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HomeMy WebLinkAboutParks and Recreation Advisory Commission Minutes 05-11-2023 1 Approved Minutes May 11, 2023 Approved Minutes Park & Recreation Advisory Commission Thursday, May 11, 2023 MEMBERS PRESENT: Chair Vita Wilson, Vice Chair James Kuznia, Commissioners: Ann Hoekstra, John McCulloch, Hannah Wegner, Jessica Montgomery MEMBERS ABSENT: Commissioner: Nicholas Beecher STAFF PRESENT: Director Jennifer Tomlinson, Volunteer Coordinator Jackie Maas, Office Support Specialist Genny Layne COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVES: None CALL TO ORDER Chair Vita Wilson called the meeting to order at 6:01. PUBLIC FORUM PRESENTATIONS AND PUBLIC INFORMATION ANNOUNCEMENTS APPROVE AGENDA (4.1) Approve Agenda Motion by Commissioner Ann Hoekstra and seconded by Vice Chair James Kuznia recommending approval of the May 11, 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 Vice Chair Kuznia and seconded by Commissioner Hoekstra recommending approval of the February 9, 2023, Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission. With all members voting in favor, the motion carried. General Business Reports and Staff Recommendations (7.1) Volunteer Operations Update Parks & Recreation Director Jennifer Tomlinson introduced Volunteer Coordinator Jackie Maas. Coordinator Maas stated I am the volunteer coordinator with the city of Plymouth, and I thank you for the opportunity to talk about the city's amazing volunteers and the contributions that they made in 2022. Last year, we had 1885 volunteers participate and they contributed 23,560 hours. That is a contribution in kind valued at $705,000. It's the equivalent of about 11.33 full time staff members. The Parks and Rec Department were the major area where the volunteers contributed about 60% of the hours and about 77% of the volunteers. While the majority of the volunteers assist in Parks and Rec, volunteers do support every single department. The hours are slightly down from 2021. But that's 2 Approved Minutes May 11, 2023 due to fewer buckthorn busts. We used to do six a year. Last year we only did two, and those numbers are still greater than the numbers that we had pre-COVID. So, it's a very robust program. I feel that we offer a unique kind of cafeteria style volunteer program. People can dip in and out according to opportunities that most interests them, and the skills that they want to share and also their lifestyles and their schedules. Some people might only do one event a year and some might do four to five. People can pick and choose. Parks, trails, and gardens are the backbone of this department and volunteers remain a vital reason why they look so good. We have 44 Parks, 23 Gardens, 18.5 miles of trail and 20 miles of streets that were adopted last year. 538 volunteers assisted with outdoor maintenance and trail projects. An eagle scout installed more than 300 plant plugs. There was 22,000 square feet of seed mix to revitalize the rain garden behind city hall. And really most important of all 112,000 dog waste bags were dispensed in 33 designated locations in our parks. And we will add dispensers as long as somebody comes forward to adopt them. Special Events are a huge piece of what we do in Parks and Rec. Last year we had 803 friendly volunteers provide frontlines customer service to more than 100 city sponsored events. About 81,000 people were impacted by those interactions. They're often outdoors and it could be frozen Fire and Ice in February, or it could be hot and sweaty August with Kids Fest. People keep coming back year after year to do these things. Invasive species removal is something that we highly rely on volunteers to take care of for us. 74 volunteers cleared 4.8 acres of buckthorn from five city parks trails and green spaces and 158 volunteers pulled invasive garlic mustard from eight city parks and trails and the thing that is most exciting and the reason why we only had two buckthorn busts last fall is because we have declared that Maple Creek Park is now free of buckthorn. We do not need to have major volunteer efforts in Maple Creek Park anymore, and we were down to just one at Hardenbergh last year. So, we have truly shown that consistent ongoing efforts really do make a difference in our parks. Director Tomlinson asks Jackie to give them some context. How many Buckthorn Busts did it take to declare Maple Creek free of buckthorn? Coordinator Maas states that the past 12 years we have done about three a year, so 36. Director Tomlinson states invasives are really difficult and they take a consistent effort and I have never successfully been able to declare an area invasive free. So, I'm impressed that you were able to do that. Per Coordinator Maas if you walk through Maple Creek Park from the playground area all the way to Dunkirk, you can see through that park. If you go to any other park, you can't see through it because the buckthorn is so thick. Maple Creek Park is what it's supposed to look like. And about two years ago, volunteers installed about 1000 woodland spring ephemerals and those are starting to bloom right now. So that is what the woods are supposed to look like. Commissioner Hoekstra asks if you ever thought about publishing about your activities? Coordinator Maas states she can't take credit for it. There's a woman named Elizabeth Lamb, aka Buckthorn Betty. And she was the person who really got those efforts started. She worked within the neighborhood and then partnered with city Forester Paul Buck and we started getting more and more volunteers. We have volunteers who've been providing friendly service to our farmers market goers since it opened in 2010. And through the years, these volunteers really develop these fun working relationships with our staff members. I think that's one of the reasons why our volunteers continue to come back year after year. And I think staff are often surprised at how much fun it is to work with volunteers. And so that mutual relationship is one of the basic building blocks of our volunteer