[0:00] - Centre Region Parks and Recreation manages 56 municipal

[0:04] and regional parks.

[0:05] These beautiful parks offer amenities such as sports fields,

[0:08] rentable, picnic, pavilions, playgrounds, bike

[0:11] and walking trails and recreation facilities.

[0:14] Take some time to find your park

[0:15] and spend some time outdoors.

[0:17] Visit crpr.org for a list of park locations and amenities.

[0:22] - Attention Nonprofits of Centre County CNET can help

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[1:23] - You are watching CNET Center County's Government

[1:26] and Educational Access Network.

[1:32] - I to order the

[1:35] September 7th on 26th meeting

[1:38] of Centre Region Parks and Recreation.

[1:41] Ready? We need a vote. Vote.

[1:45] Call the other people online. Yes. Yes. Okay. Mr.

[1:50] Gracie Griffin. I am here.

[1:56] Ms. Black here.

[2:06] Oh, okay. Excuse me.

[2:11] Public comments. Members of the public are invited

[2:14] to comment on any items not already on the agenda.

[2:18] We do have a three minute per person time limit

[2:21] comments relating to specific items on the agenda should be

[2:25] deferred to that point in the meeting.

[2:27] Submitted comments will be read into their record

[2:30] by the secretary.

[2:34] Does that any, anyone have any agenda items?

[2:42] So we do have some announcements regarding Halloween.

[2:47] The grade is going to be on Sunday, October 30.

[2:52] Line is at 6:30 PM on Treasure Street.

[2:55] That's begins at seven

[3:02] citing fall news, as is the trick or treat.

[3:05] Night announcement.

[3:07] Again, Patrick Trick treat will be held on Thursday,

[3:11] October 29th, 2026 through sixth o'clock.

[3:15] It shall be PM in the Participating Centre Region.

[3:18] Municipalities. We do have an an in climate weather date,

[3:23] which is Friday, October 30th, 2026.

[3:27] Not outstanding as a football or gotta do it early,

[3:30] but we're not gonna miss it.

[3:32] So, and we're also really pleased to welcome Sarah.

[3:37] I'm gonna say this wrong. Yep, we got it.

[3:41] I'm Sarah Will welcome.

[3:43] She's our newest step assistant at the Active Adult Center.

[3:48] You're gonna love it there. That really, really terrific.

[3:53] Okay, great. So, so thanks for

[3:57] for being with us.

[4:00] So we're gonna move on to the Consent Agenda.

[4:03] Say an action item. We have two items on the Consent Agenda.

[4:08] First one is the one, the approval of the minutes

[4:10] of the August 20th, 2026 joint meeting

[4:15] that we have with with Board Capital Committee

[4:18] and CA two, which is approval

[4:23] two says approval meet minutes again,

[4:25] but I think we're covered reports, so,

[4:29] so we will have those.

[4:31] I will entertain a motion

[4:33] that the Centre Region Parks Recreation Authority approve

[4:36] Consent Agenda as listed

[4:39] on the September 17th, 2026 Centre Region Park

[4:42] Recreation Authority agenda.

[4:46] I'll make the motion. Motion. Second. Second.

[4:51] All aye.

[4:55] Same sign. Okay.

[5:00] So we're gonna move on to the CRPR authority member reports.

[5:07] Let's start with the Proximity library ad hoc committee.

[5:13] So we met yesterday, so as a recap,

[5:17] a general forum established the ad hoc committee

[5:21] to determine vis to yes, leading parts

[5:25] of many.

[5:28] So making very good progress for final

[5:31] communications meeting yesterday focused on

[5:34] how better communication between elected officials,

[5:39] appointees, as well as governance bodies might resolve

[5:44] many of the conflicts, concerns that

[5:50] permanent standing committee would be meant to address.

[5:54] And as follow these, I'm gonna see, as well

[5:57] as the library director are working with the eligibility

[6:02] documents regarding the review of fiduciary responsibilities

[6:06] and as well as calls.

[6:12] Okay. Any, any questions for

[6:23] let's move on to report from Township

[6:27] or

[6:31] no report today?

[6:34] Okay. First, Harris Township.

[6:38] - The continuing s

[6:39] what we're doing in the Yoder Preserve goes on.

[6:42] Jim, I think you came out Boat again or about,

[6:44] and I haven't been down walking that area so I can't say

[6:48] for certain, but we do have two Penn State professors

[6:51] that are in the spring going to take a part the preserve

[6:56] and use it for our class.

[6:57] Hopefully not going in effort.

[6:59] And then in addition, we have

[7:01] local master naturalists working with Eric Oliver

[7:04] and cannot run for life base he works for,

[7:07] but he's really doing a strategic plan, looking at funds

[7:10] that we can get for maintenance, which I know is kind

[7:13] of the biggest lift, trying to move base.

[7:16] But he's pretty excited about the project.

[7:18] We're pretty excited about the project

[7:19] and it continues to, to make forward progress.

[7:24] - Okay. Sounds good.

[7:30] Any questions from Chris? And let's move on to Pat.

[7:36] Great. So nothing to record here from the board Supervisors

[7:40] on, on this past Tuesday

[7:45] had recreation advisory committee.

[7:48] We had bought Wall to work, so we went to surgical park

[7:54] as well as to park to see playground equipment.

[7:57] That's summer as well

[8:00] as practice review project.

[8:03] Thanks again.

[8:10] Great. Sounds good.

[8:12] Any questions for For right? None.

[8:16] Let's move on to the state college party school district.

[8:19] Jack,

[8:22] - Nothing really much to report

[8:26] the school years off to a good start.

[8:29] And thank you to Patton Township as we continue to work

[8:33] with them and getting the

[8:36] Park Forest Middle School construction up and going.

[8:39] That's about it.

[8:42] - Okay, thanks. Any questions for Jen?

[8:48] You're on to Burrow.

[8:50] - Nothing new.

[8:51] - Nothing new. Wow. Has anything ever happen happened?

[8:55] Oh yeah, I'm fine. I'm teasing. Teasing.

[9:00] Okay. And for College Township,

[9:04] we did not meet in September, so I do not have the report

[9:08] and report from the parks governance liaison.

[9:13] We did meet in August

[9:16] and we reviewed the authority bylaws

[9:19] and voted to, to send the bylaws to

[9:23] which people talk about today.

[9:25] So that was one thing that we talked about.

[9:29] And the other thing we talked about was the,

[9:31] we reviewed again the draft numbering agreement

[9:35] for maintenance agreement

[9:37] and decided to forward that to the comment

[9:42] to the director.

[9:44] I wanna say I just saw a, an email today that said

[9:48] by October 2nd.

[9:52] So we're waiting till October. Get comments.

[9:55] Yeah, hit the streets this morning. Okay. For the minutes.

[9:59] So, okay. We're looking to have October. Okay.

[10:03] I just wanna make sure that I, that I have everything right.

[10:06] Okay. Thanks Scott.

[10:08] Okay, so that, and that's it for Authority Reports

[10:13] and move onto agency reports.

[10:15] So we're gonna start ing Hi.

[10:18] - So obviously this isn't our typical setup

[10:21] but as you can see we are in budget season

[10:23] and this is where we have been for the past two weeks.

[10:25] So we've been working through budget.

[10:29] I'm gonna speak for Melissa. That's basically our report is

[10:32] that we've been knee deep in budget presentations,

[10:34] running numbers, and trying to get questions answered

[10:38] to anything that came up

[10:39] during the finance committee meetings.

[10:41] They've had four workshops this morning was the last one.

[10:44] They were reviewed our request items,

[10:46] which I can share a little bit more once we get in into

[10:49] the budget discussions.

[10:52] I do have one thing to point your attention to.

[10:55] In addition to what Jen was saying at Circle Park

[10:58] regarding the school, there's a full road closure

[11:01] that remains through.

[11:03] It starts October 19th through November 6th

[11:07] and this is on Little Lion Drive, which is the,

[11:13] - What's the road?

[11:14] - No, that's - Escaping

[11:17] - Valley Vista.

[11:18] Valley Vista. And the Lion Drive that side

[11:21] of the park will be closed for that period of time.

[11:24] But you can still get to

[11:25] - On the upper side - If you've driven down the road,

[11:28] you've seen that there's construction

[11:31] - But - They are staying in touch with us

[11:33] and trying to give us updates.

[11:34] So we'll be putting those on our website as well so

[11:37] that people can stay informed about that.

[11:40] I also wanted to share, we had some

[11:44] questions on long chemicals

[11:46] and we've been addressing questions kind of as they've come,

[11:50] but right now we'll take them as they come

[11:53] and if anybody has questions, we're gonna be posting

[11:56] information regarding chemical inspections

[11:59] and our requirements.

[12:00] 'cause we have certified pesticide applicators on staff.

[12:05] We're gonna post that information on the website

[12:07] so people are concerned or curious about what we do.

[12:11] We will have that information available on

[12:13] - Mostly that's all I have.

[12:17] Okay. Well me chemical information will be interesting.

[12:21] I've seen people asking questions.

[12:28] That's one of the reasons our parts are as low the,

[12:41] we either be overgrown or we have grasp.

[12:45] I make the choice. Okay, thank you.

[12:48] Any budgets request,

[12:52] let's move on to Melissa.

[12:56] - Kristy gave our dual dual report today, so thank you.

[12:59] I've been assisting

[13:00] - Preparing for the, okay.

[13:03] Okay, you're off. Okay.

[13:07] How about what's going on? On public bars? Yeah,

[13:12] - They are very busy.

[13:14] Falls Falls with us. The fall forces all started up.

[13:21] We fields all cleaned up

[13:24] and we maintained some of those field far.

[13:30] We use those to compensate us for that.

[13:36] We keep busy with that.

[13:37] We have had zero slow down on grass mowing, so

[13:41] there's actually brushing us.

[13:44] Typically we begin to slow down.

[13:49] That hasn't,

[13:54] we'll help the two larger trail out there to through those.

[14:00] Hopefully by the end of this we

[14:05] bit a play on right now.

[14:08] They have hopeful

[14:13] continue busy, still have a

[14:18] manager position that we're still working on

[14:21] and we are hired seasonals so.

[14:26] - Right. Good. Well thank you for all you do.

[14:29] We certainly do appreciate that.

[14:32] So any questions for Jim?

[14:37] Hearing none, let's move on to more active etal.

[14:40] Erika, good afternoon. So we are gearing up for fall.

[14:44] We have next Sunday we still have some spots open.

[14:48] We're having a fall snack of paint on Sunday, September 27th

[14:52] of the active adult center.

[14:53] I personally will be teaching a class, it's not been

[14:57] to adults and for an accompanying child for the age of 12

[15:04] that we're working on fundraising efforts

[15:07] for our tacular venue events and help Friday, October 16th.

[15:11] So to all ages currently have sponsorships from

[15:16] complete floor covering of Lemont, house, family services

[15:19] and weapons that all.

[15:22] So we've got some great prize in cash the way that thing.

[15:26] And then we're just working on gearing up

[15:29] for some fun activities for October.

[15:31] How already going to seek help. Five months.

[15:38] Okay. Sounds great. You're keeping all of us older folks

[15:43] busy, which is trying, which is wonderful.

[15:46] Okay. Any, any, any questions for Erika?

[15:50] Hearing none, let's find out what's happening out at Susan.

[15:55] - Sure. Yes.

[15:56] Just we have launched our whole programming,

[15:59] as I mentioned last time, everything going smoothly.

[16:03] There are a couple desk up the public may be interested in

[16:06] Center Outdoors, which is associated

[16:09] with Clearwater Conservancy is offering some free walks

[16:13] to the public at Millbrook Marsh this coming Sunday the 20th

[16:17] at both one and 3:00 PM

[16:19] and also Thursday at 9:00 AM So if you're interested in

[16:23] going on guided Walk's,

[16:25] checking out March, we'd love to see you.

