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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPark and Recreation Advisory Commission Minutes 03-10-2005MINUTES OF THE PARK AND RECREATION ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING March 10, 2005 Page 1 PRESENT: Commissioners Fiemann, Davis, Griwac, Krahulec, Rezabek, Planning Commissioner Weir, staff Blank, Evans, Lauer, and Pederson ABSENT: Commissioners Aamoth, Pederson, Singer CALL TO ORDER Chair Fiemann called the meeting to order at 7 p.m. in the Council Chambers. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Davis made a motion to approve the minutes of the February meeting. Krahulec seconded. Motion carried, all ayes. 3. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS a. Athletic Associations. None were present. b. Staff. Evans handed out some warming house statistics that had been prepared by Dan Lauer. Rezabek asked if there is a specific order on when the rinks get maintained? Blank said there's a north flooding crew and a south flooding crew. Lacompte, Plymouth Creek, Ridgemount, and Oakwood are all in the Wayzata School District. Plymouth Middle School and Zachary are in the Robbinsdale District. Streets, parking lots, and trails, are first on the priority list for being maintained, rinks are last. Trails have a higher priority than rinks because more people use the trails than use the rinks, and we get far more calls about the trails. Fiemann said the WHA uses the rinks at Ridgemount and Plymouth Creek. Rezabek would like the rinks at Plymouth Creek and Ridgemount to be the first ones maintained during the skating season. Fiemann says he heard that Wayzata uses a tanker truck with a rag to flood Klaprich. Wayzata uses white boards, Plymouth doesn't. Maybe we need to take a look at how other communities are maintaining their ice. Blank said he would talk to Sonny from Wayzata. They're only maintaining one rink, we're maintaining 19. Blank said he is less than enthusiastic about the maintenance of our rinks, but he doesn't have a solution at this time. Blank said painted boards do not make much difference. The sun heats them both up almost equally. Blank said he thinks other communities have more time to do hand flooding than we do. Every rink is broomed, shoveled, and flooded every day unless there's a snow storm. Blank will have discussions with maintenance this summer about flooding rinks. Our base business is recreational skating. Wherever we have two rinks, only one is reserved for the hockey association. The other one is left open for non -hockey association players or the neighborhood kids to use. We have one shaving machine that goes on the hockey rinks, and they sometimes forget the pleasure rink. Rezabek said he has been receiving complaints about the cleanliness of the Ice Center, and he's seen it firsthand. There is a month's worth of gum, trash, etc., in the stands of the C ice rink. Better cleaning needs to be done. Garbage cans are overflowing. Blank said he would look into it. Evans said we are very PRAC Minutes/March 2005 Page 2 busy trying to get the summer catalog out. Some things to watch for that are new this summer include a professional theatre tour company doing a week long camp and then putting on a performance of Robin Hood at the Hilde, we are partnering with our forestry department to do some planting and landscaping, and a reminder that besides this being the 50th anniversary of the city and the 25th anniversary of Parks and Recreation, the Plymouth Creek Center is celebrating it's 5th anniversary. We've mailed off our Gold Medal application. We are starting to work on the video for that. Some upcoming special events include the Yard and Garden Expo April 9, the Primavera Fine Art Show, also in April, and the Chocolate Sampler in May. The History Fest has been cancelled due to dwindling elementary school enrollment and escalating costs. Staff is trying to come up with something different to do during that weekend in 2006. 4. REPORT ON PAST COUNCIL ACTION a. Council approved Annual Report. Council approved the 2004 annual report and thanked the Commission for a great job. 5. UNFINISHED BUSINESS There was no unfinished business to report. 6. NEW BUSINESS a. Frank White - youth sports issues. Director Blank introduced Frank White who was present to discuss violence in youth sports. White grew up in St. Paul, was close personal friends with Dave Winfield, and has worked many high school and college basketball tournaments. White wants Minnesota to be a leader in how it deals with youth sports, especially in relationship to parents and spectators. There are rules in place for coaches, but there are no rules for parents and spectators in terms of how they conduct themselves at youth sporting events. He showed a tape from the ABC program 20/20 dealing with violence on the field, etc., against coaches, umpires, referees, etc., by players and parents. Spectators and parents in the stands are the big problem now. He shared ideas on how to improve things. Rage is happening everywhere, from the highways to the express lanes at the grocery store. There's been a dramatic shift in youth sports away from a sense of enjoyment and sportsmanship to intense competition, winning at all costs and being number one. What values are we teaching? Children should be focusing on developing a positive self