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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPark and Recreation Advisory Commission Minutes 02-10-2000MINUTES OF THE PARK AND RECREATION ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING February 10, 2000 Page 5 Present: Chair Anderson, Commissioners Singer, Musliner, Fiemann, Thompson, Meyer, Wahl; staff Bisek, Blank, Pederson; Councilmember Slavik; Planning Commissioner Stein 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair Anderson called the February meeting to order at 7 p.m. in the Council Chambers. Chair Anderson introduced Mary Meyer and Ellie Singer, recently appointed commissioners. The rest of the commissioners introduced themselves and stated how long they've been on the board. Chair Anderson also introduced Kelli Slavik, Councilmember, and Robert Stein, Planning Commissioner. Staff introductions followed. a. COMMISSIONER FIEMANN MOVED TO REAPPOINT DON ANDERSON AS THE CHAIR AND MARK WAHL AS THE VICE CHAIR OF THE PARK AND RECREATION ADVISORY COMMISSION. COMMISSIONER THOMPSON SECONDED. MOTION CARRIED WITH ALL AYES. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Commissioner Musliner wanted to clarify a statement in January's minutes regarding the presentation made by Karol Greupner on the events survey she conducted. The statement read that the longer the event, the higher the attendance. The statement should have read the longer the event has been in place, the higher the attendance. A MOTION WAS MADE BY COMMISSIONER WAHL AND SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER MEYER TO APPROVE THE MINUTES OF THE JANUARY MEETING WITH THIS CLARIFICATION. THE MOTION CARRIED WITH ALL AYES. 3. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS a. Athletic Associations. b. Staff Mary Bisek announced that Recreation Supervisor Cindy Anderson had a baby boy on January 17th. She stated that Fire and Ice pictures are on display across from the Park and Recreation window. Mary thanked those who volunteered. Regina Callies is an intern with us, who helped chair the event, Mary said. She's a student at the U. This Saturday we are participating with the Wayzata School District in a workshop. On Monday, Mary and Regina are meeting with the Youth Advisory Council and discussing a possible youth coffee house. Mary said we are working on the E -connect website. This will allow people to register for classes over the Internet. PRAC members may be asked to help test the product. Mary stated that we are in the process of working with Wayzata on evaluating our contract with them. We provide swimming lessons for them and lifeguarding services at their beach. At issue is the shortage of staff and by continuing to provide services to PRAC Minutes/February 2000 Page 6 Wayzata, we may end up shortchanging Plymouth's beaches. We are going to be advertising this weekend for our seasonal clerical position. This person would work approx. 32 hours per week, beginning in March. Mary said we are working on a redesign of the cover for the Plymouth Leisure Times which will be on the front of the August issue. Mary said staff has also been working on a design of the letterhead, brochure, business cards, etc., for the Plymouth Creek Center. Commissioner Meyer asked for a definition of the Youth Advisory Council. Mary explained that Councilmember Judy Johnson started it. Director Blank said they have seven members. They have studied such things as the city curfew for youth, overnight parking in the City; they've made presentations to other cities that are thinking of forming youth councils, etc. They are going to help us come up with some programming for teens. Mary said this winter for the first time, we had a teen ski and snowboard club for 9th -12th graders. Mary said our largest teen program is employment. We train youth as lifeguards and water safety instructors and then employ them. Commissioner Musliner said that the water quality at Parkers Lake is very bad. She also said it's important when thinking about the Wayzata Beach to consider that many Plymouth residents use that beach, including her family. Commissioner Singer asked how we decided that last year's unguarded beach was successful. Director Blank said we reported no incidents there and attendance was about the same as previous years. Looking ahead, if staffing shortages continue to be an issue, we may have to go to unguarded hours at our other beaches, stated Director Blank. Commissioner Fiemann asked about where kids can go to become lifeguards. Mary said lifeguard training is expensive. She said we offer training during winter break. It costs several hundred dollars for someone to become certified. They get lifeguard training, Red