All right, it's 6.30 p.m. on March 19, 2025. I call this meeting of RPEG in order. So can we have a roll call please? Great. Thank you. Sri, Kendrick, and it's Ariane. Today, Ariane. Okay. Thank you, Travis. Welcome, Paul, via Paul Nolan. Thank Aaron, Jillian, Adam, Christine. Here. Orion, okay. Thank you, Travis. Welcome, Paul, via Paul Nolan. Thank Aaron, Jillian, Adam, Christine. Thank you. We have a corner this evening. Fantastic, and I know I believe Sandra should be joining us as well. That's my understanding, yes. All right, so first and foremost, I want to welcome our new members. Orion? All right, fantastic. Travis and Martin, I believe Martin may not be joining us tonight yet for our commitment. But on behalf of the Recreation and Parks Advisory Committee, we want to welcome you. Thank you for your willingness to be part of this particular group. We look forward to your contributions, your input, and more importantly, let's have fun together. All right? So thank you for joining us. At the same time, I do want to acknowledge our regular non-for-profit presence. So tonight we have the Art Center at Johns Creek. No longer the Johns Creek Arts Center, the Art Center at Johns Creek, present tonight. And thank you Stephanie for joining us, and she'll be doing a presentation. I believe we do have public comments tonight, so thank you very much, sir, for joining us you're good, please join us at the podium. The fact that we have public comments tonight, that means is a good thing. All right, so please join us. Hello? Just make sure the button is green. I don't think that has a button. Hello? I'll project my voice. It's just that it's live broadcast so we want people to also hear. Okay. Good afternoon committee members. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight. My name is Juan David Bolivar and I'm a resident of Johns Creek, a parent and a frequent visitor to Colley Creek Park with my two kids. I'm here to express my concern about the limited public access to the turf field at Colley Creek Park. This park was built with public funds to serve all residents. Yet the exclusive permit granted to the Johns Creek Sports Association has made it nearly impossible for families, recreational athletes, and local children to enjoy this space. I want to be clear, I fully support youth sports programs and recognize their importance. My son participates in the soccer academy and I understand firsthand how valuable organized sports are for our kids. They absolutely should have access to public fields in my opinion, which should one permit be able to reserve 97% of peak time hours, leaving families with little to no opportunity to use it. A few days ago, my son asked me, dad, can we go to Collie Creek Park to play? And I had to tell him, the field is reserved every day until 8 p.m., which has passed your bedtime. That was a frustrating moment. Not just as a parent, but as a resident who believed this park was meant for all of us. I decided to see if others shared my concern and the response has been overwhelming. Since last Friday, over 300 families have signed an online petition expressing frustration about this very issue. People are just now becoming aware of it as the weather becomes better and they venture off to the park. The concern is growing. Here are just a few of the comments that we've heard from people. Where can kids play if the turf's field is the only field kids can use? The grass field is not an option because it's often closed due to lawn maintenance, excess rain, and now cricket. Another mother said, as a mother of two kids, I stay close to my young child in the playground and know my older child is on the turf field playing. What is that child supposed to do now if they can't use the turf field? Another person said, please ask them, at what time am I supposed to take my child if it's always reserved? That is something I don't have an answer for either. These are real concerns from real members of our community and it deserves attention. I urge this committee to reassess the field use agreement and establish a more balanced schedule that ensures fair access for all residents. Other parks successfully accommodate both organized sports and open play. Surely we can find a way to do the same at Colleague Creek Park. Thank you for your time, consideration, and civil service. Great, thank you, I appreciate your public comment. And one public comment, as you probably know, is of one way interaction. So we appreciate your comments. And we'll come to address some of these things during the meeting as well. As it relates to reports and presentations, we have our director, Erica here. as you present the reports and presentations, can you also help one and others understand, what arrangement we have, why we have it? Because I think, as we know, Collie Creek is not fully established yet. So therefore, there are limited fields, limited spaces available. But at the same time, we just wanna make sure our citizens understand that the parks in the city are built for the citizens, right? And at the end of the day, we want everyone to have potential access. So as part of your presentation, if you could also touch upon that, so that one and others in the Johns Creek community understand what arrangement we have, why we have it, because at the end of a day the park is fairly new. It's this is the second year for the park and our hope and prayers out that this park is going to continue to get developed. More fields of access will become available as more fields get built. So let's move on to reports and presentations, please. I'll start with our events and then I'll touch on the item you mentioned and we'll move on to some project things. So first of all, this is going back to February, which seems like a very long time ago at the moment because it's beautiful outside. Park Place of course is always hopping. I think we'll find what's a wonderful problem to have that is a problem that not only at Park Place, but in all of our parks many times the demand exceeds the supply we can accommodate with our current facilities. So I would please to say that Park Place is always packed and very active over there with all of their fitness and social programs. They take field trips, they take, there's art lessons there. The art center does programs at that facility. You can see one of the items there in your pictures is our Valentine's Day crafting with those women making those beautiful reeds. Of course, we had our Lunar New Year festival on, I believe that was February 1st. It was a gorgeous day for February, sunny and warm. It was lovely. We had about five to 6,000 people. And we had performers and delicious food and vendors. It was really a beautiful day out there. Just this last weekend, we had our battle of the bands, which we were thrilled got in before the severe weather. So it was, again, that's really a fun event. If you've never been, it's really, I call it a little more low key, but it's really, I mean, it's grass roots bands, right? It's bands from the community, adult adult bands and youth bands there it was really fun free outdoor fitness starts this week