PRC 2013 10 22
CHANHASSEN PARK AND
RECREATION COMMISSION
REGULAR MEETING
OCTOBER 22, 2013
Acting Chairman Carron called the meeting to order at 7:40 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT:
Brent Carron, Steve Scharfenberg, Elise Ryan, Rick Echternacht, Jim
Boettcher, and Jacob Stolar.
MEMBERS ABSENT:
Cole Kelly, Luke Thunberg and Ryan Lynch
STAFF PRESENT:
Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Director; Jerry Ruegemer, Recreation Superintendent;
and Mitch Johnson, Recreation Supervisor
APPROVAL OF AGENDA:
Carron: Any changes on the current agenda?
Scharfenberg: I’d like to add under new business, dugouts at Lake Ann.
Carron: Okay, we’ll call that number 2.
Hoffman: Chair Carron, under reports I’ll give a variety of reports. I’ll list them. Carver Beach tree
cutting settlement. Update on the Highway 41 Highover stairway. Update on the Highway 41 pedestrian
crossing. And an update on the Pioneer Pass Park trees, grading and final seeding.
Carron: So Todd do you just want to go c, d, e, f, and g?
Hoffman: Sounds great.
Carron: Okay. Anything else? Alright, so refresh my memory. We don’t have to vote on that do we?
Do we have to make a motion to approve it?
Hoffman: Approval, yeah.
Carron: Do I have a motion?
Scharfenberg moved, Boettcher seconded to amend the agenda to include under new business, item
2. Dugouts at Lake Ann Park; and under Reports items c. Carver Beach Tree Cutting Settlement,
d. Update on Highway 41 Highover Stairway, e. Update on Highway 41 Pedestrian Crossing, and
f. Update on Pioneer Pass Park Trees, Grading and Final Seeding. All voted in favor and the
motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0.
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Carron: Todd, anything? Jerry?
Ruegemer: Halloween Party Saturday night. Mitch has been working hard on getting it all put together
so our office is filled with candy right now so, and costumes and that sort of thing so if you guys have a
free Saturday night, come on out. Enjoy the festivities.
Park and Recreation Commission – October 22, 2013
Scharfenberg: Times again?
Johnson: It is 5:30 to 7:30 at the Rec Center.
Hoffman: Want to give an update on the…?
Ruegemer: Sure can. Been working with the Minnetonka Middle School West school, they’re coming
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out with 180 kids. 7 graders. They’re going to be kind of splitting the day, 9:45 to 11:45 is the first shift
and they will be doing kind of a shoreline restoration project with Terry Jeffery and Krista Spreiter,
through out water resource department with the city here. So they’ll be planting kind of aquatic plants
along the shoreland of Lake Susan. Kind of the northeast side of the lake to kind of stabilize the
shoreline, that sort of thing so during that 2 hour block they’ll be planting aquatic plants. Having lunch at
the Lake Susan shelter. Then another, they’ll flip flop with another group, they’re coming from Feed My
Starving Children so they’ll flip flop. The first group will go bag some food and the second group will
come and then they’ll kind of finish up that project. I think we’ll have enough work for two different
groups. And then if we have extra time we’ll be picking up trash and debris along the trail system along
the lake and kind of the interior of Lake Susan Community Park so 9:45 to about 1:45-2:00 on Friday
we’ll have 180 kids plus chaperones from Minnetonka Middle School West.
Ryan: Was this initiated by the City or by the school?
Ruegemer: From the school. Yep, Lisa Wagner the School Chair is the one that’s kind of spearheading
the project on behalf of the district and so I’ve been working with her and certainly with our departments
and through water resources as well so it’s a great project that they’ve kind of wrapped their selves
around and we’re getting a lot of good work done for us as well so it’ll be a good project.
Scharfenberg: And what’s the hopes of that project with the plantings along Lake Susan? Just for.
Ruegemer: Act as a buffer and you know stabilize the shoreline and I think act as kind of a filtration
system prior to the water going into the lake. Water quality.
Scharfenberg: Okay.
Hoffman: It’s an ongoing project. The project earlier killed off the vegetation that was there.
Scharfenberg: Right, I saw that.
Hoffman: Yep. Now they’re going to plant these more traditional plants that would be in that location.
Scharfenberg: Okay.
Echternacht: Will there be someone there taking pictures?
Ruegemer: Yeah, I’ll be present all day long. Krista from the City will be there as well and Terry Jeffery
will be kind of in and out so we’ll take lots of pictures and we’ll post them. Mitch will post them on
Facebook for us so we’ll take care of that.
