PRC 2007 06 26CHANHASSEN PARK AND
RECREATION COMMISSION
REGULAR MEETING
JUNE 26, 2007
Chairman Stolar called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m..
MEMBERS PRESENT:
Glenn Stolar, Tom Kelly, Thor Smith, Dan Campion, Paula Atkins
Jeff Daniel, and Steve Scharfenberg
STAFF PRESENT:
Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Director; Jerry Ruegemer, Recreation
Superintendent; Dale Gregory, Park Superintendent; Susan Bill, Senior Center Coordinator; and
Tom Knowles, Recreation Center Manager
APPROVAL OF AGENDA:Daniel moved, everybody seconded to approve the agenda
amended to move item 2.5 before item 2. All voted in favor and the motion carried
unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0.
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS:
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Hoffman: This time next week we'll be actively engaged in the street dance at the 4 of July
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celebration on Tuesday, July 3 and I'll let Jerry continue on since it's your party.
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Ruegemer: As Todd said we are working very hard on a daily basis getting ready for the 4 of
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July and we're going to have a great, great party coming up on the 3 and the 4. We have a lot
of scheduled activities and we'll go into it a little bit more detail coming up later on on the
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agenda but we encourage everybody to be there next, the 3 and the 4. We have a volunteer
sheet too that we'll pass around and get everybody involved with the evening so, other than that
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we're looking forward to the 3 and the 4.
Stolar: Okay. And then any other announcements? We have the concerts.
Hoffman: Thursday. There's two that day. Both Lifetime Lyrics and a Twilight Tunes, and
what time is it, noon?
Ruegemer: Noon to 1:00.
Hoffman: Noon to 1:00 and the Twilight Tunes starts at.
Ruegemer: 7:00 to 8:00.
Hoffman: And last Thursday no one was in attendance. They had a great crowd.
Ruegemer: 250.
Park and Rec Commission - June 26, 2007
Stolar: And then we'll talk later about the comprehensive plan meetings coming up later this
week also. Busy time.
Hoffman: It's the peak of the season.
Stolar: Great.
VISITOR PRESENTATIONS:
None.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES:Campion moved, Daniel seconded to approve the verbatim
and summary minutes of the Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated May 22,
2007 as presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6
to 0.
CHANHASEN NATURE PRESERVE, DRAFT TRAIL MASTER PLAN.
Hoffman: Thanks Chair Stolar, members of the commission. Tonight we have with us George
Watson. He's a principle with Brauer and Associates and he'll be talking in a little bit. Before
that I'd just like to give a very brief introduction again to what this parkland is all about and what
the project is about. Some of us toured this property in May. We didn't actually walk into the
interior but we looked at it from a couple of different road sites. The Nature Preserve area is 110
acres. It's the largest tract of public open space that is a park preserve in our city that is owned
by the city itself. There are a couple of others. The Arboretum which would have a larger park
preserve in their area. Minnewashta Regional Park would have an area, a good size. And then
also down in the Minnesota River valley you have both the Minnesota National Wildlife Refuge
and then the Raguet Wildlife Management Area. But this is very close to the center of
downtown. It's an area which I don't think a lot of people understand exactly what it represents
just as yet. One note of interest is that during the Highway 5 corridor study this was identified as
a very important view window. View shed off of Highway 5. It was one thing the corridor study
wanted to maintain was not just buildings, buildings, buildings along Highway 5, and so we, it
was 7-15 years ago that that corridor study was approved. It wasn't just talking about should we
have car dealerships. Should we have hotels, but what kind of natural area should we have and
the people working on it at that time thought that this kind of view shed or window off of the
corridor was very important to maintain the character of our town. For the…historically over
about 10 to 12 years from 3 separate parcels, the most substantial was a donation on the east side
of 57 acres from Betty O'Shaughnessy and her group. They developed the townhomes on the
corner and then dedicated the rest through a donation to the City of Chanhassen. That's what
started the assembly process. There was a smaller chunk on the bottom half that came with the
housing development and then the western portion came last and that was with the Arboretum
Business Park and a lot of people along that 10 to 12 years worked very hard and saw the value
in preserving this area. Former Mayor Nancy Mancino worked very hard on the western
acquisition with the developer who was a bit of a character at the time and didn't, would have
preferred not to have dedicated that much land. We took full park dedication and then we also
used some tax increment financing to buy additional land. That's the Oak Woods which is on the
west side. So then a long time in the acquisition and the acquisition of the parcels. The one kind
of debate that came in the middle of all that was the Coulter Boulevard extension so there's a
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Park and Rec Commission - June 26, 2007
road through the middle of this 110 acres and at the time that road was proposed, not everybody
in the community believed that that was the appropriate thing to do to put that road there. And
so there was a conversation, a debate at that time at the council level. At the Park and Recreation
Commission level and at the planning level and the road in the end went through. We're going to
now use it as an asset for the development. Use it as a location for a trail head that's coming off
of there. And then there's also some trails and what the road does, it bisects or dissects the
property but it also allows for different types of travel through there so you can take different
segments of the trail system by utilizing the trail along side that road. The master planning of the
entire project, not hard to believe that at one time there was a plan for ballfields in this area
because we were in the middle of the 70's and 80's softball craze and so I have a plan on file
upstairs that shows ballfields in this property. It's probably not an appropriate use but it was
proposed. After that kind of faded away, the focus went to this 2 mile trail. That's the 2 mile
trail all the way around the outside of this area and this is really a tremendous refuge for a variety
of wildlife and what you're going to find is not only the residents in the area that can access it by
walking from their home or biking from their home, but we think that people from outside the
immediate area will drive to this location and thus the proposal for that trailhead. So that's the
general introduction. I'll let George now get up and go over the master planning that takes on
through most recently.
George Watson: Thank you Todd, Mr. Chair, members of the commission. My name is George
Watson with Brauer and Associates and I hope you can see this. The small map in your packet
as well as other information. Well I thought Todd's introduction was rather interesting. That this
parcel was actually seen so people driving by at 60 miles an hour can have a nice view. Our
objective here is to get people out of the traffic and into the park and to do that we will be having
some trails. The City has a system of trails that almost circumnavigate this site already. All the
way around Coulter Boulevard and also over here on Century. The object is to make the final
connections so there are routes and the trail master plan has been developed really in two phases
and both are represented on this plan and I'll explain each. There were two primary
considerations in locating the trail and one was user experience and the other was
constructability. The problem I think with Phase I construction, we'll complete this loop and it
will provide you with a perimeter system. You'll add 2 additional access points over on Century
there. One here and one here. The loop itself that we're adding will increase total length of trail
in this area, these two pieces of trail, by 3,400 lineal feet. The longest loop that will be including
the existing trail…which you had here, will be 9,300 lineal feet or 1.75 miles. So you've got a
pretty good hike around this nature preserve. The trails are going to be 8 foot wide and they'll be
paved with asphalt. There is a small bridge needed at this location. There's a wetland up here
that's perched and it drains to a small stream down into the lower area. It's really quite an
interesting thing that I think the bridge will add some interest to the trail. What we call Trail...
West is located right at the intersection of two trails coming from Century Place, and really what
that is is a nice little clearing area. We can place some seating and the…will be something fairly
natural and will be… It will also include informational signage and informational signage could
consist of orientation. Maybe there's a map showing people how to get to where they're going.
