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PRC 2008 05 28 CHANHASSEN PARK AND RECREATION COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING MAY 28, 2008 Acting Chair Stolar called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. MEMBERS PRESENT: Glenn Stolar, Steve Scharfenberg, Scott Wendt, Thor Smith and Dan Campion. Jeff Daniel arrived late to the meeting. MEMBERS ABSENT: Tom Kelly STAFF PRESENT: Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Director; and Jerry Ruegemer, Recreation Superintendent APPROVAL OF AGENDA:Scharfenberg moved, Smith seconded to approve the agenda as presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: Stolar: Jerry or Todd anything? Hoffman: I’d just like to thank all those commissioners who were present on Monday night, and especially Steve. Commissioner Scharfenberg for all of his help from way before the event to way after the event so we appreciate that Steve, and the community is still just really engaged with that event. Everywhere I go, between now and the event and today, we heard about it earlier this morning. In the Chamber of Commerce meeting yesterday so lots of good energy around the program. Obviously the crowd was more than we anticipated at somewhere between 400 and 500 people that showed up at the park that day. Probably one of the most attractive events that I’ve seen set up in the park since the park opened and we look to grow that into a tradition so give the Legion Commander Gary Boyle and his associates and Kenny Larson, the Legion Manager a pat on the back. And do that just not in the next week or two but throughout the year as they work to build this monument and then have it be an annual event in our park each year. Smith: When is the completion date estimated? Hoffman: Well it will be completes sometime this summer think but until they get a construction, volunteer construction manager in place and have that person start to lay out a timeline, we won’t know for sure. Scharfenberg: And then dog park, right? This Saturday. Hoffman: Thank you. Yes, the mutt strut. Off leash dog park dedication. Ribbon cutting on st May 31, Saturday. 10:00 a.m. and I think the presentation starts at 10:15. The mayor plans to be there. There’ll be other people from staff there so all of you can join us, please come on out. Park and Recreation Commission - May 28, 2008 Stolar: I saw you sent a note out to Jack so. Did he respond? Hoffman: Not that I, no. I don’t recall but I wouldn’t put it past him that he’ll be there. And you know we get to this point in these milestones, it’s important to look back to what it was sitting in this chambers before that event because it seemed like a very uphill battle that just wasn’t going to get accomplished. There were letters to the editor and you know doubts among even some commissioners and council, is this something that we be in the community and everything we’ve heard since is it’s just been an overwhelming success and everybody’s behind the project so thank you for all your efforts in making it happen. Stolar: And then when did the concerts start? Do they start before our next meeting? Ruegemer: 2 weeks. Stolar: 2 weeks, okay. First one is a Thursday or Thursday night? ththth Ruegemer: Yeah. The date has escaped me. Like 10, 11, 12. Somewhere in that range. Stolar: Is that in the. Ruegemer: In the park. Stolar: Was it the Lunchtime Lyrics. Ruegemer: Yeah, Twilight Tunes and Lunchtime Lyrics. We got a nice sponsorship from the Klein Bank this year too on that. They’re contributing I think $2,500 to the program so. Stolar: Excellent. Good. And then one final question. Is the farmers market going to be starting soon? Hoffman: Saturday morning. Stolar: Saturday morning, okay. This Saturday. Opposite the dog park. Hoffman: Yeah. Come on down. Buy some farmers market produce and head out to the Lake Minnewashta Regional Park. Stolar: Great. Anything else? Summer activities are starting. Great. Thank you. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS: Stolar: We have a scout in our chambers here. Come on up and introduce yourself. Mark Jensen: Good evening. My name is Mark Jensen. I’m a boy scout with Troop 44 in Excelsior, Minnesota. I have some information packets in regards to… 2 Park and Recreation Commission - May 28, 2008 Stolar: Could you hand me another one. I’m going to give it to the Chair when he arrives here. Thank you. Hoffman: Mark, your…belt, you make it or did you buy it? Mark Jensen: Made it. Hoffman: Hey, that’s what I like. I was hoping that’s what I would hear. Only a scout. Thank you. Mark Jensen: I’d like to start out by saying I greatly appreciate the time you’ve taken tonight to hear my proposal for my Eagle project. The project I’m proposing is to take place at the Carver Beach playground, as well as the main beach of Lotus Lake. At the Carver Beach playground I intend to replace the wood on both the baseball benches present that are located along side the baseball diamond. And finish, replace the wood. Finish the new wood in a color that is on the existing benches, which is reddish brown. Along with the wood I would also like to replace the bolts that are fastening the wood to the metal supports. I do not plan on replacing the current metal supports themselves. Simply the parts above, wood and the bolts. Fasten the wood to the support. Along with the benches at the playground. Stolar: Go ahead, continue. Sorry. Mark Jensen: That’s alright. Along with the benches at the playground, I would like to plant a series of trees along the south side of the park, out from Carver Beach Road. If you would have, there. Okay, up from the road where those trees are, back beyond that way, and I would also like to plant along the right side of the path there. Along the right side of the path there I’d also like to plant some trees along the path there. There would be 3 on the left side and 4 on the right side facing that direction. I would also like to put mulch in a circular border around the base of each individual tree. This is my project at Lotus Lake Beach. I’m proposing a handrail which would be facing this direction towards the lake. The handrail I’m proposing would be on the right hand side, and then I would like to plant 25 hostas, 20 to 25 roughly, going down the left hand side to compliment the railing. The hand railing itself would run the full 46 feet 10 inches. You would probably, 46 feet 10 inches being from the top all the way to the bottom. Down the right hand side again, on the left would be hostas. The present condition, the baseball benches at the Carver Beach Park are quite worn and there’s hardly any finish on the wood surfaces. There are also signs of decay and again…as seen through the holes, scraped in the wood and so forth. The areas I’m proposing to plant the trees are currently bare and new trees would compliment those already in existence there to the extent that the areas in which I would plant them currently have no trees but there are trees around those areas. Finally the handrail at the beach is currently not existent and this installment would make the walkway easier for pedestrians and people traveling down that stairway. The method for the benches. My plan is to remove the boards and bolts currently attached to the metal supports. New nuts and bolts will be used to secure the boards. The boards will be replaced, new boards refinished in the same color as far as I can tell the benches are currently, and that’s a brownish red color. The trees will be planted along the south side of the park up from the road, as I said earlier. I plan to plant 3 on the south side half and 4 3 Park and Recreation Commission - May 28, 2008 on the north side. The handrail is just a...4 by 4 boards at roughly 10 foot intervals beginning with the first step and extending down to the last step, so I would have a board at the first step alongside and then down and then inbetween I would have other boards at 10 foot intervals going down the stair itself. After the 4 by 4’s, let’s see these are reinforced and secured by in place by digging 4 foot holes at 10 foot intervals as well as using 2 legs to connect the wood. The boards themselves to the stairway. If that is possible for me to do that. After the 4 by 4’s are secured with these…and I also have contemplated the use of Quikcrete or dirt, whichever would be best suited for that purpose. After the 5 vertical sections have been secured in place, four 2 by 4’s by 12 foot, excuse me, four 2 by 4 by 12 foot boards would be lifted on the top. Vertical sections will be have been previously cut…construction with the slope of the hill to ensure that the top part of the railing sits at the proper slope. So I would have the vertical coming down through the, or the vertical and then on top it would be sitting like so and this is where it would rest. These boards would be running across the top and then be secured to the 5 vertical boards by 2 screws for each of the boards so coming across the top, when it intersects with the vertical, it would be screwed in place and then so on down the line. I also plan on again planting 20-25 hostas along from this view it would be the right side. The left side looking down. I have the table with materials that will be needed and quantities. Hostas, 20 to 25. Trees, white ash or maple. 7. Mulch. Cedar. 7 bags. Boards for the benches, the baseball benches. Base, measures 2 inch by 12 by 16 feet 4 inches. And then the back is 2 by 12 by 16 feet 4 inches, and I would need 2 base, 2 boards for the base and 2 boards for the backs, so there’d be 4 total. Boards for the stairwell, 4 by 4 by 10 feet pre-treated. 5, and those would be for the vertical. And then four 2 by 4 by 12 foot green treated lumber as well. The nuts and bolts for the benches themselves, baseball benches at the park. Bolt lag ½ inch by 3 inches long. Would need 36 of th those. Lag screws for the hand railing. 3/8 by 5 inches deck screws for the hand railing. 6 by 3 inches. The paint again, that sort of brown color is what I’m looking for to match the previous color. On the benches it’d be an oil based paint, 2-3 gallons. Brushes. 