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2007-03-13 Parks and Rec Comm MinutesApproved CITY OF MENDOTA HEIGHTS DAKOTA COUNTY, MINNESOTA PARKS AND RECREATION MEETING March 13, 2007 The March 2007 meeting of the Mendota Heights Parks and Recreation Commission was held on Tuesday, March 13, 2007, in the City Council Chambers at City Hall, 1101 Victoria Curve. The meeting was called to order at 6:30 P.M. The following Commissioners were present: Acting Chair Paul Portz, Commissioners; Tom Kraus, Larry Craighead, Raymond Morris, and Brian Hallman. Absent were Chair Richard Spicer and Commissioner Missie Hickie. City Staff present were Teresa Gangelhoff, Recreation Programmer, Guy Kullander, Operations and Projects Coordinator, Jake Sedlacek Assistant to the City Administrator, and Recording Secretary Nancy Bauer. MINUTES Commissioner Morris moved approval of the minutes as corrected. Commissioner Hallman seconded the motion. Ayes: 5 Nays: 0 ELECTION OF CHAIR AND VICE CHAIR Acting Chair Portz postponed election of a Chair and Vice Chair with Chair Spicer absent. PARKS AND RECREATION REPORT Ms. Gangelhoff reported that it was a short ice skating season. She handed out numbers from past seasons of ice skating days. This season was comparable to the 2004-2005 season, but numbers were up this year. Youth hockey has been coming in and using the rinks because they can't get indoor ice time. Commissioner Craighead thanked Ms. Gangelhoff for putting the rink report together. Ms. Gangelhoff reported that she is still looking for one more over 30 softball team and will check with businesses in town. Commissioner Craighead said he was glad to see the July fishing derby was back and would volunteer again this year. Commissioner Kraus asked how registrations were going and how full the programs are. Approved Ms. Gangelhoff reported that the fishing derby has over 20 registrants and the safety camp is over half full. Commissioner Hallman asked if the golf programs were filling up. Ms. Gangelhoff said they are filling up. Acting Chair Portz asked if the could tell how registrations are going this year compared to last year. Ms. Gangelhoff believes the registrations are up a little bit from last year. Mr. Sedlacek said there were 240 golf registrations last year. Commissioner Hallman said his kids have participated in the golf program and safety camp and have had a lot of fun with both. Ms. Gangelhoff said the safety camp won a national award a couple of years ago and are going for it again. It is one of the best programs we do. The police and fire are part of it and that helps her and the kids. Commissioner Morris asked if Ms. Gangelhoff has advertised for the skate board camp. Ms. Gangelhoff reported she has and already has some registrations. This year it is a five day program. Acting Chair Portz complimented Ms. Gangelhoff on her good programs, good reports and good job. FIELD IMPROVEMENTS Mr. Sedlacek gave a brief overview of the field improvements. Mendota Heights Athletic Association (MHAA) came up with a list of field improvements at Hagstrom King Park and Civic Center ball fields. MHAA wants to upgrade Hagstrom King Park for baseball use. The issue tonight is will the Parks and Recreation Committee recommend to the City Council for Special Park Funds to improve the Civic Center and Hagstrom King ball fields. Mr. Sedlacek and MI-IAA representatives sat down and came up with a list of bare bone priorities. Moving the outfield fence closer at the Civic Center ball field is one for safety because there is no place for an arriving team to warm up when another game is in progress. Moving the fence is a $24,000 project with a 20% contingency. Hagstrom King Park is a youth softball park and is MHAA's second priority for upgrades. Acting Chair Portz believed there was good discussion last month with total project costs estimated at $80,000 to $96,000 and the Commission felt that would be too much to spend in one year and believes tonight is decision night. Page -2 Approved Commissioner Morris asked if the "Hamburger Helper" grant was a matching grant and if it was likely to happen. Commissioner Hallman said he submitted the grant on behalf of the athletic association with the help of Mr. Sedlacek. It is a roll of the dice whether we get funds or not and it is not a matching grant. The grant money is up to $15,000 and any amount could be awarded like $1,000. Over 100 other organizations have also applied for this grant money. MHAA has not heard back about the grant application. Commissioner Morris said he wished he could approve all of the improvements however there are other priorities for the small pool of money. Commissioner Craighead suggested home plate be moved 15 feet closer to the existing outfield fence instead of moving the fence in 15 feet. He is quite opposed to spending $24,000 to move the fence up 15 feet. Moving the home plate 15 feet would allow the pitchers to warm up inside the fence along the first and third base line. If we added a batting cage it could be put along the side of the fence by the third base or first base line and be more assessable to each team. This would also help foul balls from going into the pond. It gets the kids onto the field and off the sidelines. The number two proposal about putting a fence in at Hagstrom King, I'm more supportive there, because there is no fence. Batting cages can be supported. Benches with shelter roofs have been supported in the past and have been approved. Backstops at Hagstrom King can be supported. They were added here at the Civic Center ball field and at Valley Park last fall. With the current balance of the Special Park Fund at $159,000 and shrinking, with the projects planned for this year it's going to be really tight with how much we have in the fund this coming September. Commissioner Hallman replied that it was an interesting idea moving the home plate up 15 feet and is a creative solution. 