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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCIP Report 2021 by Tim Rensema 121721Jefferson County Parks and Recreation Advisory Board Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) Report CIP Committee meeting was held December 8, 2021 from 11am to 1pm on GoToMeeting Written by Tim Rensema December 17, 2021 Subject: Capital Improvement Plan 1. General Purpose: A Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) is necessary to develop and update the Parks and Recreation and Open Spaces Plan (PROS). Projects on the CIP build the budget for possible funding in the outyears. Projects should be on the CIP to receive consideration for funding. Therefore, it is important to ensure that all park and recreation projects are included in the plan. They are then prioritized by the JCPRAB for future funding. This process also gives the Advisory Board the opportunity to evaluate conditions of our parks and to determine any additional projects necessary to bring them up to county standards based on available funding. 2. Summary: The committee ranked the listed capital projects for the outyears. Visibility was essential for future funding so most projects were left on the list despite the executor (contract, staff, of volunteers). HJ Carroll and Memorial Field had the most projects given their importance to the county. These parks also had the majority of projects funded in 2021. Climate change (rising sea levels) are expected to have a major impact on the seaside parks, especially East Beach and Lower Oak Bay, which may reduce the investment in these parks. Other parks will have to take on the burden of use when these parks are no longer viable. Chimacum Park was identified as a key “back up” campground. ADA access to the parks needs to be evaluated and the individual parks assessed for specific projects. Finally, expansion of parks, either in other county or state property, or the purchase of land may be necessary to provide the required services. Irondale Beach could be expanded into the Fish and Wildlife area and/or the purchase of private lands. Given the campsite requirements at Chimacum, transfer of forest property to the park may be necessary to expand the area. Currently Broad Spit is inaccessible by foot traffic and should be examined for the possibility of an access trail across private lands. The Quilcene Campground can expand into park property to expand the services of the park. The boundary evaluation of Gibbs Lake/Beausite needs to be completed to better establish the boundaries of this property. 3. The evaluation process used in 2021: the CIP committee (made up of Marianne Walter, Heidi Eisenhour, Vern Bessey, Malloree Weinheimer and Tim Rensema) evaluated each of the listed projects for: level of use, equity of use, economic benefit, health and safety, complexity, and sustainability. Each criterion was evaluated between 1 (least) and 3 (most) and averaged across the project. All the evaluators data was averaged to get a ranking (meaning a ranking of 1 had the highest composite average). For the most part, this ranking process matched what the Division Manager (Matt) evaluation was giving consistency to the results. 4. Evaluation Results: a. Regarding locations, for the most part HJ Carroll and Memorial Field ranked high in the project evaluation. These are high use and showplace parks for the county, with extremely heavy use. In the top 20 ranked projects, Matt had already funded 8, indicating that both the ranking process and Matt’s evaluation matched. North Beach was removed from consideration because of the on-going discussion of projects there that will correct some of the deficiencies. b. Lower Oak Bay Campground was considered a low priority by Matt because it is under threat of sea level rise and erosion. However, it is still a park and must be maintained to some degree given it’s use as a campground. As such, projects for Lower Oak Bay were ranked in the lower quadrant. c. We looked at the common projects planned for campgrounds such as providing a camp host site, more camp sites, electricity, water, and toilets/sewer and provided that data on a campground-by-campground basis. In this evaluation (based on estimates provided by Matt); Quilcene was $168K; Chimacum was $374K; Lake Leland $193K and Upper Oak Bay $165K. In general, the highest utility to install was electric. It may be more efficient to “bundle” these costs into a more manageable package if applying for grants to provide these services. d. Playgrounds and Trails were numerous and important services to most of the Parks. The JUMP playground now being planned at HJ Carroll (and paid with donations and grants) is a tremendous example of what can be done for all the planned playgrounds. We have four projects planned at Quilcene, Upper Oak Bay, Irondale Community Park, and Port Townsend Community Center, at an average cost of $165K for each. Again, bundling of these into one large project may prove more efficient and possible for a large grant, especially in these Covid impacted days. Trails investment can vary based on their use, whether for horses, biking, or hiking. How the trails are constructed can determine whether they need to be contracted for or can be done by volunteers. In Gibbs Lake most trails are constructed by volunteers, as are those in Irondale Beach Park. If the trails require technical planning and construction then that will be a definite added cost. The cost for all trail upgrades and construction is $352K. The costs to bring these trails into ADA compliance is unknown and will require major planning and perhaps professional construction. e. Shelters – we have existing shelters that Parks and Rec would like to demolish and build new like Indian Island and Chimacum. The only place that a new shelter is planned is at Irondale Beach. The total cost for the shelters is 215K. Indian Island is scheduled for replacement with 2021 funds. East Bay shelter requires minor maintenance that is on the volunteer project list. Chimacum shelter is being evaluated by the Chimacum Committee to determine future action and results should be available by March 2022.