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HomeMy WebLinkAbout05/23/2001 BAKERSFIELD (/~ ~ Jacquie Sullivan, Chair Alan Tandy, City Manager Sue Benham Staff: Alan Christensen Irma Carson AGENDA SUMMARY REPORT COMMUNITY SERVICES COMMI'R'EE Wednesday, May 23, 1:30 p.m. City Manager's Conference Room 1. ROLL CALL Call to Order at 1:40 p.m. Present: Councilmembers Jacquie Sullivan, Chair; Sue Benham;. and Irma Carson 2. ADOPT APRIL 18, 2001 AGENDA SUMMARY REPORT Adopted as submitted. 3. PUBLIC STATEMENTS 4. DEFERRED BUSINESS A. Staff report and Committee recommendation on use of facilities at International Square Park Committee member'Benham spoke about a working committee that has been meeting comprised of herself, Economic/Community Development staff, Jerry Randall from Old Town'Kern, and Ed Lazaroti from Recreation and Parks. The basic consensus has been that closing International Square Park would be a mistake. It is the goal for Old Town Kern neighborhood to have an urban green space for the residents of the area. The long-term goal would be to redevelop the area into some type of alternative use to enhance the redevelopment of the Old Town Kern area. One of the uses made of 'International Square in recent years has been for distribution of food and clothing to the local population that is either homeless or residents of the nearby hotels. There have been problems reported by local businesses with the congregation of activities there. The waste department has concerns about some of the activities taking place apart from the Church outreach activities in this same general area. ADOPTS) AS SUBI~ITT~ ON JULY 11,~ 2001 FILl COPY AGENDA SUMMARY REPORT COMMUNITY SERVICES COMMITTEE Wednesday, May 23, 2001 Page -2- Representative of the Bakersfield Rescue Mission and Economic/Community Development staff have been communicating with the organizations providing church services and food distribution in the park. Progress has been made towards a cooperative solution, which will eventually move the distribution of food and clothing less than two blocks away on property either currently owned or expected to be acquired by the Bakersfield Rescue Mission. Ken Cravens, Director of Outreach Missions -Westbrook Chapel, one of the organizations providing services in the park, spoke about their Sunday morning services, ongoing for the last three years at International Square Park. In addition, on Tuesday evenings they are feeding the people gathered in the park as well, which has been ongoing for about 15 years. It is estimated that 90 percent of the people they serve are not homeless, but live in area hotels. He spoke about concerns regarding some of the activities occurring in the park and negotiations with Dan Gorman from the Bakersfield Rescue Mission about moving their services to a vacant lot the Rescue Mission currently has, which is about a block and a half away. Details of the move still need to be worked out and they are working together with the business people as well, so that their concerns would be eliminated in the process. Steve Ratty, property owner at 23rd and E, spoke about the homeless in the downtown and moving the services being a positive move. The Committee was unanimously pleased with the solution being work out by Committee member Benham and the working group and thanked all those present for their cooperation. Committee member Benham stated that staff will be making some recommendations and requested that this item be put back on the Committee's agenda for an update. B. Staff report and Committee recommendation regarding swimming pool fees and providing student swim days at City pools Stan Ford explained that we have two programs going into effect at City pools this summer for the first time: 1) Fees have been lowered for swimming lessons at the Martin Luther King, Jr. pool and staff is expecting an increase in the amount of applications for swimming lessons; and 2) The free swim-pass program for Iow-income. Last summer the City implemented a program with the schools that allows students with perfect attendance during the week at summer school to get in free. The City benefits from this program because in exchange, the City is allowed to use school facilities for free for summer programs (day camps). When this program started, the free day was on Friday, but there was a need to change to any day during the week, as the pools were used at capacity on Fridays with many students standing outside waiting to get in. The fairness issue regarding free swim passes to Iow-income only was discussed. As this program was implemented at the request of Councilmembers, staff did not evaluate the fairness issue and would like time to go through this summer and evaluate the program. AGENDA SUMMARY REPORT COMMUNITY SERVICES COMMITTEE Wednesday, May 23, 2001 Page -3- Because the pools have such high use, staff has concerns that a program for free swimming for students would cause many people to be turned away or to be congregating outside the pools, because capacity has been reached. There was a discussion about some City pools in need of repair and small neighborhood pools with older designs versus the need for new regional pools. In the future Recreation and Parks staff will be making a presentation to Council about a new concept called spray grounds, which are designed for water play and are becoming very popular in other citieS. The Committee unanimously recommended making no change to the swim programs for this summer. 5. NEW BUSINESS 6. COMMI'n'EE COMMENTS 7. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 2:15 p.m. Staff attending: City Manager Alan Tandy; Assistant City Manager Alan Christensen; City Attorney Bart Thiltgen; Recreation and Parks Director Stan Ford; and Deputy City Attorney Ginny Gennaro Others: James Burger, Reporter, The Bakersfield Californian; Leslie Kirk, Channel 23; Steve Ratty, downtown property owner; Tammy Brown, KUZZ News; Ken Cravens, Director of Outreach Missions - Westbrook Chapel cc: Honorable Mayor and City Council S:~AC~001CSCommittee\cs01may23summary.wpd