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PRC 2010 03 23 CHANHASSEN PARK AND RECREATION COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING MARCH 23, 2010 Chairman Daniel called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. MEMBERS PRESENT: Jeff Daniel, Steve Scharfenberg, Tom Kelly, Thor Smith, and Glenn Stolar MEMBERS ABSENT: Elise Ryan and Scott Wendt STAFF PRESENT: Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Director; Jerry Ruegemer, Recreation Superintendent; John Stutzman, Recreation Supervisor; Jodi Sarles, Rec Center Manager; Sue Bill, Senior Center Coordinator; and Dale Gregory, Park Superintendent. APPROVAL OF AGENDA: The agenda was approved with the addition of an update on the Chanhassen Red Birds under Administrative Presentations. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: None. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS: None. APPROVAL OF MINUTES:Smith moved, Scharfenberg seconded to approve the verbatim and summary minutes of the Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated February 23, 2010 as presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. RECREATION PROGRAM REPORTS: 2010 DADDY DAUGHTER DATE NIGHT EVALUATION. Stutzman: I’ll take that one. Hoffman: John, before we get started can we just say hello to Cole Kelly? Daniel: Oh yes. Hoffman: We’re going to welcome him next. Daniel: Yes. Good evening Cole. Cole Kelly: Good evening. Hoffman: Appointed to the commission by the City Council and most of you interviewed him so he’ll be joining us next month. Park and Recreation Commission - March 23, 2010 Daniel: Fantastic. Hoffman: Thanks John. Excuse me. Stutzman: No problem. Thanks Chair Daniel. We had another good event this year. Two thth nights again. Friday and Saturday. 19 and 20 of February. Seems like a long time ago but another good year. Food was, continues to be an area where we continue to look for whether it’s new options, friendly options for both the parents and the daughters but you know it’s something that I think for the most part we’re coming close to nailing down. Obviously still some feedback from there and we’ll continue to look into things in the future as well but overall very fun evening. Dance was great. A lot of fathers and daughters really enjoying themselves out on the dance floor. It’s always very fun to see the fathers get out on the dance floor and the daughters drag them out on the dance floor so that was a good time. Lots of activities going on outside of the dance from face painting to balloon animals as well as some games and other activities and then coloring sheets for the girls as they kind of show up or to start. Photographer, we continue to send out pictures to all the couples that we take and send them out free of charge so overall it continues to be a very nice event and something that I would continue into the future and continue to look for new ways, small ways to continue to grow this event. I think the big pieces are in place but looking for new ideas to keep it fresh because there are numerous families that have done this for many, many years so finding new ways to change it a little bit and offer little things here and there continues to be a goal at this event to keep it somewhat fresh so. Daniel: Alright, any questions for John? Thor? Smith: No. Daniel: Glenn? Stolar: No. Daniel: Steve? Scharfenberg: No. Daniel: Any comments Tom? Kelly: No. Daniel: Excellent. Well looks like another successful Daddy Daughter Night so, I mean it’s extremely popular. I mean how fast does this fill up? Stutzman: This year we didn’t actually fill. I think we were kind of in a transition year with a lot of new faces. There were a lot of new faces Friday evening and then some of the dads that traditionally came with 2 or 3, only brought 1 or 2 this year so little bit a transition year. I also 2 Park and Recreation Commission - March 23, 2010 tried changing weekends this year to get it off of a holiday weekend so that people could away for that as well. So we were down a little bit but still great attendance. I mean I was very pleased with what we had overall. thth Kelly: And Minnetonka 19 and 20 was a long weekend. Stutzman: Oh that was for Minnetonka? Okay. Stolar: Yeah because I think we had. Stutzman: I thought they had that next Friday off. Stolar: Both. Stutzman: Oh you did have both? Stolar: Yeah. It was like 2 weeks we had Fridays in a row so there might have been some loss there too. th Stutzman: That could have been too. I wasn’t aware of that. I knew they had the 25 off. At the end of the month but I didn’t know about. Scharfenberg: Was it a teachers meeting or something? th Stolar: Or the 20, maybe it was that Monday it was off for Presidents Day. Stutzman: No because Presidents was the week before was why I moved it up so. Stolar: I think that weekend because I remember we had stuff going on and there was a day. Stutzman: Well that’s encouraging to know that that might have played into it as well so thank you. Daniel: Excellent. Well good job again John and to the Park and Rec staff for conducting another successful event it looks like so alright, moving on. 2009/10 ICE SKATING RINK EVALUATION. Stutzman: I will dive into that as well. Thank you. Phenomenal season. Absolutely wonderful season with almost 10,000 people recorded using the rinks out there and very, very successful. We had 5 days, a total of 5 days where we actually had to close so very few closure dates. There were a couple when we certainly had close days and a couple where over the New Year’s weekend where I kept it open during the day when the sun was out but it was really, really cold but closed it early once the sun goes down and actually those days we did have skaters out there as well so it was a great year for it. All the parks numbers look like they improved. Roundhouse 3 Park and Recreation Commission - March 23, 2010 I’m actually quite pleased with the numbers that we did. I mean that’s, the 423 is only about 200 down from last year and this was only recorded on weekends which I think that neighborhood really responded to what we were discussing with them when you guys invited them early in in the year and really stepped up and used that rink so that was quite encouraging to see those numbers on the weekends that high as well. Rec Center continues to be by far the most popular. An enormous event and everything else was really good. Once again we used mobile mini’s. Continuing to be a nice unit that we do use. It has a ground level entry unit and wide open storage space so it is nice. The one other new thing this year I implemented was the secret skater evaluation process. This kind of keeps the rink attendants on their toes and really find a way to see how they’re doing out there in addition because every time staff seems to stop out, they’re always doing exactly what they’re supposed to be doing because they see me coming so finding volunteers throughout the staff as well as other people around the city hall helped out with this and for the most part they were very, very positive. Had a couple things that I was able to address. Saying hey, you know what? We can’t have you doing this and they fixed it so this is a program that I’m very pleased with and was very happy to see how well it went and would recommend continuing to do it again in the future so. Costs, we were within budget with everything on our side of things so very pleased with that as well and I think numbers actually were pretty similar to what we were last year for total cost as well. Daniel: Okay. How was the attendance compared to previous? I mean as far as recorded attendance. Stutzman: It was up from last