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PRC 2011 05 24 CHANHASSEN PARK AND RECREATION COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING MAY 24, 2011 Chairman Daniel called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. MEMBERS PRESENT: Jeff Daniel, Steve Scharfenberg, Elise Ryan, Tom Kelly, Peter Aldritt, and Brent Carron. Cole Kelly arrived late. STAFF PRESENT: Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Director; and Jerry Ruegemer, Recreation Superintendent APPROVAL OF AGENDA:Scharfenberg moved, Tom Kelly seconded to approve the agenda, amended to include an staff update regarding the Dugout Club signage request and Commissioner Ryan will give an update on the Red Birds. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: Daniel: Any public announcements Todd? Hoffman: Two this evening. Memorial Day, Monday at noon is the ceremony at City Center Park with the Veterans Monument. That will be hosted by the Legion and then they’ll have a lunch afterwards at the American Legion Post 580. Second is invasive species are in the news, specifically the zebra mussel and the fact that now it is in Lake Minnetonka and Prior Lake and other lakes in the metro area. A few lakes in the state. The homeowners associations, especially Minnewashta you’ve seen in the news, Lotus and we’re meeting, staff is meeting with those associations. They would like to see additional signage which is going up at the landings that the city operates at public launches at Lotus and Susan. Lotus, their association continuing to look for the gatehouse to be go back up. They’re doing some voluntary inspecting at the, so we’re not sure if that is a viable option. The gate house was originally installed at South Lotus Lake by the City Council to limit the access when the parking lot was full. At that time the City Council closed the gate which was against State Statute to the DNR so the gate had to go away and eventually the gatehouse went away. So if you hear rumblings about zebra mussels, that’s what’s going on and people are very concerned about this invasive species getting in their lake. It attaches to boats, docks, vegetation, rocks. It’s not very pleasant so it’s around the area and people are trying to keep it out of their lake. Daniel: Okay, thank you. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS: None. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Carron moved, Scharfenberg seconded to approve the verbatim and summary Minutes of the Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated Park and Recreation Commission - May 24, 2011 April 26, 2011 as presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0. HIGHWAY 101 SOUTH VEHICLE AND PEDESTRIAN IMPROVEMENT PROJECT OVERVIEW. Hoffman: Thank you Chair Daniels, and members of the commission. This item is for your information to keep you informed of what, what will be happening in 2013 down on Highway 101. It’s a federal project. What’s called an STP grant. Paul Oehme, our City Engineer and Public Works Director is heading up the project along with Carver County and State of Minnesota. So we just want to run you through what’s been going on. I sit on the project team representing trails and underpasses and those type of things. This presentation was given to the council back in March. That tells you who’s working on it. Kimley-Horn and SEH. It’s such a big project that they put two of these agencies together. Two engineering firms and in the rough set I talk about the agency reps, Chan, Carver County, MnDOT. I’m not sure who’s going to bid this job yet but it might be the City. It’s a State highway. It has not been turned back to the County. Through this process, this improvement process it will probably be turned back to the County but I’m not quite sure who’s going to bid the job yet but I suspect that will be the City. It’s a two lane undivided highway. Steep grades. Sharp turns. You all know what 101 is like. They want to improve safety, improve the capacity into that connectivity down to Pioneer and then try to minimize the environmental impacts. That’s why the road is staying where it’s at. You could straighten this section of road but it would be running in through wetlands or up and over wetlands or through hillside or through trees and so it’s going to stay on the existing alignment and when we’re done with the presentation we’ll take a look at the map. It’s going to be 4 lane divided design. It’s going to flatten curves and grades. Add a number of turn lanes. Storm drainage is a big part of the project. We’ll take a look at the map. Improvement project of this nature, now you’ve got to bring it up to water quality and water quantity standards and so you’ve got to put these storm drainage ponds in. Lots of pedestrian and bicycle improvements and then in the underpass and so you’ll have trails on both sides of 101 from Lyman to Pioneer Trail and underpass at Pioneer, or an underpass at Bandimere Park and globally the concept for parks in this part of the region are that Bandimere will be on the east side of 101. The Fox Woods will be on the west side and then these two neighborhoods will cross back and forth to a nature park and to an active park using that pedestrian underpass that is planned for at this location. Bandimere Park improvements. The entrance to the park. The current entrance is not ideal. There was some safety improvements installed immediately after the opening of Bandimere. We had a number of accidents due to sight line issues at that location. There was a concrete pork chop put out there which really, as simple as that plan was, really helped. It initiates vehicles traveling south to have to go all the way forward before they can turn and once they get all the way forward then they can see down over the hill. Without that concrete median in there, they were taking that turn early and turning in front of traffic which they did not see coming up the hill. But it is still an ideal location. The new or proposed access is much better. Takes the access farther north and then it aligns it with the other access will be across the. Daniel: Will it be a controlled intersection or just? Okay. 2 Park and Recreation Commission - May 24, 2011 Hoffman: Stop signs on the two signs. And then trunk water will go all the way down. Trunk water line from Lyman to Pioneer to service future development to the south. So design work is being completed in 2011. Final design in 2012 and then construction starting in 2013 and concluding in 2014. There’s been public meetings. Soil borings have been taken. Traffic forecasting. Preliminary layout design, which you see here. Drainage analysis and environment review have all been completed. These are the key issues that we have to deal with. Bandimere Park access and the reconfiguration we’ll be talking about both the new access. There are two properties there. The front house there owned by the Nettesheim family. Both are owned by the same family. The front house, if it’s acquired will be acquired by the road project to accommodate the future improved access. The back property would need to be acquired by the park commission through park fees. Trail system underpass. Significant improvements. I guess a blessing that you could, if you take a look at it that way, is that all of these trail underpass, pedestrian improvements currently are being proposed to be sponsored by the project itself so no park funds being involved. Whereas for example Lyman Boulevard, you’re on the hook for $600,000 for those improvements over there so this is much more than $600,000 so maybe you can, you know if you wanted to buy that property just you can take a look at, you’re not being called out to invest a whole lot of money so you can take those resources and invest them in, and it’s more, it’s a sense of leveraging. You’re getting a lot done but you can take $400,000 or $500,000 more and acquire that last piece of property for Bandimere for the future. Hey Cole. Cole Kelly: Hello. Hoffman: Leaving it landlocked is probably not a good thing for the owner or future owner or the City. We have enough issues already if we surround them on three sides we’re going to have additional issues. Like Commissioner Kelly has experienced, I spoke with the family about their particular instance and you know she was acknowledged that it can be an issue with the dog but they specifically purchased the dog to try to keep people off of their property from the park because they’ve experienced a lot of issues with teams in their driveway. Taking turns up at their hose to drink water. People using their property as a restroom and a bathroom and other things so, not that that’s any excuse for…experience but having that many people next to your house in a public park setting can prove a challenge as well for that property. Storm drainage, we’ll talk a little bit about that. Soil corrections. Soil corrections primarily underneath the wetland and a large wetland on the west side. And then it’s also just out of interest…I think you’ll understand what’s going on here is, this road’s going to primarily stay on it’s current alignment but there will be places where like it shifts over for a full lane and then you have compaction issues with that new soil that you’re using for roadway compared to the fraction of the road that’s been there for 40, 50, 60 years and so they’re real concerned about how they equalize those compaction rates underneath that roadway to make sure that this holds up. Tom Kelly: I did find that the runoff in the early spring was the worst this year than it’s ever been. I don’t know if it’s because of the work they’ve done around, up top of the park but the 101 was treacherous at that point in terms of ice on the roads. Hoffman: Yeah. Yeah. From over the winter months. Tom Kelly: Yep. 3 Park