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4 Memorial for Kriss MaherCITYOF City Center Drive, PO Box 147 hanhassen, Minnesota 55317 Phone 612.937.1900 Oeneral Fax 612.93Z5739 ,gineering f ax 612.937.9152 blic Safay lax 612.934.2524 www. ci. chanhassen, mn. us MEMORANDUM TO: FROM: DATE: Todd Gerhardt, Acting City Manager Todd Hoffman, Park and Recreation Director March 25, 1999 SUB J: Request to Construct Memorial to Kriss Maher Gerry Maher, 7100 Utica Lane On March 23 the Park and Recreation Commission reviewed a request by Mr. Gerry Maher, 7101 Utica Lane to construct a memorial to his departed wife, Kriss. The proposed location for this memorial is on the shore of Lake Ann, adjacent to the trail which exists between Lake Ann Park and Greenwood Shores Park. Commission members clearly appreciated Mr. Maher's offer and the work which he invested in the plans for this proposed memorial. The majority of the commission supported going ahead with the project. However, some commission members expressed mixed emotions over the appropriateness of such a memorial. Reading the minutes of the commissioner's conversation may give you the best understanding of the positions of each commissioner. Upon conclusion of the commission's review they did recommend on a five to one vote that the City Council approve Mr. Maher's request. The commission also directed staff to prepare a draft policy which would address future requests for memorials. STAFF COMMENTS I was aware of Mr. Maher's desire to place a bench along the trail. I provided him catalogs displaying a variety of bench designs. Mr. Maher's request to plan, install, and pay for this memorial is very generous. However, Mr. Maher's request represents a significant capital improvement which would result in the construction of a large private memorial on public property. For this reason, I recommend the City Council enact a policy addressing memorials prior to considering such a request. If the council feels otherwise and would like to see this request for a memorial granted immediately, simply let me know. I await direction from the City Council. c: Park and Recreation Commission Gerry Maher g:\park\th\mahermemorial.doc ;ty of Chanhassen. A growing community with clean lakes, guality schooh, a charmin~ downtown, thrivin~ businesses, and beautiful oarks. A ~reat o/ace to live, work. and olay. Park and Rec Commission Meeting ' March 23, 1999 Hoffman: Informational to let you know that it's still coming. The plans are just about complete and then we will ask Midwest for a price. If we do not like their price, it will go out to bid. Lash: This is the one thing we didn't get done. Didn't get started. Hoffman: Right. BLEACHER INVENTORY: Hoffman: Hottest topic in the state of Minnesota. Roeser: That's going to have to be something, you're really going to have to change bleachers, right? Hoffman: We will cut these in half. Roeser: You'll cut them? Hoffman: Cut them in half. Franks: Cut them down to 30 inches. Hoffman: Cut them down to 30 inches and make two out of them. Franks: And you can do that? Roeser: And put a railing around it, is that right? Good idea. Franks: Then we can move them around too. Hoffman: You don't have to spend $800.00 to fix them. REOUEST FOR MEMORIAL TO KRISS MAHER, JERRY MAHER. Hoffman: From Jerry Maher. A memorial to his wife, Kriss Maher. And the proposal Jerry- contacted I guess it was a couple months ago I talked with him, with Jan as well. The concept here is to create a walkway off of Lake Ann trail with pavers and some sitting areas and concrete: footings. Jerry called in because we had mailed him a copy of the packet and he didn't know. if that meant we wanted him to attend or not attend. At that time we asked me what I thought - about it and my response was I didn't know the appropriateness of pavers for vandal reasons ~r.. feeling of putting this kind of a statement along the trail between Lake Ann and Greenwood - Shores. He's responded with a letter so I'll pass that to the commissioners. The memorial isa proposal, it's not just a tree in a park with a plaque so I think I want to hear the comments o~the commission. The Planning Commission and City Council for sure would also want to see this prior to it being approved. I think it's one of those things where the commission approves such 47 Park and Rec Commission Meeting - March 23, 1999 an improvement and it went in and somebody walked by and they would go whoa. How did this get here? So they'd probably want to see it. And I think the real issue is, when these memorials come up we should probably have some parameters in place. This is a great plan. Beautiful memorial but is it something that the commission would like to see... Lash: Okay, we'll open it up for comments. Dave. Moes: The comment that, or the question I have is the only other time that we've done something along this lines was a bench, is that correct so far? Hoffman: Bench or trees. Moes: Bench or trees, okay. That's really it. I'm just trying to stage myself. Lash: Rod. Franks: Well, in a way I'm sorry that we're in this position. I wish that in some sense we can't anticipate everything but we had maybe already created some guidelines because saying no, or potentially look at saying no to