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PRC 2013 11 26 CHANHASSEN PARK AND RECREATION COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING NOVEMBER 26, 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, and Ryan Lynch MEMBERS ABSENT: Jacob Stolar STAFF PRESENT: Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Director; Jerry Ruegemer, Recreation Superintendent; and Mitch Johnson, Recreation Supervisor PUBLIC PRESENT: Ron Kleve 7307 Laredo Drive Spencer G. Murphy 9535 Declaration Drive APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Kelly: Any changes or additions? Steve we got your email so at some point I know we’re going to have a, someone get up and talk when they get here. We’ll just add that in at the time. Any other changes to the agenda? Carron moved to approve the agenda as presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 8 to 0. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: None. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS: None. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Carron moved, Echternacht seconded to approve the verbatim and summary Minutes of the Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated October 22, 2013 as presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 8 to 0. STATUS OF 2013 PARK AND TRAIL ACQUISITION AND DEVELOPMENT CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS. Hoffman: Thank you Chair Kelly, members of the commission. It’s that time of the year when we like to do a check in with the commission. Let you know how our projects ended up for the year and where each one of them is at going into 2014. So the CIP includes a variety of projects. I’ll go over each one of them briefly. There’s a $15,000 annual allocation for trees. Those are invested in a variety of projects throughout our community. Lately we’ve been concentrating more on replacing trees that are in the vicinity or where we cut down ash trees that we’re removing and generally the ash tree program is…remove the worst third. The third of the trees that are in the poorest condition in our community and our parks and these would be in our groomed areas and so not in our forested or woodlands or park preserves but in our groomed areas so we have a survey that’s been completed by our volunteer tree survey individuals. The middle third we’re going to leave and let be until the ash borer gets here and then the best third, the highest quality ash trees we’re going to start a treatment program where we treat those Park and Recreation Commission – November 26, 2013 annually for up to 10 to 15 to 20 years and that will allow a variety of those trees, the best trees to stay in our forest management program and they won’t have to be cut down right away when the ash borer does arrive and so it just prolongs the duration of that affect of the Emerald Ash Borer. But that’s a separate program and the council has shown some good interest in the Emerald Ash Borer program so I think you’ll be hearing more about that. Scharfenberg: Todd could you just clarify what constitutes a groomed area? Hoffman: So any park area that’s, a neighborhood or a community park area. So Lake Ann. All of our neighborhood parks and so somewhere that’s mowed and maintained. In Lake Ann even there’s an area, the forested area to the west, we would not be conducting Emerald Ash Borer management in that area at this time. Picnic tables and park benches. Annually we invest up to $10,000 dollars. Much of that, many of those dollars go to like new parks and so Pioneer Pass Park next year and then Riley Ridge Park this year. We also buy benches for our memorial giving program and then we replace benches that are damaged or broken or picnic tables. One of the highlights of the year obviously was the Pioneer Pass neighborhood park development, Phase I. Phase I has consumed approximately $250,000 of the $350,000 budget. So that leaves at present approximately $150,000 for the two playgrounds for next year and then the picnic shelter that will go in at Pioneer Pass Park. It’s an 8.7 acre park. K.A. Witt performed very admirably on the project. Did a nice job for the city. We had one hiccup with the tree supplier. Eventually that supplier left the site. We rejected half the trees that they planted. They took the other half and left the property and then K.A. Witt did bring in another subcontractor to plant the trees and they successfully completed that before the end of the construction season. It’s a beautiful site. The neighborhood is very excited and there’s going to be a large group that’s going to be working on this project. There are over 500 homes in that area that will all receive notification that they’re invited to work on that playground project so I think we’re going to have