Summary

• Presentation of Options: Options from a consultant were presented at a January City work session. A follow-up presentation will occur on March 26th to review these options again.
• Cost Concerns: Three options were presented, all with higher-than-expected costs. Further steps are currently undecided.
• Preparations for Summer Season:
  • Ongoing patching and repairing.
  • Bathrooms have been repainted.
  • Repainting ¼ to ½ of the pool surface.
  • Preparing pumps and hiring lifeguards.
  • The pool will be filled with water a few weeks before opening to ensure all systems are functional.

Full Text

Minutes of the Recreation and Parks Advisory Board Meeting

March 21, 2024 Regular Meeting

The March 21, 2024, meeting of the Recreation and Parks Advisory Board was convened at 7:00 pm in the Oak Ridge Recreation Center Social Room with Chairman Jake Greear presiding.

1. Call to Order
2. Roll Call

Present: Jake Greear, Terri Daugherty, Ann Miller, Dan Robbins, Kelly Mccampbell

Absent: Chris Melhorn, Doug Bataille, Brittany Hensley, Alissa Jones

Also Present: Jon Hetrick, Recreation & Parks Director, staff liaison

Also Absent: Seth Rodgers, Recreation & Parks, Special Projects, staff liaison

1. Approval of March 21st Agenda

Moved appearance of citizens up to after approval of minutes. Agenda approved.

1. Approval of February 2024 Meeting Minutes

Approved as drafted/printed (unanimous). Note- minutes are included on the City website, under Agendas, then upcoming events, then Recreation and Parks.

1. Appearance of Citizens (Non-agenda Items)

Doug C. – Notes that Greenway co-chair Dan Robbins (who is also a Rec & Parks Advisory Board member) has retired after 31 years. ORNL nature walks on reservation coming up. Opportunity to see areas that are off limits, first walk is coming up in April. It’s through a stand of old trees. It’s a forest that has never been logged, massive trees in a large grove. Larry Towns leads the walks. News Sentinel had an interview with the new director of the Oak Ridge Lab. Says one thing that surprises those who come to visit is that it’s a great place to live and is absolutely beautiful here. Thinks Parks board should have input on decisions regarding ED-6. Making some progress with museum property, which is becoming a city asset now. Would like Parks Board to be more involved in the comprehensive plan decisions.

1. Officer reports:

Jake – do we need to start thinking about scheduling or our board retreat? Yes, Jake will circulate some dates.

1. Committee Reports/ Board Work Plan:
• Oak Ridge Pool

Jon: We presented the options from the consultant at the January City work sessions. They’ve asked for the opportunity to look at those again. Those will be presented at a work session this Tuesday the 26th , in the court room, 6 pm. Will go into the history of how we got to where we are now with the pool, and the options moving forward.

Jake – feel for next steps? Jon: not right now. Consultants presented 3 options as they were asked to do. The price tags were much more than expected. There are a lot of aspects to it that need to be worked out. Dan -there’s a good summary on the Oak Ridger.

Getting ready for summer season this year. Lots of patching and repairing. Bathrooms repainted this week. ¼ to ½ of the pool surface will be repainted next week. Getting pumps up. Also interviewing and hiring life guards.

Usually start filling it up with water a few weeks before opening. We try to rely on the spring as much as we can. The goal is to have it full a few weeks before opening, to make sure all pumps and valves are working and functioning.

Lifeguards – challenging hiring process. Doing a lifeguard class this week. We train all of the lifeguards at the community pools.

Indoor pool- replacing light fixture in the pool. So have to drop the water level below the lights, then go in and repair lights. Anticipate being back opened Tuesday.

• CIPs Review

Going to City Council Tuesday for a work session.

Ann- Do we have representation with the comprehensive plan? Jon: believes the board will be asked for input, as well as input from the public.

Going to bring in an outside consultant to do the comprehensive plan as a third party. It’s been a little delayed, but we do expect Parks board to have input.

• North Boundary Greenway

ED-6 parcel could have some impact, they are talking about potentially putting in an elementary school. That’s the part that the trail runs through, that’s the formal parking. Jon has brought this up to the City Manager. Assumes it would be rerouted someway, but it needs to be preserved.

Ann: Would be nice if in it’s reworking, there would be something along the trail that the elementary school could use as well. Jon: it would be a benefit to have more of a park area there, for a school and for greenway users /community.

DOE is out there doing maintenance on the gravel roads now. Jake: are they doing all of the road, lower and upper? Jon: believes they are doing all of it. They had the machine out there with the roller patting it down.

• Greenway System

Haw Ridge- has that progressed? When the transfer was originally proposed, we did the appraisal. $350,000 purchase price approved. Funding is now available, legal is looking at the deed transfer documents from the county attorney.

Terri: at last Greenway meeting, City Manager expressed interest in connecting all/more greenway trails.

• Parks & Rec Stewardship, Maintenance and Trail development

Haw Ridge – CVTA has been putting a lot of trail markers out there. Have installed fiberglass posts, and the stickers with color rating on them. Will make it easier for people to get around there.

