[0:00] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [0:48] Chairperson: I know this is like oh there we go good evening everyone welcome I'm going to call the meeting to order um welcome to the December 7th meeting of the parks and wreck advisory committee and first thing on the agenda is to stand and do the Pledge of Allegiance IED Ali to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all all right thank you everyone and first next thing is the approval of the tonight's agenda I'll move to approve the agenda [1:37] Committee Member: as written second that [1:40] Chairperson: we have a motion and a second uh for the agenda any other discussion all right hearing none all those in favor say I I I any oppose hearing none agenda is passed all right um the next part of the agenda is our audience participation and doesn't look like we have anybody in the audience for um talking about anything that's not on the agenda just want to remind people and welcome people to come down and share any concerns ideas uh topics that they want to discuss before this um committee group here we'd love to have you so just keeping that in mind for the future next thing on the agenda moving right along is the approval of the November 2023 minutes has everybody taken a look at that any questions any changes nope none [2:36] Committee Member (Dave): I'll make a motion to approve the uh uh the minute [2:39] Chairperson: thanks Dave there's a motion in a second uh any discussion all right hearing none all those in favor of approving the uh November 2023 minutes signal by saying I I I oppose hearing none minutes are approved next on the agenda item um we've got uh Eric to talk through a few things welcome [3:08] Eric: yeah Madam chair members of the committee so the first item on the agenda to talk about is the um contracts that we need to implement as part of the referendum I think everyone on the committee and hopefully those uh listening at home uh recognize that on on November 7th we passed a park spawn referendum and so we're starting to work on those projects and the first step in getting to work on those projects projects is to hire some Consultants to help us do some design and Engineering for projects so in front of you this evening is a series of contracts there's a contract um that we have for the Apple Valley uh Community Center a contract uh with JLG we have a contract in there for the Apple Valley Family Aquatic Center with JLG then we have two contracts with Confluence one for Kelly Park one for Redwood Park then there's another contract for uh some work being done by H KGI on some neighborhood park planning and then there's a contract for jqp and they would help us with some accessibility or handicap accessibility issues that we'll find as part of our projects all of those um contracts are a part of your packet all of those uh contracts would be funded by proceeds of the parkpa referendum um and it would help us get to a point where we're ready to do some bidding of these projects um and then start to implement some of these projects as we talked at the um informal meeting uh right our tenative plan right now is um that we would be moving forward with the haze Arena project in the spring of 24 we would hope to be moving forward with the uh Apple Valley Family Aquatic Center project after the swim season happens in 24 um and then in 24 we' be working on the planning for the Redwood Park project with the hopes of being under construction in 25 and into 26 um we would be working on the uh APPA Valley Community Center in 25 with the hopes of being under construction in 26 and 27 um and then um we are still working on how we're going to approach some of the smaller Park projects like all the playground equipment the trail work the court work things like that so um all of those contracts are in your packet um if you have any questions about any of them I'd be happy to answer that but we'd um like the commit to consider making a recommendation to the city council to move forward with engaging with these different Consultants to do this work on behalf of uh the city for the parks Spa referendum work uh that was passed as a part of the successful referendum on November 7th and I can stand and answer any questions [5:32] Chairperson: did I read somewhere that these have been reviewed by the City attorney all the contracts [5:37] Eric: yeah so we're in the process of going back and forth right now with the city attorney so the contracts you have in or the proposals you have in front of you are in draft format we're still tweaking that based on advice of the City attorney so between now and the council meeting on the 28th uh we'll be going back with the city attorney and the attorneys representing the consulting firms to change language and whatnot um but once this once both sets of attorneys are comfortable with it we'll finalize that and bring it back um to the city council for their approval um but substantially um what you see is what we're going to be moving forward with [6:14] Chairperson: okay and just for the record JLG and Confluence were the ones that provided the master plans before the referendum right so those were chosen because they've already provided those plans right [6:26] Eric: yes um we we worked with JLG and with Confluence from the beginning of the referendum process they're the ones that helped um with all of the community engagement they're the ones that help develop the Design Concepts and try to set the establish the vision that we have for all of the different projects and so it just feels like a natural fit that we would continue to work with them we don't have to start over if you will we don't have to bring in a a different team of people that might have different ideas not that different is bad but we have U invested time and energy to get to where we are today [7:14] Committee Member: haven't they worked with the city on some projects prior to this too [7:17] Eric: um Confluence has I don't believe JLG has [7:21] Committee Member: it's another good reason to stay with them is there anything um or any expectation for how long the H KGI processes will take with it's a they've got a multi-task process that's a lot of the smaller Community Parks um you know the smaller projects that we don't have the Masters for um have we engaged with them on like how long they would expect these tasks to take once the contracts sign to at least get through some of that planning [7:48] Eric: yeah so a lot a lot of the work that they'll