a large group. This may in fact turn into a true community build where the community does build it on their own without assistance from the City and that will be their decision and they could do that over a 5 or a 7 timeframe so you would have a day timeframe. So you’d have 30 volunteers a night for say 5 nights and then build that playground. So those meetings will start in February with the neighborhood to talk about that park, and then it was dormant seeded and then hydro mulched and so the seed is actually on the ground. Then it was fertilized. It was seeded at 1 1/2 times the normal rate. Fertilized with a very good, high quality fertilizer and then hydro mulched on top of that so in the spring you’ll see that take moisture. Once the ground temperature reaches the appropriate temperature, then the grass will start to germinate. We should get a nice stand of grass there. We want to put that playground in in June and so we’re hoping for a good growing spring for that park. Ryan: Todd, sorry if I missed this. How did they, is there an association or how do they decided whether they’re just going to do it independent of the City and what’s the benefit to them for doing that? Hoffman: Just as a group so it will be, we’ll call a meeting here. We’ll probably have a meeting right at a Park Commission meeting where perhaps a couple of dozen, up to 50 people may show up for that kind of a meeting and then they would form that neighborhood group that then would go ahead and coordinate that process and so it would be through a meet and confer type of basis. We would have a variety of meetings to select the playground components. What do they want to see go into the bid format? The request for proposal and then as a group they would decide. And the benefit for them would be just more people could be involved in building their neighborhood playground over time. Scharfenberg: And Todd the $350,000 that we had assigned to Pioneer Pass neighborhood was just the basketball court and that stuff. Does it include the playground or will there be additional money then for the playground equipment. 2 Park and Recreation Commission – November 26, 2013 Hoffman: It includes the playground. So right we’ve consumed up to about, just around $250,000 and then the $350,000, that $100,000 remaining will be for the two playgrounds and the picnic shelter. Scharfenberg: Okay. Hoffman: Yeah. Basketball court is in. The hoops will go in next spring. So at present all the hardscapes are in. The baseball/softball field is in. The backstop is in. All the trails. Parking lot. Tree plantings. It’s all graded. It’s really in the spring when it greens up, it’s going to look like a park but for the lack of that playground. The two playgrounds and the shelter. The walking trails will be plowed this winter so people will start to get into the park. It has some very nice walking trails for that neighborhood. The other neighborhood park project, Riley Ridge was finished up and so the full $200,000 was consumed in constructing that 4.7 acre neighborhood park. Neighborhood loves the park. The adjoining neighbors have appreciated it as well. Lots of great comments from the new neighborhood. They just sold their last home so Reflections at Lake Riley is completely filled out. They’re excited about that and thanks to the commissioners that helped out over those few days that we built that playground. I think you really get to know those neighbors and then you get to see them around the community and it really does a good deal of bringing the neighborhood together to get to know each other. Up on 101 north and the Pleasant View Road intersection and trail improvements. Some called it the longest intersection project on record. It was 5 months with over 2 years worth of MnDOT reviews and approvals but the project is substantially complete. Most of the landscaping went in. There will be some additional landscaping next spring and really the great part about it is it provides some much needed safety improvements for that intersection for both vehicles and pedestrians. Eureka Construction, the same contractor that’s working on Highway 101 south performed that work. They did a nice job. The biggest hold up was Xcel just would get there for over 2 months and so you have to move power poles at a certain time in the project so the project really stood still for about 2 months while everybody waited for Xcel to get on site. This was a project that originally was in our CIP for approximately $400,000 to build that trail and that wall on Highway 101 and to build that trail on the north side of Pleasant View Road and when combining it with the road project, our investment was $95,000 so again sometimes it pays to wait for a future road project if one is going to be scheduled