PRC 2008 12 09
CHANHASSEN PARK AND
RECREATION COMMISSION
REGULAR MEETING
DECEMBER 9, 2008
Chairman Daniel called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT:
Jeff Daniel, Tom Kelly, Glenn Stolar, Steve Scharfenberg, Scott
Wendt, Thor Smith and Dan Campion
STAFF PRESENT:
Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Director; Jerry Ruegemer, Recreation
Superintendent; John Stutzman, Recreation Supervisor; Susan Bill, Senior Center Coordinator;
Jodi Sarles, Recreation Center Manager; and Dale Gregory, Park Superintendent
APPROVAL OF AGENDA:Stolar moved, Wendt seconded to approve the agenda,
amended by Todd Hoffman to include a conversation about the updated park dedication
fund history projections under Administrative Reports. All voted in favor and the motion
carried unanimously with a vote of 7 to 0.
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS:
None.
VISITOR PRESENTATIONS:
None.
VOLUNTEER RECOGINITION PROGRAM.
Ruegemer: Thank you Chair Daniels. The rest of the commission, good evening. As part of the
approved 2008 Key Financial Strategies, the council did ask staff to develop a program
recognizing volunteers who contribute their time and efforts to the city. Recreation functions
and other programs that we have. Staff did develop the kind of this model. It was reviewed
conceptually back in August at the City Council. From that point there was some directive, some
changes made to the model for the Park and Rec Commission’s review, and that’s what we’re
here to do tonight to take a look at the volunteer recognition program to kind of look at the
categories. The criteria, information pertaining to the volunteer program. Make the necessary
changes and updates tonight and then staff will then forward it onto City Council for their
consideration and approval. So tonight staff is recommending that the Park and Rec
Commission review and finalize the volunteer service award recognition program. And then
after that staff again will forward it to City Council for their final consideration.
Daniel: Okay. Just for clarification Todd that this was separate from I do believe, what’s the
other community service award that we participate in, or at least the City has.
Hoffman: Environmental Service?
Daniel: No.
Stutzman: You mean the Rotary?
Park and Rec Commission - December 9, 2008
Daniel: The Rotary. I think it’s the Rotary. Okay. Just want to make sure.
Ruegemer: For the Person of the Year?
Daniel: Yes.
Ruegemer: Yeah, that would be a separate program, and this is somewhat modeled on the
Environmental Excellence Award. We’re probably going to try to keep it somewhat consistent
with other city award programs.
Hoffman: Environmental Service Awards were presented last night to individuals. A
neighborhood and an individual that’s working on the Lotus Lake watershed and the
neighborhood was the Lake Riley Woods neighborhood for rain gardens. They planted eight
rain gardens in their neighborhood and those were the Environmental Service Award winners
last night.
Daniel: Wonderful. Questions? Comments? Thor.
Smith: None right now. Come back to me later.
Daniel: Okay. Dan.
Campion: I have none.
Daniel: Glenn?
Stolar: Just one question. I was wondering if we could separate out schools from community
groups and organizations, just so you aren’t having the Rotary compete against Key Club. I was
just wondering if that would be, I don’t know what environmental does but I was just thinking
that there can be such a vast difference in those. It’d be nice to recognize the school people who
make sure they have a category that they get. It’s a suggestion.
Ruegemer: Would there be enough school groups out there do you think that would merit having
a fourth category?
Stolar: Well we had the Minnetonka Seniors do the project last year. We had Key Clubs from
two schools I believe have helped us.
Stutzman: Ah yes. Holy Family just helped us out. It wasn’t the Key Club but student
volunteers did.
Stolar: Volunteers. So I don’t know. Maybe it would encourage it. We can always change it
later too. I’m just saying that at some point maybe to give them their own.
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Park and Rec Commission - December 9, 2008
Hoffman: The council also wanted us to look at even broader than that. To incorporate people
that do things for athletic associations, so we may want to, as you work through your
conversation tonight, take a look at that as well.
Daniel: I think we can certainly put that language in there. I mean the community groups or
organizations, I assume like the Chanhassen Athletic Association would fall under that. Them
real in general, especially under the park and recreation aspect of it. But I like Glenn’s thought
because certainly there is, we have associations like what the CAA does plus on some of the
other, both athletic and other recreation organizations out there, but also the schools, especially
give recognition officially I suppose or some sort of nod to a lot of the volunteer activities that
the schools do.
Stolar: Plus you’re going to have the high school opening up soon.
Daniel: Exactly.
Stolar: We’ll have a bunch of different groups that will want to come in.
Kelly: Is there any limit to the number of awards that can be awarded for each category? One
per category per year, or is it unlimited?
Hoffman: We would try to do one per category per year. I know last night they awarded two of
the three categories. They didn’t have a candidate in the one.
Stolar: Right. I mean I expect we wouldn’t necessarily have a candidate in each of those. It
depends on who gets nominated but just one. So it’d be a max of 4 per year then under the.
Daniel: Thanks Glenn. Steve.
Scharfenberg: Todd, does the City have, or do they recognize employees short of this program,
but do they have a recognition program for staff members that do anything?
Hoffman: No.
Scharfenberg: Would it be you know one thing to think about is to include staff as part of that
because we have a lot of staff that does a lot of things I think above and beyond their normal
duties in terms of recreation programs and stuff so I would throw that out as a consideration too.
And then to get to Glenn’s question of, if there is, do we have a role in terms of determining
winners or not?
Hoffman: Yes.
Scharfenberg: Okay. So I’m assuming if there’s more than 2 in one category, we talk that out
and come up with a decision. Okay.
Daniel: Excellent. Scott.
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Park and Rec Commission - December 9, 2008
Wendt: What a great idea. I like, really like the idea of adding a fourth category for schools,
especially with the new high school opening up so, looks good.
Daniel: And Tom, anything else you want to add?
Kelly: No. You answered my question.
