PRC 2012 01 24
CHANHASSEN PARK AND
RECREATION COMMISSION
REGULAR MEETING
JANUARY 24, 2012
Chairman Daniel called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT:
Jeff Daniel, Steve Scharfenberg, Tom Kelly, Peter Aldritt, Cole Kelly, and
Brent Caron
MEMBERS ABSENT:
Elise Ryan
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
presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0.
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Hoffman: Would like to announce that the nominations or applications are being sought for commission
members for all commissions. Planning Commission, Senior Commission, Park and Recreation
Commission so talk to your friends and neighbors and have them look that up as an opportunity to serve
the city. Council will be interviewing later part of February and March.
VISITOR PRESENTATIONS:
None.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES:Aldritt moved, Cole Kelly seconded to approve the verbatim and
summary minutes of the Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated December 13, 2011 as
presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0.
2012 PARK AND TRAIL ACQUISITION AND DEVELOPMENT CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT
PROGRAM (CIP) OVERVIEW.
Hoffman: Thank you Chair Daniels, members of the commission. 2012 is going to be a year, a little bit
more involved than 2011 for capital improvement projects. The commission will be involved in many of
those and you’ll seek out some committee assignments later in the agenda. Specific improvements,
there’s a revolving assessment fund which is funding tennis courts and so those dollars have been moved
from park dedication to pavement management and now revolving assessment funds. For $125,000 that
will re-build the two courts at the Chan Rec Center and then patch and resurface courts at Lake Susan,
Meadow Green, North Lotus and South Lotus. Please remember that two of the courts at the Rec Center
will be taken out in their entirety. Staff is currently talking about what would be the best use of that space
allocation and we’re thinking probably sand volleyball. If commissioners have other ideas please let us k
now. Capital replacement fund projects, we have two that we’ll be involved in 2012. The Recreation
Center fitness equipment. That’s the final of 5 allocations for the strength and stretching area and it’s
really been well received by our patrons. They appreciate that investment. And then the skate park ramp
replacement and asphalt resurfacing for $110,000. This will also resurface the inline skate hockey rink or
the hockey rink area. A couple of the ramps will be saved and reutilized in the new configuration and that
original equipment was purchased back starting in 1999. And then the asphalt surface at the skate park is
the biggest complaint right now. It’s just really gotten too rough for quality skating. Park dedication
fund projects. Picnic tables and benches. $10,000. Towards the end of the day today I was working on a
Park and Recreation Commission – January 24, 2012
Mertz memorial bench for David Mertz who’s a service member. His folks here, live here in town. His
dad’s an attorney in town. Mr. Craig Mertz so we’re working on a bench for those folks. We buy those
benches out of this fund. We buy other miscellaneous benches out of this fund throughout the park
system on an annual basis. $15,000 in trees. We do both spring and fall tree planting projects and we
continue to mitigate against the future loss of our ash trees. Hard to say when that will happen. 5, 10, 15
years but it’s pretty much a guarantee that the ash borer is going to start to take out a lot of ash trees at
some point in the future and our typical scenario is we’re taking locations, it’s in the high 30 percentage
that we have ash trees so 36-37 percent ash trees in our groomed park areas and if we have a chance to
move along side of those trees, we do that and we plant additional trees so as the new ones grow the ash
are still there providing shade and beauty to the parks but in some configurations where it’s all ash trees,
then we’re taking down say every other ash and planting some additional trees. An example of that
would be around the ballfields out at Lake Ann. Page 2 we have the 41 pedestrian underpass and trail
grant project. If you combine this project and then the trail extension and stairway at over $800,000, this
is one of the most significant projects that the park fund has tackled in quite some time so it’s a
significant investment. Staff is anxious to see that the project get underway. Planning started before
2005. Late 2004 so it’s been quite a long road for this particular project. It looks like it’s ready to go out
to bid and get underway in the first part of next spring. There will be some question on scheduling with
MnDOT with the Highway 5 project and this project and the County has not heard back just as of yet on
how the State’s going to schedule specifically installation of that box culvert on Highway 41. When you
drive this corridor take a look. There is going to be significant tree loss in the corridor and I think that
will be the most noticeable thing early on in construction, but it is a really nice trail alignment that will
add a lot of value to that particular area of our community. There’s also a lot of excitement over that one
mile of trail that’s going to be into the regional park. That’s really going to be the first asphalt trail
improvement or road improvement for that matter within the regional park and people are excited about
that. Being able to bike down to that beach. Disc golf. Oh and then an update on the Highway 41. The
City portion, SRF is working on the pedestrian crossing lighting system and so that will be incorporated
into the City bid package as an add alternate. We’ll see what those prices come in at and then hopefully
award that part of the project as well. Council was, spoke in favor of that and your recommendation from
the commission was taken into consideration as a part of that discussion. Disc golf at $10,000. We’re
going to kick that off and hopefully get that in early in the spring so we can see that course being used.
