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PR 02/27/1978 - 31234� PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION MEET�NG FEBRUI�RY 27, 1978 MEMBERS PRESENT: Bob Peterson, Robin Suhrbier, Leonard Moore, Jan Seeger, Betty Mech MEMBERS ABSENT: None OTHERS PRESENT: Charles Boudreau, Parks & Recreation Director Jack Kirk, Program Supervisor � Rickie Bergquist CALL TO ORDER: Chairperson Peterson called the meeting to order at 7:40 p.m. APPROVAL OF J,t�NUARY 30, 1978, PA�RKS & RECREATYON COMMISSION MTNUTES: Ms. Seeger stated that on page 3, Item 3, paragraph 4, the word "Commission" should be changed to "Department." r40TI0N by Leonard Moore, seconded by Jan Seeger, to approve the January 30, 1978, parks & Recreation Commissian minutes as amended. Upon a voice vote, all voting aye, the motion carried unanimousYy. APPROV�I. OF .AGENDA: The following items were added to the agenda: Update on Benjamin-Briardale Survey - Item 11 under Director's Report Prairie Restorations - Item 3 under NeW Business Recreation Programs in North park - Item 4 under New Business park for Rice Creek Townhouses - Item 5 under New Business MOTION by Betty Mech, the above additions. unanimously. DTRECTOR'S REPORT: seconded by Robin Suhrbier, to approve the agenda with Upon a voice vote, all voting aye, the motion carried 1. Naturalist Position �, Mr. Boudreau stated that at the last meeting, the Commission had wondered .� about the status of the naturalisr position, and he had told Che Couunission that he was looking for the person who could do the job. He stated that PARKS b� RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING FEBRUARY 27, 1978 - PAGE 2 they had now hired Mr. Siah St. Clair, wh� had been ogerating a nature center in Wethersfield, �onnecticut, for the last S'� years. Mr. Boudreau handed out copies of a newspaper article sent to him by Mr. William Pitkin, Wethersfield's Parks & Recreation Director. This article gave a quick overview of what Mr. St. Clair had done in Wethersfield. Mr. St. Clair is married and has two children. He was originally from Michigan and had gotten his Masters Degree from the Michigan State University. Mr. Boudreau stated he felt Mr. St. Clair was extremely skilled in the display and photography area and also in taxidermy, Both skills would aid Fridley's Parks & Recreation Department in the programming they wanted to do. Mr. Boudreau stated that Wethersfield was a town similar in size to Fridley-- around 30,000 population. Mr. St. Clair had taken the program in Wethers- field from infancy to what it was now. He was chosen Citizen of the Year by the Lions' Club in Wethersfield. Mr. Boudreau stated that Mr. St. Clair's background was outstanding. He was an outgoing, personable individual who would meet the public and was not leery in presenting his ideas. NLr. Boudreau stated that Mr. St. Clair had supervisory skills, budgetary skills, knowledge and background to really aid the parks and recreation program. Mr. Boudreau stated Mr. St. Clair would begin work in Fridley on March 20. Mr. St. Clair would Yse present at the next Commission meeting so the Commissioners could meet him. 2. Jaqcees' Softball Team Mr. Boudreau stated that the Jaycees had cancelled their "Softball in the Snow" tournament due to lack of entries. 3. Ten-Year Maintenance Program Mr. Boudreau stated that budget time was near, and he and Curt Dahlberg had been working with an analyst in the Public Works Department on a 10- year maintenance program. The plan was to plot everything they dealt with in the parks, such as playground equipment, tractors, trucks, etc., on a 10-year schedule so they could degreciate these year by year and come up with a number when certain things needed to be replaced. Along with that program would be a building program, which would set a schedule for building permanent buildings in the parks. They were working on a long range program, primarily for replacement and updating equipment in the parks department. He felt it would give guidance for a long time to come and help formulate the budget in the years to come. . 4. Tennis Courts for 1978 ' Mr. Boudreau stated there was a resolution that evening at City Council to go out fnr bids for tennis courts in the following areas; � � � ^ m PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING FEBRUARY 27, 1978 - PAGE 3 Benjamim-Briardale Woodcrest School Craig & Flannery Springbrook - a double.court. Financed in part by state grant. - single court with hard surface basketball area. Financed in part by state grant, in part by Spring Lake Park school district, and in part by the City of Fridley. - Upgrading of tennis courts from 1z to double court. - Mr. Boudreau stated he wanted'to discuss this with the Commission for direction as they had talked about a double court there. Mr. Boudreau stated that he wanted the Commis5ion to be aware that if a double court was put into the Springbrook property, there would be only room for the