1,600 kids just registered for baseball with MHAA and is up from last year. The money spent on ball fields in the last five years has been very nominal compared to trails and playgrounds. Commissioner Craighead wants to know how many families have children in the youth athletic age bracket, not kids, families because how many senior citizen households are there. The senior citizens wanted the Valley Park tennis courts maintained which are used by the youth, adults and senior citizens. We need to have well mixed programs for all age groups. Commissioner Hallman said senior citizens would want to support MHAA's requests because they are going to sell their houses to younger families looking for a place to raise their family. Commissioner Craighead said up to half a million has been spent on playground upgrades in recent years and virtually nothing on trails. Commissioner Morris said he was very encouraged that MHAA prioritized their projects. I have sat on this Commission for quite a long time and I have seen our reserve fund fall from $300,000 to $159,000. We have some real serious demands. I support we provide some matching funds Page - 3 Approved up to $15,000 for MHAA and leave it up to MHAA what priority they want match. I think it's a reasonable start and that's about half what we put into rehabbing a playground. Mr. Kullander responded that the average playground costs are about $40,000 to rehab. Commissioner Morris said he thinks the Commission could raise it up to $18,000 and MHAA has in the past matched. That way I would leave it up to MHAA to match the funds and pick which improvements to do. We could request that the City Council fund some money. I agree it's been a long time since we did things at the ball fields. We do have a lot of other things that needs to be done like the trails. Some of the trails are really bad and that's a big ticket item. I want to help the kids. Commissioner Hallman said Commissioner Craighead and Commissioner Morris do make valid points and the trails are the gem of the City. We need to maintain the trails. Some of the trails are really bad. Commissioner Craighead believes something should be done. We've tried to prioritize things. Things need to be done right. Commissioner Kraus has said that groups walk in the door and that becomes the biggest priority. My kids have used the facilities. We need to be fair to everybody. The schools have come and asked for money. I have a problem spending a huge amount of money. I support some of the fences. I want to find ways to make it less expensive. Acting Chair Portz asked Mr. Kullander, if the Commission went forward with something, do they have the authority to fund it. Mr. Kullander responded the Commission would make a recommendation to the City Council that a specific project be built with Special Park Funds. Commissioner Morris made a motion to recommend to the City Council for up to $18,000 from the Special Park Fund in 2007 to MHAA for field improvements of their choice and if Council wants to add to the funding and MHAA could do some fund raising. Commissioner Hallman seconded the motion. Commissioner Kraus said prioritizing is somewhat arbitrary. One group or Commissioner has a project that is important to them. We are expected to reflect the values of the community. We lack a mechanism to know what those values are. There are two different approaches, muddle through as we have been and we'll appease whatever priority is urgent at the moment or we can try to find a mechanism to figure out what the values are. I find myself torn in these discussions because I am sympathetic to both sides. There are 1,600 kids that want to play on a properly equipped field. I don't know how to balance these issues without getting input from the community and what is lacking is the mechanism to do that and we got to address that. As a Commission we need to do that. We have an ever shrinking source of funding and ever growing list of priorities. I understand baseball season is right around the corner and there is some urgency to making this decision. With Commissioner Morris' proposal it buys some time and there is still a big issue looming. Page - 4 Approved Commissioner Morris said they have always had the Five Year Plan to work off. There has been a lot of thought put into it. Commissioner Hallman and MHAA bring up a good point and we have to send a clear message on it. We also have priorities that walk through the door and they are good things. We never know when they will come and we try to support them all. Commissioner Portz says he supports MHAA but it's a lot of money. MHAA has done an excellent job prioritizing their