Daniel: Okay. Well I think this is a fantastic program and certainly in the park and recreation
area, as I mentioned earlier, this would be a good opportunity for us to recognize a number of
both community organizations as well as residents and businesses. I mean, and going back to
what I said earlier about schools, I think that’s something that we could certainly put into as a
separate category. At least that would be I think what I’d be in favor of seeing. As far as any,
are there going to be any type of advertisements? How do we go about notifying the public of
these activities? Or these awards I should say. Excuse me.
Hoffman: It’d be advertised, similar to what the Environmental Service Awards are put in the
paper. Put in our community Connection. Maybe some direct mailings out to the schools.
Daniel: Okay.
Hoffman: Other organizations.
Stolar: The web site.
Daniel: Obviously all for 2009, so this is something that we will then have to vote in November
of next year, or October I assume? Do a review and we’ll make the presentation in November?
Okay.
Hoffman: It’s a, last night at the council meeting, these are, there are a lot of people that come in
for them and it’s good publicity. Good press. So it’s a combination of factors. It’s recognizing
some people and, but it also inspires others to continue in the good work that they’ve started in
and then for others to jump on board and do some good things so.
Daniel: Yeah. And there are a number of other categories we could certainly add I mean but I
think the four will basically touch I think each of the important volunteer portion, and I think
that’s the critical portion. I think Steve you bring up a very good point about the city employees
and staff within the city of Chanhassen. I don’t know if necessarily this might be the forum but I
assume Todd maybe down the road that there is some…
Hoffman: If the Council wanted to do that they would do it most likely on a more uniformed and
universal basis.
Daniel: More so then just a recreation.
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Park and Rec Commission - December 9, 2008
Hoffman: We do an internal one for service awards at our annual social for our employees. Our
annual recognition dinner so.
Daniel: Excellent. Well it sounds like we need to make a recommendation I assume. I certainly
would have liked to see something to the effect of us at least adding schools as a fourth category.
Scharfenberg: I don’t know. I think if you’ve got schools in there, you’re going to have, if it
turns out that we’ve got an over abundance of schools participating, I think you know we can
always change it. I would say just keep it with the 3 for right now and see how things go.
Daniel: Well do we want to maybe re-evaluate after 2010 then?
Wendt: I don’t think, we’re not limited to the number, it doesn’t say that we have to give just
one award either.
Daniel: Each of the following categories.
Ruegemer: Well that was the thought process was one award.
Wendt: Didn’t you say you gave two last night?
Hoffman: Three categories last night. One didn’t…
Wendt: Oh okay. I thought you meant there was 2 within the same.
Hoffman: No.
Wendt: Okay.
Stolar: Would there be anything that would prevent us, if it turns out we do want to split that in
the voting next year, from doing that? I mean we’re still collecting from people. It’s not like
we’re changing it.
Hoffman: Yeah. I think we want to move forward with either 3 or 4 as a decision because once
we start printing this stuff up.
Daniel: You want to be consistent.
Hoffman: Come in and then we decide we’re going to split it, council’s not going to, they’re
going to say it’s not what you advertised. There might be some cross over. You might have an
individual at either a community group or an organization, school that could be recognized as a
resident. They might do something affiliated with the school. They might lead some special
project. You could recognize them as a resident, and so that would provide some cross over.
Campion: Maybe if schools were broken off, it could be schools or youth contributor award type
thing?
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Park and Rec Commission - December 9, 2008
Kelly: Is there any, there’s no monetary value to this at all? It’s just a certificate. I mean I don’t
see the, I mean I don’t see the need to limit it. If you get 3 or 4 really good residents that…I
don’t see a need to limit it to one per category per year. I think if you expand it to take into
account more than 1 per category, then the idea of splitting the schools goes away because now
you don’t have to, that’s not, I don’t see the need to limit it to 1 per category if you get some
great residents or businesses that really contribute because there is no monetary value so you’re
not taking away budgets. It’s just, I mean this here is to recognize really good community
contribution. That’s my two cents.
Hoffman: I believe the environmental ones are limited to 1 and not, it’s just to keep it exclusive
and then also not to run out of, if we could give out 40 awards the first year. 10 awards or 15
awards and then you’re quickly going to run out of potential candidates over time. Businesses
especially.
Daniel: I think that’s actually a critical point. In looking at it, I think we want to make, if you do
make it inclusive enough to a certain extent, or something that is set as far as on a goal. It’s
certainly not on the minds of any of these people who are volunteering. It’s frankly the furthest
after thought that they’ll have, but I think at the end of the day if it gets, there’s some meaning
behind it based off this limited amount that have been, the limited amount of rewards that are
there, then certainly it gives that much more of a reward I think to a certain extent.
Wendt: And if in the future we had two great candidates we could probably talk about it at that
time, when it comes up right and call them so. But for now, on the 3 versus 4, can we take a vote
between us what we want to do?
Daniel: We can certainly do that. I guess as far as those who are in favor of having the school as
a separate category.
Hoffman: Somebody needs to put a motion to the floor and you either vote it up or down.
Daniel: For the, the school as a fourth category?
Stolar: Alright so I’ll move that we take staff’s recommendation but amend it to add a fourth
category of schools.
Campion: Second.
Stolar moved, Campion seconded that the Park and Recreation Commission recommend
that the City Council approve the Park and Recreation Volunteer and Service Recognition
Awards with the following categories: Resident, Business, Community Groups and
Organizations, and Schools. All voted in favor, except Scharfenberg who opposed, and the
motion carried with a vote of 6 to 1.
Daniel: Well then we’ll certainly move forward with that based off of Commissioner Stolar’s
recommendation and move onto old business.
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Park and Rec Commission - December 9, 2008
Scharfenberg: Do we have to move to adopt staff’s recommendation with that?
Stolar: That’s what I did. I proposed it as an amended motion.
Daniel: Yep.
Stolar: Probably not Robert’s Rules of Order but close.
Hoffman: You’ll see the nominations. You’ll work through them. Make a recommendation to
the council and then typically one or two of the commissioners assist with the awarding of the
certificates that evening so you can look forward to that next year.
