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PRC 2007 10 23CHANHASSEN PARK AND RECREATION COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING OCTOBER 23, 2007 Chairman Stolar called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m.. MEMBERS PRESENT: Glenn Stolar, Steve Scharfenberg, Thor Smith, Paula Atkins, and Jeff Daniel MEMBERS ABSENT: Tom Kelly and Dan Campion STAFF PRESENT: Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Director; Jerry Ruegemer, Recreation Superintendent; and John Stutzman, Recreation Supervisor Stolar: First if Todd or Steve or Paula or Thor want to talk a little bit about the tour that you went on at 5:30. Give a little update. Paula, start with you. Atkins: We visited the dog park and met with Marty Walsh and Lenny Schmidt. And what is Lenny's? Hoffman: Lenny's an Assistant for Carver County Parks. Atkins: Went for a walk along the trail. Saw the fence and the layout and it's incredible. Well above my expectations and it's going to be a show piece I think. Then we visited the new ballfield at the Recreation Center. And we, the new park shelter site at Lake Ann on top of the hill. That ground breaking is taking place and it's coming, it looks a lot different flatten out and ready to start building I think. Stolar: Okay. Smith: Don't have any additional. Scharfenberg: To reiterate what she said about the off leash dog park. It's going to be a very big draw I think. It's a phenomenal layout. The paths are great. A great mixture of open space and wooded areas and it's going to be a great place to go with or without a dog. Stolar: Thanks. Atkins: I have one more comment. I liked what Marty said about it being a people place. Not just a dog place. It's going to be a meeting, a gathering place for dog lovers, of which there are many. I think it's amazing. Stolar: Thanks. Well I look forward to the opening, official opening in the spring. Any other comments? Todd. Park and Recreation Commission - October 23, 2007 Hoffman: Chair Stolar, a couple comments about the Lake Ann Park project. As I have raised in my report, both projects are significantly behind schedule. A couple of issues. The wet weather. The contractors both chose not to show up for the first 30 days of, after their award because they had other projects, other work underway with the hopes that they would have good weather here, which did not happen. Those 30 days were the only dry days of the first 60 days of the project so they started showing up and the rain began. And then we also had supplier issues on both projects. The shelter building will not be here until January and lighting standards themselves, the corten, all weather and steel will not be here until December and so they anticipated that the poles would be some of the first things on the project. In fact that's one of the first things I asked if, were could we store the poles because we think they're going to show up early. That's changed. Now the poles will not be here until December and so basically looking to see happen is both contractors are going to get all their work done that they need to get done before freeze up. Sub-grade. Concrete. Some rough grading and then we're going to wait and do winter work. Winter construction so they can pull wires, set the light poles and actually we're not concerned, in fact we think it's going to be a better product hauling all the light poles around Lake Ann Park with the wet soils that we have right now. If the poles were here and ready to set we would damage those ballparks probably beyond what we would ever want to see and so once they're hard frozen, they'll be able to drive right out onto them and have little or no damage for the spring. But we fully anticipate that both projects would be done for start up of the park in the spring. We do have liquidated damages on both projects but liquidated damages require that you have actual damages and when the parks are closed and nobody's there in the winter, you're not incurring damages. But if the softball season starts and the picnic season starts, we will start charging them a daily fee for the inability to use those facilities and then just take that off of the project cost. Stolar: Any questions for Todd on that update? Okay. APPROVAL OF AGENDA:Scharfenberg moved, Daniel seconded to approve the agenda, amended to include an update under commission member presentations by Commissioner Atkins on the Arts Council meeting and the Halloween Party update under old business. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: Stutzman: The Halloween Party is coming up this Saturday, 5:30 to 7:30 at the Rec Center. The registrations are coming in fast. The last week or so they've really picked up. We're now about 125 and I anticipate they'll keep going and I'm sure we'll get registrations at the door as in the past. The school flyers have been the biggest things that have been coming in. Marked with the orange flyer that we sent out with the registration attached have been coming across my desk and the rec center consistently so that's good to see that that advertising is working. The biggest thing I have is to see if any of you, I know I've heard from some of you but who is able to come join us that evening and if you are, what duties and if you need a costume. I have the list for both those right here if you guys want to take a look at them. Daniel: Absolutely. 