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PRC 2017 01 24 CHANHASSEN PARK AND RECREATION COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING JANUARY 24, 2017 Acting Chair Carron called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. MEMBERS PRESENT:Steve Scharfenberg, Brent Carron, Luke Thunberg, Jim Boettcher, Rick Echternacht, and Jennifer Hougham MEMBERS ABSENT:Cole Kelly, and Lauren Dale STAFF PRESENT:Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Director; Jerry Ruegemer, Recreation Superintendent; and Katie Favro, Recreation Supervisor PUBLIC PRESENT: Lisa & Mick Mekkelsen9640 Independence Circle #5 Dan BerveMinnetonka Aquatics APPROVAL OF AGENDA:Acting Chair Carron approved the agenda as presented. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS:None. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS.None. APPROVAL OF MINUTES:Boettcher moved, Thunberg seconded to approve the verbatim and summary Minutes of the Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated December 13, 2016 as presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously witha vote of 6 to 0. CONSIDER RECOMMENDATION TO CITY COUNCIL: 2017/18 LAKE ANN PARK BEACH LIFEGUARD CONTRACT. Carron: Jerry I believe you’re up on that one. Ruegemer: Thank you Vice Chair Carron. Good evening commission. Tonight I will go through the staff memorandum and then I’ll answer any questions. Also we have Dan Berve. He’s right here. He’s the Director of Minnetonka Aquatics. He’s also the head coach for the Minnetonka Boys and Girls Swim and Dive Team. He’s also then an assistant coach with the Minnetonka Swim Club so very knowledgeable in the swim aquatics area. Dan has been managing and working with the City of Chanhassen on our beach contracts for a number of years now so Dan is here tonight to answer any questions the commission may have so I will begin Park and Recreation Commission –January 24, 2017 with a staff report. The City of Chanhassen has contracted with Minnetonka Public Schools for the provision of lifeguards at Lake Ann Parkfor a number of years. That agreement goes back to the 1970’s so we’ve had really a long standing relationship of offering quality lifeguard services down at Lake Ann Park. We’ve developed and worked together on the 2 year contract since 2007. That seems to be beneficial for both groups. Kind of plan for staffing and budgetary purposes that really the multi year contract really works out good. The 2016 contract that we just wrapped up last summer at Lake Ann, the parametersof thecontract were 23.5 hours per day times 72 days so that equals out to be 692 hours per season. Our hours of operation at Lake Ann for lifeguard services when we were open were 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and the dates were th roughly June 4right kind of when school was getting out for the season and then it would th conclude about the second week in August. August 14so looking at how it was kind of broken down and how we have the lifeguards broken down, there is an illustration attached to that. That would be on the second page.This is 2017/18 Lake Ann lifeguard coverage so you can kind of see on an hourly basis how many guards are positioned throughout the course of the beach area. All the way from 11:00 to 6:00 when we close up so it kind of varies. When we open up for the day it kind of started at a smaller number of lifeguards then it kind of ramps up based on kind of the demand of the day based on our averages. High averages for that. So that 23 hours per day last year the annual contract was $30,879. The same level service this year for the next 2 year contract as proposed would be $32,402 and if there’s questions about the increase Dan can answer that as well. That 4.7 percent increase is really due to rising staff wages to be competitive within the lifeguard world and that’s really the explanation of the increase and Dan can expand on that here coming up. The other list of options is also included. Dan developed and proposed that as a list of options. That is attached to the staff memo of options that are available for the commission to discuss tonight if they would choose to do so. So the option that staff is recommending is to stay with the same level of service of what we have and that level of service is Option A. The new proposed contract amount is $32,402 and that is an increase over 2016. The increase would be for the extent of the 2 year contract and this amount is included in the 2017 Lake Ann Operations Budget so attached is the lifeguard coverage information and then the different proposal options and then the actual lifeguard contract for the 2018, ’17 and ’18 season. So it is staff’s recommendation tonight that the Park and Rec Commission recommend to the City Council that they approve a 2 year contract with Minnetonka Public Schools for the Lake AnnBeach Lifeguard Services in the amount of $32,402 per year. Carron: Thank you Jerry.Is there any questions for Jerry or Dan? Scharfenberg: Jerry a question with respect to the start of the 72 days. When does that start? Ruegemer: The start ofthe 72 days is typically the first Saturday of June and would go then to about the second Sunday typically in August. Based on calendar years that’s rough estimates. Boettcher: Is there a request from people online or in person about extending the date? Like to Labor Day or something. Is there enough out there? Is it something we would entertain in future years maybe? 