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01-26-2021-prc-verCHANHASSEN PARK AND RECREATION COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING JANUARY 26, 2021 Chairman Boettcher called the meeting to order at 7:01 p.m. MEMBERS PRESENT: Jim Boettcher, Jim Peck, Youth Commissioner Zoe Erpelding, Karl Tsuchiya, Matt Kutz, and Joe Scanlon MEMBERS ABSENT: Sandy Sweetser STAFF PRESENT: Jerry Ruegemer, Park and Rec Director; Priya Tandon, Recreation Supervisor; and Jodi Sarles, Rec Center Manager APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Boettcher: Next item is Approval of Agenda. Any additions, correction, deletions from anyone? Ruegemer: Chair Boettcher, I’d just like to have a little side note regarding the Commissioners that are up, their terms are expiring here in April of ’21. So I’d like to add that and talk about that briefly, please. Boettcher: You want to do that in New Business? Ruegemer: Yep, we sure can. Boettcher: Item No. 2. Remind me when we get to that, please. Alright, no other changes. Approval of Agenda, looking for a motion to approve? Peck: So moved. Boettcher: Who was the approval? Tsuchiya: Jim, I’ll second. Boettcher: Who made the motion? Peck: Jim Peck did. Boettcher: Jim Peck did, ok. Motion and second and again let’s go in no particular order for approval, Yay or nay. Tsuchiya? Tsuchiya: Yay. Kutz? Park and Recreation Commission – January 26, 2021 2 Kutz: Yay. Sorry about that. Boettcher: No problem. Scanlon? Scanlon: Yay. Boettcher: Peck? Peck: Yay. Erpelding: Yay. Boettcher: And Boettcher is yay. Peck moved, Tsuchiya seconded to approve the agenda as amended. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: None Jerry? Priya? Jodi? Anything at this time? Ruegemer: Nothing at this time. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS: None Boettcher: I’m seeing three heads shake no. I see no visitors present, no presentations. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: We didn’t have the minutes for the last couple of meetings so this month they got stacked up so we have three. October, November and December minutes need to be approved. So starting with October? Any changes, additions, deletions? Hearing none, motion to approve? Tsuchiya: So moved. Boettcher: So moved by Tsuchiya. Second? Kutz: Second. Boettcher: That was Kutz? Ruegemer: Was that Kutz? Tsuchiya: I thought it was Peck. Park and Recreation Commission – January 26, 2021 3 Boettcher: Peck? Alright, Peck second. Again for a verbal. Tsuchiya, yay or nay? Tsuchiya: Yay. Kutz? Kutz: Yay. Boettcher: Scanlon? Scanlon: Yay. Boettcher: Peck? Peck: Yay. Erpelding: Yay. Boettcher: And Boettcher is yay. November minutes. Any changes, additions, deletions for November’s? Hearing none, looking for a motion to approve? Tsuchiya: So moved. Boettcher: And a second? Peck: Second. Boettcher: Second by Peck. Alright. And again, Tsuchiya? Tsuchiya: Yay. Kutz? Kutz: Yay. Boettcher: Scanlon? Scanlon: Yay. Boettcher: Peck? Peck: Yay. Erpelding: Yay. Boettcher: And Boettcher is yay. And the final one. Park and Recreation meeting minutes, December 8, our last meeting. Any changes, additions, deletions from anyone? Hearing nothing, motion to approve? Park and Recreation Commission – January 26, 2021 4 Tsuchiya: So moved. Boettcher: And a second? Peck, second. And again, yay or nay. Tsuchiya? Tsuchiya: Yay. Kutz? Kutz: Yay. Boettcher: Scanlon? Scanlon: Yay. Boettcher: Peck? Peck: Yay. Erpelding: Yay. Boettcher: And Boettcher is yay. OK, thank you for hanging in during that. Tsuchiya moved, Peck seconded to approve the verbatim and summary minutes of the Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated October 27, 2020 as presented; Tsuchiya moved, Peck seconded to approve the verbatim minutes of the Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated November 24, 2020 as presented; Tsuchiya moved, Peck seconded to approve the verbatim minutes of the Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated December 8, 2020 as presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0. NEW BUSINESS: Boettcher: Consider Recommendation to City Council: 2021/2022 Lake Ann Park Beach Lifeguard Contract and this looks like Jerry. Ruegemer: Yep, thank you, Chair Boettcher, and thanks again. Good evening, Commission. I just wanted to look at the Lake Ann Beach Lifeguard Contract. We’re in a new year, a new two- year contract so we’re looking at seasons 2021 and 2022. Annually, the City of Chanhassen does contract with Minnetonka Public Schools for the provisional lifeguard services at Lake Ann Park, at the beach. We’ve had really a long standing relationship with them going back to the 1970’s when Jim Jones was the Community Ed Director way back a long time, so it goes back quite a long ways. So Minnetonka Aquatics and the City of Chanhassen certainly do endorse the two-year contract or multi-year contract. I know the City Council endorses the concept as well. Looking at the different options that we had for that, it kind of listed the 2020 