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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPark and Recreation Advisory Commission Minutes 02-05-2004MINUTES OF THE PARK AND RECREATION ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING February 5, 2004 Page 6 PRESENT: Commissioners Aamoth, Davis, Fiemann, Krahulec, Rezabek, Ritchie, Rodriguez, staff Anderson, Blank, Evans, and Pederson; Councilmember Slavik; Planning Commissioner Weir; Mayor Johnson ABSENT: Singer, Meyer 1. CALL TO ORDER Vice Chair Fiemann called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. in the Council Chambers. Fiemann introduced Jim Davis, new commissioner replacing Don Anderson. Davis stated that he has lived in Plymouth for four years and relocated here from Pennsylvania. He works for United Defense in Fridley, and is an engineer in the contracts division. He is married, and they have a son who is 9 years old. He enjoys playing hockey and golf. Commission members and staff then introduced themselves to Davis. Fiemann stated it was time for nominations for Chair and Vice Chair. Rezabek nominated Fiemann for Chair, Ritchie seconded. There were no other nominations, and Fiemann was unanimously approved. Rodriguez then nominated Singer for Vice Chair, Krahulec seconded. There were no other nominations. Singer was unanimously approved for Vice Chair. Mayor Johnson gave her verbal approval of the nominations and said she would be sending letters congratulating the appointees. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Rezabek moved and Krahulec seconded a motion to approve the January minutes. Motion carried with all ayes. 3. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS a. Athletic Associations. No athletic association representatives were present at the meeting. b. Staff. Evans stated it was a busy time of year. In the next four months, there will be five special events happening. Saturday is the Fire and Ice Festival. Evans said she had a schedule of who is working at the bonfire. There are still some open spaces available. She reminded everyone when they were working. The weather is looking good for Saturday. We have between 50 and 60 volunteers working at this event. We are also working on the Yard and Garden Expo, Primavera, the History Fest and the Chocolate Sampler. As snow continues to fall, we are busy planning summer programs. The summer brochure is due at the printers in mid—March. The catalog comes out in early April. In addition to these events, the application for the Gold Medal award is due the middle of the month also. Fiemann asked Evans to explain the Gold PRAC Minutes/February 2004 Page 7 Medal award to new commissioner Davis. Davis was already familiar with it, he said. Evans then distributed a handout, which featured all the finalists for the Gold Medal award in 2003. Ritchie asked about Primavera. She said she wasn't familiar with this event. Evans explained that it is an art event for local artists to display their work. Blank explained that it is a juried art show and prizes are awarded to the winners. Evans then introduced Cindy Anderson who has been with the park and recreation department since 1988. Her areas of expertise include aquatics and risk management, first aid and safety, adaptive recreation and inclusion, soccer and outdoor education. Anderson said she's proud to be part of such a great team that has been recognized throughout the state and nationally as hard working, creative and responsive to the community. She feels very fortunate that she has been able to work in her areas of strengths and interests. She has a wide array of responsibilities including aquatics. We offer swimming lessons during the school year and throughout the summer months at East and West Middle schools. During the school year, we have about 20 staff and in the summer we employ about 40. Some of our seasonal staff cross over to other areas such as the Ice Center and preschool programs. Many of the staff typically start in one program and then continue to serve throughout their college years. The aquatics program includes two beaches that are guarded, Parkers Lake and West Medicine, and one unguarded at East Medicine. Other programs under this umbrella include sailing, snorkeling, and other special events. We've added to our complement of safety classes including babysitter training, CPR, first aid and firearm safety. Anderson then mentioned some of the new swim programs we will be offering this year. Our Junior Lifeguard program was one of the first of its kind in the state. Gym, Swim and Movie is a program held on school release days for K - 5 t" grade. A new program we've started is our Little Sweetheart/Costume Ball dances for ages 7 & under and their parents. Another program she's very fond of is the Ski and Snowboard Club, which offers Friday evening trips to area ski resorts. Students from West, East, Central and Plymouth Middle Schools participate. This program has