Wasilla: Parks and Recreation Commission - 09 Sep 2026

Call the meeting to order.

Secretary, take the roll. Dave Tuttle. Here. Dan Flickenstein. Here.

Megan Montanez. Here. Reece Clayton. Here. Okay, um, Dan, you want to lead us?

Sure. Sure. 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 liberty and justice for all.

Do you have any adjustments to the tonight's meeting agenda? I'd like to make an approval of tonight's agenda.

Second that. Second that. All in favor?

Aye. Aye. Approval of the minutes from our last meeting.

I'll make a motion to approve the minutes from the last meeting. Have a second? I'll second that. All those in favor? Aye.

No public comments. Unfinished business. Staff report.

Oh, sorry, Scott, you saw it and it was in red.

Scott Bell, Recreational Services Director. Uh, I'm going to go ahead and pass out to you, um, just a copy of the FY 2027 um, final approved budget for the Recreation Services Department.

Thank you, thank you, thanks, Scott. Okay, I got to memorize it just because she typed it and you told— yeah, so basically what you have before you just is a snapshot again of the FY27 budget for recreation services and just kind of even to see more than anything our annual breakdown on recreation programs and the money that's been set aside for a lot of the different activities that we do. So I just wanted to show you guys all that, and that is, I think, um, within $1,000 of last year's budget. So we didn't cut much or we didn't add much, but we kind of changes where we were spending money and how and what we were doing it. So that's for your review.

If you got any questions, let me know.

Just— and it's probably just me looking at it, but what's the difference in the printing and binding $5,000, and then recreational programs, $7,500 for the park passports.

Correct. So the difference— the printing is the physical reproduction of them, and then with the program, what we— the anticipation is to set up a web page so that then all the parks information, the passport, the Parks Passport, all that kind of stuff is developed properly, one place and a resource for the community going forward, basically. Very good. Thanks.

We're good? Yeah. Yep. Great. Then, um, I believe we did not have a quorum on the last meeting, so I'm going let's do a quick recap, um, because that was a July meeting and we had a few gatherings since then.

So, um, just kind of recapping, um, so again, we did do our Parks Passport, um, distribution this year. We did ads through Make a Scene and Facebook, and we had them available at multiple different city facilities, things like that. Um, I think a church group or two picked them up, so Those got out into the community for this summer. Um, Music in the Park. So Music in the Park ended up being a 5-event series on Saturdays.

We had our Music in the Park finale on the 4th of July evening like we've done in the past, and the series was fantastic. Great entertainment. We had no issues throughout the whole thing. We got amazing support from Jess and his department on just having those pavilion in that area nice and clean. And overall, and I don't have specifics, but the attendance was actually better again than the year previous.

So this seems to be a staple event for the community that they really like. And I think we had great weather for all but maybe one of them, so that always helps. Then we did have, um, so part of my responsibility is overseeing the Fourth of July parade also, and And so with that, we had over 75 entries. Again, it was the 250th birthday of the USA, and so that was kind of the theme in the entries. Again, Jess's team did a great float for the mayor.

And so we had no major events, issues, problems this coming year. The only thing that might be a factor is the Main Street, um, couplet project, which might change the flow of Main Street and impact Swanson. We're just trying to determine if the route and when construction begins, does that impact us this year or next year? So the route may still be in question at this time, but we'll be working on that. And then the Fourth of July Mayor's Picnic, um, again, another great annual event, and we had over 3,000 lunches served for that one.

And again, another fantastic day. We did a few things to kind of dress it up with some professional rented tents and things like that that really, I think, dressed up the area, made it really look really nice. And so again, no issues there, great event, and we'll continue with that program. And just began working on New Year's Eve fireworks already, so that is in play. And that, I believe, is where I'm at.

So that is my staff report. Any questions?

Doing a great job, continue.

Uh, same thing. Yeah, like Dave said, great job as always. The Fourth of July, uh, parade was insane, the turnout that we had. I mean, I don't think— we were looking for a spot for a little bit and I was blown away because every inch of the road had someone. The, um parade stuff for kids was wonderful to see.

It was kind of a cool blending between stuff for a little older people, but also my niece and nephew had a killer time. They raved about it. And I have to say, the mayor's picnic, when I walked over there, I don't think we could have fit another person in the park because the amount of heads I saw was unreal. So, um, just want to say again, good job on your guys's work. You always put on a killer job.

And yeah, at the current rate, we're going to need a bigger park because, man, I don't know how we can fit more people on be at our roads or be in the park, because, uh, the turnout for that event was just unreal. I mean, absolutely unreal. So yeah, thank you.

Any comments at the moment?

Um, Eric Shaw, which is the Public Works Director, he wanted me to let you know the RFP was received for the Parks Master Plan. This is Jesse Griffiths, Parks and Properties Supervisor. Sorry. And anyway, I just wanted to let you know that we have received it. It's in review right at the moment, so hopefully by the close of the week that'll start moving forward.

