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05-27-20-prcCHANHASSEN PARK AND RECREATION COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING (ZOOM) MAY 27, 2020 Chairman Boettcher called the meeting to order at 7:37 p.m. MEMBERS PRESENT: Jim Boettcher, Joe Scanlon, Karl Tsuchiya, Matt Kutz, Sandy Sweetser, Haley Schubert, Youth Commissioner Zoe Erpelding, and Jim Peck STAFF PRESENT: Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Director; Jerry Ruegemer, Park and Recreation Superintendent; Priya Tandon, Recreation Supervisor; Jodi Sarles, Recreation Center Manager; Mary Blazanin, Senior Center Coordinator; and Adam Beers, Park Superintendent Hoffman: I’m just going to give a few little brief updates and then let Jim take this meeting over as Chair. So let’s go over city hall retirements first. If you haven’t heard City Manager Gerhardt announced last evening at the council meeting that he’s retiring as of June 30, 2020. And obviously you’re aware that I’ll be retiring July 31st the same year. And now we’ll go over promotions or promotion, the one promotion that we have to announce is that Jerry Ruegemer has been promoted effective August 1st as Chanhassen’s Parks and Recreation Director. Ruegemer: Thank you everybody. Appreciate it. Look forward to working with you and continuing to work with you. Hoffman: So that’s a lot of news. That’s a lot of news from city hall on any given one day so you’ll hear more obviously. They’re going to do a search for an interim city manager who will come in and fill Mr. Gerhardt’s role for a period of time until they complete a search for a future city manager for the community of Chanhassen. Boettcher: City Hall’s going to be Todd free. Hoffman: Todd free zone. Yeah two Todd’s out. Schubert: You’re too young to retire. Hoffman: Well yeah maybe. It’s a first retirement I think for both of us. Hard to say what the next adventure will be but probably something. 34 ½ and 33 ½ years respectively with the City of Chanhassen. Alright Jim your meeting Jim. APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Tsuchiya moved, Schubert seconded to approve the agenda as presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 8 to 0. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: Park and Recreation Commission – May 27, 2020 2 Boettcher: Public announcements, is there anything other than what you just announced Todd? Hoffman: Well city hall is, we have a work place preparedness plan that is effective as of June 1. The reopening of the city hall, the Rec Center will be staged over time. I would say that’s likely to occur in June but that’s not 100 percent and then depending on how that goes the senior center would follow. Boettcher: So timeline by August everything would be open? Is that the plan? Hoffman: There’s no current plan. We’re just we’ve learned in Covid language that plans are challenging to lock in on. There are current plans. There are things on hold. And there are suggestions but no real firm plans just ideas as of this point but the discussion of opening up the government buildings is certainly picking up pace and I think you’re seeing other organizations, communities start that process and we’re putting in place Plexiglas at the counters and those type of things and once that’s in place there’s more city hall employees coming back. More city employees coming back. Public works never left. They’ve been at work the entire time so I think you’re going to see those restart here in the coming weeks. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS. None. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Tsuchiya moved, Kutz seconded to approve the verbatim and summary Minutes of the Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated February 26, 2020 as presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 8 to 0. RECEIVE 2019 PARK AND RECREATION DEPARTMENT ANNUAL REPORT. Boettcher: Jerry that looks like this is your’s. Ruegemer: Thank you Chair Boettcher. We’re not going to go in any great real detail with that but obviously the commission knows on an annual basis we put together kind of our accomplishments, and new projects that sort of thing kind of as a staff, all divisions are represented in the 2019 annual report so it’s really a nice historical document that we really rely upon throughout the course of the year for many reports that we do or information sharing that we do so it’s a great document that started a number of years ago and it’s been very helpful for staff and I think the community also enjoys doing it and taking a look at that and kind of seeing what we have to offer as far as parks and senior center, Rec Center, rec programming, community events, that type of thing so it’s really kind of a snapshot of our annual operation so we’re very proud of the document and please feel free to look through it, not only tonight but throughout the course of the year and reference it if questions from citizens or would like some light