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HomeMy WebLinkAbout01/28/2014 Study Session MinutesSTUDY SESSION MINUTES 11555 W. Civic Center Drive, Marana, Arizona 85653 Boardroom, January 28, 2014, at or after 6:00 PM Ed Honea, Mayor Jon Post, Vice Mayor David Bowen, Council Member Patti Comerford, Council Member Herb Kai, Council Member Carol McGorray, Council Member Roxanne Ziegler, Council Member STUDY SESSION CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL. Mayor Honea called the meeting to order at 6:04 p.m. Town Clerk Bronson called roll. Council Members McGorray and Ziegler were excused. There was a quorum present. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE/INVOCATION/MOMENT OF SILENCE. Led by Mayor Honea. APPROVAL OF AGENDA. Motion to approve by Council Member Bowen, second by Vice Mayor Post. Passed unanimously S-0. CALL TO THE PUBLIC. There were no speaker cards presented. DISCUSSION/DIRECTION/POSSIBLE ACTION 1: Relating to Parks and Recreation; discussion, consideration and possible action regarding the development and construction of the Marana Heritage River Park Mr. Davidson began the meeting with an overview of the project to date, starting with the $1.9M (pre 2013 impact fee legislation) which was made available to this. Those dollars have gone toward master planning. He next reviewed the three activity centers identified in the Park. He noted that discussion is needed on current and anticipated maintenance costs. Mr. Davidson concluded the overview with a summary of the capital costs and th� different types of January 28, 2014 Study Session Minutes 1 revenue sources available for the overall project. Staff is looking for ideas to generate revenue for the park to make is sustainable. For the immediate future the town will be subsidizing the project, but eventually it will be run like a business. Work this year will focus on the heritage farm, the heritage farm-themed splash park and the heritage arena/multi-purpose facility. Next, Mr. Davidson reviewed expenditures to date including a description of each cost center. Most of the effort has been concentrated on the master plan and design and making sure we have complete plans for the park. Those are all being funded out of this fiscal year. The construction costs are identified with what is currently going on. What will potentially be available to roll over for next fiscal year as well as the overall design of the splash park and arena will be about $1M. Tom Ellis stated that after the master concept site plan came back from the Drachman Institute, staff contracted with Schlesinger Consulting Engineering to put meat on those bones of the concept plan. Money was spent on programming, but mostly on construction documents for grading, drainage and utility expansion as well as some transportation infrastructure for the ranch area. The Heritage Farm is underway, and tours are available through either the Parks Office or the Manager's office. The demonstration garden is directly behind the heritage house which is being leased by the Gladden Farms HOA. In response to a question by Council Member Comerford regarding the names assigned to various projects at the park, Mr. Davidson stated that the overall park is the Heritage River Park. The Heritage Farm area is where the heritage house and DeSpain stables are. All the farm land dropping into the lower area is part of the Farm. There is no ranch per se; however the proposed arena area is sometimes referred to as the Heritage Ranch Arena. Where the current Gladden Farms Park is will be the location of the Splash Park where the splash pad will be located. The arena area is where the town took out dirt for a big agri- storage station. It sits right behind the CMID well site. He then went into detail about the heritage farm piece. To start, we need restrooms and additional parking. The funding source is the park impact fee pre- 2013 legislation. The garden plots and demonstration garden are expected to reach completion by July 2014. The bathrooms would also be done this fiscal year. When this part of the park is done, we will need additional staff in the 2015 budget. Tom Eillis stated that all the maintenance work that has been done to date on the 28 acres has been absorbed by current personnel and inmate labor from the Marana Treatment Facility. Right now there is an inmate crew of 10 people and their supervisor. The prison is currently providing us an inmate supervisor, but our intent is to hire our own supervisor or senior maintenance worker who can work along with the inmates so that we have added value. Our intent is to ask for a senior maintenance worker in the 2015 budget. The base pay with benefits is about $46,638. Mr. Ellis continued, noting that the plots are irrigated from the well. Some of the landscape around the house will probably come off of that same line. We do pay electricity to operate the well, which we hope to expand at some time, but no additional Council action is needed on this item. January 28, 2014 Study Session Minutes The next activity area is the farm-themed splash park. This is in the park that currently exists. We will need to build some additional parking spaces. Mr. Davidson and Mr. Ellis then went over the overall project description. The funding source is the general fund. It will need to be competitively bid. Different vendors who specialize in this type of feature have approached us. The project start date would begin with the next fiscal year — July 2014. This project is mostly packaged equipment and materials. This should be completed by December 2014 and open in Apri12015. The splash park will be unmanned most of the time. The decks are soft-fall to prevent accidents. The water quality needs to be tested a couple of times a day. The biggest expense is electricity. The water is cleaned by UV sterilization. This will be the largest splash pad in the region. The project cost is $784,864 and staff will be seeking Council direction to move forward as presented. The arena (Heritage Ranch) is in concept. We are looking at