PRC 2007 03 27
CHANHASSEN PARK AND
RECREATION COMMISSION
REGULAR MEETING
MARCH 27, 2007
Chairman Stolar called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m..
MEMBERS PRESENT:
Glenn Stolar, Tom Kelly, Steve Scharfenberg, Jeff Daniel, and Jack
Spizale
MEMBERS ABSENT:
Paula Atkins
STAFF PRESENT:
Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Director; Jerry Ruegemer, Recreation
Superintendent; Nate Rosa, Recreation Supervisor; Susan Bill, Senior Center Coordinator; Dale
Gregory, Park Superintendent; and Tom Knowles, Recreation Center Manager
APPROVAL OF AGENDA:
Stolar: Are there any changes to the agenda?
Hoffman: With the exception of our farewell to Mr. Spizale. We can do that under the
commission member presentations.
Stolar: Okay. Is there any discussion about the new members yet or is that?
Hoffman: The interviews take place, let's see next council the appointments I think are on the
9th.
Stolar: Okay. So we'll add our comments for Jack on the commission member presentations.
Any other additions? Seeing none, do we have a motion to approve the agenda?
Scharfenberg moved, Daniel seconded to approve the agenda amended to include farewell
remarks for Jack Spizale under Commission Member Presentations. All voted in favor
and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Rosa: I guess I have a public announcement. We do have the Easter Egg Candy Hunt coming
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up on Saturday, April 7. You'll find at the back of your administration section there will be a
copy of the actual coloring contest, so those of you with children, grandchildren or in my case, I
consider nieces and nephews, please feel free to join us. It's $3.00 and it will start at 9:00
promptly on that date. At this time we do not need any volunteers though.
Stolar: You don't? Because I'm available this year.
Park and Recreation Commission - March 27, 2007
Bill: Can I make a motion or something. Last year I had to dress up like a cow and be part of
the entertainment so, you might want to do that.
Stolar: I did that for Halloween.
Bill: Oh okay.
Stolar: So I've already done the cow deal. I guess it was a year ago Halloween that I did the cow
so. Okay, well thank you. I'll probably swing by anyway. Other announcements? Seeing none.
VISITOR PRESENTATIONS:
None.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES:Daniel moved, Scharfenberg seconded to approve the
verbatim and summary minutes of the Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated
February 27, 2007 as presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously
with a vote of 5 to 0.
CONSIDER ADDITION OF A FIFTH ATHLETIC FIELD, CHANHASSEN
RECREATION CENTER.
Hoffman: Thank you Chair Stolar and members of the commission. As we continue to mature
as a community and we're looking for additional ballfield capacity, we do not have vacant land in
which to create new ballparks and so we are attempting to take a little closer look at increasing
capacity on the existing facilities that we have in our system. This particular proposal is for the
Chanhassen Recreation Center, to add a fifth field to our contingent of fields out there. The City
owns and operates 4 existing fields on the site and then the school district has 1. So if we add
this fifth and the City, then there'll be 6 in total on the property. As you can see the location is
the northeast corner of the property. Chanhassen Recreation Center is a 40 acre site. The school
district owns 20 acres. We own 20 acres. It basically puts another 180 foot field into the
outfield of what is called right now Field number 4. So this would be Field number 5. In doing
so it reduces the foul line distance on that field from 200 down to 180, so you have two 180 foot
foul lines fields and then it reduces the soccer field down a little bit from 210 by 280 down to
150 by 230. You can fit that sideways between the infields and you have a very nice soccer field
for that location as well. We wanted to have some basic plans drawn up and so the commission
could take a look at this. Discuss it with staff. Give us your opinion on whether you think that's
a good idea for the community to do this, and then we will move forward, if you do, in finalizing
the draft plans and then taking the job on in-house with Dale and his crew and having some
dedicated resources coming in. We have a line on $10,750 coming in that Jerry has secured in
the contributions from the District 112 Baseball Association, and they are coming into the
council in April to make that contribution. So those dollars would be put to use on construction
of this field to purchase fencing and materials that we would need. So that's the proposal in a
nutshell. If you have questions, all of staff that is here working on the project stands ready to
answer your questions.
Stolar: Jeff, why don't we start with you.
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Park and Recreation Commission - March 27, 2007
Daniel: Well, actually I was going to pass it onto Tom since he was part of the Little League
Commission. I think this would be a huge addition in having something like this available. I
mean obviously between what the YMCA provides for T-ball as well as now Little League, they
won't be playing in, or at least in the outfields for an extra team, at least that we've seen the last
couple years, so I think this would be fantastic. I don't know how, the only question I may ask
is, who's using the existing soccer field now and how will that affect them?
Ruegemer: Currently in the summer time nobody is really playing any soccer out there in the
summer time. We are just utilizing the baseball space and what we do in the fall time then in we
don't play any baseball, they play soccer in the fall. So right now currently we've always had oh
5 or 6 soccer fields out there in the fall time, and still incorporate the same number of fields in
this configuration just by moving it, included to outfield, or in the outfield areas of the 2 fields
proposed.
Daniel: What age groups are using for example this particular field?
Ruegemer: For?
Daniel: For, actually what's the oldest age group I should say.
Ruegemer: Probably 12-13.
Daniel: And does this meet within, would they be probably comfortable with the size that's
going from 210, I mean it's almost a 30% reduction?
Ruegemer: Yeah, the age group that is going to be playing here is obviously going to be girls
softball or baseball. You know YMCA T-ball programs. That sort of thing so.
Stolar: With the soccer field I think he was asking.
Daniel: Yeah, it's more the soccer field in particular.
Ruegemer: Oh soccer?
Daniel: Yep.
Ruegemer: Because it's a lot of these fields that are out here are kind of that mid, that you
probably U-8, U-10 age groups. So we're going to continue on with the same kind of soccer that
we've had in the past out here, and that field, baseball field is not going to compromise on fall
soccer. We, as a staff, I have not had like a full sized field out there as is proposed inbetween
Fields 2 and 3. We have really never done that. We've always kind of gone kind of north and
south of those two fields and used them for smaller age groups. Younger age groups. You know
we still have full sized fields at Bandimere, Instant Web, Lake Ann.
Stolar: So let me follow up on Jeff's question. So 210 by 280 was never really one field. It was
multiple soccer fields.
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Park and Recreation Commission - March 27, 2007
Hoffman: Well this field was never built on, put down on the property. This is just showing
conceptually to show the size of a field that you could actually put there, but we have never
striped that side of the field at that location.
Stolar: Gotch ya.
Daniel: Okay. So if anything this is going to be an absolute benefit by adding the sixth baseball
field, or softball field. Okay.
Spizale: You don't see any problem with being too close to the trail? Or not. Is that far enough
away from the trail?
