Bangor Parks Committee reviews golf course donation policy and FY27 budget

[0:38] Grace Willett: Go there. We are all right. This is our right now. [0:51] Ryan R. Robbins: The very first thing we do is we go around the table and introduce ourselves. I'm Ryan Robbins, I'm the chair of the committee and a committee member, and we will go to my left. We've been [1:07] Jennifer Dawn Potter: I'm from Potter and I'm a community member as well. I'm there also a community member. [1:13] Grace Willett: Grace Willett, Parks Recreation Director. Rob Darvis, head golf professional, Bangor Municipal Golf Course. [1:18] Pamela Kropp Anderson: Family Park Anderson, community member. Susan Full Moon, I am a Bangor city counselor. [1:28] Grace Willett: Did you pass the minister? I have not. I can do so right now. We want to deal with those. I'll go that way with them. Why don't you follow up with that? Good idea. So from staff I will say thank you to chair Robin for pulling these together. As you recall we were or not on last month but very thorough seven minutes. [2:07] Speaker E (unidentified): Here are a couple of minutes for you. Thanks. [2:11] Pamela Kropp Anderson: Will [2:13] Ryan R. Robbins: I take it all back then. Ongoing projects that university students are working on. [2:27] Grace Willett: But thank you again for putting this together, it's been a big help. [2:33] Ryan R. Robbins: Under new recreation center, it should be Senator Angus Clinton's office. And do you just want to make those changes on one? [2:51] Grace Willett: Yes, yep, and we'll make the changes as noted. It can be approved as a method. [2:57] Pamela Kropp Anderson: Okay. My name is Matt Paul. [3:00] Speaker E (unidentified): Oh, what did I do? Prop Anderson. Oh. [3:05] Speaker F (unidentified): And is John's last name 12 correctly? [3:07] Grace Willett: Please see an eye. Really, I think I think you're right. I think he's an eye and there's someone [3:12] Ryan R. Robbins: I think I got that from his email. We [3:17] Speaker F (unidentified): can double check that. I've seen him both ways so I don't know. [3:20] Speaker E (unidentified): Yeah right, I don't know if this is correct. I guess any [4:02] Ryan R. Robbins: other questions touching [6:36] Grace Willett: that up talk about last time council. I couldn't circulate that thought. No, I said we said that way [7:09] Speaker G (unidentified): that way there's some on the corner there are there. Oh yeah, they said they're yeah. [7:17] Ryan R. Robbins: Donation request. Yeah we're all [7:27] Grace Willett: set with the minutes through the fair. [7:29] Ryan R. Robbins: The rest of those I [7:38] Speaker G (unidentified): need to accept the minutes. [7:56] Grace Willett: next robert jarvis with golf course excellent afternoon everyone evening just we'll give me a quick update on the golf course what 's left of it after the rain obviously we've had a pretty tough goal getting open but we had we just finally got golf cars on the property yesterday on the championship golf course the kelly nine still got some spots that are not really that great that's a much smaller footprint so we're a little bit more protective of it car wear shows up there much sooner than On the championship golf course, just by the sheer magnitude, the size of them. So but we anticipate probably Monday we'll be able to dry, we'll be able to dry enough out there to put those out. So all in all, it's been good though. We've had a lot of walkers, people have been pretty good. You know, we're, we're definitely, we're pretty protective for the property. We don't, we don't want to, and sometimes we as me, I'm not interested in tearing it apart in April and early May to jeopardize June, July, August. When and everybody's really excited to play. So we've got a good, supportive community, and they appreciate us protecting the golf course. So other than that, it's, you know, kind of just waiting to get going, and Jonathan's crew's trying to catch up on some mowing and different projects, so they've been a little bit behind, but to no fault of their own. So on that side of things, it's pretty good. Membership is obviously still sold out, so we did well there. Tournaments are kick off, I think our first outside event is June 1st, which is a Hudson Athletics fundraiser, so that'll be, that'll be great. They haven't run that event in a few years, so they're mustered up a nice field from what I'm, what I, what they've told me, so that's going to be a great way to kind of kick start that portion of our year. Yesterday we saw some, we saw one of our biggest league, our men's league, that's Wednesday afternoon, that got off, and we have pretty good sized field. Considering the weather, the women's golf club has started really officially this week. They did a little bit of a kind of pre-season thing last week, but so they're underway, and pretty much once the sun hits, we're going to be on all cylinders. So that's, that's kind of the gist of the basic opening. Yes, we did. Yeah, we did. We didn't advertise it to the world simply because we just, we just weren't sure what we were going to get for rain last night, and it's, you know, it's, I don't know, inside sometimes. It's covered in a shroud of secrecy, but it's just this, there's just no good answer sometimes, you know. We don't, we don't know when we're going to open, we don't know when we're going to get cards out. The weather dictates every little bit of it, so 33 years I have yet to be able to totally forecast that 's pretty sure. So but they are up. Any other questions, comments on? So I know that's brief, but we'll have certainly some more detailed updates during the summer. We're going to talk about one thing in. Specific, but mostly this little book that I've got right here, which is currently sits at about 40 pages and probably going to grow to about 50 pages. A lot of people ask what's the golf pro do in the winter. Very well, this depends on the winter. This winter was our kind of our really first ever policies procedures handbook. We just never really had one. It's always been not for any good reason other than never nailing down and doing it, you know. It's always people are trained on things and this is going to be huge for our staff. So this was my winter project and it encompasses many things that are, you know, probably getting into the minutiae, everything from how to sell a membership to the culture of the golf course and the staff and just all kinds of stuff. The probably the most difficult thing for me to write is what's in front of you and that's a donation request policy. We get a lot of requests from everything from non-profits to schools to individuals that requests sometimes it's a monetary donation. We don't, we just definitely don't do that. Or oftentimes it is, you know, green speed passes or something like that for a like a silent auction they might be doing or a raffle prizes is. And the reality is, you know, the golf course is a value of 220 potentially every 10 minutes, so we can only give away so many passes before it really starts to impact the revenue source. Okay, and in the past we've kind of just used a barometer of what's, you know, I don't want to say worthy because a lot of them are worthy, but what's kind of been consistent with what we've done in the past. But the last couple of years it's really been, you know, quite aggressive and, you know, I just kind of tried to create this is a, this isn't released anywhere but here, just try to create a