so folks should know that there are yoga strength opportunities at Colle Creek Park and Newtown Park so I would encourage you to look at our slate of offerings there and sign up again it's free for community. So just sign up and show up and have a great time out there. Our next big event will be the Daphytal Days Youth Carnival on the 29th, which is next weekend. That'll be at Heisman Field. It is a youth carnival. We'll have rides and activities for children. We'll have face painters and blue and artists, all sorts of fun things. And then do you want to acknowledge that Ochi Mills having their Earth Day celebration on April 19th. As I mentioned, so we do have a lot of programming going on in our parks, Newtown and College Creek Park are very heavily programmed. We do have for our new members as well. We have a very successful model of partnership in the City of Johns Creek. So my department has a staff of eight full time staff members and we have 12 part time that work out in the parks. We do not in house provide the program, so we have facility use agreements. And what that means is that we send on RFP and then nonprofit organizations, they send in their qualifications, and we find a nonprofit partner that can provide recreational programming to the community. So soccer, lacrosse, cricket, football, all the things that you'd want to do in the park. And so it's a win-win agreement in that our community gets used athletic programming. And the partner gets field space to hold that programming. And in turn, they offer reinvestment into our parks. So all of the non-resident fees from their offerings come to the city. And they also reinvest financially in our parks. So there's a certain amount of money that they either have to reinvest in projects. There's a minimum or 20% of, I forget that percentage, but it's roughly around there Whichever is greater and they do projects to improve the park so it is a known Problem that our demand exceeds supply recreational fields. It's in our strategic plan. It's a known problem We have football we have soccer, we have all these groups, cricket, they all want access to the fields and so do our residents. So we do not have enough supply fields to meet the demand. So we do the best we can. There is field space among those field permits. Generally, a someone who is interested in renting the field would need to just contact some of our staff members, see if that time is available. There's also some lovely green space over in our 5K staging area. It's flat and groomed, so if somebody wanted to go over there and just kick a ball around, it's a nice little open green space. But it is a known issue that our supply, a certain demand, exceeds supply. I ask a question. Sure. So, for example, in our neighborhood related to tennis, we always try, even though we have a lot of alpha teams that are taking over practice and matches, we tend to reserve a couple of courts or a couple of pickleball courts that are meant to be first come for serve open for anybody in the community, purposely not signed out or reserved. So I'm going to ask a stupid question because I don't know but is there not a section of a field that could be treated like that of what we have now that is sort of meant to be. I know it's probably too late now because you have signed contracts but obviously you can't change that mid contract but is that a potential option where there's a section of the turf field that could be smaller, maybe not, you know, official size of whatever that could be open play? Yeah, and I can come back with some more information how all these are scheduled because we do try to keep, we try to keep some space open for the public. Now, is it, it's hard to know as the public when that is because if I posted that this field space was open on this day for the public, I'd have teams show up there, right? So like they, if it's advertised, teams are going to show up there and that's not loud. We can't, we would be overrun. So it's available. It's around. I don't have that schedule in hand, but we do, I know my recreation manager feels strongly that public practice should have access to the public for some your you know go kick a ball with your with your son. I don't know what that schedule is off hand so I can bring that it feel interesting. I was under the assumption that a regional park opened did have open play on turf two right something happened where we had to shut that down or did the programming just get so popular where they needed to take that field space. I think we still have some open play time built in. I just, I don't have the information in my hand. Gotcha, so there's a possibility that it's just not public size. So I'm also aware that Gwyneth-based pickup adult leagues were posting to come meet at Cully Creek Park and bring your nets and doesn't matter if there's kids out there, it doesn't matter if they're play or they're playing recreational, we're going to run that park down and have full blown adult soccer going back and forth. So if you've been ever been to that park after 530, it's gotten a look out. Has that helped by reducing and taking those fields for programming? Yeah, another problem we've had is, I mean, we didn't until, I guess it was late 23, have a commercial use permit where by people could actually do training in our park, like private training in our park, but just because someone is allowed to do private training does not mean that they have reserved the field space. However, they feel that they are owed the field space. And so, but if there's teams that are, you know, youth teams that are out there under our contract, it's not, it's reserved for the youth team. It's not reserved for the private trainer. So if the private trainer wants space, they have to reserve it. He can't just assume it's available. Oh, yeah. You know, so that's one of the issues too. And I think one thing we have to keep in mind is, is the location of the park. You just have to cross that bridge from Guneh and get into that park. So yes, it is a John's Creek park, but it is very easily accessible for people in Duluth. And I'm sure, because I know of friends who bought houses in the development right across from the colleague creek and the developer basically said, hey, you have a park in the backyard. That's your park. Even though it's a different county, let alone a different city. So I think we're going to run into that challenge, and I think for one and the constituents, they do have a valid point which is, hey, how do we make sure that we have access? The other thing to keep in mind is, as the weather gets better, peak hour usage is going to continue to increase, right? It's not not that during non-PEG hours, there is no access. I mean, I was there calling CREAK this morning, 9.30, and there is not a single field being used, right? Because it's a school day, everyone is at work, you know? But it's everyone wants time at the time when it's called peak hours. So I just think we just need to find a balance to make sure that our organizations that we have contractual arrangements with have organized play, but then more importantly, we'd not