Okay. Okay. I call to order the July 11th, 2024 meeting the Ashland Parks and Recreation Committee. Are there any proposed changes to the agenda as presented? Okay. Great. Hearing none. We will move forward to item number two, citizen inputs. Are there any attendees who would like to speak before the committee? Please join us at the podium, yes please. Yes and if you'll provide your name and address and then you can write it down after you're done on that little sheet there. Perfect. Hi my name is Liam Hogan. I'm the president of the Ashland Youth Soccer League. I've had that role for about one and a half years. I'm a lifelong soccer person, I guess you could say. I currently operate out of 201 Duncan Street, the Dominion Energy Innovation Center. I fell in love with Ashland when I lived on one, two, six South Sneeds Street. I don't currently reside there. I live in King George County actually right now. So full disclosure, I'm currently a come here, but I love Ashland and I hope to live here again soon. That being said, this park looks awesome. The drawings as is look amazing in the rendering phase. I have sort of a simple minded appeal that for the court that you consider framing it as a multi-sport court. So rather than solo focusing on basketball, which for the record, I'm all four basketball hoops and basketball lines, I think it would be a wise move to also invest in at least infrastructure to play what's known as foot saw, which is a form of soccer. That's basically a hybrid of like soccer and basketball. It's a growing sport. I think some teams from Richmond, Virginia recently won national titles. They're based out of the New Henrico Center, which is the mega place. And many professional soccer players around the world attribute not only their success as athletes, but their character formation and their early development of critical thinking skills to footsault. It's a five against five sport, which I believe is the same as basketball. It's played on the exact same dimensions as a basketball court. The goalie area is a little bit of a different line. It's not quite a three point line, however. A three point line can also be used for the footsault goalie area. I'm active in the community every day, Coach and Soccer. I've been at Porfarm Park since 8am today. Been there all week, running a camp. We run Ashland, Usocar League out of Porfarm Park right now. But my hope is that we can begin to have more programming based within town limits. Because about 30% of our enrollment, so about 100 families, consider themselves downtown Ashlanders or you know they have the 2, 3, 0, 0, 5 zip codes which I've learned recently doesn't necessarily mean that you're within the town limits of the corporate limits of the town but we're proud to be representing Ashland far and wide and this sort of thing as you plan South Taylor Street Park. I think in my heart it feels like a no-brainer to plan or budget or whatever for goals to play an additional sport in the space. And with that being said, Ashland Youth Soccer League would be happy to partner in any way to make it possible whether it be with fences or netting or goals or benches or whatever would be needed, financially, volunteer-wise, maintenance commitments, rental fees, we would be, as an organization, totally on board. And again, on the President of Ashland, Dusakar League, we have north of 300 players. We just added travel programs. We will compete amongst any team or program that you're familiar with in the Richmond area. We're very excited about that. And when I saw the renderings and, you know, I was thrilled to see that it would be a full court. I think having a full court, sport court is again an O-brainer. And we would love to help empower it to be a great place where kids of all ages and even adults are able to come together for safe community engagement in ways that improve their quality of life and create new opportunities for the kids in action. So thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you so much for your feedback. Mr. Hogan, appreciate that. That's a question. Yes. Good. Quick question. You don't need sideboards or anything like that, right? No, no walls needed. No walls. You use the boundaries of like the basketball court lines and you can use a smaller ball that is designed for less bounce. So that's another thing. It wouldn't necessarily be a risk of balls flying all over the place. And for reference, if anybody is familiar, we recently held a foot-solve season in the Henry Clay Gymnasium. So we used the Henry Clay Gymnasium and had a very successful foot-solve season for children between the ages of six and 10. And we think this is a huge growth opportunity for sports programming in our little area. Personally, I'd like to thank you for your dedication. My son started with Ashrin Yves Sakalik when he was four, and he wound up with a college scholarship to play soccer. So thank you. That's awesome. As much as I wish I could claim some piece of credit. If he's graduated college, he beat me to it by like 18 years. But thank you so much. And that's wonderful to hear it. And that's what we're all about. We definitely want to propel the kids to pursue education and dream big and help put action on the map. Absolutely. I too, my horn a lot about how we're trying to promote Ashland and we're kind of like a quasi-tourism arm. But we play matches all around the East Coast. I mean, the mid-Atlantic, I'd say. Yes. And I don't know. We might need to start getting people to put every time they stop at exit 92 that Ashland soccer sent them here to get their meal here or to do their hotel stop for their trip from Florida to New York or whatever, because they knew from soccer that Ashland is an amazing place to stop. So thank you all. Any other questions? I do have a question. And thank you, yes, to Ms. Miss Point. You are building on the legacy that was already there and it sounds like you are taking it even further so congrats to you on that. Thank you. And thank you for sleeping on. And so my question is you did say multi-sport. So are there other sports that you often see incorporated in that besides basketball? Typically the third sport would be volleyball. I know that and I'm not sure as an outdoor space if that would be like an optimal third sport usage but like for example though I wouldn't be opposed if if it was a surface that was designed where you could also rollerblade or things of that nature I mean I know that you have to have boundaries at some point with what's allowed and what's what's not permitted But I do just want I just wanted to be clear that I'm not looking to steer the project off of basketball I think that just the utility of the space, it would be really cool to see it be able to be used by multiple things. And like, there's other sports, but probably the main three would be like a footsaw basketball, volleyball type situation. Okay. Thank you. Any other guests? One more question. What type of surface? So the surface can be any surface. I'm the type of soccer coach that will take the kids out on the asphalt. I mean, we could even do a foot sol over in front of the train, Merrill, for the way that we do it. It's a sport where you're not really supposed to be slide tackling, but the goalie, you know, the goalie's war in e-pads. Yeah. Basically anywhere where you could play basketball, you can play futsal, sport court brand tiles would be optimal for the record. If I could, as a disclaimer also, my son is the director of operations at the Henrico Sports and Event Center and they have regular tournaments there with with first call. And he had to educate me on it a little bit because I was not used to it but they packed all the time with this and they run multiple courts and you know it would be nice to consider that you know to have a soccer program, having grown up with you, soccer like yourself, by some, also played in college and also. It's just one of those things, and he says it's a great game. Yeah. So, and he worked at the Virginia Beach Center before, right? Is he the guy that worked in Virginia Beach and then came over here and now he leads the... No, no, he was the AD at Atley High School. Oh, okay, okay, I'm mixing up characters, but I love the footsaw stuff and I happen to know that it's $90 per hour to play footsaw at the Henrico Center. So this is something where if we could incorporate the soccer nets under the basketball hoop, it would be a direct cost saving to the families in Ashland and in theory in a way that we could have a public park with intel limits that we could either rent or have a first come first serve situation where we could go out there and offer clinics and practices where we wouldn't necessarily be lining our pockets to provide the education to the kids. And we are a registered 501C3 nonprofit. And we can provide the paperwork on that as needed. And to chime in, my daughter also played soccer and went on to play field hockey in college. But she did foot saw it really improves the skill. Yeah. Because it's a limited space and it's more strategic and their skills increase Tenfold I mean it's amazing what that does for a player. I saw it with water. So and she loved it too. So Let me say you all are awesome people to be running the parks We try. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. My email on here and I think I'm going to get out of here. Thank you. We appreciate it. Thank you so much. Yes. Yes. We've got to go back to practice at Port Farm Park. How's off to you? It's been many a day at Port Farm Park. They just put in new lights, they put in like three new fields there and it's like awesome. That's great. Wonderful. Good. Are there any other? Oh, excuse me. No, no, excuse me. I was just saying in a major shout out to Emmy, she has been shepherding me through and giving me very professional guidance within her role and I really appreciate her too. All right. Thank you. Yes. Thank you for that acknowledgement. Thank you. Yes. Thank you for that acknowledgement. We are very thankful. Very thankful for our team. OK. So are there any other attendees who would like to speak before the committee? I like that there's multiple here. OK. So hearing none, we will now close citizen input. Thank you for that, Mr. Hogan and Moving forward we'll move to item three discussion item a which is the bike and pedestrian plan and community input review mr Churches awesome. Thank you Chelsea Okay, so we are By computer stream plans lots on my brain so So, we met two months ago, we met in May, and we started our public input campaign for the bicycle and pedestrian plan. We had 66 survey respondents that was gathered of variety of methods. We did the community input meeting here at Town Hall. We were at the Carter Park Pool opening day. We were at the Strawberry Festival or Strawberry Fair. And I think 66 is a really great number. And a lot of valuable feedback. So some of the questions that we asked were very specific to the plan, but the, but a lot of them were just to get a pulse on what the biking and walking community is like in town and then with the feedback really hone in on those comments and remarks So briefly I will just go through and I'm gonna change our screen real quick So I've got to pop in the other room So that the agenda is broadcasted, but I'll go through The questions and then once we get to the remarks, I'll open it up for discussion. I'm not gonna read through them all. Hopefully you guys have looked through them. But ideally, we need to decide what we're going to do with those remarks if it impacts the narrative or if we feel like it fits within the existing narrative and these go in an appendix or how we want to include this information. But we'll just go through the questions first. So I'm going to pop in the other room, change the screen, and then we can resume the discussion. Okay, two seconds. Okay, so the first question asked was how often do you walk or bike in the community? This was just, as I said, some kind of questions to take the pulse of the respondents. And so we had the majority of the people daily to several times a week. So those answering the survey are more of an active walking, cycling, transportation group. When asked what the purpose behind their trips were, the majority