Hello and welcome to the Parks and Recreation Commission meeting for Wednesday, October 1st.

We are here in City Council Chambers.

For meeting participation, the meeting will be broadcast live to Belmont residents on Comcast Cable 27, streamed live via the city's website at www.belmont.gov and streamed live on Zoom.

The public may also attend the meeting in the city council chambers and address the commission from the chambers.

Members of the public may provide comments by joining the meeting via Zoom.

That would be Belmont-gov.zoom.us.

Select join and enter meeting ID nine two four eight three one nine three seven five seven.

Use the hand raise feature to request to speak for a particular agenda item.

You may rename your profile if you wish to remain anonymous.

For dialing comments, call star six seven one six six six six six six nine nine hundred sixty eight thirty-three.

Your phone number will appear on the live broadcast.

If star six seven is not dialed prior to the phone number.

Enter meeting ID nine two four eight three one nine three seven five-seven and press star nine to request to speak for a particular agenda item.

All public comments are subject to a three-minute time limit unless otherwise determined by the commission chair.

If you wish to submit a written public comment, you may send an email to PR com at Belmont.gov before the commission considers the item.

Please indicate the agenda item topic or agenda item number you wish to comment on in your email subject line.

Any public comment regarding agenda items that are received from the publication of the agenda through the meeting date will be made part of the meeting record, but will not be read during the commission meeting.

So item one, roll call.

Commissioner Cunha.

Here, Commissioner Langford.

Here.

Commissioner Michaels.

Commissioner Hill.

Here.

Chair Emkin.

Here.

Youth Commissioner Perez.

Here.

Okay.

Item number two, the Pledge of Allegiance.

I'd like to just require the United States of America.

And to the Republic for which is one nation undergoing indivisible liberty and justice for all.

This portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the commission on any city matter within the purview of the commission, which is not on the agenda.

The period for public comment at this point in the agenda is limited to a maximum of three minutes per speaker.

Do we have any speaker slips or hands raised?

We do not.

Members of the community who came out to participate in the different runs.

And if you and for anyone, well, here I saw I saw a few commissioners down there, and anyone who happens to be listening, it's a wonderful event, so please come out and participate next year, and you get to see just about everybody from all over the place in Belmont.

So it's a great time.

And we had some uh Commissioner Liford was uh running the announcements, I guess, for the MC at the finish line, uh, and you know, other folks around it as well as the parks and rec commission, not parks and parks and recreation, uh police department, public works, everybody involved to make it a spectacular event.

So thank you to everyone who spent any time at all or just came out to participate.

It was it was really fun.

I'll say that I love the race, and for people who haven't done it, there's a 10K, there's a 5K, there's a one-mile kids run, and there's also a one-mile dogs run, which I think is very unique, and um I love seeing everybody come out and run with their dogs.

So, but by far the most fun is the one-mile kid run, and then watching people try to run with their dogs that don't always stay on task.

Yes, dogs stop for various reasons in the middle of the course, and it becomes a challenge.

I wonder what's more challenging, the kids or the dogs.

Dogs for sure.

Okay, any other um announcements?

Okay, continuing on, the consent calendar.

Consent calendar items are considered routine in nature and will be enacted in one motion.

There'll be no separate discussion on these items unless commissioner or staff request specific items be removed for separate action.

So we only have one item, which is the September 3rd draft minutes.

So unless anyone has any comments, I would suggest that we approve the minutes as presented.

Anyone like to make a motion?

I motion to approve the minutes from the September 3rd meeting.

I'll second.

Commissioner Cunha?

Yes.

Commissioner Leiford?

Yes, Commissioner Whitmore?

Yes.

Commissioner Lee?

Yes.

Commissioner Michaels.

Yes.

Commissioner Hill.

Yes.

Chair Emkin.

Yes.

Motion passes seven and no.

Okay, now on to the fun stuff.

So item six six items of business.

So, first up is youth and teen summer program recap.

Good evening, everyone.

My name is Michael Moran.

I'm the recreation supervisor for the youth and teen division.

We're a strong team of 3.5 full-time employees.

And what makes our division a little unique is we're spread out all throughout Belmont all the time.

So we have multiple offices throughout Belmont as a youth and teen division, and we're everywhere.

So summer is our probably one of our busiest times of the year, and we're here to update um what we did.

And I just thought about fun fact, this is my eighth time presenting a summer update.

So I just completed my summer, eighth summer in Belmont.

So here we go.

What's going to be new for the youth and teen division that I haven't presented in many, many, many years is we took over aquatics this year.

And so I mentioned a little bit in March that we were kind of overtaking it, but this summer, the youth and teen division, we ran the pool at Carmont High School.

We call it summer aquatics.

The season went for six weeks, typically 10 a.m.

to 5 p.m.

We offered lap swim and rec swim.

We had uh swim lessons that are three sessions, eight times per session, and then we also have our swimmer aids, which are volunteers that they do two weeks consecutive with us in either a morning or afternoon session.

Um we hired 16 part-time staff, eight were the returning, nine staff are Belmont residents.

Swim lessons ages arranged um this past year from four um to sixteen, and we had five hundred and fifty uh youth swimmers this past season, which is sixty-three were residents.

Um to compare it to last year, we had 531.

So we did have an uptick, which is great, even though it was like a really cold summer.

Um, but we also did change uh the ranges in 2025 in anticipation for the 26 program, which I'll tell you in a little bit.

We also um brought our swimmer aids.

This is a program that's all volunteer driven.

It's like a CIT program, but for aquatics, um, same age range, and we had 13 this past summer, and the previous year was four.

I didn't want to write too many stats, but like 2023, I think was three or five.

So we definitely had a huge increase in swimmer aids, um which was great, and then we had some rack uh wreck and lap swimmers.

Um we didn't count last year, but we will start counting going forward.

We did count this year, which we had 1,433 visits during those time slots.

And I have some new things to talk about as well.

Could we do survey everyone that attends our program?

Not just aquatics, big events, camp soar, we like to hear feedback, we appreciate feedback, and we do take it serious.

And so we did change 100% the swim lesson program.

So our report cards, all levels, our names all have been cleaned out, and I will show you what they are in a moment.

We also heard feedback about adaptive swim lessons and/or private swim lessons.

So we will be offering those in 2026 as well.

And a lot of patrons, our swimmer aides were like staff, and they kept calling them staff and instructors, and the swimmer aides are volunteers at 13 to 17.

They're learning, they're not instructors.

And so we decided, and we already purchased them, they're on my desk.

There's the photo, but we got them rash guards that really clearly shows the public the volunteers, so that way they know it's a learning opportunity.

I didn't include it in this slide, but I would say seven or a staff at the 16 were past swimmer aids in some part of their time.

And then we also have feedback from commissioners and evaluations.

We did do a swim test day in June.

It was a big swim test day.

We had over 40 people attend.

It actually sold out that same day we opened it.

We did it in the morning, but the feedback from a lot of the patrons was they want an afternoon one because they work, or something like that.

So we only did one, but starting 26, we'll have a morning one, and then a mid-summer uh afternoon one as well on a Friday afternoon.

