PRC 2013 07 23
CHANHASSEN PARK AND
RECREATION COMMISSION
REGULAR MEETING
JULY 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,
Rick Echternacht, Luke Thunberg, Jacob Stolar, and Ryan Lynch
STAFF PRESENT:
Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Director; Jerry Ruegemer, Recreation Superintendent;
and Mitch Johnson, Recreation Supervisor
PUBLIC PRESENT:
Jim Manders 6791 Chaparral Lane
Ted Ellefson 7609 Walnut Curve
Todd Neils 990 Saddlebrook Curve
APPROVAL OF AGENDA:
Echternacht: This may be minor but my name’s Richard but I go by Rick and they always put Rich on
the notes.
Hoffman: Alright, it’s Rick.
Echternacht: Yeah.
Kelly: Good point of order.
Hoffman: We want to get it right for history you know. 3 years worth of Rich versus Rick so we’ll get
Rick.
Kelly: Okay, since there’s no additions or deletions, I think the agenda’s approved.
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Hoffman: Chairman Kelly, members of the commission. Let’s see, tonight’s Tuesday. On Thursday
night the Red Birds play a make-up game and then there’s also a concert that evening at 7:00. The
Grammy award winning Okee Dokee Brothers.
Scharfenberg: And what about prior to our next meeting, Miracles for Mitch? Is that.
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Ruegemer: August 17. Saturday, out at Lake Ann Park. Just met with Mr. Tony Schiller today and
went over race details and event logistics. The route will be changing slightly this year so we kind of
went through those details here so today to insure a good, safe race.
Kelly: Any other announcements? Okay, we’ll move on.
VISITOR PRESENTATIONS:
Park and Recreation Commission – July 23, 2013
Kelly: We have a few visitors in here tonight so whoever would like to come up first, please identify
yourself and your address and let us know what you want to talk about.
Jim Manders: Good evening. My name is Jim Manders and I’m residing at 6791 Chaparral Lane. I’m
here regarding the handicap accessible viewing area off of Kerber Boulevard that looks towards Kerber
Pond. It doesn’t look at Kerber Pond. It looks towards it and the handicap accessible area, I’m thinking it
was probably put in a couple years ago. Maybe longer at what cost I’m not sure but at present it takes
advantage of maybe 10% of the view. That’s my opinion but after you look at it I’m sure you’ll draw a
similar conclusion. What I’m suggesting is that some of the obstruction, namely trees that obstruct the
pond be removed and this would enhance that view by some 90 points I think. It’s a great, great view and
having been a former park commissioner myself and currently Carver County park commissioner, I’m
aware of two missions that the commission has. One for active parks and another for passive. This
would be a very passive kind of thing that provides one of those I think restful view of that pond area. If
you’re at all familiar with it, it goes out Kerber Boulevard, just before you start heading down. It looks
out over that, or looks towards that pond and all I’m suggesting is that either this commission or
administratively or however this needs to be addressed. If it’s put on a future agenda then by all means
take the time to go look what that view might be. I’ve observed some trees and brush removed not far
from that very location so apparently it can be done. So I guess that’s my point is take a look at that and
if it takes a motion to approve it I would hope that you do that. A second point that I want to bring up is
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on another subject and I see you have something on your agenda regarding 4 of July evaluation. And
this may be a little humorous but I think it’s really too bad that it happened. How many of you noticed
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the City of Chanhassen monument during the 4 of July? The park. Name of the park for City Center
Park. Did you at all see it? I didn’t either because there was 3 outhouses in front of it. I think it’s really
too bad that we would have the namesake of this city covered in such a way. I would hope that you don’t
let that happen next year.
Hoffman: That’s probably an easy one.
Jim Manders: Yeah, I was a little disappointed. That’s all I have to say.
Kelly: Any questions for Jim?
Hoffman: I want to thank Jim for coming in. Do you remember the years you were on the park
commission?
Jim Manders: Probably early 90’s to about 2000. Someplace in there.
Hoffman: So we really appreciated your service back then. He was a long term commissioner. We also
have welcomed him back as a laborer for our summer parks crew. That’s part of the reason you’re around
so much…
Jim Manders: Well actually I was going to make mention of three things that I had attended in June
regarding city events. One being the Klingelhutz dedication, and that’s really a nice monument out there.
Second being the Minnewashta Pavilion internal trails underpass dedication and thirdly, but certainly not
last is the Dakota trail dedication in New Germany dedicating the completion of that trail through Carver
County so it stretches from Wayzata to McLeod County now and if there’s an opening for a trails
inspector put me down.
Kelly: Thank you Jim.
Jim Manders: Good evening.
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 23, 2013
Kelly: Next visitor presentation.
Todd Neils: Good evening. My name is Todd Neils. I reside at 990 Saddlebrook Curve. I’m here on
three points tonight. I’d like to start by thanking the City of Chanhassen, Jerry Ruegemer and especially
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Dean Schmieg and his staff and his crew for their work and support of our tournament July 12 through
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the 14 at Lake Ann Park and Chanhassen Recreation Center. Dean and his staff were very hard at work
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on July 12, which was a Friday preparing and setting our bases to insure the tournament was a great
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success. Between July 12 and 14 there were 32 baseball teams and 16 softball teams that participated
both at Lake Ann Park and Chanhassen Recreation Center. The staff at Metro Baseball and Minnesota
Metro Fastpitch League had nothing but complimentary things to say about the facilities, particularly at
Lake Ann and I received a number of compliments on the beauty of Lake Ann Park from parents and
participants of the tournament. There is one issue that I would like to address with the commission and
think both the commission and the City need to address in short order if possible. In the past 3 years the
CAA has held 14 tournaments in both baseball and softball at Lake Ann Park. The recurring concern
from fans, coaches and players is the lack of netting between Lake Ann 4 and Lake Ann 5 which we feel
is a real safety concern that lingers without the netting and would ask the City to erect foul netting to
lessen risk of injury, particularly at Lake Ann 5. There are a number of foul balls over the course of time,
whether they be baseballs or softballs that do travel between, particularly between Lake Ann 4 and 5.
Onto 5 and without covered dugouts or that netting there’s a number of times where participants have
been either hit or close to being hit. Secondly I’d like to reiterate the CAA baseball association’s
commitment to pay 25% of lighting at Lake Susan Park. We made this commitment earlier this year and
would like to reiterate that particularly as you roll into the final stages of the CIP. Several years ago we
approached the city with growth expectations in baseball, particularly in our 13 and above ages. We’ve
more than surpassed those numbers and are at critical mass in terms of field space, even utilizing fields in
Victoria and Carver as well. While we never hope to endure the spring that we had this year, lights would
more than compensate for the short spring nights and use by the high school field, or the high school
teams at Lake Susan where games can often range from finishing between 6:00 and 7:00 at night, which
doesn’t give us the opportunity to either practice or utilize the field for games. Four years ago, just as a
matter of point, we had 24 boys that were participating at age 13. This year we have 230 that
participated, which is approximately 25% of the total players that are participating in baseball now in the
CAA. Long term lights is only, you know one step in a vision I personally have to make Lake Susan as
beautiful a park, even though it be a singular field, as Lake Ann and hope to have people be as
complimentary of that park as they are of Lake Ann Park. I’d love to see through partnership with the
City as well as financing through the CAA or Dugout Club, dugouts and score boards again which will
continue to enhance that park and make it more user friendly and hope that it will you know make it as
fantastic a facility as I said as Lake Ann Park. In an effort to continue growing the CAA baseball
program, we hope the commission consider including lights in 2014 CIP. The CAA with it’s 25% could
effectively fund the first years of this commitment with it’s donation until the CIP catches up and is
actually put on the CIP long term. That’s all I have, thank you.
Kelly: Todd you said three points. I only wrote down two. What did I miss?
Todd Neils: Well a thank you.
Kelly: Oh okay, thank you as a point. Got it. Okay, I didn’t write that down.
Todd Neils: That was a given.
Kelly: So you’re a member of both the CAA and the Dugout Club correct?
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 23, 2013
Todd Neils: Yes.
Kelly: You volunteer for both those organizations.
Todd Neils: Correct.
Kelly: Now you said about the funding for the lights that you could front a certain amount. I didn’t quite
understand what you were telling us there.
Todd Neils: Through conversations with Mr. Hoffman, my understanding is lights would be
approximately $200,000. The CAA’s commitment, baseball commitment to that would obviously be
25% or $50,000. Our feeling is, as we expressed previously that if we get into a capital finance structure
where we can pay the loan off over the course of time, say a 3 to 5 year period, likely 5 years, that we
could pay up to $10,000 a year until the CIP does catch up. What that means however is that the City
would have to move forward in, effectively paying for the lights. A larger portion of the lights in the
2014 budget cycle and we would then pay our 25% over the course of time.
Kelly: Okay, that clarifies it. Thank you. Todd Hoffman, the last time we talked about this we were
thinking it would be about $150,000 so now we’re thinking lights would be about $200,000?
Hoffman: With all the other professional costs, planning, engineering.
Kelly: Total cost.
Hoffman: Total cost of about $200,000.
Kelly: Okay.
Hoffman: Bidding costs.
Kelly: Getting back to your second point, my first point. The Lake Ann 4 and Lake Ann 5. Todd Neils
and I had a discussion about this last week so I stopped out there twice last week. Once on Saturday
when there was a girls State softball tournament going on just to get an idea of how close they are and
were there a lot of foul balls and you know what can be done. And then Todd and Jerry and I had a
discussion this afternoon and apparently this issue has come up before and Todd, do you want to expand
on our discussion this afternoon?
