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PR 02/28/1977 - 31222� � ► � =N � PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING FEBRUARY 28, 1977 MEMBERS PRESENT: Bob Peterson, Harvey'Wagar, Leonard Moore, Dave Harris MEMBERS ABSENT: Jan Seeger OTHFRS PRESENT: Charles Boudreau, Parks & Recreation Director Jerry Boardman, City Planner Laurie Hillsdale, U. of M. Spring (�uarter Intern for Parks &�Recreation Department ' Frank Novak, 6241 - Sth St. N.E. - Fridley Senior Citizen . Matt Szczech, 4820 - 3rd St• N.E: - Fridley Senior Citizen Juan Sa1as, 5810 - 5th St• N.E. Jim Langenfeld, F�idley Lnvironmental Commission Chairperson ,.� (also representing Lions' Club) � CALL TO ORDER• Chairperson Peterson called the meeting to order at 7:34 p.m. APPROVAL OF DECEMBER 13, 1976, PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING: MOTION by Harvey Wagar, seconded by Leonard Moore, to appro�e Che December 13, 1976, parks & Recreation Commission minutes as written. Upon a voice vote, all voting aye, the motion carried unanimously. CONSIDERATION OF ITEMS NOT QN AGENDA: I•yr. Boudreau stated that Mr. Boardman was at the meeting to talk about the status of the "Capital I�provements Plan" which he would like added to the agenda under "Old Business". Mr. Boudreau stated he also wanted added to the agenda a request fram the Fridley Firefighters' Relief Assoeiation to use Commons Park for their second annual softball tournament. Mr. Peterson stated he had an item he wished the Commission �to consider. It had to do with an ordinance City Council was considering passing which he did not think would come to the Parks & Recreation Commission and that was the"Ordinance for Industrial � Property". . 0 _�� � ► PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING, FEBRUARY 28, 1977 PAGE 2 1�4QTION by Dave Harris, seconded by garvey Wagar, to adopt the agenda with the additio�t�� of the above three items. Upon a voice vote, all voting aye, the motion carried unanimously. OPEN FORUM: VISITORS �uan Salas Mx. Salas stated that every year at this time he came before the Commission to ask for use of a school gymnasium for soccer training at least six weeks before the opening seas on . Mr. Peterson stated that last year, the Commission had asked the Parks & Recreation Director to meet with the school officials to work out some kind of program so that Mr. Salas could use the gymnasium at parkview. Mz'. Boudreau stated he could approach the school about the use of the gymnasium for Mr. Salas' soceer program. He stated he must report to the Commission that some of the school personnel are less than enthusiastic about the City having a soccer program. He suggested that if they are going to make this request again this year, that Mr. Salas be employed by the City as a part-time soccer instructor for the City's program. Mz'. Salas should be reimbursed for some of his time. He also stated that if the City was going to underwrite this program, they should have some input on what they hope will come of that program. He said he would be happy to make this request in the name of the City. �. Mr, peterson agreed with that and stated the Commission would leave the details up to Mr. Boudreau. He asked Mr, galas to keep in touch with Mr. Boudreau to work this out. DIRECTOR'S REPORT A. Woodcrest Baptist Church Mr. Boudreau wanted to report to the Com�nission that he had received a letter from Pastor Poorman of the Woodcrest Baptist Church dated January S; 1977. Pastor Poorman had stated that they had taken steps to close off the east driveway during the winter months by parking a bus there and in the spring they would close it off with a chain. pastor Poorman stated they were glad to cooperate for the safety of the children. B. C�rrent Status of Program Offerings Mr. Boudreau reviewed with the Commission members the programs that were offered during the winter. He also reviewed the proposed programs for the spring which will be printed in the Community Education Bulletin and in the quarterly City New�letter. He stated they wanted to go to seasonal programs-- one each for spring, fall, winter, and spring, instead of combining them as they have in the past. � h ,,; ,.; . � 0 1 PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING F�BitUARY 28, 1977 � PAGE 3 �_ Mr. Boudreau stated that one of the programs he was excited about was the ��Donate a Tree" program. The City will be purchasing a tree spade for the transporting of treees and he felt it will enhance the nursery program. He said they are also planning a"PITS" (Playground in the Streets) program and also thinking of having "movies under the stars". C. Snowmobiling Policy �. Boudreau stated there has been a concern on the part of many Fridley residents that the snowmobiling policy should be changed as the current policy really did not say anything. M.r. Boudreau stated