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Meetings

Parks

Parks Advisory Board - April 15, 2025

Parks Advisory Board - April 15, 2025

Meeting materials

Free language assistance services are available for this meeting.

Agenda

  1. 6:00 Call Regular Meeting to Order
  2. 6:05 Meeting Minutes a. Review/Approval of the April 15, 2025 PAB Minutes
  3. 6:10 Citizen Input & Correspondence
  4. 6:15 Stone Creek Update – Mike Turley
  5. 6:25 Advisory Boards and Commissions (ABC’s) Policies and Practices – Tom Riggs
  6. 6:55 Administrative Updates – Tom Riggs
    1. a. Park System Plan Status Update
    2. b. Rules and Fees Update
    3. c. Other
  7. 7:05 Park Updates – Mark Shaw
  8. 7:20 Good of the Order
  9. 7:30 Adjournment

Minutes

Members Present at DSB 118:

  • Mike Ferrell
  • Sarah Furber
  • Tom Hester
  • Walter Hull
  • Louise Lopes

Attending on Zoom:

  • Dana Hindman-Allen
  • Chad Parker
  • Rob Smoot
  • Don Morgan
  • Eric Pfeiffer-Robinson

Members Not Present:

  • Angela Pederson
  • Justin Ostrander
  1. Call To Order 
    Mike called the meeting to order at 6:01 pm
  2. Meeting Minutes 
    Mike called for the approval of the March 18, 2025 minutes. Walter called for the motion, Louise second the motion; it was approved by the PAB.
  3. Citizen Input & Correspondence 
    Staff have been working with our Public and government affairs staff to try and take over our Google listing for our parks; we don’t have administrative control of over the data, such as the hours and other important information for your customers. Apparently when you are a government entity with multiple locations, and only one phone number listed for all of the parks, it complicates the process of “owning” the sites and the information on that platform. We are working through the process of registering all of our parks under the one phone number. By doing this, it dislodged reviews for Parks and was sent to the parks info email box. We had 6 reviews that came in on email, one for Barlow Wayside, Carver Park, most received 5 stars. One citizen gave us 3 stars, due to the fact we charge for parking.
  4. River City Boat Sales/Boones Ferry Landing – Tim Coleman 
    Overview of River City Boat Sales at the Boones Ferry Landing. County Parks has four parcels at the property. One area is owned by the State, but is operated by us as overflow parking. Then there is the marina with our main parking area. The Marina has 105 slips on the river. There is a wait list for slips. There are fire hoses, life rings, light pedestals, fire extinguishers. We've been at the Marina since 2,009 as a company; the 1st couple of years. We were just on the sales side-the west side of the ramp. And then in 2010, we actually took over the other building on the east side of the ramp for our service department. This year will be our 16th year at the Marina, and the 6th summer of doing the marina management for the county with a revenue share program. The current lease goes through 2030. We have fuel sales, water, drinks, ice creams, and snack food. The one thing that has changed since our initial revenue share with the county is the changes in the laws-for what type of activity you can do on the water. There's no more wake surfing allowed. It keeps things safer in general. We open officially for the summer on Memorial Day. We have local high schoolers that work during the summer and they are all great kids. The partnership with the county is working very well, the share agreement is- after we remove the operating costs we split the revenue 65-35 (for the county).
  5. PAB Discussion Topic 
    a. Park Summer Tours Planning-We had talked maybe skipping August since we usually cancel that month’s park tour outings due to the hot weather. So there was talk about moving that one meeting to late spring or early fall. Another idea was discussed for switching to another every other month meeting schedule. However we would need to change our PAB bylaws. Walter suggested we make time at a meeting to have a meal together-like a cook out with hot dogs etc- stay later wand watch the stars with a telescope. Dana suggested another park i.e. Riley’s horse camp. Lolo Pass was another suggestion and possibly revisiting other parks, we have visited in the past, Bull Run, etc.
  6. Administrative Updates-Tom Riggs 
    a. Park System Plan: We have at a past meeting brought the PAB a rough draft of some park system planning for going out to a consultant. We did talk about potential PAB involvement. Will be going out for a bid for the work with a consultant and we will send the information to you as it happens. Overall- we have made significant progress.
  7. Park Updates: Mark Shaw
    1. New Drain Line at Metzler Caretaker Residence-teamed up with the County Plumber to complete new line installation.
    2. Eagle Fern A-Frame Pavers--expansion of the A-Frame Shelter to better accommodate weddings/photos; re-purposing pavers from Boring Station, staff completing as time allows.
    3. Barton Mapping/New Septic System-Barton Utility Mapping nearing completion. Once mapped, we can begin laying out new Septic System-new system to treat majority of park –Metro dollars to cover price tag of one million.
    4. Traffic Flow Revisions at Barton to address long lines-new signs at entrance to discourage floaters from attempting to enter on days the park is full--X2 new fee machines in day use to allow credit card holders to bypass the booth. This will speed up flow and reduce congestion.
    5. Creation of a Sign manual and Inventory-Cohesive messaging across properties-Consistent font, color, size, and shape for our most common signs-Inclusion of “universal symbols and other languages when appropriate-interchangeable numbers for updating park hours/fees-this is a big undertaking, spearheaded by our newest ranger John Shih-Metzler alone has well over 100 signs.
    6. Spring cleaning underway- all campsites cleaned and ready-water systems pressurized and tested- Hebb docks installed and Park are ready for May 1.
    7. Season Recruitment- Update-hired earlier than we ever have-all vacancies filled.
  8. Good of the Order
     

Eric- I wanted to let you know. I think at this time I'm will need to step down from my position on the Parks Advisory Board. I am resigning from the Board as of now. I want to let you known that it has been a rewarding experience and great serving with you. I appreciate the work, effort and consideration with everything you are doing to support the parks.

  1. Adjournment 
    Mike called for adjournment at 7:17 pm— Tom Hester motioned, Louise second the motion, the motion passed.

Staff Present at DSB 118:

  • Tom Riggs
  • Mark Shaw
  • Barb Guthrie
  • Thomas Gray
  • Sarah Eckman

Contract Present:

  • Tim Coleman, River City Boat Sale