Hoffman: I really want to thank Jerry for taking this project on. It’s one of our values as a department, as
a city to work with volunteers, especially at the school age level. It is extra work. It’s something that’s
not in our normal work day but we really value those type of intersections. We just think it really inspires
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Park and Recreation Commission – October 22, 2013
the kids and the community connections to make those connections closer. Any time we can build those
community interactions at our school and the children are really happy to do that.
Carron: Alright, thanks. Being that there are no visitors, probably no visitor presentations tonight so
we’ll go into approval of Minutes.
VISITOR PRESENTATIONS:
None.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES:Echternacht moved, Scharfenberg seconded to approve the verbatim
and summary Minutes of the Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated September 24, 2013
as presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0.
2013 RESERVATION PICNIC PROGRAM OVERVIEW.
Ruegemer: Thank you very much. Just had another great year, 2013. We had 119 paid reservations to
our park system at Lake Susan. Our facilities at Lake Susan and the two at Lake Ann with that so really a
wide variety of events that take place at the shelters, from you know reunions, weddings, anniversary,
grad parties, dedications, so there’s a number of different events that are hosted at our park system so
people are creative on what they do and they see the value of having kind of the party within that really
nice, natural setting and that sort of thing too so it works out really good for us. As you can see Lakeside
was our most popular site this year and that flip flopped. Last year that was second place. Klingelhutz or
the Klingelhutz was first last year so we flip flopped spots in that a little bit this year. And then Lake
Susan is third so we generated just over $15,000 in revenue for that which is an increase over 2012 so
things are going in the right direction with that. We hear a lot good comments from our users and keep in
mind too you know there’s a lot of other groups that just kind of show up when it is open and that’s fine
to do that if people choose not to make a reservation. Go out after the ball game or on the weekend when
there is an opening or weekday and then utilize the event for free so that number of 12,000 picnickers,
that’s kind of the estimate that we have during the reservation process through our department but that
number is actually quite a bit higher than that, just from the other people there going down and using that
on a weekly basis. And then also you know Mitch in our programming department is making a lot better
effort to use those facilities too through Lake Ann Adventure Camp and…and other type of events
through our department so we’re trying to really kind of go out and kind of get out of the traditional
programming facilities and go out and…programs with that as well. Throughout the course of the year
the commission does see many of the evaluations. Most of the evaluations that come in up to this point
and we do have a pretty good thing going with our system that we have so if there any things that kind of
pop up we certainly address those if there’s a broken light or garbage cans or tables or bees or that sort of
thing so we anticipate those on an annual basis. There are things that are cyclical and that sort of thing
here too so, and those are generally positive evaluations that do come back. Just got another one back
today from a girls scout group that was out there so they had another good experience out there as well.
So we just want to make sure that we review those and take a look at those and address any problems.
We are in the process at Lake Ann of painting the bathrooms out there right now to get ready for next
spring. We’re going to take a look at potentially doing something with the floors, whether that’s a sealed
floor paint or something to kind of, the concrete is getting kind of stained out there and it’s getting a little,
I don’t think up to par where we should be for that so we’re going to take a look at having a solution for
that and do some improvements with lighting. Inside the bathrooms I think at Lake Susan as well and
kind of spruce that up a little bit so I think we owe it to our customers to kind of make sure that
everything is up to date and current with that and it could be as simple as just a fresh coat of paint and it
really makes a big difference so we’re going to take a look at that here before next year, next season and
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just make those small improvements make a big difference. June 9, a lot of the commissioners were out
there during the official dedication, changing the name and dedicating the Hilltop Shelter to Al
Klingelhutz Memorial Pavilion so that was a nice contingent of the Klingelhutz family that were out
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Park and Recreation Commission – October 22, 2013
there. Well deserved for Al Klingelhutz who was really a visionary and a pioneer within our community
and it does remain really one of the most popular sites that we do have and I think people like the size of
it and kind of being away from people. Kind of having a private setting for reunions or graduation
parties, that sort of thing so the dedication was a nice day. We had a nice meal. Lot of family members
you know and a lot of photo albums and pictures and a lot of good conversation so thank you everybody
for being there that day and sharing in that special moment for the family and for the city. So you know
kind of overall we did have a positive experience again and a good summer season and people have
already been calling for at least a couple months already looking for 2014 reservations so we’re going to
make sure that we, people kind of have a fair shake of that so we’re going to be making those reservations
after the first of the year so everybody kind of has that equal opportunity for that as well. You know
second half of the report is just kind of the breakdown facility by facility and by the kind of the
reservation type. What type of group they are and kind of the days of the week of kind of how those
reservations kind of fared and kind of tallied or totaled for that so you can see the Lakeside was first with
51 reservations. Paid reservations. Lake Susan was third with 31 and the Klingelhutz Pavilion was
second with 37 totally 119 so we have a good thing going with our picnic reservations. It seemed like we
did have a few more non-resident rates this year, which was, which is always good with that but that’s
something that maybe we’ll talk about for next month is, maybe it’s time to take a look at just you know
taking out the non-resident fee because it seemed like you know I can get you the percent but it seemed
like you know, 90-95 percent of the reservations are residents so either they’re finding a cousin who lives
here or a daughter or son or some other type of situation where they’re getting around the non-resident
rate anyway so you know I’m not sure, we can certainly have that conversation. If we possibly get rid of
that fee, maybe our numbers will go as well if people are scared away by the basically doubling the price
for the non-resident fee so we’ll talk about that in November and kind of go from there. I’d also like to
talk about potentially having a fee for kind of renting out the beach. We seem to be having a lot of you
know kind of baptisms and other types of events down at the beach area prior to the lifeguards coming on
for the day so Sunday morning at 7:00 in the morning there’s 150 people down there doing live baptisms
and that sort of thing so that’s happening right now so we could talk about that next month as well to
potentially add that to a fee structure or we just charge them as I have been. Either a resident or non-
resident and kind of going at it that way so just conversation.
