PRC 2015 05 27
CHANHASSEN PARK AND
RECREATION COMMISSION
REGULAR MEETING
MAY 27, 2015
The Park and Recreation Commission met at Bandimere Park expansion site prior to the
regular meeting. Vice Chair Carron called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT:
Steve Scharfenberg, Brent Carron, Jim Boettcher, Rick Echternacht,
Jennifer Hougham, and Lauren Dale.
MEMBERS ABSENT:
Cole Kelly and Luke Thunberg
STAFF PRESENT:
Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Director; Jerry Ruegemer, Recreation
Superintendent; and Katie Favro, Recreation Supervisor
APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Scharfenberg moved, Boettcher seconded to approve the
agenda as presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of
6 to 0.
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Hoffman: Before I start with, I have one and then before I start with that. Just training, so you
guys can add as a commissioner any item you would like so if you hear something from your
neighbors. If there’s a particular concern or if you have an idea that you want to talk about and
it’s not on the agenda, you can add that to the agenda for discussion. There will probably be
some light discussion about it the evening you bring it up and then if the commission agrees you
would make a motion to have staff go back and find additional information out about that and
present it at the next meeting so that’s always your opportunity at each meeting. Public
announcements, we would like to acknowledge the Chanhassen American Legion 580 for
hosting the Memorial Day ceremony on Monday at noon. Really a touching ceremony again at
the Veteran’s Monument in City Center Park. There was over 500 people present in that cloudy,
potentially rainy day. People talk about the event and they just really it touches their heart that
it’s for the veterans in recognition of their service to our community and they just can’t say
enough nice things about the Legion coming out and performing that. That’s their third event of
the day. Those Legion Color Guard members and others with the fire department start at 7:30
that morning and they go to each cemetery in town and then this is their final stop at noon so
kudos to Jerry Ruegemer for his coordination efforts with the Legion. He’s our direct contact
here with the Legion and so what the park department provides is some chairs and some
coordination. Some expenses for those type of things and then the Legion is really the host at the
monument that they built and then dedicated to the citizens of Chanhassen so if you were there,
thank you for being there and then always mark it on your calendar for next year.
Scharfenberg: I would just say, I would echo Todd’s comments. Again kudos to staff for
arranging that and Jerry I know that you put in a lot of time with respect to that event. A very
nicely done event and well coordinated and you know wonderful picnic lunch afterwards put on
Park and Recreation Commission – May 27, 2015
by the Legion so again very touching event and appreciate staff’s work on that. The other
announcement that I would have is that the Chanhassen Red Birds have their first home game
this Friday at Storm Red Bird Field. 7:30 against Belle Plain. I would also encourage people to
go and buy tickets for the Town Ball Classic at the Twins, at Target Field. That is for Saturday,
th
June 27 I believe. We are kind of under the gun to purchase tickets by this Friday and if a
certain number of tickets haven’t been purchased by that date we may not be playing at Target
th
Field on the 27 so if you go on the Twins website and go to their community page and click on
that, you can go on there and you just purchase your tickets directly and then print them off so
that’s the, we’re not selling tickets. They’re not allowing us to you know purchase them or
anything like that. They’re doing it all online so that’s what you have to do so I would
encourage people to go and do that.
Hoffman: And it’s not that many. Minimum is 2,000 right?
Scharfenberg: Yep.
Hoffman: And so that’s just to open up the doors and pay some of the expenses so.
Scharfenberg: Yep exactly.
Hoffman: If you happen to know any kind of a corporate sponsor that can buy 100 and then give
it to their clients or their customers, that would be another good way of accomplishing that by
Friday. A lot of times the first year event is difficult to get off the ground but once it starts going
then it’s easier to sell so.
VISITOR PRESENTATIONS.
None.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
Carron: I know Commissioner Kelly had 4 different changes or additions but we’ll just put that
as a note for next month if he wants to have those fixed because I didn’t know which ones he
had.
Echternacht: …hold to next month?
Carron: Oh no, no. We’ll take a motion.
Scharfenberg: I move to accept the Minutes for the April 28, 2015 meeting.
Echternacht: I second that motion.
Carron: Motion and second.
Scharfenberg moved, Echternacht seconded to approve the verbatim and summary
Minutes of the Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated April 28, 2015 as
presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0.
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Park and Recreation Commission – May 27, 2015
DESIGN DEVELOPMENT DISCUSSION FOR FUTURE IMPROVEMENTS AT
BANDIMERE COMMUNITY PARK, AMY BOWER, HOISINGTON KOEGLER
GROUP, INC.
Carron: We’ll pick up where we left off with Amy and our development discussion of the future
improvements at Bandimere Community Park.
Hoffman: As Amy comes up, you can step up. The packet included a great deal of information
and as commissioners I just want you to be able to take a chance to go, take a look at that history
and so we’re in this for over a year right now. Basically this time last year you were holding
public open houses on you know what the public thinks about that park expansion plan and our,
really our desire here now is to update those plans. Refine the cost estimates and then so when
you make a presentation and recommendation to the council that you have all the information
you need as far as costs and you know what has the public weighed in on and so you have some
of that documentation as well. And then the last item Amy will note the, this evening the plans
but then basically we’re going to talk about cost estimates and where they have been and where
they’ve gotten to now based on these plans so thanks Amy.
