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PRC 2002 04 23CHANHASSEN PARK AND RECREATION COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING APRIL 23, 2002 Chairman Franks called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. MEMBERS PRESENT: Rod Franks, Tom Kelly, Jack Spizale, David Happe, Amy O'Shea, and Glen Stolar MEMBERS ABSENT: Paula Atkins STAFF PRESENT: Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Director; Jerry Ruegemer, Recreation Superintendent; APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Todd Hoffman asked that item number 5, presentation of the new Chanhassen "Discovery" map be deleted from the agenda. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: Hoffman: Last night they awarded the Arbor Day poster contest winner. That's the other, these are the runner-up's that you see on the wall and so there's a winner in a frame upstairs. And then Arbor Day is coming up on Saturday, May 4th. That's a great event put on by a variety of staff members, both in, well literally all the departments and they clean parks that morning. We call it Park Pride Day, and do a variety of other activities on Arbor Day so if you're available to participate, look for that and mark it on your calendar and come on down to City Hall. And if you have a group, a small group, a neighborhood group, a large group that would like to pick up a location in Chanhassen, you just need to speak to Jill Sinclair, our Environmental Resource Coordinator and she'll book a spot for you. They pick up dumpsters full of trash that moming as an effort to clean up parks in Chanhassen. Franks: Are any of the groups doing that already? Hoffman: The roadside groups are. Franks: Yeah, I saw some along the roads today. Hoffman: The Adopt a Highway folks. Franks: Wonderful. Any other announcements? Hoffman: None that I have. ORGANIZATIONAL ITEMS: WELCOME NEW COMMISSIONERS. Franks: Welcome new commissioners. Any other welcome Linda to the new commissioners? Mayor Jansen: No. I just wanted to welcome everybody here again and thank our veterans for helping everybody get going. I know you're in great hands with stafl~ I think I have consistently Park and Rec Commission Meeting April 23, 2002 to referred to our Park and Rec staff as the city's cheerleaders because they have so much energy and so much excitement around the things that we do and this group is one of the most active as far as our volunteers so we always appreciate everything that they do to make those events successful so good luck to you and have fun as a group. Franks: I too would like to thank all of you. It is great for me to see people that are willing to give up their time and be away from their families and commit themselves to our community and to your neighbors and to the residents. I know for me personally it's been a pretty fulfilling process and it's my wish and hope that it will be for you personally, and that as a body together we will be able to be a solid and strong and competent advisory body to the council, and to the residents and to our greater city, so I welcome you all and hopefully we can get to work and we won't let Todd be too much of a slave driver. Hoffman: You drive me. Franks: So he says. What I'd like to do Todd, if it's okay is, I don't know if all of the commissioners themselves have had an opportunity to be introduced to each other... Hoffman: No, that's great. Franks: If we could take some time and maybe just start down here and introduce ourselves. Happe: Sure. Do you want any more data other than I'm Dave Happe. Franks: Well Dave we're not going to ask you the classics favorite food and. Happe: Social security number, etc. Franks: Just the last 4 digits please for security reasons. Happe: 9699. And my wife and I have been in Chan for a couple of years. Most recently I've been serving on the Library Building Committee and working on the City Center Park or City Center Commons area. I'm real excited to be here and joining this commission. Franks: And what neighborhood do you live in? Happe: We live in Springfield right off of 101 and Lyman. Thank you. Spizale: Hi. I'm Jack Spizale. I'm kind of a new resident also. I've lived here like about 2 years. Got 3 kids. 3 dogs. We live on 3 acres. And we live in the Timber Creek neighborhood and we moved from Minnetrista and we absolutely love it here. And I kind of wanted to get involved with the City and meet some people and so far it's been a very rewarding experience being on this commission. But welcome. Franks: I'm Rod Franks and I've lived in Chan about 12 years now I think and this is my fifth or sixth year on the, entering into my sixth year on the commission. And we have seen just a tremendous amount of growth. When I came on the commission we were just really implementing all the park referendum projects and really seeing those finish up and, can be some pretty exciting work at times. I look forward to getting to know all of you better, both as a part of the commission and personally too. Welcome. 2 Park and Rec Commission Meeting April 23, 2002 O'Shea: I'm Amy O'Shea and I've lived in Chanhassen about 7 V2 years. And I was in the recreational field for 13 years and have noticed the great job that the Park and Rec staff`has done in Chanhassen, along with the commission and wanted to be part of it. We thoroughly enjoy Chanhassen too. We're in the Meadow Run area over on, off`of Galpin...on the north side of Highway 5. And actually the thing I'm excited about in, on May 9th I'm going to graduate with my MBA. It's been a long process. I'm a 4 year plan instead of 2 so that's happening in my personal life and I'm very excited to be part of this group. Kelly: My name's Tom Kelly, entering my second year of the commission. Been a Chanhassen resident for about 9 years. I live in the same neighborhood as Dave, the Springfield neighborhood off` of Lyman. Happe: Oh you do? Kelly: Yep. Stolar: I'm Glen Stolar. I've lived in Chan about 2 V2 years. I lived in Eden Prairie before there where I served on the Parks and Rec Commission in Eden Prairie for a couple years. And I live at Summit at Near Mountain which is off` of 101 near 62. And very excited about being on this board. Franks: Well we'll keep an eye on these Springfield guys. Hoffman: Plus they have a private park. Kelly: We paid for that the way we pay for that. ELECTION OF CHAIR & VICE-CHAIR. Franks: Todd, I'm wondering if you could just briefly summarize what the role of the Chair would be for the commission. Hoffman: I sure can. Chair acts as the individual who operates our meetings. In most any situation would act as the spokesperson for the commission if there were presentations before the City Council. Although you'll notice one of the handouts you received is an assignment to the City Council, so it's not just the Chair going to those meetings. On a rotating basis, there is an item of park and recreation interest on the council agenda and it's your night for the meeting, you'll be mailed that item in your mailbox and expected to attend that meeting to represent the commission that evening. Other than that, the Chair is the person responsible for the public input meetings, calling those folks to the podium and more or less organizing discussion of the meeting on a day to day basis in that fashion. And then the Co-Chair acts as a person who would fill that role in the absence of the Chair, and that happens time to time throughout the year. Anything else that we're, those are the big issues. Franks: Okay. At this time I would entertain any nominations for Chair of the commission. Kelly: I would like to nominate Rod for Chair of the commission. He's the most senior member on the commission. He really understands what's going on. He served as Vice-Chair, or assistant Chair