program. Next is the amazing Plymouth Community Center. Our volunteers were so eager to show off the new community center. We had volunteer ambassadors who gave tours. They were hand selected, volunteers with really good customer service. And so when each wing opened, we had volunteers there daily to give tours and provide opportunities for people to see all the different behind the scenes things like the sensory room or the fact that there are showers. And with our new art gallery. We have art ambassadors who provide friendly welcomes and information in the gallery. And this new position is one of the very few that we have available on a regular ongoing basis And right now we do have one volunteer who comes in regularly to make coffee for our seniors. As our new Parks and Rec supervisor who works with active adults becomes more settled in, I believe that we will have a lot more volunteer opportunities with senior programs. 3 Approved Minutes May 11, 2023 We have a wonderful teen volunteer program. They continue to support our parks and rec programs while they gain leadership skills and work experience. And it truly is a pipeline for future staff members. Students who are 14 and older can support the rec programming. And last year was the first time that we offered opportunities for those students who are 12 to help with our aquatics program. This year we actually hired one of those young people to be one of our water safety instructors. And this year we opened it up again to 12 and older. We have nine students who want to help with aquatics, and several of them have told me they want to be lifeguards, and that would be amazing if we could grow them into lifeguard staffs because it's so hard to hire lifeguards these days. And last year, we piloted a new three day career camp to give young people a look at potential paid employment in Parks and Forestry. We have two young men who are doing some marking of ball fields. And this year we have two young ladies who are participating in our career camp and they specifically want to work in horticulture. So what's new for 2023? Well, last year we had 83 volunteers install 10,000 perennial plants, 54 fruit trees, 79 fruit shrubs and our new native plant garden at Fazendin Park. And then in the fall we had 20 volunteers come back and weed. And we have had such a major interest in native plantings that we have started a native plant garden club to help maintain the pollinator gardens at Fazendin and other rain gardens as we install them. We have 50 people who want to assist us in the native plant gardening club, and one volunteer who lives in that neighborhood has offered to come forward and be our garden captain. She will be available three days every month, June through October. And I think we're probably going to use this group for a rain garden installation at the Greenway as well. Our volunteers are pretty cool, and I could probably talk about them all day long. And I hope you think there are as amazing as I think they are. And I would be happy to answer any questions that you might have. Commissioner Jessica Montgomery states that it seems like you have a wide range of ages volunteering. Do you have one demographic that's more than another? Per Coordinator Maas, I honestly consider us as kind of a life path because we have young people who start even as young as Daisy Scouts, a lot of Wayzata High School volunteer club kids participate. They start out in high school and then they go off to college. They come back and they are young adults. They want to make new friends. So they start to volunteer that way and then they get married and then they have babies and all of a sudden they're coaching their kids t-ball team or soccer team. And then the kids graduate and go off to university and then they're empty nesters. So they start volunteering and then they retire and think, I have all this professional mental ability and I need to keep my brain sharp, I'm going to continue to volunteer. So we have people literally from elementary age, and we have a lot of families who volunteer which I think is really super cool. Several years ago, we had four generations of one family all volunteering at the same time. So people are really committed to giving back to the community. We work really closely with a lot of corporations. Spring is when we have so many companies come forward to do an Earth Day project. Commissioner Montgomery states she is glad to hear that there's so many people in different walks of life that are a part of the community and volunteering and passionate about it. Vice Chair Kuznia asks, a while back there was some organization or renovations with the history building. Is that now back on track? Per Director Tomlinson, we just finished our second round of interviews yesterday for the coordinator for that site. We have absolutely outstanding candidates for it. We think we'll probably have somebody identified by the end of next week. And we were just starting to talk about how what the reopening plan is going to be. We will probably be looking at reopening in the summer of next year. Coordinator Maas states that it's going to be another wonderful place for our volunteers to support the city and our community. Chair Wilson asks where do you find the most frequent point of contact for people first starting to get in touch with you? Per Coordinator Maas, Word of mouth and online. We do have our application online. If people can apply that way in that then I will reach out to them. We have a volunteer database called logistics. We probably have about eight to 900 people who work I consider active. I send out a newsletter about once a month with the upcoming activities or I send out an email blast. I know that people would love to be able to sign up online. But I like to make those 4 Approved Minutes May 11, 2023 placements by knowing as much as I can about the people and their skills and their backgrounds. I want them to feel successful. I want the event to be successful. Thank you so much. (7.2) Approve 2022 Annual Report Director Tomlinson