Cross CPR and first aid. It's more involved than basic first aid. We have a reimbursement training program, whereby we reimburse them for half their cost if they end up working for us. If they come back and work for us a second year, we give them back another 100. The going rate for lifeguarding is $9 per hour starting wage. Commissioner Musliner was concerned about a child who fell through a slush hole during Fire and Ice. She said that apparently staff knew about it but did not barricade the area. Mary knew about the child falling through but was not aware that staff knew about the hole ahead of time. She explained what happens when the rink is made. Wherever snow is pushed up to make a berm, the ice underneath gets insulated. It's easier to fall through the ice near these berms. Director Blank said he will look into this fi rther and get back to Commissioner Musliner. Mary discussed the Plymouth Creek Center brochure she distributed and what it contained. This packet of materials is what gets mailed to individuals interested in renting the Center. Plans are to begin renting out the facility in June. c. Others. 4. PAST COUNCIL ACTION a. The Council approved the 2000 park rental fees and policies. b. The Council approved Change Order No. 5 on the Plymouth Creek Center. PRAC Minutes/February 2000 Page 7 c. Council approved the Millennium Garden project and have given the go ahead to begin the fund raising on the project and to hire a consultant to design the garden. Director Blank explained that the garden area in City Hall's lobby is to help advertise the Millennium Garden. We're considering using a brick made of recycled glass for the Buy a Brick program. This is one of the ways residents can help fund the project. We're going to have a design competition to select the final designer. Our goal is to have a preliminary design by May. There was an article in the Lakeshore Weekly about the Millennium Garden that has already generated interest in the Buy a Brick program. Commissioner Meyer will help with the garden project because of her expertise and experience working at the Landscape Arboretum. 5. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. Comprehensive Plan update. Director Blank stated that the Comprehensive Plan meeting will begin Saturday at 9 a.m. over at the Reserve. By 4 p.m. staff hopes to have gone through the entire document. The goal is to get through it and make sure that all governing bodies are in general agreement that it's ready to be reviewed by the public. Surrounding communities also have an opportunity to review it. Director Blank said the plan is to have it adopted by the City Council and Metropolitan Council in June. Commissioner Singer thinks one of the tables is labeled wrong. Commissioner Meyer said she did not get the document. Commissioner Thompson said in order to have received it, you had to respond to a letter that had been sent previously. b. Plymouth Creek Center update. Director Blank distributed some financial information on the Fieldhouse. So far the Fieldhouse has been a tremendous success. We took in $21,000 in November in revenue, in December $25,895. In January, we took in $40,000+. We expect this trend to continue. The bubble is scheduled to come down in late April. We need 40 strong individuals to disassemble the dome. The expenditures for staff is quite low. Estimated gas bill to be $45,000 for six month season. Electric bill is right on. When Director Blank looks at the whole six months, estimates surplus revenue to be between 75,000 and $90,000. The excess revenue will go into a fiend to cover replacement costs for the turf and the fabric dome. Director Blank said we have a tremendous walking program. It just keeps expanding. Staff is keeping track of all the walkers. At the end of the indoor season, we will have a full report on the revenue and we might be able to lower the rate for Plymouth groups using the Fieldhouse. Soccer, lacrosse, girls fastpitch softball and walking are the four major programs going on there. Commissioner Musliner is on the Early Childhood Education Board through Wayzata School District. She's hoping we can hold some type of open gym time at the Fieldhouse during the day for pre—schoolers. Director Blank is looking forward to finding groups to use the Fieldhouse during those open daytime hours. One such group would be the children who are home—schooled. Director Blank reported on the progress at the Plymouth Creek Center. He said the bathroom tile is in, the floors are in, painting is going on, workers are hanging the ceiling, etc. Major completion is scheduled for the end of March or early April. We selected all PRAC Minutes/February 2000 Page 8 the furniture for the building