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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPark and Recreation Advisory Commission Minutes 01-11-2007MINUTES OF THE PARK AND RECREATION ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING January 11, 2007 PRESENT: Commissioners Aamoth, Davis, Fiemann, Griwac, Krahulec, Mohagen, staff Blank, Evans, Herman, Pederson ABSENT: Pederson, Rezabek, Singer CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order at 7:01 p.m. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Krahulec moved and Davis seconded a motion to approve the November minutes. Motion carried, all ayes. 3. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS a. Athletic Associations. None were present at the meeting. b. Staff. Evans said it is a busy time right now for Parks & Recreation. Staff is gathering end of the year information for 2006. 2006 was a good year. Parks and Recreation drew over 70,000 participants. We ran over 1700 programs, which is up from 1620 programs in 2005. Parks & Recreation did quite well despite canceling two major events; Fire and Ice and the New Years Event. Both events were cancelled due to poor weather conditions. Davis asked how we let participants know about the cancelled New Years Event. Evans said staff came in early to call pre -registered participants and put up signs at the site to inform walk-ins. Fire and Ice for 2007 will be held on February 3. The event location is still in limbo because there is not currently enough ice on Parkers Lake. If Parkers Lake is unusable the event will be held at an alternate location, possibly the Hilde Performance Center. Information regarding Fire and Ice will be posted in the papers. Evans is looking for Park Commission volunteers to staff the bonfire and Fire and Ice. Another upcoming event is the Little Sweetheart Ball on February 2 at the Plymouth Creek Center. This is a popular event which usually draws 200-300 people. The next big event after Fire and Ice is the Yard and Garden Expo in April. The office is currently getting ready for summer. The programmers are getting programs in shape and are starting to put them in the brochure, which will go out in mid-March. New programs in the summer brochure will include a banner contest in conjunction with the Plymouth Fine Arts Council, a teen or youth garage sale, and staff are toying with the idea of a used prom dress event. The warming houses are having a tough year for the second year in a row. We intended to open December 16 but were unable to due to poor weather conditions and bad ice. We opened for the season on January 5, and people are utilizing them despite somewhat poor ice. The weather is getting cold and we are hoping for good ice later. Maintenance is working hard on getting the ice into good shape. The only site which is not open is Parkers Lake and we are PRAC Minutes/January 2007 Page 2 waiting for more ice cover. Blank stated that we need a permit from the Sheriff's Patrol office to use Parkers Lake but they are denying us right now. Wayzata was also denied for their annual chili event. Parkers Lake currently has 7 inches of ice and we need 12-14 inches to bring equipment onto the ice to get it ready. With temperatures dropping this weekend we are anticipating'/ -1 inch every night. Maintenance is measuring ice cover every day. Blank stressed that safety comes first and we will not hold events on Parkers Lake unless it is safe. c. Others. There were no other presentations. PRAC Minutes/January 2007 Page 3 4. REPORT ON PAST COUNCIL ACTION a. Nothing to report. Davis asked if the City Council approved the fee changes from the last meeting. Blank responded that the Council did approve the changes at a November meeting. 5. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. Update on comp plan. Blank said there was no substantial work in the fall. The new Planning director will start next week which will help move the comp plan along. In 2006 the City Council adopted a preliminary land use plan for Northwest Plymouth which is what is being looked at and focused on for the comp plan. On February 8 the Council will look at the other 31 square miles of Plymouth to see if there is anything they want to look closer at. The Council will give directives to the planning commission if they want to look further at something. Last year the Council looked at the area of Highway 55 and Vicksburg Lane. In the spring the Council will look at the parks component of the comp plan. There is one document from SRF which lists 15-20 potential items they may want to update for the comp plan. These items include safe routes for schools (in partnership with the school district), and multi -cultural populations and programs we may want to offer for them. An internal team will look at the park and trail system. The internal team will determine what items on the list are important as study items and if we should do the study in-house or use an outside consultant. The Commission should tell Blank and Evans in the next month what they think should be looked at. The staff is currently working on a public art policy but we don't know if it will be in comp plan. Once the comp plan is done by mid 2008 it will be reviewed by surrounding communities for how it may impact them. The current plan is two thick books and the Council wants the plan to be much smaller. The new plan will be a small book referencing appendixes. The council thinks a smaller book will be more user friendly. b. Update on Greenwood Building. The contractor has put in sub grade work, footings and foundations. They are taking a timeout right now because the baseball association was concerned about winter construction costs. We anticipate opening the building for the 2007 baseball season. c. Update on Zachary Playfield. Fiemann inquired about the progress on Zachary Playfield. Blank said that three ball fields are done and the north end is being worked on. The irrigation is done but has not been made operational. The fencing, paving and landscaping are done. The anticipated opening will be in May or June for the start of the baseball season. Fiemann asked if an opening day ceremony will be held. Blank said a ceremony would occur. 