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1 Approval of MinutesCHANHASSE PARK AND RECREATION COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING NOVEMBER 24, 1998 Chairwoman Lash called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. MEMBERS PRESENT: Jan Lash, Ron Roeser, Jim Manders, Fred Berg, Mike Howe, Dave Moes and Rod Franks STAFF PRESENT: Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Director; Jerry Ruegemer, Recreation Supervisor Lash: Seeing that all commissioners are present, before we proceed with our regular agenda this evening I would like to take a moment for all of us to remember and reflect on the great loss we're feeling over the death of one of our former commissioners, Dave Huffman. Those of us here tonight who were fortunate enough to serve with Dave will always remember xvith great affection his colorful character. Dave was a dedicated and respected commissioner who added a dimension to our meetings not before experienced and probably not to be seen again. I'd like to add to our agenda a discussion later on of some type of public memorial, that I see Todd has already taken action on and a discussion of some type of contribution to the memorial fund. For now I'd ask that we just all take a moment to express our heartfelt loss by joining together in a moment of silence. Lash: Dave was a great guy and he's really going to be missed by a lot of people. Did you all get your copy of this? Okay, we'll move on. APPROVAL OFAGENDA: Hoffman: I have some agenda changes Jan. Under Administrative reports I'd like to add a request for a staff report, America Inn race. And then item, Rice Marsh Lake bench that was donated to the city trail system. And then I think we want to talk about Dave's memorial under commission member reports? Lash: Does anyone else have anything to add? Okay. Seeing no more additions, do xve have a motion or xvere there corrections or deletions to the minutes from October 27t1~? APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Howe: No big deal but I thi~ there are some remarks attributed to me made by Commissioner Berg about the skate park in Mankato. I've never the place and they've got me talking about it here. Lash: Do you know which page is that on? Park and Rec Commission Meeting - November 24, 1998 Howe: Page 8 maybe. That's not right. I don't recall making those statements. Lash: Anything else? Okay, with those corrections is there a motion to approve? Berg moved, Howe seconded to approve the Minutes of the Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated October 27, 1998 as amended by Howe on page 8 regarding remarks about the skate park in Mankato. All voted in favor and the motion carried. ITEM DELETED: PUBLIC HEARING~ REQUEST TO ESTABLISH A PRIVATE ASSOCIATION DOCK WITH MULTIPLE SLIPS ON PUBLIC PROPERTY~ CARVER BEACH PARK. Lash: Under new business we have the item of the public hearing for a private dock down at Carver Beach Park which has been deleted. Is there any discussion on that? Hoffman: We did receive one call. Additional call in support of the concept. It was a family that lived in Fox Chase, just kind of up the way. And so I offered to mail her the correspondence which we have received, which I did. I also mailed it off with a note to Mr. Frostad so he's aware of the correspondence we received. Whenever we start mailing out notices to neighbors we also get, receive requests about additional issues and there's a trail connection between Fox Chase and Carver Beach which has never been formalized and so there's a resident who would tike to talk about that. It's in their development contract that the City establish, develop, maintain that trail. It goes back to '82-83 and it's never been completed so we'll place that on a future agenda. Lash: On price information for us? Hoffman: Yep. We'll talk about some alternatives for it's location and we'll talk about costs. Lash: Thanks Todd. Anyone else? Roeser: Are you going to have to have a public hearing on that Todd? Hoffman: No. You can take action on that and the Council can act on any contract that you would have to award. We'll go back. We'll pull out the development contracts so the city's on record, it has been agreed. Any time you take a development contract that was approved by, reviewed by the Park Commission, approved by the Park Commission, reviewed by the Council, approved by the City Council... It's not been talked about for a while so we'll do some discussion and information and we'll certainly notify the people that are in the general vicinity. They're aware of it and it is used informally right now but if you're new to the area, you'd never know that you could cut through there on a legal basis. Lash: Anything else on Carver Beach? Okay. Seeing none, we'll move on. 2 Park and Rec Commission Meeting - November 24, 1998 PROGRAM REPORTS: A. TREE LIGHTING CEREMONY. Hoffman: Have you seen the tree? How can you miss it? Right in front of City Hall. Councilman Berquist had, I don't know what was it, a 30 foot pine tree. It's as big as a single car garage. He didn't, no one wanted it in his garden. Mayor Mancino worked with Don to place this in front of City Hall. The tree down at the town clock square will be retired at least for this year and probably for future years as they attempt to move that celebration centrally located in the city. Roeser: Will they not even light the one down