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PRC 2010 06 22 CHANHASSEN PARK AND RECREATION COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING JUNE 22, 2010 The commission toured Bandimere Community Park prior to the regular meeting. Acting Chair Scharfenberg called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. MEMBERS PRESENT: Steve Scharfenberg, Tom Kelly, Scott Wendt, Glenn Stolar, and Elise Ryan. Cole Kelly arrived after the meeting started. MEMBERS ABSENT: Jeff Daniel STAFF PRESENT: Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Director; Jerry Ruegemer, Recreation Superintendent; John Stutzman, Recreation Supervisor; Susan Bill, Senior Center Coordinator; Jodi Sarles, Recreation Center Manager; and Dale Gregory, Park Superintendent. PUBLIC PRESENT: Todd Neils, President Chanhassen Baseball and Softball Assn. Mark Sonstegard Ryland Homes Brent Hislop Synergy Land Company APPROVAL OF AGENDA:Stolar moved, Tom Kelly seconded to approve the agenda as amended by Commissioner Stolar to include discussion of the 2011 CIP. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: None. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS: (Taping of the meeting began at this point in the discussion.) Todd Neils: …vitalization of the concession stand at Lake Ann. Mr. Hoffman spent quite a few hours out there helping the CAA and their volunteers refurbish and paint the concession stand and it looks fantastic. Hopefully some of you have seen it. To date in addition to the concession stand and the rebuild of that particular project, the baseball and softball association have donated new batting cages to Lake Ann Park. The intent is also to eventually move Lake Ann Field 2, the fence back to a regulation Little League distance at it’s own cost. Additionally they’re going to eventually put in electronic scoreboards possibly within the next year. Again that’s all a backdrop to what I really would like to discuss this evening and unfortunately Mr. Ruegemer isn’t here since he and I have become pen pals very quickly this year. Oh good. Just talking about you. Ruegemer: Good or bad? Park and Recreation Commission - June 22, 2010 Todd Neils: No, fantastic. We’ve become good pen pals over the last. Ruegemer: And phone. Todd Neils: And phone pals over the months here. What you see here is effectively the first page baseball growth is the growth specifically of baseball over the past 5 years. As you can see over the past 5 years we’ve over doubled in size. Additionally at the bottom, and I haven’t quite figured out Microsoft 2007 yet, but on the bottom what you see is the numbers growth of teams that are in use on what are considered regulation ballfields or 90 foot bases. Up through 2009 the Chanhassen Baseball Association didn’t have any teams that were needed to use those fields. This year we have 8 with the addition of a Legion and Junior Legion team. And as our growth continues we see a very alarming need for additional base pads in both Chanhassen and the surrounding communities. It is our responsibility as an association to request fields at other cities and we take that wholeheartedly. However not everybody, not all other cities are quite as enlightened as Chanhassen as we discussed in the past and we’re not always invited to some of those conversations about fields. It is my intent to approach Victoria sometime later this year to get on their docket but up to this point CAYBA has been the primary place holder as well as Holy Family for all fields in Victoria. As our growth has occurred it’s been primarily from CAYBA as well as city residents from Victoria so we think we have a strong case to get some fields there. That does not however dismiss the point that eventually we’re going to run out of enough space in Chanhassen on these regulation ballfields based on current need and future need, which could happen within the next year or two. As Mr. Ruegemer can attest through, and Mr. Hoffman can attest through conversations with the school district, we have used the new toy/high school ballfield to it’s absolute extent this year and I can only anticipate based on the amount of use and those discussions that have been had, that we’re going to need to back off some of our use going forward. If in fact that occurs next year we will not have enough field space to house the teams that we anticipate having for the 2011 season. Scharfenberg: Todd just to interrupt tonight. Could you just let everybody know what CAYBA stands for. Todd Neils: Yes, I’m sorry. CAYBA stands for Chaska Area Youth Baseball Association. Scharfenberg: Thank you. Todd Neils: You’re welcome. Again we will be having, we anticipate having a minimum of 12 teams that will be utilizing 90 foot base pads which do include both our Junior Legion and Legion programs which are brand new this year. The second page gives you a little indication on the scheduling. I would be remiss if I didn’t call it a nightmare that we’ve had to put together for this year. To even get enough field space without practice time for the 8 teams that we currently have. Now I come to you and ask this question, is there a possibility or a way to effectively add field space in the city without building another park. And obviously what we found out with Lake Ann is the addition of lights have allowed us to increase and expand our programming quite a bit over the last several years. We’ve had the opportunity to double up every single field at Lake Ann Park during that period of time and this year have doubled up doubled headers on every single field that we are allocated during the season for baseball. The Chanhassen Athletic 2 Park and Recreation Commission - June 22, 2010 Association Baseball Association is further committed to Lake Susan and other parks as well and is willing to help with the revitalization of Lake Susan Park with the addition of both electronic scoreboard and dugouts over the next several years. That is something I’ll commit personally on behalf of the Chanhassen Athletic Association Baseball stadium. What I ask the City to do however is to consider the possibility as the next CIP and I understand that much of next year’s funds are already committed but considering some manner how we can creatively add lights to Lake Susan Park to effectively double the opportunity to play on that field. If there are any questions I’m willing to listen. Or answer. Scharfenberg: Scott. Wendt: I don’t have any questions right off the bat. Kelly: Nope. Scharfenberg: Elise? Ryan: No. Stolar: We talked about it. Nothing. Scharfenberg: Todd when you say you’re going to go from this year having 8 teams to next year having 12, what additional teams would you add that would get you to 12 because you’ve already got your this year figures in what, one Junior Legion team and one Legion team? Todd Neils: Correct. Scharfenberg: Okay. What would be the other 4 teams that would be coming in? Todd Neils: We currently have, the composition of our association right now, we have four 14 year old teams, two 15 year old teams and Legion and Junior Legion. We have. Stolar: How many at 13 year old? Todd Neils: We have four 13 year old teams currently. We anticipate having at least one if not two 15 year old, pardon me. 16 to 18 year old teams in addition to Junior Legion and Legion. Four 15 year old teams. Four 14 year old teams and again, while that I think that’s 11, we could add a second or third. That you know 12 may be a high ballpark number but if in fact 8 is pushing the limits of what we currently have available to us. Even 11 would stretch those boundaries beyond what we could probably accommodate. Scharfenberg: And presently we have four 90 foot fields within the city of Chan, is that right? Todd Neils: We have 2 in addition to the school district. Scharfenberg: And so if you’ve got Bandimere. 3 Park and Recreation Commission - June 22, 2010 Todd Neils: Lake Susan. Scharfenberg: Just one at Bandimere? Todd Neils: Just one at Bandimere. The other one is considered an intermediate field. It’s a 250 foot fence and 75 foot base pads. Scharfenberg: Okay. Todd Neils: So we have one at Bandimere. One at Lake Susan and then the high school field. Stolar: Is that 75 foot one fully utilized also? Todd Neils: Absolutely. Ruegemer: 7 days a week. Stolar: Okay. So the question on that would be, is that convertible to a full, an older league field? Todd Neils: No. Not with the current composition of the fence line. We could, we could convert Lake Ann 1 to a 90 foot base pad. I believe Mr. Ruegemer there is a peg at 90 feet. That’s correct? Ruegemer: Correct. Todd Neils: And it does have a 300 foot fence, which is short by big league standards. However, our approach in field allocation over the past several years has been that we would allow, we wouldn’t go after both Tonka Babe Ruth and CAYBA for use of Bandimere 3 with the understanding that we had a smaller number of teams and we could utilize Lake Ann 1 as our 75 foot base pad property. Not solely but we do currently get it 3 days a week, and that is sufficient in our current environment. You know I will note that you know amongst the 908 kids that are participating in baseball, we have 200-7 and 8 year olds so we have a tremendous bubble obviously that continues to percolate through the system and so that gives you an idea of where we are on our way. Scharfenberg: Does your draw area include Victoria? Todd Neils: Yes. It’s all District 112. Scharfenberg: Okay, so even Chaska. Todd Neils: Chaska and Carver as well as East Union. Scharfenberg: And have you approached Carver at all for use of their field? 