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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMintues - October 17, 2024Trails, Parks & Recreation Minutes - October 17, 2024 Committee Members: Eric Erickson Eric Isaacson Mark Nygren Doug Stutz City Staff: Eric Erickson – City Council Rep. Bryanna Johnson – City Council Rep. Jon Lewis – Recreation Director Keith Davidson – Public Works Director 5:30 P.M. City Hall Roll Call of Council Members: Council Member Johnson and Council Member E. Erickson Roles of Committee Members: Eric Erickson, Eric Isaacson, Mark Nygren, and Doug Stutz Deeper dive into the City’s parks and trails systems and future plans: Economic Development Director Johnson encouraged the committee members to become familiar with the Parks and Recreation page on the city’s website at www.rexburg.org. The webpage contains a lot of information pertaining to the Parks, Trails and Recreation. He said the Planning and Zoning webpage on the city’s website also contains a lot of information regarding the city’s planning efforts for parks and trails. Director Johnson reviewed the map below of the trails. The green lines indicate the existing trails, the purple lines identify the planned trails with approved funding and the orange lines indicate the proposed trails. He said even though the city is proposing those trails right now, they may not come to fruition for quite a while especially along the Basic American property. Currently, the Basic American owner is not interested in working with the city because there would be DEQ issues with the trail being so close to where they store their potato waste and other things. Director Johnson explained as the committee meets and moves forward, they run into sections of trails that may be more challenging to establish than others.   Discussion regarding the proposed trail near the Walters Ready Mix property. Economic Development Director Johnson mentioned that the section of trail near Walters is not currently acceptable because of security reasons. / Director Johnson said there is funding to look at a section of trail near 5th West and all the way through up and over the river, all the way through eventually connecting to Moody Road. The grant funding is specifically looking for multi-model opportunities so the ability to have a separated path from the road would rank us higher. The city’s Public Works Director Davidson and his staff have the grant to complete the initial study once the study is complete, they can apply for additional grant funds. Director Johnson explained the purple line is a trail that has funding, it is along the railroad from the river connecting to the Sugar City pathway. City Staff had to make a slight modification because of legal issues between the Great Scotts property owner and the Railroad Company. He said the earliest they will start to construct the trail is in 2026 and in 2027 there is hopefully grant funding for underpasses. Director Johnson reviewed the location of the proposed trail near the new Teton River Park, and it is estimated to cost two million dollars even though the trail is not very long. He said funding plays a large part of when additional trails are constructed. There is also maintenance costs associated with trails. Discussion regarding the new Teton River Park and the proposed amenities they will construct for that park. Director Johnson said the new park is considered an adventure park with river access for floating, surf waving and kayaking. They will also construct a rock wall and sand volleyball courts. Teton River Park will not have sports fields or big playgrounds. Council Member Johnson said she would prefer more discussion regarding the amenities at the new park to determine if the proposed amenities will benefit most of the community members. Discussion regarding the water storage option for the Teton River water flow. Director Johnson mentioned that city staff have met with the Bureau of Reclamation regarding a study they completed in 2015. The study indicated that they should try to turn this portion of the Teton River into a fishery, which means there would be more water and a consistent flow of water. Discussion regarding the renting of canoes or kayaks by the city. Director Johnson said the has been discussion about canoe and kayaking rentals by the city; however, city staff have not made any recommendations regarding the rentals. Director Johnson mentioned the approved resurfacing of the tennis courts at Smith Park into Pickleball courts. They will be resurfacing the courts at Smith Park this coming spring. They are also looking at resurfacing the one at Nature Park as well.  Director Johnson reported on the merry go round for special needs children they are installing at Smith Park. They had to widen the sidewalk section to meet the ADA requirements and new curbing was put in specifically for the merry go round. He said the city is also installing a special needs swing. Director Johnson reported on the property the Steiner Family donated. The property is about four acres, and the city is planning on converting the property into a park. There is funding to complete the design of the park; however, not enough funding to build the park, it could take a while before funding is available. One of the concepts that has been discussed for this park is for it to be a garden park with roses and other pretty things. Discussion regarding negotiations with BYU-Idaho to obtain a portion of their land on the south side of the new Steiner Park to make the park bigger than the current four acres. Council Member Johnson said she has strong feelings about having smaller parks, her perspective is that children need parks, and the closer children live to parks the more the park is used. She said she wishes there were more smaller parks in the city and closer to where more children live. There are health benefits to children when a city has more parks. Council Member E. Erickson added with new development the city needs to require trail connectivity, bicycle paths, etc. as part of the development agreement. He mentioned there were no trails planned for the Summerfield development. Council Member Johnson said there are trails around the Summerfield development and they have done a wonderful job with the amount of green space in their development. She said there is no way to move safely on 12th West because there are no trails or bicycle paths to connect to the city. Member Park Assignments: Recreation Director Lewis explained he has gathered information on all the parks and the number of amenities each park has down to how many tables and benches at each park. He would like to assign committee members to a park, so they can make sure things stay as pristine as possible. He asked if the committee members would like to make recommendations for other assignments they would like to oversee with regards to the city’s recreation programs, parks and trails to please bring them forward. The committee members can choose a park closest to their home if desired. Director Lewis said one of the purposes of the committee is for the members to do their best to take care of the existing parks and to be prepared for new growth. They also make recommendations to City Council regarding recreation programs, parks and trails. Discussion regarding winterizing the city parks, particularly Eagle Park. The city may have issues with people overstaying at Eagle Park. Director Johnson asked the committee member to keep in mind there are only four full-time Park Department employees. Council Member Johnson mentioned there BYU-Idaho students willing to volunteer to help clean up city parks. Director Johnson mentioned there are Idaho State Statutes that mandate how the city budget is spent; for example, funds allocated for the Police budget cannot be spent on Cultural Arts items and funds allocated to the Cultural Arts Budget cannot be spent on Streets items and so forth. The City of Rexburg is one of the first cities that implemented impact fees to help pay for the capacity increases of parks, fire, Police, Street, Water and Wastewater. The Impact Fees can only be spent to increase capacity and not on maintenance costs. Discussion regarding the initial renderings (which are subject to change) of the Teton River Park were viewed on the overhead screen. The river access, volleyball courts, and the locations of boulders they are constructing for the park were pointed out on the renderings. // // // / / Adjournment: