Transcript

Event transcript
Great. 00:00:04
All righty, we're going to go ahead and call to order this. 00:00:06
Work session. 00:00:09
On the Kennedy County Public Service Authority. 00:00:12
Miss Keen will be joining us in a few minutes and. 00:00:18
Mr. Rassi is making the trip around. 00:00:21
So to begin. 00:00:38
Just want to I guess give a little quick background. 00:00:41
Obviously, uh. 00:00:45
Recreation has been something that we've heard. 00:00:47
A number of times from. 00:00:51
From audience and. 00:00:52
This past six or seven months about dissatisfaction with different things. 00:00:54
Within the recreation. 00:00:58
The upkeep and maintenance of the fields the. 00:01:01
The need for. 00:01:07
Capital improvement on. 00:01:08
On certain things like tennis courts and. 00:01:10
Others. 00:01:12
And. 00:01:13
We currently found ourselves at a situation where. 00:01:15
Public the. IGA the. 00:01:22
Intergovernmental agreement with the PSA and the different cities, municipalities, county. 00:01:24
Needs to be renewed. 00:01:30
And so we have kind of. 00:01:32
Been exploring the opportunity, the possibility had discussions with folks from PSA and. 00:01:34
Some of the other cities. 00:01:39
What it would look like? 00:01:42
Possibly for the city of Saint Mary's to take over the maintenance and operations. 00:01:43
Of its facilities. 00:01:47
With the. 00:01:49
Public service authorities still providing the programming. 00:01:50
Services and support. 00:01:53
For the sports. 00:01:55
And so that's partly what we're here to discuss tonight, kind of. 00:01:56
Look at what? 00:02:01
That might look like what it would take for the city and. 00:02:02
You know one of the things we can't. 00:02:06
Kind of coming back with, is that the expectations for recreation within the city of Saint Mary's? 00:02:07
Might be different from what the other municipalities or the county wants. 00:02:12
I kind of get the feeling. 00:02:17
I personally, uh, uh. 00:02:18
And I think from what I'm hearing and we want to hire. 00:02:20
Level quality of recreation. Recreational opportunities for our citizens. 00:02:22
For the businesses that we're trying to attract and the new families that are moving in. 00:02:27
And so that's kind of why. 00:02:32
Going down this road and so. 00:02:33
Staff has prepared some things we've had. 00:02:36
I'll shout out to Mr. Hahn there in the audience, who has a. 00:02:39
Extensive background in managing recreation departments in South Florida has provided us some. 00:02:43
Some expertise and some some guidance on things we need to be looking at and so. 00:02:50
With that, you're ready to take over there, Mr. 00:02:55
City Manager. 00:02:59
I think you did very well, Sir. 00:03:02
Thank you. 00:03:04
Would you like him to go over to pay for it real quick? Yeah, let's go over what you cooked for us and. 00:03:07
All right, so count. Good evening, Council. 00:03:12
So I've provided you with the. 00:03:15
With three deeds. 00:03:17
To properties. 00:03:19
Umm, there. 00:03:21
On two of them I've written. 00:03:22
I think I read them on the bottom. 00:03:24
And when I wrote it top. 00:03:27
We've got the Margaret St. 00:03:28
The date to the market. 00:03:30
We have the date to the aquatic. 00:03:35
Park Tail. 00:03:37
And we have the date. 00:03:40
Persuade war. 00:03:42
There's four parks in the city of Saint Mary's, the last one being Nodders Pond. 00:03:43
That is a static. 00:03:48
Part that is up kept. 00:03:49
By PSA. 00:03:51
But it is the property of the city of Saint. 00:03:53
And that stopped. Stopped. 00:03:56
So in short version. 00:03:58
The Street. 00:04:00
Arc That is the property of the city of Saint Mary's. 00:04:01
The Aquatic. 00:04:07
Park is the property of the PSA was quick deeded over to the PSA from the City of Saint Mary's. 00:04:09
And the one that is. 00:04:17
Hard to read and I apologize. 00:04:19
But Mr. Jones apparently has one that we can read easily because he was there when they did the original. 00:04:22
Sorry. 00:04:30
I won't say the date. 00:04:31
Long, long time ago. 00:04:33
The debt was actually. 00:04:36
Deed it over. 00:04:37
But that is actually owned by. 00:04:39
Sweetwater. 00:04:41
Recreational authority. 00:04:42
To the PS and PSA. 00:04:45
Operates at that point. 00:04:47
So that's what. 00:04:50
Each one of those documents or. 00:04:51
The last one. 00:04:54
The mayor asked me to put together some numbers. 00:04:55
Associated e-mail. 00:04:59
Associated. 00:05:02
With if we were to operate the parks, what those numbers would look like. 00:05:03
So I have. 00:05:07
Tried to provide you with an estimate. 00:05:09
On what I think it would take to be able to do that. 00:05:11
So all right. 00:05:14
There you go, Sir. And so I'll say that we, you know, in some of our preliminary discussions, you know, we have mentioned about 00:05:17
the Aquatic Center Park. 00:05:21
In that our desire would be that it would be. 00:05:26
Quick claimed Quick claims back to us for the purpose of ownership and being able to. 00:05:29
Apply for grants and and. 00:05:35
Clarity of. 00:05:38
Upon the fact that we would be making improvements to that property and. 00:05:40
It obviously simplifies the whole process, and there is. 00:05:45
We were told there'd be no issue with that, That was something that could happen. 00:05:49
Pretty quickly, so we make that happen. 00:05:52
We need to still have some ongoing conversations, although there's been some initial. 00:05:56
Initial talk with Swabra. 00:06:01
About Sweetwater. 00:06:04
Umm, to that effect. 00:06:06
As well. 00:06:08
In order for the city to be able to. 00:06:10
Take over maintenance and operations there. 00:06:12
One of the things that. 00:06:16
I guess kind of surprised me. 00:06:17
Surprise me and I'm maybe. 00:06:19
Mr. Horton as well. 00:06:21
County is already kind of looking at. 00:06:23
Taking over its fields or whatever the. 00:06:27
Taking over maintenance and operations. 00:06:30
City of Kingsland has. 00:06:33
Said you. Well, if you are going to do it, we're we're on board with. 00:06:35
Kind of doing it too with our 2 fields. 00:06:38
And uh. 00:06:40
So we went from just kind of. 00:06:42
Not necessarily forcing that issue on everybody, we just. 00:06:43
Wanted to do what we wanted to do. 00:06:46
To now there seems to be a groundswell that. 00:06:49
Maybe that's. 00:06:52
That's going to happen across the board. 00:06:53
And that PSA will. 00:06:56
Moving forward after October 1st. 00:06:58
Potentially if it all happens between now and then. 00:07:01
Would really not have any capacity for. 00:07:04
Grounds maintenance other than. 00:07:07
Where the rec center is and maintaining the building and the facilities there. 00:07:09
But not necessarily then be involved in the maintaining of. 00:07:15
Of parks, mowing and cutting. 00:07:18
Throughout the county or whatever, so. 00:07:21
So that's kind of where we stand and. 00:07:23
I guess I'd like to. 00:07:26
Let's start by kind of opening up the Council. 00:07:27
Comments about. 00:07:30
The intended process, what questions we have and then. 00:07:32
We can make, we can hear from the audience as well. 00:07:36
So, but anybody on council? 00:07:38
Everything like say, go ahead. 00:07:41
Clarity on something. 00:07:43
Use the microphone. 00:07:45
The Aquatic Center parks. 00:07:47
We're talking about. 00:07:50
The fields themselves. 00:07:52
They belong to the PSA currently. Is that correct? 00:07:53
Yes, for that entire park belongs to the PSA with the exception of the Quark Center, so the Aquatic Center. 00:07:56
Is the cities. 00:08:06
Yeah, OK. 00:08:08
OK. 00:08:11
Does that include the land that it sits on? 00:08:13
That still has yet to be determined. 00:08:17
There is there is an agreement somewhere and. 00:08:22
I have gone through boxes and boxes and boxes Mr. 00:08:25
Doctor Reed has as well, all our staff have. 00:08:29
Trying to find an agreement. 00:08:32
There is not. We haven't been able to find it. 00:08:34
But knowing the time and the. 00:08:37
Political. 00:08:41
What was going on politically? 00:08:45
Between ourselves and the county and things of that nature. 00:08:47
And the attorney that was involved at the time? 00:08:50
There's there's gotta be in. 00:08:53
An agreement somewhere? 00:08:55
To allow us to build it. But I believe that land. 00:08:57
PSA from what way I read. 00:09:01
Because we granted that to them. 00:09:05
At some point. 00:09:08
Yes, ma'am, we have you have you have the green. 00:09:09
Yes, ma'am. OK. 00:09:12
I don't know if that makes any sense, but. 00:09:14
Yeah, I understand. 00:09:16
And like I said that you know the. 00:09:17
They've already kind of indicated there. 00:09:20
Willingness to you know. 00:09:22
Quick, clean that back over to us. So it kind of becomes a moot point. 00:09:24
Once that occurs. 00:09:28
Yes, certainly talking about quit claiming the the. 00:09:29
Tennis courts and everything back to us or that is correct. 00:09:34
They all the property associated with the deed that you have in your hand. 00:09:38