And then the last bullet point on this slide is we're happy to announce we were given some uh funds from our city council, so we're able to offer for the first time aquatic scholarships starting for the 2026 season, and um so people can apply for reduced swim lessons or private swim lessons if they would like.

I have a website here.

Let's see if it works.

I'm not gonna go into depth, but our website's already ready for 2026.

Everything has been designed and set, including pricing, so you can take a moment later offline and look at it.

But here I just want to show everybody, you know, our registration opens, talking about the swim lesson program, how it's been reamped, and then all our lessons.

So in the past, we grouped the children from four to sixteen, and now you can see there's some age categories in every area to really help.

We are now following the American Red Cross National Recognized Swim Lesson Program.

So we're following their lessons and schedules and templates and all that fun.

We also included all prices.

Um we did increase the fees this year.

We sent out a survey to um the past few years of people attended, and the survey went well with the suggested prices, so we took it.

Um so we did change the fees and the dates.

I'm not gonna go in depth in all these slides, but you can check out everything on our website and just a sneak preek of how a sneak peek at how the report cards uh look.

Um, another feedback is people asked what our ratios were, so we try to make them really clear what our ratios are.

Um so here's a good example of a report card for a four-year-old first-time swimmer.

Um, and using this, we could print in-house as well.

Past practice, we printed our report cards through a third-person company, and so now we can print in-house on our regular printer and save some costs too.

Um, so that's aquatics.

And of course, we all love photos.

So, top left is one of our swim instructors uh with a swimmer.

You can see one of our staff members and a pre-swim team.

Our whole lifeguard team, all lifeguards and swim instructors were there on the left, and then you can see another child taking some swim lessons with the cake board.

We picked a sunny day for that, those photos.

Um, then we also had our um camp soar, which is also called Camp Summer Outdoor Adventure Recreation.

As some of you may know, we had to move Camp SOAR from Twin Pines Park to Barrett Community Center.

But we kept the same hours of 8 to 5, Hawks and Eagles, and our CIT program, all the same.

But of course, we all love photos.

So here are some photos from this past summer at Barrett.

You can see in the middle, if you see the hallway.

We had 30 part-time staff for Camp SOAR, 17 of them were returning.

20 part-time staff are Belmont residents, and as you can see, our enrollment numbers 84% were residents.

So last year, I didn't include 2024.

I apologize.

I see that typo now.

But for 2023, as an example, we had 810, and then this year, even being at Barrett, having different styles and layouts and everything.

We had 837 enrollments.

You can see on the top left corner here.

We every other year, San Mateo County, CPRS, which is Parks and Recreation Society, hosts the CampCon.

So we sent all our staff to CampCon, which happens every other year, so it's a special time to send them, and then you can see some fun photos.

We surveyed all the families and they gave us some testimony.

So I'm gonna read all three.

Feel free to read on your own.

Kids are happy at your camp.

They bring some ideas and games to home, which is amazing.

They have absolutely had a new experience that never had before at any other camps.

Kids want to go back, and this is the best feedback from them.

Thank you to the whole team for all your hard work during the summer.

Emoji smiley.

That a lot of the CATs were former SOAR campers and really had the heart and the energy to play with the kids as if they were still campers themselves.

It makes a huge difference when counselor, CIT volunteers really enjoy the SOAR experience and want to pay it forward to the next generation of counselors and CITs.

The children really love the big brother-sister vibe and are far more engaged and well behaved than they would otherwise be if it was all adults.

And the last one that we randomly, maybe not randomly chose.

We love Camp SOAR.

The kids are so happy there.

It's easily one of the highlights of the summer for us.

We went from trying it out for a week to signing the kids all summer long.

Thank you for all you do to create a wonderful ease, cost effective summer camp option.

So, to talk about the CIT program as well.

We had 68 youth applied, 48 were accepted and participated that equal to 2100 hours of volunteer hours in our eight-week program.

There's three options as an AM, PM for half day for the first time CAITs, and then for CIT twos, it's an all day, and they go on the field trips with us.

Seven staff from the came from the CIT program this past summer.

And here you can see some photos.

I think she'll be embarrassed, but on the left with the person at the cards, her camp name is Hula Hoop, and her dad is a parks uh maintenance manager for us.

I won't say his name, but that's your hint.

So it's great to see our own staff bring their children to our programs and volunteer opportunities.

We also hosted the summer inclusion camp funded by the youth and teen division.

We say that for the second year in a row because it's the second year we funded it in our division.

We sold out four, so I sold out four out of the five weeks with 24 total signups.

We could take 25 total.

So one did drop out, so that's why we weren't fully sold out.

Four dedicated staff to the program with five campers per week.

Children served with autism spectrum disorder, comorbid with ADHD, Down syndrome, and so on.

Campers were provided with individualized support from inclusion staff and visits from the cozy corner, which is a room filled with a variety of sensory toys and equipment.

And we will be renaming the program to adaptive camp for 2026 and going on.

We are slowly not using the word inclusion, and uh some feedback from a parent and one of their surveys.

They said we are so thankful for the inclusion program at Camp SOAR.

It is a unique summer opportunity for kids who need little extra support to be integrated with other kids in a loving and safe environment.

We also gave out some scholarships to all our youth and teen camps and programs, and they were generously funded by the Belmont Water Dog Run, the Belmont Community Foundation, Rotary Club of Belmont and Bedford Shores, and community donations throughout our website.

The total donations that we received was 2,500.

We awarded 21 5.5, 2,000 to Camp Sorrow scholarships, and 155 to contractor camps, and that was a Heartbeat Dance Academy camp.

We had reserved 8,000 for year-round scholarships for 2026, thanks to the city councilor supporting this fund, and don't uh I don't want to use the word donating Bridget.

I'm sorry, what's the better word?

City Council giving funds for the scholarship.

They've allocated those funds.

Oh, okay.

That was a simple word.

I should have thought of that.

Okay.

They allocated uh funds for us.

This is our first time we're experiencing this in our budget cycle.

So we're excited to have that those funds reserved, and that were launched December 1st of this year for the 2026 programs.

So we've allocated 2,500 for winter spring, 3,000 for summer, and 2500 for fall.

Um 11 weeks worth of discounted summer camps were awarded, and just here's some fun kiddos and join the program.

We also started using some technology for aquatics and camp, and um I wanted to highlight that our ActiveNet software has a new module, it's on iPads or tablet devices, Android, whatever.

And so now it's allowing us to do check-in, checkout, not using paper, um, and actually having a database to pool stuff.

Um so here's just two screenshot examples.

This is all campsor, um, but we did it for swim lessons as well.

We can check in the kiddos, you can kind of it's hard to see on the screens.

I can tell because I can see what you see.

Um, there's little icons that either tell us it's their birthday, which we never knew before, or any medical alerts, or notes that the parent or guardian gave us, like maybe they want to be with the buddy and who that note is.

So it's easy to us for us to tap that icon and we can see exactly what that note says, which is in previous time we had to like go through a desktop and find the customer and find the registration from months and months ago, and find that note.

So it was really um difficult at the time.

And kind of on the right image, it's just showing you how a check-in checkout works.

