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PRC 2014 06 24 CHANHASSEN PARK AND RECREATION COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING JUNE 24, 2014 Chairman Kelly called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. MEMBERS PRESENT: Cole Kelly, Steve Scharfenberg, Elise Ryan, Jim Boettcher, Luke Thunberg, and Tyler Kobilarcsik. Brent Carron arrived late to the meeting. MEMBERS ABSENT: Rick Echternacht, and Jacob Stolar STAFF PRESENT: Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Director; Jerry Ruegemer, Recreation Superintendent; Mitch Johnson, Park Supervisor; Jodi Sarles, Recreation Center Manager; Adam Beers, Park Superintendent; and Susan Bill, Senior Center Coordinator APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Kelly: I’d like to add under H. Reports a number 5. Have Todd Hoffman update us on the City Council session last night. Anybody else have anything they’d like to add to the agenda? Scharfenberg: I’ll add in light of Todd’s photo from earlier today, just an update on the 41 connector stairs. Kelly: Okay, number 6. Thunberg: And then as far as the Pioneer Pass Park grand opening, since that was cancelled due to the weather, rather than having a report on the grand opening can we have, if it’s a number 7, just a brief update on any future rescheduling. Kelly: Actually we have that already listed under commission member committee reports. Thunberg: No, I know. So instead of, that’s what I’m saying. Instead of changing it, we didn’t have the grand opening so if we can just change that to discussion on the update. Kelly: Oh yeah, I’m sorry. Thunberg: Yep. Kelly: Yep, I was thinking it was an update when I read it. Thanks Luke. Anybody have anything else to add? The agenda was approved with the addition of H(5). Update on City Council Work Session from June 23, 2014; and H(6). Update on Highway 41 Connector Stairway. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: th Kelly: Todd or somebody on the 4 of July. Park and Recreation Commission – June 24, 2014 stth Johnson: The City of Chanhassen is preparing, final stages of preparation for the 31 Annual 4 of July ndth celebration. It begins next Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. July 2 through the 4. You’ll have more information later tonight in the report. Kelly: Thank you Mitch. Scharfenberg: I’ll just announce Red Birds home game this Friday. 7:30. Red Birds/Storm Stadium. Storm/Red Birds Stadium. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS. None. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Scharfenberg: I move for approval of. Kelly: Oh, oh, I’ve got one thing to change. Scharfenberg: Oh okay. Kelly: Sorry Steve. I was waiting for somebody else. Todd, on page 14. 10 sentences down where I said a million six. The 6 should really be written out six and not a number 6. Hoffman: Okay. Kelly: That’s my only change. Hoffman: Thank you. Kelly: Steve you’re on now. Scharfenberg: Move for approval of the May 28, 2014 Minutes with that one exception. Kelly: Is there a second? Thunberg: Second. Scharfenberg moved, Thunberg seconded to approve the verbatim and summary Minutes with the change by Chair Kelly on page 14. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0. INITIATE DISCUSSION REGARDING RECOMMENDATION TO CITY COUNCIL, 2015-2019 PARK AND TRAIL ACQUISITION AND DEVELOPMENT CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM (CIP). Kelly: Todd would you like to speak on that? Hoffman: Sure will. Thank you Chair Kelly, members of the commission. So annually, and it seems like it comes around fairly quick every year. We’re back in budget season and so we start with our CIP planning. Your responsibility as a commission is to make a recommendation on not only an annual CIP. So next year’s CIP, Capital Improvement Program budget 2015 but then extending that out for a 5 year CIP. As you look through that I would encourage you to break it out so you have some improvements 2 Park and Recreation Commission – June 24, 2014 already programmed in those latter years. Obviously the most eminent is next year so 2015 so what would you like to accomplish in 2015? But then setting the, really a budget is just kind of a policy statement for what you’re looking to the future for as well. So tonight’s conversation is just an opening, an opening meeting about what the commission sees as value for the future of public improvements in our park and trail system. You’ve been out taking a look at parks. You’re also out much more as individual commissioners in the summer taking a look at parks and talking to your neighbors so what do you feel will be of value? The dollar amounts, again the current park dedication dollars is right at about that two million mark but what’s important is just remember that our current recommendation is at $300,000 per year for 5 years so $1.5 million over 5 years. You can put that, you can front load that. You can back load that. It’s just a set recommendation for what kind of dollars we’re talking about so we don’t drive that park dedication fund into the red. We keep it building. We are in a much better place as far as park dedication revenues than we have been for 4 or 5 years so that’s a good sign. You also have some significant projects on the horizon. How those are funded is really never completely clear until the time that project comes up. You know last night’s conversation with the City Council, they did not approve the plan per se but they’re still, you know if you feel strongly about one or more components of that plan you can certainly include those in that recommendation for either 2015 or beyond and we’ll talk a little bit more about that later. Commissioner Scharfenberg asked for some additional information today which I emailed to all of you and so it has a little bit more concise listing of the CIP items. Then it has a, there’s a detailed estimated budget for the Bandimere improvements that were included as well so look forward to hearing from the commission and glad to answer any questions. If there’s projects you’re interested in that we don’t have a good handle on for the dollar amounts I think we’ll just take those into consideration and then we’ll provide those, that information for you at your July meeting as we move forward. And also if you start to round up a list, you know we can start putting that together for you to consider at a future meeting as well. Thank you Chair Kelly. Kelly: Thank you Todd. So any comments? Questions? Ideas? Scharfenberg: Todd, can you speak to, first of all with respect to 2015, do we have shelters that are being added in 2015? I noted in the stuff that we had, we had 2016 but are there shelters that we need to have money included with for 2015? Hoffman: The neighborhood picnic shelter initiative? Scharfenberg: Correct. Hoffman: Is all set so the dollars are there. They’ll be allocated annually by the City Council. We have three slated for construction this year. Three more for next year. You don’t have to change anything. Scharfenberg: Okay but we have to include that as part of our CIP correct? Hoffman: It’s included. Is it in there? Scharfenberg: It wasn’t in any of the stuff that was attached. There was stuff for 2016. Hoffman: Okay. Scharfenberg: The money listed for 2016 but not any, I don’t think. I didn’t see any for 2015. Hoffman: Yeah. It will be included so. Scharfenberg: Yeah. 3 Park and Recreation Commission – June 24, 2014 Hoffman: Yeah. By the City Council so we don’t have to, we don’t have to include that. Those are not park dedication dollars. Scharfenberg: Okay. Hoffman: Those are excess revenue dollars so we don’t have to include them. Scharfenberg: Alright. And then could you speak to, also Todd with respect to what we had approved for last year. The $500,000 annual street improvement that was in for 2015. Hoffman: Be glad to. That project on Bluff Creek Drive, if you’re familiar with that. It’s just south of Pioneer Pass Park. The current project. Was slated perhaps for 2015. It doesn’t look like that’s going to happen now and I also think the funding mix is going to change and so we really attempt to preserve park dedication dollars whenever we can and if a street project which has to build the street, the stormwater, if they can also, the street project can also fund the trail we would like to see that happen. We’re not certain that will happen but we’re fairly confident that that could be the scenario. So we would just as soon loosen those dollars up. Take them out of that project. It was not our CIP project. That was a street project and then we offered up that half a million dollars to make that trail a reality. I think under that scenario where it’s built with the street, those dollars will be cut free. Sometimes underneath that kind of situation, you know our engineering department asks for some assistance for either, like a matching fund or maybe they’re just a little short. $65,000 or $100,000 short so they might come back and budget some of those dollars but I would recommend that you just take those dollars out. That project would come back through our engineer department. It will probably be listed in 2016 or 2017 as being fully funded through the streets division. Scharfenberg: And then finally with respect to Camden Ridge trail. That will be built in 2015? Hoffman: Should be built this year or 2015 and those dollar amounts, if you remember I sent those out. They came way down so that $100,000 can come down to probably I would say $50,000 would be safe. We don’t know until they’re set and done but if you remember the materials cost were in the $30,000 range. Scharfenberg: Yep. Hoffman: So you can cut that in half. They’re not done yet. They might discover something that will need, they’ll need some additional dollars so I would say $50,000 would be a safe number there and I would leave that in 2015 and if they happen to finish this year, we’ll probably get billed in 2015. Scharfenberg: And then I’ll note that we also had for 2015 the reconstruct County Road 61 from 101 to Charlson Road. Hoffman: Correct. Scharfenberg: Is that something again that we’ll need in for 2015? Hoffman: We do. That’s happening so that’s, check out some news this evening. The Governor was in town for the ribbon cutting of the river crossing and the County Road 61 project so those are starting. Scharfenberg: And then those numbers of the 150 are good for this year as well? 4 Park and Recreation Commission – June 24, 2014 Hoffman: Which numbers? Scharfenberg: The $150,000. That’s what we had in last year. Hoffman: For County Road 61? Scharfenberg: Yep. Hoffman: Yep. Correct. Scharfenberg: Okay. So just what we have so far for 2015 would be picnic tables at $10,000; trees at $15,000; Camden Ridge at $50,000; and County Road 61 at $150,000. Hoffman: Correct. Scharfenberg: Those are things that we know that are going to happen for sure and we would have to have in. Okay. Anything else? Hoffman: Not that I’m aware of. Scharfenberg: Okay. Kelly: So I think what we want to look at discussing tonight is, you know because the City Council hasn’t accepted our overall plan doesn’t mean that we can’t budget items for Bandimere that we think are important and I think part of that is to have discussion tonight is what do we think is tonight for the City. What do we think is important for our community and the people that are using the facilities? Is it important to have lighting at Lake Susan? Does it make sense? Does it not make sense? We’ve got you know $55,000 contribution there. If we start something at Bandimere do we start with lighting the soccer field and if you do that you’ve got to light both parking lots I would think at the same time. Then we’ve got to kind of piecemeal Bandimere out over time. You know when the hockey rink gets done, you know that’s lights. Hockey rink. The warming house. You know we’re looking at on the rink close to a million dollars. Is that more like $900,000 Todd? Or do you think it’d be closer to a million? Somewhere in there. Hoffman: Yep. Kelly: So it depends upon the time and when. And that’s a big budget item. And as Todd will tell us later, one of the City Council people asked us about how the, how the process goes for, what’s the word I’m looking for? Hoffman: Referendum? Kelly: Thank you. Referendum. So the fact that it’s an election year, I don’t think a referendum will happen but there are people on the City Council that want to know what the process is and how much it costs to put up a referendum so there looks to be some willingness to go with some kind of overall plan with some of the people and again since nothing’s been approved by the City Council we’ve got to kind of move on in what we think is important. Thoughts? Questions? Ryan: What were their main objections when discussing it last night? 