##VIDEO ID:1XaTR_B44MU## all right it is 4 pm. on Tuesday December 17th and we will call the city of Brainard Park Board to order and start with roll call here yes yes Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with and justice for all we'll move on to the approval of the agenda I'll make a motion to amend the agenda to add a presentation by uh Mr Dave bedau uh regarding the banner program I'll second that motion and a second on the agenda Amendment any further discussion uh yes we will call it 8B yes Banner program Banner program call it commun very good further discussion on the amendment hearing none all in favor of approving the agenda I I all oppose same sign the agenda is amended agenda is now approved including 8B moving on to the consent calendar notice of the public all matters listed are considered routine by the board and will be enacted by one motion there will be no separate discussion of these items unless good cause is shown prior to the time the board votes on the motion to be adopted by roll call I'll make a motion to approve the consent calendar consisting of the minutes the dispersements and the financial reports second that motion in a second any discussion on the consent calendar all right Mike please call the rooll yes yes yes uh Theon calendar is approved so we will move on to well we could have probably done presentations but I guess we'll move on to unfinished business the discussion on the pickle ball courts Mike yes so last week there was a meeting and thanks to the mayor and uh you Jonathan for attending that and they had a great uh presentation as far as resurfacing the pickle ball are the tennis courts at Gregory Park just overall just philosophy now um I have a hard time removing any amenity for another amenity when that amenity is in good condition right um but when a group of it really bring it's really refreshing when a group of individuals come and say hey we got a uh we have a plan to help you and this C in the residence of the of Brainard here and we not only have a idea but they're funding this so you know it's really a awesome that this group is doing that and I haven't reached out to him yet and I need to and just saying you know I love the enthusiasm and love the motive and because pickle ball is a big up and cominging uh sport um one thing that I do want to um you know talk about with the other side of the amenity is the tennis Association I want to reach out to them and and I am going to reach out to them just to make sure that they're all up and board and and moving forward with this action um does anybody have any everyone okay with that direction thought questions comments or concerns on at least the direction we can kind of uh give a um a brief summary of what we discussed at the meeting uh the mayor and myself but um I personally like the direction um let's let's definitely reach out to the tennis community I don't know if there is an association in town I I'm not entirely sure but let's do what we can um to reach out to the tennis folks um and um cuz yeah I mean this is this is kind of a nice deal to have somebody fund and and again they had a relative plan um so I think that's the direction i' I'd like to just right because Dave to your one of your points from uh maybe last week or last month or the month before is that the system does have a lot of tennis ball or tennis tennis ball courts tennis courts um that people can use within the city of Brainard um so we just have no no pickle ball um really I mean we have it in inside of the Ring it's packed to the brim um even at the YMCA they've got they're they're flooding the the YMCA to play inside of there and so there there's a lot of other sports that are that there's a large strain being put on a lot of sports indoors and Outdoors within the system um because of the usage of pickle ball so this to me was the most creative solution to this problem by utilizing that court but um to Mike's point we don't really want to stifle people's ability to play tennis within the system right as well so um let's let's take that direction first um and then like I said we can kind of move on to talking about uh what what Dave and I had heard at that presentation if that's sound if that's agreeable I think that's step one I think it's just consensus right do you really need a motion for that Mike no I just wanted to get your opinion and whatnot and but can you guys give a brief summary of your meeting yeah so um basically was we met with uh the pickleball Association the local pickleball Association and and those guys were very confident that they could raise um what I think we agreed was about probably 70 to $75,000 um to have that resurface restripe retted um to um like eight pickle ball courts I think was what they believe those Dimensions would fit so um just having it fullon pickle ball only um seating and all those things again sponsorship ideas um plans for usage um um some some amount of uh ideas for uh um like subscription based time and things like that like ways to monetize it ways to fund raise ways to uh have sustainability and make sure that that for us on a maintenance level um the surface is also taken care of so when it comes time to replace or repair that surface we also have a a plan for uh for maintenance as well um so uh again I I think it was they were very confident and I'm very happy that we were at least looking at this but I think you know looking at what it cost to put an entire you know actual pickle ball surface anywhere else within the system this was this is the