Staff Report for January 20th 2016

Programs Want to Improve Your Game? Cancel

Holiday Hoops Grind Cancel

Sports for Dogs – K9 Nosework 28 plus drop-ins

Falcon Buddies 29 kids plus parents

Kids Team Tennis 5

Delicious Gluten-Free Baking Cancel

Basketball

Youth basketball is coming along nicely, it really seems to be starting on a positive note. The new basketball

advisory council has really helpful in providing guidance, training, and recruitment. We are still looking for

more players in grade 2 and 7-8.

SnowRider Ski Bus We had to make the hard decision to cancel the ski bus. We didn’t have enough committed riders to cover the

expense of the bus charter. I tried to find other buses for them to join, but the others that we usually partner with

didn’t have enough to make it a go either, even with our riders added. After the fact I’ve been receiving more

interest, but it was too late.

Falcon Buddies

Kids were invited to the boys and girls high school varsity basketball games against Cedarcrest on January 9th.

Twenty of the lucky kids were able to join the team in the locker room for the pre- or post-game meetings. We

had a lot of fun cheering them on, in spite of the two losses. It was a great kick-off to the youth basketball

league season.

Polar Bear Plunge

We had 146 official plungers, but over 500 were present. It was a beautiful day and such a fun event.

There was a nice write-up in the Record: http://www.southwhidbeyrecord.com/news/364298261.html

Video by Jack Penland for the Whidbey Camano Tourism:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9I_pLMk5UU&feature=youtu.be

Photos by David Moore’s drone:

Facilities and Grounds • The new year is upon us and we are scrambling to finish some winter projects and trail work.

• Next Tuesday we will have the new ladder section and guardrail installed on the water tank. I have also

purchased a new safety harness and lanyard and have installed a permanent anchor rope ready to clip in

when doing any work from here on out.

• Tuesday we will also be pumping 2 of our septic tanks and looking at having a few repairs done in the

next month before things get busier.

• The old batting cage area is being removed and readied for the little league shed project.

• If the weather holds I anticipate prepping the sports fields for infield work, turf repair and seeding and

mowing to resume as the weather allows.

• The following photos show areas of the sports complex fields. These areas are currently in use by one

team for practices and games with some additional casual use. We continue to do all we can to keep the

areas in the best possible condition, we rolled the fields last week just prior to the team’s game, but

wanted to make you aware of the conditions in case there were any questions. These areas will not

recover until plant growth starts up again and we are able to start the turf repair process.

Director’s Items

Order of Business

Don asked me in a phone conversation about something we have discussed in board meetings prior. We

talked about the idea of changing the order of business to allow for new business to occur before unfinished

business. The stumbling block we have here is our bylaws which state a specific order of business. I have

reached out to MRSC and there is no requirement that we specify and order of business in the bylaws but

since they were likely approved by a resolution, we will need to amend them by resolution as well. If the

board so desires, I will work up a resolution for next month’s meeting that does away with that section of the

bylaws and we can move forward from there.

Meetings

I met briefly with Tim Callison, the new Mayor of Langley and talked about our governmental parks group and

the cooperative process we have been working through. He was very positive about the process and also in-

quired about the campground. I did indicate to him that we would be in contact regarding the Campground

Design process and having him participate in a stakeholder’s meeting.

I also attended the State Parks Classification and Management Plan (CAMP) meeting held on the 7th regarding

the planning for South Whidbey State Park as well as the Useless Bay Tidelands, and Possession Point State

Park. They brought back some possible land use classifications for the properties and presented those for dis-

cussion at the meeting with the same process of commenting with post-it notes on each possible alternative.

They did indicate that the alternatives presented were designed to create discussion and were not the final

alternatives, that elements of each alternative for each property could be implemented. I was also identified

and asked to stand and talk briefly about our project at the meeting. I was approached by a couple of people

who indicated their support of our project and informed them that they should watch our website and face-

book page as well as the South Whidbey Record for more details on the process as they become available. I

have included the documents presented at the CAMP meeting showing the alternative classification plans for

each property for your information.

On Monday the 11th, I attended the Island County Planning Commission meeting on the Comprehensive Plan

which was regarding the Park and recreation Goals and Policies as well as the edits of the element items them-

selves in the Comprehensive plan. I have attached the draft Goal/Policies document from the county as well as

the draft Element text for your review. I did make a few comments at the meeting specifically regarding PR 5.3

in the Goals/Policies document regarding the transfer of active recreation sites to park districts. I will detail my

comments at the meeting.

Comprehensive Plan Programs

Don, Matt (by phone), and I met with Jim Brennan and Drew Coombs of J. A. Brennan, Jeff Tassoff of Davido

Consulting, Richard Murakami of Rolluda Architects, and Jerry Morrison of TMI Land Surveying to start negoti-

ations on the Design agreement for the campground. Matt attended for about the first half hour and talked

about the process of how we had gotten here and his thoughts on the campground. We then discussed the

scope of services draft provided by Jim Brennan. Don asked for a more pared down approach, limiting the

tasks prior to the public meeting portion of the planning to those that we would need to do regardless of what

we develop on the site so that we do not head down a road and expend money on a plan and then hear from

the community that they want something else. We will discuss this further later in the meeting. The current

draft of the scope of services and some budget numbers from similar projects have been included for your ref-

erence.

We have scheduled the first Amphitheater Committee meeting for Wednesday January 20th at 5pm just prior

to our regular meeting. Both Bob and Mark indicated that they would be attending.

Upcoming Events

January 18 Office Closed (Martin Luther King Jr. Day)

January 21 South Whidbey Youth Football and Cheer Board Meeting-6:30pm

January 26 South Whidbey Parks & Aquatics Foundation Meeting (Election of Officers)-6:30pm

February 1 South Whidbey Adventure Swim Meeting-6:30pm

February 2 South Whidbey Parks & Aquatics Foundation Meeting (Edible Book Festival Planning)-6:00pm

February 8 South Whidbey Youth Soccer Club Meeting-7pm

February 9 Port of South Whidbey Meeting-7pm

February 15 Office Closed (President’s Day)

February 17 Regular Board Meeting-6pm

March 5 Daddy & Daughter Dance

April 2 Edible Book Festival