Carron: Just for food for thought for next month. When was the last time we raised rates on
reservations?
Ruegemer: It’s been a long time.
Carron: Has it? Okay.
Ruegemer: I can’t, have the exact amount of years right now but it’s probably been at least 5 to 8.
Carron: Okay.
Echternacht: Jerry, at Dale’s going away activity I noticed that the power, I think Mitch and I talked, kept
flipping. The breaker kept going so maybe that’s something we talk about or maybe it’s already in
process of being corrected.
Ruegemer: We talk about that as a staff quite a bit actually and yeah I’m not sure what was going on that
particular day but there is something that needs to be addressed and the electrical system kind of
leapfrogs, kind of pulls a pulse so every other pole is kind of connected and we’re going to have to do
something different with that because there is situations where the breakers do pop if you’re not, if you’re
you know just kind of general, a general reservation and you can’t get into the power panel where the
breakers are potentially popping. There are GFI’s out on the pole so you can just reset the button but it’s
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Park and Recreation Commission – October 22, 2013
a problem and we certainly have talked about it and we’ve had electricians out there to kind of take a look
at remedying the situation but I think we’re going to have to do something different with dedicated
breakers per pole so we don’t have those types of problems.
Scharfenberg: Jerry with, just looking at the picnic information, you know it says available May 1 to
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September 30. If people reserve the shelters beyond September 30 or even before May 1, do we charge
them then?
Ruegemer: We do, yep. Those are kind of soft dates so to speak so we have done, like if it’s the weekend
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or so prior to that you know kind of May 1 date. You know this year the last picnic was that Sunday, the
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6 or 7 or October was the Northern Skies Girl Scout group so yeah, those are kind of soft dates and
depending on weather and where we’re at, you know I’ll generally go a week or two after that date.
Scharfenberg: Okay.
Ruegemer: And they are paid reservations.
Carron: Anything else for Jerry?
Scharfenberg: In terms of marketing you know the picnic shelters and stuff like that, have we done that
within the last, I don’t remember it happening but have we done any of that in the last, with respect to
businesses and stuff and maybe, well first of all have we ever done that recently?
Ruegemer: You know we do a lot of advertising certainly within our Connections and you know it’s
certainly on the web page and that sort of things. We have not done direct mailings to businesses but you
know it’s not a bad idea.
Scharfenberg: I was just thinking if we hadn’t done that for a while, maybe with a coupon in there for a
reduction in price if you schedule it you know by a certain date or something like that.
Ruegemer: Right. We do include that within our sponsorship program. If they’re part of our sponsorship
program, and depending on what level they are, they can get up to 50% off.
Scharfenberg: Oh they do, okay. Alright well then you guys are doing a good job on that then.
Ruegemer: Yeah, so. We could do better.
Hoffman: Which edition is it in for the Connection?
Ruegemer: It would be the spring and summer. It might even be fall because you still get that, it comes
out in August so.
Carron: Okay, thanks Jerry.
DUGOUTS AT LAKE ANN PARK.
Scharfenberg: Thank you Chair. I was approached this past week by a member of the CAA, Ted
Ellefson and Ted has been before this body before and we’ve had discussions as a group regarding Lake
Ann regarding various safety issues out there during baseball and softball. The issue he brought up with
me was, they would like to have dugouts included at Fields 4, 5 and 6 which are the fields I think closest
to the pavilion up there. There are dugouts already at 1, 2 and 3. They’re Cyclone fence dugouts and I
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Park and Recreation Commission – October 22, 2013
think they might have a little mesh thing over the top so nothing extravagate or anything like that but
more of a safety issue and so they would like to pursue that with us. They have money to help contribute
towards the cost of that and potentially labor to help put that in. I think Jerry, Ted said that he had
contacted you about cost of maybe what the cost was previously to do 1, 2 and 3 and I don’t know if you
were able to come up with that information or not. So I informed him that our CIP had been you know
passed at our previous meeting. I said I didn’t know if there was, it hasn’t been approved I don’t believe
by council. If there was time to amend it tonight. I told him I doubted that that would happen tonight.