The $10,000 will purchase the cages and that’s really about the only cash outlay other than a little bit of
time for the consultant. Trunk Highway 101/Pleasant View Road intersection and trail improvements.
That’s scheduled to go. At $95,000 that’s a real good value for the park fund based on previous estimates
to build that trail so Paul Oehme, the City Engineer/Public Works Director and their group is handling
that project. There’ll also be some significant tree loss, vegetation loss at that particular corner to expand
that stormwater pond that’s located on the north, northwest intersection so keep an eye out for that.
We’re going back up to Herman Field to build a half court basketball for $10,000 and that comes off of
that neighborhood meeting we had up there I believe it was 2 years ago. Bandimere Park community, or
Bandimere Community Park expansion. This half million dollars is allocated for that acquisition of the
back lot. The 2.5 acre lot. The front lot, the other 2.5 acres will be acquired as a part of the 101 South
project. We are currently having the appraisals that were completed for both parcels. MnDOT certifies
so they go out and a MnDOT appraiser looks at it to make sure that they’re certifiable for their purposes
and then we’ll make an offer letter off to the Nettesheim family on both those parcels. Rice Marsh trail
loop planning. We had a DNR local trails grant out that we scored 48 points. I think the funding cut off
was 51 or 52 but there were about half a dozen stacked right up at that 48 point range so we’ll be going
back and modifying that application and then re-applying for that in 2012. Eden Prairie has finished their
section up to the bridge and they’re going to continue down to Lyman Boulevard as well. And then
$80,000 for the Trunk Highway 5 improvements. That’s for our contribution to the box culvert.
Commissioner Carron and Jerry and I and others were talking about that project. That’s the big Highway
5 project from TH 41. Trunk Highway 41 to downtown Victoria starting up next year. That’s going to be
a significant road project but also a significant pedestrian improvement. It’s really going to start that
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Park and Recreation Commission – January 24, 2012
whole pedestrian system into the Arboretum and they’re excited about it. There’s going to be some I
would say education curve for everybody involved because the Arboretum has never been open to public
trails and so you cannot bring dogs into the Arboretum so dog walkers might be excited about going to
the Arboretum but they’re not going to be allowed, and then also their afterhours type of use is going to
be one of the issues that they’re not quite sure how they’re going to manage that if people start taking
moonlit walks into the Arboretum, how they’re going to manage that particular issue. So those are the
projects. Current park fund balance is at 2 million 4. We anticipate another $100,000 to $200,000 in new
dollars in 2012 and these 10 projects consume a significant portion of those dollars at $1.568 million.
Daniel: Excellent. Thank you Todd. I’m sure there’s a lot of questions by the commissioners. I mean
this actually quite a bit of activity for 2012 so I mean it’s going to exciting. Let’s start with Peter.
Aldritt: No, I don’t have any questions at this point right now.
Daniel: Okay, Brent.
Carron: Likewise with Peter. I’m good for now. I might think of something but I’m good.
Daniel: Okay. Cole.
Cole Kelly: Todd, if my…correct it looks like we’re taking the fund down to about a million bucks.
Does that sound about right with the income we’re going to have this year?
Hoffman: Correct.
Cole Kelly: Okay. Are we going to try and get out mitts on some of that cable TV windfall money or is
having a million bucks in the bank a little too much for the City Council to allocate some to us?
Hoffman: I don’t think it’s available for park and trail improvements.
Cole Kelly: Okay. Well they said they didn’t know what they were going to do with it in the paper.
$639,000.
Hoffman: Correct, yeah. As far as I understand it’s only available for communication improvements.
Cable access so it’s a pretty specific set of uses.
Cole Kelly: Okay. I think those are my main questions.
Daniel: Alright, thank you Cole.
Cole Kelly: Oh, one more. The fitness center, my son said they don’t have a weight bench in there.
Hoffman: Okay.
Cole Kelly: And he said it needs a weight bench.
Hoffman: Needs a weight bench, okay.
Cole Kelly: So that would get more of the kids in there.
Hoffman: Okay.
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Park and Recreation Commission – January 24, 2012
Cole Kelly: Can’t see using it myself but that’s what my son tells me.
