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To order the Parks and Recreation Commission regular meeting for Thursday, May 7th 2026 You would join excuse me. We'll do the roll call and then we will do the pledge Christy. Will you call the roll call?
Roll call — called by Unidentified speaker 2
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youth commissioner roses I
Agenda Discussionitems moved / continued / pulled — click to expand
OK, and moving on we have the approval of the agenda. I will say as chair that's not the agenda that I set but it is the agenda that was posted with that being said do I have a motion to approve the agenda as posted?
From anyone. I'll make a motion too. Oh, I'll make a motion to approve the agenda as posted. Approved. And second?
Second.
Can we call the roll please?
OK, and that passes. Thank you. Moving on to our
Roll-call vote Passed 4–2 motion to approve the agenda as posted. Approved. And second? Second. Can we call the roll
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public comments, I have a couple for open public comments. Mr. Crout?
Good evening, commissioners and Christy. Thanks for your service. I know it's thankless at times. I've seen you in action and I've seen what has happened over the years. Wanted to congratulate Jim Bailey. And I hope that you're successful in this group here with the others. I hope you guys can accomplish a lot. Just wanted to give you an update, you guys, to inform you of the last council's meeting.
I'm with the Ojai Valley Pickleball Group. We had applied for a permit to use Lower Libby. We had received that permit granted by Christie. And we had an approval. We paid for the court rentals. We paid for the insurance so the application was complete. They, the council actually voted against their own permit process. I have a copy of that permit process here. We had followed all six of those requirements of that permit process and that was 4-3.403.
They also ignored their own zoning ordinance that allows that type of usage in that park. It also allows that type of usage in universities, schools, churches—there's a lot of other things that fall under that PL zone and that's quasi-public. So it's a completely different zone from all the others. And that's why it allows that activity in that zone, okay? Finally by their actions, that sets a precedent on all of your park functions.
Anything that is permitted within the city's parks can be appealed Even though it's approved by the commissioner, by the director, it can be appealed by one or two people. Now the homes surrounding Sarazote there's probably what 40 or 50 homes right in that area there so anybody living within that park that doesn't like what's going on can appeal okay? So again, we had approval.
A couple people appealed it and the council decided that appeal stands. They didn't like what we were planning on doing even though it was zoned properly, even though we had filled out the papers properly, paid all the fees they still denied it So in closing, I just want to say that the City Council does not always adhere to their own policies Thank you
Tim did you say you had a copy of that if you have it handy? I'll take your copy. Did you the you said you had a copy of the 43403 Okay, great thank you just to keep us from having to search as a commission And are you requesting that the commission put this on their agenda for a future topic for us to discuss? Okay, thank you. Thank you very much And I don't have any other on public comments. I did one on the pool.
I have a comment to make for as a resident, not as a commissioner, but I'll make it from here. I would like the agenda to include commission reports as a standing and future agenda items as a standing topic and I would ask the commission to consider that when moving forward and I am stating it under public comments for
record.
Commission reports, commissioner's reports and future agenda items. I'd like them listed on the agenda each time we meet. That's what I'm suggesting that the commission consider at a later time. Thank you. Oh, thank you. OK and moving on to our consent calendar we have the minutes of the meeting from December 4 2025 has everybody had an opportunity to review those? Those were attached to the packet.
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I only had one one correction. holdover from the previous set of minutes, but it has my name instead of Susie's for signing. I think that was because at the previous meeting she wasn't here so I signed it but that just needs to be updated.
Thank you. Okay other than changing the approval name does anybody have any edits or suggest changes?
I move to approve the minutes with the one change noted. I second
I'll have to call the roll on that, please.
Roll-call vote Passed 3–0 move to approve the minutes with the one change noted. I second I'll have to call the roll
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since I was not there? Yeah, I would abstain. Thank you
Okay, and moving on to our presentations for the evening. We have three discussion items. Our first one is on the Community Aquatics Program Review. We will discuss the community aquatics programming based on the City Council's recommendation and we have a admin report that was included. Christy would you like to go over that admin report for us please?
So I'm here tonight to present this item which is the community aquatics program review At its February 24th City Council meeting city council directed staff to return with salary schedule modifications and fees scholarship information Program hours and an agreement with OUSD for the city-run community aquatics program at Nordoff High School This report fulfills that direction So the first topic would be the salary schedule modification for lifeguard pay We did survey Different cities, I believe it was Four six different cities and we decided to Propose to City Council to increase the hourly rate of pay to $25 per hour Hopefully that would get some interest and get some applications in. We have received a few So we're in process of interviewing now We also wanted to go over the entry fees.
We also did do a survey of four nearby cities For open swim and lap swim, which is what we would be providing at Nordoff High School And we're gonna propose five dollars per person We are also going to ask council to authorize a $5,000 allocation for income qualified lowered fee waivers Which would be two dollars per person If they do qualify Program hours, we're proposing is 9 a.m. To 1 p.m This would be you know during Vacation times or break times for the school So right now we're proposing Sundays and then Monday through Fridays We're gonna leave Saturdays for the YMCA to do lessons And then the agreement with OUSD has also been completed So this is what I'm going to go over May 19th with City Council.
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item was agendized, we can only discuss it even though the report says to take no action or provide alternative direction. We can't actually do that tonight because that's not what was agendized for the commission to take any action but we can wholeheartedly participate in a discussion if you have questions for Christy but we're not able to make a motion on this item.
Does anybody have any questions for Christy?
Yeah, I'm curious the conversation around hours. Do they have programming after 1 and before 9?
Oh, we wouldn't be doing the program.
No no not you but is the high school? Is that why I
have not received a confirmed schedule from them yet so Once I do have that because I know they're going through swimming right now So once I do have that I could provide better days But right now we're just thinking of a half day
Does
that include the full summer break only during those hours nine to one and
Yeah, and we would adjust you know however if we're getting a lot of Involvement or if certain days. We're not getting any swimmers will make adjustments throughout them But right now this is what we're proposing
and it's $5 per person
Is
there an age Like swimmers under three or is it just five dollars flat no matter who uses the facility? Okay
So the sum total of the programming from the city is just open swim. So during the summer, there will only be some lessons on Saturdays
through the YMCA.
We won't have we won't be running in of our own programs like historically?
No. Listens no. OK, not at this time.
