HomeMy WebLinkAboutParks and Recreation Advisory Commission Minutes 02-09-2023
1 Approved Minutes
February 09, 2023
Approved Minutes
Park & Recreation Advisory Commission
Thursday, February 9, 2023
MEMBERS PRESENT: Chair Vita Wilson, Vice Chair James Kuznia, Commissioners: Ann Hoekstra, John McCulloch,
Hannah Wegner, Nicholas Beecher
MEMBERS ABSENT: Commissioner: Jessica Montgomery
STAFF PRESENT: Director Jennifer Tomlinson, Forester Paul Buck, Office Support Specialist Genny Layne
COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVES: Ward 3 Council Member Jim Davis, Planning Commissioner Julie Olson
CALL TO ORDER
Vice Chair Vita Wilson called the meeting to order at 6:03.
PUBLIC FORUM
Residents Chen Zal and Donglin Liang spoke to the commissioners. My name is Chen Zhal. Thanks, everyone. First
time in the Parks and Rec commission. I didn't know how the process worked. I'm the vice president for the Twin
Cities West Metro Asian fair. We're a very new organization. Last year, the mayor did a proclamation for AAPI day to
celebrate. So, we experience Asian hate, we experience stuff, you know, and everybody went down to demonstrate
and walk around. But then they were like, what else shall we do? We thought, in our culture we love to party like
everybody else. So, we want to do a fair, locally to bring food and performance and cultural things to come
together. We tentatively put a hold on the Hilde Performance Center next door, so the performance can be there.
But one major piece we think is the city. This would be the first year ever we're going to do this. You know if the city
can support us and make things a lot easier, in terms of budgeting, risk, funding and place, you know, so we're
coming to you guys and see how this could work. I sent you an email you got my contact. We would really
appreciate your help.
Commissioner Ann Hoekstra asks what date is it?
Mr. Zal states June 3. We tentatively plan on the third unless there's a huge rain then maybe we push it to the
fourth.
Commissioner Hoekstra asks do you have a preliminary agenda? Something like food trucks and music
performances? Do you have a 5k or anything like that.
Mr. Zal states they had a 5k at a project in St. Paul in mid-autumn, but do not currently have plans for a 5k at this
event.
Commissioner Nicholas Beecher asks if this is purely a community engagement event or a fundraiser as well.
Mr. Zal states that for now it is just a celebration like National Night Out, but for the Asian community. But everyone
is welcome to join.
Vice Chair Vita Wilson asks if there is a specific proposal for resources and marketing from the city?
Mr. Zal states they just started their finance campaign. They have teamed up with Asian media outlets and have just
received their first $1,000 donation. We understand the performance center takes about $140 per hour. So, we
budgeted for couple of $1,000 when everything was said and done. Then there's also the equipment for renting
music, instruments, and a sound system because the sound system there is not best for dancing music. So, budget
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wise, we were thinking it's going to be about $20,000. So, first thing is if we can get the city to waive or reduce that
cost for the Performance Center. That's the other high cost item. If it gets fairly decent size, we might have to talk to
the police department because they have to come in to work that weekend. So those two pieces we think is the big
financial items that we love to talk to city. Then promotion by the performance center on their website if we send
them the information if they can help us to advertise, that would be great and any other things you can think of that
help us to promote.
Vice Chair Wilson asks if the city has funds for this type of thing?
Parks and Recreation Director Jennifer Tomlinson advises that the city generally does not sponsor events. We have a
specific rate that is for nonprofits. It is a reduced rate for nonprofits. That is what the $140 fee is, instead of a higher
hourly fee that we charge for profits or for folks outside of the community.
Vice Chair Wilson asks about offering assistance with pairing with other groups or nonprofits?
Director Tomlinson states that historically, we have not.
Commissioner Hoekstra asks if we do advertisements on the city website?
Director Tomlinson states we will promote city sponsored events. Music in Plymouth is the only city sponsored
event we have. With other events renting our facilities, they are responsible for their own promotion. Our
communications policies prohibit us from promoting thins we are not directly involved in. It is strictly a rental fee.
Mr. Zal suggests that this could be a first time for the city because history is created by people. My friend and I both
live in Plymouth and it is a very diverse and inclusive city. We have had great experiences here we would like to
share our heritage and some food. We also plan on speaking to the City Council next Tuesday.
