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PRC 2010 10 26 CHANHASSEN PARK AND RECREATION COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING OCTOBER 26, 2010 Chairman Daniel called the meeting to order at7:30 p.m. MEMBERS PRESENT: Jeff Daniel, Steve Scharfenberg, Scott Wendt, Elise Ryan, Cole Kelly and Glenn Stolar MEMBERS ABSENT: Tom Kelly STAFF PRESENT: Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Director; and Jerry Ruegemer, Recreation Superintendent APPROVAL OF AGENDA:Scharfenberg moved, Stolar seconded to approve the agenda as presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: Ruegemer: Just real quick. Thanks to all the Park and Rec Commissioners that were out and helped with the Halloween Party. I saw Mr. Viking, pictures of Mr. Viking out there with his cheese head broom, is that what it was? Wendt: Yeah. Mr. Cheese Head Mop. Ruegemer: Our numbers were up a little bit from last year which was nice to see. It looked like everything went just fine with the helpers and we had volunteers and it was a good night. We snuck it in with the rain here before the rain started to give rides and everything else so thanks again for anybody that helped before and during and after so. Hoffman: 280? Ruegemer: Yep. It was around that 280 mark. That was up from about 215 last year. Daniel: Excellent. Wendt: I could tell it was a big crowd. They were streaming in all night so. Ruegemer: Yeah. Entertainment was good. It looked like a lot of people were staying in the gym, which is good and viewing that so. Hoffman: Also want to let commissioners know that the shingle, shingling of fascia on the new, or the remodeled concession stand at Lake Ann has been finished. It looks very nice. The floor and interior floor was painted and so it’s been completed spruced up now over this past year or Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission - October 26, 2010 so and it’ll be ready for next year’s season. It’s fully operational and there’s a few needs for additional shelving but other than that it’s good to go. Scharfenberg: Todd, did they ever have any leads on whatever happened with the break-in? Hoffman: I’m not sure that it was affiliated with the downtown but I would bet it was so we had 18 break-in’s over a week long period in the downtown. It was the same type of activity. Prying the doors with a pry bar so, and those individuals are caught. Four juveniles from Chanhassen and it’s currently being prosecuted by the attorney’s office. I’ll find out. We’ll find out if that was one of them that they admitted to. Scharfenberg: Okay. Hoffman: And also we’re out for bids on our final CIP project of the year and that’s tree planting at the Chanhassen Recreation Center and so we’ll be planting 38 trees along the main spine down the softball field. If you’re there for a summer softball tournament you know how precious the shade is that we currently have there and we’ve had some tree failure over the years and so we’re going back in for hopefully one final tree planting. Contract will also re-mulch the other 38 trees that are existing or plant 38 new trees and then perform removals of some damaged trees that are damaged from sun scald or other tree damage so watch for that in November and we’re out for pricing right now. Daniel: Okay, thank you Todd. Jerry. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS: None. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Cole Kelly moved, Scharfenberg seconded to approve the verbatim and summary Minutes of the Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated September 28, 2010 as presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0. NEIGHBORHOOD PARK SERVICE AREA HOUSEHOLD COUNTS AND AMENITY INVENTORY. Hoffman: Thank you Chair Daniel, members of the commission. This was an item I believe that ironically Tom Kelly was asking for at one of our past meetings. He’s not here to hear the results but I’m sure he’ll read about them and so we basically used a mapping system to count the number of households in a park service area. Neighborhood park service area is the half a mile and so you count out the number of residents within there. Some residents are counted twice because for example they both, they’re either Prairie Knoll park service area and Sunset Ridge park service area. We took the amenity counts from the, from some of the ten most popular type of elements in a neighborhood park. Ballfield, basketball court, open play field, picnic area, a picnic shelter, a play area, sliding hill, swimming beach, tennis court and trails and so the best possible score would be 10. The worst 0 and the City’s 21 neighborhood parks scored from a low of 3 to a high of 8. The average score was 5.2. The residential counts went from 2263 to a high for Power Hill and a low of 202 for Minnewashta Heights. So the spread 2 Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission - October 26, 2010 sheet shows number of amenities and the number of parcels per amenity. It goes from high of 543 parcels or 543 dwelling units per amenity down to 51 at Minnewashta Heights Park. This information, while it’s interesting I’m going to caution the commission, I