"Just putting another band aid" — tennis and pickleball push back on the GO Bond court plan

If you read nothing else

• The board tabled action on the GO Bond sports court rehabilitation to a special meeting, asking for two revisions: one including as much professional-grade work as possible, and one showing what would be done with the money already available.
• The consultant put the whole construction budget on the record: "There is only $1.5 million to do the construction for all the projects."
• Loretta Reyes of the Las Cruces Tennis Players Association said cracks were repaired and courts restriped five, six, seven years ago and are coming apart now and unsafe: "to repair cracks is just putting another band aid."
• Samuel Ramos told the board a complaint he filed with the director in December 2018 over the removal of his daughter from a coach-pitch team had still not been fixed, and that the January 2020 copy of the league agreement was identical to the one he reviewed on September 1, 2019.
• The board approved the Public Art Master Plan to go to City Council, and approved a special meeting for March 9, 2020 on the East Mesa Recreational Complex and the dog park. The record shows no meeting held March through May.

Who was in the room

Public comment

Kept at length on purpose. Every point raised is listed, in the order the minutes record it.

7.1 GO Bond Projects / Sports Courts — David Maestas and Tony Trevino, Public Works

Maestas said what was being presented is a result of the GO Bond project voted on by voters in August 2018 — a preliminary idea of what is going to take place with the parks and sports courts — and that staff would then ask the board for approval to move forward with what was presented, after input and comments received at this meeting.

Maestas introduced the team: Tony Trevino, Engineer and Architect Program Manager overseeing all of the GO Bond projects; Sreedevi Mohanraj, City Architect; ECM International, Inc., hired as Program Manager to oversee each of the GO Bond projects, represented by Arturo Gonzalez and Miguel Cheng-Guajardo; Paul Dugie of Souder Miller & Associates on the design portion; and Mark Hettinga of Highland Enterprise, the contractor handling the construction (design build) part.

Trevino began the presentation with background on the GO Bond and what progressed to the present.

Dugie presented site by site. Hillrise Basketball Court: the court is in good condition; the proposal is to repair the cracks (milling and filling, or remove and replace — the crack goes all the way through and there is a big differential), sand it all down smooth, and restripe.

Metro Verde: the park has a ponding problem; the proposal is to remove the existing surface, add some height and drainage to stop water ponding on the court, put sport surfacing back down, and restripe.

Four Hills area: the basketball court is in good condition but has a ponding problem; the proposal is to repair cracks, remove and replace an area where the concrete is crumbling, and restripe.

Apodaca Park: on the northwest side there is a playground out in the sun all the time, and the proposal is to put shade over that area. For the pickleball courts, the proposal is to increase the size of the court by adding concrete onto the sides to allow the creation of eight pickleball courts, remove and relocate fence, remove and relocate a light post, repair cracks, resurface and restripe.

Benavidez Community Center basketball court: all cracks were measured; the recommendation is total removal and replacement with a five- to six-inch slab with reinforcing rebar inside if funding is available — if not, repair cracks as best as possible and restripe.

Lions Park: repair cracks, repaint to match existing, and restripe.

El Cardon basketball court: the recommendation is to remove and replace, but if there are no funds, repair cracks and restripe.

Klein Park basketball court: a lot of cracks, so the recommendation is to remove and replace; if not, repair and restripe.

Young Park: the proposal is to remove and replace the big group shelter and replace as many of the single shelters as possible, removing the concrete slab so it starts from the ground up with a good structure. For the tennis courts, remove the existing surface, repair the cracks, resurface, and restripe.

Frank O'Brien Papen Community Center: the basketball court has a little cracking but looks like it has other problems; the recommendation is to remove and replace if funds are available, and if not, repair cracks and restripe.

Trevino said that, as Dugie said, a lot of these courts will be repair or total reconstruction based on funding, and the amount of sport cushion for all the projects will be determined by the budget across all the projects.

Arturo Gonzalez said an idea had just surfaced: on surfacing for tennis and pickleball there is ultimate surfacing, which is cushioned, professional surfacing, which is less cushion, and paint with grip. He asked what would be preferred — four courts with good surfacing, or eight courts with less surfacing. The minutes record no answer.

Maestas said one thing that can be done, and the reason for these meetings, is to get input from the crowd, for two reasons: for the construction, Klein and Young will be pushed back toward the end of construction if possible, so if Delgado can get Klein taken care of through other funding sources it would allow the opportunity to put in something different; and a couple of years from now there is another opportunity for another bonding cycle, meaning the City can go back to the voters.

Maestas said pickleball courts are also going in at the East Mesa Recreation Complex as part of this GO Bond.

McClure asked if the board would review modifications; Chair Harrison said, or the board can table.

Chair Harrison said he does not think his question was answered — whether the projects were listed in priority order or just listed straight through. The minutes record "Don't know who spoke, but response was" that all that was received in the request for proposal was a list of projects, and that they have not heard any priorities.

Chair Harrison said the two groups present that night are the most heartfelt and need to be listened to in the aspect of funding, and asked whether basketball groups were at previous public meetings. Maestas said the listing of projects and locations was part of the GO Bond package, and that this is the first meeting on these courts, so the participation seen at this meeting is where the priority is.

Engle clarified that in this case it seems basketball would get almost no priority, considering public input was heavily stacked toward tennis and pickleball.

Engle asked whether action is being requested so the City can begin to prioritize and start the work, or whether staff will come back to the board with priorities needing action. Maestas deferred back to the board, if the board wants staff to come back with options based on input received.

Delgado said the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board members know when there are meetings and cannot come to all of them; when something comes to this board it comes as information for them to absorb and then comes back for action. Her suggestion was to take the information received that night back to the program manager for review and then bring it back to the board with specific information addressing the tennis and pickleball concerns, and for action.

After McClure's motion, Maestas asked whether it could be tabled to a special meeting, with the date dependent on review of the two specific situations. McClure amended her motion accordingly.

Engle said the board is not going to magically have more money the next time it meets, and that he understands a priority is not known yet and the board is just being informed of a general priority. Sedillo's recorded response was that they will come back and define what will be removed to accommodate some things. Engle clarified that if this is tabled there would be a more specific outline of how to proceed with the rehabilitation; Maestas said there will be a specific outline addressing the concerns brought forward, and that there will be an opportunity to know the status of Klein being paid for, which would allow additional funding.

8.2 GO Bond Project / Hadley Complex — Tony Trevino, Public Works (Informational)

Trevino said the Hadley Sports Courts Complex (Hadley, Maag, Hardy and Paz) is also to be rehabilitated as part of the GO Bond project, design build.

Joseph Fuemmeler of Desert Peaks Architecture introduced himself and Ruben Contreras, project manager, as part of the design build team along with Highland Enterprises as prime. He said this is the first public meeting, that it would cover site conditions and ask about priorities from the public, that lighting has been received from the City as the major priority with everything else falling under that as a possible, and that the first thing is to decide on cost and get input from the public.

Contreras reported conditions at Maag: dugouts with water damage to sheeting, structure showing signs of rust, missing covers on some receptacles; foul ball protection is chicken wire with holes in some locations and rusted; spectator shade in good condition; restroom facilities well maintained but with accessibility issues; concession facilities a bit dated and cramped, non-accessible, needing floor drains, with a dated point of sale; exterior conditions fair to poor, wood siding starting to show cracks in the paint with signs of rot, stucco failing in various locations, water soaking up into wall, and some drainage issues.

Jim Hardy: dugout fencing with minimal rusting; some wood sheeting exhibits water damage; structure shows rusting; foul ball protection is non-existent; shade structure has variation in fabric color, fabric fair to good with some small holes and minimal rusting. Facilities are the worst of all complexes: bathrooms well maintained but with issues to exhaust fans and door hardware starting to fall off; there is room to make the bathrooms accessible except for the women's restroom, which would require quite a bit of rearranging. Concession facilities are the worst of all the ball fields — corrosion in the structure, water infiltration from the ceiling caused by the evaporative cooler with a lot of calcium deposits dripping to the floor, limited space, point of sale boarded up and unusable. Exterior: staining water on the top floor causing rust on the sealed deck, paint on the ceiling block chipping and not bonding well, stucco failing in various locations, dated light fixtures.

