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PRC 2010 12 14 CHANHASSEN PARK AND RECREATION COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING DECEMBER 14, 2010 Chairman Daniel called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. MEMBERS PRESENT: Jeff Daniel, Tom Kelly, Scott Wendt, Glenn Stolar, Elise Ryan and Cole Kelly MEMBERS ABSENT: Steve Scharfenberg STAFF PRESENT: Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Director; Jerry Ruegemer, Recreation Superintendent; John Stutzman, Recreation Supervisor; Dale Gregory, Park Superintendent; Jodi Sarles, Recreation Center Manager; and Sue Bill, Senior Center Coordinator APPROVAL OF AGENDA;Tom Kelly moved, Wendt seconded to approve the agenda as published. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: Hoffman: I would like to announce that the City Council did approve the Reflections at Lake Riley plat last night by Lennar and that includes the acquisition of the 4.7 acre park. That’s through dedication and through purchase so that was approved. Lennar was here. The item came up just before the official budgeted option so it was one of the quickest subdivision reviews in…the council. Lennar’s probably going to put their next one on next December before the budget so that’s good news for parks and the existing and future residents of Chan. Daniel: Alright, thank you Todd. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS: None. RECREATION PROGRAM REPORTS: WINTER PROGRAM UPDATE. Stutzman: Thank you. Just to highlight a few programs of the many that we’ve got going on this winter. We’ll talk a little bit more about the tree lighting ceremony in a few minutes but a couple things on here that I’d just like to highlight and if I may is the Rec Center Sports is not on here but Jodi and I and our new, our Rec Sports Coordinator just actually finished our mission statement today. We’ve been working on creating that to give a little bit more definition to some of the programs and really make that a public piece as well so I’d like to share that with the commission. And that will be the Chan Rec Center Sports provides fun and affordable programs for children to experience the enjoyment and basic skills of sports. So that’s kind of what we are shooting to achieve and want to continue to make that public in our second year here coming up but it’s been a great year with almost 800 participants in preschool and almost 200 coming through in after school and continuing to add new things so that’s been a great addition to our program. We’ll also be adding a 3 and 4 year old program next year during the day called Small Park and Recreation Commission - December 14, 2010 Fry Sports which is kind of introducing the basic fundamentals of some things as well. Only other thing on this report that I’d like to highlight on is Dance Party on Ice this year. I’m happy to say that we’ve lowered the price. Re-worked some of the expenses and have been able to get that down to $5 to hopefully get more people to come out and enjoy this event so, any questions? Daniel: Advertising. Anything going with Dance Party on Ice? Stutzman: I’ve started getting things out there a little bit but I plan on really using, utilizing Facebook to do that this year and then get some fliers out in the schools as well. Daniel: Alright, perfect. Ryan: John, could you read the mission statement one more time please? Stutzman: Yep, absolutely. Chan Rec Center Sports provides fun and affordable programs for children to experience the enjoyment and basic skills of sports. Ryan: Really good. I like it a lot. An element that you might want to consider adding is teamwork. That’s a nice word to throw out with parents. Stutzman: That’s certainly something that we try to emphasize in the program descriptions for each sport but as a whole we just wanted to kind of generalize… With skating, things like that, not all of them are team sports so sportsmanship and teamwork is certainly something we do emphasize. Ryan: Okay. Daniel: Excellent. Alright, thank you John. Anybody else any questions? Stolar: Just looking at the mission statement. Anything about health and wellness that you might want to slip in there because part of this is also activity, health, wellness of the kids. Stutzman: We haven’t plugged that in primarily because what our primary, or what our goal was and what the purpose of where this mission statement kind of about was to really emphasize the fun aspect of it for parents as well so I guess we tried to keep it short and condensed in the mission statement. We do talk about that in a lot of programs again going to the more description but the overall mission of general programs and trying to keep it short and concise. Ryan: And with that Party on Ice, is 6 the youngest or can a 5 year old, get her in? Stutzman: We could probably. My only concern if they were really young, 5 would just be if we’ve got some of the older kids there that’d be, my only concern certainly we don’t plan to turn people away if