Board Minutes July 11, 2011

BOARD MINUTES

July 11, 2011 

The regular monthly Board Meeting of the Board of Commissioners was called at 7:00 p.m. on July 11, 2011 at the Cynthia Neal Center, 8047 W. 91^ST Place, Hickory Hills, Illinois. 

The following commissioners were present: Jerantowski, Michaels, Morgan, Potacki, Kosnick. 

Also present were: Dan Maier, Recreation Director; Jennifer Fullerton, Executive Director; Jim Murphy, Maintenance Director.  

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Commissioner Kosnick moved, seconded by Commissioner Potacki, to approve the minutes of June 13, 2011. Ayes: Kosnick, Jerantowski, Michaels, Morgan, Potacki. 

SECRETARY’S REPORT

Commissioner Kosnick received a June NRPA magazine. All commissioners received a PDRMA Summer Pulse newsletter.  

CITIZEN’S REPORT

Nothing to report 

MAINTENANCE REPORT

During the month of June we had heavy rainfall and now the turf is under stress and we need the rain. The following was done:

·         All the turf was long and wet but we were able to cut everything weekly. There has been straw on the grass after cutting the grass but we are getting it now.

·         Many shrubs were trimmed and mulched.

·         Round-up was sprayed in all the parks. Weeds have been a major problem this season.

Martin Pond had some algae in there caused by rain, washing nutrients into the pond so the company we hire has been spraying a lot more. They have monthly inspection and care and we have them come out if there is a problem. Mr. Murphy called them twice last month to stay on top of it.  

During the storm today we had branches all over the parks. There was a big willow tree at Martin Park by the pathway where half of it came down. The tree service cleaned up the broken part and will cut the rest of the tree down. He had a lot of emergency calls so he’ll come back. At Memorial Park on the west side a Chinese Elm tree had broken branches lying on the ground. They cut the dead wood out of the tree.   

We have been watering the seed at Krueger Park and it looks ok. He will re-seed in the fall to get it to fill out a little bit more. It is not practical to re-seed in July. It is better in September. Director Fullerton said it looks better than the playgrounds when it was new and we had to use seed instead of sod. Mr. Murphy said it doesn’t have the traffic like the playground generates.  

During a storm on June 20 lightning struck the electrical service for the west field lights at Martin Park. Heritage Electric repaired the service. We had to wait for ComEd to put the meter in. It took over a week to let softball use the lights.  

A new leak developed behind the wall in the men’s bathroom. Lagod Construction repaired the problem at a cost of $680.00. It was fixed a year and a half ago and they were going to repair it for free if it was from last year. It was a cooper pipe that was 25 years old that had a crack in it. Director Fullerton showed a picture of the pipe with the crack. It was leaking before.  

Youth baseball has one more game at the end of the month and their season will be over.  

Doornbos completed their semi-annual preventative maintenance on all of the district’s HVAC units last month. The following are the costs per building:

·         Cynthia Neal Center $855.00 (2 units)

·         Maintenance Facility $180.00 (1 unit)

·         Krueger Park $2045.00 (6 units) This does not include the 2 new ones

·         $423.00 of Krueger’s was for a 3 horsepower motor for the air handler in the old fitness room

Mechanically everything ran fine on the splash pad last month. A larger than normal amount of chlorine was consumed due to all the rain.  

