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PRC 2011 11 22 CHANHASSEN PARK AND RECREATION COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING NOVEMBER 22, 2011 Chairman Daniel called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. MEMBERS PRESENT: Jeff Daniel, Steve Scharfenberg, Cole Kelly, Peter Aldritt, and Brent Caron MEMBERS ABSENT: Elise Ryan and Tom Kelly STAFF PRESENT: Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Director; and Jerry Ruegemer, Recreation Superintendent APPROVAL OF AGENDA:Scharfenberg moved, Carron seconded to approve the agenda as published. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: Ruegemer: Just want to let the commission know that John Stutzman did tender his resignation with the City of Chanhassen. John has accepted a position with the City of Bloomington. John’s last day will be rdth December 3 at the tree lighting ceremony. He’ll be starting his new job on the 5 of December at Bloomington so, we’re in the process of kind of figuring out everything at this point and then we’ll have an announcement soon. Daniel: Is it I hope a good opportunity for John? Ruegemer: Yep. John, yeah John’s going to be doing, will be doing kind of what I’m doing here as far as athletics and facility scheduling with associations, a lot of those type of things so little bit different job responsibility with the City of Bloomington. Daniel: Okay. Well we certainly wish John the best of luck in his new position. He’ll be a loss to the City. John’s done a good job. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS. None. APPROVAL OF MINUTES:Cole Kelly moved, Carron seconded to approve the verbatim and summary minutes of the Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated October 25, 2011 as presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. STATUS OF 2011 PARK AND TRAIL ACQUISITION AND DEVELOPMENT CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS. Hoffman: Thank you Chair Daniels, members of the commission. This is just a brief overview to keep you up to date on what’s going on with 2011 CIP projects as we look forward. I guess the overall nature of this report is that a lot of these projects are on hold or in a holding pattern, which is a good thing for the overall fund balance but eventually these projects will move forward and the cash will be allocated out of this fund. Specifically in 2011 six items range from $10,000, which are items such as the picnic tables, the benches and the rec center fitness equipment, up to $400,000 and now those, that particular item has increased to $633,000 but total is $985,000 as originally published. Each item, trees. That allocation is currently at $25,000. It has been reduced down in future years to $15,000. Basically it’s a way to which Park and Recreation Commission – November 22, 2011 we, a manner in which we can replace trees at a variety of parks across our community. We have also been fortunate to be now currently involved with the Environmental Commission’s Arbor Day tree planting so if you were there this spring, and the previous year, the past 2 years at Lake Ann. Next year I think we’re going to finish out Lake Ann with some tree plantings during that particular weekend, and then probably move onto Bandimere so. Ash borer is not here yet but once it does get here I think you’ll see some additional increased attention in the areas of trees. As commissioners if you ever hear of any neighborhoods, individual residents that are looking for trees in a particular area, just let us know and we can get those installed. Annually we have $10,000. We don’t always spend those dollars for picnic tables and park benches. That allocation is also where we take the expenditures for our memorial benches from, and so when we purchase a memorial bench and then we take the $1,000 in, the original expenditure’s coming out of this particular budget. We did a couple of those this year. We didn’t buy a lot of benches this particular year. Not a lot of expenditures in that line item. This is the fourth year out of 5 total for the recreation center fitness equipment so it’s a modest but significant program to renew and refresh fitness equipment at the rec center so each year for the last 4 we’ve purchased this equipment. Next year will be the last year. If you happen to work out or know people that work out at the rec center, they’ve noticed the difference. Other, 41. The underpass and trail, our grant match has increased from $400,000 to $632,000 and that’s again an estimate based on actual construction costs will tell the final story on where that project comes in. The County is hopeful to get that project underway and out of the ground come spring of 2012 and we’ve been working on that since before 2005 so it will be nice to have that trail project in and done. The Highway 41 trail extension, which we’ll be talking