Hoffman: It's fairly tight but when we worked with the consulting planner on it, one of the
options is to spend some additional money and move the trail over. I don't think it's worth it. If
we run into some conflicts in the future we can do that. I can't foresee, that trail is, it's not, it's
just a transportation trail. You breeze through there…and the field is going to be used down in
the basin so, there's not a lot of potential conflict between let's say, when conflict would happen
in that situation is if you have a big game going on and people spill over into the trail and you've
got bikers coming through. That could be a problem, but that's going to be a pretty small time
slot.
Stolar: Then is there a possibility of putting in either a temporary or permanent fencing there
just from the one area to kind of separate those, either natural or whatever?
Hoffman: You could. It would start to create kind of a tunnel so, I think if we run into a
problem we'd probably end up pushing the trail over… If we put a fence there, we'd create this
10 foot tunnel that's kind of, which is difficult to maintain the turf.
Stolar: I'm sorry, where would be, oh between the two there?
Hoffman: Yeah.
Stolar: I was actually just thinking some natural stuff like some trees there or something, or
bushes so that people sense a natural barrier not to just fall into the trail. It doesn't have to be
tall. Just something that lets them know that there's a break there.
Hoffman: It's a possibility. Bushes take about 3 feet, so you'd really again, really getting tight in
there. 10 feet's not very, you know it's here to the wall. Not very big.
Spizale: I guess my second question is this something you're thinking about doing this year?
Yeah, I think it's a great idea. That's all.
Kelly: There's no age restrictions when games are going back to back? You think you can still
go up to age 10-12 baseball playing on.
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Park and Recreation Commission - March 27, 2007
Ruegemer: Yeah, what we have to look at kind of the age groups that are going to be out there.
That's usually…during our meetings. We did switch some age groups around from last year to
make sure that we don't have any conflicts or problems that we had last year so we switched a
couple things around so, you know with a little creative scheduling we can minimize those types
of impacts on the field.
Hoffman: If we have outfields that cross each other, that's going to be a problem.
Kelly: And there's no drainage issues right in that area of the fields?
Hoffman: The field's going to drain from, if you're looking from left to right, it's going to drain
into the east. Drainage should be fine there.
Kelly: Okay. And the only question I had was, how about the, is there a possibility to put one
on the southeast corner as well. Field number 7 or is that just too close to Coulter?
Hoffman: We looked at that and in fact that was our first proposal, and it gets really squeezed
down and starts getting too close and tight yet in Coulter to the foul lines and foul balls and the
outfield is actually shorter. It just narrows the road really kicks to the north right there and takes
off quite a bit of the project.
Kelly: Okay. I think this is great. This is a great thing.
Hoffman: Our proposal to the planner was to take a look at 3 different options. Not putting in
the infields. Putting in 2 or putting in 1 and this was their recommendation, and it coincides with
what we were thinking as well. We said if we can do 2…but we studied it.
Kelly: Thanks.
Stolar: Steve.
Scharfenberg: So who would be some of the groups that we would talk to about helping with
the costs? The CAA obviously. What other groups would we talk to in terms of getting money?
Ruegemer: Well we're fairly confident that significant contribution that we got from District 112
that we can cover the costs of the field as it is right now. We're going to be getting or soliciting
other athletic associations to help out with the lighting project at Lake Ann as well so we're kind
of trying to…
Scharfenberg: I didn't see that in here. Did you, we got some money from District 112? Okay.
Hoffman: We got word back after the report was out and so they've committed $10,750, and
they'll be bringing a check to the City Council in April.
Ruegemer: And Nate said he'll cover the rest…recreation programs.
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Park and Recreation Commission - March 27, 2007
Stolar: I just had a couple of quick follow up questions along the same lines. So currently the
big soccer field, we use it in the fall. The big area, or it's hardly used?
Ruegemer: Yeah, the soccer field that's shown on the plan we do not use that particular size.
We have smaller fields that incorporate there, incorporated into the grassy areas throughout all
the land.
Stolar: So are we going to lose soccer time with this?
Hoffman: No.
Stolar: Are we going to increase it?
Hoffman: No.
Stolar: That's what I just want to be clear. Okay. Then the question of fields, depending on how
we do this, is there, do we foresee that there's going to be a need for the 200 foot field I guess a
little bit better. So if we chose to make this new field smaller and only for younger children,
could we keep the 200 and would that serve our schedule better?
Ruegemer: I don't know that the 180 foot you know benchmark, so to speak, goes out to the
fences. I mean there's no fences out there. There's overlapping outfields so to speak, and if we
have T-ball, girls softball, that sort of thing, that ball won't even go 100 feet. So if you're
worried about interference with the two fields, we could schedule that where we're not going to
have any…
Stolar: What I was wondering is, will there be more of a demand for say a 200 foot field for
groups that do hit that far, and then you know 150 here could cover any T-ball or the very much
younger softball. So just from a scheduling perspective. I guess the other question would be is it
flexible, so we could always change it if we needed to, right?
Hoffman: Part of the scenario you're talking about, if we wanted to schedule a 200 or a 240 foot
game, we would schedule it on one of these fields and just not schedule anything on the other.
Stolar: And you could just extend the lines if we needed to do that at that time so it's totally
flexible that way.
Hoffman: Correct.
Stolar: Okay, great. It is a fantastic idea. As you guys know, Todd and Jerry have been working
very hard with the theme of how we can get more ballfield space, athletic field space. It's not
just ballfields but athletic fields. We got the funding from the City Council approved for the
lighting and this too, I mean we've just tremendously increased our capacity with no new land so
great job. Thank you.
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Park and Recreation Commission - March 27, 2007
Scharfenberg: Would there be room behind the backstop at the new field to put in any bleachers
for viewing? I know there is some at most of the fields. There's some bleachers.
Hoffman: Yeah, I think you could fit a section of bleachers over to that one side. And then if
you do these split bleachers, you could put one, we'd have to move it down. Kind of down. You
could still fit one but you're not going to be able to fit one big section behind. So you can have a
whole on the visitors and they're going to have to go in two of the locations. You've got
one…behind the fence and then down south…
Daniel: I don't think any of them do have bleachers do they right now?
Hoffman: They're around…concrete bleacher pads. In fact we probably will incorporate those
into the design, those concrete bleacher pads, just like… They're adjusted on some of the other
fields because of the layout, so they're moved to certain locations.
Stolar: That could actually deal with the 10 foot issue if you put a smaller bleacher there. It's
kind of a natural barrier for people just flowing in.
Hoffman: And it goes without saying that this is the farthest field so it's going to be the last one
to be scheduled, so if you don't need that field, it's not going to be scheduled so it's going to
receive the lowest amount of use in the…
Stolar: Any other questions?
Scharfenberg: So probably this field wouldn't be in play this year but next year sometime.
Hoffman: No, we think we can play this year.