5 Park and Recreation Commission – June 24, 2014 Kelly: Their objections were, from my notes, the splash pad was an issue and the Mayor kind of told us to take that out of the plan. Having two buildings being built at Bandimere, they didn’t like that idea. Maybe one building would be better. Scharfenberg: When you refer to two buildings, what are you referring to? Kelly: We’re referring to the hockey warming house, which they were in favor of having and then the other one was, which was what? Half shelter, half bathrooms and other things. Scharfenberg: Why were they in favor of a hockey warning house being built? Kelly: Because if you don’t have a warming house there’s nowhere for the kids to put on their skates. Scharfenberg: Yeah but we can, you can do something other than a permanent structure there. Kelly: That was their response. Scharfenberg: Okay. Kelly: They liked the idea of a warming house. At least those who talked about it did. You know there’s the regular concern about, you know if you light everything at one time the neighbors. The lights especially at Soccer Fields 2 and 3 and the spillover and I think lights are made today in such a way that you don’t have the kind of spillover that you had 10 or 15 years ago. And Jerry would you agree with that? Ruegemer: Not knowing all the technology I think that is the way that they’re definitely going but. Kelly: Thank you Jerry. Kelly: Oh by the way the council did, they were impressed with the plan and they asked me to extend their appreciation to the rest of the council and say thank you for the plan that you put together. Questions? Other thoughts? I you know, I also think that tennis courts were not a big issue and they liked the idea of pickleball courts. Boettcher: Another thing they weren’t really in favor of was the off leash dog park area. Kelly: Yes. They were not in favor of that. Boettcher: Instead of using the hockey rink for that in the summertime, using it for pickleball. Kelly: Yeah and that was the other thing that came up is, you know can we, then you have to have a different surface for the hockey rink and so that would be. Boettcher: An impervious surface. Kelly: Thank you. That was brought up is could we put pickleball courts inside the hockey rink. And of course there’d be higher costs associated with that and I don’t know what the upkeep would be with the ice so I mean there’d be some things to be vetted out on that issue. 6 Park and Recreation Commission – June 24, 2014 Boettcher: And the reason for that was to eliminate the tennis courts or the current multi-purpose courts that we had planned. So you could eliminate that completely all those dollars. Put a little bit more into the hockey rink. Hoffman: One of the challenges we have with our asphalt hockey rinks is that the asphalt doesn’t like the water and the ice very much. We see a lot of cracking of our asphalt surface sitting inside our rinks so. And then if you move towards putting pickleball courts inside of there then you have to have temporary netting, which is not as, just not as nice. Not as durable inside those court areas so building an independent pickleball facility I think is just a better long range plan. On a short term basis you could probably do it in like a tournament scenario where you needed another half a dozen you know temporary courts but if you take a look at the asphalt, when you’re at the Rec Center walk out onto the asphalt inside those hockey rinks. It does not do very well with the freeze/thaw cycles that we put into it. Having asphalt there does allow you to make ice faster because it just takes water very quickly but over the long haul that asphalt doesn’t hold up very well. Kelly: Yeah what would the additional expenses be on having asphalt in the hockey rink? Hoffman: The cost of the asphalt. Kelly: But I mean how often do you have to update it? Every 2 years? Every year? Hoffman: No. From our experience at the Rec Center you’d have to redo it about every 10 years completely. Ryan: And Todd what are the benefits of having asphalt? It takes the water better? Hoffman: Yeah and then we’d, early on with hockey rinks everybody thought inline skating was really going to take off inside these hockey rinks and it never did. That was the real reason people went to asphalt was because to allow inline skating either as a recreation or as a hockey game. You know you could have hockey with inline skates so I think you’re seeing more communities just go back to a gravel, grass surface inside the rinks. Or you can go to all grass and you can play small soccer type stadium inside those in the summer as well instead of doing something else so many of them, I would say a majority do sit empty in the summer but you have options. Off leash dog area. Interior soccer if you have a decent grass surface in there. Or if you put asphalt then you can you know, you can have any kind of sport court games. We don’t do, other than inline skating not a lot’s been going on at the Rec Center and those courts have been there for almost 15 years. Boettcher: One of the council members did ask too if we had looked at Lake Susan. Doing anything. I said a few months ago I remember we did have a discussion about that. Should we put lights in there and I think at that time the general consensus was that Bandimere was going to be the big dog and that’s where we’re going to put all of our effort but the question did come up and I said yeah, it has been discussed so possibly they’d be open to more of an idea of lighting at Lake Susan versus doing everything at Bandimere. Just a thought that one of the council members had. Kelly: So again we didn’t you know get any clear direction and they didn’t approve anything that we sent them. They gave us, you know they all made some comments and we made our notes and I think I’ve explained most of my notes to you. And Todd will give us more of an update. Maybe Todd we should just skip down to 5 right now and have you give us your thoughts on, since we’re in the middle of this discussion, if you don’t mind. Hoffman: Be glad to. 7 Park and Recreation Commission – June 24, 2014 Kelly: Thank you. Hoffman: I’ll start by saying, first it’s important to remember what my role is between the Park and Recreation Commission and the City Council and so as a commission you report directly to the City Council. Your recommendation. I serve as your secretary delivering that through the hours of the city, the Manager’s office. So we deliver your recommendation. I was there last evening. Presented your recommendation on behalf of the Park and Recreation Commission and there was a variety of opinions from different council members so you’re in a work session format. We will provide you the summary minutes of what they had to say so there’ll be summary minutes talking about what the different council members viewpoints were on the plan. Councilwoman Ernst simply thought the plan was too extravagant and she wanted a lesser plan for Bandimere Park. Other comments, Councilmember McDonald had most of his questions about the lights and so you know have we vetted the lights. Is there, have we taken into consideration the concern of the neighbors and I really think just a staged approach at Bandimere. The two soccer fields up against the houses may never be lit but you know starting out in front with Soccer Field number 1 and the baseball fields, I think everybody would probably accept that in the long run and that will be a good thing for Bandimere Park. And then once those are lit, if there continues to be pressure, ballfield pressure then there’ll be a conversation in the future about those other things. Councilmember Tjornhom and the Mayor shared some of their feelings about the fact that you know Tom didn’t think. The Mayor didn’t think we should be looking at a splash pad simply because we’ve got Lake Ann beaches. We have Lifetime Fitness. We have other things in the community so he couldn’t support that. I guess Councilmember Tjornhom, she wanted trees because she stands in the sun for soccer so before she got anything else she wanted some trees planted in Bandimere Community Park so we can have some shade around our soccer fields. Boettcher: Well she wanted the covered bleachers I think because she said she was at a game with her son yesterday at Bandimere. Hoffman: And so that was a work session format to determine if the council would approve a plan at a formal City Council meeting where we would present that master plan and it was clear that they would not. I suggested that we would go back as a commission and modify that plan and the timing on that, you know that’s really up to the commission on what you feel would be most appropriate. It’s similar to the CIP. If there’s not consensus around what you feel should be going on in the park system for improvements then I would just allow things to settle out until some consensus is built. And so you don’t have an agreed upon master plan. You know you could propose hockey in 2015. I think there’s probably some community support around hockey but then again I think there’s some community support around each of the elements that you put in there. It’s just not being voiced currently. And so sometimes things just have to kind of stop and, to allow community members to weigh in so they’re, you know City Council members can hear from their constituents on what’s going on in their park system. I think people are aware in our community that this is kind of a topic of conversation. We had this process. We had this community meeting format and if all of a sudden that just stops people are going to start to say hey, where are our future improvements? There’s a variety of funding mechanisms. You know if a referendum, commissioner or Councilmember McDonald talked about a referendum. He asked a few questions of the city manager about how that plays out and typically you just, you know the council approves language for a referendum. You launch a referendum education campaign so you can educate. You schedule a voting date and you put the referendum out there so it’s some work. It’s not all that complex but there’s some work in that. But then the other thing I mentioned last night is you know the park fund in the future will generate somewhere in the nature of $15 million dollars and so if we’re talking about a $5 million investment to finish off Bandimere Park, which I think is a number that people just have a challenge getting their arms around. You’re going to invest $5 million to finish the park where you haven’t even invested close to that you know to get to this point and so just the cost. The first things are cheaper plus you did them 10 or 20 or 30 years ago so yeah, the cost of the dollar was cheaper. Now you’re adding the 8 Park and Recreation Commission – June 24, 2014 expensive things. Lights. Other things plus the cost of the dollar is, you know we’re 30 years down the road so the cost of the dollar goes up and so these things seem expensive but you know that’s the cost of investments in that facility. One way I would encourage you to look at it is, you know we do $5 million dollar road projects all the time. We do $10 million dollar road projects all the time. We’re doing a $50 million dollar road project down in the valley. This is a $5 million dollar park project. Is that you know, is that out of line for what we have as a community? 18 percent, no 30 percent of our residents are under the age of 18. 