they were to come, if the parents stuck around certainly we’d probably say yeah, come on in but again it’s primarily that 6 is set for the safety of the kids. Ryan: Yeah, gotch ya. Thank you. 2 Park and Recreation Commission - December 14, 2010 Daniel: Any other questions? If not, let’s move on to the tree lighting ceremony evaluation. TREE LIGHTING CEREMONY EVALUATION REPORT. Stutzman: Thank you again. We had a great ceremony again this year. It was very, very well attended once again with lots of sponsorship help from Nancy Lipinski, the Mustard Seed, Byerly’s, Cub, Caribou, Community Bank as well as the Chamber of Commerce and Southwest, or and the Chanhassen Business Council. We had over 200 people estimated there that evening. Kids were mobbing Santa as he was getting off the fire truck and that continues to be a really cool way to bring Santa in. Lights and sirens so Mayor Furlong and his family and friends flipped the switch once again and had no issues with any electrical work. Dale and his crew did a fantastic job getting the park…take a look at it because it really is a great looking park out there. Daniel: There wasn’t a Clark Griswold moment? Stutzman: No. No. They all flipped on. Daniel: Excellent. Good. Excellent. Any of the commission members happen to attend? I think was Steve there? You were there Scott? Wendt: Yeah, it was great. It’s always exciting when Santa comes down and it was just perfect with the smells and the lights. Good job. The fire was awesome. Daniel: Wonderful weather planning. At least you didn’t hold it off for another week. Stutzman: It was perfect weather. We got the snow the night before and so the park looked great with the snow and really was a great night for it. Little chilly but that’s the way it’s supposed to be in December so. Daniel: Oh yeah, exactly. Tom Kelly: Just curious, how many gingerbread houses did you get? Stutzman: This year we were down a little bit so I took notes and tried to figure out how to increase advertising for next year but we had 2 this year. Tom Kelly: Oh you had 2 gingerbread houses, okay. Stutzman: Yeah. They were both very well done yet again and so continuing to look for different ways to advertise again next year to get that out. Hoffman: The Arboretum started one up too. Stutzman: Was that a contest or was that staff creating a display because I’ve heard both? 3 Park and Recreation Commission - December 14, 2010 Hoffman: I don’t know. Byerly’s had one I think. Did take one call from a resident who is just calling in specifically on the tree lighting. They say our, they work in Eden Prairie. They live in Chanhassen. They specifically do not take Highway 5. They drive past the park in their morning commute to Eden Prairie. They feel like they live in a Norman Rockwell village and they just proud to call Chanhassen home so it’s another thing… Daniel: Excellent. Alright John, thank you very much. Appreciate it as well as the efforts for the tree lighting ceremony. I mean what can you say. The City looks fantastic. Especially now with even the more snow. I mean it’s really starting to look Norman Rockwellish. RECREATION CENTER REPORT. Daniel: Hi Jodi. Sarles: Hello. Well I just, I’m glad that Santa was over at the tree lighting because Santa is back at the Rec Center tonight as the Children of Tomorrow are having a big party and Christmas concert for their families so they are bringing in Santa. Things are going really well at the Rec Center right now. Of course with the weather changing, the traffic has increased significantly. Right now we’re in the midst of our punch card sale so if you know anybody who’s looking to work out it’s, we sell our 40 punch card and you get a 10 punch card free for the month of December. And we do that twice a year but December’s the big one. Other than that right now what’s going on, we just started the new season in dance. I feel like we’re always talking about that but since it’s one of our biggest programs it’s the thing I like to highlight. We’ve got over 200 kids in it. The adult jazz class starts now for the second session and they have this session nd and then spring session will be…on the 22 of January is our Winter Showcase so we do a little mini performance in the gym. All the classes get to do at least one dance. Give them like a little, show their parents where they’re at at this point in the season and then we slip into the…the spring so that’s at Chan High School. Rec Center Sports like John said has been going really well. Very impressed. We’ve got really good reviews. We’ll compile those for you but we do have, all the surveys going out are just really impressive and good to hear that the parents are having a great time. The kids are learning things and making minor adjustments as we go and it seems to be going really well so we’re really proud of the program and of course we now have a new person involved in running it and she’s doing a great job for us so it’s been nice to have that. The Artisan Fair, I don’t know if any of you were able to get out there but that was another big success. We probably had about 1,500 people come through the Rec Center that day. Just constant traffic so it was really nice. It was a 4 hour event. 