PRC 2012 03 20
CHANHASSEN PARK AND
RECREATION COMMISSION
REGULAR MEETING
MARCH 20, 2012
Chairman Daniel called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT:
Jeff Daniel, Steve Scharfenberg, Tom Kelly, Cole Kelly, Elise Ryan, Peter
Aldritt, and Brent Caron
STAFF PRESENT:
Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Director; Jerry Ruegemer, Recreation Superintendent;
Mitch Johnson, Recreation Supervisor, Jodi Sarles, Rec Center Manager; Susan Bill, Senior Center
Coordinator; and Dale Gregory, Park Superintendent
PUBLIC PRESENT:
Todd Neils 990 Saddlebrook Curve
APPROVAL OF AGENDA:Cole Kelly moved, Scharfenberg seconded to approve the agenda as
published. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 7 to 0.
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Daniel: Public announcements, Todd?
Hoffman: No public announcements this evening.
Daniel: Oh, okay.
Hoffman: Welcome to spring.
Daniel: Is there anything you want to talk about with regards to AIS and what’s going on with that, or is
that anything that’s going to be influencing the park?
Hoffman: Well you’ll see it in the paper this week. Group of association neighbors and associations have
filed suit against the Commission of the DNR, Tom Landwehr, the State of Minnesota and the City of
Chanhassen for failure to meet their duties as they see the requirements of the DNR to protect the State’s
resources and I think the lakes named are Lotus, Minnewashta, Christmas and Lake Bavaria so. The suit
is online. You can read a pdf version of the entire claim on the Chanhassen Villager right now so the
attorney for the DNR has been in contact with the City’s attorney. This was filed in Carver County so a
Carver County judge will have to decide if he’s going to hear the case or not.
Daniel: And the only reason I want to bring that up just because obviously it impacts parks and accesses
within our park system so.
Scharfenberg: What is the relief they’re seeking?
Hoffman: 100% inspection prior to a boat being launched. This Thursday we’ll be meeting with an
organization called VOLT Workforce Solutions and so the City continues to move forward with the
dollars that are in play right now are $7,500 DNR grant for local inspection efforts. $10,000 is authorized
by the City Council and then the Riley-Purgatory Watershed District has authorized the expenditures of
Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – March 20, 2012
up to $50,000 for the Cities of Eden Prairie and Chanhassen and so that will be $25,000 for Chan and
$25,000 for Eden Prairie. So that’s $42,500 for this year so that will go a long ways into funding
inspections. Boat inspections. VOLT Workforce Solutions I think the contract amount is about $15.75
an hour but that’s paying not just for the inspection but all the overhead and the training, the billing and
so it’s a very efficient way to do business. Lake Minnetonka conservation group has been doing that for
many years and so VOLT is experienced. Ready to go to work and we’ll be meeting with them Thursday
to start the initiation of the contract for this summer’s inspection efforts so above and beyond the signage
and the education, the best management practices that we’ll be doing at Ann, Susan and Lotus, then we’ll
be doing inspections, typically probably Friday, Saturdays and Sundays but it will include some other
days as well. Other inspections that will be going on, Lotus Lake, the DNR will be there for 99 hours in
addition to this over the summer and then the association itself, their volunteers may be back doing
additional boat inspections.
Daniel: Okay. Any other questions?
Tom Kelly: I do. Which inspectors have the right to turn people away and which don’t because I didn’t
think the Lotus Lake volunteers last year had the right to turn boats away.
Hoffman: The volunteers do not but the inspectors hired by the City would but so far the council has
continued to say that the program that the City will be funding is volunteering so, but it’s yet to be seen
how exactly that’s going to play out.
Tom Kelly: And as a part of the suit, are the plaintiffs requiring that it’s an enforceable inspection 100%
of the time?
Hoffman: When I read it, it doesn’t really talk about inspections but they want 100%. They want 100%
inspections. They want boats to be turned away if they fail.
Tom Kelly: Okay.
Daniel: Anything else? Alright, thank you Todd. I appreciate the update on that.
VISITOR PRESENTATIONS:
Daniel: I see that we have Todd Neils here. Todd, anything that you’d like to talk about?
Todd Neils: Thank you Chair Daniels. My name is Todd Neils. I’m with the Chanhassen Athletic
Association. Metro baseball specifically and run that program. Over the last several months we have
been making attempts to improve Lake Susan as a baseball facility through the addition of batting cages,
safety issues. Moving fences in front of dugouts rather than behind dugouts and even approached you
with the possibility of building dugouts somewhere in the near future. That has become fiscally, we’re
fiscally unable to do that right now. However, tonight I’m here to see if there’s any way within the
current CIP or budget of the park and rec that we could partner with the City of Chanhassen as an
association to move the backstop to a more appropriate distance closer to home plate. The current
configuration of Bandimere Park is at approximately 43 feet.
Tom Kelly: You talking Bandimere or Lake Susan?
Todd Neils: Bandimere Park is 43 feet and the current backstop at Lake Susan is approximately 60 feet.
The CAA is prepared by pay up to 50% or $2,500 of the backstop move if in fact we can partner with the
City in this regard.
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Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – March 20, 2012
Daniel: Okay.
Todd Neils: From what I understand, Dale Gregory, Mr. Gregory with the City is in the process of
getting bids from contractors to move that backstop. We don’t have a definitive number on what that’s
going to be quite yet. I will say that the two batting cages and the move of the fence in front of the
dugouts cost approximately $3,000 to $3,500 which means that all in the backstop move could cost as
much as $5,000 to $6,000.
Carron: Would you be using, re-using the same materials or is it going to be new material?
Hoffman: No.
Gregory: No, we’d be using the same poles.
Carron: Same poles.
Gregory: But we would be using the new material in the back of the fencing because that’s getting pretty
bad.
Carron: Is it, okay. So it’s an improvement as well.
Gregory: Correct.
Carron: Outside of the moving.
Daniel: Just from a maintenance standpoint Dale, I mean should that fencing, back fencing be replaced
anyways? At some point soon.
Gregory: It is. It’s curling up so much and that it’s actually getting to be dangerous. We tried tying it
down and everything and it just, it’s not working and so it’d be a good time to replace the fence at the
same time.
Tom Kelly: Besides the curling of the fence is there a safety issue with, is there an improvement in safety
going from 60 feet to 43 feet or is it just, you want to limit the passed balls and the run scoring from third
base?
Todd Neils: We want to limit the runs scoring from second base on passed balls.
Daniel: Think Yankee Stadium.
Tom Kelly: So it’s not a safety issue, it’s just more just a.
Todd Neils: Yes. It’s more of a competitive, yeah.
Ruegemer: I think it’s consistency between the two 90 foot fields as well.
Todd Neils: Absolutely. Obviously it’s our hope at some point in the near future to, probably this
summer to host a tournament and we obviously would like to have consistency at all the baseball fields.
That is part of the reason that we’ve approached the commission in the past to move the backstop at Lake
Ann 3, or I should say Lake Ann 2 to be more consistent with Lake Ann 3 and so on and so forth so all
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Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – March 20, 2012
we’re looking for is absolutely consistency in the parks. We’re willing to help in that regard to create that
consistency.
Daniel: Would there be a backstop pad that you want to invest into as well or mat?
Todd Neils: Well I think, and I would defer to Mr. Gregory but I think what I’ve seen a number of
different ways to reduce the curling of the fences. Whether you do a multi pole configuration at the base
of the fence directly behind the backstop or you do a padding of some sort typically reduces that curling
but again I’d defer to Mr. Gregory in that regard.
Daniel: But even on a new design do you want to put, is there going to be a mat or backstop that you
guys are looking to add or is it just use up the chain link itself?
Todd Neils: We hadn’t necessarily.
Daniel: I mean with the new one.
Todd Neils: We hadn’t necessarily considered a pad or anything. However if the commission feels that
it’s necessary we’d definitely look into that as an option.
Daniel: I just don’t know Todd what they typically consider a safety. I know South Tonka had pads,
both from stopping the ball but also from a safety standpoint.
Hoffman: We don’t currently.
Gregory: What we’re doing right now on that, I’m getting prices on, we’ve got two braces that are down
lower and that and we’ve got a lot of curling and we’ve got a lot of bending in that material. We’re
actually proposing to put two more braces across there. It would be about 18 inches apart and we’re also
proposing one brace going, a second layer off the top and that there’s, we’ve got quite a bit of curling
from balls coming back there and we’re proposing a brace going through there at the same time. To try to
eliminate a lot of this. We did the same thing with our hockey fences around there and it’s really helped
eliminate a lot of the curling by getting those extra braces lower to the bottom.
