PRC 2009 09 22
CHANHASSEN PARK AND
RECREATION COMMISSION
REGULAR MEETING
SEPTEMBER 22, 2009
Chairman Daniel called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT:
Jeff Daniel, Tom Kelly, Glenn Stolar, Steve Scharfenberg, Thor
Smith, Scott Wendt and Elise Ryan
STAFF PRESENT:
Jerry Ruegemer, Recreation Superintendent; Sue Bill, Senior Center
Coordinator; Jodi Sarles, Recreation Center Manager; and Dale Gregory, Park Superintendent
APPROVAL OF AGENDA:Smith moved, Kelly seconded to approve the agenda as
amended by Commissioner Wendt to provide an update on the Transportation Advisory
Board bike tour.
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Daniel: Scott, do you want to talk about that quickly?
Wendt: Sure. Let’s do a quick overview. We had our Transportation Advisory Board bike tour
a couple weeks ago. We took about, Jerry was there. Todd was there. Commissioner Workman
and some people from MnDOT. Somebody out at the Arboretum. We had about 15 people
there. Took a little, I think it was an 11 mile bike ride. Tour of the city. Some of our trails. On
roads a little bit. Started out at Lake Ann and wound our way out to 41 in front of Lifetime
where we’d like to you know eventually put in an overpass. Talked about trail going to the
Arboretum eventually and the Arboretum too policy of allowing walkers and bike riders to enter
the Arboretum for free. Headed south toward the new high school. Came back over the
pedestrian bridge and wound back up at Lake Ann so we had some good feedback from the
Advisory Board. They really liked what we had so far with our underpasses already. You know
part of the, what was driving the tour was to get them to see what we have and show them what
we’d like to do down the road so it was, all in all it was a great day. The weather was great. I
don’t know. They were impressed with what we had and I think they liked our ideas for the
future. One of the take aways I had from it was when we looked at trails and things like that, not
only to focus on the recreational aspect but on the transportation, getting people to and from
work within the county. That was the big, the big concern and asked that we keep that in mind
as we’re planning for the future.
Daniel: Excellent. Any discussions or any questions for Scott on the tour? Alright, thanks
Scott. Appreciate it. Any other public announcements? Jerry?
Ruegemer: No, just thanks again for I guess nobody was there from the commission on the Dave
Huffman Run but about 240 people that day for the run so I’ll give a full report probably in
October for that, do an evaluation process but what a great race. It was a pretty decent day for it.
Everybody had fun. Gave a lot of prizes away so we’ll have more in October.
Park and Recreation Commission – September 22, 2009
Daniel: Great, thanks Jerry. Alright. Go ahead Glenn.
Stolar: I just wanted to announce about the upcoming networking event that’s going to be
occurring in October and I’ll send the commission members and staff, appropriate staff and
email. It’s from a group called the Sajai Foundation. It’s based here in Maple Grove, Minnesota
and I’ve done some work for them and my wife works for them and they develop programs to
help fight childhood obesity and their target audience is our park and rec departments and other
recreation organizations and after school programs. Very good cause with childhood obesity
being one of the big issues we’re facing and they look at recreation programs as a way to get kids
active and involved so I’ll send a note out to you guys. It’s a lunch networking event and just
wanted to let people know about that.
Daniel: Great, thank you Glenn. Any other questions for Glenn on the upcoming, is it a
foundation? Is it a fundraiser going then?
Stolar: Well it’s a network and fundraiser, depending on what your approach is. They will be
asking for money but they’re also looking for people who might want to help out. Volunteer for
things. Know people who have connections. Things along those lines. I’ll hand some stuff out
also.
Ryan: Can you spell that for us?
Stolar: S-a-j-a-i.
Daniel: Sajai?
Stolar: Sajai, yep. It was founded by the woman who, she and her husband were the heads of
Landscape Structures. Barb and Steven King which is a major equipment provider. I know
we’ve used them for some purchases and Barb founded this foundation about a year before she
passed away.
Daniel: Great, thank you Glenn. Any other public announcements? If not we can move on.
VISITOR PRESENTATIONS:
None.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Stolar moved, Wendt seconded to approve the verbatim and
summary minutes of the Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated August 25, 2009
as presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 7 to 0.
RECREATION CENTER OPERATIONS OVERVIEW.
Daniel: Jodi is going to have a wonderful presentation for us on the rec center operations.
Sarles: Thank you very much. Well I’m happy to be here tonight to talk about the rec center.
This is how many people see it. A building that sits out there on Highway 5 and Galpin. I don’t
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Park and Recreation Commission – September 22, 2009
know, is it a school? What is it? There’s a big sign that says Chanhassen Recreation Center but
tonight I’ve brought a lot of my friends at the rec center to help kind of give you a picture of
what goes on out there. So the rec center. So instead of a blank building this is more the image
that I want you to see when you see the rec center. We’ve got youth sports. We’ve got the
seniors in there. We’ve got a dance program. Fitness center. Open gym. Basketball. After
school sports. Special events and everything out there that goes on. We have, oh there we go.
Pictures now. So we’ll start with the rec center with the preschool activities. We have about,
last year had over 1,000 participants in preschool programs at the rec center. That did include
the YMCA preschool sports, Little Tiger Self Defense, Tot Time Fun which are parent-child
activities where we have themed activities. Moms and kids or dads and kids will come out and
do a craft, play a game and that stuff. It’s about an hour and we keep it really at a minimal cost
to get people out and using it. Other times we have open gym set up with the tot time we call it
at the gym as well with toys and all sorts of things so that the stay at home moms, a lot of them
come out in groups and give their kids a lot of exercise in the gym while they’re able to kind of
socialize themselves. Last weekend we had the Barnyard Boogie. You’ll see a picture out there
with the kids on there. Petting zoo. A dance. We have little pictures set up. Crafts. This is a
co-sponsored program that we do with the Chaska Park and Rec Department. We had over 200
families out there last weekend just having a great time so it was really fun. Our little DJ even
had a banjo. Walking around. Strolling and it was a neat evening so. And then we also co-
sponsored the Tot Time Sweetheart Dance which is out at the Chaska Community Center so we
kind of partner up on that. That’s more of a 3 to 5 year olds so it really doesn’t compete with the
Daddy-Daughter Date Night that’s already done in Chanhassen and that’s another fun night
where they’re able to go out and kind of dance and have fun and do some crafts too. And I
apologize. I was told to keep it brief tonight so if I’m talking fast, stop me. And I also was told
by my seniors that Dancing with the Stars is on so we want to make sure I don’t disappoint.
Alright. Sue, if you want to change it to… I want to give you a little snapshot of our dance
program. Since 1995 the Dance for Fun has been a program that has been in existence. This is
last year’s recital. You kind of get an idea of the variety of ages that we have dancing. So our
coordinator for the dance program was named last year’s Best Instructor of the Arts by
Chanhassen Magazine, so it was a nice honor for her. She does a great job. Right now this fall
there’s 236 dancers in the program so we run it all week long. It’s a lot of fun. I brought two of
my senior dancers. One has been in the program for 14 years. One has been in it for 12 years.
