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PRC 2008 02 26CHANHASSEN PARK AND RECREATION COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING FEBRUARY 26, 2008 Acting Chair Daniel called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. MEMBERS PRESENT: Jeff Daniel, Steve Scharfenberg, Thor Smith and Dan Campion MEMBERS ABSENT: Glenn Stolar, Tom Kelly, and Paula Atkins STAFF PRESENT: Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Director; Jerry Ruegemer, Recreation Superintendent; and John Stutzman, Recreation Supervisor APPROVAL OF AGENDA:Campion moved, Smith seconded to approve the agenda, with th an addition under new business, the 2008 4 of July Fireworks Contract. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: Hoffman: Easter’s coming up before our next meeting, right? Ruegemer: Ah yeah. Yeah, right before. Hoffman: Easter Egg Candy Hunt on what day? nd Stutzman: March 22. Smith: What time does that start? Stutzman: It starts at 9:00 a.m. Hoffman: At the Rec Center. Stutzman: It will be interesting to see if we get that outside or not this year. With the snow, the mush, the cold, the rain, you can take your pick at that point. Daniel: I kind of remember the last time we had a March Easter so. Last year, was it April last year? Stutzman: Yeah, it was, or early April. Daniel: Early April, yeah. Weekend before. Okay. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS: None. Park and Rec Commission - February 26, 2008 APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Smith moved, Campion seconded to approve the summary minutes of January 22, 2008 as presented. 2008 FOURTH OF JULY FIREWORKS CONTRACT. th Stutzman: Thank you. In preparing for the upcoming 4 of July we’ve discussed a lot of things, th but the primary thing the 4 of July always calls for is the fireworks. This year we have sought out after two companies to do it. Holiday Pyrotechnics and Melrose Pyrotechnics and both companies submitted and prepared the necessary quote that we were looking for. They both got them back to me on time and I have had a chance to review them and discuss them with Jerry as well and after reviewing the quotes, both companies are very enthusiastic about the displays they’re putting on. They’ve put in some good thought. They’ve both got very unique and quality shows featuring 3 main pieces. The opening, the main body and the grand finale. The one thing that Melrose, a couple things that Melrose does slightly different but I think actually adds a very nice piece to the show is they offer a mid show virage. Kind of give them something exciting to, something to cheer about in the middle rather than just kind of fire, cool fireworks throughout the whole thing. They really hit you hard somewhere in the middle. They also do a teaser finale. Kind of getting you all set up for the finale. Think it’s done and then they hit you some more. And then in addition they actually, since they are familiar with our event because they’ve been doing it for over 20 years, they have talked to us. They know it’s the anniversary th and they’ve talked to us about doing a special 25 anniversary shell. Kind of with some roman candles underneath it. Get a big 25 up in the air and sparkles underneath it and those are some pretty unique pieces to their show as well. The biggest differences that it came down to though is Holiday Pyrotechnics was pretty interested in setting up a day early, which with our schedule of events makes it kind of difficult. They’re not talking about bringing explosives out yet, but they’re talking about setting up equipment which still causes a reason for concern, even if there’s not explosives. There’s more things to play with. There’s more things that could get damaged and there’s more security needs. Daniel: I was just going to say, security would be an issue. Stutzman: Yep so, and then also because we’re going to have people on the lake, things going thrd on you know that day, there on the day of the 4 and then on the 3 we have a lot of people down there so yeah, it would become an issue. The other big piece is they were also seeking a slightly higher cancellation settlement if something were to go wrong and we can’t schedule it on the make-up day of the bid. If we did have to cancel for some reason. They were seeking closer to a 50% coverage of their fee. Of the overall contract versus the statement that we have in our contract of $5,000 which Melrose has agreed to. This year the city staff also asked both companies to submit multi-year proposals. This is the first time we’ve done that. Just looking to get some consistency and see what they would offer us as far as deals go if we went a multi-year. Both companies did submit a 3 year proposal, or quote as well, and each company actually offered bonuses with the multi-year contract. While both were enticing, given the other things that Melrose offered, Melrose came up with a very competitive offer and after, in 2010 we would actually