PRC 2011 06 28
CHANHASSEN PARK AND
RECREATION COMMISSION
REGULAR MEETING
JUNE 28, 2011
Acting Chair Scharfenberg called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT:
Steve Scharfenberg, Elise Ryan, Cole Kelly, Tom Kelly, and Peter
Aldritt
MEMBERS ABSENT:
Jeff Daniel, and Brent Carron
STAFF PRESENT:
Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Director; Jerry Ruegemer, Recreation
Superintendent; John Stutzman, Recreation Supervisor; Dale Gregory, Park Superintendent;
Susan Bill, Senior Center Coordinator; Jodi Sarles, Recreation Center Manager; and Lindsey
Litrenta, Park and Rec Intern
APPROVAL OF AGENDA:Commissioner Tom Kelly moved, Commissioner Cole Kelly
seconded to approve the agenda as presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried
unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Hoffman: I’d like to introduce Lindsey Litrenta. She’s our summer intern for those of you who
have not met her.
Litrenta: Hi.
Scharfenberg: Hi Lindsey.
Ruegemer: Come on up and say a little something about yourself.
Litrenta: Well I’m Lindsey Litrenta. I went to UW Lacrosse majoring in recreation
management. This is my final internship. I actually interned with Carver County last summer so
I’ve been around the area and liked Chanhassen so I decided to come to you guys for my second
internship but yep, I’m originally from central Wisconsin so not from around here at all but I like
the area so that’s why I come.
Cole Kelly: Welcome.
Scharfenberg: Lindsey, what’s the best thing that you’ve done so far in your internship?
Litrenta: The best thing?
Scharfenberg: So far.
Park and Recreation Commission - June 28, 2011
Litrenta: I’d say it’s directly working with the community because at Carver County we were
kind of the secondary source and not a lot of people interacted with us. Nobody really came into
our office because we were way out in Cologne in the middle of nowhere. In a cornfield but no
but I like, I like just the interaction with people is kind of what I go for and why I’m in this field
so that’s what I like best.
Hoffman: Why don’t you tell them what some of your duties are.
Litrenta: I take all the picnic reservations now. I’m currently acting as the Rec Sports
coordinator so I do T-ball. We did 3 year old and now 4 through 6 year old T-ball. Just ended
tonight we had a great medal and awards tonight so everyone was all pumped for that. Fourth of
July, a lot of the prize for the fishing contest, stuff like that.
Ruegemer: Concerts.
Litrenta: Concerts as well, yep. Concert Series Thursdays.
Ruegemer: …softball.
Litrenta: Yep, softball scores.
Ruegemer: Email blasts.
Stutzman: Playgrounds.
Litrenta: Playgrounds. Dang I do a lot.
Hoffman: The unique thing is this year they all, they go around and work with each one of these
individuals so they work with all of our division heads. That’s a good experience for them.
Scharfenberg: Thank you Lindsey.
Litrenta: Thank you.
Scharfenberg: Any other public announcements? Oh Chan Red Birds game tomorrow night.
Hoffman: Thank you.
Scharfenberg: Yep.
Hoffman: The City employees, Carver County Sheriffs, fire departments, all volunteer
commissions at the Red Birds. 7:30 tomorrow against the St. Peter Saints so, and I think we’ll
have a good group there.
Ruegemer: Twins Clinic on Sunday out at the high school stadium. Football stadium. 10:00
start.
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VISITOR PRESENTATIONS:
None.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES:Cole Kelly moved, Tom Kelly seconded to approve the
verbatim and summary minutes of the Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated
May 24, 2011 as presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a
vote of 5 to 0.
COMMISSIONER RECOMMENDATIONS FOR 2012-2016 PARK AND TRAIL
ACQUISITION AND DEVELOPMENT CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM (CIP)
PROJECTS.
Hoffman: Thank you Chair Scharfenberg, members of the commission. Tonight I’m going to
take a little different approach. We’ll talk about the CIP. I’m not going to go through specific
line items but I’ll talk about some things that are just recently in the works. You’ve been
receiving some email correspondence concerning the possible Bandimere expansion and some
other things. I want to go through those items and then give you some updated new numbers and
we’re going to start with some of those new numbers. The Transportation Enhance Program or
TEP or TE, those are federally funded projects and we’re taking a look at two different
applications. I’m going to show you what we went through with the council last night. There
are a couple of numbers that are in your packet and those numbers are going to change based on
these applications for federal funding. The two sections are the one. The two numbers. These
two applications for Trunk Highway 5 pedestrian trail and the 41 pedestrian trail and then Bluff
Creek Drive trail, there are two numbers currently in your CIP and those numbers were based on
estimates when these projects were to be stand alone projects. Through this federal application
we’re applying for $1,229,000 in federal funding for both of these projects. This is through the
TAB board. The Transportation Advisory Board through the Metropolitan Council.
Councilwoman Tjornhom is a member of the TAB board and TAB funding was the funding
source for the 101 South project between Lyman and Pioneer Trail. It was also the funding
source for the Highway 41 underpass and trail that the County is completing and then it’s also
the funding source for the underpass at Minnewashta Parkway. These Transportation
Enhancement grants are up to a million dollars and some local projects have really seen a lot of
success in recent years. With our fund balance on the decline and our project list on the increase,
we came to realize that it just wasn’t feasible to knock down these kind of projects under the
current park fund and so if you take a look in years 2013, it’s the project by funding source in
your packet so you’ve got the capital replacement fund, other agency contributions and park
dedication funds. 2013, the pedestrian trail to the Arboretum, there was an original amount of
$250,000 that was allocated in there and that contributing amount will go to $246,000. And that
number is shown in here. It’s right here. The local match. This is the trail underpass and
funding request. The project total for the underpass under Highway 41 and the trail to the
Arboretum is $1,232,500. The federal amount is $986,000 and then this would be our local
match and so that 246, not 250 will move over to 2015 if this is, funding application is
successful. That’s when we would need the local match would be in 2015 to create that
underpass to the Arboretum. And the other number is back here in the Bluff Creek. That’s the
$60,000, so this project, the Bluff Creek trail extension, currently it’s listed at $390,000. That
would have been to complete the entire trail. That estimate, the 390 was based off of just an
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estimate by per lineal foot. This estimate of 303 is an actually engineered, engineering estimate
so we’ve got 303,900 in the federal amount would be 243,120 and the local match would be that
61,000. So that 61,000 would go into 2015. So those two numbers, I stated in one of my emails
I would talk about what numbers are locked in. Those are two numbers that are locked into
2015. Now if these applications are not funded then next year you’re going to know that and
those are going to drop off the 2015 funding list, or else we’ll reapply again. We would reapply
in the next funding application. These federal funds are going to be around for a little bit longer.
If you don’t apply, if you don’t, if you’re not successful in the grant application the first time you
hear from the TAB board, you know where you were short points. If you take a look and modify
your application. Beef it up a little bit and then reapply and sometimes you’re successful the
second time around.
Tom Kelly: Could I ask a question on the previous one? Does the 400,000 for Highway 41
pedestrian underpass, does that go away in 2011 or not?
Hoffman: No, that’s the, that a confusion thing in there’s two 41, Highway 41 pedestrian
underpasses. So that.
Tom Kelly: Oh, this is the one by the Minnewashta.
Hoffman: Yeah.
Tom Kelly: Okay, sorry.
Hoffman: And that’s locked in and those drop off. Those don’t have to be brought forward into
2012 through 2016 so the $400,000 is locked in. That’s the current match. The County’s grant
is a million and they’re into the project for $400,000 and we’re into the project for $400,000 for
a million eight on that particular project. As long as we’re in here I’ll give you a little bit more
detailed description of what these two projects are. This is Bluff Creek Drive south of Highway
212. This is where the current terminus of that trail. If you’ve been down there, it just stops in
the middle of the boulevard. This is the John Klingelhutz property. The trail continues down
past the two Hesse farm entrances right at this location and then stops at the trail head. We think
this application has a good chance because of it’s regional connection to the LRT trail and Three
Rivers manages the trail going this way. Carver County’s going to pick it up from the City of
Chanhassen going this way eventually and then Carver County also received dollars to extend
the trail into Chaska where it currently dumps off into the ditch of old Highway 212 and new
Highway 61. So a regional connector. One of two in Chanhassen. The connection to this trail
over at Pioneer Trail, if you’ve gone on the north side of Pioneer Trail there’s a trail in
Chanhassen and then it dumps down and connects at the bridge, but that’s actually in Eden
Prairie. The City built it along with the ’97 parks referendum. We built that trail connection but
that, the little piece is in Eden Prairie so this would be the second connector to that LRT system.
Those are the dollars. Oh, excuse me. These are the schematic drawings that were prepared. So
it shows up in the, this is where it terminates. Currently it goes past the Klingelhutz property.
Heads to the south. Continues down past Hesse Farm. Continues to head south and then
terminates at the trail head at this location. There’s no permanent easements that are required
here. There’ll be some sloping and grading easements that will be required from some property
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owners. Bluff Creek Drive is very narrow and if you’re a pedestrian or a biker you basically
force all of the traffic in your lane to go into the oncoming lane for a period of time until they
pass you so there are bikers are on it. There’s not as many walkers or pedestrians but this trail
will really alleviate that conflict for both.
Tom Kelly: And it’s steep too. There’s a pretty good incline there that makes it even more
treacherous for non-drivers.