Scharfenberg: Oh really? Okay.
Stolar: Anything else? So do I have a motion on the staff recommendation to add a fifth
ballfield on the Chanhassen Rec Center as described?
Scharfenberg: Motion to approve staff's recommendation for a fifth athletic field at Chanhassen
Recreation Center.
Stolar: Can I have a second?
Daniel: Second.
Stolar: Any other discussion?
Scharfenberg moved, Daniel seconded that the Park and Recreation Commission approve
the addition of a fifth athletic field at the Chanhassen Recreation Center. All voted in
favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
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Park and Recreation Commission - March 27, 2007
RECREATION PROGRAM REPORTS:
2006/2007 ICE SKATING RINK EVALUATION.
Rosa: Thank you Chair Stolar, commissioners. And just first off, I have few times to embarrass
my bosses as many times as possible. He did just reach 17 years with the City last week so
congratulations to Jerry. Now that we're done with that. Ice rinks did run shorter this year. Last
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year was 59 days total that we were open. This year it was 34 days. It ran from January 15
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through February 22 with the last few days actually being closed. Really the last day was like
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the 18. With that we did switch over to a new warming house system this year which was
greatly appreciated by the people that use the facilities, and by us. With that there was no steps
incorporated on going up to the building. It was one, big open bay like I mentioned before last
time I was here. It allowed for the ice rink attendant to be in full view the entire time. It just
increased safety issues if something were to occur, the attendant's right there to see it. And then
the other thing too is they both came with security lights on the outside of the doors, so that also
added to another feature. A light right there at the apparatus. And then as stated before,
Chanhassen Hills was scheduled to be put into play this year as a neighborhood ice rink. And
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the policy set back, 8 years back is the deadline for ice time on that is December 20 and we did
not reach the allowable ice making conditions at that time so we did not go ahead and open that
ice rink this year. Just based off of deadlines. We barely made the deadlines for all of our other
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rinks too, but we saw that ice was able to be made by the 13 of January, or 11 of January
which is the deadline, so we went forward with that. All in all the total came down to $34,825.
On a daily usage basis it increased our daily fees, or weekly. Was it daily or weekly that you
usually go by? What it costs?
Gregory: Daily's what I figured out.
Rosa: Okay. By daily it ended up increasing it by $162 compared to last year, but that's just
because we had half the days open this year so. I do make a recommendation though that we re-
use the same trailer rental service next year. So that's all I have for that. All the breakdowns are
down here on the next few sheets if you'd like to see that. When it came to the days that we were
opened and closed and the grand total. We had 4,118 hours, use hours by people that use our ice
rinks this year, and on the back of the page there it shows a breakdown of all the hours and what
the total came to there.
Stolar: Any questions for Nate on this? No? Just feedback I heard also on those new trailers
was tremendous. People thought they were a lot better so appreciate you thinking of that and
getting that to us because it's definitely made a difference.
Rosa: I stopped in a few times too and spoke to some of the residents that were using those and
they were estatic about how much easier they were. And the nice thing too is the thermostats are
all pre-programmed so we didn't have to worry about having heat. …attendant sees the heater on
or if it breaks down, it's nothing that the attendant had to worry about this year. It was all taken
care of by Dale's staff so I'd like to thank his staff too for doing that also. So they're a bonus all
around.
Stolar: Okay.
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Park and Recreation Commission - March 27, 2007
SELF-SUPPORTING PROGRAMS: 3 ON 3 BASKETBALL LEAGUE.
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Ruegemer: We did start the league Monday night, the 126. I guess that was last night, and
there are 6 teams. A lot of the teams were kind of continuing on their season from the winter. A
lot of people were kind of just continuing on with their socializing and exercising every Monday
night so, a lot of the same teams keep participating. There's one division with 16 hopefully
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games until May 7 and then we'll start a single elimination tournament after that and we'll be
done before Memorial weekend so, it's always kind of the tail end. Try to wrap things up for the
spring around Memorial Day weekend to get on with their summer as well so, it's been a fun
league. A lot of the same people every year and we're started…
Stolar: Any questions? Okay.
RECREATION CENTER REPORT.
Knowles: Thank you. Well if I may, I'd just like to highlight a few items in my report this
month. Summer hours will be starting up on Memorial Day, just about 2 months from now.
During the summer from Memorial Day to Labor Day we do shorten up our hours at the Rec
Center, Monday through Saturday and we close on Sunday. In the programming area, Nate and
Jerry have already talked to you about a couple of the significant things. The basketball and the
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Easter Egg Candy Hunt on April 7. We're all hoping for good weather so we don't have to tear
up the gyms. Hope for good weather. The dance program is gearing up for their spring recital,
the second week in May. Already we have staff working on that, stapling programs together and
getting costumes ready and it's already in full gear so it's a big event and Nicole always pulls it
off without a hitch so we'll have it again the second week in May. Under facilities I'd like to call
your attention to a rare weather related closure at the Rec Center. We did have a snowstorm the
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first of March. We wound up closing the building Thursday afternoon, March 1 and remained
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closed on Friday the 2. That is consistent with the school district's policy of closure. When
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they close, we generally close. I came in a little bit on Friday, the 2 and the best part of my
drive was the parking lot so I compliment the people who handled the parking lot. The roads
themselves weren't really that great and the more I thought about it, the more I said you know it's
probably good that we closed up and not encourage people to risk going in the ditch. It's really
not worth it, as much as I like to see people at the rec center, it's not worth getting your car
wrapped around a tree or anything so I think it was good that we were closed. Second page of
the report has to do with the 2007 Strategic Plan. We prepared a plan for some programming
initiatives in 2007. Much of this was an outgrowth of our meeting that we had with the
commissioners at the Recreation Center in January. You may recall that we had toured the
building and we tossed around a bunch of ideas for programming, and much of what you see
highlighted here was an outgrowth of that meeting in January. Just to highlight some of the
things that we're going to be working on. First item is the Jazzercise which is a group dance
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fitness program. We actually moved that program into the recreation center this past March 1,
and we're currently hosting 24 classes a week so it's this particular program. We're utilizing right
now for the off season, we're utilizing the warming house, which largely sat vacant for 9 months
of the year so we're utilizing that. Come next skating season we'll have to make room for it
indoors but for now it's a great utilization of the space out there that really was pretty empty for 9
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Park and Recreation Commission - March 27, 2007
months of the year. Another initiative we're going to be working with the groups about bringing
sports and arts programming into the recreation center. There are groups out there that have
ideas, have programming notions and some resources to bring to programming but don't have
facilities. We intend to work with these groups and provide the facilities as they're needed. We
talked about this at the January meeting about developing a party package out at the recreation
center. I think that was one of the very best ideas we had that night. I'm going to put together
some themed party package ideas involving you know baseball, softball package. Basketball,
volleyball package. Floor hockey. We looked at the Dance Dance Revolution thing today. We
could have theme parties based on that kind of thing so I think that's a really good way to market
facilities at the recreation center and increase our rental business. Also intend to revitalize the
personal training program. The personal training program has been largely dormant the last 2
years. Very much I think a result of the Lifetime Fitness, but we're working with a guy right
now that hopefully can help us get some personal training going again and maybe specialize
some training geared toward specific sports. Also another idea that came out of the meeting in
January was initiating a corporate sales program. What I propose to do is work with some of the
larger business organizations in the community and perhaps offer them discounts on our punch
cards. They buy, one of the ideas that I had was if they want to buy maybe 10 of these punch
cards, we can give them a reduced rate on them. Pass the savings onto their employees. We get
more people in the building and they have a benefit for their employees, and hopefully it can
work for both parties. Finally going to be…Dance Dance Revolution. Nate and I were both over
at the library today and saw a demonstration of that. It's a video game kind of thing where kids,
or anybody can follow steps that are projected up on a screen. Very, very popular in some parts
of the country and hopefully we catch a wave with that sort of thing, but just generally being
more aggressive about bringing new programming ideas out to the recreation center. So again as
I say, it was largely an outgrowth of our meeting in January and thank you commissioners who
were there and we hope to follow up with that and build some business out at the recreation
center this year.