Vice Chair Wilson states that it is a wonderful idea, and she feels they just need to find the right partners to make it
happen. Plymouth is a generous area, and you just need to get matched up with the right people.
PRESENTATIONS AND PUBLIC INFORMATION ANNOUNCEMENTS
(3.1) Welcome New Commission Members
Director Tomlinson addresses the Commissioners. We do have two new members. Only one of them is here this
evening. So, I wanted to take the opportunity to welcome Nick Beecher and if you were not here at our last meeting,
John McCulloch also joined us, so this is his second meeting. Welcome to both of you. And then our third new
commissioner Jessica Montgomery was unable to make it this evening.
APPROVE AGENDA
(4.1) Approve Agenda
Motion by Commissioner Hoekstra and seconded by Commissioner McCulloch recommending approval of the
February 9, 2023, Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission agenda. With all members voting in favor, the motion
carried.
Consent Agenda
(5.1) Adopt proposed Park and Recreation Advisory Commission Minutes
Motion by Commissioner Hoekstra and seconded by Commissioner Hannah Wagner recommending approval of the
September 8, 2022, Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission. Commissioner Kuznia abstained due to being
absent. With all other members voting in favor, the motion carried.
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General Business
(6.1) Appointments of Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission Chairperson and Vice
Chairperson
Director Tomlinson states that there needs to be some discussion, a motion, a second and a vote for both Chair and
Vice Chair.
Vice Chair Wilson volunteered to be Chair and Commissioner Kuznia volunteered to be Vice Chair. Motion by
Commissioner Hoekstra and seconded by Commissioner Hannah Wagner recommending Vice Chair Vita Wilson as
Chair and James Kuznia as Vice Chair. With all other members voting in favor, the motion carried.
(6.2) Community Survey Results
Director Tomlinson presented the results of the Community Survey related to Parks and Recreation. The city
undertook a statistically significant survey back in November, and I just wanted to highlight some of the wonderful
comments that were received on our parks and recreation opportunities from our residents, so that you are aware
of where we are in a national standing and if there are any opportunities and things for us to work on.
Our residents very much value our environment and our recreational opportunities, and we are above the national
benchmark on the quality of those opportunities. We are about even with the quality of the natural environment,
but very high ratings pretty much across the board.
These are the key findings on our benchmarking. This is everything from our programming to how clean we keep our
parks, the opportunities that we provide for health and wellness for our residents, our contribution to limiting
impacts on air quality, and then just the availability and the access of walking paths and trails. One of the most
specific questions that we asked in the survey and that we were very intentional about getting feedback on is
walkability and bikeability within the community. We asked residents if they found or if they were interested in us
focusing on walkability and bikeability over the next three years, and two thirds of our residents agree that it is very
important to start connecting in ways other than vehicular travel. So, we're able to take this information and start
working on our policies and just kind of formatting how we look at connectivity, redevelopment and really trying to
create an environment that our residents are, asking us for. With that I will stand for any questions.
Chair Wilson asks if the survey was done online?
Per Director Tomlinson there was a randomized list of 1,000 participants that went through the first round of the
survey. They did a phone call where they answered all of the questions ad then we did a separate survey online so
that people could self-select and take the survey.
Vice Chair Kuznia asks how many total participants there were?
Director Tomlinson states there were 2,600 participants with 1,000 of them as part of a randomized sample and the
remainder participated in the online survey. It’s great feedback ad we were pretty happy with the results. We do a
survey every three years to check with residents on how the city is doing.
Commissioner Kuznia asked if things have varied.
Per Director Tomlinson, COVID changed the way that people in general interact with our parks systems. They didn't
have anywhere to go. So they went to our parks, and we were super happy to be able to provide that service for
people. It really reintroduced people to nature and to actually getting outside of their homes. We have seen a
continued increase in use as a result of that. But we have had really strong numbers in all of our facilities. We've had
record breaking years at the Ice Center and obviously at the Community Center just because of the newness of it.
The Ice Center just saw in 2022 over 900,000 people through the doors, which is shocking, because there's 80,000
residents Plymouth so it's a very impactful facility and then the Community Center in its first year has seen over
350,000 people in through the doors so very successful and well loved by the community.