Historically, there have been passes like I have. I have one of the last I've just found it right before he got here and we had per person, individual swim passes and family swim passes. I'm hoping we'll consider that because I think it totally makes sense. And then the other thing is it's fewer transactions because I know it takes... It sounds like staffing is going to be slim on the way we're running it. So the other question is how can you pay? Can you pay at the door or do you have to prepay? You can pay at the door. Can you cash? All those different ways are fine. Correct. But will they also take credit?
Yes, we do have a system.
I did also look into it so the way that this was proposed was to open it up as quickly as possible So that's really what I'm trying to do once it starts going on We're gonna continue looking into how many Participants were getting what makes sense if there's a possibility to do, you know monthly passes weekly passes So we are we are still going to look into that
because it says daily but daily is Is just summer. That's the only time will be dealing maybe some breaks during the school year if there isn't and Sundays or swimming and Sundays, right? Which is the year-round portion, correct? That's the only thing that's around Are no Saturdays that just it's just a lie. Yes, there's already an agreement in place with the Y and they so we are holding that for them to hold swim lessons. Correct? That's already started, correct? Yes. OK, so that's going on.
And so you say completed on the agreement which that's the facilities use agreement.
Correct.
OK. Is that an operating standards agreement? Does that come into, did you guys have agreements to how you're going to calendar together and what the time frame is for that calendaring and how you'll get the information. Because that's okay so... It's
through the athletic director. So we're working closely together to get the calendar.
Are there any time frames written in? To how far in advance do you guys need to know? There's a real staffing component to this. And so if you're trying to pay staff and budget for staff and figure out what we're gonna do it's gonna be really important that we have continuity. And so I'm hoping, I don't know that there's actually an agreement signed other than the Facilities Use Agreement and I feel like this is a pretty big investment on the city's part trying to train these people up and get prepared and put it all together. So I think it's going to be important to come to an agreement like to have some kind of beyond just that we're going to take the facility and we have insurance because really most of what's happening now is that It's
facilities use agreement, so it's it's just the same and it's whenever they have breaks and they won't be using the pool That's when we're gonna facilitate
There's not a calendar right now
Are you asking kind of a timeline to know like, OK, by each March? Right. You know, like here are the hours here at the price. Yeah. So an annual calendar
where you're agreeing to it far enough in advance that you can plan because you just train. Yeah, I really can't plan the other way. The other part of again, the other part that I read somewhere else was is that we have increased insurance for this. We're carrying a that's part of the facilities agreement that we are carrying a greater amount of insurance than usual
It was a certificate that we went through our insurance company.
Right, so that was part of this particular agreement? We definitely have to do that, yeah. And then I read somewhere—I think it was in an article—that there are agreed-to maintenance standards that the city will be performing and I've never seen it delineated what those would be, so I'm just curious.
OK, it's not maintenance. It's like daily operations. So we're going to test the water but we're not going to be the ones changing any of you know the chemicals or anything like that. We're just gonna pick up afterwards leave the facility the way that it was things like that. But we don't have to perform any type of maintenance on the facility at all.
Okay, so it's daily operation for safety. So you're basically doing your safety procedures? Correct. I just was interested to hear clarification because the way it was stated in the article that I read, I was like oh no!
I saw that too.
What is this going to be that isn't
written into anything anywhere? What happens when the chemicals are off? Is there somebody that's on call? There's a pool manager. That's gonna be available to be called?
Yeah.
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My only input that when you were talking about the fee structure was that And it's happened a lot at Casitas the moms that have small children meaning like not swim age there probably should be something about You know
and under or something
Yeah, I mean yeah diapers swim diapers like if it's it's just always and you know They're not gonna do anything. I'm holding them But you know, I'd say you hate to not think that through I don't know what the other pools are doing nowadays but something to maybe look into what age is is really I Mean if they're not if they're still crawling and or they're three months old. I don''t know I just think that you don't want to have your young staff in a position where?
They have to deal with a confrontational mom That's all something to consider.
So these are rules and regulations, and I'm so because he just has them as like a place as a starting point And I think that we they had him before when they ran it might not be
Recorded anywhere to find But yeah, it's something to do with under I think it is maybe too I don't I'm not sure you'd have to look into it but just a suggestion
and then what about the Children what is there an age? That's been decided where they can come in accompanied
From what we've seen, it's 14 and over.
And where are we training our lifeguards? Is it like collaboratively through Casitas or through the Rye Club?
Through Casitas actually at the Nordoff Pool.
That's
great.
Oh that's
great!
That's a really nice collaboration. The rules and regulations aren't fully developed yet.
No, the
rule
does
have
standard but we're gonna also make our own so any type of feedback you know the comments that you're saying now would also go towards that as well.
And when do you have to sign a waiver at some point during the year? Is it once a year is it every time you come?
No, it would go through our active net so it would be the same way that we run programs now
And so each time they come, if they're doing $5.00, they have to do it every time? Or can you have one on file?
Have one on file.
How long—it's good for the whole year? Usually a year through Active.com as
you say. Yeah, it'll bring up a notification and then you have to... All right.
I'm just curious from the standpoint of sending kids and not having the hassle of trying to do all that at the gate every time.
At one time there would be three.
No,
just ours correct and then depending on you know how many swimmers we get maybe let's just say a month down the road we're only getting 10 people at a time will cut the lifeguards down so it's all you know
I'm not sure. I didn't see the recommendation from Council regarding times, but 9 a.m., what is it? The pool's heated I assume. It just seems early one o'clock. Is there something going on in the afternoon if they wanted to stay? No, it just seems like when it's hot that the times that they want to get wet is going to be afternoon.
Yeah. Is this decision based on staffing?
No. It was based on lap swim and open swim. So the busiest times for lap swim and open swim a lot of lap swimmers like to swim in the morning
more
adult oriented. This is two different times. It isn't open swim the whole time.
It's open and lapsed
at the same time.
We based it on a survey of looking at the busiest times for swimming. When was the survey done? No, I just looked online. It's just research. Okay. It wasn't a survey out to the public. It was research so just like...
I spend a lot of time in pools and in Ojai in the afternoon it's hotter and busier. And
people who are working will want to come. That's historically we've tried to keep it open later so that you can come as a family.