and in this case that certainly proved to be true. Then 101 south, Lyman Boulevard to Pioneer. Here’s even a better bargain. For a $12 million dollar project with an underpass, trail improvements, a new park entrance road, an addition to the park, the Park Commission’s contribution was $25,000. The majority of the $11.95 million is federal funding for Highway 101 south. The road did open last Friday and it’s a very beautiful road and much safer than it was before. The majority of the trail improvements are in and graveled but they’re not paved so they will be open this winter but they will be completed next spring and then opened up sometime in mid-summer. Really just a fantastic project. I commend Paul Oehme, our City Engineer and Public Works Director for taking the lead on that. That’s a project where, that’s a State road. A State highway and you have a city engineer taking the lead in that project. Really moving the improvements forward for the community in the area when MnDOT says you know we really just don’t have the time to do it and Mr. Oehme asked if he could and they said yes he could so he took that job on. Ryan: So are the trails officially closed? Is there a trail closed sign? I haven’t been down there, for safety purposes. Hoffman: There is a variety of signage that went up. I’ll check if those are appropriately signed so people aren’t getting into areas that they shouldn’t be. We will plow the ones that are open and the rest will remain unplowed. Then there was one project in the assessment revolving fund and that was the Rice Marsh Lake loop for $200,000. The City combined with Eden Prairie and their project to finish that 3.4 mile loop, trail loop around Rice Marsh Lake Park. And again the people that have had the chance to use are just absolutely astounded by the quality of that experience and just have, having finally making that loop a complete loop around Rice Marsh Lake Park so people are certainly making it part of their 3 Park and Recreation Commission – November 26, 2013 destination. One that has a destination in part of their life. Many people are walking it 3 times a week or running it 2 or 3 times a week. Biking it. People are taking moonlit walks and walking the whole thing. 3.4 miles and so I think it was much anticipated and certainly lived up to the reputation that it was gaining as it moved forward. Thanks to the commission for all your support of these projects and finishing them is really satisfying but again every time you work on the CIP that’s what we’re setting, you’re setting the ground work for those future improvements for the community so that’s really one of your biggest jobs as a commission is to formulate that CIP on an annual basis and make that recommendation to the City Council so we can on an annual basis talk about what’s been completed and improved for the citizens each and every year so thanks again. Kelly: Thanks Todd. Any other questions for Todd at this time? Thank you. Jerry, before we get to you I’m going to step back a second. Are you here to do a visitor presentation? Dan Maus: I am. Kelly: Why don’t you please give us your presentation now. Dan Maus: Thank you. I apologize for being late. I had to drop off one of my sons. Kelly: No problem. Dan Maus: My name’s Dan Maus. I’m here on behalf of the CAA softball and baseball programs here and coming around is a proposal for a dugout implementation over at Lake Ann on Fields 4, 5 and 6. As you likely know we have dugouts on Fields 1, 2 and 3 over there and they really work out well for us. Between baseball and softball we hosted 4 tournaments, weekend tournaments last summer as well as, and one of those being a state tournament. We hosted a state tournament in the fall for fast pitch as well besides the fact that we’re obviously a home team for games throughout the weeks over there. Two primary reasons that we’d like to have dugouts on those fields, and both of them are related to safety. One of those is foul balls that fly, especially from Field 4 which sits up higher, down onto Field 5 and then the second reason is just to provide some shade from the hot summer heat as the kids are standing out there or sitting in those dugouts for hours. We really like the dugouts that are on Fields 1, 2 and 3 right now. They serve the purpose very well and so our request would be is that you build into your CIP something similar for Fields 4, 5 and 6 at Lake Ann. The second part of this is to do the same over at the Chan Rec Center. We’ve got 6 fields that we use for in-house and at times travel baseball and softball over at Chan Rec Center as well and so we would like those to be included at the same time. Any questions with regards to the request? Kelly: You said Dan right? Dan Maus: Yes. Kelly: Yeah, any questions for Dan? Go ahead. Scharfenberg: Dan I know in talking to Ted Ellison that, Ted has mentioned potentially that CAA may be able to put up some money to assist with this type of project. Dan Maus: Yes. Scharfenberg: Maybe just speak to that briefly. 