Quick climbing it back to the city. 00:09:42
Start seeing some things done. We are already starting on doing some things. Umm. 00:09:46
Actually, and it's in. 00:09:52
Not terrain on my manager's report. 00:09:54
But Mr. Williams is already working on. 00:09:56
Getting on RFP for the tennis courts. 00:10:00
That are on there having those redone. 00:10:03
And we've kind of. 00:10:06
We've talked through a plan. 00:10:09
For how to handle our parks and things of that nature as far as. 00:10:11
Planning. 00:10:17
Standing and things of that nature. 00:10:19
So we'll hopefully have that for you in the very near future. 00:10:21
Better put before council so you can kind of see our. 00:10:24
And I guess the other part I didn't specifically talk about is. 00:10:28
We currently. 00:10:32
Pay the PSA. 00:10:34
And of course that number. 00:10:37
Will probably change as it changes. 00:10:38
Annually, but. 00:10:40
In the realm of about $650,000 a year for. 00:10:41
The services that we receive from PSA. 00:10:45
And what our initial proposal? 00:10:49
Looks like is that. 00:10:53
We got. 00:10:55
Quotes and estimates from them as to what it was, what they were spending currently to do. 00:10:55
The maintenance that they were doing on our fields. 00:11:00
And. 00:11:03
That number? 00:11:04
Ran somewhere to the 170 hundred $80,000 a year. Was that right or was it the. 00:11:06
To 2:50. 00:11:10
The 250 OK and so. 00:11:12
We also discovered or they discovered that. 00:11:15
There was a set of lights, new LED lights, that was put in on the ball fields. 00:11:19
On the Margaret St. Fields a few years back. 00:11:24
That. 00:11:26
Current management I guess. 00:11:28
With the changeover. 00:11:30
There was an annual payment of $70,000 a year that. 00:11:32
They had lost track of and then that payment came due a few months back. 00:11:36
And there's one more payment due on that next year. 00:11:40
And so we proposed basically that. 00:11:44
In the first year, we would. 00:11:48
Keep back $180,000. 00:11:50
Of that. 00:11:53
Of that. 00:11:54
6:50 or so. 00:11:55
To leave that 70,000 in there to make that last payment on the on those lights that are on our fields. 00:11:58
And then after that. 00:12:03
We would increase that number up to the 250. 00:12:05
We're holding back. 00:12:07
From, you know, and then they. 00:12:09
Get the rest of money that would cover. 00:12:10
The programs, the upkeep of the. 00:12:12
Of the facility out there as well which the gymnastics and the other things that. 00:12:16
You know certainly are open to our citizens, our citizens use. 00:12:20
In that facility as well as like I say, the. 00:12:24
The staff for the programming and the other things that are going on. 00:12:27
So that's kind of. 00:12:31
Initial proposal that's being discussed. 00:12:32
Part of the money that we would. 00:12:35
Have to go towards. 00:12:37
What we're going to do on maintenance and operations and. 00:12:39
As we get into it and as we decide how quickly we want to go and on. 00:12:43
What level we want our fields to be atoming, there's a. 00:12:48
There's Atlanta Braves outfields. 00:12:51
You know there's a. 00:12:54
Brunswick Junior College, or what used to be. 00:12:55
Coastal College. You know the Buzzard here. 00:12:59
Back in the day, you know, there's what we got. Now there's different levels of, you know, where we want to be and. 00:13:01
You know, there's things to look at as far as. 00:13:09
We're we're going to be getting some numbers on. 00:13:12
The numbers of youths. 00:13:15
In the different. 00:13:17
Age categories to help determine. 00:13:18
What? Uh. 00:13:21
Appropriately sized. 00:13:21
Playing fields we need. 00:13:23
You know, do we need 200 foot? 00:13:25
Outfields. 00:13:26
You know, 320 foot outfields, you know, and how many of those? 00:13:28
To meet. 00:13:32
Kind of where where our population is and our estimates. 00:13:32
Because. 00:13:36
There's no reason to maintain a 320 foot outfield. 00:13:37
If we're only using 200 foot of it as it was, what's really needed and of course. 00:13:41
The maintenance cost there goes goes way down on a. 00:13:45
On the smaller outfield. 00:13:47
But. 00:13:48
Things like we do in the infields with the proper sand and clay mix, getting them leveled to make them safe and and. 00:13:50
To play on there's there's things with the. 00:13:57
Defenses the. 00:14:00
Aren't really tall enough to keep you from flipping over if you're a little bit taller person. We don't have. 00:14:04
Proper warning tracks and things like that out there there's. 00:14:09
A lot of things that will. 00:14:12
We'll be able to start working on. 00:14:13
In a process and. 00:14:16
They said we. 00:14:18
Right off the bat, get the tennis courts. 00:14:19
Potentially some pickleball courts included with that. 00:14:22
Done there at the Aquatic Center. 00:14:25
And then start looking at potentially the Margaret St. fields. 00:14:28
Umm, within. 00:14:32
My intention maybe would be, and you know, obviously it's council decision to. 00:14:34
To try to. 00:14:38
You know, pick out, you know, one or two fields that we really want to. 00:14:39
Get to that. 00:14:43
Traveling ball level you know quality field that our traveling. 00:14:45
Local traveling teams can. 00:14:49
And play on. 00:14:51
Practice on, prepare on. 00:14:52
Also potentially host other teams to come and play. 00:14:53
And. 00:14:58
And then just kind of take the other levels up from. 00:14:59
Poor to to good or better, you know, and. 00:15:03
And overtime maybe we can get the best for everything but. 00:15:07
The other part of this is a. 00:15:12
Identifying some staff to send through some. 00:15:14
Training for turf management. 00:15:19
You know, to take them beyond. 00:15:21
Just mow and go to the. 00:15:23
Where they're actually taking care of the turf and growing the turf the way it needs to be done. 00:15:25
Doing a proper fertilization there aeration, verticutting and. 00:15:29
The other kinds of things that need to be done in order to. 00:15:34
To have a field that looks like what we see on TV. So. 00:15:37
Just because I know we have some pickleball players in. 00:15:40
One of the things I discovered during my research on the pickleball courts is that there's. 00:15:45
A recommended. 00:15:51
Distance from the pickleball courts. 00:15:52
To residential homes. 00:15:55
Because of the sounds. 00:15:57
You know, prevention that's actually stronger than the. 00:15:59
Tennis court which that just. 00:16:01
Didn't realize that. 00:16:04
So we're kind of looking at. 00:16:05
If things happen the way we've kind of envisioned. 00:16:08
Of possibly being able to put those on the Sweetwater park. 00:16:11
Because of the distance. 00:16:15
Needed to separate. 00:16:17
So well, Miss King can testify to the. 00:16:19
The grunting and stuff that. 00:16:21
When she plays with some players, do that. 00:16:23
I also heard that there was some moaning involved with some players as well. 00:16:27
We had the opportunity to play in Tifton when we would ever municipally elect newly elected municipal training. 00:16:35
Nice facility they have over there in Tipton and. 00:16:42
But anyway. 00:16:47
Any other comments before we open it up to the public? You didn't want to finish your story about what happened? 00:16:48
Huh. What? What happened? Well, I took a thumb. 00:16:53
I scared scared Mr. Nasimento when I rolled. 00:16:57
Diving for about. 00:17:01
You're still here, walking and talking. You gotta want it bad. That's right. 00:17:03
Yes, Sir. You know, I think it's some big with what we're doing right now. 00:17:09
With our fields and everything, our pickleball courts. 00:17:13
Potentially tennis courts etc etc. 00:17:16
That we're going to have to expand, I mean, the paint, the fields that we have on Margaret St. 00:17:18
We've only got 3 fields. I talked to Steve a little earlier. 00:17:23
We're talking about. 00:17:26
Potentially. 00:17:27
Out here where we played baseball. 00:17:31
Whistling. 00:17:33
Some Sweetwater park. 00:17:34
We talked about that and. 00:17:36
You know. 00:17:39
I just want to see the city of Saint Mary's. 00:17:40
Be good in everything we do. 00:17:43
Regardless if it's for the kids, the adults or whatever. 00:17:45
Because our citizens and our taxpayers deserve to get beat. 00:17:48
The best? 00:17:52
Possible, uh. 00:17:53
Within the city of Saint Marys. 00:17:54
We want people to say. 00:17:56
You know something, Saint Mary's is so good. 00:17:57
I wish I could move over there. 00:17:59
You know. 00:18:01
I take some. 00:18:02
Our little city is awesome. 00:18:03
And we've got people like Artie and other people that are working that worked hard in past years. 00:18:05
With the PSA on these fields. 00:18:10
Let's take it to a next step. 00:18:12
To a next step. 00:18:16
And I think all of our citizens will be really happy with that. 00:18:18
If we can get 5 pickleball pork parks, I don't know. I mean. 00:18:22
Courts, I don't know where we would put them right now. 00:18:25
Well, let's let's build 5. I don't know how the funding will go. 00:18:27