double court and the playground already there. Did the Commission still wish to have the double court or would they rather see a single court with a hard surfaced area for basketball and then possibly have an approximately 40 feet by 100 feet ice rink? Mr. Moore stated that after talking to some of the residents in that area, the s.econd plan would probably be the best as the residents did not want to give up the ice. MOTION by Leonard Moore, seconded by Jan Seeger, to accept Plan B(a single court with hard surface basketball area) for SPringbroolc. Upon a voice vote, all voting aye, the motion carried unanimously. Mr. Boudreau stated he thought the bids would be going out on March 24 and they hoped to award these bids in ,�Qpril. By state commitment, Woodcrest Baptist Church and Benjamin-Briardale would have to be done first to use the state grants, but he could see no reason why a contractor could not have all five areas in by June. 5. Shade Tree Program Mr. Boudreau sta�ed he had decided in their reorganization pattern to keep the forester directly under the supervision of the Parks & Recreation Department as opposed to reverting the shade tree program back to the naturalist division. With the development of a nursery anddevelopment of the tree inspection program, complete reforestation and forestry work ' would be right in the parks Department. They had the equipment and the people. He thought for reasons of efficiency and an effective shade tree program, it would function much better with the Parks Department. Mr. Boudreau stated they had started with a display at City Hall to try to educate the public. They were trying to get the policies developed that would let them go in and mark trees systematically in areas so they could be removed. They had bids out for a general contractor to helg remove the trees . • PARKS & RECRE,ATION COMMISBION MEETING, FEBRUARY 27, 1978 - PAGE 4 6. Locke Park Tree Problem Mr. $oudreau stated that last July, 680 elm trees were marked. Now, it appeared that figure had doubled. It was going to be too big a job for the 5-6 city men. They had requested from the County, and would probably get, assistance of their CETA personnel with the large chipper and cater- pillars to clean out the Dutch Elm prior to the explosion of the Dutch Elm beetle in April. He stated it was going to make a large clearing in Locke park, but there was nothing that could be done about it: Mr. Peterson stated that he knew how the city behaved when a citizen had a tree with Dutch Elm disease. He felt the minutes should reflect that the City harassed citizens when the citizens had a diseased tree while the City sat with all those diseased trees in Locke Park. He stated if the city was going to expect the citizens to cut their trees down in ten days, then the city better move equally as swiftly. He understood it was not Mr. Boudreau's fault, but the citizens should be given the same consideration the city had. Ms. stated that.she agreed with Mr. Peterson's statement. Ms. Seeger stated that even removing the trees quickly was not save the rest of the trees. She felt that some of the dollars spent in removing the trees should be spent in reforestation. 7. Sidewalk �long Common's Area going to that was Mr. Boudreau stated that the School District had requested that a sidewalk be put in along the east side of 7th St. (along the west side of Commons park), primarily because of the closing of Parkview School. A public hearing would be held on it on March 13. The School District would pay 50% of the cost. Mr. Boudreau stated it was going to cause some problems because of the two fields with the backstops cl�se to the street. The sidewalk would have to be very close to the playing fields. They would either have to move th� fields or fence and there was also a row of small trees that would have to be moved. Iie had mixed emotions about it; but for the safety of the children, he could see the need. � The Co�issioners questioned whether there was any sidewalk south of 61st Ave. in f ront of Parkview and along 7th St. � Mr. Boudreau stated it aas something he would check into--to see how far south the sidewalk did go. ris. Seeger stated that the thing that bothered her was that the City would have to maintain the sidewalk, plowing, etc., and she didn't know if the children would walk on the sidewalk. Children liked to take the shortest route. � /'\ � PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING FEBRUARY 27, 1978 - PAGE 5 � Mr. Peterson stated he would be interested to know how many children would actually be walking and using the sidewalk as opposed to how many children would be bussed. He thought it was the policy of School District ��14 to bus most of the children. Ms. Seeger stated that there would also be the added expense to the City of tree removal and relocating the ball diamonds, Mr. peterson suggested that the children could walk up 61st Ave. on the sidewalk and then the School District could put