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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPark and Recreation Advisory Commission Minutes 05-14-1998Minutes of the Park and Recreation Advisory Commission Meeting May 14, 1998 Page 17 Present: Chair Anderson, Commissioners Willegalle, Thompson, Priebe, Wahl; Planning Commissioner Koehnen; staff Bisek, Blank, Sankey Absent: Commissioners Fiemann and Musliner 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair Anderson called the meeting to order at 7:07 p.m. in the Council Chambers. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Planning Commissioner Koehnen requested a correction, since she was omitted from the list of those attending. A motion was made by Chair Anderson and seconded by Commissioner Priebe to approve the minutes of the meeting with this correction. 3. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS a. Athletic Associations. b. Staff. Mary Bisek stated that the summer hiring process is nearly complete. There are a few staff openings remaining, such as Swimming Instructors, Puppet Wagon Coordinator, Tennis Instructors, and Golf instructors. Beaches will open in two weeks. Softball has begun at Elm Creek. TTR registration is going very well. During the peak summer registration period, 60% were done on TTR. Overall, since the inception of this new form of registration on February 3, there has been 28% using this method. Taking out the classes not available for TTR, it has been 45%. The department has applied for an award for innovative use of technology. Hennepin Parks is interested in the system, and they have visited us. Eden Prairie Parks & Recreation has scheduled a visit next week. Staff training is coming up. Fall planning is about to begin. Music in Plymouth is July 1. Henry asked about how Primavera went. Mary said it went very well. It was larger than last year, including many more pieces by students. Attendance was steady, and it was very well received. Commissioner Willegalle thought it was nice to see it grow, and perhaps with the new activity building, it will continue to increase. c. Others. 4. PAST COUNCIL ACTION At the City Council's work session this week, skate park bids were tabled. The 4 Downs bid for running the skate park was 30% of gross. They wanted the City to pay for the liability insurance, which was not part of the specifications. The City Attorney said we have to stay within the specifications. Therefore, the Council decided to reject the bids. They are considering renting a park through a consortium of cities for the period of August 13 to Page 18 September 13. This slot is available because Hopkins received a donation to build their own skate park and so dropped out of the consortium. It would be a good way to try out the concept. It would also give 4 Downs a chance to get more established and see what their impact will be on the community. The concrete parking lot will still be built, so it will be available if the Council decides to go ahead in the future. The issue will be on the Council agenda next Wednesday night. Commissioner Priebe asked how the rental of the skate park would work. Director Blank said it would be like a concessionaire where they would come in and run it and share a portion of the proceeds with the City. 5. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. West Medicine Lake Many finishing touches are being completed. Shelters are being stained, sod is arriving, benches are being installed, a fishing pier should be installed on June 10 by the DNR. A drinking fountain was missed during the park's constriction and may be added later. Director Blank would like to have a ribbon cutting event for this park and Three Ponds Park on Saturday, June 13, at 9:00 a.m., with coffee and donuts refreshments. After a few words, the group would move down to West Medicine Lake at 11:00 and have another ceremony and be done by about 1:00 p.m. The Mayor has indicated that she is free that morning. It looks like things will be done in time for that date. Planning Commissioner Koehnen asked if the associations will be informed so that the event can be advertised in newsletters. Director Blank said that they would and that the neighborhood residents will be invited individually also. Commissioner Willegalle asked about the safety of a house on east side of the lake. Director Blank said it should be OK. b. Elm Creek Playfield Adult softball started last week, and things seem to be going well. We terminated the turf contract and deducted $15,000 from their billing because of unsatisfactory work. The City has hired a top turf specialist who has gone in and started a turf program which should go much better. The fields should be ready by August for soccer. A ribbon cutting ceremony will be scheduled. c. East Medicine Lake Regional Trail A large portion of the trail is now paved. NSP is burying power lines, so paving cannot be done in that section yet, but it should be ready for the Fun Run race on June 13. We will be one of the few cities outside of Minneapolis which has a trail all the way around a major lake. The Legislature