the cheapest alternative um and so again it really boil down to usage but what they were looking for from us um was to get us to to all agree that the uh the surface itself would would be designated for pickle ball after they've uh before they start fundraising so if they fundrais the money we were we were going to give them an absolute certainty that that we we would convert it and so again um I think you know step one is to to figure out to to the tennis side of things but um before they start fundraising they just wanted some assurances that we were going to give them that surface to to change over so is this the same group that's kind of the brainer bter East skull Lake Rob Mason and others yeah andic Peterson as soon we spoke to yeah it's kind of a larger U we've had a lot of discussions at East Gull Lake about their um New City Hall plans and the move um to build new pickle ball courts in eastall Lake too so this group has definitely got a lot of momentum right now and we've heard a lot about the confidence level that they have in raising funds similar to like what Walker did to build a $200,000 facility up there with no City funds yeah and so and I think that was within like a week um so I mean um I'm all for it as long as the meeting with the tennis uh kind of community goes well and things I certainly to your point don't want to get into a situation where we're have a bunch of competing interests and um the tennis community comes with pitchforks and torches they can't take away our courts um is there any way to do like a dual use kind of thing or is it not really I so here here's my my opinion on the Dual use I personally want the best pickle ball courts that we can offer in The Lakes area I want to be I want to be the place that people want to come I want people clawing over each other to play on these courts because they're so nice and so the Dual use idea I do like of course but if we're going to do this if we're going to designate especially this particular situation right we're going to designate a space that fits eight courts centrally located in the city I want it to be the best surface we we can get the best striping we can get the best Nets we can get utilizing funds from a somebody El like they know exactly what they want and they want the best surface they want the best lines they want everything as you know the best that that their money can buy and so again to the Dual years Point yes we can pull it off but I think I think for what what they have what they're envisioning is they want eight pickle ball courts and they want it to be pickle ball exclusive so is there did you kind of hear of any expectation from uh usage standpoint that they would get priority preference one of their so monetary ideas specifically was they have um kind of like an 8 to 12 and they were talk speaking of other communities um 8: a.m. to noon which I didn't really necessarily know was the prime time for pickle ball from 8:00 a.m. to noon what the what other communities have done um is they charge like a $75 like you just get a wristband um and then from 8 till noon it's just a drop droing in and out game right so you just rotate in people are sitting on the bench waiting for their turn and then you just push in and there's just kind of a self-regulated system from 8 to 12 and you know that was kind of their at least for the the first year or something like that you know they're I wouldn't say necessarily that their grandfathered into that but just a way that you know they can have an organized way um to uh to be able to use the courts that uh everybody's starting to pay for that was kind of one of their ideas again mon monetization wise we can look at a bunch of other things but I think that was kind of one of those um ideas that they did stress to us a couple of times in conversation um that a few other communities had had utilized so yeah I think that discussion uh they were basically looking for our our willingness to participate in discussion with them about that um I think our our um dialogue back to them was that you know governments are not necessarily great at doing things so we we need to be partnering with people to figure out how how this stuff can effectively work yeah and so you know if the best solution is for there to be a wristband and then if you show up it's self-regulated within the group that if you got the wristband you are able to participate Within These hours I have no problem with that type of stuff but that's discussions that I think come back to the park board and we iron out what those things look like um they are they are wanting to know that we would be interested in at least talking about that type of stuff so it's not just straight no we we have a scheduled fee you get your 20 minutes and you go home um but I think you know that just that that's my own personal philosophy though too you know my own personal philosophy is that we're not very good at a lot of that stuff and so if there are other people that are doing it better elsewhere and there are better Solutions we should be willing to listen to the people that are actually using the activ and that was kind of like utilizing our Recreation Specialists to be able to reach out to these associations and and Service Groups and making sure that you know these sort of things the trains are running on time and that we have programs like this that that are allowing and promoting usage within the system so you know again from 8 to 12 if that's the witching hour that's if that's the magic four hours that we're