in a sidewalk 22 blocks east of 7th St. along the Jr. High School property. The children would come out closer to Hayes School that way. The Co�issioners thought Mr. Peterson's idea was excellent. MOTION by Jan Seeger, seconded by Robin Suhrbier, to recommend that School District �k14 move the sidewalk 2Z blocks east of 7th St. along the Jr. High School property as opposed to the sidewalk along Commons Park on the east side of 7th St. Upon a voice vote, all voting aye, the motion carried unanimously. Mr. Peterson asked Mr. Boudreau to be sure that this was an item to go on to the Planning Conunission. � 8. Hockey & Skating Locations 1979 Mr. Boudreau stated they had just finished what he considered an above average hockey and skating season for 1977-78. There had been a lot of good compliments about the excellent ice. He did not think it was too early to begin Zooking at 1979 skating rink and hockey rink locations. He did know that Moore Lake, Flannery, Ruth Circle (used by Coon Rapids for practices), and Craig did not get much use. Madsen was used twice a week by Spring Lake Park. He stated the H.A.F. had cooperated very nicely t�is year by using five rinks plus Locke and Commons. Mr. Peterson stated he felt it was atzemendous hockey program. Some of the complaints he had gotten was that the people liked the hockey rinks, but without general skating areas, it was bad for the c hildren who just wanted to skate. Mr. Boudreau stated he felt a city the size of Fridley only needed five or six general skating areas. He thought they had strained the budget so much in trying to maintain so many sicating areas that they had lost sight of providing•good facilities for warming houses and central locations. Ms. Suhrbier stated she felt the City needed a lot of skating areas acces- sible to the neighborhoods. Skating was one of the few spontaneous major winter sports in which people could participate. ^ PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING, FF.BRtUARY 27, 1978 - PAGE 6 � Mr. Peterson stated that maybe they should take a better look at some of the other programs the City was spending money on, He could not buy the philosophy of making elementary children walk 3/4 mile just to go skating. The City had added and added personnel and programs. If they were talking about eliminating skating which was a sport basic to this climate, then they better take a better look at it. Ms. Seeger also agreed. Mr. Boudreau stated that maybe the Commission could give their recommendations €or the skating areas at the next meeting. His recommendation was to eliminate Flannery, Madsen, and Ruth Circle. Mr. Peterson stated, before they made a decision, he would like to see the reports from the warming house attendants and what the attendants had observed. Mr. Boudreau stated he was merely asking the Commission if the city needed all the rinks they were presently maintaining. He was not sugJesting they eliminate the ice, but just not maintain it. With the hockey rinks, they would leave the ice, have a general area and a hockey area, but eliminate the boards as it took four times as long to clean a hocicey rink as a general skating area. Mr. Peterson stated he fel�t very strongly about the general skating areas. � He stated that the Parks Department and the H.A.F. had done a tremendous job in getting together and deciding on the rinks that were needed because he did not think there were any complaints from the H.,A.F. He stated that the Commission should also have a report from the H.A•F. for the record and they could look at that also at the next meeting. 9. Program Report A. Job Information Day Mr. Kirk stated that they were already planning for the summer help. They had tried something new this year called a"Job Information Day." It was held on a saturday morning for students interested in summer jobs, and Staff was on hand to answer questions. There was a turn-out of 25. They had sent letters to all the high schools and colleges in the area regarding the Job Information Day. For the first time, they were pretty satisfied with the turn-out. Mr. Kirk stated they would start a little earlier next year, giving about a two-month notice period. He stated that applications for summer jobs would close on Friday, March 1. 1�Ir. Peterson asked what the City offered for a baseball program. Mr. Kirk stated that the City ran a Pee Wee program which was strictly an instructional league not geared for competition. It was a continu- n ation of the T-Ball. Last year, there were four teams with a total of _ SS children. !