role today is to serve as chair of the bilateral Park Advisory Committee. And I also serve as the president and CEO II O of the Belisle Conservancy. So it is great to be with you today I see my colleague, Michael curse. I am hearkening from Grosse Pointe Park, which I like to say is a bike ride away from Belisle. And I like to do that with frequency. We need to report that as part of the Open Meetings Act and the substance and the accompanying COVID restrictions with that. So Michael, I will ask you to do the same to introduce yourself and tell us where you're hailing from.
Good morning. Thanks, Michelle. Mike Curtis Curtis enterprises calling in from lovely east side of Detroit, Michigan.
Yes, I have visited you in that lovely part of East Side and will concur with you. I see some of our other colleagues have joined as well. And the folks that I'm introducing just for the benefit of those that are attending this meeting are my fellow colleagues that are serving on the bailout Park Advisory Committee. I believe we had have summer woods that has joined summer would you like to introduce yourself please?
Good morning. My
name is Summer woods. And I'm actually calling I'm in Detroit, but just not too far from from home just coming from a meeting but I am in Detroit.
It sounds like you're mobile. So maybe for the moment you're in Detroit, right depending on how fast you drive.
Oh, yeah. No, I'm still in. I'm in Detroit. And driving to the train driving home. So
nice to have you summer. Mr. Denker. Welcome. Good morning.
Morning, but Danker with Penske Corporation. I'm also mobile at the moment currently in Detroit will be in my office here soon.
Great. Thank you. Bud. And nice to see you. And I believe that's everybody from the parallel park Advisory Committee. And with that we do have a quorum. So our meeting is officially called to order. We like to start with a mission moment just to remind ourselves of why we're here why the work is important. Why we're all working in collaboration with one another and I'm not just talking about my biotech. I'm talking about our DNR teammates. I see our board chair for the conservancy, Nancy Bella is on the call as well as one of our board members, Robin Heller, and so many community members and supporters and vendors and concessionaires. We all are doing this work together for our beautiful Belisle and today, I'd like to highlight our Anna Scripps Whitcomb conservatory. The sad news is she had to close earlier this week. The great news is that's for in order to relieve her aching Joyce and her dome and I think it really highlighted why our work is important when you saw the distress that the community was feeling knowing that she and I Yes, she is a she would not be available to enjoy for the next year and a half. I know many referred to her as the ANA including one of our generous donors who's made this project possible. And I think it's also important to note that it's not just the structure that makes Anna special. It's the people that serve it. i We all love Jeremy camp and his team and would just like to thank the DNR for all that they do to keep the conservatory viable and then of course Pavo who puts a lot of heart into the conservatory. He's our wonderful little kitty that the community has fallen in love with and he did a great job co chairing our garden party recently along with Sherry cotton and thank you to Robin for your leadership there where we keep driving resources to the conservatory so we can do the capital improvements that are necessary offer the programming that is necessary and keep her alive and well for all generations. And Anna Scripps who donated her orchid collection during World War Two when that collection back from Europe to protect it from the war and the offspring of that collection continues to reside at the conservatory depending on the time of year some are on display. Some are at the greenhouses are waiting for their moment but again, thank you to everybody for supporting the conservatory getting us to this moment to make sure that she survives and thrives. And again, a solid reminder of why we do all that we do so with that I will continue on with the agenda. We have the approval of minutes from two separate meetings. We will take those both separately, the first of which is the August 18 2022 minutes. Thank you to the DNR team Barbara in particular for preparing these minutes for us and with that I would entertain a motion and any discussion you might have motion to approve the minutes. Motion by Denker. Is there a second? Support? Seconded by Curtis is there any discussion?
With that All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed?
Okay, motion carries. We have approved minutes from August 18. We also have befores minutes from the October 20 meeting. Is there a motion to approve?
I see another beautiful face just joined us.
I think I know what space you're talking about. Paris. Looks like the greatest something is here with us. Reverend Pete welcome. He's got big muscles. Would you like to share with our community members who you are and where you're calling from
RDP calling from Sherwood Forest in the city of Detroit and looking forward to how does great on Friday continues to do is I am so honored to be a part of this team. Amen. Amen. Amen.
You're always the perfect gentleman and I like that we're an August buddy in our body in November. Right. Good to see Reverend peak. We were just approving minutes we are on the October 28 meeting minutes and we're just about to entertain a motion.
Motion to approve the minutes.
Anchor is and was that you river peak? Or was it Mr. Okay, great. We have the item on the table. Is there any discussion?
All in favor? Aye.
Aye. Any opposition? Great. We have meeting minutes approved from both August 18 and October 20. We move into our next agenda item which I think has been a really valuable one the last few meetings where we bring our partners in who served the island from a vendor engineer standpoint, that's the DNRs vernacular for those individuals who are bringing services to our park users in this case, first up one of our our street food vendors so I will turn it over to the DNR to kick us off. I'm not sure which of you will do that. Whether it's Scott or yours or Ron, could you announce yourself and take the take the mic?
Yeah, I'll probably have Karis do it. This is Scott really quick. Um, I just want to get some housekeeping really quick. I ended up muting everyone on the call because there was some background noise and stuff. So if you are going to be speaking when it comes time to speaking, just make sure to unmute yourself if you're realizing and if you are within this meeting, please keep your your mute on because it does slow down the the meeting a little bit with the connectivity. So if you're wondering why you're muted, that is why so that's all I have to say Karis. I think you're on take it away. Okay, well,
good morning, everyone. I want to take the time to introduce to our vendors we have st eats with Sam. We'll have them come up first introduce himself and give a little bit about what they're doing and then we'll go to Ed connect so that you can hear about the exciting news with the installation that's going on for electric cars on the island. So Sam, are you on this morning?
Good morning cares. Hello, everybody.
Okay, take it away.
How's everybody doing today? Hope everybody's fine. Hope you're not finding it too cold outside today because I know I'm going to be. My name is Sam Ali. I'm from Dearborn. I own streets of Belisle and most of those food trucks that you see out there. A little bit of what we do is we provide food and beverage to the general public out there. Where it was used used to be known as a food desert. Now hopefully we're doing good enough job to get enough food and beverage to everybody. Days, a little bit of what we do, besides just the food and beverage. We do like the application process and the vetting of vendors that come out to the island. We do the background checks, we check their insurances and make sure that everybody's additionally insured and make sure their equipment is safe, that their food quality is is great and safe. And that they're that their customer service goes well. A little bit of what we did in 2022. We added a couple of new trucks. They were they were visiting vendors. We had a barbecue vendor out there and the Terry melt sandwich vendor. They did they did great. They just they had other obligations when when the time came, they had to leave. We did a little bit of upgrading to the bus stop pavilion this year. We cleaned it up we power Washington tire thing from from head to toe you can say we added some market lights and some lighting to it just brought a little bit of life to it. And people are enjoying it. I enjoyed it a lot myself actually. We're a little bit sad to hear that conservancies is going to close for for a little while but I'm happy that they're going to get the upgrades they need a little bit. What we have planned for 2023 is we're going to add some a new variety of trucks this year, or next year. Just to give everybody a chance to try something new. We will really want to work on on the beach area to provide more food and drink to people out there. It's been it's been challenging at the beach for past few years. But I think I think we have a good recipe for for 2023 little review of 2022 It started off. Great start off wild. I mean people were everywhere. It really I think people really started feeling the pinch of the high gas prices in June. And by July we started to see it slump when it usually goes up. August same thing until the giant slide opened when the giant slide open. It was an absolute game changer for us from what we're experiencing from July and August. I mean those those those just couple of weekends. Were were great. So I'm not sure if there's plans for 2023 or not. I hope there is. I know that that we tried to we tried to see if we could get insurance for the giant slide before and we just couldn't. So hopefully whatever you guys are doing continues and that's really it. Anybody have any questions for me?
Thank you, Sam. I can tell you really believe in your work on bailouts. You're the right guy for the job and we've met before of course I know you work closely with the ASIC complex to another good solid egg serving the community. This will thank you for that. Do any of my colleagues have questions for Mr.
Yeah. Oh am I? Okay, um, I didn't completely understand what he said about the insurance for the slide. How does this piece fit in? And how does that piece fit in for the insurance for slack?
Oh, well, what I meant was about a year ago I inquired about the contract for the giant slide. And I tried to get insurance so I could operate it and I just couldn't get insurance for it. That's all that is.
I see. Okay, I got it. I just
didn't like seeing it close. You know, everybody would come up to the concession stand out when you guys are going to open when and we just we tried but we couldn't do anything about it. Okay.
Well, and I think it's important for us to support you whenever we can, Sam and I mean that with my conservancy hat on as well. I believe you've met IO Thomas before she's on this call. If not the two of you should exchange contact information. And we can talk about different programming opportunities that support our community engagement needs while also at the same time helping your business to flourish. You know, some silly things that have popped up that I you know, may or may not work here, but you know, do we do a slip and slide event or that and it's just interesting to hear that you know, you could be a partner that helped make that happen. And that doesn't have to be alcohol. I'm not suggesting that it can be something else. But I think that there's potential grip to that. So we should be brainstorming about how we can ensure your success by partnering in a meaningful way like that. I also have a slide t shirt that I need to send you because if you've lived it, you shouldn't have that slide t
shirt. I definitely loved it. I definitely lived. Yeah.