Hoffman: Alright, let’s check into it. Thank you.
Daniel: Thanks Cole. Steve.
Scharfenberg: Todd, what is the possibility that the Bandimere Park acquisition doesn’t take place? I
mean is there the possibility that that will get pushed back a year or more?
Hoffman: I think it’s either a yes or a no. We’ll present our offer and they’re either going to say yes or
no. If they say no, we have no availability to go higher on our offer other than the appraised value so I
think we’ll know within the next couple of months whether that’s a go or not.
Scharfenberg: Okay.
Daniel: That answers my question.
Scharfenberg: And the disc golf construction, I know we were going to work. Do we have the map and
that all set yet? That still has to take place. Okay.
Hoffman: Yeah. When we met with the two consultants that were there that day. We would have to sit
down with those folks. The one gentleman was what, $300 bucks a day or something for a couple days
he thought he could finish it up.
Scharfenberg: Okay. And then obviously we’re going to talk later about the commission you know
working with that, okay. Alright. And the skate ramp project again, that’s all coming out of capital
placement. Replacement funds. But when do you think that that kind of is slated for? Are we going to
do that at the beginning of the season?
Hoffman: End of the season.
Scharfenberg: End of the season, okay.
Hoffman: August-September.
Scharfenberg: Okay.
Hoffman: Actually with the skate park going into January, that would be at the middle of the skate park
season. It was still open in January this year.
Scharfenberg: Are we going to do or has there been any requests from the skateboarders to do anything
different than what’s there currently or?
Hoffman: That might be a part of the, we’re going to sit down with those users, the skate park crowd and
see what they want to do. One or two things will be staying and other than that it’s wide open.
Scharfenberg: Okay. We’re not going to do anything with the lighting or we’re happy with the lighting
and everything else that’s there currently?
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Park and Recreation Commission – January 24, 2012
Hoffman: Yeah, the shelter will stay. The grind rail that will stay and then one or two pieces, the main
apparatus that will stay there and come back. Once the asphalt comes in then they’ll have to stay for a
certain period of time, and depending on conditions until we can put ramps back out on there or we’ll just
sink them right in.
Scharfenberg: Okay. That’s all I had.
Hoffman: Couple weeks.
Daniel: Thank you Steve. Tom.
Tom Kelly: Is the end of season true also for the tennis courts?
Hoffman: Tennis courts we’re going to kick off right in the spring.
Tom Kelly: Okay, so it’ll be spring.
Hoffman: Start work in May.
Tom Kelly: The other question I had too was, what’s the realistic timing on the Rice Marsh trail? You
said you’re going to reapply for a grant.
Hoffman: Well the reality is we don’t have the cash to build it so.
Scharfenberg: The money we’re allocating is for kind of planning right now, right? The $10,000 yeah.
Hoffman: Planning and grant applications, yep.
Tom Kelly: Okay. And who’s responsible for, is Chan responsible for taking underneath Highway 5. Or
Highway 212 or is that EP?
Hoffman: EP.
Tom Kelly: Okay.
Hoffman: And they’re, they’re doing that. And then there’s a stretch, 900 feet, 1,000 feet from the bridge
to our border and they won’t start that. They won’t even, until we get there. They said once you’re
coming our way, we’ll head your way to make that final connection.
Tom Kelly: Okay.
Hoffman: And when you drive past, that’s the, if you’re driving westbound, you go over the bridge and
then there’s an open field which was formerly an agricultural field. That’s the last of Eden Prairie. Once
you hit the wood line coming west, then you’re in Chan.
Tom Kelly: Okay.
Hoffman: So when we build we’ll be building right off to the edge of that wood line. To the field edge.
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Park and Recreation Commission – January 24, 2012
Tom Kelly: The only other question I had too is I know I read in the Villager a few months ago there was
a lot of opposition to the Highway 5 improvements because it was going to shut down downtown for a
while. Has that all been, has that all been resolved?
Hoffman: Downtown Victoria?
Tom Kelly: Yeah.
Hoffman: Well, I can’t say it’s all been resolved but Victoria is happy with what is going on as far as
detours and closures and minimizing the time that it’s going to be shut down.
Tom Kelly: Okay. That’s all I had.
Daniel: Okay, thanks Tom. With the tennis courts, have you been contacted by Shorewood with regards
to Cathcart at all? I know they came to us several years ago looking for funding for resurfacing their
tennis courts. Technically is that our tennis courts or still their’s?
Hoffman: It’s their’s. Their park.
Daniel: Okay.
