PRC 2011 09 27
CHANHASSEN PARK AND
RECREATION COMMISSION
REGULAR MEETING
SEPTEMBER 27, 2011
Chairman Daniel called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT:
Jeff Daniel, Steve Scharfenberg, Tom Kelly, Cole Kelly, Peter Aldritt, and
Brent Caron
MEMBERS ABSENT:
Elise Ryan
STAFF PRESENT:
Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Director; Jerry Ruegemer, Recreation Superintendent;
John Stutzman, Recreation Supervisor; Jodi Sarles, Rec Center Manager; Susan Bill, Senior Center
Coordinator; Dale Gregory, Park Superintendent; and Lindsey Litrenta, Rec Center Sports Coordinator
APPROVAL OF AGENDA:Aldritt moved, Cole Kelly seconded to approve the agenda as
presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0.
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Hoffman: I sent an email out towards the end of the day. We were notified yesterday that the City
received a couple of awards from the National Association of Cities and Counties. Both of them having
to do with park and recreation. This is the company that performs our citizen survey and I think it was
over 500 communities that they surveyed this past year and parks and trails and then recreation programs
scored very high in our community and so those awards were granted to the community so we’re glad to
see that. A press release went out today. It was announced to the City Council last night so thanks to the
Park and Recreation Commission for your efforts in making that happen in our community. It’s the
People’s Choice awards. That’s what it is. They’re rating their services and parks and trails and
recreation programming and services ranked very high in our community so we can all be proud.
Daniel: Okay great. Thank you Todd.
VISITOR PRESENTATIONS:
None.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Tom Kelly moved, Caron seconded to approve the verbatim and
summary minutes of the Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated August 9, 2011 as
presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0.
REPORT FINDINGS OF PARK AND RECREATION MARKETING SURVEY.
Litrenta: Alright, first of all I’m Lindsey Litrenta and I was the park intern for the summer and my
survey, my project for school was to create a survey on the marketing techniques of Chanhassen and
future ones as well. This is a presse by the way. Alright. The purpose of, as I said the purpose was to
evaluate the current marketing techniques of the department and then also to evaluate potential futures.
2,266 surveys were sent via email and 75 were at the senior center. The methodology used was via email.
362 were completed, which created a response rate of 15.975% and the Survey Monkey software was
used. However in the senior center we used paper ones because most of the seniors are not on computers
as of now so we figured in order to get a representative population from the seniors we’d do it in paper.
The limitations to the survey included just the one of the…response rate of 50 to 70 percent was not
Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – September 27, 2011
achieved. That’s a textbook optimal response rate and I’ve actually never seen it achieved. We did one
in school as well and we didn’t even get anywhere close to that but that’s the limitation of the survey.
Daniel: I don’t think you can get that at our office.
Litrenta: You’re right. And now we’ll go onto the findings. Question one stated how many years have
you lived in Chanhassen. As you can see from the pie chart, it was pretty well spread out with the
majority living, or the highest number being 31% of 0 to 5 years. Question two stated what is your
present age, and it was found that the vast majority were between the ages of 36 and 50, which is typical
but also interesting to know that we have a demographic that will continue to be in Chanhassen and using
our programs for years to come so this is valuable data that we are collecting. Question three asked to
check which activities they had participated in in the past year and respondents replied with this. Trails
were the highest with 54% followed closely by special events and beaches. Senior activities is almost
100% seniors responded they are participated in senior activities. Obviously. Question four asked how
they had learned about the programs which they had participated in and it was found that the Connection
was 58% of the respondents had used that as their marketing tool followed closely by the Villager at 45%
and word of mouth at 37%. Question five asked respondents to rate their experience when participating
in the Chanhassen park and rec programs and events and it found a satisfaction rate of 93%, and that is
good as Todd had just said people are very well liked on the park and recreation side of things so that’s
awesome. Question six then asked them to rank the methods of marketing they would prefer, and the
lower number is a good in this situation because they had to rank them from 1 to 11, 1 being their most
desired. It was found the Connection was number 1. Eblast 2 followed by the Villager. It should be
noted that Twitter and text and cell phone were very not well liked. The Senior Connection is obviously
skewed because most people were not seniors. That actually was the number one choice amongst seniors.
Daniel: Just surprised given the fact that how popular Facebook is and that certainly wasn’t highly rated.
Litrenta: Right.
Daniel: If you look at the previous survey you had earlier where it ranked real low as far as how they
received information.
Litrenta: Right. So that’s obviously an area we can still tap into.
Daniel: Yeah.
Hoffman: Probably you know it’s still being used in the social side of your life but maybe not on the.
Daniel: But even following lower than word of mouth which typically.
Hoffman: Parks and recreation.
Daniel: Again social that’s…
Tom Kelly: Right but you got to consider too that the, you’ve got about 57% of the responders ranged 36
to 50 net. That can be a little bit outside of Facebook and Twitter range so you’ve got to consider that,
yeah. I’m curious how this superimposes on your, I know Connections was first on your prior slide but I
thought Eblast and city web pages were a little farther.
Litrenta: They were and that’s how they have learned about them was the last one. This is how they
would like to learn about them. So they would like, they like Eblast and city web page more than what
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Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – September 27, 2011
they have learned about them. The next one talks about the Facebook account. Do you have a Facebook
account? The vast majority said no. Or actually said yes and the rest of them said no, which was typical
because obviously people have Facebook. It all depends on the amount of use they use their Facebook.
Question 8 then went on to say, are you aware that the City of Chanhassen and Rec Center Sports have
Facebook pages, and this is where we find that we don’t have awareness of the Facebook pages. So it’s
kind of, we can target that group, kind of get them to understand that we do have Facebook and which
seems to be lacking the knowledge of those Facebook pages. Question 9 then was quantitative. It said in
the spaces provided please list any programs or events you would like the park and recreation department
to offer. There is various parts. Pool was mentioned. Obviously it’s not as feasible as maybe a
volleyball league or yoga as was mentioned as well. And then finally question 10 had provide any
additional comments about the marketing techniques. We had lots of good jabs about it. One was an
interesting one that I’d like to share. One said they like to get the Connection because it gives them the
big picture of everything that’s going to go on. And then they like to get the Eblast and the Villager
reminders kind of thing that hey, oh yeah I haven’t signed up for basketball yet or I have, the Barnyard
Boogie is next week or something like that so that they don’t forget. And then one also said they would
like a previous section in the current Connection about upcoming events in the next Connection. Kind of
so that they know hey, basketball’s going to be in winter and then soccer’s going to be so maybe we can
choose which one or something like that. So the conclusions were found obviously that Chanhassen
Connection and Villager are very popular sources of information. We do have a 93% satisfaction rate
with the programs and there are lots of varying ideas for new programs. Many are not feasible but some
are attainable. Now onto recommendations. It is recommended that we continue to use the Connection
and Villager as ways to get information out as well as the Senior Connection in order to get all
demographics. We need to expand our following on Facebook through awareness. We don’t need any
other social media at the time. It didn’t seem like anyone was very well into Twitter or Flicker or any of
those. And print marketing was by far the most popular technique. Does anyone have any questions?
