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PRC 2009 01 27 CHANHASSEN PARK AND RECREATION COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING JANUARY 27, 2009 Chairman Daniel called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. MEMBERS PRESENT: Jeff Daniel, Tom Kelly, Steve Scharfenberg, Scott Wendt, Thor Smith and Dan Campion MEMBERS ABSENT: Glenn Stolar STAFF PRESENT: Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Director; and Jerry Ruegemer, Park Superintendent ELECTION OF 2009 CHAIRPERSON AND VICE-CHAIRPERSON. Daniel: It looks like the first thing we’re going to move onto is the election of 2009 Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson so I suppose we should get those duties taken care of right away. Kelly: Is anybody ineligible? Hoffman: For? Kelly: Ineligible because they’re up for, if your term’s up this April, are you ineligible to be elected? Hoffman: No. Kelly: Oh! Daniel: Oh I thought you were. I thought that was the case. Hoffman: Well it makes some sense but it’s nowhere listed in the code or. Wendt: I haven’t made up my mind yet whether I’m doing it again or not. Or going to apply again or not so. Daniel: I do plan on re-applying so I think it’s myself and Dan correct? Campion: Yeah. Daniel: So as far as any nominations. Thor? Smith: I nominate that you would remain as the Chair. Park and Recreation Commission - January 27, 2009 Kelly: Second. Daniel: Anybody else? Steve? Scharfenberg: No, I would… Daniel: I was just thinking since Glenn was here maybe. So Scott? Alright then as far as nominations for Chairperson. Thor you elected, are you suggesting? Suggesting myself? Smith: Yes I am. And if there needs to be a motion then I so move. Daniel: Second the motion? Wendt: Second that. Smith moved, Wendt seconded to appoint Jeff Daniel as Chairperson of the Park and Recreation Commission for 2009. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0. Kelly: So you accept then? Daniel: I accept then. Thank you very much gentlemen. I appreciate the support and look forward to the chairperson responsibilities for 2009. Now we move onto Vice-Chairperson and any suggestions? Dan, I’ll start with you. Campion: I nominate Thor. Daniel: Thor Smith. Tom? Kelly: I’ll second that if I need to. Daniel: Okay. Scott? Wendt: Yeah. I don’t really have any thoughts. Daniel: Steve how about yourself? Scharfenberg: No, that would be fine with me too. Daniel: Okay. Well let’s see, motion to have Thor Smith as Vice Chairperson. Campion moved, Kelly seconded to appoint Thor Smith as Vice Chairperson of the Park and Recreation Commission for 2009. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0. Daniel: So do we need to do any shuffling or are we fine as far as where? 2 Park and Recreation Commission - January 27, 2009 Hoffman: Tonight? Oh yeah, you’re fine. Daniel: Oh okay. I just want to make sure if there’s any seating or any arrangements but. Alright from there I certainly appreciate it. Any comments Thor? Smith: I’m all…I’ll probably start choking up and so I’m going to pass. Daniel: I understand that. Kelly: All you want is Jeff to maintain his grade point average. Smith: You’d better be at every meeting. Daniel: I’ve only missed one and that was my second one, I think it was May of 2006 so I don’t think I’ve missed one since. Hoffman: But there might be some public appearances that he can’t make so. Then we’ll be calling on you. Daniel: Well thank you very much and again as I said, I appreciate the responsibilities for this position and look forward to working with each and every one of you for 2009 here. APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Daniel: Is there anything you guys want to add, delete at this time? Any of the commissioners? Todd? Jerry? Hoffman: Just want to add a general discussion, item 7 on the schedule for your upcoming year. I’m going to do a brief little idea session with commissioners and then we’ll take that as a staff and we’re going to create a schedule for some special projects with the commission throughout the 2009 year. Daniel: Fantastic. Any, no. We don’t have any public announcements do we Todd? PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: Hoffman: We were just talking about it. Power Hill Park, if you didn’t notice. It was on the cover of the Villager so, and in general about the past 4 out of 7 headlines have been park and rec related in the Villager so, we’ve had trails. We’ve had skating rinks. We’ve had, what was the other? Ruegemer: Dance party on ice. Hoffman: Dance party on ice and now the Power Hill Park so. 3 Park and Recreation Commission - January 27, 2009 Ruegemer: And Feb Fest I think should be coming up too. Daniel: Excellent. Hoffman: So again a great run and always nice to see for the community that the Villager’s out promoting those parks. Daniel: Well can I just make an assumption that the article was positive and not related to an accident or any issues. I have not read it. Hoffman: No. It’s all positive. Daniel: Well good. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS: None. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Scharfenberg moved, Campion seconded to approve the verbatim and summary minutes of the Park and Recreation Commission meetings dated November 25, 2008 and December 9, 2008 as presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0. 2009/2010 LAKE ANN PARK BEACH CONTRACT. Ruegemer: Chair Daniels, that was postponed until a further meeting. It will probably be brought back in February I believe we’ll collect some more information regarding the contract. Daniel: Okay. Make sure I got that. Okay, so we’re going to move onto then February’s meeting then to cover that? Ruegemer: Correct. Daniel: Okay, thank you. Scharfenberg: Jerry just with respect to that, will that be through Minnetonka again? Ruegemer: We’re having discussions with Minnetonka, correct. Scharfenberg: Okay. Daniel: This is post one more what, season plus 2 after the telephone, cell phone incident issues? Ruegemer: Right. That’s way past now and we just completed our second year of a 2 year contract. We just completed our second year so we’re moving forward now with another multi- year contract. Daniel: Okay. 4 Park and Recreation Commission - January 27, 2009 Ruegemer: So we’re just looking at some different options to see if we can kind of sharpen the pencil so to speak on the bottom number for the contract. If we can shift around some hours to still provide you know excellent coverage down there but yet reduce our costs with the contract so we’re taking a look at those items right now. Daniel: Okay. Excellent. Thank you Jerry. We’ll look forward to that next month. And then we can move onto the capital improvement program for 2009. 