Daniel: Okay. But I think regardless you know, it sounds reasonable that something to consider from a
commission standpoint. Alright. Is there anything else, any other questions for Mr. Neils?
Scharfenberg: So Todd, you want us to consider this for our CIP for next year?
Todd Neils: Ideally we’d like it in some way to be fast tracked for this year. Having come to this
commission over the last many years you’d think I would have learned my lesson in terms of approach.
Clearly that hasn’t happened in this case. When I started talking to Mr. Ruegemer and Mr. Hoffman last
October, I guess I didn’t necessarily anticipate, and that was my fault, needing to come to the Park and
Rec Commission and subsequently City Council to have this approved and so I’ve dragged my feet so the
fast tracking is merely to cover myself rather than, but again it’s to improve the field for this year. High
school is about to begin. I know try-out’s are this week. They’re going to start practice in earnest in the
next couple weeks and then, and our baseball season starts shortly after that in the middle to late May so
to have the fence moved and have the consistency within the parks would be nice, if possible.
Daniel: What’s the typical turnaround time on, I mean is it a day type of, I mean are we talking day? 2-3
days? A week?
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Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – March 20, 2012
Gregory: Oh it’s going to be a few days because it’s a matter of taking down the old posts and redoing it
and that.
Daniel: Cement settling.
Gregory: It wouldn’t, I mean we could have it tied up for at 3-4 days and that by the time you get
everything out and back together.
Daniel: How often is Lake Susan scheduled right now?
Todd Neils: Well I would suspect that the high school baseball team will be there every single day. I
have a rapport with Coach Bahn and could work out a scenario where he could be off the field for a
handful of days if necessary. If this was approved and approved by the City Council.
Scharfenberg: So it’d be not only moving the backstop forward and then playing the chain link in front of
those benches?
Todd Neils: The chain link has already been placed in front of the benches.
Scharfenberg: Okay.
Todd Neils: And that was paid for as part of our project last fall when we added the batting cages.
Daniel: So it’s just strictly, it’s strictly a backstop issue and that’s it?
Todd Neils: Absolutely. And you know it’s a post to post configuration. You know whatever the
contractor can work out.
Gregory: Yeah we can, by hauling up two posts on each side we can bring the backstop up to 45 feet
from the home plate.
Todd Neils: And again you know, I just don’t want it to get lost in the shuffle that CAA will contribute
$2,500 to the project so you know again based on whatever the final number is. Obviously if the number
if egregious we wouldn’t anticipate necessarily the project would be part of this year but if it comes in to
a reasonable number and we have the ability to split the cost and it’s a $5,000 dollar project, we would
hope that the City would support that project.
Cole Kelly: Dale, so I didn’t quite catch what we’re, whether we move the backstop or not we have to
replace a bunch of things on it?
Gregory: Well we wouldn’t have to replace the wire this year. It would have to be replaced in the future
sometime and that but I mean it wouldn’t have to happen right away.
Cole Kelly: Now to replace the wire Todd, does that come out of a different fund than the CIP?
Hoffman: Yes.
Cole Kelly: And that would, remind me which fund that would come out of.
Hoffman: Coming out of a maintenance or a capital maintenance budget.
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Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – March 20, 2012
Cole Kelly: Capital maintenance budget.
Hoffman: A maintenance fund.
Cole Kelly: So there’s a certain amount of money when we replace that that would come out of it
depending upon when we did it?
Hoffman: Whatever scenario is approved, that facility is there. It would not be paid out of park
dedication. It’d be paid out of you know capital replacement fund. Either way. A maintenance, it’s a
maintenance item and it’d come out of, it’s already been paid for and bought once through…
Cole Kelly: Okay so even if we move it, it doesn’t come out of the CIP?
Hoffman: Doesn’t come out of the park dedication fund.
Cole Kelly: Park dedication, okay. So it comes out of the capital replacement fund.
Hoffman: Correct.
Cole Kelly: Okay. And Todd, what’s the City’s take on this right now?
Hoffman: Our discussion over the winter was, we get a price for this. Present it to the park commission.
See what the opinion of the park commission was and then see where it move forward. It’s been talked
about for a long time. You know it’s 60. It wants to be something closer to 40-43 but it’s really, it comes
down to a timing issue. It would be much better, easier on an approval process to schedule it for next
year. You would put it in your capital improvement request. Even at best case scenario is you approve
this. Review this and approve this in April. The council sees it the first week in May and then we have to
identify a funding source. They’re going to want to know what you’re not going to do to finance this and
then we have to get, the first quote is just to get an idea of what the cost was. Then we have to get
multiple quotes after that so best case scenario is you’d be building this thing in the end of May, which is
halfway through baseball season or there about’s.
Daniel: Okay. Well, from a step standpoint I suppose what we need to do before we really can make any
judgment will be to determine cost then, correct. So why don’t we do this then. When Dale you get at
least some estimates back as far as price to replace that, I think Todd you could probably send that over
an email, correct? Then we can put it on the agenda for discussion at the next meeting so we can just
basically follow that path Todd and then I think from there it might be quicker to fast track. I don’t think
it’ll be ready by the beginning of the baseball season but at least hopefully they’ll enjoy it and save that
extra 50% running to go with that pass ball on a regular basis so, that would at least if we could try to
have some sort of talking a date of around Memorial Day or at least first week in June, that might make
more sense. The only question I have then is obviously it’s not just high school as well but also as you
mentioned Metro, is Metro playing there?
Todd Neils: Metro and our in-house programs.
Daniel: 14 and 15.
Todd Neils: 14 through 18.
Daniel: Okay. So obviously that’s something that you know will cause some disruption during mid-
season if that’s something acceptable to the association.
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Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – March 20, 2012
Todd Neils: We’ll make it work. I schedule the fields so.
Hoffman: He does.
Daniel: Alright, well good.
Todd Neils: Dale, do you have dimensions and specifications for what we’re looking for here?
Gregory: I don’t have it with me, no.
Todd Neils: Could you email it to me?
Gregory: Sure, we can get you something.
Todd Neils: I’ll call the people I know too.
Gregory: Okay.
Hoffman: Basically what you’re doing is taking, you’re just chopping off the back of it and you’re going,
pulling and moving it forward yeah.
Todd Neils: Yeah. But if you’re talking about re-using the poles you’re going to have to cut them out of
the concrete now. It’s going to make them shorter.
Gregory: We’d be working with this contractor and that with our loader because his Bobcat’s and that
wouldn’t be able to pull these posts out so we’d end up pulling the posts out and helping him get them
out. He’d take care of getting the concrete and everything off and re-setting.
Daniel: Oh, so we’d re-use them. Completely. Without having to lower the backstop.
Todd Neils: Oh, okay.
Gregory: Correct. No, we’d pull them out and re-use the whole posts without cutting them down.
Todd Neils: Gotch ya.
Gregory: Yep.
Daniel: Okay, excellent.
Todd Neils: Thank you.
Daniel: Alright, thank you Todd. Alright, let’s move onto the approval of minutes dated from our last
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meeting of February 28.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Carron moved, Aldritt seconded to approve the verbatim and
summary minutes of the Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated February 28, 2012 as
presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 7 to 0.
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Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – March 20, 2012
PRESENTATION OF 2011 PARK AND RECREATION ANNUAL REPORT.
Ruegemer: Thanks Chair Daniels. It’s an exciting time in our department. Just credit staff for really
working hard and getting this document repaired for 2011. Obviously everybody has a copy of it attached
with their agenda so I’d just like to go through that with you tonight. This report is really important. It
really identifies our accomplishments and information kind of relating to all of our divisions through our
department, you know from the seniors to maintenance and rec center, community events, programming,
that sort of thing so it’s really a great piece that we can look back historically and we’re really kind of
coming out to kind of a benchmark here where we’re really starting to gather a lot of information so we
can start doing a lot of different charts, comparisons with the data that we’ve had so really gaining
momentum. I just applaud all staff members for working hard to get this document complete. So we’ll
just go ahead and take a look at the item and look at a few highlights in each area. I always like the
pictures on the front. That kind of tells the story right there. Feb Fest there so it was pretty cool. You
can kind of follow along with your, in your reports. That might be easier or look on your TV screens as
well but just information kind of how we’re broken down. Kind of all the department members and titles.
Kind of an org chart. Give you just a quick, brief overview of City Council, Park and Rec Commission,
Director and then kind of how it branches off into each individual areas of our operation. Start with the
Senior Center. Sue obviously does a great job in really engaging seniors in really technology. She really
started with an iPad and a Kindle class this year too. That’s always very well received. We do have a
very I think tech savvy senior group. Sue does a great job with that and lifelong learning classes and a lot
of different programs that she does have with that. She’s done a great job with engaging the Carver
County Sheriff Department with having Sheriff Olson come down and do kind of a meet and greet. Also
details with the deputies. I think Lieutenant Enevold really enjoys coming down and speaking with the
seniors. Having some pastries and some good conversation with that so I think they do enjoy kind of
reaching out to our public. Sue also went down to the Carver County Jail and kind of checked that out. I
think the seniors really do like the kind of getting out and looking at different things and having some fun.
