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PRC 2009 12 08 CHANHASSEN PARK AND RECREATION COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING DECEMBER 8, 2009 Chairman Daniel called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. MEMBERS PRESENT: Jeff Daniel, Elise Ryan, Glenn Stolar, Tom Kelly, Steve Scharfenberg, and Thor Smith MEMBERS ABBSENT: Scott Wendt STAFF PRESENT: Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Director; Jerry Ruegemer, Recreation Superintendent; John Stutzman, Recreation Supervisor; Jodi Sarles, Recreation Center Manager; Susan Bill, Senior Center Coordinator; and Dale Gregory, Park Superintendent APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Scharfenberg moved, Kelly seconded to approve the agenda as presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: None. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS: None. RECREATION PROGRAM REPORTS: Ruegemer: I’ll take that one and John can feel free, John if you’d like to kind of add the details to that. Busy with some activities going on lately. We had the tree lighting ceremony last Saturday night. Had a nice crowd out there for that. It was a beautiful night and warm fire and the park really looks good being lit up like that so Dale and the crew did a nice job on that. Had a really nice gingerbread house displays. We had 5 total with that so a lot of creativity with that. People that entered had done a wonderful job and I think we have some pictures of that as well that we can email to the commission if you’d like. Stutzman: I’d say the most difficult was quite well done. Kelly: I had absolutely nothing to do with it at all. But they really enjoyed it. They really enjoyed doing it. Ruegemer: Sounds nice. John and Jodi have been extremely busy with the rec center sports program. As you all know that’s, took youth sports in-house. Like the kind of YMCA sports we’ve done before but also after school programs and sports and activities. It really has been, taken off. John and Jodi have been extremely busy with scheduling and hiring staff and making sure that program is running smoothly and as of now it looks like expectations have been far exceeded with that so look forward to 2010. It’s really starting off the year with a really a lot of momentum taking us through so John and Jodi have done a wonderful job with that and just want to publicly thank them for all their hard work so nice job with that. Dance Party on Ice is Park and Recreation Commission – December 8, 2009 coming up again. We started our first program last year in January of 2009. It was extremely successful. Popular. Added a second session this year so we’re going to be doing one in January and in February out at the Chan Rec Center. Bring a DJ out there and do all the party favorites out there with skates and on the ice and play games and have hot chocolate, some treats, that sort of thing so looking forward to that again. John did a great job on that last year and really looking to build upon the success we had last year to kind of grow the program so looking forward to that. Have a new program this year, Design Your Own Skateboard. The City’s partnering with Third Lair Skate Park. They’re the ones that have done the summer skateboard series with the th 4 of July. Also a number of camps that we’ve done with over MEA weekend. The schools out and also the camps we have in summertime so just continuing our partnership with Third Lair and should become kind of a fun event that kids can make their own. Kind of design and make their own skateboards so looking forward to that. That’s going to be held in early February. Daddy-Daughter Date Night. Phone calls are starting to come in for that and people are starting to get signed up for that so change the dates on that slightly so it won’t be over Presidents weekend this year. We’re going to be offering Friday and Saturday sessions again so if you’re interested in that program please sign up early. It will fill up fast with that. I think John has expanded that, the number several different times now. I think we’re just about at capacity right now. Stutzman: We’re about as full as we can get after last year going with 50 couples. It was a little full in there last year. Little tight. Ruegemer: Continues to be a very popular program so it’s a fun event for dads and their daughters, or grandparents to take their kids. And last but not least we are starting our 3 on 3 winter basketball program. We’ll be starting in January, right after the first of the year. We’re accepting registrations for teams this week so hopefully we’ll be getting a large number of participants with that so I’ll do schedules here before the holiday break and we’ll take it from there so hopefully we’ll have a good turnout. Daniel: Okay. Thank you Jerry. Elise, anything you want to ask Jerry? Ruegemer: No, I don’t think so. Daniel: Thor. Smith: What is the age for the design your own skateboard thing? Stutzman: Age, if I recall correctly, I think it’s 9 to 17. 