2009 PARK AND TRAIL CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM (CIP). Hoffman: Thank you Chair Daniels and members of the commission. Briefly I would like to review our 2009 CIP. Talk about the future and hear comments from the commission primarily about what you see moving forward for priorities and so staff can react accordingly. We purchased the recreation center fitness equipment. The second of 5 years I believe so we’re into a 5 year replacement program. The majority, well all of the equipment replaced the native and original equipment at the recreation center opening so our clients and customers are very happy to see some new equipment coming in. We’re going to replace the picnic shelter concrete around the recreation center picnic shelter. If you’ve noticed it’s been cracking and frost heaving and it just does not present an accessible or a very pleasant experience out at the recreation center and it’s always the philosophy that we maintain if we have a facility that you invest a great deal of time and effort in, you might as well keep it in the best condition possible, so we’ll be looking to that this spring. City Center Park has an electronic reader sign that’s going to come right to this corner in front of the library and then upstairs the receptionist will be able to control it and so all our messages about all of our different programs, library events, local th community events, farmers markets, 4 of July, Feb Fest will all be reading electronically. It’s an amber sign so it’s not full color. We looked at full color. It’s a little garish for that particular location for a city sign. Amber seems more public oriented so look for that to be installed again this spring or early summer. Picnic tables and benches. Annually we purchase a supply and this year we’ll be investing some of this, a good portion of this money, I think about $6,000 in 3 additional tables. The black tables…, the round ones with an umbrella attachment and so we have requests during the summer for seating out in the area for people that want to have lunch. Read a book and there’s not a lot of shade out there so we’ll be bringing in 3 additional benches, round tables with the umbrella. Trees, each year we do a tree planting and we’ll schedule one again for fall of 2009. Preserve trail and bridge will be connected. In conversation with Ryland Homes and they will make that final connection up, south of Lyman and then we’re working with the Degler family to continue that connection under the underpass of. At present you see a bridge on the south. A boardwalk being built on the north. An underpass under the road and all those will be connected before the middle of summer. We paid Ryland that $86,626 thus far and that was the buildings on the bridge. We have not paid for the trail portion as of yet. And I’m not sure if we’ve talked about it, Ryland has allowed the rest of their project to go back to the property owner, the Degler family, Gayle Degler family so Ryland is done with the development, at least in their, this phase. They aren’t going to take it any farther so the development that you see is where it’s going to stay for a little while. Lyman Boulevard trail improvements. That project has been increased from a half a million up to 647 and that’s based on the original estimate was the 8 9 50 and it’s gone up to 10,175,000 and these are actual hard costs. This is 5 Park and Recreation Commission - January 27, 2009 the city’s share of a county project for those trail improvements that we were just talking about. The underpass. All of the trails that are going along the north and south side. And then the boardwalk out in the other marsh. So that’s a significant investment, but if you take a look at it, that’s a section of trail that travels all the way from Audubon to Galpin and it’s the section of trail that people really felt the lock out on you know when they would go down and try to reach to Lyman it was just like, you know I rarely did it. The last time I did it cars wanted to run me off. I was on my bike. They wanted to run me off the road and people would run through there, try to get to that trail to go south on Audubon and Chaska. It was more or less take your life in your own hands so it’s an important link for our community. Lake Ann ballfield, it’s our recommendation that we defer that project for the present time. What you’re seeing in the park dedication fund is $3.4 million dollars will be really a high in our bank account and it’s going to start to go down as you invest these dollars at the levels of like $647,000 and you know $90,000 for stairways and $600,000 for ballfields at the athletic. And we’re not going to replace those dollars at the same rate that we have been in the past 4-5 years obviously so we’re optimistic we should be able to see $400,000 in annual revenues, but that’s down from a high of $2 million that we did back 3 years ago in park dedication fees. The boom has busted and we have to follow suit with how we manage our projects and it’s our recommendation that we hold off on that for the time being. Lake Ann stairway project is underway. The planning is being prepared and it’s really an essential component to bring that shelter into the beach area through a pedestrian access way. Playground refurbishment at South Lotus. That’s just a maintenance item. The border is falling apart. The pea gravel’s spilling out into the gravel area and we’re taking a look at, this is, I think this playground is 17 or 18 years old and it was a red pole and it’s faded. Some of the paints that were you know that age did not hold their colors well so we’re taking a look and see if we can’t paint that. We may or may not be able to. If we can’t we’ll just continue to let that playground age out. It will last probably a maximum of 25 years so it doesn’t have too many years left. And then the high school athletic field contribution, that will be that $600,000 contribution going over to the school. Jerry and I met with Athletic Director Dick Unger on Friday. Talked about athletic fields. Toured the building and he readily admits that you know even though they’re building some nice facilities, including our share, they’re going to be short the day they open the building just because of the size of the site. It’s a very nice indoor space. There’s beautiful gyms and those type of things but outdoors they’re going to be short baseball fields and practice fields so. You know this $600,000 is going to allow us to have access there but without that contribution I don’t think we’d be seeing, we’d be in the same running with Victoria and other communities so. It’s a good investment. Great facility and I think it will pay just dividends over time. So those are our activities for ’09. And then as you look forward, as we discussed in December we’ll be bringing back the entire schedule of ’09 through ‘013, 2013 and talking about the forecasted revenues and where we want to be. Placing our prioritization in the future capital items. Daniel: Excellent. Thank you Todd. I’m sure there’s a lot of questions based on all the information Todd’s provided so why don’t we start with Steve. Scharfenberg: So Todd can you tell us what went into the thought process of not, by taking the netting down for the, at Lake Ann Park. 6 Park and Recreation Commission - January 27, 2009 Hoffman: Well it’s a project that’s been talked about and talked about and talked about. It’s one of those projects where you can always say to yourself well we’ve made it this long. What can we approve for $100,000 and then you take a look at alright, we’re going to have to start invest our dollars in things that you potentially are only going to have the opportunity to do today and you know so we haven’t done the netting in 20 years or 15 years or 10 years, so can we wait another 4 or 5 years? It’s something where we’re just going to have to start protect our dollars and you know does it rise to the level of some of these other projects that are either mandated through development contracts. This is an elected project. Scharfenberg: Right. Hoffman: This commission did have a very good prioritization conversation some years ago where they said safety you know comes to the top and so this flies in the face of that to a certain degree so you have to take that into. It’s one of those things where as a staff