That usually centers around a meal somewhere, which is good with that. Just Sue’s done a great job with
bringing in special events. Just did a Rosie the Riveter program. I think that was pretty well received for
that so that was a nice thing. The Wacky Tacky Fashion Show shows a lot of fashion shows down there
so it’s obviously a cool thing. I think there was talking to me about how many meals on wheels. There’s
a lot of meals delivered. A lot of volunteer hours down in the senior center. A lot of miles driven so I
think those are really important things to highlight with that. And just of course all kind of the mainstays
with the bridge club and CHAN-o-laires, woodcarving. Just seems like a lot of Sue’s programs continue
to grow and she continues to do a great job with the operation. Chan Rec Center, we’re continuing to
invest some dollars in new fitness equipment to get you know kind of more on the mainstream and
replace some equipment that was kind of past it’s prime with that so Jodi’s equipment is really looking
good out there and some things that we did add this year, some strength machines, some fitness mats and
some other different items as far as posters, that sort of thing. Just within the last 2 or 3 weeks some new
TV’s went in in the lobby area as well as the fitness areas so with some flat panel screens out there, which
is I think very well needed out there and I think getting good customer feedback and approval by our
customers with that too so great job with that. Jodi’s really doing a great job with the adult programming
and with increased revenues out there with that. It’s another amazing number looking at the total hours
that the community uses out there with over 4,500 hours. You know the rec center is really truly a hub of
recreation for us. It really handles a lot of our needs from special events to community space, meetings,
gymnasium use, banquets, garage sales, a lot of different things out there so we’re very excited to have it
continue, continuation of the recreation center flourish with that. It’s nice to see that the fitness and gym
revenues increased 7% with that and of course the Dance for Fun program continues to grow and be a
staple of the recreation center out there so again Jodi and her staff are doing a fantastic job out there with
that and we applaud their efforts. As you can see some of the charts that we had for that. Rec Center
Sports continues to grow along with Jodi and Mitch with that. They’re doing a great job on just getting
the information out there and growing those, the programs out there. Had over 28 sports sessions in 2011
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Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – March 20, 2012
with over 700 participants which is a really good increase from what we’ve had in the past and just
continue to you know increase revenue and certainly profit and offer a great program for a nitch market
that we certainly have the need for so we’re offering some good with that. Small Fries was added. That’s
an introductory program for ages 3 and 4 and that continues to, parents continue to look for programming
in that age area as well so Rec Center Sports is doing a great job and continuing to grow so hats off to that
as well. Youth programming, we’re doing a great job with that as well and you can see we had over 250
programs and 3,000 participants really aging from birth to age 17 so we have a wide variety of
programming in there. Obviously Lake Ann continues to be at capacity. We’re already getting customer
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phone calls about when they can start registering for that. Our newsletter’s scheduled to go out the 26-
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27 roughly of March so we’ll be going live with all our programs. All the information is in and pretty
much ready to go for our programs so we are ready to start accepting registrations. We just need to get
the Chan Connection on the streets so we did move that up in time too to help accommodate some of the
needs of our customers to plan for the summer for camps and kind of get more in touch with the
scheduling of our community as well. It seems like in 2011 we certainly did increase our partnerships
with Carver County with doing kind of a winter adventure camp as well as some archery classes that
we’ve had so really starting to continue to foster that relationship and have that good of a relationship not
only with the dog park but with other programming and other things that we have so they’ve been a great
partner. Adaptive Recreation. You know we kind of seem to be in kind of the area you know anywhere
from 10 to 40 individuals for that and that ranges for programs that people with disabilities are signing up
for. REACH continues to do a great job with offering staff training for our playground staff and other
staff members to recognize people with disabilities and how they can integrate them into our programs.
They’ve been a great partner for us and have offered really a lot of great resources for us so and their
annual picnic again is scheduled out at Lake Susan so if any of the commissioners would like to go, that’s
the end of June on a Wednesday night so we certainly can get information in regards to that to the
commissioners so if you’d like to stop by, please feel free. You’re more than welcome to do so. Softball
continues to be our most popular adult program. With that we had 45 softball teams and that was fall and
summer with over 700 people and individuals participating with revenues over $22,000 for that so we’re
going to continue to look for ways to increase our participation in that and Lake Ann again continues to
be a great adult facility for those programs.
Daniel: Yes, Fall One Pitch.
Ruegemer: One pitch?
Daniel: Please.
Ruegemer: Get it moving huh?
Daniel: Yes. Please consider it at least.
Ruegemer: Okay. Community events has really been kind of our back, kind of mainstay of our
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community. We’re coming up on our I believe 29 anniversary 4 of July coming up here so we’ve been
around a long time. Really created a great tradition for our community and people are looking forward to
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that. Having our first meeting for the 4 with the Rotary and everybody else tomorrow as well to kind of
get everything kind of moving in the right direction so done a great job in the past with special events. 64
sponsors in 2011 with you know cash and merchandise and a lot of different things with over $30,000 in
that account so we really try to get creative. People’s sponsorships, whether it’s title sponsorship or if
they have different items that they would like to give away kind of featuring their business, products, that
sort of thing, we certainly are willing to take a look at everything and anything so that’s a great job.
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Again 4 of July is our biggest event with over 60,000 attendees for that, for the 3 day event. And again
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Halloween Party, Easter Egg Candy Hunt is coming up here. That’ll be held outside April 7 at the City
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Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – March 20, 2012
Center Park with that so again our community events really are a mainstay and people really enjoy kind of
what we’re doing so we’re going to continue to keep our customers happy and what kind of, what they
would like to see different if anything so. Facilities again continue to be a really a big operation that we
have with picnics and warming houses and a lot of different components. The Lake Ann Beach, if you
look at the number, kind of total swimmers that we have on an annual basis, it’s a very high number with
that. Our picnic shelters continue to increase in popularity and people reserving those, which resulted last
year in a 23% increase from 2010 so I think we can all be happy and enjoy the success on that. It does
take time certainly to answer phone calls and make those reservations but it’s well worth it when you see
the end result so I think people enjoy that for graduation parties, weddings, anniversary parties, family
reunions, a lot of different events so we have a very good reputation with that so we’re very pleased to
offer that. Again you saw the numbers for the concession stand. We did a pretty nice job on the
concession stand last year as well. We just added this last, this year too as well just to kind of a map and
location map of all of our tennis courts identified within our community with that so and people like to
kind of see what the closest tennis courts are to their particular home or office, they certainly can take a
look at this. Park maintenance is a very important part of our operation. I think we certainly have, our
office certainly has a conversation with Dale and his crew on a daily basis. We’re always talking about
something. How we can improve or fix a problem. We’re applauding our successes with that as well.
2011 was a challenging year for the park maintenance crew. I don’t think the plow trucks or the tractor
shut off for about 6 straight months last year with that so they were crazy busy. I don’t know how many
times that they completely plowed the city but it was certainly was a large amount so again we applaud
Dale and his crew for all their efforts last year. You look at the 90 miles of pedestrian trails that they
clear and maintain on an annual basis so hats off to them. We certainly were very busy with diseased elm
trees it looks like in 2011 so you just will have in next year’s report but with the lack of snow this year the
park maintenance crew certainly went through, really from every inch of trail in Chanhassen and really
did a lot of decluttering and taking down branches and trees that were impeding onto the trail so it’s really
going to be a great add for visibility, improve safety and a lot of those type of things so really do that all
winter long so lack of snow created other opportunities for us to improve our trail system for our residents
of Chan so we’re very pleased with that. Park improvements just again if you take a look at the stairs
were completed leading down to the beach. Hear very good comments from people using the Hilltop
shelter that they can just buzz right off the trail and go right down to the beach itself. Really right, really
right drop down right in the heart of the beach area itself so the playground is right there and the beach is
right there so that trail certainly was an important part of the stair project so that was a very nice thing to
see done. Batting cages were completed in late fall last year with that and that was a cooperative effort
between our park maintenance staff and Chanhassen Athletic Association so that was a great deal. We
added some wood fiber in some playgrounds around town and I didn’t realize that Charlie and the
downtown crew and Brad planted that many flowers downtown so I was surprised by that number. I was
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pleasantly surprised so downtown always looks really nice in the spring and certainly around the 4 of
July. The park maintenance crew always does a great job in making sure that everything gets prepared
for all of our events downtown whether it’s hanging flags or making sure that everything is looking good
so again that’s a great job. Partnerships. Have a lot of partnerships throughout all of our operation from
park maintenance to seniors, rec center, community events. We had over 70 partnerships that involved all
of our divisions last year so as you can see from the picture, I think that was the Minnetonka High School
coming out and helping out with woodchips around trees and that sort of thing so it’s been another great
partnership that we’ve certainly benefitted from and there’s a number of different volunteer groups that
come out and throughout the course of the summer to help out with projects or cleaning different
facilities, that sort of thing and so we’re very fortunate to have a lot of partners within our community and
that really helps us you know really create better opportunities for our residents. It also saves money for
the taxpayers as well if we can partner and double up on our resources and offer great opportunities again
so. Just a quick list of all of our partnerships kind of listed down. Senior center, rec programs, rec center,
park maintenance. Capital projects. We had 8 project totals, items ranging from $10,000 to over
$630,000 project with a total of over $1.2 million so kind of listing of all the capital improvement projects
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Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – March 20, 2012
that we had in 2011. And my clicker seems to have frozen up. That might be the end. Is that page 34? It
is page 34. Well that’s good. That’s why my clicker froze up. So again we’re very pleased to have this
document ready. In the past we’ve always had a link to this document on our city website. We will have
it uploaded after tonight. Wanted the commission to take a look at this. We certainly put it on our
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existing website and we also have a new link on our new website that’s going to be going live May 15
with that as well so. Any questions from the commission tonight?