contract for the amount for the kind of amount of hours per day so we had 24 hours per day times 72 days of the season itself that equal out to be 1,728 hours for the season. Hours of operation, 11:00 a.m. to Park and Recreation Commission – January 26, 2021 5 6:00 p.m. and that is daily, all week long. Dates last year were June 6 through August 16 with a total contract price of $33,670. What we’re kind of proposing for this year for 2021 and 2022 is to kind of stick the same amount of hours, kind of timeframe of the day and also kind of the dates of the season. Those are listed for 2021. The dates of operation for that would be June 5 through August 15. For 2022, the dates would be June 4 through August 14. The contract did go up. It’s for $1,000 for that over the last two-year contract. That was due to staffing changes so that represents a 3% increase over the 2019/2020 contract. Staff is recommending Option A for the Commission to take a look at and review tonight so we can go through the attachments if you’d like. I think all of the lifeguard options are there, the contract is listed with your attachments tonight with the staff report and also kind of the Lake Ann coverages kind of throughout the course of the day. When we start the day itself and then it’s kind of middle loaded, so to speak, when kind of the peak of the attendance is at the beach itself and then tails off towards the tail end of the day around that 4, 5, 6:00 timeframe. Staff is recommending that the Park and Rec Commission recommend to the City Council that they approve the two-year contract, Option A, for the 2021/2022 seasons with Minnetonka Public Schools, Independent School District 276 for Lake Ann Park Beach Lifeguard Services in the amount of $34,680 per year. I’ll entertain any questions at this point. Boettcher: So, Jerry… I’ve been over at Lake Ann sometimes and I see the lifeguards. Is there one or two on duty at all times? Ruegemer: There’s at least two on duty. Boettcher: And do they rotate like three hours and then another shift comes in or how does that work? Ruegemer: It’s actually one hour. So 11:00, if you look at that coverage map. So 11:00, there’s two, 11:30 there’s two, then at noon it goes to four lifeguards and then it’s four lifeguards all the way to 5:00 then it goes back down to two so we have pretty good coverage through the course of the day. You can kind of see, it looks like little igloos on the back, that’s kind of the guard chairs on the beach itself and where the little, we’ll call it the kiddie dock is right there so you can kind of see how the guards are positioned throughout the course of the day. For the most part, for the better part of the day, there’s, all the lifeguards are there with a person potentially a rover as well. So we have pretty good coverage and as the Commission knows and in 2020 with the Covid pandemic going on, we did have the beach open. That was one of the things that really was open and it was very heavily used. It was an important piece for our residential to have out there to kind of have some relief since the other recreation programs and events that we had were cancelled due to that so it was important I think for us to have that beach open. I think it was important for our Mayor and City Council to do that. Going forward, that certainly is the thought again this year that it will be open for that. Tsuchiya: Jerry, has the city received specific comments from users about the beach and lifeguarding at all? Positive or negative? Park and Recreation Commission – January 26, 2021 6 Ruegemer: You know, I would say there’s really not any negatives or positives with it. I think people take it for granted that it’s there and we certainly have not had any major occurrences out there for accidents or drownings and that sort of thing. There’s an occasional missing kid that they find in the bathroom, that type of thing. I know that we like having the guards, that’s our only guarded beach that we have in the city beyond Lake Minnewashta Regional which is Carver County jurisdiction. I think it’s a nice benefit for our residents and community. Peck: Jerry, did that have any incidents last year where they had to save somebody or emergency mode(??) of any sort? Ruegemer: Ya, as far as, I think there’s really no drowning type of situation. I think were a couple of missing swimmers that were again found, you know, at the playground or the beach, not the beach, the bathrooms at the concession stand or in the woods. They kind of get distracted from their parents and that sort of thing. What we have now vs. rescue boats out there, Jim, we have rescue boards so they’re kind of a big stand up paddle board or a surf board that staff can respond to situations in the water fairly rapidly or quickly. Ya, there wasn’t any major incidents out there last year. Peck: Good. Boettcher: Alright. Any other questions for Jerry? You can see the recommendation is at the bottom of the page. There’s a recommendation to approve a two-year contract for Option A, the