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PRC 2013 01 22CHANHASSEN PARK AND RECREATION COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING JANUARY 22, 2013 Chairman Cole Kelly called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. MEMBERS PRESENT: Steve Scharfenberg, Tom Kelly, Cole Kelly, Brent Carron, and Jim Boettcher MEMBERS ABSENT: Peter Aldritt and Elise Ryan STAFF PRESENT: Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Director; Jerry Ruegemer, Recreation Superintendent; Mitch Johnson, Recreation Supervisor; Jodi Sarles, Recreation Center Manager; and Lindsey Rague, Rec Center Sports Coordinator PUBLIC PRESENT: Adam & Erin Kirsling Jeff Erpelding Jay & Laura Dering Rick T. Kachuk Corey Carney Jason Dvorak Richard J. Chadwick Lana Slygh Emily Robinson Bridget Gallagher Brad Schultz Eric Benson 8828 Bellevue Court 9061 Springfield Drive 380 Chesterfield Lane 8755 Bellevue 8770 Reflections Road 8821 Reflections Road 9530 Foxford Road 350 Chesterfield Lane 8960 Reflections Road 7051 Pimlico Lane 195 Lakeview 242 Lakeview APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Approved as presented. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: Cole Kelly: Okay, I have one announcement to make. I just want to remind everybody that our own Jerry Ruegemer is being inducted into the US SA Hall of Fame this Friday, January 25 and I'm fortunate enough to be at the dinner and I've been bestowed the honor of introducing Jerry, so I'm looking forward to that. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS. None. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Tom Kelly moved, Boettcher seconded to approve the verbatim and summary Minutes of the Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated November 27, 2012 as presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. NEIGHBORHOOD MEETING — RILEY RIDGE PARK. Cole Kelly: Before I get Todd talking about Riley Ridge Park, which is the first feature of new business, I want to welcome all the people here tonight that are interested in being a part of the Riley Ridge Park because that's where you live. Just to give you a quick lesson. We are the Park and Rec Board. We are a recommending authority to the City Council so any decisions we make have to be approved by the City Park and Recreation Commission — January 22, 2013 Council but, so we're here to get going on the park. Make some decisions and then we put our decisions into writing to the City Council and they either approve it or disapprove it and then we move from there. Todd. Hoffman: Thank you Chair Kelly, members of the commission. Just for the audience's knowledge, this board has been working on this park for a couple of years. Before the neighborhood was a neighborhood they were talking with a developer asking about locating a park within this particular property so the commission is very familiar with the site and tonight we would like to go through the park planning to date and then talk about the future. What's going to happen over the next year to 18 months. So you have the presentation that you can take home and share with others. The City has a comprehensive park plan and it says that our park system is a source of community identify and pride. It greatly contributes to the quality of life of our residents. Historically the City has placed a strong emphasis on parks and recreation and we expect that trend to continue into the future. Neighborhood parks are the parks that people use most often. People probably go to state parks or county parks throughout their year as well but you're going to get to your neighborhood park most often. Hopefully you know every week or even every day in some cases. They provide recreation close to home. Chanhassen standard is that most residents should live within walking distance of a neighborhood park. Walking distance in our system is measured as a half a mile radius free of barriers such as major roads or large water bodies or other obstacles. So that's where we're at. For Riley Ridge Park the neighborhood, Reflections at Lake Riley is in this area. The park is a combination of a wetland and then the 4.8 acres of parkland right at this location and it's all located south of Highway 212 and then north of Lyman Boulevard. This is the one half mile service area that is utilized for locating this park. Generally Riley Ridge Park was acquired to service the park, neighborhood park needs of everyone located east of Highway 101, west of the Eden Prairie border and then north of Lyman Boulevard. Springfield is also in that park service area and they will be utilizing the park but primarily it's going to be the folks right in that rectangular area just south of Highway 212. That's a little too fast for reading so we'll have to try to back it up. There we go. Next we'll talk about the City's trail plan. It's outside of the realm of talking about the park but we wanted to educate the neighborhood about that as well, and the City's put significant effort into establishing trails and sidewalks over the last 20 years. Right now we have about a 92 mile trail system within our community and that's growing at an annual basis. The trail system connects neighborhoods to parks, schools, our commercial areas, and civic destinations and we also connect our trail system into adjacent communities. In your area the most common destination would be the City of Eden Prairie's trail system. So that's a small image of our comprehensive trail plan. It's grown and it's networked throughout the entire community. We have copies here so when we take our break after the presentation please