Carron: Impressive report.
Hoffman: The production of this document is a requirement of the city code for the Park and Recreation
Commission operations so this is produced each year and then delivered to the City Council as the year
end report for all your activities and the activities of the department.
Daniel: Questions? Peter?
Carron: I think it’s well summed up.
Daniel: Yes. Cole? Anything?
Cole Kelly: No. I like the report.
Daniel: Yeah very well, Steve anything?
Scharfenberg: No.
Daniel: Very well detailed Jerry and Todd and Jerry and the entire park and recreation staff did a
fantastic job. I mean it’s very interesting to read through this each year and gives a perspective as far as
what goes into managing everything that we enjoy as, from a recreation standpoint in the city so thank
you gentlemen. Ladies and gentlemen so appreciate it. Thank you.
ESTABLISH DISCUSSION TOPICS FOR THE 2012 JOINT MEETING WITH CITY COUNCIL.
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Hoffman: Thank you Chair Daniels, members of the commission. On April 9 you’ll be meeting with
the City Council in a joint meeting and I have a list of recommended discussion topics and then I would
ask that you consider those and any others that commissioners bring to light and then put together an
official list to discuss with the council. The Bandimere Park expansion. The Rice Marsh Lake trail
project. The Lake Susan backstop. Disc golf is on your agenda for that night as a presentation. And then
the two neighborhood parks, Pioneer Pass Park and then Riley Ridge Park. And Riley Ridge, one of my
recommendations for 2013 will be to move Riley Ridge, the development up from 2014 into 2013.
Daniel: They’re selling out?
Hoffman: Yeah, they’re selling out and if we waited til 2014 we’d have all the, they’d just be waiting
another year which really isn’t necessary. The other thing about moving these together since they are
Pioneer Pass and then Riley Ridge, Reflections at Lake Riley are kind of moving in the same, is that we
really have to do two at once we just have a lot of things will be, we do two playgrounds at once. Two
neighborhood meeting processes so.
Ryan: So they’re both 2013?
Hoffman: Well, right now Pioneer Pass is 2013.
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Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – March 20, 2012
Ryan: Right, okay.
Hoffman: Riley Ridge is 2014 so you get the economies of scale if you combine them together. That we
build both parks out and with the 2013 timeframe on Pioneer Pass our hope is to seed that park this
August so we have a green starting point for that playground installation for Pioneer Pass and if you make
the recommendation to move up Riley Ridge and the council approves that, we’ll do the same at Riley
Ridge.
Daniel: Grading and ideally most the grading that is going to take place by the City can be done in-
house? For Riley Ridge.
Hoffman: Final grading. Riley Ridge is pretty much ready to roll. Pioneer Pass we had that little issue
with the extra fill that they need to take care of but then after that, as a part of that settlement agreement,
as a part of our agreement to get that dirt taken out of there, they’re going to finish grade it and have it
ready to go.
Daniel: Is an extra 4 feet still there or they moved it?
Hoffman: Extra 6 or 7 feet is still there.
Daniel: Okay. Free dirt right?
Hoffman: They made a commitment to take it out so once road restrictions are off I assume they’ll get
started.
Daniel: Okay.
Hoffman: With that, any others that you have to add and then somebody make a motion to approve an
agenda for that meeting.
Aldritt: You mentioned the Highway 41 trail extension?
Hoffman: It’s not on there but we can.
Aldritt: Bring that one up.
Hoffman: Yep, we can talk about it. The bids were opened last Thursday.
Aldritt: And should we talk anything about AIS or is that?
Hoffman: Probably not.
Daniel: Nothing to talk about.
Scharfenberg: I would include the skate park repairs.
Hoffman: Okay.
Daniel: Any other suggestions? It’s a lot of activity for this year so it’ll be at least some good topics to
discuss. Especially I think with 41 going in and also I suppose the underpass on Highway 5 is another
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Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – March 20, 2012
topic of discussion. Again just points to bring and I think reference to the council as far as things they
need to be aware of for the CIP this year. Because there isn’t going to be a great deal of expenditure
going on. I mean this is probably the most we’ve spent in several years isn’t it Todd?
Hoffman: (Yes.) And the Highway 41 project itself is the largest capital investment out of the park
dedication fund in probably over 10 years. Or more. We’ll need a Chair for that evening, if someone
wants to make a recommendation for somebody to run this meeting. And then in April you’ll make a
recommendation to assign a new Chair for the commission. Your new member will be there that night.
They’ll be appointed so they’ll be there that night but we’ll need somebody to run the joint meeting and
then you’ll vote again in April to assign a new Chairperson for the commission.
Tom Kelly: So this is a pretty full agenda. I mean probably one of the fuller agendas that we’ve had with
these discussions with City Council. Do you recommend having materials, some type of a presentation
just so the council people know what exactly we’re talking about because this is a lot to cover and we can
probably be more efficient if we actually had some type of a presentation just so we can kind of step
through each one of these in an orderly fashion as opposed to just throwing things out there.
Hoffman: I’ll be glad to put together an executive summary of them. I’m not sure if you want, I don’t
think we need to go to a power point. These are intended to be conversational in nature and so, and if
they have the information then they can read it. And then what I would encourage whoever Chairs it is
just to go through them and then start to inquire where the council has questions. That’s really what this
is intended to do is to answer their questions about these projects. Any concerns they would have so we
do an executive summary. They have all the background information. The Chair of the meeting will
briefly go through each one and then really start to engage the council in conversation.
Cole Kelly: I’ll volunteer to Chair if nobody else wants to.
Hoffman: No other volunteers?
Carron: I can help you out. I mean we just co-chair. I’d be willing to help you out putting this stuff
together.
Hoffman: The tag team is Cole Kelly and Brent Carron. Alright. And then in April you can assign a
Chair and a Vice Chair for the commission. Anything else on the agenda for the council meeting?
Ryan: Just a time, 5:30?
Hoffman: I don’t believe it’s 5:30. I think it’s on here. I think it’s more like 6:30. I’ll email you. If I
didn’t include it, I believe I included it in the last email but I’ll email it again.
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Daniel: 6:30 April 5.
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Ryan: 9.
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Daniel: Oh 9, okay.
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Hoffman: Yeah, Monday, April 9. 6:30.
Tom Kelly: Is it 30 minutes or 60 minutes?
Hoffman: 30 minutes. I believe it’s 6:30 but I’ll confirm that.
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Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – March 20, 2012
Carron: I had it at 6:00 to 6:30.
Hoffman: Okay. Then we’ll put it at 6:00.
Carron: And the new commission member will be there that night as well?
Hoffman: They will be. Hopefully Elise will be back and you’ll have a new one.
Ryan: One never knows.
Hoffman: How’d your interview go?
Ryan: I thought great. It was yeah, it was enjoyable.
Daniel: Alright so I assume that we need to put some sort of motion forward then Todd correct?
Hoffman: Sure.
Daniel: Commission members, are there any other additions? If not, let’s go ahead and make a motion.
Carron: I’ll make a motion to accept what Todd had and add the skate park repairs as well for the
meeting with the council.
Daniel: Okay.
Tom Kelly: Second.