Amy Bower: Okay. I know we’re all familiar with the plan but I think I’ll just show them so we
can review the costs associated with them side by side. The shelter for Bandimere Park that
we’re proposing will accommodate bathrooms and a small concession or kitchen area and open
pavilion area that will have like 12 picnic tables. It’s open view to the greater park and the
bathrooms are more oriented to the soccer field and the playgrounds are also adjacent to the
shelter. Do you want me to go through each park quick?
Hoffman: Let’s go through each cost.
Amy Bower: And the cost associated with that.
Hoffman: You have this in your packet as well. This cost sheet.
Amy Bower: Yeah so you don’t have to try to read. There’s really small numbers and so these
are the costs associated with building the shelter as a stand alone project, and there’s a lot of
detail here. Normally it might not show all this much detail but I went through the process to tell
you there’s a lot more involved than just building the shelter. There’s the mobilization cost and
construction entrance and silt fencing and all these things that you have to kind of put into
consideration when you come up with a total dollar amount. So the site prep alone is usually
what we start with. The trails associated with the shelter, pretty minimal. It’s pretty well
connected to the existing trail system. The shelter itself involves moving the irrigation cabinet,
which could be a $10,000 is an estimate. We don’t know an exact number but we have an
allotment for that budget. The shelter itself is fairly substantial. We’re proposing a nice shelter
with stone at the base. A nice metal roof that has low maintenance. A lot of low maintenance
materials you might pay up front with but it lasts a lot longer in the long run and just be a more
enjoyable shelter for people to rent out or have as, have their company picnics there. And then
we need to landscape. We need to restore the grading that we do to the site. We need to deal
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Park and Recreation Commission – May 27, 2015
with any runoff from the roof that we hadn’t before so any new pervious surfaces we have to
accommodate with some kind of rain garden or some kind of infiltration system so we need to
accommodate that with a project too. And then we include, this is just a schematic design right
now so we need additional monies for designing and surveying and actually construction
drawings and bidding it out and there’s also a contingency of 10 percent because in this, in
today’s market the price is very fluctuating. Like last year everything was 30 percent higher than
a normal bid year and then this year we’re back down a little bit so there’s a lot of unknowns and
fluctuation in the market and we just want to make sure we give you a number, a budget that you
can feel you can do a good job with this project on. So the project total comes to $640,000 and
like Todd said, that was more than was originally estimated a few years ago when we weren’t
really getting in a lot of detail with the project. It was really more of a really schematic so this
number we feel will give you a good budget to work with. Get a nice shelter like we’re showing
and allow any contingency in the market for costs going up or down. And I guess like we
mentioned in the field the sewer and the water are already set up for the shelter which is a big
cost savings so it’s set up to be, to have a shelter there. The next two projects I have on one plan
because they’re very close to each other on the north side of the park and they could be stand
alone projects. We are showing the skating area over on this side and the hockey area we’re
showing as a concrete pad so that it can be used in the summer for pickleball and the concrete is
also nice for the hockey with the permanent boards around the outside and our cost estimate
includes hockey boards that are made out of rotational molded plastic which is very durable like
playground plastics. It’s not a wood that needs to be repainted or high maintenance so there’s a
little bit initial higher cost but it’s a lot sturdier and longer lasting. The Minneapolis park
systems use it on their rinks and they’re very happy with it. So this is the hockey rink area with
lighting for the rinks and the lighting we’re proposing is a high quality lighting that’s LED and is
very directional in the lighting. It shoots it down on the pavement and there’s not a lot of, there’s
no light pollution beyond the site. The open skate area would be over here. The original plan
had a permanent shelter but we’re trying to keep the costs close to the original budget so we’re
proposing just a bituminous pad for a temporary shelter that’d be seasonal. So open skate area.
And again when we were out at the site today we looked at the grades and it would be nice to, we
need to flatten the grades a little bit to make it more prone to flooding. For hockey rink. For a
level hockey rink and we’re proposing taking some of these soils and rather than shipping them
off site is creating a berm on the side that would be nice for spectating of soccer fields or for kids
to play with in the winter. Little kind of sled hill. Also you see your stormwater area ponds.
When we take this plan further we need to accommodate the extra runoff with the pervious
surface and that can be done in a number of ways. We could make a swale area for infiltration.
The soils are pretty clay here so it’s hard to infiltrate. We can look at re-using some of the
collected water with a temporary irrigation system or you know as needed irrigation system so if
we collected water in this pond you could pump it back out on the grass area here to make use of
that water. Another way you can deal with runoff is having prairie plantings along the hillside.
The prairie plantings have deeper roots. They absorb more of the water than a mowed turf would
be so that you get credit for that as a stormwater credit. So we looked at that as one project in
our cost estimate and you have that under hockey skating improvements and again this is a lot of
detail for mobilization and survey and staking. Fine grading for the hockey and the hockey rink
lights. Like I said the boards are fairly expensive. They could be installed or assembled by
volunteers. I think it’s an easy system but this includes purchase and install price. Striping for
pickleball is pretty minimal. So you can see the total price and for that. I have lowering the
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Park and Recreation Commission – May 27, 2015
skating area, the grading as a separate line item so you can see $66,000 might be a lot if you’re
carting it all off site but we can in the next phase be more efficient to try to use it on site so that
price might vary. And then again we have accommodations for stormwater. We have ponding.
We have an irrigation re-use system. It might be like $20,000 for a pump and that may or may
not be in the final design. It’s just a place holder for a budget as an option. And again you see
the design and engineering which is typically 8 percent. Contingency of 10. The fluctuating
market so we’re at $473,000.