Hoffman: Sure, be glad to. Chair Kelly, members of the commission. The last time this item was
scheduled in your CIP was in 2009 and at that time there was an item called Lake Ann Park ballfield
safety fencing number 4, 5 and 6 for $100,000. Some of those dollars were invested in dugouts. Wire
mesh dugouts are not a safety dugout per se. They do have a clear mesh, or see through mesh top that
would provide some protection but the whole entire $100,000 was not invested. There was also an item
called Bandimere Park ballfield safety netting and that was in 2011 for $40,000 and that project was never
followed through on either. Part of the discussion at that time was just how far do you want to take safety
netting and what is it going to be? Is it going to be fencing or netting? And then how much money do
you invest in that project to insure what percentage of safety and so we concur, I concur with Mr. Neils
and Cole’s observations. I’ve spent many nights out at the ballfields and have seen people hit and it’s not
a comfortable situation to watch so could there be improvements? Absolutely. At what cost and what
percentage do you catch so if you spend $50,000 in probably fencing would be the most long term but
there could be netting as well. You know do you stop 50% of the foul balls that are currently coming out?
60%? How much more money do you want to spend to fence additional? At some point you get to the
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 23, 2013
point where you just have to take down what you currently have and start over so there probably should
be some, if the commission is interested in this, some study by somebody that works on ballfields. Take a
look and tell the commission and the City what would be the most effective mechanism by which to stop
the majority of the foul balls from coming out. It’s been a long term issue. Park’s been there for 40 years
so, and the backstops were even smaller at one time. They’re a little bit larger now but they still don’t
stop all the softballs and baseballs from coming out.
Kelly: Any other questions for Todd Neils or Todd Hoffman on these subjects? Thank you Todd.
Todd Neils: Thank you.
Kelly: Do we have any other visitor presentations? Okay. Alright.
Jim Manders: Can I just make one comment?
Kelly: Sure.
Jim Manders: What’s the next step on my request for this trail observation area along Kerber Boulevard?
Hoffman: The commission will take a look at it and then if one of the commissioners wants to bring it up
as a topic of discussion for action then they would do that at their next meeting.
Jim Manders: Alright.
Kelly: Okay, now we’re onto item F.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Chairman Kelly noted the verbatim and summary Minutes of the
Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated June 25, 2013 as presented. All voted in favor and
the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 9 to 0.
ASSEMBLE RECOMMENDATION TO CITY COUNCIL 2014-2018 PARK AND TRAIL
ACQUISITION AND DEVELOPMENT CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM (CIP).
Kelly: We’re getting into our CIP discussion tonight, which we’ve all had some information for a week
and I also have my own personal cheat sheet that I worked on and I’ve made a copy for everybody, if
Jerry or Todd could pass that around. It helps me in the discussions. I like to do it on the computer.
Todd, do you want to start the discussion on it also along with what the City Council approved last night
for Camden Ridge?
Hoffman: I’ll be glad to.
Kelly: Okay.
Hoffman: Chair Kelly and members of the commission and audience members. Want to back up,
especially for our new representatives and talk a little bit about what CIP’s are and capital funding and
how we get the revenue from different sources for park and trail capital improvements. Before we do
that, you have a project in front of you which is the Rice Marsh Lake, or excuse me. This is not the Rice
Marsh but Rice Marsh Lake trail last night was discussed at the City Council work session and that’s out
to bid. You do have a plan set, there’s a plan set over here for the Rice Marsh Lake trail connector. That
will connect from Eden Prairie back to Tigua Lane and so there’s one single large plan set. It’s the Rice
Marsh Lake trail connection. There was a $200,000 allocation in the 2013 street project for that trail and
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 23, 2013
it’s going to take about $272,000. We’ll know exactly once the bids are open tomorrow to complete the
project. When the street projects that the City is working on this year were bid, there were some cost
savings, both for the residents and so in their assessment, assessed amounts, those went down because of
the bidding. The good bids that came in and the City costs went down as well. About $171,000. We
inquired with the council if they would support using some of those savings out of those street bids, that
$171,000 to fund those additional costs for the trail project. Initially we had intended to build this in-
house with combined work forces from our streets department, parks department, and other public works
departments. Utilities and the shop but with the late spring everybody’s backed up and we simply do not
have the resources as far as human resources to put out onto that project. If we did it we could only start
this fall and it would take all next year to finish up and opening a project of that size, that length and that
type of environment for a year and a half is just not a very good idea. Both from the environment
standpoint and also working with the citizens that would have to endure that long timeline. If we get a
contractor in here they’ll open this project up September 1. They’ll be done, substantially complete by
November, by the Thanksgiving time so the council supported that recommendation so we’ll open bids
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tomorrow and we will request that the council approve bids if there’s desire by the City on August 12 for
both the trail and then the Pioneer Pass Phase I construction so both those projects are out to bid. And if
the trail’s $272,000, the park project we looked at when Chair Kelly was in today we looked at the
estimated cost for Phase I is $230,000 and so that’s the estimated cost on that. And then there’s $350,000
overall so you have those additional dollars of those dollars above and beyond that bid price to finish out
the playground and the picnic shelter and the other items next year. Capital funding. So we do a 5 year
CIP. This year it’ll be 2014 and then the next 5 years up to 2018 and generally most of the money is
collected through park dedication so every time a development comes in, either a home or a business,
they pay a park dedication charge. For commercial industrial it’s 12 and a half thousand per acre so if
you have an industrial or commercial project, they’re going to pay 12 and a half thousand in park
dedication fees per acre. Those go into the fund. The same fund as when you have a housing
development so when the housing development, you have Camden Ridge, this development will pay full
park and trail dedication fees. For each single family home that’s on this plat they’ll pay $5,800 per
home. What that money will be used for is to, you’ll take it up the street and you’ll invest it in Pioneer
Pass Park, which these people will use and so the City maintains a comprehensive park and trail system.
That’s going to be built and paid for through park dedication fees as the City grows out. Once the City is
fully developed those fees will dry up and then any future maintenance or development of parks will need
to go back under the general tax rolls and those dollars will be competing for things like dump trucks and
snowplows and other equipment. Capital needs that you have in your community but for at least the next
20 to 25 years we’re going to be continue to collect park dedication dollars which will be invested in that
fund and then the park commission makes a recommended budget. What should we spend our money on?
Parks? Trails? Ballfields? Benches? Safety improvements? Fencing? All those type of things and then
the City Council approves that recommendation or modifies that recommendation prior to approval on an
annual basis. We take a 5 year look so you can kind of keep track of what’s going on so people can
forecast, both the commission, elected officials and then the public so they can forecast what’s coming
up, and it’s always modified on an annual basis. The 5 years continue to move out and are modified and
changed. The items you have in your packet are both, they’re separated in two so those items currently
funded are currently in the program and those items that have been jostled around and have either been
included and then taken out and so there’s always a menu of items to pick from. That’s really the job of
the Park and Recreation Commission. You can start that job tonight for 2014 through 2018 and then
continue it on at your August meeting to make a recommendation. If you can reach a consensus tonight
and make a recommendation to City Council, you can do that as well. So that’s what I have for my
presentation. I will go through individual items if you have questions about those particular items. We
have some presentations from past CIP discussions that we can pull up a particular item. You have two
of them in front of you on those plan sheets. That’s the Camden Ridge trail, which is also described as
the Liberty at Creekside trail. This one’s been bouncing around since 2006 and Chair Kelly will talk
about the price reduction. There’s been a price reduction on that line item specifically because the
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 23, 2013
developer will build the trail and we’ll be paying for the materials and so we’re not building that
independent. And then the Bluff Creek trail is the color, 8 1/2 by 11 and that’s for the first section of trail
from Pioneer Trail down to the trail head at the LRT.
Kelly: Thank you Todd. Just to start off to go through my cheat sheet. I talked with Todd about
revenues for this year and going forward you know we’re looking at revenues of $200,000 a year. We
don’t have the specifics for what’s come in this year so on my cheat sheet I added $100,000 revenue that
hasn’t come in and expected that $100,000 already came in. Also the senior apartment that’s being
developed, we’re going to get another $294,500 from that later this year so I’ve added that in as revenues.
So I kind of threw everything in here just to take a look at what the revenues are. Everything in the
packet. It doesn’t mean we have to do everything. I made a few changes. The Bluff Creek trail down in
2015, on it’s own would probably run about $500,000. However the City Manager needs to do street and
sewer improvements, which means our cost for doing the trail could drop to $200,000 or $300,000 so I
threw in $300,000 for 2015 and that will be 2015 or 2016 when they do the roads and the sewer so that’s
just kind of thrown out in one of those years. I don’t know when that will happen. And then another
change I made, if I can just find it. The pedestrian trail to the Arboretum we had in here for $275,000 and
that’s an item that we don’t know if it will happen. That it will happen only if we have a grant so we
basically decided to change that to $50,000 for planning purposes, and obviously if we get a grant then
things will change and then we’ll have to look at hard dollars for that project. And the other item I
changed was the Bandimere Community expansion. We have it in there for $250,000. In reality it’s
going to cost about a million dollars for everything that needs to be done so when that happens it’s hard to
know so I changed that to $50,000 for planning now and we can push that around to whatever year we
want. But those are the changes that I’ve made from Todd has passed out to us. Questions, discussions
on any item?
Thunberg: A general question. Is there a target of a minimum fund balance that the City tries to
maintain?
Kelly: In reality I think we’d like to keep a million dollar basis. You know we actually thought we were
going to go under that when we purchased the Bandimere property but we, I think we did briefly but then
came back up. Plus we also had some other funds deposited back into our account that made a difference
that somebody else was going to take at one time and returned to us. Another department so yeah, we’d
like to see a million. That’s in case something comes along like the Bandimere purchase we were able to
make. You’ve got the funds to do it.
Hoffman: We also like to keep those dollars around for matching. When grants come in there’s often a
matching need and then also like Chairman Kelly mentioned, there’s opportunities that arise that you
really don’t forecast and you want to have those dollars available to take advantage of them.
Carron: Pioneer Pass is obviously going out for bids and starting this year but a majority of those funds
are going to next year? Once we get the final grading and.
Hoffman: Yeah, by the time we’re done with this year we’ll have paid out about $200,000.
Carron: $200,000, okay.
Hoffman: I think there’ll be some retaining, retainage left over but a lot of that, majority of that bid
package is going to go out yet this year.
