looked at our indoor facilities. We did look at both the rec centers and the indoor pools,but you'll find that the process ended up focusing much more on the indoor pools than the overall rec centers. So Mercer Scanlon, as you know,we've done -recently done a lot of larger repairs, a new HVAC,BAS, the control system. Sorry, I've forgotten what that stands for right now. Dehumidification system,new on deck locker rooms there. So we have a lot of newer things there. Most of the things found by the walk-through were smaller things and a lot of those have been repaired since we actually got this initial report about a year ago. So some of the cracked tiles and those kind of things have already been addressed. Other larger things like the roof we have -we're planning for in the budget. So kind of the theme on Mercer is that there's not a lot of big picture current renovation needs of that pool,mainly because you spent a lot of money there in recent years. One of the things it did recommend is a lot of changes to the wading pool and how many of you knew there was an outdoor wading pool at Mercer?Not very many people. It wasn't used. We've actually shut that down this summer and not even opened it. It has some leak problems and access issues, so it - it wasn't open this summer. We didn't get any comments about it not being open,but that's a change since then. But what it did was look at a concept drawing that would look at adding this warm water pool with a ramp access for both aqua fitness, arthritis,exercise classes, and swim instruction. It's shown as three lanes. Once again,that's a design detail. We don't know, and that's one of the fust comments we got is it's probably not big enough. Okay you know that-that could still be looked at. It could it be four or five lanes if needed to be. The other big thing here was the ramp in a hot tub. We have a hot tub there now,but it's up on a platform and not fully accessible. And the people that want to use it most have -have walkers or have accessibility needs and having this one with a ramp,wow. That would be another one of the fust of its kind in the area, I think,that is a publicly owned pool if we could pull that off. So it looks at adding those features here so that you can maintain the lap swimming in the main pool,the swim team use in the pool. You would move a lot of the swimming lessons over here because it would be a dedicated warm water pool and space, as well as having aqua fitness. We had concerns about people wondering about deep-water aqua fitness, a design detail still to be determined. Would that warm water pool have a deep area?Would that stay at Robert A. Lee?Would we -you know have the full answers to all of that, but the idea here is that by consolidating it and moving these over,we would able to staff it with one set of staff both maintenance facility wise, supervisory, lifeguard staff. And then if you eventually we decommission Robert A. Lee peel-pool the report does lead towards combining and offering it in one spot. So people say,why would you say de-centralized other programs but centralize aquatics?And it really goes back to those points of looking for ways to be more efficient in how we're operating. Looking at what our true availability of lifeguard staff,maintenance staff, and the expense of just maintaining two large aquatic centers within relatively short distance of each other. In an ideal world,we'd probably have six indoor pools. That would be awesome,but I-you know I don't think that's sustainable. And this report says that maybe 10 years from now we want to consider is a sustainable This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 18, 2022. Page 20 for us to have two indoor pools in two different locations. Especially with the fact that the University facility downtown is a short distance away. We also have the Coralville indoor pool, and North Liberty indoor pool. So when you look at service of indoor pools in this region,we're set up really,really well. And the recommendations would say that only if we would go ahead with some kind of renovation and addition here,would you look at the other step of doing something different at Robert A. Lee. I'll get more to Robert A. Lee in a little bit. But this one does show that as a possible renovation. It shows the locker rooms as a big blob here,but also being changed into single-user changing spaces, adding -making the restrooms in the lobby area into single-user with one of them being available from the outside. So it'd be available most hours, even when the building was closed, and redoing some of the other staff and youth spaces in that main lobby. And then the Scanlon Gym concept would be to add a third gym and a walking track.We have concepts that show it both with an elevated walking track or an on-grade. Lot of concerns about the on-grade and basketballs and volleyballs hitting people so probably looking at it elevated if there's a way to afford that. Additional multipurpose and fitness spaces here, things like the meditation room that was asked for, or additional fitness areas for adult classes. Questions on Mercer Scanlon. Talk a lot so losing my voice. Sorry. Yeah. Alter: I'm not sure if- I'll put the question out there and it might be that it's better after you talk about,um,RAL. The way that I'm understanding both from the report and some of the