are live right now we'll call this meeting of the uh Victoria Senior Citizen Advisory Committee to order and we're going to do a roll call sharon we're here nice to have you here susan here to have you here i'm here richard
here nice to have you here elena here yeah and Jennifer here welcome thank you it's nice to have you with us yeah thank you i'm happy to be here yeah uh Patrick's not here and uh Cara yep cara
Cassidy nice to have you with us too thank you new faces this is great do we want to just do a quick introduction each other um We could do maybe how long you've been on the committee how long you lived in Victoria um I know I've been on the committee
forever it feels like Sue and I are are the original members right uh in Victoria for 10 11 years now you know retired used to work in public schools and universities so background
that way let's go around this this side richard why don't you go next i'm Richard i moved here about 10 years ago i've been on the committee for about two years i'm also retired as high voltage electrician i'm Sharon and I actually moved from
upper north Grand Rapids Minnesota um I have a son and family son and Chan and um a daughter in Redwood and I've been here going on five years five years terrific well I um as
David said we've been on the senior advisory committee for probably five years is it five years 21 so yeah oh four years four years that sounds more like it okay and we moved from Wisconsin
to Victoria in 2000 um I've been retired for six years and enjoying my retirement travel have a lot of fun play a lot of pickle ball work out so life is good
i am a mortgage officer i specialize a lot hi everyone i'm Jenny Spalding i know it says Jennifer but everybody calls me Jenny okay i been in Victoria for six years in July and I have two boys dylan
is a freshman at Ryan at Holy Family and I not retired i run an estate planning and elder law firm which is why I wanted to get involved in
Seniors are very important to what I do in my professional life and I wanted to bring that into my personal life and the community where I live terrific welcome good to have you so hi I'm Cara Cassidy um I come from Carver County Public
Health Office of Aging um I also just finished a term on the Chanhassen Commission on Aging where I was the chair of that committee and I um attend all five Commission on Aging meetings that happen in the county of Victoria
every month so I come I come bearing public health news good to have you patrick is absent today but Patrick Jones um he usually sits here he um is our liazison from the Victoria Library so he comes um when he
is able to make it as well and then I'm Melissa Nelson i have been the staff liaison for this committee well since its enactment four years ago and it's been a pleasure working with any or all of you that have been sitting in these chairs and it's been really fun to see the work that
this committee has been working on these last couple of years so glad to still be here yeah we're glad to have you the next item on the agenda is petitions proclamations suggestions and complaints we don't take very many complaints but
the rest of it is good so Alyssa let it go well we always take complaints so if you have them feel free please pass them along um but I will start off on events and news and if anyone from the committee does have anything they'd like to share please do so um we just like to
do these events and news just to keep you all updated on things that are coming up um in Victoria and and just share some fun events that might be um of interest or things that you might want to share to your friends neighbors and family um Donuts in Victoria is obviously the first one we keep on that
list uh Donuts in Victoria is a daytime program we try and share um with older adults specifically but we do get a wide variety of people that attend this event um different news and important updates that are happening in the city um
specifically things like transportation that's going to be coming up next week in April um we did something on downtown west last month um we've done things like reading your utility bill or how do your taxes work or all those type of fun things um obviously we were talking
about ashtrees before the meeting asht trees are coming up in May um so if you're looking for um something to do on a Wednesday morning they're the third Wednesday of every month mine is December please join us these are all at the recreation center and they all are in the spring summer brochure which I'll
just skip ahead to that one this has been released so it should be in mailboxes already hopefully everyone's gotten it if you haven't or maybe you accidentally recycled it we won't judge you for that we do have extras sitting over there for you as well um and then Citizens Academy I do want to bring that
up um Citizens Academy is a program we've launched i think that's been five years now we started in 2020 um right during COVID so that was a challenge but we figured it out at that time um but it's a way just to educate the community about city services how the city
functions you get to see the inside of the water treatment plant check out public works trucks um come listen to um administrative staff talk about how budgeting works we get to tour Wasserman Lake Preserve um you get to listen to me talk about Victoria history for a
session and elections so it's just a good way to learn all about different things that are going on in Victoria on the city side that people might not think about um that starts this Thursday but you can still register um and then we'll do that every Thursday up until
the end of May or mid May I think is when the last one is so don't any of you folks have gone through the senior citizen or the citizens academy you do it and uh dinner is provided too i went through it oh you did yeah good for you
sharon has signed up so she'll be joining us good for you yeah it's a great program we love to have um each year new set of graduates and we actually have some people coming back this year too that started in 2020 during the co and they're trying to see
what it looks like this time around so that's a good idea have you picked a date yet for the annual summer where the community award and volunteer appreciation yeah great question um so what Sue is talking or
mentioning is we have an annual um volunteer gathering event so each year um advisory committee members so this committee parks and wreck planning commission any of our city volunteers um whether you do park cleanup trail cleanup um sometimes we have eagle