Kelly: So do we want to go through each project by project and discuss it?
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 23, 2013
Hoffman: Chair Kelly do you want to make that math change in the lighting at Lake Susan? Did you
mention that?
Kelly: Oh yeah I’ve got lighting in for 2014 for $112,500. That should be changed to $150,000.
Hoffman: $50,000 from the CAA.
Carron: But we’re going to need to fund that too so.
Hoffman: Depends on how you approach the agreement.
Kelly: Thank you Todd for pointing that out.
Scharfenberg: I don’t know that it’s, I mean we talk…we can certainly talk about all of the projects. I
don’t know that in the next 5 years we’re going to fund all of these projects.
Hoffman: Right.
Scharfenberg: I mean certainly what I think we need to do and I think what we’ve done in the past is kind
of prioritize what we think are the projects in the next 5 years that we think that we need to fund and talk
about how we’re going to prioritize those and allocate our funds. I don’t know, I’ll just throw that out.
Kelly: Okay. Well it’s, I mean pretty much I think the picnic tables and park benches for $10,000 will
stay in. The trees for $15,000 a year. I don’t see any changes or anybody asking for changes on those.
It’s been about 2 or 3 years ago we took the trees from $25,000 down to $15,000 and I don’t see a reason
to bump those back up at this point. I don’t see any reason to make any changes unless someone else
does. So then it’s a matter of you know what projects are the most important. Obviously if there’s
dollars coming from another source, that makes it a priority and important. So then we’re talking the
Bluff Creek trail is one we know there’ll be other dollars doing down to Highway 61 and like I said we
have it in there now for $300,000. It could go less. It could be 2015, 16, 17. It depends upon when they
do the roads but I would think that would be a priority. Plus we want to be able to connect up with the
new bridge and the new 101 that the State of Minnesota is building.
Hoffman: Are commissioners tracking with the Bluff Creek? This is the Bluff Creek. So the
conversation is, this is simply a trail plan or a concept and this would be combined with stormwater
improvements, which are necessary on the road and desired by residents and landowners in the area and
then road improvements to Bluff Creek. We don’t know when that project could be financed. Obviously
the road portion will be the largest but the City Manager has instructed staff members to gather up and
have a discussion about that and then I can report back our findings at your August meeting. You know
what are the potential years? What are the potential funding sources? But when you use stormwater, you
get that in the ground first. There’s going to be some retaining walls that need to go in to accommodate
both the road expansion, the surface improvements and then the trail itself so. We did a similar project on
Highway 101 north. The project at Pleasant View Road that’s going on right now and if you recall we
had the same plan set for $400,000 for our trail. Just to build the trail independent. The road project
came in with all the surface improvements, the stormwater improvements and our cost went down to
$95,000 and so the road cost covered the rest and so that’s the same kind of philosophy that’s going to
happen here. Now if the road project revenues aren’t so robust, they still may be going after the full
$300,000 or potentially even more out of the park fund but we don’t know that at this time.
Carron: So Todd that’s a new development here since last month.
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 23, 2013
Hoffman: Yes.
Carron: Because before we said really there’s no plan on redoing that road or roadwork to that area.
Hoffman: Yep. Correct and there’s been some ongoing meetings last year and this summer on the
stormwater problems and they just can’t be fixed without a full blown plan and so as the water goes down
this hill, it really leaves the road at the LRT. Right at the LRT and it heads into a property owner that you
know doesn’t appreciate what’s happening with the stormwater on his property and if you go back to the
original road project, the stormwater just wasn’t managed the way that it could have been at that time so
there needs to be some additional improvements.
Kelly: And the Camden Ridge was approved last night by the City Council, correct?
Hoffman: It was. So the Camden Ridge trail was approved, and that’s the white sheet and that’s, for
those that, it’s the Jeurissen property or it’s just to the east of Pioneer Pass. It’s the farmland, when you
look at the barn that always has the signs on it, that’s right where the cul-de-sac is there near Highway
212 and so it’s the trail that’s in the dark line running along the creek and Lennar is building this
development and they’ve agreed to those conditions of approval which include full payment of park
dedication and then construction of that trail. It always makes most sense to build those trail
improvements right when they’re doing the grading for the houses and the roads. So much larger
economies of scale. They’ll put it in. They understand that it’s an amenity that will sell homes and add
value to their residents in their homes and so they’ll put it in and then we’ll pay for the asphalt, the gravel,
and the stormwater structures that are a part of that. We estimate that somewhere in that $100,000 range.
It will likely be less than that.
Kelly: And I think when we sent a motion, I think it was Steve’s motion to the City Council it was for
$275,000 so now we’re looking at $100,000 for expenses there.
Scharfenberg: And when are we anticipating Todd that that will be built?
Hoffman: Likely be substantially complete in 2015 and then we’d be paying those dollars out in 2015-
2016.
Scharfenberg: So we would need a place holder for that sometime in 2015?
Hoffman: Oh excuse me, next year. 2014.
Kelly: That’s what I thought.
Hoffman: Trying to think ahead one year but.
Thunberg: With that being approved, I think last month when we were doing the math from a revenue
standpoint we thought it was about $300,000 for the park dedication fees. So here we have the place
holder of $200,000. Is that something, with that being approved we could, is the $300,000 more of a firm
number?
Kelly: Are you talking on Camden Ridge?
Hoffman: He’s talking about revenues, yeah.
Kelly: Oh revenues, I’m sorry.
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 23, 2013
Thunberg: Yep, so if the proposal’s been approved and we know that it’ll be about $100,000 expense if
the whole project’s been approved as well. I think last month we had ballparked it at about $300,000 so
just from a place holder from a revenue standpoint.
Kelly: Right. Okay. Does that sound right Todd?
Hoffman: We have 58 lots so this will be generating yeah, $336,000 in park dedication fees.
Kelly: So we’ll have a little more revenue than $200,000 next year, which is what we have plugged in
right now. $136,000 more, okay. So Todd after what we’ve discussed, what does the City see as a
priority?
Hoffman: For the projects, the Bluff Creek Drive I think is, we brought the board down for the Highway
101 flood mitigation bridge and with all the work that’s going down in the river valley with the State of
Minnesota, the County bringing those trails back from Shakopee, making that final connection and our
first connection from our overall trail system in our community down to the river valley. Connecting
Chanhassen with Scott County, I think that’s a priority. That’s really, it was always there but now it’s
really come into focus and making that first connection so I encourage the commission to work on that
connection. That entire Bluff Creek. We’ll do that as a staff and report back to you. See where that
Bluff Creek road project is potentially scheduled but the new bridge is somewhere in the neighborhood of
$50 million dollars. The other improvements with the round about, another $20 some million dollars and
so there’s a lot of work going on and just to leverage our efforts and our dollars to make that complete
trail network system I think is a good value.
Scharfenberg: Say Todd just to clarify on the Bluff Creek project, are we talking about extending the trail
from Pioneer just down to the LRT or is it beyond the LRT?
Hoffman: This project only goes to the LRT but we would recommend that you continue it with a second
section from the LRT down to County Road 61.
Scharfenberg: And is that the $300,000?
Hoffman: It’s not, no. That’s just the first phase. Back when that project was developed and these plans
were developed, none of this river discussion was even on the drawing board so this is all brand new and
now to make that final connection, that would be a good idea.
Scharfenberg: So just to clarify again, the $300,000 is just to do what phase?
Hoffman: From Pioneer to the LRT.
Scharfenberg: Okay.
Hoffman: Yep, from the conclusion where it currently terminates going south to the LRT.
Scharfenberg: Okay.
Hoffman: But if we include this project, the overall master project with the road and the stormwater,
those costs will come down.
Scharfenberg: Okay.
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 23, 2013
Hoffman: Primarily in the area of stormwater. These budgets for an independent trail include quite a bit
of stormwater work which then could be covered by our stormwater management program.
Echternacht: Todd we don’t have any…for that lower section?
Hoffman: Not yet but we’ll be bringing those to you in September once we have some established.
Carron: Cole, looking at 2014 you have Manchester Park Phase I slated in for that. I think the last time
we were talking we didn’t quite know when that waste water treatment plant was going to be.
Hoffman: That can be pushed out. Easily pushed out.
Carron: Or the west water. It’s not waste water but west water. Probably huge difference there.
Scharfenberg: Cole just to clarify those ones that you’ve got in 2014, did you just simply just put those in
because they were ones that weren’t or did you have a purpose in putting those in?
Carron: I guess yeah, that’s what I was getting at.
Kelly: Part of the purpose, I mean it’s not that we have to do all of it in 14. As I looked at it and I said
we’ve got a lot of money at this point we need to do some projects. I don’t know which projects we need
to do. I don’t know when Manchester’s going to be ready so I looked at it and you know you throw in all
those projects and it’s a total of $452,000 so that’s kind of why I grouped it like that because you know in
2015 we’re going to have less going on and probably not the pedestrian trail. That will probably get
pushed out again depending upon where the, are we writing a grant for that right now Todd?
Hoffman: We will in a DNR local trail’s grant will write the grant, particularly for the last segment from,
or the segment from County Road 61 to the LRT in the next cycle which will be next spring.
Kelly: Okay and I’m talking about the Arboretum, sorry.
Hoffman: Oh excuse me. Yep, that’s in the next cycle so that’s a larger, that’s an ISTEA. Intermodal
Surface Transportation Act application. A federal application. We will be applying for that again and we
scored very high. We were very close to we’re hopeful that that could go through.
Kelly: So we’re applying for that for 2014 or 15 right now?
Hoffman: The next application will be for 2014.
Kelly: 2014. So that could come back and it’s, you know again we can push things around. Take stuff in
and out. You know I don’t know about the, how serious this group is about wanting to add playground
and the City Center Park band. Also I don’t know, was the Mayor going to come up with some money
from a different spot for that band also? Or was that going to all come out of the CIP?