Stolar: We’ll have Steve give the school’s one.
Daniel: Okay.
RECREATION PROGRAM REPORTS:
2008 TREE LIGHTING CEREMONY EVALUATION.
Stutzman: Thank you Chair Daniels. We did have the 2008 tree lighting this past Saturday,
th
December 6. It was a great event. It was a lot of fun. We’d gotten snow out of the way prior
to the event this year. While it was still cold, we didn’t have the wind that we had last year and
we had a very good turnout of probably a little over 200 people, which was definitely up from
last year. It was a really fun event. The park looked great. The park maintenance staff did a
wonderful job decorating the park again. I hope you guys all get a chance to take a look at it out
there tonight and with the snow on the ground, it really makes a lot of difference out there as
well but we had a number of local businesses donate and make contributions again. Nancy
Lipinski was back to help organize again with a lot of things and gather the donations. The
Chamber of Commerce did their part again and it was a great sponsor of this event as well. The
other two very notable sponsors were the Mustard Seed Landscape and Garden Center donated
Santa Claus, an elf and this year also brought a live reindeer up. Allowed the kids to take
pictures and pet the reindeer which seemed to be a very big hit. A lot of kids really liked that
and there were a lot of great pictures taken that evening. Then the other one is Living Christ
Lutheran Church donated carolers again and both the Mustard Seed and Living Christ have said
they’d like to come back and help out again next year. They both have a lot of fun with this
event and so they’re looking forward to that already. They’re both great additions and welcome
them back next year as well. As any winter event, the bonfire was a hit. Gathered around that
and definitely made a big difference. The mayor and his family officially flipped the switch to
light up the park at about 20 after 5:00 and people really got into it and we really had a great
event that evening. This is a pretty low key event but gets a good turnout. I think it’s a great
winter event leading up to the holiday season and that’s got a relatively low expense to the city
so I look forward to more events like this in the future so.
Daniel: Thank you John. Attendance?
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Park and Rec Commission - December 9, 2008
Stutzman: It was a little over 200. Somewhere between 200-250, which was about double what
we had last year. The weather significantly helped too but I think people thought the live
reindeer was cool and you know any time you mention Santa, I think people want to come up
which, seeing Santa roll up on the fire truck with lights and sirens is always pretty fun.
Hoffman: I think that’s the biggest attendance that we’ve seen.
Ruegemer: Yeah, great numbers.
Hoffman: It’s continuing to grow. Tradition for folks to come on down, those that are there in
town for the weekend.
Daniel: Did any commissioners happen to attend? Steve.
Scharfenberg: I have to say though that I was quite amazed though as I sat down on Saturday
morning and was kind of looking through my materials that… How you got a memo already
typed about how great the tree lighting ceremony was.
Stolar: I was a little disappointed you didn’t have the attendance number in there though.
Scharfenberg: Was it 2007? John’s got down here it was 2008 and there was a good turnout.
Stutzman: The crystal ball helped me out a little bit on this one.
Scharfenberg: I must say again it was a great event. Very well attended as John indicated and I
think people really appreciated the again kind of coming together as a community. We had
people from Chaska there. Our representative Mr. Hoppe was there and so again a good time for
all. The Scharfenberg boys however would put in a request for some hot chocolate along with
the cider and coffee but very nice event again. Very well done.
Stolar: John, have you ever had a chance to go out to Excelsior for that little market thing they
have for the holidays?
Stutzman: I have not made it down there for that.
Stolar: That was nice. They had little booths that had, some had hot chocolate. Some had
Christmas ornaments from Europe. Norwegian ornaments they were selling. Something to think
about maybe to see if you can get a couple of those vendors who might want to come in.
Hoffman: In Excelsior?
Stolar: Yeah. It’s in Excelsior on Water Street there. It’s the weekend of Thanksgiving I’m
pretty sure.
Daniel: Is that when they do their?
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Park and Rec Commission - December 9, 2008
Stolar: Well they don’t do a, they didn’t do a tree lighting. This was during the day but they had
carolers on little shops. I mean small. It’s not a huge thing.
Daniel: Excellent. Is there anything else any of the commissioners have any questions?
Hoffman: Oh a question, or a conversation Dale on the tree. I was just noting today on a lot of
the national stuff that they’re going to LED lights. Have we talked about that?
Gregory: We looked into it and it will cost us about, oh 4 to 5 times as much per string for LED.
We’ve got LED in those little bushes out here we leave run all summer long.
Hoffman: Yeah, they’ve investing a lot more money but then they’re starting to calculate the
long term. There’s less maintenance and.
Daniel: Lower cost to operate too. Energy is significantly saved.
Gregory: It’s just how we set the budget for if we’re going to plan on that. If we want to do that.
Switch them over.
Hoffman: Yeah. This particular one I read today, they purchased 20,000 in LED’s this year and
they’re on a 4 year plan for 80,000 LED lights so that’s an investment.
Daniel: For our city or for another city?
Hoffman: For a city down south and that but on a national basis people are, you know as a part
of the green movement, people are looking for LED’s.
Daniel: Well maybe that’s something we can get on the Environmental Commission.
Stolar: There might be grant programs to help cities do that.
Hoffman: I don’t know. I think they look a little different and I’m concerned about long term
maintenance. If you lose a strand, that’s $20 bucks versus a strand that’s $4 bucks.
Daniel: Actually it’s even better than that. I think unlike the existing lights that are out there, if
one goes out, typically they half or all go out. This one’s much like.
Gregory: No, not typically. No, they usually just a bulb goes out. As long as, if the bulb burns
out they’ll keep burning.
Daniel: The LED’s?
Gregory: Oh the LED’s.
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Park and Rec Commission - December 9, 2008
Daniel: Yeah, the LED’s is just like the old, the old C7’s, C9’s. I mean one goes out, the rest of
the strand is still good. You’ve just got to replace that one.
Hoffman: Yeah.