35 local area artists were selling their, everything from alpaca wool socks to sweaters to one of the wood carvers had a number of different carvings he brought in there so, and paintings and of course scarves and jewelry. Still lots of jewelry but very good. It was a fun day. The vendors were very happy. They just wish that more people were buying so. Daniel: Out of 15, you said 1,500? Sarles: Yeah. 4 Park and Recreation Commission - December 14, 2010 Daniel: Wow. Sarles: Yeah it was just, the room was packed almost the whole time so… Daniel: Wow. Sarles: And it was nice because a lot of the advertising was done by each individual vendor too so we did our advertising. We got it all over the places where we could and one of the vendors also took control and…so it was nice. We’ve added a new, we do the babysitting training but we now look at it and say…and other Red Cross training. It’s a great program for kids. This one was really successful and it was right before one of the first breaks that school has so we had 15 kids attend that was also the max we could have in that class so we’ll offer it again. And then Sue and I have had another great grandparent and me pumpkin painting. I should brought a picture because one of our grandparents is right here. Dale was in and he had his grandchildren there. Stolar: You posted it on the web site. Sarles: Yeah. I think we got him in the paper too fortunately but yeah, it was another fun day. We did of course the Halloween craft. Pumpkins. Made popcorn balls and then afterwards we all joined out in the gym for tot time and all the toys were out and they had a great time. Other than that, upcoming events, the Winter Showcase. The Chamber of Commerce is, what is it? The Home Landscape and Lifestyle Expo is back at the Rec Center again this year. And then on a separate note, because Sue probably won’t toot her own horn here, last night the District 112, she and I both sit on the Community Ed Advisory council. Sue was awarded the…spreading the word night for Community Ed so she’s done a nice job kind of partnering and showing off some of their programs and they in turn will do that for us so they advertise my Yoga. They advertise her Defensive Driving so we kind of share and co-market some of our programs. Daniel: Questions for Jodi. Ryan: I don’t have a question but a comment. My niece is in the Dance for Fun and her parents, my brother and sister-in-law said that it’s the most well run program that they’ve had their daughter in and they really enjoy it and so does she so congratulations. I thought I would pass that along. Stolar: Just a quick question. Are you doing the garage sale again? Sarles: We will do the garage sale. Stolar: Was that what, April that we did it? Sarles: Yep. I think maybe March or April. Probably add a kids garage sale too just to give some other things so. We’re going to add that though in the spring. Daniel: Alright. Tom? 5 Park and Recreation Commission - December 14, 2010 Tom Kelly: Nope. Daniel: Scott. Wendt: No. Daniel: Excellent. Well appreciate it Jodi. Thank you much for the update. Sarles: Okay. Hoffman: In the name of full disclosure, we do have some roof leaks at the Rec Center but nothing in the magnitude of the dome so we aren’t in fear of complete failure but. Daniel: There’s no local TV cameras already posted just anticipating. Hoffman: We continue to have discussions with the school. The roof needing to be totally replaced in the next few years. We will be on the hook for 24% of that bill. The district 76% of the bill based on our original joint powers agreement in that we along can operate 24% of the building. They have 76% but when it comes time, they’re going to start on our side so they’ll be paying 76% of our roof but it when it comes to their side, which is much larger, we’ll be on the hook for 24% of that so it’s going to be a multi-year project. The other thing that is up for replacement at some point when it one, simply just fails is the boilers. The original construction to get the project under budget, both the boilers were cheapen way down and the roof so the roof was an original 10 year roof and the boilers were about as inexpensive as you could buy at the time. There are two so you have a back-up but they’ve rebuilt them. We pay a percentage of that bill as well. That was about $9,000 for our share so once one completely fails they’ll be knocking out a side wall at the school and taking out the old and bringing in the new. Rebuilding the side wall. Redirecting it and then we’ll be paying 24% of the boiler as well so now that the building is 16 years old there’s some capital improvements. Daniel: That quick. Hoffman: Yeah. Daniel: Now what was wrong with the roof again? Hoffman: The roof is leaking. Daniel: I know but there was something that they, you talked about. Hoffman: It’s a rubber membrane roof and it was designed just for a 10 year, 15 year lifespan so it was very cheap to begin with but obviously not long term. Daniel: Okay. That’s too bad. Are we anticipating anything like that with the new high school too? 6 Park and Recreation Commission - December 14, 2010 Hoffman: No. They changed their roof design. 