there? Hoffman: No. No confusion. At least this year between the two celebration trees. Lash: That's not, I mean that's a real tree but it's not planted. Yeah, and the one up there is planted. Hoffman: Yep. We couldn't plant a tree in this location. It's right in the middle of the 4th of July tent so. They cut it down. Put it in a front end loader. Backed it down the street. People were running out of their houses wondering what this tree was doing going down the middle of the street... Ruegemer: Park maintenance crews put the lights on already. That is done. Hoffman: Santa and sleigh rides. Ruegemer: Sleigh rides. Cookies will be served out of the senior center this year. Those were donated by Pillsbury this year and Dawn's been working with the Chanhassen Chamber, kind of a co-sponsor of the event to help with the logistics and volunteers, that type of thing. The library's also involved with story telling. They're going to read, there's an author in town, and I can't recall the author's name now but he's in here that day and he'll be doing a reading and that type of thing at the library so he has offered then to read one of his books for the event that night so, it should be fun. Hoffman: December 5th, 6:00 p.m. Lash: You've got from 5:00 until about 6:30. Ruegemer: Yeah, that's what time the festivities actually start but the tree lighting will be at 6:00. There will be a bonfire out there started about 5:00. The hayrides and that type of thing will start at that time. Right around 5:00. Same hay people as what we've had for the Halloween party. Park and Rec Commission Meeting - November 24, 1998 Hoffman: Hay and horse? Ruegemer: Yeah, they were going to do sleigh rides but I don't know if we're going to have any snow by that time. Hoffman: Hay wagons. Ruegemer: Hay wagons. Lash: So do we need to line up volunteers? Ruegemer: Just help out with the bonfire. Helping out with serving cookies. Wiping tables. Helping out outside. Dawn did arrange some people to sing this year so I don't have to lead the carols, thank you Ron. Lash: Did you get the Chandeliers? Ruegemer: No, not the Chandeliers. Roeser: The Chandeliers aren't coming? Ruegemer: No. I can't remember who it was. One of the local groups. No, it wasn't Prince. He's busy. Lash: Well I can come for that but I'd have to leave by like shortly after 6:00. So I'll help serve cookies... Berg: Yeah, put me tentatively down. Lash: So you want us here by 5:00? Ruegemer: I'll have Dawn give you a call and she can kind of give you your assignments. So Jan, gone by 6:00. All the rest of you all night? Fred is a question mark. Franks: I may not be able to make it. Probably won't. Ruegemer: Okay, thank you. HALLOWEEN PARTY EVALUATION. Ruegemer: We went over some of this at last month, more verbally than anything. I just had more of a evaluation of that. The hayrides were, you know were, it was such a beautiful night out that night. Everybody wanted to get out on the hayride and our hay person did stay later that night just to accommodate everybody and give them a ride which was really nice. He's a fantastic person to work with and we'd welcome him back again. Musical entertainment was Park and Rec Commission Meeting - November 24, 1998 much better this year than we've ever had. People stayed in the gym liked that. Sit in one place at one time for so long but that really worked out great. They were a good group and they were very interested in coming back again next year or for future performances so we'll definitely discuss that with them. Face painters. We did move that into the gym this year. The lines were still long with that so we are potentially looking at adding a total or 3 to 4 next year versus 2 to get people through the lines a little bit quicker. It is fun for kids to have that done and I think they enjoy it so we'll add that on next year. We did order quite a few more dozen cookies this year and gallons of cider. We went through all of that too so we'll definitely add to our order next year. Festival Foods was nice enough to donate that again for the party this year. So we truly appreciate their sponsorship to our program. That was very nice down there. Just some general comments. We did add signage this year for bathrooms and what rooms were going on with what activities. We had about 75 people walk up and register, which is up from last year so bring that total roughly to about 625 kids plus their parents so we were up I'm sure 900 to 1,000 people for that. We can always use you know more ideas for the scary room. We'll have, I think it worked out better this year having more interaction with that. We did have kids from the Girl Scouts volunteer for that and dress up in costumes and just a little bit more interactive work with the people as they kind of come in. It was a lot of fun with that and we'll look to eliminate the heart candy for next year so. Did anybody else have any questions that we didn't cover either last time or tonight? Moes: I thought it actually was a great turn out. It was actually a lot of fun. l'd never seen that many kids before. They had a good time. The only, two things I did hear was, as far as the face painting, I hadn't really talked to anybody that said they have an extremely long time to wait so there must have been enough going on either in the gym or around them that it didn't seem like the line was moving all that slow. But evidently there was other