Echternacht: Amy on that pad for a trailer and possible building in the future, I see it’s 900
square feet. Is that, I’m not sure exactly what size the trailer would be. We’ve had them in the
past haven’t we? What, I’m just trying to see if that, I’m just looking at the picture and trying to
see if that’s enough space for a trailer to fit there.
Ruegemer: Sure roughly Commissioner Echternacht, the trailers up here at City Center are
roughly about 10 by 30 roughly here on North Lotus so that gives you kind of an estimate as to
what that is so I think that would be plenty.
Scharfenberg: And that off skate area next to the hockey rink would be just grass right? And so
once it’s leveled and that it’d just be seeded, is that right?
Hoffman: Correct.
Scharfenberg: Okay.
Carron: Not knowing, this might come off really biased here but is there a difference in flooding
in the winter time over concrete versus asphalt? With the heat and a black surface underneath it
all.
Hoffman: No. There was always concern when asphalt hockey rinks first came into the scene.
People thought oh we’re going to have to put white paper down because it’s going to reflect. It’s
going to absorb the sun but the ice turns white pretty fast and reflects that sunlight and so there’s
really no difference between concrete and asphalt. The challenge we had at the Rec Center was
when it was painted and that was just too smooth. When you put water on it and it started to
freeze, it just sheeted right off. It would not grab onto the base and concrete has a little bit
shinier surface but it still, the ice grabs onto it and adheres. What we see at the Rec Center is
after we had about 4 inches of flooding it would just, the frost heaves expansion would break it
up and it would just pile up and we had to get about 6 inches of ice. 4 to 5 to 6 inches of ice
before it had enough weight to hold down. It really never adhered to that painted smooth
surface. It just kind of floated on it but there’s between hockey, or between concrete and asphalt
no issue as far as, long term if you do concrete right it’s just going to look, you know it’s going
to look better longer but if you have a cracking problem you’re going to suffer more with
concrete than you would with asphalt so you want to do it right if you’re going to put concrete
down.
Carron: The only reason why I bring that up is because there’s about $100,000 difference.
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Park and Recreation Commission – May 27, 2015
Amy Bower: Yeah it’s a big price difference.
Carron: So it’s a six figure price there so okay. Thanks.
Hoffman: It could be an option. You know we would want to have that conversation with our
pickleball folks and talk about, it could be a significant cost savings for you. It’d be something
to consider.
Amy Bower: And as I said we did price out the parking lot separately. As it mentioned out in
the field the additional 28 stalls of parking that we’re showing here could probably mostly be
used in the summer where you have the most users of the park so it’d benefit the summer users
more than the hockey use. And the cost estimate here, again the typical survey and silt fencing,
the parking lot itself, you can see the dollar amount. Stormwater ponding. Trail connections and
landscaping. And again I put most of the landscaping and this parking lot but the hockey would
need probably some of the landscaping put into it. So the parking lot project came to $165,000.
And again I mean you can look at, we included a couple of aerial lights. Two aerial lights in the
parking lot. You may or may not see a need for the lighting in that as you move forward. As
you saw the site today, this area of the park is at the main entrance and it’s prepped for a court.
There’s a layer of sand there that makes the court pavement a lot structurally more sound than
just being on clay so it’s set up and graded pretty close to this now and this plan is showing two
courts will fit in that area. We’re also including two basketball hoops. It’s hard to stripe for both
basketball and tennis but the nets can still be used. Or the hoops can still be used for basketball.
We’d put a backboard on one side of the fence. We’d fence in the whole area and we’d add
lighting so that this could be a court used at night in the summer. This parking area already
exists. This trail already exists. We’d just be linking in the parking area to the tennis courts.
Hoffman: The backboard is for those who just go in and hit off the backboard. Single person
use.
Amy Bower: And the very detailed cost estimate again is here so you can see everything and we
can you know talk about lights. About $50,000 for lighting. Not a lot of room for cost savings
there. It’s going to be either you build it or not. We have black vinyl chain link fence which is a
little more expensive than just galvanized, plain chain link fence so that could be a way to get
some cost savings.
Scharfenberg: Todd and/or Amy, could you go back to the drawing? Is it possible to put two
pickleball courts as opposed to one of those, on one of those two tennis courts? Could you put
two pickleball courts on one tennis court?
Hoffman: I don’t believe so.
Amy Bower: I think they can lay them this way. I mean you couldn’t, you couldn’t have both at
the same time. The nets would have to be temporary.
Scharfenberg: Well I’m just thinking having one tennis court and two pickleball courts. Is that a
possibility? I mean would you have to expand the pad in order to do that?
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Park and Recreation Commission – May 27, 2015
Hoffman: They just wouldn’t fit in the same spot but you could put two pickleball on the right
and tennis on the left and you could accommodate that.
Amy Bower: Is that what you’re saying?
Scharfenberg: Yeah that’s what, get rid of one tennis court and make it two pickleball courts.
Hoffman: Yep.
Hougham: Would that…?
Hoffman: Sure.
Scharfenberg: Sure.
Hoffman: Yeah so if you take that same footprint at the Rec Center, there are 6 pickleball courts
in that space.
Scharfenberg: Right.
Hoffman: So you could put 2 pickleball on the right and a single tennis on the left and then just
not do pickleball at the other location.
Scharfenberg: I’m just thinking that as a potential option for us because I think you know clearly
on the hockey rink you could certainly have a large number of pickleball courts. At least with
this option you’ve got 2 permanent ones there the whole time. I don’t know, I just throw it out
there as an option.