Amy Conradi and Kendra Olson and they are now helping instruct as well as being on the
competition group.
Kendra Olson: Okay, I’m Kendra.
Amy Conradi: I’m Amy. I’ve been dancing here for 12 years. I started out Kinderdance there
which was just the basic skills you learn, so it’s minimal. Very minimum what you can learn.
And then Combo was where you do your tap, ballet and jazz. It’s similar to competition but it’s
not as demanding version of it. We’ve met new friends. Got to dance. Stay in shape.
Kendra Olson: Yeah, the younger kids programs are really good because, especially for like the
3 and 4 year olds. It really, I mean like they work on like learning their right’s and left’s and
learning just like normal like behavioral stuff. It’s just like a discipline but also good like
exercise and they learn like rhythm and make new friends and stuff and then as they get older it’s
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Park and Recreation Commission – September 22, 2009
still really fun and a really positive environment but you just obviously start to work more on the
dancing more than just like the like motor skills. And like we said we’re in the competition
program which I think you can start in, when you’re 7, which is our pre-comp class all the way
up to high school seniors. And it’s really great. It’s not as intense as a lot of the other programs
offered around the area so it’s a really nice option if you don’t want to spend all of your free time
in dance but you still love it and want to be committed. So we really enjoy that.
Amy Conradi: We spend about 4 hours there each week so, compared to other places that spend
4 hours a night.
Kendra Olson: Yeah, and we assist the younger girls. The younger competition teams which is
really nice for the teachers. Just because a lot of times if there’s like bathroom breaks or
something, then the whole class has to stop for 5 minutes for the little 6 year olds so. Yeah, it’s
great. I’m going to miss it when I graduate.
Daniel: Well thank you very much.
Sarles: And if you guys have any specific questions about the programs that you’d like to ask
them, I told them they only needed to stay for this part so if you have questions you wanted to
ask or know more about the program, these two are my experts. They’ve been in it the longest.
Scharfenberg: How many other girls your age are still participating?
Kendra Olson: In our class there’s actually 5 girls and our generation’s kind of fading out.
Amy Conradi: One senior, two juniors and two freshmen.
Kendra Olson: But in the kind of parallel, like she said the combo classes, I think there’s
probably about 15 girls that are about our age so the competition program definitely kind of
weeds people out. The ones that really want to be committed and stuff.
Amy Conradi: And we were in the very start of when competition started.
Kendra Olson: And when the studio started.
Amy Conradi: When we started there were only 2 competition teams. Now there’s 4 plus a pre-
comp team so it just keeps on growing. More and more girls are joining it.
Kendra Olson: Yeah. And there’s about 30 fifth and sixth grade girls that are all just in the
competition program that are going to move up so it’s really grown.
Daniel: Anybody else? Alright.
Kendra Olson: Thank you.
Amy Conradi: Thank you.
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Park and Recreation Commission – September 22, 2009
Sarles: Alright. So we offer, there’s fall, winter, spring session and then the summer is summer
camps and clinics that the kids do. The competition team has their one week camp that they
actually get to work on a lot of skills. It’s a great program for the young ones because as they
were talking about the motor skills, so good for their coordination and learning. Just overall
discipline at that age. Alright, our next area that we’re going to talk about at the rec center is rec
center youth activities. So last year the babysitting program we had over 75 kids get certified for
babysitting training. You could only have about 15 in the class to offer it so that was kind of a
neat program that we continue to run and continues to be successful for us. Over 600 kids
participated overall in all of the programs. One of the fun ones that I brought Taylor in tonight is
our Tae Kwon Do program and so in Tae Kwon Do we have about 200 participants overall over
the year. Taylor is a 9 year, 9 year? Veteran of the program and she now instructs for us and she
did actually bring a DVD for, so you can kind of see what we do in class out at the rec center.
Taylor Braun showed a DVD on the Tae Kwon Do program being offered at the rec center.
Taylor Braun: Hi, I’m Taylor. I’m a Third Degree Black Belt and instructor at the ACTA
Minnesota program that works out of the Chanhassen Rec Center. I’ve been in it for 9 years. I
started when I was 12 years old and like a lot of kids I’d been through a thousand other sports. I
did lots of stuff at the Chanhassen Rec Center, including soccer, softball, lots of stuff and I really
wanted to try a marshal art and after being in it for so long and going through, being a student. I
got my black belt at 15. I went through the instructor program. Became certified at 17. I’m now
the Double Team Lead and I run the web site for them. Being able to see all aspects of that has
really taught me a lot about how the program works and the benefits you get from it. Personally
the biggest benefit I got from it was learning how to set a goal and work towards it. Unlike team
sports this is individual and so if you say I want to get my black belt, it’s up to you to get there
and work towards it and your instructors really help you learn how to pursue your own goals and
that’s helped me up through college. Work life, everything. Being able to say I want this and
I’m going to get it and I have the confidence to go get it. Of course another benefit is being able
to understand the need to respect people that have done things before you. It’s really easy,
especially for teenagers and younger people to say oh no, I get it. I don’t need to listen to you.
It’s not that hard and going through Tae Kwon Do and seeing people who have done it before me
and learning that that’s important to listen to them has been a huge help going through school
and jobs and being able to learn from those who came before me. Physical benefits of course.
We have 10-11 year old kids who would normally be sitting on a couch playing video games but
they’re out 3 days a week working hard. Kicking. They do competitions and they have, by the
time they get to high school level, college, they’re in great shape. I know one kid who was a real
small kid. Never really could keep up in sports. He started when he was about 9. Now he’s in
high school. He’s on the football team and is one of their best wide receivers at Chaska High so
it really is a great benefit for kids to grow up with that discipline. But it’s also great for adults.
We teach a lot of adults and you know a lot of them come in saying I’m not flexible enough. I’m
not strong enough. There’s no way I could break a board and by the end they get their black
belts and it’s amazing what people can do. We actually have a man right now who broke his
pelvis in a car accident and he’s now breaking boards almost face level which is pretty good so,
to me it’s just wonderful to see how everything progresses and I hope to be in it for the rest of
my life. Our grand master’s 76 years old and still breaking boards and could still beat me up. I
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Park and Recreation Commission – September 22, 2009
hope to match him when I’m not that old so. Are there any questions from anybody on our
program?
Stolar: How many kids…?
Taylor Braun: How many kids?
Stolar: Yeah.
Taylor Braun: At any one time, at just our Chanhassen program we can have 90 to 130 kids
enrolled, but throughout the year you know we have spikes at certain times. It’s a year round
sport so.
Ryan: And what age do they typically start?
Taylor Braun: We have a rule where they can’t start any younger than 7 unless they already
have a family member in it, which is mostly just because we’re not equipped to teach fighting to
that young. We don’t have enough instructors. The right material. Enough time so it’s 7 and up
for the most part.
Ryan: And is it categorized by age group or skill level?
Taylor Braun: It’s by rank so we have an early class for white to dark blue and then we have a
later class for red through black. And then any student over 14 can go to the advance class no
matter what their rank so they get people their age, but our beginner rank focuses a lot more on
basic skills and learning the culture and history rather than actually fighting and breaking things.
