PRC 2018 05 22
CHANHASSEN PARK AND
RECREATION COMMISSION
REGULAR MEETING
MAY 22, 2018
Acting Chair Boettcher called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT: Cole Kelly, Rick Echternacht, Jim Boettcher, Meredith Petouvis, Karl
Tsuchiya, Joe Scanlon, and Grant Schaeferle
MEMBERS ABSENT: Steve Scharfenberg
STAFF PRESENT: Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Director; Jerry Ruegemer, Recreation
Superintendent; Katie Matthews, Recreation Supervisor; and Adam Beer, Park Superintendent
PUBLIC PRESENT:
Kaili Palattao 8209 Narcissus Street
Maggie Rothstein 8610 Apple Tree Lane
Caden Pottebaum 2379 Jennifer Lane
APPROVAL OF AGENDA:
Boettcher: Any items need to add, delete, modify? Todd.
Hoffman: Chair Boettcher one item I’d like to add is simply an information piece and I’ll
distribute that now. Is the Control Concepts has contacted the City, their engineer and we’ll be
meeting them Thursday this week. They have purchased the lot next to Mamac Systems out on
Century Boulevard and this is a piece of trail that you’re familiar with. The Chanhassen Nature
Preserve trail final phase and so now they will build this as a part of their project in 2018 which
will require that during your CIP discussion you’ll need to move that $90,000 up from 2021 to
2018 concurrent when the project is going to be underway and completed. I talked to their
engineer today and they anticipate that they’ll be done with the building and the trail by fall. So
we’ll bring that back to your attention. Simply an information piece tonight. I’m not sure that
you’ll have to add it to the agenda.
Boettcher: Okay. You’ll bring it back in a couple months? Okay. Anything else?
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Boettcher: Anything Todd, Jerry? Anything to announce public wise?
Hoffman: Public notices Jerry, anything this week?
Park and Recreation Commission – May 22, 2018
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Ruegemer: Just Memorial Day ceremony is Monday, the 28. Much of the program will be the
same. The Legion being the emcees of the event and the City will be there with supporting cast
and logistics and many of the other things to take care of so Chan-o-Laires will be singing again
for that so 12:00 noon on Monday right here at the Veteran’s monument.
Boettcher: Okay, good.
VISITOR PRESENTATIONS:
Boettcher: I see we have 3 high school students here. Getting extra credit I believe and
hopefully if any of you would like to say anything, at the very least I’d like to say maybe you’ll
like what you see tonight and you’ll be like our youth commission Schaeferle and apply to be on
the commission next year. It’s great. It doesn’t pay that great but you have a good time. You
get to learn about the City and parks and rec system so glad to have you here this evening.
KEY FINANCIAL STRATEGY: PROPOSED PARKS REPLACEMENT SCHEDULE
2019-2023.
Beer: Thank you Chair Boettcher and commissioners. Key Financial Strategy for 2018 is the
proposed parks replacement schedule. So we put together, give you guys a bit of a background
here. We have a power point to go through to kind of paint a better picture of what we’re
proposing. Chanhassen Park and Recreation Department manages 30 community and
neighborhood parks totaling 466 acres of property. Through the process of developing the parks
and rec system plan it was determined that maintenance updates needed to be made to adequately
serve the public the way we should be. A lot of our playgrounds, basketball courts, hockey rinks
are starting to age significantly so we’re looking to find a funding source to maintain these and
bring them back up to the service level that’s going to satisfy the needs of the public. So I have
put together a power point and what I did was broke down a 5 year replacement schedule starting
with a lot of the oldest amenities that need to be addressed first. So I got, we’ll kind of go
through this but what I did was kind of broke down 2019 and 2020 in a little more greater detail.
So getting started. Herman Field Park. The playground was installed in 1992. So assuming we
get a funding source provided the playground really is all that’s left at this park through the
picnic shelter initiative that we started 5 years ago. We last year were able to put in a new
structure and with that we replaced the railroad tie border. We also added new wood fiber all
within that scope of that project because it’s all kind of tied in together so based on the study that
was done we had kind of earmarked, it would have been about $100,000 to replace this but
because everything else is already completed I think the plan would be to send out an RFP.
Through that process we would just have to replace the playground in Herman Field and we’d be
back up and running. Maintenance staff would do all the removals and then we would obviously
send out the request for proposal and work with a few of the vendors that we have worked with
over the past few years and we would put in a new playground. Let’s see here. Here’s a little
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Park and Recreation Commission – May 22, 2018
map of the location. Herman Field Park is off of Highway 7. Kind of tucked back in the
neighborhood which connects to which?
Hoffman: Minnewashta Regional Park.