Commissioner Kuznia asks if the numbers at the Community Center have stayed stable or increased in the second
winter open?
Per Director Tomlinson, as it opened in January of last year, we have one year under our belt. Through the first six
months of last year, there were approximately 20,000 tickets sold to the indoor playground, the K.U.B.E. By the end
of the year, we had about 50,000 total. So, we did see that number increase and have not seen a reduction in use.
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Chair Wilson asks if there was any feedback on trail gaps.
Per Director Tomlinson, the survey did not get into that level of detail, but all of the trail maps have been mapped
and are being worked on in future years in the Capital Plan.
(6.3) Parks & Recreation Advisory Commission Annual Work Plan
Per Director Tomlinson, we are required with each of our Commission's to outline some of the items that we will be
focusing on in the year. And while this commission does serve in an advisory capacity, you will hear some public
meetings, open houses and then comments from the public. We try to give you a schedule of what's coming up over
the quarter. So we've planned out the year. We're doing a couple of things different this year. I just want to make
sure that I highlight that for you. The first quarter, which is this meeting, we're running through these items. The
second quarter we'll be presenting the annual department report. That will have a lot of our metrics, including what
we accomplished last year and what we hope to accomplish this year coming up. We will have two public hearings
on the Meadows Master Plan and Schmidt Woods Master Plan, and then we'll have Jackie Maas, come in and review
our volunteer programming with you guys so that you can get an idea of the amazing work that she does. In the
third quarter we're going to have our recreation team come in and go through some of the programmatic elements
of what we do throughout the year. And then we'll also have our assistant manager from the community center
come out and he'll tell you a little bit more detail about some of those operations. Tentatively in June, we are going
to be doing a tour. So we'll get a bus and then Jason Goehring, who's our Parks Turf and Horticulture Manager, will
be taking you around to some of our sites and see some of the amazing work that our team is doing. And then finally
in the fourth quarter, Erik Halverson from the Ice Center will be coming in. We are doing a lot of background analysis
right now on that facility as we look towards potentially a fourth sheet of ice. And right now we're currently doing a
building evaluation so that we can work through some of the backlog of deferred maintenance that is going on and
going over some of the operational elements that that might entail for you.
(6.4) Zachary and Bass Pickleball Court Update
Director Tomlinson presents the information about Zachary and Bass Pickleball Courts. We brought this before you
last year as we went through some permitting, that had come up at the last minute, but we are working on
constructing six additional pickleball courts at Zachary playfield. We had intended to construct it last year but the
construction season just did not allow for it to take place. And so this is our first project out of the gate this year for
our construction season. We I believe we have it out to bid right now and we will be doing the six courts and
replacing the courts of Bass Lake tennis courts, not the pickleball courts. So that's like we will be doing, tennis court
renovation and parking lot renovation on the south side of the park. I wanted to let you know in case you get calls,
that these are moving forward very quickly. I told the project manager to get them out as fast as humanly possible
and to make sure we can get a contractor before anybody else does.
Along with this, as part of our Pickleball programming that we historically have done, we are making some changes.
So, you may hear from some of our public about some of these changes. Historically, we had managed pickleball and
the times and reservations and we had given balls to people, and it was a lot of oversight. We are taking a step back
from that. We're changing the hours and then we're potentially adding a night a week. But the big change is that
there will be no registration for our users. That way, we're not excluding anyone for from play during the open times
and there's no registration fee for people. We're really hoping that users will step up and kind of enforce their own
rotations. We will be posting all of our league and lesson times, but then everything else is going to be on a first
come first served basis. It is a large change for our community. We are anticipating that we might have a couple of
bumps. We can't staff people out there to police, our Pickleball users. We have volunteers but we don't want to put
them in the position of telling people to get off courts, because they've been there too long. So we are we are
turning it over to the users themselves. We hope to have our courts and Zachary completed by July. We're on a
really aggressive schedule on that one and then Bass Lake should be done probably by August. We are relocating
our tennis programming from Bass Lake over to Parker's Lake for the summer and then we hope to have that back
over at Bass by September.
Vice Chair Kuznia states that he recalls discussion last year of enlarging the parking lot on the north side of Zachary
Playfield. Is that still going to happen?
