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PRC 2010 02 23 CHANHASSEN PARK AND RECREATOIN COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING FEBRUARY 23, 2010 Chairman Daniel called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. MEMBERS PRESENT: Jeff Daniel, Steve Scharfenberg, Thor Smith, Scott Wendt and Glenn Stolar MEMBERS ABSENT: Elise Ryan and Tom Kelly STAFF PRESENT: Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Director; and Jerry Ruegemer, Recreation Superintendent APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Stolar: Do we have to add new business about recommendations? Daniel: Okay. And is there something specific that we want? Hoffman: You’ll recommend 2 commissioners to be appointed to the commission. Daniel: Okay, and where do we want to do that? Stolar: New business. Daniel: New business. Okay. Hoffman: Recommendation to City Council. Daniel: Okay. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: None. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS: None. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Scharfenberg moved, Wendt seconded to approve the verbatim and summary minutes of the Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated January 26, 2010. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. RECOMMEND APPOINTMENTS TO THE PARK AND RECREATION COMMISSION. Daniel: Alright, quick discussion. Park and Recreation Commission – February 23, 2010 Stolar: You weren’t here when, Tom’s also re-applying right? Daniel: Yes, and Todd had mentioned that so we have 5 candidates. Hoffman: For 2 positions. Daniel: For 2 positions. Stolar: Should we just say what we, our next one below because several of them applied for multiple commissions. Hoffman: You’re just going to make it. Stolar: So if one that we recommend is also recommended by another, for another commission, I was just thinking let’s add a third. Hoffman: Sure. Stolar: You know just in case one gets pulled for another commission. Scharfenberg: I agree. Daniel: Very good idea. Okay, so we want to look at 3 candidates then? Stolar: Well 2 that we like and then an alternate. Daniel: 2 candidates and an alternate. There we go. Okay. Alright, we’ll start with thoughts. Do you want to go by candidates or do you want to go by, go with Tom. Do you want to go with Tom or do you want to talk about Tom? Okay. So your recommendation is what? Stolar: I would propose that we recommend Tom be reappointed. Daniel: Okay. Scharfenberg: And I would second that and agree with that. Daniel: I agree as well. I mean Tom, I guess Tom’s very active with the commission. Has brought a lot to, a lot of understanding of the community, especially fantastic representation of the south side. So we need that. That input but he again has been doing work with so I would agree with that. Hoffman: Why don’t you do them all as one motion. Daniel: Okay. So let’s just do a Tom. Second candidate. We have Cole. I did not get an opportunity. Is there anything that wants to be brought up with regards to, yes Andrew. 2 Park and Recreation Commission – February 23, 2010 Scharfenberg: Certainly looking to get involved in the community and you know he’s got planning first but I think he would do a good job you know. It seems like he’s interested. He’s involved with refereeing football and that and has kids so has an interest in park and rec. Daniel: Alright as far as candidates, I think we can make this informal. Tom certainly we all agree as far as a recommendation. We have a second position here. We had a chance to talk with Cole, Andrew, Jessie and Colleen. Recommendations. Feedback. Scott. Wendt: It’s tough. Colleen definitely is kind of a commission pro I would say. She would bring a lot. She’d probably be my first choice. Jessie had a lot of enthusiasm definitely, especially on the dog park issue. It’d be fun to see. And the other two guys would bring a lot too but Colleen would be my first choice. Daniel: Okay. Steve. Scharfenberg: I was kind of leaning that way too with Colleen and then Andrew I think would be my alternate choice. Daniel: Okay. Glenn. Stolar: Yeah, I’d definitely think Colleen would be first and Andrew impressed me. The enthusiasm with Jessie was nice to have and it’d be a nice little shake-up but I think Andrew impressed. He was very well organized. He actually did, he researched. He read minutes of our previous meetings before he came so I just, I think he really prepared to come and talk to us. Daniel: Yeah, and I do get a sense that it was a great chance to meet both Cole and Jessie and like said, while Jessie’s enthusiasm, that was just like you said would really add a unique dynamic…she’d be really like a breath of fresh air on certain subjects. Scharfenberg: She’s a new resident. She’s going to have additional opportunities kind of down the road. Daniel: Exactly. Cole certainly I think based off of what I read, he had some very strong interest in the senior commission and certainly parks would, again… Stolar: He brings a lot of experience so I don’t think we would, we would enjoy having that history and experience also but I do think, I thought Colleen and Andrew. Daniel: And I agree as well. So I guess, why don’t we make a recommendation, or at least if somebody make, we’ll go with Tom and Colleen. Tom Kelly and Colleen Dockendorf and then Andrew Aller as an alternate. Does that sound good? Smith: I’ll move that. Scharfenberg: Second. 3 Park and Recreation Commission – February 23, 2010 Smith moved, Scharfenberg seconded to recommend that Tom Kelly and Colleen Dockendorf be appointed to the Park and Recreation Commission with Andrew Aller as an alternate. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. RECREATION PROGRAM REPORTS: FEBRUARY FESTIVAL EVALUATION. Ruegemer: Number one, I want to thank all the commissioners that were there. We had a beautiful day at the fishing contest. We couldn’t have asked for a nicer day. It just turned out to be wonderful in the afternoon and appreciate everybody’s help and support with the contest so it was a great, had a few growing pains with the weighing and that sort of thing but I think we got that worked out already. We got an Excel, kind of a spread sheet going here and a formula and all kind of stuff here to get that working here for next year so I think we had that figured out about a day or two afterwards. Hoffman: The day of. Saturday night. Ruegemer: So it looks like we’ll certainly hone that and kind of sharpen that up here too by next year but you know again that, had a pretty good, very good turnout for that. I’m probably going to go through this line item by line item. Just a lot of different components to the event. I know that Friends of the Library are going to work on the medallion hunt and that for next year to you know kind of keep that support and excitement going a little bit further into the hunt itself. Hoffman: Make it even harder. That first clue. Ruegemer: Next year so hopefully take that into… But you know just looking at kind of the new format that we had for door prizes. You know I was out at kind of the front line quite a bit selling tickets and kind of being up there and it just appeared to me that a lot of people knew ahead of time about the door prize tickets, which was really nice for us to see. That people had seen a lot of marketing, a lot of the information had gone out in the papers and our advertising that we had with, especially that brochures and that sort of thing so, which was great. You know we had a lot of people for that. We’re going to work on a little bit different kind of ticket that door prize. You know the door prize tickets were kind of small this year and trying to get information on there, which we didn’t require a lot but it was hard with big mittens and you know, to try to write that information on there so we’re going to look at that again next year. Maybe even two different color tickets of the same roughly size as the fishing tickets potentially, so we’re going to kick around some ideas for that and look to improve that as well but I think a lot of people were pretty excited about that. Didn’t hear a lot of negative feedback at all about the fishing tickets going away from the raffle and going to the door prize category and everybody seem to be very happy with that. Again taking a look at next year as well. It seems like we always get hit at that rush of time you know kind of leading up to the event. Add some additional tables for fishing sales. Ticket sales and then also I think we’re going to have another ticket, or a door prize ticket area across the alley so to speak from the ticket areas that we can kind of, a lot of people have fishing tickets ahead of time and this we’ll have the door prize 4 Park and Recreation Commission – February 23, 2010 tickets. Instead of waiting in that line and then, we just make to make the experience a little bit quicker for our customers. Stolar: Well yeah. Just separate them. Ruegemer: Yeah. We’ll have signage indicating and people you know still need fishing tickets and door prize tickets and we can certainly handle it at that time, but then also people just need door prize tickets if they weren’t fishing. Just wanted the regular celebration events, then they could go to the other side and not have to wait in line so. You know just experiencing things as we went through our first year and certainly are looking for ways to you know increase the flow and give people a good experience down there. Looking ahead we’re going to, it seemed like there’d be a lot of, there were some people fishing just on the lake too this year that weren’t in the contest and seemed to be a little conflict with cars going through the contest area so we’re going to shift all the contest area down to the west a little bit more then have a little bit of room down on that east side so cars can, we’re going to plow a kind of a road that can service and people other parts of the lake because there was two going through the contest area. Because there was a natural road going straight out from the public access…so we have planned for that next year and shift everything a little bit just so we. Hoffman: I didn’t see it but I heard it was an issue. Ruegemer: Yeah, I saw it. Hoffman: Deputies solved it. Hold on there partner. Ruegemer: I don’t think so mister. So we’re going to work on that next year. Also had some conversations with the DNR to look at that slot limit. Maybe opportunities in the future to include fish within that special slot limit of 24 to 36 inches so we’re going to continue to explore that to you know get some excitement again on anything that does come up. You know one prize could be weight so that would be a great thing for the contest. The Rotary did a great job in helping out again. Great group to work with and volunteers drilled all the holes. That certainly saved on staff time and afforded us opportunities to focus on our other portions of the celebration so they were a great help as I said to our department and our city so appreciate having them involved. Looking at some handicap parking down on the ice itself to include that and have probably somebody staffing that area to kind of flag people through and clean off or plow some areas that are real close to, just for accessibility purposes to get people close that have some trouble with that so. But again skating was popular. We had a great day out there. For that and people seemed to take advantage of that I think even more this year. Probably since it was nice. Fires were great and warm so had a lot of comments from people and we