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PRC 2014 04 22 CHANHASSEN PARK AND RECREATION COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING APRIL 22, 2014 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, Jacob Stolar and Tyler Kobilarcsik MEMBERS ABSENT: Luke Thunberg STAFF PRESENT: Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Director; Jerry Ruegemer, Recreation Superintendent; and Mitch Johnson, Recreation Supervisor PUBLIC PRESENT: Todd & Misty Luecke 8788 Bellevue Court Ron Kleve 7307 Laredo Drive Kelly: I think at the last meeting I congratulated the people who are returning and Tyler you weren’t here so congratulations on your appointment to the board and welcome. NOMINATION AND APPOINTMENT OF 2014/2015 CHAIR AND VICE-CHAIR. Kelly: Do we have any nominations for Chair? Carron: I’ll nominate Cole Kelly. Kelly: Is there a second? Boettcher: I’ll second it. Kelly: Nomination and a second to nominate Cole Kelly. Are there any other nominations? With no other nominations we’ll proceed with the vote. Carron moved, Boettcher seconded to appoint Cole Kelly as Chairman for the 2014/2015 year. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 8 to 0. Kelly: Moving right along we need to nominate a Vice Chair. Is there a nomination out there? Ryan: I’d nominate Brent Carron. Kelly: Brent Carron is nominated. Is there a second? Scharfenberg: Second. Kelly: And a second. Are there any other nominations? Ryan moved, Scharfenberg seconded to appoint Brent Carron as Vice-Chairman for the 2014/2015 year. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 8 to 0. Park and Recreation Commission – April 22, 2014 APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Kelly: Moving onto our agenda tonight. Any additions or deletions to the agenda? Okay. At this time I guess we’ll roll with the agenda as we have it. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: None. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS: Kelly: Then we move onto visitor presentations and we have a visitor presentation tonight. So Todd. Todd Luecke: Thank you. First of all thank you for allowing my wife and I the time tonight to speak. Speaking with Todd earlier today I had mentioned I had prepared maybe about a 10 minute presentation and speaking with Cole just a little bit earlier he said presentations are usually about 5 minutes so we’ll see how quickly we can get through this but anyway thank you for your time. For those I didn’t get a chance to meet my name is Todd Luecke. This is my wife Misty Luecke. We have been residents of Chanhassen since 2007. We recently relocated within the city to the new Reflections neighborhood on the south side of 212 and find ourselves in a wonderful neighborhood there. Just prepared a few slides to talk about what our proposal is. I submitted an official letter to Todd yesterday and I believe he may have circulated that to you all so you have an idea of why we’re here tonight. Just a little background and what our story is. I talked about us being members of the community for a few years already now. We were married in 2009 and then in 2011 our first child was born, William Luecke. It was about 8 1/2 months later he was attending, he belonged to an in-home daycare here in Chanhassen and one afternoon we got a call from local authorities and the daycare provider and said that they had a child there that was unresponsive and that child happened to be our son William and all efforts to revive him were unsuccessful and he passed away in his sleep. And as you can imagine it was a very devastating time for us. First child. William had a smile that could light up a room and just full of life. In the coming weeks and months ahead we had several organizations and different people help us through what I can only image to be probably our most challenging times of our life. Now and in the future and there’s no way really for us to repay what other people have done for us but for us it was important to give back and in January of 2013 we established a non-profit foundation called William’s Wings Foundation. The sole purpose and mission of this foundation is really to pay it forward to others suffering the loss of a child for any reason. To help in healing, comfort and give you know guidance and resources to helping them through their challenging times as well. So that kind of brings us why we’re here today. We would like to propose, officially propose a donation of an Angel of Hope statue to the City of Chanhassen and what this statue is, is out of a non-fictional book called the, I’m sorry fictional book, The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans. A well known author. In the book a lady was found mourning the loss of her child at the base of an Angel monument. The first real life Angle of Hope statue was erected in Salt Lake City in 1994 and since then nearly 150 statues have been erected throughout the United States and even abroad th in worldwide. Every year on the 6 of December there’s a vigil at 7:00 p.m. that mourners can gather. Remember. Reflect. Bring a white flower in remembrance of their loved one. Place it at the base of the statue and year round it serves as somewhat of a beacon for mourners to go there and again remember their child and serve as somewhat of a location to just go and find comfort. The design plans I’ve included, or we’ve brought a couple sketches for you that we have worked with Damon Farber and Associates on to provide for our viewing. We’ve been working with Todd for about a year and a half on this and through the Foundation that we established last year we have raised funds for it. The funding is there. What we need to complete the project is available. The site is along Santa Vera Drive just north of downtown here and you can see on the left of the two illustrations, somewhat of a site map or overhead plan with a walkway leading up, a circular walkway leading up to the statue and then on the right you can see the actual statue and people placed next to it to give you a reference for height and what that looks 2 Park and Recreation Commission – April 22, 2014 like approaching it. Timeline that we would propose is upon approval from the City, if that’s what we achieve, we look at ordering the statue