Director Fullerton said on June 28 the band shell was put up for the concerts. The band shell is not put up if the winds are 20mph or higher. On that day it was lower than 10mph. The staff said a gust of wind came up, blew it, popped it up off the ground and went across Roberts Road. All three employees said it was staked down. One of the employees said it moved so they tied it tighter again. One of the employees said he didn’t stake it down all the way because he thought it would be easier and quicker to move it later when taking it down. When you are trained and you learn how to stake it down you have to stake it down all the way and not rush the job. Director Fullerton was told about it blowing across the street at 3:30pm. She went out there. Mr. Murphy told her it was 400-800 pounds. The manufacturer said the band shell is 790 pounds when it is shipped which includes the blower, the pallet, the case and band shell itself. She has had many conversations with the manufacturer of the band shell. When it is blown up it is 250 pounds and just heard about this today from the manufacturer. Her concern is that it could have hurt someone walking down the sidewalk or a motorcycle driver driving down Roberts Road. She is concerned about putting it up. She is worried about putting it up the way we do now if there is human error. She called Wegner the manufacturer. She talked to Dale Ainhorn, the representative that sold us the band shell. He said he has never heard of the band shell coming up off the ground because of the wind and going many feet away. It was very far to go across the road. There were many conversations about tying it down to a truck and that was her idea. No one has ever done that and all they do is stake it down. He said if you are going to do it and you tie it to the hitch it might come up a few feet. It wouldn’t blow across the street. You could tie it to the tires. He called customers service at Wegner and they said no one has done anything else other than stake it down. There was another client which was a forest preserve and they were staking it down in the exact same spot every time they put it up. They put cement pillars in the ground with a metal ring on it and it was all under ground. They would hook it on to there. But she is worried that there is freeze and thaw from the ground and it might pop up. It would have a cover so it wouldn’t be a trip hazard. We are on our own as far as what we do in the future. We currently have a new representative who was on vacation last week so she called him today. His name is Mark Engels. He is calling an engineer and will tell them what happen with us and see if there are any other ideas. One of the concerns Mr. Murphy said is when we strap it down to a truck, will the plastic part of the shell rip from the straps. We can’t take the chance of someone not staking it down properly and having this happen again.  That is not good enough. We will strap it to the truck for now. We will try it tomorrow. It would be better to have the band shell rip than have it blow across the street and hurt someone. Commissioner Kosnick said a lot of unusually things happen in nature like today. At the end of his block it got tore up, trees ripped down and his half of the block was fine. We have had that for the last 5-6 years. We had a lot of rain prior to that and maybe the ground wasn’t as hard as it is now. His idea to make it safer and easier is to use case-ons. You then have to put it in the same place all the time. It is cement pillar. Director Fullerton said that is what a district did. Commissioner Kosnick said it is circular and you dig down quite a bit, several feet put an eyelet on a top and a hatch. You get the same architectural stress. It is stronger and it wouldn’t pull out of the ground. It would be quicker for the staff to put it up. You can’t do that now but it the future. Director Fullerton said it would have to be next year. Commissioner Kosnick said you have to know what it was built for and the safety factors. Look at what the straps are for. Commissioner Potacki asked what the original instructions said. Director Fullerton said it only says to stake it down and nothing else but it has to be all the way. The manufacturer confirmed that. Mr. Murphy said it is rated for 30 mph winds. We do not set it up if it is 20mph winds or more because that is what we feel comfortable with. Mr. Murphy said he feels confident with stacking it in the ground but we will tie it to a truck as an extra precaution. If it was staked down properly they should not come out. He has been staking it in the ground since 1994 with no problems with them coming out. It was human error. He could put pylons in the ground and if they don’t tie the knots properly it could blow away too. It will have to be checked and double checked. He said on concert night he typically work from 6:30am-1:30pm/2:00pm and comes back at 6pm. He will make sure there are no short cuts taken and it is set up correctly. Director Fullerton said this year we are going to take an extra precaution and not just stake it down. Commissioner Potacki asked if the stakes are put in on an angle. Mr. Murphy said yes. Commissioner Michaels asked if we can tie it to a truck just in case. Mr. Murphy said yes. There is extra slack so it is possible. You don’t want to run into the bumper of the truck because it is 3’ off the ground and band shell could move 3’ off the ground. They want it all the way to the bottom. There will be slack so that line will be on the back of the truck just in case. Commissioner Morgan said if we have been using it all these years, didn’t have a problem and now it is human error, I don’t know that we need to take drastic measures other than to supervise the employees that caused the errors. We were lucky no one got hurt. About a month ago on the TV news they showed some of the bouncy houses have been set up and blew away with children. They have been in use for 10 years or so and this is the first we heard of it. Could that have been human error? Commissioner Morgan would like to know what they are doing now. Director Fullerton said the wind could be very calm now and there could be a gust of wind. We have to do a couple of things; put the cement pillars in the ground and then you have to make sure it is in the exact location. Mr. Murphy said it is tricky because you have to figure out the exact distances to do that. You will have to go well below 5’ in the ground because of the frost. We have special events there and don’t want a trip point during sledding. There are a lot of factors and we would have to sub it out. Mr. Murphy will call Wegner and find out who put the pillions in the ground. Commissioner Potacki said to tie it on to the front end of the truck. Since it was human error you can train on this during safety meetings that you have monthly. It could also be referred to anything that you tie on or latch on or bolt on. You should have a second employee check