Adam Beer: Minnewashta Regional Park, thank you Todd. Prairie Knoll Park is also aging
significantly. It was built and installed in 1996. This is probably the one of the worst I guess
based on the fact that it has the old plastic ties for the container. Everything we put in now has a
4 foot concrete sidewalk with engineered wood fiber which meets the ADA code so again
assuming this all moves through the removal would be done from park maintenance staff. We
would install a new playground border that we’ve kind of matched. There’s a picnic shelter
going in this year so we would tile that in to kind of match that, kind of the flow of the park
through, around the picnic shelter and obviously the wood fiber would be a part of that $95,000
so again we would do all the removals in house and then go out to bid for the replacements. So
also in 2019 Sunset Ridge Park which is built in 1991. I believe is our oldest infrastructure. It’s
definitely showing it’s wear and tear. It has the old railroad tie border. A lot of the amenities, as
you can see the, in the top left picture there they don’t, the log bridge, just a lot of safety, I don’t
want to say they’re concerns but they’ve updated a lot of what’s out there nowadays. So again
the removals would all be done in house. We would take all the pea gravel out. The border.
The playground. This location there’s a shelter going in this year so again we would try to tie
that all in on the reinstall so that’s Sunset Ridge Park. So that would be for 2019 and if you can
see in your attachments I’ve put together a list of 2019 through 2023 and just we’re focusing
tonight on just the two years so. Anybody have any questions so far?
Kelly: Adam I believe what was it 2 years ago we visited Sunset Ridge Park and it, I mean it
was noticeable to us that we have to figure out a funding source and so something with that park
because it needs it badly.
Beer: So after tonight we do have, as you see in one of your attachments we do have a tour
scheduled to go revisit some of these top, higher priority areas so it will give us an opportunity to
look through this tonight. Talk about any questions you guys might have and then we can go out
on a field trip and take a closer look you know together and kind of walk through and talk
through some of these things. So moving onto 2020. Curry Farms Park. The playground was
put in somewhat recently. It’s in much, it’s in actually pretty good shape. We’ve been keeping
up, the shelter was installed 3 years ago so the only thing that wasn’t addressed was, or is the
basketball court. This was put in in 1998. You can see the starting to create bird baths. This
was in kind of a low lying area so the pavement’s moving. It holds water pretty regularly with
pretty small rainfalls so we’re constantly sending guys out to either blow it off or squeegee it off.
The pole on the right photo there has been damaged from winter. Water must have got in and
popped that loose so it just needs, this would be kind of the final piece at Curry Farms that would
really tie the rest of the park together. There’s a new shelter so the goal here, as we were moving
through was to keep these at $250,000 so we kind of went through and prioritized each project or
each year based on trying to get as much done as we could while staying within that number.
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Park and Recreation Commission – May 22, 2018
Echternacht: Adam I don’t know maybe this should be Todd, you projected the screen that you
gave us projected costs. It said $25,000 but this screen has $15,000 on it. When you listed all
the parks and just what needed to be done in each one.
Hoffman: Okay.
Echternacht: So I don’t which, is $25,000 or $15,000?
Hoffman: $15,000.
Echternacht: $15,000.
Beer: So $25,000, the $25,000 was what was sent out in the Park Master Plan. Those numbers
are kind of bumped up for just to make sure for budgeting purposes but based on the fact that
we’ve been doing a lot of these repairs over the last few years I’ve found some numbers.
Echternacht: Okay.
Beer: Based on actual costs of what we would likely have to spend to get this project done.
Echternacht: Okay, thank you.
Beer: Yep. Lake Ann Park beach playground. Was built in 1994 so it’s 24 years old. This is
another site that’s aging significantly. If you can see in the top left photo it’s kind of small, it’s a
railroad tie border and it’s completely decayed so we’ve been kind of bandaging things together
over the last few years to just make it work. Obviously Lake Ann Park is one of our high
priority facilities. It gets a lot of use. It’s right next to the beach so this would be a great
opportunity to kind of step up the game for Lake Ann. It’s a pretty small footprint so I think we
would get away with doing a smaller playground versus something like Herman Field where it’s
a much bigger layout. Powers Ridge, or Powers Boulevard pipe rail fence. So these again we
kind of sprinkled in some smaller projects that obviously are just as important for safety reasons.
