The Vanderburgh County Council met in session this 9th day of January in room 301 of the Civic Center Complex. The meeting was called to order at 8:31 a.m. by Vanderburgh County Auditor, Bill Fluty.

Bill Fluty: Welcome to the County Council 2008 meeting. Madam Secretary, may I have a roll call?

COUNCILMEMBER	PRESENT	ABSENT
Councilmember Sutton	X
Councilmember Leader	X
Councilmember Shetler	X
Councilmember Abell	X
Councilmember Goebel	X
Councilmember Raben	X
Councilmember Winnecke	X

Councilmember Winnecke: Mr. Chairman, I nominate Marsha Abell to be president for 2008.

President Abell: Thank you and welcome, everyone, to the January 9th, 2008 meeting of the Vanderburgh County Council. We need to have the appointment of our County Attorney – I’m sorry, we have to have the nomination for Vice President.

Councilmember Raben: Madam President, I’m going to move that we select Lloyd Winnecke as Vice President.

President Abell: Now we’ll have the appointment of the County Attorney. Mr. Ahlers has agreed to serve another year for us. Mr. Ahlers is with the firm Kahn, Dees, Donovan and Kahn, one of the large law firms here in Evansville, and we’re pleased to have him, and we look forward to another year with you, Mr. Ahlers. The appointment of the Personnel Chairman, Mr. Shetler, I understand that you’ve agreed to chair the Personnel Committee for next year.

Councilmember Sutton: Your arm will be okay, or wrist, whatever it was, sooner or later.

President Abell: Well, we appreciate you’re chairing that for us. And Mr. Raben, I understand that you have agreed to be our Finance Chairman for next year. For those of you that don’t know the joke, that’s probably one of the hardest jobs on Council and I think Mr. Raben is getting a little worn out with it, but we appreciate you doing it. Mr. Raben, you do a fine job. He is good at it. He’s very good at it.

President Abell: I would entertain a motion to approve the minutes of the December 5th meeting.

President Abell: And now for the appropriation ordinance. I will turn the meeting over to our Finance Chairman, Mr. Raben.

Councilmember Raben: Okay, good morning. Thank you, Madam President. First on the agenda under Sheriff, 1050-1130-0199, the request was for 12,162. Is there any questions of the Sheriff on this one? Okay. I’m going to move that this be set in at $7,690, that’s at a rate of $10.50 per hour.

Councilmember Raben: Okay, next under Prosecutor, in the amount of 5,314, I’ll move approval.

Councilmember Raben: Okay next, Prosecutor IV-D, this is the child support division. If everyone remembers, we discussed this quite a bit back in August during budget session. The request is for 33,709 for an Enforcement Officer. This position is reimbursed two/thirds, so with that being said, I’ll move approval in the amount of $33,709.

Councilmember Raben: Okay, next Center Township Assessor, in the amount of 6,123, I’ll move approval.

Councilmember Raben: German Township Assessor in the amount of $1,150, this is for the Level II Certification for the Township Assessor. I’ll move approval.

Councilmember Raben: Area Plan Commission, Executive Director in the amount of $874. This was just the three percent salary increase left out of the budget, so I’ll move approval.

Councilmember Raben: Superior Court in the amount of 6,491, I’ll move approval.

Councilmember Raben: Okay, folks, that completes the General Fund and now we’ll move into Reassessment. Under Knight Township Assessor, the request for an Office Coordinator in the amount of 31,205. I move this be set in at zero.

Councilmember Raben: Under Pigeon Township Assessor, Maintenance Contract in the amount of 4,398, I’ll move approval.

Councilmember Raben: Okay, and last under transfers, I’m going to move that we approve Pigeon as requested, Tourism Capital Improvement Fund as requested, we have late transfers for the Recorder, and Convention & Visitors Bureau, I need to set in some new figures for you, on the first one 3570-1200-3570, the correct amount is $8,882, just below that, 3570-1130-3570, the correct amount is 4,903. Next on 3570-1160-3570, the correct amount is 3,979. And then we also have a late transfer under County Council and I will move approval, Madam President.

Councilmember Raben: Okay, I’m going to move into the Amendments to the Salary Ordinance. Before I begin that, everyone should have a copy from the Vanderburgh County Day Reporting Drug Enforcement division. And it’s a request from Judge Trockman for two employees that have been in the program for three years that were at the, what I guess is the initiation part-time pay at $8.00 per hour. His request is to move these two people after three years to 9.50 per hour and he does have the funds in his budget. So those adjustments will be made in the amendments. So I will move to the Salary Ordinance amendments first under Sheriff, amend salary line