That and interpretation. This is a nature preserve. There are things to interpret here. It would be
nice to point them out so the citizens have a feel for what this piece of land is all about. Several
sections of this trail, because this is rather hilly through here, will require some low retaining
walls and the reason we're suggesting those is really to minimize the grading and the loss of
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Park and Rec Commission - June 26, 2007
existing vegetation. We would suggest that the walls be built out of natural stone. Future
improvements include a small parking lot in the west side of the park, just off Coulter Boulevard
right in this area, and that would be for 8 to 10 cars. There will be a trail, a boardwalk
connection across this wetlands to the primary loop, and that addition is really going to add a lot
of variety to the trail as far as users to the wetland ecosystems contained on the site, and it's
really something that will get them down to the ecosystem so they can get a close look at it. Ad
additional nodes in the final phases of it and the nodes are these green dots on here and those are
places and areas where interesting ecosystems come together. Ecosystems edges and/or in the
case of this particular node there's a nice wooded wetland area with a small pond. They're all
situated in areas where they're upland. They're interesting in terms of their views and would be a
real opportunity for people to view wildlife and view those sorts of things. So that's really the
sum and substance to the plan. It's a fairly simple plan. It is a major step in terms of dollars
expended to complete the circle but I think it is what's going to make this available to the public.
And I think you all have a copy of the estimates and it is broken into two phases… This is a
questions on the…answer questions on any of it.
Smith: Now was there any consideration made for additional signage around more the perimeter
of the loop?
George Watson: More signage, no.
Hoffman: Wasn't a part of the scope of this particular section. We master planned this section.
We can certainly take a look at that in the future for any additional interpretative signage around
the edge of the pond.
George Watson: Right. I think that's an excellent idea, especially at the points of entry.
Smith: Just to draw people in and maybe give them an overview of what is inside because they
may never get to those four nodes in there.
George Watson: Right. The assumption is that a lot of people would drive to this park would
wind up here and that the neighbors would know but I think having signage…
Daniel: Any consideration at all Todd within the plan for markers? Other points as far as half
mile mark from a trailhead. Kind of show the distances as far as how far you've gone to a certain
extent. The only reason I bring that up is because obviously they're tied to Lifetime and a lot of
the, a lot of that will actually be used by Lifetime Fitness members. So they can kind of time, do
some pacing and so like the half mile mark. One mile mark. One quarter, whatever it may be.
George Watson: I would suggest you maybe think about doing that right on the pavement.
Daniel: Yeah. I mean at any point I think as long as there's some sort of reference.
Hoffman: You could do it in the pavement or in the mapping. We haven't, our trail plan is fairly
extensive but pretty basic. We've had a lot of interest, or some interest in signage throughout our
entire trail system, and for interpretations throughout our entire trail system and for just what
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you're talking about. People call and so to date we've published the map which has two scaled
drawings so people can kind of figure that out. But all of those things are things we should talk
about. Is it a value on this site? And if we start it here, are we going to do it everywhere?
Signage is a big one. If you go to Minnetonka, the City of Minnetonka trail system, they'll have
a complete signage package in their entire trails. It's just one of those things they do, and we've
stepped back from that and said no. If we start putting signs up on our trail system, we're going
to have a thousand signs out there tomorrow and do we want to manage that? Do we want to
manage dog stations, so those are all valid conversations we should have as a commission and
we need to decide are they worth the investment in time and maintenance. Or do we let you
know the user themselves try to figure out what the route is and how long they're going.
Smith: The bridge that you, number 9. What is that, what would that look like? What will the
construction of that look like?
George Watson: Oh, at this point it's fairly conceptual. It could look like just about anything but
I would see it being fairly low, flat. Perhaps a wooden bridge in keeping with the theme of this
is the preserve. I mean you certainly could go to a pre-fabricated core ten type bridge. If that's
an acceptable alternative, that's a way you could do it as well.
Hoffman: Something like at Lake Susan. Something like that.
Stolar: Other questions? Paula?
Atkins: Stairways? Is that proposed or is that…
George Watson: Well a stairway is included in this location between these loop of this trail and
one of the things that we found is that people will take the straightest possible route they can to
go anywhere they want to go, even if they're out to get exercise so if you're going to give them,
and this is a fairly steep slope, we're suggesting that that be accommodated with a set of steps.
It's better to…on top of the hill and they see the trail…
Stolar: And that's in phase. That's proposed.
Kelly: What's the reason for the two almost parallel trail?
George Watson: I'm glad you asked. Are you talking about these two?
Kelly: No, I'm talking, actually those two. Yeah, both actually.
George Watson: We'll do both because that's a good question. This one, in order to make this an
accessible section of trail, you really need to make this a sloped trail. Sloping up this way. You
can't make a direct connection like this so that's why it's shown. But we're shown it this way so
that a person at this point can make a choice as to which direction they want to go. You may
decide that you only need one connection, which is certainly possible, but it's a method of getting
up the hill at a reasonable grade. So coming up the slight slope.
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Kelly: Okay. And if that's true then why would you need the red? I guess I'm confused why
you still need two?
George Watson: Well this is phase II. This may or may not happen.
Kelly: Okay.
Hoffman: And the Phase I is in the upland. It's really, it's up on top of the hill where we want
that experience.
Kelly: Okay.
Hoffman: That other trail is more down on the low side in the wetland. What we're after is
getting people into a densely forested area for an experience that we really don't offer anywhere
else in our park system on a trail. We looked at that just going, let's just take the low route but
the low route is more of kind of what I call a wetland trail. We have a lot of that experience in
town.
Kelly: Okay.
Hoffman: Could we go with wood surfacing on that second phase? Would it be appropriate or
not?
George Watson: Down here?
Hoffman: Yeah.
George Watson: You could. It's more of how much maintenance you want to deal with.
Hoffman: Because a boardwalk.
George Watson: Depends too, I shouldn't be quite so glib. More if it's been used on any kind of
a slope…gets slippery. Especially if it's in a forested area where you might have… So I think
you have to play that by ear and see how it happens but these boardwalk would be wood. At
least in my estimation. So you would have that wood experience here. And that would be a
floating boardwalk. At certain times of year there might be water under it at certain times of the
year and there might not be any. They have a tendency to move a little bit. They're kind of fun
to walk on. And this will work with floating at 8 feet wide so it's not like you're going to fall off
it but it does, it has a tendency to do a little more of this. So it's something that allowable in
terms of permitting. The DNR…a boardwalk if you went to a permanent type boardwalk, you'd
have to go through a long permitting process to be able to install that so. Also most of the
communities we work with when we approach a boardwalk, it's a floating type boardwalk.
Daniel: Any concerns at all about winter freeze on the maintenance or the upkeep? Longevity.
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George Watson: No. Actually…aren't affected. I mean they're shaped like this and if they
would be sitting in the water, if the ice froze, they gradually kind of move out. We've never had
a problem before. I've got a dock at my cabin I leave in year round and it freezes solid and it's
never been a problem. The only problem, the only place we ever get these things…and that was
about 30 years ago that we did that and we did have a problem with muskrats. But that was
before they used polyethylene. Now with polyethylene floats you don't have that problem… To
get back to your other point about the second split in the trail, here are two options really. This is
probably the easiest from the standpoint of they're already being almost a clearing for the trail,
but it is one gets out into the developer's property and a little bit further so we look for an option
where you could put a trail in, without actually going too far out of the property. So that's the
reason for two lines there. We would suggest that this be followed, the main route, the red route
be followed, but if you did place that on the developer, you'd have an alternative route.
Stolar: Question for clearing, you put trail clearing. 25 foot…is that across the entire red?
George Watson: …we would certainly try not to do that but if you have a need for a trail that
you're going to want to pave her down, you're probably going to be a minimum of 15 feet. Just
to get a truck and paver through.
