The Parks and Recreation Committee met 04/10/2023. They had two action items on the agenda which were (1) to approve a request for Irish Fest of the Fox Cities to hold a private ticketed event in Jones Park on September 15-16, 2023 and (2) to approve revisions to the Athletic Facilities Rental and Fee Schedule Policy. Both of these items were approved unanimously, and some excitement was shown regarding Irish Fest.
The committee also received an update on 2023 seasonal employee staffing.
I’ve prepared a complete transcript of the meeting for your downloading pleasure.
ITEM 23-0349: IRISH FEST – This event will be held in Jones Park on September 15 and 16, 2023. Jones Park is a special events park so any special event planned for that location has to go through the special event processes. Director of Parks, Recreation, and Facilities Dean Gazza noted that the Jones Park special events policy (unlike the Houdini Plaza special events policy) had skipped the process of coming before the committee, but the city had updated that and made the two policies consistent which was why this was coming before the committee now.
The event was sponsored by McGinnis Irish Pub which would be one of the primary food vendors. They were also planning to bring in two or three food trucks, as well as two or three Irish merchandize vendors.
Per city ordinance, they could not provide whiskey in the park; however, they were in the process of renting the Expo Center which would allow them to offer whiskey inside. Their two whiskey sponsors, Jameson and Keepers Heart would be providing a whiskey sampling event inside the Expo Center.
Music for the event was scheduled to play until 10PM. Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) asked if a noise variance for that would come before the Board of Health, which Director Gazza said it would.
Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9) asked if allowing the event to go on until 10PM was a change from the last couple years. Director Gazza said that the city had extended end times to 10PM in community/event parks many times over the years.
ITEM 23-0350: REVISED ATHLETIC FACILITIES RENTAL AND FEE SCHEDULE POLICY – The main purpose of these updates was to include new amenities that the park service was providing. Some examples were Green Meadows Park which now had a basketball court and one less tennis court and Telulah Park which had new pickleball courts.
Director Gazza said that they had been getting questions about whether the pickleball courts could be rented for tournaments. As a result, they created some fees. They also increased the rental fees for the baseball diamond tournament field and concessions due to the labor and supplies associated with that.
Alderperson Hartzheim asked if they anticipated that allowing pickleball tournaments to be held would negatively impact the court availability for people who just wanted to play recreationally. [I got the impression she might personally enjoy playing pickleball.]
Director Gazza did not anticipate that and expected they would just have one or two pickleball tournaments that would just happen on single days. Additionally, they always had the ability to turn down requests for tournaments if they felt it was affecting regular play. He noted that was the reason they only allowed the courts to be rented for tournaments and not by individuals because they would get a lot of rentals if individuals could rent a court for a day.
Alderperson Schutz asked about the revisions that allowed the city to require renters to have insurance coverage for activities or events determined to be a risk to the city and to require liability insurance for activities or events that could impact the integrity of the facilities. He wondered what prompted those changes.
Director Gazza said that the city had no previous litigation in that area, so the changes were not based on past experiences. Rather, the city had a new risk manager who was looking at some of the policies with a new set of eyes and was adding language to protect the city. City Attorney Behrens noted that a lot of the city’s policies had not been updated with respect to liability and insurance for a long time, so the city risk manager was working to get them updated. He expected more policies to be updated in the future.
INFORMATION ITEM 23-0351: SEASONAL STAFFING – Seasonal staffing levels were significantly better compared to last year. The wage rate increases had a big impact on that.
- Interviewing and hiring were completed for tennis court camps, playground leaders, and the two coordinator positions.
- Baseball and softball umpire interviews were ongoing. He noted umpires were always the toughest people to get.
- Cashiers and concessionaires for the pools were both good and many staff members were returning with the new wage.
- Managers and assistant managers for the pools had been hired.
- The city was still working to fill lifeguard and water slide attendant positions, but Director Gazza thought they were getting pretty close. He said they like to over-hire a little bit because often between the date of hire and the start date, people will decide they want to do something else.
- 12 of 17 grounds keeper positions were already filled with 2 more positions in prosses. They also had some more applications to review and were not concerned about being able to fill those positions.
- One person stepped down at the golf course, but they were still in good shape.
Director Gazza finished up by saying that the wage increases had been a big deal for them and were the reason why they were able to keep the pools open and keep programs available.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1092174&GUID=6512546C-6C35-46FD-9DB6-85766078DFD4
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