Hoffman: Cathcart, the park is owned and operated by the City of Shorewood with the one caveat that we
have agreed to take care of mowing and tree trimming but then their public works crew said ah, we’re just
going to do it. We’re here so that’s where we’re at today. And they’re still responsible for all capital
improvements.
Daniel: Okay.
Hoffman: And they operate the park. They own the park. It was given to them by the church across the
street who happened to own land in Chanhassen but the church was in Shorewood so when they gave the
park to the City of Shorewood, that’s who received the property. Just happens to be in the City of
Chanhassen and surrounded by Chanhassen residents.
Daniel: Alright. And Steve actually asked the question I had with regards to the Bandimere Park
expansion.
Hoffman: Obviously we’re in a better time then it would have been 3 or 5 or 7 years ago to acquire that
property so we’re in a better position now to get a yes then it would have been but it’s still not a
guarantee.
Carron: Can I just ask a clarification on that? If the project’s not going until 2013, it’s our intention to
purchase this land and then, are they going to live there for another year or is it our’s? Are they moving
out?
Hoffman: At Bandimere?
Carron: Yeah.
Hoffman: Well this is the back house.
Carron: The back house, right.
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Park and Recreation Commission – January 24, 2012
Hoffman: And the thought would be that when we enter into the purchase agreement, if we have a
willing seller we will work with them to see how long they want to stay there. Is that you know 6
months? A year? 18 months? We, the road project will consume the front lot. Not the back house which
we’re purchasing so we have some leeway to allow them to continue to stay there. And then we are not
scheduled in a CIP item for the improvements for that particular parcel so I think the goal would be to
acquire it. Allow them to live off their time there. Raze the house and then just leave the thin piece of
land waiting for the future project.
Carron: Okay.
Daniel: One more question with regards to Highway 5 project. Yeah, are they going to be shutting down
Highway 5 completely at any point or weekend type of thing?
Carron: Yeah. Depending on the contractor 30 to 60 days.
Daniel: It will be shut down completely?
Carron: Completely.
Daniel: Oh, alright. I think that’s all I have.
Hoffman: You won’t be going that way will you?
Daniel: No. Not at all.
Cole Kelly: A lot of people are going to discover the dirt road.
Hoffman: Yeah.
Daniel: Yeah. Old 18 or whatever it is behind there. Alright. If there’s no other questions I think we’ve
got a busy 2012 coming up here.
Hoffman: Thank you.
Daniel: And thank you Todd for redoing this for us.
RECREATION PROGRAM REPORTS: 2012 FEBRUARY FESTIVAL.
Ruegemer: Do I hear an emcee?
Daniel: No.
Ruegemer: So you’re going to bring up my email today.
Hoffman: Looking for one?
Ruegemer: Yeah, I got one response.
Tom Kelly: I didn’t hear, what happened to Fred Berg?
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Park and Recreation Commission – January 24, 2012
Ruegemer: Well we’re exploring to see if there’s any park commissioners that would like to volunteer
and be the emcee for that event. I’ll stay after the meeting in case you guys want to talk to me about it.
Hoffman: It’s a fun job.
Ruegemer: So just let me know if you guys are interested in that.
Daniel: Butchering all of those last names. That’s a blast.
Ruegemer: That’s easy stuff.
Daniel: Fred has years of doing graduations that he practices these phonetically on.
Ruegemer: You bet. You bet. So like the memo says, we’re busy with all the details of February
Festival. Just working on a lot of the logistics and kind of tweaking some things. Todd and I looked at
the new fish entering system, the spreadsheet and the computer program that we developed. Kind of a
brand new program this year I think that’s going to really streamline the process in getting everything
kind of keyed in and entered in. Sorting. Everything’s hopefully going to be a lot easier this year and it
sure looks like it’s going to be with that so we’ll have printouts of the top 50 fish and hopefully at a
moment’s notice we can gather all the information and hand it out to people kind of staffing the prize
board area. We are going to change the prize board area. The whole board itself this year. We are going,
versus you know having the top 20 with the slots. We’re going to revamp all that and basically blow it up
and make a brand new one and we’re going to have all 50 slots up on one board. They will have
individual.
Hoffman: Hooks.
Ruegemer: You’ll have hooks but.
Hoffman: Placards.
Ruegemer: Like placards that’s dry eraser that we can just write the information on and then we can just,
all the placards will be pre-drilled and then we’ll just then hang them right on you know the basically
teacup hooks or cup hooks. Then when it comes time to rearranging or adjusting the board 1 through 50,
we just basically take them off and adjust and just kind of move them all the way around 1 from 50 so we
thought this through and we’re hoping this will be the answer that we’re looking for. And I think it will
add a lot of excitement too for our guests and participants of the contest. It’ll have everybody’s name.