Stolar: How much loss do we think we're going to have there? I know you saw some replanting,
natural grass. I don't know where that exactly would be.
George Watson: Right. There would be some areas where you would do reforestation. Even
though this shows the specific route, and it's the route that we feel would work, the real way to
do trails is to get out there with stakes and ribbons and walk the woods and judge the quality of
the trees at the time that it's constructed and lay the trail in that manner. This is a good
approximation. This is where we feel the trail would fit today, the best we could find it but when
you're actually out there, most trails through wooded areas are best done by just simply walking
out there and at the time staking the trail. Looking at the condition of the trees. By next year
there may be a change in the trees as we get ash bore come through or you know, chestnut bore
or whatever. Conditions of the trees could change and the route might be better place in another
location. But we did lay this out and we laid it out on auto cad, or spent some time out on the
site and we think this is today a good route and I know Todd will be probably out there in the
meantime checking us on it so.
Stolar: …another question that we always talk about partnerships. If we do decide to take a look
at signage, I think we would want to, I know they aren't necessarily jumping into join us. Maybe
Lifetime would be interested in sponsoring.
Hoffman: You bet. Absolutely.
Stolar: Put their little logos on them or just put a color we choose to do it along the interpretative
sign. They could adopt our whole park…
Hoffman: Yeah, their customers are there on a daily basis already so they know.
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George Watson: Thinking of renaming this is the Lifetime Preserve?
Stolar: But we certainly would allow them to have their name in various locations out there. But
that's the type of partnership in this process that might provide us with an opportunity to work
with them.
Hoffman: Those members of the commission that are out there at Lifetime, start those
conversations and we'll initiate it as well as we move forward but if you've got inroads into those
organizations, you know go ahead and start that conversation and bring that… Let's talk
specifically about the mechanism of how this trail is being built. Through a development
contract. It talks about, the second to the last or the last paragraph. The industrial lot that's on
the west side is finally being developed. It's being split in half and they're going to build a
building on the south half. And the development contract with the city between the original
platting entity for this property, the Gateway Partnership, the development contract says you will
do this and the City will do that, so one of their agreements is that they'll build this trail. We'll
reimburse them for the cost of the trail and then a 10% administration fee for that trail. So we've
been waiting for what's called Lot 12, Arboretum Business Park to develop. Now it's in for
development. The developer who's building the building is very pleased with this trail plan.
He's happy to be associated with the project so that's a good start. We need to sit down with now
directly and with their development, their project manager to talk about this trail. The reason we
brought George and his group in is because this is going to be a little bit more complex than say
the Holiday Inn Express trail. The north building. That's the last segment we built. It wasn't
very complex. When you go, the wall had to go in along Highway 5 and the trail had to come up
around the building, but in this case we wanted to get the master planning done so when we sit
down with the contractors we have some sense of where we're going with this trail and so that's
where we're at. They'll be building it this summer and we'll be writing them a check probably
later on this year or early next year and that will come out of our park dedication fund and so
we're not sure where the cost will come in but the estimates that we have for Phase I, $317,000
give or take and so it's more or less a $300,000 trail. It's not a…in our park system that comes
along very easily. We don't do a whole lot of $300,000 projects so it's a significant investment in
our trail system, and we wanted to do it right so we appreciate George and his group and want to
hear your comments again through this meeting and then we'll take it from there and build it with
the developer.
Daniel: Todd within our CIP plan, where does this fall within the budget? Is this close to what
we had budgeted for?
Hoffman: I'm not sure if this section is in there. Sometimes the development contract pieces,
they're not budgeted because we don't know when they're going to show up so.
Daniel: Okay, gotch ya.
Hoffman: And so they're outside of what we've got going on and we may not.
Kelly: I think we have the Arboretum trail.
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Hoffman: We might have this in there.
Stolar: …we would have noticed that but you've mentioned it before that once it comes in, we'll
really look at it.
Hoffman: Jerry will grab the CIP book and we'll take a look.
Stolar: If it wasn't in there, we certainly talked about it often that it was coming up.
Hoffman: $175 rings a bell.
Stolar: Yeah, something like that.
Daniel: I'm trying to go through the mental list of what last year's CIP was, and it's been a while
so I was just curious. I mean none of that stands out and then when you see the second phase,
none of it will stand out. But obviously you know, 60% of that cost of the second phase is
dedicated certainly to that boardwalk so.
Hoffman: The second phase could be split into phases again. You could build the parking lot,
which I think is important without the boardwalk. Boardwalk is kind of a specialty you know.
It's, I always like to say cities are going to live forever. Park systems, this is going to be around
for a long time so if somebody wants to build a boardwalk 30 years from now, they can build a
boardwalk. Yeah, there's a lot of different kinds of boardwalks but it'd be similar to that.
Atkins: The Arboretum has boardwalks.
Hoffman: Phalen Park Preserve and many of the nature centers around.
Kelly: Can I ask one quick question. When you said 1.75 miles, would that include the Holiday
Inn portion or is that strictly south of Coulter?
George Watson: That's this whole loop.
Kelly: Okay, so you are including Holiday Inn when you do this.
George Watson: It will be the longest…
Stolar: So if you went north of Coulter as well, I mean because they've got…
George Watson: No, I didn't include that.
Stolar: Did we have it in there?
Hoffman: Yep. $190,000 and it's slated in 2011.
Daniel: We missed it by a few years.
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Hoffman: And a few dollars. What happens now with the contract is that they have to secure
bids, competitive bids just like we would, and then they have to submit those to the City and we
review those.
Daniel: But I do believe, I mean obviously the cost being what it is, I mean this is a tremendous
investment from the city standpoint as well as the community so. I think it will be a great
addition. I mean really one of the things I've always mentioned that I think Chanhassen is
missing in their park system is a true loop that people can go to. Do the, have a place or a source
to go back to and then head out.
Stolar: Any other questions or comments?
Campion: If Lifetime was interested in kind of adopting this and putting signage up, they may
want to look at somehow stretching this whole loop to like an even 5K or something like that.
Maybe we should calculate with the upper portion and if there's any way to add a little bit of a
zig zag in that to get it to like a 5K loop or pretty close.
Stolar: Or go to their area. That was one of the things I was wondering, they may want to put it
by their new office.
Hoffman: From door to door we could measure it out.
Stolar: I guess the one thing, comment that I would like to add is that obviously I think it's a
great idea and the more we can keep it natural setting like but still make it as functional for the
runners and people who use it, would be great. I mean it's going to enhance so much and the
usage is going to be tremendous. So it's great. Great idea. Anything else? Is there any action
we need at this point? It would only be once the, I guess no action period.
Hoffman: Well action, if you want to change something about the plan. This is what we're
going to move forward and communicate with the contractor. We're presenting this to you as a
working document that we will take and move forward with. If you would like to amend it.
Stolar: They did something on the south side of that lot though you said?
Hoffman: Yes.
Stolar: So is that a pond there?
Hoffman: Yep.
Stolar: So they're just off that pond? Just above it.
Hoffman: Quite a ways above it, yeah.
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Daniel: So will that be the main building itself on the south side where I'm going to guess a
parking lot on the north side then?
Hoffman: The parking lot is on the south of their site plan. They split the lot just about down the
center. Their building fronts on the north side of the lot. Their parking lot comes in here and
then this will be sold off as an additional property in the future.
Daniel: Okay.
Stolar: So they would have no problems with where the red trail is as it stands now with their
site plan? Okay.
