01/29/2003: notes from the meeting with the NPD SUMMARY Up through 2/6, you can go to the Naperville Park District Planning office west side of Book Road south of 95th street Opposite of Frontier Park to express your vote for one of five proposed playground layouts plus any suggestions for changed options (e.g., do you want more than four swings?). Their office is open Monday-Friday, 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM. (telephone: 630 848-5011 Debi Nechleba ) The five manufacturers with proposals are: * Burke * Gametime * Little Tykes * Nutoys * Playworld DETAILS Objective: pick one manufacturer of playground equipment from five choices Brought catalogs for each. Next step: take any changes back to the companies. Could come back to the group with the changes (probably will do this). Start construction drawings, put the project out to bid. Takes 4-6 weeks to order the equipment and put it in. A month after awarded will be on site. Need to start soon. Unfortunately, pictures of the proposals were not allowed :-( Finances $120K per neighborhood playground + landscaping Won't go below $10K in landscaping. Won't go above $30K for the playground equipment. Can make swaps in pieces, minor variations here and there. Two figures (see CFNA website): Placeholder playground equipment in the figure. 1. playground layout (scale: 1":30') 2. park layout plan (scale: 1":120') Element highlights: 1. small baseball/softball backstop: 20' long, 8' high, throw a ball against it but can't support a huge game 2. picnic area with trees, bench, picnic tables, plantings in that lower 3. depression area (collect run-off, keep people away from that area) 4. two playground areas: 5-12 years, 2-5 years. Perhaps 30-40' apart. 5. Sand diggers: 6' radius around each. 15'x15' areas (two of them) Sports facilities (that we might ask for): 1. tennis courts: usually are located at community parks or sports complexes (larger parks with lighting and parking). Sometimes on-street parking becomes a problem. Haven't initially put this into the CF park because we'd probably put something in in Nike sports complex. Looking to Arrowhead and Seager Park if they don't fit in at Nike. Tennis courts have a 2 mile radius in service area. Bubble of service radius from Nike is very close to our park. We'd like to provide the courts at Nike if we could. Because CF ties into storm water drainage at McDowell woods, when the property was acquired, there are provisions against large scale earth moving (might be a problem with large courts). Tennis courts are not completely out. Is there a better location (e.g., Nike court) that can serve more people? There is only limited space at CF (tight). Creates strange empty-space pockets in the park. Ideally you would want it to be north-south. Otherwise, you compromise tennis play. 2. volleyball courts: special use recreation amenity -- no set standard for providing X number of courts per service area. 3. basketball court (half court): Similar issue with basketball court? CF area is served by four basketball courts. Courts are a little smaller and easier to put in. Should have a north-south orientation. Might be easier to twist and tweak. Bball court would be half court. If there is something as a group that you want to see there, we can look into it and address it. The plan shown is how an ideal park would be developed. You would probably have to relocate the backstop. It is useful to have petition data to support what the community wants--to make a big impact, try to have at least 100 votes from among your subdivision residents. Probably an either or situation for basketball or tennis courts. Otherwise you would lose your open space. Q: Commons Rd. is our fastest street, can we lengthen the backstop to make it harder for the kids to run out into the street? A: No; but it will be smaller and farther away from the road (not intended for heavy hitters). Don't want to put a lot of shrubs there because they would obscure driver vision. Q: Is there stipulation for any kind of lighting? A: No, it is a neighborhood park. Any time you put in lighting, you encourage people to use it at night (bad) Might put in some low security lighting. Q: New traffic rules? Playground yield sign? A: Park District and the city are two different entities. Park District police would have the responsibility, but this park would be low on their priority list. Q: barbecue pit in the picnic area (charcoal grill)? A: Yes, an option. May have to have a permit to use it. Concern: teenagers coming in and using it. Q: Water fountain? A: Yes. Later date. Q: Will the NPD maintain the park? A: NPD crews come by every week and do weekly inspections. They will replenish things. Usually put wood fiber in neighborhood playgrounds. Rubber tiles might go into the community playgrounds. Q: Can the CFNA make donations to the park? A: Sticky situation since some subdivisions are wealthier than others. Donations are open to suggestion. Probably would have to be something non-substantial. Issue: there are still rocks in the field. Issue: Currently: The entire park plan includes only two tot swings in one playground and two belt swings in the other. Will try to find a way to get more swings. One of the designs features a belt bridge. Belt bridges are very difficult to maintain (rips, get torn). Q: Can we choose different colors? A: NPD colors: red green blue. These are pretty neutral (not too bright, not too dull). Q: warranty? A: Depends on who you ask: people who install, people who maintain have different opinions. We have used all of these manufacturers in the past. They are very regulated. All companies are very proactive. Teeter totter or assemblages. The proposals show different views of the older kids structure and the tots structure.