TOWN OF MOUNT PLEASANT, SOUTH CAROLINA RECREATION COMMITTEE TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2011 Conference Room 103, Municipal Complex 100 Ann Edwards Lane, Mount Pleasant, SC Minutes Committee Members: Also present: Staff present: Paul Gawrych, Chair, John Burn, Thomasena Stokes-Marshall Mayor Swails, Elton Carrier Eric DeMoura, Ken Ayoub, Jody Peele, Brad Morrison, Tyler Davis, Jimmy Millar Mr Gawrych called the meeting to order at 11:43 a.m and welcomed everyone Approval of Minutes from the January 31, 2011 meeting Ms Stokes-Marshall made a motion to approve the minutes of the January 31, 2011 meeting Mr Burn seconded the motion All were in favor Introduction of New Employees Mr Ayoub introduced Tyler Davis as the new Tennis Coordinator Tyler comes to Mount Pleasant Recreation Department from Beaufort, SC He coached tennis at Limestone College and Presbyterian College He lives here in Mount Pleasant with his wife and two children Mr Ayoub then introduced Jimmy Millar as the new Athletic Division Chief He stated Jimmy was promoted from Tennis Coordinator to this position, which opened the position for Tyler Davis Jimmy worked his way up through the ranks starting as a Recreation Specialist, Tennis Coordinator and now Athletic Division Chief He has been employed by the department since 1997 Mr Gawrych congratulated Mr Millar and said he knows he will a great job for the Town Employee years of service recognition Mr DeMoura recognized Mr Ayoub for his fifteen years of service, his commitment to the Town of Mount Pleasant and his passion for the kids He thanked him for his years of dedicated service Mr Gawrych congratulated Mr Ayoub and thanked him for all he does Battery to the Beach Update Mr Gawrych asked Mr Morrison to give the committee an update on this project Mr Morrison stated that at the end of January, Charleston County internally decided that their path forward was going to be a phased approach with a multi-use path on the harbor side and come back later and redo the causeway to have two fourteen foot lanes to accommodate the bikes In looking at the survey data to determine how much multi- use path Charleston County could get in, they came back and said they thought that a six foot Recreation Committee March 1, 2011 Page path would be the maximum they could build This information was relayed to Andy Benke at Sullivan’s Island and Mr Morrison Mr Benke and Mr Morrison decided six feet was not much of an improvement It’s an improvement, but not much more than what is there now As such, an alternative plan to get the eight foot path in will be reviewed Mr Benke, Mr Morrison and Charleston County plan to meet on Friday and discuss a new proposal They are actually going out in the field to talk with the folks at Sullivan’s Island and see if the proposal is feasible If this plan is not feasible, then the fall back would be to maximize the path to six or seven feet Mr Gawrych said the Town wanted to this project without building a retaining wall in the marsh, which took this project way off the mark The Town has the money; accomplishing as much as possible on the harbor side, will be the first phase Eventually the road will be widened and the Town will pave a four foot bike path on the other side This will be a phased approach Lets’ see what comes of the meeting on Friday and we will move forward from there Mr Morrison stated he hopes the next update will be a decision on the design, the design being finalized and moving to construction Facility Rental Requests Mr DeMoura stated entities all qualify for the reduce fee, all have a Mount Pleasant impact, all are certified non-profits, all have been awarded reduce fee before and I recommend the same for all three Mr Gawrych asked if they could all be included in one motion Mr DeMoura answered in the affirmative Ms Stokes-Marshall made a motion to grant the facility rental request for Alhambra Hall for all three requests Mr Burn seconded All were in favor Alhambra Hall requests East Cooper Chapter of the Coastal Conservation Association of South Carolina Thursday, April 28, 2011 Charleston Port and Seafarers’ Society Thursday, November 10, 2011 Women Making A Difference Thursday, April 21, 2011 Discussion of Recreation Fees Mr Gawrych stated this topic has been discussed for the past three months at the committee level, however as Chair he has been looking at the fee structure for sometime He stated based on all the Town has in inventory, all the department offers and the level of service the Town provides to keep the fields in the condition they are in, he can easily tell you no one in the state compares to what the Town of Mount Pleasant offers It is amazing what is accomplished between our Recreation Department and Public Services Department With this being said he asked Mr Ayoub to present the survey findings Recreation Committee March 1, 2011 Page Mr Ayoub handed out a chart with the current rates for youth athletics in nine different cities He compared the resident fees and non-resident fees with Mount Pleasant resident and non-resident fees The findings were that the median for residents in the nine cities is $48 and for non-residents is $73 Mr Gawrych said this information is exactly what the committee wanted to see and thanked Mr Ayoub He said nine years ago we looked at the Recreation Department youth athletic fees and at that time it was primarily on the non-resident fees The Town has added additional facilities and we continue to provide the services It is also understood that this is a government run recreation program; we are not going to charge fees and make ourselves whole The fees the Town charges versus what the Town is providing and coupled with the fact that we have a couple of million dollars worth of work from Public Services, it comes down to the question: Does the Town want to reduce services