Hoffman: It’s an option. The challenge is that, the problem is they’re always going to want
more than 2 pickleball so then you’re probably going to have to go over to the hockey anyway
and accommodate some additional and then you would lose any ability to host any kind of tennis
meet so you might be watering down both of them at the same time.
Echternacht: Well Steve you’re talking about doing them in both places.
Scharfenberg: No. I’m talking about just pickleball. Two pickleball courts and then you
wouldn’t do them at the hockey rink.
Echternacht: And then at one time we had talked about having a dog, using that for dogs then.
Hoffman: Yep, if you made it grass.
Echternacht: If you.
Hoffman: If you make hockey grass you could have a small dog off leash area.
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Park and Recreation Commission – May 27, 2015
Scharfenberg: And you know part of this I think and what Brent said about if you put asphalt on
the hockey rink, you have $100,000 potentially but then I think it would be more difficult to have
pickleball with the asphalt there. Over time I think that surface is going to erode and not be a
nice pickleball surface. If you add cement there it would be better but you know if you put
asphalt there, save $100,000 at the hockey rink but then build some nice pickleball courts,
you’ve got 2 there. I don’t know. I’m just trying to think of other options and alternatives and
money. Some money savers.
Carron: Or do just in the order. This gives an option if you do one tennis court and two
pickleball courts. If you want to, I don’t know if the commission wants to move ahead with the
courts before the hockey rink or vice versa and you’ve got that.
Scharfenberg: Yeah.
Carron: You’re saying we’ve got that room to work with it.
Scharfenberg: Yep.
Carron: It’s a good thought. Sorry Amy.
Amy Bower: No it’s good discussion to hear.
Hoffman: You can also eliminate tennis and do all pickleball.
Scharfenberg: Yeah.
Carron: Todd at one time we were, when we were talking about getting lights into Bandimere
one of the major costs was just getting the transformer there. Amy in your estimates do you
know if, are these all considering that something, or are they splitting up the cost of getting the
electricity to the park or? What I guess I’m getting at here is if we just put in courts, is it going
to be $50,000 just for the lights and not the transformer or how does that work in the budget?
Hoffman: I think it’s, it would all come out of contingency but the first one in is probably going
to take the biggest portion of that.
Carron: So that, yeah. It’s kind of spread out through the build out.
Amy Bower: Yeah.
Carron: Okay.
Hoffman: The nice thing is it’s right there. It’s right on this corner of this tennis court so we
have power ready to be brought in and this is Minnesota Valley who is very nice to work with.
Carron: Anything else?
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Park and Recreation Commission – May 27, 2015
Amy Bower: No, I’m just here to listen to any questions you might have.
Carron: Okay. Lauren, start with you. Do you have any questions?
Dale: No.
Carron: Comments? Okay, Jen?
Hougham: No.
Carron: Rick.
Echternacht: …looks fine.
Carron: Jim you must have something.
Boettcher: No it just, I mean we’ve talked about this I think probably, I’ve been here 3 years. I
think we’ve talked about it the whole time but I mean I look at it. I look at the activity that was
there this afternoon. I mean I live by Lake Ann. I always thought there was a lot of activity
there but there’s compared to Bandimere there’s nothing at Ann. I mean this is really awesome
and that brought up what Steve was talking about with the tennis courts because I drive by Lake
Ann all the time. There’s the 2 courts there and maybe 3 times a year I see somebody there. I
mean it’s, the popularity I know we’ve had people say that at open house. Why would you do
that? Last year we heard those comments. Why would you put a tennis court in? Who plays
tennis? Now there are a few but I like the idea of going with two pickleball courts because the
popularity of that. I mean Jodi will tell you at the Rec Center it’s just, and they get really heated
if they can’t get on the court. They’re not nice about either. But the other thing I’m also on the
Watershed District Advisory Committee locally here and there is actually a formula. I’m sure
you guys go through it but for rain gardens and stuff, impervious surface so if you look at the
roof of the shelter you’re putting in, this applies more probably like when you’re getting funds
from Met Council. They’re very, very strict about if you’ve got 18,000 square feet of runoff you
have to have X amount of rain gardens, swales or whatever but there is a formula out there that
one of the people in our group actually does this for a living and she calculates this type of stuff
but it’s really amazing what you can do. How much runoff you can treat with just a 200 square
foot rain garden. It’s pretty incredible. I like the plan. I really do. Just got to get it done.
Scharfenberg: With respect to the shelter, would the commission be interested in, I know the
cost to build that is just for the shelter itself is $450,000. If we, if you took out the kitchen and
the bathrooms and just had the shelter itself, is it worth getting a number from Amy so we’ve got
the two? You’ve got the shelter or you’ve got the shelter with the bathrooms just so it’s
something to look at if we’re interested in talking about numbers.
Carron: Is that doable?
Amy Bower: Sure.
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Park and Recreation Commission – May 27, 2015
Carron: And I think just to add to that, make it that if we, without it still could be at some point
with the water, the sanitary, everything’s there that if you somehow can design it or keep the
same design that we could build it out at a later point. If that’s possible.
Amy Bower: Yeah I’ll look into that. It could just be a matter of sandwiching on the end or.
Carron: Did you have something?
Hougham: Yeah I would think bathrooms there would probably be a necessity so maybe if you
could bring it out like shelter and bathrooms. Shelter and kitchen and bathrooms, something like
that maybe.