Carron moved, Tom Kelly seconded that the Park and Recreation Commission approve the
following discussion points for the joint meeting with the City Council: Bandimere Park
expansion, Rice Marsh Lake trail project, Lake Susan backstop, Pioneer Pass Park, Riley Ridge
Park, and skate park repairs. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of
7 to 0.
Daniel: Good luck.
Scharfenberg: You know what I would just include, I would include in that summary Todd that I know
that we broke out into several different committees and the people that are on each of those committees.
Daniel: That’s actually a good point.
Scharfenberg: Skate park. Disc golf. The neighborhood parks and was there one more?
Hoffman: The two neighborhood parks, yep.
Scharfenberg: Okay.
Hoffman: The three, yeah. Thank you.
Cole Kelly: Todd I just pulled up your email. You said 6:00 p.m.
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Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – March 20, 2012
Hoffman: That’s it. Thank you. Unless modified by the City Manager and then I’ll send you an update.
RECREATION PROGRAM REPORTS:
2011/12 ICE RINK EVALUATION.
Daniel: The ice rink evaluation. You want to start with that or do you want to move on to the Easter Egg
hunt?
Johnson: Yeah, we can start with the ice rink. Thank you Chair Daniel and good evening commissioners.
A little ironic discussing ice rinks when it’s 80 degrees this weekend. Grass is turning green out there but
obviously with the winter weather, the ice rinks you know we were fighting the weather. It seemed like
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poor ice conditions all year. We opened on December 24. We were able to open for the Christmas
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holiday which was nice. Closed down the season on February 15. During that time period we were
open for 28 days and closed for 27 so it seemed like we never had more than 3 days we were open you
know and there was standing water and issues like that. Due to the weather we had to close down all the
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hockey rinks on January 11. Some people probably remember the conversations around that time
period. Just kind of got to a point where at what point do you kind of cut your losses with the amount of
maintenance we put into them and the days getting longer. You know we couldn’t keep ice out on the
blacktop with the sun exposure and things. You’ll see I put a rink usage totals for the different locations.
Obviously the numbers are really, really low compared to other previous years. I think you’d see kind of
you know all cities kind of struggled with the same thing. We were calling other cities, seeing what they
were doing. It seemed like we were even open more than neighboring communities. One thing I found
kind of interesting on the usage, Roundhouse Park which is generally one of our lower attended facilities.
We only record on certain days out there but it seemed like the numbers were kind of right up there with
some of the other locations. Kind of attribute that to you know since the hockey rinks were closed, the
pleasure rinks were a lot smaller of a ice surface where people seemed like they kind of maybe liked the
bigger surface and they may travel a little further out to Roundhouse. Kind of utilize that space. The
warming houses, we rented two warming house trailers for North Lotus and at City Center. Worked out
great. They deliver them right there on site and same ones we’ve had for the last few years. We hired 16
rink attendants on a part time seasonal basis. All of them did wonderful job you know kind of hanging in
there. A lot of college kids who come home hoping for some part time hours over the winter break.
Unfortunately we weren’t able to accommodate probably what they were expecting but it was a great staff
and really it was a great year. No accidents or incidents to report at any of the locations. You can see on
the bottom we kind of put the expenses with the wages, the warming house rentals and then the rink
maintenance on there. Kudos to the maintenance staff for working as hard as they could to try to get
things in the best condition as they could throughout the winter. Couple attachments there. You can see
the usage, the totals and the expenses from the last few years and kind of see where this year fell in to
place with everything. Then Dale has an attachment of kind of the breakdown of the maintenance aspect
itself. Does anybody have any questions regarding the rinks for the 2011-2012 season?
Daniel: How’s this rank historically? I know you’ve been doing this, and maybe more a question
directed at Dale. As far as the number of days open, you know how low was this compared to other? Is
this record or is this?
Gregory: No. We had our record was in 2001 and we were open for 26 days. Other than that, I think
then we jump up into the 30’s, 40’s, 50’s. I do have one report in my thing that gives you all the opening
and closing dates and how many days we were open going back to ’82.
Daniel: Oh great.
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Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – March 20, 2012
Hoffman: In the expense rolls you can see it’s either, you have it’s a half or a third of what would
typically be spent in a more normal winter.
Daniel: Oh yeah.
Hoffman: Of course really the loss of hockey, that’s where people just really want those hockey rinks so
that was a big blow for our season this year.
Daniel: Well yeah, I went and bought skates for my kids. Used them twice.
Cole Kelly: Now they’ll grow out of them.
Daniel: Exactly. Just go figure so. Alright, any other questions for Mitch on the 2011/12 ice rink season
evaluation?
Cole Kelly: Let’s hope for some cold weather next year.
Daniel: Yes. Alright.
Tom Kelly: I’m curious, the staff still recommend keeping those pleasure rinks open? I know we had a
debate about this several years ago and we landed on keeping North Lotus and Roundhouse open. Staff
still recommend keeping those two open going forward?
Hoffman: Yes. North Lotus, because it is combined with a hockey rink and so you have both and so
when you have families that show up and they’re not all playing hockey or you have people that show up
and they don’t want to get involved in the hockey rink, you have that other alternative. And then
Roundhouse simply because it’s the only thing they have out west.
Tom Kelly: Okay. I just wanted to make sure we’re still.
Daniel: I think we moved what, Lake Susan Hills and.
Tom Kelly: Rice Marsh.
Daniel: Rice Marsh Lake, yeah so. And that was done a couple years ago.
Hoffman: And that was more geography.
Daniel: Yep, okay. Thank you Mitch.
2012 EASTER EGG CANDY HUNT REPORT.
Johnson: The Easter Egg Candy Hunt is the second of our four signature community events we offer
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throughout the year. This year is the 29 annual and scheduled for Saturday, April 7 here at City Center
Park. This is the second year at this location so looking forward to another great event. This event is
geared for children ages 12 and under but really is kind of a whole family atmosphere kind of getting
everybody out to enjoy a nice spring day. Each, we’ve already purchased the candy from Target. Each
participant will get a goodie bag with free door prize tickets and some other little prizes as part of the
event. Due to the generous contributions of the local business community we’re able to offer about 25
door prizes with the grand prize being a bicycle from Bookoo Bikes and Paddle Sports so it was really
kind of a neat partnership there. We’re looking forward to continuing that into the future. Flyers will be
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Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – March 20, 2012
inserted in the Villager this Thursday and then we delivered flyers and coloring contest sheets at four
local schools in the community. We were at Chapel Hill, St. John’s, Bluff Creek and Chan Elementary.
We were able to drop some information off so hopefully have a nice warm day for that. I will not be
there. It will be led by Jerry so.
Ruegemer: Mitch is going to Mexico to get married.
Johnson: One condition of employment when I accepted the position. Just give us one week and it
happened to fall on a community events so thanks Jerry.
Ruegemer: So the old guy’s going to take care of that one.
Johnson: But yeah, looking forward to that. Does anybody have any questions regarding the Easter Egg
Candy Hunt and coloring contest?
Ryan: The coloring contest will be in the paper as well?
Johnson: It’s a different flyer. The original flyer that’s in the Villager directs them to the City’s website
where they can download it so but the schools did receive the actual coloring contest sheet so.
Ryan: And start on time again. That was great last year Jerry. It was cold last year so starting on time
was important. This year might be a different deal.
Ruegemer: We’ll start on time.
Ryan: Perfect.
Hoffman: One of the neat things about the annual Easter Egg Candy Hunt is it’s longer. It’s been going
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on longer than the 4 of July and it’s raised you know generations of kids in our community so parents
look forward to it and now it’s always a new generation coming up that takes advantage of that program.
Daniel: Great, thank you Mitch. Looking forward to it. Alright.
RECREATION CENTER REPORT.
Daniel: Hi Jodi.
Sarles: Hello. Thank you Chair Daniel. I look at here and the first topic is the Winter Showcase and it
feels odd talking about that right now again but it was another fun one for our Dance for Fun group. It
was a nice chance the girls to kind of get out in front of some people and try their first performance for
some of them. We had one little girl that stood out there and had horrible stage fright and didn’t want to
do anything and then saw her mom and just stood there and waved.
Hoffman: Classic.
Sarles: It was and then at the end of one, one didn’t want to get off the stage so no, no, no, come on.
Come on so.
Hoffman: Keep dancing.
