May 15 City Meeting about Bushmaster Park Development Summary

Hi All, Here is what I have for a summary of the May 15 meeting held by the city to discuss next steps in the park development. Please comment as needed.

May 15 Bushmaster Park Meeting

Steve Zimmerman did a brief intro—Mike O’Connor was the main speaker.

Chuck Hammersley briefly went over changes that were made based on the last meeting—skating rink and adult fitness area moved. The draft was up on the website for 2 weeks. A fifth grade class made comments and one gentleman who wasn’t excited about the roller derby rink idea. He felt the reason that there weren’t many comments was because people were involved in the planning process.

Mike took over from here. He said Kevin Burke (city manager) said that the first group with a viable project would have the best chance at the bond money. He said tonight was the last time they envisioned a public meeting. He stated that there would be challenges on making everyone happy and with the money.

They got some rough estimates based on Steve’s experience with parks. He reiterated that some things go together—can’t have an amphitheatre without more parking for example. Some cost estimates
• Moving bark park -- $12,000
• East side parking lot $500,000
• West side parking lot $90,000
• Large group ramada (amphitheatre $100,000 for ramada + $45,000 for grassy area/sidewalks)
• Small playground $150,000
• Fitness area $40,000
• Total rough estimate $1.6 mill

Next step is to get the internal working group together to see if the suggestions from public and the draft plan address the issues of the park. For example does it address the Flag PD study and the Hermosa Vida study etc.

Then they will seek help from the engineering dept within the city to come up with more detailed engineer estimates. If they don’t have time, then they will need to hire a consultant. Also need to research ongoing maintenance—will need those cost estimates. Then they will post status for public—on parks and recreation sites—telling the community where things stand. They are targeting having this by the beginning of July.

Then they present this to the public works director. They will get guidance from him.

Then to the deputy city managers and the city managers. They will give feedback and probably give more homework—more research that is needed. After direction from them—they will post the status again. They also will likely know more about funding available.

Then to internal working group. At this point they will likely have to prioritize some of the proposed developments.

At the Parks and Rec Commission meeting, (early this evening), they voted to support this plan—putting the $1.1 mill to this plan. This is huge since there are other issues in the Parks dept (tennis bubble, aquatic center at NAU, new west side park, etc). They will still present to them after the city manager, but they technically already have the support.

Go to city council in early fall. Ultimately it is their decision to release bond money.

Questions:
One audience member asked about cost of the garden? $10,000 was the estimate for garden alone—but also need parking lot –another $10,000. There is support for this from the stormwater folks –so that gets a boost from that dept. This also doesn’t include ramada—each of those are $50,000

I asked about any precedent for having outside businesses support certain projects? Can this be done? Answr. Donations –cool (for example the Dr. Nate Avery family wants to donate money for a ramada somewhere). But for businesses –there needs to be a checklist and need to put it out for bid. C. Hammersley mentioned that in Cottonwood, the Roller Derby non-profit Assn provided all the money to build the facility—but the city provided the land. That would be considered a donation. (Transcribers note—it seems if a business who might be doing the work themselves eg a concrete company—then it must be put out for bid, but if it’s just a donation—then it’s ok). Naming rights always have to go through city council. So Foodlink also has a relationship with the city whereby they are a non-profit that can accept donations—but they have a contract with the city to build community gardens. Question about rebuilding Jay Lively—answr—no donations for that, it was all insurance money.

I then expressed my disappointment about getting the word out. They said over and over that they were going to get the word out, but so far they haven’t really come through. Mike acknowledged that this is a problem and that they will try to be better. So they will try harder in the future.

I also asked about prioritization. No public input into this? Mike said, he felt we already expressed our prioritization through this process. Basically, yes it would be internal. Officer Radford suggested having another meeting after the $$ was laid out better. I said I would be happy if even they made the prioritization process transparent—with justification so that everyone who was interested could find that out. Isaac reiterated that we won’t be able to support the process if we aren’t made to understand why decisions are being made. Mike mentioned the studies that had been done and hoping to follow those recommendations.

Audience member mentioned McKenzie’s recent thesis presentation and some of the ideas presented—including less expensive alternatives for innovative parks, etc. She recommended everyone try to get a hold of that.

A brief mention about the FLP work day and a joke about the police log (dog prints). Mike said over a 100 people showed up.

Chuck expressed his optimism that we could get this done in close to the $1.1 mill. He said it was important to keep momentum going.

I asked just a rough idea of best case scenario when we would expect ground to be broken. Mike mentioned that the city has been more about maintaining existing rather than building new—thought that would be a difficult hurdle. They thought absolutely best would be Spring of next year. Hopefully at least by summer.

More discussion of momentum. Chuck said the window of this bond was a great opportunity—such windows are not often seen. Mike mentioned that Coral Evans can’t make Wednesday meetings, but she is very supportive of this issue.

We then had a brief meeting about the safety issue. Ken mentioned that he was trying to do a comparison of crime rates this year versus last and comparing Bushmaster to other parks, but the numbers didn’t add up, --they are still waiting for the return of their stats person. We discussed some recent car and attempted house break-ins as well as the report on the “graffiti” from the FLP work day. The only other incident was an intoxicant who hit a kid in the face with a basketball. Our next meeting is June 19 in the small ramada of the park.