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PRC 2007 09 25 CHANHASSEN PARK AND RECREATION COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING SEPTEMBER 25, 2007 Chairman Stolar called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m.. MEMBERS PRESENT: Glenn Stolar, Steve Scharfenberg, Tom Kelly, Dan Campion, Paula Atkins and Jeff Daniel MEMBERS ABSENT: Thor Smith STAFF PRESENT: Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Director; Jerry Ruegemer, Recreation Superintendent; John Stutzman, Recreation Supervisor; Susan Bill, Senior Center Coordinator; Tom Knowles, Recreation Center Manager; and Dale Gregory, Park Superintendent APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Stolar: Do we have any changes or additions to the agenda? Any commission members or Todd or Jerry, any? Hoffman: Just a correction to the date on the administrative item for the comprehensive plan thnd open house. It's not on the 16. It will be next Tuesday, the 2. Stolar: That's item number 9 in your packet and then it's the third major paragraph. We'll talk about it when we get to that presentation. Seeing none, other than that one correction, motion to approve the agenda. Scharfenberg: Motion to approve the agenda. Stolar: Second? Daniel: Second. Scharfenberg moved, Daniel seconded to approve the agenda with a correction under Administrative Presentations, changing the date of the comprehensive plan open house thnd from October 16 to October 2. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: Stolar: I know we have a couple that we might talk about later but Todd, you want to, or Jerry, anything? Ruegemer: No. Park and Rec Commission - September 25, 2007 Stolar: Okay, we'll talk about the Halloween later. About the stuff that's coming up. When's the senior center item? We've got that coming up too? Hoffman: 7. Stolar: Okay. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS: None. APPROVAL OF MINUTES:Daniel moved, Kelly seconded to approve the verbatim and summary minutes of the Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated August 28, 2007 as presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0. 2007 LAKE ANN CONCESSION/BOAT RENTAL EVALUATION. Ruegemer: Thank you Chair Stolar. Last summer did go by fast again. We definitely had some nice, warm weather throughout the course of the summer with that which certainly helped our bottom line. You always wish you could do a little bit better. You would have done a little bit better but you know it's not anything it is consistent out at Lake Ann. I do look kind of through the expenses and through a lot of the stuff that we've done through the years. The revenues are roughly in the same ballpark. What we tried to do this year was kind of cut back a little bit on hours and really keep an eye on labor a lot more this year. What we did too, instead of being st open til 7:00 all year long. Also we cut that back August 1 and closed at 6:00 versus 7:00 so really tried to make really an effort to watch the bottom line as related to labor. Hired a different manager this year. Really tried to lower really labor costs on that and I think that did help our bottom line, as you can see by the report with the expenditures as relate to seasonal labor. So we did, it's always our goal is to have a nice service out there for our resident and other beach goers that use the, not only the beach but the boat rentals, picnic areas, that sort of thing. It's a nice you know, it's kind of a nice little option for people that want to go down there and use the canoes or paddle boats and that sort of thing. Grab an ice cream soda, that sort of thing. You know we continue to really simplify the operation. Real quick point of sales. Simple type of menu options for people to easy you know for preparation with our Department of Ag license we really try to keep it in a certain selection process and that really has kind of helped us through the years. We've made modifications. You know the hot dogs and the meal deal is really kind of a real popular thing still with people that want to go down and have a quick bite to eat with kind of a combination of chips and a soda, it really seems to be a good value for people so we'll continue obviously with that. We've kind of been through the cycle of replacing some equipment you know in the concession operation opened up in '92 or '93, so we're kind of going through that situation where we're replacing a freezer here and there. We did need counter tops last summer so we're kind of re-investing a little bit to make sure that it's still you know appealing and aesthetically pleasing to people and really functional too with that. You know if we need new equipment we seem to be kind of allocating monies to purchase and replace so that's worked out good up to this point. We really had really a pretty good season with paddle boats. We did not have a lot of mechanical failures with pedals or chains and that sort of thing with that. We did replace some of the older watercraft units that we had with a brand new 4 person aqua cycle. A 4 by 4 which will really have a long shelf life as well. A little bit more beefier. A little bit more 2 Park and Rec Commission - September 25, 2007 industrial strength for the rental operation so it really went really good. The only trouble we had really with the watercraft was when the little micro burst or wind storm kind of came through in August, that flipped over one of the Aqua cycles that we had on top of the dock, and that did do some damage to some bracketings, some seats and that sort of thing on that and we're going to replace and get that fixed and get that back in operation next spring so. We were fortunate that there wasn't more damage done to that but we really did have a pretty good season with that. Just replaced some of the old equipment. Really mechanically we're in really pretty good shape with paddle boats so. The only two we need to talk about you know kind of looking at different aspects of the operation with labor and that sort of thing, that really was kind of the recurring theme this year. Just to keep on top of things. Kind of order what products you needed but not have a lot of excess and really kind of work through a lot of those type of things. Jenny, our manager out there worked for us last summer as well so she had a really good handle on things. Had a good staff out there so. All and all it was a good summer. We were down a little bit on boat rentals. It was warmer this year but we did have a lot more wind it seems like this year. When it gets too windy, it sometimes hampers the boat rental operation where it just gets too windy and it gets beyond people's comfort level a little bit to take the paddle boat on Lake Ann when it's real windy. We've had people get to the other side of the lake and get trapped and had to wade to shore and walk the trail back over and leave the paddle boat so we've had some retrievals in the morning and some other type of things that wasn't the best case scenario but we'll certainly look on increasing that next year. And you can see the big change is really the wages and hours. Hours worked and surprised a little bit up on certain things. It seemed like with you know natural ingredient costs on Coca Cola products and a lot of other fuel surcharges and that sort of thing, it seemed like the products and concessions, supplies have kind of taken an upward stride on that so certainly try to balance all that and try to make a little money as well as providing that service so. The rest of the information is out there, kind of the daily food and boat sales. Kind of what we paid for, labor. Food vendor expenses. A lot of those type of things are included here so I would entertain any questions that the commission may have. Stolar: Jeff, want to start? Daniel: Sure. Jerry as far as cost of concessions and some of the, as far as the vendor expenses. Did you entertain looking at Pepsi or to maybe reduce costs for next year. Ruegemer: Yeah we just went through that process with our soft drink vendors. We just signed a brand new 5 year contract first of the year, this year so we're locked into Coca Cola again for the next 5 years. We just got done with a 5 year contract with that so we just went through that process for soft drinks. Now I also went through that process with the kind of the nuts and bolts, you know popcorn, ice cream, for hot dogs, all that stuff with Midstar and with Watson. So I did kind of go through that process and really Watson was the vendor again with the best pricing overall. Daniel: Okay, great. Stolar: Dan. Steve. 