18 and under right now so we still are a family orientated community who appreciates their parks and recreation services and so I think we just need to allow things to work their way through. Build some consensus in the community and amongst the park board and the council about what improvements should be going on at Bandimere Park. Another important thing in the presentation, I can share that with you tonight if you wanted to look at that, that we gave last night is that I truly thing this is the last community park we’re going to acquire. I think for a while people just thought you know through the natural growth of our community there’s probably a future park out there for more ballfields. More community park space and at this time I don’t see that being the case so I think what we have is Lake Ann, the Rec Center, and Bandimere in a big way and then Lake Susan fills in for some of those other community park needs and I think that’s it so that puts you in a different point. Instead of saying well, you know we don’t have to do everything at Bandimere or Lake Susan or the Rec Center. Well in a community park status you do have to do everything that you think you need at those locations because there’s probably not a future one on down the line. So again it’s important to note that that’s a work session. The council didn’t say up or down. They just said you need more work because it was not a vote by the council last night. Even if you would put that on a recommendation at a regularly scheduled council meeting, they don’t have to vote on a recommendation of the Park and Recreation Commission. You’re an advisory body to them. What they approve is up to their discretion and so that’s why again it’s important to recognize that simply because you don’t have an approved master plan doesn’t mean you can say hey, 2015 we want to put in pickleball or we want to put in lights. We want to put in, you know you can make those recommendations. That goes to the City Council and then they consider that as an independent type item. Another thing as you focus on your CIP, it’s not a bad thing to say we’re just going to recommend we invest $100,000 next year or $150,000 next year. You know that fund fluctuates. Expenditures fluctuate. We’ve been up just not too, with the 41 we were up over a million dollars. You know a million two in a single year. A million one in a single year and so you get a lot of projects staged in. You can’t do that every year and so simple saving some money and letting things kind of ferret their way out is not necessarily a bad thing when you’re on a park and recreation commission item so. That’s what I saw last night. It was just some uncertainty about where we should be heading in the future at Bandimere and so but again there’s no rush in coming back with another plan. Simply putting a plan out doesn’t mean that it’s, you know it’s really going to have any impact in the future so. Sometimes, an example I used in conversations since last night is that the shelter at Lake Ann, the Klingelhutz was never on a master plan. It was never planned. It just became obvious that that was going to be a nice spot for another group picnic pavilion. A previous park board said no, we’re not going to do it because you’ve got one 100 yards from there. 100 and you know 50 yards from there down the hill and they eventually, another park board said you know what, no I think Lake Ann deserves another shelter. Let’s propose it to the City Council and they voted it in so, master plans are a working document. Some things in life it depends on you know where it’s coming from and how fast you gain approval and so I think it’s just going to take a little bit more time. Kelly: Thank you Todd for going through that. So what I’m hearing is we shouldn’t really spend time on redoing a master plan at this time and kind of let it simmer with the City Council and see what we hear back in the next couple months and move forward where we think we should move forward on the CIP plan. 9 Park and Recreation Commission – June 24, 2014 Hoffman: And again those are just my thoughts. You know as a commission you’re an independent body. You can decide what you feel is best for the community and then make that recommendation to the City Council. Kelly: Any other thoughts or observations? Any ideas where you want to spend money next year or this year? Scharfenberg: Well we’ve, we’re already at $225,000 and we talked about adding additional dugouts at Lake Ann and I would propose putting some additional dollars in 2015 towards, I think it’s what, an additional 2 dugouts at Lake Ann? Is that right? Hoffman: Yeah the dugout that will be done this year is on 5 and so you have 4 and 6 remaining. And then if you take a look at that I would recommend additional backstop improvements to replicate what’s on number 3. It has a higher back and then the clam shell over the top and in addition to the dugouts the foul balls coming out is just as big an issue as protecting the players. Kelly: What did we say the dugouts were what, $10,000 a field or was it? Hoffman: Ten. Kelly: And then what would the backstops be? Hoffman: I don’t have a number. Probably in that $10,000 range per field but I’ll verify that for you. Kelly: Okay and how many fields do we need to do on the backstops? Hoffman: Three. Kelly: Three, okay. Hoffman: And two on dugouts. Kelly: Well I’ve always been in favor of lighting Lake Ann first. Or Lake Susan first, excuse me so I’d like that in our discussions for our next meeting is, you know does it make sense to light it there? Does it make sense to take advantage of the $55,000 that is being offered by the Chanhassen Athletic Association? And that discussion could lead towards this year still since it’s in this year’s budget. Thunberg: One item we discussed on our park tour was the fencing on the soccer field for Bandimere so I know that’s not a piece of the master plan but something that we could look at for that, just that individual piece. Kelly: Okay let’s have that on our listing for next session. For 2016 I’m interested in seeing Soccer Field 1 and both parking lots lit so I’d like to see that come up for discussion. Scharfenberg: Why Soccer Field number 1? Kelly: Soccer Field is the one out in front. When you’re going to do 2 and 3 you do them at the same time and the reason you do 1 is to see how much use do we get and how much use, how much pressure is there on the city for the other fields to be lit and if the pressure isn’t there, then you don’t go and light the other fields. If the pressure is there, then you start looking at okay. How much pressure is there? What’s the cost and then you know do we go 2018-19 you put in lights on Soccer Fields 2 and 3? The other side 10 Park and Recreation Commission – June 24, 2014 of the coin could be well if you put lights on 2 and 3 then you’ll never need to put lights on 1 except we are going to have to light the parking lots so and that’s, can be up for some good discussion. Scharfenberg: Well just why don’t we talk about it now. I mean in terms of Soccer Field number 1, I mean we haven’t even had anybody that has come here and said hey we need the, we’re not, we don’t have enough fields. We’re, there’s not enough time. I mean why would we you know necessarily even consider that in my opinion at this point if we’re going to light, although I think there’s other things potentially that would need to be lit before we would even talk about Soccer Field number 1. Kelly: Well I was under the impression we were under some pressure for more soccer time. Am I wrong Jerry? Ruegemer: That was the discussion that we had at the work session meeting this spring with the City Council. We did hear from CC-United Soccer and Tonka United Soccer on that topic. Scharfenberg: That what? Ruegemer: That they were in need to some additional time for their growth numbers of their associations. Scharfenberg: But are they not looking to other sources other than ourselves for fields availability and other cities that support them? Ruegemer: Sure. I would say yes they are as well. I know we’ve had some challenges with fields in other communities as well but you know Bandimere seems to be a nice spot for people to play and participate out there just with the number of fields that we do have so that is the desire of the local associations. Scharfenberg: You know what in my opinion what I think we need to do as a commission, this is just me is that either tonight or next time, in July we as a commission need to all think about and rate priority wise what we think are the priorities or do we sit down and we put up, everybody ranks them and we use that as a ranking basis to determine what we think should happen as a commission at Bandimere. I mean kind of piecemealing this and talking about you know I would like to see this in this particular year and that, you know that’s all and good. That’s well and good. That’s one way to do it but you know I would like to see us sit down as a group and say these are, okay here are the things at Bandimere. These are all the things that can be done. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. And we rank them and we all say this is what we want. We go up and put it on the board and then you add them up and those are the things then that we say as a commission that we think are significant and then how are we going to do that financially and what years are we going to put those in. That’s what I would like to see happen as a commission as opposed to talking about individual. Individual things. Kelly: Well I mean you’re, yeah. I mean we’re still talking about individual things when you rank them so I mean we’re going to have to discuss all the different pieces at some point but that’s what I’m bringing up, and that’s a good idea. Let’s just pull up all the pieces to Bandimere and say, you know let’s discuss each one of them and see where people come down on them because that’s all we’re doing right now I think is talking about what do we want to discuss and rank and put forward to the City Council for the 5 year program in our July meeting. That’s where I’m at. Hoffman: Those kind of ranking exercises are fairly common and we could do that at 7:00 before your next meeting if you wanted to do that. From 7:00 to 7:30. Or if you needed an hour you could start at 6:30. 11 Park and Recreation Commission – June 24, 2014 Scharfenberg: Unless people want to do something else. I mean it’s up to the commission how they want to move forward. Hoffman: It provides some clarity I think when it goes to the council. At least they know they have everybody weighing in on their input. Kobilarcsik: I know this may be discussed at that further meeting but as long as we’re speaking on Bandimere I’d like to talk about the splash pad issue a little more. I guess I know it’s kind of off the topic from the field lighting issue but it’s kind of associated with it at the same time and personally I believe that the splash pad is not really a necessity for the field which might be against some of the other council members. Some of your guy’s beliefs on that issue but currently that park is used a lot and I see families, they go out there just with their family to use it at times other than when their kids are there for a soccer game. It’s getting a lot of use as is. It’s a nice facility. It’s new. It’s well maintained. There’s no issues with it and I feel that’s one of the biggest expenses and that it might get, be better received by the council if that is, I’m not sure taken out from the plan or revised in a way. That’s what I have to say on it. Scharfenberg: So Todd getting back to just some of the dollars that we’ve got out there. We’ve also got the need of Preserve that. Again we don’t know whenever that’s going to be built. We have to have the dollars so we should have that $90,000. I think we have it in 2016 but obviously could be pushed back out again because we have no idea yet at least when that’s going to be built, correct? Hoffman: Correct. Whenever that lot is sold and that building is built, then they’ll build the trail. Scharfenberg: Okay. And then just for purposes of the Bluff Creek Drive, we know that it’s not going to be the $500,000 we were talking before but what would you put dollars towards that? Something like $50,000 or? Hoffman: Just leave it out. Scharfenberg: Just leave it out. Okay. Kelly: Jerry is there anything we need for either of the lakes at this time that you’ve thought about or discussed with staff? Ruegemer: At the lakes? Kelly: At the lakes. Ruegemer: Well we’ve been trying to, we added this year added kind of a, that I’ll call it garage floor type of material to the bathrooms at Lake Ann. We did both bathrooms and the hallway going into that. We just did that through some general dollars that we had within our budgets this year. We’re going to plan on doing that, probably the concession area next year. Trying to do small updates to the Lake Ann concession building with different lighting and different equipment. We’re kind of, you know that is starting to show it’s age a little bit too. The flooring in the back room is getting, the tiles are starting to pop and that was really kind of, probably flooring is the biggest issue. There’s one particular paddleboat that could be replaced out there as well but those are something that we can budget within our Lake Ann budget as well if it doesn’t go into the CIP. Other than that I mean I think the other facilities, the bathrooms at Lake Susan are a little dated but they’re certainly functional at this point. Adam, can you think of anything else? 12 Park and Recreation Commission – June 24, 2014 Kelly: So Todd other than you know Lake Susan lighting and Bandimere and the items we have here, is