PRC 2019 03 26
CHANHASSEN PARK AND
RECREATION COMMISSION
REGULAR MEETING
MARCH 26, 2019
Chairman Scharfenberg called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT: Steve Scharfenberg, Rick Echternacht, Jim Boettcher, Meredith
Petouvis, Karl Tsuchiya, and Joe Scanlon
MEMBERS ABSENT: Cole Kelly, and Grant Schaeferle
STAFF PRESENT: Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Director; Jerry Ruegemer, Recreation
Superintendent; Audrey Swantz, Recreation Supervisor; Adam Beers, Park Superintendent; and
Jodi Sarles, Rec Center Manager
APPROVAL OF AGENDA:
Scharfenberg: Do we have any changes or revisions to the agenda for tonight?
Hoffman: We’ll scratch the photo since we don’t have a full group.
Scharfenberg: Okay. And then I would just make this note that item K, commission member
presentations we will open that at that point for members of the commission that are here this
evening and are going off the commission who might like to make some comments.
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: None.
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
February 26, 2019 as presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously
with a vote of 6 to 0.
RECOMMEND PURCHASE OF PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT FOR PRAIRIE KNOLL
PARK, SUNSET RIDGE PARK, AND HERMAN FIELD PARK.
Beers: Alright, thank you Chair Scharfenberg and commissioners. As you guys know we’ve
been working pretty hard on the park replacement schedule. Some of you guys were out to the
Rec Center for our neighborhood meeting so give you a little background. We have $245,000 in
the CIP this year for the 3 playgrounds to be replaced at Prairie Knoll Park, Sunset Ridge and
Herman Field. Four playground companies were invited to participate in the RFP process.
Park and Recreation Commission – March 26, 2019
Companies we’ve used in the past and had good luck with. We had a selection workshop at the
Chanhassen Rec Center with each respective neighborhood and allowing them to kind of take
part in the voting process of the residents of each neighborhood were the voting members and the
decision was made for all 3 locations to go with Northland Recreation which is a company that
we’ve used quite a bit so they had kind of a favorite design. Thanks again for all of you guys
that attended those meetings. It was great to have you out there so here tonight to make a
recommendation that the Park and Recreation Commission recommends the City Council award
the quote to Northland Recreation in the amount of $178,000. Or $178,064.00 for the
playground equipment at each of the 3 locations and the funds are located in our CIP.
Scharfenberg: Thank you Adam. Any questions at all for Adam relative to the proposal that’s in
front of us this evening?
Tsuchiya: I do. Adam I was noticing on the Northland one that was looked good but the other
companies bid they, some of them had bids for the engineered wood fiber. Is that going to be
something that the City’s going to have to cover beyond the, what is it the $178,000?
Beers: No it was marked in the RFP that the City was responsible for supplying that.
Tsuchiya: Yeah.
Beers: So that’s all kind of pushed into the $245,000.
Tsuchiya: Okay and do you know what that would cost?
Beers: It’s about $5,000.
Tsuchiya: For all 3 locations?
Beers: For each location.
Tsuchiya: For each okay. Alright. And then just curious, I’m assuming there’s an industry
standard here. What’s the warranty that comes with the equipment itself in these situations?
Beers: I don’t have a specific. I can get that to you.
Tsuchiya: Okay.
Beers: All the equipment is warrantied through the provider. I just, I can’t tell you what that is
exactly.
Tsuchiya: Sure, yeah. Something 25 years or.
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Park and Recreation Commission – March 26, 2019
Hoffman: Different parts of it are warrantied for different period of time but one thing we found
with all of our, once they’re here they really take pretty good care of us and so if we have a
cracked slide or a paint peel problem or some kind of a bracket they, in their best interest they
come back and they really warrantied those. We’ve not really had an issue that I recall in my
time here working with either Dale or Adam so the warranties are in writing. They’re accepted.
They’re pretty much an industry standard across all of them. The other thing that you’ll find
when you purchasing playground equipment is one always wants to tell you that their equipment
is better right up front. That’s why you should buy mine but they’ve really all got very nice
equipment. The warranties are strong and then again in their own best interest they always come
back. They don’t want the word on the street that they’ve got a slide that’s cracking and the
factory takes care of it. The manufacturer and then they bring it out and they’ll actually come
out and help us install it as well so warranties are really well done on the playground equipment.
Tsuchiya: Is that what, just out of curiosity, is that what happened with the slide at Bandimere?
That one slide.
Beers: No that wasn’t a warranty issue. I mean that was you know it’s just old equipment based
on, that’s been there for I don’t know whenever that went in. It was in the 90’s.
Hoffman: Was it vandalized or just cracked? Cracked?
Beers: Yeah.
Tsuchiya: Okay.
Beers: So we replaced that and that’s going to happen but I can find out what that time is that
the warranty holds and get back to you.
Tsuchiya: Okay yeah I’m just curious.
Beers: So the other thing to know too is the playground provider is going to, we’re going to be
doing a joint installation so that’s another opportunity for us to make sure everything is going in
correctly and the way it should so they’re kind of doing everything.
Tsuchiya: Okay and did I see here is it just staff that will be helping the installer or is the public
invited to assist as well?
Beers: We didn’t open it up this year because typically we found that, you know like with the
new parks, new parks as a whole. Pioneer Pass, Riley Ridge, when those were done when you’re
getting a new neighborhood together it’s kind of an opportunity for them to bond so we didn’t
open it up as a you know a selling point but at the meetings we did get quite a bit of interest from
a couple of the neighborhoods that they wanted to partake so we’ll gladly work with them to
have them be a part of the process and so it was kind of the whole point of having them pick the
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Park and Recreation Commission – March 26, 2019
design so they’re pretty involved. We’ve had great response from each of the neighborhoods and
so yeah. I’ve traded some emails with a few of the residents and we’re going to kind of, as we
get closer work together.
Tsuchiya: Great.
Beers: I think that’s an awesome opportunity.
Tsuchiya: Yep.
Scharfenberg: Would it be possible Adam to even post something maybe on Facebook about
that for.
Beers: Oh absolutely.
Scharfenberg: …as you’re getting closer.
Beers: Let them know what’s going on as we move forward in the spring so.
Scharfenberg: Okay.
Beers: Yeah.
Scharfenberg: Any other questions for Adam relative to the proposal? If not can I get a motion.
Tsuchiya: I’ll do it. I’ll move that the Park and Recreation Commission recommends the City
Council award the quote to Northland Recreation in the amount of $178,064.00 for the
playground equipment at Prairie Knoll Park, Sunset Ridge Park and Herman Field Park.
Scharfenberg: Thank you. Can I get a second?
Echternacht: I’ll second.
Scharfenberg: We have a motion and a second.
Tsuchiya moved, Echternacht seconded that the Park and Recreation Commission
recommends the City Council award the quote to Northland Recreation in the amount of
$178,064.00 for the playground equipment at Prairie Knoll Park, Sunset Ridge Park and
Herman Field Park. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of
6 to 0.
Scharfenberg: That motion carries. Thank you Adam.
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Park and Recreation Commission – March 26, 2019
RECOMMENDATION TO AWARD LOW QUOTE, TENNIS COURT
REFURBISHMENT CHANHASSEN RECREATION CENTER, LAKE SUSAN PARK
AND SOUTH LOTUS LAKE PARK.
Scharfenberg: Next up I think Adam you’re on for the tennis court refurbishment.
Beers: Yep. Well thank you again. So the tennis court, we’ve had a replacement plan in place
for a number of years now. On the list for this year for crack sealing and resurfacing as
identified in our replacement plan were Lake Susan Park, Meadow Green Park, North Lotus
Lake Park, South Lotus Park and the Chan Rec Center so those were just put in there based on
the years that have gone by so they’re kind of just a general rule and after some preliminary
inspections we decided that it didn’t warrant any work to be done at a few of them. The
Chanhassen Rec Center is kind of beyond that point of doing crack repair and sealing and just a
quick overlay so that needs to be redone so we took the 3 that are in the worst shape and are
going to renew those so the Chanhassen Rec Center is going to be a complete mill and overlay.
