Go Enjoy your freedom locally on Independence Day!

MTG SUMMARY:
Attendees: 

Parks & Rec. - Joe Huff

Alcoa City Manager's Office -  Jeremy Pearson

Maryville City Managers Office - Absent ...... again.

Resident & Local Biz - Dave Pomella

/Text below is paraphrased./

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The goal and primary need right now is to determine a location for an actions sports venue for both skateboarding & bmx.

We should focus on creative ways to realize a near term park.

• Interim build *(wood and skatelite constructed obstacles with donated labor & material quick, dirty, cheap etc) (Dave)
  

We also need to continue to plan for a long term design & build *(poured concrete, professional design firm, 3 yr plan, Big $, etc).  (Dave)




I.  WHERE CAN WE PUT DONATED OBSTACLES - EITHER PURCHASED OR MATERIAL DONATION & VOLUNTEER LABOR ?

(Interim Modular or Stick Build park obstacles on a slab (Joule St. or other)

     City, Morristown, and Crossville have all built small skate-parks
     in the last 5 years

• These areas have less residents and tax revenue than  Maryville & Alcoa when viewed as an entity let alone Blount
  

           County as a whole. (Dave).

• 75 -80% of the replies to our web based petition are from      Maryville residents.  And it is about a 60/40 split between Skateboarding and BMX enthusiasts. (Dave)

      We really don't have a place.  Joule St. is really all that comes
     to mind as a location at this time.  We have not aquired land
     recently nor do we have budget to address the present shortfall of
     land.  Folks are also  seeking Disc Golf and Dog Trail areas that
     we cannot address at present. (Joe)

•        What about integrating a few obstacle areas in different parts

     of the Greenway as I illustrated on the Google Earth Plots?  (dave)

•      It is doubtfull that space in the Greenways could be used .  (Joe)

•      Were talking about 10 parking spaces and approximately 7500 sq' ft

     of land which can be integrated into any park where there is a
     desire to do so; benchmark the surrounding cities proves this.
     Most scenarios do not purchase additional land and try to leverage
     existing infrastructure (bathrooms, parking, etc ) in a
     pre-existing park. (dave)

•      Joule Street would be an ok location however Alcoa is interested

     in selling the property to commericial interests in the next 2 - 5
     years. Thus Long term potential is limited as one would have to
     have another location to move the obstacles to. (Team)

•      Annual coverage for an indoor or outdoor skateboard / bmx park

     regardless of obstacle construction is $1300 / $1550 per year
     contingent on annual participant estimate; supervised vs.
     unsupervised. (Dave)

•      Joule St. Tennis Court wood substructure & "Skatelite" surfaces

     with a skim coat estimated at approx. $55,000. (Dave)

 

•      Joule with  concrete modular obstacles (less in number than above)

     and resurfaced was quoted previously by Solo Tech to Parks and
     Rec. at $150,000.   Concrete preferred for noise reduction and low
     maintainence cost (Joe).

   *

     The noise range for ambient noise 30 - 50 ft away from the park
     72dB for concrete vs. 78dB for a stickbuild.  A neighbors
     lawnmower is about 85-90db. (dave)

         o ->  source: http://www.spausa.org/noise-skateparks.html

•      We need to pick a location prior to soliciting private sector

     donations via a 501c that is being formed.  One cannot ask for $
     without have a Good Faith Commitment that we will break ground
     from the cities and Parks and Rec.  (dave).

*II.  Go Skateboarding Day Event*

•      Discussion relative to a Single Day Event with obstacles donate to County to remain in park rather than go into storage was discussed. (dave)

•      No go for temporary  obstacles insurance under Parks & Rec coverage ; the Parks and rec insurance provider "certified" build of obstacles;  (Joe)
  

•      The  issue here being there is no certifying body or spec. to  "officially" build to rather industry rules of thumb as building, playground and transportation codes do not address such venue's  construction. (dave)
  

•    * Playground companies are getting in the business due to profitability and quote playground or astm spec.'s that do not apply.  Also; costs tend to be 3x higher than companies that are owned and run as skate park only design and build contractors. (Dave)

•  No data as to how Maryville covered prev. wood obstacles in a city  park in the 90's other than typical municipal insurance coverage obatained through the state of TN cities risk pool. (joe & dave)

•  Quote received  for a Single Day Event Coverage for $1M Liability  and Participant Medical Coverage (Up to $10k) would be  $450. (dave).
  

• An event approval process and application would be necessary and

•      Saturday may be better than Monday relative to traffic and business operations in the area. (Jeremy) &
  

 CONCLUSION - Go to Back Up Plan for an event (dave)


*III.  Next Mtg.  late June - Discuss proposals from Cities and County as to location *

• Joe to call and arrange* this meeting.

• Maryville representation required *this time around in order to  gain further traction and get pespective on what the city can offer as a proposed location.
  

Dave to research the number of local skateboarding tickets cited
     in the past few years along with revenue vs. cost analysis.


Additional Refrence Material avail. @
http://www.blountskateandbicylepark.org

SPRING 2010 Joint Parks & Rec. Mtg

Dave presented an updated presentation relative to statistics, costs and proposals studied to date for a skateboard / BMX park venue in Blount County. (see the presentation on the Proposals & Presentations Tab in this site).

The presentation was designed to baseline the larger audience of 10 or so folks from Alcoa, Maryville, and Blount Parks and Rec. 

To construct a medium sized park approx. 7500 ft^2 based on the population it would suppoart and use a poured concrete approach would require  land + approx. $300k.

Alternatively a stick build with SKATELITE surfacing would be 1/3 of the capital cost and quicker to build however it would requires regular maintenance and re-surfacing would have to be budgeted for in 3-5 years.  

Secondly a discussion relative to locking land and budgeting for a park was discussed.  

A representative from Alcoa indicated that a four way split on costing between, Alcoa, Maryville, Blount and the private sector is not likely as park projects to date have been proportioned on population not necessarily tax $ base of business and residents. 

Joe Huff, dir. for Blount Parks and Rec. indicated that the budget forJun 2010 to Jun2011 was significantly less than previous years. 

"........it is likely that there will be no capital projects for county nor city parks and rec. this year, as the budget may be challenged to even cover day to day operations".

 

Dave indicated that it would be helpful if a " good faith" act such as a commitment of land in an existing park for the future building site of a skate/BMX park could be completed by the county and cities this spring prior to having a non-profit soliciting funds from the private and commercial sectors. 

"........one cannot really go out with fund raising activites saying we "hope" to build a park; rather one needs to be sure its going to get done.  Further it is best to break ground within the same fiscal year that the funds are collected from the private sector  (visibility of getting things done and tax purposes)."

Land required would need to be secured to support a 8k - 10k ft^2 obstacle area, have parking, bath amenities and bleacher seating  within an existing park's land plot.  

A phased execution was discussed as a means to reduce the cost of kicking off the project.

The site on Joule Street was again discussed but no decision was made.

The commitment of land and intent from the  cities and county is the "pending" objective for this spring.