or whatever Chair during the past year. I think he would do a great job and he's already sitting there. Park and Rec Commission Meeting April 23, 2002 Franks: Is there a second? Spizale: I second. Franks: Is there any discussion? Are there any nominations? Seeing no further nominations, or discussion. Kelly moved, Spizale seconded to appoint Rod Franks as Chairman of the Park and Recreation Commission. All voted in favor, except Franks who abstained, and the motion carried. Franks: Well I appreciate the vote of confidence that you've now placed with me and I will certainly pledge to wield this gavel in an appropriate manner. We still now do have to select a Vice-Chair for the commission. Are there any nominations for Vice-Chair? Spizale: I nominate Tom. Franks: Is there a second to that nomination? Stolar: Second. Franks: Tom? Kelly: That would be great. Franks: Great. Is there any discussion? Spizale moved, Stolar seconded to appoint Tom Kelly as Vice-Chair for the Park and Recreation Commission. All voted in favor, except Kelly who abstained, and the motion carried. Franks: Great. Now you do have our names spelled correctly? Hoffman: Yes. Franks: Alright, good. ESTABLISHMENT OF TRAINING PROGRAM SCHEDULE FOR NEW AND EXISTING COMMISSIONERS. Hoffman: Thank you Chair Franks, members of the commission. As I was saying before the meeting officially was underway, we're going to take a few months and really get to know one another. Get to know the city's park system. How the commission operates as an advisory body to the City Council. How you can be most effective as individuals and as an organized body to move forward the agenda or the desires of the community of Chanhassen in the area of parks and recreation. So to do that we're going to have more than just a simple, what you would call an orientation. We're going to go ahead and participate in some training over at the fire station. They have a nice training room there that's been completely refurbished. One of our tasks this evening is to identify a night which will work for all of the commissioners and then set aside about a 3 to 3 V2 hour block of time for that one particular evening. That won't be the full extent of it. You'll also receive a variety of materials that have to do with our comprehensive plan, the 4 Park and Rec Commission Meeting April 23, 2002 current park inventory and facility inventory that we have. I'm sure many of you are familiar with our facilities already, but as a commission when neighbors, citizens come before you and they start naming off places that they have an interest in or they have a desire to see improvements made or changes or modifications or they're having a problem or they really like what's going on in that area, we would like the commission to be familiar with that site so we'll be taking some tours, and we'll do those tours probably the first hour-hour and a half before your meetings. Your upcoming meetings. We try to condense your nights so you're not meeting every Tuesday of the month but the standard meeting is the fourth Tuesday and then you can expect to meet very often on those second Tuesdays, especially through this first summer, so kind of break those out on your calendar. The second Tuesday and the fourth Tuesday. All those printed materials start to become very overwhelming so as we begin to hand those out and you get those into view, we'll talk about just exactly what they mean. What is important about the comprehensive plan? What does it say in it? It's the document that we use for getting things done in the area, primarily of park and trail development. People come in and they say, we would like to have access to a park or we want access just like the neighbor down the street, and a comprehensive plan really takes care of that. It says every resident of our city will have a park within a half mile of their front door. And that's a service level that has been maintained in our community, and there are areas where it's not met and primarily those would be in the more rural, southem part of our community where there's very large lots and we've tried, we've made an attempt to connect those people through our trail system but they really don't have an expectation that there will be a park within a half mile because you just, as a city could not provide that. But in our highly developed areas, we have that service level already. So we'll go through this videotape, training material. It's from an individual out of Illinois. Illinois, if you're at all familiar with the park district, is a very strong state. They have elected park boards. Very nice park systems and this individual is the Executive Director of the Illinois State Park Association. Ted Fletchinger and I've watched about 3/4 of the tape now. We have the printed material that will walk through as a group and it takes, it introduces the concept and then we take some break out time to talk about that. Take a few notes and then we move onto the next area. Obviously this is a broad, it's on boardsmanship. How do you effectively serve on a board or a commission? So it's a broad coverage but it's, so it's not focused on Chanhassen but it gives us a nice overview of what boards and commissions are expected to do and some of the different issues that you'll face. So we'll get through all of those things. And then as I mentioned earlier, one of the first things we'll be taking a look at is our 2003 Capital Improvement Program and we have a 5 year CIP or Capital Improvement Program that you have to establish a recommendation for the council. We have some reporting to do at the year end on council's behalf, and then we have a variety of issues that we're really, I would say issues that the commission prior to this commission was, they were working on. Memorial Park. Adopt a Park. Some other issues that we'll talk about as a group and see if you want to pick those up. If they're a priority for this commission or if you have other ideas as well so please at any time bring forward your ideas. We're not going to start out on a real heavy agenda basis. Not going to start throwing all these things that we've had on the back burner for a long time right before this commission and say let's solve all these issues. There will be things that are placed on your agenda that are just automatic because they're a scheduled part of our, if you want to call it a govemmental process. When a subdivision comes before the Planning Commission, this body needs to take a look at that and decide, does this area have sufficient park service. Is there a trail adjacent to this property or is there a section of our comprehensive trail that goes right through the middle of this property? If that's the case, then we need to acquire some easements or outlot or right-of-way to accommodate that trail. And so when those subdivision applications come through, or those platting processes come through, you'll see them on your agenda and we'll do a presentation. And if it's a fairly large subdivision, you'll have the developer here in the council chambers with you and they may like what we're doing, they may dislike what we're doing, but we're making a Park and Rec Commission Meeting April 23, 2002 recommendation to the council based on the comprehensive plan and we're asking for conditions of approval of that platting process. The power of this body and the council has with the developer is through the subdivision process. Any time they apply for a subdivision the city has the right to come in and place those conditions of approval on it. And we can take approximately 10 percent of the property for park use if you so desire, and we can ask for trail easements and trail construction and a variety of diff`erent things when you go through that process. And what