Hoffman: Never been a discussion of another source. Potentially for some picnic shelters in
neighborhood parks but not the band shell.
Kelly: Not the band, okay.
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 23, 2013
Echternacht: Just clarification on the lighting at Lake Susan. I know we’ve also talked about Bandimere
and the lighting and then we were trying to decide if we could do it, try to do it all at once or was it
separated?
Kelly: Well I think we were discussing that, we were talking about $500,000 or $600,000 at Bandimere
because we’re not just going to do a couple fields if we do it and I think that’s kind of the master plan
when we do the hockey rink and the tennis courts. You know we’re not just going to do lighting for one
area. It will be the whole place and that’s where we’re getting into our million dollar discussion and
where the money will come from at that time is also, be up for discussion. Because I don’t think there’ll
be any grants available for development of a park.
Hoffman: Not, 25 years ago there was. Not anymore.
Kelly: Right, so you know the City’s going to have to come up with a million dollar tag at some point to
do that and get creative somehow.
Hoffman: Yeah that would either be a savings account for, so you just save up your park dedication
dollars or you’re into the dollars where a referendum could be, you know you could request a referendum
for those type of improvements as well.
Kelly: When was the last time we did a referendum for the park and recs?
Scharfenberg: For Bandimere right?
Hoffman: 1996. Were you on the Board?
Jim Manders: Yes.
Hoffman: He worked on it. And it was successful. Did a lot of good things. To further the conversation
on lighting, staff’s recommendation would be if you get involved in a partnership project then we finance
the lights through one of the lighting manufacturers and then that’s a two part financing so the City would
finance it’s portion and then CAA would finance their portion as well, and that would put the obligation
to sign on a, I don’t think the City necessarily wants to be in the business of loaning money to a local
athletic association. That’s up to the council but it would be staff’s recommendation that we pay for our
part. They take out their loan through the lighting manufacturer and they pay their part back and then the
risk is accepted by the lighting manufacturer. If they’re willing to take a $50,000, give a $50,000 loan to
a local athletic association, which I think they commonly do, then they sign on that line.
Kelly: So Todd if we put up lights at Lake Susan, what does it do to the park? What other changes need
to be made at the park?
Hoffman: The further you advance that facility, if you add grandstands and those type of things, then it’s
going to modify how Lake Susan reacts to the public and so there’s just going to be less group reservation
picnic opportunities and those type of things as you increase the use at, and so that’s a programming
decision. If you put in grandstands. You put in bathrooms. Minor concessions. Lighting. Those type of
things and that field’s going to be used a lot. Then other things in the park are going to be effected so
parking for archery and parking for the playground and really primarily, yeah the tennis is there as well so
basically you’re turning it into a baseball park but it still has some other amenities and you can’t quantify
that. You can just kind of think, if it becomes that kind of facility where it’s really baseball oriented and
that’s not a bad thing. It would just be a change in how Lake Susan would be operated so on a Saturday
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 23, 2013
afternoon if you’ve got a full day of baseball, you’re really not going to have an opportunity to have a
company picnic there or picnic reservation type of event as well.
Kelly: Is there room there for adding parking surface?
Hoffman: You would, yes there is. You would take out the two sand volleyball courts and add about
another 50 to 60 stalls, something like that. Which if you create a ballfield like we’re talking about, that
would be necessary.
Kelly: And what would the cost on that run roughly?
Hoffman: Almost $10,000 a stall for a parking ramp but we’re not talking that here. You have a good
idea Mr. Carron? Per stall, couple grand?
Carron: $100,000.
Hoffman: Yeah, it’s going to be $100,000 to $150,000.
Kelly: Okay.
Carron: I work for free. …on a small project like that, unless you can tie it into something else, that’s
the problem. You don’t get a whole lot of bang for your buck.
Hoffman: And then there’s a question of where do you start? So you just start with the lights or do you
start with you know one or the other. Move the backstop up. Improve the facility. The play facility and
then where do you go from there? Do you start with lights and how do you progress forward after that?
Scharfenberg: Todd just from some clarification relative to the Pioneer Pass development and the
$350,000 that was allocated for this year. Was that just to do the parking lot and that stuff or if you could
just clarify that and what we need to pay going forward for equipment and stuff for next year.
Hoffman: The $350,000 is for the whole development of the first phase. That includes the playground
for next year and the picnic shelter, so those are the two primary items which are left remaining on the
project so you had a $350,000 budget. We’re going to spend we think about $230,000 so you have about
$120,000 left and that will facilitate those improvements. There’s two playgrounds so I think we can
afford both of those and then the shelter structure and so we’ll take a look at that $130,000. You’ll be
talking about somewhere in that $80,000 range for those two playgrounds and $30,000-$35,000 for that,
for the structure. For the picnic structure so those budgets will be discussed in more detail as we move
forward. Where should we allocate which dollars? What all should we put in the park? There’s going to
be some incidental costs for some baseball equipment. Baseball field equipment and some other things so
once we get a little bit more time after we bid it, award it, we’ll crunch those numbers for you and let you
know how we propose to invest those other dollars. The remaining dollars.
Scharfenberg: So what is the, so going, do we have to allocate that money then for?
Hoffman: No you do not. So the $350,000 is in there. It will continue to be bought down over time, over
2013 and 2014 until that fund is accomplished.
Scharfenberg: Okay.
Kelly: Todd, talk a little bit about the Lake Ann and Lake Susan boat access requests?
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Park and Recreation Commission—July 23, 2013
Hoffman: We have three public accesses in town. We only have,we have a dock at one and that's at
Lotus Lake and so we receive requests from the public, for a variety of people it's difficult to access their
watercraft once they've landed it without a dock because you don't have a flat level surface and so these
are facilities that we operate on an annual basis. They're DNR approved and DNR funded accesses. The
DNR does not mandate that you have that but for accessibility you could argue that it would be something
that would greatly improve the access for the boating public at those locations. So it's a boat dock off to
the side of the landing. When you launch your boat then you can tie up and then when people load into a
boat they can walk on the dock and then access their watercraft that way. Right now they've got to step
over the side and that can be a challenge for different populations.
Carron: One item that I don't see on your list here Cole is,what we talked about with the City Council
and the mayor when we met about more shelters at some of these parks.
Kelly: Well the reason the shelters aren't in there is because the Mayor was going to pay for them from
other funding sources than the CIP.
Carron: Oh okay.
Kelly: And that's why we haven't put them in there.
Carron: Good explanation.
Scharfenberg: What will the other funding sources be?
Hoffman: The capital fund. So similar to in '05 when we purchased playgrounds out of the capital fund,
and the tennis court improvements came out of the capital fund. So we don't know where that
conversation is. It will be likely taken up at the council, City Council work session or future City Council
meeting if it's brought up in 2013.
Scharfenberg: And just for clarification purposes Todd for the other newer members of the commission,
the Chanhassen Native Preserve Trail,we've got $90,000 as a place holder for that and I think the
explanation is that, at some point that that trail is going to be finished. We just don't know when and we
need to have that$90,000 allocated to complete that trail. We just don't know at this point whenever
that's going to be completed. That final section.
Hoffman: That's correct. It will be completed concurrent when that lot is developed so this is on Century
Trail off the Chan Nature Preserve. Century Boulevard and Mamac Systems is the building that's
currently there. There's an empty lot just to the north of Mamac and when that building is built then they
have to build the trail but we have to pay for it so that's the final trail connection. So this just kicks
around. Right now we have it in 2016. If the lot sells and it's developed in 2015,we'll just pull it
forward.
Scharfenberg: But it's something we need to keep in the CIP.
Hoffman: Have to keep it in,right.
Kelly: Right. But there'll be revenues also coming in with that development.
Scharfenberg: No because it's industrial.
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 23, 2013
Hoffman: Yeah, likely already paid. I’ll check. It’s likely already paid but it’s not a cash in cash system
so you’ve got to keep it in there.
Kelly: Thank you for the clarification. Todd we visited Roundhouse Park last month and you’ve
recommended play structures for two different age groups. Are they both needed? Do we know what
kind of age groups that are out there and of course that’s a constantly changing thing. Are we better off
just putting in for the 6 to 12?
Hoffman: That’s what’s currently in there is 5 to 12 or 6 to 12 and then these allocations are for toddlers
or 2 to 5 and that’s really up to the commission’s discretion and desire. If you think those things are
warranted, we don’t have them in very many parks but there will be one included in the Pioneer Pass
playground so there’ll be both. A 2 through 5 and 5 through 12. A toddler and a older child youth
playground. The other items that’s not included here is if you want to continue the conversation about
any additional netting or fencing at any of the ballparks.
Scharfenberg: Todd can you just comment again, I know I’ve asked you in the past and I guess I’ve
forgotten what you’ve told me but with respect with the changes that will be made to Lyman I believe
next year. Is there any cost that we need to be prepared for relative to that development?
Hoffman: Not in trail costs. So parks and recreation, the park fund will not be tapped for that trail
construction. It’s going to be on the north side of Lyman at that location from Powers Boulevard to
Audubon so that road project is set and scheduled and financed. And another nice gap to be filled in.
That will be a great gap. A lot of people end up at the bottom of Powers and now they’ll have another
opportunity to go west.
Scharfenberg: I looked through most of this but I didn’t see, is there anything in here on a potential trail
from Powers to 101 for that gap?
Hoffman: Oh along Pioneer Trail?
Scharfenberg: Right.
Hoffman: Along with this plan set, this schematic that was created, we also created, there were four
projects that were looked at in this particular planning session so there was the Arboretum trail. The trail
that we’re now discussing, Pioneer Trail from Powers to101 and then Bluff Creek. And what was the
fourth one? There was four of them in there. The section from, on Pioneer Trail is very expensive and
it’s a county road and so the conclusion at that time was that we’re just going to wait until that county
road is updated and that there exists a significant shoulder at that location. More of a shoulder than you
have on a lot of public streets. Either county or state or local streets so it’s not in a current CIP to build it.