It’s basically going to be a brand new court and the other two are going to be crack filled and
they have a product out there called Petromat which we’ve used at a number of locations.
Meadow Green and North Lotus and they’ve had great success so that’s kind of the recipe we’re
going to follow at these two locations. So yeah those are the next 3 in the line.
Scharfenberg: Any questions at all for Adam relative to the tennis court refurbishment? Is that
typical Adam that we only get mainly two bids? I mean that you only see two companies that
generally bid for that type of work.
Beers: I opened it up to the two that we’ve had a lot of good success with and that typically
come back with favorable numbers so.
Scharfenberg: Okay.
Beers: So you know we’ve had, we’ve tried a few in the past. These are local, you know
somewhat local that we’ve had, you know that they’ve done quite a bit of work in Chanhassen
over the years and we’ve had good luck so try to stick with what works.
Scharfenberg: And what’s the plan in terms of staging this work? Get it all done at one time
since they’re here?
Beers: Yep. So last fall we kind of just took the initiative and started, we tried to do some work
to lower some of the costs by removing some of the fence fabric at all the locations assuming
that this went through. You know we weren’t out too much time just by doing that so
Chanhassen Rec Center would likely be the first one but we’re going to try to do all 3 of them
you know at the same time with the same construction period so hopefully within the first few
months of the summer should have everything wrapped up.
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Park and Recreation Commission – March 26, 2019
Scharfenberg: And then an estimated time that they would be up and available?
Beers: It’s going to be totally dependent on the weather. They are, you know we’re on the first
of the list so as soon as we can get equipment down in the site we’re going to start rocking and
rolling so.
Scharfenberg: Okay. Alright.
Beers: I would assume by middle or end of May.
Scharfenberg: Okay.
Beers: Just kind of a guideline but you know if we get great weather we might be a little
quicker. It just is kind of dependent on that so.
Scharfenberg: Okay.
Hoffman: You’ll note that…so that mat they’re putting down on the, to repair the courts. The
cracks are still coming through from the bottom but once they hit that mat they can’t penetrate to
the top so when you refurbish these courts that, we’ve had excellent luck with it at North Lotus,
Meadow Green, and some other courts and they just look great and so when you don’t totally
reconstruct you’re not removing the cracks from the soil and the subsurface and they just come
right back. But this mat stops it from coming through but if you’re going to totally reconstruct
then you take them all the way and so that’s why it’s not in the Chan Rec Center bid. But the
next time that the Chan Rec Center is refurbished we’ll utilize that mat at that time so good
product. People are happy with it.
Scharfenberg: Okay. Any other questions? If not can I entertain a motion?
Petouvis: I move that the Park and Rec Commission recommends to City Council, the City
Council award the low quote to Plehal Blacktopping in the amount of $149,730 for tennis court
refurbishments at the Chanhassen Recreation Center, Lake Susan Park and South Lotus Lake
Park.
Scharfenberg: We move a motion. Do we have a second?
Boettcher: Second.
Scharfenberg: We have a motion and a second for the recommended tennis court refurbishment.
Petouvis moved, Boettcher seconded that the Park and Rec Commission recommends the
City Council award the low quote to Plehal Blacktopping in the amount of $149,730 for
tennis court refurbishments at the Chanhassen Recreation Center, Lake Susan Park and
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Park and Recreation Commission – March 26, 2019
South Lotus Lake Park. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote
of 6 to 0.
Scharfenberg: Motion carries. Alright thank you Adam.
Beers: Yep.
RECEIVE 2018 PARK AND RECREATION DEPARTMENT ANNUAL REPORT.
Ruegemer: Thank you Chair Scharfenberg. Good evening commission. Just wanted to go
through, staff’s been working very hard on completing the 2018 Park and Recreation Annual
Report so we present this annual report every March to the Park and Rec Commission to kind of
highlight our previous year’s activities and kind of highlight against our accomplishments
through the year for that so all the divisions of our department are involved with this report. So
hopefully you can find the information useful. We certainly do on an annual basis as well as our
constituents and residents in our area so just to go through a few of the highlights. The Rec
Center, I think you all had an attachment on with your agenda item here so if anybody would like
a hard copy I have one here too if anybody would like to look at it as well. The Chanhassen
Senior Center did close to 6,000 people attend weekly and monthly activities. Over 400 people
participating in health and wellness sessions. Mary seems to be and Jodi seem to be picking up
steam in that area as well and getting people involved with that. The Chan Rec Center you can
kind of see our non-billable hours for that and that’s use at the Rec Center for city activities,
school district activities, other governmental agencies, that sort of thing. And then you can kind
of see the value of the non-billable hours with that total. The Dance for Fun participants equaled
close to 650 people with that so Jodi does a great job with that program out at the Rec Center.
Rec Center Sports, they seem to be holding their own with participation with that so we had over
69 sessions with close to 1,000 kids in that program so Jodi and staff do a great job and are
bringing a variety of different programs and activities for our kids of our community so good job
with that. …we had over 250 programs with 3,000 participants for our programs that we have
here so Summer Discovery Playground we had close to 600. That was one of our bigger years
that we had in 2018 so we’re hoping to replicate that number or exceed that number this year so
sign up those kids. Two volunteer programs. Probably had more than 100 or 200 hours more of
volunteering than we did the previous year so that program seems to be gaining steam with that.
We have a great group of kids last summer that helped out with the KleinBank Summer Concert
Series. Different programs and activities that we had. They volunteered for the Senior Picnic
out at Lake Ann Park and a variety of other programs and events as well so we’re already getting
phone calls on that so get kids signed up again for that this year so it’s been a really good
training program for us as well so we’ve had several teen volunteers that elevate into our
seasonal positions as well so it’s kind of a training program for them to get some skills. It’s been
good for us too that we can identify kids that exceed and have a great attitude and they’ve kind
of shifted them right into our seasonal staff so that’s worked out really well. Adaptive
Recreation as you know we contract through Reach for Resources with that so and they help
train our playground staff to identify kids with disabilities and how to integrate them into our
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Park and Recreation Commission – March 26, 2019
programs so it’s been a really great partnership with us. Served 31 participants last year for a
variety of different programs from adult to kids to teens with that so they’re easy to work with
and we’re very happy to have that population served in our area. Community events.
Chanhassen is known for our community events. Our neighborhoods and community enjoy that
very much. We had to attend organization partnerships you know Rotary, Lions, that sort of
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thing help out with our different events and had over 76,000 people enjoy our events from our 4
of July, Easter, Halloween Party and so forth. We’ve had over 200 volunteer hours that go into
planning these events so we’re always continuing to plan those even way in advance before the
th
events so we’re planning 4 of July pretty hard right now so that’s kind of what goes into that.
Facilities…inventory. Extremely busy. We had well over 39,000 people last year use our
outdoor facilities which was swimming beaches, skating rinks, skate park and picnic areas so that
keeps a good bulk of my day occupied with the variety of different facilities that we have so
that’s been a good thing for us and people really enjoy what we have here in Chanhassen so with
that we have over 25 seasonal employees are hired annually to monitor and oversee those
programs and make sure that everybody has a great time in our facilities. Park maintenance.