And they'll hire who's going to start helping set that up and draw that plan for us. Um, as Scott said, the Fourth of July, I thought, went off without a hitch. Um, I thought the float was very well designed. I thought everything in that whole atmosphere went well. The, the way it moved and the fact that we didn't have no, no issues whatsoever as far as public problems or anything like that, that's pretty amazing for that amount of people.

And then also moving forward, Nunley Park, Carter Park, that was just a lot of normal maintenance this year. Lake Lucille, the weed harvester ran from July to the end of August and then was put away, and it's— it'll sit all winter until next summer. I did a park, we replaced one whole side of the tennis court fence because it blew over in the wind last winter, and it took us quite a, quite a bit of time to get the right height of chain link in town and, and ordered in. But we finally got that closed in, and Wasilla High is using that as we speak as their tennis courts, and that's pretty awesome. Um, we also went through the campground.

We removed all the dangerous and dying trees. Um, also the Lake Lucille fire mitigation is nearly complete, and we went through and a company came through and got rid of a lot of the beetle kill And then while we were doing it, we extended some of our walking trails and widened existing ones. And so overall, it looks really good. You can actually see through the woods. It's just a remarkable change in a good way.

We also added 8 new benches out at Lake Lucille on the new walking path out there. We haven't been able to set them just yet, but they're all sitting out there waiting to be placed. We're going to add 2 also into the dog park. And then we're also gonna— we've added 2 picnic tables into the dog park, and there's conversation about adding lights in at the dog park as well, because there's a lot of people that want to have lights as we go into winter out there. And that's pretty much where we are with most everything right now.

And if you guys have any questions, more than happy to answer. All right, on the, on the benches and so forth, are we Have we reached out to the public about donating to have one done with a plaque on it, or, you know, I mean, this bench donated by—. We—. The Honor Garden already has, I think, 14 or 16 altogether of those style benches in place. Um, there hasn't been, because these are more public format where anybody can use them, and there was no— that was never part of the design for that as far as I was aware.

And a lot of them, we're replacing old broken down ones with some really nice solid ones that also have the Flossilla red on them. So like if you drive by, they stand out, they're really nice. And so as we go through, we're trying to upgrade everything and make it nice and new and fresh. Yeah, I was just wondering, because a lot of the parks that I've been into They're everywhere, the donated by. And not to say that we don't want to spend our money, that the city's money for that, but it would be great to get some more people maybe involved, maybe putting, uh, something on our web page.

All right, do you want to donate to them? Yeah, I mean, I think as if— because 90% of the ones, a lot of them were rebuild. And so with that, they were brought back into the shop, we remanned them and put all new lumber on them, and then took them back out and placed them. And we also had some new ones that had been sitting previously waiting to be moved and put out. Okay, so definitely something to consider as we move forward to get more stuff out.

Worst case scenario, they sit in the waiting line, or— but that would be— I In my way of thinking, if we don't ask, they're not going to tell us. That's fair. So just some food for thought on that. I will refer that forward for you. Thank you.

Thank you for your report. I've been doing quite a bit of walking over at Adida Park, and I do have to say the new signs that got put up for like the, um, over towards the pavilion and stuff like that, it's really neat. They did a really good job at kind of explaining what's going on there. As we kind of update the parks and stuff like that, that more modern-day signage where it kind of tells you a little bit of history, but also tells you about like those areas and stuff like that are pretty neat. So hopefully we can do more of that.

I've had a couple people ask about the volleyball courts and just kind of, hey, what the plan is there. I do know that they've been kind of wanting to get some signage and stuff like that, so I don't know if that's something that the city could do or what we need to do, but as we kind of get these more modern-day signs, I think it really kind of brings in a younger demographic and a family. And so yeah, definitely just killer job that what you guys are doing, and I can't wait to see the next of it. Thank you.

Any other— Dan, got anything? I don't. Okay, so moving on, uh, we're up to unfinished business, I believe. Don't have any at the moment.

Move on to new business. 9-1 Informational memorandum supporting the Matsu Softball Association. Bumpus Recreation Area improvements.

Motion to approve the informational memorandum.

I know we talked about this at our last meeting, just kind of getting a formal, um, document to the city council so that way they can show our support of the Bumpus Recreation Area ball field improvements and stuff like that. And I think overall it seems to be very well-worded that, you know, this would be kind of the development to allow for the organizations to expand their development and their plans and stuff like that. I was kind of curious, and I don't know if you can answer this, Dan, do you guys have any like timelines or anything like that that you provide to the city that kind of shows them like, hey, this is kind of how long you want, or you know, how long it's going to take for these improvements or anything like that? Uh, yeah, we started our essentially a 5-year plan about 2 years ago, and I've been working through that, attending council meetings, communicating with Public Works. Sure, we had an engineering firm put together a pretty thorough documented plan of how to go about it and what all is needed to do that, which we shared with them.