4 Park and Recreation Commission - June 22, 2010 Todd Neils: I haven’t. Again it’s our responsibility to do that and while it hasn’t been first and foremost in my mind, it is also someplace we’ll probably end up approaching. Scharfenberg: Other than Carver’s town team, does CAYBA control that field? Todd Neils: I don’t know the answer to that. Scharfenberg: Okay. Okay. Cole Kelly’s here. Cole, do you have any questions? We’re just talking about, Todd was proposing adding to addition lights and scoreboard at, right? They’re going to take care of the scoreboard and dugouts but lights primarily at Lake Susan. For field use for a 90 foot field because they’re maxed out or will be maxed out in the next couple years at 15 years potentially at 2012. I know this is a similar issue that happened in Eden Prairie and why they built their field but they only have, they only have three 90 foot fields in Eden Prairie? They had two. Todd Neils: I don’t know how many they have currently. Scharfenberg: Alright. Todd Neils: I don’t know how many are at Miller Park but I know they currently have the old high school field and a new Round Lake Park high school field. Scharfenberg: Right. And I think there’s one at Miller. Todd Neils: Both of which we’ve been throttled on. Scharfenberg: Okay. Any other questions? Well we thank you and we’ll take your recommendations and certainly put those on for a future discussion with staff. Todd Neils: Thank you. Scharfenberg: Thanks. Any other visitor presentations? APPROVAL OF MINUTES: By unanimous vote of the Park and Recreation Commission, the verbatim and summary minutes of the Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated May 25, 2010 were approved. REQUEST FOR PRELIMINARY PLAT CREATING 94 LOTS, 4 OUTLOTS INCLUDING AN 8.7 ACRE PARCEL TO BE ACQUIRED AS A PUBLIC PARK AND RIGHT-OF-WAY FOR PUBLIC STREETS ON A SITE TOTALING APPROXIMATELY 63 ACRES LOCATED NORTH OF PIONEER TRAIL (1600 PIONEER TRAIL) AT BLUFF CREEK DRIVE. APPLICANT: RYLAND HOMES. Hoffman: Thank you Chair Scharfenberg, members of the commission. Tonight we get to talk about something I think that we’re all anticipating and that’s the development of a new 5 Park and Recreation Commission - June 22, 2010 neighborhood in Chanhassen, along with a new neighborhood park. Looking back at the acquisition of the park system within the community it’s very exciting. This is the first new park, neighborhood park to be acquired in 15 years in the community so it’s been quite some time. It doesn’t seem like that long so with us this evening, we have a couple of visitors that will answer questions from the commission. Mark Sonstegard is here with Ryland Homes in the front and then Brent Hislop with Synergy Land Company representing the owner so as we move through our presentation talk about what’s being proposed for Pioneer Pass and the housing development. Parks and trails, I’ll give you an overview and then I’ll be glad to answer questions of the commission and so will representatives of the different partners in the project. To get our bearing on the site. The 2005 MUSA area is generally bound on the north by Lyman and the east by Powers Boulevard, and the west by Audubon and then the south by Pioneer Trail and it’s being developed in two quadrants because of the creek. So Bluff Creek winds down through the property and you have the northeast quadrant and the southwest quadrant. On this location you have Liberty at Bluff Creek and the access to that is off of Audubon, Bluff Creek Boulevard comes in and this is the round about. If you’ve been at that location, that’s where that round about is located, and then you continue on down to the Preserve at this location. This was the Gayle Degler property. Louis Bernardi property here and now we have Peterson and who else is a partner in that? So that’s the Pioneer Pass property which we’re talking about now. The overall plat is for 94 homes, an 8.7 acre park. We’ll zoom back out. And this is the round about located on Bluff Creek Boulevard. A street connection would come down. This is the, really integral to the development of this property is to connect down to the intersection of Pioneer Trail and Bluff Creek Drive at this location. So you have this main street connector and then the neighborhood streets come off of that connector and then also off of the existing Bluff Creek Boulevard. That’s going to be developed in a couple of phases starting on the south and then Phase II going to the north. The park is slated here as an outlot and generally it’s everything to the west of the collector road and there is approximately 8.7 acres. There’s a pond proposed for that property as well and this park would serve a large portion of the neighborhood park needs. Really the entire area would serve the park needs of this entire new neighborhood, the existing neighborhood that’s to the east. Excuse me, to the west and then some of the neighborhood to the north. As a commission and as a community we would have to provide something else again for that northeast quadrant because it’s just going to be too far a walk to come down to this particular location. The layout of the property, it’s lower towards the creek. Works it way back up high. These houses are kind of stacked and so as you build these homes you’ll be able to look out one and down over the top so you pretty much the entire neighborhood has some view of that Bluff Creek corridor. So that’s the development and then the park plan, this is a concept plan and this was drawn with the, there was a cul-de-sac that was proposed in the original development. One of the original renditions and that’s been taken out so the park will actually expand coming down to the south. This concept was drawn by Hoisington-Koegler, a group that we use for quite a bit of our park planning. So 8.7 acres is a nice sized park. Our Comprehensive Plan talks about a neighborhood park in 10 to 25. That’s not attainable in some cases. There’s really no place else to go to gain additional property so the 8.7 I think works very nicely in this case. 20 car parking lot, playground, open field at this, or soccer field and then baseball, half court basketball and then in this area would generally be additional open space and then a sliding hill to be graded out. A sliding hill is not ideal. A south facing slope but there would be a nice downgrade at that location that could be used for a sliding hill. It’s accessible from the new neighborhood, Pioneer Pass, the existing neighborhood by trails. We have two 6 Park and Recreation Commission - June 22, 2010 sidewalk connectors at this location. A looped trail system which we know are very popular in these neighborhood park settings. And the round about is really the signature piece where people would be able to identify how you’re going to find the park. Great access off of Pioneer Trail and the existing Bluff Creek Boulevard. The site is proposed to be developed in two phases. The north half and then the south half and that would correspond with how they stage their construction of their project in Phase I and Phase II and so we want to work with the applicant to balance the site. They will grade the property in some, close to approximate rough grade so we can take it from there and construct the park. They’re also willing to work with us in construction of the parking lot where we would do that inclusive with the road project and just pay our share of those improvements. It would be my proposal that we go ahead and include this in our CIP both for acquisition and the development in that staged fashion so through the development process approximately half of the property will be acquired through acquisition or dedication and then approximately half will be acquired through purchase. We no longer have this under CIP. We’ll have to add that acquisition for purchase back into the CIP for 2011. It was in there for a few years and then with the downturn of the market, the housing market was taken out. We didn’t know how long we would need to wait for this property to come in. We’re excited. The Ryland folks have some other properties around the metro that they can look at but they’re focusing on this one in Chanhassen because of the demand for additional housing lots in the community. So that’s it in a nutshell. It’s going to be quite a bit of work on your plate in the next couple years to manage both the acquisition and then the eventual development and then working with Mark. Mark is the person we worked with on the Preserve and all of the trails and the park features that they have which are private in that particular development but the trail is a public trailway. We built a bridge together. We built trails together so Mark’s been around. He understands how we like to do business. He’s been very easy to work with so we expect that will be the same in this one. And any questions for me or for the representatives? We’ll be happy to answer them. Scharfenberg: Elise? Ryan: If you could review one more time, I know I briefly asked you but what is the process since this is new to me. What’s the process to move this forward in working with them? Hoffman: What the commission needs to do tonight is make a recommendation to the City Council to acquire the property and then to put that as a condition of approval. The other things are we want to extend these two trails and so everything that you need to recommend to the council is in your packet. Acquisition of the property, extension of the sidewalk and the trail and then the addition of a sidewalk in this location. Once you make that recommendation it will go to the Planning Commission. They’ll review that in addition to all the other things. Lot size. Architecture that they review and then it will go onto the City Council. And then after that you’ll have to go back to work on your 2011 CIP. Add those dollars in. We’ll continue to work with the applicant to work out the math. How is this going to, you know how much money are we talking? What is the acquisition going to be? Basically we take their per acre price that they’re paying for the land and then we pay