Adam maintains, Adam and crew maintain 65 miles of pedestrian trails and sidewalks, over 500
hours of natural preserved land and 405 acres of developed parkland so, as well as the downtown
and all greenscape so Adam and crew are extremely busy all the time and you know really taking
this time of year to kind of regroup and prep for the next wave here so waiting for the snow to
get off the fields and dry off and I know the youth associations are very much looking forward to
having everything kind of ready to go from here hopefully in a couple three weeks here when
everything kind of dries out and ready to go so. Park improvements. We did completing our
neighborhood shelter initiative. We added shelters and neighborhood shelters at Minnewashta
Heights, Herman Field and South Lotus. Last year in 2018 one of our biggest projects we had
certainly was the ballfield lighting at Lake Susan Park. Many of you attended the grand opening
last May so that was really a welcomed addition to our park system. I know Steve really enjoyed
that as well with the Junior Legion and Senior Legion baseball programs out there as well as
Minnetonka baseball programs so we’re getting all those requests right now. All the permits are
out so everybody’s going to be taking advantage of that again this year and so hopefully we’ll
have more hours scheduled under the lights this year as well so. Fox Wood Preserve was
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another, we did the grand opening on June 9 last year, 2018 so a little rainy that day but
hopefully people got out and enjoyed that wonderful kind of nature area out there too. It’s really
a great treasure for our park system out there as well so get out there and enjoy that. It’s a
wonderful area. …over 77 partnerships that include and involved all of our divisions of our
departments from park maintenance to seniors, rec programming, and the Rec Center so we
value those partnerships and continue. Always looking to continue to look for more partnerships
to help our operation. Commission certainly has the weight of the capital improvement projects.
We had 6 projects last year ranging from $10,000 to $250,000 so a grand total was around
$670,000 for those improvements so staff did work very hard on getting the 2018 annual report
completed again so we hope you will enjoy it. If there’s any questions I would entertain those at
this time.
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Park and Recreation Commission – March 26, 2019
Scharfenberg: Thank you Jerry for that information. Any questions at all for Jerry regarding the
report? I would just say again thank you for, staff again for all the wonderful work that you did
again highlighting everything that’s gone on in 2018. It’s kind of hard to comprehend when you
look at that year and all of the people that have been involved and all of the wonderful things that
go on on a daily basis to promote both our parks and trails and that system and again it is one of
our shining stars of the city so thank you again for the staff and that for all that you do.
Ruegemer: Thank you Chair Scharfenberg.
RECOMMENDATION TO AWARD LOW QUOTE, PRAIRIE KNOLL PARK AND
SUNSET RIDGE PARK PLAYGROUND BORDER CONCRETE.
Scharfenberg: Alright Adam is back up again. Mr. quote.
Beers: It’s my last one I promise.
Hoffman: Tonight.
Beers: Tonight. So again thank you Chair Scharfenberg and commissioners. So this quote is
kind of coupled with the first replacement of the playground equipment. So we’re looking to
redo the concrete as kind of part of the package deal at Sunset Ridge and Prairie Knoll Park.
Those two locations still have the old plastic wood or plastic border with the pea gravel which is
not really compliant with the industry standards today. Herman Field, the other location we were
able to redo that border and add the shelter as a part of the shelter initiative so basically all we
have to do there is remove the wood fiber. Get it out of the way and put the new playground in
and button everything back up and we’ll be good to go so the other two locations have a little
more work involved so two quotes went out to Theis Construction and Curb Masters. We’ve
done quite a bit of work with both of them. Both of those companies. Quotes are attached and
the funds are available in the CIP so if anybody has any questions I’d like to be glad to answer.
Scharfenberg: Any questions?
Hoffman: Everybody understand why there’s two. The one site is already completed. Herman.
Beers: Yeah Herman Field.
Scharfenberg: Okay, can I get a motion please.
Echternacht: Move that the Park and Recreation Commission recommends the City Council
award the low quote to Theis Construction in the amount of $24,314 for concrete work at Prairie
Knoll Park and Sunset Ridge Park.
Scharfenberg: We have a motion. Do we have a second?
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Park and Recreation Commission – March 26, 2019
Petouvis: Second.
Scharfenberg: We have a motion and a second.
Echternacht moved, Petouvis seconded that the Park and Recreation Commission
recommends the City Council award the low quote to Theis Construction in the amount of
$24,314 for concrete work at Prairie Knoll Park and Sunset Ridge Park. All voted in favor
and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0.
Scharfenberg: Thank you Adam.
Beers: Thank you.
ESTABLISH DISCUSSION TOPICS FOR APRIL 8, 2019 JOINT MEETING WITH
CITY COUNCIL.
Scharfenberg: I’ll open that up to Todd.
Hoffman: Thank you Chair Scharfenberg, members of the commission. So that’s a Monday
th
night, April 8 6:00 p.m. Exact same time, just a few days apart I think from last year’s joint
meeting and so the 3 new commissioners will be joining you that evening. The 4 remaining
commissioners from this group and you have an opportunity to talk about your successes from
the past. Future projects that you want to look for. You know guidance from the City Council
into the future or ask questions about and the council just asks that you send them an agenda of
what you’d like to talk about so they understand what they’re getting into on that particular
Monday night and once you’ve concluded a list, last year we did kind of a two part list. We did
things that you had accomplished or things that were under going and then some future projects
so if you want to, it’s up to you how you want to arrange that and staff’s here to take notes and
then we’ll present that information to the City Council and send you a copy as well.
Scharfenberg: And Todd I’m going to assume that since Jim’s kind of the ranking member that
he would at least lead that discussion to some extent with council. Okay.
Boettcher: So we get to ask for money. I’ve been doing this for 6 years.
Scharfenberg: Things to talk about.
Tsuchiya: You never know Jim.
Hoffman: For example last year you would like to discuss the following items. You talked
about the LED baseball field lighting. The potential future expansion of Lake Ann Park.
Initiation of the park replacement schedule which is now up and running and obviously is a
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Park and Recreation Commission – March 26, 2019
success that I think you would want to touch on. At least show appreciation for it. Desire to
complete the Bandimere Park. Sport court, park shelter, ballfield lighting. Desire to improve the
Rec Center facility and then the balance of the park dedication fund which last year we called
low. It’s not necessarily all that low but you know it’s not hugely robust but it’s not like it’s
going to fall off the edge of a cliff here. And then the Park and Rec Commission would like to
recognize the efforts and resources required to complete the following projects last year so picnic
tables. So you talk about what you completed the previous year. Neighborhood shelters.
Addition of the Fox Woods 101 trail which was a big project obviously. So that’s kind of how it
was arranged last year and you can do it the same way or pick another way. Talk about a few
projects. Talk about a lot of projects.
Boettcher: So would we carry over from last year things that didn’t get done or didn’t get
approved? Would that be part of the list too or do we want all new stuff?
Hoffman: That’s for the commission to decide.
Tsuchiya: I think a handful of things that didn’t get done but were on last year’s list would be
good to talk about, especially if they’re important to the commission. You know I know we
talked about Lake Ann and I have in my notes here now that the Galpin property development
seems like it’s going to go forward, guidance. You know we kind of have an idea for the master
plan but do we want to open it up? You know what do we want to do and where are we going to
get the funding for it? It’s always about money so there’s a lot of opportunity there.
Petouvis: The City Council, do they have specific expectations of us at this April meeting
regarding the Galpin property development? Okay.
Scharfenberg: I think they’re going to be you know that project is so new that you know there
are going to be some things that need to be done from a park and rec perspective with respect to
that with respect to trails. I mean those are some I think some of the initial things and I’m
assuming that Hoisington-Koegler would be involved maybe in some of that Todd?