Amy Bower: Okay.
Scharfenberg: Yeah I mean clearly if you can have a facility like that with bathrooms you know
the soccer people are there. The baseball people are there. They’re going to want that. I’m just
thinking in terms of dollars and sometimes when we’re haggling over dollars and putting you
know placeholders for some of this stuff it, you know some people might say oh I’d be willing to
do that at that cost but I don’t want to do something at that cost so I think it’s just something
good that we have that and when we can, something we can certainly talk about.
Carron: Steve I think you were talking to Todd earlier too, the City Council put funds away for
the shelter program. They have taken the shelter out of Bandimere from our request that we kind
of combine this together.
Hoffman: Correct.
Carron: Would the City Council be interested in having those saved funds maybe come into this
proposal?
Hoffman: You’d have to ask them.
Carron: That’s another thing I thought of here.
Hougham: What other city parks have shelters with a kitchen?
Scharfenberg: Just one.
Hoffman: Well this is not necessarily a kitchen. It could be a concession area.
Hougham: So you could bring in your own just like outlets.
Hoffman: Yep. It depends on what you want to do. You could either run this as a concession
stand or you could make it like a kitchen like Lake Minnewashta for those familiar with Lake
Minnewashta. So they have a kitchen there so that’s identification one way or the other.
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Park and Recreation Commission – May 27, 2015
Hougham: And the current budget is for just like a concession area with no kitchen?
Amy Bower: Yeah.
Hougham: Okay. A concession area. Okay.
Hoffman: And then the bathrooms are at Lake Ann. At the lakeside pavilion and then at Lake
Susan at that lakeside pavilion. And as a park system we haven’t installed a lot of modern
bathrooms yet but it’s planned or forecasted for Bandimere. It’s planned or forecasted for the
ballfields at Lake Ann. There’s a sewer line there now. There’s a water line there and you know
we get that request a lot. Many other cities have it so you’ve got Eden Prairie, you’re going to
find modern restrooms in most of their parks. Go to Eagan, they’re going to have them in every
park. Even every neighborhood park has modern restrooms. They don’t use portable toilets so.
You know you can build it now or you can leave it for a future remodel to bring those in. The
sewer and water savings is there as an opportunity to put it in here and so one thing I encourage
you to, I like taking a look at options but if it’s $80,000 or $100,000 one thing to tell yourself is
it’s better not to do something else for $80,000 to $100,000 and get this all done at once. I know
the numbers get big but it’s one of those things where eventually as a commission and as a city
we’re going to have to select the right time to do these facilities and make them nice for the
community.
Carron: Amy I’m sure you see a lot more parks and shelters than we do. Are we, how does this
plan compare to what you’ve designed elsewhere or is there anything that we’re missing or is
there things that set this apart from other communities that your company’s worked on?
Amy Bower: I think the shelter, if you’re going to do a shelter I’d put the restrooms in and
maybe the concessions right from the get go. It’s going to cost more to piece it apart in the long
run so if you feel that this is your vision it’s a lot cheaper to do it. This is when you do it. This
is going to get more expensive and having maybe the playgrounds be a little bit bigger with the
shelter might be an option because now this shelter is really rentable and it’s really an event
place where you can have big gatherings so I could see that being maybe another step.
Scharfenberg: You mean adding some additional playground space?
Amy Bower: Yeah.
Scharfenberg: Okay.
Amy Bower: Like I noticed there’s no swings.
Scharfenberg: Right.
Carron: It’s been brought up before.
Amy Bower: And at Lake Ann.
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Park and Recreation Commission – May 27, 2015
Hoffman: People talk about it a lot, yeah. We might have a commission that’s going to buy
swings. That’s good.
Carron: Anything else for Amy or for staff? Alright well thank, Amy thank you very much.
Awesome plans. Awesome detail. Really appreciate it.
Amy Bower: Thanks for inviting me.
SUMMER CONCERT SERIES/AMPHITHEATER SURVEY.
Ruegemer: Thank you Vice Chair Carron. Last month the Park and Rec Commission did direct
staff to develop a survey to have available to our participants of our KleinBank Summer Concert
Series right here at City Center Park. The concert series did begin in the early 1990’s. Had a
variety of different names. Lawn Chair Lyrics was the original name. Twilight Tunes was
another one and then also now the KleinBank Summer Concert Series so very popular music
series on Thursday nights right here at City Center Park. Our numbers on average are fairly high
for that. Last night KleinBank did present the $2,500 check to Mayor Laufenburger last night so
really a neat event. KleinBank is all in on the sponsorship with that so they enjoy having their
name associated with the popular event. So with that looking forward. The Park and Recreation
Commission did direct staff to develop a survey to distribute at the concert series to not only
look at currently what we have but also look at future needs. Is it the right type of music? Is it
the right location? Do we need to potentially look at doing an amphitheater at Lake Ann or any
other type of identified site within our park system so attached on the back of the back side of the
report is the survey and certainly staff can take any direction tonight. This is a, kind of a
working document. If the commission had a chance to look at it and would like to change
anything. Any of the questions or kind of answers for that, please feel free to do so tonight.
Staff will then take the survey and have it available not only at the concerts itself but more than
likely on some type of our website. Social media. Facebook. Maybe we could tie in a contest of
some sort. Have a drawing of some sort of the people who participate so we’re exploring those
options right now but I really want to, probably really the most beneficial for us would be the
direct people right at the concerts itself so please take a look and if there’s any questions I can
answer please feel free to ask.