4 inch brushes. I need 2 sand paper 150 grit and 600 grit eye packs of roughly 6 sheets per each type. I have a table with tools that will be either provided by my dad or the troop, which includes shovels, post hold diggers, circular saw, saw horses, drill, leather…and gloves. My financial plan for this project, although I do not have any exact prices at this point in time, my estimated total cost is approximately $800 to $1,000 in range. I plan to get my lumber from the Home Depot and my plans for the mulch from either the Garden Patch or Home Depot and the rest of my materials from either Ace or any other local hardware store. I’m requesting donations from these businesses but would greatly appreciate any financial assistance the city would be able to give me for those items that cannot be donated. Again I do not have any definite prices at this time but would like to discuss that issue further at another date sometime soon. And again, that $800 to $1,000 is just sort of a rough base estimate. What I’m guessing but that will fluctuate depending on donations and so forth that I receive from businesses. I have a list of safety hazards, prevention. Circular saw, it’s use will be taken by an adult or scout that’s been properly instructed in it’s use. Handrail construction, the scouts will be told how to properly use the post hole digger and other tools involved in it’s construction. The work site again, work will be done at Carver Beach playground and the main beach on Lotus Lake. The boards for the handrail will be pre-cut in my home and the boards for the benches will be pre-cut and so forth as well. I would like to once again thank you for your time and hope you will consider this project… Stolar: Okay, thank you Mark. Steve. 4 Park and Recreation Commission - May 28, 2008 Scharfenberg: Well, it sounds like a really good project. One suggestion on your hostas is maybe you want to check with the Arboretum. I don’t know if they ever split their hostas and stuff like that. That’s, I would check with them and just see if they ever split them because you know hostas you can’t kill them and they split really easy so if you get, if they ever would split them and give you some, they might donate some to you. I don’t know. I think they’ve got a hosta garden out there so. Stolar: I’ll talk to my wife. See if she’ll split some because we have tons. Any that the deer don’t eat. Scott. Wendt: Yeah, sounds like a good project. A lot of project. You’ve taken on a lot. I was just wondering about planting the trees and putting the border around it. I don’t know what kind of…that doesn’t interfere with maintenance, you know mowing or anything. Hoffman: Mulch border. Wendt: Yeah…your circling the mulch with but that’s all I had. Sounds great. Hoffman: Yeah, our standard application is just mulch. Wendt: You have no physical. Hoffman: No. Wendt: Okay. Hoffman: For the mowers. Stolar: Great. Anything else? Okay. Campion: Looks like a great project. Series of projects and I have no other input. Stolar: Thor. Smith: I think you did a good job Mark. I think you obviously put a lot of thought into it. Mark Jensen: Thank you. Smith: I think it will be a very good project. Stolar: And then nothing more to add. Just thank you. Appreciate it. It does look like a very good project so did you want us to pass along a recommendation or is this something? Hoffman: Yep. 5 Park and Recreation Commission - May 28, 2008 Stolar: Okay. Hoffman: Go ahead and make a recommendation. Another potential great source would be the Chanhassen Lion’s Club. They have a hosta garden, but they have an annual hosta sale. A couple of their members have started this garden and if you contact them about it, a contribution to the scout project. They’d probably usher you right out to the garden and let you take them. Mark Jensen: Thank you. Stolar: So do we have a motion to, for staff? Scharfenberg: I move that we adopt Mark’s project that he’s presented tonight and to work with staff in accomplishing that project. Smith: Second. Stolar: Moved and seconded. Any discussion? Scharfenberg moved, Smith seconded that the Park and Recreation Commission adopt Mark Jensen’s Eagle Scout project as presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Wendt moved, Campion seconded to approve the summary minutes of the Park and Recreation Commission meetings dated April 22, 2008 and May 14, 2008 as presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. DISCUSSION REGARDING THE NUMBER OF ATHLETIC FIELDS WITHIN THE COMMUNITY. Hoffman: Chair Stolar, would you like to start with an update from last night’s meeting? Stolar: Oh yes, I’m sorry. Yeah, why don’t we start with that. Hoffman: Well we had it lower in the agenda but as long as we’re talking about fields. Steve Pumper attended the work session last night. Council started their evening with a mock emergency. They had this planned at the council but, what’s Ed’s title? Ruegemer: Ed’s title? Hoffman: Coppersmith. Fire marshal. Ruegemer: Yeah, he’s a deputy marshal. Fire marshal. Hoffman: Deputy marshal. They had a planned mock emergency even prior to the Hugo tornadoes and the other tornadoes and so there was a tornado in the Chanhassen Hills 6 Park and Recreation Commission - May 28, 2008 neighborhood and so they started their meeting at about 4:30 with that. They were called in and so that pushed their work session items later into the evening and so this was taken up after, this item was taken up after the regular council meeting. Approximately 8:00. Steve Pumper, the Director of Finance and Operations from District 112 attended and he made his best appeal to the City Council to jump on board and partner with the school on this project. He led the council to believe that it probably will not move forward with lights or the grandstand without a contribution from the City of Chanhassen. There was about an hour’s worth of discussion at the council meeting and work session, and Councilman Litsey was very much in favor of doing the project. There was other mixed emotion amongst the other council members, and they spent most of their time discussing the fact that they did not have a positive recommendation from the Park Commission in front of them, so they felt uncomfortable about moving forward without that and that they also, there’s a front page article, opinion piece in the paper and then the public hearing and then whatever conversation was taking place in town. We had a small turn out at the meeting to talk about it. And so all and all there was some discussion about you know the council could take a leadership role in this and move it forward and provide that vision to the community. They just felt uncomfortable doing that without the support of others at their appointed commission level, and then throughout the community so. After that hour Steve was left to leave very dejected as some would say and we spoke to the district this morning. The district office and informed them officially that we were not jumping on board and that the newspaper also called to confirm that so you’ll probably see a follow-up article in this week’s paper. But that was the decision of the City Council and any questions before we move on to the other item on our agenda about that? Scharfenberg: Todd, when you say that they weren’t going to go forward with the grandstand. Is that just the roofing that we talked about? We’re still going to have the seating area up to what, I think they had 200 or 300. That will still be in place? Just the roof will be. Hoffman: May or may not be. They haven’t decided. It may just be bleachers. Scharfenberg: Okay. Okay. Hoffman: They don’t know. Because they might, the thought process now, they don’t want to invest that much money because they won’t have the opportunity to come back in. They’ve determined now and pour the footings and do those other things because they’ll just tear it up at some point in the future so. They’re still going to decide. The school board. Now that they have that news, they have to decide how they’re going to move forward. Stolar: Just for the record, I’m handing the gavel over to Chair Daniels who has joined us. Daniel: Thank you Glenn. I appreciate it Chair Stolar, or Commissioner Stolar. Let’s see, where are we at right now? Stolar: We are on number 2 of new business. Todd just gave us an update on the City Council, the work session yesterday. Daniel: Okay. Excellent, so I suppose we can move on to reports now. 7 Park and Recreation Commission - May 28, 2008 Stolar: I’m sorry, we’re starting this one. Daniel: Oh, we’re starting it. Okay. Hoffman: I was just asking any additional questions on the council action. They did not move forward with the contribution to the ballfield. Daniel: Okay. Hoffman: So the Director of Operations and Finance, Steve Pumper was there so he took that news back this morning. I spoke with Nancy Krake, Director of Community Relations this morning as well so they’ll be moving on with their project without participation from the city on that particular joint venture. Daniel: Thank you Todd. Hoffman: And then welcome Chair Daniel. How was the game? Daniel: We won 20 to 15. Pitchers dual. Hoffman: There you go. Pitchers dual? Daniel: Yes, and I’ll say for the first time in 15 years, I got an inside the park home run. And there’s been tree sap that had run faster. Stolar: Was the other team all in wheelchairs? Daniel: When you have 2 fielders coming in and it goes all the way to the fence. Scharfenberg: Delmon Young. Daniel: I’ll say it was almost needed a defibulator at home base. I’m a one base at a time type of guy. Hoffman: Well congratulations. Daniel: Anyways, it’s nice but now, can we get back to business here. Hoffman: Congratulations. Daniel: Thank you. Hoffman: Item number 2. Discussion regarding the number of athletic fields in the community. It seems an appropriate conversation based on the feedback we’ve been hearing in the community to talk just about specifically where we’re at and where we could be going with 8 Park and Recreation Commission - May 28, 2008 athletic fields in our community. This topic just has a long history and it starts with the Redbird field. You’ve heard it before. They didn’t have a field in town and they played basically on a dirt field that they blew the stumps out of and broke the windows out of Pauly’s bar and scrapped down a dirt field just north of the old St. Hubert’s church and started playing ball. The next official ballfields came in the 1960’s. The city, led by Al Klingelhutz who was really a visionary for the community at the time and still today, said that as a community we need a park and they passed a referendum which in 1969 was just about unheard of for a quarter of a million dollars to acquire Lake Ann Park. So Lake Ann Park, the first 3 fields were acquired and soon thereafter we started adding school campuses. The Chanhassen Elementary School campus, which serves as a community park. Minnetonka Middle School Campus was added. Lake Susan Park was added with the development of that industrial park, and that includes an athletic field. A baseball field. And following that again many people in the community thought we were a little bit off of our rocker buying 40 acres for an elementary school but again there was a vision to include not only just an elementary school but a recreation center and a park for the community and