PRC 2006 03 28
CHANHASSEN PARK AND
RECREATION COMMISSION
REGULAR MEETING
MARCH 28, 2006
Chairman Stolar called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m..
MEMBERS PRESENT:
Glenn Stolar, Paula Atkins, Anne Murphy, Jack Spizale, Kevin Dillon
and Steve Scharfenberg
MEMBERS ABSENT:
Tom Kelly
STAFF PRESENT:
Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Director; Jerry Ruegemer, Recreation
Superintendent; Don Asleson, Natural Resources Technician; Dale Gregory, Park
Superintendent; Tom Knowles, Recreation Center Manager; and Susan Bill, Senior Center
Coordinator
APPROVAL OF AGENDA:Murphy moved, Spizale seconded to approve the agenda
amended to add two items under Administrative PresentationsAll voted in favor and the
.
motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Stolar: We have the Easter Egg Hunt, which I wonder if that will come up during the rec center
report or not. That’s coming up in a couple weeks. Before our next meeting.
Ruegemer: Yeah, I can discuss that a little bit later on if you’d like to.
Stolar: Yep. Seeing none, we now move into visitor presentations, and I see we do have some
visitors here.
VISITOR PRESENTATIONS:
Hoffman: Are you the 4(a)?
Amy Bush: I am.
Hoffman: Come on up.
Amy Bush: Well I was, I mean if other people wanted to come, I was just going to come tonight
to see how it all works. I talked to Jerry this morning yeah, so…I just didn’t know how formal.
Stolar: It’s not formal, if you just want to introduce yourself and state a little bit of your interest,
that’d be great. If you’d just state your name and address.
Park and Rec Commission – March 28, 2006
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Amy Bush: Okay, Amy Bush and I live 1704 West 77 Street right off of…Parkway. Yeah, so I
don’t know. I’m hoping we can have… They’re very few and far between, especially in the
metro area. There’s a lot of kids that work really hard and…and not do have decent facilities at
all, with Chaska being one. They don’t have starting blocks. The depth of the pool is not deep
enough to start from the deck, and I don’t know, I’m not sure…some corporate guys. Eric
Peterson. I’m not sure what the step is because I know Minnetonka Middle School West, where
myself and my son belong to that swim club, they only have a 3 ½ foot depth and I believe the
high school regulations have changed to 4 foot, it has to be a 4 foot depth, even from the deck.
So I don’t know what they’re going to do but…
Hoffman: Depth wise?
Amy Bush: Yeah.
Hoffman: Yeah, it doesn’t meet the standards.
Stolar: I mean most recently Eden Prairie tried to pass a referendum to redo their pool to
increase the depths because if, right now at the current depths that Eden Prairie’s community
center is, they can’t allow swimmers to start off the blocks now. Because of the new regulations
say you have to have a certain depth, so swimmers are going to be starting on, I think in Eden
Prairie they can still start on the deck but I think they may actually lose that too, which means
they actually have to start in the pool, so when they go to competitive swimming elsewhere, if
they can start, if those people have been able to start off the pad, the diving pad, blocks, they
have an advantage.
Amy Bush: Huge advantage.
Stolar: So.
Amy Bush: It’s sad to see them when they work so hard to you know, and now they can’t
achieve times. Starting in the water, there’s just no way. But I was just, you know I don’t know,
I talked to the guy at length at the Rochester pool yesterday and their community center
pool…kind of gave me all the details on their pool, which was interesting but you know he was
saying, they are always positively looking for ways for the city to partner with private or other
public agencies to build facilities…and both of their high schools and two of their middle
schools have pools. Where we are, we have a ton of lanes for competitive swimming but we’re
starting to venture into the recreational… I just find it interesting…and Rochester and
Hutchinson and smaller communities have some of these great pools and you go around the
metro area and they’re just bad. So I was hoping Chanhassen might pass something that the
other communities don’t and I think the people, they look at high school swimming and they
look at the numbers and you’re not going to see the numbers. It’s not a popular sport. It’s a
number of kids that…compared to hockey or basketball or whatever, but…sport, it’s huge. I
mean there are so many kids that are…there’s just hundreds and hundreds. I think people would
just be shocked that…swimming. You know at the Rochester meet we were down there for 3
days, 700 swimmers… 700 swimmers participated that weekend. It was a 3 day meet. You
know you’re there 2 days in a hotel with food and $35.00 entry fees for my kid and then we were
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Park and Rec Commission – March 28, 2006
back down there 3 weeks later for State. 12 and Under State where they had 660 kids for that
and 13 and Under State had 680 kids in that, and that’s at the state level so that was…but they
were 3 day meets and 4 day meets. You’ve got people coming into town. Staying overnight.
Hoffman: I think Paula you were at a public meeting that I was at where the new superintendent
for the district said, it’s his opinion that the district needs to build a new pool or refurbish the
pools. He didn’t make any commitments on where that would be, but he certainly said at a
public meeting that it was his belief that that needed to happen.
Atkins: I understood that it was probably part of the package actually.
Amy Bush: Yeah, that’s kind of the way I understand. It sounds like it’s going to be, there’s
going to be a pool. 8 lane, 25 yard pool. It’s just you know I don’t know what, it would be great
to see, you know like the one in Rochester has a capacity seating of 1,000 people. There’s only
one other pool in the state that…that can hold that many people, so they’re the only ones that can
hold state meets and take in all that money. I mean and Rochester got…where nobody else can.
Atkins: Is that pool at their community center or their high school?
Amy Bush: That’s their own…community center. And they’ve got two sheets of ice and. So,
and it’s a 15 meter pool with a diving…
Atkins: How many lanes?
Amy Bush: 8 lanes. Because of the size of it…550,000 gallons of water in that pool to filter and
clean, but… They don’t have a lot of open time. I know our swim club, Minnetonka Swim
Club…it’d be nice if we could partner with the district and get a pool. Maybe it’s not a 15 meter
pool but maybe feet, you know that’s the thing where these people go to these middle schools, or
you go to Chaska you know and the pool, I mean when you have 500 to 600 kids, 500, 300 kids
at a meet, you know obviously usually you’re sitting in the halls. You’re filtering back and forth,
in and out and you’ve got swimmers all around the pool. They’ve got nowhere to sit. It’s just,
you know it’d be nice to have at least a bigger area and you can hold some meets.
Stolar: Are there any questions, and just for those of you who didn’t look, last Thursday I
believe it was in the Villager, was a letter that you had written.
Amy Bush: Yeah, Thursday.
Stolar: On the same topic and then Todd and I’ve also received communications on this topic,
but the gist of it being, you know can we, the request that I’ve seen and the e-mails and such are,
should we be working with the school district when they, which they seem to be committed to
building a pool. Work with them to define it so that it can be a competitive swim pool, and
become a joint thing that the park district and the school board can use to host a lot of meets. So
any questions for Amy? Jack?
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Park and Rec Commission – March 28, 2006
Amy Bush: Have you gotten, have there been response, just out of curiosity from, or has it been
locally?
Hoffman: There’s nothing to respond to yet. There’s been some discussion in the community
and I think as the referendum discussions move forward, there’s going to be a lot more talk about
it. Or there’s going to be a lot of talk about, first where the school goes and what it is, and then
what it becomes after that so. Right now I think it’s premature to start talking about specifics
because the district’s not going to want to go there until they start to define some of these other
issues.
Amy Bush: Did they, in the Villager article not too long ago they were saying, they mentioned
the below standard pool in the article but then it also said that they’d be starting on plans in
April. By not knowing yet.
Hoffman: Starting on plans for a school.
Amy Bush: Okay. So it’s that, so is it too soon to start?
Hoffman: Yeah, I don’t know what their plans are going, they’re probably going to, they start
planning with these blocks and so they’ll probably start planning for some curriculum space. I’m
not sure if they’ll start talking about athletic fields and pools and gymnasiums and those type of
things just yet so. I don’t think it’s too early to start the conversation, but and I think that’s all it
is. There’s been nothing presented to the community from the City of Chanhassen of yet so
there’s nothing to respond to as of yet.
Amy Bush: Do you have residents that would like…
Hoffman: Oh absolutely. And not just a competitive pool, but a recreational pool as well. You
know Lifetime’s got a great pool program but not all residents of Chanhassen are members of
Lifetime, and we don’t have another public pool in town except the middle school east, or middle
school west and then this school down at in Chaska.
Amy Bush: …and Lifetime’s times are kind of bringing kids in and out. I don’t know, I was a
member there for a while but I struggled with that. So their pool isn’t always available and, but
the Community Center in Chaska seems…all the time so it’s just kind of curious if there’s a lot
of interest for a pool. Competitive pool.
Atkins: I actually keep swimming at Minnetonka. There’s a lot of interest in getting an
improved, a better pool. The facility isn’t great. Between the high school kids and…in the
evening, there’s not a lot of…
Hoffman: Yeah, Minnetonka’s got the same situation.