image, learning to work as part of a team, learning to manage success and disappointment, and respect for others. David Walsh said "when winning is the dominant value, moral and ethical values inevitably suffer." What is sports violence? "Any word or action by an athlete, coach, game official, parent or spectator that inflicts harm on those involved in a sport activity." Types of sports violence: philosophical violence, a win at all costs attitude, a "no pain -no gain" attitude, physical violence, emotional violence, and sexual violence. Factors that could contribute to violence in sports: players, coaches, spectators, officials, professional sports, college and high school sports, rivalries, bias/prejudice. There are not enough officials in high school sports today in Minnesota. More folks need to be trained to be officials. Can violence in sports be eliminated? An immediate solution would be to formally adopt codes of conduct, agree to have PRAC Minutes/March 2005 Page 3 them enforced by officials and staff and then discipline those who violate them. The long term solution is to educate players and coaches, parents, etc. Ways to prevent violence in youth sports include developing a code of conduct for players, coaches, parents, officials. White stated that the Northfield Youth Baseball Association hands out a card to disruptive people attending their events which reads, "We the NYBA appreciate your attendance at our youth events. Our participants need your positive support, and encouragement. Abusive behavior of players, coaches, umps or fans will not be tolerated. If your behavior continues we will stop the game until you leave the premises. "We can make a difference: treat all players with respect, keep the reason for the game in perspective, use appropriate discipline, take injuries seriously, replace putdowns with instructions, motivate with praise not name calling, do not accept abusive behavior. For parents: prepare your child to be athletes, help your child find the coach and team that works for him or her, encourage instead of yell, remember the purpose of the game, don't coach from the sidelines, be a positive role model, examine your expectations. White's goal is to get us to take a look at what's going on in youth sports. Handing out "the card" is effective in dealing with difficult situations. Blank asked for an explanation of "the card." White said that upfront people are told what the expectations are by reading the reminder. Next step is for a coach to make a comment to calm down the offensive person. Third step is having the card handed out by an official. In AAU basketball, coaches are told that they are responsible for the parents of their players. Blank asked White to address the issue of having cities start the ball rolling by saying that athletic associations may not be able to use city facilities if they don't start disciplining their parents, spectators, etc. White wasn't aware of any cities doing that at this time, but commented that in order for it to work, you'd need the support of your city council. b. 2005 trail improvement project. Blank explained that the CIP has set aside 80,000 to do trails in 2005. We spent more in 2004 than anticipated and took in a bit less revenue. The trail on 36th is the most urgent need. Blank reviewed some possible trail projects for 2005. We need to complete the trail from the New Hope bridge over to the walking entrance to French Park. The price to do that is 31,000, leaving about $50,000 in the budget. The County is looking at upgrading 101 from Co. Rd. 6 to Co. Rd. 24. They also have to improve County Road 24 as part of that project. REZABEK MADE A MOTION TO DO THE TRAIL ON 36TH AVENUE AS RECOMMENDED BY STAFF. RODRIGUEZ SECONDED. MOTION CARRIED, ALL AYES. Fiemann wants the trail on Medina Road finished to the Greenwood athletic complex at some point. He understands the reasons for not doing it now. Blank said he doesn't anticipate seeing much extra money coming in this year in the way of park dedication, but if things change, he'll look at an additional trail. Blank then talked about the land we're getting around Lake Pomerleau. We paid $210,000 for five acres. Blank said the Council is moving ahead with planning northwest Plymouth. The first task is land use guide planning. Once the guide plan is established we'll know more about density, etc. Blank is very close to drawing up the purchase option on the Begin property. Fiemann is interested in a future bike path between the Rainbow Foods, Panera Bread, Hollywood Video shopping area and the new PRAC Minutes/March 2005 Page 4 Lowe's, etc. He wants the trail closer to 55. Blank said we know we need an east/west connection there. 7. COMMISSION PRESENTATION Fiemann thinks Frank White brought up some interesting topics including the city's role in encouraging youth athletic associations to have policies in place to deal with fans, parents, etc. Staff will talk about some ideas. Fiemann thinks groups should be encouraged to have a code of conduct in place that is supported by the city, but not to the extent that the city would start enforcing it. He believes we need to be a positive role model. Davis wants to make sure a park tour gets scheduled this year. Staff will try to schedule it in June, rather than waiting until August. 8. STAFF COMMUNICATION None. 9. ADJOURN The meeting adjourned at 9:15 p.m.