get $2,650 extra material, extra fireworks added to our show at no additional cost. That’s just for signing a multi-year deal or multi-year contract with them. So it would be very beneficial to the city not only to continue consistency. Have a vendor that knows our event and 2 Park and Rec Commission - February 26, 2008 have them locked up for the next 3 years as well, but then we also receive added bonus at the end of that contract as well. With this multi-year contract, I have talked to them, because we did up th the budget this year specifically for the 25 anniversary, I made it clear to both companies that this is not a standard budget for the length of the contract. That we will come back down to what has been past approved in the past which is $23,000 and both companies said that would not be an issue so that is how we worked the contract. I’ve attached both, all three contracts in there. The 2008 proposal from Melrose as well as the two 3 year proposals. After reviewing all of this and taking it into consideration, the staff believes that Melrose would be the best vendor for our celebration and I would recommend that we entertain and go with the 3 year contract as it is the most beneficial contract at this time for us. And it is the staff’s recommendation that the Park th and Rec Commission recommend to the City Council to approve the 4 of July firework contract with Melrose Pyrotechnics in the amount of $30,000 with the additional years in 2009 and 2010 at $23,000. This money is budgeted for, again the 1600 fund of this year’s budget, the 2008, and will be subsequently budgeted for again in 2009 and 10 and as I said, it is an amount that in the past has been approved by the council as well. Smith: What was the pricing for that Holiday? Stutzman: They were the exact same price points. We. Smith: It’s just what you get for the price? Stutzman: Yep, it’s what you get and if they met the specifications that we sent out. With fireworks, the way you submit a proposal, because I could say hey you know, put together a show for me and I’m going to come back with numbers anywhere from, I mean they could go from $10,000 to $50,000 if I let them so to go out and say this is my budget. I want everything labor, tax, everything said and done, this is what it’s got to be. We gave them the amount that we budgeted and they came back and said this is the show that we can put on for you. Yes, we can meet your specifications. No, we can’t meet your specifications and based on that information and again the contracts that they submitted for the multi-year, we reviewed that and Melrose has the best to offer. th Daniel: Compared to other surrounding communities and the budget they allocated for the 4 of July fireworks, how do we compare as far as both budget and specifications that you mentioned? Stutzman: As far as the specifications go, I got, we received a lot of praise for both companies saying that this is the things that we should be asking for. This is a good amount of money for a good show. It’s not going to be you know Taste of Minnesota show, but it’s going to be a very th solid, good 4 of July show. Both companies were very excited with the budget for all 3 years. Not just the $30,000 for the big year but they were excited about you know saying hey, that’s a really good budget for this. As far as surrounding communities, I believe the article in the paper, was it last summer or 2 summers ago said we were a little above the mid point but not the highest in surrounding communities but we were on the upper echelon of that. Scharfenberg: Is there any down side to doing a multi-year contract? 3 Park and Rec Commission - February 26, 2008 Ruegemer: I mean if there is any fallout of any kind, I’ll call them escape clauses in the contract. If we’re dis-satisfied with the service and that sort of thing. That is something that we certainly can take a look at in future years. Just to take a look at, I think what I’d like to do tonight is look at the agreement for 2008 and approve that contract. There’s some wording in one of the contracts that does include the sum of $76,000 on the one contract and that is something that would need to go under a different approval process by the council… Hoffman: Per our purchasing agreement, you’re only able to approve the $30,000 contract tonight so we will not be approving the multi-year contract. Just the $30,000. Daniel: That was my question. Okay. Smith: Would the $30,000 apply for what they promised if they did not do 3 years? Stutzman: Yes. Ruegemer: Yeah, we still like to do a multi, we’ll just have to get the language differently in the contracts and to approve that for a multi year contract so. Daniel: So and really just as far as clarification, what we’re looking for is, as you mentioned, approval for a multi year contract but does not include or does not? Hoffman: No, you can only approve. Daniel: Okay, we can only do the $30,000. Hoffman: You can only approve the one year contract tonight for $30,000. Daniel: Okay. And will there be a separate process though as far as the multi year? How are we going to address that I guess? Hoffman: We’ll just come, bring you back 2009 next year and have you approve that one for $22,000. Daniel: Oh okay, I see. Smith: Which company was used last year? Stutzman: Melrose. Daniel: Okay. Smith: So are they giving you a better rate for doing a 3 year deal? Hoffman: They’ll honor our agreement. 