Hoffman: And then this is the other application connecting into the Arboretum. We’re getting
letters of support from the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, Lifetime Fitness, Carver County,
the State of Minnesota, City of Victoria, the City of Chaska and the City of Chanhassen so the
more people you have on board with your project the better it looks at the TAB board. So those
are the partnering agencies. Again those are the dollar amounts. This is the schematic. It starts
down at the bottom right at Century Boulevard. This is in front of the daycare and the bank. The
bank and the daycare. It heads west to Lifetime Fitness property. It touches down at two points
at Lifetime Fitness. They’re excited about this for a variety of reasons. Both for their customers,
patrons and then their employees at the headquarters as well. They want to bicycle, commute to
work and then all of their members can then take a trail out into the Arboretum for some of their
riding loops. This shows the trail going at grade crossing but the underpass would go right back
behind the sign and so this trail would divert at this location. Head underneath Highway 41 in
approximately this location. Cut around the back of the new sign, the new monument sign and
then continue to the west into the Arboretum. Fix it up here. As you can see this is the right-of-
way line so all of this trail is on Arboretum property and they’re not charging the City a dime for
easements or property acquisition and so again without that partnership, without the cooperation
from the Arboretum this trail would not be possible. And then it continues on up in the upper
graph. Through their grove of pine trees here and then it would probably stop either at the, right
at the entrance where or come down to their gate house at this location right here. This is a
schematic of that underpass so this is the Lifetime building right here in the corner and this is the
Arboretum’s monument sign right in this location. Wrap right around the back side of that. And
the council did approve those letters of support last night and a resolution of support for both of
those particular items. In the same spreadsheet, other items. The Highway 41 trail extension and
stairway. We can continue to talk about those. Those projects were funded in 2011 and we are
under contract with SRF Consulting. They’re currently designing both the stairway and the trail
extension so depending on where those two projects end up, we do have an engineering contract
in the works. That’s been going on for, well since the first of the year and SRF is the same firm
that’s doing the trail for the County and we tried to add these two projects right into the County
project but the federal funding stipulations would not allow you to expand that project and so we
just piggybacked onto their particular project. They don’t have to go in. The stairway is less
vital than the extension to the north and then there’s that other possibility of the extension to the
north being funded with that crosswalk application so our engineering department has applied for
a pedestrian signalized crosswalk. A HAWK system at the Middle School. If that is approved, if
that grant application is approved, then that will be, that north extension past the middle school
driveway will be funded by that so this number, even though it’s in 2011, it will stay there until
you decide if you want to build the stairway or not and then we hear from the application on that
crossing. 2012, the 80,000. That’s locked in. The Trunk Highway pedestrian underpass at Lake
Minnewashta. That’s our matching portion so similar to what we just got done going through.
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That’s our matching portion for that million dollars or that less than a million but that grant
application for the underpass, pedestrian underpass at Minnewashta Parkway. Other items that
are, the pedestrian trail, the final phase, Chanhassen Nature Preserve trail, that’s in 2014. That
number can jump around. You could push it off the map if you wanted but whenever, you know
where the Mamac building is? The Mamac building as a part of the Chanhassen Nature
Preserve. There’s one more industrial lot there and when that industrial lot is platted and
developed, or they pull a building permit on it, there’s one more section of trail that is mandated
by their development contract. Their development contract for that lot says when you pull a
building permit for this lot, you build that trail and the City pays, we pay basically for the rock
and the asphalt and so whenever that site is built, and that final piece of trail gets built by the
contractor that’s building that but we have to pay for it so under the development contract we’ve
already bound ourselves to invest those dollars. We just don’t know when it will be. And those
are both, one of them when Riley Ridge Park, $200,000. That has not closed as of yet and it’s
not on your sheet. It says, currently it says Lyman Boulevard north park acquisition. That
$175,000 out in 2015 so we purchased that park. It just hasn’t closed and that’s going to be a
$200,000 check. Just under and so that $200,000 really should be in 2011 so it would not need
to be a part of the $300,000 here or 1.5.
Ryan: So it replaces the 175?
Hoffman: Yes.
Ryan: Okay.
Tom Kelly: And it’s in 2011.
Hoffman: Yeah. And then the most recent addition is this half a million dollars for the
Bandimere expansion, if you want to do that and that’s for the Parcel #19. The appraised value
of that house is $420,000. The 2.5 acres and the house. And then with closing costs, relocation,
demolition, those type of things you’d be closer to that $500,000 item.
Tom Kelly: Is that both or just one?
Hoffman: That’s the back house. The front house is about $240,000 and that’s going to be
acquired as a part of the road project.
Tom Kelly: Okay.
Hoffman: The road projects, remember the Highway 101 road project also builds the all the trail
systems on 101. It built the underpass. It built the new entry to the park. It buys the front parcel
and so the half a million if you seek to expand Bandimere and add that land for the future of that
park, that half a million is the park’s contribution or the park fund contribution. All those other
items are being paid for by the fund. So the $300,000 is down from what we had said as a level
at $500,000 per year but I still think it’s reasonable since a lot of these items are going to be
staying in 2011 and really drop off your budgeting from 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016.
What I just need from the commission tonight is your thoughts on the Bandimere expansion. Do
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you want to see that property acquired? The Nettesheim’s are willing to sell both houses at this
time. If we don’t buy the back one it’s going to be a little bit stickier to buy the front one
because there’s potential damages to the back lot if you just take out the front one and then that
project is tight on money and they’re looking for ways to cut dollars. If this whole park
acquisition and entrance road deal becomes a problem for the State, they could just drop it off to
save those dollars and just say City of Chanhassen, sorry. We’re leaving your park entrance road
where it’s at. And so it’d be nice to make that thing as smooth as possible. Those acquisitions,
to make that move forward. The challenge if you don’t take the back lot is now you’ve severed
their access to Highway 101. There’s a shared driveway for both houses and if you take out the
front one, you’ve severed the access and so the first thing they’re going to say is well we don’t
have our, we don’t have a reasonable access to stay on Highway 101 so how are you going to
account for that? That lowers the value of our house. Even if you say we’ll give you an access
point off of our park road, that’s not a public street. It’s a park road so you know is there a
maintenance agreement? You know we’re going to be there in the first 2 hours after a snowfall.
How are we going to handle those type of deals? So it becomes a little bit more complicated so
want to hear some conversation about that. And then the other two are the Phase I developments
for Pioneer Pass and Riley Ridge. Two numbers. The Pioneer Pass Park development in 2013 at
350, that’s a reasonable amount for the Phase I acquisition or Phase I development, excuse me.
And then Riley Ridge I would think would be about, it’s less. $250,000 would be a good
number for Riley Ridge for the original Phase I development and what years do you want to start
taking a look at those couple of numbers?
Scharfenberg: And Todd what does the 350 and the 250 get? Is that just for the equipment itself
or is that including the ballparks and that stuff at Pioneer Pass?
Hoffman: It’s going to, we’re going to start everything that’s in the ground. Asphalt, parking
lot, trails, the soccer field, the athletic field, the baseball field and then hopefully a playground.
It probably wouldn’t pay for the shelter and it may not pay for the second playground would go
to the other age specific playground at those sites. But most everything else, we want to make
sure, because if you don’t do it that way then you’re back ripping up your park. You know
throwing away money to rebuild a new future, and the same would go at Riley Ridge. You want
to really get those infrastructure amenities in and done. If you’ve got to come back and build a
shelter or put another playground in or even put the first playground in, those are relatively easy
and painless improvements to make in an existing park site. So that’s a lot of new information.
Ryan: …one more thing going back to the 250,000 for the Highway 41 trail extension stairway.
We’re under engineered contract.
Hoffman: We have a contract with SRF to design and bid those two improvements currently.
Ryan: Okay. So just to bid on but it doesn’t’ mean that we’re on any obligations to do this
because of the contract?
Hoffman: No. No. This is an engineering contract for a consulting engineer to design the trail
extension to the north. The County project stops the trail at the school entrance. It doesn’t take
it to the north to Chaska Road and it doesn’t take it to the pedestrian crossing at 41 and then over
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to the west. And then that stairway was included as a part of, it was not included in the County
project and when the Highover was platted that stairway outlot was taken with the intent of
building that stairway and so those two projects are being designed but yeah, if you don’t want to
do them then we’ll just put the plans on the shelf and it will be done at a later time. The
challenge with that stairway, if you don’t do it now it’s going to be very difficult to build that in
the future when there’s one home being built now and that individual’s aware of that stairway.
This stairway is planned. So if you don’t build it now a future park board or council’s probably
not going to have a very good chance of coming in between those two homes once they’re both
built. If somebody decides it’s a really good idea in the future, but that’s a tough spot to be in.
It’s a little bit better because it is an actual outlot. It’s City owned property. It’s not just an
easement. That’s even more difficult when it’s just an easement and you’re taking 10 foot off of
one side of the house and 10 foot off another lot line. They’re saying yeah we understand it’s an
easement but it’s still my property. Now you’re going to put that stairway inbetween these two
houses. So I would caution you if you don’t do it now it’s going to be challenging for a future
park board.
Tom Kelly: Can you compare that stairway to another structure? I’m still having a hard time
visualizing what it will be. Can you compare it to any other structures that’s in the city? Do you
have something similar to that type of stairway at any other underpass?
Hoffman: Sure. There’s a stairway at the Preserve. So way down at the Preserve. It won’t be
that steep so there’s a stairway there. There’s a stairway at Highover on the trail section
currently. Basically it’ll be a sidewalk or a trail from the street to the back of the lot line and
then a stairway going down to the trail, and it almost immediately goes into the underpass.
That’s right where the underpass goes over.
Scharfenberg: So it’d give those people instead of having to walk all the way down to Lake
Lucy Road.
Hoffman: And swing back around.
Scharfenberg: And come back around, they’re going right from Highover into the, right down
into the park basically.
Hoffman: Yeah, you can’t bike down it but a lot of people are going to walk their bikes because
it is quite a bit shorter than having to go around. And then there’s a mile of trail segments in
there to get to the beach so you’re going to go right under the underpass tunnel and then you’ll
take an asphalt trail from that point down to the beach at Lake Minnewashta Regional Park.
Scharfenberg: Todd, one other question. Do we have to consider at all, is there going to be any
work from Audubon going east back towards Powers in the next 5 years that we need to be
concerned about that and be looking at that money at all?
Hoffman: There will be. That project is currently being looked at. IT’s the Lyman Boulevard
piece between Powers Boulevard and Audubon and that’s where the recent park fund transfer
just came back so the $647,000 that came back to the park fund so that would be the hope there
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again that it would not be park funds. We’d be included as a part of that project and that will be
a 10 foot trail section on the south side of Lyman going from Audubon to Powers. Excuse me,
north side.