which takes about 90 days and during that time we will solicit companies necessary to complete the design, the implementation and whatever is necessary either through potential donations or certainly again we have the funding if it’s not secured through companies that might like to donate time or materials or things like that. Construction on this project we would anticipate being completed sometime around July. Sometime between July and September. Probably August- September with a fall dedication. So ongoing what does this look like? For William’s Wings Foundation, again that’s the foundation that we created. I am President of and Misty is a board member of this foundation along with 10 other individuals that belong on the board. We would continue to carry on the annual vigil. You can see in the presentation I put a note for assistance of the City to be determined. The reason I put that in is because typically at the vigil there might be needs for maybe tables. Maybe additional lights. Maybe a microphone. Those are, I feel like some you know smaller details that can be worked out at that time and the full amount of details I’m not exactly sure because we haven’t planned a vigil yet. We have attended one at another angel site but those are some of the ideas that I came away with from attending that. We would also be responsible for an annual clean-up of the area. Another part of the proposal that’s not set in stone yet but is considered is a remembrance brick that other families can maybe purchase a brick in memory of their children that have been lost or a family member or loved one or this or that. That could be implemented within the walkway or the area surrounding the statue and we would be responsible for that. Both getting the bricks created and implementing them into the walkway. And then depending on the final design phases, whether it’s all annual shrubs or perennial shrubs. Maybe a spot for flowers, this and that, we would either be responsible for or working with a local garden club or such to make sure that that was kept up annually as well. Some things that we would be looking to the City for, as far as ongoing care and maintenance of this area. Limited mowing which would be directly around the monument site. Certainly we don’t expect that the entire triangular area of this property be mowed but a reasonable amount of grass around the site specifically be mowed. Regular snow removal around paths. And then potentially you never know how th much snow we’re going to get here in the fall in Minnesota so leading up to that December 6 annual vigil we might ask for additional snow removal to accommodate a somewhat modest crowd at that event. Again we’ve participated in one at Maple Grove at their site. I would estimate there probably was between 100 and 120 that attended that particular vigil. Not exactly sure what we would get here but we can use that as a reference at this point. And then I included regular light maintenance of site around area. Maybe you know there’s existing trees on the site. If there’s a tree branch that broke off and fell down, just some minor regular upkeep. Nothing major. So that’s kind of what I see as far as ongoing maintenance of who would be responsible between our Foundation and the City of Chanhassen. So why should you support this project? Specifically the intention of the statue is to support local families that are suffering the loss of a child. This is a great reason alone to support the project. We all know that Chanhassen already is a great community and we feel like this could be a great addition to what is already a great community and it can attract people to the community as well. As I had pointed out already we attended the vigil in Maple Grove at the site there and we’ve visited it a handful of times over the previous couple years so you can see how people and families from local communities would come here and visit this site as a site of remembrance. So with that I guess I’m done with my part of the presentation. I’d like to thank you again for your time and ask that if you have any questions at all about what we’re proposing, about the statue, about you know ongoing upkeep or anything of that nature. Kelly: Todd and Misty, thank you. Since this is the first time I’ve met you, on behalf of myself and the entire commission and the Park and Rec department you have our condolences on your son William. Todd Luecke: Thank you very much. Kelly: And we thank you for being here tonight and approaching us and I’ll open it up for questions to the board. Any questions? 3 Park and Recreation Commission – April 22, 2014 Carron: I have a couple. So your proposal, does it include all the hardscapes, the plantings, the statue and everything basically that you’ve shown here on this picture? Todd Luecke: Correct. Carron: That’s what you have the funding for? Todd Luecke: Yes. Carron: Okay. Is there lighting or anything in with this? Todd Luecke: I’m glad you asked that question because that’s something that we have definitely talked about. That’s something that I would like to see included. Certainly this doesn’t necessarily have to be a one year event where it’s let’s do everything the first year. I think everything that you see there, that concept would be in the initial construction site. Do we include lights the first year or is that something down the road? I don’t know that answer specifically. I would personally like to see lights. It you know just illuminates the entire project. Highlights the angel statue and even considering you know potential violence. Not violence. Vandalism, thank you. To that area. Hopefully it would potentially detract any vandalism to that area. Carron: And what is the statue made out of? Todd Luecke: It’s copper, right? Misty Luecke: Yes. I was going to bring a sample here. Todd Luecke: We’ve got a small sample at home. We didn’t bring it with but yes, it’s made out of copper and it’s a darker brown color. It’s stained or painted a darker brown color. It’s not your traditional copper. Some of the original angel statues that were erected were your traditional copper that kind of green over time. Carron: Yep. Like Maple Grove right? Maple Grove’s is green? Todd Luecke: Right. Right. They coat it now in a darker brown color and it holds that color. Carron: Okay, thank you. Todd Luecke: Yeah. Echternacht: You mentioned you were up at Maple Grove. Todd Luecke: Yes. Echternacht: And do they have lights up there? Todd Luecke: Their’s is located in the Arboretum right along Highway 30 and there is some lights. It’s not brightly lit. There are some other benches. There is a shelter there on that site near the statue and there’s some light, like I said it’s not extremely bright. 