But we'll find out that some somehow, some way. 00:18:31
What's that? I was I was getting. 00:18:35
Yeah, I agree. Well, Robbie, Robbie does a good job. 00:18:38
I like your enthusiasm. 00:18:42
Makes a lot of people happy. 00:18:45
That's right, make me happy. 00:18:47
All right, so we've got. 00:18:49
Maybe 20 minutes or so before. 00:18:50
Need to close up so. 00:18:53
I'll open open the mic up to. 00:18:55
The public if you have anything you want to. 00:18:59
Chime in on this, uh. 00:19:00
Issue and then. 00:19:02
Maybe we can dive into the numbers just a little bit more, whatever, but. 00:19:04
Larry White, 102 Sylvia's Court. 00:19:24
My question is when will? 00:19:27
Take place the transfer of those fields to the city. 00:19:29
Well, most of the other municipalities are running on an October fiscal year, so we hope to have it. 00:19:33
All done and taking place moving forward before October. 00:19:39
OK. But our fiscal year runs from. 00:19:42
July. July. 00:19:45
So my question is, have you done a comparison? 00:19:46
Between the cost to the county runs for PSA. 00:19:49
But maintaining these fields. 00:19:53
And what the city? 00:19:55
To maintain these fields. 00:19:56
Right. We've been working on that and of course. 00:19:59
Isn't it's the classic apples and oranges kind of thing, because what we're getting now is not what we want. Well, that's what I'm 00:20:01
saying. So it you know it. 00:20:05
You know, to get where we want to go is probably going to cost a little bit more money. 00:20:09
But yeah, I mean, that's one of the things we're looking at here, I mean. 00:20:14
We're looking at 2:00. 00:20:16
Two full time personnel. 00:20:18
You know, to maintain the four parks. 00:20:21
And. 00:20:23
You know, right now that's with. 00:20:25
Everything benefits and everything included, you know. 00:20:27
Around $111,000 for those two employees. 00:20:30
Equipment. 00:20:34
You know, the first year, a pickup truck, trailer, lawnmower, those kinds of things. 00:20:35
You know, potentially $55,000. 00:20:39
And then you have a number of different. 00:20:43
Drags and things to take care of the ball fields. 00:20:46
Chalk line, you know the the lines and that kind of stuff and other. 00:20:49
$4600. 00:20:53
Of course, we'll be taking over the utilities of the fields, the lights and those kinds of things. 00:20:54
Uh, up to 22,000 or whatever. 00:21:00
You know, kind of within that. 00:21:03
$180,000. 00:21:05
You know, range. 00:21:08
To kind of do the bare minimum. 00:21:10
You know where we go from there, you know, as far as capital improvements. 00:21:12
Is where the expense is going to happen and you know and what. 00:21:16
We all know is that there have been no. 00:21:20
Capital improvements really other than these light fixtures that have been occurring. 00:21:22
At the fields and that's where we're going to run into. 00:21:27
The. 00:21:29
Figuring out how we're going to pay for it as we move forward. 00:21:31
You know, hopefully we'll be able to get some grants and those kinds of things. 00:21:33
Especially once we have possession of the other parts. 00:21:37
And so that leads to my last comment, huh? 00:21:40
I know our budget starts in June, the 1st of July. 00:21:43
So it has that contingency been built into the budget. 00:21:46
We're going to have to come back in the middle of it. 00:21:50
The fiscal year. 00:21:52
See, this is how much more we need. 00:21:54
Right. We'll definitely be looking at a budget. 00:21:55
Ordinance amendment at some point in time. 00:21:57
Some of the one of the funding sources that we've. 00:22:00
Addressed is in. 00:22:02
Coming out SPLOST 8. 00:22:03
Being able to pull that equipment to. 00:22:06
The pickup truck. 00:22:09
Trailer and the mowers and tractors. 00:22:10
Because those are capital purchases. 00:22:13
We've got those earmarked and swastika. 00:22:15
All right. OK. All right. Thank you. 00:22:18
Thank you, Miss White. 00:22:20
Good afternoon, Nick Harris, 102 Hamlet Circle. 00:22:30
I'm thinking. 00:22:34
Throwing it out. 00:22:36
Were partially taking over a problem. 00:22:38
To help St. 00:22:40
But there's more to. 00:22:41
Just cutting and mowing. 00:22:43
And putting chalk lines, I think as a city as small as us and I've lived in. 00:22:45
Smaller cities than this and medium sized cities. 00:22:50
And we've done extremely well, but we need to kind of think about. 00:22:53
Owning the recreational programs too, because when you have ball fields. 00:22:58
And you're trying to get dads and moms out there. 00:23:03
Concessions brings in money to maintain those things. 00:23:06
The fees that just cost for travel ball or just cost. 00:23:10
Recreational replay. 00:23:15
And then it gives the coaches responsibility. It's not. 00:23:17
The government's sole responsibility of the city's sole responsibility. 00:23:20
And I'm just going to be blunt with you. Our problem in Saint Mary's, I'm probably gonna offend some people, is we have no civic 00:23:25
pride. 00:23:29
We're just always looking for somebody to give us money. 00:23:33
And make the quit the. 00:23:36
Fix the way we make Saint Mary's the place to be. 00:23:38
To make everybody say I want to be in Saint Mary's. 00:23:42
Is civic pride in an engagement? 00:23:46
Everybody's involved. We do a lot of talking. 00:23:49
But we don't execute. So I think now is the time if we're going to own those facilities. 00:23:51
There's dads, there's parents, there's coaches out there. 00:23:58
They line those fields, they keep them up because they're the. 00:24:01
Their kids, their athletes are playing on it. 00:24:05
I don't think we're gonna do anything. 00:24:08
Except increase the expense. 00:24:10
To go out and cut grass. 00:24:12
And make it look. 00:24:15
Kind of pretty, but if you're looking to start. 00:24:16
From the beginning. 00:24:18
To travel. 00:24:20
And one day bring jamboree's or tournaments here. 00:24:21
You need the community involvement because I can tell you, I can guarantee you. 00:24:25
And I'm not taking anything away from you. 00:24:30
But if you don't have the community engaged. 00:24:32
In it, you're just wasting money. 00:24:36
Yeah. 00:24:42
Again jolly 102 Salt grass trace here in Saint Mary's. 00:24:46
Commissioner. Council Members. 00:24:50
I'm 100% on board with your thought process, your ideas, and and your. 00:24:53
Initiative to start moving forward with this plan. 00:25:00
Civic engagement is going to happen. 00:25:06
That will happen that. 00:25:08
That will come along with the development. 00:25:09
That the city is going to be able to do and execute. 00:25:12
Once we have. 00:25:16
Control of it. 00:25:17
So again, I think it's a. 00:25:19
An excellent initiative on all of your parts to look at this carefully. 00:25:21
With the vision of. 00:25:26
Moving forward and making it happen. 00:25:28
Thank you. 00:25:30
Good evening, Christine Adamo, 901 and St. 00:25:39
I think it's a brilliant idea. 00:25:44
I have been advocating for almost 2 years that the city pull out of PSA. 00:25:46
And I believe the line item in there. 00:25:53
With this particular budget was. 00:25:55
Over 900. 00:25:57
$1000. 00:25:59
For our contribution to PSA. 00:26:01
So if you pull that out, we've got plenty of money to start this thing. 00:26:05
But what I'm not hearing and what is disconcerting to me? 00:26:09
Is there are two elements here? 00:26:15
There's programming which. 00:26:18
Mr. Connor is very well aware of. 00:26:21
And there's plant management. 00:26:25
Asset management. 00:26:28
Which you guys know. 00:26:31
We have other assets in this city that are not being managed properly. 00:26:34
They're losing money. 00:26:40
So when you consider pulling out. 00:26:42
And managing. 00:26:46
Tracts of land. 00:26:48
That have fields. 00:26:50
That have standards. 00:26:52
And that have potential. 00:26:54
For running amok. 00:26:56
Without tight oversight. 00:26:58
You need to hire. 00:27:02
Somebody who has. 00:27:05
Been a director of Parks and Recreation. That's a key element. 00:27:07
Then you can take your two people. 00:27:13
From DPW and train them. 00:27:15
But you need a dedicated. 00:27:18
Experienced. 00:27:21
Skilled manager. 00:27:23
Look at your other municipalities in the state of Georgia. 00:27:27
They those that had chosen to manage their own Parks and Recreation. 00:27:30
Have uh. 00:27:36
A skilled credentialed. 00:27:37
Professional managing it. 00:27:40
Who is held accountable for the bottom line? 00:27:42
And the standards and quality of the plant maintenance. 00:27:46
We as a city, fail miserably. 00:27:51
In holding our management. 00:27:54
Accountable. 00:27:56
For plant management. 00:27:58
Let's not continue to repeat that. 00:28:00
Trend. 00:28:04
And it's fantastic news. 00:28:06
That all of you have moved the needle to take control. 00:28:09
Of one of our most special assets are Parks and Recreation. 00:28:13
Because this city could shine amazingly. 00:28:18
If we. 00:28:23
Set it up. 00:28:24
Organize it and manage it properly. 00:28:25
So please. 00:28:29
Programming. 00:28:31