30 years or better. Daniel: Good. Alright. Susan. SENIOR CENTER REPORT. Bill: Thank you. Well I don’t have anything as exciting to offer as Jodi and the Rec Center but it’s been busy at the senior center. We did utilize the Rec Center for our holiday party. That’s one of our three big events. We had 106 people and then with staff it was 115. It will be the, it was the fifth year that Community Bank co-sponsored the event. This year they gave us $500 and that paid for our entertainment and helped to offset some of the cost and three of their staff were there and they really enjoyed interacting with the various people and kind of bringing excitement to the day. And as one way of thanking them, their name’s on all our fliers in the Connection and in the newsletter. I started, I think I mentioned I started a Community Friends page and so they’re thanked in the newsletter and the newsletter went out to 700 people last week and then not only thanked them for the holiday party but also their sponsorship of the tree lighting and other things with our department so they were really happy to be acknowledged that way as well as it’s just been a great partnership with them for the last 5 years. The only other thing I want to mention are a couple health and wellness programs. It seems that within the last couple years our group of seniors are just really excited and into a lot of the health and wellness activities. They are drawing anywhere from 30 to 50 people probably for every event I have. Last week I had one of my Augsburg College program called the Star of Bethlehem and it, an astronomer came and talked about the night sky and was it real or not. I had 48 people for that at 10:00 on a Monday morning. It was a great presentation. I also had a presentation, Women in Minnesota Government and Politics. Here again I had over 40 people for that. That was a program through Augsburg College and once again it will be the sixth year that Klein Bank has, they pick up the cost of those programs. Suerese and Greg Lovell from the bank came over for the last presentation and it just is something they really like to be involved in so I’m really happy for their support with that. Just two other things I want to mention. I really try to work with local businesses to promote their business and to feature something at the senior center. Tomorrow Mickey from Chan Floral will be coming over to do a holiday floral design class. The second year she’s done it and I think I’ve got 22 women. No men for that one. And she enjoys it and you walk away, she tells us about designing, how to design floral arrangements and everyone walks away with a basket of holiday…design. And then lastly I wanted to mention the, I don’t know if anybody attended the Cemetery Walk that Karen has done. I think it’s the second year she did it and Karen and I talked and we featured, let the Cemetery Walk come to you. It’s on the Saturday morning of the walk. All the actors brought the walk into the senior center. They have pictures and video from the previous year and it was like a dress rehearsal in the senior center because if anyone’s been on that, it’s a little hard to walk through the cemetery. For people with some mobility issues it was a little challenging. I think we had like 35-40 people attend that and they just loved it so it was a nice way for them to do their dress rehearsal and for the seniors who have a lot of history. Some of them have a number of their relatives buried in the cemetery. It was a nice way for them to be able to enjoy that event without going on the actual walk. So all in all things have been great in the senior center. We do have some people in the winter but our activities are just booming so for the ones that go south, they’re, it 7 Park and Recreation Commission - December 14, 2010 seems like other ones find their way in and we’re able to accommodate them in various activities so that’s all I have. Daniel: Alright, thank you Sue. Questions. Comments. Anything for Sue? Scott? Tom? Glenn? Cole? Elise? Ryan: Congratulations on your award. Daniel: Yes. Thank you very much Sue. PARK AND TRAIL MAINTENANCE. Gregory: Good evening. The last meeting in September when I was here and that I reported that the Sentence to Serve program that we deal with quite a bit, getting a lot of help from the county and that was going out of, being eliminated and for some reason the County evidently found a little extra money or something and that so they’ve continued it on now until at least July of 2011. So we will get them through the summer again, early spring and that cleaning up for the downtown and a lot