1050-0199 Part-Time Clerk as previously approved. The Part-Time Clerk to be paid at the rate of 10.50 per hour, effective pay will begin on January the 14th. Prosecutor, amend salary line 1080-1380 Deputy as previously approved. The current employee’s salary would be at 60,851 as recommended by the Job Study committee. The salary in the amount of 60,851 is an Executive II, Step 3. The effective pay period on that will also be January 14th. Prosecutor IV-D, amend salary line 1081-1300 Enforcement Officer. This Officer is a COMOT V with an initiation salary of 28,003. Step 1 after six months would be $29,337. Center Township, amend salary line 1110-1160 Deputy Assessor as previously approved. The classification and salary for the current employee is a COMOT V, Step 3 with an annual salary of 32,202. This upgrade was also recommended by the Personnel Administration Committee. Again, the effective pay period or pay rate will be January 14th. Amend salary line 1110-1190 Deputy Assessor/Deeds & Real Estate Transfer as previously approved. This classification and salary for the current employee is a COMOT IV, Step 4 with an annual salary of $31,011. Again, this upgrade was approved by the Job Study and the effective pay will begin January 14th. German Township, amend salary line 1120-1972 Level II Certification as previously approved. The Level II is in the amount of $1,000. This is for Tim Schaefer, the German Township Assessor. The total amount of line 1120-1972 for 2008 will be $1,500. Under Area Plan, move that we amend salary line 1240-1110 Executive Director as previously approved with setting the annual salary in at 13,208. Superior Court, amend salary line 1370-1370 Bailiff as previously approved. The current employee is a COMOT V, Step 6 with an annual salary of $36,382. This employee was transferred into this position. Pigeon Township Assessor, amend salary line 1150-1190 Real Estate Deputy, setting the 2008 annual salary in at $35,366. This employee is a COMOT V, Step 5. Again, this employee was transferred into another position within this office. Recorder, amend salary line 1040-1990 Extra Help as previously approved. Everyone recalls these funds are reimbursed by the Recorder’s Perpetuation Fund. County Council, amend salary line 1480-1971 Accrued Payments as previously approved. These funds are to buy out a former Voter Registration employee that had two weeks vacation coming. Health Department, amend salary lines 213.4 WIC Public Health Nurse at the rate of $18.29 per hour. This is an existing employee. In fact, this person has a work contract; the amount was just set in wrong at our budget. 213.4 WIC Clerk at $12.9759 per hour. Again, this employee is a 25 year employee, but same situation, the incorrect figure was set in at budget time. And Day Reporting, amend salary ordinance line, day reporting employees to be paid at the rate of 9.50 per hour. These wages are paid out of the 136Y grant. That concludes the amendments and I make that in the form of a motion.

President Abell: Is there any old business to come before the Council? The Sheriff would like to approach us. Mr. Williams?

Eric Williams: As I promised with the passage of the ordinance for the sex offender registry, I just wanted to give you a real brief update. On the average, we’re running about 400 average on our registry. We’re having about 250 changes of addresses to give you some idea of the volume. Since 2003, we’ve had just over 700 registered. But in the first eight days of the year, we’ve registered 80 and we’ve taken in almost $4,000 now from the registry. We’re getting very little resistance, so it seems to be going very well, so I appreciate that. That should help fund the appropriation you made earlier today. I appreciate that. The other thing that I wanted to mention is that I brought up with me, I didn’t want to leave it in my seat, we took delivery of the new weapons that you purchased. So I won’t pass it around in here, but if anybody wants to see it, I’ll stick around so you can see what you bought for the Sheriff’s deputies and we’re very appreciative. And we hope to have those in service by March 1st. So, thank you.

President Abell: And is the offer still open for all of us to come out and shoot one?

Eric Williams: Yes, once we – absolutely. Once we get the training dates set, I will let you know and we’d love for you to come out and at least sit through one of the classes or participate on the firing line once just to get an idea of what it’s like.

President Abell: Thank you. I hope they’re as nice as your officers seem to think they are. They sent us a nice thank you note for that. Thank you, Sheriff.

President Abell: Mr. Winnecke does not want me to learn to shoot a gun. He’s having a strong objection over here. Is there any other old business? Well, I think under new business, I think maybe Mr. Vezzoso and Mr. McGinn would like to give us a presentation regarding the Mesker Park Zoo.

Joe Vezzoso: Joe Vezzoso with the Evansville Convention & Visitors Bureau. Happy New Year to all of you and it’s a pleasure to be here. Madam President, congratulations to you on your re-election. It’s always fun to come before you as part of the Evansville Convention Bureau because all the things that we do and request from you are for the benefit of our community. And today it’s our pleasure to be here with Dan from Mesker Park Zoo. I hope all of you have had an opportunity to go out and see the new Amazonia complex out there. Unfortunately, when he opened bids for the final phase of that, which was a welcome center, they were a little under budget and instead of down-sizing the project, we requested that Dan come before the Convention Bureau and request some assistance through the Tourism Capital Development Fund. Earlier today you have already approved the transfer of some funds that we had allocated in the 2008 budget for our sports complex, so that we can assist him. So at this time, I’d like for Dan to make a presentation on his request and then we’d seek your approval for the continuation of that project. Dan?