• Secondary & Long-Term Objectives

Facilitating community events.

• Next event – Easter – this Saturday. Volunteers should arrive around 9ish. Around Bissel park doing egg hunt. There’s also one in partnership with a church in Scarboro, and Scarboro community center.
• Some chili cookoffs (smaller event(s)).
• Working with Explore Oak Ridge to do an outdoor recreation mini fest on June 22nd . Working with a number of community groups. CVTA will lead beginner mountain bike rides. UT Arboretum leading a nature walk. The Houndry. Pickle ball. Blueways group is going to collaborate with Adventure Outdoors for some kayaking. Plein Air – outdoor art. Different kinds of art and outdoor recreation. Then going to encourage people to go to the Houndry and/or The Greens afterward. Will have pint glasses from Explore Oak Ridge.
1. Trying to get a meeting scheduled for the beginning of April. Will have an online registration. Won’t be any cost, but will be limited number of slots available for some of the activities.
2. Relying on the groups that are putting on each of the events.
3. Looking for minimal input from the City, going to have the partners organize their own volunteers.

Rails to trails – they have approved moving forward as they previously had, without requiring the impact study that they recently said they would require, even though they previously said they would not. Getting back on track now.

Advisory support for conference center design – moving along steadily now. Almost getting to where we could go take a tour. Exterior is mostly done. Most framing done inside, working on plumbing and HVAC. Expecting to get the store front panels, that should arrive around mid-April, once they get that, will close the inside. Final roof membrane should go on in the next few weeks. It’s got a slight bit of pitch, but it goes mostly to internal drains. There’s nothing that shoots off the building itself.

• Plaza – received a plan from an architect. Still need to identify where that funding is going to come from. It’s a design contract to do a redesign of the plaza. One of the primary goals is to make it more inviting to have people come in from the turnpike, not through the gym. Library is looking at adding a small coffee shop and an outdoor seating area. A lot of people use Bissell park, but we don’t see a lot of people in the plaza.
• Need to add handicap accessible parking closer to entrance.
• Will just be a question of funding.

Support Melton Lake bridge preliminary design

Nothing new to report.

Support continued development of the peace bell pavilion

Scarboro 85 monument.

Explore opportunities for the continued development of disc golf.

Raising funds and assisting to install some new baskets. The baskets are pretty old and beat up. The players raised $1,000, Pluto sports (in Knoxville) is donating $1,000, City is contributing a little over $1,000. The club is going to do the installation of the new baskets.

Jon was able to get a very good deal on baskets from Yearwood.

Support Blueways initiatives

They are continuing to meet, working on a logo, and entering agreements with different municipalities. Forging ahead steadily.

1. Unfinished business:

Clark Center Park – City Council gave city manager the okay to start discussions with DOE, re possible transfer of the property. We want to take a closer look the numbers and what the associated costs would be to make that happen.

1. New Business:

Ann: talked to Randy H, about garden/ steps from Jackson Square. With the Playhouse, on Friday nights, with Dean’s having their bbq nights, and there’s a play at the playhouse, you get older people that are having to park down below. Steps are broken, and it’s super dark. Jon: maintenance of the steps would fall to the public works department. Jon knows it’s been brought up with public works. Parks manages the landscaping. But the physical structure of the stairs would fall to public works. Even adding lights would be helpful as a first step.

1. Announcements

Dan- Greenways invited city manager to come, on Valentine’s Day. Dan presented a talk, and provided bound copies. City manager was very supportive of Greenways, and it was very good meeting him.

League of women voters – used to, until this month, would have breakfast with legislatures. Legislature has now moved the time up an hour. Dan has talked to them and their staff about finding a new time. They agreed that lunch time on Friday will work. So now calling it Brown Bag Lunch with the Legislators. The library let them use the auditorium last Friday. It was fairly difficult, had issues with the audio system. Next meeting April 26th, Friday, at noon, in the Social Room at the Civic Center.

Melton Lake clean up~~ – Sat the 30th, at 9 am, pavilion at the Marina, Greenways OR, LOWV~og~: are all sponsoring. Will provide grabbers and trash bags, and gloves. City will pick up the bags along Melton Lake Drive.

Dan has retired from chairman of Greenways. Will still be active.

Director’s report.

Interviewing and hiring lifeguards and summer camp staff. Probably only about 80 kids this year. Enrollment for summer camps will open April 1. Have about 10 returning counselors. Also hiring seasonal staff at the golf course. Lots and lots of projects and activities.

1. Future agenda items:

Scheduling a work session.

Connectivity of Greenway – two pieces needed – full plan, as we go through the budget cycle, city manager seems interested in funding it, but may come after the master plan. It’s something board will want to consider.

Ann- if we want to require access to trails, when a new developer builds, what can we do. That would have to go through the planning commission. Probably a zoning ordinance.

Jon will work on trying to get the City Manager to the board meeting.

Next meeting: April 11, 2023.

Adjournment