4 Park and Recreation Commission – April 22, 2014 Echternacht: Okay. And you had mentioned you actually had a, I don’t want to say ceremony…but that there may be some additional lighting that you would want. Todd Luecke: Yep, and that was what we experienced when we attended the vigil in Maple Grove and they had a couple of like flood lights that were brought out to greater illuminate that area for the people that were attending that vigil that just for reference lasted approximately 20 minutes. Maybe a half hour at most. Ryan: I’m sorry if I missed this. Again very sorry for your loss. Todd Luecke: Thank you. Ryan: How did you pick the site? Is that something that you worked with Todd on? Todd Luecke: Yes. That’s something that over the last, more specifically 6 to 8 months probably have worked with Todd on. He’s guided us kind of through this whole process. We sat down with Todd originally soon after William passed and this was something that we wanted to do. Didn’t know how to go about it. Didn’t understand the foundation piece of it but Todd’s been a great resource for us to help kind of guide us on what’s possible. What’s not possible. The steps that we need to go through and all this and we looked at a variety of sites and ultimately for different reasons settled on this site. Ryan: Was there any discussion with, I know you said the Maple Grove was in the Arboretum. Was that up for discussion for the Arboretum in Chanhassen? Hoffman: Not being a city facility we did not approach the Arboretum. I’m not sure if. Todd Luecke: We did not. The City of Chanhassen’s the only entity that we’ve approached about this proposal. We thought it’d be best as a community. Hoffman: In Maple Grove that is a city facility, their Arboretum. Misty Luecke: You just walk, it’s wide open. You walk like with… Todd Luecke: Right, yep. Ryan: And outside of Maple Grove, how many in the state of Minnesota? Todd Luecke: I was going to have that. I don’t have the exact number. I think it’s about 4 or 5. Ryan: Is Maple Grove the closest? Todd Luecke: Yes to Chanhassen, Maple is the closest one. I know there’s one in Mankato. There’s one in Alexandria or that area. Moorhead also and I think maybe one further down southeast. Rochester/ Winona area. I think. Ryan: So this would really this area. Todd Luecke: The southwest metro, yes. Yes. Ryan: Thank you. 5 Park and Recreation Commission – April 22, 2014 Scharfenberg: With respect to the monument itself if there’s any, heaven forbid any damage to it or over time things would need to be replaced, would there be in money in place with the foundation to do those types of repairs? How would that be handled? Todd Luecke: I think that would be necessary, both to handle ongoing upkeep. There would have to be some type of fund created specifically for the statue which I anticipate us being in charge of or handling. And also handle any expenses that might come along with the annual vigil. There would have to be some type of ongoing funding available for the ongoing care of the statue and the site around it. Kelly: So Todd on the annual vigil, do you foresee yourself running that or do you want the City to be in charge of that? How do you look at that? Todd Luecke: I understand that it would be us. Kelly: Okay. Todd Luecke: And we would likely create a subcommittee out of our foundation that would manage that on an annual basis. And like I said. Kelly: And work with the City. Todd Luecke: I was going to say yeah, work with the City on the specific details each year yep, leading up to it. Kelly: Any other questions for Todd or Misty? Scharfenberg: Todd Hoffman I have a question with respect to this Santa Vera site. Was there, with respect to the site itself, I mean is it a flat? I mean is there any landscaping, you know excavation, anything that would have to take place with respect to that site? Hoffman: This property is newly acquired by the City and so it was a townhouse property that went tax forfeit. We picked it up as a fairly significant piece of open space in that particular area of our community. It’s just to the west of the community garden and it’s actually a nice property with some oak trees. There’s a sidewalk that runs right through the parcel so the sidewalk that you see connecting is. Todd Luecke: That cuts into the property here just a little bit. Hoffman: That’s already in place. And the proposed site is at the top of the hill where very little grading would need to be taking place and so any contractor that the foundation works with would have a, you know a site that’s available. Ready to go. There’s not much leveling work that would need to take place and so the site lends itself to this particular project. We currently added that sidewalk to our plowing route as a public sidewalk so it is being plowed. It was plowed this winter for the first time. Kelly: Any other questions at this time? Todd and Misty thank you very much. Todd Luecke: Thank you. Kelly: Any other visitor presentations tonight? 