Hoffman: They were in some preliminary work and then anything in the future we would go out
to an RFP and put that out to a competitive bid so we would design an RFP. Request for
Proposal for public meetings to design the trails and bridges and you know engineering
feasibility work to how are they going to be constructed? What is going to take? What kind of
footings so that RFP would be designed in-house and then put out for bid and then a variety of
companies would bid on that and then we would select the lowest responsible bidder and bring
them on board. So that’s kind of how the future of that will take place. Once the final plat
comes in through Lennar the City secures the ownership of the property. Now you have the
ability to go and invest some additional resources in planning for the future and there’s a lot of
ground to cover. You know obviously there has always been a plan for trails but there’s going to
be lots of community input on what kind of trails and where should they go and how many, you
know should we do both turf trails and asphalt trails? Should we do one or the other? So there’s
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Park and Recreation Commission – March 26, 2019
going to be a lot, I think people are going to want to talk about that because since the preliminary
plat was approved everybody’s just kind of taking a breather. The whole community is just kind
of on pause right now. Everybody’s taking a breather. Everybody’s settling back and I think
appreciating what the City Council accomplished with Lennar and then in the future next steps
so what would those next steps be and that’s typically you know plan and then the budget. Once
we get an estimated cost and that would be a part of that design process, that RFP so you’ll need
an estimated cost. They would do some bidding. Some of that work if we do a project. You
know staff’s opinion or staff’s thought moving forward is now that you have a development
that’s going to be underway you would want to be underway with your construction at least your
first stages and so when people move in they have access to this property and you’re not then
having a conversation with a whole new neighborhood about whoa, hang on a second. Should
we actually put all those trails in that park so it would be nice to have them going on you know
concurrently. The development and the trail construction so that would be the goal but we don’t
know, you know it’d be a few million dollars to accomplish that and the nice thing about this
time delay, you know it takes time to develop and get plans is that the park fund is coming back.
There’s not a lot of things in the hopper right now. Big projects but there’s some on the horizon
and then we had a pretty good year this last year in park dedication fees. You see the buildings
around town. Some of the large buildings on the 101 corridor. All those buildings, most of them
were paying into the park fund and had a pretty good year last year. The one big take out of the
park fund is the $600,000 and that’s a, you know that’s just a first number off of the Arboretum
trail and so that’s going to go out to bid and start this year and then our, once the bids are in then
our allocation will be known based on a formula with the County and then we’ll know if that’s
going to go up or down and other than that you’ve put everything else on hold just to wait for the
Lake Ann project to come in which is a good plan. Obviously it’s the number one priority so
previous to the Arboretum trail the last two projects you did that took some cash out of the fund
were the Roundhouse and Bandimere. Again two really nice projects but now we’ve just kind of
have to wait and accumulate some cash to pay for these trails and bridges out at Lake Ann.
Tsuchiya: Todd awaiting your recommending here, is that something that we should go to the
City Council and recommend to the City Council that we put activities on hold to build up
capital for Lake Ann or?
Hoffman: I think it’s a good conversation to see if they concur with that plan.
Tsuchiya: Okay. I mean it seems prudent to do so. I’m just wondering is that something that’s
within our decision making or to a certain extent or is that something that we should get you
know a stamp of approval from City Council?
Hoffman: Yes they’re the final decision but you’ll make a recommendation on a CIP this year
again and last year you pretty much stripped everything out and you know they approved that
and so you would do the same thing again this year. And you may actually have a number of,
well be a little bit premature but we should probably start to identify a coding for two things.
Both an RFP for this project and then for the future construction project. We won’t know what
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Park and Recreation Commission – March 26, 2019
that dollar amount is but it’s going to be the, you know it’s going to be the front runner in your
CIP going forward the next few years. At least that’s what people are going to anticipate that
you’re working on so. Yeah that’s a recommendation you make and before you make that
recommendation to the council or have that conversation with them on it. You know April, get
their thoughts would be a good idea.
Petouvis: Todd do you have a just to inform the conversation on funding, do you have a ballpark
best guess on what the?
Hoffman: No. No. No.
Petouvis: No? Alright how about for my information can you give me an update on where the
park dedication fund currently stands before the $600,000 give or take for the Arboretum trail?
Hoffman: Yep, we’ll send it via email.
Petouvis: Okay thank you.
Hoffman: Yep.
Boettcher: So Todd is staff going to come up with a list of conversation topics?
Hoffman: We’re going to write down a list that you come up with tonight.
Boettcher: So let’s start.
Scharfenberg: Go ahead.
Petouvis: Sorry just for my information. Timing on the final plat from Lennar and what do you
foresee the timing being for when our ball from the park and recreation standpoint starts rolling
forward?
Hoffman: I hate to say in a normal process but likely a few months down the road you’ll see a
final plat and so then first construction, if everything moves along which it doesn’t always do,
would be next year so it would be 2020. Initial start of construction on their part and that’s, you
know that’s really a lot of grading. You probably would see the first building permit in 2021.
Petouvis: Okay.
Hoffman: So any construction of the Lake Ann trail could be spread over a couple years and that
could be starting in 2020 or starting at 2021.
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Park and Recreation Commission – March 26, 2019
Petouvis: Okay. And as far as the beginning of due diligence on our part where we would send
out our first RFP for all the feasibility studies, when do you foresee? Would that be in a few
months from now that we would begin that process?
Hoffman: Yep most likely this fall.
Petouvis: Okay.
Hoffman: But again need to have that conversation with the council to decide when they want to
move forward on that. When they would like to see that happen.
Petouvis: Okay and did we have, did we have money earmarked in the CIP for that?
Hoffman: Yep there was 30 some thousand for the initial and then there was $10,000 that was
approved for expenditure and that’s done now and so that plan you see where it has trails. It has
a, that was what created that and a variety of other professional services that were performed so
that process is complete and so now this would be a new item. Obviously the dollar amount will
be a little bit higher. There’s quite a bit of work to do especially in the area of engineering
testing and soil testing to create those design and engineering documents for the bridges and the
boardwalks. The watershed district has at least initially stated that they’re interested in being
involved in the construction. There is a parking lot that was added in the property and they
would be interested in doing that as a study project for pervious pavers and making some
investments in that and potentially investing in the boardwalk to get people into the preserve
through that boardwalk area so the watershed district has had some initial conversations about
they would be willing to partner and that includes funding and so yep, that could be a part of the
conversation for the future.
Petouvis: Alright.
Hoffman: To see where they’re going to go with that.
Petouvis: Okay.
Scharfenberg: And what Todd do you remember right off hand what is in the CIP for this year,
if anything?
Hoffman: For 2019?
Scharfenberg: Yeah.
Hoffman: Yep so other than what Adam has been talking about with park replacement and
tennis courts here are the items. Picnic tables, benches, those type of items. Refuse containers
$10,000. Trees $15,000. Tennis courts which you just recommended was $150,000. And then
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Park and Recreation Commission – March 26, 2019
the playground, park replacement for the $245,000 that was it. And the $245,000 out of the park
replacement that’s separate. Those are not park dedication fund dollars nor are the tennis court
refurbishment. Those are general fund dollars. General capital dollars. So this year really zero
expenditures. Well $25,000 dollars worth of expenditures and then the Arboretum trail is
scheduled to start this year but we don’t foresee that they’ll be billing us until next year so that’s
where that $600,000 is seated right now and you can easily argue that building a trail to the
Arboretum is just as important as getting started on Lake Ann so I think nobody’s going to move
that cash around. That’s going to stay there and hopefully get that project completed.
Petouvis: Going back to the concept of sort of itemizing things that we have not accomplished I
think my opinion and take on that would be that we very purposely back burnered a lot of
projects that had kind of been working their way up the timeline purposely to make room for the
Lake Ann expansion and keep money in the budget to support the Arboretum trail so I think, I
don’t know that I just want to keep that conversation very positively focused. That it’s not that
park and recreation is not accomplishing anything. A ton is being accomplished but there’s a lot
of purposeful holding going on to make sure that funds are in place for some very important
projects. And I’d like to go back to something that Todd said earlier and agree wholeheartedly
that I think we need to do a big round of appreciation for the council’s support for the park
replacement program. I personally have lived in a city, I grew up in a city that did not make that
investment and the deterioration was very sad. I think they’re probably still playing on those old
1960’s pipe playgrounds with railroad ties and so it’s, this investment is hugely important
because you shouldn’t make the capital investments to begin with if you’re not going to maintain
them so the City support is in my opinion very appreciated and I’d like to highlight that at our
meeting next month.
Hoffman: Yeah I think taking the opportunity to talk with the council about some of those
meetings and what the people, how excited the people were. I think just relaying that
information to the council would be a positive. And many or all of you were at one of those
meetings so just talking, having a conversation with about the people that you met and what they
talked about and how excited they were.