one that Jerry discussed. Would someone like to put it to the question? Ruegemer: It’s also, Jim, it’s also on the top of the staff report as well if that’s easier to read in the proposed motion. Boettcher: Yep. Tsuchiya: I’ll make the motion. I’ll recommend the Park and Recreation Commission recommends to the City Council the approval of a two-year contract, 2021/2022 with Minnetonka Public Schools Independent School District 276 for Lake Ann Park Beach Lifeguard Services in the amount of $34,680 per year. Boettcher: Alright, and a second? Peck: So moved. Boettcher: From Peck? Then we’ll go ahead and to the verbal aye and nay again if there’s no further discussion. Looks like Commissioner Kutz we may have lost him. I don’t seem him on the roll any more. Alright, let’s start out then. Commissioner Tsuchiya? Tsuchiya: Yay. Park and Recreation Commission – January 26, 2021 7 Boettcher: Scanlon? Scanlon: Yay. Boettcher: Peck? Peck: Yay. Boettcher: Erpelding? Erpelding: Yay. Boettcher: And Boettcher’s aye. Motion passes. Tsuchiya moved, Peck seconded to approve the Park and Recreation Commission’s recommendation to the City Council to approve a two-year contract, 2021/2022, with Minnetonka Public Schools, Independent School District 276, for Lake Ann Park Beach Lifeguard Services in the amount of $34,680 per year. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. Boettcher: Looking forward to two more years. Again it seems like they do a great job out there. Thank you, Jerry. Ruegemer: So that would be a 5-0 vote since Commissioner Kutz is not here? Boettcher: Ya, Commissioner Kutz, I guess he was over at the fire station. Ruegemer: I’m not quite sure on that. Boettcher: It sounded like he had some background noise going on maybe. Ruegemer: Maybe he’s responding to a call. OK. Thank you everybody. Boettcher: Any Old Business? Ruegemer: Actually, Jim, if we could go back to Item No. 2 about the Commissioner… Boettcher: Oh I’m sorry. That’s why I told you to remind me. OK. Item No. 2 is about the Expiration of Terms and Reapplying to the Commission. We do have myself, Commissioner Scanlon, our terms are up and we also have to have a replacement for Commissioner Schubert who moved on to City Council. So at this time, Jerry, if you want to go through the process. Ruegemer: You bet. Just wanted to…I’m not sure, Joe, if you had known, I think you probably did, that your term was expiring but just to let you know for Jim and Joe, if you guys are Park and Recreation Commission – January 26, 2021 8 interested in reapplying for your position on the Commission, the deadline is this coming Friday. So you can go online and complete the application, I think there’s an electronic version of that and also I think a paper version if that’s what you choose to do. So if you’re interested, please do that this coming Friday or before. You don’t have to tell us know if you’re interested or not interested but if you have any questions, you can shoot me an email or give me a phone call if that’s easier for you. Scanlon: Perfect, ya thanks, Jerry, we’ll do. Ruegemer: Thank you. OLD BUSINESS: None Boettcher: Thank you, Jerry. Moving on then, next item under Reports. We have 2020 Tree Lighting Review and Priya that looks like that’s yours. REPORTS: 2020 TREE LIGHTING REVIEW Tandon: Thank you Chair Boettcher and thank you Commissioners. We briefly reviewed this at our last meeting so I’ll try to make it quick. Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and limitations on the size of gatherings during the planning process and at the time of the typical tree lighting ceremony, the event was modified into two virtual programs. We had the virtual tree ceremony where Mayor Elise Ryan and family lit City Center Park and then we also had the month long display of the residential holiday lights throughout Chanhassen. During the planning phase, we were in Phase 3 of the Stay Safe Plan that had a max of 250 people for gatherings and then that decreased to 0 people for gatherings at the time of the tree lighting so that’s kind of why we went virtual. Over 1,400 people watched the virtual lighting of City Center Park on Facebook Live, whether they watched it live or they turned in later so we felt like that was an awesome turnout and there was a lot of, I guess, positive comments about holding the event and having the lights up themselves this year. A very uplifting thing for the community. And then the Chanhassen Tour of Lights was very successful with a lot of people commenting how fun it was to just drive around and look at the lights. We did have over 60 homes register to display holiday lights and some full streets registered so probably even more than 60 homes but again there was a lot of positive feedback for this event and very simple and went very smoothly and that’s pretty much it. Ruegemer: Commissioner Boettcher, I just would like to thank, it was an all-hands on deck staff level. Priya was there, Jodi, Mary, Park Maintenance staff was there, Interim City Manager Johnston