Plant Management. 00:28:33
Thank you. 00:28:34
And just to clarify, because is that we are. 00:28:35
Not looking to take over the programming at this point in time. 00:28:38
We feel like that is an area that the. 00:28:42
The PSA does a good job with. 00:28:46
And uh. 00:28:48
It also allows the. 00:28:49
Interplay between the different cities throughout the county when I was growing up, we. 00:28:52
Pretty much just played teams. 00:28:56
Within Saint Mary's, you know, so having the. 00:28:58
County wide programming. 00:29:00
And that is an area that is pretty well. 00:29:02
They pushed the fees on that overtime and. 00:29:05
It's pretty self-sustaining. 00:29:09
Currently with the fees of the individual programs. 00:29:12
And so it will certainly take some coordination. 00:29:15
Pair fields for games and things and knowing when. 00:29:19
You know, with PSA, we'll have to communicate obviously that. 00:29:22
When? 00:29:25
He feels ready for play. 00:29:26
But the actual programming? 00:29:29
Coaching, those kinds of things, you know, at this point in time. 00:29:31
We're not going that far yet. Mainly it's maintenance and operations. 00:29:35
To improve the quality of what we've got. 00:29:39
And as we get into this a little bit, you know. 00:29:41
A recreation department is is a is a forethought, you know, but it's not. 00:29:45
Where we're it's not our stepping stone. Our first stepping stone is. 00:29:51
Is to take over and let's start trying to improve the quality of our facilities. 00:29:54
Jerry Bumble, 805 Riverview Dr. West. 00:30:05
I really appreciate what you've got done with this PSA thing. 00:30:11
'Cause I watched for years. 00:30:14
And years where we our parks just kind of degraded. 00:30:17
And I think you've come to the right conclusion about what to do and I appreciate the fact y'all able to do that. 00:30:21
The other thing is I appreciate the fact that you're really focused on not only. 00:30:27
Taking care of what we got, but improving. 00:30:32
What we got. So I'm pretty impressed with that decision y'all made. 00:30:35
The other thing is. 00:30:38
Last I saw on Splash Mountain, there was $10 million set aside by the county for parts. We should get a chunk of that to spend 00:30:39
like we won't, not like the county will. 00:30:43
Yes, Sir, we are here certainly negotiating that point. 00:30:49
Uh, different conversations have come out about that, uh. 00:30:53
That they claim that they. 00:30:57
Put that number together for four. 00:30:59
Main parts 1 was the Margaret St. field. 00:31:01
Lions Park in Kingsland. 00:31:05
The city, the park in Woodbine as well as Howard Peoples. 00:31:07
And so at a minimum, we're fighting for 25%. 00:31:11
But we're fighting for. 00:31:15
The population split of that money. 00:31:17
Which would be closer to 33%. 00:31:20
So I'd like to. 00:31:22
Ask a question. 00:31:28
Years ago. 00:31:32
One of the best tennis courts that we had. 00:31:34
In the area. 00:31:37
Besides, the school was. 00:31:38
Out there, Sweetwater Branch Recreation Authority. 00:31:41
I don't know why it was taken up, but. 00:31:45
It was a great. 00:31:48
It was a great tennis court. 00:31:50
My question is. 00:31:53
I know there's a. 00:31:55
A lot of people like baseball, but. 00:31:56
How soon can we expect? 00:31:58
Tennis courts. 00:32:01
Pickleball courts. 00:32:02
And basketball coach. 00:32:04
And even football fields. 00:32:06
Well, it's called. It's called. 00:32:11
There's a lot of varying factors. 00:32:13
Are you speaking directly to the Sweetwater Park? 00:32:15
Well, I'm just saying for the city of Saint. 00:32:19
What we have talked about internally as far as staff and this is what I was planning to roll out a little later on. 00:32:22
And this is all in conversation phase right now. 00:32:29
Is our first thing is to get those tennis courts on the Aquatic Center have those? 00:32:32
Moist, right? OK. 00:32:37
That that's number one. 00:32:40
There is a grant that comes out in the fall. 00:32:42
Through department of natural resources for parks that. 00:32:45
Working on. 00:32:49
The first thing is getting the Margaret St. completely rehabbed. 00:32:51
Then from there, we're going to take. 00:32:56
Different parks along the way. 00:32:58
Moving to and the reason we're taking Margaret St. first, just to clarify. 00:33:01
Is when we move into the Aquatic Center as that gives us time for development of. 00:33:06
Master Plan. 00:33:10
For that park itself. 00:33:11
Not just. 00:33:14
Looking at the future. 00:33:17
Looking at putting another swimming pool in. 00:33:19
Looking at how we can develop that part to get the best use out of the fossil. 00:33:22
That would be. 00:33:28
Start the second phase, if you will. 00:33:29
Then from there. 00:33:32
We would look at sweet. 00:33:33
As far as what the potentials could be IE pickleball courts IE. 00:33:35
Disc golf. 00:33:40
If you will down through the. 00:33:42
Some of the trails and the woods in the area. 00:33:44
That is, that is real big right now. 00:33:47
And other possibilities of. 00:33:51
Ball fields on that property. 00:33:53
I mean, it's a good sized lot, but it's got a lot of. 00:33:55
Overgrown. 00:33:58
Not overgrown, but it's got a lot of trees and underbrush and things of that nature. 00:34:00
It could be thinned out to make that expand that workout even. 00:34:05
So that's kind of what our thinking is at this point in time. 00:34:10
And I agree with you 100%. 00:34:13
I just want to make sure that. 00:34:16
We keep our focus on. 00:34:18
Other things are a tennis courts because. 00:34:20
Umm, the one that they have now. 00:34:23
You know, it's if it could be rehabbed, you know? 00:34:26
Sure, we've had it. We've had it looked at. 00:34:29
And we've had it looked at. We've also had the. 00:34:33
PSA had looked at it and the recommendation was to take that all the way down. 00:34:37
And rebuild. 00:34:42
That way you're sure that you've got the drainage that's necessary so you don't have the problems with. 00:34:43
The special coatings on the courts popping up and things of that nature, you get a little bit longer wearing and tear. 00:34:49
On the actual court itself. 00:34:56
But that's that's kind of where we're landing. 00:34:59
At this point in time. 00:35:01
So with that being said, how many tennis courts are we talking about? 00:35:03
Initially 2. 00:35:07
We're talking about the two that are sitting there now. 00:35:09
Basically totally rehab our. 00:35:12
Taking those down and building 2 new ones are we? 00:35:15
Talking about potentially building 2 more while we're building those two or not initially. 00:35:18
Just get those two redone and. 00:35:24
When you look at, take a harder look at the basketball court, that's there. 00:35:26
And. 00:35:30
Have we put a deadline or anything up? 00:35:31
Well, to be able to get some of this stuff we're trying to have. 00:35:33
Everything in order and lined up. 00:35:38
And actually have an RFP. 00:35:40
Back and we know who the vendor is by October so we can pull through. 00:35:43
And we'll pull the trigger if. 00:35:47
If it's not October 1st. 00:35:49
But we are we are actually working on that. So we could potentially have tennis courts there by next February. 00:35:52
Next February. 00:35:58
Turn the business. 00:36:01
Thank you. What was the I know we budgeted I think what was it 147,000 to redo them? What is now? 00:36:04
What it completely take them down and redo them entirely? That was that. 00:36:10
That bid that we saw from PSA, that was taking them down. 00:36:14
OK, just completely. 00:36:19
But we've been talking to some other vendors and things and looking at some other alternatives. 00:36:20
To do. 00:36:28
So, yeah, OK. 00:36:29
That's just a good. 00:36:31
Budget number to work from at this point in time. 00:36:32
Are we going to look at? 00:36:34
Multi use fields. 00:36:36
It's Sweetwater, or at some location southern that we have not only baseball fields but a place for. 00:36:38
Soccer, Yeah. 00:36:45
Yes, ma'am, we are. 00:36:50
That is part of the conversations we actually at GMA, we were. 00:36:51
We ran into a vendor that had off. 00:36:55
Small one from soccer for the. 00:36:57
Little mm-hmm. 00:36:59
I don't know what you call the youngest ones. 00:37:01
But it's really you could use actually use they take. 00:37:04
A tennis court. 00:37:08
And they converted into like a it can be soccer fields. 00:37:09
It's got walls up and stuff. It's. 00:37:12
It's just conversations and. 00:37:16
Part of the process of developing the National Plan for Parks. 00:37:17
Apologize OK need to wrap this up so we can get reset for. 00:37:21
Our next meeting so. 00:37:26
Thank everybody for the discussion and. 00:37:29
And comments and we'll. 00:37:31
To be bringing something before council soon to. 00:37:34
Kind of move this process along. We have a meeting tomorrow with PSA to kind of let them know that. 00:37:37
This is kind of. 00:37:43
Definitely the direction we're moving in and they need to be. 00:37:44
Come with. 00:37:48
Thank you. 00:37:49
