Friends of Hill's Bark Park
July. 11, 2006 - General Meeting
Snyder's Cabin, Gage Park
Mike Bauman, Acting President, opened the meeting at 7:00 PM. Eight members were present, with Terry Bertels representing the City of Topeka. We reviewed the minutes from May. Projects accomplished include: mulching, removal of a pipe near the fence line, installation of bag holders, and obtaining a tax ID number for filing sales tax and compensating use tax with the State of Kansas. Chris Macha motioned we approve the minutes and Brad Noble seconded. Minutes were approved as read.
Karen Walker reported our bank balance as $1182.07, with $50 in petty cash. It is time to send some money to the Park and Rec foundation. We will send $400 now, and that will leave enough for t-shirts and other expenses for Paws in the Park. Terry said it can be sent to 620 SE Madison, Holiday Bldg, First Floor, Attn: Teri Simpson. Karen explained the payments we will need to make to Kansas for sales tax. We pay KS sales tax on t-shirts or other items we sell. We can figure that tax into the price we charge or charge the amount on top of our regular price. It's easier for periodic sales of shirts to leave the price an even dollar amount and figure out later how much of that would be tax. Some items, like the bricks, are items in exchange for donations, so we don't figure sales tax for them when they are sold. Kansas also wants compensating use tax (sales tax) to be paid to them for items purchased online, where tax was not colleted by the seller. For example we should pay KS sales tax for the bricks when we buy them, if it isn't figured by the seller.
Nominees for officer replacements were made: Mike Bauman for President, and Debb Myers for Vice-President. Chris motioned to accept these nominations and Brad seconded. A voice vote confirmed these officers until our next elections in January 2008.
Terry indicated there has been no response from the city attorney on rules for posting ads on our bulletin board. For starters we want to limit content to being dog related and relevant to park patrons.
The park rules as posted are not really enforceable, because they are not ordinances. Terry will look into getting the rules codified, which would bring the rules in front of the city council and give us the opportunity for public discussion. The issue of small dog/large dog may be harder to codify, but we might want to create some guidelines to clarify how we make the distinction between small and large dogs.
We notified Terry that we have not had the handicap signs installed in the parking area. ADA requires those spots be marked both on the ground and on a posted sign.
We asked Terry if we could get the city to place a traffic counter at the park, so we can have some numbers to take to potential donors.
Starting with new business, we discussed ordering more of the bag dispensers that hold the larger bags. The ones we have are working well, but we would like to see more spread around the fence line. Brad made a motion and Chris seconded that we purchase 6 more. Mike is working with the park staff to keep the black bag holders stocked, too.
Some concerns sent to us, via emails, which need to be addressed: We have seen people rinsing their dogs with the hoses at the drink stations. This creates a pool of water that can be messy. We will post something on the bulletin board to address this. A gate has been found standing open and needs repair. Mike will contact Lee, in park maintenance about this. Our thanks go to the park for their support and for keeping the park nice.
Terry gave us the OK to use left over fence for our agility area. We are thinking that our girl scout, Angelia, still needs a letter from Ron, to proceed with her project. We are trying to determine the actual size we want for the agility area. We want to be able to host official AKC type events, but haven't pinned down the official size yet.
The 15th annual Paws in the Park theme is Hooray for Hollywoof. This will be an easy theme to work with for our booth. Mike and Drew Walker will work on the booth set up. Chris has a good list of volunteers to help, too. They have changed the weekend from their usual pattern, to Sept. 15. Parks and Rec (Terry) was unaware of the weekend change and will be checking on that. Mike and Terry will need to check with HHHS and the pool staff to find out what plans there are for Paws in the Pool. The staff will only be available through Sept. 8, so if it's to be done, we may have to do it ourselves.
Chris has had to put our t-shirts and other items into a storage unit, because of flooding in her apartment. Rather than pay the $40/month, Brad volunteered to store them in his garage. This brought up our goal to have onsite storage at the park, where we can store these items, tools and also any agility equipment we may have.
Mike reminded us to get the petitions for park improvements out and signed.
Chris announced she will be leaving town after the Paws in the Park event. We will need to look for another volunteer coordinator. Shannon Babcock volunteered that she has experience writing grants. She will get with Brad to see how she can help in the fundraising.
Debb encouraged us to visit the website and use the forums to post comments about the park.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:30 PM
This page was updated on 10-Nov-2007