2 Park and Recreation Commission - October 23, 2007 Stutzman: It should be a wonderful evening. We've actually gained a second piece of entertainment through just somebody trying to set a world record of the most escapes, 24 hour. 24 escapes in 24 different cities and he's an illusionist, magician who is going to come out after our main entertainment and escape from a chain. Escape from being chained to a bed of nails. So we will put him on right after our other entertainer and see what happens. He sounds very enthusiastic and he really seems excited that we're going to give him an audience. He was saying he was going to be there at like 1:00 in the morning. He's like I'm going to get out, have the witness and move on so the fact that there's an audience for him, he's very excited about which is an added bonus for entertainment that doesn't cost us anything and adds another piece to the Halloween Party. Hoffman: I suggested he cover it up with a big black sheet and you wheel him out into the audience area and pull it up. There he is. Chained to the bed of nails. Stutzman: Well he and I were discussing how much the bed of nails actually weighs because of how many nails it takes and so he was asking me if he could make sure to have some help bringing the bed of nails in, and I'm sure we can arrange something so. Hoffman: Something you don't normally see. Ruegemer: Did you guys, if Mayor Furlong, is Mayor Furlong coming? Stutzman: I have not heard for sure yet. Ruegemer: You know he needs, the illusionist needs official witnesses for this so if you guys would like to be the official witnesses as well so. Hoffman: That's authentic right? Ruegemer: Authentic, right. Yep. Hoffman: You can check the chain. Stutzman: And one other thing Commissioner Daniel, I did get you the Darth Vader costume. Daniel: I will sign up for that. Stutzman: It does not have the light saber though. Daniel: I do have one. Stutzman: It does require black pants. It's just got the chest piece, the cape and the mask so. Daniel: No problem. Stolar: I left the Darth Vader for you. 3 Park and Recreation Commission - October 23, 2007 Daniel: Thank you very much. Stolar: Oh it says you have 2 there, right? Or is it just one? Stutzman: Just one. Stolar: It says one is extra large though. Stutzman: Yeah. It's a larger, a large extra large size rather than the small, medium, large, extra large. Stolar: Also I'll probably, my kids will probably help hand out some candy too so if you need extra ones, they'll probably be there. Stutzman: Okay. And the Key Club has been very generous once again this year. I did get that worked out and last week when I spoke to the new representative for them, there was 25 and said she was going to leave it up for another week and I'm going to get in touch her tomorrow. Stolar: Great. Any questions? Daniel: Yes, we want to know what costume you're going with. Stutzman: Skeleton. Stolar: I'll try that one. I might change when I get there. I'll have to see what the skeleton one is like. Daniel: You're not going with the bunny? Stolar: I'm not going with the, no. Daniel: Is that what you were once? Stolar: No, I was Sylvester. Daniel: That's right, the cat. Sylvester. Stolar: Well I couldn't breathe in the dang thing. It kept coming down and I couldn't breathe. And then I finally was Bugs Bunny, I figured that'd be just as bad. Stutzman: I'm having a hard time selling the Bugs Bunny. Stolar: The ones that have the masks that go over you know, the big head things. Especially if it's, wasn't it a warmer night? I can't remember but it was warm inside. Okay. Any other public announcements? Other items. Okay. 4 Park and Recreation Commission - October 23, 2007 VISITOR PRESENTATIONS: None. APPROVAL OF MINUTES:Daniel moved, Scharfenberg seconded to approve the verbatim and summary minutes of the Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated September 25, 2007 as presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. Stolar: As a follow-up to a point that was in the minutes, we had talked about looking at a TV in the Rec Center when we redo the lounge there. Was that ever discussed or looked at as far as budget do you know? Ruegemer: I didn't know when that was? For '08? Stolar: Yeah. Hoffman: What budget? Stolar: For part of the furniture change to maybe get a flat screen so that we can put announcements. Daniel: With more of a reader board. Hoffman: Still looking at that. Yep. Furniture is budget. Fitness room equipment and the screen we're going to talk to our GIS folks and see if we can't get that hooked into our computer system that we already have. We actually, there's some irony. When we talked about this last and the next thing to walk into Tom's door was a gentleman who was marketing you know very nice, all you know manual, letters and calendars on the side. Advertisements. And we're like, no, that's old technology. We're moving away and going with a flat screen TV so we can just put power points up there. You can type up little circular things. Daniel: Like a computer monitor basically. Stolar: And one thing I saw was, I forget where I saw this. They were actually doing you know infrequent but noticeable ads to help pay for it. I don't know if that's something we would also consider. Not just advertising our stuff but advertising other people's stuff. Or even getting someone to just you know, sponsor it. Okay. I just noticed in the minutes that we had talked about that. TH 2008 FOURTH OF JULY - 25 ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION. Ruegemer: Thank you Chair Stolar. City of Chanhassen is very much approaching an exciting th time. We're coming up on our 25 anniversary in 2008 for really our signature community th event, the 4 of July celebration. We as a staff certainly have been talking about this for quite a while now as far as any kind of, where's the framework going to be? What's the model going to thth be on the 4 of July celebration for our 25 anniversary? Are we going to do special things? 