they call the essential nexus for that to happen is the fact that these developers are bringing new homeowners into the community and there's not an expectation that the existing homeowners should take care of their park and trail and recreation needs. They need to pay their own way in those areas and they pay that through the park and trail fees, or the park dedication as a part of that process. So we'll talk about that. We may in fact bring in Roger Knutson, the City Attomey to talk about that one evening. It's a very important concept, especially in, we've gone through a lot of that for about the last 10 or 15 years in huge expansion in our residential areas and our park systems. We've probably gone from about a dozen or 15 parks, up over 27, 28 park locations currently. And we continue to diversify what kind of parklands we are acquiring. It used to be your standard or traditional neighborhood park. Now we're starting to see a lot more interest and we're branching off into these, what you would call park preserves. They're just open space areas. The most recent Fox acquisition, or as a part of the last referendum was one of those. And we also had a donation, what is called half donation and then half through park dedication. If you drive west on Highway 5, and you look south into what now is called the Chanhassen Nature Preserve. That is just west of the Chanhassen Elementary School. It's 110 acres. It's the largest preserve of open space in Chanhassen other than the Arboretum or the County park and so those are important areas that right now people don't recognize them because the trail system's not completed. There's still some work to do there but that's an area that I think this commission and the council, if you talk to them, are starting to focus on. Why do they move here? They like the downtown but they also like that sense of open space and the sense of rural feel, and anything this group can do to preserve that, they want to make sure that that can happen. So we'll talk about those things. We'll go through this training. You'll see agendas come to your door the week before the meetings. Typically on a Wednesday-Thursday schedule. Something like that. The police will drop them off so please let your neighbors and your dogs and your children and everyone know that the cops are going to be stopping at the house once in a while, and they're just there for really, city delivery business. Most of all, Jerry's been with the department going on 12 years, and I've been here for just coming up on 15 years now. We enjoy working for the residents. We enjoy working with the councils and the commissions. I always like to say, you know there's a lot to do. There's more to do than we can ever accomplish so let's pick some things that everybody can get along on and have some fun along the way and make some accomplishments. I'm a huge believer in taking baby steps and then they end up making big accomplishments. If everybody comes in thinking you're going to bite off`big chunks and just accomplish them overnight, it's not going to happen. But just do little things. Let it accumulate and in 4 or 5, 10 years down the line, people will start to look back and they go boy, those folks were thinking. They got some things done so that's my philosophy in how we get work done. But all of us think a little bit differently. We tend to be a fairly open body in communication and we like to hear ideas and knock some things around. The items that, you know Lake Ann Park. The trail system, the rec center. Many of those things started right here, right at this group and when somebody said why aren't we doing that. Or I was talking to somebody the other day and they said you know, what about this. And it's just those little things that start at this level and then there was a recommendation made to the City Council. The Council goes along with that and a great example is Bandimere Community Park. Bandimere Community Park was never an idea until somebody said let's, we need to acquire some parkland in southern Chanhassen because there's just not a lot down there. And the Council agreed with that. Councilman Boyt at the time said, they were approving a referendum ballot and he said, look at that. There's no question 6 Park and Rec Commission Meeting April 23, 2002 about parkland in southem Chanhassen and the Park Commission's been talking about that. Let's put it on there. Alright, well what will it say? Well, shall the City of Chanhassen sell general obligation bonds to acquire parkland in southem Chanhassen? Sounds good. How much? Well $300,000. Alright. So boom. Away it goes. It passed by 4 votes. 4 votes. Put on the ballot, and the City acquired the best acquisition at the best price, the best value that the City has ever acquired. 32 acres of land for just over $180,000. Back in about 1989. Coming right up on '90. This commission, the same commission, less than 10 years later, considered selling that property for something over a million 2. So purchased for 180. Less than 10 years later it's valued at a million 2 to a developer. The problem was if we sold it, you'd have to go buy another piece for the million 2 so it really didn't make any sense at the time. It was just a very neat example of what the value of that property. And then the last referendum was to develop the property. Again, started at a community basis. Citizens said, we don't have enough soccer fields in this town and the Park Commission recommended the City Council hold a referendum. Terrible time to hold a referendum. High tax sensitivity. Went through a study and the study said, don't do it. And the task force that was assembled at the time, they backed off and those people ended up serving for about 3 years and they said you know what, we have so much invested that we think even though there's a high tax climate, people will go ahead and support parks and recreation and open space in the city. They passed a referendum and Bandimere Park was constructed and today it's seen as the finest facility that we know of in the southwest metro for soccer and other athletic adventures so. Those are some of the stories that we want you people to be involved in. We want you to do those things for the future of the community. Cities last forever. The things you do here today will be here 100 years from now and they'll have impacts on those people's lives 100 years from now so think big. Think globally and everybody's going to have a lot of fun along the way. I'll be quiet. Franks: Are we looking Todd to establish a specific date for that training? Hoffman: Yes. Tonight pick out a Tuesday evening or Thursday evening and I should grab my calendar.., don't have it with me. Franks: Would this be a good time to do that? Hoffman: Absolutely. Franks: Alright. Did everyone have their calendars...what your schedule is. What month are you looking to do that in? Hoffman: I would think May. Franks: The second Tuesday in May is the 14th. Our regularly scheduled meeting would be on the 28~h. Hoffman: We're on the 29th because of Memorial. Franks: Are you thinking that the, you mentioned a Tuesday or Thursday. I'm wondering if we just shouldn't, if we can, stick to the second and fourth Tuesday. Just so we can all get used to that schedule. Hoffman: 14th works for me. Franks: How about for other people? 7 Park and Rec Commission Meeting April 23, 2002 Spizale: Works. Yeah, good for me. Franks: About what time Todd? Hoffman: I believe we need to start about 6:00. Stolar: How long did you say the video presentation was Todd? Hoffman: Well we're going to be, it's 110 minutes so it will take us a minimum 3 hours. 