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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPark and Recreation Advisory Commission Minutes 01-09-1997Minutes of the Park and Recreation Advisory Commission Meeting January 9, 1997 Page 1 Present: Chair Anderson, Commissioners Wahl, Fiemann, Willegalle, Johnson, Thompson, Priebe; Councilmember Wold; staff Bisek, Blank and Pederson 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair Anderson called the January meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. in the Council Chambers. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A motion was made by Commissioner Wahl and seconded by Commissioner Fiemann to approve the minutes of the December meeting as presented. The motion carried with all ayes. 3. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS a. Athletic Associations. b. Staff. Mary handed out a sweatshirt order form for Fire and Ice. The logo location has changed. It will be on the left chest instead of across the entire front. The color will be the same royal blue with orange and white. Sweatshirts can be ordered until January 15. We are advertising that there will be a softball tournament at Fire and Ice. A new event at this year's Fire and Ice is a winter camping demonstration. One of our soccer referees and his boy scout troop will camp out in Parkers Lake Park over night before the Fire and Ice festival. They will build some hollowed out snow caves for people to tour the day of the event. Another new attraction is a pig roast that will be held for three or four hours during the day, along with the regular concessions. In 1997, our volunteer coordinator position was expanded to 32 hours per week from 20. Another staffing change involves our part-time clerical position, which has been a part-time position since its inception. It will go to full-time in March. The person currently in the position is retiring, so we will be looking for someone new. Rinks opened on December 21, but have been closed a number of days since then due to bad weather or poor ice conditions. The first day of outdoor skating lessons had to be canceled, not because of cold, but because of rain and sleet. Parkers Lake rink hasn't opened yet, because the ice is not safe enough for equipment to drive on. There is a layer of water under the snow. Our Plymouth Middle School's first ski trip of the season, planned for Friday, has been canceled because of cold weather. PRAC Minutes/January 1997 Page 2 Mary stated that for three days this week, staff was trained on new software for registration. We will go live with that in February. We have over 300 facilities where we hold programs. Mary announced that Rick Busch is going to be inducted into the softball Hall of Fame this month. Commissioner Wahl asked what that was. Director Blank said it's USSSA affiliated. Rick has spent 17 years with the City involved in sports in many different ways. He's been a referee, coach, teacher, participant and has hosted numerous tournaments on both national and state levels at Zachary Playfield, as well as scheduled thousands of fields and other facilities for many different groups, agencies and organizations over the last 17 years. c. Others. There were no others. 4. PAST COUNCIL ACTION a. The Council approved new park dedication fees for 1997. b. They approved not buying the Johnson Bros. open space parcel. c. They approved the CIP as submitted for 1997-2001. d. They approved policy changes on playground enhancements as recommended by PRAC. e. They approved a $700,000 contribution to Wayzata gym, and they also ratified agreement with Armstrong on their gym. f. They approved an agreement with Coca Cola to be the supplier of beverages at the Plymouth Ice Center. Coke will give us $75,000 up front. They offered a better deal than Pepsi. Bids for scoreboards were awarded also. 5. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. West Medicine Lake Park presentation by Barton Aschman. Director Blank introduced staff from Barton Aschman. Kenny Horns gave an update on Phase I and Phase 2 construction. Phase 1 work is substantially complete. It began in late fall '95, when a surcharge was placed on the roadway due to the poor soils. The roadway is now open, and that was one of the major elements of phase 1. Utility work was another substantial part of phase 1. Previously, run-off flowed directly into the lake. Now there are three small sediment basins where storm water is routed prior to discharge into a creek/wetland complex. Remaining work items include grading behind the curb, on-site wetland mitigation, removing the old Forestview Lane roadbed, turf establishment, and new sidewalks along West Medicine Lake Drive. The bridge needs to be stained. The parking lot needs to be completed. The phase 2 contract has been awarded, and work will begin when weather is appropriate. Tom Johnson asked if the pedestrian bridge will have a flat surface, so skaters can use it. Director Blank said it will be a wood surface. Commissioner Johnson asked about the trees