about in December and that stairway, that allocation has actually been lowered from $250,000 to $205,000 and we will be independently bidding that as separate from the Carver County project so they’ll be bidding their larger project. These two projects will be bid as one but it’ll be a city project. We’re hopeful that the same contractor is awarded both of those projects but there’s no guarantees. If two contractors happen to get the projects then we’ll work, we’ll kind of stage them. One then the other. Pioneer Park acquisition. $290,000. That acquisition was completed in 2011. I have an update for the commission. Pioneer Pass currently went through a significant transformation, one which the City was not expecting. The developer, Ryland brought excess materials onto the park site far in excess of what our agreement, whatever development contract between the City Council, the park board and the developer entailed. They didn’t call us. They went over by a foot on the entire 8.7 acres. They went over by 2 feet on the entire 8.7 acres. They eventually ended up filling the site in excess of 4 to 8 feet, depending on where you’re at. It’s approximately 45,000 cubic yards of excess material. I met with Mark Sonstegard, Ryland’s representative last Monday. They were hopeful that they were just going to round off the edges and kind of let it go at that. I stopped him about midway in his second sentence. I said Mark, this is no way acceptable with the City. I said the City Council purchased that property. We own it. The City owns it for the people of Chanhassen to utilize as a park. We had a beautiful park site up until 2 weeks ago when you started hauling this material onto this property. You didn’t contact us. This material all has to leave the site. We want this grade to the original grading plan that was approved, and the original grading plan was approved knowing that they were going to bring excess material over. Use it as a balanced site. It was a known quantity. Obviously their engineer just blew the calculation by a significant amount. It’s not a small issue. I mean I don’t know the exact dollar amount but we’re talking in the quarter of a million dollar range to remove that type of material off of that site. It could be in excess of that. Their engineer tried to quickly get a meeting with our engineering department and we just said unless you send us a proposal showing us what is exactly going to happen here, we’re not interested in meeting. I’m not interested in meeting so Mark Sonstegard, again a representative of Ryland called that meeting off. He said yeah, we don’t have a plan together as of yet. My other comments to him were, fortunately you have up to a year. We don’t need the site until the spring of 2013 for development so you have up to a year to find a home for this material. I think their original proposal was going to be something a little less than what we got but not nearly down to where we were going to be at. I said Mark, we have to be a lot closer to where we were at originally, and really the goal there is to be able to view through that park from a view shed from a car window and so you’re driving down that nice road and you want to be able to see 2 Park and Recreation Commission – November 22, 2011 through that park. See what activities are going on. Take a ride out there today, you’ll notice that even if you were standing on the trail above the curb line, you couldn’t even see what was going on in the park because it’s up on top of a hill. Caron: They didn’t even notify the City when they shut down the road? Hoffman: They notified the City that they were shutting down the road for they thought one weeks, then two and then it went into three weeks and they opened it up for the weekends but yeah, they blistered the road during the weekdays but they didn’t notify us when they knew there was an issue so we weren’t happy about that. We own the property outright and so they have really, it was not a good situation that they got themselves into but they’ve got all the dirt out of their housing lots. They’ve got it all in the park now and there’s going to have to be a resolution so wanted to let you know that that’s going on. We have $1.2 million dollars in a retainer, performance bond on the project so. Cole Kelly: Is it all protected then? Did they? Hoffman: Currently no. It’s just packed clay and they’ve got to get, they’ve got to get out there and. Caron: Do some sort of restoration for the winter. Okay. Hoffman: So we don’t, we’ve not accepted the site obviously in the condition it’s in. They’re going to have to come up with a plan on how to restore that particular site to get it back to what we want to see it, but we have this $1.2 million dollars in performance retainage so, if we don’t get the plan we want to see in the next 30 days, probably 15 days, then I’ll be responding to