Stolar: Questions.
Daniel: Say Tom I have a question. The artwork that's displayed on the walls, and I noticed
today in the newspaper, there was a discussion, another artist that you're featuring next week.
Knowles: Right. He's bringing his artwork in on Sunday, yes.
Daniel: Okay. Now is that something typically we, they get charged for that or is there any fee
that they post for that or is that just part of the public display?
Knowles: It's just a public display. It works well for us in that it dresses up our building a little
bit rather than having the bare walls. It works well for the artist in that it gives them some
exposure in the community. They can offer their works for sale if they wish. They don't
necessarily have to. Most of them do. This fellow that's coming in, he actually generated all that
publicity on his own. We didn't do any of that so it's all the better for us so. It'll be pretty
interesting to see what his work is. It sounds kind of artsy but.
Daniel: Well the sample given in the newspaper today looked pretty unique.
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Park and Recreation Commission - March 27, 2007
Knowles: Yeah. Yeah, so.
Hoffman: Is this the gentleman from Eden Prairie?
Knowles: Yes. Yes, he's currently working for an architectural firm now and he was, I thought
it was an interesting transition in his life. He had been playing in punk rock bands and now all of
a sudden he's a 33 year old suburban father with 2 kids and he claims that his art work is sort of a
reflection in his new status in life but still somehow reflects his past. So it's going to be
interesting to see what he brings in.
Daniel: Now what type of rotation do you have on that?
Knowles: Usually we go in about 6 weeks. 6 week cycles generally. And we've had the guy up
on our walls out there for, actually probably a little closer to 2 months in this case but normally
it's about a 6 week cycle.
Daniel: Okay.
Hoffman: We're not the only game in town. Chaska's doing that. The library is doing it. The
Arboretum does it so.
Daniel: Well I was just curious if it was a revenue mechanism for us from a promotion
standpoint by the artist.
Stolar: Other questions?
Hoffman: Often thought about asking for one painting out of each one but.
Stolar: If you're going to do these youth art programs, ask him to teach one.
Hoffman: That's not a bad idea.
Stolar: Just a couple quick questions. One of the other things on the corporate sales programs,
are the gyms used a lot in the early morning?
Knowles: You know it's funny you mention that. Today we actually had Tom Marshall, our
opening person, commented that there were two separate groups of people that came into the
gym today about 6:00 or 6:30 this morning and both wanted to have a pick-up game, full court
game going so he had to try to reconcile those two groups but. You really never know, although
there is one group that's pretty consistent coming in early morning on Tuesday and Thursday, so
it comes and goes but for the most part I would say it's not really well utilized in the early
mornings.
Stolar: Because that's kind of what we had talked about. I was thinking if you offer corporations
a chance to run leagues, an internal corporate league there in the off hours when we aren't using
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Park and Recreation Commission - March 27, 2007
it anyway. We'll set it up for you to run the league, and then they could do internally either
volleyball or basketball, whatever they want to do.
Knowles: Right, right. Well it's certainly something I could explore with the people as I meet
with them.
Stolar: That's what I was thinking. As you're selling them these passes say you know, have you
thought about doing a corporate league? Is that something you'd be interested in?
Knowles: Right.
Stolar: And then, have you guys talked then about potentially targeting some of the personal
training programs maybe for seniors, which have a whole different style of personal training that
they may want?
Knowles: Well I haven't talked to Brad about that specifically but that'd be a good idea. I know
there are trainers that actually specialize in that sort of thing and I'm not sure where Brad is with
that, but I could sure ask and I could seek out other trainers and see whether they know anybody
they can recommend.
Stolar: Is that something Susan you think would be a good offer for those seniors?
Bill: Possibly. Especially there are quite a few condominium complexes around there and that
might be a good marketing. They have some of the younger, older adults. And you're right,
their needs are somewhat different and you could offer a couple different levels. Somebody
who's really into a lot of the strength training and some stretching and flexibility would be a
good idea.
Stolar: Great, thanks and did you present yesterday then to the City Council?
Knowles: Yes. Yes, we had a working meeting yesterday evening.
Stolar: So if you get a chance, could you email us the materials?
Knowles: Sure. Sure.
Stolar: From the City Council, what was the feedback you heard?
Knowles: I thought it was received quite well. Todd was there. I think, I thought it was
received very well.
Stolar: Great. Good work. Thank you. And thank you for trying to push forward this agenda. I
think it's great.
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Park and Recreation Commission - March 27, 2007
SENIOR CENTER REPORT.
Bill: Thank you. First thing I'd like to talk about is the new Life-Long Learning Program I
started this year. The first class was held in February. It's a program offered through Augsburg
College, College of the Third Age and the first class, like I said, was offered in February and I
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had over 50 people there. My next one will be April 17. I've already got 38 people signed up
for that and what I saw with that was, probably half of the participants were new people that
aren't regulars at the Senior Center. My goal with this program was to offer some more variety
to attract men and people who aren't interested in our traditional activities and I think from what
I've seen in my first one and who's signed up for the second one, I'm achieving that. I'll have one
every other month. I've got the next two scheduled so I'm real excited about that and I've
received a lot of good feedback on that. So you're welcome to come. I'm rotating times for the
first one in the afternoon. My next one is in the morning. In June I'm having one in the evening
so I'm trying to rotate times to hit different people so that went over really, really well. And
Klein Bank is the co-sponsor of that. They actually gave us $1,000 to cover the program costs
and some refreshments. And I've got monthly Lunch Box Special programs. They continue to
go well every month I have a different theme lunch and I get really, really good feedback on that.