and Recreation Commission - May 24, 2011 Hoffman: So this should improve that. Design speed, right-of-way acquisition and what’s next? We’re into finishing up complete drawings. Public involvement. The second newsletter. Second open house has taken place already. So there’s the project funding. Federal… $5.4 million of federal. Local matching $1.3 million. And MnDOT turn back funds. Currently no park funds involved in the project. You have a diagram of the specific improvements at Bandimere but then the rest of the configuration I’m not showing up here. To fix trails on both sides. All the way down to the intersection. West side and east side. So primarily like this neighborhood is really excited about not having to cross, the pedestrian right at this intersection. If they want to go south they can go down here and cross at a controlled stop light and if they want to go to Bandimere they can stay on their side of the road and then come underneath the underpass. This kind of a crossing for a pedestrian, especially with young children or kids in strollers or kids on bikes, very challenging so they’re very excited about that. Same goes for the residents on this side. They can utilize the underpass to get to the other side. Eventually we see these properties being acquired and kind of combined as the development and hopefully you see there’s not a north leg to this underpass from this side. It will be developed when this road goes in and one of the thoughts is that this trail could continue down along the low side and then come up and then get to the cross with, where you’d have a direct access but that’s yet to be determined. You’ll see a number of walls. 101 you can understand the character of the terrain in that area. There’s a large wall here. There’s large walls in the area of the underpass to make that option viable. And there’s some smaller walls. There’s the ponding area worth noting. There’s three big ponding areas. One right here on the Erhart property. One in a private lot in this location and then one in a private lot right in the center. Those will all have to be acquired so the project will be paying for those properties to allow that storm water to be placed in those areas. The park is a benefactor of this pond. Water from the park will make it’s way to that pond and so the project also benefits. Or water runoff leaving Bandimere Park. This map over here is the right-of-way impacted or all the orange. We can take a look at this and it’s all the right-of-way impacts. Part of the park is being taken out and the reason that this can be acquired through the project is that this park taking will be balanced by this park addition so they are taking property from the park and they’ll be replacing it with this lot. Otherwise that transition of the project purchasing that property would be a little bit more challenging. Scharfenberg: So Todd, looking at the map that we have and then compared to the big one up there, will that trail coming out of the underpass remain on the south side of 101 or the west side all the way or does that cross over again because I know the trail down by 101, or by the, yeah by Pioneer is on the east side. Hoffman: Yep it’s here. Scharfenberg: Right. Hoffman: And so this trail will come and it stays all the way on the west side. All the way down. And then if you wanted to cross you’d cross at the stop light. Scharfenberg: So it will stay on the west side. 4 Park and Recreation Commission - May 24, 2011 Hoffman: West side. Scharfenberg: But there will remain, will there remain the trail on the east side as well? Hoffman: Yes. Scharfenberg: Okay. Hoffman: This trail stays in the park and then it gets extended. It gets actually all gets rebuilt with the project. This section of trail from the, once it leaves the park this whole section of trail comes out and gets rebuilt as a part of the project. The one that is currently existing. And then there is a gap section of trail here. We priced it out, the park priced it out. It’s very expensive because of all the constraints in that area so someday Pioneer will be upgraded and it’s eventual condition and that trail will be added at that time. Daniel: Now Pioneer’s a county road right? Hoffman: (Yes). Daniel: Alright. Hoffman: So that’s what I have for the commission today. It’s a fairly involved project. It does impact Bandimere Park and as a commission you need to make some decisions to be able to make recommendation to the City Council on, primarily on the acquisition of the second lot. If you want to acquire the second property. The appraisals have been completed. Those appraisals are basically at the taxable value that they currently are at on those properties and as a seller they have a cash buyer and you also, if you sell to the City you have a relocation that goes along with it. That’s a benefit that they wouldn’t have if they sold it to a private party. And also if the commission makes a recommendation to the council and the council acts on it to acquire this, we can negotiate with them where they could stay for you know a certain period of time. One year. Two years. Three years. Five years. Depending on when they’re ready to move out. That’s a great negotiation point that a private buyer probably would not have. So that would be something else that we could offer a property owner for acquisition. Ryan: And what’s the timeline for purchasing and how does that work? Hoffman: Timeline would be. Ryan: To make the recommendation. When would they need that recommendation? Hoffman: Well you would need to make it as a part of this year’s CIP. Ryan: Okay. Hoffman: So June and July and then if the council feels that it’s something that they want to approve then we would move forward with the acquisition. All of these acquisitions, there’s 18 5 Park and Recreation Commission - May 24, 2011 or 19 takings that need to be acquired and so they would all be orchestrated as a part of the 2013 project. Most of that work would be done in 2012 so 2012 would be the likely timeframe for that. Aldritt: On the lot that’s being purchased, is there any, is there going to be a ballfield in there? Is there any ideas on what’s going to be placed in that? Hoffman: The one where the road is or the second one? Aldritt: Yeah, the one where the road. Yeah, that one. Hoffman: That’s a tennis court outline. Aldritt: Okay. Hoffman: Double tennis court. Aldritt: Oh I see. Hoffman: So that could go in there. Carron: Follow up with that Todd, looks like with the tennis court in there you’re going to have a new layout basically of the parking lot. Is there anyway that we can adjust or, before they go into final design of 101 for the Kimley-Horn or what not, so that they can somehow mirror the image that you have here with the tennis courts? Hoffman: Well the original concept is probably a couple years old and that was based on, if both projects were acquired, if we reach a point when we know we’re going to acquire it, it could be modified. We reach a point of when we know they’re both going to be acquired but the project, the project really had to move forward without acquiring this second lot. The project had to be designed just acquiring this front lot. That’s all the obligation that the road project has to, to the acquisition. Depending on how fast this moves forward, this could be modified. There’s really no, this is the secret point right here. There’s nothing secret about that design. Carron: I guess just to save some money on our part if we do make a recommendation to buy that second lot, we’d want to do it before the final design so that we don’t have to pay for a new parking lot. Daniel: Okay. Cole. Cole Kelly: What is the, do we know what the appraised value is then? Hoffman: About 4 ½. 440. 450,000. Something like that. Cole Kelly: Have we talked to the owners at all? 6 Park and Recreation Commission - May 24, 2011 Hoffman: (Yes). We don’t know if they’re willing to sell it at that price but they’re willing to at least enter into conversations to sell both properties. Cole Kelly: Okay. and would they be paid upon when they moved out or would we buy it and then let them stay or what, you know you said there’s some negotiation there. Hoffman: We don’t know. Cole Kelly: Okay. Hoffman: They could be paid up front and stay. Pay half up front and half when they leave. That’s all based on future negotiations. Cole Kelly: And then what is our vision for that parcel of property? Hoffman: There’s a concept plan. That’s the original vision. The concept plan shows ice hockey and then tennis. Additional parking. Additional trails and additional ponding. Bandimere Park when it was acquired, it was acquired in really 1, 2, 3, well a bunch of pieces here but the original park was down here. Kiowa. Then the second piece was bought for about $185,000. Then all these parcels were acquired as a part of the Springfield neighborhood, so those are the first acquisitions. These would be the last acquisitions if they happen. But the priority at the time of the original development was ballfields. Lots of things were in the discussion and so this group sat here and talked about ballfields, tennis, hockey. The neighborhood was in. That they would like to see hockey. That they would like to see tennis. It’s a community park. That’s where we put those kind of facilities. But there just wasn’t room. At that time the commission and the community really wanted to maximize ballfields and so the ballfields were all put in. You could have easily kept one of these ballfields out and constructed tennis courts and hockey at the time but it wasn’t a priority so that’s when you would go back and finish. Cole Kelly: Now would we destroy the house then or what would we do with the home? Hoffman: That would be the most likely scenario, yeah. Cole Kelly: Now is there anyway to