Are we open to adjusting it later if we see that there is that desire? But you're saying maybe
we think about it at first. Can you make that staffing call later? Now is the time, but historically whenever we've had our aquatics programs everything has to be done ahead of time because you have to have your staffing in place to even accommodate I don't think you can say in a month you're gonna do something else if you only have enough to do three lifeguards a day for five hours each or so.
So I would hope that we would do more.
I hear what Christy's saying It's nine to one is a more adult swim laps, but not really High priority time for family and children
You can provide any feedback that you like if you have a certain time that you're thinking definitely
Well, I agree with what—I mean, I err to Brenda. She has a lot of experience in this professionally.
I
mean it's Ojai. It's hot in the afternoon but if they have things going on, it's that business balance. Because interesting because if you do schedule lifeguards in advance nine-to-one My guess is a lot of them are going to find jobs in the afternoon or kind of that switch if they're not working full days.
So, if we extended the time and we said gosh we're gonna do it nine to six then you know we do just have to be prepared for a greater outlay from the city In terms of what we might cover Because generally fee structures don't fully cover Lapswam or pull stuff for most communities. It's like, you know, maybe 60 30 to 60 percent depending I think you get
more kids for sure
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I
Was just one council member
at
the City Council
meeting, but I wanted to I Hope clarify. I'm happy to have the mayor You know join in
This is definitely a little bit unusual the way it's being presented to you One of the things that we as a City Council were presented with is the idea That if we didn't step up and say we are interested in doing programming There was no way it was going to happen by the time summer started so Staff brought us a proposal and there was definitely questions and comments from council.
Can we do more? And I think the conclusion was is that staff would bring back to us, you know what it would look like to provide more programming And when I say programming, we're just talking about lap swim and free swim. So I would say that if there wasn't part of the report for your recommendations, I definitely want to hear your feedback. So I've liked everything that I've heard. It's all really good thoughts and Yeah,
thank you. And when you say the lap obviously geared more towards adults I'm assuming but the free swim when you're the council's discussing it that's Would you say more like children family
more like family? Swim not not confined to you know a lane going back and forth You know how we organize that I'm not sure exactly, but we're trying to get people in the water this summer through our rec department. It's going to take a lot more organization to do this in the future The council was kind of unanimous. Well, we don't want to miss the opportunity to at least get some lifeguards out there, get some people in the pool.
So I think all of your thoughts about time a day rules that we need to figure out for our operations it's all really good information for us to have.
I also would like just from a historic perspective over the years we have very successfully sold out swim lessons Every year. And those are what people and when we talk about this pool and everyone keeps bringing up the reason we do this pool is everyone can learn to swim, so... And they were like if I remember... They went from 9 to 1230 every day for the summer. What we did was summer programming that was the only program we did. That's the most experience that the city has is with summer programming and successful summer programming selling out of all of the lessons they were providing And then after the last few years, they had added private lessons which is another way to really increase. You can make a little more on the private lessons.
And they could do it in conjunction with the open swim or the lane swimming? Yes. It would not interfere? Because that was really, really popular. I put my kids through it and I remember it being early in the morning. In fact, I almost think it was too
early. I remember it being cold. The last time we did it was 9 AM to 1230.
What were the full hours of the pool open to close during those years?
Well, this is when Villanova did it. It was completely when we did it at Villanova and it was completely determined on their schedule. So from year to year, we would take what we could get and they were lovely hosts. They were very kind and generous with the facility. But this was one of the last years. And so this this is not the open swim portion of it. This has lap swim They did that from eight to nine back then.
And then that would, you know, so it just...
They had segments of the day for certain things certainly. So eight to nine was
before lessons.
So people were in
a lap swim the whole time
and
then lessons would be on and they would have I think they had five levels.
And Citi was running the lessons at the time or were they? Citi
was running
all
of it.
Christy, I have a question. If we decided, we said to you like we want to try say from nine to five and try with the pass is that something that this commission or you can go back and could you even staff that? Would you try to staff that? Or is that what created the desire to do it from nine to one in the first place?
Staffing so and this was already Approved by council is to try the part-time So we've had these openings for lifeguards for a few months, and we've had maybe three or four
Can I just interject in there so the Having two teenagers, especially at $25 an hour Their objective during the summer is to work eight hours at that to make as much money as they can and fill their day As much as possible. So 9 to 5 30 is a full workday for them with their half-hour lunch break rotating their breaks obviously you have to have some overlap but That's really their objective, and I would agree with Brenda that if we're not considering full-time employment for the summer time, we're going to get the bottom of the barrel. We're going to get—Casillas is going to take a huge chunk. The Racquet Club is going to take it. YMCA probably. And then you know, I would be concerned that there may not be a lot of interest for only working a handful of hours because they're going to have to go get other jobs which are going to be a priority
As you say all that, Susie, I wonder maybe if you're offering those, that eight-hour date, you might see more than three applicants or five applicants. I'm just curious
if you put it out there to see what... Yeah, I think a lot of the teenagers would be more receptive to eight hour days because their objective is
to work for someone. That's more than the Y is
paying.
It's more than we pay at UCSB. By a very generous amount more than the Y is paying because they gave us their numbers.
Another thing that I did not see very much of during looking into all of this is a lifeguard day at eight hours. I see a lot of breaks, they have to take breaks and just the attention and all of that. I really haven't seen... They rotate
different to different positions?
And they would be doing that for the four hours. Yeah it
depends on, I've seen it at different pools where they'll all stay on and then they take their five ten minute break each hour Personally, when I lifeguarded, I really appreciated the 15-minute rotations. You change up the seat and then you get 15 minutes downtime whether you're doing another assignment but your brain gets to relax that you're not focused on the kids and the people so much.
But do you think that from the industry perspective is there expectation for a full day or are you saying it's industry
standard? For summer positions, yeah. I think it's industry standards as well.
Yeah, and I think because I think the pay is generous so it probably has a lot more to do with the hours
Yeah, in the advertisement right now is it listed or the hours listed? Is that even okay so hiring I mean I do understand hiring is hard.
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Let's ask our teen commissioner a little perspective if you're looking for a summer gig are you looking for an eight-hour day making 200 a day or four hour day I mean, what's eight times 25, 42? Yeah. Okay. What's appealing for you if you were seeking a summer job?
I would probably say an eight-hour day. Yeah, probably a longer day because I think a lot of teens who have jobs they just want to have money.