giving first access to people out of Gnett or other, counties, versus our own people. So we'll have to figure that out. But one, to you and your constituents, we hear you loud and clear, right? It is a new park. It is, in my view, only one-third built. Our hope is that future fuels will be available as well. Erika and the department is working very hard to make sure that the goals are accomplished, right, and which is we want to have good quality of life for our youth. We want a good quality of life for our adults, and how do we make sure that happens? So just allow Erica and the team to work through those details, and I'm sure something good will come out. But we do appreciate you bringing it to our attention, and please convey that message to your constituents as well. Thank you. Just one very last thing. And I think it would help. I don't know how you police that I really don't, but I think when you have adults out there and they're in little uniforms, you know, granted they're just tarry, thirings and they've set up goals. Like that's organized. I mean, it's kind of almost one of the things that how do we make the laws, by laws, or the rules of the park, whereas at some point this is established. This was a planned event. You have X amount of people here. You're in uniforms. You brought your own goals. Like that's a planned event. You have X amount of people here. You're in uniforms. You brought your own goals. Like, that's an organized event. You should have rented the field if you wanted that. So how do you place that? I'm not sure. I don't think your staff wants to sit out there and chase adults away all day long. I have no idea. You're not a my or the person who has to take that on, but I definitely, as somebody who's been there and seen that, it's definitely a problem. So good luck. Thank you. Well, I will. Thank you. I will. Thank you. I got a wrong. It, uh, okay. Yeah, Travis, you had something to say. Uh, yeah, please turn on your mic. Yes. It was actually going to be the exact same thing Adam was saying is that I assume that you would need to have park personnel on staff to make open time work. It requires some level of supervision and I didn't know what the staffing looked like in terms of their hours on those different sites to make sure that open field truly is open field and not open season for adult teams to play. Yes, we have lots of unique challenges on our groups. So, you know, the reality is, Collie Creek is a very good park, right? It is a crown jewel in this corridor. And it's again, yet to be fully developed. So I'm sure Erika and team will continue to brainstorm on those ideas and please bring it to their attention so they can continue to improve the process. So I will continue with the projects if you guys are ready. All right, no worries, I'm happy to talk about this stuff. So other projects, the Chattanoche Greenway Project, we are still working with the National Park Service. As you may know from the news, there's been a lot going on with the National Park Service, so they have had some additional roadblocks and just challenges in responding in a timely way. As not to say, we're not still a priority. We are. They've told us we are. They're just working, they're doing the best they can over there on for our Chathachie Greenway project. The Colleague Creek Maker Space and Archie Mill Animal Habitat Relocation are currently out for bid, so we hope that those projects have some great bids coming in soon. We can rock and roll on those. Got some great pictures for you down there. I don't know if you've been to Osea Park lately. I hope you have. We've got some really great way of finding signage out there. I think it looks fantastic. We're rolling out our park sign standards to all of our park. They look like like more cohesive places like they belong together. Other news, our park behind City Hall has the name. This is the boardwalk at town center right back there. So that was decided to- So again, the boardwalk at town center. The man was freaking it unhappy. All right. The boardwalk at town center, yes sir, in this man. That's all like you're to be up. Shake rag. We'll be working on the storybook trail which is on the side closest to the schools. That trail needs a lot of renovation over there. Creek side park, I'm sorry, look at me, I still have to have to do my name. So the boardwalk at town center construction is ongoing. There's some really great things going on back there. if you want to just peek out behind City Hall, you'll see some really great things. In other news, you can see our lovely new art installation there, the reflection. There's some really great things going on back there. If you want to just peek out behind City Hall, you'll see some really great things. In other news, you can see our lovely new art installation there. The reflections right in front of Park Place. That is our fourth and final art piece that is constructed out of the steel from the Old Rogers Bridge. On the next page, you'll see our OC lights ribbon cutting with Miss Jillian there with us and staff. I hear those lights are very bright. So they're doing their job out there and there you can see pictures of the way finding signage. That's all I got for projects. Any questions for? I just want to say the park looks amazing. It's not the same park when I was going there, and for the better. And they host tournaments there and two of a person, they say this is probably one of the best parks we've ever been in, from the bathrooms, the concessions. Parking is an issue, but can't do anything about that. But- The compliments on our bathrooms actually. Yeah, they're fantastic. whole park especially with the signs because we would have people always ask where's the line and they're right there it whole park, especially with the signs, because we would have people always ask, where's the line, and they, right there, there's the sign. So, very well done. Any other comments? Me? Please, Chile. Yeah, thank you. I also want to echo, right? The lights are very bright and incredibly helpful. I liked the decision that was made that says, when it's cloudy, that they turned them on a little bit earlier. So that's been helpful just right, because it gets a little dim out there. So that's been helpful. The signage is incredible. Right, I mean, it took my breath away, maybe a little bit, right? When I got out of the car and I'm walking down the stairs and I'm seeing the signage I'm like yes so well done and thank you so much for that. I'll pile on with the positive chemons why not right yeah my kids have played there for over 10 years and I didn't realize how much signs can really elevate a park but seeing that they really knocked out of the park no fun intended on that's lame but it's real like people's grandparents to there, they don't know how to get around and it's perfectly located, it's perfectly done, you're staffed at a very, very good job, adding congratulations. Any other comments? So I do have two comments. One is going back to the restrooms. Fantastic, right? Our parks probably have the best restrooms. All the parks I I visited. And especially for the