Metro East Sun

City of Edwardsville Recreation, Arts, & Special Events Board met Aug. 6

Here are the minutes provided by the board:

I. Meeting was called to order at 5:00 pm by Janet Haroian. The meeting was held in person at the Wildey Theatre. Members in attendance at the Wildey Theatre were Janet Haroian, Tanner Alexander, Suzanne Weiss, Josh Fark, Tony Green, Jeanette Mallon, and Lauren Szakielo.

Parks staff in attendance at Wildey Theatre included Nate Tingley, Jeremy Dempsey, Amanda Prior-Alton, and Lydia Bond.

Also in attendance was Elizabeth Krause.

II. There were no public comments.

III. Minutes read from July meeting –

Jeanette Mallon motioned to approve the minutes as written, Tony Green seconded the motion. The minutes were approved as written.

Events and Facilities Requests:

Movie in Leclaire Park – Saturday, October 12th:

Elizabeth Krause on behalf of Friends of Leclaire presented the Movie in Leclaire Park event application. Friends of Leclaire will contract with Swank Motion Pictures to purchase the one time rights to show "Back to the Future" on Saturday, October 12, 2024 in Leclaire Park. Friends of Leclaire will contract with Fun Flicks Outdoor Movies to provide the audio visual equipment as well as an inflatable movie screen. They will process set-up and tear down. The movie screen will be setup on the south side of the Leclaire Bandstand on the far east side of the concrete walkway allowing for patrons to set up chairs or blankets either in the lawn or the concrete.

Motion to approve (Weiss) Movie in Leclaire Park, seconded (Szakielo) and voted all ayes to forward to ACS. 

Halloween Parade – Thursday, October 31st:

Nate Tingley on behalf of Edwardsville/Glen Carbon Chamber of Commerce presented the Halloween Parade event application. There are significant changes from last year’s event to this year’s. Due to school district construction, the typical line-up areas at Lincoln Middle School & Woodland Elementary School are unavailable for this year’s parade. They have worked closely with the Edwardsville Police Department and property owners to determine an agreeable alternate North Main Street assembly area, which will be a combination of the former Rusty’s lot, Eden Church’s lot, and Main Street Community Center’s lot (for band assembly only). The year’s route will travel south on North Main Street, then west on Vandalia Street, disbanding at the intersection of St. Louis & West Streets.

Motion to approve (Alexander) Halloween Parade, seconded (Mallon) and voted all ayes to forward to ACS.

IV. Recreation Report

Jeremy Dempsey gave the Recreation Report.

a) Girls’ softball wrapped up mid-July with an end-of-season tournament at Plummer Family Park. We had over 230 girls competing this summer.

b) Youth Pickleball camp was a success. Bob Biarkis led the 22 campers for the week. We will have another session in the fall.

c) We had 40 teams participate in sand volleyball session 1.

d) Flag football season is wrapping up. We have 250 players registered this season, which is the most we have ever had.

e) We have 110 kids playing in our youth kickball league this season. There will be a tournament on Oct. 14th at Plummer when kids are out of school for the day.

f) Pee-Wee T-ball wrapped up on June 29th. We had 142 players.

g) We hosted eight teams in session 1 of adult sand volleyball. We have four teams signed up for session 2.

h) B league softball wrapped up last week. C league and Co-Ed will continue through August. We have a total of 28 teams. 

i) 24 participants registered for tennis lessons with Dave Lipe this summer. Lessons ended on July 24th.

j) Fall sports registration is now open for youth and adult.

k) We have eight tournaments on the schedule for the fall season at Plummer Family Park.

V. Program Report

Nate Tingley gave the Program Report.

a) Our movie in the park showing of Wonka was cancelled due to rain so that will be rescheduled for later on this month.

b) Shakespeare in the park is coming up, as well as Opera Edwardsville and Edwardsville Symphony.

c) We have another movie in the park. We will be showing “Despicable Me” on August 24th.

d) This Saturday, August 10th is the 4th Annual Watershed Endurance Run.

e) Rotary Criterium will be Saturday, August 17th.

VI. Wildey Theatre Report

Amanda Prior-Alton gave the Wildey Theatre Report.

a) Acts this month: Walter Trout, Carl Palmer, Jake’s Leg, Curtis Salgado, and Toronzo Cannon.

b) The new video screen has been really cool to incorporate into our concerts.

c) July had 2 weddings and 11 private events. August has 2 weddings and 6 private events scheduled.

d) To drum up more business for our Tuesday movies we are highlighting movie franchises. We just did the Indiana Jones set.

e) Last week we hosted the Goddard School Pre-K graduation. We’re also hosting bid day for one of the sororities at SIUE. 

f) We just installed 10 new speakers in the theatre, replacing the old ones and adding to the existing number of speakers.

g) We were able to hire our own custodial and event staff member.

VII. R.P. Lumber Center Report

Nate Tingley gave the R.P. Lumber Center Report.

a) They closed down the ice on Friday after the Dog Days event. They then turned off the chiller to melt the ice and get it out. Now they’re in the process of cleaning the concrete before refreezing ice.

b) We had 76 participants for our Learn to Skate.

c) The jump harness has been installed. The figure skating club has committed to ice time during the fall and winter. You must be a member of the figure skating club to use the jump harness.

d) MVCHA Varsity game ice schedule has been secured.

e) They met with St. Louis Legacy Foundation to discuss how to partner together to grow ice sports.

VIII. Directors Report

Nate Tingley gave the Directors Report.

a) The city has entered into an agreement with the family that bought the property adjacent to Richards Woods. We will be using the building as a shop for Parks laborers. We will be putting fencing around the backside of the property to fence off a yard for our vehicles and equipment. It has a lot larger indoor space, it’s an insulated building, has indoor office space, as well as indoor plumbing. In the future we hope to use the space on the front side of the building for a classroom for field trips. We also intend on paving the parking lot, building an outdoor restroom, and having a trailhead to get into Richards Woods. The contract is an 8-year agreement, but every year we are able to revisit whether we want to continue the lease or purchase the property.

b) The seasonal laborers are transitioning out and we will be back to our normal six. 

c) Marc Miller has been working on planting plans for Glik and Leclaire Park.

d) One of those plans is to return one of the hillsides at Glik back to Prairie.

e) We recently purchased a forestry mulcher. Laborers from Parks, Public Works, Water, Sewer, and Streets will all receive training and be able to use this machine. We are planning on using that to clear hiking trails at Richards Woods.

IX. Open Floor

Haroian adjourned the meeting at 5:39 PM.

The next meeting is scheduled for September 3rd, 2024.

https://www.cityofedwardsville.com/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_09032024-3490