Tom Kelly: Okay. Some of it didn’t make any sense.
Hoffman: North side. Right now the plan is to fund that with the road project.
Scharfenberg: Okay. Alright. We’ll open up to questions. Why don’t we start with Tom.
Tom Kelly: Sure. Back to the Bandimere. Is there a concern that we buy these second house,
the inner house and the State still decides that they’re not going to do the, would we be stuck
with a house at Bandimere without the State actually buying the outer house because of funding
trouble?
Hoffman: No. We would not purchase the back one. We would tie those two together.
Tom Kelly: Okay. Okay. And with the Riley Ridge, would we get pressure from Lundgren. I
call them Lundgren. From, because they’re obviously advertising this park as part of their new
community. Would we get pressure from Lundgren, Lennar to speed up building that park just
so their, just so they can use it as a selling tool for their homes?
Hoffman: You get pressure from both Lennar and Ryland but again it’s your property. You’ve
made no promises. They’re marketing the property. Or they’re marketing the houses with the
park. Future park but I don’t believe they’re telling them a date because they’re not in control of
that property.
Tom Kelly: Okay.
Hoffman: As the property owner, you decide and the council decides when those parks will go
in. The more houses that get built, the higher the pressure is going to go because obviously it’s,
these two site amenities are showing up in their model homes and their first brochures and
material.
Tom Kelly: Right, because they’re moving dirt for the Lundgren development right now.
Hoffman: Absolutely. And they’re selling houses very well out at Pioneer Pass.
Tom Kelly: Alright. That’s all I have for now.
Scharfenberg: Okay, Elise.
Ryan: I don’t have any questions on the project that we just discussed. Are we going through
page by page later or should we bring up those questions now? Just about some of the fund, like
picnic tables and trees and just some of how those dollars are being, do we want to do there now
or do you want to?
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Scharfenberg: Sure. Sure.
Ryan: Okay. In looking at you know ways to cut down in some of the, some of the costs with
the trees, I know we’ve allocated $10,000 per year. Is that an accurate number that we’re always
spending $10,000? I know it’s to address some of the Emerald Ash Borer concerns but is there
another way that we can handle that?
Hoffman: Currently the number’s $25,000 on trees and picnic tables.
Ryan: Oh I’m sorry, I was looking at the.
Hoffman: Picnic tables and benches.
Ryan: Yep, okay. So we’ll start with the trees for the $25,000. Is there another way?
Hoffman: There are a variety of ways that trees are being planted in the community but this is
probably equal to the other largest which would be through our natural resources person in
planning. Jill Sinclair and her programs and so she’s buying the trees that are planted at Arbor
Day and so the trees you planted at Arbor Day at Lake Ann Park the last two years running,
those trees were purchased through that program. She also has an annual allocation of some
dollars that typically is put in boulevards and so in parks, there’s not a lot of other funding
sources that are purchasing and installing trees and so if you stop purchasing trees on an annual
basis you just have a gap in your tree planting program for a certain period of years until those
dollars come back. There’s another allocation for the Bandimere tree replacement at $30,000.
That allocation, if it’s not made then we would seek to have the Arbor Day program finish up at
Lake Ann and then leapfrog down and move to Bandimere and so we could have those dollars, if
they’re still available, go to work at Bandimere. The Council’s looking at tree allocations as
well. They’re taking a look at those for reduction so you can reduce it. You can alternate every
other year. You can do a variety of things but if this allocation is not there, trees stop being
planted in our city parks.
Ryan: Well there’s an opportunity to reduce that as opposed to eliminating it altogether.
Hoffman: Absolutely.
Ryan: Okay.
Aldritt: There’s a Bandimere tree replacement in the capital replacement fund and in the park
dedication fund. Are those, how are those related or are they different? They’re both for
$30,000.
Hoffman: Yep. Currently the Bandimere tree replacement is in the capital replacement fund and
it should not be in the park dedication.
Aldritt: Okay, so just take it out.
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Hoffman: Well it depends on how they’re reporting it but it’s a capital fund item. It’s not park
dedication fund item.
Aldritt: Okay.
Scharfenberg: So that $30,000 should come off?
Hoffman: Correct, on the bottom one.
Scharfenberg: Okay.
Ryan: And then for the tennis courts I believe I read somewhere that the $125,000 was for that
North Lotus Lake tennis court. No, those for the Rec Center but then when we went on the tour
you had mentioned the North Lotus Lake tennis courts. Is that the one in 2014?
Hoffman: All the courts, between the 125 and the 75, that’s all the courts being rejuvenated or
resurfaced. The Rec Center has a court that has sunk. I think we call it Court #1. So that might
have to be replaced in total. It’s currently unusable and then the $125,000 we’re seeking a
number right now, an engineering estimate. I don’t believe that’s going to be sufficient to get all
the work done that we need to do in 2012 in the tennis courts so that report will be going to both
the commission and the council later on this summer. So those are all for refurbishments,
resurfacing and then in the case of the Rec Center, rebuilding that park and probably North Lotus
rebuilding that court as well.
Tom Kelly: That’s already been funded though, right? That’s not park dedication.
Hoffman: It’s out of the capital fund. Yeah the top, tennis courts, Rec Center fitness equipment,
skate park ramp replacement and asphalt resurfacing and then the Bandimere tree replacement,
those are all capital items and generally when you’re building something new or expanding
services you’re going to be using park dedication dollars. When you’re replacing or repairing
improvements you want to use the capital fund because park dedication dollars are not intended
for replacement or repair. They’re intended to increase the amount of recreation and park
services you have in your community. That’s what the State law mandates.
Tom Kelly: So we couldn’t say, we don’t want to do any tennis courts. We’re going to forget
about the skate ramp and use that $250,000 to buy that house.
Hoffman: No.
Tom Kelly: No. It’s all separate.
Hoffman: Well you could ask the council to do that.
Tom Kelly: Okay.
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Park and Recreation Commission - June 28, 2011
Hoffman: It could happen but not likely.
Scharfenberg: Okay. Cole.
st
Cole Kelly: Todd I have a year end balance for 2010, December 31 of $2,628,851. Do you
know what it’s at today?
Hoffman: Just over 2 million I believe and that Commissioner Kelly would include that 647 that
came back.
Cole Kelly: Okay, that was my next question so okay. Do we know what has, well obviously
we know it came out. What has come out of it so far this year and what’s gone into it?
Hoffman: I don’t have those numbers.
Cole Kelly: Okay. Can I get an email on that?
Hoffman: (Yes).
Cole Kelly: Thank you. Now the numbers we have for 2011, we’re spending a million 90. Was
that 647 figure in there already for that?
Hoffman: No.
Cole Kelly: No. Okay.
Hoffman: That 647 was booked but never.
Cole Kelly: Never taken out?
Hoffman: Correct.
Cole Kelly: So it’s in the, it could be in the numbers if it wasn’t removed?
Hoffman: Correct.
Cole Kelly: So in other words the numbers you gave me.
Hoffman: The 2., right now we’re at 2.12 million I believe and that 647 is in there.
Cole Kelly: Okay.
Hoffman: If it wasn’t in there that would be 2.12 million minus the 647.
Cole Kelly: Okay but, so the next question is was it in there when it was 2.6 million. The
money was still in there.
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Park and Recreation Commission - June 28, 2011
Hoffman: Yes.
Cole Kelly: Okay. So we didn’t have an addition back. Alright. Okay, I don’t think I have any
other questions.
Scharfenberg: Peter.
Aldritt: Yeah I have a few. When you said there’s some projects that were locked in for sure,
can you list those again?
Hoffman: Sure. In 2012 it’s the pedestrian underpass contribution of $80,000. Then in 2015
there’ll be two numbers going over for matching dollars for the pedestrian trail to the Arboretum.
That will be $246,000. It’s currently listed as 250 in 2013. And then $61,000 for the Bluff
Creek Drive gap matching. The other number’s the $90,000 for the Chan Nature Preserve final
phase. And those are really the only numbers in 2012 through 16.
Scharfenberg: So you know Todd based on the recommendation that you had said that we
should try to average 300,000 or less over the next 5 years, with those two projects being moved
out to 2015, it really kind of max’s out that year. That 2015.
Hoffman: Yeah. You can put, it doesn’t matter, the council doesn’t care, we don’t care if you
put a million and a half next year.
Scharfenberg: No I know.
Hoffman: Yep. So you can, 2015 you could add more in there and have less in 2014. The key
here is to average out that 300,000 over the next 5 years. That’s what we think the fund will
accommodate with the revenues that we’re currently forecasting and revenues are still obviously
soft with a housing and primarily the commercial/industrial market. Housing starts are doing
very well this year. Last year we forecasted I believe it was 100,000 and 250,000 came into the
park fund so. It’s one of those, one of those situations where we just have to lower the overall
annual investment in park fund dollars but over those 5 years 1.5 million is still a good number
for the fund to be able to accommodate.
Scharfenberg: Peter, do you have anything else?
Aldritt: No, that’s it right now.
Scharfenberg: So what do people think about the Bandimere acquisition?
Cole Kelly: I’m wrestling with it because I think it’s something we should probably do but I
don’t like the amount of money that’s going to come out of the bottom line and that takes us in
2015 that will give us a balance of about a half million dollars. Does that sound right Todd?
Hoffman: (Yes).
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Cole Kelly: So it limits other things we’re going to be able to do but anytime the City can get
land, I think that’s a good thing and prices right now we know are down and of course our
revenue’s down but overall I think I’m for it though I hate to see the fund go under a million.
Because it’s an opportunity. Either you grab the opportunity when you can grab it or it’s going
to be gone.
Scharfenberg: Anybody else?