a letter. Giving them a drop dead date probably like July 1 of next year. If it’s not done and corrected then we’ll call down that performance bond. Hire a contractor on our own. Remove that material. Also we need to bring in 6 inches of black, which they haven’t shown us yet. The development contract requires that once they grade the site, then they fill it with, top it with 6 inches, 4 to 6 inches of black soil and that’s not there either so. I think they kept that all on their side for their lots so that’s an issue as well. So that’s a little snafu on Pioneer Pass but we’ll work through it and I’ll keep commissioners up to date as we move forward. That’s all I have tonight. Thank you. Daniel: Thank you. Ryland? Hoffman: Ryland Homes. Daniel: Aren’t they going under? Hoffman: Rottlund. Daniel: Rottlund is, okay. That’s right. Alright, thanks Todd. Hoffman: You’re welcome. Daniel: Alright. Any questions with regards to CIP this year and the projects? If not let’s go ahead and move on to the picnic reservation fees 2012. ESTABLISH 2012 PICNIC RESERVATION FEES. Ruegemer: Thanks Chair Daniels. Just wanted to bring to the park and rec commission meeting this month here. Last month we did review the kind of the end of the year evaluation of picnic program that 3 Park and Recreation Commission – November 22, 2011 we do have. We did look at you know different members and different experiences that our customers did have so just wanted to bring the 2012 fees to the commission tonight, which we normally look at in November. Staff is recommending that the 2012 picnic fees remain at the same level of 2011 for 2012 so the picnic fees are attached to your report in your packet. That for your review. If you’d certainly like to make any changes with the fees you certainly can do so at the time. It is staff’s recommendation that fees remain the same for 2012 as they were in 2011. Daniel: Okay. Hoffman: Can we make a separate fee for the people that find out the non-resident fee and then they say I’ll call you back? Ruegemer: Let me go dig up somebody and call you back. Hoffman: Jerry gets that a lot. Ruegemer: That does happen. Let me call you back. My cousin lives in Chanhassen. Daniel: Alright. Well let’s, any questions regarding the fees. Steve? Scharfenberg: No. Daniel: Cole? Cole Kelly: No. Caron: No. Aldritt: I don’t have any. Daniel: Todd when did we go to, or Jerry when did we go to 200 or 250 on non-resident? When was that? Ruegemer: This fee structure was changed probably about 3 to 4 years ago where we kind of simplified. We used to have a number of different kind of categories of fees. Just kind of lumped it all into one really simplified I believe that was about 3 or 4 years ago. Daniel: Because for some reason I thought at one point non-resident on the weekdays for some reason stuck in my mind like $145 or something like $150 wasn’t it? It’s always been close to $20 or right around that range? Ruegemer: Right around that range, yes. Daniel: Okay. Hoffman: For the non-resident businesses, especially a large one it’s still a great value. You go out there and see some of those events that are taking place and you can’t imagine that you would ever get a park like that for $250 for the people that they haul in there. Cole Kelly: Well I was going to say it’s got to be a super value for those larger companies. 4 Park and Recreation Commission – November 22, 2011 Hoffman: Yeah. Daniel: Oh yeah. Hoffman: Yeah, it’s a good value for them but you can’t, I mean then a smaller company with you know 15-20 employees it’s kind of like well it’s pretty. Cole Kelly: You mean we can’t break it out like Fortune 500, 5,000? Hoffman: We could. Daniel: Alright. Well I don’t think we see any changes so I think we’d probably go ahead and approve, or go ahead and move it with a motion to approve. Cole Kelly: I make a motion that we approve the staff recommendations for the picnic reservation fees. Caron: Second. Cole Kelly moved, Caron seconded that the Park and Recreation Commission recommend that the 2012 group picnic reservation fees remain at the same level as 2011. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. Hoffman: The thing we do like when those large companies come here is they bring a lot of people to Chanhassen that may have never been here and they’re like well, we’re coming back. They come back to live or they come back to shop or come back to go to the Dinner Theater so we get them one way or the other. RECREATION PROGRAM REPORTS: 2011 HALLOWEEN PARTY EVALUATION. Ruegemer: Doesn’t it seem so long ago? Daniel: It actually does but it’s less than a month. nd Ruegemer: So yeah the event was held on October 22. We did talk about it briefly at last month when, was John here last month? I think he was, but just you know I’m not going to really go through everything but you know it really was a nice event for the