Hoffman: Part of their approval process mandates that where we put the trail on their property,
they grant us that easement for that future trail construction.
Stolar: And again that would tie in where they, their vision of what they want to do with the
property sometimes conflicts here.
Hoffman: It doesn't sound like that with this particular applicant. They want to turn the back of
the building into something where they have a break area that comes directly into the trail system
so their employees can use it before or after work or during lunch.
Daniel: Who is moving in there?
Hoffman: Yeah, it's another plastics company. What do they make? Plastics or chips. I think
it's chips.
Stolar: Okay, seeing no other comments, thank you very much George. Appreciate it and thank
you Todd.
DISCUSSION REGARDING COMPREHENSIVE PLAN UPDATE.
Hoffman: Thank you Chair Stolar, members of the commission. As you're aware we're in the
middle of a comprehensive plan update. Not just at the city level but George and I were talking
about the County is also going through that. Metropolitan Council mandated updates for 2030.
Our current comp plan goes out through 2020 and so before we reach that timeframe we move
up another 10 years. The open houses are scheduled tomorrow evening at the library and then
Thursday evening at the Chanhassen Recreation Center. We have been working with
Hoisington-Koegler and their group on updating our section of the park and recreation plan.
We'll go over some boards once I find our admin number 2. Thanks Jerry. There you go. As
th
you recall on May 17 we held a working meeting to kick off the update of the park and
recreation section. You have this draft document that are attached to this plan. We'll bring out
the large boards here in the section in a second. We have 5 boards that you're going to be
working with as a commission and staff at the work session and they include two boards for 15
conditions. They have both a map and this is a proof copy which is being updated almost daily
since it's been produced and so we're still changing things. Adding in. We didn't have a future
off leash dog area in there. We thought that would probably be the number one question at the
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comp plan meeting so we want to make sure that that was highlighted. We're still adding trails.
We're still changing mapping, but this is a base document that we want to use to inform the
public when they're coming in asking questions. I live here. This is what I have now for my
neighborhood. I use that trail. I go to that park. You know how are we going to use that and so
we can go farther than that. What are future plans for that particular piece of property? And so
this is an existing conditions map. Second part of that is the text that goes along with it. Some
of the photo images and talks about the Chanhassen park system. What we are. Five community
parks. 22 neighborhood parks. The recreation and senior center. Our recreation programs and
then it goes into the 275 acres we have in nature preserve. We just talked about one of those, the
Chanhassen Nature Preserve. Goes down to, we have 55 miles of asphalt trails but if you include
the sidewalks in that, we have an 80 mile city trail and sidewalk plan. And then it talks about the
regional park facilities. I think that's important to note. It's one of the things that makes
Chanhassen such an interesting community is that not only do we have a city trail, park system
but we have the regional park, the Arboretum and then golf course facilities and then the wildlife
management area. Raguet Wildlife Management Area and sections of the Minnesota River
Valley National Wildlife Refuge. We had one section of pink on here for golf but we had to add
two more. This is kind of getting to be a little golf Mecca down there with the Halla Greens
added and then Golf Zone. So you've got Halla Greens Golf Club and the Bluff Creek Golf
Course so all three of those are down there. It also touches on our history. The existing…talking
about our referendums back in 1969 when Lake Ann started. In 1988 when the voters passed a
bond to purchase the Bandimere Park property, and then the expansion of Lake Ann. And then
in 1996 the largest referendum held to date in the city which constructed Bandimere Park,
remodeled City Center Park, added 7 miles of trails and then we did work out in those 22
neighborhood parks at the time. So that's what we have to give people some bearings. Then we
move into future possibilities. Again the mapping will help people talk about what are the future
possibilities? All the boxes correspond to the text version on the other two boards. So I think if
people approach our booth, they'll want to look at existing. That's really what we want to inspire
them to do is let's talk about the future. What do you think of the park system? What do you
think of the city? What do you want to see happen in the area of park and recreation? And then
we take them to this board and start talking about the future trail connections and ideas for parks.
The ideas for separate crossings and rec center expansion and future ballfield expansions. So
each one of those items on that map is represented on these other two boards. So go down all the
different highlights and then we have a spot for them to write on the board. I encourage you to
get people to write right on this and so, give them a pen. Get a pen in their hand and have them
write their ideas down. They can write, mark up the map. You know this trail in here, you know
it stops there. Make those kind of corrections to. These documents will go forward and be
incorporated in our mapping for our comp plan. Incorporated into our mapping for our trail map
that is produced. And so these are the best documents that we will have in our plan for the future
of our city. Two nights of comp plan meetings, Wednesday and Thursday. Staff will be present
at both. The consultant, Bill Latham who has been doing this work from Hoisington will be
there at the library tomorrow. It's not in our contract with them to pay them on Thursday so we
need coverage from the commission, if you're available to come both nights. You don't have to
come individual on each night but if we have some commissioners one night. Some
commissioners the next, I think that will do a couple of things. It will engage you with the
public. Give you an idea of just hear what they're thinking. That's one of your primary jobs as a
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Park and Rec Commission - June 26, 2007
commission is to listen to your constituents. Your neighbors and then pass on that information to
the City Council. Obviously the comprehensive plan is the best way and the highest…
Daniel: What's the anticipated turn out?
Hoffman: Hopefully 100 people a night.
Daniel: And also time on Thursday. What time?
Hoffman: 6:00 to 9:00.
Stolar: It's on, if you look Jeff, the sheet that has the.
Daniel: Oh, there it is.
Stolar: Todd recommended that early hours might be the more important ones so we'll talk in a
little bit about seeing what. I do have a question. I know we stopped last year and maybe the
year before doing the business fair. The Chamber business fair. Would it make sense this year
to have something? I know it's hard, I'm volunteering time for others since I won't be here but…
post those, highlight them so people can, and maybe you can just, I think maybe at our booth.
Daniel: I think that's a great idea.
Hoffman: Sure, just have them available so you can talk to people.
Stolar: We could put it in the raffle booth or something, yeah on the other side where we have
the t-shirts.
Hoffman: We could make a kind of overhead sign. You know comp plan update and process.
Have questions, talk to commissioners.
Stolar: Other questions about the materials or. And you're saying you're still making some
updates before Thursday on that?
Hoffman: Yes.
Stolar: The one thing, maybe for my eyes, these pink and blue light things are hard for me to
read.
Hoffman: Okay.
Stolar: I don't know how they, I don't know exactly how they appear on the board.
Hoffman: On which map?
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Park and Rec Commission - June 26, 2007
Stolar: Let's see. If you look at the future. So some…has this blue at the bottom. That's just a
little harder to read.
Hoffman: Yeah these are, these copies will be much, that copy is better than this and the one
we're getting is better than that.
Stolar: Okay. And then I think it was that one had the pink up there. Anybody have any other
questions? Or comments.
Hoffman: …That's great. We'll see if anybody else points it out. The one thing to note is if you
start to look at existing, we already have with the addition of the two new underpasses, 1, 2, 3, 4,
5, 6, 7 underpasses. 8 underpasses in the city now. Trail underpasses. 3 up in the area of
Highway 5. There's one under the railroad tracks. There's two down at the 212/Bluff Creek and
then the new one is being built right now, should be open by this fall underneath Highway 101 at
Lake Susan and Rice Marsh. And then you have the one on Powers. And then the single
overpass which is shown in the wrong location. It's getting moved over.
Stolar: You know the future ballfields. Where are we at with that discussion? So is this
premature to talk about that in that type of location?
Hoffman: No, I think see it's been changed. Yeah 5(c) is, well it's shown on here? Oh 2(b).