was there so it really was a group effort. It took a lot of effort and coordination the Facebook Live and our city webpage, why am I drawing a blank?? Novus? Tandon: Granicus? Ruegemer: Granicus. Park and Recreation Commission – January 26, 2021 9 Tandon: It think that’s what it is. It’s how they watch, how the community can watch City Council meetings. Ruegemer: So that obviously took effort from outside and I think Jodi you were inside City Hall, kind of pushing the right buttons and doing other stuff so kudos to staff for making modifications to that event to make sure, as Priya said, over 1,400 people viewed it. We got a lot of positive comments on that so just great job everybody. Boettcher: Sounds great. Thank you very much everyone that was involved in it too even though it was virtual there’s still a lot to do pushing those buttons. Ruegemer: Jodi’s good at pushing the buttons. Boettcher: You push the wrong one and everybody’s dead in the water. Looks like Priya, you’ve got the next one too with the Feb Fest Preview. REPORTS: FEBRAURY FESTIVAL PREVIEW Tandon: Yep, that’s right. Thank you and Commission. The City of Chanhassen’s annual February Festival is held the first Saturday of February typically and as you know, draws over 2,000 community members to fish in the ice fishing contest, enjoy concessions, family activities such as hay rides, dogsled rides, snowshoeing. A lot of different partners and volunteer organizations come to make it possible but due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and current and former limitations on gathering size, we were just unable to modify the event to run in its typical form. So how it will be run this year is into a virtual ice fishing contest that will run from Monday, February 1 at midnight through Saturday, February 6 at 11:59 p.m. That’s the fishing contest and then a traditionally styled medallion hunt will also be held the week of February 1 with the first clue being released that Monday. So just a little bit of background, while we were planning Feb Fest 2021 and going through that process, the Execute Order 2099 was still in effect which prohibited all social gatherings, even the ones outside. The restrictions are a little bit looser now but unfortunately we would still not be able to run the event since it draws over 2,000 individuals. So we two different aspects of this. We’re running a virtual fishing contest and a medallion hunt. So like I mentioned, the ice fishing contest will go from Monday, February 1 at 12:00 a.m to Saturday, February 6 at 11:59 p.m. Fisher people will have opportunity to fish individually on lake in Carver County so that’s approximately 93 lakes kind of including some of those smaller ponds and from there submit their fish entry virtually via email during the designated time period. Prizes will be awarded to the top 50 fish measured by length in inches and anglers will be measuring that on their own with just their own personal tape measure. Then we did define eligible species to be northern, sunfish, crappie, walleye and perch. So as typical year, tickets are $10 a person. Participants may purchase either one or two but their only eligible to win one largest fish prize so that second ticket comes in if less than 50 fish are submitted then we kind of add those secondary fish back in to distribute all the prizes. This year we have over $4,500 in prizes that were largely donated by local community event sponsors and the T-Mobile is the title sponsor of the event and they generously donated $3,000 to cover all of the costs of Park and Recreation Commission – January 26, 2021 10 running the event so all supplies, all promotional materials. So that was fantastic that they generously donated that. And then the second aspect of this year’s February Festival is the Medallion Hunt and that typically starts the Monday before the Saturday event and that will not change this year. The first clue will be released February 1 at 9:00 a.m. and then each weekday after that one clue will be released at 9:00 a.m. The clues will be posted online on the city’s webpage and also on the front door and the drive-up door of Charter Bank in Chanhassen. Charter Bank is a sponsor of the medallion hunt so they are getting involved by writing clues and they’ve also donated a $500 gift basket for the winner of the medallion hunt. So the medallion will be hidden in a Chanhassen city-owned park. The community can search anytime between the hours of 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. each day which is when the parks are open. The prize pack was valued at over $500. So to promote both components of the event, we had event flyers and rules and promo materials mailed to all former participants. We also did an email blast to former participants. Print ads went out in the Chanhassen Villager and the Chaska Herald and we’ve done a lot of promotion on the city’s social media platforms so Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and then have a Facebook event as well that people