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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPark and Recreation Advisory Commission Minutes 08-12-2004MINUTES OF THE PARK AND RECREATION ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING August 12, 2004 Page 25 PRESENT: Aamoth, Davis, Griwac, Fiemann, Krahulec, Rezabek, staff Blank, Busch, and Pederson ABSENT: Singer, Rodriguez CALL TO ORDER Chair Fiemann called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. in the large conference room of the Plymouth Creek Center. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Rezabek moved and Davis seconded a motion to approve the minutes of the June meeting as presented. Motion carried all ayes. Fiemann introduced Marti Griwac, a new student commissioner. Commissioners introduced themselves to Marti. Staff introduced themselves. Fiemann announced that Mary Meyer has resigned. Seth Pederson will be taking her place at the next meeting. 3. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS a. Athletic Associations. No athletic association representatives were present at the meeting. b. Staff. Blank announced that Evans is in Scotland as part of her master's degree program. Blank stated that summer activities have pretty much wrapped up. The final children's concert was cancelled due to cold weather. The fall brochure is out. Maintenance is doing a lot of field renovations right now. The City Council will start doing budget study sessions in the coming weeks. Blank then discussed the outline for tonight's meeting, starting with Rick's presentation on the Plymouth Creek Center, which will be followed by a tour and slide show in the new Black Box Theater. 4. REPORT ON PAST COUNCIL ACTION a. Approved field house rental rates. The proposed fees for 2005 were approved. 5. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. Update on Plvmouth Creek Center construction. review Center's operations tour of Center. Busch indicated that the senior coordinator, Sara Mittelstaedt, wasn't able to attend the meeting as she is on vacation this week. He stated that with the completion of the lower level, the Plymouth Rockers senior choir can now practice down on the lower level in the Black Box Theater. The senior choir recently hired a new director. He works at Golden Valley Lutheran Church PRAC Minutes/August 2004 Page 26 as their musical director. They also added a group to the Rockers that does tap dancing performances. Sara has enhanced the health programs for the seniors through a program called Health Quest. Sara is contracted through West Hennepin Community Services. Another area that is increasing rapidly is the Augsburg College of the Third Age program. Bridging the Gap is a popular program with area high school students and seniors getting together to discuss current events. It's an opportunity for these two different age groups to try to come to some understanding of their different points of view regarding current events and social issues. Senior enrollment has increased quite a bit each year since this facility opened. The seniors were a big part of the influence to finish the lower level. The senior programs grew so fast that the need was more immediate than originally anticipated. A new feature at the Plymouth Creek Center is that many rooms are now wireless, allowing people to use laptop computers, which will be very beneficial for groups conducting seminars, etc. The Ice Center will eventually be wireless as well. We're thinking of setting up similar hot zones in some of our parks, such as Parkers Lake. Busch then went over the rental income for the Plymouth Creek Center covering the years 2001 through the first half of 2004 explaining that the yearly totals include catering rebates. We receive a certain percentage from the caterer for liquor and food sales. Busch next discussed the types of bookings at the Plymouth Creek Center during the first half of 2004, showing comparisons between senior programs, park and recreation programs, non-profit groups, city staff meetings, and paid rentals. He explained that the philosophy when the building first opened was to fill it as much as possible with park and recreation programs, etc. Income was to be generated by weekend special events such as weddings, banquets, etc. There were more rentals in the first year, due to less park and recreation programs being offered at this site. Now more and more classes are held here. Staff is doing a very good job of getting community groups in the Plymouth Creek Center for free usage, but there are not as many rentals now to generate income. The Millennium Garden has helped in this area. This year we will have 25 weddings in the garden. There are about two large social functions at the Plymouth Creek Center each week. Busch said this year he anticipates revenue of $110,000. The number of City staff meetings at this facility will increase quite a bit once construction begins on the Council Chambers, including the City Council meetings. Paid rentals were about 6% of the usage in the first half of the year. Busch said he's hoping to increase park and recreation usage in this facility in the future. Busch explained that a couple of years ago he was approached by an organization called Equality, a group of mentally retarded adults. They clean this facility about three hours per day, three days a week, and a couple of hours the other two days at the Ice Center. They are paid $30 per hour, which is a cost saving measure for the city. PRAC Minutes/August 2004 