Stand alone becomes fairly involved because of property issues. The tightness of the corridor and a
variety of those things so it’s never even been on a CIP in the history of the community at this point. I’ll
email you that study.
Kelly: Well I think part of our discussion should go around, do we, you know with dollars being offered
by another entity, do we want lights at Lake Susan? You know Jerry what kind of use do we have at Lake
Susan now? What would you envision if we had lights?
Ruegemer: Currently Chair Kelly that baseball is played 7 days a week at Lake Susan. Right now
Monday through Friday starting mornings and for the large part of Sundays out there.
Kelly: And what kind of other use does the park get generally?
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 23, 2013
Ruegemer: We do do picnics there 6 days a week. I do not schedule picnics on Sundays because of the
adult baseball league is a lot of participation and parking is definitely an issue those days so that’s kind of
I guess it right now for picnics. There’s also the fishing pier down there that people fish. People use the
lake for boating and recreational use. You know archery.
Kelly: So you think if we put in lights and expanded the ballpark area that the picnic area would be used
less?
Ruegemer: It depends on you know what nights. Certainly depending on what the numbers and stuff are,
we certainly, there are some days that both activities could co-exist depending on the number of
participants for each but I see that both working to a certain degree.
Kelly: And if we had lights, how late could they play typically?
Ruegemer: Well we have the lights off roughly around 10:00.
Kelly: Okay. So you get a, on a week night you get two games in instead of one is basically.
Ruegemer: For sure, you double your capacity.
Kelly: And I think from what we discussed last month you told me that the fields could handle that kind
of stress.
Ruegemer: Absolutely.
Kelly: Any other questions or discussion on the lights? What are you guys thinking out there?
Lynch: What age group are we targeting for like the baseball use of that field?
Ruegemer: For Lake Susan it’s sort of a full sized field or a 90 foot field so that would be that probably
14 and above range through adult.
Scharfenberg: And the problem is, is that they’ve continued to CAA and the other organizations have
continued to increase fields at the 90 foot level. They just need fields because of the amount of capacity.
Other cities I think have experienced a lot of this, these same issues. My personal opinion is, I don’t
know that I can justify spending $200,000 to light one ballfield and not get a lot of use like we have at
Lake Ann. If we’re going to light fields I think we focus on lighting Bandimere down the road at some
point within I don’t know, maybe the next 5 years but to light one particular field, I would rather take that
$200,000 and do something else with it, and I understand that we’re getting $50,000 from, I don’t know
that they’re going to be able to raise that. That $50,000. That’s a lot of money and they have other needs
besides just lighting fields but I don’t know how the rest of their membership feels. If they’re all in step
on taking that money to commit it towards fields but, or towards lighting that particular field but.
Kelly: I think it would come out of their, the baseball. They’re all segmented by units and I think.
Scharfenberg: Oh I know that they are but they’re, you know that money is also baseball and softball are
together and I don’t know if softball’s in step with, Ted Ellefson was here tonight. Ted didn’t necessarily
speak for softball. I guess I would have liked his opinion as to what he thought about that. If he’s in
support of that particular, taking that money. I don’t know. I would rather light multiple fields than light
one ballfield.
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 23, 2013
Kelly: I’m in agreement with you there. The problem is we’re 5 or 6 years away from lighting
Bandimere and we have needs right now and this would satisfy a certain amount of needs and we have a
partner in the deal and, and we do have a fair amount of cash out there and one of our jobs is to improve
the city. You know if we were at a low cash balance I’d say no way. It’s not anything we want to look at
right now. We have a high cash balance so do have, we have to do a few things because we’re not, our
job is not to sit on this money. It’s to improve the city and while I’m in agreement with your thought that
it would be nice to put it in to Bandimere, Bandimere’s not going to happen for 5 or 6 years.
Scharfenberg: Well that’s if you’re talking about taking the one million and doing it at all. You can light
the Bandimere fields solely and not have to light soccer, hockey, all of those other things. You can take
and light those 3 fields for a sum of money, and I’m assuming CAA would kick in towards that.
Kelly: Right but the other problem is, I think if we’re going to be lighting fields there’s an infrastructure
that has to be put through all of Bandimere which would push the costs up anyways because if you’re
putting in lights for a certain fields, you’re going to do other fields, I mean Todd, I mean what kind of, we
would have to have certain things laid out for everything if we went in there?
Hoffman: We’re equally set up to do a lighting project at either Lake Susan or Bandimere independent of
anything else and so the power at Bandimere, we worked with Minnesota Valley when they just did the
road projects so it’s all set, ready to go outside the gates of Bandimere when we’re ready. At Lake Susan
they would have to run a transformer and so you would have to have a utility box and a transformer so
you’d be doing this same type of thing.
Kelly: So we wouldn’t have any additional costs if we just did the ballfields to start with and then came
back and did the soccer fields?
Hoffman: There’s going to be some incremental change. You know the larger the project, the unit costs
go down but there’s going to be some, the most expensive is do one field so if you do one field at
Bandimere and one field at Lake Susan, the costs are going to be about equal.
Kelly: Right. And that wouldn’t make any sense.
Hoffman: Yep. If you do 3 fields at Bandimere, your per unit cost is going to come down. One thing I
think the commission may want to consider is that Lake Susan, you may want to have a master planning
conversation with a community group to talk about the future of that ballfield. Do you want to make
Lake Susan a baseball complex? It’s been talked about. It’s never been master planned. Bandimere has
always been planned to have lights. There’s no public record of Lake Ann being developed to be
eliminated baseball complex. Single field. It’s certainly been talked about many times but you might
want to have that conversation. Is this, do we want to have a baseball, a tournament style with
grandstands and those type of things. You can simply light the field and not do that. You know you
double your recreational play but you don’t have those other things that they’re seeking and so it certainly
could be lit just like Lake Ann fields or Bandimere fields and just continue to play two games and I think
that’s a philosophy that everyone’s bought into, that we’re not going to be buying additional land and
building additional ballfields. We’re going to be lighting the fields we currently have so if you play 7
games now, you can play 14 games with lights for $150,000 grant or $200,000, that’s a pretty good return
on investment because to build the Lake Susan ballfield would cost you a million and a half or two
million dollars so for $150,000 you double it where it takes a million and a half to get the first 7 games
so, depending on a lot of ways to look at it and when that wants to happen. You know of course it’s
always a referendum when you put this on, this would go to a City Council and they would have to talk
about it. Do they want to spend, do they want to invest $150,000? Do they want to take on the CAA as a
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 23, 2013
partner? Do they want to get involved and then if they say yes, you know they’re going to hear from
their constituents as well and hear from the different communities that they talk with. Is that a good idea
or is it not a good idea and of course they have the final say. Thumbs up or thumbs down on that kind of
a project. You know the council’s pretty well in tune with baseball. If you’ve been watching their
actions around town, they spend a lot of time in the baseball arena and I think they know what’s going on.
Kelly: So if we decided to look at doing 3 fields at Bandimere, so we’re talking per field would be
$200,000. What would be the incremental changes downward if we did 3 at one time would you guess?
Hoffman: About a half a million so you’d probably shave about $100,000 off.
Kelly: By doing all 3 at the same time.
Hoffman: The heights of some of those are going to be different and so they’re going to be shorter which
is going to cost less. The one baseball field at Bandimere is going to be the same cost as Lake Susan
baseball but then the other two fields are smaller and the lights would be shorter. The costs will go down.
Kelly: Now what, I suppose there wouldn’t be any cost savings to just do one at a time out there so you
pick, we say we’ve got the money to do it. Let’s do one field at Bandimere this year. One another year
and keep building, that doesn’t, I don’t think that sounds like a good plan.
Hoffman: It’s not a good plan and it invests 3 times, you know the admin costs just skyrocket because
now I have to be involved in a baseball lighting project 3 years in a row versus one and so does everyone
else that would be involved in that. Including the disruption to the public. Construction to park activities.
Boettcher: Well Todd or Jerry, what would be the focus 5 years from now? Is most of the ballfields, is
the use going to be at Bandimere or Lake Susan? What do you see long term? I mean based on facilities,
size and such. In other words if you spend $200,000 on Lake Susan and 5 years you spend $200,000 on
Bandimere and then Lake Susan has one game a night and the lights, are we wasting $200,000?
Ruegemer: Yeah I see the capacity at Bandimere because you have multiple ballfields and different age
groups and that sort of thing but I mean looking down the road, I mean the numbers are, you know Todd
kind of said it tonight. That age group, they went from what, 24 to 200 and some so that, I mean those
kids are going through that program and continuing. Those numbers are continuing to do double digit
increases every year so I mean we’re just looking at needs in 5 to 6 years with all the fields that we have.
Scharfenberg: Jim you have to remember too that this organization that came to us tonight, they have
access to, because they include members from Carver and Victoria, they have access to those other
lighted fields there as well. Now they’re also competing with the Vic’s and other legion teams and stuff
for those fields as well but they have access to other fields. Now I haven’t sat down with Todd Neils. He
would probably tell you they’re not getting those fields or they’re having difficulty getting to those fields
to use them but they have access to other 90 foot fields you know available to them. They’ve got the field
at Victoria and they have a field at Carver. The Carver field’s not lit though is it? I don’t think it is. I
don’t think they have lights at Carver. They do at Victoria though I believe so there are other fields that
they have availability to them to use, and they need more space. I get that. I don’t know that just lighting
one ballfield gives them the space really that they need so they’re looking for a short term fix I think to a
long term problem and the long term problem is, you need more access and the best way to get that is to
light Bandimere. The other question that you have through this whole thing that you need to start having
a conversation about is, is talking to Springfield because the people in Springfield don’t necessarily like
having anything out there you know between McDonald’s and the Harley Davidson dealership that was
out there, they don’t want anything and I can imagine what it’s going to be like, how many people you’re
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 23, 2013
going to have here complaining that when you want to light Bandimere and how that’s going to affect
their land value and their home value and you know that’s a tough choice and I think Todd’s right to some
extent you need to go, we need to go to the council and say, hey you know I think we need to get our
ducks in a row in terms of talking to CAA. See what the need is and say, you know we’re committed to
this and increasing field usage and stuff like that. We think the best way to do that is this but you know
you’re going to get a lot of push back from people in lighting that and that would be a good conversation
to have with them.