2 Park and Recreation Commission –January 24, 2017 Ruegemer: You know Jim in the past you know a number of years ago the lifeguard contract did go to Labor Day weekend. Kind of what staff has kind of noticed and kind of found there’s a number of different reasons. Obviously people are getting ready for school. You know staff is, it’s getting harder to staff and get people to stay that long because it seems like colleges are starting even earlier now so really, and the numbers of the beach attendance really have gone down. You know people are starting to get in kind of that last vacation of the season prior to school starting so the numbers really have kind of been a little bit lower than they normally had so that was really the reason for kind of developing that kind of date range that we developed a number of years ago. Carron: Anything else? Dan do you have anything for the commission or? Dan Berve: No you know. Hoffman: Come on up and say hi. Ruegemer: State your name and address please. Dan Berve: Hi Dan Berve. Director of Minnetonka Aquatics with Minnetonka Public Schools. Yeah you know we’ve had a great relationship with Jerry and you guys at the City of Chanhassen the last, for as long as I’ve been here and like Jerry said the only thing we have this year is some wage raises that we are needing to stay competitive with the other country clubs and their places around where lifeguards are hired. But other than that we’ve had, last summer was really without incident and very good so we’re looking forward to another 2 year contract with you guys. Ruegemer: And Dan you may want to maybe go, since Dan has been here too they really have ramped up their in-service trainings that they do both before, kind of during and I guess before and during the season itself so they go through a number of different situations. Through emergency type of situations and I really feel that the guards are very well trained. Dan Berve: Yeah one thing we do, we run our own lifeguard classes in the spring every year and other times of the year as well and a lot of our standards are higher than what you would normally need to pass your lifeguard certification class. We hire a lot of our guards from our classes and then we do about 2 weeks of in-service training after school in May before the season starts and then we do in-service training every Friday morning throughout the summer so we keep our guards very sharp for what they could encounter throughout the day and I would say that it goes, it’s a lot of credit to that to the really low number of incidents we’ve had in the past; years. It’s been very, very safe at the beach. 3 Park and Recreation Commission –January 24, 2017 Scharfenberg: So Dan a question just with the type of age range of kids that you probably have as lifeguarding and that and the use of iPhones. Do you just have a no iPhone? You can’t have your phone with you when you’re at work. How does that work? Dan Berve: Yeah for our guards yeah. They can keep them you know in their bags in the guard house or anyplace like that but we have a phone at the beach that they can use for emergency purposes. Scharfenberg: Okay. Dan Berve: Or before or after their shift they can obviously but they are, we are and that is an issue that we have seen with kids in general which is why we address it pretty directly and say this is what you cannot have. I mean you are on duty watching the water and the beach and phones are not allowed with you while you’re on the chair yeah. Scharfenberg: Okay. Dan Berve: We have had small issues over the past probably 5 years. They just creep up because of phones and what you can do on your phones these days compared to what you used to be able to do so. Scharfenberg: And Dan can you justshare with us in terms of have you found that other municipalities are continuing their service with lifeguards or in terms of cost cutting are any of them you finding that they’re cutting back? Dan Berve: Yeah. The ones that we do business with, that we do business with 6 different municipalities and one county, Carver County and we have not had any reduction in the last couple years. We’ve gone down certain conversations to see based on attendance if we need to but we have not had any. In fact some of them we extended the weekends. This 72 day contract with you guys is our longest. We’ve had some that have been less than that. 65 days and a lot of them have been starting to push towards those longer ones because you know there are incidents that have occurred around the Twin Cities in the last several years. We’ve been fortunate we haven’t had anything at our beaches but I think people are aware of that and so for the most part we are, we haven’t reduced anything. It’s been an expansion in the last few years. Scharfenberg: Thank you. Dan Berve: Yeah. Hougham: Are there any clauses in the contract or anything for like closure of the beach like we had this last year or due to weather, like cooler weather. Unable to use the beach. Dan Berve: Yeah. Do you want to speak to that, the beach? 