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PRC SUM 2010 08 24 CHANHASSEN PARK AND RECREATION COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING AUGUST 24, 2010 The Park and Recreation Commission held an on site neighborhood meeting at Herman Field Park prior to the regular meeting. Chairman Daniel called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. MEMBERS PRESENT: Jeff Daniel, Steve Scharfenberg, Tom Kelly, Glenn Stolar, Elise Ryan and Cole Kelly MEMBERS ABSENT: Scott Wendt STAFF PRESENT: Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Director; and Jerry Ruegemer, Recreation Superintendent APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Scharfenberg moved, Stolar seconded to approve the agenda amended by Commissioner Scharfenberg to include item 3(a). Update on batting cages at Bandimere Park. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: Hoffman: Miracles for Mitch, or Miracles Kids Triathlon was very successful this past weekend. I know Glenn had a daughter that participated, right? Stolar: Yep. First time she did it. She loves it. Hoffman: They had record numbers. 950 or there about’s out at the event. Cargill presented a check to the event for $170,000 that morning so great, great community event for Chanhassen and if you want more information just connect up to their website or call the race director. Cargill’s a big supporter and so they had probably, oh 4,000 to 5,000 people in the park on Saturday morning. Daniel: Who’s the director? Hoffman: Tony Schiller is the Race Director. Tony Schiller. Stolar: He’s a world class triathlete. Was when he set it up. Just one thing real quick. I mean it was a great event. The day actually wasn’t as hot as I initially thought it would be. The one thing that was funny when they came out of the water at Lake Ann, the bushes, the trees were in the way of the runners coming out of the water so next year we should, and Tony and I talked about it, we should just make sure we trim off over there for as they come out of the water. Park and Recreation Commission - August 24, 2010 Hoffman: Okay. Stolar: You get a little on the side trimming. One of them was a buckthorn and Tony went why don’t you just pull the whole thing out. But no, it was a great event. They did a great job again and it’s really grown well. I like the course layout because as I said the last couple years we haven’t been there but. Daniel: Excellent. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS: None. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Daniel: If there are no changes. Cole Kelly: Got one change. Daniel: Okay. Cole Kelly: Page 35. First paragraph. Third to last word should be commended. Hoffman: Thank you. Daniel: Take your word for it. Hoffman: Yep. Nann will find it and change it in the record. Daniel: Alright. With the change there, I think we can move ahead. Scharfenberg moved, Tom Kelly seconded to approve the verbatim and summary minutes of the Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated July 27, 2010, amended to change the third to the last word in the first paragraph on page 35 of the verbatim minutes to “commended”. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0. COMMISSION DISCUSSION - HERMAN FIELD PARK NEIGHBORHOOD MEETING RESULTS. Daniel: Discussion of Herman Field Park neighborhood which we just had a meeting at 6:00 up until just a little bit ago and met with the neighborhood. We had what Todd, about. Scharfenberg: 15. Daniel: 15. Scharfenberg: Good group. 2 Park and Recreation Commission - August 24, 2010 Daniel: Yeah. It was a good, very solid turnout. I mean I was going to be happy with the first 5 or 6 that were there, let alone all the other neighbors that showed up so why don’t we just get a round table discussion on some of the items that were discussed or brought to our attention. Any suggestions? Anything that might be applicable for evaluation of the CIP program or CIP budget here for future projects? Steve. Scharfenberg: I’ll just kind of highlight you know part of the meeting. The neighbors were curious as to why we were out there tonight. I think any time you hold a meeting they want to know what’s going on so we advised them that we had put this down as one of our goals for 2010 and wanted to meet with the neighborhood and just talk about the park and was there anything they would like to see added and stuff so there were people talked about adding to the playground area. That they would potentially like to see some additional items put there. There was discussions about in the field space, green space that’s out there, talk of basketball court or even a backstop to prevent balls from, if they’re playing baseball out there, prevent balls from going into the woods. So there was also talk about access into Lake Minnewashta Regional Park. Todd shared you know what the use of that trail was and has been over the years and talked about you know at least engaging the County and continue talks about having access or gaining some access in there for the neighborhood, and most of the people that live in that neighborhood indicated that they use that access point a lot to gain access into the Lake Minnewashta. It’s used pretty much on a daily basis by a number of people and they like that. They like that point of access to be able to use that. Most of them all have stickers to the park already. County stickers so they’re not like they’re getting in for free and using the park for free. They’re using it already for walking trails. For snowshoeing and for cross country skiing and they enjoy that access to the park. So there was some discussion too about some sort of tunnel or bike bridge over Highway 7 to gain access across 7 into the north side and there was discussion about at some point we’ve got on our comprehensive trail plan putting a trail in along the south side of Highway 7 out to that LRT trail, and there was some indication by people that they really would appreciate something like that and overall I think what was nice is, I think a lot of people don’t know what park and rec does and how we go about improving our parks and a lot of it was just kind of getting to inform them. It was an informative meeting and telling people you know that we’ve got this pool of money and how do you divvy that up and so there was a lot of discussion. I thought it was a good, informative meeting and well attended. Daniel: Absolutely. And you know certainly there’s a couple things that I took from there as well in addition to everything you talked about Steve is, I’d say one of the difficulties in looking at that open space that we see there, which I think is a perfect you know soccer or lacrosse, even small baseball but I will say this. It’s difficult to get back there. The roads are narrow. I don’t think it’s accommodating for an increase in traffic so I mean again, those are things that we need to experience as commissioners and understand. I think come to a better understanding of. And I don’t think, at least from my point of view, there really would be anything beneficial in having something that’s scheduled. It’s a beautiful piece of property. That was really nice. That flat, open area. I mean again that’s perfect for you know a small soccer field but again I think unless it’s extremely limited to one day a night, whatever it may be, I think the traffic, let alone trying to identify and find the park is a little difficult. You know if you’re not accustomed to it. I think certainly the existing program of non official or just a non sanctioned events there like they do at 3 Park and Recreation Commission - August 24, 2010 all the other neighborhood parks certainly is understandable. No one’s going to really kick them off or do anything from that point of view but I don’t think it’d be in the City’s best interest to try to organize anything official there. But again it gave me a good understanding as far as what’s available and in terms of what we can do. Tom Kelly: I was surprised by the number of little kids in the neighborhood, just because when I was there 10 years ago when the slide was burned and everything, it just didn’t have the community park, it didn’t have a neighborhood park feel then as it did tonight. I thought it looked great and what was even said. I mean there were probably a couple little things that we could do to make that park a little better. I would like to know the inventory of all the equipment we have at all of our neighborhood parks. Is Herman Park underserved when it comes to the equipment there or are they on par with, you know if you go to any neighborhood park and say you know what do you think about a basketball court? They’re all going to say yes so I’m just wondering is Herman Park under served with the amount of equipment that we have there or is it on par with all the other neighborhood parks that we have. My feeling is it’s probably a little under served but. Hoffman: Yeah it’s under, below it. It’s underdeveloped. The playground is slightly smaller. Fewer amenities and then the, there is no half basketball which most of the neighborhood parks have. Tom Kelly: Okay. Daniel: Glenn. Stolar: Just echoing the comments. I think it was a great turnout and it was a great event to have. I think the comment about, they were probably more informed about what the park commission does and what the park district does than they’ve ever been and I thought that that alone is worth it. To do these type of things at least once a year with some park that we don’t deal a lot with and get that kind of interaction. A couple years ago we went over by Carver Beach Park. Hoffman: And Cathcart Park. We were out at least the park commission. Stolar: Yeah so, I think the little amenities we could do to help them fix the boards around the playground area. You know every once in a while we’ve got to just go back, circle back and figure out what the neighborhood needs and go back and help them a little bit. And one of the reasons we went out there was to see is there an opportunity there for more extensive use, and I still think there is. I still think yeah despite it being back away, once you know where it’s at, you’re going to go there, but I don’t see any pressing need to do that either. I mean I think it can be if we get to that point but there’s no pressing need because I think like you said Tom, having been there now it seems like it’s more of a turnover of the neighborhood where they’d use the park a lot more if we put a couple more amenities in there. I mean they use it now. Tom Kelly: Right. 4 Park and Recreation Commission - August 24, 2010 Daniel: Elise. Ryan: Yes, again I thought it was great turnout. I think it was informative for us to hear that they get a lot higher usage than any of us anticipated. I think that was repeated multiple times. That it’s not only residents within the neighborhood that are using it that have children, but some of the other you know couples that have grandchildren is that where they bring their grandchildren to the park. To try to capture some of those smaller needs, again it was mentioned a couple times about the boards needing replacement. I think, I don’t know if it was revisited after I had to leave but moving the entrance to the trail. Todd did you ever walk down there and. Hoffman: We talked about it. Ryan: Okay. You know that that might be something easy to deal with where that washout was. Instead of having that be the entrance to the park, move it down the hill. I think people would probably appreciate something along those lines. And then even though it was kind of a funny comment about the track path, if we could get you know go out there and measure what that loop was and let them know that we did it you know and spray paint a line. You know it’s like little things like that where people would really appreciate that we listened to a comment like that and that’s simple enough to do. Hoffman: Did you all catch onto that one? Elise and I took a walk to see the connection. We noticed this well beaten trail throughout that park and we were contemplating if that’s the kids biking and here was this gentleman that runs that park obviously on a very frequent basis on the same path as his training route. Ryan: Yep. And then, and I don’t know if this is something that we do or we have the authority to do but again something that came up a couple times is the monitoring of the park and how often and when do they come. Is there any way that we could put signage somewhere that says this park is monitored by. Hoffman: There’s a Neighborhood Watch sign. Ryan: Right outside, okay. I didn’t see that. Alright. Hoffman: Yep. And so we’ll just remind them. Peter Anderley is back. Sergeant Jim Olson is on leave of absence as he runs for County Sheriff and so Jim Anderley is back. Pete Anderley, excuse me, and we talked about it today and that’s exactly what he said is deputies when they turn that corner they never know what they’re going to see at 11:00 or midnight so they are checking that now. They’re aware of it but when new deputies come on they always tell them, or not made aware of it so we’ll revisit that with them. Ryan: Okay. And then finally, not to put this on you Jeff but I think it would be nice if we sent a follow-up letter thanking the neighborhood and just acknowledge that people came out and that we’re working on some of the issues that were brought up at the meeting. Daniel: Yep, I think we can highlight a few things. 