so that worked out. That land on Highway 5. Obviously it was a bargain back when the city acquired that compared to what you would have to pay today. And then in, most recently in 1999 Bandimere Community Park was developed after the land was purchased 10 years prior in a successful referendum, park referendum in 1989. Again just an unbelievable bargain at $185,000 for 32 acres of ballfield space. Something that just will never happen again today. In fact you couldn’t buy the first acre for that amount of money. Today, together these facilities contain 28 ballfields. Utilized for everything from baseball, softball, football, lacrosse. We’ve heard from our missing commission member, Tom Kelly that tonight he’s out coaching single handedly 53 lacrosse players on a single team so lacrosse is now a big player in our community as well. We round this number off of 28 to another, to 32 by adding fields currently in use at “neighborhood park”. Meadow Green, Sunset Ridge, North Lotus and we reach a total number of program fields at 32. If you want to start to compare this to some national standards of what’s going on elsewhere in the communities regionally and you can clearly see that we far exceed, as do most communities in the metropolitan area, any national standards of 1 field for soccer per 5,000 residents or for baseball and for soccer 1 field for 10,000 residents so we’re well above that. We’ve attached some documentation for you to look at and to ponder. The spring-summer schedule for 2008 for baseball/softball. It shows the split of what’s going on out on our fields, both in the evening and then the after school. You can see that the after school programming taking place from 3:30 to 5:30 is primarily St. Hubert’s and Chapel Hill, and then the evening schedule is dominated by CAA with adult softball and the other groups filling out the schedule. There are also some youth athletic surveys which Jerry has provided and these are a form of communication with our athletic associations to give them the opportunity to communicate with us. Their thoughts about athletic fields within the city. There are no easy answers at this point but we need to start somewhere with the conversation so I wanted to allow the commission a chance to do that this evening. We’re certainly not looking for you know a solution or even a recommendation tonight but I wanted to start the conversation and allow you to do that so. That’s where we’re at Chair Daniels and I’ll leave it up to you as Chair to direct that conversation. Daniel: Thank you Todd. What I’d like to do is probably pass it off to the commissioners first and get some input. I certainly have some input as well. Start with Thor. 9 Park and Recreation Commission - May 28, 2008 Smith: My question is, is there within the parks we have now, is there any adjacent properties to them that, I mean that can be even looked at for acquisition or expansion of the parks? Hoffman: We acquired and expanded City Center Park with the 2 fields to the north, off of the Hansen property. And beyond that, Lake Ann there’s property to the west. That’s Mike Gorra which, you wouldn’t expand directly to it but if you acquired that property, it’s adjacent to Lake Ann Park. Bandimere’s fairly well landlocked with the exception of we will be talking about the 2 lots to the north. Smith: But that’s not enough for another ballfield. Hoffman: Lake Susan, fairly well landlocked. You can’t add ballfields there so we’re limited to expanding with the exception of Lake Ann. Or potential expansion. Scharfenberg: Maybe just as a suggestion, could we have Jerry just give us maybe a little bit of background on how he does the scheduling because I think Jerry’s the primary one that does it and maybe just so everyone is under the same understanding as to how that’s done. Ruegemer: Sure. No problem. Yeah, just for a little background for the commission. Basically what happens is, invitation letters go out to all the associations who’ve had a use in the past in about December or early January. Letters go out. Applications are also included with the letters. Applications are typically due then within about a month after the letters go out. So after that it kind of comes back. I ask them to include participants either by that time, a lot of times the registration process hasn’t closed for the current year so we base our numbers and allocation on the previous year. So a lot of times when the field meeting was this year in February, we based our numbers or allocations on 2007 numbers. That makes it a little bit easier and then you basically it’s, you know it’s kind of what your average percentage of growth is and then we can kind of factor some of that kind of information as well. So as I say letters go out. I review the applications from all the associations from soccer, lacrosse, private schools, baseball, softball groups. All that kind of goes into kind of a big kitty so to speak, and for the most part you know a lot of that stuff kind of works it’s way out. Just from previous years with allocation patterns that we’ve had throughout the course of the year so for the most part it doesn’t change drastically from year to year you know because we really try to base it on highest percentage of residents and highest number of residents so that’s really why CAA does get a lot of the kind of the highest percentage of allocation throughout the course of our athletic fields that we have. So that’s basically kind of what happens then. We get together, as all the groups. We had everybody together again this year. Soccer, lacrosse, baseball. We certainly invite the private schools, Chapel Hill and St. Hubert’s together with that because a lot of the scheduling overlaps with the community based groups. With expansion of games for the private schools. You know sometimes it’s hard to start at 3:30. We start at 4:00 or 4:15. We’re going to be kind of pushing the 5:30 timeframe. Can we work it out to be there until 6:00? No problem. It’s best to do that early when everybody’s kind of in the allocation, cooperation mode, and that has worked out very well. It’s worked out well that there’s overlap and friendships on both sides of the fence with different associations so I’ve got to tell you the groups that are presently in place right now, between all the different various groups. Not only Minnetonka but Chaska groups, everybody’s really, really working well together and that’s taken a lot of time and years to get to that point. It 10 Park and Recreation Commission - May 28, 2008 certainly changes, there’s dynamics that change on an annual basis when it comes to different board members and different people doing the field requests and that from the associations but you know it’s really working in the right direction now. There’s talk about you know combining some programs possibly in the future between some different groups so knowing that, and I’ve worked hard at that as far as kind of bringing people together and encouraging people to talk outside that forum to help themselves. You know go, before the meeting I encourage, why don’t you guys talk and your two groups talk and see if we can kind of work this out before we get to the meeting and a lot of times that works and it helps that people are, we’ve already talked about this or we’re going to give up this night and they can have this night and that’s really the spirit of cooperation because if we’re basing it straight on numbers, there’s a lot of associations around town that wouldn’t get anything so as you can kind of see through some of the surveys, I certainly have been accused of being too fair in the past and I’m okay with that because you know what, I think I owe it to the people who are coming into those meetings, whether we have you know a handful of residents or 700 residents, everybody has a right to our fields and I try to do my best to allocate those in a fair and equitable type of a manner so you know I’ve worked hard at that for 18 years and I think that’s paying off hopefully so. But you know, there isn’t ever enough. There certainly is with the addition of the fields at Lake Ann, that certainly helped, or the lights at Lake Ann have definitely helped this year and that certainly was a great addition. That made my life a lot easier with the soccer as well for Minnetonka using Lake Ann so. Stolar: Can you explain how much, how many more activities you were able to add because of those lights? Ruegemer: Well you know it’s hard to say just off hand but certainly we doubled the capacity at Lake Ann. Stolar: Oh you did? Okay. Ruegemer: Absolutely. There’s 2 to 3 games going every night on the fields at Lake Ann through CAA and through the Chaska Area Youth Baseball. Stolar: Okay, great. Ruegemer: With that. Yeah, the lights are on every night. Daniel: I noticed that coming over the bridge a few weeks ago. I didn’t think the airport lit up that much. It was incredible to see you know the views. I mean you can see it as you come into Chan. I mean as you’re going over the bridge past Target there. It’s amazing. Just the amount of people that are still working there. I mean it’s a wonderful aspect. Ruegemer: Yeah, it’s been a great addition and I’ve certainly been working with, not only our adult umpires during the evenings and also the youth associations. They have kind of field coordinators on a daily basis, Monday through Friday that are in charge of going out there at you know 9:30, quarter to 10:00. Whenever the games are over with for the night to shut their field lights off, and I’ve certainly been doing that with our adult umpires. And I’ve trained them too to go out and kind of look around the park. If there’s nobody on Field 1 or Field 2, shut the 11 Park and Recreation Commission - May 28, 2008 lights off. I’m certainly trying to be aware of the power needs and the meter spinning on the park and I’m certainly trying to be responsible for that to keep an eye on that as well. Campion: How many more viable opportunities might there be within the park system to add lights at other fields? Ruegemer: Well Lake Ann certainly we’re done at Lake Ann but you know, anything I think along the Highway 5 corridor, away from neighborhoods is a good option for us. You know the Chan Rec Center certainly is an area that could be looked at for that. It certainly helped adding a sixth field out there for this summer. That has helped out tremendously and with that to help with capacity. You know the girls softball program for CAA is primarily playing out there for there and it’s nice to have the young softball players, the girls have a nice place to play too. Stolar: What about Lake Susan? Again I know we have many different visions for Lake Susan but all of them would include at some point potentially putting on lights right? Scharfenberg: You think about Bandimere first because of the, at least lighting 3 fields there as opposed to lighting 1 at Lake Susan. Stolar: But wasn’t there an issue with the neighbors for Bandimere or is that. Hoffman: There will be. Scharfenberg: There will be yeah. Stolar: But we wouldn’t have that with Lake Susan. Scharfenberg: No. Probably not. Smith: Well you’re going to get some from no matter what but not nearly. Stolar: Not nearly as much. Smith: Yeah. Daniel: I think you know with City Center, certainly there shouldn’t be any objection because it’s primarily commercial with exception of the residential along, is that West Lake Road there? Hoffman: Chan Rec Center? Daniel: For the Chan Rec Center. I mean that’s. Hoffman: Yeah, the one thing about the rec center is it sees a lot of smaller kid use and so at Lake Ann you have a, some double benefit there because you’re playing a lot of adult games. 