Did you make did you make national news?
Yeah, I've made national news a couple times and other things, but you know, but the giant slide definitely made national news. I actually saw it. I was seeing it being shared and different reels around the world. So it was not just national news. It was around the world.
So a moment to leverage But Michael summer Do you have questions for Sam or thoughts? Entrepreneurial minds. Go ahead summer.
Yep. I do have a couple of minutes. I just wanna make sure I'm clear. So so it's nice meeting you. So just so I'm clear. So you're managing or like recruiting, filtering all of the food vendors that come on to bail out is that is that what I'm hearing?
Well, for the general public, yes, that now the ones that that come on for private parties at the pavilions that goes through the DNR still through the event management.
Got it. Okay. So, okay, yeah. So through so through those, and then how many how many like because I'm assuming Do you own food trucks as well as you recruit other food truck? Food trucks?
Yes, I own we own we have five trucks now. ourselves and then we recruit other food trucks as well to come out to the island. I have a I have a large network of food truckers that I work with, on and off the island. So I can always I can always bring on new ones and we have a lot of interest that comes through more than you can even imagine. But when we start going through applications and stuff like this a lot of them aren't licensed, or have insurance or or Yeah, or when they get the application. You know, a lot of them just don't fill it out. They don't just don't follow through. And we also we see a lot of unapproved vendors that come out there that you know, they just don't know they come out there and they open up their trucks or their ice cream trucks and we always we always alert DNR because you know, it's a safety thing. One we don't know who's working on these things if they're if you know if they're if they're criminals or or predators or whatnot. So that's part of the thing we do with their background checks. We send it off to the DNR and obviously to the MSP when we collect them, but so yeah, so that's that's our job on that and
summary I think you bring up a really important point that does need to be clarified, you know it maybe the DNR can set the stage on that. But the way you know what Sam's responsibility is, it encompasses the entire island and making sure that the food needs are met of park users. So he gives the filter right so I think probably where you're heading is going to is how to Detroit authors become part of that right? How do they get to Sam to be considered to to offer their fare on the island? So Dee and I don't know if you?
I mean, that's part of me that Yeah, I mean, that's part of it as a part of the question. I mean, I guess the other party's if we're saying that you have five food trucks, if it's six food trucks are out there, is there only one that's an outside entity? I'm trying to understand the makeup of what food trucks are, you know, out there, right, just holistic number one and then number two, yes, Michelle, to your point,
you know, would you want to address that?
Sure. So, so per contract, we have to have a certain amount of trucks operating throughout the season. In the beginning, when we first started, we thought it'd be a lot easier to get outside. vendors to come out there. So as when I started I only had to, as first year passed, I realized it was it was it was the hardest thing I've ever had to do to to convince somebody to come out to Belisle and sell food. It was it was known as the place to it's sort of like a no go zone. You know, people just didn't want to operate out there. first year, second year was the same third year we caught a little slack. We got a couple of vendors out there. They didn't do well and they left. So when it comes to food trucks, food trucks are used to pulling up to an event where there's there's hundreds or 1000s of people waiting to eat. Right. So they're used to making a lot of money in a few hours when we bring them out to Belisle, you know, so they we, you know, per contract, we tell them, they have to operate from a certain time to a certain time. Now, their labor, they always look at their labor and their food costs obviously and what their sales are going to be. So, you know, on average, I would say, one of my trucks is probably doing about on the weekends 1200 You know, $1,500 in sales from Yeah, on a good day from like 11am to 9pm. It doesn't cut it for food truckers. You know, it just doesn't cut it. So I always look for new guys now. You know not the season ones because they know better. I look for new guys or I look for people that are sick of the of the hustle of it right of of stalking new trucks and drive into a city and and setting up and doing that and tearing down going back to your commissary and going to another city. You know, I've been looking for people that just want to relax, you know, and, you know, have their truck there. They pull up in their vehicle, they can open up their truck, you know, they can serve the public, you know, and they're happy with that, you know, the sales of today. So that's been the challenge for us. is convincing food truckers to take a pay cut? Really? When they sorry, Michael?
Yeah, I'm sorry, Sam. Thank you for the explanation. are we charging these vendors to come on the island?
We charge them what the what the DNR charges us we pass it along this year.
My thoughts are this and board members. This is an immense customers.
I'm sorry, the cut off right there
is the right thing to do in the beginning.
Michael, we lost you if you could. I know you had something important to say if you repeat.
Can you hear me now? Yes. Okay. I'm not so sure that the charging is the right thing. For now. I think it's an amenity that we're offering. Our customers that come to the island are users of the island. And it's similar to if you have a big office building and you put a restaurant on the main floor to service all the office workers. It's an amenity to that building so they typically don't charge them rent. I'm not so sure charging rent is the best thing to do now. Now once we have 20 food trucks out there and everybody's clamoring to get on there. That's a little different story but I think we have to prime the pump and I would rather see us him classes where we will we will we teach some of these food truckers what we expect what we need and how to fill out the application and get all their permits to get on the charging them I don't think you know whatever we make is not is not that important. I'd rather have the right trucks out there and, and and represented you know, Detroit representatives. So I just think that we need to rethink our way of doing this
so yeah, so a couple of things we do we do help everybody with their application process. I'm I'm very well known to to help people want to teach them how to get into the business. I teach them the business I do concept creating for them, menu creation for them, you know, I'm going to tell you that probably I can probably name off which vendors I have been out there that from A to Z i started, you know, they're interested, hey, I want to become a food trucker. You know, and I said well, you know, I have this this beautiful location you know if you're interested, I can help you and from A to Z I'm telling you like I'd go with them and find the truck and and find the person to build it out for him or help them with the build out you know everything from A to get on Belisle and start operating.
See what does it charge? What do we charge them?
It's so this sales usually 10% of gross sales. This year we went to 15% of gross sales because what we're doing every year we so we get charged 10% of gross sales right for our own trucks for every for for everything that's sold out on the island, the DNR gets tempted time to grow sales, right. So when we charge them we were passing it along, but it would become it would start costing me money to have a representative for them. Number one, somebody that's you know, running so we provide commissary spacer to write so they have storage of their items their you know, their drinks or their their their foods their their maintenance items are there we even have a maintenance guide for them. So it was starting to come out of pocket for me so we added that 5% this year and you know to be able to continue to provide those services to them. And it worked out nobody complained. I don't think it's it's so I know to keep that in their pocket might make up the difference of the the lower sales out there. But the challenge now what's happening like with the with the MDOT study, it's taken traffic away from the areas where we do serve food. It's taken and directed the visitors of the island to go on and do a circle and come off you know because if if you go out if you're out there now or if you go out there and see like the only way you can get to the concession stand is on Central. If you come on island you make that left and you go straight Otherwise, everything else is a no turn on right or no turn left, right. So same thing happens when we're I mean the visitors or the conservatory it's a whole different story because they are visiting there. But to get to the trucks that are there. It's also challenging when it comes to making rites or less to get there. So that's that's that's been a thing that's happening so as like and then I mean I say I mean, I'm happy that the Grand Prix is still in Detroit. I'm just happy it's not an island anymore because that really what that really stopped business for us, you know, and for others because you know, in the beginning of season everybody's very hyped on their food trucker. In your season. Sorry.
Thanks. So I understand what you're saying. And I get it's always a balancing act to try and match up revenues to your expenses, but as operators of the island we're going to need to think about I mean, that's one of the major services that we're going to provide is food service. Absolutely. And in good quality and healthy food service. And I think we need to rethink that because 5% of $100 is a lot better than 15% of $1. So, in other words, the more we can get these these food truckers to do business, that percentage will go up I'd rather see us go down to 5%. And and and make sure we have the right people and and not make it a profit center. In the beginning it needs to be a profit center. I think we're providing a service for our customer. Sure.
excellent discussion in terms of action items. What I'm hearing is perhaps Karis, if you wouldn't mind kind of coordinating a follow up discussion between Mike and Sam, I know this is a complicated question in terms of DNR managing its contracts and that that you have certain policies and procedures that you're bound to so maybe a follow up discussion to see where there might be room to make some adjustments that ensure the success of our partners while at the same time meeting the needs of our park users. And then I did hear your comment about that.
The mobility, which is lost last you
provided one of the engagement sessions as part of that study. It'll be in if not, please let us know it'll be really important for your feedback to be incorporated in so that the deliverable really considers the implications of traffic modification that might happen and its impact on you. So I hope that you're going to be part of that. A third action item would be okay, great. Good. Would be connecting with IO Thomas on some of the engagement strategies, so we can have that discussion and help ensure your success. And then I know you mentioned as part of your presentation, the challenge of getting food service to the beach. And we certainly that'll come up as part of the mobility and transportation circulation study too, because that's where one of our pinch points is. So there have been things that I've seen in my travels I know in Paris, they have this company, they're called the pink balloon and you go order your food, maybe at the aquarium, your station there, and then a bike with a pink balloon will deliver it to you on the beach, you know, so we're not adding to the traffic, or maybe they can order it from the beach, you know, with a QR code or that so we could brainstorm with you and some of those success factors to will that will help meet the needs of park users not add to our traffic issues and make you successful. So we'd be happy
to be very interested in that. Yes, we've tried to come up with a couple of
things. Any other questions for Sam from BiPAC? Members?