8 or 9 to 17 so old enough to have the fine motor skills as well but then they go ahead and include those upper or those older kids as well. Get into that teenage range since I figured that’d be a program they’d be interested in doing as well. Smith: Thanks. Stutzman: The one thing with that as far as age, if they do have the ability to, Third Lair and I talked that we think we are some flexible. I mean if there’s a 7 year old who can go about the 2 Park and Recreation Commission – December 8, 2009 work. It’s not a hard and set. It was just kind of, we picked that based on the, kind of the ability level of the kid. If had a kid that thought they could do it, we’d definitely welcome them as well. Smith: Cool. Thanks. Daniel: Glenn. Stolar: Nothing. Daniel: Steve. Scharfenberg: Just attended the tree lighting again this year and wonderful event. Staff did a really nice job in getting the park set up and that and it was just a real nice program again so. Kelly: Nothing. Daniel: Nothing. I’ve got a couple, is Design Your Own Skateboard, is that at the rec center? Stutzman: Yep, that will be out at the rec center. Daniel: And Jerry, do we have a full court, 5 on 5 team league? Ruegemer: No. Daniel: We don’t. Ruegemer: No, we have offered that in the past but we are going to a 3 on 3 format now at the rec center. Unofficiated. Daniel: Okay. Excellent. Thanks Jerry. Ruegemer: We’ll have more of a formal tree lighting evaluation and kind of a wrap in January. Stolar: Write it ahead of the time like you did last year. Ruegemer: …the details and we’ll present it in January. Daniel: And then we’ll discuss February Fest next meeting then? Ruegemer: Correct. Daniel: Okay, great. Ruegemer: I thought I was being efficient. 3 Park and Recreation Commission – December 8, 2009 Stolar: You were. There’s nothing wrong with it. In fact I’d like the Feb Fest evaluation this week. Stutzman: No, that’s next month. Daniel: Alright, thanks. RECREATION CENTER REPORT. Sarles: A little bit about the rec center. We have just pretty much completed painting most of the rooms. We just have the fitness room and the studio left to go but we kind of updated the look. A little soft shade of brown that’s in there and it seems to be nice and it also cleans well, which people like kind of that updated look. As far as programs, we’re doing really well. The Dance for Fun program had another strong fall season. We had about 239 dancers. Right now our dance coordinator just had a little baby boy so she’s on leave for a few weeks here and then we’ll start back up with us in January so we spent some time finding some temporary instructors to fill some spots but excited to have Nicole back in January. Our enhanced fitness programs continue to be very strong. We had 17 that are just completing their section. Really excited that I talked to UCare and they were thrilled with our numbers and our continuing to funding the program past our grant date so seniors are so happy and everybody else so that’s a nice program that we have out there. We’ve offered a few things. Sue and I did another Grandparent and Me Pumpkin Painting so it was fun to see the 20 grandkids and their grandparents out there painting. They made popcorn balls and it was just a fun day. Fun time so thank you Sue for helping out. And then we’ve offered a few programs here just kind of the parent and me type things so both the Halloween and Harvest Hi-jinx. We had 22 kids and their parents participating. We have a little fun time in the gym and then do holiday themed crafts around those activities. But kind of like Jerry said, one of the thing things that’s taking up a lot of time right now is that rec center sports program. It’s been great. It’s been fun. The kids are excited. Moving around. 95 preschoolers right now playing basketball. They’re going to finish up next week here and then there’ll be another session of basketball coming up. After school we had started with the dodge ball program and moved into an after school volleyball-basketball program. 36 kids at that after school, 7 to 11 range came. And pending weather, we were supposed to start last week, skating lessons but that’s going to be next week so we will have ice so excited about that one too. We have two very, very strong skating instructors that are going to lead those programs, both at the rec center and City Center Park so kind of covering both those elementary schools in town. That after school population. Birthday party packages continue to roll along. We’ve got 61 parties so far this year so it’s been busy. A lot of people using that gym time and getting some exercise in there… The one thing I did neglect to put on here is, we had our artisan fair in November. We had 30, about 33 local vendors here. A majority of them were Chanhassen and then some Chaska and Eden Prairie folks came. We probably had around 500 people that came to the rec center just participating. Shopping. Fair booths were $15 so the vendors were happy. They all at least