we haven’t identified exactly what this would buy. Because you can put up an awful lot of netting and spend a lot of money and still have foul balls that are coming up and over your net so it’s not, it’s not like I can say well yeah, if we invest this money we’ve absolutely solved the problem because you can’t say that. Daniel: Now the percipience for this was based off of some injury this past summer to a girl, little girl or something like that? Hoffman: Well, yeah. It’s that coupled with the, we’re trying to improve 1, 2 and 3. We put some new dugouts in there and some new fencing and so we’re just trying, I would call it continual improvement of the facility that you have here… Daniel: Okay. Scharfenberg: And that concrete slab, I was trying to think when I saw that today. Does that, do the footings and the brick work out for the covering and that, sit outside of the slab? It isn’t going to involve breaking up any further, other than just breaking up the slab itself and re- pouring it? Hoffman: At the Rec Center Shelter? Scharfenberg: Yeah. Hoffman: Yeah, you just take the slab out of there and then we’re going to add some concrete on the north side of the building to wrap it around to that access area where there’s a door there. Main storage and making some larger seating in that area. Scharfenberg: Okay. That’s all I have. Daniel: Great, thanks Steve. Scott. Wendt: I don’t have any questions. 7 Park and Recreation Commission - January 27, 2009 Kelly: I had a couple of them. I was just wondering if that, the electronic sign, is that going to replace those signs we have right now for the Huffman Race and, or will it be in addition to those signs? Hoffman: We’ll replace those signs on this property. Kelly: But not necessarily the ones that are on the corner of Highway 5 and those will still be. Hoffman: No. They’ll continue to be used. Kelly: Okay. The other question I had was about, even though Ryland has pulled out of, or they’re no longer building homes on that property, they are still going to complete the trail in the spring and the summer? Hoffman: Yes, and they’re going to complete the homes on the current phase that they started. They’re just not going to take on any additional phases. Kelly: Okay. Hoffman: Yeah, they’re still there working and building homes in the phase that they originally platted. First phase. Kelly: Also it looks like you guys got some great discounts on the equipment from Second Wind. I mean you almost got 50% off it looks like so that’s great. I don’t know if it’s because it’s a city government or. Hoffman: Well it’s a competitive bid. If you look at the other bids as well so. Kelly: Oh okay. Hoffman: All the bids are attached there I believe. Kelly: Yeah, you got some great bids. Hoffman: Oh no, they don’t have the other bids there but it’s competitive bids so we received quotes from 3 other, 2 other providers as well so we retained the lowest quote here. Kelly: Okay. That’s all I had. Daniel: Great. Thor. Smith: On the Lyman Boulevard trail improvement, how do they come up with the $647,000 versus, because it seems like it’s not an incremental increase? 8 Park and Recreation Commission - January 27, 2009 Hoffman: Oh yeah. On the, no it’s based on the actual bid so they go into the line items and so when the bids come back it says how much are you going to charge us for per foot of trail and perforation and so the increase is not incremental because it’s based on the actual bids for those improvements. Smith: Okay. Hoffman: How much they bid for trails. How much they did. Smith: Okay. I was thinking it was like you know, a percentage of the bid and it didn’t, the math didn’t work out so. Hoffman: No. The bids were all broke down by individual component. Smith: And then for the sign, it’s going to be on. Hoffman: That corner. Smith: That corner. Was there consideration to put it on this corner? Hoffman: There is but there’s already a sign there that says, there’s kind of a round sign that says City Center Park and then it’s all pavers after that. So we looked at that corner. We looked at the center of the block and then we looked at this other corner over here and you think about traffic and then you can see the sign from 4 different intersections when you’re stopped. Smith: Yeah that’s true. And there’s more room. Daniel: Anything else Thor? Smith: Nope. Daniel: Great, Dan. Campion: Just one question on the Lake Ann Park stairway project. I understand this is the flight of stairs down from the. Hoffman: New shelter. Campion: New shelter down to the beach. Wasn’t there also another stairwell that was discussed going from shelter to shelter kind of? Hoffman: Yep, and we’re hoping to include that and met with the architect today. We’re hoping to include, the first priority is, there’s a $90,000 item in the budget so the first priority is to get the first stairway. Once the cost estimates come in on that, from cost estimates then we’ll go to the other one. They have to design to continue it to take it, right now when you walk up by the existing shelter, then you have to take a left. This stairway would be added to keep you going 9 Park and Recreation Commission - January 27, 2009 right up to the new shelter. It’s a two phased project. When you’re looking at those, as we’re discussing the sign, and then if you look at the projects by funding source where the black magic marker has circled, and so the sign and then the rec center picnic shelter contract that Mr. Scharfenberg asked about and the rec center fitness equipment, those $74,000 worth of improvements are coming out of the capital replacement fund which is separate from the park dedication fund. Campion: Okay. Hoffman: For those who were on the commission during the playground replacement, that was the same fund. Remember the half a million dollars that the council dedicated to playground replacement? The commission had requested that those dollars not be taken out park dedication as they were maintenance items and they agreed and allocated those out of the capital replacement. Again it goes without saying that getting your share of dollars from the capital replacement will become harder and harder. They will be more welcoming if you’re talking about spending your park dedication dollars. Daniel: Excellent. Tom, do you have another one? Kelly: Yeah, I forgot the Lyman trail does not include, is it true the Lyman trail does not include going from Audubon to Powers? Hoffman: It does not. That’s phase III. Kelly: Okay. Hoffman: Phase I of Lyman is from Audubon to Galpin. Phase II is from Galpin to 41 and Phase III from Audubon back east to Powers will be triggered by whatever development happens on the land south of Lyman there which is owned by the Dorsey family and the Fox family. Kelly: Okay. Hoffman: And once development occurs there, the road’s going to have to be rollered. All the improvements that go with the road and trails and…and so that’s not scheduled. It’s just going to be a trigger by future development. Kelly: Okay. Thanks. Hoffman: So we’ll still have a missing link. Kelly: Missing link, yep. But you’ll get rid of that hill sounds like. Hoffman: Part of it. Daniel: Which I guess is down so far I assume. 