[16:27] Also, our third WA three third wa, the State Village

[16:31] Third Club has started.

[16:32] Those are Tuesday mornings at 8:00 AM

[16:35] and they are every Tuesday through

[16:37] - October twenties. Interested

[16:39] - In about birding beginners

[16:42] and more experienced at life are all welcome.

[16:45] And then I did mention last time as well

[16:47] that we had an Eagle Scout project that was in the works

[16:50] and that has now wrapped up.

[16:52] So Carmen de Police, who's from TRO 32 Complet,

[16:56] her Eagle Scout project, which was a four in compost system

[17:00] that behind our coordinator garden.

[17:03] And this project continued the tradition

[17:05] of community stewardship

[17:06] because the original compost was put,

[17:09] compost system was put in by a Girl Scout

[17:14] in 2019 as part for Global Award.

[17:17] So we now have an upgraded system.

[17:20] We're very grateful for

[17:22] S there.

[17:28] - Okay, great. Have the, we saw pictures yesterday of the,

[17:32] the advisory committee.

[17:34] - Yes. Yes. - It looks nice.

[17:36] I haven't over any questions

[17:40] for Susan going on?

[17:45] Let's hear from Todd about the pools. Well, the

[17:49] - Pool's closed for the season

[17:51] last week on September 7th at the end of the day.

[17:54] So we are already starting to wind things down.

[17:59] This past Sunday we had our annual paws,

[18:02] a Palooza dog swim at Park Forest Pool.

[18:04] We had 102 dogs attend for that.

[18:07] That's always a, a singular day of joy at the pools

[18:10] to see all those dogs running around and swimming.

[18:13] Other than that, we're coordinating fall rentals at the

[18:16] pools, fall swimming and diving lessons.

[18:18] We'll start at the high school next week

[18:21] and we are evaluating our facilities, equipment, staff,

[18:24] and programs for 2027

[18:26] because the pools will open again in 253 days.

[18:31] - Two. It's pretty amazing.

[18:34] Okay, well thank, thank you for that on that report

[18:37] and I'm, I, I'm sure the, the dogs had a wonderful time.

[18:41] I know they do every year, so Yeah. Good.

[18:44] Tell us how many days?

[18:47] 253, 2 Oh, I didn't hear.

[18:50] Well the only reason I know

[18:52] that is because I just wrote it down.

[18:53] Otherwise I would've, any questions for Todd?

[19:00] Okay. Hearing on, let's move on to Beth

[19:03] and see what's going on, on in our recreation class.

[19:07] - Thank you. Event-wise, we had our

[19:10] so long Summer splash on, in, in at the end of August.

[19:15] And so we had 88 participants come out

[19:17] and watch Sonic the Hedgehog on our inflatable screen at

[19:21] Park Forest Pool, which was a great time

[19:24] and a good way to, we wrap up this summer.

[19:26] We also had our fall feet 5K

[19:29] last Saturday on September 12th at Circleville Park.

[19:33] We had 156 racers, which was a great turnout for us.

[19:37] The weather was wonderful. I'd love

[19:39] to thank all the volunteers from the staff

[19:42] and also Gamma Sigma Sigma sorority on campus.

[19:46] And then we, we did have some sponsorships,

[19:48] which was Ki Kissinger Bigot Tell

[19:50] and Brower Realtors as our gold sponsor in the corner room.

[19:54] And Texas Roadhouse also gave us some prizes

[19:56] and some cash towards the event.

[19:58] So that definitely helped make it a success.

[20:01] And we ended up raising a little over a thousand dollars

[20:04] for the Youth Scholarship program.

[20:05] So that's always a, a good thing.

[20:09] We will have our makeup touch a truck on Saturday,

[20:12] the 3rd of October at State College Alliance

[20:16] Church from 10 to one.

[20:18] And then the Halloween parade, as it's been mentioned,

[20:20] will be Sunday, October 25th with a six 30 lineup,

[20:25] 7:00 PM step off.

[20:27] And other than that, we have programs up and running

[20:30] and we have some new offerings

[20:32] for programming as we go through the fall.

[20:36] - Okay, sounds great as usual. Thank you.

[20:40] - Thank you. - Any questions for Beth? Okay.

[20:45] And last but not least, our sports supervisor.

[20:48] Jeff, what's going on?

[20:50] - Hi, I apologize. My camera's not working.

[20:54] We're picking up speed here for our fall programs.

[20:58] We have both the youth and adult football programs running.

[21:03] The ultimate Frisbee League is also up

[21:06] and running, all taking place at Whitehall Road Fall.

[21:10] Wood back league just started at Hess,

[21:12] since there's no lights at Hess now, we have

[21:14] to play on Sundays there.

[21:16] And then both the men's

[21:17] and women's volleyball leagues will start next week.

[21:21] Two more tournaments, weather permitting at Oak Hall.

[21:24] If, if we make it happen,

[21:26] it'll be the first weekend in October

[21:28] and the last weekend in October.

[21:30] Other than that, just, it's been a challenging fall trying

[21:32] to find space for everyone.

[21:35] - Wow. Okay.

[21:38] Sounds like you're busy as usual.

[21:41] Any, any, any questions for Jeff?

[21:45] Right on, we're we're gonna move on to

[21:50] annual report.

[21:53] Yes, she's online. Okay.

[22:02] Stephanie, are you there? Stephanie?

[22:05] - I was muted. Can you hear me now? Yeah.

[22:07] - Okay, - Sorry about that. That's okay.

[22:09] You think I have a better handle on microphones than now?

[22:14] Good afternoon everyone.

[22:15] I am Stephanie Yeager, the new Executive Director of CNET.

[22:20] Cindy Hahn, our previous director of 20 years has retired.

[22:25] So I took the position in June 1st,

[22:32] but I have been with the organization for over 20 years,

[22:36] actually inching toward a quarter

[22:38] century with the organization.

[22:40] So if anyone in the room feels a little younger

[22:42] because of that, you're welcome to.

[22:46] So I, From covering your meetings,

[22:51] I have been the primary producer on your meetings for,

[22:54] since you joined the joined CNET

[22:58] and that torch is sort of being passed to some of our,

[23:01] our other employees who have moved on to,

[23:06] we have, right now we have five of seven

[23:09] employees in new positions.

[23:11] So Tiffany Brion

[23:13] and Jess Mark Kovich are in new positions,

[23:17] but they both have long histories with the organization.

[23:20] So we have some seasoned people still with us,

[23:24] including myself and beyond that.

[23:26] So you are in good hands.

[23:28] So I will share my PowerPoint presentation

[23:34] to wait for permission

[23:35] - Here.

[23:40] - Are you seeing that request on this end or on your end?

[23:43] Scott, let, let me make you a thank.

[23:48] Thank you. Sorry, I saw the green button,

[23:50] so I thought I was all approved.

[23:52] Okay. Okay.

[23:56] No, I added her as a co-host, Susan. Just a latter.

[24:00] Oh, okay. Stephanie, do you, Stephanie?

[24:05] Okay, so lemme, there we go. There. Okay.

[24:12] It took a second before, can everyone see this? Yeah. Yep.

[24:16] Okay. All right. So now

[24:21] it is not moving forward.

[24:25] Oh, there we go. Okay. Oops. Now it's too far forward.

[24:32] Okay.

[24:39] This is your annual report.

[24:41] So all the data in this will pretty much reflect

[24:44] 2025 information.

[24:47] I do apologize for being so late in the year

[24:49] that you're receiving this, but as I explained

[24:52] with our transitions here,

[24:53] it got pushed a little bit back toward fall.

[24:57] So highlights for Parks

[24:58] and Rec, well overall in CNET for 2025

[25:02] is we produced 496 programs

[25:07] by our small but mighty staff.

[25:08] And in addition to the small staff that I mentioned earlier,

[25:13] we do have a host of interns who turn over every semester.

[25:18] They're, right now we have five, five for the semester

[25:21] and we,

[25:25] they're from the Penn State College of Communications

[25:29] and we train them and they get a lot

[25:31] of hands-on experience with us.

[25:35] Lowe's, captioning continues with CNET, where we have 15

[25:38] of our 17 members now opting in, including Parks and Rec.

[25:42] I'm not sure what authorities requirements are for a DA,

[25:46] but I know municipalities,

[25:49] the requirements recently increased in recent years.

[25:52] And so we are certainly hitting some boxes

[25:55] for those organizations with our captioning services.

[26:00] I do commend parks rec for participating in that

[26:02] because even if you're e, even if you're

[26:08] not completely deaf, if you have any kind

[26:11] of difficulty hearing, it helps.

[26:14] And those of us, like myself included,

[26:16] I've got some hearing damage.

[26:18] It helps to understand what's going on.

[26:22] And most people who are hard

[26:24] of hearing do not actually know American Sign language,

[26:27] much more can read the captioning.

[26:29] So as I said, that makes it more accessible for many people,

[26:34] even if they aren't particularly,

[26:36] or especially hard of hearing.

[26:40] One thing that started around in 2025

[26:44] was Comcast upgrade

[26:46] to the way CNET goes live on TV from remote locations.

[26:50] And by remote I mean outside of our studio.

[26:54] It includes the COG general forum room where some

[26:56] of you are meeting at present.

[27:00] And with that upgrade has come

[27:04] snowballed a replacement of our broadcast server, which

[27:08] really you won't see a lot of impact from that on your end,

[27:13] but we are hoping that on our end it'll make things a little

[27:15] more streamlined, a little more efficient,

[27:19] give us some more options for possibly going

[27:22] live from more places.

[27:24] And we do hope that maybe it will reveal itself

[27:27] to have some more services we can offer in the future.

[27:31] That project is about to wrap up.

[27:33] The server is being installed the last week of September.

[27:40] As for parks and rec programming.

[27:43] In 2025, you produced 12.3 programs.

[27:47] 11 of those were meetings

[27:48] and you did 13 bulletin board messages with us,

[27:51] which are usually your agendas

[27:54] and bulletin board messages are valued

[27:56] at a 10th of a program.

[27:58] So that's where you get the 11 plus 1.3 is the total

[28:02] of 12.3 programs that you see at the top of the slide.

[28:06] And that totals, that makes up about 2.3% of all programming

[28:11] by CNET members in 2025.

[28:14] So this graph shows your usage over the last five years

[28:19] with that 12.3 programs in 2025,

[28:23] which was up a little bit from the previous year,

[28:25] but down, you know, you're, you're on, you have a lot

[28:30] of variation to your, your usage in the last few years,

[28:33] but typically you're covering meetings

[28:35] and I can tell you in 2026 you are producing some new PSAs.

[28:39] We're working with Kristy and Melissa on those.

[28:43] Tiffany Brian, our operations manager

[28:45] has taken the lead on that.

[28:46] So she's been running around much

[28:49] of the year getting different events at the,

[28:52] at the pools, at the parks.

[28:53] So you'll see some forthcoming footage

[28:57] and advertisements for parks and rec coming up.

[29:03] The reason that those five years

[29:05] that I just showed you is important is

[29:07] because it, our funding formula uses a five year rolling

[29:10] average in calculating our member dues.

[29:12] This prevents any one year

[29:14] of an anomaly in your usage from

[29:17] really impacting your budget.

[29:18] It makes it a little more predictable for you to know what

[29:21] to expect to pay for CNET from year to year.

[29:25] And so your usage of six 2.62%

[29:29] of all programming in those years will

[29:33] determine your percentage of, of what you're, you're owing

[29:36] for the next upcoming budget for 2026.

[29:41] And our budget is approved in October.

[29:44] So we will have those final numbers to Kristy

[29:46] and the gang shortly here in the coming coming weeks.