playing pickle ball every day you know coming up and again having a dialogue with them about usage and and again monetization coming up with maintenance plans things like that because they want the court to last as well that was the vibe so it's not just they want to build a $75,000 surface they want this court to be able to be maintained and you know um to be able to use for an extremely long time and and so again um you know a lot of it was yeah we want to step one before we start fundraising we want assurances that this surface is going to be designated as soon as the money is raised for pickle ball specifically and then the conversation further is just you know how do we how do we kind of add that like you know that sort of usage and and uh you know how do we make it so it's a little bit more organized you know what what role does staff play what role does the association play um you know what what do we want to decide you know as far as uh usage and and charging for uh for organized usage so yeah they they'll roll into the discussion as well because obviously they're going to want to advertise as well or or have some kind of return to the people that are sponsoring as well so that'll get into like a banner type question as well that we can talk about later but um I I think from our standpoint the from the tennis side of things there is usage but a lot of the time that usage is outside coming in and sadly my belief on that is there are a lot of tennis courts so just right next to us at the high school there's a lot of tennis courts Forest View has a lot of tennis courts Baxter has tennis courts there there's a lot of tennis courts in our system currently it may not be directly in the city of Brainard but usage wise we're seeing more people on there on a daily basis as I drive by just anecdotally using it for pickle ball than we are for tennis and it kind of seems to already be from that split the side that is using the pickle ball tends to be the side that we're looking at the South side with the three courts and then the two courts that are on the Northern side which are the new courts um that's where you tend to see people playing tennis so just anecdotally anecdotally we definitely see more usage of pickle ball yeah but again you know there is some usage but I we we see a lot of times like other schools coming and using our tennis courts and stuff we got to be mindful too that that is not necessarily our responsibility so there are other facilities that they could potentially be using if we were the only basketball court in town you know we can understand us being like Oh we should probably make sure we have the only basketball court but we're not the only tennis court in town so right and and like I said speaking to some other community members like indoors right now or indoors during the summer basketball programs things like that there is a strain indoors like there's just a huge need for pick a ball in the system right now and this is one of our best solutions to that and so trying to move forward and and again having those dialogues with the with the tennis community so that maybe we can come back next month and have a concrete decision so these guys can get to work and because they they want to have it done by the summer like we they want to have that money raised and we want to have a guarantee and a plan to get this thing done um as the snow thaws so um these guys are incredibly eager to get this done so you know we want to kind of probably come back in January's meeting and just be done right and decided by then and to Paul's point that this group is not just Brainard focused they are focused on the the entire region and are having discussions in other places this to them is the most viable option to move forward quickly and so it it behooves us to be prepared to be in that place to be successful I would agree with that yeah and I and I want it I mean I just it's it's so nice to have like that Community is is butts and seats and feet on grass type of thing and we'll be able to fill that thing on a very regular basis and and promote it without with throughout the entire area be the home for you know the best the best pickle ball courts in in the area within 40 miles so um and again their monetization and sponsorship plans wind screens and all that stuff we can have an increased conversations and maybe have the the association bring a presentation on monetization and and thoughts on on usage and things like that um in the future but again uh just coming back with a guarantee for them in January to to help them then come in and say okay you guys start your fundraising come in and talk to us about monetization and things like that or usage in February or March um and then by the time the summer rolls around they've got their money in hand and we're ready to get rocking so um I think that's right where we were at I have a question um the 75 that you're saying is that including the Nets and of the things they want so it was so actually there so Jesse had done the had gotten an estimate from Wilmer um that Wilmer project that had been done which was close to what Kevin Ruan and those guys had done for their estimate on that Court specifically they just had somebody actually come out look at it again um and then to Dave's point just add another 10,000 on top of that yeah 15,000 and then add another five grand on top of that for change so you know we went to them and said okay well you you're looking at 56 that's what you think but let's you know let's look more in the $75,000 