people that may have felt it could have gone a little quicker. The other question I got, seeing that this was my first time was people kept asking where's the game room. So I'm like, well there must have been a game room previously or something. Ruegemer: We've had games in the past and the Jaycees have always volunteered to do that and the Jaycees had folded this year in about the summertime, that I found out about trying to. We did send letters out to the Lions and the Rotary and other types of groups too and to no avail. I couldn't get anybody to do those games. So we put those on the shelf for this year and we will look at add those again next year, if the commission feels that we need those. Moes: I was just, I wasn't familiar with them and I had a few people you know, where's the game room? Weight room's doxvn the hall I know but. Manders: ...by ordering more refreshments than you're expecting a bigger crowd next year? Ruegemer: Yeah, we can add probably 10% to 15% probably each year I would think of new people. Lash: Do you think kids actually went without cookies? Park and Rec Commission Meeting - November 24, 1998 Ruegemer: Went without cookies? Lash: Yeah. I mean do you think anybody actually went without?... Ruegemer: A little bit. A little bit at the end but you know by that time probably 90% of the people probably had you know refreshments at that point. Plus they walked out hopefully with a generous bag of candy. Hoffman: Do you want to explain the buses? Ruegemer: Yeah the...the revenue that was brought in, the expenditures are listed under program supplies. The candy. Different, there's some costumes and there's some different decorations and pumpkins. Other types of things that make that, the Halloween party what it is. The 4300 is the entertainment. The fees for service. The Touch of Magic was the entertainment that we had in the gym. Obviously, Ken Theis was the hayrides. Maund Entertainment was the face painters. Basically the expenditures minus our revenue is, was a difference of $742.00 and what we do to make up that difference is through the sponsorship program where we usually take in roughly $20,000.00 to $25,000.00 a year in cash donations, merchandise, volunteers, gift certificates, that type of thing to make up that difference so that is, already been collected. That has been collected for, or roughly about last December, January timeframe so there is money in the general budget then to cover those types of negative balances. Howe: Does Target give you a discount when they see you coming? Ruegemer: No. Howe: Do they pay sales tax on candy? Ruegemer: Yes. A comment was made from the audience that was not picked up by the microphone. Ruegemer: We haven't since 1993 I believe it's been. Hoffman: Isn't that amazing, state government? They tax the cities. Ruegemer: Not the school districts anymore but the cities they do. Hoffman: We talked about it at the time. We just lost $1,500 in playground equipment every time we buy one because you pay tax. Roeser: Well, somebody write to Jesse. Hoffman: Yeah. We don't pocket the remaining $20,000.00 in donations. We spend them on the 4th of July. 6 Park and Rec Commission Meeting - November 24, 1998 Howe: Have you tried talking to Target about a discount just to see what they do? Ruegemer: We used to receive a discount but management has changed, or team leads have changed over there and we aren't so friendly I guess with the new manager. Not from my part. I've certainly tried to be cordial and nice but. Moes: What discount level were you at? Ruegemer: 10%. Berg: 5% goes back to the community. Lash: Can you go to somebody else who would give you the discount? Ruegemer: You know for the money i guess we would save, it's convenient too and they do store it for us. Berg: Festival couldn't? Ruegemer: Potentially, I can look into that but usually we try to get it on sale and. Lash: ...that's pretty generous on their part but even if they gave you 10% they'd still make. Ruegemer: ...has those big grab bags. There's 300 pieces roughly in those. Lash: Yeah but then... Okay, anything else on the Halloween? Okay, xve can go on to the picnic fees for 1999. ESTABLISH 1999 PICNIC FEES. Ruegemer: Thank you Chair Lash and the rest of the commission. This is an a~mual review by the Park and Recreation Commission. I'd like to try to get ahead of the game here a little bit. I've already been receiving phone calls on '99 group picnics already and I'd like to get those picnic fees set for 1999. As you see in the report, the last approved increase was in 1997, and there was not one in 1998. It's my opinion, just our surrounding areas and communities or roughly I think we've been primarily on the high end of picnic fees. You know in regards to the Chaska, Eden Prairie and those type of things. And so it's my recommendation that we stay the same for 1999 and then take a look at that if we need to increase that, we've been primarily going roughly at 10% a year when we have been, or 10% when we have been doing increases for the picnic fees so it's staff's recommendation that we keep the same fees as 1998 for 1999 and then review a rate increase if the Park and Rec Commission sees fit in the year 2000. And you can see the '98 fees and see the '99 fees for the different groups at the different park locations. So it's staff s recommendation that we approve the same fees as 1998 as listed below. Park and