3 Park and Rec Commission - September 25, 2007 Scharfenberg: Jerry just a, nothing specific on the concessions but with regards to the lifeguard contract. Is that up this, this coming up? I thin we did a 2 year. Ruegemer: We did do a 2 year and there was a modest step increase for 2008 so then that we will not have to review that in 2008. Scharfenberg: Okay. Stolar: Paula. Atkins: The, I noticed the concession hours were considerably less. Is that because of earlier closing time or rain? Ruegemer: Combination of earlier closing. Sending people home when it wasn't busy. Just really, I couldn't relay that message on to the concession enough that you know we don't need to have double staff down here and we want to send people home when we don't need extra people so we tried to schedule a little bit differently to kind of have some overlap but then when the busy times are over with, to send people home and then have one person down there. Atkins: Looks like it worked out well. Stolar: One question. Do you know, do we do any deals on like boat rentals with the shelters that people rent, or if that would make any difference? Ruegemer: We, as far as any deals in…to the discount but we will set aside boats and that so if you know your company's coming down and you arrange it ahead of time, we can set aside you know 5 paddle boats, 3 canoes, that sort of thing for a block of time. Stolar: Do we think there's any relation to the rental of the boats then with that? We haven't seen anything noticeable? Ruegemer: Yeah, because I guess you know as it relates to the boat rentals, that still is included within the revenues with that but as far as numbers, you know it could be recording type of situations too within the concession operations as well but. Stolar: Anyone else any final questions? Okay, thanks. RECOMMENDATIONS CONCERNING 2007/2008 ICE SKATING RINK LOCATIONS. Stolar: Are you going to recommend cold weather this year? Ruegemer: We sure hope so. Thanks again Chair Stolar. I know on an annual basis we do take a look at this and kind of look ahead to our skating season and we definitely have debated this issue to great lengths in the past. I think we've really come to a really good consensus as it comes to kind of geographic location and warming house locations and that sort of thing as to where it's kind of located within our city so I think we really did come to a good situation last 4 Park and Rec Commission - September 25, 2007 year with the recommendation of kind of flooding Chanhassen Hills in that kind of southern Chanhassen. I know that's been the commission's desire for a number of years to have something down in that southern half of Chanhassen, south of Highway 5. The recommendation was made last year and ultimately approved by City Council to include the Chanhassen Hills skating rink in that, in our seasonal operation. With the warm weather we certainly didn't have that opportunity last year. Per our skating rink policy that by a certain date it was too warm, we didn't get started on it. Therefore it was kind of pulled for the summer, or for the winter season. So we were kind of in that situation last year and I think people were looking forward to that skating rink in that location again, and that certainly is I guess my recommendation to the commission tonight to take a look at keeping that skating rink in the flooding schedule to serve our needs and residents down in that area of Chanhassen. And then obviously then to keep the other warming house locations that we've had in the past, that really kind of represents kind of the Chanhassen population really across the board and all points of the city. So it is staff's recommendation that the Park and Recreation Commission recommend to the City Council to approve the following ice rink locations and schedule here for 2007 and 2008. That would include the Chanhassen Recreation Center warming house, with a warming house location. That's one family rink. Two hockey rinks. City Center Park with a warming house. Portable warming house with that. One family rink and one hockey rink. North Lotus, that has a portable warming house. One family rink and one hockey rink. Roundhouse Park, it would be the round house building itself for the warming house. One family rink and then Chanhassen Hills Park with one family rink. Stolar: Tom, any questions? Kelly: No. Stolar: Paula. Atkins: So that would be like last year, it would be on the schedule to be flooded if conditions were allowing? Okay. Scharfenberg: Do we ever have a, or do you foresee a problem with the Jazzercise out at the warming house and using their rink. Is that going to be an issue this year? Hoffman: Tom can talk about that. Knowles: No, the Jazzercise coordinator has known from the very beginning when we brought them out there last March that we would be reverting back to the warming house operations come December. We're working on finding her space inside the recreation center to run her program this winter. Hoffman: During the warming house time. Then they'll go back out. Knowles: Right. Campion: The numbers for the users totals cover the, how do they get those numbers? How do they track that? 5 Park and Rec Commission - September 25, 2007 Ruegemer: How do they track that? Campion: Yeah, is that just from when it's. Ruegemer: Yeah, if you look at the totals, those were actually were skating rink attendants while on duty. Campion: Okay. Ruegemer: And then you know, on a kind of hourly or kind of throughout the course of their scheduled time, we have different sheets that they fill out and they record numbers. Hoffman: And that's an actual head count. That's not extrapolated out for all the other times right? Ruegemer: That's actual head count. Hoffman: Yeah, so it's more than that. Ruegemer: And that's just while attendants were on duty. Campion: How about lighting? I mean what are the hours of the? Ruegemer: The skating rinks are open 4:00 to 9:00 p.m.. Monday through Friday and then 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Saturdays and then 1:00 to 7:00 on Sundays. So they're open a fair amount during the skating season. And the lights are turned on by the attendants while they're on duty. Campion: Okay. Hoffman: All these locations have lights. Some are hockey lights. Some are just for pleasure skating. Campion: And the light hours follow the attendant hours as well? Ruegemer: Yeah, pretty much when the lights are one for the most part when, you know it's not right at 4:00 but shortly thereafter during that time. Timeframe so yeah, lights are on most of the time when they're on duty. Of course not in the Saturday morning timeframe but. Daniel: I've got two questions. Are there any other parks within, that we have that have hockey rinks already boards that are not being used? Are hockey rinks in place that are not being used right now? Ruegemer: No. There are not any more hockey rinks that are available. 6 Park and Rec Commission - September 25, 2007 Daniel: Okay, because the only one, and again because I realize it's not technically, what about Cathcart? Would that be, does Shorewood flood that? Ruegemer: Yep. Daniel: Okay. Is that something that we're able to list then or should we list? Or is available to pseudo sort of? Ruegemer: We haven't in the past but. Hoffman: List it in our brochure and just make sure it's noted that it's owned and operated by Shorewood. Daniel: That might be a good idea. Stolar: Anything else? Okay. There's a request here for us to make a recommendation or vote on the recommendation. Do I have a motion to approve staff's recommendation listing the attached rinks as being the schedule for 2007/2008 with Jeff's comment that we would publicize the availability of Cathcart Park. Scharfenberg: I move to adopt staff's recommendation for the 2007/2008 ice rink locations. Campion: Second. Stolar: Okay. Moved by Commissioner Scharfenberg. Seconded by Commissioner Campion. Any other discussion? Scharfenberg moved, Campion seconded that the Park and Recreation Commission recommends that the City Council approve the following ice skating rink locations for the 2007/2008 season: Chanhassen Rec. Center - Warming House North Lotus Park - Warming House 1 - Family Rink 1 - Family Rink 2 - Hockey Rink 1 - Hockey Rink City Center Park - Warming House Roundhouse Park - Warming House 1 - Family Rink 1 - Family Rink 1 - Hockey Rink Chanhassen Hills Park 1 - Family Rink All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0. Stolar: Let's hope for good weather. 7 Park and Rec Commission - September 25, 2007 CONFIRM RECOMMENDATION CONCERNING FIVE YEAR AND TEN YEAR PARK AND TRAIL ACQUISITION AND DEVELOPMENT CIP. Hoffman: Thank you Chair Stolar, members of the commission. First of all I want to again compliment you on your work session effort at the last, when we got together and went through these items. I thought it was very well put together and an effective way to come up with a, not only a 5 year but a 10 year CIP. This evening what staff is requesting is that you confirm your recommendations through 2008-2012 which is $4,000,020 worth of investments. And then the last half or the second half of the 10 year, 2013 through 2017 is $1,665,000. So with those two numbers in mind, it's easy to see that we're front loading many of these improvements in our CIP. These large trail improvement projects, park projects, many of the expenditures for larger items in the 10 years come in the first half of that time period. So I'm asking you to confirm those and then in addition I'm asking you to make a reconsideration of your decision from last month and that concerns the Highway 101 north trail gap. It's a 1,400 foot section, or quarter mile section of proposed trail that would connect Chanhassen's trail system to both the Minnetonka and Eden Prairie trail system, located in the immediately northeast corner of our city and at a, if built, we think the pedestrians, the safety of pedestrians and recreational bicyclists utilizing that corridor would greatly be improved. Because we know today there are people that are taking the corridor to the north or coming from the south and then they have to navigate that gap that is in there. For those of you who have taken a look at this corridor, you can see there's a curb cut already in place to the north at the intersection of the three cities, ready to be connected and then we have a trail which stops at Pleasant View currently and 101. So it's staff's recommendation that you consider amending the Park and Rec trail acquisition and development CIP by adding this section, a project in year 2009 and that would take, with the other two gap projects, Bluff Creek and Pioneer Trail and included at an estimated cost of $114,000 for that trail section. Daniel: That's a good idea Todd and then part of it had to do with what I've noticed driving home every day through that corridor and it stuck out to me, it actually came to my attention a couple weeks ago where I noticed a woman walking down really through the ditch. Then I noticed another person, the next day and the next day and literally every day I've seen somebody walk through there and over the dead deer carcasses lying on the side of the road right now as well. So I guess it is a corridor that would be used, again based off of just an observation recently here. And again it's a short period of time but I'm sure it's more of the norm so, I think it's something we certainly should give some consideration to. Hoffman: Very near and dear to your heart. Campion: Yeah, I have no specific comments. It's just directly in my back yard but. Stolar: Are you going to recuse yourself? Campion: I will recuse myself from commenting. Stolar: Steve, any? About any, and if you guys have comments on the general layout. Any questions. We can circle back around. Paula. 