Ryan: I really struggle with it. I think it’s a lot of money and you know I just with the limited
amount of money that’s coming in, just to spend that kind of money is very concerning to me
when you know then the elimination of a lot of smaller projects that we have had community
members coming to us to ask us to do for them and their community. To put those wishes and
needs aside to make this purchase is a little bit of a struggle. Before we got the email today from
you about the funds being put back in I was adamantly opposed to making that purchase but
since those funds got put back in, it kind of opened my eyes and willingness to discuss it a little
bit more as an option. And then with your discussions tonight about what it does if we don’t
purchase it, you know the whole project could go, not go to waste but they could take away the
working with us in Chanhassen and making it a better park and the access so I’m still on the
fence. I’m curious to hear what everybody else says because it’s a lot of money for us to spend
at this time and it’s just concerning to me.
Aldritt: If we did to go forward with it, how limiting would it allow us to be with the other
projects that are on deck? I mean does it cut, does it cut, how far, I guess where do we have to
draw the line in what we can do and we can’t do in some of the other stuff that are. Others that
are more pressing than you know obviously like the trees and stuff you said we can kind of
shuffle it around. Are there other areas that we can move stuff around to allow for the
Bandimere to go in?
Hoffman: Commissioner Aldritt how I’d respond to that is that, a few years ago we were doing
trail projects. Just stand alone trail projects and so you would save $400,000 for trails in
Chanhassen Nature Preserve. You would just fund those projects and that’s not, no longer an
option under our current balance in the park fund and then with these other kind of potential
projects. Nothing, some other really potentials is that the Preserve, Pioneer Pass Park
development and Riley Ridge Park development may get pushed out. They’re still attainable
even in this next 5 year of the million and a half with the Bandimere acquisition. One way I
want to talk about the Bandimere possibility in a little different format is that, when we study
park dedication in our community we have anywhere between 15 and 25 million dollars in
receivables yet to attain in our community. And then you want to take a look in the broad stroke
on what you’re going to do with those kind of resources in your community. Are you going to
add onto Lake Ann? We might. Prince’s property you know might happen at some point in the
future so that’s a big item that might happen. What other parks could you add onto? You cannot
add onto Lake Susan and so this is one of the few opportunities I think really other than Lake
Ann where you could expand a community park and improve it’s overall function in the long
term. That’s really what we’re talking here with this half a million dollars. This commission if
you recommend it and the council purchases it, the real challenge here is you have a house on it
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Park and Recreation Commission - June 28, 2011
so most of the value is just in that house and it’s going to be demolished to make for, you have to
pay $300,000 or $250,000 for that house to get that 2 ½ acres. But on the other hand you always
want to at least take a look at, well just think if it was a cul-de-sac with three houses. You’d
have to be buying three houses and so the fact that it just has one house on this 2.5 acres is
actually pretty lucky for the community. And if you don’t buy it today, I think the road still
could go in. It might not go in. That house could sit there and be kind of an island into that park.
It would remind me of the 10 acres that was out at the Arboretum and they just sat there and sat
there and sat there and sat there and I think eventually they paid $1.2 million for that 10 acres
and that house. That was kind of that island and for a future park board, for a future council to
leave a park in the center of a, a house in the center of a park does not just get, it’s just not a
good management thing. And then the other thing is, it’s really not fair for us to take them out of
their front house and you know say well but now we’re not going to buy your back house so here
we’re in a position with this property owner, this family that lives in Chanhassen that we’re
saying okay, we’re going to you know swipe out your front house for this road but sorry, we
don’t have the half a million to you know, they’ve kind of made overtures to the City over the
last dozen years and we’ve made overtures back that you know if the time is right and you want
to sell, you know we’re interested in at least taking a look at that property. The last time they
came in and talked to us they wanted $1.2 million for both of those parcels. That was about 2 ½
years ago and that’s when they had developers knocking on their door 3 times a week looking for
any sliver of land in Chanhassen to subdivide and put houses on because that’s the way the
market was. And so in talking, our attorneys and our appraisers, they’re saying you know we’re
asking where do you think this negotiation is going to come down and they’re saying well if
they’re not willing to take appraised value we think they would, you know that would be not a
good recommendation for them. They’re talking with their appraisers and their real estate
agenda and they’re advising them that I think you should probably take a serious look at the
City’s appraisal if they want to make an offer. The last time I talked with Mr. Nettesheim he
said are these two appraisals that you’ve handed me, are these an offer? I said no. The park
commission has to take a look at this. Decide if they want to make a recommendation to the City
Council and the City Council would have to decide to participate in this as well so, it gets a little
bit complex. It does take a big chunk of cash. You know the original 32 acres was purchased for
$185,000 back in 1988 and so, but then again if you blend those two numbers now you’re up to
about $20,000 an acre overall for your overall acquisition and so it’s a big chunk of money. The
other thing I think that the commission needs to remember is that when this park was built all the
other amenities that typically go into a community park were set by the wayside because
everybody wanted as many athletic fields as they could get so there were no tennis courts. There
were no hockey rinks. There’s no hockey. Sheet of hockey or ice here. And other things that
you would typically see in a community park type setting, it was just athletic fields. This
acquisition would give you that opportunity. The other thing which is critical is that access
point, for those of you who were around when it was first open, we had an accident a week at
that access point. Some of them pretty darn serious. Mr. Tanyer who was a principle, or a
teacher over at the elementary school was seriously injured at that location and we had to put that
concrete pork chop in there to stop those accidents from happening, and it did for the most part
but it’s still not an optimal access and so I think as a park commission, as a community we have
a responsibility to the citizens to try to improve that access and we have the State of Minnesota
here saying we’re going to build it for you, but you’ve got to jump on board, I think a lot of
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things are pointing to the fact that we should probably, if we can, move forward with this
acquisition.
Ryan: And then would that take place in 2012 or would it still in 2011?
Hoffman: It would probably be 2012 or 2013. The project is a 2013 project. I would think the
acquisition would take place in 2012.
Ryan: Okay. And since I’m still very much in favor of getting a disc golf course at some point,
and that being the location, Bandimere, does it help with this acquisition? Does it play any role
in that at all?
Hoffman: It doesn’t change the land form.
Ryan: Okay.
Hoffman: At the disc golf access. Brings the actual access road a little closer to where it started.
Ryan: Okay.
Cole Kelly: Todd, if the City buys the house and we don’t tear it down right away, can we rent it
out for a year or two?
Hoffman: We could. Yep, we could.
Cole Kelly: Are we, where did the Bandimere name come from?
Hoffman: It came from the family that sold us the original property. The Bandimere family. It
was the Bandimere farm.
Cole Kelly: Okay. Did they sell us the property and donate part of it or did they just sell it to
us?
Hoffman: We bought it from them.
Cole Kelly: Could we approach the owners of the house and say if you donate part of the house
we’ll rename the park in your name? I mean just an idea.
Hoffman: We could. We’ve named portions of parks. The Bandimere family was, they sold us
that land for a very good price and so the representatives that were there at the dedication when
the park was named in their honor were, I would say that was a commitment on behalf of the
City so I’m not sure that we’d want to go back on that naming commitment.
Tom Kelly: We can give them a bench.
Scharfenberg: Or lights.
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Park and Recreation Commission - June 28, 2011
Tom Kelly: Or lights.
Cole Kelly: Tom, we’re going to let you solve that one.
Scharfenberg: Anybody else have any questions about the Bandimere purchase?
Cole Kelly: No, I guess my only other observation is you know, you know a million dollars
seems to be a threshold that I really like that we have in here but part of that reason is the rainy
day fund and the rainy day fund is for an opportunity that comes up that makes sense for the City
and I think in this case it might be a good idea to use our rainy day fund because we had a
threshold we wanted to maintain. Now our threshold’s a little lower and hopefully we can build
that back up but we don’t necessarily have to take out the small projects to get where we need to
get. But we just know that our threshold is lower and our expectations are probably a little lower
than what we’re going to be able to do going forward. You know unless the building takes off
again. Those are my thoughts.
Scharfenberg: Okay. Anybody have any discussions about the two parks at Riley Ridge and
Pioneer Pass, about where we would put those potentially.
Ryan: Because they’re both 2013 right now?
Tom Kelly: No I think Riley Ridge isn’t even on here.
Hoffman: Not even on there yet.
Ryan: But Pioneer Pass is 2013, correct?
Scharfenberg: Yes.
Tom Kelly: Because we moved the 175, acquisition of the park over to this year. And it became
200,000 over to this year.
Hoffman: Pioneer Pass has a second phase. They’re at Phase I right now and they anticipate
that that phase will open up either late this fall or early next spring so they’ll be still building in
2012. So really 2013 would probably be the first year that the park could be built if you wanted
to build it that year and you know time goes quickly but 2014. If we wait until 2015, people are
definitely going to start to notice that there’s, at that point I think the housing development will
probably be sold out and there’s going to be a demand for that park site. Could probably use
those ballfields.
Ryan: Well I’d be comfortable if we put the Pioneer Pass in 2014. Just push it back a year.
Bandimere, if we move forward on that is 2012-2013. I think we should put Pioneer Pass out to
2014.
Scharfenberg: But then you’d probably have to put Riley Ridge out further.
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Park and Recreation Commission - June 28, 2011
Tom Kelly: At 2015 then. Because we have in 2015 we have 60,000.
Ryan: And the 246.
Scharfenberg: 246, yeah.
Hoffman: You’ve been to both these sites. One thing that I think is recognizable is that no park
at Pioneer Pass is going to be much more recognizable than no park at Riley Ridge. That park at
Pioneer Pass is just framed inbetween the houses and the road and it’s got a dead end driveway
put into it. Riley Ridge, that neighborhood can grow out. There’s access to other facilities s in
that particular region of the city. You have the lake walk and you can get to Bandimere
Community Park if you take a walk through Springfield so waiting there, you definitely don’t
have to do it the same year as Pioneer Pass and I think if you wait a few years at that particular
location if that was your choice.
Ryan: So 2016 wouldn’t be unreasonable.
Hoffman: It’s just not going to be as noticeable and they’re behind 2 years in all practicality of
Pioneer Pass. By the time they get that thing rolling.