Additional athletic field complex location south of… We think it's going to be south of Lyman
Boulevard if anywhere.
Stolar: Okay. Is there any progress in that discussion?
Hoffman: Not the public but it's moving along. Should we talk about scheduling?
Stolar: Sure.
Daniel: I just have one more question. Lake Susan, do we want to have a discussion about the
expansion of possible or evaluation or investigation of parks? Do we want to put that on there as
well?...
Scharfenberg: So improve the ballfield at Lake Susan. 2(d).
Daniel: Oh, there it is.
Hoffman: Not all of these on the…transferred over because there's not room…
Stolar: Jeff will come there with his little pictures of some of the other ball parks in the area.
Hoffman: I thought Jill did a good job, she brought all the comments forward from the meeting
that night and put them on the plan.
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Park and Rec Commission - June 26, 2007
Atkins: So you want people to respond by writing right on the board. Is there other things for
them to write on? Sheets for them to fill out?
Hoffman: Yes, they have sheets to fill out. Absolutely. There'll be sheets at each station. I
think our's is green.
Scharfenberg: I could do a late shift tomorrow night.
Hoffman: On Wednesday?
Scharfenberg: Yeah.
Atkins: I can do an early shift tomorrow night.
Daniel: I could do an early shift Thursday.
Campion: I could do a late shift Thursday.
Hoffman: Great.
Stolar: I could do early, or I could do either one tomorrow.
Hoffman: Okay, we have Dan, Jeff. Paula you're early Wednesday?
Atkins: Early Wednesday and I can do early Thursday too if you need me or want me.
Hoffman: And Steve and Glenn.
Stolar: I thought you said you could early Wednesday.
Scharfenberg: Which is tomorrow already.
Hoffman: So Wednesday's done. We have 2 early and late. And 2 early and 2 late and then
Thursday we could add one more either session if available. If not, that's fine too.
Smith: I might be able to do later Thursday.
Stolar: If we have Jeff and Paula for Thursday early. If Paula.
Atkins: Yeah I can do it.
Stolar: So I think that would cover us.
Hoffman: And let's split it by saying 6:00 to 7:30 and 7:30 to 9:00.
Stolar: That sounds good.
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Park and Rec Commission - June 26, 2007
Atkins: Great.
Hoffman: And the library, that's Wednesday again. Tomorrow night it's in the Wilder Room.
And at the Rec Center, the main meeting room. Thank you. It's obviously mid-summer. It's
Wednesday, church night and ball games so you know, it's hard to say, we talked about it today.
Kate is hoping for 100 people a night. It would be one of those things where you would hope
that lots of people would come out and participate in the planning of their city but it doesn't
always happen so we'll see how the participation goes.
Stolar: You know what I was also thinking, I forgot to do this on Saturday we were at the Lotus
shelter there. Is there, I don't know how much time you want but is there a way to post let's say a
laminated one of these smaller ones, if it's just a little saying please send email to Chanhassen
with any comments.
Hoffman: Sure.
Stolar: And post that on a couple of the shelters like Lake Ann, Lake Susan. Maybe North
Lotus. If it makes sense.
Hoffman: Well it makes sense. Maybe not for the open houses but the public hearings are going
to be later this fall.
Stolar: To those please attend and use that as advertisement.
Hoffman: Absolutely.
Stolar: I did talk to a few people about it on Saturday. Of course they're all from Minnetonka
so…
Hoffman: Yeah because that's where, you know you'll pick your customers up at the park and if
we get some of those out, it works very well for our playground program and other programs.
You get a captive audience. They're interested in the park. Obviously they're there and then you
post that sign, it's a good idea. This week maybe not though Jerry.
Stolar: Thanks.
2007 FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION REPORT.
Ruegemer: Yeah actually we can mention, John, we did hire a replacement for Nate Rosa. John
Stutzman. He's not here tonight but his… John started yesterday and we're very, very pleased to
have John with us. John has worked with us the last 2 summers. Actually a seasonal type of
temporary set of position. He also kind of picked up you know kind of work here and there for
us with school day adventures and other types of trips that we had planned. He's kind of was our
go to person for that. Most recently he's with the City of Lakeville and he was hired part time in
March and worked pretty much 25 to 40 hours a week with them leading up to this so. Nate's
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Park and Rec Commission - June 26, 2007
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been gone since I think May 18 and John started yesterday so we're very, very pleased to have
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him working and he's been through two other 4 of July's already. This is his third so really he
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started yesterday morning and he's already answering questions that pertain to the 4 of July so,
extremely happy that he's here so.
Atkins: What's his last name?
Ruegemer: Stutzman.
Atkins: I've got questions for him.
Ruegemer: His direct extension is 227-1122. So we've been really meeting quite a bit and we
also met 2 or 3 times after he was hired and before he started either at my house or at other types
of places and talked quite a bit before he started just to kind of keep him up to date with the
progress that we've been making with the celebration. We've gone through all the scheduled
events. We've been really on the hourly basis been going over a lot of different things with the
celebration. We've been meeting a lot of people during the course of the day reconfirming and
confirming a lot of different components to the celebration. Had another parade meeting today
going through all the kind of details for that. Meeting with power people and all kinds of people
here in the next couple days. Working really hard with seasonal staff to make sure that they
know what their role is going to be for the celebration. Dale's crew has been working
unbelievably hard for us to make sure that the celebration is a success and we always thank them
for that. Sue's been offering like crazy and Tom's been answering phone calls so it really is a full
staff effort here and we really appreciate everybody that's involved with this. Also thank you to
commissioners that will be there helping with prize board and other types of events for the
celebration. We couldn't do it without you guys either so. Business Expo, everything is full.
Sounds like that with the Chamber event so really the theme this year was increase capacity. We
increased the tent sizes, tables and chairs, bathrooms, garbage. I mean pretty much everything
has been increased as to make our experience enjoyable for people that will be attending. We
certainly anticipate big crowds. This year we really think with…come back for the mid day
week and it's going to be really I think a huge success. Carnival vendors, we have a carnival this
year which is a first thing for us. We've been having conversations with them to make sure that
everything is going to progress with that and we think it's going to be a nice event for that. Food
vendors, I think I had 15 on there. I think we're actually going to be closer to 15 or 16 between
the Rotary Taste vendors and the city vendors that we contract out so we'll have pretty good
coverage with that so a lot of the components are the same. But we're also adding the Summer
Skateboard Series. We've talked about that in the past. Just talked again with Third Lair this
week and they're extremely excited to be here. We do have a sponsor for the event, Monster
Sports Drink will be sponsoring that event so it's going to be a great event. They're going to
supply all the judges. The trophies. All the information and all the registration that go with that.
There's no pre-registration. You just show up. Matt Jewick our skate park attendant has actually
been timing kids out there to get them prepped and prepared for the summer series so we have
athletes in training over at the skate park on a daily basis so hopefully we'll have a good showing
for the Midwest Melee coming up here in the later part of the summer so. We're excited about
the Third working the lot with the Rotary on a daily basis just to make sure that all the details are
covered from all aspects of events that they're sponsoring and we're sponsoring. Make sure that
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Park and Rec Commission - June 26, 2007
everybody kind of knows what's going on. We'll have a big discussion tomorrow with the park
maintenance guys. Their staff meeting to kind of go through many more of the components.
Fireworks are all in line and ready to go. Met with the fireworks people last Friday afternoon.
Make sure we looked over the launch site and all the information, all the components were in
place for that so. Adult fishing contest has been filled for oh, 2, 3, 4 days now so that's all full.
