The Rock Port Park Board met Wednesday, September 13, 2023 at 7:00 p.m. at the city park. The meeting was moved to A Perfect 10 at 8:04 p.m. due to lack of daylight. Members present were Jennifer Geib, Sheena Roup, Amber Graham, Andrea Cook and Jill Lager, Clint Dougherty, Tawni Ellis and Devon Sons. Visitors present were Mayor Amy Thomas and Alderwoman Lisa Farmer.

The meeting agenda was approved.

The August 2023 meeting minutes were approved.

The August financials were tabled until later in the meeting.

Pool Update

Jennifer Geib met with Scott Holtmeyer from AquaChem to explore closer options for receiving our chemicals. AquaChem does not prepare or winterize during the spring or fall, but is willing to train an operator as he has been an instructor for national pool certification.

The park board is working on getting set up with StarGuard for next year. They have a “train the trainer” program that is free through MIRMA. They are hoping to get other local pools to join forces on this so there will be a local team of trainers.

Pool Project Update

• Renosys gutter replacement was quoted at $350,000.

• Carrothers options included:

Option A – engineering, inlet, skimmer, main drain, deck drain piping, pool reconstruction, pool finish, dewatering, deck equipment, base price, $1,065,600;

Option B – possible add-ons and cost:  splash pad, baby area, $150-250,000; climbing wall, $42,000; corkscrew slide in main pool, $48,000; basketball hoop and volleyball set, $5,000 each; deck shades, $16,000 each; fencing, $65,000

Option C – zero entry, 3’-6’’ to zero in water depth and have a slope of 1’ vertically in 16’ horizontally. The zero beach would be roughly 33’ wide. The addition would add about 1,350 square feet of water surface and would extend the water away from the existing pool about 56 feet. Features like a parents’ bench with shade, a raindrop or big umbrella with water cascading from it, a kiddie slide, deck sprays spraying into the pool from the zero entry deck, and additional deck, fence and walks have been included. This option would be $800,000-$1.3 million.

The park board received a generous donation from the Carpenter Trust to order an AED and submersible child manikin for training.

Winterization

A work order to have the water pumped/drained from the pool has been submitted.

ACCO will be contacting the park board about a date they will be here to winterize the pool. The probes have been removed and are stored at City Hall for the winter.

Repairs made prior to opening seemed to work well and the water levels have been holding even a month after closing.

There was no new information regarding the liner contract with Renosys.

The phone has been moved to “snowbird”. A phone call was made to Rock Port Telephone on August 16.

Park Update

Cali Driskell, Avery Meyerkorth, Claire Spiegel, and Addison Maifeld applied for the ACDC Beautification Grant and received the full $1,500. The girls will stain, paint, and repair boards on the bleachers and picnic tables this spring.

Monica Bailey has reserved the shelter house and park for Careers on Wheels Thursday, October 12, with a rain date of Friday, October 13. A work order to have the park/pool winterized will be requested after this event (weather permitting).

Klosek’s was called on August 14 to remove the extra dumpster.

The park board would like to know if other departments are having to pay the office staff for administration work and paperwork.

The tanks and mower by the green shed are an eyesore. Board members voted to have someone come get the items and haul them off.

School Mowing Agreement

The park board is still requesting information that pertains to the number of mows. The request was made to the city following the August meeting and received the following response Friday, August 18:

“If the park board is wanting a more extensive breakdown of the hours billed, I was asked to relay that no document exists that has that information and thus would have to be created.”

The document the park board receives each month simply gives a total number of hours worked by city workers and not a breakdown of mowing/project/maintenance. This information is necessary as work begins on the 2024 budget.

Park board members voted to have Alderwoman Farmer go to city hall and find the number of mows based on the timecards from the summer.

Park Maintenance Agreement

The park board is still in limbo as to whether the park maintenance agreement will be completely dissolved or if maintenance/project work will still be considered.

The board voted to request the purchase of a mower, trailer, weedeater and gas can with ARPA funds with the ability to pick out the items personally if the park board was going to be fully responsible for maintaining the grounds.

As previously stated in an earlier meeting, the city must have a Tier 1 report in order to hold a gas tank on city property depending on the size of the tank. Since the city placed a tank on the park property, the board would like to ensure that this report has been placed and is shared with the board.

The question as to who will complete the payroll for the city pool still remains to be answered.

