County Parks & Recreation Board Gets Started
August 18, 2022 at 10:31 p.m.
County Parks & Recreation Board Gets Started
By David [email protected]
The County Commissioners earlier this year approved creating the volunteer board and Thursday was the board’s first ever meeting. Matt Metzger and Mike Cusick were appointed to the board by the Commissioners; Troy Turley by County Auditor Michelle Puckett; and Aggie Sweeney and Rob Bishop by the County Council.
After they all took the oath of office, they elected Bishop to serve as president for the remainder of 2022 and Turley as vice president. The county auditor serves as the board secretary.
Puckett said as the auditor, she will handle all the money on behalf of the board. The board is tasked to submit an annual budget with assistance from the auditor. All claims for expenditures must be signed by the president and vice president and will follow the county’s already-established claims process.
The board currently has a non-reverting donation fund that has been created for them. It has a $7,600 donation in it from the Kosciusko County Community Foundation and those dollars are earmarked to support a master parks and trail plan. The fund also can accept other donations as they come in.
Annually, Puckett said, a report has to be given to the County Council and Commissioners on the operations of the board and the status on any parks and recreation programs. The report can either be given in-person or may be a written report.
Minimally, the Parks and Recreation Board is required to meet every quarter, but Puckett said the board has agreed to meet monthly on the third Thursday of every month for at least the remainder of 2022. At the Dec. 17 meeting, the board will set its meeting dates for 2023. A county website will be maintained by the auditor’s office for the board.
Cusick asked Puckett what aspects of the board needs to be a part of the public record and if emails were a part of that public record.
“As an official county board, you are subject to the Open Door Law, which means, as a board, as a whole, at our advertised meeting dates, you can meet as a whole, you can meet as a quorum, you can have discussion, you can make decisions and it all has to be in an open, public meeting. Since you are a board, you are not allowed to meet outside of your regular scheduled meeting in a quorum. Two of you can meet, but three of you can not. No decisions can ever be made about business going forward in those meetings because everything has to be public record and available for public inspection,” she said.
Later in the meeting, Metzger asked if he had an idea for the board in his head, if he could only discuss it with the other board members during their official meetings.
Bishop, who is an attorney who has served on a government board before, said, “We have to be very careful about meeting outside of our meetings. If we were to email back and forth, not only would that probably be an improper board meeting,” but it also would raise concerns about public access. He said the board members probably don’t want their emails to be subject to searches. If the KCPRB needs additional meetings, Bishop said they should look at doing that so they can be transparent.
Puckett said the board could establish subcommittees of two members to do the leg work and research and then bring that information back to the full board at an official meeting.
County Commissioner Cary Groninger gave a brief overview of how the KCPRB came to be.
It started 2-1/2 to three years ago when the Community Foundation held the Hometown Chats, having conversations with the residents of the towns in the county. That rolled into a request for a countywide comprehensive plan, with Forward Kosciusko, for about 18-24 months. That is now in place.
“Through that process - both the Hometown Chats and also the Forward Kosciusko County and others, but those being a couple major ones - there was a constant thread through those processes that they wanted to see Kosciusko County more engaged in recreational activities of our county and how we can promote that countywide,” Groninger said, adding that the timing was right coming out of the Covid pandemic and everyone realizing how important outdoor activities can be.
The Commissioners moved forward this year with establishing the KCPRB, he said, segueing into what the county’s vision for the board is.
“The key thing that I would see, you’re going to find there’s a lot of support, both from the Commissioners and the Council, for this board and they really want to see some projects move forward,” Groninger said. “But I will say, we’re a pretty conservative bunch that we don’t like to spend money on things that we don’t feel as though are going to add to value or (aren’t) what we’d like to see.”
He said they’re going to have to be careful as to how they move forward so they don’t have “eyes bigger than our stomach” as far as projects they’re trying to tackle. “But at the same token, I know currently there’s an awful lot of funds and grant monies out there ... so I think we want to see what those low-hanging fruit kind of is that we can really start to put some points on the board early because I think there’s a lot of opportunity in our community, there’s a lot of communities already doing a lot of great things,” Groninger said.
A couple things the Commissioners really want to push forward with is getting that master parks plan and the master trails plan because those will be the road map in how the county will move forward, he stated.
He mentioned several organizations that could help or provide information, including the Ride+Walk Committee, Michiana Area Council of Governments (MACOG), Kosciusko County Community Coordinator Amy Roe and Bill Holder from the county’s GIS office.
Groninger said the county wasn’t looking to create more parks that add to the budget, but how can the county get more connectivity between the assets that are already in place.
“We are so blessed in this county to have the number of lakes that we have and the opportunities that we have recreationally naturally in our county, but I think there’s still room for improvement and access to those,” he said.
In their discussion, the KCPRB decided to invite MACOG to their September meeting to learn more about the master plans and putting those together. They also will invite a representative of the Ride+Walk Committee, Roe and representatives of the other park boards in the county to the next meeting.
They then formed two subcommittees. Cusick and Sweeney will serve on the Indiana Department of Natural Resources subcommittee, while Bishop and Turley will sit on the MACOG subcommittee to gather more information before the next meeting.
Groninger noted that Winona Lake has already received a $30,000 grant from the State Board of Health for trail planning. Town Manager Craig Allebach has already talked to the SBH and they’re willing to allow that scope of work funded by the grant to expand to the whole county. “So, Winona Lake is willing to contribute their $30,000 grant that they have from the Health Department toward a countywide plan,” Groninger said. That’s based on conversations he’s had with Allebach but Groninger didn’t know if there had been a formal board vote, but the SBH is fine with it.