6 Park and Recreation Commission – April 22, 2014 APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Echternacht moved, Boettcher seconded to approve the verbatim and summary Minutes of the Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated March 25, 2014 as presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 8 to 0. CITY COUNCIL APPOINTMENT OF STEVE SCHARFENBERG, BRENT CARRON, LUKE THUNBERG TO THREE-YEAR COMMISSION TERMS; AND TYLER KOBILARCSIK AND JACOB STOLAR TO ONE-YEAR COMMISSION TERMS. Kelly: I guess we alluded to it in the last meeting but it’s under new business. City Council appointment of Steve Scharfenberg, Brent Carron, and Luke Thunberg to 3 year commission terms and Tyler Kobilarcsik and Jacob Stolar to 1 year commission terms. Again congratulations to all 5 of you. ESTABLISH DISCUSSION TOPICS FOR APRIL 28, 2014 JOINT MEETING WITH CITY COUNCIL. Kelly: We’ve got next, is that Monday night Todd? Our meeting with the City Council. th Hoffman: 28, correct. Kelly: Yep. I think the time was originally 6:30 and it got moved up to 6:00. Hoffman: Correct, 6:00 and tonight your task is to identify a list of discussion topics. You have approximately a half hour and you had quite a long list last year and you probably want to focus in. There’s some particularly current topics I think that are going on within your realm that you might want to bring the council up to date on so I’ll let the commission decide and we’ll take notes and send that to the City Council for their knowledge. Kelly: Well I think the future projects that we talked about last year are still hot and heavy in the middle of our discussions. We have lighting for somewhere in the budget for this year and so we need to discuss lighting. Bluff Creek Drive extension. Is the road still set for 2015 on Bluff Creek Drive? Hoffman: Per the CIP, yes. Kelly: Okay. Hoffman: Yeah, currently scheduled in this capital improvement project program for 2015 and that does include the City park fund money of that half a million dollars for the trail improvements. Kelly: Okay and then if, let’s say we didn’t do it when they redid the roads, what would our costs be at a separate time roughly? Hoffman: Unknown but. Kelly: But we’d be pushing maybe $800,000? Hoffman: Could be, yeah. Kelly: Okay. So I think this needs to be in the discussion with the City is either if we’re going to do it we do it when the road gets done or we don’t do it at all type of discussion. 7 Park and Recreation Commission – April 22, 2014 Hoffman: Correct. Now’s the time to do it with that road project. Really we said we’d, just the City Manager was not interested in proposing that trail project as a stand alone because there are so many other issues going down there with storm water, lane width, the new project in the river bottom with the increased traffic and then also the trail improvements and so you’re bringing, this is the last missing gap of trail and so I think there’s going to be increased interest in seeing that project completed. Kelly: And again I don’t know the pedestrian trail to the Arboretum. I don’t know if we’ve applied for grant funds again or not. Hoffman: We will in August of 2014. Kelly: Okay. So that’s not on, that won’t be up for discussion right now. Hoffman: It good to mention that. Everybody’s still interested in it. Paul Oehme, the City Engineer/ Public Works Director and myself did meet with Peter Moe the Director of Operations at the Arboretum and our question was, will you own and operate this trail when it’s built and his response was yes. Kelly: Okay. Hoffman: And so that’s a good position for us to be in and them to take. Kelly: And I saw your note where the 3 mile drive is now open to bicyclists. That was a great thing to see. Hoffman: I think at least a celebration is in order for the Rice Marsh Lake trail loop. Kelly: Are you bringing the wine to that meeting? Hoffman: Yes. Or the cake. Some of the families this evening just mentioned how much they appreciate that trail as an added amenity to that area and I think people are still discovering it as a 3 mile loop in our community so congratulations to all. Kelly: Just a quick question. I’ve gone up the trail where it ends right along the highway and that says private property there so what was the reason for finishing it up that far and what are we looking at in the future? Hoffman: We’re looking at a cul-de-sac there with single family homes and then there’ll be a trail connection to that cul-de-sac. Kelly: Thank you. That might be something we might want to mention at our meeting. Ryan: So do we not think that the number one topic should be Bandimere. Kelly: Oh Bandimere is definitely a hot topic. Ryan: Right so I mean to discuss what we you know talked about tonight with the residents. I mean we all have our own, you know different discussions but the overall feeling of what happened at the meeting tonight. You know the. Kelly: I figured that might be our longest discussion with them. 8 Park and Recreation Commission – April 22, 2014 Ryan: Right. Okay. Kelly: So I’m not sure I want to put it number one because we want to get to a number of points but we do want to discuss it because it will be our longest discussion is my guess. Ryan: Okay. Kelly: And I’d like to touch on some other points before I get to it. So depending upon how many points we have I’d put it towards the end so we have more time to discuss it but realizing we only have a half hour so if we don’t get to it we’ve got to at some point we’ve got to jump there and say this is the discussion right now. Because that’s our meeting time is a half hour, correct Todd? Hoffman: Correct. Kelly: Okay. Scharfenberg: Well what are the other topics Cole that you wanted to touch on at the meeting? Kelly: Well what we’ve, you know obviously we’ve got to go through what we started last year and completed and what we’re working on. You know the park that we finished last year. The park we’re working on right now. I mean those are all things you discuss as you’re going through. Scharfenberg: Yeah I mean we can touch on those but… Kelly: And that’s what I mean, yeah. That’s why, yeah. Scharfenberg: I think Elise is right. I think Bandimere. Kelly: Oh yeah I agree. It’s the number one topic and I think you’re going to spend the most time on it and from my viewpoint if you guys want to put it at number one we’ll talk about it first but then we have to quit talking about it at some point. Scharfenberg: Well I mean you can certainly do a two minute highlight of what we’ve accomplished over the last 2 years and for the last year and then get into the Bandimere. Kelly: Right. And that depends upon questions they ask us and it depends upon how that goes. But yeah it’s, I mean the highlight is what are we going to do with Bandimere going forward and we haven’t formulated that yet and we’ve seen the park and rec slide show and ideas and we need to review that before we meet with them and get some of their thoughts on that and explain to them what we’ve heard from various people because we all talk to different