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Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – March 20, 2012
Sarles: Keep dancing. So we’re working towards our end of the year recital. The competition teams, of
which we have 4 this year, they have been competing already. They have I think a total of 3 and then the
Super Stars which is our highest competition team is actually going to compete this summer in the
Nationals so kind of exciting times for the program and for how these girls have grown throughout the
years they’ve been involved so. Tae Kwon Do, the big change this year or not change but an addition is
Jeff Engle is going to be offering a 5 to 7 year old class. One of these one a week type of classes. Shorter
so that kids can have a chance to test out Tae Kwon Do to see if it’s something they’d be interested in as
opposed to jumping right into twice a week for you know an hour long class so, so we’ve got a lot of
interest in that from many parents in the community. Zumba, it’s crazy. I think it’s, I don’t know, all the
time I think it’s a fad but it keeps coming back and these women are, well there’s some men in it too, that
just, they can’t get enough so this class we maxed at 30. They go over, they go 29 right now that are
actually registered and then we get drop in’s as well but we’re going to have to move it into gym if it
continues to grow because they’re dancing their way out of our studio I think. Again Enhanced Fitness is
our senior program. Our senior fitness program. Very strong still. Has 30 participants right now. We’ve
kind of seen a lull a little bit in the winter and they’re coming back now so, but it’s been, it’s always a
good group and they love their instructor so they follow him anywhere. And Pickleball. That’s brand
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new at the rec center so that is a fun thing that we’ve established. January 23 Sue and I set up a little
pickleball clinic. There is such a thing as a pickleball ambassador and he was at the Rec Center helping
us establish the program. We now have two courts in the gym that are on the floor so if you go into the
gym and wonder what the heck are all these lines, the blue ones are for pickleball. But right now it’s
crazy. People, once they start playing, they keep coming back so it’s very addictive I guess is what they
say. I’ve got one guy that comes back 4 times a week now because he wants to play so you know every
day so that’s a great program. We had 30 people that started with us that first day. Many of those were
folks from Eden Prairie that came as instructors almost to help the new people kind of learn the way and
scoring which I’m still having trouble with, but yeah they got me out two days ago to play with them
again yeah, they whooped me. They were running me around. I thought oh you guys so, but it’s
interesting because we get some kids that come in after school that play basketball and by the end of the
time they’re in the gym, they’re playing pickleball with these seniors so it’s pretty fun to see. The other
exciting thing for us is that we did win a New Initiatives Grant award through the Minnesota Recreation
and Park Foundation so we’ll be able to expand pickleball. It was kind of a co-grant between Sue and
Mitch and myself and so trying to find ways to cross generational program that. Utilize it more. You
know we’ve talked about going, bringing it into some of the parks where the playground programs and
things like that so just a new opportunity and a fun new way where people can play together. It’s, they
call it, what did he call it? You know actually older folks do better than younger folks and so they say it’s
very multi-generational and gender neutral is what they say because you’re pretty much on an even
playing field when you have a Whiffle ball and a little board paddle here so.
Scharfenberg: So is it your plan Jodi to move some of those outside this summer?
Sarles: In the summer we’ll have them, you know they’ll be able to use outside. We’ll get some, you can
get some court, or the net is a little bit lower for pickleball so you can get these things that kind of lower it
but ultimately someday we’d like to have a pickleball court perhaps but for now we’ll have the indoor
spaces. After they resurface the gym we will re-layout the floor. We just have it taped down and so then
we will move that into 4 courts indoors so, and thanks to Dale and some of the volunteers we do have the
2 courts so that’s very nice. And then as we move to the Rec Center Sports program. We have become
quite a training ground for many Rec Sports coordinators and unfortunately Lindsey Litrenta turned in her
resignation today. She got a full time job and will be leaving us so we’re proud to say we’ve trained her
and we send her onto the Minnesota Youth Sports Association I believe so she’ll be doing tournaments
and all sorts of youth sports things so we feel great about bringing her along and training her but we feel
very sad to see her go so, but as far as the program it’s grown incredibly under her leadership this past
year. She started with the City as an intern and has stayed on now through, she’ll stay on through next
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Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – March 20, 2012
week so, so basically through March. But Small Fry Sports, every session we get about 10 to 12 kids that
play. Those are the 3 and 4 year olds so we equip them with hockey sticks and golf clubs and all the fun
stuff for the different sessions and it’s a real introductory and fun program for the kids to kind of get a
very, very, very rudimentary look at sports with a lot of games in there so. Floor hockey finished up. We
had 54 4 to 6 year olds play. Basketball, I left tonight and they were playing basketball in the gym. 76
participants just about maxes out. I think we were 2 people short of maxed capacity in that program so it
tends to be, or it’s been a very good one. You know After School Sports, skating. That didn’t happen so
we kind of scratched that this year but now we’re playing, we played floor hocked tonight and soccer
tomorrow night and we’ve had a nice session of dodgeball inbetween so. And then upcoming events, if
you are in town and want to stop out on Sunday from 11:00 to 2:00 we will have our indoor garage sale at
the Rec Center, and then you’ll see on the flyer also we added the Spring Bazaar so kind of a little bit of
everything so that will be coming in April so. That is the news from the Rec Center front. Does anybody
have any questions?
Daniel: Questions, commissioners. I do like the Spring Bazaar. It’s fantastic. I mean I realize it can go
in the category of, you know what do they call those? Market. You know a market but like the idea of
the spring bazaar so fantastic. That’s a great way for local residents to showcase some of their crafts and
stuff. Alright, thank you Jodi. Appreciate the update.
Sarles: Thanks.
SENIOR CENTER REPORT.
Daniel: Susan Bill. Good evening Susan.
Bill: Good evening. Thank you. As Jerry alluded to in the Annual Report, education programs at the
senior center really kind of have been taking front and center. Our day to day programs continue to draw
people but it’s unbelievable the diversity and programming and the interest that people have in the
education programs. Did a class on There’s An App For You. Laurie Hokkanen, Assistant City Manager
did it. We had people just so excited about all different app’s. I don’t know if when they left they knew
what to do with them, but we exposed them to a whole other world. Some brought their phones. Some
brought their iPads. Some brought their tablets so that’s an area that I’ll continue to do programming in.
Purpose of the, as I call them tech byte classes are one hour informational classes. If they want more of
the application portion of it, community ed I feel can offer that better than we can. On the agenda for the
summer is a class on different types of tablets. I think we’ll do Pinterest. I don’t know how many, I don’t
think many men know what that is probably but we’ll do that so people are really, really excited about
that so I will continue to offer those. Had a Living with Arthritis class. Standing room only. 55 people.
Had a wonderful person from Ridgeview and I’ve established a relationship with the Education
Coordinator there so we’ll continue to do 4 to 5 classes throughout the year. Kind of different topics that
will draw people in. Did a class called Maintain Your Brain. Carver County Library system got some
Legacy funding and they combined with the Alzheimer’s Association of Minnesota and North and South
Dakota. We did a program called Maintain Your Brain. It was healthy brain activities. As you age there
again I think I had over 50 people at that, and then for the following 6 weeks I did something called
brainstorming games where the library got kits for money so every Wednesday afternoon from 1:00 to
3:00 people could drop in and play a number of just different games and I went in once and I left pretty
quickly because they were pretty challenging but it was a nice winter activity and people really seemed to
enjoy that. Had an author. We got a rich, we’ve got a community of rich, I mean people that are very
knowledgeable. An author came to me. She’s written 3 books. I had her come and speak and had a big
crowd and people loved listening to her. My Passport to the World programs continue to flourish. We
had one on Iceland. Jodi was one of our presenters as well as two other people. Once again the
information, people just love it. It’s like traveling without leaving the comfort of the community so those
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Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – March 20, 2012
continue. Had one on Ireland last week and that was also very well attended. As Jodi mentioned, she and
I have been talking about pickleball for what, maybe a year and a half. Well it finally came to
Chanhassen. Eden Prairie has 150 people playing pickleball. Minnetonka has about 125. Bloomington
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plays 4 days a week so we didn’t launch it at the most ideal time. January 23 but Jodi’s done a great job.
We’re up you know over 30 people and hopefully down the road we’ll get into competitive pickleball
with other communities so, it’s fun. And I think the neatest part about pickleball, as Jodi and I talk about
it, it filled some pretty dead time at the Rec Center. From 1:00 to 3:00 and it’s bringing in a group of
people, the younger boomers that we’re always striving to get involved in activities. Then the
intergenerational things will be really fun as pickleball continues to grow and get it out in the parks so.
That’s all I have for tonight. Senior Center is always a busy place. A lot of good people and we’re
fortunate to have the support of the City.
Daniel: Great, thank you Sue. Questions for Sue. Thanks again Sue. Appreciate the effort and time.
PARK AND TRAIL MAINTENANCE.
Daniel: Mr. Gregory.
Gregory: Thank you. Well Mitch did a pretty good job on the skating rinks so I guess I don’t have to
really cover too much on that. It wasn’t the worst year. Like I said in 2001 was our worst year we had.