5 Park and Recreation Commission - October 23, 2007 Are we going to have you know different community relationships involved and that sort of thing in here. What I wanted to do tonight, and certainly what John would like as well is, kind of get feedback from the Park and Rec Commission, if there's really any special ideas that you guys th really would like to see kind of carry forward into the 25 to make it even more of a special event. We would welcome all comments tonight as really kind of a brainstorming, kind of a mission tonight so we can really have, certainly many of the components that we have in place certainly will be carried through but there's any special things from the past that you'd like to see incorporated back into the schedule of events, we certainly can take a look at all of that information tonight and kind of, I'd really like to get some major ground work kind of laid tonight if we could with ideas and whether it be marketing or t-shirt designs…that sort of thing. I just kind of jotted down a couple things, but really the floor is wide open. Discussion is wide open tonight and we're certainly, gather your feedback tonight so we can kind of continue to move forward on that so. That's really kind of what I was looking for tonight from the commission and entertain your thoughts and comments. Stolar: Actually you know what, we'll just throw it out but. Scharfenberg: Jerry have we, has the City ever done or maybe in conjunction with another group like Rotary or Lion's Club or something like that, have they ever done a softball th tournament over the 4 of July here? Ruegemer: I'll try to give you just some, as I was trying to think through my tenure here. We've done ice cream socials. Inner tube relays. Fishing demonstrations. Hula hoop contest. Limbo contest. Music down at the beach. We have done softball tournaments. We haven't done horse shoe tournaments but somebody had mentioned that to me during 2007. Obviously we've done melodramas. Free food picnics. I mean we've done a lot over different things in the 25 years that the celebration has been going on. The softball tournament has probably been, about the mid 80's was probably about the last time. Probably about when the parade started. The softball tournament was kind on it's way, yeah. That's pretty much was kind of the downfall of that. You know the teams were kind of starting to kind of peter out a little bit and you know some of our focus was you know kind of focused on the parade. We just kind of shifted gears a little bit but you know that's something that we've done in the past. Stolar: What day is it? Is it a Wednesday, Thursday next year? Hoffman: Thursday, Friday. Ruegemer: It's a Thursday, Friday I believe. Stolar: So it starts Thursday evening with the. Hoffman: Street dance. The softball tournament was primarily dominated by young teams and young adults. Then as they, as the league, summer league that we operated aged, that's who you draw from and then some outside teams. They had families and they were going to family th activities. It became very difficult for them to field the teams over the 4 of July holiday. So, but it went on for a lot of years. 6 Park and Recreation Commission - October 23, 2007 Atkins: We had kitten ball tournaments one year? We kind of had neighborhood teams. I remember playing in that. That was fun. It was hot. And there was just a few teams. It seems like, when the parade came back we shifted most things from Lake Ann back into town. Or gradually it has because it seemed like in the beginning a lot of the stuff was at Lake Ann, yeah. We're go out there and spend, we'd go out there at 7:00 in the morning and stay til midnight. And then things started happening in town when they brought the parade back, and that was the year of the Centennial? Ruegemer: '96. Atkins: '96, yeah. So. Stolar: I guess one of my questions on that was, and not to put a lot of burden on you guys but since it's right by a weekend. So for example if we wanted to look at something like that, could we even extend it into Saturday with something small on Saturday such as you know, follow up with a softball tournament. Something, I think it gives us a little bit of flexibility there. Other items? Daniel: Actually I have a couple. One would be, as far as the t-shirt or theme. Has the recreation department started going down the path as far as how you want to go about doing that th or what do you want to do as far as marking the 25 either from a theme standpoint or t-shirts? And some of the ideas that I have, and I figure you know in the 25 years that we've had this celebration, a lot has come up since 1982 and some things have been, I suppose has put Chanhassen on the map. Maybe there are some of the things from the last 25 years maybe we want to take a look and honor. You know such as, I mean obviously the Dinner Theater's been a long time but if people throughout the Midwest recognize the Dinner Theater as a landmark in our city. I think the Arboretum falls into that category as well and, like it or not you know other artists as well. Or formerly known as. Stolar: Yeah that'd be good if you can get Prince to do… Daniel: Not only for that but you know certainly acknowledge. Atkins: You know what we've got to do. Daniel: …with regards to him but his studio is part of our landmark. It's recognizable and there's certain things within the city's past 25 years of history I think might be important to showcase. And talk about whether it be the theme on the overall theme or something we might want to put on a t-shirt. Those things you know that are important. I think the parade is another landmark that we do on an annual basis now. That people look forward to. So I mean that would be some of the ideas that I think maybe as a suggestion that we could take a look at. To th help promote the 25 at least, this past 25 years. Potentially even look, look into the future for the next 25 years. What's it going to be like at the 50 year anniversary? 