Daniel: I’m sure there are. Let’s start off with Peter.
Aldritt: Actually I don’t have any questions right now.
Caron: That was pretty thorough.
Cole Kelly: What did you think of the 16% response? Is that a good response?
Litrenta: Because it was such a large population that we had surveyed, over 2,000 people, I think
honestly that response rate was pretty typical now days of surveys. When I did one with my class, my
teacher was leading it who obviously knows how to do park and rec surveys. We got an 18% response
rate so it’s I think just because of the vast majority of people that we were doing was email, it was very
easy for them to just delete it right away rather than look into it more and I mean people throw away mail
too so it’s kind of just typical of right now.
Cole Kelly: So that’s a better response then you would have gotten mailing, I’m almost positive of that.
Now where did you get all these emails from? Are these people who are like signed up to get letters from
the City?
Litrenta: Yep. They’re in our Rec-net program. So if they have signed up for a program, then their email
is entered into the system and that’s how we did it.
Daniel: How far did this data go back?
Litrenta: That I’m unaware of.
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Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – September 27, 2011
Stutzman: It goes back a ways.
Daniel: Okay. Because I’m trying to remember if I got it.
Cole Kelly: No, I didn’t get it but I’m signed up because I get a few things from the City but I would
hope you would have deleted me out from getting it but I don’t know if it’s that sophisticated.
Sarles: I believe it’s as far as…Eblast and when you check a box it…emails by Eblast and so when
Lindsey sent that out it automatically cuts a certain amount of people that didn’t want, you know so we
actually have a much larger database than the 2,200 but we don’t send them to everybody.
Cole Kelly: And any idea of that database, how many of them are outdated?
Litrenta: Through, actually it was probably since tried 3,000 people and 2,200 actually succeeded in
getting the email.
Cole Kelly: Okay. Nicely done, thank you Lindsey.
Stutzman: The other filter I will add too is that is one per household so if a household has multiple kids,
it will look for the unique addresses as well so it won’t send one per kid. Again that’s 2,200 households
versus every email address or every kid that has the same email address.
Daniel: Well given 2,200 households, that’s still a big cross section of the city that you’re tapping into.
Steve.
Scharfenberg: No. Nothing.
Tom Kelly: So did you revise, sorry… If a husband and a wife have two different email addresses, are
you only sending it to one of those two email addresses?
Stutzman: No, it only sorts by the uniqueness of the email address so generally a lot of times that does
put the same email address but again could be you know the husband and wife do put individual email
addresses down and they’re the people on that, it could have gone to both.
Tom Kelly: Okay. The thing, question 10 where the recommended feasible events more kid based or are
they more adult based from what you…
Litrenta: It was probably almost half and half actually.
Tom Kelly: Okay.
Litrenta: A lot of adults wanted, they kind of had different wants. Volleyball leagues. Something like
that. Just, yoga at different times type of a thing rather than at whatever time we offer it now which I’m
not sure. They just wanted different times. Maybe different offerings which probably suit them more
than it does maybe the entire population.
Tom Kelly: Okay. I thought both the content and the presentation graphics were great so.
Litrenta: Thanks.
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Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – September 27, 2011
Daniel: Trying to get the statistic. Oh it was almost. So you had at least had a couple people very
dissatisfied with the performance or recreation. I mean did you get any other information based off of
that what were, if they continued down the line as far as what some of their issues were in the comment
section?
Litrenta: No, we couldn’t track individually what people had put down because that’s part of the
anonymity of the survey.
Daniel: Oh no, understand. Obviously the feedback that you got as far as some of those issues obviously
I assume it would continue that the negative feedback, what were some of the highlights?
Litrenta: You mean from the satisfaction rate?
Daniel: Yeah.
Litrenta: Actually with the satisfaction rate there was a large population of the not 93% so of the 7% that
didn’t answer that question so it was like 5, or 6% I think so it was like 1.1% were dissatisfied.
Daniel: Dissatisfied, okay.
Litrenta: And the rest of them didn’t respond to that question.
Daniel: Gotch ya, okay. But overall I want to Lindsey you did a fantastic job. I means it very good
information, and I assume from the staff standpoint you’re going to utilize that information then too.
Obviously target from a marketing perspective how we’re going to make the public aware of our activities
and promotions so, I certainly do like the idea. I think the glaring thing I mentioned about Facebook out
there, the question becomes Facebook is a connection method more so than a marketing…fork out a lot of
money so, but yeah I think that’s something that we can certainly highlight in the Connection. I think at
the next time is Chan, we’re on Facebook. Are we doing that now? I mean I go through the Connection
and look for specific things but I mean that’s something we could probably highlight given that this is our
print and our print space. I think it’d be a fantastic idea because again that word of mouth can help
spread, especially for a lot of the events. Concert in the Park and other ones that we have. ChanJam. So
great job though. I want to say thank you very much.
Hoffman: It’d also be good information for the council. Currently they’re debating an electronic
Connection versus printed Connection so it should be good information for the council.
Daniel: What’s the cost per year in the Connection for printing?
Ruegemer: Is it about $8,000 per?
Daniel: $18,000 per edition?
Ruegemer: That’s $8,000 per so 32 roughly.
Daniel: Okay, and they’re looking to do the electronic version or, and/or?
Hoffman: They’re just considering it as a policy alternative instead of print but they’ve not made a
decision.
Daniel: Okay. Thank you Lindsey.
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Stutzman: If I may Chair Daniels I’d also like to point out to the commission that now that Lindsey’s
internship has been completed she has been invited to stay on as our new Rec Center Sports Coordinator.
She was serving as an interim in that position for us this summer. She did a wonderful job and she’s been
invited to stay on for as long as she, as long as she can obviously knowing it’s a part time job. She’s
looking for full but she’ll be sticking around as long as we can keep her so we’re excited for that.
Daniel: Great, congratulations.
Litrenta: Thank you.
2011/2012 ICE SKATING RINK LOCATIONS.
Stutzman: Alright, thanks Chair Daniels. In getting ready for winter, I know that’s probably a bad word
at this point since Commissioner Scharfenberg and I see a couple of you are still in shorts, but looking
ahead to that season, it has been looked at the rinks again this winter and looking at the numbers last year
as well as some of the recommendations that have been made in the past. After going back through it
staff feels that the recommendations that were made last year and the sites that we had available would be
the same for this year, which would be the family rink and the two hockey rinks at the Rec Center. The
family and the pleasure, or and the hockey rink here at City Center as well as North Lotus, and then
continuing the part time hours for the family rink out at Roundhouse.
Daniel: Yeah, I agree. I mean that’s more or less just a service because of it’s location. Proximity I
should say to the city here when it comes to Roundhouse and we have great attendance with regards to the
Rec Center and City Center.