brain dump of when I looked at some other municipal golf courses around New England, what they were doing for policies, how they were kind of maybe a little bit more siloed geographically. Some of them were very siloed, those typically were in larger markets where, you know, they might have a lot more ass just due to population. Almost all of them that had a detailed good policy also required an online form submission. So instead of emailing the golf pro, they just, they went on, they filled out and it went to, you know, a forum they submitted it and what happens with it beyond that I don't know. Certainly could probably contact some of those golf courses, but I didn't feel it was worth it until we kind of nailed this down. So That's that's kind of where we sat if you read the policy over, you know, certainly we will, as I said, I won't read it all, probably payable for sure. We give standardly now two weekday green fee passes, so just green fees, no doctor. So at least if they come in, they use the pass, they may, if they want to, they can certainly walk, but if they want to ride, at least the facility gets some revenue there. We do require, we will require, you know, proof of, we said supplemental documentation like, you know, are they a 501c3, so some proof of that, where it's going. We kind of came up with a number of maximum of 30 passes annually. I can promise you we probably get requests of under upwards, you know, of passes. That's just not a number that's feasible because nobody's wants to play in May, they want to play in 4th of July tastes like that when we're already grateful. So that's kind of the way that we, I thought, well, we'll start there. That's about what we've been giving away in the last couple of years, so that number is it's not arbitrary, it's just kind of where I felt comfortable. The qualifying criteria, we said organizations must be a not-for-profit tax exempt organization under the 501c3, and I kind of kept it to my thoughts, initial thoughts were Bangor and or Brewer geography, educational institutions located within the municipality, first responders. And then we kind of, this was something that a lot of, almost all the municipal golf courses are under a parks and recreation department. So they kind of had, I saw some of this language, any or all beneficiaries must align with public recreation, youth development or health and wellness initiatives. I kind of thought that was a good little tidbit to get in there as far as some sort of qualifying criteria. Because again, my goal is to be able to have this policy, reference this policy, and that's how we make a decision. Versus right now, it's a little, to be quite honest, if somebody said, well, why didn't I get it? I need this. I need something to be able to fall back on. on. Ineligible parties, individuals, we get a fair amount of folks, certainly they're worthy causes, but we would really chase our tail with that one. Sick family members, similar to a GoFundMe type situation. Political campaigns and organizations or clubs, we tried to stay out of politics to golf course. For-profit businesses or organizations, didn't feel that was a need for an ask. Parent teacher associations, I put that one on there, and Tracy says, boy, you're gonna get questions about that. I understand. Love parent teacher associations. It can be a very broad sweeping brush of what they're used for. Sometimes they're for the teachers, sometimes they're for the kids, sometimes they're for, you know, equipment. It's very, it's all over kind of the map, and usually that's coming from a school that's already asked for something, so I kind of segued that in there. And then athletic sports teams, clubs outside the municipality. We did asks from schools from Yarmouth about, you know, donations and things like that, so that's kind of a little bit far away from our scope, I felt anyway. So, and I say I felt, these are my thoughts, I would like them to be all of our thoughts. Certainly welcome to interpretation or questions, concerns. The only other one that I have not put on here that we do struggle with, and one of the reasons that I cited the geography, is we get a lot of project graduation asks from all over the state. And project graduations are great. I've been to one, we have them here in Bangor, but again it's one of those things where it's school, it's a school function ish, sometimes it's, you know, another organization like a parent teacher type thing running it, but it would just be chasing down a rabbit hole if we allowed, you know, one in Old Town and then, you know, we don't allow one in Yarmouth, you know what I mean? So how do we distinguish the two? And I thought, well, we've got to kind of, you know, we, maybe we use the Nobscott County, I don't know if that's the direction that you all think we should go or not, but and [19:21] Ryan R. Robbins: that would be like all graduating [19:23] Grace Willett: seniors, is that, yeah, generally speaking that seems, you know, a lot. No, it's, it's to benefit the project graduation event, so we might, they might ask for passes to raffle off to where the proceeds go to fund the event. Yeah, no, that would be indeed a lot. Yeah, right. Oh no, I should have been more clear on that. Yeah, in the middle of the night [19:53] Jennifer Dawn Potter: right, so to clarify that, like, sure, any of these groups, it's not that the whole group [19:59] Grace Willett: Is going to play golf, they're getting passes to raffle and fundraise. They would get a maximum of two passes, correct, any one group? Yep, just kind of to segue up Rob's geography, and keep in mind, especially in this day and age, word of mouth. So if into Rob's example they go to that, but then their student goes to Foxtrot Academy, well hey, I went to this one, go call back immunity for passes is, and it is, it just keeps perpetuating, and the rough point is we even judge a jury up there and trying to get Away from that, especially with you all about something that would say we have a policy, here's policy, understand it's a worthy cause, but we have to draw the lines, and we do get a lot of right wrong or indifferent. I mean I get, I get them every day, emails that are just, they're just blanket emails, they're just sent out to the world, you know, there's no personal point of contact, and I understand it's a volunteer somewhere trying to raise money for a good cause, and they're just trying to hit all the you know businesses that they can think of but it's that 's kind of why I like the you know submitting a form online is it gives them a little bit more skin in the game and if they want to have it you know rather than just cold calling and that happens and it usually take we have a couple of golf passes okay that happens to me in the supermarket yeah that's why my poor wife is shopping one of the reasons I mean it's you know it's it's and listen nobody has ill will with doing it 's in there and All the, you know, when we do deny people, when we do, they're very, it's always a pleasant an interaction, they understand, but it just would be easier to be, I feel we are consistent, but transparency and consistency is important to me, so that's why I think this is, and this will be able to be, you know, published as well, so we're in the process of building a new website, you know, that can be on there, so when somebody says, if you're thinking about applying for donation, make sure you fit these, one of these Boxes somewhere here, and if you do, you