Hoffman: People want to see their name on that board.
Ruegemer: Yep.
Hoffman: And it’s also a good way to validate the accuracy of what we’ve got going on and the system is
very nice so, and we’re confident that.
Daniel: So there’s no way we can rent a Daktronics high definition doubled sided scoreboard for a day?
Ruegemer: Sure, about 1,500 bucks. We can get anything we want with that. Or more.
Hoffman: And operate in the cold. This is old school.
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Park and Recreation Commission – January 24, 2012
Daniel: I know.
Hoffman: Old school ice fishing contest.
Tom Kelly: It’s better than what it was. Nothing worse than those pieces of paper that were cut just a
little too big. They just couldn’t fit in those slots so this sounds nice.
Daniel: No I go back, I still have the picture one of my first years I did it where I’m, I think it was the
coldest we ever had it. It was below zero wasn’t it?
Hoffman: There was one morning we started at 12 below I know.
Daniel: Yeah.
Ruegemer: So we’re hoping this brand new board, brand new system is going to be you know really
hopefully full proof and be really well received by everybody so it’ll be a lot easier just to write names.
We’ll keep all the placards inside the heated space that we’ll be operating all the computers and printers
and stuff and then we’ll have everything kind of warm. We can write up all the information as far as the
names, the species of fish, hometown, whatever we need to put on these placards. We can you know
write it in that warm area and then take them directly out to the board.
Daniel: Oh that’s better.
Cole Kelly: That’ll be sweet.
Ruegemer: So we’ll have obviously 1 through 50 for that so we’re going to have you know the fish prize
and then the name. Fish prize, name, fish prize, name, so everything will be corresponding to what
number and what prize it is with that so then we just can go all the way around. So hopefully you’ll have
a lot of visual impact on that. We’ll have extra placards. Probably have like 25 or 30 extra besides the 50
up on the board just in case we need some for the future or for the event itself so hopefully we’re going to
be in great shape.
Hoffman: And approximately the first hour we’ll also be posting what fish size no longer is qualifying on
the board and so those will not have to be.
Cole Kelly: Oh that will be real nice. You don’t even have to.
Hoffman: Write them down so about the second hour we won’t be registering a couple hundred fish.
Maybe 50 fish, so that will help.
Ruegemer: So that, we did create like a table top, kind of a little sign for that that we can write the
current weight in, whatever we need to do and just take it off and put it in and put it right on the top so
when people come up to the weigh station they can look. Oh okay, it’s you know .03 perch and I don’t
think mine’s going to make it. We still certainly can weigh it just to validate that. Hey you’ve got a .02
here. It goes back in so then people kind of know again kind of what the lowest weight fish is, you know
1 through 50 and then we can kind of go from there. So hopefully those tweaks and improvements will
improve everybody’s happiness I guess with the event and their overall impression of the event so we’ve
been working hard on that. I’m sure if you’ve seen the Villager we did an insert last week. It’ll be a
display ad this week and another insert next week so we’re really trying to get the word out. We did a
direct mailing to all of our past participants with the database that we have collected for that sending out
information and ticket information. You know again all the prizes, or the tickets are out around town
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Park and Recreation Commission – January 24, 2012
right now at Byerly’s, Cub, Ivan’s, Rec Center, Victoria and Cabin Fever Sports so we’re hoping that
we’ll have a great turnout for that. We’re sitting at oh roughly about 11 inches right now of ice on the
contest area itself.
Hoffman: Conditions on the surface are improving with the last 2 snows. That’s really going to help and
we measured last Friday 10 1/2 to 11 inches in the contest area. The week before that it was 7 to 8 so we
gained 3 a week so we’re estimating we’ll have 14 to 15 inches by the time Feb Fest rolls around.
Daniel: And that includes parking preferred commission parking for assisting on the lake, is that correct?
Hoffman: Sure, come on down.
Daniel: Just want to make sure.
Cole Kelly: 20 inches for your car.
Daniel: Nah. I’ll take 8. It’s company, who cares.
Cole Kelly: It’s shallow.
Daniel: That’s right.
Hoffman: It still is important for footing and then also for the sleigh rides and so it’s nice to see that we
got some snow out there.