4 Park and Recreation Commission – November 26, 2013 Dan Maus: Yes I can speak to it. You know part of the reason that we like to host tournaments, it helps us raise some funds that we can invest back into either our equipment or into our facilities and so we certainly are willing to discuss supporting that initiative with some of our funds that we make. In addition Mr. Jeff Olson from the Dugout Club has indicated that the Dugout Club would do whatever they can do or would be asked to do to help with installation as well. Kelly: Other questions of Dan? Dan I have a question. Dan Maus: Yes. Kelly: You mentioned the three fields at Lake Ann and how many fields do we have over at the Rec Center? Dan Maus: Six. Kelly: Six fields. And you didn’t mention Lake Susan. Dan Maus: I did not mention Lake Susan in this request, you are correct. Kelly: Okay. If we had to prioritize, how would you want us to prioritize? Dan Maus: Fields 4, 5 and 6 first at Lake Ann and then moving over to Chan Rec Center from there. If we had to prioritize at Chan Rec Center as well because we couldn’t do all six at the same time, I’m not prepared right now to say which one we would start with over there but we certainly understand that there’s a possibility we would not do all six at one time. Kelly: So Lake Ann is the priority? Dan Maus: Lake Ann is the priority. Lake Ann is our primary place to host our traveling tournaments and we use the Chan Rec Center as our overflow. There was one weekend last summer when we had 32 baseball teams and 18 fast pitch teams all playing here in the same weekend so obviously that brings people into our community. Brings people you know to do some shopping or to get a bite to eat where they don’t want to just have the hotdog up at the concession stand so. Kelly: The top priority would be Field 5? Dan Maus: Field 5 would definitely be the top priority from a fly ball or foul ball perspective, yes. Kelly: Any other questions for Dan? Thank you Dan. Dan Maus: Great. Thank you for your time. Scharfenberg: Before we get off of that…I would make a request to have staff kind of look at the cost of that and maybe get back to us with a proposal to Dan in terms of what the cost of putting together those dugouts would be so that they know kind of what that cost is…as a commission moving forward, at least for next year’s CIP. I’ve talked to Ted kind of about the whole CIP process so they’re familiar with what kind of goes on and I know they would like to have it done sooner rather than later, I realize that, but given our time tables and how we, how things come up in front of us, that will probably be a year from now before it would be on our CIP…some numbers and start talking about those that would be great. 5 Park and Recreation Commission – November 26, 2013 Hoffman: Sure. Commissioner Scharfenberg, we do have some pretty solid numbers. It’s $10,000 per field for the two dugouts. One on either side and so we would update that but that’s a general starting place so Lake Ann would be $30,000 and the Rec Center would be $60,000. Kelly: Okay. So what we should do is we should put it on our agenda when we discuss the CIP starting next spring. Todd? Hoffman: Correct. Kelly: Let’s do that. So then we know the numbers. Any other numbers you’re looking for Steve? Scharfenberg: No. Kelly: Okay. Dan Maus: Well thank you. Obviously you’ve spoken to Ted so any feedback to Ted and then I’m there as a board member to support him as well. Great, thank you. Kelly: Thank you Dan. Okay, Mr. Ruegemer, we’re back to you. ESTABLISH 2014 PICNIC RESERVATION FEES. Ruegemer: Thanks Chair Kelly. We talked about the picnic reservation process and evaluation in our October meeting, last month and wanted to talk about the 2014 picnic fees going forward at this point for next year. We did talk briefly about a couple different things. About potentially eliminating the non- resident fee and adding a kind of a beach fee for different activities going on down at the beach. Looking at the kind of a beach fee for that, after kind of review and looking at kind of the full big picture of that staff is recommending at this point that we just not implement a beach fee at this point and just kind of go with the practices that we’ve been using up to this point so at this point no beach fee and then we’ll just move forward as we have been. Then looking at the non-resident fees, there were more non-resident fees than I guess I had anticipated with that so it looked like about 23% with about $3,000 in revenue so that was a