year. Daniel: Okay. Fantastic. Stutzman: It was up from last year. Daniel: Now did we get any, no dates in March because I’m trying to remember March it pretty much cut off didn’t it? th Stutzman: Yep, we ended February 28 and in looking at the budget prior to, you know I said you know what that’s going to be our end date. March it gets so tough anyways and especially th with the 29 falling on a Saturday and the budget the way it was, I said that’s a great ending. If we can get you know mid December all the way through February, that’s a great season. Daniel: For the, well I suppose one more question for myself. We had what Roundhouse, and did we do, I can’t remember if we did Rice Marsh or not. Stutzman: Yes. Daniel: But that’s unattended. Stutzman: That is unattended. I did stop down there throughout the year. Primarily end of January and February I was down there evenings and weekends taking some pictures. I think out 4 Park and Recreation Commission - March 23, 2010 of the 5 or 6 times I stopped down there, twice there were people using it. Once I actually did stop and talk with some people and they were very, very pleased that we were doing that. I still think it’s one that’s something to continue to evaluate on whether or not it is, but again I know the commission brought up keeping something on that south side is something important but I would continue to monitor the progress on that. Daniel: Alright. Any questions for John on the skating rinks? Smith: Yeah, what goes into the rink maintenance? The maintenance crew watering, re- watering it or? Stutzman: Yep. That’s Dale’s crews. Gregory: That’s all the salaries and everything like that as far as all the time we put in from starting flooding to every morning when we clean them off. Sweep them and re-flood them. Smith: Plowing. Gregory: Plow them out. That’s a total of everything that we do regarding those rinks in the winter. Smith: Perfect. Hoffman: There’s a spreadsheet in Dale’s report under item 7 Thor. Daniel: That’ll get more in detail. Hoffman: Yeah. Daniel: Okay. Stolar: Question Dale for you, and as part of this. Remember we had said that we wouldn’t re- surface Rice Marsh if it went bad so, but we had a good winter so we probably didn’t need to do that anyway? Gregory: We, after we got it up and running and that, we did very minimal maintenance on it and that is, it was a good year. Once we got later into the year and that, we started getting more sun, the rinks on the ag lime go quick because as soon as you get a little bit of ag lime showing and that, the sun just heats it up and just everything starts melting. But it was, we did minimal maintenance on it and it still turned out to be a really good rink. th Stolar: And it lasted until the February 28 date? th Stutzman: Yep. I think I was down there on February 28. I believe that was one of the days that there were actually people down there so. 5 Park and Recreation Commission - March 23, 2010 Daniel: Okay, good. Steve? Scharfenberg: No questions. Kelly: I was curious if you’d recommend doing Rice Marsh again next year? Sounds like the costs were pretty minimal. Stutzman: You know I think it definitely is worth re-evaluating and continuing to weigh and do it. I guess at this point I, I think it is one we could still live without but I think it is, I know the neighborhood appreciates it down there but again I was down there 6 days and I think 2 of them, only 2 of them there with somebody there and there was never more than 2 or 3 people down there so it’s one that I guess if it were my recommendation, probably not but it does hold a certain value, especially for that neighborhood. Daniel: Was there any feedback from Lake Susan Hills and not having? Stutzman: Didn’t hear a peep. Daniel: Not, nothing. Okay. Stutzman: Didn’t hear a peep out of Chan Hills at all. Daniel: Okay. Great. No other questions so why don’t we move onto ChanJam. 2010 CHAN JAM. Stutzman: Alright, ChanJam is quickly approaching again this year. It’ll be on Friday, April th 16 out at the Rec Center and the deadline for applications is tomorrow for bands. I’ve gotten numerous phone calls and emails. I have one application at this point but that’s not a surprise because past years they’ve all come on the last day anyway so. So actually I was even chatting with a young man today who said yeah, that’s pretty much the way bands work so. He was asking me some questions today so I anticipate we’ll get a good bill again this year. Unfortunately Dave Ryan could not commit this year but looking forward to another fun event out there. Really excited, hoping we get some good Chanhassen High School bands out there to go with the other Chaska and Minnetonka. This year I did change a little bit, I’m not marketing towards Holy Family and Southwest. It’s certainly if they want to get involved I would certainly welcome them but having not had a band from there in the pervious 2 years I decided to kind of spend my marketing time elsewhere. But again if somebody does approach me from those schools, absolutely they would be welcomed with open arms. Other thing this year that is new is, instead of based sheerly on audience reaction, we will be going to a judges panel. We have 2 musicians. Local musician Joe Scott who’s helped us with the sound and staging in the past is going to be part of the panel and then Lauren Redpath from the band Redpath who performed here last year will also be coming out to judge and Commissioner Kelly will also be the third judge so we’ve got a nice 3 judge panel up there. I did, was able to do some research and put 6 Park and Recreation Commission - March 23, 2010 together a form to kind of what to critique them on. Four categories from audience reaction, stage presence, musicianship and signers and soloists and things like that so, a scale based on that. That was just based on some of the feedback that bands were saying you know, the popular ones won. The last ones won. Things like that so trying to take that into account to continue with current bands to come out to this so. Kelly: For me they should keep the music in the 80’s. Hoffman: That’s not going to happen. Stutzman: I wouldn’t bet on that one. Stolar: Are you can do American Idol where you’re going to have each of them respond to each band? Stutzman: I think this panel will probably be a little more low key. Just kind of do their critiquing and moving on. If it does get popular enough where they do start paying attention to the judges it might be something to look into but I think just kind of keeping the scores and then again also that quick turn around time in-between bands to get the next one up on stage and keep moving so. Daniel: Excellent. And notification. Maybe you might want to send out an email just before hand too. Stutzman: Absolutely. Daniel: Just to sort of remind everyone as far as upcoming schedules too. If you could do that John. Stutzman: Absolutely. Daniel: Little self serving there. Kelly: Is that appropriate for young kids? Stutzman: Oh absolutely. Kelly: Okay. Stutzman: Actually that was the young man’s question today is, part of the application process is I do require all band members to sign the application because we do have in there you know no profanity. No lewd behavior. Things like that and I told the guy, I said yes they do need to sign it because I want to know that they’ve all at least seen this document stating that that’s not going to be tolerated. If it does happen they’ll be removed from stage immediately so yeah, we do encourage families to come out. I know the first year I ran it, it was really, really cool to see the 7 Park and Recreation Commission - March 23, 2010 number of parents who came