8 Park and Rec Commission - September 25, 2007 Atkins: No. Stolar: Tom. Kelly: Why is it so expensive? That's just a small area. Why is it so expensive? It looks pretty flat. Are there easements you have to? Hoffman: No, I don't believe so. It's actually in line with all of the other trail projects we've got going on in town. If you, we use a per foot estimate and it's kind of once it's engineered and bid out, it may come in underneath that but. Kelly: Okay. And there's no way, this isn't our property, there's no way you can get Minnetonka and/or Eden Prairie to help with the cost because it's going to benefit them as much as it's going to benefit Chan. Hoffman: No. Kelly: It doesn't quite work that way. Hoffman: No. What they would say, we built it to your border. Kelly: Yeah, okay. Do we need to move stuff around then? If we were to recommend, do we need to mess around with some of the other things that? Hoffman: No. I'm just recommending you add it to 2009 as an additional $114,000. Kelly: Okay. Hoffman: And that, you know that number may come down. It may actually go up. It is relatively flat but there might be some retaining walls in certain sections of it. Depending on how it's designed. If you think about the remainder of the 101 trail, that was just near $1 million. $1.2. Kelly: I thought it was $1.3. Okay, yeah. It was a lot. It just seemed to be such a small, relatively flat piece of land compared to what the other 101 trail and there was a lot of ditches there. I was just curious why it seemed to be so much. That was all I had. Stolar: Did you want to talk about the rec stuff? Kelly: Oh yeah, I was curious too on, I don't remember talking about the recreation. Going back to the CIP layout. I do not remember talking about the rec center fitness equipment or the lobby furniture. Did we bring that up at our work session or not? Hoffman: No, we added that as an administrative additions and those are not coming out of 410. They're coming out of capital. 9 Park and Rec Commission - September 25, 2007 Kelly: Okay. Hoffman: So I spoke with City Manager Gerhardt and working with Tom Knowles and then our Finance Director Greg Sticha and the lobby equipment is in need for replacement. It's 12 years old and we have a bid in for just under $18,000 plus taxes so just under $20,000 for the lobby equipment. And then the fitness equipment, we need to add new equipment. We're proposing $10,000 for the next 5 years for a total package of $50,000 to replace the original equipment that's in the recreation center since it opened. Stolar: I remember we talked about that that might be something we wanted to do but we didn't have a specific number. I can't remember when we discussed that we wanted to maybe, we wanted to look at replacing equipment. Hoffman: Yeah. And our recommendation again is $50,000. $10,000 a year. Scharfenberg: I haven't been out to the rec center for a while and so excuse me for…but do we have a TV out there or flat screen that lists what's going on in all the rooms for every day out there? Would that be something that would be, I mean the only reason I was just thinking about that. At the community, Chaska Community Center they've got a nice one. Displays all the things that are going on that day, you know by hour. That would be a nice perk if we could get. I was thinking about the furniture. If we're going to update that. You know that would be a nice addition if we could do something like that. Hoffman: We have a TV in the lobby and 2 TV's in the fitness room so. Scharfenberg: Right. But I'm talking about something on a wall right as you come in and, you know Conference Room A. You know just lists everything. What's in the gymnasiums. You know it'd be nice to have something like that if we could do that in the next year or 2 years. Hoffman: I agree with that. We could also do a lot of nice advertising on it. Stolar: Put down Halloween. Daniel: Other community notices. Stolar: Yeah, absolutely. Daniel: News as well. Stolar: Senior center items. Anything like that. Daniel: Fantastic idea. Would we want to put that in the CIP? Hoffman: We'll work with our folks in our information services department see if we can't get that. Might be able to work through our cable folks. 10 Park and Rec Commission - September 25, 2007 Stolar: But I mean for the equipment itself. Hoffman: Yeah, they could buy it as well. Stolar: But yeah you're right, if you're going to upgrade the lobby there, you might as well do it right. I had a couple questions on the monument we had talked about. For out here. Like the sign. Was that? Hoffman: It won't come out of our budget. Stolar: Okay, because we didn't know at that time. We said we'd like to make sure it's there but the city has agreed, okay. And that's going forward? Hoffman: Well it's being discussed. Gregory: We'll get you the Halla sign. Stolar: On the trail, we had talked about putting the Bluff Creek and Pioneer Boulevard together because there some value potentially in doing those as one. Does the 101 north fit into that? Like do we bid them out together? Hoffman: You bid them all as one project, all 3. Stolar: Okay. So that's where we potentially could get some savings because we'll get a bigger contract. Hoffman: Yeah. Stolar: That would be in 2009. That will be our biggest single year, right? Hoffman: Correct. Stolar: Of expenditures. Hoffman: Yep. Stolar: But there's value in getting it all done. And there's no drain on city staff for having so many big trail projects because we'll bid it out. Okay. Hoffman: No. Actually in the long run there's a benefit because doing 2, 3 trail projects is no different than doing 2 at once. Stolar: Now did we talk about the Lyman Boulevard trail improvements? Do we know that those are going to be both in those years? What was the one that we said we weren't sure what year it would come in? 11 Park and Rec Commission - September 25, 2007 Hoffman: Well yeah, the Lyman. That may be paid out in 2009-2010. Stolar: Okay. That's what I was, okay. Hoffman: And the allocation, the half, the million dollars may fluctuate. They're getting close to the Phase I construction… But it's moving forward. That's the positive thing. Stolar: Good. Hoffman: Everybody's finding out that roads are a lot more expensive today than when they…or 15 years ago. Kelly: Can I ask one more question? Is the Arboretum path still on schedule for this year? Hoffman: It's on schedule for this year. It won't be done until next year. And there's some timing issues with the construction, plans. Bridge specifications. So in fact I just talked to the engineer today. I don't want them to move off the site and then have to remobilize and so, because as they're grading the building pad and once they get to a certain point they have to move off the building pad and get into the trail and start doing that work. They get too far along, then you have to cleaned up site next spring. You can't build a trail out of the back of this new building location so there'll be construction probably through June or July of next year. It's a fairly extensive project. Kelly: Okay. Hoffman: You'll see lots of ribbons because we're getting lots of phone calls and people stopping by the office. They walk down a dead end trail and now there's lots of pretty ribbons here where we…have a lot of people walk into the office. Stolar: And then, I don't know if you have the 2013, halfway in. 13 through 17. It's split into. It's at the end of 2017. What was our projected balance then? Hoffman: Projected balance? Stolar: Yeah. Hoffman: I have that computation here. Stolar: But we still would have some left over for some, we still have the reserve for when, if something comes, an opportunity comes up. We have $400,000 slated here. Hoffman: Yeah. I'm going to check the balance. It's still right around a million dollars. Stolar: Okay, that's right. 12 Park and Rec Commission - September 25, 2007 Hoffman: $3 million, excuse me. Stolar: Okay, great. Any other? Daniel: I actually had one more question and it's maybe not related to this but, where are we at with the Veterans Memorial? Hoffman: Out here? Daniel: Yep. Hoffman: Veterans Memorial is coordinated by the American Legion. The City cannot spend dollars or invest dollars for war memorials, war monuments by state legislation so we met with the Legion. They agreed to take that initiative over. They started a fund raising campaign. It's gone fairly slowly but they do have some cash. Daniel: Okay. I was just curious if there's any progress on that at all. Hoffman: Mark Undestad and his development company donated $10,000. Daniel: Fantastic. Hoffman: Yeah, it's something to talk up when you're around the community. Talk to… Stolar: Okay so Todd in this list of 20, 2008-2012 you'll get approved, you'll add the 101 in here? Hoffman: Correct. The list as you've recommended doesn't change unless you make any corrections and the addition would only be added if you make that addition. Stolar: Okay. Which is what you recommended in this motion. Hoffman: Correct. Stolar: Alright. Any other questions? If not, can I have a motion of staff's recommendation that we take our CIP that we worked through in our work session in our last meeting and add to it in 2009 the Highway 101 north trail gap project. Do we have a motion? Daniel: Motion to approve. Stolar: Moved and seconded by a combination of commissioners Daniel and Kelly. Any further questions? Daniel moved, Kelly seconded that the Park and Recreation Commission amend the Park and Trail Acquisition and Development CIP recommendation by adding the Highway 101 13 Park and Rec Commission - September 25, 2007 North Trail Gap project in the year 2009 at an estimated cost of $114,000. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0. Stolar: Okay. And so that goes before the City Council when? Hoffman: You know I think it will be December. Stolar: Great. Okay, well when it does if you need us, more attendance to just answer questions. RECREATION PROGRAM REPORTS: 2007 DAVE HUFFMAN 5K RACE. th Ruegemer: Thank you. We just completed our 8 Annual Dave Huffman Race on Saturday, th September 8. An absolutely beautiful morning we had for the event thanks to everybody who was involved in that with the commission and we did have probably about 320 people registered. We had about 290 some registered and about 30 people who didn't have race bibs. We're not sure exactly how that happened but it looked like the number was more around 320 than other numbers that were reported earlier with that so. Up a little bit with that. I think people are getting used to the hills of the course certainly with that and it builds character I think. That little challenge so. Good thing we had great help from not only our department but certainly the public works department, Carver County to provide really a safe running course for our participants so we always work together ahead of time and really came up with some new ideas to increase the flow of traffic and minimize the impact on our business community for our downtown area so it always is our goal to have less impact on normal every day Saturday activities. Going to the bank. Going to get a cup of coffee, that sort of thing so I think we had probably downtown closed less than a half an hour so that certainly was our goal. That's really one of the reasons why we run the course a certain way, to get people through town and get it opened up right away again so. Had help again from the Chanhassen Boy Scouts with that. They certainly provide some very nice numbers of volunteers with that. One of the things that really, really helped us out this year was Ridgeview Medical Center donated $2,400 to pay for the entire shirt cost with that and we were more than happy to give them the front and center logo on the back of the shirt with the Ridgeview Medical Center logo so that's very much appreciated. That really helped us out tremendously to number one, allocate more money to needy charities within our Chanhassen area and also put a little money back in the back to kind of sustain us for future years. So it really helped us out tremendously. You can kind of see the allocation amounts down in the memo itself. We gave $1,000 to the Chanhassen Area Chamber of Commerce for student scholarship which is really a good deal. They did 6 scholarships total last year. They're hoping for 8 this year. Or I guess in 2008. And certainly the Dave Huffman Scholarship Fund is up to $1,000 in Dave's for that so we presented a check the day of the event so we had a chamber representative there to accept the check. We were very happy and very proud of that. And we also gave, we kind of changed a little bit around a little bit this year. We upped kind of our amounts and gave $450 to the Boy Scouts again this year and then we also changed it around and gave some money to the Feed My Starving Children to help out poverty stricken families and that sort of thing with that so we're kind of looking for maybe some new directions on where to go to kind of allocate the money. We took a break from the Arboretum 14 Park and Rec Commission - September 25, 2007 this year to reallocate some money to different areas so. We're always looking for new directions to go. We try to change things up a little bit and kind of spread the money around a little bit with that so. Looking at some different things next year with that, certainly always looking for new ideas from the commission and also participants so that the people that we're involved with, looking possibly to change the time here around a little bit so it's a little bit more instant results with a micro chip versus kind of the traditional way that we've done it. The traditional way that we've done it is a very inexpensive way to do it. It's only about $300-350 for the whole process for us and we're kind of in the process of investigating, is it worth stepping up but it's a pretty slick way of doing the chip racing with that and you crosses the finish line and your time is recorded. We can really turn that around so it's, versus 2 or 3, 4 days after the event and you're still waiting for your time to be posted. It can happen really the day of or the day after so we're going to investigate that. We're also looking to possibly adding a health fair component of some sort to kind of build upon the success of the event and to add kind of new, different things to educate people on health and wellness and, but yet still kind of keep it kind of a family, fun community event so. Just looking ahead to next year. That's kind of what we're looking at. Back in your packet, some of the overall race results and then from our kind of our race results and then also the race breakdown results. Stolar: Okay, thank you. Questions. Paula? Atkins: No questions. I liked the Vikings guy in the costume. That was pretty cool. Stolar: Steve. Scharfenberg: No questions. Stolar: Dan? Tom? Another great event. Thank you. 2007 HALLOWEEN PARTY PREVIEW. Stutzman: Thank you Mr. Chairman. The annual city, or the annual Chanhassen Halloween th party will be held this October 27 out at the Rec Center from 5:30 to 7:30 once again this year. This will be my first Halloween Party but my predecessor's put together good files so I'm hoping to build on it and carry on what they've done as well. The entertainment will be slightly different this year. I've gone back to a Touch of Magic who we've used in past years and they've recommended a show that's a unique performer. Kind of a clown, but rides unicycles and juggles and does a little bit of magic and it sounds like a very, very entertaining show. Very family oriented and one of the key components I've been looking for is audience participation and from the, from what they have said, he does a great job. They also gave me his web site link and I looked at his and a couple other entertainer's web sites and this is the one that I think is going to be the best entertainer for that evening. He's going to put on about a half hour, 40 minute show starting at 6:30. And then we will also do a trick or treating again. The hay rides will be back. The Halloween games. I'm looking to potentially add one more game in the gym so it keeps the lines down just a little bit more. As always the volunteers are a huge piece of this. I've already contacted the Chaska Key Club and they are working on seeing if they can help us out again. They actually have a new coordinator or staff representative so they're trying to get 15 Park and Rec Commission - September 25, 2007 settled in as well and so we've been playing a little bit of phone tag but she has expressed interest in helping us out again. Just needs to run it by the Club as well and actually the community is th already reaching out. I had a call today from a mother wondering if her 7 grade daughter and their friends could come out and help us out and so the volunteers kind of, have been coming to us as well so that's a very good piece and actually with volunteers I know some of you guys have been out there in the past. Just so I can get a general idea, would any of you be interested in joining us out there to help out again this year? I will look into that a little more further in depth, but just kind of a general head's up. Stolar: If you can just send us an email. Stutzman: Okay. And we are looking to get about 400-500 attendees between parents and kids again. Parents get in for free but the children are $4 a head and we're already getting registrations for that as well. So looking forward to that. Stolar: Comments? Atkins: What's the charge? Stutzman: The charge is $4 per kids. The adults get in free. Atkins: Is there pre-registering? Stutzman: Yep they are, they do pre-register and from the ones I've already taken, they seem to like that idea better. They like being able to show up the night of but the ones I've talked to say you know, it's so much easier. If I pre-register then I know I'm ready to go and I don't have to worry about waiting in line. I can just get checked in so we will, I am accepting pre-registrations and they're starting to come in already. Stolar: And then just comment I've made before about other things. Just so, I know we have to make some purchases here and we have some companies locally that give us a lot of support for our events and those should be comfortably, try and precipitate. Any other points? Alright, thanks and looking forward to a fun evening. RECREATION CENTER REPORT. Knowles: Well thank you Mr. Chairman. With the coming of fall the recreation center reverts to it's full and extended hours of operation. As you know during the summer we reduce our hours and actually close up for a 2 week period leading into Labor Day but we are geared up and running at full schedule now. We'll be running that schedule through Memorial Day of next year. I've listed those hours for you in my report. The staffing at the rec center needs to reflect our extended hours. We've bulked up our staffing somewhat. The big development there is we've added Holly Kaufhold to our staff. Holly was an intern with the Park and Rec department this summer and she's been just terrific out at the rec center. Her knowledge of the department procedures are, the software that we use for registrations and everything is very extensive so she's been a very welcomed addition. Our programming, the fall program season has begun. 