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Transcript

Event transcript
Great. 00:00:04
All righty, we're going to go ahead and call to order this. 00:00:06
Work session. 00:00:09
On the Kennedy County Public Service Authority. 00:00:12
Miss Keen will be joining us in a few minutes and. 00:00:18
Mr. Rassi is making the trip around. 00:00:21
So to begin. 00:00:38
Just want to I guess give a little quick background. 00:00:41
Obviously, uh. 00:00:45
Recreation has been something that we've heard. 00:00:47
A number of times from. 00:00:51
From audience and. 00:00:52
This past six or seven months about dissatisfaction with different things. 00:00:54
Within the recreation. 00:00:58
The upkeep and maintenance of the fields the. 00:01:01
The need for. 00:01:07
Capital improvement on. 00:01:08
On certain things like tennis courts and. 00:01:10
Others. 00:01:12
And. 00:01:13
We currently found ourselves at a situation where. 00:01:15
Public the. IGA the. 00:01:22
Intergovernmental agreement with the PSA and the different cities, municipalities, county. 00:01:24
Needs to be renewed. 00:01:30
And so we have kind of. 00:01:32
Been exploring the opportunity, the possibility had discussions with folks from PSA and. 00:01:34
Some of the other cities. 00:01:39
What it would look like? 00:01:42
Possibly for the city of Saint Mary's to take over the maintenance and operations. 00:01:43
Of its facilities. 00:01:47
With the. 00:01:49
Public service authorities still providing the programming. 00:01:50
Services and support. 00:01:53
For the sports. 00:01:55
And so that's partly what we're here to discuss tonight, kind of. 00:01:56
Look at what? 00:02:01
That might look like what it would take for the city and. 00:02:02
You know one of the things we can't. 00:02:06
Kind of coming back with, is that the expectations for recreation within the city of Saint Mary's? 00:02:07
Might be different from what the other municipalities or the county wants. 00:02:12
I kind of get the feeling. 00:02:17
I personally, uh, uh. 00:02:18
And I think from what I'm hearing and we want to hire. 00:02:20
Level quality of recreation. Recreational opportunities for our citizens. 00:02:22
For the businesses that we're trying to attract and the new families that are moving in. 00:02:27
And so that's kind of why. 00:02:32
Going down this road and so. 00:02:33
Staff has prepared some things we've had. 00:02:36
I'll shout out to Mr. Hahn there in the audience, who has a. 00:02:39
Extensive background in managing recreation departments in South Florida has provided us some. 00:02:43
Some expertise and some some guidance on things we need to be looking at and so. 00:02:50
With that, you're ready to take over there, Mr. 00:02:55
City Manager. 00:02:59
I think you did very well, Sir. 00:03:02
Thank you. 00:03:04
Would you like him to go over to pay for it real quick? Yeah, let's go over what you cooked for us and. 00:03:07
All right, so count. Good evening, Council. 00:03:12
So I've provided you with the. 00:03:15
With three deeds. 00:03:17
To properties. 00:03:19
Umm, there. 00:03:21
On two of them I've written. 00:03:22
I think I read them on the bottom. 00:03:24
And when I wrote it top. 00:03:27
We've got the Margaret St. 00:03:28
The date to the market. 00:03:30
We have the date to the aquatic. 00:03:35
Park Tail. 00:03:37
And we have the date. 00:03:40
Persuade war. 00:03:42
There's four parks in the city of Saint Mary's, the last one being Nodders Pond. 00:03:43
That is a static. 00:03:48
Part that is up kept. 00:03:49
By PSA. 00:03:51
But it is the property of the city of Saint. 00:03:53
And that stopped. Stopped. 00:03:56
So in short version. 00:03:58
The Street. 00:04:00
Arc That is the property of the city of Saint Mary's. 00:04:01
The Aquatic. 00:04:07
Park is the property of the PSA was quick deeded over to the PSA from the City of Saint Mary's. 00:04:09
And the one that is. 00:04:17
Hard to read and I apologize. 00:04:19
But Mr. Jones apparently has one that we can read easily because he was there when they did the original. 00:04:22
Sorry. 00:04:30
I won't say the date. 00:04:31
Long, long time ago. 00:04:33
The debt was actually. 00:04:36
Deed it over. 00:04:37
But that is actually owned by. 00:04:39
Sweetwater. 00:04:41
Recreational authority. 00:04:42
To the PS and PSA. 00:04:45
Operates at that point. 00:04:47
So that's what. 00:04:50
Each one of those documents or. 00:04:51
The last one. 00:04:54
The mayor asked me to put together some numbers. 00:04:55
Associated e-mail. 00:04:59
Associated. 00:05:02
With if we were to operate the parks, what those numbers would look like. 00:05:03
So I have. 00:05:07
Tried to provide you with an estimate. 00:05:09
On what I think it would take to be able to do that. 00:05:11
So all right. 00:05:14
There you go, Sir. And so I'll say that we, you know, in some of our preliminary discussions, you know, we have mentioned about 00:05:17
the Aquatic Center Park. 00:05:21
In that our desire would be that it would be. 00:05:26
Quick claimed Quick claims back to us for the purpose of ownership and being able to. 00:05:29
Apply for grants and and. 00:05:35
Clarity of. 00:05:38
Upon the fact that we would be making improvements to that property and. 00:05:40
It obviously simplifies the whole process, and there is. 00:05:45
We were told there'd be no issue with that, That was something that could happen. 00:05:49
Pretty quickly, so we make that happen. 00:05:52
We need to still have some ongoing conversations, although there's been some initial. 00:05:56
Initial talk with Swabra. 00:06:01
About Sweetwater. 00:06:04
Umm, to that effect. 00:06:06
As well. 00:06:08
In order for the city to be able to. 00:06:10
Take over maintenance and operations there. 00:06:12
One of the things that. 00:06:16
I guess kind of surprised me. 00:06:17
Surprise me and I'm maybe. 00:06:19
Mr. Horton as well. 00:06:21
County is already kind of looking at. 00:06:23
Taking over its fields or whatever the. 00:06:27
Taking over maintenance and operations. 00:06:30
City of Kingsland has. 00:06:33
Said you. Well, if you are going to do it, we're we're on board with. 00:06:35
Kind of doing it too with our 2 fields. 00:06:38
And uh. 00:06:40
So we went from just kind of. 00:06:42
Not necessarily forcing that issue on everybody, we just. 00:06:43
Wanted to do what we wanted to do. 00:06:46
To now there seems to be a groundswell that. 00:06:49
Maybe that's. 00:06:52
That's going to happen across the board. 00:06:53
And that PSA will. 00:06:56
Moving forward after October 1st. 00:06:58
Potentially if it all happens between now and then. 00:07:01
Would really not have any capacity for. 00:07:04
Grounds maintenance other than. 00:07:07
Where the rec center is and maintaining the building and the facilities there. 00:07:09
But not necessarily then be involved in the maintaining of. 00:07:15
Of parks, mowing and cutting. 00:07:18
Throughout the county or whatever, so. 00:07:21
So that's kind of where we stand and. 00:07:23
I guess I'd like to. 00:07:26
Let's start by kind of opening up the Council. 00:07:27
Comments about. 00:07:30
The intended process, what questions we have and then. 00:07:32
We can make, we can hear from the audience as well. 00:07:36
So, but anybody on council? 00:07:38
Everything like say, go ahead. 00:07:41
Clarity on something. 00:07:43
Use the microphone. 00:07:45
The Aquatic Center parks. 00:07:47
We're talking about. 00:07:50
The fields themselves. 00:07:52
They belong to the PSA currently. Is that correct? 00:07:53
Yes, for that entire park belongs to the PSA with the exception of the Quark Center, so the Aquatic Center. 00:07:56
Is the cities. 00:08:06
Yeah, OK. 00:08:08
OK. 00:08:11
Does that include the land that it sits on? 00:08:13
That still has yet to be determined. 00:08:17
There is there is an agreement somewhere and. 00:08:22
I have gone through boxes and boxes and boxes Mr. 00:08:25
Doctor Reed has as well, all our staff have. 00:08:29
Trying to find an agreement. 00:08:32
There is not. We haven't been able to find it. 00:08:34
But knowing the time and the. 00:08:37
Political. 00:08:41
What was going on politically? 00:08:45
Between ourselves and the county and things of that nature. 00:08:47
And the attorney that was involved at the time? 00:08:50
There's there's gotta be in. 00:08:53
An agreement somewhere? 00:08:55
To allow us to build it. But I believe that land. 00:08:57
PSA from what way I read. 00:09:01
Because we granted that to them. 00:09:05
At some point. 00:09:08
Yes, ma'am, we have you have you have the green. 00:09:09
Yes, ma'am. OK. 00:09:12
I don't know if that makes any sense, but. 00:09:14
Yeah, I understand. 00:09:16
And like I said that you know the. 00:09:17
They've already kind of indicated there. 00:09:20
Willingness to you know. 00:09:22
Quick, clean that back over to us. So it kind of becomes a moot point. 00:09:24
Once that occurs. 00:09:28
Yes, certainly talking about quit claiming the the. 00:09:29
Tennis courts and everything back to us or that is correct. 00:09:34
They all the property associated with the deed that you have in your hand. 00:09:38