Stutzman: I would also say that since the meeting with Roundhouse, that neighborhood has really kind of
followed through with their word and it has been used more on weekends and I heard almost no
complaints that it’s not, that the warming house itself is not open on week nights.
Daniel: Okay. Are they still clamoring Todd for a hockey rink I take it? Okay. Comments, questions for
John. Okay. Thank you John. So we’re basically we’re going to stick with what we did last year in
essence. Excellent, and let’s hope that it’s a short winter.
Cole Kelly: Depends upon your perspective I think.
Stutzman: Yes.
Tom Kelly: Is there a motion we need to make with this or no? Todd?
Hoffman: Yes, please.
Daniel: Oh there is, so we continue. Alright.
Cole Kelly: Real quick John, we kind of talked about this after the season and this is just kind of a
summary of what we discussed?
Stutzman: Yes. These are the numbers that we discussed last year kind of looking through it and then
having some time to digress and kind of go back through and look at that and obviously like I, not a lot
has changed since last year. I thought things went pretty well last season and with a little more consistent
winter, I won’t say longer but consistent winter I think we had temperatures obviously all over the board
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which lowered some of these numbers in general. I think if we get a consistent winter these numbers will
be even higher again this winter.
Cole Kelly: And no other questions I make a motion. I make a motion that we go along with the staff
recommendation to maintain the ice skating rink locations as the same as last season as they have pointed
out.
Carron: Second.
Cole Kelly moved, Carron seconded that the Park and Recreation Commission recommend that the
following ice skating rink locations be maintained for the 2011/2012 season:
Chanhassen Rec Center-Warming House North Lotus Park-Warming House
1-Family Rink 1-Family Rink
2-Hockey Rinks 1-Hockey Rink
City Center Park-Warming House Roundhouse Park-Warming House
1-Family Rink 1-Family Rink (Limited Hours)
1-Hockey Rink
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0.
RECOMMEND 2012-2016 PARK AND TRAIL ACQUISITION AND DEVELOPMENT
CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM (CIP) AMENDMENTS.
Hoffman: Thank you Chair Daniels, members of the commission. Since you last made your
recommendation to the City Council, we have received updated cost estimates for two projects. Those
being the connection stairway at Highway 41 trail and the extension of that trail to the Chaska Road area
and then a crosswalk to the west side of Highway 41 and then the other updated cost estimate is on the
City share of the Highway 41 trail and pedestrian underpass project. Council did review these last night
but these will require your recommendation for it to be included in the council’s future packet for
consideration. Primarily the cost drivers behind the County project, the $633,282 are the cost of the trail
outside of the park and so as you see in the cost splits the County pays for the trail inside the park. The
City outside of the park in the ditch line. The cost of the trail outside of the park are much higher.
Anytime you build a trail in a ditch line of a highway you have a lot of water structures that you need to
deal with and the primary driver, cost driver is the wall at the unnamed lake, right around the half a
million dollar vicinity to build that wall. Retaining wall structures. Guard rails and other activities at that
location. So it’s recommended that the commission modify your previous recommendation and include
$205,000 for the trail connection and stairway and $633,000 for the Highway 41 pedestrian underpass
and trail grant match. Be happy to answer any questions about where the numbers were and where they
went to or any other questions that the commission has.
Tom Kelly: ...mind if I ask?
Daniel: Please.
Tom Kelly: I know we’ve asked this before but I’m still confused at the difference between, I understand
the Highway 41 trail extension that would include a stairway but it also includes some trail.
Hoffman: Correct.
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Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – September 27, 2011
Tom Kelly: I’m having a hard time distinguishing what trail that 192 includes as opposed to what trail is
being included in the 633.
Hoffman: Okay. John, do you have access to that folder you can work on?
Stutzman: Is there one in the G Drive that I would find or?
Hoffman: Just try the city website and, or the County. While John’s looking at that so we can look at it
in the real world, the County project starts at Longacres Drive on the south and stops at the driveway to
the middle school.
Tom Kelly: Okay.
Hoffman: And that’s, so they made that application. It was funded. We started getting into the project
and we’re like okay so where does this thing stop? Well it stops in the middle school driveway. For us to
be involved in the project we said well we can’t have it stop there. What are the people going to do north
of that location? How are the kids going to get to the school that are coming down Chaska Road? If
you’re familiar with that area, Chaska Road heads then back to the east, a little bit north and it accesses a
lot of neighborhoods. And then also you have that trail crossing at State Highway 41 that goes to the west
over to the Minnewashta neighborhoods and so we said we need to extend that trail so it’s our portion, the
city portion, the separate project is from the driveway of the school to Chaska Road. Then it includes a
trail crossing, a pedestrian crossing through Highway 41 across to the west side.
Tom Kelly: Okay. And includes a stairway back at, so there are two disjoint.
Hoffman: Yep.
Tom Kelly: Pieces of land…
Hoffman: Yep. Correct. The stairway connection, which was not included in the project.
Tom Kelly: Okay, that’s what I was trying to figure out where the extra trail was. And a second
question, I just had to ask. What’s an archeological study?
Hoffman: To find out what you have going as far as you know burial mounds or old Indian encampments
or. It’s mandated by the State.
Cole Kelly: Todd, what amounts did we have allocated for this before?
Hoffman: $400,000.
Cole Kelly: Okay.
Hoffman: And then I believe it was, the other one jumped around. It was 250 and then it dropped to 165
I think. The last time you made your recommendation it was 165.
Carron: And now it’s 192 or 205?
Hoffman: 205.
Carron: Okay.
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Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – September 27, 2011
Hoffman: The $400,000 was based off of a 60% plan set and then when it went to MnDOT that’s when
the jockeying started. It included, as we talked a little bit about earlier. At the lake it was going to be
kind of split so you grade it halfway down and you don’t have to add as much fill or as much wall. The
State didn’t want that. They wanted a bridge. The bridge would have taken it way up and over cost
estimates so they kind of negotiated to, what you’ll see there is you’ll see road, guard rail, separation, trail
and then the trail will be basically at the same level as the road and then the wall will be all at the bottom
side, and then a fence on top of the wall.
Daniel: What’s their reasoning for not going with what you guys had recommended with having a
different level?
Hoffman: I don’t know all the reasons but MnDOT just didn’t like the design. Snow loads going off the
road. Dropping 4 feet onto the pedestrian trail. Difficulty of maintenance. Long term maintenance.
Daniel: I guess because 4 feet versus actually right on changes the whole snow dynamic. I mean I
obviously understand that but I mean I guess it is disappointing from the sense that you know we’re
looking at an extra $200,000. $230,000 in a budget right now that’s already fragile based on our
upcoming other commitments that we have with regards to CIP over the next year, especially with 2012.
I mean that’s going to take the biggest chunk we’ve had out of the CIP program in quite some time.