out, which I didn’t even think to market to the parents and all of a sudden there were parents coming out and it was quite full. And we saw the same thing last year so again last year and this year really start trying to get that out to the families and the parents and try to get more people there. Kelly: Are you right, is it both gyms so you’re taking away that curtain or is it just in the Chan Rec gym? Stutzman: At this point it is only the Rec Center gym. We do, I do have the other gym reserved, mostly so we don’t have competing noise. Kelly: Okay. Stutzman: If it does continue to grow the way it has been, yeah. I’m going to open up the curtain door but at this point there hasn’t been a need to. Stolar: Do you have one stage or two stages? Stutzman: We have one stage. I’m working on the size. Last year we had a bigger stage but it was a little more expensive than I was hoping it would be so we’re kind of re-evaluating what it is. It seems to be a real nice sized stage and working with Joe Scott who helps me with the staging and the sound, if you give high schoolers too big of a stage that just adds to their problems so. But yeah, we do just have the one stage but a lot of the equipment stays there. The drum kit is just kind of a standard kit that Joe provides so we’re not lugging that on and off. The bass amp is an amp they can just plug into so the big stuff stays. They just have to bring up the smaller stuff. Daniel: Excellent. Looking forward to it that’s for sure. Excellent. Well like I said if you can send a reminder on that, I would appreciate it and I’m sure as well as the rest of the commissioners. I’d certainly encourage everyone to go there. We’re talking 3 weeks away so. Alright move on to the Easter Egg Candy Hunt that’s coming up here in the next couple weeks. 2010 EASTER EGG CANDY HUNT PREVIEW. Stutzman: Yeah, this one’s fast approaching and I’m working hard at this one. It will be rd Saturday, April 3 and Jerry’s promised me that the fields will be dry and ready for us to destroy, I mean use. But no, hopefully it will be an outdoor event, if this weather keeps up. It’s going to be a good event. We definitely are prepared for inclement weather, as we’ve had a couple years ago with it being an earlier Easter so we can go either way but it’s definitely a much better event outside. This year we have entertainment from Kid Power with Rachel. A nice family, kid friendly, or kids entertainer that will begin at 9:00 and then following that we will have the candy hunt outside on the fields hopefully, as well as continuing the coloring contest indoors. The one thing we definitely ran into this year is, with the schools going paperless it was, I was able to negotiate getting into a couple schools to distribute the coloring contest flyers but only those here in Chanhassen, Bluff Creek and Chan Elementary, but it’s definitely tricky 8 Park and Recreation Commission - March 23, 2010 not having all of those school flyers going out but I know in talking with Jodi, she’s got a lot of school or a lot of the coloring contest sheets back at the Rec Center and I’ve gotten several already so hopefully if the weather’s nice we’re going to have a great turn out for this event. Daniel: Yeah, it’s all weather depending. Stutzman: Very much. Daniel: Any questions on the Easter Egg Candy Hunt? Smith: No. Daniel: Alright, well thank you John. Stutzman: Yes, thank you guys. RECREATION CENTER REPORT. Daniel: Jodi, welcome. Good chance to talk about the recreation center. Sarles: Great, thank you commissioners. We have had an exciting year so far. Haven’t seen you guys since last year so January brought us new fitness equipment so $10,000 this year was spent on a new treadmill, a new elliptical and new rowing machine which all three are highly popular. Really actually increase some of the diversity and the offerings that we have there too so people very much complimented the City on continuing to work with improving the equipment and I just love the attention that they’re getting to do so so, that’s pretty exciting. The trainers like it so it’s been, it’s been a good year so far in the fitness center. As we move into our program side, kind of exciting time. Dance for Fun just came back this weekend from a competition. They did very well so there’s a lot of nerves with that group with their first round this year so a few extra emergency practices occurred over the past few weeks but they did well th and brought back some trophies. They are holding the season recital May 15 at the Chan High School if anybody would like to attend any of the 3 recitals that we have out there. Please let me know and I can get you some tickets. They’re excited to have it in town and in the new beautiful high school. As we move forward with enhanced fitness, we are losing our current instructor and we have gained a new instructor so this is Linda Mathias, the instructor since this program began at the Rec Center. She’s moving on and we have a gentleman starting in April so a lot of the seniors are a little nervous that he’s going to work them out a little too hard but he came and met the group and he seems like a really nice guy so. Ben Walker is his name so. And Sue and I kind of partnered up with another program. It was the grandparent and me Wii bowling and we fired up two Wii’s in there and put them on big screens and had 11 grandkids and then their grandparents, 1 or 2 grandparents. Yeah, they had, Ryan Noble is a heck of a bowler. Gramma was very, very proud of him. She’s 78 so. So all the kids were able to have, you know a couple games of bowling, hot cocoa and then everybody left, all the kids left with a medal and like I said, 2 to 68…so it was fun to have them out there and it was fun to see some of the grandchildren teaching the grandparents how to play. Some of the grandparents were, where do 9 Park and Recreation Commission - March 23, 2010 I get one of these so they had a great time. Yeah, Target. And then John and I are working together on the Rec Center Sports so I put it on here for us. We have hired a new part time sports lead person. Jen comes with a background. Yeah, she’s from park and rec background in Winona and she’s coordinating both the preschool and after school activities with us. The preschool sports, we finished up a session of basketball and we moved onto floor hockey now. Now we gave them weapons. I check with them every week to make sure nobody’s injured and so far all the staff have stayed out of the way from the sticks. They have some new drills they’re practicing. We keep those down a little bit lower so they’ve had a great time. Parents love it. Right now 71 kids are playing. We had 45 in basketball so it’s definitely a growing program and very successful for us. We do send out evaluations so at the end of the basketball they were very much impressed with the improvement that these programs have grown so well and the communication has improved with us and just, you know the little extra tiffs and help that we have with our staff there has been very welcome to…so that was exciting. Now we move onto the after school sports and we started, January was a little rough. With dodgeball it ended up coinciding at the same time that the school program did an early morning dodgeball so these kids could have been double dodgeballing it so that was a little bit less but then we did fill up the after school floor hockey program, which finishes up this week. We’ve got 25 kids in the gym playing floor hockey and loving it. Parents are loving it. They come home tired so… We continue to display the artwork of folks in the area and in January and February we had Southwest Christian High School