Rec Commission Meeting - November 24, 1998 Berg: Did we raise them 10% from '97 to '98? Ruegemer: We raised them in 1997 10%. I think it was '96 to '97. Lash: One quick question though Jerry. What do you think, and you might not know this right off but what kind of percentages do you think we have for rental as far as resident/non-resident? Ruegemer: Ah boy, it's hard to say. We do, surprisingly we do get a lot of non-resident groups. What percent is that? I'm sure it's over 50% and we have a lot of groups come in from, we have a lot of businesses coming in from Eden Prairie, Minnetonka, St. Louis Park, St. Paul, all over. Lash: And what do you figure is our? Ruegemer: Revenue? Lash: Well not even the revenue but percentage of time that you think it would be rentable? I mean I know weeknights it's probably not most...but percentage of weekend times that it could be rented. How often is it actually? Ruegemer: It's not out for, basically the pavilions rent out right away and there isn't really a weekend that goes by that both are not rented. Yeah, Lake Ann is more popular than Lake Susan just with the beach and the rentals and that type of thing but it really depends you know the majority of the weekends both are booked. The lakeside is probably the third and parkview is probably the fourth. Lash: Which one is parkview? Ruegemer: Up on top of the hill? Down below the hill in front of the concession. Lash: Oh yeah. Okay. And a lot of school groups take advantage of the fees too from District 112 and 276. Howe: Ifa daycare comes, does this apply to the lifeguards and the beach too, that $35.00? Or if a daycare, what we talked about last session? Ruegemer: That is just for the rental of a specific facility. Howe: This is not the fee to come to the park and swim on a hot day in the summer for a buck? Ruegemer: No. Howe: Okay. Hoffman: It'd be in addition to. Park and Rec Commission Meeting - November 24, 1998 Manders: ...anticipate an impact with these new facilities in the different parks? Franks: That's my question too. Are you going to start at some of the bigger park shelters like on Power Hill Park, is that going to be a reservation if people want to use those or just... Hoffman: Neighborhood use. Franks: Neighborhood use. Hoffman: First come, first serve. Lash: I don't feel like those neighborhood shelters are group rental. Roeser: No, I don't think we should ever start renting those out. Lash: I think that'd be a can of worms. Manders: What kind of facilities do you plan to have there? Picnic tables or bolt them down or what? Berg: The second year you bolt them down. Ruegemer: Jim, if you're going the way of neighborhood, are we going to be losing a lot of business from neighborhoods not coming into Lake Ann or Lake Susan? Franks: No. My only thing was if we, and this is an aside to fees for shelter rental but along the same line. Is there going to be some kind of a reservation system so you don't have a couple of neighborhood picnics trying to picnic at the shelter at the same time because they didn't know that anybody. Or like, kind of a reservation kind of process. Manders: Kind of like the reservation sign or something and they can... Franks: I know we haven't talked about that before as a commission about what we want to do with these neighborhood shelters. Maybe that's an issue for another time. Hoffman: It depends on how formal people start making their events. If they start, if we get two great, big formal events planned and they start to clash, we're going to start hearing about it. Roeser: Then we'll have to talk about it. Then we'll have to do something about it. Moes: Once you start doing that with the shelters, does that then turn into tennis courts and basketball courts? Sign up sheets for those. Lash: First come, first serve or... Park and Rec Commission Meeting - November 24, 1998 Hoffman: Put a big sign up. We're going to be here Saturday. Berg: They'll figure it out. Roeser: The neighborhoods are going to have to figure out their own for now. Manders: Jerry, do you have any sense of potential revenue that you're at? You know, if you was to say percent. Everything was booked during the most reasonable time. How booked is it? Ruegemer: I don't know ifI can answer that but you know maybe our overall revenues are anywhere from probably $7,000.00-$8,500.00 a summer on our current rentals. Manders: How booked is that? Ruegemer: Well, a little bit. Manders: I mean the most reasonable time. I'm not looking for... Ruegemer: Probably somewhere around 50%. You know a lot of times on the lakeside and the parkview are sitting empty and that's just mainly the two shelters are booked. Manders: There's room for quite a bit more then. Ruegemer: If we had another shelter on top ofparkview we could rent it out every weekend. Lash: .. ~but they're still expensive to build it... Berg: It seems to me we visited that a while ago. Lash: Yeah... Hoffman: It's significant revenue but it's still less than 1% of our annual budget. Lash: ...Well not only that, you know you can't count on the weather... Manders: It's just the two shelters that you're booking, is that just the Lake Ann and then Lake Susan? Ruegemer: Yes. Hoffman: And then the two picnic areas. In addition to the shelter at Lake Ann, our lakeside, which is right in front of the shelter and parkview which is right on top. So there's four reservations. Lash: But the shelters are