`� ^ /'� PAitKS & RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING, FEBRU,ARY 27, 1978 - PAGE 7 Mr. Peterson stated he felt the T-Ball program was tremendous, but he had a problem with running a baseball program, even if it was instruc- tional. It was running a program in competition with a volunteer organization who ran it for free, and he had difficulty justifying it. W'hy should the City run a duplicate program? He stated that in the Commission minutes five or six years ago, the Couunission at that time had instructed the Parks & Recreation Department to phase out all programs in competition with volunteer programs. Mr. Boudreau stated that the Little League had no problem with the City's program, and that some people did not like the organization of a little league. They had felt there was a need for the program when 55 children participated in it. Ms. Mech stated that she, personally, did not like programs that were too formal, and she did not think the Pee Wee program seemed much of an expense. - Ms. Suhrbier stated she would like to know how the Little League was run--how much was instructional and how much was competition? Mx'. Kirk stated he could check with the Littl.e League to see how close the two programs were. He could have a report for the Commission at the next meeting. He stated that the Parks & Recreation Department would have a feeling after meeting with the Little League whether to continue the program for this year or not. Mr. Peterson year, but it for the next stated it was too late to change the program for this was something the Commission could make a decision on year. Mr. Boudreau stated he thought the whole sports program was going . through a change. Ar some point in time, there was going to be a minimum number of children to participate and the associations were going to feel that it was not worth their time and effort any longer. When that time came, it was up to the city. Until that time, they were trying to fill voids and add programs where they felt they were necessary. B. Winter Re-Cap Mr. Kirk stated that most of the winter activities were now ending. They had some expansion as far as the number of teams in athletic activities. There had been 24 teams playing Couples' Volleyball. They had set it up this time with no officials, jt�st playing for the enjoyment, and they had been glad to see the program go over so �oell. One of the new programs that went very well was the teen program. � PARKS & AECREATION COMMISSION MEETING, FEBRUARY 27, 1978 - PAGE 8 � Mr. Kirk stated they had worked on the teen program with the Teen Board. There had been five teen nights every other Friday night with 325-350 kids participating each time. The program had been announced in Columbia Heights, Spring Lake Park, and Coon Rapids' school districCs. They had gotten volunteer help from the Jaycees and the Lions' Club, but they needed more volunteers. Mr. Boudreau stated that there had been some concern by the Teen Board of the need for a facility. The �ity�s philosophy had been that once a program got going and there was enough need demonstrated, a facility would come. Now, the program was started, they were seeing it grow, and they already had gotten two requests from parents to move this program into the senior high group. Mr. Peterson stated that there were other service groups that the City could go to for volunteers for these teen nights, and they sh ould do so. Mr. $oudreau stated he would include Item F under the Program Report, "Teen Program F.E.S.T." here also. The Teen Board had consented to have a separate account with the City for their funds. It was a separate city account, qny money brought in from the Friday night teen programs wen*_ into that account and mone}� for bands, etc., came out of that account. This way the Teen Board could keep a complete /'1 audit on how m�xch money they had. Continuing with the "Winter R�-Cap", Mr. K�.rk stated that the "Lawn and Garden" workshops had been attended by 12 people: They had 20 entries on display at the library from the photo contest. The After- School program had tripled in attendance from the fall program with approximately 300 children participating. C. Spring Plans Mr. Kirk stated that the plans were just being completed for the spring programs. It would be a short term spring program--,�pril and May. This would then give a three-week break before the summer program. They were going to have tennis instruction, golf instruc- tion, after-school activities, a bicycling club, several outdoor and nature programs. The brochure should be out in 12 weeks, and registration would begin March 20. D. Suuuner Playgrounds Mr. Kirk stated that they had looked at the registration and attendance of the summer playgrounds from last year and they wanted to make a change and combine some of the areas. Last year, they had 13 areas and some of those areas only had 7-8 children who attended regularly. This made it very difficult for the leaders to plan activities. Their plan for this year was to have 9 or 10 centralized n 0 � PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING, FEBRU�RY 27, 1978 - PAGE 9 ^ locations throughout the city; and, hopefully, have them in certain service areas, such as Ruth Circle/Craig area, Riverwood School or Logan; Stevenson School;.Woodcrest Church/Madsen area; Hayes School; Commons/Parkview area; glannery Park; Rice Creek Elementary; North Park and/or Gardena. Mr. Kirk stated that this year they planned to have the "playground in the streets" (PITS) in certain areas with specific times. The PITS program could also be requested for a certain area. Ms. Mech stated she would like to refer to ,Agenda Item 5 under New Business, "Park for Rice Creek Townhouses.'