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MCC Advisory Board Minutes 04-21-2005COMMUNITY CENTER ADVISORY BOARD MEETING MINUTES THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2005 - 4:30 P.M. Board Members Present: Harvey Kendall -Chair, Richard Quick -Vice Chair, Sandra Theros, Bob Grabinski and Clint Herbst Staff Members Present: Kitty Baltos-Director l . Meeting called to order at 4:32 p.m. by Harvey Kendall 2. Consideration of adding items to the agenda. Clint Herbst added review of policy or procedure for refunds to customers of the Community Center. (Item 7) Kitty asked Clint Herbst if he, as our Council representative, had any indication of directions that the Council would like us to follow. Clint indicated that they were interested in seeing the community center cost the community less. 3. Consideration of approving the minutes from the March 17, 2005 regular Advisory Board meeting. MOTION by Richard Quick to approve the minutes as submitted, SECOND by Sandra Theros, MOTION PASSED with Clint Herbst abstaining. 4. Update Items: a. Breakfast with the Easter Bunny - Financial Review. Kitty Baltos reported that we served 200 more people that the previous year. The event did lose $148. The Board agreed that this is a good event for the community center and the community. Kitty further reported that she is seeking a solid organization to take this event over in the future. She felt that the community center had done the hard work of establishing the event, but now feels that this would be a great fund-raiser for a Monticello organization. The Board agreed that the community center is a great place to hold this event and that having an organization put on the event as a fund-raiser was also a good idea. Richard Quick and Bob Grabinski, who had volunteered on that day, felt that the kitchen did not have a big enough cooking area for all of the food that was prepared. They wanted to make sure that information was passed along to a potential organization. b. Air Quality Natatorium - Kitty reported that a memo was made available to the City Council requesting comments about the proposed fix and its cost. She did not receive any feedback from the Council and is therefore proceeding with the fix. Kitty and the Maintenance Supervisor, Brian, researched exactly what work should be performed. They found that MCC has been able to maintain the recommended humidity levels, therefore, it was felt that the recommended up -sizing of that unit might be unnecessary. Another recommendation was to add an additional run of duct work, however, it was also found that one current run of duct work had diffusers that were closed, even though they were set in the open position. This has since been fixed. Clint Herbst also recommended, at a previous meeting, to look into overhead fans for great air movement. Brian discussed this option with our chemical distributor, who also installs pools, and they felt that it would be a good idea. After this research was done, it was determined that the best course of action was to replace the pulley system in the dehumidification system. This is regular maintenance that MCC does every other year and had budgeted $4,500 to do this year. We will also be installing the overhead fans to increase air circulation. This will cost $45900. We will additionally be balancing the air handling system since the original balance was done with one run of diffusers closed. The total cost to make these fixes has been quoted at $8,800. The community center budget had designated $99,500 to improve the air quality in the pool area and to replace the pulleys on the dehumidification system. Brian has reviewed the proposed work with the company who handles our air handling maintenance contract and our pool chemical vendor and they all felt that this would be the most efficient way to improve the air quality. C. Facility usage number through March 2005. Kitty reported that March surpassed the previous years March numbers as did February and January. Through March 2005, the community center had 54,667 visitors in the facility. They also currently have 891 active memberships that equates to over 3,100 members as of April 1st d. Financial review through March 2005. Kitty reviewed the financial information with the Board. The revenue for all categories but User Fees was up in comparing to the same time period in 2004. Clint Herbst questioned what items comprised the User Fees. Kitty reported that these are non -membership or daily fees for the recreation area of the facility like; the indoor play area only, a 10 visit punch pass for the pool or gym, it also includes climbing wall fees received. Kitty reported that the Wheel park fees are also in this category and so MCC opened that parks three days already in April, so the statement does not reflect the money that will be collected in daily fees and passes to the wheel parks as yet. Bob Grabinski, at the March meeting, requested more information about the reports he'd heard that the MCC is being subsidized by the taxpayers at $1.3 million. Kitty provided the 2005 budget with the reported taxes budget of $1.007 million and then the $250,000 liquor store transfer. She suggested that this is where this number might be coming from. However, this does not take into consideration the $685,000 that goes to the debt payment and not MCC operation. 