Dan McGinn: Thank you, Joe. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to be here. I know I spoke a couple of weeks ago so I’ll try not to repeat some of the things that I did, though it’s difficult not to repeat myself because some of the numbers are so impressive and the project is so exciting that I can hardly contain myself when I talk about it. But kind of a brief summary, we’re building the coolest thing that’s ever happened in this county, in my opinion. I want you to see it, then when it’s opened you will agree with me. But it’s 19,500 square feet of exhibit space and holding space and it’s called Amazonia. It’s a section of the South American rainforest located in Vanderburgh County. It contains a 16 foot waterfall, 70 feet of river, it’s going to have 55 species of animals from tiny frogs to jaguar. It is – I decided which word to use to keep it simple – it’s magnificent. That says it all. The zoos in North America, AZA accredited zoos, accounted for 144,000,000 visitors in 2006. I’m sure that 2007 was better. That’s 213 facilities. One hundred and forty-four million people is more than the combined totals of all major league sports including hockey, basketball, baseball and football. So that will give you an idea of the amount of money, the amount of interest and the amount of tourists that visited AZA zoos and aquariums just in one year alone. We are fortunate enough to maintain the high standard to be an AZA accredited zoo. We were accredited for a five year in March of last year at the Denver Regional, the AZA. We have the exhibit, we can afford the exhibit, but we do not have, without the help from this body and the Evansville Visitors and Convention Bureau, is a way for people to spend their tourism dollars to increase their visitor’s experience and to be happy and pleased and have reasons to tell their friends, relatives and neighbors, in I hope a three to a five state area, about Mesker Park Zoo and some of the great things that are in Vanderburgh County. The plans and the construction is underway for our entry complex. It is a beautiful, beautiful facility. There is capabilities for catering, which gives this county something that is unique in North America. We now have the opportunity to host parties, weddings, after hours events where people can stroll through the South American rainforest, dine in front of a jaguar, dine in front of a 16 foot waterfall, watch a tapir dive into a river, while our concessionaire is collecting funds. We also have a gift shop, it’s about 1,100 square feet of gift shop space, the city of Evansville and zoo employees will be running that. It’s the first time we’ve done that, its not been contracted out, so that’s going to be very interesting, but we’re dedicated and we’re determined to make it a success. This also will allow us to present and prepare a beautiful entry plaza, the orientation plaza. So, you know, I’ve always believed from day one that the entry plaza and the entry complex should be as magnificent as the exhibit itself. And so this will enable us to do that. Also, one thing that I hope is not overlooked, Mesker Park Zoo and Botanic Gardens is supported by tax dollars that are hard earned by all of us. Every dollar that is made through the gate, every dollar that is profited in the gift shop, every dollar that is made from a concession sale, every dollar that is made from a catered event, is one less tax dollar that is needed to maintain this magnificent facility. I believe in the potential that we’ve been talking about for this zoo for the last 20 or 30 years, we’ve made the first major step toward realizing that goal, which is a regional tourist attraction for this facility to regain the prominence that it had in the 50's when Mesker Park Zoo and Vanderburgh County were the envy of the zoo world in the entire country. We are on our way there again with Amazonia. Again, I hope this is the first major step. I hope that the public and political bodies such as this, the Evansville Visitors Convention Bureau, all of our customers continue to support the zoo. Becky Kasha, the president of the support group, Friends of Mesker Park Zoo, she and her group are on the cusp, I love cusp, of a long-term fund raising campaign to raise enough money so we can do lions in the African area as magnificently as we can Amazonia. So the potential is there. We need your help to realize it, we need your help to realize the economic possibilities, the tourism possibilities, and again, to help this county and this facility regain its prominence. We have taken a major leap forward and we want to allow our customers to have the opportunity to rent the facility, to use the restrooms inside the building, to be able to have a snack, to be able to drop some money in the gift shop, be able to relax at a beautiful fountain in the plaza, and I’m asking for your help so that this can be achieved, it can be realized.

President Abell: Anyone have any questions or comments for Mr. McGinn? Mr. Winnecke?

Councilmember Winnecke: Dan, I have one quick question. How large a group will the new facility be able to host for special events?

Dan McGinn: Well, we have tried to lay – there’s not a big, huge area where you can have five or six hundred people sit down. But with the decks and with the plaza, we’re estimating that up to 1,500 people can mingle and have standup cocktails if you use the outside areas. Everything in this is designed to handle evening events. There are flat areas on our winding pathways. We have water and electric hooked up everywhere, tables can be set up from the entry plaza all the way to the exit of Amazonia, which is about 1,500 square feet. There are about 45 niches inside the building where the standup hors d’oeuvre tables, cocktail tables have been set there. What we have done, we have estimated on the rental groups that we put together, that inside the building alone 500, and another 1,200 on the plaza and on the other area for the standup events. There’s also the potential, and there are little areas in this place where I know an anniversary party for X amount of dollars, with just a couple or four people, to sit there and have a catered dinner with the waterfall in the background. That potential is there. We haven’t even thought about that yet. I didn’t even think about it until I saw the waterfall turned on. And then the same with the jaguar exhibit, there’s a place to put about ten or eight tables, just right in front of the jaguar and the flooded forest. So the potential is there. I think we can do 1,700 inside and outside, at a mingling, walk around, evening event, the first of which will probably be a fund raiser for Mesker Park Zoo & Friends. But we’ll see.