states you have before you the 2022 annual report. This was in your packet. I don't want to get into too many more numbers, but it's really a highlight of all of the different activities that we held and revenue. Obviously the biggest one is that the community center opened in full in July of last year. We also renovated a couple of parks. The number of special events is on the rebound after COVID, we have the amount of people who visited the yard waste site, and then we do have counters out to assess our trail users. We have four of them in the city and most of them are on the northwest Greenway. But we are working on a plan to get them a little bit more geographically dispersed so that we can get a better picture of some of our users across the city. And then on the front page, there's a note that we provided inclusion services to 90 participants. So, these are folks who've requested inclusion services either through our summer programming or through any of our programming at the PCC. This is an effort that we're really focusing on in our upcoming year. Last weekend, we had our first sensory weekend. We had 25 families that participated. We were able to close down the playground at the PCC to provide an opportunity for it to be a little bit less hectic for kids who needed a quieter space. So that's something that we're looking at bringing back monthly. We renovated a couple of parks. Zachary pickleball courts are under construction. And then Bass Lake playfield courts and parking lot are also under construction. Elm Creek playground is being renovated and that one is also closed right now as well. Chair Wilson asks if there were any surprises on the community center one way or another? Is the gym being used a lot? Are there more or less participants than you thought? Per Director Tomlinson, it was way more than we anticipated from a staffing perspective. 310,000 people went through there. We are working through our open gym programming. We're seeing a lot more use of that and we're scheduling, basketball and a couple of other sports in there, including pickleball at the open gym. And now we just have to figure out how to keep the momentum going. Last year we had 27 Garden weddings. And that was only half of the season. We have already booked 70 this year for this summer and we are booked two years out for summer weddings in the Plymouth room. That's a function of it being an incredible space but it's also very affordable to rent. So, they'll come back to you in July for fees and charges to recover a little bit more of that investment that we made. Commissioner John McCulloch asks if for more information regarding the scholarships are granted and are those for activities or? Director Tomlinson states that our scholarship program is for kids who income qualify for it. And we largely see it in our play camps in the summer. But we also offer it for our skating programs and then classes that may be held at the community center. So, we basically give households that are income qualified a credit and they can use that however they want within our programming. Each kiddo gets $200. Chair Wilson asks for a motion to approve. Motion by Commissioner Wagner and seconded by Commissioner Hoekstra recommending approval of 2022 Annual Report. With all members voting in favor, the motion carried. (7.3) 2023 Work Plan Update Director Tomlinson states we did our first round of public engagement on Schmidt Woods and The Meadows last month. We had 50 people attend our open house for The Meadows and we had over 100 people respond to our survey. These are very high numbers. We will have a significant number of people coming to speak at the June public portion when you are going to have The Meadows and Schmidt Woods masterplans before you for adoption. We currently have the tour scheduled in June. In order to stay on schedule with the Master Plan adoption, we can't do both items in the same night. What we are proposing is an amendment to the work plan so that we have The Meadows and Schmidt Woods for approval in June. And then if you are still interested in doing the tour, we can reschedule for another month this year when we do not have a meeting scheduled. October 12 was chosen as the tour date. Motion by Commissioner Hoekstra and seconded by Commissioner Wagner recommending amending the 2022 Work Plan to include Schmidt Woods and The Meadows Masterplan at 5 Approved Minutes May 11, 2023 the June 8, 2023 meeting and adding October 12, 2023 for a tour of Parks. With all members voting in favor, the motion carried. (7.4) Upcoming Events Director Tomlinson shares upcoming events before the next PRAC meeting. That meeting will occur on June 8 here in City Council Chambers at 6 p.m. I did want to let you know that we had to cancel Bark in the Park. There is a strain of dog flu going around. So, in an abundance of caution, this event was canceled. That is the guidance that has come out from the Humane Society. We are in the middle of the height of this one. So we're very anxious for that to pass. So that's why we cancelled it. We are changing the hours at the PCC for the summer. So we'll be closing a little bit early. Commissioner Wagner asks what the hours will be? Per Director Tomlinson, Monday through Friday 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. and then Saturday and Sunday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. This weekend, we do have the tree and shrub sale pickup. We have Date Night at the Hilde tomorrow night. There will be dueling pianos there. Beaches and bonfires will start Thursday, May 25. Memorial Day all offices are closed. And then finally we are going to be having a volunteer Plant and Pull Day on Saturday, June 3. It's an all-volunteer program. It's open to pretty much everybody, and you can contact Jackie if you would like to sign up for that. Adjournment Motion by Vice Chair Kuznia, seconded by Commissioner Wagner, recommending adjournment of the Park and Recreation Advisory Commission meeting. With no objection, Chair Wilson adjourned the meeting at 6:36 p.m.