Houston: Regular Scheduled Parks and Recreation Meeting 11.05.2026

I guess I am the vice chair.

Okay, call to order the Houston Parks and Rec— Recreation Advisory Commission. At 6:01 PM, November 5th, 2026.

And a roll call.

Uh, Jennifer—. Oh, Trisha. Trisha will do roll call. Okay.

All right, uh, Commissioner Jenner.

Yep, here. All right, Commissioner Rain. Here. Oh, Ring and Rain,. Sorry.

Okay, Commissioner Rain. Here. All right, and Commissioner Ring. All right,. Would anybody like to give an invocation?

Oh, a prayer. See none. Yep, we have to do the Pledge of Allegiance. Uh, Charlie, will you lead? All right.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, one nation, with liberty and justice for all.

Well, public comments. I don't think that we have the, the list out, but I see none. None. And I see no publics.

We have 3 viewers online. Oh, we have 3 viewers online. Yeah. Oh, hello, that's nice. Um, We need to make a motion to approve the agenda.

Would anybody like to approve the agenda?

Okay, so, and do we have a second? I second that. All right,.

Done. All right.

I think it was not okay. Did anybody want to discuss anything about the agenda? Well, I guess we'll discuss the date just to refresh that it's been since April was the last meeting that we had. Yeah, it's been a long time. So because we did not have a quorum.

Yeah, Jennifer's new to the Parks and Rec, so. Thank you for signing up. My pleasure. I'm glad we can go back to this.

Excellent. And then, uh, special orders of the day. We, we have to vote. Oh, we need a motion to—. We need to vote.

Yes. On the agenda. So, uh, all in favor? Oh, that's right. Aye.

All in favor of approval of the agenda?

Aye. Aye. Okay, okay.

So next on the list is special orders, and that's going to be an election for the chair and the vice chair.

Does anybody, um, want to nominate anybody? Would anybody like to nominate someone to be the chair? I would like to nominate Adam Reen, okay, to be the chair. I will accept that.

Would anybody like to second that? I'll second. Excellent.

Is there any discussion on the chair nomination? Okay, I am on. I'm honored to take it. I have been on this group for a long time and I look forward to being on it for another long time.

So do we have any— I would nominate Jennifer as vice chair. Yeah, would anybody second that? Let's real quick, let's vote on the first. We gotta vote on yours first. Oh,.

Okay, okay. Then we will vote for the chair. Okay, all in favor of Adam for chair? Aye. Aye.

Okay,.

Thank you.

Okay, I would like to— for now we'll, we'll do the vice chair, and I would like to nominate Jennifer. To be the vice chair. Would anybody like to second that?

Okay, I'm excited to be here. Okay, any further discussion? Okay, all in favor of Jennifer for vice chair?

Aye. Aye. Okay. All right. Hey, all right.

Well, we are back as the Parks and Rec Advisory Committee, also known as the PARC. PARC, as we write it out.

Uh, any reports? Mayor's report? Charlie, were you going to give that at all? Oh yeah, um, Charlie's going to give a report for the mayor in his absence.

So, I just wanted to give an update on the snowmobile purchase that we did with the grant from the Rasmussen Foundation. We currently have that. It is in storage now, ready to be used. On top of that, we are currently waiting on a trail groomer as well to go with that. Our hope is to get a lot of the trails in Houston groomed in the wintertime get people out there and have fun in the wintertime.

We are also looking for help doing so, but Adam has so gratefully said that he would love to help, so we're grateful for that.

It's great to see the Parks and Rec back together. The mayor wants to see more Planning of events in the wintertime to get people out to do stuff in the winter. Winters can be kind of difficult for people in Houston, so it'd be nice to get some ideas. I know we talked about some potential ideas during our work session, which was fantastic, so hopefully we can talk more about those later.