Dan McGinn: We hope to be opened June 8 and the last time I mentioned June 8 it hadn’t rained for ten days in a row, but we’ll see. We believe we’re still there. There’s a lot to do, stocking the gift shop, getting the animals in, we still have about 2,500 plants to go inside alone, but that’s progressing nicely. Yeah, it’s really coming together, really coming together.

President Abell: Anyone else? Well, I think it’s real exciting and we’re happy to be a part of it. Thank you.

Joe Vezzoso: Madam President and Councilmembers, I would tell you that when Dan and his group came before our Commission, he brought the Friends of Mesker with him, which were the animals, and so we had animals crawling all over our tables at our meeting and, as you can tell, he is very excited and our board of commissioners, who you appoint two of, voted unanimously in support of this project and we request that you look favorably upon this request. Thank you.

President Abell: Thank you, Mr. Vezzoso. I think we have another presentation. Mr. Dunn?

Joe Vezzoso: Unfortunately, my partner is in the same situation as the President of the Council. And hopefully he can stand during this presentation and get through it. I will tell you just briefly, to start with, we came before you folks about 14 months ago and requested support of increasing the Innkeeper’s tax by two percent to support a project that we feel is going to be extremely beneficial to the community from a tourism standpoint and also from a quality of life standpoint for our local residents. We’re to the point now that one of the taxes passed at the state level and then through the County Council, and we began collecting those funds in September of this year, I believe. We have now, David and his committee who have spent untold hours researching the needed information to bring before you what we feel is a very exciting project for Vanderburgh County, the city of Evansville and tourism in our area. We feel that we have seen a decline in tourism in the convention business for various reasons. One of the reasons, of course, is our new friends up at Orange County who have an extremely nice facility that is attracting state-wide conventions and pulling some of those away from us. So we feel that by bringing this project on board, we’re going to see a regain of that lost business plus additional business. So at this time, I’d like to turn it over to the treasurer of the Convention Bureau, David Dunn, who is the chairman of our Destination committee, for his presentation.