booked up most. t0 Park and Rec Commission Meeting - November 24, 1998 Hoffman: The hottest ticket. Lash: I don't know, are the new ones, the new little neighborhood ones, are they going to have, they're not going to have electricity and stuff are they? Because that's a whole, and they don't have bathrooms either, right? Hoffman: Portable. Berg: And no barbecues. Lash: So that's a whole other level of... Hoffman: Not currently. Currently no barbecues. Lash: ...Okay, anything else on that? Any more on this? The shelters? Okay. Franks: Do we need a motion'? Lash: Oh, yeah we do I bet. Is there a motion to accept these fees as presented? Franks: I move that we keep the park shelter and the park picnic area rental fees consistent with what they were in 1998, staff's recommendations. Lash: Is there a second to that? Howe: Second. Franks moved, Howe seconded that the Park and Recreation Commission recommend that the 1999 picnic fees remain consistent with the 1998 fees, per staff's recommendation. All voted in favor and the motion carried. SENIOR CENTER UPDATE AND CONGREGATE DINING AND MEALS ON WHEELS. Lash: Does that need a presentation? Hoffman: 3(d) and 3(e) on senior center and congregate dining. Kara is expecting and when she's out on maternity leave Dawn will assume her role in the first part of the year. Lash: So will Dawn be continuing at this position part time and that position part time? Hoffman: She'll be downstairs. Yeah, we hope to hire. Lash: Two part times? 11 Park and Rec Commission Meeting - November 24, 1998 Hoffman: Well we'll fill Patty's position after the first of the year. Lash: And Dawn's not interested in that full time? Hoffman: I don't believe so. Lash: Too bad. Okay. So any questions on the senior update? ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT: 1998 CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS SHUT DOWN. Hoffman: The 1998 construction projects, I can't give you the shut down report because of this weather we just continue to work. November 1 was the date of substantial completion or the scheduled date for both Bandimere and City Center. The contractor did not meet those dates. We've had ongoing correspondence with them and on about the 15th of the month I wrote them a letter informing them that I would initiate collection of up to $50,000.00 in liquidated damages so that caught their attention. They were in my office the following morning and were looking for some leniency and I wasn't about to give it because I didn't create the problem. They created their own problem and they'll need to get out of their own contract and so they're out there working hard to try to get as much done yet this year at Bandimere and then will be back in the spring and if we feel as a city we've suffered losses due to their failure to complete, then next year we'll continue to go after those dollars. I should let you know that they are difficult to collect. You have to prove loss, financial loss but nevertheless, that is where City Center and Bandimere are at today. Lash: But Bandimere is very nearly completed. City Center's got a ways to go. Hoffman: Ways to go, yep. Bandimere and these details, as with any project, the details don't look like a lot but they take some time and so as I spoke with the contractor, Todd Ingram and his foreman Bob Peterson, I stated that we don't want to be here next July talking about it. He just says that...get it done next spring. The trail projects. They almost started paving on Powers today but they decided that they'd better, I don't know if you saw, if anybody saw the paver and the roller were out there but they called it off. They had it all the way up to the President of Midwest Asphalt out there today deciding whether or not they should pave. Their concern, and our concern was that once they paved they would not have time to back fill that pavement and come spring rains, you start to see erosion in the gravel and so they were concerned that we'd call them out on that and so they decided just to grade things up. Pack it up for Thanksgiving and head home so. They'll come back to Powers in the spring... Not a single trail segment has been accepted and so we will be placing them on record that their warranties have not started as of yet. Next spring they have to do restoration. Corrective measures, patching and repairs and then the warranties will start. It's a one year warranty will start probably some time in July for most of the trails. Lash: Where are we at with Galpin? Did they pave there yet? 12 Park and Rec Commission Meeting - November 24, 1998 Hoffman: Galpin they paved the first lift and then the second lift will come in the spring so it's useable. Powers we will plow as long as we get good frost before we get snow. So if we get good frost where the plows.., and then Bluff Creek we'll, the Edwards property was just closed today so we'll start that reroute. That was south on Bluff Creek. Lash: Now was that the chunk? Hoffman: Big chunk yep of land. Manders: How did that happen? Hoffman: Through a BOWSR grant. Through MnDOT. Manders: Wasn't there some city discussion on this kind of. Hoffinan: Yep. They didn't want to buy it. City Council did not want to buy it with referendum dollars but they were fine by other resources and so Phillip, the Water Resources Coordinator worked on a grant. What it is is a wetland restoration. So the State builds the roads all over the