7 Park and Recreation Commission - October 23, 2007 Atkins: I'd also like to look at maybe bringing back the first t-shirt only with different, 25 years on it somewhere, somehow. I would like to see, I don't remember the first shirt. I mean obviously they'll be on display, or they are on display? Hoffman: We've got them on display. We've got them all now. Ruegemer: Yes, we were talking about a variety of different things. You know if we should rd frame them kind of year by year and kind of sporty underneath the big tent at the 3 of July street dance. Stolar: Actually leading up to that, if you frame it, maybe put, ask businesses here to pay for a framing and we'll put their name on it and then just have it as advertisement. Starting beginning in March even and have them hang it up in a place in their business. So that they're promoting, you know pick a year. You get. Daniel: Some of our sponsors. Hoffman: Our first thinking was we're going to do 5 at a time so block frame them frames. First 5 years. Second 5 years and then they eventually would be housed out at the walls at the Recreation Center. And then we'll do a plaque talking about the year of the shirt. Theme. The artist. Who did it so people can start to talk about some history. Stolar: Some of our top sponsors, you can just give it to them and say you know, if you would hang this up and promotion as far as storing them. thth Daniel: Leading up to the 4 of July and after the 4 of July, transfer the items over to the Recreation Center and hang it there. And the other thing too, and I've got two items here. I thought one would be, that was certainly one idea. The second is, regarding like a little beach concert. I think that's you know, Jimmy Buffet, that type of beach concert whether, either shortly after the, following the fishing contest which, what time of day do you usually end that? Hoffman: Noon, 11:00. Daniel: That's the perfect transition. That's when the families start to come out during that weekend. Go to the beach and get their spot and maybe set up a little stage. Let somebody play for a couple hours you know, fits part of the budget. That plays that style of beach music you know. People can gather around and however you want to orientate that, I think that'd be fantastic. Hoffman: In the area that Paula was talking about, we had a concert before the fireworks scheduled at about 6:00. Led into the fireworks. Very popular. Atkins: After the fishing contest people come and line up for the parade now. Daniel: Oh that's right. 8 Park and Recreation Commission - October 23, 2007 Atkins: Lake Ann is almost deserted there during the parade I'm sure. And that was kind of nice having music out there in the evening I thought. Even a big band type, Sousa band type. Patriotic band…but I like the mellow music better. Actually I was going to suggest a concert too rd possibly on the 3 with the Sousa type music. Patriotic band music. At some point. I don't know where that would fit in though because people come to expect what they know and if we change things around too much they'll get confused. Stolar: And again I don't know what our budget is… Atkins: Or even, because it's a long weekend, even the Wednesday night before we could do a kick-off almost. Because it's Thursday, Friday. People are going to take the long weekend. Scharfenberg: Do it as part of the outdoor concert series. Stolar: I was kind of thinking that same thing. Actually so Thursday you could do a kick-off Thursday over here before, aren't those Thursday noon sometimes? Ruegemer: Sometimes they are. Stolar: Other ideas? Suggestions? Stolar: I do have one question, on the 25 years of t-shirts. I don't know just how easy this is. Again I'm just asking, but if you could get where a framed 5 x 5 picture of them and we put that as one of our auction, or raffle items. I'm just thinking something special in the raffle that someone can win. Ruegemer: We talked about if we could do even some type of a photograph and put them on a poster. That's without going through the expense of framing them. Atkins: Like with the quilt. Ruegemer: Because framing's going to be what? $100. Stolar: $125-$150 a shirt probably. Depends on how we want to do it too. You know like the doors of, the Doors of Ireland or whatever that…where it's just pictures of it. So you know a th framed poster of it with t-shirts of Chanhassen 4 of July and that's something we could give away like a grand prize at the raffle or whatever. Scharfenberg: How about if you did the maple leaf in the middle with the various pictures all around them or somehow compress into the maple leaf. You're not going to get them all on there but you know how you've seen stuff like that, superimposed on a maple leaf. Stolar: That would even be just a silent auction. Because we're getting money for the raffle for the charities right? Silent auction raffle for that, right. You know have a silent auction, have them buy the raffle but people can bid on it because that'd be something people would potentially want… 9 Park and Recreation Commission - October 23, 2007 Smith: I kind of like Paula's idea of having the first year t-shirt available. Maybe just put it on the sleeve or something, 25 year. I mean especially with retro being so in, people would, you know especially if you put the year on there or something you know, people would really like that. Daniel: You must have not remembered the 80's too well. I remember those things were as about as tight as they get. Atkins: I like the black ones. Scharfenberg: Jerry in terms of activities or things like that, have you, you know next year is th the, is it the sesquicentennial for the State. 