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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPark and Recreation Advisory Commission Minutes 09-12-2002Minutes of the Park and Recreation Advisory Commission Meeting September 12, 2002 Page 30 Present: Chair Anderson, Commissioners Fiemann, Krahulec, Meyer, Musliner, Rezabek, and Singer, staff Blank, Evans and Pederson 1. CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order at 7 p.m. by Chair Anderson. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A motion was made by Commissioner Meyer and seconded by Commissioner Rezabek to approve the July minutes. Motion carried with all ayes. 3. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS a. Athletic Associations. None were present at the meeting. b. Staff - Diane Evans. Evans discussed the success of the summer recreation programs. At a future meeting she will have statistics on how many participants we had, a revenue report, etc. Evans said we are working on fall programs. She talked about the Autumn Art Fair. We have about 40 artists registered. On October 5 is the Plymouth on Parade event. We have 87 parade units registered, and we expect that number to increase by parade day. There are other activities prior to the parade and following the parade. LifeTime fitness will be open for swimming, and the Ice Center will be open for free skating. There will be another Ducky Derby in the pond at the Amphitheater. The Teens Driving Safe and Sober Concert is October 12. The Big Wu will be performing. They are a nationwide, well known teen group. We are expecting up to 6,000 people to attend. The event runs from 3-9 p.m. Big Wu performs beginning at 7. It will be interesting to see how the space handles the crowd. Singer said they don't perform hard rock, but it's not gospel either. There will be a heavy police presence there. The target age group is late junior high through high school. Evans stated that staff is working diligently to update the City's website. Evans has been working with IT on this process. We expect to launch the new website in November. c. Others. There were no others present. 4. REPORT ON PAST COUNCIL ACTION The bid was awarded on the Ice Center parking lot. They are scheduled to begin work on Monday, September 16. A 60 car parking lot will be added, with 40 spaces behind the Ice Center and 20 in front. PRAC Minutes/July 2002 Page 31 5. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. Millennium Garden update. Blank discussed the progress being made on the garden and showed some slides of it. We will wait until June, 2003, to have the dedication. The bricks are installed. Anderson asked who was the brainchild behind the garden. Blank said many different folks were involved. b. Greenwood youth sports update. We've started playing soccer on this new complex. Fiemann said the sign at the entryway is great. The baseball fields are all set for play next spring. c. Mud Lake new name update. Blank stated that the name of the lake has been officially changed to Lake Camelot. All of the residents want the name of the park to be Lake Camelot Park. Staff is also recommending this name. A question was raised about the word "neighborhood" being in the name of the park. Blank said it doesn't have to be included in the name. That just identifies it as a neighborhood park in the park system plan. SINGER MOVED TO RECOMMEND THE NAME LAKE CAMELOT PARK. KRAHULEC SECONDED. ALL AYES. 6. NEW BUSINESS a. Name for Environmental Park. The playground is in and being used. Blank said he thinks this park will primarily be an outdoor education center. Singer asked about the reasoning for using "special use" in the name. Blank said it's because we don't want to label it with a name that would imply a specific use, because this park has the potential to serve more than one purpose, i.e., nature area and youth sports. The words special use would not be in the name, but this puts it in that category in the park system plan. Park maintenance staff have been referring to it as Nature Canyon Park. A couple of the commissioners liked the name Tamarack Park, after Blank explained that several years ago, tamarack trees grew in the low swamp land area. Our forester is checking to see if tamarack can be planted again in this location. It would not be a good idea to name it Tamarack if the site will not support this type of tree, Krahulec said. Blank will do more research on whether or not tamarack could survive here and will bring his findings back to the next meeting. c. 2003-2007 CIP - review possible update to plan. Blank had a power point presentation on some of the wish list items in the CIP. Because of Singer's suggestion last year, the East Beach building was updated, Blank said. Imperial Hills park was discussed first. There has been a request for some lighting in this park to curb vandalism. This park is totally enclosed by trees. Blank described the layout of the park and its amenities. Blank questioned PRAC Minutes/July 2002 Page 32 the value of adding lights, because there's no one that can see into the park even if lights are installed. The next photo was of a baseball field. Infield areas need to be renovated. Park maintenance thinks it would cost about $5,000 per field to do this. Blank said we could schedule four infields per year. The third photo was of Egan Park, which Blank is recommending for a dog park. Many years ago, we had community gardens at this location. Watering was a problem here, however, so gardens were moved to the workhouse property on Shenandoah Lane. A small gravel parking lot could be added here. There is some wetland in this park, so boardwalks might need to be added. The area is 3-4 acres in size. Krahulec and Rezabek think this area would need to be fenced. Other commissioners agreed. Our park maintenance supervisor feels that it does not need to be fenced. Blank said even though the dogs would be off leash, they must be under voice control, so a fence may not be necessary. Singer asked Blank to research the cost to fence it. Blank said the easiest fence would be the orange, plastic type you see around construction areas, rather than chain link. Rezabek said this area may not stay rural for too long. Blank said we may have to put in two dog parks, one in the northwest part of Plymouth and another in the southern portion of town. The fourth picture was of Bass Lake Playfield. A resident wants this rink paved. Blank said he told the resident that if the neighborhood can raise $5,000 toward the cost, that PRAC will seriously consider it. Only one person in the neighborhood hasn't signed the petition to pave it, according to the resident behind the drive to get it paved. The fifth picture was of the turf removal at the fieldhouse. The new Astroplay is being installed tomorrow. The next picture was of Plymouth Creek Playfield, where Blank is thinking of installing the old Astroplay turf that's being removed from the fieldhouse. West Lutheran High School practices soccer here. We propose getting quotes to install the turf here. This would be one site where we could get lacrosse and rugby players on the field sooner than on a regular grass surface playfield. Another site for the old artificial turf could be Ply Creek Elementary, but there's no parking here to speak of. Blank explained that the old turf is being removed because it's blemished. The next photo was of Zachary Park and the pinwheel of four baseball fields. The wood retaining walls need to be replaced with poured -in-place concrete. This will be costly, perhaps over $100,000. The next photo was along Rockford Road looking west from Zachary Lane. Neighbors have requested a trail here. Three neighbors do not want the trail to be on their property. It would run from Larch Lane to Zachary. The next photo was along Lancaster Lane near the Four Seasons shopping Center. Blank said this is a dangerous street. It's lined with apartment buildings and has many "S" curves. The next photo was near the Willow Creek movie theaters and Nathan Lane. There are also many apartment buildings along here, too. The extended stay hotel is in this vicinity also. PRAC Minutes/July 2002 Page 33 The high density apartment dwellers use this route daily. Some research needs to be done by our engineering department as to the best place to locate a trail in this area. The next two photos were of the warming house at Ridgemount Playfield. This is the only playfield in our system that does not have a concrete warming house. Blank is not proposing something that grand, but perhaps a nice vinyl sided building in the range of 40,000-$50,000. Blank then discussed additional items that are on the wish list. Greenwood may need some additional parking. A small playground would be nice at the amphitheater. When we built Zachary Playfield we traded some property with the church. We also worked a deal that they could use our parking lot on Sunday mornings. We use their parking lot as an overflow lot other days when necessary. Blank talked with the pastor of the church about the BMX course and skate park being built here. Blank suggested a five year lease with the pastor that would be renewable. It would include an escape clause. Blank hopes to hear back from the pastor by the November meeting regarding the opinion of the church's members on locating the BMX course nearby. We are running out of storage at Plymouth Creek Center. Blank said we have a spot down in the northeast corner of the fieldhouse where a double space garage could be built to store tools, etc., that would be used to maintain the Millennium Garden. The indoor tennis court was discussed briefly. At the Hilde Performance Center there's a need for additional lighting and an improved sound system. We need to replace the Rolling Hills playground at some point. It's the oldest one in the system. The third sheet of ice at the Ice Center is still of interest. The current CIP was then reviewed. Rezabek asked about the outdoor hockey rink at the high school. Blank said it's not on the list, because of the low density housing there. He doesn't see a need for another skating rink at this time. Blank doesn't see a parking issue at the Ice Center if we add a third sheet of ice there. Fiemann said Breck spent millions to put in a rink along Hwy. 55 west of Theodore Wirth Parkway. Our estimate to add a third sheet is $4.5 million. Blank said the operating cost of a free standing indoor ice rink is what makes it cost prohibitive, not the capital cost. Fiemann said we don't have enough ice time now to handle all the requests at the Ice Center. Blank asked for additional ideas from the Commissioners. The City manager has had the finance department looking at big capital items over the next 10 years including the acquisition of property for the NWG, a third sheet of ice, police department and fire department needs, etc. All could be financed, but the trick will be the land acquisition. Land cost PRAC Minutes/July 2002 Page 34 increases at 15% per year. The finance study shows that we need to buy land. Some current money comes out of a fund called the Capital Improvement Fund to purchase land, Blank explained. Some money would come from park dedication, and some would also come from the CIF in 2003. In 2006, we would have to repay the loan to the CIF, Blank said. We're now looking at a new scheme that says whatever money is in park dedication, half would be committed to land acquisition and half to projects each year. A key piece of property is the Begin land. Mr. Begin is having serious health problems. We cannot negotiate at this time with the Begins because of this. We're probably going to hold a lot of money aside for land acquisition, and limit some of the building projects. The police department wants an underground parking garage for the squad cars. Musliner asked about the teen center. Blank said there's nothing planned for right now. They could have some of the space in the finished lower level of the Plymouth Creek Center. However, we have learned that we may have to scale back on what we do with the lower level and complete it in two phases, instead of all at once, although it would cost 80,000 less to do the entire project in one phase. Staff is leaning toward waiting to see what the legislature does this session before making any final decision. 7. COMMISSION PRESENTATION Singer discussed her tobacco free crusade. Cloquet has adopted a tobacco free policy. Evans is doing research on this topic and is trying to get surrounding communities to buy into the idea. She stated that Roseville is tobacco free. Singer said she could have the soccer club draft a letter supporting such a policy. Our plan is to bring something to the Commission in January. Singer stated she was encouraged by all the ideas for teen programming. 8. STAFF COMMUNICATION Blank handed out forms to sell chances on the Rotary Duck Derby race. The race will be October 5 in the amphitheater pond after Plymouth on Parade. 9. ADJOURN The meeting adjourned at 8:25 p.m.