covered their booth fees and just a nice way to get people into the rec center. Kind of see what the local artists have to make so it was everything from jewelry to wood workers to, boy we had just about everything. Dog biscuits so, so it was a fun day. And they also will have some, we’re now the host site for the Southwest Metro Chamber. They do their new member 4 Park and Recreation Commission – December 8, 2009 orientation monthly at the rec center. Now we have another…every week so kind of nice to see some new people using the space too. Daniel: Excellent. Thank you Jodi. Any questions? Elise? Thor? Ryan: I do. For the skating lessons, are you doing two sessions or just one session of skating lessons? Sarles: We have one session at each park so. Ryan: Okay. Sarles: There’s one either at City Center or at the Rec Center. Stutzman: Elise we also do have lessons over winter break as well. Ryan: You do, okay. And the age starting at 4? Stutzman: 4 to 6 and then 7 to 12. Ryan: Okay. Great, thank you. Sarles: You bet. Daniel: Thor? Steve? Scharfenberg: Jodi I know it may be too early to kind of compare what you guys did with the Y and now it’s switched over to the rec program but in terms of numbers, are the numbers the same? Are they greater? Are you seeing, you know just kind of comparing what they did to what you did this year? Do you think it’s a better experience? Sarles: Yeah, I think it is a much better experience. We did survey all participants from the soccer program for preschoolers and came back very strong surveys with a lot of really good suggestions for us though too. You know and it’s never going to be something for everybody but we’re just trying to, we use the same goals that they use for CAA and there were some concerns that those maybe weren’t big enough for these kids to score into so I mean things that have got us thinking about what we can do to change it for next year, but yeah. People have been really happy. I would say soccer numbers were almost equal and basketball then bumped up and we really are almost at max for at least the evening programs for basketball because 40 preschoolers in the gym is a lot of noise in the gym at one time so, and it’s been nice. We’ve got our staff out there as well as the volunteer coaches so really keeping things moving. Having a good experience for those kids. Kelly: Are those adult volunteer coaches or are those older kid volunteer coaches? 5 Park and Recreation Commission – December 8, 2009 Sarles: They are adult. Mostly parent volunteer, or coaches that we have out there so we try to have 2 in each team. We also have 4 staff that are on site too helping out with each group as well so. Sometimes that help is just keeping the kids out from underneath the bleachers and other times it’s a hands on coaching. Ruegemer: And Steve just to kind of give you a little more information, really the city decided to take on the program or take over the program, it was about mid-summer with the fall soccer program being the first programs that we had taken over so you know again that will continue to grow and you know you kind of get educate the people that you know have used the program before and also the general public that that transformation has taken place and I only see the numbers increasing from this point forward so. Scharfenberg: Good. Daniel: Alright. Jodi, what’s the price for the birthday party package? Sarles: $55. Daniel: 55, that’s right. I think that was about it. Outside of that, thank you very much. Certainly every time we go in there it’s busy. Sarles: Good. That’s what we want. SENIOR CENTER REPORT. Daniel: Again. Bill: And I’ll be brief. You probably know everything you need to know. Well when you were talking about the rec center being busy, it was sure busy today. As Todd mentioned we had our holiday party. Community Bank was our co-sponsor for the fourth year. They sent 4 people from the bank did a great job. They enjoy it as much as we enjoy having them. Biggest crowd ever. We had, we served 119 people so it was just wonderful and Jodi and her staff did a great job in helping set up. I think a good time was had by all. I just want to focus on a couple things. I just highlighted some health and education programs and I spoke of them last month. Spoke of the Medicare Part D and the Medicare counseling program. That’s where a counselor, a state certified counselor provides one on one assistance on supplement plans. Medicare, whatever. I’ve now added 13 days in November because of the increase, it’s brought a lot of new faces into the senior center so it’s really a need in the community and people are really, really appreciative that we have that. The Augsburg College program once again, KleinBank has offered to, or is supporting the program I think for the fifth year. They’ve been an excellent partner. I cut down, we started off offering 8 programs. I cut it down to 6 and next year we’ll have 5 of them, and that’s based on the economy and those are very, very well attended. People love the variety of different topics and I’m excited for the programs in 2010. And that’s pretty much all I have to say today. So health and education is a focus and I will continue to do that in 2010 because that’s really a need and people really enjoy getting the updated information. 