reading please feel free any time to take a look so that’s really kind of it so I just want to Park and Recreation Commission – May 27, 2020 3 thank all staff members for contributing to this nice event, project event so appreciate everybody’s efforts on that. Boettcher: And next year when you read it it’s going to be very abbreviated. Ruegemer: Right. And I think I failed to put in the report we should make a motion that the City Council recommend approval for the 2019 annual report. Boettcher: Okay. Are there any questions before we take a motion? Anybody have anything to ask Jerry? Hearing none I’ll entertain a motion to approve to send this to City Council. Tsuchiya moved, Sweetser seconded that the Park and Recreation Commission recommends that the City Council approve the 2019 Park and Recreation Departments Annual Report. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 8 to 0. Boettcher: Motion carries. Thank you Jerry. Ruegemer: Yep thank you Chair Boettcher. APPOINTMENT OF CHAIR AND VICE CHAIR. Tsuchiya moved, Sweetser seconded to appoint Jim Boettcher as Chair. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 7 to 0. Chair Boettcher abstained. Boettcher moved, Kutz seconded to appoint Karl Tsuchiya as Vice Chair. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 7 to 0. Karl Tsuchiya abstained. UPDATE ON ARBORETUM TRAIL PROJECT. Hoffman: Chair Boettcher: I’ll provide an update on the Highway 5 regional trail bid opening which occurred this yesterday afternoon. Boettcher: Okay thank you. Hoffman: The County opened bids on the Highway 5 regional trail including the underpass State Highway 41. The trail to the Arboretum. Bids were above the engineer’s estimate but the bids received were competitive. Tightly grouped with a low bid of right around the $6.6 million area. That will increase the contribution required if the project moves forward at the City level from about $1.2 million which was budgeted in your CIP to an estimated $1.63 million for the city. $1.63 million for the Arboretum and then the remainder Carver County and the grant, the $1.2 million federal grant to be spread across that as well. In conversation with Mayor Ryan, City Park and Recreation Commission – May 27, 2020 4 Manager Gerhardt, it’s unfortunate but it is a competitive bid is that if the project moves forward the City Council would recommend approval of the project. Find that additional $400,000 to make that project a go but at this time there are no guarantees. The County board will have to act on it the first or second week in June to respond to the bidding. The Arboretum is the big wild card they have never been involved in this kind of project with this level of financing. They are obviously very interested in getting the project done. The County may advance them a loan for a period of time if they agree to that but they have committed to at least $600,000. While that doesn’t get them to $1.6 million so there’s a ways to go there. So there’s more to come. This is not unusual for this project in particular or for this size of project. What you’re finding is that the overall costs are just higher than what SRF the consultant was estimating for the project and when you take a very large project and you increase costs just a little bit on each line item. Dirt removal, grading, steel, all of the different components it can add up very quickly so if the project doesn’t move forward it’s not likely to come back in the near future. When I’m talking the near future, I’m talking 10 or 20 years because not one of those partners the Arboretum the County or the City of Chanhassen would be in a position to take it on. It’s really been a 4 plus year project in coordination so at least the initial response I received from Mayor Ryan and Mr. Gerhardt is that they would ask the City Council to support the project. That is not a guarantee either. I’m not speaking for the council or Mayor Ryan or the City Manager. I’m just telling you what the consensus in the hallway was today that I felt so more to come on that but I wanted to share that with you so you understand where that’s at. I also encouraged our Finance Director Greg Sticha to not be seeking the full additional money out of the park fund. The park fund does not have to pay for every trail project in the city of Chanhassen. Trail projects are also dedicated to transportation in our community and transportation funds can also be accessed and utilized for trail project and that has happened many times in the past. Any questions on that item? Boettcher: Well you did answer one of my questions Todd. I was going to ask if the entire bill will come out of our pocket so that. Hoffman: Doesn’t have to. It’s obviously a decision of the City Council but it doesn’t have and it may not if it indeed moves forward. Boettcher: And we do have, being on the county park commission we actually have a special meeting tomorrow night to discuss this too and my question has been because the estimated