[29:52] This gives a reference to of of

[29:54] where your usage is among all our members.

[29:57] Parks and Rec is right here at six 2.62%.

[30:01] So you're sort of one of our, our smaller members.

[30:04] But that falls in with having one meeting a month typically.

[30:07] And then some bulletin board messages.

[30:09] Our mega user is the Borough.

[30:11] They have a lot of meetings covered in a lot

[30:13] of different departments and that's followed closely

[30:16] in the second place by the county government,

[30:19] which has weekly meetings

[30:21] and sponsors a lot of community events.

[30:26] You can watch us online on demand at our website,

[30:29] CNET one.org anytime of day or night.

[30:32] Our programs are typically posted well within

[30:35] 48 hours of recording.

[30:37] There are clickable agenda points so you can easily maneuver

[30:41] through a meeting to find what interests you

[30:43] or what you need to, you know, revisit a discussion

[30:47] or something that's important to you.

[30:49] As I mentioned before, they're captioned

[30:51] and we typically keep about 20, 24 months

[30:54] of programs on our online platform.

[30:56] So you can go back quite some time beyond that,

[30:59] we do have archives that are accessible by request.

[31:05] Your meetings are typically broadcast the week

[31:09] after your meeting at the times you see here.

[31:12] Those are on Comcast channel seven.

[31:14] So those are available only to Comcast subscribers,

[31:17] but anyone anywhere can see the programming online.

[31:22] So this meeting will start airing next,

[31:24] next Wednesday at 9:00 AM.

[31:30] In addition to our website, we have over the top access

[31:34] with Fire tv, Roku, and Apple tv.

[31:39] And they can be a little hard

[31:40] to find our programs like they're buried sort of,

[31:43] because we're not commercial station,

[31:45] but we have tutorial tutorials available for you

[31:48] to watch on our website

[31:50] to help you find our programming on those, on those sets

[31:54] over the top platforms.

[32:01] Your viewer engagement for your online views,

[32:05] for your meetings in this time period through, through

[32:09] mid year of this year for programs that took place of all

[32:12] of 2025 and through, through the first half of this year,

[32:16] we had a total viewing of 945 views,

[32:20] which is an average online view per meeting of 55,

[32:24] which is, is pretty good.

[32:26] And it's pretty typical for what we're seeing

[32:30] in my presentations among other members.

[32:32] I'm finding that number is pretty steady, pretty calming.

[32:37] So that, you know, I'm sure you're using,

[32:39] you're reaching people in the, in the community,

[32:41] but also staff often sometimes uses

[32:45] the meetings to review, you know, discussions

[32:49] and make sure they're getting information correct.

[32:54] That pretty much concludes my presentation

[32:56] and here's my contact information

[33:00] and I would be happy to answer any questions if

[33:02] you have or take any context.

[33:04] Thank you.

[33:08] - Excuse me. Thank you Stephanie. We, we appreciate that.

[33:12] Anybody have any questions? It

[33:15] - Said we, there was a copy of that in our

[33:19] agenda, which I didn't get a copy of.

[33:23] Were they out or not the written copy.

[33:29] - I thought I saw it in the agenda,

[33:31] but I may be thinking of a different,

[33:34] I could send it directly to you if you'd like. Tom,

[33:37] - The presentations in the packet,

[33:41] the slides were not printed,

[33:43] but it's in the online packet.

[33:47] - Oh, so there aren't, it isn't in the agenda. Like, okay.

[33:53] - No, I I think you're used to getting, we used

[33:55] to get like a, yeah,

[33:56] - We used to get a copy of the, you know, each

[34:00] of the pages and

[34:04] - Everything is electronic now.

[34:06] Saves, saves people unreadable. Yeah.

[34:10] There is that book. But, but yeah, I, I, I remember getting,

[34:15] - Oh yeah, we got for many years

[34:17] and that's why I wondered Sure.

[34:19] Since it said it was included in the agenda,

[34:24] - It's in the, this was

[34:29] any other questions or comments for Stephanie?

[34:35] Okay. Hearing none again, thank you so much

[34:37] and thank you for what you do

[34:38] and making, making this available to folks

[34:43] that can't show up in person

[34:45] and wanna keep track of what's going on

[34:48] and find out what we're doing, all the,

[34:50] all the terrific things that we're doing. Thanks again.

[34:55] - Thank you very much. - Okay, we're gonna move on

[34:59] to item number nine, which is review of the proposed revised

[35:05] authority bylaws.

[35:07] So want me

[35:10] to speak on paper, right?

[35:12] Do you wanna kick kick it off and then I'll take it on

[35:15] and well show you the edits.

[35:18] Yeah, the only thing that I really have to say, obviously I,

[35:21] this is something that has needed to, to be done

[35:25] last time we updated bylaws in 2014.

[35:29] I I think I was on that committee.

[35:32] Yeah, long time.

[35:35] But, so yeah, there were a number, number of items

[35:37] that needed to be covered

[35:39] and the Go governance committee has been

[35:44] working on this for several years.

[35:47] Not, not on this, been working on governance

[35:50] for several years, but not one of the items that,

[35:55] for the governance committee to take a look at bylaws

[35:59] and suggest to us changes,

[36:04] conditions, improvements, et cetera.

[36:07] So that's kind of what we're looking at here

[36:10] and we need to, as a group, discuss

[36:15] any concerns or questions, anything like that.

[36:18] - Thank you. I'll, I'll try to walk you through the process

[36:21] and walk you through some of the, the edits to the 2014

[36:26] copy, which I see Tom's reading through right now.

[36:28] That's the 2014 version.

[36:32] This is kind of funny 'cause this is actually an area

[36:35] of parks and rec that I really enjoy.

[36:37] I'm kind of nerdy when it comes to bylaws and ordinances.

[36:40] I like this stuff 'cause I feel like it makes us function

[36:43] and operate much clearer.

[36:46] So with that, I walk you through some of the changes, some

[36:50] of the key highlights

[36:52] and then we're actually gonna go

[36:53] through the document if we could.

[36:55] So it's helpful to you. Happy to make edits live as we go.

[37:01] We did go through a version

[37:02] of this at the governance committee level.

[37:05] So it's been vetted through the Parks governance committee

[37:07] based on the intergovernmental agreement

[37:09] that came out of that committee as well.

[37:11] So we've tried to mirror up that document,

[37:15] which is a really important guiding document

[37:17] that clarified the relationships between the municipalities

[37:21] and the authority and updated

[37:24] the 20 20 14 bylaws to include a little bit more content

[37:28] behind how we operate and function and communicate back

[37:32] and forth between called CRPR and the authority.

[37:36] So some

[37:38] of the key topics are the roles and responsibilities.

[37:41] So we more explicitly separated authority, policy

[37:44] and oversight from agency day-to-day operations

[37:48] and COG administration.

[37:50] Since the majority of all that, all of that is handled

[37:53] by CRPR,

[37:55] we added explicit provisions addressing borrowing financial

[37:59] obligations, COG financial controls

[38:02] and limits on independent spending authority.

[38:06] I know that's something that's been kind

[38:07] of a key topic on financial oversight

[38:10] and reviewing of budgets and setting fees

[38:14] and things uses such as recommended fees, policy

[38:18] facility use procedures.

[38:20] This is also some substantive,

[38:22] substantive wording differences

[38:24] that needed reconciled within the governing document.

[38:29] We are allowing remote members to count toward quorum

[38:32] and votes consistent with applicable law.

[38:36] Previously, the language in the 2014

[38:39] excluded those remotely being able to vote.

[38:42] I think that was through the COVID post COVID pre COVID,

[38:46] I'm not sure where it may have fallen into that

[38:50] minor tweaking, allowing the chair

[38:52] to notify the appointing municipality

[38:55] and request clarification about representation

[38:58] after three consecutive or five annual meeting absences.

[39:02] So if someone, 'em were absent three times in a row

[39:06] or five times over the course of the year,

[39:08] the authority chair could decide whether

[39:10] or not that appointing member would continue or not.

[39:14] But that would be communication with municipality

[39:17] requiring the authority, approval of committee scope,

[39:20] operating guidelines

[39:22] and member appointments, including

[39:24] subsequent changes we brought in.

[39:27] And that's just based on committees brought in coordination

[39:30] to whichever call committees have relevant financial

[39:34] or planning responsibilities while expressly preserving the

[39:38] authorities governing powers.

[39:41] We also added explicit monthly financial reviews,

[39:44] which are already doing and approval of annual reports,

[39:48] onboarding and mentoring provisions of members

[39:52] of this authority.

[39:56] We specified a majority

[39:57] of members present within at least 24 hours, written

[40:00] and public notice and permits non

[40:05] material appendix updates by resolution.

[40:08] So now I'd like to kind of just walk you

[40:11] through a little bit, bit of the history.

[40:13] I think it's important that we start with the history first

[40:15] so you kind of understand,

[40:17] 'cause I know we have some new members on the authority

[40:20] and it would be helpful to kind of look at that.

[40:22] So Susan, do you mind scrolling down

[40:24] to the first section there?

[40:27] There, and we actually,

[40:29] Melissa's making live edits on her

[40:32] computer, so you can't see them.

[40:34] But the last sentence in this section is not in

[40:37] chronological order.

[40:38] It got bumped as I was making edits

[40:41] and should be the first sentence of that paragraph.

[40:45] So essentially we look back to 1965 when

[40:50] this started as a recreation board through the Borough.

[40:54] The regional program expanded in 1966

[40:58] and called Assumed Responsibilities for Financing in 1968.

[41:03] Separately in 1970, COG Ferguson Harris Patent

[41:07] and Hamoon at the time

[41:09] and the Borough jointly incorporated the authority under the

[41:13] Pennsylvania Municipal Authorities Act.

[41:16] The authority provided a mechanism for financing

[41:19] and undertaking parks and rec projects.

[41:22] The Parks and Rec, I'll start with the last sentence, sorry.

[41:25] The Municipal Authority was created in 1970, continued

[41:29] as a legal entity under the new name Centre

[41:31] Region Parks and Rec Authority.

[41:33] So it went from a board to an authority

[41:37] and then the basically two things became one.

[41:40] And so the authority became kind of the final place

[41:44] to review and decide on regional projects

[41:48] and efforts on a greater scale.

[41:53] In 1974, the articles of agreement

[41:55] and called drafted the Resolution and the board

[41:59] provided professional guidance, coordinated Parks

[42:02] and Recreation matters and managed facilities.

[42:06] And then in 2014,

[42:08] the governance structure was officially combined.

[42:12] And Kathy, I know you know some of the history on this,

[42:14] I know you're seeing this for the first time

[42:17] because Kathy had asked that we try to put more

[42:19] of the chronological history in order here so

[42:22] that we have it in a document that lives there.

[42:25] So if we want to, if you wanna take a little bit more time

[42:29] to kind of dive through that, those are the records

[42:32] that we were able to locate within our s our system.

[42:38] So I'll turn it back to you if you wanna make comments on,

[42:40] on the history section.

[42:42] - No, I mean I, I think I,

[42:44] I think the history section just right.

[42:47] I mean I, I was here in the days when we had the

[42:50] board and the authority.

[42:53] One met one week and the other met the next week.

[42:56] And the attend is, I'm saying yeah, it was kind of crazy.

[43:00] But yeah, so yeah, combining everything seemed

[43:03] to make sense at the time.

[43:06] Might only comment was, and,

[43:09] and this is understanding about contracts first.

[43:12] So I did this for a long time, you know, their writing

[43:16] and contracts,

[43:18] we talked about 1970 College first in first that

[43:22] and Capital and Borough.

[43:25] That's the only time Catherine has ever mentioned.