of respondents indicated physical health improvements, recreation and fun, access to destinations in town. So those key destinations help services, government buildings, that type of thing, and preference, which was really nice to see that people prefer to walk. Then you'll see some comments there, other movies walking the dog, dog walking, that's up my alley. But that kind of lets us know why people are moving about town. Next, we have what factors influence your decision to walk our bike. And the last question in this one, it's check all that applies so people have the opportunity to select more than one answer. And safety, availability of trails and sidewalks, distance, and the presence of traffic signals or crosswalks all scored very high. A few of the other respondents said concern for climate issues and the weather. So we know that a lot of the things we've been talking about in the bicycle pedestrian plan, safety, connectivity. That kind of fits in with what the respondents are looking for here. So yay us. Next of the goals listed in the 2045 plan, which two goals are the most important to you? And here we see safety and connectivity as the top two with all of them scoring really well. So another great indicator that we really hit the mark with the goals that we listed in the plan. And now we get to the specific areas in our community where you think improvements in biking, walking, infrastructure are needed. So these are kind of fit in with the projects list and the proposed projects and plans. So I won't read through all of these, but a lot, you know, recommending where sidewalks should go, crosswalks, and even some, you know, infrastructure, smaller infrastructure, things like bike racks and, you know, accessibility areas. And then our final question was if you have ever experienced any challenges or concerns while walking in that cutoff, while walking or biking in our community, if you ask please describe. And then here we have some responses walking on streets without sidewalks, crossing the street, connected dedicated bike, trails, traffic, so you know a lot of what we've already identified in conversation, but good to see those specific comments and concerns. And then finally our last question was, please share any additional feedback you have regarding the content of the plan. Some really great thoughts here. Ashland's very walkable and vicious. I hope to see more sidewalks soon. Excited for the fall line trail. Great written plan. I'm glad improvements are on the horizon. So lots of good feedback there. So I synthesized this and for the most part, the responses either may fit into the goals, objectives, and initiatives. And what I want to preface our conversation with is there's a lot of really great specific information, which is what we were looking for, but the plan is a big picture over our June 2045 plan. So in, you know, making a lot of specific changes, if we see things that are very glaring or something that, you know, like, oh, they brought up a great perspective that we didn't include, let's, you know, obviously have that conversation, but there's a few ways we can move forward. Obviously, we can make specific changes if anywhere in the plan is needed. But also, we do have that appendix for community input where we can provide all of this feedback, much like they did in the 2040 transportation plan and our assistant town manager for external operations. New title, Martha Miller is doing with the public art commission and their master plan. They have appendix with all the community feedback. So that's already built into our plan. And so there are a few routes we can go with this. But with that, I want to open the floor for you guys to discuss. before for you guys to discuss. I think capturing it so that we include it, I think, as an appendix, to the plan shows that we are listening. But I think it's also important for this to the specifics to be captured and utilized when we review sidewalks and since they're specific and when we go to do those types. So the next level down, I don't know what you would call that. The prioritization cycle. Yeah, yeah. I think this needs to be part of that. Right, it's parts of this. Absolutely. part of that. Right, it's parts of this. Absolutely. Overall, I found this to be reassuring that our plan is hopefully, I mean, the goal right is that we are pinpointing on the issues within the community. So seeing the safety comments, seeing the connectivity, the need for connectivity, seeing the need for better signage. I think these are all things that we've really tried to focus on. And so it feels reassuring. And I do, I also, I want to go back and reread the plan after reading all of these to see how we can. I also, I want to go back and reread the plan after reading all of these to see how we can, if there's ways to respond to some of it too. I know we're not voting on it right now, but I think that would be helpful if we go back and read it again, and just try to make sure that we aren't reading it through the lens of taking a setback because we've been so entrenched in this for so long, taking another setback of, okay, as a citizen reading this. Again, for the first time, thinking about all of this as a really great angle and insight into what residents are saying would be helpful. I'm seeing a lot with crosswalks and a desire for more crosswalks, excuse me, crosswalks, desire for more crosswalks and a desire for enforcement of current crosswalks. And more so than I was anticipating reading. And I think that also gets to some of the conversations that we had with some of the community members who were here the first nights that we first had this and I don't those comments aren't wrapped up into this are they yes or they're not in this survey they're already in the plan. They're in the draft plan. The comments that we got in those comment boxes. They're in the draft plan. Are they in the appendix? Yes, they're in that appendix section. Okay, great, thank you. Where this stuff would go, too. Awesome, okay, thank you. Is getting to the culture element of how do you make Ashlyn, how do you help us turn into a place where the culture is that you are aware and recognize pedestrians. People on bicycles, on other motorized pieces of equipment. How do you recognize that? Make sure that we are being sensitive to that. So I think just thinking about that a little bit more to from my seat. And along that vein from the accident that was involved, the pedestrians were involved. I was trying to find out what was determined. I knew our police department would be on it, and I knew that they would have a clearer idea of what happened and what fell through or whatever. So in that vein, I had contacted Pam, Miss Sobel, and asked her if she was aware of, I couldn't find it anywhere, so I contacted her and she, I went the official way, and I got the report from the police chief. And it's unfortunately, again, it's no surprise, it was classified as failure to yield. The pedestrians did everything right, pedestrians did everything right. There was no fault of the blinkers for working. Because they were at a very what should have been a safe crossing. So nothing fell apart except for the person I believe was distracted. I mean, they don't know that. You know, they're not going to admit to it, but they failed to yield of which why would you, if you were distracted, you didn't see them. And I, you know, thanked everyone that participated and gave me that information. And then I went out and just searched nationwide. And unfortunately, it's a trend everywhere that this is occurring and I I don't like that you know I wanted to see what can we improve yet I don't like to hear anybody getting hit and there are different task force that are looking at it and I'm thinking that somehow we need to stay current on what can we do you know besides trapping people in the head to pay attention and not look at their phones or whatever, but there are things that other communities are doing. And I think we're trying to encourage people to utilize and we're trying to put together more walking, biking, access, but there's that conflict and it's, it divide, you know, there's England Street. It's, we've got got we're in quadrants and pedestrians and bicyclists are going to encounter that so I was I think that we have built in in our language and this is I'm trying to give you all the background that of where I'm coming from but I think we have built in in our language a proactive approach to looking at safety I think we have that in there. Safety and education. Yeah, we have initiatives dedicated to education. So somehow, you know, we got to bring that down from that statement to an action. Yeah. Well, and I want to just make sure we're thinking about this. Like we have that language in there and so may not be, we may not say education specifically related to like crosswalk awareness, but that's something that we do to meet that initiative on like a, the next level day. Yeah, yeah, like on a, you know, so that wouldn't necessarily go in the plan, but that's for us to talk about as a committee, and then we say, okay, in order to meet those objectives that we set for, those initiatives that we set forth in the plan, we need some better cross-witch education and then that's where we come together to do that. So we take those kind of action steps. So it's not necessarily, it's already reflected in the plan, but we dial it, we drill into the specifics, you know, through our actions. And yes, and I just wanted to, yeah, from everybody's perspective, do we have the meat in there to do that? Because, I mean, this plan is fantastic, because I haven't been here decades like a lot of people, but I've seen such a big change in just the period of time I've been here decades like a lot of people, but I've seen such a big change in just the period of time I've been here that this plan addressed so many loopholes that we did have with budget, with money to actually put sidewalks in, et cetera. I just wanna make sure that since this is a guiding plan for the town, sorry, that we have the meat and teeth in there to tackle that on an ongoing basis that it doesn't get dropped because we're only going to have more encounters like we've had. So that's the only thing. I looked at it and I think we have it, but I'm not sure. So that's why I kind of thrown it out to everybody. Do we all feel as if we've got it in there and we're good? And this reminds me of, I think we had, when we, the last time we had this discussion, I talked about having an operational plan. Mm-hmm. Oh, am I on? Yeah. Two free plan. Two free plan. It's she's on. Don't tell him so I first. Okay. Okay. So to me, I think that the vision, you know, the plan can just say education and then the operational plan that we and the parks and rec staff and the town staff would create every year would have the very specific and I would love to do that and then it can just change. Every year we can change the education topic that we want to focus on and not do anything with the you know the the bike and pedestrian plant. That's a five-year document. We don't need to be messing with it again or however. 