4 Park and Recreation Commission –January 24, 2017 Ruegemer: Yeah there certainly is a cold weather clause in there. If the beach is below I believe 60 degrees that beach will close. There are obviously we had a situation last summer where we had heavyrains and some other things that kind of popped up with that too so we work hand in hand with Dan. Scott Latke is one of the Aquatic Supervisors so we’re on the phone quite a bit or emailing back and forth just to address any of those type of situations that may arise. Hoffman: Then when they’re not there it’s not paid. The contract is not paid. Dan Berve: Correct. If our guards are not working yeah. The only types, you know events where we might have, if there’s an E.coli issue in the water or something like where we do have guards to keep people out of the water for a safety issue but other than that, if they’re not there we reduce the total amount for the contract. Carron: Dan great. Even though that it’s a paid contract I think of it as a partnership so I appreciate it and thanks for keeping our beaches safe. Dan Berve: Absolutely. We love working with you guys so thank you. Carron: Thanks Dan. Dan Berve: Yeah. Scharfenberg: So do you want me to make a motion? Carron: Just put it away didn’t I? Scharfenberg: Yeah. Carron: I am looking for a motion. Scharfenberg: Okay. I recommend that City Council approve a two year contract with Minnetonka Public Schools for Lake Ann Beach Lifeguard Services in the amount of $32,402 per year. Carron: I have a motion. Do I have a second? Echternacht: I second the motion. Carron: Seconded. Scharfenberg moved, Echternacht seconded that the Park and Recreation Commission recommends that the City Council approve a two year contract with Minnetonka Public 5 Park and Recreation Commission –January 24, 2017 Schools for Lake Ann Beach Lifeguard Services in the amount of $32,402 per year.All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0. 2017FEBRUARY FESTIVAL PREVIEW REPORT. Carron:Onto reports. I believe we have a power point presentation by Katie. Feb Fest. Favro: Yes I have a power point presentation for you. There we go. Okay well thank you commissioners. This power point presentation is just going to be kind of about February th Festival. So this year’s February Festival is going to be on Saturday, February 4. The event is from 12:00 to 3:00 p.m. with the fishing contest starting at 1:00. We kind of say the door prize tickets and fishing tickets will be available starting at 10:30 and then door prize tickets go til 1:00 and that is when we start drawing those for people so anybody who comes into the event, whether you’re fishing or you’re just coming to hang out or you want a burger from Culver’s you get a door prize ticket and then you just have to be available. Must be present to win. We pick those out and we put them up on the board and we hand out to them. The medallion that is going th and then one clue is given out to be begin our first clue will be given on Monday, January 30 every day leading up to February Festival. You can clues. The Villager puts them on their website. Byerly’s posts them. The library posts them and we post them on our Facebook account and on our website so people can find it that way. New for this year, they are going to be available starting at noon and going til 3:00 is going to be we have snowshoe demonstrations. Carver County Parks is going to bring a variety of snowshoes so if you’ve never snowshoed and you just want to go around and try it out you can do that there. And then fat tire bikes, we’re going to do kind of a single loop or we’re going to work this out with Michael’s Bike but kind of do like a single loop either on the ice or off the ice. It all really depends on the condition of the ice. And then people can just go and try those out. Michael’s Cycles is just going to bring a couple different bikes and that way if you’ve never ridden a fat tire bike and want to try it out, it has become being something that’s very popular. They’re very easy to, Michael’s is very easy to work with and they have kind of just been a great partner and we’re hoping that we can continue this relationship. The boy scouts will be selling bait and we’ve got bonfires, sledding hills and a horse drawn sleigh ride. The sleigh ride will depend on the driver. How he feels with the ice conditions are so it might not be a sleigh ride but it might be a wagon rides and then we just plow off a path so people can ride on that. Concessions and a beer garden is provided by the Rotary Club of Chanhassen and then Culver’s will be there as well and the S’mores cook out so if you get you know we have bonfires for people to roast S’mores over and just hang out and those are also sold by the boy scouts. And then the fishing contest again starts at 1:00. You can come into City