12 Park and Recreation Commission - May 28, 2008 Daniel: But certainly, I agree with you Steve that if there’d be any expansion of lights, I think we have to grant a variance and just go ahead and try to push something through with Bandimere as far as capacity, if we were to move forward with lights. I think the next step would be possibly Lake Susan before we get to Chan Rec because exactly Todd, what you said. Age on that. I mean they’re primarily, with the exception of softball. The woman’s softball but especially in the summer time right now, it’s youth soccer. I have seen is primarily with the younger kids. 8 years old and younger and at 8:00 at they’re not going to be starting a game I don’t think. During the school season when we could use those lights or use that capacity. Smith: But with lights would they have to be youth there? Hoffman; They’re just the size of the fields. Unless you turn them into senior expansion. Or did you say youth there for lights? Ruegemer: At? Hoffman: Rec Center. Ruegemer: Rec Center. The only thing is certainly not so much for the summertime but for fall soccer programs and that sort of thing where light is an issue. Stolar: That’s what I was thinking at that one. And I don’t know if we have the same, I know it’s probably worst in the summer but we also have an issue in the fall that there isn’t enough capacity for some of the youth events after school in the fall. And that’s where it would help I think at the rec because I have played in the dark and my kids play in the dark there. Daniel: Oh I have soccer as well. Stolar: Yeah exactly, and that would be helpful. Not thinking beyond just baseball but for some of those programs. What about, I know it’s not our property but the Instant Web site? Is that also an issue in the fall that that would be, for the lacrosse and some of those other practices to get them expanded. Hoffman: I think we’re going to take a move to invest lights at that location. Purchase the location? Stolar: Well that’s longer term if that’s something that happens that would be a potential because it is a main lacrosse site for us correct? Daniel: And I think that kind of leads into conversation of land acquisition as well. I mean taking a look at potential sites, you know we’ve all had our discussions I think amongst us here for the athletic field, or at least the capacity that we have right now and expanding beyond that. My thoughts obviously with regards to land acquisition and the cost of land right now, maybe it might be at a bargain compared to what it was a couple years ago. Maybe not. I don’t know. Certainly the market will determine that but there are some sites, and I think you’ve mentioned Todd as far as future visits, as far as where we can potentially take a look at and so you know, 13 Park and Recreation Commission - May 28, 2008 maybe we might want to shift because I think we are, there’s really what in my mind see and envision really 3 issues with regards to capacity and one being outright acquisition of property for future capacity of ballfields, parks. Two, it can be more of a partnership with future development, developments of property. Much what we do as far as where we get a certain percentage or allocation towards us for community parks and maybe working something out with a developer to build something a little bit larger if it would allow. And then I think really the third issue as far as expansion of capacity would be evaluation of existing parks that we have right now. Taking away from the main parks, the Bandimere, the City, Bandimere, City Center, Chan Rec and Lake Ann, you know we’ve gone down I think this path before. Evaluating other parks as far as off shooting from Curry Farms first time in 5 years because finally it’s not a swamp. You know where I’ve seen soccer game used at least 3-4 days a week now. Actually 2 days a week, excuse me. Now Pheasant Hills is being used constantly, so other parks as far as where we can possibly expand capacity so I think those would be really the 3 main areas as far as where we could evaluate beyond what we already have in place. So you know continue the discussion. Thor, is there anything else that you want to add? Smith: What has the conversation been, or already has been with Instant Web about that property? What their long term goals are with it or, does anyone know or? Hoffman: It always was to hold onto it until they have a buyer. It’s priced at the square foot level so it would be an expensive single field. One thing you know we’ve been very blessed to be able to use it for this long so. How many years is it now? Ruegemer: Oh it’s 10 plus. Hoffman: Yeah, so you take the 10 plus years of free use and then you stop and you say okay. If they approach us and say you know we’ve considering selling this, putting this property back on the market or actively seeking, would you be interested? You’d either have to say okay, we’ve been very lucky for 10 years. You know let’s cut our losses and leave or you have to go to the bank and take out the loan and buy one very expensive ballfield. One location. One ballfield is very inefficient but being that it’s free we’ve been you know willing to go ahead and do that so. Purchasing one lot for one ballfield per square foot price, that would be in the neighborhood of probably half a million dollars an acre. It’d be an expensive ballfield. We studied it a couple times over the years and really, when you get right down to it, you’d want to pull up a checkbook, it doesn’t, it would be difficult to do. But it could be done. Daniel: I don’t think we need to hold our breath on the generosity either. It’s business. That’s a business park and it’s designed what it is and I couldn’t agree more. We’re very lucky to have something like that available, and continue to be available and let’s just keep our fingers crossed every season. Dan. Campion: The only question I have is, when we were discussing the, part of us before the town ball team, is converting the archery potentially to a ballfield or something along those lines. 14 Park and Recreation Commission - May 28, 2008 Hoffman: Just at the Lake Susan, if we would turn it into a town baseball field, we would start to lose the other uses in the park because of the expansion that would be necessary for grandstands, parking. Campion: Oh but that would not add any other fields? Hoffman: No. It would just, the whole park would be really taken apart, dismantled and then rebuilt into basically a baseball stadium with parking all the way around it. Campion: Okay. Hoffman: And a grandstand. Stolar: A few things. One, with the lights on Lake Ann are we now going to be, have we historically offered fall ball over in Lake Ann? Ruegemer: Adult softball? Stolar: No fall ball, like fall Little League. Ruegemer: There has been fall baseball games played for probably about the last 8 to 10 years. Stolar: Okay. So that would also, the lights will help expand that so they can do more because I know that becomes an issue in fall ball as you’re starting your October games. Most of them, we’re in the Minnetonka leagues. Most of them don’t have lights so you run out of opportunities and I will say, just a couple feedback points. I saw Todd Neils at Bennett Park where his team was playing. I have a friend on that team. Friend’s kid on the team and he was saying how much he really liked the lights over at Lake Ann. Then I also was talking to some kids who only play at Bennett who now are in leagues that play against Chan Athletic and they played over here at Lake Ann and they really loved it. They were like oh wow, they have lights there. That’s so cool. But they didn’t get to play under the lights. I said maybe we’ll get one time when we can play under the lights so I think it’s added a lot of excitement, I think even outside of those that normally play there. It’s a classic. I can’t say that I haven’t, I’ve heard as much about things at Bennett Park as I have about the Lake Ann lights because everyone’s like well why can’t we get lights here like Lake Ann. Right? So I thought that’s great. Regarding you know overall land acquisition, which I know is a little bit beyond this. Just a general question. Is there, is the city allowed to ask for bonding authority without actually doing the bonding until something comes up? Is that a possible option? Hoffman: Sure. Stolar: Because we talk about possibilities but we all know that there’s really nothing that’s laying at our feet here that says if you need it you know here it is. But at the same time when it comes we may not have a large amount of time for turn around. Campion: Yeah, it’d be nice to be ready. 