students. Really a variety of different mediums. They fill up the display case with ceramics and visual photography, paintings, sketches. It was really neat to see how talented these kids are. We switched into, or we have Kristi Larson who’s a Mound resident who does a variety of glass mosaics. It’s probably a very highly and feel exhibit out there. Everybody goes up and touches so she uses everything from plates to cups that are broken and puts it into a tile. Some is more like stain glass so it’s, fortunately it’s very hardy. It has survived the attention it’s getting. Then we’re excited next month to have Chanhassen High School students on display for the first time so the art teachers are very excited to have them out and working to present that. And then finally a few, well which is no longer upcoming but the Wedding and Graduation Expo was last weekend. I know they had you know over 500 people come through and check that rental out so it’s kind of a, you know getting some more exposure for the Rec Center. This coming weekend is the Southwest Metro Chamber’s Expo out there and that is 10:00 to 6:00 on Saturday. Daniel: Is that the one that kind of, I think they had at Chapel Hill one year? Sarles: Yes. Hoffman: Yes, a couple years. Daniel: Okay, so it’s moved from there to here now. Excellent. Sarles: Yep. They’ve rented both the Rec Center and the Bluff Creek Elementary gym so they will be opening the walls. Doing sessions in the meeting rooms at the Rec Center so it’s, it’s going to be a very busy weekend out there. We’re very excited to have that there. 10 Park and Recreation Commission - March 23, 2010 Hoffman: And they’re happy to be at the Rec Center. They want it to continue into the future. Daniel: It just makes much more sense than, you know Chapel Hill’s nice but you know the gym’s only so big and with the size of the combined gyms certainly provides a little bit better space. Sarles: So we’ve worked, Rick Rice with the City has gone out there and figured out their wireless needs and so kind of trying to find ways to get them what they need in the gym to running the cash register operations and so been working with that. And then one that didn’t th show up here is on April 18 is our first indoor garage sale which we hosted at the Rec Center so from 11:00 to 3:00 we’ll have plenty of people trying to sell their belongings or wares and kind of excited to have this one coming too. Scharfenberg: How do you sign up for that? Sarles: At the Rec Center or you can do it online. It’s $15 for a table and we’ll also have a collection for the CAP Agency so, we’ve got to get some food to fill the food shelves. Daniel: Not going to get a taste of the money, no juice on the toaster city collection tax? Anything like that? Sarles: No. Hoffman: Are there two prices? Sarles: There’s a non-resident fee of $20. Yeah. Daniel: Okay. Alright. Excellent. There’s a lot of stuff going on. Especially now that we have the Chamber coming up here with the, I guess the outdoor show or whatever. Not outdoor but landscape and that will be really exciting. We’ve gone to that before at Chapel Hill so. Hoffman: Big event. A lot of people come through the Rec Center. Daniel: Oh yeah. Hoffman: Jodi and other staff members are putting together a display for the front lobby so all the people that walk by can check out what’s going on at the Rec Center and the department as well. Daniel: Excellent. Questions for Jodi. Thor. Smith: No just I want to comment on the Dance for Fun. It’s a lot of communities have community dance programs and even competitive ones but very few are really do compete on the level that a lot of the dance studios have and Dance for, she does such a good job with them girls and they do a very, very good job. 11 Park and Recreation Commission - March 23, 2010 Sarles: Thank you. I’ll pass that onto… She does work very hard so…to keep them up to the level that all the rest of the folks that might be going too… Daniel: Glenn. Stolar: Just a quick question for both you and John as far as the replacement of the YMCA. Running the after kids programs. Is that, so far you said the evaluations came back good. How has it been though as far as capacity for you guys to manage all that? Stutzman: Outstanding. Sarles: Yeah, it’s been good. Our staff is really good. Very helpful so we’re able to let them do some control there too and work. Stutzman: We have the 4 staff that definitely help out significantly. We have the one lead and then 3 staff that are out there. We’ve had some turnover in some of the, just the standard leader positions but they continue to, I mean each time we replace somebody they need to step up and do a great job and step right in with the next one so every parent that I have spoken with as far as the background, not only evaluations but all of them just go it’s night and day and they’re thrilled. I know Jodi and myself both make ourselves very available to discuss with the parents. It’s to say you know if you have suggestions we definitely want to know about it. If you have feedback we want to hear that too. You know good, bad we’d like to know so we can continue. Now every time Jodi and I sit down and discuss whether it’s Rec Center sports or anything, we seem to get back on the topic of Rec Center sports and where we can take it in the future. Stolar: Thanks. Sarles: It’s been really a good program and you know it’s neat to see, you know John and I sat down actually today and we’re kind of reviewing where we’re at now and the different pieces…since we started with soccer is pretty impressive so. Stolar: Great, thanks. Daniel: Mr. Kelly. Kelly: No, don’t have anything else. Daniel: Steve. Scharfenberg: I’m good. Daniel: Okay. Well thanks again Jodi. Wonderful job and thank you for the updates. 12 Park and Recreation Commission - March 23, 2010 SENIOR CENTER REPORT. Daniel: Thank you for coming today. Get a chance to talk to us about the senior center. Bill: Yes. Well thank you. 2010 is going well. It continues to maintain the new people that arrive. I have 3 people this week that have moved here because their children live in Chanhassen. A gentleman from Florida who’s wife passed away. He moved here because his daughter lives in Chan. Had a lady yesterday who moved here from Arizona who’s husband passed away. Her family moved her here to be closer to them. Have another gentleman last week and it just is a really good place for people to come to activities and try to meet people and basically fill a loss when they’ve lost, or fill a need when they’ve lost their spouse so we’re really filling a good nitch for a lot of people so that’s been pretty exciting the last couple weeks the number of people that I’ve seen. We’re busy in the senior center. There’s not an afternoon a week that is open for anything. I occasionally have to ask regular activity when I want to have one of my special events. Last week the bingo people weren’t very happy with me when we had our St. Patrick’s Day party. I think I had 50 people at that and we just, parking, the parking is somewhat of an issue where I’m conscious of that where the parking lot gets pretty crowded where we can’t use the other room. But people are real understanding. I try never to drop an activity more than once or twice a year for special events. I started some drop in activities. I started Friday morning cards and games where people can just drop in. We’ve had anywhere from 8 to 10 women that come every week and play various board games or dominoes and they stay for lunch which is really good because our numbers for the congregate dining program are increasing. We have cribbage. It started out one Friday a month. It’s now two but