Um, so you can see there's an Eagle Week 5 check-in time was 8:17 a.m.

and checkout was 408 p.m.

So we took all this data, and we're gonna talk a lot more about it in March when we kind of talk about camp source, but it will be in the upcoming guide.

Is using all this data we learn when people come and leave camp.

So we are changing the campsore hours next year, and we're actually extending it by 30 minutes.

So the camp previously was 8 to 5, it will be 8 to 5.30 going forward, and we will be removing extended care.

Extended care was 5 to 6.

So you might think that maybe a 30-minute minute window leaving, but data showed the trend showed.

Even pre-COVID, we kind of saw that aftercare 5.30 wasn't too much.

Yes, there was a few people, but we think with the data and surveying the families this year and telling them what we're doing.

What we mentioned about the camp extended hours, no one seemed upset about it.

There was not one negative comment about it.

So this would give um families more time at camp or to leave early, but now it's one sign-up transaction, and that's what our key takeaway is.

Where when I started in Belmont, you had a sign up for before care, then camp, then after care.

And then in 2019, we got we did the same thing.

We we did remove before care, and that was eight to nine, and we just absorbed it into the camp.

So we're doing a very similar thing, but we're taking 30 minutes off the end.

Um, and we'll talk a lot more about that in March or tonight.

Okay, we also do contract summer camps.

We're not done yet.

I did put a lot of things in red, and that's because I want to remind we had to move Camp Sword to Barrett.

What typically happens at Barrett in the summer when Camp SOR is at Twin Pines Park is a lot of contractors utilize Barrett Community Center as hosting, and we had to pull those back.

We didn't have enough room in our system to bring 20 contractors in.

So we brought 14 contractors in this past uh summer.

Last year was 20, 2022, we had 15, it looks like.

We brought 140 camp sessions over eight weeks, which is about a hundred less of what we did in the past.

If you think one contractor, eight weeks, and you add all the contractors, that's where those kind of camp members come from.

But we still had a pretty great number of enrollments, in my opinion, and we had a little over 2300 enrollments and uh kind of like 2019 numbers.

If you look at that, we passed 2019.

Here are two camps that we hosted.

Uh PA, which is our second summer with us, and then San Carlos Children's Theater, which is on the right doing the theater bow play.

We also hosted Lemonade Day in July, and I know we have some people here that may attended, um, but it was our first time hosting Lemonade Day, and that was on July 12th.

We had 15 total participants and nine lemonade stands.

Um, the top seller earned around 136 dollars, and who doesn't love fun photos?

So there you go.

When we partnered with our organization that's called Lemonade Day, they said for a city our size, the goal is 15 to 20 um stands, but we actually had a lot more participants buddy up, like friends of friends doing it.

So we felt like we accomplished a pretty good number for our first time.

Um, one of the only other cities that um Partners Eliminate Day is like in um Livermore and Pleasanton area, so no one in this area is partnering with them, but we have decided we're not gonna partner with them for 2026, and we're gonna make it the Belmont way going forward, and maybe not just Lemonade Day.

So stay tuned for March for that update.

We also offered community hikes.

Um, it was suggested by one of our commissioners um to do a scavenger hunt on a hike, and we did.

So we went to Water Dog Lake like previous years, but we also went to Hidden Canyon and Crystal Springs cross country course.

We had 24 community members signed up and increased from 18 last year, and then they had a uh chance to participate in the nature scavenger hunt.

I did the sky ranger, I thought it was fun.

You had to find things like, you know, uh animal sightings, footprint, uh lease of three, let them be, that kind of stuff.

Um, see a butterfly.

I got my bingo, so I was happy.

Um, but that's our community hikes.

We also had um our hideout opening day, and I just wanted to highlight like how many great youth we have now.

So when we opened the second room last year, we were able to almost double our past attendance.

We were always around the 50 to 60 number for one room.

Picture all those middle schoolers in one room about the size of this dais.

Um, so when we expanded to a second room last year, we did increase our attendance to 97, and then we went for a hundred signups for this year, and after a few weeks of opening the hideout, we're like, oh, we can make more space.

We have enough, so we've opened 25 more spaces, which is why I'm highlighting kind of after summer uh slides so people know that we do have more space available, and that oh, two more, I apologize.

We did a lot movies in the park.

We had two already, and we had Inside Out at Twin Pines with 50 participants.

Um it was a pretty cool day that day and windy, and then Alexander with 125 participants.

In the past, we reported Alexander as very low numbers around the 20 to 40.

Um, after those two years, we learned Nesbit had an event that night, so we worked with the school district and we made sure that we didn't conflict and we changed our date, and we had, as you can see, 125 uh people attend.

That's the photo from Alexander, and it was great.

So people even came from Sacramento, we know we're talking to them.

So it was great to see.

It was a great movie, and of course, we want to thank our sponsors uh for providing uh 4-8 for Pro Ryan concession Stands and Godfather's Burgers Lounge, Capo, and Xfinity.

Okay, last one, I promise.

For our fall 2025 events and programs.

Well, this upcoming Friday, we have at Barrett Park, Shrek movies in the park.

The last two movies at Barrett, when we left at the end of the night, which is typically around 9:30, 10 p.m.

It's been about 85 degrees, and we cleaned up.

It's gonna be a chilly one this Friday, so we'll see what the attendance looks like, but be interesting.

We are also uh expanding the high school fair to our college high school fair.

If you look at our social media today, for example, um we posted all the schools going and all the colleges are going as well.

This is something that uh Patrick Smith came up with to add colleges so we can capture those high schoolers as well, because what we've been seeing the last few years, a lot of siblings come, and the middle schooler maybe comes and the sibling in high school, they had nothing to do.

So we're hoping this helps them learn about more colleges.

We also have the Diwali celebration upcoming on the 19th.

Our uh rain named Trunk Retreat, which is renamed to Boo Bash Trunk Retreat.

Um, is coming up on the 29th.

Uh the parks and rec theme for our truck is inside out, and then we have our patented community event, Santa Firehouse and Toy Drive at the firehouse on December 11th.

And that is it.

I'm happy to answer any questions or comments.

Excellent.

Well, thank you for the the recap.

Um, I guess we will start down this end with we can do questions and comments together.

That's it.

No, that was I'm surprised you didn't like take a break in between that.

Um, first of all, congrats on eight years.

That's awesome.

Thank you for all that you do.

You're awesome.

I've seen you out in the real world.

Um, yeah, you're the numbers are growing like across the board, it seems like, and everything that you guys are doing.

Um, and I love the use of tech for the check-in.

I think that's awesome.

So yeah, keep it up.

Thank you.

Well, I really love the scholarship program.

I'm really glad to see that, and also really happy to see the adaptive program continuing.

So I know that's a lot of work, and then I think it makes a big difference.

I also just was I I love the price point that we have for the aquatics because I know it's probably uh from what I know, it's probably half the price if you go to some alternatives.

So thank you for maintaining an accessible price point there.

What why the 3X in terms of AIDS?

I mean, I'd love to I'd love to see more kids exposed, but what was the big drove the big jump?

