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PRC 2018 04 24 CHANHASSEN PARK AND RECREATION COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING APRIL 24, 2018 Chairman Scharfenberg called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. MEMBERS PRESENT: Steve Scharfenberg, Cole Kelly, Rick Echternacht, Jim Boettcher, Meredith Petouvis, Karl Tsuchiya, and Joe Scanlon MEMBERS ABSENT: Grant Schaeferle STAFF PRESENT: Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Director; Jerry Ruegemer, Recreation Superintendent; and Katie Matthews, Recreation Supervisor APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Scharfenberg: I just want to add, I’m going to add two things under new business. Todd if you could just touch base with us again on the trail connector that you sent out this week. Some questions I think maybe regarding that and then also can you give an update, I’ll have this as number 4. An LRT trail update. Hoffman: Yeah. Scharfenberg: Alright. With that the first thing we need to take care of is nominations and appointments for Chair and Vice Chair. NOMINATION AND APPOINTMENT OF CHAIR AND VICE-CHAIR. Scharfenberg: So we’ll open up nominations I guess for Chair for the Park and Rec Commission. Petouvis: Okay I won’t be shy. I’d like to nominate Steve Scharfenberg for Chair. Scharfenberg: Okay we have a nomination for Steve Scharfenberg. Do we have a second? Tsuchiya: I’ll second. Scharfenberg: Okay, Karl seconded. Any other nominations? Boettcher: I’ll nominate Cole Kelly. Scharfenberg: Okay, we have a nomination for Cole. Do we have a second? Park and Recreation Commission – April 24, 2018 Echternacht: I’ll second. Scharfenberg: Okay. Any other nominations? Alright, nominations then are closed. We’ll have just, how do we do this Todd? I can’t remember. Hand raise? Show of hands? Hoffman: Yeah, vote for each. Scharfenberg: Okay, so for Steve Scharfenberg can we have a raise of hands for Steve. Four. And for Cole. Three. Three-four. Alright. Okay. Next we’ll have Vice Chair and do we have any nominations for Vice Chair? Echternacht: I nominate Jim Boettcher. Scharfenberg: Okay. Do we have a second? Kelly: I’ll second. Scharfenberg: Okay. Any other nominations for Vice Chair? Petouvis: I’ll nominate Karl. Scharfenberg: Okay. Do we have a second for Karl? Alright, so we’ve got Jim nominated with a second from Cole. All in favor raise their hand. Okay, Jim is Vice Chair. Petouvis moved, Tsuchiya seconded to nominate Steve Scharfenberg for Chairman of the Park and Recreation Commission. Boettcher moved, Echternacht seconded to nominate Cole Kelly for Chairman of the Park and Recreation Commission. With a show of hands Steve Scharfenberg was appointed as Chairman of the Park and Recreation Commission with a vote of 4 to 3. Echternacht moved, Kelly seconded to appoint Jim Boettcher as Vice Chairman of the Park and Recreation Commission. Petouvis nominated Karl Tsuchiya as Vice Chairman of the Park and Recreation Commission. There was no second. With a show of hands Jim Boettcher was appointed as Vice Chairman of the Park and Recreation Commission. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS. Scharfenberg: Todd do you have any public announcements? Hoffman: The snow really melted today. That’s the one…that I have because it was remarkable. Thank goodness we’re finally getting there. Jerry any? 2 Park and Recreation Commission – April 24, 2018 Ruegemer: Yeah real quick. Thanks Park and Rec Commissioners. The Walk Fur Education with the Southwest Metro Chamber of Commerce is this coming weekend out at Lake Ann Park. It’ll be kind of the main area will be in the Klingelhutz Pavilion and they’ll kind of walk around the Lake Ann property to raise awareness and education dollars for scholarships for the Chamber th so that’s starting around 9:00 out at Lake Ann Park. This Saturday the 28. Hoffman: What’s the name of it again? Ruegemer: The Walk Fur Education. Hoffman: Fur. Ruegemer: F-u-r. Hoffman: And our canine officer and Ringo will be there if you’d like to meet and greet with canine officer and Ringo. Boettcher: What time is that Jerry? Ruegemer: The start time will be around 9:00. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS. None. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Boettcher moved, Echternacht seconded to approve the verbatim and summary Minutes of the Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated March 27, 2018 as presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 7 to 0. DISCUSSION BY COMMISSION FOLLOWING UP ON THE APRIL 8, 2018 JOINT MEETING WITH THE CITY COUNCIL. Scharfenberg: So I asked Todd to put this on the agenda given that we just had the meeting with the City Council just to kind of open it up for kind of general discussion and thoughts. I guess I’m looking for some maybe brainstorming from the commission on how we move forward with some of the items that we discussed. So I’ll just kind of open it up to general conversation. Boettcher: Well I think first of all we need money to do anything and I don’t believe we got a lot of head nods in the right direction for that so we’re back to kicking the can down the road or whatever the way we’ve always done it but, I mean we did get a lot of agreement with what we’re doing. What we had planned. The six main items fall in line with the 20 year plan so it’s not like we stepped out and asked for anything unusual but something will have to happen financially before we get anything kind of as expected. 