range and and that should handle everything okay and then we're talking about like when you're standing at you know the the boulders we're talking about the cour on the right right perfect yep yeah the the larger fenced in area there so yeah and this is very similar to what we've done with the skat Park in terms of just allocating land and saying this is not your land however if you finish your project and come back with funding for it we will allow you to forward and splash pad with the same thing yeah exactly so right so just I'll um first I'm going to do an inventory of our tennis courts you know to your point to make just to have a number that we're so that when I do talk to the tennis individuals I have a number and then I'm going to be already talked to our finance Connie and you know we need to set up a funnel you know for these funds and then just going back to The Pick of all people and saying okay got everything in line you know what's your plan probably get another bid you know as it gets closer to you know the new year make sure you know to uh schaer's uh point that you know make sure you got the the poles cuz these poles need to beeded in the ground and they're going to have to core drill and so forth so I know that original bid I think was just for surface not for the poles and stuff so I'll just reiterate that and then talk to them and and just I just love the action you know the when you get a group of people that are excited about something and help to improve your Park it's it's hard to say no to that right um so this is just really amazing so thank you too for attending that meeting and really appreciate that yeah and I and I I I would like to see definitely just I mean maybe in a post from Parks and IR just hey you know do you play tennis in our system we want to we want to hear from you so let's let's get I mean we want to have a serious dialogue with folks not you know I mean I again our tens of tens of viewers on these meetings may not know um that we we have a call to action for him so let's let's get as much out there as as we can and and get as much feedback as we possibly can um from the citizenry so um any other discussion on pickle ball like said so I I think Direction here is let's get some info and try to come back and and make us a a concrete decision for these guys so they can get fundraising um at the start of um in our January meeting yeah if we could if we could add to that direction to just make sure that we're having a conversation with the pickleball group as well to inform them of we're probably looking at the end of next month for that final decision yeah okay Y and and I'll I'll get you Eric Peterson's um contact information okay very good so all right very good yeah and just kind of reaching out to them and giving us giving them a a nice summarization of that very good thanks Dave all right we'll close down the discussion on the pick ball courts and move on to approval of the park board 2025 meeting schedule oh my gosh we can all forget that we have it on Christmas again so moved second motion of second any discussion on next year's uh schedule hearing none all in favor say I I all oppose same sign we have next year's schedule concrete um 8B uh presentation on the Brer community actions attempt at the banner program from Mr Mayor Dave bedle Dave bedle executive director Brer community re action 321 South 7 Street sweet 105 if you're really trying to find us down the basement you can find us it's a dungeon but you can locate yourselves uh we have been approached by as the city and also uh from our organization as looking at potential for what banners could look like in the city for uh the parks department um it's something that we've done for a long time but we don't necessarily do well and I think that there's potential for some movement into a different direction uh spear hitting this conversation and something that I'd be looking for you guys to potentially make um either a similar uh movement that you just had there or uh a motion to move forward with is the brainer backer baseball association has reached out and they are looking to make an offer to the city for banners on the four baseball fields so they are in a position where they would like to purchase and install four new scoreboards for the Youth Baseball Fields uh main reason being usage and availability of usage so one of the things as a baseball parent that you run into at many uh opportunities when you go to watch your child play baseball is the scoreboards are hit or miss and when you're watching baseball and the scoreboard is not working it is a much less enjoyable experience than when the scoreboard is working one of the problems that the city has is that the scoreboards are a couple years old there is a direct need for Access for the control panels in order to be able to make them work sometimes that access is not available for these or for the organizations that are using it when they want to use it because obviously they're using it a lot of times on the weekends for tournaments and for other things so one of the things that the association is really interested in is the ability to purchase scoreboards that they can access using apps or through other devices so that they can be controlled very easily so that there is more usage of the scoreboards for baseball so what they came forward with is an estimated cost of about $25,000 for the scoreboards themselves I believe it was about 24,000 in change and then installation as well they are interested in covering that cost completely