Kelly: Lake Susan you don’t really have the neighborhoods pushing back because of where it’s located,
if you’re putting up lights.
Stolar: Like we said before about Lake Susan, if we didn’t put lights in there, would there be an issue
with parking because of more use with the baseball fields getting the lights so would we have to take care
of the parking lot and the lights at the same time or would we just have to put the lights in and deal with
the parking?
Kelly: I think we’d put the lights in if we decided to do that and then looked at what’s going on over
there. What kind of use does it have? Are people parking on the grass? Where are they parking and that
would be a second conversation is at some point do we need to build out the more parking and at some
point we’d say well, if they’re going to redo that road that goes along there, that would be a time to do it
because it would be cheaper than you know the hundred and twenty five that was discussed earlier.
Hoffman: Parking crunch always comes at turnover time so if you schedule 4 teams and they come at
turnover time when the first game is completing and the second one’s starting. That’s when you have a
parking crunch so it depends on how you schedule it. If they’re double headers.
Scharfenberg: Todd would there be the availability to expand, I’m just trying to think how that, when
you pull into Lake Susan, that parking lot where a lot of the boaters pull down to that you could expand
that at all? No, okay.
Hoffman: The only place to expand is to continue to go west with the lot there by the playground and
then you take out the two volleyball.
Scharfenberg: Or I guess take out the tennis courts.
Hoffman: Yes. Or the other way and take out tennis courts, yeah. To, I think it was Jim who started on
the point of what is the long term value and it’s, you know it’s like we hope that the youth sports are
never going to run out of participants but there was a time in our community when we thought adult
participants, we would not run out and we built and expanded and lit ballfields at Lake Ann for adult
softball, which no longer utilizes those facilities. The youth filled in. I don’t think adult softball is
coming back anytime soon. We are always going to have fluctuations in the number of youth in our
sporting events but I’m pretty confident there’s always going to be some turnover in our housing stock
and new families are going to be moving in so, I have little or no fear that continued investments in our
current facilities will always pay some dividends in our community. But there has been changes as we’ve
moved through our short history today.
Kelly: Well I think one way or another I’d like to push the City Council to see what their thoughts are
and if you know, what they can push back, they can come back and say, we don’t like the Lake Susan
because it’s a one of which I have a feeling could happen and you know we want to put more money into
Bandimere. What kind of timeframe? Where else would they find money because we’re not going to be
able to come up with all the money at one time I don’t think, and maybe they’ll say you’re going to dip
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 23, 2013
into your fund further than you want to and that would be the way it would be, but I think we need to put
something on for next year to get the City Council to talk about it because they can reject it. They can
come back and say, you know why isn’t Bandimere on here? It gets the discussion going and see what
they say because if we push out Bandimere 5 years because of the cost and then get all the citizens
rallying and then it takes a few more years and then we decide well we’d better do something at Lake
Susan because we’re having push back at Bandimere and then we could have built it years before and got
the use out of it and the costs are only going to go up long term so I want to push the City Council to see
what they want to do on it and put it in for next year. Thoughts, comments.
Scharfenberg: Well you know just to go back to that whole how do you, you know this would be a
conversation to have with the council but how do you go about financing the stuff that we want to do at
Bandimere because it’s not only lighting but it’s hockey and tennis courts and I think we’ve proposed
potentially a million dollars to do that and I think part of that conversation with them should be the
thought of doing a referendum and putting a referendum before the voters on Bandimere and this is what
we want to do. We have this park. It’s a wonderful park. We’ve acquired these additional homes. You
know this additional space there now and we want to make this you know something rivalarying Lake
Ann and I think we can make that. You know we’ve got the Frisbee golf there now and you know
lighting of the fields and building these other things and I think that’s one way to potentially put that out
there as you know what would they rather have us do? Do they think a referendum and do you think
people would support that? Or the other way to go about it is to use CIP funds and go about it doing that
way but it’s going to be, that’s going to be piecemeal. It’s going to be piecemeal to do the work that we
want to do out there so.
Kelly: Yeah, and that runs up the cost. I like your idea about a referendum but if they do a referendum
then we still will have, we’d have money to do Lake Susan. The thing about a referendum, it depends
upon where the economy goes where the City Council would decide that they wanted to do a referendum
or not and it’s been a few years and it depends upon what the flavor of people in the city are thinking at
the time and I think it’s up to all of us and to the City Council people if we want to do this to get out and
talk to your neighbors and say you know we’re looking at a referendum. We’ve got a world class Lake
Ann. We want to have a world class Bandimere which is in the works but it can’t happen without a
referendum and we’d have to have the numbers behind us. Here’s what it does to a typical home of
$350,000 and you know for how many years and I like that idea. I think we should have that discussion
with the City Council. Maybe we put it into the CIP that we want a referendum and see what the City
Council says. But I think that’s a good idea. Other thoughts. Other questions.
Carron: Well I agree with both of you about the referendum and getting that conversation started. My
thinking is that we just sunk a whole bunch of money in purchasing that home and to let it sit for 5 years
and then just to put it onto 2017 not to, I mean you had to put into place or someplace but just be planning
of in 5 years down the road or next year. I think it’s obvious from what we’ve been hearing that we’re
short. We’re 7 days a week at Lake Susan. We’re running out of ballfields for these kids to play on.
We’ve got to do something and it’s going to have to happen sooner or later. Regarding Lake Susan, I
guess I’d like to see what, I guess I’m indifferent and that being said I’d like to see what the council
thinks what the overall, or like Todd was mentioning earlier, having, what were you saying Todd?
Having someone come in and do kind of like a study or something.
Hoffman: Community planning meeting.
Carron: Community planning meeting on what actually we want to do with that because I agree, if you
put in lights and you go to that next phase then the next step is going to be a scoreboard and grandstands
and you know toilets and that sort of thing so that’s, I think it’s more than just lights there but that’s the
first step so I’d like to see what the City Council thinks about that park and where they think we should
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 23, 2013
go. But ultimately I think it’s inevitable that it’s going to be probably lit sometime down the road just
because we’re running out of space. One thing that we haven’t talked about yet that I don’t, still don’t
quite, just a change of topic, wrap my head around is a City Center Park bandshell. Just throwing this out
there because it’s not a big deal here. We haven’t talked about it yet but I think for 2014, I don’t know if
that’s a huge priority. My two cents in front of the playground, if we can somehow wrap those two
playgrounds into Pioneer Pass, I think that was a wise decision to possibly look at this with Pioneer Pass
coming up and doing the playgrounds all as one bid for the three of them. If it’s going to be a 2 to 6 or if
we want to expand the 6 to 12 or in that area so I’m a fan of that. And the boat access as well. I mean
Lake Ann, Lake Susan, we all know that those are some heavy, just with the AIS coming in here and
showing us all the boats that come in and out of there. I think that’s a good idea too that that would be a
cheap, a cheap, great addition I think. And then going forward here, it’s I guess I really don’t have a
whole lot of problems with anything going forward. It’s just a plan right now but just trying to
concentrate on 2014 and early 15 and that’s my thoughts.
Hoffman: Commissioners, we can show you an image if you want to pull up the power point Jerry.
We’ll show you an image of that bandshell and then Mitch if you want to just tell them the little story
about last week. This is the part of the conversation so let’s look at the bandshell first. There it is. It’s
back one. So there it is. $45,000. Well it’s coming up. Okay. So it’s design, fabrication, installation of
four permanent bandshell poles. Seasonal bandshell fabric so the poles stay up. The fabric comes down.
It’s for the concert series. It’ll add color. A sense of architecture to that stage area. It would be fairly
obvious as people drive up and down this corridor that that’s a bandshell. There is a performance area.
It’ll create a more comfortable environment for performers on a hot and sunny day which we have on a
number of occasions so this last Thursday the community band, Mitch can tell you the story.
Johnson: Yeah so last Thursday, I mean last week was a pretty hot and muggy day. I hear it every week
when the band shows up. You know they look at the circle. We send them aerials and they sit out there
and it’s hot. They look at the sun and go really. Is this the stage? You know they’re baking but this last
Thursday the band threaten to cancel at 6:00, an hour before the performance because it was too hot for
them. You know the heat index I think was like mid 90’s. They opted to try to push back towards the
street and the stage but you know then you kind of eliminate that kind of intimate atmosphere with the
seating and everything like that so it is a request. I think seriously every concert we’ve had people always
question, you need to get this. I know KleinBank has tried offering suggestions too like hey we need to
get a bandshell. You know we could really make this kind of a fun atmosphere and you know kind of
wrap it up with the whole downtown area I think.
Scharfenberg: If we put KleinBank on the fabric, would they be willing to kick in some money?
Hoffman: They might.
Johnson: And you know it could be used, you know I know a lot of cities that have these bandshells.
They can use it for movies in the park. I was just in Edina and they have an earlier movie in the park.
Where you have something like this maybe you could eliminate the glare from the sun. You could start
like a kids movie earlier. You could use it for multiple things rather than just a weekly concert too.
Hoffman: So that’s the concept.
Kelly: Thanks Mitch. So obviously with Manchester Park, the idea with that will be moved out to what?
About 2016. We don’t know when that’s going to happen.
Hoffman: Yeah, you could move it out all the way to the end.
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 23, 2013
Kelly: 2018?
Hoffman: (Yes).
Kelly: Okay, move that out to 2018.
Hoffman: Chair Kelly, probably a good idea to get a consensus from the group if individually if you want
to work on this for another month or if you want to move it out tonight.
Echternacht: I’d like to see us go forward to the City Council at least with throwing out about the
Bandimere and Lake Susan and what their thoughts are on it so that we can start getting that going.