of our clean-up, which they do a lot of work for us so. Again that’s one of the programs and we’re really going to hate to see go away because they do like coming here and that and a lot of times they’ll call us and ask if we have work that they can bring people over so I’d really like to see that program continue. Daniel: I’m still trying to grasp my hands around where the extra cost would come from. They’re there anyways. The guards have to be there anyways. Wouldn’t it be just the gas to and from? Gregory: It is the cost of the gas and having a supervisor and that that goes around with them and takes them out and picks them up and that but other than that there isn’t, it isn’t a big cost. They’ve got, I mean they’ve got rakes. They’ve got a lot of the stuff that they bring along. Their own shovels and rakes so the stuff is already there so it’s really just, it can’t be that expensive. Daniel: And it’s such a huge I mean, what they bring to the community. The save in labor costs. Gregory: Oh yeah and there’s getting to be a lot of cities that are using them and that and for us sometimes it gets a lot harder to get them and that but we try to do our scheduling early enough and that so we’ve always got them on the dates that we want them. And they’ve been real receptive to us and we’ve had them for a long time so they like coming here. Like I say we’ll be, that’s one we really hate to see leave and that but that’s how it goes. Hockey rinks, we’ve done some repair on them. Our, the fences on the back of the goals, around the backs of the goal area and that were really getting bad. They were getting dangerous. They were curling up on the bottom. We couldn’t keep them tied down and anything anymore so we replaced all of those now. We put all new fences back there and we’ve also added an extra pipe, oh just up a foot or so higher and that to kind of help support that whole bottom area and that so it, hopefully they’ll th last a lot longer this time. November 13 we had a snowstorm, a wet heavy snowstorm. Took down quite a few trees on some of our trails. A lot of branches. We had a lot of clean-up to do and the parks and on the trails. The guys were really, they did a good job and that. Basically we 8 Park and Recreation Commission - December 14, 2010 had everything, all the trails were open. The snow was off. Plowed and everything and that within two days we had everything cleaned up and up and open for people to use them. Skating rinks, we got a little earlier start than last year by a couple of days. Last year I think was thth December 7 we started. We got going on December 5. Went pretty good at first. We were running 24 hours a day until this last Thursday and then it started to get too warm in the daytime and that to flood. It just was not cold enough. And then along with the snow that was coming in and that we just packed up and everything has stayed, left everything going and that and then got into the mode of plowing snow. We’ve been doing that since Saturday and the guys will work full days, well put 10 hours in on Saturday and 12 hours in on Sunday and we’ve been going at least 10 hour days now. The snowstorm, this one was really the worst one that I’ve seen in the time that I’ve been here for our trails. We’ve got enough drifts and everything else that we can’t get through with our V plows on our trucks. Normally we get a bad snow we can run through with the V plows. Open them up and go along later with the tractors and widen everything out. We can’t even get through. We’ve tried several different areas and that and we’re not, we can’t go with the V plow so our only option is to run our tractors on them. We’ve got two of them with 8 foot snow blowers on and it’s slow going and it’s taking us a long time. I’m estimating that we’re looking at probably 2 weeks before we’ll totally have all the trails open. And the thing we’re running into now and that is the State, the County, they’re all winging back their roads wherever we’ve got trails along side of them. They are just burying our trails. Down by the Southwest Transit, I was down there today and they were down there with a loader and they’ve got piles 10 foot high on our trails down there and I don’t know what we’re going to do down there. We’re going to have to go in with a loader or I’m hoping we can get the big blower from the street department at some point to go in and start helping with that. Powers Boulevard south, we’re just, we’re staying off of that one because that is so packed from the County. We can’t even get through with our plows so we need to get the big one from the streets at some point to get in there. So the guys are working long days. They’ve all agreed they’ll stay at it until we get it done. It’ll take us a while. Hoffman: The big blower that Dale is referring to is on the front of a front end loader. Gregory: On that loader, yeah. Hoffman: It’s a big piece of equipment. Gregory: You ever see them blowing the main street down here and that with that big one and they’re loading trucks and that, that’s the one. Hoffman: What’s the height of the catch cage on that thing? 