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The County Commissioners earlier this year approved creating the volunteer board and Thursday was the board’s first ever meeting. Matt Metzger and Mike Cusick were appointed to the board by the Commissioners; Troy Turley by County Auditor Michelle Puckett; and Aggie Sweeney and Rob Bishop by the County Council.
After they all took the oath of office, they elected Bishop to serve as president for the remainder of 2022 and Turley as vice president. The county auditor serves as the board secretary.
Puckett said as the auditor, she will handle all the money on behalf of the board. The board is tasked to submit an annual budget with assistance from the auditor. All claims for expenditures must be signed by the president and vice president and will follow the county’s already-established claims process.
The board currently has a non-reverting donation fund that has been created for them. It has a $7,600 donation in it from the Kosciusko County Community Foundation and those dollars are earmarked to support a master parks and trail plan. The fund also can accept other donations as they come in.
Annually, Puckett said, a report has to be given to the County Council and Commissioners on the operations of the board and the status on any parks and recreation programs. The report can either be given in-person or may be a written report.
Minimally, the Parks and Recreation Board is required to meet every quarter, but Puckett said the board has agreed to meet monthly on the third Thursday of every month for at least the remainder of 2022. At the Dec. 17 meeting, the board will set its meeting dates for 2023. A county website will be maintained by the auditor’s office for the board.
Cusick asked Puckett what aspects of the board needs to be a part of the public record and if emails were a part of that public record.
“As an official county board, you are subject to the Open Door Law, which means, as a board, as a whole, at our advertised meeting dates, you can meet as a whole, you can meet as a quorum, you can have discussion, you can make decisions and it all has to be in an open, public meeting. Since you are a board, you are not allowed to meet outside of your regular scheduled meeting in a quorum. Two of you can meet, but three of you can not. No decisions can ever be made about business going forward in those meetings because everything has to be public record and available for public inspection,” she said.
Later in the meeting, Metzger asked if he had an idea for the board in his head, if he could only discuss it with the other board members during their official meetings.
Bishop, who is an attorney who has served on a government board before, said, “We have to be very careful about meeting outside of our meetings. If we were to email back and forth, not only would that probably be an improper board meeting,” but it also would raise concerns about public access. He said the board members probably don’t want their emails to be subject to searches. If the KCPRB needs additional meetings, Bishop said they should look at doing that so they can be transparent.
Puckett said the board could establish subcommittees of two members to do the leg work and research and then bring that information back to the full board at an official meeting.
County Commissioner Cary Groninger gave a brief overview of how the KCPRB came to be.
It started 2-1/2 to three years ago when the Community Foundation held the Hometown Chats, having conversations with the residents of the towns in the county. That rolled into a request for a countywide comprehensive plan, with Forward Kosciusko, for about 18-24 months. That is now in place.
“Through that process - both the Hometown Chats and also the Forward Kosciusko County and others, but those being a couple major ones - there was a constant thread through those processes that they wanted to see Kosciusko County more engaged in recreational activities of our county and how we can promote that countywide,” Groninger said, adding that the timing was right coming out of the Covid pandemic and everyone realizing how important outdoor activities can be.
The Commissioners moved forward this year with establishing the KCPRB, he said, segueing into what the county’s vision for the board is.
“The key thing that I would see, you’re going to find there’s a lot of support, both from the Commissioners and the Council, for this board and they really want to see some projects move forward,” Groninger said. “But I will say, we’re a pretty conservative bunch that we don’t like to spend money on things that we don’t feel as though are going to add to value or (aren’t) what we’d like to see.”
He said they’re going to have to be careful as to how they move forward so they don’t have “eyes bigger than our stomach” as far as projects they’re trying to tackle. “But at the same token, I know currently there’s an awful lot of funds and grant monies out there ... so I think we want to see what those low-hanging fruit kind of is that we can really start to put some points on the board early because I think there’s a lot of opportunity in our community, there’s a lot of communities already doing a lot of great things,” Groninger said.
A couple things the Commissioners really want to push forward with is getting that master parks plan and the master trails plan because those will be the road map in how the county will move forward, he stated.
He mentioned several organizations that could help or provide information, including the Ride+Walk Committee, Michiana Area Council of Governments (MACOG), Kosciusko County Community Coordinator Amy Roe and Bill Holder from the county’s GIS office.
Groninger said the county wasn’t looking to create more parks that add to the budget, but how can the county get more connectivity between the assets that are already in place.
“We are so blessed in this county to have the number of lakes that we have and the opportunities that we have recreationally naturally in our county, but I think there’s still room for improvement and access to those,” he said.
In their discussion, the KCPRB decided to invite MACOG to their September meeting to learn more about the master plans and putting those together. They also will invite a representative of the Ride+Walk Committee, Roe and representatives of the other park boards in the county to the next meeting.
They then formed two subcommittees. Cusick and Sweeney will serve on the Indiana Department of Natural Resources subcommittee, while Bishop and Turley will sit on the MACOG subcommittee to gather more information before the next meeting.
Groninger noted that Winona Lake has already received a $30,000 grant from the State Board of Health for trail planning. Town Manager Craig Allebach has already talked to the SBH and they’re willing to allow that scope of work funded by the grant to expand to the whole county. “So, Winona Lake is willing to contribute their $30,000 grant that they have from the Health Department toward a countywide plan,” Groninger said. That’s based on conversations he’s had with Allebach but Groninger didn’t know if there had been a formal board vote, but the SBH is fine with it.
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