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PRC 2013 04 23 CHANHASSEN PARK AND RECREATION COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING APRIL 23, 2013 Chairman Kelly called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. MEMBERS PRESENT: Cole Kelly, Steve Scharfenberg, Elise Ryan, Brent Carron, Jim Boettcher, Rich Echternacht, and Luke Thunberg STAFF PRESENT: Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Director; Jerry Ruegemer, Recreation Superintendent; and Mitch Johnson, Recreation Supervisor PUBLIC PRESENT: Laurie Susla 7008 Dakota Avenue Kelly: Welcome to the two new members of the commission. I guess we got the roll call. The first thing we do is we nominate a Chair for the new season, 2013 to 2014. Nominations are open. Carron: I’ll nominate Cole Kelly. Kelly: Is there a second? Ryan: I’ll second that. Boettcher: I’ll second that. Kelly: Are there any other nominations? Seeing there are no other nominations and we had a second, we’ll take a vote. Carron moved, Ryan seconded to nominate Cole Kelly as Chairman of the Park and Recreation Commission for 2013-2014. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 7 to 0. Kelly: Now we need to nominate a Vice Chair. Nominations are now open. Carron: I’ll nominate myself. Boettcher: I’ll second it. Kelly: We have a nomination for Brent and a second. Are there any other nominations? Carron moved, Boettcher seconded to nominate Brent Carron as Vice Chairman for the Park and Recreation Commission for 2013-2014. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 7 to 0. APPROVAL OF AGENDA: The agenda was approved as published. Park and Recreation Commission Meeting – April 23, 2013 PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: th Hoffman: Public announcements, we do have the Arbor Day event coming up on May 4 at Lake Susan Park. We’re trusting that the weather will warm up sufficiently for the nursery to get in and dig the trees and that event starts that morning 9:00 a.m. at Lake Susan Park so if you can join the crew down there to plant some trees around the ballfield and other areas in Lake Susan Park, please do so. Kelly: Todd, what happens if the weather doesn’t warm up or the ground’s still frozen or? Hoffman: That’s up to Jill Sinclair. She might postpone it but I’m thinking with the forecast that we’re seeing now, hopefully they’ll be out there planting trees. Kelly: Okay, thank you. Carron: Todd, what’s the time of that event again? Hoffman: 9:00 a.m. Meet at the shelter and the trees will be delivered. I believe about 20 trees are going to be planted that morning in Lake Susan Park. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS: None. APPROVAL OF MINUTES:Carron moved, Scharfenberg seconded to approve the verbatim and summary minutes of the Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated March 26, 2013 as presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 7 to 0. CITY COUNCIL APPOINTMENT OF COLE KELLY AND RICK ECHTERNACHT TO THREE YEAR COMMISSION TERMS AND LUKE THUNBERG TO A ONE YEAR COMMISSION TERM. Kelly: Congratulations on your appointments. Echternacht: Thank you. Thunberg: Thank you. REVIEW MODIFICATION TO PARK AND RECREATION COMMISSION BY-LAWS ADDING A YOUTH MEMBER(S). Hoffman: Thank you Chair Kelly, members of the commission. This was an interest that was expressed by the City Council to see youth members added to perhaps more than one commission in the city but starting with the Park and Recreation Commission. It might be either one or two youth members depending on how many applicants and qualified applicants apply. These would be youth from our community. Chanhassen residents. 16, 17 or 18 years of age and they’ll be applying once you approve these modifications to the By-laws, they’ll be applying in the next few weeks. If there are more than 5 candidates then you will be interviewing to take that pool of candidates down to a maximum of 5 to be recommended to the City Council. If 5 or less apply then the City Council will be interviewing those candidates directly and then making an appointment or appointments to be a member of the Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission. These youth will have the same voting privileges and the same job description of the, regular Park and Recreation Commission members so I’m not quite sure if we’re going to sit them up there or it’ll get a little bit crowded depending on if we get 1 or 2. If we get 2 we’ll probably have to sit them off to the side. One, we might be able to squeeze them up onto the podium so 2 Park and Recreation Commission Meeting – April 23, 2013 that was discussed by the City Council and their direction is to move forward so in order to have that happen we have to have the commission approve the modifications to the By-laws. Adding 1 or 2 youth members to the commission and those changes are made in the packet that we have here and we have a press release drafted and ready to go tomorrow if the commission approves those changes. Boettcher: Todd, what was going to be the age? Hoffman: 16, 17 or 18. Boettcher: Okay, thank you. Ryan: And could you give a little background on how this came up? Kelly: I’ll address that first, and you can add to it Todd if you like. I got a call from the Mayor about 3 weeks ago and so the City Council apparently had been tossing it around and he wanted my opinion on it and we talked. You know we tossed around the idea of whether they should be a voting member or non voting member and we decided that if it was to be an experience for these people and they were not a voting member it’d make it harder to have a true experience so we came up that if we do add they have to be voting members and the, I think Todd might have pointed out. They have tried this before. Hoffman: There has been a youth commission at the school district level and, but not at the city level. Kelly: Not here, okay. And so it’s something that the council is quite interested in doing to you know promote youth being part of the parks and recs and what’s going on and so they asked us to make some changes. And he also said that he’d like to see you know one, depending upon how many we get, one or two people you know kind of watch over the new school kids. Echternacht: Little bit of mentoring? Kelly: Yeah, mentoring. Thank you. That’s the word I’m looking for and I said I’m sure we can find one or two, and I actually have some people in mind unless other people decide that they want to do it so, so that’s where it started at least 3 weeks ago as far as I knew about it. Anything you want to add to it Todd? Echternacht: Todd you mentioned a press release. Are they going to also present it at the, just the high school itself too besides in the newspaper I assume? Hoffman: We’ll send a press release to the, all the high schools or majority of the high schools that Chanhassen kids do attend and then we’ll publish that in the paper. There are home schooled kids that can apply as well. Echternacht: And the determination between 2 to 5, is that going to be what we decide here or based upon the number of applications? Kelly: I’m sorry, I didn’t quite catch. Echternacht: How many were going to be appointed? Kelly: Two. One or two. Echternacht: Oh, okay. I misunderstood. 