Very important, very informative. Thank you so
hungry, doesn't it Reverend pig? DNR anything to add to the discussion? Just
you know, we've been we've been pretty, pretty blessed to have just a good group of vendors. I you know, we've struggled for many years to find vendors to come onto the island. We've been able to find a good group of vendors. I will set it up so that Michael you can have a discussion with Sam further. And I would probably like to include some of the other vendors and we can just have a really brainstorming session that would probably help our vendors move along because we've got like I said some really good folks on the island that are really looking to not only expand their business, but to also provide those good services to our customers. So I look forward to that discussion. So I'll be asking for dates and so forth so that we can
Yeah, there is a view ideally I would like to be involved in my schedule can be can balance that I would like to be in that conversation with Michael. Absolutely,
you know, in support of what you've just shared. Io can work with you. You know, we have our stakeholders group, which should include all of the vendors and concessionaires it's so important because rather than just meeting with them independently, they should be working together because they can support each other you know, whatever is happening at the golf facility, and they know where to direct you know somebody for food or you know, and if the if the vendors are directing people to the golf facility and vice versa and all our other partners on the island, that stakeholder corrupt can really be a place for that discussion that happened and for us to keep building that connective tissue between everybody on the island. So I think that'll be a really good outcome. And it'd be great to have you as part of that summer too. In fact, all BiPAC members are welcome to join those meetings. So I Oh, there you go. I think you've got some good thoughts to add some and bolster your efforts, too. So any final thoughts on this item before we move on?
Yeah, I got we got Jason Fleming on right now and he has his hands up. He's part of our resource protection and promotion for Parks and Recreation. Um, he can probably give a quick little on some of the stuff he's heard currently. So Jason
Welcome, Jason. I'm sorry, I didn't see your hand. It's uh oh,
that's okay. I normally just but you know, just join in don't put a hand up so I was trying some different things
Congrats on getting some manners that yeah, you
know, it's taken me a few years but I'm getting there and it's it's been a while since I've, I think I've attended a BiPAC meeting. So I just want to weigh in a little bit. A lot of these things that we do are contracts that we put out, put out in a competitive bid process. And so 10% is a goal for what we look at across the board around the state. Sometimes we go lower, sometimes we go higher depending on what we get back. So I think that the idea of lowering it has, has some has some thought behind it and some merit. I'm also concerned about making sure that we're fitting into things the way that our processes are set up, and that if we haven't had an issue with it, I'm not so sure lowering it would necessarily grant us any greater opportunity certainly can have a deeper conversation beyond the BiPAC meeting today. And I would certainly ask that if there are conversations that my folks like Laurie green, are involved in those conversations so we can have help and bring awareness to where we're at because we're the ones that are managing that process.
Thank you Jason for that. Yeah, you certainly do a great job of managing those contracts and it's a complicated one. That's why I wanted to make sure I gave you a little bit of cover and bought you a little bit of flexibility right and I believe those contracts are three and seven years. Correct.
They are depending on how they're written. Sometimes they're four and three or three and four. They generally most for concession contracts have a ability to go seven years. There are some cases where we've gone longer, but there are terms in statute that allow for us to do that. But typically, yes we do the ability up to seven years.
So if we're doing our programming in a way that drives business to those vendors and concessionaires right Sam so you don't have that same obstruction and then we look at how some of those contracts are crafted and what's required of them from a cost sharing or a revenue sharing standpoint. Hopefully, we can really make certain that these folks can succeed and be successful, and then the DNR still will still get revenue from it. So let's make that our goal and unless there's something more we can move on. Some reason, not showing up and
one more thing to think of what the majority of revenue does come from visitors of the Conservatory and aquarium so I think, for the next year or so it's going to be a little tougher out there. So I do also believe that maybe a lower rate for the visiting vendors, even I mean even if I can get it down to zero for them, and I still you know, pay my shares fine. But I think we if lowering it for at least until the conservatory opens again, it's going to be very important.
Well and that's an awesome sensitivity that you're creating for us because we're the conservancy you know we're looking at our programming for the coming year. So if we can be you know, if we have a choice between red or blue and blue is better for you and we don't lose the you know, we might as well choose the blue right. So let's let's have that conversation to make sure you're aware of all our programming, I can contribute to that dialogue.
Thank you. I appreciate you all. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Sam. I can we're lucky to have you so stay committed and support you and want to be good partners. Thank you Karis. Back to you for our next agenda item.
The Eevee connects.
Yes, we have Dr. Shawn Friday with us today. Just a little background. Mr. Friday approached us with wanting to include infrastructure on bow for any type of electric car. But of course you know, we didn't have that service. We felt that it was a really good project moving forward. We tied in Amy Greene with the nature zoo and Amy was on board with it. She had mentioned that those were some of the things that she had been talking about doing. And so, Mr. Friday had given us this opportunity that's coming at no cost to the park. And I think it's great project. And I'll let Mr. Friday take it from there. All right. Thank
you Karis. Thank you. Good morning, members of the Balau Park Advisory Committee and all attending today's meeting. I'm Dr. Shawn Friday project developer for diatomic energy LLC, or diatomic. diatomic is based in Detroit established in 2019. We believe that EB infrastructure combined with renewable energy generation is the gold standard for the greatest impact to reduce greenhouse gases from oil, coal and natural gas all at once. Our purpose is to promote and facilitate Evie adoption by making EB charging infrastructure accessible in Detroit. It's our great pleasure to provide state of the art Evie charging at one of Michigan's premier natural resources. Bello park in the city of Detroit. diatomic is the third party owner operator of the DC fast charging station under construction at Belisle Nature Center. This initiative to bring EB infrastructure to Belle Isle is supported with funds from a goal charge of Michigan and DTE charging forward to DC fast charging station features two dispensers, each with a power output rating of 350 kilowatts to enable this unsurpassed charging power to power cabinets 200 kilowatts each are additional components of the system. Each dispenser has a CCS one and a shadow cord to serve more Evie connection types the network provider for the DC fast charging station is Eb Connect. Established in 2010 EB Connect is a subsidiary of Schneider Electric, which serves customers across 41 states in the US. EB Connect is on a mission to build a better planet by enabling electricity as a transportation fuel. Through its innovative and open charging platform EB connect simplifies the setup management and optimization of charging stations with with Premier customer service from installation to driver support. Evie connect guides companies of all sizes and managing networks and charters and delivers a seamless EB charging experience that empowers drivers. We expect the EB charging station to be online in the first quarter of 2023. And yeah, that's pretty much what I wanted to say at this point. Please visit diatomic energy.com for more information. And thank you very much for your time. I'd be happy to take any questions at this time. Thank you,
Doctor Friday. Thank you very much for that. Can you spell diatomic for us, please or put it in the chat? Oh,
sure. Absolutely. That's diatom. I see. Great di atom I see and I'll try to put that in the chat. I need to find the right button here. So
while you do that, I'll say it's nice having Dr. Friday on a Thursday, much like and I got somebody in November. That looks like Mr. Curtis might have a question for you. So be ready because it'll be something smart.
All right, fantastic. That's a lot of pressure. Michelle, thank you for the presentation. I do have a couple of questions. I know that what do you charge for customer use of the charging station is it per hour is a per How do you charge
ah our fee
structure will be $1 per kilowatt hour. Yeah, approach is similar to what most people are used. To with their electric bills. That's yeah, that's our current plan.
I'm sorry, a half hour.
There's there's a lot of variables that really go into that. Um, for example, it depends on what level of state of charge their car is at when they begin charging. So if they're looking to go from 20% up to about 80%, which is pretty much the max, that fast charging will restore updating percent. That's one parameter. But it also depends on the size of the battery itself. As someone said earlier, well you know, 15% to 20 is very different than 15% of like 80 or 100. So, it kind of depends on the size of the vehicle battery and the state of charge that the session initiates that. But I think as a rule of thumb, it's convenient to think of most vehicles needing perhaps 50 kilowatt hours of energy to restore a battery from 20% to 80%. And so yeah, that's so there would be $1 of mileage associated with each of those 50 kilowatt hours to get to the total fee.
And how does this differ from? For instance, we're we're a retail developers, so we have retail developments. And we have a lot of these charging companies wanting to rent parking spaces from us, and then pay us $1,200 a month for each space to put in chargers, whether it's Electrify America or bolt. How does your product differ from those companies out there that are that are paying to install these?
We really don't differ from them very much. Um, one distinguishing factor is what are the network that we use? So as I mentioned, EB Connect is our network provider. Some of the other competitors to Eb connect that you had just mentioned. Yeah, they just have simply have their own networks and perhaps their own vendors for the dispensers and equipment, you know, so But generally, yeah, there's there's not too much difference.