Hoffman: Yeah and you know there’s no guarantee that the Bandimere acquisition will happen. That
was added at the last go around and I know it was a discussion amongst the commissioners that well
we’re going to go below our million bucks but there’s also some conversation well that’s why the million
dollars was there for opportunities such as that but the Highway 41 trail project started in 2005 with an
unsuccessful application. Then in 2007 it was successful. The original cost estimate was $1,250,000 and
so but that was an estimate just to put a number forward to seek the million dollars in federal funds. The
federal match now is, or the federal funding is a million 90 so that’s the catalyst behind the project. The
County cannot build, they can’t pay for a trail outside of their park. By Metropolitan Council they can
only fund things that are inside their boundaries of their park and so that’s why they came to the City, do
you want to participate in this project? Do you want to build the trail outside of the park and the council
and park commissioners have been supportive since 2007 so once you get down to these costs, and as Mr.
Carron, or Commissioner Carron can speak to, now we have bidding. We still don’t know if these are
true costs until this bid comes in and then we’ll find out if this is a true cost or not.
Carron: Are they both engineered by SRF?
Hoffman: Yes.
Carron: Are they going to be bid separately or together?
Hoffman: Separately. They have to be because of the accounting for the federal grant.
Carron: Okay.
Scharfenberg: So then what is the likelihood that the numbers will change?
Hoffman: Oh this is just an estimate. This number will, whatever the bid is, the low bid will be the
project cost.
Scharfenberg: Okay.
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Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – September 27, 2011
Hoffman: And we will pay based on the percentages that are in here.
Scharfenberg: Okay. What did council have to say last night in terms of discussion on the numbers?
Hoffman: They wanted to talk about why, you know why they’d be jumping around but they were
satisfied with the responses and the discussion through MnDOT. The MnDOT review process was very
long. That’s why this project’s been delayed a year due to the shutdown and the MnDOT review process
so construction will start hopefully in April of next year. The Council has to approve the joint powers
agreement, which designates the cost splits and then they have to approve the plans and specifications in
October. This project will most likely be bid in January-February of 2012 and then will start in late
March, early April of 2012. There’s still some timing issues with the Highway 5 shut down. Highway 5
is going to be shut down for construction. The Minnewashta Parkway underpass will shut it down for 2
to 5 weeks. 2 to 6 weeks and so both of these have to be coordinated because 41 will be the alternate
route for 5 to get you up to 7, to get you around that closure so one will go first. I’m not sure which one
will go first. Which closure. But Council supported the project.
Scharfenberg: Is the County going to build those trails inside the park at the same time that this whole
project is done or is that something that’s going to come later?
Hoffman: It’s included in the project.
Scharfenberg: Okay.
Hoffman: So it’s about a mile and a half inside and 1.1 outside. The trail will go all the way to the beach.
The pedestrian asphalt trail will go all the way to the beach.
Daniel: Revenue wise, right now we just can only go off what our baseline is and that’s it? Are there any
other anticipated developments?
Hoffman: For park dedication?
Daniel: Yep.
Hoffman: Yeah, we’re doing better than the 75 but again there are developments around but a lot of them
are infill developments and then the two that are going on right now that are generating most of the
building permits are the ones you took parkland from so you’re not generating any revenue there so.
Daniel: Okay.
Hoffman: Long term, the number is somewhere in the $20 million dollar range in future park dedication
revenues. But if you take a look at the life span of our community to build out our park system, 20 years
if you spend a million, invest a million a year in that park and trail system you’ll be done with it so.
Carron: We’re just going to have to get creative in 2016.
Daniel: Very creative. As far as, I think some of the discussion we had, based off of what we see, we’re
all in agreement Todd that we’re not going to change for 2012 unless, do we have the opportunity to
move things in and out right now? Is that going to be part of the discussion today? Or is this, this is what
we’ve made our recommendation to the council?
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Hoffman: You can make any recommendation you’d like.
Daniel: Okay. Because quite frankly I mean for things that we have, with exception of the Rice Marsh
Lake trail loop planning, and that’s obviously dependent upon what Eden Prairie’s not completing their
section of it, correct?
Hoffman: Yes.
Daniel: Okay. Everything else with regards to a disc golf course and Herman Field basketball court, we
can swing that just on, I mean those can be, those are small in comparison to what we could be nicked for
with regards to 41 right now alone. Let alone Bandimere so I’d, my personal opinion is we just keep
those things in there because we pushed a couple of those already out. They’re too small. Unless you see
anything Cole that you or anyone else in the commission here.
Tom Kelly: The 101/Pleasant View, is that $95,000 or is that $80,000? It looks like it’s $80,000. It said
it’s $80,000 back on, back at the description on page, there aren’t page numbers. I’m sorry, no. It’s not
that one. It’s the 41 to downtown Victoria. That one is listed at $80,000 and we had it listed as $59,600.
Hoffman: There was expenditures in 2011 of $20,399.
Tom Kelly: Oh gotch ya, okay. Okay.
Hoffman: And that’s the remaining $59,601 is remaining.
Tom Kelly: Sorry about that, thanks.
Hoffman: It’s an accounting split.
Cole Kelly: So Todd are you saying that these numbers, the $633,000 and the $205,000 could still go up
or is this more of a conservative estimate?
Hoffman: These are estimates, engineering estimates based off of a 98% plan set so depending on the
bidding climate, they could go down or up but they’re going to close.
Cole Kelly: Okay.
Carron: I would say that the bigger one, the first one there with the underpass is going to attract a lot of
bidders because it’s a good sized job so you could see it going down on that one but the other one is small
enough that you might be seeing a little bit more money on the staircase.
Hoffman: It’s a 2 million dollar job and the other job is going to go out for bid at the same time as the 7
plus million dollar Highway 5 job so there’s going to be people looking at trying to tackle…
Carron: Oh it is, and it’s a good time to bid because no one’s got work going into next year so.
Daniel: Are there any changes with regards to some of the projects on the list for 2012 that any of the
commissioners would like to recommend or discuss? No? Steve? Tom? No? Cole?
Cole Kelly: I think we pared it down pretty much last time to what we thought it should be. You know
with the addition of expenditures, you know maybe we want to look at paring back the trees to the
$15,000 going forward for a few years but I think that’s something we can tackle next year.
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Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – September 27, 2011
Daniel: Yeah. Okay.
Hoffman: After 2012, again the Bandimere Community Park expansion, that road project is short right
now so they’re looking for, they’re trying to find the additional money to make that project go forward
and so once we know it’s a go then we’ll continue our negotiations with the Nettesheim family and that
may or may not happen. There’s a lot of things that need to occur between now and then. And then
looking forward 2013 and 14, those two park projects are going to be really some exciting times for the
commission to be involved with the new neighborhoods that are out there. Every other house,
homeowner that moves in at least gives us a call and asks us about the future park. Tells us how excited
they are about those and if it wasn’t for those parks, that was one of their big decisions in purchasing at
those locations.
Daniel: Are there things that we could do to stop to, I mean right now those are just fields, right? Grass
fields.
Hoffman: They’re dirt.
Daniel: They’re just dirt fields. I mean do we want to take in consideration just staging them? You
know putting grass, just like an open, plain old open field.