Demand or supply.

If I had a guess, and I'm guessing here, well, one, we actually turned down a lot of AIDS, we even had more apply.

I just didn't list that because a lot of people wanted like only session one mornings, you can only do so many.

Um, but my my guess is now that the youth and teens are kind of there, we're all connected.

We we see the young ones, we see the high schoolers, they all have siblings.

So we promoted maybe just a little bit more than normal, but I think it's just that we had so many CITs and swim raids do the same program.

So we had children participate in both.

Um, but maybe it's because we're all connected.

That's my guess.

Okay, and then uh, you know, just from people I've talked to that been part of the CIT program and have also been involved in other cities.

We're crushing it.

Just the feedback is really positive about the experience people have.

So keep that up because I think that's also really great experience for for people to grow and develop that opportunity for leadership.

So thank you.

Thank you.

And fun fact is because I'm a numbers guy, a resident swim lesson is 17.50 cents per lesson.

Yeah, in case you want to look at the price points later.

I I looked at I know the price points for some other programs.

That's why I said thank you for that.

Uh thank you.

That was great.

Um for aquatics.

What is a pool pass?

It said there were nine pool passes sold.

Is that right?

Yes, correct.

Um, nine total uh pool passes.

We didn't we weren't able to count them last year as well.

We are thinking about get the paper cards or like you know, almost like you write in it, like the the pound the punches.

So it's a 10 pass or a 20 pass up to the person to purchase.

Um, this year in the past, doing the math, we figured out it's the same benefit, 10 or 20.

It came out to the same rate.

So going forward, it's already on our website.

We had made it a little bit different.

So a 20 pass is a little bit more beneficial to use, you get a little bit better discount, you get the 2025 rate, and then if you buy a 10 pass, it's 50 cents more per visit.

So you're going from $8, $1 a pass.

If you buy the 10, it's $7.50 a visit.

If you buy the $20, it's $7 a bit.

So it was a punch card, and you had there was no financial benefit, and it just was organization for them, and now in the future it's gonna be they're gonna get a little bit off.

Yeah, we're working with Connect now.

Connect is active net is connect, um, but connect just came out with a whole bunch of new features.

So I think we're gonna go digitally on that as well and just have a digital pass.

So the patrons don't have to worry about losing it because one person did, or bringing it to get their stamps.

So we're gonna go try to go digital.

I just didn't mention that today because we're still trying to figure out the how.

Nice.

And speaking of digital those, the the check-in for SOAR, it seemed to go really well.

Like every every morning when I was down there, they were it was really nice because the kids could check in or the parents could, and then you or Danielle could talk to them and kind of chat, and it seemed like it just was a really easy process for them to get through.

We agree.

We only did it for the Eagles, and we were we can't wait to put it for everybody.

And we actually started using it at a lot of our events.

Um, I was gonna mention more in March, but like at the sweetheart dance this past sweetheart dance, we used Connect, and anytime you register with us, event or program, you get a QR code, you can add it to your Apple wallet or Android pay wallets.

And so a lot of patrons, when we had the sweetheart dance, which we just launched Connect, so we were still new, they brought their QR codes and we actually didn't know how to scan them at first.

And so we started typing their names to figure it out.

But now we figured it out, but they're just getting more faster in high tech.

Is that the same process for Belmont Blooms that the check-in was?

We did use, yes.

Okay, um, and then so for extended.

Did people pay for after care?

And so is there gonna be a financial gap there, or is it what's gonna how is that money gonna be made back up, or what's the um extended care was about $30 a week, and so we're gonna take 15 of that 30 and put it into the regular camp to offset the cost.

So actually everybody would pay for the extra 30 minutes, and we're also increasing camp source price just a little bit with the inflation and cost of staff and so on.

And is there is there like a a camp a cap to camp soar that it seems like numbers keep rising and rising?

Is there like an idea of there is a cap.

If we probably were in Twin Pines, you wouldn't see we actually were able to bring in so people thought we didn't bring as many people to bear it because like camps were sold out so quickly this year.

We thought staff we would have trouble bringing people to bear it, and we were completely wrong.

We had the opposite, so many people came.

We actually expanded the program.

If we were at Twin Pines, we couldn't take all those folks.

Um so we're gonna have an issue probably going back to Twin Pines a little bit.

Um but hopefully.

Was that because of where people lived or why why do you think it was we didn't ask, don't know, to be honest.

But we um we usually get at Twin Pines, we get a lot of Nesbit and like local here.

We did see a lot more Barrett families come and a lot more of our partners' participants, like Stepping Stone and Heartbeat, they attended our camps a lot more than normal because I think we're all on the same site.

That makes sense.

And my last thing they'll say at the hideout, I really like how they're the two rooms are separated by that courtyard.

And so students, kids aren't always inside.

They could walk between it and get some sun and play a game outside.

So it kind of seemed like it pushed them outside a little bit more.

Yeah, we hope so.

One the newer room is like almost like a steam or STEM room and homework and arts and crafts, while the the original room, we call it the hideout.

There's the hideout and then the hub.

The hub is the new room, the techie room.

Um, but the hideout is more like you got your video games, your movies, your uh basketball, your foosball, all that fun stuff.

So it's like a little bit more play and a little bit more serious.

Okay, thank you.

Great.

Um, it's always really encouraging to uh get this report and see the community involvement in our summer program.

So thank you for you and your staff and all the hard work.

Um, another aquatic related question.

You mentioned we weren't able to track them last year, so we couldn't compare numbers and participation from last year to this year.

Uh, do you have a sense just from the staff and what you've what you saw?

Uh where are we in relation to capacity for lessons and lap swim?

Yeah, lessons afternoon sell out.

It's a huge demand, it's hard to keep up.

Um, and people constantly in the survey said, Can you stay past 5 p.m.?

But we are renters, there's another swim team that comes after us.

There's even a water pillow or adaptive PE that uses the pool before us.

So we have tried to rent every minute we can.

Um the morning lessons don't do very well.

Um, either maybe working families that can't come, maybe weather, don't know.

We do okay, but those are typically the ones we cancel, which is why we're bringing private and adapted private swim lessons, because those would be offered in the mornings only to help our staff get hours and not to send them home or have to cancel a class.

Um it comes to um the groups like the camps that come.

Um I am working with a new group to come to the pool that's never been to the pool before because Mondays are probably like the quieter days.

I think because a lot of camp providers get their kids the first day.

I wouldn't want to bring my camp store kids to the pool on a Monday, to be honest.

You're getting to know them, but we are working with a couple camps to bring them.

Uh we typically have someone at least every day.

Usage financial-wise, we we surpassed financially last year.

Um, so I do know we had more like lap and rec swimmers because we didn't change the fees.

Um, but yeah, don't know the monitoring of that.

And I would say also, like rec swim Mondays and Wednesdays are pretty quiet.

Tuesday, Thursday, Fridays are very popular because either camp source there or footsteps or footsteps and campsore or someone like that.

So we usually have about a hundred and twenty-five in the pool.

Uh, we do four lifeguards on, sometimes five.

Each lifeguard can see about 25 people.

So sometimes we get we get close.