people. And then Todd can bring up the emails and the letters that the City has received and what kind of response but so that is, yeah. That’s the hot topic and we want to get feedback from them because at our next meeting it’s going to be one of our hot topics. And if we can get some direction out of them, which would be nice, it might make it a little easier for our meeting. Otherwise we’ll set our own direction and pass along to City Council and then they’ll have to decide where they want to go from there. Echternacht: We’re not giving direction at this time, we’re just giving them ideas? Kelly: Well they’ve seen the slide show and that was at their work session last week, which you and Steve and I were there and they’re probably looking for ideas from us. So we’re going to throw out, I mean it’s going to be the main topic of discussion. We’re going to throw out thoughts that we have and 9 Park and Recreation Commission – April 22, 2014 see what kind of response and what kind of questions they ask us because sometimes from their questions we can kind of get a direction. Ryan: Right I just think that we have such limited opportunity for all of us to be together as a group in front of the council that you know if we do a highlight, that’s great. If they have questions, fine but I think this provides us a unique opportunity to say you know here’s what the plan is. Here’s some of the feedback and maybe this week we can all send you an email of what we, some of the responses that we got so you can you know compile that information and then, and share that with the council and then that’s a great opportunity for them to ask questions or have us you know get more information and feedback but you know I personally like to utilize that time on Bandimere. All these other projects are important but I think there’s a lot of back and forth that still goes on. I would prefer to spend the majority of the time focused on Bandimere because… Kelly: Right, and that’s what I would think we would do. Ryan: Okay. Kelly: That’s my plan but I like to get the other things out of the way so we can open it up for Bandimere. Boettcher: I think too, excuse me. I think if we cut it up in 3 categories. One being Bandimere. I agree that is the big, that’s the 800 pound gorilla. Whatever time it takes it takes but the future projects, because that’s what we’re going to be discussing so if we know kind of in advance what their feeling is on some of this stuff, it gives us direction when we’re discussing. We’re not out here in limbo. They want us to do this and we’re searching for something else. And then the third would be the pat ourselves on the back category which we’d save for last. I mean not to gloat or anything but you know what we did at the park last year you know helping with construction. What we did, whatever we were involved in. With the lake trail extension on Rice Marsh so I think if we split it up in those 3 categories with Bandimere being a present and a future but really the big topic right now. Kelly: Okay. Carron: I’ll piggyback on you Jim. Maybe it’s just like an open question to them maybe when we’re kind of getting close to being done with our presentation on you know past projects. Do you have any questions or more info that you need on that and we’ll just kind of maybe curb that to save some time but my thinking is okay, we’ve been to Bandimere, yeah. Bluff Creek I think is a huge cost of a project and it needs to be discussed as well because it makes sense to do it but then also the initiative of park shelters and that sort of thing and then that kind of goes into the playgrounds we just built and the sense of community that I saw in helping building some of those things that I think that’s an awesome thing that I think we should kind of pat the City Council’s back on in taking that initiative as well to get these park shelters built in these parks because I see that as a huge benefit as well. So I know we’ve got a lot of stuff but you know pat ourselves on the back, I understand but maybe we’ll, maybe just leave it open too as a question. If they have any questions on past stuff so we can spend time on some of these because you know when we did the CIP last year and 2 years ago looking forward we really didn’t have too much planned for 2014 and now look at what 2014-2015 could bring. It could be some big years. Scharfenberg: Well and I would like part of that discussion to be on Bandimere. Part of it I think should be a discussion with them on how they want to finance that. Are we going to finance it all through CIP or are we going to do it through a referendum you know to do some of these things out there and you know what do they foresee and are they supportive of going forward on something like that or how do they, how do they want us to do this? I mean if you listened to, we were there with a conversation about the 10 Park and Recreation Commission – April 22, 2014 workshop, you know about the lighting thing. You know they said well, kind of piecemeal it. Okay well if we’re going to piecemeal Bandimere it’s going to take a long time to you know to finish that park. Is this something we want to finish and get done and have it done so that it’s, you know you can say here it is. It’s all done at one time or you know within a couple of years or is this something we’re going to piecemeal over 5 to 6 years to get it accomplished. I think that has to be you know a discussion with them on how they want to, how they want to take care of that. Or how they would propose taking care of that. Kelly: Yeah I think that’s a great point because I got the feeling that they wanted to piecemeal it but I think we need to ask specifically how they want to have it done because I think you’ve got different people at the city that might have some different ideas so we need to figure that out but I think that’s a great point. Echternacht: Well also they brought up the idea of asking Todd to give some numbers for a dome at Lake Ann because they were looking at Bandimere and we didn’t bring up the idea. They brought it up so you know if they’re looking at that too then definitely how are we going to finance things if they actually want to throw that into the mix. Kelly: Anything else we need to add? You know I