We're still taking registrations for the kids so really just a lot of, a lot of fun things. The
Shadows of the Old West is new this year that the Rotary is going to sponsor. Kind of a fun,
Paula's group will be doing the Tom Sawyer re-enactment.
Atkins: Can I ask about the Shadows of the Old West? Who's doing that? Are they hiring
somebody or are they doing it themselves?
Ruegemer: They hire a group to do that.
Atkins: So that might be someone we want to coordinate with so they take a break while we're
doing our little bit.
Ruegemer: Don't want shoot 'em up going on during that time? We met with Joe Scott, kind of
a local musician. He is kind of coordinating the concert benefit for the music program for the
District 112. Met with him today to kind of go over the details of the tent. We're going to re-use
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the tent for the second day on the 4 and have that concert going on from 4:00 to 8:30 with all
the proceeds going to, being donated to the District 112 Music Program.
Atkins: Will there be refreshments there?
Ruegemer: The beer area will be down during actually the course of the Taste of Chan. During
that time but I don't know that it's going to be on during the concert itself. We can look into that
but I don't know if that is going to be the case.
Hoffman: Well somebody should do something.
Atkins: Yeah, pop or anything. Otherwise Caribou will be real busy.
Ruegemer: With that but then, and then we'll wrap it up with the fireworks at Lake Ann. And
we're going over you know different parking plans and different kind of procedures with Carver
County to make sure that everybody is safe and upon exiting the park we have a plan to kind of
disperse people hopefully in a timely fashion and get them out of there so.
Stolar: Are you going to rope off the new rain gardens?
Hoffman: We can talk to the, probably a good idea. I'll meet with Krista and Lori to talk about
that.
Stolar: That might deter people from walking through it.
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Park and Rec Commission - June 26, 2007
Hoffman: And we'll have parking attendants there but hopefully yeah, so they don't… And
Paula, I'll help coordinate that. The Shadows of the West go, they…
Stolar: Okay, did you want to talk about sign-up's at all?
Ruegemer: Yep, sure would. I'm going to pass around the volunteer sheet. Kind of what we're
looking for is really the prize board area and t-shirt sales and there's two times on there. 5:30 to
8:15 and 8:15 to around 11:00. So if you guys would take a look at that. A lot of the other areas
you know like carnival games and that sort of thing we'll have covered with a variety of seasonal
staff and other people that we have available to us so.
Atkins: We don't have a booth in the trade fair?
Ruegemer: No.
Stolar: Did you call Jack and see if he wants to volunteer?
Ruegemer: We probably should.
Stolar: He probably would. I mean Jan comes back every year.
Hoffman: Can't stay away.
Stolar: Okay. Any other questions? If not we can move on.
RECREATION CENTER REPORT.
Knowles: Thank you Chairman Stolar. My report this month, I've highlighted the recreation
center summer hours which we run through, Memorial Day through Labor Day. I've also noted
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that we'll be closed for our annual floor re-surfacing and maintenance from August 19 through
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September 4. The staffing section there, I've noted that Danny Makespeace after 8 years we
think is finally leaving the recreation center. I say that in a good way because we'll miss Danny.
He's been a good employee for us but with his summer internship this year he'll have completed
his degree requirements and hopefully he'll find gainful employment in his chosen field so we
wish the best for Danny. Meanwhile in the summer while we are on reduced hours, our current
staff has been able to absorb the hours that he was working but we'll probably need to hire a new
part time person in the fall. The programming section, as I was writing this I was, you know I
can't say I was surprised because I kind of knew what was coming down but I was really taken
by what a large list of programs we had here, and the programs that I've listed are just programs
that we are hosting at the recreation center. It doesn't even include the Lake Ann Adventure
Camp. It doesn't include the Summer Discovery Playground. It doesn't include any of the events
at Fourth of July. These are just simply programs that we will be hosting at the recreation center
this summer so I think it's a terrific variety of different programs for different populations and
much of it is put together by Jerry and his staff up here at City Hall and I think he should be
commended for the good work that he does up here with the programming and we just, we try to
do our best to provide a good venue for his programs out at the recreation center. Onto the
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Park and Rec Commission - June 26, 2007
facility notes, I've hinted here that normally during the summer our activity does decline a little
bit, especially in the area of room rentals. Having said that, as I left the recreation center this
evening to come to this meeting here, our parking lot was almost absolutely full so it's not like
things go away entirely during the summer. We do have some slow periods but there's plenty to
keep us busy. We had actually four different groups renting rooms tonight at the recreation
center. We've got a couple big meetings tomorrow. We have the comp plan meeting Thursday
so there's stuff going on out there even though normally it is a little bit slower in the summer
time than the normal type school year type of calendar. The final section here on my report is
the 2007 strategic plan, June update. Some of you commissioners will remember that this past
January we had a sort of brainstorming meeting here at City Hall and out at the Recreation
Center all gear up to sort of drum up more traffic through the recreation center. From those
meetings we prepared a comprehensive strategic plan for 2007. Since then I've been preparing
monthly updates for Todd. What you see here is sort of a summary of what I submitted to Todd
for the month of June. What I have found so far in the, this year in the strategic plan is that it's
sort of a process. It's a work in progress. It's good direction. It's a good goal to work towards.
Sometimes it seems like you take a step forward and a step back but I think it's all good in terms
of providing some direction and some areas of emphasis that we can create in hopes of creating
some more traffic out at the recreation center so, some progress is being made. Sometimes some
of the areas I still haven't come together with anything yet but it's like I say, it's a work in
progress and I think it's a good goal for us at the recreation center to work towards.
Stolar: Any questions for Tom?
Scharfenberg: Tom, how's that Jazzercise thing going out at the warming house? Has that
worked out okay?
Knowles: It's, I've gotten sort of mixed reports from that. The coordinator there, she seems to be
very happy with the space. Some of her clients are not as happy. They feel as though it's a little
cramped out there. Tonight they were concerned how hot it was. So it's sort of a mixed review
right now but Tammy, the coordinator's been pleased and other of her clients haven't been so
pleased so we'll see how that all goes down.
Atkins: Is it air conditioned?
Knowles: It is not. We've got windows open and fans blowing through and Tammy is putting
on a good spin on it. She says well you come to these classes to sweat so that's what we do so.
Atkins: So they don't get to use the room with the mirrors?
Knowles: No. We're going to try to accommodate them during the winter months when the
warming house is obviously used as a warming house, but during the months from March
through December we're trying to keep them.
Hoffman: We don't have to pay for them…but when the warming house is used as a warming
house, we're going to put them in.
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Park and Rec Commission - June 26, 2007
Stolar: Okay. Seeing no other questions, thank you Tom.
Hoffman: Chair Stolar, one additional note. Tom did mention the closing which we do use for
floor re-surfacing but the original proposal with the closing was the cost avoidance measure
during our budgeting process 3-4 years ago. So we've, that was identified as a potential time
when we could close. Save those costs and then also accommodate the floor re-surfacing. In the
past before that time, we did work right through floor re-surfacing. We moved our front desk
outside a couple of days, but so it's, although it accommodates floor re-surfacing and yearly
maintenance, it was initially instituted for cost avoidance. During our slowest time.
SENIOR CENTER REPORT.