We actually don’t even allow students to break boards until they’re a red belt and they’ve been in
it for 2 years.
Ryan: Thanks.
Daniel: Well my son has been through Master Waterman’s program so he’s loved it. Where he
set his goal to get up to a dark blue belt and he got it and now we’re just going to leave it up to
him from this point forward if he wants to continue and you’ve got another one starting I think
October. End of October he’ll be 7 so. Or at Lifetime so certainly we’ve taken advantage of
many Saturdays at your location so. You guys do a fantastic job. All the instructors are I think
great and you guys do a real good job as far as setting, as you said, the examples that marshal
arts can bring so thank you very much.
Taylor Braun: Thank you.
Sarles: Alright, so now I still have visitors. I had to come with my fan club here so, can’t get
you to the building I’m going to bring the building to you so. Adult activities at the rec center.
A lot of our activities are more fitness based. You can see we brought in enhanced fitness.
We’ve done golf fitness. Women on weights. Right now I just left the Kettle Bells class was
running. We do boot camp. Aerobics. Tai Chi. Tae Kwon Do for adults. Short 20 minute class
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Park and Recreation Commission – September 22, 2009
called total body fitness. Yoga for anybody and stop pilates so kind of a wide variety of different
fitness opportunities. But the one I kind of wanted to focus on and one that’s a great program
that start that Sue kind of brought to the rec center for us is called Enhance Fitness and that’s a
senior fitness program. That was a grant program through the Metropolitan Area Agency on
Aging. I’m going to call it MAAA from now on. They received a grant from UCare and we are
a site that offers their program. Many UCare for Seniors members can participate in this fitness
program for free, at no charge. It’s included in their insurance payment, but then other
community members can take a class for $3 a class. So I’m going to bring my crew up here. My
Monday-Wednesday crew that comes out to the rec center so Glenn and June Mattson are here.
Ann Heggelman and Frankie Spencer so if you guys want to come up and kind of talk about
what the class is. I’ll give you kind of the basic. It’s an outcome base class so they show up
their first night and they do some skills testing and at the end of the session they do another
round of skills testing to see where they are. So but they’ll tell you it’s a nice social class and I’ll
let them expound on the program.
Glenn Mattson: I don’t think we’ll do too much explaining but I want you to understand that
when you get to be our age, you know kind of advanced teenagers, we have a little problem with
exercising. You sit around all day and watch TV or computers in most cases now and I think
you can understand what happens to our muscles and our abilities. You don’t see any Kwon Do
or anything of that type in our groups. But we are really so thankful to the people that do this for
us. We’ve got a wonderful new instructor. She’s a little girl really and you can’t, I don’t think
you can picture the kind of things that we go through. We move every muscle in our body.
Every one of them. Twice a week for an hour and you look at me now and you wouldn’t think I
was 88 years old. In one year I’ve gone from an old fart to a young kid and I want to thank you
sweetheart. I really mean that. It’s been wonderful. And this my lovely bride.
June Mattson: And I’m there to protect the women. There are I think most, there are only 3 men
that come and really we’d love to have more men be there. Like he says we move every muscle
and that’s twice a week for an hour. We don’t stop. And I don’t, we wouldn’t have never done
that if we hadn’t had this program. So we’re very thankful for Linda and for everyone that puts
it on.
Frankie Spencer: …for a year and I have a balance problem and it has helped immensely.
…balance for a whole hour and then…moving constantly and I enjoy it very much. Plus the
company.
Ann Heggelman: My name is Ann Heggelman and…and I’m very grateful and excited that we
have this fitness program. I’m a staunch believer in exercise and the benefits are not only in the
physical part but also the social part because we have a good time while we exercise so. Keeps
us young.
Sarles: If you came to one of those classes or walked down the hallway, they’re all laughing and
talking and chattering. They come out. They complain you know oh, we worked so hard today
and then you know what? Wednesday they’re back. On time ready to go again.
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Park and Recreation Commission – September 22, 2009
Ann Heggelman: …because we have a product and the customers are coming back so you’re
selling a good product.
June Mattson: And Linda will let out a yahoo in the middle of it so.
Sue Bill: One thing they forgot to mention, they not only work out for a whole hour, they have 5
pound ankle and wrist weights that they use all the time and Jodi and I have to carry them back
and forth. They work hard and I think when we got the grant for the program and throughout, I
think we had a 2 year, it’s been one of the successful programs with numbers that they’ve had
so…
Glenn Mattson: It’s a wonderful program.
Ann Heggelman: Yeah we don’t, you know always do warm up’s and cardio but the fun part,
my grandkids…and I tell them that their 80 year old grandmother is doing the…
Daniel: And Jodi, how many people participate in that?
Sarles: You know we get anywhere between 17 and 20.
Daniel: Fantastic.
Sarles: It’s a great program.
Stolar: Is that per? You have two sets of classes.
Sarles: It’s a Monday-Wednesday session that runs for 12 weeks.
Bill: And that 20 is a 1imit.
Sarles: It’s a cap.
Bill: A cap because like she said, it’s a limited space program so they do testing and as a ratio
we won’t let any more for the instructor. We’re always looking for another instructor and if we
could get another instructor, we probably would add another session.
Scharfenberg: How long does the grant last?
Sarles: The grant has been around this spring. We have been in communication with UCare
because we have one of the most successful sites that they have throughout the State, that they
will, barring any budgetary changes, continue the program…we’re really excited about.
Daniel: And when you mention it’s 12 weeks, is it a rolling 12 weeks?
Sarles: Yeah, it’s a rolling 12 weeks and then you have about a 2 to 3 week break and then it
starts back up again.
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Park and Recreation Commission – September 22, 2009
Daniel: Great. Well thank you guys for coming.
Sarles: Well thank you guys. In the past year we’ve done some rec center collaboration so we,
I’ve been working with Sue Bill. We put together some grandparent and me activities. We’ve
tried a number of different things and the ones we found most successful are the ones that
surround holidays, so you’ll see this October, next month we’ll have another pumpkin painting
so there’s some fun pictures of them painting their pumpkins. We did an eggselent fun. So egg
dying and different Easter activities. We’re hoping to do a Wii bowling tournament and a few
other kind of fun different activities so. And then John and I recently this fall just started the rec
center sports program. So last year we had about 680 preschoolers running the, or in the YMCA,
or YMCA sports program out at the rec center. It’s been an interesting challenge because the Y
went through a number of different people leading the program and so finally the quality just
wasn’t there because there was no consistency. We sat down with Jerry and Todd and the
finance director and we found a way that we could bring it in-house so we’re excited that right
now tonight I just had, I left about 57 kids out on the field playing sports. This fall we have
about 120 kids right now in the program so we’ve got a dodgeball program that just started
today. The soccer program. Then we roll into basketball and some different other activities. It’s
a fun program. We’ve got 4 instructors out there helping out. Helping the parents. Still use
parent coaches for the preschool program but the after school one is more of a recreational fun so
we have some high school kids and a couple older people running that program for us too so.