pick up a copy of the trail system. It will be the same map as that and so you can start mapping out your walking and running routes from your neighborhoods. This is a new trail that we're currently working on. The park commission and the City Council and the neighborhood park that we're talking about tonight is down here so this is Reflections and what I want you to find, if you haven't already is this Eden Prairie trail system that goes right along Bearpath and then heads east to a bridge underneath Highway 212 and the trail stops there but the City of Chanhassen is going to make this final connection from this point here through the red line and then the orange line this coming summer and once that's built and Eden Prairie makes their final connection you'll have access to a 3 mile trail network around Rice Marsh Lake so once you get to this point, then you're on a 3 mile loop all the way around Rice Marsh. It will be one of the nicest trails in the southwest metro area and so if you're a trail user at all, please take advantage of that. This is how Riley Ridge Park was acquired. Back on February 28 on 2011 the City Council approved the final plat for Reflections at Lake Riley. That included the 4.8 acre neighborhood park. That park was acquired using 3 acres in park dedication and the cash purchase of the last 1.8 acre at a cost of $197,000 for just the 1.8 acres. When a neighborhood is developed we either take parkland or we take park dedication fees. Those fees are $5,800 per home so in this case we took the land instead of the cash and then the $197,000 would come from the park dedication fund, from other homes and businesses that were developed in the community and paid that fee. The adjacent 14.2 acre wetland and open space outlot Park and Recreation Commission — January 22, 2013 brings the total park space in this configuration to 19 acres and always, that's a nice benefit when you combine wetlands and ponding areas to an active park site so the active park site is really the 4 point or 5 acres but you get a 19 acre site in total. This board in concert with the City Council has put $200,000 into our park CIP for 2013 and that's for development, at least the first phase of development of the park. It includes all those items there, planning and surveying, the parking lot, parking lot lighting, a trail. The trail is in place and is being plowed. I know we haven't had much snow since December but it's being plowed so you can utilize that this winter. The basketball court is in. The playground is something that will be purchased using recommendations from the neighborhood, what you would like to see and then we'll put an RFP or Request for Proposal together. We'll mail that out after your February meeting and then that playground will show up here sometime in June and as a neighborhood you'll install it with a trained professional that will be out on site from the playground company. Picnic shelter, $20,000 for that. Tables and benches. Turf establishment. There's some buckthorn removal going, ongoing in the neighborhood, if you've seen that. And then we'll be purchasing some additional trees. So that's the initial budget to develop and that's on top of the dollars that were invested in the acquisition of the park site. The features of the park are that 7 acres of upland. That 12 acres of wetland and ponding. There'll be a playground and swings, a half court basketball, picnic shelter. There's a wooded area that kids and families can play in. An open grass play area. There's a small sledding hill that some of you might have already taken advantage of The walking loop is a quarter mile in the park, in it's current configuration. There's a natural surface trail that will be going, it's in place now but there'll be a trail built that kind of goes over to the north. And then the 10 stall parking lot that's going in. So that's the concept plan as the park will be developed. There certainly could be some minor modifications. There's not a lot of room for alterations in the park but certainly small things could be added throughout time. This is the nature walk. The little trail loop down in this configuration. And there'll be an overlook with a bench located right here so that's a nice walking loop. So what's next and that's why we're here tonight. We need to convene a meeting of neighbors in February to select a desired playground amenities so what would families like to see at the playground, and that meeting can either take place in someone's home or at the Rec Center or here at City Hall, and then staff will distribute the resulting request for proposals from those meetings to playground companies. And then when those come back the neighborhood, you get to select the playground you'd like to see so which one looks the best. Which one provides the most equipment? The most play value and so this is your process. You get to select the playground that's going in your park. Staff will distribute a Request for Proposal for the picnic shelter that will go into the park. In the spring city crews will install that picnic shelter, tables and benches. Then in the summer we need to get the grass established. You probably saw it was seeded late last year. We could not seed in August or first part of September because of the drought and so we dormant seeded it and we're hoping for a good spring growing season to get that grass started. And then neighborhood volunteers will install the playground and in the summer the final layer of asphalt will be installed in the parking lot and striping will go down and then we'll have a grand opening and a ribbon cutting