4 Park and Rec Commission - February 26, 2008 Smith: Gentlemen’s agreement that look, we’re going to give you the 3 year deal but you know, we’re not going to sign a 3 year contract in essence. Hoffman: Yeah. John wrote this this afternoon. I didn’t have a chance to review it. We cannot award a contract in excess in of $50,000 based on this type of a bidding environment and so we can only award anything up to $50,000 in this type of a bidding process. Daniel: That should clarify it then. Hoffman: If we wanted to award a $76,000 contract tonight, we would have had to have provided a specific bidding document stating that this is the number of these shells we want to buy. These are the number of these shells and then solicit that materially priced driven basis. And that’s per state law. Scharfenberg: Does Melrose say anywhere in like what these specifications of the show are how much? Stutzman: Yep. They actually gave me an entire booklet of everything. I mean it breaks it down to shell. I can actually pass one of these things around to you guys if you’d like. Scharfenberg: From your standpoint it was more than what we would get from Holiday? Stutzman: Yes, it really is. I mean here it breaks it down actually per opening virage. The main sleigh. By shell size as well as then the grand finale as well so if you guys would like to take a look at that or pass that around. There’s all that as well. I had both companies submit things, or a proposal of that nature. Daniel: Well they did a good show last year. How long have we used Melrose? Ruegemer: 20 years. Daniel: 20 years? Hoffman: With the exception of one year when the commission and staff felt that we should test another contractor and so we did and we were very disappointed. Daniel: Are there any concerns of the fact that we have gone with Melrose, that there might be, after the third year, I’m saying 4 years from now when we go out for another contract, some resistance in bidding. Getting a true, honest bid because of our relationship with them over a longer period? Stutzman: From them or? Daniel: From anybody else. Hollywood or. 5 Park and Rec Commission - February 26, 2008 Stutzman: No. I don’t, I mean people have asked in the proposals, or when I’ve sought quotes, they’ve asked me who I’ve used in the past. I have said, I have told them you know we used Melrose last year and have been with them for a while so people do ask. It didn’t deter Hollywood at all. They still came out to meet me. Look at the site. Worked very hard on the proposal and submit that as well. Hoffman: Yeah, the real incentive here is, the year that Melrose disappoints us then we can go with the other competitors the following year. That just has not been the case. The year we switched, we were disappointed the other way. And remember when you read those shells, they can both print the same shell but they’re different powder. Different you know, all sorts of different things going into these shells and so, even though the shells were described as the same, if you put the two up side by side, they don’t look or sound nearly the same so there’s a little bit of trust that goes along with a provider in the fireworks bid. Daniel: Oh yeah. Alright. Thor, do you have any more questions? Smith: No more questions. Daniel: Dan? Steve? Scharfenberg: No. Daniel: Alright. Do you want a motion to approve or? Scharfenberg: Motion to approve the 2008 contract with Melrose North Pyrotechnics, Inc. Daniel: Second? Hoffman: For amount? Scharfenberg: For the amount of $30,000. Hoffman: Thank you. Daniel: Second. Campion: Second. th Scharfenberg moved, Campion seconded to approve the 2008 4 of July fireworks contract with Melrose North Pyrotechnics, Inc. in the amount of $30,000. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0. Stutzman: Thank you gentlemen. I do need to take off due to a prior engagement. Daniel: Thank you John. We do appreciate it. And thank you very much for working with them. Looking forward to the fireworks. 