Hall and buy your tickets early. It’s going to be $10 per hole. You can get up to 2. We do that so if people want to fish with a tip up they can put the ticket on the tip up or they can put it on their pool and then we do have prizes awarded to the top 50 fish. We have over $6,000 in fishing prizes with the grand prize being a Thermal fish house and we have $3,000 in door prize tickets. A lot of our door prizes, or a lot of our prizes are donated just through our community event sponsors. So these are some of our volunteers. We have got the Interact Group and this was I think Chaska High School. They helped sell fishing tickets and door prize tickets. The 6 Park and Recreation Commission –January 24, 2017 Rotary is a huge part of this. They go out and they pre-drill over 1,000 holes. They volunteer to do that and then they also do the beer garden so we appreciate that. This is a picture of the crew last year. Okay here they are at the concessions. We’ve got the boy scout troop selling bait and S’mores kits. Some of our bonfires. We do open up the sledding hill for people so you can come bring your sleds. This is the Kenmore Farms and I went back to, I guess back into finance th and they’ve been doing this for over 9 years orthis will be their 9year of coming to this event. They’ve got some pretty awesome horses that if you get a chance you should take a ride. Got the skating loop. Now these were our medallion hunt winners from last year. It’s a $500 prize pack. We team up with the Friends of the Library. Linda Landsman from the Friends of the Library. She helps, writes all the clues and then they get a, this year they got a $100 gift card to Barnes and Noble and so if you find it you get a pretty awesome prize pack.So like I said we’ve got $6,000 in fish prizes. Last year we sold 635 tickets for the fishing contest. Door prizes. And like I said we’ve got a lot of variety of door prizes that are given to us. That are donated for our sponsorship program so we’vegot some Byerly’s gift cards. Culver’s. We’ve got some, the Storm Booster Club usually throws in some things. And new for 2017, so this year we went to where you can now purchase tickets online. We didn’t do that before. We could only do them at the event or you could do them, like you can stop into City Hall earlier so we used the program that we use for all our online registrations for some of the Rec Center sports and different things th . If you order your tickets like that. And then what it is, if it’s up until I believe it’sthe 30 th online we just send them to you in the mail and then after the 30if you purchase them online we are going to have a will call so then you would just go and pick your tickets up at will call. We’re trying to promotethis just so that when people you know are coming with their buckets and their sleds and their poles that they can kind of just go right out there if they already have their ticket and that they don’t have to stop and buy them. And then this way we can buy them, you know everybody does things online nowadays so you can either buy 1 ticket or you can buy the 2 tickets online. And then like I said we talked about we’ve got the fat tire bike demos provided by Michael’s Cycles in Chaska. And this actually from their blog post. When Jerry and I went out there to talk, to meet with them they put this on their blogs so now we’re kind of double advertising for this there. For all the people who are maybe into fat tire bikes. And then there’s Tom Workman from the County and then they have advertised our flyer and our fishing registration form. Then we’ve got the snowshoe demos provided by Carver County Parks and then also new to this year, this is something that has kind of recently come about. Carver County Water Management Organization is going to do, they’re just going to have some water education there so they’ve got like a pop up fish house and with that they have some like microscopes so you can see kind of the little organisms and what’s going on in thewater and they also have an under water robot so you can put it kind of down a hole essentially and you can drive it around and kind of see what’s going on underneath the ice. We’ve got them in a spot that isn’t going to interfere with the fish so you’renot going to like accidentally like pull one up and get a robot instead. So that’s something that we’re pretty excited about. Here’s some memories. These people in the corner are actually my parents. They came last year so I just thought I’d put them on the power point. These are our sponsors. We currently have 57 sponsors and 25 that we have logos so that’s over $1,000 contribution and that can even be, it can be volunteer time. It can be you know gift certificates. Gift cards and different thingslike that. I think sometimes, or I think 7 Park and Recreation Commission –January 24, 2017 why the reason our events are so successful is because we have such a supportive business organization and business group in Chanhassen and they really support the community in all our events. So there they all are. There you guys are. These are just some pictures we’ve