event sometime this summer. So we'll give time for any neighbors to ask questions of the commission or staff so if you have any questions we'll take that time and then after we're done with the formal part of the meeting, question and answers then we'll just break into a more informal setting so thanks for attending tonight's meeting and for those who have questions, please step right up. Ask any questions of the commission or staff if you have any about this park or anything else that goes on in parks and trails in the city I guess. Cole Kelly: At this point since there's no specific questions we're going to suspend the meeting to have some informal discussion about what's going to go on in the park. Meeting is so suspended. The Park and Recreation Commission meeting was recessed at this point for an informal question and answer period with the neighborhood, staff and commission members. Park and Recreation Commission — January 22, 2013 Sarles: Well I'm very happy to introduce our new Rec Center Sports Coordinator, Lindsey Rague. She is currently on her last semester. Rague: Yep Sarles: At Minnesota State Mankato. She's a grad student in sports management. She's also working early mornings over at Watertown Community Ed as their, I wrote it down. It is the Community Health and Wellness Director so she's sharing time with us and we're so happy to have her come here. She's had a lot of experience coaching soccer, and you can definitely see that as she comes and works with the kids so happy to introduce our new coordinator here. Rague: Alright, well there's not much to say after that but I appreciate the opportunity. Everybody that I've met here has just been phenomenal. I feel like I laugh 95% of the day with these guys so I really enjoy my trips back and forth from the Rec Center to City Hall and I've been blessed with open arms. I've gotten, Mitch took me around and introduced me to, it had been like 20 different people one day so I can't tell you anybody's names but I got a lot of smiles and yeah, I just appreciate the opportunity that I've been given to work with you guys and even to participate in this a little bit so thank you very much. Cole Kelly: You're welcome Lindsey. Okay, we lost Todd so I guess Jerry's in charge now. Ruegemer: I move to adjourn. Cole Kelly: You're not that much in charge. 2013 PARK AND TRAIL ACOUISITION AND DEVELOPMENT CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM (CIP) OVERVIEW. Hoffman: Thanks Chair Kelly and commission, the list is a little bit lighter but I think the most important thing to remember is we're doing a whole lot of clean up work from last year still in 2013. Those projects are listed. We have the Highway 41 trail and underpass that we're still finishing up. The Highway 41 trail extension and pedestrian crossing and the stairway connector. Those items, if you're interested as commissioners they'll be on the, what's the next meeting? Next Monday night. The council meeting. They'll be on that work session so if you have a particular interest in either of those two items, the Highway 41 trail extension and ped crossing or the Highover stairway project, we're going to be talking to the council. We have secured three quotes for the stairway. The lowest one is right at $59,000 and then the trail extension and pedestrian crossing is going to be bid as an alternate to the 101 /Pleasant View project so the 101 /Pleasant View Road improvement project, this work over at 41, Highway 41 will be bid as an alternate to that, so we think we'll get better pricing. The trail extension and ped crossing are a pretty small project. The 101 and Pleasant View, there's a lot of traffic improvements and the trail construction going on up there. We've talked about that a couple of years ago probably and then it was hung up in MnDOT and so now that project is going to go out for bid and so the 41 project will be added to that for pricing and then the council will decide if they want to aware that as well. Carron: So Todd, I think we had budgeted somewhere in the neighborhood of about $300,000 for that project and I think the stairway we had like, we were considering somewhere around $100,000 so this, the bid came in at $59,000? Hoffman: Correct. The original estimate, or the original CIP item was $205,000 for both the trail extension and the ped crossing. Well no, the trail extension and the stairway. Then the flashing ped crossing was added, or the flashing beacon was added and that was an additional $30,000 so the original CIP was $205,000 but if you remember the bid was $296,000 I think so I'm pretty confident that at the Park and Recreation Commission — January 22, 2013 $205,000, the $59,000 or $60,000 for the stairway, that will leave $140,000 for the trail extension and the pedestrian crossing. I think that will probably be manageable if that's bid as an alternate to the Highway 101 project so, but again the council has to decide if they even want to do that so that's part of the discussion at the next council meeting during the work session is to talk about what they would like to do. If you recall they rejected all bids at $290,000. They said break these projects out. Find a different way to get them accomplished and so that's what we're presenting back to the council. And then the Bandimere expansion project, we're going to be removing the homes and doing some other work out there. Those are all items that were in the past year but we'll continue to work on them in 2013. The disc golf course, we're bringing in the tee boxes which are going to be some rubber matting material so those will go down in 2013. Specific