6 Park and Rec Commission - February 26, 2008 Stutzman: Me too. th Daniel: It’s hard to think about the 4 of July when it’s the end of February but it’s all about business. Stutzman: Yep. Have a good night. ESTABLISH DISCUSSION TOPICS FOR JOINT MEETING WITH CITY COUNCIL. Hoffman: Thank you Chair Daniels, members of the commission. Tonight I would recommend that you open the discussion but not conclude the discussion concerning your future joint meeting in April with the City Council. I would suggest that you go ahead and open it up amongst the 4 that are here this evening. Start the dialogue and then table that item. Bring it up again at our next meeting in March, just prior to heading up to the City Council in April. I’m not sure if we’re going to be in the first agenda in April or the second agenda. One of the two. Once we get that date, we’ll get it to you. This is the, really the, these conversations are the start of all things that happen in the parks and recreation area in the community. It might be a new capital item. It might be a new initiative or a new program, but to build that repoire with the City Council around that item. See how they respond to some of your ideas gives both the commission and staff a good working start point for some future initiatives so. On the back you have last year’s list and you can work off of that. All ideas are open for discussion and then we’ll fine tune those towards the end of this conversation at our next meeting and publish those for the council. Daniel: Steve, is there anything that you think we need to go over with this year. Scharfenberg: I would kind of going off of last year’s list I would you know kind of highlight again the lighting project because that’s going to be coming to a head here this spring and so again some thank you’s about that and the increased capacity also dove tailing with that picnic shelter that will be completed. And finally the off leash dog area. That’s fully open now and that we’re going to have an open house hopefully sometime this spring with respect to that. You know I would again going to trails, I would highlight some of the things again that we did with trails this past year and what’s coming up with, what do we have 3 segments this summer? Hoffman: Some this summer and then next summer, yep. Scharfenberg: Yeah. And you know what we had, again highlighting those segments and talking about segments into the future that we think are important that we would like to see added. And my last thing would be, would it be appropriate Todd to talk with them about the parkland or that park property south of Lyman that you know we need to talk about that what, in the next 2 to 3 years and getting that. Hoffman: Master plan started? 7 Park and Rec Commission - February 26, 2008 Scharfenberg: Master plan started and I think that’s going to be a focus of the commission over the next 2 to 3 years is that project and kind of talking maybe to them about what they foresee in that area and just opening up that conversation with them now. Daniel: Dan? Campion: I have no… Daniel: Thor? Smith: I kind of figured what Steve said, the parkland I think is really crucial to get that in front of people and start talking about what’s going to happen with that land. You know, and just continue the conversation about finishing some of the things that we’re working on and continue on down, you know adding to the missing links essentially of the trail system. Daniel: Yeah, and really I agree with you Steve as far as thank you’s are concerned. You know we accomplished quite a bit last year and I think those are things that we should highlight and thank the City Council on approving and a lot of projects were able to come to completion so and we’re looking forward to the upcoming projects this year with the new trail system right by the business park. Near Lifetime. Hoffman: Chan Nature Center. Daniel: Yep, the nature center there. That I think is going to be a really a nice highlight for us and I think that’s one thing we should certainly bring to their attention. As far as the athletic fields are concerned, and our expansion or requirement, or our capacity I should say. The capacity requirement right now, it would be certainly will bring acknowledgement to the expansion of Bluff Creek because that field will be opening for the first time this upcoming spring. With soccer probably first. Early spring soccer or T-ball? Ruegemer: It will be T-ball and softball. Daniel: So, and then obviously that’s still certainly needs to, we need to bring more attention that we have the capacity is starting to push out at what we’re able to do. I mean adding the lights is certainly going to help for some of the other ball games within Lake Ann Park but it kind of leads onto our final I guess requirement or at least future requirements for like the Holasek Farm properties and what’s going to happen with that, and if there are opportunities for that property. So again there’s very few open spaces like that available left in the city. At least that we know about in the future. So those are things we certainly could take on Todd. We can, you know if you want, we can certainly some of us talk a little bit more in detail. I can share some thoughts and maybe we can pass some emails around specifically about what we may want to address as well with them but I’m certainly looking forward to it. Excited to talk about what we accomplished last year and what we’re looking forward to do over the next 12 months here. Okay, I don’t think this requires any motion. Hoffman: Just a recommendation to table until your next meeting. 