that back to the applicant for the amount of property that we have to purchase. The dedicated land comes to us on the premise it’s park dedication that when this neighborhood is developed they bring park demands. Park demands to our community and we ask for 1 acre of property for every 75 people that you bring to the 7 Park and Recreation Commission - June 22, 2010 community so we do the calculation on how many homes. How many people and it ends up to be right around 4 acres that this is generating in park demand so that’s the part that is dedicated to the community for that park and then the other half we purchase. So your job tonight is to make a recommendation to the council to acquire the park. Work out the acquisition and then to build the trail on the west side. I think it might be shown on some of your plans on the east side. We want the trail on the west side so it works into the park plan, and then the sidewalk on the east side on that collector road and then to add a sidewalk here so people coming directly up through the neighborhood right up to the park. So this is step one and then you’ll work as a commission on both the acquisition dollars and then the development dollars after that. Ryan: After it gets approved by City Council to move forward? Hoffman: Correct. Ryan: Okay. Hoffman: And simultaneously. This is going to go pretty quickly to the council. It comes up in July I think so that will happen before we go through the CIP process. Scharfenberg: So Todd just to clarify. The CIP money we’d be looking for 2011 is just to purchase that additional 4 acres, right? Hoffman: And potentially the first phase of development in 2011. Scharfenberg: Anything else Elise? Ryan: No. Scharfenberg: Cole. Cole Kelly: Todd, are they, are the parks just for local neighborhood use or are they going to be opened up to the different athletic groups? Hoffman: This park would be a neighborhood park which would generally not be scheduled for practices or those type of things. There’s a 20 car parking lot proposed so some of the neighborhood coaches around that area would find that and might do some pick-up games and practices but this would be a scheduled facility as a neighborhood park. Cole Kelly: Okay, and down the road it wouldn’t be Todd, I was looking at the parking lot and noticed it’s pretty small. Wondering if the street, you know if we turn out we end up scheduling games there because we’ve got a close number of fields a few years down the road, is the street going to be wide enough for cars to park on the street and that type of thing? Hoffman: Yeah. There probably would be room for parking but it’s just one of those situations where unless we change our policy and we go back to putting scheduled games in neighborhood parks, we wouldn’t be looking to do that at this location and we just don’t feel it’s fair to the 8 Park and Recreation Commission - June 22, 2010 neighborhoods to put that kind of use in a neighborhood park setting. Before Bandimere, before the Rec Center we had that situation and it just didn’t work out well for the neighborhoods. Cole Kelly: Okay. You said the first half is going to be developed in probably 2011. Do we have, now is that the dedicated property that’s going to be developed or do we have to come up with money just for the development of the first, in 2011 then it’s 2012 or 2013 when we’re looking at acquiring the rest of it or how does that work? Hoffman: We’ll get all the property up front. And then we would probably do the cash acquisition and then the first phase of development in 2011 and then the second phase of development in 2012. The first phase of development’s going to be the most, more expensive because it includes all the equipment. The second phase will be that south half which is primarily open space and grading. Cole Kelly: Okay. Are the costs in here? Hoffman: They are not. Cole Kelly: They’re not, okay. Do we have an idea of what they are? Hoffman: Not, half a million to a million dollars. Cole Kelly: Thank you Todd. Stolar: Does that include acquisition? Hoffman: Yes. That would include acquisition and development so, but we don’t have those numbers. Stolar: And trails? Hoffman: Yes. Stolar: Because we’re going to have to pay for some of the trails, right? Hoffman: In the park. Stolar: In the park. But not any of the trails leading into the park? Hoffman: The trail on the road is part of the applicant’s responsibility with the street construction but then the trails within the park are our responsibility. Stolar: Then a question, if we, because this is you know, it’s a third of our budget. It’s more than a third of our budget. Be half of our budget and there’s no park dedication coming out of here and we get the 4 acres in lieu of park dedication correct? 9 Park and Recreation Commission - June 22, 2010 Hoffman: Correct. Stolar: So if we were to just do those 4 acres and just leave it as that, as a 4 acre park, what would that save us? Hoffman: Probably not a great deal. We can study that when we get into the numbers. Again if you want to leave out, it’s going to be a graded site with a parking lot, the playground and the backstop would cost some money. There’s not a lot to separate out in a Phase I and Phase II. It’s primarily going to be grading and green space so as we move forward in the CIP process we’ll have those numbers for you. Hoisington is updating the plan right now. We’ll start putting the dollar amounts, the budgeted dollar amounts to those improvements and then we’ll also work with the applicant to complete the calculation of what the acquisition cost is going to be. Scharfenberg: Scott? Wendt: No. Like the opportunity. It’s a nice area down there. I like the trail going through the Preserve. Exciting. Scharfenberg: How would the trail, the existing trail that comes through the Preserve and that and then ends, how would that be. Hoffman: Connected? Scharfenberg: Connected into this park. Hoffman: You can see it on the top of the plan. It stops at this location currently. Comes underneath the devo culvert and stops at this location. There’ll be a street that’s developed in the future and that trail then, it either goes on a stairway which is shown right there or you loop back up to the street and so to access that trail system in the Bluff Creek, you’re going to go down the trail along Bluff Creek Boulevard and then down the stairway into the trail system or loop around on this street and connect up. And then that will be a route north. This will also, when this property develops this will continue south so then you can also go south and loop around underneath 212. Underneath the spider like bridge. Underneath 212 at that location and then back out to Pioneer so if you live here you’ll be able to do a loop route both ways. You could loop to the north or you could loop to the south through the Bluff Creek trail system. But it does not have direct access across the creek. There’s no provisions for an additional bridge or trail crossing. Scharfenberg: And did you say, did I understand earlier Todd that you said that that Bluff Creek Boulevard that the park runs up against, that Bluff Creek Boulevard will continue as part of this all the way to Pioneer Trail? Hoffman: Yes. Right to this intersection. This is integral to building this neighborhood so this is great access at this location. It will continue out and then with these trails, this trail and this sidewalk will continue out and connect to the existing trail. 10 Park and Recreation Commission - June 22, 2010 Wendt: Is the light end where you can see it? Hoffman: Yeah. The light’s right here. You can see the intersection is just stepped out and that would continue up and be built as a part of the project. Scharfenberg: No there, correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t there an existing park in Chaska that’s close by to that? Hoffman: Yep. Scharfenberg: This development. Hoffman: It’s over here. Scharfenberg: Right. Okay. Hoffman: Chaska has a little corner right in this area and there’s a neighborhood park there as a part of that development. Scharfenberg: Any other questions? Seeing none can we get a motion regarding this plan please. Wendt: I move that we move forward staff’s recommendation as written. Scharfenberg: Can I get a second? Ryan: Second. Scharfenberg: Any further discussion? Tom Kelly: I just want to be clear what this motion is doing. Are we recommending to purchase the additional 4 acres? Hoffman: Recommending to purchase the 8.7 acres in total. Tom Kelly: 4 of which is coming to us through dedication. Hoffman: Yep. Yeah, the motion would include successful transfer of Outlot C through a combination of dedication and fee purchase. Scharfenberg: Any other discussion or clarification? Hoffman: Kind of like buying a car right? Or a house maybe. Maybe a house. Big step. Tom Kelly: And a 4 acre park wouldn’t be half the cost of the 8 acre park? Would you say that’s a true statement? If we didn’t balance this cost? 11 Park and Recreation Commission - June 22, 2010 Hoffman: No. No. Stolar: We wouldn’t issue any purchasing costs and then we would cut back what we would develop. We’d have to cut back on what we developed because it’s not enough room for the things we, that are listed in here. Hoffman: Yeah. If you were concerned about saving money I would not recommend acquiring less land. I would acquire the land and. Stolar: Just not the build out. Hoffman: Right, yeah. Tom Kelly: Okay. Stolar: And that will be part of the CIP process where we get to determine the pace of the turnout. Hoffman: Correct. Scharfenberg: Just like we do with all of our’s. Stolar: Yeah. Tom Kelly: The only other question I have, I’m sorry. I should have asked these earlier. You said $500,000 to a million. We haven’t done this in 12 to 15 years. How was that price compared to what we would, if we could take the last neighborhood park we did and put it in 2010 dollars, is this equivalent or is this a pretty expensive neighborhood park? Hoffman: It’s not anymore expensive based on 15 years later. In fact land prices are higher but they’re lower now than they were 3 years ago so it’s going to be a significant cost savings over what you would have acquired in this area in one of the previous developments. If the land cost was the same as they were 3 or 4, 5 years ago, we wouldn’t be taking a look. You couldn’t afford to acquire the 4 acres I don’t believe it would be something that you would be even more cautious about. You know the cost of playground, the cost of grading, all of those things have gone up but it’s not like by acquiring this we’re doing something that I think you should be concerned about. It is, the 2005 MUSA area needed a park. We’ve seen two significant developments come through our doors now without acquiring a park. We don’t see another opportunity to acquire a neighborhood park in this stretch of the city for some time and so it really, by the Comprehensive Plan you know needs to be accomplished by the commission and the council but you can already foretell that there are going to be some things that are going to get squeezed out of the CIP to make this happen. This was in the CIP. In fact I think, I don’t know, I can’t recall specifically what the placeholder is. We’d have to take a look at, it was $400,000 I think. 