6. NEW BUSINESS a. View indoor playground report- Jen Reisek and Tobi Tombers. Blank stated we track Parks and Recreation trends and indoor playgrounds are a hot item. Maple Grove and Edina are nearby communities that have indoor playgrounds. We are not proposing one but did some research into existng facilities. Tombers stated PRAC Minutes/January 2007 Page 4 that they toured indoor playgrounds at Woodbury, Maple Grove, Eagan and New Brighton in order to hit each area of the cities. Woodbury's is Lookout Ridge. It was built to fit an existing building and is designed to simulate the St. Croix Valley area with murals and is very interactive. The site is staffed at all times. Admission money is made from 1/3 of those who use it because adults and youth under 1 are free. The site has tables set up inside for birthday parties. They require socks and they sell socks on site which generates a lot of money especially in the summer. Maple Grove's facility is called the Maple Maze and it is the oldest building visited at 9 years old. Their staff noticed problems updating the structures because it is older and some products are not still made. When they opened they were staffed at all times it was open but now they only staff during busy times and rentals. They are open every day, and have a special needs time every day. They have noticed attendance declines every year. Birthday parties bring in revenue because they are connected with the Community Center and can offer packages. They also sell socks, too, for extra money. They recommend not having a ball pit due to cleaning issues. New Brighton's facility is the Eagles Nest, and it is located in their Community Center. This is a smaller site and it was remodeled in 2003. They have a large toddler area which is totally separated from the other areas. They have a creative play leader on site every weekend who is in charge of birthday parties and the center. The facility has an open floor plan with the front desk in view of the play area. They are open every day. Admission is comparable with Woodbury, but they offer a discount for 10 or more kids. Admission also offers use of the gym across the hall. They also have a climbing wall. They host more birthday parties than the other facilities that were looked at. They have also noticed a decline in admissions because there is so much competition. Eagan's facility is The Blast which has an outer space theme. It is patron supervised (no staff on site) so participants must have an adult with them. They offer a punch pass for residents only. They also noticed an attendance decrease. The facility didn't have as many play structures, but had an open space to run around. It is connected to three meeting rooms for birthday parties, corporate events, and for other purposes. There is a concessions stand right outside the playroom. Across the hall are full- size gyms which can be used with Blast admissions. Final analysis is that Woodbury has the best structure and is profitable, Maple Grove is the oldest and least appealing but has the most options, New Brighton is most profitable and is a draw for younger parents due to the big separated toddler area, Eagan is clean and attractive with lots of room to add on. Lint and dust are the biggest cleaning issues at all places because of the required socks. Another issue is the cost of updating to stay current all the time. Other issues are declining interest and difficulty staffing these facilities. If Plymouth were to build one it is recommended to build onto to an existing facility and include party rooms for birthday parties. Davis asked if Plymouth is thinking about building one. Blank said it could be a thought for the comp plan. Blank thinks it is a fad we may want to pass on. We offer a mobile style indoor playground at the Fieldhouse with blow up structures. Open play is held 3-4 times a week. Blank does not lean one way or another on the issue. If we expand a building, we may want to discuss including a indoor PRAC Minutes/January 2007 Page 5 playground. Fiemann asked if they looked at Pump It Up. Rejsek indicated Pump It Up is mostly for parties and they have a lot of business, but they are looking to open up for free time. Fiemann said most parents only hold parties somewhere one or twice and then go somewhere else to use a new and unique facility. Blank introduced Michael Smith as a new commissioner elect who will start in February. Smith says he had two parties at Maple Grove and it costs significantly less than parties at Pump It Up. Smith feels Plymouth should look at building an indoor playground and he would be a proponent. Blank pointed out a recent article in the StarTribune on indoor playgrounds. b. Review annual report — Diane. Evans apologized for not getting the report out sooner. She is still waiting for final financial information from the Finance department. Her intent tonight is to walk through the report quickly and see if anything pops out. Commissioners should take it home and make changes and comments. Highlights of accomplishments: Sidebar recognizes Eric Blank's MRPA Leadership Award; he is the first Parks & Recreation director to receive this award. 2007 Work Plan: An arts policy has been in the works for a year or two, but it is very complicated. We are working with two other communities discussing a rationale for taking art, how to value art, and contracts with artists among other things. We will bring the plan to the Commission in a couple months for their blessing and then move to the City Council. Fiemann asked about biking improvements. Blank responded that bike issues are in the comp plan and will be looked at by the transportation consultant hired by the Engineering department. The parks team will interface with the engineering team, and there is a group of 70 bikers who want to dialogue with staff. Fiemann asked about biking kiosks where they can drive to and access trails. Blank said anything is possible, but the major issue is signage. Fiemann wants signs along trails for walkers and to point out historical significance. Blank said most signs will fall under the comp plan. Fiemann asked if the Metropolitan Council approved proposed density for NW Plymouth. Blank said is has not been approved yet. The City Council proposed 2.7-2.8 units per acre, but the Metropolitan Council wants it at 3. The whole city will be well above 3 when factored in together. Any change in density will not affect the parks part of the comp plan as the parks are spatially located. Aamoth wants to highlight the biking part of the annual report more because it may be of interest to a lot of people. Fiemann agreed that we should bullet point things that are of great importance and interest. Blank agreed. Statistics on fees and expenses: In 2006 we crossed the $1 million mark for bringing in fees for programs and services. We offer multiple ways to register. Internet registration has grown by 19 percent since 