Per Director Tomlinson, that is not going to happen. As part of the development there, an assisted living facility is
being developed. There will be a shared use agreement for that parking lot. That way we do not have to take up
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additional green space by building a parking lot on our property. And then we will create a trail connection to that
parking lot. We should gain about 50 parking spaces there.
Commissioner Beecher asks if the new courts are pickleball exclusive?
Director Tomlinson states that there will be separate pickleball and tennis courts at Zachary and Bass lake does have
separate courts now.
(6.5) Community Forestry Plan Scope
City Forester Paul Buck presents the Community Forestry Plan. My name is Paul Buck and I am the city forester. I've
been here for 31 years this summer, so I know a lot of the history. Director Tomlinson requested that we have a
community forestry plan. Where are we now? Where would you like to go? And what are some of the potential
impacts that we're anticipating? I'll get to the goals, nature or nurture healthy, diverse, and safe urban forest,
knowledgeable citizenry (that's more like our outreach we do a little bit but there's opportunities), protect the
natural resources, facilitate removals EAB is big right now. A lot of questions, what do we do with the wood that
kind of stuff so how are we going to get rid of it? I feel we do a pretty good job of prompt response for requests
from residents.
Commissioner Hoekstra asked what the acronym EAB stands for?
Per City Forester Paul Buck, emerald ash bore.
So, to achieve those, we'd like to focus on reforestation, our tree care programs, tree preservation, and then again,
the infectious diseases and insects and outreach. Nothing gets done if we don't tell people what we're doing and
show them the good parts that they can then take to their homes and recreate on the smaller scale.
So, the purpose of the forestry plan is to achieve that mission and implement these goals by addressing some BMPs
the best management practices and looking towards sustainability of our urban forest. And it is a resource that we
should be looking to sustain. It's a long-term thing. I always tell my kids, the trees I planted when I started here, I am
just now getting to see the benefits. So, it's 30 to 40 years out before you get to see that, but we need to plan for
that.
The plan will help guide ongoing management and strategic growth, as we're almost done growing as a city as far as
residentially. One area that we haven't currently included as kind of a green infrastructure approach to
management, rather than an individual tree approach is what we've been doing. We have a tree inventory, it has
individual trees, and we're managing an on an individual versus a scope of the whole thing, which is a very different
mindset. And really, it's the better way to think about it.
Our forestry plan goals. If we complete this, our goals will be to update our tree policies, strengthen any of them,
green asset management would be to provide some efficient management of those resources, assessments, we will
understand our trends and risks to the urban forest. So we'd be looking at processes that we're doing or things that
are coming up beyond maybe EAB. What's the next thing what do we need to look at? The staffing, we could
improve staffing levels. I'm the only forester. Not that I don't love what you've given me for 30 years, but I wouldn't
mind having some partners. So budget funding. That's kind of a future thing. We're going to need to secure some
more funding if we're going to do all these goals. So that kind of goes without saying I think, and community
engagement. We'd like to do some support community wide. Right now our focus has always been on children
because they listen and they seem to take the notes home and they take the little seedlings home and hopefully
they plant them, but we can do better.
So, our initial scope, what we're proposing is to do a plan. The framework of it is do some analysis on what's in
place, and then make some recommendations on what we need to add or change. Secondly, we would do a
S.W.O.T., strengths, weaknesses opportunities and threats analysis. We would want to work with you and invested
stakeholders to see what's out there and what did they want. Get that community support going. If this is going to
be a plan for the whole community and the whole urban forest and that green infrastructure. And then thirdly
would be recommendations and for some of those best practices. Right now, we're at about an embarrassing 20
plus year tree cycle to prune and the standard is seven. So, we're slowly falling behind. Then we come up with a five-
to-10-year planning out where we're going to go, things that we could accomplish, and then look for generating that
funding then stage projects to accomplish all those goals. Again, sustainability is the big thing, diversity and
sustainability. As a group as foresters we probably should have learned from Dutch elm disease in the 70’s. But
obviously we didn't do a very good job because now we're dealing with EAB which is the exact same problem that
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we dealt with a monoculture before. So in my 30 years, I've really been preaching diversity and trying to move us
away from Colorado blue spruce, maples and crab apples. Because those are our top three quantity at least in our
tree inventory right now.