16 Park and Rec Commission - September 25, 2007 Our biggest programs are in the preschool sports which this season is fall soccer. Outdoor soccer and the Dance for Fun program. Our registrations are pretty much consistent with past years. Nicole, our dance coordinator has indicated that actually she's enrolled about 225 students this fall. Normally she likes to target about 200 so we're up a little bit there so that's good. We've had a little bit of a spike in our yoga class for some reason but it's very welcomed. We normally run about mid to upper teens in our yoga class and we're up to about 26 students this fall session so good to see some more people on board. John has already talked about the Halloween Party. Our first special event comes up already this Friday at the Rec Center, the Barnyard Boogie. It's sort of a fall program for preschool crowd. But it's been a very successful program. We jointly sponsor that event with the City of Chaska. We normally anticipate having about 300-400 participants in that so it's a big event for us out there but we should be ready to go. We've got everything lined up. Hopefully we'll have some nice weather so the petting zoo can be outside. Hopefully we won't have to bring the animals indoors but we have in the past. It's better if we don't so we're hoping for some nice weather. Facility notes. As mentioned we closed up for a couple weeks before Labor Day. We did some cleaning. We did some re-surfacing of the floors. The place looks pretty nice right now. We talked about some of the capital improvements with the furniture improvements in the lobby would really, really present a nice image I think if we did something like that so hopefully that will go through. Reservations for meetings and parties. I've noted a lot of activity so far this fall. Checking our scheduling calendar, I've already had to tell several people that sorry, the date that you're requesting and the time is already booked so it's good to see that we have some interest in our meeting rooms and party packages that we're bringing on. Finally the last section in my report is the strategic plan of 2007. Just like to highlight a couple things there. One is that party package concept. We rolled that out in the fall Connection. Basically what we're providing is a free hour of party room rental with 1 hour of gym time. We're also emphasizing a little bit better what exactly we can offer in the gym. It's fine to say you can rent the gym but it's also probably a good idea to sort of emphasize what we can offer so in that party package we've emphasized basketball, volleyball, dodge ball and the other sort of activities we can provide for the people. I've booked several of the party packages already. We've had a lot of questions coming in about it so I'm very hopeful that it's going to help drum up some more business out there at the recreation center. The other area I'd like to sort of highlight is number 5, the corporate sales program. Again I've been working with Holly on this. She had spent some time this summer as part of her internship working with updating the sponsorship list that the city has with several of the companies around town. What we're leaning toward doing in a corporate sales program is to approach some of these companies that have been active sponsors in our programs and offer them the opportunity to provide discounts for their employees for punch card purchases. We're looking at about a 25% discount for their employees and again with the idea of hopefully stirring up some more traffic through the building out there. That's about it. So far so good in the fall. We're happy. We're pleased with what we're seeing so far so looking forward to a good season. Stolar: Questions for Tom? Atkins: For the party packages, have you ever thought about offering a facilitator for parents included with the gym? You have somebody that would organize the games. Anybody on staff that you have that could do that or. 17 Park and Rec Commission - September 25, 2007 Knowles: We have several people that could do that sort of thing. We have not brought that idea forward. That's a good idea. We do have people on staff that could do that. Atkins: That would be very valuable I think. Knowles: Good idea. We'll certainly explore that. Daniel: Tom, any consideration or has there been any thought on looking at some of these inflatable jumping, you know that A to Z Rentals sells them. Is that something that the City could possibly purchase and rent out during these parties? You know the Moon Walk type of thing. Knowles: Right. Daniel: It takes a relatively small space to store it but. Knowles: Right, right. That's part of the problem. I think a lot of that stuff, those sort of things sort of lend themselves better I think to outdoor activities. More space to set them up and tear them down. Getting them in and out of the building might present some problems but. Hoffman: One of the goals we talked about with all the initiatives we wanted to make sure we were using things that we currently had because one of our challenges at the recreation center is to generate more revenue but without having to spend additional dollars so we have gyms. We have these other activities that are available if that's what you're interested in. If we have to spend $7,000 for a jumping castle, it's going to take 6 years to make that back so. Daniel: I didn't add one how much they cost but. Hoffman: Yeah, it'd be expensive. Daniel: The only reason I bring it up is, the school that my son goes to, they rent out their gym for birthday parties and just everybody's birthday party now at their school is at that gym and it's been a huge revenue generator for them. But parents will go to A to Z to go rent out just about every time, or whatever rental place has these things and bring them in. Set them up themselves because it's something that can be done by the parents. It's a fantastic way to put the mess somewhere else besides their own house but it's been, I think as far as promotional for birthday packages, especially with kids and some of the amenities that are already there, that Todd you had mentioned, minus whatever it may be, I think it's a fantastic idea. Especially for the party side and especially for folks I think on children's birthday parties. It's just about every weekend now the gym is now booked. Over at their school, and that's just their small, little school. Ruegemer: You just put it right down on the gym floor? Daniel: Yeah. 18 Park and Rec Commission - September 25, 2007 Stolar: I've seen that other places where they just pop in, which nothing would prevent people from doing the same thing at the rec center. Daniel: Bring it themselves, no it doesn't do anything… Knowles: We're getting on a suggestion once, it's kind of funny actually, somebody wanted to put a dunk tank in our gym. th Stolar: Water. Although having one out at City Center Park for the 4 of July would be fun. Get the mayor to sit in it. Raise money. I've done it many times. For charity. We have done it many times but it'd be fun, it'd be a good way for somebody to raise money. Hoffman: I watched Don Chmiel go down many times. Stolar: Just one quick question Tom. It was brought to my attention that someone was concerned that we don't have enough opportunities for the 11 to 15 year olds. That there's, you know we have the skate park which is there but at the rec center specifically it was mentioned, you know we're trying to look for programming opportunities for the 11 to 15 year olds in the rec center. And you know I see here we have some things but not really a lot compared to that so, so I don't know if we at some point want to brainstorm on that but that's an area that is of concern to them. Knowles: I think that's traditionally been a challenging age for anybody that engages in recreation program. Stolar: Or parenting. Knowles: Yeah. It's a tough area. It's a tough age group to reach. Stolar: But if there's ideas on, and I've actually, I forgot to, I was going to actually ask this person to come in one time to the commission and bring some ideas but I'll contact her and suggest that she send some ideas. Ruegemer: Chair Stolar just to kind of let you know too, we have kind of a proposal coming from the Dinner Theater. They want to partner with the City on doing a, kind of a karaoke night out at the rec center on Friday nights so that letter is, will be coming into our office here probably in the next week or two. Stolar: Great. And that targets that kind of age group? Well open to more but. Ruegemer: For next spring. Stolar: Excellent. Tom, you were going to ask a question? 