the other two Fridays very often a group will come in to play cribbage. I think our peak one time we had 26 people on a Friday afternoon but the good majority of them are men. They’re kind of like the bingo group. They go from one senior center to another where they need to get their cribbage fix but anyway they, they really enjoy that so that’s been really, really nice. My goal, one of my goals for 2010 is community collaborations and trying to promote work with local businesses and agencies here in Chanhassen. KleinBank once again for the fourth year has sponsored our Life Long Learning series through Augsburg College. Those programs are, they’re just so well attended and the variety of programming we offer is wonderful. What I saw last year and I’m seeing again this year, we have our participants really love Life Long Learning. They like the variety and the presentations that we have. Some are pretty heavy on politics. I’ve had a number on music and arts so they’re really well attended and people really love it. And KleinBank does sponsor all of those and they’ve done it for 4 years now so that’s been a really good partner. Did a program in February. I thought why not try to do something a little different. We had a lunch program at the School II restaurant. I hired entertainment. It was a man and a woman who perform at the Dinner Theater so they came over to the School II and performed the Perfect Couple, A Love Story through music. Anyway we hosted it there. We had 72 people in attendance where we gave, School II did the lunch and I did the entertainment so I worked really close with Ann and it was really, really a nice event. They were real happy to get the business and I was kind of happy not to have to do all the work. So it was really, a real good situation and people were really happy with that so we might look to continue to do that in the future. If there were other restaurants that could accommodate more people that would have a staging area, I would really look to do that but right now School II’s the only one that can accommodate that 13 Park and Recreation Commission - March 23, 2010 many people for something like that. Also have monthly blood pressure checks and health and wellness programs by Golden Living in Excelsior. They are really great in adding a variety of health and wellness programs so we do that on a monthly basis. They do free blood pressure checks. As Jodi mentioned the Grandparent and Me program. The Wii program. Next week we’ve got, what are you calling it? …and that will be carving pumpkins. That will be, those are really well and fun events for both the grandparent and the grandchildren have this much fun so. I mentioned it several times but my Passport to the World program. I continued it in 2010. I get 50 plus people every time I have it. My first one in January was on Australia. I called it Summer on the Outback or something. I had found a woman who lived on a cattle ranch in the outback for 2 years and she really provided a different look into Australia rather than the city or Melbourne that we all see and so people just loved it. We had Australian shrimp on the barbe, food like that and people really enjoyed it. Last week we had our Irish St. Patrick’s Day party with Irish food. Had bagpipe music and he talked about the history of bagpipes and it was really enjoyable. When I booked him in June I asked him, I found him on the internet and I asked if he could bring a couple of his friends along. He goes no, I think one person will be enough so when I called him to confirm again I went are you sure you can’t bring a couple more people. Have you ever heard bagpipes indoors? It was like, people were backing up to the end of the hall. One bagpipe was truly enough so. Anyway those programs will continue. They’ve been greatly attended. One thing I forgot to put on the sheet is, I partnered with the MAAA, Minnesota Area Agency on Aging and the Board of Aging and we’re working with the library. We’ve added a class called Senior Surf Day. It’s the fourth Monday of the month and they send a volunteer from the MAAA to do basic computer skills, mouse skills, surfing the internet. How to access nd health and wellness web sites. Our first one was February 22. We had one last Monday and they will continue to go through the summer. Don’t know if you know the library’s got portable computers. Portable laptops. They have 10 portable laptops that are available. We had one time talked about wheeling them over here but we’ve just reserved a conference room so it gives people an opportunity to work on laptops and how to practice their mouse skills because those can be pretty difficult. And lastly, I’m real excited. Todd and I have had a couple meetings with Laurie Hokkanen. There’s been some cable funds available. We’re going to do some upgrades in the senior center. Basically we’re going to be adding a sound system. We’ve never had a microphone in there other than a portable one that the park and rec department has. We’re going to have a wireless and hand held mic. We’re going to have more speakers put in the ceiling. We’re going to be getting a brighter projector mounted. More and more of the presentations and speakers I have are doing power point and our projector is older and with the amount of windows in there, it’s not bright enough so we’re getting a new projector. We’re going to have a computer mounted. A laptop so people can plug in a flash drive and have a touch panel on the wall so we can change from… Thursday morning when we have Nintendo Wii, if I’m not working and regularly get a call from Marilyn to come and get the Nintendo Wii hooked up. So we’ll have a panel on the wall which we’ll be able to have it all wired and then we’ll just have buttons that will switch from one component to the other. Did I miss anything Todd? Ruegemer: Unlikely. Hoffman: You may have Sue. 14 Park and Recreation Commission - March 23, 2010 Bill: ...Well I think I’m done. I mean the technology upgrades will be pretty exciting. They’re long overdue. Daniel: Well thank you Sue. Questions. Stolar: Just one. On the technology upgrade, is the building wireless or Wi-Fi so that the seniors can bring their own laptop in and connect up? Bill: Yes and no. There are some dead zones. We had a problem last Friday but that will be taken care of too. Stolar: So like if a senior just wants to come here, sit here and just work on their computer, they can just hook it up. Great. Daniel: Excellent. Any questions? Hoffman: Stop by anytime. The seniors are a great place to visit. Daniel: Thank you Sue. Mr. Gregory. PARK AND TRAIL MAINTENANCE REPORT. Gregory: Good evening. Daniel: Good evening. Hoffman: I guess you know your boundaries Dale. Stutzman: You’re on the clock. The clock has started. Gregory: Okay, John has pretty much covered the skating rink report. The only other thing and that is this year was the fifth longest year we’ve had in the last 27 years so it did turn out to be really a good year. I did add a couple reports on the cost of what it was this year to maintain the rinks. Also I’ve got the opening and closing dates. I keep adding, continuing that for you and putting the costs on that so you can really compare what the last years have been and what we’re spending. Runs pretty much the same. If you go day by day costs and that. If we have a year that’s really short, the cost per day goes up because we put a lot of time into the initial getting everything up and running and, but otherwise they run pretty close. You guys did talk a little bit about the Rice Marsh and cost and that on that. The cost really isn’t a lot there because it works out real good in our routine of going