6 Park and Recreation Commission – December 8, 2009 Daniel: Okay. Great, any questions for Susan? Thank you Susan. PARK AND TRAIL MAINTENANCE REPORT. Gregory: We’ve got our parks all buttoned up for winter. Everything’s winterized. Docks and piers, everything else is pulled out and stored for the winter. We did have a little bit of trouble this fall getting our aeration done and that with the wet weather. We did get all of our soccer fields done. They’re, the majority of those are, we have draintile running through them so that we were able to get to. But the ballfields we just didn’t get them all done. It was just too wet for us so. What we will try to do is if in spring we can get to them and that and get them done yet that way. We also had the opportunity Sentence to Serve people again this fall. We get them in. They rake up all the leaves. Take care of our cemetery, out at Pioneer Cemetery, and they do a real good job of that. We’ve had real good luck with these people and that. They, we get them as much as we can and we get a lot of work out of them through the year. And then our concrete project out at the rec center. We did get that completed. It’s all the concrete is in, on the rec center side, and we did do a little bit of back filling with dirt around it but come spring we’ve got to get in there and do the final grading and that on it. We’re going to seed it or probably look at probably sodding it around there and that and take care of it so it gets finished and that looking a lot nicer. And we did get started flooding yesterday. We did our first overnight shift last night. Up until the snow today and that, so basically tomorrow we’ll be shifting gears and that. We’ll be plowing trails and taking care of that stuff and hopefully if this quits by noon or so, like they’re kind of talking and that, we’ll probably have our trucks back on the road tomorrow night. And looking at the weather, the way everything goes and that, I’m looking at like 7 to 10 days we should have rinks all up and running so, and it doesn’t really look like we’ve got much for snow or anything coming after this. We’ve got some good cold weather and we’ll be able to run two trucks full time. That’s all I’ve got. Daniel: Okay, thank you Dale. Questions? Elise? Thor? Glenn? Stolar: Just one Dale. We were going to do some changes right to one of the ballfields to bring the fence in. Is that in spring we’re going to do that? Or move the field back I guess so it’s closer. Gregory: The fields have all been, that part of it’s all done. Stolar: That’s done, okay. Gregory: The fields have been moved. We’ve got the infields done. We’ve got the sod has been placed and the only thing really left to do is to put the bases in yet, but that’s all been done already this fall. Stolar: Great, thank you. Daniel: Was that for Field 3? Stolar: I think so. 7 Park and Recreation Commission – December 8, 2009 Hoffman: Field 3 at Lake Ann. Stolar: Yep. Daniel: The Little League field. Okay. Stolar: Yep, thank you. Gregory: We did and actually before we put the, our I mean 3 we did and that and 2 we moved back. Field 2 we moved back and Field 3 we actually redid the infield. Stolar: Redid the infield. It was 2 that it was pretty far back, away from the. Gregory: Right. 2 was too far back so we moved that back about 10-12 feet to get, they’re both now, 2 and 3 are exactly the same. Stolar: Alright, thank you. Daniel: Steve. Scharfenberg: Dale, I don’t know if you or Jerry can answer this question. This came up through CAA regarding the batting cages out at Lake Ann. I know there was the power, the line got cut or something, is that what we think and the question is, is can that be restored or is there any plan on trying to restore that? Gregory: Well I had an electrician out and there is an issue with, and I don’t know if it really got cut and that. We do have some power down there. It’s not the right voltage and that so I mean the wires aren’t an issue. We can’t find the problem and that and what the electrician said is we’d have to have a whole new line coming down there if we want to have power again. Scharfenberg: Okay. Is there any ability to run cords out there from the shed down or is that just too far? Ruegemer: I think you’d lose too much power. I think if you did it that long of a run, and that’s, it seems like you know on the staff level we’ve certainly been talking about for quite a long time now and it seemed like that’s about the only option at this point is to run a new line. I’m not sure how much that would be per foot but it’s a pretty good chunk of change. Scharfenberg: Yeah. Okay. Ruegemer: So that’s kind of where it sits right now. Scharfenberg: If, again is that something