I agree. It's really something to consider and maybe when you write the response to council, you can include option A and option B because maybe they didn't think about that from a youth perspective as to retaining staff
And I guess the big question, I'm sorry to cut you off. Do we have the money to pay that full eight hour day for these lifeguards? It doubles, becomes a $600 a day, $3,000 a week on a five-day week
And I think the historic difference between what we're talking about now and then was the swim lessons got people there. Those things sold out. So that way you could count on what you were making there, and so I understand that it is much less predictable without that. And that was also something that they always trained for because everyone would when they were doing their lifeguard training would get their swim lesson certification at the same time and then they would be ready to go
something I mean might be a little late to do for this year but in the future running a certification program. I mean so then that way you know like okay every March we're running coordinating with the high school to get full time to do that, so then anybody who wants to be a lifeguard gets their certification and then they'll apply to
usually do it during spring break is typically when they offer
it or the weekends on the
long
break. It would be interesting and you may not have any idea but how is Casitas doing this year on recruitment? I know they're going to train whoever you find.
It's always a struggle and they have There's a lot of high school students that apply, but it's a struggle. And then you always get, it's funny, are you available all summer? Yes, absolutely. Oh yeah. It's like well I do have a two week vacation and oh by the way, I need second third and fourth Saturdays off for a wedding and my cousin's birthday so it's challenging. They over hire and they barely are able to meet the needs of the staff. Yeah, and that's obviously a much larger operation And they do exactly what Brenda's talking about. The rotation is a huge part of it and why you have to have overstaffing, because you have to have those rest breaks that are still paid. They're not like—and in addition to lunch breaks and a real rest break, you have to take the guards off of those stations.
Well, something to consider. I don't know how the $62,200 is split up. I didn't see the breakdown on that. I think $5,000 in allocations for low income and I don't know is that standard for your other programs? That seems kind of high so perhaps there's some wiggle room in that but I'm not sure how much the $62000 is allocated towards staff but I agree that you're going to have a hard time getting people to be a priority and what an unfortunate mess it would be if because they all call in sick And when you only have three people, what if that's the minimum and they're only working for a half day?
It's gonna be tough. That's run to
failure. Are you trying to find a manager? There was always a manager before. Not a head lifeguard,
okay. No, but there would be somebody in the office as well But that would be on the property
or at the
rec no at
the pool
Will that person be able to do just a suggestion Would be Recommended that they get their lifeguards certification and they'll be able to give the breaks of course Okay, I'll teach it. Just to be able to have if we're allowed to have more programming it seems like that's our specialty and Whether it's for lap swim or you know programming open swim I guess is kind of a double negative but to have that opportunity to do water aerobics and program it and Lessons in programment. Those are where We know that people will come because we'll advertise it and we'll book a specific time. Even on the Sunday, I think you would have an appetite immediately for water aerobics. I think people are gonna be a little bit bummed out when they go oh It's so hot let's go to Nordhoff cuz it's open now, and then there's nobody it's like going to Griswold it's like no the park isn't open today After we came all the way up here And then it just seems Like that's a missed opportunity especially for summer
0:37 – 0:4334 turns
Can I jump backwards to this pickleball question to help me understand from higher up? Am I allowed to go backwards? Okay, I won't go backwards. I'll ask you
later. Christy, I want to understand based on all this conversation what would it take to go back to the council and come back with an option A B or C where we would have a 9-5 or a nine to six day and is YMCA open to offering more days of lessons in the morning or no Sundays, right? Okay. And so right now it's gonna be too much for us to kick that off However in the future we could explore that but if I wanted to have some other options in front of us for a longer extended day What you could go to council and come back to us or what does that look like?
So that's
just
a question. What's the process? And this would be
if I
can
just say, yeah, this would be to
open the pool for summer
As soon as we can
that would help you just get it open
every month I can give reports or we can track attendance. We can look at different options Maybe let council know. I know that they're gonna want updates as well Things could change possibly in the future, but this would just be What's already been approved? along with the amount It's already been approved besides the scholarship. Everything is going to be trial and error. We don't know, you
know? The other thing is it'll be too late but our next meeting we can re-agendize this exact same topic and move forward with it there because I think we still have
time for summer. Yeah great. Because if you meet in May and recommend at the next council—recommend in May that it can be taken in late May which is still before or excuse me. So we meet again on June the 4th and school is out on the 11th so potentially really
early in the season. I
think that's great
Well, we're all really excited that there's a pool and that something is happening. And we're going to get it started and then we're gonna get it fine-tuned.
Yes, and there'll be more fleshed out information by then.
And anybody tuning in if you have a desire for part-time lifeguarding? And are we providing the training free of cost or is there a cost? Providing. We're providing the training, wow. It does say that on the flyer as well. Just for those listening, how does a youth or even an adult, right? There's no age limit. How do they go about getting trained? Getting their lifeguard training to apply for the job?
On their own?
No, I mean. Oh with us? They would contact
us.
Do they have to be hired and then you're training them or you're training them because usually it's the other way around. You get trained and then you're eligible to apply for the position I'm
just
going to mimic what Mr. Whitman already said, if Christy came to us and said oh my gosh there is a hundred people there fifty people twenty people and it's one o'clock we'll figure it out and we will hire more people and at our student council meeting that we had recently we had three people from Nordoff saying what seriously they're ready to apply Oak Grove students already applied So, I hope it won't be a problem. But what we're doing is we are... Christy correct me if I'm wrong but where people are applying, we are paying for their training as an employee. We're not paying to train them and then hiring them.
That's the process we're doing right now so we're vetting them enough to say we want to invest in you.
So just I hope you and
that mr. Whitman already said this, I hope you understand we were trying this out It's fast and the next summer if it's oh great list all these programs awesome will do it You know, I mean, it's all about just getting it open secondly Just remember that there's no shallow end of this pool I know you already know that, so that's why the splash pad and all that other stuff. Oh yeah, Nordoff did not build a shallow part.
So swim lessons are really how is the Y going to address that with? They're doing them. Swim
lessons
they
put in like platforms.
That's what this flashpad idea for Zarazodi, that's why it emerged was to say oh there's another opportunity for younger families just so you guys know.
Christy, where are these positions listed on the website? I have it right here. Come on
up Mr. Miley please
0:43 – 0:5320 turns
Thank you for joining us tonight.
