PRC 2014 07 22
CHANHASSEN PARK AND
RECREATION COMMISSION
REGULAR MEETING
JULY 22, 2014
Chairman Kelly called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT:
Cole Kelly, Steve Scharfenberg, Elise Ryan, Brent Carron, Jim Boettcher,
Rick Echternacht, Luke Thunberg, and Tyler Kobilarcsik. Jacob Stolar arrived late in the meeting.
STAFF PRESENT:
Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Director; Jerry Ruegemer, Recreation Superintendent;
Mitch Johnson, Recreation Supervisor; and Meghan Gess, Recreation Supervisor
Kelly: Before we get into our agenda I’d like Jerry to introduce Megan to the group.
Ruegemer: Thank you Chair Kelly. Just wanted to talk really loud. I’ll bring it down a little bit here. So
just wanted to introduce Meghan Gess. She’s our new Recreation Supervisor. Will be taking over for
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Mitch when Mitch travels overseas for his new journey in life. Meghan started last Wednesday, the 16
so I’d just like to bring Meghan up. She can kind of give a brief description of herself and her
background.
Gess: Hi everybody. Nice to meet you all. I look forward to working with you so started last
Wednesday and haven’t it made it quite through a week yet but already been up and running with some
programs and had the Penny Carnival today and was fishing last night so it’s been, it’s a great start so far.
I guess my background is in sports management and came by way of community ed before I came here
and I was with Lifetime Fitness, the corporate office for 5 or 6 years before that and my background
before that was intercollegiate athletics so kind of a varied background. All in sports and recreation and
I’m excited to continue it here.
Ruegemer: Meghan you want to give kind of just a little quick snapshot of what you did for Lifetime as
far as scale of events and that sort of thing.
Gess: Sure. At Lifetime I was with the athletics events division and was responsible from taking it from
maybe a handful to you know 10 events or so that were annual to 167 events nationwide in any given
calendar year and those events really ranged from 2,000 person to 17,000 plus person events so it was a
good experience. I worked out of about 5 major metropolitan areas and was based here though.
Kelly: Thank you Meghan and on behalf of the commission we welcome you to Chanhassen and we’re
glad to have you.
Gess: Thank you.
APPROVAL OF AGENDA:
Kelly: Anything, any agenda items to be added by anyone tonight?
Hoffman: I have one Chair Kelly.
Kelly: Yes.
Park and Recreation Commission – July 22, 2014
Hoffman: Talk about a joint commission tour that has been at least tentatively set, pending your
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confirmation for Wednesday, September 10 from 5:30 until 8:00 and that’s the annual trip you’ve been
taking with the Planning Commission and the Environmental Commission.
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Kelly: Wednesday, September 10, 5:30 to 8:00.
Hoffman: Correct. So if we can just add that as a discussion point to see if a majority of the group can
make it. Then we’ll confirm tomorrow and I think we want to start at Pioneer Pass Park and talk about
land development, stormwater and then go from there.
Kelly: Great, we’ll put it under new business number 2. Any other items to be added to the agenda?
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Kelly: Any public announcements tonight?
Ruegemer: Just one Chair Kelly that we have another national softball tournament out at Lake Ann this
week, starting Thursday. 8:00 in the morning. They’ll be playing on fields 1, 4, 5 and 6. It’s a girls
national tournament so be playing through Saturday out there. So Thursday through Saturday so it’s the
third weekend in a row now that they’re having tournaments out at Lake Ann so we’re getting lots of use
on the weekends with that so the City’s been very busy. So if you want to catch some nice softball, go
out and take a look.
Scharfenberg: And I will announce that the Red Birds have their last two games this week on Friday and
Sunday is Fan Appreciation Night at 6:00 so come on out. They’re giving away a lot of items and see the
last game, home game of the year.
Hoffman: Mitch you want to talk about the concerts? Be a big Thursday coming up.
Johnson: Yeah. So the KleinBank Summer Concert Series is in full swing. We have a double header
this Thursday starting with an afternoon performance featuring Kid Power with Rachel and we have an
evening performance at 7:00 p.m. featuring faculty and students from MacPhail Center for Music. The
new business that opened in town in January so they’re going to be performing kind of a variety of
different music genres and stuff and then that’s kind of partnered with the city, the Buy Chanhassen’s
Night Out in the Town so they’ve got some other events and stuff planned around the community that
night so should be a fun night. Beautiful weather. Come downtown.
Kelly: Thank you Mitch.
VISITOR PRESENTATIONS:
None.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
Kelly: Anybody have any changes they want to make? I don’t. Does someone want to put it to the
question?
Thunberg moved, Echternacht seconded to approve the verbatim and summary Minutes of the
Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated June 24, 2014 as presented.
ASSEMBLE RECOMMENDATION TO CITY COUNCIL, 2015-2019 PARK AND TRAIL
ACQUISITION AND DEVELOPMENT CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM (CIP).
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 22, 2014
Kelly: Todd do you want to speak to that to start us off?
Hoffman: I sure will. Thank you Chair Kelly, members of the commission. So based on the results of
your work session tonight it’s recommended that the commission assemble and make a recommendation
to the City Council for a 2015 through the 2019 Park and Trail Acquisition and Development Capital
Improvement Program or CIP. The current fund balance is $1.6 million and change so it’s recommended
that the annual expenses in the park dedication fund CIP average $300,000 more or less per year for that 5
years so that gives you $1.5 million dollars CIP program over those 5 years and that’s traditionally about
where we’ve been. Some years higher. Some years a little bit lower but based on our current
development market I think that’s a safe bet and you can spread that out over those 5 years. You can
clump. If you have a big project or something that you want to include $600,000 and you just want to
zero out a next year, that’s perfectly fine. Just has to average that $1.5 million over those 5 years so with
that I’ll send it back to Chair Kelly for discussion.
Kelly: One question Todd. Do we have a new system? I seem louder to myself.
Ruegemer: I’m not quite sure.
Hoffman: We can turn it down.
Kelly: You’re too loud let me know. What kind of income are we expecting each of the next few years?
We assume about $300,000 also?
Hoffman: Yeah, I didn’t look at the 5 year spread sheet but we’ve been scheduling $200,000 to $300,000.
We had that bigger year. You know it was closer to $700,000 and there’s some things coming up where
development is really starting to pick up so we may actually exceed those kind of numbers so.
Kelly: So we will have more money in there. I think the point is, is we don’t want to show too much
money to the City Council because we will have more money in the kitty as we’re spending it. More will
come in. So we’re starting with CIP 2015. The current numbers we have in there for, that I understand it
for 2015, we’re going to throw the annual street improvement program for $500,000. I think we’ve talked
about that Todd and we’re going to take that out of the CIP at this time?
Hoffman: Correct.
Kelly: So we’re going to cross off the $500,000 for the annual street improvement program. We have
our normal $10,000 for picnic tables and park benches. Maybe we just want to extend that. Every year
so far we’ve got $10,000 picnic tables, park benches and $15,000 for trees and we’ve done that for the
last number of years and about 3 years ago, maybe 4 we took the trees from $25,000 down to $15,000 and
that seems to be a good number so we may just want to, decide to continue that through to 2019 and that
will be up to the group to decide.
Echternacht: We don’t have this particular sheet do we?
Kelly: Oh this is an old sheet that I’m reading off of, but no you don’t have it unless you brought it.
Reconstruct County Road 61 to 101, Charlson Road for $150,000. We have that in for 2015. Or we did
at one point. And I’m looking at the numbers that we had in 2014, 15, 16, 17, 18.
Hoffman: Yeah that’s no longer included.
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 22, 2014
Kelly: I didn’t think so, okay.
Hoffman: Camden Ridge trail was in there and that was at $100,000 and you lowered that at the last
meeting. If you recall that conversation. I think we put that at $50,000 for materials.
Kelly: Okay.
Hoffman: Was that in your ranking? Yeah it was in your ranking. It was on, it’s up. It’s on, go back to
Sheet A1 and you’ll see the, Commissioner Echternacht you’ll see the things that we’re talking about.
Kelly: Oh there we are, yep. Now the neighborhood park picnic shelter initiative, does that come out of
our CIP or is that a different fund?
Hoffman: Different fund.
Kelly: That’s what I thought. Okay.
Hoffman: And it’s budgeted. At least the council has budgeted it out for 5 years. $100,000 annually for
5 years. We have the first 3 going in this year and then we have 3 more scheduled for each year after for
5.
Scharfenberg: So the things that we need for 2015 are to reconstruct County Road 61. That should be in
there. That’s $150,000. We’ve got the Camden Ridge that’s at $50,000 that has to be in there.
Kelly: Right.
Scharfenberg: We’ve kind of talked about the Lake Ann dugouts and that was a number one priority for
people. I would say put that in there for 2015.
Kelly: Right. The Nature Preserve trail doesn’t have to be in.
Scharfenberg: No. It just has to be a place holder and when we can get to it.
Kelly: That has to be a place holder, exactly.
Scharfenberg: And then $25,000 for picnic and trees. I say that that’s enough for 2015.
Boettcher: What was the total for all that Steve?
Scharfenberg: So $275,000.
Hoffman: I’ve got 4 items. Which one did I miss Steve?
Scharfenberg: Reconstruct, Camden Ridge, Lake Ann dugouts.
Hoffman: Dugouts, yeah.
Scharfenberg: And then the picnic and trees.
Hoffman: Thank you.
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 22, 2014
Scharfenberg: And with respect to the Chanhassen Native Trail, I would say.
Kelly: We can put it back a few years.
Scharfenberg: Yeah I was going to say 2017 or even 2018.
Kelly: I’d be happy with either one of those numbers.
Scharfenberg: I’d say put it in 2018.
Kelly: That works for me.
Echternacht: That works for me.
Kelly: So what’d we say the number is $275,000 right now for 2015?
Scharfenberg: Yes.
Carron: The Native Preserve Trail we said 18?
Kelly: Yep. Any more discussions or anything anybody things we should have in 2015? Okay let’s talk
about, that seems to work. 2016. Again we have the picnic tables and trees. The Chanhassen Nature
Preserve was in 2016. We’re now moving that to 2018. We did have the Roundhouse Park picnic shelter
and the Sugarbush picnic shelter. Those are going into the neighborhood initiative so they’re going out of
our budget so we subtract $25,000 for each of those or just remove them. And that’s all, so right now all
we’ve got in 2016 is $25,000 for trees and benches. Now might be a time to say, what’s our number one
priority or number one and two priority at Bandimere and start to work on that.