family, the women, the young people, because it makes it feel like, hey, this is a fun place to be. Secondly, the recent comment I heard regarding colleague Creek was, we wish we had a park like this in our city. Because I know it's still under construction in terms of fully completed, but people come to Collie Creek because they love Collie Creek. So hats off to you and the city and the staff to make that happen. One question I have is in regards to our maintenance contract. I know last time we talked about that, that the bit-colleague included, we may potentially have one contractor. So is that looking, meaning from a bit perspective? We'll be putting that bit out within the next couple months and we're going to leave ourselves the ability to negotiate whether it's one, two, you know, through a whack. We're going to leave some options available to us so we can make the best choice. Because I know one of the questions was with the events and all of it, the number of events we are holding and I will tell you, after tonight you will hear more events. So I think that's going to be a piece of the puzzle that we'll have to work it out without contractor as well. But thank you very much for your comments and thank you for the report. Let's move on to chair update. So before I go to the, thank you very much, Juan, appreciate it. Thank you. All right. Before I go to chair update, as I mentioned we have two new members, so if you can just give you a few minutes to introduce yourself. Sandra, thank you for joining us. She's coming straight from the airport. So thank you for getting on the earlier flight and making it to this meeting, we really appreciate it. So Travis and Aryan, if you could please take a few minutes and introduce yourself, give us some background and what made you decide to be part of this particular committee, and please have your mic on as green so that others can hear as well. Well, thank you. My name is Travis Soasterator and I moved to John Screek about two and a half years ago. My history, I, before I began working in education, I actually worked for Bethanyburg County in Charlotte and West Carolina, with parks and recreation for a few years or for a while and just love the outdoors, love being outside and love being a part of the park system there. Worked in schools for over 20 years and that's in five different countries and four different continents. So worked in international education, as a teacher, as a principal, and as athletic director. So very sensitive to the staffing restrictions you may have in terms of policing and supervising some of these fields. Moved from Korea, where I lived last, as a high school administrator, and my wife and ever trying to pick a place for our family are three kids who've never lived in the US ever before and We searched all over the country and John's Creek became a very clear and apparent place for us to be and so we are exceptionally happy to be here and A chance to to give back as I go to call your Creek in other parks probably three or four times a week A chance to give back and and to support the great initiatives you all have an honor for me. So I'm grateful to be here and thankful to participate. Thank you, Shroudas. It's a hard act to follow. My name is Orion Anthony. I have lived in Jones Creek about four or five years now, originally from California. I was very active in sports growing up, so it's a big passion project for me. I have volunteered at Lockbridge and Wilson Creek Elementary and now at Autry Mill. I sat on many boards so I'm very happy to be here and make a difference and can I give back to our city. Great thank you so one thing I'm absolutely excited about is we have talent and passion not just from Southeast United States but across the country and across the world. And that experience will always come in handy because you have been there, seen it differently. Travis, hearing you say that you decided on John's Creek, I'm sure if city council members in our mayor is listening to this, they'll be clapping away right now. All right, because thank you for selecting John's Creek as your new home. We look forward to your contributions, your knowledge, and your unique experiences, because I'm sure California, different parts of the haven't been to four continents. I've been to three, so you did me on that, but certainly looking forward to your contributions. Thank you very much. My chair update is get ready for a busy, busy 2025. And the reason why I say that is this is our second year after Collie Creek established. Staff has been busy trying to figure out all the details how to make sure the cars get parked at the right location. There's enough access, lights get turned on and all that. Today is like probably the first good spring day. So we will need to assist our staff members in terms of our input. There is obviously a lot of work that needs to be done. All right. We have new members who have come in. Martin is not here. Marty is part of the Atlanta United Special Needs Soccer Program and he's going to bring his own talent as it relates to what's going on in the field of soccer, as we all know FIFA World Cup is coming up next year. And we need to be ready for that as a country, as a city, because that's going to be a huge party. So I just want us to get ready for 2025 season. Let's get excited and always be available to support our staff and members. Madame Chair, do we have any old business? No sir. All right, so let's move on to our new business. So first consideration of meeting minutes from February 19, 2025. I hope everyone had a chance to read those minutes and And if I could please ask someone to move to accept these minutes. All right, Adam is going to motion and Kendrick is going to second all those in favor, please raise your hand. All right, meetings approved. Our next agenda item, and again, this is similar to what we've been doing the last few meetings. And I'm extremely excited to have our director for the Arts Center at John's Creek, Stephanie Donaldson, join us. to share about what does the arts center do? Who do they serve? You probably have seen their work as you come to City Hall and other places, but more importantly they are ambitious organization. They want to do bigger and better things, So Stephanie, thank you for joining us. Please, floor is yours. And we want to make this an interactive session. Feel free to ask questions. And again, all of us, feel free to also ask questions. Please. Excellent. Thank you very much, Shafik. I hope I can make you as excited over the art center as we are about those restrooms in our parks. Anyway, thank you very much for having me here this evening. As Shafik said, I'm Stephanie Donaldson. I'm the executive director of our fantastic art center here in Johns Creek. We're located right down the street, three minutes from City Hall off of a Abbots Bridge Road. And you have a plethora of information this evening that I have given you so that you can go home and browse through everything that we are offering at the Art Center for the community. So we're a nonprofit organization. We have been here in our community for 29 years. We