if CAA came up with some money to do something like that, that maybe that could be looked into? Okay. And then the only other comment, the 8 Park and Recreation Commission – December 8, 2009 rec center shelter looks great. I’ve been by there a couple times and that whole area after you guys redid it, the cement looks just wonderful so nice job on that project. Hoffman: Big improvement. Scharfenberg: Yeah, definitely. Daniel: Tom. Kelly: Nothing. Daniel: Okay. Dale, the Sentence to Serve, where are they out of, Carver County? Gregory: Out of Carver County. Daniel: Okay. Gregory: And actually the, they’re kind of a combination with Scott County too at times in that if Carver County doesn’t have enough people, they actually bring in people from Scott County to bring in a group. Daniel: I take it must have high volunteer rates if they’re looking to get out. Gregory: It helps. The day of working helps under sentence and that to get out early and that. Daniel: Excellent. Okay and then, actually that probably should be it. Alright, thank you Dale. Gregory: Thank you. ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS: Hoffman: Thank you Chair Daniels. I also have a variety of other updates for the commission but I want to start by thanking the commission for your leadership in another very progress filled 2009. It was a tremendous year, even with the downturn in our activity in the development side. Doesn’t mean projects are stopping. We still have a community to work for and we’re pleased to have your leadership in doing that. I’m going to end with the Highway 41 trail and talk about some other things that are going on in our community that I feel you should be aware of. The new public works building down on Park Place, it will be a public open house coming up in January so please attend that. We’ll get you an invitation. It’s a great structure. It’s back in that cul-de-sac tucked in behind Prince’s studios and it’s going to be a tremendous facility for the future of our community. The building we were in was probably 10 years overdue, based on it’s size. For example on a night like tonight we would have liked to have been in there and then we wouldn’t have had to jockey 14 plows around to get 1 out to start the… It’s kind of like one of those puzzles where you’ve got to move all the pieces to get one piece out and so that’s going to be a big improvement for our community. So look for that. The 2011 Transportation Enhancement Applications which Paul Oehme and the public works engineering department 9 Park and Recreation Commission – December 8, 2009 have made application for include two projects which I think you’ll find of interest. We’ve been notified that they most likely will be funded but we haven’t received the final notification and they are Lyman Boulevard between Audubon and Powers and so that will be lowered, the big hill will be lowered. That road will be improved to match Lyman to the east and Lyman to the west and then a trail will go in on the north side. And that would be a 2011 project. In addition to that is Highway 5 at Minnewashta Parkway and Highway 5 at Minnewashta Parkway will include surface improvements to the highway. Not a stop light but a lot of turn lanes and surface improvements, and then also an underpass from Minnewashta Parkway to the Arboretum. And so that’s been, it’s been applied for. We’re hopeful that those two make the cut. If they are successful, 2011 timeframe for both of those projects. If you haven’t heard 2011 also includes a Highway 5 improvement project from Highway 41 to the bridge in Victoria. It will include a pretty extensive closures so if you have friends or family in the Victoria area, or your business in the Victoria area, be aware of that. 2011 they’re going to shut it down. Repair that bridge or replace that bridge in downtown Victoria and then also the low spot just on the east side of Victoria, they’ll take that all out down to 40 feet and fill it in with good material. They have somewhere between 4 and 6 feet of asphalt in the road section right there. Daniel: And it’s continually sunk as long as I’ve been alive. Hoffman: Yeah, because they’ve overlayed it for. Daniel: For so many years, yeah. Hoffman: 2013 we are going to be making applications, and these will dovetail into the Arboretum projects, or an underpass at Highway 41 at Lifetime and Highway 5. So go east and west at that location at Highway 41, just south of Highway 5. And then the Arboretum trail so the Arboretum trail going through the Arboretum. There’s some question on how much of the trail goes on private property. If these projects are on private property, they’re not eligible for federal transportation enhancement dollars so we may tweak the design to take a look at that. So look for that in the 2013 application and we’ll have a variety of partners on that. The Arboretum, Carver County, the State of Minnesota, City of Victoria and the City of Chanhassen for that application. Kelly: I thought that was going