Carron: Is Bluff Creek Drive pedestrian trail, is that?
Hoffman: It’s going to be incorporated into the road project.
Carron: Okay so we just take that out completely. Perfect. Right, you probably went over that earlier.
Kelly: Is it too early to start on Bandimere? Are there other projects we want to finish or do we start
working on Bandimere in 2016? Or at least propose it to the City Council.
Ryan: I’d like to see the Galpin Boulevard trail extension in 2016. Do you know when Todd they’re
planning on doing their end? Is it Shorewood?
Hoffman: Yeah we actually have to add that in to, excuse me for missing that. We have to add that in
2015. That project’s underway. So Galpin Boulevard trail extension, the $75,000. We don’t have an
estimate yet from the engineer. Shorewood started that project and we said hey we should jump on board
and finish our little gap and so we should put enough, a place holder in there in 2015. I’ll have a number
by next month.
Echternacht: So 2015 or 16?
Kelly: Okay. Go 2015.
Hoffman: 2015 yeah.
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 22, 2014
Kelly: And again remember what we’ll do is we’ll probably vote on all this next month so we can move
things around but things like this when they come up they’re stuck in whatever year they’re in so we
don’t really have much of a choice. It’s when the City dictates it to us but thank you for bringing that up.
Ryan: Sure.
Hoffman: Does everybody understand what, so Galpin stops at the bottom of the hill at Pheasant Run or
Pheasant Trail and Shorewood said we’re bringing our trail all the way from a pedestrian crossing on
Highway 7 right there south of the elementary school and then down Galpin and they said we’re going to
stop at our border. You’ll have a 900 foot gap or a 600 foot gap and we said yeah, we’re interested in
picking that up. We don’t have a project and the Finance Director loved that. He walked by the City
Manager’s office and we’re spending money he didn’t have budgeted. You don’t have City Council
approval? No, we don’t even park board approval yet so, so we’ll get you that number and it’s to finish
that one little gap. In Chanhassen it will be an 8 foot asphalt trail to match what we have going up the hill
and Shorewood will be a 6 foot quote unquote sidewalk. Their funding, asphalt sidewalk. Their funding
is federally and state connected so you cannot build a trail that does not meet standards. Standards in that
case would have been 10 feet wide so you have to build a sidewalk. So that’s what they’re doing. It’s
better than nothing. It’s very.
Boettcher: It’s going to cross Galpin at the bottom of the hill?
Hoffman: Yes. Yep. It will cross and then go on the east side all the way into Shorewood.
Boettcher: Where that low lying…
Hoffman: That neighbor was very excited. I ran into a family that came in this room. She testified here.
She was very nervous. 15-20 years ago when the Galpin Boulevard trail was stopped at Lake Lucy. So
the project said we’re going from Highway 5 to Lake Lucy and we’re stopping. She lived north of there
and she had a young family. She testified here. The park board didn’t have the money. They asked the
council to extend it and she said now 20 years later, I saw her at a graduation party, you’re finally going
to get us to Shorewood so that neighborhood I know they’re very excited to get to Excelsior. Everybody
wants to get to Excelsior. Now they can get to Excelsior and they can do it by crossing 7 at a stop light
with a push button control so very excited for that.
Ryan: It’ll be great just to add onto that, living on that side of town and having kids that go to Excelsior
Elementary, there is no safe way for kids and families to get, if they want to ride their bikes to school, it’s
very, it’s a very dangerous area and the roads are narrow and cars go very fast so I’m glad that
Chanhassen is hopefully agreeing to do this in conjunction with Shorewood. I think it will be a really
nice improvement so.
Hoffman: Thank you.
Scharfenberg: So this $75,000 dollar figure that you have in here will be kind of in the ballpark or?
Hoffman: Yep. Depending on how much wall needs to go in or if they can grade it out so there’s a slope
there that they, if they have to chase that slope too far into a wetland then we’ll have to build a wall. That
will raise the price. It could be lower than this. It may be around $75,000 if we need to build a wall but it
could be much lower than that.
Scharfenberg: So we’re at $350,000 now for 2015.
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 22, 2014
Hoffman: Correct.
Scharfenberg: Okay.
Hoffman: And we’ll bring you that number from SRF Consulting is the engineer and we brought them on
board as, to do our little piece as well. I think it’s SRF. I’ll double check.
Ryan: So Cole I think you said for 2016 then to look at, because we only have the $25,000, to start
talking Bandimere.
Kelly: Well yeah do we want to start talking Bandimere and depending upon what we propose, you’re
looking at the number one was parking lot and roadway lighting. And then number two was $600,000 for
the ballfields and I’m still, I’ll be talking about this later. I’m still interested in this year we have
$175,000 that’s in the pot for lighting at Lake Susan and if we light Lake Susan I would be for pushing
back the ballfields at Bandimere and moving up the lighting of Soccer Field 1 so, and if we do do
ballfields 1, 2 and 3 then we’re probably not going to do anything in 2017. Because between the two,
between 1 and 2 we’re talking $715,000 plus the $25,000 and so, and if that’s the way the group wants to
go. I think if we want to start Bandimere or do we want to clean up some other things in the town, that’s
kind of the question and I think if we want to start Bandimere, 2016 would be a good time to do it and
then 2017 we make a pretty light year and you know at that point, maybe add in something like the soccer
field fencing and the, I think we already had in the dugouts. So you know for 2017 it’d be pretty light so
it’s a matter of what does this group want to do, and again whatever we, whatever we set tonight we’re
going to be voting on it a month from now after we get, after Todd compiles everything and gets it back
to us so what we’re proposing tonight is here’s what we think we want as a group and we’ll vote on it
next time. So the question is, do we want to start Bandimere in 2016 or 17 I think is the big question and
again earlier in our session I talked about what Councilman McDonald talked about but I don’t think we
can really focus on that. That it may or may not happen and if you think it might happen then you’d want
to push things back into 2017 after a referendum but I, I would be hard pressed to see this City Council
doing a referendum personally. And I might be wrong but we know Jerry’s already approached us and
asked us about it so we know one person is interested. It’s also not an election year for him. I don’t
know Todd, what are your thoughts on a referendum?
Hoffman: I wouldn’t venture a guess.
Kelly: Okay.
Hoffman: At this point. A referendum comes from a couple different places. It comes from a city
council or it comes from a park board so it’s a park board making a recommendation to a city council that
they go, that they approve or it’s a city council saying we think you should be working on the referendum.
Those are the traditional. Staff does not initiate referendum discussions in a community so it’s one of
those two. One of those two.
Kelly: Well if we think we want to initiate one I think we have to have a session. Not a meeting. Do it
in, have a private session where we just talk about what our thoughts are.
Hoffman: A work session.
Kelly: A work session, excuse me. Not a private session. Thank you Todd.
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 22, 2014
Scharfenberg: Well and I’ll speak to you know the whole Bandimere issue and in terms of the rankings,
you know how those all came out tonight. Again my feeling in terms of the whole ballfield lighting issue,
even though that got 2 or 3 as a ranking, I don’t see lighting of those ballfields as that big of an issue
personally for me. I think that there’s other things that can be, that are higher priority that I see at
Bandimere and one of the things that I would like to see that, actually I was quite surprised got a low
ranking was the park building/shelter at half a million. I mean if you think about the parks that we have,
the 3 city parks that we have at Lake Ann, at Lake Susan and now Bandimere. Bandimere is the one that
does not have a shelter and if you’re going to kind of say that that’s one of our community parks and
people are using it for soccer. People are using it for just play. People are using it for baseball. They’re
using it for Frisbee. You know that would be, first of all it’s a potential source of income for the City to
be renting that shelter and people using it. So you know there’s one positive in having that whereas the
other items aren’t going to generate any revenue for us. So I guess I was kind of quite surprised that that
got such a low rating from the group and maybe others can speak to that but as I see in terms of, you
know I think we all maybe see what our, you know we all have our individual thoughts on what
Bandimere should be but if you think about it as a community park and what do we have in our
community parks, that’s the one thing that’s missing there. So if you’re going to, you know none of the
other ones have the, Lake Susan and Lake Ann they don’t have hockey rinks so if you’re kind of, you
know I understand there isn’t a hockey rink in that area but we kind of heard Matt Mason who came and
said you know, I don’t think a lot of kids are going to be skating there. So you know if you’re thinking
again about that scope of that picture of a community park, I’m inclined to take some significant dollars
and build a nice shelter there for people to use. It’s again a revenue source. It’s going to be something
that people can, you know people are going to use to sit there and rest. You’ve got bathrooms. I know
the bathrooms aren’t always open for people to use but that’s something maybe us as a commission we
talk about. You know the bathrooms are there for people that are there for the baseball games and I know
there’s Port-a-Potties and stuff that are out there as well but, so I’ll shut up and let people kind of talk
about that a little bit.
Kelly: Well it’s, it even got a worse ranking but I’m all for the warming house for the hockey arena at
least a little higher up but I think I had them both down based on what the City Council pointed out to us
is you’re not going to get 2 buildings and is the, the shelter initiative, does that have Bandimere on there
at any time Todd?
Hoffman: It does.
Kelly: It does.
Hoffman: It’s got a shelter between the ballfields 1, 2 and 3.
Kelly: Okay.
Hoffman: And it’s in year 2017 I believe. Let’s take a look.
Boettcher: Could, be the devil’s advocate. Why would they put the shelter between ballfields? If we
have a graduation on Saturday afternoon and there’s 3 games going, personally I wouldn’t want to hear
the noise. I mean I’d like to be over by the disc golf or something.
Hoffman: It’s to serve the ballfields.
Boettcher: Right.
Hoffman: Yeah, it’s to service the ballfields.
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 22, 2014
Boettcher: I mean if it’s going to be like the Klingelhutz shelter.
Hoffman: Nope.
Boettcher: It’s not that style?
Hoffman: No. Well it would be a hexagon and probably 40 feet across to serve the ballfield spectators.
Provide protection from foul balls. Provide some rain so if there’s a temporary rain delay the teams could
gather underneath there so it will not likely be rented or reserved. It’s intended to service the 3 ballfields
that are there.
Scharfenberg: And personally me speaking to that issue, that they’re going to build that there, I think
that’s a waste of money. I would rather see a nice shelter being built outside that softball field fence by
the park and stuff for people to use, and if they ultimately if there’s a rain delay, they hoof it down a few
feet, yards to get there so that’s kind of what, that’s how I feel about that.