8 Park and Rec Commission - February 26, 2008 Daniel: Okay. We’ll table this until next meeting. We’ll have everything all planned out and it will be in April, correct, so we can kind of get everything finalized by March’s meeting. Okay, thank you. Hoffman: Somebody needs to move. Daniel: What’s that? Oh, so we need to move it? Hoffman: Yeah. Daniel: Alright. Smith: Motion to table the topics for the discussion for the joint meeting with the City Council. Scharfenberg: Second. Smith moved, Scharfenberg seconded to table the topics of discussion for the joint meeting with the City Council. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0. REPORTS: FEBRUARY FESTIVAL EVALUATION. Ruegemer: Thanks Chair Daniels. Just wanted to thank everybody who was down at the ice nd fishing contest and February Festival here last, what was it the 2? It was a very nice day out there. We had a great turn out. The day of sales were outstanding. That really kind of put us over the top again. This is one of our top, top years for ticket sales this year so that was a great thing. Had a great day. Wonderful event. As we kind of go through all the different kind of highlights. Chanhassen Rotary was nice enough to help us out this year with the concessions. Did a great job. Hopefully they would like to be back for next year. We certainly would welcome them back. They did a great job again with that. Just a lot of the different, you know the bonfire, we certainly would like to get a little bit more wood out there. It seemed like it did burn pretty fast and we’re talking about doing maybe 2 different locations for bonfires next year. Kind of looking ahead for that so we’ll take a look at that. S’mores cook outs, the boy scouts were busy again with the s’mores packages and the bait sale so I think people are getting used to having the bait down on the ice. That’s kind of a nice service, convenient service that we can provide for the anglers that are coming down. The sliding hill was moved this year, just with the construction of the picnic shelter out there and it might be a little bit better area. It was moved over by Field 3 in Lake Ann so it’s a nice area. We don’t have to worry about going into parking lots and that sort of thing. It’s got a nice little runoff area. The medallion hunt, that was found mid-week, prior to the event itself so it’s been a great following. I think the same person won it again. Hoffman: Same as last year. They’re professionals. 9 Park and Rec Commission - February 26, 2008 Ruegemer: So they did a great job with that. It’s nice to have the Friends of the Library involved with the event and it gives great exposure for us as well so again, the ice fishing contest. We sold 1,275 tickets this year, which is definitely up from previous years. You can kind of see the advance sales prior to the event. We only sold 293. I think people were kind of waiting to see what type of day it was going to be. A nice day certainly helps us so. Daniel: It was a perfect day. Ruegemer: So we sold close to 1,000 the day of so that was a great thing so. You know a large number of fish were caught again. Not as many northerns as we had thought or hoped but a lot of perch. Pan fish and that sort of thing here too so. General suggestions is kind of you know keep the door prizes, kind of keep everything kind of moving smoothly. Keep announcing names. Write the numbers down. It’s a process certainly to draw the names and transfer all the information out to the board itself but people really like hearing their name. Hearing their winning number for tickets and for the most part I think we only had a handful of tickets, or prizes that weren’t picked up the day of the event so that really means that people were paying attention and came up and the allocation of prizes really was a smooth transition so it worked out really good again for that and just some other things about marking the back of the tickets. You know this year I don’t know if the commission was aware of that but Bluff Creek Elementary did, do you remember those little packets that they were handing out with the little ID tags and the finger nail clippers and that sort of thing? That was just something that they approached us on. Asked if they could do that as kind of a service project and that was a great event. I wish they had more and people certainly were asking them about it so they definitely sounded interested in coming back next year with a larger quantity of the cards so that was a neat activity and addition. Daniel: Jerry, what, did it state what grade or what class? Scharfenberg: It was fourth grade. Fourth grade class, yeah. Daniel: Fourth grade, okay. And just always looking to add different events to the schedule. Just kind of engage more people. Certainly the focus is definitely the fishing contest but you know if there’s other