something that's very heartfelt to someone and they've got very good reasons for doing it is really tough for me. But I think that it just underscores for me the necessity for us to maybe do some work on this and come up with some guidelines and what types of memorials we can offer to the public. And maybe even go as so far as to identify sites throughout the trail system or city that be acceptable really to our park system in general. Where they could be located. Then in a sense we're never in a position of having to say no but we're saying here are your options. We're basically saying yes and you can pick rather than having to turn something down, which is a bad thing all around so. But I think this is a pretty significant project what Jerry's proposing here and I'm not so sure that that's how we want to go so. Right now I'm kind of thinking I'd like to come up with something else that we could offer not only Mr. Maher but also anybody else. Lash: I made a note too that, and I know that we discussed this a few months ago that I would like to have some type of a pamphlet or something that we can offer to people who wish to create a memorial and it would have listed, Rod said options. But we'd have to have a major discussion about what kinds of things we'd like to offer so that we have very clear guidelines and suggestions and possibly vendors so that we have maybe some type of consistency or some type of control. I'd be open to having suggestions you know like maybe here, here, here. Different places where you'd like to see something happen but I wouldn't want to be quite so defined about that because if they live in a particular area that those particular people really utilized and it's very meaningful and it wouldn't detract from that site, that we could be flexible enough to say yeah. You can plant a tree here or you can put a boulder here or a plague or a bench or a birdhouse or some kind of thing like that. That we coUld have some flexibility there but that we do have some guidelines to provide. Fred. Berg: I agree. I agree we should have some standards. I'd support putting this in. It's...what I've always like about this town is the whole sense of here's a community that cares and here's 48 Park and Rec Commission Meeting - March 23, 1999 somebody who wants to leave this memorial and it's certainly not detracting from, it's adding to the beauty of Lake Ann I think. So I would like to see us set some restrictions but I have no problem with this one. Lash: Ron. Roeser: I agree with everything Rod said. I don't really feel like this is a good idea though. This one seems a little bit over done. A little too elaborate. I think the bench idea is a marvelous, or that kind of thing or something where we can get into some sort of, like Jan said, offering people this is what you can do as a memorial. This thing is, it looks like it could be vandalized in a lot of ways, and it just doesn't I just think it's too much. I really do and if we start letting people do this, then what's to keep the next one from being bigger and bigger and so I agree with Rod that we should probably set a goal and standard. Lash: Jim. Manders: I was set to say that I was for this. But I'm more inclined to follow Fred's. I hadn't thought about some of the...but as I think back to some comments...I would be concerned with vandalism...I guess I'd be inclined to say yes on this. Lash: Just to speak on Jerry's behalf. I mean Jerry's my friend. Kriss was my friend. I know exactly where this site is and he has put a great deal of thought into this and I've tried to help him with some guidelines as far as ideas of you know how he would feel if there was vandalism. I think he's put a lot of thought into how he could do this and get maintenance free and I know nothing can be totally vandalism free. I'm not that dumb but I mean he has put a lot of thought into how can he anchor this permanently. Like the back supports are that recycled wood looking plastic stuff you know so it's not something that could be carved in or burned very easily or picked up and carried, you know thrown into the lake. Everything is going to be anchored into the ground. That's part of his thinking I think with the paver stones is so he can have everything anchored into the ground so it can't be picked up and carried off or thrown into the lake. Those kind of things. So I know he has put a lot of thought into the vandalism and he wouldn't want to see anything. If something did happen I know he'd be the first person down there to fix it. So I think it's a beautiful tribute. I do think it does open up the discussion for us and that, I'd like to have flexibility but I'd like to be able to offer direction to people who come in who may be, wouldn't be as able to devote this amount of time and energy and thought to it as Jerry's been able to do in his time. Right, but if somebody came in and said I'd like to do something, you know my husband died but he loved wood ducks or whatever. Is there something, is there a good memorial and we could say sure. You know at Kerber Pond we have, we'd like to put in wood ducks so we'd like to put up a plague explaining why this is a habitat for a wood ducks or whatever. You know just but to give them some choices and some