projects. If we had the $100,000 I would say lets do it, but we don't have it. I think we have enough money to go forward with some things. We have $159,000 in the fund right now and monies coming in from the Summit. We can't fund the whole thing but we can fund some of it. The Civic Center has been functional for 20 years. We just recently put in some safety things with regard to the balls on the road and the kids running out there. In my opinion, we want to support MHAA. We should support the Hagstrom King Park priority II for $24,000. If there is support we should support the other improvements at Hagstrom King that would step up functionally. Commissioner Craighead asked if Acting Chair Portz supported it for the year 2007. I thought there were plans to do shelters over the benches in the year 2007. Mr. Kullander said there were no plans to do the shelters over the benches in 2007, that Staff was researching costs following MHAA's request last year. Commissioner Craighead said he could support Acting Chair Portz or Commissioner Morris' positions. I think we are spending over $100,000 this summer including the $20,000 proposal. I can't support $90,000 in one crack. We need to prioritize projects ourselves by using the list Mr. Kullander gave us. We need to try and think of what the community wants. I can support the $20,000 this year. Commissioner Morris made a friendly amendment to the motion to up the amount to $20,000 and designate the money to what priorities MHAS thinks is needed. Acting Chair Portz asked if Commissioner Morris would accept $21,000, because that is half of what is needed for improvements to Hagstrom King Park. Commissioner Morris said he would make a friendly amendment to up the amount to $21,000 but no higher. Commissioner Hallman said Acting Chair Portz's idea of doing Hagstrom King Park is a good idea because it provides the greatest impact and increases the park's functionality. Commissioner Craighead asked what would be the estimated cost to move up home plate. Mr. Kullander responded it would create a lot of problems and could be as much as 1-1/2 times the cost of moving the fence. The interior infield grass would have to be relocated, the aglime would have to be moved out 15 feet and the irrigation lines would have to be relocated. Approved Acting Chair Portz said there is a motion on the table of $21,000 to help fund MHAA projects. Commissioner Hallman seconded the friendly amendment to the motion. Ayes: 5 Nays: 0 Acting Chair Portz says he thinks this encourages MHAA to come here and we all want to support them, but we just don't have the money. This is a step to make a base ball field functional. PARKS AND TRAILS CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN 2007 -2012 Mr. Kullander said the Commission is half way through the current Five Year Plan and 2007 projects already approved by the City Council, funded by the Special Park Fund, will cost an additional $56,000 to complete. He explained that the City Council has asked staff to prepare a Five Year Capital Needs study for all City departments, buildings, and facilities by June or July of this year before the draft of the 2008 City Budget is prepared. Mr. Kullander recommended that the Commission terminate the current Five Year Plan, and recommend any additional projects for completion in 2007 now, and begin development of a new Five Year Plan (2008- 2012) that would coincide with the direction given by Council to the administrative staff. Mr. Kullander also recommended that the Commission view future improvement projects in the new Five Year Plan, based not on the cost of the project or the funding source, but rather on its need or value to the City's parks and trails system. The City Council would determine a funding source for each project. They could use the Special Park Fund, State Aid Funds, and Cell Tower Revenues as they did several years ago to address playground issues, or they could increase the General Tax Levy for the coming year. Mr. Kullander explained that he had included a list of projects, suggested over the past several years, in his memo and asked the Commission members to rank the importance of each project and return the list and he would summarize them for next months meeting. He estimated that the Commission at the April and May meetings would review the project rankings and present it to the City Council in June. Acting Chair Portz said a Five Year Plan will change — it may change the day after you put it together or six months later. He then asked if there would be designated revenues from the Special Park Fund. We need to have a broader view of projects and prioritize them. Mr. Kullander that trails have been built in the City such as the Opus trail which was funded by park dedication fees and the trail on Lexington Avenue was funded by County and MSA funds. He suggested the Commission should give the City Council a list of projects, let them determine the funding source, and let the City Council decide what is an appropriate balance to keep in the Special Park Fund. Action Chair Portz said it was a good approach. Approved Commissioner Morris asked if he wanted the Commission to act on the "You Are Here" signage. Which we need to do before Chair Spicer leaves — that is his legacy for all the years he's