types of activities we could get other people involved with that. We’re certainly looking at adding a bigger tent next year and kind of have a possibly little bit different layout and really kind of keep it fresh. Keep it moving forward so. And just have more capacity for the people sitting down and I think you’ve really enjoyed it. A nice day makes all the world of difference so. Just a run down. You see the ticket revenue and the different expenses for that so. With the nice weather we made close to $1,000 this year on the event so, which is good. John did a nice job on getting out and getting the sponsors and getting a lot of the prizes donated again this year so that really helps our bottom line with that so John did a nice job on getting out there. Getting that information to sponsors early. Getting the prizes collected and earmarked for the contest so. Any questions? Scharfenberg: I just want to say again, a great event run by staff. I thought it was very well organized. You know the walk up sales was you know tremendous this year, and I think 10 Park and Rec Commission - February 26, 2008 everything went really smoothly. The one comment that I heard from a lot of people, and I don’t know what you can do because you’re not going to please everyone but if somebody could take over some beer sales. There was a big request I heard a number of times from people that if they were selling beer there, they would have been happy so there was that request. Otherwise I thought it was a tremendous event. I thought that the lanyards that the school supplied and that was really neat and a fun event. Daniel: Thank you Steve. Thor. Smith: That’s what the Rotary talked about was the beer sales and wanting to think about doing that. Daniel: So is that something you guys will look at next year possibly? Smith: Yeah. Hoffman: It just was a short time line this year to go through. Daniel: Oh yeah. Yeah, understandable. Dan. Campion: No comments. Daniel: Yeah I’d like to say Jerry, it was a fantastic event. The whole staff, the park and rec department did a great job and I just, I was amazed. Last year I was able to get parking right up front right away and I had to walk practically from Prince’s place, which is a great sign to have. I mean to see all those people there, especially as you mentioned Steve, the walk-up’s. Everyone really contributing as far as ticket sales were concerned. Buying extra tickets. Getting opportunities for the prizes. So it went about as I think as perfect as it could possibly go. Hoffman: We couldn’t do it without all of your commissioners, so thanks for all your help. Daniel: Well thank you very much but you know, we just like to show up and hand out prizes. We got the easy job. Hoffman: That’s a great job. Keep it going. Daniel: So we’re looking forward to next year and we’ll keep our fingers crossed that the weather will be very cooperative. I do have one question, and I think we talked about this last year but the expenses for the Sheraton Bloomington hotel. Hoffman: Well we’re going to stop giving those rooms away to commissioners. Daniel: Couldn’t figure it out. Ruegemer: That’s for the speaker system. 11 Park and Rec Commission - February 26, 2008 Daniel: That’s what it was, okay. That’s right. Thank you. That’s all I have. I thought maybe I might have missed an after party or… No one told me. Ruegemer: You’ll be first on the list next year. Daniel: Thank you. DADDY DAUGHTER DATE NITE EVALUATION. Ruegemer: Another great event. John was pretty busy in the first part of February with the Feb Fest and the Daddy Daughter Date Night. You know always a very popular program. It fills up. You know last year we did go to Friday and Saturday night versus a Thursday and Friday night so I think that was, I think people appreciate that a little bit more so you don’t have to get up in the morning and go to school so we’re going to continue that. We certainly really tried to simplify the menu. When it first started it was kind of a sit down, mashed potatoes, two types of meats type of a wedding type of a buffet and we really kind of found through the years that kids certainly don’t, aren’t looking for a piece of chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy so we’re really trying to simplify the menu and it really adapted the food more towards the kids palate so, and it really has worked out. Used Millie’s the last 2 or 3 years. Local catering for that and it’s, the people at Millie’s Deli have been really easy to work with and they give us a good price on the food. The dance is always a fun time. The little girls get to have their dad’s or grandfathers out there and do some dancing and really have fun so that’s really a great event that once a person gets there, they do enjoy themselves. Get all dressed up and it’s a neat deal. And just other type of things, you know we improved the photography portion of the event last year. We carried that into this year. Went to more of a kind of a