David Dunn: Madam President and members of the Council, I want to thank you for allowing us the opportunity to make this presentation this morning. I’ll begin by saying that we’re certainly very fortunate to have someone like Dan McGinn in our community. If every CEO and every leader of a business could operate with the same level of passion that Dan does, our community would certainly be in a much better position than it is. The Destination Evansville committee has been together now for over four years, so I share that with you just to mention the amount of time that we’ve been conducting our due diligence on a variety of projects to look at for Vanderburgh County. We spent a tremendous amount of time, as Joe had indicated, doing research based on recommendations from a consultant that we had hired to look at Vanderburgh County and make recommendations on attractions that we could develop. Ultimately, after a number of public hearings and receiving hundreds of recommendations from the public, our committee, Destination Evansville, began to zero in on sports relations facilities. We felt that after our initial research that there would be a high return on investment if we could invest in developing sports related facilities. Upon further look, we decided that the highest rate of return would be within the youth division of sports. We had a consultant that came in and studied all of the sports facilities in southwest Indiana: Posey, Vanderburgh and Warrick, and ultimately came up with four recommendations for Vanderburgh County. Not necessarily in the order of importance, but the four major recommendations that Don Schumacher gave to us was, he was very complimentary of the Goebel Soccer Complex. He said it’s one of the nicest ten-field complexes in the entire Midwest. His recommendation to us is to double the capacity of Goebel or double the capacity of soccer, I should say, not necessarily at Goebel. If we can grow our infrastructure to 20 quality fields, it will elevate Vanderburgh County to a level that allows us to host larger regional and large national soccer tournaments. We’ve looked at a variety of sites and at some point we hope to pursue the expansion of soccer. The other recommendation that Don gave us was the BMX track at Burdette. In his estimation, it’s a world-class facility. Within his travels around the country, he said that there are very few tracks of that type that can rival with what we have at Burdette. He is recommending that we make an investment in enhancing that structure. And by doing so, he felt like there would be a high return on investment with our ability to host even larger national events. The third recommendation that he gave us centers around Wesselman Park and that’s with tennis. Currently, there is a private tennis association that have raised their own money to double the number of courts from six to twelve courts as well as to build their own clubhouse. They are in the final phase of their expansion and they would like to grow from twelve courts to twenty-four courts. The consultant reviewed that and is recommending that we assist with that endeavor. Again, by doing so, it elevates Vanderburgh County as a host site for large regional as well as small national tennis events. And then the final recommendation that Mr. Schumacher made to us centers around softball and baseball. He was very complimentary about a number of the single fields that we have throughout our community. But what he found was that we were lacking in any kind of a championship-quality facility. And by us developing a multiplex facility, it would allow us to pursue these major nationals as well as qualifying regional tournaments. Based on his four recommendations, our committee studied each and every one of them and ultimately, we zeroed in on the softball/baseball as the primary development that we felt we should focus on first where we felt like there would be the greatest impact to our community and the highest return on investment. Mr. Schumacher looked at a variety of locations throughout our community and his recommendation was for us to examine Wesselman Park. And the first illustration that I have for you demonstrates the current complex at Wesselman as well as an overlay of what we would envision developing at the site. To the far left, you’ll see Boeke Road, the entrance to Wesselman Park is up here, I can use my pointer if I need to. The current softball fields and baseball fields are to the west side of the campus and then to the east side would be the par three golf course. And you can see that we’ve overlaid a nine-field complex over that roughly 60 acres that’s present. This would give you a better illustration of what we envision at that site. There will be two multiplex facilities. To the west, we’ll have four fields. To the east, we’ll have five fields. Eight of the nine fields will be multipurpose fields where we can play softball and baseball. The exception will be this single field here which will be primarily our preeminent baseball field, the Pony League field. We could play softball there if needed be, but primarily, this field will be reserved for baseball. As you can see from our design, we have a loop that’s designed around the complex. We have ingress off of the main entrance of Wesselman. We’ve added ample parking. There will be over 500 parking spaces that will be within the confines of this development. And primarily, the use of this complex will be enjoyed locally. All of the league play that’s currently at Wesselman will continue to occur and we feel that there will be adequate parking designed within this complex to meet the ordinary needs. The overflow parking will come from the Roberts Stadium surface parking lot. Within this development, currently, there are a number of amenities that occupy this space. We have tried to be as sensitive to that as we possibly can and within our proposed development, we want to relocate the basketball courts and the sand volleyball courts. There’s a playground that’s currently in place. We want to redevelop that playground within our own site. And you’ll notice that at the main entrance we have this nice structure that will have a shelter to the front of it, flagpoles and highly landscaped, it will be the entrance to our complex. There will be two distinct entrances into the facility. The entire facility will be fenced and secured. It will have two entrances, both from the north and from the south. During our major tournaments, those will be gated. There will be an entry fee to enter and we will monitor that. By design, there are two separate buildings that will support both complexes. These buildings are designed similarly where they are two levels. The first level will house an adequate amount of men and women’s facilities as well as concession areas. During our research, what we found was, without exception, the parks that have been developed did not design enough concession space and when you’re hosting these large, major tournaments, this creates a tremendous revenue opportunity. And again, every facility that we visited recommended to us that we expand the amount of space devoted to concessions because they didn’t and they regretted it. So in our initial conceptual designs, we have certainly designed adequate space. Our structures are designed on a five-point design and the first floor will, as I mentioned, be facilities for men and women as well as concessions. On the second floor, we’ve designed areas for the umpires to retreat to –