This is going along Powers Boulevard and it was put in 2004 so it’s getting up there. We’ve
been making replacement updates to pieces that are damaged or contracting the work out when
things get hit but as a whole the fence needs to be replaced. We can’t continue to keep pumping
money in and putting the band aids on. We’re getting to the point of kind of no return so this is a
great example. These pipe rail fences are all over the city. We have them, well they’re all over
the place so this is one of the worst, I wanted to paint that picture for you guys. Rice March
Lake backstop and benches. So this is a neighborhood park. Obviously it’s not used like Lake
Ann, Lake Susan or Bandimere for the sporting events but it’s still a pretty heavily used
neighborhood park. Lots of families go out there. There are some little tykes that have practice,
t-ball practice out there and again as you can see from the bench photo is kind of getting to the
point of no return and needs to be addressed. Todd and I went around and took photos of a
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Park and Recreation Commission – May 22, 2018
number of different ones and this one definitely made the top of the list for backstop and benches
that need to be looked at. Feel free guys to jump in if you have any thoughts or questions as
we’ve moving through here. South Lotus Lake. Again $95,000. Staff would do all the removals
of the playground. This one has a fairly new border. So again we would kind of follow the same
protocol. We would do the removals. Send everything out for an RFP. Pick a new playground
and we would work with the contractor to do the reinstall. So this kind of paints a picture over
the next 5 years of potential projects that we could look at and we, between Todd and I went
through and kind of prioritized the stuff that would likely be needed to be addressed first. All of
this stuff can be changed around if you feel differently but this would be staff’s recommendation
to address these needs.
Boettcher: I like the presentation. Definitely the pictures that shows everything. It looks like
the life of everything on playground equipment if I caught it was 20 to 27 years so I think that’s
about as good as you expect with usage and weather in this part of the country and everything.
In looking at the numbers I believe at our meeting with City Council Todd, the Mayor had asked
what the annual amount was. In the 2040 plan I think we had $267,000. Was the average per
year?
Hoffman: Correct.
Boettcher: So we’re right in that ballpark. I mean that looks like a good plan. And then the tour
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on Tuesday, June 12. Did you want to talk to that? Looks like we’re going to have to be
walking pretty fast if we’re going to hit 8 of them in a couple of hours.
Hoffman: We can do it.
Beer: So the thought was you know we would go through this tonight and it would give you
guys an opportunity to get back out there again for you know we would move on. Give you guys
an opportunity to see everything. Ask any more questions of staff and then just kind of give you
the ability to see it first hand once again.
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Kelly: So this is going to be presented to the City Council on Monday, the 25 of June.
Hoffman: Correct.
Kelly: Is it the work session at 5:00 or 5:30?
Hoffman: Work session at 5:30 or 5:00 yeah.
Kelly: Okay perfect, so we should try to have as many people there as we possibly can. And
then the City Council will schedule it in their regular meeting after that?
Hoffman: That’s up to them.
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Park and Recreation Commission – May 22, 2018
Kelly: Okay.
Echternacht: Did you say 5:30 or 5:00?
Kelly: 5:00 or 5:30, we’re not sure.
Echternacht: Oh okay.
Hoffman: Once it’s scheduled.
Kelly: The work session usually starts at 5:00 but they’ll schedule a specific time for this.
Petouvis: I just have a quick question about the Lake Ann Park playground. I’m wondering if,
or what your thoughts are about perhaps prioritizing that a little higher than a similarly priced
neighborhood playground just given the volume of usage at that park.
Beer: Well a lot of it was just based on the actual footprint. Are you talking about size and
making it?
Hoffman: Moving it up really.
Petouvis: Yeah putting it in an, maybe in 2019 instead of, I don’t have the numbers in my head
but it was the Herman Field Park similarly priced.
Hoffman: Yeah I think it basically has to do with the conditions so the condition is a little bit
better and not nearly as glaring. The ones, the playgrounds that are scheduled in 2019 are
actually behind a couple of years and so they’re getting, we continue to delay those and so when
this original schedule was built those were in 2017 and now they’re in 2019 because that would
be the first year of the project.
Petouvis: And do you get a sense at all of how much success there might be getting these
maintenance and replacement funds approved or sourced through the City Council?
Hoffman: We can’t speak for the City Council. You’ll have to, it’s your recommendation
tonight and then your conversation at the work session that will.
Boettcher: We do know they’re aware of it from our meeting last month so. At the minimum
they know about it.
Tsuchiya: Adam I had a question. What’s the expected lifetime of the new equipment that may
go in and the equipment that you’ve been putting in the last couple years? Is it pretty similar to
what was installed in the 90’s or has it gotten a little better? Do you have any idea?
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Park and Recreation Commission – May 22, 2018
Beer: I think the average life expectancy based on what, the study that was done is about 25
years. That’s kind of the benchmark where you can probably start re-evaluating again.
Tsuchiya: Okay. And to clarify what I heard you say earlier, from your inspections you didn’t
see any safety concerns right now.
Beer: All of the immediately safety concerns we address as a staff.
Tsuchiya: Yeah.
Beer: You know like.
Tsuchiya: Well there’s nothing, my guess there’s nothing that you saw that couldn’t be
addressed right now that would require the park to be shut down and that park to be put at the top
of the list.