I guess the question is, if there's not a difference in why would they be offering us $1,200 per space? And in years zero, I believe, right, you're not are you paying?
Oh, no, no, no, ours is not zero. Ours is really similar to other vendors generally. 10% of gross sales. For the reason that they're coming to you. I think part of the answer is I cared enough to come there first and approach Kerris and others with this idea. They certainly could have done that but didn't really see Belisle. As important enough to do that, at least at the time that I took that that step. So um, so yeah, there there is some lease arrangement for the the privilege of being there at the nature center. But other than that, though, I think there are more similarities than differences.
So I think your primary point, Mike was making sure that there was a revenue stream, you know, coming to the island.
Well, if there's not then it should go that should be passed on to the consumer who's buying the product, but one of the other, you know, needs to be one or the other, or a combination of
to be clear. Sounds like that is happening, right?
Yes, yes, absolutely. There there. Definitely there will be revenue generated for the DNR.
Amy, I see you're on the call to know that if you have anything to add, you're more than welcome to any other questions for Friday from BiPAC members.
Hey, Ron, can you hear me? Yeah,
barely. Barely, but we can.
Okay. Well, I just wanted to mention the fact that we did get contacted by this company, but just so you know, that we have another arrangement with rivian which is sponsored at Holland State Park and two or three others. We do have a charging stations there that were installed in the spring and they're sponsoring the fee for a couple of years and then they'll go to a vendor operation. So this isn't anything new. It was just that this was a local bass company and and explored it with them. And, of course, he described so I just didn't want you to think that this was just, you know, just something sticking out there on its own. It's it's definitely but our our thing is, we're not going to give away free electricity for people that charge their cars, because it's not fair for this, you know, people to subsidize an electric car, but I think the point is, is to get it right. And what that what that service fee is, but it's it's a convenience thing, but we actually had one of the first charging stations in the whole state at any public facility and Bay City rec area. We put one in about nine years ago, and it's been there operating ever since but so, so we've had experience with it. But now this is something that'll probably be become more than norm. We're actually just just, you know, we're exploring right now with some entities to put in electric charging stations at our harbors for the electric boats. So we're looking ahead for that dynamic too. So I just want you to just chime in to give you that on a broader scale. So but this is definitely a new frontier. But Michael, obviously in a commercial sector, you see those popping up all over the place and in shopping centers and everywhere else so All right, thank you.
Other comments are just gonna but I see your hand is up.
twice to I'm impressed. How would you do that?
And I just see it now. Doggone it.
Lonnie is on there, too. He has a question, but
thank you, Scott. I'm having trouble with that. Go ahead. But
yeah, just Just some background for me as well. EB connect I'm familiar with and based upon some of our businesses for the BiPAC committee's purpose here, just FYI. So I'm, I do know who they are as an entity. I don't not know diatomic energy. I went to their website here a minute ago. So I'm not familiar with them. But I do know EB connect relative to their capabilities and their infrastructure capabilities as well and the partnerships they form also with local grid companies, such as DTE here, run run. In my point many times I've seen the model Rob Michael, your back to you where companies come in and sponsor these for a period of one or two years subsidizing that cost to the consumer to get the consumer to come there obviously as a kind of a loss leader item but for the consumer No, no charge at all. So I'm curious to see what the charge process will be. For this one. Knowing that many times the model has been a free service for a period of time sponsored by some entity.
Thank you, buddy. Appreciate that Intel in that context. Reverend peek.
Yeah, just clarity. kinda understand. Easy Connect is not operating. Now. This is a proposal within that particular agenda operations that I'm just trying to get caught up. We are with this.
I believe they're ready to launch in first quarter. You said Dr. Friday.
That's correct. Yeah. We we don't have an exact timeline due to supply chain and issues for major equipment like the transformer that we expect from DTE for this. But generally speaking with that said, yeah, everything should be ready to go online by Yeah, sometime in first first quarter of 23
in Nature Center.
That's right, Reverend peak, the nature center. Get the project is actually under construction as we speak. God began the construction began in mid October.
Okay, thank you. Yeah.
Yeah, I guess it's very clear clarification for other like so if someone comes to the idea for potential revenue generating opportunity, there's no bid process. It's just the person that comes. I'm just I'm just trying to understand that how that how that works. Because I know, that's curious. Ron, he may reference like, hey, you know, we came to the table first. But I'm just trying to understand from a DNR perspective how does that Julie operate in terms of vendor participation on the island? Isn't a normally RFP process just trying to get clarification.
Ron, did you want to address that or determine who on your team should
Okay, don't know if Jason is still on or I don't want to get into the middle of the ice still on here.
No, I stepped away I had I had a I take a call from TTM being unlocked my phone. So what was what was what was the question again? I'm sorry.
Okay. So the question is, I'm just trying to understand how the DNR normally operates. If someone comes to the to the table with an idea of a revenue generating opportunity, that it could just be off the strength of hey, I have an idea and it's not RFP dog, like, how does that process work with the DNR?
Oh, that's great, great question. What we typically do is we would we usually have either for the metro area and Belle Isle, it's Laurie green, and Lori would be David Do you have them reach out to Lori Lori reaches back to Karis, and Tom and his team here to see is this something that's viable? This is something that's an interest, we check to make sure that we don't have it have a conflict with our existing agreements, because that has been something in the past we've run into or somebody who have a great idea, but it's already potentially covered. And if it is potentially we always ask the current vendors if they are open to somebody else doing something, it may not be something they actually are participating in. So there's a that's the process that's typically involved in that we do we we work it out with the local units to make sure that it's something that they feel is a viable need or an amenity to add to their facilities. And then we double check to make sure it's covered somewhere else. Or if we have like and then we and then we do then we'll go forward. We do a lot of that sometimes we'll put it out. It's a great idea and it's something that's open we typically have a you know a bid process for concessions, but at times we have done use permits for one year to test something out to just see is this something that could work and it's worth even putting a bid out because we may you know, you don't know some of the things that are there. And so by doing a one year agreement that helps us get an understanding and establish some baseline
that's helpful. Is this a one year agreement process? Because I'm just trying to understand what Evie becoming, you know, a growing, growing business and that type of thing. Is this a? Is this a one year deal or how does that work?
For evey connect Yes, sir. So
I haven't been involved much in the agreements with EV I think they have already established the venue agreement with us. Am I that Right? Correct on that I haven't, like I said, I've been dealing with DTaP and my phone. So I've been off for a little bit. So I've been a good chunk of this conversation.
No, that is correct. Laurie Laurie was part of the the discussions at the beginning.
And it's a one year contract. I think that's what you're asking right some or is it a longer one?
That is what I'm That's what I'm asking. Yes.
You're saying specifically for the Evie charging station. Is that a
run for this particular partnership? Is the agreement a one year partnership a one year
Oh no, absolutely not? No. I'm talking about a capital expenditure of about a half a million dollars in order to put in this kind of DC fast charging station. So we're looking really at a operating agreement of initially was set at 10 years and now we're three years into this. So we've got seven years remaining. And that really still works as far as the the economic projections of this being successful. But yeah, we're hopeful to try to get that extended due to a number of circumstances, the pandemic, the necessary upgrades to the electrical infrastructure on Belisle, those were in progress during the first year of our operating agreement. So yeah, we hope to have a little consideration on that. But generally with the capital expense required to bring this you hope for a more stable, long term sort of situation.
Got it? That's awful. I mean, it's just, you know, thank you for that clarification. I mean, Jason and Rami, that's just the, you know, Scott, I mean, everybody like that's just fine line. Just skirt what you're talking about when somebody can come up with an idea and not and do an RFP process. So I just want to make sure you know that that was on the record as it was when people come back to understand the guidelines of what classifies for competitive bidding and what doesn't some things. I do
want to add that the MDR does have well established criteria now for you know, submitting an RFP tend to try to do that Evie charging station when I first approached Laurie green, with this idea that no such a process was in existence for a DNR so perhaps on some level, we were grandfathered in. But nonetheless, there is a more detailed.
I'm gonna I'm gonna state I'm going to maybe kind of cover that a little bit. I don't think that a process what we do so when I talk about a one year agreement, we do that for a lot of things that are typically not going to have major infrastructure changes. I mean, we're not we're not going to do something for one year that's going to cause an establishment significant, you know, an investment that's so the operating agreements are used permits that are extended multiple years. We do them across the state for a variety of things. We also tend to use them for their non exclusive use of of what they're providing. So a lot of times when we do things so for instance, delivery at a boat launch, you might have several deliveries that are using it you're not giving it to one and then keeping it exclusive use. And in those agreements, we have malt to 10 years. So we do have the ability to extend out there and then after 10 years, we rebid it. So as far as looking at from an operating agreement, now if you're looking at something longer than that, then then we're talking about a lease, and there are certain things that we do for leases and other things that can allow an extended, there is what I could do is for sake of time, we could come back at a BiPAC meeting and have it explained how we work that process. That way everybody gets an understanding of how we you know, what's an operating agreement, what's a lease, what's a concession? What you know, how the differences are there, what's the use permit? If you feel there's value there, we'd be more than happy to come back and and do a
presentation.