Other than that, we really appreciate everything you guys do. If you guys have any recommendations for me or Trish, any grants you guys might want us to pursue, feel free to reach out. If you guys know anybody that wants to join Parks and Recreation, please have them reach out to either you guys and then let us know, or just have them reach out directly to the City of Houston, and we greatly appreciate that. But other than that, that is all I have for you. But yeah, thank you for your time.

Thanks, Charlie.

So, uh, I don't have a report from April, but I am excited to be the chair, and I'm excited that we are back on track, and I'm excited that you're excited about, uh, outdoor activities in wintertime, because that's what we're coming into right now. Um, this trail grooming thing is going to be Excellent. I am super excited about the equipment that's been purchased and the fact that everybody worked so hard on a grant last year, and it's really come to fruition. Now we're going to make some— we're gonna, we're gonna make some, uh, some— it's gonna be great this winter, grooming trails.

Um, and then also, just so you guys know, where— how our— how we work as the commission is that if we want to put a resolution forward, or if we want the city council to— to— we want something to get to the city council, we do it in our meeting. We approve it, we send it forward, it goes to the Planning Commission, the Planning Commission approves it. Or kicks it back to us, and then, then after the Planning Commission, it goes to the city, or it goes to the, um, City Council.

Oh. Yeah,. Okay, then that's changed.

Good, good, because that's why I was getting at, is that, is that oftentimes it's a 3-month process to get. Oh good, so that's excellent, and we're already gaining traction. So, um, nobody's here from Planning and Zoning, um, or the City Council, but now, now that— now that we're back— now that we're back on the City of Houston team as the Parks and Rec team that, uh, will start getting included.

Okay, we need to approve the minutes from the previous meeting.

Do we have a motion to— or move to— a motion to approve?

Okay,. I'll second that.

All right, okay, discussion?

Nope. Nope.

And all in favor? Aye. Aye. All right, let's carry.

Okay, persons to be heard. Persons? None. None here. Unfinished business?

None. But we have some new business coming forward, so we'll have unfinished business next. We'll have this tab full. We're getting started.

Yes.

Good, that's excellent. Okay, so that takes us to new business,.

And that's going to be Resolution Number 26 PR01, the City of Houston, Alaska, a resolution of the Houston Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission recommending that the City Council take action to identify, restore, protect, and improve public access to lakes with in the city of Houston. Would anybody like to motion to approve?

I'll approve that. I'll make motion to approve that. I'll second that.

Well, as Charlie mentioned in our work session earlier, that, um, there's a lot of public easement accesses to the lakes and the rivers. And this is something that we're going to take a look as a group and look at where they're at on a map and also defining them physically. And then at some point making a presence, whether it be getting a sign out there or something. We will, we will come up with a plan on how to improve the visibility of the city-run easements, because they're public easements. But oftentimes people, oftentimes people, if they're not maintained, people tend to forget and they turn into driveways and things get built on them.

And then it gets to be a problem, which happens all the time. So we want to, we want to make sure that we can find access. We want to identify the accesses that are available to the rivers and the lakes. And, you know, if there's junk cars and there's things, if there's houses on them, then we start the process.

So, and this will be just a work session that we'll just pick— we'll just pick away at it throughout the month.

I think at this point that the more work sessions we we can get in, the better, I think, really, to get the ball rolling. I think it's a good idea to do a— since we meet every month, one to do one in the middle. I'm— I'd like to just start with one 2 weeks from now. That's— I think that's a great idea.

So that's kind of the plan on the new business of the resolution that is going to go forward to the city council.

Do you have any questions about how it's written or what it means or what we're doing?

I think the big— the biggest one in this is number with where it says the city council take action to identify. That's a big— that's a big one alone.

And then, and then it says restore, protect, and improve public access to lakes. And I feel like it should say the river too, but it's a public access, it doesn't even matter.

I don't know that— I don't even know that we need to work backwards on that because I don't think it's so technical that it— that— well, you didn't say river, so you know, we'll identify all the public accesses.

Okay.

Read that whole title.