can kind of invite others to and share that around. That is kind of what we have going for Feb Fest this year. We’re really looking forward to having our typical event next year. The rules are different this year than they are in previous years obviously with the measurement going by length instead of weight and so in designing our rules we really tried to be specific in the submission process and the clarity of photos they have to submit and what all goes into the photos to keep the integrity of the contest. That was really important when we were designing our rules and we’re looking forward to seeing how it turns out. Boettcher: Sounds good. Should be interesting with a virtual fishing contest. It’ll definitely be different but I think everybody will like it. Especially the fact that they can go to any lake in Carver County. That opens it up because there are a couple that do kick out some really big fish every year during ice fishing season. I had a question about the medallion hunt. How many clues are normally given out? Tandon: It depends on when the medallion is found. Typically we plan for five so one Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday but of course we’ve got backup clues in case it’s still not found at that point. So, one to five depending on when it’s found. Boettcher: Do you know what the lowest number of clues ever that it was found? Tandon: Jerry might be able… Boettcher: Jerry just got a grin on his face. There probably was somebody with one, like Name that Tune. Ruegemer: Well Commissioner Boettcher, it definitely was found in less than two days prior so I guess we went back to our developer clues and make the a little bit more vague on the front end. We’ve got some people we don’t know how the heck they found it. They must have followed us Park and Recreation Commission – January 26, 2021 11 where we hid it. Kind of a crazy deal but everybody does a great job on putting those clues together. Boettcher: Maybe insider information, huh. Ruegemer: Ya, who knows. Boettcher: Well it’ll be different but people will still get out there and enjoy it. Hopefully, I haven’t looked at the long-term weather forecast. I don’t know for that week what it’s supposed to be like weather-wise but whatever it is people will still be out there enjoying ice fishing. Ruegemer: Looks like some snow this weekend but I haven’t looked beyond that. Boettcher: Alright, thank you very much, Priya. Item no. 3 looks like Jodi looking at the Chanhassen Park and Recreation Refund Policy. REPORTS: CHANHASSEN PARK AND RECREATON REFUND POLICY Sarles: Thank you, Chair Boettcher and Commissioners. As you can imagine we have spent a lot of time in 2020 going through our refund policy. Good and bad and indifferent. So this is kind of a little background. We started researching other area communities and kind of seeing what they were doing and the school districts were doing as far as program refunds. What happens is when you register for a program in Chanhassen, those fees are included in the fee of the program so the registration may cost $5 for the registration but there’s an online fee, a set fee for that, a percent and the another set fee from our provider so that’s where this is all kind of starting from. So we started reviewing our policy and recognized that we have some policies that need updating. Right now our policy is very open-ended and doesn’t reflect any required cancellation timelines from our program providers so the contractors we work with, the places Mary goes with, tickets were purchasing, things like that, everybody has their own policies that we need to follow to issue those refunds and of course it’s not accounting for any processing fees the City of Chanhassen incurs upon registration and refund. So, this is going to be dry but this is our current policy and it’s printed in the Connection and I believe it’s online, but payment is due at time of registration and may be made by cash, check or credit card (Visa, Mastercard or Amex). Make checks payable to the City of Chanhassen, online and in-person credit card payments are accepted for purchases over $10. Credit card payment are only accepted at City Hall or the Rec Center, not through phone, mail, email or fax. Registration must be received before a class begins. Instructors cannot accept registrations. Registration deadline refers to the last day registrations are accepted. If the class is filled before that date, it considered closed. Registration, and this is kind of the key part here, registrations cancelled at least four days prior to the start of the program will receive a refund minus any advanced costs incurred for admissions, meals, transportation, etc. Cancellations received after this time, will receive a 50% refund. There is no confirmation for mail or dropped off registrations. Class dates and times are subject to change without notice. So, as we looked at that policy, we have proposed kind of breaking this out so same, the payment system, it’s going to be exactly the same so