Awesome.

Thank you.

That's all I have.

Cool.

I've seen you all eight years, and so thank you.

And uh love the service and the dedication that you bring, and so always uh puts a smile on my face at um not as much as probably the kids that you work with, but it's been wonderful, so thank you.

Uh quick question: the swim test, is that to test where they are in levels for the classes, or that's just something else?

Yeah, so 2024 feedback from the survey was you know, a lot of people had a they're signed up for the wrong class, even though we had prereqs, or they were in like a level two last year, and they just automatically assume, even though they didn't do any swim lessons, they could be a level three the upcoming summer.

And so I believe actually it was our chair's idea, if I'm not mistaken, about a swim test day.

Um, so what we did was I brought all the swimmer aids and all the staff during staff training and did a swim test day because the best way to learn all the levels is to have a kid every five minutes to test them out.

And so on that Friday, we just brought in about 15 people every 10 minutes, and each had a one-on-one, so staff member and the child or the swim raid with the staff member, and we just tested the swim level and also gave orientation.

So this year we brought back um you must shower before entering the pool.

The first week, a lot of um families were not happy about that, but we talked about it at the orientation, how to check in, water check-in.

So we it was like almost first day of school, but for the pool.

Um, and so when we were doing the swim tests, we were able to transfer the children right there on site to the appropriate level.

And we we transferred Anne Marie actually helped us out that day, and our pool managers, there was a lot of transfers.

I don't know the number.

Um, but in session three, the last session, I saw that happening again.

And I was like, maybe because session when we offered a lot of session one, maybe session two people came, but not the three.

So that's why we're gonna offer a swim test afternoon day mid-July.

It's already on our website.

It's the Friday after 4th of July.

Forget the date.

Cool.

Uh I have a paid counselor, so thank you.

Thanks to the city for uh helping fund my daughter's shopping habits, uh, which lasted maybe a week uh after the show.

We should just pay at Starbucks, right?

Starbucks dollars.

Yes, keeping them all the balls in in business, which is good, so thanks.

It was such a wonderful program, and having an upper class person as her supervisor just also gave her a very understandable and achievable path to being a manager.

Like pretty quickly, hopefully, over the the course of her high school career.

So that was really wonderful.

So thanks.

Love to hear that.

And do you remind Woody?

That's our camp name.

Um, that the upperclassman also was a part-time staff member too.

So Danielle was part-time staff before she came full time staff.

So it was campsor just with the Hawks hanging out and then now she's with us full time.

That's great.

We should probably celebrate that even more that kind of progression and kind of maybe take a moment I don't want to leave her left out.

Also Ann Marie was Camp Sore as well.

Um I just was talking at a conference last Thursday to some colleagues and I know she doesn't like to say but I I feel blessed in my career I've had nine part-time people go full time in the municipality life including one of our firmware youth commissioners, Abby Sanders.

Wow.

That's very cool.

So it makes me proud that's my happy moment.

Maybe it's a little bit uh the the badges people wear you know when you go to a theme park they say their hometown.

Right.

Maybe there's ones that former camp source camper or qualix instructor type of thing.

They kinda nice little piece of flair maybe.

Uh suggestion for lemonade day maybe you co-run it with an outdoor exercise program so you get some people heated up and thirsty that could go for a nice cool glass of lemonade afterwards and so maybe there's an adult boot camp or fitness day or or something else to kind of kind of a cycling route or something like that.

Something like that that kind of gooses a little bit of the ideas and maybe the the with enough foresight and planning maybe the kids could think about what they would like to have as kind of like the the coactivity or something.

Yeah.

And then as always ask uh I'm interested in the numbers where do you see are there any big gaps in summer participation, whether it's like an age or a part of the city or some other kind of way to help kind of uncover and and figure out how to tap or find programs that may fit a little bit better.

You know, interesting this year just not just because of the Barrett move we saw for example one of our outdoor contractors that's been you know offering programs even before I started in Belmont that run this summer at all.

And it's um outdoor active sport style and so don't know why on that part but in general we we see a huge increase but that 12 to 14 I would say is a unique um age specifically 12 because when we don't have any programs for 12 year olds as a city in the summer because we work with our partners like footsteps and they offer the middle school camps.

So we are a small city so we don't want to offer so much but right before um if you recall right before COVID we were gonna do a middle school um hangout camp.

Um it was gonna launch for you know summer 2020 we called it not campsore um it had a cool name Eagle Ridge, thank you.

Um Camp Eagle Ridge and it was gonna be like the hideout for summer come and go as you please structure activities, you know all that.

We saw about 10 people interested.

We were actually talking just recently about bringing that back.

We don't know if it's gonna be 2026 or 27, but we do want to try to work with that age group again.

It's a great program to help keep children from, in my opinion I call them feeder programs, but we kind of get them at three maybe four years of age and I hope that they stay in our system somewhere until they become employed with us or volunteer or something like that.

Yeah.

I wonder I mean it's definitely a burden or a um a a lot of probably a lot of extra work.

I do remember growing up that there was a point where I would there was a camp that did a like a field trip every day and so and then try to think about is there I know it's a lot but maybe I'm just trying to think of what could be a little bit more of interest at that age right because I see it's the you're aging out of kind of like the day camp, but you're not old enough yet to really have a job or to to be a like a leader, and so I wonder if there's more other or if there are other kind of joint programs.

Yeah, just think about curiosity and you know how they try to target, or or if there are other kind of connections that maybe if you're not running, maybe there are different partners to use as well.

And I will like to mention just because um case Miss Karen Hospital was watching, her footsteps program, adventure camp, does go on at least three field trips a week, but they go I believe from nine years of age to 15.

Um so they do try to capture that age going to venture, but they typically get the nine to eleven year olds.

And the last questionslash comment uh definitely outside of the your purview, but I always wonder what the library does for the teens and youth in the summer.

I wonder if it may be interesting to I don't know, pre or post summer, to have them come present, and so just to inform the commission maybe there are ideas that spark.

Not to say that we're helping them decide things, but just more read-only and kind of see if there's some stuff that could be interesting, and we could see a a little bit of a bigger view as to what organized programs are running.

Yeah, um, obviously, this summer was a little unique for the library because they didn't open, but um one of our camp providers does go to the library every single day, usually, um, before they go to the pool.

So they like to do story time, read, snack, and then they go to the pool.

But yeah, that's a great idea.

Cool.

Thanks.

Not many questions, but uh you you said that you have a three and a half people full time, is that right?

3.5, yeah.

I'm just really impressed with how much you guys get done with with that.

I know you have a lot of part-time and volunteer help, but that c that level of coordination was such a small team that I think is really impressive.

Um I guess the other comment about the uh the lemonade stand is you know, it wasn't here in Belmont, but uh, you know, I was with a biking group and somebody had set eliminate stand down at kind of the exit to some of the trails.

And I gotta say, on a hot day, every biker that came down there was pulling out a couple of bucks and buying a uh cup of lemonade from people.

So yeah, maybe it kind of thing.

She do a water dog, you know, right there.

You kind of have a nexus where people come out all the time, and you'll you'll make a killing, I think, if you uh if you decide to set set one up around there.