3 Park and Recreation Commission Meeting – April 23, 2013 Kelly: We’re going to appoint one or two depending upon the interest and the interviews, and I think what Todd said before, if more than 5 kids apply then we do the interviewing. If 5 or less apply, then the City Council’s just going to do the interviewing. Echternacht: Okay. Hoffman: And the City Council will make the final determination. If you interview 10 and recommend 5, then they interview those 5 and they make the final appointments. Ryan: And will they be contacting you Todd about applying? Hoffman: Yes. They’ll apply online just like the regular application. Thunberg: What would the term be for those? Is it also 3 years or would we do one? Hoffman: One year. Yeah. April to March. Kelly: Any other questions? Any other discussion? Any motions? Carron: I’ll make the motion that the Park and Recreation Commission approve the modification to the By-laws adding one or two youth members to the commission. Kelly: Is there a second? Ryan: Second. Kelly: There is a second to the motion. All those in favor say aye. Scharfenberg: Wait, wait. Kelly: Oops, sorry. Scharfenberg: Point of order before we vote. Under Section 3. 3.1 talking about, it says commissioners shall be appointed by the council and may be removed by the council. Does that include youth members? I mean youth members isn’t included in shall be appointed by. Shouldn’t that be amended to include? Kelly: A youth member would be considered a commissioner and it does say commissioners. Scharfenberg: Where does it say that? Kelly: You said 3.1? Scharfenberg: Right. Kelly: The commission may also appoint one or two youth representatives, however they will be considered full voting commissioners. And then the line after that says, commissioners shall be appointed by the council and may be removed by the council. 4 Park and Recreation Commission Meeting – April 23, 2013 Scharfenberg: Well it just says, it doesn’t. Well, I guess there is no definition I don’t think of commissioner. I didn’t necessarily consider the youth representatives to be commissioners. I thought they were just youth representatives. Kelly: Well they’re going to have full voting rights so I would consider them a commissioner. But maybe we do make the change there. I do consider that if they’re going to be a voting member they’re a commissioner. If you’re not a voting member then you’re not a commissioner. Echternacht: The second line we’re talking about youth representatives. It says one or two youth representatives will be voting members but we’re not calling them commissioners at that point. So we need to either change the word representative to commissioners. Youth commissioners and then state commissioners and youth commissioners should be appointed. Kelly: So Steve, give me some wording. Scharfenberg: Well all I was thinking of is that, in that sentence where it says additionally the commission may also have one or two youth representatives who shall also be voting members period. Commissioners and youth, I would suggest the term and youth representatives shall be appointed by the Council and may be removed by the Council. Kelly: That could be redundant but I think that’s fine to add it that way. Scharfenberg: Okay. Carron: Steve, just to back you up here. 3.2, it says youth commissioners. Scharfenberg: Okay. Carron: So maybe we just, or you can change representative to commissioner throughout too. Scharfenberg: To the term youth commissioners. Carron: Take out representatives and replace with commissioner. Scharfenberg: Okay. Ryan: So then the second line under 3.1 should say additionally the commission may also have one or two youth commissioners. Carron: Right. Right. Ryan: So wherever it says youth representative we’ll change to youth commissioner. Carron: Right. Kelly: Any other points of order? Scharfenberg: And the only reason Cole I think that that clarification needs to be made is because for purposes of if you consider them commissioners, then if you’re talking about a quorum, then they would constitute a quorum if we’re not here but then you know in 3.3 it talks about four Park and Recreation 5 Park and Recreation Commission Meeting – April 23, 2013 Commission members so I just wanted to make sure that you know, that they’re not necessarily making that a quorum when a bunch of us are gone. I don’t know that that’s necessarily a good thing either so. Kelly: Right. I would agree with that so then. Echternacht: By calling them youth commissioners that is different than commissioners. Scharfenberg: Right. Echternacht: So 3.3 would still be good. Scharfenberg: Yeah. Kelly: So then you’re going back to wanting to call them youth representatives if you don’t want them to be part of the quorum? Scharfenberg: No, no, no. I think they can be called youth commissioners. Kelly: Okay. Echternacht: Yeah. Scharfenberg: But for purposes of 3.3, you know we’re talking, it says four Park and Recreation Commission members. We could also change 3.3 to read, you know and add not youth commissioners shall constitute a quorum. I think that’s a little redundant but. Kelly: But I think that’s a good change. I think that’s a point well taken because we would want to have at least four of the regular seven commission members here to have a quorum. Scharfenberg: Right. Kelly: And we could end up having 2 of us and 2 youth people and that would be considered a quorum if we don’t make the change. Scharfenberg: Correct. Echternacht: Well we could just in that 3.3 just say four Park and Recreation Commission commissioners rather than youth commissioners. If we just use the word commissioners and the other lines we’re stating youth commissioners versus commissioners so we can just change the word members to commissioners. Ryan: So it should just read four Park and Recreation Commission commissioners. Echternacht: Correct, shall constitute. Ryan: Shall constitute. Kelly: I’m not sure that goes far enough because a youth commissioner is a commissioner. Technically speaking so I think I would add that. Scharfenberg: I mean you could add a sentence at the end of 3.3 to say, a youth commissioner is not part of the four for a quorum. 