like save the garage to use as a warming house and possibly sell items out of, especially when groups. Tom Kelly: Storage. Daniel: Storage? Cole Kelly: And or storage. Hoffman: It’s a possibility. It depends on the grading in that particular area. It’s, I believe it’s an attached garage so you’d have to kind of detach from the house, demolish it and continue to 7 Park and Recreation Commission - May 24, 2011 build around it. In that type of scenario a lot of times you get into a situation where it would, it’d just, it makes more sense to take it all out and if you want to rebuild something, rebuild it. Cole Kelly: Okay. Then do we know what the costs are for demolishing the home? Hoffman: No. Carron: On average about $10,000. Cole Kelly: Okay. And do we have any groups that might want to take that home away from us? Daniel: That’s a nice house. Cole Kelly: Like Habitat for Humanity or something like that. Hoffman: Typically the people that take these homes are contractors that like to move and try to sell houses and they have to have a lot nearby. Cole Kelly: I know it’s expensive to move a house. Very expensive. Hoffman: Yeah, if somebody had a lot nearby they might move it out. We would offer it up. Daniel: I’m sure wouldn’t hesitate. We’ve done it. And that was not cheap but nonetheless it’s certainly practical. Hoffman: They moved an apartment out of Chanhassen to Carver. Daniel: I remember that as well. That was interesting. Hoffman: In four pieces. Daniel: Yeah. Hoffman: If you talk to him today he wishes he would have never done it. Daniel: But I do think you know certainly a house of that value could get something. At least be able to get something back that we could possibly reinvest into our CIP fund and offset. It’s not much. I mean we’re talking pennies on the dollar but nonetheless it’s something. Hoffman: Yeah I don’t think anyone’s going to buy it from you to move it. They would take it off your hands probably. It’s not a very, it’s not a really well designed house to move. It’s kind of stacked up from top to bottom and half buried. It’s not like a long layout rambler that you can just jack up and haul away. There’d be a lot of foundation work that would have to get rebuilt in some location. 8 Park and Recreation Commission - May 24, 2011 Cole Kelly: Yeah, I was just thinking if we could get some taken off our hands it’d save us $10,000. Daniel: …help as well. Hoffman: We can put a sign out there. Free house. See how that works. You move. Scharfenberg: Todd, will the changes, moving the road a little bit closer by the one ballfield, will that impact at all the design that we had for the possible Frisbee golf course? Hoffman: It makes it a little tighter down in that particular location. I’m not sure if we designed it, that that hole would wrap around and now you’re going to probably want to stay away from a 22 foot wall. Daniel: Lost Frisbees. Hoffman: Lots of scared cars. Scharfenberg: And no impact on the ballfield itself? Hoffman: No. Scharfenberg: Okay. Daniel: Elise? Ryan: Nope. Daniel: Tom. Tom Kelly: One question with making it a 4 lane road. Is there going to be any pressure to Kiowa a through street? Hoffman: It’ll be talked about. Tom Kelly: It’ll be talked about, okay. That’s the only one. Hoffman: It would be wonderful for those neighbors to have that connection. Tom Kelly: We’ll do that and we’ll do lights and everything. We’ll do…at once. Yep. Yep. Ruegemer: One time pain. Tom Kelly: Yep. Hoffman: It’s not a part of this project. 9 Park and Recreation Commission - May 24, 2011 Tom Kelly: It isn’t, okay. Hoffman: If you recall when it was closed there was some language by the council at the time that it would be looked at, or at least when Highway 101 was upgraded we’d need to go back and take a look at it. Tom Kelly: Okay. And the homeowners are going to, they will have to sell that first house. I mean they will take the first house away. Because I was confused how that works. So I know that they own 2 houses but they have to definitely get rid of 1, is that true? Hoffman: Well that, it’s all yet to be approved by the City Council so they have to approve the design and the taking and if they approve the design and the taking then the first house will go. And then there would be, if the second house stays you can see the one you have in front of you doesn’t have the complete road design and Brent and I were talking about it before. If this house stays then you have a driveway that comes out onto a park road and not onto a city street and that gets to be a little bit cumbersome. It adds another layer to the, you know basically the City, if this stays the City’s in the future, you’re not only going to be managing a park, you’re going to be managing a single family residence in the middle of a park which historically there’s lots of examples around, it just gets a little bit complicated. Daniel: Alright, anything else? Hoffman: You have 500 people in that park on a daily basis. If there’s ever an issue they go to that house and so pretty soon those homeowners felt like you might as well pay me to be a park ranger. Ruegemer: Get another dog. Hoffman: Gets them to do that. Yeah, get another dog, yeah. Daniel: Alright, and actually Cole actually asked a few questions I had on my mind as well so I’m pretty much covered on my end. If not anything else let’s move onto establish capital improvement for the project tour schedule in June. Before we do that I just want to obviously announce that Commissioner Cole Kelly is now in attendance so we’re at the full strength. ESTABLISH CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROJECT TOUR SCHEDULE, JUNE 14, 2011. Hoffman: Chair Daniels, members of the commission, this is a recommendation that the commission establish a tour to take a look at projects and again that’s solely up to the th commission. If you don’t have the time on June 14, we don’t have to schedule the tour. It’s touring these potential projects is one of the best ways to get a hands on look of what’s going on in the community and so if that’s something you’re interested in doing. Basically what I’d like to do is just go through a brief recap of all the projects that we have out there. Before we start that I want you to take some notes on things that are not in here. Bandimere batting cage, you 10 Park and Recreation Commission - May 24, 2011 have that plan on your desk. That’s a $10,000 addition. I don’t believe that’s programmed on the program sheet. The Bandimere acquisition. So the acquisition is not programmed on the program sheet and put whatever number you like. 450. 500. 500’s probably a good number based on closing costs and relocation and demolish. The demolition. Pioneer Pass development. The development of Pioneer Pass Park is not, well we did, we find what? Is there $350,000 programmed? Scharfenberg: Yep. 2013. Hoffman: In the future. But Riley Ridge is not in there. Is Riley Ridge in there? Scharfenberg: No. Hoffman: The acquisition is but the development is not so Riley Ridge Park development. Those are at least 3 new items that you would want to discuss as a part of the conversation. The current park fund cash balance is under $200,000. Or excuse me, under $2 million. Daniel: …we’re done for the year. Hoffman: And that cash balance combined with reduced park revenues, it really puts us in a situation where currently we have an average CIP expenditure of $502,000 per year so we probably should be lowering that down to a level of something more in the area of $300,000 annually, and you can bunch that up so you can put $600,000 one year and zero the next and $600,000 the next year. I mean you can move it around. But I don’t think we want to push that fund much under a million dollars and so you have to balance what we have coming in for revenues. As you’re aware the Pioneer Pass neighborhood and then the Lyman Boulevard neighborhood, The Reflections, we have zero cash coming in from those because of the land acquisition. Last year the park fund did perform over a quarter million so that was a pleasant surprise. We probably won’t do that again this year but $250,000 next year we saw that first bump back after the downturn so that was good. And then the sheets themselves are categorized. Street improvements. I think it’s a little bit cumbersome to take a look at what’s going on in all the different projects but street improvements from time to time and more often than not have some park funds in there and two that are currently programmed are that Highway 41. It’s the first page. Trunk Highway 41 to downtown Victoria. Trunk Highway 5 improvements and there’s $80,000 in the park dedication fund and basically that’s matching funds back to the State’s million. Project that you reviewed recently last month or the month before the 101 north. There’s $95,000 in that project, for that trail and roadway improvement. And then these active projects, and these are all the sheets add up to the $502,000 that you currently have programmed so there’s going to be, Brent and I were chatting before the meeting. I think he said cuts and I said deferrals. They’re pushing out so some of these things are probably going to have to be pushed out. Some projects are going to have to be pushed out or cut in order to get back down to that $300,000 annually. And so we have an allocation for benches and trees, $10,000 and $25,000. The $400,000 for the Highway 41, that’s, that money’s basically spent. It’s not being, it’s not out of the fund yet but that’s the County project. If you’re wondering where that project’s at, it’s going to be delayed until September and so the Highway 41 trail and underpass will start this September and will be constructed primarily in 2012, not in 2011. There’s 11 Park and Recreation Commission - May 24, 2011 $125,000 for tennis court work