they are looking at this policy and he had taken some suggested changes on the snowmobiling policy to the City Council work meeting. These suggested changes would not ban snowmobiles entirely from the city but would restrict the use of snow- mobiling to private property. Mr. Boudreau said there has got to be either a restriction on snowmobiling to one locale or something done with snow- mobiles in general. He wanted to report that the City Couneil was looking at a policy change that would, in fact, tighten the policy a great deal. Mr, Harris stated it would be fine if Staff wanted to bring back a policy change for the Cougnission's review at a meeting in the near future. Mr. Boudreau stated that Mr. Jim Hill, Public Safety Director, had written a work policy that Mr. Boudreau would be happy.to bring before the Commission. �) , gee Pal icy Mr. goudreau stated that in response to a letter from the mayor, he had taken it upon himself to endorse a policy that, in the future, there would be a statement on all flyers which would, in fact, say that anyone who cannot afford to participate in the programs, the fee would either be reduced or waived by talking to the Parks & Recreation Director. He said they want it publicly known that no one was to be excluded because they could not afford the fee. He said this had already been passed by City Council. The Commission members were very much in agreement with this. g, program Supervisor Position Mr. Novak and Mr. Szczech were at the meeting to ask what the Commission's intentions were for a new program for the senior citizens beginning in geptember. Mr. Boudreau stated that what had happened was that there had been a mix-up and the Suburban Community Services were under the impr�ssion that $4,000 had been earmarked from the Parks & Recreation budget for continued service through Suburban Community Services for the senior citizens. Mr. Boudreau said that, according to the parks & Recreation minutes, this was not so and that Council had never acted on it. He said that the minutes had read to the e�fect that the Commission would consider this request at budget time � but were never positive or'negative. He said as he got into the 1977 budget, .� he got the request from Suburban Community Services for the $4,000. Then, he found out that it had never been approved by the Commission and that it was, in fact, not in the budget so there was a lot of confusion. ��, ► PARKS & RECREATION CQMMISSION MEETING FEBRUARY 28, 1977 � PAGE 4 The Commission members stated that this was not true--that the Commission�did �^ approve this request in the minutes and in the budget. Mr. Peterson stated that the Commission did approve a line item of $3,000 for Suburban Community Services. Mr. Boudreau stated that to address the problem of the senior citizens, he had met often with Ms. Debbie Dominick, who was the representative for guburban Community Services in this area, ge said when he had first arrived on the job, he had spoken to the Senior Citizen Club and it had been his strong feeling that one of the prime objectives of Suburban Comnunity Services was to assist communities in starting a senior citizens' club where that club would become self-sufficient and Suburban Community Services would then drop by the wayside. Suburban Community Services would provide the leadership which was what Ms. Dominick had done for the last few years. Faced with this situation, Mr. Boudreau had the strong feeling that we, in Fridley, should take the same approach to the senior citizens as they take to the teenagers and that was that they owed the senior citizens a service and that service should be provided for by the city. He had told Ms. Dominick and others from Suburban Community Services that one of his prime goals by 1978 was that the �ity would supply the leadership for the senior citizens' club and that the $3-4,000 that they gave Suburban Community Services every year for that same service could just as well supplement a part-time or full-time person in our city for the same type of service. He said that was when he found out that the Suburban Community Services had:not gotten the guaranteed $3-4,000. Mr. Boudreau stated that the City Council had given him permission to advertise ^ for a Recreation Pr�gram Supervisor. He said they were going to start processing -- applications the next morning. He said ane of the primary functions of the Program Supervisor would be to supply leadership for the senior citizens. They have purchased these services from Suburban Community Services until September; and they felt if their person was here in Fridley for six months prior to September, that person could work with Ms. Dominick to get the feel of what she had in mind for the senior citizens and then by September, they should be able to in-house supply equal to, if not better, leadership for their senior citizens. He said they were working with the school system to come up with some type of suitable facility to house this program. Mr. Peterson stated that this reflected the £eelings of the Commission because they had all felt that this money had been passed in the budget and that they were sorry about the budget mix-up. Mr. Navak and Mr, Szczech stated they felt these plans were more than satisfactory. Mr. Peterson thanked Mr. Novak and Mr. Szczech for coming and stated they were more than welcome to attend the Commission meetings at any time. � ..