12 Park and Recreation Commission - June 22, 2010 Stolar: Something like that. Hoffman: And so we had that placeholder in there and then when D.R. Horton had this and you know you were looking at, we were very close to acquiring it as a part of their development. It would have been with that cul-de-sac on the south side and then that fell apart and so you know development, the business of developing land kind of went by the wayside for some time and so we didn’t know if it would be 2 years, 5 years and so that placeholder went out of the CIP and now we’re going to have to bring that back, both for the acquisition and then for the development. It’s something you know we haven’t fully developed a neighborhood park in quite some time and there’s really no reason to acquire this land and let it turn into a weed field. This is something where we have an existing neighborhood. We have a developing neighborhood that we want to service their park needs and so it’s something that I think if the commission votes to move forward, that you’re probably going to want to make a commitment to move forward with you know at least a first phase of the development as well. You can grade this thing. Make a ballfields. Open spaces. Plant trees. What’s going to cost the money is the little shelter that would go in. The playground. Half court basketball so you know no irrigation. No lights. Those type of things. Maybe a small backstop so the costs are going to be you know relatively modest. There’ll be some investment obviously but not like building out a community park. Stolar: The thing, you know if you add that plus what we’ve already committed to, we’ve basically used our budget. I mean 2011 we’re done. Hoffman: Yep. Yeah. Stolar: Because we have the trail things for the developments that we have to do. Those are what about $600,000? $400,000? $600,000? We have the, also the underpass. We’re paying for the trails to connect to that correct? Hoffman: At Highway 41? Stolar: Yeah. Hoffman: We’re committed to $400,000. Stolar: $400,000 there so you add that and then you add this million, we were at 2 point something and I think there were a couple other things we had to do. The tree replacement we have to do. Hoffman: Yeah, there are going to be some of those trail connectors that you’re talking about doing are probably going to get flushed out, yeah. Stolar: Because our light requests and things like that. Hoffman: Yeah. Stolar: They just aren’t going to be there. 13 Park and Recreation Commission - June 22, 2010 Hoffman: Correct. Cole Kelly: Do we know what the cost of just the land is for us to acquire? Hoffman: I don’t know the exact number. It’s going to be $300,000 to $500,000 I’m thinking. Something like that. Scharfenberg: Any other questions? Stolar: Just one. If we don’t want to develop this and spend that money for a while, would you recommend us still doing the acquisition of the land? Hoffman: Oh absolutely. Stolar: Okay. Hoffman: Oh yeah. First priority, number one. Scharfenberg: So to restate, does somebody want to restate the motion that’s been seconded. Stolar: Just the recommendation here. Scharfenberg: Adopt staff’s recommendation for purchase, acquisition and development of an 8.7 acre park at Pioneer Pass. Wendt moved, Ryan seconded that the Park and Recreation Commission recommend that the City Council apply the following conditions of approval concerning parks and trails for Pioneer Pass: 1. Successful transfer of Outlot C (8.7+ acres) to the City of Chanhassen through a combination of dedication and fee purchase for development and use as a neighborhood park. 2. Extension of trail and sidewalk paralleling the planned connector street south to their respective connection points at the intersection of Pioneer Trail and Bluff Creek Drive. Commissioners Wendt, Ryan and Scharfenberg voted in favor; Commissioner Cole Kelly opposed; and Commissioners Stolar and Tom Kelly abstained. The motion carried with a vote of 3 to 1 with 2 abstentions. DISCUSSION OF 2011 CIP IN RELATION TO THE SITE TOUR AT BANDIMERE COMMUNITY PARK. Scharfenberg: The next order of business on new business was the disc golf and batting cages. Tonight, prior to tonight’s meeting we did a tour of Bandimere Community Park. We had a 14 Park and Recreation Commission - June 22, 2010 layout of the disc, potential disc golf course and look at that and played a few holes. And we also looked at in addition to the one single batting cage, adding another cage at Bandimere so any discussions regarding that? Stolar: I just wanted, I asked that this be put on the agenda just to ask Todd that as we start looking at the 2011 CIP, since these, I believe disc golf was removed, wasn’t it? Or was it deferred so it’s still on the 5 year. Hoffman: I think it was removed. Stolar: I thought so too so my question being, we have this, the batting cages, this park’s development and the lights, all that are things that we haven’t placed so if you would when we talk about the CIP at least list all of them as things we’ve discussed that we would want to incorporate in our discussion of the CIP so we don’t lose sight of the fact that those were at least mentioned. Scharfenberg: Yep. Hoffman: Okay. Tom Kelly: I think we always had about $25,000 in for disc golf. I don’t know if that’s a reasonable amount. Hoffman: It probably will accomplish just everything you need and more so we’ll get an estimate and I’ll bring that to you. Stolar: Do you need a motion from us to approve to have the design? You said you were going to get a designer to actually do the layout. Hoffman: No, we won’t do that yet until we get into the CIP. We’ll do a cost estimate and then get in the CIP. If it’s approved then we’ll go ahead. Stolar: Okay, you’ll do the cost estimate yourself? Just without the design. Okay. Scharfenberg: Great, thank you. Hoffman: The two abstained last votes so I can, Nann’s going to have. Okay thanks. Stolar and Kelly. Thank you. UPDATE PARK AND RECREATION COMMISSION BY-LAWS. Hoffman: Just brought back the changes that you asked for as reviewed by the administration and the attorneys. I would like the commission to review those and see if those are in agreement with what you discussed and then make a motion to approve. Stolar: I have one quick question or suggestion. 15 Park and Recreation Commission - June 22, 2010 Scharfenberg: Go ahead Glenn. Stolar: On Section 7.4, I know we all agreed that we didn’t want to have this every year. At the April. We said every 5 years. I was just wondering, do we need some wording that says or by a vote of the commission so if we choose to look at it sooner than 5 years we have that option. I don’t want us to have to look at it but if we decide to. So after it says, the first meeting in April comma, or by a vote of the commission comma, read and adopt. Just so we have that option. Cole Kelly: Yeah, I think that’s a good idea. To add something like that in. I’m not sure that the statement that we review it every 5 years precludes us from saying we want to review it but if you change the wording then it doesn’t preclude us for sure. Stolar: Right, and that can be more of a definitive then. But yeah, I read it the same way. I’m like well we could. Cole Kelly: Right, right but it’s better to have it, I agree. Scharfenberg: Any other changes or recommendations? Stolar: I move we adopt the updated By-laws with the one change. Tom Kelly: I second. Stolar moved, Tom Kelly seconded to approve the By-laws of the Park and Recreation Commission amended to include the phrase “or by a vote of the commission” under Section 7.4. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0. RECREATION PROGRAM REPORTS: 2010 FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION. Stutzman: Thank you Commissioner Scharfenberg. Now that we are into late June, obviously my life is revolving around the Fourth of July at this point. It will be, it will continue to be similar and a lot of the popular activities from past years. What I’d really like to do is just kind of draw the commission’s attention to a couple points in this. In the second paragraph with the high school band opening up for CBO. There are 1 of 3 bands that we’ve, 3 high school bands that will be playing at this year’s celebration. One is the band playing prior to CBO is a band by the name of Wandering Bartletts from Minnetonka High School. They will be playing then. We th also on the 4 have a combination from, I believe it’s Chaska and Chan high school and then another group playing from Minnetonka so we’ve got good representations by the high schools at our celebration so I’m excited about that. Also this year the City has partnered with several organizations outside of the city as well as within the city. From Minnesota Twins, Timberwolves, Classic Athletics, Knights of Columbus, Sampler, Chaska Valley Community Theater, the Red Birds, the Farmers Market. Lots and lots. The Chanhassen Historical Society. Lots and lots of different organizations stepping up to try and be a part of this celebration. We’re 16 Park and Recreation Commission - June 22, 2010 certainly thrilled to welcome them and very happy that they want to be a part of this celebration and they’re listed in the brochures that we’ve got coming forward. We do have two brochures coming forward. I hope you guys have all seen this, if you haven’t got it already but very happy to partner with Southwest Publishing again. I think this is a phenomenal piece that they continue to work with us on again. I’m very, very pleased at how this turned out this year. If you did not receive a copy I certainly have extras and be happy to get you guys one. But again it continues, for those of you who don’t know, it continues to be of no cost to us other than distribution. They create it and produce it through advertising sales and we work with them to make sure that every household in the city gets one, whether it’s through subscription or whether it’s through mail so that is the only cost and I continue to work with them as an advertising as a whole with the other brochures that we do as well as the ads we place in the paper to kind of negotiate a price tag for everything rather than them breaking it down by a line item and continues to get a good, a good agreement with them on that so continue to be extremely, extremely pleased with that. As I said we’ve also got some of the favorite activities from camel rides and the medicine show. Car shows. Obviously the parade and the Taste are back, all of which are featured in this brochure again with articles in there that we continue get in there so I encourage you guys, if you haven’t looked beyond the schedule of events, to take a look at the other pieces in there. I also, I mentioned the other schedule of events that I do have going out. This will actually go into next week’s paper so this one we’re actually sitting on for about a week to let the color brochure kind of marinate within the city but these will be coming out next week as well. Tom Kelly: Never heard the word marinate used in that context but it was very descriptive. Stutzman: Well thanks. I do what I can so. We have lots of those coming out and continue to have it on our web site and Facebook and things like that too so between Jodi and Jerry as well as myself and Peter the Intern, we get many, many calls inquiring about different aspects of the th 4 of July celebration so. I also have t-shirts for each of you guys. We have new t-shirts this year. I do have those for you guys that I can get after the meeting today but other than that if you guys have any questions about the celebration or input, I’d be happy to accept any. Cole Kelly: John just a few comments. We got the brochure and very impressed with the brochure. My wife was reading through it so she was reading it to me and we are always up th north on the 4 of July and my wife is saying, we might have to stay back here next year. Everything you put on it I was very impressed with so I just wanted to pass that along. Stutzman: Thank you very much. Thank you very much. That’s great to hear. Scharfenberg: Anybody else? Tom Kelly: The Wandering Bartletts, they were not he winners, is that correct? Stutzman: That is correct. Per our conversation with the winning band from ChanJam, we both kind of initiated the conversation that they might not be the best fit. They actually, as I called to discuss it with them, they actually brought it back to me before I even had an opportunity to. What happened with them is they were compensated. I certainly told them that it was not an intent to you know reseal their crown by any means. They actually received 5 hours of studio 17 Park and Recreation Commission - June 22, 2010 time in play since they were not able to join. They also did have some conflicts. They were th excited to get out for the 4 of July too and then based on the fact of they could, like I said, they kind of went you know we’re not the best family music so it’s kind of win/win for everybody. Tom Kelly: The Wandering Bartletts will appeal to more people. Stutzman: The Bartletts will be fantastic. I am thrilled to have them. For those of you who haven’t seen them, I highly encourage you to be there for that. They are fantastic band. Very talented group. Tom Kelly: And now is there the raffle again this year? Stutzman: Yes, the Historical Society is putting on the raffle again so for those of you who would like to assist with them or t-shirt sales, I’d certainly be seeking volunteers in the two shifts again. Either an early shift from about that 5:00 timeframe until about 7:30 and then 7:30 til towards the end of the night but t-shirt sales or help with the raffle as well. Primarily t-shirt sales because I think they have plenty of volunteers for the raffle at this point but they certainly wouldn’t turn any away either. Stolar: Who’s doing the raffle? Stutzman: Historical Society we got again. Stolar: Yeah, you can put me on the late shift. Stutzman: Okay. Scharfenberg: Anybody else? Tom Kelly: I have to ask, have they changed the format of the raffle? I was waiting for somebody else to say… Stutzman: I passed your suggestions along. They are still trying to work out all the details but I had mentioned to them last year and yet again this year that it would be our recommendation if they assisted or tried to do the prize drawings earlier and in shifts. Tom Kelly: Right, as opposed to. Stutzman: You know probably cut the prizes off about 8:30, or the selling at about 8:30 or 9:00 and start drawing prizes so they can do it in shifts so I will, next time I speak with them I will certainly pass it along once again. Tom Kelly: Just curious. Stutzman: So I have not heard officially but I certainly have relayed the comments. 18 Park and Recreation Commission - June 22, 2010 Scharfenberg: And I would echo Cole’s comments about the brochure and that John. I think it was, it’s a great promotional brochure. It just kind of brings to life everything that is good about rdthrd that celebration the 3 and 4 so that was very nice. Any additions this year to the 3 in terms of rides or anything like that or coming anything new or different? Stutzman: The one big thing as far as the rides, they’ll be about the same. I mean we kind of maxed that space out but they’ll be bringing about 12 or 13 rides again. Lots of games. Lots of food so we’ve had that, that will be similar to last year. The one thing I can say as far as new rides, they actually just purchased a brand new Ferris wheel last year so it’ll be a brand new Ferris wheel this year which they’re excited about and so I haven’t seen it yet but I know they were talking about it last year and are very, but got delayed in the order so they’re excited about that. As far as the festivities go, I am happy to bring a 3 on 3 basketball tournament in. Registrations have been a little bit slow at this point but certainly excited to bring it. The Timberwolves and Classic Athletics which is a partnership that Bill Kimball is involved from CAA have kind of partnered together to spearhead this. Certainly I’ve been kind of helping them th along in the process but very excited to get that. We have the four age categories of I believe 4 ththth through 6 grade. Or 4 through 7 grade. thth Stolar: 4 and 5. thththth Stutzman: No, 4 and 5, thank you. 6 through 8 and then high school and 18 plus so it’s like I said, as Bill and I kind of chatted about prior to the event, they were all going to either come Friday or this week so, which is what we are seeing with registrations. All of them came Friday and then several calls this week so we’re encouraged that registration but hopefully this will go and I think it’s going to be a fantastic piece. Stolar: How much is the fee? Stutzman: It’s $50 per team. Each team is guaranteed 2 games as well as t-shirts for every participant. Scharfenberg: To be played where? rdth Stutzman: They’re going to be played here in City Center Park on the 3 and the 4. The rdth activities on the 3 will be from 4:00 to 8:00 and the games on the 4 will be from 9:00 to 1:00. And they’ll be played on the hoops up north here. Up by the school. Scharfenberg: Is that pancake breakfast new? Stutzman: That is new. That’s not something we’re doing. I believe the Knights of Columbus have always done it. They just approached us about being involved as far as kind of tying it into the celebration. Cole Kelly: Same thing with the Farmers Market. We’ve tied it in. Stutzman: Correct. 