on the point and the grove of trees. Mr. Horns said it is planned to save as many of the trees as possible. Phase 2 will be underway in the next week or two if weather improves. PRAC Minutes/January 1997 Page 3 Beach excavation should be complete by April. Phase 3 work is subject to approval by the Council. The intent is to have phase 3 underway in the summer. The next part of the presentation was given by Scott. He explained that board 1 detailed the design constraints. Some critical things include the area between the wetland delineation and the floodway. We are required to do a one for one volume mitigation. Where ever we filled in a wetland, we had to create an equal amount of wetland in another area. Another issue is the 50 foot setback from the shoreline, where no construction is permitted to take place. Phase 3 is a limited area to work in. The second board he explained was the relationship diagram. This displayed all the vehicular entrances and showed how the various recreational components of the park are related to each other and how you get from one place to the next. Commissioner Priebe asked about the boat access shown in the concept plan. Director Blank explained that the City maintained an access on the west side for many years, but when French Park opened, the City closed the access, so now all boat access is controlled by French Park. The access at French Park is shallow, and deep hulled boats cannot use it. Because of that, we have allowed these boats to use the west beach as a place to get on and off the lake. Commissioner Priebe asked how we control the access where we allow the deep hulled boats? Director Blank said we have a steel gate that we staff on one or two Saturdays in the spring and again in the fall. Scott then displayed the Concept A and Concept B designs which contain phase 3 elements. These designs are almost identical, except that the play area is shaped somewhat differently. In concept A, all of the smaller picnic shelters are located near the beach/swimming area, and there is no tennis court or sand volleyball. In concept B, one of the small picnic shelters has been moved to the northern end of the park, near the boat access, and a tennis court and sand volleyball court are shown down near the playground area. Commissioner Fiemann asked about boardwalk corners? Worried about little kids taking off running and falling into the wetland. Scott said the boardwalk has curbs. Commissioner Wahl asked if there are areas where you can just throw a frisbee, etc. Scott explained that the area around the play equipment would be more casual and unplanned, approximately 150 x 200 feet. Commissioner Johnson commented that where third parking lot is proposed is the nicest piece of land. He thinks we're over building park. He wondered if that lot had to take up the entire area there? Director Blank said we have been downsizing parking lots as we go along. Our long range concern is that we have enough parking. We don't want park visitors to end up parking in surrounding neighborhoods. Director Blank explained that he needs direction from the Commission on how to proceed now. There are no tennis courts west of Medicine Lake, until you get to Parkers Lake, so we wanted to get two courts in at this location. Director Blank displayed an aerial of West Medicine Lake Community Club. He said that one PRAC Minutes/January 1997 Page 4 option is to explore putting a court on the West Medicine Lake Community Club property. We have two ballfields there now, but only one is being used. It might be possible that the other field could be turned into a tennis court. Director Blank stated that other options include not installing tennis courts, building them where shown on Concept B, or finding another location near the park. Director Blank said there is time to go back to community and show them this plan before making a final decision. Tennis was in the bottom third of the list of wants. Commissioner Johnson stated that he was concerned that Concept B showing the tennis courts was too crowded in that area. He also commented that there is no place for a basketball court. He would like to see it in the north parking lot someplace. Director Blank said he thought it would be possible to place a hardcourt in the north parking lot, however, the consultant commented that that might no be the safest place for it. Other commissioners felt that tennis might have to be sacrificed in order to get in a sand volleyball court and a hard court. They commented that the really serious tennis players go to Northwest Racquet Club. The consultant will research a place in the park for a hard court. Director Blank said he needs a decision in February, so that the plan can go to the Council at their second meeting in February if possible. The Commission suggested that staff send out to the residents a letter inviting them to the February meeting, along with a description/graphic of Concept B, taking out the tennis courts, leaving in sand volleyball, moving the playground to where it is in plan A, and adding