so we can keep the rates down? When it comes to recreation the public does not want to cut services or facilities He feels the residents will be happy to pay a fee increase Ms Stokes-Marshall said her concerns are the bottom line, the cost to provide these services It has been quite awhile since there has been a fee increase in the youth recreation fee She stated when you look at the expense of the Recreation Department, coupled with the expense of Public Services budget that subsidized the Recreation Department in terms of keeping the fields and maintenance, she feels at this point in time, in order to maintain the level of service the Town offers, the committee needs to consider making an adjustment to the recreation fees Mr Gawrych added this increase is strictly for athletic activities and we will need to evaluate the programs and memberships later on Mr Burn said he wants all the youth to enjoy the services that he enjoyed as a child and with what is going on with the economy this is a necessary step He does not want to see the Town’s level of service fall in any area Mr Gawrych said looking at the current fees, residents $38 and non-residents $76, he would like to propose an increase for residents $50 and for non-residents $100 The increase will be $12 for residents and $24 for non-residents Mr Burn made a motion to increasing the resident fee to $50 and non-resident fee to $100 Mr Gawrych seconded the motion Ms Stokes-Marsh asked if this fee increase required a public hearing Mr DeMoura answered in the affirmative Mr Gawrych asked if there was any discussion There being no further discussion, all were in favor Discussion of next steps on Rifle Range Road property Mr DeMoura said he would like to move forward with initial planning for the property recently acquired off of Rifle Range Road He is seeking permission from the committee to move forward independently to have a wetland delineation survey and other surveys done on the property This would enable the Town to look at the land and decide which Recreation Committee March 1, 2011 Page portion of the acreage the Town could best utilize This does not exclude CCPRC and a chance for a partnership with them in the future Once the baseline information is collected, the Town would like to start doing diagrams of the project to determine what the property may look like However, in order to have the wetland delineation survey completed he would need to utilize money from the Hospitality Tax fund balance designated for Recreation This money has not been appropriated and he would need committee’s authority to have the wetlands delineation survey and some early design work paid from this source Mr Burn stated his concern was the Town was duplicating work that the CCPRC will perform the same work Mr DeMoura said he understood Mr Burn’s concern However he feels it is necessary for the Town to move forward to protect the Town’s interest and to get an understanding of how the Town can best utilize the property Mr Burn asked if this exercise would help the Town in partnering with CCPRC Mr DeMoura answered in the affirmative The Town and CCPRC could possibly share the cost of the wetland delineation Mr Burn asked the cost to have the survey done Mr DeMoura stated he did not know at this time He stated that Kevin Mitchell in Planning would be assisting in this portion of the project Ms Stokes-Marshall made a motion for staff to proceed with the necessary preliminary work to be able to design the master plan for the Rifle Range Road property Mr Burn seconded the motion Mr Carrier asked if the wetland portion of this could be placed in a mitigation bank for income purposes Mr Burn said he spoke with the Town attorney in regards to a mitigation bank and was told that due to the unique partnership with CCPRC this process is not available to the Town Mr Gawrych asked if there was further discussion There being no further discussion, all were in favor Mayor Swails thanked the committee and especially the Town Administrator, Mr DeMoura, for his leadership in following through on this project to keep it on track Program/projects update Mr Ayoub said there was an overall increase in youth athletics based on this time last year There was a significant increase in Lacrosse from 313 last year to 447 in one year; this is an up and coming sport In the Aquatics W.A.T.E.R program Laurel Hill Primary School participated and we are expecting 700 students to come through this program Swim lessons are up 141 participants from last year and 76 new memberships at the Senior Center compared to last year Coming up in March at the Jones Center will be the Wando JV softball tournament They have hosted this tournament several years FUNdamental soccer will have a festival at the Charleston Battery Stadium on March Recreation Committee March 1, 2011 Page 11th Park West Track will be very busy this month On March 11th the College of Charleston and Citadel will host the second annual collegiate track meet Currently there are ten to twelve colleges participating March 12th is the Hershey Track meet and Wando High School will be hosting a meet there on March 19th On March 26th & 27th we will host the Piggly Wiggly Soccer Tournament and are anticipating 150 teams Adjourn There being no further business, Mr Gawrych adjourned the meeting at 12:12 p.m Respectfully submitted by: Sarah I Garner ... is accomplished between our Recreation Department and Public Services Department With this being said he asked Mr Ayoub to present the survey findings Recreation Committee March 1, 2011 Page... increase in the youth recreation fee She stated when you look at the expense of the Recreation Department, coupled with the expense of Public Services budget that subsidized the Recreation Department.. .Recreation Committee March 1, 2011 Page path would be the maximum they could build This information was