multiple arena sites for ideas, including a covered arena. Unique to this part of the project is the need to accommodate very large rigs in addition to spectator parking. Once this is built and underway, this will be very successful. We need to have conversations with Granite, Pima County and the Aspen Group to determine if we can get some additional space for parking and warm-up areas. The arena part of the project is 28 acres. The funding source is general fund this year and will need to be competitively bid. With Council approval, we hope to begin in July 2014. Completion would be April 2015. For FY 2015, Tom Ellis talked about maintenance and operations. Staffing would be a coordinator and 2 laborers and a cash handler at about $255,336. Utilities are estimated at $38K and maintenance at $146,819. There are various ways to handle operations. Assumptions are that the arena will be kept in a park-like condition. He pointed out that the numbers presented are only on the expense side. The $4.3M is not a completed park — just to start. One of the things we need to think about is the best way to operate an arena this size. That could include contracted services. Mr. Davidson again noted that some of the infarmation presented is based on some assumptions. The current arena by the school is not operated as a 24/7 arena but by event. The new facility will be much more open. Vice Mayor Post would like to see a small corner of the area open all the time for use other than events. Mr. Davidson continued that Phase I of the arena project ($4.3M) is for a new performance arena, rough stock gates and covered grand stands. Restrooms and concession stands would also be built. The facility near the middle school would be moved for a warm up arena. Once we obtain new dollars from any source, we would take out the old warm up arena and build a new performance arena that's covered with grandstands and use that as a rollover arena. The project cost of $4.3M includes the $1M to move the Trico utility line. Jennifer Christelman said that the town has an ordinance to require the private sector to underground their utility lines, and we would follow the same guidelines. We have some grade issues, but there are several options for dealing with the lines. Mr. Davidson recommended keeping it in the budget because something will have to be done at some time. January 28, 2014 Study Session Minutes Mr. Davidson then went over maintenance considerations. We can operate wholly by town staff at full build out. The benefit is that we control all of it for about $SOOK. The negative is the risk when operated as a business. Another option is to operate through contracting, but you lose some control and that often creates a different relationship with the contractor. The third option is going with a third party lease holder — but that is not recommended, because by doing so we are basically stepping away from our town-built facility and have no control over whether it is operated to our standards. He also gave a summary of capital costs. The first three projects will be spread over two fiscal years. What we are looking at now is capital construction costs for the next fiscal year. Erik Montague gave a summary of how to pay for these items. General fund reserves are available; we could do structured formal debt (bonded) or structured borrowing like a capital lease or public private partnership. General Fund dollars are the most immediate available to use. Benefits of that are to lower costs so there is no formal debt that would affect our current credit rating. Some of the possible negatives are the loss of reserves. Use of general funds for this project could possibly delay or eliminate other capital projects. He gave some examples of projects that have been discussed. Bonded debt will count against credit ratings. Structured borrowing could delay the project, although there could be some flexibility to doing that, but it will take more time. The greater risk overall could be issuing more debt at this time. Vice Mayor Post would like to investigate structured borrowing. Mr. Davidson recommends looking at a list of capital items for next year, research structured borrowing, and then have discussions about the recommendations. Mr. Ellis recapped the maintenance costs for the Heritage Farm, Splash Park and Arena. The arena number is based on the assumption of daily operations. Mr. Davidson reviewed the possibility of other revenue sources such as fees for community garden plots, demonstration garden classes, farmer's markets, arena usage, membership/admission, property leases for business enterprises and facility rentals. There could also be opportunities for grants, bonds, fees, the general fund and park impact fees pre 2013 legislation. Vice Mayor Post made a motion to continue moving forward with the Heritage River Park project as presented. Council Member Bowen seconded the motion. Passed unanimously S-0. Mayor thanked staff for the presentation and the wark that's been done. EXECUTIVE SESSION Executive Session pursuant to A.R.S. §38-431.03 (A)(3), Council may ask for discussion or consultation for legal advice with the Town Attorney concerning any matter listed on this agenda. January 28, 2014 Study Session Minutes FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS. There were no items presented. Notwithstanding the mayor's discretion regarding the items to be placed on the agenda, if three or more Council members request that an item be placed on the agenda, it must be placed on the agenda for the second regular Town Council meeting after the date of the request, pursuant to Marana Town Code Section 2-4-2(B). ADJOURNMENT. Motion to adjourn the meeting at 7: SZ p.m. by Vice Mayor Post, secondecl by Council Member Kai. Passed unanimously S-0. CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the foregoing are the true and correct minutes of the Marana Town Council meeting held on January 28, 2014. I further certify that a quorum was present. , (,/Y Jocelyn C. ronson, Town Clerk January 28, 2014 Study Session Minutes