gotten through the years of you guys hard at work. And then this is kind of all the groups that just help. Like I said the Rotary Club they drill the holes. They come early in the morning and drill all the holes and then they help out with the concessions. The fire department there and the sheriff’s department are there in case anything happens and the fire department they act as marshals and they walk around and make sure you know people arefishing inside the designated areas. That everybody has tickets and just kind of regulating things and then of course if anything happens they would be there and then we try to get volunteers in many ways because we need many volunteers but we go throughthe Chanhassen and Chaska Key Club and then the Rotary Interact Club. So with all the, everybody’s help we can make it a great event. And that’s it. Echternacht: Question for you. On the bicycles. Favro: Yeah. Echternacht: We said a couple bikes? As popular as those things are I would think, I mean it gets pretty packed down there. Two bikes might not be enough. Favro: No I think we’re going to do like 5 to 6 bikes of just a variety of sizes for different people so I think they’ll even havesome kid ones there so if you’re a little bit younger or smaller you can use one of those bikes. And then we’ll have some bigger ones and just kind of rotate it around. Either you can, if nobody’s there you can keep riding them. Otherwise we’ll just have to have people hop off and hop back on. Yeah we’re excited so it’s our first year doing it and Michael’s Cycles they seem to do a lot of these like pop up events where they kind of go to different events and talk about what they do and let people try out their bikes. They also do a bike ride Saturday mornings. Michael’s Cycles is located in Chaska and they do a bike ride Saturday morning where you can either bring your bike or you can just pay $10 bucks and you can rent a fat tire bike or any other bike and that way it’s a good way to just try it out and see what’s going on because those bikes are a little bit more expensive. Carron: Anyone else? Great efficiencies for 2017. Online I think that’s a great help for selling. If only we could find some way faster to get Jerry’s names up on the board for years to come. Don’t fall on the ice this year. Ruegemer: I’m retired. Carron: No good report. With that if there’s no other questions. Any commission member committee reports? Favro: I know some of you guys have kind of emailed me back about it. Just some volunteers so I want to appreciate that just because there is a lot that goes into it with just the door prize 8 Park and Recreation Commission –January 24, 2017 drawings. The fishing tickets. You know and everybody trying to make it, and weighing it. Weighing all the fish. We can’t forget about our weigh masters who were crazy at work last year with all the fish we caught. Just so like I said some of you guys have emailed me back so I just want to say that we appreciate it and if youhave any friends who are looking for something to do let me know. Scharfenberg: We need help. Favro: Yes. COMMISSION MEMBER COMMITTEE REPORTS.None. ADMINISTRATIVE PACKET. Carron: With that anything in the administrative packet? Hoffman: There’s a lot in there so take a look. The full packet from the Aquatic Invasive Species program that Carver County is in there and that’s going on again for 2017 so please review that. Also we’re really pleased to have the Liga Latina Baseball teams jumping on board with their $500 contribution for the dugouts so that contribution comes to the City and then the City turned around and gave that back to the Athletic Association…so we’re happy to see that happening. And then also our visitors here, we’ll call on those folks and they have just a topic to talk to the commission about when you’re done with your business here. Carron: Okay. Just have one question in regards to anything back from the consultants with the 25 year plan? Are we going to get back together again or is it going to be by email? Hoffman: By email and then she has…talked about that night into that paragraph or that grouping of paragraphs. I saw it for the first time late today so you’ll be seeing that…will review it tomorrow morning and then you’ll be seeing it after that and then that will wrap into a th City Council update on Feb 13and then that was, you know basically a much broader statement about guiding principles and so it’s not the biggest deal in the whole study. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us but we need to get through that so we’ll get through that via email. See if you folks agree with what she has synthesized out of the conversation and then go from there. Carron: Okay. With that come on up and say your name and your address please. Lisa Mekkelsen: Lisa Mekkelsen and we recently moved into one of the townhome developments in Bluff Creek so our address is 9640 Independence Circle. My husband and I just recently moved here, well recently. A year and a half ago from Pittsburgh and we like to stay fit so when we were looking you know for opportunities to do that, especially in the winter months there’s lots of paths in the summer months. It’s not as big of a concern. We wound up last year joining the Chaska Rec Center because it’s a much more extensive Rec Center and so a few 9 Park and Recreation Commission –January 24, 2017 months back we got this survey that included some questions about expanding the Rec Center here so I know it’s old business. So we were just, one of the reasons we thought to join, or to come to the meeting tonight is to just out of curiosity what the developments of potential expansion of the Chaska, or the Chanhassen Rec Center. Carron: That’s what we were just kind of talking about there towards the end but yeah we’re in the process right now of formulating ideas and trying to get a vision plan of the next 25 years of what this commission sees along with the City Council sees going forward and we’re working on that. We’re getting the surveys out so thank you for participating in that. That’s good. We saw a lot of information coming back with the Chan Rec Center. A pool. You know trails. There’s a whole bunch of things but a pool in the Rec Center kind of hit home pretty hard I think we saw and so we’re definitely discussing that. Lisa Mekkelsen: Yeah. Carron: And I think there’s, I’ll turn it over to Todd or Jerry here too but there’s definitely ways to get involved and get some ideas and also stay in tuned as well with what, how we’re progressing too so. Lisa Mekkelsen: Great. I mean one of the things that was attractive for us anyway at the Chaska Rec Center, and I’m not sure if anybody has brought this up but the walking path. Indoor walk path because obviously I like to run but sometimes in Minnesota it gets really cold. It’s much easier to run on a track so I didn’t know if that was part of the discussions about expansion. Carron: Todd you want to just touch base with the way the calendar works and what our future meetings are going to look like here. Hoffman: Yep be glad to. So thanks for coming in and talking to us. Sharing your thoughts and welcome from Pittsburgh. We’re glad you chose Chanhassen. So as you have experienced outdoor recreation we’re very strong in and so outdoor recreation, the trails, theparks. We have a Comprehensive Plan that says we’ll have a neighborhood park within a half mile of everyone’s front door connected by trails and sidewalks we’ve largely accomplished that. Indoor recreation, Chanhassen has gone through a growth along with our other suburbs where some suburbs chose to build these larger community centers. Eden Prairie. Chaska and then Chanhassen did not but Life Time Fitness came in and so there’s a lot of opportunities locally and the question for both the park commission and then also our advisory committee. We have a 14 member advisory committee that’s working on that park study. The question for them is well should we, you know should we jump into the deep end and do a much larger facility so what you’re seeing at Chaska and Eden Prairie, that’s a $50 to $55 million dollar facility just in it’s structure itself. Then you need to fund it’s operation and it’s maintenance and it’s upkeep and so that’s the question. You know should we do that or should we just say hey folks, welcome from Pittsburgh but you’ve got to go to Chaska so that’s the real question and that’s what it boils down to. Or you can join Life Time or you can go check out Eden Prairie. The Rec Center you know does 10 Park and Recreation Commission –January 24, 2017 not have an indoor walking track. It’s you know a very modest facility so we’re just not at that level with our recreation center. The Chaska Community Center, much larger. The Eden Prairie Community Center, much larger but it comes with a price tag both on a front end cost and then on the operational cost and so there will be a recommendation one way or the other because I think we should be transparent and tell the community what your options are now and into the future so that’s the decisions that are coming up and it’s not old business. We’re still currently right now we’ve, the surveys that you’ve completed we are up just about to 1,400 input surveys and so that’s great community input. You can look on the website and read what’s going on in this committee, in this process and it doesn’t end until next September when the final recommendations come down to the City Council. Lisa Mekkelsen: 2017? Hoffman: 2017 yep so there’s a lot more to come and then I encourage you to email your council members and the commission, email the council is easy. You can find them right there. They’re your 5 elected officials. You can click on their email and sendthem your thoughts and tell them your story and what you value in the community. Elected officials typical mirror the values of their community so if you tell them what you value, they’re going to try to represent that. Lisa Mekkelsen: Perfect. Great thank you. Thank you for your time. Carron: Thank you for the feedback. We appreciate it. With that if there’s nothing else I’ll entertain a motion. Boettcher moved, Echternacht 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 11