6 Park and Recreation Commission Meeting – April 23, 2013 Kelly: Right. I think that would be, that would take out any. Echternacht: Any questions. Kelly: Any question. I think that’s a better way to go. Scharfenberg: Okay. Ryan: Then for 3.1, and it says the commission shall consist of 7 voting members. Does that number need to change? Hoffman: It should say 7 and 9. Echternacht: Todd did you say make that 7. Hoffman: To 9. Echternacht: Yeah, to 9. Not changing the 7 to a 9 but 7. Hoffman: 7 to 9. There may be a point where these youth commissioners come on and drop off, depending on what’s going on in their lives and so. Kelly: And that’s one of the reasons why we’re doing one year terms because the same commissioner could be reappointed but you know kids that age have different things pushing on their lives at different times. Okay, any other points of order or changes we need to make. Hoffman: I think it’s important to clarify, this is like a 50/50 deal. The council feels that this is training these youth, educating these youth, mentoring these youth on the role of local government as much as they can contribute their viewpoint to the commission so that’s important when each of you, one of you pick up either one or both of these students as a mentor and that’s what the Council’s expectations are that you’re assisting them to understand the process but then they can also offer a youth perspective into each one of the issues that we deal with. Kelly: Okay I think the, unless there’s any other changes. I think the motion needs to be restated. Scharfenberg: Okay, well I would move adoption of the proposed motion to approve modifications to the By-laws including the suggestions and recommended changes under 3.1 which should read, the commission shall consist of 7 to 9 voting members. Additionally the commission may also have one or two youth commissioners who will serve, who shall also be voting members. Commissioners and youth commissioners shall be appointed by the Council and may be removed by the Council. And then on 3.3, it would be changed from commission members to just commissioners with an additional sentence added into 3.3 to read, that the necessary four commissioners for a quorum does not include youth commissioners. With that I would move for adoption of the motion. Kelly: Is there a second? Echternacht: I’ll second it. Kelly: There’s a motion and a second in front of the board. I don’t think there’s any more points of order so we’ll go ahead and vote. 7 Park and Recreation Commission Meeting – April 23, 2013 Scharfenberg moved, Echternacht seconded that the Park and Recreation Commission approves the modifications to the Bylaws adding one or two youth members to the commission with changes to the following items: 3.1Composition: The commission shall consist of seven (7) to nine (9) voting members. Additionally, the commission may also have one or two youth commissioners who shall also be voting members. Commissioners and youth commissioners shall be appointed by the Council and may be removed by the Council. 3.3 Quorum: Four (4) Park and Recreation Commission commissioners shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. Whenever a quorum is not present, no final or official action shall be taken at such meeting. The necessary four (4) commissioners for a quorum does not include youth commissioners. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 7 to 0. DISCUSS RESULTS OF JOINT MEETING WITH CITY COUNCIL, ESTABLISH 2013 COMMISSION GOALS. Kelly: I guess do we want to look at, do we want to look at adding some things to the CIP down the road or do we just want to investigate some things? I think at this point the lighting is something that we’d want to investigate. I wouldn’t want to throw it into the CIP down the road at this point and the City Council wanted us to look at it for Bandimere so I think we should direct staff to check out what the cost would be at Bandimere. And then at that point we can come back with discussion on that and see where the CAA might want to partner with us and maybe some other groups may want to partner. Anymore discussion? Scharfenberg: Well commissioner, Chair Kelly when you say staff investigate lighting at Bandimere, I think we need a little more clarification as to exactly what that means. Are we talking just ballfields because you know we’re talking adding hockey you know at some point in the next couple years and that’s going to be lit as we kind of discussed last night and you know potentially maybe one or several soccer fields so I know in the context of last night we were talking ballfields. Kelly: No, they also mentioned soccer fields. Scharfenberg: No yeah, I know they meant that. They talked about that. I mean we all got the impression I think from talking to council last night that they’re looking at multiple purpose use of doing the lighting that we can maximize space and to do that I don’t think it’s lighting Lake Susan is going to provide you know maximum usage. So you know clearly it makes sense to do it at Bandimere at some point to maximize that usage, not only from the baseball perspective but soccer, lacrosse you know on those other fields and then hockey and tennis courts you know as that stuff gets lit. I think we as a commission need to decide, you know in terms of CIP, you know is that something that we want to do as we discussed off the record last night there’s, you know the possibility of levying for that money as some of levies come off in the next couple years for the City that maybe we look at you know doing a levy to do something like that. Do we do a levy versus putting it in the CIP? It’s going to be expensive, we know that. Kelly: We know that and that’s why I think. Scharfenberg: It’s going to be huge. 8 Park and Recreation Commission Meeting – April 23, 2013 Kelly: That’s why I’m interested in having staff, and your point well taken. We’re looking at I think multiple fields for softball and both the soccer fields and we’re eventually I think, the plan Todd is when the hockey rink is built, will