Carron: Questions for Jerry.
Echternacht: I noticed Jerry very last one. There’s two possible suggestions, Minnewashta
Regional Park and Arboretum. Is that something that we should, staff should alert them that
we’re just throwing this out as a possibility since it’s not part of the City or does it make any
difference?
Ruegemer: Yeah, you know I think that just was kind of a broad, very broad question at this
point. If the commission feels it’s presumptuous staff can certainly take that, take that out.
Hougham: Has anyone asked KleinBank about the amphitheater?
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Park and Recreation Commission – May 27, 2015
Ruegemer: About the amphitheater?
Hougham: About the idea of one or how they feel about that.
Carron: Do you have a follow up or a concern?
Hougham: I was just wondering if they were for it if they would like to partner with the City on
that.
Carron: Okay.
Hoffman: It’s a possibility.
Hougham: I mean and if we did build an amphitheater at another location like Lake Ann Park
would they still want to participate without their bank across the street? So are they, do they
have any concerns about that either?
Carron: Yeah and I think, I guess considering I presented this to the commission, I like the idea.
Jerry of adding Minnewashta and the Landscape Arboretum because a couple things. One, after
talking about Bandimere and everything else we’ve got a lot of needs in the city and we’ve also
been questioned by City Council of needs versus wants and I think a lot of the success from the
amphitheaters in our neighboring and surrounding cities have come from partnerships and
donations of that sort of thing. It would be something that if we’re going to do it we’re going to
have to do it right and so I agree with you. KleinBank would be a good one but…
There was a mechanical problem at this point and a portion of the meeting was not
recorded.
Hoffman: …park. They might partner with you. It certainly would be different than having it in
your downtown so you know it’s not, there’s nothing wrong with asking. You’re going to get
some information.
Boettcher: And that was the thing I was, when Rick brought it up initially at both of then, I mean
at Minnewashta you have to pay the park pass. Arboretum $45 a year membership or whatever it
is, $15 a day or $10 a day or something. I mean that could detract from the quote unquote “free”
concert series. To me I mean it could be an issue you know because you go out to Minnewashta
and you say well we have access because it’s Thursday night and it’s KleinBank Series but are
they really going to off leash dog area or down to the beach or whatever so it could create some
concerns.
Hougham: And just a question on some of the questions here. So are there currently
concessions available during the concerts?
Hoffman: Yes. Just minor concessions.
Hougham: Like local vendors like come and set up a booth or?
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Park and Recreation Commission – May 27, 2015
Hoffman: We serve popcorn, candy bars, soda.
Ruegemer: And soft drinks.
Hougham: Okay. Is it open to like some of the local businesses to set up?
Hoffman: We tried that. It’s just not enough volume.
Hougham: Not enough there, okay. And then with the current amenities, is like the library open
during the same time if people have to use the restroom?
Ruegemer: Library yeah, closes around 7:00 so.
Hougham: So no bathrooms or anything?
Ruegemer: Yeah, they can go into City Hall if they need to.
Hougham: There is one, okay.
Carron: Okay, anything else for Jerry? Alright. Looks good Jerry, thanks.
Ruegemer: Thank you.
Hoffman: Steve was that what you were thinking or similar?
Scharfenberg: Yeah, no I thought.
Carron: Oh I’m sorry Steve.
Scharfenberg: No that’s okay. I didn’t have any changes. I thought it was a great survey and I’d
even encourage Jerry if you need help from us you know to come up and work and help out and
do some of that I would encourage members of the commission to come up and you know be
there to view a night or a couple of nights and help out with staff if you need help.
Hoffman: And the positive I saw is it’s going to garner us some information for our current
concert series as well. Not just about future thoughts so I think it’s going to help either solidify
or modify things that we can help improve upon our current concert series as well.
RECREATION PROGRAM REPORTS:
LAKE ANN PARK SUMMER SCHEDULE.
Ruegemer: Thank you again. Just we did start out at Lake Ann Park last Saturday. Saturday
morning with that, with our concession and boat rental operation. We trained staff last
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Park and Recreation Commission – May 27, 2015
Wednesday to kind of go through all the kind of the in’s and out’s of the concession stand so
Saturday wasn’t too bad. Sunday was a rain out with the weather we had and Monday was quite
slow as well so we will definitely gain steam. We’ll be open again this weekend on Saturday
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and Sunday and then we are scheduled to open up next Wednesday, June 3 kind of for the rest
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of the summer from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. until August 16 for that so. Normally it starts
picking up here kind of when the end of school gets out. We have school parties down there next
week so it will be a fun summer with that. Again the concession manager will kind of coordinate
and all the work schedules and the kind of the day to day operations down there. We do have
our same manager back this year as last summer so Nick did a great job on really making sure
that everything was clean all the time and make sure the boats are clean and the operation ran
very well and we did have record revenues last year so that was great. We did have add 2
additional stand up paddleboards this year. We had 4 last summer. With our partnership with
Twin City Paddleboard, have the same agreement this year but with the popular we did add 2
more down there so Jeff Gavin is our contact with Twin City Paddleboard. Is a fantastic person
to work with and we have a great agreement and arrangement with a nice revenue share for the
City so that will remain popular out there again as well. With having 2 additional boards we’ll
be able to service our customers even better this year. The beach is scheduled to open up on
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Saturday June 6 again with Minnetonka Aquatics. We’ve had really a long standing
relationship and a contract with them so very excited to have them on board again this year and
as you recall we did go through another 2 year contract with them so we’re good for another, for
this summer and next summer so. And they’ll be open up from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and that
thth
will be June 6 through August 16 with that so things are really starting to kind of pick up.