Going to hit the history so I don’t know if many of you know but the rec center was built in
1995. It was a joint venture between the City and the School District. It brought about a $9 1/2
million dollar project that built the Bluff Creek Elementary School and the Chanhassen Rec
Center. We operate under a joint power agreement where the school district is responsible for
the internal maintenance and the City of Chanhassen maintains the grounds, so Dale’s crew keep
a great job for us out there. Internally and if we have any issues, like last year when we replaced
a water heater, 24% of the cost comes from the City of Chanhassen so, based on square footage
of the building. The grounds also have a warming house, a picnic shelter, 6 ballfields. That’s a
floating number of soccer fields so 6 to 8, depending on the season. Two hockey rinks. Four
tennis courts and of course next to the City’s trail system out there. And we’ll get into a little bit
of the facilities. Last year we gave over 10,000 hours of facility use away. Basically that would
be city programs, school district programs, Carver County, Hennepin County. Various youth
sports groups that are up there. National Weather Service, the Naval Academy, the State of
Minnesota and the University of Minnesota. When some of the layoffs happened recently at
IWCO and other larger employees in town, the State of Minnesota came to us and they’ve run
some displaced worker programs out at the rec center so it’s a nice way that we can give back to
the community of the space that we do have. Facility usage. These are just the basic listing of
special events that we host out there. So anything from the Barnyard Boogie to the Beach Party,
Easter Egg Hunt, Halloween Party, Penny Carnivals, picture of Safety Camp when the Black
Hawk helicopter came by this summer. So it’s a building that is so much used that most people
don’t even know about. Of course it’s also an election site for the City of Chanhassen too. As
far as facility rentals, facility rentals we had last year about 1,300 to 1,400 hours worth of facility
rentals. We have 4 meeting rooms and a conference room. The gym and the studio, all of those
are available to be rented. We offer really reasonable rents. Flexible space and it’s a real
popular site, we’ve had everything from a couple weeks ago a Ramadan Dinner. We’ve had
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Park and Recreation Commission – September 22, 2009
birthday parties. Memorial services. You know you name it, we’ve had it. We had an open
house expo last spring for home party shows. All those kinds of groups. We have a number of
the homeowners groups in the area that meet out there for their meetings. Because I didn’t have
anybody to show up I had to throw in a couple testimonials that we got out of our facility
evaluations where it says, love the facility. Would definitely use again. The rooms are spacious
and reasonably priced and everyone was so easy to work with and extremely cooperative so
that’s kind of our goal is really to be cooperative. Be that space for the community and be
affordable. Birthday parties, I think we’ve done over 50 so far this year so that’s a nice option
for people. Slow down a little bit in the summer but it’s picking back up again this fall. Then
we also have the fitness center and the open gym. I think we had over 16 to 20,000 visits last
year through that. Anything from people just coming in to do a workout quick, to the kids
coming in. The top upper corner you’ll see her name is Jean Ulrich and she’s kind of a regular
user of our’s. She lost over 112 pounds at the rec center, so she’s been working out and she is, if
I remember correctly, 63. So she’s done that over a few years. Playing basketball, and he’s real
hard to see in that picture, is Ron Jillinick. He’s been in the newspaper but he’s been in the area
for 10 years. He’s 77 years old. He plays the noon basketball with the guys so they call him the
commissioner and he keeps it running tight. Anything happens, Ron’s on it so that’s a good
thing. So basically that’s the rec center in kind of a nutshell so if you guys have any questions.
Daniel: We’ll see. Elise.
Ryan: Gosh, I don’t really have any questions. I guess the one thing that I think about is the
marketing behind the rec center. Compared to some of the, like Minnetonka. It seems like when
they send out their information it comes targeted to the audience that’s receiving it and so I’m
curious to know how you guys are marketing your facility and some of, specifically your youth
programs because that’s where I would fall in. Sometimes I feel like it’s get a little bit lost in the
rest of the information.
Sarles: Right. Yeah, we actually kind of really focused on the marketing right now. Trying to
find better ways to get information on, not only the facility but the programs that we offer so
John and I actually sat down yesterday and kind of started designing different plans to get our
information out. We’ve used the City’s facebook page. If you do any searches on the internet,
on Google or on MSN, their page, we’re listed on all the search engines now. If you type in
facility rental we’ll come up. So we’re doing a variety of different things but it is really hard to
get to the masses without spending to the masses.
Ryan: Right. Right, right.
Sarles: I’ve been working with District 112 and the Community Ed. Sue and I sit on their
advisory board and we’re kind of co-promoting each others programs. So getting some of our
program information into their books. They’re putting some of them into our’s so we can get
into more hands and households.
Ryan: For email, a collection of emails.
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Park and Recreation Commission – September 22, 2009
Sarles: And collection, yep. So we’ve been working really hard on the email side too. Trying to
get away from as much paper as we possibly can so we can email your receipts if you need those.
And then we have that information in our database so we’re starting a boot camp program this
fall. A man is going to come in. Look great at the lake boot camp is coming to a house at the rec
center this fall and we’re co-promoting that program as it’s going to rent. We do have, I think
we have over 3,000 emails in our database right now so we’re trying to…our target market and
kind of really pick age groups and be real appropriate because we don’t want to spam everybody
with anything and we want to make sure that if anybody wants to be off of those lists, that we get
them off because that’s the worst thing that you can do is just keep inundating them. We don’t
want to get a bad taste so really trying some different techniques and some low cost ones but
then also getting information just anywhere we possibly can.
Ryan: Sounds great. And congratulations. A fabulous job. You run a great program and I can
tell from that power point that it’s a lot of hard work has gone into it so congrats.
Sarles: Thanks.
Smith: Again yeah, they do a good job. My daughter’s in Dance for Fun. She’s been in for 8
years I think. 9 years and my kids have all gone through the sports things and the thing I would
you know compliment you heavily on just tonight is the, the attention that you pay obviously to
the feedback that you’ve gotten, and we’ve. We didn’t leave any feedback on the YMCA
programs but we noticed that there was a lot of turn over with the staff and this and that and it
was hard to keep a 4 year old’s attention when they had a different person there every week and
noticed that going on and it’s very comforting to see that you are doing, or bringing it in-house.
I’m happy to see that.
Stolar: Just the collaboration and I’m impressed throughout all the groups that, how you keep
increasing the ability to use the facility that we have to address different needs that exist in the
community and I know, the teenagers and the tweens and with Susan for the seniors and I just
love that. I know we had that meeting what, a couple years ago where we were talking about
that and you guys seem to be doing it so congratulations and I like how you are expanding the
thought process of what we can do with the facilities so good job and congrats.
Sarles: Thank you.
Daniel: Steve.
Scharfenberg: Again, good job Jodi. It was a very nice presentation. I do have, do you need any
needs that you know, wants or needs for the.
Sarles: Wants, wow… Blank check is great. We can do a lot with that.
Scharfenberg: But do you have any priorities or things that you have kind of that, you’d like to
see happen out there?