3 V2 hours to get through that. Franks: And we park right at the fire station? Hoffman: You can park, yeah we'll give you directions. We'll send out a packet. There will be parking in the back part of the lot. Franks: If you're unable to attend or something comes up, would you please communicate with Todd. If it looks like people are canceling then you'll be in touch with all of us and reschedule it. As it stands then we'll consider Tuesday, May 14th for our video training and begin at about 6:00 atthe main Chanhassen Fire Station. Great. Hoffman: Thanks Rod. Franks: Thanks Todd. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS: None. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Hoffman: This will be an interesting vote where you actually don't have a quorum. Franks: I'm sorry? Hoffman: This is an interesting vote. We don't have a quorum. Franks: Yeah, well I was going to ask you about that. What you do in a situation like that where, can we vote to approve the minutes? Hoffman: Probably. Franks: Understand that it will be a non-quorum vote, but Jack or Tom, are there any additions or changes you have to the minutes? Kelly: No. Spizale: No. Franks: I don't either. Seeing none, is there a motion to approve? 8 Park and Rec Commission Meeting April 23, 2002 Spizale moved, Kelly seconded to approve the minutes of the Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated March 26, 2002 as presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried. RECREATION PROGRAMS: A. SPRING CANDY HUNT EVALUATION. Ruegemer: Thank you Chair Franks, and the rest of the commission. I'm not sure how many, I know Rod was out there. The Mayor was out there. At the candy hunt. Franks: Jerry, could you excuse us for a minute. Thank you Mayor for stopping by. We appreciate your support. Mayor Jansen: I'm only leaving to go attend the District 112 meeting tonight. Facility planning. Franks: And we'll understand that you would rather stay here with us. Mayor Jansen: Absolutely. Good night. Franks: Thanks. Sorry. Ruegemer: No problem. The candy hunt was held on Saturday, March 30th out at the Chan Rec Center. It was a pretty nice day out there. Little, it was sunny at least. We had probably the biggest crowd ever that we've ever had out there. Probably 900 to 1,000 people, and it was quite wild. It was very well attended. There wasn't a, during the Splatter Sisters performance...had kind of looked at these Splatter Sisters and kind of participated in that whole event which was nice. People are coming for the entertainment as well as the candy so. And we did have help again from the Key Club members from the High School. From Chaska High School and also the Boy Scouts helped out so we had plenty of volunteers for that and they help anywhere from distributing the candy. Handing out the bags for the candy. Helping out with the parent drawings. Crowd control. A lot of different things they helped us out with and they had I think close to 40 volunteers for that with both groups so. They save us a lot of headaches with that and they do a great job and they're always there to help out so, they'll be back again next year. We certainly, the Rec Center does certainly lend itself to providing a nice, quality recreation facility for events such as this and we will continue to operate that, this event out there as well as the Halloween Party and those sort ofthings. Just recommendations fornext year. Again, we'renot going to be listing the start times again for the candy hunt. It certainly seemed to have people there ahead of time which was nice. I think what we need to do is certainly hand out the candy bags and that to people as they come in. A lot of people did grab them on their way in. Also on the way out of the gym and also outside the doors as they're heading kind of outside the doors. We're going to look at adding a 3 year old category for the coloring contest. It may be a little bit young but we're going to investigate it and discuss it I guess next year when we come to that point but haven't had a lot of call for that. Just a suggestion to look at for next year. It works out nice. We do put the recreation facility for the event out the day before so we do have opportunities to get in and do set up. Hang a lot of the pictures up and get a lot of the facility ready for the event, which really helps so we can bring the candy right from Target out to the conference room and get it all separated and ready to go, and that saves us a lot of time the day of the event so everything will just kind of flow once we get there. We did, Corey Hoen, the Rec Supervisor and myself, we did go to Target. Purchased about 11,000 pieces of candy and that wasn't enough. We had a lot of people this year so we're going to get at least 15,000 probably 9 Park and Rec Commission Meeting April 23, 2002 next year, pieces of candy so everybody can go away with a nice bag of candy so. That's always kind of a fun event. We do get a lot of looks at Target and a lot of curious people asking us what we're doing so it's kind of a fun thing. We do a lot of educating in the aisles of Target as to what we're doing so it's kind of fun. Hoffman: Shopping cart full of candy. Ruegemer: So it's a fun event. This year, with Easter being a little bit earlier this year, we did kind of run into some wet conditions out at the Rec Center. We did host the event just outside the entrance of the front doors there. That area is a little cramped. However, it does work as kind of a, that was kind of our Plan B/Plan C if we got down the line a little bit farther there but certainly our first choice is to go north of the Recreation Center. North of the warming house and that kind of big, large area by Fields 2 and 3, but those areas in some places were, the water was ankle deep in some areas. We didn't think that would be a real good scenario for kids on a cold day so. But it does work. You know we did have a few snow banks and that to kind of, as obstacles but with that many people we certainly need to kind of spread out a little bit more and we'll certainly take a look at that again for next year. Going north of that area. And really, one thing we need to resolve tonight is certainly as a staff`we've been talking about changing the name of the event. It was the Easter Egg Candy Hunt, and has been for 15-16 years. But in light of being responsible, being sensitive we should look at some altematives tonight and Corey just kind of had a couple suggestions. The Spring Candy Hunt and Coloring Contest. The Spring Fling or the Spring Eggstravaganza. I'm sorry, Eggtravagance. These are just suggestions and ifthe commission has any other ideas to rename, we're certainly up for opinions and discussion at this time so. If you'd just, we can, I'll just go over real quick through the financials. You can see on the back of the page there is the Target, the prizes. At Target the candy and the prizes and the entertainment for a total of, a little bit over $1,600. And just as an educational point for the new commissioners. A lot of the money, or the expenses that we have in the Easter Egg Candy Hunt are covered through our annual sponsorship program. In October-November of every year we send out letters to all the businesses once a year and kind of ask for their support for all these events. In cash, prizes, donations, a lot of those types of things. We take in roughly about $26,000 to $28,000 a year in cash, contributions, gift certificates, product, a lot of these types of things so. A lot of the expenses that we have are certainly incorporated within the sponsorship program. That money goes into the general fund, however we do identify that through our budget process in our recreation budget. So with that I'd like to tum it back to Chair Franks and the commissioners to come up with a new name. Franks: Thank you Jerry. Before we move into comments, are there any commissioners with questions for Jerry about... Okay. Welllet'sjust, to keep this a little orderly so we're not talking back and forth and just hear what everyone has to say and we'll start down on your end and work this way. Stolar: Has anyone asked that the name be changed? Ruegemer: Pardon me? Stolar: Has anyone asked that the name be changed? Okay... For the purpose of the records, I would be one of the religious groups that doesn't celebrate Easter and I think it's an Easter Egg Candy Hunt. It's what it is, and I'm fine with that. So, there you are. I mean if you haven't had it pointed out, I don't see any reason to change but if you force me to pick one, I do like the Spring Eggstravaganza. I think that's kind of creative. 