Amy Bush: They’re exactly in the situation that Chaska is, yeah.
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Park and Rec Commission – March 28, 2006
Atkins: But it is a sport that is recommended for children that have hyperactivity disorders. Plus
the ones…to be participating in that you know.
Amy Bush: Well that’s kind of what I said in my article that it’s just helped…I saw the only
female American soldier that’s lost a limb in a war in Iraq is on our team now. She’s 25 years
old and she is a track athlete and came back from that…and she swims now and I’ve seen kids
amputees and I’ve seen Y kids and I’ve seen obese children, and even though some kids that
aren’t that great of swimmers, but it’s all based on your times. You’re competing against kids of
your own time and everybody participates so that’s probably my biggest…
Stolar: Let me see, Kevin do you have any questions or comments?
Dillon: I don’t have any questions at this time though thanks and appreciate your passion for it.
Stolar: Paula.
Atkins: My only comment, I think it’s, when we had the survey about interest in community
center, what that was way at the top of the list. Every time we’ve asked the community what we
need, it’s a pool. Yeah, so there’ll be a lot of interest in that. I support it.
Amy Bush: Do you have to have it acceptable, like does it have to...in the school hours.
…because I know in the Minnetonka pool, our swim club can’t use it during school hours.
There’s some sort of law about that.
Hoffman: There could be a joint powers agreement. The way I understand it, if there was a joint
effort, there’s both city and school district money being invested in it, there would be a joint
powers arrangement.
Amy Bush: So there is a way to work it where you could use a pool during school hours but.
Hoffman: Probably not. Probably not. It’d probably be after hours.
Stolar: I know Eden Prairie has a deal with Oak Point, right? That it’s joint. The park district
and I believe, if I remember correctly, they weren’t able to use it either during school hours.
Amy Bush: Is that just because the pool’s at the school or you can’t, the public can’t have access
to the pool during the school hours kind of, is that for safety reasons?
Hoffman: A variety of reasons. Safety, disruption.
Amy Bush: Because I’m just wondering…
Stolar: I think that’s something that we can work out later if, you know as we go forward but I
think generally speaking it’s been that they’ve been separated. Even like I think the Eden Prairie
Community Center, they have, the park district has the pool. The high school uses it, and high
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Park and Rec Commission – March 28, 2006
school had first dibs during school hours. In fact that was a big issue we had with swim
availability when I was on that park board.
Amy Bush: Yeah, because you’d like to see it to be able to be open to residents during the day
when the pool isn’t being used.
Stolar: Yeah it’s something that I mean, and when is the timing Todd of the school district’s
planning process? It wouldn’t be until 2009, right?
Hoffman: Well they’ll have the referendum this fall.
Stolar: So this fall.
Hoffman: The question will be posed and whatever’s included in the question will be voted on
in November.
Stolar: Okay, so it is this quick for the referendum, okay. Steve, do you have anything?
Scharfenberg: I don’t have anything.
Amy Bush: Thanks for your time.
Stolar: Thank you very much.
Hoffman: Appreciate it Amy. Thanks for coming in.
Stolar: And again for those of you who hadn’t seen, Amy wrote an article in the Villager on the
same topic. It seems to me Todd, if we do want to try to, you and I talked a little, or I sent you e-
mails, and we have this later on our agenda, that we should talk about how we best coordinate
with them as we go forward to see that, get input I guess at the very least into the referendum
discussion, or other ways in which we can approach this. So thanks Amy. Any other visitor
presentations? Okay. And Commissioner Scharfenberg has joined us a while ago. Didn’t get a
chance to introduce him.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES:Murphy moved, Spizale seconded to approve the verbatim
and summary minutes of the Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated February 28,
2006 as presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6
to 0.
SURFACE WATER MANAGEMENT PLAN UPDATE, DON ASLESON, NATURAL
RESOURCES TECHNICIAN.
Asleson: Thank you Mr. Chair and commissioners. I’m going to hand out this kind of a map
and we’ll kind of go through it later in the presentation. Well I’m glad to be here today to talk
about our surface water management plan update. When we’re talking about Chanhassen’s
surface water management plan, and the surface water resources, what we’re really talking about
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Park and Rec Commission – March 28, 2006
is the 6 creeks, 11 lakes, 350 storm water ponds, over 400 wetlands and over 6,000 storm water
structures that are part of the surface water system. If you add up the creeks, the lakes, the storm
water ponds and the wetlands, as well as the Minnesota River, that total would represent about
27% of the total land in Chanhassen, so it’s a pretty significant amount of land in Chanhassen
that’s dedicated to surface water. Why update the plan now? Well the last time it was
completed in 1994. Chanhassen has really developed since 1994. There’s been a lot of change.
In addition we’ve had some increased regulations with our National Pollution Discharge
Elimination System program from the PCA which does a number of things for us because it
requires us to inventory our system. Inspect the system. Kind of address our ordinances. Make
sure they’re adequate and that we’re not over looking things. Then in addition to have best
management practices or bmp’s to minimize storm water pollution. In 1994, the 1994 plan,
another reason why we’re updating it is because it’s no longer consistent with our watershed
district plans, and to avoid a situation where our residents would have to go to the watershed
district…or the city would have different like areas in the city to meet development criteria, we’d
like to update this plan making it consistent with all the watershed district so it’s more one stop
shopping type of thing, so they can come to us. We can tell them what they have to meet to
proceed with their development. What has changed in time? There’s a lot of things in the’94
plans that remain the same. I think our task force members which Glenn was a part of, there was
a lot of things that did work and we left them in there. Things that weren’t very effective like we
had a goal that was 100% phosphorous removal as part of our ’94 plan which is really an
unrealistic goal. It’s not attainable really. So that was removed, but we did, the categories that
were flushed out of the update were water quality, water quantity, wetlands, erosion and
sediment control, financing, regulatory responsibility and this one might be new to you Glenn
but education was added in there as a goal that we wanted to add into that.
Stolar: We had talked about that several times. Glad it finally.
Asleson: Yep, it finally got added in there. In addition the resource and structure inventory
which is kind of, I gave you that print out which is really what another and very important part of
this update that we had. It was a GPS and survey inventory of all structures so over 6,000
inlets/outlets. Some catch basins. Wetlands. Just about everything was inventoried. We had a
MnRam assessment done for every one of our wetlands so we can classify them. And then the
storm water pond inventory inspection so we actually have storm water ponds identified and
have you know as part of the update, they notified us if any maintenance was needed on those
ponds. What will all the paper do for us? Well it will help us maintain compliance with all the
agencies like the PCA and the watershed district. It will help us identify problems in our system
and possible solutions. Now we’ve got all this data and we can work with it. We can maybe
find solutions to some of these issues that we have. I was telling Todd here that I know you have
a trail on Stone Creek, you’re looking at Stone Creek there again, and kind of in the middle of
the map there is a yellow storm water pond, and the trail just to the south of that, when we get a
large rain event, we get water over the trail a couple times, so one way we can maybe use this
update is to see if we can improve that trail so it’s not flooding out every time we get huge rain
events. Again proactively provide storm water treatment for new developments. You know we
do that but I think it will help us analyze kind of the flows and see where we’re at with some of
that stuff. Maintain and improve water quality. Again the existing resources. Illustrate where
ordinances are lacking and non-existent. I think I touched on that one but one of the main things
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Park and Rec Commission – March 28, 2006
is it’s going to help us develop a CIP budget for the next 20 years which will lead us up to 2025.
The draft plan is going to be on the web site. It’s not on tonight but it should be up tomorrow
morning. It’s a rough eyes draft. I’d advise all you to take a look at it. If you have comments
and I know Lori or myself wouldn’t mind receiving comments. Lori prefers receiving written
comments in the mail, so… So if anybody has questions, I can try to answer them and if not, I
can find the answer for you.
Stolar: Can you just walk through real quick what the process is remaining with the draft plan?
Asleson: Oh okay. Well I know we have the draft. Don’t really, I think we have 60 days for
agencies to review the draft. Once we get that back, we’ll be taking all the comments that we
receive…don’t have the date of the final draft but I think once we get back the agency review
and ask for public comments, we’ll have a better idea then. Timing when it goes to council, I
don’t have that in front of me but that’s something I can get when I get you.
Stolar: Yeah, has the Planning Commission held their open hearings yet?
Asleson: I believe they’re going to, if they haven’t already opened up the public hearing, it’s
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already been opened up and it’s going to be opened up until May 2 maybe. If it hasn’t been
opened, it’s going to be opened at the next Planning Commission meeting.
Stolar: So the Planning Commission kind of holds the plan from a public input standpoint…
along with these agency reviews to the City Council for approval.
Asleson: Right. Actually I think it’s the next Planning Commission that they’re going to open
the public hearing since we just go the draft today. It will give people some time to review it
before the public hearing is opened.
Stolar: Questions, Steve.
Scharfenberg: No questions.
Stolar: Paula?
Atkins: Nothing.