scouts that come and help out with projects um trying to think of who might else be but we have a wide variety of volunteers and we invite them to come um for an evening and just share a meal with us so we can thank um our volunteers from the past year so that is
scheduled for June 9th and I believe it starts at 5:30 but this week we will be sending out the email so be looking for that in your email inbox so yes great question thank you and then we also have bingo in the park
we are since last fall we are going to keep trying that bingo series um so we do have flyers here the one thing we did do this time differently is we do have paper registration so you can register on the flyer drop that off mail it to the Victoria Recreation Center instead
of it just being a fully online registration process so if you even want to take some flyers please feel free to do so um they're just sitting over here at the um table then we do have new artwork behind you it is snowmen so if you forgot what it
looked like outside last week um we do have wonderful artwork from Deb Zeller deb Zeller is a local artist in Victoria she owns a studio in Hopkins and these are all local artists that she brings in and we switch these out every other month so please feel free to take
a look um I don't have any voting things for you but I'll grab those next month so we'll have um the the pick your favorite voting section um in May and then last I have is um I think I emailed you last month just as an FYI
that we talked about doing different park engagement events or an engagement activities this summer whether that be at the farmers market um or we'll do popup events or at classic car nights just trying to get the word out there about different senior resources um in
different ways obviously we do a lot digitally but trying to get more out and about and in person um definitely can help do that so I do have different dates set here if people just want to sign up after the meeting and then if you do um participate in that we do give
out t-shirts so sign up for a t-shirt as well i think that is all I had chair how about from the public health department any announcements yes so um a couple of things uh I
mentioned that I do visit five cities every month so Chan Victoria Waconia Watertown and Norwood Young America all have a commission on aging or a senior committee and um I started putting together a monthly report that I sent to
Alyssa because I realized I shouldn't be the only one who hears what happens is going on for our aging citizens in Carver County so and for instance Waconia was looking for 55 plus driving and I was like well Victoria just talked
about that and um so I'm I'm trying to help everyone share resources there's a lot of mobility sue did you have a question no um so and then um some of the um commissions have a calendar so I
include that too um most of the rec centers as you know uh you can visit any of them if you're interested in events um so that does go to Alyssa I think if you're interested you can ask her and um or I can bring copies every month if you're interested in that um one of the
things that uh public health is looking out for like everyone else is measles um and specifically if you travel I don't know if you know but the two two of the largest school districts Weisetta and
Minnotonka were on spring break this past week um and a lot of those Chanhass was as well and Chaza so um there's a lot of travel that happens um I left materials with Alyssa as well on how
measles spreads uh preventing measles before and after travel especially international travel and who needs a measles booster so um if you were born before 1957 you do not need a booster um it is presumed that you've already had
the measles if you were vaccinated between 1957 and 1962 you might you should check with your doctor if you were vaccinated between 1963 and 1967 you do need a booster the measles vaccine you received is considered
ineffective and you will need a booster if you're vaccinated between 1968 and 1989 you might check with your doctor and if you're vaccinated after 1989 you do not need a booster so this is a great graphic uh Alyssa also has that um we
hear about measles affecting younger people is it are there now Is it affecting older people as well um I think it's rare for um an older vaccinated person to get measles but I
um it has happened uh it is mostly I read this morning that there are 636 cases in the United States but 570 are in the panhandle um associated with the Menanite community oh um there was there
are now three deaths they are were all children who were unvaccinated um there was one case in Minnesota uh that person was actually not in the state when they were infect infectious
they were traveling um and were on some Amtrak trains in DC and also traveled internationally but at no point were they in Minnesota when they were infected thank you um so uh I think it's just something that everyone's continuing to watch because uh it's one
it's a big outbreak um you may know that I always bring all the disease information and it's not all that exciting or happy but uh flu COVID RSV are all declining uh we often see a second outbreak of flu in April and May
uh it's influenza type B um we're still hearing about neurovirus my neighbor just had it so um be careful and since it's getting warmer watch out for ticks if you're walking outside so that's all I have thank you looks
like it's dangerous around here we just had Thank you very much that's helpful we appreciate the information any anybody from the committee have anything they want to share with the group today announcements info good we'll move on to
uh there's no old business so new business is election of officers yes do we want to do minutes first chair oh yeah yeah let's do the minutes all right perfect thank you thank you skip right over that one no worries we need a motion to approve the minutes
as distributed anybody want to make that richard is there a second thank you all those in favor say I i oppos same sign carries we'll move on to new business let's select some
officers melissa yeah so each year we select um a new chair and a new vice chair and I say new with an asterisk because I believe um Chair Kleinfelter and Vice for some new blood bill have been our our chair and vice chair duo