10 Park and Rec Commission Meeting April 23, 2002 Franks: Tom. Kelly: I'm in total agreement with that. I think it as the Easter Egg Candy Hunt but if we have to change the name I do like the Spring Eggstravaganza. But I'd prefer to leave it as an Easter Egg Candy Hunt. Franks: Okay, Tom. Thanks. Amy. O'Shea: I do like the way it is but again if we're forced to change, I think I'd keep the Candy Hunt because I think Eggstravaganza might be hard for the kids to say. So I tend to make it simple and I don't know if Candy Hunt is the best but thinking right now that's what I would lean towards. Something that the kids could relate to. Franks: Jerry, a couple of things. One is, you have to re-set the gym for the entertainment because the people trying to sit behind the group doing the entertainment just didn't work at all. And the space created like a prime avenue for children to get out of control and you could see that it was bothering the Splatter Sisters because they were worried about their equipment. Kids are tripping over the extension cords. The... helpers were trying but. Ruegemer: There was some artistic differences on that the morning of. I made that suggestion to back up, and. Hoffman: With the Splatter Sisters? Yeah. Ruegemer: But. Franks: And do those bleachers, they don't go any higher than that do they? So they were extended fully already. Okay. But that was the one thing that I would say. And the second thing is, I personally liked having the candy hunt area out there in front of the rec center. That place is grass. It's seeded well and it doesn't get trampled during the sports season and get quite so mushy and muddy as the rest of the field, so if we can better count on that being a place to do the candy. I thought the space set aside was large enough for the kids in each group to have time. My suggestion would be to leave the gym out that back door of the gym, and have age group staging areas outside that area, right off the sidewalk in that field space just north of the gym. And even if we had something where it was like a photo opportunity for each group, with the bunnies that were there. I think there were like 3, at least 2 that I saw, but the staging areas have like a little set-up so that could occupy people's time while they're waiting. And then you could call the groups around the corner of the building. So you wouldn't be in direct...you guys throwing out the candy and dropping the golden egg and that whole thing and then they could come around. When that group is finished they could go right to the parking lot and leave. Just kind of a flow. Because people were going out that gym door anyway, and if we had it set up, I think that would work good. With the other thing is, purchasing so much candy. Is it time or a possibility to consider one of the vendors that the city works with as a source for just buying candy in huge bulk and potentially at a discount or something like that? I don't know, it's not like 10 years ago when we needed some candy and we cruise to Target and get it. I mean we're talking such a significant amount of candy, it'd be easy to get a delivery for that amount of candy. And I don't know if any vendors would be interested in doing something like that. Ruegemer: Yeah, we can investigate that. I mean we've looked at other avenues as far as like a Sam's Club and that sort of thing. Or even buy a case price at Target but yeah, we certainly could 11 Park and Rec Commission Meeting April 23, 2002 take a look into that. Certainly. Depending who the manager was at Target, we used to get a little discount on that but that changes through the years. Franks: I mean it's always a consideration too, and I like the idea of having the 3 year old age group for the coloring contest too. About the name. You know I'm going to echo the same sentiments as the commissioners ahead of me. If the community is not necessarily requesting the change, although we should be prepared to make a change when it's something that is seeming like it's being asked for, then you should... If it's not something that's really being requested of us at this time, I don't know if we should go ahead and make the change. Part of the feeling is, it's one of those things where, you know it's going to off'end some people either way and if right now it's being accepted for what it is, then maybe we'll stick with that as long as it seems that it's being accepted. When it's no longer being accepted, then I think that's the time that we should really consider changing it. Spizale: I have to say I agree with the other commissioners that if it's not broke, why fix it. Nobody's complained about it. I think everybody understands what it is and I don't think we need to change it yet. That's all I got. Franks: Thanks Jack. Happe: Jerry, what a great report. The most fun event with...turn on investment for $1,682, sounds like we got great bang for the buck. I agree I guess with Glen's original point. I appreciate the fact that staff`brought this up. I think it's important that we, I think it's great that you guys were very sensitive to that. At this point I'd agree with my other commissioners and I'd like to leave it the way it is, unless change is mandated. Ruegemer: Do I need a motion for that? Stolar: I also appreciate the thoughtfulness of the staff; but it's fun. It's fun the way it is. Franks: You know what we would appreciate, and I'm sure that you would do it but just to make it clear for the rest.., would be very interested as a commission in hearing if this type of request or concern is being made by residents. Bring that to our attention. Hoffman: I think the Easter one was born out of a sensitivity about the Christmas Tree lighting, and so we might want to talk about that as a group as well. Should that, in the park as a part of the library we refer to it as a holiday tree and so... cities traditionally have been involved in stringing Christmas Tree lights but there's some change in the wind in that area as well. They can call it a holiday tree or a holiday lighting, but there's a fine line. There's not a big difference there. People still recognize it as a symbol so. 4m OF dULY CELEBRATION PREVIEW. Ruegemer: It's coming up fast, isn't it? Corey's been busy working on the schedule of events. As you see on the back of the memo, that is the tentative schedule of events. The event this year will be Wednesday, July 3rd and Thursday, July 4th. Corey's been busy I know working and talking to a lot of diff`erent food vendors. Famous Dave's has been mentioned in the last couple days here so they may be coming in as part of the food vendor. You can see kind of listed down below there's a lot of different combinations of food and so hopefully that should appeal to a lot of different tastes. And that is Kettle Kom and not Kettle Kom Sno-Cones so just, we're missing a comma on that one so. 12 Park and Rec Commission Meeting April 23, 2002 Franks: That's a unique combination. Ruegemer: And we as a staff has really been talking about moving, the event will move from down south here, back