Bill: What I highlighted in my report for the past quarter was the month of May. The month of
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May we basically used to celebrate the Senior Center's 15 anniversary with 15 different
activities. I didn't list them all here but some of the highlights is the, or always is the Breakfast
with the Mayor. 50 plus people are in attendance and the comments every year are very, very
positive. Just how easy and accessible he is. The last 2 years there's been a power point
presentation updating the people on what's new going on in Chanhassen. Not only roads, retail,
parks, but he really, really did a nice job and engages people and people feel really honored and
special that he takes basically turns out to be a Monday morning. We have it scheduled from
8:30 to 10:00 but he gets a lot of questions asked so they really do appreciate his time and it is
the highlight every year and that's how we started off the month with his breakfast. And then
after that we had a really nice presentation. Ron Roeser did a history of Chanhassen and that is
being edited and it will be shown on the local cable channel. It was probably an hour and a half
size. It really, really was nicely done so you'll be seeing that viewed throughout I think within
the next couple months. And then the highlight of the month was the anniversary dinner and
thank you Paula for coming as well as, I think most of council members were there.
Hoffman: All of them.
Bill: All of them, as well as the Mayor. 80 plus people and it turned out to be just a wonderful
month. I'm happy it's over but the feedback was really positive. Probably the biggest comments
that I received were what, how fortunate we are that the city has dedicated the space for the
seniors. How progressive we are and kind of leading the area with the activities and
programming we have and they're just really, really thankful of the commitment that this city has
made for the last 15 years so I want to thank you all. Other than that, the Lions once again
sponsored a Lake Ann picnic. There again they did a great job. I like that event. They do all the
food and grilling and the people have a great time. And so they enjoy it I think as much as the
seniors do. I don't know if any of you have heard but the City of Chaska unofficially opened the
st
Lodge on June 1. The Lodge is their center for, they call it the Lodge for AOA, Active Older
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adults. So the soft opening was June 1. The officially opening will be the first part of August
and Joan who is my counter part at the City of Chaska, she and I work really well together. We
plan our day trips together. We share buses. She's been calling me not to schedule Defensive
Driving when I have Defensive Driving and some other classes and other programs going on, I'll
keep an eye on that. It probably will have some impact on some of our level of participation
because we've drawn a fair amount of people from Chaska on various activities throughout the
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Park and Rec Commission - June 26, 2007
year. They continue to come but I think as their programming gets more developed and refined,
we'll just see so my plan is to continue to do what we've been doing good for the past 15 years.
To continue to offer new and creative programming like our Lifelong Learning classes and to
always be on the lookout how we can continue to enhance and offer the best service we can to
Chanhassen residents.
Stolar: Any questions?
Smith: Do you know when the presentation on the history of Chanhassen, do you know where
that is coming out?
Bill: I can let people know through emails. Rick Rice is editing a part of that. The first part
wasn't, for whatever reason, recorded and now he is splicing and editing it in, so I will get an
email out to him tomorrow and then I'll send everyone an email. It really was a very, very nice
presentation. I'll let you know.
Atkins: Tell him he has to do Part II now.
Bill: That would be wonderful.
Stolar: Thank you.
PARK AND TRAIL MAINTENANCE REPORT.
Gregory: Good evening. This spring's been pretty busy time for our park maintenance, just like
it is for every other year and that. Just getting park shelters ready. Picnic table areas. Picnic
areas ready. Docks. Fishing piers. This year we laid out all 25 ballfields again and also 10
soccer fields so we've got pretty much all our athletic fields and everything up and running. I
also did get price quotes on resurfacing tennis courts at City Center Park, Lake Ann, North Lotus
and Chanhassen Rec Center. That did go through council last night. That was approved. I was
in contact with the contractor this morning. He's all ready to get started. He'd like to get going
right away so we'll probably even see him in here this week yet. I am holding him off of City
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Center and that so we won't have that going on during our 4 of July celebration but he's really
up and ready to go for us so we're going to let him get going with it. Also this spring and that we
had use of the STS, Sentence to Serve people. They did come and help us with 3 days of
working on our downtown streets. Cleaning off all the grass areas. Blowing sand and
everything and we also had 2 other days just the end of June here and that's where they came out
and we actually, they worked on the Chanhassen Nature Preserve out there. They were out there
for 2 days pulling out old barbed wire, old fence posts and everything else and just clearing some
of that area in that preserve for us so. Every year they've proven to be really a good asset for us
and that, and we get them 2, 3, 4 times a year and that and they're really good. We've got a good
working relationship with their leader and that so it really works out pretty good for us. We also
did get, this year we had 50 seniors from Minnetonka. They did their Senior Service Day again
this year and Lori Haak had them out to help finish the rain garden and they turned out really
nice and that so that's turning out real well. Curry Farms, I'm here to say that it's just about done.
We've been working on that for 3 years. Jeff would kind of like to hear that. We've got the
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Park and Rec Commission - June 26, 2007
majority of the stuff is all done down there and that but the seeding we did last fall. The dormant
seeding is not really turning out real well at all. We've got a lot of weeds growing down there
and we're going to keep that just the weeds, the way it's going right now in fall, what we're going
to do is we're going to go in, we're going to spray. Take care of the weeds and right behind it
we're going to over seed everything and that's just seed it so we'll be doing that in the beginning
of September so we'll have the whole fall for growing season so that should help that out and
that. We just, we did not have a good year for over seeding on that. Too much, or not enough
snow and too much cold weather and it did not work real well for us this year. Also one of the
projects we worked on this year is with Lake Ann being completely done, the roads out there all
blacktopped and that, I went in, I ordered all new sign posts and everything last fall so we had it
for this spring so we completely re-signed it. Got all new signs up there and that. Except for the
very first parking lot in the front. We haven't put those in yet because we're still working on
possibly overlaying and taking care of that parking lot but it's looking pretty good. We're trying
to get a little bit better entrances. We come in with the signs and that so it just looks a little
better than that. Currently I've got all my seasonals working, all 14 of them are on deck right
now. We actually lucked out this year. 12 out of the 14 came back from last year so we didn't
have to do too much education. It's really been a good year and that and they can all just come in
and start working right away so that worked out real well. The other thing that we're really kind
of running into a little problem and that is a lack of rain. Our fields, the athletic fields that are
not irrigated are just taking a pounding. There's nothing hardly left of some of them. The one on
Park Road and that, it's just, it's just rock hard and the grass is just nothing there hardly at all.
The other ones that are irrigated, they're holding their own but we're watering as much as we
possibly can, that we're allowed to and they're holding their own but they're still not in the
greatest shape so you know, hopefully we get some rain here but right now it doesn't sound like
it's going to happen here in the near future. So all we can do is continue to irrigate and try to
keep them going. That's pretty much everything.
Stolar: Thanks.
Daniel: I would like to say Dale that with regards to Curry Farms, everyone's really pleased with
the way it's certainly turned out. I mean it actually does give a really nice view of that new pond
that they've created for the runoff and it slopes really nice. Everything's just, it turned out really
nice so I certainly appreciate the efforts of the park and rec department obviously and then I can't
remember her name as far as the coordinator.
Hoffman: Lori Haak.
Daniel: Lori, yep. So we certainly do appreciate it. That lake looks fantastic.
Gregory: Well we're hoping we'll be done with it real shortly this fall so. Like I say, I really
wish that the team would came in this spring and that and we'd be going good down there and
that but it just didn't work this year.
Daniel: Will that also take care of the perpetual constant sinking on the west side or, I know you
put a lot of fill in there.
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Park and Rec Commission - June 26, 2007
Gregory: I'm not going to guarantee anything.
Hoffman: It'd probably be a better guarantee to have it sink again.