Quick climbing it back to the city. 00:09:42
Start seeing some things done. We are already starting on doing some things. Umm. 00:09:46
Actually, and it's in. 00:09:52
Not terrain on my manager's report. 00:09:54
But Mr. Williams is already working on. 00:09:56
Getting on RFP for the tennis courts. 00:10:00
That are on there having those redone. 00:10:03
And we've kind of. 00:10:06
We've talked through a plan. 00:10:09
For how to handle our parks and things of that nature as far as. 00:10:11
Planning. 00:10:17
Standing and things of that nature. 00:10:19
So we'll hopefully have that for you in the very near future. 00:10:21
Better put before council so you can kind of see our. 00:10:24
And I guess the other part I didn't specifically talk about is. 00:10:28
We currently. 00:10:32
Pay the PSA. 00:10:34
And of course that number. 00:10:37
Will probably change as it changes. 00:10:38
Annually, but. 00:10:40
In the realm of about $650,000 a year for. 00:10:41
The services that we receive from PSA. 00:10:45
And what our initial proposal? 00:10:49
Looks like is that. 00:10:53
We got. 00:10:55
Quotes and estimates from them as to what it was, what they were spending currently to do. 00:10:55
The maintenance that they were doing on our fields. 00:11:00
And. 00:11:03
That number? 00:11:04
Ran somewhere to the 170 hundred $80,000 a year. Was that right or was it the. 00:11:06
To 2:50. 00:11:10
The 250 OK and so. 00:11:12
We also discovered or they discovered that. 00:11:15
There was a set of lights, new LED lights, that was put in on the ball fields. 00:11:19
On the Margaret St. Fields a few years back. 00:11:24
That. 00:11:26
Current management I guess. 00:11:28
With the changeover. 00:11:30
There was an annual payment of $70,000 a year that. 00:11:32
They had lost track of and then that payment came due a few months back. 00:11:36
And there's one more payment due on that next year. 00:11:40
And so we proposed basically that. 00:11:44
In the first year, we would. 00:11:48
Keep back $180,000. 00:11:50
Of that. 00:11:53
Of that. 00:11:54
6:50 or so. 00:11:55
To leave that 70,000 in there to make that last payment on the on those lights that are on our fields. 00:11:58
And then after that. 00:12:03
We would increase that number up to the 250. 00:12:05
We're holding back. 00:12:07
From, you know, and then they. 00:12:09
Get the rest of money that would cover. 00:12:10
The programs, the upkeep of the. 00:12:12
Of the facility out there as well which the gymnastics and the other things that. 00:12:16
You know certainly are open to our citizens, our citizens use. 00:12:20
In that facility as well as like I say, the. 00:12:24
The staff for the programming and the other things that are going on. 00:12:27
So that's kind of. 00:12:31
Initial proposal that's being discussed. 00:12:32
Part of the money that we would. 00:12:35
Have to go towards. 00:12:37
What we're going to do on maintenance and operations and. 00:12:39
As we get into it and as we decide how quickly we want to go and on. 00:12:43
What level we want our fields to be atoming, there's a. 00:12:48
There's Atlanta Braves outfields. 00:12:51
You know there's a. 00:12:54
Brunswick Junior College, or what used to be. 00:12:55
Coastal College. You know the Buzzard here. 00:12:59
Back in the day, you know, there's what we got. Now there's different levels of, you know, where we want to be and. 00:13:01
You know, there's things to look at as far as. 00:13:09
We're we're going to be getting some numbers on. 00:13:12
The numbers of youths. 00:13:15
In the different. 00:13:17
Age categories to help determine. 00:13:18
What? Uh. 00:13:21
Appropriately sized. 00:13:21
Playing fields we need. 00:13:23
You know, do we need 200 foot? 00:13:25
Outfields. 00:13:26
You know, 320 foot outfields, you know, and how many of those? 00:13:28
To meet. 00:13:32
Kind of where where our population is and our estimates. 00:13:32
Because. 00:13:36
There's no reason to maintain a 320 foot outfield. 00:13:37
If we're only using 200 foot of it as it was, what's really needed and of course. 00:13:41
The maintenance cost there goes goes way down on a. 00:13:45
On the smaller outfield. 00:13:47
But. 00:13:48
Things like we do in the infields with the proper sand and clay mix, getting them leveled to make them safe and and. 00:13:50
To play on there's there's things with the. 00:13:57
Defenses the. 00:14:00
Aren't really tall enough to keep you from flipping over if you're a little bit taller person. We don't have. 00:14:04
Proper warning tracks and things like that out there there's. 00:14:09
A lot of things that will. 00:14:12
We'll be able to start working on. 00:14:13
In a process and. 00:14:16
They said we. 00:14:18
Right off the bat, get the tennis courts. 00:14:19
Potentially some pickleball courts included with that. 00:14:22
Done there at the Aquatic Center. 00:14:25
And then start looking at potentially the Margaret St. fields. 00:14:28
Umm, within. 00:14:32
My intention maybe would be, and you know, obviously it's council decision to. 00:14:34
To try to. 00:14:38
You know, pick out, you know, one or two fields that we really want to. 00:14:39
Get to that. 00:14:43
Traveling ball level you know quality field that our traveling. 00:14:45
Local traveling teams can. 00:14:49
And play on. 00:14:51
Practice on, prepare on. 00:14:52
Also potentially host other teams to come and play. 00:14:53
And. 00:14:58
And then just kind of take the other levels up from. 00:14:59
Poor to to good or better, you know, and. 00:15:03
And overtime maybe we can get the best for everything but. 00:15:07
The other part of this is a. 00:15:12
Identifying some staff to send through some. 00:15:14
Training for turf management. 00:15:19
You know, to take them beyond. 00:15:21
Just mow and go to the. 00:15:23
Where they're actually taking care of the turf and growing the turf the way it needs to be done. 00:15:25
Doing a proper fertilization there aeration, verticutting and. 00:15:29
The other kinds of things that need to be done in order to. 00:15:34
To have a field that looks like what we see on TV. So. 00:15:37
Just because I know we have some pickleball players in. 00:15:40
One of the things I discovered during my research on the pickleball courts is that there's. 00:15:45
A recommended. 00:15:51
Distance from the pickleball courts. 00:15:52
To residential homes. 00:15:55
Because of the sounds. 00:15:57
You know, prevention that's actually stronger than the. 00:15:59
Tennis court which that just. 00:16:01
Didn't realize that. 00:16:04
So we're kind of looking at. 00:16:05
If things happen the way we've kind of envisioned. 00:16:08
Of possibly being able to put those on the Sweetwater park. 00:16:11
Because of the distance. 00:16:15
Needed to separate. 00:16:17
So well, Miss King can testify to the. 00:16:19
The grunting and stuff that. 00:16:21
When she plays with some players, do that. 00:16:23
I also heard that there was some moaning involved with some players as well. 00:16:27
We had the opportunity to play in Tifton when we would ever municipally elect newly elected municipal training. 00:16:35
Nice facility they have over there in Tipton and. 00:16:42
But anyway. 00:16:47
Any other comments before we open it up to the public? You didn't want to finish your story about what happened? 00:16:48
Huh. What? What happened? Well, I took a thumb. 00:16:53
I scared scared Mr. Nasimento when I rolled. 00:16:57
Diving for about. 00:17:01
You're still here, walking and talking. You gotta want it bad. That's right. 00:17:03
Yes, Sir. You know, I think it's some big with what we're doing right now. 00:17:09
With our fields and everything, our pickleball courts. 00:17:13
Potentially tennis courts etc etc. 00:17:16
That we're going to have to expand, I mean, the paint, the fields that we have on Margaret St. 00:17:18
We've only got 3 fields. I talked to Steve a little earlier. 00:17:23
We're talking about. 00:17:26
Potentially. 00:17:27
Out here where we played baseball. 00:17:31
Whistling. 00:17:33
Some Sweetwater park. 00:17:34
We talked about that and. 00:17:36
You know. 00:17:39
I just want to see the city of Saint Mary's. 00:17:40
Be good in everything we do. 00:17:43
Regardless if it's for the kids, the adults or whatever. 00:17:45
Because our citizens and our taxpayers deserve to get beat. 00:17:48
The best? 00:17:52
Possible, uh. 00:17:53
Within the city of Saint Marys. 00:17:54
We want people to say. 00:17:56
You know something, Saint Mary's is so good. 00:17:57
I wish I could move over there. 00:17:59
You know. 00:18:01
I take some. 00:18:02
Our little city is awesome. 00:18:03
And we've got people like Artie and other people that are working that worked hard in past years. 00:18:05
With the PSA on these fields. 00:18:10
Let's take it to a next step. 00:18:12
To a next step. 00:18:16
And I think all of our citizens will be really happy with that. 00:18:18
If we can get 5 pickleball pork parks, I don't know. I mean. 00:18:22
Courts, I don't know where we would put them right now. 00:18:25
Well, let's let's build 5. I don't know how the funding will go. 00:18:27