guidelines and not that it all has to look the same or be a teal colored angle roof but that's ideas and things that we would all find easily acceptable. So no one would have to feel like it doesn't fit in or it's over done or any of those kind of feelings that people might be feeling. You know unfortunately we may have some of those feelings but I don't think we've set a precedent and we haven't set guidelines. Now a position where we have to make a decision and then from that go forward and figure out 49 Park and Rec Commission Meeting - March 23, 1999 how we're going to, what we're going to do. Didn't you say Todd one time that other cities have programs like this? So could you get some of their information and we could take a look at that and see. Hoffman: Yep. A couple different ways they look at it. They either do one location where there's a tree or a memorial tree garden or a memorial rose garden or they put in, they allow an option to put it in different sites. Moes: Over the years how many tree options or I guess bench requests have we moved forward with? Roeser: Probably two. Lash: I think this is the first one we've had. We did that one for Dave but have we had others? Roeser: We had a bench though. Hoffman: Don Andrus. Lash: Oh yeah, but that didn't come to us did it? It did? Because I don't remember that coming to us. I just heard it went in but I didn't think that it came to us for approval. Roeser: So there hasn't been a lot~ There hasn't been a lot of this going on at all Dave. Moes: ...I've been here a short time and I'm wondering you know over the years how many other requests have come up and how they've been handled. Hoffman: There have been trees that have gone in but not to your knowledge. Franks: I'm thinking, my feeling is that, not that we would want to go out and market it but if we have this available I think it would be nice to let people know. I think we probably would get more requests. That hey this is available. What a neat kind of like living tribute or ongoing tribute or memorial to someone and we can have it right here in our city. They might not really even know, or aren't thinking of that as an option. I mean when I walk around like Woodlake Nature Center as an example, all the memorial benches, they look the same but what that does to me is it makes me look around the side of the bench for the plague because I know that this is a memorial bench now and so I want to see what it is. And I don't know if we want everything the same but there's something to be said for understanding what that bench is when you walk up to it. The other thought I had Todd too was to create something like a menu choice. People might even be able to combine...wood duck house or let's have a, and then the pricing is just ala carte so to speak. Lash: Or, I'm just throwing this out. This could complicate it considerably but say they wanted to just start a memorial fund for neighborhood parks knowing that they'd have $500.00 but that's not what they really wanted in their park. What they want in their park is the next phase of the 5O Park and Rec Commission Meeting - March 23, 1999 playground equipment or picnic shelter and we wouldn't have a problem with it so they want to start a fund, a memorial fund and once there's enough in that fund the plaque would say, in memory of neighbors, half a dozen names or whatever. We could do bigger items that way. Roeser: Well we know we've got to talk about this some other time really but the problem at hand is for us now and did you say, whether we approve it or not, it still has to go to the council, right? Hoffman: It should go to the council. This is a significant enough public area and a public improvement that there's going to be questions of whether or not it's appropriate to construct this expensive of a memorial in a public setting... And that's just, I echo Rod's comments. That it is at the point where we're at, I knew about this proposal early on but I envisioned a bench along side the trail in the woods and I had no concept. Roeser: Do you think this is too big? Too much? Hoffman: Well, you know this one individual resident and not that every person's going to have this inclination to do this. And it is a privilege to construct this type of memorial on public property and it needs to be reviewed in a proper fashion...so I don't think it can be taken lightly on any side. Moes: What is the total length from the existing asphalt path from I guess the shoreline? Is that 10 feet or is that, is the 10 feet just the circle there? Lash: 10 feet, the circle I believe is 10 x 20. Moes: Okay, and then what's the. Lash: It's probably about another 10 feet. Moes: The neck part of it or whatever you want to call it, the trunk of a tree is that's what. Lash: It is a perfect spot for an overlook. As a matter of fact it was my suggestion that this be the spot for a bench and I told him if he didn't take it, I was going to earmark it for me. Because it is. It's a beautiful spot and it's a natural place where some trees have been taken out. I think part of his thinking with the paver stones is that if people would happen to be in a wheelchair or people who are, have buggies or whatever...that it's accessible hard surface and that would. And the other thing is that what makes the bench and pavers. Berg: I move we recommend to City Council that they give permission to Mr. Maher to build a memorial as stated. Lash: Is there a second? Manders: Second. 