Boettcher: I’m the same way. I mean like you were talking about a revenue generator. Not that I don’t
like ball games but when you have something like that and you have some other ones to speak for
someone that graduated or whatever, you know you don’t want to hear by the ref, strike them out or
whatever 30 feet away from you. That’s me but I agree with you on that one.
Kelly: Well you’re still not too far away from where it’s being proposed. You’re still going to hear that
stuff.
Boettcher: Right but I mean it’s not like…
Kelly: And what are we talking about shelters for revenue generator? $2,500 a summer maybe, Jerry?
Ruegemer: Cole, our rough estimates of revenue per year for all of our shelters is about $15,000 to
$18,000.
Kelly: For all of them combined.
Ruegemer: All of them combined. Lake Susan and two at Lake Ann.
Kelly: Okay.
Hoffman: And that revenue comes with off setting costs for garbage and bathrooms and those type of
things so, I think we’re confusing the shelter at Bandimere is scheduled for 2016. And so let’s go over.
2014, in this year 3 are going in and again this is a City Council initiative. They’re taking excess cash at
the end of the year. So at the end of the budget cycle typically a little bit excess cash. They said we’re
going to allocate $100,000 a year for 5 years and build shelters. Basically what they saw happening is the
appreciation for these picnic park shelters in neighborhood parks at the newer parks and some of the parks
that already had them and where that occurred was in a National Night Out. Last year was the hail storm?
So they were out at the National Night Out and those neighborhood parks that had a shelter, their party
could continue. They could get underneath that shelter. Those that did not, they just had to take off and
their party ended and the council said you know, this is not equitable amongst all of our parks. Our older
parks don’t have picnic shelters. We want to put those in there so that’s a City Council initiative to make
that happen. 2014 includes Sugarbush Park, Stone Creek Park and Roundhouse Park. Those are going in
this year. Next year Chanhassen Hills Park, Pheasant Hills Park and Curry Farms Park. 2016 there’s two
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 22, 2014
because the one at Bandimere is larger. Bandimere Park and that’s to service that ballfield area. Same
thing we’ve had a lot of discussion over the years where both the spectators and the teams don’t have any
shelter to get out of in that general vicinity right there and so that’s what that’s intended to do. It likely
will not be used for you know other type of events. And then Greenwood Shores Park a smaller shelter.
2017 Minnewashta Heights Park, Herman Field Park and South Lotus Lake Park. And the last segment,
2018 at Sunset Ridge Park, Prairie Knoll Park, and Carver Beach Park. It’s $100,000 a year for the
concrete pad and the shelter installed at each one of those sites. So when you’re done you have 14 new
park shelters in your community and City Council can continue that program or pull it at any time based
on what they see happening with their budget.
Echternacht: Cole you were questioning if we should be looking at the 16 or pushing Bandimere
off…referendum and I think we should plan on putting money in there for 16 for Bandimere regardless of
next year they decided to do a referendum.
Kelly: Okay.
Echternacht: I think we need to plan for 16.
Kelly: So if we plan for 16, I mean the number one thing was parking lot and roadway lighting which I
think is, that was my number one. I think if you’re going to build up a park you do the lighting so it’s
safer, easier for everybody to use, at least in the parking lots. So and that begs the next question that
Steve brought up is, do we want to continue with lighting or do we want to put on a building or you know
a sport court or a hockey rink? Do you move onto the next thing and say okay since we’ve done lighting,
even though we’ve got lighting rinks 1, 2, 3 and 8, do we say we’ve, now we’re doing lighting. What else
do we do? I mean what are your thoughts on that? Welcome Jacob.
Boettcher: Well the reaction I saw at the meeting when the sport court was brought up, some pretty big
frowns…if you remember the reaction that we got about sport courts.
Kelly: I think that’s when we were talking about it being tennis.
Boettcher: Right.
Kelly: I think if we redefine the sport court as a pickleball court, I mean you’re going to bring more
seniors into town. Seniors always have cash to spend it seems, and they always have discounts
everybody. You know so do you want to push that button next or wait and see how the sport court, the
pickleball courts at the Chan Rec take off? But I think what we’re seeing nationally, and Rick forwarded
us, I don’t know was that a month ago? You know an article that I think we all looked at and it just talks
about, it talked about pickleball I think in a number of different areas. I don’t know if you can speak on
that maybe a little better than I can. So do we think that’s a highlight? Then do we say we start, you
know if you say we start with a parking lot and a pickleball court, right there you’ve got $380,000 plus
the $25,000 so you’re at $405,000.
Scharfenberg: Well in light of Todd’s email from earlier today that they’re going to be redoing the courts
at the Rec Center, I personally I would say let’s build those courts and let them have those courts and see
what happens. I don’t know that we have to be making additional pickleball courts, although we
understand that maybe that’s going to grow. I’d say let’s see what happens with the stuff at the Rec
Center before we add anything more. Again the sport court was ranked as a 5. I don’t have that
personally in my thing as a high number. I mean again I’m talking, I’m looking big picture at Lake Ann
or at Bandimere. What is it? What is it that we see as a commission that we think is the priority item? I
agree the parking lot and lighting. I’m okay with putting that in at 2016 but okay so what is that next
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 22, 2014
item? You know if you go by what we ranked it today, it’s lighting. I don’t think we need to put lighting
in 2017. I would prefer, and I guess discussion, either a park shelter there or you pick the hockey rink or
you pick something else if you want to put in an item out there.
Ryan: Well I think we see somewhat of a consensus for the parking lot and roadway lighting just to get
the Bandimere project started so I see that as something that makes sense for number one. As Steve said
the next two are the lighting. I’d still like to take a step back from the lighting of all these fields until we
have some discussion with the association. I also agree with Steve in some discussions that I’ve had with
the Tonka United groups, that they are interested in joining a conversation with us about what we’re
going to do with our fields and lighting and I think that it’s an important conversation to have. We have a
lot of representation from the Chanhassen Athletic Association for baseball but I’d like to find out what
are the growing needs for Tonka United and soccer fields so I’d like to hold off on putting lighting in for
2016. You know spend some time talking to these different groups and seeing what their needs are.
What do they see for growth? So if you skip over, or you move down from 2 to 3 the next ranking is the
hockey rink. With the new development coming in at that side of town, a hockey rink in that area I think
would be a great location and then we can talk about shelters and warming houses. I don’t think you need
a permanent structure at a hockey rink. I think it’s very expensive. I think that we have nice mobile
units, is that what they’re called? Mobile units. Spend a lot of time in those. They’re very nice and then
they can be removed and something else can be done with that space but I would prefer to see the parking
lot lighting and roadway lighting as number one and hockey rink as the second choice for the next dollar
amount in that year.
Kelly: Anyone else? Ideas. Go ahead Luke.
Thunberg: Yeah I was going to say, I’d be fine with, I mean we had some consensus like was said on the
parking lot and roadway lighting. Having that as a one. I think where I would pause on, excuse me
adding any additional lighting in Bandimere right now is, we’ve kind of skipped over the Lake Susan
lighting which was a conversation last year and previous and I don’t think that should be ignored and just
all of a sudden wiped off. If there’s a need for lighting, we’ve had like I said the CAA previous
conversations that that’s an option and if we don’t want to spend $600,000 or $300,000 lighting some of
the soccer and ballfields at Bandimere, lighting one field at Lake Susan that has some need and baseball
having extra capacity is an option that I don’t think we should pass over. So I would be hesitant to add
the additional lighting for Bandimere in 16 or 17 even, but possibly push that farther out so that we still
have room for the Lake Susan conversation. And as far as the hockey rink versus a sport court, I had
sport court ranked higher. I think we need to find it that way. You could use tennis, pickleball, basketball
courts can be put up on the end. Somehow there’s some flexibility. I also think there’s value in the
location of it. It’s the front of the park so having that finished versus an unfinished look right now, while
we’re building that as a destination park, I think there’s value in having kind of that front piece versus a
back corner finished first. It catches people’s eye. It looks nicer. I think there’s value in that as well.
It’s one of the, and it’s flexible if you can have like I said tennis, pickleball, basketball. I think you’re
serving a wider variety than just a hockey rink.
Kelly: Well remembering that we’re talking about 2016 it wouldn’t bother me if lighting was put in so
we can always move it around so hopefully we’ll have our discussions before that but I tend to be in
agreement with Elise. I like the hockey rink idea because she’s right. There’s a lot of building going on
in that area. Riley Ridge and Pioneer Pass and they don’t really have a rink down in that area. And the
sport court you know for the showing when you come in, that has merit also but if we do the hockey rink
we’re going to have a pretty light 2017 and at some point we’ve got to make the decision to spend a
chunk of money and I think if we get that hockey rink up and running, you know that will be noticed
because there’ll be a lot of kids over using that. And plus it will show that the park is being, getting
finished. You know and lighting may or may not happen in various areas depending upon the needs
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 22, 2014
which you know Jerry can always weigh in and tell us what the needs are from year to year and he’s got a
pulse on all that but I do like the idea of the hockey rink at this point. And again we’re putting these
things in in 2016 and we’ll be voting on them next month. It doesn’t mean that we won’t move it around
in 2015 because of something we learned that all of a sudden pickleball’s taken off and they’re clamoring
for more courts, then we might say next year well we’d better do a flip flop or does it make sense on the
money. There’s a lot of things we can do. I mean we can change it all up however we deem is in the best
interest of the city and the city residents but at this point I think it’s good to do the parking lot and
roadway lighting and then jump over to the hockey rink because we don’t want to get, we don’t want to
spend too much money on lighting and we still have $175,000 in the budget this year for field lighting
which I’d like to see happen at Lake Susan because we’re going to get $55,000 from the CAA for one
thing and we know we need some field lighting and this also takes off pressure of us spending $300,000
at Bandimere for a while. So those are my thoughts. Anybody else like to weigh in?
Hoffman: Just I need to correct an earlier statement I made. It’s $230,000 so this year there’s $230,000
dedicated to athletic field lighting that will just drop out of the CIP.
Kelly: We changed it to $175,000 at one point. I thought because of the $55,000 coming from the CAA.
Hoffman: Correct, yep. So your contribution is $175,000.
Kelly: Our contribution is $175,000.
Hoffman: Yep, the budgeted item is $230,000.
Kelly: Correct.
Echternacht: Well I kind of agree with you with Lake Susan and the lighting over there now. In the past
I’ve been against that. I was more for lighting at Bandimere but it doesn’t look like that’s going to
happen until 17 or after and we have the money, let’s use it and take advantage of the $55,000 from the
baseball people and put that in for this existing year.
Kelly: We have the money this year and the City Council asked us to firm up what our thoughts are and
that’s one of the things we need to do.