Hello. This Community Aquatic Center for community use has been coming for a very long time, way beyond 2020 when the bond issue was. Lots of interest But I have a request. I would like to request that the Lane 4 study be placed on your agenda next time because it will really influence the planning for what you're doing now. Okay, so I have some comments. The Ohio Valley News did a very significant reader survey months ago about interest in this new community's resource.
There were over 400 replies showing much interest in regular use, you may know about it. I see this survey as very important in scheduling public use. I am somewhat confused about the open times for public use right now I understand the city will manage Sundays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and maybe some other days which currently, I didn't see listed. I did not see a clear statement about summertime management.
Using the Ohio Valley News survey results, it would seem logically could direct and expanded management hours for Sundays, mostly in the midday and afternoons. At least until four to six p.m. Monday mornings only will limit folks who attend church services. Do I go to church or do I go swim? And those wanting to finally sleep in before they have to go to work on Monday.
The biggest issue to resolve is how to handle the summer months and holiday weeks when OUSD is on vacation. During the summer with much warmer weather all day long, cooling desire by Valley members is greatest. Having the Aquatic Center open 8-10 hours per day every week seems very logical It seems that I like what Christy is saying about demand, what I call demand scheduling.
If at 1 o'clock you have 30 people, plan to stay up until 3. If at 3 you have 30, stay open till 5. I'd like another minute please?
Go ahead, please. Thank
you. And then you can adjust the overall need. I like that a lot. You should really consider adding multiple ways of buying access to the Aquatic Center, making it more easy to pay for such use. Multiple days in a purchase, multiple times, season passes, family membership. Here is my wish for the new Nordoff Aquatic Center. Summers, six to eight hours especially during afternoons Sundays, 6 to 8 hours until 4 to 5 p.m.
Use the term demand scheduling like Christy's already said and during the week times if possible, excuse me, and during the week when the school is in session and time is available offer it when possible It's impressive the city of Ojai has worked out a management arrangement with OUSD, which I assume is based on getting the best community use of this exciting recreation facility that's never happened in Ojai's history. Thank you.
Thank you Bill. Bill when you get a moment would you please send me that study so I have it for the agenda for next month? Sure. And I do, I will just share on that same topic that there is a meeting with Lane 4. I was working with Christy earlier to solidify that. That is in the works to talk with them. I assume that study will probably come up as well.
So just a couple of points. Again, this is my perspective from the meetings I've been in. We didn't really get an opportunity to propose to provide the lessons this summer. The YMCA from somewhere Venter Oxnard they kind of jumped in and actually proposed to provide the lifeguard service as well The school district ended up awarding them the contract for the Swim lessons.
I Definitely see that as something that we would want to at least take a look at in the future. I agree It's potential way to pay for The programming my other comment is that There was a lot of talk about collaborations that could take place where it wasn't just the city, but there wasn't enough time to develop a collaboration. And so we decided let's try this and let's hope that we can work out collaborations for the future so that it's more of a valley wide effort as opposed to the city's effort to provide this programming.
Are we still able to discuss? Yes, I think the collaboration also is again, I'm going to come back to where I started. There's got to be an ability to plan with a facility and to do that there has to be a collaboration between the schools and the city with clear understanding of when it can be used, who can use it, what their terms are. And I don't mean like week to week because that is not a reasonable way to run this. We can't ever really fully do the best for the community without a really clear advance. Yes within an agreement and I mean actually an agreement or written agreement This is not something you want to get into training people, setting up and then start running into oh no well no. You know I think we have we need to be this collaboration needs to be codified somehow I don't that's maybe not the right term but there needs to be an actual agreement that people can look at it understand because I just expect to expect yes to what are the expectations are in a relationship to define it so that we won't run into this friction over when it's available, when it's not available.
I just think that's super important and if it exists, I've not seen it. If it's happened somewhere, I don't know and I sometimes feel like the pursuit of speed we lose track of some really important parts of what's going to make it long-term successful so I'm just concerned. That
for
me is
something that's valid especially when you're dealing with water. You know this is a high risk
With the energy you put in, I think having an annual calendar in that agreement would be really helpful.
Is the YMCA only doing lessons on just the one day, just on Saturday? Just
Saturday. And this isn't a long term proposal
to get our foot in the
door. It's not a long term proposal for
our foot in the water
and the school district that I've been working with, you know, are really open to us using the pool for the community.
I understand they're open, but having been on this commission for years again, having been here before everything shut down And asking for information all those years, even before it was built. Tell us what the hours are going to be. Give us your schedule. Help us understand what we could program for. We've never gotten an answer in writing and we asked for it in writing well before we went defunct. Big break!
Yeah so I understand that it's all working very nicely but I feel like by this point in the process This shouldn't be a rub. I mean, this should be well it is because we still I haven't ever seen anywhere in writing We've heard. I mean, I just don't I know I haven't seen and I've asked for it And I've looked for it and I watched the meetings and I've tried to I it hasn't there really hasn't been a commitment
By the school district
by the school district because they you know for at one point It's like well You can use it after school and all this but they're very clear that you can't be there when students are there and I know how it Is with sports? There are people there till nine o'clock at night or later and on and off. So so that is I mean, I want to just be really clear because so even if there's a week off and it's water polo season, we need to know exactly, you know, well in advance of that what we're going to do, because otherwise there's just no way we were ever going to be able to cover our net to the degree that we do knowing that it's never we're always subsidizing these things through the general fund as it should be Because I pay taxes and this is exactly the kind of thing I'd like to pay for.
But it now seems like the time, and in the rush to get there, I don't want to miss the opportunity to really get clear.
0:53 – 0:579 turns
So you hit the nail on the head. We have this thing called a community pool because we all voted for it to fund that but there was no definition in what that was at all and There was no opportunity to create the certainty That you're talking about that. We absolutely have to have and so, you know the decision by the City Council was Let's do something this summer, what is feasible. But it's definitely our intent that we would have this more structured program and so I grew up in the old Nordhoff pool There was a time when I
think there were something like 150 kids from the valley who are swimming competitively on that team all around the county.
And so I think that this community is the type of community that will support a really, you know, robust swim program. The swim lessons end up being feeders for a swim team and all that. So there's a really fantastic opportunity And we're just at this very, you know, formative stage and I have enjoyed listening to you. I promise I never talk this much as a liaison.
Thank you.