gave Hennepin Parks 1 million which may be used to work on the Luce Line Trail. MNDOT will rebuild the bridge on Highway 55 starting January or February of 1999 which will put the trail on hold during the project. A dedication ceremony will be planned for the Regional Trail, too. d. Activity Center/Fieldhouse. The bond referendum is next Tuesday, May 19. The senior groups are calling people. The Soccer, and Fine Arts groups are also calling their members. Commissioner Thompson said the Baseball/Softball groups are urging people to vote yes. They have a home page on the internet designed by a volunteer which has an advertisement for the vote yes effort. Councilmember Tim Wold filmed a piece for cable TV. Director Blank said it has been a very quiet vote effort, with very few negative calls. He has received more calls about portable toilets in the parks. Planning Commissioner Page 19 Koehnen asked about what we can say to people about the portable toilet issue. Director Blank said the department started installing portable toilets when mothers with young children complained about the lack of bathrooms for them to use while in the parks. When parents demand it in a park, we add one. Mary Bisek said we also add toilets to parks that have recreation playground programs. Director Blank said if we get complaints from people who don't like to see them, we try to move them to a better spot. We may ultimately build screens for them like we have at Parkers Lake. Planning Commissioner Koehnen said that the cougar was spotted in Harrison Hills, near Three Ponds Park. Eric said a great horned owl is nesting there. e. Rental policy for mobile stage The insurance requirement was kept in the policy because organizations are capable of supplying their own insurance when they want to rent the stage. The damage deposit was lowered to $200 for consistency with other deposits we require. Commissioner Willegalle moved to accept the policy. Commissioner Wahl seconded. All ayes. f. Open Space. Commissioner Wahl reported that the Open Space Committee meetings have been very productive. They have been discussing a management plan for the three sites. They feel that the southeast site should be brought back to its natural state. The Hartenberg site has much buckthorn which needs to be removed. Mrs. Hartenberg will be moving June 1, the house will be taken down, and the paddle ball court removed. A low- key picnic site would be acceptable. Chair Anderson commented that the potential for the site is extremely high - such as nature center, etc. Commissioner Wahl said the committee is split on how much should be added to the area. Preserving the space as natural as possible is a high priority. Neighbors have encroached somewhat with wood cutting and other activities. They will have to be educated. There are some trails through the site already. At the high school site, a narrow wood chip trail around the perimeter would be appropriate so people can get out and use it. Chair Anderson said that the high school site has been discussed as a forum for some type of educational use. Snowmobiles are causing problems. Track and cross country skiers want to use the area for training. The Committee is not really in favor of this. They feel science and education are compatible, but not active sports. Commissioner Priebe said we should stress to the school that this land is not part of the playfield. It is meant as a separate land use situation. A trail around the perimeter is as much as they are wanting to add to it. The students have been doing some planting to start to improve the site. Chair Anderson asked about the land between LaCompte Playfield and the southeast open space site. Director Blank said there are private properties between the two sites. The agreements were written for 15 years. The committee is discussing with the Minnesota Land Trust how to protect the land for the long term. Commissioner Willegalle wondered why the agreements for open space on the properties were only for 15 years. Director Blank said we paid fair market value for the properties, and we own them filly. The contracts do say the they can only be used as open space for 15 years. We couldn't put up a water tower, for example. The issue is what the City Council of the fi ture may deem is appropriate at the time. Commissioner Wahl said the committee is discussing which way to go on the issue. Director Blank said that when the committee is has completed its plan, they will present it Page 20 to the Commission and perhaps a public hearing would be held before going to Council for approval. 