15 Park and Recreation Commission - May 28, 2008 Stolar: Yeah, that’s the one question on that. I think didn’t we do that with one of the previous referendums? They didn’t buy it til later. Hoffman: Purchased the land til later? Stolar: Yeah. Hoffman: Most all cases, once the referendum is passed, then we go ahead and secure the purchase agreements and then go ahead and purchase land so it’s about a year and a half to 2 year lapse. Stolar: Okay. But it’s never been done yet where we’ve just had the authorization to bond. We don’t even have the land identified or anything like that. Hoffman: And the council is talking about construction of a public works building right now. They have approved in a budget item $7 million for expansion of a public works building or a new public works building in the future, so that’s just sitting there. Until a project is approved they won’t go out and go ahead and bond so if the council would like to authorize acquisition of 60 acres of land for ballfield use and then get a price, you could make recommendations. Put that in the budget and then when we go out and acquire something like that, if they want to approve that as a part of their bonding, they can do that. Stolar: And then is there, so you just mentioned public works building but is there a broader need than just ballfields that we would want to incorporate or attach to that. That makes sense so like if they have to get this public works building, is it going to be on a large enough lot that you might just add onto it. Hoffman: Well they’re considering two sites for right now for public works. The existing site, plus the building to the east and then the Park Road, if you’re familiar with the Park Road property. Right now it’s kind of a bone yard and a storage area for us. It’s just directly behind Prince’s studio down on Park Place down there. The city owns that property so those are the two locations we’re looking at. One of the barriers to the approval process is, or excuse me. One of the benefits to the current proposal, or two proposals, is you don’t have to go out and buy a site and I think the council appreciates that. If you had a 20 or 30 acre site in front of them with a cash value of that, it would be much more difficult, and $7,000 isn’t going to make the grade so. Even though that’s a possibility, I don’t think it’s something, it’s not something they’ve talked about. Not at this time. Daniel: Steve. Scharfenberg: Jerry, do you know or can you, have any information in terms of scheduling and how Chaska, is their process similar to what we do or do they use a different process? And just speaking primarily to CAA, do you know if they’re part of that because right off hand I don’t know of any CAA teams that are necessarily playing over and using any of the Chaska fields and can you speak to that? 16 Park and Recreation Commission - May 28, 2008 Ruegemer: I sure can. Chaska’s process is similar to our’s. The kind of the framework is out there. We have been meeting as cities, Victoria, Carver, Chaska and Chanhassen about the last 2 to 3 years so we get together once we all get our applications. We’re pretty much already in sync with our kind of letter dates. When our completion dates are so once we have all of our applications and request back, we all get together as a city, or cities, and kind of go through it just to make sure that okay, CAA requested 7 days a week at this field and da, da, da, da so kind of what we’re doing with cities now, we’re kind of keeping people honest and they know that we’re keeping them honest by talking to other different cities or communicating our request to them. Them to us so we’re kind of basically, so people, what we’re trying to do is make sure that people are you know being fair in their request and that they’re not you know kind of stock piling their different fields and other people are kind of getting the shaft in other communities so we’re keeping people honest with that. As far as you know, we’re in a unique situation here with 2 different school districts. Certainly that we have Minnetonka school district. Chanhassen people requesting space in Chanhassen. Chaska’s a little bit different, just having the one school district so it’s a little bit easier for them to allocate just school district wide for them. So they’ve kind of been in the past you know allocating amounts of space to certain groups within their community and certainly what we’re trying to do is kind of around their vision a little bit on that for Chanhassen kids that go to the Chaska school district certainly to have equal access to that allocation process, and that is, we’re starting to make some strides on that as well. Now to my knowledge I believe CAA had gotten some field space at the high school this year for that. So you know kind of some of that process is changing with that. There’s been cooperation on both sides to kind of move towards a common purpose. Scharfenberg: I see at Bandimere, I mean it’s pretty much all scheduled for Chaska youth baseball, although both of those fields are, with the exception of the softball field, are primarily used by CAYB. Ruegemer: Yeah, and Tonka Babe Ruth. Scharfenberg: Yeah, okay. Ruegemer: And part of that process is too is age. Numbers by age. You know certainly the Chaska area youth baseball and Tonka Babe Ruth have kids that are more suited for those size of fields. Scharfenberg: Okay. Ruegemer: Because Bandimere #2 is a 90 foot field. Bandimere #3 is a 75 foot field. CAA is kind of in the infant stages of developing those programs for those age groups, but right now they’re not really there yet so in the future that certainly will be an. Scharfenberg: An issue. Ruegemer: Yep. If we had more 75 foot fields, even 90 foot fields, that would certainly help out in the process. 17 Park and Recreation Commission - May 28, 2008 Scharfenberg: How many, do we have two 90 foot fields? Lake Susan and then. Ruegemer: Bandimere. Scharfenberg: And Bandimere. Ruegemer: Yep. Scharfenberg: I know because that’s an issue talking to Eden Prairie that they I think only had one 90 foot field and that’s why they did you know the project that they did and so with, well we’ll have an additional with the high school. We’ll have at least three 90 foot fields then available to us. Ruegemer: Yeah, Lake Ann can go 90. Lake Ann #1 can go 75-90 but primarily that’s been a 75 foot field or younger. 60 foot field for girls softball. 9’s and 10’s. Baseball and that sort of thing. Scharfenberg: Okay. Daniel: Yeah, in Eden Prairie, I mean unfortunately 212 took away their second at the old high school…so yeah, I think they’re still only down to one in the entire community. I don’t think even Starring Lake even has…potentially 3 which will be nice. Scharfenberg: My only other thing is, I rode by Rice Marsh Park baseball field. Can somebody drag that and get the weeds off of there? I mean it looked like it was almost totally covered with weeds the other day. If they could drag. If they could drag that just so people can use it down in that area, that would be great. But I don’t know if they’d have to spray first or not but. Daniel: Scott. Wendt: I was wondering, the City’s talking about building a fire station along 212, right? I’m guessing it’s too small but I was going to say if we could piggy back along that site and have a soccer lacrosse field that they could use for open space for training. Hoffman: Your first guess was right. Wendt: Okay. Thought so. Daniel: That’s a free piece of land isn’t it? Hoffman: From MnDot, yeah. Well, it has a purchase price attached to it but it’s a reasonable price. Wendt: Yeah, I was wondering if there’s any space along there. 18 Park and Recreation Commission - May 28, 2008 Hoffman: Along 212? There may be. Some of the properties. Some of the vacant properties remaining in the community are certainly along Highway 212 so those properties would be in our search area. Wendt: Okay. And then any neighborhoods parks where we could squeeze in lacrosse, soccer any more? Hoffman: Yeah, why don’t you talk a little bit about the past history of neighborhood park use and where we went to. Ruegemer: Okay. You know early on, kind of the early 90’s, late 80’s, early 90’s a lot of these CAA types of activities, local activities were played in neighborhood parks such as Rice Marsh, Carver Beach. Certainly. Hoffman: Meadow Green. Ruegemer: Meadow Green. A lot of these areas that have been around. It kind of as the community evolved and some of these other fields came on line such as City Center Park and the Chan Rec Center, it was kind of our conversation with the neighborhoods then that we would kind of pull those scheduled types of activities out of the neighborhood parks and focus more on community type of parks where we have more parking and it wouldn’t impact their lives as much as people parking on grass and garbage issues and a lot of those type of things so, so that’s kind of the conversation we’ve had in the past to pull out so I don’t schedule anything in like Rice Marsh, Carver Beach, some of those. Chanhassen Hills. Some of those areas that are more kind of neighborhood type of areas. Certainly they are being used. You know Pheasant Hills, Curry Farms. A lot of the associations, whether it’s soccer or baseball, are finding those open areas and kind of going and using then, that’s kind of their little jewel, hidden jewel that nobody else really kind of knows about but I do not actively schedule those. Wendt: Sounds good. And then I guess just a suggestion I guess, you could prioritize what our next lighting project would be. Have some discussion on that when the time comes. That’s all. Daniel: Thanks Scott. And you know Jerry I guess my only comment with regards to the community parks, especially for youth baseball. I don’t know how it is on East Tonka but I know for South Tonka, they’re active over at Cathcart, which is a community park. Manitou and you know Freeman’s actually a ballfield but Minnewashta even at the school but they’re much involved in trying to schedule some of those community parks for that type of age group. And certainly if there’s any pressure, and maybe we might want to evaluate possible Carver Beach and Chanhassen Hills for that age group. You know typically they’re done by 7:15. 5:30 to 7:15 type of thing. I think from South Tonka’s perspective, if we’re really well, again because you only have a couple teams, or at least 2 teams at one time playing at those parks. The parking doesn’t seem to be too impacted, although Cathcart got pretty busy the other day. Parking on the grass was the only thing left because there’s no road space at all on the side there. That’s a different use but maybe that’s, again down the road if we have to use that card. That’s something we can always hold in our back pocket for those age groups. Youth softball, youth baseball and maybe 10 years, between the 7, 8, 9, 10 year old age down the road here so. With 19 Park and Recreation Commission - May 28, 2008 that being said, I think as far as the community parks, I don’t know if there’s any motion Todd that we need to make. Again my input, I think it’s nice to have the discussion now because again we need to have some vision coming up here with our demand. Especially with the expansion, although thankfully right now development has kind of stalled, or stagnant but certainly when the economy and the market starts to pick up again, those projects that are on board will start to take off and then we’ll have more demand as our district expands, as our programs start to expand and we need to be prepared so. Scharfenberg: Well I think we’ve got to think about it too is that, as Todd has indicated, the demand is going to be there next year, or in 2 years when that high school opens up because the high school’s going to put pressure on us again, and Jerry just for scheduling purposes that they’re not going to be able