Paz: fairly good condition. Some rusting in the dugout steel structure, very minimal on the fence; chicken wire foul ball protection appearing to rust; spectator shade with a few rips and some water pooling; structure could use paint touchup for rusting; one bent pole. Restroom facilities need to comply with accessibility standards, missing an exhaust fan, some openings in the ceiling. Concession facilities had some failures in finishes — holes in the ceiling, limited space, minor discoloration in the paint. Exterior has a few instances of stucco failure around the corners and some penetrations within the stucco; trim around the openings is a bit dated and could be replaced.

Ron Galla T-Ball: dugout steel structure exhibiting rust in some locations; chain link fence post with some rust around the wells; spectator shading good to fair with some small holes; steel structure could use paint touchups; restroom facilities could use a few minor adjustments to make them accessible.

In summary: Maag is in fair condition but concessions are inadequate and restrooms have minor accessibility issues, with exterior conditions not good; Jim Hardy would take extensive work to make restrooms accessible and its concessions were in poor condition; Paz needs some minor exterior improvements, its restrooms need to comply with accessibility standards, its concessions were in fairly good condition, and its spectator shade has only a few areas needing improvement; at Ron Galla the restroom facilities are well maintained and the spectator shade could use some improvement.

Maestas emphasized that lighting is the biggest thing for all four complexes, which will take a big chunk of the money, and that the improvements to those lights will be substantial.

Chair Harrison asked if there would be any architectural design to see what this will look like in the future. Trevino said the next step is to do a feasibility study.

6. Old Business — 6.1 Overview Work Session and 6.2 Future Board Meeting Dates, Times and Locations

Both items, tabled from January 16 to this meeting, appear in the document as headings with no discussion recorded beneath them. They were tabled again by motion, to the March 19 board meeting.

7.2 Public Art Master Plan — Lorenzo Zepeda, Quality of Life Department

Zepeda presented the Public Art Master Plan as it would affect Parks and Recreation, saying there is a considerable amount of overlap between what the new program intends to do and what Parks has been doing. He provided the board a handout, the Standard Commissioning Process Chart.

He said there is an extensive collection of current City-owned public art pieces installed in park locations that were completely maintained by Parks and Recreation. With the establishment of Las Cruces Public Art and the Master Plan going toward resolution, he came to share the plan with the board.

He said most of the initiatives will be driven by the City Art Board, whose goal is to commission art, and that the program should function by taking the space that needs art into account and creating something that integrates with that space.

He said the main thing about the Public Art Program is that it will no longer be required to be maintained by Parks and Recreation. After the Resolution for the Master Plan they will go to Ordinance, and when that happens they will have their own budget to maintain existing artworks as well as upcoming artwork. The relationship with Parks and Recreation will continue because their goal is to put art on public property, which happens to be in parks most of the time; the extent of the relationship will be vetting projects through Parks to make sure everything recommended is viable, with funding coming from Las Cruces Public Art.

Engle clarified that the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board's role would be only if a public art piece would be going on park property. The response was yes.

Chair Harrison asked if any of the art projects were on the GO Bonds going through. Delgado said the art projects with regard to the GO Bond are for buildings — the new animal shelter, the new aquatics facility. Zepeda said on funding they are looking at a Capital Improvement Program (CIP) 2%, but it still needs to go to Ordinance, and they are also hoping that includes all vertical structures in addition to public safety impact fees and park impact fees.

Zepeda said a huge goal of the program is placemaking — creating a visual identity for the City of Las Cruces and making it more visually easy to navigate, including opportunities for landmark pieces. They also want to find opportunities through community collaboration and partnerships, consider educating in the arts and creating community engagement art projects, help make these programs longer standing and more established, create opportunities for local artists to have work, and, as the last component of the Master Plan, professionalize the local pool of artists.

McClure asked how the selection committee would be picked. Zepeda said selection is an ad hoc group separate from the Art Board; depending on the project they want to include an owner, a user, and an Art Board member, so the committee would be made up of the actual stakeholders. They also hope to add some public input sessions.

Zepeda introduced Rebecca Courtney, Vice Chair of the City Art Board. Chair Harrison asked if this had already been approved by the Art Board. Courtney said it had, and was taken to council, who made several recommendations about art selection committees and about the Art Board itself, wanting to make sure a diverse population was included. She said wording was changed in the category of City Art Board duties and art selection committees to address Council's concerns.

