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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPark and Recreation Advisory Commission Minutes 12-12-20131 Approved Minutes December 12, 2013 Approved Minutes Park & Recreation Advisory Commission Thursday, December 12, 2013 MEMBERS PRESENT: Chair Ned Carroll, Vice Chair Greg Anderson, Commissioners: Merrilee Riley, Tricia DeBleeckere, Aaron Vanderwall, John Vecere MEMBERS ABSENT: Kipp Wyse STAFF PRESENT: Parks & Recreation Director Diane Evans, Deputy Director of Parks & Recreation Barb Northway, Ice Center Manager Bill Abel, Recreation Supervisor Dan Lauer, Office Support Specialist Sarah Josephs COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVES: Planning Commissioner Dick Kobussen 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair Carroll called the meeting to order at 7:06 p.m. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Motion by Commissioner Anderson, seconded by Commissioner Riley, recommending approval of the October 10, 2013, Park and Recreation Advisory Commission meeting minutes as written.With all members voting in favor, the motion carried. 3. OPEN FORUM: 4. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS (NON-ACTION ITEMS): 4a. Ice Center Manager Bill Abel A handout was provided with notes on upcoming projects taking place at the Ice Center. Bill Abel and Steve Lewis, Ice Arena Operations Supervisor, gave the Commission a tour of the three arenas, including the Zamboni room and the compressor room. The arena makes nearly $1000 on High School Game nights from ticket admissions. A sample of typical game night admission revenue is included. In 2013, a new scoreboard and message center was installed and is located in the Eric J Blank arena. This new scoreboard allows photos of players to display after highlights (goals, assists). Many large maintenance projects are expected in the coming years. In order to pay for those projects, the PIC is requesting a $10/hour increase in ice cost during the winter months. The request will be presented to the City Council on January 14, 2014. The Eric J Blank rink has several capital improvement projects planned in 2015. The rink will be switch from an Olympic size to Professional size rink. In past years the trend was to have an Olympic sized rink, but now a large majority of teams prefer the professional size. They will also be switching from a sand floor to 2 Approved Minutes December 12, 2013 concrete floor under the ice, and switch from Freon to ammonia to cool the ice. Staff will begin working with the youth association leaders to help influence the State Legislature to provide funding for the needed upgrades. A new ice resurfacer has been purchased and will arrive in February of 2014. The zamboni that it is replacing has acquired roughly 365,000 miles in the last 16.5 years. Since the Ice Center runs with electric resurfacers, they do not need to take daily air quality tests. In the case where a piece of non-electric equipment is used, an air quality test kit is onsite. The Ice Center is considering adding a dryland training facility. They have applied for a grant from Hennepin County for assistance paying for the project. They Wayzata Youth Hockey Association have already agreed that they will pay $400,000 toward the project costs if approved. Acceleration MN would contract with the City and pay $65,000 a year to lease space and train athletes in the facility. Staff feel it would be a good decision to add his training space as a added benefit to teams already renting ice, as well as new teams looking for on ice and off ice features to train their teams. Currently, Acceleration MN has a location on Hwy 55 east of 494 and would relocate to the new training facility. The city would be responsible for building the shell of the facility and Acceleration MN would provide rubber matting, batting cages, workout equipment, weights, skating treadmills and other sport equipment. The Wayzata Youth Basketball Association is in the process of looking for a training site and is considering being a possible partner in the development of this center. The center would be open to all athletes from all sports. The Ice Center currently advertises on their scoreboards, Zamboni’s and dasher boards. Broadway Pizza currently has advertisements on all 3 Zambonis. That agreement has expired and bids will be taken for new vendors to sponsor the Zambonis. The new Sunshine Factory has just bought a sponsorship for the new scoreboard. Staff are currently looking for additional companies to sponsor the scoreboard. 