Scharfenberg: One thing we haven’t talked about that Todd raised, and Brent raised in his email
was the whole stairway issue at, with Highway 41. Does anyone have any, Brent’s email was
that he’s talked to neighbors when we were out. I know Tom, I don’t think was with us that
night but he’s had conversations with neighbors in that area and they’re not necessarily big on
the stairway. At least that was my sense of what he said in talking to people in the
neighborhood. But as Todd pointed out if you don’t build it now it’s probably not going to be
built.
Aldritt: So about the staircase there just wouldn’t be, you’d have to go all the way around to
access that trail, is that correct? It’d be just more of an inconvenience basically.
Hoffman: Really the way to frame that Commissioner Scharfenberg is framing it correctly. It’s
either now or it’s not going to be built and you’re going to build that thing for the neighbors who
are telling they don’t want it but once you build it, if you do, all that furor will calm down and
they’ll find it to be convenient. You’re not building it for the people that are traveling along
Highway 41. People outside of that neighborhood. I mean some people would use it to come up
and then they could run through the, or bike through that neighborhood. More likely run through
it and go through some of the other trails and then make their way somewhere else but if you’re
not living in that neighborhood, you can easily either go south to Longacres Drive or north to
Lake Lucy and make your way back to wherever you were headed to, so that is really the
question. Do you want to go in the face of what it is probably some opposition. This
neighborhood also opposes the Highway 41 trail. They would prefer that that’s not there. Now
they would prefer that this connection isn’t there. And do you want to say well, we understand
but we’re still going to build it for the greater good of the community and so you know you and
your neighbors will have it in the future. People that live there will have it. The stairway’s
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Park and Recreation Commission - June 28, 2011
probably going to be $90,000 of the total 250 and the extension to the north, we don’t know what
the dollar amount is right now and that may get funded by that other application so you’re really
talking a much smaller number.
Scharfenberg: So what we’re really talking about is just the staircase itself potentially.
Hoffman: Correct.
Cole Kelly: And when will we know that?
Hoffman: The number?
Cole Kelly: Yeah.
Hoffman: Soon. Next few months. That whole project has been held up significantly by the
State review process. And then there was a gas line that was discovered in the area. A box
culvert so the State review and remember if there’s a State shutdown, hopefully there’s not, these
projects are off the map for another year. So you’ll have another year to decide on this, if we
have a State shutdown for 3 weeks. If not we’ll keep on track for this year. And that could
really throw a wrench in the whole, the County might have to shut this project down for an
extended period of time because we don’t think the State will approve the closure of Highway 41
and Highway 5 at the same year. You remember the following year, 2013 is the closure of
Highway 5 and Victoria for the entire summer to accommodate the replacement of that bridge so
if this project gets kicked out, it could be a long time before it comes back.
Ryan: As far as I’m concerned with the staircase, I’m in that area quite a bit and the way I look
at it is, it’s $90,000. If the neighborhood doesn’t want it, there’s no need to spend you know to
have $90,000 because it is absolutely only for their use. I mean when you are going out for a
run, you know you go through Longacres or down to Lake Lucy and then back on Highway 41
and so it’d truly be for the people of the neighborhood and if they are opposed to having the
staircase, it doesn’t seem to me to make sense to spend the $90,000 when we are already cash
strapped. Why would we spend the $90,000 for a project that the neighborhood doesn’t want
and it is for their whole benefit? And from where you know the point of where the staircases go
in to go up to Lake Lucy to track back to go underneath you know the underpass is not, you
know it’s not terribly long. It’s not a long hike or a long haul and so I would, that would be a
project that I think we could pass on.
Scharfenberg: Okay. Does anybody have any, Tom you’re good at these numbers and do you
have any recommendations about where to kind of put the projects going forward?
Tom Kelly: The only thing I’m just, is the thing that’s getting me is you think that the
Bandimere will be 12 or 13 because right now we’re pretty light in 12.
Hoffman: Most likely it’ll be in 12. There are 19 parcels to acquire and those would want to be
acquired in 2012 for that Highway 212, or Highway 101 project which is going to be constructed
in 2013.
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Park and Recreation Commission - June 28, 2011
Tom Kelly: And I think we’re, I know you, Elise had recommended moving Pioneer Pass to
2014 but we have nothing going on in 2013 because of that 246 was moved to 2015.
Scharfenberg: Right.
Tom Kelly: So just for, I just think a balancing you may want to just leave that 350 in 2013.
Scharfenberg: Right. I think that’s a good suggestion.
Hoffman: For Pioneer Pass.
Tom Kelly: Pioneer Pass, yep.
Ryan: We don’t have to have something in every year in case another situation like this or
something else comes up. We don’t have to have the $300,000 about in every year and with the
way the projects are coming up or things get pushed back and then we have to move into another
year, you know to have very limited money spent in the year I think would be a good thing for
us, especially when we’re going to take a pretty big hit if we move forward with this $500,000. I
don’t think it has to be equal every single year.
Scharfenberg: No. It doesn’t have to be. And the $90,000 in 2014 for the Chanhassen native
Preserve trail, Todd had indicated that that could be moved as well. Moved out. I mean if you
move that out just completely, knowing that at some point it’s going to have to come back in and
put, and you put Riley Ridge at the, did you say $200,000 Todd?
Hoffman: 250.
Scharfenberg: 250, if you put that in at that year.
Aldritt: Put Riley in at 2014?
Scharfenberg: 250. Yeah, 2014.
Aldritt: 2014.
Scharfenberg: At $250,000.
Aldritt: Because the Nature Preserve isn’t a pressing project. It can be moved around.
Scharfenberg: Right. Well as Todd indicated that when, that Mamac building, whenever they
build that other lot, that’s when that’s going to be built and it’s going to come in at some year,
whenever that year is we just don’t know at this point so.
Aldritt: So pretty flexible.
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Park and Recreation Commission - June 28, 2011
Scharfenberg: Yep. And just no one has talked about it but we’ve got in, next year we’ve got
that $10,000 for the Herman Field basketball court. I would say, given the fact that we were out
there a year ago and talked to them about that, that we keep that in there.
Aldritt: And that park could use some updates.
Scharfenberg: That’s something that would be good. And Elise you suggested that we can move
the trees, you know you could eliminate trees in a couple of years. You know go every other
year or something like that with trees.
Ryan: Yeah, or even just decrease.
Cole Kelly: I would rather decrease rather than see it.
Scharfenberg: Okay.
Cole Kelly: Year on, year off.
Scharfenberg: So what do you guys want to decrease it to? 15 a year?
Ryan: I mean I would like to suggest 15 but then have a conversation, you have a conversation
with Jill to get it, I don’t know if we need to have that conversation and see if that makes sense
but if they can match, I mean didn’t at one point somebody bring up if we could partner with the
Environmental Commission, if they have any funds to help with the tree.
Hoffman: Those are the same funds that Jill has, yeah.
Ryan: Okay.
Hoffman: Any amount that you put in I think will go to a benefit. We’re not over planting or
over replacing trees at this point so I think with, especially once the emerald ash borer gets here
we’re going to lose a lot of ground so, and it’s inevitable. It will be here, it might be a while but
it’s going to get here, but these projects that we’re currently doing I think are going to help
soften that.
Ryan: Okay. So 15 I’d be.
Cole Kelly: I like the idea of moving it down to 15.
Scharfenberg: Okay.
Hoffman: The picnic tables and benches, that’s not spent every year but when we have needs
where we tap the fund and then also the memorial benches are purchased out of here and so we
get that $1,000 back. It goes back into the fund so when we purchase a memorial bench, then
those dollars come back into the fund.
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Park and Recreation Commission - June 28, 2011
Tom Kelly: Can I try to recap what we’ve just all talked about to see if I have it all down?
Scharfenberg: You bet.
Tom Kelly: So for 2011 we’re still at $10,000 for the benches. 15 for trees. The $400,000, the
290, the 20 all stay. We’re talking about reducing the highway trail extension to $160,000
approximately. That will be removing the $90,000 for the staircase. For 2012 again we have 10
and 15. $500,000 for Bandimere and we’re locked in with $80,000 for the underpass.
Hoffman: That basketball court?
Tom Kelly: I’m sorry, and the basketball court. For 2013 again we have 10 and 15 and I think
we still have the Pioneer Pass for 350 in 2013?
Hoffman: Yep.
Tom Kelly: Because in 2014, besides the 10 and 15 we have $250,000 for Riley Ridge and I
think we’re talking about maybe bumping up that 90 indefinitely. And then for 2015 we have 10
and 15 and we have the $60,780 and we also have the $246,000 from the pedestrian Arboretum
trail.
Scharfenberg: Thank you Tom.
Hoffman: 2016, is there anything?
Tom Kelly: Oh, do we actually go out that far?
Hoffman: Currently the budget years are 2012 through 2016 so 2016, it would be the 10 and 15
as currently. And that will be fine. Or you could drop the 90 in there just to keep it on the board.
Tom Kelly: Sure.
Scharfenberg: That would make sense, yep.
Ryan: And then in 2011 you said that we kept the disc golf for $20,000. Where are we at with
that?
Scharfenberg: Well they didn’t, they didn’t approve it so. So there’s.
Ryan: But they said, didn’t Denny say that he.
Hoffman: At your joint meeting they showed some renewed interest though.
Tom Kelly: See we can expand into 18 once we pull off those houses.
Ryan: Now you’re talking.
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Park and Recreation Commission - June 28, 2011
Scharfenberg: You know I like the disc golf concept and the thing that I struggle with with
respect to that particular project is, I think it will be used but you’ve got other parks you know
close by that if people really want to play disc golf they have the opportunity. It’s not like there
isn’t one around here and I know that can be said for things like you know the dog park and
things like that that we helped build. And I think it would be a good addition but I struggle with
putting that in because something when there are opportunities around for people to play already.
Hoffman: Chair Scharfenberg and commission, another thing to remember is that just because an
item is in or out doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. If you’ve got a really hot project and it’s not
in the CIP, it’s going to happen. The park board’s going to say let’s make it happen. Council’s
going to approve it. They’re going to designate the money and it’s going to happen. Simply
because $20,000 gets moved onto this board somewhere for disc golf doesn’t mean it will be
built. If the council is still cool to the idea, we don’t have a specific project that everybody’s
backing, it’s not going to happen just because it’s on here and so it’s all about priorities, desires,
wants, needs. If something really gets some traction and people want to make it happen simply
because it’s not in here, it’s still going to move forward.