completion date if everything goes right is June of 2021 so in that 12 to 13 month period those prices could increase too. You know labor, whatever so it could be even a bigger bill so if it doesn’t happen this time like you said it probably never will. Hoffman: I heard a comment from a contributor. A barking noise. Was that a comment? It’s one of Sandy’s, I love it. That was fun. Thank you Chair Boettcher for that. Allowing me to update you on that. Boettcher: Alright, anything else on old business? Otherwise we’ll move onto reports. Park and Recreation Commission – May 27, 2020 5 Kutz: I have a quick question. Under old business would our proposal for the vote for funding for the major projects would that be under old business? Is there a report on that process while we’re sending that out with the ballot or where does that come in? Hoffman: Chair Kutz that would be under the term Covid 19 pandemic on hold. Kutz: So it is on hold okay. Hoffman: On hold yep. So there’s not a lot of conversations going on right now about future projects. We are holding on to the park replacement schedule which is currently under way. Adam will be talking about that later on but any new initiative for a referendum or the Lake Ann trail those conversations have been put on hold until we get through the pandemic. Kutz: Okay thank you. Boettcher: Okay if there’s no other old business we’ll move on under I. REPORTS: CHANHASSEN RECREATION CENTER QUARTERLY REPORT. Boettcher: It wasn’t in the packet. Do you have anything for us on this Jodi? Sarles: Oh yes it should have been in the packet but. Boettcher: Well it didn’t work on mine. Mine’s blacked out. Sarles: Blacked out huh? Interesting. Okay I’ll make sure to update that for you guys too. Basically we have closed down the Rec Center and cancelled all programs starting March 16th due to the COVID-19. During this time we work with the school district and our facility has been deep cleaned. Sanitized. Carpets steamed and the gym and studio floors were sanded. We normally do that in the summer so that is done now. They sanded and refinished. Kind of the major thing that happened is they went into our gym and we had that repainted this year so the first time since ’95 that that gym’s been painted so it looks much better now. A lot cleaner. And then they also got up in the ceilings and cleaned our air handlers which also probably maybe hadn’t been cleaned since then either so the good news of this that is coming out is getting some of those chores done for us. Big staff update that I have is a long time facility supervisor Chuck Popitz he retired. It was April 30th was when his last day with the city has been but of course he was not at work that day and we haven’t been able to celebrate his years. I think he was there 12 1/2 years of service. He started, he was fond to tell me that he started 2 months before I did so he has seniority. But a great guy and I really appreciate all the service that he provided the city and the community and all of his skills he brought. So with that the recreation center sports staff and the Dance for Fun instructors were furloughed on May 1st and then the dance coordinator Park and Recreation Commission – May 27, 2020 6 was furloughed May 13th so she could complete the virtual recital that the dancers did so very sad news but of the times right now with the pandemic. So then some of the things I’ve been working on with some of the other staff too. Just additional tasks. Basically we’ve been refunding, refunding and refunding programs here and we have to work within our registration software system as well as the finance department to get that done. As you can imagine when everybody pulled the plug in March they pulled the plug on offering refunds since no money was coming in. I heard the ridiculous amounts of money that had gone out like the first day was $300,000 in one city so pretty crazy amounts of money getting refunded with that so basically what we’re doing now is we pre-fund back to the active net is what we call them and then we can allow those refunds to go back to people’s bank cards so it’s kind of a tedious process right now and someday when we’re back to programming and things are better we’ll be able to have this behind us I hope. So basically we’ve been doing that, coordinating that with everybody else who has programs. Starting with the Carver County Resilience Team just trying to see what the community needs are. Mary put together a mask drive and I helped out with that and the fire department and then one of the big things we’ve been doing too is kind of updating a virtual Rec Center page on the city’s website so trying to give different ideas for people. Things to do at home. Just a variety of activities between virtual tours, fitness classes, crafts you can do, science projects, anything under the sun there. Just trying to try to keep giving people ideas of how they can recreate right now so. Then I’m working with my staff on doing some training