items in the 2013 CIP are the picnic tables and benches. We also budget that amount so we can, you know we'll be taking a look potentially like in this case if this budget would fall short we would have additional dollars to help out there. And also our memorial bench program, we purchase all benches out of this fund and then we pay it back with the memorial money. Trees budget is at $15,000. Here's that 101 /Pleasant View Road intersection and trail improvements that we just talked about. That's at $95,000 for 2013 and that $95,000 is just in park funds. There's a lot of other money going in there. Road money. That's a much larger project than that $95,000. The $350,000 for Pioneer Pass Park and the $200,000 for Riley Ridge Park, and then the 101 improvements, there's $25,000 on the board there so that's a $7 million dollar project. We're on the hook for $25,000 in park fees to help out with some trail costs. Those are some matching dollars that we need to pay for. And then the revolving assessment fund is basically the street fund and that's paying for the Rice Marsh trail loop extension. The $200,000 that we talked about tonight. Again that project. So that's what's happening in 2013. If you have any discussion or questions we can take that at this time. Cole Kelly: Any questions for Todd? No? I think we're done with that. Thank you Todd. Hoffman: You're welcome. Cole Kelly: Any old business? Anybody have any old business to bring up? RECREATION CENTER REPORT. Sarles: I turned the green light on this time. I'm learning. Thank you Commissioner Kelly. Well you can tell it's cold outside because it's busy inside. We left tonight, the Rec Center, both Lindsey and I and there were people out on the ice skating rinks skating so we're Minnesotans and we're very hardy. We basically have been in the process recently of updating and having security cameras installed so we'll now have views of the hallway, the gymnasium, the fitness center and all the exits coming out of the building on the main exits so that has been installed. All the software is just about fully updated so we can have views on it. It's just, there's just a few updates they need to do so it's finalized but at least now from the front desk people can, we can watch and see what's going on. All the comments that we've received have been extremely positive so, and my staff loves it that they can see all that's going on without you know, when they're not in that room so, that's been a very positive thing and we're very thankful to have those. The facility rentals, there's a survey attached here to the report, if you had a chance to go through. Very happy with the results. You know like I told the staff, we can always get better but we are a Rec Center. We're very busy and certain things we probably won't be able to get rid of the noise. We are a gym and we run a dance program but there are definitely things we can certainly improve on, and then we just take the compliments. It's funny because I did two of these, a different survey for the dance program and the exact same comments so I'm wondering which person that received this that said Chuck is the best because it's shown the exact same comment on two surveys so it's pretty funny. But the affordable fees, 94% return rate for rentals. 94% would recommend the facility so we're very happy about that, and it looks like set up according to specifications, that was our lowest score on one person didn't like it so I'm, we're trying to be more specific with our directions so that everybody knows what to have in the room Park and Recreation Commission — January 22, 2013 and have it available for folks that are renting so, I believe we sent this out to everybody who had rented at least one time received a copy and we received about 40 responses back so it was a good number so, for us. So always things to improve upon but I believe our staff is doing very well out there. It's funny to talk about these things. The winter session of dance, I'm about halfway through now, since we haven't seen each other for a while so we've got about 180 dancers participating. Probably closer to 200 if you count them individually that take a variety of classes. This weekend is our big winter showcase so we'll have two shows at the Rec Center. 1:45 and 3:45 p.m. We do a big kind of a thank you appreciation room so they can get some cookies and punch between the shows, and all the dancers will have a chance to actually be in front of their parents, family, friends for one small performance that happens in the Rec Center gym so it's a fun time. It's great to see how the girls and boy progress throughout the whole year here. You met Lindsey here. Our previous coordinator, Kelsey Kes resigned her position to go full time in Prior Lake so we wish her well and we're very happy that we now have Lindsey Rague with us, and she's the one leading right now our Small Fry's Sports so you throw her into the fire for floor hockey, Small Fry's Sports, some after school things so, and we're doing great. We've added sessions of the Small Fry's Sports in the evening. That's for those 3 and 4 year olds. I got an interesting face when we told her that she was going to have 12 little ones playing basketball that were 3 and 4 year olds and then I said oh just you wait. We're going to be playing floor hockey with those guys soon so what, sticks? So she's doing a great job. Those sessions are all basically soccer's full with waiting lists. Golf is the only one right now that still has a few openings left. Everything's filling so we're trying our best to put more and more out there for the little