Hoffman: Well what we’re, that’s the plan. The Riley Ridge parking lot is going to, we’re going to
advance that out of that $250,000 since the developer’s right there. We’ll do the same thing with Pioneer.
Get the parking lots in so they have them, and we’re going to build these parks on an in-house basis. Act
as a general contractor. Work with the neighborhoods in the playground. Do a lot of the grading, the
finished grading. You’ll watch at Pioneer Pass, this fall they’re going to grade out their entire Phase II.
They’ve done so well in Phase I. They’ll put a big dirt pile at the top of the road on a couple of occasions.
Grade out all their lots in Phase II. Take those earth movers across the new road, Bluff Creek Drive. Fill
the park in. Complete the grading on the park and then they’ll give that to us in the spring so they’ll
grade it and seed it down with some cover seed in the spring. It’ll grow up and we’ll have a grass field to
start with in 2012 and then moving into 2013.
Daniel: Okay because I mean again that at least gives them something to do. Kids to play around with.
Hoffman: Yeah the challenge is, you know it’s just like a house remodel. There’s only so many things
you can stage in a park. You know you don’t want to go back and rip it up again so you want to start and
try to finish out and we’re going to be challenged at the $350,000 and $250,000 to finish out what we
have on those park concept plans but we’ll be working hard to make that happen.
Daniel: Okay.
Aldritt: Is there still talk about the re-route for 101 or the way they’re going to do that? Is it set in stone
how they’re going to re-route that?
Hoffman: South of Lyman?
Aldritt: Yeah, south of Lyman.
Hoffman: It’s not set in stone.
Aldritt: Okay. There’s still discussion on how they’re going to.
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Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – September 27, 2011
Hoffman: There was a lot of public testimony about the removal of trees, the straightening of the road.
Aldritt: That’s what I thought, okay. They’re still trying to kind of adjust it.
Hoffman: Yep. So there’s a couple things going on in their design and then the budget, the overall
budget.
Aldritt: Okay.
Hoffman: One of their questions was to come back and see if we had additional dollars to help pay for
trails and underpasses, and you know what the answer was to that.
Daniel: Talk to the commissioners?
Hoffman: No.
Cole Kelly: So we’re not, we’re not negotiating on the house until we know how 101 is going to shape
out is basically what you’re telling me? Okay.
Aldritt: Any ideas when that’s going to shape out?
Hoffman: Within the next couple of months. We have completed the appraisal and we’ve delivered that
to the property owner so they have that.
Cole Kelly: What did the appraisal come in at?
Hoffman: It’s under the $500,000. I don’t recall the exact number. It’s in the high $400,000’s.
Daniel: Which given the size of the house and the acreage that it sits on, that’s understandable.
Essentially all you’re paying for is the acreage I assume, right? At least that’s what we’ve done down at.
Hoffman: And you know it’s, you’re probably work with a homeowner that thought it was worth twice
that at some point so.
Daniel: Okay.
Scharfenberg: So I make a motion.
Daniel: Let’s go ahead.
Scharfenberg: Move to adopt staff’s recommendation to amend the 2012-2016 park and trail acquisition
and development capital improvement program to include $205,000 for Highway 41 trail extension
stairway and $633,000 for the Highway 41 pedestrian underpass trail grant match.
Tom Kelly: Second.
Scharfenberg moved, Tom Kelly seconded that the Park and Recreation Commission amend the
2012-2016 Park and Trail Acquisition and Development Capital Improvement Program
recommendation to include $205,000 for the Highway 41 Trail Extension/Stairway, and $633,000
13
Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – September 27, 2011
for the Highway 41 Pedestrian Underpass/Trail Grant Match. All voted in favor and the motion
carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0.
Daniel: And thank you commissioners for working with us on another successful CIP program.
Hoffman: It’s going to be fun to see some dirt move. It’s been a long time on the Highway 41 project.
Caron: It’s going to be a big year next year.
Daniel: Yep, it will be. Okay. Well let’s go onto reports.
RECREATION PROGRAM REPORTS:
2011 KLEINBANK SUMMER CONCERT SERIES EVALUATION.
Stutzman: Thank you. Going back to summer from starting with winter. Looking back at our summer
concert series, once again as part of Lindsey’s internship she assisted in a lot of the responsibilities of that
and did a wonderful job so I’d like to thank her for everything she did this summer. We had another good
summer highlighted by a couple great concerts throughout the season. Big Walter Smith and the Groove
Merchants was our first one. We had about 350 people to kick off the show. That concert. The Splatter
Sisters continue to be a great kid show. Got a lot of daycares and daycare providers send their kids too
throughout the year, and then of course we had Tim Mahoney in town later in the summer, which was a
fantastic show. We also had a rarity going from one of the coldest shows of the year to the hottest show
of the year within the span of a week which definitely made for an interesting, interesting conversion but
also challenging in attendance but all in all we were still able to average about 200 people a show this
summer which was up from last year. Certainly like I said the Big Walter Smith audience of 350 and the
Tim Mahoney audience of 700 made a big difference in that average as well. For those of you who were
not in attendance for the Tim Mahoney show, it was pretty spectacular to see that park as packed as it was
and to see him stick around and interact with the audience. He played about an extra 10 to 15 minutes in
addition to what he agreed upon in his contract. He stayed an extra probably half hour-45 minutes selling
CD’s and signing every CD that he sold too so he was a great person to work with. He was great to have
here in Chanhassen and he and I have had conversations about how we can keep him involved here in
Chanhassen in one capacity or another. Whether it’s the concert series or not. Once again KleinBank
also was the title sponsor. Their donation of $2,000 is still very appreciated. We started some
conversations the beginning of last summer talking about how we might be able to expand that
partnership. Whether that’s expansion of the concert series magnets or other ways to get them involved
or additional financial donations but those conversations have been started and will continue into next
year as well. But all in all it was another fun summer with a lot of great music and if any commissioners
have any questions or comments I’d welcome them at this time.
Daniel: Commissioners.
Caron: Another good job.
Daniel: Yep. Absolutely John. Great job and glad to see it’s a success. Especially when you have 700
people attending a concert right in City Center here, I mean that’s packed.
Stutzman: It was very full. It was really cool. That’s awesome.
Daniel: Great.
