Parks Board Offers Use Of Digital Sign To Renters
August 16, 2017 at 5:16 p.m.
By David [email protected]
The Parks Board approved the rental agreement and rates for the sign at its meeting Tuesday.
The sign is at the North Detroit Street entrance to Central Park.
“We thought we’d bring something to the board to have them look over as far as what our intentions are,” Parks Superintendent Larry Plummer told the board. He said Recreation Director Sheila Wieringa has worked on the agreement and rates for awhile.
Wieringa said the rental fee for placing an announcement on the digital sign would be $20 across the board. The number of days the announcement would be up on the sign will depend on what kind of announcement it is.
“What we’re proposing is, if it’s a private event – a wedding, a birthday, a family reunion – it would be a three-day rent time. Two days leading up to the event and the day of the event,” she explained.
“If it’s a public event – the plant sale, Christmas craft show – it would be a seven-day rent time, so six days leading up to the event and the day of the event,” she said.
Renting space on the digital sign would be limited to “rentals of our facilities, whether it be a shelter, whether it be a pavilion, any rental of our facility would allow them to rent the sign,” Wieringa said.
A person could not just come off the street and only rent space on the digital sign, she said.
Final design and wording of an event on the sign would be limited by sign restraints and at the discretion of Warsaw Parks Department staff. Rental form and payment must be received 14 days prior to the message start date.
Wieringa came up with several different background choices so anyone renting the sign could choose from those pre-designed selections. “It wouldn’t be a brand new design for each new rental,” she said.
Plummer said he wanted the board to look at if they need to put a limit on how many sign rentals they have at one time so the rentals don’t overshadow the Park Department’s event announcements. He asked Wieringa what should be the limit for the number of rentals on the digital sign.
Wieringa said she thought a high number would be OK because the way the software for the sign is set up, she can “put all of those on one play list and I can tell it to only run one off that play list per rotation.”
Plummer asked, “So we can have the park events be the dominant on the sign?” Wieringa said that was correct. Plummer said that might need to be in the contract so the renters will know how often it will pop up on the sign. Wieringa said after an event has stopped running, she can also run a report that shows exactly how many times it ran on the sign, days and times.
In other business, the board:
• Approved Park Board member Bill Baldwin to serve as its representative on the Plan Commission.
• Heard a Warsaw Community Public Library board member will serve on the park board beginning in September. The person will take Rick Paczkowski’s place as he previously resigned from the board.
• Heard from Maintenance Director Shaun Gardner that park employees have worked on its irrigation systems since it’s been so dry, replacing heads and fixing leaks.
“We’ve also trimmed up all the trees uptown and flower boxes to get them away from people’s homes and buildings,” he said. “We’ve also trimmed a lot of trees within the parks themselves. Dusty (Wiggs), our tree trimming guy, he’s kind of been busy the last few weeks. He loves it.”
Gardner also reported the Indiana Department of Natural Resources began construction Tuesday on the new boat ramp north of Bixler Park at Center Lake. “We’ll work with them and try to help them out when we can,” he said.
The new boat ramp will replace the ramp at the end of Buffalo Street.
• Heard a report from Wieringa on events.
She said the country concert July 21 had an attendance of about 6,500.
The late skate at Mantis Skate Park July 22 had 25 skaters come out, which she said made it “very, very busy out there.”
Though Beach Bash had to be rescheduled from Aug. 1 because of weather to Aug. 8, she said about 70 kids participated. “It was a really good time,” she said.
Family Carnival was Aug. 4, but it was “very, very cold,” she said and only about 1,000 people turned out.
The last movie night for the year was Saturday with 250 people coming out to Center Lake to watch “Trolls” on the big screen. Wieringa said while the crowd wasn’t as large as the previous movies, it was still a good crowd.
“I’m still happy with all three of those. I think they went fantastic, and the concessions just continue to grow and we’re just bringing a little revenue from that, which is being fed right back into being able to provide more programming,” she said.
Upcoming events include a Game of Skate at Mantis Friday; the last two concerts this Friday and Aug. 25; Aug. 26, a fly fishing workshop with only one beginner spot left as of Tuesday; and Sept. 15, the last day for the skate park with a late skate and a couple of parents cooking out.
She also said an assistant for recreation has been in the budget for a long time.
“Easing into that, we have decided to keep one person on year-round that will just be about 10 hours a week to start helping with events and things,” Wieringa said.
Board President Steve Haines asked when the last day for lifeguards would be for the season. Wieringa said Tuesday was their last weekday shifts and added the number of lifeguards working on weekends will start dwindling toward the end of the season.
