Commission Minutes:April 27, 2017
Members Present: President Joe Krapohl,Vice President Washington, Commissioners:David Martin, Joe Madore, Bryant Nolden,Cloyce Dickerson, Jeff Wright, Mike Keeler
Members Absent:Secretary Lynch, Gloria Nealy
Staff Present:Amy McMillan, Director; Barry June, Deputy Director; Matt Armentrout, Facilities Director;Kevin Shanlian, Chief Park Ranger; Danielle Fulcher, Marketing Specialist; Janet Van De Winkle, Project Sustainability Director; Patrick Linihan, Park Project Manager; Joe Fallis, Intern; Samantha Pilarski, Intern; Nancy Edwards, Recreation Program and Grants; Angelique Waiwaiole-Tyler, Park Office Aide
Others Present: Marjory Raymer, Flintside Digital Magazine; Timothy Kennedy, Genesee
1)Call to Order. President Krapohl presided and called the meeting to order at 10:06a.m.
2) Opportunity for members of the public to address the commission. Anyone wishing to address the commission must state their name and address and they have three minutes to speak.No one addressed the commission.
3)Marjory Raymer Danielle Fulcher introduced Ms. Raymer from Flintside, which is a new digital publication that focuses on positive stories for Flint and the surrounding areas. We have joined their team as a sponsor and our logo will be displayed on their website and some of their emails.
Ms. Raymer explained the purpose of her digital publication that was launched about six weeks ago. It focuses not only on positive stories but solutions and what’s next for our community. It also focuses on talent, innovation, entrepreneurs, diversity and environment and place making.
In just the short amount of time it has launched, we have gained Facebook fans every week. We’d like a goal of 100,000 unique readers in the first year and we are at 15,000 already. One of our goals is to have our community appeal to outsiders. We felt the County Parks fit well with our publication and we want to raise the educational level in the community about family fun in the area. Once we told potential students a little bit about our community they could be open to come to UM Flint, and then once they came here they had a completely different vision, so it helped them see it more than the stereotypes associated with Flint.
Commissioner Nolden said it is really great and he reads it every day.
Commissioner Martin commended Ms. Raymer for getting the word out to promote our community.
Ms. McMillan said this is an opportunity and a connection to be able to get more information out there about the Parks and how we relate to health and wellness. We’ve also had a long commitment to economic development and economic impact in the community because it helps to grow the community and tax base and that is directly connected to us by way of support from the parks millage. This is a good example of how we can come together as a community. She thanked Ms. Raymer for coming today.
Commissioner Washington just signed up.
Keeler: Why is it that positive news wasn’t necessarily the goal at the Journal? He remembers a few years back that the Journal was going to do a great story about his neighborhood; then something big and negative happened in the country and the story was killed, it never ran.How often does it run?
Ms. Raymer: She always did tell some positive stories, her role and obligation now is different than it was there. She believes that our society and democracy depends on a strong and independent journalism. There is still a need for watch dog journalism, that is how citizens are informed. This is not to take away from them, but she believes there is more. When she worked at the Journal there were 145 employees and they felt they were understaff because there was more to tell and there were ways to find a way for community journalism to survive. Traditional journalism does the best they can with the resources they have. Someone needs to cover politics, but she doesn’t have to.
Ms. McMillan said it is never a story when 100,000 people drive home safely from work. It is a story when there is one crash, so what makes news is that something is out of the ordinary.
Ms. Raymer said that is true, but one of the things they are doing that is non-traditional is it is not advertising based. Making an impact is the foremost thing they want to do. She studied a lot of page views and a story about a business closing draws more than a business opening, but for this publication, if we don’t tell people about the business openings, then they don’t know who we are.
Commissioner Madore: You have a purely digital, so it is always online to view, but you also have a compilation that you send out as a publication, is that different, or more fresh?
Ms. Raymer: Our email magazine that goes out always has a major feature story and it has something new that goes out that day. It has all of our content though. We know you have to push the message multiple ways to get the word out. It is a weekly publication, every Tuesday.
4) Consent Agenda.President Krapohlasked commissioners if there are any items they wish to remove from the consent agenda for discussion. No items were removed from the consent agenda.
Action Taken:
Motion by Commissioner Keeler
Supported by Commissioner Washington
Motion and support for approval of consent agenda items A throughC, as listed.