19 Park and Recreation Commission - June 22, 2010 Stolar: I noticed the pony rides haven’t charged, did they charge last year? Stutzman: They have charged last year. We were approached too to, they were very considerate last year as far as the price and we kept it low. They wanted their normal price is $5.00 and they approached me about doing that and in exchange we will be getting a commission out of that this year unlike last year where they just charged and we did not get a commission so. Stolar: In prior years it was free, right? Stutzman: It was free up til last year. Scharfenberg: I know we’ve talked in the past about, is there going to be pre-sales for bracelets for rides? Stutzman: Unfortunately that’s still something they’re hesitant to do and in talking with them their reasons are, they don’t want to deal with well I bought one and lost it. And I think part of it is also the fact that they travel so much. Getting us the wrist bands would I think would prove difficult too. I try to assure them every year that I believe it would work but you know each year we discuss okay, if you’re not willing to do this, how can we make the ticket booths more visible and continue to try and find ways to do that. We’ve talked about possibly getting a third ticket booth this year. Last year we had kind of a really tall balloons which we might look at trying to do so people can identify with those so we won’t be doing that but continue to find ways to cut the lines down. They also have people out selling the wrist bands outside of the ticket booth. Kind of wandering through the line to anybody looking for just the wrist bands. Scharfenberg: Any new food vendors this year? Stutzman: The School II which was a late entry last year. They were there but they weren’t in any of the advertising because they were a late entry. Let me double check the other ones. Byerly’s will be doing Mexican this year instead of their traditionals. Other than that I believe all of them are returners. The other thing back to the carnival I’d actually like to point out would also be that there will be a deal after the parade for anybody who comes back after the parade, instead of prices being $2.50 to $3.00 for rides, every ride from 4:00 to 6:00 will be $2.00. So we did get the carnival company to kind of reduce their price since they would like people to come back after the parade and we have many activities and obviously they’re the big one after the parade, that they were willing to kind of participate and everything’s two bucks regardless of the ride. Scharfenberg: Any other questions for John? Alright. 2010 KLEINBANK SUMMER CONCERT SERIES. Stutzman: Once again that one is kicking off. We were supposed to kick off last week but the severe weather threat kind of dampened that a little bit. But Klein is extremely excited to be partnering with us again this year. They’ve actually expanded the activities they’ll be offering. 20 Park and Recreation Commission - June 22, 2010 They’ll be offering free water bottles, water every week with their logo on them. They’ll also be doing balloons for the kids at every show and during the two daytime shows for the families and kids they’re going to be offering face painting at each of those. Also for the day shows per suggestion of Commissioner Ryan we will be doing the day shows at 11:30 to noon so hopefully that will continue to work out. Once again the intern who I believe some of you met, Peter this evening, will be kind of the supervisor of the program. Reporting to me and checking with me certainly but will kind of be his project to work on through the summer. So far he’s done a real nice job contacting the bands. The other new piece with this is, we have the magnet schedules that we have produced this year. Stutzman: I already have one. Stutzman: Everybody else have one? Anybody else like one? Cole Kelly: I don’t think I have one. Stutzman: So we did kind of a trial amount this year. I approached KleinBank to see if they would foot the bill for this and unfortunately they didn’t have the marketing budget to do that so we found some funds through sponsorship dollars that Sign Source gives and were able to purchase I think about 700 this year to kind of get a trial and to at least get the name out there. So far Klein’s been incredibly impressed with them so hopefully we can re-approach them next year and get them into every household in the city so. Other than that I’m real excited about the line up but would entertain any other questions the commission might have at this point. Scharfenberg: Anybody? Wendt: The one that was cancelled is it just cancelled or they’re… th Stutzman: Actually great question. That one has been rescheduled for July 13. Wendt: Okay. th Stolar: Are you going to advertise the series somehow at the 4 of July? Stutzman: That’s not something I had thought of at this point but it’s certainly something that I can look into. The magnets have disappeared very quickly. We’re saving some for the first couple shows to make sure we get them out but I’m sure we can probably get posters up somewhere. See what we can do about getting that out. Stolar: At t-shirt sales or something just have a. Stutzman: No, that’s a wonderful idea. Scharfenberg: Yeah, it you just blew up that picture of the magnet and a picture of that and put it up there would be good. 21 Park and Recreation Commission - June 22, 2010 Ruegemer: And John the re-scheduled one is on a Tuesday, is that correct? Not a Thursday? Stutzman: Yes. That is, because their schedule did not permit to go to the Thursday following the show and the other Thursdays are obviously booked. Rather than doubling up on some of the day shows, which becomes difficult and tough to get people to come back for it, Tuesday was th chosen so that 13 is a Tuesday. Hoffman: And what’s the show that Thursday? Stutzman: The show that Thursday I believe is Redpath, if I’m not mistaken. Hoffman: So there’s Tuesday and Thursday. Stutzman: Yep. Scharfenberg: Okay. Thank you John. PARK AND TRAIL MAINTENANCE REPORT. Scharfenberg: Alright, Dale is not here tonight. Todd, you want to take that on or any questions or anything regarding Dale’s report anybody? Hoffman: Any questions or any issues regarding maintenance? I think he probably got a fire call. Scharfenberg: Okay. Stolar: Well the power is out in northern Chan til midnight or so. Hoffman: Yeah. Scharfenberg: Does that include your house? Stolar: Yes. Cole Kelly: Yeah, the stop light is out at Powers and 5. SENIOR CENTER UPDATE. Bill: Well I just want to highlight a few things. I’ll keep it short and simple. May is Older Americans Month and we always do a variety of activities honoring our participants and the one event I want to highlight this time is the Volunteer Speed Match. We had 15 volunteer agencies from Chanhassen and Carver County that met one on one with the participants and told them about the opportunities they had within their organizations. Then they evaluated the activity and then the agencies called them back to set up a, as we call it, a second date with them. So that went over really well. Actually Katie Boon who is the head of the Carver County Office on 22 Park and Recreation Commission - June 22, 2010 Aging was so excited about the program that they’re going to use it as a pilot and hopefully next year implement it in other cities in Carver County. And that was a joint effort by the Senior Commission, Senior Advisory Board and then the Senior Center so it went really, really well. Next I’d like to just mention that the technology upgrades in the Senior Center have been completed. We will have, I think we have 8 to 12 speakers in there now. I can’t remember exactly. A brand new projector which is 5 times more powerful than the one we previously had. We’re having I’d say probably 80 to 90 percent of the presentations we have, they are using PowerPoint’s or have a need for the projector so it’s getting a lot of use. We also will have a wireless and hand held microphone. We’ll have a cabinet that will have a computer stored in it so we’ll ask people just to bring their presentations on a drive and plug it in. So we’ll get our final training on it tomorrow. They went with Best Buy to do the installation so they’re coming back tomorrow to demonstrate how to use probably the neatest feature of it is the touch panel on the wall where we’ll be able to switch from all the various components and that will be very helpful with the little hand type note in large print so seniors will easily be able to press the right buttons so we’re real excited about that. Unfortunately the plate is about that big so they had promised a bigger one so that will be wonderful. Then the last thing I noticed it wasn’t in the packet. I revised the Senior Center newsletter. We now call it the Senior Connection and it’s got a new look. A lot of new features but the one thing that I wanted to talk about, I added an insert page highlighting two businesses or organizations that we’ve been involved with in the past. Kind of as a way to thank them. Talk about their business and get the word out that they, that we have a partnership with them. As John mentioned KleinBank has been very good to the Senior Center as a sponsor over the past 5 years. They’ve featured, or they’ve sponsored the Augsburg College Lifelong Learning programs that are really, really well attended. And then also the library, we do a lot of partnering with the library more on our computer and technology classes because they did get I think 8 to 10 laptops. Portable laptops so we have a monthly senior surf class and we’ve had a few other introduction to the internet and some other classes there that are taught so we don’t have to duplicate. And then lastly the back of the page every time will be, we call it Chan Happenings. Trying to highlight different events. City, mainly city events and things happening at the Rec Center. This time we did the KleinBank Series and the Red Birds which people really, really appreciated so the new name, the new look, it goes out quarterly to about 650 people so, anyone have any questions? Scharfenberg: Anybody? Thank you Susan. Jodi. RECREATION CENTER REPORT. Sarles: Thank you. We are in our transition time over at the Rec Center so we have just released the kids out of the Bluff Creek side and now we’re getting them on our side a little bit more during the day so, no it’s fun. It’s a little transition. It goes from my office being just a rally mess by the end of the last day of school where they’re screaming and throwing stuff around and having a great time in the gym to Monday, dead silence. So it’s been, it’s good though to have the kids and many of