3 Park and Recreation Commission – April 24, 2018 Scharfenberg: Anybody else? Petouvis: I would like to suggest that as we consider in the next month or two what our annual field trip sites are. I would suggest that we visit the parks that are on, high on the replacement list. I think that will do two things. That will inform us and it will also inform the council of how serious we are and how committed we are to maintaining what the City has built over all these years. Scharfenberg: Okay. rd Hoffman: And their discussion on that item is in July. July 23 so… Scharfenberg: Anyone else? I did have a couple of take away’s you know with respect to the meeting and I guess what I would, I kind of jotted down what I called the to do list and part of this kind of relates to what Meredith recommended and I think some of this to some extent falls on staff to assist us with some of this stuff related to the parks and the structures so I just had written down like in some sort of an Excel spreadsheet that has the parks. I’m thinking like the 6 to 8 parks that we would be looking at. You know the years that they were built. The, what they have currently at each of those parks in terms of what the structures are. And I think then, like I think they asked you know for numbers associated with kind of replacing the equipment and maybe what would be, I think they also asked for ideas in terms of what we would maybe like to see there. If it’s adding children’s equipment. You know a container for that or something like that so I think if we can get that spreadsheet and maybe be able to look at that maybe at the May meeting and then maybe we’re able to schedule something in June going out and looking at the parks at that point and then being able to maybe put together some sort of a report to present to the council. And then I think we, and then as part of that ranking those parks and then maybe what our vision is in terms of completing that because I think it was clear, at least somewhat clear I think from listening to them, that I don’t think they’re going to give us that money all at once and they’re going to have to have some sort of vehicle if that’s through a franchise fee or if it’s taking money from whatever’s left at the end of the year you know and putting it towards that, that that’s, you know you’re only going to be able to maybe do a park a year and so when can we start that. You know when can we get that first money? When can we start it? Here are the parks and you know it would be similar to I think the shelters. You know kind of laying out something like that and then presenting that to them and ultimately then it’s up to them to come up with the money to do it. Kelly: So yeah and I think what we kind of targeted was $300,000 that we need them to come up with each year somehow because we don’t have the bank for it. Scharfenberg: Right. 4 Park and Recreation Commission – April 24, 2018 Kelly: Also Todd was that, I know you’ve got, I don’t believe it was part of the 20 year plan but you’ve got a rehabilitation plan mapped out in order of how old everything is. Was that part of the 20 year or was that outside of the 20 year plan? Hoffman: It’s outside of the 20 year plan but it’s. Kelly: Has that been submitted to the City Council? Hoffman: It has been. They’ve received it and you received it I think recently I re-sent it out again and the number on the 20 year replacement is about $272,000. The number the City Manager is focusing on right now is a quarter million annually so there’s a little bit of shaving to do in that schedule so you have that schedule now. We’ll re-send it out in May and then we’ll target those first half dozen or so projects and fine tune, provide a little more information on each one of those. Scharfenberg: Okay, thank you Todd. The other thing that I had jotted down in addition to that was the discussion about Bandimere. I think it would be, probably behoove us with you know Joe new on the commission and well Karl you live by there so you kind of know it but it would probably maybe be worthwhile going out there one more time kind of just to do a site inspection and talk about what those items are. I still think it’s worthwhile to put forth some sort of a proposal on Bandimere but as Jim pointed out earlier it’s not going to be from money from the CIP because we’re not going to have the money to do that. Even with a sport court in there and then the addition to the Highway 41 underpass to go to the Arboretum, with that additional money I think that’s going to eat that up so I, if it’s bonding. If it’s a referendum or something like that, I think they want to see numbers. Clearly they want to see what the numbers are on the items that we would like to put forth to kind of finish off that project but going out there talking about that and maybe you know talking about some different things to do out there. I think it would be worthwhile to go out there and do that maybe in May. Prior to the May visit, or I mean our May meeting. Echternacht: Todd do we need to revisit the numbers? We probably have numbers from what, 