don’t know that it’s overly valuable for future CIP conversations. Each of these parks is somewhat unique to the next one and there’s also areas in our community such as where you have Prairie Knoll, Sunset Ridge and Power Hill, you have lots of homes in that area but you also have 3 parks that are basically accessible to all those homes so even though they have a high parcel count, the residents in that area have a choice. They can go to Power Hill and then go sliding or they can go over to Sunset Ridge and access this separate facilities so they have more than one park accessible to their particular neighborhood. And then each park is unique. You know so some neighborhood parks have a beach. Some do not. And so trying to put everything that all parks should have in one park isn’t going to fit because of geography. How the park lays out. The acreage. Is it wooded? Is it not wooded? But nevertheless interesting information. Gives us some baseline data that we can use in the future so I’d be happy to answer questions of the commission. There are 3 or 4 examples of service area map shown. The larger the park, the larger the service area because it gets a little elongated. Daniel: Questions for Todd, if any of the commissioners had an opportunity to review the packet. Elise. Ryan: I don’t have any questions. Daniel: Cole? Cole Kelly: Todd, do you think it makes sense that we kind of look for some kind of minimum in the future of amenities per park or you know with the geographical differences and with the density differences, I mean that’s kind of a hard play so to speak. And I know we’ve talked about adding at Herman Park, which is the lowest on the list. But should we make it a goal that we, everyone has a minimum of 4 and then to be evaluated down the road with the geographical differences and what might make sense or what might not make sense? Hoffman: What, Greenwood Shores has 3 and then Herman has 3. Cole Kelly: 3. Well two of them have 3. Hoffman: Two of them have 3, yeah. Cole Kelly: And again I don’t know if it makes sense to add to them or not but, and I don’t know what other parks are close to those parks where people can double up. As you mentioned those other two parks. Daniel: I was going to say, you know I think Todd is right in the sense that we need to evaluate each park probably and see from a CIP standpoint if it’s, even if they’re, even if additional amenities are even applicable to that particular park. I think Herman, and this is just my opinion, certainly has some interest. You know we’ve talked about scheduling at least a minimum a basketball court but. 3 Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission - October 26, 2010 Hoffman: Which would bring it up to 4. Daniel: I think it’d be difficult. Yeah, would bring it up to 4 and I think with Greenwood Shores for example that, I mean it’s got a beach. You know I think it is missing truly as a playground set but walking down the path a quarter mile you end up at Lake Ann which is one of the biggest playgrounds. That’s right there and. Although the only thing I have to say about Greenwood Shores, in having previously lived in that neighborhood, Meadow Green is right across Powers Boulevard. That’s certainly not that easy to get to. I mean you have to wind through the neighborhoods to get back there and, I don’t think there’s ever been, you live in the neighborhood Todd. Has there been a complaint about adding amenities to Greenwood Shores? Hoffman: No. The lots are very large there. They’re fairly large and so people have a playground set if they have young kids in their park. There was a proposal a number of years ago to put one there and the neighbors said we don’t want it. Daniel: Okay. I think I had mentioned parking one time and you said no, no. No, a dock at Lake Lucy, that was it. Hoffman: We tried to put parking there a couple of times. Daniel: So, alright. But no, Cole you’re absolutely right. If there is some sort of minimal net we certainly could take it into consideration but I guess what we need to do, is there a key as far as what we define as amenities Todd in this? Did I miss it? In the front. Hoffman: On the front in the middle, it’s the second paragraph it talks about what the 10 are and they’re. Daniel: Oh okay, got it. Hoffman: And it’s not exhaustive. There are other amenities which you’ll find in these parks which are not listed. These are just the 10 most common and most desirable I think. Daniel: Okay. Hoffman: But for example Herman would have an access to a regional park and it’s the only park in our community that the neighbors which live adjacent to it have access through a neighborhood park into a regional park. So each one is a little bit unique. Carver Beach, very small with park amenities but a lot of people like the nature trail up there and the views that it provides. The fact that it’s the most undisturbed shoreline on Lotus Lake, people are really attracted to that. Daniel: I suppose for Greenwood Shores, I mean if I look at that, I mean other than…but by definition on this then, I guess you don’t want to count, would you count the trails going to Lake Ann as part of that then? Is that what