Landon will have daily contact with the concession stand with counting money and making sure
that everything is kind of going in the right direction out there as well to assist so we appreciate
Landon’s help with that so he’s already started counting money after last week so, not a whole
lot of money from last weekend but it will definitely pick up so. Lake Ann’s always a popular
place. You know CAA does have a number of tournaments scheduled out there. Just working
with them right now on the Chanhassen tournament coming up the first weekend in June with
that so I think they’re talking about 20 or 30 teams again for that so the Chanhassen Challenge so
very popular. Lake Ann’s a great venue to host that event so lot of excitement out at Lake Ann.
The picnics are really picking up here and a lot of big company picnics. We have a lot of you
know 300 to 500 person picnics out there again this summer from Blue Stand Brands to General
Mills to a number of different big groups so we seem to be kind of the landing place for a lot of
these bigger events so.
Carron: Any questions for Jerry? Alright, thanks Jerry. Hopefully it stays like today everyday.
Ruegemer: Fingers crossed.
2015 SUMMER PROGRAMS.
Favro: Thank you. Hello commissioners. These are just a list of all the programs that we offer.
Some of them are offered due to the Rec Center. Some of them are right out in our parks and
some are for preschool, youth and family. Some of the biggest ones I guess that I’ve been
working with is our playground program. We have a lot of people on that and our Lake Ann
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Park and Recreation Commission – May 27, 2015
Adventure Camp. This year we decided to do, usually it’s 80 kids per week and you can sign up
for multiple weeks. You can do week 1 and week 2. This year we decided because the camp has
been so popular that we are going to do, you can only sign up for one week so both camps are
full with 80 kids and there is at least 15 kids on the waiting list so this way 160 kids get a chance
to go out and see what Lake Ann’s all about. I guess do you have any specific questions on any
of these? I can try to help you. Some are Jodi’s programs and some I have not run yet so, for
those I can try to help but we do, and some of them we do kind of contract out through like
Skyhawks. We kind of do their advertising and their registrations but they are actually the ones
running the programs.
Hoffman: Katie can you describe for the commission the Summer Discovery Playground
program and where capacity is at on that?
Favro: Yeah. Capacity for those, well I guess we go to a bunch of different parks. There’s
Chan Hills. North Lotus. South Lotus. Riley Ridge. City Center. Stone Creek. Roundhouse.
So we go to those different parks throughout the week. Some of them, the more popular ones we
go through maybe twice a week. We offer a morning session and an afternoon session. The
morning session runs from 9:00 to noon and then the afternoon session is 1:00 to 4:00. Right
now we’ve got some of those playgrounds are at full capacity which is 30 kids in each group.
We do two groups in the sessions. There is Tiny Mites, which is our ages 4 to 6 and then we
have the Dynamites which are 7 to 12. So some playgrounds you’ll go by this summer and there
will be 60 kids throughout the park with our leaders. We have 10 playground leaders. They’re
all hired and we’re going to do training next week so that should be fun to get them all excited
and ready to go. And then some of them are a little bit smaller parks that are not as popular yet
but we still go out and try to make sure that recreation and playground is accessible to everybody
in all different areas. And then we do a Summer Sensations which is kind of like our playground
program but it is for kids ages 3 to 4 and that is only going to be an hour and a half so this is a
way for our 3 year olds and 4 year olds who aren’t quite old enough to be in the playground but
kind of get them ready so that when they are old enough it’s an easy transition and they’re
already kind of used to how things go. Plus some of them have like older siblings that have been
going and they’re really excited and want to go. They’re just not quite old enough.
Carron: Try telling that to my 3 year old.
Scharfenberg: I have one question on, Katie on the second page. Or on the back page. Safe
Kids 101. Is that the former Safety Camp or is that a different thing?
Favro: That is a different thing. We still do our Safety Camp which is outside of the Rec Center.
That is still offered. Safe Kids is one of Jodi’s programs I believe that she does and that’s more
about I think just like when you’re home kind of how to make sure you’re in a safe environment
and just what you would do if you became in an unsafe situation. How to call 911. Where to go.
Different things like that.
Scharfenberg: Okay. And then I’ve got one other question that I was just thinking about
because my son went through it last year. Todd have we ever offered firearms training through
park and rec? I know my son took it last year through Eden Prairie’s park and rec program. Is
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Park and Recreation Commission – May 27, 2015
that something we’ve ever done and is that something, if we have done it why did we stop it or if
we’ve never done it is it something we would consider doing?
Hoffman: We’ve never done simply because it was offered at other locations throughout our
community so the fire station always had one and I’m not sure if they’re still doing that. Kevin
Fever operates one. Gander Mountain in Eden Prairie and then the City of Chaska and so there
was plenty of firearm classes if you wanted to get into one. We could certainly host one and find
if there’s not enough capacity in our area we should take a look at hosting one and having it here.
We certainly could. So we’ll check on that. See where they’re still going on.
Scharfenberg: Okay.
Hoffman: The gentleman at the fire station was one of the longest running firearm instructions
but I’m not sure they’re still doing it there. As a commission you know something you really
take a lot of pride is in that playground program. That allows all neighbors to meet each other.
