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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPark and Recreation Advisory Commission Minutes 05-13-2004MINUTES OF THE PARK AND RECREATION ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING May 13, 2004 Page 17 PRESENT: Commissioners Aamoth, Davis, Fiemann, Krahulec, Rezabek, Ritchie, Singer, staff Blank, Michaud, and Pederson ABSENT: Meyer, Rodriguez 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair Fiemann called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Singer moved and Aamoth seconded a motion to approve the minutes from the April 8 meeting. Motion carried with all ayes. 3. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS a. Athletic Associations. No athletic association representatives were present at the meeting. b. Staff — Regina Michaud — report on youth and teen programs. Michaud said she was honored to be working for Plymouth and is very thankful for the strong support from the City Council and the Park and Recreation Advisory Commission. She has a bachelors and a masters in recreation services. She started in January of 2000 as a recreation intern, and following her internship, she was hired as a coordinator working with aquatics, special events and eventually teen programs. Her full time status began in August 2001. Her areas of responsibility include preschool education, recreation and fitness programs, summer playground and concessions, teen programs, skate park programs, adult health and fitness, martial arts and self defense, and special events. One of her new programs is Play and Learn in Russian. This class is taught by a certified teacher from Russia who immigrated to the U.S. as an adult. Other communities have come to observe the class, because they want to start a similar program. We are now looking into developing a Play and Learn in Indian and Spanish for preschoolers. The summer playground program for ages 5-10 is offered at eight neighborhood parks and five playfields. Last summer 400 children participated, and for this summer's program, we currently have 345 registrations, with a few weeks to go before the program begins. Ten to 12 part-time employees are needed to run the playground program. It is tax and fee supported but we are moving more toward being totally fee supported. The Fantastic Friday adventures will all be at the newly renovated Plymouth Creek Center in the Black Box Theater. As part of the summer playground program, we work with Conect to provide opportunities for at -risk children. Conect is part of Interfaith PRAC Minutes/May 2004 Page 18 Outreach. Blank explained the Conect Collaborative. Low income single parent families are their main clients, Blank said. We interface with them to provide financial assistance and get them involved in our programs. We have helped train their staff as well. Concessions is another area Michaud oversees. This is a community service program rather than one that generates revenue. Historically, the concession stand has lost money each summer, but in the last two summers we have cut the deficit by 50% by making changes to hours, staffing, product pricing, and more events being held at Parkers Lake, like the teen and kid concerts. Michaud also runs programs at the Skate Park — skate jams, skateboard camps, etc. These events have been co -hosted by 3rd Lair and Sport Hut. Participants pay a fee to enter the competition, but spectators get in free. Our skate jams have been very well received. The skate jam is open to both inline skaters and skateboarders, but the skateboard camp is just for skateboarders. The teen programs cover ages 11-18. This is a year round program. There is a wide variety of activities for this age group, but it's very challenging to promote, because they are divided into middle school and high school, and the two do not want to intermingle in social or recreational settings. The teen program will have a more "permanent" home once the lower level of the Plymouth Creek Activity Center is done, Michaud explained. We now have some core programs that are successful and bringing in revenue. "The Stage" is a teen music venue run on the Parkers Lake Stage. This year we have 15 bands that have signed up to perform on seven different nights. Attendance at their concerts has ranged from 40 to 200. This group may expand over to use the Black Box Theatre stage. Michaud is considering having a Battle of the Bands there. New programs for teens include ProKart Skool and Camp, Mountain Biking, Fly Fishing, Step Up & Lead, Boundary Waters Canoe Trip, LAN parties (video game parties), and Friday Nights at the Black Box Theater. Michaud works with the Youth Advisory Council, supervising the special events they offer — the Youth Town Forum, Plymouth Youth Service Awards which recognizes youth that volunteer, and "Bridging the Gap," an intergenerational program between teens and seniors. They discuss current events or topics of interest. Five have been done so far with participation between 25 and 50. We have garnered three awards from this program so far. Michaud's adult programs cover ages 16 and up and fall mostly in the health and fitness area. Most popular now are yoga and pilates. We began morning pilates classes last fall. This has been so well received that we now offer an evening class. Future programs for adults may include fencing and ultimate Frisbee. Our jujitsu demonstration, held once a year, brings in an audience of 130+. Michaud runs several special events that are for all ages including New Years Around the World held at LifeTime and the Ice Center and the Summer Carnival held at Parkers Lake Park in late July for families. A new program this year is Mad Hatters Tea Party, scheduled for this Sunday. It includes crafts, movie, games & snack. A Fall Festival co -hosted by PRAC Minutes/May 2004 Page 19 area churches is an alternative Halloween event to be held on October 31. Michaud is now focusing on future issues/challenges — cultural diversity, fitness fighting obesity, Working Smarter and of course teens. Programs that have failed include Happy Hour at the library for teens. We tried Thursday night socials at the Plymouth Creek Center for teens so they could watch Friends and enjoy ice cream treats. This also bombed. Blank talked about the History Fest program held last Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Blank handed out statistics on summer registration — TTR, internet, walk-in and mail -in. 69% of registrations are now being done either by touch tone phone or on-line. Blank then showed a few slides on the groundbreaking at the Ice Center, construction of the lower level of the Plymouth Creek Center, the Reserve Neighborhood Park and Lake Camelot Neighborhood Park. c. Others. There were no other presentations. 