And I think you do do some version of that already. Jason right. But yes, I think that'd be very helpful to do here. So it's very clear what the opportunities are where they're at and what the process is. So that'd be great. Any other comments? Before we move on? Yes, Mr. Curtis?
All great comments. One last one real quick. You know, the Detroit Metro airport or McMurray airport terminal. They provide opportunities to vendors and it's typically a five or seven year contract, but they don't allow them to charge any more than x over their street prices. So it may be for instance, McDonald's, and they say well, you know, you we know you're gonna charge a little bit more but there's a limit to what you can charge 15% or 20% or 25% more than your street prices. Just want to throw that out there in case there's any thought that maybe we should look into that. So we're not we're not hurting our vendors, but we're not killing our customers either.
Okay, thank you. And then the only other in terms of again, making sure these are action oriented discussions. I would encourage you Dr. Friday to work with IO Thomas as well and become part of that stakeholder group so that we can be in good communication with one another and then secondly, the mobility study that's underway. I'm assuming you already looped into that, but this clearly needs that discussion and a consideration to and then Amy, I'll assume unless you raise your hand that you're all set and but certainly, I hope that you raise your hand during the public comment and tell us about your wonderful renovation that has recently completed so. Okay, seeing none then we will move on in the agenda and try to be task oriented here. Our next item for is general updates. Mr. Olson, I believe you're kicking us off with the Parks and Recreation update.
Yeah, I don't have too much to report. I just we're just like I think I mentioned we're now under the new fiscal year with a 23 budget and we'll be we had a very various enhancements including upgrading our pay rates for our summer employees and we added some positions statewide and we're trying to bolster some things we did just recently hired and added a person for to assist our Lisa in the booking of events and that kind of thing. And so that'll be a help as an example, for Belle Isle. The The one thing I wanted to remind you is sometimes quite a while ago, you might have forgotten Brian Barnhill resigned from the committee. Just uh, you know, it hasn't been forgotten that we have asked, and we just asked this past week again, to the governor's office to because that's an appointment from them for the committee. And so this is been going on for a while. So we're trying to get that resolved so that a we can get that vacancy filled. So just, you know, for what it's worth, I didn't want you to think that was forgotten that we I can't control that other than we remind them through our our folks that connect with the governor's office. The third thing is that I mentioned last time and I mentioned again, and we have a meeting some meetings this afternoon on some with some federal agencies and some others about you know, trying to align some of our continuing funding needs on bail out because we know as I mentioned, we have the ARPA funds that were used in the park the largest amount was in Belle Isle compared to other any other state park but we have lots of needs statewide and Balau certainly has a humongous amount of things and with our current situation with some of the things we found at the fountain and trying to upgrade some stuff at the aquarium and the beach and some other things. We're really in earnest working on all the different things we can do on the state part of it as well as partners. So what did I just want you to know that we're working on a lot of stuff right now but some of it I can talk about but most of it right now is still work in progress. So we just just want you to know that. And so that's all that I have because I'm sure that many of the infrastructure, detail details and some of the other stuff that you're familiar with that getting updates will be handled by the staff so I'll just stop there and and
on the note, thank you so much Ron for that update. And I think it's probably also a good time since you brought up stimulus dollars in that. Joe Tate is the incoming Speaker of the House, and he's certainly close by and has been a great partner and a great ally. So that that bodes well for Belisle, having him in that leadership position and I'd just like to take this opportunity to also congratulate him. He's been a very effective leader. And we're fortunate to have that leadership and we're thrilled for his elevation in this regard. And just so you all know too we call him little Joey because he was our intern when he was a Ross student at the conservancy. So it's pretty cool to see his career continue to, to move upward. So yes, it's pretty we'll have to get him in when he gets a moment to breathe. I'm sure he's drinking out of a firehose right now, which would make his dad proud because I don't know if you all know his history, but his father was a firefighter and died tragically in a fire. He recently lost his mom to who is an educator so Joe's just he comes from good stock, and he's anchored here and we wish him the best. Okay, Scott Karis. Joel a park update.
Go ahead Karis.
Dollar time, okay. Good morning again. I only got a few things today. I wanted to inform you that we just hired a new county assistant, Erica Compton. She will be replacing Terry and she will be beginning her new duties on the 28th of this month. And so we're excited to have her on board and on our team and she'll attend the December bypass BiPAC meeting so that you all can meet her. And just as a reminder, we are into our winter operation. So we have restrooms that are now being winterized and so we will have bus stops seven across from the aquarium will remain open all winter. And then the casino outdoor restaurants will remain open for the winter also. So that's just as a reminder this our holiday hours the office will be closed on Thanksgiving and the day after Thanksgiving. And then for Christmas it'll be Christmas Eve will be closed and Christmas Day will be closed. And then the following day is also part of the state holiday. We will post those on our Facebook so that everybody knows those hours of operation and tea. I want to address the lights on the island. Just so everybody knows we are working with dt and public lighting to come out. And Gilbert Electric is also going to help out and take a look at the lighting on the island. From what we've determined thus far. It looks like it may be a software issue. We're not 100% Sure. But we are working on it as quickly as we can so that we can get additional lighting onto the island because we realized that as a huge safety issue. And so just to let everybody know we are working on it and it's a daily thing and I will keep updating everyone. As soon as we get some complete answers from the other agencies. Staff wise, we have some readers that will go on to layoff starting next month. And so we will be reduced in our range of staffing until about the beginning of April. And but just to let you know we've hired some pretty good rangers and things are moving pretty pretty well. We're getting a lot of projects done. And so we're all pretty happy around it right now. So that's all my updates for today.
Great, thank you. Michelle. Can I can I Yes. Yes, there's another we have another hire on Belle Isle as well. You saw we had up position posted back starting the summer. We had a two in addition to what Darlene was working on. We had there was an added another event coordinator to the island and Marie Kat banks is on the call because I forwarded her the the so she's out there and Marie will be focusing on a lot of and even though we've got a lot of close structures of the weddings in the contracts vendor permits those types of things that are relative to that. Some of the other facility operations looking at our vendor con template contract lists. Also she's gonna be helping out with improving our exposure out there on social media, especially Facebook, in updating some things better and she comes basically she's had over 14 years of hotel experience dealing working with events all over the US. And so we're really excited to have Marie join the steps. She started on Monday. And and she's we've been getting her acclimated ever since
and welcome to both Marie and Erica however we can help accelerate your learning curve. No, we're here. Glad to have you on board.
You all right,
um, are we ready? For our law update then parks team?
Yeah. Lieutenant Becker join us. Lieutenant Cisco is currently working out of class as the Assistant Chief. Before Jason went on. I just wanted to briefly mention that our Michigan Conservation Officers are going to be collecting toys for their fourth annual stuffed a truck. I put it in the chat for them. But they can be donated here at the park headquarters right at the beginning of the office. entrance here. Any new unwrapped toys in the original packaging would be greatly appreciated. And the toys will be donated to Detroit children through the DPD Sergeant Santa's program. So thanks for that opportunity. To mention that. Tom,
we're so glad to continue that partnership and I hope everybody will participate. be exceptionally generous this year. So thank you for giving us that opportunity. Lieutenant Becker. Good morning.
I would like to add Thank you. Thank you for the stuff that a plug here Tom. We also will have donation spot at the outdoor adventure center on Atwater Street, the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving. So we'll have staff there available to accept donations to some notable incidents. In the recent past, we've had a few suicidal subjects, where people call 911 and we responded, our conservation officers were able to talk to the subjects and be able to convince them to get medical health professional help without any further incident. So that was a really good, good X on our part. This past weekend, we had a call for a unresponsive subject in a vehicle and our conservation officers responded. We're able to get the subject out of the vehicle who had very shallow breathing in signs of an overdose. They were able to administer Narcan and then EMS arrived on scene and treated the person without further incident. So those are the major things that have happened in the recent past and I would also like to give a shout out to MSP if they're on the call. They covered this past Tuesday was our opening day of firearm deer season so our conservation officers were out working elsewhere in the state trying to make sure our presence was known and make sure everybody was safe and the rest of the state for their our opener deer season. So thanks again to them for covering the island force.
Thank you Lieutenant backer. We're not doing our job if we're not protecting the health, safety and welfare of our park users and their property so thank you for making certain that's happening and also being there. In those very serious times of need, and helping folks move on from very difficult moments in their lives. Questions for the lieutenant.
Thank you again. Thank you
Amanda. Infrastructure updates. Good morning.