you guys evaluate because I also see swimming beach. There’s a play area. There’s a picnic area. 4 Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission - October 26, 2010 Hoffman: There’s no play area so Greenwood Shores would be. Daniel: Oh, that’s right… Hoffman: …trails and picnic area would be the three that were counted there. Daniel: Okay. Hoffman: So it’s I think a good exercise. Always good to go through to see if something really does jump out that says wow, we’ve got some real differences here and if you look at the number of parcels per amenity there are, it goes from 50 to 543 but you know the people in Prairie Knoll Park don’t know that there’s 543 houses headed to their park and then Minnewashta Heights there’s only 51. I think they’re just happy that the park is down the street and I don’t think that they feel slighted that it’s serving a larger neighborhood, or more densely populated neighborhood. Minnewashta Heights, you know pretty small neighborhood sandwiched inbetween Highway 7 and the lake and an older neighborhood. Lots are a little bit bigger. Daniel: Well than you Todd. I mean it’s certainly good information. Hoffman: You’re welcome. Daniel: Very good. Hoffman: You’re welcome. We’ll see how Tom handles it. He’ll probably crunch the numbers. Daniel: Yes he will. Stolar: He’ll have to create a data base to crunch them. Daniel: Any other questions Steve? Scharfenberg: No. Daniel: Scott? Wendt: No. Interesting. RECREATION PROGRAM REPORTS: 2010 RESERVATION PICNIC SITE EVALUATION. Ruegemer: Thanks Chair Daniels. Annually we do take a look at the, kind of the overall picnic process and numbers this time of year. We do host a number of different events from you know family reunions and events to weddings to anniversaries, graduations, birthday parties. All kinds of different activities. We do seem like we’re getting more like bigger businesses out there at the Hilltop shelter from Bloomington. Our non-resident numbers still aren’t certainly aren’t off the 5 Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission - October 26, 2010 charts but you know I think there definitely are companies that are looking around for a larger site that can accommodate you know 300-400 people at one location under one roof and that sort of thing so the Hilltop shelter’s been a really nice addition for our park system. With that we are you know, and it seems like kind of an annual basis we’re pretty consistent as far as how many numbers of paid reservation picnics that we do have. Last year I think there was what, 105. This year 99. I think the year before was 95 so we’re kind of right in that ballpark if we’re charting kind of our averages. Looks like that’s pretty consistent as to where we are per year and revenue is roughly about the same. Little bit different, plus or minus so you know, and on the other hand too I think it’s important to note that facilities are still being used by people that don’t call and make a reservation and a lot of people do take their chances on, they may talk to me even a day or two prior to the day that they want to do it just to kind of keep track and make sure that it isn’t reserved and then they’ll go out there and have their family event or ball picnic or whatever they’re going to do so you know if a person is guessing I’m sure there’s, you know it’s probably another 50-60 percent of the time that it’s not sitting empty. That it is being used. Cole Kelly: Jerry if I’m listening to this correctly. If you reserve it you’re being charged. If you don’t reserve it you can just go use it and you’re not being charged? Ruegemer: Correct. Cole Kelly: Okay. Ruegemer: Yep. Stolar: But you run the risk of someone else reserving and then you can’t use it. Ruegemer: Right. Hoffman: Or somebody else being there. If you have a planned event most people of any size most, yeah. Most are going to use their. If you’re like oh if there’s somebody there let’s just bump over to Lake Susan, then. Ruegemer: So a lot of people will kind of take that chance and if it is booked then they’ll you know head to another location. Head down to the beach. Grab some picnic tables. Kind of pull them together, that sort of thing. It really depends on kind of what your comfort level is with the people that are coming so. Hoffman: Or if you’re sending invitations. Stolar: We had talked at one point about potentially if they do, like the you know, if you call at 4:00 the day before you can reserve it for a lower fee. You know if you want to wait that long but we still get a fee for it. Is that, or something like the, like the airlines… Wendt: Just call priceline.com. Stolar: Reserve at the last minute. Or is that just more of a headache for you to do? 6 Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission - October 26, 2010 Ruegemer: It certainly could be but. Hoffman: There’s not always going to be somebody there at 4:00. Ruegemer: So attached again is on the next couple pages there is the 2010-2009 kind of summaries as to kind of break down, kind of by location. By category. Reservation category and by day of the week so. We kind of you know numbers jump around a little bit they’re you know for the