for the city and having them installed for us the ask in return is is that they could take over the banner program for those four baseball fields and have the banners that that they raise through their fundraising go towards that because they believe through that they can recoup the cost of these scoreboards over a very short amount of time so that's kind of one uh one a it in having that conversation it definitely opened up some doors to say okay what what is it that the potential we could do with our banners could be in the future um we just went through a process or you excuse me just went through a process of creating a visual type of style for for our amenities and that sort of thing and I think it behooves us to move a a advertising setup more in that direction as well where we're creating something that is less detractive and more additive to the surfaces so if we're using the brainer backer Association as an example of what we could potentially do what what we would like to um at least begin discussions with you guys about is potentially setting up something with Community Action in order to look at individual amenities and individual programs that could potentially be utilized and do some type of advertising fors that we could then funnel back to that particular amenity so pickle ball being another great example they're going to want to go raise funds raising the funds is going to mean that somebody's going to want to put their logo somewhere near it and so having something in place where we can easily say this is what we're looking for this is the potential that we have for that here's what that could potentially look like um if we're setting something up that is a little bit more concrete and secure then when we have these things that come forward we could potentially just say perfect we love the idea of you putting in a new pickle ball court here's what we're willing to do in exchange in terms of what banners on those courts could potentially look like um the issue with that is that not every enemy every every amenity is created equal and not all interest is going to be created equal so what we would potentially be interested in offering is the ability to create based off of your interest specific amenities that you're looking to advertise on specific amenities that you're looking to add Banners To and then taking those and creating funds for each one that are then managed specifically for that amenity so if our hockey rinks are are something that people are interested in you know what does that look like are we putting it you know you've got your fencing along the backside on the one end maybe we're looking at four banners or something along those lines but then taking that money setting it aside specifically for hockey rinks and then from our standpoint what we're really interested in is getting people in the community that are interested in doing exactly what you talked about here a tennis Association I don't believe there is a tennis Association actually I had someone that approached me a couple years ago and wanted to start one and it just never got off the ground that doesn't mean it doesn't exist but our organization is interested in that we're interested in people in the community that are that are looking to do things in the community and helping be an incubator to get them started so that they can then go create a baseball association which we were involved with or go create the skate park Association which we're we're involved with um those are the things that we're interested in and potentially what this could do is create create a system for us that we could say look we've got some funds that have been coming in for this if there's potential for people that want to do something like that we can slide you in and hopefully in our eyes take that on as I.E like the baseball association would like to do and then have that be something that is then separated from ourselves but is then run by a group that says we are using this we are funneling money back to that amenity here's where the dollars are and then reporting that back to the city so what we're looking for is a is just a conversation what could that potentially look like what from my standpoint what are the amenities that you would potentially be looking at doing something like that with what are the ones that you are not interested in doing like something like that with and then what would you potentially want something like that to look like from our standpoint we're nonprofit we're not interested in making money we're interested in making sure that there's things going on in our community um we would have to recoup some kind of percentage off of this probably 2 3% initially I wanted to say 1% I kind of looked at the dollars you you know we'd be flopping upside down on that but um what we'd like to do is create a system in which there's consistency so the material that's being used the banners that are being used the look that they have is consistent and then asking the park board what would you like that to look like you know maybe you want the tennis courts to be with blue banners you know maybe you want want the baseball fields to have green banners maybe you want everything to have different colors I don't know but from my own standpoint what I would love to see is the idea of having like the green that we use with a white logo on it and that just becomes something that is it looks sharp and it has a nice concise look to it and then there's a similar style shape consistency to it um right now the