7 feet or so? Gregory: Oh yeah. It blows it right into the tandem trucks. That’s the one I really need for a while so. But I talked to Mike, the superintendent there. They’re also in need of the same stuff and that so as soon as he can get it to us and that or let us use it he will. I’ve even asked for a loader from them and that whenever they’re not using it that we can use it because we’ve got some of our County roads and that where the intersections meet. They’ve got our trails piled at least 10 feet tall with snow and that so we’ve got a lot of work to do but it’ll get there. Skating rinks like I said was going good until the snowstorm came. We started cleaning Saturday 9 Park and Recreation Commission - December 14, 2010 morning we started working on all of the parking lots. We take care of all the parking lots. All the fire station, city hall, Rec Center and everything and we did that again on Sunday morning. Got that stuff cleaned out and we also got the trails open all around all the schools so Monday morning the kids could walk to school. Anything in those areas, all those trails. Sunday, Monday morning we started working with the skating rinks. We got those open so we could at least get people flooding again and right now we’re on Monday we were running two people downtown. Opening sidewalks. Two people in blowers and two people in water trucks after we got the skating rinks open so it’s, like I say it’s kind of tough trying to run 10 hour days and run 24 hours flooding at the same time with 7 guys so. But it’s, like I say, we will have the skating rinks ready by this Friday. That’s pretty much all I had. Daniel: Well thank you Dale. I mean I can’t say it enough. I mean obviously over the last 4 days here, 5 days since the storm, 4 days since the storm, I mean it’s amazing what we’ve already seen as far as the trails opening and I think everyone is, I hope everyone in the city understands this was an epic storm and you know they have the patience to at least wait for these trails to open up. I mean that just is what it is. One of those situations so, questions or comments for Dale. Scott. Tom. Glenn. Well again, thank you very much Dale and Sue as well as Jodi and everyone else in the park and recreation department. John. It’s obviously a lot of work. You guys are doing a fantastic job and obviously for the park and recreation department trying to keep those trails open and everything else, it’s, I can’t even fathom. I enjoy my sleep and I can’t imagine what you guys are going through. So thank you. Gregory: You’re welcome. Hoffman: Still offering those ride along’s. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Daniel: If there are any changes or anything else that needs to be addressed, please note so. If not, let’s go ahead and approve the last meeting. Cole Kelly: No, I’ve got at least one change. Daniel: Excellent. It’s the detail oriented that we like about you. Thanks Cole. Cole Kelly: If I can find it. I have it marked. Here we go, page 26. The second time my name is listed, After it says, right. That first full sentence, the last word should be land. Not lane. And then in the first paragraph towards the end there’s a word is shouldn’t be in there. Same page. Those are the only changes I have. Daniel: You know what the difference between you and I Cole is I actually probably would have said that and never would question it. Alright. Well based off those changes, why don’t we go ahead and include that and make a motion. Cole Kelly: So moved. 10 Park and Recreation Commission - December 14, 2010 Daniel: Second? Wendt: Second. Cole Kelly moved, Wendt seconded to approve the summary minutes of the Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated November 23, 2010 as presented and approve the verbatim minutes of the Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated November 23, 2010 with changes noted by Cole Kelly on page 26. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0. COMMISSION MEMBER COMMITTEE REPORTS. None. COMMISSION MEMBER PRESENTATIONS. None. ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS. Daniel: Todd, is there anything that you want to highlight? I don’t think we have anything. We have one. Hoffman: A flier and then I have some other administrative items I’d like to go over when I have an opportunity as well. Daniel: Okay. Hoffman: To bring you up to date on some projects. Highway 101 North at Pleasant View, the intersection, the roadway from that location north to Minnetonka and Eden Prairie and the trail has been selected as a recipient for a matching grant. Paul Oehme, our City Engineer, has the work on that and with support from the park and recreation department so first go around they did not fund the trail. We went back after the application and received somewhere in the neighborhood of $135,000 in trail funding for that section of trail. That will include