2002. There has been a shift in registration methods. We are seeing less people coming in to the counter and more using the convenience of internet registration. Other communities don't see near this number of internet registrations. Our community is unique. Krahulec asked if more people used internet registration for high demand programs. Evans said yes and no. We have people registering right away at midnight and continuing all night long. We make a lot of money between midnight and 8am. Davis asked if we collect money online at the time people do their registrations. Diane said yes PRAC Minutes/January 2007 Page 6 and then cards are run the next day. We are offering diverse programs including special events and adaptive services. The arts are becoming more and more of an interest for our community. The Plymouth Fine Arts council and Parks and Recreation staff are more interested in offering arts programs. The arts are a growing focus for us. Aquatic and Beaches: The guarded beaches are very popular. People seem to prefer guarded beaches. The weather impacts our success of serving residents as we can deal with water quality issues like swimmers itch. Teen programs continue to be an important part of our department. The Battle of the Bands is a slow but growing program. One new program we offered was personal training and it proved quite popular. The Senior programs are very successful and we have a large number of seniors participating on a regular basis. The Veterans Days Breakfast was a big hit. Evans wants to highlight the concert and theatre piece of our special events. We had a theatre group which took 70 kids through the play "Sleeping Beauty" in one week and gave performances at weeks end. We will be bringing the program back next year as it was very popular. Fiemann asked what age groups participated. Evans said they accommodated a wide age range as they have different parts for different ages. Our unofficiated and officiated adult sports leagues are holding their own despite competing with youth programs for space. The youth sports sections talks about what we do for Parks & Recreation programs as well as numbers for the youth athletic associations. There are 22-23 youth athletic associations that Dan Lauer works with to get field and facility time and space. The warming house seasons for 2005 and 2006 still had a lot of users despite rough starts. We extended the warming house seasons to take advantage of good ice and benefited with more users. The volunteer program is a great program. In 2006 we had 1100 volunteers who added $260,000 in value to the City. The volunteers enjoy participating in our program. We are unique compared with other communities who have no where near the size of our volunteer numbers. Most volunteer services in the City are used by the Parks and Recreation department. Parks and Recreation used 76 percent of volunteers and the other 24 percent were used by the other departments combined. The Plymouth Creek Center and Fieldhouse had a good year. Evans will present the latest usage survey at a future meeting. The Fieldhouse is holding its own despite competition and usage is good. We will need to find creative usage in future years. The Ice Center also had a good year and it is doing quite well with fees, expenses, programs and services. Davis asked about Eden Prairie building a third rink and selling naming rights. Blank said the Eden Prairie City Council didn't want to do a third rink so they agreed that if the hockey association raised 1 million then the City would match it. The hockey association raised the money by selling naming rights for every room in the rink. The City of Eden Prairie let the association sell naming rights. Blank said we will not sell naming rights at our rink. Maintenance had a major addition with the purchase of LandLogic software system. Our facilities have been loaded in and the software allows you to see the amenities. LandLogic is a tool to be used a great deal in future years. We did not spend a lot of money for the software. Blank said we are still inputting features and amenities. This summer we had a student intern who added a lot of facilities PRAC Minutes/January 2007 Page 7 we didn't originally think we were going to get to in 2006. The software lets us pull up trees, sprinkler heads and all their maintenance info. It will also give us square feet for a specified area to help us with budget and repair estimates. The whole package cost us $7,000 and it brought us up from the "stone age". The program gets better as more information is put into it. Evans stated that she wants comments and changes on the annual report in the next week or two. Fiemann said it is a great document. Blank said the Parks and Recreation department has 4 people who run 1700 programs and they do a great job. That is many more programs than other cities have per staff person. Evans asked the Commission to approve pending changes. Davis moved and Krahulec seconded a motion to approve the annual report pending changes. Motion passed with all ayes. c. Ellie Singer wins MRPA award. Singer was recognized by MRPA for her outstanding contributions to the Parks and Recreation field. Blank said they will show her plaque and nominations at next month's meeting. 7. COMMISSION PRESENTATION Davis mentioned this is his last meeting as a Park Commissioner as he is moving to the Planning Commission. Davis thanked everyone for their time spent with him on the Parks Commission. Aamoth stated that this is his last meeting as well as he is also moving to the Planning Commission. Aamoth said he learned a lot about Parks and Recreation and thanked everyone for the opportunity. The vacated Commission positions have been filled and will take place February 1. 8. STAFF COMMUNICATION Fiemann commended Nancy Pederson on 26 years of employment with the City of Plymouth. Her last day is tomorrow, January 12, 2007. Fiemann said she has been fantastic to work with. Blank said she was the first employee he hired. She has overseen over 500,000 registrations. She opens the Parks and Recreation counter at 8.00am and has never been late. Blank said she is a phenomenal employee and has always been the taker of minutes for the Parks & Recreation commission. Evans sent around a mock-up recreation brochure for the commissioners to sign. Commission gave a round of applause for Nancy. Blank said we will not be replacing Nancy for 3 months as it is City policy to not hire a new person until accumulated vacation has been paid out. 9. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 8:25 p.m.