it and the supervisor that looks at it again. Mr. Murphy said we have gone over it a lot since it happened and have trained on it every time. Director Fullerton said you learn from other people mistakes and that is what Wegner said. We practice that here when other park district have issues. It is difficult because you can’t be there every minute of the day. We do a lot of training with camp because our counselors take out camp children on trips. They are on a bus but we do a lot of check lists. Even though we go through all the training and all the check lists you can’t always catch every situation that is unusual that may come up. We have to trust staff that they will do the right thing. The band shell only had a small rip and showed pictures of it. Mr. Murphy said he hasn’t had other rips. Commissioner Michaels asked what the final determination, did the stakes pull out. Mr. Murphy said all the stakes pulled out of the ground. They were not put in all the way and not at the proper angle. You have to pound it in at least 75% but all the way is best. When he did his investigation right after it happened, the stakes are 4’ long and you can see the dirt because the ground was wet and you could only see mud on 50% of them. It is like a clam shell when it starts to inflate. When he does it he puts all the stakes down, put the lines where the stakes should go when it is not inflated. Then he pounds in all the stakes all the way down and ties down the lines. As it starts to inflate, if you have it too tight you have to adjust it. When he does it he had to make sure it is tight so he doesn’t have a problem. They didn’t do it that way, like they are trained to do it. They laid out the band shell and then started to inflate it without having anything tied down. It takes awhile to inflate and then you are running all around it to then pound in the stakes and tie it down. It was inflated for a half hour or 45 minutes but they didn’t pound in the stakes deep enough and adjust all the lines properly. It will bounce on you until you get everything right. You have to keep an eye on the stakes because when it bounces it will pop out the stakes. Once one of the stakes comes out then the next one will come out and it is a domino effect and that is what happened. Commissioner Potacki said when you interviewed the employees he said it would be easier to take down later. Director Fullerton said that was what the supervisor on duty said. Mr. Murphy trained them on it the next day. Commissioner Potacki said they shouldn’t hurry the job when it is a delicate job like this. Commissioner Kosnick said they should do what they are trained to do and check the person next to them. They got a break. It could have blown across Roberts Road and hurt someone. What if it went on to a car that lost control and could have resulted in several children, many people, vehicles and private property that were damaged and hurt. Mr. Murphy said he agreed. Years ago he used to work all day for the regular hours and work all night to the end of the concert. That would be from 7:30am to 10pm. We have refined that where a second shift comes in at 1:30pm to 10pm so they are both eight hour shirts. If you work over the eight hours you get overtime and that does happen. Mr. Murphy said Director Fullerton never complains about the overtime on concerts. They know how long it takes and they shouldn’t rush. Director Fullerton said you can’t work that many hours at one time. That includes Mr. Murphy. He shouldn’t be working 14 hour days because now he has to put up the band shell. Commissioner Potacki said it is easier when you are younger. Director Fullerton said it doesn’t matter what age when you are working outside in the heat and weather. Mr. Murphy said we refined the system so you are not super tired and you know what your hours are going to be. Director Fullerton said Mr. Murphy didn’t ask to take a break, she insisted. Then he is here until 10:30pm at night and back at 6:00am. She asks for Mr. Murphy to take a break in the middle of the day. Commissioner Jerantowski asked how long from start to finish does it take to put the band shell up. Mr. Murphy said a little over an hour. Now that the facility is close, we don’t have transport the band shell like we used to do. We have the tractor so you put it on the pallet and bring it out to the spot you want it at. You roll it out. Over the years it is a lot easier than when we first purchased it. We start it at 1:30pm. Commissioner Jerantowski asked when it blew across the street. Director Fullerton said she was told at 3:30pm but the police called around 3:10pm. The staff was across the street when she heard about it. Commissioner Jerantowski asked when the bands arrive. Director Fullerton said as early as 4pm but the average is 4:30pm. Mr. Maier said the band tomorrow is coming at 5:30pm but it depends on the size of the band. Mr. Murphy said after the band shell they set up for concessions. You can’t start earlier because you have to make sure everything is set up for the band and concessions. Director Fullerton looks out for the weather to see if the band shell can be set up. Director Fullerton said if there is rain or high winds we don’t put the band shell up and the weather call for the band can come later. A lot of people ask when we don’t put it up and we have to explain why. Director Fullerton also said that when she arrived across Roberts Road the staff said they were going to drag the band shell back across Roberts Road inflated and she said no because it could have blown in the wind again and to not worry because the traffic was stopped. The police had the lane blocked off that the band shell was on. Then she opened a vent and three maintenance staff pushed air towards her and then Mr. Murphy arrived as the fifth person. Then they got the tractor and put it on it and got it off the street by 4pm. They wanted to lift it on the dump truck and she also said no because the band shell can be 200-400 deflated. It doesn’t matter if it is 200+ it is still heavy. We were not going to put it up the rest of the summer but then you are basing it on one incident since 1994 so we’ll take the extra precaution and tie it on a truck. Commissioner Morgan said if the problem is human error than that is what you correct. Commissioner Kosnick said you should have a step by step process. Mr. Murphy said he does and they have been trained on it. One of them said when Mr. Murphy is not there short cuts are taken. He doesn’t care if you use a sledge hammer because some of them want to use that but he uses the tractor bucket because it is easier. Commissioner Morgan said when you explain how we do it do you explain why we do it that way. Mr. Murphy said he does and he tells the story about the first time he set it up. He had too much slack in the ropes and it moved 6’ so he tells them that story and why you have to do it that way with pounding the stacks in all the way and tying it down.  