Daniel: So your operational cost I would assume would be a little bit lower. But I know, I mean
all of us have problems with those, with the lower cost lights. They only last so long but.
Gregory: They’d definitely be a lot brighter. As you drive around and you see anybody that’s
got them.
Hoffman: Yeah, they’re brighter.
Gregory: Oh, they’re a lot brighter.
Stutzman: I believe that the train out there, I believe those are LED’s, correct?
Gregory: Those are LED’s, yeah.
Hoffman: Great. We’ll look into it. We’ll continue to talk about it.
Daniel: Very good point and Dale, great job. I mean driving up and down the downtown today,
it looks fantastic so hats off to your crew. I assume it was parks and rec who decorated the
lights, correct?
Gregory: We do all of the, by the library and everything else. Streets do the main streets.
Daniel: Streets do streets as well but it looks fantastic so thank you very much. Alright, we can
move on.
RECREATION CENTER REPORT.
Sarles: Thank you. We picked up quite a bit with traffic now and then with all sorts of events
that have been going on and bringing people in. Wanted to point out to you guys this Saturday
we’re having a dance showcase, which is the first time we’ve done kind of a holiday showcase.
We expect about 600 people to come out. There’s going to be two shows so we should have a
big day that day. Let’s see. A few new programs that we’ve started, between John and I we ran
a dodge ball session. Very popular with about 30-32 kids out there playing. Parents begging us
to run it more so they get some more energy out so you’ll see that back again in the spring and
we’re going to add beach volleyball and kickball to it too. Sue and I put together a grandparent
and me pumpkin painting. It was a great day. We had, I think there 17 kids, or 15 children that
participated and 18 grandparents so they had fun. Messy play out at the rec center. Final tally
for the holiday challenge, we had 17 people so they’re all committing to maintain their weight
throughout the holiday season so it’s kind of a fun, different promotion that we started there.
Let’s see, and then we’ve also done some preschool activities. Mom and Me classes, or
parent/child classes and we do about one a month. We’re up to about 20 people now going to
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Park and Rec Commission - December 9, 2008
them. It’s kind of a chance that you can have messy play that’s not in your house and we keep it
fairly inexpensive so that anybody can come and try that out. If you haven’t been out to the rec
center lately, we have all the artwork from Pioneer Ridge and Chaska High School out there so
the walls are filled with the students art work. It looks great.
Daniel: That’s really nice. Some very talented kids out there.
Sarles: Oh, it’s amazing what they can do. And then come in January we’ll have Southwest
Christian will start displaying so, so far those are the two schools that have agreed to do it and
we’ll continue that. And then right now we are, we have our punch card sale going on so if you
know anybody looking to get fit in the 2009, you want to start buying punch cards so.
Daniel: How have the sales been for the punch cards? I mean.
Sarles: They’re picking up quite a bit actually. I was kind of trending it to last year and it looks
good so I think with.
Smith: What is the cost?
Sarles: It depends on the punch card. The 10 card is the same as if you were going to buy 10
daily fees, and then you get a little bit of a break each one so, by the time you get to the 40,
which is the one that’s on sale, you get 50 punches for $92. Seniors I think it’s $82.
Stolar: You see part of this, because probably with the economy, people are releasing their
health club memberships.
Sarles: Right.
Smith: Yeah, I’ve talked to a lot of people that have dropped their Lifetime and said I’m just
going back to the Rec Center.
Sarles: Yeah, we’ve heard a lot of that so it’s nice to have folks back.
Daniel: With the Snap Fitness and the other local, smaller fitness gyms or whatever they may
be, I assume they’re going to start seeing a lot of…because yeah. It’s getting awfully expensive
but people still want somehow to maintain health so.
Hoffman: Have you seen the new Snap Fitness just down the street? Down on Galpin and
Lyman, there’s a new Snap Fitness. It opened, it was, they applied for a corporate office and
then a showroom but they decided to open up a club, which is permitted under the zoning and so
they’ve opened up a retail location in Chanhassen as well.
Daniel: Is that going to be also their corporate headquarters as well?
Hoffman: Yes.
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Park and Rec Commission - December 9, 2008
Smith: They closed the one off Galpin and Stone Creek?
Sarles: Yes.
Smith: Or I mean Coulter and Stone Creek.
Hoffman: Yeah.
Scharfenberg: Jodi I saw, I don’t know if it was in the Villager or I got it in the mail, the
Jazzercise advertisement.
Sarles: Yes.
Scharfenberg: Is that competing with our Jazzercise? Is it something different or?
Sarles: Well our Jazzercise now moved. They moved into a studio space out by the Jimmy
John's out on Galaxy so that’s the same group.
Scharfenberg: Oh, okay. So they’re not using our space anymore?
Sarles: No. No, they thought they could get a little more exposure if they went over there.
They’re on a very temporary lease so they’re going to kind of try it out and see if it works. If it
doesn’t, they said we’ll be calling you so.
Daniel: Todd how was the Breakfast with Santa on Sunday?
Hoffman: It was great. They served 460. Last year they served 480 and they had a front page
lead in last year. There was no coverage in this leading Villager so well attended.
Stolar: How’s the karaoke going? Is that?
Sarles: It’s picking up a little bit now so the, I think last week they had a pretty good crowd and
now they’re doing some holiday music too so I think they’re expecting some more folks to be
coming, and so each week the attendance has picked up.
Kelly: How about the birthday party rental? How’s that been?
Sarles: It’s been actually really busy so we’re doing well with birthday parties right now.
Kelly: I think now, the same with the economy, I think they see that as a less expensive option
than going to Pump It Up or Lifetime Fitness…
Sarles: Oh sure.
Daniel: What type of gym amenities are you typically providing for the birthday parties?
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Park and Rec Commission - December 9, 2008
Sarles: It depends on the age of the kids so we will do anything. We’ve had volleyball parties.