significant number in my mind and staff is recommending that we still implement a non-resident fees as part of our 2014 group picnic fees so it is recommended that the Park and Rec Commission recommend to the City Council that they establish a 2014 group picnic reservation fees at the same level as 2013. The commission’s recommendation will be forwarded to the City Council as part of their annual th review and license fees on December 9. Kelly: Questions for Jerry. Scharfenberg: Jerry I think you’ve spoken to this issue before but in terms of Chan and how we relate to other, Eden Prairie and Chaska around us. Again where, are we a little bit higher than what the other cities are? Ruegemer: Yeah. You know it’s not an apples to apples comparison. In comparison to, obviously comparison to Chaska. We’re much higher than Chaska’s rates. What a lot of cities and county organizations do is they split it in either half day or full day rentals and then, so that’s one way of kind of splitting that fee in half. Some of them are based on the number, quantity of the shelters itself so obviously with the Klingelhutz shelter being the larger shelter capacity wise, that would command a higher fee. Then they just get rid of kind of all the resident/non-resident fees so it’s just based on numbers. And then like the Lakeside, around a hundred and a quarter that sort of thing would be a lower fee. Lake Susan is a lower fee. So it’s all kind of based on a size scale based on numbers. Obviously 6 Park and Recreation Commission – November 26, 2013 there’s interpretation. When I talk to people on the phone as to you know what number’s going to be attending their picnic and that sort of thing so I think the cleaner option at this point, just to keep it kind of as is and kind of leave it at that. Kelly: Other questions for Jerry? Jerry I’ve got a couple items here Jerry. Actually I think it’s good to keep the fees where they’re at. I have one question here is that it looks like for the most part on Saturdays we’re maxed out throughout the summer. Ruegemer: Right. Kelly: So that would mean that we can keep our fees as they are. We don’t need to reduce them. If anything we could increase them but I think we’re not in that arena at this point. I’m looking at Lake Susan on Sunday with the goose eggs and I’m wondering if we should offer a 50% discount on Sunday to see if we can drum up some business on Sundays. You know just have it on the website. You know on Sundays only because obviously on Saturdays we’re renting it out plenty. Ruegemer: That, staff has decided to not rent the Lake Susan shelter on Sundays because we have an adult baseball league that plays down there. Kelly: Okay. Ruegemer: And with the two activities going on at one time, parking is non-existent with that so staff made that decision quite a while ago to not do anything on. We definitely could rent it on Sundays but. Kelly: Okay. Yeah I was looking at the numbers and since I missed the last meeting you might have mentioned it so thank you. If there are no other questions, does somebody have a motion? Scharfenberg: I move to adopt staff’s recommendation relative to 2014 picnic reservation fees. Kelly: Is there a second? Boettcher: Second. Scharfenberg moved, Boettcher seconded that the Park and Recreation Commission recommend that the City Council establish 2014 group picnic reservation fees at the same level as 2013. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 8 to 0. Kelly: Thank you Jerry. Ruegemer: Thank you. RECREATION PROGRAM REPORTS: 2013 HALLOWEEN PARTY EVALUATION. Kelly: Alright, Mitch. We get to talk about Halloween. th Johnson: You bet. Thank you Chair Kelly and good evening commissioners. The City hosted our 29 th Annual Halloween Party back on Saturday, October 26. Nearly 350 kids registered and took, participated in the Halloween party. That does not include you know grandparents and neighbors and parents who attended with them. The 342 registrations we had was the highest since 2007. Another great 7 Park and Recreation Commission – November 26, 2013 event. They enjoyed you know live entertainment, carnival games, indoor trick or treating, refreshments, the spooky room, hayrides, etc. Great event. You’ll see in your report there I kind of broke down each aspect of the event. I’ll just kind of touch on them briefly and be happy to answer questions at the end. Entertainment for this year, we went through a Touch of Magic which is a local entertainment who provided a show called Mixed Nuts. They performed in the Rec Center gym for about 30 minutes. It was kind of a family comedy show. The kids absolutely loved him. You could hear the little chuckling and giggling in the gym which is always exciting so it’s a great show. You know we’d recommend maybe using them