Commissioner Jerantowski asked what time the cleaning crew arrives at night. A car was parked in front of the building. Mr. Murphy said it varies and is up to them. Typically they arrive at 4am. Sometimes on Saturday he may come back at night so he can take Sunday off. She saw a car at 11pm. Director Fullerton said they would be there in the fall through spring but they should be gone by then in the summer. Mr. Murphy said it could have been them. Director Fullerton asked if it was around the 4^th because they had some vacation days around then. Commissioner Jerantowski will call and leave a message next time. Director Fullerton said if they park overnight they will get a ticket. Mr. Murphy said they have a pick up truck and a car.  

RECREATION REPORT

We received the donation from Pepsi for National Night Out. They give us coupons and we have to go buy the pop at the store.  

We narrowed down the recreation assistant position to three people for final interviews. We hired Mackenzie
Varek for the position. She has been an employee for a long time. She has a lot of experience with us and a background in camp and preschool too. She will start Thursday and will be at the grand re-opening. 

The Tuesday and Thursday men’s softball league started their playoffs this week. The other leagues have some time to go because of the power issues at Martin Park with the lights and there were three rain outs. 

We are taking the coloring contest out of the fall brochure. We have had a low turnout since we don’t send it to the schools anymore.  

The second session of camp has 60 children in it with a maximum of 65. There are two that requested a refund because of illnesses.  

Next year we are going to try and have women’s softball on Monday nights. We have girl’s softball on Monday nights but attendance has been going down. We’ll put the women’s at Martin Park and girl’s at Kasey Meadow and Krueger Park. We have three to four teams interested in women’s softball. The women’s age will be 18 and over and the girl’s will go up to 17 years old.  

We had a phone call regarding camp. Camp was being dismissed that day and a lady called and said one of the counselors called and said her daughter wasn’t there. Her husband said she was dropped off to camp that day. A counselor called earlier that day and said they found her daughter and didn’t have a chance to call. Then she said her daughter shouldn’t go off the diving board and went swimming at their pool. Mr. Maier told her we don’t have a pool and didn’t go to a water park today. She then hesitated and said she was registered at another park district and said she was sorry that you are the good camp and we couldn’t get in to your camp.  

Director Fullerton said there was a child crying when leaving Little Rascals camp. She went in the room to find out what was going on and the counselors said he was ok; he just didn’t want to leave camp because he had so much fun. She told the staff that was good to hear that he liked it so much.  

TREASURER’S REPORT

Commissioner Michaels moved, second by Commissioner Morgan to approve Claim Ordinance 672.

Ayes: Kosnick, Jerantowski, Michaels, Morgan, Potacki.  

Commissioner Jerantowski made note of the Investment Report for June 30, 2011.  Director Fullerton cashed in one CD to pay for the construction project.  

DIRECTOR’S REPORT

Krueger Park Renovation and Expansion Project:

Commissioner Jerantowski moved, second by Commissioner Michaels to approve Payout #10 for $76,176 for the Krueger Park Recreation Center addition. Ayes: Kosnick, Jerantowski, Michaels, Morgan, Potacki. We only have $67,400 left to pay on the remainder of the construction project. We received five change orders with this payout and these were already discussed with the commissioners previously. There are 10 punch list items left and they are very minor. There is a punch list meeting this Wednesday with Williams Architect and W.B. Olson to go over the few items left. Some of the items are; there is a screen on the office window that has to be repaired, there is a scratch on the canopy post, there are three little bubbles on the front of the front reception desk, they have to reroute a PVC pipe which was a trip hazard and there is another pipe that comes out of the wall that stops and they have to check the pitch if it is a pipe that would drain, they have to check a code on the distance from the wall to the fence to check the entrapment, there was supposed to have a thermostat cover on the slider in the activity room but it is not needed because the cabinet is in the way so we’ll need a credit, they added more mulch, they have to take a look at a few plants that look stressed. Commissioner Kosnick said there is a gap by the canopy posts. You don’t want it exposed if water gets in there. It is the concrete pillars by the overhang. Mr. Murphy said he will check it out and fill it with caulk. Director Fullerton said she is not real happy with the appearance of the deck so we have been asking for a credit. There is a marble appearance. When they put a tarp on it in the winter to let the cement cure they said the marble apprearance would go away. They said it would go away a long time ago when she saw it in the winter time. They can’t sand blast it and they tried to power wash it. It is not a safety hazard. Some people may say it is a nice look. Commissioner Morgan and Commissioner Kosnick thought it was supposed to be that way. Commissioner Kosnick said he was disappointed how they lined that gate. A repair man came up to fix it and he was talking with him about it. Director Fullerton said it was fixed but they have had many issues with the push bars because the alarms were not sounding. They are fixed now but she thinks it is going to be an on-going problem. If someone sets them off in the middle of the night the batteries will run out and have to be changed.  