David Dunn: Okay, thank you. Also on the second floor there will be an observation deck that will wrap around the entire building and that does two things for us: it creates a shade opportunity on the lower level as well as providing an observation area on the upper decks. Each of these fields has its own announcing stand, scores stand and by design, those will all be connected to the center building by a walkway and then there will be a tower there where the scores and the announcers will be housed. There’s adequate storage within these buildings themselves and within the complex, the complex will be self-sufficient. We’ve got a maintenance building that’s been designed at the southwest corner of the complex. Again, the facility will be self-sufficient. We’ll have enough equipment there to maintain and to prepare the fields. In the center of the development, there is a shade structure as well as almost an amphitheater design. It will be all on one level, but it does create a very nice plaza area where award presentations can be made and the initial ceremonies can begin. It is our goal with this complex to design a fully ADA accessible field. That’s this field in particular. We feel like it’s one of the few in the country that will be available and we hope that by doing so, we can provide a facility for those less inclined. We feel that there will be a high return on our investment. We looked to Owensboro as an example. Owensboro has eight fields total in two separate complexes and consistently, they are generating over 30,000 room nights annually, with just softball and baseball. That equates to somewhere between three and five million dollars worth of direct spending with new tourism that would be brought in to Vanderburgh County, southwest Indiana. And we feel that there are enough tournaments available to us that we won’t be competing with Owensboro. We will be complementary. And one of the main reasons why we also like this preferred site at Wesselman is because of the specific market that we’re going after. The way that these national tournaments are awarded, they are awarded two years in advance and there is an annual convention that takes place and it culminates with the awarding of these tournaments. And each community that wishes to pursue and host an event is allowed the opportunity to make their presentation. We’ve attended these national conferences several times and we watched each community make their presentation. And what we found is that in many cases, these complexes are located a far distance from their city and in many cases, in industrial park areas primarily because there are few opportunities to develop 60 to 100 acres within the city limits. And as we sat there and watched these presentations, what we realized was this tremendous opportunity that we have in Vanderburgh County unlike any other that we witnessed. When you think about the primary market that we’re going after, which is going to be ten to fourteen -- sixteen years of age, we chose that market because of the families that will associate with the youth athletes. When those younger athletes come to town, their parents, grandparents and family will accompany them which just brings more tourists to our community. As we thought about the opportunity at Wesselman, what better opportunity do we have to provide a family-oriented experience than at this particular site? When you think about hosting a tournament in June, during their downtime there’s Hartke Pool, there’s two sheets of ice if they chose to go to Swonder, you’ve got hundreds of miles worth of nature trails within Wesselman Park, you’ve got all the picnic area. You’ll have the basketball courts, the sand volleyball courts, the tennis courts, all at the exact same site. And as we watched community after community make their presentation and their pitch as to why they are deserving the opportunity to host events, none of them have a complex like what we envision developing at this specific site. Another advantage to us developing this site, as I mentioned earlier, is this overflow parking capacity. We have about 60 acres here that we hope to develop with these nine fields, but if we develop this complex anywhere else, we will need significantly more land to accommodate this overflow parking. Right now, with those events being awarded two years in advance, our conversations with SMG have indicated that there is certainly ample time for us to work collectively so that our events would not conflict with anything that they would hope to book within that window. So as you can see, we’ve got a significant amount of overflow parking during those times when we’re hosting a major national, otherwise, we feel that the additional parking that we’re creating will certainly accommodate the league play that will occur the majority of the time. At this point, what we’re asking for would be the approval of $425,000 so that we can engage in the architectural drawings of this complex. We hope to – I’ll say that with the increase in the Innkeeper’s Tax from last year, we do have the financial means to successfully develop this complex ourselves using the Tourism Capital Development Fund. We do have approval for financial assistance with a group of the local banks so our funding is in place to move forward. We estimate that this project, with the addition of assisting the tennis complex, to be roughly $12,000,000. And when you look at the amount of infrastructure that we’re trying to develop here, what our proposal is, is to enhance this infrastructure leading into Wesselman. We know that there is going to be a tremendous amount of traffic that will accommodate these large tournaments and we need to be able to handle that ingress and egress correctly. We like this site because of the ingress/egress capacity. We have the secondary entrance just to the north of Swonder as well as off of the Lloyd for ingress as well as egress. We feel it’s just an ideal site for this particular development and today we share it with you and ask for your support as well.

President Abell: I’m going to allow everyone to ask you some questions, Mr. Dunn, if you can stand a few more minutes. I have one question and this is my own ignorance. What’s the difference in a softball field and a baseball field?

David Dunn: Softball does not play on a mound and the distance of the bases are different. Softball fields are the same dimensional between the bases and the pitching mound regardless of the age group, whereas baseball, there’s a variety of variances between the distance from the mound to home plate and the distance from the base pads. Softball, you know, they do lengthen the outfield based on age but generally speaking, they are the same type of field. Softball is played on a, what they called a skinned infield, where there is no grass on the infield surface, whereas you can see that on this baseball field, we do have infield grass. Making it multipurpose, baseball can be played on a skinned field, and all of the facilities that we researched that are multipurpose do it this way where they can move the pitching mound based on the age group as well as move the base pads and that way we can accommodate both softball tournaments and baseball tournaments.

President Abell: I didn’t understand that. Ms. Leader, did you have a question?

Councilmember Leader: I do. Good morning. My family uses Wesselman Park a lot, summer, winter, spring and fall. And one of the attractions at the park, of course, is the small playground. It’s one of the few playgrounds in the community that accommodates very small children. You commented earlier that you did plan to handle that park in some fashion. Have you given further thought to where you would locate that park and would it be smaller, larger or about the same?

David Dunn: The playground that’s currently at that site, it’s going to be moved. We had to pick this location, we didn’t have to, but we chose this location because if we move it to this particular area, we felt like it was too far away from parental supervision. This particular site allows us enough space to develop the playground but also is within a more central location so that parents from either complex can be in close proximity. In order to develop this playground and provide the safety and security, it will be totally netted in some fashion so that home run balls or foul balls will not jeopardize any of the children that are going to be within the playground itself.

Councilmember Leader: You commented, I think, too, that the baseball fields would be gated. If it is closed and people are there for picnics as they normally are now when they use that playground, does that prohibit them from using the playground?

David Dunn: Well, the fields are going to be accessible except during those major tournaments, so it would be accessible to them with the exception of a major national or a major regional tournament.

Councilmember Leader: And there’s nowhere else in the park we can relocate it as far as you know?

Councilmember Leader: I mean, within, you know, the areas where the picnic tables are and the –

Councilmember Leader: I understand that, but that’s a concern of mine because I think if you would do a traffic study of that park, everybody would probably be really amazed at how often that small playground is used. Thank you.