This summer I'm going to be offering 5 extended trips. I book in with different travel agencies
and the reason I'm doing that, there are a number of trips this summer that are going to Canada.
This will be the last year you can go into Canada by land without a passport, so there's a
Canadian Rockies. There's a Folkarama there. A variety of different trips so. I normally only
do 2 in the summer, but I thought why not throw in a variety to appeal to more people so that
will come out in the Connection. I do have a trip going to New York City the second week in
August with 16 people from the Senior Center going and that's a 4 day trip strictly in New York
City. They'll stay right in downtown, or midtown Manhattan and people are pretty excited about
that. The woodcarving group is growing. I think we've gotten probably 10 new members within
the, since the first of the year. They're now carving on Friday as well as Wednesday, and they're
just growing and really having a good time. They're pretty flattered, they got invited, or they got
asked by the City of Carver to carve a quilt for, like they've got hanging in the library. There's a
wood quilt in the library, so they've taken on that project and I think they've already started and
got a couple squares carved already, so they're thriving and going on, I had Todd down there.
They've got new lights and building I don't know, they're going like crazy and.
Hoffman: They're expanding.
Bill: They're expanding so, anyway. Really a good group of people and if you ever have time,
the display case out in the hall, they are, every couple months they're rotating it and have themes
and they're doing stages of wood carving. Trying to have it more education. So they're really
excited about that and they really enjoy displaying their pieces and that. I started a Senior Perks
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coffee house I call it. I started it on Friday, January 16. The thought on that was, there are a
number of seniors that go to church mass at St. Hubert's on a regular basis and it was brought to
my attention that some seniors wanted a place to congregate and just sit and have coffee. Well I
don't think the middle of January was the time to start that. That day was like 10 below. It was
pretty close. The first day we had about 28 people. Then we had like 10. And it's slowly started
to decrease. So I cancelled it for now and I will look to start it up again possibly in the spring or
summer. It was an idea we tried and it was met with a lukewarm reception so. It was a cute
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Park and Recreation Commission - March 27, 2007
concept and cute idea but I don't think winter was the time to start it. I met with the Friends of
the Library where they came to me and want to do more joint programming. We do sell our
greeting cards and gift bags at the book sales but then they wanted to expound on how we could
do more program and activities together. So we will be participating in the Barkus Parade again.
I helped them get a barbershop quartet. They want to expand that to make it more than the
parade. To make it a morning of activities for families. They're going to, believe it or not, be
selling ice cream treats for dogs. They have little ice cream cups and then we'll be baking some
dog biscuits and other things. We also talked about an antique doll show, as well as a
generational tea luncheons for grammas and granddaughters so there are a whole lot of activities
that we'll explore with them and we're excited to be working with them. And lastly, I've been
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spending quite a bit of time planning activities for the Senior Center's 15 Anniversary. The
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doors opened July 4 in 1992, but the senior advisory board wanted to have activities during the
month of May, which is Senior Awareness Month, opposed to July because we do run into some
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conflicts with the 4 of July. So I probably have 15 different things planned for the month of
May honoring our heritage and activities with the big gathering or celebration which will be May
rd
23, which will be a dinner and a slide show with pictures and entertainment and that will begin
at 5:30 and you are all invited. You're invited to every activity but you're all invited and if any of
you would like to come and help grill food before hand and participate, that would be
appreciated. We'll begin at 5:30 and then dinner will be at 6:00. So that will be the big
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celebration on Wednesday, May 23. We'll kick off the month with, on April 30 with
Breakfast with the Mayor. We've done that probably the last 4 or 5 years and we get 50 plus
people and everybody really enjoys it. Mayor Furlong does a wonderful job. He does a
presentation and is open to answer questions and people truly enjoy that. Just a couple other
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things. May 9 we're having an open house. We're having a concert by our chorus, the Chan-o-
laires. We're having a wood carving demonstration. We're having a line dancing demonstration
with a line dancing class. Then we're going to have, I've got a special menu with the congregate
dining program where we're trying to encourage and highlight to get more participants in that, so
that will follow the morning open house and activities and hopefully we can draw some more
people into that program. And then that one other thing I just want to highlight, one of our
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Lunch Box specials on Friday, May 4. We're going to have a presentation on the History of
Chanhassen. Ron Roeser is going to come and talk about Chanhassen and so a slide presentation
and after we're going to tour the old St. Hubert's Church and possibly get into the jail. I heard
that's rented. But anyways, so it will be just a fun month of celebrating where we were. Where
we are and where we hope to go and you're all more than welcome to come to any of our
activities.
rd
Stolar: Where's the dinner on May 23?
Bill: Here. City Hall in the senior center.
Stolar: But you're going to be grilling out?
Bill: We're going to be grilling out, right.
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Park and Recreation Commission - March 27, 2007
Hoffman: The full invitation is in your admin packet, if you want to rip that out when you get
home and check your calendars. Work them around and see if you can make some of those
events. Great group of people to get to know.
Stolar: Any questions for Susan?
Spizale: It seems like the seniors are lucky. Boy, to have this many activities. Yeah.
Stolar: It is. Fantastic job.
Bill: Thank you.
Stolar: Very exciting to see all the new ideas you bring forth too. Look forward to doing some
of these events. Next we have Dale.
PARK AND TRAIL MAINTENANCE REPORT.
Gregory: Good evening. I do have one report that I'm going to pass out that I didn't get in there.
It's a graph. I will explain it a little bit later. It's regarding our skating rinks. Nate did cover on
the skating rinks, how long they were open and that so I'm just going to bypass that and just get
into our report on the costs. This year, like Nate said and that, it was, we did run $705. We ran
more than we have in the past. The thing we've got to remember with that, is a lot of that cost is
our start up cost. I mean we spend a lot of time for a couple of weeks just flooding day and night
and going to get the rinks going so that, a lot of the cost there goes to our start up. I kind of
figured out today just roughly and that and on a day to day basis, once we're up and running, if
we would continue, it would run us about $350-$400 a day to address the rinks out there every
day. So the longer we can run, the more we bring down our daily costs realistically.
Stolar: Did you have a start and stop this year also where we tried to do it and then we lost or
not?
Gregory: Yes. We started at first and that and we got flooded. We got a base started and we got
warm weather and we lost just about all of it.
Stolar: Yeah, that's what I had thought you mentioned. So that also adds to the cost when you,
because that's the same start up.
Gregory: That also adds to the cost. We basically started up and then ended up starting all over
again really. I did give you a couple other years with that, just for you to see what basically our
costs do run. So, but other than that we had a pretty good year on the ice and that so. The other
thing I did pass out that I wanted to kind of go, Todd did go through a graph with you last month
on opening and closing dates but what I wanted to kind of show you with this one, and it might
be a little bit hard to read. That's why it's late because we had trouble getting the graph…so the
years, this is 25 years of opening and closing. The years on the bottom were very hard to read.