� _ . _ ���, � F . PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION Ml:ETING FEBRUARY 28, 1977 � PAGE 5 %`� F. Intern for Spring Quarter l Mr. Boudreau introduced Ms. Laurie Hillsdale to the Commission. He explained that Ms. Aillsdale was a senior at the University of Minnesota and would be working with the Parks & Recreation Department free of charge in return for the educational experience. He said she would also be retained in the sum�er as Summer Playground Supervisor. G. Softball- F•Y.S.A• Program Mr. Boudreau stated that he had met with the F.Y.S.A• Their program was well under way and that the City would be assisting with the program as.they had done in the past. Mr. Boudreau stated that instead of writing out a detailed description of this, he felt it was time that trust was built up between them and that these things should be understood. The F.Y.S.A. had agreed to that. In conjunction with other softball programs, they had come up with the idea of an afternoon housewife or ladies' fun day. Also, since the attendance in the morning programs was way down, they were considering changing the program haurs to 1-4:30 and 6;30-8:30 in the afternoon and ever�ing, and have tennis and T-ball in the morning. This would Qpen up a lot of areas for a family-type evening. OLD BUSINES3: A. R��test by Lion's Club /� Mr. Langenfeld stated he was at the meeting on behalf of the Lion's Club and . thanked the C�ission for their time. He stated that the Lion's Club had donated a great deal of money in an attempt to restore the lake, and other things, such as the dock. They had donated somewhere in the range of $20,000. The I,ion's Club would appreciate the Commission's consideration in changing the name of the park from "Moore Lake Park" to "Fridley Lion's Park". ^ Mr. Wagar stated that he was not in favor of renaming the park Mr. Moore stated that speaking as a commissioner traveling throughout the United States, it was nice to see that sign that said "Moore �,ake Beach". It was a kind of recognition thing and was a part of the community. He said he would hate to see the name changed. rlr. Harris stated that he could understand the Lion's position in making this request and appreciated their interest and recognition. But, he felt they,had one thing to consider and that was that if the Commission was to do this on the basis of contribution, they would be negating some of their responsibilities because then names would have to be decided for all the parks. He did not think the Commission would want Commons Park changed to the �ridley Jaycees Park or another park's name changed to the name of some other developer that had helped. He felt there should probably be some way to recognize people who had done a lot for the parks. 9 � PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION MEETINGL FEBRUARY 28, 1977 PAGE 6 Mr. Boudreau stated it was not unusual for local clubs to make donations toward the betterment of parks and recreation systems. He said around the country you did see some parks that are named after these clubs or individuals, but in Minnesota, they had stayed away from naming parks after individuals or clubs. His personal opinion would be that, unless some long term arrangement for the complete development of park land was made, he would want to stay away from recognizing the parks in this way. But, he agreed there had to be some other ways of recognizing the valuable contributions made to these areas. N � ti Mr. Peterson stated that the City Council had named the parks with recommendation from the Commission. He stated that since Mr. Boudreau was in the process of working on a policy manual and with his contact with the civic organizations, maybe Mr. Boudreau could come up with some way that would be appropriate to recognize what these clubs and organizations are doing. Maybe this should be looked at a little more in-depth for those who had done a lot for the parks within the city. Mr. Boudreau stated that he thought there could be a firm policy recommendation. He suggested that maybe the organization's name could be incorporated in another way; for example, Moore Lake Lion's park. If the Commission agreed with that, � he said he wouYd come up with some alternate suggestions. Mr. Wagar stated that might be o.k., but he felt that naming the park,"Fridley Lion's