ones because those seem to be very popular programs. It's nice for the staff because we've now done after school, Small Fry and then what we call Li'l Stars. The 4 to 6 year old sports so they're able to get those hours right consecutively and we had spaced it out before so it's working out well for us here. And we had some skaters out skating tonight. We have, I think we have about 14 skaters in our after school skating program right now so we told them bundle up. We're going to take a bunch of breaks to go inside the warming house but they were within our, we weren't at negative 15 so we were running programs so we're becoming hardier as we go here. I'll let you kind of briefly see our Artisan Fair was another one that was real big. That happened back in November. Sue and I ran a Grandparent and Me Pumpkin Painting. That was back in October so, and then our big punch card sale happened in December and I don't think I've ever given you results on this one but they buy a 40 punch card and they get a 10 punch free and it looks like 94 this year were sold and that was more than last year's of 81 and that was more the previous year of 70 something so it's moving on up and seeing a lot of people coming in to use the facility now. We've got the scheduled dates for the garage sale. March 3rd and the Spring Boutique, April 28 "' so those were popular last year and we're running them again so those will be good days for us where the community come out and, come out to the Rec Center and do some local shopping here. And then as always I give you a little bit of a pickleball update. They've asked me to expand our indoor pickleball courts so I have met with a few of the Southwest Metro Pickleball Association and they, they're looking for more space and more places are filling up and so they're asking me to tear up courts and put down 3 and replace the 2 with 3 so our gym will now have 3 pickleball courts and we'll have open pickleball 1:00 to 4:00 all week long so, Monday through Friday. And that should meet our needs, their needs and fill some space and offer some different programming for folks. And then with that they are going to offer free clinics so folks can come out. Learn about pickleball. The beginners can have one court. The intermediates get a second court and then the advanced folks will get a different instructor so it'll be a nice time to learn their skills, or hone their skills, depending on who comes out so busy times at the Rec Center and we're seeing a lot of fitness folks coming in. I've seen a lot of runners. The treadmills are getting used quite a bit now. I think the negative temperatures have scared people back inside fairly well so. Cole Kelly: And maybe the New Year's resolutions. Sarles: Yes, absolutely. So if you guys have any questions or anything you're interested in or. Park and Recreation Commission — January 22, 2013 Cole Kelly: Anyone have any questions for Jodi? It's a nice report Jodi, thank you very much Sarles: Thank you. Tom Kelly: Just with the cameras, was there an incident or two that prompted you guys to get cameras or did you just think it was just a good idea to do it? Sarles: We have had incidents in the past. We had, it was a couple thefts last year that kind of primed this so now we're able to see, or actually our front desk was broken into and with one person on staff a lot of times, especially over the weekends and things so it's been nice to be able to have that extra security at the Rec Center. So yeah, we had two police calls last year to come out for thefts. And also a lot of people just kind of, you know it won't be in the locker rooms of course but the fitness center, people leave their bag and their purse right on the side and that's, you know we've had those incidents before too. Hoffman: Commissioner Kelly, it's been a conversation for quite some time as well so it's just the cost of installing those was prohibitive but these last couple of incidents really pushed it over the edge so we made that investment. Primarily it has to do with theft from the locker rooms or in this case thefts from the front desk. Two thefts from the front desk and, but then again all, since we've had, when the Rec Center opened we would staff two people and so then you had more control over all the rooms. Now with budgetary needs and only really having one staff person there, you can't be all places at one time. Now these cameras are going to allow a lot more supervision and oversight which will improve the safety and the operations of the Rec Center overall. Cole Kelly: Thanks Todd. Thanks Jodi. Sarles: Thank you. PARK & TRAIL MAINTENANCE. Cole Kelly: Let's see here. Dale couldn't be here tonight so why don't you look over the park and trail maintenance report and any questions you have for Todd, you can direct to him and he can answer to the best of his ability. Todd, it looks like we've got a lot less Sentence to Serve. We got a couple days. I think in the past we've had a lot more than a couple days. And is that from the budget cuts you talked about in the past and what does that look like in the future? Hoffman: From what Dale has been telling me, they'll be back as much as we need them per their scheduling so that program was on the chopping block at their funding level but it's back so we're happy to report that STS will be working in town. I'm not sure why they just work 2 days this year but they come to town and they really enjoy it and we use them as much as we can get them. Cole Kelly: Any other questions for Todd? SENIOR CENTER REPORT. Cole Kelly: Otherwise we'll move onto the senior center and Sue had a flight in