that have lights that go with it? Is that the idea? Hoffman: Yeah, the lights would go up simultaneously at the time of construction. Kelly: So my thought is we get, we have what, 3 softball fields over there? Hoffman: Three ballfields. Scharfenberg: No, 2 baseball. Echternacht: Two baseball and one softball. Kelly: Two baseball and one softball. Hoffman: Three soccer/lacrosse. Kelly: So, where’s the lacrosse field? Hoffman: Well soccer multiple use, yeah. Kelly: Oh okay, the same as. Echternacht: Soccer’s one and two. I mean one separate from the other two. Hoffman: Yeah. Kelly: I think we did have staff break it down into here’s a plan and the cost for the softball fields. Here’s a plan and the cost for the soccer fields and here’s, you know the deal with the hockey rink’s a different, little different deal and I don’t know if we dig into that now or not if you want to but until we have that information I think it’s very difficult to say I want to throw this into the CIP or I want to have a levy or, I mean there needs to be more discussion on it but we have to have an idea of what the costs are, and I’ve got ideas off the top of my head but that doesn’t mean they’re right. Scharfenberg: Right. Ryan: But don’t you think also look at usage as well. I mean that was a concern last night, or part of the discussion last night was usage so in addition to the cost, when you’re looking at soccer fields and baseball fields, let’s get a better understanding of usage of the fields. Kelly: Oh I agree and that’s where we’re going to have to have Jerry Ruegemer weigh in and advise us. You don’t have to do that now but you know when we’re talking about the lights, we need to talk about the usage. How often do you rest fields? How often more will you have to rest fields if we’re adding light time? You know you’re adding another game a day. What does it do to your fields and you know as Todd said yesterday, if there’s a down pouring rain you’ve really got to stop what’s going on because it could wreak a field for a year so I think there are a lot of issues that we need to look at and then figure out what is best for the city of Chanhassen and what’s the best way to pay for it if we decide that it should be added in one form or another. 9 Park and Recreation Commission Meeting – April 23, 2013 Scharfenberg: Do we as a commission owe something to Todd and the CAA to at least get back to them and let them know you know from our perspective that you know we talked to council about this and we’re not going to be, at least at this point, we’re going to be investigating that but it’s not something that’s going to happen right away you know in terms of Susan. Hoffman: And we don’t know. We’ll include Susan in on the conversation. We have the cost for the new addition to Bandimere Park so I can provide that to you with all of these other costs as well. Getting cost estimates, not a real complicated process. We can provide that for you and we’ll get that information to you before your CIP conversation so you can start trying to figure out, we’re going to be way into the two, three, four million dollar range when we’re talking about a CIP in the million and a half dollar range so, there’s going to be a lot of things that get sifted out pretty early on. The first question, if you turn your attention towards Bandimere is what would you do first. Would you do the expansion first or would you do lighting first and leave the expansion for later and so that’s what these numbers are going to start to show you. The expansion in estimate terms is about a million to a million and a quarter to do that expansion of tennis, hockey, parking, warming house, lights and so you could do that or you could probably, you know you can certainly light all six fields for that and just leave that expansion for later so we’ll get all those numbers out to the commission. You can talk about those and it’d be good information for the City Council as well. Scharfenberg: Todd a question, is there, when they tear down the houses and they do the work around Bandimere coming up, is there anything that would need to be done with electric and stuff like that that could be done early on? Hoffman: No. Scharfenberg: Okay. Hoffman: The only thing that can be done is kind of mass grading the site to get it set so there’s not a lot of dirt moving when the time comes but all of the, we talked about that even with the 101 project. Can we set certain things up? Scharfenberg: Right. Hoffman: And there was a few things but power is not one of them. It’s out there on Highway 101. When you want it you just go out there and grab it. There is really nothing to bring in. There is sewer and water capability in Bandimere and that was brought in in the first development so in the area of the playground there’s sewer and water available there so when we want to build a building or hook up to sewer and water, it’s available there and ready to go. Kelly: Todd, as far as the development of the hockey rink and that area, is that something we’d apply a grant for or not? Hoffman: Not really. The days of, there’s not a lot of grants available for park development. Transportation grants are where the money is right now and transportation grant lends themselves towards trails so we’ll take a look at that. See if there is that possibility. Kelly: Thank you. Other questions. Thoughts. Scharfenberg: Are you talking about just the baseball/softball one or are we talking? 10 Park and Recreation Commission Meeting – April 23, 2013 Kelly: No, we haven’t moved on but we sure can so let’s move on. Steve, you’ve got an idea. I can see it off the top of your head. Scharfenberg: No, no, no. I was just you know. Kelly: Well the next things we’re going to talk about are the, you know the Bluff Creek trail extension and that’s again with 101 being developed in 2014, is that next year they’re making changes and so that brings that thought to the forefront and again we’re going to need information. We’re going to need costs and those are the types of things that we’ll be looking for grants also and so some of the questions and the discussions I think will be, do we, at some point do we hook up with the LRT first and then at some point do we hook up from the LRT down to the 101 that’s been redone and is that now 69, the old 212? Hoffman: 61. Kelly: And Highway 61, thank you Todd. Other thoughts? Questions? Scharfenberg: Well the one thing that Mayor Furlong asked us to do kind of at the end was, you know when he talked