Minutes of the West Shore Parks and Recreation Society Board of Directors Meeting Thursday, December 10th, 2020

Minutes of the West Shore Parks and Recreation Society Board of Directors Meeting

Thursday, December 10th, 2020 via Microsoft Teams

PRESENT: Directors Kyara Kahakauwila (chair), Stewart Parkinson, Leslie Anderson, Roger Wade, Damian Kowalewich

ABSENT: N/A

STAFF PRESENT:

• Grant Brown, Administrator
• Wade Davies, Manager of Operations
• Geoff Welham, Manager of Recreation
• Ben Currie, Manager of Finance and Administration
• April Luchinski, Human Resources Advisor
• Chantelle Bremner, Recorder

PUBLIC PRESENT: N/A

1. CALL TO ORDER

The chair called the meeting to order at 5:30pm.

2. APPROVAL OF AGENDA

MOVED/SECONDED BY PARKINSON AND WADE THAT THE AGENDA BE APPROVED AS PRESENTED. CARRIED

3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

MOVED/SECONDED BY DIRECTORS ANDERSON AND PARKINSON THAT THE MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING HELD NOVEMBER 25TH, 2020 BE APPROVED AS PRESENTED. NO ERRORS, NO OMMISIONS CARRIED

4. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

N/A

5. CHAIR’S REMARKS

N/A

6. STANDING COMMITTEES

a) Finance Committee Director Stewart Parkinson, finance committee chair commented on the following: The board of directors are taking the budget packages to their councils.

The following municipalities confirmed that the COVID-19 restart grant funding had been approved for the reopening of the pool: City of Langford, Highlands, and View Royal.

Colwood and Metchosin will be discussing it at their next council meeting on Monday.

7. OLD BUSINESS

N/A

8. NEW BUSINESS

a) 2016-2020 Strategic Plan report update Grant Brown, administrator highlighted the following:

• A general update was made regarding the projects that have been completed this year as part of the 2016-2020 Strategic Plan. Some projects will be carried over to the 2021-2025 Strategic Plan.
• The board of directors were asked by WSPR staff to look at the draft 2021-2026 Strategic Plan for input by Tuesday, December 14th, 2020 before finalizing the document.

b) Meeting schedule for 2021 The 2021 meeting schedule was included in the agenda package and was noted by WSPR staff that a revised one had been emailed out.

c) Declaration forms for 2020 The board of directors were asked by WSPR staff to email the completed declaration forms included in their agenda packages to the administrative assistant.

9. FOR INFORMATION

a) JDF Arena improvement project Wade Davies, manager of operations highlighted the following: There is a costing meeting tomorrow. With the projected estimated costs, it is unlikely that the snow pit and stands will be replaced at this time.

b) JDF Childcare Centre project Geoff Welham, manager of recreation highlighted the following: 95% of the trades have been secured. The demo and hazmat work have been completed and the work on the sprinklers will be done over the Christmas break. Programming for the new Childcare Centre is underway with registration beginning in February 2021.

c) Administrator’s Report Grant Brown, Administrator highlighted the following.

Administration/Human Resources Human resources have been developing a return to work plan for those staff off work due to injury. Such a plan will keep the affected staff more connected with their workplace and help reduce costs associated with injury. Work has begun on employee leave banks and other year end related preparations.

The initial project kick-off meeting with Intelligenz Limited will be held on December 3rd. The project team will be introduced and scoping meetings will be scheduled to begin in the coming weeks.

Finance has switched gears from the budget cycle and is now looking towards year end. Deadlines and requirements will be shared with all departments to ensure a smooth process.

Operations Maintenance Work continues at Centennial Centre in preparation for the pottery studio move. The required electrical room upgrades have been completed, new flooring has been installed and new wall and shelving builds are underway.

The large air handling unit replacement for the pool is reaching completion. A large section of the duct systems has been replaced with new stainless steel and a replacement filter for the leisure pool has been ordered and will be installed prior to re-opening.

Demolition has begun in the JDF Arena. Staff have begun to remove the glass, boards and safety netting. The childcare project continues to move ahead and remains on schedule.