most part pretty consistent around there. Along the numbers and how they kind of break down with that so there maybe other, you know it’s hard to kind of you know chart you know here’s where we are from year to year because they do kind of jump around a little bit but I think it’s good data that we take a look at every year to kind of see where, if we need to make some improvements or suggestions. Fee structure. That sort of thing. Ryan: Is there more weekend versus weekday considerable amount or? Ruegemer: We do. It’s not considerable but it’s definitely a bump. And weekdays is considered Monday through Thursday and weekends Friday through Sunday. Ryan: Okay. Cole Kelly: Do we check with other towns around our borders to see how we’re charging comparatively to the neighbors? Ruegemer: We’re definitely on the high end. Chaska is quite a bit less for their locations. Cole Kelly: I’m assuming our facilities are somewhat nicer than most though. Or comparable. Ruegemer: A lot of them are. Certainly Lake Ann pavilion, that sort of thing so. And we certainly could check that again. Typically in November we come back with our fees for the next year so, if those are the type of things that the commission would like to explore, we certainly can take a look at that and bring that back. Hoffman: One of our goals in these fees is at least to charge enough to cover our garbage, maintenance, those type of activities that were taking place. They’ve obviously increased due to the use of the facility. We go in there and clean it beforehand and clean them afterwards so. Cole Kelly: I just remember from the previous surveys of people who have been using them I guess the two problems that we’ve had in the past have been bees and turning on some lights as my memory recalls. Is there anything we can do to battle those two things? Hoffman: We’re working on the lighting issue with some switching. Cole Kelly: Okay. Hoffman: And then the bees is one of those, it’s something. 7 Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission - October 26, 2010 Cole Kelly: It’s hit and miss every year. Hoffman: Some years are better than others. We do use a bee retardant that we use in our garbage cans. We’re also, we’ll take a look at placement of garbage cans. The closer they are to the facility, the closer the bees are to the patrons so. And the lighting issue will resolve by switches and some timing issues so what’s happening is people get in there and it’s a dark, cloudy day and the lights don’t turn on automatically and there’s no switch available to turn them on to make the conditions a little bit nicer for the picnic so. Cole Kelly: I seem to recall they ran you down on a Saturday or Sunday one time to get the lights on. Hoffman: Yep, so we want to accommodate that. Ruegemer: And that’ll be done before the first of the year, the way it sounds. We’re getting all that information together right now because I don’t think the commission knows how the lights work. Everything is on a timer and a photo cell so the conditions have to be right for everything to kind of work. It typically you know, on a perfect storm everything should work out you know during the course of the night that the lights will come on but there are situations during a cloudy day or overcast day where it is dark inside the shelters and you know certainly people who are reserving the shelter want to make sure that they have those available. Lights available to them to have a good experience so. So it’s a relatively pretty easy fix for us to complete that so. So we’ll get on that and Cole did kind of touch on that. We definitely do send out evaluations and try to include a lot of those with the park and rec packets to kind of see, the commission to kind of see you know kind of what people are thinking that are reserving. If there’s anything that you guys would like to see changed on those evaluation forms we certainly can do that. And you can see like, yes bees certainly can be a problem at times and that seems to be more like that late July, August to you know September timeframe and we’ve tried a number of different granules and liquids and placement and that sort of thing. It’s kind of one of those things where there’s garbage there’s bees and we certainly try to minimize that as much as we can with education for people taking out garbage and the different procedures and policies and workings so we’ll definitely continue to look at that. See if we can, see if there’s a new product out there that will help out. We certainly can take a look at those type of things as well. So you know a ton of picnics already booked out. Weddings already for next year. Someone from Wyoming is coming in. Casper, Wyoming for a wedding next July already. Got graduation parties booked. Weddings booked already for next year. So there are family reunions so there are a lot of things happening already. People are excited to get back into the parks again so you know we have a great, really great amenities and great facilities here that people really enjoy and they want to keep coming back on an annual basis so. Ryan: The people from out of town, are they, have they been here before and they liked it? Is it what they see online or? Ruegemer: A lot of times there’s a connection back to Chanhassen. 