to be a 2011 trail. Hoffman: It is scheduled for 2011 as is Bluff Creek, but if we’re going to wrap this in, we’ll ask you to push it out in the spring to seek that federal funding. Kelly: Okay. Hoffman: The price went higher than anticipated and we don’t have the cash, all the cash. We’d like to do it, the underpass and the trail all as one project so we’d like to keep those combined. Scharfenberg: So Todd the underpass at 41 will be on what side of the road? 10 Park and Recreation Commission – December 8, 2009 Hoffman: As proposed it will be Highway 41 south of 5 and then it will go, it would go behind the new Arboretum sign. Scharfenberg: Okay. Alright. Hoffman: As the road rises up there. Scharfenberg: Yep. Hoffman: But the conversation we have to have with MnDOT, which we have not had yet is they want to lower that whole intersection south at some point so we have to plan both for the lowering of the road and the cutting in of the underpass. Additionally Eden Prairie, City of Eden Prairie, we have been in contact and they would like to accelerate the Rice Marsh Lake Trail into either 2011 or 2012 and so we’ll be exploring if that can happen with the commission in the spring. Daniel: Is that for the 110 feet they need to connect on the north side? Hoffman: No it’s, no. It’s for the 2 miles on the south side. Scharfenberg: Hadn’t we taken that off of our CIP? Hoffman: We did because we didn’t know where they were at. Now they’re ready to go so we’re going to have to look at it and see if it can happen. I think we might have pushed it out to 2014. Stolar: Something like that because we never heard what they were going to do right. Yeah. Daniel: Has there been any resolution on that north side trail though, the connection? Hoffman: No. Kelly: What connection you talking about? Hoffman: Eden Prairie. Last section of the trail in Eden Prairie. Kelly: Oh yeah. Daniel: Is that their responsibility? I mean that’s fully Eden Prairie right? Hoffman: It’s all Eden Prairie and it’s private property. Daniel: Okay. Stolar: Do they have easements though for it? No? So there’s nothing they can do. 11 Park and Recreation Commission – December 8, 2009 Daniel: Except we’ll continue to walk through that private property. Hoffman: Which people have for 15 years. Kelly: Yeah. It’s pretty much a trail right now. Scharfenberg: Todd in terms of the talk with Eden Prairie, have they talked anymore about if you’re going to do Rice Marsh, then do that area from Rice Marsh to Lake Riley behind, between Bear Path? Hoffman: All at once. Scharfenberg: That would all be part of that? Hoffman: Yep. We want the project to be built all at once. Eden Prairie side, our side and then the private… Scharfenberg: Okay. Hoffman: Additionally be aware that you may see activity in Bandimere Park this winter. Two test wells mandated by the Department of Natural Resources need to go in. They’ll go in outside of the ballfields on the south side of the park, and those are to monitor ground water and to keep an eye on what’s going on in the Jordan aquifer and as far as the seminary fen and the water level in the fen. These wells are now very common around the state and many cities have to put them in so we pay for them. We put them in. We pay for the electronic monitoring and the DNR keeps track of what’s going on with the water level down in those aquifers. Kelly: They’re on the south, they’re south of the baseball fields? On the other side of the path. Hoffman: Yep. That’s where they’ll go. So you’ll see drill rigs out there this winter. December or January. Just a couple of days ago. Kelly: Because they’ve been doing work there anyway. They redirected a pond. Hoffman: Yes. Yes. These wells will be quite a ways east from there. Kelly: Okay. Hoffman: And then also look for work to happen in Chanhassen, or Lake Susan Park. A raw watermain will take water from the well that’s in the pump station in Lake Susan and then it will be, the pipe will come all the way up to downtown to the water treatment plant. So that will be a 12 inch directional bore so you’ll see a hole dug in Lake Susan and then they’ll bore the pipe out to the street and you’ll dig a hole and they’ll bore it up towards the church and it will keep going all the way down to Highway 5 and into the water treatment plant. That’s to get the water from that well into the water treatment plant before it goes back out in the system. Right now it mixes, that water mixes with the system and it takes your clean water and mixes it with the water 12 Park and Recreation Commission – December 8, 2009 we used to drink but now we have cleaner water with our water treatment plant so. And then in addition to that project we’re asking that, and we’re going to ask the council for their consideration that we order a change order for the Lake Ann sewer pipe from the concession stand down to the beach as a part of that project. So that would happen in December or January. Then we would be able to move forward with our improvements in the