tonight so it looks like it was delayed and she couldn't be here so look it over. If you have any questions, Jodi might be able to answer them. Hoffman: Between the three of us. We work with Sue every day. As commissioners I encourage you, contact Sue when you see a program of interest and just stop out and call Sue. Contact her. Send her an email and say, just interested in this. Sitting down with those folks and having a conversation with our Park and Recreation Commission — January 22, 2013 seniors that come to the Senior Center is really enjoyable. What you'll find is these people primarily spent their entire life in Chanhassen. Raised their family here. Now they're continuing to be a member of our community. Paying taxes for other kids to go to schools and to pay for other city services and so they really find that this is their way of still maintaining some sense of a service level in the community and then getting together and continuing those community connections and so take that opportunity. Stop down. Visit the wood carvers or just sign up for a class. We'll send you off on a bus trip or we'll let you participate in continuing education. Just get to know the senior center. It's a fun place to be. Cole Kelly: Yes I was, in November I was able to go to a lunch at the senior center and you know just the people at my table, like you said, long time Chanhassen residents and we even knew some people in common because of being related to my wife's family somewhere along the line. It was kind of interesting. Hoffman: Great, thank you Cole. Cole Kelly: Thank you Todd. RECREATION PROGRAM REPORTS: TREE LIGHTING EVALUATION. Ruegemer: Thanks Chair Kelly. Just want to go through the 2012 Tree Lighting evaluation. That event was held, it seemed like quite a while ago now. December 1S Right after Thanksgiving here so Beyond the Yellow Ribbon sponsored a family to flip the ceremonial switch to illuminate City Center Park and that was really a nice touch. The family had a great experience with that and it was a wonderful experience so I'm sure that will continue into the future. Buy Chanhassen, the group from Buy Chanhassen were responsible for kind of getting all the food and drink together for that. That was Vernelle Scott, or excuse me, Vernelle Clayton and Joe Scott so they've been in the community a long time. Really have Chanhassen in their heart and they continue to be the representatives for Buy Chanhassen so they do a great job and they contact different groups out there for donating cookies and coffee and that sort of thing here so. A bonfire is always nice on a warm, excuse me, to warm up on a cold night so it's always very much enjoyed for that. The Mustard Seed Landscaping and Garden Center continues to provide one of their employees as Santa Claus for the event, and Mark brings his reindeer down here for that so that is at no cost to the City. That is something that they volunteer on an annual basis so it's really a fun way to kind of kick off the holiday season with that so we're very appreciative of Mark and the Mustard Seed Landscaping and Garden Center. Carolers again were provided by Living Christ Lutheran Church of Chanhassen so that's been a number of years consecutively that they have offered that service. Just gives it a real kind of fun and festive atmosphere for that to kind of have the caroling going on throughout the park during the event. The gingerbread house display, I think we had four this year for that. It's always amazing the level of detail that some of the individuals do for that so kind of a cool event. You know the tree lighting ceremony is really a, gives us kind of a lot of bang for our buck. It looks like we spent about $114 on the event for over 500 people to come out and enjoy a nice Saturday evening with their friends and family and neighbors out there so it's been a great tradition for our community dating back to the late 80's, early 90's with that and I think people look forward to it on an annual basis so you know, Dale and the crew do a fantastic job with getting all the lights and everything kind of ready to go for the park for the event so it's beautiful. We get lots of positive comments on the beauty of the park throughout the course of December and into early January after the first of the year so. If the commission has any input or suggestions for staff to put down for the 2013 event, staff would entertain that discussion at this point. Park and Recreation Commission — January 22, 2013 Cole Kelly: Any questions for Jerry? Thank you Jerry. We'll bring you right back up for Dance Party on Ice. DANCE PARTY ON ICE REPORT. Ruegemer: Dance Party on Ice was within the last couple of weekends here. We seem to be challenged with weather at that event. Hoffman: 7 degrees and 10 miles an hour. It was warm Ruegemer: That's a heat wave. Well we were kind of fighting warmer temperatures at that point leading up to the event. I think we had 40's and the, we definitely had some self leveling going on at that point with the rain and temperatures with that but it did turn cold that day. We actually did have a decent amount of participants that day for that. Again we have a live DJ out there and play games and have just a lot of fun. Seems to be kind of a nitch market age group wise for that so we'll continue to kind of market for that particular age. We always have refreshments. We did add some apples and bananas this year to try to offer a healthier alternative beyond the cookies and hot chocolate so a few kids took some but we tried. That's all we can do but you know just some recommendations for next year again. Maybe