submit your form, and then it's on record too, and we do have, we do have tournaments that we have, we've, I kind of don't, I don't count them so much in the past because we have events that spend thousands and thousands of dollars, and they have an, you know, an auction, and we do help support them by giving them a couple of passes, they're always charitable organizations like the Maniacs Charities, we give some to, probably Hassan will give some to because they're we View them as partners, you know, it's kind of part of their, part of their deal. They might give them to go away for closest to the pin prizes or something like that, so it's, it's, it's, it's really, I mean, they paid for them in the long run, you know, by utilizing the golf course for their tournament, but this is kind of a little different, I [23:10] Speaker F (unidentified): mean, I think you have to start somewhere. I think you gotta put it up, you gotta try it, and you have to amend it, because, oh, I didn't think of that, for, you know, now it's just not [23:20] Speaker G (unidentified): not working for whatever reason. Yeah, sure, I think it's a, I think it's a good start. [23:24] Speaker F (unidentified): The passes are the only things, the shop is yours. Yep, and the range balls are [23:31] Grace Willett: also part of the shop, and the [23:36] Speaker F (unidentified): carts are the cities. [23:41] Speaker H (unidentified): Questions, I've never golfed in my life, just someone out there, anybody else not golfed? It seems like a really, sorry, that was telling, I knew that was coming, and say it, I gotta try sometime, I mean, I'm ashamed. Yeah, we should get freedom. [24:01] Grace Willett: That's a whole other ride. Yeah, number one, I never get that from fellow city employees, so [24:12] Speaker E (unidentified): are you looking for direction, like should it just be bang, or, you know, I'm looking for any [24:19] Grace Willett: direction, any thoughts that you have that you'd like to contribute. Firstly, I think it's probably [24:23] Speaker E (unidentified): a good idea if you stick with Bangor, since it's the Bangor Municipal, you know, golf course, just because, like you said, you get a lot of requests, and then that way, if a group from Bangor wants it, they'll mike and say, like, why are you giving it to a group from Orrington or Brewer, or if you give it [24:41] Grace Willett: to bangor and brewer then hammond's going to say hey we're no i agree i agree with that i agree and it's we are it's it's a hard thing to put this out there because we're a we're a happy place we like to make people happy we like to be accommodating but the reality is we can only be so accommodating so it 's kind of like geez i don't really want to cut somebody out but i thought of the same thing like well brewer's right here holden's right here and they're all we're all in you know the county Scared me, because now we're, it's the county's pretty big, you know, that can, that can encompass a lot of things, so, you know, I certainly, I certainly [25:26] Speaker F (unidentified): but if you're a non-profit good sales or something like that 's that's looking for something they're going to do an event not necessarily at the golf course like how do we know where they reside they're looking on their documentation yeah they definitely yeah on their on half their 501b or 501c degree yeah yep we have to say that they are registered in the city [25:50] Pamela Kropp Anderson: of Bangor. Yeah, I think so. Would they have to, would the charity have to be in Bangor, or would it be okay if they just served the Bangor area? Because there are some that I don't know, I can't really think of presence like, yeah, they you know, they serve a more than one municipality. They may not be, I don't know, the only thing I can think of right off the top of my head is like the Bangor Area Recovery Network is actually in Brewer. So like, you know, if they came to you asking for something, you know, but they're actually their physical location is in Brewer, but they serve, you know, the greater Bangor areas. [26:35] Jennifer Dawn Potter: What if like, what if you're a Bangor group, you can apply every year, and if you're a neighboring ring town that borders Bangor you can get it you can apply every two years or something like that, so then the non-profits that are in Brewer and then or something can still apply but not as frequently. I [26:56] Grace Willett: like that thought. I like a boost tag then it becomes a little bit of a I gotta then with this I'm not trying to make an excuse, but then it becomes something that we gotta manage that we're giving away for free. I do, I do, I like what you're saying, because that was my trouble with just Bangor, is there are, I mean, somebody could hand me like their 501 and their corporate office is in Augusta, but they have a branch here in Bangor, or they're serving the Bangor community. I like the word serve that you use, because that's ultimately the most important thing. I think that would be something we'd be able to work into it. And I mean, to your point as well, yeah there's probably no I don't I just don't know how I keep track of that. I think if you [27:50] Jennifer Dawn Potter: have you use Google Forms? Oh yeah, use it fairly first of all. Yeah, so we use sometimes we'll use that work like the same form year after year, so we can see all that old attitude, and if I'm choosing nonprofit and brewer and I just click their name and I see that they also got it last [28:07] Grace Willett: last year I'm like all right next person. Yeah okay I'm just gonna write forum data on here. [28:14] Speaker E (unidentified): So yeah, go ahead. So now it's complicated even more, but I know there's like 1200 nonprofits in the Bangor area, a lot, and then some. Then there's 501c3, and then there's 501c4, so 501c4 or something like food and medicine, they engage in political activity. So I guess like if it's a 501, I wouldn't like, don't give them, you know, but because it is political. [28:43] Grace Willett: Right, which is where that would, you know, I mean- [28:46] Speaker E (unidentified): So you're not gonna draw the line, like number 501. [28:49] Grace Willett: Correct, and I think that would be, you know, yeah, so maybe we have to do 501. But then again, that would disqualify a group anyway, way if it wasn't following the necessarily the youth your recreation youth and health and wellness, if it was, you know, but we could do 501c3 specifically, and the application process is also another screening mechanism to ensure that it is indeed within the parameters of policy. It's good feedback. Yeah, it is, it's very helpful. It's, you know, it's a hard, it's a hard thing to kind of come up with when you're, I would [29:40] Pamela Kropp Anderson: suggest when you put all this online, like noting like when you reach the maximum for the year, putting that on there. Yes, so you're not, so you're not just continuing to have to get those applications and refuse people. They're [30:01] Speaker G (unidentified): going to know, so they're not even going to fill it out. I kind of figured that I would [30:04] Grace Willett: probably be able to disable the form or something like that so you know we're we're submissions of you know rolling over to next year yeah we have enough waiting lists at banger muni [30:15] Ryan R. Robbins: as it is, to be honest with you. That's not, are you going to have one of those that sets a starting date for taking out the closing