city runs the banner program and the problem is the banners don't make their way up onto the fields all the time they're we're consistently in some kind of area of flux and that's not a knock against staff or anything there's just it's a lot to take on you got to take the banners down you got to make sure the Banners are are of good quality make sure that you're continuing to recycle the stock of them um so what we'd like to do is just create a conversation in which we're looking at holistically what would something like that look like what are the potentials for it and then if we have a group I.E pickle ball that comes forward and says we want to raise money for this then we have something set in place that says this is what we potentially would just do and how that would work so from my standpoint what I'm really looking for is just the opportunity to to sit down with potentially staff and maybe a member or two a liaison from the park board and just come back with potential for what that would look like thank you Dave questions for Dave on his concept so the idea is basically that these this Banner program would be funds that would funnel back into that specific amenity and it would be kind of a cookie cutter program that you could apply to pickle ball baseball softball dog park dog park you whatever you know I think I think it's a great idea yeah I think we've long struggled with the banner program yeah and I don't think it's as good as what it could potentially be to help funnel funds back into specific things even as you know somebody raises a bunch of funds for pickle ball and maybe the city has some C share or something that and those funds are set aside to help you know upgrade if they're only planning on doing one thing and you can say well we have $20,000 from our Banner program for the dog park set aside and we can upgrade to this you know makes it a little better can add the dog station yeah yeah more maintenance friendly or more whatever you know so um yeah and I think there's two there's two ways to look at it you do something upfront where like the baseball association has come forward they've made an offer they say for x amount we'll do this and then you're on the back end then going Perfect You're now in charge of banners now obviously there should be regulations to that in terms of what we are expecting when they go up when they come down that sort of thing if they're ripped and they're flowing around who's in charge of that stuff but there's that aspect and then there's the other aspect of slowly being able to raise funds toeni be reused Maybe Association doesn't run like a dog park and then having having these places like the baseball association coming in and giving us their vision for what things look like because I mean as much as I like watching softball and baseball these guys have a much better idea of okay we want the fences to be a little higher because of this or whatever it may be and if the association can assist in the funding of all of that and come in here and and present their passion to us whether it's baseball pickle ball a tennis Association that would likely form um you know we have a lot of interest groups and a lot of passionate groups that would hitch on to this particular train and try to to generate funds for their favorite thing um Mike yeah I just like the aspect that these funds can help go back into that program and help our budget out because our budget is tough at times and if these individuals can you know help raise that for these amenities to be kept up to the par that we want them to be at that's just really huge that would be awesome I think the the big thing is consistency so again from our standpoint the the only real interest we have in this is that it allows us to have a carrot to dangle in front of people to get them activated so it the I would love to see softball become an association I think that should happen if there is dollars associated with an advertising aspect of it that we can then dangle in front of them and say look there's potential dollars here that you guys can take on and then help to refund where that stuff goes that's or fence or whatever it's a it's a huge incentive for people to say you don't have to just go out and do this we've already created a template in which you can then just jump in start off and you don't even have to necessarily be a 501c3 to begin with that's that's how our organization works we help you incubate into becoming a 51 C3 our goal is never to I say this all the time we're not a bank you know we're not here to hold funds we're here to activate people and move them forward we want you to become a 1c3 or we want you to start a foundation or a fund that can then transfer into being something bigger um that doesn't always happen you know sometimes we're just raising funds to make a skate park but if the if the ultimate goal is to find individuals this from our standpoint allows us to dangle a few carrots and then also go hey we we see that there's always a need for new things or even just simply resurfacing the tennis courts which needs to happen improve or maintenance yeah yeah but we we would really like it to be amenity specific so that everyone knows I've donated money towards hockey and I'd like it to go to those hockey ranks or I'd like it to go to you know pick I think that's kind of a first step would be an identification process of and bring that list forward to parkboard as a starting point well and and it opens up the conversations like I said it's really tough for us to have