potentially look at some colored bulbs here for the rink lights so I'm sure Dale and the crew would be happy to hear that suggestion but we're going to take a look at that for next year. Kind of give it a little bit more ambience. Kind of a little more fun. And then just continue to have games and music and that sort of thing and look for additional ways to reduce the cost of the event so. And again staff would entertain any comments or discussion. Boettcher: What has been the attendance in the past? Ruegemer: Less than 32. Boettcher: So this was actually. Ruegemer: It actually was quite a big a better year. This year, and you know it's, a lot of it is weather dependent. You know a lot of people weren't signing up prior to just with the weather leading up to that and you know other years it's been kind of like now with kind of colder temperatures and high wind type of thing so you know we'll take a look at it again for next year and that may include eliminating the program as well so. Cole Kelly: Thank you Jerry. And Jerry we'll bring you right back up for what's coming up in a couple weekends. 2013 FEBRUARY FESTIVAL PREVIEW. Ruegemer: Feb Fest is coming up here before you know it. It's our 20 annual celebration so that's coming up really fast. Just, if you've noticed in your Villager's we've been advertising the event through display ads and inserts into the paper with schedule of events, that sort of thing so Amy Lloyd, our new staff person, kind of our communication person has really done a bang up job on kind of jazzing up the flyers and consolidating a little bit here and there. We've really been trying to make an effort of getting certain sponsors at certain dollar amounts. Their logos in all of our promotional material and that's been a huge plus for us to go out and kind of show everybody here's your logo and they're getting a lot more bang for their buck and they feel good about contributing to the City and our events so it's been a really great thing. Mitch has done a great job on getting out and getting some additional sponsors with that. A lot of the events are the same this year. Obviously the main focus is the ice fishing contest with that. Park and Recreation Commission — January 22, 2013 That's 1:00 to 3:00 down on the ice at Lake Ann. We're roughly sitting at about 14 or probably 15 inches of ice currently for that so hoping for a little more snow cover to make the surface a little bit more tacky and not as slippery but we have a little bit of time here to hopefully make that happen. Hopefully Mother Nature will oblige us with that request but you know we'll be having the sleigh rides again. A lot of the same players will be involved. The Friends of the Library will not be sponsoring the medallion hunt. That will be the Chanhassen Beyond the Yellow Ribbon committee or group this year will be sponsoring that so we'll kind of be helping them out with that this year with getting clues on our webpage and that sort of thing here as well. So we eliminated the Bingo in the tent. The main tent so we downsized our tent and we're trying to save a little bit of the expense on that as well so. The Chanhassen Rotary will be involved again as one of the sponsors selling beer and also Culvert's will be out there serving food and that sort of things so we appreciate everybody's efforts on that. We'll get some volunteer opportunities out to you in probably the form of an email with that so with different shifts and that for the door prize area and fish station for that so you know we have a lot of great prizes already this year. The tickets have been out in the street for a while now so feel free to give us any comments leading up to the event. We've been tweaking our computer program to make it a little bit more streamline the day of the contest and the event. We kind of took some information that we had last year and simplified things a little bit and made it a little bit hopefully more streamline to make data entry a lot easier and print off some additional reports. I don't know if you remember, people remember last year that we had I think some, with the top 50 prizes I think we ended up to be 51 for some reason so we're going to have the report print off the top 55 so if we have to kind of keep going down the line we'll have that person right away. Then we can allocate the prize and that sort of thing so we don't have to you know grab that person's name. Mail it out at a later time. We'll just take care of it at that point so we're just trying to kind of look ahead and try to kind of tweak and add things to kind of cover certain scenarios and that sort of thing so. Rick Rice, our head of our IT department has been extremely resourceful in that area and Mitch and I have been having some meetings in Rick's office the last couple weeks here to kind of go through everything and hopefully we'll have a great event this year. The printed reports I think were a welcomed addition last year. Made it really easy, as far as sorting and that sort of thing with certain tabs on the Excel computer program so, it will work out good. Cole Kelly: So do you have that great warming house again that we had last year? Ruegemer: We do have another warming house. A fishing house available to us to be kind of the tournament headquarters so we can type in luxury back there. Warmth and luxury so. Tom Kelly: We'll still have the big board. Ruegemer: Absolutely. Hoffman: Yep Ruegemer: And Mitch did some additional signage this year. Kind of bigger banners for more identification. Fish station. Door prizes. You know fish prize, that sort of thing here that will be kind of