10 Park and Recreation Commission - January 27, 2009 Hoffman: Yeah, it’s only about, well it’s 8 or 10 feet. Daniel: That really counts. Is City Center Park sign, is that coming out of the CIP? Hoffman: Yeah, it’s coming out of the capital replacement fund, yeah. Daniel: Oh, the replacement fund. It’s not going to be coming out of our park dedication. Hoffman: Park dedication. Daniel: Oh okay, good. That’s what I was trying to get clarification on. And the Lake Ann stairway project. We have the steps that are on the west side that are going from the very top of the hill down to the road. Are those going to be replaced? Hoffman: They’ll stay just as is. Daniel: No sense to replace those old telephone poles? Hoffman: Well the, most people walk along the edge and it’s this fairly long and what people really need is they want direct access. You know they’re avoiding that stairway and they’re just going straight over the hill and so we wanted to meet that demand and that’s what the stairway’s going to do to the other one. Daniel: Okay. Hoffman: At some point. Boy, those telephone poles have been there for a long time. Daniel: Since I was a kid. And $90,000 for stairs? Hoffman: Oh yeah. Daniel: What’s the style going to be, cement? Hoffman: Concrete. Daniel: Okay. Hoffman: Once the, we need some designs and some cost estimates. We’ll bring them in and show you but that doesn’t take long. If we do two sets and if we can’t afford them in concrete then we’ll be going back to the wood but any time you put stairways on a north facing slope in a public park system, you would like them to be as maintenance free as possible. My preference would be like WPA quality. You know on the WPA quality back then was pretty important. Today it costs a lot of money for stone and concrete and those type of things so. And once they get some cost estimates on concrete then we’ll be deciding if that’s affordable and then we’ll continue to, there’s also aesthetics difference between concrete and wood. Most people lean towards wood but then the maintenance starts to become more of an issue. 11 Park and Recreation Commission - January 27, 2009 Daniel: And then you know we’re looking at $147,000 there back to the park dedication fund I assume…increase of 500 to $647,000. Is that based off of that impact which is a sizeable project for any park dedication project. Are there other things maybe that we should be taking a look at that have the slot to properly or budget or forecast that do you think? Hoffman: I believe so. Now I think by the time we’re all done with the budget discussion there’ll be a bunch of things that drop off and the 647 may go higher before it’s all said and done. Depending on how we finish out that project. The trail work is the last thing on the docket and so if they run into any more issues, it will just continue to add up on the cost. Daniel: Alright. And I think that’s about it. I like the sign. I think that’s going to be very nice. And was amber, I mean was it discussed as far as amber and the color, it’s going to be, is it going to be the orange amber or the red? Hoffman: It’s the yellowish amber. Daniel: Yellow, okay. And as far as visibility? Hoffman: 6 inch letters up to 4 lines. 4 lines. 6 inch letters. Smith: How come we opted not to put one similar to what Halla has on Halla Nursery? Hoffman: Should we bring that one up here? Four lines at 6 inch amber or one 25 inch line. Daniel: Oh, fantastic. So there’s going to be plenty of, great. And what’s the, I assume the, what’s the specifications but like a dot matrix type of thing. Hoffman: They also call a Datronix sign made in Redwood Falls. Daniel: Oh! I didn’t know Datronix had a facility out there. Okay. Are there any questions then? Excellent. Than you Todd. Hoffman: You’re welcome. RECREATION PROGRAM REPORTS: 2009 FEBRUARY FESTIVAL. th Ruegemer: Thanks again. We’ll start with the ice fishing contest and coming up on our 16 th annual. Our 16 anniversary of our ice fishing contest which started at Lake Susan and moved to Lake Ann a number of years ago. Just kind of an FYI for the commission. I did put a schedule of events on your, kind of on your work stations tonight. Kind of gives you a listing of kind of all the events going on during the February Festival coming up here a week from this coming Saturday so we’re getting excited for that. John’s been very busy going around and getting prizes and getting all the information kind of put together. Our office looks like a 12 Park and Recreation Commission - January 27, 2009 warehouse right now with the prizes and that sort of thing. We did, after last year’s contest we kind of did take a step back and re-evaluate a little bit. We’re going to re-orientate the, kind of the layout of the festivities down on the ice. We did go for a larger tent, so then we’ll have the Rotary inside the big tent. The fish weighing station and then the bingo will also be inside the tent itself so it will all kind of divided out… The fishing and the Rotary will kind of be one big open area. The library will have kind of a sectioned off wall to kind of contain their event as well. We also, yeah we also talked about having some type of a dog sled ride or some other type of function for that so what we’re going to be doing is we’re going to be doing hay rides similar to what we do for the Halloween party and that sort of thing so Ken Tice who provides the hay rides out there for Halloween is going to be coming out on Lake Ann and around there at the Lake Ann area. We’re going to kind of figure out where the best location is for him and then he’ll bring his team of horses and hay wagon and we’ll do rides and that for free down on the ice so that will be something else kind of fun for families and people that aren’t fishing, to come and have, be a part of the celebration down there so been you know just busy with promotion and getting information out on the web site and through flyers. Mailing out information to the fisher people from last year so we’re extremely busy with that. Kind of refined, moved around the prizes. Got some different prizes located in different areas for the fish prizes and refined that a bit to kind of give it a fresher look. Kind of worked the door prizes a little differently this year as well. So you know all in all things are really shaping up for that. I know John has contacted a number of your for volunteering and anybody else here tonight that John has talked to but you guys haven’t gotten back to him that want to work from noon to 3:00. Jeff is a yes. Kelly: I think I’m already down. Ruegemer: Yep. Campion: I think I am too right? Ruegemer: I know, I think Thor you were. Wendt: You can sign me up too. Ruegemer: Scott. Daniel: It’s a good time. Campion: And I’ll likely be down for a partial at least. Ruegemer: Yep. And you talked to John. Campion: I talked to John, yep. Ruegemer: Okay. And Steve you said you talked to? Scharfenberg: John. 13 Park and Recreation Commission - January 27, 2009 Ruegemer: Okay. And you’re a yes as well? Scharfenberg: Yep. Ruegemer: Excellent. Thank you. Okay, great. Thank you. That’s great coverage. You’ll enjoy it. Dress warm. Does anybody have any questions? Daniel: Can we just get a nice little carpet this time that we can walk on behind that for the bingo? Ruegemer: Didn’t we do that last year? Kelly: Yeah, it was very nice. Daniel: Made a world of difference. Ruegemer: We’ll get you hooked up on that. Hoffman: 35 degrees. I can feel it. Kelly: We are due for a warm one. Did the Rotary do concessions last year or was it the boy scouts? Ruegemer: Rotary. Kelly: Okay. Ruegemer: And the Rotary did reapply or apply for a liquor license and they’ll be selling bottled beer out there. Hoffman: Can. Ruegemer: Oh cans. I thought they were doing. Hoffman: Oh plastics? Yeah. Ruegemer: Yeah. Hoffman: Plastic. Daniel: Plastic bottles. Okay. Ruegemer: Like they have at the Dome. The 16 ounce Pabst. Campion: Can you enjoy one of those adult beverages while working the bingo? 