Dan Maier mentioned at the June board meeting that we were having problems with the TV’s and Uverse. Director Fullerton went to fix the issues the day after the meeting. There were three separate issues.

1)      TV 3 was on channel 8. The TV’s have to be on Channel 3 otherwise there is static on the TV when listening from the fitness equipment.

2)      TV 1 had static from the fitness equipment. Mr. Murphy and Director Fullerton called Midwest Commercial to get some assistant on the phone so they could learn how to fix it themselves. They had to get on the 12’ foot ladder to fix it from the back of the TV. It was just a button that had to be reset on the decoder box.

3)      Mr. Maier said the Uverse boxes keep going out. After trying many things and calling Uverse we discovered the Uverse boxes are on an 8 hour sleep timer. This makes a lot of sense since you have to hit the OK button at 1:45pm each day and we open at 5:45am. That is eight hours after we open. We didn’t have this issue in the old fitness center because we were allowing the fitness center members to change the channels themselves. To reset the boxes you have to hit the power button but the Uverse comes back on in 10 seconds. When Tammy and Director Fullerton called Uverse about the sleep timer to get it turned off, the technician said there is no way to turn it off but he would ask the manufacture that makes boxes. He also said all providers have the same feature. Comcast said their boxes do not have a sleep timer so that is an option. If we switch from AT&T to Comcast we also have the issue of changing our email addresses since it is a bundled package. After talking with Mr. Maier and the KP secretary they didn’t feel it was too much to turn the boxes off and on at 1:45pm each day. This is better than changing all of the employee emails. There also would be a penalty for getting out of our contract and Comcast would cost $300 more per year.  Another issue is our computer technician from Elite Computer said you can only use AT&T and Comcast due to the speed of our server. Any other provider would slow the server down.

4)      The good news is we can change the boxes to different channels so there are now four different channels on at all times and if Mr. Maier and the KP secretary want to change one box because of a member’s request they can. There are five TV’s but two of them have to be on one channel. AT&T only allows four signals per account. Even a sports bar that has eight TV’s can only have four different channels too. Commissioner Jerantowski asked if anyone can put on what they want on the TV’s. Director Fullerton said they can’t change them themselves because the boxes are in the telephone room but the person at the front desk can do it. If we wanted a member to be able to change the boxes we would have to re-wire and hang the boxes from the TV’s but then it is in the line of site and doesn’t look very good. Mr. Maier said he does it already when they ask. Director Fullerton said the other reason is because you don’t know what members are watching if they could change it themselves since we don’t have a supervisor in that room.  

The invitation list for the Grand Reopening was in the board packet. The opening will begin at 1:30pm so if all commissioners could arrive at 1:20pm then we can start at 1:30pm with the announcements then the ribbon cutting.  If it is not raining we will be outside. We will have the podium and the sound system and we’ll put a ribbon and bow draped across the canopy pillars. There will be a big pair of scissors so Commissioner Jerantowski can cut the ribbon since she is the president. There will not be a lot of little scissors for everyone to cut. Everyone was fine with that. Director Fullerton and Commissioner Jerantowski will say speeches and we have already read our speeches to each other. Mr. Maier said in Activity Room A & B we’ll have the guitar teacher and some students and in Activity Room C will be the violin teacher and students. Director Fullerton said we’ll try and fit 100 pizzas in the freezer and the KP secretary will cook them. We’ll have soda and cookies. Sue Hicks will be in the fitness center to show how the equipment works. Commissioner Kosnick asked if she was a personal trainer. Mr. Maier said she either has the certificate or will have it soon. She is our aerobic instructor. She has worked at Bailey’s. It isn’t going to be that official. She knows about fitness, what muscles to use on the cross over and stretching machines. Commissioner Jerantowski asked if we have a personal trainer. Mr. Maier said she is getting her certification so it will be her. It was Nancy but we only had two requests and it was difficult to keep someone on staff just for that because they are not getting any hours. Nancy was working at three other places and she was getting more hours there. When our customers called her she didn’t have times available. Mr. Maier said she can’t teach personal training until she gets the certification. Commissioner Jerantowski asked if you could let her know. Mr. Maier said we have had one person ask and he tells them we don’t have a big interest for it but he could help with the equipment.  

Community Events Kiosk

In the board packet was a letter from Mayor Howley regarding the community event sign on 95^th and Roberts Road. Director Fullerton showed a picture of the event sign. They are trying to get rid of all the signs that used to be put up there. We are going to start with the Pumpkin Fest since we will have to have all new signs made for that corner. Our existing signs are 4’x4’ and the biggest sign they will allow is 3’x4’. We will be able to use our existing signs on other corners however we will, one at a time, have signs made as events dates come up.  