state. Loads up a lot of wetland and then they look to local governments to replace those wetlands and they pay you to do that... And the other trails are, I just have a punch list. There's a punch list of about some 100 odd items on the other remaining trails so we'll be out working on those this fall and then next spring. Midwest has been receptive. They know that we're...product and they have gone through some foreman and some employees jobs because they have failed to perform and so we just continue to demand quality product and xve hope they continue to deliver. Manders: So when you say none of them have been accepted, meaning some of the ones that are so called complete aren't complete? Hoffman: No, there's punch list items. At least 30 items long on all of the trail system segments. Cracked off edges. Erosion. Problem spots. Grass or sod that has died. Culverts that are plugged. Mailboxes that haven't been put back up. Signage. Just a myriad of things. All the details. And then the, or two others that have to do with the referendum. Thankfully the neighborhood park projects are almost 95-98% complete. And so there's still some work to do on the shelter at Rice Marsh Lake. ! think there's shingles to put on up at Power Hill. And then Earl F. Anderson did finally come in over the past 2 ½ weeks and complete their projects so. Lash: Okay, any reaction to any of the neighborhood...projects? How are they feeling? Hoffman: They're feeling great. Yeah they like it. The response has been very positive on all the projects. Herman Field, the terrible graffiti incident this past week so. On a play structure and on the curbing and the sidewalks so that was called in by the park watch group again. We'll keep an eye up there so that was good news for a while and then we got hit again with that. Manders: Aren't the neighborhood parks managed by the staff?. 13 Park and Rec Commission Meeting - November 24, 1998 Hoffman: The projects? Manders: Maybe that's why... Hoffman: Those were managed more closely by us, yeah. Berg: What's the latest with TH 1017 Hoffman: 101 North? Berg: Yeah. Has anything changed? Hoffman: Linda? You were at the last meeting. Linda Jansen: Yeah, we did have a meeting...telling us the proposals. The initial as to how it would be...but they want it to go through all the public hearings so that anyone who... The bad news is that whether it's 3 lanes or 5 lanes, it's still going to be as wide a cut that has to go down...so far just using the central line on the existing TH 101 and...definitely step deeper then into our right-of-way and into property...without moving homes. There's some very difficult... The homes that are right down below from there, if there's... Roeser: And then a bicycle trail running along side of that. Linda Jansen: That was just one of the areas where they were doing retaining walls... They're doing the debates. They almost literally have to run TH 10l right through, right by the front doors of those twin homes that are so close. Berg: On the Eden Prairie side? Roeser: That's on the Eden Prairie side. Linda Jansen: ...of the two plans that they had... Hoffman: Contentious. Lash: Well a nightmare to pull together. There are so many obstacles that nothing's happened. Okay. Anything else on these projects? Anyone? Okay. How about our administrative section, anything? Hoffman: I've got a couple other items under. Lash: Oh sorry. 14 Park and Rec Commission Meeting - November 24, 1998 Hoffman: Request for support. The Americlnn has an idea to initiate a race in Chanhassen. I met with a couple representatives and what they would like, they'll go ahead and establish a committee what they would like from the city as a liaison to work...write a check as well as the title sponsor for the event... Look at the calendar of races. There is a glut of races in the state so it's a tough business to get into and, but you know the biggest hesitancies, you just go into one of these things. You're going to have to go into it pretty well or pretty clear plan...and if we're going to get into that. Lash: That new hotel right over on, okay. Berg: Are we talking a marathon? Are we talking a short race? What are we talking about? Hoffman: Yeah, they don't want the triathlon. Tony Sheller has the triathlon concept. They don't want to do that. It would either be a half marathon or a half marathon and a marathon to appeal to the children of Chanhassen...or some other event that kicks in with that. Lash: Well how long is a marathon? Commissioner: 26 miles. Lash: Whoa. I thought you could... Hoffman: No committee and those would be committee decisions. The tag line for this would be over the pedestrian bridge. The thing would start over in the Villages and would wind down through those neighborhoods and it would go over the bridge and most of the running would have to take place on the north side of Highway 5 because that's where all the roads are for street racing. It would end up at somewhere downtown or wherever else. Lash: Something like the 4th of July or? Hoffman: Probably not. There are companies that do the timing. There are companies that do all of those...but it takes cash to do it and they'll probably end up with 2 to 5...budgeted for 1999 so and I stated point blank that here we are in November but... Manders: What did you say is initiating this? Hoffman: The America Inn. The manager, Sheila. Moes: What's their overall marketing thrust of this? I guess to do a race. Hoffman: You want to sell rooms, right? Well, that's part of it but they also just want to get their name in the community of Chanhassen .... the south side of Highway 5, they don't have a lot of recognition. 