Beer: There were a few of those situations. There was a few slides that were cracked that would
have been you know $3,000-$4,000 to replace so we just removed them. Put a panel up and it’s
just kind of band aid that was.
Tsuchiya: I believe you guys did that at Bandimere right?
Beer: There is one slide that.
Tsuchiya: Yeah, my kids don’t like that.
Beer: Mine don’t either.
Hoffman: Go back to Herman Field and show them all the parts that are missing and/or
modified.
Beer: So Herman Field is one of the worst as far as things that we’ve taken out. So the green
panel there, these pictures don’t do it a lot of justice but we’ve taken out 2 of the slides so there’s
just the one remaining so basically half the playground is now closed off from what it used to be
having different access points off of the decks.
Tsuchiya: Oh the green panel was a slide?
Beer: Correct.
Tsuchiya: Okay. Now it’s just product information or whatever it may be.
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Park and Recreation Commission – May 22, 2018
Hoffman: And that pinch point.
Tsuchiya: Yeah. And then the upper right the bowing in the plate I can see.
Hoffman: There’s really not much left compared to what it was.
Beer: Yeah. It looks, you know with all the updates that we’ve done with adding the new picnic
shelter and the new border. The basketball court’s in fairly good condition so this would, this is
really all that’s left and it would, we would be able to just go in and rip that thing out and pop a
new one in.
Tsuchiya: Would it be pretty similar, the new equipment? Our we going to get more bang for
our buck at 55 than you were in the 90’s?
Beer: Yea I think it would be bigger than this. We actually increased the footprint a little bit
based on how we laid out the shelter so we kind of tied everything in so you literally walk from
the shelter to a 4 foot walkway that spills right into the playground so we were able to increase
the size of the container so we, I think we could make it a little bit bigger than it is now.
Tsuchiya: Okay. Thank you.
Boettcher: Any other questions? Discussion.
Hoffman: Couple more. Commissioner Echternacht thank you for pointing that out. We will,
so the original document that was created for this park replacement program was in the park
master plan and so the park master plan addressed it. Created quite an extensive, so 20 years in
it. Started to plug in some dollar amounts so we could get at those budget amounts so if you go
back and look at that plan, that’s where you’ll see these numbers and so to avoid any confusion
moving forward we’ll modify these numbers to match what we’re actually recommending. And
then Commissioner Tsuchiya your one note, the paints are a lot better now and so when you see
this fading, the equipment will age in place up to that 25 year timeframe but you’re probably not
going to see a lot of fading in the paint like you do today and so if you go out to Sunset Ridge
you’ll see it actually is in two different phases and the first phase is really bad paint and the
second phase is a little bit better. You can see right there in the top on the left. The right hand
side is the older and a year later the paint got better and it’s on the left hand side and what you’ll
find in playgrounds is, there used to be some that were a little bit ahead of the others but they’ve
all learned from each other in the last 25-30 years and their equipment is pretty much uniformly
equal and has a long life span for paint and components. And like you said primarily we’re
concerned in those safety issues so we don’t want pinch points, entanglements. Anything that’s
against our consumer product safety commission guidelines and regulations and so that’s what
we’re always looking for. And sometimes it just becomes so difficult to you know replace parts
or maintain it that they’re putting up, just closing parts off until replacement takes place.
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Park and Recreation Commission – May 22, 2018
Tsuchiya: Okay.
Boettcher: Anything else? If not we’re looking for a motion here. Recommending this to the
City Council. Someone like to put it to the question?
Kelly: Yeah, just find what the motion is here. Thank you. I propose that the Park and
Recreation Commission recommends the City Council establish a park replacement fund and
approve the 2019 to 2023 parks replacement schedule.
Boettcher: Motion by Commissioner Kelly. Do we have a second?
Echternacht: I’ll second it.
Boettcher: Seconded by Commissioner Echternacht.
Kelly moved, Echternacht seconded that the Park and Recreation Commission
recommends the City Council establish a park replacement fund and approve the 2019 to
2023 parks replacement schedule. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously
with a vote of 7 to 0.
Boettcher: Motion carries. Now all we need is the money. Thank you Adam, very good.
INTRODUCTION OF 2018 KLEINBANK SUMMER CONCERT SERIES.