Street Fair:

The beautiful weather brought out a good crowd to Street Fair this year. The tickets remained at $1 each which is a wonderful price for rides at a fest. Here is the breakdown of just ticket sales:

2011    $ 2,651

2010    $1,462

2009    $1,418

2008    $2,484 

There were a couple of years previous to this that were $2,600. We loose several thousand dollars on the bottom line for the event because to the cost of the rides.  

Audit:

Brett Moeller from O’Neil & Gaspardo conducted our financial audit and was in the office on June 28 and 29. He had 26 items requested prior to the audit which was about the same as last year. Usually he is on-site one day but he had more work to do because of the Krueger Park Renovation Project bills. New this year he asked to call the president of the board and the bookkeeper to ask some standard questions. He asked what the bookkeeper does each month. He asked about the procedure of putting items on our personal credit cards. We don’t have a park district credit account because it is an automatic withdrawal from the district’s checking account. We have to submit our credit card statements for each bill. Director Fullerton has to check to make sure all the statements are matched up the bills. Mr. Maier has to put some big dollar amounts on his credit card because of trips. We should have the final audit to the commissioners by the August board meeting. He said it was rare to see a park district doing well as we have done in the past few years.  

Commissioner Kosnick asked if we could have a pen when selling tickets to check $50 bills. Director Fullerton said she can make sure it is at a fest and she and Mr. Maier would be there to check them. She usually has it down there but there were issues with $20 bills last year. We don’t accept $100 bills at Street Fair.  

Commissioner Potacki said when he was on the board we used to get free advertising on bus stands. He negotiated with them to put all the bus stops in at the City. Director Fullerton asked what was advertised. Commissioner Potacki said it was for Street Fair and City events. Director Fullerton said she’ll look into it. Usually it is a City because they have an agreement. They gave them the land for the bus stops so they got advertising for free.  

Director Fullerton gave Mr. Maier a section from the Southtown because concerts and festivals were in that paper but our concerts were not. She asked if he could call to see how to get in it. Mr. Maier said we had a big crowd at the first concert so people know about it. Director Fullerton said concessions did well.  

Vacation Time/Audit Update:

Brett Moeller, our auditor, wanted the commissioners to see an update of vacation days left as of April 30 because if someone ever leaves the district then the district would have to pay that vacation time. We also included days left as of June 30. He said there are some districts that accumulate vacation time and carry it over so they would have to pay large dollar amounts if someone leaves the district. We don’t carry over vacation. The vacation policy is also in the board packet. She does allow carrying a week or two over for six months if they haven’t had a chance to take it because it is a busy time of the year.  

Commissioner Jerantowski also asked about sick time. Sick time does accrue but they can’t get a cash payout when they retire. It goes into IMRF and they can accrue up to 240 days. That has been a policy a long time. She read the policy as, “Full-time employees shall accrue sick days at 1/2 day per month and can be accumulated to a maximum of 120 days.  For the purpose of IMRF sick days may accrue to 240 days.  Sick days begin to accrue at the end of the 90-day probation period. Sick days may be used for the following reasons:  illness/injury to the employee; illness/injury to an immediate family member including spouse, children and parents.  Unused sick days shall not be paid upon termination.” Employees don’t get cash back if they are terminated or retire. If they are terminated they loose their sick days. Commissioner Kosnick asked if they can put their sick days in the retirement fund if they retire. Director Fullerton said yes and it is a maximum of 240 days. It all goes to IMRF. Commissioner Kosnick said so the employee gets it. Commissioner Morgan said it is like crediting them with a working number of days. Commissioner Kosnick doesn’t think that they should get those days. Commissioner Potacki said it is just adding days to the retirement fund not cash. Mr. Murphy said let’s say you have been with the district 18 years you would then add 240 more days to it. Commissioner Morgan said you’re pension is based on the number of years and days that you worked. Instead of just 18 years, it would be 18 years plus 240 days. It would increase the amount you receive every month by a little bit. It is small and very minor. That is the way the teachers do it. Director Fullerton said that is how it is done for just about everyone in IMRF and it is a policy. Commissioner Kosnick said he doesn’t think it is a good thing because someone will say they never took a vacation or sick day in 25 years. So it increases their retirement. Commissioner Potacki said they can only accrue so many days. Director Fullerton said the maximum is 240 days and for example Mr. Murphy has been with the district for 25 years and has only approximately 130 sick days currently. Mr. Murphy said he has only taken five days off of work in 25 years. In order to reach 240 days you would have to be working here a long time. He hasn’t even accumulated the maximum amount. She recommended meeting with Commissioner Kosnick and the President Commissioner Jerantowski to call IMRF if he has issues. Then we can go back to the board. Commissioner Kosnick said it is like what he heard about the director of the board of education and they were getting two years of spiking and it was similar to that. Director Fullerton said it is not the same comparison. What it was they gave them raises and bonuses their last few years and it increased their salaries and because their sick and vacation time does carry over they paid them their sick and vacation time too. That is not what this is. Commissioner Potacki said he doesn’t like it when everyone does it. Director Fullerton said it is not the same comparison as what they did. They did that and that is why things are changing. Commissioner Jerantowski said it doesn’t bother her because she worked over 25 years and didn’t take any sick days. Her company did pay for accumulated sick days. Director Fullerton said this is different because we don’t get a nice check for sick time when we retire. Mr. Murphy said if you loose sick days you would have everyone calling in sick the week before they are going to loose them. Director Fullerton said then they are calling in sick for those days every year. Commissioner Morgan said sick days are a measure to help you out if you need them. Everyone looks at them as they are entitled to them and they would like to get credit for them in one way or another. Commissioner Potacki said some of them would like to use it as vacation. Director Fullerton said it used to be that way and they would call in sick because they would loose them. Commissioner Morgan said this system is much better.

