City of Cordova's Parks & Recreation Regular Meeting

Good evening.

Good evening, welcome. I will call to order the Parks and Rec Commission meeting for July 28th, 2026, at 6 o'clock. And, um, could I get a roll call please? Uh, Aaron Cole? Yeah.

Jim Fish? Here. Gavin Brown? Here. Carol Rodriguez?

Here.

Dany Carpenter.

Bruce Lee. Here.

Awesome. Um, the minutes are included in the agenda. Is there an approval, uh, motion to approve minutes as written? Motion to approve the minutes from the March 31st, 2026 regular meeting. Second that.

Seconded. Awesome. Well, it's been a while since we met.

This is true. Yeah, well, I'll go into director's report, but please, um, if anyone has any questions, we'll go around and ask too, or not, because it's sunny out. But we haven't met in a long time. I didn't have any action items this time, but I did have a lot to update everyone on. Um, specifically, I'll just start, uh, with the pool.

Um, We are up and running almost. So, we've been having some problems. The water is staying in the pool, which is the big accomplishment that we're happy about right now. But then just getting the rest of the system up and running. So, we've spoken about this before.

We, through the year, have had issues with our boiler. Everything is end of life for that system. Including our heat exchanger. So, um, it's really babying things and fixing a lot of things that have gone wrong. It's kind of been a chain of events getting it up and running, of things breaking.

Uh, it's hard to get parts for it. It's time-consuming. We're, uh, right now we have a great, um, we contract out with Calaverde Mechanical. Um, he's been great, uh, dealing with it, but, um, we still are not able to get the boiler running for more than 2 days consecutively without it shutting off. So Until that happens, he's going to be back out.

He's ordered more parts for it. He knows what's wrong with it. So, um, when he comes back out and fixes it, and then the boiler's been on without it shutting off for a significant amount of time, um, I would say a week would make me happy. Um, I'm really not wanting to shut people down again, so I would hate to have everyone come back and have to have to shut it down. So I just ask that everyone bears with us.

Like, we are— we can't do anything any faster than we already are. Um, when we're able to get up and running, we'll open the pool up and get it up and running. I don't have really any projected date for it because we don't know when the parts are going to be here, but Micah is getting the controller going, the feeding, uh, getting the, the chlorinator going, and all the stuff that we couldn't do when we didn't have water. So the systems that we could test before I came in, we did. So we're getting those up and going.

So there's water in it. It actually is at 81 degrees right now. It looks great. It's just not sanitized. So then once that happens, I will put out a— probably a few lifeguarding classes.

I'm still certified to teach lifeguarding classes. I might have someone else come in and help. Because I think the classes are going to be quite large. We'll start with getting the city employees trained in the first round, and then hopefully we can, um, just move forward, open up, get the school, the swim team, all— everyone that wants to come in. Um, we'll have a schedule.

Now, uh, we are limited this year because of budgeting with our staff, so, um, I'm trying to make a schedule that It's something for everyone, which is hard. Everyone's scheduled, so, in a limited amount of time. So it's really what, you know, getting the school in there, getting them lifeguarded, the swim team, getting some lap swims, getting some family swims.

That's really what I'm trying to do. Does anyone have any questions about the pool?

And I would have used volunteer lifeguards in the past. That's still a possibility. We're working on that. It's something with our insurance that we still have to have, um, someone in the building to— like, no other facility can have someone come in that's not an employee and open it up. And this is specifically a high-risk area.

So last year we had volunteer lifeguards come in if, like, I was in the office, or Taylor or Jake. That's really what we want, 2 people for training for 2 people. So Jake and Taylor have offered to get lifeguard training too, so that checks that box. So thankfully, you know, it's just going to be like thinking like that. So yes to volunteers.

And I should just— not really a question, it's just a comment. Mm-hmm. Last weekend, someone did it 1 PM on a night, so I agree. And not middle of the day, work day. Yeah.