to, you know they have one 90 foot field at the high school. They’re going to have JV teams and freshmen teams and other teams that are going to be saying, we need space and they’re going to be coming so that conversation may be coming sooner than we expect about. Daniel: Sure, yep. Scharfenberg: And I agree with you Jeff that we may have to look at opening up some of those neighborhood parks and having conversations with the neighborhoods and saying you know what, we want to try this out. You know come back to us within a year and tell us what the parking problems or stuff, but they’re going to, you know it’s going to be here in 2 years when that high school opens up. There’s going to be a demand for lacrosse and soccer and, because they don’t have the capacity themselves to house a lot of those teams. Stolar: That’s also where some of the lights might come in because it’s a little bit older group that can do a little bit later and during the school year getting capacity. But like right now if they wanted to, you know with Lake Ann even right? One of those fields could be opened for our, if they’re practicing in the spring at night. Wendt: With lighting Bandimere, how many fields would you, would all of them be lit? Hoffman: You could potentially light all 6, and we did have conversation with the developer of Springfield when those lights when in. There is some language in there deed that says this is a park that will be lit in the future, but lighting those 2 soccer fields that are sandwiched back in those housing developments would be, we would all be right in here with the City Council and all the residents and all the council right up there. Scharfenberg: You would think they were mad about the Harley-Davidson dealership. They’ll be really mad about this. Hoffman: You would have to be advocating very strongly and you would have to, every athletic association in your back pocket and it would be. In my view it was either, you would have had to put them in right off the bat. I mean there are housing developments that close to athletic. What’s the school in Chaska has it right there. Over at Clover Ridge. 20 Park and Recreation Commission - May 28, 2008 Daniel: Clover Ridge, yeah. Hoffman: Guarantee you can shut your lights off when you turn those ballfield, or those soccer fields lights on for the ballfield lights because it’s very bright in those homes that surround that right there. But you could light the 3 baseball fields with less impact. And then back out to the rec center quickly. Highway 5 is going to be an issue and lighting the recreation center fields may or may not be possible because of the glare. Stolar: What about on the other, not on the fields that are close to 5 but what about on the other side? Hoffman: We only have 1 there. Stolar: Right, but we, for soccer as an example. We have, is that usable? Hoffman: They’re all along 5 and then there’s one field that’s offset. Ruegemer: That’s right behind the tennis courts. Hoffman: Would be a challenge. Some of the newer lighter systems, the musco system may be able to accommodate it. There’d certainly be a study before we would do that. Chair Daniels my suggestion is we just wrap some of these sites into our tour for June and take a look at that. Daniel: I think we should do that. Let’s do that. Okay. Thank you Todd. Thank you gentlemen. Let’s go into reports. REPORTS: RECREATION PROGRAMS: LAKE ANN PARK SUMMER SCHEDULE. Ruegemer: Yeah just a real kind of a brief synopsis of kind of where we’re at at this point. We did open up the Lake Ann concession building last weekend here for the summer so we’re open all 3 days out there with boat rentals and food sales. That sort of thing so that’s going to be open up 11:00 in the day to about 7:00 through the end of July and then August we go back to 6:00 close. Kind of with the attendance kind of waning and falling off with school and last minute vacations and that sort of thing here so. Picnic phone calls certainly have been increasing now with the weather getting nice. Pretty much a lot of the weekends in July and August are booked Saturday and Sunday at Lake Susan and Lake Ann. We’re waiting on the completion of the new Parkview picnic shelter. We certainly could have been booking that already had it been st completed at this point, but we’re going to hopefully get that open around July 1 for that and th then, because I think we have a picnic scheduled July 10 so we’re kind of taking a leap of faith there so we’re keeping our fingers crossed with that. It’s looking beautiful at this point. I was just out at Lake Ann about 7:00 tonight and they were working on it tonight. Looks like some final grading out there and hopefully with the anticipation of the sod going down here hopefully by the end of the week. So that really is taking shape out there so. 21 Park and Recreation Commission - May 28, 2008 Stolar: Does that construction company have a penalty because of not hitting a certain date or that was not a part of that? Hoffman: It was a part of it and we had planned on implementing that May 1. They requested a th May 15 date. My response back was that I wouldn’t extend it until we were sure they were th making good progress between May 1 and May 15, or up until May 1. We also had an agreement, they had 4, they did half the concrete and we rejected it and so that was a big hit that they took out of their part so as long as they were willing, they weren’t happy about it but they were willing to take it out. They knew that we rejected it. They said we would not impose liquidated damages as long as they made good progress and finished up as scheduled their project. The real problem came in is that they were not aware or forgot or something, the need to hook up to Xcel power and so now we are out potentially 6 to 8 weeks starting about 2 weeks ago to have power brought out to that building and so we are starting with it as damages now this Friday. $600 a day and so our response, my response to the contractor is, you’re going to be paying the City of Chanhassen $600.00 a day. If the month goes by, that’s $18,000 out of your pocket on your contract so you may as well start calling Xcel and offering cash incentives to them to make this faster because the cash is either going to go to us or them or both so. We’re very concerned and very upset with the contractor and it may even get more difficult before it’s all said and done because it does truly look like they simply just were not aware of this bid item. The contract I received in error from Xcel was for $16,000 to run that power to the building. Their total electrical line item on their bid for all the electrical work was $18,000 so they’re probably going to be out this additional $16,000 plus to finish up the project. So we’re going to have some challenges. We’re meeting tomorrow morning at 8:30 to go over all these issues with Sonnerheim Construction is the contractor so, and the clock starts on the $600 a day on Friday. Daniel: Ouch. Stolar: Is there a risk they might just walk away? Hoffman: It’s always a risk, yeah. Ruegemer: And on a brighter note. Hoffman: Reality stinks. th Ruegemer: June 7 the beach will open up again. Lifeguards will be on duty from 10:30 to 8:00 on a daily basis. Minnetonka is going to be providing that service again for us. We have a couple school groups coming out next week for picnics. Scenic Heights Elementary is coming out from the Minnetonka School District. Middle School West is coming out next Tuesday and Thursday. We’ll have a senior group out there on Wednesday and a school from Eden Prairie is coming on Friday so we seem to be kind of the destination for the last days of school. People come out and rent paddle boats and have picnics and that sort of thing so we’ll have staff on duty about 9:00-9:30 those days to offer that service to our customers. Scharfenberg: And the lifeguards have been warned to look out for secret campers at Lake Ann? 22 Park and Recreation Commission - May 28, 2008 Ruegemer: I think that issue has been resolved Commissioner Scharfenberg. Daniel: There’s a joke somewhere on that driving commercial. I swear to god that was based off of everything that happened last year. The lifeguard walking out on the water and the guy swimming and he turns around, oh hold on. It’s getting a little cold. Alright, so we can move on to the 2008 summer programs. 2008 SUMMER PROGRAMS. Ruegemer: Just a general, just a description kind of the programs that were offered for the summer and we certainly don’t have to go through this. It’s more of an informational item for the commission. THTH JULY 4 25 ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATIVE BROCHURE. Ruegemer: What I did was, this is a great project that’s been coordinated certainly the City of Chanhassen, the Southwest Publishing of the Chanhassen Villager has been on board with this. Meetings started in January for this kind of commemorative brochure. The one that’s attached to your packet item tonight was the one that last week, the one that I put on your work stations tonight is the final one that is at print right now and that includes the ads that the Villager sold to make this work for them on their end so. There’s a number of different ads in there from Byerly’s to Houlihan’s to Eden Trace Corporation to the Dinner Theater. A lot of those type of ads that were in place, and I have the color one is anybody would like to look at that, and this is what it’s going to look like, and that will be distributed in the Villager next Thursday. I believe, th is that June 4? thth Hoffman: 4. 5 I believe. Ruegemer: So they’re extremely pleased. We’re extremely pleased on the way that turned out. Very happy to have that partnership with Southwest Publishing and they really embraced it. It was certainly a lot of work that went into that but it’s going to be really neat for us to kind of look back at it in the future. There’s a lot of history. A lot of personal testimony. A lot of interviews from certainly residents and community organizations. It’s going to be really a fun piece to talk about for many years to come so. Hoffman: And a quote from Chair Daniels. Daniel: I saw that. John had quick contacted me and needed something right away and boom. The pressure. Ruegemer: So we’re very, very pleased on the way it turned out and the framed shirts. A picture of that in there and old Frontier Days pictures and a lot of fun pictures through the years and brought back a lot of memories just looking back at some of the pictures. I remember most but I didn’t remember some of the events that took place but. 23 Park and Recreation Commission - May 28, 2008 Daniel: Well I can say that definitely based off the 1984 picture, we’ve upgraded the band. Ruegemer: We don’t need speakers on the cars anymore. Daniel: No we don’t. That’s good news. Scharfenberg: I want to bring back the steak fry for $2.50. Hoffman: Yeah. Isn’t that something? Ruegemer: It was really fun just looking back at a lot of the old pictures. Daniel: This is fantastic and as far as, this is going to be distributed within the Villager then? Ruegemer: Yep. It will be included within the Villager, I think distribution’s around 6,400 or 6,500 will be going out next Thursday. We’re going to have a couple thousand extra for our distribution within the city and our department. Then we’re going to do kind of our traditional th tri-fold insert. I think those are Thursday of the 4 of July and kind of get people again so between this and the ads in the other insert that we’re going to be putting out, we’re going to be having pretty much I think every Thursday, with the exception of one in June, there’ll be th something about the 4 of July. Daniel: Excellent. This looks fantastic. That’s going to be exciting. Ruegemer: We’re very pleased. Daniel: Yep. Anything the commissioners would like to add? Any comments? 