14 Park and Recreation Commission - January 27, 2009 Hoffman: Absolutely. You’re volunteers. Ruegemer: So they’ll be doing that and some other items as well so we’re very happy that they’re going to be partaking on that so. Hoffman: It just depends on how concerned you are with your public image. th Daniel: Have you seen the commissioners work on the 4 of July? And there’s several thousand… I say just based off of that Jerry, it’s been a success. Congratulations. Excellent. Well no, that actually is good news because you know finally we don’t have to answer the question where’s the beer tent because that actually will be better so that’s…and that makes us all very happy. So some extra cash and it will be fun and I actually look forward to it. Like I said it’s a nice way to break up the season here in the city as far as a nice community event. I think it is, I’ve got a feeling, I agree with you Todd. I think the weather might be a little more in our favor this time. It just has to. Considering that January for the first time they’re saying has never, was the first time since 1887 that we’ve never had a day in the 30’s so, or above freezing th so I hope that things will change coming February 7. Was there anything else that any of the commissioners may have or any questions? Kelly: Would we ever consider doing what Excelsior does on New Year’s Day at the Feb Fest? Hoffman: Jumping in the water? Kelly: Yep. Ruegemer: I guess staff hasn’t talked about that but. Kelly: I know it’s a New Year’s Day tradition in Excelsior but I’ve never done it but I know people that have and I know it’s, I mean they just line up. It’s a huge event. I don’t know if that would ever be. Hoffman: I think we’ll let them have their day. It’s grown. My kids have been doing it so. Kelly: Oh they have been doing it? Okay. Hoffman: Yeah. It’s a popular event. Daniel: And you haven’t done it yourself Todd? Hoffman: No. I don’t want to rain on their parade. Kelly: Your position is the more times you’ve done it the earlier you can go in the ice. Hoffman: The minnows, the guppies, the sharks. They’ve all got it, yeah. All figured out. A couple of guys have been doing it for 22, 23 years. The guys that started it so. Their first, yeah. 15 Park and Recreation Commission - January 27, 2009 And then they get out and then they start announcing so they get out and put a big old robe on and just keep going. Daniel: Now is this a fund raising mechanism too? Scharfenberg: They do do it I think for fund raising. Ruegemer: …All the participants get pledges and they raise money. Hoffman: Polar Plunge. The line-up of fishing events in communities has been pretty well straighten out. If you follow Feb Fest and Victoria and Chaska and all, we used to kind of plunk into each other on the same weekend. Now Chaska’s was this last Saturday. The Chaska Fire th Department. 56 year I think. And then Victoria’s is this Sunday. Superbowl Sunday and they start about 1:00 to 3:00 and their fire department. And then our’s is the following week so everybody’s now kind of got their spot figured out. Daniel: Excellent. Don’t have to worry about having any conflicts. th Hoffman: Yep. And of course Feb Fest used to be later, about the 15, but we always ran into melting ice so we moved it back into the first week. Daniel: Excellent. Kelly: Solved that problem didn’t you? Hoffman: We haven’t had that problem since. Ever since. Daniel: Well like I said, it’s going to be another exciting event and can’t wait to hear the results at our next meeting Jerry so looking forward to the success of the event. Ruegemer: Yeah, we’ll be in contact with you prior to the event too and…just some further details on timing. I think kind of…times right now looks like it will be about noon to 3:00. A little bit after once you kind of allocate all the prizes so if you kind of put down that time. Noon to 3:00, 3:30, that would be great. Appreciate that. Daniel: Okay. Well let’s move onto the 2009 Dance Party on Ice. DANCE PARTY ON ICE EVALUATION. th Ruegemer: Our newest Park and Rec program, we did do that on Friday, January 9. It was kind of one of those chilly nights but I think overall our first one, I think it was a pretty good success. It started out slow for registration. Kind of one of our goals here is as a department was to kind of get more, you know kind of the email blast. We have a collection of people with emails when they register for programs. That sort of thing so we’re utilizing that more now so just doing about 1,500-2,000 emails at a time generated some additional participants for that event so we’re going to continue to look at that really on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. Kind of 16 Park and Recreation Commission - January 27, 2009 promoting a lot of our programs that we have and this is, certainly was one of them that was a beneficiary of that so started out with that. Had some parents there that really enjoyed that. A lot of people were asking about when the next one was this winter so this was our only one planned for this winter but knowing that there’s a need for it and a desire, we’ll probably plan multiple events next winter so it was fun. You know kind of a new event. You go out on the ice do different games with the DJ’s and that sort of thing and you kind of see John’s recommendations for next year. Kind of you know have a little bit more festive the atmosphere and kind of build upon the success that we had for this event so. I’m sure maybe some of you have…talked about that tonight, that we had some pretty good coverage on the front page of the Villager. And then Forrest Adams was also there and provided some video footage of that as well that you can view on our city web site as well…so that’s been nice to have Forrest plugged in to a lot of our events that we had discussed earlier. That’s been a great deal for us and we can be on the front page many times throughout the course of our winter season with all of our events has been a great thing for us so. Just looking ahead to next year. Consider multiple dates. Look for new ways to kind of improve and do things a little bit differently in areas that we need to improve on. Get some additional attendance there. We think we can really build upon this program so it was a fun event. Daniel: Any questions or comments? I guess from my perspective it certainly was financially well planned. I mean $46 was the total cost to the city for having an event like that for the community I think is an expense and I think to be honest with you if we have that type of similar turn out, especially at $9 a cost with 48 participants and it starts to build, then you’re looking at a very low investment. Low cost investment for the city for, you know to have these type of dates so you know if we kind of raised up over the years. Maybe go to 3 dates for next year. 4 dates, whatever it may be and who knows, it might be able to expand itself. But I, you know it comes down to I think exposure and then word of mouth and if you’re starting to get that type of feedback, then I think word of mouth and it gives them something to do. Was this on a Saturday? Ruegemer: Friday night. Daniel: A Friday night? Even better. Ruegemer: Yeah. Daniel: It gives something for the, you know people to bring their kids out and even driving by Chan Rec today, I mean there were, I mean the second hockey rink was already full so. Ruegemer: Another time, good time might be right after school too