Okay. Go ahead. Will you explain lane four for those who aren't in the loop? Yeah,
so we are in process right now of having a meeting with them to move forward. They will be doing research about providing a community program Looking into doing that and seeing what we can do in the future They're gonna do all the research and all of the work So I'm looking forward to seeing what they have And
I don't know. We can, I mean I recommend it now but well we can't take action so never mind.
Okay thank you for the lively discussion and participation that was wonderful is before I
move on to the next item is there any closing thoughts for Christy? This is kind of her opportunity to take input Okay Moving on we have our CIP for parks This is to discuss the current and proposed capital Improvement projects related to parks and identify some priority projects And there was a huge Attachment here. I was hoping maybe there might be a slideshow that we could see a little bit Larger, but I'll let Christie you want to walk us through? Yeah,
0:57 – 1:0318 turns
so this is the same item that's been Just continually brought forward to the next agenda. So it's already been worked on We already talked about the items that We thought would be good to have inside of this CIP. We talked with Lindy a few meetings ago So this is just kind of brought forward And we're gonna do it again and we're gonna get it done So There are a few items that we spoke about which would be the half-court basketball outside of the multi-purpose room at Sarasota Park That has a lot of interest. There's also the walking path on the outer perimeter of the park the outdoor workout stations that would be installed throughout the walking path and and a possible splash pad or water element.
And we do have, I don't know if you have everything printed out but I can give you the page numbers if you wanted to look at the sheets that were provided. It's tiny tiny print and also We are in process of the playground reconstruction, which some of these projects could be a part of as well.
So, Chrissy, this is the adopted current CIP. And then you just went through the process of submitting for the 2027 because that closed that window to submit projects just closed a month ago?
Well, we're still in process
with the submission time has already closed.
Yeah. So
we spoke about the
papers,
but things we come up with tonight, we could still put through And we can make a recommendation on this one. Yes, but does everybody want to talk about what all the projects are before we start discussing? Okay, do we want to go project by project
Maybe just start at the top here that everybody's got the same printout.
Yes. Okay, the Libbey Park remodel of restrooms I I have that the current ones it's actually not just the remodeling of the restrooms. There is a huge Sewage issue with the whole location that is and it hasn't been right they've known for a long time We haven't come quite with a solution but that's the really big part of that project is getting it so that they that part is fixed and it's complicated because So many things are flowing to one place and it isn't. But anyway, I think they at this point pretty much have an idea how to do it.
And that's a lot of that project. You can go find where it describes the project in here. Which page is it?
Well there's what you're talking about for 26-27 right?
I'd like to make a suggestion and actually, I heard it. I had talked to some council member who mentioned it too. I think that that bathroom when they're talking about putting air conditioning in the ticket booth and they've approved to do that as a stopgap but that building is well beyond its life and has been there the Civic Association originally built It's been there a long time. I think that the bigger bathroom project, I would hope that maybe we would look at that whole area and where the bathroom should be if we're going to redo it and how to make the ticket booth work better and just kind of come up with a plan for the whole access point to the bowl because there are some really awkward things about getting in and out of the bowl as it is now.
And if we're going to do a project on the bathroom, I would love to see it. There'd be a plan that is a larger look at that whole area and how to make it really functional for the facility. Because there's definitely a lot of room to rejigger possibly, you know, you could put the bathroom on the other side, you could change the entrance a little bit All that could be, we could really do some planning and really look at it. I know you can't probably do all the projects right away but I think it's so much better to come up with a plan and do the project in the plan versus do a project and then go oh well wouldn't this have been great because I think before we get into doing that it'd be great to make sure that that's the right location and that this is the kind of bathroom we need and how would this best serve not just the park but the entire facility?
Because it's a wonderful facility but this is a challenge and there are some challenges You know, where the ticket booth is versus where you enter versus where you line up. There's some flow issues when the larger concerts come. Anyway, so I would like to make a recommendation that we ask for a larger scope of planning for that portion of Libbey Park before they go forward with the bathroom remodel because maybe that's not the right spot. Possibly even from the sewage problem possibly it's easier to put on the other side. Maybe it's closer to some other access point but Anyway, that's a pitch as a possible priority.
I'm not sure that that's within the scope of our agenda, though we have current and proposed capital improvement projects and to identify priority projects based on the current and proposed. And I'll err to the commission to discuss if we can move forward with a motion like that discussing proposed capital improvement related to current and proposed, meaning proposed that are proposed in year 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5?
Well it is proposed. It's already on there. Part of that project is already on there so this would be an expansion of the current project to accommodate a better And it makes financial sense to do
it
right. That's kind of why I'm bringing it up because before they get started, I'd love to see them really look at that from the perspective of best use for not just the... There are a lot of things that are kind of funky about access to bathrooms and different things with the concerts and all that.
Do you have a second on motion? Discussion on that any additional
discussion Prior to prior to redoing the park or prior to I'm trying to think the last work that was done Nevermind, I retract that question It was really a long time ago
1:04 – 1:0833 turns
But I would, I agree that going to the concerts or even like you know anything that has that controlled front. The line queuing in it's it could use some redesign it would be money well spent to do it right and the restrooms are obviously a huge
problem. Problems that affect the bathroom affect the ticket booth because if something goes wrong, that's where it backs up into. Yeah. Having been in there when that happened. That's not lovely.
OK? Any other discussion? OK. Can you call a roll on that motion, please?
Roll-call vote Passed 4–0 motion, please? Sure.
Show transcript
Okay, moving on to some additional current and proposed for priority projects so we have the playground in that same year Chrissy can you give us an update on where we're at? I know we have some grant funding that I know I've been losing sleep over it expiring Where are we out with that?
We are going to get an extension hopefully in the fall. So we're gonna apply to get an extension I've been in contact with California Parks and working with them on that But we as our next item We're moving forward
What is the grant for what's the dollar amount
seven hundred fifty thousand a
Why are we moving? Why can't we just do it? What I would you know, as making a priority and talking about a project that's already proposed. I would make a recommendation that they send it out for RFP because the intention is to do a design build. So if the intention is to do a design build, the sooner that RFP goes out, the sooner we meet with the designers and that dovetails beautifully into the survey and all of the information we have and we could get going because what's the what date does grant
expire currently?
