Call Meeting to Order/Roll Call/Pledge:

Park Board Chair Nicole Altenburg called the regular session of the Park Board to order at 7:43 pm. Present were Mayor Doug Embody; Park Board members Tina Gauthier, Sonja Ray, and LeAnne Kavanagh; City Superintendent Jim Suta, Recreation Director Jennifer Biegler, and Secretary Cheri Bundy. Absent was Park Board member Rod Cline. All stood and recited the Pledge of Allegiance.

Visitors:

Kelly Solberg was also present. Rhonda Griese and Wendy Nielsen were there representing the Swim Team. They requested the use of the pool for their swim meet on the weekend of June 19th and 20th with the fee for rental waved in trade for the swim team supplying the paper products. Each swim team member also has to buy passes, so it’s a wash. They would also like to have a couple of extra dumpsters with at least one extra pick up. Wendy discussed the placement of the bleachers with Jennifer. They requested that the City not sell concessions during the meet as it is their main fund raiser for the year. Jennifer said that we will be selling concessions, but the items we sell are not in competition with what they sell.

After Wendy and Rhonda left, LeAnne reminded the board that we were going to have a Pool Rental Agreement here to review. At the last meeting, the question was raised about charging the swim team for the use of the pool, like we charge organizations for the use of the civic center. Jennifer said that she hadn’t read any of the minutes and was unaware of that discussion so went ahead with what has been done in the past. Doug asked if Jennifer truly thought it was a wash with the swim team buying passes and all the paper products for the meet and she said yes. Doug asked if Jennifer would still bring in a contract for review.

Approval of Minutes:

Doug made the motion to approve the April 12, 2010 minutes ~ LeAnne seconded. Motion carried with all in favor and none opposed.

Superintendent’s Report:

Jim reported that they are still working on the pool to get it ready to open. The pool has been drained and cleaned, and Jennifer has been busy acidizing and painting. He handed out a report showing Park Levy fund expenditures. He also verified that interest is being earned on the loan from the City to the Park Fund.

Diana gave LeAnne a more detailed breakdown of where the money has been spent. LeAnne also spoke with Diana about when the loan money should be spent. Diana advised that we should not go too far over our target date, which was to have the earmarked projects completed by the end of the fiscal year, which is June 30, 2010. As of now, we only have it half spent.

LeAnne asked Jim how close we were to having the projects completed. He said that we were going to have to determine $40,000 or so more in projects. There are so many projects going on that it may be more effective to hire a project out to get it all done in time.

Jennifer suggested a use for the extra money would be to put a new roof on the pool. The patch job done by Rowel Spray Systems did not work. Jim will get a ball park figure for a new pool roof for next meeting. LeAnne requested that Jim get a list of the $60,000 spent to get us down to the $40,000 before the next meeting. It was reiterated these are not Park Levy funds, but instead the loan from the City to the Park Fund. Jennifer was given permission to get everything else on the priority list ordered. Jim will have updated line item reports for next meeting.

Jim reported he had the red lean-to structure at the Southwest Park condemned and it has been removed.

Recreation Director’s Report:

LeAnne requested Jennifer look into offering a monthly family pass at the pool and also offering a package, which would include the full price pool pass and half-price off a monthly membership at the Civic Center. Jennifer’s concern was that the pool would lose money by going monthly as opposed to a season pass. She will brainstorm something tonight and get back to everybody by email.

Unfinished Business:

Regarding the Park Board Duties and Responsibilities: Nicole spoke with the City Attorney Bob Smith today. He is positive that it has already been changed when the chain of command came out. He believes that the whole section that we had questions on has been taken out…. but he can’t find the revised copy. Doug clarified things by stating that Cut Bank is now a Class 3 City. We were a Class 2 City when the ordinance was originally put together. Class 3 cities can’t have boards by Montana Codes Annotated. The Park Board can only be an advisory board. He said that at this time we could go through the document and make it how we wanted it, leaving out the money control items and things that don’t put responsibilities on us.

New Business:

The financial statement review, discussion of overlapping projects, discussion of pool concessions and swim team, and combination monthly pass prices were already discussed in the Superintendant’s Report and the Recreation Director’s Report sections.

Kristen Dellinger has not been spoken to yet about being on the Park Board. Sonja said that she would speak to her. Doug’s opinion is that we add whoever wants to join onto the board. Since we are just an advisory board, there is no limit to how many members can join. Kelly Solberg is interested in being on the board also. Nicole questioned if that meant actual members. LeAnne mentioned that too many members are not good and suggested capping the number of members. Doug said that we can change it to whatever we want to. We also need to change the name to the Park Advisory Board.

Doug made the motion to nominate LeAnne Kavanagh as the new Chairperson for the rest of her term, 1 year ~ Sonja seconded. Motion carried with all in favor and none opposed. Tina is Chair for the Urban Forestry Board, so we will wait for the next meeting to vote on a Vice Chairperson. Tina questioned whether or not we need a quorum anymore or if we just go with whom we have show up for meetings. Doug said that we would no longer need a quorum. Nicole said that she would be interested in staying on as a Park Advisory Board member under those conditions, after a year off. Sonja agreed that she also may return after a year.

LeAnne mentioned the idea of having a City of Cut Bank license plate. There is up front money of about $4000.00 the City would have to put up. You have to sell so many in the first 3 years. Proceeds could go be split between the Beautification Committee and the Park Fund. Sonja expressed interest in designing the plate.

Doug thanked Nicole and Sonja for a job well done on the board for their terms.

Other Business:

NONE

Correspondence:

E-mail from Rod stating that due to his job situation he would not always be able to come to the meetings so he would not be interested in either the Chair or Vice Chair positions.

Doug made the motion to adjourn the meeting @ 8:20 pm ~ LeAnne seconded. Motion carried with all in favor and none opposed.