do in you know the early early months of 2024 will be just data Gathering and trying to get organized if you will um a little hard to engage the public um in about Parks especially neighborhood parks in the winter months because a lot of people aren't out and about um but once the the snow if we get any snow once it starts to melt um and people are start out there in the Parks then that will that's when heavy public engagement will start to happen and then hopefully by the middle of summer certainly by the end of summer we'll be able to wrap up that work and then start moving forward with some of that information and some of those projects [8:33] Committee Member: okay when will the bidding process start for contractors [8:36] Eric: um well it'll happen at different stages because we're not doing all of the projects at once um so the the Apple Valley Family Aquatic Center as an example our goal is to do all of the design work um between January and probably May so that we can be out to bid and and get contractors lined up in June and July and early August so that we can award contracts in July and August so that they're ready to start doing their work when the pool closes at the end of ju end of August [9:09] Chairperson: just so people understand it'll be not taking away from standard use times [9:15] Eric: yeah for the most part yeah we'll be doing our very best to work around um High use Seasons but using redwood redwood as an example we would expect Redwood to be open this summer for swimming um but that in 2025 the park will substantially be under construction and basically close to the Public's use because it's it's I mean the whole thing is going to really get torn up right um and so it really won't be available to the public in 25 and in into the beginning of 26 with the hope of having people inviting people back to the park to a brand new park in the spring of 26 um so again we're phasing the projects we can't handle them all at the same time um and we'll do our best to work around the different High use times in the Parks to the best of our ability [10:07] Committee Member: for uh for Redwood is there any sort of requirement for the um inclusive playground given the the money that we got in the state um bonding process do we have to have that wrapped up like earlier than that or we or that's all fits into the same timeline smoothly [10:29] Eric: it'll it'll fit into the same timeline smoothly we actually have I think it's either four or five years to sign the agreement with the state and then once it's signed we have like four or five more years to spend the money um so we have U more than enough time and we don't want to take that much time to do that uh but that shouldn't be an issue at all [10:52] Chairperson: okay so just to summarize a lot of these um Consultants are it's really that engineering it's that planning it's it's getting all of the technical de details ready and the community engagement so that we're ready and have the plans ready to go and get them constructed construction ready [11:15] Eric: correct so I so then then next phase is the construction yeah the work that confence and JG has done for us in the past was very conceptual just uh circles and diagrams on a piece of paper with some color to so people could visualize what we were going to do and now we need to get into the detail work of of the materials that will be used how big things will be what grades will be um what type of amenities we're going to have so that we can then um bid those projects out and get construct C prices on that this is kind of the the phase one of getting everything all already and and new correct [11:41] Committee Member: so other questions I don't see anything here to object to so I would be in favor of approving it are you looking for a motion [11:51] Eric: yeah it would be nice if the committee would make a motion to move forward with the um Consultants as outlined in the staff report um and then hopefully you'll make a recommendation to uh to do that then we'll we'll certainly let the city council know that the committee is in favor of moving forward with these Consultants [12:12] Committee Member: I'll make a motion to move forward with the Consultants refer are recommended by staff [12:17] Committee Member 2: a second that [12:18] Chairperson: all right there's been a first and a second um all those in favor say I I all those oppose hearing none it is passed thank you uh next thing on the agenda is to talk about some rightaway agreements with district 196 [12:35] Eric: yeah Madam chair members of the committee so the um as part of the referendum uh one of the projects is to build the youth baseball softball complex um likely to be located on the Westview Elementary School property and so to get that process started we need to go out and do some soil borings and do a site survey and so um we we're recommending that we have an agreement with them um to protect both the city and the school district um so the school district's attorneys reviewed the agreement the City attorney developed the agreement um and so we're just looking for the committee to recommend to the council that we enter into this agreement with the school district so that we can do the necessary work in preparation of developing plans and specs for the Youth Baseball Softball Complex [13:21] Committee Member: I'll make a motion to uh approve the right of Entry agreement with district 196 [13:26] Committee Member 2: second [13:27] Chairperson: all right uh there has been a motion and second to uh approve the rightaway entry agreement with district 196 uh westf Elementary all those in favor sign signify by saying I I I any oppose hearing none motion carries all right thank you all right now I think we're gonna hear some updates from Mr zinc and Mr Johnson on uh [14:04] Jim Zinc: madam chair members of the committee I'm Jim zinc Golf Course manager this is Jordan Johnson our clubhouse coordinator and we're going to update you on everything Valleywood um as as you're all aware it was a huge year at for us at Valleywood with uh a lot of projects going on um you all were involved in this a couple years ago um but uh we did a irrigation replacement project uh some course improvements and and we'll give you a summary of kind of the year in operation if you will um so um our partners in this project this is uh liel irrigation uh nationally known irrigation company um Norby Golf Course uh Architects uh they are a local actual company um but they work throughout