Ryan: And the $55,000 that’s, did they say that has to be used towards lighting or did they say they’re
giving us $55,000 to use how?
Kelly: For lighting.
Ryan: It’s specifically for lighting.
Kelly: Specifically for lighting, yes.
Ryan: Because looking at Lake Susan, you know we talk about lighting and when you’re there during a
baseball game there seems to be a lot more upgrades to that facility than just having lighting. I mean the
parking, nobody parks in the first 10, 8 to 10 slots behind the, you know the dugout I guess. Not even
dugout but where the bench and because of you know foul balls and everything and so I feel like there has
to be a lot of upgrades to that facility to accommodate spending that kind of money for lighting if we want
to make that a valuable field for baseball so that’s still my concern of lighting. I think that if we want to
make it a great facility for baseball there needs to be more upgrades.
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 22, 2014
Scharfenberg: And with respect to the lighting issue, you know we’ve never as a commission we’ve
never had a conversation with CAA other than one representative being here to talk to us. We’ve never
pressed them on the $55,000, if that’s something that’s going to go away. Well you’ve said that. I’ve
never heard that. That’s the first you’ve said that tonight was.
Kelly: Todd, Todd Neils was at a work session with the City Council and he stated that the current
st
President of the Chanhassen Athletic Association said that $55,000 is available through December 31.
Scharfenberg: Okay well Todd’s going off potentially as the President in October. There’s going to be a
new.
Kelly: Todd’s not the President.
Scharfenberg: He is the interim President right now for CAA baseball.
Kelly: Oh is he? Oh yeah I’m talking about the President of the CAA. Not baseball.
Scharfenberg: Well President of the CAA is Terry Kimble so.
Kelly: No she isn’t. I’ve met him. I can’t remember what his name is.
Scharfenberg: Okay well, okay this is the first that I’ve heard this. This was never discussed at the last
meeting that that money, at that work session that it was going to go away after December. I don’t know
if it is or it isn’t. I’ll believe you. I’ll take you at your word but to sit down and talk to, you know you’re
going to have a new organization. You’re going to have a new baseball president. A new board. You’re
basically going to have a new baseball and softball board that will be elected in October, okay. So why
don’t we talk to them? Why don’t we have an open conversation with them about all of this? About
Lake Ann. About Bandimere. About their capacity and where they want to see the money go. I don’t
think that we, it just seems like this is a forced decision that we’ve got to take the money. We’ve got to
take the money. We’ve got to light a field. You know what, I don’t feel that way and I don’t think that
we have to rush into a lighting decision. I would like to talk to all of the organizations about lighting and
like I said, let’s put a place holder in in a year. Make it a significant dollar amount, as Cole had indicated
those numbers could potentially be moved. If we want to put it in 2016, let’s put in a lighting number. If
we want to do it in 2017, let’s put in a lighting number. If we think we need to do that but let’s have that
conversation with those, and then let’s kind of make an informed decision. I don’t feel personally that
we’re making as a board, that we’re, as a commission that we’re making an informed decision on lighting
and I think to some extent the council has said that to us. You know they’ve asked questions. Do you
know about, I know Jerry McDonald has said, well why would they just only give the money to Lake
Susan? Have you asked them about Bandimere and I said yeah and I’ve never got a decision from them
because we as a commission have never really truly had that conversation with them so I just, I would
prefer to do that. I don’t want to put, I don’t necessarily want to have a place holder in for, specifically
for Lake Susan.
Kelly: Well I don’t feel like we’re being rushed. I think this is, we’ve had the CAA here more than once
and they’ve been to a City Council work session. We know where they’re coming from. I think that we
do know that we need, we have a lot of pressure on ballfields and we need a ballfield lit somewhere and
the pressure is now and it’s not going to happen at Bandimere for a few years so I mean we’ve got the
money. We’ve got money, 25% allotted from elsewhere. I mean the time is now or never for Lake
Susan.
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 22, 2014
Scharfenberg: Well I’ll just, Cole to get to that point you say, you said Bandimere isn’t going to get lit
for several years but here as a commission we ranked it number two. We ranked ballfield lighting 1, 2
and 3 as the second item so for us to say that that’s not going to happen. It can happen.
Kelly: We just.
Scharfenberg: Let me finish. We can make it happen. If the commission as a whole thinks that we need
to light ballfields and do it immediately to get the capacity done, we can do it.
Kelly: Of course they can.
Scharfenberg: It was the second item. But I don’t know that we necessarily have to do it and I don’t
know that we have to light any fields at all necessarily and I would like to have additional discussion with
the organizations before we make any sort of commitment for ballfield lighting.
Kelly: Well obviously I disagree with you and the discussions have been here and they’ve been here and
you’ve been able to ask questions and if you wanted more people to discuss with, since you knew the
offer was for this year, the discussion should have happened already.
Scharfenberg: Well okay. So we’ll go back to how this all happened again. We put it in the CIP for
2014.
Kelly: In 2013 yes.
Scharfenberg: In 2013 we put it in for 2014. The City Council did not approve that at their session when
they approved the CIP. They said, they changed it to just ballfield lighting and kind of put it back in our
possession to discuss that further. I don’t know that and personally in my opinion I don’t know that
we’ve discussed it again enough. You are correct that we’ve had Mr. Neils here on a couple of occasions.
He’s been to, he was at the one work session, I wasn’t at the second one if he was there. I don’t know
what was discussed at that one but Todd Neils isn’t going to be the president of the baseball organization
potentially going forward. You’re going to have a new board coming in. I don’t know how that board
feels at all about lighting. I don’t know how the CAA personally feels about lighting. I would like to be
able to have a heart to heart with them and talk to about different items and how they rank those items.
Maybe they want, if they say hey we’re all for lighting Lake Susan, then we can do that at some point but
I would like further discussion.
Kelly: Would you like to head up a commission to go to a CAA board meeting and have those
discussions with the CAA board?
Scharfenberg: Well we can either do it that way or we can invite them and have a session, have another
session of our own as a group and have them all come. I would prefer to have it where we’re all here.
That it isn’t just me.
Kelly: No I was going to be on that commission.
Scharfenberg: Okay.
Kelly: And anybody who wants to be could be.
Scharfenberg: I would like the whole group, I would like us all to be able to ask questions and have a
meeting and invite those people so that we’re all there and we’re all hearing the same information.
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 22, 2014
Kelly: Right. That’s, that would be nice but as we know not all of us make all the meetings here and
we’ve known about them months in advance so it would be nice if everybody could be there and that
we’d have the whole board over, and I think the best way to catch the board is to go to one of their board
meetings but maybe we should invite them over and we have, then we’re going to have a work session
either before the next meeting or we have a work session, that might be best. Have a work session and
invite them in before the meeting.
Scharfenberg: Again personally I don’t know that it has to be before the August session again. We can
put a place holder in for lighting in one of the years and we can certainly talk to them.
Kelly: Well I think their offer was for this year so I think if we’re going to talk to them we either talk to
them this year or we don’t talk to them. I mean that’s really what it comes down to. About Lake Susan.
Hoffman: Just something, Chair Kelly, members of the commission on the timing. If you decide now
and you decide to make a recommendation we move forward with Lake Susan, I’m not sure we could
accomplish that in 2014 so there’s just not enough time left in the year to make that happen. As far as I
understand their contribution, they don’t have the $55,000 in cash if that project would take place at Lake
Susan. We would need to work with the lighting provider to have them take out a loan for their $55,000
and then pay that back over time directly to the lighting manufacturer. Our $175,000 would be cash.
Kelly: And they’ve already had those discussions with the lighting manufacturer.
Hoffman: Yeah, I’ve talked to the lighting manufacturer about that. Their preference would be to have,
on their behalf, their preference would be to have the City upfront that cost.
Kelly: Well obviously.
Hoffman: Yeah.
Kelly: We’re not going to.
Hoffman: Yeah, I said we wouldn’t do that. I asked would you write that loan to the association. They
said they would. The interest rate would be higher.
Scharfenberg: Personally for 2016 I would like to see the $30,000 for the fencing at Bandimere for
Soccer Field number one. You know given the revamping of the front of the park with the walkway and
that, I would like to see that get moved up to 2016 and done so that that takes care of that issue.
Echternacht: I would agree with that.
Kelly: Yeah that’s one I’d agree with too and $30,000 is easy to bounce in and out but I think sooner is
better but I think the discussion is if we’re going to do, what’s, are we going to do anything big in
Bandimere in 2016 and I think that’s the decision we have to make. Are we going to do a hockey rink?
Or we can do a sport court. I mean the feeling seems to be, and tell me if I’m wrong that since we’re
going to do the lighting for the parking lot and roadway that we can skip to something big and that’s not
lighting and maybe I’ve got the wrong feeling here but that’s what I’m hearing.
Thunberg: Can I ask a, so I wasn’t at the council work session where you guys heard the feedback
directly as they’re going through this but one of the things I think if we put something big, we’re talking
about putting something big in 2016 versus out years, the sooner we put it in it’s sending a message back
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 22, 2014
right that we’re making this a high priority, that we are going to now piecemeal it. So if we do something
big in 2016 it’s, I guess I would be curious for you guys that heard the feedback, to me even the
difference between 2017 it sounds like it’s further out. It makes it sound like less of a priority. We have
more time to look into it, to shuffle it around but the bigger numbers we put in sooner, it’s sending a
message like okay. We’re still making this a priority and we’re going to tackle this piece by piece on our
own. Do you think that’s, from what you heard when you were there is that, is that the level of priority
and kind of preference we want to put on it?
Kelly: Well they also, you know such as you know if we light, let’s say we decide to light one soccer
field and then there’s no pressure beyond the lighting of that soccer field, they would never be for us
lighting soccer fields 2 and 3. And so what they’re looking at is, to prioritize it but to try and prioritize it
in a way that it makes sense to see what kind of pressure is out there from the community and what the
uses will be and we don’t want to build everything, we don’t want to build it and hope they will come is
the message we were given. We want them to come and then tell us to build it so that’s, and so we have
to decide what our priorities are and if we, and I’ll tell you right now if we went to lights, lights and
lights, which was our priorities 1, 2 and 3, they’d say I wonder what those guys are smoking because they
weren’t listening to us because we don’t need lights, lights and lights.