Scharfenberg: I think with the thing with the disc golf is if we really want it, I mean we really
have to sell it to the council that we think that this is something that needs to be done. Obviously
they didn’t, they weren’t, you know they opposed it in January and we kind of talked about it at
our meeting and they you know, there was some interest there but if we’re, I think that if we
really want to do it, we need to study it more and come to them with some sort of you know
better proposal. You know what it would be and.
Tom Kelly: Was there, when they rejected it, was there any, did they have any reason for, were
they worried about discs flying off and hitting cars or pedestrians walking or they just didn’t
know enough about it to approve it?
Hoffman: You guys were there.
Ryan: They didn’t know enough about it. It was the timing wasn’t right. I think they had just
come off a pretty big discussion and some different funding conversations from a meeting but I
think they were all just, it was a lack of understanding and knowledge of the sport and what it
does for a community. And between the time that it was presented to them and we had our
meeting, they had kind of done their due diligence and looked into it and were a lot more open to
it and what it could do for a community and some of the advantages behind it so they asked us to
you know continue pursuing it or looking it and then coming back to them was my
understanding.
Hoffman: And I think that’s correct and if you come back, the $20,000 probably can come down
and so if you study actually what it will physically take in hard dollars, I think that number could
come down and then you can present it. You can present that any time. You know if the
commission wants to work on it this year, we can work on a plan and a hard budget number and
present that to the commission or the council the next time you meet.
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Park and Recreation Commission - June 28, 2011
Aldritt: And when this park, or the disc golf was proposed, wasn’t there two kids that were kind
of pushing it that had set up a, is there any way to possibly get them and maybe some of their
peers to assist in the installation of these, the disc golf holes or does that have to be through the
City?
Hoffman: It doesn’t have to be. Anybody can install it. I’m not sure if those two young men are
still around the community or not. They may have moved on but.
Aldritt: Sure.
Tom Kelly: But you have the plans. You have the layout.
Aldritt: It’s an opportunity to get volunteer help would be there maybe to reduce some of that
cost.
Scharfenberg: Well we would probably install it most of it ourselves, right? With city staff.
Hoffman: There’s not a lot there to install.
Scharfenberg: Right.
Hoffman: Auger a hole.
Tom Kelly: Yep, and just lay a concrete slab to tee off on.
Cole Kelly: Well I think we should leave it in the budget and move it to 2012 and do some
further study and maybe come up with something to present to the board because I do think it
enhances the city of Chanhassen. And there may be some other ones close but the only good one
I think is in Eden Prairie. The others one, from what I hear from the kids aren’t that good.
Tom Kelly: Right. The one at Bryant Lake is phenomenal but the one in Starring Lake is just
okay. In my opinion. I do play a little bit.
Cole Kelly: Yeah, and you know it’s something I think that will, it’s another thing you can say
that the City has to offer. I mean I know it’s something I’m not going to use most likely but the
young kids seem to like it.
Tom Kelly: We do, yeah. Just having fun, sorry.
Scharfenberg: Cole would you be opposed to at least pushing it out maybe to 2014? I mean just
with that whole half a million at Bandimere, if we put you know if you push it out 2 more years
you’ve got, you’ve got that year. You only have the $250,000.
Tom Kelly: If I can make a suggestion?
Scharfenberg: Yep.
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Park and Recreation Commission - June 28, 2011
Tom Kelly: I would take on, I would start a committee on researching it more and trying to get
some hard numbers to it to see if we can actually keep it in 2012 so I would take that initiative to
try to keep this, keep the dream alive.
Scharfenberg: What kind of number do you want to put like 10 on it? Or keep it with the 20?
Tom Kelly: I think keep it with the 20 and if it’s, and then try to go lower.
Scharfenberg: Okay.
Tom Kelly: I’ll try to research what the, some of these baskets cost and things like that.
Scharfenberg: Okay.
Hoffman: And to be honest with ourselves, we wouldn’t be one of the supreme courses at
Bandimere I don’t think.
Tom Kelly: No, no, no, no, no. I know but.
Hoffman: It would be modest course.
Tom Kelly: It’d be a modest course but we do have a lot of open space at Bandimere.
Hoffman: And there’s a couple nice holes there.
Scharfenberg: And with the acquisition of the additional acreage, I mean you can obviously
maybe, it can be moved around to include that additional space so. Okay. Any other discussion
at this point by anybody about where we had the numbers at? Anybody else have any other
questions or?
Hoffman: I’m very happy with how far you got tonight so that’s great. You just made our job
really easy. For your recommendation in July. We’ll clean this up. Write it up. Bring it back.
Answer Commissioner Kelly’s questions and we’ll send that information all to you.
Ryan: Could I ask a question about the capital, the replacement fund and where we’re at with
the skate park?
Hoffman: Our hope is that that will be included in next year’s budget and approved so we’ll be
including that.
Ryan: Okay. Okay, so it’s been, okay. Thank you.
Scharfenberg: So Todd, anything else you need from us tonight regarding CIP?
Hoffman: Nothing else.
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Park and Recreation Commission - June 28, 2011
Scharfenberg: Okay.
Hoffman: Thank you.
Scharfenberg: So the plan is that you’ll clean this up. Bring it back to us in July for approval.
Hoffman: And your final recommendation to the council.
Scharfenberg: Okay. I will send out an email either tomorrow or later this week to Jeff, to
include Jeff and Brent, just to let them know what we talked about tonight and kind of what the,
where we were going to move the numbers.
Hoffman: Okay, thank you.
Scharfenberg: Alright, thank you everyone for that discussion. Let’s move on to no old
business. Reports.
RECREATION PROGRAM REPORTS:
2011 FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION.
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Stutzman: Thank you Commissioner Scharfenberg. First up would be the 4 of July celebration.
It’s not necessarily feeling like summer until this week again but the hard work with everybody
in our department getting ready for this on Sunday and Monday, or Saturday, Sunday and
Monday so I’ll go through and kind of highlight a few of the pieces here. Hopefully you guys all
received the colored brochure last week, either in the mail or in the Villager. Once again that
was partnered with Southwest Publishing and as staff we continue to be very, very pleased with
that partnership and I know that Southwest Publishing has reiterated to us too that they really
enjoy that partnership and look to continue to that in the future so, that’s been a great brochure
and certainly been a very nice piece for the celebration so if you did not get one I can certainly
grab you one before we take off tonight. We’ve got left for distribution upstairs too. One thing I
would draw your attention to there, if you haven’t read it yet, the article on the live music in the
back it talks about a band from ChanJam but there is a piece of that as well. That a former
musician from ChanJam from the Wandering Bartletts who played last year, opening for CBO
will be playing with CBO this year. Thomas Pierce from Minnetonka High School so I found
that out in the end of May and wanted to make sure we included that so that’s a cool hometown
piece to the celebration that continues to come back. As far as new pieces of the celebration, we
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have the family night at the carnival on the 2 that will be taking place from 3:00 to 10:00 but
from 5:00, rather from 3:00 to 8:00 it’ll be discounted rides to accommodate the families. Every
ride will be $2.00, just as an incentive to get those with multiple children up there on a night that
might be a little less hectic. Little less crazy. Then offer them an opportunity to ride the rides at
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a discounted rate. Also new this year we will be having bingo on the 4 of July. The
Chanhassen Senior Commission is going to be running and organizing that. That’ll be 11:00 to
1:00, prior to the parade under the large tent in City Center Park. A new activity targeted mostly
for the teenagers, at the local business called Game and Ride, is going to offer an opportunity for
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Park and Recreation Commission - June 28, 2011
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games to be played on the night of the 3. They’re going to be in the parade on the 4 so an
opportunity there and the last piece I’d just like to highlight real quickly, we will be doing the
raffle once again this year. However we do have a new organization that will be running that for
us in the Chanhassen Storm Booster Club so the Storm Chasers will be running that. They have
asked for volunteers if any of you guys are interested in helping with that. I’ve heard from a
couple commissioners. If any of you guys are available we’d certainly love to have your help
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with that as well as t-shirt sales on the night of the 3. Anytime I believe the shifts are 4:30 to
7:30 and 7:30 to 10:30 so I know the booster club is very excited to be a part of it and welcomed
the opportunity with open arms so. Other than that I do have the smaller schedules for you guys
as well that will be coming out in Thursday’s paper of the Villager this week. And on that I
open, I welcome any questions or suggestions you guys have for future celebrations or anything
regarding this celebration.
Tom Kelly: So the booster club is new, right for the raffle?
Stutzman: Yes. It used to be the Historical Society. They declined this year and so I
approached the booster club and like I said, were very excited about the opportunity.
Tom Kelly: The rules going to go back to the old way where you draw every 10 minutes?
Stutzman: No, it will still continue to be the same way and I’ve given them the.
Tom Kelly: Sorry.
Stutzman: Due to gambling regulations that’s not possible so.
Tom Kelly: Okay.
Stutzman: But I have advised them to cut it off early enough, as you suggested last year. I
passed that same information along to them as I did to the Historical Society last year so we’ll be
probably cut off at 10:00 so that you guys have plenty of time to, or the prizes have time to be
distributed rather than at the last second.
Tom Kelly: I’ll be coming back years from now to ask that same question year in and year out.
I will ask it every year but okay, thank you.
Hoffman: Once we stop breaking rules, we need to go back.
Tom Kelly: Yep.
Scharfenberg: And John, just for clarification purposes, what is it about the gaming regulation
that doesn’t allow you to draw every hour?
Stutzman: You can no longer sell tickets once the first ticket is drawn.
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Park and Recreation Commission - June 28, 2011
Hoffman: And everybody needs equal chances every time. So you have to sell all your tickets
and then do all your drawings.
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Scharfenberg: Got it. Thank you. Any questions for John regarding 4 of July? Alright. John,
summer concert series.