Well, I believe it's not until next year. But you have to get started at a certain date. Yeah. So yeah, I think it's by January 27 of
26 January 2727. Yeah,
you have to have a certain
that we could do that. That seems really achievable
nation to go out for the art to move forward with the RFP for the design build for Sarasota Playground as a priority
on the year two CIP, I think that I wholeheartedly support that motion.
I like the Data from all the surveys it's
your one is where there's funding for your one right now what we're in so
Christy, where does it show the seven 750,000? It's broken up. OK. Yeah, it's broken up.
Oh, you're right. Two
hundred and fifty
year one is two hundred. OK,
so there we go. Plus 750 in grants
and 15 grants. OK
,so so that is just the money at the top is just city funds that's on the CIP. So
do you see to the right where it says the funding source?
Mm-hmm.
That's where it'll show where the money comes from
So, it's all other money so that isn't any major city or any still that isn't any city money and honestly We haven't gone out for other grants too which will definitely be available to us and that budget is not sufficient But get started
So
over here under other Okay, we have a motion to move forward with that as a priority and issue the RF and work on drafting the RFP. Put out an RFP for the design and build of the Sarzodi playground. And I second
Any other additional discussion? Oh No, that's good. And can you call the roll on that please?
Roll-call vote Passed 3–0
Show transcript
Wonderful Okay, now those are the only two for—we'll see. Christy can you go over the other ones that are currently budgeted for where we're at and tell us
the workout gym?
1:09 – 1:1444 turns
That's not going to happen because it was concluded that there really wasn't a solution that would make much difference, even if you spent the $250,000 on it. And
where is the outdoor workout gym? That's in between like your office and basketball?
Because we have discussed this before too. In the master plan, there is a path that goes all the way around and that was where they had suggested putting the gym equipment. And I think that is a lovely idea.
Since we're gonna be redoing the playground We're gonna try to incorporate the path with the workout stations Throughout the path. I think we were first talking about an outdoor workout station, which might be right behind the gym and And then we decided if we're going to be doing the path, yeah. We can break it up
so it isn't really different things. It's morphed into something. Yeah,
this is not really wanting support on the $50,000 workout gym. That's not something that needs to be well. Is that what you're saying? It included
or you update the project to reflect the fact that it's a path with the same like rename it. It would be stations.
Are we allowed to update the definition on the CIP? We can recommend that. Just for clarification. Do we need a motion for that or can staff just, if that's what the decision has been moved forward, can staff update the
title? There is no reason not to recommend it. Yes, you know to recommend to update the this is the walking path on the outdoor workout gym to a Workout stations on a path as per the master plan for Sarasota Park
Okay, did you want to make a recommendation I think that is your that is your motion okay, I'll second that It's an easy fix. And any other discussion on changing the title? On the CAP to define it as a walking workout
station. Well, how about it says here outdoor workout stations installed throughout the walking path on the exterior of the park.
That's clear. Any other
discussion? Where is the money for the path at in this?
It's on page 3 slash 16 in the yellow.
There's not. Yeah, but I don't see it there.
It's
right there $50,000.
I mean I saw the path and the design online but I don'y see the path in any of this.
Is that okay? I love it. I
liked I've seen the
picture. I love the path I loved
the idea of a path around
the perimeter and some workout stations
all
along it that sounds
great
to me Okay
Roll-call vote Passed 4–0
Show transcript
Can you explain then where the funding is going to come for the walking path since I don't see it on here, I'm confusing the two. Where's that funding coming from?
We're hoping to incorporate that with the playground
Part of the grant money, OK. All the more reason why we need to move forward with that. Yes. Especially with the state's budget, I hate to lose $750,000 is a lot of grant funding. Hopefully they'll be able to fit that in. And then let's see other priorities. So pickleball sound what we're going to mark off? And then we just already did the playground. So moving on to and I would love if we could move that pathway.
I mean,
can you reallocate?
She just said that they're going to do that. You're going to use no
part of the playground money. Oh, we're talking about the sound wall money. Oh oh because it was allocated for this year. This year
coming moved at 250 towards the path slash
Walking
or playground.
Yeah.
Is that money?
I'm not quite sure but I can find out.
It's up to the council Let's
make a recommendation to Council that we reallocate that funds to a valid viable project such as the
Priorities from our standpoint, this is a priority yes those two things should be someone else can make a motion
I make a motion to reallocate the funds for the Pickleball Sound Mall to the playground project. Or, to the walking path. To the walking path. I second.
Roll-call vote Passed 3–0 motion to reallocate the funds for the Pickleball Sound Mall to the playground project. Or, to the walking path. To the walking path. I seco
Show transcript
1:14 – 1:1822 turns
Mr. Bailey.
Yes
How about some basketball do we want
to do some basketball comment Oh, that's way down.
We have a lot of interest.
That's year four. Oh, we don't get to do anything there
yet. And will you describe where it is? Because everyone might not know it's outside the old gym that is the
multipurpose
room now just converting that into a half court. It isn't the original project
of
sports courts in the back. That is oh I see. That has fallen off OK. We were so close and then COVID and then it's gone.
May I ask a question on that topic? So we have that in year four, but I see the only thing in year three is the Libby restroom. Is it possible to ask council to move that priority up to year three given the demand? I
don't think
I think the restroom needs to stay on there.
No, I'm not saying in addition to given that it's been so long, you know, it doesn't hurt to ask that to make that to advance that up. Well,
interestingly, that money is not coming from anywhere if you look over to the funding sources. So I'm not sure what that was based on to start with.
Are you talking about the basketball?
Yeah. No funding attached to interesting on the other
side. So any work, any discussion of Additional grant funding for things like that
Not at this point. Well, but I would like to yeah because there's some research on it
We haven't looked for any Yeah Definitely something we when we were working on the other courts we had had In fact they've checked back a number of times the Civic Association was interested in I'm going to go ahead and start. I think that's a great place to go for that one because they were interested in that project. So, I'm not sure why they wouldn't be interested in this project but we just have to have something started to show them and some funding because they're happy to help with a lot of the funding but we have
I think that I don't want to overwhelm staff or our planning, our engineers. I think that those are some really great priorities and maybe we bring this back again, not maybe next month but later at the end of the year and we can kind of see what kind of progress where we're at. Is that fair? That sounds good. Anything else? Any other? Okay. Thank you. Our last discussion item, we have our Sarasota playground survey result and we'll discuss in review Playground survey results. They were attached in your thing and then just on a side note next month We'll will agendize the entire project and then we'll know kind of based on this survey We'll have a an over discussion on the project itself, but moving on to the Survey which we've been Excited to share Christie you want to give us an overview on that?