since the committee started in 2021 um and they've been doing a great job but we also know that we offer this every year to anyone that might want to to take over the role of chair and vice chair you can obviously speak to them but it's not necessarily a very
stressful role um what the chair is responsible of doing is really just facilitating the meeting making sure that we're going through um our agenda proper making sure that everyone has an opportunity to speak um and uh participate and then what we
do on a staff side because we do follow Robert's rules of order and we do have motions um and sometimes discussion you know we get off track a little bit we do provide a script and I have a copy over here too this is where I take my minutes okay yeah so that does
assist um on just kind of the process like how do we take a motion and things so we provide that for every meeting so we try and make it as not uh we try and make it not as stressful as possible for anyone wants to take onto that role um and then of course for scripts if there's things that need to be adjusted
if a chair would like something more specific or less detail you know we're able to work with um whatever the needs are of the committee that's what staff is here for is really to make sure that you guys have the material um to do your jobs well um so what is the the process
of appointing a chair and vice chair it it's relatively simple um but it does seem like I have a lot of instructions on the screen so I'll just go through it i know um first our current chair Chair Kleinfelter will open the floor up for
nominations um so that will be an opportunity for anyone to to nominate a specific person to become chair for the one-year term um if we have well for a nomination we do need a first and a second so there does have to be um two people that agree with that nomination
and then of course that person does have to accept it as well we're not going to throw them into a role that they actively do not want to participate in um if there is only one nomination the process is again relatively simple then we just go for a motion to actually
appoint them as chair and I do have this sample motion and italicize under the bullet point three so if we only have one nomination that's um what we would go with and that would be the end of the process if we have more than one nomination like two or three people um
want to you know arm wrestle over the chair role um what we would do is do a roll call vote so we would say you know this person and this person want to be chair you know say A for this person and then we'd go through count and then we do the same thing for whoever that second person is and whoever gets the
most votes um using quotations on that would take the seat of chair and then the same process would be for vice chair um once we get through the chair portion does that make sense to everybody all right well then I will kick it back to
you to open nominations floor is open for nominations for the chair i would like to nominate Elena for chair you know I actually just described it i didn't even put a slide on it sorry oh
yeah but it is just a one-year term all you have to do is just run the meeting there's really nothing we do outside of that um for the appointment of chair i should have clar said that at the very go for it you won't regret it can you
can you tell me about your experience as the chair yeah it's uh it's okay to talk about this first we need a second too for the nomination we do a second oh second second alien it's very simple the script is very detailed and you just
follow the script basically at the meeting and it tells you just what to do like I just I forgot to look so I skipped the one about the action on approving the minutes so uh Alyssa puts the script together and it's very easy
to follow so the chair job is is kind of wrote you don't have to think very much yeah and one thing the staff you know Alyssa or whoever is here in her absence are very helpful to step in interject
and help with anything to move it along sue and I have both done that a couple times one of us has been gone the other one fills in kind of coordinate that right and we travel a fair amount i mean I probably miss three meetings a year
you maybe do about that two two or three so you're able to fill in for each other and sorry i would also like to note as you know when I was thinking about this after a little bit the other thing on top of
coming to these meetings is that two times a year the chair or the vice chair does come to city council and just speak to you know what was on the work plan what did we do for the last year sometimes council has some questions like have you thought about this or would you like to talk more about that
so that is the other thing that the chair does um that is something that staff works with the committee or the chair on well in advance so it's not like Yeah yep so it's not like hey you have to speak and we're not gonna tell you a lot of support from the city a lot
thank you well I'll we seconded it already so it's any other nominations or are you going to chair this part of the meeting no aren't you supposed to i I will let you take this part when we do vice chair then it gets a little goofy but Okay okay
if we'll close the nominations in if there's nobody else that wants the floor and we need a motion to uh go ahead and elect Elena i make a motion to elect Elena or nominate Elena
as uh chair for the upcoming year actually the motion is to appoint to appoint and is there a second i second thank you Sharon all those in favor say I i oppose same sign it carries congratulations this is great thank you
now this is kind of where it gets sticky because technically we do have a new chair however you know just for consistency David I feel like for the rest of this meeting it might make sense for you just to continue the role and then obviously you can pick it up in May if that works for the committee
yes okay good so how about vice chair we have nominations well should we you know should I nominate Jenny or Richard i
nominate Jenny for the vice chair yeah sure pick on the new person yeah I was going to say Oh no no no no i won't do that sharon sharon i nominate Sharon you're too new sorry
i appreciate that thank you okay i I'll second the nomination for Sharon as the vice chair all right any other nominations hearing none we'll declare them closed and we'll have a motion a
motion is in order to appoint Sharon as the vice chair let's move that one susan's going to move that one thank you i'll second it and all those in favor say I i oppose same sign sharon has been