We’ve had dodge ball parties. Floor hockey parties. We’ve had, the younger ones we tend to
have any piece of equipment that we have that is age appropriate for a 3 to 5 year old is out in the
gym. Some of them have used the parachute so John and Jerry have loaned us some equipment
that we can use for some of the younger parties so.
Campion: And was there a young age cut off for the tot time fun activities?
Sarles: You know we’ve gotten everything from about, just about 2 to 5 so most of our kids are
in that 2 to 3 age range actually.
Campion: Okay.
Sarles: Which can be challenging when you get the 2 year olds and the 5 year olds in the same
class. But we work it out. One of the staff out at the rec center does a great job helping out with
that one and designing the program so.
Daniel: Alright, is there any other questions for Jodi?
Stolar: No. Just a compliment to all of you out there. The cross programming has really picked
up and that’s great. Great to see across all ages and leveraging the facilities we have so great
job.
Sarles: Thank you.
Stolar: All of you.
Daniel: Thank you Jodi.
SENIOR CENTER REPORT.
Bill: Good evening. I’m going to start with, I’m going to go backwards from the memo that I
had. Last Friday was our holiday party and this year we moved it to the recreation center to
accommodate more people. We had 110 people. Last, I think our maximum in the old senior
center is 75 and that’s with Dale and his crew taking every table out of there and re-setting. A
lot of really, really good responses. People loved the additional space. We had it catered. We
had entertainment so it went over really well. Community Bank Chanhassen sponsored it again.
Bill Traxler was there and 3 of his staff and they interacted and gave door prizes and helped
offset the cost so it was really a nice event. I think that was their fourth year of sponsorship of
the event so really, really nice event. November, I want to talk about the health insurance
counseling program. We finally got a state licensed health insurance counselor and they’ll come
in the second Tuesday of the month and talk about Medicare, Medicare Part D, Supplemental
Insurance. He’s been here 8 times since the middle of November because Part D plans have
added, or they’ve increased their fees so he’s a new gentleman that comes from Savage and he’s
been great. I think so far he’s seen about 35 people. He’ll work one on one with them. There’s
a computer in the Maple Room. The old senior center, and he’ll search the medicare.gov website
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and they can do plan comparisons so that’s been really, really nice and a nice addition. So that’s
been great. October was a first. Joan, who is my counterpart in Chaska at the Lodge and I
planned an overnight trip. Normally if we have overnight trips we go through a travel agency,
and I know why they mark their fees up now. But anyway we had a great trip. It was a mystery
trip but I kind of let it slip out twice. Someone was in my office and they were talking about the
trip and I was working on it and I said oh Brainerd. We should have a good time in Brainerd.
Oh, that’s where we’re going. But anyway we left on a Thursday morning and went to Brainerd.
We had 44 people. We were able to provide it for $160 a person, and I think I still, I made $25
per person. We went to Madden’s for lunch. We did a tour of Brainerd. We went to the
Welcome Center. We had dinner at a nice restaurant. We went to an evening performance and
probably the highlight of the trip was on Friday we had a guided tour of Camp Ripley, and ate
lunch with the servicemen, so we got a behind the scene looks of Camp Ripley and people just
loved it, and if nobody has been to the Military Museum there, it’s incredible. And anyway
apparently Sunday night at 10:30 On The Road I had 4 people call me. 4 seniors call me at home
Sunday to let me know that that’s where he was going and I should stay up and watch it. So
anyway it was a great trip and people are still talking about it so we may think about doing
another one next year. Or it might be a you know, every couple years trip. Our October flu shot
clinic is always a big event. We were down a slight amount. We gave out 158 shots in like 3
hours. Where there’s more competition out there. All the pharmacies, clinics, grocery stores are
doing them now, but I brought this to my Senior Advisory Board and asked them if they thought
it was something that we should continue, and they said they definitely felt it was. We’ve been
offering flu shots for about 10 years and it’s more than the shot. There are people that stick
around for a good hour and interact. It’s very social and a lot of people come through the doors
that aren’t regular participants so we will continue to do that. Other than that I think I mentioned
it at the last meeting in September. We worked with the Senior Commission to offer a health
and wellness fair, and we worked with the program called Healthy Living Series and we had a
number of screenings. Audiology, memory. Ah, that was a while back. I can’t remember.
Anyway we had our congregate dining program provided a free lunch so we tried to introduce
the lunch as well as talked about the home delivered meals and there were 60 people that
participated in that, and that was about all we could do because we used the council chamber.
We used the hall for screening. We used the Fountain Conference Room. We used the old
senior center because we needed individual rooms and it went great so hopefully we’ll do that
again. And then the last thing I want to talk about is our day trips are now departing from the
recreation center to help alleviate the parking, and I haven’t heard, thanks to Jodi and her staff,
people feel very welcomed. If there’s any problem, her staff’s on top of it and it’s worked out
better than I anticipated so all in all it’s been a busy couple months but everything’s going great.
Daniel: Excellent. Questions for Sue. Thank you Sue. Wonderful job. Mr. Gregory, good
evening.
PARK & TRAIL MAINTENANCE REPORT.
Gregory: It’s been a pretty routine fall this year and that. Everything went real well winterizing
the buildings, park buildings and that. Taking out docks, piers. We aerate and we fertilize all of
our athletic fields in the fall so they’re all ready for springtime. We also did the, Brad, one of
our guys for downtown does our irrigation and that. He does all the blow out’s for all the
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Park and Rec Commission - December 9, 2008
irrigation for all of our parks and downtown. That takes approximately 2 ½ weeks of just doing
that to get all of our irrigation systems winterized. We’ve also had the opportunity to use the
Sentence to Serve people again this fall. We used them around city hall and the library. They do
a good job of cleaning up for us. They come every year and do it and we also had them do some
wood chipping of a bunch of our trees that were up in the north side of city hall. And we also
brought them out one more time and took them to our cemetery where they rake all the leaves
and everything in the fall for us and this year they also removed all the buckthorn for us so it’s
enlarged our cemetery a little bit. It looks like we’ve got a few more graves we can sell now and
that and looks like we gained a whole back row and that there so it will, it looks really good out
there and that now. Things we’re getting into right now and that. We’re trimming trees, or yeah.
