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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPark and Recreation Advisory Commission Minutes 01-13-2011MINUTES OF THE PARKS AND RECREATION ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING January 13, 2011 PRESENT: Commissioners: G. Anderson, N. Carroll, M. Riley, J. Zwack Staff: D. Evans, D. Sankey Planning Commission Liaison: D. Kobusson ABSENT: Commissioner A. Vanderwall City Council Liaison Bob Stein 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair Anderson called the meeting to order at 7:08 p.m. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES MOTION was made by Commissioner Carroll and seconded by Commissioner Zwack to approve the December minutes. Vote: 4 Ayes. Motion carried. 3. OPEN FORUM Carlos Gutierrez, 1725 Garland Lane, spoke on providing a facility for the game of squash. He said there is a lack of regulation -sized squash courts in the area. He would like to have an indoor facility in Plymouth. Lifetime in St Louis Park has 4 squash courts, although they are converted from racquetball courts, have bad floors, and they are not regulation size. It would be good to have a facility in the industrial area in the eastern part of Plymouth. Chair Anderson asked about other facilities in the area and whether they were owned by cities or Lifetime Fitness. Gutierrez said most are run by Lifetime, and there are a few that are privately run. Superintendent Evans asked if our Lifetime has a squash court. He said that they have one. Commissioner Zwack asked about self- sustaining facilities. What are the rates? Gutierrez said with membership fees of $100 per month, with 80-90 members, it should be self-sustaining. In Madison last year, the Madison Squash Workshop started, and it is starting to pick up. Badminton is also very big and the cost is a lot less. Anderson asked if he has a public-private partnership in mind. Gutierrez said he is open to anything. Anderson said he should talk to Evans more about the idea. 4. STAFF UPDATE: a. Staff Presentation: . none b. City Budget & CIP: Superintendent Evans provided city budget information to the commissioners. PRAC Minutes/January 13, 2011 Page 2 In presenting the CIP, Evans pointed out some highlights, including the replacement of the dance floor at the Plymouth Creek Center. We are getting bids and want to get the job done as early as possible before the big wedding season. There is $130,000 set for a new trail. Money for Northwest Greenway land acquisition is included. For the Cheshire Lane trail crossing, $250,000 is budgeted. The Trillium Woods project was approved, although it has been delayed. For South Shore Park, $125,000 was approved for the replacement of the playground. The Skate Park asphalt surface will be replaced with probably a concrete surface, and $210,000 is set in place. We held open house for the Skate Park, and quite a few people attended. We will meet with them again. The Dog Park parking lot may be paved and made larger. It is on a county road and the county may require road improvements if we adjust the entrance. Chair Anderson asked if this would be a park budget expense. Evans said it would require an additional lane for the road, and it would have to be covered by the park budget. Commissioner Zwack asked why the CIP goes up and down each year. Evans said funding comes from a variety of funding sources such as the Park Dedication Fund and Park Replacement Fund. The General Fund supplies some money each year for the Park Replacement Fund. It requires careful balancing to not use up all of the fund, so some years have larger amounts being used and some smaller. Playfield lighting replacement will come up. If we do them all at once, there could be a savings. Doing it in 2011 provides a larger savings than 2012. c. City Council Liaison. Superintendent Evans announced that Councilmember Bob Stein has been reassigned as the liaison to our Commission. d. Board & Commission Appointments Superintendent Evans announced that Chair Greg Anderson was reappointed. J. D. Nelson is leaving. John Vecere will be joining in February. One more vacant position remains, and Council is working on finding a replacement. 