about looking at potentially picnic shelters. Kelly: Right and I have that on the list but yeah we can talk about that now. That’s being put in with Riley Ridge Park and Pioneer Pass correct Todd? Hoffman: Yes. Kelly: And so I think what we need to do is look at the costs of putting it, first of all look at the parks that it makes sense to put it in and get some direction from you guys on that. And then what would the costs be and then you know we can start discussing you know what year. What time? At some point we might know more about CIP money coming in, which would help our discussions also. Hoffman: Sure. We’ll gather that information for you and provide. The last time shelters were built outside of the two that are going to go in this year and next year was 1998 when four of them went in with the 1997 park bond and those were at Meadow Green, North Lotus Lake Park, Power Hill Park and Rice Marsh Lake Park. Scharfenberg: The only other thing that I would add is potentially as a goal is maybe just as a commission looking again and this kind of falls within that whole shelter thing but you know looking at the parks, the existing parks that we have. Are there other things that any of the parks need or need updating in terms of, I think about, now I’m drawing a blank on the one park that’s in my neighborhood but you know that. Kelly: Sunrise. Scharfenberg: Sunrise, yeah. You know that needs, you know some of the equipment is beat up and you know could either be painted or updated or something like that and kind of prioritizing for us as, in terms of our parks, what needs maybe some updating and things and talking about that going forward over the next you know kind of 8 years. Kelly: And that might be a good thing for us to have a little trip one night to visit various parks. You know set up before one of our regular meetings at maybe 5:30 so we can wear shorts one of these days. Echternacht: Finish at the disc golf. 11 Park and Recreation Commission Meeting – April 23, 2013 Kelly: There you go, yeah. Finish off with a little disc golf. Carron: How about, to piggy back Steve there, updating some of these parks with the recent vandalism at Roundhouse Park on the sign. You know like Lake Ann’s got a gorgeous new sign that went in, maybe that might be something that down the future with a future goal that we could look at getting something more permanent than just the wood signs we have to display these parks. Thunberg: Cole, another thing that was said at the meeting last night, just to throw it out was they talked about somewhere down the line about a dome. Is that something we should even be talking about right now? I mean in the future. Kelly: It’s always something to talk about. You start talking about the dome and you’re talking about turf. You know they were talking about turf in a dome and the kind of usage you can get out of it but I think what we’re talking about is, we’re now starting to get into the two million dollar range and since the City Council directed us to talk about it, I think we should add it to the list but I’m not sure it will ever make the CIP list but. Not unless for some reason we have a big influx of money that I’m not expecting but you know it’s something we can discuss and talk about. I don’t know how far it will go and I don’t think the City Council will push us hard on it. I think they just want to make sure we’re discussing various options, which is you know it’d be wonderful to have but the other discussion would be the school already has turf and wouldn’t that be a better place for a dome to go but then you know, then who’s funding and you get into a lot of different issues and questions and I think it would be something very difficult for the City to do but it’s something we can put on the list and discuss as we’re going forward. Thunberg: Fine. Scharfenberg: The last thing I’ll add is, I know Councilman Laufenburger mentioned the Westwood Church soccer field and Todd, where are we on that? Is that something that’s still being kind of looked at? Hoffman: We’ll look at it again with his encouragement but probably a year and a half ago we met with the Westwood staff on a couple of occasions. They have a piece of land that would, is in their master plan to be an athletic field. They said is this a time when we could work with together and the City could do some grading and some seeding and some scheduling perhaps. But then in order to build that facility you would need to have irrigation on that field and install some other infrastructure that at that time they said they just weren’t in a position to fund in their capital improvement plan so we said we would check back. We’ll check back and see if this is the time when they would want to do that. They would have to make some capital investments into that facility and then it would be a you know privately owned but dually scheduled, dual scheduled facility. Ryan: Are we setting goals right now or are we just talking, reviewing the discussion last night? Kelly: We’re not setting goals. Ryan: Tonight? Kelly: No. Ryan: Okay. 12 Park and Recreation Commission Meeting – April 23, 2013 Kelly: I mean I suppose we could but I think what we want to do is we want to get some background information from the staff on some of these items and then at our next meeting we start to formulate goals and at least have them set by the meeting after that. Ryan: Okay. Kelly: Would be my thoughts on it. Ryan: Okay. I just wanted to clarify that. But I did want to give everybody here an update on AIS and I sent out, I copied all of you on an email I sent to the City Council today just, well I’m assuming everybody got the email and read it. You guys didn’t? This is like the second email. Well, I have it. Would you like me to read it to you, if you. Kelly: Sure. Ryan: Just to. Hoffman: We can get copies. Ryan: Okay, did you get it? Hoffman: Yes. Let me get copies Elise. You can keep talking and I’ll get copies for the commission. Ryan: Okay. Well, okay perfect. Well the gist of the mail was first and foremost thanking them for last night’s discussion around it and their you know honesty and frankness with how they feel about things and also letting them know that obviously this is an issue that has strong emotions and people feel very passionate about it and there’s a lot of sensitive issues and feelings surrounding it but it’s also an issue that is not going to go away and so I re-stated my thought from last night that I would first and foremost like to