both the section from Pleasant View west along Pleasant View and then the piece from Pleasant View north to Minnetonka and Eden Prairie so you’ll get back involved with the design. We’re contacting 28 land owners for easements and we’ll have to take a look back at, see how much left we have to go for funding so you’ll see that on your January agenda. Daniel: Well it’s amazing how that’s coming. That’s been pushed out year after year after year. Stolar: You said it also included road money? Hoffman: Roadway improvements. Intersection improvements at Pleasant View and 101. Stolar: Didn’t they just redo that? Hoffman: They surfaced it and MnDOT says yes, we understand you’re applying for a project but good luck with that. We’re not going to stop the intersection improvements for that so it’s one of those things. 11 Park and Recreation Commission - December 14, 2010 Daniel: But does it also cover as far as, I mean the trail cost is one thing. What about along, I guess going from Pleasant View north til, is it Vine Hill? Hoffman: Yep. Daniel: That section. Any, does the hundred and some odd thousand dollars only cover, this is just a trail cost for what improvements. Hoffman: It’s a portion of the total cost so we’ll be estimating what the total cost will be and bring those numbers back to you. Daniel: Well hopefully reduce the overall cost as well. Certain aspects of it can be covered by. Hoffman: The road project. Daniel: The road project itself. That’s great. Hoffman: Great time to do the project. As long as you’re there. So that’s one big piece of news. The ice and snow conditions are of concern but after taking a look at Lake Ann for Feb Fest, taking a look at Lake Ann, it appears as though the entire thing as sunk and so there was probably maybe 4 inches of ice and in the neighborhood of 4 inches of ice when the snow came. The weight of the snow has depressed that whole ice sheet and now basically you have about, maybe 8 to 10 a foot of slush and that slush it appears is going to saturate enough so it will freeze solid over these cold temperatures. If it’s, if the ice is thick enough to support all that snow then you get real fluffy insulation and you won’t get any additional ice depth for a very long time so it’s actually good that it sank and soaked up and probably what you’ll see is you’ll have 14 to 15, 16 inches of ice out there sooner than later because now you have this big bank of slush that will freeze quickly on top. So that’s good news for Feb Fest. Service levels are being looked at again. We just went through a difficult budget year. That was last night’s council meeting. They did approve the budget as recommended without additional changes, although additional changes were discussed but the council has been receiving a lot of constituent input and ideas and so you’ll be copied on some of those requests that the City Manager has made of our department. Two things that are currently being looked at are ice skating and the hockey program, and then winter trail plowing so there’s been suggestions that in order to save money over the winter months, just eliminate all skating, ice skating and hockey and also eliminate all winter trail plowing so the council will be looking at what those services cost. All the costs would not be true savings if you eliminate them because your full time employees are still going to be doing something if they’re not doing those services so basically it’s any costs above that. Overtime. Hard costs associated with rental of equipment or building or other temporary seasonal staff such as warming house attendants so keep those, keep those topics on your radar. Talk to the council about it if you see them and then also if you’ve got the correspondence that I forwarded to the council. They’ll probably take it up in the first quarter of the year in 2011. Stolar: So the budget that they approved, was it the original recommended levy amount? Not the lower amount that was requested. 12 Park and Recreation Commission - December 14, 2010 Hoffman: It was lower than the preliminary levy. Stolar: Oh it was, okay. So they did go with the, what was it, not 55. It was. Hoffman: Yeah. Stolar: 50 something thousand lower or how much? Hoffman: I think that’s the number, yeah. It’s lower than the original. Basically the cut, there’s a variety of cuts but the staff salaries go from 2 to 1 percent and there’s a variety of other things. Equipment, $50,000 down. Check out Thursday’s Villager. You’ll see it all in there. And lastly, speaking with the Mayor last night after the council meeting, he wishes all of you on the commission a happy holiday from the entire City Council and a Happy New year so that was from Mayor Furlong last night so he wanted to send his greetings. Daniel: Thank you. Alright, if there’s nothing else to be discussed, why don’t we go ahead and adjourn and where are we going Todd? Axel’s. Hoffman: Axel’s. Daniel: Excellent. Stolar moved, Wendt 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 13