discussion of the Commission, and then what you've just said, is that I'm getting the sense that there's this if then - if we get warm water at Mercer then the potential of RAL kind of dwindles. Am I understanding that correctly. [OVERLAPPING]. Seydell Johnson: I will say the answer to that is that there's a realization that we need to warm water pool space somewhere. Alter: Is there the possibility that yes and there could be more than one? Seydell Johnson. Yeah. Yes,yes and yes. But I think you need to be -we need to be realistic about the staffing and the expenses of doing that. And that's why this would move towards a more consolidated features or facility for aquatics. Robert A. Lee. So I want to take a second and clarify because we -we've realized that there's been some confusion in the public about the difference in our changing of hours of operation and this idea of a potential closure. I think- I think it's been largely cleared up now,but just to be really clear about this,that there was a change in our lap swim hours at Robert A. Lee back in 2021 due to low use and because as we reopened a lot of things after COVID,we really did have concerns about having enough lifeguard hours to go around. And so we looked at both Mercer attendance and Robert A. Lee and said, are there low use hours and definitely at Robert A. Lee,there was the full year of data that showed just really low use, especially in the 1-4:00 in the afternoon and again, 9-11:00 in the mornings. That was an operating decision made by staff. And those change as often as by the semester based on uses that we're watching and seeing. We haven't seen the use grow to a point where we would recommend bringing it back yet,but that's different than looking at the overall use and conditions and things for decommissioning. This was an operating decision made This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 18, 2022. Page 21 before the master plan actually even started. And that-those kind of changes, as I said, are staff lead changes based on the best data we had. There's been a lot of discussion about how we're getting the data. We've met twice with a smaller group interested in that from Robert A. Lee. We've agreed to take the data from this month,meet again, come up with that agreed upon count and form that we're going to report every month to the Parks Commission. So in a few years when you're ready to revisit this,we'll have even better data to help make these -these choices and to make the choices along the way as far as operating. Um, and the open swim hours are added or reduced based on actual use and based on comments. So for instance, five or six years ago was actually where,when we raise the temperature at Robert A. Lee and believe it or not, as much as you heard how popular it is now, it was very controversial when we fust did it too. So anytime we're changing things with the pool,we've got some people really happy and some people not so much. We're doing our best to choose.so we get a mix of programming and we may get a mix of use, and we use our lifeguarding staff as efficiently as we possibly can. So having two lifeguards that are there for a pool that has one or two lap swimmers versus two lifeguards that could participate in teaching swimming lessons to groups,we'd rather have them in that group capacity than in the lower use times when there's lifeguard shortage like we're -we're bound to be experiencing here. Then finally,the decommissioning is a larger concept. It's not just about particular use numbers, it's about condition of the pool and what it would take to renovate in the future. It's about overall use and the conditions of the pool for those uses. So a newly designed pool would probably offer better access and better specifically be built for those uses. Whereas we make Robert A. Lee work, it's not ideal for a lot of things. It works now, it could work into the future if you wish for it to do but I think those are overall things that we look at- we're looking at the future of what the facility could be. Here's the things about Robert A. Lee that we've talked about before. We've got some circulation issues in the wading pool, some paint peeling and that kind of thing. The locker rooms are substandard. A lot of rusted things in the structural connections. The pool filter and the surge tank are both very concerning. The one thing this report said that was in good condition was the pool pump and that went out mid-summer and had to be replaced. So take that as a grain of salt with all of these recommendations of what's -what's good and what's not so good on the pools. And so the recommendation from the report was that 10 years from now, or after you do City Park,really look at the age of this pool,the condition,the cost of renovating both into current condition or something different that would meet different aquatic means that we have, or alternate uses. And that's everything from indoor skate park to pickleball to climbing wall,bocci courts, gym space,just about anything that could be a recreation benefit to the community. All right, so Robert A. Lee was fairly quick. I know we've also gotten a lot of feedback on that. Any questions I can answer about that. I've got about three slides left. Okay. So the Phase 1 findings,just to remind you,um, City Park Pools original study,keep that,but