started 29 years ago as the OC Warsaw School of Art in a tiny little brick building, which is still standing behind what is John's Creek High School, and that used to be a farm on that corner. And then the name was changed to the John's Creek Arts Center. And then last year we changed the name to the Art Center. We needed to broaden our footprint. We are serving a lot of people from coming, Milton, Alpharetta, Canton, Peachtree Corners, D'Cula, Lawrenceville, Duluth. They're coming from every walk around our community. So we're growing by leaps and bounds. So some of the information you'll see in front of you, you have a rat card, and it kind of front and back gives you just really the series of what we're doing. And the first thing I want to talk about are the classes that we offer. We have classes at start as young as three. It is a free program for Saturdays of the month and every second Tuesday. It's called Small Small World. And it's a great way for parents and family to be introduced to the Arts Center. And that program is run by one of our instructors in each small small program. So pick a country. So read a storybook and then do an art project around that particular country and there to traditions and ethnicities. And it's a wonderful way to step into becoming a mini master's student at the art center. And that class is for K to second graders. And the mini master's programs fantastic. Our instructor will choose a master artist each week. And then educate the children about that master artist and do a piece of art, similar to what that artist would create. And then we have their DeFitt grade, middle school, high school, all the way through. I think the oldest one coming to the art center is like 87 years old. We have a full-class studio, a hand building and wheelside for teens and adults and we have a program there for elementary kids too. We have our own kilns in the back of our buildings, everything is fired right on site. A lot of the things that are coming out are microwavable and dishwasher safe. So if you're wanting to join us and make gifts at the holiday time, it's a fun way to make something very unique and not a gift that you would just pick up at Target or at Home Goods. So keep that in mind. So that is programming at the Art Center all year long. Outside of the art center, we're at eight of our Fulton County Elementary schools in our neck of the woods here and we do their after school art enrichment programs. And we send our teacher to the schools and they take all the art supplies and we do those author to school year. Then getting back to the art center and what's keeping us really hopping right now is planning our summer art camps. So we'll have nine weeks of summer art camps. We'll have over 1,000 children come through our summer art camps and it's so much fun and it's noisy and it's loud and it's messy and we have sparkles and paint and clay everywhere. And so that's coming. But before that we do have spring break camp. So if you're looking for a place for your children, your neighbors are looking for somewhere, spring break camp is the first one that's coming up. Exhibitions. So we'll have seven exhibitions on site. Right now is our Women's History Month exhibition. So stop by. That is up until next Friday. The work is fantastic. And so watch our website. Come and see our exhibitions. We either have an opening reception or a closing reception. They're free and open to the public. We have hors d'oeuvres and we'll have drinks and we get together and we celebrate. It's a lot of fun. Shaveeek had mentioned before. We have artwork here at City Hall. Two locations right down the main hall before you go into Council Chamber. That is, work that is hung and has been created by a volunteer group with the art center called The Guild. And inside Chamber you'll see youth artwork and each quarter we change that out. And it is artwork from children that are in our after school elementary program. And I think right now the work in there is from our children at State Bridge crossing elementary, okay? And then we also have exhibitions around at Emory John's Creek Hospital, down on the meeting room level, and up in their breast center. And then we also have work over at Newtown Park and at OC Library. So you're going to us all over the city and we're not gonna other doors because we have a lot of artists. They wanna get their artwork out of the closets and out into the public. One of the things that's very important and dear to my heart and my staff is the outreach that we do. Being a nonprofit organization, we realize it's incredibly important to give back to the community. So for years, we have partnered with the Drake House, which is over in Roswell. If you're not familiar with the Drake House, this organization will take in mothers and children that are experiencing homelessness, okay? They get the mothers on their feet back into working and we go and take all the art supplies and extra supplies that they can share and we do art with the children twice a month. And then we will at the end of the year do a little workshop with the moms and we make sure that they get a gift bag of some personal items that they can also enjoy. Right now we have a huge series of activities going on at three of our Title I schools up here in North Fulton, Esther Jackson, Mimosa, and Vickery Mill Elementary Schools. So we've been doing a series of puppet shows and puppet workshops with these children weakly. We have done a self-portrait workshop wrap that up in April at all three of those title one schools. Then we also have a storytelling workshop coming up for those children as well. So on top of that, Erica had mentioned our artwork. We over at Newtown Park. Every other Monday, we have an active senior program with our teacher and she takes all the supplies and then we usually will have a little art exhibition for the art that's made over at Newtown Park and cookies and lemonade for the people that participate, super cute. We do scholarships for families that cannot afford to come out of pocket for classes in camp, so we make sure no one is told no at the art center. Another thing we are rolling out at the end of April, we have partnered with Morehouse College, their School of Psychiatry. There is a big movement in a recognition that art and therapy go hand in hand. We've seen that. We saw that during COVID. It was very important for us to be there for everybody. So at the end of April, it's open for adults 18 and up. It's gonna be a series of four different types of art mediums. They are bringing over their own art and structure. And it's meditation and making art. And it's going to be an hour and a half class on Mondays 6 to 7 30. It's open for everybody. And we're excited to be able to partner with Morehouse College. How much time, you said I get till 9, right? Listen, you have our attention, all right? Me, one. No, it's me. I could talk for hours about our little arts center. And then of course, you'll see us present all of the city festivals as well. And we do free art activities for the children. One of our favorites, so is the International Festival. So