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Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – September 27, 2011
2011 LAKE ANN PARK CONCESSION/BOAT RENTALS.
Ruegemer: Thanks Chair Daniels. We started out slow in June with a series of days that were rainy and
cold and that kind of spread out through the month of June itself but we did rebound nicely in the month
of July and August and really, it seemed like it really didn’t die down all that much in August like it
normally does. Once it gets past the first of August it kind of you know people are on vacation, that last
vacation before the kids start back in school so we really kind of held strong the last 2 months of the
season with that and we rebounded nicely so just looking on the annual basis, you know is there things
that we can improve with efficiencies or equipment, that sort of thing here so just general comments. You
know we really tried to simplify the operation on an annual basis to keep it simple with quick point of
sale, whether that’s bottled soda or pre-packaged items. Whether it be ice cream or candy, chips, that sort
of thing. We look to solve our equipment problems that we had with our Slush Puppy machines this
summer. It seemed to be a season to forget so we’ll work on that with our vendor and make sure that we
get that fixed before next year, since they are a very popular item. With Lindsey’s work that she did on
our marketing campaign it looks like we can use some work with Facebook and some other ways to kind
of get the word out. It looks like the beaches in Chan are popular, according to our surveys with that so
it’s something we can expand upon which we look forward to. We really tried to keep an eye on staff
again this year and you know if there are times that are slower that we’d send people home or potentially
close if we need to and just not have staff out there just to have staff out there so we really tried to keep an
st
eye on that. We’re going to continue to close down at 6:00, an hour earlier starting August 1 so we were
open to 7:00 up to that point, and we’ll revisit that here for next year too and kind of…kind of keep an
eye on staff costs with that. Going to take a look at the policies and procedures. Maybe could use some
updating with that as well. Just looking at different, I really want to look at next year too investigating if
we can institute a price increase for boats and for food. I think it’s time that we take a look at that to
potentially increase our revenues with that and I think it’s time for that. We’ve been holding steady for a
while and we’ll take a look at that for next year. And just really I think this is the first year as far as my
main mode of communication with staff was through texting. That’s what they prefer so if there’s any
type of information that they wanted, we’d text it back and forth and they seemed to prefer that and it
seemed to be an efficient way of doing that and they didn’t really check their emails as much as I thought
they would so we really kind of abandoned that and went to texting with our staff so. So the data as far as
getting into the…
Hoffman: If you talk to a lot of employers of young people, that’s what they’re doing.
Tom Kelly: Yeah, email is for the old people now. If it’s just purely office I prefer that too.
Ruegemer: Just you know attached with the memo is just kind of all the supporting material as it relates
to kind of our expenses. The number of boat rentals that we had. The total hours that we had for staff
and the total wages, and then supplies. Supplies costs seem to be increasing as well with increased fuel
cost. Fuel surplus charges, that sort of thing here too but all in all we did turn a profit out there again as
well so that’s always certainly my goal in supervising that operation is to kind of keep it lean and mean
and make sure that revenues are coming in. Even when we start slow we did rebound nicely in the past
so. So just a kind of daily sales. Boat sales. Concession wages, all that kind of stuff is also attached to
the memo itself and I’ll entertain any questions at this point from the commissioners if you have any
tonight.
Daniel: Commissioners.
Scharfenberg: Any issues with lifeguards this year? Did that go pretty well Jerry?
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Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – September 27, 2011
Ruegemer: You know what, it really did. You can see the numbers back in the administration packet
with that. We seem to have a very good working relationship with Minnetonka and yeah, I mean all in all
everything’s going very good there as well.
Daniel: Go ahead, go.
Cole Kelly: Jerry, I was noticing it looks like what, the canoes and the paddleboats are the most sought
after boats and when you’re talking about raising fees, is it one of those things where you look at what’s
used the most. We’ll raise fees on that and you know you look at row boats are hardly used at all so
maybe you lower fees for it to try and get at least what you have out a little more type of thing. Are you
thinking kind of along those lines?
Ruegemer: You bet. Yeah we’re doing to kind of play around with that and take a look at what kind of
makes the most sense with that and track. You know we’re really starting to, you know Lindsey and I and
made really an effort to if there’s a company picnics out there to really kind of push, if you want us to
reserve some watercraft and stuff like this, we’re going to continue with that as well to increase. We can
certainly can get those kayaks out a little bit more. I thought those would be gang busters for the summer
but we’ll continue to get the information out with that so to answer your question, yeah. We’ll take a look
at that and see what we can, if we can make it a little bit cheaper to get some of the other ones that aren’t
used as much. We only have 2 row boats as well and we do have other multiple. We have 3 canoes and 6
paddleboats so just by the numbers those are going to get out more than.
Cole Kelly: Right, so it’s easier to raise the rates on those. And why do you think the kayaks didn’t pick
up this year?
Ruegemer: You know I think it’s just people are finding out that they’re there and we’re just going to
kind of continue to get that word out. Now we got through one season now and people are kind of
becoming aware of that so it’ll just, it’ll continue to increase.
Daniel: Any additional suggestions by customers as far as other amenities? Other things they’d like to
see rented.
Ruegemer: You know I think we’re kind of have a pretty good variety right now with what we have and I
think the kayaks were really the biggest kind of the missing piece of the puzzle that we needed to have.
Caron: What shape is your floating stock in?
Ruegemer: What shape?
Caron: Yeah.
Ruegemer: Some is aging. Some is not but you know for the most part it’s been really good about the
last year or two. We kind of went through a period of some of the older equipment that we had, we were
constantly bending rudders or paddles were breaking or steering wheels would, kids would rough house
on them. I think Greg heavily welded them and a couple of the paddleboats were probably out more than
they were in but you know knock on wood, we had a really good season this year.
Hoffman: The things they break continuously, when they do are paddleboats and trolling motors.
Everything else is.
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Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – September 27, 2011
Ruegemer: And there will be…obviously buy another trolling motor in the summer and there are times
where they kind of rotate themselves out of usefulness and just you know, we keep them for parts and
rotate a new one in and the same with the paddleboats. I think our oldest paddleboat’s about a ’99 I
believe at this point. So they’re a big ticket item so we try to really run them and keep them going.
Hoffman: Just out of curiosity did any commissioners see the electric boat waterskiing? I think it was in
Nokomis.
Tom Kelly: Yep.
Hoffman: So that may be something you’ll have to consider in the future if electronic waterskiing shows
up on Lake Ann, is that a surface use that’s going to be acceptable by the public.
Daniel: I suppose it does meet the criteria doesn’t it.
Hoffman: Currently by ordinance it would be permitted, yes.
Daniel: Yeah. Interesting. Alright, well thank you Jerry. If there’s no other questions we can move on
to 2011 Halloween party preview.
2011 HALLOWEEN PARTY PREVIEW.
Stutzman: Thank you again Chair Daniels and members of the commission. Once again it is almost time
for the annual Halloween party. I believe this is year 28 or 27. 27, 28 that it’s been going on. It’ll be
nd
held on the 22 of October, so that’s coming up in just a couple weeks and it will be from 5:30 to 7:30
out at the Rec Center. A lot of the activities will be similar this year as they have been in the past year.