20 years. So but the operational plan is where you get like these are the goals for the year. No, I can't say that. Yeah, it's a long one. So, but the operational plan is where you get, like, these are the goals for the year. How are we going to achieve them? Which is what I'd like to see exactly what. Right. Yeah, and I talk about that. Yeah, that's what, as long as we're all comfortable with that, because we're not all going to be here continually. And I just want to make sure that this goes forward that safety, and as if, and you can see, everyone is concerned with safety. And rightly so. I mean, if you're not, if you're going to get hit trying to walk, you're not going to walk. You're not, right? And it doesn't matter. And it doesn't matter. And it doesn't matter. And it doesn't matter. And it doesn't matter. And it doesn't matter. So it sounds like we're good. So do you think it's worth putting language about an operational plan either yearly or five years? Do you think it's worth having that mentioned in the war? I don't know. I don't mean. I'm trying to think of when I've been in organizations with a strategic plan, we never had an operational plan. All out. Yeah, like mentioned in the strategic, it was just automatic. That you would have a strategic plan and then the operational plan was your guiding document for the year. But I mean, we could, I think we could have anything we want. I would err on this side of not putting it in there because the operational plan can, you know, okay, so I'm thinking 20, 45, how much will technology and things and stuff change, you know, and once we build this out, this department out enough that I have stuff members, you know, like depending on that person, you know, like how does it change between people? But if we, you know, in the same way that I have, you know, like those types of operational plans just for, you know, internally for me, other things, like I think it's something that we can do as a committee and make a standard. But I don't, I, I can see, you know, if we want to add language, it's pretty easy to do something like that. I would just not put parameters on it, right, so that it can be fluid. I could see the benefit of making it a loosely structured idea, so that the idea is not lost. Yeah, just like the priority. The priorities for the sidewalks never existed either. And then that came about and now we have it as we will do it, if you know yearly basis. So, yeah, just saying something that will, it will be done. You know, if, you know, operational plan, if that is really where we're getting more to the meat of it, then it would be, and yes, it would be advantageous, I think, if we have some sort of nod towards that, so that it's not just loss into oblivion by the year 2045. Well, having forbidden, you know, we're all gone in, in Emmy leaves, you know, sometimes things are drawn, you know, we're all gone and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, Part of me wants an operational plan, but there's part of me that doesn't because It has to be in there, but when I start thinking about this Say for the crosswalks. You've got to bring in a lot of different departments. You got to bring in police. You got to bring in Planning you've got to bring in general services the folks that are going to put these Signs up in the lights and everything like that. Chief Aaron Holt is going to need, if you want to enforce it, really enforce it, he's going to need more police officers to do that. He's limited now, even though council gave him a position or two, it's still very limited in what they can do and how they react to things. It's an ever-changing thing. But one thing from this committee, it's always a recommendation. We always recommend and then there are the guys that do it, right? The town council, yeah, you down there. But, or, and town. Well, I can tell you that somebody who walks every morning through town, and I cross Thompson or England, I try to use the crosswalks and people don't stop. Yeah. I challenge them sometimes. And sometimes they hear language they shouldn't hear. But I do challenge them. And when the crossing guards out here, he does a wonderful job, because he goes out there and stops. But I do challenge him. And when the crossing guards out here, he does a wonderful job because he goes out there and stops, but people don't. And they're used to him being there. That's the other thing. They know that he's there and they look for him. Whereas these other places they just don't pay attention. So what's the verdict? Do we want to add some language just saying, you know, something kind of vague, like a, we only have to call it an operational plan, like yearly, you know, strategies will be developed yearly to meet goals and objectives and track. Absolutely. That's like that's not the thing. I was kind of like, which but. I think a yearly review. Yeah. What's been recommended and where we're at with those recommendations is appropriate for a plan of this nature. Yeah. is appropriate for a plan of this nature. Because it's a very involved plan with a lot of great ideas in it. And the town is, I think, ahead of itself in many regards, when you look at the responses, and you see what's in the plan, but I think a yearly review to ensure that we're keeping up with what's been recommended and where we're at and what needs to be done. Yearly review sounds good. You know, yep, I agree. I agree. I would like to hear, have something in there around like establishing priorities or I liked what you said about the strategies. All right, I came to my mind was strategies for implementation or like implementation action items in each of the categories, something like that where it's clear that at least for this body, we are gonna establish priorities for the recommendations that we're going to make. Whether any other body can or does take them up, that's out of our hands, but at least as an internal goal, it's that we will say each year like next year we're gonna focus on crosswalks and what does that mean? We don't know yet, but like that we we have that as a as a goal to tackle that Yeah, I mean because in under implementation under project inventory we talk about sidewalks and trails, but that's just getting to one initiative. One area. One area, right? So safety's huge. I think by having a yearly plan, then you can incorporate the other elements that are not just that, or not just the bikes and trails. And you know, just looking at the accident that occurred just from it was personally it was me, you know I was doing it as a per you know a citizen and In looking at that it really does fall Between things like the police did what they needed to do and they did a great job and Tana council did what they did but the looking at nationwide and safety and what are other people doing and everything, it seemed like that fell more with us for us to look at it. And you know, sometimes there is no good solution which is this. We can't force people to pay attention. But I think that that's an important component that it doesn't fall in anybody else's clear cut area I think it falls in our hours. Well in order for the bike and pedestrian plan to work we have to have motorists like drivers also on the same page and if they're not then not, then that's a big problem. And I feel like we do have to figure out how to open up that communication. What I did see in just what I've read, and like I said, it was not a real deep dive into it, was it's, they keep saying education. And they're, you know, of all kinds of Of like what the police are doing with the flashing lights look out for pedestrians, you know, TV spots, radios, or whatever, but just getting people to think that, you know, you're in a car, but you're not, you're not the important people out here, you know. There are people walking, there are people biking, kids, animals, whatever. But that's- And it's a shared space. Right. It's not just the vehicle, the road doesn't only belong to the vehicles, and it also belongs to the- Right. And that's what I saw is the thrust of what most people are doing is trying to change the mindset. And that is just kind of bombarding people with culture shifts. And maybe it's worth working through these details of having Ashland Police Department come in. What are ways that we as a committee can help support this? What are even the physical education teacher, PE teacher at the new Ashland Elementary School, having them in to talk through. I know that she and the past has done, at her previous schools, has done, like, awareness and like to school week. And so if there's an awareness that she can bring to us, but then also we can support her. I know you're interested in bringing interns in, at points two, if there's ways that we can help guide the interns to put messages out. It's a group effort to make that happen, because it's such a critical piece. Right. And with the school shifting, that really makes me nervous, because it's a whole shift in the way people are gonna be moving through town. It's a new traffic club. And then I go back to, it's such a huge opportunity though, because now it's all in one location. It's not in disparate parts of the town, it's all one location, so how do we really focus our efforts on this community and town? OK. So great, great stuff. Took lots of notes. No, this is great. So circling back, is there anything, so are we okay with me adding these responses to the appendix? And do we feel like anything other than some language about, I liked the yearly review and, you know, what Carolina was saying about establishing priorities and implementation action items for the goals. So if I add that language into the narrative and add these specific comments that then when we are doing the yearly review we pull out the plan we read it we look at these comments or we're doing our side by prioritization that's where where the specific comments come into place versus I don't crafting them into the narrative. And so I update the narrative with that yearly review. I add these into the appendix. Does that work for us as a group? Yes. Yes, it was for me. Okay, yes. And then my goal, so my initial goal had been for us way back goal had been for us to approve the six months ago, but here we are, was to have some type of, you know, approval here, get it to town council. I have contracted with a professional company to redo the maps. I think of it as you guys at our public input meeting. I'm not anticipating getting those maps until like an August timeframe. So in between, but in the we meet in September. So I think our September meeting would be a really good time to decide if we're ready to adopt this and a potential vote on adopting it for it to go to council and hopefully you know give council plenty of time to review, make comments, make any adjustments is needed. But my goal is to make those changes insert those updated maps and then I can send you guys for review and we can talk about a potential vote in September. How's that timeline sound? Yes. Yeah. Okay. I didn't read anything that made any major changes to it. I think it was all a vote of confidence. Go on. I read. I know. I was really proud. Yeah. And it was great. We're still. It's cool. Very good. Constructive comments. It was great. We're still not still. Very constructive comments. Yeah, it was great. Is the survey still available and open or no? Is it closed? So I've closed to the survey. Well, it's still open. We kind of advertise tonight as the last opportunity for public input, because at some point, we need to be able to move forward with making adjustments. So unless you guys decide you want to keep it open longer, able to move forward with making adjustments. Unless you guys decide you want to keep it open longer, it's up to you. It has been open now for two months. And we did push on all of our channels. So this is like above average feedback. I will just say. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's good. OK. As long as we, so I'm just thinking. I'll just say. Yeah. That's good. Okay. As long as we, so I'm just thinking of the process. So then if, so we vote on it and then it goes to town council. So then there they get the opportunity to comment on it again. So when they're voting and reviewing it and everything. So. And town council will have feedback and are, you know, we have another meeting when we do the adoption of it as a committee and then the recommendation to council. That's an opportunity for feedback too. You know, I can still accept feedback via email or phone call. So it's not like the door is 100% closed just the survey. Yeah because that's a that's a big opportunity at town council meeting. Much more public. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I think we're you know I think I'm well I personally am good with yeah closing the survey. And so assuming that we move this forward and adopt it in September, when would it go to town council? I would work with our assistant town manager for internal operations. Everything into effect to lie one so that one. So I would work with him and our town manager, Josh Vera, to look at town council's agendas and pick a day because it is a pretty hefty document. So give them plenty of time to read and review. And then get it on there. So and then get it on to an agenda that was most appropriate. So I would think probably they meet twice a month, probably within the month after we recommend. I can't guarantee, but you can see where we are in September. Okay, great. But, you know, anticipating, ideally, that we could, you know, kind of move this through by the end of the year. Great. Wonderful Christmas present. Yes end of the year. Great. Wonderful Christmas presents. Yes, I'm glad to have you. Awesome. Any other thoughts about the plan before we move forward? No? Excited to be where we are. Okay. Great. Let's move on to discussion item B Salta other street park concepts and discussion misstrictors. Yes all right, so I Received so I'm sorry for this is a later addition to your agendas But because we only at me every two months, I wanted to go ahead and move forward with this. I received this on Monday and had a meeting with Tim and group who put this together for us. They are our contractor who they did the pavilion, and they've been really great to work with on a number of projects in town. And so I didn't want to wait on having the discussion about this. So this is, these are some very preliminary concepts for South Taylor Street Park. There's no type of vote tonight. This was just a starting point to get us talking. I took feedback from the community and from the survey that we did when we did the update of the playground equipment to make some recommendations to the Tim and group about what we've heard that we would like to be seen in the park. We're not, you know, we're not set on either concept. We don't necessarily have to go with either concept, we can change out features, we can rearrange, we can mesh elements together, but this is our launching point. And so instead of, I wanted us to have something to look at and to get us moving forward with what we're going to do with that land. So as we go through this, I had a meeting with them, so I'm gonna go through the two concepts with you and talk about the different elements. And then, as we're going through, and if you wanna jot down, I didn't write these down for you, because they're kind of more informal things, but if you wanna jot down, these are a few of the things that I thought about when I went through the concepts. What were the demographics and the age groups that were served by the various components of the park? What is the best use of the space when it comes to flow, different activities and proximity to each other and sight lines from the street or from the provincial ventures? What is the financial commitment? What is the ongoing maintenance impact? Is it accessible? What has the community been asking for here? And how does it fit with the community character? So once again, that was demographics and age groups served best use of space, so flow, the proximity of activities, sightlines. What is the financial commitment? Maintenance impact. Is it accessible? What has the community been asking for in this space? And how does it fit with the community been asking for in this space, and how does it fit with the community character? And those were just a few, those, I mean, and that came out of an hour long conversation of kind of, I didn't go into it with that lens for the very beginning, you know, it was like, oh yeah, I think about this thing, but it helped me, and so, you know, I thought that this is a first for a lot of us. Isn't my first time doing me like this? This is super fun. So, hopefully that gives you some things to think about. All right. So, let's dig in. Existing conditions. So, it was a rainy day. So, a little dreary out there. But this is the current park. If you guys are familiar with, you'll see the new playground equipment that we picked out. There's a half basketball court. We've got the four square kind of paved area. We have this green space, that and trade green space, that was what we purchased that added onto the park. There's the picnic shelter, the swing set, which is kind of separate from the rest of the playground equipment. And there is a small butterfly garden and a little free pantry, but those things can be some of that stuff can be relocated. Is there a grill with the pavilion? There is a small grill. And there's a B-City USA planting behind the picnic shelter, which would be saved. And then not, we'll kind of picture it in the bottom two left pictures, the lovely water tower. And wire fence. And yes, and bar wire fencing. With a bar wire at the top. Yes. But at least the fencing between the existing park and the new park space has been removed. Thank you, public works. They also went in and limbed up all the trees and cleaned up all the brush. And we decommissioned a well that was out there. So that space is now usable. So they're phenomenal. All right, so in our contract with Tim and kind of to give us a good starting point, they agreed to two concepts. So that's what we have today. And as I said, I mean, if we love a concept, concept and we want to move forward with we're not voting on anything tonight There's community input still to be but if we love a concept I can go back to them and say hey, we really liked this maybe with this Tweaks or whatever but we've got two and then we can use that as our jumping point and then I'll provide whatever feedback from tonight to Tim and they will revise for a concept that we can take for public input. And what do you anticipate for public, how do you anticipate getting the public input? Probably the close to the same way that we did for the by can pedestrian plan just probably without the community input meeting. So we would have, we would put it out on social media and ask for feedback. We'd ask for feedback at our parks and recreation committee meetings. We'd probably do something targeted to that neighborhood, but having done some of the community engagement already, and for reference, when we did, I know it's been a year now, but when we did the South Taylor Street Park playground replacement project. We went door to door and passed out flyers with survey, like asking for survey for people to fill out surveys in the neighborhood as well as putting it on social media. So we got some really great concentrated feedback from that neighborhood. So that's what kind of fed this. And so in order to not a, over survey the community, but still to gather input, we would do our meetings and then probably like a social media newsletter, public information campaign. Would it be possible to see some of the survey responses from last time? Yes. Okay. I can send them to you. I can probably pull them up, but I can send them to you. The majority of the survey responses were focused around, there was a lot around the playground because we asked specifics about that. About safety in the park, people not feeling safe because it was so tucked back with this and it's going to be right on the, like it's going to be, you know, with the road that'll be, that'll help mitigate that. There was a huge demand for improved basketball facilities, parking to alleviate the stress on the neighborhood roads there, when people come to play pick up games in park, as well as bringing the swing set closer to the play area, because if somebody is two young children, maybe in two different age groups, and one wants to be on the playground, but one wants to be on the swings. It's quite a distance between. And then just kind of just overall improving the aesthetic of the park. So those were the really big takeaways. And then a walking path through the park was also like kind of not like a track, but something that you could maybe do laps on through the park was also a popular. And then also think about too, this through the lens of the bike and put or not like the parks and recreation master plan and some of our goals and initiatives through that, which include and as I said, because this is just a preliminary conversation, like, you know, go back review this in comparison with the master plan, but some of our park initiatives in creating a unique park, creating something that is, you know, has a high level of service, There were calls for programming for different age groups and demographics. So also looking back at what our initiatives were and the Parks and Rec master plan can help. So the money that was spent on this, I know it was the Orba funds, right? So what's left in it is so will they do redesign or is this it? So Timon's, that's a two fold to that question. So we've contracted this as a phase one for the concept. They went out and did like all of the geotext stuff and the utility work to see where things could go and they did site surveying and did mapping out there. So this is like our phase one. The phase two would be actual like construction documents and then we would work to bid out the construction of it. And because I don't think this would be something that public works necessarily should or could do. But like the construction of the pavilion, like Tim instead all of the blue print plans and then we went to bid for the actual project. Time frame wise, ARPA funds run out at the end of the year. And so I'm not trying to put any type of like pressure deadline wise, but with that being said, we have enough money to do this phase one. And then I don't know what a phase two yet is going to cost because that comes down to what concept we, like what final design we go with. But there are funds that could go towards funding that phase two, which would be the concept plan. And then we would need to work with town council and then town manager to then look at, okay, if this costs say that the park total cost for the actual construction of it is $500,000. That's when we have a bigger conversation. Okay, where does that $500,000 come from? But we don't know how much it's going to cost until we have the plans. So just I'm trying to clarify you know, I looked at both of these and they're great, but there's like pieces they like to both. But so would they tweak a plan or are we, or, that's what I'm saying about the money. I mean, so we do a minimal tweaking and then, but we still would want to hold some money for them to do the second plan. So the contract I have with them, want to hold some money for them to do the second plan. So the contract I have with them, we have a, so we have the, starts with the two concept plans, and then I take back whatever feedback we have, and then we have it written into the contract that they'll come back with another revision with whatever feedback we give them. And then if we need additional revisions, we can pay for those. It'd be outside. Yeah. But and also too, it just depends on how big the revision is. If we want them to add a bench here versus like change the entire design. So and just working with them on that. And then once we've got the concept, then because there's a lot that's different going into like on a construction document side of like putting in you'll like you'll see in concept be the, what did they call it, the seat wall, which if you think about the pavilion, there's bricks all of that. There's a difference in that, and putting in pavers or putting in grass berms. And so in the amount that's like, that they need to, in the amount that it's going to cost. So I won't know like a, and they always provide kind of a menu of services, and there's some stuff we can do in-house and some stuff we need them to do. So the phase one, like, you know, we can get multiple revisions if we need it. But then once we have that final plan, that's when I'll know costs to move forward with the phase two which is the actual documents. So then we know how much, and then we can put it out to bid and see what we get. Does that help? Sorry, I don't know. No, it does. You know, it's like, okay, how much do I have to? Yeah. Don't worry about the money right now. At this point, don't worry about the money because this is the initial conceptual phase. And if I need to tighten the first strings, I'll do it. Okay. So I guess I...are we only going to put one to the public or are we putting two? We'll put one final concept public or are we putting two? We'll put one final concept. One final concept. Yeah. So it's up to us to put it down. Yeah. Okay. The idea behind that is, you know, we've gotten the community input, right? Right. And so now it's putting those final, like that final concept to the community