So I just bring that forth to the committee, to the commission that they would like to have that done and
would like us to do something about it.
Carron: Do you think they’d like to come in and give a presentation on that as well if we set it up on a
meeting or…?
Scharfenberg: You know I certainly told Ted that he may be asked to come and talk about it but that I
would bring it tonight and just kind of bring forth that proposal, and he’s more than willing I think to
come and talk to about it a little bit but that is what they would like to see happen at Lake Ann. Right
now there’s a fence with a bench area but they’re not covered. They’re all open and the fence is kind of
like probably waist high or a little bit higher than that so certainly foul balls and stuff are coming in, into
the dugout area and stuff like that.
Carron: Todd weren’t we talking, and Steve you as well, were we talking about putting up like, what
would I call it? Like rope fences for a while. Like putting out the fields. Splitting the fields between a
couple of them. Was that an option at one point?
Hoffman: Well it’s been a discussion item. The foul ball issue for both players and spectators has been a
topic of discussion for a long time at Lake Ann and there’s been a variety of proposals. Not just at Lake
Ann but at Bandimere Park as well.
Carron: Okay. Anyone have anything?
Ryan: So does it make sense to get the numbers first for further discussion? Is that what you’re working
on now Jerry? And then maybe once you have the numbers, come in and have his presentation coincide
with getting the numbers and then we can open it up to discussion again.
Scharfenberg: Sure, makes sense.
Carron: So then should we just table this discussion and put it on November?
Scharfenberg: Sure, that would be great.
Carron: We can do that Todd?
Hoffman: It sure will and it’d be important to understand what their contribution thoughts are as well so,
what percentage or.
Scharfenberg: Yeah, they’ve got some money available he told me that. I said I had no idea again what
the cost of something like that would be and but they’re willing to contribute towards that.
Hoffman: At the same time they’re currently in discussion with both the commission and the City
Council on the Lake Ann or the Lake Susan ballfield lights so that’s a $50,000 or $58,000 contribution
that they’re currently pledging and from what I understand they would be financing the majority of that
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Park and Recreation Commission – October 22, 2013
with a ballfield lighting company and then paying that off over time so they have that pledge already in
for consideration by the council.
Carron: Well Jerry if you can get those numbers together and maybe we should invite him to the next
meeting and have him give a quick spiel on what he’s thinking. Alright.
RECREATION PROGRAM REPORTS:
BANDIMERE DISC GOLF TOURNAMENT EVALUATION.
Johnson: Alright, thank Chair Carron and good evening commissioners. As you recall last summer out at
Bandimere Community Park we opened the 9 hole disc golf course out there. Kind of been working to do
some programming out there. Get people involved in the sport of disc golf or maybe people who have
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been playing kind of a more organized field so back on Saturday, October 5 we offered our third disc
golf tournament since the opening of the course. Seems like we’ve had bad weather for all three. I think
we’re averaging about 42 degrees, wind and rain so continuing to work on that to see what we can do but
this year we had 13 players. Certainly I think the weather contributed to lack of day of event registrations
but still had a good turnout. This is the most we’ve ever had for the 18 and up category, which is nice.
We tried plugging that one. In the spring tournament I think we had only 4 or 5 for that age group so I’m
glad we could kind of bump that up. We had players coming from St. Louis Park, Brooklyn Park,
Glencoe so we’re bringing people to the community which is nice and they’re playing a course that
they’ve maybe never played. Did a lot of advertising, not only at the course. Hanging out flyers on a
couple different holes but also there’s a lot of disc golf websites and like forums where people are posting
tournaments so we’re able to kind of reach out that way and I think that’s where we were able to kind of
reach some of those outlying communities, but it’s real fun. You know it’s one of those sports that you
can play by yourself but when you can bring a group of people together it’s even more fun and we had
some spectators out there walking and yeah, it was a great day. We provided little prizes. It seems like
for this demographic, gift certificates is what they’re looking for to get the new, great disc you know that
flies further, faster, cooler so working on that and just doing little trophies and stuff and you know they
play for pride and we’ve had a lot of players who have come back now for year after year for each of the
different tournaments so I’m looking to continue to expand this. We tried to do a disc golf league this
summer. Didn’t get enough interest in it but hopefully this will kind of help build towards that to maybe
next summer developing some sort of self supervised league out there during the summer for more
structured play for those interested. But target marketing seems, you know a couple recommendations
our target marketing continues to be very popular. A lot of people calling on their cell phones out at the
park as we’re playing and they see the signs so that continues to be popular and also we did the
commemorative discs. We ordered them through a local company who screen printed the tournament
logo on there which continues to be very popular. You know people are starting a little collection I think
in their garage now of the different ones so but yeah, it’s great fun. Looking to just continue to build on
that. On the back of the report you’ll see a brief expense report. My goal with that is always you know
make a little money. Cover staff time which I think we hit kind of spot on with this one so. But happy to
answer any questions anybody has.