19 Park and Rec Commission - September 25, 2007 Kelly: I was just wondering, Jeff was talking about…you were asking the rec center to coordinate with so if it costs $100 to rent a jumping thing from A to Z maybe on the rec center charges $125 and they do all the coordination and they'd get a little fee themselves. Daniel: Yep. Part of, it'd be part of the package. I agree as far as going out and actually purchasing it. I have no idea what they cost but as far as working with parents and working with. Kelly: Have a relationship with A and Z and then have a little service to stay on top of that then. Daniel: Yep. Knowles: Sure check the prices out. See what we can do. Stolar: Just to spend a little time, you know we all sat around and had that strategic planning session and it's good to see that things are, you're following up on them and that things are actually occurring and going well so thank you. Knowles: There's some good and some bad. Most of the things are going well. The personal training is…it's not happening but there's progress in just about every other area so yeah. Campion: How do the rates for the personal training compared with? Knowles: Well our rates are very, very competitive. I just think that the type of person that's interested in personal training is probably also the type of person that's more likely to join a health club and we're just not attracting that sort of client to the rec center. Stolar: Have you talked to Susan about maybe targeting the senior center population and having specialized training in that regard? My sister was just in her health club now has special classes just for senior population which she's getting towards. Knowles: We have discussed ways of getting more seniors out to the rec center. There seems to be a little resistance. Little territorial kind of issues that you know, the senior center's here. The rec center's here and never the twain shall meet kind of thing. We're trying to work with that and trying to get over that a little bit and. Hoffman: It's a long ways out. That rec center. Stolar: Well I mean just offering, you know seeing if there is a personal trainer who specializes in that type of fitness and working for promoting it through the senior center. Kelly: I was talking to my mother who is a senior citizen herself. A big gap in Lifetime is the lack of senior citizen classes and there have been numerous, numerous suggestions at Lifetime that they should have more of those so that could be a way in for the city center, for the rec center. One more thing, I just want to say I thought Paula's idea about having someone there to coordinate the parties would be great because I think as a parent I would pay up to $25.00 to let someone run my kid's birthday party so I don't have to deal with a dozen kids. I think there's 20 Park and Rec Commission - September 25, 2007 definite value there in having that. And an extra fee would be appropriate for that but I think you'd get a lot of parents saying, all I have to do is sit around for 2 hours and with the pizza you've got here, this is great so I think that would be a nice, nice addition. But thanks for doing the party. That was a big thing we had talked about when we had our meeting and thanks for doing that and it's great to see that you're getting so much positive feedback about that. Knowles: Thank you. Stolar: Okay, thanks. SENIOR CENTER UPDATE. Bill: Thank you. As indicated in my report, all the summer programs went really well. We have monthly lunches, day trips and other events. Probably our two biggest events were Ladies Tea Luncheon. It's our third one. We have a lunch and a fashion show and every year I look to get a local business to help co-sponsor that event and this year it was Hair for Guys and Dolls and we had a turn of the century style show with vintage clothing and I think I had about 70 people and the women really seem to enjoy it. Men are always invited but so far haven't had too many of them show up for that. Then the other big trip is the Minnesota Orchestra puts on a series of 4 concerts at Nicollet Island and this year we took 2 buses. Had 70 people. Probably would have taken 2 more but the problem is we go to concerts and Nicollet Island, the Pavilion holds about 750 people but to rind a restaurant big enough to accommodate that many people is a problem but it's always been one of the favorite trips we have each summer so I will continue that again next year. Also we've got, I've been working on developing a relationship with the Friends of the Library and last…participants from the senior center are involved in selling baked goods and this year we made home made dog treats which were a big hit. So it was really fun. Another thing I want to highlight is wood carving. We're now the, the carvers are now also carving Friday mornings. They started off on Wednesday and now carving on Friday mornings. The group continues to grow and their work is phenomenal. If you get a minute, I don't know if you've ever gone by the display case right outside the senior center. They've carved wood blocks for the City of Carver. Carver is building a new city hall and they've asked our wood carvers to carve blocks of different historical buildings and sites in Carver that will be displayed in their city hall, kind of like the quilt that's hanging over the library in the fireside room. Pretty phenomenal work and they do a great job so their numbers are growing and they're really active. They're also going to be doing a wood carving demonstration at the library. They were asked a couple weeks ago to do a demonstration and teaching out at Lowry Park or. Hoffman: Lowry Nature Center. Bill: Lowry Nature Center. A couple weeks ago on a Sunday and had a great turn out so, stop by and look at their carvings or stop by on a Wednesday or Friday morning, they'd love to teach other people how to carve. I am exploring a carving class for children. They've had I think over the summer they had 2 or 3 younger children come in and there's a family that home schools their children and the mother, probably 2 Wednesdays a month will bring the children and one of the wood carvers has kind of adopted them and taught them how to carve so that's really unique. 21 Park and Rec Commission - September 25, 2007 They're just all so busy I can't pin down a time but we can get a class on a Saturday that we can teach. Stolar: Do you know anybody else that'd consider like MEA weekend where there's you know, kids won't be in school. It's coming up too quick to do anything but Friday morning. Bill: Or over a holiday or a longer break. Good idea, thank you. Last year I started Life Long Learning classes so in 2007 I've been trying to focus on educational programs to try to engage and draw different people into the senior center. I had I think 4 of the Life Long Learning presentations this year. One of them had to be cancelled. One on baseball. It was an evening one and it just didn't go, but the other classes have really, really been well attended. I've got one rd October 3. It's called population Holocaust and it's on the different demographic populations in Europe and other countries and what it will mean in the future to future generations. So that will be really interesting. I've also drawn some local people in. There's a gentleman who lives in Deephaven who's written 5 books on the history of Lake Minnetonka. I've had him come in twice to talk. I've had someone from, I can't remember his name right now, Antique Traveling Road Show that came in appraised and talked about antiques and some books he had written and he lives in Excelsior so trying to draw some local people in as well as part of the education for them. Klein Bank has, they're going to sponsor a Life Long Learning program again for 2008. They've really enjoyed that. I think on two occasions Marcus Doppler has come over who's the manager of the bank here in Chan for two of the presentations and he's sent at least 2 other people to all the other presentations so there's been some real good interaction with the participants and the bank personnel and they're really enjoying this so they're on board for next year. One other thing we just did last Friday the Senior Commission had an open house and Sharmeen and I, as well as the senior commission talked about incorporating a senior safety day into their open houses, the third open house. We had a great turnout. Ed Coppersmith did a presentation all morning after the commission open house on emergency preparedness. Then we, I've been trying to promote the congregate dining which is, they've got people probably 2 days a week that eat there. It's not a real regularly attended program so we have 25 people eat for congregate dining and then the identity and theft specialists for Klein Corp came and did a presentation on identity theft, frauds and scams in the afternoon so that was greatly attended and people really, really learned a lot. Lastly I heard you talking about the veterans memorial. I'm th going to on November 9 have a Veteran's Day celebration. I've talked with Gary Boyle from the American Legion and the Legion is going to be donating some money for a breakfast so we will be honoring our veterans, both of previous wars and thanking veterans that are serving today with a presentation. Hopefully we'll have a presentation of colors. I have the Veteran's Service Administrative for Carver County coming over to talk on what veteran's services are available in Carver County as well as, forget his name. I think it was, well it's Mr. McDonald. Well anyway he's the mayor of Watertown. He was a representative for 9 years in the I think late 80's but he was one of the 120 people from Carver County that went to Washington D.C. in April when they dedicated the World War II veteran's memorial and he put together a CD that he's been working on for 4 months so we're going to show part of that CD that morning at the presentation, as well as a lady from, who lives in Centennial Hill is a female who was involved, a female veteran so she's also going to come and talk about a female role in the military so it should be a good morning and it's something that I've been wanting to do for years and it will be a nice way to thank the veterans and put in a plug for the veterans memorial. 