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If you go out to say in 1982 we opened on the 17. That's in the green, and we closed on the
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16.
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Park and Recreation Commission - March 27, 2007
Hoffman: Of February, yeah.
Gregory: Of February. So if you look across the tops, all the red, that's all of our closing dates,
and in 25 years we've only had one year where we actually closed before the beginning of
February. And we had 3 years where we did extend it out into March. So kind of figuring that
thth
out in our February basis and that, it runs around the 17, the 18 as an average when our closing
dates will be. But the one on the bottom is the one that I wanted to really show you and that. It's
th
kind of interesting. The red line that goes across, that's December 25. That's always been our
target date of having the rinks opened so we'd be ready to go for Christmas vacation for
everybody, and if you look at the first 15 years, from 1982 to 1996, we've only had one year in
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there where we were not open by December 25. And then if you look at the next 10 years from
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1997 to 2006, out of those 10 years, 6 of those years we did not make the 25. And out of those,
I mean that's running 60% right there, and out of those 6, 3 of them were just about in mid
January. So in the past 10 years our opening dates are really getting pushed back. I mean the
weather is really getting a lot warmer and we're having trouble getting started so like I say, that's
really what I showed you is that last 10 years and that is changing for us.
Stolar: The question for you, and I know this is, but are there any things we can do that would
allow the base to be settled quicker, like chillers or anything underneath that would make sense?
Gregory: Anything like that's going to cost you a lot of money. There are actually a lot of cities
around that are starting to do that. They're starting to have refrigeration units in so they can get
ice going a lot sooner and keep them a lot longer.
Stolar: I mean it's cheaper than building an indoor ice rink.
Hoffman: Not by much.
Stolar: Not by much, really? Oh, okay.
Hoffman: A lot of people, there's a lot of hype around it right now and people are discovering is
it doesn't really make economic sense. You might as well put a roof over it and have a full time,
year round ice.
Gregory: So it'd be interesting to kind of see how things go in the future and where this trend
leads us to.
Stolar: It's a good graph.
Gregory: It took a couple days but we figured it out.
thth
Stolar: Boy that one year was December 9 through March 8. That was a good year.
Gregory: The one thing that this graph doesn't show, and I did it on one of mine was there's
about 6 years in here where we've got several opening and closing dates amongst these.
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Park and Recreation Commission - March 27, 2007
Stolar: Oh, because we had to re-start.
Gregory: I mean we opened them for so long. We'd go a week or so. We'd shut them down for
a few days and then we'd open them up again. We'd shut them down so. I may expand on this
graph and kind of put lines in there eventually to show that, where those years are where we did
a lot of opening and closing.
Stolar: We had that a few years back. Since I've been up here, I think it where we opened and
closed it.
Gregory: Great. Moving on to the, this year Lake Susan we did do a weekly oxygen, that's on
there. Make sure everything was going good. It declined very slowly until we got the two
snowstorms back to back. Two weekends. It did drop dramatically at that point. We were in
touch with the DNR basically each time we did do a sampling, and then we were actually doing
like every 3-4 days just to make sure we were okay. It down to the point where we were really
thinking we were going to have to put the aerator in. The DNR reassured us that with the warm
weather coming and it was that late in the year, that we would not have any kill on any of the
fish, and so we were in close contact with them and they were the ones reassuring us that we
didn't have to put it in so. And I think everything's going to be fine with that. And the trails and
that, we did pretty good this winter and that, except again with the two snowstorms. We got the
first one, we were able to get through that one pretty good. Get things open. We spent that week
blowing back and then only to get hit again, and some of our trails were not open for about 3,
going into 4 days with some of them that ran along the highways 101 to county roads where they
keep plowing the snow on it and, the only way we could get them open was with snowblowers.
Our tractors and we did come in on Saturday and did some work trying to keep things open but
we did break down with one of our tractors. One of our bearings went out so we kind of, it's
kind of where the second snowstorm kind of got to us. We didn't get opened quite a fast as we
really wanted to. Also this winter we did some work with Jill Sinclair and that. She had a buck
thorn project going out east of 41. She did have somebody come in and take it all out and
everything, and also we hauled it out. Chipped it up and everything else and I don't know, I
think we hauled about 7 or 8 loads of chipped buck thorn out of there for her and that. It was,
she had a lot of it cut down and so, but that worked out pretty good. We also did our wood duck
houses this year. We've got 43 wood duck houses and this year we're at 44%. We actually came
up a little bit, but we're still not up to where we were in some of the other years. We're still
running a little bit behind on some of those but there are 44 of them. We're just a little under half
so. If you look through the whole years and everything else, we've had pretty good hatches and
had pretty good luck with our wood duck project. Actually we didn't have much for vandalism
or anything this year. We had some that just had to be, have some minor repairs and everything
so. Last year we did have some vandalism with kids and stuff that we had to take care of, but
this year was pretty decent. Since the report came out we have also taken care of all our trails.
We've swept every one of them. Got all the sand and everything off of them and we had our
underpasses closed for a while because of the ice that accumulates on them. Underneath. We
have one that still has some ice on it but the others we've cleaned those. We've swept the
underpasses today so all our trails were in really pretty good shape. The only other thing we've
got really going and that is we, a couple of the guys have been working on staining our park
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Park and Recreation Commission - March 27, 2007
signs. We go around every year at this time of the year. We pull in any of them that look bad
and we get them re-stained. Take them out and put them up so they should be all in pretty good
shape. And we're also adding archery targets this year. We have, we're taking down the old
archery targets we've got. We looked at Chaska's and that. We've got the nice, new, and I don't
even know what you'd call the fabric, whatever it is.
Hoffman: Pressed foam.
Gregory: Pressed foam and everything else, but we're going to be hanging. We've got roofs over
them and that and it's really going to look nice. We're actually thinking of the areas of 20, 30, 40
foot marks. We're going to actually cement a little area there for you to stand so that doesn't turn
into mud. And it's going to be a lot nicer than what it is. We're really looking forward to
working on that this spring.
Scharfenberg: Is that just at Lake Susan Dale?
Gregory: Yes.
Hoffman: The only archery range we have in the city and very popular in the region. Not just in
the community, and we have to have a special variance from our weapons ordinance to allow the
discharge of those bow and arrows at that location.
Gregory: That is all I have.
Stolar: Well thank you again. Any questions that anybody has?
Kelly: I have a couple. I had a quick question. I don't know if this is maintained by Chanhassen
or not but the LRT trail on Pioneer. The drainage there is awful. Is there anyway, it was almost
impassable this weekend because there's, out of 10 or 20 yards that just is real muddy. Is there
anything that can be done to fix that drainage? I think it's kind of where that path of Pioneer
comes down.