Boettcher: Oh yeah the feeling at the one meeting that I was at, I mean from the 2 year olds
jumping up and down. Parents voting 6 times for each kid. I mean there was a lot of enthusiasm
there. It’s definitely a good point. What all had we put on hold for 2019? I mean every year we
do the shuffling with CIP. You know we keep moving stuff out thinking it’s never going to get
there. Well we’re getting to what we pushed out 4 years ago.
Hoffman: Yeah primarily about Bandimere were most of the items so the tennis or pickleball
courts. The shelter. There was some conversation about a splash pad. Lighting. So Bandimere
was the biggest ticket item on the list. The shelter at Bandimere so Bandimere pretty much put
on hold as future projects while we await the project at Lake Ann.
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Park and Recreation Commission – March 26, 2019
Boettcher: Because every time we’ve gone in with something on Bandimere, we did a
presentation.
Hoffman: Yep.
Boettcher: Or the meeting 3 years ago or so, I think Rick and I were there and all the requests,
the shelter. The $600,000. The splash pad was up to $900,000, almost a million. I think we
came away with enough money to plant 15 trees behind the bleachers so that you didn’t have to
sit in the sun when you’re watching. I mean talk about a feeling of dejectiveness and deflating
your ego but I mean I don’t want to go over something that’s been denied X number of times to
push it again. We do have 3 members now that are maybe if you want to say voting different
than what we saw in the past, maybe there is a chance.
Hoffman: Yeah.
Boettcher: Also with the mayor being a former member of this commission for several years.
Hoffman: I think the positive at Bandimere, well I know the positive is the hockey rink so the
acquisition of the expansion. The new entryway which was just a windfall out of that road
project and hugely successful project. And then yeah the parking expansion yeah. So those
items at Bandimere, and then with the eye to the future that you know there’s still a huge
opportunity to make that really a premiere park but it’s going to take a few million dollars that
we currently don’t have in park dedication. It might come from another source in the future or it
might have to wait another 5 or 10 years down the line when that Lake Ann is completed. The
funds rebounded and now you have an opportunity to go back to a really nice park like
Bandimere and complete some of those things. But you know government stays around for a
long time. Park commissioners stay around for a long time and so I think starting these
conversations and planting those seeds about the future I think is positive. Often times what I
find at least in my role here at the city is when you have a conversation, that conversation can
come back and play a big role 10 years down the line and so these conversations, even though
they may feel like you’re not going to accomplish anything I think planting that seed and starting
that conversation can have some real important outcomes down the line.
Tsuchiya: I think there’s a good sense that we should, even though we know we’re not going to
get anything for Bandimere nor are we necessarily asking for anything for Bandimere that we
keep it on the radar to say well you know our community wants it. As a commission we endorse
it but we yet realize there are other things that yet again take priority over Bandimere but there’s
a lot of opportunity and yes it’s going to cost a lot of money but we want to make sure, as Todd
is saying, we don’t forget it. We continue the conversation. We just know it’s, recognize it’s not
the time right now.
Scharfenberg: That was going to be my comment Karl. That I think as a commission I think you
guys just need to kind of keep it in front of them and in the back of their head that hey we still
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Park and Recreation Commission – March 26, 2019
have this park that isn’t finished. You know the commission, you’ve had conversations with the
commission over the last several years about it and we have other things that are coming up that
may take priority over Bandimere but we want you to still be cognizant of this park needs to be
completed and we think that at some point there will be an opportunity to do that and we just
want you to be aware of it.
Tsuchiya: Yeah, whether it takes 5, 10 years. The way I see it is Bandimere is one of the
premiere parks in the region. You know you’ve got Lake Ann and you got Bandimere in
Chanhassen. You know these are the, people outside the community know about these parks so
why not hold them up even higher.
Boettcher: It would renew that in our prior discussions too. I mean we weren’t going to get $2
million, $3 million or whatever but we initially said and every time we did CIP we said the same
thing. We’re going to piecemeal. We’re going to spend this much, this much so I think the idea
of keeping it in front of them is, it keeps it on their mind too. We know there’s not going to be a
windfall that’s going to pay for everything we want there.
Scharfenberg: Right. Well and the other thing to keep in mind too is that there are going to be
things that come off the tax base over the next couple years. I can’t remember right off hand
what those, all of those things are but they’re things that are going to fall off the tax base that
people are currently paying for that, you know that may be an opportunity to say hey, maybe
now is the time for a referendum you know to do something to finish that. Obviously the school
district I think is looking at a referendum here coming soon so you probably don’t want to piggy
back something like that but you know there will be things that fall off over the years. I can’t
remember like the library.
Hoffman: Library yep.
Scharfenberg: Library and things like that so there may be an opportunity to say hey you know
things have fallen off now here off of the tax base. Maybe there’s something we can do to look
at that so again I would just say as a commission it’s just something that we continue to push you
know gently and kind of feel that out.
Hoffman: Think about just general conversations. So we should talk to them about the single
track bike trail so they’ve been hearing from community members about this and now there’s
going to be one constructed, a really nice one at Carver Park so you know everybody should be
aware of that. We’ll put down as a conversation. You can talk about the citizens you had here
last year at this time asking for one. Nobody knew what was going to happen and boy Three
Rivers Park District just came up to the plate. They’re going to have a significant series of trails
out at Carver which is right in our back yard and the high schools are going to be going out there
so that’s a positive. We don’t have to do it. It’s going to be available. We don’t have a place to
do it. Carver Park does. Really beautiful series of trails that they’ve got laid out there. And then
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Park and Recreation Commission – March 26, 2019
just other things that are going on in the community that you know in relation to parks and rec.
Is there any other general items you would like to talk to them about?
Tsuchiya: The success of the big 4 events the City puts on every year would be good to
highlight.
Hoffman: Are you folks aware of the retirement of CBO?
Scharfenberg: No.
Hoffman: So CBO has announced their retirement and we’ll put that on the list that we can
announce that they had retired. CBO, Casablanca Orchestra but Jerry and Audrey have booked
what we think is even a better or just as good a band who is the Fabulous Armadillos.
Boettcher: Oh those are good. Saw them last month over here at the Dinner Theater.
Hoffman: We got a Dillohead in the crowd.
Boettcher: I had 3 people push me to go and when I went it’s like wow. It was really good.
Hoffman: Isn’t that fun? Yeah so that’s one of their bands and so they’ll bring their full band
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here to the, they were available on the 3. They’re out of St. Cloud. They’re very good and so
those are the kinds of pieces of information that the City Council would like to be aware of so
we’ll let you announce that.
Scharfenberg: Was that a surprise that they retired or did you know that that would be coming?
Hoffman: We did not know.
Ruegemer: Did not know.
Scharfenberg: Caught a little bit off guard.
Hoffman: Fabulous Armadillos should do in a pinch I think. They’ll be good.
Boettcher: Pretty awesome. Especially the guy that’s blind that stands there singing. He’s got
the music words in Braille.
Hoffman: Yeah isn’t that something.
Tsuchiya: Really?
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Park and Recreation Commission – March 26, 2019
Boettcher: Oh my gosh. It was unreal. Several different singers sing different songs. The
drummer comes from behind the drums and sings a song by Kiss by the drummer. I mean they
lead into it where he’s doing like his own.
Hoffman: He’s hooked.
Tsuchiya: You need a tattoo Jim.
Boettcher: Can’t do that.
Scharfenberg: Okay getting back to the meeting. Any other items that you guys want to list for
your meeting with council?
Boettcher: Our timeframe’s 30 minutes?
Hoffman: You’ve got an hour. You get the big one.
Boettcher: We have an hour okay. Well I think we should go in, I mean it’s always good news,
bad news but I think the commendations, the recognitions and things of this was accomplished.
Thank you for your support type of thing. Always build up and then kind of slide into, slide
requests for funding and what we could do if we had money type of thing. I think that’s the way
we try to do it pretty much every year.