appointed great thank you this is nice to get some movement i think nobody was going to sing now we have orientation for new members following the agenda you do um so yes well congratulations to
both our new chair and vice chair this is very exciting and you turn for the committee you two will do great um I wouldn't stress about it whatsoever and if you have any questions do not hesitate to ask me before during after
right now whenever that's a great question so the other reason we chose to do the engagement events during the summer is that will be in lie of our committee meetings so Oh you actually get a good break
we could we get to skate yes so June July and August we'll be focused on this area of really ensuring that you know we have people staffed and that the committee if this is what they want to do that they have time to do it and then we will not hold committee
meetings for those three months and then obviously pick back up in um September so yes so I will be back i'll miss this too i've talked about how I'm going to miss everyone at work i'll
have to come visit yeah please do and Victoria has great sidewalks and trails so I'll be bringing the stroller say Bonnie has no trails so minus the one big one so I will be around um but yes let's talk about um orientation we do this
every year just as a a refresh for anyone that's been um on the committee but also for for new members um and of course this is for everybody if you have questions if I'm missing something for the people that have been here for a while please feel free to interject ask
questions um it can be more of a dialogue rather than a presentation um but what we're going to go through today is really just an overview of the meetings obviously we've kind of gone through part of it so we've seen it um firsthand on how these meetings go um we're also going to talk about meeting
recordings um our agenda software we use I compass how um agenda packets get sent to you all um we'll touch on open meeting law because that's important in this role as well and then of course Q&A but again that can be done at any time but I do reserve some time afterwards for that as
well um so just a basic introduction uh what does this committee do um like we said it was established in 2021 and really the purpose of this committee is to provide recommendations um to city council and to staff advocate for
resources programming education um to and for our 55 plus community so as staff um we really look to you all to help guide us and and help make um Victoria residents lives better no matter their age um so you know keep an
ear out um whatever your friends neighbors circles um whatever you hear things that could be updated things you see um we're really looking for your advice um on ways that we can better our community and obviously we talk about that um each meeting and during the work
plan about things that we can do differently and things that ways that we can improve so that's really the number one goal of this committee um we do kind of break that down into like three different sections um one is to review and recommend so part of the committee's role is to receive and evaluate input
from the committee or from the community obviously we're going to do these engagement sessions and we're probably going to hear a lot from our residents about you know what do they like what do they don't like what can we improve upon um as when we get that feedback we're hoping you guys can digest it really think through you know you might heard
you know five things about this and then you heard two things about people that don't want this and so trying to you know balance that and give staff some sound advice on you know maybe how do we take this and move it forward um also make recommendations not only to us but
also parks and recreation and parks and recreation committee as well as other um more city council but sometimes the planning commission too as we talk more downtown west in those areas um specifically when it comes to that 55 plus programming facilities will be huge
when we talk about downtown west and just overarching policies and services that we provide and then researchers obviously if you guys see something um like in the newspaper or if you go to a different uh community and you have a great event and a great experience like
share that with us we want to know you know we want to hear what other communities are doing well what you might see um elsewhere so please feel free to share anything that you might see out there we also serve in as ambassadors that's the second one so you know being
that ambassador that communicator not only to receive information from the community that's one way but also sharing information that you hear um by being on the committee whether it's events or things that the Carver uh Carver County Public Health shares like
about measles vaccines um and vaccine clinics like making sure that you're sharing that information as well it's really a two-way approach um and then that's kind of gets into the act as the liaison for resident issues if you hear anything from the community we always leave that space open for complaints so
if you know somebody your neighbors talking about how the trails really dirty whether that has to do with senior resources or not tell us we're happy to to take that complaint and fix it because a lot of times we don't always know what we don't know so we're happy to um take any feedback whatsoever
because we just want to make sure that we're getting things fixed and then the last one is promote and evaluate resources um promote obviously we've kind of talked about making sure that information is getting posted on there posted on the community um shared with our community and our
residents and we do that in a variety of different ways obviously we've talked about getting out boots on the ground this summer um we do things like our senior resource guide and creating that um but there's also the part of evaluation evaluating resources are these effective are we getting good
turnout things like donuts are we we are we actually getting good turnout what could be some topics um we've had some dialogue about you know maybe we need to bring in the Alzheimer's Association so let's make sure we drag them in um what are things that we can bring in to
really help um share some great resources with our community um any questions on that any feedback from our well senior senior committee members does that sound about right would you