up on top with the library project going in down in this area. We will be going back up on top again. I think we moved down here in '96, and now we'll be going back up and having the big tents and a lot of the activities just north of City Hall in the grassy area up there, so we're certainly, we have a layout and a map of that area already kind of secured or in place and we'll be kind of going through and kind of recognizing a lot of the components that we need to do and placement to make that event successful so. That's coming up again. I will be the parade contact again for that. In fact conversations with the parade committee already up to this point and we'll be meeting as a group again probably in May sometime, and we'll be kind of going through a lot of the I guess different components to that event as well. That parade also started as part of the Chanhassen Centennial back in 1996. It started out to be a one, just a one time event and upon the success of that first parade, it continued so it's been an annual event every year since 1996. So last year I think we had around 70 or 80 floats and I would anticipate that again this year. I know that with school funding a lot of those types of things, the marching band price did go up again this year so we'll be looking at additional revenue sources to pay those type of entertainment as well so. But it's coming up. I'm not sure if everybody's seen the logo yet but as a community, the Chamber of Commerce approached the City in doing kind of a cooperative venture, along with that. The basic kind of idea behind that, the concept of the logo design was to have local students kind of design as part of their art, kind of part of their art classes and that sort of thing at both the High School, the Chaska High School, is it Holy...in Victoria and kind of all the local schools here. High school. They were asked to submit kind of their vision of kind of the theme was, what is a hero this year in light of what happened with 9-11 this year. All those are submitted. All those ideas. All that artwork is submitted and a design was picked last week with that. And the winning person I believe got $1,000 for their efforts. Just kind of a fund raiser. Local businesses will be selling these t-shirts as a fund raiser and also the Chamber is part of that selection process. I think the winning person was selected from the Chaska High School, so then their art department will also receive $250 contribution as kind of a recognition of their achievement as well so. We were involved in that. We do 4th of July t-shirts every year for, as part of our sponsorship program. We give out roughly about 300 to 400 shirts for all our businesses so we were certainly willing to do a cooperative effort between the Chamber and the local businesses and the City so. This is kind of a fun event that Corey's been involved with. I was involved in it too a little bit early on and so those should be hitting the streets here fairly soon. We'll get you one. Franks: So it can be wom when we volunteer. Hoffman: That's correct. Franks: Any questions for Jerry? Any commissioners have any comments about the 4th of July celebration? Happe: I've got a couple. Franks: Dave. Happe: Of course the library will be under construction obviously at that point. I don't know if that has any bearing on any of the parade route or any of the plans for that but just a comment for you. And then the other one was, I remember from last year, which by the way was my favorite event of the year but I remember there being a letter to the editor and maybe not a lot but a little 13 Park and Rec Commission Meeting April 23, 2002 bit offlack over the beer garden. And just wondering if that is an issue that should be brought up again this year. If we should re-evaluate either how that was done, or whether or not that's necessary as part of this event. Hoffman: We were sensitive to that as well. It's not the only comment, the one they made in the paper. There were other comments that staff got. The Rotary's the sponsor of the beer garden. They sell $10,000 worth of beer in a single evening and it's a big concession for that particular group, but we want people to celebrate responsibly and so towards that effort I will be asking the Rotary to go ahead and pay for two police officers, or Carver County Deputies to patrol the beer garden as an added sense of security so. There are Carver County people there already, but they're not just assigned to the beer garden. If they get a call, they can leave so to increase that, the security we want to have those people assigned specifically. And to those kind of volumes and dollar amounts, they can certainly afford to finance that security. Happe: Where was the beer garden last year? Hoffman: It's always right under the main tent. Happe: Okay. That's all I have. Spizale: I had one comment. I went to my first one last year and enjoyed it immensely. Enjoyed volunteering. Enjoyed all the events. The only negative I could see to the whole thing was, and it seems like we're getting more. I felt we were a little short of food vendors. It just seemed like the lines were completely long to get basic food. You know like we spent 20-25 minutes in some of the lines to get food, so I think my recommendation would be to continue to get more food vendors that serve general food. Other than that, really enjoyed it. Franks: Thanks Jack. Amy? O'Shea: No comments. Franks: Tom? Kelly: No. Franks: Glen? Stolar: Just wondering are you going to have a 2 year old division for the free throw contest? Ruegemer: We can certainly consider that. Stolar: My 2 year old plays basketball. Ruegemer: We certainly will be calling upon the commission at the June meeting we'll be, we have the volunteer list. Traditionally the commission has helped out with the prize board sales and t-shirt sales, that sort of thing on July 3rd itself. And then also if the commissioners would like to help out with the parade or any other types of events on the 4th, we certainly would welcome your volunteerism so we'll be passing out that volunteer sheet in June. Franks: Just a couple of things for Jerry. Dippin Dots. I didn't see them on the list. Are they coming back and are they going to bring enough? 14 Park and Rec Commission Meeting April 23, 2002 Ruegemer: They are on the first item right by sweet corn. Franks: Got to make sure for Jan that the Dippin Dots are going to be there. Hoffman: And they ran out last year eh? Franks: Yeah, they ran out before I could get there. While I was in that 25 minute line, they ran out .... the plan that you got for moving everything back up to the City Center Park up there. And I don't know where that line comes in where, because the vendors are interested in making a certain amount of profit, if we pull in too many vendors, we'll have people pulling out so I don't Ruegemer: That is the argument we've had through the years. Franks: Do we have room for more vendors as far as what previous sales have been to those vendors we have had? Ruegemer: Yes. We charge a flat fee versus a percentage. We used to do percentages, but it always seemed like at the end of night you always kind of like, well I think you made a little bit more than that but who's going to know. So we did raise that fee this year to the most expensive was at $250 if they need electricity and that sort of thing. If they're a for profit group, we do give non-profit groups a little bit of a break on that. But that's the way we decided to kind of handle that and go that route. Hoffman: Nobody's complaining that they're not making enough money yet. Ruegemer: Mr. Sweet Corn does a little bit but. Hoffman: Well, he's got no complaints. Ruegemer: But physical space, certainly we have room to expand. Franks: And the utilities