Ryan: Mitch I have a question. When I was reading about this and thinking, I know you said that the
weather could contribute and you do the golf league during the summer. Could you ever offer a, like
learn to play disc golf as one of your activities in the summer and then have the fees, say split the fees.
Say part of it goes to the practice but then they are automatically entered into a tournament at the end of
the summer or something. That way there’s a connection for the people that are learning to play and then
it takes some of the pressure off thinking that it’s some big time tournament but it’s for new people and
that might you know garner some interest that way too.
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Park and Recreation Commission – October 22, 2013
Johnson: Yeah, that’s a great idea. Sue and Jodi tried offering like an adult learn to play this summer. I
think they only had maybe 1 or 2 people sign up for it. I’m not sure what kind of marketing but I think
yeah, we could definitely collaborate.
Ryan: For younger kids. Even if it’s just a day. Maybe we can get Tom to teach.
Scharfenberg: Or even if you did it as part of our summer parks program. That one day they would go
out, instead of meeting at the park they’d meet out at Bandimere and they would do that as part of their
activity that day.
Johnson: Yeah, exactly. We’ve looked into even bussing kids from like the Rec Center like an after
school disc golf. You know unfortunately costs were pretty high to rent the transportation to bring kids
out there because you know we do a nice job with the after school sports out there and get a group but
yeah, we’re looking to get people involved. They’re all great ideas. I’ve even thought of you know right
now we just divide the people up, for the players by age. Maybe we can do it by skill level like you said.
Maybe like a beginner category and an expert or you know so.
Ryan: Right. Even with the camp at the summer as part of that. I think that then they get to play in some
sort of a tournament with prizes. Then you can increase fees or it makes the fees a lot more interesting.
Echternacht: Yeah Mitch, one of my scouts that I’ve worked with in the past had a part time job in Eden
Prairie and that’s what he did. He taught the disc and then they had tournaments…
Johnson: Oh really?
Echternacht: Yeah.
Johnson: Interesting.
Carron: Alright. Thank you Mitch.
CHANJAM PREVIEW.
Johnson: Thank you. City of Chanhassen, we’re offering our annual battle of the bands for local high
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school students. It’s scheduled for Friday, November 15 from 6:30 to 10:00 p.m. out at the Chanhassen
High School. This will allow up to 10 bands from the local high schools. Reaching out to Minnetonka,
Eden Prairie, Southwest Christian, Holy Family, the ones that kind of serve, that the City serves in this
immediate area. Haven’t received any band applications yet but the way we’re mostly marketing is
getting it out to the schools. I’ve sent it out to all the Music Directors and hopefully they know some
students who maybe have their own band so that they can pass the word on. One thing you’re to see in
the back of the report is the event flyer. You’ll notice pretty catchy. That color really kind of sticks out
on it. That was developed in-house by our Communications Specialist, Amy Lloyd. She’s done a great
job with a lot of our graphic design you’ve maybe noticed in the Connection and some other event flyers,
but we’re real happy with the way that turned out so yeah, hopefully we can get those posted in schools
and stuff. There’s no fee for the bands to participate. We do charge a $5 admission for spectators. They
can get a dollar off if they bring a non-perishable food item. The battle of the bands began back in 2008
and on an annual basis we’ve offered it. You might recall last year we had to cancel because we only had
a couple bands register so we’re trying hard to kind of bring it back this year. To make it feasible I think
we need at least probably 5 or 6 to get the spectators there to make it successful event. We want to make
sure it’s a nice atmosphere for the people who make it so we’re going to continue to reach out. It seems
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Park and Recreation Commission – October 22, 2013
like when you set the deadline it’s always the day before from what I understand from the past so yeah,
looking forward to a great event and see what we can do.
Carron: Did you follow up with any of the ideas last year as far as getting out more? …or other areas to
try to get people to come.
Johnson: Yeah. You know there’s in Hopkins there’s a little coffee depot. I think it’s called, I don’t
know if there’s an official name but that’s what they call it and it’s for kind of high school, garage bands
to participate. It seems like most of the students from the Director I talked to are more the Minneapolis,
St. Louis Park kind of area. Hopkins because it’s closer. We decided not to, to keep it kind of to local
high schools but yeah, still reaching out there. Hey if you guys know anybody from this area to help
spread the word.