Page 27 The Plymouth Creek Center has two full time clerical staff, Busch said. They are supplemented with a half time clerical person each day from 10 to 2. Every afternoon from 2-5, the center has senior volunteer greeters. The fieldhouse report covered the season from November through April. Through the first four months the fieldhouse took in $230,000. In November and December things are slower but Busch anticipates taking in $55,000. Expenses are about $190,000 to $195,000 per year. Rates for this coming fieldhouse season, the sixth season, will be $244 for primetime and $210 for non primetime. Augsburg, Holly Angels, Eden Prairie, Woodbury, and Stillwater all have domes. Minnetonka is in the process of planning a dome. We are well under the market rate for rentals. The new dome at Central Middle will be a competitor somewhat, but it's different from our dome. Requests for our facility this season are well over what they were last season. Our biggest users are Plymouth Soccer, Wings Soccer, Wayzata Baseball, etc. From January to April, these groups will have 60 to 70 percent of primetime use. Lacrosse is also booming, but primarily after school. Wayzata and Armstrong have both boys and girls lacrosse. Wayzata has rugby too. Every afternoon is sold out from 3-6 from mid February to mid April to these groups. The lacrosse season runs from February to summer. It's considered a spring sport. Soccer was the biggest user when the dome first opened five years ago. We don't want to be just a soccer dome, Busch said. We have to get all of these other sports in. Blank said the Council was concerned that when the Central Middle School dome came along, we would lose business. This hasn't happened. Our three largest users have requested even more time for the coming season. The Plymouth Soccer Association will have their headquarters in the fieldhouse this year. Soccer has now given up using all the elementary gyms which they held permits on for 10 years. The net effect is that soccer is going to buy even more time from us. Busch said beyond the time we rent out to all these groups, we have a golf net in the fieldhouse dome, so that people can come in and practice their golf swing during the day. We have some preschool park and recreation classes in the dome also. Some late evening adult soccer games are held here, too. There are open times for kids to come in and play for an hour or two mid morning for a very reasonable rate. We don't heat the building in the morning, as a cost savings measure. We have walking in the dome also. This year we are going to run a morning preschool program, so the building will be heated all day on those days. We have an inflated castle that the preschoolers really enjoy. Men's senior softball played in the dome two years ago, but last year they found another location that was cheaper. It costs roughly $30 an hour to heat the dome. The heat has to be turned on two hours ahead of time to get it to 55 degrees for the users. There are no locker rooms connected to the dome, Busch said. b. Update on Ice Center. Blank said that the ice center project is on schedule to the day. The steel joists should arrive next week. The concrete roofs over the PRAC Minutes/August 2004 Page 28 Zamboni room should arrive next week as well. We are still planning on December 1 as the opening day for the third sheet of ice. We renegotiated another five years with the Coca-Cola Corporation, and they gave us $65,000 which covers the cost of the concrete floor for the third sheet. c. Update on current construction projects. Blank gave a slide show presentation to the commissioners in the new Black Box Theater on the capital improvements being done this year. d. Review 2005-2009 capital improvement projects. Blank discussed the 2005-09 CIP and explained that it's on a different schedule this year. The Council wants to see a draft form of the CIP in September prior to the Planning Commission public hearing scheduled for November 3, with final adoption by the Council scheduled for December 14. Blank then went over the proposed CIP, year by year, explaining the projects proposed by parks and recreation. The total amount for land acquisition of the 10th playfield is $3.5 million. We have finally begun talks with the Begins. We also are talking about acquiring the rest of the land around Pomerleau Lake. We're looking for a way to bring the new Plymouth Foundation into negotiations. Blank said he had received a request from one family to put in a preschool play apparatus at Plymouth Creek Elementary. We've talked to the school district about this. We could probably install it for $30,000 or less. The equipment would be designed for children 5 and younger. No decision has been made at this time on going forward with this project. 6. NEW BUSINESS a. Discuss park tour. Blank asked if the commissioners wanted to go on a park tour this summer, which they typically do in August. Several commissioners didn't feel it was necessary to go on a tour every year. Davis suggested instead that Blank just take the newer commissioners on a tour, if one could be arranged. 7. COMMISSION PRESENTATION Rezabek mentioned the loss of park space at East Medicine Lake due to the holding ponds. There are no plans right now Blank said to put water quality ponds in any other parks. 8. STAFF COMMUNICATION Blank said that September 13 is the date for the grand opening of the Plymouth Creek Center lower level, from 4-6 p.m. Refreshments will be served. 9. ADJOURN The meeting adjourned at 9:10 p.m.