professional photographer. Little bit nicer keepsake with the photo and that sort of thing so that really worked out good again this year, so we’re going to keep it again Friday and Saturday night next year. Really trying to use the Rec Center, all the physical property I guess for all components of the event with the photography out in the lobby area. Use all the meeting rooms and really try to make it as efficient as possible. John really has a lot of returning staff that help out with the event every year so that really is a great benefit to him with really kind of knowing what to do and they really step up big and help out. It’s really a smooth event with that and we’re going to certainly look to increase capacity next year. We talk about capacity a lot and we’re certainly trying to do that with programs as well. It gets more people involved with the program and it satisfies more customers. They’ll have a better experience and hopefully increase a little revenue along the way as well so. Campion: What’s the age cut off for that? Ruegemer: It is 8. Hoffman: You notice there’s an error in the revenue reports. Total revenues were not carried down, if you look at the revenue page. Total revenue is $3,015. To make the math work correctly. Daniel: Regardless we’re still in the black I take it. 12 Park and Rec Commission - February 26, 2008 Hoffman: Still in the black. th Daniel: 2 for 2. Two successful. We’ll have to see how we do on the 4 of July. Hoffman: Yeah. Ruegemer: We won’t be that close. Daniel: Excellent. Steve, you have any comments? Scharfenberg: No comments. Daniel: Thor? Smith: No. Daniel: Dan? Well I don’t have any daughters. I have 2 sons so, the question, I guess just out of curiosity, is it primarily done now through word of mouth? I mean was the a bulletin? I miss something or. Ruegemer: It’s on the Connection. Daniel: Oh it’s in the, yeah okay. Hoffman: Many of the registrants are traditional, either they’re going, coming again next year or they’re talking to their neighbors so. Daniel: Okay. That’s kind of what I figured. Hoffman: One of those kind of programs. Daniel: And it’s what, youngest is 8 up to? Ruegemer: Oh, the oldest is 8. Daniel: The oldest is 8 and the youngest can be 3, 4? Ruegemer: Yeah. Daniel: Oh, so you’re not that far away Dan. Excellent. Thank you Jerry. 13 Park and Rec Commission - February 26, 2008 EASTER EGG CANDY HUNT REPORT. Ruegemer: We did touch briefly on the Easter Egg Candy Hunt but just to let the commissioners nd know that the event is coming up March 22. That Saturday at the Chanhassen Recreation Center so we’ll have J. Shawn Sweeney doing the entertaining and music again this year for the performance. John has been distributing the coloring contests and information to the schools this week, so the information is out on the streets and we certainly have it posted here at the Rec Center and up here at City Hall so. Hopefully we do have the ballfields reserved for outside so we’ll see how the weather cooperates at that point. If not we have a couple contingency plans to either trick or treat style, as people walk out or if it’s cleared up on the rinks, we certainly could do it on the rinks as well, or plan, you can certainly do it in the gym by kind of dividing people up by age groups and that sort of thing and kind of make that work as well so. Daniel: Excellent. Scharfenberg: Jerry maybe you want to just have John, since not everybody’s here tonight, email because it’s going to be before the next meeting, if people want to participate. Just to remind everybody that it’s coming up. Ruegemer: Sure. Daniel: Okay, I think that’s it. Any other questions for Jerry? Okay, thank you Jerry. COMMISSION MEMBER COMMITTEE REPORTS. None. COMMISSION MEMBER PRESENTATIONS: Scharfenberg: I just have a question for staff. Todd, what’s, 2 years ago in terms of the swing contract. Is that up this year? Is it a 2 year contract that we signed with Minnetonka? Hoffman: With Minnetonka, yep. Ruegemer: Yep, it was a 2 year contract. That was initiated in 2007 so 2008 has already been approved and then we’ll re-address the contract again in January of ’09. Scharfenberg: Oh, I thought it was ’06 that we had approved, but it was last year that we did? Ruegemer: (Yes). Scharfenberg: Alright. Hoffman: It was early in the year. January or so it seems longer. Scharfenberg: Okay. 14 Park and Rec Commission - February 26, 2008 ADMINISTRATIVE PACKET: Hoffman: The topics of oxygen levels in lakes is one that’s being discussed in the community this year and you just never know. Fish can take a lot of stress. Lake Lucy is stressed right now. Rice Marsh Lake may winter kill. Portions of Lake Susan may winter kill, but all those lakes may make it through as well. You just, it’s just very difficult to tell. This is a time of year when it really gets down to the point where it either comes back, if we get some spring, or some melt off. Some runoff and we start to get some oxygenated water back in the