2 or 3 years ago. Hoffman: Correct. Echternacht: Just update it. Hoffman: Yep and things have changed. We’ve got a shelter project there. Perhaps…turf and lights and then the court so we can take a look at those items. We wouldn’t necessarily need to update them for that conversation that evening but if you decide to move forward. You know Avienda is the next big chunk of cash on the horizon and so everybody’s waiting for Avienda to get final approved and then it takes, you know depending on how they plat it. One thing I have noticed over time is that they’ve changed, added additional housing and that’s where the real 5 Park and Recreation Commission – April 24, 2018 money is. Commercial and industrial is a lower per acre you know reimbursement on park dedication fees so housing is where the real cash is so they’ve increased the housing and so the likely, eventual cash outlay there for park dedication is going up. Kelly: So Steve I’m wondering if with an election coming up in November if we’re, I mean we need to put the numbers together. Are we better off presenting to the City Council like after the election or you know if you have a few people running unopposed then it doesn’t really matter when we do it but it could be a different makeup and I’m thinking, before you get to the election they’re not going to do any bonding or referendums so are we better off waiting into early next year to present to them. Scharfenberg: Yeah I’m not saying it’s anything we would do yet this year or you know I just think it would be, if it’s something that we as a commission think and that something needs to be, and if we want to finish off that park because I would like to see Bandimere finished off. Kelly: Well I think everybody would. Scharfenberg: Yeah. Kelly: You know it’s just a matter of how do we find the money for it. Scharfenberg: Right, right. Kelly: And we have to approach the City Council and they have to come up with something and it just, you can’t do it at the wrong time because then they’re going to shut you down and then once you’re shut down once it makes it harder to go back. Scharfenberg: Right, it does and I’m not in disagreement with anything that you said. I think that’s, I think if we work on it though kind of. Kelly: Oh yeah we’ve got to work to it, yep and we’ve got to put the numbers together and we’ve got to be ready to go when they’re ready to go as a new council. Scharfenberg: Right. Right. Kelly: Because you can’t wait a year after that because then you run into another election cycle. Scharfenberg: Right. Echternacht: And they asked us for some numbers the other night. Scharfenberg: Correct. And I know on some level to talk to, you know I was hoping they would talk a little bit more about it but you know clearly I think the money issue but you know with the 6 Park and Recreation Commission – April 24, 2018 shelter we’ve talked about well how nice does the shelter have to be. Can it be something that’s just a little bigger than you know, I think bigger than what goes into the local neighborhoods but something bigger and how extravagant does it have to be? Does it have to have bathrooms? You know I think if we can talk about some of that. Give them some options you know as part of that but I think you’re right Cole. Obviously working on whatever that funding source is going to be and do we, do we do that in, you know do we think about something else to add on so that if you do do a referendum that you know you want to generate enough money to do something because I don’t know if just the. Kelly: Oh we couldn’t do the referendum for just Bandimere. You’d have to have some trails and you’ve got to have, you have to appease a few different parts of the city because they’re all voting and it’s kind of extravagant undertaking and then you’ve got to figure out what kind of referendum, kind of money can we go for so what can we do in the city that we’re not going to do as a group because we’re not going to have the money. Scharfenberg: Right, yeah. Okay. And then the last thing that I had down from the meeting was Todd if you could schedule, I know Mayor Laufenburger talked about walking the Lake Ann th property and if we could schedule a date for that for him. I did note you know June 9 is the Fox Wood ramp opening at 9:00. I don’t know if it’s something we could do in the morning prior to that with him because I’m assuming he’s going to be there speaking or doing something so maybe that would be with his schedule so. Hoffman: The City Manager asked today that, I think it’s going to be a little bit more comprehensive. They would like to tour it with any members of the City Council that would like to attend. Any members of the park commission that would like to attend and any members of the Planning Commission that would like to attend and so there’s a question on timing and accessibility. We’ve asked formal permission from the estate and they have not granted that for us to access the property and so we may wait until, if a sale does occur, until that sale has occurred and then we can get permission from the buyer. That may be a waiting game there. Scharfenberg: Alright. Okay. Any other things that people want to just discuss relative to the meeting? Alright we’ll move onto the next item. RECOGNIZE OF CITY COUNCIL