Tsuchiya: You know you’re being recorded so they know.
Boettcher: My name is Cole Kelly. I live on Bluebird Lane.
Tsuchiya: If we can put a call out to city staff with all their help through the year too. I know
they’re sitting right here so you know recognizing them.
Boettcher: Even Jerry.
Tsuchiya: Even Jerry yeah.
Petouvis: Would it make sense in terms of you know back tracking too talking about the
premiere events of the year? Talking about Feb Fest being you know the most recent one in the
books and all the efforts made to sort of revamp. Not revamp but just always keeping it fresh
and the new things added that, you know not just resting on laurels. That’s not happening with
staff so I think some really neat things were added this past year so.
Scharfenberg: Okay. Todd’s going to write everything up and submit.
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Park and Recreation Commission – March 26, 2019
Hoffman: We will. Be glad to. But if it’s not on your list it’s not on our list so you’ve got to
speak now or.
Boettcher: What would be the drop dead for your list? Would it be Monday morning late or,
because I’m thinking anybody who wants to make, I mean Meredith you’ve had some good
ideas. Karl.
Tsuchiya: If you could put out the list to us so we can, if there’s anything we think of.
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Hoffman: We’re on a tight, so the 8 is coming up. Reports are due Friday.
Tsuchiya: The Friday before?
Hoffman: Right now. This Friday.
Boettcher: This Friday okay.
Tsuchiya: Could you get us, you know draft up, put a rough draft of what we put together out?
Get it out this week just in case there’s something else we can add before Friday?
Hoffman: I can but it’s really best to add when you’re here together instead of adding single
because somebody might throw in a favorite project.
Boettcher: Who would do that?
Hoffman: I was looking at Joe. I was looking at Joe. So best to kind of speak your piece.
Tsuchiya: I think, we’ve got an hour but I mean the biggest thing is the Galpin property really.
The amount of time and effort, you know tears and laughter that the whole community has spent
on that property in the last year or more. Yes we’re taking a breather from it but I, you know
we’re just going to pick up again in a couple of months so I think it’s probably wish to spend
most of our time talking about that or getting council’s feedback and then I don’t know. Is that,
is it appropriate to go to council to ask for or get direction to say look, you know it’s Lake Ann.
Sure we don’t have the entire circumference of the park but we have a big chunk now. You
know aside from trails you know we kind of have the master plan but do we ask for community
input, how do you want us to go about that to see what else in there. I know Meredith and I have
talked about you know is this an opportunity for a natural play area that we had talked about. Is
that an opportunity that the council wants to seize because you know everything has a price so
how far do we want to take this?
Scharfenberg: And I think those are good conversations to have with them Karl about you know
just ask them kind of what their thoughts are about that. I think a natural play area would be
something ultimately to look at once kind of the trails are built and that community starts to form
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Park and Recreation Commission – March 26, 2019
a little bit and then okay, you’re going to want to ultimately I think ask the people that are kind
of living in that area what would you like to see maybe a little bit and get some input that way.
Tsuchiya: Yeah and especially if they’re now going to have a parking lot there, it’s not just the
people living there within walking distance. People are going to drive and park and walk into
that area.
Hoffman: The one caution there is anything you would create that would be a destination is not
going to be accommodated by the 8 spots and so if you create anything of substance that’s a
destination and it becomes a destination then those 8 spots and so if you, it’s 50 acres of upland
so think of a Three Rivers Park destination type playground and you know you’ve got dozens
and dozens of cars and so that kind of facility I don’t think is necessarily in the works. The
original master plan is just trails. Access. You can walk through nature. But then when the
Lake Ann expansion study came up it talked about should there be other things that are
completed? You could enhance things that are currently in Lake Ann where you have, Lake
Ann’s got 420 parking stalls so you’ve got a lot of parking there to accommodate those type of
things. All those questions can be a part o the RFP. Can be ferreted out as part of that RFP.
What’s reasonable? I think adding the 8 stall parking lot was great for people who would want
to park and take a walk but if you add any kind of destination feature in there it certainly would
not accommodate that so that’s going to be something to think about.
Scharfenberg: Good point.
Petouvis: Well to the point the nurse who spoke at the public comment period, parking in the
main Lake Ann parking lot and walking over there is actually very good for us so.
Tsuchiya: Yes.
Petouvis: And I have another question about the parking lot. This is just a very, you know
thinking back to Manchester Park. Is there going to be a porta-potty in the parking lot? In the 8
stall parking lot?
Hoffman: Would you like one there?
Petouvis: I am not going to be the person who suggests a ports-potty.
Hoffman: Every other parking we have has one. There would most likely one be one there.
Petouvis: Just let’s put it there before the houses are built.
Hoffman: They seem to be a topic of conversation.
Petouvis: They do. That’s why I’m not going to be the one to suggest it.
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Park and Recreation Commission – March 26, 2019
Scharfenberg: Alright. I think we’ve covered that topic. Thank you for everyone.
Hoffman: Thank you. Appreciate it.
Scharfenberg: Yep.
Hoffman: See you there.
REPORTS: CHANHASSEN RECREATION CENTER QUARTERLY UPDATE.
Scharfenberg: So we’ll move onto reports and the first one is the Rec Center quarterly update.
Jodi.
Sarles: Good evening Chair Scharfenberg and commissioners. It’s nice to be here and it’s not
snowing or anything like that so good to be back. For the Rec Center’s quarterly updates, this
year we’ve had a facility usage for our free hour for community gym is being used by the West
Metro Warriors and they’re a Special Olympics basketball program in the area. They are using a
total of 58 hours on Friday evenings. Great group of kids that come in and helpers and
everybody so it’s a fun, it’s a fun group to see out there at the Rec Center. Another update is the
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gym and studio are going to be closed this year from August 1 through 16. That’s that time of
year where we get a new sealcoat put on our floors in there and our finish coat. We sand them
down and make it nice and shiny for when schools comes back, and the kids come back from
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school. Kind of one of those new and exciting things we have. As of January 1 the Chan Rec
Center is now an authorized Silver Sneakers facility. Silver Sneakers is a program offered to
people 65 and over in some of the Medicare health plans so they can come in. Use the fitness
center. Our open gym or open pickleball at no charge. They just, we’ve got a little kiosk at the
front desk with a tablet on it and either they’ve got a little QR code on their card or they can type
in their name and in they go. They take monthly reports and then they cut us a check the next
month for the visits that the folks have when they come in so it’s a great program and very, very
happy group of people using it so. Numbers in February dropped off. I think we have quite a
few snowbirds so noticed as well and lucky, lucky snowbirds because I wouldn’t have wanted to
be here if I didn’t have to so. A few program information updates here. We had a Super Hero
Party so Chanhassen and Victoria rec centers have kind of created a partnership. We offer one
event which is the Barnyard Boogie that’s at the Rec Center and now we offer a Super Hero
Party that’s at the Victoria Rec Center so that one is for ages 2 and up. We have a party. We’ve
got kids coming around in character. We’ve got obstacle course, crafts, snacks, bounce house of
course and the dance so it was fun. We had 135 people attend the party. The kids, families all
dressed up in costumes. It was a great, great night so people enjoyed it. Our Dance for Fun
program, it’s hard to believe it’s coming to an end for the season here. The dancers are gearing
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up for that May 11 recital. Let’s see they had one, the competition dancers have gone to one
competition so far and have two more to go so they’re doing really well. Their scoring is kind of
hard to translate so they get some platinum’s. High gold’s and other things so they’ve got some
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Park and Recreation Commission – March 26, 2019
one, number one overalls and everything so really proud of them and the great job that the
teachers are doing with those students so having fun and they’re dancing. Another popular
program and even got my mom to join is the Fit for Life class at the Chan Rec Center so our
instructor Kay Benson, she does a great job kind of keeping people active and laughing and
having a great time so typically have about 13 people that are actually registered for the full
program. That’s 22 weeks. 44 classes and then we have additional drop in’s so that’s where the
snow guards can come and go so and we see that as well. But it’s great so we get like I said 6 to
8 more each week. Our Rec Center Sports program is rolling again. We’re just about done with
this kind of strange session because we’ve got spring break this week so we have next week is
their last week of programs for basketball for that Lil Star group and Small Fry Sports sampler
so, and then also lacrosse so between them we’ve got 120 participants in that Small Fry Sports
group that’s in the 3 to 4 ages and that’s from January til now. 68 in Lil Star Sports. That was
floor hockey and basketball and then we’ve offered Workout Warriors and lacrosse for after
school and there were 21 youth that participated in that. If you’ve been out to the Rec Center
you can see on our walls recently we’ve had during the month of March local artist Sue Morgan
has her paintings up on the Rec Center walls and they’re for sale as well so if you come by, she
has some great beautiful pieces of work. Everything from dogs to chickens and roosters and then
some scenic more flowers and things like that so it’s great to see. She’s a participant out there at
the Rec Center. It’s really great to see her work up there. Then a couple other things going on.