have some sort of a task force or a group of people to have a dialogue or discussion about the plan for the City, the AIS. What are we going to do today? Tomorrow. Just what is the future going to hold for the city of Chanhassen and AIS? If that is something that they didn’t want to do and they would prefer just to have some sort of a meeting or a discussion mediated by the Park and Rec group, appointed by the City Council, that would be another option that we could have and welcome their feedback. Comments. Suggestions. Whatever. And I did hear back from a few of them, email but I had a great conversation with Councilmember McDonald. He was, Jerry. He was great. I want to be very careful in my choice of words but after the conversation and he wanted to get a better understanding basically what I was trying to do and what I wanted to accomplish and what I explained to him was that I feel what has happened up until this point is that LLCA has come to meetings, to council meetings, to work sessions and shared their plan and asked them to do something. Then the council, thanks Todd. The council hears or listens to what they have to say. There’s limited discussion. The meetings are over. Things go behind the doors. Council makes decisions. Asks staff to move forward with things and then decisions are made and programs are put in place and things are moved forward and parties that are trying to be engaged often feel that their voice is not being heard and so what I would like to get out of this is, having an opportunity for everybody to sit together and have a discussion. And he explained some of the background and his feelings and he said that he’s open to it. He’s open, he said I want to be clear that the direction has to come from the Mayor and Todd Gerhardt but he said he does not, he sees that the door is still open. That there is an opportunity to have this discussion and he welcomes that. He wants me to speak with the Mayor, which I’m planning on doing later this week but I said that I was coming to the meeting tonight. I obviously asked for his permission to share you know some of what we talked about and he said yes and he said that he encourages, or if this moves forward you know to be involved and help with getting the right people at the table to have the conversation and so I wanted to share that with you 13 Park and Recreation Commission Meeting – April 23, 2013 because as we move forward and we talk about AIS and what our goals would be, I ask you, my fellow commissioners if AIS can be a goal of our’s to have this discussion and with your support and if we get City Council obviously has to make, it’s their decision on whether or not they want this to happen. Again not that anything is going to change. Not that they’re going to implement a new plan. Not that anything is going to happen. He wasn’t committing to anything. I haven’t spoken with the mayor or anybody else but he said the door’s not shut. A conversation would be good and so I wanted to share that with you again tonight to see if I could get your support in asking council to not shut the door on AIS and having a conversation with interested parties. And I’d like to hear your thoughts. Kelly: Well I guess I would take direction from, you’re reporting back to us what your discussions with the mayor are at our next meeting and that would give us some direction on which way we should go. Ryan: Okay. Kelly: I think since Jerry asked to get input from the mayor, I think we would be acting, preceding what the mayor says, it wouldn’t mean much until you have your discussion with the mayor so I would like to see that you report back to us at the next meeting about your discussion with the mayor and then we kind of take the ball from where your discussion went. Ryan: Fair enough. Scharfenberg: Just a comment on that. You know Elise after reading the minutes from last meeting, since I wasn’t there, you know in terms of what you’re requesting, I don’t know that anybody wants to do anything with respect to 2013. I think 2013 is set. Ryan: Right. Scharfenberg: And you know we’re going to go forward with those recommendations. Having that said I don’t, I think it’s always good, as you had indicated in your comments that we review everything on an ongoing basis and as things come up, you know we need to review the data and how things were in 2013 and if there are things that can be done from year to year to make things better. If that can be done through a commission or a meeting with all of the stakeholders kind of talking about what’s been proposed. We like what’s been proposed. Do we not like it? Are there things that can be done? Obviously everything can be done better and I think that that’s good to do. You know sometimes some of these things come up on our calendar, as we all know with requests that we get. Just an example from CAA. They’ll come to us you know wanting something done and it’s like well you know, the reason starts next week. That’s not going to happen. You know you need to come to us earlier and start talking and I think what you’re probably suggesting is something that you know within our goals for 2013 we start looking at that, and I’m all for that. I think that that’s you know something that people should come together and get a meeting of the minds and not everybody’s going to see eye to eye. Ryan: Right. Scharfenberg: But you know I’m all for that and I would you know, with your conversations with the mayor I think you can at least say either are members of the commission that support talking about this a little bit more and talking about that so. Ryan: Great, thank you. Carron: Just a follow, can I ask maybe a question that I need answered and maybe the new members too. This is obviously a park board deal. Why is it not environmental committee? Can you elaborate on that? 14 Park and Recreation Commission Meeting – April 23, 2013 Hoffman: It could be. Could be both. Carron: Could be either way. Alright. Hoffman: Sure. Right now it’s a, it’s really the watercraft inspection and that takes place at public landings which are within parks but the AIS budget itself is within water resource which is in our environmental realm at City Hall so Terry Jeffery who is a Water Resources Coordinator, we partner on developing these programs. Terry is our lead person on interaction with our major funders. Our Riley- Purgatory-Bluff Creek Watershed District and then the DNR. Terry takes that, those relationships and makes those applications. And then