a hard court somewhere. b. Ice arena/pool complex. Director Blank stated that crews are working everyday. The roofer is scheduled to begin soon. The inside of the arena is being heated now. Crews are laying block walls in the rinks. Director Blank stated that we are getting a nice upgrade on the bleachers because of a donation by the Wayzata Hockey Assoc. Director Blank did not have a projected opening date. c. Open space update. Director Blank said the City will continue to negotiate with property owners. The City will not be buying the Johnson Bros. property. Director Blank said he will soon reconvene the Open Space committee to start looking at operational policies. d. Elm Creek Playfield update. Director Blank announced that the school district will go out in two weeks with a re -bid on the building, fencing, football stadium, etc. Classroom wing of the building will be done by September. The cafeteria and auditorium will not be done when school starts. e. Golf course discussion. A development north of the railroad tracks, north and west of Hollydale golf course, has been proposed. Because they submitted a plat, the City had to look at the alignment of Holly Lane. The City worked cooperatively with the owners of Hollydale on this project. f. East Medicine Lake regional trail. There was nothing new to report on this item. PRAC Minutes/January 1997 Page 5 g. Ice center behavior policies. Director Blank explained that the behavior policies need to be approved. Changes have been made as suggested by PRAC. A MOTION WAS MADE BY COMMISSIONER THOMPSON AND SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER FIEMANN TO RECOMMEND APPROVING THE RULES AND REGULATIONS AT THE PLYMOUTH ICE CENTER AS PROPOSED BY STAFF. Commissioner Johnson noticed a place where rollerblading did not get changed to in-line skating. Commissioner Priebe said that an apostrophe needed to be added to no. 6 after the "s" in players. The motion carried with all ayes. 6. NEW BUSINESS a. Review draft copy of annual report. Director Blank explained that PRAC needed to come up with some topics for their 1997 work plan. Commissioner Priebe asked about the Dutch Elm Disease program? He thinks it's very costly, and doesn't know if we are saving any elms. Director Blank said it's an aggressive program and is prolonging the life of the City's elm trees, and allowing the City to build up other tree species at the same time. Commissioner Thompson asked about the youth sports task force report? Does it need to be updated? Director Blank said within a year he thinks a consultant will be on board to do a new overall system plan. Some suggestions for the work plan include making the ice arena operational, Greenwood Elementary field improvements and upgrading the old high school site, issues related to the field house at the new high school, planning for the activity center that will be added to the Life Time Fitness complex, a golf course, and open space. Commissioners asked about future in- line skating rinks? Director Blank said that further research is also needed on skateboard parks. A draft work plan will be put together and sent to Commissioners within a week. b. Senior citizen needs. Director Blank explained that the City Council disbanded many of the subcommittees from 1996 and may form a new subcommittee to study the future activity center. Henry Willegalle, Ron Fiemann and Don Anderson will volunteer from PRAC. Councilmember Wold said that the Council needs to make a decision about the senior citizen needs report. The activity center will be a multi -generational facility. Councilmember Wold said that one of the challenges will be narrowing the activity center down to just one building. c. Advertising at the ice arena. Eric explained where all the scoreboards will be, the message boards, clocks, etc. Within the contract awarded to Coca-Cola, they are allowed to have two advertising panels. The hockey rink boards are set up to allow advertising. There will be room for 31 advertisements. There is potential net revenue of $25,000 to $35,000 per year from this program. Staff's recommendation is to allow an advertising program at the new ice arena. A medical group wants to pay us $45,000 to advertise on the Zamboni. This is intended to be a revenue producing facility. Commissioner Priebe said that he PRAC Minutes/January 1997 Page 6 hates to see it commercialized, but realizes it's good revenue. Graphics would be done under our control. We will keep it simple, uniform, etc. The groups that would likely advertise include local banks, restaurants, motels, hotels, sporting goods stores, etc. Panels are 10 feet long, 36 inches high. Graphics would be covered by plexiglass to protect them from scuffing, etc. The Commission was okay with the idea of board advertisement. 7. COMMISSION PRESENTATION None. 8. STAFF COMMUNICATION Director Blank congratulated re -appointees, and reminded the Commission that they will need to elect a chair and vice chair at next month's meeting. 9. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 9:25 p.m.