Carron: So with bringing up the discussion of what we have currently in our budget for a lighting
package. If that’s not going to happen this year, are we going to roll it over to 2015 where we’ve got
three hundred and fifty already in or are we looking at 2016 and, and with that considering is that so
called package going to maybe take precedence over the parking lot and roadway lighting so to speak at
Bandimere and then do something else at Bandimere. And just have a lighting line item in there. In the
CIP for lighting someplace. I don’t know why it just dawned on me but the question now I’m looking at
this is, you know number one parking lot and roadway lighting and I voted number one too but if we
don’t have any lights, no one’s going to be there at night. So it is going to make it safer. I understand
that and that sort of thing but, and I keep rolling around the lighting package that, that line item might
work with another lighting package someplace so, I don’t know if I’m just thinking off kilter here but
maybe do something other than lighting first in Bandimere altogether and do the hockey rink or sport
court, which they rank right next to each other. And then keep that, keep a lighting package together
someplace as a place holder for either Susan or Bandimere or parking lot or something.
Echternacht: Todd, we have that money set aside this year for lighting. Can we, it’s new to me. Can we
do some of these small projects like, in lieu of can we do like this soccer field number one fencing this
year or take a couple of these smaller projects and do them this year that we’re able to accomplish his
year in lieu of the lighting that we had in 2014 budget?
Hoffman: Yeah, couple of thoughts on that commissioner Echternacht is that when projects come up that
feel like a real immediatecy. So if something comes up mid-year where there’s an opportunity and the
opportunity’s now. Let’s make it happen. You can make a recommendation as a commission at any time
throughout the year that hey, here’s an opportunity. Let’s pounce on it. Let’s allocate some of our park
dedication fund. There’s money in the bank and let’s make this happen. What I would encourage you to
you know, so if this just doesn’t happen then you have to go back to the City Council and you’ll say okay,
City Council we’re not going to do this $230,000 now. We’ve changed our mind. We want to do a
bunch of other stuff. To me that doesn’t look real like thought out planning to the City Council. I would
just move on. Let that $230,000. You certainly can do that. You could make a recommendation, you
could say we want to split this $230,000 up and we want to do these 5 projects. We still have to get that
back to the City Council. Get it on their agenda. Have them take a look at it. We’re currently engaged in
the 2015 through 2019 so they’re working on that so you know they may not even pay attention to that
recommendation based on the timing and those type of things but if there’s something that everybody in
the community says oh that’s a real urgency. Let’s make it happen. Just because it’s not in your CIP, the
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 22, 2014
City Council and the park board often approve those kind of projects. If this was early in the year, if it
was February-March and we knew that $230,000 wasn’t going to happen then there would probably be
enough time to make something else you know come about. We’re late in the game now. We’re starting
on next year’s package already. My recommendation would be just to let it you know drop off the CIP
and then those dollars will just be in the bank and be picked up you know later on.
Echternacht: Okay.
Scharfenberg: Todd can you address a question relative to the monument signs? I think I sent you an
email after the last meeting about the signs and I think I questioned where that money would come from
and I thought you had said it could come from two sources. It could come from CIP or it could come
from somewhere else and where was the other source that you said it could come from?
Hoffman: It could come from the park fund. So the park fund CIP or the capital, just the capital
improvement fund which buys our trucks and other things so.
Scharfenberg: So why wouldn’t we do that?
Hoffman: You can make that recommendation.
Scharfenberg: Okay.
Hoffman: Council would need to approve it. So the traditional thought is that park dedication funds are
to add new things. To build new capacity in your park system. To build a new park. A new trail. A new
playground and then if you go back and you remodel or you redo, you know you add a sign. That
probably should be coming out of the general capital fund. You know adding a sign doesn’t increase the
capacity of a park system and so that would be my recommendation. That if you want to do those signs,
you know that’s just say hey we want to do these two signs in this year and we think it should come out
of, and instead of buying a pickup we should buy these two signs this year.
Scharfenberg: Well and you know speaking to Luke’s statement earlier about you’ve got stuff that’s up
front and I know Bandimere necessarily isn’t complete but with the remodel out there of the, with the new
entrance and stuff like that and I mean Lake Susan itself is done, I would like to see those new signs
added you know fairly soon. I would say like 2015. Not in our CIP. I think it should come from that.
Hoffman: Capital fund.
Scharfenberg: Capital fund.
Kelly: And I’ve been simmering on what Brent said about we don’t really need lighting to get going on
Bandimere and I kind of like that idea. Let’s build it and then see where the lighting needs are. Let’s
build out Bandimere. So does that mean in 2016 we do the rink and maybe in 2017 do the sport court and
then see where the lighting comes from after that?
Carron: You know looking at that I would imagine that the hockey rink of four sixty, a majority of that is
part of the lighting. To light the hockey rink.
Hoffman: It’s not a majority.
Carron: It’s not?
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 22, 2014
Hoffman: I think it’s like a $95,000 of it or something like that.
Carron: Oh is that it? Okay.
Hoffman: Yeah.
Scharfenberg: You know I’ll just speak again to that whole issue. You know I agree with we’ve got, you
know build a large item. What is that large item going to be? I guess I would like to hear everybody
maybe talk individually about what they think those, maybe those three items are. When I was talking
about the shelter before, you know I see kind of everyone nodding and maybe agreeing with that but then
I hear Cole talk about hockey rink, sport court but then I don’t hear shelter. Can we just kind of go
through as a commission and maybe each one of us talk about maybe those three things and kind of where
they see those in terms of Bandimere.
Thunberg: Sure I’ll start since I’m at this end and you’re looking at me as you were saying that so I’ll
take the hint. Two of the three if you want to go three, is a sport court and hockey rink. Going back to
the lighting quickly, I had you know with the parking lot and roadway ranked the one and the ballfields
ranked a two. I think they’re, for me I was thinking of them as combined because I agree if we just
stopped at the parking lot it seems like it might be unnecessary for that year. The first time until we got
some of the ballfields lit so I kind of looked at them as together if we did that as a big year so if we waited
on the lights and had that pushed back while we built some of the bigger things, I think the hockey rink
and the sport court. The reason I hesitated on the shelter is, is I know this was ranked low. I had it
ranked more in the middle than everybody else but the splash pad conversation so to me that was kind of
the center of the park was it’s own area so with the splash pad and the playground improvements. An
example I’ll use is Round Lake Park in Eden Prairie. That one’s, there’s the beach. There’s two
playgrounds. There’s a splash pad. They do have some picnic shelters but they’re not right there so I
view that as, if we did a splash pad type of improvement there, you possibly, I don’t see that you have to
have the building there first as a changing place or restroom. I think it could be a stand alone feature as a
part of the park so that’s why I put shelter later. So I’ll go against the grain and say my third item would
still be to look at the splash pad as a portion of one of the big things to put into after the sport court and
hockey rink.
Boettcher: And mine are just the opposite of his. Maybe not. No, I think the top three, the top three for
me, the parking lot roadway lighting. I do like the shelter thing in. I like the one that people can rent.
Not just the hexagon shaped. I mean something that will draw people in and with that also then the sport
court because if you do have an event there, you know kids graduating, whatever. Somebody could go
over, they can play pickleball. They can play tennis. They can play basketball or whatever. I think that
would be a fit when you’re talking about family oriented type of stuff. So that would be my three. The
parking lot, roadway lighting, park building being the shelter including rest rooms and then the sport
court. Lights, trails. All the other stuff goes along with it. That would be my three. Now maybe not in
that order but those are mine.
Carron: Probably going a little bit against my original rankings here. The shelter, I was a little, I put that
lower than the sport court and the hockey rink for the reason that I don’t really know personally what kind
of shelter should go there yet. But with that saying we could always build something that we could add
onto. More detail is, do we put a shelter? Do we put you know just bathrooms or changing rooms or that
sort of thing which they’re going to be different. I know one time there’s a concession stand but we kind
of didn’t talk about that. So I don’t know what kind of shelter needs to be there yet with the
improvements that are going to be going in. Size wise and facility wise. So that’s why I kind of ranked
that lower to begin with and then I’m indifferent about the sport court or the pickleball court. Whatever
you want to call it. The hockey rink, I think they’re both big items that we can tackle. They’re kind of
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 22, 2014
off in an area that aren’t in the middle of the park. Won’t disturb a whole lot of things that are going on
currently in the summer and I think it’d be a good way to start that next expansion so I guess that’s why I
ranked those kind of higher.
Kelly: Well you kind of already know where I am. I’m with the hockey rink and the sport court.
Basically the Mayor told us he wouldn’t build two buildings there when we were talking about a warming
house and a, you know the other building. And I get a feeling that if we’re building something over by
the baseball field and softball field that the City Council won’t put another one just past it and I thought
he was leaning more towards a warming house the way they were talking to us and I can see from this
group nobody has interest in the warming house which is fine so I’m at this point, as far as building goes,
I’m opposed to any buildings. Let’s see what our needs are when we finish the park.
Echternacht: Well besides the parking lot lights I was at that meeting with the City Council and definitely
got the understanding that there would be no two buildings there. It’d be either the warming house or a
picnic shelter with a building with bathrooms and up until a few minutes ago I was thinking that we
needed the warming house to go with the hockey rink but I didn’t think about these temporary shelters
that could be brought in so I kind of like that idea and if that’s the case then I would see a main shelter
would be one of the top priorities there would be mine. Would be that. The parking lot lights and then
the third thing would be a hockey rink for the first three things.
Ryan: I still think a shelter is important after what Todd was saying about the neighborhood, what do
they call it? The neighborhood shelter plan. I think that we could possibly work with council or
encourage council to reconsider their plan. The location, I don’t agree with the location. I think that just
seems odd for people that aren’t attending a baseball game to have to go sit in the middle of baseball
fields so maybe utilize some of that money. Some money that we have budgeted and build a bigger
shelter than what they have planned for at this point. I do think as that park continues to grow to have
permanent restroom facilities will be important to have there. I actually had ranked very high lighting for
soccer fields 2 and 3 so I know that neighborhood will love my vote just because I think that lighting one
soccer field doesn’t necessarily provide enough use where if you are lighting two soccer fields you can
hold multiple games. Tournaments. You’d get more use out of having two fields versus just one. Again
my same reasoning for lighting at Lake Susan but I also have hockey rink. As I explained earlier I think it
would be a nice facility to have in that part of our community and I often time to see sport courts, tennis
courts, pickleball courts sitting empty and with the basketball court I know people don’t typically go
down to the lower or the original Bandimere but there is a basketball court down there. And then
pickleball courts at City Center I'd like to just wait on doing any kind of sport court and would prefer to
have the hockey rink there.