a great group of volunteers. We have a summer day camp program at French Park. We work in collaboration with the Three Rivers Park District and very closely with their naturalists. This program is for children in grades K-5 and offers a variety of outdoor camp activities in a small camp setting. Some camp themes have included Wild Bug Bunch, Motion of the Ocean, plus a fun Friday trip to places like Taylors Falls, Valleyfair, Bunker Hills Wave Pool, etc. Another major program Anderson oversees is soccer. When soccer started we had 350 participants, and boys and girls played together. We were one of the first park and recreation departments to separate the boys and girls, which resulted in the girls' participation doubling the next season. Now we have over 1,200 kids, 125 teams and 275 volunteer coaches. Anderson talked then about our adaptive program which has two components to serve our participants with special needs. We provide inclusion programs for participants in need of additional support to make their recreation experience successful. We also are part of a seven—city consortium that contracts with REACH. This agency services people with disabilities and their families providing information, referral, advocacy, counseling, social and recreational groups and education. Anderson stated that in the area of inclusion, Plymouth PRAC Minutes/February 2004 Page 8 has provided support services for kids with asthma, allergies, ADHD, diabetes, visual and hearing impairments, autism and other developmental delays. Some kids require one—on—one assistance. Anderson attended the National Inclusion Institute in Bloomington last fall and learned that Plymouth is progressive and proactive in its inclusion services on the national level. Anderson said that Plymouth's participation with REACH provides a variety of programs for individuals that we would not be able to provide on our own. Our city continues to have the highest number of participants. Anderson's concerns for the future include inclusion services expanding to cover seniors, competition with other agencies for the same participants, such as Foss Swim School, LifeTime camps, swimming and youth programs, water quality issues with the beaches, and the need to offer more multi—generation programs. Krahulec asked about the water quality at Medicine Lake. Anderson said we test our beaches weekly. Three Rivers Park District tests the water. The state has changed the guidelines for water quality and it's much stricter now, which may result in closing our beaches more often this year. Blank said Anderson is in a very unique position due to safety issues. Her programs attain the highest standard. We have never had a serious accident at any of our beaches in the years that Anderson has been involved in these programs. c. Others. There were no other presentations. 4. REPORT ON PAST COUNCIL ACTION a. Award bid on Plymouth Creek Center lower level. Blank stated the bid was awarded at $601,000, which was $220,000 under the estimate. 5. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. Update on Ice Center. We are out for bid packages one and two. Bid package one is all of the long items that take months to order — long span steel joists, tip—up concrete walls, risers, etc. Bid package one will open on February 17 and go to the Council on February 24. Bid package two includes 25 subcontracts. These will be opened on the afternoon of February 24. Providence Academy will have to sign off on the project at this point. Providence will also provide a $500,000 check that evening and Wayzata Hockey will present $175,000 that evening. No lost days so far on this project. b. Update on Plymouth Creek Center. Construction has begun. The staircase has been bagged so that very little construction dust makes its way upstairs. Noise is an issue, however, but we have notified everyone who has rooms rented, etc. We are trying to move some groups over to the Ice Center whenever possible. Some chairs and tables are coming in next week to be tested by staff and seniors. We are still looking at the first of May for completion, Blank said. c. Approve annual report. Fiemann said the annual report looks fantastic. Other commissioners agreed. Blank said he is very excited about the document and thanked Evans and Pederson and the rest of the staff that worked on it. Blank then went over the work plan. He said the Council had their work session on setting goals and continues to encourage the acquisition of open space. Evans PRAC Minutes/February 2004 Page 9 is working on a promotion program for the Tobacco Free Policy. Signs will be distributed throughout the park system in the spring. We have selected a 5— sided shelter for the Reserve neighborhood park. The Twin City Tree Trust is making its way across the lake at Lake Camelot with the boardwalk. We have awarded a bid for a second picnic shelter high on the hill on the west side of the park. The Tree Trust is a summer work program