and allowing them to provide feedback on that. And then we can revise as needed based on community input. Okay. All right. So let's talk about them. All right. Concept A. So to orient yourself, you're looking at the, and I'll, I've got my little mouse on it, This is the existing Playground this is the picnic shelter This is South Taylor Street and then this is Pleasant Street here The water towers back in here, and this is where the existing swings are okay? So Swings that's where the swing set is yeah, that's that little bump out. It looks very different in this picture than it does in real life, right? So kind of working, I'm going to work like picnic shelter up even though the numbers are a little bit different just because this is what we have existing. So we've got our picnic shelter here. We've got our playground. And then this little loop-de-guy is an ADA-exceptible carousel. And you'll see when they have, and I'll invite you to look at it on your handout so I don't have to keep clicking between images on your screen. There is a precedent imagery. And on the second page of that, you'll see the ADA Accessible Carousel in the middle. And that is that light brown area next to the playground. So that's an ADA accessible kind of like one of those things that you just been really hard and knock your friends off of. So nine on your screen, so moving kind of through nine is moving the swing set closer to the play area, which had been asked. This eight, seven area, this is a, if you go to your president imagery on the first page, your sidewalk obstacle circuit, your walking maze, four square court, and alphabet spiral. Here back in number four, this is a quiet path. So this is a quiet kind of peaceful walking loop. You'll see it as the first image on your President imagery with benches and just very passive kind of relaxed usage As we move through the park you'll also see we've got that walking loop as suggested 14 is our screening so what that means is there's a house over here next to the lot. And so this is written into the language with the, when we purchased the property that we would put in some vegetative screening in order to protect the privacy of the residents. We've got some open lawn space here in that three area just to create some green space for people to picnic or play pick up sports. We have our basketball court and in both concept one and two the basketball court is a high school sized court. So that is a really great size for this park and the layout of this park, but also allows for a really great usage. You have access here, kind of up in this top right corner to Pleasant Street, so that sidewalk will access Pleasant Street, and then your parking is here at 12 with at least five parking spots, and then just this kind of like pavor area so that if you're unloading stuff or like or you have like some to use ADA he needs ADA accessibility it's kind of like a nice buffer from the parking area to the the basketball court and then in both A and B my favorite thing is the Port-a-Patti within closure. So there'll be a nice one in the closure. So that is our concept A. My idea is to go through both and then open it up for discussion. And I'm not going to tell you any of my opinions but I will share professional thoughts at the end so I want to hear everything that you guys have to say. Any questions right now about concept A? Those big green and brown blobs are trees, and benches and trash cans and other amenities like that are not pictured because those will kind of go in as we see best. This is kind of like the bigger stuff. Do you have a question? Are with concept A, is this removing any current trees? Most likely we'll have to because that what a lot that we push it purchase is wooded. But it's also planting new trees and or like we've got some great like those little brown circles are crate mortals but we would it comes with like a landscaping architecture plan. Yeah. In order to fit the basketball court we're going to have to remove but then we'll also do our due diligence to add back in landscaping. Okay. Real quick concept A, it doesn't have a, I noticed on concept B, it had the signage with an entry plaza. We have existing park signage at South Taylor Street Park that fits our design, like our town design, and it's also consistent with our other parks that would go on the corner here. It would just be all of that stuff and that little free pantry that's out there that can be easily by public works relocated. So the idea would be to move that side. relocated so the idea would be to move that side. Okay. And of course I was there this morning, on my morning walk. And I mean, if they can save as many of those big trees as they can, I get they have to remove some, but there's some beautiful trees. Yeah. And that would be, you know, that's, there's always a balance between conservation and development in the parks world. If you want to bask in ball court, you got to, you know, you got to fit it in somehow. But we would, we would go out there when we, you know, are getting the actual plans and see the best way to save this, yeah. And of course, you know, in a park you want tree coverage because it gives you shade. Mm-hmm, yeah. Also, I want to talk real quick before we go to the other one about, there was a lot of conversation with timids around like surfacing, whether it would be mulch or asphalt or concrete or a port and place rubber. That's all kind of like, that's conversation that will have between like engineering and our public works crew and cost wise and see what's the most effective out there. But that's, you know, we're just kind of looking at like big picture right now. Those like specific details are, we'll drill into it in your day. Any more thoughts? Make sure I hit all my highlights. Concept B. So starting from that existing to new, we've got the playground here staying in that kind of square shape. You'll remember concept A. We would be removing some of the timbers out there and creating more of a organic kind of flow through the playground. But this keeps it in its existing shape with the picnic shelter. Moving to the relocated swing set as well as the ADA accessible carousel. Here three is a zip line, so looking to use that space in a different, that narrow kind of long space in a different way. 11 is your vegetative buffer. 4 is a pump track, and if you're not familiar with what that is there's a photo of it on your precedent imagery I believe page 2. Yep. It's in the middle or no, sorry page 1 It's that third one over on the second layer So that is a bicycle track for kind of smaller like BMX style bikes smaller like BMX style bikes. And then moving to, once again, our basketball court, that same high school size basketball court on one. Nine are berms. So those kind of topography, those are two to three foot berms made out of the filter that will probably come from like the construction out here in order to prevent balls from the basketball court from wandering bouncing off the court or it just kind of creates a little bit of a buffer. It's also a sound buffer as well. And then two is our walking loop. So we have that big walking loop again with 10 being an entry plaza with Park signage. So I kind of think about how we've got the town of Ashland on the pavilion outside. Or you can look at the precedent imagery page two. So it's, we'll page 11, it says on there, the entry plaza with park signage, so that would kind of be what that number 10 is like. With once again eight being the parking area with the port of potty screen enclosure next door. So the highlights from this one that are kind of, so the highlights from this one that are kind of, so the highlights from Concept A where are kind of like our maze loop obstacle path area, or obstacle course area with the quiet path. And then this for B is going to be that pump track zip line seat wall. Those are kind of like the big highlights from A to B. So I'm going to give you a moment to digest any questions about concept B. I guess so concept B has the berms. They didn't think they needed it in A for the best. It's not that they didn't need it. It's that more room. That it's just a different design. But as I said, it doesn't mean that it can't be added. So if we think that berms are important, we can add them if not, we don't need them. They're just two jumping off points. They're two, just think of them as two separate. And they were done by two different people, which I think was really cool to get two different perspectives. Yeah. In question. Which is the pump? That one? The pump track is the, there's a, make sure of a couple little kids on bikes. It is. That's the pump? OK. Yes. So it's kind of this hilly, it's called a pump track because you kind of get like this like you kind of like you use like cycle real hard and then you go up You know, so in it kind of are you familiar with the one at Deep Run Park? Yes, is it would be similar to that? Yes, just smaller smaller and it could be it could be like this smaller and smaller and it could be it could be like this or I was shown images of where it like Kind of think about like like the skate park ramps where it like sits above ground. So it could be built into the like the landscaping or it could be something that sits above ground a feature Any more concepts or any more thoughts about concept B? All right, well, when you guys are ready, you can start chatting. Tell me what you think. And if you want me to flip between the two or whatever on the screen, but you've also got them in your packets. What's your take? The difference between the, and this is a, everybody question, this isn't, this is direct to everybody, but the take on concept to be with the zip line versus A with the walking loop. My, I think of what you had said some number one piece of information that you gave back for feedback from the community with safety. And is the walking loop, does that, it feels a little bit further off and a little bit more removed from the rest of the park. As a single woman, I don't know if I be, I'm just trying to put those pieces together. I'm curious to be back. So that's currently where the swings are now, right? Right. I'm trying to think how, because this is the, that the house is right here. And the house is right here. And the houses there. Right. Because I know, I'm trying to manage being at the park. Yeah. I feel like I need to... So the line of state is through here. I mean, there's the house there. It's a pretty much larger space. Do you know the, oh, dimensions are here scales here. Yes. So I was looking at the zip line and I was thinking, yeah, from a liability stamp. Yeah. Kids up in the air. That's where I was. Even though it's not going to be real high. Yeah. Things like that and no, quite possibly not even parental control over it. But I also want to understand what you're saying, Chelsea, with this B, if it was a quiet walking path, is that something people would want to use because they might feel isolated there. And it's something that I see on a regular basis in my morning walks, especially if you got, I don't use headphones or anything because I want to hear what's going on. But I do see folks with headphones on and all in a, and I was considered that at risk to be walking or jogging with headphones on. But it's an isolated spot, so to speak, even though there may be houses there. Daytime folks may be at work or whatever, so nobody's really observing anything. But again, I go back to the zip line, the first thing I thought about was, I don't want people to zip, you know, kid to zip down zip line, and there's nobody monitoring. Exactly. Yeah, that opens up town for a lot of liability. I'd probably be more prone to a walking area and hopefully people would use caution, I guess. If that's where the swing sets are now, or if you're saying that that's where the swing sets, I'm having trouble visualizing this in real life. But remembering where the swing sets are, I would not have a problem walking back there, especially if there was a huge playground in front of it. So it's not like you're off in your own. To me that doesn't feel isolated. If you think it feels like there's a lot of action, lots of stuff going on. Let me see if I can zoom in on this picture for you. So image. Breaking