2011 KLEINBANK SUMMER CONCERT SERIES.
Stutzman: Alright, this one should be brief as we have gotten started already on the summer
concert series. As Lindsey said she’s been kind of the liaison for that and spearheading
everything as far as the implementation. Doing a great job. We’ve had two nice concerts. The
first one, Big Walter Smith and the Groove Merchants was a great turnout. I’ve talked to a
couple people around the community that were there as well as some family members of mine
that were there. All very high praise. They were a band that I was excited to kind of set us off.
Came very highly recommended so I was glad to hear that. As Todd said, last week was not
ideal but we certainly had a good crowd. Sounded like they had a lot of fun that evening and
continue to enjoy it so looking forward to the remainder of the year. We have our first lunch
time concert, kids concert coming up this Thursday so, they will be coming in. Will Hale and
the Tadpole Parade so other than that looking forward to a great, great series. Have you guys
seen the magnets for this year? Have you guys all gotten one? If not I do have some extra ones
that I can distribute as well but other than that I’d welcome any questions on the concert series at
this time.
Scharfenberg: Any questions for John?
Tom Kelly: Tim Mahoney is still scheduled to play?
Stutzman: Yep.
Tom Kelly: I just didn’t know that he is now elevated his stature being on The Voice if he’s still
going to.
Stutzman: No, I actually ran into him at Toby Keith’s a couple weeks ago and chatted with her
personally about him coming here. He kind of, he knew about it but as to be expected it was
mostly yeah, it’s a booking so but he, he has been very involved in MRPA the last couple years.
Minnesota Recreation and Park Association and has really reached out to try and get gigs just
like this so I do know it will be a great concert.
Scharfenberg: Thank you John.
PARK AND TRAIL MAINTENANCE REPORT.
Gregory: Thank you. Well springtime is our busiest time of the year and that. It’s also our most
routine time of the year as far as jobs that we’ve got to complete. As I stated in my report and
that, that we start out with park shelters. Getting those ready. Getting the fountains up and
running and that. Putting in docks, piers, irrigation systems and that and just all the basic things
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Park and Recreation Commission - June 28, 2011
and that we’re starting up. We lay out all the soccer fields. Get the ballfields ready for Jerry and
we also try to get out and get all of our trails swept. We did that earlier this year. I’m sure now
with the winds and the rains we’ve had that we need to go back over them again and get some of
those redone. We did just complete about a week ago and that our first mowing along the
trails… We only did one swath this time. Usually we go up twice but we only did one because
they are so wet along the trails that we didn’t want to do any damage along side so the next time
we go around, probably in about a week or two we’re going to be doing a second round and we’ll
be going out farther and widening things out a little bit better. We’ve also done some work on
patching. We’ve got several areas, we’ve had a problem with muskrats on Galpin and also down
on Rice Marsh. We’re around the swamp. We’re getting muskrats that are digging underneath
and creating holes. They live underneath it and after a period of time they just start to, the trails
start to cave in. So we had, we had actually 9 areas we designated, not only muskrats but other
holes in that trails. And we’ve pretty much got them cut out. Getting them ready and then the
street department’s going to be going around and they’re already starting to patch them for us.
So those will be hopefully done in another week, week and a half. We’ll have that all done.
This year we had the help of the Minnetonka schools again with their senior service project.
They’ve helped us the last couple years. We did have 38 seniors that came and we worked two
days. They worked morning shifts, afternoon shifts and we kind of split them up a little bit this
time and that. We had some of them were helping Charlie with the downtown. We actually re-
grouted all of the pavers in City Center Park with one crew and the other group we had out doing
wood chipping again and we were able to get all of the City Center Park trees, Lake Susan Park
and Bandimere. Most of Bandimere. We’ve still got a few of them down there yet we haven’t
got done but they were, it was a good bunch of seniors. We had a, they had a lot of fun and I
think one of the days they worked was one of the hottest days we had but they were here and
they worked at it so, we do get a lot of extra help from those people. One thing I did this year
and that and I haven’t done in the past is with our guys downtown and that, Charlie and that he
plants a lot of flowers and that and this year I asked him for some numbers on what we actually
bought and I guess it kind of surprised me. I didn’t realize we almost bought 2,400 plants that
we plant throughout the downtown. And they do a good job. They plant some around City Hall.
Actually around the fire station entrances and stuff like that so, and it does make it look a lot
nicer downtown. Let’s see, that’d be about it. Oh we did do, we did do a memorial bench up on
Kerber Boulevard overlooking Pond Park. That turned out pretty nice. It’s a very nice, nice
place for it overlooking the swampy area there and we also make it big enough so it’s handicap
in that you can have a wheelchair alongside the bench this time. Other than that, right now our
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biggest thing is 4 of July. Just getting everything ready. Trying to get the park ready and
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getting everything out so we’re pretty much every day and that we’re just doing 4 of July work.
Scharfenberg: Any questions for Dale?
Cole Kelly: No questions.
Tom Kelly: I think your staff does a, just a fantastic job. Seriously. You’ve got a lot. You say
25 ballfields, 10 soccer fields, miles and miles of trails. I think we expect everything to look
great all the time but there’s a lot of hard work that goes into it and I just want to say thanks.
Everything just looks great so.
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Park and Recreation Commission - June 28, 2011
Gregory: Thank you. Well we’ve got a good crew I have and they enjoy their work. They
really like working in the park. They like doing different things on a daily basis and everything
else and they’re really a good group of guys.
Scharfenberg: Thanks Dale.
SENIOR CENTER REPORT.
Bill: Thank you. May is Older American’s Month every year and I’ve always thrown a variety
of special activities. This year I focused on transportation and had 4 different events with the
highlighting the CarFit program. That was in conjunction with the Senior Commission and it
was the second year we’ve had this program. And it’s a program that’s held at the old public
works building where there are trained technicians and occupational therapists that actually take
people in their car. People drive through it and it’s a 12 point checklist and they’re given some
information how they can adapt and be safer in their car. So it was a really good program. We
increased it I think this year. We had 24 people in a 4 hour people. Kind of the end we have
Carver County where Waconia, Norwood, Watertown, they had representatives from their
senior commission coming to look to see how they could implement the program in their cities
so Senior Commission did a great job getting that going and everybody really enjoyed it. One
thing I’d like to invite you to, Evening with the Mayor. I think I mentioned that before. It’s a
little different twist. It’s always been Breakfast with the Mayor. This year we thought we’d
have a dinner with the mayor right before one of the concerts in the park and that will be on
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Thursday, July 21 at 5:00. We’ll have a picnic styled dinner and then the mayor gives a
presentation for about an hour and then people are encouraged to go out and hear a concert and
John got a band that was appropriate to manage. Eden Prairie Community Band so I think a lot
of people enjoy that and that’s just a way to get people in the park in the evening. Last week we
were to have a senior picnic at Lake Ann. The fifth year that the Lion’s have sponsored it. We
called it off. The weather for 160 people was not real good. It is rescheduled for Thursday, July
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14 at 11:00 a.m. It will go 11:00 to 1:00 and if you’re free and want to stop by, we’ve got about
175 people so it is a big event and very appreciative to the Lion’s. They cover everything so it’s
free. We get a lot of people. Then the only other thing I want to talk about is, I think in your
packet you got a Senior Connection. I started last year putting an insert page into highlight and
thank our sponsors, our agencies that we partner with. This year as I was thinking of what to do,
I thought why not highlight a number of things that occur right here in our city through our
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parks, 4 of July, memorial giving program, and I’ve gotten a lot of feedback on just people
really saying they enjoy a little reminder of all the wonderful things we have happening in Chan
in the summer so that’s all I have. If anybody has any questions.
Scharfenberg: Susan, is there any cost associated with the dinner with the Mayor?
Bill: It’s $8.00.
Scharfenberg: $8.00.
Bill: So if you want to know I’ll pick up the cost just so you know because I have to order the
food so.
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Park and Recreation Commission - June 28, 2011
Scharfenberg: Okay.
Cole Kelly: Sue, on that Love of Car deals, is that kind of like 55 Alive deal?
Bill: No. 55 Alive is the program we have every month that we do the 4 hour course and you
get your certificate. Love of Car was a documentary put out by Minnesota Public Television
with a Gerontology Society talking about as you age, your body changes and some things you
need to be aware of. More practical than the defensive driving.
Cole Kelly: Okay.
Bill: And I’ve got the video if you’d like to take it home and look at it.
Cole Kelly: Thank you Sue.
Scharfenberg: Anything else? Thank you Susan.
RECREATION CENTER REPORT.
Sarles: Thank you Commissioners. You know it’s been an interesting spring at the Rec Center.
We did not slow down as typically we normally do because the weather has been not well
received, but yeah we now are on our summer hours so starting Memorial Day we kind of
shorten our day an hour in the week. Shorten down the weekends a little bit because we just
don’t have the activity in there as much but we have used a number of the back-up space for
summer programs so far so good to have it out there. Since we last talked we actually had the
dance recital so we were working up to it. I think we just had one and then have another one but
over you know 200 dancers. I think our daddy-daughter dance that we had, that was about, I
think we had, I think there were about 20 fathers dancing with their daughters so that was a real
fun thing this year. It was a big, big class for them. We do it every year but it’s you know
usually around the 6 or 7 dads will participate and this year it really bumped up so that was great.