for disadvantaged youth. During the rest of the year, there's an adult component that also is employed by the Tree Trust. We will get this project done for about $8,000. It's a suspended boardwalk with pilings, not a floating boardwalk, Blank explained. There will be a dedication in May or June, in the evening. We now have 18 weddings booked at the Millennium Garden. We need to monitor our policies there and our costs. At the April Commission meeting, we will be back with some fee recommendations for the garden. We have run into a stumbling block with the parade. The Jewish holidays have caused the Classic Lake Conference to change their games from Friday night to Saturday afternoon, which creates a conflict for the high school bands that would have performed at the parade. We may have to go back to having the parade on October 2 this year. Blank discussed expanded programs for teens. We are going to do some Boundary Waters events this year. Blank will be meeting with the Plymouth Civic League to discuss doing a paid event at the Hilde either in 2004 or 2005. We will try to bring in a top national act and charge admission. We're going to expand general programming there, as well. Other work plan items included the annual park tour, working on the CIP and getting it wrapped up in November. Blank said we want the CIP to run in conjunction with the operating budget. Unless there are corrections or additions, staff is recommending that the annual report be approved and forwarded to the City Council. Rezabek asked about adding a footnote somewhere in the report thanking the staff that were involved. Blank said we could work that out. Fiemann suggested instead that Rezabek make a motion recognizing the staff that worked on the annual report. REZABEK MOVED AND KRAHULEC SECONDED A MOTION RECOGNIZING ALL STAFF THAT CONTRIBUTED TO THE ANNUAL REPORT. THE MOTION CARRIED, ALL AYES. Davis asked about the registration methods and what was going on with the trends. It looked like they reversed in the fall of 2003. Blank said this had puzzled him too, so he asked staff if they had an explanation. No one was able to come up with a reason for this change. REZABEK MADE A MOTION, SECONDED BY KRAHULEC, TO APPROVE THE ANNUAL REPORT. MOTION CARRIED, ALL AYES. 6. NEW BUSINESS There was no new business. 7. COMMISSION PRESENTATION None. 8. STAFF COMMUNICATION Blank stated that the Vietnam Scout Dog Memorial would be back for more discussion at the next meeting. Blank explained the history of this request for the benefit of Commissioner Davis. The family would like to have it installed by PRAC Minutes/February 2004 Page 10 Memorial Day. We've talked with our wood carver who would do a generic version for $3,500. To do an exact replica of the dog in the photo would cost about $7,000. The family's request for the wording on the plaque is very specific, and they want the memorial located in West Medicine Lake Park. Fiemann said he understood that staff was going to do some research on this type of thing in other communities. There is no clear direction on how others have handled this sort of request, Blank said. Aamoth asked if there was something we do in the area of planting trees as memorials. Blank said we have park benches and trees that have been donated as memorials. Fiemann asked about the cost of benches. Blank said $850. Davis asked if the family wants the city to pay for the memorial. Blank said no, they would pay for it themselves. Fiemann reiterated that the issue is that we may set a precedence if we say yes to this. Fiemann said it's a sensitive issue, but he is in favor of the memorial. Rezabek said he favors it too, but he says we need to be careful how we do this. Slavik said we turned down the Christmas Box Angel statue, which ended up being installed in Maple Grove. Slavik said it would be nice to perhaps include this in some type of art in the park program. Blank said we need to research guidelines and policies for putting this type of item in our parks. Blank's inclination is to say yes, but we have to package it in some way that states we have total control over it. Fiemann asked if the family wants the wording on the plaque to specifically honor the family's brother. Blank said the wording they requested honors all the scout dogs and their handlers that saved over 10,000 lives during the Vietnam War. Aamoth asked if we had asked them if they were open to another location or another type of memorial. Blank said the family wants the statue to be a dog, and they want it at West Medicine Lake, because that's near where they live. This will be the only statue like this in the entire United States, Blank said. Fiemann said this could cause some concerns due to people from all over the country who may want to visit it. Rodriguez wants to see pictures of the proposed location. Blank said he would take some digital pictures and have them available at the next meeting. 9. ADJOURN The meeting adjourned at 8:07 p.m.