the country and their subcontractor for the construction work was Art Construction this all started a couple of years ago um we uh bought a lot of uh pipe um as you can see there's a picture of it stored down in our maintenance yard um but we bought the pipe off of State contract a couple of years ago and uh stored it there and uh all the sprinkler heads we also bought off the state contract so um turns out that saved us a lot of money um those all those things have increased dramatically in price uh so we'll take you through and just kind of show you some of the some of the pictures and some of what happened um uh liability irrigation showed up on site with about four or five trips with this trailer um uh right after July 4th um as they started laying in they started with the main irrigation line kind of a loop around the golf course of the bigger piping they ran into a rock here and there um on the back nine um and then as they worked their way around the front nine it was much smoother sailing so going back many decades the front nine at the golf course was more or less a farm uh back nine was much more wooded um but um the irrigation system was 47 years old and um not particularly efficient uh hard for our guys to uh manage uh to the point where uh our superintendent and an assistant would basically have to drive the golf course every morning to try to figure out what sprinklers ran and what sprinklers didn't um so uh as they worked their way around the golf course fortunately we had uh Ryan Browning's dog Samy kept a close eye on all the work being done um Ryan is our Golf Course foreman and our lead greens Keeper at Valleywood um and he worked hand in hand with um the Construction Company these are liable to irrigation guys uh they had about 20 guys on site most every day uh was quite fascinating to see how they efficiently they work and how they all kind of are doing different things they're certainly you never came upon them and saw anybody sitting around they uh work very efficiently um so this kind of demonstrates kind of hard to see in this picture but there's their main part of their line running uh I think that's that's a 15th hole but you can see kind in the middle of that picture uh White pipes running across so they have to they're hitting they're cutting R pipe when they're laying theirs in but they have to patch it because of course we need to keep running irrigation um so that was kind of fascinating how efficiently they could not only uh lay the pipe in AC up the length of a hole but how quickly they could patch our system so we could run it virtually every day if we needed to uh part of this project included a full weather station so this uh is a weather station located left of the 16th Fairway right by our maintenance yard in the background there you can see the all the spools of the 2-in pipe uh those those spools in the background is the pipe that actually goes out to the sprinkler heads themselves but this Weather Station it tracks everything and it is directly linked into our new what is now our irrigation computer so the the weather station will feed that computer information so for example if we have the system scheduled to run that night and uh we get a bunch of rain at 8:00 p.m. it will it will adjust what we're applying through the irrigation system to the golf course uh this is kind of the completed work on the left it was was awesome to see all those sprinkler heads pop up um covered everything very effectively much quieter system much more efficient system uh the picture on the right is some of what we discovered uh this is a crack in the cart path right by the 10th F or 10th T this crack had been there for many years uh we just assumed it was just you know just your typical like mik sees on bike paths and other areas it's turns out that was an irrigation leak under there and as we got later into the system or the installation um Lial irrigation attached what they call umbilical lines from our existing system to the new system so as they completed a hole we would be running through our pipe into their pipe and and watering with part of the course with our old heads part of the course with their new heads so uh we discovered a number of areas of the course because this line would be pressurized while the most of the day as they were testing and running things all of the sudden we end up with these leak areas that we would not have known about otherwise when we'd run our system otherwise uh those sprinklers around the 10th T and the practice screen right there would come on everything's wet you you just don't realize that there were these leaks going on so um it was uh I can only hope that uh all the park projects go as well as ours did this year uh and then the final uh part of it was uh right at the end of the year right after we we weren't the course wasn't closed yet but at the end in October we blow out the irrigation lines uh then they came in and this was the last thing installed this is the actual pump system that then ties into our irrigation Pond runs our well run then pumps the water out onto the golf course so this was uh this was just a couple months ago was the last thing they did um was to install that um as part of the project we did some OnCourse improvements um not a ton but we were able to uh improve some things that needed to be done out in the golf course uh this map kind of highlights those areas that we were more or less focused on uh kind of working from left to right uh the third green part of the initial plan was to uh move the third green uh which would have been about 40 ft to the right or above where it currently is that part of the plan was one of the things we we changed um as you'll experience I'm sure over the next couple years with the park projects um there you got to you got to make choices sometimes and one of the things was U we didn't feel that moving that green just 30 40 ft was going to make that big an impact on the hole um we were able to move these T's up more to the right to change the angle of the hole and then we were able to use the money saved uh from that green movement to better net along the driving range to both protect the tea of the driving range from people playing the ninth hole and also to keep our range balls on the Range so we can pick them so uh right here in kind of the closer to the middle of the screen is the driving range uh that involved uh all new tea line uh it's artificial mats we use there um you need we'd need a probably