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Home My WebLink AboutARC.min.08022006 ABN DRAFT ASPEN RECREATION CENTER ARC ADVISORY COMMITTEE ,Meeting Minutes August 2, 2006 In Attendance: Board Members: Sue Smedstad, Barbara Owen, and Debbie Ware, Staff Member(s): Guests: Tim Anderson, Paul Kulik, George Pucak, Brad Fite, Toni Kronberg I. Call to Order - Sue Smedstad called the meeting to order without a quorum present. Committee Comments: A compliment was given by Sue to Scott Writer and staff for the compliment provided in regards to options provided to Jonathan Lewis regarding the new look of a logo in the LIA. Good communication by all was hailed. Barbara asked if locker storage could be provided to the Skating club for some records and paperwork. George Pucak said he would be able to take care of this request for the club. Staff Comments: Staff informed the AC that the swim meet held the 2151 - 23rd of July went very well due to great organization and communication by the Swim Team. Parking went very well although in the future it will help if with these large events we have all parties in a room together face to face for questions prior to the event. Staff informed the AC that the ARC is up 13% in revenue generation over the same period of 2005. Pass sales and daily visits were the primary reason for the increase, but this also transferred into increased programming revenues as well. If the ARC continues receiving revenues at a rate identical to the year 2005 we will be approximately $100,000 over on revenue projections. Guest Comments: Toni Kronberg was glad to hear that CouncilmanlHunsaker will be brought on board for the design of the new outdoor pool components. Toni identified that she felt they should be providing a feasibility study or at a minimum numbers as to the increased cost vs. revenue any pool feature will generate. Toni suggested that perhaps golf carts could be used for large events in the future to shuttle people from the outlaying parking areas to the ARC. Toni was concerned about the Policies and Procedures regarding individual lessons and that a bidding process might eliminate good instructors. Toni identified that she felt we did not have enough room to construct the pools the community needs and we should be looking at surrounding land, II. Approval of Past Minutes: Alice Davis showed up at this time and a Quorum was now present. A motion was made by Debbie to approve the July minutes and a second by Alice. All approved. III. Discussion Items: . Junior Hockey - Fall Face Off questions. Staff mentioned that they would invite Junior Hockey to a Sept. 12'h meeting with Champs to go over concession needs during the tournament. Jr, Hockey has requested a discounted daily rate for families of the participants in the FFO and staff agreed to do so, . Pool Master Planning - Staff informed the AC that Council had approved the expenditure request for the master plarming process to join the pool design process. John Laatsch is working to finalize a contract with Hagman Architects and as soon as this is approved by Council we will move forward on a concurrent path to design the outdoor pools and identify a conceptual improvement plan for the ARC. CouncilmanlHunsaker (the pool consultants who will be working under Hagman's contract) will need to come out to Aspen and familiarize themselves with the project. The AC will be surveyed as to best dates for public meetings in which AC members can attend as well. IV. Updates: . Jr. Hockey Addition: Staff informed the AC that electrical, sheetrock, and exterior finishes need to be completed. Things seem to be going ok with an estimated completion date around the end of August. . Individual Lessons: Staff informed that AC that due to concerns from the City Attorney the method in which Individual Lessons, or Private Instruction as it had been referred to in the past, will need to change. There was too much gray area as to when an instructor was a City Employee and when they were a private contractor. The decision has been made that all individual lessons will go through the city with the instructors being City Employees. This not only cleans up the liability concerns, but it ensures that the City is getting compensated for the use of the tax subsidized facility being used by the instructor as well. Under the new policy, the --_._-~-,..,._,,"..,...-._,-_'_-- instructors will have the opportunity to receive the rate of pay in which they are accustom. . Thermal Blanket and Energy Audit: Staff updated the AC as to some preliminary findings from the engineering firm handling the energy audit for the ARC and that they felt significant cost savings can be achieved. The company (Long Energy Solutions) is finalizing a report at this time, More immediately they did identify that through the use of pool blankets or cover the ARC could see significant energy savings immediately without having to be concerned with engineering design and such, Staff provided an RFP to the committee which identifies the details of a pool blanket in order to accelerate the process for energy savings in the pool area. Staff hopes that this component can be installed during the September shut down for maintenance, * Sue asked that staff touch base with the Youth Center to see that they are well informed about the fall shut down schedule of the ARC v. Action Item(s): . Board Appointments: Staff identified that two SPARC members of the board had reached the end of their terms. Barbara Owen and Debbie Ware were appointed by SP ARC and per the agreement between the City and SP ARC, the SP ARC organization has the right to name the representative of these two spaces. An e:mail will be sent to Scott Writer, president of SP ARC, asking how SP ARC would like to proceed in filling these positions, retention of the current members or replacement by new members, . 2007 Fee structure: The AC was ok with FUN pass rates being increased by 3% for 2007. The exceptions were $1.00 increases to the daily Guest rate taking it to $14.00 for Youth and $16.00 for Adults; however, the AC also recommended that a reduced punch pass for the guests of perhaps 5 punches with a significant discount would be made available, Staff will research a fee level that is cost effective and produce a 5 punch pass for sale to guests, In addition the AC approved changes to some ice fees and the method in which the ice locker rentals are implemented, creating flexibility to users. However; the AC was very concerned about continued increases in hourly ice rates and offered the following recommendation to Council through the budget process: **While the ARC Advisory Committee understands the need for ice fee increases to maintain subsidy levels within the ARC, the Advisory Committee highly recommends to City Council the approval of increased grants to offset the cost to the programs which are impacted by such increases and may be reaching a ceiling in pricing, thus jeopardizing the participation levels in such programs and a failure to achieve the goals of this wonderful facility in serving our local youth. **Per the agreement by and between the City of Aspen and SP ARC, the primary objective of the ARC is to service the youth and youth organizations of our community. Proposed ice cost increases continue to push the boundaries of reasonable pricing and stressing our youth organizations' ability to provide affordable programs and activities to our local youth. **Thus, the ARC Advisory Committee highly recommends that grants to local youth organizations increase consistently with ice fee increases to offset annual price increases and give primary user groups the option to effect pricing increases reasonably with program changes over time in order to maintain high levels of participation and the perception of value in each program, . A motion was made by Debbie and second by Alice to approve language which will be forwarded to the City Manager and City Council for consideration of ice fees, VI. Other Business: The committee was adjourned and will meet again on September 6, 2006. ********************************