8 Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission - October 26, 2010 Ryan: Okay. Ruegemer: Originally from the area or a spouse or partner is from the area. Parents live here. That sort of thing. Ryan: Okay. Hoffman: And we’re blessed with a very patient and understanding reservation agent. Let me tell you, I listen to the phone calls. It takes a lot of hand holding. Stolar: In feedback you’ve received, are there any amenities that seem to be prevalent that people would like to see there that aren’t currently there? Ruegemer: You know certainly kitchen facilities are certainly asked about, if not a sink. Just a simple sink just to wash up you know different things would be helpful in some cases but for the most part you know people, it is what it is with that so. Stolar: Now both pavilions though have a wash, but they’re talking about more like a kitchen sink right? Ruegemer: Yeah. Well the Hilltop has kind of a yard hydrant but. Hoffman: Minnewashta Regional Park has a shelter that has bathroom, a kitchen, a refrigerator and then a covered shelter and that’s what they’re interested in but it’s a different product. Ruegemer: You know what and I really do. I refer a lot to Eden Prairie and a lot to Carver County Parks because you know there’s a lot of weekends that we have booked and have been booked and if we can’t help them I certainly want to try to help out Marty in Carver County and Lindelle at Eden Prairie and I hope they do the same so. Hoffman: Some members of our staff on the Sunshine committee tend to go to Minnewashta for our company picnics because they like the kitchen. Ruegemer: This is true. Hoffman: As much as I encourage them to go to Lake Ann so we know there’s that preference. Daniel: Well thank you Jerry. Appreciate the update. Any other questions for Jerry? Steve? Scott? Okay. Great job. Ruegemer: If there’s anything too that you guys would like to see different for you know fee structure or anything, any new ideas, I’ll probably be bringing that back again in November so shoot me a quick email and we certainly can include that conversation for that month. 9 Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission - October 26, 2010 ADMINISTRATIVE REPORTS: Hoffman: Thank you Chair Daniels and members of the commission. Just wanted to update you on where we’re at and how we’re going to administer this project. Obviously it’s a significant project for the 2011 construction season. Carver County applied for and received the grant. Chanhassen was a partner in that through letters of support and other documentation. Carver County, well we approached them to include some additional projects. The stairway that comes down from the Highover and the trail extension from the school where they stopped their project, either up to Chaska Road or up to Highway 7. They said yes, they’ll take a look at that. In the end they didn’t want to include any of that work in the documentation. The construction documents or in your project administration because they were just afraid it would get mixed in with the submittals back to the feds for the grant dollars and so they notified us that they would like us to keep our contract separate with the consultant, SRF and then to keep our bidding and administration, contract administration separate so we accepted that directive from, or that wish from the county so we have entered into a separate agreement with SRF for our portion of the project. It may end up to be two different contractors. You would think that these contractors that bid on the primary project will also be bidding on the secondary project, the smaller city project, but it could end up to be two separate contractors. So I’ve attached some documentation. There’s a cover letter but there’s not the contract. I’ll grab that for you. It’s not in here. Then there’s the Memorandum of Understanding between the City and Carver County for our portion of the project and how that’s going to be administered. So we will not be involved as an agent of construction or communication back to the residents on the larger project county project but we will be doing all the communication on the smaller city portion of the project. The stairway and the trail leading to the north. We hope to still, if we get the same contractor, there’ll still be some, it’ll be easier to administer if we get a separate contractor it’ll be a little bit more cumbersome. Wanted to make you aware of that. Marty and I did have a conversation yesterday and SRF has completed a good portion of the preliminary work and they think the project will come in somewhere around a million and a half dollars. We have a million and eight budgeted right now. They were concerned, they thought they had a range of a million five to two and so with now some additional documentation done on the plan they think it’s going to be closer to that million five. Maybe creeping up to that million eight but they wanted to let Marty know right away if this thing goes up to two, that they’re going to be looking for us for additional cash and then Marty