date, and then if they're all given out, then just say applications are now, if they're given out before the closing date, yeah, then you say [30:41] Grace Willett: less work for you too. So are we, are we kind of the really the last one thing that I want to go back to, you know, are we, do we kind of feel that we limit it to the Bangor and we eliminate the other geographies? Yeah, I guess I would go for a show. Is that okay? I can't call for anything. [31:03] Speaker F (unidentified): I'm used to being, I can't do that. Well, we're kind of also looking at the serve like, yeah, the serving of the of the community, so that might give a little, a little bit of a, I just think [31:17] Grace Willett: That either way that I think it's probably so how should we word that? Because I feel like we should eliminate the town name specifically a revenue source code that and reside or serve the Bangor here serve the city exists if you take that out of it like get up get away from the revenue code. [31:41] Speaker F (unidentified): And maybe go down to your bottom one about aligning with recreation youth development health and wellness serving the Bangor community and you put it there rather than. [31:51] Grace Willett: Get it all technical up by the but the hard part about it is what is the Bangor community you know what I mean once you start saying community and serving the city is Lincoln the bank you know I mean they might think so you know what if they just took every talent that literally. [32:08] Jennifer Dawn Potter: Borders Bangla the side or something it's. [32:17] Pamela Kropp Anderson: Considered greater Bangla and they greater or big because that's too broad I. [32:25] Speaker H (unidentified): Like the serving myself I think that's really important I like that a lot not necessarily exclusively but I do like yeah I mean I like it but I already it might. [32:36] Jennifer Dawn Potter: Be vague because if it's someone based two hours from here and they serve statewide and then it's. [32:41] Grace Willett: Like oh that's true too that's true too can I suggest that it kind of goes back kind of what you've mentioned I mean as much as this is going to be a policy for us maybe this season will be kind of trial and we can come back in the fall and say this is how it worked out what some of the things that we have heard thus far is the word serving and the concern about just calling out specific communities in the area and how you how we define that we could continue of that discussion probably for a. While how we define right where I think there are different organizations that have identified the greater bankroll region differently so and now I'm about to look because I get somewhere in there we see what do you know I have one right in front of I'm looking for the line where it talked about, no, it must be not-for-profit. I think leaving the specific section, most of the organizations that would qualify fall into that 501 c three section and serve you could say just serve the serve Bangor or serve the city of Bangor and leave it at that and try that located in or serving Bangor Okay. Located in our survey. So it would capture, it potentially would capture organizations that are located outside. I will, and this is not to call them out, but I don't know if we've ever had requests from Durgin Center. Durgin Center at one time was here, and that was in Brewer. So, and I know you got a hand, so I'll stop there with that suggestion. I was just going [34:53] Speaker E (unidentified): to ask doesn't just about every not a municipal or town golf course but even privately owned doesn't don't they all pretty much have one i know orrington has one doesn't brewer have one i mean privately oh that's the point so i'm just saying like so then i don't you know oh and they all get hit up to or no but if i just to say so then we did you're our only bangor one so i 'm okay with [35:19] Grace Willett: just bangor like i think that one of the things that i would probably draw the hard line on is and certainly not to pick on him i can hear my wife getting up with me now when once we start getting into the schools so i would maybe limit bangor schools because I mean, every town has multiple schools. And when we start spreading around that, 's when it's a lot of asks from schools. My wife's a teacher, I love schools, but if we, you know, that's my issue with, if we don't silo just Bangor with that, the other nonprofits are, like a lot of them do serve, you know, a larger geography than just Bangor. The schools are just that school, you know? So I kind of feel like we have enough of our older schools here that we can donate to that I'd probably not to pick on them, but I kind of feel that's where we should, and I and I said that, or you know, I think that will help us, educational institutions located within the municipality. Yeah, so I mean, that kind of eliminates a lot of outside asks if they're not in, if they're a school or school affiliated program, they're not in Bangor. And then I do agree kind of with what Tracy was saying is, you know, I mean, we've, we've had nothing for 30, 40, 60 years, so starting off with something and then on, you know, saying, oh, you know, this person asked and we didn't, they didn't fall under the policy and it would have been nice to help them out, well, we probably will still help out, but you don't know what you, what you don't know until [37:09] Pamela Kropp Anderson: you know, it comes around. So I'm just going to say, I would just say located in Bangor, so there's absolutely no confusion on the school. Yeah, instead of saying within the municipality, like I don't want, you know, I wouldn't assume that people are going to know that necessarily means [37:28] Grace Willett: I agree, I agree, and you know it was, it was when I wrote that, I wrote that with intent because I just, I was like, I hate to be, it's all about Bangor, you know what I mean, because we have our golf courses supported by communities from all over, but this is different, so I avoided that, but I agree, you're, I totally agree, people don't know when they say municipal golf course, they don't [37:53] Speaker G (unidentified): know that it's owned by, right, that just doesn't exist, it's not, yeah, in it you don't necessarily 100 know what that means, 100, yeah, so [38:06] Grace Willett: honey, we'll tweak it as we've discussed, what do you feel like you have, I do, we're going to work, we're going to work with the, we're going to change that to Bangor, and I'm going to spend some time crafting, even bring my little buddy Chad GPT t involved with the, you know, the serving part of it, I might dig a couple deeper, look at, look at some other golf courses again, and see more specific language to that, yeah, no, this is very helpful, thank you, so if I can ask, will we get and edit it as we discuss overall thumbs up to move forward with changes, perfect, and ultimately that's what we're after, we appreciate the feedback that, but you take a few more minutes to talk about budget stuff that went through, or no, okay, no one isn't, so we did, we met with council last night and had a great meeting on the budget, which Tracy's got in there somewhere, the nuts and bolts that I wanted to tell you about are, and I'm not sure if I've mentioned that we were going to do this, but we 've been very fortunate the last 10 years or so and accumulated a pretty good nest egg and we are going to move be able to move forward we've got ninety thousand