the programs that John has for the kids too in the summer are held at the Rec Center so Dance Camps and we’ve just switched gears for a different season. You know it seems like we talk about dance a lot. It’s one of our largest programs out there. We did finish our year end and have started the new year again for dance so we had over 200 dancers in 3 performances over at the Chan High School so this year was the first year we were able to use 23 Park and Recreation Commission - June 22, 2010 that and it was a great location. Working out some of the bugs and it seemed to just be great for everybody. Everybody just thought it was beautiful. It was a nice way for them to be introduced to the new high school as well. Did that mic cut off? Quite the signals I’m getting here. But yeah, we had 60 dancers try out fore the competition teams. They were all placed on teams so it will be a big year of competition this year for the dance program and this week started the first dance camp. We always talk about the Enhanced Fitness programs. The program I work with Sue on for the seniors. We have maxed out the size of the class that we can offer there so actually we have about 6 people too many but they allow for that because of absences. So U Care is budgeting to add a new class in the fall for us so we’ll be able to offer 2 classes to meet the demand on our waiting list right now so. It’s a great class. They love it. They tell their friends. Their friends want to sign up but right now with the 24 over loaded class, we can’t get them in there so we’re working on it. And John and I just continue to be very pleased with the Rec Center sports program. Preschool sports. We finished that indoor which turned into outdoor soccer because we had such a nice early spring this year. 51 children participated. Now we’ve switched gears into t-ball and we’ve got 106 out there. Hot night tonight for t-ball. I checked in with them. They had plenty of water out there and I think I only saw one leave crying hot. It’s too hot mommy. Stolar: How does that compare to like when the Y had it the last year of the Y? Sarles: It’s actually grown so yeah, so right now we’re still on the upswing here so, but certainly it’s a program that now that we’re getting a lot of people for the second session of t-ball especially starting to register which that will be swinging up higher than what the Y had previously. You know the changes we put in place, a lot more communication. A lot more work with the parents. Having staff out there has really, really improved the participant and the parent experience so. Stolar: Do you see a lot more repeat because of that? Like people signing from one league to the other or? Sarles: Yes. Yeah, we have some of them that will want to take it both nights a week so yeah it was actually. Stolar: Excellent. Great job. Sarles: Yeah. Yeah, and so we’re really, really pleased with the staff we have out there and they do a great job with the kids so, and parents so. Stolar: This was a great suggestion by you guys. Sarles: Yeah, so very excited. We wrapped up the after school sports and are now planning on the fall sports so we’ll roll that out with the Y’s kids addition as well this fall so we’ll be doing that. Stutzman: Staff is very excited about that. 24 Park and Recreation Commission - June 22, 2010 Sarles: Oh my gosh, yeah. And then also for Rec Center Sports we are celebrating our one year anniversary this fall so we’re going to do a big open house. Invite everybody to come out. Have some fun. Some beverages and games and we think food. So that will be a good day. And then the other thing that really happened in April, which seems like a long time ago now but we had our first indoor garage sale at the Rec Center. We had 35 families participate and that’s as many as we wanted to have really for the first time. Church let out. The Rec Center filled up. It was just packed. The parking lot was packed. It was crazy. You know we could probably shorten the day by an hour I think we figured but everybody was pleased. The people that had tables were running home to get more stuff to sell. I had one fellow go about, he made 4 trips home so he didn’t, had a good haul this time. Scharfenberg: So you would deem that a successful one? Sarles: Oh yeah, they asked me if I could do it weekly. I said no. Scharfenberg: …flea market. Sarles: I was really concerned that they would have things to sell weekly. Hoffman: Just give them a corner of the parking lot. Sarles: There we go. Hoffman: Rec Center Flea Market. Sarles: So yes, we will hold another one next year. Very pleased. Scharfenberg: Any thought maybe about doing one in the spring and one in the fall? Sarles: Yeah, we’ve actually talked about perhaps doing a kids one on one of the school release days or something too so that was one family had two of her sons ran their garage sale and got to learn how to deal with money. Got to sell all their old toys without a struggle so yeah we were thinking about trying to add one of those over one of the breaks for the kids. But yeah it’s been a good one and it kind of balances out when we do our artisan fair in the fall too so. Scharfenberg: Any other questions for Jodi? Ryan: Not a question. Oh, not a question. The art on display, I absolutely love that. I think a lot of times kids in the community get recognized for their athletic achievements and academic as well but to be able to go into the Rec Center and see the artwork is wonderful that you do that because it is truly phenomenal. There’s some talented kids. Sarles: Oh my gosh, yeah. Ryan: Really amazing so I just wanted to let you know that I think that’s a great idea and I think I’m sure the kids and the families appreciate having their kids recognized that way. 25 Park and Recreation Commission - June 22, 2010 Sarles: Thank you very much. Yeah, no it is fun to see them come out here and bring their friends and how them you know that’s mine and all the kids going through too. You know their younger siblings are in there showing off their older siblings artwork so it’s amazing how much talent is out there in the community. Scharfenberg: Thank you Jodi. Dale. Last but not least. PARK AND TRAIL MAINTENANCE REPORT. Gregory: Apologize for being late. Scharfenberg: It’s alright. Hoffman: Do you have an update on the power situation? Gregory: I don’t know what caused it but it was going all the way through Victoria and everything so. We, the fire department, we had 6 medicals and fire related calls in the last 45 minutes so that’s why I was late. Hoffman: And those were not related to the power outage? Gregory: No. Hoffman: Lot going on tonight. Gregory: Okay. Our spring has been pretty busy, just like every other spring has been. The things we do in the spring is pretty much a routine every year and that. Getting ballfields ready. Park shelters. Drinking fountains. Getting the docks and everything else out and trying to get the ballfields ready. It’s kind of the same routine we do every year and that and it’s a busy time of the year for us trying to get everything up and running. With the early spring this year and that, that just brought the people out a lot faster and it seemed like they wanted to do things a lot quicker. They wanted to be on the ballfields a lot quicker and different things so we got it all done. It’s everything worked out real good. We also got help this year from the Minnetonka seniors again. Last year they came and helped us. This year they came. They supplied about 40 kids. They worked two days. They ran a shift in the morning and a shift in the afternoon and they worked out at Lake Ann by some of our evergreen trees but a lot of buckthorn. They cleaned all that stuff out. They drug everything out to the parking lots. The first group did this while it was raining. That was a rainy day. We didn’t think they’d show up. They showed up in full force and they just worked their hearts out. They just really were great. So, and every one of those groups and that were there and they really worked hard for us and it’s really, it’s kind of nice to see in that. They were that hard workers and that and really put a lot of effort into it. We did get, excuse me. We did get the Sentence to Serve this year one more time in the spring for helping with the downtown cleaning up. They kind of blow our streets off and the sand and everything and they worked around the city hall, fire station, library and clean everything up there for us. And out at our west fire station, they were out there too cleaning and that but from 26 Park and Recreation Commission - June 22, 2010 the way it sounds I think the Sentence to Serve is probably going to be done now. I think the money is going away for that and I’ve got a feeling we’re not going to be getting them back and I kind of miss that because we have used them a lot in the past. They’ve done a lot of work for us and we’ve had a good relationship with them and when we needed them, they were usually able to come and help us so, so we’re going to kind of miss that extra help. They do also have a program Sentence to Serve with the juveniles. They don’t work during the week. They’ll come on weekends. They’re supervised and we can just give them jobs and the supervisor will take care of them and that and they took care of the Pioneer Cemetery for us this year. They raked it and picked up all the brush and got everything cleaned up there and did a very nice job of that so we did get, we did get a lot of volunteer help this spring which is really nice to see. In our regular work and that, we’ve got our first round of fertilizing is all done in all of our athletic fields. We’ve completed our, just about completed. Not totally done yet, of all the fence lines. Spraying all of that. We’re spraying dandelions right now in all the parks. We did the elementary school and we did Bluff