150. Is there stuff people are doing with respect to the State that they could be invited here to you know, thought I'd just throw that out. Because I know the State has grants that they've made available to people to do stuff for that and you know I don't know if people are for example putting on a production or you know something like that. There might be something out there. Atkins: We were talking about, thinking about doing a melodrama and applying for a grant. Stolar: So maybe in conjunction, I mean you do something about. Daniel: There's money available that are allocated in the State budget for the celebration, then absolutely. You know that'd be something available for us as well. I mean that could be passed down to the city. That'd be a little more palatable then turning to an individual organization. Or individual. But I guess that's something we could certainly take a look into. Or at least talk to our representatives about. I think that's a great idea. th Stolar: Is there a way to tie into, again just throwing some ideas. This 25 anniversary, tie in with something like either, well a couple different things. The Rec Center. You have 25 cent admission to go use the facilities to celebrate, or even with the Landscape Arboretum. Asking them if they want to tie in an offer, you know 25% admission. It doesn't have to be something we program. It's just something that we can tie in schematically. Scharfenberg: Like for the whole week or something. Stolar: Yeah, like the Tuesday would be the Landscape Arboretum, 25 cent admission as part of the. I think we're kind of feeling like it's a week long thing that you want to do something that we can each day leading up to these activities. With the community you know. Getting the Chamber involved. Things like that. Daniel: We could talk to the Rotary about 25 cent beers. Ruegemer: Maybe $25 pitchers. But yeah, we had kicked around you know the t-shirt design you know for the most part it's been done professionally. We've talked with vendors and say here's kind of our theme. Here's some components of the deal. Come back to us with 2-3 10 Park and Recreation Commission - October 23, 2007 designs. You know and we've talked about a community contest or professional. I think what we're looking for is kind of feedback on that tonight. Atkins: Well our theme basically is 25 years, right? Do you have a slogan? Ruegemer: No we don't but we can develop that criteria but I guess we wanted to see if, is the commission indifferent on the idea of going professional or community type of. Atkins: I would much rather see it be a community contest. I liked that year… (There was a tape change at this point in the discussion.) Daniel: It adds certainly a different perspective. You could have a larger pool to choose from. Maybe make it a contest about the fifth graders between Chanhassen and Bluff Creek Elementary. Maybe that's, at that age a little more creativity than a hand print printed and a couple finger paintings but. Atkins: I would even up it to eighth graders. Daniel: Something up within that age group. Ruegemer: Eighth and above. Scharfenberg: When does the high school open? Stutzman: One year off. One thing too with the theme, whatever we decide as far as where we th take the 25. A lot of people that I've already started contacting about bringing back for next th year. I know CBO, the band is very excited about the 25 and Melanie has actually said she's got some ideas she'd like to talk to me as we get closer to, it seems the band grows bigger and bigger each year and she said oh you know, we can bring in some dancers and some other people and so she's excited to hear that it was… Atkins: We need a bigger tent. We actually may need a bigger tent. Bigger dance floor because it's packed. Ruegemer: Yeah. Hoffman: Not very distinguished box but they will be very distinguished by the time they are th displayed. This is year one. First Annual 4 of July Celebration. Daniel: I can't believe somebody actually held onto that. Hoffman: Isn't that something? That one was, and this was the other one that we solicited in a newspaper article and somebody brought this one. Daniel: Actually that's a really simple but yet classic. 11 Park and Recreation Commission - October 23, 2007 Hoffman: Second annual. So those are some old ones. Stolar: On the web site could we… Ruegemer: We could probably talk to Karen about maybe doing something across the top where we have all those pictures. You know do the t-shirts. Ruegemer: We could scan them in somehow. Stolar: Or take pictures of them. That'd be fun. Ruegemer: Show them the early 90's. Stolar: Wait, you want to go off the theme, you could do 25 days til the 25th. You know start th like 24 days in advance to do something. Each of the days leading up to the 25. It could be something small but you know again get community involved. Hoffman: '88's not very clean. '87. '89. And then '90. We're coming up on Chawhassen… That's a collector's item for sure. Stolar: So was that when you guys, advertised to get that one. Hoffman: Most of them were home in my closet. '91. Ruegemer: I think that's a Jack Johnson one. …yep, that one. That was a community contest. Chris Hoff did that one. Hoffman: 1995. Ruegemer: On '95? Oh. Stolar: That would be '92 though wouldn't it? Ruegemer: No, that was '84 it started. Didn't it? Stolar: Yeah, '84, I'm sorry. Yeah. Ruegemer: You were missing, I think missing a year in there. th Hoffman: This might the discovery of another lost shirt. Okay, so that's the first annual 4 of July. Second annual. We don't say on that one. Ruegemer: Is there a year on it? Hoffman: No. The next one is '88. 