5 Park and Recreation Commission - August 24, 2010 Ryan: Or a postcard or I don’t know how you distribute information like that but. Daniel: Did you get names Todd at all or have people do a sign up? Hoffman: No we did not. We could do it on Facebook. We could do a letter to the editor. We could mail, we’d have to mail back 220 thank you’s and that wouldn’t work very well so Facebook or letter to the editor or. Daniel: I like the Facebook idea. Hoffman: We could do Facebook. Daniel: Even though I’m not on Facebook. Just sounds nice. It’ll be my one entry on there. Hoffman: Well there was a comment there today so some people might go check it out. Daniel: It did look really nice though. Tom Kelly: Yeah it did. Daniel: Actually all the parks. It’s a compliment to the department anyways. I mean all the parks are looking really nice this year. Okay. Cole, any comments? I know you didn’t get an opportunity to attend but certainly if there’s anything that you’d like to add. Cole Kelly: No. Daniel: Okay. Well again, I see within a realistic standpoint I agree with what Elise, and I think someone else had brought up as far as the maintenance. Just the small little amenities that could be improved upon such as the retaining walls along the border of the playground. Todd, I don’t know how difficult or how often you guys monitor that. Where does the responsibility of that? Would it be the maintenance department then? Hoffman: It’s just like anything else. You have to let it, try to wear it out so you’ve got all of it’s life out of it before we replace it so we’ll evaluate it. Take a look at it. Stolar: We just did South Lotus Lake a little bit ago because I know it had gotten to the same point, or had gotten worst actually. Hoffman: Yeah…short term I’ll put it on a Boy Scout project, Eagle Scout list and if we get an Eagle Scout from that area, that would be a great project for them and they would replace it with the recycled timbers. The plastic timbers instead of the wood back there. Daniel: Okay, great. You know and as far as I think if we took away 3, 4 things that I think would be applicable in the short term as well as long term, the idea of certainly expanding the playground is something worth evaluating and considering within the CIP budget. I like the idea 6 Park and Recreation Commission - August 24, 2010 of a basketball court. I mean if it’s a low cost Todd, investment as you mentioned around $10,000, I think that’s again something that is a little more palatable and I think will go a long way in a small park like that. I mean that’s something that well I think we’re able to draw. If you look at again, whether it be Curry Farms or any of the parks that are around, they I think for the most part, a lot of them, most of them do have at least a basketball court, right Todd? Hoffman: Yes. Daniel: And then also the access point into the park, and I think if anything, if there’s one thing that we could contribute, certainly would be the erosion factor. I don’t necessarily think we need to have the park, the County park’s permission to do maintenance work in our area because you can see the erosion physically or redirect some convenient paths you know for people to access within our own park but I think that certainly would be beneficial. Like I said you can see that and you know again I don’t know what type of costs or where that would come out but I think it would be a minimal investment. Hoffman: Yeah, that would be an in-house project at really no cost. It would just be in-house labor so we’ll put that on a to do list and if we get up and activate any other type of a project that we can combine with that and make that happen. Daniel: I think that would be, I think that would be something that they certainly would appreciate and would go a long way, and if anything at least it shows that we’re listening and responding to some of their needs. But you know certainly if we want to consider, and it’s a good transition into old business now with regards to the CIP projects coming up here. We should certainly maybe consider whether it be a playground or expansion of the playground, actually the basketball courts. I know we’ve pushed Sugarbush off for probably the fifth or sixth year in a row now but again it comes down to evaluation of what’s needed. I think somebody hit it right on the head too. I was surprised as well. You know it was just a great comment to hear that as he comes there every day, how it’s being used more and more and more and more because again that’s the kind of feedback we don’t get and especially given the park’s proximity and I think small number of people within that neighborhood, the Minnewashta Manor area, that’s great to hear. And again there were a lot of kids there. That’s good to see as well. So it tells me that the neighborhood has turned over so. Hoffman: Chair Daniels, for the record I can read the list of ideas. Daniel: Yep, that’d be great. Hoffman: And if there’s any amendments or adjustments, at least we’ll get it into the record. Things we’re going to do right away are Dutch elm removals, playground border evaluation, the trash can lid. We’ll get a new lid out there so that’s easier to put on. And then other things that are being considered are additional playground equipment, doing some fencing or bollards for the, so the cars can’t go out right at the, where there’s the entrance to the park. Ballfield, consider aggregate in the backstop. More things for pre-teens or teenagers. Access to the regional park. It seemed like they just want to keep it as is but maybe with a re-route around the bottom of the hill. Address the erosion issue. There was some question about there would be a 7 Park and Recreation Commission - August 24, 2010 parking issue if we used that field for organized sports. There’s only 8 spots there. It is currently utilized by some Tonka United coaches for practice. They would like park patrols to continue. There was question about what would happen if it’s ever turned over by the City and it would have to go to the regional park. A lot of walk in neighborhood use. More kids activities would be welcome. They mentioned that maintenance has been good on the park. Basketball hoop was something that was talked about. Portable toilet was something that was talked about. Highway 7 access for trail over to Shorewood would be preferred but is something that is currently not in the Comprehensive Plan. People do keep it clean. There was a comment that Commissioner Stolar received about dog waste disposal. If there were bags available, it’d be more convenient. And that’s all. Daniel: I guess the other subject that we certainly could bring up, and evaluate but my only concern looking at the map is the extension of the trail from, kind of where it ends Todd. Is it right at Minnewashta Parkway? And go from Manor Road all the way out to Minnewashta Parkway, correct? Hoffman: Correct. Yeah, it’s in the comp plan already. Daniel: But I think from Minnewashta Parkway we still, even if we were to budget it, would not be able to reach the LRT because we encroach into the City of Victoria, correct? Hoffman: Just maybe for a slight little distance but it’s, we could work with that. Daniel: Yeah, it’s workable. Hoffman: The other thing to consider is, instead of going all the way from Minnewashta Parkway, you could go in that neighborhood and go on residential streets along ways west towards that last exit/entrance. It’s probably only a right in, and then you could take it from there. So it’d be a much smaller project. Maybe $100,000 versus $500,000 and you still give people an opportunity to get there so you do that as an interim measure to building an entire trail section. Daniel: Where would that go. Hoffman: You know where that trail? There’s a road, a neighborhood that goes, it’s behind the fire station. So that neighborhood behind the fire station on the south side of Highway 7. So then you could take the Minnewashta Parkway trail. Enter that neighborhood on neighborhood streets. Go all the way to the west side of that neighborhood and you pop back out on Highway 7. If you start the trail at that point you’re going to make it a, it’s about a fifth as long as if you brought it all the way from the fire station so you could do that. Daniel: So we just do that little section. Hoffman: As an interim measure so we’ll take a look at that. Bring you some numbers and diagrams. 8 Park and Recreation Commission - August 24, 2010 Daniel: That’s a good idea. And certainly than you can re-route your mapping too. Hoffman: Yep. Well at least you, that’s what happened on where you were tonight. We stopped the trail and brought it into the neighborhood because it just didn’t make financial sense to take it all the way down to the SA. Just too much trail when you could be on a residential road. Daniel: I mean Church Road takes you to Cathcart Park. I mean it essentially is right there at the LRT. The far northwest corner of that next to the, across from the church. That goes right to the LRT there so I mean it wouldn’t be, it’s not as if we’re that far away but nonetheless it’s, you know it’s the million dollar project getting under Highway 7 and certainly we’d need approval from the State and it’s just a lot of work, unless you go over which still, nonetheless. It’s a lot of, that’d be extremely costly. It’d be fantastic if there was something. Hoffman: It would never happen with that one that close to the west. Daniel: No, just and we understand that too so I think that’s a good idea though to certainly evaluate. You know Todd if we could, I don’t know if we need to make an amendment or certainly a request but to at least do an evaluation on that. You know as far as re-routing and maybe shortening that up for our next meeting or sometime this fall. We can get a chance to evaluate it and see you know how far we would have to go and then also how far it would have to encroach into the city of Victoria as well. Hoffman: Yep, we’ll bring that back. Daniel: Okay. Alright. Any other discussions with regards to Herman Field? If not, let’s move onto the CIP. APPROVE RECOMMENDATION TO CITY COUNCIL, 2011-2015 PARK AND TRAIL ACQUISITION AND DEVELOPMENT CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM (CIP). Hoffman: Thank you Chair Daniels and members of the commission. Tonight we’ll go over the recommended list as it currently stands and then I’ll run through that and then we’ll talk about what’s not in there because there’s a lot of projects that you’ve seen that have been on your radar and that are currently not on this recommended list so I’ll talk about those and then I’ll give it back to the commission for your deliberation. Go ahead and start. So these are the recommended park and trail acquisition and development CIP. Does this come up on your other screen too? Daniel: Yep. Hoffman: For 2011 through 2015, that 5 year time period. So we have a few projects that occur annually all five years. Those include picnic tables and benches. $10,000 annually out of the park fund. We purchase new tables. We