We'll let them know.

We um suggested this year we listed like every other than the home, that was option, private residence.

We listed all the like pre-approved places we thought they could sell.

Obviously, we don't want them to go like Chroma Shopping Center because that's a business and so on, but we listed like Patricia Warden Park, uh Twin Pines, a lot of people wanted Twin Pines Park because they knew it was very active park, they're trying to capture the summer concert series, that kind of stuff.

Um so love the feedback.

We we should definitely list one of those options.

Yeah.

Thank you very much.

Hi.

Um it was really interesting seeing like the numbers like move up and up because I know I when I was a C A T I wasn't counting like the people in the room being like, Oh yeah, there's like a good amount of people in the room.

So I like seeing that the numbers are like going up for campsore and like the summers and the summer stuff, the swimmer stuff and like all these other things.

Um how did you guys get like that the specific comment feedback?

Cause I in my head I'm just thinking like you stop them before picking up their kid and you're just like okay, speak very slowly.

Yeah, no, can you remind me what your camp name was?

No.

You don't remember what your campaign?

No, I just don't want to say it.

Oh, okay.

I didn't recall.

I apologize.

I didn't recall.

Um but uh yeah, so we send a survey out uh for aquatics every after every session because they're kind of with us for two weeks.

For camp, we do a midsummer and an end of summer, and we average about a hundred and twenty responses.

Last year I believe a commissioner asked me for the full report.

I'm happy to send you the full aquatics and camp store uh survey um of all the things.

Um, but we just kind of email, keep asking them, and we may pull some of the the fun ones or the good ones for commission, but in the past I've also shown negative ones.

To be honest, this is the first summer.

I should have mentioned on my slide, and we're at Barrett Community Center, right?

First summer, my eighth summers, not one person marked camp was unsafe.

So we asked the question, do you feel like camp was safe or not?

And we typically get a lot because Twin Pines is a public park, it's right next to um Ralston Avenue.

They obviously see you know some people walking through.

So we always typically get a couple.

Very small percentage, but this summer was zero.

So we're very happy to see that, and maybe because Barrett's a little bit more, you know, fenced in and included and not too many more community folks, but um they just naturally submit.

I'm happy to send you all of them if you like to read them.

Oh no, thank you.

But I do like hearing that.

That that's super cool that everybody was like, Oh yay, my kids are safe.

Um was the decision to make the extra hour at the end of Campsorough uh up to 5 30.

Was that just based on like this past summer, like at Barrett like data, or was it on other summers too?

Ever since the pandemic um ended, we've seen a huge decline in aftercare.

Um we weren't even gonna maybe bring it back in 2024, but in 23 we had a little uptick.

And so, like, okay, we'll keep it.

In 24, we were like, uh, it's okay.

Let's try 25 at Barrett and see what happens.

I guess it was just good timing.

We're fortunate to get all the analytics and data from the Connect app that really showed like we saw most people come between eight and eight ten, like majority, and then they leave about four forty to four forty-five.

That way, because we had a time by every five minutes, um, and how many counts there were, and and then we did the hawks only, the eagles only, and then we did the CITs just to make sure we can compare everything.

Um, and that's all we saw, and then we did survey those families and asked them that specific question, like, would you mind?

No, no one was really upset.

I think we had two comments.

Okay.

Yeah.

Good job.

It's gonna help our staff.

You know, they work our hours are eight to five thirty, but we or the pool isn't ten to five, but we're in there way before we're in there after cleaning up or prepping or setting up.

So when it comes to like staffing to also help us out.

So then like typically how long do they stay like after come in before?

Um, well, luckily the staff were at camp, for example, they utilize extended care and they have some staff cleaning as the kids are still in extended care because we usually only got about three to four children after 5 30.

Um, so what sometimes someone would stay to six.

So they utilize that time, so they would leave out six fifteen.

Um, and typically we come in at Twin Pines, we come in um at 6 a.m.

on Mondays.

Could we have to set up camp?

Cause and then on Fridays, we don't leave Twin Pines till about seven-ish PM.

Could we have to take away camp for the rentals on the weekends, right?

Camp Sor can't exist on the weekends in the lodge.

The benefit this summer we had at Barrett was no one was coming on the weekend, so we got to keep camp camp all summer long.

So that helped us with like sleeping in if you want to call it a little bit later.

So we started a little bit later, um, this summer, and we got to leave a little bit earlier.

That's all I heard.

Good job.

I like that.

Cool.

Um, it was great to hear about all the programs.

I thought it was really cool that we got so many swimmer aids and the program, like how you structure it.

I feel like it was very well thought out, and I think it's um hopefully gonna go great.

Um something I wanted to ask about was um like another commission said, like speaking about different parts of the city.

Um I know when you register you kind of collect um addresses of the people who participate, like, I'm not sure if you like look at that in like a heat map sort of way, like which part of Belmont is engaging, or is there anything like that?

We have looked at heat maps in the past.

We didn't do it this summer.

I will though, and I would I'll send an email to the commission to let you guys what we find because we should have done it this 2025 and we didn't because of Barrett.

We're just thinking like uh it's you know, we'll be back at Twin Pines, but we should always do every year, and I will work on that and I'll send you guys the heat map report.

Thank you.

Otherwise, everything seemed really cool.

I feel like for the 12 and 14 age range, like you said, like I see nine and fifteen a lot on like programs.

If you s if something's listed nine to fifteen, there's no one older than eleven who's really gonna want to participate in that.

But I think otherwise everything is like really great, and it sounds like an amazing summer.

Thank you for that feedback.

That's why we changed the swim lessons in 24 and past, the banner said ages three to seventeen, right?

And so people would see that and we ran the reports of like kind of what age is, and then we followed the Red Cross recommendation to help keep not just adults or teens or J teens or tweens, sorry, um, trying to help keep them that same age so that they can learn at in a similar age range.

Amy help.

Great.

Well, thank you.

Um I'll say is I have a 12-year-old, and it's a very hard age range to find camps and things for because they're not big kids yet.

Uh but they're also they're not little kids and they don't want to be with little kid camp.

So it's yeah, it's a that's a tricky age.

Um, quick questions for the you showed the swim report.

Um is there a possibility of doing like a digital version of that someday instead of a paper version where they like the skills that they've mastered and all that?

Because I know I get mine and then like I almost instantaneously lose it, and then the next year I'm like, what what was it?

Where were they at?

What have they done?

I can't remember.

Um, not if we it'd probably be a lot of the work for the instructors, but if someday if we could have a digital report that then was tied to their account and later they could be like, oh, last year this is what where you were at the end of the swim lessons.

Actually, the Red Cross has that app and badges and achievements and ribbons for us.

Why we chose to go report card again for at least one more year is because how our sessions are built.

We're not a year round facility, and so their profile doesn't go to the swim lessons at other facilities.

So most of the time you need about two sessions to achieve your upper level.

So if you're a level two, it's usually takes you about two uh seasons to go to level three, and then when you jump up, you have to make a whole new profile for the swimmer because they're not registered through the whole year.

The Red Cross just came out with the app.