Hi, good morning everyone. Amanda Treadwell, urban area field planner with the DNR I'm happy to share with you some highlights for construction and improvements going on around the park. Most notably the Anna scripts with comb structural repair to the upper dome kicked off this week, as Michelle noted, and so Wednesday was the last well it was generally that's closed Mondays and Tuesdays and then so this is the first week it's officially closed to the public. So the contractor is setting up in the gardens. Also working to put scaffolding up around the exterior and interior of the dome and then they'll be wrapping that like a big holiday gift. By the end. of December. And that'll act as the membrane that will control the abatement materials and then also control temperatures within the dome for the plants. So a lot of working be seen here in the next couple months on the exterior there. And then this is just one of the American Recovery really fact projects around the state. And when people go to bow Park they'll see our sign promoting these up this effort statewide and there's a QR code on that banner where folks can go on the website and see what other improvements are going around the state. There's a dashboard set up with progress. We're Parks from Detroit up to Ironwood so I can keep up to date on what's going on there. Again, for those of you who might not have been on the meeting, the last couple of meats meeting and amongst the scope of work is do structural inspections, they'll be removing all the lead paint, that's where the lot of the abatement, scope of work will come into play and replacing on the purlins cleaning the larger trusses as needed and improving the ventilation for the plants and replacing all of the glass in the upper dome. So the upper 60 feet will have brand new glass in 2024 when we expect to wrap this project up. So here you can kind of just see an overview of what was going to be erected. In the next couple of months. For scaffolding. There'll be a floor that actually contains the area of abatement for this upper 60 feet that's shown by this yellow line here. And then lights will be installed for the plant collection below that floor level. And then all of the work will be taking place in the upper 60 feet there. So that's that's what will be going on under wraps here for the next 18 months. And we'll be sure to keep you updated with more photos and construction progresses we move along so stay tuned. The second ARPA funded project Belisle is the casino roof replacement. Again our engineers continuing to finalize those construction documents and we are on target to have those bid out in early 2023 which will allow for spring construction start date so we're looking forward to getting that underway. There's quite a few things going on now at the casino that we're coordinating with this larger roof project as well. Our engineering plans are being finalized for the elevator modernization that will bring up to code the connections between the elevator and the fire suppression system will be replacing a lot of the mechanical pieces of the elevator and and then new interior furnishings as well. So it's a significant project and the construction estimate right now with administrative costs is north of a million dollars. So this will be the focus of our fiscal 2023 capital outlay budget.
So Amanda really will the casino then close for that year period of time will be closed all summer next year?
Yes, yeah. The roof project will take about a year. And then so simultaneously we'll be having that because elevator work done. So. So that's upcoming, but right now we have the Grand Prix folks out on site at the casino. They're working to replace the concrete adjacent to that lagoon area there so it's a large concrete pad. The team is out there now removing concrete and there's a couple photos just taken this week. And they expect to have this complete for this winter season. I hear it's supposed to be done by the end of the week. So this is great investment by the Grand Prix folks. The cost is about $225,000. I understand as well. The Grand Prix team is out there in the park, working to remove some of their permanent infrastructure around the park that supported the race like the pedestrian bridge foundations and some of that flagpoles and other items that they're coordinating with Tom on. So we've got the floor improvements chair so thank you button for helping to facilitate that work and that concrete repair is much needed and it'll look great once it's done. So thank you. You're welcome. engineering project that we have advertised now is the park wide hazardous material testing project. So there's over 50 structures in the park about 16 of those we have completed hazardous material reports. Those are the larger buildings, the public use, and so this project is to kind of go through all of the other structures and have those hazardous materials tested. So we went around with the consultants to over 22 structures that are that needed. Access to including the lighthouse the carillon golf course a lot of buildings that aren't used now are open to the public, but we want to have on record what the hazardous materials are on site. And as well that we'll be doing structural engineering assessments of those structures. So it's a pretty big engineering testing scope of work that we're having completed hopefully next year so we're we expect that those proposals to come in in late December and we'll get this project kicked off early next year. So that'll be good, good to round out our infrastructure assessments and have that information on hand and then obviously we'd move forward with abatement on those structures as needed. As well the cars back to the casino they're going to start Bateman on the hazardous materials there this month. So there's some old investors tiles in rooms that aren't really accessed then this will be with the building closed because the elite don't have ADA access with the elevator being down. We're just getting a lot of this work. Housekeeping work done out of the way while it's closed to the public. So it's good opportunity take advantage that the structure now. Other paving work right. This week, we had the parking lot for the park headquarters paved. So we're looking forward to welcoming folks back to our front door. It's been a while but then it would just probably be a couple of weeks more before we can open that back up. We've got to put the parking stripes on we'll stop some do some minor tweaks and then we'll be ready to open that driveway up again. So that's a progress photo there and it was great to have Sean on today to talk about the EB charging system at the Abellio Nature Center. I don't know if he mentioned the timeline. But once DTE comes out and inspects the utility connections, they'll order that transformer so I think we should know that installation date by the end of the month. And then have some maybe dates for you and our next meeting about when folks can come out and use those chargers at the nature center. So thank you to Amy and Shawn. For working together so closely on that project and I know Amy's ready to be done with construction over there. She's had a lot of it. Also mentioned earlier in this meeting is our multimodal mobility study. I provided an overview last month but here again is overview for folks who might have missed it before. So we started this back in July in August with data collection on traffic counts, attendance counts and then since then, the project team has been working on processing that data analyzing it. They did a public intercept survey with folks on the park that was also available online to get an idea of who was coming. When and what they were doing and what hurdles they might have experienced with access and circulation around the park. Right now we're working on around one outreach engagement with stakeholders. So yesterday we had our first engagement meeting with staff from the BAC that DNR and mdot. And then tomorrow will be our second engagement meeting and we'll be speaking with vendors like Sam and Amy and all of our tenants who we share this park with and so we're looking forward to getting feedback from them. We've got about at least a dozen more meetings set up that we'll be scheduling through the end of December with our city partners. Our Detroit riverfront partners, the GSD and DPW law enforcement, so blue reaching out to many stakeholders here to get input on what issues are most critical and thoughts are improving those as we move forward with the growth with the groups and then we'll also be working on a public region wide survey that would be distributed probably early next year. And then we will take that feedback and the team will develop strategies for improving circulation and access and then when those are refined we'll be meeting with the groups again in early next year and then later next year. Once those strategies are flushed out a bit more. We'll be presenting the final plan probably about a year from now. So it's really looking to get a broad input from the community and so we can have a look, plan to meet, you know, everyone's everyone's issues and ensure that it's inclusive and sure that we're accessible. Going forward so stay tuned, there'll be more more on this plan as they move forward. This is this right now is the season for in finalizing our bid documents and getting projects advertised so we can get this stuff ready to be kickoff next spring when construction season starts again. We're wrapping up now but we're already getting up for next spring and Drager trail. We're hoping to get that bit out here. At the at the end of the month and then potentially could start on that a bit earlier. It doesn't. We'll be doing well read be repaving the trail, but it'll be a gravel trail. So we think we have a little more flexibility with the weather and that might be able to get done. Sooner next year then the spring. So hopefully that will get that underway here soon. And then as well are finalizing the engineering plans for phase two of the Wilson trail and that will complete the loop that was started from the trailhead out at the east end of the park to the bridge. So that is underway. Another project wrapping up here is the MDOT bridge replacement so they completely replace the bridge at VISTA that is the bridge between the old zoo and the athletic shelter.
And they just planted the trees this week doing the restoration and once that is striped, we'll be ready to open that back up folks. And they also did maintenance work on the oak Bay Bridge and the Central Avenue bridge which looks really great. They did a lot of restoration to the concrete cleaned it up. Report the light posts pedestals and then as well on the road surface Central Avenue. They extended the bike lane to portage way and put a buffer stripe on the other side, other side of that vehicle lane that goes through the flat woods. So to help delineate that the one vehicle lane there so this is open now and looks looks great. Let's try project that I'll just highlight today is the mechanical work at the Scott fountain DTE was able to reconnect the new transformer this month. So that's great now we're working with Gibberd electric to get the new lights installed in the mechanical room. They'll be putting new access lighting in the hallway that leads to that room, new work LED work lights within the room and they're replacing all the conduit and cleaning up a lot of the old electric units and connections that are just kind of been haphazardly put in over the years so it's good work to get that done. And then as well we're working to get bulkheads put in in the openings that go to the under the open space under the basin there. So that's another item that we're working to get done
by just about again, sorry. I know we've had this shutdown for quite a while because of the issues of infrastructure there is the expectation that these things you've mentioned, will allow us to have the fountain Yeah. And operational next May or is going to be beyond that. You think?
Yeah, we expect that with the new utility work here. We'll be able to have the fountain running next year. So yeah, it's it's been on working off a generator for the past few months. We had to wait quite a lot quite a bit for the DTE transformer to come in. So that's been on order for over a year but was finally able to get that installed here this month. So that was a big jump for us to get get back to a place where we could get that running again for next spring. So thanks okay, that wraps it up for me.
Thank you everyone. Great job Amanda.
As always, thanks, man. That's great as usual.
Yeah, mute Michelle.
Thank you, Scott. I was just the accolades to Amanda. It's really remarkable the number of balls she keeps in the air and the forward movement and the very tangible impact that all of that has on the islands. So thank you, Amanda, and the rest of your team for moving that forward and to the BiPAC team for taking the time to recognize that is there anything on the boathouse that is of note, Amanda, that is a holding pattern at the moment.