Stolar: Is Minnetonka included in that because I know Minnetonka has like a coffee house thing and
that’s really popular at the high school so maybe they could advertise to the Minnetonka bands. I think
there’d be some that would be interested.
Johnson: Yeah. Do you know who, is there a staff person who runs that or?
Stolar: No. It’s more of just like a student government run thing so I don’t know how, I mean I could try
and help but.
Johnson: Okay. Yeah, if you know somebody who runs it. Otherwise maybe I’ll try to do some.
Scharfenberg: Give him some posters.
Johnson: Yeah, exactly. Get them up.
Ruegemer: Minnetonka has participated quite a bit in the past. They’ve always had probably one of the
top 2 or 3 bands that win it annually so Minnetonka has been involved in the past so we can find that
contact and stuff upstairs.
Scharfenberg: Mitch I see that you’ve got MacPhail down here as one of the sponsors. Have you been in
touch with them at all? I’m thinking that if they’ve got that school out here now, they must have kids
doing that that are, might be connected. Have you talked to them at all?
Johnson: Reached out to them just in a sponsorship aspect. You know they’re going to provide the prizes
and stuff for the winning bands and stuff. And yeah, hopefully we can get the events up there too, or the
flyers up there to help spread the word.
Scharfenberg: Yeah, I mean I would talk to their instructors or whoever, somebody over there that they
may know kids here locally that have bands that would be interested in this so.
Johnson: Yeah. Do you know is that center open? It is open, okay. Yeah I haven’t even been in there.
Scharfenberg: I’d stop over there. I would stop over and talk to them.
Johnson: Yeah, great idea.
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Park and Recreation Commission – October 22, 2013
Scharfenberg: Because I can tell you one thing with one of the band teachers at Chan, unless it’s right in
front of him he’s not going to do a whole lot about that type so you might have to do a little bit on your
own over there too to get it promoted at Chanhassen.
Hoffman: And as a parent of a former band member, there are bands that will break up between now and
then and there are bands that will form between now and then so that’s why they’re always so late.
Carron: Alright, thanks Mitch.
CARVER BEACH TREE CUTTING SETTLEMENT.
Hoffman: Thank you Chair Carron. The Carver Beach trees. You have the settlement agreement that is
in the City Council packet for Monday night and if Mr. Rockford pays this by tomorrow at the end of the
business day at City Hall, then the City will recommend to the County Attorney that charges not be
pressed against Mr. Rockford for cutting down the trees within Carver Beach Park. And if he pays this
will be on the City Council agenda on Monday night for approval.
Scharfenberg: So I take it Todd that this not only takes care of the cost but any criminal charges
potentially that would be pending as well?
Hoffman: Correct. If he makes payment, signs the agreement, that would, it’s a release of claims and
settlement agreement.
Scharfenberg: Okay.
Hoffman: And then the City is planning on replanting the 17 trees, or planting a new 17 trees next week
at this site.
Carron: Same or similar species then?
Hoffman: Similar species. Obviously much smaller but.
Carron: That’s too bad. Alright.
HIGHWAY 41 HIGHOVER STAIRWAY.
Hoffman: Highway 41 stairway. Any more questions on that? Okay. Unfortunately we’re in the
position where Tice Construction did not complete the stairway. At the beginning of the year this was
our, really one of our highest priorities if not our highest priority. The wet spring didn’t help anything
getting started but then we met on a number of occasions and September seemed to be the time when he
thought he would be there and that never came to be. So right now what we’re doing, we don’t think it’s
in our best interest even if he could get there in November to be pouring concrete in November so we
stabilized the site. Hydro mulched it. Been in contact with the property owners. Very understanding of
the situation thankfully. We’ve held up the property owner to the south for the entire summer with their
landscaping and so now our recommendation to them is to finish their landscaping and we will maintain
the 20 foot of city property and then when Tice Construction does show up next spring, that they’ll have
to build and construct that stairway within that 20 feet that we own.
Carron: So that contract’s moving forward then with them?
Hoffman: With Tice?
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Park and Recreation Commission – October 22, 2013
Carron: Yeah.
Hoffman: Yeah. It’s a quote contract so there was no bid bond and so we’ll continue to, at that price
we’ll continue to seek to have them complete that work in the spring.
Carron: And he’s, they’ve honored that for next year?
Hoffman: Yes.
Carron: Okay, good.
Ryan: Todd what does hydro mulch look like? I mean because I’m by there every other day and that area
is going to be just a mess.
Carron: Green slime.
Hoffman: They did it today.
Ryan: Oh they did, okay.
