Summary

• Received a report from a geotechnical firm regarding options for a rebuild, including a “shell within a shell” concept.
• Recently closed a survey and compiling results for concept planning.
• Concerns raised about compromised soil under the pool; core sampling showed saturation but no immediate risk.
• Planning for repairs likely involving concrete, with cost estimates to be presented to City Council for decision.

Full Text

Minutes of the Recreation and Parks Advisory Board Meeting
October 2023 Regular Meeting

Call to Order

• Roll Call
  • Present: Jake Greear, Doug Bataille, Terri Daugherty, Ann Miller, Kelly Mccampbell
  • Absent: Alissa Jones, Michele Thornton, Dan Robbins, Chris Melhorn
• Approval of October 19th Agenda
  • Moved item #9 up to item #5.
  • Agenda approved.
• Approval of September 2023 Meeting Minutes
  • Approved as drafted (unanimous).
• Appearance of Citizen (Non-agenda Items)
  • Doug Colclasure: Discussion regarding Clark Center Park. Request to make an area into a city park, over 40 acres. TWRA is no longer interested in it. Jon said they have looked at it in the past. Three issues- capital infrastructure is one. Second, the amount of land, only about 40 acres involved. Barely room to put a hiking trail out there. Jon will prepare/ bring information to/for one of the next meetings. He’ll need to update some of the estimated cost projections. Would love to see where things stand now. The dynamic of the city is growing, so it may be a good time. Placed this item in the section for future agenda items.
  • Other visitors: Ellen Smith and Fran Tobin. Fran complimented the Accessibility Fair held on October 7th at the Recreation Center & Senior Center.
• Officer reports: none.
• Committee Reports/ Board Work Plan:
  • Oak Ridge Pool
    • Received the report from the geotechnical firm, regarding how that would impact potential options for a rebuild. One option they are looking at would be doing a shell within a shell. They have been working steadily on some concept plans, hopefully will have more info by the next meeting. That we could potentially break up the pool shell, and then pour concrete in to repair it and then add in a new shell.
    • Survey- just closed the beginning of this week. They are compiling that information. They did get the survey from last year posted on the project website. Going to put together some pie graphs and whatnot.
    • Discussion: Ann M. – some concern that the soil under the pool was compromised. Jon- they went in and did core sampling in five different places through the pool. There is a tremendous amount of saturation, but no immediate sink hole risk. Terri D.- will the soil dry out after repairs to the pool? Jon- some of it is going to come from the spring, but about 100,000 gallons a day, or a million gallons every 10 days, is coming from the pool. Stopping that that will significantly reduce the saturation. Ann M.- will it be concrete or other material? Jon- because of the size, will likely be concrete. Consultants are working on a few different concept plans. And they will attach cost estimates for that. City Council will make that determination. The geotechnical part is an important part to address. We’re encouraged by the initial reports we’ve got.
  • CIPs Review
    • We’ll be getting into the process in the next few months. Jon and Seth are looking at projects currently in the CIP, and are looking for projects to add in.
  • North Boundary Greenway
    • Jon has heard that there is a new development plan for parcel 7, which the NBG goes through. They don’t expect the trail to be impacted. Jon’s understanding is that whatever the development is, it doesn’t require the entire parcel to be developed.
  • Greenway System
    • Nothing new right now
  • Parks & Rec Stewardship, Maintenance and Trail development
    • Doug B. – CVTA just started phase 2 of trail work at Haw Ridge Park. There have been lots of new improvements on the Haw Ridge trails. It will be about a 6-8 week project.
    • Property acquisition. The Anderson Co. Board of Education has owned the property at the end of Edgemoor Rd. Thanks to Doug B., found out the BOE was looking to dispose of the property. Jon took it to the City Manager, and City Council approved an offer for the property. AC BOE has voted to accept the city’s offer. It includes the old JB Jones house and a number of out buildings. City negotiated with the BOA, offered $350,000, BOE accepted at their meeting Monday night. It connects to Haw Ridge. This new parcel has the potential to create a larger, nicely built trailhead. Would like to continue to partner with CVTA. May be able to add a ropes course like at IJams. And will provide the opportunity to add more events. Has a ton of potential. The house is on the national register of historic places. It looks rough from the outside, but we haven’t been on the inside yet. One of only one or two pre-World War II houses remaining in the city. Want to evaluate it to see what we can do with it.
    • Doug B. – thanks to Jon, City Council, and the School Board – this property is an excellent acquisition for trails, and to encourage CVTA memberships’ continued partnership and volunteer contributions.
  • Secondary & Long-Term Objectives
    • Facilitating community events.
    • Halloween – Oct. 27th, will be in the park by the Civic Center.
    • Tree lighting ceremony – Friday Dec. 1st. Nominees- by the end of next week, submit nominees (and a short blurb regarding reason for nomination) via email to the group email. Jon showed the spreadsheet that will be used for listing nominees then voting.
    • Rails to trails
      • Jon- We had a contact at TOOT who assured us once we did specific things, we would receive the notice to proceed to the next phase. Then we were told TOOT was working with the TPO to reorganize funding, grouping all trails projects under one heading. When we reached out to get an update on the project status, we got a response back saying that our contact no longer works in that office at TOOT. We haven’t received any responses since that. So we’ve lost our contact at TOOT, and are not sure who the replacement will be.
    • Advisory support for conference center design
    • Jon- We’ve been working the past few years with UT Civil Engineering students on their senior design projects. They are working on plans to re-do the Civic Center Plaza. The aggregate concrete on the plaza is very old and has not aged well. Our primary entrance and our ADA appropriate entrance is the front, but it is on the opposite side of the building from the parking lot. Looking at making the entrance more accessible from the turnpike. Would like to add handicap spots near the main entrance. They are looking at landscaping, shade, etc. Also considered adding a coffee shop and seating to overlook the plaza. Students are coming up with designs. They can’t provide stamped drawings, but we can take their designs, look for grant funding, and then retain an architect for design.
    • Conference center- currently waiting to pour new floors. And getting the new structure of the building going. Delay with the roof. Fiber optic cable issue resolved. There was no server room or storage in the original plans. So they’ve gone back and reconfigured. And added a small office for building manager.
    • Two other offices were removed. Planning to renovate another building, then Explore Oak Ridge will also move their offices into that building. Right now there is a temporary office out by the Senior Center. One is the aquatics manager. The other is the special projects coordinator. Jon’s office will move here once the other offices move around.
    • Support Melton Lake bridge preliminary design
    • Support continued development of the peace bell pavilion
      • Still looking to find a shed for storage
    • Explore opportunities for the continued development of disc golf
      • Club continues to work on their redevelopment plans. R &P is going out to support and assist them as needed.
      • High school cross country is having a fundraiser on Saturday.
    • Support Blueways initiatives
      • Now have a mission statement and a new name: Pellissippi Blueway.
• Unfinished business:
  • None.
• New Business:
  • None.
• Announcements
  • None.
• Director’s report.
  • Went to National Recreation & Parks Association conference in Dallas last week, got to interact with colleagues around the county, it was a good continuing education opportunity.
  • Would be neat to develop some digital content. Like going to different facilities and taking videos and using those for marketing. Also a good class on encouraging staff to innovate and come up with new ideas.
  • All access playground. Moving forward . Inclusive playgrounds tend to be expensive. So to include a decent amount of play equipment is difficult. Were able to get $300k in CDBG funding. Requested to go back to City Council to request adding $60k from CIP ADA funds to contract. There’s a discrepancy of about $20k. City Manager is going to try to find another $20k in the budget, then go back to City Council.
• Future agenda items:
  • Clark Center Park
• Adjournment