dollars a year for three years scheduled for to begin bunker renovations on the kelly nine which is extremely crucial that's going to be basically a wholesale sand change drainage work we've got an outside contractor that's going to help us if we ever get dry enough that'll involve some tea expansion as well for some of the forward teas over there when they were constructed they're not much bigger than this table, and that's just far too small for the amount of play that's over there, so we're going to expand those as we go along, and a little bit of cart path work too, it's kind of going to be a fluid, a fluid spend if you will, it'll depend on weather, time of year, what we think we can get done in time frames, but very positive to be able to do that, the resources will go a long way, the reality is we can only do so much in a year anyway because the golf Course got people all over it every day, so projects for us are, you know, kind of, we've learned when we did the airport clearing project, it's challenging to uproot the golf course, so we'll be very strategic in how we do it, and hopefully we have a nice dry summer so we can get a lot accomplished. Also, part of that budget was, we budgeted sixty thousand dollars a year to start picking away at some building improvements. We're gonna start with the envelope. The roof is 25, 30 years old, that's the first thing it's we're losing shingles already so that 'll be the first thing then our ac units are also 25 years old we'll start replacing those because it's not a matter of info you know we're every year we're putting money into those so it's time to replace those they'll be more energy efficient it won't necessarily offset the cost but you know for us it's about keeping the building cool and comfortable and then we'll start trickling down into flooring siding windows doors you know again it all depends on who's, you know, availability of contractors, what start, not kind of putting the pieces of the puzzle together, what prices are going to fit within that sixty thousand dollars each year, and so we budgeted that as well for three years, 60 and 60. Just like the other 90 and 90. So I thought that was a great move forward where it doesn't affect the golfer, we don't have to raise rates to pay for those projects, which was always my idea or my goal that we would be able to do that, so I'm very excited to hopefully get started here. Questions? Once again, you know, the golf course is a group enterprise fund in that it completely supports itself, a spring like just for example where we may not necessarily see the business that we would if it was, they've been sunny 73 days the whole time. The fiscal year doesn't necessarily align with a golf season, so when the fiscal year ends in June, to make sure that for itself, Rob is absolutely correct, staff have done a fantastic job of promoting there and encouraging play, and as I referenced earlier about word of mouth and the reputation golf course has, that's what has contributed to the fact that we are able to start to embark on some of these projects that we would have had to defer to ensure that indeed we're covering ourselves. And covering ourselves for the unforeseen. I thought my head was both schools are kind of unplanned the walk-in years ago. Oh yeah, yes, shows occasionally there are unforeseen expenses that need to happen. So Robert's proven that balancing all of that, we've done well. Now we can make some improvements to further improve the experience of the golfer, and there's minor price on that. Never heard that before. Questions. [43:44] Speaker E (unidentified): I have a question about the honey. I thought I was gonna make it all night. We do at the golf course. Yeah, okay, yeah. When we have it all right, that's good to know. Yeah. [43:59] Grace Willett: Keep asking because it's a it goes fast. Probably well, I ration it out because if I put it all out at once it'd be gone in two days, so I put 10 bottles out and then put another 10 bottles out. [44:12] Ryan R. Robbins: Have you do you know whether they weathered the winter well? Oh yeah, they weathered great. [44:19] Grace Willett: You know they we have I had just added about three days ago our fourth hive because one of them was so full of bees that I had to split it and expand it so they wouldn't swarm. So we now have four, which is I told council last night, is somewhere around 225 5,000 bees in the middle of the summer when that little corner of the golf course. Yeah, it didn't seem like a lot, but they stick to themselves a little bit. Any other questions, comments? Thank you, thank you. I'm going to get back to the ranch. Because I am actually the closer tonight, so thanks a lot, and we will see you soon. You probably will shoot, yes. [45:06] Speaker F (unidentified): It's Saturday. [45:10] Ryan R. Robbins: Going to budget of course. Oh, okay, so. [45:20] Grace Willett: As we're all alluded to, we had a budget workshop last night with council running council balloon if I speak and in our blanket how it went something correctly, but from a staff perspective last night went very well overall, some good information shared. So what you have there in front of you in addition to the golf budget is the catch migration operating budget that's been presented to Council for fiscal year 27. It's included in what the accounts provided from all city departments, organizational chart of the department, some of the core functions, accomplishments and goals we have for the coming year, and then the budget summary for the department and a couple of additional items that were presented to them. We're asking to transition a couple of what are currently temporary positions within the department currently, so that specifically would be transitioning one of our seasonal park rangers to permanent. And then transitioning our sports coordinator, which is essentially a system program now, to a permanent position. That one is about 20 hours a week currently. Lake the seasonal park rangers has stayed on year round for us November of last fall. Certainly became apparent that was going to be helpful for us. In addition to that, we've been able to start to work on some outreach programming having the seasonal rangers stay on you around working with forestry helping with finalizing some management plans. And creating some outdoor programming some for a lot of modern walk-in talks at safe forest Essex Willis Prince Willis Brown. So I'd like to like to keep seasonal rangers a permanent position the department. And also there was a correction direction last night and you can make a note of it here. We're actually we need to add 143 900 in revenue that didn't get transitioned from our initial budget input to the final speaker. So actually and I don't have the math here in front of you but in the. Revenue column under 2027 in additional 143 900 headed to about the 1.5 projection. That's kind of it in a nutshell from this point there are a few departments left then. [48:38] Ryan R. Robbins: Council on the opportunity to come. [48:40] Grace Willett: Back the city manager any changes we did talk about a couple of we talked about the revenue last night I think we're gonna have a workshop basically about all the restaurants again. [48:54] Pamela Kropp Anderson: I think it was sort of like how's it going and like is that you know like are we getting what we want out of that like for the for the dollar a year that kind of thing. [49:11] Grace Willett: Exactly so one of the you