A lot of times there’s new neighbors and this is the program where moms and dads get to go
down to their summer park in the summer. Meet each other. They form bonds as a family and
their kids form bonds and so as a park and recreation department, as a commission that’s really
an important program to build your community. It’s affordable. It’s safe. People like it and
Katie and her group just do a great job each year engaging those kids and I’m not sure what the
total enrollment is but it’s in the hundreds.
Ruegemer: Yeah. Normally we’re 375-400 annually.
Hoffman: On an annual basis.
Hougham: Do they have to pay to participate?
Favro: Yep we do have kids, you have to pre-register to be a part of the program because we do
have a max and that’s kind of just based on playground leader to kid ratio. We want to make
sure that it’s a safe environment from everybody. We do have kids who will see it going on and
will drop by and kind of see what it’s all about. We do welcome them to kind of join us when
they can. It’s a way to get them used to it and then we do encourage them to sign up. The only
problem I see with that is when you get these playgrounds that have 30 kids that are already at
their max and they’ve got 15 people on the waiting list so we can’t always let them come in to
that because we have a procedure and a policy and we want to make sure everything is fair to
everyone so we just try to give them the dates that hey, you know this is when the Connection
usually comes out. This is when people start registering so here’s just an informational piece
that you can just bring back to your parent so they’re aware for the next year.
Hoffman: And the cost?
Favro: It is, I think it’s $51?
Ruegemer: $51. $58 for non.
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Park and Recreation Commission – May 27, 2015
Favro: Maybe yeah.
Ruegemer: And Katie did offer a site down at Pioneer Pass this year and also we’ve had in the
past at Riley Ridge so we’re trying to hit our new parks as well. Riley Ridge isn’t so new
anymore but.
Carron: Anything else for Katie? You have a busy summer ahead of you. Thanks Katie.
Favro: Thank you.
SELF-SUPPORTING PROGRAMS: 2015 ADULT SOFTBALL REPORT.
Ruegemer: Thanks again. Just a real brief summary. Monday nights we’re playing double
header league out at Lake Ann Park. We’re playing on Fields 4 and 5. And we do have a total
of 7 teams playing on there. Did adjust the schedule a little bit for that. In the past we’ve had 28
games but we made it work for 24 this year so everybody has a double header that night so we
thrd
did start April 27 and we will conclude on August 3 so we’re not doing too bad on rain out’s
at this point for both Monday and Thursday. Moving into Thursday we did split that into two
divisions. Six are playing in the Blue Division which is kind of the upper division and 7 play in
the Gold Division which is the kind of the lower division so to speak so they also started the end
of April and they will conclude the first part of August and we do have some rain out’s kind of
built in there too just in case we do have some nights that are rained out so adult softball is just
kind of holding it’s own at this point. It’s not going gangbusters. We just, I think our number
will be what it is and until we don’t have any interest anymore we’re going to keep offering it so.
Carron: The reason to split into two divisions? Was that a request or?
Ruegemer: Yeah, yeah. There’s always you know that, the we’ll call it the Gold Division team
or kind of the teams that are kind of more recreational. Just kind of want to go out and have
some fun and they’re not super, super competitive. Just to go out there and you know meet with
the people that they normally meet with and play against teams of kind of their equal caliber so
everybody has a good experience.
Carron: Okay. Questions for Jerry anybody?
Hougham: Just a question on the softball. Is there like a waiting list or just like if, like an
individual like new person comes to town. They can sign up for them and people can pick them
up?
Ruegemer: Yep, there sure is. Just talk to me and we usually kind of get that information out to
the teams, if anybody’s looking for somebody.
Carron: He’s the draft agent.
Ruegemer: I take my commission.
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Park and Recreation Commission – May 27, 2015
Hoffman: And all free agents.
Carron: Anything else for Jerry? Alright, thanks Jerry.
COMMISSION MEMBER COMMITTEE REPORTS.
None.
COMMISSION MEMBER PRESENTATIONS.
None.
ADMINISTRATIVE PACKET.
Carron: Anything in the administrative packet that we should draw attention to Todd?
Hoffman: A couple of important items in the Admin packet. The CAA donation for the
scoreboards. That was here before this body and you made a recommendation to add some
conditions of approval. They did not accept those when they went to council and they pulled that
portion out. The dugout, the concrete went forward. Then the athletic association, the Dugout
Club came back to the table. Decided through just a few minor modifications about the wiring
that they would go through with that donation so they were back on the City Council agenda.
The City Council has accepted the donation of those scoreboards and the athletic association and
the Dugout Club will be working on those in the future. That’s a significant contribution. Up
over $20,000 and so please reach out and thank those people involved and then watch for the
activity out at the park. Pickleball grand opening, we hope to see as many of you as are able to
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attend there next Wednesday night, June 3 and that flyer is in your packet. I believe we’re a
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6:00 start. June 3, 6:00 p.m. at the pickleball courts at the Rec Center. And then also another
project which you saw quite some time ago actually, the Angel of Hope is moving forward up at
Santa Vera. It’s just west of the community garden. They did propose a new proposal for a
dedication stone and so we’re currently working on what the wording would be on that. They
tended to want to make it more personal and the community really wants a dedication stone that
more is towards all children and all families and so we’re currently working on the wording on
that but you should see that construction underway in the next few weeks as well.
Carron: Alright, any questions? Comments or concerns. With that I will entertain a motion.
Echternacht moved, Boettcher seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the
motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0. The Park and Recreation Commission
meeting was adjourned.
Submitted by Todd Hoffman
Park and Rec Director
Prepared by Nann Opheim
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