around and flooding rinks. We flood with two trucks. One truck takes care of that, the Rec Center and another rink and it works out real well so I mean the cost isn’t a big factor right now in that rink. This year we did see more use than I’ve seen down there in a long time so I was actually surprised. So I mean it definitely was a good year this year for skating. New public works building was completed pretty much in the middle of January so we could start moving in. So between taking care of skating rinks and plowing trails and that we 15 Park and Recreation Commission - March 23, 2010 were trying to move some of our stuff down there. Once we got done with the skating rinks we pretty much concentrated on working down there. We completely got our wood working shop done now. We’ve got the benches and everything, all the equipment and everything is in and running and that so really a nice place and that down there. It’s really going to be a nice place to work. The Lake Susan aeration system this year was kind of like last. We had early snows and oxygen levels started to drop a little earlier so we ended up putting the aeration system in around th the 16 of February and we did see the numbers continue to decrease this year a little bit. Every week and that we did, we kept doing the monitoring every week and they did decrease a little bit every year so this year was the first year that we had numbers as low as we did. I don’t have the numbers with me but we haven’t seen any dead fish or anything like that. Nothing come to the hole or that so we’re not expecting to have any winter kill down there but we did have a lower oxygen reading than we’ve ever had. Daniel: Is that because of the snow pack and the amount of snow? Gregory: I think that’s what, some of it was really geared on and that. It started dropping slow and it was going real good down and that. We were just like normal and then all of a sudden we got to a point where it dropped quick and we got a little smarter. We put our first notice in earlier in the year so we’re already ready and that so as soon as we see the numbers start dropping we put our second notice in the paper so we can get the aerator in as quick as we can and that but like I say it just around the aerator system and that it did seem to keep lowering the numbers a little bit and that. Hoffman: Towards the end of the season decaying plant material is often a driver. It consumes oxygen so it drives it down even farther. Smith: Will that, I mean as soon as like the clear in there even now? Hoffman: It’s good now. Smith: How soon? Gregory: As soon as you get any runoff where you’re using water, your creeks start running or anything in that, you’re getting a lot more oxygen back into that lake than what we can put in with that aerator so like I say, as soon as it starts running it we’re in good shape then so. Dutch elm disease. That’s one project and that we did not get at this year yet. It’s still on our agenda to do it. Our problem was with the amount of snow we had, a lot of these trees were in areas we couldn’t get to and with the amount of snow it wasn’t a real safe situation for us trying to cut these trees so we thought we’d wait until the snow started to melt and then well when it melted it really melted and that so. Like I say, we haven’t got to them yet. I’ve got them all marked but as soon as everything gets dried up and that, we will be out there and get them cut down early this spring yet so they’ll be out of the system out here. Sentence to Serve. We’ve been working with those people quite a bit. The City wanted to upgrade, or not upgrade but clean the old public works building up and paint it. The walls, offices, all that stuff and they’ve been up there doing that. They’ve put new tile in. Ceiling tile and they’ve also stripped all the floors. Now 16 Park and Recreation Commission - March 23, 2010 they’re waxing up there and it’s really getting to look pretty nice up there now with the work they’ve done and it’s basically just cost us some material. Paint and everything else and other than that it’s all free material or labor. The one bad note we’ve got on that is with Pawlenty’s cuts this year we think we’ve pretty much seen the end of the STS people. That’s one of the cuts that’s going to be taken and we’re hoping, we’ve actually moved them up. We had them scheduled for middle of April to do the downtown. Cleaning down here and with the nice spring we’ve had we’re actually moving them up and we’re going to start tomorrow with some of the downtown cleaning simply because they don’t think they’ll be here anymore in the middle of April so that’s one program I’m going to really miss and that because we’ve got a lot of work out of those people. Hoffman: Annually we’ll be at a loss of about $20,000 in labor annually through that program so it’s something that you’re going to, those jobs are not going to do or we’re going to have to do some of them in-house or we’re going to have to hire some of that out. The value of that program we will miss tremendously in the community and across the metro area. Scharfenberg: Is that a program that’s just been cut? Is it funded? Hoffman: It was funded and from now, what we understand now it’s not going to be, no longer funded in the future. Stolar: Funded from the State. Hoffman: Correct. Yeah. So the STS bring up both incarcerated adults and then youth, juveniles who are not incarcerated to community programs and the cut would be to the staff and the transportation to get those individuals to your community to do the work. Daniel: I was going to say there shouldn’t be any other cost besides that then. Hoffman: No payroll. Daniel: The payroll should be really low. Gregory: Actually they’re coming tomorrow. We’ve got 10 of them scheduled to come and we’re going to be splitting them. Putting 5 out at the public works building and that, painting and that working out there and the other 5 will be with the guys downtown cleaning downtown. Daniel: Is there anything that’s, where are they traditionally coming from? Carver County? Scott County? Hennepin County? Gregory: Most of this is Carver County but they’ve also, they go over and pick some up at Scott County too. 17 Park and Recreation Commission - March 23, 2010 Daniel: Is there anything that the City, I mean if we’re saving $20,000 or I mean it could potentially cost us $20,000 in labor, is there anything that we can partner with? With the County themselves. Instead of looking at the State to absorb some of those costs. Hoffman: Yeah, we’ll have to investigate what the alternatives are. We’re not the only ones in this position so we’ll all be talking to figure out you know where it’s going to go from here. Daniel: Because it certainly sounds like a fantastic program. Gregory: Okay. We also got the wood duck houses down. I really liked trudging through the snow to do that one this year. I was the 41 and that. We had 40% that was used. It’s down 10% from the prior year but if you look at the report it’s really up and down every year depends, and I don’t really know what it goes by but I mean we’ve been all the way from 80% down to 20% and so if we’re in the 30, 40, 50 percent there I think we’re doing pretty good on the wood duck houses. That’s a pretty good program there yet. Hoffman: That’s about average. Gregory: And since I put the report together we had gone out, we’ve got all of our trails are all swept and cleaned up. We’re working into the parks right now. We’re kind of working with the street department as they’re sweeping around in different neighborhoods we’re plowing the parking lots there and then they’ll come in and sweep them for us. Clean them up so, but