Welcome to our meeting.

The date is June 17, 2025.

The time is 6 p.m.

This is an open meeting of the Grand Island City Council.

The City of Grand Island abides by the Open Meetings Act in conducting business.

A copy of the Open Meetings Act is displayed in the back of this room as required by state law.

I ask that you stand and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

And to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Council President Sheeran.

Present.

Councilmember Stelk will be absent.

Councilmember Conley.

Present.

Councilmember Nickerson.

Present.

Councilmember Brown will be absent.

Councilmember Hazi.

Present.

Councilmember Mendoza will be absent.

Councilmember O'Neill.

Present.

Councilmember Pollock.

Present.

Councilmember Lanfair will be absent.

And Mayor Steele.

Present.

Also present are Jill Grenier, the city clerk.

Laura McAlloon, the city administrator, Patrick Brown, the assistant city administrator, Chief Financial Officer.

Carrie Fisk, the city attorney, and Matthew Gleason, the finance director.

A sign up sheet was available in the lobby for individuals wishing to provide input on any of tonight's agenda items.

If you did not sign up to speak on an agenda item, please come forward, state your name, and the agenda topic on which you will be speaking.

No one has come forward, so we shall continue.

Agenda item five, item for discussion, funding strategies, discussions for parks projects, and island oasis renovations.

Mr.

McCoy, good evening.

Thank you, Mayor.

Good evening.

So the goal tonight is to talk about some of the major projects that we've been working on these last few months and even years.

Um that are getting close to a reality.

Um the goal tonight also is to uh is to provide updates for city council, um, give city council an opportunity to ask questions, and of course, always like uh as always um give direction.

Um I don't think there should be any surprises tonight.

A lot of these uh these projects have been before city council before, but I've my plan is not really going to a lot of detail unless council would like like me to.

Um so anyway, I'm just kind of gonna go through and talk about some of these major projects, get right into it.

So the very first project is the Stalley train area.

Um in October of 2023, um, a concept was presented to City Council by some community supporters to enhance the train track area inside of Stally Park.

Um it used to be the Stally Zoo.

Uh the project includes some additional playground areas, um, picnic areas, walking paths, tunnels for the train, a youth bike track, and much more.

Um the plan as presented was a three million dollar plan.

Um the all aboard campaign.

The the plan was for the all-aboard campaign to raise 750,000 dollars while the city would pick up the rest of the project of 2.25 million dollars.

Um this year we actually budgeted um 250,000 for the design.

We did not spend that money.

We will not spend that money in this fiscal year because the all aboard campaign did pick up the design, and we are in the design process right now for that project.

The next uh project to talk about is the rider park baseball field improvements.

Um in March of last year, a group again of baseball enthusiasts uh representatives from American Legion Baseball, representatives from the high school baseball program uh presented an idea to renovate the Ryder Park baseball field.

thousand dollars for the design we did not spend that money we will not spend that money in this fiscal year because the all aboard campaign did pick up the design and we are in the design process right now for that project the next uh project to talk about is the rider park baseball field improvements um so in March of last year a group again of baseball enthusiasts uh representatives from American Legion baseball representatives from the high school baseball program uh presented an idea to renovate the rider park baseball field um the plan was to raise 1.75 million dollars privately while the city would pick up the rest of the project of of the estimated 5.25 million dollar project and uh Clint Ruther's here uh he is has been leading the local fundraising efforts and if there's any questions that project um we did the budget this year 1.5 million dollars in this year's budget to get this project started we will spend probably half a million dollars uh for the design and then um the rest of the um expense would come next fiscal the South Locust Trail this is a project that we've probably been talking about or thinking about for 20 plus years um this is a project that would create a new trail that would connect from the riverway trail which is on South Locust by the Wood River Diversion and then go south um to the Platte River um this is a seven million dollar project um last week city council approved the design of this project um for the hope again is fiscal year 2026 okay island oasis renovations in 2022 the city hired Water's edge aquatic um design group to uh give the island oasis a facility evaluation and a master plan um that was completed so based on some of the recommendations in that master plan um we have been in design so city council again um approved funding for design of this project so we're currently in design um wanted to give a little deeper dive into this project so um I did invite uh Kyle um McKay from uh Waters Edge aquatic group who has been helping us with the design to kind of um we'll give it give you a more detailed look at the design um and so after Kyle comes up here we'll go through that and then feel you know answer any questions that that council may have and then after that we'll ask uh Patrick Brown to come up and talk about um funding options so with the mayor's permission is it okay if we get Kyle up here to talk about the Island Oasis project certainly thank you for your last name sir we'll call the MCC A W L E Yes proceed thank all right thank you for the time tonight so as Todd said we're uh wanted to go through the overview of the project um we are our firm is excited to be here we're excited to participate in 2023 and and see this project come to to fruition so that other things I wanted to run through today um is just kind of what we're addressing at the site what we're addressing what we call kind of outside the fence what's going on inside the fence talk about the budget and kind of that breakdown of that overall number that Todd just presented and and the anticipated schedule that we see from today until this project's uh in the ground and complete so here's the layout so if you kind of can picture what the pool looks like now or the facility looks like now kind of the main difference is taking that main body of water and separate it into two creating an isolated its own individual wave pool and then a leisure pool right now there are one single body of water and there's some challenges that present when you have a high activity like a wave pool and a leisure uh zone and the other and just some of the challenges so this is looking to to separate those two create an own dedicated wave pool and a leisure pool the the lazy river would get attention to um that's a little more of just maintenance so issues like pumps and and pipes and settlement of concrete uh will be addressed in there that's what's going on inside the fence and then the outside looking to repave the parking lot probably the biggest items are a splash pad a dry recreation place section and we'll zoom into this a little bit and an 18 hole mini golf to the south and and southwest part of the property the bathhouse will also get a uh uh renovation so this is where the way it looks like now and the intent is to to expand that space to the south so that would increase the space for concessions and for staff in that area but also increase the space for lifeguards managers break area and the restrooms for the staff so that highlighted section on the right side of the screen would get addressed in the building here's a little more of a

So this is where the way it looks like now.

And the intent is to expand that space to the south.

So that would increase the space for concessions and for staff in that area, but also increase the space for lifeguards, managers, break area, and the restrooms for the staff.