Hoffman: And that is, how you communicate with the council is once you formulate your
recommendation for a CIP, that is your recommendation so that’s your full communication and so that
can either happen tonight. You can formulate your full CIP for 2014 or you can continue to work on
some of these loose ends that you have and then formulate that in August. And then they receive it as part
of the budget package. The official budget package for the, and then they’ll talk about it in September,
October, November until they finally enact that budget sometime in the fall.
Kelly: So what do we want to do tonight? Do we want to make some decisions or are we looking to
finalize it next month? Do we want some more work on this? We want more discussion? Do we want to
have small discussion groups inbetween? I kind of like the idea of pushing something through. I like
Brent’s idea of throwing the playground in with the Pioneer Pass because we may get some discounts
there and you know we do have some money to do a few things. From my list that I handed out we
moved Manchester to 2018. Personally I’d leave everything else in there for 2014. Bluff Creek trail will
change at some point. We need, and that might move out to 2016. We don’t know when the road’s going
to be done. It could even be further out. And Chan Nature Preserve may move out again. And then so
the two big issues I guess that would, are do we want to put through lighting at Lake Susan, which I’d like
to see the City Council look at and where do we want to, what do we want to do with Bandimere because,
and do we just want to have individual discussions with that? I do like Steve’s idea of a referendum
down the road but I think we have to have some discussions.
Hoffman: You’d want to talk to the council at their work session.
Kelly: Right.
Scharfenberg: My preference would be not to do anything tonight. Talk preliminary what we want to do.
Have staff go back and put those numbers together in a form and just, and again so everybody knows you
know, we don’t have to do all of this stuff.
Kelly: No we don’t.
Scharfenberg: And I’m not necessarily for putting all of this stuff in just because we have the money.
Kelly: Right.
Scharfenberg: Again it has to be what we feel are the priorities so I would, my preference is rough
something out tonight and have staff kind of put it together and come back and have 30 days to come
back and approve something in August.
Kelly: Other thoughts.
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 23, 2013
Boettcher: I like that idea.
Kelly: Okay.
Boettcher: Because I’d want to get some input too from the City Council on a couple of items before our
next meeting and then finalize it in August.
Hoffman: Again the council’s not, you’re not in the position to ask the council really for their input.
Your input is going to come once you submit the CIP. Their expectation of you is to provide that
information to them and then during the CIP process that’s when they’ll provide their input so. You
could talk to them individually. That would, I would suggest you might want to do that.
Kelly: Right, that’s what we would do in the next 30 days.
Carron: Jerry, could you provide some information on Lake Susan as far as the volleyball. How many
times the shelter gets rented per year? Just kind of give us some preliminary background on history there
so that if we do want to go ahead with the lighting and it’s going to cause some more congestion, what
that would do.
Echternacht: Also if we’re going to be asking the City Council to maybe consider a referendum, we
should probably have all the numbers again for, everything that we may want to be doing in that
referendum as far as the hockey and everything, the lights and have the whole package to them.
Hoffman: And if the commission wants to advance that conversation prior to your spring discussion with
the council then you would want to take that up as a separate conversation from the CIP and, there’s two
ways to advance that conversation with the council. You can just formulate, place it on an agenda.
Formulate a discussion and make a recommendation to City Council. They can choose to either address it
or not. Or you can have a conversation at your next joint meeting which will likely be next March or
April and have a conversation about, is that something that they would like to consider in the future for
Bandimere so those are the two opportunities you have. And staff is willing to do either. Those are how
those processes started in 1996. The referendum conversation started in 1994 and the referendum was in
1996 and previous referendums to that.
Ruegemer: ’88.
Hoffman: Yeah ’88. Yeah.
Scharfenberg: Would we be able to get on a work session this fall with them?
Hoffman: We could request that sure.
Scharfenberg: Okay.
Kelly: Well then I would recommend staff put together the changes that I discussed earlier from my cheat
sheet and put it into a format that we can discuss at the next meeting and then at our next meeting we’ll
make final decisions on what we’re going to forward to the City Council and what we’re not going to
forward to the City Council. Does that sound like a good plan?
Hoffman: I have all your notes. We also have the Minutes and then we’ll present this again in a more
formal power point presentation going right through each item. Show you a little background when it
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 23, 2013
comes to Lake Susan. Mr. Ruegemer can talk about what would happen at Lake Susan long term. We’ll
give you a little aerial shot of what’s going on out at Lake Susan and what are the potential changes. That
park already went through one transformation when we added that large playground and we expanded
parking so we doubled the parking in that lot already to date and we added that large playground structure
there so, to accommodate that parking the sand volleyball was moved. Sand volleyball is primarily used
by our company picnics that are there and they find it as a nice group activity so that’s kind of a, that goes
part and parcel with the shelter. The playground is also a part of the big draw to that destination for those
picnics so we’ll bring that information back for you as well. We’ll detail each one of these items and then
we’ll have kind of a reserve addendum, having all of the other items that you’ve talked about and had in
your CIP in the past so you can look at all those.
Scharfenberg: Todd as part of that could you please, and I just want to put it out there, I don’t know
where we put it in terms of a year but the cost of, given the CAA’s request tonight about safety and we do
look at safety as a particular issue with the netting and fencing costs at Lake Susan, or I’m sorry Lake
Ann would be to do Fields 4 and 5.
Hoffman: Okay. You need a motion to table then if you’re ready.
Kelly: Okay, somebody got a motion out there?
Carron: I’ll make a motion to table the discussion on the 2013 forward CIP until next month.
Kelly: Is there a second?
Scharfenberg: Second.
Carron moved, Scharfenberg seconded to table the 2014-2018 Park and Trail Acquisition and
Development Capital Improvement Program (CIP) to the next meeting. All voted in favor and the
motion carried unanimously with a vote of 9 to 0.
RECREATION PROGRAM REPORTS: 2013 FOURTH OF JULY CELBRATION
EVALUATION.
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Johnson: Good evening Chair Kelly and commissioners. The City’s 30 annual Fourth of July
celebration is officially in the books. We had a wrap up meeting last week and definitely was one of the
more successful events we’ve had in recent years. Staff estimates that anywhere between 70,000 and
85,000 people participated in at least one aspect of the 3 day celebration. Part of my report, I kind of
broke it down by event over the 3 day celebration. I’ll kind of hit the high points and be happy to answer
any questions people have throughout the presentation. At the end I do have an expense report attached
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as well. Starting on July 2 a couple years ago we started the family night at the carnival. I think is
definitely one of our most successful family night at the carnival. Definitely starting to get some traction.
I think the families realize that’s the best night to come out. Get the best bang for your buck on the rides.
There’s no lines. You know people are just kind of coming through all night long. Families with the
littler kids can definitely hit the rides earlier in the night and still make it to bed in plenty of time so it’s
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fun to see that continue to grow. Estimated between 2,000 and 3,000 people took part of that. On the 3
we start the big day off with the Minnesota Twins baseball clinic. Jerry does a great job and has a great
relationship with the Minnesota Twins. About 150 kids participated in that out at the Chan High School
and Red Birds Stadium. Another activity, the kiddie parade is always one of my favorites and all the kids
dress up their wagons and bikes and kind of go through the neighborhood communities. Definitely one of
our bigger crowds. We start at the elementary school and send them into the neighborhood. We always
stand there and make sure everybody gets across. It’s a long snake and then as soon as everybody gets
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 23, 2013
across we always run back to City Hall to greet everybody and we were running back and we could see
the fire truck already coming so we had to kick it in high gear to make sure we were there to greet
everyone so it was a long, snake parade that went through so we estimated about 350 kids participated
based on the amount of treats that were left over so. Turning over the page, big thanks to the Chanhassen
Fire Department. They staffed the first aid tent again here at City Center Park grounds. We added
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coverage on the 4 this year so the 3 and the 4 they staffed that. No major incidents. We had beautiful
weather. You know it was in the 80’s if you recall, versus last year it was so hot and humid. We had a
couple heat related things so real smooth on that part. The Southwest Metro Chamber continued to
organize the Business Expo. We had 40 local businesses in the tent right here. Kind of promotes the
local businesses. Get a lot of people going through the door so it’s kind of fun to see that. Moving down
through the page there on page 2, a couple other vendors we’ve had for multiple years. Continue to have
great relationships with them. They have great crowds that come through. You know Water Wars.
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Speedway Racing. The pony and camel rides continue to always be a hit on the 3. We continue to offer
the 3 on 3 basketball tournament this year. Something we did this year new, the Chan Rec Center Sports
staff took that as one of their responsibilities so Lindsey Ragu, our Coordinator kind of spearheaded that
with her staff and you know we had a great turnout for that and continues to build momentum too so I
think next year we’ll try to offer day of registrations. We had lots of kids who didn’t know about it
beforehand who came up and expressed interest but unfortunately we had the brackets drawn up and stuff.
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On the next page a couple other activities we had going on the 3. The skateboard series continues to be
very popular and they really pack the park and it brings people to Chanhassen from all over the metro
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area. It’s part of a summer skateboard series that 3 Lair skate park hosts. Kind of going through, big
thanks to Baha’i Faith. They continue to sponsor the diaper changing and kids feeding area. They staff
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that the 3 and the 4 and even next year they offered to do the 2 as well being it’s a family night so a
great partnership we’ve developed with them over the years. Also a big thanks to the Chanhassen Rotary
Club. They spearhead the Taste of Chanhassen, the car show and as well as the parade so they do a great
job with that and have a couple of their members that are part of our planning committee. This year they
had 8 local restaurants participate in the Taste. Kind of you know brings everybody together and
something new we added this year, we added a third portable light. Last year we had two of them. We
put one behind the beer garden this year. We rent those from Ziegler Rental down in Shakopee and I
think it adds so much to the event. Our vendors are allowed to go later into the night. The activities, the
kiddie games, you know when you light the whole park up for a short, small payment really adds a lot so.