in 2012 but you’ll notice that’s capital replacement fund. Always look at the funding source line. That’s a capital replacement fund. Pioneer Pass Park acquisition. That’s occurred. That’s taken place. Fitness equipment, again that’s a capital replacement fund. We just purchased our 2011 in the last allocation of $10,000 of equipment. We’ll have it in 2012. The council approved a 5 year spruce up at the Chan Rec Center for new fitness, cardio equipment in the Rec Center room. And next year will be the last year of that 5 year installment. The Bluff Creek Drive, that trail. $390,000 out in 2014. And I think this is one that you can safely deferred. We are applying for a transportation enhancement grant for this project. This section of trail starts up at where the 212 project and Pioneer kind of come together and heads down to the river valley to the LRT trail. Hopefully, it has good promise as a T-fund, funded project because you’re connecting to regional trails. You’re connecting to the Minnesota River Valley. It has regional significance. Not just local significance and so I think you’ll see that this points our fairly well. And then if that transportation enhancement grant is approved, then you’ll be down in more of the range of $90,000 or $80,000 for matching funds to go into the project. Carron: Is there any talk about reconstruction of that remaining road from 212 down to. Hoffman: Bluff Creek Drive? Carron: Yeah. Hoffman: It was reconstructed a few years back. It’s a fairly sensitive section of roadway. It was narrowed for traffic calming. It’s a 30 miles an hour zone. It carries a lot of traffic. Carron: Right. Hoffman: That doesn’t like to go 30 miles an hour and so that’s the reason it’s a fairly narrow section. There’s no plans that I’ve heard of, it’s a local street. It’s a city street. To upgrade it to anything more than it is today. Disc golf course construction is in 2011 but currently not programmed. Skate park ramp replacement and asphalt surfacing. Have you been receiving the correspondence on that? The council’s been getting some comments on that and there’s $110,000, all in the capital replacement fund. Not out of the park fund. The park fund bought the original park. The park fund bought the original ramps and now when you go do maintenance or replacement you’re looking to the capital fund. Capital replacement fund to do that. The asphalt is basically pitted and the oils are out and it’s really rough and so the kids are complaining. When you try to kick them out of the parking lot they say they’re skating down there because it’s smoother than the skate park. And then the ramps are starting to really come apart and we’ve worked on them. The original installation date of the skate park was 1995 so th you’re on your 16 year. Pedestrian trail to the Arboretum. Again we’re working on, you have $250,000. You’re going to have to leave something in there but I think you can again defer this project. We’re working on that transportation enhancement grant not only for the trail but the underpass and I just don’t think that projects of this size, this is just a trail and 250’s not even going to cover that trail. That trail’s closer to half a million and then the underpass you’re closer to a million and a half so this project is really not a $250,000 project. It’s more like a million and a half. You’re going to have to get some, to get that million dollar transportation 12 Park and Recreation Commission - May 24, 2011 enhancement fund, then you’re back in the game looking at you know working with the Arboretum. Lifetime Fitness is interested in this project as well. And Nature Preserve trail, final phase. $90,000. That project is, that’s that final little leg and it will be built once that lot develops. Are you familiar where the last piece went in when Mamac Systems is? So Mamac went in and the development contract for that entire area says that trail will be built when that lot is developed. So when that lot is developed the contractor comes in. We sit down and they say okay well you’re building the parking lot. You’re building the building. You need to build this trail. We’ll pay for it. We don’t know when that’s going to happen so you can just keep pushing this $90,000 out all the way out to the back side so it can go out to 2016 this time around. If that lot sold then the money’s just got to come back down and be put into service to make that final connection. It’s a very economical way to build the trail. All the soft costs are on their side of the equation. We pay for asphalt and rock and they build the trail as part of the development contract. Lyman Boulevard north, park acquisition. That’s already taken place so you can delete that one off of the sheet. The Reflections at Lake Riley or Riley Ridge Park acquisition. Highway pedestrian underpass at Minnewashta. That project is programmed and scheduled to occur with that million dollar grant. We’re on the hook for that $80,000. One thing I want to point out. If you go back to your, the front sheet where it has all the projects by funding source. That $80,000 is in two different places. You should cross out one. Go to year 2012 on the left hand sheet. You’ll see the $80,000 down at TH5 pedestrian underpass at Minnewashta. Cross out that 80 because you’ll also see that’s repeated on the sheet with just two items and so that program is, or that expenditure was programmed both under parks and engineering so you need to cross out one. And as our finance clerk said today, there you just found $80,000 for the day. That’s under the, right under the cover sheet. So the cover memo and you go to the next page and that $80,000 is doubled up. Pioneer Pass Park development is currently in 2013. I think if you do take a tour that’s one of the sites you definitely want to see. The houses are going up. The neighbors are going to start moving in and right now we have an 8.7 acre dirt field that they’re going to be hoping something happens on. That scenario occurred in Shakopee where they waited a number of years and homeowners are very frustrated but there was, Shakopee basically spent all it’s park fund money when it put it’s park fund $2 million in the hole and they didn’t have money to develop this neighborhood park so they were really in a bind. So a new council and finance director came in and maybe even a new finance director and new council and they said we can’t continue to let this neighborhood not have a neighborhood park. They’ve got to, so they found the money to make it happen. That’s the kind of scenario you know we can put it in long grass and let it sit there until the entire neighborhood is developed but you’re going to start to hear a lot of door knocking from people that say hey, where’s our park. And not just in that neighborhood but the other neighbors around there so. Ryan: Todd, was this the park that you were communicating with that woman who was asking? Hoffman: Yes. Ryan: Okay. Hoffman: The only reason she was buying because of the park and if the park’s not going to be developed, she’s not buying her house. 13 Park and Recreation Commission - May 24, 2011 Ryan: Right, and this was the park that she was referring to. Okay. Hoffman: Yes. Highway 41 trail extension and stairway. That, those dollars are out there. They’re being expended in 2011-2012. There currently is a project that may bring some of this money back in. Our engineering division is taking a look at a safe crossing at the Minnetonka Middle School West. If they do the safe crossing with some improved lighting then the trail extension to the north would be included in that grant application and it probably would be funded out of that and so then you would just be looking at the stairway at this particular location. And the stairway’s down in the Highover neighborhood to connect the Highover to the underpass. So that $250,000, it’s always good to know that you’re not going to go up. In this case it might, that might actually go down. Get cut in half. Bandimere Park tree replacement is in 2012 for $60,000. Bandimere when it was developed, half the trees were put in and now we have about half the trees that were put in that are healthy and about half of those are ash and so you’re down to you know about 12% of the trails that you originally proposed to have in Bandimere Park are currently going to be there and survive into any future type of a tree and so we took a look at investing above and beyond the $25,000 so it’s a $60,000 tree planting plan for 2012 in Bandimere. I know that will be difficult based under their current budget to keep in there but it’s something you probably want to at least take a look at the plans. Trees that are one of those long term investments that you have to start and so potentially if we don’t do the 60, we are going to be moving down there probably with the Arbor Day thing and some of the $25,000 allocations could also be, could go to Bandimere for a little bit of that every year. Scharfenberg: Todd did the tree replacement at Lake Ann come from our CIP? Where did that come from? Hoffman: Comes from the environmental resources group. Scharfenberg: And would there be the potential to ask them to do part of that as part of the Bandimere project as well? Hoffman: Yes. Once we finish up at Lake Ann they’ll be looking to move to another park and be going down to, one more year at Lake Ann. Fields 2. 