would have to go back to the County Board for additional cash so. Dollars look good. The most difficult section of trail is along the pond on the north side of the project, and then also there’s some residential issues with some trees just south of that pond. Other than that the design looks like it’s going to work out and it’ll be a pretty exciting project I think for the community in that, especially that area of the community. Anybody that can get into that regional park and access it either by bike or walking and obviously exciting for the school as well. Any questions on 41? Then I’ve got a couple of items I’ll update you on. Stolar: Just one. Do we, part of the whole reason we were doing this was hopefully getting some of that savings by having just one. That’s still possible with this if the same contractor bids or even more savings if it’s competitive. Hoffman: And well also, if we went out to somebody else other than SRF, SRF said you know we’re fully mobilized in this project with the County. We said give us a professional service 10 Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission - October 26, 2010 agreement for our portion of the project. If this was just separate work that price would have gone up. Stolar: Overhead and all that so. Hoffman: Yeah so we got a good price there so the fact that we’re doing the work at the same time I think we’ll still see significant savings on unless, if we were doing it separately. Stolar: Okay. Ryan: And will it be the commission’s decision on whether it goes to Highway 7 or Chaska Road or? Hoffman: It will be. I think we’ll have to do some discussions with SRF this winter and maybe have a neighborhood meeting to talk about what are the goals of getting up to Highway 7. What are the goals with the two pedestrian crossings. Potentially one at Highway 7 we could get to. One is also kind of a mid block crossing that they’re talking about putting a safe island in and then one with flashing lights like Powers Boulevard just got just south of Highway 5. You’ve seen the push buttons at Instant Web so we’ll do that up there and if that’s put in, does that accommodate for pedestrian crossings or would people like to go all the way to Highway 7 and have a push button where you actually get to stop traffic at that point and go across. The push button that will go in at kind of the mid-stream crossing will be similar to this one. You push that button and things start flashing. That doesn’t mean there’s a stop up there. Cars just have to recognize that there’s a pedestrian, and that doesn’t necessarily insure your safety. Before this flashing light went in at Powers, pedestrians were very cautious. They go up there and some cars would stop. Some would not. And now this flashing light gives pedestrians a little bit more confidence but hey, cars should be stopping and one car stops and the dangerous car’s the one that comes around the side and so we’re still concerned about that crossing down there. Pedestrians really have to be careful of what they’re doing and that will be the same thing up at this location. We’re going to be working with our engineers in the Safe School program for some dollars through MnDOT and again back to the feds for some safe school crossing dollars...help facilitate with that. And then getting the school involved as well. Daniel: Alright, thank you Todd. Hoffman: Couple others. Going back to the school, Minnetonka Middle School West, you’ll be seeing some activity about tennis court construction at that location. The Minnetonka District is interested in hosting these significant tournaments and they need I believe it’s 21 courts so they want to build, it’s either 7 or 8 courts at this site. The courts will be going directly east of the primary parking lot so where 2 courts now are, that’s not going to be where the tennis courts are. And then they’ll also be working with the City on some ponding improvements and then hopefully moving the high zone water tower from it’s current location just east of the property onto the property itself and allowing for a water tower 3 times it’s current size so you’ll see some communication probably in the paper about that as it moves forward and that will really facilitate an issue that we have with that water tower. That’s the high zone. Water is pumped into that tower, especially during the peak periods many times a day and when you do that you’re wearing 11 Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission - October 26, 2010 out the pumps and you’re also putting a lot of cold water into a warm environment and so it sweats and drips and it actually drips on those neighbor’s houses. It grows algae underneath the tank because you get so much sweating so you go from a 250,000 gallon tank to a 750,000 gallon tank and you don’t have to pump it full as much. The water tempers and it doesn’t sweat as much so there’s a variety of issues there. We also just need a whole more capacity in what’s called the high zone because you’ve got all those new homes up there that are putting demands on the water system. Daniel: Similar tank as to the one that’s over off of 41 and the Business Park? Hoffman: Yep, it’ll