community. We did get some increased numbers with that. A lot of the same components you know are the same. The City continues to be, John did move the date up a week to kind of miss other conflicting parties in the area and it seemed like our attendance has gone up a bit through the years. The last couple years. Three years that this has been done so just general comments you know on that. Again just continue to have a lot of volunteers through civic organizations. The Key Clubs. Park and rec commissioners, that sort of thing here so as you can see we do have a large number of volunteers to make the event successful so we’re going to continue to do that. A lot of help from city staff getting the event set up and managed prior to the event. Continue to reserve the different rooms of the rec center so we can kind of get in and set up prior to the event itself and also have some time on the tail end to break down and store over until the first part of the week following the event so just entertain any types of questions at this point. Daniel: Did you go through all 75 dozen cookies? 5 Park and Recreation Commission – November 22, 2011 Ruegemer: No, we did not. And that actually was reduced as well so really trying to kind of bring the numbers down with the amount of candy and cider. If we have extra cider and that sort of thing we can return it to Cub. Daniel: Questions for Jerry. Cole I know you participated in it didn’t you? Cole Kelly: Yep. So did Peter. Daniel: That’s right. Cole Kelly: Yeah, it was a great event. I mean there were a number of parents coming up going, how do you give out candy? I say all you do is volunteer you know. Call the City. Ruegemer: Right, right. Cole Kelly: So it was kind of fun to see all the little kids, especially since I’m past that stage you know, and then whichever super hero I was, a bunch of kids knew him and one little boy didn’t want to leave me. Hoffman: You guys looked great. Saw the pictures. Ruegemer: Mr. Incredible. Cole Kelly: Yeah, Mr. Incredible. Yeah. I don’t even know who he is. Hoffman: But the kids liked him. Cole Kelly: But the kids loved him, yeah. Ruegemer: They liked all your muscles huh. Hoffman: You all looked good. Daniel: Alright obviously we’ll talk more about this coming next September I assume as we prepare for October’s, next year’s October party so that will be great. Glad to see it was a success again because it is you know one of the key events that the city has each year. Okay, thanks Jerry. Ruegemer: Yep, no problem. 2011 TREE LIGHTING CEREMONY. rd Ruegemer: The tree lighting ceremony is coming up Saturday, December 3. A lot of the events and the components are in place at this point. Mayor Furlong will be flipping the switch around 5:15 to light up City Center Park. Park maintenance crews have been extremely busy as of late stringing lights and trees and getting everything all set to go for the event. The City’s involved obviously and Buy Chanhassen is also one of the co-sponsors of the event. The Mustard Seed is, Mark Halla and he’s supplying Santa Claus for the event and also one of his reindeer for the event. The Chanhassen Fire Department is involved again with driving the aerial ladder to deliver Santa Claus to the City Center plaza itself so it should be a great event. It’s always a nice event to bring the community together to kind of tip off the holiday season so live reindeer again. Refreshments. Bonfire. Gingerbread house contest and displays and we’ll all be right down here in City Center Park in less than 2 weeks so. 6 Park and Recreation Commission – November 22, 2011 Daniel: Alright. Any questions for Jerry on the tree lighting ceremony? I’m actually going to try to make an effort to get there this year because I know we can’t head out west so. Hoffman: It continues to grow. It’s a winner. People like it. Daniel: Oh yeah. Well thank you Jerry. And now we’ve got the 11 and 12 winter programming. 2011/12 WINTER PROGRAMMING. Ruegemer: Just a list for the commission tonight to kind of let you know kind of what’s going on here for the winter season. That there are some new things. Certainly the programs for preschool and different categories for that so Jen and Jodi have been doing a great job with the after school and rec center sports programs. John certainly will be missed in that category and that area but we will continue, Jodi Sarles also kind of co-runs that and Jodi does as fantastic job with that as well and I’ll step in in the interim period to ensure success. Continued success with that area. So just a number of youth and family and adult programs are listed here so hopefully our residents have a lot of options and a lot of programs that they can sign up for so we’re happy to do so and hopefully they’ll sign up for it and have a good time. Scharfenberg: Jerry, not necessarily right on point but in terms of the skating