so we could do it at both elementary schools in town or different schools, right after school and a captive audience with the after school you know latch key or Club Care type of programs may be a good way as well. Certainly look for ways to reduce the price of the program as well. I mean $9.00 is you know I think somewhat spendy when you can skate for free any day of the week so we’ll look for ways that reduce the cost on that… Hoffman: Volunteer DJ. DJ Jeff. 17 Park and Recreation Commission - January 27, 2009 Scharfenberg: Jerry, how were the skating lessons attended? Did we get a pretty good turnout for that in terms of sign-up? Ruegemer: Yeah. Those were okay. You know it certainly is, we have so much we have at returning instructor for that now and yeah, those were actually pretty good. I think those were full actually for Christmas so. Yeah, we still have the desire to have outdoor lessons. We don’t have a big fancy arena but we can make it work. Hoffman: You saw the article in the Star Tribune on the popularity or the resurgence of outdoor skating. We noticed that. All our colleagues noticed that before the article was produced and it’s just because it’s freer and accessible and people aren’t spending as much time, or money on weekend vacations to the Dells and other areas up north. They’re staying at home and going to the skating rink. Daniel: Well I mean in addition to the city rinks as well, any pond of any considerable size seems to be very well manicured and shoveled and there’s a lot of, I mean everybody’s out skating. You hit it right on the head Todd. Smith: There’s no ordinances, I mean I noticed, I saw a thing on the news about Minnetonka shutting down somebody’s. Hoffman: Oh, rink? Smith: Rink. Hoffman: Because of the lights? Smith: Well they actually were on a wetland. Hoffman: Oh, okay. Ruegemer: What’d they do some eco system? Smith: What they did was they put poly down and then flooded it and so they had to flood it. It wasn’t just shoveling off ice. Hoffman: Yeah, they went on a wetland and that’s probably, yeah. Daniel: Yeah, that’s understandable but Kerber Pond. Hoffman: It’s got 3 on it. Daniel: Yeah. I was going to say 2 from what I could see out of my parents house but there’s 3 on there huh? And those are all done and we have one right off of Lake Lucy. Or Lake Lucy Road so I mean like I said, they’re all over the place and that’s fantastic so it’s popular. It’s the 18 Park and Recreation Commission - January 27, 2009 sport of the state so why not. If there’s not a question we can go onto the 3 on 3 adult basketball update. SELF-SUPPORTING PROGRAMS: 3-ON-3 ADULT BASKETBALL LEAGUE. th Ruegemer: FYI for the commission. The league did start Monday, January 12. Just completed our third week now. Ended up with 10 teams for the winter season so we did do one division for rd that and a class will start after February 23 so we’ll wrap up in about the second or third week in March and then start the spring league after that. The teams long for new lighting out at the gyms. Daniel: Oh gosh yeah. I mean my son was in basketball this winter and. Ruegemer: Night and day. Daniel: Well yeah. It truly is. Or at least dusk til day. Alright, then that’s it Jerry. Certainly appreciate it. Thank you very much for all the updates. COMMISSION MEMBER COMMITTEE REPORTS. None. COMMISSION MEMBER PRESENTATIONS. None. ADMINISTRATIVE PACKET. Daniel: Todd, was there anything you want to highlight or talk about? Hoffman: Well once we adjourn the meeting we can talk about the Distinguished Service Award that’s in there. And then I’d also like to go over the item that we added quickly on 2009 annual projects. Whenever you’re ready for that. Daniel: Alright. Then outside of that, I’ll just end the meeting. Is there a motion to? Oh, you want to do that now. I apologize. I thought you wanted to. Hoffman: Yeah, we’ll adjourn and do the distinguished service but we should do this one under our agenda. Daniel: Okay. Hoffman: So we would like to take a look at your full calendar for all the different months in 2009 and start to set up some kind of special focus projects so we start to engage the commission in a variety of different functions that we do as a department and as a city. Just jotting down some ideas. CIP. We have another future meeting and so we would like to bring in a discussion about the CIP planning. Some prioritization. Some photos. Do a presentation on that. We would like to bring in the maintenance group and highlight the work that they do. Receive your feedback on what you think you hear as priorities. That’s one of the things that’s important for us as a staff is to, when you’re out talking to your neighbors and folks in the community about 19 Park and Recreation Commission - January 27, 2009 what you hear, it’s nice to re-affirm those areas that we’re spending time in and because we are continually changing where we invest our time and dollars. Project tours and taking some project tours probably in May. So identifying some specific projects that we want to take a look at. We’re going to get that bike ride down in June and that would be with commissions, Planning Commission, Environmental Commission members, Council and the Park and Rec Commission. Identify a route and schedule and take a bike tour of the community. Some members we’ve talked about and expressed interest to do a combined southwest meeting so bring out commissioners from Eden Prairie, Minnetonka, Chaska. Anybody who wants to join in. Make it both educational and social so you can, probably in a picnic type setting out at one of the parks in the community. Carver County parks commission. Talk about the success stories. Talk about the challenges and bringing that type of an atmosphere. Programs. Bringing our programming staff. Talk about special events. I think focus on the relationships that we have as an organization with outside people that assist us with those and talk about programming in general. The rec center. Probably in September. In October go back and re-visit. For those who are familiar with the American with Disabilities Act, we have items that we always have to maintain our focus on in that area. Highlight our senior center probably in November and that leaves just a couple of open dates or more if you have other specific items that you as a commission would like to focus on in 2009. So those are some ideas and we’ll probably carve out a special little spot on the agenda and, or special focus for the month there and bring you a feature report. Get your input and then do any follow up on meetings after that. Daniel: Okay. Well that’s certainly a lot, I mean it covers the whole gambit as far as things that are covered at the local park and recreation. Obviously CIP planning goes without a say. We have to have that every year. I think that’s a very constructive mechanism for us to get together outside of this chamber here and talk about projects and other, I guess basically projects that we want to take to, either evaluate or ones that may come up from now until then. The maintenance group, I really like that idea. I mean that’s, you know those are the, I won’t say unsung heroes but they certainly have a very important impact into how successful our park system is. Our trails as well. I mean again it’s a testament to the, you see people jogging literally hours after snowfalls. I mean that’s, you don’t get that in any, at least I don’t see it in Eden Prairie. I don’t see it in any other city around here so that’d be great to certainly give them feedback and let