up there going to be an issue? Ruegemer: We're in the process of moving the electrical kind of components that we had down in the southem area down here, we will move that up in that north area. Close to the path somewhere. Maybe by the big green utility boxes that we have with electrical components are now. And so we can certainly accomplish a lot just from that pedestal power that we have there. Then also we can certainly bring in different phasing of generators and stuff for different vendors. Franks: And any of our active skateboarders, has that been brought up with any of these organizations about doing some kind of exhibition in the skate parks since we're all going to be up there anyway? That might be a nice way to positively highlight the skate park. And other than that, I don't know other than using it for that kind of exhibition during the 3rd, at least from 4:30 on, has it been considered in closing down the skate park? And I don't know what you're thinking about there but, you know to. Hoffman: Probably going to have the second biggest crowd of any area up there. Franks: Yeah probably, and that's what I'm concerned about actually. You know considering that sometimes we do have some problems up there, it's just kind of really creating some 15 Park and Rec Commission Meeting April 23, 2002 insurance that since everything is up, that skate park will no longer be kind of out of the way. It's going to be you know right on the edge of things so. That'd be something I would suggest that as staff you discuss. Hoffman: Added security probably would be appropriate. Franks: Or add more security. The one thing I'm afraid of is that there be any kind of a problem and that's just going to add to already some of the public perception that the skate park is not a place for young hoodlums to hang out at instead of really seeing it as the great recreational opportunity that it is. Hoffman: I would rather have it open and be a positive experience for the whole crowd. Franks: Right. But if it can't be a positive, than it might be better to look at an altemative. Hoffman: We've talked about beefing up all the venues for that evening. Larger tents. More tents. Bigger spaces. Bigger aisles because the attendance continues to grow. There's always a balance because it takes a good amount of resources to provide those facilities for that evening when it's about a 6 hour window. 4 hour really intense window of activity. People love the event and we want to make it a positive experience so they plan to stay in town and it takes a good amount of money to provide all those tables, chairs, vendors, electricity, etc, etc, to meet those high peak demands so it's always a balancing act. Last year we had a narrower tent because we saved what? Ruegemer: $3,000. Hoffman: 3,000 bucks but we're not going to do it. The narrower tent just did not work for the crowd so we've gone to 2 tents and we're back to the wider tents. Franks: At one point we talked about trying to pull something together on the 4th. The facilities are downtown. We noticed that once the parade passes, people are just bugging out but we already have all these people downtown already. Is there something more that we could provide for them like having the food vendors actually opened up for, I know at one point we talked about an art or craft fair in the Market Square or in the Byerly's parking lot or something like that. Is that anything that's being considered? Hoffman: We've had one of our local musicians talk about having a series of concerts in the next day, so that's up for discussion. The facilities are all there. The restrooms and the tent and the tables and chairs so. Franks: Because we still have the tents for the next day. If we could utilize those since we have all the people congregated downtown, just to really give them a little something.., on the 4th. Hoffman: They can mingle and stay, during and before and after the parade. Franks: Right. And I would also request that when we're all down there as commissioners and enjoying the 4th of July festivities and Todd here comes, that we all begin to consider how it is we might add or expand on and the one thing that I would like you to consider is adding, if you think it'd be appropriate, some camival type attractions as in. Hoffman: A midway. 16 Park and Rec Commission Meeting April 23, 2002 Franks: A midway. I don't know if any of you have seen like Richfield's 4th of July area there at the Veterans of Memorial Park. They have like a huge, full midway. Now of course we wouldn't be...but since we have moved the whole celebration out to City Center Park and we do have space available, it would be a time that we could consider adding something like that. My understanding is that if done correctly it can be a pretty good revenue source as well. Hoffman: And it appeals to the older kids and our community, our children are getting older. Franks: And we've seen the response that the teenagers have to the skate park. If you go out there, even when I came up today...although there still are some yellow teeth... So Jerry, I know that you have to book those things probably more than a year in advance so if you could begin to look that up for us so we have some information after the 4th of July that we could consider as part of our post celebration back-up, I would appreciate it. O'Shea: Chair Franks, I did think of something tonight. Franks: Sure. O'Shea: This might be a safety issue but we work as a fund raiser. Did they legalize sparklers this year? Hoffman: Yep. Ruegemer: Yes. O'Shea: Yeah, that might be a safety issue. You may not want them there. Hoffman: No sparklers. Jesse might bring some. Glow necklaces. No 14,000 degree sparklers. Ruegemer: We do have that light... Franks: You do? I was going to say, is the City doing that or do you have vendors lined up? Ruegemer: We have a vendor that pays us money to come in and it's already done. Franks: Wonderful, thanks. Any other comments? Alright moving on. COMMISSION MEMBER COMMITTEE REPORTS. Franks: I don't think we have any active committees going right now. Kelly: We have one, yep. Franks: We do? Kelly: The Dave Huff`man Run .... giving the new commission background and ifI make any mistakes, please let me know. In 2000 Chanhassen decided to sponsor a 5K Run called the Dave Huffman Run. Dave Huff`man was a tight end for the Vikings. He was a Chanhassen resident. He also was a member of this commission a few years ago. He did die in a car accident maybe 4 or 5 years ago, I'm not sure. So a 5K Run was established in his honor. Again in 2000 we had about, I want to say 250 participants. Last year we 450 folks so the run is growing by leaps and 17 Park and Rec Commission Meeting April 23, 2002 bounds. We had more Vikings participation last year in person. I don't know the name of the Viking mascot but the guy that rides the Harley during the games. Hoffman: Ragnar. Kelly: Ragnar. He actually led the, I think he started the run and he was around for kids at the end. We had some Viking cheerleaders actually run and Joe Schmitt presented the awards at the post race celebration. What's happening this year is we're in the middle of planning the run right now. Joe Schmitt is a definite in. Matt Blair, I guess he used to be a linebacker for the Vikings also has committed to do the run. Mike Morris on KFAN is going to do promotions over the air. Because of tax purposes the run, and I'm no financial analyst but because of tax purposes now the run has to file for a 501C3 status, which is actually a good thing now because I believe now that we can give businesses receipts for their contributions which actually could encourage more contributions from businesses. The web site is up and running. Huff`man 5K.com, and we met tonight and