think the majority of it needs to be centered around Bandimere. I mean there’s no doubt about that Todd and it’s maybe we list it as the sections that need to be completed. You know the hockey rink. The parking. The tennis court. And then the lighting, I think those are the two basic components that we’re looking at. And then of course we’re also looking at the splash pad has got to be listed in there somewhere too. Anything I missed? Scharfenberg: And a shelter. Kelly: And a shelter. Scharfenberg: And restrooms. Ryan: Restrooms. Hoffman: So they’ll have that information. They already likely already do through the City Manager on the costs and Chair Kelly and members of the commission, I’ve taken notes so I know what you would like to discuss. I’ll format that this evening after our meeting and send that out so it will be in the City Council packet so they’ll understand what you would like to talk about that evening. On the Bandimere discussion as you move into your May meeting and then their June meeting, really what you’re attempting to accomplish is to either get buy in or get modifications from the council on the master plan. At your joint meeting financing is going to be a tough conversation at that point. It’s just next week. I’m not sure the council is going to be, you know enough up to speed to talk, to be talking about financing at that point but it’s something to talk about. You know it’s a significant amount of money. $4.3 million is what is on that plan and so park dedication fees would take you know 5 to 10 years, 5 to and even not do anything else to accumulate those kind of dollars. I’m not sure they’re going to, you might just want to say that as a commission you think it’s going to take a long time to get park funds. Are you open to potentially looking at other funding sources or not? Or that might be a conversation further on down the line. Right now where I think you really want to center the council’s discussion and thought process is, is this a good master plan? Is this a good overall plan? And then you’re going to have to come up with a recommendation in the future on how they stage that and make that happen. And as a part of that conversation, you can make a recommendation on how you see those things being financed. You know at a million dollars a year, and we call it piecemeal. It’s hardly piecemealing if a million dollar a year project, that’s hardly piecemeal but you can get a lot done but it would take your cash for the next you 11 Park and Recreation Commission – April 22, 2014 know 5 to 10 years to make that happen. The council may not want to put the citizens, the park board or themselves into that position where you really can’t do anything else if they buy into Bandimere and you’re going to use park funds, you’re really out of business for 5 to 10 years because you’re going to buy into this plan so, but that conversation’s going to play out. Council’s definitely watching what you’re up to. They want to know the numbers. People that are calling them want to know the numbers so that’s going to come up. Scharfenberg: So Todd in terms of that conversation then with the council do you recommend, you know you said focus on is this a good plan. How do you address lighting then in terms of, if that’s you know lighting is part of the Bandimere project but lighting is kind of an overall, not only just Bandimere but other you know Lake Susan and stuff like that. How do you, do we take that kind of component out of it when we talk to them or should we talk to them separately about lighting? Hoffman: No I would, I would be upfront. The number that you have in this year’s CIP is really a non- starter for this project so. Scharfenberg: Right. Hoffman: So you could just say, you know with the money that’s in there now, dedicated now we can’t start a project at Bandimere. You could say we’ll, you know but we want to keep it going at Lake Susan so that would be an option you could talk to them about that night. If you still believe strongly in Lake Susan, you could let them know that Bandimere’s going to be a whole different conversation. We’d like to move forward and you know, we don’t know where those dollars are at with the athletic association. They don’t have that money but they pledge that money so you would have to ask them again if that money’s still available so. But those dollars can either be saved for Bandimere in the future or you know spent now by the City Council. The one thing to remember is that Cole mentioned it earlier. You know you watch what they do and once they got your recommendation to light Lake Susan they modified that so, there’s probably not a complete buy in on the council to go forward with that Lake Susan project. They might be but they might have just changed it to continue that conversation but they didn’t accept that. They modified that just to include athletic field lighting because they wanted to continue that conversation. Kelly: Anything else that anybody wants added or wants to discuss? Any items we missed Todd that we should have on there? Hoffman: You’ll have a good conversation and again it is a two way conversation. You’re there to participate and hear from them as well so thank you for coming out that evening. It’s really turned into a spring meeting so it’s once a year. It’s a great time just to talk with the City Council in an informal setting. Hear what they have to say. You’ve got a lot going on so I know they’re keeping tabs on you. Good to get together with them. RECREATION PROGRAM REPORTS: 2014 EASTER EGG CANDY HUNT EVALUATION. Kelly: Moving right along I think we’ve got our man back from Norway. Johnson: Correct. I survived. Well good evening Chair Kelly and good evening commissioners. We thought it’d be a good time, since it’s fresh in our mind to do a quick eval for the Easter Egg Candy Hunt that was last Saturday. You don’t have a report with an expense report just due to the publication times st and stuff so just do a quick verbal one. We had our 31 annual Easter Egg Candy Hunt last Saturday at 12 Park and Recreation Commission – April 22, 2014 9:00 a.m. out here at City Center Park. The previous record was set last year based on participants and we absolutely shattered it this year. We had 415 kids, which was