right now we did get the trails right away so they’re all done and that. Daniel: How were the shape of the trails after the season? Gregory: How were they? Daniel: Well yeah. Gregory: Actually they’re really good. Yep. I mean as far as any of the damage that we’d done, I was expecting more out there with all the blowing and everything we’ve done and we haven’t really found hardly anyplace that we have to do any repairs. We’ve got some blacktop and that, a few places that we’ve got some holes that we’ve got to address and that and get fixed but other than that it’s, they’re looking pretty good. Daniel: Okay, excellent. Questions for Dale. Thor? Smith: No. Daniel: Glenn? Stolar: No. Daniel: Tom? 18 Park and Recreation Commission - March 23, 2010 Kelly: Nope. Scharfenberg: Do you have anything on the horizon, big projects for the summer or spring? Hoffman: Moving into the new building. Gregory: Yeah. Pretty much we’re getting much done with that. Like I say we’ve got the trees to take care of. Right now we’re looking at gearing up for baseball, softball. We’ve already had a request to use the ballfields from Jerry. But actually the fields are really coming along pretty good and that. I was out on them today and they’re drying out really good. It won’t be long and that and the infield’s will be in real good shape. The outfields are still a little bit damp and that but you know we’re, right now we’re just going to be pretty much gearing up. Trying to get everything started for the spring. Daniel: Okay, thank you Dale. Certainly appreciate it. ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT. Hoffman: Thank you Chair Daniels, members of the commission. Before I, I’ll briefly go over the capital, the CIP report but before I do that I want to mention a couple of things so I don’t forget. In April you’ll be going over the by-laws that we currently have and so there’s been a request by City Manager for the commissions to take a look at their by-laws. I don’t expect a lot of changes but there’s a voting, they want a simple majority vote so we’re going to take a look at that. In the 2010 goals the council has asked for goals from each commission and so we’ll be taking a look at what you would like to submit to the council for your 2010 goals. That will th happen in April. On Saturday, May 8 we have the Arbor Day tree planting. A couple of you were on the work task force for that with the Environmental Commission. Stolar: I haven’t heard back from them since that first meeting. th Hoffman: So May 8 will be the dates and that’s a Saturday at Lake Ann. So all commissioners are invited. Be planting up to 20-1 ½ to 2 inch balled and burlap trees out at the park. If you take a walk around the ballfields at Lake Ann you’re primarily looking at ash trees, which may be gone sometime in the near future. If not the near future then whenever the bug gets here. Daniel: What was the trees again, type of trees? Hoffman: That were, or the ash are going to die. Daniel: Yeah, but I mean they’re going to replace them. Hoffman: We’re going to have 5 different species. Daniel: Okay. 19 Park and Recreation Commission - March 23, 2010 Hoffman: Yeah, 5 different species and so park maintenance crew will have the holes augured. The wood chips on site and then the volunteers working that day, in lieu of coming up here to the City Center Park and having the Arbor Day festival, it’s going to take place at Lake Ann. Plant 20 trees and we’re going to do that every year and so Arbor Day will be all about planting trees in the community and so please mark that down and we’ll get the flyer sent out to you. Scharfenberg: Todd if you want to do that do you, I mean they want to bring a group, do you have to sign up ahead of time or do you just show up? Hoffman: It’d be great to sign up just so we know you’re coming. Yep, and contact Jill Sinclair, our Environmental Services Coordinator here at the city. Scharfenberg: Okay. Hoffman: We’d love to have them planting trees. There’ll be a little program. A tree planting demonstration and then we’ll move out and plant the trees. So put the tree in the hole. Get it adjusted to the right height. Take the basket and the wire off. Fill the hole with the dirt and then wood chip the tree. We’ll be hauling wood chips with wheelbarrows and then water the tree. All done on that day. That’ll be very exciting. On the CIP report, trees again the first item. $25,000. That’s been increased again to go out and plant additional trees in our community. If you take a look around we are predominantly ash in most of our maintained or groomed areas in our parks and so we’re really going to get back out and plant some additional species. Picnic tables and benches, primarily that’s to purchase our memorial benches. We’ll also be purchasing 2 umbrellas. You’ll see them come to City Center Park. Right on the 2 new tables that we purchased last year so we’ll have some umbrellas in the park and those will be replaced eventually by the nice shade from the trees that are growing in City Center Park but not for a few years. Recreation Center fitness equipment. Jodi covered that. Highway 41 trail and underpass. I’m pleased to announce that the work on that is progressing very smoothly. The County Commission and the City Council are working on a joint powers agreement to facilitate that work and you’ll see the project completed during next summer. And then a project held over, the Lake Ann Park stairway project will kick off. We ran into the late, or early freeze, late fall type of timeframe for this work and we didn’t want to get started and not get finished and so we held it over til this year and that will happen in the spring. Also I know you received an email. They’re excited to announce the Highway 5 at Minnewashta Parkway grant. Transportation enhancement grant and so that is for an underpass from the, well north and south underpass at Minnewashta Parkway. Take people off of the parkway and get them underneath Highway 5 into the Arboretum and this will really be the catalyst that gets the Arboretum into the pedestrian world of transportation and getting people to use their facility. They’re excited. The gentleman, the couple who live there at that site were in today. They’re excited about it. They have a 30 year life estate with the Arboretum and so he was just concerned how much of his farm field it was going to take where he plants his garden. Dave Boorsma is his name. He’s very active in our, in our farmers market up here at City Center Park so. And the church is also very happy about the project. Paul Oehme and I attended a planning meeting at the church and we said that was the first public hearing where we prayed both at the start and the end so that was an 20 Park and Recreation Commission - March 23, 2010 enjoyable evening and they’re very supportive of the project. And that’s all I have tonight. Jerry’s going to talk about the Red Birds. th Ruegemer: Press conference was last Friday, March 19 out at the Chanhassen High School in the commons area. It was really, really a fun, kind of festive environment. Just a lot of energy, not only being at the high school but just a lot of energy for the Red Birds right now. A lot of support from the community and from the school district, from the City. All the people that are involved in that. There’s really a lot of momentum going forward with that. Elise Ryan did kind of emcee the event and kind of get things kicked off and start off and gave a, kind of a brief history of kind of where, how we got to this point. She introduced all the board members that were present at the press conference. Went through a lot of different things with the schedule and