another 3 acres to be able to have grass tea um but we were able to redo the tea line uh cart paths cart parking uh and uh protective netting around there um moving up into the kind of the middle of screen scen up here is the 18th Fairway uh that did not involve uh any construction work um that the architect wants us we're we're kind of repositioning how that Fairway sits and basically the situation was we had to cut the fairways because they're so much shorter where the irrigation had good coverage and we just did not have good coverage on the right side of the 18th Fairway so now we're started our ready this fall to realign that Fairway and widen it out um down towards the bottom of the screen here is the 15th hole uh for those of you that have played Valleywood uh the 15th hole is one of the more difficult holes on the golf course for most players um but we are able to recontour the Fairway area and play area to be able to play around this Pond uh this is particularly useful for uh seniors ladies Junior Juniors um there was it was really difficult to play around that pond just because of turf conditions um and then uh the 15th te uh area back here we added two additional T's again to make it just a little more playable for your um you know medium and higher handicap players uh and then right here is the 17th Fairway uh this Fairway was it's hard to see the dotted line there but the Fairway was extremely narrow and was as a result we had a ton of traffic through there was it was not very uh very good Turf quality um so we're able to widen that Fairway out and make it more playable um this is beginning of the con of the well halfway through the construction of the two new T's on the 15th hole um the the forward te on the 15th hole is right by where this the railing you can see it goes up to a a forward t um the original te was all the way back here near uh uh Boulder wall of uh one of our neighbors has there so we were able to add two forward T's to give more play options for the different players um so that that's uh when they had first uh they had the tea laid out and they were soding around it uh this was when their work was completed uh probably September early September uh and this was taken uh shortly before we close so uh the fall weather uh all the rain in October actually really helped some of that Turf grow in Ni uh this is the work that was done on the 17th hole again there's a a dotted line you can kind of see here how narrow that area was and when you run all the carts and traffic through there the turf was was not very good quality uh we widened this out changed the grade um so you can see this this uh Fairway typically was ending about halfway across there there was some tree removal widening of the Fairway recontouring of the Fairway and this was the pro kind of the final finished product uh in the spring this is the one one area of the golf course that they will redo um but we had to run all of our traffic cart traffic through there all of our players as well as the construction equipment was kind of using that area area uh the third T complex um uh this hole goes straight out and then turns to the left uh the old te was down here left of what you see um but this is I'm this picture is from the back t uh then there's another T up here and there was a third T constructed up kind of in front of that bulldozzer and once again we have Sammy keeping a close eye on all the work going on this this is their finished product at least when they had finished construction uh one of the nice things was the old tea was over here to the left um so this area that it looks gray in this picture um but along the left side and along this side Hill all planted with uh Fescue so we'll water that for about the first year and then we won't have we won't have to water it anymore so we're trying to reduce usage uh and then there's a a construction of a new cart path along the right side of that tea and here it is uh late in the fall so a lot of good grass growth but uh we probably won't be on those teas until maybe middle of June this year uh this is the 15th hole I was mentioning uh around the pond it was very very rough terrain very difficult because of the water running down this side Hill uh this pipe sticking up out of the ground was part of the drainage system once we got to final grade uh we cut that pipe off and this is the finished product there um maybe sometime in the future we'll be able to move this cart path a little um but we're able to basically double the space for people to be able to play around the pond um and just for perspective um if you're in this Fairway to hit it across that pond and get to the Fairway on the other side um you know for the average player that probably 180 yard carry a pretty difficult shot so by leveling this and widening this area around the pond again mainly seniors females Juniors uh some of the uh less experienced players can now hopefully enjoy Valleywood more than ever before uh believe it or not probably the most most give and take and the most work was put in on the plan was for the driving range um this circle here at the bottom is the water tower that is located at Valleywood and the old tline kind of ran along where this net this is a a line of the net it was aimed directly at the water tower Su uh Eric and I had a few meetings with public works department trying to work out some way to try to make that better um our architect initially had a tline uh up it's real light on this picture but it moved it up and that would have resulted in we would have had to do one of two things we would have either had to net around the entire top of the range and suffice it to say a 50ft netting from telephone PS is not inexpensive um or we would have had to gone to limited flight golf balls which is not very popular with golfers um so uh and down here by the te uh included cart path work uh so here you can see this is the beginnings of where the cart path would be this on the left is the new tline that went in behind there is the ninth Fairway um so this is when they laid the concrete slab uh this telephone pull you can kind of see on the left there was was the end of the range previously so it was a completely different angle uh we were able to get this centered uh this is the beginnings of the new uh cart area and turnaround for the carts and this is kind of our finished product uh with the netting up again the ninth Fairway is behind there um you know a lot of people that don't play golf like to think