lake. Or if it continues to be cold, and you just have a finite amount of oxygen. When the waves stop in the fall and that ice sheet goes across, that’s it. Now you have a finite level of oxygen, quantity to use and through a variety of processes it goes away. Through a few processes you get a little bit back into the lake during the winter. Water runoff by percolation into the lake is the highest one, but we’ve had low water levels and very little rain last October but much of that was taken right up so ground water’s not present so, we’ll watch that issue. I know the homeowners on Lake Lucy are excited. The homeowners on Lake Susan are excited. The aerator that’s in place simply provides a refuge. If the fish are dying on the other side of the lake and they don’t swim over and find that refuge, they’ll still die so simply because you put an aerator in there doesn’t mean the whole lake is safe. So we’ll continue to monitor that and you’ll see it, smell it or read about it in the paper. Campion: Is it just in Lake Lucy? Hoffman: Lake Lucy. Lake Susan. Rice Marsh. All those shallow lakes are very highly susceptible. Campion: No, I mean the aerator. Hoffman: Just in Susan. We don’t have any public access. The DNR doesn’t have a public access on Lake Lucy and so there’s really no public initiative to put an aerator in there because we just don’t have public access on the lake. Daniel: What’s the depth of Lake Lucy? Hoffman: Maximum of about 17 feet. Same for Lake Susan. Rice Marsh is a little bit shallower. Maximum about 10 or 11 feet. Couple other additional administrative type items. We need applicants, both Steve and Glenn are re-applying. Paula, from what I know, is not going to choose to re-apply because of her other increase in activities on the Art Council, Historical Commission and her activities outside of the commission with the plays and her work so we have 2 for 3 spots right now and so we need some additional applicants. So please talk to your friends and neighbors. The deadline is tomorrow but it will be extended right up til we receive enough applicants for the council to interview. Adopt a park. Jill Sinclair, our Environmental Resource Coordinator brought up an idea that during Arbor Day, if the commission would like to adopt a park on an annual basis, that would be something as a good will jester to the community that members of the commission that are available that day adopt a different park each year. Go out and clean up that park so she wanted to bring that up to the commission. Have you talk about it. And then also the DNR has signed a purchase agreement 15 Park and Rec Commission - February 26, 2008 for the Seminary Fen. I may have informed some of you. The Seminary Fen is southern Chanhassen. Very, well let’s say it’s a wonderful natural resource but it’s in danger of being degraded through buck thorn and invasives and some other things so the DNR has signed a purchase agreement for 100 acres of that property and they’re going to be actively managing it through access agreements before they get the property. Before they even close on the property, so you’ll see them down there doing buck thorn cutting and prescriptive burns, controlled burns on the property yet this winter. Daniel: Now does that cover most of the fen or is there only a portion of it? Hoffman: A good percentage of it but there are other properties that they’ll continue to seek to acquire either through cash purchase or through access agreements for management. Daniel: Okay. Great. That’s great news. Scharfenberg: So the DNR will own the fen? Hoffman: The DNR will own much of the fen right now and they’re going to try to continue to either purchase or acquire, control the rest of it. Daniel: I think I talked Todd after the game, the wildlife refuge or is that national? Hoffman: No, that’s state. WMA or Wildlife Management Area and they will include the property south of Highway 212, old highway 212 in the WMA. It’s called the Reggae Wildlife Management Area. The property north, they will assemble that into a science and natural resource area. Scientific and natural resource area, which will be a different designation than the WMA. Hunting will not be allowed in the northern part. It will be in the southern part. Daniel: Really? Hoffman: It is today. Daniel: Oh, I didn’t know that. Hoffman: Sure. Yeah, archery hunting and small game hunting with a small shotgun shot is allowed in the WMA in Chanhassen. Daniel: Small shotgun shot as in a? Hoffman: #4, #6 shot. No buck shot. No rifles. No slugs. Daniel: Okay, perfect. I hope there’s pheasant down there. Hoffman: I think so. 16 Park and Rec Commission - February 26, 2008 Daniel: Okay, fantastic. Outside of that, is anything else any commissioners would like to add? Alright. Well movement to adjourn tonight’s meeting. Scharfenberg moved, Smith seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0. Submitted by Todd Hoffman Park and Rec Director Prepared by Nann Opheim 17