rinks, I know assuming weather and everything, will they open over Christmas break? th Ruegemer: Our plan right now is to open up the Friday prior so that the, I think the 17. Scharfenberg: Oh, okay. Ruegemer: That’s kind of our goal right now so a lot is going to have to depend on what the weather does here the next, we’ve got to get some frost in the ground and really hit it hard but we have warming th houses coming the week of the 12 of December and get those put into place. Get a little time to get them thth set up. Staff training, it looks like it’s going to be probably the 12 or 13 of December at this point and that’s kind of plan is, we’d kind of like to have a soft opening prior to the holiday break so that it’s, hopefully all the bugs will be worked out with staff and anything like that so that’s our plan right now. Scharfenberg: Okay. Daniel: Alright. Any other questions for Jerry? Hoffman: This moisture was a great first step. You need that moisture to really seal that ground so it will hold water in the future. Without any moisture in there it’s really difficult to get frost in that top layer so this is going to be a big help. Daniel: Just in general. Actually I think my yard started turning green for the first time since September. Hoffman: And that’s in November. Daniel: Alright, thanks again Jerry for all that information. Ruegemer: Yep. COMMISSION MEMBER COMMITTEE REPORTS. None. 7 Park and Recreation Commission – November 22, 2011 COMMISSION MEMBER PRESENTATIONS. None. ADMINISTRATIVE PACKET. Daniel: Todd, anything you want to highlight in the administrative packet? Hoffman: Couple of things and then I have a couple of other administrative items that I’d like to add and highlight for the commission. Mr. Dale Rusch is a retired gentleman that does this fantastic bluebird report and so we really appreciate that. If you happen to run into him and get to know who he is, say thank you. You’ll recognize him because he bikes to City Hall from where he lives out at the corner of 5 and 41 at the townhouses there and that’s where we starts his bluebird activities and I think he does his survey on his bike many times as well. And then the Voice of People Award. Very nice that the City of Chanhassen was recognized for excellence in two categories. City parks and recreation programs and classes and so that’s the annual survey or semi-annual survey that we do and to get those awards you have to be in the top 10 among the 500 jurisdictions so the City Council recognized the Park and Recreation Commission, staff for that recognition. The Dugout Club has been active in our community, as you know. In October you approved the donation of the double batting cage which then the City Council accepted and that was installed last week so when our crew went down and started to skin off the area. They found the old aggregate, which was in great condition and so we didn’t have to add as much down there. There was a batting cage at that location at some point in the past so that was installed. They will bring a proposal to the commission this winter to move the backstop up from 60 feet to 40 feet. Basically just taking the back wall and moving it forward. That 60 feet is just a real challenge for playing baseball at that particular location. All we can come up with is that it was designed after a major league baseball field with a 60 foot distance between the backstop and home plate. Daniel: For Babe Ruth he can run all day long. Hoffman: Yeah, you can run all day long. Daniel: Poor kids. Poor catcher. Hoffman: So they’ll be bringing that proposal back. They continue to work with the high school with some success on their fields so we’re glad that they continue to work on that particular facility. And then th on a separate item, just something of note, the 4 of July, as you know there’s a trade fair and a tent for that trade fair. At present there is this power struggle going on between the Southwest Chamber and the Buy Chanhassen group so if you hear any inklings or issues on the street, that’s what’s going on is that Buy Chanhassen is trying to get their foot back in the door in Chanhassen and trying to force the Southwest Chamber out of the tent. It’s not our issue. It’s currently resides in the City Manager’s office. Probably headed to the City Council so time will tell. Just wanted to let you know that one of your events is so popular that they’re fighting to get there. Daniel: Alright, thank you Todd. Well with this being said and the very quick meeting, a half hour Steve. Scharfenberg: Nice. Daniel: Why don’t we go ahead and make a motion to adjourn the meeting. Scharfenberg 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 Recreation Commission meeting was adjourned at 8:00 p.m. 8 Park and Recreation Commission – November 22, 2011 Submitted by Todd Hoffman Park and Rec Director Prepared by Nann Opheim 9