them know that they are appreciated. And also certainly understand what, you know what are some of the challenges they have to deal with. Project tours. Those are always fun. I think everybody really enjoys those. That gives us a chance really to see what’s coming up here in the community. The bike ride, great idea. So I think that’s a fantastic idea and for those who don’t mind having a source hinny and legs coming the next day, I think it would be a great opportunity again to just really see the trails throughout, our trail system throughout the city here. The combined southwest meeting. Again, I don’t know what some of the commissioners feedback when we met with Shoreview but, or Shorewood, but again it kind of gives us a different perspective. Hoffman: That was just an impromptu meeting that night. They asked us to come up and we can make it. Daniel: Yeah but again it was just a, it gives us a different perspective. They certainly had a lot of questions and I think it’s a good way to discuss some of the challenges and hopefully get some 20 Park and Recreation Commission - January 27, 2009 ideas as well, both in park and recreation. Again programs, special events certainly. And then I think it’s also key that we do talk about and spend some time with Sue on the senior center programs so I think that’s a great list. Again it covers the gambit and I think, I appreciate that Todd. For you and your staff. Any other comments on the schedules or anything you’d like to see add or any ideas as far as things that we should be focusing on? Hoffman: This is your chance. You have the staff ready to do some research for you. Daniel: You comfortable with it Steve? Scharfenberg: I think so. Maybe one thing that we could look at in terms of some projects, I know we’ve talked about coming up with a, the parkland south of Lyman and that area south of 212. Where do we have on, do we have that on the CIP right now? Hoffman: I think it might have got knocked off, but that’s where we can. Daniel: Is that the Fox property? Hoffman: I think it might still be under, is it south acquisition? Daniel: No, that’s not Fox. I think it’s the one right next to the new health care center going in. Is that what you’re talking about Steve? Scharfenberg: Well no. Between 101 and. Hoffman: 2005 MUSA park acquisition and development. $400,000 in 2012. And if you recall that was a proposed plat just east of the K. Hovnanian project and it was single family housing primarily and about a 5 acre parcel that we were carving out and then you know the plat just evaporated so that’s the location. There’s a round about. You can go into K. Hovnanian and you hit the round about. The park was just off to the right. And that’s just the first proposed acquisition. Once the north, the stuff up by the proposed shopping center goes, there needs to be an additional acquisition in that area too. Daniel: Okay. Anything else? Scott? Tom? Kelly: I know we had talked about, I know it’s not on the CIP but about the pedestrian trail to the Arboretum. That would involve you know discussions with the Arboretum. Is that something that could be handled with the special projects since it is not totally in the city’s control? Would that be a potential topic like these other ones or not? Hoffman: I don’t think we need to do any more talking. They’re ready to roll. Kelly: They’re ready? Okay. Hoffman: The one group we have to talk to is Lifetime and so the Arboretum is ready to bring the trail to their front door. They’re ready to let bicyclists and pedestrians in for free and that’s a 21 Park and Recreation Commission - January 27, 2009 significant change. 180 degree change from where we were for a number of years, and the trail is proposed to start at Century Drive. Go right in front of Lifetime Fitness on the south side of Highway 5 and you’ll cross at grade at a controlled intersection. Continue on and in front of their sign and down to their entryway and into the Arboretum. Kelly: Okay. So I didn’t realize it. Smith: And does it go to the other side? Hoffman: Ah yeah, then you could go out the other side if you want. Then you go internal on the Arboretum’s road system and then you could go back out and across at Minnewashta Parkway if you wanted. And then there are future improvements proposed for Minnewashta Parkway and Highway 5 and one of those improvements would include a pedestrian underpass to get all the Minnewashta people down and underneath and into the Arboretum. And then other people that are going west, underneath that road so. Kelly: Okay. I didn’t know. Hoffman: Yep. They’re ready to go. And it’s 2010 we have some significant trail sections and we’re starting some preliminary planning for that yet this winter to identify scope and dollar amounts so we can get some firmer budget numbers as we move forward and we seem to have the support of the council. They’re very supportive right now. Great little, last night we were here in this room for street assessments on a variety of street assessment projects in the city. th Some in the Kerber Boulevard area. One down in Lakota and then one on West 77 Street in front of the nursery and the businesses down by the building components building down there. So there’s a trail segment from 101 to Eden Prairie. So it’s been there since Highway 5 was approved. Very bumpy and some of the council and the mayor were looking you know, a lot of people in the audience were talking about the economy and can we lower the cost to these overall projects you know and some of the council would have considered eliminating the restoration or the maintenance of that trail. But when Mr. Kronick from Lotus Lawn and Garden got up to speak he said first of all you guys have done a great job with your trail system and that trail needs to be refurbished. I commute on that trail. Other people commute to their jobs in Eden Prairie on that trail and it needs to be refurbished. And these 3 people that were in the front row from a family that had just gotten up and talked about, they didn’t want their assessment were jumping up and down on this trail. She’s like yes. I bike to work on that trail in Eden Prairie. I bike to work and so the council was totally supportive of the trail refurbishment just from what they heard in response from that particular meeting. And it’s frost heaves. That trail has got some frost heaves that are pretty significant so that was a great story about trails again last night right here at the council meeting and they continue to hear about the trail system and they continue to support it so. Daniel: Excellent. Anything else? Thor? Dan? Campion: At what point would it make sense or we would likely revisit getting a quote or, for the amphitheater at Lake Ann? 22 Park and Recreation Commission - January 27, 2009 Hoffman: It’s on the council’s strategic plan to be ranked and so they’re going to rank it right now. In the next month and if they rank it high enough, we’ll be moving forward. If they don’t as a council then will just continue to be on the list. So an amphitheater at Lake Ann is on their strategic planning list. Campion: I’m sure with the state of the economy and all that…sense would be against it but I mean, I guess construction costs are down a little bit and it might be a good. Smith: The Campion Family Amphitheater. Campion: I’m not there yet. Wendt: The naming rights. Hoffman: People haven’t completely settled out where their emotions are with this yet. We continue to build quality recreation facilities where people can gather in the community is not