Fort Wayne Parks & Recreation Department - Staff Report - March 10, 2021 through to April 13, 2021 Steve McDaniel - Director We received proposals from several teams regarding the design phase of Franke Park’s Phase 1 Plan. We are forming an evaluation team to go through all of the proposals. It is our hope to have a recommendation for approval at the May Park Board meeting. The Board of Health and Parkview Hospital have reached out to us about the possibility of housing a vaccine site at McMillen Park’s Community Center for three days. They are trying to make it easier for access to residents in Southeast Fort Wayne. April 13-15 the four basketball courts on the east side of the building will be just for the vaccine. They are projecting to dispense about 200 of the Moderna vaccines each day. The staff of the Botanical Conservatory celebrated this year’s volunteers with a virtual program. Many of volunteers joined via Zoom to celebrate the many hours that were giving to the facility in 2020. It is our hope that next years event will be back in person. I am working with a committee of other city departments on a regional trail called the Poka-Bache Trail. This trail system will connect Pokagon State Park in Steuben County with Ouabache State Park in Bluffton. This is part of the DNR’s State Visionary Trail system. We will be hosting a regional meeting later this month with key stakeholders in hopes of starting a coalition to be able to complete this trail system. I am participating in two virtual IPRA events in April. The first is geared towards college age students to show them all of the possibilities of a career in Parks and Recreation. The second is a joint Northern and Southern District meeting discussing all types of topics. We have filed our permits with Excise for the three golf courses. This should take a little bit of time before we hear back from them. In the meantime, we will continue to finalize our internal procedures. The Mayor has extended the wearing of mask and social distancing for the next few months in all of our facilities. This will also impact our programs and events. The staff are putting their final touches on planning for several of our summer programs. New requirement and best practices because of COVID have changed our typical programs. They have done a tremendous job of being flexible and creative in their methods. On March 31st, we held a press conference/ribbon cutting ceremony at the Community Center dedicating our AARP Fitness Park. This project was a donated by AARP as part of their 60th anniversary. Over the last few weeks, we have been able to coordinate being on the morning news for several different topics. It started with promoting that we have seasonal positions to fill within the department. The second was for the programming at the Botanical Conservatory of bunny tails and other Easter related activities. The last was promoting our golfing at our courses as well as seasonal position within golf. We are working with Fort Wayne Community Schools on two projects at Bob Arnold Northside Park. The first is renovations to the tennis courts next to Parnell Ave. The second project is improvements to the softball diamond in the northeast corner of the park off of Charlotte Ave. Both of these projects are slated for improvements later this year. 1 Fort Wayne Parks & Recreation Department - Staff Report - March 10, 2021 through to April 13, 2021 Chuck Reddinger – Deputy Director, Riverfront, Golf, Outdoor Recreation, Athletics, Special Events, Headwaters Park, Community Center (Downtown), Travel Service General Worked with Glorious Gates Rowing (G2) for an agreement for the installation of a dock at Shoaff Park. Staff are reviewing latest COVID guidelines from the Governor Holcomb, Allen County Department of Health and City of Fort Wayne to review potential impacts on programs, rentals and events. Staff or working on hiring staff for seasonal positions. The most need in in aquatics, and the pre- school youth program. Travel Bus Trips will resume in June with the requirement that passengers must provide proof of vaccination to allow passengers to safely sit within 6ft of each other. Community Center/PS Youth/ Athletics Cornhole League started this month with 12 people. Staff worked on new rental brochure for meetings and conferences. Virtual classes (exercise & yoga) averaging about 35 participants per week on zoom Positively Fort Wayne with Terra Brantly of WANE TV highlighted the Community Center twice this month. March 15 episode highlighted Spring Programming and the March 29 episode looked at the Alley Kats tap program. FitLot Ribbon Cutting was Wednesday March 31st at 10am Golf We got the golf courses open and staggered the openings in the following order: McMillen, Shoaff and Foster. We mainly chose McMillen and Shoaff first due to high school and middle school teams playing at those two courses. The play has been mixed due to normal spring weather. A couple of days it’s really nice and then it’s cold and rainy. Overall the patrons have been really glad that the courses are open and that they can be playing! We obtained a PO to purchase 24 new Club Car golf carts. This is another step in the process of updating and standardizing our fleet at all three courses. Not only does it help make the carts interchangeable, it is huge for customer service and the overall experience. The department received many compliments on the new additions at Foster in 2020. Staffing is a work in progress. We are getting an adequate amount of applications but the issue is that that majority are still either teaching or in school. So, their hours of availability are limited until they are out. Once summer arrives the courses will be fully staffed. The problem will come back again in August when they go back. This has always been an issue and will continue to be. We will continue to recruit throughout the summer to hopefully lessen the staffing gaps in the fall. Aquatics We were able to get two lifeguard instructors trained for the upcoming season. This is huge because it allows us to do our own in-house training and not rely on outside agencies to provide 2 Fort Wayne Parks & Recreation Department - Staff Report - March 10, 2021 through to April 13, 2021 it. It also allows us to continue weekly specialized safety training. Our number one goal is always to keep the patrons safe. Due to the pools being closed in the summer of 2020 all of our existing lifeguards are considered “new”. This means that they will have to go through the full three- day course as opposed to the one-and-a-half-day refresher. This training will be more time consuming but an additional layer of safety. Outdoor Recreation Salomon Farm Park rental open houses were held March 14 and 18 for current and potential renters to have an opportunity to check out rental facilities, talk to rental staff, and sign agreements (12 people attended on March 14th and 1 person on the 18th). Johnny Appleseed Campground Opens 15 April. As of 17 March, there are 15 RV sites booked for opening weekend. Several zoom and virtual programs were held in March including “All About Rain Gardens” Master Gardener Series with Martha Ferguson (Free program-16 registered), “Pollinator Gardens” Master Gardener Series with Pam Snyder (Free program-20 registered), and “Beauty of Square Foot Gardening” with Rick Kemery (20 registered) Electricity is being added to chicken and duck coops at Salomon. Work to begin last week of March at Johnny Appleseed Campground. The project is moving 3 electric pedestals and boring fiber optic to improve Wi-Fi access. Margo Nussbaum (Farm Supervisor) is refurbishing pasture animal shelters; removing tin siding and replacing with free wood milled at SFP (from park trees) during Fall Harvest Fest. More comfortable for animals, provides better shelter from elements and animals can get out of sight of visitors. Using the untreated wood provided rustic aesthetic to match 1930s theme. Roy Fike, tractor club member, also donated more than $1000 worth of lumber for the project. Riverfront Our rentals have continued to increase significantly, both in number and scope. We have added a second rental coordinator and have continued to refine our booking processes, marketing, and cross-training with staff to ensure consistent customer service for all renters in Promenade Park. Caps for a Cause was held in March with 23 in attendance. This was our first step back into regular public programming for 2021. We had a great event with solid turnout and participation. This is part of our ongoing collaboration with the Vance family. This particular program asks the public to donate recycled plastic bottle caps and together we turn them into murals which we will auction off later this year. We have VERY exciting news coming out soon about future items related to this programming. We received coverage from WPTA, Wane TV, and the Journal Gazette on Sunday for this event. We are also working hard on ramping up our summer programming which includes an expanded River, Set, Go which incorporates the FW Dragon Boat Races, a concert series, a free children’s science education series, more sensory friendly programming, and more recreation programming. Additionally, we have been working hard to increase collaborative programming with other organizations, including the Allen County Public Library, YLNI, Chinese Friends and 3 Fort Wayne Parks & Recreation Department - Staff Report - March 10, 2021 through to April 13, 2021 Family, various chess clubs, and much more.