2008 ADULT SOFTBALL LEAGUE. Ruegemer: Yeah, just another information piece tonight. We increased the number of teams a little bit this year and with the addition of lights we did add on some nights and offer some different options for teams this year. One thing which I’ve noticed, which I’m happy about, is we’re growing the co-rec league a little bit on Friday nights with that different format. I know it’s been done before with bowling leagues as far as bowling every other Friday night and that sort of thing. I thought that’d be real appealing to help try to kind of grow the kind of the numbers that we’ve had on Friday nights so. We’re playing double headers every other week on Friday nights and it seems to be very well received with the teams that are participating out there, and hopefully with that we’ll get out and we can keep expanding that league. So, and it worked out good this year that we could do the every other nights so we are always, we’re missing Memorial Day Friday night and Fourth of July so we had, I scheduled it where we, those days were off anyway so it worked out good. They weren’t losing weeks, and we have built in make- up days every other week so it’s worked out good. Daniel: Excellent. 24 Park and Recreation Commission - May 28, 2008 th Scharfenberg: How many teams do you have for the softball tournament on 4 of July? Ruegemer: You know that’s being run by the Chanhassen Lion’s and information is out on the street right now and it has been sanctioned through US Triple A. It’s been in their guide book. I know I was just out in the fields tonight talking to different teams and telling them there will be some teams. Their goal is 24. They’ve also added a kickball tournament on Sunday. Sunday I believe afternoon on that so their goal is 24 so we’ll see how that works out. Daniel: Oh I don’t think it will be a problem. Teams look for excuses to play on weekends. Ruegemer: Yep. And kind of the, they certainly hope to have success this year and kind of their th future thinking is to move it to the weekend prior to the 4 of July next year. I think it ends up on a Saturday maybe next year. Stolar: Yeah, I think it does, yeah. th Ruegemer: So they’re going to do it the weekend before to kind of build momentum to our 26 anniversary celebration. Daniel: Okay. Campion: And just a quick comment on the co-rec league again. I don’t know if I mentioned it before but I played on a church team that plays in Eden Prairie on a co-rec league and it’s Sunday nights and I know that they’re, it seems like they have pretty high number of teams. At least two levels so Sunday nights seem to work out pretty well. Ruegemer: You have to talk to Lyndell Fry about that to look at in the future. Campion: Yeah, just a comment. Daniel: Alright, thanks Dan. ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS: CHANHASSEN VETERANS MONUMENT GROUNDBREAKING. Daniel: I suppose we can move on, and I guess I want to make a comment. More of a statement with regards to the veteran’s monument celebration that we had, or ceremony on Monday and big appreciation goes out to Todd and your staff as far as organizing and putting everything together because I thought that that was just a fantastic event. Exactly, if anything it probably greatly exceeded expectations for the number of people attended. Also extend a big thank you th out to Commissioner Scharfenberg for your commitment to the whole event as well with the 6 th and 7 graders was it from Chaska Middle School West that came and sang there as well and certainly your efforts on that end added something very special to the whole event too so. It was nice to sit back and enjoy and watch the whole event unfold and if you didn’t get a chance to be 25 Park and Recreation Commission - May 28, 2008 there, it was certainly very unique and very uplifting and especially you know given that it’s a memorial to the veterans who have served here in the city of Chanhassen, boy it just couldn’t have gone off any better so again thank you very much for organizing it. I think all those Thursday morning meetings Todd over the past several months have finally paid off and it’s a nice way to kick off this whole process and that’s going to be I think a strong symbol for our city right 100 feet from here so. With that, all I can say is thank you very much. Hoffman: You’re welcome. Daniel: It was a wonderful day. So I don’t know if there’s any questions with regards to that that any of the commissioners to add or anything more Todd that you would like to add. Hoffman: Just offering a chance to make comments and suggestions for the future. The next items of business are a construction committee. Design and construction committee and there’s a lot of volunteer labor coming forward. A gentleman stepped forward to donate the pavers and install the pavers. Do the lighting. An electrician stepped forward so I think much of the work is well underway as far as getting the people in line. Now it’s a volunteer construction manager. Someone who can ramrod the project and get it through so that’s where they’re at and if you have contacts such as that, just give Gary a call. There’ll probably be a plea out for labor at some point. There’ll be some junctures in the process will at least some volunteer labor on site as well. Daniel: And in addition, obviously a big thanks goes out to Millie’s Deli too. That was a great contribution on their end. Hoffman: $1,000… Daniel: For those who stayed late, got to eat as many hotdogs as you possibly could stuff your face with. That was the best part about it too. And after 3 days straight of eating hotdogs for dinners, I don’t think I could have done it anymore. I was just on F but again it was just a fantastic event. I know there was some concern about exhausting the 6:00 timeframe and boy we finished up 15 minutes early. Everything went perfect so. Any comments? Thor? Dan? Glenn? Steve? Anything you’d like to add? Scharfenberg: Well again just that a tremendous event. Todd and Jerry put in a lot of time getting everything set up and you know I think it exceeded everybody’s expectations as to how it came off and I know we had a good cross section of people I think from the city from veterans to young families that were there. I think Scott was there with his family and it was wonderful. It was a great, that’s like Todd said, that’s what that park was built for so. Daniel: Yep. Scharfenberg: Now will they have to go to city planning at all to get anything approved for that? Hoffman: The monument? 26 Park and Recreation Commission - May 28, 2008 Scharfenberg: Yeah. Hoffman: There may be, probably a footing inspection and electrical, state electrical inspection. Scharfenberg: Okay. But I think as, just so the park and rec knows that the Todd had said that it will be built this summer hopefully and we’ve talked about dedication potentially at Veteran’s Day this year, depending upon if we want to do something like that, or wait until Memorial Day a year from now and do a dedication then. Something similar to what we did this time but maybe with a potential fly over with jets and some other things and so, really maybe something on top of what we did this time so. Daniel: Absolutely. Scott, anything since you were there? Scharfenberg: And one other thing is that Jeff’s, is it your cousin? Daniel: Uncle. Scharfenberg: Uncle is going to be a painting and the proceeds from that would help fund some of this and then may even go national depending on how things, the response is to that so that’s one funding mechanism they’re looking at and the turnout and support financially from the community has been great so. Daniel: Can you get any type of feedback as far as how much did we raise that day? Hoffman: $1,040 in food donations and about $500 in checks. Daniel: Excellent. Was about what we thought or hoped? For that day. For that. Hoffman: Yeah, for that day. I think it probably could have been an opportunity to make more money but then the Legion just didn’t get the whole donation thing really organized and so we kind of got late into the game in that but I just was proud of them that they pulled off as much as they did for the event and I’m sure you know there’s a lot of momentum in the community now. The banks were all just sitting back waiting to see who’s going to give what so we’re trying to set their, either a $10,000 or $5,000, one of the two and then every one of them can get in line after that. Daniel: And again Jerry, thank you very much for running the music as well and organizing everything. My only criticism would be the fact that they cancelled some chairs I guess that were supposed to be coming so the rest of us who had to turn all the chairs back to here. Ruegemer: We’d better talk to that guy. Hoffman: Next year there’ll be more because it’s going to be the dedication. Daniel: Scott, is there anything you’d like to add? 27 Park and Recreation Commission - May 28, 2008 Wendt: Kind of echo Steve’s comments. It was good to see a good cross section of young families, and the old veterans and…just appreciated seeing everybody there. Pretty cool. Daniel: Excellent. Well again thank you very much Jerry and Todd for your contributions and helping us out because it’s going to be something that’s going to be I think, I guess I hate to use the word used but more or less memorialized on a continued basis and it’s something for everyone to gather finally in the city so. JUNE PROJECT TOURS AND PICNIC. Daniel: Alright, we can move on to the June project tours. I think we’ve kind of talked about that a little bit…were scheduled Todd I assume. Do we want to split something like this up or should