David Dunn: Well, it’s a great question and certainly an issue that we can – this is our conceptual plan and we hope to, if you’ll approve our request, that’s when we’ll start to work with the architect on developing it and if it’s the wish of this body to consider relocating that playground outside of the complex, we certainly – I mean, there’s plenty of space there, we’ll be more than happy to entertain that thought.

Councilmember Shetler: Yeah, I assume, I guess my one concern is, you know, we have a tendency to build these projects and I’m very much in favor of anything that can bring in the youth activities and I realize how much money it can generate for our community and that’s a good thing. But I am concerned about the maintenance. I mean, we could come up with the money so many times for the bricks and mortar, the problem is maintaining it afterwards. I assume the Parks Departments, the city, the mayor are all on board as far as assuming the responsibility of maintaining the facility after – or do you have other plans?

David Dunn: Actually, we have other plans. The Convention & Visitors Bureau will remain active with this facility. Our intention is to hire a third party management marketing firm that will not only market the facility, but they will also host the events, and also be responsible for the maintenance. Our research indicates that the facility will cash flow for approximately the first five years before major capital improvements have to be made. And it’s our intention to establish an endowment, a maintenance endowment that will provide a permanent financial solution to the long term capital needs of this facility.

Councilmember Shetler: A second question and some of what you said kind of sparked this as well, it seems to me that there is going to be, you know, in your opening remarks you talked about the soccer complex and what an asset it is for our community, and it is, the BMX out at Burdette, what an asset, and it is, and then, you know, this would certainly enhance the other activities that we have. My concern would be, that if you’ve got BMX running around bidding on projects and you’ve got -- or Burdette – and you’ve got the soccer bidding on things, who is going to coordinate the timing of all of this so that, I know we have a finite amount of restaurants and hotel space. Sometimes you’d like for it to be fully occupied 100% of the time, but, I mean, we do have a limited amount there and I would guess that if we end up with all three of these things going the same week, we could have a very difficult time and probably never get another soccer tournament or another softball tournament again because of the poor performance. Is there a coordinating body or agency that’s going to make sure that these things don’t –

David Dunn: No, it’s a great point, and again, our intention is to hire this third party management and marketing firm with the idea that their responsibility grow beyond softball/baseball. Obviously, the Convention & Visitors Bureau will stay extremely active in overseeing all of the activity that’s going on. Generally speaking, we are participating in assisting each of these host organizations, so we know well in advance when those events are going to occur. And there will be times when we have conflicting activity whether it be all sports related or whether it be with a convention, Jehovah Witness is a good example, when they came to us over Thunder. You have that feast or famine situation from time to time. But honestly, I hope that that’s the rule rather than the exception because if demand is there, service will follow. So I don’t see it being a tremendous challenge to overcome but to answer your question, it will be the Convention & Visitors Bureau who is the primary source and agency that is overseeing and promoting tourism that will be that body that will help to coordinate.

Councilmember Sutton: I like to see that we’re putting together these types of projects that will create some degree of synergy and enthusiasm about the whole area of youth sports, which, you know, according to the study, and then, you know, just anecdotal things, we know that it is a very important area that’s growing. And as you look at the complex there, you mentioned a couple different things, too, that I’d like to maybe get an understanding on. Councilwoman Leader mentioned the playground area and then you also mentioned that you’re relocating the basketball courts. What’s the intention or the plan there and are you talking about relocating with the same size, kind of relative proportions? Where in the park are you looking at placing those?

David Dunn: Conceptually, this area right now houses that batting cage. We’re told that that is going to discontinue and that that space will become available. So we feel like that’s going to create an opportunity for us with regards to our need to relocate some of the amenities that are within this development. So conceptually, we’ve got basketball courts of the same size and number being relocated in this area. Conceptually, we’ve got sand volleyball that’s being relocated at the north portion of the campus. But again, once the architect gets into having full scale drawings, you know, all of it may wind up fitting in one particular area or another. But we are committed to relocating those facilities and keeping them within the overall campus at Wesselman.

Councilmember Sutton: And conceptually, as we think about that site, can you talk a little bit more about the ingress/egress out onto to Boeke because that, when you have UE basketball games or larger events at Roberts Stadium, getting out on that road is not necessarily the best situation. So if you’ve got something going on at the stadium facility and they’re coming out and you’ve got something at the softball facility and they’re letting out, how do you intend, because that is a very narrow entrance to the park presently.

David Dunn: Right, our thought is that there will be a deceleration lane that will be developed along Boeke that will allow traffic to start to merge into the entry to the park so it doesn’t impede the flow of traffic on Boeke. We intend to widen the entryway so that we can accommodate larger volumes of traffic. Whether or not there needs to be some kind of a light or flashing light or something like that or perhaps a police officer than can aid in traffic control during these major tournaments, is yet to be determined. But again, what we like about this location is the number of ingress/egress opportunities and again, primarily, the level of play is going to be enjoyed locally. It’s going to be those times when we host a large scale tournament that we’ll have to deal with the large amounts of traffic and as the host, we will ensure that the participants understand the variety of opportunities that they have of getting in and out. We do like the fact that there’s the circular drive that goes around the entire complex and that allows for these multiple entry points and exit points to the complex so that we can direct them in other locations rather than having everything come in and out of this main entry point.

