Parks and Recreation and Hoover Met outline maintenance, safety and revenue projects including Findlay Center floor reseal and stadium field work

Parks and Recreation staff summarized operating and capital requests for the department’s 33 parks and major facilities, including Aldridge Gardens, the Hoover Randall House, the recreation center and the Hoover Met complex. Staff emphasized the department’s service scale—about 3 million annual park visitors, approximately 7,000 active recreation center members and 1,800 active senior center members—and said the requests aim to maintain assets, improve safety and support revenue generation.

Operating requests included modest percentage increases for Aldridge Gardens and other program accounts (line‑item increases cited for supplies, cleaning and temporary employees), a $10,896 CPI adjustment to a contract with SFM, and an added request for quarterly deep cleaning of park restrooms. One small personnel request sought to upgrade an open administrative position to an administrative services specialist to help with project coordination.

One‑time operating and capital asks covered a wide range of park and facility needs. The recreation center requested $146,250 for painting, four stair masters, pool‑deck surface work and a remodeled therapeutics room. Hoover Met priorities presented by Shannon Veil included resealing the Findlay Center floor (recommended by the manufacturer every one to two years), back‑of‑house maintenance such as bullpen repairs and ticket‑office upgrades, replacement of temporary mounds used on turf infields, and a walk‑in cooler for concession operations. The Hoover Met presentation noted the stadium generates sustained revenue from tournaments and that certain large repairs (field base, turf replacement and Findlay Center subfloor replacement) will be major capital items in coming years; staff estimated a field renovation at about $1.7 million and gave a rough estimate of $1.1–$1.2 million for a future Findlay Center floor replacement.

Other park capital items included shade sails and seating for Explorer Playground ($81,000), a safety grid for an open playground window ($16,000), resurfacing tennis courts at Sertoma Park ($40,000), refurbishing Veterans Park plaza ($28,000), restrooms at Trace Crossings Elementary soccer areas (estimated $350,000), pickleball seating and benches ($15,000), and continued annual drainage allocations (roughly $50,000 per year). Staff noted some facility items are original (rec center boilers and the elevator) and identified elevator reliability as an access concern for some patrons.

Staff said capital requests were prioritized in accordance with the Parks and Recreation comprehensive plan and with input from the park board, youth sports council and department staff. Shannon Veil said the Hoover Met complex wants existing operating funds transferred to the Met to centralize daily cleaning and then procure a third‑party cleaning vendor; he also provided a prioritized list of Met maintenance and revenue items.

Why it matters: the requests aim to preserve high‑use facilities, maintain safety for thousands of weekly users, and protect revenue streams tied to tournaments and rentals at the Hoover Met complex.

Questions from council included timing and lifecycle planning for large capital replacements; staff advised that resealing the Findlay Center is a near‑term fix but that a larger floor replacement will likely be required within a three‑to‑five‑year horizon.

Speakers quoted are listed in the speakers array below and are drawn from the meeting transcript.