I believe the Rotary Club broke a record this year in their sales through the Rotary Beer Garden so that’s
great to see. I think I saw a few of you guys out there. You could definitely test the crowds. I think we
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estimated there was about 12,000 to 15,000 out there on the 3 so I know at 7:00 I looked and every
folding chair in the place was full so definitely get some more seating out there next year. Turning the
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page there, kind of wrap up the 3. Obviously the carnival you know adds so much to the celebration.
The limited wrist band rides again so that was great. We’ve got a great relationship with them and it
continues to grow. We had live music this year before the big street dance from an adult band. IN the
past we’ve done the winners of ChanJam. This year we had a band called Ragtown who opened for them.
I thought they did a great job. Heard a lot of positive feedback from that, that people enjoyed having that
you know kind of soft opening to the street dance. CBO, Casablanca Orchestra was part of the street
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dance again this year. This is their 16 year. If you guys were there you probably noticed the big LED
screen above them. It was 14 feet by 8 feet. Something we added new this year so they did live video of
the band throughout the performance and then during the 15 minute intermissions throughout the night we
were able to put some old photos of the celebration over the years and kind of rotate through. Market
some of the activities we had going on the next day so it was kind of fun and also we were able to put our
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sponsors up there which is very beneficial for them as well. Going onto the 4 we start bright and early
out at Lake Ann with the adult fishing contest. Our numbers are down a little bit compared to last year.
We usually max out at 50. We were down a little bit. We usually have a pretty strong group that comes
year after year. There was a couple people sick. A couple large families weren’t able to participate just
the day it fell on this year but we were still able to generate some revenue on that. Now everybody gets
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 23, 2013
prizes based on our sponsorships so that’s great you know activity. People really come to enjoy. Right
after the adult fishing contest we get into the kids fishing contest. We had 110 kids register this year.
Lake Ann the fishing pier was packed. All down the shore was packed. It was fun to see all the kids out
there with their parents and grandparents so continues to be a crowd favorite. Also at Lake Ann you
know we did the sand sculpture contest again. We did the medallion hunt. It was found after the first
clue this year, which had to be a record. You know we always try to go pretty vague in the beginning but
I don’t know if they just searched every nook and corner they could find in the park and somebody found
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it so, but on the 4 back here at City Center Park we started out an hour earlier this year at 10:00 a.m.
versus 11:00 a.m. in the past. We had the bingo sponsored by the Chanhassen Senior Commission. Like
I mentioned the Rotary car show was up here with a great turnout as well. And then I think compared to
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last year definitely we had a lot higher crowds this year on the 4 both before the parade and after the
parade so it’s nice that people come before and kind of make a whole day out of it. Walk to the parade
and then even stick around for some rides and stuff after that. This year we also had live music before the
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parade. That may have contributed bringing the crowds out earlier. And then once again the 4 of July
parade is definitely a crowd favorite. Sponsored by the Chanhassen Rotary. They do a great job. You’ve
got a lot of volunteers that put a lot of time into that. I think they had just shy of 80 parade entries and we
probably estimated about 15,000 to 20,000 spectators along the entire route so, you know continues to be
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kind of the marquee event on the 4. You know a lot of people come to enjoy so I think that started up
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again in 1996, you know and people talk about that year round. Wrapping up the 4 we had the Chan
Red Birds game that we helped advertise out at Red Birds Stadium and then everything kind of wrapped
up with the fireworks show at Lake Ann. We estimate that about 30,000 to 40,000 spectators throughout
the city are able to witness that. We got them out of the park I think within 20 minutes at the conclusion
of the 20 minute show. You know all those cars they just pack in there. Get every last spot we can find
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so staff does a great job getting everybody in and out as quickly as possible. Everybody got 4 of July t-
shirts. We’ve been doing this every year since 1984. I think last year we generated about $700 in
revenue. The year before was just over $1,000. This year we generated over $2,000 in revenue which is
probably one of our higher years ever. We design the shirts in-house with our Communications Specialist
who works for the City, Amy Lloyd so she did a great job with the logo. We did kind of a retro thing,
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kind of reflecting on the 30 anniversary celebration. We actually ended up placing a second order for
shirts because we were running out of sizes so much, we couldn’t keep them in stock but continues to be a
great, you know part of the celebration that people really come to look forward to. On the bottom I do
have a few suggestions and do want to continue in the future. The high quality magazine that we partner
with the Villager continues to be very popular. Kind of people’s go to resource for the 3 day celebration
so recommend we keep that. Second one there is to add the Southwest Transit Park and Ride to all our
parade maps. New starting last year we started directing everybody to park in there for the parade. It’s
another parking resource in the community in downtown so if we include that as part of the maps that we
send out to the Villager and the publications, we can continue to offer that as a resource for people. And
then you’ll see a couple other there as well. Continue to offer the information lost and found tents. We
sprayed for mosquitoes again. Hopefully they weren’t too bad. I didn’t notice them but just kind of some
of those little behind the scene details that I think people really appreciate so. On the back side there on
the last page you’ll see the revenue and expense report. We generated just over $10,000 in revenue
throughout the 3 days. Still waiting on a couple payments. That’s why you’ll see the estimated numbers
on there based on the crowds we had, and then all of the expenses are broken down for everything.
Happy to report everything came in under budget and you’ll see the final numbers there on the bottom.
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The 4 of July celebration is the third in a series of four community events that we offer throughout the
year. That’s part of our community event sponsorship program. To date we’re over $32,000 in
sponsorship from local businesses in cash and goods so that kind of helps cover part of that as well as our
1600 budget through the City Council and Mayor so. I’d be happy to if anybody has any
recommendations or questions I’d be happy to entertain anything.
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 23, 2013
rdrd
Kelly: Mitch, it was a great event. I was there on the 3. Evening of the 3. I don’t know if there’s any
way when I was on the dance floor I kind of got blown out by the speakers. I don’t know if there’s
anyway to tweak those or not but it’s a great event. No mosquitoes. I mean it’s really noticeable. Any
other comments or questions?
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Thunberg: We were there on the 3 as well. No mosquitoes. We were there, basically spent all the time
in the carnival. Kid wouldn’t want to leave there but that was a fantastic event. Couple questions on the
carnival. It seemed, while the camel and pony rides are separate so that was cash, it seemed like the
games and the rides were mixed matched between some were tickets and some were cash so I don’t know
if there’s a way that if just the carnival, if all the games and rides could just be on one that might simplify
it for people.
Johnson: Oh, okay.
Thunberg: And then a question on the 3 on 3 basketball tournament. If there was a way or why we don’t
extend it up through like high school aged kids and potentially adults. Maybe there’s not enough interest.
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Johnson: Oh yeah. Definitely an idea. We had it up til 9 grade this year. It seems like most interest
that we had this year, at least with the younger teams. I think we only had 3 teams in the like grade 7 to 9
age group but yeah, something definitely we could look into.
Stolar: I was thinking like, I participated in a 3 on 3 basketball tournament before and when there’s a lack
of teams there, maybe do like certain like grades so like maybe a 7 through 9 and then a 10 through 12
and then an adult program.
Johnson: Okay.
Stolar: I think that would maybe…to the overall tournament.
Johnson: Sounds good. Thank you.
Carron: I was there Tuesday night. $18 on the one ride. But I wore my t-shirt and I got a lot of
compliments on it so great design.
Echternacht: Mitch, are we looking at finding someone to do the raffle next year?
Johnson: You know that’s kind of a million dollar question this year. You know everybody was coming
looking in the corner where it’s always been. I did have some people express interest maybe staffing it
next year. You know as we start to look for next year’s celebration in January we’ll start to kind of make
those connections and see if they’re still interested.
Kelly: Thanks a lot Mitch. Todd, I think you’re going to talk about the playground.
COMMISSION MEMBER COMMITTEE REPORTS: RILEY RIDGE PARK PLAYGROUND
COMMUNITY BUILD PROJECT, AUGUST 9 AND 10, 2013.
Hoffman: Just a reminder to let people know that, go on the website. I’ll send it out again and sign up if
thth
you would like to help out on that Friday and Saturday, August 9 and 10. It’s going to be a community
built playground at Reflections at Lake Riley and these, if you’re in town it’s just one of those events,
especially on Saturday afternoon that you just can’t imagine the energy and the positive outcome so I
encourage you to sign up and if you can’t come out and work, just come on out and picnic that evening
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 23, 2013
and say hello to the neighbors. I’ll send you the link again. It’s Community Built Playground at Riley
Ridge and hopefully right around 5:00 we’ll open it up and let the kids climb on the playground and the
parents and guests and other adults will all sit back and revel in the moment and have a hotdog or
hamburger.
Kelly: Thank you Todd. Wish I could be there. I’ll be out of town that weekend. Anything in the
administrative section you’d like to point out.
ADMINISTRATIVE PACKET.
Hoffman: The reviews on picnic shelters. Always nice to see.
Scharfenberg: I’d just like to add one, it doesn’t have anything to do with the administrative packet but
again just I was at the concert on Thursday and I guess I’m surprised to hear that they were thinking about
cancelling in light of the temperature that night but again what a great community event. There was like
one of the largest crowds I think that I’ve been to for one of the concerts and just you know to have the
community be able to come together. Listen to some good music and would encourage you to bring them
back next year because I think they did a wonderful job.
Kelly: Oh yeah, I was there also. The big band was fantastic plus a lot of those people in the band taught
my kids so it was fun to see them also.
Ryan: One last thing since Jim stuck it out through the whole meeting, I’d just encourage everybody to
go take a look at that location to see if there’s anything that we can do to increase the view and it’s
something that we could discuss at our next meeting, if it could be on our agenda.
Carron: Can we get some pictures on it?
Hoffman: Sure.
Kelly: Any other questions or thoughts from anybody or are we ready to go to the question?
Carron moved, Thunberg seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the motion
carried unanimously with a vote of 9 to 0. The Park and Recreation Commission meeting was
adjourned at 9:30 p.m.
Submitted by Todd Hoffman
Park and Rec Director
Prepared by Nann Opheim
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