talked about last night was we have added additional requested additional funding our experience up far has been repair replacement repair of units and repair of damages replacement of receptacles etc. That experience has been primarily in the units on Broad Street Abbott Square here on Carlo Street and to a lesser degree in Co-Park. So as councilman mentioned once we shared that as staff that generated a conversation discussion so to completely point I'm going to come. Back to council likely at a workshop next month, I think I heard that correctly, to have a specific discussion about that further. That is the timeline typically of the budget process here in that by schedule and important charter, this first council meeting in June is typically the first reading and then a final reading of the last council meeting. That's the typical schedule. I got a question on the Mansfield light replacement. I see 45,000. So we recently solicited request for the proposals to replace the light fixtures at Mansfield Stadium. Many of them have come in more than we had originally budgeted for and we're still reviewing though. So that was asked in anticipation of eventually needing more funding to replace the light solution. That's correct. Currently we have approved 425,000 to replace the light fixtures, so we're still reviewing that and working our way through that to ensure that some proposals were less, some were more. We just want to ensure that we're replacing fixtures at Mansfield that are consistent with what's been there. So it's taken us a lot longer candidly review those that we haven't just scared me for seconds. Yeah, no, the intent is so the fixtures at Mansfield does not include what you've already said. That is correct. That is correct. That's a good question. That is correct. If I didn't come up last night, we currently have approved 425,000, so that was there to ensure that we have enough to replace [51:58] Ryan R. Robbins: flights for the replacement and I'm just curious on the equipment that's been all scaled [52:04] Grace Willett: what is that is put in there anticipating. So at the golf course we've had pretty good experience with leasing turf equipment. In general terms, turf equipment is specialized equipment and expensive equipment. So the logic with putting those amounts in there further out in the capital plan was to start to do the same thing at Mansfield Stadium. The turf equipment there is also aging and will start to need to be replaced over there. So that is there to hopefully coordinate with the golf course lease program and perhaps incorporate some turf equipment from [52:48] Ryan R. Robbins: Vansfield Stadiums. Does that ensure like you'll always have up-to-date? Yeah, exactly, real [52:58] Grace Willett: real mowers, for example, are expensive, particularly as expensive, and don't see it getting any [53:05] Ryan R. Robbins: less expensive any time soon. And fiber for the waterfront, is it? [53:15] Grace Willett: The fiber for the waterfront is to essentially put in cabling, fiber, cable, the rest of the length of the waterfront. We are starting, we have currently funding to add cameras in the process of doing that at what I'm going to refer to as the parent paving end, which is behind the casino along [53:39] Jennifer Dawn Potter: the waterfront path. A little tunnel. Not a tunnel, but like- Yeah. [53:43] Grace Willett: No, we just ditched it out- I call it a tunnel. Yeah. No, we just ditched it out this week to lay fiber along to add cameras. cameras. We have a large missing open piece between what you saw down there at the end of the fence to down by dock five. So we have fiber as active fiber as far as the entrance to dock five. And then we are doing what's they call radio units, essentially a line the site for the cameras to the compass rows and this would eliminate the need to do those line of sight radios and have a more consistent dependable connection of fiber going to the water we're in plans to offer wi-fi there is wi-fi in the waterfront now okay and so and to that question and as I shared with council last night this would also allow us to do that the length of [54:47] Ryan R. Robbins: the waterfront so is that going to be is that limited to so many hours per user currently you [54:56] Grace Willett: get on I believe it's two hours you have to go through a login stream or an accepted stream I think it allows you up to two hours make sure often then you have to you have to kind of but it is free. You can get free Wi-Fi. It's limited to essentially, if I recall the distance, C-Dawg to maybe the Compass Rose. So [55:28] Speaker E (unidentified): the cameras, do those go to the police department? [55:32] Grace Willett: The police department can see them. We have access to them. and ultimately again would connect all the new anything new to do police so currently we have cameras along the waterfront and there's visual not yeah the visual camera we have for years there's cameras along railroad street so we can cap so we can see railroad street, which is helpful for events, helpful for food trucks. We've been able to do beneficial [56:14] Ryan R. Robbins: event issues around food truck court. [56:17] Grace Willett: And then nights of events at the Mainstay Museum Theater, being able to monitor around the venue during concerts has been helpful as [56:27] Ryan R. Robbins: well. And how long will the videos be kept? [56:32] Grace Willett: You're asking me technical questions now. They're not kept forever because I've had to go back before and look at actually at the park rec center, just curiosity about us, it was set up. I was looking for, I want to say it was prior to three months, but don't hold me for that, but it's not forever. Yeah, the service is big enough to keep that. [56:57] Speaker E (unidentified): I have a question about that bathroom. So there's a bathroom down by the waterfront in the office there. Yeah, we have, we just finished. [57:07] Grace Willett: Looking at the water this week, so we're in the process of our water connections for the winter, doing backflow inspections and testing and all of that. So to answer your question along which way we open the restrooms in our master building while the park ranger is on duty and or harbor master, so that it's not 24,000. In addition to that, we have a set of restrooms further down the walking path in a service building for the tank that was installed a number. [57:37] Speaker E (unidentified): Of years ago down, so a small white building. Is that right near that sculpture that's like a kid? I was wondering what that was. So that is actually a bathroom. There are bathrooms in the front. [57:47] Grace Willett: It's also a service building for the tank, so one of those hours. So the hours of the park rangers are essentially eight to five thirty right now, seven days a week. They're on the waterfront in those hours. The rangers aren't always on the waterfront, but the rangers are on duty and have will open the restroom. Now again, we're still trying to find why is the water connected to the harbor map building typically, but yeah, seriously. [58:21] Speaker E (unidentified): Do the police patrol the riverfront on a regular basis or is it mostly the rangers? How does it come into both? So. [58:35] Grace Willett: The police department, I'm not going to speak for them as far as their patrolling routine, but the waterfront is included in a specific beat or area, so as part of all the other areas that they patrol and issues they