Events fees on Parks radar

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The April 6 Parks Commission Workshop discussed three main items to bring to the regular meeting on Tuesday, April 20.

The biggest item on the list dealt with what fees should be charged within the various parks that the department oversees. Interim-Director Scott Miskiel brought forward options for fees including camping, use of ballfields, and the lights above the ballfields. Hard numbers were not decided on since this was more a search for feedback, but the commission took time discussing events fees within the park.

As of right now, though not true for the past, there has been no guideline for the fees that should be charged for an event within Lake Leatherwood City Park. Miskiel said that it “Takes a lot of time and effort to make an exclusive event like Fat Tire Festival. That takes multiple hours that there has to be a fee for.” Chair Kevin Ruehle made reference to his time managing the XTERRA Triathlon and the fact that they used to have to provide temporary toilet facilities, as well.

Commissioners came to the conclusion that events fees would need to be based on disruption on regular park operations and exploration of those fees would continue.

Commissioner Scott Bardin questioned, in regard to Basin Park vendor permits, how to communicate with the city when event permits in the park are approved and how to avoid conflicts between those events and vendors. Ruehle suggested that the sit down with the mayor to discuss how better to avoid such conflicts.

Bylaws being update

Miskiel provided commissioners with an updated draft of bylaws to review and discuss, including:

  • Commissioners are supposed to receive reimbursement should they need to pay out of pocket while acting within their capacity on the commission. Bardin said he’d like to see a way to have an approval process for those reimbursements so state auditors could see them. Ruehle suggested that going through the finance committee for those approvals would be the way to go.
  • Language giving a limit on how many meetings a commissioner can miss before the commission may remove them for being inactive. Currently it requires city council to remove a commissioner should they miss too many meetings.
  • A suggested ordinance to city council to change the makeup of the commission to include one “at-large” commissioner from outside of the city limits. Ruehle cited that the commission has had trouble in the past filling seats and that going to the greater area around Eureka Springs would assist with having a broader pool to pull from.
  • Ruehle suggested that shuttle drivers not be able to accept cash. Miskiel said there are times when they do take cash still and that it may be enough to warrant avoiding such language in the bylaws. Miskiel said he would look into how much cash is accepted to give a better idea to the commission of what they may possibly miss out on.
  • Commissioners also discussed what the expenditure limit for unbudgeted items should be before needing commission approval. Miskiel threw out a value of $5,000, though he said that beyond an emergency he couldn’t see a reason that a single spending event would require that much.

Final Item

The commission also discussed their seeking of a new permanent Executive-Director and what to include in the description of the job as well as where to post the job offer. It was decided that it needed to be clarified that the director and other parks employees is hired by the commission and the unique properties of the department including its large size in comparison to the small size of the town.

The commission set a workshop for Tuesday, April 13 at 6 p.m. at Basin Park to look over issues within that park. a

1 COMMENT

  1. Is it the Parks Commission or the Parks and Recreation Commission? Are you using the proper name of the commission you are reporting on?

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