had a good time. So just a breakdown on the expense side of it. On the back page. Our expenses were, totaled about $6,200. Revenue was about equal as what we had last year. Obviously we changed the ticket pricing and stuff this year and ticket sales were about half, the number was about half but the revenue was about the same so we certainly have opportunities to grow with ticket sales and we’ll certainly strive for that next year and make this a for profit event and we weren’t too far off this year so we were pretty close so we certainly can look at ways to continue to cutting expenses and John did a great job this year with really having great partnerships with our business 5 Park and Recreation Commission – February 23, 2010 community. Most, if not all the door prizes were donated as well as fishing prizes so. So we will take a look at that again for next year. Scharfenberg: Jerry, how did Culver’s this was their first year doing this. How did they respond you know being out there? Ruegemer: You know I have not heard anything from John. I haven’t been in there, into the store either. Usually John will come by and sit down and eat with you, or sit down and you know at least talk to you while you’re eating over at the restaurant but I haven’t heard but I think John likes to get involved with community type celebrations and I think John likes to visit… Wendt: Yeah, it looked like they were busy throughout the day. Ruegemer: And you know John’s extremely equipped for that. Hoffman: He set up a kitchen on the ice. It was amazing. Stolar: Yeah. Daniel: When you’re making cheese curds and… They had it down and I tell you what, it was one of the, that burger was different than the regular Culver’s burger. Unbelievable. I’m not kidding, what he was doing. It was fantastic so I definitely would, we definitely thank a lot of the sponsors and those who participated from the bottom of our stomach so. But no in all honesty Jerry it was, for $268.37 to throw this type of event in the community, to really in essence break even, it’s fantastic. We had, the response was again tremendous and I see this event growing each year. It won’t be by leaps and bounds. I see incremental to the point where you know really people are looking forward to something like this in the middle of winter and they, the park and recreation staff did a fantastic job. Had everything ready. I mean I think the only complaint I heard was on a prize from one guy. Hoffman: We got him all squared away. Daniel: Got him squared away but, and then obviously the other prizes. Those things are, as I call them, because we changed the format. Kind of growing pains and we…next year I think if everybody plans to address it so I’m already looking forward to it. Especially…because it beats my handwriting. Now we just need to have a giant, why don’t we have it tied to a giant TV screen. A big board… You know there are ways you can get around with that but you know maybe that’s something, maybe not necessarily the board but with projectors. You can do that. I mean I don’t expect to pull out a $4,000 TV…I don’t think will work too well afterwards when it’s operating at potential zero degrees but you know there are ways in which we can do that. I mean if people want to help out, we have a projector that’s old and it would work. Or something like that. Hoffman: We’ll work on it. 6 Park and Recreation Commission – February 23, 2010 Daniel: Yeah just see how something…versus writing information. So anyway I just want to say it was fantastic. Any other comments from the commissioners? Smith: Sorry I missed it. We were at Clearwater Beach. Daniel: Okay, anything else that needs to be added. If not we can talk about, well it looks like you have Daddy/Daughter Date Night Evaluation or is not the case with Dance Party on Ice? Ruegemer: That should have been Dance Party on Ice. DANCE PARTY ON ICE EVALUATION. Ruegemer: Dance Party on Ice, had two events this year. We increased it by one. First one in January was postponed a little bit because we had a little cold weather so we went the week, the th next week after that and had a very nice day and February 12 as well was nice weather wise. You know we continue to grow that. Kind of small steps. We had a total of 61 paid participants or admissions this year for that so. It seemed like we do get feedback from people that they do enjoy it. We just need to keep you know hitting people out there with email blasts and advertisements and that sort of thing. I think people like the concept of being outside and we really try to add some additional lighting around the boards and that this year to kind of give it more of a festive atmosphere and it’s fun you know having hot chocolate and DJ and doing different silly things out there on the ice so I think the concept is good. We just need to continue to look for additional participants with that so. The park maintenance staff does a great job of getting all the components of the event ready to go. They do a lot of clearing snow and setting up tents and that sort of thing so we couldn’t do it without them as well so. It was, it continues to be fun so. I know people were excited to have two of them this year so I will continue to do that as well and again look for ways to increase certainly revenues with that and exceeding people’s expectations of that as well so. Total expenses were around $850 and revenues were five and a half so we’re in that 300 range that we can certainly make up but…people really enjoyed that. We can certainly balance that amount across our other programs so. Daniel: Fantastic. Any questions on? Stolar: I just have a couple. One, did you videotape the event by any chance? Ruegemer: I don’t think so. Stolar: That’d be something to do next year. I was just thinking of Chan Jam’s coming up. You know you can show a videotape as people come into Chan Jam on the TV right there of what was going on and have a little sign. Then next year when you advertise they’ll think oh yeah, I should have gone to that so just to kind of promote it. It seems like with all the set up and all the crowd it would be a good idea to videotape it. Then the other question I had was the admission charge of $9.00. Do we think that there’s an advantage of lowering that price to maybe get more people? 