look at renovating it. Grow the programs that are focused on specific cultural experiences, add programs for teens and the four adult age groups. Look at supply and demand and adult fitness. Robert A. Lee indoor pool is in need of some extensive and expensive repairs. Some of those are scheduled, some of those are still pretty unknown. Uh,warm water pool would provide different access for lessons. Additional facility space is needed for multipurpose and that This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 18, 2022. Page 22 could be centralized or decentralized in the future. And then for the outdoor athletic facilities, look at updates and renovations to current facilities fust before expanding into the new facilities. That's different than the Phase 2 comments. These are the ones that have mostly been quoted to you. The 60 percent of people that didn't agree with moving things to Mercer, 60 percent of people who responded to Phase 2 said that,not 60 percent of people in the plan, or 60 percent of people said, I forget the exact comment,but wanted to keep city park the same. Of the people that responded to Phase 2 not of the overall plan. So as you have data presented to you,please ask to clarify that. Is-is it the overall data of the plan or is it the phase 2 comments that came in with the-through different feedback channels at that point. So in summary, once again,we saw this slide before,but here's what we're asking you if you decide tonight to accept the plan,here's what it means. It means that Mercer ballfields and pickleball would go forward. The rec program adjustments would happen as we've kind of described and then been those are rather smaller, ongoing. In the future,we'd look at decentralized recreation programming spaces,those small indoor spaces at other park locations. City Park Pool would look at replacement in 2025,but with a design developed in a full input process in 2024,the concept design was just that. A concept design you're not approving a final design for City Park. Same with Mercer Scanlon and Robert A. Lee. These are concepts to look at once the City Park Pool project is done or if a tornado takes one of them out in the meantime,then we would look at how that all plays into the overall recreation needs, and then monitoring the west-side area. So I have almost no voice,but I'm happy to answer your questions. Thank you for giving me this much time to walk through everything in this huge plan. Weiner: So, thank you Juli. To me was probably the most useful was,but not the most useful, one of the most useful aspects was what Councilor Harmsen referred to,which was the detailed explanation of equity and accessibility and all the different aspects that go into that and went into that as you were thinking as well as climate,particularly accessibility and equity. Alter: I have a really fundamental question. So I know you went through it on a couple of slides, but the recommendation is not in this plan, is not to close RAL,but is to consider its status and the needs of the community after Mercer-I'm sorry, after City Park Pool has been done so somewhere and probably we're looking at about 2026. Seydell Johnson: Correct. Alter: To at that point in time, see what's going on with the pool and gather more community input on what should we do with it. Seydell Johnson: Yes. Alter: Is that correct? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 18, 2022. Page 23 Seydell Johnson: And in addition,have the agreed upon attendance records between now and then, I'll show you lap swimmer or general pool use, lap swim, aqua fitness use, swim lessons, swim team use. So you get a sense of those at both of the indoor pools. Alter: And then the second, again,probably obvious point, is that the-the conceptual pool offerings that we have of that, something for us to actually, in many ways,the input that we've received helps put us ahead in the design process because these are not the designs, correct? I mean, if I'm gonna be that blunt,these are not the designs. These were people, these were-sorry,not people. These were representations based on feedback. And I'm kinda thinking of it almost like a sketch artist,right?Because somebody's just saying, I want this.No, the nose is too short,right? So you put in all the different things based on these data points to say here's-here's what this sounds like. Is this what you want?And now we're hearing no. But all of the input that we've been getting can be used to go into a design if we get this passed. Seydell Johnson: Brilliantly, said,yes, exactly. Alter: Essentially is that how this works? Seydell Johnson: It is the concept that was based on the Phase 1 input only,but given to people to give them something to react to. So they understand what's possible, or what's not possible of the space. Alter: Thank you. That's all. Bergus: I have just a couple of other reflection questions to bring this all together,Juli, and I may ask you the same questions again during our formal meeting. But overall,what I-what I heard and this is not that we are prioritizing,uh, like number 1,we want to save money. That's not what we're doing. Is that correct?And number one,we're not saying what's most convenient for the current staffing levels that we have and the way that we run operations, is that fair? Seydell Johnson: I would say it's not convenient. It's realistic and I would be the fust one to say as a parks and rec director, I never want to tell you,we can't staff something that we want to have open. I'm just-we're at a point where I have to be a little realistic of what's possible and what's not possible. And we need to just at least have that in the back of our head as a consideration in the future. It's not because staff is not willing to do whatever we can. It just may not be there in the way we thought it would be in the future if that helps clarify that. Bergus: Yeah. And I think it kind of relatedly on our last meeting, I don't remember what the question was,but your answer was anything is possible if you fund it . Even something like a shortage of staff. If we jacked up paid-paid people three times as much,maybe we'd find them. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 18, 2022. Page 24 Seydell Johnson: So maybe,maybe not in the future as we look at it. And the reason I say that is because as I mentioned you don't have that critical mass of good swimmers that we used to have. So right now,we offer free training for life-guarding already. We offer a really nice starting wage. We offer really cute t-shirts. We offer,you know, as many fun and interesting things as we can to recruit from the current pool of lifeguards. We do a lot of different things with scheduling. We offer anywhere from 8 hours to 25 hours. And you tell us what works with your class schedule. That's something that was unheard of in the past to be that flexible and that open. I don't even know if we paid twice as much how long the lifeguard pool would last or how big it would be because the reality is you need people that can swim well enough to jump to go down and rescue someone at the bottom of a 14 foot pool, drag the person up, do CPR. You've got to have that strong basic swimming skill and that want to do that type of a job. And asking that more and more and more is becoming more difficult of the workforce. So I'm not trying to be a downer about all that,but I am being realistic in that we're probably doing more than some of the more innovative things in the region and maybe even in the country,to try to keep our lifeguard staff and to keep them adequate. If we don't teach kids to swim when they're 5,6,7,8 years old,we're not going to have lifeguards in the future. That's what-that's what it comes down to in five or ten years. Bergus: And are what we-what we were talking about here, I think you've elevated very well the goal that I know the Department has,but also that we saw in the public input,which is we want every kid in our community to know how to swim. Seydell Johnson: If I can put a plug in,we have lots of scholarship dollars. We even offer help to get them into the, lessons are at a premium right now, finding space. And we're doing whatever we can to make sure that underserved kids can get in there too so yeah. Bergus: Thanks Juli. Taylor: Keep seeing the date of 2026 for consideration of the Mercer and Robert A. Lee. That's kind of a few years down the line yet,we still would have 2023, '24 and `25. Would your department still be willing to cover maintenance and repair costs for those pools? Seydell Johnson: Yeah. Those things are in the budget now. As I've described it to people who've had conversations with,yes,barring some catastrophic damage. If we came to you tomorrow and said a tornado just hit Robert A. Lee. Do you want us to rebuild the whole thing? I think you gotta have a pretty in-depth conversation about it at that point. But otherwise we would wait it out until after City Park is done and look at the aquatics needs again with better data at that point. There's-there's not a rush and I-and I don't-I'm sorry we set off the alarms for people thinking this was a tomorrow decision. This is a 10-year plan that we're looking at systematically of what can be done in each stage. Fruin: If I could just jump in. The City has been funding a number of improvements at both indoor pools for- for the last several years. Hopefully you've seen some of those. We've had lighting improvements,we've had restroom improvements,we had the the pump This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 18, 2022. Page 25 replacement project that Juli alluded to. We've done a massive amount of HVAC and dehumidification work at Mercer. So this is not a case where we are just sitting back on our heels waiting for the moment to come. We are doing a lot of work and making a lot of investment to keep these pools operational. This is more just a-a moment in time where we step back from a big picture viewpoint and say,this approach probably isn't going to continue to serve the community forever. It's probably start time we thinking about more permanent solutions. Those decisions are a little down the road,but this-this starts us down that path of having those difficult decisions about financing and types of uses we want in those facilities. Alter: Any other questions, Council. Harmsen:No further questions. Alter: Thank you so much. This has been extraordinarily illuminative and- Seydell Johnson: Thanks for your time. Alter: Get some tea and honey. Alter: Okay . Ah, moving on we have clarification of agenda items. Anyone? Okay. Information packet discussion, October 6th and October 13th. Let's begin with October 6th. Are there any IP items