Councilmember Sutton: And then my last question just relates to, you’ve spoken primarily about tournament play. What about league play, since we have a very active softball, baseball –

David Dunn: We do have very active league play and we’ve already met with the Parks Department, Chris Rehn’s group, and he has committed his support to our complex and said that whatever has to be done to accommodate his league play during the time of development, he’ll do. Right now, it’s anticipated that the complex will be completed, if we can start on time, we anticipate the complex being completed around August of 2009. And that allows ample time for the fields to – for the grass to take hold, so that by March of 2010, we will be ready for tournament action. Chris has indicated that his league play ends about August, so there could be, you know, a couple of weeks that we have to work around, but other than that, it will not affect the 2008 play; 2009 will be affected in some fashion. And again, Chris is working on a variety of alternate sites to accommodate his teams until we can get this complex up and running.

Councilmember Goebel: Good morning. You may have answered this question already, but the ultimate oversight of this complex will still fall to the Parks and Recreation Department or –

David Dunn: I didn’t mean to interrupt you. Did you have a second part of your question?

Councilmember Goebel: Well, I was going to ask about the fee you’re seeking today. Is that just for this complex or is that for all other projects that you talked about today?

David Dunn: Well, to answer your first part, we see the oversight remaining with the Convention & Visitors Bureau Commission. Again, it’s our intention to hire a third party management/marketing firm. They will be onsite on a daily basis and they’ll actually have offices in one of those two center buildings. They will be responsible for going out and marketing the tournaments whether they be a qualifying regional or national tournament as well as hosting the events, as well as maintaining the complex. That management company will report directly to the Convention & Visitors Bureau board, who reports directly to this body. With regards to the second question, today, what we’re asking for would be approval for us to move forward with engaging in the architectural design of this complex. Again, we – our initial estimate is approximately 12 million dollars to develop this complex as well as the expansion of the tennis. We would like to have your show of approval on that as well, but we fully intend to come back to this body with our hard numbers of developing this project, you know, once those estimates are in to us.

Councilmember Winnecke: Madam Chair? Just to clarify, the money that you’re requesting, $425,000 out of the Sports Complex line of the 2008 budget, so that money is appropriated – it’s budgeted, I’m sorry. And I guess my question really is, after the transfer for the Zoo project, there should be a balance of 325,000.

Joe Vezzoso: David? Excuse me, Councilmembers, I will tell you that our initial estimates from our architect is 425,000. But because of the funding process, we will request in next year’s budget, the additional money to complete the architectural fees since we only had the 900,000 approved for this year.

President Abell: So that’s in place and we don’t need to take action on that today, correct?

Councilmember Winnecke: Well, I think, and, Bill, you can correct me, since it’s budgeted, we’ve already –

1050-1130-0199	Part-time Clerk	12,162.00	7,690.00
Total		12,162.00	7,690.00

1080-1380-1080	Deputy	4,624.00	4,624.00
1080-1900	FICA	354.00	354.00
1080-1910	PERF	336.00	336.00
Total		5,314.00	5,314.00

1081-1300-1081	Enforcement Officer	29,337.00	29,337.00
1081-1900	FICA	2,245.00	2,245.00
1081-1910	PERF	2,127.00	2,127.00
Total		33,709.00	33,709.00

1110-1160-1110	Deputy Assessor	2,604.00	2,604.00
1110-1190-1110	Asst. Real Estate Deputy	2,724.00	2,724.00
1110-1900	FICA	408.00	408.00
1110-1910	PERF	387.00	387.00
Total		6,123.00	6,123.00

1120-1972	Level II Certification	1,000.00	1,000.00
1120-1900	FICA	77.00	77.00
1120-1910	PERF	73.00	73.00
Total		1,150.00	1,150.00

1240-1110-1240	Executive Director	759.00	759.00
1240-1900	FICA	59.00	59.00
1240-1910	PERF	56.00	56.00
Total		874.00	874.00

1370-1370-1370	Bailiff	5,648.00	5,648.00
1370-1900	FICA	433.00	433.00
1370-1910	PERF	410.00	410.00
Total		6,491.00	6,491.00

2490-1130-1120	Office Coordinator	22,288.00
2490-1130-1900	FICA	1,706.00
2490-1130-1910	PERF	1,616.00
2490-1130-1920	Insurance	5,595.00
Total		31,205.00

2490-1150-3540	Maintenance Contract	5,170.00	4,398.00
Total		5,170.00	4,398.00

From: 1480-1920	Insurance	1,104.00	1,104.00
To: 1480-1971	Accrued Payments	960.00	960.00
1480-1900	FICA	74.00	74.00
1480-1910	PERF	70.00	70.00