Financial Review

While attempting to do a financial review, the following questions and concerns have been raised. The park board has found some solutions, but are looking for answers to others.

StarGuard Audit Cost & Refund

The Rock Port Pool was not registered timely or properly with Star Guard under MIRMA this season and originally did not receive the $600 MIRMA discount. This was to be scheduled and paid in March as a responsibility of city administration per the park maintenance agreement schedule and was not addressed until late June. Sheena called StarGuard and they were willing to refund the $1,800 ($600/audit x 3); however, there was an outstanding bill of $200 so the check received was for $1,600. Emily also stated that she sent a $200 check to Starguard, so the park board will be looking into that.

In August, the park board requested a hold on four checks to the city until they had a chance to fully review the financials per recommendation by the city clerk. This was clearly stated and communicated with city administration, aldermen, and mayor. All four checks totalling $35,580.99 were deposited without park board notice or approval on August 31, 2023.

While doing the financial review, the June financials payroll of $8,109.90 and MIRMA premium of $2,118.22 were found to be added to June transactions after they approved June financials on July 12, also without notification from the city. Two deposits of $321 and 72.50 were also removed/moved without notification. This is a change of $10,621.62 that the park board was not made aware of and should have been so they could approve the amended financials.

All checks for the park board should have a minimum of two signatures. All officers on the account have stated that they have not been asked to sign a single check during 2023 and noticed on the bank statements they had printed that all checks have been signed only by city employees. The park board would like to know when the practice of calling for an officer’s signature changed.

Fourth of July

There are several questions in regards to the Fourth of July transactions and where they were entered. The group of individuals that organized the event raised all funds needed through sponsorships and/or tourism donations; therefore, the park board was not responsible for any costs and all proceeds from the event should have gone to pool donations. The transactions in question are as follows:

A $450 withdrawal for 4th of July prizes was taken from “Pool Admin. Expense” and should have been part of the raised funds, not administration expense.

Food and pop for 4th of July totaling $363.36 was taken out of “Donation Specified Expense.” All donations went into the swimming pool donation income account except for the money that was used to set up a new account that was understood to be part of the park board.

Who has access or control to the new 4th of July account and what is its current balance? Did any of the money raised from 4th of July efforts go into setting up this account?

Park board members voted to have the funds from the newly formed 4th of July account be transferred to the general funds account for the park board.

Jennifer contacted ACCO and they are refunding the cost of the Bromine since that was an error on their part.

The park board is still waiting to get confirmation that the fees on the park board credit card have been resolved. As of September 11, Emily said she hadn’t received the new August statement to check for the charges that accrued in June. The credit card charges totaled $85.21 in late, purchase finance charge, and over-the-limit fees.

Emily did state that she called again earlier that day to confirm the card with Tisha’s name noted on it was canceled. The $110.00 transaction marked “Sam’s Club – Tisha Jackson” is another credit card charge they are waiting for answers. Tisha has stated that she does not have a Sam’s Club card and that she was assured that card had been canceled when she resigned. They are wondering if it could be another card that is automatically renewing, but will need the city clerk to look into this further.

The board would like documentation to make sure that the card charges and the Sam’s Club renewal has been resolved.

Budget Preplanning

The park board is still looking for clear information in regards to the breakdown of mowing vs. project hours that were requested from the city

This request was made due to labor wages and times continuously changing over the past months. The park board feels they have now overpaid the city as of August hours.

There is the question as to why the park board income appears to be shrinking over the years and not growing when real estate taxes continue to increase and that is their primary source of income. Outstanding real estate tax for the City of Rock Port is approximately $5,000, according to the collector’s office.

The park board would also like to know the formula for the amount they get in lieu of personal property taxes. It was recommended to visit with Susette Taylor.

Other Business

The park board has purchased security cameras with money donated by CoBank’s Sharing Success Grant and Atchison-Holt Electric Cooperative donations. One portion of the cameras has already been installed. The park board has requested consideration from the police department to split the cost of the wifi each month.

Madison Erdman has turned in her resignation to the board. Therefore, the Park & Pool Board has a vacancy that will need to be filled. If interested in serving on the Park & Pool Board, submit your application to city hall.

Ideas for Old Fashioned Saturday Night were discussed.

Park board members voted unanimously to request that the funds for the pool repair fund be provided from 2018 through 2023.

Other Business

The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, October 11, 2023, at 7:00 p.m. at city hall.

The meeting adjourned at 10:12 p.m.