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The Parks Board approved the rental agreement and rates for the sign at its meeting Tuesday.
The sign is at the North Detroit Street entrance to Central Park.
“We thought we’d bring something to the board to have them look over as far as what our intentions are,” Parks Superintendent Larry Plummer told the board. He said Recreation Director Sheila Wieringa has worked on the agreement and rates for awhile.
Wieringa said the rental fee for placing an announcement on the digital sign would be $20 across the board. The number of days the announcement would be up on the sign will depend on what kind of announcement it is.
“What we’re proposing is, if it’s a private event – a wedding, a birthday, a family reunion – it would be a three-day rent time. Two days leading up to the event and the day of the event,” she explained.
“If it’s a public event – the plant sale, Christmas craft show – it would be a seven-day rent time, so six days leading up to the event and the day of the event,” she said.
Renting space on the digital sign would be limited to “rentals of our facilities, whether it be a shelter, whether it be a pavilion, any rental of our facility would allow them to rent the sign,” Wieringa said.
A person could not just come off the street and only rent space on the digital sign, she said.
Final design and wording of an event on the sign would be limited by sign restraints and at the discretion of Warsaw Parks Department staff. Rental form and payment must be received 14 days prior to the message start date.
Wieringa came up with several different background choices so anyone renting the sign could choose from those pre-designed selections. “It wouldn’t be a brand new design for each new rental,” she said.
Plummer said he wanted the board to look at if they need to put a limit on how many sign rentals they have at one time so the rentals don’t overshadow the Park Department’s event announcements. He asked Wieringa what should be the limit for the number of rentals on the digital sign.
Wieringa said she thought a high number would be OK because the way the software for the sign is set up, she can “put all of those on one play list and I can tell it to only run one off that play list per rotation.”
Plummer asked, “So we can have the park events be the dominant on the sign?” Wieringa said that was correct. Plummer said that might need to be in the contract so the renters will know how often it will pop up on the sign. Wieringa said after an event has stopped running, she can also run a report that shows exactly how many times it ran on the sign, days and times.
In other business, the board:
• Approved Park Board member Bill Baldwin to serve as its representative on the Plan Commission.
• Heard a Warsaw Community Public Library board member will serve on the park board beginning in September. The person will take Rick Paczkowski’s place as he previously resigned from the board.
• Heard from Maintenance Director Shaun Gardner that park employees have worked on its irrigation systems since it’s been so dry, replacing heads and fixing leaks.
“We’ve also trimmed up all the trees uptown and flower boxes to get them away from people’s homes and buildings,” he said. “We’ve also trimmed a lot of trees within the parks themselves. Dusty (Wiggs), our tree trimming guy, he’s kind of been busy the last few weeks. He loves it.”
Gardner also reported the Indiana Department of Natural Resources began construction Tuesday on the new boat ramp north of Bixler Park at Center Lake. “We’ll work with them and try to help them out when we can,” he said.
The new boat ramp will replace the ramp at the end of Buffalo Street.
• Heard a report from Wieringa on events.
She said the country concert July 21 had an attendance of about 6,500.
The late skate at Mantis Skate Park July 22 had 25 skaters come out, which she said made it “very, very busy out there.”
Though Beach Bash had to be rescheduled from Aug. 1 because of weather to Aug. 8, she said about 70 kids participated. “It was a really good time,” she said.
Family Carnival was Aug. 4, but it was “very, very cold,” she said and only about 1,000 people turned out.
The last movie night for the year was Saturday with 250 people coming out to Center Lake to watch “Trolls” on the big screen. Wieringa said while the crowd wasn’t as large as the previous movies, it was still a good crowd.
“I’m still happy with all three of those. I think they went fantastic, and the concessions just continue to grow and we’re just bringing a little revenue from that, which is being fed right back into being able to provide more programming,” she said.
Upcoming events include a Game of Skate at Mantis Friday; the last two concerts this Friday and Aug. 25; Aug. 26, a fly fishing workshop with only one beginner spot left as of Tuesday; and Sept. 15, the last day for the skate park with a late skate and a couple of parents cooking out.
She also said an assistant for recreation has been in the budget for a long time.
“Easing into that, we have decided to keep one person on year-round that will just be about 10 hours a week to start helping with events and things,” Wieringa said.
Board President Steve Haines asked when the last day for lifeguards would be for the season. Wieringa said Tuesday was their last weekday shifts and added the number of lifeguards working on weekends will start dwindling toward the end of the season.
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