there anything out there that you can think of that we should be throwing in the discussion mix on having a reason for putting some money towards it? Hoffman: I would just take a look at some recent history so there are playgrounds that don’t have their second playground so their Phase 2 playgrounds. If you want to consider those. Take and we can take you through those different locations. So like at Pioneer Pass there’s going to be a playground for 5 through 12 and then a playground for ages 2 through 5 and a variety of our sites were set up with that and now they just have one playground, not two so we could take a look at those. Beyond that, the athletic association also talked about the recreation center for at least some future consideration for additional fencing, backstops, dugouts, those type of things. For anybody who’s experienced a softball or baseball tournament there, there’s lots of fly balls that come out of that and there’s lots of concerned parents and spectators about you know should that be improved. What level of risk is acceptable at a ballfield type of facility? So those are potential improvements. We have a large park system. Twenty some, 27 neighborhood or community parks and then park preserves. Trail systems and so there’s always something that’s coming up. One thing that we should add some dollars for, I’m not sure where they’re coming out of is the Galpin Boulevard trail extension and so we should, we don’t have the budget yet from that but somebody should write that down. Galpin Boulevard. I’ll bring it back at the next time so the City of Shorewood contacted us and said we want to meet your trail but we’re not at the border yet and so we’re building a trail from Highway 7 to the corporate line between Chan and Shorewood and we said we’d like to, we don’t have a project but we’d like you to continue so they’re currently planning to bring that down to Pheasant Hill Drive I think it is where we stopped our Galpin Boulevard trail. So whatever that number comes up to be, we’ll be adding that into our CIP. They may be done in 2014. It might be done in 2015. It’s certainly a project that I met an individual that testified for the original Galpin Boulevard trail, and that was about, just about 20 years ago. 17 years ago or so and we had originally stopped the Galpin Boulevard trail at Lake Lucy so going north from Highway 5 and stopping at Lake Lucy. She had 4 children. She stood at this podium. She didn’t like public speaking but she talked to the park board and she said you know I’ve got a family of 4 kids. We don’t have access to a trail. We would like to have you continue that trail and that was a fairly complicated conversation between the park commission and the City Council because the budget didn’t include those dollars and so eventually those were approved. Those additional dollars and the trail continued up. Just saw her at a graduation party. Hadn’t seen her since that day she stood here and she re-lived that story for us so those are poignant moments when you say you know what, that was some testimony that made a difference and when I told her now we’re going to take it all the way to Shorewood and she said well after 20 years that’s great. You know now we’re going to get all the way into Shorewood as well so, we always need to keep an eye out for those finishing segments. Powers Boulevard also. There’s talk about that but when those come in they’re, you know other than 41 which is some significant dollars, these little connections are some lower dollar amounts so I think we can tolerate those within the budget. Things always come up. You know I think the commission should take a lot of pride in what you have in a parks and trail system. People really appreciate it. Operations and maintenance and Adam’s role is becoming increasingly important as we continue to grow. We’ve had some great success stories with Riley Ridge and Pioneer Pass and so again I view this really you’re setting the stage for those future improvements and what should those be. Sometimes they’re fairly obvious. Sometimes they’re not. I would venture to guess that probably half of the things that this commission does aren’t even on your radar until somebody walks in that door and stands at that podium over the years so some things that you’re currently don’t even know are on the radar are not even here yet and somebody will walk in and ask for them at some point in the future so. It’s important to think of what you can and respond to what you know but there’s always going to be something else down the line so. 13 Park and Recreation Commission – June 24, 2014 Kobilarcsik: As long as we’re talking about trail connections here, I’m also wondering about the trail connection along Pioneer Trail from Lyman Boulevard to, is that 101 up there? I was wondering about if that trail connection has been talked about among the council here. This commission. Hoffman: From Lyman to? Kobilarcsik: To, is that 101 the next road? Where the, or Powers. To Powers. Ruegemer: Going east and west? Kobilarcsik: Yes. From. Scharfenberg: From Pioneer Trail at 101. Kobilarcsik: Along Pioneer Trail. Kelly: On Pioneer trail, okay. Scharfenberg: On Pioneer Trail to Powers. Hoffman: Now I know where you’re at, yeah. Kobilarcsik: Yeah. Ryan: 101 and Powers. Scharfenberg: Yeah we’ve talked about that in the past. It’s, first of all I think you’ve talked to some of the homeowners right and that’s kind of iffy and just right now probably not a big need to connect down there. Hoffman: It’s a county road. It is on our Comprehensive Plan so there is a line there. There’s a blue line on the comp plan. Red line’s done. A blue line’s not done. So there’s a blue line from on the north side of the road would generally where that trail would thought to be going. From 101 west to Powers Boulevard. So it’s a missing link. We studied it when we studied Bluff Creek so we studied Bluff Creek. We studied this missing link and we studied a few others. The costs were very high due to the way the grade slopes off there on the north side and then when you hit those wetlands you need a lot of walls. You have a couple of homes that are very tight but it doesn’t mean that it won’t be built in the future. Tyler a lot of times when new improvements are added is when you take a road section from a rural condition to a more urban condition with boulevards, lighting, sidewalks or trails and at some point in the future Pioneer will probably be upgraded and so the County will say, you know this trail has deteriorated to a point where Pioneer Trail needs to be upgraded. Let’s add that pedestrian improvement onto it and so with all those factors into consideration that project fell of the list of being considered. There is a fairly wide shoulder there if you run it or bike it. It would be nice to have that final connection made but it’s just not currently planned. Kobilarcsik: Just also, just something to think about as well on it, just in a bigger sense. I guess because I know I completely understand what you’re saying is that definitely it would be a big cost because it’s not a great area to try to make a new trail but it is the only missing part of the trail all along Pioneer from end to end and someone that bikes the trail from end to end going down through the Minneapolis area and stuff. 14 Park and Recreation Commission – June 24, 2014 Hoffman: Yep. Kobilarcsik: It is just the only piece from there down to Chaska. Hoffman: It’s the one missing link. That’s a good point. Scharfenberg: But at least Tyler the other thing is, I mean to think about is that you’ve got connections to that. I mean you can ride Powers up to Lyman and then kind of cross over if you have to so. Yeah I agree with you that ultimately, like Todd said, whenever that road is updated and upgraded you know that trail probably will be built so. Kobilarcsik: Like he said it does have a great shoulder as is so. Hoffman: Maybe get to know your County Commissioner in that area Tyler. He lives right on the corner. Kobilarcsik: Oh really? Hoffman: Yeah. Have a conversation. I think he’d listen to you. Kelly: So Todd why don’t you bring in what the cost will be for Galpin and that. That’s a set thing so we’ll plug it into either 2014 or 15, wherever that ends up being. And I think the cost, you talked about the Rec Center ballpark, if we looked at some of that the costs would probably be the same as we talked about over at Lake Ann? Hoffman: Similar. Kelly: And would we, would you recommend if we did any there that you’d redo the backstops at the same time? Hoffman: Likely, yeah. They’re small. Kelly: Okay. Hoffman: It would be a complete overhaul so we’ll get some dollars in that and you can schedule those out into the future. Kelly: Anything else anybody would like on the list to discuss for next month? Are we done with the CIP discussion for tonight? Carron: I guess I have one question. In regards to this here. Where, maybe I’m a little late to the party here but, well I am. Kelly: It’s not much. Carron: Where are we at with the 2014 things that we have like the City Center Park improvements? The shell. Have we talked about that yet tonight? Scharfenberg: No. 15 Park and Recreation Commission – June 24, 2014 Carron: The band shell and I guess we’ve got some other things going that are in, budgeted for 2014 and I don’t know if those are going to go. Kelly: I thought the band shell and others were starting in 2015. Carron: Currently in the CIP it’s 2014. Hoffman: Yep. Kelly: Oh okay. Hoffman: You go ahead and list them out. I’ll explain so 2014 the City Center improvements, proposed band shell is scheduled on a City Council work session I believe in September and so for review by, that recommendation is on the council work session for review and discussion and beyond that I believe that’s. Scharfenberg: The lighting. The dollars for lighting would be the only other item. Hoffman: Yeah, and again there’s no project there that’s in the works and so those dollars were changed from Lake Susan lighting to just ballfield lighting and then with no consensus around the project right now there is not a project out to recommendation. Anything in that amount the City Council has to approve. You know out to bid. There’s no project yet being proposed. Kelly: Yeah here we are. The neighborhood park picnic are coming out of the general funds surplus. $100,000 each year. Hoffman: Yep. And those are. Kelly: Starting in 2014 so that’s not part of our CIP. Hoffman: No. Those are underway for the 3 parks this year. Sugarbush Park, Stone Creek Park and then the last one is out at Roundhouse Park and then 3 more for next year. Well that’s a great start. We really appreciate your input and you want to go at 7:00? I think we can get that done in a half hour. Carron: I like Steve’s idea. Rank them on a board. Hoffman: Yep. Carron: All the commissioners throw their thoughts and feelings up and then discuss from there. Hoffman: So we’ll do that as a work session format. We’ll get that all set up and ready to go. That’s an easy exercise. Very valuable. Thank you. Kelly: Thanks Todd. Thank you everybody for your input. RECREATION CENTER REPORT: Kelly: Jodi. Sarles: Good evening commissioners. Greetings from the Rec Center. I just left the last night of t-ball session 1 on Tuesday nights so the big hitting team was up to bat when I left and they had to push the 16 Park and Recreation Commission – June 24, 2014 fielders from the first pitching mound to the second because they were the big swingers so they had some near misses last week so, anyway so it’s a fun program. We’re back on summer schedule again so we shorten our hours just a little bit and then we’re closed on Sunday which just kind of meets the traffic needs out there at this time. I think we lose a lot of our people to the beautiful outdoors in the summer here. And then this summer we kind of, I worked with the school district to test a new shut down schedule. Typically we’re down for about 3 ½ weeks when they resurface our gym floors and the studio floors and they’re using a different substance to work on those floors. It’s not as toxic as it’s been in the past so we’re only going to shut down for a week. The gymnasium and the studio will be shut down until after Labor Day. We tend to lose a lot of people over that time that come in that are regulars as well as the rentals so we’re going to test it. I’ve kind of talked to everybody that’s going to be in the building that first week and just kind of let them know. It’s kind of a trial run so we’ll open all the doors that we need to in the rooms if that’s necessary but last year when I was in there it wasn’t, it was not a noticeable odor smell so we’re looking to do that and have ample staffing budget to make sure that we’re set for that time. I think the last time I was here we were talking about frost heaves and front doors not opening and Adam and his crew built us a beautiful platform so we could actually get in and out of the Rec Center. Now the school district and City and the contractor have come to an agreement to repair those sidewalk failures so it looks like it’s going to happen in July, but we haven’t gotten an exact date yet so there’s an agreement in place so now the nice platform will go out and hopefully we’re back to fantastic concrete again. And the other thing coming this summer is a new boiler in the facility. The original boiler is failing now and so that project is going to happen. They actually have to take out one of the walls on the school side to get that put in so that’s going to happen, I believe it’s going to be a cost of around $80,000 I think to the City so. Hoffman: It’s a budgeted item. Sarles: Budgeted but necessary. Long time employee and many of you may know of Tom Knowles. He retired this month here. He had been with the Rec Center nearly since it opened. 