be a high tank. It’ll be you know with a stem and the high tank but it’ll be 3 times the size of the one that’s currently up there by the school. So look for those projects. The type of requests we’re receiving at this time of year, it’s getting darker out so we had a request for additional street lighting for walking in some of our trails. We had to respond that we’re, right now it’s hard to keep the lights that we currently have on and so I don’t know if you recall, 4-5 years ago during a budget discussion, half the lights were shut off in some locations to try to save energy costs. That wasn’t very popular. People said well you have street lights. Why did you invest in the infrastructure if you’re not going to keep them on? So the council turned the lights back on, but we’re not going to be adding any additional street lights I don’t think. This person was walking her dog at night and wanted the lighting so those, we get those kind of requests from time to time. Just wanted to keep you up to date and what people are looking for in their community. Daniel: I get that comment too all the time. You have, our neighborhood. Hoffman: More lighting? Daniel: More lighting. I actually, I agree with them but I know the reality of it is but no, there’s, if you get closer to downtown you don’t have as much problem. The further you get out, obviously there’s greater spaces inbetween and people are concerned. Hoffman: Did the commission get any input on the Audubon Road project and trail? Have you heard from or have you driven it yourself? Scharfenberg: Positive responses. Very positive. Hoffman: 99 percent done. They’re going to plant some trees in some of the areas and then it’ll be wrapped up for the year. We were very fortunate with weather and looks like a great project. Nice trail extension. Ryan: Powers trail is nice. Very nice. Daniel: Oh yeah. Absolutely. Ryan: Great. Especially with the bike lane. Those were getting very dicey on Powers with the number of, I know…that’s part of their loop and cars got really close so it was nice that they… 12 Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission - October 26, 2010 COMMISSION MEMBER COMMITTEE REPORTS. None. COMMISSION MEMBER PRESENTATIONS. None. ADMINISTRATIVE PACKET. Daniel: Anything else Todd you want to point out in the packet? Hoffman: Real excited about the boy scout project. Colin King. If you have a chance to go down to Carver Beach Park, did a very nice job. Organized his group and they replaced the playground border. Stained the park benches. Stained the hand rail that does down. Planted a couple of trees and then re-wood chipped, mulched the entire hillside area. They did that on a Saturday-Sunday and it really spruced up the neighborhood park. Neighbors recognized and noticed that. They appreciate that the commission and the community is working to keep… He lives just up the road. He’s 3 houses away. Obviously takes a lot of pride in the project and so builds great community awareness of what’s going on. Volunteers in the community. Credit goes out to Dean Schmieg who coordinated all the material handling with him and then Jerry Chalupsky who advised one day of the project. We wanted to make sure that they got off on the right foot so he worked a Saturday for about 8 hours to advise the Eagle Scout. Stolar: How’s the wood chips holding up from the previous Eagle Scout thing where they did the trail? Hoffman: Trail? They’re gone. Stolar: They’re gone. Hoffman: They last about 2 years. Stolar: Yeah it was about 2 years ago right. Hoffman: Probably 3 now. Stolar: 3 yeah. That’s not bad. Hoffman: Yeah. And it’s a challenge. Wood chips, especially in that particular area wash a good deal and they also rot. Stolar: And that’s where probably the best thing is just let it be natural. Hoffman: It’s a dirt trail, yeah. Daniel: Let it be dirt. I mean that’s such a steep slope coming down for most of that trail. 13 Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission - October 26, 2010 Hoffman: We’ve done wood chips at least twice by Eagle Scouts. Yeah it’s just a natural dirt trail. Daniel: Hey Todd, with regards to a Eagle, previous Eagle Scout project. The one down at Kerber Pond Park. All the little tubes that they had to cover. They’ve blown all over the place and I think most of the trees may be dead. Hoffman: I believe you might be right. Daniel: So anything the City’s going to do, as Dale’s group taken a look at picking those things up or? Hoffman: We have not. That’s a different division. That’s our natural resource division over at engineering so I’ll ask them tomorrow what their plan is in fixing it up and getting things taken out of there. Yeah they had some dry periods of time after they planted the trees and I’m not sure that they were all planted properly. They’re a bare root tree and if they’re not planted properly, you get any air space around the roots their survival rates go way down. Daniel: Alright, I think that’s about it. If there’s nothing else we can adjourn. Scharfenberg moved, Cole 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 at 8:15 p.m. Submitted by Todd Hoffman Park and Rec Director Prepared by Nann Opheim 14