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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPark and Recreation Advisory Commission Minutes 01-11-1996Minutes of the Park and Recreation Advisory Commission Meeting January 11, 1996 Page 1 Present: Commissioners Anderson, Bildsoe, Fiemann, Johnson, Priebe, Wahl and Willegalle; staff Blank and Pederson; Andy Jensen, representing Plymouth -Wayzata Traveling Baseball 1. CALL TO ORDER Vice Chair Wahl called the January meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. in the Parks and Recreation Mooney Lake Room. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A motion was made by Commissioner Fiemann and seconded by Commissioner Wahl to approve the minutes of the December meeting as presented. The motion carried with all ayes. 3. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS a. Athletic Associations. Andy Jensen, representing Plymouth -Wayzata Traveling Baseball. See item 6-a. b. Staff. None were present. c. Others. None were present. 4. PAST COUNCIL ACTION a. Council approved the Elm Creels Playfield budget. 5. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. Private swimming pool/Wayzata School Dist. pool study update. Director Blank announced that the Wayzata City Council voted unanimously to contribute $50,000 to the City of Plymouth in support of the ice arena. He also indicated that the Wayzata School District will be contributing $250,000 toward the ice arena and will be officially voting next week to authorize spending $1.5 million on the pool facility. There had been some concern that if bid package 44 on the new high school had come in over budget, the school district would need that $1.5 million to help with the high school, but the bid package came in under budget, so the money can now be used for the pool. Director Blank stated that the Council authorized Shea Architects to begin designing the ice arena/pool complex, so that if the voters approve the expenditure of $5,000,000 in community improvement fiinds on February 6, the concept plans will be ready to go out for bid. If things proceed as hoped, constriction could begin in early spring. Director Blank said that things are moving along on a fast track and that a special meeting of the PRAC Minutes/January 1996 Page 2 Park Commission might have to be called between the regular February and March meeting dates. Director Blank also indicated that he attended a meeting at the National Sports Center in Blaine to meet with the Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission to receive all the official paperwork related to the ice arena grant. He stated that Wayzata Youth Hockey will be contributing $250,000 to the City for the ice arena and will soon be distributing literature and lawn signs urging citizens to vote yes on February 6. Director Blank informed the Commission that the City is holding a public hearing/information meeting on Monday, January 22, to discuss the plans for the new facilities. They will detail the proposals under consideration, as well as take citizen comments and answer questions. PRAC members are urged to attend that meeting if possible. He also explained that the January issue of Plymouth News will be in residents' homes this week, and that there are three separate articles on the proposed facilities included. Commissioner Priebe asked Director Blank if he received the fax he sent with his comments on the letter of intent submitted by Life Time Fitness. He has a number of concerns regarding the well-being of the City should Life Time fail to operate the facility at a level expected by the City. Even though the proposed facilities are not a City community center, there is the potential for many residents to view it that way, considering that the facility could be constricted on City -owned land. Commissioner Priebe wants the City to be more protected than it currently is as stated in the letter of intent. Director Blank agreed with the concept that residents might view this facility as a community center, but he explained to the Park Commission that if the project proceeds with Life Time Fitness, the City would have no responsibility whatsoever for how the facility operates. Citizens would have to take their complaints to Life Time Fitness, not to the City. Commissioner Fiemann asked Director Blank if the City, 10 years from now, could buy other land and build a community center, even if Life Time builds its facility? Director Blank indicated that it was a possibility. Director Blank added that Life Time is meeting with Health West, too. Chances are that if Life Time does not build on our site, they will build over at Health West. Commissioner Bildsoe then commented that he had a recent conversation with one of the Health West administrators and was told that they have big plans for the land to the east, where MacDonald's sits. They would like to buy that property, relocate MacDonald's and build a first-class fitness facility that would be similar to a community center and open to the public. One of the Park Commission's main concerns has been that Life Time Fitness will cater more to adults than it will to families and kids. b. West Medicine Lake Park update. Director Blank said that he had met with the DNR Corps of Engineers attempting to get approval to dredge back waters for canoeing and dredge the area proposed as swimming beach. They verbally indicated they would probably approve the swimming beach, but not the dredging of the back waters. PRAC Minutes/January 1996 Page 3 c. Open spaces update. Director Blank announced that two of the three owners of site 44 finally accepted the City's offer to purchase their land, but the third owner is still holding out for $1.4 million. Director Blank said that when he finds out the other owners accepted the City's offer, he may realize that it would be in his best interest to sell as well. His parcel is in the middle of the other two, and because of the deal made with the other owners, the City is now in a very advantageous position. d. Playfield/high school update. Director Blank stated that bid package 44 came in under budget, which is the reason the School District can now contribute their $1.5 million to the pool project as they indicated they would. Bid package 45 will go out for bid this month. This is the portion that includes the playfield. A football stadium is included in this package, even though the school district does not have the fiends at this time to build that. e. Senior citizen needs analysis update. Director Blank announced that at their last meeting, a final report was presented and reviewed. It needs a little fine tuning and then it will be sent to the Youth Sports Task Force for their review and then forwarded to PRAC. f. Continue golf course discussion. Director Blank said that he had no new information to report. 