But we'll find out that some somehow, some way. 00:18:31
What's that? I was I was getting. 00:18:35
Yeah, I agree. Well, Robbie, Robbie does a good job. 00:18:38
I like your enthusiasm. 00:18:42
Makes a lot of people happy. 00:18:45
That's right, make me happy. 00:18:47
All right, so we've got. 00:18:49
Maybe 20 minutes or so before. 00:18:50
Need to close up so. 00:18:53
I'll open open the mic up to. 00:18:55
The public if you have anything you want to. 00:18:59
Chime in on this, uh. 00:19:00
Issue and then. 00:19:02
Maybe we can dive into the numbers just a little bit more, whatever, but. 00:19:04
Larry White, 102 Sylvia's Court. 00:19:24
My question is when will? 00:19:27
Take place the transfer of those fields to the city. 00:19:29
Well, most of the other municipalities are running on an October fiscal year, so we hope to have it. 00:19:33
All done and taking place moving forward before October. 00:19:39
OK. But our fiscal year runs from. 00:19:42
July. July. 00:19:45
So my question is, have you done a comparison? 00:19:46
Between the cost to the county runs for PSA. 00:19:49
But maintaining these fields. 00:19:53
And what the city? 00:19:55
To maintain these fields. 00:19:56
Right. We've been working on that and of course. 00:19:59
Isn't it's the classic apples and oranges kind of thing, because what we're getting now is not what we want. Well, that's what I'm 00:20:01
saying. So it you know it. 00:20:05
You know, to get where we want to go is probably going to cost a little bit more money. 00:20:09
But yeah, I mean, that's one of the things we're looking at here, I mean. 00:20:14
We're looking at 2:00. 00:20:16
Two full time personnel. 00:20:18
You know, to maintain the four parks. 00:20:21
And. 00:20:23
You know, right now that's with. 00:20:25
Everything benefits and everything included, you know. 00:20:27
Around $111,000 for those two employees. 00:20:30
Equipment. 00:20:34
You know, the first year, a pickup truck, trailer, lawnmower, those kinds of things. 00:20:35
You know, potentially $55,000. 00:20:39
And then you have a number of different. 00:20:43
Drags and things to take care of the ball fields. 00:20:46
Chalk line, you know the the lines and that kind of stuff and other. 00:20:49
$4600. 00:20:53
Of course, we'll be taking over the utilities of the fields, the lights and those kinds of things. 00:20:54
Uh, up to 22,000 or whatever. 00:21:00
You know, kind of within that. 00:21:03
$180,000. 00:21:05
You know, range. 00:21:08
To kind of do the bare minimum. 00:21:10
You know where we go from there, you know, as far as capital improvements. 00:21:12
Is where the expense is going to happen and you know and what. 00:21:16
We all know is that there have been no. 00:21:20
Capital improvements really other than these light fixtures that have been occurring. 00:21:22
At the fields and that's where we're going to run into. 00:21:27
The. 00:21:29
Figuring out how we're going to pay for it as we move forward. 00:21:31
You know, hopefully we'll be able to get some grants and those kinds of things. 00:21:33
Especially once we have possession of the other parts. 00:21:37
And so that leads to my last comment, huh? 00:21:40
I know our budget starts in June, the 1st of July. 00:21:43
So it has that contingency been built into the budget. 00:21:46
We're going to have to come back in the middle of it. 00:21:50
The fiscal year. 00:21:52
See, this is how much more we need. 00:21:54
Right. We'll definitely be looking at a budget. 00:21:55
Ordinance amendment at some point in time. 00:21:57
Some of the one of the funding sources that we've. 00:22:00
Addressed is in. 00:22:02
Coming out SPLOST 8. 00:22:03
Being able to pull that equipment to. 00:22:06
The pickup truck. 00:22:09
Trailer and the mowers and tractors. 00:22:10
Because those are capital purchases. 00:22:13
We've got those earmarked and swastika. 00:22:15
All right. OK. All right. Thank you. 00:22:18
Thank you, Miss White. 00:22:20
Good afternoon, Nick Harris, 102 Hamlet Circle. 00:22:30
I'm thinking. 00:22:34
Throwing it out. 00:22:36
Were partially taking over a problem. 00:22:38
To help St. 00:22:40
But there's more to. 00:22:41
Just cutting and mowing. 00:22:43
And putting chalk lines, I think as a city as small as us and I've lived in. 00:22:45
Smaller cities than this and medium sized cities. 00:22:50
And we've done extremely well, but we need to kind of think about. 00:22:53
Owning the recreational programs too, because when you have ball fields. 00:22:58
And you're trying to get dads and moms out there. 00:23:03
Concessions brings in money to maintain those things. 00:23:06
The fees that just cost for travel ball or just cost. 00:23:10
Recreational replay. 00:23:15
And then it gives the coaches responsibility. It's not. 00:23:17
The government's sole responsibility of the city's sole responsibility. 00:23:20
And I'm just going to be blunt with you. Our problem in Saint Mary's, I'm probably gonna offend some people, is we have no civic 00:23:25
pride. 00:23:29
We're just always looking for somebody to give us money. 00:23:33
And make the quit the. 00:23:36
Fix the way we make Saint Mary's the place to be. 00:23:38
To make everybody say I want to be in Saint Mary's. 00:23:42
Is civic pride in an engagement? 00:23:46
Everybody's involved. We do a lot of talking. 00:23:49
But we don't execute. So I think now is the time if we're going to own those facilities. 00:23:51
There's dads, there's parents, there's coaches out there. 00:23:58
They line those fields, they keep them up because they're the. 00:24:01
Their kids, their athletes are playing on it. 00:24:05
I don't think we're gonna do anything. 00:24:08
Except increase the expense. 00:24:10
To go out and cut grass. 00:24:12
And make it look. 00:24:15
Kind of pretty, but if you're looking to start. 00:24:16
From the beginning. 00:24:18
To travel. 00:24:20
And one day bring jamboree's or tournaments here. 00:24:21
You need the community involvement because I can tell you, I can guarantee you. 00:24:25
And I'm not taking anything away from you. 00:24:30
But if you don't have the community engaged. 00:24:32
In it, you're just wasting money. 00:24:36
Yeah. 00:24:42
Again jolly 102 Salt grass trace here in Saint Mary's. 00:24:46
Commissioner. Council Members. 00:24:50
I'm 100% on board with your thought process, your ideas, and and your. 00:24:53
Initiative to start moving forward with this plan. 00:25:00
Civic engagement is going to happen. 00:25:06
That will happen that. 00:25:08
That will come along with the development. 00:25:09
That the city is going to be able to do and execute. 00:25:12
Once we have. 00:25:16
Control of it. 00:25:17
So again, I think it's a. 00:25:19
An excellent initiative on all of your parts to look at this carefully. 00:25:21
With the vision of. 00:25:26
Moving forward and making it happen. 00:25:28
Thank you. 00:25:30
Good evening, Christine Adamo, 901 and St. 00:25:39
I think it's a brilliant idea. 00:25:44
I have been advocating for almost 2 years that the city pull out of PSA. 00:25:46
And I believe the line item in there. 00:25:53
With this particular budget was. 00:25:55
Over 900. 00:25:57
$1000. 00:25:59
For our contribution to PSA. 00:26:01
So if you pull that out, we've got plenty of money to start this thing. 00:26:05
But what I'm not hearing and what is disconcerting to me? 00:26:09
Is there are two elements here? 00:26:15
There's programming which. 00:26:18
Mr. Connor is very well aware of. 00:26:21
And there's plant management. 00:26:25
Asset management. 00:26:28
Which you guys know. 00:26:31
We have other assets in this city that are not being managed properly. 00:26:34
They're losing money. 00:26:40
So when you consider pulling out. 00:26:42
And managing. 00:26:46
Tracts of land. 00:26:48
That have fields. 00:26:50
That have standards. 00:26:52
And that have potential. 00:26:54
For running amok. 00:26:56
Without tight oversight. 00:26:58
You need to hire. 00:27:02
Somebody who has. 00:27:05
Been a director of Parks and Recreation. That's a key element. 00:27:07
Then you can take your two people. 00:27:13
From DPW and train them. 00:27:15
But you need a dedicated. 00:27:18
Experienced. 00:27:21
Skilled manager. 00:27:23
Look at your other municipalities in the state of Georgia. 00:27:27
They those that had chosen to manage their own Parks and Recreation. 00:27:30
Have uh. 00:27:36
A skilled credentialed. 00:27:37
Professional managing it. 00:27:40
Who is held accountable for the bottom line? 00:27:42
And the standards and quality of the plant maintenance. 00:27:46
We as a city, fail miserably. 00:27:51
In holding our management. 00:27:54
Accountable. 00:27:56
For plant management. 00:27:58
Let's not continue to repeat that. 00:28:00
Trend. 00:28:04
And it's fantastic news. 00:28:06
That all of you have moved the needle to take control. 00:28:09
Of one of our most special assets are Parks and Recreation. 00:28:13
Because this city could shine amazingly. 00:28:18
If we. 00:28:23
Set it up. 00:28:24
Organize it and manage it properly. 00:28:25
So please. 00:28:29