So what I'm kind of looking at right now is um, a pop-up swim, um, kind of thing where, um, what happens is we schedule a swim for family swim and it looks like this outside and nobody comes in. So having something when it's raining out or we can't do an outside activity, having a family swim after work, um, but a popup is something that we are toying around with. We can move schedule around so that we can accommodate that, because it is hard. Um, I like to be open consistently, but it is hard to have staffing somewhere where, um, everyone has the best intentions, but I don't blame anyone for not wanting to come inside when it's so— Do you have like a Plan A, Plan B? Like, Plan A is grassy field, Plan B is at the pool.

Yeah, yeah. So like, just seeing if people could be flexible with that, I think it's one of the ways that we're going to be able to just be open, you know, to everyone.

But there would be like consistent swim times mixed in with that, right? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I want to be on, you know, I want everyone to swim. And but I think it's the benefit of lap swimming, you know, like it's all of it. I really want everyone to come back and enjoy that.

So some people, it's the only exercise that they get, so, or can have because of any kind of disability. So Yeah, having something consistent and especially through the winter too. So, um, yeah, definitely family swim. I miss all the families that come in. So I'm missing.

Congrats. Full, filled with water. Thank you. I would— I had a great crew behind me, people that wouldn't give up. So super cool.

It took me a long time to say, is it healthy? Am I going to tell everyone? You know, like, how many drops of water have left it? But it was great. They came— Renosis came in and they did a spectacular job.

And to that, um, I— we had that budget amendment. The city council did a budget amendment for $100,000. Um, we're about— they came in really low. Their estimate just to come into town was $9,000, just to come in here. Um, and they charged us around $13,000, which is very low.

I was very happy that You know, they knew. I just felt like they were helping us out with that. So we're at about 50,000 around, give or take, because the boiler stuff is coming out of that too. So that's how much we've used since they did the budget amendment. So, but again, the boiler.

50 Of the 100 around. Yeah, since, since they did it. So you'll see that they do an update on the budget this week, some of it coming out of professional services and some of it, um, with the boiler line item.

And what is— have— has there been like a decision made on people who bought passes last year, this year, like what that's all going to look like? There hasn't been a decision made on it officially. Um, where I stand right now is if someone needs to come in and, um, they have bought a pass for that time and need it back, the money back, I understand that we'll try to work with people. Um, the reality is if we give all of that back, um, then it just really shortens— like, I don't know if we'd be able to stay open. Like, it would just be coming out of— and the city is not in a great position right now, so And it's like next year is going to be even harder.

So, um, but I understand that it is. So I encourage people to come talk to me about it, and I want to— it definitely is not ideal situation. Yeah, I could see not necessarily giving refunds, but like if people really needed it, rolling something forward. Yeah, or just saying like you can come in You know, so yeah, yeah, I'm, I'm open to it all. I just can't give— I don't think the city right now could give all of it back for the year.

So hopefully we'll have an official, more official decision made once it's actually open, is when I'm gonna really be able to tackle a lot of this stuff.

So, um, the other thing was I just wanted to update everyone on Skater's Cabin. So We had first we had $12,744 since we started the match grant with the Cordova Community Foundation. So it's still going. We're almost there. It's great.

I have reached out to— so Shay Bowman from Rural Cap reached out to me and said that she might have someone that could help with the cabin, just designing it. It was Alaska Insulated Panels. So over the past few months I've been meeting with them and we, I signed a contract last week to get designs made for it. So we had enough in the funding to have that happen. So they should be, they're at 65%.

I have a meeting with them on Friday. It's a pretty simple design. They build a lot of cabins all over Alaska. They're out of Wasilla. They, uh, it's SIP paneling.

We talked about that before. So just like what the Baptist Church is, um, it's to code. Uh, at the end of it, um, the last phase is picking what it will look like. Right now we're just talking about the internal parts about how many outlets, how many doors, what, what does it have to be. Um, so right now it's looking like the same size as theaters like we talked about with a deck on the front.

A covered deck on the front and a door in the front too. So it would have two doors at the driveway, so ADA accessible. So I'm excited to show those plans to everybody when we get them. I think it will get everyone excited to, you know, move forward with this. And they also helped with picking a foundation, which other places weren't really helpful with.