add anything additional you folks you've seen the the resource guide that the committee's put together maybe in the past in the senior advisory booklet is there that that's been a big
project through the year well there you go that one it's it's worth taking a look at there's amazing how much stuff is there and uh we update that every year that's been a big project that we've worked on besides
trails and we'll talk about some other things but that's worth just skimming through anyway that has been a big project since the very beginning um and Jenny I can send that so typically I send like a after
meeting email kind of review if we have certain things that we've talked about or questions that I don't have the answer to I'll try and send that out in an email afterwards i will start adding your monthly um updates to that as well so once I get that I'll probably include that in the the email chain and then
anything any of these flyers will be in that too so I'll include the senior resource guide link to that email so meeting agendas uh well meetings and agenda items um so we do meet the first Monday of each month at 10 a.m these do
change just based on scheduling conflicts sometimes we know we won't have a quorum so then we won't host a meeting um we sometimes have holidays that are in there so then our meetings get switched around to different days which is challenging and then of course
elections is really big and we use council chambers as kind of our election hub so we'll have to play around with dates um when that comes through and that's just every even year so we're not obviously dealing with that this time around we just have other scheduling issues that I'm causing um location will
always be at uh council chambers for our meetings of course if we do like engagement events or things like that they'll be out in the community um we do have to post notice for this um and I'm kind of jumping into the open meeting law portion of the conversation so we as
staff have to share when this meeting is um occurring where it is occurring um and we do that by posting an annual calendar which you all get at the beginning of the year um if there's any deviation to that we have to post a separate notice that says you know this committee is meeting at 10:30 or 11 or
whatever date that's not necessarily part of that first Monday routine or if we change location we have to post notice that hey we're not going to be here we're actually going to be somewhere else um and then member commitment we do ask that you just don't miss more than three consecutive
meetings if you're not attending them if this is something that you're not interested in anymore um do not hesitate just to let us know we'd rather you resign and then we can fill that seat rather than just having an empty chair every meeting or not knowing if people are going to attend so just let us know
it's okay and then um how the the meeting flows obviously we start it with call to order um which is just you know we're starting this meeting at this time we say that at the beginning of every meeting is on the script um we do roll call so we just say
everybody's name um we leave that space open for petitions proclamations suggestions and complaints for committee members to share anything they've heard obviously staff we provide that update as well as Carver County um we go through the minutes we always try and approve minutes from the last meeting so
we don't want to have you know multiple months in between if we don't have to so we always try and at least have um minutes ready to go for the next meeting we do have to have them approved by this committee before they're finalized and published um we do relieve uh keep spice
for old business and new business we typically usually have new business in this committee but if we have repeated items um we'll put it in old business so it'll come first and then any new business will come um after that there is times where just because of the
meeting flow we might not have old m business and an item might be old business we'll stick it under new business because the meeting flow just fits better that way so you might see that um that's a little bit more interchangeable and then we relieve uh keep space for others so uh if there's
anything that the committee would like to talk about that wasn't necessarily listed on here or just a thought you might have had um letting us know because then we can add that to an additional agenda item at a different meeting um so keeping space for that and of course adjournment and we always try
and get these meetings done within an hour so um we try and keep that space we don't want to necessarily go past 11:00 so we try and get that um wrapped up within the 11:00 time frame these meetings as I mentioned um
right before we started are recorded so you can watch our meetings and I'll just go to the next one um live on our cable access channel that's just not this meeting it's all of our council meetings and all of our citizens advisory committee meetings so parks and wreck
and planning commission as well um and then you can also watch it on our YouTube channel that is done live but also after the fact you can watch all of our past meetings there too and then on our agenda portal which is if my mouse is going to work linked
on our website it's actually right on the the main page here you can go under government um and then they have city meetings and then it will get you to what we call our agenda hub actually shows now live that's us right there um but this will have all of our agendas
all of our minutes and again that's not just for us that's council and everybody else too and then you can see you can click on today's meetings there's a link if it's underlined that means it's a linked and you can see um everything here at least 3 days in advance I will
post this publicly um we're legally required to so I will have this posted at least by Friday since we meet on Mondays and I will send this um we have a email list serve that people can sign up to so they get this um I think we have like 70 people that get our agenda
so that's pretty cool um wow comparatively I think we have like 300 for city council so we're doing pretty well um and so this will get sent out to them i will also send it to all of you um right away so then you guys have
access to this link and you can review the agendas um 3 days in advance before our meetings and then open meeting law just to skim or not really skim but just to touch on this um because we are a public