Hoffman: And they’re going to put a second coat on it tomorrow.
Ryan: Okay. And it just holds the hill in place?
Hoffman: Yeah, it has seed in it and it’s kind of a mulch that’s mixed with water and then seed and then
it’s sprayed on to stop erosion and then to get some seed growing next spring before the project is opened
back up.
Ryan: And then at the bottom of, between where the hill comes down and then the trail, what is in place
there for runoff and, is there anything to stop the runoff from the winter and the rains this fall?
Hoffman: If there’s not some erosion bags there now, they’ll be putting those in.
Ryan: Okay.
Hoffman: They have to hold that off. And the County is also working on that drainage problem there
with the weeping.
Ryan: Yep.
Hoffman: And we had that under contract. The County said no. We’re going to have Wrastee
Construction do it but Wrastee again has not come back to put in that draintile for the County for the trail
project so we’re still waiting on that as well.
Ryan: Okay.
HIGHWAY 41 PEDESTRIAN CROSSING.
Hoffman: The good news on this is it will open tomorrow. It will not be hooked up to electricity as of
yet but the new pedestrian crossing will open tomorrow. We’ve been in contact with the principal up at
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Park and Recreation Commission – October 22, 2013
Minnetonka Middle School West so they are grinding off the old crosswalk which is right at the bottom
of the driveway to the school and they’re signing the new crosswalk. Currently the pedestrian signs are 3
footers. They’re 36 inch and they’re going to replace those with 48 inch for that new pedestrian crossing
to make them even more visible and then once Xcel gets to hook up the power the school kids and the
public, general public will have the ability to press that button and light up those flashing crossing arms
above there. Carver County deputies understand what’s going on so they’ll be watching traffic and how
they respond. Studies will tell everybody that half of the pedestrian crashes are caused by the pedestrians
really non-attentive activity and half by traffic and so it’s a two way street. You know if you’re not in the
pedestrian crossing cars will still be going through. Once you press that button and start to enter then
they should be crossing so it’s really, takes both the pedestrian and the driver to make a safe crossing.
Carron: I think that will be a good case study with it. If you guys haven’t driven by that, it sticks out.
You can tell it’s new and I think it will grab attention of a lot of people so.
Hoffman: The school’s very happy and very appreciative and Mayor Furlong worked really hard on
behalf of the students and the city to make that happen so we appreciate that.
PIONEER PASS PARK TREES, GRADING AND FINAL SEEDING.
Hoffman: Moving down to Pioneer Pass Park. The trees were planted about 2 weeks ago but we rejected
over half of what Cedar Ridge Landscaping had brought to the site so they had poor quality trees on the
job and they were planted improperly. Some sloppy workmanship on the project. Cedar Ridge decided
instead of bringing back new trees, in an attempt to meet the specification that they were just going to quit
the job and they took all of the remainder of the trees that we did not reject out of the ground and left the
project. K-A with the general contractor then had to seek another bid from a different contractor which
was six and a half thousand dollars higher than the original bid from Cedar Ridge but being under
contract for the project, Hoffman and McNamara will be there tomorrow to plant the new trees. We don’t
anticipate any issues. They understand what the specifications are on the project and so we want good
quality trees planted in the proper fashion and that’s what we’re looking to get.
Carron: So at this time of year with the trees and the leaves are obviously falling off, you wouldn’t accept
them until next year when they start budding again or?
Hoffman: We can tell what the trees, we can tell the quality of the trees even with the leaves off. They
do have a one year warranty so yeah, we can tell the quality of trees when they go in even when the
leaves are off and so by the time, I think we’ll be just about 100% planted out tomorrow and inspected
and if there are any trees that are not acceptable and do not meet specifications, we’ll reject those and
they’ll have to bring new ones as well.
Scharfenberg: So Todd, how many trees total planted at the park?
Hoffman: It’s about $18,000. I think we’re in the 25 tree, 25 range. Something like that.
Scharfenberg: Okay.
Hoffman: And then the site will be graded and then seeded, dormant seeded hopefully by Friday of this
week if the site dries out enough. And if not sometime next week or the week after. Dormant seeding is
made and then this site will also be 100% hydro mulched and so it will be graded, fine graded, finish
graded. Seeded and then hydro mulch and so the seed will go down on the top of the soils and the hydro
mulch will go over the top of that. That holds it until next spring when the moisture comes up. Once
your moisture is there and the heat, the spring heat then the seeds germinate in the spring and you get a
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Park and Recreation Commission – October 22, 2013
good stand of grass that way. Mr. Thunberg, Commissioner Thunberg was very confused when his trees
left the site.
Carron: Packed up and leaving town.
Hoffman: What the heck is going on? He has the update already. Thank you.
Carron: Okay.