and things throughout this time and that’s pretty much it for me. I’ll make sure, I don’t know what happened to my report if it didn’t get somehow attached but I’ll make sure to get that on there so you guys can get a copy of that. I do apologize for that. Boettcher: Okay. Thank you. Sweetser: Jodi are you foreseeing any with the COVID-19 once the Rec Center reopens and groups are you know applying to use it, do you foresee any major changes to your policies or procedures or costs? I’m just curious from you know you just went through and deep cleaned everything. Are there going to be more janitorial needs now? For outside groups coming in. Sarles: Right. We’re definitely going to be doing a lot more serious cleaning going on so that would be one of the things. Actually the City has a COVID-19 fund for all of those sorts of maintenance materials we might need so I will be using that. As far as ideas of making sure we have hand sanitizer the minute you walk in the door and you’re washing and cleaning your hands and things like that so I can’t tell you how many gallons I have right now so that’s good news but it’s an interesting hand sanitizer. It came from one of the local distilleries and it’s about 80 to 90 percent alcohol I think he said and you know you can bring your orange juice and you can probably clean that too. So there’ll be new procedures. A lot more things in place so that when you come in you feel safe and that we can keep it clean and sanitized properly. Boettcher: And on that note real quick Jodi just something that I heard this morning on the radio about a local company, a couple of guys they’re promoting a product, they’re going to have it available hopefully in about 30 to 45 days. It’s going through FDA testing. The only thing they Park and Recreation Commission – May 27, 2020 7 have to test is to verify that it will get rid of the COVID-19 bacteria and it’s actually ionized water so there’s no alcohol and the reason was you just talked about kids. It was for kids. You know you have little kids coming down and there’s surfaces are bleached. They’re disinfected. Alcohol and everything, what effect does that have on you know a 5, 6, 7, 8 year old so it will be interesting to see. This guy was really pumped up about it. He’s been involved with projects like this but the approval would be the fact that it’s all green and there’s no alcohol or anything in it so maybe in your situation with, you know you have the we-ball, the p-ball, the e-ball or whatever the 4, 5, 6, year olds and for softball and t-ball and soccer and everything. That may be something to look at if it becomes available for children that it’s not a danger or whatever so. Sarles: Right. Boettcher: But it sounds like, I’m just envisioning while you’re telling us about everything that’s been cancelled I’m envisioning all these 4 and 5 year olds lined up and with tears in their eyes because they can’t play t-ball this summer. Sarles: I’ve heard the stories unfortunately. Boettcher: Have you? Sarles: Yeah. Sweetser: Yeah you know I think it’s interesting too just and the reason I brought it up was just my background with events there has got to be, and I don’t have a 5 year old anymore but if my 5 year old wants to play t-ball there has to be some assumption of risk on my part right? You know I think we just need to think through, be careful that we’re not promising, over promising the cleanliness and the, so we want it to be clean but you know what I mean? There’s going to be, I think the future it’s going to be very interesting for facilities and events and how that all kind of comes together so. Waiver forms are going to change I’m sure. Sarles: Yeah all of that right now. It’s really hard to make your way through what’s coming. You don’t know what’s next so the good news is some of the equipment products that we had been using to clean the fitness center are ones that are approved. They are actually hydrogen peroxide based so that they don’t harm the equipment. Some of the alcohol will…so it’s definitely a new world over there and it’s not quite as fun I’ll tell you that. I miss the people. Recording of the meeting ended at this point in the discussion. PARK MAINTENANCE QUARTERLY REPORT. Adam Beers presented the staff report on this item. 2019/2020 ICE RINK SEASON EVALUATION. Priya Tandon presented the staff report on this item. Park and Recreation Commission – May 27, 2020 8 SENIOR CENTER QUARTERLY REPORT AND UPDATE. Mary Blazanin presented the staff report on this item. RECREATION PROGRAM UPDATES. Priya Tandon presented the updates on this item. COMMISSION MEMBER COMMITTEE REPORTS. None. COMMISSION MEMBER PRESENTATIONS. None. ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATION. None. Tsuchiya moved, Schubert seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 8 to 0. The Park and Recreation Commission meeting was adjourned at 8:20 p.m. Submitted by Todd Hoffman Park and Rec Director Prepared by Nann Opheim and Jerry Ruegemer