Stolar: Well I, I know I got late here but from what I’ve been hearing I definitely feel like the obviously
the parking lot and roadway lighting and then the hockey rink. I know that Lotus hockey rink is used a
lot. That’s right by my neighborhood so I see that all the time. I think that’s a real must have thrown in
on. And then I’m kind of…on the building. I want to see us like put some stuff in and see, like
evaluate…where we should put buildings and how we should build it. And I hear you Elise about the
lighting of the soccer fields because tournaments are definitely a big deal around here for all types of
sports and I think soccer’s one that’s growing so those are my three.
Kobilarcsik: Well I guess for my three I would probably…the park building. I feel like that’s very
important aspect of it and then aside from that I feel that the hockey rink is also a very important one
because I personally use the one up here at City Center Park. There’s always people here. There’s
always people here using it and then the portable warming house, like was suggested is very good. It’s a
very good structure. It works really well and a lot less expensive. I’m not sure how expensive it is but I
like that. And then for my third point I would think that it’d be kind of like bulking two together but
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 22, 2014
bulking together the parking lot lighting and the lighting for soccer fields 2 and 3 would be a good way to
go because the parking lot lighting itself wasn’t as expensive as the other fields being lit so I think those
two would have to be done at once. Like when you light a field you have to light the parking lot I guess.
Kelly: Jerry is Lake Ann soccer field lit?
Ruegemer: It is.
Kelly: Okay so if we lit one soccer field at Bandimere and we have one at Lake Ann, does that help out
for tournaments or is that not a good deal?
Ruegemer: Well for you know there’s not that many soccer tournaments that are going on currently.
Certainly what it would help with would be for league play. CC United and Tonka United use, utilize our
fields here at Lake Ann and at Bandimere. Something to think about down the road here too as lacrosse
grows we’re going to have to look at that growing trends as well. Currently the lacrosse associations are
using Instant Web fields right now and their numbers continue to increase on an annual basis as well so
you know commission and myself should be prepared for that increased allocations in the future so
whether we put them at a Bandimere or a Lake Ann or some other type of location, that’s coming down
the line as well.
Kelly: So, because I hadn’t really considered what Elise brought up earlier about tournament soccer
needing two fields to make a difference an you know I’m kind of looking at what I think the City Council
is saying is light one and if that works and you needed more pressure light two more but are we better off
in the long run when we decide to light soccer fields just to light the two first and make our case to the
City Council in your opinion?
Ruegemer: You know that certainly is up to the commission to gain insight from users and that sort of
thing here as well. Does it, to have two lit soccer fields in our system, would that help? Absolutely it
would help. Not only for tournaments but for league plan. The Chan high school plays out at the
Bandimere complex as well so when they’re playing out there that pushes back the community groups so
again if we had additional lighting at that location certainly that would help.
Kelly: Thank you Jerry.
Ryan: Cole if I could just interject. As I mentioned earlier I did, I reached out to the president of Tonka
United and had a conversation with her just about lighting specifically and the needs that Tonka United
has because that’s the organization my kids play in and she spoke very highly of working with Jerry but
she did say that the reason why the lighting is so important is because a lot of, you know they start, they
start their season early but with the cold weather or the snow and the fields not being ready, that a lot of
their start times gets pushed back and so they’re trying to cram a lot of games into a small amount of time
and so having lighting at fields to be able to get them in early and extend their days, then they can stay on
track a little bit better with scheduling so that’s why they would, they said that they would be willing to
come in and talk with us and explain their needs and also you know be willing to.
Kelly: Possibly partner?
Ryan: Yes.
Kelly: Possibly.
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 22, 2014
Ryan: Don’t quote me on that. No they understood and I said that you know that the Chanhassen is well
represented with baseball and you know that they come forth with dollars and put their money where their
mouth is and if that is something that is of interest to them that you know it’d be beneficial for them to
come before the commission so I do think that lighting the two fields would be again down the road
something that would be very beneficial to our community.
Kelly: More beneficial than lighting one and then two.
Ryan: Correct.
Kelly: Okay, thank you Elise. So we’re back to 2016. Let’s plug in, let’s see. What was the first thing
we talked about? Oh I think the fencing for soccer. And let’s put in the hockey rink and again this is,
we’re going to debate this some more next week but at this point we need to put some numbers in
somewhere and we can continue the debate and move it next week but we need to plug in some numbers
and then we’ll have numbers to look at in front of us next month that we can move around unless
somebody wants, has a better way, different way. Does that sound good for now?
Scharfenberg: Well I’ll talk to the, to putting in the hockey rink in there and I’m, okay so I’m just
looking at what I heard from everyone kind of speaking and I’m also looking at the numbers. You know
the hockey rink you know is significantly more than the sport court. What if we combined the sport
court? You know the other thing is the parking itself. You know adding that parking without the lighting
gives us additional parking on that end of the, at that end of the park so if you add parking and that sport
court are like right next to each other and do both of those at the same time. It’s a significant project and
it gets you some additional parking.
Ryan: There’s parking, instead of the parking lot with the hockey rink?
Kelly: We’re going to get additional parking whether we do a sport court or not. By the, close to the
hockey rink and just on the other side of the entrance road by the sport court. It’s where.
Scharfenberg: That’s what we’re talking about though with that money. That $115,000 is the parking lot
and the lighting.
Kelly: Oh okay.
Hoffman: No. Just parking lot and roadway lighting, $115,000. It’s only lighting.
Scharfenberg: It’s only lighting?
Hoffman: Correct.
Scharfenberg: Oh that’s all that, so the parking lot’s going in no matter what? I guess that’s what my
question. I thought it was a parking lot and then lighting.
Hoffman: No. It’s parking lot and roadway lighting. $115,000 to light the existing parking lots and the
roadway.
Scharfenberg: Is that, okay.
Hoffman: The additional parking lot is underneath hockey rink. Hockey rink boards, lighting, parking
lot. That’s the expanded parking lot.
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 22, 2014
Scharfenberg: Isn’t, just to clarify though, isn’t the parking lot though over by the tennis courts?
Hoffman: It’s across the street from the tennis courts.
Kelly: It’s across the street. Across the road. The entrance road.
Thunberg: There were like 6 spots next to, directly next to the sport court. There are 6 or 8 spots.
Hoffman: And those are in.
Thunberg: …side of the entrance road.
Scharfenberg: Oh okay. Alright. You know in terms of 2016, so we’ve got, if we’re taking out the
parking lot lighting and the roadway lighting, you’re only at $55,000 right now.
Kelly: Correct. And that’s where I think we should throw in the hockey rink which means we’re going to
have a light 2017 and again we can debate this some more next week. You know should we do the sport
court first or the hockey rink? And I think we kind of discussed earlier that we wanted to see how the
pickleball courts take off at the Rec Center so that would, and again if they take off it doesn’t mean next
year we can’t move things around if we have the sport court the following year or the year after. We can
move things around if we decide that pickleball’s taking off. Hockey isn’t but I think there’s a big need
for hockey and hockey rink in this town and I think we should put it in for 2016 which means 2017 has to
be a little bit light. So for tonight’s purposes again we can change it next month but let’s put in the, since
I’m not getting any more feedback let’s put in the hockey rink and what do we have? The soccer field
fencing and then the trees and the benches.
Ryan: You have tables, trees, fencing and hockey rink.
Echternacht: I thought we said parking lot lights?
Kelly: No we decided. Well again I think we’re talking about let’s build it and then go to the lights. And
again we can have a little more discussion on that next week if you want to but even though parking lot
lights was my number one choice, after thinking this out and I think we want to get Bandimere built and if
we do lights we’re not going to build as much which might be the way to go in the long run. I don’t know
but and that can be for more discussion next week.
Carron: I agree with putting the hockey rink in 2016 but we’re already at $485,000 and looking at just
budgetary things, I agree that the fencing along soccer field 1 makes complete 100 percent sense but just
got to be, there’s got to be a cap here someplace.
Ryan: And we can’t get the fence done this year? At all?
Hoffman: Sure you could.
Ryan: If we’re not doing the two hundred.
Hoffman: Again there’s no, you could spend a million and a half in one year. You don’t have to.
Ryan: Right.
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 22, 2014
Hoffman: Right now you’re at, you’ve got $320,000 left if you include a tennis court. If you keep with
the tennis court rehab program in 2019. If you want to keep working on your tennis courts. If you put in
this hockey rink, you have $320,000 left to spread over 2017, 2018 and 2019. To get to the $1.5 million.
Carron: And I agree with Elise. We should go to the City Council and say that that fencing along soccer
field 1 is a need and priority and safety.
Ryan: I think safety.
Echternacht: I agree with that.
Carron: And let’s get it done this year. While this project is still going on.
Hoffman: Sure.
Ryan: With all the construction I think it’s important to have a fence up there so trucks are coming in, I
just think it’s a safety issue. I’d like to see the fencing moved up to this year.
Boettcher: Yeah that’s what they showed us on our tour how, I mean we could all see how critical it was.
A ball go flying out onto 101.
Ryan: Right.
Thunberg: Would it be possible for next week, sorry to change the, I agree with that if we could do that.
I think the fence should go up as soon as possible. Going back to the hockey rink and the sport court, if in
the list that we’re looking at with the $460,000 as the place holder. Can we get what portion of that for
next week was lighting? If it was $90,000 or $100,000 or for each one of those so that actually when
we’re looking at this and we’re saying we’re down to $300,000 left.
Scharfenberg: Luke I think.
Thunberg: Sorry.
Scharfenberg: Sorry to interrupt you but I think from the last, I’ve got this from the last session and let
me just look through here to see if.
Hoffman: It should be there.
Scharfenberg: Yeah. Oh here it is. Hockey and free skate lighting estimated cost $75,000. So it was for
that, for the warming house was $400,000. Hockey boards $45,000. Hockey free skate lighting $75,000.
Survey skating, $5,000. Utility adjustments $25,000. Landscaping restoration $20,000. $10,000 for on
site earthwork. Yeah.
Thunberg: Thank you. I think could we possibly if we’re going to have the hockey rink and all of that
extra work to finish that whole section basically between the entrance road and soccer fields 2 and 3?
Except for a warming house because it sounds like it’s including all of that. Taking out the $75,000 for
lighting if we’re not lighting anything right now. Would we put in then $385,000 as a place holder in
2016 versus the full $460,000?
Kelly: I don’t know if I’d, if you take lighting out on the hockey rink then it becomes a weekend only
hockey rink.
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 22, 2014
Thunberg: Okay. I didn’t know if we were talking about pushing all lighting back. If we’re talking
about building structures does it make sense to strip those lighting costs out of these structures first?