Trimming trees along our trails. We’re going to, in the process of going down every one of the
trails and trimming them. So that’s in process. We also started our flooding Wednesday,
rd
December 3. That’s got to be one our earliest starts that we’ve had in a long time. Usually we
don’t get going until at least mid-December. Having a little bit of trouble with the snow.
Getting snow every other day here and that isn’t helping us in it at all and you get a few cold
days then we get some warm days and, but the guys are out. We’ve got two trucks going tonight.
They’ll be going around the clock until it snows again. I think his date is what, next Monday, is
what John has kind of got set for a date to open.
th
Stutzman: The 19.
Gregory: Okay. Is kind of our date for opening and that and the way it’s going we should be
able to hit that okay.
Hoffman: Week from this Friday.
Daniel: Well I know a lot of the ponds are already being used so.
Hoffman: So are the rinks.
Gregory: Before we’re finished they’re used a lot so.
Daniel: Question for Dale. I’m going through the stump removal and 75 stumps were chipped
and removed, along with 100 dead trees. Anything on Kerber on the dead elms there? Kerber
Pond.
Gregory: On?
Daniel: The south side.
Gregory: Oh that’s actually in our 100 trees of coming out this winter.
Daniel: Oh it is, okay.
Gregory: Yep.
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Park and Rec Commission - December 9, 2008
Daniel: So that will be part of it.
Gregory: We’re doing the trails first. We’re going through that whole thing and that and then
after that we’re going to be going into the trees. And we’ve got, like I say, we’ve got 100 elms
that are marked right now that will be taken out and that is in the group to be taken out.
Daniel: Okay, great. Questions? Any commissioners. Excellent. Thank you Dale.
ADMINISTRATIVE REPORTS:
Hoffman: Thank you Chair Daniels, members of the commission. The 2008 CIP, the projects
are listed, along with the corresponding dollar amounts. If you have not had the chance to walk
the new trail in the Arboretum Business Park, take an opportunity this winter. $171,000 was
invested. That’s down from the original budget of $317,000 and that was accomplished
primarily through the elimination of a bridge crossing and replacing that with a concrete culvert.
It just didn’t seem like it had the feel for a bridge. It wasn’t in a real visible location and we
didn’t think that the aesthetics would be diminished replacing the bridge with that culvert. That
saved a considerable amount of money. And then also this project was estimated at 181 and it
came in at $171,000 so a good value on that section of trail. We have one remaining section to
build with Steiner Construction Services and that will come around the other building that is
built. If you’ve been out there, there’s a pad, building pads remaining so when they build that
building they will wrap that trail around and that entire 2 mile trail will be finished. Rec Center
lobby furniture. That’s in and service. It’s the same furniture because the original furnishings
wore so well. They just were discolored and stained from so many pop stains over a 10 year
time period so we went with the same manufacturer. The same product. New coverings.
Different colors and it looks great. We actually used one piece of furniture for Mrs. Claus and
we said, if it wasn’t the new furniture, we wouldn’t have moved that one in for Mrs. Claus
because the old stuff was just too dirty. New rec center fitness equipment. We’re on this, 2009
will be our third year. 2008 was our second year of a 5 year replacement schedule that was
approved by our administration and the City Council so you’ll see $50,000 worth of equipment
and again those are the new installments since the original opening of the center back in 1995.
The $6,000 in tables went underneath the new shelter at Lake Ann, and that’s in combination
with $6,000 from last year, so those are $12,000 worth of new tables underneath that area. Trees
were installed at North Lotus and Lake Ann Park, and those were new trees replacing existing
diseased or dying stock. Lakeside trail, that was actually budgeted in 08 but it was completed in
07 and paid for. That’s the trail along the new Lakeside development near Eden Prairie on Lake
Riley Boulevard. And we really, staff gets a certain amount of pleasure dead ending these trails
at our neighboring communities and saying, there. When you going to meet us at the border so
they’re thinking about it and they also have a trail to construct the Bearpath property line to get
underneath the, the bridge is waiting on Highway 212 so Eden Prairie is working on the south.
Both cities in Eden Prairie and Chanhassen are working on the north and so you’ll see those
increments coming through. And then some ongoing projects. Oh, and then the dock was
extended. Some commissioners had noticed this. We were down there on a neighborhood tour
in fact when they talked to Glenn about it and it was installed and so far other fishermen have
been happy. Ongoing projects. Down at the Preserve trail and bridge, on the south side, this is
the Ryland project and they continue to work. They will finish the trail next spring and then
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Park and Rec Commission - December 9, 2008
they’ll be seeking full payment and again I’m estimating it will be under the $250,000. I’m not
sure how much yet but it will be under that. Lyman Boulevard trail and boardwalk. That’s a
half a million. Those are, that pays for all the improvements. All the pedestrian improvements
that are associated with Lyman Boulevard, and I think we may have talked about this but the
challenge with Lyman is that it was a joint partnership with Carver County, Chaska, the school
district and Chanhassen and it was based off an old agreement through some TIF financing that
just really fell apart and so it was a difficult negotiation. Typically our city administration, Todd
Gerhardt and others will support building trails with road money, as you build a road, because
it’s a great way to get these roads, or these trails built in concert with these roads. This is one of
those cases it just wasn’t going to happen and so we had to incorporate park dedication money
into the mix. And so that’s a significant investment but when you go through there you also see
a significant return. So this includes all of the trails, north and south of Lyman. The underpass
underneath and then also the boardwalk that you received the image of, and if you’ve been
driving by you see it out there. And all these things will come together for the opening of the
Chanhassen High School and Ryland and the Preserve, those homeowners are anxiously looking
forward to that. They feel a little bit disconnected from the rest of the community and to be able
to walk or bike out the north side of their residential neighborhood will be a benefit to them.