6. NEW BUSINESS a. Proposal from Plymouth -Wayzata Youth Baseball to place signs on outfield fences at Parkers Lake Playfield. Andy Jensen, representing this youth athletic association, made a presentation to the Park Commission requesting permission to place advertising on the outfield fences at Parkers Lake Playfield. His objectives in making the presentation were to familiarize the City with PWYBA's mission and goals, to present a unique fiind raising opportunity, and to gain permission to utilize the baseball fields in their corporate sponsorship efforts. He then explained that Plymouth -Wayzata Traveling Baseball currently raises fiinds by corporate sponsorship; holding tournaments, thus, deriving revenue from entry fees, concessions and souvenirs; and charging a market rate to each player for their involvement. The players are currently charged $235 each season, and they are proposing a 27% increase in that rate. How the fiinds would be used included purchasing more and better equipment, providing more scholarships to needy families, and establishing a reserve fiind for travel costs to national tournaments. Mr. Jensen explained that the community would benefit by having its reputation enhanced throughout the country, the costs associated with maintaining first class facilities would be shared, and the families that represent the community when traveling to baseball tournaments would have their financial responsibilty reduced. Additional fiind raising methods they are proposing include: forming a parent booster club and a corporate booster club, selling travel team merchandise, seeking more corporate and team sponsors, and corporate advertising on the outfield fences at Parkers Lake. Mr. Jensen explained that the signs would be professionally designed and would be of uniform size and shape, thus maintaining the integrity and beauty of the Parkers Lake Playfield, and the profits from the advertising would go to support traveling baseball. Mr. Jensen then reviewed for the Park PRAC Minutes/January 1996 Page 4 Commission a chart explaining the costs that would be incurred to upgrade their equipment, which totaled $22,463. This would include everything from bats and batting helmets to scorebooks and socks. He further explained that their annual operating budget is $35,000. Commissioner Bildsoe asked how many kids are in the travel program, and Mr. Jensen indicated 150. Bildsoe then calculated that by charging each child $235 to play results in revenue of $35,250. Commissioner Priebe wanted to know who else uses the Parkers Lake Playfields. Director Blank responded that almost all of the use is by PWYBA, and that they were the driving force behind constricting the fields in the first place. Commissioner Bildsoe commented that he was not comfortable with the placement of signs on the outfield fences. He was concerned about how it would detract from the park and the precedence it might set. Other commissioners were also concerned about the public's reaction to advertising in the parks and how it might lead to other youth athletic associations wanting to advertise in several of the City's parks, such as Zachary Playfield and Bass Lake Playfield. Director Blank commented that an organization sponsoring a league at our in-line skating rink has indicated that they want to put advertising signs on the inside boards around that rink, so there is potential for this sort of advertising to grow. Commissioners Johnson, Wahl and Fiemann commented that they did not have a problem with the baseball association putting signs on the outfield fences. They suggested that it be tried on a trial basis, and if it causes problems or generates complaints from the public, the signs would come down at the end of the season and not go up again. That way if other groups wanted to do the same thing, the City could reply that this is being done as a pilot program only. Commissioner Priebe thought it might be possible to erect the signs, if the City were to collect the revenue and use it toward field maintenance and other costs associated with operating the facility, thus allowing the baseball association to spend more of its fiindraising money on the items mentioned in the presentation. Commissioner Priebe then asked if the association had considered temporary signs that could be placed only during tournaments and come down when the tournament was over. Commissioner Wahl agreed that this might be a good compromise. It was the general consensus of the Commission that this was the best solution. They wholeheartedly agreed that the baseball association had a good idea regarding corporate sponsorship and they thanked Mr. Jensen for his presentation. Director Blank said that he would check with the Community Development Department on the City's sign ordinance, and would look into other community's policies on signs in parks and report back to Mr. Jensen and to the Commission at their February meeting. The Commission agreed to delay formal action on this item until February. b. Review draft of 1995 annual report and 1996 work plan. The Commission briefly reviewed the draft copy of their 1995 annual report and then began discussing projects to include in their `96 work plan, which were: planning the northeast neighborhood park, review status of golf courses, Greenwood Elementary playground project, phase two of PRAC Minutes/January 1996 Page 5 West Medicine Lake park, trails, developing an operational plan for open space, planning a combined activities/senior center, and developing guidelines for low-income families wanting to use the ice rink and pool facility. c. Approve new location and cost estimate for amphitheater. Director Blank indicated that if the voters approve the building of the ice rinks and pool, a new location will have to be chosen for the Music in Plymouth concerts. He displayed a concept plan prepared by Brauer and Associates, showing the new location just north of the Public Safety Building. A MOTION WAS MADE BY COMMISSIONER ANDERSON AND SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER WILLEGALLE RECOMMENDING APPROVAL OF THE NEW LOCATION FOR THE AMPHITHEATER. THE MOTION CARRIED WITH ALL AYES. 7. COMMISSION PRESENTATION Commissioner Willegalle announced that the Parkers Lake Improvement Associastion is sponsoring the Viking Kick Sled demos at Fire and Ice this year. Commissioner Bildsoe said he attended a recent meeting at Greenwood Elementary School and was very impressed to see how excited school officials were about the City's contribution of $50,000 to their playground improvement project. He commented that it's very rewarding to see the positive effects the Park Commission has on the community and what a difference it makes. He said he feels very honored to be a part of it. He, as well as the other commissioners, stated appreciation for the outstanding effort put forth by Director Blank and the rest of the park and recreation staff. 8. STAFF COMM[_]NICATION Director Blank distributed "We Love Our Kids" buttons to the Commissioners and encouraged them to wear the buttons at Fire and Ice, because that slogan is this year's theme. 9. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 9:10 p.m.