we'll identify seven different countries and we have a 40 by 40 foot tent with free art activities for the children and with about different countries and their art designs and fun things that they do. So we'll be at Daphodil Days too. So we have that. So in the course of a year, we'll reach 10,000 to 12,000 people through our activities at the art center. So that's really by little nutshell. But next year is our 30th anniversary. Our big birthday for 30 years in the community. And I think we've been around longer than John's Creek named as a city. Because it was, yeah, that's right. So with that in mind, in a new park, Erica behind us, I had a couple ideas. Of course, we're going to be planning a big gala in the fall, big fundraising gala in the fall. We'll have a fun time here. We're going to identify a location indoors for that gala. But during the year, we wanted to have like a birthday celebration or a couple of fun things. And it may be bouncing off of all of you how we can incorporate our parks to do this. So one of the things I was thinking and it is popular and perhaps you've all participated or I've seen chalk festivals and it's fun and it's anybody can do a chalk festival. Now I had a really small one here years ago before COVID um at the new tunnel up the street and I was really surprised. Parents were coming, adults were coming, older people were coming, they all wanted their chalk and we made beautiful art on the sidewalk. So I thought to celebrate and kind of our birthday and rolling out the new park here possibly we could look at having a chalk festival. There are professional chalk artists as well that could be incorporated. I'm just been meeting with my team and we've been kind of you know scheming about what we want to do next year. So if this is something that could possibly come to fruition, I can come up with more details about a chalk festival to involve the city and our parks here. And of course, we could work together on that. Another one that I've thought for a long time would be fantastic and it was something I had been talking about even before COVID hit was a kite festival and that is another fun activity. Beautiful. We've got big colleague Creek Park area that we could do a big kite festival. We could have activities where people are making their own kites. They could bring their own kites. Those are just a couple ideas and I'm kicking around for next year. I'm always open to suggestions as well. I have a fantastic group of creative people at the art center. So if you had something in your mind, let us know and we can run with it. But we would love to partner with all of you and be the exception as we always say we are. Okay? Do I have questions? Great. Thanks, Stephanie. I'm sure we're going to have questions for you. So I'm going to open it up, Paul, please. Yeah, if you could. I want to understand the background. So is the art center as a budget item on John's Creek? Are you funded partially by John's Creek? No, I see a head shaking over there. So- No, we are our own nonprofit organization. Okay, so all your funding comes from classes and things like that in donations. 70% of my revenue is from my camps and my classes. Okay. Right? I do get support from Fulton County, but I write grants. Got you. And from Georgia Council for the arts. And then I will reach out to foundations, write grants, and so that is our business model. And are your instructors volunteers or they paid some rate? So I have a staff of paid five people that are W2. I have about 40 independent contractors that are the instructors. Okay. To handle all the questions. Right. Chilian, go ahead. Hello. I just want to give a shout out, right, especially for everyone that may be watching or watch this back later, that if you have children, I mean, even as adults, right? But if you have children, so my son went through the arts center years, right? And now he's like, I'm too old for that. But I want to give a shout out, right, that it's one of the best summer camp programs that I've ever experienced, the talent, right, the people that are showing what the options and the opportunities and what's possible to these kiddos during those summer camps is incredible. I have art. I mean, I have my kids art like you would think. Why? Like professional looking like paintings and drawings and clay and all of that. I framed it all. I have a whole wall in my house. I have my own exhibit, right? And you would think, why? You know, everybody else is like, I throw all that away. No, this is incredible stuff that these kiddos get to make during those summer camps. They're very well-themed. The talent that comes through right at the art center is amazing. So I just want to give a shout out for that. Anybody that's watching, trying to prepare what am I going to do with my kiddos during summer? The art center is the place to be, for sure. I appreciate that. Thank you, Jillian. And you know, our summer's here in Georgia get pretty hot. So it's not too bad. I'd be sitting in AC and making some beautiful art. So that's a big plus. So thank you very much. What I love, I've been at the Arts Center for a dozen years, I started as a volunteer and I've continued to stay. It's just fantastic. What I love is looking back at these children that came as little mini-master kids other coming in there being assistance during summer camp We have kids that have gone off to scout or other colleges even tech that are coming back to help us during camp. It's wonderful to see that growth I'll build on top of that because my daughters also went to camp so yeah, they loved they loved it and like Jillian, I have some, you know, pieces that I treasure some of the clay that they made. So that was just really nice. I did want to ask you. So as we see some things come up where you can do like, you know, the little sip and brush place that you can go at night and things like that, does the art center allow you to rent it out for like a party or anything like that? That's a good question. Absolutely. We are all about having an opportunity to give people a chance to get together and gather and make art and have fun and laugh. You just need to, you can just call me and we can look at the schedule. If you wanted a teacher to facilitate that, We can go ahead and set that up. We have birthday parties for all ages. We've had youth back birthday parties and we've had adult birthday parties. So if you have something that you want to use one of our spaces for, we are definitely open to that. Yeah, I was just thinking, you know, adults doing something fun and different in the town at night, you know, to have somewhere to go and something to do. So thank you and thank you for what you do in the community. And a question about your Gallup. Do you post that online? Is that like widely like publicized? It will be. We're are looking at next fall of 2026. So exploring options of the location. but we will be shouting it out to the world as we want to make sure we sell out. And we have a goal in mind. We would like at least 30,000 for 30 years. So I think it's a doable and not too greedy of a goal. Any other questions? All