11
Park and Recreation Commission – September 22, 2009
Sarles: Well you know there’s always upgrades that we can do. Right now actually we’re doing
some painting so that’s a good thing but just kind of updating. Updating the feel inside the rec
center so it’s not kind of a stodgy old building. And the collaboration is a big deal for us too to
make sure that we are kind of working together. Using the space that we have and we forget,
when we talk about collaboration, Dale takes care of my whole exterior of the building and if I
need anything, he’s there on the spot. Last month he came and fixed a bunch of shelves and
things but you know we’ve been pretty good and we’ve been able to work with our budget and
you know of course there’s also, you always want more but you work with your constraints and
try to offer as many quality programs as we possibly can out there.
Daniel: Great. Scott.
Wendt: Just very impressive. Keep up the good work. It’s just exciting to see all the events
going on. We’ve been in Chanhassen for 6 years and to see events added over the years to
address every age group, it’s great to see. Keep up the good work.
Daniel: Tom.
Kelly: I’ve been a part of this commission I think about 8-8 1/2 years. Probably longer than
anyone else here and to see what the rec center was before Jodi and after Jodi has been, in my
mind, one of the biggest transformations I’ve seen in the city so overall you’ve just taken that rec
center up to the next level and it’s been great to watch and thanks for really caring about it and
doing such an awesome job.
Daniel: And Tom actually kind of stole some of my thunder as well. Nope, I’m glad you said it
because you hit it right on the head and that’s really to see the transformation even in the 3 years
I think that you’ve been on board. 2 1/2, 2 years now and to see where it’s going or where it’s
been and where we’re going and I think it’s fantastic. The activities are certainly starting to
fulfill the schedule that we’re all, we all were anticipating that the rec center could bring to the
community and the events that we could host there and boy, what can I say. It’s, we’re headed in
the right direction so I mean as a city and the community it’s really starting to get what I would
say is a return on investment and we certainly appreciate it and continue the hard work and
certainly from our standpoint, let us know how we can help you out you know with whatever we
can so. Continue the good work and thank you very much for the presentation. It was very well
done and thought out and very informational as well so thank you Jodi.
Sarles: Well and I want to thank everybody who came to support the rec center tonight and help
out and give you, you know a better picture than I ever could of all the programs that we offer so.
Daniel: Thank you. Well it looks like we’re going to skip the ice skating rink locations. I take it
Jerry we’re going to move that to a later date when none of us want to think about ice at this
point?
Ruegemer: Well, actually we’re going to do a little bit more research on our recommendation
and bring that back in October.
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Park and Recreation Commission – September 22, 2009
Daniel: Excellent call.
th
Ruegemer: Yeah, so we’ll be bringing it back at the October 27 meeting.
Daniel: Okay. Alright. And then the 2009 Lake Ann concession/boat rental evaluation. I’m
going to excuse myself at this point. I’ve got a prior commitment but Thor, I’ll let you chair
from this point forward.
Chair Daniel excused himself from the meeting. Vice Chair Smith took over as Acting
Chair of the Park and Recreation Commission meeting.
2009 LAKE ANN CONCESSION/BOAT RENTAL EVALUATION.
Ruegemer: Okay, thanks everybody. Thanks again for being here tonight. Lake Ann is always
a popular place in the summertime. This summer had a bit of a challenge with the weather that
we had. Certainly there was a high number of days that we were closed entirely or closed early.
It was well over 20 this summer, which isn’t, it’s a large number for really kind of a short season
that we are open out there so, and the days that we were open it was you know cold at times and
that sort of thing here too but all in all we still did turn a profit out there with you know kind of
watching and tightening our belts and watching kind of staff hours. Vendor fees and vendor
costs associated with the operation of the event. It’s a popular place you know for boat rentals
we had a higher number of boat rentals this year versus 2008 which was a good, great thing for
us. We did try to obviously reduce our concession hours but that certainly helped with our cold
weather this year so that helped our bottom line with that as well. Really I don’t know if I’m
going to be going through everything but just want I wanted to include tonight, just as general
comments as to kind of what is working. What we can improve on. Just kind of an overview of
that. I’d like to kind of update now the policy procedures, manual, kind of go through and do
some updating on that, just to look at to next year. We certainly try to keep it kind of simple out
there. Just easy items that we can prepare very easily. Quick point of sale. Not as much prep
work as we had in the past so just really tried to keep it simple. Keep people coming back. We
can turn people through and get people through in a relatively quick time so just included on that
is the daily sales. How it kind of broke down with that. Total hours that the concession staff had
worked throughout a portion of the summer. And then certainly the kind of the vendor expenses
that go along with the operation of the Lake Ann concession building.
Smith: Thanks Jerry. Anyone have any questions or comments?
Kelly: Could we make more in boat rentals if we had more boats?
Ruegemer: You know that’s an interesting question and you know throughout the course of the
year there isn’t a lot of times that we don’t have capacity at that. You certainly with company
picnics out there, that rent them, all the fleet out at one time, there certainly are times that we
don’t have boats available but that’s a minimal time so I don’t believe personally that capacity is
an issue. Just a matter of getting them rented out more often.
13
Park and Recreation Commission – September 22, 2009
Stolar: As we start filling the large picnic shelter though we might start seeing a change in that
because I’ve seen larger groups there.
Ruegemer: Yeah there certainly wouldn’t, certainly at the I guess point of sale when I’m
reserving picnic sites and facilities I ask those types of questions. If your groups are interested in
any type of watercraft rental. If they are then I’ll book 1 or all at that point just to make sure that
people know about it, number one. And then if we can help them add another component to their
company picnic or family reunion, that sort of thing. People are surprised that we do have the
watercraft rentals down there and they’re pleasantly surprised and they really would like to do it
every time so.
Stolar: Because the…is pretty big. Given the number of days, what were the days you were
open compared to 2008?
Ruegemer: You know I don’t know the exact number but we were 20 plus days short of last year
that we were open. And we had a relatively cold, cold year where it wasn’t so hot either so.
Stolar: And to go up by 30 boat rentals.
Smith: With 24 days, that’s quite a bit.
Stolar: Yeah, exactly.
Ruegemer: We’re happy with that and Dale and the crew, park maintenance crew do a great job
on maintaining and kind of servicing the paddle boats are really probably the ones that have
probably the most issues with that and an occasion trolling motor but I think the paddle boats
really went.
Gregory: Pretty good this year.
Ruegemer: Were actually pretty good this year, yeah. We’ll hop a chain every now and again,
that sort of thing or have to re-bend a rudder or that sort of thing but for the most part we’re in
pretty good shape up there.
Smith: What is, could you give me, or do you know the age of most of the boats or are we going
to be in a place where we’re going to need to be replacing them?
Ruegemer: Yeah, I believe the oldest paddle boat that we have out there is a early to mid, well
probably about a mid 90’s boat and the newest one I think is 2 years old.
Gregory: The oldest one is getting pretty old.
Ruegemer: Yeah.
14
Park and Recreation Commission – September 22, 2009
Gregory: . They bring them in in the wintertime and that we actually go through them and do,
go through the bearings and chains and do everything and that one’s had quite a bit of work done
on it earlier this year.