park" was wrong. He also stated that maybe if an organization developed ^ a park--say 90% or so--that then it might be appro�riate to recognize them. - He said he would be willing to let Staff make some recommendations. Mr. Harris stated that he would be willing to name a softball diamond or a tennis court, for example, after a person or organization if that person or organization put that facility in. Mr. Boudreau stated that he would add one word of caution and that was that many times when there was a donation from an organization, that organization was glad to give the donation, but they also wanted the string attached that, because they did it, that facility became the facility of the organization, rather than the City's. He had seen that happen often. But, he stated that Mr. Harris had brought up a good idea, that rather than number ball diamonds or tennis courts, they be called by the name of whoever would put them in. Mr. Peterson stated this item should be set aside until Mr. Boudreau could bring back some more information. Mr, Harris stressed that this was not to slight the Lion's Club, but they were just trying to.find a com�►on denominator for every group. Mr. Peterson thanked Mr. Langenfeld for attending and told Mr. Langenfeld that he would be notified when this item would again be on the agenda with Staff's recommendations. . ^ � _ Q 0 ► PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSiON MEETING rEBRUARY Z8, 197� � PAGE 7 � B. Moore Lake Beach Mr. Langenfeld stated that he wanted to stress the fact that in order to do anything with the lake, the City must determine what they really wanted it for-- whether it should he a recreational lake, a swimming lake, eCc. He said the Fridley Environmental Commission are now going to wait for the�feasibility study to be done. After the study had been done, then the City could determine what Co do with the lake. Mr. L��enfeld stated he had been involved with trying to get a study done on the lake back in 1973 and gave the Commission copies of this material for their information. He said at that time the study would have been $10-11,000 and currently it will be $14-17,000. This study was going to be done with Hitchcock & Associates with regard to the Rice Creek Watershed. He also stated that the Lion`s Club had been approached for additional monies because the City needed additional monies. Mr. Boudreau stated that he would bring the Commission up to date on this item stating that this subject was also on the City Counci.l agenda for that same evening. He stated that out of the recent City Council work sessions had come up the Chought that we have a valuable resource and if it was going to become even more valuable to the.community, something needed to be done. Mr. Boudreau stated that he had relayed the Commission's concerns to the City Council. They are now investigating and had talked to several firms, Hitchcock & Associates included, who made a living studying lake restoration. It appeared that Hitch- cock & Associates were far ahead, not only in their studies, but in their attempts to receive grant monies for restoration. To employ Aitchcock & Associates � to do a complete study to find vut exactly what might be done with the lake would cost $14-17,000. The Parks & Recreation budget has $7,000 earmarked for tlie 5tuay of the east side of the lake for this year. Hitchcock &,Associates are talking about studying both sides of the lake for $17,000. The Rice Creek Watershed District had verbally committed to add another $3,000 for this study. He said someone had approached the Lion's Club for additional monies. H� said what it boiled down to was that the Council had to make a decision on whether they wished to expend additi,vnal funds for a c anplete study of the lake or not. Hopefully, this decision would be forthcoming soon. _� Mr, peterson stated that the summer swimming program was what the Commission had to face that evening. Mr. Boudreau stated he had already made the rec anmendation that he strongly advised the Commission that they not offer the "Learn to Swim" program in the lake this summer. They would run the beach as a recreational facility with lifeguards and safety, but it would be a volunteer beach with no classes. He stated he would be meeting with the school officials to see why the City could not use the Jr. High swimming pool for these classes. Mr. Peterson stated that this was agreeable and that, hopefully, by the next year, they could combine the Jr• High pool-and the lake for the swimming program. r. . ► PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING FEBRUARY 28, 1977 PAGE 8 C. Capital Improvements Plan Mr. goardman stated that in April they are intending ta get a draft copy of the Parks & Recreation Comprehensive plan to the Parks & Recreation Commission. Hopefully, the Commission will get these two weeks prior to