purchase park benches and then we also purchase in the upper right hand corner, the memorial park benches for resale and those resale to the community at $1,000. If you noticed when you came in, but we have the tree. Go take a look at 9 Park and Recreation Commission - August 24, 2010 it. So outside the memorial giving tree is up in the hallway up and for both the trees and the benches. And sometimes this dollar amount is not expended. Sometimes it is. Just depends on the type of project. Annually trees are funded and currently that level is $25,000. That has been less. $10,000 to $15,000 annually out of the park fund. It purchases new trees for our spring and fall tree planting. Funds special tree planting projects. We just had a vandalism case at Carver Beach and we went and replanted so that, those dollars come out of here. With seed restoration but we have to have a fund to pay for it so if you go down to Carver Beach community beach, you’ll see some, there was a neighbor that cut down a tree. We charged him but we don’t know if we’ll get that restoration but we replanted and that happens from time to time. Daniel: And Todd you know when we talk about tree replacements, I mean what, are we getting consultation from the Arboretum? I mean what type of trees have we been leaning towards? Hoffman: We have a specified list that our arborist keeps on file and so it’s getting smaller. Can’t have ash now and there’s some other trees that are not on there but we have, yeah we have a specified list that not only is for our use but also for the developers and so you have to plant off of that list and when you’re building a development in Chanhassen, and we use that list for our tree plantings as well. Traditionally what you’re seeing is more diversity and so you plant more species of trees rather than less. It drives landscape architects crazy because they like to plant everything, all in straight rows and all in, or maybe curvy roads but all the same type of tree so we mix it up a great deal. For example now if you drive past which I just simply can’t believe. If you go through St. Peter, you look at their entire new downtown plantings, every tree is an elm and they’re diseased. Resistant elms but they all planted elms with that so obviously we haven’t learned yet. The annual tree planting program has been accelerated recently to mitigate against the future loss of ash trees. Last night at the council budget session, talked about that they may give this to the Environmental Commission to come up with an ash tree replacement plan or an EAB, Emerald Ash Borer plan so we’ve got to get on top of that before it gets here so this will help. Help our tree program will help but there might be more that happen. Any questions on trees? Scharfenberg: The money that we allot every year for trees, do we spend all that money or I mean is it? Hoffman: Typically we do but sometimes we don’t. But typically we do. $25,000 doesn’t go far. Typically a planted tree is $300 to $400 planted in the field, depending on the species. This is 2011 so next year Pioneer Park acquisition. Pioneer Park acquisition. It’s all out of the park fund. That’s $290,000. That’s the purchase agreement is just under that. The acquisition of the first neighborhood park in the 2005 MUSA area. That’s a 624 acre section of our community. You can see on the right hand diagram, that’s Pioneer Pass development. The park is within that and it’s the first neighborhood park in that region of our community. The grading photo, they just started grading yesterday on that site so they removed the vegetation that was growing out there and they started grading Pioneer Pass. So this $290,000 will be a check written over to the developer. We’ve acquired half through dedication. The 8.7 acres and then half through the acquisition and price here was reasonable compared to what we would have been paying in recent years so it was right around $83,000 an acre for this property. The half that we bought. Questions on that? We’ll tour that property here shortly. We can get down there yet this year. 10 Park and Recreation Commission - August 24, 2010 Disc golf construction. $20,000 for the construction of a 9 hole disc golf course at Bandimere Park in 2011. That’s out of the park fund. Highway 41 trail extension. This is the addition to the County project and so this would be the extension to Highway 7 and the Highover Drive stairway. Those are two separate components but they have to be City financed. We have asked SRF Consulting, the County’s consulting firm, to take a look at planning these segments for the community. It makes sense to do them at this time with the overall project. So the trail on Highway 41 stops at Minnewashta or Minnetonka Middle School and so this City project, the one we’re talking about here, would extend it from the school to Highway 7 and then we would build the stairway into the Highover neighborhood, right about where the Highway 41. Daniel: So it is stopping on Chaska Road? Hoffman: Right now it’s stopping at the school driveway. Daniel: Gotch ya, okay. Hoffman: And our extension, we asked the County to extend it. They said the project only goes, their project only goes to the school so if you want to extend it, you’ll have to extend it on your own. We might as well hire the same consultants to design it, if we want to do it. Might as well hire the same contractor to build it but it would be on a separate agreement for the City to be paying for it, that addition to that. Stolar: Hey Todd, can we ask questions about this because when I looked at that intersection there, there’s no crosswalks at that intersection on the side we’re building it on. Hoffman: Nope. We have to be working with the State to add that in. Stolar: So you got those crosswalks and they go past the right turn lane, which is always, as we’ve talked before, it’s always an issue because of the visibility. So yep, it seemed like a good idea but then right afterwards I happened to be going by there and I’m like ah, I don’t know that that’s. Daniel: It’s not a turn lane like it is on 5 going on Laredo or. Stolar: Yeah. Hoffman: It’s a trail leading up. Daniel: No, no, no, no, I know but it’s a merge. Not a yield. Stolar: Right. Yeah, it’s a little bit challenging so I’m still concerned about the safety there. If we’re taking people to an area that’s, even if you put in the crosswalks it’s going to be very challenging. 11 Park and Recreation Commission - August 24, 2010 Hoffman: It is challenging. It’s just like any other, the Highway 5 crossings now. Same thing. You have no protection at that turn lane. You have to make that decision to cross until you get to that island. Stolar: Having dropped my kids off at, my son off at Minnetonka West, the people coming in the morning, they don’t look. They just go. Right there. They just, they drop their kids off and they are just flying out there so I’m just very concerned about the safety. Daniel: Is there any reason, or you just don’t do it across a highway where you had mentioned, where you have a safety island. Is it just because of the speed? The 50 miles per hour zone where you can put a lighted crosswalk. Not a stop but a lighted crosswalk. I mean like it’s a flashing, you know. The flashing sign’s yellow and you can put your crosswalk let’s say in the middle. I mean from somewhere inbetween. Hoffman: They might do a warning flashing. Daniel: Yes, yeah. Hoffman: Yeah, they might do that. Daniel: I mean and you know right where that park comes out, I remember that trails comes out right behind the mall there. I think right out here. If there’s…that goes right directly into Chaska Road. Something like that. Hoffman: Yeah, if you’re hesitant to extend it what we can do is just study what is the best way to get pedestrians both across 41 and across Highway 7. Daniel: Yep. Hoffman: So we don’t know that and we can work with the School, the State. The Safe Crossing program that the State has. Safe school crossing. There could be some financial contribution… Daniel: Okay. Just some thoughts. Hoffman: And then the stairway connector to the south. Two connection points on the north are Lake Lucy and the south Longacres Drive and this would be an intermediate connection. Stairway leading directly. It’s kind of, it starts right at the tunnel so right where the tunnel comes out and the stairway will go straight up the hill, and then onto the street at Highover Drive. One improvement that goes both in 2011 and 2012 is the last two years of the Rec Center fitness equipment. Just $10,000 annually comes out of the capital replacement fund and so it’s not in the park funds. We’ve purchased equipment for 3 years already and these final 2 years will be the fourth and fifth year of a 5 year replacement plan. 2012. Recommending a Bandimere Park tree replacement project split equally between the park fund, $30,000 and the capital replacement fund of $30,000. The park fund’s $30,000 would be taking, planting really what was the other half of the original park planting. When Bandimere was planned, there wasn’t enough money to 12 Park and Recreation Commission - August 24, 2010 do the full tree planting project and so an alternate was deleted so basically you have half of the trees that were originally planted at Bandimere that were planned. And then of the other trees that were planted, the 50% that were planted in the original plan, many of those have died due to disease, stress. The picture there. They just are not performing very well on Bandimere. And then also we want to start replacing some of the ash trees because it’s predominantly ash in Bandimere Park so we’re working on replacement plan. It takes $60,000 to do it. We could use the $25,000 you have already but it would take the next two years to make that happen and we think it’s worth accelerating the plan based on the current state of trees and where we’re headed with combating Emerald Ash Borer. Trunk Highway 5 pedestrian underpass at Minnewashta Parkway. This is funded already or it’s approved for $80,000 out of the park fund and we have a grant from the State of Minnesota. Paul Oehme, one of my colleagues, our City Engineer applied for that through SRF and it’s basically the underpass is part of the overall project. There’ll be a lot of, all the turn lanes that you see there. This is Minnewashta Parkway and Highway 5. The building on the top is the church at that corner. That’s Mr. Boorsma’s house in the bottom. No road improvements will be go south of Highway 5. All the improvements on the road will be at the surface, at the intersection. Primarily with turn lanes and then the underpass that will be constructed. We’ve talked with the church. They’re very excited about having that underpass there. We have to buy some property from them for the underpass to make that happen. And then this becomes the first half of the loop trail through the Arboretum and then coming out on the other side. The trail would connect to the gravel road, which you can see there in the photo and so now pedestrians and bikes could come underneath Highway 5 at that location. The $80,000 out of the park fund is to match that matching share for that federal grant. Daniel: And again there’ll be no semaphore lighted? There’ll be no lights there? Okay. Hoffman: And to be quite honest some of the people are not real happy. They’re a little bit angry that a pedestrian underpass goes in before. They would just as soon save their money. Don’t put that in putting stop lights in but that’s not how it works. The stop light is not, until the road goes into the Arboretum, if they build that road and then it might not even meet warrants. Currently it doesn’t meet warrants. There’s not enough trip generation at that T intersection. To get enough trip generation you could add the other road and then, especially if you made that some kind of a significant entry into the Arboretum. Then it would probably have enough trip generation at all those 4 intersections to warrant a stop light but currently it does not. These turn lanes will help but it’s not, they would prefer stop lights. Tom Kelly: Is the Arboretum planning on doing any improvements with this road in conjunction with this underpass or is it going to be as is until we build