my own rule. Image number four is from the very back of where that walking path would be. Yeah, right. So that's the swing set and then there is this fencing here but like this brush and stuff would be removed and then this would be like that vegetative buffer over here. So right here in the image number three, you're kind of standing in front of the swing set, so we're standing like halfway between the swing set and the basketball court, so this would be, your sight line back there would kind of be in a diagonal. It would be like straight from here in a diagonal. This fencing is chain link, so once again, can see through. I mean, I think for either concept safety is a concern, right? So making sure we have sight lines back there. So let's see. You can kind of see, zoom in here on image number six. Yeah, there we go, yeah. Yeah, let me see if I can get it more full screen for you guys. So that is, so the walking path would kind of like you shape, like loop back through here. Okay. It does not too far back early. I mean, it looks, it looks a lot farther back on the, on the drawing then it is. And it would be there. And what you know in reading the articles from the National Parks and Rec thing, they always talk about the best safety is a busy park. Yeah. Is other people using it? And it's going to be a busy one I could tell you. Yeah, I think we're going to like it. And one thing that I like about the walking path versus the zip line is that I think it encourages usage for more age groups. So we're talking about older people instead of a zip line, which is going to be, it's going to cap out it, I don't know, 10, whatever the age is, for dog walkers. Exactly. The other thing about putting walking path in there, you're given the opportunity for folks that are walking to expand their steps by going through that. Is there a point? I will say real quick, sorry to interrupt you, Drew, that for either concept, my idea was to walk how long it is, like mileage wise or whatever, and then do some type of little sign, like 20 lapses of mile, or six lapses of mile, or something like that, almost like a track without it being a track. So if somebody wants to go walk laps, or run, or time themselves, or whatever, you've got that like measure. So for either concept I think that'd just be a nice little touch. Yeah. And again, part in National Parks and Recks always talks about the number one thing they recommend to put in is a loop that that will increase your usage of the park that everybody likes a loop. So we got them in both of them. So that's good. Yeah. Great. Something mentally challenging about a loop array or something. I don't know. Take it on. Yeah. One thing we have heard in previous requests, not necessarily with this park is a dog park and was that ever a thought or element incorporated here and not saying that it needs to be and this very possibly is not the park to be it but just curious when there's questions and feedback about that what that looks like. Yes, so multiple kind of comments to that. First of all, best use of space, right? It's as big as it looks on here. It's really not all that big comparatively, a proximity of the elements, so, you know, a dog park, just in spacing. It wasn't that it's not considered, but it also, and looking at the overall, kind of the big picture of parks in Ashland, right? So this is one park that we have out of, you know, out of our four or five mighty parks, where does something like that best fit? The same thing with full size soccer field or the same thing with pickle ball courts that we've got requests from or the same thing with splash pad. So kind of thinking about where it would best fit in town and kind of the overall, So kind of thinking about where it would best fit in town and kind of the overall You know Five ten since we are a planning group like for five ten fifteen twenty year vision So if that's something we want to explore here. That's fine Do you want my professional opinion? I don't think that this is a great location for a dog park. I think that with the existing amenities, having the basketball court there, it's gonna be a very busy place. Dog parks also come with a lot of challenges. There's a lot that's really great about them, but it comes with a lot of maintenance challenges. It comes with a lot of Like professionally. I've had friends who are colleagues in other Localities who have had staff injured at dog parks. There's a lot of liability that comes with them the noise Isn't there's a lot of noise so it's not and I'm not ever I'm not saying that is out of the picture trust me I got dogs, right? But it's a big conversation that would involve a lot of public works really needs to get involved in engineering. And then we need to pick a really good location so that all of those factors, we can mitigate all of the risk associated. Because when dogs are happy, they bark, you know? Yeah, and when they're not happy, they bark. But neighbors don't like it. And when they see in mind-barcant air. So like, I bark at nothing. Yeah. That's a big feedback. Thank you. Yeah. I for one really like the pump track idea and the berms. I think those are a unique addition for Ashland Parks. Do you want my feedback on that? Yes. Sorry. I don't want to interject too much. Yes, no, I didn't. So I don't, I'm, I have preferences, but I'm not going to, I don't want to sway us either way. I think the pump track is a really amazing amenity and something that is, there's not one, like really close to here. It's, you know, we see the success of the skate park. Mike only concerned with the pump track at this park is the size of the pump track would have to be very limited and the pump track being adjacent to a basketball court where there could be bike or there could be like balls rolling into the biking area. Also people trying to walk back and forth between the playground and the pump track. I would really love to have a conversation. I would really like our, us to think big picture about other upcoming park projects, we're gonna be starting. And if maybe it fits in a bigger space where it could be more of a main feature, or a, you know, we can expand it. The pump track, that would be at South Taylor Street Park. If we wanna put one there, let's do it. But if it goes at South Taylor Street Park. If we want to put one there, let's do it. But if it goes at South Taylor Street Park, it would mainly be geared towards younger children because it would be very short. But is there a potential for it to be like a main feature of a future park? Yeah, just a little. Much larger one. Yeah, so my two thoughts were safety concerns with the location of it, or does it, or if we wanna put one here, do we move it, right? But then the opportunity to make it bigger, accessible for more ages and groups. If we keep it in our pocket and we save it for another location. I'd be concerned about walkers or joggers using the pump track to expand. Oh yeah. They go right on it. They wouldn't pay it. The Hillburg. The Hilltrade. This is how they do. Yeah. They do that. Juiciting walkers or joggers. Oh boy. Oh yeah. You're going to see about there. Run it up. You know, do it as hill. Hilltrading. infiltrating. It feels like B doesn't have as many things in comparison. I guess because the things that are on it, I guess are larger. Well, I think to in concept A, you've got that pocket of the maze, the alphabet spiral, the obstacle course. Which those are probably on concrete or? Concrete asphalt, or we could do like a port and place rubber. And is the brown, another, is that's a path that winds through it. In the middle that, yeah. That colorful, per concept A, that is an obstacle circuit. So if you look at your precedent images on the first page, it's a painted, like, you know, if you think about like hopscotch type thing, like it's a painted walk the rope, do the spiral. Oh, so that's what's weaving through, so that little serpentine? Yes. Okay. So that kind of ties in the other kind of grounds level elements of the maze, but it could also be a fitness, like there could be a fitness component like do you know Five jumps here. You know something like that like it could be made and there's a lot of to play with that And Drew would be on that right So that takes too much work. Yeah. Although if you're taking out the pump check on B, you'd also shift and incorporate some of that. I like the organic nature of the current structure. That is there. Number six and number 10, I think, the current playground. I like how in concept A a the lines become less structured around it becomes more of an organic shape. Yeah. So I wanted to just come out and say I prefer a much more than B. I did just want to say like organic lines for one. I really love the zones. It's like there's the playground zone and then there's that really neat little walking play, play walking area with the serpentine in the middle and then the basketball. And then you've got the walking loop as well. So it's almost like there's four zones, but it's not divided. It feels really like organic, and you could easily flow from one of these spaces to the other, depending on your children, your needs, your age, whatever. And the B just seems really choppy and blocky to me. And like there's almost two, I feel like there's two. I know I can count. There's not more things than B than there are in A. I think just the layout of B makes it feel very crowded to me. I, so A is 100% my book. B looks busier, but if you look at what's on there, it's not as much to do. Yeah, strangely. So I would agree with that with taking my five-year-old grandson to Puffa-Belly. You move from one spot to another spot to another spot. And he enjoys that. And my wife and I can sit and watch him doing these things. She participates. I'm happy. But you know, and I like that idea of a flow where they can do multiple things, move from one to the other, because they get bored real quick. Yeah, OK. Yes. I think my hang up with A is still, and maybe I am ending on Norty here, with the difference between that, the walking path, the quiet walking loop versus the zip line. I guess I have hesitation because I think about with the quiet walking loop and I love the concept and the idea. I have a hesitation in that I would really need to inadvertently create a space that does end up being dare I say spooky to get kind of tucked away and maybe I need to go do, you know, go take my kids there tomorrow again and walk it one more time and see it again in person. And I think about ones like, like Park 365 has a little walking loop. And that's a park that's really popular and there's always tons of people and kids and everybody's running around. Rarely do I see people actually going back and around through it. I'm thinking of like the couple of parks that have this concept that I know I don't participate in it. It doesn't mean others won't, but I do see it used less frequently. So that's my, I also full disclosure, I love a zip line for my kids and myself. I love a zip line, but I definitely see that there's some raised pieces there. Very valid reasons not to do is applying to. I almost feel like if there's more activity provided in that space, then the safety element is less, having it as a quiet zone, makes it feel to me like the safety piece would be a little more and potentially increase. I guess I'm just wondering about the safety piece would be a little more and potentially increase. I guess I'm just wondering about the safety issue because for example, I go, I live near, I'm in slash cottage near Carter Park, I walk those trails and those are very secluded trails. Depending on what time of the day you're out like. And so I don't ever feel unsafe in those areas and there's, I can can I'm often the only person Walking around behind the pool like so the What is the we don't feel like those are areas or do I don't know do you feel like those are areas that are creating a risk or like putting People at risk or sure. I guess it's Possibly time of day two and what is going on. And just the activity level. Yeah, absolutely. What is the length of that? I mean, I don't think that area is that long, right? It's not. It looks a lot longer on the... I don't even think it's the concept of the width of this room, right? I