that golfers know where their golf Ball's going uh we like to pretend we know where it's going but we got to protect the people that are paying to use the driving range so uh The netting runs up about 200 yards up the side of the range along there and that will help us as you can see we've got swamp and Woods back on that side and balls that get would get passed over into there we'd probably never retrieve so that is uh kind of the construction project um the real success of the project um is due to these guys [31:17] Jim Zinc: Jordan uh is our clubhouse coordinator but he's really uh more or less our our customer experien person he he runs Golf Shop make sure the customers know what's going on um Ryan Browning again our heads greens keeper and Tom doel his assistant um Tom and Jordan particularly had to work really closely on communication so we'll let uh Jordan kind of explain how we kept the golfers informed [31:44] Jordan Johnson: so as Jim said my task kind of throughout the project was to make the day-to-day operations still maintain as much success as possible um and try to have all of our customers enjoy their time while there was going to definitely be a nuisance going on so this started much prior to the project with the public meetings that some of you guys were involved in as well getting feedback on the golf course uh what people thought they liked about it what was uh tough about it um and what they just thought would make the experience overall more enjoyable um and we kind of came out of that with uh out of 2022 with trying to preach two things um awareness and excitement we wanted to make sure everyone was aware of what was going on so no one showed up and felt like they were wronged and to build excitement for the project it was going to be a long year um there's money put into it there's going to be inconveniences but at the end of it it was going to be much better for everyone um signage in our newsletter was a big thing we put out early uh signage prior to the project even during the public meetings uh to alert everyone exactly what we were going to be doing where we got the feedback all that stuff um and then our newsletter going out monthly reminding of how we were preparing how our maintenance staff was preparing how we were operationally preparing what exactly was um going to be going on step staff communication our staff is excellent um and they are the ones that talk to the customers for the four and a half five hours that they're onsite sometimes more than that with events so being able to communicate with our staff that's answering phones that's talking to customers so that they can head stuff off the simple uh letting them know what hole was going to be closed the next day so they could tell one of our regulars what was going to be just um was able to keep everyone happy and continue to build that excitement that was really an emphasis was to rather than look have everyone look at it as an inconvenience to look at as something um that they were excited for so once the project started I mean from the time that first truck showed up to the time there was holes in the ground was about 36 hours and uh we have a lot of regular golfers it was pretty easy to notice something was different was going on when there was 20 yellow coats out on the 15th Fairway one random day um so daily updates from Lial and AR construction I really worked very closely with Ryan and this Tom doel as well in this situation um it worked out great for me cuz at the beginning when they were starting to close holes and do work I was setting an alarm for about 5:30 every morning so I could be in contact with these guys um so I could alert my staff and and it worked out great for me because after about a week they were able to alert my staff so that 5:30 alarm was able to be pushed back a little bit um and then I could wake up and catch up on my way in signage in the golf shop uh golfers are rule followers by Nature Jim always says which is great because they tend to read everything when they're walking in um so simple signage I had once we started doing the main lines we had to close a whole a day from Monday through Thursday and Friday morning so being able to print out a different hole for or a different sign for every hole so that once once they got the news we could post it on the doors and from the time a hole was closed to the time our shop was notified and golfers were notified was about 5 minutes um to try and keep everyone in communication so no one once again felt wronged uh about 70% of our tea times are made online and our te- sheet um is able to update everyone as they book Tea Times I'm able to put notes on there staff's able to put notes on there so when they log in they can see whole number six is closed today so if they're playing uh making a tea time for 18 hole number six is closed or they'll be starting on the back once again just to make sure everyone was aware to ensure that success um and then once we hit right after Labor Day we had to close a whole of day we did make the decision to discount rates um fairly significantly once again to begin to continue that excitement as anything else there's a weak transition period uh where you have a couple people here and there that um feel like they weren't made aware however we were able to once again with our great staff you know make those into more positive interactions than negative um and it just continues to build that excitement I will say I'm very lucky from the operations perspective that we were able to do OnCourse changes because it was very easy for people to get excited about new T boxes new Fairways new this whereas if we were just putting pipes in the ground it's a little tougher to sell on it um but being able to continue that excitement through when people are playing 17 uh holes instead of 18 um was key and we even build some new customer bases cuz there's just like any other industry there's bargain hunters so when they see someone in September with a a bargain rate um they may come check that out and our 18 holes were open after 11: Friday through Sunday so we're able to still maintain that weekend Revenue as well as getting those new customers to play the full course uh this is an example of some of the signage um and those are our actual rates we had those posted on the website or Facebook emailed out um as much as we could used it once again is an advertising piece um to build that excitement the picture in the middle is a temporary tea it's our