And then the Chanhassen High School ballfields, when those are complete we’ll be sending our
$600,000 check down to the high school and Eastern Carver County School District 112 so.
Daniel: So for 2009, fields will not be ready? Summer at all will we have access to them?
Hoffman: Maybe late in the season. Yeah. But there’s not going to be a lot of activity going on
there until the school opens.
Scharfenberg: Plus they didn’t seed, they didn’t seed the baseball fields this year. They didn’t
have the opportunity to seed them this fall I don’t believe. I did a tour I think in October and
they hadn’t been seeded. They’re going to seed them this spring so those ballfields won’t be
ready until the spring of 2010.
Hoffman: The large ballfields. The two they.
Scharfenberg: Right. The two softball fields in the back have.
Hoffman: They seeded, yeah.
Scharfenberg: Yeah, but the two big main fields were not seeded in the fall so.
Hoffman: Yeah. They won’t be ready til spring of 2010. The addition to the, and I’ll take
questions when I’m done. The addition to the conversation is future forecasting for park
dedication and I’ll pass around the first draft. This was last year’s. ...and then we had it slated
at a million dollars for revenues, 07 to 011. So you have a million dollars in forecasted revenues
which we no longer think we will reach. We think it will be more in the $400,000 level based on
today’s economy. That may change again if it comes back. And then we had some relatively
modest or low expense numbers as you look into 07, 08, 09, 010, and 011. So two things
changed. Our revenues we had forecasted drastically down and our projects, we increased
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Park and Rec Commission - December 9, 2008
significantly based on your much more thorough conversation last year where we put everything
on the table. That we’re taking a roller coaster nose dive and something that you really don’t
want to see happening in our forecast so we’ll work through this process next year to correct that
change in our forecasted fund balances.
Stolar: So you’re putting the $400,000 out to 212. 2012 and 2013.
Hoffman: Yeah. So we’ve centered it out for the 5 year. We’ve added 2008, which are not
quite actual. Obviously we’re not through the year but you can see the revenues for 2008 with a
month, 3 weeks left to go are at 435. Our expenses are at 593. We start to plug in the $400,000
for revenues for those remaining years and then we add those expenses so you look at our
expenses are averaging a million and a quarter, and we really only had two years, and those
being 2002 and 2003 where we spent close to those dollar amounts. And then you see what
happened is that there was a kind of a…after City Center Park and we did some other things back
in those, significant trail projects that we did back down so we invested 264 in 04. 79 in 05.
And that fund really starts to rebuild and then you see it, a two million dollar revenue here in
2006 and that’s where we get up to this 3 1/2 ….
Stolar: Is the one 595 the actual, these are all the CIP numbers that we did in our 5 year.
Hoffman: Correct.
Stolar: Historically we’ve always said we wanted to try and not go below a million. Is that
correct?
Daniel: Well we certainly consider, based off of these numbers where we’re at with some of
these projects.
Hoffman: Yep. There’ll be a re-priorization and.
Stolar: Either that or…
Hoffman: Revenue forecast? You know, we just want to be conservative and 2008 is still a
fairly good year and what you’re seeing happening is that housing is just going to kind of stay
where it’s at for a while, but we still have some relatively easy access to what I call light
commercial or commercial and light industrial property and they are still developing that and that
brings in a significant revenue stream for park dedication. While those lands are getting, you
know this nice little development over here is, you know once it’s done, it’s done. It’s a one
time cash infusion so those are going to start to fall off as well, and then unless the housing
market picks up, we could actually trend down below $400,000 depending on how commercial
industrial continues to move forward.
Stolar: What’s the projection for when it runs out, because at some point it’s going to run out.
Hoffman: Yes, well.
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Park and Rec Commission - December 9, 2008
Stolar: What’s the projection on that? From the.
Hoffman: When we think it will run out?
Stolar: Well when does the city feel that all the developments will be done.
Hoffman: Well you ask the planners they say it’s going to be 15 years but then you’re going to
get a break here. This break could last, this slow down could last a year. It could last…so it’s
hard to forecast depending on how many recession time periods we have in there. It’s not the
first one we went through. We weathered through so. Whenever this information becomes
available, I don’t like to sit on it. I like to bring it right down and talk to the park commissioners
about it so we can, you know all of you should be thinking about it as we go through the holidays
and into the new year and then, we’re going to pick it up as a part of the CIP budgeting process
and what we’ll do is probably just start a month earlier. Couple months earlier and go into a
work shop type format so we can start to prioritize where we want to. We don’t want to deliver
something like this for the council with next year’s recommendation.
Campion: Well is this something that we need to correct before then or is this something they
won’t worry about til next year and should be read to not go below zero.
Hoffman: No. It will be fine. We can, we don’t have to correct it because let’s take that 6
months or 4 months or 5 months just to see you know if there is a, where we’re trending.
Campion: So are there options to look at more lucrative maybe investment options…or
something like that?
Hoffman: We do pretty well. This money all goes into the city’s investments and.
Campion: I mean purchasing some land maybe instead of projects or something like that?
Hoffman: Absolutely.
Campion: That could be sold.
Hoffman: All that stuff is on the table. And land is coming down in price by the way. Now the
national trend right now is that park agencies, public agencies are stepping in as the bailout
agencies for many developers across the country where they’re selling land at 20 to 50 cents on
the dollar and it’s who has cash. Some of the public agencies still have the cash so.
Daniel: Any chance there’s a…Lake Ann, is he looking to sell at 50 cents on the dollar?
Hoffman: No.
Daniel: Okay.
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Park and Rec Commission - December 9, 2008
Hoffman: He has more ability to stay than that. These would be over extended development
quirks or development types that they’re in a bind and they need some cash to give back to their
shareholders. I don’t see that in Chanhassen. We have mostly private individuals here that are
doing just fine…
Daniel: Well thank you very much Todd. This is very good information and if, you know just
like any other budget that you’ve got to do year to year, we can certainly analyze and we want to
make sure that we have the necessary funding for the continuation of these projects. Especially
if capital improvement and, you know part of the capital improvement is you want to take care of
existing structures and things that we have to upkeep so anything that falls below that and puts
our ability to do that in jeopardy, we’ve got to, we certainly got to I guess…sense of addressing
it than reactive and saying oh my gosh, where did all the money go? But thank you Todd. I
appreciate it.