Matthews: Thank you commissioners. The City is proud to present the 2018 KleinBank
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Summer Concert Series at City Center Park plaza. The concert series is in it’s 14 year and will
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feature 9 performances throughout the summer. The first concert will be on Thursday, June 14
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and continues every Thursday evening starting at 7:00 p.m. until Thursday, August 9. There is
one daytime performance that is geared towards children and families that will begin at 11:00
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a.m. on Thursday, August 2. For each of the performances the City will be selling concessions,
including the favorite freshly popped popcorn, candy and cold beverages. KleinBank of
Chanhassen has again agreed to be the title sponsor of this series. Their sponsorship of $2,500 is
greatly appreciated and helps offset the expense for this program. KleinBank also shows up to
every concert and they provide free water for all the people enjoying the concerts and usually for
the kids performances they have balloons or Freeze’s sometimes if it’s really hot to distribute
throughout the crowd as well. We just, as a City we just really enjoy our relationship with
KleinBank and we appreciate all they have done for this program and all they continue to do.
The staff, we continue to explore creative and different ways of marketing strategies. One of the
favorite ones is the KleinBank magnet with the concert series on it. We hand those out around
City Hall and KleinBank Chanhassen before and then use them at the concerts as well. It’s a
great way to just throw it up on your fridge so when you’re looking for something to do on
Thursday night you’ve got the schedule right there. Does anybody have any questions?
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Park and Recreation Commission – May 22, 2018
Boettcher: Except they don’t stick on stainless steel fridges.
Matthews: You’ve got to get them on the side.
Boettcher: Try and get my wife to do that. I had a question on all the groups. Who does, do you
go out and look, find them? Is there a list you choose from? Do you have to hang out at bars or
what?
Tsuchiya: Is that where she found the Teddy Bear Band?
Boettcher: That’s what I’m thinking, I don’t know. I mean I was looking at it this afternoon. I
said well that’s a pretty diverse group from the Johnny Cash tribute type band to the 50’s, 60’s,
70’s.
Matthews: Yeah I try to get a variety of different bands just with all different groups and as you
kind of, as I learned as I’ve kind of gone through this which groups are particularly popular like
our tribute bands are always very popular. Last year we had Elvis and it was a big crowd and so
actually working with Elvis they actually knew of the Church of Cash so they recommended it to
me and after looking at it they’re a great band. So you just kind of, I’ve learned and then I also
look at what other cities do. Sometimes bigger cities that, like Maple Grove has a great concert
series so I try to see what they’re doing and then even smaller cities that are like Victoria as well
just to kind of see what they’re doing.
Boettcher: And as far as, I mean are they looking for pay? There’s got to be a variation there. Is
it all free be from them or?
Matthews: No.
Boettcher: Do you have to go pick them up and bring them and set them up? Take it down.
Matthews: No the fees vary depending on the performers. It’s kind of like a puzzle so you want
to try to take certain performers that you know are going to draw a lot of people in sometimes
require a little bit more money and then trying to fit it in as the schedule goes on so that’s where
KleinBank comes, their sponsorship is very handy.
Boettcher: Pretty crucial then.
Matthews: Yeah, they help offset the costs.
Boettcher: Looks like a good selection. Really good.
Matthews: Thank you.
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Park and Recreation Commission – May 22, 2018
Boettcher: Any other questions for Katie?
REPORTS:
2018 LAKE ANN PARK SUMMER PROGRAMS.
Boettcher: Looks like we’re not going to do the photograph tonight. Lake Ann Park Summer
Programs. Jerry I believe you’re up.
Ruegemer: Thank you Vice Chair Boettcher. We’re really at an exciting time here for the
summer of 2018. We are going to open up the concession building this weekend with the
watercraft rentals and the, all the food options here for the summer. So it will be opened up on
11:00 a.m. on Saturday morning so we’ll be open this weekend Saturday, Sunday and Monday
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from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. And then we’ll be open until Sunday the 18 of August for that so
it’ll be an exciting time again this year. We’re going to be doing staff training down there on
Thursday afternoon for that just to make sure that everybody’s up to speed down there so. We
introduced a new item this year with Von Hansen Pretzels so we’re hoping that they’re going to
be a big seller with that. There’s a couple different varieties of that so we’re excited for the year.
We do have a concession manager hired. She’ll be doing all the work schedules and ordering
supplies. She was down there today giving the concession building kind of a once over from the
winter. It’s always a little dirty in the spring here so kind of get that ready to go. Adam and staff
will get the boats in the water here in the next couple days here in time for staff training. We had
Carver County Water Patrol go down there this morning and inspect the boats and life jackets.