Kelly: No.
Thunberg: And if we’re doing…
Kelly: No because then your expenses will be much higher probably.
Hoffman: If you build a hockey rink you have to have lights.
Thunberg: Okay.
Kelly: Todd after the numbers I came up with 2015 and 16 I have $635,000 left. I don’t know how you
came up with three hundred and whatever.
Hoffman: Well the.
Kelly: Or am I missing something?
Hoffman: Picnic and trees for every year.
Kelly: Yeah I had $350,000 for 2015 and if we do.
Hoffman: And then $515,000.
Kelly: That sounds right.
Hoffman: And then 2017, $25,000.
Kelly: I haven’t gone to 2017 yet but.
Hoffman: Yeah so I added up 2017, 2018, 2019 as it programs out. So trees. Picnic tables. Trees.
Picnic tables. Trees. And then $90,000 in 2018 for the Chan Nature Preserve trail and then $150,000 in
2019 for tennis court rehab.
Kelly: Okay. That makes up the difference for me, thank you.
Scharfenberg: And then what is that number? What did you say the?
Hoffman: $320,000 would be left in your $1.5 million.
Carron: You came up with over $500,000 in 2016?
Hoffman: $515,000.
Carron: What was it?
Hoffman: That’s the picnic. The trees. The Bandimere Community Park fence. The soccer fence and
then the hockey rink for $460,000.
24
Park and Recreation Commission – July 22, 2014
Scharfenberg: But if we’re…
Hoffman: You want to take and put it in, ask them to do it in 2014.
Ryan: Yes.
Echternacht: Yes, as a safety reason.
Hoffman: So then that takes the $515,000 down to $30,000. And you have $350,000 left.
Scharfenberg: So I would propose as a place holder, actually now if we want to be light in 2017 I would
actually take the $90,000 from the Chan Nature Preserve and move that back to 2017. And I would, if
we’re going to take and do something bigger at Bandimere then in 2018 and I would propose putting that
$320,000 towards a shelter as a place holder. It gives us 4 years to kind of look at what type of shelter
potentially to put out there so that’s what I would propose.
Thunberg: With the pushing back of all the lighting of the Bandimere ballfields, they’re not in this
conversation at all for 5 years. I would ask that we consider having a place holder still for considering
Lake Susan sometime in the near future because again if Bandimere’s not even on this 5 year worksheet
we’re, we have needs. We’ve talked about that from last year. Do we still want to put a place holder for
Lake Susan to make sure that that’s a priority and we have those conversations with the CAA and whether
that’s, I know we’re spending a lot of money in 2015 and 16, but I guess I would just ask about if we still
want to put a place holder there or if we’re just saying no. That we’re pushing Bandimere out for 5 years
but that’s still going to be the priority and Lake Susan completely falls off the map and therefore we’re
not addressing that need.
Kelly: Well I think we address the need for Lake Susan. I think we have to have meetings with the CAA
this year and find out, we say okay. We’ve got this money allotted. It’s not going to happen until 2015.
Do you want to partner with us or don’t? And if they don’t then we have to decide at that point what do
we want to do now that we’re on our own. If we’re not on our own then we make the decision with them
as a partner. So, and if we decide not to move forward on it then the money just drops off and we’ve got
another $175,000 that goes back into the budget so to speak. But that’s a discussion we should have
probably sooner than later, especially if we’re pushing lights out as far as we are because I know there’s a
lot of pressure for more fields and it’s only going to, the pressure’s only going to increase. That’s what
you’re hearing Jerry isn’t it? The pressure’s going to increase for fields.
Ruegemer: That is true. Elise is correct with Tonka United Soccer. We also have CC United Soccer that
wants to schedule meetings here in the next week or two to talk about the future. Kind of their future
needs as well so.
Kelly: Does CC United use a lot of our fields right now?
Ruegemer: Yes they do.
Kelly: Okay. So actually I think.
Ryan: Can we just put in a somewhere a lighting package again? Whether it’s baseball or soccer. I think
we could just put a lighting package in and then I think it should be a priority of the commission to make
sure that we’re getting representation for both baseball and soccer to come in prior to one of our meetings
and so we’re, when we are talking about fields you know a lot of times it’s baseball versus soccer and I
25
Park and Recreation Commission – July 22, 2014
think for us to make the most informed decision we need to understand what the needs and the growth are
going to be for both sports so let’s.
Kelly: I think, so let’s, we’ll talk about that for 2018. First I want to address what Steve said before I get
back to you Elise.
Ryan: Okay.
Kelly: I tend to agree with 2017’s going to be a light year and I kind of like Steve’s idea to move the
Nature Preserve up a year so all that we’ll have that year would be the Nature Preserve, the trees and the
park benches. Is that, and that would give us $90,000 plus $25,000. $115,000 for that year which at this
point we need to be a lighter year depending upon what revenue comes in the next years. If we get a
spike in revenue we’re going to change our thoughts obviously over time but trying to figure out a million
and a half right now, I think that’s kind of the way to go. And then, so then that leads us to 2018 is
putting in place. Do we put a place holder in at that point for a shelter or for lights? And I would say
even though we’re going to go beyond it we put a place holder in 2018 and one in 2019. One year for
lights and one year for a shelter and again it doesn’t mean that it won’t be moved out or it won’t be
moved up and we’re going to know a lot more before we get to that point but that’s kind of how I look at
it at this point. Thoughts? Questions?
Carron: I feel that, I honestly feel that we’re going to have a need for lights here before 3 years down the
road. And I know it’s a chunk of change but I’m.
Scharfenberg: So let’s move it up a year to 2017 and keep the Nature Preserve.
Carron: Keep the Nature Preserve.
Scharfenberg: In 2017.
Carron: That’s what I think.
Scharfenberg: So you front load everything a little bit more and keep it weak on the back.
Kelly: On the back side and then hope our revenues are up where we don’t have to stay weak. I can go
with that. So we’re putting a marker for lights in 2017 for, Brent how much are we going to marker for?
Carron: Three hundred.
Kelly: Okay. Three hundred, if we’re going to do lights we’ve got to do the parking lot. Or don’t we? I
think from a safety issue, so three hundred gets us one soccer field.
Scharfenberg: So do we make it four hundred? I mean that gets you closer with some parking lot
lighting.
Kelly: Yeah. Let’s make a marker for 2017 for $400,000 lighting. And then we’ve got our fifteen and
our ten and then the Nature Preserve will be in 2018 and then do we do the, the shelter in 2019? And put
a marker for the shelter at half a million.
Carron: With talking about the shelter I would, I would like to talk to the council and see if we can do
something jointly.
26
Park and Recreation Commission – July 22, 2014
Kelly: Oh absolutely and again that’s a good subject to bring in when we have our joint meeting,
especially since, I think you said Bandimere was scheduled for 2016.
Hoffman: 16, yeah.
Kelly: Thank you. And I think that’d be a great discussion because the people here generally feel that
that’s a bad location and that’s something we can bring up to the council and then they can address our
concerns and tell us why they’re going to do it a certain way or not but, or they might agree with what we
come up with. So Todd can you find me any more money to spend? I don’t know those guys over in
Kuwait make a lot of money. Maybe they’ll send some our way.
Hoffman: Can I make an appeal just to modify the $30,000. When we look at timing, you would need to
make a recommendation tonight to the City Council. Then we need to get it on their agenda. Then they
need to approve it. We need to solicit quotes and we could get that thing built by mid September, the first
th
of October. The season ends October 15 and so we just generated a whole another CIP process to get
that in and I don’t think we’re really seeing a whole lot of benefit. If we just leave it in 2015 it’s all part
of next year’s CIP package. If we get the fence in before the season starts and we, you know we miss a
month maximum.
Ryan: How, but with a lot of times with the weather, does that drive the timing back to, for the.
Hoffman: Not for fence installation.
Ryan: It isn’t? Okay.
Carron: Only for staircases.
Hoffman: Point noted. I also have to comment that this pointing was not binding arbitration. It was
negotiated. I like that. It was good. Next year you’ll have to have the discussion, is it binding or not
binding.
Kelly: So Todd explain, I didn’t quite understand your appeal for the two signs.
Hoffman: No, oh the two signs. I was talking about the $30,000 for the fence.
Kelly: Fence. So can we pass something tonight saying we, that we propose that the fence goes in
immediately and we’d like to spend $30,000 out of our CIP to get this done?
Scharfenberg: No, that’s what he just said. He doesn’t want us to do that because he doesn’t see the
benefit of us having to generate an approval.
Kelly: Oh okay.
Scharfenberg: That we’re not going to get the benefit of waiting until next year and just keeping it in the
CIP.
Kelly: Got it, I missed that. I’m sorry.
Hoffman: Yeah right now you have it in 2016. Can we put it in 2015 and get it done next year? Then we
take that work package. We just included it with everything else that we do for next year. Otherwise we
have to generate another CIP item. Go through the council.
27
Park and Recreation Commission – July 22, 2014
Kelly: Yeah, let’s move it up.
Hoffman: And so we move it up to 2015.
Kelly: I think the general consensus here is that’s a safety issue and we’d like it sooner than later.
Hoffman: Right.
Scharfenberg: I just want to say thank you to the commission for the discussion tonight. Coming early
and talking about the Bandimere. All of the issues that we have with Bandimere and ranking. I think it
was very helpful for me to hear everybody’s thoughts on that because we don’t always get to hear
everything and what people are ranking everything and everything so I appreciate everyone’s comments
and I think we’ve, at least in my opinion I think we’ve come to a good CIP and I think truly in moving
that vision forward that we have for Bandimere and not that we’ve disregarded what the City Council has
said to us in terms of their work sessions. I think we’ve taken that all into consideration and I think we as
a commission think that it’s important to go forward on Bandimere but we’ve kind of spaced some things
out and you know taken all of that into consideration so I say thanks to the commission for that tonight.
Kelly: Well and I thank everybody for their opinions and some ideas that I hadn’t even thought about so
it’s always good to have sessions where we’re telling our thoughts because it leads us to build on other
things and it changed my mind on a few things so thank you everyone. Are we done with this discussion
for now?
Hoffman: Two million fifty thousand.
Kelly: Like I said Todd, find me some more money.
Carron: So the shelter place holder is in 2019?
Scharfenberg: Yes.
Kelly: Yep.