Ruegemer: So a lot of times we’ll assess that and you know we keep them as long as they’re
profitable but as long as they’re.
Wendt: As long as they float?
Ruegemer: As long as they float. But certainly that’s something that we take a look at and we
have budgeted in the past certainly for a new paddleboat and stuff every now and again. I think
all of them are 4 person paddleboats. We started with 2. Some 2’s and kind of gradually kind of
worked to 4 person paddleboats with that so, we assess that on an annual basis. See if we need to
you know, put some additional monies in for future years for a new paddleboat or a new row
boat or canoe, that sort of thing but if they kind of outlive their usefulness then we’ll send them
to auction. Or trade them in. I think we traded the last one in so that worked out great.
Scharfenberg: Say Jerry, not having to do with concessions but with respect to the beach and
that. Did you get any feedback this year with respect to the change in the lifeguard hours?
Anything to report on that?
Ruegemer: You know what, I did not receive one negative comment on that. I think we really,
in establishing the hours that we did, it really was kind of during the, we really didn’t affect that
many people on the, you know on the early time of the day when we were you know traditionally
had opened, or on the tail end because people weren’t coming super early and they weren’t
staying super late so no, I think it’s been a positive thing that was received by the community
and our area and I wouldn’t see changing it in the future.
Scharfenberg: Thanks.
Smith: Anyone else? No? Thanks Jerry. Any old business? Okay.
RECREATION PROGRAM REPORTS:
2009 HALLOWEEN PARTY.
Ruegemer: Yep, just I’ll present just on behalf of John tonight. I will be presenting the
Halloween party. Just an FYI for the commission. It’s going to be coming up Saturday, October
th
24 out at the rec center from 5:30 to 7:30. John’s been working hard on you know booking
entertainment and booking all the different components of the event. The entertainment this year
is going to be Mixed Nuts and that is a, kind of a fun children’s show out there and that’ll be in
the gym area. So John wanted me just to kind of get it on your calendars this year. He’ll be
sending out volunteer sheet of the different opportunities to the commission but if there’s
anybody that wants to volunteer tonight I can write your name down and get that to John and he
can kind of move on from there too. We do have costumes for people too if they need to get
costumes. We certainly can supply the commission with a costume as well. So we’re looking at
15
Park and Recreation Commission – September 22, 2009
to draw approximately 500 to 600 people for that. Flyer’s going to be out in the schools. We’ll
also get it on facebook and GoCarverGo that we’ll also be doing advertising on and other areas
of advertising here with the city and with the rec center.
Stolar: Just a quick question. Do we have, we have the TV’s there right in the rec center lobby
area? Do you show videos of the programs from the rec center there? Or is more just like the
static advertisement?
Sarles: We’ll leave the advertisement on sometimes. It’s just kind of been off lately. I should
turn it back on.
Stolar: Well for one of these big events it’d be a good idea, especially the target. You talk about
target marketing, you’ll have a bunch of young kids there. It’d be good to have the parents see
some videos if you have of the younger programs like young kids in dance or anything like that.
They get exposure because they may jump just for, while they’re waiting in that line to come in,
you have a static target audience.
Sarles: Good idea.
Smith: Well I haven’t had, I haven’t been able to go to the Halloween Party yet but I’m hoping
to get there this year so. Any other questions?
Ruegemer: A new Tweety Bird.
Smith: You need a Tweety Bird?
Bill: I’ve got a few number 4 green Folgers…
Smith: I’m busy that day. Alright.
SENIOR CENTER REPORT.
Bill: Thank you. As I indicated in my report, programming during the summer and early fall
have gone well. I don’t know if I talked about this in July or not. Summer can be a little
challenging, especially this year where the library was packed all summer. Especially Tuesday,
Thursday are their big days. There were days when the library had, what did they say, well over
1,000 people. So I’m pretty conscientious of the parking issues. Jerry and John were nice
enough one day, I think I mentioned they did valet parking for me. We had an event and there
was nowhere to park. It was a Tuesday afternoon and the, I mean the lots were full so they’ve
got another calling in life. They did a great job.
Ruegemer: Tips weren’t that great.
Bill: And they couldn’t even find some cars. Not only the seniors but anyway. Anyway our day
to day attendance on programs is great. As I indicated in my write up I’ve been conscientious
about trying to offer a variety of programs, both at a free or nominal cost as well as incorporating
16
Park and Recreation Commission – September 22, 2009
trips. We do one day trip a month with varying costs and actually I’ve been not only free but
trying to focus more on local things to educate people as well as offer them at a really reasonable
cost. I had worked with the principal of the new Chanhassen High School. We had one tour
arranged. We had to do two and then it turned out to be three where we had over 60 people in
attendance, which was wonderful. Interesting comment that I heard one of the ladies who’s very
active who’s in her late 80’s as we walked through the high school, which is totally amazing with
the technology and everything, which a lot of it was a little beyond what they could comprehend.
You know on the way out she said to me, my gosh. You know I went to a one room school
house. Look at where we’re at and you don’t think of analogies like that but you know a $93
million dollar building to one room school house so they were really, really impressed. I have
gotten some information from there. They’ve got a volunteer program. I don’t know if it’s
through their booster club or whatever but they’re wanting hall escorts and some other stuff so
I’ve been handing that information out at my programs for seniors to volunteer if they want to,
and that’s a nice partnership. So the high school tour went well. I also got the Carver County
Mounted Posse to come in and they brought a horse and talked about what the posse does. They
talked about the training they had for the Republican National Convention, as well as what they
do with rescues in the area and that was really, really well attended and people really appreciated
hearing the knowledge and that that’s a service that is available that they never knew about. I
mentioned it numerous times, Donuts with the Deputies. Lieutenant Olson, Jim Olson does a
wonderful job. He brought in a patrol car and we got to see the inside of a patrol car. He
showed the rifle that was mounted on the ceiling. Every car now is equipped with a laptop so if
you get a warning, before they didn’t have any way of tracking it. Now they do. I mean just a
lot of interesting things. He showed the trunk. The sirens. People went for a ride. He does an
excellent, excellent job and people really appreciate that. The next one he’s going to talk about
the Carver County Swat team and what’s available so it’s really, really been educational.