going to go out of style and so the amphitheater, but the level of awareness of the council has actually increased pretty significantly. We met in a half a day work session with the council on th Saturday, January 9 I believe it was and I think some of them were not even aware of the complete idea about this amphitheater at Lake Ann so it may surprise us but depending on where they’re at. And we will continue to talk to the council. We can go ahead and do the planning. It’s about a $4,000 concept plan to at least flush out the ideas so now you have it. Because the location is there. I drove by it today with one of our architects that we work with. Paul Page from Hoisington-Koegler and we had this whole conversation as we were doing some work on the stairway plan out there about, you know you just can’t force something if you don’t have the piece of real estate and eventually somebody’s going to build an amphitheater there because it’s just laid out for it. You’re in a community park setting. Whereas on the other hand, we tried so long to get a dog park but we just didn’t have the space and so finally it landed out at the regional park and I know you’ve been out there. It’s just astounding. They’ve over doubled their annual park sales because of that dog park so they’ve, you know they made money on this thing. If they had reservations about what that off leash dog area was going to do to that park system, the county park system, it’s just going great guns. It’s continually packed. 50 dogs on a Saturday and the cars are down the street so it’s been a great success story, but we didn’t have the piece of land for it so you really couldn’t build it. Campion: If we had that, spent that $4,000 for the artistic you know mock up and all that, it’d be something to use as a pitch to go out and solicit donors. Hoffman: Sure. Absolutely. Daniel: A couple things I’d like to certainly take into consideration. I don’t know if it falls into a meeting outside of what we normally have here in the chamber, but one of the things I know we’ve covered every year and I assume that we’re going to cover it this year is the status of each and every kiddie park. Our park. Neighborhood park and community park. I think that’s something very informational. Anything that might come up, plus reviewing and refamiliarizing some of us with some of the parks. So anything that, if there’s a date or if it’s part of our 23 Park and Recreation Commission - January 27, 2009 standard meetings, certainly to continue down that path. It gives us an opportunity to review some things we can do with some of the parks that may not be in as much in use and maybe something creative might come between that timeframe so, from the last time we visited it. And I guess the other thing, and certainly Dan you touched base on the amphitheater but I know we’ll certainly touch base with this I should say on the CIP project, but if there’s any other projects that the council’s been made aware of by outside of this group here as well as the park and recreation, be really interested because getting the feedback from the community I think is extremely important so. If there are any ideas certainly and I know you’ll share them with Todd even as strange as they may be. Many times it might be something that as bizarre as we may think actually makes a lot of sense so, you never know. Like the dog park I think you know certainly is a classic example of that. And I know we had a kick off on that. Do we want to re- visit that park again as well or anything, any other meetings with Three Rivers or Carver County? Hoffman: On the off leash dog area? Daniel: Anything to do with the park system with Carver County. Hoffman: Yeah. We’ll bring them in our commission meeting and talk about what they’re doing at the regional park here in our town. Daniel: Okay, great. Now is it my understanding when we, 2010. I’m going to quick wrap things up here. We’re going to basically close out the Highway 41 project to Minnewashta and then also the Arboretum. Will those two projects almost fall in line? Hoffman: The Arboretum we hope will. The 41 is not yet identified. It’s, the project has not been developed. There’s a grant that’s been approved for I think the funding cycle is 2011. We’re working with the county to try and advance that project. And then we may actually take the role of lead agency. They may continue to be the lead agent. We don’t know just yet. Daniel: Okay. Hoffman: Administrator Gerhardt, the mayor, they’re all very interested in seeing that project move forward sooner than later. It’s a significant connection to a very nice, existing facility. Daniel: Well that’s what I’m saying. We have two premiere facilities, both on the west side of 41 that our city will have an instant connection to. Safe connection to and boy that, you know you want to talk about promotion and really, making us stand apart from almost any other city here in the metropolitan area so. That’s going to be exciting. Hoffman: And when that, the regional park, when you get together with that commission, something to lobby them for is that disc golf. You know they put their disc golf out at Baylor and they’re waiting to see how it does. Well Baylor’s a long ways away from the metro area and it just may not prosper out there and we don’t want them to give up on Minnewashta. I think a disc golf at Minnewashta would be just as successful as the off leash dog area. They have the real estate. We looked very seriously at both Bandimere and Lake Ann. You’re just going to run 24 Park and Recreation Commission - January 27, 2009 into too many conflicts. When you have soccer practice going on and you’ve got the kids pitching the discs out into soccer practice. Smith: Taking out some 7 year olds. Daniel: They’ll be pleasantly surprised. I mean those Frisbee golf guys sniff those courses out miles away and I don’t get it but they, every day at lunch at Bryant Lake Park, they’re there in droves. Hoffman: And that’s really the poster child to get these commissioners to go see because they’re going to be afraid of this. We shouldn’t do this in a regional park. Well you know, the one over here in Eden Prairie is just beautiful. Kelly: They just dumped some more money into. They just improved a bunch of the holes. Maybe even added a couple holes. Daniel: Yeah, they cleaned up a lot over this past summer. Alright, is there anything else Todd then? Smith: I have one last question. I know we had seen the proposal or the mock up for the concession stand at Lake Ann and so did that remain then, I see it was listed still with the amphitheater so there’s no separate action going forward for that? Hoffman: No. And it’s out in what, 2013. Smith: Yeah. Hoffman: And then your next conversation will probably fall off the edge of the map I would think with those dollar amounts. It’s just, the whole conversation in the economies of our world is back to these basic need type of a situation and once you do the math on everything that’s going to be invested, and we don’t know if the $400,000 will come back in park dedication fees. And if it doesn’t this thing’s going to dry up in a hurry and those kind of projects are just not going to be feasible. Smith: Alright. Daniel: Great. Well I think we’re wrapping things up here so I’d like to propose a motion to adjourn the meeting. Scharfenberg moved, Kelly seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0. The Park and Recreation Commission meeting was adjourned. Submitted by Todd Hoffman Park and Rec Director Prepared by Nann Opheim 25