Hoffman: Where the path from Pioneer comes down. That's our path and we built it. That's
actually land in Eden Prairie. That's very close. We'll take a look at it. The LRT there at that
location is in the large cut. It's a cut that starts east of there in Eden Prairie and the cut continues
for probably a mile and a half west. So it's a difficult area to maintain drainage. We try to get
involved on the minimal level because we don't own the corridor and we do not manage the
corridor. The corridor is owned by the Hennepin County Regional Railroad Authority. It's
managed by Three Rivers Park District. We're there as a third party, entity managing the trail for
winter use. Not for the summer use. So Three Rivers Park District, we'll contact them. Talk
about it. I know the spot exactly you're talking about. During the spring when you go through
this cycle of freezing, thawing and getting rid of the frost, water doesn't do a very good job of
percolating down and so it just sits there in the upper soils and it creates this, it's terrible. I've
crossed through there.
Kelly: It's just that one section. The rest of it is bone dry.
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Park and Recreation Commission - March 27, 2007
Hoffman: Yeah, there may be some springs related to that or some other thing but we'll take a
look at it. Chat with Three Rivers and see if we can't do something.
Daniel: Dale, Curry Farms.
Gregory: Yes.
Daniel: Is that managed by your group right now? Or is it managed by the water district?
Gregory: That was through Lori in Water Resources. That was her project of cleaning out that,
the ponds and everything so I believe the restoration and everything is all with Lori at this point.
Hoffman: It's a community development project. Water resources project and it's going to, we
know it's a mess. It will be that way for another month or so until it can dry out. Maybe longer.
Until they can get back down and then restore the project so, the park and playground project
was one thing. Then we had it restored. Then they got this project funded and authorized by the
council. A big and obviously messy project. It's got the park all tore up. So we're all eager to
get it restored. They dug the pond closer to the basketball than we would have liked to have
seen. We're going to wait, take a wait and see attitude on that. See how thick of a cattail bank
grows up on that edge of the pond and see if that creates a sufficient barrier between the
basketball court and pond. If not, we'll look to some vegetated planting or fencing at that
junction.
Daniel: Sure. Yeah, and the only other issue I had as well, the sliding hill. Man it goes right
past trees and then drops off dramatically and I wish we had an opportunity to be there to express
to them if they could gradually taper that off so it doesn't go down in the winter. You know if it's
frozen it's not going to be that much of a deal.
Hoffman: You think they're going to make it that far a lot of them?
Daniel: Oh yeah. Pretty much the tree is the stopping point and then it's about 5, probably 6, 7
feet past the tree and it goes down, so on a good day by about I'd say mid-afternoon, it's packed
enough where most of the kids are going past there.
Hoffman: And again, depending on the…grow up a great big cattail bank and you couldn't slide
through it if you tried. They may not be so, just again, we're going to take that wait and see
attitude.
Daniel: Okay. Then the second question I have. Maintenance of Kerber Pond Park. And I was
just down there yesterday and one of the things I did notice is the awful amount of dead trees that
are out there right now. And does the city have any intention of maintaining that? Cutting them
down because it's getting to the point where it's, you know at one point that was very much a
lush tree area, and between the vines and the disease that went through the elm trees, if we're
going to plan on cutting that down or not. Cutting those down.
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Park and Recreation Commission - March 27, 2007
Hoffman: Yeah, the diseased elms or the dead elms, we have an obligation to cut them down, but
once they're dead and standing, we don't have to.
Daniel: So they're dead and they're standing, then we don't have to?
Hoffman: If they're dead and stand we don't have to. If they're diseased, can still be active.
Once you have a dying tree and the Dutch elm can still be active, we have to get in there and take
it down. If we don't catch it and it just goes where it's completely dead, the bark falls off, we
don't have an obligation to go in there and take it out. So some trees we have to go in and take
out, if we have access to them and others can stay. It's a, or Kerber Pond Park is a natural
resource based park. We let the trees grow up. We don't actively maintain it and clear it out. So
it used to be a cow pasture at one time. There were no trees there.
Daniel: Oh I know.
Hoffman: Yep, yep. Now it's growing up and it's going to continually evolve with those. Some
of the residents like it. Some tolerate it and some don't like it because they don't like to look at
the trees. They lost their view, those type of things so. But we don't actively manage it. We
maintain the trees that have to come out because of the disease.
Daniel: My only concern is fire, because there's an awful lot of debris down there, and a lot of
potential for certainly starting, but that would work it's way quickly based on the amount of dead
elms that are there. And certainly even the ones that are standing might be one thing but also a
lot of the debris that's underneath there. That's just a, that was one thing that was, I noticed
walking through there.
Hoffman: Okay, take a look at it.
Kelly: … on Bandimere Heights. I know the pad is down for the basketball courts. Are those
going to be installed spring, summer, fall?
Gregory: Right away this spring. We've got the board. We've got everything for it. It's just…
Stolar: Anything else? Okay, Dale again, thank you. And thanks to your crew for a nice job
this season.
ADMINISTRATIVE DISCUSSION.
Stolar: Does anyone have any questions or comments? I guess from administrative, do we have
anything to add?
Hoffman: Chair Stolar, you mentioned the lights. Is everyone aware that the budget has
increased to $400,000? We're going to light all four main fields at Lake Ann. And then the park
shelter budget was increased to $175,000. That will go on top of the hill called Parkview Picnic
Shelter. The other projects we're working on for the CIP or the Capital Improvement Program
are the Power Hill Park trail which will go from one end of Power Hill Park to the other. And
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Park and Recreation Commission - March 27, 2007
then tennis court resurfacing, we've resurfaced half of those last year. We'll be finishing those up
this year. Side note, Dale talked about the oxygen in Lake Susan. We have received
neighborhood reports that Rice Marsh did freeze out and there's extensive fish kill in Rice Marsh
Lake this past winter. It was getting close about the same time we were monitoring Susan.
There were some local fishermen out there that were noticing the fish went from active to very
lethargic just before the big snows came, so the big snow came and that blackens out the lake
even farther, and then there was a fish kill on Rice Marsh, and that happens periodically. Every
4, 5, 8 years on Rice Marsh. So if you hear reports of that. Scoreboards are going to go up. If
you recall CAA was in a year ago or so. What they actually received didn't really meet their
expectations. There wasn't a successful return of the product. We're going to take a look at
seeing if we can't get it on the fields. We're not sure how long they're going to last. Not going to
say they're cheap but they're not the fanciest scoreboard systems in the world so we're going to
put them out there. See what kind of use they get. You'll see them out in the fields and the kids
will have to run out to the outfield and you know keep score when they want to. Anybody who
has a game scheduled on that field is welcome to use the scoreboards. They'll be there. Another
note, Southwest Metro has been using the Lake Ann front lots for the winter as a temporary park
and ride, and we were predicting that they would do damage to those lots because of the
condition that they were in, and then again the frost cycle, and they have done extensive damage
to those lots. If you get out there. We will be working on those parking lots this spring and they
will be paying, hopefully 50% of the cost for that refurbishment on those.