displayed throughout the contest area itself. Cole Kelly: So when people sign up for this, or people who have done it in the past, do you get their email addresses so you can email them when the tournament comes up again the next year? Ruegemer: We actually have a mailing database that we send out to past participants and that letter went out oh probably a couple weeks ago at least at this point. Hoffman: It leads to way over 50% of repeat customers 10 Park and Recreation Commission — January 22, 2013 Ruegemer: Yeah. I want to say it's over 900 people I believe at this point just that goes out every year so. Scharfenberg: Do you have an emcee for this year? Ruegemer: I believe we do. Cole Kelly: I think we do. Except it's going to be a little bit different format this year. Hoffman: Your's truly, Cole Kelly. Ruegemer: So if any of the Park and Rec Commissioners have any comments leading into the event, we certainly would be happy to hear those and we'll certainly talk about it before, during and after so you know observe as you're out there that day and see what looks good. What could use a little tweaking and staff will be all ears during the evaluation process. Boettcher: Do you have a, does your scale hook right up to the computer so it enters, controlled? Is it a digital scale or? Ruegemer: It will be a digital scale but it will be manual, we're actually, we're kind of talking about some type of a bar scanning system but that's going to be way down the road. Boettcher: The fish don't have bar codes. Ruegemer: No, we're going to talk to the DNR about that. So we get them out there and we'll just scan them just like at Cub Foods. Boettcher: We've tried that in bass tournaments. It doesn't work. The 50 prizes, I guess they're given out. First place gets the most valuable, all the way down. You kind of adhere to that? Ruegemer: For the most part but yeah, like Todd said it is kind of random and you know 50' prize may be an auger or some other type of bigger prize. We try to kind of alternate it like every, you know 15, 20, 25, somewhere in that range to kind of make it a little more interesting so if you're at the top or the bottom or in the middle you still have a decent chance to get a pretty decent prize. Based on skill level of course, and a little luck. Boettcher: How did you get all these prizes? I mean that's, I've been in these type of operations many times. I've never, I was looking at the quality of this stuff last night and you have some pretty impressive items. Ruegemer: You know we're extremely lucky to have a business community that is very generous and if you see the prizes here, you know Merlin's Ace Hardware is a big contributor of that and kind of what happens between Christmas and New Year's, Kent says come on down. The owner of Merlin's said come on down and we'll just start shopping and it seemed like every year, I think the total dollar amount this year was around $1,800 to $2,000 that he donated for this event so a lot of times you know I think he really enjoys you know kind of going through that process. They'll go in the back and maybe grab some things that didn't sell that he kind of has allocated for that and he'll just go, go grab some DeWalt power tools. Go grab whatever you want to and start bringing it up here and we'll keep ringing it up and Kent and Debbie Lufford have been really great sponsors of our's for a long time so next time you're in there, 11 Park and Recreation Commission — January 22, 2013 please feel free to thank them on behalf of the Park and Rec Commission for their generous contributions on an annual basis. Cole Kelly: Great. It's always a fun and exciting event. I'm looking forward to it. Thank you Jerry. Hoffman: We need all the help we can get. Come on down. Work the board. Also take the time to thank the Rotary. They're there every year helping the sponsors serve the concessions so be an ambassador for the event and go around and greet those folks as well and say thank you. Cole Kelly: Great, thank you. COMMISSION MEMBER COMMITTEE REPORTS. None. COMMISSION MEMBER PRESENTATIONS. Tom Kelly: Not a presentation but all I want to say is thank you for inviting the commission to the holiday party this year. It was a lot of fun. It was a great location so it was a great idea so I just want to say thanks for that. Hoffman: You're welcome. ADMINISTRATIVE PACKET. Cole Kelly: Anything in the Administrative Packet you want to point out to us Todd specifically? Hoffman: Specifically the Rice Marsh, Rice Lake Preserve development so this is just north of Highway 212 at the same location that we talked about today. There's proposed 15, might be 17 lots in it's current proposal. It's bounced around. This is one of those interesting properties that does not have a park within the service area. Rice Marsh Park as the crow flies would be but when you have to get on the trail it gets quite a bit longer than half a mile. We would be seeking fees in lieu of park dedication. The one things these folks will have access to is that 3 mile trail loop and so they have very convenient access to that and we will be spending all of their money and more on that trail to get it built so it's not like they're not getting their money's worth out of their local neighborhood. Scharfenberg: Plus they can ride over to Eden Prairie and use their park. Hoffman: Yep, right around the corner. Cole Kelly: Anybody else, questions or comments on anything? Okay. Anybody want to entertain a motion? Scharfenberg moved, Tom 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. Submitted by Todd Hoffman Park and Rec Director Prepared by Nann Opheim 12