12 Park and Recreation Commission - October 23, 2007 Daniel: '84, '85, '86, '87, '88. So you should have 5. Hoffman: So we think this is the '87. '86. Stolar: But that one says second annual though doesn't it? Hoffman: This was the one Lori started. Lori did this one. This is the first year I was here was '87. This was the shirt that I. '87. '88. '89. This is right. Daniel: So you're missing. Hoffman: '89. '90. Daniel: '86 you're missing. Hoffman: '92. '93. '94. Stolar: I thought that one was '94. Daniel: Yeah, '93. Hoffman: There we go. We've got it. This is '94. '95. The concept here is to have these all box framed. Cleaned. Box framed. Sprayed up. Cleaned up. th Daniel: Well '93 should be the 10 annual, right? So this is '94. Hoffman: No, '93 is right there. '94 is. Daniel: Okay, got it. Good. Hoffman: '95. '96 is the centennial. Interesting shirt. Daniel: Well that's really cool. Simple but yet effective. Hoffman: And here we get into the theme. What was the theme that year for the train? Or the th parade. That was the parade theme. 4 of July. Depot days or. Ruegemer: I can't remember. The parade, the Rotary had a steam engine in the parade that year. '99. 2000… That one's brand new. Here we started to save new ones. Stolar: I know I've said this before on the shirts. Non-white sometimes is better. Atkins: I agree. Stolar: I know the problem we run into on the colored ones is obviously the expense. 13 Park and Recreation Commission - October 23, 2007 Stutzman: But the gray I could definitely look into. Stolar: The gray even is a little. I noticed that with that one that you guys made the comment on. Is the gray looks. Hoffman: Canadian maple leaf. Ruegemer: Yeah, that was the $1,000 winner right there. Hoffman: …25 years of history. Isn't it amazing, the first two we found. Somebody had them in their closet. Look at the colors. Scharfenberg: Jerry, anything more you need from us in terms of other than t-shirt? Do we want it as a contest? Stolar: You said yes. You said yes. I think yes. Scharfenberg: I'm kind of torn. I think I'd like the professional thing. Give them an idea and let them come up with something but hey, you know. Contest would be okay too. Hoffman: People have access to pretty good technology these days. Atkins: I think the contest last time, wasn't it among high school aged kids? I thought that was one of the criteria. Smith: Do you know Todd if the Rotary's planning anything special? I mean I know other than the parade and the. Hoffman: They haven't started talking about it yet but it's getter larger, their responsibilities are increasing on an annual basis so. Atkins: I was wondering if there would be a meeting they'd be, some other community groups where everybody could get together and collaborate on an idea and brainstorm. th Hoffman: The one talk is about moving all the activities on the 4 up to the tent so everything stays at the tent. So the car show doesn't move down and Taste of Chanhassen doesn't move down because of logistics of moving all that stuff. Just keep it in one location. Daniel: I think that's a great idea. Atkins: Yeah. Stolar: Now on the Saturday after that they'll have the farmers market here too, right? I think you were out when we talked about doing some sort of concert thing. I don't know if that's also 14 Park and Recreation Commission - October 23, 2007 an opportunity to take, extend it. From an activities perspective, is there anything that people want? You know softball tournament was one. Atkins: Yeah, other kinds of tournaments too might be good, like horseshoes might be kind of an old fashion type thing. Not so many big teams. I know having played ball, you often have people, people out of town so you don't have a team. Hoffman: Play 9 person softball tournament. Atkins: Yeah. Or mixed couples would be good. Co-ed. Scharfenberg: Another possibility is just talking to the CAA about running you know kind of th the end of the year ends right around 4 of July and they're doing some end of the year tournaments. Just talk to them about hey you know, you could play some games, you know possibly play some games and do something and kind of highlight the fields and you know do something like that over that weekend. Get a little more activity out there, out at Lake Ann in addition to all the other stuff that's going on. Stolar: You know what, we're talking about the Wednesday night beforehand, we'll have all those fields lighted. Not that you guys want to stay out but a midnight softball tournament. Hoffman: We talked about that. Stolar: We have all the fields lighted. You know if people are going to be taking off, start playing at 7:00 at night and go you know all night. Daniel: Get it all done at once at Lake Ann. I don't think it'd bother anybody. Except for Eckankar. Hoffman: And the deer. Stolar: You know taking advantage of the fact that now we have all those fields lighted, we could do it at night. Daniel: I think you mentioned horseshoes. You could do bocce ball or lawn ball maybe, which is a very low cost activity to monitor but yet keep people involved so you have sign up sheets for that tournament. Hoffman: Well family games used to be the entire group was involved in the family games going on at the park. Back when there were 200 people present. Stolar: Another thing that's fun to do, although hard is the, that brings a lot of attention is trying to set some record. Doing something that the community sets a record. Something to attract people. Smith: You mean other than breaking free of a bed of nails. 