The environmental part is done.

You know, they were just very helpful. So it's just post and pad and it comes with a foundation too. And the directions on how to put it together. So what is, what are we calling the front now? Lake side?

Road side? I call it front lake side. Okay. Not the original front door, right? There's still going to be that.

There's going to be, well, yeah, there'll be a door on the roadside, like the back. Well, like, there'll be a door where there was one in the old cabin, right? So it's, you know, here and here. Okay. But the main deck will be like— it's gonna— right, yep.

And it's gonna still wrap around. Oh, cool. Yeah, for this side too. So very exciting. Very plain inside.

So, you know, it's just going to be similar to what it was, maybe a little bit better lighting. They asked about that, so I guess like, so, uh, yeah, it was really exciting to make, you know, get that happening. Um, but yeah, if you could still— we're just doing the fundraising for it and moving forward, but it will at least— you'll have a picture of it. I have designs for it. So, so Post and Pad on Phil, um, is what they can read.

It's kind of a lot cheaper than, um, other. Um, we've just been really busy in Parks and Rec too. I hope you guys had, uh, time to look through this. And, um, we're just doing a lot of things. Mike has been very busy, Ron's been very busy, we all have been.

But yeah, getting everything up and going. Um, we are at, uh, at ODAC. I know that's been looking a little like no one's been staying there. We have had quite a few people off and on staying there. I think I'm really excited for next year when they put the— when they do the upgrades to Whiteshed with a bike path through there, because we do get a lot of calls of how do you get from the ferry to the campground.

So it's going to alleviate, like, I think some of that. And I just think it's a great resource for the town. I love Odyak and I just want to keep building on it. So, and then keep investing in it. So I think that the weather also played a huge part in people not camping too.

So we had people book and then not show up, a lot of them for rain reasons. And we really can't refund for rain in Cordova, unfortunately. So yeah. So those are the big updates that I wanted to give. And I just wanted to ask if you guys have any questions about anything.

So much going on. Grace texted me too, but okay, I'll just say it right then. I don't care. Uh, one of her questions was, do you know or have any idea of like what the fall/winter staffing hours will be at the dark?

Probably similar to last year, um, where we closed a little bit earlier once everyone starts going away to college. And our numbers start dropping. We are, you know, I keep saying this, it has been rebalancing temp staff funding. And so even changing our schedule so that we can stay open, but also there's not a lot of people late later in the day. So yeah, they'll be similar to last winter where we close at 7.

And her last question, which I think you kind of answered already, the pool, but was there any potential for having adult volunteers on Sundays, the families and kids go together? Oh, volunteers on Sundays. Yeah, I know we spoke about that. I have talked to the insurance with that, and I don't think it's going to be an option. It would be— I mean, if they opened it up at Badarki, it would be like opening up the library on Sundays if a volunteer came in.

It's a city building and they're just not open if they're not open. So that's really what, you know, it's the only place that you're like that. So, um, yeah, something else I wanted to— I'm sorry, before you would take me. Any other questions? Um, with the master plan happening, is there going to be more public meetings about that?

Yes. Oh, thank you. I don't even remember when it was done last. Yeah. Yeah.

So we have one more. We have one, one more community meeting with Fortis, and they'll schedule that. Right now, the master plan is set to be finished in November. I meet with them biweekly with Sam Greenwood, the city manager, and we're just having some really great discussions. It's very exciting.

They've, they've rescoped it for just facilities for Badarki and the pool to be together. And they have already ruled out that we can't— they wanted to rule out that we— it wouldn't fit at the Badarki location. And it does not fit at the Badarki location. But it does fit at the pool, current pool location. So right now what we're going over is ADA accessibility.

More the technical parts of it, not the— where the offices are really going to be located, but what we want to see. We did ask them to put in a track above the pool and the gym, a walking track. So it was exciting to see that built into it. Yeah, it was, you know, like seeing the drawings for the first time was like, I think I'm just excited for the future here about that. And I think we can There's going to be a lot of discussion about it, but it, we really need to think about what that looks like in grant funding.