I think there's some glitches in there when it comes to like it should go by email address or something.

So hopefully by 2027 we'll have the app because I prefer the app as well.

The Red Cross doesn't even provide uh report cards.

I made all those report cards myself on Canva because I know people still want something versus well, they give you the app or a little business card side that says, Congratulations, you completed your swim lesson and sign your name.

And I knew people would not like that little business card either.

So I thought we'll pull the Red Cross kind of like their um goals are for every level, and I just made my own report cards in house.

I like the report cards.

I always like it.

Well, I prefer the app as well.

So hopefully, next 2027.

Um, and then this is kind of a more general question.

You already you answered it a little bit already.

Um, since you had to move the camp this year and kind of change things a little bit.

Is there anything that now that you did it at Barrett, you realize that actually this or that works better, and we want to kind of keep that or bring it when we bring it back to Twin Pines, like things that lessons learned from doing a Barrett then maybe you can apply this year at Twin Pines.

Yeah, lessons learned, great question.

Um, include uh adaptive camp.

We learned a lot for that one, but that's so unique, it's not too much.

We actually ended up moving that whole cozy corner at Barrett because it didn't work out at Barrett.

Um we have talked about the cottage at Twin Pines Park.

Um, can we utilize that for adaptive camp and then bring in more hawks and eagles to Twin Pines watch so we can up that enrollment?

But the problem is us taking kind of the cottage, what takeaway contractors again, which is okay, right?

Now, but then also adult services and community and city hall won't have access to the cottage.

So we're still trying to figure out what to do, but we are growing, we we do need a bigger lodge, uh, or a new community center, so we can put the camp there.

Sorry, I should have said that.

Um, brand new community center, so we could put camp there, but um, um we had a debrief as the the full-time team and not too many back and forth to be honest.

Good to know.

Yeah, okay.

Um, do we have any public comments or questions?

I forgot to ask earlier.

We do not.

Okay.

Um if nobody else has any comments or questions.

Thank you so much.

I always love these presentations.

I love seeing you're all so busy and you accomplished so much and you serve so many people, and we really truly appreciate all your efforts.

Thank you.

Thank you.

It's fun.

Can I just kind of piggyback on all these comments too and and really applaud Michael and the youth and teens team for what they do?

There is meticulous planning and preparation that goes on all year long.

Um this isn't something where they just flip the switch at the beginning of summer and do it, and um it it's really um, I think it shows in the final product the amount of thoughtful preparation, um, nothing is taken lightly.

You know, the fact that they take time to interview every CIT that applies.

That's a lot of interviews that teaches these kids whether they get selected or not, it teaches them how to fill out an application and how to show up for an interview.

So there are all these sort of other peripheral benefits, I think, to the work that actually gets delivered in the form of campsile, for example, and um, and so just huge kudos uh to the team for a very um very tight ship.

Um and I remember my days as a parent dropping kids off at camp, and I would 100% bring them to this camp store.

It is regardless where it is, it's safe.

You just um take the job seriously, so uh, and it shows.

And similarly with aquatics, I think Michael brings a whole lot of aquatics background uh to Belmont, and so we benefit greatly from that.

But the way you just mentioned it now that the fact that aquatics and youth and teens have merged, it actually makes sense even beyond the skills that you bring to it because it is really serving the same population, and so I think we are benefiting from some overlap of those two.

That once you kind of get the trust in one area and you see that oh, these are the same people that do camp and do aquatics.

Um I think that serves us well, so it's an honor to watch these guys do what they are.

But always improving.

I love that you're always you're always taking data and you're always improving, and you you listen to feedback and you're always making change.

It gets better every year.

Um, it's never the same campus because every year you make it a little bit better, and it's just it's amazing.

Thank you.

I love it.

It's easy for me because I have fun, I love my job.

And I didn't even mention the yak and voice is also intertwined.

So that's how we get it's it makes all sense.

It makes sense.

That said, you will be back glad to be back at Twin Pines Park next year.

Right.

Okay.

We missed it.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Have a great night.

Okay, next up, um, item B, Twin Pines Park Global De Directional Signpost Discussion.

So this is just to show you a um uh a little project that we've been working on.

Our city manager has for quite a while been dreaming of one of those directional signs, you know, that has all these destinations, and so um Emory and I just had a little fun with it and wanted to show you um what we've come up with and how we're gonna ask the community for input on which destinations we should include um in this signpost.

So um we're thinking that this will be somewhere in uh Twin Pines area where we're gonna start to have where we're gonna have our um gathering space um on that pathway, and so um don't look at exactly what they look like, but again, this is where we're thinking these um these signs would be.

And then we've got um different types of signs.

We could do a little more of a beachy feel or a nautical feel or whatever, and so we're actually gonna ask the community for their preferences for what sign what sign style we have.

And finally, here we've just started with some suggestions of destinations, but the survey is gonna allow plenty of space for other suggestions as well.

So um, so just to give you an idea of kinds of things we thought of and then there's a QR code um for a quick survey.

And is this gonna go out in where's this gonna go out?

Um it's gonna go in the uh monthly newsletter that goes out on Monday, and then it'll be on social media tomorrow or Friday.

Okay, great.

So there you go.

Just a quick thing.

If you've got any other feedback, we're happy to take it.

I was about to say we can just do a discussion, we don't need to go in order.

Anybody have any thoughts or questions that they want to throw out?

I'll start.

Um is this part of the centennial or the mess Twin Pines Park Master Plan?

This is just up to the separate extra.

Let's have a little fun, put something there.

Again, we have a we have a um the benches have been ordered, you know, for our buddy benches and spaces, the benches have been ordered, and we have a volunteer Eagle Scout who's building us a game cabinet to put there.

So it's coming.

Um, and this will be another fun thing to add to that.

So yeah, I like it.

Do we have a sister city?

Does Belmont have a sister?

Do we have a sister city that we could point to?

Namur, Belgium, Belgium, Belmont North.

Right.

Dynamure is something in Belgium.

Yeah.

Right.

Just like a one.

Right.

Yeah.

Thank you.

There we go.

Fill out the survey and add that in.

There you go.

Anybody else?

It might be a heavier lift, but including some of the schools and the kids to help make the decision.

I feel like this might be geared more towards adults.

Okay.

If we asked like a social studies teacher at Ralston or some of the kids at the elementary schools to give input.

Um I'd I think that'd be a nice way to get more input from the community.

I'm actually going to Carlmont next Friday.

I will to do a talk.

I'll have the students fill that out too.

That's great.

Super fun for sure.

City manager dream coming through here.

Uh V2 idea.

Yes.

Maybe have different themes.

Like if you could actually rotate, make it so that you could rotate out because I'm thinking of just jot down things like space.

Like how far is different planets or stuff like that, or almost combining distance in years, like to maybe to different events in the past.

I don't know.

That wasn't a great one.

But or I was even thinking are there certain species of animals that are in some locations, and so it's kind of distance to the animal, maybe, or we keep it very close to home, distance to how many steps to each of our parks.

And uh the last one I thought could be fun is maybe distance to sports teams.