Dillon: I’ve got one. Are wetlands increasing? Decreasing? Staying the same? What’s
happening with our wetlands?
Asleson: Well, the wetland are kind of protected with the Wetland Conservation Act so wetlands
we cannot touch to the law. I would say that overall, they’re probably increasing because if we
do mitigate wetland impact, they have to replace that 2 to 1 ratio as part of the law, so if they
impact 1 acre, they have to replace 1 acre and then provide public value credit which sometimes
is additional wetland. So I don’t think we’re losing any wetlands.
Dillon: Okay.
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Park and Rec Commission – March 28, 2006
Hoffman: 212’s taking quite a bit out.
Asleson: Yeah, but they’re also mitigating, that would be a project where they may even
mitigate outside of Chanhassen, so we could be, which takes some wetland or something like
that.
Dillon: Okay, thanks.
Stolar: If you guys do have a chance, I would read the executive summary and the vision
statements that will be out as part of that, and as we discussed in previous meetings, one of the
big philosophies we had in doing this was that the city should demonstrate best practices
wherever possible. I know we do that and we try to do that all the time in our park areas and so I
think as we can continue setting those examples, that’d be great. Don, thanks for coming.
Asleson: Yeah, no problem.
RECREATION PROGRAM REPORTS:
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2006 4 OF JULY FIREWORKS CONTRACT RECOMMENDATION.
Ruegemer: Thank you Chair Stolar and good evening to the rest of the commission as well.
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Looking at the, looking ahead to our 4 of July celebrations, it’s time to review the 2006
fireworks contract. Our department did go out to two different companies to solicit quotes for
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2006 fireworks display on July 4. We did inquire with Arrowhead Fireworks and Melrose
Pyrotechnics. Both companies did prepare and submit the necessary information in compliance
with our RFP that we had put together for their review. They did meet all the specifications and
requirements and at this time it’s staff’s opinion that Melrose, Melrose’s show has more bang for
the buck…grand finale and also they, which is kind of a unique show to their company. They
also feature a mid show barrage and a pre-finale teaser. So when people are starting to pick up
their blankets and they think that’s the end of the show, we’ve got more to come so that’s kind of
a fun thing that they had offered. Not only this year but also in the past with our shows out at
Lake Ann Park. The City of Chanhassen has been contracting with Melrose for over 20 years
now. We’ve had a really good working relationship with Melrose through the years. Not only
with the event planners but also with the people that are there the day of the show. We really,
we’ve worked with the same kind of lead person for about the last 8 to 10 years. It’s basically
you know show up in the morning at 7:00-8:00 in the morning and they know exactly what to do.
Our expectations are met and there has not been any compromise on quality, quantity and first of
all safety of the show so, staff feels extremely comfortable with Melrose. It’s staff’s
recommendation that the Park and Rec Commission recommend that the City Council approve
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the 4 of July fireworks contract with Melrose Pyrotechnics in the amount of $23,000. This
amount is included in Fund 1600. It was our Recreation Program budget. That includes all the
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special events in the 2006 budget. The fireworks display will take place on Tuesday, July 4 at
10:00 p.m. at Lake Ann Park.
Stolar: Thank you. Any questions?
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Park and Rec Commission – March 28, 2006
Murphy: Now is the same show then as last year?
Ruegemer: Well they do change you know things around a little bit. I’m sure some of the
components will be the same as far as the same types of shells but certainly try to kind of give a
new flavor every year.
Stolar: Jack.
Spizale: I just think we’ve always had excellent fireworks. They’ve done a great job in the past.
I’ve been very happy with it. That’s all I’ve got.
Stolar: Steve.
Scharfenberg: Jerry, did they provide the music portion of the show last year or was that done
by?
Ruegemer: That was actually a separate company, St. Croix Events works a lot with Melrose at
Lumberjack Days and some other types of shows. We have not heard anything at this point from
St. Croix, but that certainly could be because the show hasn’t been approved yet, but you know,
kind of a mixed, a mixed bag of emotions as regard to the music, to the show last year. I think
some people liked it. I think other people felt it was a distraction so we’re kind of letting that lie
right now.
Scharfenberg: Okay.
Stolar: Paula.
Atkins: Oh I think that this company has always been on the cutting edge of new fireworks
because every time there’s something new, we see it. It’s great.
Ruegemer: And we are one of the larger shows certainly within the Twin Cities area. That’s
why we were picked last year for the music event so, a good reputation of a solid performance.
Stolar: Can I have a motion on the recommendation from staff?
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Scharfenberg: Move to accept staff’s recommendation for the 2006 4 of July fireworks
contract.
Murphy: Second.
Stolar: Moved by Commissioner Scharfenberg, seconded by Commissioner Murphy. Any final
questions?
Scharfenberg moved, Murphy seconded that the Park and Recreation Commission
recommend that the City Council approve the Fourth of July Fireworks Contract with
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Park and Rec Commission – March 28, 2006
Melrose Pyrotechnics in the amount of $23,000.00. All voted in favor and the motion
carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0.
2005/2006 ICE SKATING RINK EVALUATION.
Ruegemer: Thanks again Chair Stolar. This year’s ice skating season certainly was interesting.
Not only from the staff but also the commission level, kind of going out and looking at the
different locations that we’ve had. We were open a large number of days this year. Opened and
closed, and opened and closed and it was an interesting season to say the least. We did open up
really one of our earliest years on record. We started off great in early December. It was cold.
We were getting ice down and we opened up really probably a week to 2 weeks earlier than we
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normally had in the past historically. We opened up the 16 of December, and we were open to
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the 27 of February, which was roughly, we recorded roughly about 6,000 visits at our warming
houses that we acquire rink attendants at North Lotus, the Rec Center, Roundhouse and City
Center Park so, a total of 54 days we were open. Total of 18 days were due to, as Nate put it,
low temperatures, high temperatures and poor surfaces so, on the coldest day of the year, we still
were melting ice from the corners so I was a bit educated that day so, it was hard to really have a
good base and keep that base going during the month of January and February. We kind of
picked up again with some colder weather but the sun angle and that was getting kind of high
and it was getting intense so we couldn’t keep ice on our blacktop areas so. So we can have a
number of attachments attached to the report. We had kind of went through this year as the
commission had gone through kind of the test neighborhoods. We have that documentation and
numbers as related to the 3 test locations that we had out there in the neighborhoods. As you can
see we didn’t have super high numbers but I don’t think that’s a true mark as to the total
participation of kids that are skating at a certain time. We certainly try to do random times to try
to catch people on the weekends and during their holiday break when the kids were not in school
so, it’s a sampling that the commission can dissect or use for future decisions as to where we’d
like to go in the future. We also have our park maintenance staff there on the rinks, hockey and
family rinks every day so they kind of charted medium, light or heavy use. And that’s also
attached and all the days that they were out there. They certainly are a good judge as to how
many people are using the rinks on a daily basis. So that was also can be used for future
decisions as we look forward to our 2006-2007 skating rink season. We certainly is economical
way to provide warming houses at City Center Park and Roundhouse Park with renting trailers
from Satellite Industries. Worked out again this year. We certainly have slight damage to
trailers on a yearly basis and that was minimal this year. I think out of 400 hours for that, we just
replaced some metal and that sort of thing so. We also did purchase some steps going, kind of
leading up into the trailers that we can have now for our use. They were getting rid of them. We
got a good buy on them and we can keep the wood stuff on them now that we can use for future
years so that worked out good and we got a really good deal on those so. Nate kind of put down
and listed the expenses of the temporary and seasonal wages. Kind of the program supplies and
that might be first aid supplies and those sort of things to kind of have the warming houses
functional. Also included with that was the damage to the trailers and totaled about a little under
$700. And in the equipment rental trailers and steps, it’s included in that, the third number. And
then he also did include kind of rink maintenance portion of that as well and that is Dale’s crew,
along with staff and their efforts to kind of go along with that for the total cost. So he gives us
kind of an overview of the rink season and you know, is this year going to be a true test of years
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Park and Rec Commission – March 28, 2006
to come? It’s hard to say but we certainly had a unique season, unlike others that we’ve had in
the past but we certainly can have some data that we can look at and base our future decisions on
the program, kind of leading into the next year’s season so. Just if the commission has any
questions, comments about the attachments or the skating rink season as a whole, we certainly
can entertain those.
Stolar: Paula, you want to start off?
Atkins: I don’t have any comments right off the bat here.
Stolar: Steve.
Scharfenberg: In terms of the usage, I found interesting that one of the neighborhoods that
lobbied us greatly was Rice Marsh and they were kind of one of the lower usage for rinks so I
found that a little interesting. Also just kudo’s to Dale and his staff for the ice when I was
always out there looking at it, when my kids were skating, it was always in good shape except
for those 4 days when they did an excellent job this year.
Stolar: Jack.
Spizale: Jerry, what were our costs last year? The year before, do you remember? Compared to
this year?