We’re all ready to go here for the 2018 season here so everything passed with flying colors with
that. Twin Cities Paddleboards did deliver the paddleboards. The stand up paddleboards are
there already locked up in the racks all ready to go for this weekend so we do have another
annual contract with them again so it’s a great contract that they supply the paddleboards. We
don’t have to lay out any money to purchase equipment. They handle all the maintenance of
those. We provide the staff and we do a revenue split. 70 percent to the City and 30 percent to
Jeff at Twin Cities Paddleboard so he loves the arrangement. We love the arrangement so
everybody’s happy at this point and the stand up paddleboards have been really a great, great
rental for us out there. People really enjoy those annually. So picnics have been extremely busy
again. I don’t know that there is any Saturday or Sundays available left in, for the summer at
Lake Ann so we’re pretty busy. Maybe late August but between you know family reunions and
state ball tournaments and class reunions and all the above here we’re pretty busy. We do have
some availability during the week so we do continue to get phone calls on a daily basis for that
so you know we’ll, we’re kind of always project to be about 120 reserved picnics that people
actually schedule and that will generate roughly $16,000 in revenue so there are obviously a lot
of other people that will just use the shelters if they’re not open out at Lake Susan and both at
Lake Ann so there’s a lot of those kind of impromptu picnics that are happening just with going
out with the family or other, maybe company picnics just choose to use those sites and not
reserve them. Kind of take their chances and also in the neighborhoods as well. Those are
obviously happening that people are really utilizing the new shelters that we have in these
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Park and Recreation Commission – May 22, 2018
neighborhood situations too. I know people are using them for all kinds of family reunions,
graduation parties people have called about so those are first come, first serve and residents or
anybody are willing and able to use those really at any time. The beach is going to be opened up
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again starting Saturday, June 2 for that so we have a, this will be our second year of our
contract, 2 year contract with Minnetonka Aquatics so that’s been a long standing relationship
that goes, dates back to the 1970’s so Minnetonka’s been a great provider of that service out at
Lake Ann for many, many years. Obviously people can use the beach at any time during park
hours, 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. but we will have guarded staff on there from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00
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p.m. daily starting at that June 2 timeframe. And that will go then til August 12, that Sunday,
the second week in August with that so we’re excited. I’ve talked to Dan Berve, the Aquatics
Director a couple times here so everything is pretty much ready to go. They’ve been busy with
staff training and getting kind of things kind of ready to go for that so. Lake Ann is already
hopping. Lots of people out there with people fishing out there today and out there on their own
personal kayaks. All the canoe racks are full at this point out at Lake Ann so all 24 so we’re
actually in pretty good shape out at Lake Ann so I’m really looking forward to a great summer.
Lake Ann is our crown jewel and people really enjoy being out there.
Boettcher: Good. As far as seasonal staff, do you know about how many people total you have?
Ruegemer: For Lake Ann?
Boettcher: Yeah.
Ruegemer: We have 4. We have 1 manager and 3 other concessionaires for a total of 4.
Boettcher: Just the 4 for the whole summer?
Ruegemer: Yep.
Boettcher: Okay.
Ruegemer: Yeah and then we’ll kind of rotate shifts out there.
Boettcher: Good. Any other questions for Jerry?
Ruegemer: And if anybody has any suggestions or ideas they’d like to pass my way I’m all ears
on how to make that operation better for our customers so ready, willing and able to take those
on so.
Boettcher: Good, thank you.
Ruegemer: Thank you.
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Park and Recreation Commission – May 22, 2018
2018 ADULT SOFTBALL.
Ruegemer: Thank you again. First time in 28 years that I’ve been here that we are not doing a
Monday night league which is really disappointing. First time, which was you know we’ve had
8 teams in the past and up to probably 14 a couple years so we had 8 last year. I really tried to
shake the bushes this year to try to make this go. It seemed like we had teams register and then
they would like to pay at other communities so I’d lose one. I’d pick up 2. I’d lose 2 more and
then I’d pick up another one so it goes all the way down kind of the end of the wire here so we’re
not going to.
Hoffman: They were playing for a…
Ruegemer: They were definitely playing for a better day but, which is disappointing and
obviously with that loss of that league we are a loss of revenue for that so the projected revenue
then is a double header league. We play 28 games on that so based on that I was projecting
revenue to be about $6,500 for that particular night with expenses at about, a little over $3,500 so
kind of an overall loss of minus revenue and expenses is going to be a little shy of $3,000 so
we’ll have to work in other areas to make that balance budget so we’ll take a look at that but the
Thursday night league is still strong as ever with that so that league filled about a week after it
opened so that’s a very popular night. People really like playing out at Lake Ann. That’s also a
double header league out there. They play for 14 weeks. Play 28 games out there for that so
league games are played on Fields 4, 5, and 6. Obviously if I had one more field out there we
potentially could play on Field #1 and take that away from the youth baseball and add that to the
adult softball program but I definitely would feel that and get probably for sure 4 more teams to
play on that field as well so it’s something to consider for the future but there’s a, continues to be
very popular and boy I probably had probably 6, 7, 8 phone calls of teams that were looking to
get into that league after it was full so, so I tried to steer them towards Monday but that didn’t
pan out but we’re going to continue to try to get that league back up again and see what else we
can do to supplement.