1 and 2 and then they could move down to Bandimere. Ryan: And do they have to complete Lake Ann before they move to Bandimere or is there any flexibility? Hoffman: Don’t have to but it would make sense since we’ve gone two-thirds of the way to complete the plantings and so they grow up evenly, but you could move at any time. Ryan: Okay. Hoffman: And the last one is the Herman Field Park half court basketball. That’s $10,000 next year and that came out of that neighborhood meeting. Variety of other sheets. Highway 101 North/Pleasant View Road construction. That’s happening. And this is called 2016 active. These were projects that were deferred or pushed out the last time you did your CIP through 14 Park and Recreation Commission - May 24, 2011 2015. Rice Marsh Lake trail. That one’s got to happen eventually. Eden Prairie is building their section so Eden Prairie is building their section of trail. Sandwiched between Highway 212 and Rice Marsh Lake and then coming over to the bridge that goes down to Bearpath. And so our piece is the last piece to be constructed and that would come around, I’m not sure where. Do you see Rice Marsh? Yeah, right here. Tom Kelly: You said it goes to Bearpath. Hoffman: Yep. There’s bridge here underneath and the trail will go to Bearpath and then come right down to Lyman Boulevard so the Eden Prairie trail will come on the far west border of Bearpath and on our eastern border right here. And there’s a bridge underneath Highway 212 right there. Eden Prairie’s building the trail from the bridge over to their park, which is called Rice Marsh Lake Park just like our’s is Rice Marsh. And then we have one more section to build right here and once we build this piece on our side of the city boundary, then you can go all the way around Rice Marsh Lake. Daniel: Theoretically. Hoffman: Yep. Daniel: Except for that one 150 foot section. Hoffman: Oh yes. Yeah, it’s still not going to be. Tom Kelly: Complete, yeah. Daniel: It will never be complete. Hoffman: Oh it probably will at some point but yeah not, I think the City quit mowing it because they mowed it and he didn’t, the property owner didn’t care but then somebody stepped in a gopher hole. Sued the City and got a chunk of money because they were mowing it and maintaining it so thus it was a valid trail so now I think the City’s actually put signs up that says this is, this trail stops or doesn’t go through. Tom Kelly: It’s all matted down and rutted and everything. Hoffman: Yep. They keep going through there. Daniel: Oh yeah. Tom Kelly: When are they going to build that trail? Hoffman: This year. Tom Kelly: Really. 15 Park and Recreation Commission - May 24, 2011 Hoffman: Yeah, this year. To the bridge Tom. The piece along Bearpath, that’s been negotiation fiasco. The development contractor of Bearpath said that that trail will be constructed but the people who developed Bearpath are no more so they’re bankrupt and gone and there’s no development contract that’s valid so Eden Prairie is having a tough time getting that section constructed. But eventually it will happen on their side of the equation. So then you could cross, walk out your front door and cross right up here and go and run all the way around Rice Marsh. Carron: This project cost of 375, is that all park dedication funds then or? Hoffman: It would be under this scenario. It’d be new and it would probably be more than that. That’s probably a number that’s light. There might be a bridge in there. Daniel: For crossing that creek? Hoffman: So you have to, that’s one that’s already deferred but when the time is right. Liberty at Creekside trail. That’s been pushed out past the 2016. And that is development driven. That’s the section of trail. You know where the barn is with all the writing on it? That’s where that one is. So that will connect, that’s the final development from Degler’s property to Highway 212. Right down in this neck of the woods right down here. It currently dead ends and when Liberty at Creekside develops then we’ll build it with the developer. Some docks in there and Manchester Park, Phase I development. Manchester Park, you won’t know where that is probably but that’s the west water treatment plant site up on Galpin. Have you seen a sign up there? Daniel: Oh. How did they come up with Manchester as the name? Hoffman: It’s Manchester Way or Manchester Road that’s going in. So and you know there’s a story to everything and the story to Manchester Park and the water treatment plant is that people don’t necessarily like water treatment plants but if you throw a park in on it it’s kind of like putting a little icing on the water treatment plant. And then in addition to that, that acquisition was pretty tumultuous as well and the park funds were added into it to make the cashflow all work and so park funds were used into that acquisition for that water treatment plant site. So now you have a water treatment plant and a park up on top. Daniel: Is that the Carlson property? Hoffman: Yep. The Carlson property. Scharfenberg: Is there any timeline Todd with that? Hoffman: No. Scharfenberg: Water treatment plant being built? 16 Park and Recreation Commission - May 24, 2011 Hoffman: Well yeah, they keep pushing that out as well based on the development down turn. So that’s one that can be pushed out. Roundhouse Park. Phase II playgrounds. Again you know those can happen at any time. And City Center Park band shell. That can happen at any time in the future. And then the inactive projects I doubt there’s anything in here that you’re going to bring back. If we were telling you to spend $300,000 more than the $500,000 you might be taking a look in this category but under the current scenario you’re probably not going to be taking a look at inactive projects. Daniel: You know when we look at the amphitheater, with a little, with some heavy equipment and a little bit of grading, I mean is there an opportunity just to put something in there and run some electrical? I mean is there a way in which we could set up something to accept temporary or short term solution to do that? Hoffman: Yep. Daniel: That we could look at possibly. Hoffman: You could do that and. Daniel: Because I assume that cost would be you know a tenth if not less than that. You’re just moving dirt around and re-seeding. Hoffman: Correct. It becomes a programming thing. If there’s, this amphitheater at Lake Ann would be very large and it would be something, or significantly larger than what we have down here so it would be something like in Plymouth or Maple Grove and I’m not sure that we’re at the programming level for that so if we don’t have the programming for it, then we ought not to be spending any money on it. The Arboretum is looking at putting in an amphitheater. If they do that then I think we’re set. Daniel: I think we’re good. Hoffman: I think the real blessing in that is the site’s always there Jeff, if somebody wants to do it. That’s a great amphitheater site at Lake Ann if somebody wants to do it at some future park board and council, and the City wants to see that happen but right now the concert series here is working pretty well. Daniel: Oh yeah, yeah. I agree. Okay. Any discussions on this? Tom Kelly: I have one question about, you mentioned that Pioneer Pass, you may want to do that sooner rather than later. I know for the Lake Riley one too, they’re starting. They’ve got machines out there right now and is that something that, those homeowners would probably want to see their park. Hoffman: Same thing. Probably year after. Yeah, so a year. Maybe a year or two after. Pioneer Pass is ahead at least a year and maybe two. 17 Park and Recreation Commission - May 24, 2011 Tom Kelly: It is, okay. Hoffman: There’s going to be a lot of homes there shortly. And again I want to ensure that the commission, this is your CIP process, yeah you can go on the tour. We’ll be glad to take you around. Show you a lot of these sites so you can start that debate process or you can just come back here on your regular meeting in June and staff will have a recommendation prepared for you based on any comments tonight or we’ll take comments on the 20 June meeting and make a recommendation in July. You really have until August and so you can meet seriously on this in July and August and make a recommendation in either one of those two months to the City Council. th Ryan: And what times is it on June 14? The tour. Hoffman: That’s to be determined. Ryan: Oh, okay. Hoffman: We’d probably go 6:00 to 8:30, something like that. Back to you Jeff. Daniel: Alright, any other comments? Alright, thank you Todd. Oh go ahead. Tom Kelly: Should we decide right now if we want to do the tour as opposed to not? Scharfenberg: I think we do decide now. Cole Kelly: Yeah I think we have to. th Daniel: What about… All I’m asking is do you want to do it on the 14 or do we want to meet early at our next meeting which will be June. th Hoffman: 28. th Scharfenberg: I’ve got something going on on the 28 early so I’d prefer. st Daniel: June 21. Tom Kelly: Yeah, I think to do it justice we should do it on a non meeting night. th Hoffman: 28. th Daniel: It is the 28? I thought it’d be the fourth. Oh I see, yeah. th Cole Kelly: It is the fourth. I think the 14 is a good idea actually. It gives us some time to think about it too and develop some thoughts. 