4. REPORT ON PAST COUNCIL ACTION a. Approved trail on Nathan Lane. Council unanimously approved the construction of this trail. b. Awarded bids for Ice Center. Council awarded all the ice center bids. 5. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. Update on Plymouth Creek Center. A walk through is scheduled for next Thursday, but staff is concerned that the lower level will not be finished by then. All the workers are tripping over each other right now in order to get it done on time. Furniture is on hold until May 24. An open house will be planned at a future time. b. Update on Ice Center. The third ice sheet will be in full construction phase next week, beginning Monday. c. Update on Reserve Neighborhood park. We are ahead of schedule on this. The park could be substantially completed the third week of July, except for the grass. Davis asked about the grass seed washing away, because of the steep slopes. Blank said we have built berms to help prevent washing away of seed. 6. NEW BUSINESS a. Choose official name for new neiahborhood nark in The Reserve development. Blank said we're at the point where we need to order the identifying signs. It's time to give this park an official name. The park is contained in one development, called The Reserve, so staff is recommending that the park carry PRAC Minutes/May 2004 Page 20 the development's name. SINGER MOVED TO RECOMMEND THE NAME THE RESERVE NEIGHBORHOOD PARK. REZABEK SECONDED. MOTION CARRIED ALL AYES. b. Set fees for Ice Center. Blank explained that the City maintains a fiscal policy that keeps the rink solvent. This is the first time the rink will have debt associated with it in the form of a loan against its operation. The operating revenues need to cover both the replacement reserves and the debt on the arena, Blank said. Based on financial projections done by the city's financial analyst, staff is recommending a $10 per hour increase, plus a $5 surcharge. With this increase, we are still coming up just short of meeting both the debt load and the replacement reserves necessary for the Ice Center. Currently our winter rate is $145 per hour and our summer rate is $120 per hour, which is slightly on the low side. The Wayzata and Armstrong High Schools will not benefit from the third sheet, so there should not be a $5 surcharge imposed on them. Staff's recommendation is to raise both our summer rate and winter rate by $15. Staff would like to operate for one year to arrive at a base number of hours that we are able to sell. Once we determine that base, we will be better able to come up with the hourly rate necessary to meet both the debt service and the replacement reserves. If, after the first year of operating three ice sheets, we determine we are receiving more revenue than necessary to meet our needs, we may recommend adjusting the rates accordingly. Davis wants to know if we should bump up our summer rate, since we're below average on this fee. Blank said we sell out every summer, so for now he'd prefer to keep it this price. The winter rate would go into effect in September and the $135 summer rate would go into effect in 2005. Blank informed the high schools of what the new rate would likely be so they could budget for it next year. REZABEK MOVED TO APPROVE THE RATES AS PROPOSED BY STAFF. KRAHULEC SECONDED. When we close our books each year, our financial analyst always looks at the fees. Blank explained that his goal is to keep skating affordable for people. The more hours we sell, the lower we can keep our rates. We run $10- 15 lower than New Hope. Minnetonka is lower than we are. Fiemann asked if we have a different rate later at night. Blank said no. The only time we discount is for figure skaters who want to come in at 5 or 6 a.m. We have a lunch time open hockey for $5 per player. Aamoth asked how our reserve funds are doing. Blank said we are behind. We dipped into it to buy our dehumidification units. Once the loan is paid off, the reserves should build up very quickly to $300,000 or more. Both Wayzata Hockey and Providence have said they will pay whatever fee the Council sets. Providence has to buy 250 hours from us as part of their agreement. Aamoth asked if we anticipate any problems while the third rink is being built. Blank said we don't foresee any problems. MOTION CARRIED, ALL AYES. 7. COMMISSION PRESENTATION None. PRAC Minutes/May 2004 Page 21 8. STAFF COMMUNICATION The Wayzata School District dome and field were approved Tuesday night by the City Council on a 6-1 vote, Blank said. It will be located at Wayzata Central Middle School and will feature a plastic sheet of ice for hockey. The Baseball Association will put in 12 batting cages. There will be an artificial turf field for soccer. They plan to charge $100 for a half field. We charge $107 for our half field. The Planning Commission did not approve the plan because of a number of different issues. When the plan was presented to the Council, all of these issues had been resolved to the Council's satisfaction. Blank said we have been selected as a finalist once again for the National Gold Medal award. We are up against two of the same three cities from last year, and the new finalist in our category is Bend, Oregon. The tobacco free policy will be an important part of our video this year. 9. ADJOURN The meeting adjourned at 8:45 p.m.