Ruegemer: This is the first event to that building kind of the back side of those flyers. We’re going to be
adding logos for our sponsorship program for companies that donated more than $1,000 so we’re putting
in their logos on all the program flyers, our City web page, Connections. All that information so we’re
really trying to get them a lot of bang for their buck and get their logo and get their brand out there so it’s
something we’re just trying to improve our visibility for our sponsors and hopefully they’ll be well
received.
Scharfenberg: Will we have a display out there with their logos as well?
Ruegemer: Yes we will. That’ll be more like on the back side by the prize board area, on the back side
of the fishing. Other than that, I will entertain any questions.
Daniel: Excellent.
Scharfenberg: With the Rotary there, I can’t remember now because it’s changed I think, they are selling
beer?
Ruegemer: Yes.
Hoffman: And spiked hot cocoa.
Ruegemer: Chocolate, yeah.
Daniel: Oh sweet.
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Park and Recreation Commission – January 24, 2012
Tom Kelly: And because it’s a random free drawing for door prizes you’re going to be doing the prizes
throughout the event as opposed to at the end like you do at Fourth of July?
Ruegemer: Yeah, I think what we’re going to do is wait for a while. Kind of for everybody to get a
ticket. We’re going to catch people as they come onto the ice. Kind of by the ticket area you’ll have kind
of a separate area across the way just for, to hand out those door prize tickets and then we’ll also probably
have some available up at the weigh station just in case we miss people. So we’ll distribute that way and
then we’ll start, we’ll come up. I was kind of thinking like a half hour, 45 minutes then we’ll start
drawing.
Tom Kelly: Okay.
Daniel: Alright.
Ruegemer: And just for volunteer opportunities, if commissioners would like to emcee or work the prize
board area. Prize board station, fish area, about 12:00 to 3:00-3:30 would be kind of the prime time for
that to help distribute prizes. Help record fish and that sort of thing. I’ll be glad to take some names
down.
Hoffman: Recorder?
Daniel: Recorder.
Hoffman: Wonderful.
Carron: You got me already.
Hoffman: Great.
Tom Kelly: How about the?
Hoffman: Prize board?
Tom Kelly: Yeah.
Hoffman: Nice. Thanks.
Scharfenberg: Prize board.
Ruegemer: Awesome, thank you. Peter, you going to be there?
Aldritt: No, I’m going to be out of town that weekend so.
Ruegemer: Okay. Awesome. So Cole is going to be fish. Tom is prize board. Jeff, did you say you
wanted to do fish?
Daniel: (Yes.)
Ruegemer: And Steve and Brent didn’t matter?
Carron: Didn’t matter.
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Park and Recreation Commission – January 24, 2012
Ruegemer: Okay. Well we’ll have you guys probably right up in that area too. Maybe put you two back
in fish headquarters. In fact how are you guys in typing?
Daniel: Oh I’m fast.
Ruegemer: Better than this fast?
Carron: Depends if you’ve got to wear mittens or not.
Ruegemer: No mittens. Okay. Well thank you all. We’ll confirm everything and if anything pops up,
you guys have any additional questions let us know.
Hoffman: We’re still waiting to weigh that first northern over 36. Isn’t that the cut off at 36?
Ruegemer: Yep. 24 to 36.
Tom Kelly: Never happened right?
Daniel: Is there even one in that lake?
Hoffman: Oh yes.
Daniel: You think?
Hoffman: Oh yes. They catch them all the time off this pier in the spring.
Daniel: You’re kidding me.
Hoffman: Oh no. There’s big northern in there.
Carron: Be kind of fun catching that 36 inch plus on a little sunfish rod or something. Little Snoopy rod.
Daniel: Alright, well I’m looking forward to it Jerry. Week and a half away right?
Ruegemer: Coming up.
Cole Kelly: That will be fun.
Ruegemer: Are you going this weekend?
Daniel: To Red Lake?
Ruegemer: Yeah.
Daniel: Yep.
2012 COMMISSION COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS: DISC GOLF COURSE, SKATE PARK
RENEWAL, PIONEER PASS PARK AND RILEY RIDGE PARK NEIGHBORHOOD
PLAYGROUNDS.