So, in my mind, we need increased funding. I'd love to improve that pruning cycle from 20 to seven years. We don't
have a planting plan. It's whatever requests come in and whatever I feel needs to be reforested. It's one person
looking at basically 36 square miles, so can't do it all.
Update the tree inventory. I feel really confident that our ash inventory is 99% accurate, because we're treating or
removing trees. We've got over 9000 trees in our inventory of ash trees. But all the rest of the trees I would not
guarantee that and we have almost 40,000 trees in our inventory. I would not guarantee they're all there or that the
data is accurate anymore. So, we need to go back and take a look at some of that stuff.
Update the tree preservation ordinances. It's been 20 years since we've updated or really looked at it. And the goal
will be at this point when we first put it in, we were growing city, expansion was great, it was all focused on new.
And as you know, our city is going to turn over here and it's going to go from new development to redevelopment.
And so there's some different issues that weren't addressed in that ordinance because we weren't in that phase. But
as times change, we need to change that ordinance a bit and make it fit for what's coming up and looking ahead
One of my biggest issues is we I can't find a formal Boulevard right-of-way policy ordinance anywhere. When I
started, I was told boulevard trees are the responsibility of the city, but we are not going to replace them because
replacing them means extra cost when they either die or need to be trimmed. The city owns the tree in effect, so
when it dies, we take it out and we grind the stump.
Commissioner Kuznia asks if there is a plan to replace all the ash trees that are coming out due to EAB?
Per City Forester Buck, a good example is what we did in Mission Hills. If you know Mission Hills off Zachary. There's
kind of the lower area where there's a playground and then if you go up the hill and kind of out through the back,
there's a upper natural area. And last winter, we came through and we cleaned out almost all the ash trees because
there was a small infestation. We're saving a couple we're actually going to treat them because they were larger
trees. We took out approximately 52 trees and we've planted 12. So, we're not doing one for one exactly, because a
lot of times when you're looking at those trees, there's six trees within 10 feet of each other. And that space only
requires one. So yes, we are going to do some, but we don't have a plan there.
Director Tomlinson adds that what we are able to do through some really great advances in technology is we are
able to take our tree inventory. We can look at the trees that are either dead or have been removed. But through a
GIS analysis we can determine based on exposure to the sun, soil types, slope, grade, where the best locations are
to replant. And so we will be going through that exercise as part of this plan. That'll generate a planting plan for us
so that when Paul does take out a bunch of trees that have EAB that are dead, we can say okay, this is the best place
to plant trees so that they will achieve the highest level of success. Part of that will be not planting trees in medians,
because we're planting very small trees and mediums that have a very low chance of success because of the
environmental conditions. So we're really looking at ways to genuinely reforest so that they do have a higher chance
of survival
Commissioner Beecher states that Paul mentioned we don't want to repeat the sins of the past again, and plant
another monoculture and if I'm not mistaken here, the reason all the ash were planted in the first place was they
were quick growing shade trees.
Per City Forester Buck, they were cheap and grew anywhere.
Commissioner Beecher asks what trees are you looking at to replace those quick growing shade trees?
Speaker 7 45:45
Per City Forester Buck, the initial planting that we did in 2015 we took out about 300 preemptive trees, and we
planted those 300 trees in 10 different species. So, I'm not just doing two or three, we're going to do a full 10 to 20
and try and get those numbers. When we look at our distribution, it's really weighted heavy for just a couple species
at the top still, and taking out our ash, that we're only at 16% just meant that those got bigger percentages. So,
we're really top-heavy on spruce, crab apples, maples. And so we've got species that are way down the list that
there's only less than 1%. So, we are trying to build up those species. In our tree sale we have going on March 1, we
are offering a couple species that are not native and are more of a southern Iowa kind of species, with the idea that
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if we are going to deal with climate change, and we are going to get hotter, maybe we can get the trees to grow
here slightly in advance of all that happening and they may be able to survive. We're thinking ahead and now we're
offering it to residents to put in their own yards.