[43:27] I don't know whether anyone would say,

[43:30] why aren't they sating now, I don't know whether we want

[43:34] to clarify that or if it's even necessary that

[43:37] - It's, we have a date that they, they were no longer apart,

[43:41] but wasn't sure whether

[43:42] or not we wanted to call that out in here or not.

[43:46] But we certainly could add that back in.

[43:49] I will say a lot of these

[43:52] key dates mentioned articles, agreement, et cetera,

[43:56] are also listed in the appendix.

[43:58] So you can kind of reference the documents that

[44:03] helped develop the history here in this

[44:05] section, which should be helpful.

[44:07] But we can certainly add a note in there of

[44:11] Hing Township was no longer participating as of such date.

[44:15] - Yeah, I I'm not sure they ever signed signed the warrant.

[44:18] Right. I mean, I don't, I don't know. I I don't, I don't

[44:22] - Remember that.

[44:23] Yeah, they did. They were a part of it originally.

[44:25] - Initial, yep. I don't know if it's important.

[44:27] That's just my OCD, so it's okay.

[44:30] Yeah, if it's not really relevant,

[44:33] probably no one else will set me with that. That,

[44:36] - Yeah, I, I mean that's a minor thing.

[44:37] We can easily, easily add that

[44:39] - In.

[44:40] Okay. So, so I,

[44:43] I think the history is good just so that you have people

[44:46] who have sort of understanding

[44:50] where this started and Yeah.

[44:51] Yeah, we've been around for a long time

[44:54] and been a very important part of, of the,

[44:59] the agency and their authority.

[45:01] Everyone associates, you know, we're still a big part. Yeah.

[45:09] - Okay, so moving on to the next SEC section,

[45:13] purpose and scope.

[45:15] That is general language.

[45:17] There's really not a whole lot meet there besides that.

[45:22] Just reinstates the purpose of the authority.

[45:24] And some of this was pulled from the old version as well.

[45:28] And then we added in

[45:29] what we felt was helpful definitions like we did

[45:32] with the intergovernmental agreement

[45:34] to make sure that that was clear.

[45:36] We did clean up some

[45:37] of the language Kathy had mentioned about the agency

[45:42] and just some tweaking of some, some typos

[45:46] and just clarification there on CPR as an agency.

[45:51] That's all been cleaned up.

[45:52] So these definitions are pretty straightforward.

[45:56] I don't know if you wanna ta tackle these one by one,

[45:59] but I can just keep going Kathy, if that's easier. No,

[46:01] - I think, I mean the definitions are good.

[46:04] Okay.

[46:06] - And they, yeah, - They look fine to me.

[46:08] If anybody has me, that's good. Right.

[46:13] I have something that I just wanna flag not necessarily

[46:18] edit, just that last bullet point in

[46:22] some scope, how that compare to, for example,

[46:26] definitions in.

[46:32] So that last bullet point is advise the Centre Region

[46:35] Council of Governments

[46:38] and support agency operations through the government.

[46:46] Just the word what there

[46:50] should be misconstrued just because the, the following,

[46:55] and I think it's mentioned elsewhere too,

[46:58] that the authority, the public discussion

[47:03] on regional recreation issues offers guidance,

[47:09] policy and recommendations

[47:11] to the notes.

[47:18] - We could potentially strike the words sport

[47:21] that might be creating some confusion there

[47:24] and just leave it as Advise Centre Region Council

[47:27] of Government and Agency Operations through

[47:30] the intergovernmental framework.

[47:35] Does everybody,

[47:38] - I think that makes sense.

[47:41] It's in more of the definitions. Think

[48:02] - Well, I, I'm, I'm just, I, I'm, I'm just trying

[48:05] to think if, is there a different word to use

[48:10] in support or that just taking it out?

[48:14] Just taking it out? Or do we need something else?

[48:18] - I think taking it out makes it bias hit both,

[48:21] which is kind of what we're looking for.

[48:23] - Okay.

[48:34] No, I, I guess I understand

[48:39] and I, I get advise the Centre Region Council of Governments

[48:43] and, and, and then it says,

[48:47] and that it takes Florida and agency operations.

[48:50] So you're not advising agency operations,

[48:53] you need something else there.

[48:55] If you don't want support or we need

[48:57] - To, it would be probably strength support

[49:00] and strike operations.

[49:01] So it's advising the, the CO

[49:03] and the agency through the intergovernmental framework.

[49:05] I think that's what we're trying to do. Right,

[49:09] - That makes sense.

[49:11] - So it's not two different things. Yes.

[49:16] - Because you don't want that, want it to be unclear

[49:20] that you're, you know, directing and guiding operations

[49:23] because the operations are handled by the agency, which is

[49:29] down a little bit further in the agency

[49:34] responsibilities as were defined.

[49:36] We're responsible for the day-to-day delivery.

[49:39] So the, the authorities really serving in more

[49:43] that advisory recommendation.

[49:46] - Yeah, I get - That of that.

[49:47] But I think it makes sense to remove support and operations

[49:50] because that way make that great.

[49:53] - I, I'm just thinking if you remove support operations

[49:59] region Council of Governments

[50:01] and agency, it

[50:06] just makes more sense to not advising

[50:10] agency operations.

[50:16] - Melissa's got that. Yeah. Okay.

[50:20] Onto the next section, we'll go down to article three,

[50:25] authorization and organiza organizational structure.

[50:29] Again, this goes back

[50:30] to the appointments just further clarifying

[50:32] how the appointments work, the terms in five years,

[50:37] which is the current setup now.

[50:38] So no change to that.

[50:41] An individual should be, shall be considered a voting member

[50:44] of the authority only upon formal appointment

[50:46] by the applicable governing body.

[50:49] So there does have to be that communication

[50:51] between the authority and municipality about who's being

[50:55] appointed to the authority so that there could be some sort

[50:59] of orientation in place.

[51:03] And then under attendance

[51:04] and remote participation, like I said in the beginning,

[51:08] allowing voting for someone online.

[51:12] And this is where it talks a little bit more about whether

[51:15] or not an authority member is not attending

[51:18] a particular number of meetings for whatever reason

[51:22] and neglect of duty, I guess for better words

[51:27] and how to handle that should that happen.

[51:29] - Can I ask a quick question? I thought you mentioned

[51:31] that the alternates were granted, I mishear that earlier.

[51:36] - So that was just, if there online, they can vote. Okay.

[51:41] - The appointed members - On, yeah. Okay. Yeah,

[51:44] - Thank you.

[51:47] - The resignation

[51:49] and vacancies of authority members,

[51:51] that section is very straightforward.

[51:54] They may resign at any time providing written notice.

[51:57] I think that's something that's helpful for staff

[52:00] and authority members just to officially be able to pass

[52:04] that information through from the agency to the municipality

[52:08] so that when a VAC agency becomes available,

[52:10] we both are helping to recruit

[52:12] and fill those positions timely.

[52:15] And then in the event of a resignation

[52:17] or removal, the appointing municipality

[52:19] or entity, entity entity shall be responsible

[52:22] for appointing the replacement to serve the remainder

[52:25] of the expired term.

[52:27] So that allows the municipality to decide who is appointed

[52:30] to the authority

[52:33] and then vacancy shall not affect the author's ability

[52:35] to conduct business.

[52:37] And vacant positions shall not be counted

[52:39] toward quo requirements.

[52:42] I think that's helpful. That way if you have a long vacancy

[52:45] and your forum needs to reduce, that helps you be able

[52:48] to continue to conduct business

[52:50] with the agency office and records.

[52:55] That's just kind of noting the Council

[52:58] of Governments address

[53:00] and official records, how they're maintained

[53:03] for auditing purpose and whatnot.

[53:07] Under Article four, this is the meeting section.

[53:10] This talks a little bit about the regular

[53:12] and the special meetings should they need to occur.

[53:16] I'll just kind of highlight Special meetings may be called

[53:19] by the chair, the Executive Director, director

[53:22] or by written request of two or more authority members.

[53:26] Notice of special, special meetings shall be

[53:30] provided to authority members

[53:31] and the public in accordance with the PA Sunshine Act.

[53:36] And then emergency meetings can be called in accordance

[53:39] with the Sunshine Act as well.

[53:42] That way as things change within law

[53:45] or the act, we're always abiding by that.

[53:48] That's something that you don't constantly have to update.

[53:53] Quorum and rules of order,

[53:54] that's the same thing we were talking

[53:55] about a little bit earlier.

[53:57] Meetings are conducted in accordance

[54:00] with Robert's Rules of Order.

[54:02] Authorities don't necessarily have to follow that.

[54:05] However, through the call structure we have,

[54:09] which has helped staff tremendously

[54:11] and being able to understand how those rules work,

[54:15] how voting works, et cetera.

[54:18] And then authority members participating remotely,

[54:21] again in accordance with law shall be considered present

[54:24] for the purpose of a forum and for voting.

[54:27] So that was the section I had highlighted there,

[54:32] election and officers under Article five.

[54:37] That's annually, as everybody knows, that's in January.

[54:41] The chair presides over the meeting.

[54:43] So that gives us some just guidance on

[54:45] how we conduct those elections.

[54:48] Article six is Committees authority may establish establish

[54:53] advisory committees by resolution.

[54:56] The Millbrook Advisory Committee, as an example

[54:58] of an advisory group

[54:59] that was put together under the authority,

[55:03] they can carry this out through oversight, again

[55:06] through the PA Municipal Authorities Act

[55:09] and approve the committee's purpose,

[55:11] scope, duration, et cetera.

[55:13] So that is something that if something comes up in the

[55:16] future, that can be a consideration for the authority

[55:20] to continue to do non authority representative subject

[55:25] matter experts and committee members may be appointed

[55:27] to committees as advisory participants subject to approval

[55:32] by the authority, which is the current process.

[55:36] Article seven, duties and Responsibilities.

[55:40] This was looking at the historical framework,

[55:43] talking a little bit about the intergovernmental agreement,

[55:47] strategic goals within COG

[55:49] and functioning in the advisory capacity

[55:53] oversight responsibilities.

[55:55] Again, these were kind of listed out on separate documents

[55:59] as at the end of an old, I think the old bylaws,

[56:04] and I saw it in some other language.

[56:05] So this just gets it in here a little bit more clear on

[56:09] what the authorities' responsibilities

[56:10] as far as oversight are.

[56:12] And again, a lot

[56:13] of language here came from the intergovernmental agreement

[56:16] I think is helpful to have here in the bylaws.

[56:20] And then at the last bullet there,

[56:22] oversee the authorities charitable giving

[56:24] and fundraising activities, including

[56:27] maintaining the 5 0 1 C3 tax exempt status.

[56:31] That's currently something that is done by K and myself.

[56:35] We ensure that that status is always maintained.

[56:39] We get the paperwork for it, we help to administer that so

[56:42] that we continue to have the charitable

[56:45] giving abilities.

[56:48] And then coordination with the agency, again, is more

[56:52] that back and forth between the day to day

[56:56] correspondence on programming, maintenance needs,

[57:01] facility improvements, et cetera.

[57:02] These are just some areas that like we may propose

[57:06] to you all, for example, maintenance needs,

[57:09] facility improvements in regional facilities

[57:11] or in a municipal park.

[57:13] This is where we would bring those requests initially

[57:17] to start those discussions.

[57:18] And kind of that, that information out.

[57:22] Intergovernmental cost sharing, facility usage

[57:24] and program accessibility is also an important topic

[57:27] and something we'll talk a little bit more about

[57:30] in the next agenda item.

[57:32] But that's something that we're trying

[57:34] to focus on a little bit more as we look at the cost to do

[57:39] business in exchange for the revenue that we bring in

[57:44] for some of those assets.

[57:46] Last section there article, actually close

[57:50] to the last section, finances.