Ruegemer: Overall?
Spizale: Yep.
Ruegemer: I imagine they were lower because we were open, Dale probably has that.
Gregory: I don’t have the total cost but I have what our maintenance cost was last year. And it
was $22,818 and we were open 46 days last year, compared to $32,500 and we were open 54
days this year.
Ruegemer: Discussion purposes, the numbers for wages and equipment rental’s going to be
roughly about the same so. About a $10,000 difference roughly.
Dillon: So we were open a few more days this year but we’ve not kept records in terms of
utilization in the past, have we?
Ruegemer: Dale’s crew always have and.
Hoffman: We have as well with the rink attendants.
Ruegemer: Yeah. Rink attendants also then the, I know in the past we have collected data
through kind of the volunteer program through the Park and Rec Commissioners.
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Park and Rec Commission – March 28, 2006
Stolar: So how does this $5,900 compare to the tallies in previous years?
Ruegemer: Obviously with being open a little bit more, you know we’re probably within $500
to $1,000 of other years, but we were open, certainly open. You know kind of taking account
too, there was a lot of we’ll call it indecision days where we were open but we had low
attendance because you know, are we open? Are we closed and we certainly tried to keep on top
of that daily.
Murphy: I have a question. I didn’t know the answer to this, one of my neighbors asked me. If
it snows on a weekend, does maintenance clear the snow off the rinks or is that kind of?
Gregory: Usually on weekends and that we have a crew come in on Saturday mornings and
Sunday mornings, and Saturday morning it’s usually clean them off and they will flood the rinks.
And it will be done before the rinks open and then if it snows on Sunday morning they’ll come in
and clean them off but they won’t flood them.
Stolar: Anything else? I just have to echo Dale your crew being able to add these rinks and then
vary like the weather varied, being able to go out there after it was warm and get out there early
when it was cold so appreciate that. I think you know you look at these numbers and like I said,
I don’t know if it’s that much better but it just seems like it was good. You know the standard
rinks, people took advantage of the extra efforts you put in, especially I think re-opening it after
that huge spell in January were we could have just as easily closed, I thought that was great so
thanks.
Gregory: The family rinks held up real good around and that but the hockey rinks we had a lot
of trouble because we just, we did not have cold weather to take and really build the ice back up
to the board again. We always had that space by the boards. We could never really get good ice
and I know we flooded some nights and that and we’d lose it because even on, like Jerry said,
even on a cold day. I mean if it’s 10 degrees outside but the sun is out, it starts melting so.
Stolar: That was tough but it seemed like we had good attendance. Thanks, and I guess I
assume we’ll look at a later meeting we’ll have a discussion about whether or not the
neighborhood rinks, where we go with that.
Ruegemer: Do you want to talk about that again in August or so sometime or?
Stolar: Whatever’s appropriate for you guys to give you enough lead time.
Scharfenberg: Jerry needs to get it into, I mean this year we were late because of the, in the
bulletin, in the Chanhassen.
Ruegemer: We’ll schedule it for August.
Stolar: Okay, and that will get you in the.
Ruegemer: Yeah, that will give us plenty of time.
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Park and Rec Commission – March 28, 2006
Stolar: Okay, great.
Hoffman: I received verbally the most feedback from the Chanhassen Hills neighborhood, that
they appreciated the rink and would like to see it back.
Stolar: And they had the best utilization, both numbers and I think in the evaluation of that,
Dale’s group did. They came up with the highest numbers. They also had the lights there which
helped. Okay. I think Jerry, you’re up again.
SELF SUPPORTING PROGRAMS: 3 ON 3 BASKETBALL LEAGUE.
Ruegemer: We’ll get through mine right away. Just the spring season started this past, actually
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last night. The 27. We had to push that back a week due to the snow storm that we had on the,
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what day that was? 6 I guess or 13. On that to finish up our winter playoff’s so we’re going
to start a week later on that. We have 6 teams and of course after the season starts there’s always
teams that still wanted to play so, unfortunately people need to get their stuff in so, but the
people are enthused again. I think 5 out of the 6 teams that are in the league this year played
winter with us so I think people enjoy kind of that continuous kind of team sport. The recreation
aspect of the basketball. Very social. It’s pretty good exercise, running up and down the court
so, had a pretty good mainstay of teams coming back for fall, winter and spring leagues so it’s
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good. We’ll go through May 8 and we’ll have a post season tournament and we’ll finish up the
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15 and 22, right before Memorial Weekend and then everybody can kind of get down with the
spring and move on with the summer activities so. Tom and his crew, Steve…are doing an
awesome job out at the rec center. No worries that they’re there on Monday nights and
administrating the time clock and recording records and all that sort of stuff. We couldn’t do it
without him so we appreciate it Tom and Steve. Doing a great job.
Stolar: Great, thanks. Any questions for Jerry on 3 on 3? Okay, thanks.
RECREATION CENTER REPORT.
Knowles: Well in my report this month I’ve got, I’ve listed our hours of operation at the rec
center. I’ve also included our summer hours which we run between Memorial Day and Labor
Day. I should have indicated that they’re closing, our Annual closing for maintenance and floor
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resurfacing is tentatively scheduled for August 19 through September 4. Waiting to year final
word from the school district on when they can actually do the work on that but I’m fairly certain
that that’s where it’s going to wind up. Our staffing at the rec center. We were able to another
aerobics instructor last month and we’re up to 10 classes a week. I think that this is a good
number. It gives us a good variety of classes and good times. However I am a little disappointed
in our attendance so far so we’re going to have to keep an eye on that and see if we can justify
that many classes. We are fully staffed with our facilities supervisors. Same crew we’ve had for
quite a long time. At least one of our guys may be leaving us. His schooling will be done pretty
quick and we’ll have a hole to fill when he leaves but it’s held on real good. Our programming,
big thing there is our dance recital. As you may know our dance program at the recreation center
is just a huge program. I believe it’s about the largest in our system. Nicole Koucher, our
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Park and Rec Commission – March 28, 2006
coordinator out there does a wonderful job. Her big event, the spring recital is coming up on
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May 13 and it will be held at the Eden Prairie High School Auditorium and we’ll have two
performances. One at 1:30 and one at 6:30 so we’re beginning the process of selling tickets to
the parents and families, but we’ll have a public sale available some time in mid-April. Facility
notes, I’m actually pleasantly surprised that, how well our building is being utilized. In the gym
we have a lot of things going on. Youth sports. I’ve indicated we have a CAA basketball in
there and then the softball association and even a lacrosse group has been using our gym this
winter. Also the gym has got our preschool programs and floor hockey, indoor soccer and
basketball. The 3 on 3 adult league. Our Tae Kwon Do program. They all utilize the gym so I
think the gym is being well utilized. The meeting rooms are, and again I’m pleasantly surprised
how well we’ve filled the rooms up this winter. Looking ahead on our schedule, it’s pretty
difficult to book a room actually at the rec center on a Monday or Tuesday night through the
month of April so, we’re holding our own on that area so. Overall I think things are good. I’m
satisfied that we’re holding our own, given the new competition with Lifetime and the Chaska
expansion and so forth and I’m happy how we’re holding our own so.
Stolar: Okay, thank you. Questions. Okay, thanks Tom. Appreciate it.
SENIOR CENTER REPORT.
Bill: Thank you and good evening. Couple of things I want to highlight. I know I talk about
this probably every time I come but it continues to amaze me is the weekly column in the
Chanhassen Villager. With the picture. I get calls from new people constantly. Example last
week a lady who moved into Summerwood had read it. Came in. Wanted to meet some people.
Came in and is now participating in a number of our activities. The 55 Alive Driving program.
Get a lot of people that come to that that don’t participate in any other program, and I have 1 to 2
of those a month and they all, when I ask them how they heard about it, they read about it in the
paper so, that’s really, really a good economical, because we don’t pay for it, means of getting
the word out about events at the senior center. Another thing that’s been interesting the past
couple months is the competition and the physicians and health care presentations we’re having.
In the 2 years I’ve been here I’ve never had Ridgeview approach me about having a member of
their physicians present different topics. Their head of education department out Waconia came.
Park Nicollet has been knocking at my door quite a bit so, it’s really been nice to have the
competition in town because it’s enabled us to offer a variety of informative, updated health and
wellness seminars to seniors with great attendance so. I never say no when they want to come
and offer something. One other thing that continues is with Medicare Part D. The final deadline
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for registration is May 15. I think I mentioned when I was here before, we’ve got two state
licensed health insurance counselors that come the second Tuesday of every month and we’re
able to help register people online. Probably get 4 to 5 people a month that do that. Now that
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will end because after May 15, if you’re not registered for Medicare Part D, you’ll be paying a
1% penalty. But it’s really, really been a nice feature to have that with the one on one private
counseling. One other thing that is new is we have in my old office we have book club kits.