I don’t think I need to read that Park and Recreation Commission – January 26, 2021 12 back to you, it’s the same first paragraph there. Our registration deadline refers to the last day registrations are accepted. The class is considered closed if it fills before that date. Wait lists may be available. And for cancellations and refunds. Full refunds will be issued when the City of Chanhassen cancels a class or program. Refunds will be issued when a participant cancels prior to the registration deadline. This may vary per class or program and will be stated in individual program descriptions. For program fee under $10, an account credit will be applied. In the event of serious injury or illness, prorated or partial refunds may be allowed, especially for multi-day programs. All participant-generated refund requests will be subject to, and this is an error, it should be a $10 administrative fee. See program descriptions either online or in the program brochure for complete details or contact the program administrator for more information on cancellation policies. Class dates, times are subject to change without notice. So basically the biggest change here is an administrative fee would be added to refunds. This one also, when you leave an open ended 50% refund policy, I’ve had people after the programs, request them because they didn’t know up and so they just expected that “well I can get that 50% back”. So there’s a few loop holes we wanted to kind of close up here. With that, I’d be open to questions or discussion. Boettcher: So Jodi, do you know what your refund rate was last year? Percentage-wise? 25, 30 40? Sarles: For our programs? Boettcher: Right. I mean with Covid. People that were cancelling. Did you track it? Sarles: Ya. Well we tracked it, boy I should know this number because we’ve had to put it together so many times. Boettcher: I was thinking it was probably pretty, probably two or three times normal. Sarles: Oh absolutely. Ruegemer: Ya, Jim, it was fairly high and it was quite a process, basically everything is done remotely through their financial servers who is a provider of our registration program rates(??) A lot of the information goes there then we’d kind of go through our agency reports and they’d kind of back out percentages of transaction fees, credit fees and those types of things and try to give a settlement report at the end of the month, that’s how kind of that works out. Jodi you can certainly explain if you like to the, kind of the process of us putting money back into our account to make sure that we had enough money to pay refunds from 2020 and that process. Sarles: 2020 was very tough, on everybody. Once we were closing down, everything got, if a program was in progress already, we prorated the remaining dates and refunded that back to the community or to people and then any upcoming, as we kept cancelling programs going forward, those all got refunded as well and that everything from rental fees and things like that. People had prepaid. So what we ended up having to do is each month we would put together a report of Park and Recreation Commission – January 26, 2021 13 the refunds and because we weren’t taking money in, our program provider or refund provider is ActiveNet and so we ended up having to wire money to Active to process the refunds plus the administrative fee they had to do that as well. We did it month by month. Mary, Priya, Jerry and I would get those numbers together and enter them in a spreadsheet and process those as those dates came up. It was a pretty, it was a pretty time consuming process that we were going through to try to make sure our community got their money back and that we did what was best for our people here. Boettcher: So the one thing it did it showed you that you had a gap in the system that needed to be corrected or updated or whatever. Sarles: Yes and it makes a little more sense too because, say you sign up for Summer Discover Playground and you pick two parks, there’s that fee upfront and then if you say you only want one park and you wait four days ahead of time, three days ahead of time, to get that refund, we’re processing that money back less the $5 or however much it’s going to cost us. It’s a kind of strange payment scale. It’s a sliding fee based on the total amount of money plus a percentage and then another flat rate for just processing. So that’s kind of why we added the $5 or $10, I’m sorry, administrative fee that would cover all of that for both sides of the refund. Boettcher: Good. And that’s standard, I mean everybody has an administrative fee? Sarles: Yes. I think the only people that didn’t, I talked to folks over at Chaska, they do not have that but they are working on putting that in place as well. Boettcher: Alright, thank you. Any other questions for Jodi or Jerry regarding the policy change? It looks like we’re requesting a motion if someone would like to put it to the question. Tsuchiya: I’ll do it again. I’ll recommend the Park and Recreation Commission recommends