an increase of 49% over our previous record. Included in that number we had 242 kids register the day of the event which was an increase of 98% from last year so, which was great. I mean the word’s getting out there. People want to come. Obviously made for some stressful, chaotic kind of day of. You know we weren’t planning to have crowds that big but it’s exciting to see that many people in the park. You know got a little nervous after the snow last week but it kind of warmed up good so that’s nice. Figured there was probably about a thousand people you know with parents and grandparents and everybody out there so it’s a real fun event. Basically we did, kind of like we’ve done the last few years, separated three different age groups. We modified the ages a little bit to kind of keep the groups for even. We had a 3 and under, 4 to 7 and 8 to 12. We had a bunch of candy out there. We also purchased 1,000 prefilled eggs, little plastic eggs. They put different prizes. Little gift certificates to local businesses that were donated by sponsors and stuff so the kids could have fun and go for that kind of stuff. At the end of the candy hunt, it lasted about 15-20 minutes, we had door prizes that we gave away. Each kid got a little goody bag when they register with a door prize ticket. We gave away 20 door prizes that were valued at $970 all contributed by the local business community through the sponsorship program. Along with the Easter Egg Hunt we also do the coloring contest so people can turn their entries in before the event and then also at the event and then we did the judging on Monday. We had a 30% increase in the coloring contest entries. Up to 150. ABC Toy Zone and Chanhassen donated 10 little gift baskets that each winner was awarded to. They’ve been picking them up this week here at City Hall so, another way to kind of get people involved and we went to 4 different local elementary schools and kind of donated a stack of them so the kids could do them in school or bring them home or whatever they thought would work. As always volunteers are key aspect to any of our community events. We had 8 volunteers from Chanhassen High School Key Club which played a big role doing the registrations and helping with the candy distribution. And we also had 5 members of our teen volunteer program from last summer who came back and helped out. Huge time saver. We had 4 of them came in the week before and stuffed all the goody bags which saved a lot of staff time and they really enjoyed it and really cranked them out. That’s good. Then we had a couple that showed up on Saturday too to help with the event so it was great. A couple recommendations. As we were kind of talking the last couple days, you know it was a really windy day. I think it was like 30 miles an hour winds probably Saturday morning so unfortunately we couldn’t put up our portable tent. Just even fear of damage and making a parachute out of a tent so unfortunately all our signage is usually hung around there. Has greater visibility as people come so it’s elevated so there was a lot of word of mouth. Talking to crowds. Kind of get them in the right spot but through some conversations we had, maybe you know an event that’s getting this large, you know maybe you should invest in some more permanent signage that we can maybe put on bigger stands, poles you know so if we do have a day where it’s windy like that we can get those signs elevated and kind of help direct people more. Also maybe a larger PA system. On a windy day like that our little portable one that’s very nice for some situations, I don’t think was real effective on a windy day like that so anything we can do to kind of get the word out in situations like that. But it was a great event. I mean when you have that many people, it was a profit maker for us this year. Just looking at the rough numbers, I think about $300-$400 was a profit. We usually try to break even you know by just the right amount of candy versus registrations but nobody complained that they didn’t get enough candy so it worked out great. But yeah we’ll use that towards other events and stuff as we go forward. Just a reminder Easter is the second of four community events in a year long series through the community event sponsorship program. To date we’re up to 59 sponsors who contributed over $30,000. About $30,600 to date so you know we really couldn’t do it without the sponsors. We try to do as much recognition as we can so yeah we just want to really thank them and if you’re around town, you know and you see some of the sponsors, pass the word of thanks so. Kelly: Well Mitch that’s great news. What do we attribute the huge increase? I mean we’ve had that many new homes with young people in Chanhassen? 13 Park and Recreation Commission – April 22, 2014 Johnson: Yeah. Could have been you know a variety of reasons. Could be marketing. We’re doing a lot more Facebook social media. We gained another 5,000 viewers just through the Facebook through purchased ads. You spend like $20 and it gets a whole new demographic out there. Also we do some advertising through the Chanhassen Villager, the newspaper. Two weeks prior to the event they did a big feature on the Easter Egg hunts and we weren’t included. I talked to the editor and during the edit process somehow it got dropped so he promised me a nice spread the next week right before the event. Did it but he put the event was free when there’s a $5 charge so I think that’s you know maybe brought a whole other group of people so. They weren’t expecting but it’s great to bring them. You know we didn’t hear any negative comments so show them a good time and hopefully come back next year with their $5. Hoffman: How many people paid day of? Johnson: 242 which like I said, 98% increase over last year so our poor volunteers were just sweating, just going back and forth, back and forth. Kelly: So what kind of funds do you need to replace the PA system and put permanent signage? Johnson: We do have funds through our 1600 budget that we allocate each year to kind of purchases like that through the signage, Sign Source in Chanhassen is one of our big sponsors and they contribute $500 towards signage so last year we bought new signs for Feb Fest. I don’t know if you