Per Director Tomlinson, we also are really focusing on the right tree in the right place. So, you know I would never
put a willow next to a pathway because it has a shallow root structure, and my pathway will be gone within 20
minutes. But a willow serves an amazing function in other areas. It grows in wet areas; river birch is the same. They
grow fast, and they do have a lot of benefits. So, it's really specific to the area where we're going to plant them. The
soil here is hard clay. And you know when we talk about planting in medians, that is a compacted soil that has been
set up because of road construction. That is not a tree’s happy place, right? Not at all. So, we are really looking at
ways we can amend soil and increase the nutrient loading for these trees so that they are able to survive.
Commissioner Hoekstra states there is the forest program at the University of Minnesota, and they have to fulfill a
certain number of hours. And so I would definitely recommend partnering with them so you can cultivate forestry
students have them come in and help out in the summer because they do have to fulfill a certain amount of hours
through the program. So I would definitely recommend reaching out to them. And then I was also wondering if you
guys were considering a Blaine model with their tree policies. So either, permits for new construction or for large
construction projects. They either are required to plant a certain type of tree a certain area and distance within the
construction of the building or the person who's doing the construction can put money towards a tree fund.
Per Director Tomlinson, we already have a tree preservation fee and fund. Right now, we require one-to-one
replacement on caliber inches that are lost. Unfortunately, the way that our code is currently set up, if a developer is
redeveloping in a commercial area, they are only required to start paying that if they preserve 25% of the trees on
site. So, it's very low. We are looking at doing a code change to amend that so that we can get that number up.
And we have two community forestry interns right now from AmeriCorps. They're working a lot with the U on
finding a lot of research and developing it's really fun to see the level of energy from them in the program.
Ann 49:56
Commissioner Hoekstra states that’s awesome. Thank you.
Vita 50:00
Well, I do support the trees I'm really excited about the plan because when you come over Rockford road on
Zachary and all those crabapple trees are blooming right there it's just gorgeous so like the more we can group like
trees together you know I just think you know if you have a nice Boulevard oaks it's just gorgeous. But um, you also
mentioned community outreach, and the tree sale I think does get the community involved in thinking about trees.
But our area I mean, my neighborhood, there are so many people that are interested in gardening I mean, the
passion for you know, the outdoors is just you can see it everywhere when you walk. So I think we do have a
potential for more resources from our community. If we engage them in community outreach more so I was
wondering if you had any more ideas along those lines.
Reports and Staff Recommendations
(7.1) Upcoming Events
Parks & Recreation Director Jennifer Tomlinson gave a run through of upcoming events. Unfortunately, if you did
not get a garden plot on January 1, then we have sold out of them, so sorry. As was mentioned, we're going to be
doing our tree and shrub sale on Wednesday, March 1. One of our community forestry corps members has been
researching tree species so that she can get some new ones in the tree sale. So, for that one specifically, I know
when we have hydrangeas and there's a couple of other options that we have that are very popular and they sell out
almost immediately as well. So usually when it opens, it is completely sold out within about three weeks. And we
ordered about $25,000 worth of bare root plants, which is a lot. But it's really fun to be able to put all those
together and see what everybody ends up getting from that.
This year for the first time. Pie Day is actually on Pi Day, March 14. It's a fundraiser for our senior programming and
will be at the PCC from 10 to 1 p.m. And then we are currently working on the planning for Discover Plymouth, that
is going to be on Saturday, April 15. It's a free event. It features big businesses, nonprofits, city departments, the
Mayor delivers the State of the City. This year, it'll be in the Fieldhouse. We were in the gym at the PCC last year and
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it was much too small. The next week the dome comes down. And then April 20, we will have Primavera, which is
our annual art fair. Then on Monday, May 1, we will be having our Walk with the Mayor. And that is our annual
kickoff event to the Step to it Challenge that we run with Hennepin County. So that is what we have coming up in
this quarter. And then there is our annual Special Events Calendar. As I'm sure many of you heard, we did have to
cancel Fire and Ice due to the unsafe conditions on the ice. It was very difficult call but when the guys called and told
me that a tractor was about to fall into the ice, it became a very easy call. So we are looking forward to bringing it
back next year. And then we are gearing up on all of our summer events. So, the rec team is planning all of those
right now.
Adjournment
Motion by Commissioner Hoekstra, seconded by Commissioner Beecher, recommending adjournment of the Park
and Recreation Advisory Commission meeting. With no objection, Chair Wilson adjourned the meeting at
6:58 p.m.