Another long meeting

On Monday evening the Park Board met. A representative from Anytime Fitness wanted to offer free exercise classes in the Staddon Field area from 10 am to 11 am on the 14th, 21st, and 28th of May. After some discussion, the Board approved his request. Earnest Watson had a proposal to begin a tennis league later this month. There was concern that he did not have a liability insurance policy, so the item was tabled.

Much of the meeting was devoted to the financial report. One item of interest was the revenue and cost of the pop machines. In 2015 the park lost money on the pop machines. The machine that was in Columbia Park has been removed because someone was urinating on it. There are still machines in Brookside and Iroquois. The machines are owned by Pepsi and it sells bottles for the machines that have a special size so that one cannot fill the machines with bottles bought from a local retailer. As a result, they can charge exorbitant prices and they do. A motion to remove the machines after the current inventory is sold was passed. Then a motion to search for an alternative source of pop machines was passed.

After more discussion of the financials that noted that park revenue is flat, a motion was made to hire a summer program coordinator. There were questions of how the position could be funded, but a decision was made to investigate the idea further.

It was noted that the soccer program has not been in communication with the park director about what their plans are.

One Board member asked the Board if they were open to having a local company run a concession stand in the Jasper Foundation Park after the stand is built. The Board wanted more details but said that they could live with the idea.

Several months ago the creative people at Fair Oaks Farms agreed to held design a logo for the parks. They recently submitted three designs. The Board did a poll of members to see which was favored and found the votes were split 3 to 2 to 2 with one abstention.

The transfer of Staddon Field has still not happened. So far six attorneys have worked on issue.

On the way to the meeting I admired some of the large trash piles that people had put out for Clean-up Week. I thought the chair below was interesting.

On the way home I noticed that it is no longer on the curb. Despite the warnings that scavenging violates a city ordinance, there are still a lot of people searching for free goodies.