their meeting. He stated he had one full-time person working on the parks plan and he had a landscape architect intern working on the development-of concepts of future park systems, and another p art-time person working on maps, etc. They are getting close to organizing the writings, mappings, etc., and, hopefully, by mid-April could get these out to the Commissions. NEW BUSINESS• A• Commission Meeting Dates Mr. Boudreau stated he had a letter dated January 4, 1977, from the Council stating that it had been brought to the Council's attention that the Parks & Recreation Commission met on tHe same night as the Council and that it created problems. The �ouncil had asked that the Commission discuss this problem and consider going to T�esday for their meeting as originally planned in 1976. The Counc�.was just asking for feedback at this time. � Mr. Wagar and Mr. Moore stated they wanted to keep the Monday meeting night and would hesitate to make a change. Mr. Harris stated he also preferred Monday night. /1 Mr. Peterson asked Mr. goudreau to write a letter to the Council stating that the Commission had discussed this matter and at this time Monday night was the best night, but that this would be brought up again at the June meeting to be discussed with the new �ommission members. Mr. Boudreau stated he would also check to see which Monday night it was that the Council did not meet. B,. Fridley Fire Fighters Relief As�sociation Mr. Boudreau stated the Fridley Fire Figh�ers Relief Association had again requesCed perrnission to hold their second annual softball tournament at Commons park on June 10, 11, 12, 1977. Mr. Peterson stated that the Commission has a policy of $100 for clean-up. He asked the question of whether the Commission would want to waive this for a city group or stay with the policy as developed by the Commission. MOTION by Harvey Wagar, seconded by Leonard Moore, to approve the Fridley Fire Fighters Relief Association's request to hold their second annual soft- ball tournament at Commons Park on June 10, 11, 12, 1977, but that tk:e Association put down a$100 deposit for clean-up, Upon a voice vote, all voting aye, the motion carried unanimously. . ^ __ . PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING, FEBRt3,ARY 28, 1977 PAGE 9 � OTHER BUSINESS: Ordinance for Industrial Property Mr. Peterson stated that as he read the City Council minutes, City Council was contemplating changing the ordinance to require only 37, of the gross area of cou�ercial or industrial zoned property to be subdivided be dedicated instead of 10% as required for residential developments. Mr. Peterson stated that as a member of the Parks & Recreation Commission, he was surprised to see that it went to the Council before coming to the Parks & Recreation Commission for two reasons; (1) It has to do with park land; and, (2) We get caught in the bind of always being asked for more teams and more park space, and it was not the Xesidents who put on the pressure, it was the people who are in the industrial parks and commercial properties in town who came and said they were taxpayers and who felt they should have their teams entered in the various leagues. Mr. Peterson stated that now we are going to ask them not to participate and underwrite the development of the parks and are still going to be asking developers of residential property to set aside 10% of their property for park land and he did not think it was equitabLe. Mr. Harris stated that the problem was that they ended up with small parcels of property that they cannot take care of. He felt the best approach to gain valuable dollars rather than land they cannot use would be to set up a policy that, when a buildino permit was taken out, there was some equitable formula based on square footage that the building permit pay a certain fee to Parks & Recreation. It should be set r,'aside as monetary and whatever was equitable on a monetary basis and should be tied to the building permit. Mr. Boardman stated that the reasons the Commission were bringing up were the main reasons for the ordinance change--so that these things would be done. Mr. Peterson stated that there had been some Council action on this at their last meeting as Staff had been directed to write an ordinance to change it. MOTION by Dave Harris, seconded by Harvey Wagar, that the parks & Recreation Commission would like any ordinance change relative to parks & Recreation land, either by land requirements or capital requirements,to be passed to the Commission for their review before City Council took any action on it. Upon a voice vote, all voting aye, the motion carried unanimously. ADJOURNMENT• MOTION by Harvey Wagar, seconded by Leonard Moore, to adjourn the meeting at 10:Q5 p.m. Upon a voice vote, all voting aye, the motion carried unanimously. Respectfully submitted, . �-�i, e S ab a R�cording Secretary .•