17 year employee with the City so congratulations to Tom as he moves on and starts his travels to Alaska and Florida and all over the place so great employee for many years. As far as the programs we just, we finished up the Dance for Fun season and have again re-started the Dance for Fun season for the summer. We had about 200 dancers in the recitals in May. Sold tickets. Did all that. It was a great program. People really appreciate it. The high school was great this year to work with and they helped us out and we’re back at their same spot next year so. Doing plenty of youth training so we’ve got a lot of new babysitters on our hands in those neighborhoods in Chanhassen so I think we set forth about 25 over the past couple months here and then we’ve got another group of kids that take a different class that parents that don’t feel like they’re quite ready to be home alone, send their kids to this one and we had 36 in two classes of that one as well so it’s a neat program and they kind of learn all about home safety and what to do and everything from snacks they can make to what happens if somebody knocks on the door so it’s a great program for the community. And then Rec Center Sports is still booming here. T-ball has been a huge hit. Small Fry Sports so the 3 and 4 year olds are a little bit crazy. 67 of those have been participating in the three sessions. 50 are up next for the soccer program. That one’s maxed out. We kind of rotated the schedule because Bluff Creek Elementary changed their school day schedule so they’re actually going to be one of the early schools going in so we’re going to try to kind of flip around our offerings here a little bit to accommodate with that school but also we think that that Small Fry program we’ve maxed out all of our fall and winter programs so we’re adding another session of that on Tuesdays instead of an after school. As far as the 105 kids playing T-ball now, between today and tomorrow the after school sports, we had you know a smaller group so that’s why we kind of rotated to the Small Fry’s to use that gym time a little better there. And then a couple events that are coming up, more outdoor pickleball clinics so they are still passionate pickleball players. I stop out and see them. They don’t come in and see me anymore until they need something so they’ll bring me a bunch of broken outdoor pickleballs and then they want them replaced but fortunately they purchased those so we’re good there but they’re yeah, they’re very excited. 17 Park and Recreation Commission – June 24, 2014 They’re still hoping that we’re going to see some improvements on the courts out there. They have made their own improvements and tried to keep the balls from going into the other courts so if you come into the Rec Center you’ll see a little bit of make shift snow fencing set up throughout the courts to th accommodate that. But otherwise if you’re interested in the sport the next one’s coming up June 26 this week. 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. just to test it out. We’ve got trainers out there. The folks are great and they have a great time and they love to show people the game so. And then after that it’s just Dance for Fun starts up again this fall. We’ve got some open houses that will be going on in August so tell your friends and neighbors if they’re looking for some dance programs. Also Tae Kwon Do wanted to do some open houses too so they’re all going to occur on the same night so bring some extra people out to the Rec Center so they can try and see other programs that we offer out there. And that’s about it from the Rec Center right now. If anybody has any questions or. Kelly: Any questions for Jodi? Looks like you’re staying as busy as usual out there. Sarles: Oh yeah. Kelly: And your programs are starting to max out, that’s wonderful. Sarles: Right. Kelly: Thanks for the great job that you’re doing. Sarles: Thank you. PARK & TRAIL MAINTENANCE REPORT. Kelly: Adam. Beers: Thank you Chair Kelly and commissioners. It’s been a very busy spring for the maintenance department with the start up of all the shelters and our irrigation system and getting docks and fishing piers out and layout and striping of all the athletic fields, couple with terrible, terrible spring weather here. Wash out’s and sand bagging and on and on. So it’s been a constant battle to keep up with everything and keep all the trail systems safe but we’re doing our best to do just that. We’ve had 45 seniors out this year from Minnetonka High School for the Senior Service Day project. They did some wood chipping with Charlie Eiler kind of at the helm at the City Hall, fire station and City Center Park and a little bit down Kerber. So it’s a good thing to see. Everybody kind of being involved and keeping that going. Kind of missed the early part of the season for our herbicide applications just due to poor weather but I think at this point we’re going to probably wait til the fall and see what we can do kind of at the tail end of the season so not a terrible hiccup but just another challenge I suppose. At this point we’re kind of in th full swing for 4 of July prep, working with Jerry, Mitch and Todd to keep everything going from our end. The maintenance side. We got all the signage out and Jerry and Rob are just waiting to kind of hit rdth the ground running on the 3 and 4 so. As far as Pioneer Pass and 41, we had an epic failure due to the weather so tomorrow morning Todd and I are going to meet with Bill Johnson, the representative from Park Protection. Hopefully come up with hopefully a new date for construction and 41 has started yesterday. All the forms went in and concrete truck comes tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. so all good things on that front. Hoffman: All the forms for the first stage. 18 Park and Recreation Commission – June 24, 2014 Beers: First stage, excuse me. The middle part of the stairway is going to be poured tomorrow. So weather pending we’ll continue to push forward with that and Jerry Theis has been very great to work with I guess this far since he’s been here and so hopefully just pray for good weather and we’ll keep moving. Kelly: Good, any questions for Adam? Ryan: I have a question. Is the 41 trail closed while they’re pouring the cement or is it still open? Beers: No. Everything’s being poured from the top so. Ryan: Okay. Beers: So at this point nothing will be closed down. We might have to close a section when we start to work on the bottom but that will just be a temporary, you know for a matter of hours to have that kind of a closure. Ryan: Okay. And then I want to publicly thank you for addressing my concerns or my nags I should say but you did a great job fixing the washout along 41. Really appreciate that. Beers: Not a problem. Ryan: And then the second one is, had a couple games on a soccer field at City Center and multiple comments on how great the fields are, in what great condition they’re in compared to a lot of other fields around the various communities so you’ve done a very nice job so I wanted to comment on that. Beers: I’ll pass the word along to the guys. I’m sure it will be much appreciated. Ryan: Thank you. Scharfenberg: Adam tag teaming on what Elise said, what about the washout on Powers with the hill sliding down onto the sidewalk, is that something that’s going to be taken care of here soon? Hoffman: It may not be soon. It’s a county road and a county project so. Scharfenberg: Oh. Hoffman: So depending on their schedule, yep. That’s the one by Jeff Fox. There was quite a slough there. That’s a steep embankment. When the County built Powers through there that got very steep and so that sloughed down and onto the trail and now you have to walk around or go onto the street so I’ve not heard of their schedule but that’s not ours. Scharfenberg: Okay. And so is the county doing, right now all those cement projects where they’re doing the, are they doing all that work through the county? Hoffman: They are and so that’s, that project was underway before this slough came off so they’re doing the improvements for the truncated domes for the ADA improvements all along that project. Scharfenberg: Okay. 19 Park and Recreation Commission – June 24, 2014 Hoffman: They, and what you’re seeing happen there is, the county is going to do some pavement improvements on, and they’re using some federal funds. In order to do that, they can’t do it until they improve everything up to ADA standards of today so they have to, first thing you’ll see them do the ADA ramps. The truncated dome ramps first and then you’ll see them do the road next so they are going to be doing some improvements to the surface on Pioneer. Or excuse me on Powers Boulevard. Ryan: So is it the county that decided to stop along Powers instead of taking it all the way into Excelsior? Hoffman: With the trail? Ryan: (Yes). Hoffman: No that was a city project and so the City of Chanhassen built a trail within the county right- of-way. We asked them, we said you know we’d like to have a trail in Powers Boulevard. Will you build it? They said no. We said if the citizens of Chanhassen vote for a referendum to build it will you allow us to build it there? They said well we’d prefer, we would prefer not to have it there but we’ll allow it and so when that project went north, it stopped just about a block short because of all those wetlands right there in that stage and then it’s up to Shorewood and Excelsior to continue it on. Ryan: Oh, okay. Hoffman: And you also hit Carver County to Hennepin County at that point as well and they are talking about it. They would like to see it, obviously everybody would like to see that trail connect and continued into Excelsior but it takes Hennepin County, Shorewood and Excelsior to make it happen. Kelly: Adam I didn’t hear anything about the Sentence to Serve people. They usually help us out in the fall or? Beers: They haven’t in the past. We certainly can look into that. Hoffman: But they were here this spring. Kelly: Oh they were here this spring, okay. Beers: Yep. Kelly: Okay. So we did make use of that again. Beers: Absolutely. Kelly: Okay. Any other questions for Adam? Beers: I would like to thank Luke once again for, him and I were kind of working together at pretty early the day we cancelled this project and that was. Hoffman: Like 6:30. Beers: That was kind of a nightmare and last minute so appreciate the help and hopefully you’re on board to re-start the fire as soon as we can pick a date. Thunberg: Thanks for all the work you guys have done getting… 20 Park and Recreation Commission – June 24, 2014 Hoffman: That playground container went from you know trying to make it dry enough to work to being a swimming pool. I bet there was thousands of gallons of water in there. Beers: It was like 22 inches of water when we showed up. I was on my way to work and he called at 5:30 and I thought oh this, I don’t know. Maybe we shouldn’t cancel it. Let’s just wait and see until we get there and he’s like well I don’t know. Hoffman: Swimming pool. Thunberg: The draintile works. Beers: It does work. It does work. Hoffman: And then one neighbor showed up and said are we just going to put the poles through the water? Yeah, let’s do that. Beers: He was ready to go so. Carron: Adam the neighbors around the staircase said for me to tell you thanks for going above and beyond doing some serious weed mowing out there. Beers: Yeah, the guys were out there. Carron: They all realized that