15 Park and Rec Commission Meeting - November 24, 1998 Franks: You know if you did something that was a little on the odd side, like Northwest, their... club does the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving and I've run that... The St. Paul Winter Carnival has like.., so if we could tie it into one of our festivals like maybe the February Festival where it's not going to be a real competitive race but something odd enough in an off time of the year where people would come out and do something. Lash: So like the Polar Bear thing? Franks: Yeah, right. Lash: They run into Lake Ann. Franks: Well I don't know if we want to run into the lake... Kind of like Robin and I. We're traveling all over going to races. So and then we always say why doesn't our city have one you know here in Minnetonka and Excelsior. And Mound even...and Rolling Acres even does one out at Carver Park so. Howe: So Rod so you want to get on that committee, do you want to do that? Hoffman: Why don't you sit in a brainstorming session. Howe: I could give you some advice. I think a marathon, I really think is out of the question. Franks: And your answer is right Todd too is that if we decided to go in, you'd have to go in with both feet and both hands because they have to be really well organized because no one will come back because there are so many choices out there. If it's not a well run race, people just won't come back. Howe: But if you want to run in the western suburbs though... Hoffman: Minnetonka's half marathon is good. Turkey Trot. Howe: The 5 and 10K's, you have a lot of them in April and May and then it's kind... Manders: Even half marathon is pretty much ruling out most the people. Howe: That's too long. I don't think you can get the recreational person... They want the t-shirt. Lash: Yeah, couldn't you just start small? Howe: 5K. 10K. Hoffman: if you're going to build a tradition you have to start with what you're going to have in 10 years. You've got to make that decision up front. 16 Park and Rec Commission Meeting - November 24, 1998 Commissioner: Sign me up. Hoffman: Okay Jan?..Rod? Mike? Howe: ...I need a new committee to be on. Lash: Oh okay. Well that's yours then. Franks: You'll pass that contact information on then? Lash: Now this doesn't necessarily mean we're... Hoffman: Brainstorming. Lash: Okay. We're not endorsing something yet. Hoffman: We're not sending them down to the committee yet. They'll report back. That's what I was looking for Jan. Roeser: I thought a bike race would be kind of... Howe: We could have a running and bike race... Roeser: Pretty hard to bike on a trail though. I mean a bike race on a trail would never work. We'd have to put it on the road. You'd have to put it on Highway 5 from here to Victoria or something. Lash: And then you have the Rice Marsh Lake bench. Hoffman: Yep. Couple of photos. Bob Ostlund stopped in. Do you know Bob? Anybody know Bob? Berg: Superintendent in Shakopee? Hoffman: Different one. Franks: Is this the bench that's on the trail to the Winfield neighborhood? Hoffman: Yep. Lash: Now who Bob Ostlund is this? Hoffman: Well he lives right there about where the bench is and he enjoys walking that trail and his children knew that he enjoyed walking it but they didn't have a place to sit down so his kids bought him a bench. Took the weed whip down there. We went to the spot. Put the bench up. 17 Park and Rec Commission Meeting - November 24, 1998 Put a little plaque on there says Happy Birthday Bob and took him on down there and opened his billfold and there was Bob's bench. Berg: Good idea. Hoffman: So he thought that was a great story. He brought in a few photos and we sat down one morning and had a cup of coffee and we talked about it .... it's a pretty heavy duty bench. Pretty substantial. And so he thought it was such a neat deal that he encourages us to do it elsewhere in the city and I said I'll tell the story to the Park Commission. Lash: I agree with him. I think I made that suggestion on the section between... Where is this one? Hoffman: Right at the intersection of Eden Prairie and Chanhassen on that Rice Marsh Lake trail. Lash: That is a nice one. Manders: When are they going to extend that trail through Eden Prairie to it's end. It kind of dead ends right there. Hoffman: ! don't know. It does dead end. I've been there many times. Manders: Kind of wash out there too or something underneath those trails. Franks: ...got that new park in just a couple of hundred yards... Lash: Anyone else who has, did you have anything else? Franks: Well on the bench idea, has it ever been considered to have a program within the city like a memorial bench fund? I know you walk on Lakewood Nature Center, all the benches have little donation plaques on them that have been placed there by people... Is that something that we have ever wanted to consider having here? Hoffman: We've talked about a lot of different memorials. Memorial tree plan. Memorial bench funds. They have the rose gardens and we've just never formalized any one particular program so. Some cities do a whole brochure. They print out a you can buy this brochure as a memorial bench or trees. Franks: Right. And like as a menu and people can just, if have something that they would like to do, that it would be available. Some vendors that we. Hoffman: Yep. Good concept. 