don't even think it's the concept for the width of the room, right? I don't even think so. I think from the I imagine it'd be this space. Yeah, it's like from it's like it would be more this link. Because I walk it pretty frequently and from like the the edge of the existing basketball court to like where the swing set would be from like me to that wall. But that's the basketball courts way out here. Well, that's in this concept. And like the actual existing right now. Right, but I'm just saying that's like at seven in that, right? Oh, yeah. Okay, let me go by today. Yes, the basketball court would be around like seven. So if you look at the part that looks or feels like it's jutting out, it's really a short in this amount of space. And also, like this isn't, and it looks like, oh, this is just tech, but remember there's like, there is a house there, but there's like open backyard, there's open, like this is all open. You can look right out to the street. Right, and then this is, I mean, you've got the, like you've got a building, small building here, I mean, you've got the big water tower, but this is still, it's not necessarily a peninsula, how it feels in a concept drawing because all of this is white space. There is, just because that line is there, doesn't mean there's greenery in a lot there, and it's still, and that can make it hard on a concept plan because all your you know you don't have that context. No thanks for talking through. Would you bring in the police department to do an environmental look at it from a safety standpoint? We would talk with them through any concept that we have and get their taken their feedback on it. There's no plans for lighting at this park. We're still going to stick with the Don to dust schools because asking their police department to, you know, patrol and enforce lit parks at night is just an overwhelming responsibility. And so yeah, yeah. So I just, as a side note, I wanted to mention that we're not pursuing lighting at their request. But we would do like a site assessment with them. OK. OK. I like concept day. And I love zip lines. So I love zip lines. Okay. I like concept day and I love zip lines. So I love zip lines. I love zip lines. I love zip lines. Okay. I love zip lines. I love zip lines. I love zip lines. I love zip lines. I love zip lines. I love zip lines. I love zip lines. I love zip lines. I love zip lines. I love zip lines. I love zip lines. I love zip don't perception of safety to me doesn't change what's there. Like a zipline doesn't make you feel any safer or if it's a walking path, it's still the same concern. So like I said, I like A and I like the walking path and I also, like I said, both a good zipline, yes I do. But I get- For you know what, I get- For you know what, I get- For you know what, I get- For you know what, I get yeah exactly but I mean better spot yeah like the What am I trying to say like the pump track? Yeah, so Yeah, I love the lines of it. I'm not against the zip Somewhere yeah, yes Yeah, I'm not gay. It just seems like you said it organic and a lot to do and visually pleasing. And it solves a lot of the problems with parking and I wasn't sure what that pavre part was, but once you explained access to eat, get strollers out or wheelchairs or whatever. It's a great idea. Yeah, it's kind of like a landing space. And it connects with the loop. So you can get them all flowed there and then. So that's on park entrance signage. The site wall versus moving our existing South Taylor Street park sign to that little, so like a little Plaza versus moving our existing signage. And for reference, and it's fine because I can always put it somewhere else in the park. I will not throw it away. I don't think it's here in this picture. But we do have, oh, it's kind of, you can kind of see it over here. Let me zoom in. We do have the town branding signage that matches almost all the parts now except for Puffer Belly. That one's, but here's our existing. And it doesn't have to be here. signage that matches almost all the parks now except for Pufferbelly. That one's but here's our existing and it doesn't have to stay like this like signage it could be made bigger signage could be added to it but thoughts on that versus like some type of brick plaza I'm fine with you. That's fine. You're fine. Yeah. That's fine. You're fine. Yeah. That's fine. You're fine. Yeah. That's fine. You're fine. Yeah. That's fine. You're fine. Yeah. That's fine. Yeah. You're fine. Yeah. That's fine. Yeah. That's fine. We can always change this would be to move it to yeah, that's yeah, okay that area Yeah, it knows the court like the corner just to make it more obvious because kind of where the placement is now It feels like it's yeah, well we didn't have the land great when my bot right we had the show Yeah, so that's why it was back there because we didn't have the property But it's public works has already said that it's movable yeah Yeah, and then just in my personal opinion, I like the site wall, but it felt very formal. Yeah. Like it reminded me of the pavilion and kind of like, but I think obviously future park projects, operations or opportunities for different iterations of that. And there's not a whole lot of space that like you said in this park. So yeah, I'd take it up with a wall. Concept A was the one that professionally I gravitated towards. Also viscally, I thought it was a really good option because a lot of this like the port and place and the painted maze and ABC thing, you know, in those specific components like if we didn't want to do the ABCs we want to do something else, we could change that. Also saw an opportunity for public art collaboration with those and the Mays could be walking through a celestial scene, tying in the center of that universe. The, you know, the, obviously of course, could be something to do with trains. So there are lots of opportunities and I talked with our assistant town manager for external operations. And we had a, we had a really great conversation about maybe a collaborative component with public art. I thought it was, I liked the organic flow of it. It felt very, I felt like you had, as Carolyn, I love how you said zones like pockets of play. I thought a lot of the components were, I liked the accessibility of it, especially with adding in that ADA accessible carousel. And we all set a conversation of, instead of, depending on budget, instead of moving the existing swing set of buying a new one, because if everything else is new in the park, like, you know, and let's get something that also maybe has an ADA component to it. Yeah. I thought this hit a lot of different age groups and demographics, like you all touched on. And then it also provided opportunities for both like physical but cognitive play and more, you know, just a little more to it. I personally also loved the pump track and the zip line. I think there are really great opportunities, though, for that to go in maybe a larger space where we can do more. More, yeah. Yeah, yeah. More. And that's the thing, too, is like I don't want us to lose side of the big picture and the opportunity that we have with future park projects to, you know, if we really like a feature, like how can we do it best, right? We talked about our goals. We want, we want to have the best parks is a pump track, a tiny pump track best or is a really awesome feature pump track. Yeah. You know, so I think, so those were my professional thoughts. I like to hear all of your feedback. So, did you hear what she said? No. We're going for the gold remember. We're going for gold! Ashley's going for the gold remember. We're going for gold. I don't know. Ashley's going for gold. So, I don't care. We're going to be too big. So anything with concept A, and we don't have to make a, we're not voting or anything tonight on it. But would you like to see changes? Do you want any additions? Do you want stuff removed? I would just repeat the if we can save as many trees as possible. A does actually incorporate one more larger tree than B, but Or like you said or a good replanting plan to put you know replace things With large it's big beautiful. Yeah, the big tree's not just the great mark not the great verbal with potentially in years down the road shade trees. Yeah, the big tree not just the great more not the great burglars. Yeah, with potentially in years down the road, shade trees. Yes, great. Any more thoughts? The design is the fun part. Yeah, yeah, the concepts of everything. Yeah, it's very exciting. This is plan or whatever include the landscaping? Or would that be something that we would talk about later and we don't talk about it at all? It would probably, we could talk about it. We would work with Tim Inns as well as our public works department and like an engineering to talk. We would come up with like a landscaping plan. So that's part of it too, is until I get a phase two menu of services, like that type of stuff, like the landscape architecture, it's kind of like a I'll a cart, so they say, these are all the things we can do for you, these are the prices, you tell us what you want us to do. And so I would meet with our team and say, what can we do internally, and then what can we, but I know like we are a tree city, like there, like we very much value trees. So we would do, we would, and if that changed layouts or shifted things 10 feet this way or back, you know, once we have that final concept, I mean, we'd go out and mark, okay, tree here, tree here, how do we go? Also the B city, I mean would you a lot around the native, I'd love to see native plantings, I know some of the work that engineering and public works is done in my neighborhood for rain gardens has been phenomenal and just the types of plants that they're using just it really blew me away how intentional it was obvious that they had really thought it out so I would prefer that versus crate marbles. And yeah and yeah and that's all stuff that we drill down. Yeah that we drill down into that. What are your thoughts on creating a multi-use court versus just basketball court? I think that's a fantastic idea. I think that that is a great perspective and provides more opportunity for play and hits a more diverse demographic, more users, right? So that's something that I would take back. If you guys are interested in that as an edit, two timons and say, when we build this core, and that's once again one of those details, when we do plans is, OK, where do lines go? What colors are the lines? How do we differentiate between the two? What's the net situation? But if that's an edit we would like to make, I'll take that back to Tivans. Great. Yes, yes, yes. Yes, yes. I think it's kind of a no brain. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, if you can make it multipurpose, why wouldn't you? Right? I mean, this is the park that's closest to neighborhoods across Route 1. And we've talked a lot throughout the plan of how do you bring people over? So with a more spenic community and whose doll is that? Yes. Yeah. The only, I mean, then this is a pin point or a pin for later, I think the one nagging thought I have is like this design does substantially change, I think, the culture of the current park, like in terms of what's there. It is a basketball court and like there's the playground, you know, so it's really expands. What's gonna be offered there, I think the footsal also would expand, so I would want us to think about what does it look like, sharing space, potentially two different demographics, ages, races, you know, what does that look like as a, you know, community, what do we, if there's, I don't know, you know, battling for the court, you said the court, I would not want that to happen. And I know that the Ash and you soccer league is much more, they've got resources and much more so than the kids who play basketball on this court, so I would wanna just think about that for later. Alright, so what I'm, unless there's more conversation, okay. What I'm going to take away from this is I'm going to go back to Tim and say we really like concept A, let's you know, go back to Timmans and say we really liked concept A, let's, you know, work. Let's add in that component of the multi-use court. And then I think it's also like an educational piece, maybe I don't, I'm not really where I can have the capacity to handle reservations for the court, but maybe it's signage, you know, APD awareness, that type of thing. So we can have conversations about those specifics. But I think the next step is saying, okay, we like this idea. They'll do like a rendering, like a 3D type rendering of it. So let's get that. And then would we be comfortable kind of beginning that community input phase Before we get like a final you know because that community input will dictate you know can dictate changes Okay Awesome Y'all this is cool. Yeah, I'm good is yeah All right any further thoughts? Okay, let's move on to the next item reports and First we'll do committee member reports and I can start up. I just wanted to say Cheers hats off to everybody for the awesome pool party for opening weekend. That was so fun. It was a great attendance and I thought everybody just came together so nicely to pull off a really great event for the town. And then the follow up, the further down, I can't remember what weekend that was for the other pool party. That was really a great time as well hats off to our DJ DJ flip Yes DJ flip. Yes, he's amazing and And then also, you know gaining the feedback we had quite a few survey respondents At the first pool party and then also at the strawberry fair I know I personally was able to get a few more to from there so It's been exciting times so Did anybody else have anything they'd like to share? I Thought the rock painting at the strawberry Fair was was a wonderful idea. In fact you how many rocks you had was a wonderful idea. In fact, how many rocks you had? Almost five. Donated to about. We had about 200 donated, but we painted almost, I bought 600 and we have one box left. So, wow. And, you know, we were happy, the co-honest was happy to write a letter of support for the grant, the possibility of improving the basketball court of Park. So we thank you for asking us to do that. And I'm not cooking any hot dogs for rest of the summer. I've already told family. I thought we were all going to your house after this. We actually had like two days later a bunch of friends over and I ended up cooking. I'm not going to say that. I'm not going to say that. I'm not going to say that. I'm not going to say that. I'm not going to say that. I'm not going to say that. I'm not going to say that. I'm not going to say that. I'm not going to say that. I'm not going to say that. I'm not going to say that. I'm not going to say that. I'm not going to say that He was wonderful. Yes, he was. So awesome. Yes. Go ahead. I'm sorry I missed the pool party. Unavoidable. I had a funeral to attend, unfortunately. Yeah. But I just have to change the screen. I'm sure that it sounds like it was fantastic. I'm really sorry. I missed that. I'm thrilled with all of the things that Parks and Rec has been doing in me. I mean, I have to thank you for all of these ideas. They're fantastic ideas. And proud to be from Ashland. The only other thing I wanted to comment on was, and it's not Parks and Rec, but it is the flashing crossing light on ash cake. So I mean, it's sort of us, but I mean, thanks to the tan on for putting that and town council for voting for to go in, because we, you know, it's thinking ahead with a fall line trail. Not to mention people just trying to cross to get to the Y and everything so thrilled to see that out there That's it. I have to say if I may add something very exciting I went to the play an RVA meeting today and speaking of the fall line trail Apparently the general assembly has several million dollars like seven million dollars left over and they are going to ear market for the fall line trade. So that's exciting. And they of course mention Ashland, the fact that we had our par array. We lead the way. Ashland leads the way. That's right. Awesome. Okay. And any other comments? Reports? Okay. Then moving on to Parks and Rec report, Ms. Richards. All right. I'll try to keep the short and sweet since closing it on two hours. This has been such a fun meeting, though. Berkeley Town Heritage Park. Want to give you an update on that. The park trail has been cleared and Stone has been laid, which will go under the asphalt. So we do a couple inches of stone. There is a bridge that is going over a ravine and we are on the current process of designing it. The same company that did the Ashland trolley line trails or the boardwalk there is doing this one. And so once the bridge is installed, then we will pay the path. So you'll see that construction has kind of stalled, but it's just because that bridge is in, we've had to do some soil testing for like what the soil, like what kind of load it can bear, how we're going to like install the bridge, design work, and so that is all in progress, but that project is on track. Martha Miller and I are also meeting with a company with some artists to do some very unique and specific to Berkeley Town's interpretive signage that talks about the history and the legacy of Berkeley Town, the people, places events that were really important to it and the signage is going to be, it's not your average park signage, it's going to be very unique and really cool. So we've seen a couple concepts and we've given some feedback and we're working through design but this isn't your standard sign so very engaging. We wanted to be very intentional and do something special here. This pool season is one of the busiest to date. If you have been to the pool you would know. So far there have been 11,466 visits to the pool. For reference last year our total was just under 16,000 so about 4,000 off them where we are now. We are not even halfway through the season. We're seeing a average of about 80 people more a day than we did last year. Factors that I think have contributed would be the slide, the shade structures, the excellent quality of customer service at the pool, the affordability of the pool, the location. We had a Richmond Instagram influencer who came to the pool and did a segment on it. She even talked about it on the news on like a local morning show. So I think there's just been a lot more, just a lot more engagement. So and also with that, we've also had a record number, a private party scheduled. That is after hours parties. We have 16 this season to the point we had to start turning people away. Last year we had five. So just, you know, so it just shows like how much of a very important and needed service this is in our community. And I really think like the affordability and the accessibility of it has been just a big component. I'll talk a little bit about the play all day VA free event that we did, but we at the free event, like people were bringing the GRTC link to the party. It was really great to see that's being utilized a lot out there. So speaking of play all day VA, that was a huge success. So that was a statewide initiative. Over 50 parks and rec organizations throughout the state participated in it. It's through our Virginia Recreation and Park Society. We kicked off the day, so it's to celebrate the longest day of the year, the summer solstice. We kicked off the day, so it's to celebrate the longest day of the year, the summer solstice. We kicked off the day with fishing at DeGernick Park with in partnership with the Ashland Museum. We had one young fisherman catch over 10 little tiny fish but he was so proud of himself. And then in partnership with the Ashland Library, we have a page path at Puffer Belly Park. It's waiting on the Biblioboro. It's in both English and Spanish. And so that is up through the month, but that went up on the 20th. I use the rocks from the strawberry fair that were painted. And I had about half of them in the parks so that I could save them. Once you put 15 painted rocks in a park You like you could really literally throw a rock and hit a big rock And so but I wanted to save them for some fun surprises throughout the rest of the year So those are slowly going out and then we finished up with the pool party between four and seven p.m We had over 300 people come to the pool. We were at capacity and kind of hovered around there for the day. The Ashland Bear Accudas did a ice cream sale. They sold out. DJ Flip was Arab's fantastic so it was really a really great event. Record attendance at the pool on that day from the past like four or five years. And on a sad note at play all day, RVA. I was sitting with DJ Flip. And it was really interesting. A lot of the participants, a lot of the kids kept coming up and going, can you play it us? Can you play it us? And DJ Flip was very accommodating. And it was fun to see the community be involved with him and everything. He was loving every second of it. Yeah. There was a really good vibe. Yes. Yeah. It was so really fun. Yeah. Yeah. It was packed today. Yes. Moving on to programs. Yesterday, I partnered with the Astral Museum to do Secretariat for Kids. We had, I said Timberto's, participants, but I think we had nine. All had a great time. We did think like measuring our stride against Secretariat. We went, Kate, we needed a talk on Secretariat. We went to the statue. We made Secretariat crafts. So it was a really great partnership for some programming. And then over 400, so close to 500, I think I had like three left from the bag. Rocks were painted at the strawberry fair on June 1st. Thank you for those who came out and helped with that. In the kid zone, it was very successful. And we will continue, we had I think a great return on investment in that. Thank you to all of those who have volunteered for the pool opening day event, the Strawberry Fair and Playall DVA. I really appreciate the help. It's much needed as a one person department and you guys have just been fantastic and stepping up and being there. And then finally, July is National Parks and Recreation Month. Town Council did read a proclamation making this Parks and Recreation Month. Town Council did read a proclamation making this Parks and Recreation Month. Last year I know we did a lot more programming in July for that. I really focused on play all day VA this year instead because that was a kind of a more regional statewide thing but we'll still continue to celebrate July as National Parks and Rec. Rec Month. Looking ahead, I am out of the office as soon as this meeting ends. And I will be here really happy. I'm going on my first long vacation in a while. So I will be out of the office. I'll be out of town beginning Saturday and gone for a full nine days. Yeah, I come back from vacation, but then have to turn around and have a family obligation. But I'm still accessible if you need me, but in my absence, all pull stuff is gonna be handled by Anthony Cruz, who's our pull manager. But then with the transition and Martha Miller becoming the assistant Tell manager for external operations Parks and recreation now is kind of is nestled under her leadership So should anything come up she's the point of contact, but I'll I'll just I'll be you know I'm just a phone call or email away and I'll be periodically checking in because I have too much anxiety, not too. I do. I'll check my email. I can't help this. I may not respond, but I'll be looking at it. Pull season ends on September 2nd. That is Labor Day. We do go to weekends only beginning August 24th, but until then we're open seven days a week. And then our September Parks andreck Committee meeting is on September 12th so that's a week following Labor Day and that will be at 6 p.m. here in Council Chambers. But otherwise you've seen the other big projects we've been working on with the bike and pedestrian plan and the South Taylor Street Park revitalization but we are moving and grooving and it has been a busy summer and I'm excited to sit How has it been with the lifeguards this year? I know other years it was a channel lunch to get great fully We've been fully staffed and we've though the lifeguards this year have just been phenomenal good Great well you deserve the break this year have just been phenomenal. Good. Yes. Great. Well, you deserve the break. Thank you. Thank you. And hats off to everybody for a very productive meeting. We covered a lot of grounds. Oh. And any other last comments, discussions? OK. With that, I joined the meeting. Thank you. Thank you. Come on.