you guys didn’t have to do that so appreciated that. Beers: Not a problem. Kelly: Thank you Adam. Thanks for everything you do for us. Beers: Absolutely. SENIOR CENTER REPORT. Kelly: Sue. Bill: Thank you. I guess I’m the best one. All my programs or the majority of them are indoors so I don’t have to deal with other issues. Hoffman: Few trips. Bill: Yeah, few trips. Wanted to mention, I talked about featured programs, educational programs. We’ve been a busy place. Monday for example I had 4 programs going in the afternoon. We used the council chamber, the main senior center room. We were in the Fountain Conference Room and the Maple Room and we had enough parking so at times we utilize everything we can. Education programs continue to be a really, really draw. We’ve got a community of people that love to learn and we’re fortunate with all the resources we have that we’re able to offer a lot of good programs. Between the education st programs and special events I think since April 1 I’ve gotten 5 new sponsors. I’ve tried to get them to underwrite, or to cover the cost of entertainment. Anywhere between $100 to $200. I’ve gotten Home Tech, Miracle Ear, Howard’s Jewelry, Black Box Jewelry and Haskell’s so that really helps with that to help keep costs down and people really appreciate that. As well as KleinBank, Community Bank and 21 Park and Recreation Commission – June 24, 2014 then the Lion’s. It’s an in kind donation. Our picnic, it was kind of cold last Thursday. We had 158 people signed up. They cover and provide all the food and beverage for, and the workers so that’s really a big event and people really appreciate that. Other than that I want to mention, with our Senior Advisory Board and the Senior Commission we’ve been talking, demographics are changing. We’re always looking for opportunities to maybe engage younger older adults. Baby boomers so on Wednesday, th August 13, and you’re all invited, we’re going to hopefully weather permitting have what we’re going to, have an open house ice cream social and a barbershop quartet and if the weather’s nice we’re going to have it out in City Center Park closer to the senior center building and hopefully that will draw some th people. It will be a week after the concerts and we’re not going to go down by 78, closer to the building and hopefully by offering something in the evening we’ll get some people that might not be available during the day. Lastly attached to my minutes, we kind of did another revamp of the Senior Connection as we call it or the newsletter with our Amy upstairs. She’s really good with graphics but we’ve added live pictures instead of, or not live but real pictures instead of stock photos and we’ve gotten a lot of good comments on that. As well as I’ve started adding, I get a lot of questions throughout the year. What is the age of people for participation? Where are you located? A number of things like that so now we’re including that, you’ll see on the newsletter where we’re located. Activities and what we provide and that’s been really well received so that’s all I have tonight. Any questions? Scharfenberg: Sue on the back of your newsletter this Store to Door you say comes to Carver County. Is this new? Bill: It’s been here probably for about 2 years. What Store to Door is, it’s a program that Cub is the grocery store that allows shoppers to come in and shop and on either Sunday or Monday night there are people that call homebound or people that are recovering a surgery, to take their order and then there are shoppers. Wednesday morning they start shopping at 6:30 and fill the orders and then a Store to Door delivery truck, refrigerated truck will come and pick the orders up and deliver them to people’s homes. Actually take them right in and take them into their kitchen and put them on the counters so it’s been about a year and a half it’s been at Cub in Chan but they are needing some more shoppers. Something really kind of easy. I do it every Wednesday morning. Well not tomorrow I won’t but anyway do it Wednesday morning. You can do it in about an hour and a half or two hours early in the morning. 6:30 to 8:00-8:30 and it’s really satisfying for people who can’t get out so it’s been here about a year and a half. Scharfenberg: So all you have to do is do the shopping and then they take care of the rest of it? Bill: (Yes). Go in and pick up my little clipboard and my orders. Some orders you want to avoid because they’re pretty hard. You learn a lot about Cub. You pick up a clipboard, and they’re doing new signage at Cub in there because. Anyway they’re probably every week there’s maybe 20 or maybe 15 to 25 orders. Grocery orders. You pick that up and you just go through the store. It tells you what aisle and you fulfill that order. Put it in a bag. You put your grocery cart by the checkout stand. They have a dedicated clerk at Cub that begins checking out all the orders at 8:00 and then they’re packaged and delivered to people’s home and then Store to Door which is out of St. Paul handles all the billing for it and everything so it really, it’s a nice program and Cub has made a commitment to doing that. Kelly: So Sue I didn’t hear the hours but I actually found them in here for the open house and I paged through this when we had gotten it. It is really nicely done and it kind of makes it interesting to look at and I go hmmm, too bad I’m on vacation for that one but you’ve got some nice things going on. Bill: Thank you. Kelly: Congratulations. 22 Park and Recreation Commission – June 24, 2014 Bill: Thank you. RECREATION PROGRAMS: 2014 FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION. th Kelly: Mitch I think you’re going to talk to us about the 4 of July. Johnson: Yes. Thank you Chair Kelly and good evening commissioners. It looks like Jerry and I are stth going to tag team it from the southwest corner of the council chambers here. So yeah, 31 annual 4 of July celebration is just over a week away so we’re in the final prep stages. Get everything lined up and keeping our fingers crossed for not more rain. As of right now the fields are dry but you know so I think we’ll be okay getting the carnival and stuff out there but we do have a contingency plan in place in case that can’t happen. But looking for a great, you know looking forward to a great event and a lot of partnerships in the community. We actually put together a short power point here to kind of recap the event with some pictures from past years so we’ll kind of go through that here quick. Everybody should have that on your screens so we’ll just kind of go through here. So yeah, 3 fun filled days begins next ndrd Wednesday, July 2 with the family night at the carnival and then it goes in through July 3, which is a big day out here at City Center Park with the rides, the Taste of Chanhassen, Chanhassen Rotary, the wine and beer garden. We have the street dance featuring CBO. They’re back again this year so looking th forward to have those people back. And then also on July 4 we go to the Rotary parade, 2:30 in downtown Chanhassen and then the whole event kind of wraps up at 10:00 p.m. at Lake Ann with the fireworks over the lake so it’s hard to get exact estimates but we figure you know around 60,000 people will participate in one aspect of the event, including parade spectators and participants. You know watching the fireworks and the street dance and all that sort of things. So here is a copy of the schedule th of events. This is the center fold and the 4 of July brochure that you’ll see. I put one on all the chairs. This will be distributed to every residence in Chanhassen and it will also be inserted in the Chanhassen Villager so we’ll get that out. Great partnership we have with Southwest Newspapers. Developed this you know very attractive publication that goes out every year. The City develops a few of the pages, then we work with the Villager to put some feature articles in there and pictures from past events and stuff. But on the schedule of events here you’ll see we have some jammed packed few days there but yeah, I mean they’re very well attended and looking forward to having everything so. Moving on to the next slide. Carnival rides are back in town. Midwest Rides and Attractions is back again this year so we’ll have about 13 rides, 10 games and they also bring a few food booths in collaboration with the Taste of Chanhassen. They do a great job. We just upgraded the power needs for them at the park here at City Center so they can hook all of their equipment into. We upgraded to a 200 amp service so that was a good investment we made with some budgeted dollars in our account to kind of continue to be able to supply and you know afford the carnival out at the park here. Ruegemer: They’ll be setting up first part of next week as well for that to be so they’re make sure they’re nd ready to go by July 2 for the family night. Johnson: Alright. Partnering with the Southwest Metro Chamber of Commerce for the business expo, rd it’s on July 3 from 4:30 to 7:30. Talked to the Chamber this morning and they currently have 41 businesses registered. The maximum is 44 businesses so I think we’ll definitely be able to fill that. Those numbers are up from last year. I think last year we were in about the 35-36 so it’s good to see that at capacity again. Great way for businesses and organizations in town to get their name out there. It’s always jammed packed to try to walk through there but you great exposure for them and for the Chamber as well. The Taste of Chanhassen, we currently have 8 local restaurants that will be participating in this year. We’ve got the logos there for all the different businesses who will be participating. A new one this year is Bring It Studios. They offer kind of some healthy food initiatives through their fitness club here in town so they’re going to kind of offer something, a new alternative, a new option for people at the event. 23 Park and Recreation Commission – June 24, 2014 But a lot of the other vendors have been here in the past as well. The Dinner Theater through Brindisi’s Pub. Sub Zero was a new one last year. Culver’s. Byerly’s comes over through their restaurant and Tian Jin and Kai’s Sushi and then Pizzaioli are the food vendors. That’s organized by the Chanhassen Rotary Club. They handle all the health inspections. Help them get their insurance and kind of all the aspects. rd We appreciate that partnership with them. Kind of some of the activities we have on July 3 out here at City Center Park. Water Wars is back. It’s always popular in those hot steamy nights. Speedway th Racing. I don’t know if he’s missed a 4 of July yet in about 25 years I think he told me. Prices have been the same since day one so he always like to remind us of that. Great partnership with the Minnesota rd Twins clinic out at Storms/Red Bird Stadium the morning of the 3. Have two different clinics out there for the two different age groups. Game and Ride, a local business will be back and then we always do the chalk it up contest here in the hockey rink and it’s always fun to walk through and see all the different artwork that everybody produces just with sidewalk chalk. It’s amazing. You can see the picture. The quality that we get for those. A few more activities. The Chanhassen Rec Center Tae Kwon Do program will be doing a demonstration again out in the grass, right in the grounds so great exposure for them. It’s also another form of entertainment for the attendees. The participants. Pony and camel rides are back this year. I’m also working with Mound Entertainment out of Minnetrista who will be the face painting, th the wacky hair-do’s, air brushed tattoos and characters so you’ll see on the cover of the 4 of July Magazine the 3 girls in the front. They’ve all got the wacky hair. They just got out of the tent from last rd year so we were able to get a good picture so. More July 3 activities. Our playground leaders through our Summer Discovery Playground program, they’ll all be working the kiddie games. 25 cents a game. Offers another alternative, another option for people who would like to you know kind of some forms of entertainment for the kids. The Chanhassen Rec Center Sports Program is organizing a 3 on 3 basketball tournament again this year so the Rec Sports Coordinator will be acting as a tournament director 3 on 3. 