our trail a year or two after that? Hoffman: Probably be as is for a while until they come up with a master plan. They are working with their architect and design on some kind of an internal trail loop in the Arboretum. But it would probably stay as is for I don’t know, some period of time. Questions on this one? Tom Kelly: Are people going, it’s a great idea. Are people going to complain it’s a road to nowhere? When this thing is built they’re going to say okay, we have an underpass that leads to a dirt road. And I love it because I think it’s a great way to get underneath Highway 5 but I’m 13 Park and Recreation Commission - August 24, 2010 just wondering if the overall perception of this is going to be why did the City spend money on this. It’s not doing anything. Hoffman: Well it’s already being used. People are crossing there already as a pedestrian access. Tom Kelly: Okay. Hoffman: And it’s not improved. It’s a little gravel driveway but people are using it today and I don’t, I’m not sure if they’re going to be able, people that usually are going to go there to use the Arboretum…but it doesn’t stop. You would have a continuation. Tom Kelly: Right. Well I’ve crossed that road many, many times but I’m just wondering you know. Hoffman: We’ve built some worst dead ends. Stolar: Got to have one or two so we can always talk. Hoffman: Skate park ramp replacement and asphalt resurfacing. Again splitting this 50/50 with the park fund and the capital replacement fund. It’s brand new equipment and then asphalt for both the skate park and then the hockey rink. Both those areas need attention on the asphalt. Stolar: Todd this is different than what you have in the document here. You had 110 in the old, all in the capital replacement fund. Hoffman: Then this slide is an error. I was wondering why it said that so. Stolar: Okay, good. That’s good. Hoffman: Yeah, because it is all capital. Stolar: All capital replacement, okay. Got it. Hoffman: We’ll correct this slide and it’s correct in the spread sheet then. Stolar: Okay. Daniel: Hey Todd, have you had an opportunity to go over to Mound and take a look at their skate park? Hoffman: In Mound, yep. The bowl and the concrete. Daniel: That’s impressive. Hoffman: Yep. 14 Park and Recreation Commission - August 24, 2010 Daniel: Now what would something like that cost? You know…did you talk to anybody in Mound? Hoffman: I don’t know what specifically it cost. Probably a quarter to half a million dollars. Daniel: That’s what I thought. Because that’s I mean again, that’s a phenomenal amenity that they have. For these, for this type of recreation. I wouldn’t suggest we go that direction. Hoffman: Yeah. This park has been a tremendous success. No question. We’ve talked about it but there continues to be examples. We have a young lady who’s over there as a skate park attendant this past week and she got to know a mom and a couple of kids that had found the skate park on the internet from Albert Lee. Drove up. They came to Chanhassen for the day to attend the skate park so that’s, and that’s not the first time we’ve heard this. People have found it from around the state, around the metro and come to the Chanhassen skate park because the kids find it on the chat rooms and people really like our skate park because of it’s proximity and it’s wood ramps and they like the way it feels as well so it’s popular and you know that’s an economic engine at that point. You know these people are coming to town, spending their money. Utilizing our park services so it’s a significant amenity for us. We certainly got our $110,000 dollars worth of it over the past 7 or 8 years. Daniel: Is it worth, before we move forward with the replacement are we going to sit down and talk to, I mean will there be a little meeting with some of the skate boarders and kids to say what are you looking for? What do you want? Hoffman: Yeah. It’ll be a clean slate. This stuff is all going to be hauled out and the rail might stay or be reinstalled but it’s primarily going to be a clean slate. Start over. This equipment is reaching it’s, the day when it’s just not worth repairing because it’s so far gone. We still repair it but it’s kind of like repairing something that’s just too old. It doesn’t seem like it’s worth getting new material and the time and labor that you put into it. Scharfenberg: Todd is there any, like I was going to say EBay but that places that maybe have built skate parks and they say well, we never really used them and so they try to dump their equipment. I mean is there a thing out there that. Hoffman: There is a market. Most of it is used equipment, not new equipment that somebody wants to get rid of so most of it would be going to smaller communities that can’t afford new equipment or something like that. And then at that point you don’t get what you are looking for. You get what is for sale but typically it’s older equipment where somebody is updating or out growing what they currently have… Scharfenberg: And the thing that brought this to mind is people, I know Tom and Glenn if you travel south on 94, the Three Bear’s Lodge by Warren, Wisconsin there when they built that lodge they built a great big skate park. Well at that park I think they part of that is open. I don’t know if they’re still using their skate park but I thought, you know I wonder if they would ever sell whatever they have and you could buy, that isn’t that old. That equipment isn’t that old. 15 Park and Recreation Commission - August 24, 2010 Stolar: And it wasn’t really used because they went bankrupt before they opened. Scharfenberg: Right, yeah. Stolar: Then someone bought them out of bankruptcy and it kind of came alive a little bit. It seems like half of it’s closed still. Hoffman: Yeah, we’ll take around and see what’s out there. This equipment is all stick built on site so transportation can be a challenge. Scharfenberg: Yeah. Hoffman: Thanks for the correction Glenn. I appreciate that. In 2012 and 2014 we have some tennis courts identified. Again out of the capital replacement fund. Re-build the two courts at Chan. Two of the four courts at the Chan Rec Center. Those are the south two courts. There was a settlement on the most easterly court just about immediately after it was built. At that time we installed a drain and did some patching but it’s just never been up to the level that the community has desired and so when people show up they play in the north courts first and then if they have to they play in the south courts. And then patching and resurfacing most of the remaining courts could, depending on the level, could be accomplished in 2014 with $75,000. Daniel: How’s Lotus? Hoffman: Lotus? Daniel: South Lotus tennis courts. Hoffman: Yep. Daniel: Are they still in good condition or are they? Hoffman: Doing pretty good. There’s some significant cracks out there and that’s what you come back and do most of your patching on is the larger cracks and they seem to be holding up pretty well. Daniel: Okay. Hoffman: Tennis courts at North Lotus, South Lotus, Chan Rec Center, Meadow Green. Ruegemer: Lake Susan. Hoffman: Lake Susan. Lake Ann. That’s where the tennis courts are currently. Plans for tennis courts at Roundhouse Park. We haven’t constructed new tennis courts in a lot of years. 2013. We’re looking at a pedestrian trail to the Arboretum and basically what we’ve included here is $250,000 in grant seeding money. The project overall would be in the million to two million dollar range with the underpass if it was included. This diagram shows a schematic of a 16 Park and Recreation Commission - August 24, 2010 potential, well probably the preferred location. Lifetime would be on your right. The Arboretum’s on your left and the underpass would come and branch around the sign that you have at the Arboretum. The large curved sign. So that underpass does work. This schematic was developed to test whether or not an underpass does work at that location. And it would. Tom Kelly: And it was slowed down because of the grant? Is that the reason? Because we had this coming earlier. Hoffman: We had this scheduled for the trail and maybe a half a million dollar range in the CIP and that would have been for this section of trail without the underpass. Tom Kelly: Okay. Hoffman: And let’s see if we go with, the trail starts, the bottom picture it starts all the way over at Century, thank you. And then it continues in front of Lifetime. There’s the intersection so you either cross at grade or you go with the underpass which would be around the sign. It’s not shown on this, the underpass is not shown. Then this is the continuation. The bottom slide shows it coming again farther west. Then the top slide continuing west to the entrance road to the Arboretum. Since this diagram was constructed the Arboretum has again expressed concern. They’re not quite sure what they think of the last section of trail coming, bringing it up to the gatehouse because they have so many plantings along that road so they want to be real respectful of those plantings and careful about how they make that connection so. The Arboretum is coming along in all these trail projects but they want to make sure that they meet their master planning as well and what they’re doing… So with the underpass it would be a million and a half, million 8 and we just don’t have those kind of dollars and so to meet the $2.5 million in a 5 year CIP, that backed us off from a half a million to I think it’s the 250. And meeting with some consultants this week to talk about a grant application here for the next funding cycle. This is the Pioneer Park development of land that we looked at earlier. I don’t have the hard estimate on the development. The $350,000 is a place holder with the construction of the 8.7 neighborhood park being acquired this year. It has a typical park management but something more like maybe a North Lotus or Roundhouse that has the ballfield spaces. Parking lots. The two playgrounds. Nice trail loop and it’s also been expanded and enlarged. That cul-de-sac is no longer in the plan so this schematic did not include the additional land to the south. Daniel: With the ballfield, is that something that’s available for scheduling? I mean I’m looking at the parking lot, if it comes out here. You’re at almost 20 spots. Hoffman: That would be something that we’d have to talk, determine right off the bat. Are we scheduling Sunset right now? Ruegemer: We are scheduling Sunset at North Lotus. Scharfenberg: For T-ball. Ruegemer: And girls softball. 