that anyone wants to discuss? Fruin: I will just note that we have the,uh,memo from the clerk on the meeting schedule from- for 2023.Not critical that you make decisions now,but,um,the more you can think about that and make those decisions sooner rather than later,the better. Bergus: I did have a question about IP3,the um, listening posts. Are we going to do some more colleagues? [OVERLAPPING] I'll do another one if anyone else wants to. Taylor: I was going to recommend what um, one of the items on your list was the Pheasant Ridge uh,Neighborhood Center. We haven't been over [OVERLAPPING] there for quite awhile. One I did several years ago,was very well attended and some of the other ones in fact,uh, aren't appropriate now weather wise uh,uh, like the farmer's market, and- and uh, I think there was something that was closed now too, I can't remember what it is, but I would recommend Pheasant Ridge to be the next one and soon- sooner than later. Alter: Well, and it does discuss um, oh I'm sorry, suggest quarterly posts um,February,May, August,November. It's been since May that we've had a listening post. Do we want to try and squeeze one in? I also recognize we're coming in on holiday season and whatnot,but certainly we might be able to think about,um,the possibility of doing one of those or if we want to wait until February because I know we're also going to be hit with budget stuff in January. So thoughts? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 18, 2022. Page 26 Weiner: I- I- I would say that it's worthwhile trying to squeeze one in, in particular because we're coming up on the budget season so that we can also hear from people on what their wants are there. Taylor: I would agree. Harmsen: Agree. Fruehling: Uh,typically,we would have a couple of councilors who would want to do it and then I would just work with them on a date that works for both of them and work with the facility. Alter: Sure. Harmsen: I would be willing to throw my hat in that ring,but I don't want to block any other councilors out who maybe haven't had an opportunity as recently as I have,but which was not all that recent. It was last,February? Bergus: January. Harmsen: January? So- so I'd definitely be interested unless it blocks somebody else. Bergus: Same. Taylor: I would be interested, especially if we did it at uh Pheasant Ridge because that's my neighborhood and my district. Bergus: Sure. Thomas: Yeah. I'd be willing.. In November, is that what you're-. Taylor:November. Alter: So I hear Councilor Taylor and Councilor Thomas for November and to work with Kellie on that. Awesome. Do we want to try and plan one out again?A few more?I mean,we can be efficient,right? Taylor: I- I think that's a good idea because otherwise,then it gets pushed under the rug and [OVERLAPPING] with budget coming up and I think. Alter: I agree. I agree. So why don't we say let's go with the suggestion from Kellie. She knows how this works pretty well. Uh, February. Any takers? Shawn, do you want to? Harmsen: Oh, sure,yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That'll work. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 18, 2022. Page 27 Alter: I'm going into mom mode. Taylor: That'll be your month Shawn. Yeah. Harmsen: Sure. Begus: Can I do it again? Alter: Sure. Yeah. Bergus: We were a good tag team last time. Harmsen: Yeah that worked out well . Alter: And then,um, May? I'd be happy to do one. I'd love to volunteer the Mayor,maybe put him in as tentative. We- we've got three now to work with. Do we want to do one more or do we want to just call that good for now? Harmsen: I think that's good and then the Mayor can get back in on some of this. Alter: Exactly. Yeah. And I did not- I was speaking on the one hand truthfully, on the other hand, facetiously. So I mean obviously, if that doesn't work for him then I would love to partner with someone. Begus: And we'll have a new colleague at some point... Alter: This is true-this is true Bergus: ...next year. Alter: Make sure that we can include. Okay,Um,University of Iowa student government, I see that we have someone here. Zeimet: Hi council. I hope all of you are doing well. Uh, let me start off with early voting in Johnson County, it starts tomorrow. And just a reminder, the Iowa Memorial Union is a satellite location from 9:00 AM. to 3:00 PM from Wednesday to Friday this week. And then also uh, for our search for deputy,we're in our final stages and we'll hopefully have someone within the next couple weeks. And then um, bike thefts and- at the University of Iowa,have been on the rise with just 55,um, already this year. So make sure to secure your bikes. And also there's other biking resources at the Bicyclists of Iowa City website. And uh, lastly, starting Sunday at the University of Iowa,uh,homecoming week is happening with events scattered throughout the week and the parade happening Friday. And uh,we wish everyone a fun and safe homecoming. Thank you. Alter: Thank you. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 18, 2022. Page 28 Taylor: Thank you. Alter: Are there any council updates on boards, commissions, and committees? Okay. Um,why don't we turn- actually no, I think that's it. Ah,thank you all. We're going to adjourn and we will meet back for our formal meeting at six o'clock. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 18, 2022.