1:18 – 1:2315 turns
Yes
So much participation
I was surprised, pleasantly surprised. So at our December 2025 meeting Parks and Recreation Commission reviewed a draft community survey for the Sarasota Playground and directed staff to launch the survey together updated community feedback which is essential for completing the planned playground upgrades at Sarasota Park as part of the capital improvement program Total of 436 surveys were completed 80% of respondents reside within the city of Ojai with 18 percent from Ventura County 93% of the respondents reported having children Largest age group was under 5 and 6 to 8 years old One thing I would like to note on this survey is you could only choose one.
Majority of adult respondents fell within the 35 to 44 age range. Feature importance, shade over the play area is
huge.
Climbing opportunities... Let's see 78% of respondents expressed support for adding a water element to Sarasota Park when asked about the preferred equipment slides and swings Tied at the top choices, followed by climbing structures and water element. Tire swing and fire truck were also noted to be beloved current features. The least favorite aspects were sand and direct sunlight.
Hot surfaces was also one which they always said was the slide. For the new playground, the community's most requested features included water element, shade trees climbing swings and seating. Just for future assessing, 209 respondents provided their email addresses to receive updates on the playground's progress.
And I also just wanted to note that playground theme is not important to people which I'm super relieved by. As we spend our money, for me, I'm super excited to spend it on like the spinners and the big activity things or the webs and not spend a lot on... We live in a beautiful place! We don't need to try any... So I was relieved to see that.
Interesting about the sand because I can remember when Libby opened and like the bark getting in my sandals that was so annoying, right? And then I can just remember chasing little kids. I was surprised also that obstruction That's the one thing I keep hearing about. Like as much as we put into Libby, it's really hard to watch especially if you have two age groups sitting at wherever you're allowed to sit because of the way that it's structured and you can't see your kids so there's a lot of solid obstructions and it's stressful especially when there's 50 kids running around. So I was surprised that didn't come up more about that. Well we may not have
had a visual. Yeah I mean the way they were thinking about it yeah
I really like the sitting area and the shade. Was there any discussion with staff or have you heard about having that perimeter fencing? How often is that coming up because that's also, like Libby's totally open so it's not really relaxing to go to Libby with small kids but how often is that being talked about by the parent clubs that come by with young kids?
a lot and they like it. That's one point I was just going to bring up is while we talk about this, let's think about that because parents do like that idea of the kids being in one area.
Seems like there's a lot of younger children utilizing that space and the parents I think could appreciate that Yeah, and Libby has all ages and I will say Libby is some days just so packed. You know, so Something's working about that playground We
were actually slated to do Sarzody first
But that project came in the way so many city projects came in from Rotary. They're like, we really need to do this! And it is wonderful. I love that place and the community build was incredible. What an experience. But Sarzodi is so in need because even before we did that they were really... Yeah,
it feels more local to whereas you go to Libya. It's a lot of people from out of town Take that younger
kid over It is important and since we talked about that We do have the lighting on now until 10. Yeah, it was an adjustment that I had to make
1:23 – 1:2614 turns
It's
really nice to be there at night now, it's lit up.
Okay, well this is just a discussion review we have no action item on there so any other Any other discussion on that for? The survey results. We'll have to probably bring that back Under the larger project to talk about it, but I'm excited to see council's actions on our recommendations regarding moving that project forward. I really think that we can hopefully that will be well received and we can move forward with it there's no reason not to especially with that 750 out of there so wonderful okay and I know we've kind of gone over all these but do you have additional manager report to provide?
I would like to say that we went out for RFP for snack bar services. So, we did receive two applicants and we are in the process of providing someone with the option to be a vendor there. So I'll keep you updated on that.
Over behind the softball fields or the baseball field there? Oh wow!
Yeah. That's
great.
Classic. Do we have a date when that is going to... What's our target date?
Summer, hopefully by summer.
Yeah. Wonderful. That'll be nice. Is
there still going to be that barbecue thing over there behind it too? Or is that set up? That would move that along. No, that's gone. OK.
Doesn't hurt to ask.
Just curious, when we moved from the Upper Valley down to town we lived on Park Road for about three months and I think that's when I really fell in love with Sarasota and seeing all the just the heartbeat of everybody coming and going in the ebb and the flow and I saw that wow this is this is really the heartbeat of the community so let's take good care of it
Wonderful. OK, we have this report from our liaison. I know you've been really active and it really is very much appreciative. We really appreciate it.
1:26 – 1:2816 turns
Ran out of my five minutes
I'll just say that it's
really great to see a whole
body of commissioners tonight
and And then you guys Demonstrate why it's so important to have this commission by your really thoughtful Commentary tonight look digging into issues and you know coming up with questions and solutions, so the last thing I'll say is Thank you so much For serving the community.
Thank you I feel really we did some great work tonight. It feels good. I know you and I've talked about that Yeah, it feels good to actually do something so that's really wonderful. So we will We will work on this. I know we have an ad hoc committee that's actively working on playground. I'm sure they'll connect with Christy Throughout this month and can be supportive of staff to get that going. They've got all the, Sage has got some huge amount of experience especially with the Libby design build so I'm sure that she would love to help with that it's kind of a passion.
Playgrounds are
fun! And and uh that's all i have for tonight and I'll adjourn Meeting at 731. Oh, I'm sorry yes pause that on the recording.
Well you brought up future agenda items and commission reports at the end that's pretty standard.
I
know well I guess what I would suggest is that's not a discussion item I think you can direct the staff to say Put that on the agenda as a regular piece. Yes, you can probably direct the staff
to do that but tonight we can't.
Actually I kind of think well all the rest have that and it's pretty standard. It
usually does but it didn't this time.
Well this would be the well that might have just been an oversight so that this would be the end of the meeting would be in a normal time that you would say what are suggested future agenda items? You get some support and then the staff takes it for next year Just a suggestion.
Okay I'll work with staff to get our agenda put together for next month and hopefully we'll have as productive of a meeting as we had tonight. Okay, I will officially adjourn. Thank you
1:28 – 1:281 turns
I'm glad to have everybody on board.