[57:52] This just talks more about your tax exempt status

[57:56] contributions, the ability to Borough

[57:59] this is really helpful I think, for a new member coming in

[58:02] to understand why an authority, what the purpose is

[58:06] and how you function and operate.

[58:09] And then budget responsibilities.

[58:11] This is an important piece of it

[58:13] because as you'll see later in your agenda, there are only

[58:18] what we call the R budgets.

[58:20] They're the authority budgets within call.

[58:23] And those are the budgets under the purview

[58:25] of the authority.

[58:27] And so there is some oversight on that in addition to

[58:32] how we work with Ms.

[58:33] Pat and with the authority

[58:36] to figure out capital budgets projects a next phase

[58:41] of a park, for example.

[58:43] And then your role really is recommending funding needs

[58:47] to the agency, reviewing

[58:48] and endorsing capital budgets, supporting cost recovery,

[58:53] reviewing, supporting grants, sponsorships, user fees.

[58:58] And those are some items that help the agency to help reduce

[59:02] municipal shares.

[59:04] Advising the agency on programs

[59:06] or projects requiring municipal resources is another area

[59:09] where the authorities responsibilities by.

[59:14] And then reporting, again, this is more

[59:16] of an administrative task and collaboration with committees.

[59:21] Another item that it has been pretty transparent, I think

[59:24] as we've developed the parks governance,

[59:26] the ad hoc parks library committee, budget presentations

[59:30] to the finance committee.

[59:32] I know the chair has attended general forum

[59:34] meetings and such.

[59:35] And so that communication is important.

[59:40] And so succession planning ensure

[59:42] the authority shall promote succession planning

[59:44] by supporting onboarding and mentoring.

[59:46] This is a new one. Something I feel is really important.

[59:50] I know when each of you that came on that were new, we went

[59:53] through a little bit of an outline that was new.

[59:56] That's something that I wanted to implement so

[59:58] that it was really clear you had a good understanding

[1:00:01] or general understanding of how we operate

[1:00:04] and what to expect at an authority meeting.

[1:00:06] So it gives you a little bit more of that.

[1:00:08] Roles and responsibilities, expectations

[1:00:10] and guidelines through the authority.

[1:00:14] And then the last few sections are really just

[1:00:20] basic items, corporate seal and then et cetera.

[1:00:24] And then our appendices.

[1:00:26] So that was lengthy,

[1:00:28] but I hope that was helpful to kind of go

[1:00:31] through each section and better understand some

[1:00:34] of the updates from 2014 version.

[1:00:37] And happy to answer questions, make edits as you see fit.

[1:00:42] Like I said, Melissa is taking notes, so

[1:00:45] I'll turn it back to you, Kathy.

[1:00:49] - Okay.

[1:00:55] Comments from my fellow members, sir? All

[1:01:00] - One more thing I to kind of, he backs up there.

[1:01:03] We just with moving support from the article top being

[1:01:08] at article seven three, coordination of agents.

[1:01:12] I think there's another use of support that's kind

[1:01:15] of in line with what we changed with advise.

[1:01:20] So looking at the, what is it, the

[1:01:24] second line under three coordination.

[1:01:26] The agency supports this work through policy alignment,

[1:01:29] funding strategies.

[1:01:30] Should that be the authority advises this work

[1:01:34] or the authority who oversees this work?

[1:01:37] I'm just looking at kind of what meaning is knowing

[1:01:39] if we cleaned that up earlier.

[1:01:43] Because I know Kristy, you had mentioned, you know,

[1:01:46] the word support was used elsewhere.

[1:01:49] I think this might be the other spot.

[1:01:53] - I'm not too sure. I think think supports might be more

[1:01:58] sense

[1:02:02] as we support

[1:02:12] - Some of the, - The words support

[1:02:15] - The, the word support there where it's, it's kind

[1:02:17] of like instead of of agency

[1:02:20] or sorry, authority overseeing the agency

[1:02:24] and it makes it seem like the authority

[1:02:28] will support no matter what, rather than overseeing advice.

[1:02:34] I know it's very semantic,

[1:02:36] but we're trying to tidy things up

[1:02:40] that it's just one thing that's out.

[1:02:48] I know really the support this problem, right?

[1:02:50] The same way somebody was close the too,

[1:02:54] but that would, yeah.

[1:02:55] Yeah.

[1:02:59] - I think it makes more sense this

[1:03:01] context, but I,

[1:03:06] - I could see advisors kind of being an umbrella that

[1:03:11] encompasses support.

[1:03:27] - I'm struggling with how to revise that. Advises is

[1:03:31] - Not quite the same - In this.

[1:03:34] Yeah, I feel like context like,

[1:03:37] but Clance had said like in this context it kind of sounds

[1:03:41] appropriate because you're,

[1:03:43] we're clarifying the day-to-day operations fall within COG.

[1:03:47] And the authority can support that through the policy piece,

[1:03:50] which is the bigger pieces, the policy

[1:03:52] and funding strategies.

[1:03:54] So it's not really saying that the authority is like kind

[1:03:58] of doing, like pushing that day-to-day operations piece.

[1:04:03] You're really more so pushing the policies

[1:04:05] and the strategies that help really support that day to day

[1:04:11] - Thoughts on that?

[1:04:15] - I think meaningfully it doesn't make, yeah,

[1:04:18] make a massive difference.

[1:04:21] Just wanted to bring, if everyone else is fine, I'm fine.

[1:04:33] - I have a, I don't know, under the role

[1:04:38] in financial reporting,

[1:04:42] this is really not my very

[1:04:45] should there,

[1:04:53] - That is the annual report that you receive

[1:04:59] and that comes through the authority for approval.

[1:05:03] So you do review that, endorse that and approve that.

[1:05:07] We haven't received it yet this year

[1:05:09] because it's, they finished the auditing

[1:05:11] and then we typically get it I think on October

[1:05:14] Novembers when we typically get that document.

[1:05:20] But that's really the, the agency called

[1:05:25] the agency is responsible.

[1:05:26] So that's us for preparing

[1:05:28] and distributing that annual report,

[1:05:31] which includes financial summaries, authority, reviews,

[1:05:34] and approves of report prior to its submission to,

[1:05:37] to state municipalities.

[1:05:40] So the way it's stated there is accurate to how

[1:05:44] that process goes right now.

[1:05:50] - Question,

[1:06:08] other other questions?

[1:06:12] - I just have one. I never heard of the bylaws.

[1:06:16] That can be changed by a majority.

[1:06:23] It's always more than the majority.

[1:06:27] You know, it's usually two third or three four.

[1:06:31] Every organization, not many that I or, or any group.

[1:06:39] You know, these are important things

[1:06:43] and

[1:06:48] it doesn't say,

[1:07:00] see it's authority.

[1:07:02] Majority of the authority members present at a meeting.

[1:07:08] I thought, I think it should say majority

[1:07:10] of the membership of the authority.

[1:07:15] So that would be four for it or? Yeah, four.

[1:07:19] Not, there were only four present, then it would be three.

[1:07:25] - So Susan's gonna scroll through. I mean

[1:07:28] - I, I'm not gonna push this, but Yeah,

[1:07:29] - No, I wanna make sure that everybody can read

[1:07:31] what you're referencing.

[1:07:34] She's gonna scroll, if we wanna just read on the screen,

[1:07:37] it's the, it says these bylaws were duly adopted

[1:07:41] by the Centre Region Parks

[1:07:43] and Recreation Authority by majority vote at

[1:07:46] duly advertised.

[1:07:47] A duly advertised meeting.

[1:07:52] So to Tom's question, you know, does it make sense

[1:07:55] that it says majority or should that be unanimous?

[1:08:00] Is that what you're asking Tom?

[1:08:04] Should it be a unanimous vote?

[1:08:05] Is that what you're suggesting? No, I

[1:08:07] - Would think it should be a majority of the authority.

[1:08:09] But nobody else thinks though I've not been agree.

[1:08:14] I think that's what it's, I think it should take at least

[1:08:16] four votes is what I'm saying.

[1:08:20] Not less than that.

[1:08:23] - That's true. - I mean, you're changing something

[1:08:25] that's important that you don't change very often.

[1:08:27] - Right. - And you know, you, I'm looking for the future,

[1:08:32] not the members of the authority right now,

[1:08:34] but what it would be,

[1:08:40] because you know, if there are only four here,

[1:08:43] right at a meeting

[1:08:45] and you have, so you have a quorum, right?

[1:08:48] You can have the meeting, it would take all four

[1:08:51] of those people to approve it.

[1:08:55] A change in the constitute your ballot.

[1:08:57] Now today, everybody's here.

[1:08:59] It's not necessarily here or there too. Okay.

[1:09:03] So I don't know, I don't want anybody

[1:09:05] else thinks that way or not.

[1:09:06] - Well I think that's what it currently says.

[1:09:10] It says the authority by majority vote.

[1:09:17] - So like what, three of the four?

[1:09:20] Is that what you're asking?

[1:09:22] - I think he's just looking at a majority versus

[1:09:24] like a two thirds or,

[1:09:26] - Yeah, right now it says a majority.

[1:09:28] Yeah,

[1:09:30] - No, I'm just saying a majority of the memberships,

[1:09:33] since it has, it's such a low membership, six

[1:09:39] for three to change, it means

[1:09:42] that you really don't even have a majority of membership

[1:09:46] to proof.

[1:09:48] Again,

[1:09:53] I leave it go, but I, I,

[1:10:00] - Yeah, I, I, I, I don't,

[1:10:01] I don't know enough about best practices on

[1:10:04] that kind of Thank you, Jeff.

[1:10:06] What was

[1:10:08] - Three, three tie?

[1:10:09] - I think we can just wordsmith this for you

[1:10:12] and make some more sense of that.

[1:10:15] To address that by saying,

[1:10:20] by majority vote of the authority membership

[1:10:23] at a duly advertised meeting.

[1:10:26] That way it's more, more clear it's a majority

[1:10:29] vote of the membership.

[1:10:31] - Yeah, that seems, that seems that makes sense to me. Yeah.

[1:10:36] Yeah.

[1:10:37] - It is so small, right? - Right.

[1:10:40] - The, the three doesn't seem like enough

[1:10:43] to change something like that.

[1:10:45] It would be three, that would always be four.

[1:10:48] Three's not a majority, three's high three, four.

[1:10:51] But the way it says here is by the people vote

[1:10:54] president the meeting, what I'm saying is perhaps you say

[1:10:59] of the membership of the authority.

[1:11:03] - Yeah, yeah, that makes sense.

[1:11:05] So that if we're gonna change this, everybody needs

[1:11:08] to show up at that meeting so that they put,

[1:11:11] we have a majority of, of the membership

[1:11:14] - And you know, if you only had five members here

[1:11:17] and it would take four to,

[1:11:21] or if you had six, it would take four.

[1:11:25] But if you have only four, I don't think you should be able

[1:11:29] to do it unless it's unanimous by those.

[1:11:32] - Okay. - Always at least four.

[1:11:37] - Okay. - So does

[1:11:39] - That make sense to - Everyone?

[1:11:41] Can we also remove,

[1:11:42] we'll just strike at a duly advertised meeting

[1:11:45] and state these bylaws were duly adopted by Centre Region,

[1:11:48] parks of America authority

[1:11:50] by majority vote of the authority.

[1:11:52] Membership period.

[1:11:58] Because you can't vote

[1:11:59] unless you're at a public meeting regardless.

[1:12:01] So it's just against Samantha.

[1:12:03] - We hope that the authority members show up

[1:12:04] for an advertised meeting on the agenda,

[1:12:10] - But the word at is confusing

[1:12:12] because we're allowing voting online as well.

[1:12:15] So they don't necessarily have

[1:12:16] to be at the meeting presently.