direct a direct Lifeline to the community right and have them have discussions about their favorite amenity or their pieces and so they're coming to us with these conversations or our liaison which will likely be the recation specialist and giving them a better idea of okay you know what is going on because again we have a lot of conversations about you know ten it would be really nice if we just knew usage on tennis right if we knew right but we don't and so this allows us to open up those types of things and really get feedback from the community as they form groups to try to find this money or improve specific amenities so I'm I'm a huge fan of this just because it opens up dialogue at the very least Carol um so just thinking ahead and I know we start the conversation but you know so they make their money scoreboards are amazing and then they're like yeah we don't really want to do banners so I think there needs you know be a plan of like okay cool well then this group is taking over but you know before we no longer are in charge of it as the park board I think we need to have like a plan um in place for that so so I would definitely say that the park board would be in charge of this from our we would just be facilitating the process for people we would want the park board to be making those decisions based off of what this stuff looks like and what the regulations are to it so in an instance of like the money up front if you put in the scoreboards and then decide you don't want to do banners that doesn't really hurt the city too much but if it's a scenario in which You're Building towards something then yeah there's there has to be a direct tie back in um and again we we envision this being something where it's it's a presentation back to the city on or back excuse me back to the parkboard on a you know you know semiannual or annual basis to say okay what worked what didn't work what are the things we're looking at um there's potential that you might say we'd like banners everywhere and then the community says we don't need banners here um but millsfield is a great example Mills millsfield should be its own entity that is raising funds for itself and there's tons of potential there for it but there's not necessarily the arm that wants to go do that and so what we'd like to do is just create a a boilerplate process Bridge basically to BR that Gap and yep city has to set aside different fund accounts to store that money until somebody potentially does yeah and then just weigh out where you know where's the where's the interest I think the biggest thing is that if you just have a flat rate which is kind of what we looked at in the past you're kind of missing the boat a little bit because you're you're individual sports are going to have different interests and then youth versus adult is going to have very different different just even from different sponsors so we just like to try and take a a look at it from more of a how do we create a format that then is easy to move forward into the next one so maybe we start with a couple and then we move to the next in the next couple years um I'm always a fan of proof of concept so yeah start with adult softball start with baseball yep and then pickle ball learn our lessons figure out the nuances to it and then adjust and reapply different for the existing ones and also the ones mov yep yeah so pickle ball would be would be the interesting one because but you got two very you got two wildly different things coming before you you've got the baseball association saying hey we've got an entity we'd like to put in we've got the funding for it we just want a contract to be able to run the banners on those fields I think it's a great idea um pickle ball is potential dollars being raised which before they go do that they should really have an understanding of what they're gifting back to people in exchange for that so if you're a sponsor and you and you give 5,000 versus 10,000 you want to know what that difference is and so we it behooves us to get ourselves in a place where we have that prepared so you're not just saying pickle ball go after it and you're kind of saying like here's what we envision there being a little bit of guidelines to it so you're not just willy-nilly so yeah I think establishing a work group for this whether again through with Mike and the rec Specialists and then U Community Action and one of us as a representative would would probably be the direction to go I like it I like it too um you know I I I don't do we have to set a date or something like that for the work group right now okay so I think as far as I don't know if we need necessarily need a motion but let's maybe establish a work group with Community Action maybe have a little bit better of a concept of what the baseball association would would like to do specifically with the boards and whatever um we have all the information let's just establish a group um again as uh one board member liais on have staff and Community Action maybe a representative from um the association and let's let's move forward from there yeah the baseball association is ready to move so very good let's get we need to have these meetings before we pull the baseball association I guess yeah I guess fun we need the fundamental side of it initial like and just ask all those questions and then we'll come back to the board with the findings and by we I mean whoever decides to be the liaison for the board um but yeah so I think that's give us a good one please yeah yeah very good okay um thank you