22 Park and Rec Commission - September 25, 2007 Hoffman: It's highlighted in the newsletter on the front page on the right. It's a great program. T.J. McDonald. Stolar: Thank you. Any questions for Susan? Atkins: Your newsletter is great. Bill: Thank you. Atkins: Is the open swim very well attended? Bill: We have regular people. I'd say probably 25 people a month by punch card attendance. That buy punch cards and they can use the pool any time they want but it's recommended they use it in the day when hotel guests aren't using it. People love it. The water's warm. There's a changing room. There's a whirlpool so a lot of people with arthritis or some other joint problems do use the pool. Stolar: Thanks Susan. PARK AND TRAIL MAINTENANCE REPORT. Gregory: Thank you. Well like Jerry said, another busy summer has come and gone. Along with that goes our seasonal help. Right now we're down to about 5 seniors, retired individuals and that that are working for us. And actually I've been giving some real thought to next year seeing if I can't come up with more retired individuals that can work for us instead of the high school aged kids and that. We can get 6 months out of the retired people which helps us in the spring and the fall. Gives us a lot more benefit out of it than what the high school kids do so I'd like to see if I could at least come up with 1 or 2 more that would work on our staff for next th summer. Also August 11 we had a storm come through and I'm sure most of you remember that. The park did get hit with a lot of tree damage. Most of our parks and trails, well anywhere where we had trees, woods and that really got it. Lake Ann, the trail between Greenwood Shores and Lake Ann got some trees down. Longacres was hit the worst. That was pretty much impassable through there for a while. Our staff, park staff worked for 2 1/2 weeks and that and all we did was remove trees from trails so it was quite a bit of damage there. We've also this summer, we worked on the archery range. We completely rebuilt all the archery targets. Put new targets up and a new, we cemented out an area for the people to stand on and everything else and we actually get a lot of people down at the archery range. We've gotten real good comments on it. They like it. The targets are a lot nicer for them. It's easier getting their arrows out and that so they've been really pleased with that. Also in the month of August we seem to have a little bit of a incident with fires. Up at Lake Susan we had two of them burn one night. Handicap and a regular and then a few nights later and that Power Hill got hit. That one got burned. And it wasn't too long after that, out at the rec center, somebody went and tried to burn one of the baby changing tables so I'm not sure what was going on but it just pretty much seemed to be that month of August that we had troubles out there. 23 Park and Rec Commission - September 25, 2007 Hoffman: Those were investigated as arson by the Carver County Sheriff's department so arson signs were placed. Arson hot lines signs were placed in the park locations. Gregory: Also thanks to Jerry's scheduling and that, for soccer and that, he was able to give us one of our fields down, number 1 down at Bandimere Park that we could take and redo so we over seeded. We took out all of our, the holes and everything we possibly could and reseeded that one and that should be in pretty good shape for next spring then. Also today out at Lake Ann we started trenching for the lights to be installed out there and also they came out and they started surveying for the building that's going to be installed out there so those two projects are basically starting on the same day and hopefully they'll keep moving along. And one other thing that we just, we're going to get going now on is we're going to be adding another ballfield out at rec center and we've just measured everything out and we're in the process, we'll be, probably be getting next week taking that out and putting an infield in and chain link fence for back stops and boards. It will look just like all the other ones out there so it will get one additional ballfield in. So that's it. Stolar: Thank you Dale. Any questions? Kelly: I was curious now since you're no longer allowing snowmobiling on the south LRT trail, do you have plans to follow that in the winter from Pioneer south towards 101? Gregory: I don't, Todd we talked about that and there was no plans on doing that. Hoffman: Presently we've applied for walking, cross country skiing, any use but we're not planning on plowing it. Just going to let it remain natural. Let the snow fall on it. See how the people begin to utilize it. Are they going to ski it? Are they going to walk it? Just how are they going to use the trail and until such time that we, we'll just get there, if there's not a lot of people using it and we think people would use it if we plowed it, then we would go ahead and start to look at it. It's a fairly extensive section of trail and we have, we're adding miles and adding miles and adding miles of trail and so if we don't have to take it on right away and we just want to hold off and wait and see how people respond to it in an unkept condition. Kelly: Because people seem to use the Pioneer Trail north. That seems to get used. I now Eden Prairie does plow and they seem to stop at Pioneer Trail. Hoffman: Yeah, Eden Prairie south of Pioneer because that's the Chanhassen border. Kelly: Well yeah. Yeah, yeah. Hoffman: Then we would have to go from there and really there's no outlet until you hit 101. There's no place to go there. So then you've got to keep running until you get to, so it's a very long stretch without any connections. Street connections. Trail connections and so before we invest all that time and money and effort to get down there, we just want to wait and see how people respond to it. There still are some snowmobiles using that. That will happen either way, if we plow it or not because they're there, right off the, just after the heavy snowfall so. 24 Park and Rec Commission - September 25, 2007 Gregory: We did just finish today improving that section of trail. We went, we sprayed all the weeds and everything along the trail and we went down there, tilled up the soil and everything else and re-graded it. Kelly: Oh right by, right where. Hoffman: From Bluff Creek west. Kelly: Okay. Gregory: So we just graded it and I mean made, smoothed it out and made a nice, a lot nicer trail out of it now. Hoffman: The problem spot at Pioneer, both the City of Eden Prairie and Three Rivers are very well aware of it and. Kelly: It's been okay now but I think because there hasn't been that much. Hoffman: Probably wet now though. Kelly: …another question too. Do you think, this is kind of off the wall. Do you think we need a garbage can by field 1 at Bandimere? By the soccer field. There seems to be, I see a lot of garbage around the edge of that field, pretty much from spectators for soccer games. I don't know where the nearest garbage can is in Bandimere. I don't know if there was a need to put a garbage can right off of the trail. Hoffman: On the 101 side? Kelly: No, on the west side. Gregory: On the parking lot side. Kelly: Yeah. Or potentially on, I think where most the spectators probably stand on the parking lot side. I just don't know where, because I know that tends to get a little bit trashed after soccer games. Hoffman: We can add one. Kelly: I didn't know what, if you guys have seen the same thing or not. Hoffman: We'd rather pick it up out of a trash liner than off the ground. Kelly: And the other question I had, sorry I'm monopolizing the time. You seem to have reseeded Bandimere a lot. Is that just because it's a soccer field there or just is, is the soil there bad that you actually have to constantly. 25 Park and Rec Commission - September 25, 2007 Gregory: It gets the most use of any of the fields down there. Kelly: Okay. Gregory: I mean it's, not only with scheduling and that but when anybody comes down there for practice and that, it's the very first field as you come in and they park right there and right away they go, most the time they'll go and park on the west side parking lot and they'll use that net right there and that, the mouth of that and that and everything else is always the one that's the worst. It's just closer for people. Kelly: Okay. I was just curious. Okay, thanks. Hoffman: And it's rotating around. Kelly: Yeah. Ruegemer: We have a 10 year resting schedule for not only Bandimere sites but North Lotus and Lake Ann. We try to keep everything kind of rotating around. Kind of forecast, you know where the use is. Certainly Bandimere has full, 3 full sized soccer fields. It seems like we are resting at least one at Bandimere every year and they rest at Lake Ann. We're kind of scheduling uniquely at Lake Ann that we make, traditionally in the past we've made smaller soccer fields within the larger soccer fields so we're still playing soccer in the fall but then it gives us an opportunity to move the goals closer together. And then we've still been reseeding or resodding the goal mouth areas for the traditionally bigger fields, so we're still kind of you know, killing two birds with one stone I guess with that so we're really trying to schedule smart and kind of keep rotating things around. Next year certainly is going to be increase use with the ballfield lights so we'll have to get a little bit more creative when it comes to resting. Kelly: Okay. I do want to, don't know what magic you did but considering the watering ban that we had for a while, those Bandimere soccer fields came back pretty nice. Stolar: Anyone else? Okay, thank you Dale. ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT. Hoffman: Thank you Chair Stolar, members of the commission. I won't go through each specific item. If you have questions on any item I will answer those after we're done hitting a th few highlights. Again the 2030 comprehensive plan is not on the 16. That's the Planning nd Commission open house. It's, and public hearing. It's on the 2 so that's next Tuesday. 