[1:12:21] I think it's semantics again,

[1:12:23] but if that makes more sense, we can just simplify that.

[1:12:29] That sounds okay. I George,

[1:12:34] - Or maybe say in attendance, I don't know.

[1:12:37] Instead of at,

[1:12:44] - Well, interestingly enough, under Forum

[1:12:47] and Rules water, it does say a forum shall consist

[1:12:50] of a majority of the authority members currently appointed.

[1:12:56] So I mean, we're already defining a

[1:12:58] - Majority.

[1:12:59] It's defined.

[1:13:28] - So if we reached a consensus on Promise on this,

[1:13:39] seems like are folks online?

[1:13:44] Yeah. Forward. Yep. Any comments?

[1:13:49] - No, nothing else than what's already been said.

[1:13:51] - Looks okay. - I'm good. I'm

[1:14:05] - Makes more sense?

[1:14:07] Yeah.

[1:14:10] - Okay. All right.

[1:14:12] So I will

[1:14:17] entertain a motion that the Centre Region Parks Recreation

[1:14:20] Authority approve the bylaws as prevented subject

[1:14:25] to final review by the co solicitor with any substantive

[1:14:30] revisions resulting from that review return

[1:14:33] to the authority consideration.

[1:14:37] Okay, thank you. Exactly. Okay.

[1:14:40] We that that, any additional concerns, comments?

[1:14:45] - Kathy, do you wanna add any kind of caveat in addition

[1:14:48] to the minor changes

[1:14:50] that we just made today? Oh, through this,

[1:14:54] - Right?

[1:14:55] Just, is that okay? Yeah. Including the changes. Yeah.

[1:14:58] As vised what, whatever the Yeah. Language is Okay.

[1:15:02] To acknowledge that. Thank you. Yeah, appreciate that. Okay.

[1:15:05] All the question all say aye aye.

[1:15:09] Aye, aye. Aye. Okay.

[1:15:13] Alright. Pass. We're good. Thank you. Great.

[1:15:19] Okay, let's move on to the revenue and enhancement plan.

[1:15:25] - Yes. More fun stuff.

[1:15:29] Another area that I get kind about, so

[1:15:34] in previous previous agendas,

[1:15:36] we called it the program value framework.

[1:15:39] And so we kind of took it one step further to show

[1:15:41] that there's more than just a program value to it.

[1:15:44] There's a little bit more structure behind how we define

[1:15:48] and strategize on enhancing fees

[1:15:52] based on cost recovery tiers that you spoke extensively on.

[1:15:57] We talked about the fee policy.

[1:15:59] So this document really kinda

[1:16:01] digs your heels a little bit more into the meat of the

[1:16:06] strategy behind how we take what's been asked

[1:16:10] of us from elected officials

[1:16:12] and from the authority to look a little bit more closely at

[1:16:17] costs and fees to offset expenses.

[1:16:21] And so staff has done a really extensive job

[1:16:25] and kudos to everybody behind me

[1:16:27] and online for, you know, kind of diving in deeply

[1:16:31] to cost recovery spreadsheets.

[1:16:34] This takes those spreadsheets that are very lengthy

[1:16:38] and combines it into one document as more of that

[1:16:42] strategic plan so that you can kind

[1:16:44] of see our thought process behind it

[1:16:47] and why we did it, how, how it works.

[1:16:51] And then if you get through to the document,

[1:16:54] and we'll bring it up on the screen if you wanna scroll down

[1:16:59] A little bit, I'll kind of show you the meat of it

[1:17:02] that you might be most interested in.

[1:17:04] - Okay.

[1:17:10] - Susan, if you wanna just go ahead

[1:17:12] through each page for me,

[1:17:21] - What has changed since the last time we went through this?

[1:17:25] - This is new. You've never seen this.

[1:17:29] - See parts - You saw we saw, yeah, you saw a small part

[1:17:32] of it, which was just the program value framework

[1:17:34] with empty charts, if you kind of remember that.

[1:17:38] So what's changed is what I just gave a summary of

[1:17:42] with developing a little bit more of the plan.

[1:17:45] And I wanna go through kind of page by page

[1:17:47] and kind of tell you a little bit about

[1:17:49] the information behind the numbers.

[1:17:51] And so this really explains those numbers

[1:17:54] and how they correlate the cost recovery tiers.

[1:17:58] So again, the executive summary talks about the context

[1:18:01] behind it, where it came from,

[1:18:03] and then if you scroll down to the objectives,

[1:18:08] - Well - Go up a little

[1:18:09] - Bit.

[1:18:11] - The objectives

[1:18:14] of the enhancement plan apply the fee policy

[1:18:17] and cost recovery tiers.

[1:18:18] Consistently, we evaluated direct

[1:18:21] and indirect costs alongside community value.

[1:18:25] We improve. This gives us the the backing

[1:18:28] to improve our pricing, our scheduling, our capacity

[1:18:32] and documents, how our decisions are made

[1:18:35] and provides you with results to have more of a portfolio

[1:18:39] of what our programming is feel.

[1:18:41] Scroll to the next page again,

[1:18:46] why this work began.

[1:18:47] It was designed to prevent offering

[1:18:51] basically programs without reviewing demand

[1:18:53] and cost of results.

[1:18:55] We treated every, treating every deficit as a failure

[1:18:59] or an overall surplus as proof

[1:19:01] that every offering is successful.

[1:19:03] Those are some things that we tried to prevent.

[1:19:06] And then if you go down to what this provides,

[1:19:11] there's a layout here

[1:19:14] that talks a little bit more build

[1:19:16] about building the foundations.

[1:19:18] Sorry, this is hard for me. Working off two screens.

[1:19:21] Gimme one second. I need to bring this up on

[1:19:25] - Screen.Me.

[1:19:38] Here we go.

[1:19:39] - So the first year of this

[1:19:42] is 2025.

[1:19:45] When we really looked at that's the baseline,

[1:19:47] that's when we had a full view of costs

[1:19:51] and that's when we added in indirect costs

[1:19:53] and direct costs to give a better picture

[1:19:56] of which programs weren't meeting their cost recovery tier.

[1:20:01] And so 2025 is really that baseline of data,

[1:20:04] which is in your document right now.

[1:20:07] And then 2026 we worked a little bit more on defining that.

[1:20:11] We expanded our cost recovery sheets to include

[1:20:14] which tier they fell into, which programs were canceled,

[1:20:17] how many programs were canceled

[1:20:19] as a whole, that kind of thing.

[1:20:21] And then 2027 is when we're gonna

[1:20:26] analyze this more.

[1:20:27] So we're gonna look a little bit more deeply at,

[1:20:30] did a program fall into the right cost recovery tier?

[1:20:34] How are programs being defined by tiers across

[1:20:39] sports programs, special events camps,

[1:20:42] and making sure that Supervisors have the time to sit down

[1:20:46] with each other, go through how they define their tiers.

[1:20:50] And then we'll be looking a little bit more closely at the

[1:20:53] formulas, the numbers that were put in there.

[1:20:56] But that work has not been done yet. So that's a 2027 task.

[1:21:00] And then in 28, the hope is that we would also add in

[1:21:05] rentals, concessions, things like that.

[1:21:08] Because this is just programs.

[1:21:10] So this is just straight programs we were asked

[1:21:13] to look at cost recovery for.

[1:21:15] But we do wanna take it a step further

[1:21:17] and look at more costs when it comes to setting rates

[1:21:21] for pavilions and concessions, full admissions, et cetera.

[1:21:25] But we're not there yet. We're trying to get there.

[1:21:28] This is the starting point.

[1:21:30] 'cause right now we have nothing. So this is the first

[1:21:33] step I think, in that direction.

[1:21:35] So if you look at the next section,

[1:21:36] it talks about the cost recovery tiers.

[1:21:39] I won't go over those, you already know them.

[1:21:42] The evaluation framework is more for our single measure

[1:21:47] to kind of say when we eliminate a program

[1:21:49] or we keep a program, you know, what is the benefit,

[1:21:52] what is the value of offering that program?

[1:21:54] Something might not fill or something might be in the red,

[1:21:58] but in order to cancel it may be a little bit more tricky

[1:22:02] than is seen in the documents.

[1:22:04] That's something that we work through at a staff level.

[1:22:08] And then the cycle process is pretty simple.

[1:22:11] Again, you've seen this in prior presentations

[1:22:14] and shows kind of where we're at in a cycle

[1:22:17] of how this works.

[1:22:20] CRPR at a glance, so this is when we get into the meat

[1:22:23] of the information.

[1:22:25] In 2025, we delivered 559 programs,

[1:22:30] 62 programs were canceled.

[1:22:32] So that was roughly about 10%.

[1:22:36] NRPA gives some national standards of like

[1:22:39] how many annual programs

[1:22:41] and agents agency should provide based on population.

[1:22:46] And that number was 4 68.

[1:22:48] So we're well above what a typical agency would provide.

[1:22:53] We have 6,621 program offerings, sorry,

[1:22:58] the screen's too small.

[1:23:01] 559, delivered 90% delivery rate.

[1:23:05] And we are 33% above the peer medium.

[1:23:10] You look at our financial portfolio, again,

[1:23:12] this is just looking at what's in these spreadsheets

[1:23:17] for cost recovery and we are looking at 118% weighted full

[1:23:20] cost recovery across the board, which is a net

[1:23:24] of roughly $89,000.

[1:23:27] So that just gives you kind of a high level view of

[1:23:32] what these cost recovery sheets do for staff for us

[1:23:35] to be able to look at them holistically across the board.

[1:23:38] Then on the next page is more of the detail

[1:23:42] that breaks down.

[1:23:44] For example, nature center programs, events

[1:23:46] and camps, how many programs were offered,

[1:23:49] how many were delivered canceled,

[1:23:52] how many people participated.

[1:23:54] Again, this is just programs, events, and camps.

[1:23:57] The net result of that and then the cost recovery as

[1:24:00] that area of an an agency.

[1:24:03] And then down below is

[1:24:05] where you get the 118% net cost recovery

[1:24:09] for CRPR as a whole.

[1:24:11] You can kind of see how each of those areas are performing.

[1:24:15] I will point out the active adult center, while

[1:24:20] that is negative, Erika also cannot charge fees

[1:24:24] for various things.

[1:24:26] And so she has the biggest challenge I think

[1:24:29] of all Supervisors to try to recover her costs.

[1:24:33] A lot of things we do subsidize.

[1:24:35] So from my perspective, directing this agency, I think

[1:24:39] that seems appropriate.

[1:24:41] There's only so much she can do to be able to charge

[1:24:44] for programs, especially if it's offered

[1:24:46] by another senior center.

[1:24:49] Any questions on that baseline information?

[1:24:52] Right now, again, this is just our first stab at this,

[1:24:56] taking our cost recovery sheets

[1:24:59] and extracting the information

[1:25:00] that we think you may wanna see.

[1:25:04] And then this gives us guidance to say, where do we need

[1:25:07] to reprice next year?

[1:25:10] How does our fee policy relate to that?

[1:25:13] And then it gives you a little bit more backing

[1:25:16] to say why certain things should be increased or or not.

[1:25:27] And there's an action plan on the next page,

[1:25:29] which gives staff a little bit more of an idea of

[1:25:32] what we need to do next.

[1:25:35] And we would like this to be an annual report

[1:25:38] that we provide to you.

[1:25:40] So you would see this every year

[1:25:41] for our programs in the previous year.

[1:25:45] And then again, like I said, we will try

[1:25:47] to expand this in the future to include those other areas.

[1:25:54] Happy to answer any questions.

[1:25:56] There are some reference links within the document as well.

[1:25:59] Some resources that we used for benchmarking information et

[1:26:06] - Back up to the percentage chart.