body we are required to adhere to open meeting law standards so what that means is that um all meetings or all like well all meetings of this body need to be open to the public um and be accessible
to the public so we can't necessarily have meetings outside of this because they wouldn't be open to the public we want to make sure that the public is engaged in the conversations they know the items that are coming up that's why we post the agenda so it says you know what exactly we're talking about so the
public can review that say okay will I come to this meeting or not um it also ensures that um there's not any secret conversations that are necessarily being had outside of committee time or outside of these
meetings as well and there's some kind of rules about that as well i don't have it on here but there's something called serial meetings i thought I put the slide in there but I'll just talk about it so even if let's say and I should I should start this doesn't necessarily mean that you can't talk to each other
outside of um council chambers and outside of committee meetings what it really is saying that you shouldn't be talking about senior advisory committee business outside of council chambers and outside of these meetings and there's something called serial meetings so if
Richard you would start a conversation or you text uh Sharon and you say "Hey I want to talk about you know something that has to do with committee business." And then Sharon you go to David and then have that same conversation and then
David you go to Sue that would be a quorum and therefore technically you're having a conversation even though it's not in person it's through text message or it's through mail or it's through a phone call you're technically having these conversations with each other um
outside of committee business so just think about that too again I know that's not necessarily a problem here and it hasn't been in the past but it's something I just want to at least let people know that we are have or we do have to follow open meeting law standards as part of this
committee any overall questions so just a reminder there's seven on the committee three is okay three would not be a quorum would be four yeah and that would go into how we host a meeting so we have to have four people here to even host a meeting so if you know you're not
going to be at a meeting um let us know because then if we don't have a quorum then we can just cancel it or reschedule or whatever we need to do follow state statute we cannot counel so in 2023 the committee talked about walkability and um having healthy access to trails um
getting people out and about and through that you know we had multiple conversations throughout 2023 and 2024 um and one of the ideas that the committee spun up is creating you know walking routes trail routes that people can easily you know say okay I want to go from point A to point B and then turn
around or just do a loop so then they have something digestible that they can do rather than just you know trying to find something on their own or just taking a walk and not necessarily recognizing you know where they might go how far it is um does it have steep slopes um is the trail gravel is it
concrete is it sidewalk just those type of things so through that the committee identified I believe 12 different routes um that people can go on our website and we have maps and we have instructions that they can go and say you know I want
to walk the six mile creek north this is one of my favorite ones watermark area lake bridge area and this is just a portion of it i can't do the whole picture um on this slide but you can find it you can say "Okay it's about 3
miles or 2 and 1/2 miles um both ways i I know what I'm getting myself into." And we also know where parking is um we also have you know things like starting points so it's just really helping people get out and about and showing how to do that um and I'm going to skip
through most of these but these are different type of trails i can reference these or we can reference these um as we go through if we have specific questions but then um what the committee did is they went through and walked these
routes and they said you know while they were doing that they had a survey that they had to go through from AP and it said you know are these routes accessible what are we missing as part of these routes um are they maintained well do we need to think about something
different here um is there enough shade just like all those type of amenities and features that people might be asking um if they're walking these spaces so on a staff level we've taken all that feedback we've kind of digested it um
and we've done and we do this through uh other surveys as well and just kind of summarize it into three different talking points um what are we doing well and we'll go through these what can we improve and what are we missing and then
what do we do with these three bullet points and this is where we're going to focus our attention today as a committee um as if these three questions are answered appropriately um and obviously this is more directed the people that were part of that discussion back then
um but obviously everyone's been out or on our trails or at least know about our trails so anyone can obviously chip in in here as well But what um we'll do with these three questions and if these things make sense is then we'll create some sort of
objectives and priorities based on that that will be taken into some sort of walkability plan um that we can then create um have council review um parks and recreation committee review adopt and then what we hope that will do for
us in the future is create a plan on and include timelines on you know when are we going to make these amendments ities or these improvements to our trail system um and that will also help us with some sort of grant funding if we have some sort of plan laid out and timelines and that will help with our
budgeting as well so I'm going to skip back um to what are we doing well again this is just a a summary from what we got into that that large um feedback that we heard from the committee um so really the two that we heard from the
committee regarding what are we doing well is we have a high number of mounted trails we know that we have 55 50-ish um trails and sidewalks in Victoria that's something we're not necessarily lacking on and we want we want to make sure that people are aware of it and we want to be