Roll Call
Yeas: Dickerson, Keeler, Krapohl, Madore, Martin, Nolden, Washington, Wright
Nays: None
Absent: Secretary Lynch and Commissioner Nealy are absent
MOTION CARRIED 8-0
5) Director’s Report
Amy reintroduced the commissioners to Angel Waiwaiole-Tyler. Debbie is waiting for her daughter to give birth. (Note: Claire Elizabeth was born at 1:58 on Thursday, April 27)
A. Resolution 018-17 is on the table for the Commission to accept the terms and conditions of the Michigan DNR Dam Management Grant. We were awarded a grant in the amount of $3 million. There are no matching funds coming from the Genesee County Parks and no hard dollars coming from us. There are two in-kind donations coming to us in the form of engineering from Consumers Energy and Wade Trim contributed their time to match the grant.
Madore: This is obviously not a Trust Fund grant, the match is only 11%. There are several grants around that riverfront area. All these finds are exclusively for the work on the dam?
Van De Winkle: It required a 10% match.
McMillan: This is the removal of the Hamilton Dam, the removal of the Fabri Dam and then also as part of the grant we will be addressing many outfalls upstream in a section of the river from Carpenter Rd to Robert T. Longway that became exposed when the DEQ ordered the water level of the river to be lowered due to the poor condition of the dam. So there are some infrastructure areas outside of the dam area that will be addressed.
Keeler: Is there a date or year that we are looking at when the dam will come down?
McMillan: If all goes according to schedule the dam will be removed before the end of this calendar year. Our timeline is dependent on the Consumers project. They will begin mobilizing their equipment in the next couple weeks and they will be in the water and dredging by June 6. They will remove the footbridge and replace it by September.
Wright: Is there a time limit to use these grant funds? Let’s say Consumers takes 24 months. The tiebar to the decision to the primary and backup water supply, has that been lifted?
McMillan: There is a two year cycle so if there are extraordinary circumstances that we could not begin work because Consumer’s is not done, she is confident the DNR would extend the grant under those circumstances being out of our control.
Our permit application expects that issue will be resolved before our permit is issued.
Action Taken:
Motion by Commissioner Martin
Supported by Commissioner Washington
Motion and support for approval of Resolution 018-17.
Roll Call
Yeas: Dickerson, Keeler, Krapohl, Madore, Martin, Nolden, Washington, Wright
Nays: None
Absent: Secretary Lynch and Commissioner Nealy are absent
MOTION CARRIED 8-0
B. Anniversary Pins: The Commission voted on a final version of the commemorative anniversary pin.
C. All Staff Training was held on April 23. Provided to the commission are swag bags that contained training information and some logo swag. The training got great reviews from the staff that attended. All the work the full time staff took to make it meaningful was very well received. We want our staff to know that we appreciate them. You’ll be receiving information about of May 10 all staff meeting.
6) New BusinessThere is no new business.
7)Opportunity for the public to address the commissionNo one addressed the commission.
8) Opportunity for Commissioners to address the Commission.
Krapohl: He listens to Michigan Public Radio and they have a segment called Stateside. Rebecca Fedewa talked about the Flint River and how it is cleaner than how it is portrayed in the media and she was very complimentary to Genesee County Parks, Amy and her staff about the Flint Riverfront Restoration project.
If you are out and about in the Parks, he reminded commissioners to talk to the employees and let them know if they are doing a good job, if they are not doing something right, call Amy. It never hurts to tell someone they are doing a good job, they appreciate that. We have a lot of good employees.
McMillan: If you ever have a question or concern about staff, it isn’t just about discipline of an employee, it is about giving the employee an opportunity to do their job better and be successful in their job.
Madore: The Mt Morris Rd property bids, where is that at? The pin that we agreed upon, is that what the in-house decision was too? What is policy on morel hunting in the Parks; we’ve had a couple calls at the township and directed them to call the Parks.
McMillan: It has been advertised and the bids are due in June. The things we like were using the logo and 50 years. We allow mushroom hunting, we ask that they register so we can keep track of how many people are out there doing that activity, but we don’t make them disclose their location.
Wright: He wanted to second the fact that there are a lot of great county parks employees and administrative staff. He runs into them occasionally and they are always busy doing something.
Congratulations to Marjory, it is good that she is doing a publication that is positive about Flint.
Keeler: Flowering trees are budding, leaves are popping, and wildflowers are out. It is gorgeous.
9) Adjournment. Hearing no objections to adjournment, the meeting was adjourned at 10:40 a.m.
Recordedand transcribed by D. Wilkes p:commission/2017/Agenda and minutes/4-27-17
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