approval of the 2021 Registration and Refund Policy. Boettcher: Alright, and a second? Peck: Echo???, second. Boettcher: Alright. Any further discussion? Sarles: Can we make sure we add amended $10 Administrative Fee? I apologize. Boettcher: Yes. Tsuchiya: Ya. I’ll amend my motion to reflect that the Administrative Fee under Cancellation of Refunds is $10, not $5. Boettcher: OK good. And then will the second still apply to the amended motion? Park and Recreation Commission – January 26, 2021 14 Peck: Yes. Boettcher: Alright and then if I could. We’ll do another verbal. Commissioner Tsuchiya? Tsuchiya: Yay. Boettcher: Commissioner Kutz? Kutz: Yay. Boettcher: Scanlon? Scanlon: Yay. Boettcher: Peck? Peck: Yay. Boettcher: Erpelding? Erpelding: Yay. Boettcher: And Boettcher is Aye. Motion passes. Tsuchiya moved, Peck seconded that the Park and Recreation Commission recommends approval of the 2021 Registration and Refund Policy and that the Administrative Fee under Cancellation of Refunds is $10, not $5. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0. COMMISSION MEMBER COMMITTEE REPORTS. None. COMMISSION MEMBER REPORTS. None. Tsuchiya: Just very happy the ice rinks are open. That’s all. Boettcher: How is the business at the ice rinks, Jerry? Crowded? Ruegemer: Priya, do you want to mention it and I can certainly add for that? Tandon: Sure. Our hockey associations are enjoying using the ice. I will say the ice has been, the season has been a little bit bumpy with the ice that has been out there. It’s been pretty warm and not just like the over 32 degree days, like the 20-40 degree days. It’s been pretty warm so unfortunately at the beginning, the ice wasn’t great and then not paired with the snow events that just happened to come on the days that cold made flooding difficult so up until about, oh I don’t Park and Recreation Commission – January 26, 2021 15 know, maybe a week ago or two weeks ago even, the ice wasn’t fantastic but people were still using it and we were trying to get everything flooded and now it’s a lot better with the colder temperatures and I think people are getting some good usage out of it and enjoying. We do have lights that are being turned on by rink attendants. They kind of drive around to the different locations and turn those on daily according to the hours that we kind of talked about at a previous meeting. The warming houses aren’t out there and they won’t be unfortunately just due to the regulations, you know, we can’t have more than say two to four people in there so it just doesn’t quite make sense this year but we’re very glad the ice, like you were saying is better now and that the lights are being turned on and that people can get some good use out of them. Jerry, did you have anything to add? Ruegemer: Just a little update for the Commissioners. Adam’s crew will be coming in over nights and at 4:00 a.m. many times to get the rinks cleared off, get some of that flooding going on and with it being kind of colder now during the day they’ve been flooding during the day. So the rinks will be making significant improvements this week and we hope that, like Priya said, we’ve had a lot of, had warmer weather where we’ve had a lot of bare spots out on that asphalt rink for the hockey rinks and also the family rinks as well so we’re starting to make some strides again to kind of get those recovered again and hopefully we can get some time now that they’re hopefully without the stress, I guess, on staff and the crew have been trying to make ice when they can it’s going to be better. So just to Priya’s point, the warming houses will not be in place during this season so Park Maintenance staff have provided benches and picnic table. Kind of going old school this year and if you want to put your skates, you’ll have to sit on the bench and put them on that way. As Priya said, it just didn’t make any sense to with our executive guidelines and executive orders we could probably get about four to five people inside of those shelter buildings. It just didn’t seem worth the expense for this year and we hope to have everything back to normal for the 2021/2022 season. Boettcher: Alright. Thank you. Anyone else have anything else to bring up? If not I’ll go ahead without a verbal and I’ll say no other business. Meeting is adjourned at 7:43 p.m. Ruegemer: Jim, we should probably get a motion and a second. Boettcher: Do you want one? Let’s do a motion please. Tsuchiya: I’ll move to adjourn. Boettcher: And the second? Kutz: Second. Boettcher: And again, a verbal to close it out? Tsuchiya? Tsuchiya: Aye. Park and Recreation Commission – January 26, 2021 16 Boettcher: Kutz? Kutz: Aye. Boettcher: Scanlon? Scanlon: Aye. Boettcher: Peck? Peck: Aye. Boettcher: Erpelding? Erpelding: Aye. Boettcher: And Boettcher is aye and we thank you everyone. Look forward to seeing you next month. Thank you. Tsuchiya moved, Kutz 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 7:43 p.m. Submitted by Jerry Ruegemer Park and Rec Director Prepared by Jean Steckling