Worked with Diane Gerhardt from Carver County and Kathy from the library. Diane wrote a
grant and Kathy and I gave suggestions and we got grant money from Minnesota Valley Electric
Coop, the Chanhassen Lions and Friends of the Library, and basically this is a book club kit and
we have 12 of these with 15 books in them. We have women. Men could join if they want to
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Park and Rec Commission – March 28, 2006
but we don’t have any. We have the first Monday of every month we have a book club with 15
members so with the grant money we’ve got 12 bags. A kit for every month with 12, 15 books
in it. Kathy has prepared a study guide with information about the author, questions on the
books and if there is one, a book on tape. So that’s really, really nice. And the neat thing about
these kits, after our women read them, then the kits go back to the library. Other book club
groups can check them out and then after a year, all these books go back on the shelf, so it’s kind
of fun working with them and getting this and then the people don’t have to buy books, and next
week in the paper you’ll see a picture of a representative from the Lions Club holding one of her
book kits, so that will be in the paper. So that’s really been nice. One thing I forgot to put in the
report, last week I had an Ebay class. Rick Rice taught it. I had 15 people attend the class and
what I’m going to try to do every quarter is offer an informational class of some sort that older
adults hear their grandchildren or their children talking about Ebay. Next in July I’m going to
have one on digital cameras. I think the next time I might have one on MP3, Ipods because they
all hear about this but they don’t have any idea. And with the Ebay class last week, half of the
people there wanted to actually learn how to use it and I had people from 60 up to 92. And then
the other half just wanted to learn about what Ebay was all about and Rick had a power point
presentation. Took them through tutorial and it was really informative. However I did miss the
boat on one thing. We concentrated more on showing the site and how to use it and how to buy
things. Probably 5 minutes into the presentation this one gentleman raises his hand and he says,
you know we’re seniors. We’re clearing stuff out. We want to sell. We don’t want to buy so we
had to kind of switch gears…aspect of it but there was really, really positive feedback on that.
And then lastly, the one on one tutoring class continues to be just wonderful. With the
volunteers getting as much out of the tutoring as the participant. And that’s at the computer
terminal at the senior center and it can be anything on learning how to turn the computer on.
How to set up an e-mail account. How to do searching on the internet. How to set up address
books, whatever, so it’s really, really been helpful and the reason I started that, people were
saying if they take a class, often there are too many people and it’s, they’re somewhat
embarrassed to say you know, I don’t know how to click a reply or a forward or whatever, so this
is really, really nice. Where it’s one on one and wonderful things have developed. So that’s
always something going on at the senior center and everything’s been going great.
Stolar: Okay, thank you. Any questions for Susan?
Dillon: Susan, what are the topics that physicians are presenting? What specific, …vascular
disease or do we know?
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Bill: We’ve got a variety. I’ve got one April 10 on neuro research on strokes, cardio, heart risk
prevention. I had an ophthalmologist from Park Nicollet talking about the latest procedures in
glaucoma, cataracts. Dr. Dvorak is giving a presentation on living long, living well strategies for
healthy aging with nutritional and other aspects, so just a variety. Whatever they come to me
with. We have different topics so it’s been good.
Stolar: Other questions from anybody? Thank you very much. Dale.
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Park and Rec Commission – March 28, 2006
PARK AND TRAIL MAINTENANCE REPORT.
Gregory: First off I’d like to make one correction to my report and that. Through the skating
rink season that I had on there as 60 days. We really were open only 54 days. Some of those
days came where we had the rinks ready and everything else during the daytime. Evening it got
too warm because the afternoons it got…and we didn’t quite copy all the right days down and
that so we did miss a few so in the report it should really be 54 days. We were 10 days longer
than last year. Also and that this spring we’ve been working on our diseased elm trees. The past
year and that between Jill and some of the inspectors and that we’ve been categories and, not
categories but logging in all of the diseased trees for the past year and that. We went out this
spring and had to cut all of those down. We actually ended up cutting 94 trees down that were
within the city trails, in the parks. We did not go into the heavily wooded areas, that type of
thing. Those were left but anything that would be along a trail or something that might do
damage or hurt somebody or something like that so. They were taken care of. We’ve also been
working on the trails. We’ve got one more day left and we will have all of our trails completely
brushed out, gone through and in really good shape. They’ve been over a week and a half and
that cutting, all the trimming and everything back and that and it’s amazing that they’ve trimmed
now and that and they think they’ve got it trimmed back for a 5 year plan, and 2 years later
you’re back there and it’s grown right back. It’s just amazing how it grows that fast. We’re also
working on a re-planting out at the rec center. The oak trees that run along the sidewalk by the
rec center and back by the ballfields. We’ve got a lot of those that have died and a lot of them
that are in really poor shape, and so we’ve gone through and looked at all those and I’ve been
working with Jill. She’s bidding out, we’re looking at 40 oak trees that will be replaced in that
line, and all of the oak trees were originally were one species and now we’re going to be putting
a variety in there so if we do have one species die, we’re not going to have them all die. So we
should be, and we’re looking at ones that are a little bit better suited for that soil out there. So
we’re working on that. Also this year we were lucky with…this year. And we did go out and
check all of the wood duck houses and this year we had a decline. Last year we went up by
10/%. This year we went down by 11%. I really don’t have a reason for it. It’s just, I’ve been
keeping a record since ’94 and the most we’ve ever had was 80% and 42% now is our lowest so I
don’t know what’s happening. We did have 6 nesting boxes that were either destroyed by
somebody or we had some that were stolen by some people too, so we did replace those 6 again
this year but, so I mean those 6 come in as a negative so that’s going to bring our numbers down
too. But all and all I think we’re really doing, really going pretty good for the wood duck nesting
and that. Even at 42%, at least we’re helping so. Also Dean, my foreman, he’s been working on
playground inspections. We’ve been going out and he’s getting every one inspected to make
sure everything is in good shape. That we have no problems with anything before the summer
starts. We try to do, even through the winter we try to go out and do like, at least a monthly
inspection on them and look at them just to make sure everything is okay but now in spring and
that, they go through and they check everything to make sure everything is really in good shape
for that. We’ve started some clean-up and that downtown. We’ve got the STS, the Sentenced to
Serve people from the county. We’ve got those scheduled for next week. People up there
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through the 5 so we’ll be, if you come through town you’ll see us. They’re going to be out
there with the backpack blowers. They’re going to be blowing all the sand off all the sidewalks,
all the grass, center islands and everything like that so getting everything cleaned up for
downtown. We’ve also been working in Curry Farms this past spring. We’ve had a, we haul a
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Park and Rec Commission – March 28, 2006
lot of fill from the State hauled it in for us. We’ve got a bad hole down there that’s been sinking
on us. We’ve filled it up 3 times. We’re doing it again. We’re raising that whole westerly part
of the park up this year, and so we’ve had a lot of that dirt hauled in. We also are working on the
trail that comes down from, it’d be from Knob Hill and that whole area up there where we put
two new culverts in that area and enlarged them so we don’t have anything washing out. We dug
out the pond and we’re also trying to take the steepness out of that hill. We think we’ve found
some fill today from a guy that’s going to be getting us some fill and we’ll actually take that
steepness out and it will make it a lot safer coming down that hill. So it’s going to be a lot of
black dirt down there this summer and that but we’re going to, we’re going to keep working on it
and so. And then the other thing I started Monday I started sweeping trails and we’re working
on that. The street guys are out with their sweeping and that, so we only get one sweeper to use
and that so we’ll keep that thing going and it probably will take us a good week to, week to 7
days of actual sweeping and then we’ll have all of the trails completely swept in the city so.
That’s everything I’ve got.
Stolar: Any questions for Dale?
Scharfenberg: Dale, what’s your anticipated finish, and I know this depends on the weather but
when would you anticipate that Lake Susan would be ready to go with the new equipment?
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Hoffman: May 23.
Gregory: That’s the date they’re shooting for.
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Hoffman: The contract will be awarded to the contractor on April 11 and they have up to 6
weeks to complete it.
Gregory: And we’ll be working with the, there’s going to be some new trail connections going
through that area so we’ll be working on that. Actually Jim Theis, my heavy equipment
operator, he’s moving in the Cat probably the beginning of next week. We’re going to be
looking at that and we’re also, we’re going to start extending that parking lot, that’s going to get
enlarged. That’s our next move right now, we’re getting the pipe ordered and we’ll probably be
working on that here in a week so.
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Stolar: May 23 is what day?
Hoffman: The week before Memorial weekend.
Stolar: Because we had talked about maybe trying to have a pre-park meeting out there. I don’t
know if that May would be too soon. Be optimistic but maybe we could do something like that.
Think about that for those, we were talking about maybe having all park staff and us and families
just go out to kind of enjoy the new playground and have a little potluck or something out there.
Hoffman: Great.
Stolar: Paula, any questions?
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Park and Rec Commission – March 28, 2006
Atkins: Any other, are any playgrounds scheduled for renovation this summer?
Stolar: No.
Atkins: All done?