Tuesday morning ladies League this is actually at the very beginning when we were doing that 17th hole there were times when you would have a hole Clos and instead of playing a full hole you'd play a half one um once again communication was key we had Flags we had pitchers um our Rangers at this time too the driving range was closed so we're able to repurpose a lot of our staff into communicating with this uh with our customers and helping all that and then the whole number 10 closed today um in our Pro Shop and then up top you can kind of see a screenshot from exactly how and just pointing everyone to Valleywood golf.com where we could input the exact information we wanted them to see and then after the project uh construction pretty much wrapped up in early October um answering a lot of questions you guys saw the pictures of the grass from afar and from people who don't know looks like it's ready to play right now um it will be till mid June you know early July next year explaining we also had the picture of the uh course Improvement projects the big map in our Pro Shop and kind of explaining how it's going in different tiers and different timing and this may not be till five six years down the road um but once again we we viewed these things as a way to build excitement for everyone coming back next year and it it showed truly with our leagues and and in the fall um 2024 we got a bunch of stuff to take advantage of a lot of I don't want to say free time but a lot of time that used to be purposed with uh starting the starting the irrigation system every morning you know I don't have to see Ryan Browning at 9:00 in the morning drenched from head to toe and know well apparently he had to run the irrigation this morning um and repurposing it into advertise the new T boxes driving range um new scorecard kind of do all new things in 2024 to take advantage of the excitement and the superintendent's uh Revenge golf tournament uh we did run again this year I think we've shown this to you in the past it's a fad that's taken over in the golf industry over the last 5 years it goes viral every fall it's um it's a joke that the superintendant are getting back at uh the golfers for all the stress they put them through the year so this year we were able to use some of that extra piping to make some uh make some have some fun and some bunker eges on the 18th hole this is our most popular event it sells out we sell about 104 to 108 golfers it sells out about 36 hours um this year we had to push it back a week the day of because we got about 4 Ines of rain the Friday before the tournament and we still had 80 of the hundred people show up the following week so um just another fun thing we're able to do at the end of the year to to continue to uh build on 2023 and get that excitement going for 2024 [39:39] Jim Zinc: all right we're going to talk a little bit about our season summary um just to reiterate you know the irrigation system's 47 years old well now it's it's weeks old now but uh was 47 years old and you know it would have been great to it probably had a useful life of about 30 35 years it would have been nice to have done it 10 years ago but the technology advancements in the last handful of years have just been phenomenal um now we can put sensors there's 920 new irrigation heads we can put sensors in those areas that tend to get wet if if that sensor picks up that the the ground is wet enough those sprinklers will not come on in that area so we expect to see a lot of uh Savings in water usage and just be a lot more efficient there any questions on that [40:34] Committee Member: just tells me you're going to be on budget all that savings all that savings [40:37] Jim Zinc: you got that right [40:38] Committee Member: well we're saving water but yeah Jim you you you get your water from your own well correct [40:43] Jim Zinc: yes yes we do a DNR permit every year [40:46] Committee Member: yes did you me have to do anything with the well itself or that was fine or they put a new well pump in and but you didn't have to go deeper [41:03] Jim Zinc: no no no we've been very fortunate the the well has been very uh very dependable and a small pond uh by the maintenance area and then we have a gate valve that goes into another larger pond pumps it into the pond and then the pond is where the water goes out to the yeah and then it runs through that pump system out to the the sprinkler heads on the golf course now the old system it pulled so much power at times that Dakota Electric could shut it off and that that's why we the well and everything so that's why we have that gate valve into a b an extra pond on the 15th hole so worst case scenario if something happened where we couldn't run it or um it the well pump broke uh we could run our smaller what's called a jockey pump and still get water out on the golf course and those between those two ponds would probably give us three to four full waterings of the golf course um but yeah it's the technology now is those guys will be able to come in in the morning they've got a great computer with two big screens it'll about it'll show them every single sprinkler head on the course how it ran uh it'll even give them an alert that a solenoid on a single sprinkler head is starting to draw extra power so they know before it goes bad that it's going to um so we're uh we're really looking forward to it and even in the fall we started to see some of the benefits of areas that were getting water that hadn't been um often times there'd be areas of the course where we may not we wouldn't be able to know until it was drying out a section of a tea box was burning out and then it'd be like well must that head's not working right you know so the technology is awesome and part of the project too as Jordan mentioned about moving te's up uh the fortunate thing was that a lot of the Fairway work was done on the 15th and 17th holes Dave can probably attest he plays regularly they are not easy holes we didn't have very many people at all complaining about hey on 15 you're going to have to go up to the side of the pond play from there and so um so some of the work I think there were some benefits to it helped their game a little bit [43:40] Committee Member (Dave): yes yes yeah and they all add them up at the end so if you only played 17 holes you you forget about that when you get home and say wow shot 82 today that's awesome [44:00] Chairperson: can I ask a question about the weather station I think that that's really interesting