5. NEW BUSINESS a. 2010 Annual Report & Work Plan - draft Superintendent Evans explained that we are required by ordinance to do an annual report plus a work plan for the Parks & Recreation Advisory Commission. We must give it to the Council by the end of February or early March. Eric Blank will be retiring the end of June, and Mark Peterson is retiring the end of February. Commissioner Carroll asked about succession for Eric. Evans said she will take over as Director of Parks & Recreation on July 1. Commissioner Riley asked if we ever use outside people to help decide on realignment opportunities. Evans said it is typically done internally, although we sometimes use consultants to do some testing and analyzing to help us find the right people for certain high level jobs. Evans highlighted the report. Because we are now accredited, we have added some features to the report to accommodate the accreditation requirements. Chair Anderson wrote a very good letter for the report. We will host a grand opening and PRAC Minutes/January 13, 2011 Page 3 ribbon cutting for the new Hilde Center. Because concrete is still curing, it is hard to get ice on the new Plymouth Creek hockey rink. Shiloh Park playground equipment replacement included refurbishing the playground and sending it to Poland. Plymouth won the Step to It Challenge this past year. We have done well in the recreation programs and have some surplus funds. This will enable us to add some enhancements like Movies in the Parks and more fireworks at Fire & Ice. As Eric and Mark approach retirement, Ellie Singer is interviewing them and documenting the department history. Chair Anderson asked whether the Cheshire trail overpass will be built in 2011. Evans said if Trillium Woods gets started, the money is in place in the CIP. Commissioner Zwack noticed that although the department has eight divisions, only seven were listed. Evans noticed that the Fieldhouse was left out. She mentioned that Maple Grove is building a dome, so we will lose Maplebrook Blast as a renter. We will be redistributing those hours among other renters. The turf is going to need replacing within the next few years. This would be covered partially by the Fieldhouse Fund and part by the Park Replacement Fund. Commissioner Carroll asked if the Fieldhouse is an enterprise fund. Evans said yes, and over a million dollars is in the fund. Carroll asked what the expected lifespan of the dome is. Evans said it is 15-20 years. We are at 10 years now. It is still looking good, and staff feels that there is definitely another 10 years left in it. It probably in such good shape because it is down six months of the year. The goal is to continue to build the reserve. We picked up one event from the Metrodome collapse - a Jewish community center football game. We happened to have the one day open that they needed. Open Play is one of the big programs in the Fieldhouse. Evans pointed out that we had a $200,000 reduction in expenses from last year and 100,000 more in revenues. These figures are unaudited. The total participant number is down, because there were a few events that didn't run, such as concerts at the Hilde and the Art Fair. We had an increase in inclusion participants. Special events had about 45,000 participants. Health & fitness is experiencing a boom. Senior program participants are declining a bit, but we think they are also using the adult programming because that went up. Some of them don't want to be identified as seniors." Sports and Aquatics are doing well. Last year was the first year of administrative fees for athletic associations. We collected $87,700. Council anticipated $100,000. Volunteer Services continues to do well. The total hours look like they are down, but it is probably because of the new technology and better, more accurate tracking. The Plymouth Creek Center had 60 weddings. We expect 75 in 2011, with two time slots per day for the garden weddings. Fieldhouse revenue was about $370,000. The Ice Center had a $150,000 profit. They closed down one rink during the summer, which was a real money -saver. Forestry and Park Maintenance are busy with emerald ash borer control and other projects. Commissioner Carroll asked about the trail use PRAC Minutes/January 13, 2011 Page 4 counts. He said he did not see Ferndale on the list. Superintendent Evens said we move the counter around to different locations. 6. COMMISSIONER UPDATES Upcoming Community/Special Events Superintendent Evans reported that we had 350 participants at the New Years event. It is a great event, and it should have more attendees. We will work on beefing it up. The Little Sweetheart Ball will be on February 4. Fire & Ice is on February 5. We are offering our first ever medallion hunt for Fire & Ice. There will be a Belgian Waffle Breakfast on February 6 at the Plymouth Creek Center. The price is $6 for ages 6 and up and $4 for ages 5 and under. Evans mentioned that staff is considering moving the date for Fire & Ice to a different weekend in the future because of competition from other events in the area. Chair Anderson said the commissioners should contact Jackie Maas and volunteer for the event. 7. ADJOURNMENT Chair Anderson entertained the motion to adjourn. MOTION was made by Commissioner Zwack and seconded by Commissioner Riley. Vote: 4 Ayes. Motion approved. The meeting adjourned at 8:17 p.m. The next meeting will be held on February 11 in the Council Chambers. Donna Sankey - PRAC recorder