we just make it an entire meeting with maybe something wrapping up? Hoffman: It’s your decision. If you want to do it before the meeting or as a separate meeting. Daniel: Personally I think it should be done in June, next meeting and the reason being is it allows us to get the maximum amount of sun light. Either, then in July. I think as we get into August, then we lose a little bit of light so if we can do that next meeting possibly, that’s my suggestion. That’d be great. I don’t know if there’s anything that’s pressing, although we do th have the 4 of July coming up and so we’ve got to get before discussions as well as after th discussions on the whole 4 of July organization. I think that will, I know John will have a lot to talk about. Hoffman: Well if you do it the night of your meeting, your meetings need to be here at 7:30. Daniel: Yep. They have to be here so what, we could possibly meet at. Hoffman: We can meet about 6:00. If you can make it at 5:30 you can do more tours. Just based on your schedule. Smith: What’s the date of that next? Hoffman: The fourth Tuesday. thth Ruegemer: 26, 27. th Wendt: 24. th Daniel: 24, yep. Scharfenberg: My only request from a coaching standpoint is I think that’s the last week of softball and with Tom coaching, if we could move it back into July and even do it prior to our th you know, sometime after the 4 but before the next meeting. Before the July meeting. Special session. That would be preferable for me because then softball and baseball will be over by then. th Smith: That’s the 24 as well. 28 Park and Recreation Commission - May 28, 2008 Daniel: Okay, let’s just do that. Let’s do a special session mid-July. th Scharfenberg: Yeah, if we can send Todd dates for the next probably that week of the, the 6 th through the 10 and then whatever the next week after that available dates would be good. Daniel: Okay. Let’s do that. Smith: We’re not rushing to get back here then. Daniel: Yeah, that way, that’s a good point. Hoffman: And you can get a picnic in with it. Daniel: Yeah, let’s do that. That’s a fantastic idea. th Stolar: So we’re looking at the first, do you want the first two weeks, or the week of the 6 and th the week of the 13? Scharfenberg: Yeah. th Hoffman: Week of the 13 I’m out of town for the whole week. th Stolar: So the week of the 6 we’re targeting. ththth Wendt: The 6 through the 10. 11. Stolar: You know if we do it on a Saturday we could start at 6:00 a.m. and then just, we can end with a softball game at Lake Ann… Scharfenberg: With a bike tour. Daniel: It’s a bike tour, that’s it. Stolar: Actually, wait a minute. Bike tour’s not a bad idea. Hoffman: We talked about that. Scharfenberg: We were supposed to do that last year and we didn’t do it. Hoffman: That’s a separate program but we’ll try to get that kick started again as well. Stolar: Taking our tour of the parks, we’ll just hop on some bikes and. Daniel: Go and take a look and talk about things. Perfect. 29 Park and Recreation Commission - May 28, 2008 Hoffman: If we go on an off night, we can probably hit most of the items that we’ve talked about, or that I’ve mentioned. If there’s any others that you don’t see here on this list. Daniel: I think let’s just do that then. That is a big list but I think you’re right. We can all pile into the Astro van and hit a lot of sites. Hoffman: Okay, great. Daniel: Okay, let’s do that. We’ll just communicate via email some dates and then we’ll come to a common agreement. Scharfenberg: Todd, what’s the Cathcart Park request for Shorewood to participate in capital improvements? What is that? Hoffman: Currently we have an agreement with Cathcart, with the City of Shorewood that I think goes back to ’94. That they maintain capital improvements and they complete capital improvements and that we do some grounds maintenance and tree and now they’re getting more requests for capital improvements and they would like to revisit that and ask us for money. That’s what that is about. Stolar: Any particular items they’re looking at? Hoffman: New hockey rink. New tennis courts. New playground. Daniel: The playground’s fairly new. Hoffman: Yeah, I don’t know the whole items. Daniel: Yeah I would say, I can see the hockey rinks though. Hoffman: A variety of capital items. Smith: Where is that park? Hoffman: Cathcart Park is owned by the City of Shorewood, in Chanhassen north of Minnewashta Parkway. North of Highway 7. Up in the corner of the community. Take a tour and take a look at it. It’s another very unique arrangement. Very unique. Owned by the City of Shorewood in Chanhassen so the first neighborhood surrounding the park is a Chanhassen neighborhood. So we do benefit, our residents do benefit by it’s presence. Daniel: It is a nice park. It really is. It has a lot of open space too. I mean given the size, as long as the field’s not being used. Hoffman: Again there’s one thing I forgot to add to the administrative section that I would like to mention is that we’re pleased to announce that the Carver County deputies have put together a bike patrol for the summer and will be in our park and trail system with their bicycles on patrol, 30 Park and Recreation Commission - May 28, 2008 and they also will have them on various cars as they patrol throughout the community so if they get a call that they can leave their vehicle and take their bike and transport themselves into a park or a trail situation, they’ll be doing that and so if you can imagine a bike patrol at Lake Ann at 10:30 at night. Very effective. The patrol comes down the trail and you can come up upon people very quickly and assess the situation and find out just exactly what is going on at a particular moment so look for bike patrol this summer in Chanhassen. Daniel: Thank god they didn’t have those back when. Okay. Alright, is that it then Todd? Jerry? Okay. COMMISSION MEMBER COMMITTEE REPORTS. Campion: I’d just like to remind everyone that I sent out an email finally earlier tonight summarizing that symposium I attended last month. Daniel: Okay. I didn’t get a chance to read it yet but I will. Campion: And then I guess the biggest points or idea that I had out of that was looking at maybe an annual meeting with neighboring park and rec associations just to share ideas or things that we could, projects that we could take on or get involved with. So it was mainly that and there was a decent power point presentation that I added that was from this symposium on getting public involvement and participation in various efforts so. Daniel: Excellent. Thank you Dan. Stolar: So are we, the potential to look at that. I think your reply was looking at it annually. Hoffman: It’s a good process. We use it as, we use it at the professional staff level and it’s been highly effective. Getting together and bouncing around ideas and talk about community updates and so the commission level I think would be just as effective. Stolar: Would it make sense to also include like Carver County’s park and rec commission? Hoffman: Sure. Sure. Yeah, the whole scope gets a little bit political once you hit Hennepin County and then so, but we’ll turn that over. Daniel: Alright, and I don’t think there was any commissioner presentations, although Dan sent one out and we’ll go through that. And then Administrative packet? COMMISSION MEMBER PRESENTATIONS. None. ADMINISTRATIVE PACKET. Hoffman: One addition. Another request for a tennis court at Roundhouse Park. Daniel: Oh that’s right and we want to get a chance to take a look at that. That’s right. 31 Park and Recreation Commission - May 28, 2008 Stolar: Do we see any changes on the tennis usage? You know because it kind of went down for a little bit. Are we seeing it level off or. Hoffman: It’s just stable. Stolar: Just level off. Hoffman: Yeah. Yeah. The School District 112 has notified us that their not interested in partnering in these 4 tennis courts any longer on City Center Park and so we are assuming responsibility for their future care and upkeep. Those 4 tennis courts are a part of the 40 year agreement with the community, and now that the high school is coming to Chanhassen, they’re building 8 brand new courts. They won’t need to transport high school students to this location so we do have 4 courts here. 2 at Meadow Green. 2 at North Lotus. 2 at Lake Susan. 1 at Lake Ann Park. Daniel: 1 at South Lotus. Hoffman: 2 at South Lotus, yeah. Scharfenberg: And did you say the rec center? Hoffman: Rec Center. The rec center has 2, 4 courts there. And brief synopsis. Again in the 70’s every neighborhood park in the community had a tennis court in the master plan because tennis was all the rage. Fortunately commissions before you took those out because of the initial cost and long term upkeep. But North Lotus Lake Park and Minnewashta Region, or excuse me, Roundhouse Park on Lake Minnewashta Boulevard are two parks that really serve a community use because they’re in neighborhoods that are isolated from the rest of the community and so we put it, installed a hockey rink and tennis courts and a large playground up at North Lotus and that’s the same promise we’ve made, or same gesture we’ve made out to Roundhouse is that at some point those are the same kind of facilities that you’ll see in your neighborhood park because you are unique. Daniel: Yeah, and that is true. I mean they are isolated from the rest of the community based off the location. Hoffman: And the tennis courts would go right where the basketball pad is and so the basketball pad would go away. The tennis court would go down and then we’d put hoops inside the basketball area. Daniel: Much like South Lotus. Okay. Alright. Thank you Todd. Is there anything else? Scharfenberg: Can, just a question on the skate park. Do we have somebody working there this summer as we had in the last couple years? 32 Park and Recreation Commission - May 28, 2008 Hoffman: Two employees are there. Jonathan is a new employee that will work there, or that’s been an employed and then we have the same gentleman come back that’s been working the past 2 years so. Scharfenberg: And how are the issues there so far? Hoffman: It’s very slow manage right now. We just commented today that litter has not been a problem so. Matt Julick is the other attendant that’s been around so… Daniel: That’s good. Hoffman: It’s very busy. Daniel: Oh yeah. I think it was probably the first park used even when there was still snow on the ground. Hoffman: They jumped the fence with shovels in hand. Daniel: That’s right. Okay, well. I think we can wrap things up here. Scharfenberg moved, Campion seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously. The Park and Recreation Commission meeting was adjourned. Submitted by Todd Hoffman Park and Rec Director Prepared by Nann Opheim 33