so if I understand I I like how it's got all the sensors so it can be really you know smart with the usage and you can really know what's going on so is the weather station if we had a whole bunch of rain would it then shut off the system so we're not sprinkling and and all of that [44:14] Jim Zinc: so and that's that's it gives a lot of other data but probably for us the the most useful part of it is like I say um the the maintenance staff is typically gone from the golf course by 3:00 you know they just can't get anything done in the afternoon with all the golfers um so they'll have it programmed to run and we get one of those you know and one of those storms that blows through you know we've all had them where your house gets soaked and you're talking to your friend in Egan and they're like what are you talking about in rain here um so that will then adjust everything that happens on the on the irrigation system [44:53] Chairperson: I think that's that's great it's mindboggling in some regards [45:10] Jim Zinc: um and then the other part of this is with all the new uh sprinkler heads for those that golf um you know we use will have about you know 300 different heads that will then have yardage markers on them so you can just see that look at the sprinkler head near you and it'll say it's 142 yards to the middle of the graen so hopefully it'll help with some efficiency there too okay so season summary um we were we were here a year ago you know and and cautiously optimistic um that we wouldn't lose you know too much money um we've heard in the past over the last handful of years courses that you know it can have a seriously negative impact um on revenue and on rounds of golf so um I think uh Jordan working uh did a great job of getting communication out again kind of like you guys all went through and Eric with the park referendum getting the engagement keeping people informed um uh on honestly I'm I'm over the moon to go through these next group of slides so um so these these numbers are all through end of October um I know that that we send out uh this information to the parks committee so you guys have have seen most of this in fact I think we got some feedback I had to tweak a couple of them a little bit but I I kind of picked out what I think are kind of the eight or 10 key uh key information here so um and as Jordan said we we did go to discounted rates in the fall um most of the work that went on during the year golfers just played around and a lot of them or regulars particularly I think found it rather interesting to see the progress they'd play one week oh they were doing you know the fourth hole this week and then they come the next week and you know they see how much how it's done afterwards and how good it looks so we were thrilled to be up in overall Revenue um through the end of October um you know we we were up a little bit in operating expenses and honestly most operating expenses we were down in um this is mostly uh seasonal pay so uh the city I think uh year ago long overdue made a number of adjustments to the seasonal pay scale throughout the city um so uh that is mostly a seasonal uh pay that that increased um but it did keep us in a very very strong position now typically we will spend uh you know 100 thou maybe $100,000 more than we make the last uh you know 10 weeks of this of the Year here um but we're we're in a very very positive position and we'll be finish another year um with an operating profit for the SE for the year um so this this again uh the slight increase in um in expenses is mostly due to uh salaries or seasonal pay and again you'll see we are down a little bit in rounds of golf so that will drive these price these numbers up a little because they are of course per round uh total rounds um we're you know our our business plan that we uh adopted is kind of based on 30,000 rounds is is kind of our break even um so uh that is why in a couple slides previous you saw that we've been running a pretty healthy uh net positive on the Years cuz we're we're getting more golfers um uh this this is interesting I know uh I think in in 20120 when the the those numbers were coming in I I remember talking to the committee and thinking man these numbers are ridiculous um of course we had some help with uh the popularity of golf and other things being closed in uh 21 and 22 but uh we're just thrilled with the the numbers continue to climb particularly during those Peak months May through August um April was brutal for weather um you know often times it just becomes a distant memory but when you're in the business we're in it it haunts us as we try to rebound from uh from that kind of number in April and then um again in September we started having some whole closures and October was just extremely wet we lost a number of days of golf in October the plus was we got mother there's nothing better than Mother Nature providing the the irrigation and we got great Turf growth on those areas we had construction on uh food and beverage numbers continued to be positive um so that that's very encouraging um we took uh food and beverage back inhouse and 2021 with all new staff um one of the great things we get to do is to see uh the growth in these young uh young adults I guess we we hire them typically when they're uh seniors in high school um now we're facing the prospect of starting to turn over some we brought in some new staff the last couple years but I know um we're we're starting to live on borrowed time with some of our leadership in the food and beverage Department those young kids now are you know looking at internships and starting to finish college and whatnot uh banquet space continues to rebound um that's been great we have uh uh Kaylee Raco is our uh event coordinator uh she's done a wonderful job of growing uh the events back um so uh particularly we we are a particularly attractive site for kind of uh you know celebrations of Life uh open open house kind of things um informal parties um very popular with that it is a bit of a challenge for us the Wedding part of the business just because it's a shared space um they know there's no separate entrance to the banquet room there's no separate bathrooms or a separate bar um so um it's a bit of a challenge I like I kind of say you know we're we're a great site for a second wedding uh you know uh expectations might be a little bit lower um so uh but the party and and and events have have really been good and we're we get quite a bit of getting more and more