yesterday, including office furniture and banquet room furniture. This came in $15,000 under budget. The furniture should be delivered March 27. We hope to have some programming in there by mid-April. The caterer has been meeting with wedding parties. Chair Anderson wanted to know if we would have a meeting there sometime. Director Blank said at least once a year we'd meet there. c. Approve 1999 Annual Report. Director Blank went over the 2000 work plan. He said golf could become an issue that needs to be reviewed within a year as opposed to three years. Commissioner Musliner said she saw an article about bark parks in the January parks magazine. There is a lot of interest in bark parks all across the country. Director Blank said there is an archive on the Internet through NRPA where you can look up information on any topic relative to parks and recreation. Director Blank explained that the annual report is a historical document. He explained that we've been doing this for 20 years. It's an ordinance requirement, so this document must be approved by the Parks Commission. Commissioner Thompson asked about the decline in team sports as noted on pg. 14 and thought that this should be addressed. Mary explained that kids coming out of high school are not going into adult softball programs in the same numbers as they used to. Commissioner Thompson also wants more years compared regarding the budgeted expenditures on pg. 8, and she would also like previous years' figures for the Ice Center shown on pgs. 22-23. Commissioner Musliner suggested moving the title Sources of Revenue over to the right on pg. 8, so that it's not over the title Expenditures. Commissioner Musliner asked for an explanation of the Tree Trust organization. Director Blank said they've been working with the City for 20 years. This is a non-profit group of young people that are hired to work on numerous projects. They are supervised by University of Minnesota forestry students. They started planting trees as their very first project, hence the name. Chair Anderson asked if the City still uses ICWC crews. Director Blank said yes. Commissioner Singer said that of all the orientation materials she received, the Annual Report was the most helpful. COMMISSIONER SINGER MOVED TO APPROVE THE 1999 ANNUAL REPORT. COMMISSIONER WAHL SECONDED. THE MOTION CARRIED WITH ALL AYES. 6. NEW BUSINESS There was no new business. 7. COMMISSION PRESENTATION None. 8. STAFF COMMUNICATION Director Blank talked about the possible need for a third sheet of ice at the Ice Center. We've had to turn kids away from the Learn to Skate program. He said that two weeks ago, the MN Wild faxed to all cities in the metropolitan area a request for proposal to build the MN Wild a training facility. The MN Wild would rent five hours a day from the community that is awarded this proposal. They want ice time seven days a week, 11 months a year. It would be difficult to give them this much time, unless we add another sheet. We have to respond by 4 p.m. Friday. We need to solve the parking problems we have there now. If we build a third PRAC Minutes/February 2000 Page 9 sheet of ice, it can only go on the east side of the building. This would take away some of the parking spaces. We need to generate 260 more parking spaces. We may have to build a parking ramp. We've talked to the Wayzata Hockey Association about a contribution from them to help with this parking issue. Director Blank said the ice arena is turning a profit of 100,000 a year. A third sheet of ice would be almost all profit. Commissioner Fiemann asked about the demand on the current rinks. Director Blank said we open at 7 a.m. and close at 11:30 p.m., and on Friday and Saturday nights we close at 1 a.m. Director Blank is confident that we could fill up a third rink several months a year. During the non -demand months, we could use it for other activities by removing the ice. Commissioner Fiemann asked if the City Council is looking into the parking problem at LifeTime. Director Blank said the President of LifeTime is willing to work with us on this issue. Director Blank feels that an additional 100 stalls will solve the parking problem 95% of the time. Director Blank said the east parking lot is always fill whenever any type of big game is going on. Even if we don't go with a third sheet of ice, we have to look at solving the parking problem. Planning Commissioner Stein stated that this was his last meeting, and he wanted to congratulate the Park Commission. He thinks this group contributes more to the City than any other committee. A new Planning Commissioner will be appointed to attend the rest of the meetings in 2000. 9. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 8:20 p.m.