7:00 in this room for the park and recreation section. I think it's also the natural resource section that evening. Parks and open space and natural resources, so you have the Planning Commission. That's the only thing on the agenda that night. Public open house and so there may be no one in the audience. There may just be, could be 10 to 15 people. It depends on how much folks want to engage in the comprehensive planning process. Turning the page to the Carver County Blue Cross Blue Shield healthy initiative community fair. This is some mapping you can take a look at at the conclusion of the meeting. This is an effort which will map all the trails in Carver 26 Park and Rec Commission - September 25, 2007 County. Something the commission has asked for from time to time and area residents as well, so you'll be able to go on both the city and the county web site. Click on Carver County healthy initiative. Map some trail routes throughout Carver County and this is all brought to the community through that Blue Cross Blue Shield grant. And the Carver County healthy initiative will be include other items as well. Minnewashta Regional Park off leash dog area, our contract st with Carver County states that that shall open by December 31 of this year. It's an interesting opening time for off leash dog areas but I don't care what time you open this thing, middle of winter, it will still be highly used and publicized. Just when I was upstairs between hours here, Forest Adams from the Villager was calling to do a story on off leash dog areas so it's still out there and they are continuing to work on the project. We borrowed them our Caterpillar bulldozer for a couple of weeks which they completed a lot of their heavy earth work with that. About 3 weeks ago. Last item to highlight is I think it's worthy to note that at the new Chanhassen High School, that the Chaska School District has announced that both the football, track stadium and then the two practice fields at that location will be artificial turf and that will also be in addition to the football stadium at the Chaska High School will be opened in 2009, fall of 2009 with artificial turf as well. So that holds very well. Stolar: Similar to what they put in at the ballfield at Minnetonka? Hoffman: I don't know what type it will be but it's going to be artificial turf. No grass. No irrigation. No maintenance. No grass maintenance. Artificial turf maintenance. Stolar: At the Minnetonka baseball field, it looks like grass but. It's something else over there. Hoffman: Yeah. And I'll answer questions on any items. Stolar: You said that will be available on the web site. Is the inventory also going to be available on the web site? Hoffman: Yes. It will be part of the comp plan as well. Stolar: Okay. So we can just download that. Maybe put an announcement in one of the newsletters, maple leaf. If you want to, if you ever wonder what all the parks are and all the trails. Hoffman: That will be fairly interactive. People can click on their neighborhood park. Find out what's there in the park master plan. Stolar: Any other questions for Todd under administrative report? This is very helpful and it's a good summary of the work that's going on and great work by all the staff. Getting a lot done. Hoffman: Thank you. COMMISSION MEMBER COMMITTEE REPORTS. None. 27 Park and Rec Commission - September 25, 2007 COMMISSION MEMBER PRESENTATIONS: Stolar: Does anyone have any questions or comments on the administrative packet? Any committee reports or presentations? Paula, anything on any of the. Atkins: Yeah I don't know if my is a member presentation. It's just about the arts council. Stolar: Right. That's I think we basically put it on the member presentation section. Would you like to go to that right now? Atkins: Yeah we met, several people from the first meeting came back for another meeting in August at the library. We started drawing up some plans and we actually called in Laura Zaebel from Springboard for the Arts who is going to help us apply for a non-profit status and draw up th our Articles and help us form our board. We're going to concentrate, or in October 18 we're going to have another meeting, well publicized I hope for people interested in doing some brainstorming on developing our vision and our mission. And we're going to work on doing a community event in the spring. Possibly in City Center Park encompassing various areas of the arts and get the word out so we're just hoping to get a lot more people interested at our core group that is willing to work really hard on this. Right now there's probably 4 of us who are willing to do it so I'll keep you updated. And Forrest Adams from the Villager is a big supporter so he's been reporting on everything we do. Every time we meet so that's really helpful. Stolar: Okay, thank you. Yeah we'll just you know, for both that and the historical society, if you ever want to present, we'll just do it at that location. Atkins: Well okay, I went to that meeting too and they are meeting with a lady from the Carver County Historical Society who is helping them develop their board of directors and articles and non-profit status. Actually got my husband on the committee board. They're going to have possibly, or we had a huge turnout at the library for that meeting last week and Sharmeen came. Her name is Wendy Bjorn I think from Carver County and so that's coming along too. We're just, have to keep plugging away. Stolar: Thank you for bringing that information back to the commission. Appreciate it. Any questions for Paula? Okay. ADMINISTRATIVE PACKET. Stolar: Just I guess the commenting was the bees. Everywhere else the farmers want the bees, they can't get them. Hoffman: Yeah, we've got them. Stolar: If we could just kind of gather them and export them to the fields. Ruegemer: A re-occurring problem. 28 Park and Rec Commission - September 25, 2007 Stolar: I assume those are wasps and not honey bees. At least one of these said it was wasps. Hoffman: I received a report from Jim Bledsoe today who coordinates, helps coordinates the farmers market. They had a very successful summer. 9 vendors. I think 7 of them are full time and they feel that this year was really the year they reached a critical mass. They've got enough customers every week and every vendors every week so both are happy and they'll continue to grow. They also had an interesting story on the day of the storm. They lost $500 worth of signs. Farmer market signs which ended up being kindling in the main street area of downtown Chan so their signs stay out until someone picks them up on Sunday or Monday morning and they were out for the storm and were all destroyed so that was a capital investment item for them. Stolar: So glad it's going well for them. Daniel: I've got two questions. One, anything, any pertinent discussions on the Kerber Pond, not buckthorn but the dead elm, the virus and that? Hoffman: Yeah, we've got that schedule for later this year. Let's see, we worked on the Power Hill Park trail. Now we're going to work on the ballfield down at the Rec Center and then we're moving into Kerber Pond where it's not only in the trees but some trail restoration on the south side. Daniel: Okay. Excellent. Stolar: Did you have another question? Daniel: It was going to be about the buckthorn and I realized it was already answered so. Hoffman: There's a buckthorn article in the Maple Leaf so that prompted some people to start calling about our public properties and Kerber Pond was one of them. Jill responded back that we have a, many areas of our public parks and open space preserve that have buckthorn, some of them are fairly severe. We don't have the cash. We don't have the programs to manage that and so Jill Sinclair, through her environmental resource coordinating is attempting to open up an invasive management system or plan and so once that plan is developed, then they'll start taking a look at specific areas but everything is not going to be able to be done at once. In fact they'll have to take specific areas and start buckthorn removal and buckthorn management so. It's, I would say it's probably in every property that we have. In every property that we have. The removal efforts to date have not been overwhelming successful. In fact I think in many cases they go backwards because if you start and you don't continue in the process, it just gets worst. I liken it to milfoil. When you kill milfoil with a herbicide, yeah it's gone and the bottom of the lake is dead and empty but then when the plants come back, the milfoil comes back even stronger. It just comes back 100% because it's the first thing. It's the most aggressive. Same thing with milfoil. You cut down, or with buckthorn. You cut down a hedge row of large trees. This far or inch or inch an a half, 2 inches, 3 inches, and you might have a dozen or 15 trees in there. Next year you're going to have 200 or 300 little seedlings in there growing up because the seeds that are all underneath those trees, they remain dormant because there's too much shade from the large trees until such time you cut them down. Once you cut them down, they all 29 Park and Rec Commission - September 25, 2007 germinate and they all come up. If you come back and spray and remove those by hand, it just makes it worst. So it's a very difficult thing to manage. Very expensive thing to manage. And quite frankly I'm not convinced that we'll ever be able to manage it 100% in our public park areas. I just don't think we'll be able to, the resources aren't there. You could, we could spend a million dollars on buckthorn removal in the city of Chanhassen on an annual basis. It's not going to happen so. It's just not going to happen. Atkins: I was at Kerber Pond the other day and I was looking for, I don't understand what the problem at Kerber Pond Park is with buckthorn. The path is clear around the lake, or around the pond. Hoffman: You walk the asphalt trail, it's just about all surrounded by buckthorn, especially on the lake side. And so what you have is you have a very dense thicket of buckthorn. Nothing wrong with it per se except… Stolar: Anything else? Just a comment on the administrative section. The letter about the playground is right on target. My daughter and her friends love, look forward to it every week. It's a great program. It really is. Stutzman: Yeah, that program was up huge this year. Stolar: And that's I think to the leaders that we bring in year in and year out so it was good. Atkins: Adventure Camp was great too. Stolar: Any final items? Seeing none, do we have a motion for adjournment? Scharfenberg moved, Daniel seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0. Submitted by Todd Hoffman Park and Rec Director Prepared by Nann Opheim 30