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Park and Recreation Commission – January 24, 2012
Hoffman: Thanks Chair Daniel, members of the commission. Just ask you to sign up and be involved
directly in these projects. Disc golf will be completed by June or July. Skate park by the end of the
summer and then Pioneer Pass is really a multi-year. Committee will start in the fall and that will
continue in through the installations the spring of 2013 or 2014. Currently Lake Riley is scheduled for
2014 but we will be recommending that that be advanced also to 2013 as a part of your CIP process this
year. That neighborhood is going to fill out just as fast, if not faster as Pioneer Pass and at least every
other homeowner that moves in calls us and asks about what’s going to be in the park. When is the park
going to be built? 2014 is way too far off into the future. They’re really doing well and so it’s good to
see that they’re going to open up their second phase. I know they have at least a dozen, 14 houses sold in
their first one and they have a variety of people on the waiting list for the second phase so, folks are
excited. The park is mostly graded. Ready to go and so this, these two particular committees work with
the neighborhoods to select the playground that will be installed at each park and also works with them on
the neighborhood installation. Since the neighborhood install the playground they get another $5,000 to
$8,000 bump in playground equipment for their value. Going out there and working on a weekend and
installing playgrounds. So similar to what we did in 2005 at these two particular parks. We need 2 or 3
for disc golf, 2 or 3 for skate park and 2 or 3 per neighborhood for the other two. Elise said she would be
willing to work on disc golf and playgrounds.
Tom Kelly: I will volunteer for disc golf as well.
Cole Kelly: I’ll volunteer for disc golf and the playgrounds.
Carron: I’ll volunteer for Pioneer Pass and the skate park.
Aldritt: I’ll do the skate park and disc golf.
Scharfenberg: And I can do skate park and neighborhood parks.
Daniel: Am I even eligible?
Ruegemer: Oh okay. Sorry.
Hoffman: Mr. Daniels is not going to reapply so he’ll be done.
Daniel: Retirement I like to call it.
Hoffman: Yeah, you’re retiring.
Daniel: Yep.
Carron: Really?
Daniel: It’s just going to be busy next couple years so it’s going to be tough. Real tough. So instead of
having a crappy attendance record, it’d be best to get some new ideas. Mine have already rambled on. I
think you’ve heard all my jokes.
Hoffman: Who else do I have on skate park? I have Brent and Steve.
Daniel: Peter.
Aldritt: Yep.
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Park and Recreation Commission – January 24, 2012
Hoffman: And Peter. Okay, on disc golf I have Peter, Tom, Cole and Elise. And on playgrounds Brent,
Steve, Elise and Tom.
Carron: And Cole too.
Hoffman: And Cole, thank you. The five who are going to work on playgrounds will meet as a
committee and then decide who’s going to go where when. The real key to this is to motivate those
neighborhoods to gather around. Support their neighborhood park construction and then select the
playground design. What kind of components do they want? Work through the RFP process and then the
presentations will be made right out in somebody’s home and so you’ll be out right in somebody’s home.
The boards will be presented. They’ll make a recommendation to the park commission and then we’ll
have whoever the designated, selected individual come in. Make a presentation. Talk about their
equipment. If you support that recommendation, you’ll recommend to the council that they go ahead and
buy that playground and have it installed through, they call it a neighborhood install or you know
contractor assisted install. Couple of our crew go out. All the volunteers from the neighborhood. The
commission shows up and they typically work on a Friday night and then finish up on Saturday. It builds
a lot of pride in the neighborhood park system. Ownership in that particular park and it really sets these
off. These playgrounds in these neighborhood parks off on the right foot so it’s an exciting process. It’s
fun to work on and it’s great just to see that competitive process working on behalf of the neighborhood.
You get the most bang for the buck. These playgrounds are probably going to be around $50,000.
$50,000 to $70,000, something in that neighborhood and so some real exciting stuff can happen in that
particular price range.
Scharfenberg: Say Todd, since we’re talking about playgrounds, can you give us any sort of update on
that Pioneer Pass and the whole dirt thing?
Hoffman: I sure can.
Scharfenberg: Where that is.
Hoffman: When they started bringing the excess fill across they realized at one point that it was well
beyond what we had approved as a part of the grading plan so they kept bringing it over and finally called
the City and said we’ve got a little bit of a problem out here. Their engineer would have just liked to kind
of rounded off the corners and called it good but we said that was, we owned the property at that point so
it was owned by the City of Chanhassen. Purchased by a recommendation of this commission through
the council for the, you know the benefit of the public and so we said that dirt’s not going to stay there.
You can’t even see through the park anymore and so we, they countered with a design which we said no,
that’s not acceptable. Then we countered with a design which allowed them to leave a little bit more than
what was in the original plan on but in return for that we wanted them to do some grading improvements,
sub-cut the parking lots. Sub-cut the ballfield, the playground area. Create a couple of berms that will
hold the balls in on the soccer field so we traded and they accepted that. So they closed it up for the
winter. You know disked in some mulch and now next spring we’d like to have them get that out of there
by mid-summer so we can start our final grading and seeding. We would like to see Pioneer Pass and
Riley Ridge next August-September. So then when the playgrounds are to be installed, they’re not being
installed on dirt. They’re being installed on growing grass and so the kids can start utilizing the parks
right away in 2013.