And Sam's been amazing with helping with that. So, you know, what grants can we get to fund this? But it's going to be a lot. Then right now what we're working on is how much it's costing to run both these facilities and how much this new facility will cost day to day. So this is a combination gym pool.

Sorry. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, it's going to cost less day to day. We're spending a lot of money on these facilities.

We're heating them, we're inefficiently heating them. Been in the darkie lately. Can't turn off the heat. And I don't have showers. So it's just a lot of like, you know, wasteful.

Energy. So yeah, and the pool too. So everything's a lot newer, even newer things are more energy efficient. And even for maintenance too, just cuts down on maintenance. So all those numbers they asked for, I gave them to them so they, they can crunch them and see how much it's going to cost for the new facility, uh, to run, uh, you know, and have it so that we can run it if we can maintain it sustainably, which is a huge part of my push for it.

So yeah, I'm excited about the master plan, and we'll have a mug up for, you know, we'll have Corvus.

Have you heard back from the rural healthcare grant at all? I did not. Well, I heard back from them that we did not get it. Oh, okay. Yeah.

I haven't heard of any, like, Cordova projects. Uh, uh, um, the hospital and the— and that the fire department got one as well. Okay, cool. Yeah, I'm super excited. But they got invited to apply.

So of the— okay, it's either 1,400 or 1,800 applications. It was like less than half were selected, um, to apply in the second round, but it doesn't necessarily mean you got it. And it's supposed to be spent by this fall, but nobody's even been notified that they've been awarded. So it's, it's a lot. There's more information about it in the hospital board packet.

Yeah. Which is smart. But yeah. They did. It's exciting for them, but it does sound like it's a crunch time for them.

It's like going to be a heavy lift to get the funds spent and like things executed in the timeframe that the federal government's requiring. But yeah, yeah, it's wild. I visited the ACF office a couple months ago and they like expanded their whole office to like this other part of the building to hire all the people that they had to hire just to handle that funding. It was like, whoa, it's a lot. Wow.

Tough. And then they're supposed to open up the second round by the end of the year when they have even done the first round. Yeah, they've been biting off a lot. They're wonderful. I like everybody that works at the ACF, but they're They'll do a lot.

Yeah, they were really great to deal with. I mean, like, talk to them for a bit and they were really great. So now I'm happy for everyone that they get into a second round or get into it. But I— um, but maybe for the next, right? Yeah.

Okay. Oh yeah. And like, with all this too, it, um, it takes time, but, uh, having the master plan is just Really great to be like, hey, we have this plan, we're almost ready. So it's good. Hopefully the time put into that application was helpful with the information in Corvus.

But I've had like grants I don't get, I'm like, oh, is that consistent? Yeah, learning trust. And, um, right, so speaking of grants though, I know I'm just asking if you guys have questions, but I did want to hit on the topic that if anyone knows of any grants for travel, we did get our travel budget cut, which is across the board for the city. And we really learn so much from going to ARPAO, which is the Alaska Parks and Rec Association conference. And then there's one in Pennsylvania, and then there's another one that's in— for just aquatics on building new pools kind of thing.

We also get a lot of training done. For instance, This year at ARPA, there's a grant writing course that you can attend before the conference starts. So we can apply for grants through ARPA. They have them, but it's not enough to actually go to it when you add in all the travel. So Jake, Jake and I and Micah usually go.

I really like to send Jake. It does. It gets everyone together in Alaska. There's a lot of great parks in Alaska. So, and we just, you know, it's nice to learn.

So it was hard to have that travel budget cut, but we understand. But the grants are also limited. And yeah, some people just know where to find something. Shoot me an email. We know all that.

I want to get Jake at least out here. Anyway, questions?

The Snack Shack got siding on one side. What's the latest on the Snack Shack? So the Snack Shack got siding on one side. Yes, uh, we have all the siding. I believe someone donated it.