15 Park and Recreation Commission - October 23, 2007 Stolar: Have the guy come back and do it again, only harder. Stutzman: Escape from the ferris wheel. Hoffman: Have you talked about the commissioner dunk tank. Stolar: Well I assumed, we talked about that before. Stutzman: I have that in my notes. Daniel: I'm all for that. Stolar: You know it's an election year. We can get some politicians in there. Maybe a presidential candidate. Hoffman: Maybe not. Stolar: You get the democratic candidate, everybody would line up to throw. Daniel: That'd be a major fundraiser. Stolar: But if you do do a dunk tank, I'd be happy to sit in it for fun so. No problem. Scharfenberg: Dunk the mayor or something. Ruegemer: Done that. Daniel: Didn't you say that. Hoffman: Don Chmiel. Year after year after year. Stolar: Is there enough stuff going on for you know, like the 12 to 15 year olds. I know we did the skate park and that was great but when that's done, are there enough activities to keep them active? Stutzman: With adding the bigger rides. One thing with that is, I would say that the rides helped a lot. Having coached baseball in Minnetonka, in the past, I actually saw a lot of players that I knew throughout the league joining the festivities, coming with their parents who were up in the tent and the kids would wander around throughout the carnival area. And so that has helped but there, I mean as I get feedback consistently with all our programming, finding something for that age group is always something we're looking to continue to do. Ruegemer: We also talked about bringing in a, kind of a teenage band at some point in time th during the celebration. Whether it's warming up for CBO or on the 4 itself to kind of for that teenage market as well. 16 Park and Recreation Commission - October 23, 2007 Stolar: Other? Atkins: I think the theme probably is where you have to start. th Hoffman: 25 anniversary? Atkins: Yeah, that's the theme but I mean the criteria for the parade for instance is always dependent on the theme so it has to be a little more, expanded a little more than just that. Unless that's going to be it. Silver anniversary or whatever. Stutzman: Well Commissioner Daniel already did the 25 years of Chanhassen could, instead of th just the 25 anniversary. You know 25 years of Chanhassen taking up kind of the iconic things could be a play off that theme as well. Hoffman: It's probably a good reason to tie the parade theme in with the overall theme of the veteran's band going. Daniel: It's also an election year. Presidential election year. Senate election year. I think that's part of the criteria for the parade. I mean that's controlled by the Rotary, correct? Hoffman: They've got it pretty well controlled now. Daniel: My only suggestion is that everyone has to have something within 25 of their theme. You know they have to have a sign or something that acknowledges that, I mean I would hope that that would be part of the criteria from the Rotary. For every participant. Hoffman: They can no longer walk. They have to ride in a vehicle. Daniel: Oh they do now? Oh great. Hoffman: That was when they walk and shake hands, that's when it slows down. We'll bring back some draft ideas for review. Stolar: And then for the theme process, are you guys just bouncing ideas off the community leaders also as far as what some of their thoughts might be? For the theme. Ruegemer: Certainly can. Stolar: Great. Thank you. This will be exciting. Very exciting. Next item, basically we talked about the Halloween Party already. Was there anything else you wanted to talk about on that? Stutzman: No, I'm good on that. 17 Park and Recreation Commission - October 23, 2007 RECREATION PROGRAM REPORTS: 2007 PICNIC SITE EVALUATION. Ruegemer: Thanks again. We did increase our number of picnics this year, which correspondingly increased our revenue in the picnic area. Certainly Lake Ann and the pavilion at Lake Susan are certainly the most popular and we did increase our number of people, estimated number of people at our picnics from about roughly 7,400 to about 9,800 this summer with company picnics and reunions and all sorts of different things that kind of went on for the year so we certainly are looking forward to our new picnic shelter out at the Parkview picnic area. That's certainly going to be a great addition for us and certainly is going to certainly increase exposure for the park and increase our revenues as well. Stolar: You're going to commit the tires in the tree? Ruegemer: Yeah. I hope to double that next year. Stolar: Okay, good. Ruegemer: The Parkview site is just not an area that's desired in it's current state. Stolar: No. It will be so much nicer, yep. Ruegemer: And then certainly the Lakeside area is not really a highly used area as well, but people want to use the convenience of a shelter with their, the convenience of if it rains or if it's hot sun, to get in the shade. Electricity is certainly an important part of that, which is great. Really probably the biggest area that we saw was the increase was the Lake Susan this year. What'd we have the year before? 