Boettcher: It just seems strange you have that much interest in Thursday but nobody likes
Mondays.
Ruegemer: Mondays is a tough night. You know that used to be a lot of the corporate night.
We used to have a lot of business teams in town. It seemed like that was predominantly that but
then as those teams started to kind of age out then I opened up to 10 other men’s open type of
teams and then now that is starting to wain but that isn’t unique to Chanhassen with adult softball
numbers dropping. You know people are aging out. The kids activities are taking up a lot more
time and people are choosing to do non-team sports and kind of more individual type of thing so
we’re going to keep looking for that next big ticket.
Boettcher: Can you do a Tuesday and a Wednesday?
13
Park and Recreation Commission – May 22, 2018
Ruegemer: We tried that too.
Boettcher: Doesn’t work either huh?
Ruegemer: No.
Boettcher: Wow.
Ruegemer: We’ve tried co-rec. Church co-rec. Regular co-rec. Women’s so, so if you guys
have any ideas again I would listen so.
Boettcher: Yeah the fields look great. I mean really good. Any other questions for Jerry?
None, thank you Jerry. Appreciate it.
Ruegemer: Yep, no problem.
2018 SUMMER PROGRAMS.
Boettcher: And it looks like Katie, 2018 summer programs. Looks like you might be busy this
summer huh?
Matthews: Just a little bit.
Boettcher: You take care of every one of these right?
Matthews: No. No Jodi helps out. Well Jodi has a lot of them out at the Rec Center too but this
is just a list of upcoming preschool, youth and family programs that the Park and Rec
Department offered. I’m just going to touch on a few that I know about. Like I said some of
these are out at the Rec Center that Jodi operates but our Dance for Fun summer classes, those
are always very popular. Our Minnesota Twins baseball and softball clinic that we have for the,
rd
on the 3 of July. That’s a big, that’s a very popular program. The penny carnival. The Lil Star
t-ball. Track and field and all those Lil Star and Small Fry Sports out at the Rec Center. Our
Summer Discovery Playground program is a program that I oversee that is very popular. Right
now I think we have, I want to say 520 kids enrolled in that one so far so that one is very
popular. We also have our teen volunteer program. We’ve got I want to say 10 volunteer
applications that we are going to have our intern look into. She just started on Monday so that’s
something that she’ll be overseeing. Lake Ann Adventure Camp, that one is full. We have 2
weeks of it and it’s 80 different kids each week so 160 kids total. We’ve got some youth archery
programs that we partner with Carver County Parks. They provide the space and the equipment
th
and we help provide the staff and the sign up. And then our 4 of July celebration is a great
family one and our KleinBank Summer Concert Series. Does anybody have any questions about
any of those or any program that you’ve heard of or that you’d like to see the City try?
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Park and Recreation Commission – May 22, 2018
Scanlon: What’s the Psychedelic Sports Sampler?
Matthews: That is one that Jodi is doing. It’s a, I can’t tell you all the details but it’s just a camp
for kids to come and try a bunch of different sports.
Ruegemer: Just an offering of sports.
Matthews: And it’s going to be awesome.
Scanlon: I was just wondering what makes it psychedelic.
Ruegemer: Just the name.
Boettcher: Out of everything listed that caught your eye.
Scanlon: You don’t see psychedelic very often.
Boettcher: Now we know about him. I think you’re going to need a longer summer. That’s a
lot of activities. That’s pretty amazing.
Tsuchiya: I circles a couple for my kids now.
Matthews: Yeah absolutely. We have more information on these programs at the City website,
in the Connection or you can always give either Jodi and I a call and we’d be definitely happy to
answer any of your questions or help through the sign up process.
Boettcher: Good. Any other questions for Katie? Thank you.
Matthews: Thank you.
Boettcher: We won’t see you til October?
Matthews: See you in September.
Boettcher: Okay. Next items on the agenda.
COMMISSION MEMBER COMMITTEE REPORTS. None.
COMMISSION MEMBER PRESENTATIONS. None.
ADMINISTRATIVE PACKET.
15
Park and Recreation Commission – May 22, 2018
Boettcher: I noticed that there were 4 items in there. Had the Minutes from the Eastern Carver
th
County Linking Trail Committee meeting March 7 and looks like the next one is September
th
19 in Victoria.
Hoffman: You’re all welcomed to attend. With an email and reach out to them if you’d like to.
Boettcher: And we had the Red Birds schedule. Looks like they start this Friday night.
Ruegemer: Yeah they’ve had 4 games prior to this. This will be their first home game.
Boettcher: The first home game, okay.
Ruegemer: They’re 4 and 0 right now.
Boettcher: Good.