Another reason I try to do some of these programs, as you would probably imagine a good
portion of our attendees are females. I try to offer things that would attract men and get them in
the building, and you know all of these things. Donuts with the Deputies. The presentations
were really of interest to gentlemen as well. Not that they’re not welcome at anything else but I
try, I really try to be conscientious of things to get men in the door. Another thing I started in
June was Friday afternoon cribbage and we’ve been, really had good attendance. We’re only
doing it the third Friday of the month and I’ve had probably 24 plus people playing cribbage on
Friday afternoon. Probably 80% of them men so, I mean it just shows that you tailor activities,
you know people seem to enjoy it. My passport programs that I’ve talked about numerous times
continue to go really well. It’s been such a great program I’m going to continue to offer it next
year. I just was on the computer before I came. I’m going to do one in January on Australia and
New Zealand. I’m having a heck of a time finding Australian food here in the Twin Cities to
feature with that, but anyway I’ve got local speakers and that has been really another great thing
where I’ve been able to tap into either people, participants at the senior center who have traveled
or community people to do the presentations, and everyone of them that I’ve had people have
walked away and really, really enjoyed them. I’ve had my fifth annual ladies tea luncheon and
style show. That’s probably one of the bigger events. People love it. I’m somewhat limited by
the number of space but we’ve got about 70 women per year and we have a style show. There’s
a company I’ve been using every year. A catered lunch and they really, really enjoy it. Another
thing we did, every year the senior commission in the fall has an open house. We had an idea
this year to combine it with, I usually do a dinner in the park and, or a dinner before a concert in
17
Park and Recreation Commission – September 22, 2009
the park. This year we did an ice cream social with an open house for people to meet the senior
commission and senior advisory board before a concert on Thursday night. Unfortunately it
rained that night but I think it stopped and people came out so that was a real nice opportunity to
incorporate two events into one. Then I do my traditional day trips. All in all everything has
gone really, really well. Over the summer and in the fall things pick up a little more in the fall
but our day to day attendance and continue to get new people at different activities and that’s the
whole goal with changing up programs and activities to continue to try and find a nitch of what
people might want and bring them in the door. Another quick example, Monday we’re going to
a tour of the National Weather Station. I had, and that’s great. I had one group arranged for
that. I have so many people, I had to arrange another tour and I probably could have done
another one but I’ve got 50 people going on two tours but a time commitment to give them up so
we’re really trying to bring things of local interest into the community as well as speakers. I did
include a newsletter. I usually do a newsletter about 6 weeks after the Connection because I can
throw a variety of different activities in, as Jerry or Jodi or John would mention, we plan
activities probably what 6 to sometimes 8 months out for the Connection and people kind of
laugh at you when you call like it’s September and I’m calling to book something in March or
April. So sometimes you hear of things that are available that you couldn’t get to the Connection
so I use my newsletter as a way of promoting events that weren’t in the Connection. And the last
thing I want to mention is, this time in the newsletter I added something called Community
Events on the last couple pages. As I was looking out at everything we have in the community I
thought why not promote some of the events that we have right here in Chanhassen. So that’s
been really, really well received and all in all things are going great so, that’s all I have.
Smith: Thank you. Anyone have any comments or questions for Susan?
Ryan: Sue, this is very impressive. You do a great job and you can tell from the attendance, the
numbers that you have for these programs you are you know finding the right things to do and
just doing a fabulous job. I mean I would like to go to these. These are great. They’re just
fabulous so congrats. These are great.
Bill: Thank you.
Smith: You do a great job. You obviously put a lot of time and energy into this and it
obviously, people enjoy it and you get a big group of people there so good job.
Bill: Thank you.
PARK AND TRAIL MAINTENANCE REPORT.
Gregory: Thank you. Well this fall is turning out to be a pretty busy one for us. Currently
we’ve got about 5 projects on the docket that we’re doing and we’re kind of jumping back and
forth between them. We’ve got, we got them all four open right now and athletic fields and that
we started with those yet this fall. We striped and maintained 20 soccer fields. Stripe them
every week. We’ve also got ballfields 2 and 3 torn apart. We’re redoing the infields on them
and field 2 we had an issue with the distance from the home plate to the back and that so we
pulled that whole infield, we pulled it back and met the distance, what they wanted. I don’t even
18
Park and Recreation Commission – September 22, 2009
know what it is but we’ve got the distance that they wanted in there and then we got the mounds,
they’re in place now. We’ve got clay mounds. Raised mounds on there. And irrigation has just
been put in and maybe you don’t even know it either and that but the irrigation and that out there
and on our fields, we’re one of the few cities. We actually irrigate our infields and we, all of our
ballfields, we have irrigation heads placed and that so that if the summer really gets dry and that,
we can take and turn our irrigation heads on and water the infields for dragging them and
packing the dirt and everything around home plates and everything else so that really works out,
it works out good for us and that. Sod. We’ve got a guy coming. He’s putting sod in tomorrow
on the two ballfields. And those two will be pretty much done other than putting in the pegs and
everything for the home plates, pitcher mounds and all that sort of stuff so once we get the sod
in, they’ll be wrapping up. We’re also working on another venture with the DNR on the fishing
pier out at Roundhouse. It was not long enough. It kind of ends in the middle of the weeds. For
fishing and everything else it’s really hard for people to get out there and fish off it so Todd
talked, we were talking with the DNR and that and the DNR supplied us with a 20 foot section of
extension to the pier. It came with no cost for us but the only thing was is we had to do the
install so right now we currently have that sitting out at the park shed. It was delivered on
th
September 9 and somewhere along the line they forgot to order the handrails and how we
connect it to the other pier and everything else so we’re right now we’re just waiting for those
parts to be delivered. And what we’re thinking of doing right now is we may wait and when we
get to the point of putting the pier in, then we will connect it to it because it’s not that it would
pay for us to do it right now for the short time that they’re left. We will be putting that pier in
actually in by Minnewashta and then we’re going to pull it over to the park so we don’t have to
do any damage to the trail and everything else going down to the pier. So that will take place as
soon as we get to that point of turning the pier and that so we’ll put that on.
Stolar: Say Dale?
Gregory: Yes.
Stolar: And that one, is that because the lakes are so low that we have to extend out?
Gregory: The lakes are low. That, we do have an issue with a lot of weeks along that side over
there. The swimming area we should really be looking at doing something, we put our buoys out
and everything else and the whole area gets filled with weeds. I mean it’s really an issue that we
need to look at and see if we can’t do something to eradicate some of those weeds right close to
the swimming area so. And we’ll look into that this summer yet and see what we can do. Rec
center. The rec center shelter out there, it’s right by the warming house. The concrete there was
so bad and that that we have to take that out. We’re actually taking all of the concrete out and
the sidewalks around by the rec center, a bunch of those are coming out. We’ve got, we had
some issues with trip hazards and cracked, broken sidewalks so we’ve got a contractor. I hired a
contractor to come in and he is, he tore all, or about half of the sidewalks out right now and then
we’re going to be doing some work. We’ll be putting drain tile underneath the concrete and
around the building to help alleviate some of the water problems we have in the winter. There’s
so, it’s clay out there. There’s so much water that’s just held there that when it freezes it pushes
so much and it just ruins our concrete sidewalks and stuff so we’re in the process now of doing
the drain tile. We’ll be doing that. We kind of, that slowed down this morning. We’ve got a
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Park and Recreation Commission – September 22, 2009
swimming pool out there so we’re waiting for that to dry up, from the rain last night. Let’s see.
Saw Lotus Lake Park where we tore all the border out around that. That was one of our oldest
playgrounds. It still had the old wooden border around it and so we’ve taken that out. We
replaced that with concrete. A sidewalk will go all the way around it and there will be a curb to
the inside and we’ll be replacing the pea rock in there with wood chips. And the concrete is
currently, that’s poured and that’s ready to go. The wood chips are scheduled to be delivered on
Thursday so we’ll be, start putting those in. And then there will be time in the current path up to
the sidewalk and everything so it will be, it’s going to really be nice once it gets, it’s all done.