again you know or we could look elsewhere too for other entertainers. In conference rooms 1 and 2 we transformed into the spooky rooms again. One side we kind of did Frankenstein’s lair and the other side kind of a spooky cemetery. We design these rooms for young children you know with the intent not to scare people. Just kind of a fun little thing that they can walk through and we give candy out inside there and stuff so it’s kind of a fun experience for them. In the Bluff Creek gymnasium, we used both gyms for this event. In the Bluff Creek gym we set up a bunch of carnival games. We added new games this year. We increased it to 9 total. We also had a photo station, the bounce house, candy guess, adult raffle. All the games had lines the entire night. Some lines had 30-40 people in them. Even during the 30 minute entertainment show where most people went to that, the lines were still packed so one of the recommendations for next year is to see what we can do to find more room. Do we add more games to kind of keep the lines going. It seems like all the kids like them. All the games are free. They win little prizes which kind of keep them coming back and forth to the different ones. For the refreshments this year we purchased 56 dozen cookies and 24 gallons of cider from Cub Foods at a discounted price so we thank them for their contribution. We really backed down the order of the cookies this year. We had lots and lots extra last year so in a way we saved money this year. We cut the order down by about 20 dozen, which seemed to be kind of the perfect amount. I think we ran out exactly at the end so, so that was nice to kind of cut that back. For hayrides we contracted through Ken Theis again. He does our Feb Fest out at Lake Ann. He’s been doing this event for years. Continues to be a great aspect of the event. He picks up riders right in front of the Rec Center as they’re coming in so it’s a great visibility. I think people really enjoy that and some people came just to kind of pet the horse, did their hayride and actually left I was told too so it’s fun that we can continue to have him there and I think he enjoys it as well. We also, part of the carnival games in the gym, we also had some face painters. We contracted for 3 face painters through Maund Entertainment. Once again just like all the games, the line was backed up. It was free face painting for all the kids. They all, you know Spiderman gets a little Spiderman decoration on his cheek so they kind of do a lot of theme stuff which is fun and continues to be very popular with the kids. So thanks to Chair Kelly and Jacob Stolar. They both came out and volunteered. We appreciate your help with that. We also had other volunteers from the community and the Key Clubs from Chanhassen and Chaska High Schools. I think we had total probably about 45 volunteers through the organizations and the community so we are very thankful for that. And a lot of them even stuck around super late to tear down the games and the spooky rooms and so a great group we had this year and you know without volunteers like that, or yourself Cole, you know we couldn’t have events like that so we certainly appreciate all that. You’ll see some general comments on the bottom of the report there. Some recommendations. The biggest thing is to continue to find ways to keep things fresh. Update the spooky rooms or games or things like that you know for the families who come back year after year. We kind of talked about adding more carnival games to keep the lines short and one possible idea is to see what we can use to do to utilize the space in the Rec Center gym too. You know it’s a 2 hour party. We only use it for 30 minutes for the show. If we try to put more games in there. Maybe shut them down during the entertainment or see what we can do but just kind of some things we kind of tossed around and brainstorm for next year’s event so I’d be happy to answer any questions if anybody has any regarding the Halloween Party. Kelly: Mitch, it was a great event. The kids have a wonderful time and they’re all excited and enthusiastic and I know you’ve all been wondering. I was Mr. Incredible this year and all the kids know who Mr. Incredible is so I still haven’t seen him on a cartoon but I know what he looks like. Also 8 Park and Recreation Commission – November 26, 2013 Mitch’s predecessor, John stopped by and he said to say hello to everybody. Other than that, any questions for Mitch? Echternacht: Mitch, do we send thank you letters to the two Key Clubs? Johnson: Yep we do. To the advisors we do. And I think they have weekly meetings and usually they kind of spread the thanks that way too. Kelly: Any other questions? Mitch, it was a well run event. Thank you. Johnson: Yeah, thank you. CHANJAM ’13 