Hoffman: 2017 is $425,000 including the athletic field lights, $400,000. Trees and picnic shelter. 2018
trees and picnic shelters and the Chan Nature Preserve trail for $90,000. In 2019 is $675,000 with
Bandimere Park shelter, tennis court rehab at $150,000 and again that comes out of the CIP. That’s not
out of park dedication. And then $25,000 for tables so that’s what your proposal is. I’ll bring that back.
Wrap it all up. Check the numbers and then bring that to you at your next month’s meeting.
Kelly: Thank you Todd.
Hoffman: You’re welcome.
JOINT COMMISSION TOUR.
th
Kelly: Next item is the joint commission on Wednesday, September 10. 5:30 to 8:00.
Hoffman: I just need to see hands, if a majority can make that and we’ll let them know we’re going to be
there.
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 22, 2014
Kelly: Just a second here.
Scharfenberg: I’ve got to be out of town for a thing and I don’t know if I’ll be back in time but we’ll see.
Kelly: You guys always do it on my golf night.
Hoffman: That was the planning commissioners.
RECREATION PROGRAM REPORTS: 2014 FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION
EVALUATION.
Kelly: Okay moving on here. Mitch I think this will be one of your last presentations.
Johnson: Yes. Good evening Chair Kelly and commissioners. So we’ve got a wrap up an eval for the
st
City’s 31 Annual Fourth of July celebration. It seems like it’s already just yesterday as a few weeks ago
st
already. Yeah, it’s the 31 annual event. It was a great event. You know one of the marquee events that
we offer throughout the year. Our largest community event. We figure there’s anywhere from 30,000 to
50,000 people participated in at least one aspect of the three day celebration. In the report here I kind of
broke it down by event. I’ll kind of hit some of the highlights and feel free to interrupt me if you have
any questions. Otherwise we can take some at the end. So it all starts out with the family night at the
nd
carnival on July 2. It’s just kind of a soft opening for the carnival. Continues to grow. This is probably
about our fourth year I think offering that roughly. Continues through, you know go real smooth and
provides a great night for families. They bring the kids out in short lines and stuff and play some of the
rd
carnival games and rides. And then the big night is the 3. It starts off in the morning with the
Minnesota Twins baseball and softball clinic out at the Chan High School and then kind of everything
here at City Center Park kicks up in the afternoon. Have things like the kiddie parade. The carnival. All
the different games. Water Wars. Speedway Racing. We also have the Southwest Metro Chamber of
Commerce Business Expo. We had 46 businesses participate this year which is one of the largest ones
we’ve had in recent years so thanks to them for kind of promoting and handling registrations and things
with that. Had the pony rides again this year. We have a new vendor with the pony rides so we no longer
have Nick the Camel. He moved up to Brainerd and they opened up a new business venture up there but
great relationship with the new vendors. We’re looking forward to continuing that in the future. One of
our recommendations and goals from last year’s event is to kind of boost the 3 on 3 basketball tournament
that the Chanhassen Rec Center kind of sponsors and organizes. Happy to report we almost doubled our
registration this year at 15 so that was good with the different age groups. Also had the skateboard
competition. We had some bands. The Chan Rec Center did a Tae Kwon Do demonstration which is
great marketing for them. Kind of plugs their program as well. Moving on to the next page. We have a
great partner in the Chanhassen Rotary Club. They do a lot with the different events including the beer
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and wine garden. They sponsor the 4 of July parade. The classic car show. Truly great organization to
work with. Completely 100% volunteers. We have a lot of planning committee meetings with members
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of their organization to make that such a successful part of the event. Everything on the 3 wrapped up
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with a big street dance featuring Casablanca Orchestra. I think this is the 17 year that we’ve had them
back in town and you know play some great music. Everybody’s dancing. I think they continue to
appreciate that band. We also brought back the big 112 square foot LED screen over the band that we
brought last year was the first year. Provides you know not a bad seat in the house where people who
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don’t want to dance can sit back and still see the band. Moving onto the 4 is another big day. We start
things off early with the adult fishing contest out at Lake Ann. We had 46 participants. The max is 50 so
nearly filled that one. For just $20, you know we do generate some revenue with that one. Each person
who registers is also eligible for a door prize and through our community event sponsorship program we
gave over $3,700 in door prizes away to the 46 anglers so that was great. You know they really
appreciate that aspect. Then we get into the kids fishing contest. Get into different games out at Lake
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 22, 2014
Ann like the medallion hunt. Sand sculpture contest. Back up here at City Center Park we had another
band to open before the parade this year. The parade again sponsored by the Chanhassen Rotary Club.
The City staff is a lot with helping close the streets down with the fire department, Carver County
Sheriff’s department. A lot of different organizations involved with that so it’s great. We figure probably
15,000 to 20,000 people in the parade. We ordered perfect weather this year. We had mid 70’s which
really you could tell increased the spectators on the parade route so we keep hearing kind of on the north
side through the neighborhoods, you know it used to be kind of the quiet zone. You had plenty of room
for your family but it’s starting to get really full up there so it’s good to see people are making this a
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destination for the 4 of July. Wrapped everything up with the fireworks out at Lake Ann. This is year
one of a three contract with Pyrotechnic Display. We’ve been using them for quite a few years and
continue to put on a great show over Lake Ann so, but yeah. Overall it was a great event. Very few
hiccups along the way. Kind of have some suggestions there on the bottom. Kind of continue our
partnership with the Chanhassen Villager making the color magazine. I think people really appreciate
those. Fourth of July shirts. Saw one today at the penny carnival. Somebody was out wearing one
around so it’s kind of fun to see those and really kind of sparks the conversation year round I think for
such a large event. Mosquitoes kind of a problem again this year but we ordered the special spraying so
recommend keeping that again and the lost and found, we had a success story. We actually returned a
camera yesterday. A digital camera that was found during the Fourth of July celebration. Had over 1,500
pictures on it. Brought the lady to tears. There was graduation pictures. Everything on there so, so it’s a
great thing we do to kind of pick up some of that stuff and it’s always good to hear success stories. After
the recommendations you’ll see on the back there we kind of have the revenue and expense sheet. The
revenues are listed along with the expenses and then you’ll see the total amount at the end there. Very
important to remember, our community event sponsorship program. We have 58 sponsors right now and
to date they’ve contributed nearly $38,000, which is huge so we really appreciate. You know it’s hard to
put events like this and the other 3 community events on without the great assistance from those
community event sponsors so. So that’s the event in a nutshell. If anybody has any questions.
Kelly: Questions.
Johnson: Questions for Mitch.
Boettcher: Mitch, what ever happened with the, you weren’t involved with it I’m sure but the thing that
happened right out here on the street with a little boy went out in front of the family and the father of
another family got mad and grabbed by the arm. Yanked him out of the street and then there was the
scuffle up there in front, did anything ever happen? They said they never got the people’s license plate
when they drove off. They were parked down by the cinema or something.
Johnson: Yeah. You know we weren’t aware of that situation at all and the sheriff’s department either.
We found out first in the Villager like most of the people in town so at our wrap up meeting we followed
up with the sheriff’s department. I think they’re kind of looking into it but no update on that so.
Boettcher: Okay.
Kelly: Other questions?
Echternacht: I was just going to mention the chalk drawing and so on. I was at the parade last year but
this year they let the kids go out there before the parade started and just draw on the streets and the kids
just had a fantastic so I don’t know, was that something that you organized on the streets?
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 22, 2014
Johnson: The Rotary Club organizes that. They’ve got volunteers who give out sidewalk chalk to the
kids along the route and kind of offers them an activity before the parade starts while they’re sitting and
waiting and stuff.
Echternacht: Yeah, the kids just have a fantastic time doing it so I thought that was great.
Johnson: I always like the signs that say candy here and they draw arrows to their chair for that. That’s
fun, yeah.
Kelly: Mitch it was another, I was at the street dance. Fantastic. The amount of people there this year
exceeded last year. I mean I was amazed at how many people were there but it was another fantastic
event. Thank you for putting on another fantastic event and all the, everything you’ve done for us for
about what, the last 3 ½ years is it?
Johnson: Yep, in this position. About 3 ½ and then 6 with the city so yeah.
Kelly: Okay. Thank you very much.
Johnson: Yeah, thank you.
Ryan: Mitch, you will be very, very missed. You’ve done such a great job so thanks for all your hard
work.
Johnson: Oh thank you very much. So appreciate it.
COMMISSION MEMBER COMMITTEE REPORTS: PIONEER PASS PARK PLAYGROUND
COMMUNITY BUILD PROJECT: JULY 24, 25, & 26, 2014.
Kelly: Luke, you keep coming up in our reports for some reason.
Hoffman: It’s happening.
Thunberg: I didn’t ask to be on this one but. So this Thursday we are finally going to be able to do the
Pioneer Pass Park playground build. Thursday, Friday, Saturday. The volunteers this time are at 38 but I
think it will be slightly higher than that as, one of the neighbors who just hasn’t signed up yet. He
actually organized through his work to do with his co-workers. I think he’s bringing 7 co-workers and
they’re taking a half day or getting a half day off to come to do a volunteer build and help so we should
have another 7 on top of this even so. If anybody’s around, Thursday morning is our lightest. We have 7
total sign-up’s and that includes Todd and Adam so there’s not too many neighbors right now signed up
for Thursday morning so if anybody’s around and wants to lend a hand, we can use that on that day.
Other than that I think we’re pretty good. We have double digits Friday and Saturday morning. And then
Saturday at 5:00 everyone is invited. There’ll be kind of the picnic. Grand opening celebration.
Hotdogs, chips, watermelon, cookies will all be provided and we’ll open the park.
Kelly: Fantastic. Thanks for spearheading the volunteer campaign.
COMMISSION MEMBER PRESENTATIONS.
None.
ADMINISTRATIVE PACKET.
Kelly: Todd, anything in the administrative packet you want to point out to us?
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Park and Recreation Commission – July 22, 2014
Hoffman: Not specifically.
Scharfenberg: Can I just ask Jerry, can you address the power issue at Lake Susan. I saw the comment in
there that the outlets weren’t working. I don’t know if that was, is that something that got checked out?
Ruegemer: Was that Susan or Lake Ann?
Scharfenberg: I thought it was Lake Susan.
Ruegemer: To my knowledge that was taken care of. I don’t know, I haven’t heard any power issues
from that point.
Hoffman: We’ll double check Steve.
Scharfenberg: Okay.
Kelly: Jerry it looks like overall you’re loved quite a bit.
Ruegemer: What’s not to love commissioners.
Carron: Let’s end on that note. Quick. Motion to adjourn.
Thunberg: Second.
Carron moved, Thunberg seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the motion
carried unanimously with a vote of 9 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
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