deal with, they're certainly through the waterfront on a consistent basis. I can tell you anecdotally they're often going through the waterfront on both ends, so in addition to the end down by the harvester building, they're also on the other end down by the very paving. [59:03] Speaker E (unidentified): Building by the casino. Do they pick up needles and trash or I don't know? Yes, and so what. [59:14] Grace Willett: i would say to you in general terms and we've used this made the suggestion before can we cannot no individual or department can be every place every time so there are areas that yes that happens you can give parks and record call give us a call we have a contract with wabaki health to help us with this the rangers when they see that kind of they've been trained to pick them up as well and then we'll work with rabid ackee to dispose of the ones that we pick up a lot of folks use secret fix the city's website for that kind of information. So yeah, if we try to keep up with it, and I think generally speaking it works out well. Are there occasions when one either gets missed or one shows up in there that can happen? [1:00:10] Speaker E (unidentified): Another question about, oh sorry, about the rangers. Has there been any discussion about them becoming constables? They have more authority, you know, authority or issues things about littering or, you know, warnings or something. Constables, the discussion is certainly [1:00:31] Grace Willett: a possibility that, the part of that discussion is what indeed is the authority of a constable, and then what can a constable do and not do. As the harbormaster, the harbormaster is also a sworn constable here. So yeah, we've had some discussion on are there opportunities to use that title, for lack of a term, to help with general ordinance enforcement and what [1:01:01] Speaker G (unidentified): are the limitations of that. Yeah, Orlin just did that. He probably said yeah, no, it'll be interesting to see how that plays out for them. It will be interesting to see how that works out. [1:01:13] Grace Willett: Now we're, I'm, and I may have mentioned it again last night, I think I've shared with this group, being able to implement that park ranger program has been hugely beneficial for us. There was anticipation that the coordination that those individuals talk just about on a daily basis, so that coordination of itself has been beneficial to try and address some of the things that we have out there, and the reason for asking for the additional full-time ranger is a product of some of the benefits that it has proven to have and what we can see is just evolving positively here in community going forward and it goes more than just for example they're out the city forest or on essex woods around apprentice woods around brown woods having that consistent presence of a park ranger for patrons of all of those places has just the anecdotal feedback that we receive hey it's great to see a ranger out here they're often and on foot they have a small utility vehicle that they use they were down on the kinesi pre state stream trail this afternoon just walking it through addressing whatever we need to address down there so yeah it's been beneficial and the coordination between the department's been [1:02:49] Ryan R. Robbins: fantastic there's been any thought to maybe or city force putting them on bikes just to do a [1:02:58] Grace Willett: a you know ride through there has been thought of that certainly we actually when we first did the funding for the program it was there was mention of purchasing a bike in all honesty days, not everybody is bikeable. So why the UTV? But if there is an opportunity where we have a ranger say, Hey, I'd love a bike, then we'll put them on a bike. Having the UTV is certainly kind of that meet in the middle where you're not bringing a vehicle to the city forest or Essex woods or Brown woods, but the UTV allows us to respond whenever we need to or are utilized single ranger on duty are more effective so the bike has never been it was possibility depending upon what we have on the team at the time with the bike have you considered the bike and yeah no yeah absolutely no it's you don't [1:04:07] Jennifer Dawn Potter: even got a pedal if you don't want to be a real person right you can just like slow or is it a [1:04:13] Grace Willett: little yeah for sure yeah our custodian just he's got a trike you know main brand but yeah it [1:04:19] Speaker E (unidentified): looks fantastic there's a five question limit i missed the last meeting so i got a whole bunch of questions but the signage i know i think it was discussed at maybe council workshop or something thing about signage, about drug fees, free zone or littering or especially the parks. But if there was more signs up that say, you know, no littering and then the ordinance number or no loitering and then also the drug free zone, like I noticed in Bar Harbor, they have them in all the parks, drug free zone. And then it was the ordinance, you know, so I didn't know if that has, I know it was discussed, but probably maybe it was a council workshop, I don't know, maybe, you know. But so I was just wondering if there's been any more. I just thought if we had those signs up and if we had, if Ranger can become a constable and maybe hand out, you know, warning about no littering, maybe it would help. So each of [1:05:25] Grace Willett: our parks has the blue and white signs with most of what that information just asked about. In addition to that, and then there are, for example, in parks where smoking is allowed, there's reference to that, is a reference to the specific ordinance. No, but there are also individual signs of most of the parks about the drug-free zone and the associated penalty for that. Saying all that signs, we go, we update signs often, so we did those park signs. I lose track of time, is probably four or five years ago, so always something for us to [1:06:16] Speaker E (unidentified): look at. I think too there's a fee associated with littering also, state and [1:06:23] Grace Willett: city. Was most of the park signs have a, there's a illustration of someone littering and the circle that classroom, so the [1:06:37] Pamela Kropp Anderson: Rangers, they go down the other end by the railroad tracks, like down by me, as far as Hancock Street. I know some of that properties railroad property, and I've heard it's been down there for a [1:06:52] Grace Willett: while. I've heard it's not looking so good. We have not pursued up the railroad beyond what is currently a city problem. The road police go down there with that encampment, they did, the railroad helped out with the encampment on city property. I cannot speak for BCAT, that they have or have not been down there. I'm, I believe BCAT is trying to maintain contact as well as public health with folks that are unhoused in a variety of these locations that aren't necessarily city property, so the rangers specifically on a regular basis, we're not going that far up the tracks. Saying that if they are asked to assist in any way with other city departments, we're certainly amenable to that. So and again, I, the ranger program is as much to serve the parks and open spaces as it is the BCAT, the community action team and public healths. We will defer to them on consistent outreach to those folks that are unhoused off of city property. The park rangers are as much to help somebody with the map of the city Forest as they are, you necessarily