We’ll have the scary rooms and the refreshments, the entertainment as well as the carnival style games
and the hayrides. A couple different things that will be occurring this year, something I haven’t done on
my tenure is the entertainment was so well received last year, I’m going to give it a try and see how well
Don B will do again this year. I talked with a number of people after last year’s performance asking me
why we don’t bring him back every year. I typically say I like to provide a variety, which is why but just
to kind of see, test the waters with this because he is an outstanding entertainer, we’re going to do that
again this year. Additionally Flash Portrait Studios over in Eden Prairie is going to be running the photo
ops station and they’re going to be providing anybody who wants with a I believe 4 by 6 at no cost print
of their kids so that’s going to be one, a nice piece that should be added this year. We are expecting
anywhere between 500 and 600 kids out there, which has been pretty far with their families so should be
another great year. Flyers will be coming out in the Villager as well as a couple schools around the
Chanhassen area here in the next couple weeks as well. The last piece I would add is if any
commissioners are interested in volunteering, we’d certainly love to see you guys out there and would
love, welcome any help with trick or treating or any other aspect that you guys may be interested in.
Daniel: Great. Question for John. If not, thank you John. Looking forward to it.
Ruegemer: And we do have costumes for commissioners if you would like to borrow one. It makes it
easier for you to make your decision.
Cole Kelly: My wife will send me right out I’m sure.
Stutzman: And I do have a list of those costumes if you need them.
Hoffman: Yeah, you can pick.
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Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – September 27, 2011
Ruegemer: They’re tasteful.
Tom Kelly: You don’t have the dog and cow anymore?
Hoffman: That cow’s tasteful?
Daniel: Thanks again John. We appreciate it. Let’s move on.
PARK AND TRAIL MAINTENANCE REPORT.
Gregory: Thank you. This fall’s proven to be a busy one for us and that. We’ve basically lost all of our
seasonal’s except for 3 retired individuals that I have. They’re pretty much taking care of all of our lawn
mowing right now and mowing along of our trails. Trying to get our fall mowing for that done. My full
time employees and that, they kind of pick up the slack on all the areas where we lost seasonal’s and that.
Ballfield maintenance and taking care of garbage and everything else that goes along with the park
maintenance. They also did lay out, stripe 19 soccer fields for this fall and kept up 10 ballfields with the
striping and that on that too for this fall playing. This summer and that we had several storms that rolled
through and actually took down quite a few trees, branches in our trails, in our parks and everything else
so we did spend a lot of time cleaning off trails this year and trying to get them, and sweeping them. We
did have one major incident out in Minnewashta Heights where a huge oak came down and took one of
our memorial benches and just disintegrated it. I mean it was absolutely, it even destroyed the cement
pad that was underneath it. And so the individual and that they called and let us know about it and they
want us to get out there. When the guys went out and cut the trees up and that, they were able to find the
plaque on it yet and we got that back to the individual and they were happy about that and we did replace
it. We’ve got a new bench out there, a new plaque and everything and so they’re very happy about it
now.
Daniel: Very good, I was just going to ask about that.
Gregory: Yeah it was, there was nothing left of this bench at all for a concrete bench. This year we had a
couple of groups that worked with us and that. St. Hubert’s Summer Stretch. They’ve been here oh a
couple of times now and they came with about 15 kids and we had them out at Bluff Creek. They worked
real good. We take these groups and do chipping around our trees. It gives us a chance to, the guys will
get out with the dump trucks and everything else and they’ll do the shoveling and really help us out in
that case. We had one new group, Camp Serve that helped us this year and they worked for about 2 hours
a day but they worked for 5 days and there were different groups that came in. We had anywhere from in
the morning and afternoon groups, we had anywhere from 5 kids to 15 kids and they basically worked,
they worked one with Todd out at Greenwood Shores. We hauled sand in and they did all the leveling of
the sand and got that looking nice out there. And then 2 days they worked with one of our maintenance
crews and did buckthorn removal along the Lake Ann to Greenwood Shores trail. Two other days they
worked at Lake Ann and going to the Greenwood Shores area and then picking up garbage and Lindsey
worked with them that day so, it was a new group and that and it’s, they’re younger kids and that so it
was a little different in that. We were lucky we had mothers and fathers that were along helping too so it
helped out a little bit there so.
Hoffman: The nice thing about the last two days, it was the Thursday and the Friday right before
Miracles of Mitch so they cleaned up the park nicely for that.
Daniel: Oh great.
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Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – September 27, 2011
Gregory. Also we built a trail here just about a week ago and that from the Hilltop shelter at Lake Ann
down to the new stairs that goes down to Lake Ann. Down to the beach area and that. We did, that was
all done in-house. We got it all ready. The Streets paved it for us and now we’re back filling it and
getting it, getting everything finished with it so that, we’ve got a new trail there. And we’ve also got all
of our patching done on all of our trails. Any of the complaints or any areas that we were able to find.
We did have some issues along some of the swampy areas where we’ve got muskrats and that. They’re
starting to tunnel underneath the trails and all of a sudden we’ve got holes coming along. They’re just
falling in so we’ve got, as far as we know we’ve got them all taken care of and that for this year so
hopefully we’re ready to go into winter and our trail’s in good shape.
Daniel: Dale did we do anything more with Sentence to Serve or is that program done?
Gregory: No. They were actually still in, working and that and they were, we used them a couple of
times this summer.
Daniel: Okay, great.
Gregory: They were here I think in my last report and they did work the downtown. They did that and
we’ve had them out at the cemetery raking and working down there so. Right now it’s still around so we
still keep working with them.
Daniel: Questions for Dale. Well thank you Dale. Certainly appreciate the report and good luck with all
the fall clean-up this year as well.
Gregory: Thank you.
RECREATION CENTER REPORT.
Sarles: Thank you Chair Daniel. We are now calling ourselves Senior Center West right now. Whenever
Sue calls me on the phone I just answer, Senior Center West. But today we had the Chanoliers singing
and serenading the little ones as they were coming in for dance and yesterday of course was a big day.
We had bridge club and book club and I think we’ve got bingo coming up later this week again so. You
know they’re getting used to it. Week 3 now of being over with us over at the Rec Center so we’ve had 2
weeks of instruction from the seniors on how to set it up and I think we’re down. We’ve got it down pat
now. We moved the piano into the right spot for the singers today. They were really happy so, no but we
were shut down for a couple weeks this summer. We did of course the annual resurfacing of the gym and
the studio floors. Did some deep cleaning in the facilities so it’s looking really good again this fall. Back
up and running, everybody was up and I was gone for a week for vacation and came back and it’s like
night and day when we’re shut down. All of a sudden the kids are back in school and the gym, we’re
back. All the programs are going on so it’s been a busy, busy fall so far. We’ve had a few Dance for
Fun. We’ve had 3 open houses. Our dance numbers are very consistent with last year so we’re at 194
girls dancing this fall. Right now we are in bring a friend week and so any of the dancers who bring a
friend, that the dancers sign up for a class, they both get $5.00 off their winter session so, just a little way
to boost up a couple of our classes that aren’t full yet but most of them are running above the minimum so
that’s always good. Rec Center Sports, as John said, Lindsey we’re very happy to have Lindsey with us
and continuing on. She’s doing a great job. We had our open house and after you guys left from the bike
th
ride on August 27 we had about 75 people that came and went through the program. If you are friends
of the Rec Center Sports on Facebook you can see some pictures from that event and well, pictures from
today’s Small Fry and plenty of things so that’s one of the ways we’re trying to drive people into that
Facebook page is the parents that are already on there. With the kids coming into programs it’s taking
every few sessions pictures and putting them up so they can see their kids and what we do with the sports.