Stolar: Yeah, we didn't redo those when we were doing the Lake Ann Drive right?
Hoffman: No. They're very old construction. That's what I've got.
Stolar: Is there anything coming up in the next couple of meetings for City Council that we
should be aware of? Other than recommended here.
Hoffman: No. We're up to date already…
Stolar: Then with regard to the CIP. We had talked about that we were going to have a, try and
do a set aside for the known costs that we're going to be incurring in the future, such as land
acquisition and whatever. We'll see that in the next CIP cycle then? We'll have that as a new
line item?
Hoffman: Yep, starting in June.
Stolar: Okay. So that way we'll have money. We talked about it after the lighting discussion
with City Council that we'll have a known amount there then that we're saying this is set aside
for the future parks. Great. Any questions for Todd? Okay, then also under administrative we
have some change here again. Jack, we wanted to wish you well.
Spizale: Thanks.
Stolar: Sorry to see you go. It's been great having you on the council and when is your move
date?
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Park and Recreation Commission - March 27, 2007
th
Spizale: April 19. Coming up fast. And a couple things. I think when I first started with this,
doing this, I thought I'd come up with a great idea and they'd name a park after me.
Hoffman: You never know.
Stolar: You know you could donate your house and yard.
Spizale: So what I've kind of found out is it's a real teamwork thing and somebody throws out an
idea. Somebody else throws one out, an idea and we all kind of come together with something
so it's been a great experience that way. The people I've met, all you guys, the people, the staff
have been fantastic and I hope we remain friends, even though I am in Chaska. And I think the
other thing is you get a chance to see how the city government works. What's going on. What's
new so I've been in other types of things but this has been the best. I've enjoyed this a lot so
thanks everybody for having me.
Stolar: Appreciate it, and just personal note and then I'll let anyone else speak. It's been great
having you on the board. I really, it's meant a lot. I think you're right, the teamwork has really
made a lot of difference here and having you as a part of the team, it's been great.
Spizale: You know it seems like we'll get new people and it just seems after a while everybody
kind of jells and everybody kind of brings something to the table.
Stolar: Okay, anyone else?
Scharfenberg: Maybe we can name one of the new trails out at the dog park for you.
Kelly: I just want to say, I mean you and I have served pretty much from day one. We were
both here for that very first frigid day 6 years ago and I've really enjoyed the meetings with you
and most of all I've enjoyed just getting to know you and the volunteer things that we've done so
it's been good for me. It's been a great 6 years just getting to know you so.
Spizale: Only 6?
Hoffman: You guys remember how cold it was that day?
Kelly: It was freezing in here. It was fine outside but it was freezing in here. The only time
ever sitting there at one of these meetings. That was when the term limits were first introduced.
Yeah, we did not get a very warm reception from our fellow park and rec commission members
that day.
Spizale: After that it was fine.
Kelly: After that it was fine.
Spizale: That was a rough meeting.
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Park and Recreation Commission - March 27, 2007
Kelly: That was a rough meeting, yep.
Daniel: Jack, it's been a pleasure working with you over the last year. Too bad it couldn't have
been longer, but certainly I wish you luck in your endeavors in Chaska and like he said, it's been
a pleasure.
Hoffman: Jack will be receiving a Maple Leaf Award from the City Council at an upcoming
meeting for serving over 5 years on a commission as appointed by the City Council. I've jotted
down some things and I'll be putting this together and some thoughts for that meeting that the
Mayor will present. In those years that he's been on the commission, these are the kind of
projects that have been completed. Highway 101 north trail for $800,000. Highway 101 south,
connector trail for $150,000. The Marsh Glen trail connection, $100,000. Lake Ann Park
maintenance facility. Do you remember the budget on that project? Probably about half a
million?
Spizale: Yeah, a little more.
Hoffman: A little over a half million dollars. We finished that during your term. City Center
Park was built for $800,000 plus. The Highway 41 trail connector, $75,000. Skate park
improvements, $40,000. Probably one of the signature projects during your tenure is the
playground replacements. I think we touched more people in the community than any other
project for $500,000. Over a 2, and even a 3 year time span on that project. Old Village Hall
plaza. We improved that at $80,000. Highover trail connector, $75,000 and then lastly this fall
and moving into this spring, the Lake Ann Park paving and parking lot rehabilitation at half a
million dollars. So those are the kind of projects. You had superior attendance and participation
at meetings. That's proven in the numbers. You're always working at special events, as Tom
mentioned. You were always there. You hosted our Christmas social this past year. Off leash
dog area committee. Any other committees that you remember that you served on?
Spizale: Just the dog one.
Hoffman: Yeah, off leash dog area. And then as always, I think everybody remembered that he
enjoyed our park tours and he never missed one unless he absolutely could not make it back into
town and we got to see his nice car when he would come to those summer park meetings. That
was always fun.
Stolar: I don't think we can afford Jack for 3 more years.
Spizale: Yeah, there's some nice parks.
Hoffman: And for those of us who can join us, we'll be taking Jack out after the meeting so
please join us if you can.
Spizale: Thanks everybody.
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Park and Recreation Commission - March 27, 2007
COMMISSION MEMBER COMMITTEE REPORTS.
None.
COMMISSION MEMBER PRESENTATIONS:
None.
ADMINISTRATIVE PACKET.
Stolar: One item that wasn't in the packet. Todd just, I saw your email regarding the Eden
Prairie position and I responded and would just like to make public. I served, for those of you
who don't know, I served on the Eden Prairie Park and Rec Commission also prior to coming to,
moving to Chan, and Bob Lambert is a great leader, like yourself, and so it would have been, I
have missed emotions because I obviously have an affinity for the Eden Prairie Park District
also. And so, I'm glad you're staying but I know that you would have done a great job there too
and so thank you for letting us know about that.
Hoffman: You're welcome.
Spizale: I didn't see it. What was the deal?
Hoffman: I applied in Eden Prairie and was a finalist for their Park Director's position. So that
was one job in my career that I would take a look at but I'm not looking for a job so I'm staying
here in town. Not looking anymore I guess.
Spizale: There's room in Chaska.
Stolar: Any other questions? If not, can we have a motion for adjournment?
Kelly: Give Jack the honor.
Spizale moved, Daniel seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the motion
carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. The Park and Recreation Commission meeting
was adjourned at 8:45 p.m..
Submitted by Todd Hoffman
Park and Rec Director
Prepared by Nann Opheim
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