once we have a program established then that’s my responsibility as directed by the City Manager to make sure that those watercraft inspection programs take place at our three public landings which are located in Lake Ann Park, Lake Susan Park, and South Lotus Lake Park. Ryan: And Steve I concur and I am glad you brought that up about nothing can be done in terms of the plan for 2013, and that’s what we had discussed is, you know if we can take a step back and even look big picture on you know what’s going on now. What would we do in 5 years if there was an infestation of some sort? I mean really take the conversation big picture and broadly but have all the right people at the table and have that conversation and so an important issue doesn’t become a polarizing issue between members of the community and City Council but something that we can all discuss so you know to wrap up I will speak with the mayor. I will figure out how to send you guys appropriately by email and then we can discuss it at our meeting but I will share any feedback that I get with you all right away so thank you. Kelly: Thank you Elise. Let’s see the other project which we actually have, we discussed last night that we actually on our CIP I believe is the pedestrian trail to the Arboretum. No, we took that off the CIP correct Todd? And I think that’s one of those things that we’d be looking at every year. We kind of need a state grant for that to happen don’t we? Hoffman: There’s some funding in 2015. I think you have 275 or 250 in 2015 as a partial down payment place holder. Kelly: Right, so we do have it there, okay. Hoffman: We will be reapplying for that federal transportation grant and it was close last time and we think we have a good application so we’ll work again on getting different partners together. Lifetime Fitness, the Arboretum, the cities that are affected. Victoria, Chaska. All would benefit. Carver County would benefit from that and put together another good package. It’s again a million plus package by the time you get the underpass but as the mayor stated, he and Todd Gerhardt had lunch with the folks from Lifetime Fitness. They’re real excited about it. It takes some easements from their property to build this trail and this underpass and they’re willing to grant those easements. The Arboretum is willing to work on the project and when the underpass, you would travel, you would go right in front of Lifetime Fitness. Underneath Highway 41 on the south side of 5 and then the trail would wrap around the back side of their big sign and then head into the Arboretum. And so these kind of, as our trail system’s expanded we’re starting to touch these points. The Minnesota River Valley trail system. The Arboretum trail system. The trail system in the regional park and the regional park itself. We’re really starting to make some strong connections and I hear from the community quite a bit, people that bike to the Arboretum and they’re just asking when is the, when is that time coming we can safely travel to the Arboretum without having to travel on Highway 5 on a bikeway so, or out on the road so those are the type of projects. And just to clarify for the commission. I know we have new members here tonight. You can talk all you want about you know, what we talked about last night. Goals for the commission are really your CIP and so 15 Park and Recreation Commission Meeting – April 23, 2013 your goals are set for 2013 but if you have other goals, if you want to start looking at a program or modifying something. You can’t set policy goals. You could set goals about talking about policy with the City Council so goals for the commission are basically your CIP. Your capital improvement project and then you would talk about things that you want to try to implement on down the line and so your CIP discussion is coming up. It often takes 2 to 3 months so that’s goal setting but this is a good time since you have fresh ideas from last night, if there are other things, other programs or events. Other capital improvement programs that you want to get out on the table, now’s the time to talk about those so we can wrap those into the CIP process. It’s a, especially for new commissioners but even sometimes existing commissioners, the park commission is an advisory body to the City Council so you make a recommendation to them. They vote up or down on those and they either put them in the CIP or they give you additional direction and then once the City Council sets those policies and goals, they look at the City Manager and they say, alright Mr. Gerhardt. Get those done and then it’s up to the City Manager to decide how those goals get done and how those policies and goals get done and he’ll disperse those back among his departments, different departments within the city so it’s a healthy conversation to have but I just don’t want anybody to get too far ahead of where they’re thinking when you set a goal at the park commission. Unless it’s kind of a, we can do little small goals that aren’t going to really get too far into the thick of things but everything else is pretty much you’re trying to start setting policy with the City Council or you’re working on your capital improvement program recommendations for the City Council. Scharfenberg: Todd just a question with respect to the 101 bridge and when that’s rebuilt. Do we know when that necessarily is going to take place? Hoffman: 2014. Scharfenberg: 2014? Hoffman: That’s when construction will start. Scharfenberg: And do we, are we going to have any responsibility in terms of with trails associated with that that we would be looking at money? Hoffman: We are involved in that. The trails, hopefully the road project will pay for all those. There have been some ongoing conversations about who’s going to pay matching costs but currently we believe that that project will fund itself, at least in the current pedestrian improvements that are included. There may be some matching funds but again those could come out of park dedication or they could come out of road dollars and currently we think they’re going to come out of road dollars. Scharfenberg: And are they talking about adding like having lanes so that you can bike right into Shakopee? Hoffman: Yep. This is the plan. So it shows existing conditions on the top and then the bridge, the new bridge and the profile shows the trail, 10 foot trail on the west side so the trail’s on the west side. So you’d be able to go right into Shakopee and then there’s pedestrian improvements on 61. Highway 61. I think this plan was in your correspondence packet either last month or the month before and so it shows the bridge and then the round about at what is called, often referred to as the Y and then County Road 61 will have a trail on the north side. Scharfenberg: Thank you. Kelly: Anything else people would like to see added to the discussion for our next meeting? 