18 Park and Recreation Commission - May 24, 2011 Daniel: I’ll be able to meet you about halfway into tour. That’d be fine. I’ll get your phone th number Todd and find where you guys are at. Outside of that, do we want to do the 14 then? Carron: I would like to. Cole Kelly: I’m good with that. Daniel: Okay. Let’s go ahead and do that then. Hoffman: And what do you want to see for sure? Tom Kelly: I’d like to see Pioneer Pass. I’d just like to see the stuff that, I’d like to see Pioneer Pass for sure. Daniel: We probably want to evaluate the ones that are within our, I think we should, yeah. We obviously discussed Bandimere. Minnewashta. I think we should head over to Highover and see that project and see where the stairs are going in since we’re going to be getting some free beer at Brent’s house. Hoffman: And Bandimere we’ll look at both the acquisition and the tree project and the batting cage. Tom Kelly: And play disc golf there again like we did last year. You going to set up the temporary holes? Hoffman: Yeah. We’ll take a look at that as well. Tom Kelly: I don’t think there’s much to see at Lake Riley. It’s a pile of dirt. At the new. Hoffman: Riley Ridge. Tom Kelly: I don’t think there’s much to see there right now. Hoffman: Yeah but we’re so close. Tom Kelly: Okay. Hoffman: We might as well look at it. You can know. Ryan: And we don’t have to do this necessarily as part of the tour since it’s right here but I think we should all take a look at the skate park. Skate park to familiarize ourselves with the, you know where it’s at and the condition of it. Hoffman: Yeah, let’s start right there as long as we’re here. Just walk right up there. Ryan: Okay. 19 Park and Recreation Commission - May 24, 2011 Hoffman: Basically what we’ve been telling the kids is that, there’s a Facebook response so we had a Facebook comment and we responded back and it’s kind of like a car or a refrigerator or anything else. You have to wear it out until it’s done before replacing and it’s not as nice to drive an old car as a new car but it’s still, you have to wear it out until it’s done and that thing we’ve been patching up and patching up and it’s getting to the point where some would say, or a lot would say that it’s past it’s wear out stage and now we’re just eating them up. Daniel: Did you ever go see that skate park over in Mound? Hoffman: I’ve driven by it. Didn’t stop in there but yeah, I know what it’s about. The whole concrete thing, yeah. Daniel: Yeah. Hoffman: We’re not going to see that here. Daniel: No, no. I just was curious what something like that would cost. Hoffman: That’s $300,000. Quarter of a million. Daniel: The thing’s just, I mean it’s packed too constantly. I mean it’s phenomenal. Hoffman: Yeah, I think for the value, you know we’re in the same kind of use here and the 110’s going to do ramps hopefully and the asphalt. We still don’t have a hard budget on that but that’s the number that’s currently. Carron: That’s all capital replacement fund too though. Hoffman: Yep. Daniel: Alright. Oh Todd did we also want to stop by and do we want to tour Pleasant View and 101 since that’s going to fall into the project? Hoffman: Sure. Daniel: Budget this year. Is it this year or next year? Hoffman: This year. Daniel: This year so. This fall. Hoffman: Okay, we’ll put that together. We’ll have a box lunch for you and 6:00 and we’ll wrap it up at 8:30. Daniel: Okay. 20 Park and Recreation Commission - May 24, 2011 Aldritt: Meet here at City Hall? Hoffman: Meet here. Right out here and we’ll take vans and we’ll have a box lunch for you and then we’ll have a packet on the tour. RECREATION PROGRAM REPORTS: LAKE ANN PARK SUMMER SCHEDULE. Ruegemer: Thanks Chair Daniels. I just want to give everybody kind of a quick update on the Lake Ann Park. We had staff training tonight. We have four brand new employees out at Lake Ann this summer so we did, went through about 2 hours and 20 minutes of training tonight out at Lake Ann. Kind of showed everybody how to pop popcorn and…boats and hook up trolling motors and just a lot of those type of details so we’re pretty excited, we’re going to be opening up this weekend. Saturday morning starting at 11:00. So we will be open Memorial Day through probably about the second-third week in August at this point. Lifeguards are going to be th starting the 11 of June with that. As you all know we took a look at that contract here, I think it was February if I’m not mistaken with that so same hours out there with that. They’ll be 11:00 to 7:00, weather permitting. That’ll be every day with that. I did mention here too, I’m not sure if the commission’s aware but we did purchase two canoes. Sorry, two kayaks for Lake Ann watercraft rental operation here this year so they’re on the racks and ready to go. So pretty excited about that so to have two new boats in our fleet so to speak out there so they’re open face canoes. Or open kayaks. That should be extremely easy to use. Very user friendly. If you tip over, you won’t be stuck in the cockpit so to speak so you just basically hop right out so we’re pretty excited about that. I think staff is pretty excited about having that. Offering an option out there as well along with our 6 paddleboats, 3 canoes and 2 fishing boats out there as well so it’s going to be a great summer. I think we have about 6 spots left on the canoe racks out there for personal canoes that are out there for rent so those are pretty popular again out there. Hoffman: Do you remember what the rate will be on the kayaks? Ruegemer: $10 an hour for that. That’s the same as paddleboats and with that so we’re pretty excited about that. It’s a lot of group picnic phone calls. We have our intern started this, actually last week, Lindsey Litrenta from Lacrosse so I’m busy training her on the facility phone calls so she’s been handling a lot of the picnic phone calls and coordination of picking up keys and entering in payments and permits and that sort of thing so great to have her here and helping out with that. It’s been pretty popular again with picnic phone calls and have a lot on the books already. Some have started already but we have a couple this weekend and then really graduation parties are going to be starting here the first part of June with that and we have some schools coming out again. Minnetonka Middle School West will be out at Lake Ann and they always bring a pretty big group, and they’ll be doing watercraft rentals and buying items at the concession stands. Chapel Hill Academy will be coming out this coming Friday out at Lake Susan. St. Hubert’s will be out next week for that. They do their end of the year schools. Chan Elementary will be coming out to Lake Ann and also Meadow Green Park with that so it’s a lot of kind of wrap up the school year parties here coming up here too so it’ll be pretty popular so. 21 Park and Recreation Commission - May 24, 2011 Lake Ann is already busy with activity with ball games and other people. I was out there quite a bit here today and a lot of people jogging through and walking and playing on the equipment so it’s really shaping up to hopefully being a great summer. Daniel: Okay. Any questions for Jerry on Lake Ann Park? Aldritt: Can you as far as renting the paddleboats and kayaks, can you call ahead to rent them or how do you go? Ruegemer: Typically if you have large groups will rent ahead and put some aside for you. If you have a company picnic or individually but if you call ahead we can take care of stuff. Aldritt: Okay. I didn’t know if it was a first come first serve. Ruegemer: And a lot of times I really try to talk to you know big companies and that sort of thing, we can too reserve the, some watercraft here. It’s nice revenue for us too. And we can invoice companies so it’s real easy. Try to become easy for people. Daniel: Okay. 2011 SUMMER PROGRAMS REPORT. Ruegemer: I’m sure a lot of the commissioners have taken a look at their summer Connection st that went out around April 1 here. A lot of the program offerings that we do have were obviously listed in the Connection. Just have a lot of variety you know from field trips to preschool to youth programs out there. Sports camps. There’s just a lot of offerings again this year. We’re just really trying to get into the camp areas as well. Lake Ann Adventure Camp is extremely popular again this year with that so Rec Center Sports will be starting up with T-ball program here next week for that so that’s getting good numbers again for that. Playground, Summer Discovery Playground is going to be starting up here the week after school gets out so been busy registering individuals for that and also with Summer Sensations. We tried to do some more programming out in our picnic shelters as well for that so we’re trying to kind of get outdoors a little bit more with that. I think that people have been pretty happy with that so. Concert series is going to be starting up here pretty soon. I also have magnets for everybody. I’m not sure if everybody has seen these yet but pass these around if you don’t mind. Daniel: Could use plenty of refrigerator art. Ruegemer: So we’ve got a quantity of magnets here that we’re going to kind of pass around and advertise the Summer Concert Series so kind of thought that was a nice picture taken here and put on the magnets itself so you can have that for promotions. Feel free to put them on your refrigerators at home and tell all your friends. So we have a couple during the day this year. We changed the time to help with stay at home parents with nap times and that sort of thing…but we’ll also be doing a number of events at night as well so we’re pretty excited about that starting up here pretty soon. 22 Park and Recreation Commission - May 24, 2011 Hoffman: And remember wine and beer is welcomed. Bring your picnic basket. People are starting to do that. Especially the evening concerts. Scharfenberg: Are they going to have anybody. Hoffman: Selling concessions? Scharfenberg: Concessions this year. Ruegemer: I believe staff will be. Daniel: Tim Mahoney? Carron: He was feeling the Voice. Ruegemer: We booked him before the Voice. Carron: He totally sounds like a girl though. Tom Kelly: Yeah. Carron: Saw that one. Ruegemer: So there’s kind of a quick snapshot of the summer for the commission to kind of show you kind of what’s going on with programs and a lot of activities. Daniel: I’m just amazed Jerry by all the activities you guys are sponsoring though. I mean when it gets consolidated onto one sheet like this, it’s a lot to manage. Alright, any questions for Jerry? If not let’s move onto the Easter Egg Hunt evaluation. 