Programming. 00:28:31
Plant Management. 00:28:33
Thank you. 00:28:34
And just to clarify, because is that we are. 00:28:35
Not looking to take over the programming at this point in time. 00:28:38
We feel like that is an area that the. 00:28:42
The PSA does a good job with. 00:28:46
And uh. 00:28:48
It also allows the. 00:28:49
Interplay between the different cities throughout the county when I was growing up, we. 00:28:52
Pretty much just played teams. 00:28:56
Within Saint Mary's, you know, so having the. 00:28:58
County wide programming. 00:29:00
And that is an area that is pretty well. 00:29:02
They pushed the fees on that overtime and. 00:29:05
It's pretty self-sustaining. 00:29:09
Currently with the fees of the individual programs. 00:29:12
And so it will certainly take some coordination. 00:29:15
Pair fields for games and things and knowing when. 00:29:19
You know, with PSA, we'll have to communicate obviously that. 00:29:22
When? 00:29:25
He feels ready for play. 00:29:26
But the actual programming? 00:29:29
Coaching, those kinds of things, you know, at this point in time. 00:29:31
We're not going that far yet. Mainly it's maintenance and operations. 00:29:35
To improve the quality of what we've got. 00:29:39
And as we get into this a little bit, you know. 00:29:41
A recreation department is is a is a forethought, you know, but it's not. 00:29:45
Where we're it's not our stepping stone. Our first stepping stone is. 00:29:51
Is to take over and let's start trying to improve the quality of our facilities. 00:29:54
Jerry Bumble, 805 Riverview Dr. West. 00:30:05
I really appreciate what you've got done with this PSA thing. 00:30:11
'Cause I watched for years. 00:30:14
And years where we our parks just kind of degraded. 00:30:17
And I think you've come to the right conclusion about what to do and I appreciate the fact y'all able to do that. 00:30:21
The other thing is I appreciate the fact that you're really focused on not only. 00:30:27
Taking care of what we got, but improving. 00:30:32
What we got. So I'm pretty impressed with that decision y'all made. 00:30:35
The other thing is. 00:30:38
Last I saw on Splash Mountain, there was $10 million set aside by the county for parts. We should get a chunk of that to spend 00:30:39
like we won't, not like the county will. 00:30:43
Yes, Sir, we are here certainly negotiating that point. 00:30:49
Uh, different conversations have come out about that, uh. 00:30:53
That they claim that they. 00:30:57
Put that number together for four. 00:30:59
Main parts 1 was the Margaret St. field. 00:31:01
Lions Park in Kingsland. 00:31:05
The city, the park in Woodbine as well as Howard Peoples. 00:31:07
And so at a minimum, we're fighting for 25%. 00:31:11
But we're fighting for. 00:31:15
The population split of that money. 00:31:17
Which would be closer to 33%. 00:31:20
So I'd like to. 00:31:22
Ask a question. 00:31:28
Years ago. 00:31:32
One of the best tennis courts that we had. 00:31:34
In the area. 00:31:37
Besides, the school was. 00:31:38
Out there, Sweetwater Branch Recreation Authority. 00:31:41
I don't know why it was taken up, but. 00:31:45
It was a great. 00:31:48
It was a great tennis court. 00:31:50
My question is. 00:31:53
I know there's a. 00:31:55
A lot of people like baseball, but. 00:31:56
How soon can we expect? 00:31:58
Tennis courts. 00:32:01
Pickleball courts. 00:32:02
And basketball coach. 00:32:04
And even football fields. 00:32:06
Well, it's called. It's called. 00:32:11
There's a lot of varying factors. 00:32:13
Are you speaking directly to the Sweetwater Park? 00:32:15
Well, I'm just saying for the city of Saint. 00:32:19
What we have talked about internally as far as staff and this is what I was planning to roll out a little later on. 00:32:22
And this is all in conversation phase right now. 00:32:29
Is our first thing is to get those tennis courts on the Aquatic Center have those? 00:32:32
Moist, right? OK. 00:32:37
That that's number one. 00:32:40
There is a grant that comes out in the fall. 00:32:42
Through department of natural resources for parks that. 00:32:45
Working on. 00:32:49
The first thing is getting the Margaret St. completely rehabbed. 00:32:51
Then from there, we're going to take. 00:32:56
Different parks along the way. 00:32:58
Moving to and the reason we're taking Margaret St. first, just to clarify. 00:33:01
Is when we move into the Aquatic Center as that gives us time for development of. 00:33:06
Master Plan. 00:33:10
For that park itself. 00:33:11
Not just. 00:33:14
Looking at the future. 00:33:17
Looking at putting another swimming pool in. 00:33:19
Looking at how we can develop that part to get the best use out of the fossil. 00:33:22
That would be. 00:33:28
Start the second phase, if you will. 00:33:29
Then from there. 00:33:32
We would look at sweet. 00:33:33
As far as what the potentials could be IE pickleball courts IE. 00:33:35
Disc golf. 00:33:40
If you will down through the. 00:33:42
Some of the trails and the woods in the area. 00:33:44
That is, that is real big right now. 00:33:47
And other possibilities of. 00:33:51
Ball fields on that property. 00:33:53
I mean, it's a good sized lot, but it's got a lot of. 00:33:55
Overgrown. 00:33:58
Not overgrown, but it's got a lot of trees and underbrush and things of that nature. 00:34:00
It could be thinned out to make that expand that workout even. 00:34:05
So that's kind of what our thinking is at this point in time. 00:34:10
And I agree with you 100%. 00:34:13
I just want to make sure that. 00:34:16
We keep our focus on. 00:34:18
Other things are a tennis courts because. 00:34:20
Umm, the one that they have now. 00:34:23
You know, it's if it could be rehabbed, you know? 00:34:26
Sure, we've had it. We've had it looked at. 00:34:29
And we've had it looked at. We've also had the. 00:34:33
PSA had looked at it and the recommendation was to take that all the way down. 00:34:37
And rebuild. 00:34:42
That way you're sure that you've got the drainage that's necessary so you don't have the problems with. 00:34:43
The special coatings on the courts popping up and things of that nature, you get a little bit longer wearing and tear. 00:34:49
On the actual court itself. 00:34:56
But that's that's kind of where we're landing. 00:34:59
At this point in time. 00:35:01
So with that being said, how many tennis courts are we talking about? 00:35:03
Initially 2. 00:35:07
We're talking about the two that are sitting there now. 00:35:09
Basically totally rehab our. 00:35:12
Taking those down and building 2 new ones are we? 00:35:15
Talking about potentially building 2 more while we're building those two or not initially. 00:35:18
Just get those two redone and. 00:35:24
When you look at, take a harder look at the basketball court, that's there. 00:35:26
And. 00:35:30
Have we put a deadline or anything up? 00:35:31
Well, to be able to get some of this stuff we're trying to have. 00:35:33
Everything in order and lined up. 00:35:38
And actually have an RFP. 00:35:40
Back and we know who the vendor is by October so we can pull through. 00:35:43
And we'll pull the trigger if. 00:35:47
If it's not October 1st. 00:35:49
But we are we are actually working on that. So we could potentially have tennis courts there by next February. 00:35:52
Next February. 00:35:58
Turn the business. 00:36:01
Thank you. What was the I know we budgeted I think what was it 147,000 to redo them? What is now? 00:36:04
What it completely take them down and redo them entirely? That was that. 00:36:10
That bid that we saw from PSA, that was taking them down. 00:36:14
OK, just completely. 00:36:19
But we've been talking to some other vendors and things and looking at some other alternatives. 00:36:20
To do. 00:36:28
So, yeah, OK. 00:36:29
That's just a good. 00:36:31
Budget number to work from at this point in time. 00:36:32
Are we going to look at? 00:36:34
Multi use fields. 00:36:36
It's Sweetwater, or at some location southern that we have not only baseball fields but a place for. 00:36:38
Soccer, Yeah. 00:36:45
Yes, ma'am, we are. 00:36:50
That is part of the conversations we actually at GMA, we were. 00:36:51
We ran into a vendor that had off. 00:36:55
Small one from soccer for the. 00:36:57
Little mm-hmm. 00:36:59
I don't know what you call the youngest ones. 00:37:01
But it's really you could use actually use they take. 00:37:04
A tennis court. 00:37:08
And they converted into like a it can be soccer fields. 00:37:09
It's got walls up and stuff. It's. 00:37:12
It's just conversations and. 00:37:16
Part of the process of developing the National Plan for Parks. 00:37:17
Apologize OK need to wrap this up so we can get reset for. 00:37:21
Our next meeting so. 00:37:26
Thank everybody for the discussion and. 00:37:29
And comments and we'll. 00:37:31
To be bringing something before council soon to. 00:37:34
Kind of move this process along. We have a meeting tomorrow with PSA to kind of let them know that. 00:37:37
This is kind of. 00:37:43
Definitely the direction we're moving in and they need to be. 00:37:44
Come with. 00:37:48
Thank you. 00:37:49