Okay, all right. Resolution number 26 PR01, City of Houston, Alaska. All in favor? Aye. Aye.

Okay, resolution. Has passed. Resolution has passed.

Well, that's excellent.

We're off, we're off and running. We're getting stuff done. Our first meeting. Woo-hoo! Yes.

So that brings us into committee as a whole. This is where, this is where we talk about what we want to do going forward, like what we want to do the next meeting. Uh, we're going to talk about a work session. About scheduling the work session during this committee as a whole. But this is where we have an open forum where we don't have to pass the talking stick to, uh, you know, Yeah, I mean, we'll just talk about it here in community as a whole.

And like, we will, we'll put, we'll put in here, we'll have a work session on, uh, on an evening that— are all meetings on Thursdays?

Okay, gotcha. Oh, we don't have to do it on a Thursday, earlier during the day.

Yeah,. I'm, I'm available to be here whenever I need to be. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

How about you, Jerry? Is there a time of day?

Okay. Would a, would a 10 AM work for— yeah, I think that, I think that would be good.

Huh? Okay then. Here I was pushing it. Okay, so we'll do lunch then. We'll do 11 to— we'll do it.

We'll do 11 to noon work session.

We're going to do it here for this coming one. Uh-huh. Yeah.

Yes, yes, we will. Makes sense. Quite a bit, because we should, we should be an active— we should be an active outdoor group. Yes, we should. Agreed.

And so that being said, roughly 2 weeks from now, 11 AM, uh, 5th, it's the 19th, so yeah, about 18th, Wednesday at 11 AM. Works for me.

18Th. 18Th. Yep. Okay.

And my goals during this work session would be to, to move forward with some information on our to actually bring a packet to the city council that says, here's what we've identified. Yeah, for the most part. And then also to get the, get the questions answered about the volunteer, the volunteer people working with parks in the city for the snow grooming equipment and other kinds of equipment and how And absolutely, yeah, cool. But these are, these are two questions that I want to— or want to— I want to actually deliver something to the city council with this resolution. That'd be fantastic.

And, um, also I want I do want to get our heads wrapped around what it's going to take for a volunteer team to use city-owned equipment.

So that's great. And then other things that have come up as a committee as a whole, like the I Did a Rod Snowbank movie night. That is so cool. I'm excited about it. Yeah.

So, and that's something that— another thing we'll try to identify in that work session is public events that we are part of or that we want to do, because we're already a part of some, but we don't necessarily have to be as this committee because they're Founder's Day is run by volunteers in the city and the things. So. Yeah,. We don't, we don't have to take ownership of the things. In the past we've done a trunk or treat.

In the past we've done all different kinds of events here at the, at the Park Commission.

So is there any other discussions we'd like to have? It's Committee of the Whole.

I don't know if it's a discussion. Is there anything about the wood chopping for the seniors? Oh yeah, I can give you an update. Yay. Um, so we're—.

I love this. We're partnering with, uh, the Winter Warriors. Alaska Healing Hearts. Yeah, they have, uh, rented our wood processor for a dollar to, um, cut wood for senior citizens veterans, disabled veterans, disabled people, our most vulnerable people who need wood assistance. So, they're currently going through the list right now and delivering wood and chopping as they go.

They've got a— I'm not sure how many members they have, but they've got a great crew with them. And they're really hoping to get a lot of wood out this year. We've had Trish, do you know how many we have on the list?

How many names are on the list? Yeah, how many names are on the list? I believe we have almost close to 100. Yeah, and they're all— so basically they're serving all Houston residents first. All Houston residents first, their priority.

I know there have been a lot of people who have been in other communities who have heard about it, who have applied, but As for our program and what we have, we're trying to get to our people first and then branch out further. But yeah, it's fully open and running and they're delivering. That's incredible. So I have a friend that is the executive director, the, the founder of Alaska Healing Hearts. His name is James Hastings, and he works with all different kinds of veterans, uh, in, in and out of the current military status.

