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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPark and Recreation Advisory Commission Minutes 09-13-2012MINUTES OF THE PARKS AND RECREATION ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING September 13, 2012 PRESENT: Commissioners: G. Anderson, N. Carroll, M. Riley, A. Vanderwall, J. Vecere, K. Wyse Staff: D. Evans, B. Northway, D. Heitke, L. Luebeck, D. Sankey Planning Commission Liaison: D. Kobusson City Council Liaison: G. Black ABSENT: J. Zwack 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair Carroll called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES MOTION was made by Commissioner Anderson and seconded by Commissioner Vanderwall to approve the June minutes. Vote: 6 Ayes. Motion approved. 3. OPEN FORUM a. William Gimble - Three Ponds Issue Mr. Gimble did not attend. 4. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS (NON -ACTION ITEMS): a. Small Dog Parks - Lowell Luebeck Lowell Luebeck, Park Supervisor, gave a presentation on our dog parks with photographs of the new projects, such as sidewalk/ramp, garbage enclosure built by an eagle scout, carpeted areas, agility items (which were also installed with help from eagle scouts), small dog area, shade canopy, bag holder, boardwalk, and etiquette sign. He also spoke about the two new small dog parks in the hockey rinks at Plymouth Playfield and Oakwood Playfield. The Plymouth Playfield hockey rink is not used anymore as a rink, so the dog park equipment can stay up all year. The Oakwood hockey rink will need to be vacated for winter. The facilities are well received - people really appreciate them. Commissioner Riley asked if we will gradually improve the areas. Luebeck said for now they will stay the way they are. We will see what the users request. We do know that they are lacking shade. Riley asked if the dog parks are listed on the city website. Luebeck said they showed up on the website in March or April. Chair Carroll said he was impressed with how much thought PRAC Minutes/September 13, 2012 Page 2 went into the project with things like the leash and off leash areas. He said little things like that make it quite impressive. b. Forestry Operations Presentation — Dan Heitke. Dan Heitke, Park Supervisor, spoke on the Forestry Department and its operations. The department is involved in many projects such as reforestation, tree care, tree removal, and disease management. Our outreach efforts include the Environmental Fair, Yard and Garden Expo, the bare root tree and shrub sale, the twice -a -year fall plant swap, spring planting and the annual Planting Plymouth Proud award. The street tree -trimming program involves about 1500 trees yearly. We are making great headway with our tree inventory. We have over 29,000 visits annually to our yard waste site, and it is probably even higher than that this year. A lot of wood came in this year, and we expect a lot more trees this fall. Commissioner Riley asked if Heitke has any responsibility for the Millennium Garden. He said that Kelly is in charge of the upkeep. Director Evans said that we have a volunteer group of women who do the weeding. She mentioned that we had two weddings at the Hilde Center this year. Chair Carroll asked why there was so much more tree waste this year. Heitke said it was probably because we had a lot of growth this year, and we had a couple of storms. Our contractor, Rainbow Tree, brings in the wood they cut. Silva Corporation grinds our wood waste, and they encourage us to bring in more trees. Wayzata, Medicine Lake, and Long Lake also bring their trees here. Commissioner Vecere asked for clarification on the tree inventory program. Heitke said we are using GIS. Trees are marked as far as size, condition and location. It is great information. It helps with reforestation and tracks when trees are trimmed. Evans said it is an asset management program, which also tracks park facilities and equipment. We have been building the information for the past 5 years. Carroll asked about the financial arrangement with the yard waste contractor. Heitke said we pay about $3 per yard for mulch. Compost is pretty much cost neutral. Last year's compost went to a farm in Waverly. We paid Silva $10,000 to manage the leaves and nothing for the wood. Evans said they are asking us to pave the site because the dirt damages their equipment. This would be at a cost of $60,000. We may lose the contractor if we don't do this. c. Maintenance Operations Tour — Barb Northway Deputy Director Barb Northway gave a short presentation before the facility tour. She said that the Park Maintenance Division has 14 full time staff and 38 seasonal and temporary staff. A lot goes on in the department with many duties to be performed, in addition to coordinating the with the recreation staff. The commissioners then took a tour of the maintenance facility, including the yard waste site. 5. COMMISSION / STAFF UPDATE (NON -ACTION ITEMS): a. 2013-2017 CIP Draft Review Director Evans spoke on the CIP, saying there was still some work to be done on it. Council will approve it later in the year. The 2013 projects include the trail crossing on PRAC Minutes/September 13, 2012 Page 3 Cheshire Lane and light replacement at Parkers Lake and transitioning parking lot lights to LEDs. Evans said the topic of the Ice Center training facility project came up very quickly. The Wayzata Hockey Association is interested in adding a training facility at the Ice Center. Wayzata Hockey, the Providence Booster Club and Wayzata High School have all expressed interest, and there could be others. The 7,000 square foot facility would be leased out to a private vendor. Acceleration Minnesota is interested in running it. The Ice