It’ll be a nice handicap accessible area for the people to get to and that. Very nice. That’s our,
oh we’ve got one more and that. We’ve also got two trails that we have issues out in Bluff
Creek. Bluff Creek trail system and that. Out by Stone Creek and then two areas by the
Preserve. We’ve had and we’ve always had issues with water continually leeching out of the
hills and going across the trails. Wintertime it gets icy. It’s not a good condition like now when
it’s been summertime, it gets real, real slippery. It gets that sliminess on the trails and we’ve
gone out and we’ll sweep them off but it only lasts for a week or two and that and the stuff is
back so we’re going to, we’ve got a guy hired that will, in fact I talked to him this morning, that
will be coming in on Monday morning and we’re going to tile that area. We’ve got about 1,500
feet of tile we’ll be putting in to try and take care of these trails. And let’s see. Oh, and this
week, starting and that on the, I’m going to start to visit every one of our parks and trails. I did it
last year and that. I go around with a map and that and start looking for any dead trees. Dying
trees. Hazardous trees or areas that we need to trim along trails. And we’ll do that…in the
wintertime from December, January in that area. Once the skating rinks slow down a little bit
and we get out and start trimming trees. Did the same thing last year and that and by the time we
got done with our trees, we logged over 300 trees that ended up coming down so. Parks, trails.
A lot of them small ones. A lot of them big ones and that but it’s trees that are out there that
need to be taken down so we’re trying to stay on it and have a little bit.
Smith: Have you seen any of the Ash Borer?
Gregory: No. The only thing I’ve heard about is the ones in St. Paul. I haven’t heard of any in
any other community yet at this point. We do have, working with Jill, she has some traps out in
some of our parks. Lake Ann has one. I don’t know if anybody has seen it. It’s near the parking
lot by Ballfield 3. There’s a only ash tree that sits out there and if you look out there, it looks
like a purple kite hanging in the tree. It’s actually a trap for purple ash, or an ash worm so, and
that’s in a couple of our different parks and that.
Smith: Okay. Good.
Gregory: That’s it.
Scharfenberg: Dale, that sod for the new fields isn’t from Colorado is it?
Gregory: We went all the way to Waconia. No actually, really we do all of our sodding with a
gentleman up in Waconia… He does great work for us. He always lays the big rolls so we don’t
have to deal with the small rolls and we get it as good as we can get it as good as we can get it
level and then he comes in and that, he’ll do the final touches on it and he does just a great job.
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Park and Recreation Commission – September 22, 2009
We actually ended up with, we have down here with the library when that was put in, they came
in and finished the job and that for, the original person that was supposed to do it didn’t, couldn’t
get it all done and they came in and finished it and we’ve been working with them every since.
They’ve been really good.
Ruegemer: And the commission will remember that on field #3 that’s kind of the second half of
the project. The project of moving the fence in at field 3 so this is now Dale’s, Dale and the
crew were extremely busy on getting that field prepared for the new infield. The new mound.
Irrigation. I think area 1 now went from 3 or 4 heads to 12 or 13 or something off the irrigation
to kind of hit different angles so we’re not hitting the mound and getting it wet and greasy at all
times so the crew really put, and Dale’s crew really put a lot of thought into that project to really
make it a really long standing, quality location as they always do with all the fields that we have
so fields 2 and 3 are for the most part being kind of a mirror image of each other now with the
infield as far as you know sight lines and distances between the back stop, foul ball fencing. All
that kind of stuff now going into the future and will be virtually the same so there’ll be no
disadvantages on some fields so it’s worked out great. They worked extremely hard to get those
projects done and we should compliment them now so.
Stolar: Jerry or Dale, do you guys know about the, are we doing anything with the stand, the
shelter there at Lake Ann to expand it? Has CAA come forward.
Scharfenberg: Yeah, they’ve actually the work is supposed to start here relatively soon is my
understanding on the shelter.
Ruegemer: Yep. I know the plan set has been going through the building department right now
for a review for plan review. And also I know just with the concession part of the operation, I
know they’ve been talking to the Department of Health for different components that have to be
into, kind of built into the shelter to satisfy Department of Health or Department of Ag codes for
selling the concessions so. It’s in the progress right now. In the process. It is making strides
forward.
Stolar: Because I think, you know the end game as we talked about, and I appreciate the work
that all of you have done for this is, at some point being able to host a major district tournament
and maybe even further than that. With the fields the way they are, great fields. The lights. And
now the concession, we’re set up very well to host that.
Ruegemer: Yeah, we’re making great strides it seems like on an annual basis. Now we’re
adding different components to you know get to the ultimate goal if that’s what the community
would like.
Smith: Thanks. Anyone else?
Ryan: I feel like the consummate cheerleader up here but it just…commissioner but I feel like
this is a great opportunity to publicly acknowledge the hard work that you and your crew have
done. As an avid trail and park user, you just do a phenomenal job and I, you know I’ve emailed
Todd a few times on a few issues on the trails that I’ve come across and if not hours, a day where
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Park and Recreation Commission – September 22, 2009
it’s, you know the problem is fixed. And I hope you gave yourself a good pat on the back when
the number 2 city came out because that, you know that’s a huge compliment to you and your
team and what you guys have done for this city so I just want to acknowledge how much I
appreciate and we appreciate the work that you and your team does.
Gregory: Thank you.
Smith: Anyone else? Any other comments? Thanks a lot.
COMMISSION MEMBER COMMITTEE REPORTS.
None.
COMMISSION MEMBER PRESENTATIONS.
None.
ADMINISTRATIVE PACKET.
Smith: You have anything you want to comment on Jerry in the Administrative Section?
Ruegemer: Just a different information here regarding the aeration system out at Lake Ann. To
the TAB bike ride that Scott had informed us here before. As many of the commission may or
may not know the homecoming parade, the first annual homecoming parade for the new
th
Chanhassen High School is coming up here October 9 at 4:30. It’ll be running, starting at, is
the map included on there?
Wendt: It isn’t. Chan Elementary?
Ruegemer: Yeah, it was starting at Chanhassen Elementary School on the north side. Coming
thth
down Laredo. Down West 78 Street and then going down 78 Street to Kerber Boulevard and
then heading north so I can email you guys a PDF map if you’d like to see that. But I’ve been in
different meetings with Carver County, the Chanhassen High School and certainly the City and
it’s going to be a great, a great route for the, they’re probably thinking about 10 to 15 floats this
year for the first one with all the different clubs involved with the school but I know that the
school and the school liaison officer did go out last week. Hand out maps to abutting property
owners and business owners. Everybody seems to be extremely positive about it at this point
and really are looking forward to the high school being in town and to the start of the tradition
this year.
Smith: Excellent. Anything else? If nothing else I’ll entertain a motion for adjournment.
Scharfenberg moved, Stolar 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
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Park and Recreation Commission – September 22, 2009
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