spring for sinks and concession stand. And we think that will be about a $22,000 change order for that sewer pipe from Lake Ann. From the concession stand down to the beach. It’s a significant investment but in the long term the pipe needs to be in there anyway so look for that to be moving forward. And then lastly, we have 41. Marty Walsh from Carver County came in and spoke to the council. Gave an update on what their plans are acting as the lead agency to construct this section of trail. It’s approximately 1.6 miles of trail outside the park. 1 mile of trail inside the park and then the underpass underneath Highway 41. There’s a question on whether or not the road will be closed or bypassed. Trying to get a, they’re going to try to keep it open to traffic. Close one half at a time. You’ll open cut one half of the road. Build the underpass. Bypass one lane on the outside of the shoulder. Bypass the other lane on the opposite lane of travel and then do the opposite switch. And that’s a 2010 design and 2011 construction. If you have friends, neighbors, acquaintances in that area, start talking up the project. It’s not a for sure deal until we have the neighborhood meeting and they support it. If Highover or Longacres does not support that job, or that project and they tell the council or the county board that they’re not in favor of it, it could be in jeopardy so engage in that project. Talk to friends in that area. Find out what their concerns are and then attend the neighborhood meetings if you have a chance when those come out, probably in February and March of this year. Daniel: Preliminarily Todd do you have any feedback at all and just some discussions from anybody in those two neighborhoods? Hoffman: There’s always concern whenever you put a trail in somebody’s back yard and this trail goes in a lot of people’s back yard, even though it’s at the bottom of a hill along Highway 41 so I’ve not heard a lot, but I always hear concern when you’re starting to build trails in people’s rear yards. Smith: Where will the notification for the neighborhood meetings be published somewhere? Hoffman: January-February most likely, yeah. And it will be not only published but mailed to each individual homeowner in the area. Stolar: And you’ll send us the. Hoffman: I will. Daniel: Okay. Kelly: It goes from Longacres all the way, where does it end on the north side? Hoffman: In the grant application they had an ending point at the Middle School. Staff didn’t feel like that was in appropriate location so we advised the council to go to Chaska Road, which 13 Park and Recreation Commission – December 8, 2009 is the road just north of there and we will have to add that section outside. We’ll do it in the contract but we will, the city will pay 100% of that section of trail from the middle school. Stolar: It’s not that far. Hoffman: No. Stolar: Now is there going to be an issue though going, cutting across that middle school driveway? Hoffman: I don’t think so. Stolar: It gets very crazy over there at times. In the morning when you try and drop kids off, it’s pretty crazy. Hoffman: Yeah. Daniel: So are they expecting along 41 from Longacres all the way to Chaska Road? Hoffman: Yes. It’s 1.6 miles. Daniel: How are we going to be able to get through the pond? Hoffman: Retaining wall. Daniel: That goes right up to the road, the pond does. Stolar: Yes. Hoffman: It’s close. There’s room. Daniel: Okay. I’d like an opportunity to dig out those ancient, old trees then. Okay. Hoffman: Thank you. Daniel: Oh, one more question Todd. Actually I understand through, and Elise maybe you might have heard something as well on the scheduling now for the high school facilities will be now done by us, is that correct? Hoffman: That’s our hope. Daniel: For CAA. Hoffman: Well for 3 ball teams. For the town baseball team and for legion baseball and junior legion. 14 Park and Recreation Commission – December 8, 2009 Daniel: Okay. And those are really going to be the only leagues eligible for playing at the ballfield. Is that, what about softball? Hoffman: Softball could play there. Then as far as the baseball, once we put the high school team on and those three town teams, that’s going to be all that it can take. We’ve not heard from any community groups on the softball field but that can be reserved either through us or the district. Daniel: Okay. Kelly: A follow-up, how about the football fields? Both the main one and the practice one. Hoffman: Same. Same there. They can be reserved. Kelly: Through? Hoffman: Primarily through the district, unless it’s an activity that’s sponsored by the city so the city is going to be involved with these baseball teams to sponsor those teams only for reserving field space. Beyond that we would have to have additional conversations about where we’re going to go from there. That was, the intent of the City Council was to build those stadiums to put baseball back in town. Town baseball, but once we get the club level you’re not going to see us