EVALUATION. Kelly: And Mitch, we’re right back at you with ChanJam ’13. th Johnson: Alright, thank you. Unfortunately our 7 ChanJam battle of the bands competition that was th scheduled for Friday, November 15 was cancelled. Unfortunately we didn’t have any band applications. We didn’t receive any. No phone calls. No emails. Nothing so it’s just kind of unfortunate. We kind of talked a little bit last month you know what are some of the reasons. You’ll see from the chart on the report there, we kind of it seemed like in ’08 to 2010 you know we had 8-9 bands which was great and then it really kind of dropped off in 2011. So I think you know bands are just finding other platforms to perform. You know it was one of those things, we had a great run at it but as we look forward to next year I think staff’s going to recommend that we kind of try to find a new event to kind of cater to that teenage, you know kind of audience and customers that we’re looking for. So I mean it’s been great over the years. We still have the plague out with all the winners at the Chan Rec Center. Something we’ll keep out there but just as we’re going forward I think the time has come to an end with that one. Kelly: Questions for Mitch. Mitch, I agree with your conclusion. I think it’s you know, it worked well for a number of years and last 2 years it hasn’t worked so it’s time to switch to something different and good luck in finding something different. Johnson: Sounds good, thank you. Kelly: We’ll try to come up with some ideas to help you out. Johnson: Yeah, sounds great. Scharfenberg: Well you know along those lines I would recommend that if still feel that this is somewhat of a valuable experience that we team up with MacPhail, with the new MacPhail school. You know let them take the lead on it because clearly they have kids that are coming there with musical talent you know to showcase it so be it a talent show or something like that, that maybe we have some conjunction with them to do that. I would explore that but you know personally I would leave it up to them and kind of let them take the lead on it given that they’re here in our community now and they know who the kids are and maybe that’s something they would want to you know promote and we would certainly be willing to help them with that if we have some interest but yeah. I would leave it up to them. th Johnson: We even tossed around the idea, you know we’ve got the summer concert series. The 4 of July stage. You know is there other ways we can get the local bands to give them that platform to perform and stuff if they’re interested so. 9 Park and Recreation Commission – November 26, 2013 Kelly: Any other thoughts or comments? Thank you Mitch. 2013 TREE LIGHTING CEREMONY. Kelly: Mitch you’re just. Johnson: I’m on fire tonight. Kelly: You’re on fire tonight. So let’s hear about the tree lighting ceremony. Johnson: Tree lighting, yeah. Well you probably felt it outside when you were walking in. Winter is here. It’s coming so that means our annual tree lighting ceremony is scheduled for the weekend after th Thanksgiving so it’s Saturday, December 7 at 5:00 p.m. right here in downtown Chanhassen at the plaza here at City Center Park. Event usually lasts about an hour. We usually light the tree around 5:15 p.m. We have a couple veterans and their grandchildren who are going to be flipping the big switch with Mayor Furlong so I invite the commissioners and residents and neighbors and visitors to come out for a fun event. At this year’s event we’re going to have live reindeer, refreshments, the bonfires, some carolers from Living Christ Lutheran Church, the gingerbread house displays and of course the ever popular visit from Santa Claus. So I’m working with the Chanhassen Fire Department. Sounds like they might be working with Santa to try to provide a ride into town so it’s always fun. The event usually draws about 300-400 people. All weather dependent. Hopefully we get a nice glistening of snow to kind of add to the atmosphere. Flyers went in the Villager last week. I think we had 6,000 flyers that went in. Information’s also in the Connection. The website. It will go on Facebook and kind of word of mouth so, so special thanks to Buy Chanhassen. They do a lot with the refreshments. They provide all that so we appreciate that. And then the Mustard Seed Landscape and Garden Center so they provide the reindeer and stuff so appreciate those partnerships we have. Kelly: Any questions on the tree lighting ceremony for Mitch? Thank you Mitch. I hope to be out there this year for it. Looking forward to it. Johnson: Alright. 