Stolar: All done. There are some new ones right, or is that not this year?
Hoffman: Some projects to finish up but all of our playgrounds, that’s 10 for the last 2 years.
Stolar: But do we have a new park one that we have to put in or is that next year? For some of
the new parks where we reviewed some of the approaches. With the development.
Hoffman: Nothing yet.
Stolar: Nothing yet, okay. Because we also had one at Lake Harrison was it? So those are a
couple years away still. Okay. Anne? Kevin?
Dillon: So Curry Farms has been, we’ve had problems for years. I mean what’s the prognosis?
Is there any amount of dirt ever going to fix it?
Gregory: We really don’t have a good answer. We actually went out there 2 years ago with a
backhoe and we dug down as far as we could and we’re coming up with wood. I mean it’s been
buried in there. We’re coming up with a lot of decayed grasses and everything else. That used
to be a swamp. That whole area down there and it was filled when the housing development
went in, but that one whole area just, I don’t know why but it keeps going.
Hoffman: It’s a good lesson on why not to take wetland soils for active parkland. Park
dedication requirements so, it’s our problem child but we keep it as a reminder that don’t fill
wetland. It was a very wet area when it was developed and it was prior to some wetland laws
and the city accepted it as park dedication. The developer said no, no. With all sorts of
guarantees. This will be fine. It will be a great park. I remember the testimony sitting in Jerry’s
chair at the time so, and so we’re here today still paying 20 years later. It’s a mess.
Stolar: And it hasn’t helped that we’ve had two 100 year rains last summer.
Dillon: The rain that we had last, on Labor Day we were back there and it was like 4 feet deep.
Gregory: We had so much water down there last year, the wood chips that we put in basically all
washed out. They were gone.
Stolar: Jack, do you have any questions?
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Park and Rec Commission – March 28, 2006
Spizale: Just one thing, I noticed the guy’s been out there with the tractors sweeping the trails,
which I think is a great heads up with this weather. I’ve just noticed so many people all of a
sudden everybody’s out running, especially last weekend so I’m glad they’re out there sweeping.
Gregory: Well one thing my guys have mentioned, even in the winter snowplowing the trails,
they said that’s one thing that really gets used in this city and that is, I mean we go out after a
fresh snow and there’s usually always tracks there or we run in, we’re meeting people out there
and they’re really happy that we’re taking care of the trails and that because they love to walk in
the winter.
Spizale: Dale I had one other question, now that you’re back onto the trails. Are they in good
shape?
Gregory: The trails?
Spizale: Yep.
Gregory: They’re pretty good, yep. I mean we’ve got some areas and that that need some work,
but all and all they’re not too bad. We’ve got a little bit of sod down that we’ve got to do and
that, take care of this year. The last couple snows didn’t help us at all. There was no frost in the
ground so it’s real tough to keep a truck or snowblower on a trail. When it’s frozen it’s not a big
deal and that because then you can run off to the side and you’re still not digging it up but these
last two snows really hurt us.
Hoffman: And Jack, the trails are included now in our pavement management program for the
entire city so we signed a contract a couple of days ago for $1,600 for this year’s review. They
take a portion of the city’s trail system and they go out there and they evaluate it and the data is
entered into our pavement management program. And then an annual basis we’ll be doing trail
maintenance and mostly overlays on an annual basis so we make sure that they don’t all fall
apart at once.
Spizale: Neat idea.
Gregory: We’ve also looked at a couple years ago and that where we increased the size from an
8 foot trail to a 10 foot trail and I mean that really has helped us out a lot.
Stolar: Any other questions? Okay, thanks again Dale. Thanks to all three of you for staying
and doing the reports. Todd, administrative section.
ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT.
Hoffman: Thank you Chair Stolar, members of the commission. I wanted to bring you up to
date on a few things that are less severe but also a few that are not. Assistant City Manager
Justin Miller and I will be meeting with the folks from the Chaska Youth Center initiative
tomorrow for lunch. They presented here at a City Council meeting during a visitor presentation,
if you watched at all about that. I believe it’s going to be in tomorrow’s, their efforts are going
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Park and Rec Commission – March 28, 2006
to be in tomorrow’s West Metro section so read about it there. Their goal is to take over the, it’s
an old water building right? Water treatment building in Chaska and so they’ve approached the
Chanhassen City Council seeking support for that initiative so we are seeking input from the
community and just meeting tomorrow to listen to what they have to say about their initiative
and then the City Council will be taking, making any future decisions at a later time.
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Park and Rec Commission – March 28, 2006
Stolar: So do they want to make it into a center for them?
Hoffman: A youth center.
Stolar: Where I grew up we actually took the old fire house, moved, physically moved it about 2
blocks and made it into the youth center. It was great.
Hoffman: It’s a model that’s used throughout the nation and across many communities in the
metropolitan area as well. Skate park will open on Friday, and the new thing this year, we’re
going to be trying to permit bikes and scooters so they’d be allowed. At least on a trial basis.
We sat down and studied, well aware of the areas that initiated conflict amongst authority figures
and from law enforcement and the children, the kids over there, the users of the park, and if
you’re constantly over there kicking up bikes, there’s really no good reason to be kicking off
bikes. We’re going to try and let them use it and many parks throughout the country do allow
bicycles so we’ll see how it goes. We’re wrapping up the majority of our 2005 projects by the
third week in May. That includes Lake Susan. We’re putting our final touches on our 2006
work calendar. It’s pretty inclusive. We have a lot of projects so you’ll be seeing a lot of
activity out in the parks. Like Jack said…users out in force. We have 44 miles of trail. The trail
map, third addition will be out printed. This is a mock up of what the cover will look like, and
you can look at these afterwards as well. This is Carver Beach Park on Lotus Lake. And there’s
the new trail map as a part of that on the back side. Bookoo sponsored that again this year.
Contributing $5,000 towards the initiative. Again nice commercial on the map side of the
feature. Significant construction activity. Has anybody seen it at Power Hill Park? Take a drive
down and it’s really tore up with the new development that’s going in there to the west of Power
Hill Park. We’re in the opportunity to make some improvements, namely the construction or the
completion of the trail there that runs through that park so that’s going to be our goal as a part of
that project. Jerry’s participating in the hiring of a new District 112 Community Education
Director. Any updates there?
Ruegemer: None that I can talk about.
Hoffman: Okay.
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Ruegemer: …introduce on March 17 and Superintendent Jennings interviewed all the
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candidates I believe last Thursday, the 23 and now really the decision is kind of in
Superintendent Jenning’s hands at this point so.
Hoffman: So you did talk?
Ruegemer: A little.
Hoffman: Alright. As we started our meeting, the discussion over future schools in the
community is heating up. I have one of the proposals for the 2005 MUSA area. This is a draft
that will be back before you officially in April so take a chance, an opportunity to look at this
after the meeting. It’s working with Pemtom Company and the Ryland Corporation on the
Degler farm. 155 units of single family dwelling on lots that average 60 by 100 feet. 60 by 110.
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Park and Rec Commission – March 28, 2006
60 by 120, or something there about and single family units starting at $400,000 and going up so,
different product than we have in the community right now, so take a look and then we’ll have
an official report back here in April. New Chanhassen short course is going to be scheduled to
open this spring. If you watched any of those proceedings in the paper you know where it’s at.
Right down on Pioneer Trail and when you think about it, it will probably be around longer than
the Bluff Creek Golf Course if everyone’s predictions come true and Bluff Creek will be
developed at some point into executive home sites so it’s nice to have another golf course in
town.
Murphy: Is it going to have a driving area? Range.
Hoffman: And I think they stated about 15 bucks a round for the short course and then the
driving area will be pay as you go. Bucket of balls type of thing. No new news on the off leash
dog area. They continue to generate or raise funds up in Shorewood and once they get those
designated funds into the pipeline to Carver County then Carver County’s going to move forward
and then they’ll be back here talking to us about, it’s going to be again a pay as you go type of
program. They’re going to complete work and then come to us and submit their proposals. Well
they’ll talk about the work. Complete it. Get our authority to go ahead and complete it and then
come back with the bills and we’ll pay after the fact. So they’re just not going to take the
$30,000 and then deliver us a dog park in 6 months or a year. They want to do it as pay as you
go type of program.
Stolar: Does Marty, he was going to estimate his availability and the work load? Any chance he
can give us an update in May on where they think their timing will be?
Hoffman: You can ask him. He continues to say that until there’s something to report, there’s
no need for him to come back.
Stolar: Well and you and I talked about that. I don’t actually agree with that since we’re giving
him $30,000.
Hoffman: Correct.
Stolar: So can we see about getting him on a future, like the May agenda?
Hoffman: Again we can’t force him to come in.
Stolar: Understood. But we can decide to change our mind. Okay.