[1:26:11] So I think the thing that really stands out

[1:26:13] to me is it seems the way it was accounted for here,

[1:26:15] the programs are all pretty wildly successful.

[1:26:18] Would you attribute that to,

[1:26:23] you know, I'm just kinda wondering like,

[1:26:25] I know you said all direct and

[1:26:26] and indirect costs were accounted for.

[1:26:29] Do you think that is a truly like an accurate capture

[1:26:32] of overall staff time complete before these programs?

[1:26:37] - Like I said, Melissa and I have not been able

[1:26:39] to analyze all of that data one by one

[1:26:42] because it's a lot of information.

[1:26:44] So what you're seeing is what the Supervisors prepared

[1:26:47] for us based on their salary

[1:26:50] and benefits, their estimate

[1:26:51] of the time it took to run the program.

[1:26:55] We just need to back check

[1:26:56] and see how everybody's doing that.

[1:26:58] Because some Supervisors could be going

[1:27:01] through a different process than others.

[1:27:03] So we have a annual staff retreat that we do in November

[1:27:07] where they're gonna sit down

[1:27:08] and actually work through those spreadsheets again

[1:27:11] to look more deeply at comparing to each others.

[1:27:15] And I know some of them did, you guys can feel free

[1:27:17] to speak up, did work with each other through trying

[1:27:21] to figure out your indirect and your direct costs.

[1:27:25] - I would just add onto that, I agree.

[1:27:28] I think that, at least for me personally speaking for me,

[1:27:31] I feel confident in our direct costs,

[1:27:33] but I do not feel confident in our indirect costs

[1:27:36] because we're not accounting for,

[1:27:38] and as you said, this is a future expansion,

[1:27:41] but things like facilities, what does it take

[1:27:44] to operate the electricity, the water,

[1:27:46] everything like that, that's not here.

[1:27:48] Whereas for someone like Beth who's using a different

[1:27:51] facilities are very, she has a number she could plug in for

[1:27:54] how much it costs to that space.

[1:27:56] So again, I think the direct costs

[1:28:00] we feel pretty confident on, on direct staff time

[1:28:03] for leading programs, but indirect for facilities

[1:28:06] and also for our full-time staff support of those programs,

[1:28:11] we kind of all have to get our heads together I think,

[1:28:14] to get on the same page of how we're calculating

[1:28:17] - That.

[1:28:18] Yeah, because I think it, it's,

[1:28:19] I I understand it's incredibly flexible.

[1:28:21] I applaud the work that you've done with it so far.

[1:28:25] I think there's a lot, you know,

[1:28:26] looking at maintenance time.

[1:28:27] Yes. You said you know, staff time outside of the direct.

[1:28:31] Yes. And I think this is a great place to

[1:28:37] start, but I think there's, yeah, there's so much,

[1:28:39] so much more yes.

[1:28:41] To account for. And I guess the other thing I'm looking at

[1:28:43] too is the sports programs

[1:28:44] and sport tournaments with almost 20%

[1:28:49] missing the, that seems kind of like a kind of like,

[1:28:53] you know, the programs

[1:28:55] and tournaments should be covering there

[1:28:58] and I know overall they do hit their full cost

[1:29:02] by quite a bit, but that seems like one where

[1:29:05] they should probably all be meeting there

[1:29:07] and tier recovery. I'm sure you

[1:29:12] - Yeah, like I said,

[1:29:13] there are some areas within there based on weather

[1:29:16] and things like that, that we're trying

[1:29:18] to get better at making assumptions.

[1:29:20] Like this past year's budget, we tried to

[1:29:24] understate the revenues,

[1:29:26] anticipating potential weather delays, things like that.

[1:29:29] And be realistic in what the expenses would be.

[1:29:32] We're gonna be breaking out some

[1:29:34] of those spreadsheets a little bit more to also look at

[1:29:37] Jim's true costs on lining fields, staff time.

[1:29:41] We have incorporated a lot of

[1:29:42] that in the cost recovery sheets right now.

[1:29:46] But this is giving us like a real bird's eye view of

[1:29:49] how things are functioning now so we can figure out

[1:29:52] where we need to make tweaks

[1:29:54] and if we need to be adjusting fees,

[1:29:57] this gives you more justification to do that.

[1:30:01] - Yeah, I think this is an excellent first step.

[1:30:02] I know, you know, some of my fellow Supervisors

[1:30:07] didn't see yeah, these numbers.

[1:30:09] So I think this is a really good, a really good start.

[1:30:12] I think I would emphasize that this is legitimately a start

[1:30:15] because I, I would hate for people to look at this, be like,

[1:30:18] oh well we're crushing it.

[1:30:20] I think this is, this is the first

[1:30:21] step in a, a long process.

[1:30:23] But I applaud the effort that's gone into it, the effort

[1:30:26] that has yet to, has yet to go into it

[1:30:29] because it seems very daunting.

[1:30:33] - Yeah, I agree with the,

[1:30:36] just the usefulness of this data.

[1:30:39] I'm curious to know, so the, the documents

[1:30:42] that we're providing, the individual at the budgets,

[1:30:46] those capital budgets operating Michelle Parks budget,

[1:30:51] those long documents, I'm just curious

[1:30:54] who those are currently vailable to or like full consent to.

[1:30:59] - Those documents go directly to the municipalities

[1:31:02] and are distributed here

[1:31:04] through the finance committee exec and the general form.

[1:31:07] So it goes through a full vetting process

[1:31:09] between municipalities that support CRPR.

[1:31:23] - Any other need

[1:31:25] clarification on anything?

[1:31:28] I I, I'm really encouraged by just these help

[1:31:34] data and that's annually when we,

[1:31:38] when we do the, the fee policy, things like that.

[1:31:43] It's like I, you know, sometimes I feel like I wait, I,

[1:31:48] I know what the right number is, you know, I mean we,

[1:31:51] you know, we get a lot of information from staff

[1:31:54] and everyone does their due diligence looking

[1:31:59] at other agencies, other, other facilities.

[1:32:02] But, but having like our own

[1:32:06] data's just, yeah, so much

[1:32:09] just makes you feel better about understanding

[1:32:11] how everything works and what,

[1:32:13] what direction you need take in terms of fees or

[1:32:17] or eliminating something or or enhancing it.

[1:32:21] Yeah, the numbers always matter.

[1:32:25] - So that's our goal is to try

[1:32:27] to make it a little bit more transparent to each of you of

[1:32:29] what our real costs are so

[1:32:31] that you understand when we set fees,

[1:32:33] if we propose an increase, you understand why.

[1:32:36] Or if we say, okay, this fee doesn't need to increase,

[1:32:39] but you look at the spreadsheet we provided you

[1:32:41] and say, well this document's showing that you're under,

[1:32:44] you're not meeting your tiers.

[1:32:46] You can come back and kind of question us

[1:32:47] and say, okay, explain that to me.

[1:32:50] I think that transparency is important in our roles.

[1:32:54] Our positions, our goal is to be transparent so

[1:32:57] that you can make good decisions.

[1:33:00] - I guess I do have a follow up then looking at the 60

[1:33:03] requests and the new software.

[1:33:05] How much do you feel like that is gonna be able

[1:33:07] to help drive the collection of this data?

[1:33:10] - It should help tremendously.

[1:33:11] There is a function within there

[1:33:14] where you can put your costs.

[1:33:17] We just need to find out can you put in direct

[1:33:19] and direct costs in separate, you know, categories so

[1:33:21] that when we extract it we can see that.

[1:33:25] But I, I don't know what that backend looks like,

[1:33:27] but we do know that you can put expenses

[1:33:29] for every individual program into the new software

[1:33:33] and it will come out into a report.

[1:33:35] That would be a huge time savings for staff to be able

[1:33:39] to just do that right away.

[1:33:41] Right now we've gotten I think into maybe a good rhythm

[1:33:44] where those Excel sheets are just being used

[1:33:46] as they develop programs, they figure out

[1:33:50] what their costs are, set their fees

[1:33:51] and they're using that as they go.

[1:33:53] So it's kind of a, a similar process now

[1:33:56] as they would use inputting into the new software.

[1:33:59] So at least it would be an easier export for a municipality

[1:34:04] that's asking for information to be able to print that out

[1:34:07] and send it along to provide more information on that.

[1:34:12] - And I guess Jim, I'll ask you with your staff, you know,

[1:34:16] how do you necessarily track time going towards say like

[1:34:22] mowing the Yoda Preserve roads

[1:34:25] low call versus being out of Whitehall.

[1:34:28] How granular are you tracking that?

[1:34:30] How will that be able to interface

[1:34:32] to help them track their times?

[1:34:35] - It's actually, excuse me, it's actually gonna be much

[1:34:39] program coming on this year.

[1:34:41] Hope is hope.

[1:34:43] We'll make sure it's ready Go January,

[1:34:46] we started it this year getting everything loaded up guys

[1:34:49] will be input everything.

[1:34:51] Now we're doing that paper. So what down

[1:34:57] - Hopeful weeks is going keep

[1:34:59] that we'll get true actual numbers,

[1:35:02] what we're spending happen on every day.

[1:35:04] - We now have tablets for each of the crew

[1:35:08] that we just received two weeks ago that we're setting up.

[1:35:12] And so they'll actually have their own tablet in the field

[1:35:15] to be able to enter information into the software,

[1:35:18] which then does the same thing.

[1:35:19] Prints out a report for us to show us okay,

[1:35:23] what are some true costs for O Call for example,

[1:35:25] or what is it for a sports Forman?

[1:35:29] Again, we'll be discovering that software a little bit more

[1:35:32] to see like what capabilities we have so

[1:35:34] that you can kind of see the recording.

[1:35:36] But we'll be sharing that as we go,

[1:35:38] as we get more comfortable with it

[1:35:40] because I think that does help provide

[1:35:42] and we're one of the very few rec departments

[1:35:45] that will have maintenance software

[1:35:47] and so we're fortunate that we're gonna be able to provide

[1:35:51] that information to everybody so you can see

[1:35:53] - It.

[1:35:54] Yeah, I think it's important that people know that

[1:35:56] being able to automatically generate those rather than have

[1:35:59] them from yeah, pencil and paper

[1:36:02] and guess work will save a shocking amount of time

[1:36:07] to generating these reports.

[1:36:08] So glad that we're moving this direction.

[1:36:11] I hope that we can generate, like use those efficiencies.

[1:36:13] Yeah. To drive some cost savings as well. Yeah.

[1:36:21] - Okay. So I'll entertain a motion that Centre Region Parks

[1:36:25] and Recreation Authority approved the revenue enhancement

[1:36:28] plan as an additional financial oversight measures

[1:36:32] for future CR PR budget.

[1:36:38] Second. Second. Okay. Thank you.

[1:36:42] Okay, additional comments, questions, concerns?

[1:36:45] - I have one concern

[1:36:47] and that is I hope that this thing would not be

[1:36:51] such that somebody comes up with a new idea

[1:36:54] that I fit in a plan.

[1:36:56] Can't do it because you have this plan

[1:37:00] - Right now.

[1:37:01] - That's what I, that that's what bothers me about it's

[1:37:05] so rigid.

[1:37:10] I don't know, but that I I I don't expect an answer to that.

[1:37:14] - Yeah, think until we encounter until, until we get

[1:37:17] through, you know, continued work on cost recovery,

[1:37:21] we'll probably identify whether there's anything

[1:37:23] that doesn't fit within that plan.

[1:37:25] But we're following national standards on cost recoveries

[1:37:29] here as a general guideline

[1:37:31] and not getting too super specific on things.

[1:37:35] I mean the cost recoveries are ranges,

[1:37:38] so it may range from 75% to a hundred percent.