7.3 Special Meeting / East Mesa Recreational Complex (March 9) — Sonya Delgado

Delgado asked the board to hold a special meeting on the East Mesa Recreational Complex and the dog park so the board could view concepts. She said it would be informational, not for action.

She said there will also be a public input meeting March 17, and that when the concept is refined it will come back to the board for action in April.

8.1 Keep Las Cruces Beautiful (KLCB) — James Woods

Woods received, for the fifth consecutive year, the Presidents Circle Award. There are about 30 affiliates in the State of New Mexico and only seven programs throughout the state received the award.

Across all the cleanup groups — Team Up to Clean Up, Great American Clean Up, Toss No Mas, Adopt a Spot, youth cleanups, and other community service cleanups — they have over 4,000 volunteers and have collected over 53 tons of trash, from boots on the ground and roll-off containers.

Education: 1,100 presentations to third graders, educating on recycling, litter, graffiti and illegal dumping; activities with over 400 students in the City's After School Program educating them about the environment.

The graffiti crew abated over 400 locations, from dumpsters to light poles to walls.

Upcoming 2020 events: March 21, Team Up To Clean Up, District 6; April 11, Great American Clean Up; April 16, Water Festival; April 18, Earth Day Recycle Reuse Fashion Show; April 25, Volunteer Fair.

9. Staff member comments

Catanach invited the board to the Chaos Collaboration Art Show February 21 and 22, 2020 at the Frank O'Brien Papen Community Center, and said Saturday, February 29, 2020 is the first Father Daughter dance at the same center.

Nunez said the spring semester is in full swing with the Out of School Time program, that staff will meet with Las Cruces Public Schools the first week of March to solidify sites for summer programs, and that things are going very well with Youth Services.

Granillo said the Parks section is wrapping up its winter projects list, that the IPM Ad Hoc committee has met twice now and is going very well with communications open, and that they should have a good IPM document in June to present to City Council.

Mathews reported on two projects: play equipment for Benavidez Community Center now has a contract on board, with a preconstruction conference beginning in March and construction starting mid-March, and new play equipment expected end of March or beginning of April; and Metro Verde on Saracco Road near the intersection with Sonoma Ranch Blvd., where a brand new park with the working title The Tower Park has reached substantial completion, has gone through punch list, and has a couple more items to address before the park opens to the public.

Delgado said that on the Klein Park basketball court, a gentleman has come forward who wants to hold a tournament there and is working with a sponsor to redo the entire basketball court — tear it all apart and put down a brand new regulation court, including new goals. If this happens, dollars will shift to another project in the GO Bond. He wants to hold the tournament in August.

Delgado said the City has an agreement with Beck's Coffee. Nunez said a sponsorship was created with Beck's Coffee and the youth programs: students from the youth programs created the artwork and were involved with the writeup regarding A. Fielder Memorial Safe Haven, which will get $5 from every coffee bag sold to go toward the youth program.

Delgado said two monuments are coming into Veteran's Park, the Gold Star Memorial and the Wall of Honor. The Wall of Honor is first and the Gold Star Memorial will be in May. A vendor will take care of the slab for the Wall of Honor and park staff will do the one for the Gold Star Memorial.

Delgado said there is a Unidad Park GO Bond meeting February 22, 10 a.m. to noon at Unidad Park. Parks and Recreation emailed all program participants, it was put in the newspaper, and there is signage at the park. She said this will be the first input meeting for that park, there will be a couple of other meetings, and as it gets close to rollout it will come through this board. McClure added it is on social media and said the phrasing was good.

Delgado recapped that she talked to the Public Works team and staff is going to take the lead to set up a meeting with the pickleball players and the tennis players — a mini charrette with them.

Delgado said league agreements are still with Legal. She had emailed the board that there is language in the Fees & Charges saying the board will have authority over the leagues, and that this will be going to Council soon.

Nevarez asked the board that when she sends the agenda for the board meeting, they please notify her at that time whether they will attend, so she knows if there will be a quorum.

10. Board member comments

McClure asked if there is any way to put seating — a bench — at Meerscheidt in the back hallway where the practice rooms are. Delgado said she will check on this.

Recorded votes

Left open at the gavel