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Fit for Life trial class. That’s Thursday, May 9. 10:30 to 11:30 and then of course our Dance
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for Fun spring recital is Saturday, May 11 at the Chanhassen High School auditorium and we
have two performances that day so more than welcomed to come on out and see our programs.
Anybody have any questions or comments?
Scharfenberg: Any questions for Jodi? Jodi do you have any capital plans, improvement plans
this summer at the Rec Center because last year you had the roof right?
Sarles: Yeah we had the roof. Right now we don’t. They kind of come to us every now and
again with some sort of strange project so we’ll see if they added anything. We didn’t know they
were going to be putting on the flashing the one year so they did that. We’ve had a little bit of,
we had a leak in our lobby area so we will be working on that later this spring. Hopefully that
will be done before the end of school so if you come in we’re not so pretty in the front lobby
where it kind of, a line leaked and came right through so little dark spots in the ceilings.
Scharfenberg: Alright thank you Jodi.
Sarles: Alright, thank you.
PARK MAINTENANCE QUARTERLY UPDATE.
Scharfenberg: Next back up is Adam.
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Park and Recreation Commission – March 26, 2019
Beers: Thanks again Chair Scharfenberg and commissioners. I’ll be very quick. Just wanted to
let you guys know what we’ve been working on and what we’re kind of direction we’re heading
so winter I think is finally coming to an end. We had a busy February with some pretty
significant snowfalls so we’re still kind of fighting a little bit of ice in the mornings and through
some of the tunnels near Prince’s underpass and the Bluff Creek underpass but staff is
monitoring that pretty closely so things are starting to turn the corner. Staff’s been working
pretty hard on kind of going through all of our small equipment which includes all of our
mowers, weed whips, back packs, back pack blowers excuse me. Ballfield draggers just so
we’re kind of ready to go once the weather cooperates. Staff was out today putting out the
pickleball and tennis nets so all the light timers are set and we’re ready to go. I’m sure Jodi’s
group is pretty happy about that. So that’s kind of what we’ve been doing. We’re just kind of
gearing up for the next phase of our season. Getting ready for construction and getting things
kind of started up so. I would like to thank you guys for those who attended and were a part of
the process and the residents, just kind of wanted to make a note for the park replacement
schedule and attending the meetings. It was great to see everybody come out so that’s what I’ve
got.
Scharfenberg: Anything for Adam?
Boettcher: Do you know about how many residents showed up for the 3 playgrounds those
evenings?
Beers: Between 25 and 35 I think.
Boettcher: Each evening?
Beers: Yeah give or take it was pretty close to that.
Boettcher: Is that pretty much, because I know the first one I think I was involved with was
Riley Ridge. Where we went in the model home there and it seemed like that was a real good
turnout. Everybody was in this new house trying to make these decisions but it’s a little bit
different at the Rec Center with the size and all but I mean the one 2 weeks ago that meeting like
I said the enthusiasm of the people coming in was just awesome. Especially the kids. They got
to have a voice and picking toys.
Beers: Cookies don’t hurt. Good little touch.
Boettcher: I took some home.
Hoffman: Commissioner Boettcher there’s a little bit of a difference. When we’ve engaged in a
neighborhood to both design and install then they’re already engaged and they all want to be
there. This was just a call out to the neighbors to come to us and so these are still good showings
and sometimes you know probably the max is about 40 at one of those meetings so these people
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Park and Recreation Commission – March 26, 2019
came in throughout the day. Just give you a little idea. So we have 7 park maintenance people.
All of a sudden now you think these crews can be everywhere at all times and so we have 35
parks. Lots of trails. I’m on the couch on Saturday night and something called a Request
Tracker comes in and a Request Tracker is anybody can send in you know something that’s
amiss in our park system and we have a tree that’s going to break off. Very large tree at the Rice
Marsh Lake trail so you know we start that whole process. Evaluate the tree. Contact the owner.
That’s going into Sunday and then into Monday morning and then that’s where his entire team is
on Monday. You know those that are available are there and so you’re not getting anything else
done. All you’re doing is dealing with one hazard tree for most of the day and then you go home
and you know you come back the next day and you start again so when we say these folks are
busy, they’re always busy and you just never know what’s going to pop up. I’m glad to get that
tree removed you know on those trails and so that comes up from time to time but that kind of
stuff happens fairly often and so we try to keep that list as short as we can because things are
always being added to it so we appreciate all that effort and that’s, you know we do that in-house
and so Rob Heinen is down there dropping a, you know 4 foot oak tree onto the trail and we’re,
we have to do signage and you know limb that up and then not only that we go the extra mile.
We’re going to turn the trunk into a bench there right in that person’s front yard so then people
can utilize that tree that used to be there as a bench so those kind of special projects come up and
we’re happy to take it down instead of having it fall on somebody.
Scharfenberg: Thanks Adam.
Beers: Yep.
SENIOR CENTER QUARTERLY UPDATE.
Scharfenberg: Audrey before you come up we’ll just do Mary’s quickly. Is anybody, do we
need to touch on Mary’s at all?
Hoffman: Just one thing I would like to inspire each of you to do as a commissioner in your
term is just reach out to the senior center. Find a program that you think would be enjoyable to
partake in and participate. Just give her a call and sign up and they would, the seniors enjoy
meeting you. They’d be very curious and they’d be very happy to see that a park commissioner
is there paying attention to them and I can guarantee you everyone in their programs is a blast so
just throw out time that you can get the Connection. You can open up that. You can take a look,
there’s all the senior programs in there and also have Mary email you the quarterly newsletter
and you can take a look. …and there’s just so much that they’re doing. Those people really
appreciate the value that they have there and I tell you Mary’s… And remember Sue how much
she did here but Mary’s been a true hit and she’s vacationing in Europe…
Scharfenberg: Thanks Todd.
2019 EASTER EGG CANDY HUNT PREVIEW.
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Park and Recreation Commission – March 26, 2019
Scharfenberg: Last but not least Audrey.
Swantz: Good evening Chair Scharfenberg and commissioners. First I’ll start off with the
th
Easter Egg Candy Hunt preview. The 36 Annual Easter Egg Candy Hunt is going to be on
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Saturday, April 20 at City Center Park at 9:00 a.m. This is an annual event that is one of our 4
major events and it’s quite a fun one. Children, it’s for children 12 and under and they receive a
bunch of candy and eggs that they can go hunt for as well as a goody bag that includes some
little trinkets and prizes as well as some donations that we’ve received from local community s
sponsors as well as a door prize ticket that they’ll win other fun prizes for. Every year we do a
coloring contest. The coloring page can be found on the reverse side of the flyer that’s attached
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to the report. This flyer is going to be put in the Chanhassen Villager on April 11 so everyone
in Chanhassen should get a copy of that flyer and coloring contest just so they’re aware of the
event. It’s a really fun event and hopefully we have better weather this year. Todd showed me a
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video of last year in the snow so April 20 should hopefully be warm.