[1:37:41] So there is flexibility within those tiers

[1:37:44] that allow programs to kind of,

[1:37:47] some may be stronger than other programs,

[1:37:49] it's just when they dip below certain thresholds,

[1:37:52] that's when it impacts municipal shares

[1:37:55] because we have to rely more on municipal shares

[1:37:58] than the revenues.

[1:38:00] We don't wanna double tax people on our programs

[1:38:03] 'cause they're already paying taxes.

[1:38:05] But being reasonable without being, you know,

[1:38:09] too overly unreasonable.

[1:38:11] Makes sense and

[1:38:13] and our perspective, this is better than

[1:38:16] what we have now, which is nothing

[1:38:19] - But yeah.

[1:38:21] Operating. But yeah, rather than true numbers,

[1:38:28] - Well I think it helps Supervisors as well kind of know how

[1:38:32] to be on the same playing field with their programs

[1:38:35] and like what to set as targets

[1:38:38] and we haven't really had a lot of that.

[1:38:41] We've been pretty separate

[1:38:42] and individual in how we've done that.

[1:38:44] So as an agency, I think providing some kind

[1:38:47] of general like tool to say here's a tool,

[1:38:50] here's a benchmark is helpful.

[1:38:59] - I think also with the size of the program,

[1:39:01] like just the sheer number of programs there,

[1:39:06] this is be incredibly helpful.

[1:39:09] Yeah.

[1:39:15] A question first to me, if you have something new

[1:39:18] that you're, you know, you're trying, how long would,

[1:39:24] would you give that program sort of up to speed

[1:39:29] meet the numbers that like to see,

[1:39:33] - Like we have used I think in the past three sessions.

[1:39:37] So if after three sessions something hasn't gone,

[1:39:41] then you really need to visit either retitle the program,

[1:39:44] reprice the program, rebrand it and title entirely

[1:39:49] or eliminate it.

[1:39:51] It's usually when you get to the third time

[1:39:53] where you've attempted and you look at your costs

[1:39:55] 'cause there is a cost to try to market, advertise,

[1:39:58] put the program together, coordinate with the instructor.

[1:40:01] Those decisions I think reside with the Supervisors.

[1:40:04] Not something I wanted to put in a document,

[1:40:06] but I think in general we talk with each other about,

[1:40:09] you know, what is an appropriate threshold And

[1:40:12] that's something that will continue

[1:40:14] as we look at cost recovery

[1:40:16] and the programs that didn't hit the threshold.

[1:40:19] How do we manage those going forward?

[1:40:21] Do we keep trying three times?

[1:40:25] If it doesn't go then we, you know, we eliminate it

[1:40:27] or we reprice it, rebrand it.

[1:40:31] And some of those tools are in the program portfolio

[1:40:34] appendix, which helps guide them on repricing,

[1:40:39] redesigning and stuff like that.

[1:40:45] - Additional comments, questions, concerns,

[1:40:50] all say aye.

[1:40:52] Aye. Aye. Aye. All the same sign.

[1:40:58] Okay. Next we have an informational

[1:41:03] presentation about 2027.

[1:41:09] - Okay. So hang on. So I know this is a lot of information

[1:41:13] as we've gone through a lot of documents.

[1:41:15] I'll try to be somewhat brief

[1:41:18] and I wanna be able to answer any questions

[1:41:20] that you all have because I know the budget process doesn't

[1:41:24] always align with authority meetings

[1:41:27] and how we review things.

[1:41:28] So trying to play catch up

[1:41:30] because this morning the finance committee approved

[1:41:34] to move forward the budget documents

[1:41:38] based on those discussions

[1:41:40] and some sig sig e items were approved.

[1:41:42] Some were not Parks and rec.

[1:41:44] We only had one item originally

[1:41:48] that wasn't supported.

[1:41:50] But then Jim and I were able to explain it a little bit more

[1:41:54] and the item did get put back in.

[1:41:56] It was the park specialist one position.

[1:41:58] So that is getting passed through again, not approved yet.

[1:42:03] It's gotta go through its process,

[1:42:04] but we are looking at the savings from the seasonal

[1:42:08] maintenance staff that were not being able

[1:42:11] to fill those positions to try to help recoup that cost

[1:42:15] and reduce the municipal share impact on that.

[1:42:20] So essentially each budget had

[1:42:24] some changes for 2027.

[1:42:26] You had municipal contributions did increase,

[1:42:31] however our expenditures decreased.

[1:42:35] And some of the nuances

[1:42:37] of our budget are the use of fund balance.

[1:42:40] So if we don't, if we, we have an excess if amount of funds

[1:42:44] that go into the fund balance at the end of the year

[1:42:47] that are not assigned to a project.

[1:42:49] Basically we did really well

[1:42:51] and we may have something that goes down

[1:42:53] or we have a project that's well under budget,

[1:42:56] that extra money goes into fund balance.

[1:42:59] And so we can't just use those funds.

[1:43:01] There's a process in place through call that we would have

[1:43:03] to go through to use those funds.

[1:43:06] But one of the nuances that's hard

[1:43:08] to see in the documents is why municipal shares appear

[1:43:12] to maybe spike from one year to the next.

[1:43:15] Part of that is we'll use fund balance in the prior budget

[1:43:19] to offset the expenses to reduce the shares.

[1:43:22] So because of that you may have a reduction in shares

[1:43:26] because we used fund balance.

[1:43:28] So the comparison of contributions from one year

[1:43:31] to the next looks significant, significantly different.

[1:43:34] We did the same thing this year.

[1:43:37] Ben, through this process helped to reduce some

[1:43:40] of the expenses of municipal shares

[1:43:42] through use of fund balance.

[1:43:44] I think we ended up using a little over 200,000

[1:43:48] for certain particular projects.

[1:43:50] We had some funds that were unassigned

[1:43:53] or restricted within a certain budget

[1:43:54] that we were able to kind of use.

[1:43:58] And I think it worked out in our favor

[1:44:01] and we were able to get things put through

[1:44:03] and approved some of the items we deferred.

[1:44:07] There were a few things that, the pools that got deferred

[1:44:09] because we had a note in there

[1:44:11] that they were a potential deferral.

[1:44:13] We wanted to look at the items for the end of the season

[1:44:17] to see what the condition of the item was

[1:44:19] before we said yes, let's fund this.

[1:44:22] And so, because some items are operating well,

[1:44:27] like pool pumps, water heaters, things like that, as long

[1:44:31] as they operated well,

[1:44:32] we felt comfortable pushing those out.

[1:44:35] So there were a total of four items, I believe, right,

[1:44:39] that were struck from Cxi, which was a savings

[1:44:42] of a little over a hundred thousand dollars.

[1:44:45] So last year we put forward over 20,

[1:44:48] around 25 60 requests.

[1:44:51] This year we ended up with roughly six or seven requests.

[1:44:56] So we've cut that back significantly

[1:44:59] and all the items we put forward are repairs, replacements,

[1:45:04] taking care of essentially what what we have.

[1:45:08] But I know each budget sheet is different than

[1:45:11] what you're used to seeing

[1:45:13] because this is the new financial system called clear gov

[1:45:17] and that's how the information was extracted.

[1:45:20] So you can kind of see couple different

[1:45:23] versions of each budget.

[1:45:24] You'll see by department, by fund,

[1:45:30] there's different categories.

[1:45:31] So essentially all the same information,

[1:45:33] it is just grouped differently

[1:45:34] so you can see the information differently.

[1:45:37] So any specific questions on those

[1:45:42] budget items that were in the packet that you want

[1:45:45] to go through specifically?

[1:45:48] We're happy to answer any questions you might have.

[1:45:56] One second

[1:45:57] - Missing

[1:46:03] actually, I have my hand.

[1:46:07] - We had pumps

[1:46:09] and associated systems for the, the pools

[1:46:12] that was noted as a pen.

[1:46:13] Potential deferral,

[1:46:15] replacing aging programmatic water features.

[1:46:18] We have been replacing those.

[1:46:20] We have some carry forward funds from prior years

[1:46:23] that we're using as well.

[1:46:25] So Todd's been able to replace some of those this year.

[1:46:28] Domestic water heaters,

[1:46:30] Todd said those are functioning really well.

[1:46:32] We should be able to get another year out of them.

[1:46:35] And then the replacing the picnic table slots,

[1:46:38] we purchased those this year.

[1:46:40] Todd has a skid of those

[1:46:42] and he's per replacing those as needed.

[1:46:46] So I don't think that was something that was so crucial.

[1:46:49] We needed to give them another pallet to kind

[1:46:51] of wait until something breaks.

[1:46:54] So that savings again was around a hundred thousand dollars.

[1:46:58] Just over a hundred thousand dollars in those

[1:47:00] - Items.

[1:47:05] - So everything else, yeah, I was just curious

[1:47:06] - What, what the floor works. Yeah,

[1:47:08] - Everything else got approved.

[1:47:10] The revenue for the boardwalk campaign, the resurfacing

[1:47:14] of the splash pad at Welch Pool,

[1:47:17] because that's a safety issue.

[1:47:19] The park specialist one janitorial for gym,

[1:47:22] which would serve multiple purposes in addition

[1:47:26] to janitorial work

[1:47:28] that would eliminate the janitorial contract

[1:47:31] they would take over cleaning

[1:47:33] and upkeep of our facilities in addition to using

[1:47:37] that person for mowing,

[1:47:39] facility maintenance, things like that.

[1:47:42] Equipment lift for maintenance, replacing netting at Hess,

[1:47:47] replacement of a 2012 truck

[1:47:52] and the software.

[1:47:54] So those moved through the process.

[1:47:57] - So - That's where we're at right now.

[1:48:00] Those are the major items.

[1:48:08] - Progress. Yeah. Didn't take too bigger. No.

[1:48:13] Yeah. Any additional thought?

[1:48:19] Okay. Take note.

[1:48:22] Your our, our other business items or next meeting

[1:48:26] after first 15.

[1:48:28] Is there anything else that point out to us

[1:48:31] that we need to pay attention to?

[1:48:36] Nope. I don't believe so.

[1:48:41] Motion Adjourn. So moved. Aye.

[1:49:15] - The Centre Region Active Adult Center is a vibrant,

[1:49:18] inclusive, and happening location designed

[1:49:20] for active adults 55 years and over to be social

[1:49:23] and participate in new experiences while

[1:49:25] also staying close to home.

[1:49:26] We promote healthy aging through our many activities

[1:49:29] and health forums as well as lifelong learning

[1:49:31] through classes and social interaction

[1:49:33] that suit almost any lifestyle.

[1:49:35] Whether you prefer line dancing followed by a walk

[1:49:37] or a game of bridge and a meal,

[1:49:39] the center is sure to have something for you.

[1:49:41] Visit crpr.org for more info.

[1:49:50] - The League of Women Voters was founded almost a hundred

[1:49:52] years ago with the right to vote for women.

[1:49:57] Not only the right to vote, but an informed vote.

[1:50:00] - You need to know everything about that candidate.

[1:50:04] You need to be able to ask that candidate questions.

[1:50:09] - I think that the organization is going to continue

[1:50:12] to attract a diverse membership

[1:50:14] and I think that that will help us in working toward the

[1:50:18] goal of better representation for everybody. There's

[1:50:21] - A wonderful opportunity here for people who are younger

[1:50:24] to come and learn from women who have been part

[1:50:26] of social movements for years and years.

[1:50:29] - It's our job to be a mentor to the newer members

[1:50:33] because they're the ones

[1:50:35] after all that are going to be carrying the banner

[1:50:37] of the league into the next hundred years.

[1:50:40] We stand for the nonpartisanship that we should all have

[1:50:44] as leaders in our democracy today.

9/17/26 Centre Region Parks & Recreation Authority

Agenda

Transcript