17 Park and Recreation Commission - August 24, 2010 Stolar: For practices. Ruegemer: Yeah, and games. Stolar: Oh games, really? Hoffman: This park could accommodate it I think because of the, it’s separated from the neighborhood proper by the road and then maybe we could size that parking lot to accommodate that. And it’s pretty well removed from everything else going on in the city so parents in that area would appreciate, you know especially for the younger ages, having some games, some practices there. They’re going to have a model home up by January and they hope to have both phases of the develop, 94 homes built out by 2012 or 2013. Daniel: Pretty aggressive. Hoffman: Rottland has, or excuse me, Ryland has 5 properties and this is the only one they’re doing in the metro. Pioneer Pass. 2014. There is some movement on this lot. It’s the Chanhassen Nature Preserve final phase. This is a picture of the last phase we built. It doesn’t show the final phase. If you take a look at the top of the diagram, that’s the dead end and then it’s showing half of the future lot. How we work the trails in Arboretum was when the lots were developed, then they had to build the trails. So when that lot is sold they have to build that final trail connection. It’s part of their development contract to build it. We have to pay for it and so our costs are going to be about $90,000. Just got a call yesterday on that, that there’s somebody looking at that lot and so when that lot is built out, then this trail will be built so it’s kind of a floating number but we have to have it available to finish that last section of trail. That’s the intersection of Century and Chaska, what is that road? nd Ruegemer: 82. nd Hoffman: 82 Street, yeah. You remember we built this just about 3 years ago. 2 years ago maybe this last segment. Bluff Creek Drive gap trail and this is the $390,000. That would fund primarily the entire construction coming out of the park fund. A 10 foot wide pedestrian trail on the east side of Bluff Creek and it currently terminates right at the point in the picture. Just before the big long white fence. That trail was built as a part of the Highway 212 improvements when the bridge was put through there so it stops. Being a pedestrian or a biker on Bluff Creek Drive is not real friendly because you basically take up one traffic lane so all traffic has to move into the other traffic lane so it gets pretty tight. Bluff Creek Drive is narrow intentionally because of traffic calming hopes and so there’s lot of traffic complaints in that road from the residents and so when it was rebuilt it was kept very narrow for traffic calming to try to keep the speeds down. Tom Kelly: And the hills don’t help either in terms of pedestrian. I mean in terms of cars seeing pedestrians on the road. Hoffman: Yeah, we planned it out and bottom. Starting at the bottom. The gravel you see there is the LRT at the conclusion of the trail. It continues up. The middle picture takes it up past the 18 Park and Recreation Commission - August 24, 2010 Hesse Farm Road and then the last picture takes it back to the connection point. The top picture in the left is the connection point with the dead end trail you saw in the picture. And the reason this is important I think is because it’s the first official connection to the river valley LRT’s and so we have all these trails up on the high ground in Chanhassen but you really can’t get to the LRT or Chaska via an official trail system. You’d have to go on road here on Bluff Creek or Highway 101. I don’t recommend going on Highway 101 down that. So most all of the pedestrians are on Bluff Creek right now so that would be a nice trail segment to build. 2015 we have, I think a single item and that’s the future acquisition. There’s a development there. It says John Klingelhutz property and this housing development’s been bouncing around for over 15 years. It shows a residential neighborhood sandwiched kind of right in the middle between Highway 212 on the north and Lyman on the south. You have two existing neighborhoods. The Lake Riley development which is now called, what is that called by the lake? I don’t remember, and then the townhouse neighborhood next to it. We have two existing neighborhoods that don’t really have a good park service area. They development this area and basically what you’re, you’re either going to tell these folks you need to walk through Springfield to Bandimere or we can build this small neighborhood park. I think it’s about 4-4 ½ acres on that corner of that property and allow people to have access to a neighborhood park at that location and then the sidewalks and trails that run east and west to connect all those neighborhoods. Ryan: Is that just west of those townhomes that were recently built? Hoffman: Just east of there. The last development next to Bearpath? Ryan: Yes. Hoffman: Yep. That’s on the far, far side of the plan. Lakeside. That’s what it’s called. Ryan: Oh, okay. Tom Kelly: How many homes do you think will go in there? Hoffman: What is there? 70 or 80. Is there a lot count on that plan. I can’t read it from here. Scharfenberg: Is that going to be developed by then? We just don’t know? Hoffman: We think so. We just don’t know. They’ve been back and forth, back and forth, and it would be, parkland would be acquired through park dedication and then cash acquisition. So that’s the end of the recommended. Then some things that we’ve taken out, and I think most of you have been around for these. Highway 101 north. That Pleasant View Road connection. Currently you don’t have any room for that. Let’s see. Rice Marsh trail connection around the south side of Rice Marsh. Liberty at Creekside trail connection, which will be developed. I’m not real concerned about that one. Some lake, boat access docks at Lake Ann and Lake Susan. There’s a bunch of playground replacements. Stolar: Are those replacements or additions? 19 Park and Recreation Commission - August 24, 2010 Hoffman: Additions, yep. Phase I for the Manchester Park which will be concurrent with the west water treatment plant. Roundhouse Phase II. Sugarbush Phase II playground. Stolar: Are those, were the original playgrounds in there put in before or after Herman Field? Hoffman: Probably about the same time. Stolar: About the same time. Daniel: Yeah looking at the equipment over at Herman, that’s, it’s pretty nil. I mean you know they’ve got nice rounded poles. Stolar: I remember Roundhouse was too. I couldn’t remember which one was later but they’re basically the same situation, right all three of those. Daniel: Well they had to replace Herman because it was set on fire. Hoffman: Just a slide. Daniel: A slide? Okay. Hoffman: That Herman Field playground is, that playground is older than it looks. Daniel: 15? Hoffman: 15 years or more. Daniel: I mean it’s faded. Hoffman: Those are some of the items that have not been included and then there’s other items that commissioners may have ideas on as well. So that’s all I have as a presentation. I’ll be glad to go back to any of those slides or answer additional questions. Daniel: Well thank you Todd. We’ve certainly had a lot of opportunity to talk about that, or talk about all the projects and certainly we’ve all come in agreement and conjunction with what the City or the staff has recommended for us to evaluate. I don’t really foresee any other changes within the short term for 2011-2012 unless there’s anything that stood out from any of the commissioners that maybe we need to re-prioritize. Like I said we’ve, I think we did this in the last couple months here so. I guess I will go back and ask the commissioners if there is anything that based off our meeting with Herman, that you would like to see added within the next 5 years. That might be certainly considered. Elise? Glenn? Stolar: I would like to, 250 for that Highway 41 trail extension to Highway 7 and the staircase I’m just not sure I’m in favor of that yet but I’d like to learn more to understand what the safety concerns are. It seems like a lot of money to take somebody to nowhere. I don’t see it being 20 Park and Recreation Commission - August 24, 2010 advantageous at that point. I understand advantageous of if we’re going to do it we should do it next year. I’m just not sure it gets us anything further. Hoffman: Well we for sure should take it to Chaska Road. Stolar: I can understand that, yeah. And so you know I’m okay with that. I just don’t see the need to go to Highway 7. Chaska Road and then they can take it inside and go further around. I like that idea but I’m not sure to 7. It just worries me to go, that we go, the stairs I don’t care one way or the other on that one. Daniel: My only, and certainly if you want to take it to Highway, if you want to cross, and I’ll still stand by my comments that if we want to cross or at least get an access point to, for example that path that then takes you along. Stolar: There’s no path there. Daniel: I want to say on the west side of 41, just north of the regional park, you literally could use old 41 as a road where it goes along the dog path and then once. I mean there’s some other options we can look at. You know you have the regional park, the west side. The regional park. Stolar: So right by the dog park there? Hoffman: Where you hit the fence. You hit the dog park so you’d. Daniel: But I’m just saying though, you hit there, it looks like there’s an old gated fence and I don’t know if it’s certainly we could access that. Hoffman: It’s part of the dog park. Marty has no interest in connecting the dog park to the trail system. Daniel: Does the dog park go right up to 41? Hoffman: Yes. Daniel: Okay, I couldn’t remember what the fence is, okay. So never mind then. Stolar: Yeah I was wondering because it ends there. Daniel: Yeah I know the old 41 ends right there. Stolar: Yeah. Daniel: But again if there’s a way, I mean again just a 10 foot path that can get you around, if they’re redoing it again because that’s. Stolar: Then you cross, so you’re saying the underpass should take you there… 21 Park and Recreation Commission - August 24, 2010 Daniel: Yeah, because that still take you further, a little bit further. It almost takes you a little bit further north of Lake Lucy Road and then you’ll have a couple neighborhoods, or a couple properties in which you’ve got to circumvent on the west side of 41 because you’ve already gone under, theoretically. You haven’t had to cross at 41 and 7 and then you can connect that path that’s right behind the shopping mall, where Jerry’s Floor Tile and Subway. And that leads you right into Minnewashta Manor and then from there you can get on 7 so I mean there’s some, I guess we could certainly evaluate some options. Stolar: Now that one would, you know similar, you said he would like to put a path in over there by the dog park or? Hoffman: No because the dog park is gated, fenced and so you can’t build a trail through the dog park. Daniel: Because there’s no room between the dog park and the road? Okay. And that’s what I was just curious. So I mean as far as we’re going to throw around some ideas and avoid having to cross 41, if you can take advantage of, take advantage of the underpass and make it beneficial. Let me ask this. Is the County expecting a fee when people do pay even as a pedestrian? Hoffman: No. Daniel: Only with motorized vehicles you go in, correct? Hoffman: Correct, yeah. Daniel: Okay. Hoffman: The challenge with trying to recreate anything on that west side is, you get into one of these situations where you’re going to have this trail on this side and then the underpass is down here and people want to cross here and they want to cross here and they’re really not very likely, if you’re coming out of this neighborhood, to make that down loop and then come back up. They want to cross here so this would be at the stop light and this would be the safe haven. You build an island in the middle of the road and so this is the school. The school, during the neighborhood meetings many of the people said why. Why are you putting this underpass down at the park? Put it up at the school. You know build two. We’d like to have two but you know the underpass is going at the park to get people in underneath here and you just don’t have the land, even if you wanted to do that, you have to have the land and you’ve got to have grade separation. Here you’ve got a lot of grade separation. The road drops away. The land drops away from the road so you’ve got room for a tunnel. Daniel: There’s not, I mean if you’re doing it at the school you’re best doing a bridge because of the elevation on the school side. Hoffman: Yeah. So if you’re uncomfortable with the number, that’s great. I understand that. I think we should move ahead with telling what are we going to do? How are we going to get 22 Park and Recreation Commission - August 24, 2010 people from the entrance to the school to Chaska Road? Chaska Road leads to the rest of the community in that area so we have to take the trail there at least. The stairway, you know you don’t have to build that stairway. Providing an access from that neighborhood that’s more direct to the, down to the underpass. Daniel: Well if the stairway’s not built a path will be naturally. Stolar: It’ll be hard because isn’t it pretty steep there? Hoffman: It’s pretty steep. Stolar: They’ll go around to Lake Lucy Road, right? Hoffman: Go around all the way to. Stolar: And then come across on the path and then go on the underpass. Daniel: But what I’m saying though for stairs, if it’s a staircase or, nonetheless they’re going to walk it and they’ll. Hoffman: They’ll walk it or take their bike alongside. It’s worth a trip out there. I think we should take a field trip. Daniel: And I think not only. Stolar: I always thought when we were first talking about it, it is steep. Daniel: And I think if we’re going to be doing an evaluation, or if we’re going to go study that area, we can also, I like the idea of take a look. You can