proud of it um and then maintenance of trails we typically do a good job of keeping them up making sure that they're you know the major trails are plowed during the winter um that we don't see garbage on our trails that they're they're relatively clean um and taken
care of what can we improve these are things that um could be adjusted or enhanced things that we do but we can just do better um one access to trail amenities this is a big topic um as part of those survey results um additional benches
might be needed especially on some of our longer trails if we're promoting these as potentially accessible trails um making sure that there's enough seating and spaced out seating as well um and that can go with tables as well it doesn't just have to be benches but
some sort of seating um throughout there or if there's a really nice space and we have um an open area for it maybe it's a good picnic location and we would do want to put a picnic table there or something shade structures um in the summer we love when it gets hot and we love when it gets sunny but we do have
to be aware that um the sun gets really hot um and we want to make sure that we do have proper shading um alongside some of these trails we have a lot of natural shading shading that comes with trees but not always and we want to make sure those are pointed out trash receptacles
are another one that was added to that as well um some of these are nearby parks so it works out but not all of them so making sure if we are promoting these that people have space to throw away their or recycle their water bottle or their dog poop bag or whatever happened um just giving them that space
to do that um making sure that we are connecting our trails so one thing that we did highlight and we talked a lot about it when we were creating our trail routes is our trail gaps as well as um some areas that were just sidewalk and making sure sidewalks are maintained
because that's not necessarily a city um responsibility that's a homeowner responsibility so we want to make sure that that's being um looked at as we're um promoting these different walking routes and then um rethinking our non-conventional spaces um and what do
we mean by that it's um ways that we can rethink our trail system through like maybe mini parks pocket parks parkletits um and we're not just talking about play infrastructure here but there could be just like a random swing along a trail
or um an educational sign um just something really nice that ties into the trail um public art is another one that you could throw out um into a space if it's appropriate for it so making sure that we're not just having these wonderful natural amenities but we're
making them fun and interactive and just having these moments of delight that people can experience while they're walking these trails and then what are we missing the big one um wayfinding that's some something that we struggle with um so one of the things that we've done or
we're working on right now is getting new park signage um so that will be coming through so you'll see new park signs in all of Victoria parks this year so that's really exciting that's number one on wayfinding um just on navigating to our parks but then also directional
signage if we have these walking routes if we have these trail amenities making sure that when people are on the routes that they know how to get from point A to point B without having you know some sort of paper map or you know relying on their Google maps on their phone making sure people are able to navigate the
space um independently is huge so we want to really focus our attention towards wayfinding and then um something that I think staff wasn't necessarily thinking about but it was picked up on the committee and it's very important is accessible boardwalks a lot of our
trails have boardwalk areas none of our boardwalks have railings um so when you're walking through um our boardwalk areas you are obviously coming over a wetland waterways things like that and um the boardwalks are obviously wood so
they're not necessarily the most flattest of grounds so making sure that there is some sort of way that people can have a railing to hold on to um to walk those routes safely and feeling more secure so that is something that is added to this list as well so like I said um based on these three
kind of topic areas if the committee is feeling that you know this is a a relatively good summary of the feedback um that was suggested as part of those what we will do is we will take this and create objectives um and then well as
priorities that we can put into a walking plan um just as an example of what that could potentially look like just based on these three areas um we could have an objective that's you know promoting our route walking routes and
trails and then you know we could have things like we've talked in this committee like developing themed routes withformational signage um there could be an item an action item for um improving wayfinding creating maps signage we've also talked about creating
an online portal map so maybe connecting with all trails or Google maps or somewhere so then people can digitally access these trails so those are some like if we had an overall objective of promoting maybe some bullet points that could be added um as priorities
underneath that did a lot of talking yes um any thoughts discussion questions do any of these trails the ones I've been on have not but just
within the city do any of them have like a water fountain or accessible to filling a water bottle great question committee member um it depends on where they are located so I would think like number
five center so it would have water through the recreation center however if you're on this one which goes around Westerman Park um and this neighborhood um over on Lake Town it would not have
any accessible water so that is something you know as we talk about adding amenities um that could be added on there the challenge with that is that obviously you need to have a water source right but I think as we think about how do we promote these differently too um something we've added
is you know trail material parking we don't necessarily have on there um is it ex does it have bathrooms nearby does it have water nearby and that's maybe something that we need to highlight through this i I remember us talking about that identifying what trail heads