Creek this, beginning of this, beginning of last week so we got those all done. We pretty much got our first round of mowing from all of our trails is done and we’re actually starting the second time around. The grass and everything has really grown on the trails so we’re starting up on that again. The grass has really been growing. Our seasonal and our retired guys and that I mean have been mowing a lot of grass. We’re thankful to have all of that help. That’s all I have. Scharfenberg: Okay. Any questions or comments for Dale? Tom Kelly: I have a question, or comment. Has there ever been any thought to, this has to do with your first about the site being 25 ballfields and 10 soccer fields. That’s considerably expense, both in terms of paint and man power. That’s not all those are not easy jobs. Has there been any thought to actually charging the associations that actually use those fields? I know we don’t charge for the fields but could we charge for the labor and for the paint that it takes to maintain the fields throughout their seasons? Hoffman: We could and it’s just something we have chosen as a community not to do. Tom Kelly: Okay. Hoffman: The whole concept about user charges is, when you get down to the associations, many times communities that are prone to charge them because you can identify that that’s a user group, they’re actually there. And all of our parks are used for a variety of uses so should we charge dog walkers? Should we charge you know runners? At what point do you say these parks are for everybody as a base service or do you start charging user fees and so something as a commission you can certainly have a conversation. Some communities charge for ballfield time as well. It’s just one of those things that is. Tom Kelly: I used to, because I know striping because we’ve been doing that for lacrosse. I know it’s an expense and it’s a time commitment. Hoffman: Yeah, we’ve got a very nice machine called a Kroner machine which really takes the work out of that so it’s much more efficient than the hand, the push. This is a riding machine. 27 Park and Recreation Commission - June 22, 2010 Tom Kelly: Okay. Hoffman: We’re buying all our paint from a local vendor from Merlin’s. They give us a great deal. Merlin’s Ace Hardware so again it’s something, if you want to have that conversation, many communities have gone down that route. Then once you’re there you just, then people are going to start to look around. Well shouldn’t we charge for that? Shouldn’t we charge for that? Shouldn’t we charge for that and so if you go that direction it’s going to be an entire conversation about well who should we be charging and who should not be charged for what services and what’s a base level service and what’s a non. Gregory: It does take quite a while to get them all set up in the spring. Tom Kelly: Yep, I know. Yeah. Gregory: To get them lined for the first time. Once they’re up and running and that with, like Todd said with the Kroner and that, one person can strip all of the fields in one day and he can handle everything that we’ve got. And like I say the Kroner is great because you ride on it and you can carry I think it’s like 30 gallons of paint at a time and it really works great. Scharfenberg: I would just like to say thanks to Dale and his staff for a safety issue of installing CAA softball purchased safety bases for the 6 fields at Bluff Creek and those have been installed in the last 2 weeks and thank you to your staff for doing that. When you play on a field that doesn’t have those safety bases, you can really tell that makes a difference just that, the collisions and stuff that happen without that second base. It’s a, was a great addition to those fields and something that was needed so thank you. Gregory: You’re welcome. One other note I forgot to tell you that just happened and that and we have, we’ve been really lucky this year vandalism wise at our Satellites and everything. They haven’t burned any or anything but this last weekend they went around to all of our large parks, Lake Ann, all the large parks and they stole all the toilet paper out of every one of them. They actually took bolt cutters and cut the rods in there so they could take it out. Hoffman: North Lotus, South Lotus, Lake Ann, Lake Susan and Bandimere so there was very, there’s some unhappy folks because there was no toilet paper all weekend long. So look for the t.p. house… Scharfenberg: Thank you Dale. Tom Kelly: I do want to say great thing for your staff too. I know when I was walking the dog through Bandimere Park the morning of the Minnetonka Soccer Tournament, there was a lot of pretty offensive graffiti written on the larger of the two play structures and I assume since it was a weekend that it would be there all weekend and then all the participants would have seen this but it was gone by the afternoon so I don’t know how you guys responded so quickly but it was great that you guys got that stuff off there. 28 Park and Recreation Commission - June 22, 2010 Gregory: Thank you. Scharfenberg: Thanks Dale. Gregory: Yep, thank you. COMMISSION MEMBER COMMITTEE REPORTS. None. COMMISSION MEMBER PRESENTATIONS: 2010 BIKE TOUR. Hoffman: That’s your’s. Scharfenberg: That’s our’s? Hoffman: If you want to do it, yep that’s your’s to decide. Scharfenberg: Tom, you want to put together? Tom Kelly: I can do it again. Yes, I would like to do it again. It was all the commissions last time and City Council and it was rained out. Hoffman: Yes. And then we had a supplement one with the Met Council folks. Tom Kelly: That was like. Hoffman: It was during the day, yeah. Tom Kelly: Okay, because our’s was going to be in the evening and it was scraped. I would, is there interest to do that again? Wendt: Let’s do it. Scharfenberg: Tom, why don’t you pick out a date. Tom Kelly: I will pick out a date and we will try to get that on the schedule. I think we went for August last, try to do something in August. Do you want to do, we don’t want to do it on our night. Our meeting night. Hoffman: Probably a Thursday night I would think. Tom Kelly: Thursday night, okay. Hoffman: Wednesday or Thursday. Tom Kelly: Okay. 29 Park and Recreation Commission - June 22, 2010 Scharfenberg: Next is the administrative packet. Tom Kelly: I have one thing before we do that I just noticed. This is a question to the commission and the staff. I noticed that there is a softball and/or kickball tournament on June thth 26 and June 27, this weekend and I would be willing to put a team of commissioners and staff together for kickball if there was a critical mass. If we had enough people that would be interested in that. If you kick a ball as well as you throw a Frisbee. Ryan: When is this? Tom Kelly: It’s this weekend. All I know about it is just on this pamphlet. I have no idea. Stutzman: Jerry do you know off hand? Ruegemer: Paul Palmer is the one who’s the contact for that. I know his numbers were you know kind of low. Hoffman: On kickball. Ruegemer: On kickball. I think I heard 6 to 8 teams for the softball tournament at this point. Tom Kelly: I would do either one. I would put together either one if there’s enough interest. I know it’s the weekend. Wendt: I’d love to do it but I think we’re out of town this weekend. Hoffman: Out of town. Ryan: I’m out of town as well. Cole Kelly: We’ve got a bunch of parties so it kind of depends upon when it is for graduation. Tom Kelly: Alright. Scharfenberg: …kids? Tom Kelly: It sounds like, what? Scharfenberg: Can we get kids to participate? Tom Kelly: For kickball I think you can get anyone. I’m guessing you can get anyone to play. Adults? Okay. Well it sounds like there’s not any. I just thought I would throw. Stolar: It’s a great idea but this weekend is just not working. 30 Park and Recreation Commission - June 22, 2010 Stutzman: Commissioner Kelly I believe this is at least the last couple years it’s been annual so it could occur again next year. Scharfenberg: Thank you though Tom. ADMINISTRATIVE PACKET. Scharfenberg: Were there any questions for Todd? I would, just had a question Todd regarding the Xcel Energy letter. Does that impact our parks in any way? Hoffman: It does not. Scharfenberg: Okay. The corridors, they do not go through parks but they go through neighborhoods and then some trail corridors so we just wanted to make the commission aware. Ryan: I thought those were very nice comments of Jerry. Very complimentary of you for the evaluation. Hoffman: He puts every one in there. Wendt: Do you know what day the Wallace picnic was? Or what day it was? Hoffman: If you can describe what was going on. nd Ruegemer: Yes, it was May 22 I believe. That Saturday and we had a baseball tournament going on out there that day. That was an extremely rainy day so all the baseball games were postponed. All the kids went underneath the shelter and ate sunflower seeds and kind of carried on and prior to the Wallace party. It was kind of after Dale’s crew came in and cleaned and it was messy. Guarantee with that so unfortunately sometimes we do run into situations like that and after park maintenance has come through in the morning and emptied garbage and power wash and you know that does happen occasionally. Wendt: I was just wondering. We were up on a Sunday night and there was a little bit of rough stuff going on. The police had to come out and break up a fight. Hoffman: There’s another CIP item on there. Bathrooms need an overhaul. Stolar: We talked about that before. Hoffman: They’re vintage, you can say that. Ruegemer: Yeah. The meat and potatoes. Scharfenberg: Alright. Can I get a motion to adjourn? 31 Park and Recreation Commission - June 22, 2010 Tom Kelly moved, Wendt seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0. The Planning Commission meeting was adjourned. Submitted by Todd Hoffman Park and Rec Director Prepared by Nann Opheim 32