51. Park and Rec Commission Meeting - March 23, 1999 Berg moved, Manders seconded that the Park and Recreation Commission recommend that the City Council give permission to Mr. Jerry Maher to build the memorial to Kriss Maher as presented. All voted in favor, except for Franks who opposed, and the motion carried with a vote of 5 to 1. Berg: What about another motion to, we don't need a motion for that right? But we'd better get it on the agenda obviously. Roeser: Yeah, we've got to talk about the plans. Lash: So staff will bring back to us. Berg: At least a starting point of what other cities. Hoffman: Memorial pamphlet. Lash: Do you want to, for the record. Franks: Yeah, I can't vote in favor of the motion prior to us in a sense considering what the impact of this is going to be without hearing what residents or users would have to say about this type of extensive improvement along the trail. Their family's not the only one that uses that trail and there certainly could be other people that have quite a different opinion. We're looking at not just a bench, like you say, but a 20 foot diameter half circle with you know planters and benches and. If this were another type of issue that would be putting in like some of the developments in the park or like the light over the skating fink, we open that up to some kind of public hearing and public forum to see what people would have to say. We're kind of not doing that. That's a couple of the reasons that make me unable to vote in favor. Lash: Okay, thanks. The next item was, Todd you wanted to talk about employee recruitment? Hoffman: Jerry can announce. Ruegemer: I had that on my list. Just a FYI for the commission. We have hired a Recreation Supervisor. Her name is Tracy Peterson. She'll be coming to us from the City of Arden Hills. Has a lot of great experience in running playground programs and other types of programs and operating skating rinks and special events. So she really is going to be a great asset to our to be starting April 5 . She can just come on in and department that can come in. She's going th hit the ground running. She's going to do a great job for us. Hoffman: The second one is department secretary. We interviewed the final three candidates today. We made a selection but we haven't offered the position yet but very...individuals so I think very fortunate to hopefully have two employees which come highly recommended and will offer wonderful service. 52 Park and Rec Commission Meeting - March 23, 1999 Lash: Oh, great. You haven't offered so you can't say. Hoffman: No. COMMISSION MEMBER COMMITTEE REPORTS: Lash: Do we have any? No? Manders: The race thing? Roeser: Is there anything happening? Lash: Not for this year I don't think. Didn't we say it's already too late? Franks: A lot of runners in this town. COMMISSION MEMBER PRESENTATIONS: Roeser: You know something that I asked. I noticed you've got a crossing on Kerber Boulevard. Crosswalks for people to get from one side to the other down there by... Are you going to do that in Shorewood too? Because when you're biking out of Excelsior you're going.~,~ have to cross over to get on the trail you know right there, right at the border be~ Excel~o'-r and Chan. Hoffman: A cross walk? Roeser: Yeah, at least some kind of marker which people will be crossing there. You know if you get on the trail to come back to Chanhassen, if you're biking out of Excelsior on the right side of the road, and then you've got to come across to pick up the trail again. There should be some kind of warning or something. Hoffman: You have to have a stop Sign to have a crossing. Or, I'11... Roeser: Because yeah, it's something to think about because if you've got kids and stuff. Manders: How are the sight lines for that? Roeser: They're not bad. They're not bad but it's ain't great. It's before the 30 mph stop sign start coming in which is, you know people are coming down past that pond or getting close. There should be some kind of warning sign or. some kind of something that indicates there will be bikers crossing the street there. That's all. Lash: Okay. Anybody else? 53 Park and Rec Commission Meeting - March 23, 1999 Franks: FYI. Sounds like Shakopee is going to be putting a parks and recreation referendum to their voters in the next year. They're going to look to add probably...ice sheet and maybe indoor aquatics. Hoffman: Shakopee, Champlin, who else? There's going to be a resident coming forward, he was going to come tonight during visitor presentation but he got called out of town so he'll be coming next week to talk about his desire to... ADMINISTRATIVE PACKET: Lash: Administrative packet, anything on that? Okay. Manders: I have one thing. Is this Ron's last meeting? Hoffman: We hope not. Next month. Roeser: I'm not sure I'll make that. Lash: Okay, is there a motion to adjourn? Roeser moved, Manders seconded to adjourn the meeting. The Park and Recreation Commission meeting was adjourned at 10:15 p.m. Submitted by Todd Hoffman Park and Recreation Director Prepared by Nann Opheim 54