We are working with a company that has a statewide contract to do hazardous material testing in that building anticipating that there be some
work done here and soon,
but yeah, we've got the costs and i think i i managed here this last month. I don't remember though they kind of jumbled together but we have cost estimates completed from the architect and structural engineer for stabilizing the structure and allowing for restricted access and that total is about $5 million. So we have we have a number and now we're reviewing that funding opportunities for to address that.
Thank you. never an easy task, is it? Okay, well with that we'll move on to the agenda. I owe Thomas representing the conservancy today and is here to provide some updates. i Oh, good morning.
Good morning. Can everyone hear me? Yeah, yes. Okay. Just give me one second
to share my screen.
And I'll share or just I guess, offer some context. We heard quite a bit this morning. And with some of the facilities being closed and obviously moving into kind of the winter months. It's going to be a little quiet. So sorry, I missed that presenting wrong.
Here we are. But I do want to just make sure that we
have some more or less Can everyone see okay, great. So we'll just keep it. I want to start just with a reminder, I think that we know this but just making sure that we continue to share the narrative that Belisle is a four season park. And so there will always be something of course we know that people love sunset point and some of the other facilities and amenities but just being reminded that the entire park is a four season park and that there will always be something to do and something to see. And so just a reminder, Rudolph garden is a four season garden as a part of that thought process and line of thinking and so just every I think it's something like 14 days the garden looks different with the growth of the plants and so do remember to check that out and to then I want to move to the nature center. Of course the Nature Center has reopened to the public. And so I just want to bring attention to some of their programming through the month of November and also be reminded that overlooked, which is an exhibit that takes a closer closer look at some of the pollinators and the pollinator garden through photos and other installations. That is also open and so you can go over and check that out. Also, just be kind of on the lookout for a variety of programming. I know last month I attended an astronomy night and so just be on the lookout check out Bill I'll nature center dot Detroit zoo.org For more information, they always have something incredibly interesting and fun to do. So these are hikes in nature, tots and even a beginners journaling course. So be sure to check those out. And then the Dawson is open Fridays through Sundays 10 To 5:10am to 5pm and just want to remind you admission. Of course they have their standard exhibits on display which includes the mini plugin the name of it, the mini ship installation, so please do check out the Dawson Great Lakes museum. And then a reminder, I always like to share this if you're interested in real time updates. This is of course, a reminder about the DNR text service. So text Jim 280888 and you can get real upset real time updates about Belisle, which includes Island closures and some of the other important communications that come across. Obviously as we move into the quieter season, we don't anticipate any closures but it's always good to have that information accessible to us and then want to share the holiday hours for the aquarium we will be open and tend to for which our regular operating hours but we'll be open Friday 1125 So November 25 26th and 27th. And then just as a heads up as we move into the end of the year holidays, so December 23 And then December 26 through 31st. We will be open and you can see there the hours and dates that we will be closed. We also of course offer tours and other sorts of engagement opportunities as well as volunteer opportunities and so you can visit Belle Isle conservancy.org For more information there about how to connect with us, either on site at the aquarium or through volunteers and other opportunities. And then finally, we have our feedback form, which helps us to develop our programming and informs the way we're able to support the island and so please do take a moment it takes about 10 minutes to complete this survey. So I do want to give that heads up, but it keeps us well informed from an individual touch point. And so thank you in advance to everyone who has shared or participated in the survey that information is very valuable to us and it has been helpful thus far. And then that concludes my report for this month.
Thank you I owe you mentioned holidays which makes me think again if we're looking at action items and you all want to leave here with something to do, you should do your holiday shopping at the Bell aquarium we have some wonderful merchandise that literally flies off the show. So you might find an axolotl, a subject a little stuffed octopus or other really fun things that the community just adores and it's a great way to support the aquarium. Every dollar matters, especially as we look to diversify our revenue sources and reduce our reliance on any one source of funding. So opportunities like that are a great way for you to provide your support while at the same time walking home or going home with something pretty special and then you can also support the Giving Society that's also an important solution for going forward and ongoing sustainability as well as sponsorships at the tank at the aquarium for those that sign on with the Giving Society and with tank sponsorships. We will get a slide t shirt and again I think we only Crain's Detroit business printed them for us for Detroit homecoming, we probably only have about 10 So there are special collector's items that will end up on eBay in the next 50 years. And then we'd also be honored to give you a private tour of the aquarium as well as well as I still have some octopus gummy candy too. I throw that in as well. So please come support your islands come support your aquarium. I owe you also mentioned the importance of Bilbao being a four season park some of you might know Arthur Mullen he goes way back I met with him recently he was part of our building botanical society and ironically also as part of the wave trim team who was doing the mobility study and he's a rabid hockey fan and DNR team he said my goodness if you guys would help us shovel the you know the lagoons in that so that they can easily play hockey they would be some real happy campers. So I'll just throw that into as a little piece of feedback from the community that is timely and relevant. And then the last action item of course with a truck we want to make sure that we're in this holiday mode and doing what we should be doing all year but especially now. Any questions for IO or myself from our BiPAC members. You all take Benadryl or something, you're not usually this quiet. All right. So I will take that as a cue to keep this moving forward. We will move into the public comment portion of the meeting. Thank you to those of you who have hung with us for this entire meeting, waiting for your moment as well as every meeting we do. Really, really appreciate our opportunity to be able to hear from our community and I hope you know, it's not just now that you can connect with us all my email address is Hodges, at Belisle conservancy.org my mobile number is 313-815-9530 to hear what our community wants to see. Well I also never hesitate to reach out but certainly this is your moment as well. I see that some of you are already raising your hands thank you and anybody else who would like to be heard, please also follow suit. I will remind you that we ask that you state your name and your prom or who you're with. You do have three minutes we'll do our best to be customer service oriented and get you the answers you need during that time, but certainly know if time does not permit we will be making certain that you know who to connect with. So with that, let's start with Rich and I do hope whoever's name is Detroit otter that we get to hear from you too, because up to know who you are. That's pretty cool. But Rich. Go ahead if you'd like to get yourself I've got the clock started and here's your time.
Okay, well, I'm here to Becky and I'm on the historical committee for the BAC and my main passion is the police station and in five short years, it's going to be the 100th anniversary of police radio that started on Belle Isle. And I'm just wondering how we're doing with the renovation of that building.
MD Amanda, did you want to speak to that briefly. There's about two and a half minutes left if there are any updates on the status of the police building. You're right rich, it is a treasure to have on Bella. We are honored to have had the first radio dispatched police car in history, dispatch from Belisle. There's a rich history at that building. It's incredibly beautiful for one and I salute the DNR for restoring that roof to protect it for further restoration. Amanda I hope that bought you a moment I don't know if there's any other updates you have. But we do appreciate that heads up to Rich and I hope that you'll be vocal at the historic preservation meetings so we don't miss that opportunity. And five years.
Yeah, so this isn't me. No, we, at this time there are no plans in the near future for that structure. So you know, again with 50 structures on the park and Benny with critical needs. That building we stabilized it back in 2016. We put a brand new roof on and we did a lot of structural repairs. To support the roof. And so now that that is stabilized in terms of the roof and keeping it watertight, we've kind of had we're still working down the list to make sure that we're at all these buildings at least stabilized so
well that'd be part of the building assessment that you talked about previously.
That building has already had structural and hazardous material testing so we wouldn't be at this time we won't be revisiting that in that building.
All right. Thank you. Thank you Rich for being here today. And we look forward to seeing you at future meetings. I'm Mary Hennessy. I see that you have your hand up feel free to unmute yourself and share your thoughts.
Everyone, thank you. I'm just here on behalf of myself. I wanted to have two comments regarding the kids row playground. The first is that there's some broken items on the playgrounds. Some are pretty minor and some are a little more significant and more of a safety issue for the children using the playground. I'd be happy to take photos or point any of them out but they're pretty they're pretty open and obvious for anyone who's looking through looking at them or using them. The second issue related to the kids row playground and this may be more of a timing issue is that every time that I've been there with my children, you know, in the in the morning, you know between nine and 11 It appears that the litter has not been either cleared from the trash cans or of more concern like there's usually a lot of litter on the playground itself. You know, kind of looks like things from people using it the night before. So I'm assuming that's how old it is. And I was just wondering if it would be possible so that for other families use the playground in the morning if the litter collection and any kind of clearing of litter from the playground itself could happen early in the morning. I usually try to clean up stuff that looks like more of a hazard to people using the playground or you know other things as I've had time but it would be very nice to get to enjoy that place without having so much litter on it.
Well, Mary, we appreciate you being a part of the keep ll beautiful campaign whether you realize it or not. So thank you for being responsible citizen and picking up the trash as you see it we I would encourage you to reach out to Genevieve Rattray, she does lead our keep ll beautiful program for us. And I would imagine the DNR team has perhaps some input for you as well. DNR maybe if you want to put anything in the chat that would allow Mary to follow up with you or anything of note that everybody listening on this call today would benefit from feel free to do that unless you want to say something now DNR
will get on it. Sorry. Alright, Scott,
thank you. I think it's certainly good thoughts. Thank you, Mary for taking the time to be here and for using Bell owl to create lifelong memories for you and your children.