Gregory: I mean we've filled it 3 times already and that and it just seems like after so many
years all of a sudden we start sinking and we've actually gone out with a backhoe and dug it as
deep as we could to see what we could find and all we do is find decaying marsh and it used to
be a swamp at one time. That whole area and that and it's just decaying matter down there but
nothing that should really sink that much so I don't have an answer for you why it's sinking.
Daniel: No, it looks good now. It looks really good. Thank you.
Stolar: Any other questions?
Kelly: I know what you're saying about the soccer fields. Even though you're irrigating it at
Bandimere, those soccer fields are rough but I tell you those fences you put in behind the soccer
goals, regardless, whoever's been complaining about aesthetics, those things are probably the
most functional fences I've ever seen. Just fantastic. I mean just because, I don't know how
many lost balls you've prevented by having those fences up because I just hear them clang,
clang, clang all the time. That's better than splash, splash, splash when the ball goes in the pond
so that's been a great asset to the field.
Hoffman: It's good to hear that of that position because we also have a caller that said they
weren't working because if you shoot high over the net, they're not going to stop the ball but
anything to the side it's going to stop 100%. And so we had one particular team that had a coach
that was doing some skills and they were shooting past the goal and they were still losing some
balls and so in your skill development you've got to pick the appropriate time and place.
Scharfenberg: Dale I saw that the, the drainage on the trail south of Coulter where it kept on
flooding and so they, when is that going to get blacktopped?
Hoffman: That's down where the culvert…
th
Gregory: It will be after the 4 of July. Jim Tice is my heavy equipment operator. We're going
to go back in there. We're going to get it all laid out and everything and as soon as I can get
Plehal in to do it. So it will be early in July. By mid-July I hope to have it all blacktopped.
Scharfenberg: It looks nice.
Hoffman: It's going to work.
Stolar: Great, thank you Dale.
COMMISSION MEMBER COMMITTEE REPORTS.
None.
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Park and Rec Commission - June 26, 2007
COMMISSION MEMBER PRESENTATIONS:
Stolar: The only question would be, anything from the City Council other than what Dale
mentioned about.
Hoffman: The tennis courts and then they're starting the budget process, or the operation,
maintenance and capital so last night was the first working session with the council. Talking
about the 2008 budget.
Atkins: I have a presentation. I met with a group last night to loosely form an arts council for
Chanhassen. The editor of the Chanhassen Villager was kind enough to interview me and do an
article. 8 people came, besides myself and it was a diverse group that was fairly representative
of all the areas of art. There was a couple of visual artists. Music, a couple music teachers.
Several of us who represent performing arts and one retired teacher who has just a really serious
interest in all aspects of it. Our initial discussion was held on what our goals might be and some
of those, some things that we came up with were providing opportunities for area artists to
connect and network. Community enrichment, including providing opportunities for all ages to
take part in the arts. Providing venues for the arts in the Chanhassen area, and we also are going
to gather information on funding sources. We would like to communicate with staff on what
ideas that we come up with and we're welcome to any suggestions from staff. We are all going
to do research into area local arts councils and cities. We have a little list of areas to explore and
people to contact depending on what direction we should move in initially. We're a little unsure
st
of what exactly we want to do. But we will meet again on August 1 and we're going to hold a
brainstorming session and concentrate on our long range goals and possibly concoct some sort of
mission statement. And I sent you, I sent this out to the whole council, or commission here so
you can read it when you get home. I was very happy with the turnout.
Stolar: Any questions for Paula?
Daniel: As far as definition of arts, does that include both theater, music?
Atkins: Yes, all. Visual arts.
Daniel: Visual arts.
Hoffman: Thanks Paula. Appreciate you stepping forward.
Stolar: Any other commission member presentations?
Atkins: I could talk a little bit about the historical committee that we're, I've been meeting with
those people too and that's a pretty big group. That, we had 27 people I think at our last meeting
at the library. We had a representative from the Carver County Historical Society and from the
Minnesota State Historical Society and they are, have been giving us direction on what we need
to do in that area too. Everybody, nobody really is clear on what their goals are there either so
that's still in the works. They're focusing on the church, the old church and the city hall right
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Park and Rec Commission - June 26, 2007
now but they have a lot of ideas and I'm sure it will all come about. It just takes some work and
some time and some advice.
Stolar: Okay, thanks.
ADMINISTRATIVE PACKET.
Stolar: I know we had something there about the lights, among other things. We had.
Hoffman: There are plans for both Lake Ann projects in here. The ballfield lighting and the
shelter. Correspondence at St. Hubert's Church. They'll have 16 children here on Thursday
th
helping at City Center Park to spruce up for the 4 of July. Information about the Chaska
Community Hockey Association Booster Club. And then some picnic shelter reservations
information.
Stolar: Related to, the reason I brought up the ballfield and picnic shelter. This is an official part
of their schedule is that we review this here.
Hoffman: On their list that they put down?
Stolar: …so if you have any questions now, I think it's the time to provide you with feedback
really for the schedule. When is the City Council going to be reviewing this?
Hoffman: They reviewed it as a part of their admin packet last night and then they award bids on
rd
July 23.
Stolar: Was there any feedback from the council? I know when we first asked for this there
were questions but then it got approved.
Hoffman: They're very comfortable with the project and we're hoping for again working with
HTPO. The contract, we have some add alternates bid into the contract because we think we're
going to be a little bit high on both projects and we want to be able to award with some deducts
if we have to, but I can tell you in the same breath that the construction market is very
competitive right now and so we're hoping for quality bids that will be on budget or under
budget.
Stolar: With relation to the shelter, it appears we're having two halves going up there. Do we
have additional parking then right by there on the hill? Is that correct?
Hoffman: Yep.
Stolar: Within page, sheet 2 of 5 sheets for the shelter.
Hoffman: The main road also acts as the main access to the shelter. So that is a roadway which
will basically designed as a trail and then handicap parking or parking for a caterer. And then
also for the ability to service the portable restrooms that will go up there.
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Park and Rec Commission - June 26, 2007
Stolar: So the only permanent parking is for the handicap accessible?
Hoffman: Correct.
Stolar: Well I guess the caterer if they're having an event.
Hoffman: The parking lot which will be, it's just across from, it's up from the beach and just
across from ballfield 3, so there's a smart parking lot at that location. Where the access comes
from. The trail leading to the left goes to the beach. That goes to a stairway. We want to
encourage people to go that way down to the beach instead of going around, interfering with
other users at other shelters.
Daniel: Has that stairway been replaced at all? It's about 1980.
Hoffman: It's the original.
Daniel: It's the original one? With the telephone poles, yeah.
Hoffman: Do you remember it as a kid?
Daniel: I drove my bike down there.
Hoffman: We will be addressing that in the CIP. We talked about that already for this year's
CIP.
Stolar: And then the question, or a couple things related to this. We had talked about in the City
Council meeting the, should there be permanent facility there and you know at this point there
wasn't the cost but it looks like we're actually running things so that we could if we wanted to in
the future, water at least.
Hoffman: Water is currently there already. The 1 inch service line and that's a yard hydrant for
cooking or cleaning or let's say when they power wash the shelter, they'll have water that will
go…In addition to the shelter that's currently there, the pavilion, there will be modern
restrooms… So be open for business next year. Next spring.
Stolar: We talked about the joint meeting with the City Council. We'll do it late so we can see
the lights on the ballfield. Anything else? Alright, can I have a motion for adjournment?
Scharfenberg moved, Daniel seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the
motion carried. The Park and Recreation Commission meeting was adjourned.
Submitted by Todd Hoffman
Park and Rec Director
Prepared by Nann
27