right, so I do have some things to say. First and foremost, I was honored to be on the Johns Creek Arts Center board for six years. And I've seen this organization evolve. So I'll give you an example. Even during COVID time, the arts center said, you know, we are a diverse community. We got to embrace all the different cultures. So if you remember Stephanie, we started the Diwali. So we had families drive up, they couldn't come in. Stephanie and the team made bags, and we gave them to each and every family that drive up to the art center. We started the Chinese New Year festival, Lunar New Year. We did the eat celebration? So this particular center is not just art, it's about embracing the community. If you look at the amount of activities that the art center does in giving back, I think we are blessed to have the art center in John's Creek, right? And piggybacking on what Sandra was saying, here's my proposal to this group, our pack, paint night, all right? We're gonna do that before the end of summer. All right, we'll work with you. We want to come as a group, paint, have some refreshments, and enjoy the celebration. So that's something absolutely we'll come into. In regard to- In regard to- In regard to- In regard to- In regard you have to come in and you have to make it and then it gets fired and then you have to come back and glaze it and then it gets fired. And it's like a very long process but we have bisque pieces that are already. You could paint and then we could fire those for you. So we'll let our director guide us in that process, but we just need to show up. In regards to the two activities you mentioned, I'm happy you mentioned that the chalk festival. And Ericka, I think the walkway, the boardwalk that we're going to have, right? Is it okay if I called it the boardwalk? That's a name, right? I think that will allow us a lot of space and excitement to do a chalk festival. Sure, we can figure out some good spots. All right. And the kite festival, the reason why I think kite festival makes sense for our diverse community and Travis, you've been in Korea and all that, it is a big thing in many parts of Asian countries and all that, all right. With the large population that we have in Johns Creek from Asia, I think will be a phenomenal thing. We have enough space in Colleague Creek. All right, so I would urge our Parks Department to look into these two options. And if you need to have a project team, I'm sure we can make a project team out of this team, all right, to get that started. And I think we will get a lot of citizens and families to come and join hands once we say, hey, this is what we want to do. And this is something unique that doesn't happen in every city. But I think with the population and the space we have, something for us to embrace, all right. So some to-do items. But Stephanie, thank you very much. We will coordinate with you for the RPAC Paint Night or whatever night we want to call it. But thank you very much. And we hope and pray that you continue to celebrate the arts in John's Creek. Thank you all very much. All right. All right. Let's move on to our next agenda item. This is I'm happy. I read through this particular memo. 5K event fee revision. So, Erica, please lead us. Yes. Thank you. We are hoping for committee comment on a proposal to offer a new tier of pricing for 5K events. Currently, when the park was opened, we established the 5K fees that you see there, the resident and nonprofit rate and the non-resident or for-profit rate. We align those with the 5K rates from surrounding communities. However, we do get inquiries fairly often from school booster clubs throughout the community, and they find our rates to be cost prohibitive for them. So in the spirit of partnership with our local schools, we're proposing to offer them a reduced rate for school registered booster clubs to run 5K events at Colley Creek and New Town Park. We suspect that they would be at Colley Park. As you may know, Colley offers a really easy way to run a 5K so we don't have to close roads, we don't have to have as many officers working through traffic crossings or the whole thing, you don't cross a road. So, that is the proposal before you and we're just looking to see if the committee would support that revision to our rental fees. Happy to take any questions. So I'm going to start out here. I am extremely happy that you bring this to our attention. I think we need to do everything possible to promote our schools in improving the quality of life and making them feel that the city supports their activities. So I am absolutely in favor of this and I would encourage us to look at other things where we can potentially work with the students in high school and other schools to be able to accommodate their needs so that it becomes easier for them, it becomes fun for the families and also for the administrators to promote parks activities. So I'm absolutely in favor of that. Any comments? I was going to say I agree completely with Shifik. I think it's a wonderful idea. Yeah, it's interesting because these booster clubs cannot use their own facilities. A lot of people think that they could just go to their high school, but they would have to rent it just like anybody else. It's super expensive. So by supporting this is just a good step forward to exactly what this community, we're in a unique situation of being charged at our own schools to use their own facilities. So super stoked to see that. Thank you. How much does the city incur for running one of these? If it any? So the cost is less at Colleague Park because it requires less support. So generally we have a staff member there. There is a police, usually one police officer of it's a larger event just to make sure things are going smoothly. So I don't have that specific number at hand, but it's much easier at call a creek park than it is at New Town Park. You know, our department works service to the community. So I can certainly go back and research that. I don't have it at my fingertips. Probably around that we usually have maintenance costs as well. So you know, a little extra staff there to do the trash cans, things like that. So I could certainly provide that information. Really, the rates were based on the rental rates or 5K rates for surrounding communities. We didn't do a cost benefit analysis to set those rates. We said, what are our neighbors charging for a similar event? We're in line, and then this would be a reduced rate because to support our schools. And I think one thing we have to keep in mind is parks are not revenue centers, right? The good thing is at Colleague Creek, the parks department has an office. There's police presence there already, so there's staff there already. So it becomes a lot easier and convenient for the police staff to be there. And because of the fact that it's just one trail, you don't really have to man that many stops, right? You just need to make sure parking and all that is coordinated. Make sure your mic is on, please. Thank you. The reason I ask, I said on the school engagement council as well. So my question was more geared so it doesn't even have