Center is pretty much maxed out on revenue, and through this added amenity, the City would be able to generate off -ice revenue through a yearly lease payment of $60-65,000. The training facility would cost $960,000 to build. A Hennepin County Sport Grant could be up to $325,000. It is viable that the rental fees would pay off the investment in about 10 years. After that, the revenue will help to make other improvements on the Ice Arena. Commissioner Vanderwall asked if it is a dry land facility. Evans said yes, and mentioned that Acceleration Minnesota trains Wayzata Hockey players currently. Commissioner Riley asked about the lack of satisfaction with the treatment of Armstrong Hockey and whether they have turned their backs on using the Ice Arena. Evans said Robbinsdale School District is no longer using the facility. This is an unfortunate situation because it put us in a financial bind. We were able to get Wayzata Girls to move in full time, which helps the revenue situation. We will need to make up some of the lost game gate money. Riley also asked about a relationship between Acceleration Minnesota and a Wayzata High School coach. Commissioner Vanderwall said that Pat O'Leary, a Wayzata boys coach, is involved with Acceleration Minnesota. Evans said that Council has not approved of this project yet. We are going to Council next Tuesday night, and we are just asking for permission to apply for the grant. Chair Carroll asked Evans for more information on the facility. She said it would provide training for all sports for all ages. The facility would be in the back of the Ice Center and operate separately. We assume we would pick up additional ice rentals because of the training facility. The City of Edina is currently building a 10,000 square foot facility, and other ice arenas have this type of amenity in place also. Councilmember Black said Council approved the Vicksburg Lane and Rockford Road trail projects. Dan Heitke said we just completed repair on the trail on Northwest Boulevard. We are going into Fazendin Park to do some upgrades. Trails at Plymouth Creek Park have been updated. Evans pointed out that we have 130 miles of trails in the city, and some are getting older and in poor shape. We will need to talk further about repairing more trails each year, perhaps 4 or 5 miles worth. Of course, we must be careful not to deplete the budget for the infrastructure. b. Field Turf Replacement Status Director Evans said we just had a walk-through last Wednesday. The turf is installed and is being used. It needs a little settling yet, but it looks very nice. Deputy Director PRAC Minutes/September 13, 2012 Page 4 Northway stated that some rain would help the turf settle. She also pointed out that one new feature is that there is a Plymouth P on the field now. Evans said there are more lines on the field because of all the different sports that use it. Chair Carroll asked if the lines are color -coded. Evans said that they are. Councilmember Black asked when the dome goes up. Dan Heitke said it is scheduled to go up on October 12, and October 19 is the rain date. c. Maple Creek Park Renovation Deputy Director Northway reported that we renovated Maple Creek Park at 27th and Weston this year. Every 17 years, we replace playgrounds. In the past, we have replaced the playgrounds completely. This year, we reused some of the quality parts such as the poles and redesigned the playground to fit the footprint. Some of it was replaced with new parts. On the down side, it takes a little longer to do because of retrofitting and trying to match new to old. We have gotten very good comments from visitors, although a few have thought it was not a good enough change. We saved between $30-40,000. Chair Carroll asked how long we anticipate the playground to last. Northway said we expect it to last about 17 years, as usual. d. Yard Waste Site Operation Deputy Director Northway said we have 300 semi loads of wood come in every year as well as 100 loads of leaves. We run our site very efficiently. The Maple Grove site charges user fees. Their site costs $250,000 to run yearly. Ours is about $40,000. Having a contractor take leaves off site helps us to extend use of the site several more years. Dan Heitke said Hennepin County told us we were supposed to be licensed, and we have complied. Councilmember Black asked if we have had any discussions with the Department of Agriculture about emerald ash borer. Heitke said we are grinding to specs so we can haul anywhere. She asked if that is why we are getting more dust. Lowell Luebeck said it is caused mostly by the weather conditions on the day they are grinding. Wind and dryness are the major causes. Chair Carroll asked if we can wet the wood down when they are going to grind. Heitke and Luebeck said that would not help because the moisture would not soak into the wood far enough. e. Upcoming Community / Special Events Director Evans reported that Plymouth on Parade is on Saturday, September 29. The Firefighter 5K is also on September 29 at 9:00 a.m. The Lasagna Dinner is on Friday, September 28 at the Plymouth Creek Center. The Farmers Market will continue on Wednesdays through October 10. Chair Carroll said he works downtown, and has noticed an explosion of food trucks coming in to their farmers market. He was envisioning getting that kind of fun energy for our Farmers Market. 6. NEW BUSINESS (ACTION ITEMS): a. None PRAC Minutes/September 13, 2012 Page 5 7. ADJOURNMENT Chair Carroll entertained the motion to adjourn. MOTION was made by Commissioner Riley and seconded by Commissioner Anderson. Vote: 6 Ayes. Motion approved. The meeting adjourned at 8:40 p.m. The next meeting will be held on October 11 at the Ice Center Donna Sankey - PRAC recorder