become involved in sponsoring club level sports. Stolar: But even like for the, I thought those extra fields were, we have an ability to reserve them if for any type of league we do want to bring it. Hoffman: We do. Stolar: Right, okay. Ryan: And who has precedence? They were asking about that. The order that, the high school, town ball legion or? Hoffman: Yes. Ryan: Okay. Hoffman: That’s what I would anticipate. It’s really high school, city and then anything that we schedule. Scharfenberg: But most of the time the high school, the legion isn’t going to play with the high school. High school’s over when Legion, the only way you’re going to see them abut up against each other is town ball, and that’s again mostly during the summer so you’re not going to see a whole lot of overlap anyway on the field. 15 Park and Recreation Commission – December 8, 2009 Daniel: Your overlap’s only a couple weeks. Hoffman: There’s going to be some overlap in May, first part of June. Daniel: So that’s manageable. Then after that it pretty much will turn over to town ball and legion. Ryan: And that was where the concern was. Daniel: And that probably would be town ball first. Same pecking order that goes on at Victoria or the athletic park in Chaska. Okay, great. That was one question I had Todd so certainly appreciate it. Hoffman: You’re welcome. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Scharfenberg moved, Kelly seconded to approve the verbatim and summary minutes of the Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated November 24, 2009 as presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0. COMMISSION MEMBER COMMITTEE REPORTS. Daniel: Elise, anything that you want to bring up from the last meeting with regard to town ball? Ryan: Just looked at uniforms and that was really the extent of the meeting and then talking about the legion versus town ball and that was kind of it. We have another meeting tomorrow night. Daniel: Is it 7:30 or 7:00? Ryan: 7:00. Daniel: Okay. Great. And then certainly we welcome any of the commissioners to stop by. I mean it’s good to have Elise and myself have been to, I know you’ve been to a couple meetings. I’ve been to one so it just kind of gets the city’s input, the park and recreation committee’s input into what goes on. They’ve been very receptive so far. Communication, I’m surprised how much energy Terry has so. Stolar: When is the schedule for hiring the coach and all that stuff? Ryan: January is kind of the launch date. They’re still trying to get a few things in order and then January is when the kind of the first release will go out talking about manager. You know getting, interviewing for that as well as getting a team together but they just wanted to have a few more things nailed down before they move forward with that. They have received a couple names for managers and so they might be doing a little behind the scenes, just talking and getting 16 Park and Recreation Commission – December 8, 2009 to know who’s out there and then they’ll makes more of the public announcement come January. The schedule has been worked on and apparently we will have that early January. Daniel: Surprisingly it’s amazing how fast things can go from scratch because the team hadn’t existed more than 4 weeks ago so. Stolar: Is that something that the web site would have, city web site? Hoffman: They probably have their own web site. Daniel: Actually there is a web site that they’ve just generated, is that right Elise? Ryan: Yes. Daniel: And if you’d like, actually what we’ll do is we’ll forward that off to the rest of the commissioners. It’s just a quick, basic starting up web site but at least it’s something that, to begin with. Ryan: Right. Daniel: Outside of that, any other presentations? Tom? Kelly: I just had a question for. Todd, you have mentioned, maybe a few months ago about a half marathon you were thinking about doing in mid-July. Is that still on your calendar or not? Hoffman: We haven’t advanced it any further since that discussion point so. Kelly: Okay. So chances are no then? Hoffman: For? Kelly: For 2010. Hoffman: Yeah, I can’t say at this point. We haven’t advanced it any farther. If we can pull together a town team in 2 months, we can do a marathon in 4. Scharfenberg: What weekend is Feb Fest? th Stutzman: It will be the 6. Daniel: Superbowl weekend. Hoffman: Yeah. It’s been hitting Superbowl weekend, yeah. Daniel: Okay, excellent. 17 Park and Recreation Commission – December 8, 2009 ADMINISTRATIVE PACKET. None. Hoffman: Before you conclude, the members of the town team thanked the park board and Chair Daniels and Elise for being there so they appreciate your support and the support of the park commission. Daniel: Well absolutely. Thank you. Okay, well if there’s anything else that needs to be discussed or reviewed, why don’t we go ahead and adjourn the meeting. 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 at 7:25 p.m. Submitted by Todd Hoffman Park and Rec Director Prepared by Nann Opheim 18