Daniel: Excellent. Alright, are there any questions?
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Park and Recreation Commission – January 24, 2012
Hoffman: …and there will be a meeting electing some Chair people to lead these and then report back to
the commission as we move forward. Some of these are going to go quicker than others. All of them are
going to be exciting. There’s quite a bit of work to do with the skate park. We’ve got to rally up a group
of kids. Probably meet at the Rec Center and see what they want to do at the skate park so that’ll be
exciting. And then these neighborhood parks, once we get out in the neighborhoods and get to start
meeting with these individual neighbors, again they’ll have almost some block captain type of individuals
that will be hosting meetings at their homes and that’s the best way to participate in that. And then again
we’ll bring that back to the council chambers for final review. So thank you for signing up.
Daniel: Okay, thank you Todd. Thank you commission members as well.
COMMISSION MEMBER COMMITTEE REPORTS.
None.
COMMISSION MEMBER PRESENTATIONS.
None.
ADMINISTRATIVE PACKET.
Daniel: Todd, anything you want to highlight in the administrative packet?
Hoffman: Couple of things. The grant award from the DNR, and that’s for the, well this one’s not the
award. This one is the thanks, but no thanks. This is the Rice Marsh loop but then there was a successful
application for the Minnewashta Parkway box culvert to the Arboretum and so some of those dollars will
be coming back through the State for that particular project. And then the Distinguished Service Award,
if you nominate somebody tonight, you can submit that. You have, Chair Daniels you have the official
mailing at your desk. If the commission would like to nominate an individual, you can do so tonight as a
commission and send that.
Daniel: Let’s have that discussion now. If there are any residents who are so deserved, certainly throw
around some names if anybody has an idea. I think last year Steve we.
Scharfenberg: Two years ago.
Daniel: Two years ago, was your wife correct?
Scharfenberg: Yep.
Daniel: Last year we did Dale didn’t we?
Hoffman: Three years ago I think.
Tom Kelly: We had Terry.
Daniel: Terry was last year, yep.
Tom Kelly: And she won, yeah.
Daniel: Well that’s awesome.
Hoffman: You’re not obligated. It’s just an option. A choice.
Daniel: Okay. Any names?
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Park and Recreation Commission – January 24, 2012
Scharfenberg: You know somebody that was a former member of this commission.
Daniel: I know who you’re going to think. I was just thinking that as well. Go ahead.
Scharfenberg: Paula Atkins.
Daniel: Paula Atkins, yep.
Scharfenberg: Who does quite a bit for our community with, was a member of the Park and Rec
Commission for several years. Has served on the, I’m drawing a blank.
Hoffman: Historical Committee.
Scharfenberg: Historical Society. Is involved in the different plays and organizations like that so.
Daniel: I think it’s a great idea because that was, and that was her, she was the first person to come to my
mind because of her commitment to the commission here as well as the community but also the Historical
Society too. Really getting that started. I don’t know if any other commission members know her but she
was on the commission for 6 years?
Hoffman: Sounds about right.
Daniel: For two terms I think.
Ruegemer: Sounds about right.
Daniel: Yeah, I think that’d be a great name.
Scharfenberg: So I would put forth Paula’s name.
Daniel: Alright. I certainly would second that. Should we go ahead and do that?
Scharfenberg moved, Chair Daniel second to nominate Paula Atkins for the Distinguished Service
Award. Council members unanimously agreed.
Daniel: Well I’ll fill out the information and can I collaborate with you with regards to activities, awards
and I think other things that she’s.
Hoffman: Yep, I’ll send it right away and I’ll start in the morning with an email.
Daniel: Do you want me to fill this out right now?
Hoffman: No. You keep it until we collaborate. I’ll send you some stuff. You can fill it out and mail it
in.
Daniel: Excellent.
Hoffman: Thank you.
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Park and Recreation Commission – January 24, 2012
Daniel: Thank you. Alright, let’s go ahead and if there’s no other discussions, let’s go ahead and
adjourn. Let’s get a motion.
Scharfenberg moved, Tom Kelly seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the
motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0. The Park and Recreation Commission meeting
was adjourned at 8:15 p.m.
Submitted by Todd Hoffman
Park and Rec Director
Prepared by Nann Opheim
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