COMMISSION MEMBER COMMITTEE REPORTS.
None.
COMMISSION MEMBER PRESENTATIONS.
Carron: Any commission member reports?
Ryan: I don’t have any reports but two things that I forgot to mention earlier. Will we circle back around
on how the AIS inspections went this summer? That didn’t happen last meeting correct?
Hoffman: No.
Ryan: Okay, so for the next meeting will you have an update on how everything went this year?
Hoffman: We’d like to. You can also, I’ll send you the copies that goes to the City Council on Monday
night. So Monday night at their work session they get the update on the program. Very successful again
in 2013. No zebra mussels identified this year. Inspection numbers were up. Inspections per hour were
up slightly. The number of transported weeds was down but the number of boats arriving with their bilge
plug in place was up pretty significantly actually percentage wise. So those were the basics of the
program. The complete report is finished and once I email it, or once the council receives it I’ll email it
out to you so.
Ryan: Thank you.
Scharfenberg: And just to follow up on the AIS question is, is there a proposal for next year? Has that
been put forth to the council yet for?
Hoffman: That’s part of the presentation. You’ll see it in the packet so my recommendation is to
continue the program as is with all of the funding partners in place. That’s the DNR at $7,750. Lotus
Lake Conservation Alliance at about 12 1/2 thousand. The City of Chanhassen right about 12 1/2
thousand and then the Riley-Purgatory Creek watershed district is in the $27,000-$28,000 range. We’re
also recommending that the council purchase cell phones and data plans and use the DNR application for
recording the data. Right now it’s a pretty cumbersome process. They record all that data on paper. We
wanted to do that for at least a couple years to see where this program was going. If it was going to stay
around. If it wasn’t going to stay around. It’s really a lot of duplication and data collection and analysis
and assembly. It also, the data plan and the app will provide increased efficiency. Increased accuracy
and it also provides us a way to understand if the inspector was there when they’re scheduled because
they have to be entering, you know when you hit the button send it’s at 6:05 a.m., then we know that
they’re there at 6:05 a.m. and they’re doing their job inspecting boats.
Ryan: And I know that’s your recommendation. Have you been working with the LLCA? Do they
support the same recommendation or do they have other recommendations?
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Park and Recreation Commission – October 22, 2013
Hoffman: I don’t know about the LLCA. Laurie Susla does not support that. We had another
conversation today but we just met last week. We brought in the LLCA, Watershed District to sit down
and talk about the 2014 program and so you know my suggestion to her is that she present that to the
council as a part of the presentation at the council meeting. After that meeting. She would still like to see
a centralized program with gates on the city lakes and I just don’t think the council’s going to support that
but again that’s up to her if she wants to present that.
Ryan: And then one more thing. I am attending, we all got the email from Todd about the Beyond the
Yellow Ribbon and I will be there on Thursday helping landscape so I have a hard time to making it to a
lot of our afternoon events but I will be representing the commission this Thursday landscaping at
Beyond the Yellow Ribbon.
Carron: Great.
Hoffman: Some of you were at the ribbon cutting for the, talk about that. Rice Marsh Lake trail.
Boettcher: And I didn’t get caught with a cookie in my hand this time. Although you could have caught
all of us with a piece of cake but it was really quite interesting. I mean there was a lot of enthusiasm.
The, what were they called? The Old Spokes?
Hoffman: Old Spokes.
Boettcher: Yeah. They came and they all had the matching shirts and everything and they ride all the
trails and then Cole came up. I thought he was one of them too age wise but he, it was very fun. I mean
the Eden Prairie, the City of Eden Prairie, the Mayor, she was on a bike. Mayor Furlong was on a bike.
The wheels were touching and then they both had a little speech they gave and but really a lot of
enthusiasm. We talked to the people that were there, I mean they just love all the trails and they’re just
bragging. The Father came from St. Hubert’s. He just loves all these trails. He’s got all of them
memorized. He had the distance down, 3 point whatever miles and he was going to add that and he would
be 18 a day and so, really a lot of enthusiastic people out there that love all these trails. They just spend a
lot of time on them too so good time. Rick was there too and Cole and Todd and Jerry and Mitch.
Scharfenberg: If you haven’t had the chance to walk the trail, I suggest that you guys go out and do it. It
is a beautiful trail. Just a real, I think it’s probably one of the nicest loop trails that we have in the city.
The nicest. Just very spectacular views of Rice Marsh and it was very well done.
ADMINISTRATIVE PACKET.
Carron: Anything to point out? If not, I entertain a motion.
Scharfenberg moved, Boettcher seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the
motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0. The Park and Recreation Commission meeting
was adjourned.
Submitted by Todd Hoffman
Park and Rec Director
Prepared by Nann Opheim
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