have accessible bathrooms you know and water and didn't we even talk about the grade on some of them we did okay so Alyssa what are next steps here next steps are one to see if this committee
thinks those three well the summaries make sense if there's anything we're missing um things that we need to add um for those that were part of this if you know if you remember and it this doesn't match at all what you you thought you said um and
then from there what we will do is we will take these and take any suggestions and recommendations from today and then put that into some sort of objective and priority list to bring back to this committee so working towards the work plan for
next year these would potential items and then that hits a budget potentially if we want to say this is going to we've never done anything that involve dollars well this would be a new one how does that work with the city council so
council sets our um sets the budget so technically the committee has no budget authority or budget recommendation authority what they do have is this level of recommending policy so recommending a a walkability plan that has you know these are our priorities
these are our timelines these are you know um the priorities within those areas too that goes to city council to say "Yep we you know we agree with this we want to move forward with this." Or you know let's adjust some of these things based on you know some of these other projects that we have going on
that we know are going on or the budget that we know is going on and then they can say "Okay we're going to allocate you know this amount of money for new benches alongside our our walking pass in 2020 whatever." Um so that's how that budget piece works together so we're not necessarily going to be talking about
numbers in this committee um what we'll do is talk about you know what are out of the all these projects what do we want to see first what do we want to see last what is um available to us now what do we maybe have to wait on um and then create that order to then propose to
city council the study happened before um but was there a conversation about connecting the Lakeidge the western communities to downtown that is a great question we talked a lot
about trail gaps um and actually the committee that really focuses on trail gaps is parks and recreation so they go through our trail gaps every single year um and rank them and prioritize them and figure out similar to this conversation you know where where does that and I
think that one's actually number one if I'm if I remember correctly because Bavaria is getting worked on through the Arborita area transportation plan so I think that's now being bumped to number one um I know which is exciting um and then obviously council takes under consideration things like property owner
rights and grading challenges and budget to then figure out when does that come through in the timeline there's a web page on trail gaps on um the city's website if anyone's interested in even looking at what those priorities are the committee does a lot of work in trying
to identify um where the trail gaps are but really like what is that priority list and then um about that different loves there was a big discussion on benches too i mean having worked for the city of
Chanhass and benches have to be able to there are certain standards you know for benches so based on longevity and all that and that's where I know Eagle Scouts all the time would want to come in and do things but the city really
does a good job at knowing what is appropriate and would be maintained well for them but realizing benches are needed and we do have a city standard bench now um this last couple of years we've really honed in and identified that
because we we do want to make sure that no matter where you are in Victoria you know you're in Victoria so we want to make sure all of our benches are the same trash bins our signs um so we've put a lot of effort on that but and to that and I know it's 11 o'clock so I don't want to take too much time um what
we can do is then work with um ship grants through the county and say you know we have a walking plan and we see this as a huge accessibility need to have you know three benches along this route can you help with funding related to that and then we can pick out our own
benches that obviously hit all the criteria of accessibility um and then get those purchased and then installed do you need anything else from us today i'm seeing head nods i'm not seeing any you know nos so we'll take this and um
kind of make it into something more um priority based and project based and bring that back to the committee thank you they did a really good job yeah you've um summarized it and very well had really good feedback so that
definitely helps can you review the meeting schedule now are we meeting in May we are meeting in May and I don't have that date off the top of my head but can show off this i guess you gave us an email with all the months
so probably in January or February oh wait actually it's this sorry guys that example there you go it will be May 5th yeah may 5th may 5th and then not again until the fall September yep okay
so we won't get any agendas or anything through June July August just not agendas participate and if possible correct but we do have an events coordinator that's coming online um a new staff person that's going to be really focused on taking over events for
the city um they are starting in May late late May um miday May um so they'll be the primary contact as soon as we get all this information we will send that to them i'm going to have everything ready for them um when it comes to these
um engagement events and getting all the contact information put together for them so they'll reach out to you just as a reminder of you know this is what's going to happen this is what we're going to bring um wear your t-shirts we'll have lanyards those kind of fun things so more of the logistical
piece signups for us i actually have signups here but if anyone wants to sign up online or after the fact I'll send a reminder out too so one other last thing in the donuts um I noticed in November there is going to be
something on Alzheimer's which we've talked about for a couple years so it's I think National Alzheimer's Month or so so that's very much appreciated think we're ready for a motion to adjurnn who would like to make it i make
a motion we adjourn move by Sue second richard thank you all in favor say I i same sign we're adjourned thank you