The brine pump for the Q Centre heat recovery was repaired and 2 exhaust fans have been ordered to replace two older units that have failed.

Parks The annual leaf clean-up is in full force as the trees drop foliage for the winter. The replacement of the outdoor basketball hoops is under way and the new adjustable hoops will be up later in the month. To improve field drainage, all 3 playing fields have been deep tined.

The golf course continues to see more rounds than in recent years. The recent weather changes are making the course wet, but still playable. A small amount of disease has started on the greens and crews are looking at treatment options.

One seasonal crew member has reached his last day for 2020 and our mechanic has left on parental leave for 2 months. We look forward to seeing both of them when they return in 2021.

Programs Community Recreation The COVID-19 pandemic has affected our ability to run free and low-cost programs for youth in 2020. A survey was compiled and released to the community in order to find out what kind of programs youth in the West Shore would be looking for if programs were to return in 2021. We received over 60 responses with 80% of youth (or parents of youth) wishing to come back in 2021. Most are looking for in-person or a combination of in-person and online programming with a mixture of free time drop in and active, outdoor, art-based and technology-based programs. Some barriers to attending included rising COVID-19 numbers, finances, having to register for programs and transportation. Staff will take the responses and work to implement free/low cost programming in 2021 to meet the needs of the youth community in the West Shore.

School Age and Youth leadership programs including Home Alone and Babysitters courses and Aspiring Artist programs continue to be strong, running at full capacity in the fall.

Staff are working with the West Shore Skatepark Coalition on their 100 x 1000 fundraising campaign and a second bottle drive has been scheduled for January 3rd, 2021. A couple of grants have been submitted for the new skatepark and staff are optimistic on receiving the funding.

Fitness and Weights Fitness programming and weight room use were significantly impacted by the implementation of province-wide restrictions on Thursday November 19th. At this time, all indoor physical activities have been suspended. This includes spin, yoga, boot camp, jazzercise, dance classes, and other physical group activities. Front line staff have done an exceptional job communicating the changes and cancellations to participants. Staff eagerly await the release of new guidelines so they can review and implement new protocols for the safe resumption of as many activities as possible.

Weight room use has seen a reduction, with the increase in COVID-19 cases provincially, and on the island. Staff continue to follow and implement changes to guidelines in accordance with public health orders. Winter programming beginning in January will be assessed and adjusted as needed to ensure ongoing compliance with restrictions, and to ensure the safety of both participants and staff.

Sports PowerWest Athletics have continued to be very busy with their power skating programs for children through youth; in fact, one local NHL Pro has been attending 3 x per week to sharpen his skills in advance of the next hockey season.

The first couple of public skates in mid-November happened with great attendance including a waitlist on the Nov 20th Pro-D Day. New booking requests continue to be received and staff recently toured around Netflix location managers. Sport programs are running well with Soccertron outside on the fields and Richardson Sport in the ISC. The ISC has a variety of users including Pickleball, Basketball and Volleyball on the sport floor and Baseball, Soccer, Camps and Preschool programs on the turf. This fall, staff have been selling Bauer PPE out of the Pro Shop and to date have sold 78 face masks and 14 neck gaiters.

Food & Beverage The frozen meals have continued to be a hit with locals buying them in bunches for their weekly dinners. Following some free press through the Westshore Chamber of Commerce, 300 meals were purchased by Accent Refrigeration to distribute to a charity of our choice.

Grant Brown, administrator added the following to the report.

• $9,000 in Loblaws gift certificates was recently given to LIFE clients.
• WSPR successfully received Child Care Operating Funding for covid-related costs like PPE and additional cleaning.
• Registration day was today for winter programming other than swimming, which starts on December 16th, 2020.

FOR INFORMATION ONLY

MOVED/SECONDED BY DIRECTORS ANDERSON AND WADE THAT THE REPORT BE APPROVED AS PRESENTED.

10. IN CAMERA

N/A

11. ADJOURNMENT

MOVED/SECONDED BY DIRECTORS PARKINSON AND WADE THAT THE MEETING BE ADJOURNED AT 6:04PM. CARRIED