1987-10-13 Parks and Rec Comm MinutesCITY
OF MENDOTA
HEIGHTS
PARK &
RECREATION
COMMISSION
MINUTES. OCTOBER 13� 1987
The regular meeting of the Park and Recreation
Commission was held on Tuesday, October 13. Chairman Stein
called the meeting to order at 7:00 P.M. The following
members were present: Stein, Leffert, Owens and Lachenmayer.
Knittig, and Katz had informed the Commission that they would
not be present. -Absent was fg'. Also present was
City Administrator Kevin Frazell.
MINUTE APPROVAL
Minutes of the September 8 meeting were
approved as written.
PARK DEVELOPMENT
City Administrator Frazell informed the
PLANS, VICTORIA
Commission and audience that the City
HIGHLANDS
Council and Planning Commission had
endorsed the park dedication as
recommended by the Parks Commission. He
then went over a section of the 1985 Park
and Recreation Facility Needs Study, in
which the consultant recommended that the
park in this area be developed with
playground equipment, open play field,
and multi -use hard court. It was noted
that the consultant recommended that
skating and hockey needs for this
neighborhood be met by Marie Avenue Park,
as these facilities are costly to develop
and maintain.
Brian Kamin, 900 Nina Court,_` endorsed
the consultant's recommendation, and said
it was the desire of the neighborhood to
have more of a neighborhood -oriented,
less active park. Other members of the
audience agreed.
After some discussion, the Commission
felt that in addition to the facilities
recommended in the consultant's report,
two tennis courts should be installed in
the park, and consideration given to a
bike trail system that would connect to
the City's overall bike trail plan.
Motion by Commissioner Lachenmayer,
seconded by Commissioner Leffert, to
recommend that the Victoria Highlands
park include two tennis courts,
playground equipment, a multi -use
playfield, multi -use hard court surface,
small off-street parking lot, and some
bike trail system.
Motion passed unanimously. It was agreed
that the recommendation would be
forwarded to the City's engineering
department and/or parks consultant to put
together a layout of the park.
CITIZEN REQUEST Mary Jeanne Schneeman, 792 Upper
Colonial Drive, was present regarding dog
waste and leash enforcement in public
parks. She indicated her concern to
the Commission that many citizens were
not observing the leash laws in the park,
and that they were allowing their dogs to
defecate in the parks without cleaning up
afterward. The Commission discussed the
fact that the City currently has no law
requiring owners to clean up dog waste in
public parks. She indicated that her
request was for the City to pass such an
ordinance, and then to put signing in the
parks indicating the requirements for
cleaning up dog waste and for observing
the leash law.
Motion by Commissioner Owens, seconded by
Commissioner Lachenmayer, to recommend to
the City Council adoption of a dog waste
law, and the posting of all parks for
compliance with dog waste and leashing
regulations.
Motion passed unanimously.
SIBLEY ATHLETIC City Administrator Frazell gave the
COMPLEX UPDATE Commission a brief update of the latest
discussion between City and School
District representatives, which had taken
place that morning. He indicated that
the discussions had reached a somewhat
frustrating point, in that the two sides
seem to be unable to come to an agreement
on ownership of the property at the
northwest part of the campus. Frazell
reported that the City representatives
had proposed to the School District that
the City simply buy the District's 3.5
acres at fair market value, so that the
City would have total ownership of the
property. He said that the District
officials were supposed to be thinking
about that option, and that the parties
07
would be meeting again next Tuesday
morning to continue discussions. He said
he felt it was getting to a point where a
decision was going to have to be made one
way or the other.
Chair Jim Stein suggested that perhaps
after the meeting next Tuesday, it was
time to get the full School Board, City
Council and Parks Commission back
together to review the status and make
some decisions about whether or not it
was going to be a workable arrangement.
The Commissioners also agreed that it was
important to begin generating some
positive support in the community for the
joint athletic complex, to counteract all
of the negativism that had been getting
press coverage.
HOCKEY RINK The Commission discussed a memo from City
MODIFICATIONS staff indicating cost to install hockey
rink improvements at Wentworth Park, as
proposed by Commissioner Owens. Motion
by Commissioner Owens, seconded by
Commissioner Lachenmayer to recommend to
the City Council installation of the
hockey improvements as proposed in the
bid of Midwest Fence Company in the
amount of $2,000. Motion passed
unanimously. It was agreed that
Commissioner Owens would attend the City
Council meeting on October 20 to answer
questions about the request.
RECREATION PROGRAM City Administrator Frazell reported on
ALTERNATIVES his discussions with the City of West St.
Paul and with School District 197. He
said that West St. Paul City Manager Bill
Craig and Recreation Director Bill
Kleineck were very enthusiastic about the
prospect of a joint recreation department
being co-operated by the two cities. The
Commission briefly discussed the kinds of
programs being offered by West St. Paul.
Frazell reported that District 197
Community Education Director Sally
Warring felt that her department was not
prepared to provide recreation services
at this point, but she was open to
further discussions if the City was
interested in contracting with them.
Commissioner Owens reported on his
!n"13�&l
discussions with the Mend -Eagan Athletic
Association. He said that the
Association would definitely be
interested in taking over some of the
youth programs currently being operated
by the City, such as T-ball. However,
Owens felt that one reason the West St.
Paul Athletic Association was able to
operate more successfully was that they
could rely heavily on the City of West
St. Paul full-time recreation director.
Owens felt that the City of Mendota
Heights is also getting to the point
where it could use its own full-time
person for scheduling and coordinating
recreation services.
After some discussion, the consensus of
the Commission was that it needs some
"professional" assistance in coming up
with a comprehensive recreation program
and strategy, similar to what was done
with Barton-Aschman for facilities. It
was suggested that the City look into
hiring a student or graduate student in
Park and Recreation at the University of
Minnesota to do such a study as a special
project. City Administrator Frazell said
that the next year or so was going to be
a "transition" in recreation for Mendota
Heights, with the new building and
facilities, etc. He suggested that
perhaps such a student could not only
come up with a recreation program, but
perhaps could be looked to as the person
to operate our recreation programs over
the next year, until more permanent
arrangements could be made. It was
agreed that Frazell would look into this
alternative, and report back to the
Commission at its November meeting.
ADJOURN There being no further business to come
before the Commission, the meeting was
adjourned at 8:28 P.M.
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