Parks and Recreation Commission Regular Meeting - November 15, 2023
Parks and Recreation Commission Regular Meeting - November 15, 2023
The Parks and Recreation Commission met on Wednesday, November 15, 2023, at 12:30 PM (local time) for their regular meeting. All commissioners were present except Commissioner Bell, with Commissioner Becker attending by telephone. The meeting covered park project updates, upcoming events, and a focused discussion on revising the mobile food vendor agreement.
Consent Calendar
- Approval of Minutes: The commission unanimously approved the minutes from the October 18, 2023 special and regular meetings as written. Motion carried with all in favor.
Reports
- Parks and Recreation Superintendent Report (Dave Heath):
- Construction of a new shade structure over the fitness court at Rotary Park is underway, expected completion before end of November.
- Volunteers renovated the RC track at Rotary Park, adding clay, redesigning layout, adding a pit area, and installing new tubing.
- Maintenance crews are replacing post fencing with decorative boulders at Rotary Park.
- Work continues at the former Firebird Field for Mojave Community College soccer teams to begin play in 2024; dugout/media/storage area finished, sod removal and leveling in progress.
- Projects out for bid: resurfacing of municipal pool deck and outdoor racquetball courts at Rotary Park.
- Equipment arriving for Gary Keith Park stage and event pavilions (north end), construction starting soon with completion in 2024.
- Upcoming events: Carnival (Nov 16–?), Scarecrow Treat Bags (Nov 17, free, registration open), Farmers Market (Nov 25, 9 AM–1 PM at Community Park, Santa Bravo), Winter Wonderland Ornament Workshop (Dec 1, free), Snowman Hot Cocoa Spoons (Dec 8, free), Winter Festival (Dec 16 at Field House, expected over 10,000 attendees, $15 unlimited fun or free entry).
- Program partnerships at Sutton Lake Community Center: Veterans in Motion (music/motion therapy, ballroom dancing, ukulele/voice, band, line dance) and River City's Community Theater Players / Ghost Light Theater (Christmas production Dec 7–10, spring musical Wizard of Oz).
- Chairman's Comments:
- Chairman inquired about the off-road side-by-side parking lot project at Silver Creek; Superintendent Heath reported Assistant City Manager Eddie Kajira is leading, secured a $1.3 million grant, working to leverage additional funding before bidding.
- Chairman asked about public involvement at the skate park; Heath announced an open forum on Wednesday, November 29, 2023, at 5:30 PM at the Rotary Park Skate Park (2315 Balboa). The city has $300,000 budgeted for significant updates, and the contractor will be present to gather community input.
- Chairman acknowledged the commission's productive discussion at the prior special meeting on the role of the commission.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Davoranga (Snowy Shaved Ice): Stated preference for simply increasing the move time from 15 minutes without a designated area. He expressed strong opposition to designated areas, saying they would lose "hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales" and he would likely not renew his permit if designated areas were required.
- Alejandro Bingocheo (Alex, co-owner of RiverSuppen, sandwich truck): Explained that the 15-minute rule was the primary reason he did not renew his permit this year. Set-up takes 30–45 minutes, and the time limit is not feasible. He had previously worked with the superintendent to extend time to 1.5 hours, but the official rule remains 15 minutes. He advocated for a longer time limit, noting that 15 minutes is not workable especially for trucks with complex menus.
Discussion Items
- Revision of Parks Food Vendor Agreement (Section K – Time Limit):
- Superintendent Heath recapped the prior workshop discussion: current rule requires mobile vendors to move every 15 minutes. Previous suggestions included 30–40 minutes, 1–2 hours, or 45–60 minutes. Some discussion of designated areas but no consensus.
- After public testimony, commissioners debated the time limit and designated areas. Commissioner Becker (via phone) suggested focusing on time only, as vendors primarily wanted more time. Commissioner indicated a preference for a straight 60 minutes. Another commissioner suggested designated spaces near events but with pre-setup time, but the chairman argued that designated areas are impractical due to varying park events and locations. Superintendent clarified that the rule applies to general park use, not special events which have their own stationary vendors.
- Motion was made to change the time frame in Section K to 60 minutes for occupying a parking space. The motion was seconded and carried unanimously (all in favor).
Key Outcomes
- Vote on Vendor Agreement Time Limit: The commission approved a motion to recommend an administrative change to the parks food vendor agreement, increasing the allowed occupancy time from 15 minutes to 60 minutes. The motion carried unanimously.
- Next Steps: The recommendation will be forwarded to the City Council for formal action. No further discussion on designated areas at this time, though the chairman left the door open for future changes.
Meeting Transcript
Good afternoon. This is Wednesday, November 15th. This is the Parks and Recreation Normal Meeting. Welcome to our meeting. Call to order. Roll call. All commission members are present except for Commissioner Bell. Commissioner Becker is joining us tonight via telephone. Commissioner Becker, can you hear me? I can hear you. Thank you. I can't hear you though, John. Speak up a little bit, John, if you can in your phone. We appreciate that. I can hear you. To uh stand for the Pillage of Allegiance. Okay, the first thing that on our agenda today is open call to the public. If you are here to discuss the uh line item that we're gonna have later regarding food truck um agendas in the parks, we're gonna have you'll have an opportunity to discuss that later in the meeting. So if there's anything else, if there's anything you'd like to say, please come forward, and you'll have your three minutes to discuss it. And they're all jumping on the bandwagon. Okay, we will move forward. There is no special presentations, so in light of that, I will just move it on to Dave Heath, our parks and recreation superintendent for his reports. Mr. Chairman, commissioners, thank you very much. We've recently begun construction on a the new shade structure that was in the budget this year to go over the fitness court at Rotary Park, and this project is expected to be completed before the end of this month. Also in Rotary Park, a work crew of volunteers recently spent several work days at the RC track led by Mac Marwan. These volunteers had um added clay to the track, they redesigned the layout, they added a pit area, and they installed new tubing, and it looks fantastic. I encourage anybody that's interested in RC uh hobbies to go down there and check it out. Maintenance crews are currently in the process of replacing most of the post fencing at Rotary Park with decorative boulders. Uh, this will be an ongoing project, and uh it's designed basically to take those posts out and make the park look a little bit better and while still protecting the park. Excuse me. Work continues as at the former fire firebird field in preparation for the Mojave Community College soccer teams to begin play there in 2024. Uh we've recently finished construction on the dugout slash media center slash storage area. Um this week the crews are out there removing some sod uh in the play area to the west side of the field. They're gonna be leveling that out and they're going to be uh adding new sod. So uh projects currently out for bid include resurfacing of the municipal pool deck and the outdoor racquetball courts in Rotary Park. And over in Gary Keith Park, the equipment is arriving uh little by little for the construction of the stage and event pavilions for the north end of the park. This project will begin construction soon and will have a completion date in 2024. Uh upcoming events. I'm sure as everybody was coming into the meeting tonight, they saw that the carnival was setting up. That'll start Thursday night. Uh tickets are $35 for uh a wristband. And we have several events coming up uh through the recreation division in the next few weeks. November 17th, that's tomorrow. We have our scare scarecrow treat bags. You can still register for this. We have, I think, spots for two more left. Um, this is a free event, and what we're doing is we're we're decorating uh paper bags and we're filling them with autumn candy and and popcorn and and all kinds of yummy treats. Uh kids will be decorating them with their parents, and we can still take registration at BullheadCity.com slash recdesk. November 25th, the farmers market is back on that black Saturday, we can call it uh 9 a.m.
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