5. Review of Mississippi Room capacity and policies for enforcement. Kitty Baltos reported that the capacity of the Mississippi Room is 315. There was only one time that the size of the event was over the 315 and they were required to rent the Bridge Room along with the Mississippi Room and the additional guests over the capacity were set up in that room. Our Event Coordinator advises all renters of the room capacity and to ensure compliance notifies them that no additional tables and chairs can or will be set up if capacity is exceeded. This has kept renters in compliance. 6a. Consideration of financial review of the swim lesson program for future budget considerations. In reviewing the swim lesson program for 2004, the program showed a profit of over $12,000. Kitty reported that we had 1423 registrants for group or private swim lessons in 2004. Changes for 2005 include continuing to find low or no cost ways to advertise the program and developing a private swim lesson package, much like you would see for a personal trainer. 6b. Consideration of financial review of the general programming for 2004 for future budget considerations. The programs for 2004 indicated a loss of $54 for 2004 before the salary of the program coordinator. The program had over 2,600 registrants. Since September 2004, Community Education has been permitting the community center to have program flyers inserted into elementary students take home packets. This has improved our registration numbers significantly. In surveying our program participants in January through March, they have indicated that they are finding out about our programs through the school or secondly by flyers in the building and on the counter. Kitty will be talking with Duane Gates about inserting some of our program information in the Community Education Journal that is published quarterly. Changes for 2005, the community center will be dropping their front page ad done monthly in leu of the school flyers and the Journal. None of the survey respondents reported getting our program information from the newspaper ad. The Board was interested in seeing us continue to provide programs that covered their costs. 6c. Consideration of financial review of climbing wall usage for future budget considerations. Kitty provided detail indicating that January had 820 climbers, February had 973 climbers and March had 950 climbers and 11 groups booked on the wall. 74% of the climbers are pass holders for which the climbing wall is included. Kitty reported that as the wall slows down, the hours are cut back and staff is cut back. 7. Added Item: Review of policy or procedures for refunds from the community center. Clint Herbst noticed in the most recent Council packets refunds to customers. He indicated that he and other Council members were questioning what these were for. Kitty reported that they were for fecal incidents in the pool. The community center has a policy where guests can request a refund due to pool closure if they have been in the pool for 30 minutes or less. They must make a written request at the time of the incident to the Guest Service Counter, the Aquatic Director then contacts the individuals. We first offer a guest pass for future use. Most often this is the option taken, however, some individuals do want a refund because they live a greater distance from the center and are unsure when they might be able to get back to use the facility or in one incident, it was a daycare provider bringing her charges and it was easiest for her to receive a refund. Clint questioned how often the community center has these types of incidents. Kitty reported that since January through March is the busiest time for the community center pool these incidents might be more frequent, but in general they happen once per month. These requests were actually from two separate incidents that were two weeks apart. Kitty also noted that because it is the busy season, the bather load in the pool would most likely be 150 to 250 people at the time of the incident so two requests per time was actually pretty low. The Board inquired about how long the pool would be closed for such an incident and if this happens else where. Kitty reported that they would most likely only have the pool closed for one hour or less since there is more than enough chemicals in the pool and that every public pool has to deal with this type of issue with the same or greater frequency. 8. Added Item: Clint requested that we also add a discussion about the electronic reader board. The Board reviewed the previous discussion about the low height of the Town Center reader board and the lack of community center recognition with a reader board in that location. They also felt that advertising with the liquor store, on their site, might not be the best mix. Richard Quick suggested that the Liquor store sign be removed and be replaced with a community center directional sign and electronic reader board. The feeling was that the liquor store's store front was the best sign for them. Clint reported that in discussions that he's had with other businesses, that an electronic reader board is approximately $17,000. The Board would like Kitty to continue to look at the options of putting a sign at the liquor store site or even doing an on -site reader board. 9. Bob Grabinski requested that at the May meeting the Board review membership costs and it was also requested that we review rental information and costs. 10. MOTION by Richard Quick to adjourn the meeting at 6:10 p.m., SECOND by Sandra Theros, MOTION PASSED and the meeting was adjourned.