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Hoffman: Senior wood carvers celebrated their 14 year anniversary with a cake and coffee
social. Louis Zakariasen, who was their founder was there and was honored so it was a very nice
celebration and Susan invited me down. I appreciated that. They carve wood here in the back
room in a variety of fashions and so if you’re ever available on a Wednesday morning, or now
they meet on Friday mornings, stop on down. Very interesting. Obviously their most famous
piece is in the library, the wood quilt but they also have work I believe over at the new clinic and
they have another piece in the library that was recently installed over there. We continue
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Park and Rec Commission – March 28, 2006
working on the Knob Hill to Curry Farms Park trail addition. That will require a budget
amendment somewhere in the $20,000 range I would think so staff will be working with council
on that. We’re taking an opportunity again after last year’s rain storms to make some positive
things happen down there, and then to take an opportunity, as long as we’re down in Curry
Farms working, to make that final connection to Knob Hill and the new development that’s up
there. It’s always best to take advantage of when you’re doing work, to finish out some projects.
And then the park trail map we talked about and that’s all I have this evening on administrative
items.
Stolar: Did you want to add the other items you were going to talk about? The appointments.
Hoffman: Oh please, thank you. Again, Assistant City Manager Miller asked that we have a
short discussion. The council is prepared to make appointments but we wanted to make sure if
there was any official recommendations concerning the candidates, you did not interview them
but Commissioner Murphy is seeking reappointment. Commissioner Dillon is seeking
reappointment, and then we also have a third candidate, Jeff Daniels, thank you. That has
reapplied. I think the commission may have been with you before so, there are 3 candidates for 2
positions. If you have a strong recommendation, those members not up for reappointment can
certainly make one. If you’re ready to leave it up to the council, you can let the council make
those appointments as well.
Stolar: And you want us to just send you an e-mail with any thoughts we have?
Hoffman: Sure can. Or if the members here, there’s what 4 of you or 3 of you that aren’t, if you
want to make a recommendation here this evening you can do that as well. Either way.
Stolar: Why don’t we, we’ll send. Okay. It’s in the past we’ve done this where we’ve had a
sub-group meet with you so, and we didn’t have that formal process because you need 4
candidates right, was it, to do that formal process. What I might suggest is if we can, since we
don’t have to follow the formal process, if the current non up for reappointment members could
provide Todd some feedback. I think that would be helpful via e-mail. Or a phone call.
Scharfenberg: I just had one question for Todd. Haven’t seen anything or heard anything about
the farmers market this year. Are we going to?
Hoffman: It’s coming back.
Scharfenberg: It is? Okay.
Hoffman: They hope to enter some, gather some more interest and get some additional vendors
there but it’s coming back.
Scharfenberg: Good. Do they have addition, are they just working on vendors or?
Hoffman: Yeah, it’s not something you can just go out and, it’s kind of got to build it’s own
momentum.
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Park and Rec Commission – March 28, 2006
Scharfenberg: Right.
Hoffman: So, they’re trying.
Stolar: Do we have an update on the Lake Ann funding? Did that go through as a part of the
pavement, to redo the road?
Hoffman: Yes. The project, I have some plans here you can take a look at. It will start after
Labor Day and total project budget is $395,000. It includes, a majority of it is complete and mill
and overlay or complete mill and reconstruction and then some mill and overlay and then also
just some straight overlays going in certain sections.
Stolar: I have a question. Trying to remember, Lake Ann. Are there, there are parts there where
there really isn’t a good trail along that road, if you wanted to ride your bike in. Is that part of
this or this is just straight fixing.
Hoffman: We also have a plan to extend that trail, nothing formal yet but down the center of the
ballfields.
Stolar: Okay.
Hoffman: Yeah, you’re correct. The road acts as a trail access for the most part on Lake Ann so
those people running or walking through the park have to take the road.
Stolar: Any other questions for Todd regarding this report? And then we do have the high
school discussion, your kind of mid bullet point there that we’re going to add. Okay. Do you
want to.
Ruegemer: Before we get to that Chair Stolar, could I just ask for, if there’s anybody interested
th
in volunteering for the Easter Egg Candy Hunt on the 15 of April? Just looking for a volunteer
for the registration table. I won’t put any commissioners in the bunny suits but, unless you want
to, but I think we’ll have some kids do that but I think the Key Club will be involved in that
again. Some other city staff and family members will be involved with that too but we certainly
would invite all the commissioners to be involved in some way so you can either kind of let me
know tonight or you can e-mail myself or Nate if you’d like to volunteer.
Stolar: And then Nate sent out an e-mail from the, so do you want to pass that around.
Ruegemer: It’s just a, it was kind of the e-mail I think that went out to all you. I just had a
couple notes on it but roughly 8:00 a.m. to about 9:30 would be, we’re going to try something
new this year. We’re going to be collecting a fee for that to try to recoup some of the cost for
that, similar to what we’ve done for the Halloween party so that will be new this year so we’re
going to have people pre-register as much as we can and then we’ll register and collect at the
door. So if you can just let us know.
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Park and Rec Commission – March 28, 2006
Stolar: Will do.
Ruegemer: Thank you.
Stolar: Do you want to talk a little bit about the high school now or the joint, I’m assuming the
high school put that assumption in. That hasn’t been finalized yet has it, as far as what type of
school or any of that?
Hoffman: No. Nothing’s been finalized. In fact all they know is that they’ll probably put a
referendum to vote and they’re not quite sure what it will be yet. It will be this November as far
as I know.
Stolar: So in relation to, if you can just briefly give us, and some people here may already know
it. When we’ve done Bluff Creek and Chanhassen Elementary here, what, how is it approached
as far as funding for how it became part park with the school district.
Hoffman: Good history lesson. Chan Elementary goes way back, and Chanhassen Elementary is
one way of doing a joint cooperative. Very few, in fact there is no formal agreement. There is
no formal written agreement on that joint cooperative. The school built the school and then the
school and city got together and they said you know we need a playground for the school and we
need a community park for the community so let’s get together and make some improvements.
You pay half. We’ll pay half and back in the early 70’s probably, that’s how it started. The City
acquired land on the southern part of the school for city hall and the ice rink and those type of
things, and then later on we acquired land in the north side of the school property to expand City
Center Park with the two ballfields on Hansen Field, but again no formal agreement. As of late,
the City has invested property in remodeling the park through the ’96 referendum where we
improved the ballfields and did an extensive amount of work out there for the irrigation system
and the improvements for drainage, but it continues to operate very efficiently and friendly
manner. Then you have the Bluff Creek where it was an official joint powers agreement. 16
attorneys on the phone on either side on the final conversation and they own 20. We own 20.
The City originally bought the initial 40 for some school site, and they said they needed an
elementary school so we partnered in that joint partnership. The City came forward at that time
and said well, we need some kind of a, it’s not going to be a community center but we need
meeting space and we need some additional recreation space in this community so we own 24%
of the building. They own 76. We pay 24% of the heating bills and 24% of the construction
costs. They were the general contractor and we simply were a tag along and paid our bill on the
end and they’ve been operating the recreation center ever since. Early on they were going to
mow their part of their field and we were going to mow our’s, and they were going to clean their
building and we were going to clean out building and we soon found out that we’re not very
good cleaners and they’re not very good lawn people, so we made an agreement that said, you
clean the inside of our rec center. We’ll take care of the exterior. Dale and his crew can do that
just fine and they have great custodians so that’s been going on ever since. No money changes
hands and it was just the joint powers agreement was amended. We meet one time annually to
get together as a school district and a city and talk about that joint powers agreement. We pay
our bills. They’re happy and so it’s worked very well. So those are the two examples that we
have to date in town.
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Park and Rec Commission – March 28, 2006
Stolar: In the case of the rec center, did we also do a bonding process to get the funds?
Hoffman: We did not. We paid cash.
Stolar: Oh okay. That’s nice.
Hoffman: Through a TIF. TIF district.
Stolar: So in going forward, and planning those things, were committees or commissions set up
or joint task force set up to plan it up? And was that done prior to their bonding for the school
or, I guess where I’m going with this is, if they bond for something for the high school, are we
going to have to come forward with a bonding also if we want to do fields or a pool or anything
on top of what they’re planning?
Hoffman: All depends on what that is and how much it costs. And what the, I think the
conversation needs to take place on the city level prior to going, talking to the school district.
That’s probably the most important thing.
Stolar: What we would envision to be, and was that worthy of us having a working session?
Hoffman: Oh sure.
Stolar: And then potentially open discussion for citizens to participate?
Hoffman: This is an opportunity, and that’s what the, our administration and council have
always asked us to do. Here you have an opportunity. They’re going to take a raw piece of land
in town and turn it into a public facility. It’s an opportunity for us to partner with them and we
know that they’re probably going to build an athletic fields, which we need more of. They’re
going to build a pool somewhere so it would be good to have that in the city. Remodel the pool
in Chaska. It would be better to have it, at least in my estimation, to have it here in town so. I
think the conversation needs to start at a local level and engage the City Council and public in
that. And then approach the school district and so we as a unified force know what we’re talking
about.