Ruegemer: And that will be in the schedule page in the Chanhassen Villager. It’s an insert this
week. This coming Thursday and also the Memorial Day flyer will also be in this week.
Boettcher: Can you get some of those to play for the Twins?
Ruegemer: They won last night.
Boettcher: Well yeah they did. And then there was another, the Memorial Day ceremony. You
had a flyer on that. The times of everything taking place that day.
Ruegemer: The cemetery visits are in the morning, yep.
Boettcher: Yep, 7:45 a.m. and 8:15 and 10:15. Good. The Mayor will deliver keynote address.
Finally we had the invitation, I took it as an invitation from Lauren Dale for her graduation if
anyone plans to attend.
Hoffman: Addressed to the commission.
Boettcher: Okay, anyone have anything else to add?
Kelly: Excuse me. Yeah I would like to remind the high schoolers who are attending today,
Commissioner Schaeferle’s in his second year of being a commissioner. He’s a full voting
commissioner so if you apply for a youth position you have the same rights and voting authority
as any commissioner up here and we do have a spot normally for 2 youth commissioners so
seriously think about joining us next year.
Hoffman: If you live in Chanhassen.
16
Park and Recreation Commission – May 22, 2018
Kelly: If you live in Chanhassen. That’s all I had.
Boettcher: Alright.
Hoffman: Chair we have, I don’t know if you’re aware of this. We have a lighting presentation
that Jerry’s going to go.
Ruegemer: Yeah just like to go real quick. Just put together a quick power point slide
presentation here just from some pictures taken the other night at the lighting dedication at Lake
Susan so we’ll go ahead and start that. There’s no music to it but it will scroll through with a
number of images so enjoy.
Tsuchiya: It’s not on our screens.
Ruegemer: No music.
(A slide presentation was shown at this point in the meeting.)
Tsuchiya: What time was that taken at?
Ruegemer: That was between 9:00 and 10:00.
Tsuchiya: Wow, very nice.
Ruegemer: Home run hitter…participants. That was at about 10:10 and completion of the 15
hero baseball game. Jeff Olson, one of the members of the Dugout Club giving a presentation of
the good work they do in town.
Hoffman: Those dugouts are brand new as well. That was the last project the Dugout
completed. Scoreboard is also their project.
Ruegemer: Beautiful night for baseball on Sunday night. It was an absolutely gorgeous night.
That was about a quarter to 10:00 when that picture was taken.
Boettcher: So it looks like there’s very little spillover of the light. I mean it’s directed. So from
Lake Drive East you wouldn’t glare anything.
Ruegemer: Mayor Laufenburger coaching first base.
Echternacht: Putting these lights into Bandimere we won’t have problems with the neighbors
then.
17
Park and Recreation Commission – May 22, 2018
Hoffman: That’s right. Yeah this light cuts out, it only, any light goes to 70 feet. Most of it cuts
out at 25 feet.
Ruegemer: We’re getting close to the end.
Hoffman: A lot of buzz about this park becoming you know a real baseball park. Baseball right
in the middle of our community which is a nice amenity for our community and then in the
future really all it takes to become a baseball stadium is a stadium so at some point in the future
of our history of our town build a stadium there with bleachers overlooking the field.
Underneath you have the classic traditional restrooms and concessions down below. Then
you’ve got full service baseball available to your community.
Boettcher: What about glare for an outfielder, do you lose the light? Lose the ball in the light?
Hoffman: It’s so nice. Highly engineered. There’s up lights and so when a pop fly goes up
they’re illuminated from underneath. Very easy to pick up. Pick up in the lights. And there is a
25 year warranty so a 25 year warranty on the lights is we don’t have to touch them.
Boettcher: Nice. And you said the plaque will be displayed out there?
Hoffman: It is.
Boettcher: It’s going to be, it’s on one of the dugouts or?
Hoffman: It’s on the first base dugout on the west side, yeah.
Boettcher: On the west side, okay.
Hoffman: So they contributed $55,000. $1,000 went to the plaque so we got $54,000 out of the
$55,000 so…
Scanlon: It’s a $1,000 plaque?
Hoffman: It’s a $1,000 bronze plaque, yeah.
Scanlon: Oh a bronze plaque, just making sure.
Boettcher: So do we all get to go out there and sign since we were sitting members here?
Immortalized. Very good pictures Jerry. Looks like a great deal. With that I’ll entertain a
motion to adjourn.
18
Park and Recreation Commission – May 22, 2018
Echternacht moved, Petouvis seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the
motion carried unanimously with a vote of 7 to 0. The Park and Recreation Commission
meeting was adjourned at 8:10 p.m.
Submitted by Todd Hoffman
Park and Rec Director
Prepared by Nann Opheim
19