Summary

• Approval of Kimley-Horn’s bid by City Council.
• Project kickoff on June 13th with meetings involving staff, stakeholders, and public.
• Kimley-Horn to gather input, create three concept plans, conduct surveys, and provide cost estimates.
• Exploration of funding sources beyond city funds.
• Design based on ADA and safety standards.
• Outdoor pool scheduled to open on Memorial Day weekend.

Full Text

May 11, 2023 Regular Meeting

The May 11, 2023 meeting of the Recreation and Parks Advisory Board was convened at 7:00 pm in the Oak Ridge Recreation Center Social Room with Vice Chair Kelly Mccampbell presiding.

Roll Call
Present:
Alissa Jones, Terri Daugherty, Kelly Mccampbell, Chris Melhorn, Dan Robbins, Doug Bataille

Absent:
Jake Greear, Michelle Thornton

Also Present: Seth Rodgers, Recreation & Parks, Special Projects, staff liaison
Jon Hetrick, Recreation & Parks Director, staff liaison

Approval of March 9, 2023 Meeting Minutes
Approved (unanimous)

Unfinished business:

• Nothing new.

Board Work Plan:

• Oak Ridge Pool
  • Monday, City Council approved bid for Kimley-Horn.
  • Kick off June 13th. Probably meeting with staff and stakeholders during the day, and with the public in the evening.
  • They are going to get input from public and staff. Then come back with three concept plans. Will do survey(s). Will attach cost estimate to those plans. Then will have public meeting to get feedback on what public is willing to spend. Then based on public input, will make any revisions to the final concept plan. Then will add addendum to contract regarding scope of work. 6-8 months of concept planning probably.
  • Question of how it will be funded. Will be looking for sources other than general city funds. It will be up to the City to determine what the path forward would be for the cost. What we can do with the resources we have. Kimley Horn will help us determine possible grant opportunities.
  • The baseline will be based on ADA and safety standards, to rebuild as is, and then probably an option to save money one way, or other potentially more expensive options if we want to add more. Will be looking at the public input for that.
  • Outdoor pool scheduled to open memorial day weekend. Have enough lifeguards.
  • Indoor pool is having some maintenance Friday and Saturday.
  • Will probably want Recs and Park Advisory Board members at the meeting on June 13th, possibly to listen to individual public input.
• CIPs Review
  • Jack Suggs is interim city manager. Former city manager retired. Jack will be working on list of current CIP.
• North Boundary Greenway
  • At Greenway meeting last night- across Cedar hill greenway, there’s a bund of mud. At or above Blankenship. Looks like a problem with a storm drain. Jon said they are aware of it. Parks Dept. is aware of it and has looked at it.
• Greenway System
  • Nothing new.
• Parks & Rec Stewardship, Maintenance and Trail development
  • Nothing new.
• Secondary & Long-Term Objectives
  • Facilitating community events.
    • ORNL summer concert series
    • 4th of July fireworks
    • Summer camp beginning of June. Everything is in place for that.
    • League of women voters
    • Oracle course, birding hike – 1st Monday in June, across the river from the steam plant.
  • Rails to trails
    • Seth has been pursuing TDOT engineers, we have the right of way plans. Waiting for the ok to proceed for next stage of project, for acquisition. Jon met with interim city manager to make sure our share of money available to match grant money.
  • Advisory support for conference center design
    • Has gone out to bid. Pre-bid meeting held recently. Bids opening May 23rd, plan to take bids to city council at June 12th meeting. Plan to take out old concrete, take out two center landscaping beds.
  • Support Melton Lake bridge preliminary design
    • Students finished their projects. Jon will get in touch with them and get copies. They designed two different bridge plans. To make it a project, the first step would be getting it in CIP. We have some community members who are interested in contributing some funding. Will need to get in touch with them.
  • Support continued development of the peace bell pavilion
    • Pat is looking for an opportunity to speak to the board again.
  • Explore opportunities for the continued development of disc golf
    • Starting to move forward with some of the redevelopment of the course. Need some help with poison ivy, Parks dept. will help with that. They are looking to donate some disc golf goals. We’ll probably want to do a press release or plaque or something.
  • Support blueways initiatives
    • There will be a follow up meeting, but we don’t think it’s been scheduled yet.

Appearance and Citizen Comments

• Doug Colclasure:
  • To draft a tree board plan. Regarding how forest is managed and trees in city are developed. Other cities have well established tree plans, like Maryville and Alcoa.
  • President of Chamber came to council meeting a few weeks ago. Talking about relations with major contractors. To document what employees of major contractors think about living in Oak Ridge. Parks, natural areas, greenways, then schools, were things people liked about living in Oak Ridge.
• Zeke Sanchez present
• Sarah Corcoran (ACAC swim coach) present. Team going to Atlanta this weekend.

Announcements

• Doug met with the head of the chamber of commerce. Sked about May 20th and June 11th mountain biking events.

Director’s report

• About 14 major projects going on now. 3 approved at City Council on Monday. Submitted letter of intent for grant on Tuesday. This would allow Rec and Parks Dept to do a master plan. TN Dept of Health – Healthy build environment grant. Up to 50k for planning or 80k for project. Master plan looks at where we have needs in the community- looks at areas of poverty and obesity, and ways to provide a healthy environment for people in Oak Ridge. Have talked about a Greenways masterplan. Looks at things like if we need more recreation centers, greenways, basketball courts, etc. The company Jon has been talking to did one for Roane county 2 years ago.
• City recovery from malware is coming along. Migrating to office 365, for more security. Replaced damaged servers. Ongoing process.

Future agenda items:

• Moving forward on renaming trail.
• Getting signs for each park.
• Pat speaking about the Bell.

Next meeting: June 8, 2023
Kelly Mccampbell, Vice Chair