remember some of those nice vinyl ones so we do still have that sponsorship available that we could kind of get some of that stuff for that event too. And it’d just be temporary signage. Nothing in the ground but. Kelly: Right, no I understand. Johnson: At least something we could kind of temporary anchor. Echternacht: Mitch you mentioned a speaker for that mic. That came up also for the February ice fishing so maybe something to piggy back the two of them and combine them because people weren’t hearing and fishing. Johnson: Yeah and for the fishing contest we go through a local sound provider you know that’s got the professional system. For this event we just use our own city one which isn’t quite to the scale but anytime you’re outdoor event, especially the wind I think made a big factor in kind of cutting some of that so but yeah, that’s a good point. Carron: Air horn for the start. Johnson: Yeah. Carron: There was a little confusion over there with the 0 to 3. Johnson: Some false starts going on. Carron: Little confusion. We had some early runners. Boettcher: That was the parents, not the kids. Johnson: I heard about the false starts in that age group and also perhaps some boxing out by some of the parents with the gold eggs so, kind of shuffling some towards some kids versus others but hopefully it’s all in good fun. 14 Park and Recreation Commission – April 22, 2014 Kelly: Thank you Mitch. Johnson: Yep, thank you. Ryan: May I make one comment? This isn’t about the Easter Egg hunt but I think it’s directed to you. Some friends have been registering for different summer programming and they’ve spoken with you and have said what a wonderful person you are so I just wanted to pass that along that you’re doing a very nice job so thank you. Johnson: Oh, perfect. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. ADMINISTRATIVE REPORTS: A. CHANHASSEN ARBOR DAY EVENT. B. RED BIRDS BASEBALL OPENING DAY. C. CHANHASSEN MEMORIAL DAY CEREMONY. D. COMMISSION PHOTOGRAPH. Kelly: Todd, you have some administrative reports you want to comment on I’m assuming. Hoffman: Thank you Chair Kelly and members of the commission. Chanhassen Arbor Day is coming up. Red Birds baseball opening day and the Chanhassen Memorial Day ceremony and so these events and dates are really brought to your attention as Park and Recreation Commissioners, the people who organize these activities and work on them really appreciate when you have an opportunity to come out and participate and please when you’re there, identify yourself as a Park and Recreation Commissioner serving the city and thank them for their work on each one of those events. So if you’re able to make it rd and take your family, pencil in any of those dates. May 3 for the Arbor Day. The opening day of the, the home opener for the Red Birds is on. th Scharfenberg: May 27. th Hoffman: May 27. th Scharfenberg: With the rally on the 16. th Hoffman: Yep, the rally for Friday night at the Legion so if you can make that. On the 16 and then the Memorial Day ceremony obviously on Memorial Day at noon here in City Center Plaza so for those commissioners that can schedule those in, please do so and then participate in those activities. Great traditions in our community. COMMISSION MEMBER COMMITTEE REPORTS. None. COMMISSION MEMBER PRESENTATIONS. None. ADMINISTRATIVE PACKET. Kelly: Anything in the Administrative Packet you want to point out specific? Hoffman: I think it’s noteworthy, the Lotus Lake Conservation Alliance has made 100% payment for their contribution to this year’s watercraft inspection program. Up front and their largest contribution to 15 Park and Recreation Commission – April 22, 2014 date. $13,861.36. That pays for the additional hours that they’re purchasing as an association for watercraft inspections at Lotus Lake. The Lotus Lake cleaning already has the highest number of hours over Lake Ann and Lake Susan but then the association, the Alliance goes beyond that and purchases additional hours so we thank them for that contribution and that commitment to protecting the waters of Chanhassen. Kelly: Did we ever get anything worked out with the DNR on a schedule for that? Hoffman: We did. The DNR also will be there Wednesday through Saturday, 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. but that includes travel time so they’ll be there a little bit later than 7:00 and leave prior to 5:00. And then we’re going to fill in those hours after that so from 5:00, 4:30 til 8:00 we’ll fill in with a VOLT inspector but you really can’t get somebody on the job from 6:00 until 7:00 or 6:00 until 7:15 so the Lotus Lake Conservation Alliance was going to consider if they could have some volunteers fill in that shift. It’s really a benefit to accept that grant. That’s a grant of over 580 hours from the DNR. It will be an intern that the DNR hires that will be specifically positioned at Lotus Lake so they’ll be there Wednesday through Saturday every week, 7:00 to 5:00 and so a lot of people get to know that particular person working through the DNR. And then the VOLT inspectors get to have some interaction with the DNR inspector as well so they can answer any questions. The other big advancement in this program is we’re going to an Apple tablet so we’ll have a tablet for the watercraft inspection data collection which is much more efficient. The DNR has refined that application and so when you ask them where were they last and you start tying in a lake name, it will pop up and so then you can hit enter right away so it’s going to speed up the process. The data is going to be much more refined and accurate and the data will go directly to the DNR to enter and to tabulate and so for the past 2 years the City and our interns and our, some of our secretarial staff, support staff has had to enter all those paper surveys per boat. So one survey per each boat and that’s been somewhat cumbersome so this is going to alleviate that problem. Kelly: Thank you Todd. Anything else you want to point out or any questions anybody has on the administrative packet? Does anybody want to put it to the question? Carron moved, Boettcher 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 8:25 p.m. Submitted by Todd Hoffman Park and Rec Director Prepared by Nann Opheim 16