16 Park and Recreation Commission Meeting – April 23, 2013 Carron: Maybe just a clarification to clean things up. For 2013 should we put in the staircase and the crosswalk in the CIP just to show that the money’s being spent in 2013? Hoffman: That’s another ongoing discussion between the City Council, the City Manager and the Finance Department. The Finance Department doesn’t have the ability to do that and so we know it’s there but it was programmed in 2012 whether it be expended in 2013 so we just have to keep a mental marker at this point until they figure out if they want to do it or not. They’re talking about bringing, often times projects are included in a CIP for a specific year and they don’t get done and they get carried over but the money doesn’t get pulled over with it so I’ll let you know how that discussion goes. Carron: And then what about Pioneer Pass, is that going to be a go this year? Hoffman: Pioneer Pass is Phase I this year so we’re going to support a contract for parking lots, trails, stormwater and get that, those Phase I improvements in and completed and grow grass yet this fall. If we don’t have another drought like we did last fall, and then go ahead and build the playground and the picnic shelter next summer. So we’re currently working on that bid package for that first phase. Kelly: Anything else that anybody would like to add? Okay, well I think you’ve got a few things Todd to add to our discussions for next month. Hoffman: And we’ll do that in a couple different formats. We’ll get your some information first and then we’ll package some of it in with the CIP conversation as well. Kelly: Okay, I think now we’re moving onto reports and my guess is Mitch you’re up. RECREATION PROGRAM REPORTS: 2013 EASTER EGG CANDY HUNT EVALUATION. Johnson: Yes, thank you Chair Kelly and good evening commissioners. About a month ago on Easter th weekend the City held it’s second of four community events. The 30 annual Easter Egg Candy Hunt right here in downtown Chanhassen at City Center Park. We had 278 kids register this year, which was up from about 253 I think from last year so our pre-registration is very high. Unfortunately the day of registration was a bit down. It was a wet, gloomy, rainy, snow, icy day as most people know the winter’s pretty long. It was an early holiday this year but we had a great time still. We had a good crowd. We figured with parents and grandparents and everybody there was probably about 600 people packed in the park. Most of the expense comes from just purchasing the candy for the kids. We distribute it right out in the grass. We also purchase 1,000 pre-filled plastic eggs which received lots of positive comments from the public. I think mostly because the grass was so wet and being rainy and you know some of that candy was preserved so yeah, we separated the kids into multiple different age groups and had designated areas for each age group. At the end of the candy hunt we also raffled off 15 door prizes mostly that were contributed by local businesses who sponsor the community events. Also part of the event is a coloring contest. We had 115 entries, ranging from ages 2 to 12. ABC Toys, a local Chanhassen business donated gift baskets for all the winners for that so that’s a great partnership that we’ve had over the years. To help staff the event with the help of city staff also has Chanhassen High School Key Club members come and also a student from the U of M who’s interested in the recreation field. Chanhassen resident came out and helped with day of registrations, kind of organizing the door prizes and things like that so it was a great event. You know 30 years strong. Looking forward to next year and on the bottom there you’ll see a couple recommendations for next year. One of them is maybe looking into starting an hour later. We heard a couple people recommended that who attended so we’ll look into that but other than that, hopefully I think Easter is late next year I think so we kind of recycle so hopefully it will be 70 degrees and warm so. On the back of the memo you’ll see broke down the revenue and expenses and just to inform the new commissioners, this is event two of the four community events. We have an extensive 17 Park and Recreation Commission Meeting – April 23, 2013 community event sponsorship program. We raise about $30,000 a year in cash and prizes that are th donated so you know I kind of have a little description there but the next one is the 4 of July, about two months away. If you can believe it or not. Kelly: It happens fast. Questions. Any questions or comments for Mitch? Boettcher: So Mitch is the Bunny okay? Johnson: The Bunny survived yep. Boettcher: Okay because I saw a dry cleaned bunny suit, I figured maybe he took a tumble. Johnson: Yeah, it was a little muddy. White bunny to black bunny but we got it cleaned up. Kelly: Thank you Mitch. ADMINISTRATIVE REPORTS. Kelly: Administrative reports, Todd you’ve already talked about the Arbor Day. Anything else on the administrative reports you’d like to point out? th Hoffman: Just want to highlight those dates for everyone. Arbor Day again May 4. The details in the th packet. Red Birds Baseball opening day is on the 19 against the Chaska Cubs. Sunday night so that will be a nice activity in our community out at Chanhassen High School, Red Birds Stadium. And the Memorial Day ceremony, the Legion will be here again on City Center Plaza on Memorial Day at noon and that’s the final event of their day. Those folks start early in the morning and go to all of our cemeteries in the community and conduct honoring ceremonies and then they end up here at noon so bring your friends, family and neighbors and come down and honor the Memorial Day celebration with the Legion. Kelly: Thank you Todd. COMMISSION MEMBER COMMITTEE REPORTS. None. COMMISSION MEMBER PRESENTATIONS. None. ADMINISTRATIVE PACKET. None. Carron moved, Boettcher seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 7 to 0. The meeting was adjourned at 8:30 p.m. Submitted by Todd Hoffman Park and Rec Director Prepared by Nann Opheim 18