We were only open for 26 days. 2001 was also the year that we stopped doing all the neighborhood parks
and so. I do have a report in there, like I mentioned before and that that will take you back to 1982 for
opening/closing dates. It will give you how many days we were open and I didn’t start keeping track of
what it cost us until 1998 but from then on and that it pretty much gives you a rundown of what we’re
spending on skating rinks per year. Skating rinks weren’t the worst thing of the year and that. I mean
wood duck houses were just as bad. I mean this is the worst year we’ve ever had for wood ducks. We’ve
got 41 houses out that we maintain and we only had a 25% success ratio this year and we have never been
that low in 18 years so I don’t know if it’s just the lack of ducks around in the area anymore and that or
you don’t see many wood ducks around or anything anymore and that but.
Daniel: There was a pair on Sunday.
Gregory: Did you?
Daniel: Right at Kerber Pond.
Gregory: That’s good but it is, like I say it really has gone down here in the last few years and so we’re
not getting the results we used to get with them. Sentence to Serve. We got the fellows scheduled for,
actually we had it in the beginning of April. We moved it to the end of March now with the nice weather.
We’re hoping to get out and clean, we’ll be cleaning all the downtown, around all the buildings. City
buildings. Actually they’ll be going out to the cemetery and working out there too so it’s a great group of
people. Great organization that we’ve gotten, and every year and that when we come around to this and
that we always hear that the County’s cutting money and they want to cut that program out and it’s one
that I’d really like to see people support and that because it does bring a lot of help to our city here and we
use them for quite a few different things. The lack of snow, with the Lake Susan aeration and that, we
didn’t have to put it out. We monitored every week during the winter and the oxygen levels barely
dropped at all. With the lack of snow on there, the weeds, everything else had enough sun and everything
come through and that that it kept the oxygen going real well and we had no issues at all with it this year.
The lack of snow and the skating rinks and that gave us a lot of time to work on tree trimming. I had in
here, we covered 90%. We’re actually 100% done now. We have gone down every trail that we have.
Trimmed trees and that. I mean we’ve pretty much done that all winter long and it was a great winter
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Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – March 20, 2012
without the snow. We were able to trim trees. No issues working around with snow. We were able to get
down every one of them and we actually, the guys went out after this last snow and they went down and
did all the downtown where they, Brad and Charlie take care of the sidewalks, we had some issues there.
They got those all trimmed back too and that now so we’re really sitting pretty good now for our trails
and that. We shouldn’t really have any issues for quite a while.
Hoffman: Something to keep in mind on that. The $20,000 to $30,000 that was not investment in ice
rinks went to trail clearing so that’s a job that just gets pushed back til next year until we have a winter
like this and if you’re out walking the trails, you’ll notice. It was a significant improvement. Without
that trail clearing you know they just continue to crowd and then we have problems with vehicles and
safety distances back so they did a great job. They worked very hard. Much of the crew was involved in
that process at some point throughout the entire winter.
Gregory: A few things and that that we have done since I put the report together. Last Friday we started
working on ballfields. We were out at Lake Ann. We got those pretty much leveled out. Got some bases
out. Bandimere we did the same thing and Lake Susan so actually the outfields are really in good shape.
They’re dry. The infields are really good and that so this next week we’ll be heading to the schools and
any of the neighborhood ballfields that we’ve got and start getting them leveled off and bases out on those
things so. We’ve got some work to do on the Lake Susan boat landing. We had an issue down there this
year. The ice has pushed it up. I mean we’re talking almost 2 feet it’s pushed up the boat landing. We
had a ridge with rock this winter so people could drive out there. We’re looking at it now, we’re going to
have to get going on it. People are already, we had one call today and that guy wanted to know when
we’re going to get it done so we can get out and get fishing and that so we will, we’re going to be looking
at that here in the next few days and at least get it down so they can get out. We’re even going to try to
get it stretched back out into the lake or we’re going to have to take out some of the concrete slabs
inbetween and get it flat again. But the Lake Ann one came up a little bit but not too bad. Not like Lake
Susan. I don’t know that’s the worst I’ve ever seen that one come up but we will get at that. That will be
on our next agenda here to get done. Piers. The guys went out and put all those in today so all the piers
are out. They also told me the playground inspections, they went around. They hit every park this spring
and did the inspections on the parks. We had some broken things and that but they told me everything
was completely finished, repaired and ready to go and that so all of our playgrounds are 100% done. One
of the other things I’m working on is tennis courts. We’ve got 4 parks that we’re going to be redoing our
tennis courts. I have been working with Rick Pelletier from Fleehaul and we’re looking at some options
on taking care of the cracks in them and we’re actually looking at some that we may be able to overlay
them. They’ve got a fabric that they can put down and we overlay over them and that and he said it’ll
eliminate 90% of your cracks and if that works, that’ll be great but we’re going to, we’re hopefully we’re
going to be trying that on a couple of the courts and some of the other ones are going to be patching some
of the cracks in the same manner like he’s talking about so we’re going to give that a try. I do have a
meeting with him tomorrow at 1:00. We’re going to go out and look at these tennis courts again and
we’re also going to be up at the skate park and he’s going to, we’re going to look at what we can do for
blacktopping that. He’s going to give us prices on that. Hockey rinks and Todd, we’ve also talked about
the tennis courts out at Bandimere. Or not Bandimere, Bluff Creek. The ones that are sinking that we’ve
got an issue with. We’re going to look at what we can do with them and if we can get them leveled out,
blacktopped and leveled out or something and then they’re talking about making those outdoor pickle
courts. We’d be able to get 4 courts in those 2 tennis court areas there. So we’ve got a lot of irons in the
fire right now of things we’re trying to get done. We just went through interviews with all of our
seasonal’s new people. We need 3 and interviewed 17 kids so got a good group of people. We’ve
actually had some really good people coming in and that and interview and that so. These kids are
looking at it in more of a professional way than they used to. The used to come in. Hats turned
backwards. Looked kind of grubby and these kids are coming in and with the idea that they really want a
job and they’re, I mean they’re coming in for an interview. Not just a sit around and that so it’s nice to
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Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – March 20, 2012
see and that so but we’ve got a good group of kids and that. We’ve just got to come up with 3 of them
out of that whole group that we want so. That’s pretty much everything for me.
Daniel: Okay. Thank you Dale. Questions for Dale and the park maintenance.
Cole Kelly: Todd you had mentioned I think last year that the Sentence to Serve was probably going to
go away because of funding issues for transportation but apparently we still have that going on. Now is
that a County?
Hoffman: County.
Cole Kelly: That’s County. And Dale mentioned that we need what, that it might still be going away or?
Gregory: Well they talk about it every year and that, going away because of the money. They don’t have
the money to do it and.
Hoffman: The next time you see your County Commissioner, just let them know how much you
appreciate the Sentence to Serve program. The STS program and that if it could continue to go, it really.
Daniel: It’s strictly a transportation issue.
Hoffman: Cost in transportation, yeah. And that it, it benefits the people that are involved in the work
program and it benefits the community greatly.
Gregory: And they are used throughout the whole county and that. I mean every city and that that I’ve
talked to and that all use Sentence to Serve for different things. They don’t only get the people from
Carver County and that. If they don’t have a lot or enough of them coming, they’ll go down to Shakopee
and get some of the people from down there and bring them up and put one whole group together. That
way you get enough to come up and work for us so it works out real well.
Hoffman: They’re either out working or sitting in the jail and a lot of people go.
Daniel: That’s an easy decision.
Gregory: This year it will be easy when it’s nice and warm.
Ryan: Hey Dale I have a couple questions, or a question and then a comment. In terms of homes that are
doing new construction and they obviously are going over trails, how do you monitor the damage that’s
done to the trails and what is the responsibility of the builders that are causing this damage? Specifically
on Lake Lucy.
Gregory: Well it’s pretty much we try to get the builders to take care of it and that. If they can’t, we end
up repairing and that. I’ve talked with all of the City employees and if they see anybody on our trails,
they’re supposed to let us know so we can go out and talk to them right away. I don’t think you give any
permits really to go over any of our trails. They’re not supposed to be on them at all.
Ryan: Okay, because I know that two homes on Lake Lucy, the two new construction homes.
Daniel: East of Galpin?
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Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – March 20, 2012
Ryan: Yes. It’s, they’ve caused a lot of damage, one specifically to the trail. It’s starting to sink so just
to make you aware of that situation. And then speaking of sink holes, I know you repaired it I believe last
year or the year prior on Galpin a trail across from, is it Ashling Meadows? A sink hole next to the one
you repaired is developing again.
Gregory: Is that right along the swamp?