Scharfenberg: Great, thank you Audrey.
2018/2019 ICE RINK SEASON EVALUATION.
Scharfenberg: Next up is ice rink season evaluation.
thth
Swantz: Yes. This year’s ice skating season was from December 14 until March 9.
Inbetween then we had some iffy weather with some warm days in December and some really
cold and snowy days in January and February so we ended up being open for 67 days and closed
for 19. We had roughly 4,600 participants. Those numbers are a little low jut due to the
weather. This season was a little unpredictable. We had warming houses at City Center Park,
North Lotus Park, Chanhassen Rec Center, Roundhouse Park and Bandimere with Roundhouse
only being open on the weekends. Trailers were rented from Modspace. We had a recent
transition during the season where Will Scott purchased Modspace and so we’re working with
them for removal. For the North Lotus, City Center and Bandimere Parks. And those were able
to be delivered right before we opened and removed shortly after we closed which was perfect.
There’s a chart below that kind of gives you the participant numbers based on month and
location and we had a total of 4,682 total participants. Total expenses which included temporary
and seasonal wage, warming house rental fees and then rink maintenance is estimated to be
around $45,848.78. We were able to stay open a little bit longer this year than past years so
that’s just a difference in the rink maintenance and seasonal wages there. We do have some
recommendations of staff for next year for the 2019/2020 season. We are going to have to set a
warming house removal date in advance if we continue to rent through Will Scott. They require
a one month notice to get a removal date so we’ll have to set an end date for warming house
season quite a few weeks in advance rather than as soon as it gets warm out. And then we are
hoping to, we’re going to look into what other cities do but hoping to adjust the minimum
temperature for closing the warming houses. Right now it is set at negative 15 degrees and we’re
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Park and Recreation Commission – March 26, 2019
hoping to move it to negative 20. We did have a lot of people wanting to keep those warming
houses open when we closed at the negative 15 degree threshold. People still want to be outside
in Minnesota when it’s that cold. Attached to the report are the 2018 and 2019 usage totals.
Kind of goes by month, day, location, hour. It’s very in depth if you feel like you want to look at
that. And then you can compare it to the usage for the past 5 years as well as the ice rink history
for several years further than the 5 so does anybody have any questions?
Scharfenberg: Questions or comments for Audrey.
Tsuchiya: Just negative 15 and negative 20, I’m assuming that’s air temp and not windchill.
Swantz: It’s windchill.
Tsuchiya: It is windchill, okay. I’m, and does the closing dates for the warming house do those
typically correspond with when school’s closed? Is that pretty fair to say or?
Swantz: We close when there is an unforeseen amount of snow that maintenance can’t get out to
clean so if it snows on a weekend and we get like 2 inches of snow we have to close. Or if it gets
to that negative 20, or that negative 15 windchill is another reason for closure. Other than that I
think usually it correlates with school but school closes, it usually takes for other reasons as well.
Tsuchiya: Okay. No questions just comment that my family and I went to, you know we were
those Bandimere numbers, my family and I a couple times was great so Adam and your crew
too, wonderful job out there. That’s our neighborhood park where we, I drag my kids on the sled
over there so.
Hoffman: Great.
Tsuchiya: It’s wonderful to have it
Scharfenberg: Again I would just echo Karl’s comments. Adam thank you to your staff for
getting those rinks up and ready and running this year. Obviously we had one of our longer
seasons and so I’m sure that that was taxing on everybody to continue to maintain those
especially with the amount of snowfall that we got during the year and having to remove all that
snow so again good numbers. I think that shows that people are out using our rinks. The one
thing that I would add as a recommendation for the 2019/2020 season is if everyone recalls at the
end, kind of after we had passed or approved I think rinks in September representatives from
Pioneer Pass had spoken about doing a recreational rink I think on the ballfield out at Pioneer
Pass and flooding that so I would just suggest that when we get to the time in the fall when we’re
looking at that, that maybe we reach out to that neighborhood and just ask them again if that’s
something that they’re interested in because they had at least expressed an interest to it this year
but it was kind of late for us to do it so. Thank you Audrey.
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Park and Recreation Commission – March 26, 2019
Swantz: Thank you.
COMMISSION MEMBER PRESENTATIONS.
Scharfenberg: Next up is commissioner member presentations. I would open this up to Rick and
myself. If Rick you want to make any closing comments?
Echternacht: Sure. Well these past 6 years have been the few most enjoyable activity I’ve done
besides being in boy scouts with my boys. I’ve been in scouts and I’m still active in scouts even
through they’re long gone for 22 years now and involved in all the activities of Chan park
system, it’s going on 16 years of my boys started when they were 3, 2 and 3 year olds out at the
Rec Center involved in all the sports activities and we’ve gone to everything that we do. The
Easter Egg hunts. All the way up to everything and that’s the reason I chose to apply for the
position. To give back to the City and get involved and try to help my future families and their
kids so definitely enjoyed working with everybody on the commission and the staff. I’ll miss
them but I’ll still be involved. You’ll see me at all the events. Wish you all the best.
Scharfenberg: Thank you Rick. Alright. I would like to take this opportunity to just say a few
words and share some of my thoughts as this is final meeting as a commissioner. To my fellow
Commissioners, both past and present being on this commission I was able to work with some
wonderful people and was able to make some new friendships. Thank you to all that I have
served with and for your commitment to this community. To the City Council I say thank you
for the opportunity to learn about and serve this great city. I encourage council members to work
with this commission to strive for excellence relative to our parks and trail system. Also to think
strategically and with vision to ensure that our parks, trails and rec programs continue to be a
priority. Finally to our parks and recreation staff. Todd and Jerry, thank you for your dedication
and passion. You are the ambassadors for the Chanhassen Parks and Recreation Department.
You have set the bar very high for those that will come after you. I am proud to have gotten to
know you and work with you for the past 15 years. It has been a great experience. To Adam,
Jodi and Mary, thank you for running your respective areas so efficiently and promoting our park
and recreation programs. You do great work every day and I encourage you to keep up that
effort. To the commission, present and in the future, please continue to work with staff to
maintain and grow Chanhassen’s park system. Rely on the Comprehensive Plan that has been
adopted as a guide. Use it to make decisions and recommendations to City Council. You will
have a lot on your agenda in the next couple years as we discussed tonight with the addition of
the Galpin property. Collaborate with council to develop this great open space and connect this
property to Lake Ann and Lake Lucy. This will be an important task. I also encourage you to
complete Bandimere Park as we discussed tonight. There are still two items, a park shelter and a
sports court that will finish that park. I ask that this commission continue a dialogue with
council about that park and that it can be completed and to find a source to fund those two items.
These are items that need to get done. Continue to collaborate with other communities,
community associations and athletic associations as we have done in the past with the ballfield
lighting and things of that nature. Continue those collaborative efforts as they are important.
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Park and Recreation Commission – March 26, 2019
Again it has been a pleasure to serve as a commissioner. I have had a lot of wonderful memories
of various festivals, community events, park dedications, planting trees and making tours of
various projects but most importantly it is the relationships that I will miss the most. Thank you.
ADMINISTRATIVE PACKET.
Scharfenberg: Okay last item, the administrative packet Anything in there Todd that you want
to comment on at all?
nd
Hoffman: No but I would like to make a comment that on April 22 the City Council will
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recognize outgoing members so Steve, Cole, Grant, Rick, that’s April 22 City Council meeting
here in this room.
Scharfenberg: Okay thank you.
Hoffman: And other commissioners are welcomed to attend and show your support. If you’re
able to make it 7:00 that night.
Scharfenberg: Alright with that can I have a motion please.
Echternacht moved, Boettcher seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the
motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0. The Park and Recreation Commission
meeting was adjourned at 8:50 p.m.
Submitted by Todd Hoffman
Park and Rec Director
Prepared by Nann Opheim
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