May 5, 2010 Ellettsville Parks and Recreation Board Meeting Minutes

The Ellettsville Parks and Recreation Board met on Wednesday, May 5, 2010 at the Fire Department Training and Conference Center. Jimmie Durnil called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. with the Pledge of Allegiance. Members present were Jimmie Durnil, President; Richard Pease, Vice-President; Amber Ragle, Secretary; Michael Griffey. Geraldine McIntyre was absent.

Approve Minutes of April 5, 2010

Michael Griffey made a motion to approve the minutes of the April 5, 2010 meeting. Richard Pease seconded. Motion carried 4-0.

Review Accounts Payable Expenditures

Amber Ragle reviewed the expenditures for April.

Old Business

Parks & Recreation Master Plan – Update and Plan Review

Connie Griffin provided a black and white copy of the Master Plan which represents the changes she has made to the color copy. She stated there were minor changes such as grammatical errors and such.

New Business

Parks & Recreation Survey – Discussion

Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) – Discussion of upcoming meeting

While discussing the Master Plan, Connie Griffin reported 1400 surveys have been distributed to the schools and other locations. The survey is also available on the Planning Department website. She spoke with the DNR and they considered the 2003 survey out of date. They suggested she use the same survey questions as those in 2003 to see how the responses may differ since people are beginning to use more free outings with their families. She will pick those up May 15 at the distribution points and tabulate them in the near future. She is also using real photos in the plan rather than illustrations because they are more fact based. Connie Griffin added the Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) will be meeting with her on May 11. Matthew Crouch, who lived in this community for quite a few years, is going to help her devise a plan to survey the area and see if Ellettsville qualifies as a low to moderate income area. If so, this will aid in getting OCRA grant money to help become ADA compliant. She went on to say she needs more public input regarding the Master Plan and will need to solicit more in the future. Jimmie Durnil asked Connie Griffin what percentage of the people of Ellettsville use our parks. She answered she did not have the answer to that question yet. What she foresees is the people asking for a community center – a place for people to gather; possibly more rental shelters or something of that nature to be made available. She added she thought it would be nice if we had movies in the park or music in the park once in a while. Jimmie Durnil commented that the school system sent 1500 surveys regarding the shortened day out to the parents of the junior high and elementary children and got 10 back. He stated Ellettsville isn’t a survey filling out community anymore. He asked her if she had teamed up with the Parent-Teacher organizations and she responded she had not. He asked her to get those people involved if she could. Jimmie Durnil asked how many questions were on the survey and Connie Griffin responded there were 14. He asked if she could narrow it to four and she explained that DNR wanted her to compare results to the 2003 survey and the only way to do that was to ask the same questions. Jimmie Durnil’s response was to ask what good it would do to ask the same questions if we only get 50 responses back. Several suggestions were given regarding how to solicit the return of the surveys. Connie Griffin suggested if there is poor response to this survey, perhaps another, shorter survey could be done at the ball parks, parks, the fair or the Fall Festival. We still have until January of 2011 to conduct something different. Michael Griffey added it only took him ten minutes to fill out the survey, so it’s not as lengthy as it appears to be. Connie Griffin went on to say this survey is a requirement in order to get some funding.

Adjournment

Michael Griffey made a motion to adjourn. Richard Pease seconded. Motion carried 4-0. Jimmie Durnil adjourned the meeting.