So we're you know, to the Dodgers or to the Not the Dodgers, not the Dodgers.

Of all the teams, of all the teams.

Let's go to LA.

No one needs Americans.

So the uh maybe we'll do that with years and go to the previous.

That's fun.

But just different types of Yeah, well, you know what?

It's it's a good idea to maybe we come up with a set of signs, but then we plan on just kind of changing it out and just sort of rotating it um by theme.

That can work, sure.

We could have one about the distance to different parks, you know because we've talked about trying to unify Belmont.

Yeah, like one point four miles to the library or whatever, right?

I just said that.

I just said that.

Well no, I was saying also like Red Morton, right?

Yeah.

The bright signs are nice for visibility, but it would be nice if it blended in with nature also.

But I get that it needs to be seen.

I like that one at the time.

It's very chipper though.

Although yeah, actually the n the natural side or the right side is also very pretty.

Yeah, yeah.

You get to vote.

I'm gonna vote twice, yeah.

On the record of a bot on the record, and then on the record.

Yes.

Yeah.

Do you do just a twin pines?

Right now.

If there's a city manager, yeah, sure, there's we could do this in other places too.

We talked about trying to weave together the different parks, right?

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

You know, the directions to different the kind of the next stop.

Yep.

There's something like this at Ralston and Alameda, right?

On the um, the boxes.

Maybe San Carlos does kind of a similar thing, but there's is a bit more, I'd say, you know, kind of professional looking, or just a bit more serious, adult looking.

Um and they have signs like throughout the city, like downtown San Carlos is over here.

Um, and it's like the same theme throughout.

So if maybe if the community really likes the theme and we put the signs up, then we have it like also on the roads or something.

That could be really cool, like throughout Belmont, you'll see the same theme.

So that is um we are doing that project.

It's called a wayfinding project.

Um Wayfinding is the art of signage and um, and uh those signs I'm not exactly sure of the timeline, but we do have a map of where signs will be throughout town, directing you um not to every possible destination, but just enough to sort of make sense um throughout town.

So it's coming.

With the same theme that this would be, or oh no, no, no.

It'll be it'll be professional, like the San Carlos thing, and it'll be um um information on the front and then a picture, sort of a vintage Belmont picture on the back.

So this is a little more whimsical.

This is whimsical, so this is kind of in the park.

But I like the idea of the different themes, and and just kind of putting this throughout the city.

I think that could be fun and um very affordable.

So great ideas.

Um are there any public comments or questions?

No, okay.

Sorry, and read makes you juggle.

Um, there's commissioner comments or questions?

I I would just say it's super fun.

I think it would be fun.

I know we have some land by Caltrain.

I always like looking at these signs when I'm like traveling somewhere because you know they have them at like little beach towns.

Yeah, typical.

Um, it would be fun.

Like there was one near Caltrain.

Like the different directions you could go.

Yeah from Belmont.

Okay.

Um, but I think this it's a stepping stone for more.

But let the city manager have his piece um have this.

If he's listening, this one's for you.

Yes, we love that for him.

And um I definitely will be voting because I already have a text preference.

All right.

Yes, don't tell us you'll sway the voting.

Because yeah, okay.

Well, if no other comments or questions, let's move on to item number seven.

Other business updates.

Uh, department updates.

Um I will start.

I didn't add it in the slides, but we did extend the deadline applications for our happy hydrant and um utility box centennial projects uh till October 31st.

Um you can either submit it to our email or bring it in our office.

We actually last week the deadline was Friday.

We were kind of worried we didn't have any, and then all of a sudden on Friday, a bunch of them showed up.

Um they're all really awesome, but we still have more spots available, so um that will be extended.

Uh our senior center had their annual pizza with police.

Um we had some of our officers come by.

Um, they give like a little presentation on just overall safety for the seniors, and then they get to chat with them and have lunch with them.

Um, and the seniors always enjoy asking all their questions and everything.

Um, as Michael mentioned, we had our movies of the park at Alexander.

It was very packed.

We even had some youth commissioners in attendance as well.

Um we brought our new game, it's called Gaga Ball.

Never heard of it.

Apparently, Patrick said it's very popular.

It's like dodgeball, but you're in this little octagon thing.

I kids loved it.

I don't think they were playing it correctly, but it was it was uh a success there.

Yeah, um, and then yeah, our Xfinity sponsor was there again with their 360 photo booth.

People are really excited about that one.

Uh BCLC did a little field trip to Lenardi's.

Um they walked there, they got to get like kind of like behind the scenes tour um throughout the full store, and apparently they got free cookies as well, which was a huge hit with all of the little ones.

And then PD also visited BCLC.

Um they got to talk with some of our officers, they got to tour um the police vehicle, and they were all super excited about that one.

And then the party didn't stop at the senior center.

They had their kind of like end of summer luau last week.

Um, they played their chair volleyball, they had Kalua pork, they had this nice little photo op.

Um, and they do monthly or every other month kind of parties like this.

So this is just to end the summer, and I know that they'll have um at the end of this month, they'll have like their Halloween party as well.

And then, as we mentioned earlier, water dog run.

Um we started on Sixth Avenue this year, but it was as you can see, a big success.

And then some upcoming stuff.

Um, our last movies in the park is this Friday.

We'll be showing Shrek, um, and then the high school and college fair will be on October 16th, and then our Duali celebration is that following Sunday on the 19th, and then the Belmont Boobash on October 29th.

Um, all of the car spots are filled, so we're expecting a packed house again this year.

And one other thing I want to add is um group four, our consultants who were helping us with our community center design.

They are going to be presenting to city council on October 14th, so um a presentation very similar to what was shared with council or commission a couple of weeks ago.

But they're going to be presenting that to council if you would like to join and attend.

Tuesday the 14th of October.

Okay.

Anyone have any comments or questions?

Just one question how's the recnups, the sign-up service for the tennis?

Oh, um, we had a little scheduling snafu.

Some things were double booked.

I think you encountered that.

Um, so that was some internal miscommunication, but otherwise, it seems to be working well.

Do we have more sign-ups as a result or is just I don't have that information.

It started just the beginning of September, I think, and I have been away.

So sorry, I will find out.

I have one comment about the water dog run that I didn't mention before, but what's really unique about this particular run, uh the vast majority of the heavily running heavy lifting and executing the run is done by high school interns.

There's a whole team that run the marketing, the uh data and analytics, the operations, and even some of the new group that was working on sponsorship this year.

So it's a all of that happens because of the interns that are working really hard behind the scenes.

And then uh AYSO at opening day, which was really really fun with um uh the the ever popular uh banner contest with the uh the entire city council, our police captain, and and Bridget as judges along with um canine unit and the battalion fire chief.

So that was uh and I have to say I'm really uh delighted with the sponsorship support of the Belmont Police uh officers association and the fire department, as well as the Rotary and Water Dog Run all uh contributed, and now we've also got the building trade supporting as well, so it was good fun.

All right, okay, and I think last is Commissioner questions of comments, which I think we've kind of already done a bit, but is it anything anyone would like to add before we wrap up?

No.

Okay, if that is the case, then this meeting is adjourned.

Well done.