been on the Commission — it's always been on his list. Mr. Kullander replied that he would like the Commission to act on it. Commissioner Morris asked if he also wanted the Commission to act on the Friendly Hills playground replacement. Mr. Kullander responded that it is on the current Five Year Plan to upgrade this playground. Commissioner Morris said the playground upgrade is needed. Mr. Kullander replied that it has the older wood border timbers. We are completing two other playgrounds this year. It's not an imminent safety issue but this and other issues at this playground should be addressed in the near future. Friendly Hills Park is one of the highly used parks. It would be nice to get a plan from a couple of suppliers and get neighborhood input on the equipment. MHAA wanted an outfield fence put in but we should ask what the neighborhood thinks of that change in the park. Commissioner Hallman said the list of potential projects is extensive that Mr. Kullander put together. Commissioner Morris replied that the list does not include everything and cannot anticipate the three or four projects that walk through the door each year. Acting Chair Portz said that the list is extensive, complete, and gives you a good idea of projects facing the Commission. The projects can be prioritized. Mr. Kullander responded that once he gets the rankings by the Commission he can better explain the project details and other issues that are associated with each project to help the Commission rank or prioritize them next month. Commissioner Hallman asked when Mr. Kullander wanted the list back. Mr. Kullander responded that he would like it back in the next week or two. Then the Commission can go through it in April and May and tweak it before giving it to the City Council. Mr. Sedlacek added that Commissioners also need to add their comments to the list even if they seem silly. Mr. Kullander agreed that the Commission should add their comments that way he can research, respond to questions, and explain details of each project. Acting Chair Portz said the sheets will be filled out and returned in the next two weeks. Page - 7 Approved TRAIL PLANNING Dodd Road and Highway 13 Mr. Kullander updated the Commission on the Highway 13 and Dodd Road trails. The City Council has told staff to keep working on the plans and specifications. When preliminary plans are ready they will come before the Parks and Recreation Commission. The City Engineer has recommended that the trails be fully funded with MSA funds. PILOT KNOB II Mr. Kullander reported that the Pilot Knob II is going forward and the Trust for Public Lands is taking the lead for the City by negotiating the price on the land. The City applied for a grant from the Dakota County Farmlands. There will be a public hearing at the next City Council meeting for three DNR grants, as was done on the first Pilot Knob site. Commissioner Kraus asked if the City wanted a portion of the funding to come from private sources. Mr. Kullander responded that we received some funding from the Sierra Club, the Pilot Knob Association and the Trust for Public Land. A majority of the funds for Pilot Knob I came from three DNR grants, a Dakota County grant and the City. The Pilot Knob II site is 15 acres and is valued in the two million dollar range. Commissioner Kraus asked if the City was looking for funds from individual citizens. Mr. Kullander responded he thinks they are. They City received a $6,000 grant from the Historical Society for signage at the Pilot Knob I site. Commissioner Kraus said it would be good for the viewing public to know about the need to preserve this site. BUCKTHORN BUST Mr. Kullander said that Great River Greening would be removing buckthorn from the first Pilot Knob site. They are looking for volunteers to help remove buckthorn on Friday, April 20th from noon to 2:30 P.M. Commissioner Craighead made a motion for park "You are Here" signage for $6,000 with funds coming from the Special Park Fund in 2007. Commissioner Hallman asked if the $6,000 was for all the signs. Mr. Kullander responded that it was. He believes that 10 or 17 signs are needed. A manufacturer needs to be found that makes the signs and one would be put in each major park for now. More would be added later in the bigger parks. Commissioner Craighead asked what the signs would be like. Page - 8 Approved Mr. Kullander responded that it is like the sign on Lildyale Road - 4" x 8 "in size with a roof and would hold a map of the City's parks and trails system. Commissioner Morris asked if it would be photo etched. Mr. Kullander responded that it would be Plexiglas with a printed version of the park map. We can cheaply update the maps every couple of years or if they become faded. Commissioner Kraus seconded the motion. Ayes: 5 Nays: 0 Mr. Kullander reported that at the February 20th City Council meeting Commissioner Libra was presented with a plaque recognizing him for his work, effort and time spent on the Parks and Recreation Commission. All other retiring Commissioners retiring from the Planning Commission and Airport Relations Commission were also recognized by the City Council. Commissioner made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Commissioner Hallman seconded the motion. The meeting adjourned at 8:10 P.M. Page - 9