3 different age groups out there. The Third Lair, another partnership we have through Lair based out of Golden Valley will be hosting part of their summer skateboard series. They’re all over the metro throughout the summer and offer different competitions and then the riders can earn points and earn their way up to championships to the State Fair and things. Ruegemer: We’re going to try something different this year too. We’re going to start the series at 7:30 this year to try to capture some of the excitement at night under the lights kind of that sort of thing. It’s been immensely popular in the past. We’re going to try something different here and see if we can you know kind of capture some different excitement this year. rd Johnson: And then the ever popular kiddie parade is also on the 3. I think we had one of our biggest crowds last year. By the time we got everybody out of the elementary school to get in the parade route we barely had time to sprint back to the finish line because the fire truck, I mean it was like a huge snake going through so we’ve got a back-up plan for that this year. We’re ready for the kids so we’re also going to offer prizes this year for the kiddie parade. For most creative and most difficult entry so a lot of kids put in a lot of time into decorating their wagons and bikes and strollers so it’ll be fun to kind of offer rd some prizes for that. Live music. On July 3 we have the Medicine Show which is the roaming trio who kind of goes throughout the venue. Always fun. It’s always fun to see everybody’s excitement on their face when they kind of hear some new music and see the contraptions they come up with. And then starting under at the big tent we have Ragtown who participated last year so they’re going to be the rd opening band for CBO who starts at 7:00 p.m. so they have their big 4 hour block on July 3. Wrap up th the night. Then on the 4 prior to the start of the parade we have American Bootleg who will be coming and playing under the big tent as well so look forward to having those back. In the bottom right hand picture, there’s a picture from the street dance from last year with CBO. We do have the big LED projection screen coming back. Off the top of my head I think it’s 116 square feet I think is the size of it so a real, they do a live video of the band throughout the performance and then during the intermissions we’re able to put our sponsors up there and thank them and kind of market some of our other events and aspects of the celebration so looking forward to having that back and it adds a lot to the celebration too I 24 Park and Recreation Commission – June 24, 2014 th think. To the performance. Moving to the 4 we have Bingo sponsored by the Chanhassen Senior Commission. It’s a free event. They do take contributions that they will forward to the Wounded Warrior Project so it’s a great fundraising opportunity for them. We also have the medallion hunt out at Lake Ann. The sand sculpture contest is out at the beach at Lake Ann. They win prizes for all that. I think last year the medallion hunt was found after the first clue so we’re keeping our fingers crossed for a few more. I think they stumbled upon it. There’s no way they could have got it with the first clue but so maybe th we’ll have to go in the dead of the night to hide that. We start off the 4 with some fishing contests. We start with the adult fishing contest at 7:00 a.m. out at Lake Ann. We currently have I think 42 registered for that so that’s always popular. A lot of familiar faces come back year after year to claim their prizes and all the prizes for that are furnished through our community event sponsorship program so it’s great to see that. And then at the conclusion of the adult fishing contest we go into the kids fishing contest. They fish from shore, the fishing pier so we do different age groups for that and we do largest fish, longest fish and smallest fish so the photo you see there in the top right corner, the young gal in the red shirt, she won the smallest fish. You can see it’s pretty tiny. They take kernels of corn and cut them into fourths and use that for bait so you can imagine, you know that’s probably the most intense competition is the smallest. Everybody wants the littlest. You’d think it’d be the other way but you’ll see the bottom left picture of the kids fishing. That was the longest. That was caught right off the fishing pier at Lake Ann th so I don’t remember the length of it but there’s some big fish out there so. Also on the 4 before the parade we have the Classic Car Show which is sponsored by the Chanhassen Rotary Club. They don’t do pre-registration. It’s just kind of a first come, first serve so I’m sure we’ll be able to fill the lot. Something new this year, they’re opening it up to motorcycles so there should be a good selection of motorcycles and choppers. They’re going to be parking the motorcycles on that parking ramp. On the upper level on the concrete surface so you don’t have to worry about kickstands in the asphalt so that will th be on that side and the car show will be on the asphalted parking lot. The ever popular 4 of July parade. th That’s at 2:30 on the 4. Same route as last year. Starts at Chapel Hill. Winds through downtown. Up Kerber and then winds through the neighborhoods and do a complete circle around City Center Park so the deadline to register is Friday and I know they’re getting lots of registrations for that as well so there’s a few pictures. A lot of these pictures that we use in the presentation, all these here were taken by Your Story Photography which is one of the community event sponsors. They come to all of our community events. Capture these outstanding, high quality images and basically give us a CD and full rights to it as part of their sponsorship program so it’s wonderful to have. I mean it’s fun to look through these pictures and see the high quality pictures we can get and you know a lot of the pictures from the publication were taken by them as well so really helps us as we’re kind of designing, you know marketing materials that we have these high quality so thankful for that partnership with them. And then the fireworks wraps up the event. 10:00 at Lake Ann Park. We have the same operator as we’ve had in the past. Pyrotechnic Display and we have our former operators returning this year. He took a few years off at a different site location but he’s excited to be back so looking forward to good weather and filling the park that night. And you know you probably heard the word partnerships a lot during that short power point presentation but really without the partners you know events like this wouldn’t be possible so here are just a few of the partners that we have. Obviously the fire department and sheriff play a big role with the safety aspect of th it as well as coordinating the kiddie parade and the 4 of July parade. We have the Twins and the Third Lair who do different aspects of it. Obviously Rotary’s the big one. You know they organize the parade, the beer garden, the Taste of Chanhassen. All volunteer organization. They put a lot of hours into the event and great partnership we have working with them in all our planning committee meetings and things like that so you’ll see different ones. ATHC is an organization out of Watertown who help with the recycling and waste aspects of the event and then Baha’I Faith they handle the diaper changing tent. They sponsor that and then cold drinking water for everybody so. Our sponsors, it seems like every year this slide gets bigger and bigger with all the sponsors. We’re up to over $36,000 in sponsorships so we th had a few more come in right before the 4 of July event logo sponsors which is great. The logo sponsors contribute over $1,000 so we’re very thankful to our sponsors who continue to allow these events to be possible. And that is the conclusion. This is a great picture a local resident submitted from the top of the 25 Park and Recreation Commission – June 24, 2014 rd Ferris wheel on the night of the 3 just as things are starting to get busy so kind of a fun, you know kind of aerial view of the event so. I’d be happy to answer any questions. Jerry or I if you guys have any questions regarding the celebration or the event. Kelly: Questions for Mitch. Mitch I have one. As it looks like the beach is kind of washed out at Lake Ann at this point and I know we’re hoping it changes a little bit, how are you going to handle the sand sculptures? Johnson: We’re going to play that by ear. If the water doesn’t you know go down we might have to cancel that one or if we can find other aspects with the volleyball court or something. Kelly: That’d be too bad. It looked like you had some talented people doing that. th Johnson: Yeah. It’s amazing every year and a lot of people are just there to enjoy the 4 at the beach and they find out it’s a contest, they just come over and enter so free to enter. Kelly: Well I know it’s an enormous amount of work that a lot of people, including you guys put in for this and I get nothing but positive feedback about the 3 day event. It’s really a wonderful event. Thank you for everything you do for it. Johnson: Yep, thank you. Scharfenberg: So Mitch I know in the past there’s been opportunities for commission members to help out. Is there anything that you need help with or people on the commission can assist you with? Johnson: You know at this point I think we’re good. A lot of our seasonal staff’s going to handle like the info booth and stuff like that. I’d just invite everybody to come out and enjoy the evening and meet the residents and neighbors but thanks for the offer. Yeah I think we’re set. Ruegemer: I was looking for parade volunteers as well to help out with the, you know marshal and that sort of thing during the parade so if anybody’s interested in helping out with any aspect of the celebration let us know and we can plug you in. Scharfenberg: Who do we talk to? Talk to you about the parade marshal? Hoffman: Send you a link. Ruegemer: Yep, I can get you in the right direction. Haley Pemrick is taking care of that but we get you in the right direction. Scharfenberg: Okay. Ruegemer: I just want to publicly thank Mitch and a lot of the other city staff, Adam and crew have been remarkable. You know trying to juggle everything that they’ve been going on their daily lives and put th forth this great effort on the 4 of July. It has seemed like it kind of falls into place every year but there’s been a lot of planning up to that point and just you know monthly meetings with the Rotary and the Carver County Sheriff Department. The Fire Department. All those type of things. There’s a lot of plans in place to insure that we have a safe, fun event so thanks Mitch. Thanks Adam. Thanks to all the rest of the city staff that’s been involved and please come over and enjoy the festivities. It’s a lot of fun. 26 Park and Recreation Commission – June 24, 2014 Scharfenberg: Jerry I know that in the past we’ve talked, you know we had kind of a fun run. You know our fun run was in September and then we kind of let that go. Have we ever thought of doing a run on the th 4 or as a part of our? Ruegemer: Yeah, I mean I think it’s been kicked around a little bit but nothing really seriously has been, has kind of taken hold I guess but you know those are up for discussion. I know the Excelsior’s Firecracker’s pretty popular. Scharfenberg: Oh okay, well. Ruegemer: That we would have to contend with but. Scharfenberg: Okay. Kelly: Great. Thank you very much. And Mitch I think you’re still on the hot seat. 2014 KLEINBANK SUMMER CONCERT SERIES. Johnson: Yes, thank you Chair Kelly. So the 2014 KleinBank Summer Concert Series started a couple th weeks ago on Thursday, June 12. We have 9 performances throughout the summer this year. The opening night was great. One of our biggest opening night crowds. We had about 300 people out there for Shakedown which is a local band. Unfortunately last Thursday’s got rained out with the storms that came through so if you want to make a note on the back of your report there. Alison Scott has been th rescheduled for August 14 so we’re able to put her onto the back end of the line-up this year so still on a Thursday night. It’s a great program. We continue to see our numbers rise every year. Get a lot of big names. Big name talent coming through the line-up this year. This Thursday we have an evening kids concert featuring Choo Choo Bob Show. They’re based out of St. Paul and actually have a TV show every Saturday at 2:30 on Channel 45 so we’re hoping to get a big crowd throughout maybe the whole metro coming out for that. We also have the Three Dillman’s which is a spinoff of Daisy Dillman from last year is back. Definitely probably our biggest crowd we ever had in here with maybe 1,000 people in the park so they’re back again this year. We also have the new MacPhail Center for Music is coming out th on July 24. They’re going to do kind of a variety show with the different