APPOINTMENTS AND RE-APPOINTMENTS TO THE COMMISSION. Scharfenberg: I’d like to recognize again Jim and Joe for their, Jim for his reappointment and Joe for his new appointment to the commission. We welcome you and you know this is, it’s a learning curve I think on some level so if you have any questions feel free to ask members of the commission and/or Todd and Jerry are always good sources of information as well alright. Boettcher: When do we officially tell Joe what he got himself into? 7 Park and Recreation Commission – April 24, 2018 Scharfenberg: Not until later. Boettcher: Okay, alright good. TRAIL CONNECTOR ON POWERS BOULEVARD. Scharfenberg: The trail connector on Powers Boulevard. Todd had sent out the email earlier this week and Todd if you could just speak to that and maybe give us maybe an idea, your ideas as to when that might take place. Hoffman: Be glad to. So that’s out of the blue for the City of Chanhassen staff. I’ve not had correspondence with Hennepin County on that alignment. Shorewood has a master plan where they have been working on it and so I haven’t heard if Shorewood initiated that plan and initiative with Hennepin County but in the last email correspondence the engineer from Hennepin County was happy to hear all the positive feedback. Now it’s just a matter of if it sticks in their CIP. In the Hennepin County CIP. They see it as a very valuable link between the two counties and a variety of cities in this area. Shorewood, Excelsior and Chanhassen are the participating cities and Hennepin County and then just a little piece in Carver County that was not finished. The trail on Powers Boulevard which is Mill Street in Excelsior/Shorewood and Powers Boulevard in Chanhassen. We stopped at about a block south at Holly Lane and it’s on the east side of Powers Boulevard at that location so there’s a one block gap between Holly Lane and the county line that the City of Chanhassen, so the park commission you would have to dedicate those resources to complete that one block section. After that it would then go on the Hennepin County taxpayers and on their project and so very significant to build it. You probably have all driven by the walls up closer to Excelsior dozen and dozen of times and tried to understand how that’s going to all work right at that location but you know we don’t know anything about the engineering and so that engineer is going to communicate again with us if it sticks in the CIP and I don’t even noticed if they had a year designated or not. But that’s very positive news. It would be hugely beneficial to our citizens and you know to all the residents of this particular area and outside. Their ultimate goal is to connect with the LRT trail in Excelsior and so to get those regional connections north and south. I do have a plan from Shorewood that I can distribute which identifies that corridor and it’s a feasibility study and so they’ve completed that. And then I don’t know the story on when Hennepin County picked up on it as a project but that will be good to know, to learn more about it as we move forward. Scharfenberg: Okay, thank you Todd. Petouvis: Todd, oh I have one. Scharfenberg: Yeah. Petouvis: Question and I think everybody could probably bet easily what my question is. How much does a block of trail cost roughly? I mean ballpark. 8 Park and Recreation Commission – April 24, 2018 Hoffman: Yeah so in that particular area, since the reason it was stopped is because it’s a very difficult location with a lot of wetlands and grade and so I would say between $100,000 and $200,000. Petouvis: Okay, thank you. Scharfenberg: Okay next. LRT TRAIL UPDATE. Scharfenberg: What’s going on Todd? Can you give us any update on that? th Hoffman: I will. So there’s a Carver County update from March 7 of 2018. FEMA has approved a parcel fix reimbursement of a total or a max of $450,000. And how their agreement is being at least discussed is that Carver County would purchase the railroad bed from the Hennepin County Regional Railroad Authority and so the Hennepin County Railroad Authority would get rid of that section in Carver County and keep their section in Hennepin County and then Carver County would purchase that using cash from the Legislative Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources. That’s where they get all their money for their Carver County regional parks. And so they would get that designated. That piece of cash and pay that to Hennepin County so they get the railroad bed. And then they’ll have to seek funding at some level beyond the 450 to fix it and the Carver County Board of Directors has allowed the staff to go ahead and pursue a master plan. A trail master plan for that corridor to understand what it will take for them to assume ownership from Bluff Creek Drive where they already currently have that. They have that piece that is asphalted from Bluff Creek Drive to Chaska so the new master plan will go from Bluff Creek Drive east to the county line at Hennepin County. So there’s more work to be done. This all started in 2014. We’re now in 2018 and work is likely not to start until 2019. Scharfenberg: Good. And I saw the email on the mountain bike that went, and so it sounds like. Hoffman: City of Chaska has picked up on it and they’re going to be the author of the Limited