Concerts:

The first concert went well. Concert concession prices remained the same last year for the cost of products sold. The vendor we purchase concessions from sent a printed Fun Food Guide and a week later when they deliver the product they would increase the cost and some of them were $2 per case. It happened last year too. We would like to change vendors but no one has all the products that we need. You would have to buy each product like ice cream from one vendor, popcorn from another and so on. It is a $250 minimum per delivery for the vendor we use. We have downscaled the items so there are only two to three deliveries. We go to Sam’s Club and Restaurant Depot, which you have to pick up individual items but that reduces the amount of deliveries. Next year we will probably have increases because all the product costs went up so we won’t be making as much this year.  

We had a National Night Out meeting on June 24. The fire department and police department were at the meeting with Mr. Maier and Director Fullerton. They really loved the Frisbees we will be handing out at the end of the concert. We have collected $2,500 in sponsorships from the police, fire department and Standard Bank for the event so we can purchase extra items such as Frisbees and an additional balloon artist.

Fitness Center:

As of June 27, we have 85 new fitness center members in May and June. This includes 28 new members in May and 47 members in June. Usually these are our slower months. The revenue was $8,843 for those two months. The estimate for the new addition is $8,000 so we have paid for our utilities in the new portion of the building for an entire year if the estimation is correct. The KP secretary said we have 395 paid fitness members. Commissioner Morgan said she noticed there are more people in there at one time. It is not crowded and the way it is designed they don’t bump into each other. Director Fullerton said the secretary said there was one day that all the treadmills were full. We don’t have the operating statement for May to July until the audit is finished so the estimated revenue is by manual calculation.  

A letter was included in the board packet that was sent to a fitness center member requesting an extension to his membership. He submitted a doctor’s note and a request to extend his membership for three months due to not being able to work out because of a medical condition.  We have received these requests previously and have also extended memberships.  

Fall 2010 Bottom Line Report:

In the board packet was the fall 2010 Bottom Line Program Activity Report.  There was a 26% increase in the bottom line net revenue. In the fall of 2010, the net revenue was $15,771 and we were higher in 2007 to 2009. There were 39 more enrollees/participants from the previous year. The lost for Pumpkin Fest was $3,063 and last year it was $3,489. Overall special events had a net loss of $3,789 which is lower than last year at $4,829. The tot and youth programs had a decline but all other programs increased.  There were many tot programs canceled due to low enrollment. The youth programs decreased in violin, Monday night soccer and there weren’t any birthday parties or Little Hoopsters. We were under construction so many people didn’t want to have birthday parties when they saw the construction. The adult programs showed a large increase of $3,000 which is a 34% increase. Trips had a large increase of $1,300 which is 46%. The Chicago Fire soccer trip did very well. This was the trip where the children in travel soccer were able to play on the field and their parents purchased tickets. That was a good idea. Contractual programs, teens and Entertainment books remained the same. Seniors had an increase in the net loss amount because we had to reduce the maximum number allowed from 125 to 100 participants. Commissioner Jerantowski said a couple of people purchased the Entertainment book and said they were disappointed because there weren’t any restaurants around here this year. Last year they had more. Director Fullerton said Ms. Muth fills out a comment form so she will tell her to tell them that. It is one zone so you can sell them or not sell them. Commissioner Kosnick said he thinks less people participated. Director Fullerton said that is probably the case. We have no control of who advertises and which books to sell to the community because of the zones. We let the people purchasing them look at them before they buy it. We only make 50 cents a book. We get a lot of requests because we are less expensive than other places that you buy them at. It is not a lot of work to sell them and it is a convenience for the community to buy it from us at a discounted rate.  