to be a thousand. You know, can we even lower it more, you know, to facilitate the schools and PTOs? I can certainly provide additional information on that. Half of the rate we charge everyone else is a pretty good cut, so we thought we'd start there. I think it's good to start there as we go along. I think we should look at other kind of programs as well and see how we can help the students. And then more importantly, as we gain more experience, we can down the line decide, hey, it could be $500, but I think it's a great start. So that $1,000 is that cover the all-out card items, like the police officers, like it has a cop in there, and this is all just... That's a good question. So in general, that is the base rate. So you would still add on maintenance costs. But doing it again, they're nominal. So we're cutting the biggest cost down. There still would be a steady, you know, the all-acar items as needed. Okay. All right, so in regard, go ahead, Travis. And if I may, is the express purpose oftentimes from booster clubs to use it as a fundraising event? And on top of that, how frequent are you getting these requests or how often do you think that you'd be looking to utilize the track? Yes, the intention is to use it as a fundraising mechanism. That's the intention of them doing it. We get these requests a handful of times every year. So you have a spring and fall when you want to run five Ks. And I'd say maybe three to five times spring and fall. We have a lot of inquiries. Yeah, that's what one asked the question is my new colleague here to my left as well. If they're trying to fundraise money, there's a significant cost upfront for them. There's a way in the future to consider even internal scholarships or whatnot to make it a lower cost. If that is prohibiting groups from from participating, it'd be interesting to see what that could look like. Sure. And just for our new members, the way this works from here, this is a recommending body. So what we do is we then take the recommendations of the committee. I'll basically take this memo, write up updates based on council fee or excuse me, committee feedback. And then take it to council for their blessing or revisions and their decision from there. So who knows, council may say, hey, 1000 is too much. Let's slash it down to 500, right? Or they may say, hey, let's raise it to 1500. So our goal is to give input, but I think we all agree. This is a great start. So Ericka, I think you have a consensus here that we should move forward on this and continue to work towards other programs that could be beneficial to our students and continue to work towards reducing the cost. Right. Madam Secretary, any other business? No sir. All right. So I before we adjourn, I want to say, oh Sandra, please. I have other business. Oh sure. So I have a suggestion, Erica. So I have a lot of friends who of course work for the city and it came to my attention that if you work for the city and you don't live in the city, you still have to pay non-resident fee. And I, this is just my personal opinion, feel like if you work for the city and you're encouraging your child or you're a police officer and you're already going to be over by Newtown and you want to watch them play soccer, why would we not want our city employees to have their children play and allow them to have a resident fee? Rather than a non-resident fee. I think that would be encouraging supporting the city, keeping more people that work for the city on the field with our residents. And I think it's, you know, a nominal fee to ask when you or I choose to take it in front of city Council and make the proposal. They all live in the city. So if their children play any of the sports, everybody on council pays the resident fee. And I just think we're trying to be inclusive, we're trying to get the word out about our wonderful city and there's no one better to do that than the employees of the city in my opinion. So my proposal would be to allow any city employee to have a John's Creek city, pay the resident fee and not the non-resident fee. I think you'll be happy to pass it along. That's free community engagement and promotion of the city. I think this is our group benefit package. It's one of the line item where you work for the city, you get the benefit of being similar as resident. So something for us to think about, but I think the point is well made. As a person who does not live within the sea limits, I do appreciate that. Because I think as Sandra, thank you for bringing this up, because this is not a cost-leave activity, but I think from engagement perspective, making people feel like, hey, I work for a city that cares for me, it could mean a lot. And it starts other conversations. Yes. Like if I'm talking to somebody who's working for, you know, our folks that run all the delights in the area, I'm going to be like, golly, you know, I, y'all made some changes and this has been great getting out of our neighborhood, you know, just to start having those kind of conversations where residents all of a sudden feel a little bit more part of your community because you're involved in a conversation or you know somebody. So I'm conversations where residents all of a sudden feel a little bit more part of your community because you're involved in a conversation or you know somebody. So one of my questions will be back to the city is finding out how like the amount of non-residents that whose children participate and just being able to present to them what the difference in the fees would be. But regardless of the money, the engagement, I think is priceless. Thank you, Senator. Thank you for bringing that to our attention. And it's things like that that we need to bring it to our parks department's attention. Any other business? All right. I know we went over a few minutes, but I'm extremely happy for our new members for joining us. We are going to have the RPAT paint night or whatever you're going to call it. We're going to coordinate with you. I know Erica is going to work on the two ideas that you brought up. The kite festival and the chalk festival. The other thing also is if you can look at Erin and she's going to be our exhibitor. All right. If you noticed, she is wearing a shirt that was designed by Christie some time ago. So what I would like us to do is place your order with Christie. All right. I would love for us if you go paint night or wherever we go. We have our shirts. Nobody can still take a picture, you know, the Dodd-Daphran, all right. And we'll get that done, but I think it's a great celebration. All those different balls represent the different sports that get played in John's Creek. They are to scale. Including, there's a cricket ball there, so I know that, right? Is there a pickle ball in there? So again, celebrate diversity, which is not just diversity in population, but diversity in sports as well. All right, so please get in touch with Christie. Let's get that done. If I can have a motion to adjourn, please. I'm going to go to Paula over there. Second, please. Sandra, all in favor. All right. All right. Meeting adjourned at 735. Thank you very much.