Dave appreciate it uh all the hard work there and um also with the association uh stepping up to uh repair some amenities um we'll move on to the public forum time allocated for citizens to bring matters not on the agenda to the attention of the board we we will open it at 4:40 and seeing No Hands we will close it at 4:40 and move on to staff reports the one thing I know it may not be directly related to Parks and Recreation but I think it is is our Transit department is going to be taking their some of their clients to Winter Wonderland and again I thanked uh Dave the mayor uh yesterday at the council meeting and again thank you Dave these individuals need to get out and about and and Transit is typically during the day right well I tasked her about thinking outside the box and she got approval from the state and our contract to do something like this and I think this is just going to be one of many things regarding special events even like our Christmas tree lighting I wanted them to be there um it was just to M last minute so we couldn't orchestrate that but uh for this we planned ahead and we got so they're going to be going two days uh next week so it's really uh I think uh I think it's just neat yeah that's actually incredible and again yeah to your point relevant to us because any events that we hold in the system we can get folks over to them and and say hey we're putting this on yeah we're we're putting this thing together and we'll come pick you up if you want to come to this thing so very good and lastly our uh Rec specialist is going to be starting on the 30th and uh in January I would like to have I'll be conversing with Dave regarding specially events and downtown stuff and and I just want to help cultivate what you've already started and just piggyback off that and just help any way that we can because I really think Downtown special events is one thing that is just huge or there's a huge potential for that individuals want to get out individuals families want to get out and just enjoy our downtown we have a great downtown there's a lot of momentum going downtown it's a beautiful facility we're keep I mean our our street Skies are on top of it and uh so I'm really just looking forward to cultivating that whole special events going downtown so I'm really excited about that and our new uh Rec person is going to be doing that um so I'm excited to talk about future programs and stuff and uh doing that so that's all that I have very good thank you much we'll move on to board member reports are with Paul got nothing I well I do have one thing started at the YMCA daycare this last week great facility great amen to our community very good um yeah again very excited about pickle ball myself um I uh I I I want to be the the central place for that and I think we have an opportunity to do it so I'm really stoked to uh to continue that conversation caran uh I'm just going to bring up the the beach again at Lum park I'm going to keep bringing it up every meeting until so I just want to I don't have any updates but I just want to remind staff that we want to have a plan for that so we can have a nice Beach summer the yeah the murkiness cleaned up yeah right and we do I have already talked to our streets guys and we are going to make something that is going to be really good I'm going to be working with the DNR making sure that we're we're in you know compliance with everything right and but no I heard you sorry turned that off um but we are because I want it too I mean I don't want it for myself I want it for the city of Brainard too Lum Park always was a a staple in our community and now it's even a bigger staple with our Campground being expanded the the beach is phenomenal The Kayaks and I'm going to challenge everyone sometime next year in the spring that we all do the kayaking run and we all get our kayaks so we're meeting on the lake yeah first one to tip over yeah the first we'll do water polo thank you very good Dave you got anything I just want to say thank you to our staff it's the end of the year and uh I just want to say thank you to all the park staff and Street staff that work so well together um the I think the parks looked really good this year I think there's still room for improvement um but I think the shift that the park board made a couple years ago in focusing on you know the trimming of the trees trimming them up and that sort of stuff has really made a huge difference and I think if we continue down that angle we're going to end up in a really good place from the City side of things I think uh you guys have done a pretty good job in terms of your budget and in terms of well I'll take pretty good I'll take pretty excellent job it's pretty I'll give you an extra pretty pretty pretty good job very good uh but I I just want to thank you guys for your efforts in reducing your budget and uh setting a tone for the rest of the city I think that was really greatly appreciated we were able to last night make that final um announcement of a 2% increase um which is far better than an 8% increase and so but the thing I want to make sure that we're not doing is just always cutting Parks that's the first thing that gets cut and I think you guys having a plan and being able to support your decisions and your reasoning puts you in a really strong position moving forward so I just want to thank you guys for all the work that you've done very good um your thanks are appreciated motion to adjourn so move motion and a second all in favor say I I I'll oppose same sign we are adjourned