focus on young house. We're certainly spending time on that, and we shared some information with council in previous workshops, but we try to balance the true intent versus the assessing deal with the issues that we do in [1:08:30] Ryan R. Robbins: some of our spaces. Questions about the budget, we [1:08:39] Jennifer Dawn Potter: have two vehicles. What kind of vehicles are those, the new one and the replacement? Which one you're looking for? The oh, so the [1:08:51] Grace Willett: park ranger vehicle currently is in addition, so they're sharing a vehicle right now with other city staff because of the need to have them both places. The city wants currently the ranger program as a pickup truck that would add another vehicle to that fleet. The other vehicles are replacing trucks that we have had for upwards of 10 years, so one, both of them actually are currently being used by the mowing crew, part maintenance crew that you see around the city hauling trail with molars on got each of them are at least 10 years old. I believe truck 80 is more on the neighborhood 12 years old, and it's now starting to show where they're, we try to bring the vehicles as long as we can, but that's just to rotate those vehicles out. [1:09:45] Jennifer Dawn Potter: I've had two EVs so far, and they've been saved a lot of money. I don't know if that's something [1:09:51] Grace Willett: hooked into the generator feature on our car is like not opposed, so we currently have a, the Breck staff has a, that's all. Yeah, it's been a great little car you, but if you own one, if you're longer trips you gotta plan out a little bit, but especially if you're using an air conditioner or the heater on a pretty steady basis, but we've had the electric car for three years now anyway, actually we're using it today, so yeah, they're not opposed to that at all city wide. The community connector has electric truck now, city electrical has electric truck now, and I, we're not opposed to that at all for what we use the truck for primarily early, that would be fine because the Silverado's got that. Yeah, you're absolutely right, so [1:10:46] Jennifer Dawn Potter: yeah, no, not opposed to that concept at all, and I don't remember which one it is or if you ever need power, but like one of them's got like a seven kilowatt generator. Yeah, it's crazy, our fleet [1:10:57] Grace Willett: maintenance director, our fleet maintenance department is been very good about pursuing any and all options, and we have shared with them as I just shared with you that not opposed to EV and all. We have the capacity for parks and rec to charge her. One [1:11:18] Speaker E (unidentified): Last question. Do you know how many times the emergency rescue has been sent to the bathrooms for overdose or [1:11:31] Grace Willett: death or anything? I don't know. I wouldn't have that information. And certainly if that something we've talked about at workshop but I don't. [1:11:48] Pamela Kropp Anderson: We were talking so much about the abilities like what are the activities that are going on. [1:11:57] Jennifer Dawn Potter: Just to clarify on the hammering, you know that little alley section of the trail on the waterfront by the old engineering building? I run that at night and overall feel okay but sometimes when I see someone on the other side I'm like, yikes, are there cameras there? [1:12:17] Grace Willett: That's what we're doing now. Okay. So the tunnel that you saw. [1:12:20] Jennifer Dawn Potter: I'm so stoked about that. [1:12:21] Grace Willett: The tunnel you saw is for the fiber for the cameras. [Jennifer Dawn Potter: Okay, that's cool.] So we're gonna connect, we're gonna add a camera at, so if you're down there, you'll know the sliding gate, there'll be a camera there, and then we're gonna camera back up the walkway. As far as we can, that's where we're gonna get into line of sight, [1:12:49] Jennifer Dawn Potter: I don't know if this would be a Parks and Rec thing but like you know on campuses or like the emergency button with a little glowing thing for like emergency I guess something like that possible in those like remote spots of [1:13:06] Grace Willett: part of the I feel like I've heard something that they were camps of getting away from those because everybody had phone out yeah that's that's that was kind [1:13:16] Speaker F (unidentified): of the trend everybody has their phone rather than like okay something's going on i gotta go find this location to go somewhere and hit the button or you know invite yourself [1:13:25] Ryan R. Robbins: i had the same thought because you have probably outside of the school environment you have people could it'd be likely to trip it just to you know i think with the cameras and the [1:13:40] Grace Willett: knowledge that the cameras are there will help enhance the perception of the invisible kind of call maybe i mean we're not the cameras especially the ones on railroad street and well the ones in the food court you can clearly see if you look on the pole what it is the cameras on railroad street you gotta look up at a whole light pole and see what it is so yeah so we've gone [1:14:14] Ryan R. Robbins: way past our normal [1:14:20] Grace Willett: so brianna shared i think with you all i made copies of the email it's very scattered I can send around or we can table this for next month okay finally well my [1:14:39] Speaker F (unidentified): Question is to you, what do you need at this point? So there's some drafts, there's some language, there's some good vocab, all right. So you're the one living it, so for us to craft something, I don't know if it really, you know, it, I think what is that enough for that, for your team to kind of say, all right, this is what we think embodies us, and then, you know, report back, and we're just an advisory committee. So is it, so you have what you [1:15:08] Grace Willett: want. It is what I wanted to one separate, so their last email sent three examples. One that struck with me tonight, and I can review with staff, is the third one, to try and answer your question. I feel like we have enough from you all at this point. Would you be okay if we came back, we need to come back next month, and here's what looks good to us based on the feedback you've had, and get a final thumbs up on that? We do that? All right, let's do that. Honestly, the third one that's in here, two and three of that one, of the, I think is the last email she sent, both could work for us. I think there's a lot of good stuff, yeah, and again, the whole idea was put in front of you all in the first place was, yes, you're, but you are advisory, and you are the extra sets of eyes and ears for us, much like we're on the policy discussion with you. It's always good to have [1:16:14] Ryan R. Robbins: a conversation about these settings. We haven't done it for 20 some odd years, yeah, but I think [1:16:20] Grace Willett: we've got from you all enough to come back and say, hey, is what we decided any sense? All right, [1:16:27] Ryan R. Robbins: so anything else? Yes, so yeah, why don't we move next month? Okay, would that be available? Yes,, you can tell it's all about fulfilling the rules, and I know it went well, so went well. [1:16:55] Jennifer Dawn Potter: Had 880 somewhat paddlers, 161 boats, which is a higher number we've had last few years. [1:17:02] Speaker G (unidentified): Nobody really had anything seriously happen, so she got a ring she wanted all [1:17:06] Grace Willett: week, yeah, so what's the date? 11, yep, that work.