2011 EASTER EGG CANDY HUNT EVALUATION. Ruegemer: Doesn’t that seem so long ago? But I guess it was only about a month ago here now but seems longer. Had a great number again this year. We had 271 kids you know pre-register and sign up that day. We did move it for the first time away from the Rec Center. Since the Rec Center opened in 1995 we moved everything out there. Now this was the first that we moved this event back up to City Center Park. So not that kind of knowing how it would turn out, it actually turned out I think pretty well. We did have a little bit of rain and some overcast weather but you know what, people really enjoyed kind of being outside you know. We kind of changed the format a little bit here and got rid of the entertainment for that and just kind of had the main focus on you know kind of the candy hunt and door prizes so everybody got there. They had a bag with some goodies in it. Some gift certificates and some coupons and along with that they also had a door prize ticket in there so we didn’t have to tear out you know 271 door prize tickets and your ticket in here. Put it in here. Put it there type of thing and mess with names so I think people really responded to the 25 door prizes that we had. We gave away a couple, you know a couple bikes and value baskets from Culver’s and other types of plush animals and stuffed 23 Park and Recreation Commission - May 24, 2011 animals and some other good things so you know what, it really seemed like it worked out great back up here. It was a little nerve racking since we didn’t have initially indoor back-up space but you know what, it really worked out great and I think we had some pretty good response on that so we’re going to continue that into the future with that. Ryan: Jerry, I had given Todd some feedback on it, that I’m sure he passed along to you so I won’t repeat what he already shared but just to commend you. It was a great event. Lots of fun. Having the Easter Bunny and that Little Kitty was the highlight for our girls. They loved having their picture taken with them and it just went really, really smoothly so you guys did a great job. Ruegemer: Yeah, thank you. Ryan: Really nice job. Ruegemer: Thank you very much. So you know two, a couple things. You know we tired to kind of keep, give everybody a wrist band that had showed up so we’re not doubling up on you know door prize tickets and that sort of thing but you know what, it really was I think more of a hassle than it was worth so we’re going to look to kind of streamline the registration process. Get rid of the wrist bands and just really kind of get people through quicker. As far as I know people didn’t miss the entertainment with that. We certainly could save that expense. Wrap it back into the event itself and you know we just about broke even on that. Daniel: 14 bucks. Ruegemer: So I think we did pretty good. Carron: That’s breaking even to me. Daniel: Yeah. Ruegemer: So we’re very happy with the way everything turned out. We had great volunteers again from the Key Clubs and we’re going to continue up here in the future. Ryan: Well the way you did the door prizes, the raffle, that was really fun. Ruegemer: Yeah. Ryan: And we were really bummed we didn’t win the bike. They were great prizes. They were really nice. Yeah, and everybody stuck around and it was great. Really nice. Daniel: Okay. Any other questions for Todd? Or for Jerry. Cole Kelly: Jerry, would you say the reason for the big increase in participation was due to the location change or due to the inserts you put in the Villager? I don’t know if you did that before or did we have good weather that made a difference? 24 Park and Recreation Commission - May 24, 2011 Ruegemer: Yeah, wish I could pinpoint it, you know with that but you know we were I guess a little bit concerned about the format change and, I think just being later. I think what really helped us too was, this was different days. You know different from Chaska and different from other, the people that kind of did that weekend before so in a lot of ways I think we were the only thing kind of happening with that. We were early. It was convenient. You know kind of an in and out. You didn’t have to stick around for the entertainment so I think we had a lot of things going for us. I don’t know if potentially the format, or the location change but we’re really trying to kind of look at you know existing programs and can we reinvent them a little bit to kind of get some new blood and momentum with that and maybe that was as simple as that. Hoffman: We do find in our programming that downtown is a draw. Any downtown location, library, senior center, City Hall is a draw. I think people feel like if they go to the Rec Center it’s a singular trip whereas if they’re down here for a program then they can go to the grocery story or they go do something else. Daniel: Yep. Hoffman: …or something else so I think it is a positive. Cole Kelly: Okay, good job. Daniel: Jerry, any discussion at all having like a similar, I think we do a medallion contest. I forget which event. Hoffman: The library does it on the. Daniel: The library does it. Maybe doing like a golden egg contest I mean within City Center Park and give a couple clues out and maybe, I mean it’s such a huge park you could certainly make a little more attractive prize and the kids can really go. I mean once they’re going, they just kind of cobble up the eggs. Maybe they can have an opportunity for that one as well. Get them outside, dispersed. They really start to walk through the park. And then you could come out in the middle of the night. Hide it. You’ll know where it’s at. Just so no one sees. Or some time during the week. I’m just saying that way it kids think about, pull some clues and keep it age centric so adults don’t go screaming out. Alright. Anything else. Alright. Thank you Jerry. SELF-SUPPORTING PROGRAMS: 2011 ADULT SOFTBALL UPDATE. Ruegemer: Just kind of a quick update. Monday we have an 18 double header league. It’s a nice night. People really enjoy the double header league formats that we do have for that. Unfortunately for Tuesday and Wednesday this is the first time in 21 years that I’ve been here that we didn’t have enough teams for Tuesday and Wednesday night to form leagues which is strange this year. As you know in the past the Tuesday night we have combined that with Eden Prairie so not that long ago we had a high of 12 to 14 teams and we couldn’t get 3 this year so I think. Daniel: Between Eden Prairie and Chanhassen? 25 Park and Recreation Commission - May 24, 2011 Ruegemer: (Yes). Well we’ve combined leagues since I think 1998 with that because our numbers were kind of the same we combined it and had a great, nice league for lots of years and this year it just, I think with people aging and doing other things and kids activities, the numbers just continue to dwindle and for whatever reason so. And the adult over 40 was kind of the same way. You know we had probably high of probably 12 to 14 teams when I first started and it’s been at anywhere from 5 to 8 for quite a few years now and you know some teams left and some teams aged so I could definitely have 3 teams for that as well. It just wasn’t worth doing so looking ahead to next year, we’d certainly like to add some additional leagues again for those nights. Change the format on that. I’d like to offer some potentially a church league on one of those nights for a lot of the churches that we have here in town. I’ve had some feedback from that that you know maybe it could be co-rec format for a church league. We’re going to take a look at that and I’d also like to add another additional double header league for that and see if we can get that on the ground. I did try to make that happen this year but just didn’t get enough teams at such late notice to make that happen. Daniel: May I make a suggestion? Ruegemer: Sure. Daniel: And the feedback I got from us aging softball players. One of the leagues that a friend of my are playing in now out in Burnsville. It’s a one pitch league and they love it. They say it’s fantastic. I don’t know if anyone’s ever played it but you get one pitch. Tom Kelly: But you pitch to your own team. Daniel: You pitch to your own team and they said they cannot, they quit playing summer ball and they’re only playing fall ball now. Tom Kelly: It’s fast too. Daniel: Yep, and it’s 9 innings too. So it quick. You get one pitch and you’re done and I would highly, highly suggest taking a look at that as well. One pitch league. Ruegemer: Is there an umpire or a mat? Tom Kelly: There’s no strike. It’s one pitch. Daniel: You get one pitch. Ruegemer: You call the bases and? Tom Kelly: You pitch to your own team. Ruegemer: Yeah, but how does that work on the bases if there’s. 26 Park and Recreation Commission - May 24, 2011 Carron: I’ve always played it when you still had an umpire there. You just don’t count up…Savage does that. Daniel: Is that what they do? I think it was Savage then. I think it was Burnsville or Savage where they were playing but that’s where they’re at now and they said it’s, they’re finally enjoying softball after all these years because I mean even all these muscle head teams they just don’t get the opportunity. They’re not getting the perfect pitch all the time and they have no choice. If you’re not swinging, you’re out. Hoffman: The pitcher does not play defense? Daniel: No. Well, that’s a good question. Probably not. Tom Kelly: I wouldn’t. Daniel: I would probably say it might be in self defense mode but that’s about it. So yeah, it makes sense…consider one pitch league and. Hoffman: Yeah there must be some rules. Daniel: You might want to make a look at some other communities. Ruegemer: At Burnsville. Thanks for the suggestion. Thursday nights we had 17 teams. We did split that into two divisions with that so and I did schedule a double header for the odd team for that so you guys will probably see that. There are no bye’s in the schedule for that and Friday night we have 6 teams again and that is, that format is double headers every other week so that seems to work out pretty good with that so you have every other Friday off with that so we try to time that along with Memorial weekend there won’t be any games this Friday night or the th 4 of July weekend. That sort of thing here so really try to make it convenient for people and hopefully it’s a good format people are liking. Daniel: Okay. Hoffman: So on Tuesday and Wednesday night, are those fields sitting empty? Ruegemer: They are. Not right now. Hoffman: Eventually I would image they’ll be kids moving onto those fields. You’re not holding them open are you? Ruegemer: Any other questions? Carron: Can I reserve it for practice? Hoffman: There’s fields out there. 