7 Park and Recreation Commission – February 23, 2010 Ruegemer: Yeah we’ve talked about that certainly on a staff level and you know $9.00 does seem to be a lot of money to come out and skate but you know certainly we’re trying to pay for a DJ but maybe that’s one of those things that we go look for a title sponsor to cover the DJ and have it $5.00. Stolar: You know I guess I was just saying my opinion is, as we bill this out as an event, if we have to sacrifice one year and you know maybe take a little bit more of a hit, it’d be worth it and then you start getting more people and then you start getting more sponsors. And the other thing would be, if there is a way to promote it at Feb Fest. You know it’s a little bit different crowd but you could get a lot of people, teenagers or. Daniel: …skating rinks. Go on sleigh rides. I mean not that, but again they’re not there just for the ice fishing so they might be interested in other activities that the city sponsors so. Stolar: So just some signage or something there. Hoffman: The Villager might have did a video clip of the Dance Party. Stolar: I remember they did last year… If you’ve got it maybe show it at Chan Jam. Other events for teenagers right in our. Daniel: Alright. Well if there’s any other questions, move on to commission member committee reports. COMMISSION MEMBER COMMITTEE REPORTS. None. COMMISSION MEMBER PRESENTATIONS. None. ADMINISTRATIVE PACKET. Daniel: Todd, do you have anything you want to highlight? Hoffman: Nothing in the packet but I have one administrative item I want to bring you up to date on. We’ve been working with the Master Agreement with the school district on scheduling fields at the high school and want to give the commission an update on where that’s at. We have given, we’ve provided and will give the commission as well, we provided the district with a list of sponsoring agencies that we’re going to sponsor and it includes town ball, legion ball. Ruegemer: Junior legion. Hoffman: Junior legion. Ruegemer: ….soccer, lacrosse, Chaska area baseball and there’s 8 total. Hoffman: All of the core organizations that provide the services, majority of the services to the kids in Chanhassen. So those will be sponsored organizations from the City of Chanhassen and 8 Park and Recreation Commission – February 23, 2010 we’ll, Jerry will organize those groups. The school will tell us what times, on what fields are available and then we’ll go ahead and we’ll act as a broker to all of the organizations. Schedule those times out on the field. But then there started to be questions and concerns about field monitoring. Facility monitoring. Other charges for lights and those type of things and so City Manager Gerhardt and I went and met last week with Superintendent Jennings, Jackie Johnson the Director of Community Education, their finance person and we really have the support of Todd Gerhardt, City Manager. We take a certain amount of pride in our community that we’re not charging a bunch of user fees for organizations and associations and so we want to carry that forward at the high school so the deal that we made last Thursday, they’re going to keep a running total of when there’s just a city activity out there and they have to put a paid person, a facility supervisor out there, then we’re going to pay that charge as a city charge. And so they’ll keep track of that and then we’re going to add those charges onto our joint powers agreement at the rec center so when we pay our bill for the rec center for heat and lights and all those things, we’re going to pay this bill for the high school. It will be less than $5,000 per year and then we don’t have to go through the issue of trying to charge people for this, that and the other thing and we’re just covering this cost on behalf of the associations back to the school. Stolar: Just covering the cost of building the field. Hoffman: Yeah. Stolar: I mean to me it’s the same thing. We’re just giving them… Hoffman: Some administrative charges and back to us then they don’t have to collect $25 at a time and try to sort out who’s paying what. They’ll get that into… Wanted to bring you up to date on that and then there’s still a lot of ground to be covered there. Another little thing that came up today is that the…field is going to flood probably and so they’re looking for field space on higher ground. Daniel: That was one of the things we actually talked about the other day. You know we were talking snow melt and how fast… Anything else? Stolar: Yeah, are the rinks still open? Hoffman: Yep. Stolar: Have we shut down at all this year? Ruegemer: I think a total about 7 to 9 days I think it’s been, just for cold. Hoffman: Cold and then slush. Stolar: There was slush for one or two days. Smith: It’s getting cold again now though. 9 Park and Recreation Commission – February 23, 2010 Ruegemer: It’s been a pretty good season. I think they’re scheduled to be picked up warming houses next week. Stolar: But they can skate right? Ruegemer: Correct. Yeah. st Daniel: So it will be March, or pretty close to March 1. Stolar moved, Scharfenberg seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. The Park and Recreation Commission meeting was adjourned at 7:55 p.m. Submitted by Todd Hoffman Park and Rec Director Prepared by Nann Opheim 10