Use Permit. The LUP permit with the State and they’re going to be the primary contact for their efforts there for that single track mountain biking route. Scharfenberg: Good. Next on the item, we’ll skip the photograph right now. We’ll go to Katie with the Easter Egg Candy Hunt. 2018 EASTER EGG CANDY HUNT REVIEW. Matthews: Thank you Chair Scharfenberg. It seems like such a long time ago that we had thst Easter but the 35 Annual Easter Egg Candy Hunt was held on Saturday, March 31 at City Center Park. 217 participants registered which is slightly lower than last year because it was 9 Park and Recreation Commission – April 24, 2018 pretty much a blizzard outside but we have the heartiest egg hunters in the county. Possibly the whole United States but I don’t know about that. But we had, it was a great event. We made due. A huge thank you to Adam and his staff. They actually plowed the field, if anybody was there, where the Easter Egg hunt took place so we were able to at least see the eggs which is always a plus when you’re hunting for them. Just a huge thank you to everybody. Jodi was there. Sue was there. Todd was there so it definitely a team effort of just everybody kind of rallying together and making sure everything went smoothly and everybody had a good time. All the participants received a bag of candy with a door prize tickets. We cut down the door prizes this year just because it wasn’t the most desirable weather but we still handed out some which was, people were very appreciative of. In addition to the candy hunt we also had a coloring contest. There were 120 coloring contest entries which were submitted and judged and each winner got a prize basket from ABC and Toy Zone. That’s always a great part of the event and it helps just promote the event because we put a coloring sheet and a flyer into the Chanhassen Villager and we also make sure they’re available online and at the Chanhassen Rec Center. This Easter Egg hunt, like I said would not have been a success without the help of everybody and the fire department did show up. They were a little busier this year pulling people out of ditches so they showed up right at the last minute but they were able to bring a fire truck out which was helpful and everybody always likes seeing the fire trucks there so I just want to say thank you again to everybody who made it, or was able to help with this event. Whether they participated or volunteered, we totally appreciate that. And just some recommendations for next year. We’re going to continue that relationship with the fire department and seeking volunteers from the Key Clubs in the school and just maybe looking into the possibility of moving it maybe back to the Rec Center. It used to be there before I was here just in case it is undesirable weather we would have that option then to possibly move inside. We had rain last year and snow this year so next year it’s got to be sun so we’re looking forward to that. Does anybody have any questions? Scharfenberg: No, thanks Katie. Matthews: Thank you. Hoffman: That event was like 6 snowstorms ago. COMMISSION MEMBER COMMITTEE REPORTS. None. COMMISSION MEMBER PRESENTATIONS. None. ADMINISTRATIVE PACKET. Scharfenberg: Anything in the administrative packet? Hoffman: One item of note. If you haven’t heard Sue Bill is retiring and so if you want to mark th down an open house date. June 28 is a Thursday from 1:00 to 3:00. It will be Sue’s open house 10 Park and Recreation Commission – April 24, 2018 th and she’ll be retiring the next day on the 29 of June after 14 years of service to the City of Chanhassen and one thing you all know about Sue is when you’re working with the best of the best, everybody’s nervous about finding another qualified candidate to take her role but we certainly are confident that we will do that. Obviously they’ll have a different skill set and a different personality than Sue Bill but we’re confident we’ll somebody to fill her shoes and take over that huge programming role in our community which is very robust right now and ever growing so properties like the Powers Ridge Senior Apartments are, they’re generating lots of couples that are coming down to our senior center as an outlet to increase their socialization and education in our community and so as we continue to build senior living facilities, which we are, Mission Hills is coming online here shortly. We’re going to have even more customers looking at our Chanhassen Senior Center so we’re excited about the future and we want to celebrate th Sue’s time that she dedicated to our city so that’s our first goal. So mark that date, June 28 and th June 29 is her final date. Scharfenberg: Anybody else have any other things they want to discuss? Boettcher: Well I just wanted to point out, I was recognized City Council appointments. I got shorted. My name’s, all these years it’s just give, give, give and I can’t even get my name in a simple report. I better get a pay raise for the Vice Chair, I’m telling ya. What I put up with. Hoffman: We’ll correct it. Boettcher: Ah it’s no big deal, thank you. Just some cookies. Boettcher moved, Petouvis seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 7 to 0. The meeting was adjourned at 8:00 p.m. Submitted by Todd Hoffman Park and Rec Director Prepared by Nann Opheim 11