The high school is a beautiful location. We’ve got all the, we had plenty of tickets sold. We
were working with the flowers this year and we did a little bit different thing. The high school
used some of their technology to let us, instead of just having a white backdrop like we did last
year, you can pay $20 and get a little thing and it put a skyline behind the dancers so it added a
little more flare to the show and it was kind of fun to see and the girls really thought it made it
more of a professional production so that was a fun, fun thing for them to see. We wrapped up
the season and the competition programs continues to go strong so about 60 girls tried out. 58 I
think total tried out. All the girls that try out for competition seems to make it onto a team so
you know Super Stars is our biggest team and that’s the one with the girls that are in high school
typically so, and they’ve been dancing with us for years. Our Enhanced Fitness program
continues strong. That one, the seniors, they just love their instructor. He comes in. He brings
them down floor hockey sticks from the gym and he makes the seniors play you know a little
floor hockey back and forth, or you know he throws dodge balls at them and all sorts of stuff so
he keeps them on their toes. Keeps them moving. He has them out in the hockey rink some days
so they just love it. They don’t know what to expect but they just know that they have fun and
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Park and Recreation Commission - June 28, 2011
they keep coming back. It’s been really nice now that we’ve got Lindsey. We’ve got a lot of
consistency with our Rec Center sports program since she came on and helped us out. The Small
Fry Sports went crazy. It was great. It’s been a fun, really fun program that we’ve been
working with. We started with just one person running it I think and then it went up to 3 of us.
Between John and I and Rose serving as the coordinator. We were fortunate that for most of the
time we had a Chanhassen resident who volunteers, loves kids, wanted to learn a little bit more
about the park and rec industry so she showed up every Tuesday to play with the little ones. She
now works as a consultant and has a gig right now so she emails me from time to time and asks
how the kids are doing so, but it’s fun. It’s a 3 week program each one we do so they’re able to
learn a little bit about the sports. Run, exercise. Parents sit and watch and laugh and chat and
it’s really a fun program so we had to, for the t-ball one we actually had to add a second session
because our waiting list was so large so we maxed out both days of the week with people still
calling to get into it so that one was fun. And Lindsey talked a little bit but she finished up our t-
ball tonight with a big double header so you know thank you to our volunteer coaches who
actually decided that they could handle a double header in t-ball so. It’s a little tough with 4 to 6
year olds so. But they did a great job and we thank all of our volunteers. And on that line we do
have another open house for the Rec Center sports and you guys are all invited to attend. We do
a big kind of party, bar-be-que kind of thing to thank our coaches and all the participants and
then just continue to market the program as well. So we’ll bring in another bouncer and all that
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fun stuff so we’re looking forward to that and it’s August 27. Exciting stuff, the past few
weeks we have had at the Rec Center. We got some new equipment in the fitness center so two
new pieces have delivered already and people are using which is great. We replaced a few
pieces of original equipment. The strength training equipment and it’s nice with some of these
newer pieces. They’re a little more ergonomically safe and comfortable for people and also
they’ve made them better so now you can have dual functions so I don’t need to have, we
replaced 5 pieces of equipment with 3 so it frees up some space in there as well and we’ve gotten
a lot of compliments. The last one will deliver on Thursday so we should be all set then. Other
than that things are going really smooth at the Rec Center. Just plenty of things. We do shut
down in August for a few weeks. Or the gym does and then we shut down for about 2 so that’s
about it. Anybody have any questions?
Scharfenberg: Any questions for Jodi? Jodi, on the numbers on the 125 for the t-ball. Is that
consistent with what you had last year? Is it more?
Sarles: Almost exactly identical, and it actually works out really nice because we’re able to have
enough coaches. Enough field space without taking over the whole night and having to have
games late for 4 to 6 year olds. Parents really appreciate that so.
Scharfenberg: Do you draw from other communities? Are you finding that you’re drawing a lot
of kids from Carver and Chaska and that?
Sarles: Yeah. We get some from Victoria. We get some from Chaska. Some from Eden Prairie
so yeah we do draw quite a bit actually.
Stutzman: I would say Eden Prairie actually has a, is probably our biggest outlying community.
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Park and Recreation Commission - June 28, 2011
Sarles: Yeah.
Scharfenberg: Really? Okay.
Sarles: Yeah, so it’s been, and that’s just our first session so we will have a second session of t-
ball that will come up in July so the numbers usually in July are a little bit less but still pretty
consistent so.
Scharfenberg: Okay. Thank you again. Real good job on all the stuff you’ve got going out
there. Just wonderful.
Tom Kelly: I just want to say I’m excited about some of the off the wall sports offerings you
have for the kids this late summer, archery and ultimate I saw was on there too so it’s great that
you’re expanding that potential athletic opportunities for young kids. That’s great.
Sarles: No that one, those were a couple John brought in that are kind of a unique twist here
with what we offer.
Tom Kelly: That’ll be great.
Scharfenberg: Thanks Jodi.
COMMISSION MEMBER COMMITTEE REPORTS.
None.
COMMISSION MEMBER PRESENTATIONS: 2011 BIKE TOUR.
Hoffman: Something if you want to do, there was some interest expressed. It’s just on here as a
reminder so if it’s something you want to schedule, we can schedule it.
Scharfenberg: Okay.
Tom Kelly: Can I offer a suggestion on that?
Scharfenberg: Sure.
Tom Kelly: I know it’s a Saturday but what would the commission think about having a bike
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tour Saturday morning, August 27 around maybe 9:00 to 11:00, starting and ending at the Rec
Center and then feeding right into the open house?
Scharfenberg: Good suggestion. I like it.
Tom Kelly: Just as a thought.
Scharfenberg: Let’s do it.
Aldritt: Yeah, makes sense.
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Park and Recreation Commission - June 28, 2011
Hoffman: Okay. We’ll invite all the other commissions and the council.
Tom Kelly: Maybe we’ll get better participation on a weekend or light.
Hoffman: It would be better I would think.
Tom Kelly: Okay. Just as a way to promote the Rec Center. It gives us an event to go to instead
of just all going home.
Scharfenberg: I like that. And go and have a hotdog. Now if you have beer there with it, you’d
probably get more people.
Cole Kelly: We’re all going to be peddling around your car Steve.
Stutzman: And you’ve got a little extra energy…
ADMINISTRATIVE PACKET.
Scharfenberg: The one thing that I saw, I just wanted to comment on because I know Tom
wasn’t on the tour with us earlier in June. I saw that Westwood Community Master Plan and
Todd they’re talking about adding a soccer field.
Hoffman: Lacrosse soccer.
Scharfenberg: Lacrosse soccer field out at Westwood, which is part of their, next to their
parking lots, right? So they would, we would come in. They’re going to give us the land.
They’re going to extend the irrigation out there and we would come in and do the bulldozing and
move the earth around and there’d be a soccer field/lacrosse field there.
Tom Kelly: That’ll be great.
Hoffman: We’re going to present this idea to the City Council and Commissioner Scharfenberg
explained it. We would grade it. They would run the irrigation and pay for the irrigation. They
would run the water and pay for the water. They would schedule the irrigation and we would
mow it. They would take the trash out and we would schedule it.
Tom Kelly: And will we stripe it too? I’m just, if it’s soccer and lacrosse, I mean would you be
able to stripe it as well?
Ruegemer: It’s still up for discussions but I would think that we could probably work that into
our plan.
Tom Kelly: Okay. Well that’d be fantastic.
Cole Kelly: Dale.
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Park and Recreation Commission - June 28, 2011
Hoffman: Well he’s going to mow it.
Scharfenberg: Anything else Todd in the administrative packet that you wanted to comment on?
Hoffman: It’s always fun to read the picnic evaluations. People really appreciate the facilities
that we have here in our community. One thing I did want to, I thought of going back. Before
we eliminate that stairway would you like to at least send the neighborhood notice to let them
know that you are considering elimination of the stairway and if people are interested, that they
should voice their.
Cole Kelly: I think that’s a good idea.
Scharfenberg: I think that would be good.
Hoffman: Support because people always, they kind of get the rug pulled out from underneath
them and there might be some people that support it and would want to voice that support to the
commission.
Scharfenberg: Yep, I agree.
Hoffman: Did you find it interesting to look back at the history over the last 4 or 5 years? If you
noticed there was lots of projects. Lake Ann’s been invested heavily over the last 5-6 years as
were trails and then the playgrounds. The playgrounds again through the CIP, the capital budget
so a lot of work that’s been done. There’s a lot of work that we’re currently doing and I think
we’re up to somewhere in the mid-40’s in residential permits and so those residential permits
don’t always equate to additional dollars because they either paid right up front or we took their
land but it does show that there’s some activity. Chanhassen is very well positioned to expand.
Fleet Farm, if you saw in the paper, is going to go to Carver. It’s going to help Carver but it’s
also going to help communities such as Chanhassen and the 212 alignment. People really feel
that Chanhassen’s a good place to be for a variety of reasons so I’m confident that we’ll continue
to see those park dedication dollars expand. Much of that money is still going to be in
commercial/industrial and that’s got to come back.
Ryan: Can I make one more comment before I’m sure you’ve thought about this and I was just
th
thinking through it when I was looking through the brochure for the 4 of July. With it falling,
th
the 4 falling on a Monday, you know a lot of people like myself have reunions and go out of
th
town traditionally for the 4 of July and miss this event, but this year because then you know you
go back to work on Tuesday, just to plan for the end of your event to have an influx of people
coming back from out of town and coming to an in town event after being gone for the most of
the activities and so just to make sure that the experience is what it is at the beginning of the
event, carries through all the way to the end so food supplies, water, what not just so it doesn’t
feel like the end of an event for people that are coming back into town and you know get to come
to this, you know they’re going to be experience of the celebration for the first time so, just a
thought.
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Park and Recreation Commission - June 28, 2011
Stutzman: I think last year with the influx of people coming back after the parade, we
experienced some of the growing pains of that last year so it’s, and most of the vendors have
communicated to me, this is really starting to work. Make sure you’re keeping things on. The
carnival’s going to stay, is going to be in good shape to run through, so yeah we’ll certainly pass
that message along to all the vendors and they’ll look forward to seeing everybody come back to
see it.
Ryan: Great, thanks.
Hoffman: This is the first year we’re back to the 3 day event. It was a 3 day event for many,
many years and that was, I think it scaled back to a 2 events. We’re back with the carnival on
Saturday night. The family night and I think that will be very popular on that Saturday evening
for families.
Scharfenberg: Can I get a motion for adjournment?
Tom Kelly moved, Cole Kelly seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the
motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. The Park and Rec Commission meeting
was adjourned.
Submitted by Todd Hoffman
Park and Rec Director
Prepared by Nann Opheim
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