stop off at Chaska Road and then we can, they’ll visually see the traffic and you know what type of obstacles we’re going to have to deal with at 7 and 41. Stolar: Yeah I think we should because I’m in favor of going to Chaska Road because then it does take them somewhere and then a safer path then into that neighborhood. I was just looking you know because even if we get them across 7, there’s really nothing right there or right across 7. So they’d have to, so I like the idea of Chaska Road. I think that’s a good idea. And then whether, even that neighborhood then can get to the school easier or can then, that brings that neighborhood into Minnewashta because then they can take the path all the way down and go on the underpass. That’s a really good idea. Daniel: Okay. Stolar: But yeah I think we should look at it. Daniel: I think why don’t we leave it in there but Todd, I mean certainly like to have an opportunity to re-evaluate and we can since it’s a 2011 project, we would have some time in the 23 Park and Recreation Commission - August 24, 2010 short term if we had to and decided that it’s not feasible, to push it out. Does that make sense? Or to eliminate it all together. Stolar: No, no, I think we should leave it in there. I just want us to look at this because if we do anything like to Chaska Road, we should do it when we build the rest of the trail. Daniel: Yes. Hoffman: The stuff you’re talking about is going to be built next summer so if you do it or you don’t do it, it’s going to happen next summer or it’s not going to happen so. Daniel: Regardless. Okay. Anything else? Steve? Scharfenberg: Well you know, after meeting tonight with, out there at Herman Field you know and you look at that $20,000 for a disc golf course. Not that I don’t oppose a disc golf course but you know try to update or provide some amenities or some additional stuff at Herman Field you know. Personally my thought is to do something there as opposed to building a disc golf course. Daniel: Okay. Tom. Tom Kelly: I would like to do something at Herman Field in addition to the disc golf course. I think the disc golf course, because it’s going in, I like to keep in mind you have community park and you have a neighborhood park and the disc golf course is going into a community park so I would not be in favor of, I apologize, replacing the $20,000 with Herman Field but I wouldn’t mind throwing $10,000 to $15,000 either in 2011 or 2012 for either basketball courts or maybe any similar type of playground equipment. Daniel: Okay excellent. Elise. Ryan: I agree. I don’t need to say more. I definitely agree with what Tom has to say. Daniel: And Cole, anything you’d like to add? Cole Kelly: Well I’m in favor of the disc golf course. I think that will add something to the community. And as far as the Herman Field goes, you know with money that comes out of the capital improvements, I’m not sure how much we need to put into it. I think a basketball court would be nice but then if we do it at Herman Field, what other fields are we looking at doing? People saying we want it at our fields too so I think we need to evaluate Herman Field more on a basis with other fields. What’s going on there. It’s more emotional when you go out and visit it and meet with the people that you want to do something for them right away and so to me I’d want to put that on hold and kind of have a bigger evaluation down the road. And I’m also looking at the funding for 2014 takes us down to $784,000 and I know last month there was the discussion that going below a million dollars was not a good idea. I don’t know if it is or if it isn’t but I just want to bring that up. 24 Park and Recreation Commission - August 24, 2010 Daniel: I think what we had done, and I don’t know if part of this is a certainly a risk on our end. I think there’s some reasonable assumptions on development increase and certainly as we get closer to that 2014, and I think Glenn you have been pretty adamant that we have a million dollar, at least balance. Minimum balance in the reserves. I certainly think that’s something that we need to hear too and I think as we get close enough, Cole that’s a very good point that if we certainly have those issues we adjust our project funding accordingly. There are some projects in here that certainly we can move out to keep us at that. And they continue to be moved out to keep us at that million dollar threshold. I think is that what you’re, is that essentially what you’re thinking about as well Cole? Cole Kelly: Correct. Daniel: Yeah. Cole Kelly: And certain things need to be done. Daniel: Yeah. Cole Kelly: I think we do need to have the expenses we’re going to have in 2011. But we’ve just got to look at it a little closer and you know if more development does happen then we’re going to be able to do more things down the road. But if it doesn’t happen, then we’ve got to tighten the seat belt. Daniel: Yep. Agreed. Tom Kelly: Following on Cole, could we request city staff put together a complete inventory of each park? The amenities at the parks and how many homes are within the half mile radius so we can see if there is, so we can see is Herman balanced or? I know you say it’s not but it’d be nice to have everything all out in front of us. Hoffman: Most the neighborhood parks today have a half court basketball. That’s just one of those amenities. It kind of comes right after the playground so the playground’s the first thing… then half court basketball so most of them have it. You know it’s not going to set the world on fire. It obviously adds something new for the teenagers. You know they’re not going to go down there and play on the playground but then they go down and shoot hoops so. Ryan: Well then to address Herman Field, maybe if we put the basketball court on hold until 2012 and do some, you know take care of some of the other issues like replacing the boards. Moving the you know access point to the trail. Do that you know now or 2011 and then, so we’re addressing some of the issues and following up to the meeting that we had with them today and then you know can re-evaluate next year to see if it makes sense to do the basketball court in 2012 and then we can keep the disc golf you know still in the budget for 2011. Daniel: Glenn, have you got comments since we’re on Herman Field? 25 Park and Recreation Commission - August 24, 2010 Stolar: I mean I would agree with the, I think we should maybe put a place holder in 2012. I know we’ve pushed some other, I guess the two questions. Roundhouse we’ve always pushed a couple things out there but we’ve done a couple things for them but they what 3 items that we’ve kept pushing out. The boards. Hockey. Daniel: Hockey. Tennis courts. Stolar: The tennis courts and the playground. Second phase of the playground but they do have a warming house, skating rinks so they have a bunch of amenities there. I know it’s a little bit bigger park. Sugarbush we kept pushing their playground out. Do they have a half court basketball? Hoffman: Sugarbush? I believe they do. Daniel: Yes they do. Stolar: So I would agree that we should put some place holder there to bring them. I’m using Sugarbush kind of as the benchmark because we’re postponed I don’t know what? Since I’ve been here so maybe 8-10 years we’ve postponed a Phase II. But they do have a basketball court and so I think Herman Field should have one of the two. Put a place holder here and then maybe we’ll talk to them next year and say which do you…playground or basketball? Daniel: I would say, again agreeing. I mean when Commissioner Kelly first stated, and Steve I certainly appreciate your opinion on the concerns on the investment to the disc golf and certainly it’s an investment and there’s a little bit of risk on it’s usage but you know based off of some input from the two fellows who brought the idea to the city, but it certainly is intriguing. It will, it does put the park on the map because I do see how often they are used. Especially at… and Bryan Lake Park where I go to once a week and I do believe that’s something that we should keep in the budget. My input as far as what we could invest into Herman Field would be, you know a $10,000 commitment, if that’s what it is for a basketball court, I think really would go a long way and I think they would really appreciate it. The playground equipment itself might run it’s natural course by the time we end up putting it into the CIP and the budget constraints are push it out continually like we are with Sugarbush. I don’t want to see that happen and it probably will reach it’s end of life anyways where we have to make a decision anyways so I would certainly hesitate. Looking at the playground equipment and I asked my son if he had fun on it. He was out there playing on it and he said yeah, it was fine. It’s a 7 year old. He didn’t seem to complain. Not that I want to use him as my barometer but nonetheless it, he is, he certainly had fun and played and enjoyed himself there. I think a basketball court, again with a $10,000 investment I think would bring that park up to par. I really do believe would go a long way and it shows that this meeting certainly had some, had some value from their perspective that you know for showing up and giving us their input and I think along with Todd measuring what the distance is and the circumference of that gentleman’s run would go a real long way. Stolar: There are 4 or 5 things that we can do… Hoffman: And which we will. 26 Park and Recreation Commission - August 24, 2010 Stolar: Which we will. That will give them the response and then I think if we do, I think what you’re saying also is in 2012 we put a half court basketball. Again we’re letting them have a choice whether they, at that time choose not, you know choose something else but we’ll put a place holder in 2012. I think that’d be good. I mean is that Steve? Scharfenberg: Yeah I’m just, I don’t think you have to make a decision if it’s a basketball court or playground…just a place holder and invite them back and let them have some input on the decision about what they want to do. Stolar: Yep. Scharfenberg: I’m still you know torn about the disc golf course. I mean I understand some people are interested in putting one out there. There’s, you know there’s one in Eden Prairie. There’s other ones close by. Would it be nice to improve that and add it? I don’t know if it, you know I don’t know but. Stolar: I mean I was on the board when we put it in in Eden Prairie, the first one. I was on their park commission…and they’ve gotten so much value out of it so, it’s like a skate park. And less maintenance. Hoffman: And cheaper. Stolar: Lot cheaper. Tom Kelly: And it appeals to older kids too. Stolar: Yeah. Scharfenberg: Yeah. Stolar: That one is one I…I think for $20,000 it’s worth to do it. And we found the space. That was the biggest issue we had before was we couldn’t find a space. Daniel: So based off of the recommendations I think the only change that we would have would be to slot what amount for Herman? $10,000? $15,000 for Herman Field to give us some playground? What would $10,000 get us for playground equipment? A slide? Hoffman: Not a lot. It’d get you one of those rope climbers or. Stolar: Well what about like one of those climbing walls that go next to the, because we were talking with them afterwards and we said you know, the toddler, the 2 to 5 you know as read in some of our documents here and what we’ve seen doesn’t really buy you a lot. The little kids don’t want it after, you know once they start walking they go to the big kids but we asked them about a climbing walls or something like that and they said yeah, that would be really nice. 27 Park and Recreation Commission - August 24, 2010 Daniel: So again we can leave that open to them but if we certainly allocate a certain amount of dollars in the budget for 2012. Hoffman: Then do what you want to do. If you want both you put 20 in there. If you want one, you put 10. Daniel: Well I think conservatively maybe we just budget 10 right now and certainly if there’s some changes based off of input and I think our discussions with now, they understand the process and if they have some ideas they can bring it and we can adjust accordingly if we think there’s a value in the future here so. Why don’t we, I think that’s the only amendment that we need to make, is that right Todd? So let’s just add the $10,000 in 2012 for Herman Field Park. And again we’ll leave it open until we get feedback as far as what the neighborhood would like to have there. Outside of that then why don’t we just go ahead with approving the recommendation by the park and rec department to the City Council. Unless there’s any objections. Is there anything else that would like to be added? Tom Kelly: I move to accept the proposed 2011 to 2015 Park and Trail Acquisition and Development Capital Improvement Program with the addition of a line item under 2012, $10,000 for Herman Field improvements. Daniel: Second? Ryan: Second. Hoffman: And it needs to be that it’s recommended to the City Council, not just approved. Tom Kelly: Okay. Daniel: Recommend to the City Council. Tom Kelly: I accept that amendment. Tom Kelly moved, Ryan seconded that the Park and Recreation Commission recommends that the City Council approve the 2011 to 2015 Park and Trail Acquisition and Development Capital Improvement Program with the addition of a line item of $10,000 for Herman Field improvements in 2012. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0. Hoffman: Thank you. Daniel: Thank you very much for your input and discussion. Hoffman: You’ll be seeing Highway 41 stuff yet this fall. Late fall. Daniel: Oh, you know what? I apologize. Steve, we had 3(a). We want to talk about batting cages. 28 Park and Recreation Commission - August 24, 2010 UPDATE ON BATTING CAGES AT BANDIMERE PARK. Scharfenberg: I just, has there been any discussion about adding on, and has staff looked into that at all? Hoffman: Adding out at Lake Ann? Scharfenberg: At Bandimere. Stolar: Where we said right next to the other cage, adding… Scharfenberg: We talked about adding on. Hoffman: I have not looked at it since we met that day. Stolar: Would that be a capital item though to put in? Hoffman: It would be capital unless it was, the improvements that are going in at Lake Ann are being done by the athletic association, CAA. What they did out there this year so at Lake Ann that was built and paid for so we’ll get a price for adding on or what that, either adding on or adding it on the other side. That would be a capital item. Depending on the cost. We’ll get that cost for you. Stolar: Kind of off topic. At Lake Ann they also finished the, they finished the concession stand right? Is that done? Scharfenberg: Yes. Hoffman: Yep. It’s being used at, little touch up on the paint and the floor needs to be done but it’s being used. Last week had a big tournament out there. Scharfenberg: So just so I understand with respect to that batting cage at Bandimere, staff’s going to look at that cost and we would have to look at that for CIP for potentially 2012. Hoffman: Or 2011. Scharfenberg: Or 2011, okay. Daniel: And I mean what’s the, the $10,000 price of that additional batting cage. I mean you’re talking what, posts and netting right? Hoffman: Yeah, it’s going to be under $10,000. Yeah. I mean you could add that at your next meeting if you wanted to. Daniel: So Steve do you want to bring that up again so we can have discussion on it. 29 Park and Recreation Commission - August 24, 2010 Scharfenberg: I will. Daniel: Okay, great. Alright. RECREATION PROGRAM REPORTS: KLEINBANK SUMMER CONCERT SERIES EVALUATION. Ruegemer: Thanks Chair Daniels. Just completing our sixth year for the current summer concert series that we’re doing here. Just had a lot of variety of music out there on Thursday afternoons and Thursday nights. Really from really all genres of music from country to jazz to children’s so had a, approximately about an average of 175 people come per event so that’s over 1,400 people that were there and enjoyed music throughout the course of the summer. Staff did move the day shows up half an hour to an 11:30 start to try to kind of get more of the daycares and stay at home parents to bring their children to the event, and it seemed to be pretty successful on kind of moving that up and getting some additional participation with that so. You know really showcasing City Center Park even more now with those types of events that are coming out so it’s been a great deal. I think some of the performers wished that we had some shade, especially at the 11:30 shows but you know we don’t and we’re certainly there to work with people and tell them up front that it’s not and we’re certainly giving some bottled water and that sort of thing to kind of get it through but you know like I said it’s for an hour or so so people have really kind of gotten through it and I think it’s great visibility. You know going through th town the people can see kind of what’s going on. When you’re coming down West 78 Street or you’re coming up Market Boulevard, that sort of thing so it’s really been a nice place to. Daniel: Does the City own Jerry a portable like just a 10 by 8 tent or something like that? Ruegemer: We do have some 10 by 10 tents, yes that we’ve set up you know for Klein and stuff in the past when they’ve come over and given away different promotional items or selling food and stuff out of it so. Daniel: Even for the band though I mean. Ruegemer: Yeah you know in some cases it certainly wouldn’t be big enough when you bring in like Minnesota Valley where they have 60 pieces and that sort of thing here but we certainly have had that available in the past for some. You know just kind of in an abbreviated promotional item that we had were the magnets. We certainly ordered a small number of those you know and just have had handed out those around town. I think people really kind of got a kick out of them and thought it was a great idea. Really a way for us to get you know another promotional item out into the community and people could kind of keep that on their refrigerator or you know their overhead cabinet at work, that sort of thing as a continual reminder that there are events coming up every Thursday with that so. We’re going to certainly approach Klein again for being the title sponsor on not only the concerts themselves but also going to pitch the magnet idea again. Certainly they got you know their name on the magnet itself and I think they got a little bit, a pretty good bang for their buck as well. For that we’re going to really try to you 30 Park and Recreation Commission - August 24, 2010 know increase our partnership with them. Looking forward to next year and we’re hoping that they saw the benefit of it and get that out in the community. And they’ve been a great sponsor up to this point just with handing out bottled water and face painters and you know different food and that sort of thing. It’s right out their back door and something that we feel’s been a great benefit for us as well them so I think they’ve been enjoying their partnership with it and enjoy being out every week for that. Staff did provide options for different snacks kind of during the concerts itself that we had sold. Ice cream bars and you know bottled water, snacks, that sort of thing here for that. We certainly would more likely look for an additional vendor or somebody to sell those items. That was nice to have somebody kind of come in and kind of take care of that from start to finish but we were unsuccessful this summer in finding a vendor for the full time with that but something we’ll definitely look at for the future. So again just some recommendations for next year. Just seemed like we had some momentum going where we’re getting some decent numbers on average per event and per show. We certainly will continue to offer you know kids shows that we can get stay at home parents and daycares, other types of people around town. Certainly businesses could come out and enjoy the shows as well but we’ve been kind of gearing those shows more maybe towards the kids and family entertainment for that and that’s been pretty well received. So other than that it’s a great venue. It certainly is a goal of our’s as our department to kind of get more exposure. Get more events within that space and it’s really kind of continuing to grow with that and we’ll take a look at next year and we’re very excited to bring the concert series back. Daniel: Alright, any questions for Jerry on the concert? Alright, thank you Jerry. You guys have done a great job with that. Driven by a couple times during lunch and a lot of people out there so. It’s good to see the attendance. FALL SOFTBALL LEAGUE. Ruegemer: Just as kind of an FYI memo for the commission tonight. We’re playing on Tuesday and Thursday night out at Lake Ann. Playing some double headers with that, which is 6 weeks so we’ll end up at about the mid to late part of September with that, with the regular season and rain out’s for that. Kind of an abbreviation of the summer league with that but I think teams really enjoy kind of just being out there again. It’s starting to cool down a little bit and people love the double headers so if we had additional fields in the summer time we could offer those additional double header leagues but we’re working on that hopefully. Stolar: Midnight leagues? Ruegemer: Midnight leagues. Stolar: Got the lights. Ruegemer: We do have the lights. Hoffman: But not the ordinance. Ruegemer: So but just a FYI for the commission tonight that softball is going for the fall league. 31 Park and Recreation Commission - August 24, 2010 DAVE HUFFMAN 5K MEMORIAL RACE. Ruegemer: We are meeting as a committee of 3 every week for the race. Just been busy you know getting all the sign and cone and all that order, you know arrange and all that kind of stuff and working with our street department, utilities and park maintenance to get some people to work for that day. So those conversations certainly have started. Been advertising with different means of newspaper ads and posters and articles on race berry and we did kind of a mailer to all past participants with that as well so we’re really trying to kind of get that up. Shirts are just about ordered here and will be here by within the next couple weeks here for that. Kids race will be going again this year for that and just kind of working on it every day. Just finalizing some sponsorship things for the sponsorship sign that want to get ordered yet this week for that so. Everything seems to be kind of progressing as scheduled up to this point and we’re just working on logistics. Have kind of a new layout for the park. We might move some things over to the south of the path to kind of have that to be the focal point with the stage and you know water area and working on 5 to 10 vendors to be up there as well to kind of help promote their businesses that’s related to the fair and sponsors and to the race and that sort of thing here too so working on that. th Ryan: I have a comment, suggestion. I noticed that it was on September 11. I know it’s about Dave Huffman but is there going to be anything like a moment of silence you know in remembrance of 9/11 or, you know it’s a significant day in our country’s history and might be something worth thinking about doing. Ruegemer: Okay. Good suggestion. Daniel: Also Jerry, how long is the kids fun run? What’s the distance? Ruegemer: It’s quarter to half a mile. Just some loops around City Center Park on the path. So it’s not extremely far. Daniel: Good point Elise. Thank you. Cole Kelly: Jerry I don’t know if the high school runners can run a 5K…they can’t. Another suggestion would be to get them to be some of the workers. Contact the coaches over at the high schools. Ruegemer: Yeah. I think they have a big meet that day don’t they in Eden Prairie? th Cole Kelly: I just looked at the calendar and there’s no meet on the 11. I think Eden Prairie’s thth the 18. But my calendar was free on the 11. Ruegemer: Okay. Good suggestion. Cole Kelly: And I can give you the names and number of the coaches over at Chan. I don’t know the coaches over at Minnetonka. 