Vandalism/Incidents:

On June 29, there were several burn holes on the new bench outside of the Krueger Park at the front entrance. This is the bench that is close to the Krueger Park building sign. They are burning the bench while sitting on it. Mr. Maier is sending a memo to the facility managers to watch out for the next time it happens. There was been many groups of teenagers handing out at the front Krueger Park front entrance. We will also keep an eye on this through our cameras. Commissioner Morgan said they shouldn’t be smoking on the property. Director Fullerton said they are not smoking. They are just burning the bench with a lighter. It is not the size of a cigarette burn but a lighter burn. You have to be 15’ from the front door so they are not smoking there.  

Miscellaneous:

Representative Kelly Burke will be attending the October board meeting to give a short legislative update. Sue Kerwin her office assistant scheduled it with us.  

We received the FEMA grant for the blizzard. We received 70% which was $2,655. It was worth applying for it and we appreciated the employees putting in overtime for it.

Director Fullerton said there was a woman who brought her daughter to the splash pad. Her daughter had a white shirt on with black pants that went all the way to the knee. Our rules say you have to have swim attire on to go in the water at the splash pad. We have had parents who wear full dress that come to the splash pad. They tell us they are not going in the water and we say that is fine and they don’t have to have swim attire on. We do allow them to have a white shirt on and a bathing suit underneath when going in the water. Any time it is colored clothing it will bleed into the water. When she managed a pool kids would come in the pool with fluorescent green, black, red shirts and try to go in the pool. There was a time that we didn’t catch it and a child with a light colored hair turned green. It is because the colored shirts have dye in it. Commissioner Morgan said she had experience with this in high school. Even at a pool you can come in with a t-shirt on but it has to be white. We are starting to have more people come into the splash pad with regular clothing on and they are complaining because they are not allowed to wear their regular clothing. This particular person went to the splash pad first and the attendant said it wasn’t acceptable and you can go into the office and talk with them. They came in to talk with Ms. Muth and she said no. They asked Director Fullerton to come out and approve it. She asked if she could touch the bottom of her pant leg and the mom said yes. It felt like cotton which will bleed. The mom looked at the tag and it said spandex and she said it has been washed several times. She told the mother that she would let her go in today and see what happens with the water and it was fine that day. She said next time she needs to wear swim attire. Approximately three days later a state’s attorney called our main number. She spoke with one of our secretaries and asked what the policy was of the splash pad. The secretary asked if she wanted to speak with the executive director that was not in the office at that time but she could leave a voice mail and Director Fullerton would call her back. She said no and asked her if she could tell her the policy of the splash pad. The secretary said we require swim attire but you can wear a t-shirt but it has to be white. The attorney asked why. She said because of the chemicals in the water and the way the splash pad functions which is similar to pools and any kind of colored dye will turn a light colored hair green. The attorney asked if someone comes in the splash pad and it is a parent and they are not going in the water would you allow them to enter the splash pad with their regular clothes on. The secretary said yes as long as they don’t go in the water. The attorney said that is fine. The secretary asked if she still wanted to leave a message in the voice mail of the executive director. She said no you answered all of my questions and everything is fine. Last year we pulled up a web site that had a non-traditional bathing suit that included a cap for the head and long sleeves for the arms and down to the knees that is acceptable for their tradition. We have shown this picture to many other parents that have come in because they don’t have swim attire on and have said thank you because they can’t even go to a pool without having the proper swim attire that will work for both of them. Director Fullerton showed the picture of the bathing suit to the commissioners. She said we have gone above and beyond to accommodate a different type of non-traditional bathing suit. We have called several splash pads that only allow swim attire. What this girl had on was not swim attire and we allowed her to go in the water because it was spandex and was washed several times. This girl had black on and it would have been a very strong dye if it was cotton. Anything black, red, orange and green is the worst colors to wear because they dye into the water because of the chlorine and acid chemicals that are safe to use in splash pads and pools.

Closed Session:

Commissioner Jerantowski moved, seconded by Commissioner Morgan, to convene to closed session at 8:50p.m. to discuss agenda item listed as:

2(C)(1) DISCUSSION OF APPOINTMENT, COMPENSATION, DISCIPLINE, PERFORMANCE, OR DISMISSAL OF SPECIFIC EMPLOYEE OF THE DISTRICT, INCLUDING HEARING TESTIMONY ON A COMPLAINT LODGED AGAINST AN EMPLOYEE TO DETERMINE ITS VALIDITY Commissioner Jerantowski stated the Board went into Closed Session to discuss the performance of a maintenance employee.

Commissioner Jerantowski moved, second by Commissioner Michaels moved to adjourn to the next regular board meeting. Ayes: Jerantowski, Kosnick, Michaels, Morgan.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:15p.m.

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               Secretary

ATTEST:

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President