So he works with a lot of the most of people too, and like, he gives this this came up to him. He was asking us about getting firewood out here, and we're like, man, you guys, can you operate this thing? Let's get you guys hooked up. Because we as the city was having a hard time staffing the machine and doing the— all that it takes to do it. And this has been just a great thing.

And so he's already had— they've already done 200 cords of wood. Wow. Mm-hmm. I don't think— I don't know that they've delivered that much, but I know they've cut and split that much. That's awesome.

And, uh, so they, they take enlisted people and other people from all over the place, and, uh, they just bring them out and do firewood for a day or two with the, you know, with the military. And like, it's giving back to the community, so it's really like a win-win-win all the way through. And this, this firewood processor came from a grant about 4 years ago, I think it was.

Um, it was a— I won't get into the grant details because I don't remember specifically, but the reason why is because we have— we're a big fire danger with all this beetle kill down here in the campground, and we saw the availability that this we could potentially get a way to not only cut it but process it and deliver it to the people in need here. And then we did that. So we used— as the city, we used the grant as it was supposed— as it was intended to be and ran that life cycle of that grant. And so James Houston picked right up on it with his team of actual warriors. How long has this been going on?

About 4 years. Oh wow. But I mean, this, this firewood thing that he's talking about just happened about a month ago where it's got transferred over to, to another nonprofit.

So that's, that's, that's how we make— that's how we do a bunch of work with— without a bunch of people is by having good partners. Of course. And so everybody, I'm really, really proud of that. I'm really proud of James Hastings and, uh, and the mayor and Charlie and everybody who put it all together. Christian, he's the one who wrote the grant.

I don't— well, I don't know specifically, but he was very involved in that grant.

And then so I guess the one thing here is the committee of whole that we didn't really— I guess Charlie did bring up the, the trail groomer, and that's really exciting. It's a brand new 2027 Yamaha.

Oh, skidoo! Oh, it's so— oh, it's so good. I'm so excited. Yeah, yeah. So this This would be a good— we're going to be, we're going to be starting a new program here this, this winter with trail grooming from the City of Houston.

So we don't really know what that looks like yet, and we'll define it as it goes. That's what you got to do. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So thank you, Charlie. And that about— if anybody doesn't have anything to add to committee of the whole, I think that we will.

Sure.

As soon as any kind of snow starts to fall and you can't do the roads anymore, it's been a couple weeks since I've been there. Yeah, it was getting— the car was getting destroyed. Yeah, people gotta slow down.

Well, us in this, in this committee, we're going to try to give them somewhere fun to go and not dump cars. Thank goodness. That's a, that's a whole, that's a whole different thing. Enforcement, not a, not it.

Okay, well then we will Exit committee as a whole, and then on to public comments. Public?

I see none.

Commissioner comments?

Jerry's got none.

Jennifer?

I'm excited. That is my, my main comment. Good. I'm excited to see what's going to happen with this commission.

Okay, that's on record. We'll remind you of that. Okay, fair. And I'm also, I'm also really excited to be the chair. I'm glad that we're back doing this again.

I'm glad that, uh, there's a, there's a 2027 trail grooming machine that has zero miles on it. Then I'm going to put the first mile on it. I'm so excited about it. I don't have to be the one. Charlie could if he wants.

It would be his. Way. 100%. And so I'm excited to be the chair, and I'm excited to be as much of an action committee as we are administrative. Because we have a lot of great administrative support behind us helping us go forward.

Now, like, it's good to actually be in the public doing things, wearing safety vests, countries, urban trails, dogsled stuff, Alaska stuff, because we have a We should really showcase all of the parklands that city— that the city of Houston has. Most people don't know, but, but they will. And then all of a sudden there's all these new houses. They'll be like, oh, I can't believe that we have— we bought into such a, a backcountry paradise.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we're, we're sitting here painting on the canvas now. Let's help make it real.

Okay, well, that was it. That was the comments. And so we will adjourn this meeting at 6:34.