27 Park and Recreation Commission - May 24, 2011 Daniel: Alright, well thank you Jerry and like I said you know as these two leagues certainly I guess come to a close, I consider it also an opportunity to look at other ways in which we can bring people back in town because it’s not just having the leagues dissolve but it’s also the revenue that comes, the sponsorship as well as people coming into the city here as well so. Yeah, like I said we certainly should kick around some ideas. That’d be great. Thank you Jerry. COMMISSION MEMBER COMMITTEE REPORTS. Daniel: I think we had two commissioner committee reports. One, actually Steve had mentioned you wanted an update. I think the commission could get an update on that signage issue with Lake Susan. Hoffman: Be glad to. Chair Daniels, members of the commission. Both Mr. Jeff Olson and Mr. Todd Neils did attend the next City Council meeting after your meeting and I think you got, a copy of the staff report and so they presented their request. Made a very nice presentation that evening to the City Council. The City Council thanked them for coming in but they were not in a position or not ready to authorize advertising. It’s currently against City Code to put advertising in these park locations and so you would have to amend that, which they can do. They requested that the group work with staff. Come up with a proposal which we have not seen as of yet and bring that proposal back to the park commission for further review prior to making any future recommendations to the City Council so. We talked about a variety of issues. I met with both Jeff and Todd the Wednesday night after the council meeting. Their desire is to work on the fields on behalf of all the teams from the youngest teams to the Red Birds and to that goal I did meet with the District DeeDee Kahring is the Director of Operation and Finance and Carl Mattson is the head custodian and we talked about how their increasing the maintenance out at that facility. We’re all going to meet as an internal group and then we’re going to meet with this group, the Dugout Club and others to talk about what are the expectations. I think what really has to happen is that where the current maintenance is and where the current expectations are, both of those have to kind of come to the middle so we can reach some consensus on what’s going to happen. What’s going to happen out there for long term maintenance. So there’s a variety of things set in motion. If we do receive a written proposal for the advertising fees, we will bring that back to the park commission and other than that we are working with the District representatives and then we’ll be going back to the Dugout Club to work with them for maintenance, materials, maintenance equipment, you know volunteer labor, those type of things to see how that can all be coordinated. One of the challenges is that you just can’t have all the groups attacking some special project at the facility without some overall maintenance plan so the school district recognizes that. They’ve very willing and happy to work with folks and I think a couple of things that at least happened this spring were, the associations tried to get the snow off the field and then the association did some slit seeding of the field as well this spring so. The drainage issue is one they’re going to work on right away where the draintile’s clogging the, you know clogging up with aggregate and so they need to work on that system. They flushed that draintile out twice already and it just continues to get clogged with aggregate so that’s kind of a design/maintenance issue. If you continue to drag aggregate into the drains, they’re going to clog so they’re going to be working on that system. The grass seems to be coming along fine. They’re investing about $8,000 to $9,000 annually in professional outside turf management at that location so they’re putting some money back into it. 28 Park and Recreation Commission - May 24, 2011 Scharfenberg: Todd with regards to your conversation, this doesn’t have to do with the baseball field at the high school but in your conversations with the school board, or school representatives, can you make clarification on what they’re going to do with those two softball fields in the back as well? I know there was talk that they were going to put in drainage tile this spring. I don’t think that that was done. Hoffman: We’ll talk about it at our meeting. We didn’t talk about it last week but we’re going to meet in the next week or so with all of the officials in the district so I’ll find out what’s going on. Scharfenberg: Thank you. Hoffman: I was under the assumption it was either fixed or. Ruegemer: As was I. It was supposed to be done this spring. Scharfenberg: That’s what I thought too but they’re, when I was back there one, several weeks ago and there was still water you know coming across the fields so I haven’t been back there with the rain this weekend to see what it’s like now but I don’t know if they did anything or not. Hoffman: Bad year not to have a drainage system. Daniel: Okay. Anything else Steve? Scharfenberg: No. Daniel: Any other questions for Todd on the signage? Alright. Elise, you want to talk about the Red Birds. th Ryan: Sure, just a quick update and reminder that on Friday, June 24 the Red Birds have invited all city employees and volunteers to the game and it’s a 7:30 p.m. game. It’s free admission and I gave Todd incorrect information last time. Tried to up the ante and get you guys a hot dog and soda but. Daniel: We can cover that. Ryan: Right, so they’re not going to do that but they did welcome the suggestion of offering a free bag of popcorn so it’ll be admission and a bag of popcorn if you go and you will be recognized and they welcome everybody to come and encourage your participation at the game. The second thing that they’re doing this year, and a letter’s going to go out to all local businesses, is they’re offering a group sales discount so for groups over 10 people or over each ticket is $2 and you can also pre-purchase concession dollars so you can, for your business or your group you can buy concession dollars. You can’t get cash back for them but you can at least get everything taken care of prior to the game so if you’re interested in that you can certainly contact me or you can talk to, get in touch with Terre Kemble so. And they had a rough 29 Park and Recreation Commission - May 24, 2011 go so far this season. They’re undefeated. They’ve only been able to play one game as Todd was talking about earlier but they’ve had 6 rain out’s so. So it’s been a tough go but. Daniel: My little son has been practicing for a month and they’ve got 2 games and both of them were played in god awful miserable weather just so they can say they played them and the rest have all been cancelled. Ryan: Yeah, it’s tough so. Daniel: Alright. I think we went through the presentations. Anything that needs to be covered Todd in the Administrative Packet? ADMINISTRATIVE PACKET. Hoffman: There’s a lot of great news in there about volunteers and I want to highlight that. There’s at least five groups doing volunteer service in the community this summer and there will be more by the time we’re done. Minnetonka Senior Service Day. The last two days of schools the seniors do not go to class. They come out into the community and do service work. Our park maintenance division has worked with them for the last half a dozen or more years and they’ll mostly be doing wood chipping of our trees that day. Eastern Carver County schools and their summer co-op program, they’re going to come out and right now they’ve slated, they’re going to paint any graffiti on any public underpass, bridge, something of that nature so that’s a project they’re taking on. Choice, Inc is an employment for adults that are in our parks daily in the summer, 3 days a week and they clean up Bandimere and they clean up Lake Ann and Lake Susan and so they’re out in our parks 3 days a week. Camp Serve is a new organization and they’ll be working one week every day out at Lake Ann in August and then St. Hubert’s Summer Stretch, that’s been going on for probably around 10 years where St. Hubert’s kids in the summer, basically their summer school program. They come out and they work every Wednesday in July with staff members so we welcome all the participation. Some of your kids may serve in some of those organizations or go to those schools and it’s really a satisfying. It does take a little additional staff time but you get well worth the investment back. Daniel: Okay, great. Thank you Todd. That being said, if there’s nothing else to be discussed, why don’t we go ahead and make a motion to adjourn. Scharfenberg moved, Tom Kelly seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 7 to 0. The Park and Recreation Commission meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m. Submitted by Todd Hoffman Park and Rec Director Prepared by Nann Opheim 30