Stolar: Would it be, commission would you agree with having an initial discussion of this
commission as a working session to kind of frame out what we think this opportunity is and then
open it up for public input. Not that we’re limiting the input to what we view but at least get
some of our thoughts on the table. Would it be? I would strongly suggest we do it at the next
meeting. Of course I don’t think I’m going to be at the next meeting but we could do that.
Hoffman: Well if you want to do it in a working session, you could do it on an off Tuesday as
well. I can do some polling.
Stolar: Yeah, if we can do polling.
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Park and Rec Commission – March 28, 2006
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Hoffman: April 10 maybe.
Stolar: Little bit earlier than the 7:30 start time though.
Dillon: Todd, who’s…referendum, just here in Chaska school district?
Hoffman: Yes.
Dillon: If you live in the Minnetonka school district it’s a non-issue?
Hoffman: Well you’re not going to vote on it, no. Not going to vote if you pay for it.
Stolar: Right, and unless there’s some things we want to do in addition to what, them, that’d be
something that any Chan resident would talk about. Or participate in.
Dillon: Has any real estate been set up for this?
Hoffman: Property down on Lyman Boulevard that has been purchased by the school district.
Across from Holasek’s Nursery or the old Pie’s Inc building. So if you know, leave the rec
center and travel south on Galpin and then you hit Lyman Boulevard. Continue down south and
it’s right there. 90 acres on the left hand side. So they own property in Chanhassen. It was
purchased through the last referendum that the district held.
Stolar: Paula, do you have a question?
Atkins: Well anything, if we would do, have a work session and outline some recommendations
for a partnership, would that have anything…
Hoffman: Might or might not be. Yeah.
Atkins: Would that be a factor in it’s, that would be presented to the public when they vote.
Well, this is something that Chanhassen residents are interested in and is partnering with the
district in working towards a pool and the fields.
Hoffman: Yeah, there’s too many variables right now to know. We may say we think a pool
would be a good idea. They might say, yeah we’re going to build one. We think it’s a good idea
too. It will be part of our referendum. Or they might say well you know, we think a pool is a
good idea but we’re only going to build this. Do you want to make it any larger and pay for that
so, it’s a complex discussion that needs to take place.
Stolar: And I think that’s one of the key questions we wanted to get to is if they, you know it
may be an overlap of agreement but then we may take some of it say well, do we want to seek
within the Chanhassen community some extensions to what they’re doing or some additions to
what they’re doing that we would fund, then we’d have to figure that out right? It has to be, you
know obviously we’d love for them to just say we’ll fund it all, but I doubt that’s going to
happen.
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Park and Rec Commission – March 28, 2006
Hoffman: Sometimes you have to take what you get and sometimes you have an opportunity to
improve on it but Commissioner Dillon brought up a good point. If you want to spend a lot of
money on this, you have to get the Minnetonka voters to go along with it.
Stolar: Which from a recreational use they’d be eligible to use, similar to the rec center.
Hoffman: Depending on the joint powers agreement.
Stolar: Exactly, right. I mean that would be part of the discussion if we would want to,
obviously if we start batting, if we start funding things on our part, we would do it as a park
district and as a city, whereas if the school board puts things in, whatever they put in, they’re
putting it as a school district, which may or may not be available to Minnetonka school district
residents. Chanhassen residents. So that’s why I want us to get at least started understanding
some of the thoughts we have. Is there a master plan for this at all that we’ve done from a while
ago, because I know we’ve been talking about for a long time if there was another school? Did
we do any park visioning on what it might look like that you guys have done?
Hoffman: No.
Stolar: Okay, so this would be the first part. We may end up, if everything gets approved, then
we would do a master plan related to what that would look like, if you end up with a park there.
Hoffman: Yeah, the.
Stolar: Or does the school district do that?
Hoffman: School district most likely would be, as the owner of the property.
Stolar: Okay.
Atkins: Are there any, excuse me, are there any models where there are school districts which
have partnered with cities in, is that Plymouth and Wayzata?
Hoffman: Oh yeah, dozens of them.
Stolar: Eden Prairie.
Atkins: Yeah?
Hoffman: Waconia. They’re all over.
Stolar: Any other questions on, so we’ll look towards, you’ll survey us for a working session
then.
Hoffman: The off Tuesday in April.
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Park and Rec Commission – March 28, 2006
Dillon; How much…is the need for a new high school? Our kids don’t go to Chaska so I don’t
really…is it bursting at the seams?
Hoffman: Yes. The need for additional high school space is acute. The debate is whether it
should be all at one site or two locations. Yeah, the demographic numbers are there. It’s going
to continue to grow.
Scharfenberg: Plus they need a new middle school too Kevin so the question is, do you build
one big high school or a new high school and convert a middle school, because they need both.
Murphy: …working session we’ll be discussing the pool specifics or…
Stolar: I think we’re going to, at least my thought was, we would talk about what are the
opportunities that we might pursue with this new school. So it could be a lacrosse field. It could
be a pool that’s a competitive pool. It could be an indoor ice rink.
Hoffman: The laundry list is long.
Stolar: The laundry list is long but we also want to start focusing on, you know Todd threw out a
little bit about you know, would the district envision…on the school board, would it envision at
all an indoor ice rink and he made it very clear to me, probably not. Only in more strong words
than that. But that’s something that we as a commission, from a recreational standpoint want to
understand how we could potentially see this joint agreement working, and again if you look at
things like Eden Prairie. Their community center was built to service the school and then Oak,
because they had the ice rinks for the hockey teams and they have the pool for the swim team,
but the high school and Oak Point Middle School was built and they get to use the pool there for
recreation, so they had all sorts of different trade-off’s. Now you don’t want to pattern that
agreement because it was not a good one. Joint powers agreement, but they envisioned different
ways in which they could work together. That’s what I’d like to see here, is what would we see
here with this land, and do we want to see lighted ballfields? And then how that gets about,
that’s a long road still but I think we ought to at least envision what we could, I don’t know, is
that kind of what you were thinking Todd?
Hoffman: Yeah, and the discussion needs to start, is there a need for a joint powers agreement?
Is there a need for a joint agreement at all? And that’s the initial discussion, and then you go
from there and there’s all sorts of steps. We’re going to have another campus, we potentially
might have another campus, school campus in the city. Currently we maintain both school
campuses and in return we schedule those facilities, so is that something that’s going to happen
here? If it’s a middle school or high school, it’s going to be on a different plane of sophistication
so is that going to happen? Will it happen on some facilities? Will it happen on all facilities at
that location? When you’re talking about athletic fields and stadiums and those type of things.
Then beyond that, are you going to you know throw money into the mix for facilities? Again,
these are all recommendations that you can come up with and present to the City Council but it
will ultimately be their decision whether or not they’re going to pursue those.
Atkins: Is it a good idea to ask a school board member to attend a work session like that?
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Park and Rec Commission – March 28, 2006
Hoffman: Probably not in the first, early stages, no. I think as a community you want to get
your ideas out there and then have something to talk about. Have something concrete to talk to
them about.
Stolar: Do we have a working session scheduled with the City Council in the near future? We
haven’t had one of those in a while.
Hoffman: Not that I’m aware of. But yeah you’re right, the schedule should be coming up.
Good topic of conversation.
Stolar: Yeah, so I’m thinking if we can be prepared and then bring it up as a discussion with the
City Council when we do our working session, I’d just like us to be prepared about some of the
ideas and get some of their feelings also.
Murphy: In terms of preparing I guess, doing some research…what other communities are
doing, have done in the past.
Stolar: Is there background that could be provided to us to help us understand a little bit more on
this?
Hoffman: You know, there probably is but I think this is really one of those initiatives where
you just want to talk to your friends and neighbors, gather your thoughts and think about these
issues. It’s complex. It’s very complex and so to try to put something out there in written paper
that will say this is the direction you should go or this is what happened, these joint powers
agreements are very individualistic in each situation, and so you’re going to want to just kind of
think it through yourself I think and bring those thoughts to that meeting. It’s appropriate that
you do that and then talk to the council before you bring in school board members and so we,
you know we’re all reaching some consensus. I can’t stress again how these things are all
different for each little situation. Is there going to be a theater? Is there going to be a football
stadium? Is the football team going to play down in Chaska? Are they going to play here? Is
the baseball team going to play at Lake Susan or are they going to play on the campus? There’s
hundreds of questions.
Stolar: But if you ask some of those when we get ready to have this work session, that’d be
helpful. Should we put a dog park there?
Hoffman: I know one thing for sure, if you do go to school there, the railroad track underpass is
going to attract attention.
Stolar: Well thanks, and I assume the timing’s appropriate. We have, to Paula’s question. We
aren’t too early but we aren’t too late either. Any other business? Can I have a motion for
adjournment?
Scharfenberg moved, Spizale seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the
motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0.
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Park and Rec Commission – March 28, 2006
Submitted by Todd Hoffman
Park and Rec Director
Prepared by Nann Opheim
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