Amy Greene Welcome Hi,
thank you. And thanks for thanks for including the nature center today in your conversations. I didn't want to mention initially that Amanda Treadwell has been just wonderful and helping to coordinate and cares to with diatomic energy and Shawn Friday. I know this is a project that came onto my plate well before the pandemic so they've been communicating with me that entire time and what to expect and responding to my questions or concerns. So you've got a great team. They're working with us on that and while you know, while we're not, we're not receiving any of the funds either for that. We're happy to be the place on the island that is connected to this mission of sustainability. So it's nice to be recognized as a place where that fits. The SU appropriate parking lot for it. I think. I also wanted to tell everybody, yeah, seven days a week 10am to 5pm Come and visit and check out what's new here. It's it's incredible. It's it we're just all floating here. We're so happy to be reopened again. We've got we've got people back, I call that our heartbeat, right and our soul is back in the building. And we hope that you get to anybody out there gets to be a part of that as well. We'd love to have you and I Oh, thank you for mentioning the programming. One thing that we didn't have shared yet that I'd like to share now is on OPT outside day. So the opposite of Black Friday and on Friday the 26th I think of November we have an apt outside day here. With lots of support for outdoor activities, as well as some folks from Wayne State's astronomy department. This is really cool. They're bringing some special scopes. So you can weather permitting, you can look at the sun. So they've got some really cool filters and come on down and check out the sun and step outside on a busy shopping day instead. And I look forward to hosting one of Balau meetings one of the BiPAC meetings here on site so it'll give you a good reason to come out and see the new place. We'd love to have you
Thank you. Thank you, Amy.
Great work. Anybody else who's present and would like to be heard? I believe we have one written comment as well. I'm sorry, did I hear somebody?
Oh, Scott. Are you going to read the one from Patrick?
I can do it unless you have somebody queued up to do it either way, let me know. Right. I
just wanted to make sure it's red. So
yes, I appreciate that because we don't want to forget anybody. The individuals Scott is referring to is Patrick Livingston. He has submitted these comments regarding a bell our welcome center. Bell hosted over 5 million visitors in 2021 and it's time for the DNR to step up and predatory prioritize development of a welcome Senator properly agreed and orientate those visitors to who to what is by far Michigan's most popular state park, the most suitable location for the Welcome Center. Is the 10 acres of land located immediately off the bridge as visitors enter the island the former Grand Prix paddock area. The Welcome Center could include a dedicated vehicle lane for those needing to purchase vehicle passes, a staffed Information Center, a display of park rules and policies. And interpretive map featuring parallels history and natural history. Promotional displays for conservatory aquarium, Dawson museum Nature Center etcetera. A transit stop for the island shuttle bus and city buses, restroom facilities a refreshment cord with picnic tables, appropriate landscaping and shade trees. Planning for and development of this welcome center should begin immediately. It should be given top priority in the bilateral master plan and included on the agenda of BiPAC meetings. Visitors to allow deserve to be properly welcomed to the park. I understand that BiPAC and mdnr staff are not required to respond to public comments at these meetings. Nevertheless, I would appreciate hearing your thoughts on this proposal. Thank you to Patrick. He's been passionate about this for a number of years. Scott is that something one of your one of your teammates follow up with him and just give him some a status report or some input as to where where your heads are on this matter.
Definitely Tom or Karis will reach out and you know maybe of Amanda can fill in but great ideas. We we appreciate the suggestions
and he you know he should be I think he's be included in the mobility study too. Because obviously, these suggestions influenced that as well. And I think for sure, we might have already included them but let's make sure Okay, any other members of the community who would like to speak all right, we will close the public comic show you got one more. Oh, I do. Suzanne, welcome. Sorry about that. Go ahead. Hi,
I'm Lux sorry. I'm part of the musical and bio group and I'm just wondering if there happened to be any updates when the Rumbek thing and shell and how it fits in with all the other projects?
Amanda, I
believe you may have some insight and updates. If not, we can just make sure Susan connects with you later. What's your preference?
Sure I can share with Suzanne that. park staff has been reviewing the bandshell with our DNR PRD state historic architect and we're working with the stewardship unit to secure funding to make some repairs to that roof so it does add some pretty significant roof issues over the last few months so it is closed to the public. Now we don't want people accessing that structure. And so we're going to partner with the EIC and we spoke with Michelle and Katie yesterday about partnering with them to get those repairs expedited, so maybe I'll have some in progress or finished pictures to share with the next month. Thanks. Thank you.
Thanks, Amanda, for having that and Thank you Suzanne music and Bill owl group who's been the You've been wonderful partner. So thank you for your passion and commitment to the stomach. And for those of you on the call. Just know that Mobic has done musical programming for the last several years on the island, I believe on Wednesday nights right Suzanne? And what are you what is your role? Which group? Are you part of a symphony orchestra or band
with a Birmingham concert band?
Well thank you to the Birmingham concert band is Well, I think I owe hopefully you're connecting with Mobic to as part of our stakeholder group because it'd be great to have your participation and that so we make sure we're spreading the word and and giving longevity to our remmick Bancho anything else Suzanne, you got a few seconds left here. All right. Thank you for coming today. With that, does anybody else see any hands? I don't want to miss anybody. All right. Well with that I think we're at the end is what about my pack members? Do you have any words of wisdom to leave us with?
Just thanks again to the DNR team. Thanks again BiPAC team thanks again to the big team for all you guys have done for the island continued. Thank you very much have a great Thanksgiving.
Well said, but I agree 100%
you're muted.
Okay, there you go. Got me here. Thanks. Bye. I have a question. Just concerning some clarity here on that. Evie connection. Geez. From what I understand that that's been operating for, what three years now, as part of a 10 year deal. What role do we play in something as significant as that? I mean, maybe I missed it, but we're just getting informed about that now. And we're three years into the country.
Go ahead. I'm sorry.
Hi, this is Sean speaking. What I'd say there really is no role that the the BiPAC or any of the stakeholders really have to be concerned with with that. That is something to be worked out between diatomic and DNR and all things are on track for success. So if that pattern continues, hopefully we'll be given consideration to sort of reset the agreement to the 10 years but you know what we'll see about that, but things are definitely on track for what we had hoped for. Bringing state of the art EB charging to the city of Belisle and the citizens of Detroit. Thank you. I'm sorry. And all the wonderful visitors from outside of Detroit as well. Sorry.
Yeah, I think that's less the question is clear. We've got a good partner there. I think duck Reverend peak, what you're getting at is more from a transparency and process standpoint, right of how are these projects identified? Who are the partners that are selected to collaborate with and secure those contracts and and just wanting to know, and the purpose of this job is to be that voice of the park user, you know, to be that communication tool to the community. So we should probably have knowledge from a transparency standpoint and that of projects like this sooner rather than later. By putting words in your mouth effectively or not effectively.
Use it. You said it very well. I would just I would just curious, hey, where do we fit into this process? So I want to know Okay, I'm sorry. Yeah, I thought that's fine.
Um, DNR, anything to add to that? Or is or could this possibly Jason if you're going to do a presentation, hopefully early in 2023 that this aspect of it could be addressed there.
I'm not sure if Jason's on still but I can speak on behalf of that is we'll definitely give that presentation and we'll give you and then once that presentation is given Reverend, it'll lay out exactly how we go about these type of contracts agreements and what we bring to the advisory board and all that kind of stuff. So we definitely like to keep you guys advised as much as possible. Some things come on property that does not currently state that we just we the trial period, you know, we test it out, check it out to make sure everything is smooth, but when Jason does present, like I said, it'll spell it out exactly how we go about the process.
Okay, I appreciate this. I guess from a personal standpoint, we interact with a whole lot of people. And I don't want nobody to come and ask me about, hey, what are y'all doing with that charging station over there? And I say what? That's all I'm saying. They're just give me information I could just pass on I saw them for sure. Okay, thanks, man. Okay.
All right. Well, with that I will close on a happy Thanksgiving note to you just just real just real quick Michelle. I'm sorry. Sorry, summer Yeah, go ahead.
Yeah, that's okay. I guess I just want to make sure you know, I look forward to the meeting with with with carriers and Sam and and Michael about the vendor. But I also look forward to that conversation about the procurement because honestly, there's some discrepancy and I got some questions. So I really look forward to that conversation, because that is not consistent with other things that have come to the table. Hence the reason why I was asking those questions as it related to the to the EV space and and all that. So even though I know that's not in our purview, but to Reverend peaks perspective, you know, point people do ask questions. Now, I know a lot of times the DNR tries to use it or you know, uses entity as a as a as an opportunity of coverage. With some of those questions come back. And so it is important to make sure that we understand what that what that looks like. We'll do
all right, I'll, we'll Happy Thanksgiving to everybody and thank you for all you do and we'll see you in December.