18 Park and Rec Commission Meeting - November 24, 1998 Roeser: I think it just needs some publicity. If you just let people know that that sort of thing is available. Hoffman: We can do a little brochure and take some time to put things together. We'll work on that. Franks: Yeah, would that be too much to ask over this winter to ask staff to do a little research on coming up. Hoffman: Bring you one down. Lash: Okay. Anything else from commissioners? Reports or. Okay. We all got the memo from Todd. Franks: Oh, I have sort ora report, I'm sorry. Lash: That's alright. Franks: I did receive a call from...with Lifetime Fitness. He was the person that really set up that tour that was...and strategic waiting until after the elections I think is why he called me down. I had just spoke with him in person and he was going to call back. He's off to like Cleveland setting up another club so, another venture. Private public venture so they're still knocking on the door. It sounds like the deal in Eden Prairie is off. They're catching a lot of heat from Northwest and Flagship so it doesn't look like Eden Prairie will go with any kind ora joint deal so that's why it's back at our door. I was a little disappointed to read in the paper how the community center idea took a couple of steps backwards. So 1 don't know how all of this has been but I ~vould be looking for a little bit of direction too when this guy calls me back... Hoffman: Take the free lunch and run. Franks: Well I don't want to take, there is no free lunch. There's always a price to pay for that lunch. It's never worth it. Hoffman: I think you read the writing on the wall in the newspaper. Lash: Well...and library and community parks or something...give them a little of what they want and you get what? Franks: Give people some of what they want and you'll get most of what you want. Lash: ...okay. We'll move back onto the Dave Huffman memorial. I did happen to see, I don't know if anybody else saw this on Channel 9 News last night. They had set up a memorial scholarship fund for his children and as, you know I know I read in the paper about the... additional fund so did you want to have the card and the collection here. Did you have in mind if it's going to go to Boy Scouts or to that or you don't care? 19 Park and Rec Commission Meeting - November 24, 1998 Hoffman: Specified in my memo that it was going to the Boy Scouts of America. Based on the first article in the Tribune. I don't think that's a problem with expanding that or splitting it. Lash: It's not that I have a thing against Boy Scouts. There is a need for a scholarship fund for the kids, personally I would rather have it go there... And then you have set up the...and is it your plan for the one tree to go near where the park is going to be, the playground? Hoffman: Playground, sure. Yeah, ! hope to get the plaque by that time. I'm not sure if it's going to be able to do that and get it mounted on a stone and get it out there and get the tree there. Get the hole dug and hopefully have some ground that's not frozen so we can put the tree and place it in. Lash: ... Hoffman: I'll be writing and calling her and letting her know what we're up to after it's confirmed and that will get in the paper probably this week. It will be difficult to get a hold of her but I'll leave a message and call. Lash: ...Okay, anyone else who has anything they'd like to add to that? Thanks Todd. Hoffman: I'll go ahead and I'll just revise that memorandum and we'll just say we're splitting the proceeds between the two funds. Lash: It was just, when I got home yesterday there was a message there from...and it was just kind of all the way from work as I was driving Bandimere and down TH 101 I thought...I was thinking of Sugarbush. We had the big discussion about Sugarbush Park with no sugarbush trees there and I thought well, that might be a place we could put a colorful tree too but Bandimere's nice. It's a more public. Roeser: More of an athletic field for one thing, which would be appropriate for him. Lash: ... Berg: Yeah, that's what I'm sitting here thinking, it's just amazing. We're touched on things like the bridge tonight and Rice Marsh and the golf course and those are all Dave's things. I get busted up thinking about it every time. It's just amazing. 16 months on this commission, and three years later we're still talking about him. Not everybody can have that kind of mark. Hoffman: He did like his bridge. Berg: He's the only one in the city that could defend it too. And you know, well. He talked to me more about giving me things for school than he did anything else. Because he was a history major. 20 Park and Rec Commission Meeting - November 24, 1998 Lash: He definitely filled the room when he was here, in a lot of ways. Anything else that we need to touch on before we? Howe: Are you going to send that... Lash: Yes. Howe: Oh I'll sign it. I'd like to sign it. Lash: Now did you replace, who replaced him? Howe: I think ! must have because I came in in '95. Lash: Okay. Is there a motion to adjourn? Roeser moved, Howe seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried. The meeting was adjourned. Submitted by Todd Hoffman Park and Rec Director Prepared by Nann Opheim 21