And now it's a matter of waiting. Hopefully this will be prioritized and at some point be considered for funding. For the expansion. So, uh, yeah, we have been working on it for a couple years, just incremental progress, raising awareness, that kind of thing. But it's a fairly significant project, and I'm sure it'll take some time to work through all the details.

So, do we have a copy of that? I don't know if I have it with me. Well, I mean, just something made available, maybe for next meeting. I don't remember seeing it. So it was, uh, presented to Eric Shaw, and, uh, I'm not sure if, uh, Adam, the executive director, when he was here last November, I think he, uh, may have left a site plan or shared site plans and reviewed that at that time.

Yeah, we should have— we should have a— do you have a copy of that, Scott? Yeah, I think Tammy has my copy, but yeah, that's been before the city That proposal has been to the City Council, and I think again, the goal here is with this language, and again, if you have any word changes that you guys are looking for, you know, you guys want to go into the committee a whole and you could do a version of that at this time, and then we would add that as an attachment. Do we have any need to go? I think from what I'm seeing from this document in front of me, it seems to be very detailed, and I think it does a good job of providing the city council kind of our commitment to our decision on this objective. So I don't think so.

Okay, Dan, you have any—. I agree, I think it's well done. Okay, essentially covers all the main points and, you know, explains the direction and the benefits of moving forward. So I don't see any changes to it. I'd like to make a motion to support the memorandum number 26 in terms of the, um, Bumpus Recreational Area ball fields and improvements.

I'd like to make a motion to approve it and show it support. I have a second. Dan? I'll second that. All those in favor?

Aye. Aye. Jeez, that went too quick.

Staff and commission comments.

So I did have something I wanted to bring up on staff comments. Um, I was curious of what we need to do to get this committee some type of information when it comes to park improvements from the city council side. Um, if any future plans or anything like that, is there any way that we could be provided a timeline so that we can kind of see what are the priorities of the city council? I do know that we're getting ready to, of course, go through some change and stuff like that, but it'd be nice if we had something where we could see, hey, right now these are the priorities from the city council of the foreseeable, you know, year plan or something like that, um, where they'd like to see maybe the, um, improvements and stuff like that done, or what projects they have on the table, for example. Um, to answer that, so As Jess had mentioned, Eric Shaw, Public Works Director, has already— they've done the RP, request for proposal, for a park and rec master plan.

And so that everyone that submitted a proposal to that, everything you're asking for, once that is executed, will have all the— the theory is it'll address softball, it'll address the parks, it'll address the tennis court, it'll go through everything comprehensively. So then there is again, quote, literally a master plan. So I think what you're looking for is in that document. It has been funded. Um, so it's just a matter of selecting the vendor, then they execute the contract, and then whatever timeline that is, then that's where the real timelines and priorities start getting developed and all that kind of— and then funding all kind of gets laid out.

So that's why a big part of having the RFP out there and a vendor getting chosen really starts— gets action that we've all been hoping for. Basically, that process will upgrade the past Parks and Rec comprehensive plan that we have sitting on the table or in the bench and probably take it to a whole another level. Yes. Okay, that's kind of where I figured that's a little overlapping of topics because I know, for example, Just getting some community feedback here recently, a couple of the things that have been kind of addressed to me have been like winter recreational opportunities, for example, having somewhere that people can recreation even in the winter. I know we talked about the pickleball stuff our last meeting.

I've had a couple of people ask me about even having it covered where they can do pickleball in the winter of some type. So having a master plan, I think, will definitely be a great kind of step forward in terms of allowing for our community to kind of see Hey, these are some projects that are on the agenda, or hey, if they're not there, come to our meeting and come speak up a little bit. Yeah, and to layer on top of that, so also the Menard Sports Center is conducting our feasibility study to address community needs. And if it's remodeling, renovating, or new facilities, and if it would include things like indoor pickleball, volleyball, you know, whatever that is. So we're addressing that on this side also.

So you'll have two things going on simultaneously, kind of addressing getting the community feedback. And then from the Menard Sports Center specifically to then also the parks, you're going to have, I think, a complete opportunity to kind of look at what this, um, community is going to look like in the next 20 years. Well, I know when we, when we had the Menard designed, one of the things that was very important was to make that one wall something that could be adjusted easily or added to reasonably easy. That I understand. Anytime you say revisit its construction.

But at least they had something in mind at that time to give us some leeway, give us some— a breath of making expansions or changes. And some of that forward thinking from you guys at that time, a big component of what triggered the feasibility study is knowing that there was always a, a Phase 2 vision. And that helped, I think, the council understand the big picture, and that's why the feasibility has been triggered so that we can look at again, is it knocking out a wall? Is it doing some fields out there? Is it another building?