we're actually seriously considering adding a kids run to the Dave Huff`man Run. The route may be a quarter mile. It might be a half mile. We're trying to figure out what the route is and there may be some additional activities for the kids besides just running. Maybe face paint or something so, in a preliminary stage but we're trying to make it more a family event and we're trying to monitor how other kids run are done in the city but everyone's really excited and message from Mike Howe who was running this before he left. He wants to encourage everyone to start running now. It's never too early to train and he wanted me to pass that on. It is a great run. The route begins at Lake Ann and ends at the Americlnn with the exception of one hill at the very beginning going up Powers, it's just a cruise. It's a very fast run and it's very enjoyable and the weather last 2 years has been fantastic. Happe: Tom, when did you say the date of that is? Kelly: It is, I think it's the 14th this year. And we're trying to get more Viking participation and just trying to grow the event. We are going to try to exchange lists or try to, what some of the other local runs in the area try to maybe exchange some mail lists to try to increase the participation so, that was the report. Franks: Thanks Tom. Great event. We're hoping that it continues to become kind of a signature event for Chanhassen in the fall so, something else to really expand on and help businesses in downtown. And we expect all commissioners to participate in running. Alright, there are no other committees, are there Todd? Any that I'm not aware of. Any more that I'm not aware of? Okay, good. COMMISSION MEMBER PRESENTATIONS. Franks: We also have a time available for commission member presentations. This is an opportunity for commission members to present things to the commission. Are there any commissioners with any presentations this evening? Seeing none, we'll move onto administrative packet. That is the group of papers labeled Administrative Section. ADMINISTRATIVE PACKET. Hoffman: General correspondence that staff receives on a month to month basis. It's informational. It makes for some conversation and we talked about the business at hand in the packet given month. When it's at commissioner presentation time, generally your agendas are driven by about 4 different factors. Number one is to tradition. Traditional items come before 18 Park and Rec Commission Meeting April 23, 2002 the commission on any given month of the year, so that's about a quarter. About a quarter of your agenda is driven from the outside. People come to the commission wanting things. About a quarter is driven by stafl~ We place items on your agenda and then about a quarter of the agenda should be driven by the commission itself and that would be a time for you to bring up ideas that you've been talking with your friends or family or neighbors and then we would, the commission would talk about them and as a group decide if you want to place them on a future agenda and direct staff to go ahead and start some investigation into that particular topic. Franks: As an example, the Dave Huffman 5K was an item that began as commissioners during presentation time, talking about an idea and it just happened to happen at the same time that the Americlnn and Northcott Industries had approached the city about wanting to do a signature event and so there's a prime example about how those things get started. Any comments regarding the administrative packet? Kelly: Can we discuss the Eagle Scout proposal? Franks: Sure. Kelly: I don't know where to start or if I just want to throw it out. I thought the park benches were a great idea around the new play area. I thought we had, I think that was part of the planning to put benches. Hoffman: Part of the plan but they were not in yet. Kelly: Were not in yet, okay. I just wanted to see what people thought about the other items on the proposal. The exercise stations, and I'm confused about the Eagle, what actually an Eagle project is. They don't fund any of this. They just kind of propose it or manage it? Hoffman: They manage it. Facilitate it. Proceed with the actual construction and then the city and park fund pays for the materials and supplies. They'll bring these proposals forward. Mr. Nettesheim will come down to the Park and Rec Commission and give a presentation on the, we agreed that he would do the installation of the benches. The fitness course is more or less a thing of the past. Mileage markers we talked about would be nice, but it's tough to find a start and stop point in Bandimere where people would stop and start and then soccer benches and so we went with the permanent park map. He thought he may do that and then the benches around the playground. And depending on the scheduling of these things, if they come in, they may have the opportunity to come in and talk to the park commission prior to making a decision and they need to talk about it as a group so it's, we have money budgeted as an annual basis. Sometimes we go a couple years without doing any. This year we actually have 2 Eagle Scout projects. Happe: So that's set aside specifically for Eagle Scout projects? Hoffman: Yes. Happe: That's cool. Hoffman: It's about $500 a project, give or take 500 to 1,000 depending on the project. Franks: Anyone else? You know I'm wondering Todd, every month we kind of see more cities and sports organizations that are going the tobacco free route and I'm wondering if that's something that we're hearing from our sports organizations as well. 19 Park and Rec Commission Meeting April 23, 2002 Hoffman: Not hearing it. I think it's a great idea. It just depends on what extent you want to go to. Many of the communities have gone simply at youth athletic venues. Not the adult venues. I think there's a rare occasion where they've gone all city parks are smoke free or tobacco free. Similar to the school districts but by and large a majority are simply at the youth athletic events. Franks: Okay. Is that something that you as a staff`have talked about bringing around in our park system as well? Or we're not quite there yet? Hoffman: I think we're there, yeah. I continue to pull articles that come in and put them in a file and so when the time comes that we want to discuss it, we have background materials I can give you. Franks: Is there times when, during the day when we both have youth events and adult events happening on the fields at the same time next to each other Jerry? Ruegemer: Lake Ann Park on a daily basis during the summer. There's activities like that every night. Hoffman: Same park but not same fields. Ruegemer: Next to each other at times. Franks: Next to each other at times. Hoffman: I think the policy's more of, it's just as much a statement as it is an enforceable policy. No one's going to go out and enforce the smoke free policy but as an association. If the City adopts it in concert with association, the association leadership is saying yes, we think this is a good idea and they pass it on to the parents. Franks: Are we considering that it's too late in the year for us to act on it for the summer season. So what I'd like to see is, if you could make a note, have it come up on our agenda when we review the summer sports season. Hoffman: Okay. Franks: And if you receive comment or are able to solicit comment from the heads of the various sports organizations to... Well if there aren't any more comments, questions regarding the administrative packet, is there? Seeing none, is there a motion to adjourn? Happe moved, Spizale seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried. The Park and Recreation Commission meeting was adjourned. Submitted by Todd Hoff`man Park and Rec Director Prepared by Nann Opheim 20