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HomeMy WebLinkAboutARC.min.010609DRAFT ASPEN RECREATION CENTER ARC ADVISORY COMMITTEE Meeting Minutes January 6, 2009 In Attendance: Board Members: Scott Writer, Rick Newton, Barbaza Owen, Gordon Gerson, Sue Smedstad, Laura Kornasiewicz, Debbie Ware Staff Member(s): Tim Anderson, Jonathan Godes, Jon Lazson Guests: Lise Bodeck, Teri Hooper I. Call to Order -Scott called the meeting to order with a quorum present. Committee Comments: Rick suggested that the color ice use schedule that staff uses with color identification of user group times should be posted on the website and accessible to users as it is easy to read. Staff Comments: None Guest Comments: None Approval of Past Minutes: Gordon identified that he has met with Jackie K. as well and to please add this to the minutes. Laura motioned to approve with the addition and Debbie provided a second. All approved. II. Discussion Items: Aspen Area Community Plan: An email from Jessica Gazrow with ComDev identified the need for groups to submit ideas for 5 questions which could be incorporated into the January 29`h large group meetings. Questions submitted by the AC we as follows: • The COA should provide quality, affordable options and opportunities for the residents to pursue a healthy and fit lifestyle. • Resident, employees, and visitors should have access to quality, affordable and accessible health, recreation and fitness facilities. • As a community that strives to represent a healthy lifestyle to the world, Aspen should strive to provide world class facilities to maintain a healthy lifestyle. • The COA should continue to offer quality, affordable and accessible indoor recreational opportunities that meet the changing needs of the residents, employees, and visitors. • The COA should incorporate ongoing strategies to be responsive to the changing indoor fitness and recreational needs of the local residents, employees, and visitors ensuring access and affordability. These questions will be forwarded to Jessica for inclusion at the January lazge group meetings. The AC focused on questions that would not give people the opportunity to say "NO", but rather identify the level of recreation they feel should be provided by the City of Aspen. Staff and the AC is seeing that all user groups are awaze of the January meetings such that they will participate and provide feedback as well. 2. Monthly Budget Report: Guest visits were down by just over 20% during the Xmas holidays and staff saw a dramatic drop in local annual pass sales. While the Recreation Division met budget it was due to cost saving measures as revenues were down. 3. Potential Budget Reduction for 2009: Staff informed the AC that they had been directed to submit ideas of how the 2009 budget could be reduced by 10%. The number of which the Recreation Staff needed to reach was a $200,000 reduction in the 2009 subsidy. Staff submitted several ideas to the City Manager, two of which were reduced hours at the Aspen Recreation Center and to close the Aspen Ice Garden for 5 months in the summer routing all ice uses to the LIA. These were the two options which the City Manager selected to present to City Council. Staff provided a dummy schedule which showed that all summer ice uses could be accommodated at the LIA, while some users would have different time slots than in past summers. There were obvious mixed emotions and concerns regarding the closure of the Aspen Ice Gazden for even one summer. Council will discuss the 2009 budget concerns at a Februazy 10`h work session. *Addendum to January minutes: (2/06/09) The Recreation Division needs to cut the subsidy or dependency upon tax dollazs by 10% or $200,000 in 2009. A 5 %z month closure of the ice garden is being recommended to City Council. This will be achieved by not hiring part time employees in the summer for the garden and moving 3 full time employees to other divisions such as pazks and golf. Golf and Parks have different funding sources and while they must cut budgets as well they will still hire people to provide summer maintenance and the gazden employees would be moved into these positions for example. The city will realize a savings in utilities as well from the closure of the garden. In addition the ARC will reduce its hours of operations on the weekends by 13 hours. This will lead to an annual savings of $40,000. The hours being reduced have a record of very little usage by patrons and should be a minimal affect on pass holders. Aside from the cuts in expenditures the division can assist the dependency upon tax dollars or a reduction to the subsidy through the increased generation of revenues. Several options aze being explored to achieve this such as new ways to provide programs, new programs such as the pond hockey, and to wash towels in house so as to realize the revenues here at the ARC and not to a vendor. Advisory Committee concerns included: • What are the lost revenues by moving programs to the LIA? • Do camps pay a lesser amount than local groups? • Will the Gazden close forever or every summer if this step is taken? • This should have had more public discussion before a decision was made as to what would be presented to Council. • That the use of 1 ice rink would preclude some programs from being able to serve their users during a time that worked for them, thus seeing large reductions in the user numbers. Staff identified that City priorities at this time were to retain employees as they are a valuable asset to the organization and hiring and training new people down the road is not cost effective. Part time positions will be reduced and/or lost. The AC was interested as to why this was a priority over not providing the service of the Ice Garden operating. The city should continue to provide ice and fill the needs of the users. Many board members felt that there should have been and should be more involvement by the Advisory Committee and the ice users before this moved forward to Council. Members of the committee further felt that the agreement between the City and SPARC identified that the Advisory Committee would be consulted on decisions affecting the operations of ice and they felt that they had not be consulted but rather that they had been informed. III. Updates and Progress Reports: Outdoor Pools: The GOCO grant submitted by staff in the amount of $200,000 for the construction of the Outdoor Pools was denied. Due to the current economic climate it looks doubtful that the Pools will begin construction in 2009. 2. Business Calendar: Items identified for this time of year were to schedule the 2009 summer ice users meeting and to identify mazketing for the summer 2009 season. Nancy Lesley will be asked to attend to the next AC meeting to present marketing ideas. 3. Switch to Active: Staff informed the AC that the switch to Active was going smooth, some issues still to be worked out, and the users like the new card swipes. Staff plans to take this to the next level by placing card swipes and gates next to the front desk. V. Action Item(s): 1. None. VI. Other Business: 1. None The committee was adjourned and will meet again on February 3rd, 2009.