37 up to 52 reservations and that certainly was increased really during the week is really when we saw a lot of resident, service groups. A lot of businesses came out during the week as well for that so, I know the commission did talk about lowering that rate for the business community during the week to have meetings and different team events. That sort of thing up there so that was for the most part well received so we did increase our capacity this year and hopefully with the new shelter next year we'll certainly do the same again. You know I think overall, overall people's impressions are good of our picnic shelters. Certainly there are issues on garbage and that sort of thing at times. Bees certainly is always an ongoing issue. And then certainly we're always looking for new ways to mitigate these problems and that sort of thing but certainly garbage is taking a look at, and cleaned up every day. Power washed a lot of days and just one of those things so. But you know customers are typically pretty well informed by the time they call. Holly did a great job this summer handling a lot of the picnic phone calls and that sort of thing so she's good with customers on the phone. Customers were very good at returning picnic evaluations and as we gathered feedback and that sort of thing so there was always comments on there, whether it would be a potential hazard out in the park with the you know, two lips of concrete different heights, that sort of thing for trip hazards. People would let us know that so we certainly appreciate that and pass that information onto our park maintenance staff who did take care of a lot of problems throughout the course of the summer so. It really in recap, just really looking forward to next year and we'll be coming with new proposed 18 Park and Recreation Commission - October 23, 2007 picnic fees here probably in November or December of this year for the new picnic shelter at Lake Ann next year so. Really looking forward to getting that on line. Increase our capacity. Stolar: Questions. Atkins: Could you show us the design of this building that's going up on the hill next month maybe? Hoffman: Yep. Stolar: Just one quick thing. I know we had talked about upgrade in our capital improvement plan for the shelters down the road. After painting and updating, is that something that we're going to just do out of regular maintenance? Ruegemer: We certainly can do that. Stolar: Because I did notice that that was quite, there were quite a few comments on that, so is that something that we think we can, maybe not one this year. I mean maybe one this year and one next year. Ruegemer: I think really Lake Susan is the. Stolar: The only one. Ruegemer: Yeah, and that's cosmetic. That is really, that we could take care of. Sentence to Serve can even probably even paint it to save on labor. Stolar: Okay. And are there any capital improvements, you said updating? Or is it just really the painting that we really. Hoffman: Well we only offer cold water right now. Kind of like a prison. Ruegemer: The bathrooms are very. Scharfenberg: Stale. Stolar: Old. So is that something, for something like that that we would actually wait til we actually do the refurbishing of them in the capital plan. Ruegemer: If I remember, that's down the road quite a bit. Paint would certainly be a cheap investment. Stolar: I'm sorry, for the updating the bathrooms. Bathrooms can wait but for the painting we could just do as regular maintenance, okay. And then, and I know I've asked this before. Recycling bins at the shelters themselves. I know why we don't want to do it all around the park, but at the shelters themselves, is that something feasible, worth doing? 19 Park and Recreation Commission - October 23, 2007 Hoffman: Sure. We can try it, yep. Stolar: Because I remember, not this year but last year when I did my event there, that was one of the questions they asked. I mean we just bagged it on our own. Great. Thanks. 2007 TREE LIGHTING CEREMONY. Stutzman: Thank you Mr. Chairman. As scary as it is, this is already creeping up on us. As the weather gets colder I have started to look into the annual tree lighting ceremony which will be st held Saturday, December 1 at City Center Park at 5:00. Roughly 5:00 to 6:00. I actually have been in the works with this. I've talked with Mark Halla who has agreed to do Santa Claus, or provide Santa Claus for us again this year. I've talked with Mark Littfin, the Fire Marshal about using the fire truck to bring Santa in and they've agreed to do that, and I actually have a meeting with the Chanhassen Area Chamber of Commerce and Lipinski Accounting who are going to help us out with this event again. I have that meeting next week to discuss putting this together already so they have been a big help and continue to work with me. They've been very patient as the Halloween Party's coming up and my schedule saying, yeah we can wait til next month so it is creeping up but I'm looking forward to that and that will be at almost, just over a month away. Stolar: Great. Daniel: Hopefully weather will cooperate. Scharfenberg: Did you…last year? Daniel: I did. Scharfenberg: That was like. Hoffman: 10 degrees. Scharfenberg: 10 degrees. Windy and cold. Stolar: The bonfire was a popular place last year. Atkins: Does the Senior Center still participate? Stolar: Excellent. Great, thanks. Any other questions? COMMISSION MEMBER PRESENTATIONS. th Atkins: The Arts Council held a meeting on October 18, inviting interested people to come and we got 2 more new artists and we drew up a mission statement and a vision statement and chose a name. It's, I can't remember. The secretary has all that stuff. 20 Park and Recreation Commission - October 23, 2007 Hoffman: The name of the group? Atkins: Yeah, the name of the, the names of the, she took all the boards that we did all our brainstorming on. Anyway it's a catchy name and we are planning to draw up our Articles of Incorporation. Open our bank account and apply for a non-profit status in November and then plan on an event for spring. Spring or summer. So keep you posted. Stolar: Thank you. Any questions for Paula? ADMINISTRATIVE PACKET. None. Daniel moved, Scharfenberg seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. Submitted by Todd Hoffman Park and Rec Director Prepared by Nann Opheim 21