Is it whatever? Again, putting funding aside, that's exactly what we're following. Okay, very good. Yes, excellent. And then I had a question about the master plan RFP.

And you mentioned Eric has received it. Is that meaning that the folks that crafted the RFP have put together a draft for their review, and then they're getting ready to review it for a while, maybe make changes, then present it to the public to open for bids? Or what's, what's that? So the way the bidding process is, the city puts out a request for proposal under a timeline that anybody that's interested to meet the proposal, which is whatever requests are put in it, Then they submit their bid of what they would charge to complete those tasks. All those bids come in, I believe, sealed.

And once the posted timeline is met of when they will begin opening those for review, and I'm going to guess that's in the next week or two, huh? Then they'll see who meets the criteria. If it's a scoring criteria, is it a financial criteria? And then the committee that over— that will be opening up those will then score or whatever. Then they will make a decision on whose proposal matches the city's goals.

Then they award that contract, and then that contract triggers them doing all the, the work that's in it. So it's at the point where folks are submitting bids? It's already been submitted. Oh, okay, correct. All of them have been submitted.

The bidding process is closed. Okay. And it's going to be under review or under review within next week or so. Okay. And then they'll choose, and then I believe from that they go to city council to— for this, the city council to approve the actual contract, because if it's over $30,000, which is this a $200,000, $300,000 budget line item, so then it goes to council to approve and award it through public process.

Yeah. And then they execute it. Yeah. Okay, so it's well in the process. Oh yeah, absolutely.

Yep. Okay, great. Thank you. Thanks. And one more question for you, Scott.

So after, of course, and I know we don't have actual date, but when would you say the master plan would be presented to the public with its current kind of process? I mean, is it a several month process, or how long does something like this normally take? I don't have any clue of what was in the RFP. I would think that the Upon award and execution, something like this could be easily a 6 to 12 month process with all the different public outreach research, all the things that they need to do. So, again, I don't know what's in there, and we can bring some of that data to the next meeting.

Yeah, from my understanding, it'll be 2027 before it's all put together to where we actually have a master plan. There's a certain date set in 2027. They have to meet that timeframe. Yeah, I guess so. That's where that is.

Very good. Thank you.

Dan, you got any comments? Just like, I've visited several of the parks in the last month or so and can see the maintenance that's being done. The parks are beautiful. People are using them. The Lake Lucille Park, like you're saying, has seen some major work and the trails are awesome.

And I just, I think that it's definitely a valuable component of our community and appreciate all the work that's being done along those lines. I had one comment. When we are doing, when the lake rake is out there, are we utilizing the remnants of the foliage? In a composting position because of the— because of it's not as desirable? I don't know that it's necessarily not desirable, but I think it would take a long time and a lot of heavy equipment to maintain that and make that happen.

So as far as us as a city, we're not in the— that's a business form of doing something, and that's not where we're at with it. We're basically doing a service to the community by doing what we do. And as of right now, it's hauled to one place and then it rots itself and goes back into the soil. I know some of the other— some of the cities I've visited have, um, you know, recycling areas for leaves and non— I mean, not like taking a tree there, but maybe the sawdust, or I don't know if we have any of that in are forward-thinking. I mean, as we get more people in the city, we got more trash.

I just— it was just a thought. So I don't know who you might—. I think it'd be a matter of having to acquire more area because we're pretty tapped out on the areas we have. We're even just taking care of our stuff, we're very limited. So it'd have to be something we'd have to outsource to get more area to do what you're asking for.

Just keep it on the, on the book and keep going. Okay. I actually had one more thing. Um, how does the borough parks and recreation actually work with our group? So like, do we get overlap on anything, or is it pretty much the city works as its own thing, borough just kind of works in the borough areas?

Is that kind of how that works for you? That'd be correct. We maintain all of our stuff and they do theirs. We You know, there might be some crosstalk or something of conversation and stuff with certain individuals, but for the most part, they maintain their zone. We maintain ours.

I get you.

Okay. Anything additional? Well, uh, I guess one last thing is definitely as we get into this master plan, you were talking about the Wasilla Tennis Court group and the games that they've been having, and man, the turnout they've had is just unreal. But you definitely see, goes back to like we're talking about the turnout and the road and how now people have to park on the road again. I hope that's one thing that we're able to address, and I know it's hard because of space issues that we do have, but man, it will definitely be sweet if we're able to, because it seems like the amount of people that show up for different events and stuff like that is just off the chart right now.

So that one parking lot that we do have the bathrooms in right now, I've been through many times and I've seen it completely full. And so definitely the struggle of space has been very noticeable this year, if you ask me. So. Um, hopefully we can address that somehow because, yeah, definitely the road gets pretty crazy nowadays.

Okay, well, with that, our next meeting is scheduled for November 18th, same time, same station.