Um, Aaron Hanson had one day of, uh, from his work that he could volunteer, um, paid by his work, um, and he volunteered to do it with Micah. Um, so that's why one side is done. They did it on that side and of course things got busy, so it is on our priority list after the pool that kind of had been taking up a lot and mowing and all the things. So, and yeah, so we did get new appliances for the snack shack, so they're all in there. So, you know, anyone wants to have any kind of fundraiser, and the Little League's done with it for the season.

So I encourage anyone to donate if they want to.

The siding is great to have that at least on one side, so, and then make a plan for the future. What, you know, it's an old building. We are getting new doors on it too. I did order those. Just to spruce, you know, the doors for looking kind of fun.

Yeah. Any other questions? Uh, oops.

Okay. I just want to thank you guys for— I know we haven't met for a long time. I know that I had surgery and I wasn't feeling good and Um, also last month, like, everyone was doing amazing things. So each of you that were off and running, and I thought that was great. That's what we do in the summer.

There wasn't anything on the pending agenda. And, um, you know, of course I want to meet and have it ready, but we gotta live our lives too. So I just thank you for being patient with me too with that. So yeah, hopefully we'll keep going. Oh, and happy Parks and Recreation Month.

Yeah, we've been celebrating that all month, so pretty cool. You guys tired of our videos? They're going to be done soon. Now this is on Facebook, so yeah, I just thank you for all your support.

Fantastic. It doesn't look like we have any new business. Is there any commission business from the floor? More comments from the audience? Stephen?

Or planning agenda items? Yeah, if you have anything on— if you want to put anything on there. We need to think about like a fall meeting with Little League to talk about next year's— I've reached out to them to set a meeting. I haven't heard back from them. Hopefully I'll hear back.

Yes, because I do want to have a community— even like, you know, community where we do some things with that too, like with the fields or, um, you know, where the community volunteers. That helps boost things up a little bit. But yeah, meeting with them is definitely on my list. I've reached out to them a couple times now for that, for city council, to see if they wanted to be part of that. And have you talked to the high school at all?

Because I've like heard rumors that they're looking at remodeling or a new high school and potentially including a pool in that, and I just wasn't sure. The last, um, I've not heard from them in a little while. I did had talked to Alex like maybe last year about it, but the— they were at a different funding point than we were, um, with building a new school, or kind of we were a little bit ahead of what, what they were. And, um, it's a lot to look into. There's a lot of different scenarios of putting school together kind of thing.

And so yeah, we just weren't at the same stage with each other with funding. So yeah, they haven't reached out recently though, so I'm not sure if they are still on that plan or not. Side note, no relation to anything we're talking about, but it's okay to keep other ideas for like, since you're talking about pop-ups. Yeah. Another idea that I've heard from people and I've just seen done, it's like family baseball night.

You can like, you know, pay to play, $5. You can play, like actually play a game as a family. There's people on the baseball field all the time. You can, you know, like we drive by the baseball field and hope to see other people there so that we can play. Yeah.

We'll leave it on like a nice day, you know. I think that too. That's a great idea. Cause we are that more teen and adult. Yeah.

Baseball nights too, just cause they don't really have a place to play either. Um, This time of year we do a lot better. I'm not gonna turn the question back on you guys with, do you think that would be better for drop-in or something to sign up for? Because right now drop-in is kind of where it's at. Yeah, I drop in and I think kind of like pop up or looking at the lettercast.

Yeah, yeah. Like, hey, Thursday night looks like a great time. Thanks, play ball, 5 o'clock.

Yeah, they love it. Kickball would be fun. Yeah, we've had kickball a few times, but, um, yeah, I think we also have a lot of lacrosse stuff from Megan, so they gave us all equipment, um, lacrosse, so we can play that too on the basketball field. It's beneficial to have things that the adults have. It keeps moving, uh, you know, nice together.

Yeah, I love that idea. Thank you. If you guys have any ideas, let us know.

And if there are no other topics, I would, uh, do I need a motion to adjourn? I can't remember. Can motion to adjourn— is there Motion to adjourn. Second. Second.

We will adjourn the meeting at 6:29.

Well done.