bands and performers they have under them and then Mark Andrew was featured on the NBC Show The Voice a couple years ago. He’s based out of Minneapolis and he’s going to come and do a show for us as well. Obviously KleinBank is the title sponsor. They’re a great partner to have. They help offset the cost of having the bands out you know for the summer concert series throughout the summer. They contribute $2,000 as part of their sponsorship and then they provide free water and balloons for the kids and stuff at each of the shows so they’re a great sponsor to have and great partner of the series so. Kelly: Questions for Mitch? Ryan: I don’t have a question about this specifically but you know when we talk about the shelter in City Center Park and I remember a few years ago when we were probably doing the CIP, like the amphitheater was thrown around. What ever, did we explore that? Did we look into, wasn’t it over at Lake Ann that we were going to do a, did that ever go before City Council? Did it ever make it out of the commission on looking into doing some sort of amphitheater? And the reason why I ask is I see you know these bigger names and then the numbers are increasing and is that something that the City has ever considered doing seriously? Hoffman: Not seriously but. 27 Park and Recreation Commission – June 24, 2014 Ryan: No. Hoffman: But a pretty nice spot for a future amphitheater if a future commission and council would build it is located, it’s beyond the boat access on the right hand side so there’s a location for it… Ryan: But no numbers were ever. Hoffman: No numbers and no plan. Ryan: Okay. Scharfenberg: I remember we visited it and then we kind of talked about it but it’s never really, we’ve never taken that next step or really done anything with it. Ryan: Right, and just out of curiosity, I mean because with just the change over in ownership with the theater here and then the numbers here you know coming up with a plan, we might not have the splash pad but maybe have an amphitheater. You know just a thought. I mean especially with the growth and the interest in outdoor music and outdoor festivals and plays, something just to consider. Kelly: Other questions? Comments. Mitch, thank you very much for organizing the series. Johnson: Thank you. UPDATE ON HIGHWAY 41 STAIRWAY CONNECTION. Kelly: Todd I think you’re going to update us on the 41 connection. Hoffman: The stairway connection? Kelly: Yes. Hoffman: Glad to. So work was scheduled to start a week ago Monday but that rain, fortunately we did hold off. There was enough rain on Monday to chase the contractor away because what came Thursday would have made an open site on that hillside even worse… I’ve not heard the final schedule. I’m thinking in a couple weeks they’ll be substantially completed and out of there. They made good headway with that stairway connector on Monday with framing the first sections. Gravel was brought in today for the base material. First pour tomorrow and then they’ll finish the bottom stairway from the Highway 41 side so they will be hauling some concrete down that trail likely at that location and finish the top side and we’ll be working with the property owners there to do restoration on his side and planting a few trees down along the bottom. In 3 to 4 weeks this project will be all wrapped up. Everybody’s yards will be pretty well done and the stairway connector between the Highover sidewalk and the under 41 trail completed. Carron: Adam are you going to have to dig out down at the bottom by the trail and put some new compactable material in? Beers: …discussed that today. If it dries out we won’t have to but the top 6 inches there…keep this project moving that’s the best thing to do… Hoffman: And not in that area, there was an area corrected there for really some seepage with this kind of rain will show you where you’re going to have surface drainage on your trails and we have been battling 28 Park and Recreation Commission – June 24, 2014 some algae and mud sediment built up in many more areas than normal and so we’re dealing with one just to the north of the underpass. Trying to get that squared away. We will be adding some additional drain tile. Once you cut that drain tile in, rock it and then pipe the water underneath the trail so you no longer have surface drainage. You’ve got under surface drainage. That takes care of it. We had a broken ankle out on the Highway 41 trail this year on a bicycle going down. They hit that algae and if you’re not expecting it, if you’re doing any kind of movement on your bike, you’re going to go down from under it as well. Inline skaters we’ve had complaints from so it’s a problem you see when, if you have…drainage but with this kind of rain it’s really been much worse this year. We are working on all of those areas. Kelly: Thank you. Luke, I think you’re up. PIONEER PASS PARK GRAND OPENING. Thunberg: Yeah so as far as the grand opening, as we had mentioned, it did not happen unfortunately with the weather. On Thursday there was 18 inches plus of standing water in the playground section where it was to be built. The playground equipment has been delivered so it’s out there. The mulch is delivered. That pile is out there but I think it’s, as Adam or Todd mentioned we’re just waiting for it to completely dry out. I think at this point the idea is just to rather than push it too soon, wait for the ground to be completely dry so it will all be rescheduled then and as far as any grand opening we’ll reschedule that whenever the playground is complete. But right now there’s a group of neighbors involved in kind of planning it so it’ll be something, hopefully it’ll be something with like a hotdogs and chips and cookies provided. Have a picnic for everybody so if the grand opening is still at about 5:00 in the evening that it’s, people can hang out for a couple hours and enjoy the playground once it’s done. Hoffman: Any claims on any favored dates or times, schedules in July? Thunberg: No, just people asking if plans have been rescheduled. Hoffman: Alright. We’ll, you know some people are going to be on vacation obviously. There was 59 I think signed up on the sign up sheet. That’s a great online sign up registration so I don’t think it really helps to you know start asking a variety of people when they can and cannot make it. We’ll select a time when the provider is available and scheduled… Kelly: Check with the Weather Channel too. Hoffman: Yeah that’s the other. Not even going to try. Cross our fingers. Kelly: Thank you Luke. ADMINISTRATIVE PACKET. Kelly: Anything in the administrative packet you want to point out Todd? Hoffman: It’s just alarming to note how, how much of just really a temptation it is to cut down trees in city parks to get a better view of the lake from private property so just 3 doors from where they cut trees last year, another property owner deforested a section to try and get a view of the lake. We had no police report or no proof. I did write a letter to that homeowner. We will plant some trees back in that area and in this spot again some of the trees that were cut down, we don’t know by who but some of the trees that were cut down this time were trees that were replanted from the last homeowner that cut those trees down so it happened again. Just down the street. Hard to believe. 29 Park and Recreation Commission – June 24, 2014 Kelly: Amazing. Scharfenberg: Todd, just one question with respect to the skate park. How are things been so far this year? Any issues and do we have an attendant working again there this year? Hoffman: We do and it’s been great. Widely used. A few loose sheetrock screws coming out of the flooring but other than that no. It’s been a smooth season. No issues that I’ve heard of and really no injuries other than a few scraps and cuts. They show up over here and they get taken care of by one of our fire department personnel so that’s nice of them. Ryan: Was there any damage to the trail on, near the North Lotus Lake Park? That tree that fell down. Did you guys? Hoffman: On top of the trail? Ryan: Yeah. Wasn’t it over the trail or was it just near the ballfield? Hoffman: Maybe near the ballfield. We had a variety of damage, we had some downed trees and trails that were cut off but then most of the damage was due to storm drain settlements or storm drain issues. Ruegemer: Elise are you talking about the one that was kind of hanging over the soccer goal at North Lotus? Ryan: Yeah at the park. Ruegemer: Yeah. Yeah, that was a I’m going to say minor laymen, Adam and crew took care of that right away. Hoffman: The most significant problem we had was on the new Rice Marsh Lake trail. The water over topped an installed culvert and started to undermine the trail so we closed it for a period of time. Really just a day and then it was opened back up on Friday. We’ll have to monitor that to see if it settles out anymore. Just a lot of, there’s still water on the trails at Lake Susan so Lake Susan trails are closed because the lake is out of it’s normal boundaries and up and over the top of the trail. I think a lot of people thought these lakes were going to go down in a real hurry and they’re not. It’s going to be a week or two or more before these lakes go down below a level where you can put motorized traffic back on them so there’s just so much water in the system. Upstream there’s water that’s trying to push down but that lake’s not going down very fast so it just, you can’t move out very fast. Ryan: And did it go over the, any of the piers on the lakes? Hoffman: No the piers are all floating so they go up but it did go over all of our docks. Ryan: Okay. So then do you go back out and check the integrity of the docks and piers? Beers: We pull the…through the weekend… Hoffman: There’s about 10 feet of beach right now. Ruegemer: Maybe if that. Hoffman: 8. 30 Park and Recreation Commission – June 24, 2014 Boettcher: Todd did you find anything on the tablet that wasn’t working for the AIS inspector? The one that shut down down there. Hoffman: Yep. Shouldn’t be an issue so we have not had any other reports of that and I talked to Rick Rice, our Director of MIS and unclear why that happened and it was just in the direct sun for that period of time but we’ve had no other reports and it really shouldn’t be an issue. Boettcher: Okay. Hoffman: They’re widely used across the state. Boettcher: Has anyone from Carver County, did Marty Walsh or anybody contact you about Herman Field Park? The issue came up again, remember we had someone here at a meeting last summer. He’s on the Park board with me, the County Park Board. He brought up the issue again about connecting the Herman Field Park to the Minnewashta Park. Hoffman: Yep. Boettcher: Did anyone contact you? Hoffman: They have not. Boettcher: Okay. Hoffman: We’re in support of it. At least the City’s in support of it. Boettcher: We would be in support of it? Hoffman: Sure. There’s currently a connection there and we will support improving that. Boettcher: Okay. Hoffman: Basically what you’re doing is serving a neighborhood. You know why would you tell that neighborhood you have to exit your neighborhood. Go out onto 41 and go to the front gate when you have a perfectly good access, trail access right there so it’s kind of an informal connection now. There’s a cut in the fence that’s been laid back and the channel for the park, Carver County park is when you walk in you’re actually walking on top of a cross country ski trail which in the summer is not a big deal. You know it’s just a dirt trail leading down to the rest of the amenities in the park. You know they’re, I think initially they were concerned that they weren’t getting payment so you don’t get a, you know you don’t get payment but these are people that are going to come back and patronize your park and they’re probably some of your best friends of your park. They live right next door to it but in the winter it becomes a problem because now if you walk in, you’re walking on top of a cross country ski trail and so that’s one of their concerns that they want to try to resolve. If make that an official connection, neighborhood trail connection. Be worth a field trip. It’s a great little site to see. Up there, nice and that neighborhood to the north I think really values having that connection to the park. Kelly: Anything else for Todd or anybody else? Anybody have a motion? 31 Park and Recreation Commission – June 24, 2014 Carron moved, Boettcher seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 7 to 0. The Park and Recreation Commission meeting was adjourned at 9:30 p.m. Submitted by Todd Hoffman Park and Rec Director Prepared by Nann Opheim 32