Campion: Was there a certain section of trail along 101 that we could…
Hoffman: There is. There’s a section out there.
Stolar: Following on Dan’s previous point. Not this current one. Is there a situation though
where, we had always talked about that we wanted to have the million in case something came
up where we could buy some parkland or some other things in the southern part. Do we see any
of those things coming up? And then if you add to that, we’re not going to have the funds but we
do have the bond rating and interest rates are low. I mean a lot of things are coming together that
if an opportunity presents itself, we ought to consider those things put together. And so are we
still on the lookout for some of that?
Hoffman: Opportunities. Always, yeah.
Stolar: But that would involve probably getting some additional cash beyond park dedication
because we wouldn’t have enough there to address it.
Hoffman: Correct.
Stolar: Okay.
Scharfenberg: The $400,000 in revenues that you’re projecting out. What is that based upon? Is
it based upon building permits that we’re seeing or what are we using for projecting that type of
income?
Hoffman: We’re going, we’re trending down from, it’s building activity.
Scharfenberg: Right.
Hoffman: So you’re at the two million and then the 741 and then 435 and what we’re basing that
on is 2008 we think will be a similar year to 2009, and then after that it’s just you know trending
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Park and Rec Commission - December 9, 2008
it out. We have no reason to trend it up. You know should we trend it down? We’re just
keeping it flat at a conservative level of 400,000. It’s all on building permit activity.
Scharfenberg: From just this last year or kind of over the last 2 years or?
Hoffman: From 2008. You know we’re saying we did 435 and I have no reason to move that
up. We think we’re going to be very similar to that in 2009 and into the future, if the housing
market comes back, that’s going to continue to go up but if you take a look, all the developments
you currently see out there, all the rooftops and all the houses that are, streets that are graded in.
They’ve already paid their full park dedication. We no longer collect as the housing building
permits come in. It’s all up front so K.Hovnanian, the Liberty on Bluff Creek, they’ve paid
100%. Ryland back in their development, they paid 100%. Any industrial building that’s going
up, they pay 100% right up front so. It has to be a raw piece of land, vacant piece of land in
order to have future ability to generate park dedication dollars. In closing, before I move into the
administrative section last night the council again approved next year’s budget. 2009 operation
and maintenance budget and also the capital budget so we have our 2009 marching orders for our
capital improvements projects and we’ll be reviewing some of those with the commission as we
move forward. They were also very complimentary of the strategic plan that the city manager
operates throughout the year and all of the department heads and the staff so we want to make
sure that all of our staff that is represented here tonight recognizes that last night the City
Council gave very glowing reviews of the job performance of all city staff throughout the year.
They were very complimentary so I want to just publicly thank those folks and let you know how
much we appreciate the job that they do. The four people in this room, five with John, represent
everything that we do in recreation, senior programming, the recreation center and park and trail
maintenance and so those are big things on a daily basis. I know as commissioners you
recognize that value and I think our community as a whole does, and we have a very strong
organization. Very well positioned community. Liz walked home this evening from work from
Excelsior. She battles snow drifted roads and cars in Excelsior and Shorewood and when she
gets to Chanhassen she said the trails are plowed. My comment was that’s because we are a full
service community and we provide those good quality public services and so hats off to Dale and
his crew for that and as one satisfied customer that walked home from work so. Thanks to all
our staff.
Stolar: Todd in the budget, did it include eliminating the Maple Leaf then?
Hoffman: It’s on a hold pattern so we’re going to talk about it, yep. In 2009.
Daniel: The Maple Leaf as the city’s symbol?
Hoffman: No, just the Maple Leaf publication.
Daniel: Oh the Maple Leaf, gotch ya… Okay, I suppose we can move onto the administrative
aspect of this Todd.
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Park and Rec Commission - December 9, 2008
Hoffman: The brochure on the back, make sure you send people to GoCarverGo. Very easy to
access. Great program for health and wellness benefits. Have you noticed the benches on
Kerber Boulevard?
Daniel: I did. I saw them install them. I walked past them and they were certainly working very
hard.
Hoffman: Great project.
Daniel: And I thought there was only going to be 2 but they put in 3.
Hoffman: 3.
Daniel: Yep, okay. Because they had the one from the senior home.
Hoffman: Yep. One at Raven Park.
Daniel: Raven Park and the one on top of Kerber Boulevard. Wonderful. Oh it looks great.
Hoffman: Yeah, great kid. He did a nice job.
Daniel: They really went all out. They had the bag of cement. Everything was all set so I hope
it’s going to be one of those lasting Eagle projects. And then anything else?
Hoffman: Commission member reports or presentations?
Daniel: Okay. I see this is the first time I’ve seen Kevin’s painting by the way. Right here.
Hoffman: Hey, there you go.
Daniel: I have not seen it yet.
Hoffman: The original is over at the Legion.
Daniel: Any feedback? I haven’t even had a chance to talk to him about it. As far as the
painting?
Hoffman: The painting?
Daniel: And how is it selling as far as raising funds for?
th
Hoffman: …people like it. The memorial will be finished up in the month of, about April 15 to
th
May 15 and then it will be dedicated on Memorial Day. We’ll look for that.
Daniel: Alright, well thank you Todd.
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Park and Rec Commission - December 9, 2008
COMMISSION MEMBER COMMITTEE REPORTS:
None.
COMMISSION MEMBER PRESENTATIONS:
None.
ADMINISTRATIVE PACKET:
None.
Scharfenberg moved, Campion seconded to adjourn the Park and Recreation Commission
meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 7 to 0.
Submitted by Todd Hoffman
Park and Rec Director
Prepared by Nann Opheim
23