6. NEW BUSINESS a. Philosophy of Funding of Parks & Recreation Programs and Facilities Director Blank said in March of 1980, the City passed a bond referendum for 6 playfields. The City went from having very little to having a fair amount quite quickly. The demand immediately increased, and many horror stories ensued. The Mayor called a task force to decide on fees and funding for the facilities. The recreation staff has used these policies ever since. The Recreation division is required to generate revenue to pay for their existence. We are probably the highest revenue -generating recreation program in the Twin Cities area. There are some programs which are subsidized, such as warming houses, beaches, concert series, some special events, puppet wagon, and adaptive recreation. For the adult softball leagues, participants are asked to pay the direct costs of the programs plus some field maintenance costs. Youth programs are allowed to use the fields for free. The lining and dragging is done on all the fields. The Recreation fiend is about $650,000, with 150,000 contributed from the general fiend. Every hour spent by Rick Busch doing free services takes away from his time working on revenue generating programs. Perhaps it is time to look at this policy again. Commissioner Priebe asked if this how other cities provide their services. Director Blank said yes, although our fees are higher than most other cities. We require 50% residents on a team to use a field, and Eden Prairie requires 75-80%. Mary Bisek stated that six or seven years ago, Finance started pressuring her to make more money. She checked with other cities and found that they do not charge as many expenses against their programs as we do. Our method makes it much more difficult to recoup our costs. Music in Plymouth is a $15,000 expense which generates no revenue for us. Maple Grove does not charge professional salaries and benefits against their expenses. Director Blank says computers are now charged against the recreation fiend. Chair Anderson asked about Maple Grove's salaries. Mary said is hard to compare from city to city. Many cities charge salaries against taxes, although we charge them against revenue. Commissioner Priebe said he doesn't feel the recreation department should be required to cover salaries. Chair Anderson agreed. Commissioner Thompson thought the original policy on facility fees was well thought out. She wondered whether there should be a scale where the athletic associations would contribute to the maintenance. Mary said the jobs of the volunteers for the associations are extremely hard. Rick is spending an incredible amount of time on the phone with one of the associations because nobody wants to be in charge of the scheduling. Will we need to hire another person for our department to take over some of the scheduling issues for the associations? Director Blank said that the large soccer tournament nen by the Wayzata Soccer Club is charged for their use of the fields. They have asked the Council to wave the fee year after year. The Council has turned them down. For one year, the Council had a policy of charging the youth associations for the use of the fields for their regular seasons. The parents were so irate and caused so much trouble, that it was rescinded. Commissioner Thompson said that mowing should be provided by the City, but perhaps the City should charge for lining Page 21 the fields. Chair Anderson asked how our current recreation budget is doing. Mary said we are about breaking even. Eric said it is in the Finance Department's best interest for us to maximize our revenue. Because of this, we cancel a lot of classes which have low registration because we can't afford to have the instructor there for too few people. There is a fine line between considering only the money and the value of the programs for the community. Commissioner Thompson suggested staff come back with ideas on what the department could do as a service for the associations and what fee would be charged. Chair Anderson asked if there is a real possibility the department may have to take over the association's work someday. Rick has said it would be easier to do the scheduling himself than working with some of the volunteers. We are at the point of having to decide what to do to shore up the organizations or hiring another staff person to deal with them. Commissioner Willegalle says that times change and that people now would rather pay than do it themselves. Perhaps staff could be hired to cover these chores. Director Blank said if we came up with a staff position which was paid for by the associations, the Council would probably approve. b. Commissioner Willegalle asked about pavement of the Luce Line section which belongs to the City. Director Blank said it hasn't really been looked at yet. Now that we will own it again this summer, we will have to examine the issue, and if the surface is bad enough, it could be overlayed. d. Commissioner Thompson said that at West Middle School the soccer and baseball fields are close together. Could a piece of fencing be put up between them? Director Blank said that since the fields are in Wayzata, we have no jurisdiction over them. e. Commissioner Thompson asked about Lions Park - can it be lined on Saturday? Director Blank said the policy states that it is to be a neighborhood park on weekends. f. Director Blank stated that the next meeting is the park tour. Eric will arrange the tour to cover upcoming issues. Council, HRA, Planning Commission, and Open Space Committee will all be invited. 7. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 8:40 p.m.