32 Park and Recreation Commission - August 24, 2010 Ruegemer: Is that Annie Paul? Cole Kelly: Yeah. Daniel: Okay, thank you Cole. REC CENTER SPORTS OPEN HOUSE. Ruegemer: Just an FYI. We have an open house coming up this coming Saturday at the Rec Center. Just really enthused about celebrating our first annual, first anniversary. I said first annual but first anniversary for the Rec Center sports program. Invitations have gone out to youth coaches and past participants and I believe John sent you guys out an email as well in regards to that. Just a fun way for us to kind of showcase the Rec Center sports program. We’ve had great success here in the past year with all the offerings that we’ve had. It just continues to get better with everybody that we hear from on that so just some activities. Games. Prizes. Food. You know there’s going to be hotdogs and different things kind of going on for that and just a way to really celebrate our successes and we certainly would like all the commissioners to attend if you can. If not we certainly understand but just a fun way to be out there. Daniel: Alright, thank you Jerry. ADMINISTRATIVE REPORTS: 2010 COMMUNITY SURVEY RESULTS. Daniel: Alright administrative. Talk about the 2010 community survey and certainly park and rec’s ranked really high. Hoffman: Yep, I’m not going to take any more of your time. Just going to say wow. Our residents are really happy to live in Chanhassen. Best insight you can get here is by reading those additional questions but if you have time read those answers. Just don’t read park and rec. Read them all. It gives as planning commissioners a great perspective from this is all of their responses so what people are saying and it’s just a cross section so it’s good to know what people are saying. It’s another form of survey. You were out on a neighborhood park visit tonight. That’s a form of a survey. You can expect you know we go to Chanhassen Hills next year. Another park. Similar thing. I think people appreciate what they’re provided but there’s always room for improvement and obviously if you go out and ask, they’re going to say, bring something else to the park. Great survey. It’s online. Access it when you have time and take a look at all the different items that are listed. Daniel: I’m assuming, one of the things that stood out when I was going through this is that they’re talking law enforcement and police, too dangerous to walk downtown by Byerly’s and library and main street in general. It’s talking about traffic I’m assuming right? Hoffman: I don’t know. We don’t know. 33 Park and Recreation Commission - August 24, 2010 Stolar: Skateboarders. Daniel: Just making the general assumption. That’s when I kind of chuckled at this. Hoffman: They all come from a different perspective. Daniel: Yeah. I just don’t remember seeing any unruly people standing on the corners. Alright. Scharfenberg: How about I am content now? Daniel: Not later. I did as I was reading through some of those, there are some. Hoffman: They’re worth reading. Daniel: Oh that is. It’s good reading I’ll just say. ESTABLISH DISCUSSION TOPICS, JOINT MEETING WITH CITY COUNCIL. Daniel: Do you want to do that now Todd? th Hoffman: That’s up to you. You’re meeting with them on September 27, which is before your next meeting so you need to come up with something. Daniel: That’s basically review our goals. Is that part of what we’re doing is a follow-up or kind of a review of our progression towards our goals for 2000? Hoffman: That’s what you talked about so if you just want to go into that meeting talking about what we’ve done. We can bring some information on web site. Investigate the merits of installing disc golf. You’re working on that. Interaction with local associations, and all of you can talk about that. The 2000, we don’t have a bike ride yet so if anybody wants to get working on that one. Rec Center programs, we’re expanding programs we don’t have half marathon or ultimate Frisbee league. Herman Field, you disposed to that and the special events. Daniel: Well I guess we have a few minutes so let’s just quickly go over them. Todd, where do we stand on the web site improvements? Hoffman: We haven’t done anything. Well I can’t say that. The Facebook is a new improvement so looking to give you some numbers. The people who do the survey always ask for our numbers again. Are you sure those are accurate because our web site hits are well off, or well above what most municipalities are and so people are accessing our web site so we’re continually working on trying to freshen it. Keep it up to date. I think that’s why, so we can put some of that information together for both the commission and the council. Daniel: And then. 34 Park and Recreation Commission - August 24, 2010 Ryan: Wasn’t, didn’t when we went to that meeting, didn’t they say that there was something about the web site that they couldn’t do a survey or, somebody. Daniel: I think there was some, there’s some things. Ryan: The way they get information. Daniel: I think there’s some software that the City currently has that they’re trying to. Ryan: Figure out how to. Daniel: Exactly. Utilize some of the tools of the software. Hoffman: Complaint tracking software or which one were we talking about? Daniel: The complaint tracking software, I don’t know if that was part of it or not. Ryan: Wasn’t that it? Daniel: I think it was just a comment section and where anybody could go in and make, whether it be park and rec’s or whether it be a drop down box and then make a comment. You know I want to go park and rec’s, okay. Rotted wood around this particular at Herman Field. Whatever it might be. Dead elm trees. I think that was, I mean I think you brought that up Elise didn’t you? Ryan: Right. Right. Daniel: That was the one that stood out and said that’d be perfect. I mean again if the City’s web site is getting that many, getting that much type of traffic, then a comment section like that I think is definitely needed. Now the Facebook is certainly another area because I mean Facebook is just another portal in which people can make comments so they can do that right on Facebook as well. But then you’ve got people like me who aren’t on Facebook that. Hoffman: You can still look. Daniel: What’s that? Hoffman: You can still look. Daniel: I like being anonymous. We already talked about the, we’ve already moved on with regards to disc golf. We’re voting to put that in. Jerry, this probably might fall into your area 3. Encourage additional interaction with local athletic associations. Ruegemer: I interact with them daily. 35 Park and Recreation Commission - August 24, 2010 Stolar: But I think the concession stand was a great example. That was done as a joint effort. The batting cages at Lake Ann. They did on their own. Are we moving the fences? Fences on that one field. Hoffman: Not on 2. They’re fine with them where they’re at right now. Stolar: Okay. Daniel: But I guess as we go into that meeting Jerry, just to look at number 3, if you could just do a short list of the, or do a list of the associations which you interact with on a daily basis or on a regular basis and then maybe. Ruegemer: Probably I’ll just put, probably what I would do is probably break that down like spring, summer, fall, kind of depending on who the associations are. I think I already that list compiled. That’d be real easy to put together for you. Daniel: Yep. I think the host 2010, that may or may not be applicable given the short amount of time left in the season but certainly we can bring that up to them and if there’s a date to be scheduled it’d be sometime in September or early October. Ruegemer: Yeah and I think that still would be beneficial. Doesn’t necessarily have to be in season. I think just bring everybody together and you know, late fall or early part of the winter, kind of everybody’s you know kind of changing gears a little bit. I think that’d be beneficial. Hoffman: He’s talking bike ride. Ruegemer: Oh bike ride? I’m sorry. I was still on youth associations. Bike ride might be tough in the winter. Daniel: Yes. Tom Kelly: But you do do a good job of clearing the paths so we might have a shot at it. Daniel: Yeah, we’d probably get away with it. Stolar: Winter bike ride. See, we take care of the paths. Daniel: And then you know certainly the expansion of recreation programs. Jerry, if there’s anything that you’ve had discussions on or certainly evaluating, just to highlight that. If there’s one or two bullet points. Herman Field, done. So we certainly accomplished that. We’ve met with the park, we’ve met with the neighborhood I should say and we’ve certainly some identified some needs there, or wants. And then special events. You know again, that’s something that I think will be ongoing and Todd maybe if you can cite some examples that we just had the recent th July, 4 of July. 36 Park and Recreation Commission - August 24, 2010 Hoffman: Well specifically I just want to talk about the food shelf or Toys for Tots which didn’t get a lot of real excitement from the council so we didn’t do that. They felt that there was other organizations that during our special events. Daniel: Sure, but other opportunities. Hoffman: Yep. Daniel: So if we can just do up some, I think that’s about it. It should be a good discussion. There’s some things we’ve accomplished on there and certainly things changed. The priorities of the council coming up in an election year. That’s certainly more importantly I think the commission will need to hear their input and what their, what type of feedback they’re getting with the exception of Councilman Litsey who I think is not running. He’s going for school board, correct? Hoffman: Correct. Daniel: So everyone else, well I think was it. Hoffman: And Ernst. Councilwoman Ernst is running. Daniel: Councilwoman Ernst so she is again, I’m sure she’s out, if she’s doing some campaigning she might have some feedback so you might want to open the door. Plus, is the mayor running as well? Hoffman: Yes. Unopposed. Daniel: Unopposed, as usual. So anyways yeah, I mean it’ll open an opportunity for us. I think we should ask them what type of information or feedback are they getting. Hoffman: You should spend a few times, a few minutes talking about the CIP too and see if they have any ideas. Daniel: That’s a good point. So let’s put that on there as well. CIP discussion. Alright. Ryan: Just real quickly. I will not be at that meeting. I’m out of town. Stolar: I’m also out of town. Daniel: I’ll be there. Hoffman: Anybody else? We’ll try to move it if there’s. We’ve had some low participation at joint meetings with the council if you recall so it’d be nice if we could get. Cole Kelly: I should be there. 37 Park and Recreation Commission - August 24, 2010 Hoffman: I’ll send out some, I’ll check with folks. If we have 5, that would be great. COMMISION MEMBER COMMITTEE REPORTS. None. COMMISSION MEMBER PRESENTATIONS. Stolar: Actually, I’m sorry one thing real quick. It’s not really a report but I should have made an announcements. For those of you who don’t know the National Recreation and Parks Association National Congress is in Minneapolis this year in late October. Ruegemer: Did I send some stuff around to you guys? Stolar: But if you’re interested in some of the sessions. I’m going to go one of the days. Hoffman: Late October. Late October and you’re welcome to go down. It’s at the Convention Center. Daniel: If you can send out some information on that Todd. Hoffman: I will. Stolar: There’s also like events around the community. They’re doing a, building a park in Minneapolis is one of the events. There’s a walk. There’s a bunch of other things going on. You know my wife presents at those. She goes to them so she went last year in Baltimore. I think it was Baltimore last year right? Ruegemer: Sounds about right. Stolar: Said the events, side events were a lot of fun too. Daniel: Alright. If there’s nothing else that needs to be covered why don’t we just go ahead and adjourn the meeting, unless there’s anything you want to highlight Todd out of the administrative packet. ADMINISTRATIVE PACKET. Hoffman: Just a couple of comments in there from Herman Field Park neighbors. Some wanted, one other person wanted a trail across Highway 7 and another person was just utilizing it a lot… Scharfenberg moved, Tom Kelly seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0. The Park and Recreation Commission meeting was adjourned. Submitted by Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Director Prepared by Nann Opheim 38