2013/14 WINTER PROGRAMMING. Kelly: And Mitch, you now get to talk on the winter programs. Johnson: Yes. Thank you Chair Kelly. On the report there you’ll see a whole list of winter events and programs we’re offering. All that were published in the winter edition of the Chanhassen Connection. That was mailed out the last week in October so kind of listed them there. I’ll kind of highlight a few. st Starting with the family events on the top. We have this year the 21 annual Feb Fest which is the first st Saturday in February. I believe this year it is February 1 so hope to see everybody out there. It’s always a fun event. A new event we’re offering this year is the Luminary Walk. That one is scheduled for the middle of February. The weekend after Presidents Day. I’m working with the Holiday Inn Express. We’re going to have kind of a short program there and then we’re going to light the Chanhassen Nature Preserve with some luminaries and so if we have a nice night, you know a full moon would be nice or at least not a cloudy night. There’ll be some nice glow when you kind of stroll through the park in the winter to kind of use some of the trails and maybe bring people to the Nature Preserve who have never been out there before. So that will be a fun one. We’re continuing the Dance Party on Ice out at the Rec Center. That event is in January. Kind of moving down. The Rec Center Sports Program continues to grow. Just looking at rosters again today, we’ve got lots of programs full. Kids on the waiting list so we’re doing our best, working with Jodi to see what we can do for gym space to continue to kind of grow 10 Park and Recreation Commission – November 26, 2013 that program. We’re actually in the process of hiring a new Rec Sports Coordinator. We had some interviews today. Couple more tomorrow. A position that was vacated when Miranda Hoppe, our former intern and coordinator, she just left a couple weeks ago so we’re working to fill that position. So yeah that’s going to be very busy throughout the winter. Going into the preschool programs, offering more art programs out at the Rec Center including the Abrakadoodle Camps. A new one that we’ve added this year is called Art Fired Up. It’s a local artist who brings different pottery items and the kids can decorate them and stuff. He takes them back to his studio. Fires them. Glazes them and then returns them back to the family in usually a 10 day turnaround so something kind of, you know a memento that they can take back with them. So going back on the back side of the page. Couple other events. We have the Daddy- Daughter Sweetheart Dance. We do two sessions of that in February. A new one we’re trying this year is like a Mother and Son Superhero Spectacular we’re calling it so Mr. Incredible if you’re interested, if you have your suit laying around. So kind of a spinoff of the Daddy-Daughter Sweetheart Dance so it should be fun with that and we’re going to do an ice skating clinics out at the Rec Center again. We’ve got the Tae Kwon Do. Some school release camps. Some programs we’re going to offer and then there’s a list of the adult programs. The 3 on 3 basketball league and Jodi continues to operate the Pilates and the Yoga and the Zumba and stuff out at the Rec Center. So I’d be happy to answer any questions anyone has about the programs. Kelly: Questions for Mitch? Thank you very much Mitch. Johnson: Alright, thank you. COMMISSION MEMBER COMMITTEE REPORTS. None. COMMISSION MEMBER PRESENTATIONS. None. ADMINISTRATIVE PACKET. Hoffman: Variety of items in there. Nothing that I need to highlight. We do have a relationship with the folks who are disability, Reach for Resources… th Ryan: Todd I have a question. The new walkway, kind of trail on 78 and Galpin. Are they going to repaint, stripe the lines for the walkway and put in a crosswalk sign? Hoffman: Yes. Ryan: They will? Hoffman: The concrete work was done late in the season and I’m not sure what the painting schedule is. If that’s going to need to wait til spring. Ryan: Okay. Hoffman: They put the crosswalk in…and then signage… Ryan: It was very well done. Very excited about that. That’s always a dangerous area to cross so happy to see that done. Kelly: Todd I guess we’re going to have a new person here next week. 11 Park and Recreation Commission – November 26, 2013 Hoffman: We will. We’ll introduce our replacement for Dale Gregory in the Park Superintendent position so Adam Beers will be here to meet you and Adam is currently the Assistant Golf Course th Superintendant at the Wayzata Country Club and his official day on the job is December 9. Kelly: Thank you. Anything I missed? Anything anybody needs to bring up tonight or do we put it to the question? Carron moved, Echternacht seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 8 to 0. The Park and Recreation Commission meeting was adjourned at 8:10 p.m. Submitted by Todd Hoffman Park and Rec Director Prepared by Nann Opheim 12