Ryan: It is, yes.
Hoffman: We have a muskrat.
Gregory: Yeah, we have issues with muskrats and that and they dig underneath and then the trail starts to
sink.
Ryan: Okay, so one’s developing right now.
Gregory: Okay.
Ryan: And then just my final comment. I know I always do it for holidays but specifically I just thought
it was great to have all the flags out on Presidents Day when I pulled into city center to see all the flags
up, I just think it once again shows what a great small town, great community that Chanhassen is and I
really appreciate that so thank you for doing that.
Gregory: Thank you.
Carron: I’ve got one quick question. How many wood duck homes share their pond with hockey rinks in
the winter?
Gregory: With hockey rinks? Oh, there’s a few of them.
Carron: Is there?
Gregory: Yep.
Carron: Any damage to them or they’re pretty much respected?
Gregory: No, they’re, we don’t have any issues. The real damage we see is just getting old, rotting.
Carron: Okay.
Gregory: Or stuff like that. We don’t really see anybody going out and destroying wood duck houses. I
don’t know.
Carron: Okay, that’s good.
Hoffman: Dale also, all the tennis nets are up as of a week ago Friday and so they’re all playing tennis.
And then regarding I know there’s at least one of the houses on Lake Lucy, I stopped last week and
chatted with the contractor as he was on top of the trail with his backhoe and so I, as I was walking down
the gentleman in the street said, just go around. It’ll just be a few minutes and I said well are they cutting
through this trail? No, they’re just connecting the water service there so I then I had made contact with
the operator and I asked the operator, I said it would be nice if this trail, this is a finished product, if this
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Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – March 20, 2012
trail was protected before you were on it with a backhoe and he said on this isn’t going to hurt it any.
And I said well it’s already edge cracked and caused some abrasions and yeah it’s going to be primarily
cosmetic but there’ll be damage to the trail. No, no there won’t be any damage. This won’t hurt the trail
at all. And so I suggested well the next spot we’ll load this baby up to is we’ll take it to your driveway
and we’ll back it off and we’ll dump it onto your driveway and then we’ll dig a few holes around there if
it’s not causing any damage. I said that’s a finished product. This is a finished product so he’ll be
responsible for the repair and so it’s a challenge because it’s in the right-of-way. These trails are in the
right-of-way and you know it’s just, it’s a constant maintenance issue because all the utility contractors
use them and so, if you see people out on them let us know. We’ll follow up.
Daniel: Great, thank you Dale.
ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT.
Daniel: Todd, anything you want to highlight?
Hoffman: Nothing. I don’t want to highlight your retirement but I have to so. 6 years and Chair Daniels
is retiring and I’m just going to let your fellow commissioners say their good-byes and their thank you’s
and then we’ll move on to adjournment and other business.
Daniel: Okay, great. Well I certainly do want to say one thing. As an opportunity to serve the City of
Chanhassen through the Park and Recreation Commission over the last 6 years and in all sincerity has
been one of the most fulfilling and rewarding things I’ve been able to do. Obviously giving back to this
city which I have grown up in and spent just about my entire life in certainly has been, like I said very
fulfilling so it’s been an honor to work with both the city staff. Todd, yourself, Todd, Jerry and Mitch
and everyone else. Well Dale and Sue and Jodi and then as well as more importantly all the
commissioners over the last 6 years and you know surprising it’s both been Steve and Tom and I for my
entire 6 years. Yep, and then obviously with Glenn and Jack and Ann and boy most of them that have
come around. Glenn obviously and so it’s been an honor to again serve with you guys and I wish you the
best of luck moving forward. When I first came in here a lot of the things that I had talked about with
City Council have come to fruition. One of them is, you know now that we have the Redbirds back in
town with the town ball team and thanks to Elise and Terre and everyone. Terre Kemble who, Bud
Walker who had really moved forward with that program. That’s been fantastic and I’m glad to see that’s
here now. Disc golf was one I just, I do remember specifically talking about but that’s come to fruition
this year, let alone all the other programs that we’ve done and the expansion of two parks during my
tenure so this has been like I said fantastic and it’s one of these things that once the children have moved
out I would love to get an opportunity to come back and be honest with you Todd do again. Just
unfortunately a matter of time in the schedule which doesn’t seem to be around anymore and I don’t know
how you guys do it with both Steve and Tom. I know you’re both very active with other athletic
programs but I certainly admire you because all I am now is a taxi driver moving one child from one
event to another so again thank you very much and I look forward to all the other programs, recreation
programs as well as trails and parks that come in the future here so I wish you, the commission as well as
the city the best of luck. Thank you.
Hoffman: Thank you.
Ryan: Well I’d like to also thank you for your service. I’ve only been on the 3 out of the 6 years and
among your many wonderful attributes the one I’d like to specifically point out is that you have a unique
and an admirable ability to make commissioners, staff, guests always feel very welcome when they come
before the commission and whether somebody is in favor or opposition of what we’re talking about at that
time, you just do a really wonderful job chairing our group and making people feel comfortable to speak
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Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – March 20, 2012
their mind. It served our commission well having that quality on our commission as Chair and we really
appreciate it and you’ll be greatly missed but wish you the best of luck so thank you again.
Daniel: Thank you Elise.
Cole Kelly: Jeff I just wanted to say thank you for your leadership for my 2 years on the commission and
I think what I’m going to miss most is the knowledge you have locked in your head about the city and the
parks so we hope that your other endeavors go well for you.
Daniel: Thank you.
Scharfenberg: Jeff thank you for your, I’d echo the comments of Elise and Cole and would say thank you
for your wonderful leadership of this group of individuals and bringing us together through some difficult
issues. Not that we have a lot of them but thank you for your time and your efforts that you’ve put in and
your wonderful ideas that you’ve brought to fruition.
Daniel: Thank you Steve.
Scharfenberg: Yep.
Tom Kelly: I really enjoyed serving with you for the past 6 years. I really can’t say anything more than
what Elise, Steve and Cole have said but you have been an outstanding Chair and I think the thing that I
like best is no matter what the issue, you always went down each and every commissioner to ask them if
they had something. You gave each of us an opportunity to speak at every possible moment. That was
very much appreciated so thank you.
Daniel: Thank you.
Aldritt: I was going to second Elise also. This being my first year here I felt very welcomed and even
though the first couple meetings being on the end there was pressure to be the first one to be asked but I
came to grow used to it and be better prepared.
Daniel: I’ve sat there myself.
Carron: And to follow up, me personally I thought just you’re a great role model as far as someone
coming on and learning the whole aspect of it, and also being new to the community as well with the
wealth of knowledge that you have made me really get out there and say geez, I’ve got to go out and do
some research here and get used to it so, it’s going to be missed. It’s going to be missed but hopefully
you check in once in a while.
Daniel: Oh and absolutely. I mean again thank you Brent. As I stated, I mean it’s been an absolutely
pleasure and it was, you know we talk about a hard decision but when I look at what needed to be done
because this, this isn’t work. I don’t know how the rest of the commissioners feel but this is actually
really enjoy, I enjoy doing this and I enjoy doing what I’ve done. All the park visits and the tours and all
those things and more importantly getting the opportunity to work at some of the events and my favorite
always each year has been the February Festival. Love it and as much as I got to enjoy sitting next to
Todd for hours on end watching him weigh fish after fish, I’m hoping one day I’ll have the opportunity to
bring up one…and I can assure you that will not be chipped out of the ice but legitimately caught so, but
again this is, you know there’s a reason why this town or this city consistently ranks as one of the best
places to live in the United States and I’m extremely fortunate to have grown up here and see this town
blossom into what has really become I think a standard in this state, let alone the United States so, for a
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Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission – March 20, 2012
community to live in. And again thank you very much and I wish everyone the best endeavors on this
because it is challenging but I hope more importantly for everyone it’s fun because that’s what I got out
of it was fun. Thank you.
Hoffman: Thanks Jeff and you’ll be receiving, Jeff will be receiving a Maple Leaf Award for his service
at a future City Council meeting so look for that.
Daniel: Alright with that.
Carron: Your last motion.
Daniel: Last motion. I don’t believe there’s any committee member reports or presentations. Todd, is
there anything you wanted to highlight out of the packet?
Hoffman: None.
COMMISSION MEMBER COMMITTEE REPORT.
None.
COMMISSION MEMBER PRESENTATIONS.
None.
ADMINISTRATIVE PACKET.
None.
Cole Kelly moved, Tom Kelly seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the motion
carried unanimously with a vote of 7 to 0. The Park and Recreation Commission meeting was
adjourned at 9:00 p.m.
Submitted by Todd Hoffman
Park and Rec Director
Prepared by Nann Opheim
26