5. COMMISSIONER/STAFF UPDATE (NON-ACTION ITEMS): 5a. Fairway Greens Neighborhood Park Fairway Greens Park is almost fully developed. A playground, trails and plantings have all been put in place. There will be a grand opening celebration for the park scheduled for this coming spring. Staff are expecting that this will be a well used area because of all the open space. To go along with the golf theme, a putting green has been added to the park. 5b. Co. Rd 24 Trail A grant was submitted to Hennepin County for assistance in completing the trail gaps along County Road 24. The City has recently been notified that the grant was denied, but that the County does have interest in completing the gap. The City may partner with the County to complete it, outside of the grant. City engineers have reviewed the gap and believe that it could be completed would be able to do so without the need to completely remake that portion of the road. 5c. Medicine Lake Retaining Wall Earlier this year, bids were received for the project to replace the retaining wall along Medicine Lake Blvd. Those bids were rejected due to being approximately 20% higher than projections. In 2014, bids will be placed again and opened in March with 3 Approved Minutes December 12, 2013 a planned construction start date in May. Originally there was plans for a soft road closure, allowing southbound traffic to continue along Medicine Lake Blvd. The new plans will include a full closer of both lanes of West Medicine Lake Blvd. This full closer will be a benefit to the contractor as there are less safety issues when working near moving cars, and will allow for more storage for supplies and more room to work on the project. 5d. Training Facility at the Plymouth Ice Center Staff should know by Monday or Tuesday whether or not their grant application was approved. Staff and council members have been meeting with Hennepin County Commissioners to explain and stress the benefits of this training facility. Youth Hockey Association board members also made contact with the Commissioners to share their support of this training facility. 5e. Upcoming Community/Special Events The Pet Expo was held at the Plymouth Creek Center on October 26 with 550 in attendance. Last year the event was held over two days and was reduced down to just one day this year. Halloween at the Creek had 560 in attendance on October 31. The fall Kids Garage Sale had 575 in attendance on November 3. A Veterans breakfast event was held at the Plymouth Creek Center. There were 138 in attendance, with 98 of them being current/former service members. The Crosswords play was held over the weekend of November 14-17. This play was run in partnership with the Plymouth Arts Council. They had a weekend attendance of 350 people. A two-day Art Fair was held over November 16-17. The event drew nearly 1,300 people. Old Fashioned Christmas was held at the Plymouth Creek Playfield on December 8 and had nearly 750 in attendance. The New Years Celebration will be held at the Plymouth Ice Center & LifeTime Fitness. Families can attend and skate, swim, jump on inflatables, enjoy some entertainment and have dinner. The first day of Winter registrations were held for residents on December 10. There were 1300 registrations taken in with a revenue of $85,000 on that first day. Fire & Ice will celebrate its 25th anniversary this February. Staff are still in the planning stages and looking into adding attractions this year. So far they have secured a dance group, the Viking drumline group and have added more ice carvings. Three food trucks will be present; Tot Boss, Potter’s Pasties, and I heart Coffee. 5f. Updates Beginning February 1, PRAC will have a new City Council liaison. Greg Anderson was reappointed for an additional term with the PRAC. John Vecere has stepped down from the Commission and will be replaced by Michael Swanson. Mr Swanson will be invited to attend the January meeting as a guest. 6. COMMISSIONER/STAFF UPDATE (ACTION ITEMS) 6a. Plymouth Ice Center Fees Many arenas currently offer “fire sales” during the summer. In order to remain competitive, arena staff are recommending there be no increase in ice rental costs during the summer months. Mr Abel and Ms Evans met with the youth hockey association and received positive feedback on their purposed fee increase during winter months. Currently all room rentals are free to the associations. Instead of 4 Approved Minutes December 12, 2013 beginning to charge for rooms and other additional services, they agreed to an increase in ice time fees. Motion by Chair Riley, seconded by Commissioner Anderson, recommending to approve the proposed fee recommendations for the Plymouth Ice Center.With no objection, motion passed unanimously. 7. ADJOURNMENT Motion by Commissioner Riley, seconded by Commissioner DeBleeckere, recommending adjournment of the Park and Recreation Advisory Commission meeting.With no objection, Chair Carroll adjourned the meeting at 8:30.