sponsorship opportunities. Introduced the coach, Chris Revers and his assistant coach. Chris did kind of go through an introduction of himself and kind of outline the season and kind of give a brief description on expectations of not only himself but also his players. So introduced the new Red Birds mascot was there so that was kind of fun. Daniel: The mascot itself, the whole costume was there? Ruegemer: Yep. Brought the mascot up on stage and then kind of hung out and took pictures. Hoffman: Aren’t they talking about naming, got to name the mascot? Naming contest. Ruegemer: Yep, they’re going to be doing that and so that’ll be kind of fun. Went through, there’s different volunteer opportunities every game whether it’s field maintenance or concessions or you know numerous different you know jobs and, for each home game. They have sponsorship opportunities. Certainly trying to you know raise some money to help offset expenditures for the team, whether it’s equipment or you know travel expenses, that sort of thing. We had a lot of representation from the City, not only city staff but Mayor Furlong was there and Chair Rod Franks was there from the school board. Dick Unger was there from the high school, as well as other local community and other interested people in the Red Birds so it really was a fun atmosphere. Very glad I attended and there seems to be a lot of energy moving forward with that. I’ve been working quite a bit with the Red Birds lately and just making sure that the field is ready to go for their scheduling purposes for practice games and practice and games and that sort of thing here too so I’m on the phone, if not daily every couple days probably with Bud Walker and kind of going through changes with the schedule and that sort of thing so a lot of rd momentum. Leading forward that first game May 23 at the stadium. If anybody’s interested in schedules and that sort of thing we could certainly forward those onto you or you can look on the Red Birds web site. th Hoffman: April 12 they will be here in this chambers doing a visitor presentation to the City Council so if you want to show your support that night in joining the council welcoming the Red Birds to town, the mascot will be here. The coach will most likely be here and representatives of th the board so they’ll be bringing the show to the City Council April 12, 7:00. 21 Park and Recreation Commission - March 23, 2010 Kelly: Do concession proceeds go towards the Red Birds or can a volunteer organization come in and provide concessions for their specific organization? Ruegemer: I believe at this point it is going to the team, as far as I know. Kelly: Okay. Ruegemer: At this point. Hoffman: There’s a lot of things to work out at the high school aren’t there Jerry? Ruegemer: Yes there is. Hoffman: Jerry’s in the mix. Right in the mix. Ruegemer: Athletic Park in Chaska has 3 to 4 feet of water on it right now from the flooding so it doesn’t look very promising for that athletic complex at this point. Daniel: It is that way almost every other year. Hoffman: Yeah, they think the one saving grace might be that the grass was still dormant but if it stays too long it will still be a problem. Daniel: I still never figured out why they just haven’t put a big berm. Hoffman: Yeah, they had a chance but it’s included in the flood control project. Daniel: Or even around it. I mean it wouldn’t be that difficult. I mean it’s, it could be on it’s own little island. City of Chaska. We don’t have to worry about that. We’ve got a beautiful facility now that can compete with them. Hoffman: High and dry. th Daniel: Yeah, that’s right. Excellent. And the 12 will be, the Red Birds will be in the City Council chamber. Hoffman: Doing a visitor presentation. Come on down and say hello and greet them with the council. You’re all welcome. Daniel: I would have loved to have been there last Friday except it’s hard to, was it 1:00 or? Hoffman: 3:30. Daniel: 3:30, yeah. Still during work hours, couldn’t get away. But still that’s going to be exciting and I’m glad it’s just amazing how fast things have progressed. I mean the first meeting 22 Park and Recreation Commission - March 23, 2010 that I went to was in November and now it’s literally, I mean the season’s here. It’s coming up in a couple months and. Hoffman: Yeah the coach is really excited. He had been playing baseball in Faribault up until last year and so now he’s stopped his playing days and he’s very excited about coaching. th Daniel: Great. It’ll be exciting. Hopefully encourage everyone to attend on the 12 to show your support from the commission so. Alright. Anything else you want to add on it? Ruegemer: No. Daniel: Okay. Todd, anything else you wanted to talk about? I supposed me move things to adjourn the meeting then. Stolar: On the Twins Community Fund. Can you just give us a brief background. What is, it doesn’t actually say what it is that we’re doing or who can do it or anything. Ruegemer: It’s open, open up to the community and we’ll have some advertising going out on that. It’s kind of one of those things that kind of happens pretty quick and we were selected as one of the host communities for that. Just a number of representatives from the Twins organization will come out and have kind of a community outreach camp for the, in program for kids in our area. Stolar: What ages? Ruegemer: You know what. Stolar: Or if you could send us an email with some of the details. Ruegemer: I’ll get you an email. I just, I got a DVD I think yesterday on that sort of thing. I’m just trying, I’m drawing a blank on the ages. In that 7 to 16 range or something like that and it’s free to the community so I’ll get you some information on that. Stolar: Okay. That’d be great. Ruegemer: I think it’d be a great, we’re going to have it at the baseball stadium as the primary location. If it’s a rainy day we’re going to go out to the Rec Center as a backup plan so I’ve been working with Josh Ortiz with the Twins on that securing facilities and directions, that sort of thing. I’ve been working with him on that so. Stolar: Congratis. Cool that we got that. Ruegemer: Yeah. 23 Park and Recreation Commission - March 23, 2010 Hoffman: Couple of items of note in the administrative section. You’ll notice that the Lakeside twin homes will produce $110,000 in park dedication fees and so that’s good. Stolar: That’s like half our projection isn’t it? Hoffman: Yeah, just about. Yep. Over half our projection. Stolar: Yeah because we said 200. Daniel: That’s not, is that Klingelhutz’ property? Hoffman: No it’s not. It was Klingelhutz’s is a couple to the left. Daniel: To the left, yep that’s right. He’s got that nice open spot there. th Hoffman: If you wonder what we do in the middle of the winter sometimes January 13 a letter from the attorney. This lot was in our ownership but in somebody else’s name for 45 years and we finally cleared the title. One lot in Minnewashta Heights Park so. Took 45 years. There was 3 attempts on the file to clear the title and we finally cleared the title. We just didn’t want some family member coming back and saying hey, we’d like our lot back so. It was the center lot where we put the bench for Hud Hollenbeck and a tree and we finally got it cleared up. Daniel: That little sliver. Hoffman: Well there’s only 5 lots in the park. This was one of them under somebody else’s ownership. Daniel: Alright. If there’s anything else, any commission member committee reports at all? Presentations? If not, want to move to adjournment. Scharfenberg moved, Kelly 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 8:30 p.m. Submitted by Todd Hoffman Park and Rec Director Prepared by Nann Opheim 24