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Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – September 27, 2011
Right now, tonight we had a whole bunch of kids out on the fields playing soccer. Between the two
nights we’ve got 136 kids playing. I think that’s about 15 more than we did last year so big teams and
they’re doing a great job. The weather’s been good so far fortunately so we were a little worried about
today, if that rain was going to stay away and it did for us for the night so. We’ve got the art on display
from a Chanhassen artist. Her name is Christina Crowther. She’s got photographs all through the rec
center so stop by. They’re all nature pictures right now and they’re all taken in Chanhassen or Carver
County so it’s been a neat touch here. And include, it looks like any adult programs. We’ve got Zumba.
Now we have a class for the seniors called Zumba Gold that’s going on. Enhance is still going on strong.
Of course we have yoga and Pilates. We have another session, a new session of Pilates so it’s, we’re just
kicking it again in the fall. Everybody’s, it seems like they jump back up on their exercise programs and
I’ve seen plenty more people coming through the building again. A couple things. Chanhassen Photo
contest. We’re still accepting photos through the end of November so if you’ve got pictures you want to
submit of people and community life and recreation, that’s what we, that’s our category. We get a pretty
good participation but we always want more and more pictures that we can use for our publications, web
sites and everything so it’s a nice way to keep the residents involved with the things we’re putting out.
And then the Barnyard Boogie was last Friday. We had about 200 kids. People come out. It’s a co-
sponsored event with Chaska. We had our bouncer out. We had the petting zoo. We had the dance in the
gym and then crafts and snacks and it’s just a fun, fun, fun night with those little ones. You know I asked
every little one as they came in, oh you know, because they always see the petting zoo before they come
inside and what’s your favorite animal? What’s your favorite animal? Bunnies. We could have bunnies
everywhere. That’s all we need next year. I think I could really make this a lot easier.
Hoffman: Cheaper.
Sarles: Cheaper. We’ll start this thing in the spring and we’ll be fine for bunnies for everyone. Maybe
take home prizes for the kids so. So that was fun. We did move our kids to kids garage sale just so that
we could mesh schedules with the school so I put it onto the MEA week to get you know both
Minnetonka and Chanhassen schools represented there. So we’re taking applications for that. I think it’s
about 6 bucks for a resident to have a table and that just basically covers our rental costs on tables. And
then the artisan fair. Right now I think I’ve got 5 tables open so that continues to be a big one. Get a lot
of nervous people calling me right now. Can I still get in? Can I still get in and 2 people came in today
th
and dropped off applications so it will be a fun event again on November 6 so it’s a nice one. We get
somewhere between 500 to 1,000 people out there during that 4 hours so it’s a busy day. It’s the same
day I think that typically Canterbury does their craft fair so participants just kind of plan their day
between like 3 different craft fairs and off they go. So that is the news of the rec center. Anyone have
any questions?
Daniel: Commissioners, any questions for Jodi?
Scharfenberg: Jodi, what was the first session of after schools sports was cancelled? What was that
about?
Sarles: The first one was ball hockey so we, and basketball. Those two just, and I think we saw that with
all of our programs that start right away in the fall. That is the hardest session to get people to sign up for
because they’re not really thinking, they’re not in school mode just yet so. Next year we may work at
pushing that back maybe another week or so.
Daniel: And then as far as the team time, how’s the attendance on that?
Sarles: It’s again, that one’s really slow. We have some information out at the schools now so a little
more support between the high schools so we’re trying to get that one picked up but that’s another one
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Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – September 27, 2011
that’s a little tricky to try to tell them to come to something not organized but a good spot to go is not
always the easiest with teams so. But and it’s a little early so we’ll probably start seeing a lot of the
basketball kids coming pretty soon now that the temperatures are kind of changing outside too.
Daniel: Okay. Well thank you Jodi. Certainly appreciate it and continue the good work. Thank you.
Sarles: Thank you.
COMMISSION MEMBER COMMITTEE REPORTS.
None.
COMMISSION MEMBER PRESENTATIONS:
Tom Kelly: I just wanted to say I thought it was great the Mayor participated in the bike ride in August
and my fellow commissioners that came as well. I thought it was a great day to bike. I did learn that
when you lead a group biking you should always stop at the top of the hill, not the bottom… But I
thought it was a great way, especially the mayor seems really engaged and very knowledgeable about all
the park and rec, about all the park projects that we have going and that are proposed.
Daniel: Thank you Tom. Any other committee reports? If not, Todd is there anything you want to
highlight in the administrative packet at all?
ADMINISTRATIVE PACKET.
Hoffman: Nothing to highlight. Not a lot of interest on the first page. The public health and then there
is, of most interest I think the letter from the DNR on the gating and then the beach report for Lake Ann
talking about average peak usership and then any accidents or injuries. Regarding the aquatic invasive
species, the council will be hosting somewhat of a seminar where both the DNR officials and then also
the groups that are representing the different homeowners organizations will be held. I believe the date’s
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going to be Saturday, October 29 so we’ll get you an invitation. It’ll be held at the library. Just more of
a public seminar. Open forum to talk about the issue.
Daniel: So in essence we cannot, the whole gate purpose at Lake Lotus is done, according to DNR,
correct?
Hoffman: According to the DNR.
Daniel: Okay. So that discussion is now over with regards to gating? So they have to go petition the
DNR is what it comes down to, correct? Or does it still fall into our hands?
Hoffman: No. It doesn’t fall into our hands. DNR’s involved in the operation because of the federal and
state funds.
Daniel: Correct.
Hoffman: And they’re saying because of those, you accepted those funds, you can’t gate it.
Daniel: Okay.
Tom Kelly: But the outcome of the working, the council working session was to, was against it as well I
thought.
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Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – September 27, 2011
Hoffman: Well that’s a working session so there was.
Daniel: Nothing formalized yet. No motion made. Okay.
Hoffman: There wasn’t a lot of support for it.
Daniel: Alright. Interesting.
Tom Kelly: Does the group have another, do they have recourse other than, not recourse but any other
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avenues they’re going to pursue other than just going to this October 29 meeting? The Lotus Lake
associations.
Hoffman: No, I think they’re winding down for this year’s operations. I think now they’re focusing on
next year and trying to decide. It’s a, you know between all the different proposals and quite frankly
they’re running out of money because you know there was a lot of excitement around the issue in the
spring. People sent their checks in. They paid their volunteer inspectors. That money is now gone and
I’m not certain that they would have money to purchase the gate at this time so it’s just one of those
situations.
Daniel: Alright. Well if there’s no further discussion why don’t we go ahead and adjourn the meeting.
Tom Kelly moved, Caron seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the motion
carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0. The Park and Recreation Commission meeting was
adjourned.
Submitted by Todd Hoffman
Park and Rec Director
Prepared by Nann Opheim
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