interest in renting the room uh for business purposes so the school district's one of our clients and and those types of things uh so this is this is where we track kind of each area of our operation and how we're doing per round of golf um and thrilled absolutely thrilled with these numbers uh you can see the practice range is the only thing that was down and it was down very little and we closed the range August a 17th 14th yeah we were looking for that date a yeah August 17th so we lost the last two and a half months of the year on the driving range now early in the year is typically busier on the Range but um I think that had it remained open we would have seen the same kind of growth in the range Revenue per round that's kind of what we got for you couldn't be happier wow it's been a while since we've been I've been here so kind of got a break for me for most of the summer too while we were dealing with all this stuff but there any questions or anything we can you know [52:51] Committee Member (Dave): great job I mean you were handed a black eyy many years ago and uh uh this is uh you've really turned it into a jewel great job [53:07] Jim Zinc: apprciate that appreciate that [53:14] Committee Member: yeah how did the uh construction impact if at all the cross country uh races that usually go on there in the fall [53:27] Jim Zinc: we um you know I I I have to say we have a cross-country race there every year uh a running uh section meet and uh we have uh Greg Utch from the section that that coordinates all of that um and Greg is phenomenal to work with he really is um he was actually a teacher at Apple Valley when I was there and suffice it to say I wasn't taking a lot of advanced physics classes um I can see that but he he really really protects the facility and that's one of the reasons we're we're open to having him they did have to modify the trail a little um it was funny some of the construction impacted them with where they had to modify the trail but because of the construction we had kind of opened an area through the woods to move golfers from the second green to the third the third te um kind of move them ahead of where we were building those new te's so that that worked out really well and then um I also have to give a shout out to Brian ay from the school again from the school district that runs the school we have the entire Nordic ski team from the school district there all all the schools and Brian works really closely with our uh Foreman Ryan Browning to make sure not only that if we have to trim branches or things for his Trail but to try to keep the trail off of more sensitive areas on the golf course so um a lot of it is due to those two individuals that are work so closely with us and understand our concerns um you know it's interesting I believe today and tomorrow there are a couple of golf courses that reopened and um you know I we get that question from time to time and you know one of the things is for everybody to understand is there's there's a tradeoff for that so um for us being more of a community facility uh when we close um Ryan and Tom and our maintenance might have one or two seasonals that are on for a week or two they need to get all the greens roped off all the sensitive areas snow fenced off so it's not only the ski teams that are out there but public comes out to Nordic ski and we just need to protect all those areas so it's a little frustrating when we hear oh you know uh new pre's going to open for two days and you know make maybe six or eight grand in Revenue it's like yeah we just we just cannot do that we W don't want to compromise the protecting the facility for the rest of for the next year but yeah they they've a lot due to those two coaches that are really good to work with [56:15] Chairperson: especially with the investment that has been made in this and and making sure that it's doing what it needs to be doing I'm just kind of curious do you expect because you talked about mid June and early July with some of these you know holes and areas I am not a golfer as you know so sorry if I'm not using my terminology right um do you kind of expect kind of a a slower start uh to the year or or is it because you were saying like some discounted prices you're not you're not expecting any kind of [56:41] Jim Zinc: absolutely not yeah now we uh we as Jordan said and and a lot due to his work communicating with the people there is a lot of excitement yeah around the one thing we know we're going to run into is the golfers are going to want to get on those new te's and we need them to grow in and mature a little bit so that they can handle the the divots and recover quicker um but no we I anticipate a very strong with weather permitting a very strong start to the season the third hole that we showed you with the two T's we've been playing off a modified te there already for two years so that won't change the 15th hole they can still play from partially the original te um and there's a forward te which is much easier than the back te so people enjoy that and the rest of it doesn't really have effect on what the golfers will do negatively there'll be a couple are that are roped off that if you hit it into you get to take it out and hit it out of somewhere else but but the Fairway areas we worked on um a combination of some sod and some seed they're they're ready to go they're ready to play off of so and part of the project that involved the newe te complex on number three as Jordan said that that original third T we had a large retaining wall that just simply was not safe anymore and we had to tear that out said three years ago I think so we played two full seasons with a temporary te there anyway again somewhat difficult hole for regular players so they kind of got accustomed to uh to liken it up there any other questions or [58:12] Chairperson: great job both of you yeah congratulations Jim Jordan and thanks to Ryan and Tom as well um fabulous work and I think building the awareness and the excitement and seeing that continue into next year so congratulations [58:24] Jim Zinc: thank you very much appreciate it [58:26] Chairperson: all right I think that that was it for division updates today um so any kind of committee or staff discussion items all right uh hearing seeing hearing none um I will move for adjournment [58:43] Committee Member: motion to adjourn [58:44] Committee Member 2: second [58:45] Chairperson: motion and second all those in favor I I meeting adjourned thank you all [Music]