� She stated she wondered what the city could do for the Rice Creek Townhouses. There were a lot of kids in that area and there was nothing for them to do. The playground was too small. The kids were going down to the creek and smoking and drinking beer. She was worried about this area and would like to see some kind of aggressive help for that area. Mr. Kirk stated that this could be a possible area for the PITS program. Ms. Mech stated she had heard there was the same kind of problem in the Georgetown Apartment area. Mr. Kirk stated that Stevenson School was 2-3 blocks from Georgetown where the children could go for activities and programs. Ms. Seeger stated that what bothered her was that so often people li ving in apartment buildings and trailer parks did net get this kind of information. Mr. Boudreau stated that this year they were going to the home delivery system so this information should get to a lot more people than it did through Mailhouse. This information was to be hand delivered to each resident in the apartments also. Mr. Kirk stated that last year they had an evening program three times a week for family involvement. There was not a good attendance, and it had been the recommendation of the parents and leaders that the family night program be continued but be held once every two weeks with a special event. E. Senior Program Ms. Bergquist stated she wanted to bring the Commission up to date on what had been happening with the senior program over the last six months. She had taken over the program for the seniors in September 1977. Right away, she had gone to the Fridley Community Education ^ $oard requesting assistance in programming. She had received $1,500 for the beginning of a publication of a public newsletter, to offset ' bus transportation for the seniors, the mailing of the monthly printing, etc. To date, she had spent $628.45. Also, she had worked wiCh .. .._ .... . . .. . . .4.......... . � ........ . ....... . .. . . . .. ... ... . ..... . ... s... .. . .. . .:.... . . .. . . . .. . . . . _... . .. .. . .. _. PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING. FEBRU,ARY 27, 1978 - PAGE 10 � k Mr. Tom Myhra, Community Education Director, in obtaining two class- rooms at Parkview School for the seniors. These rooms were used for card playing, pool playing, free blood pressure tests, etc. They also used the gymnasium and cafeteria for dances and parties. Ms. Bergquist stated that there were a lot of new programs being developed. The biggest was the monthZy newsletter that went to all the seniors in Fridley. She was trying to get names of all the senior citizens in Fridley. There were approximately 3,000 seniors in Fridley and she had a mailing list of approximately 400. She currently had letters out to all the ministers of the churches in Fridley asking for names of their members 55 years and older and those names would be added to the list. Ms. Bergquist stated that the seniors hac� two regular meetings a month--one regular business meeting and one birthday party and celebration. They had free monthly blood pressure tests, weekly . cards and coffee sessions, weekly game sessions, bi-monthly dances, special events, bowling, a senior exercise program, etc. In September 1977, there were 140 members and currently there were 207 members. She hoped to increase the memberships and the people wanting to be on the u�iling list. She hoped to work with Mr. Ray Leek in the Planning Department to coordinate a transportation program for the handicapped � and seniors. Ther�e was the possibility of working with the Salvation Army for a congregate dining site for Fridley, plus numerous other programs. Mr. Boudreau stated that the Commission should be aware of one problem. Evidently, there had been two senior citizen groups in Fridley--the Friendly Fridley �olk and the Leisure League, both associated with local churches. When North Suburban Community Services came in, they had worked with the Friendly Fridley Folk, which was the larger group< F�hen the City came in to run the program, thEy knew nothing of the historical background, and named the group,the Friendly Fridley Folk. The Leisure League had then come in requesting that the city also announce the meetings of their club in the city newsletter. The city had explained that they could not do that because, although it was called the Friendly Fridley Folk, it was a new group not associated with the original church group, was a city program financed with city funds and run with city staff. Mr. Boudreau stated it was a problem area, although some of the Leisure League members now belonged to the Friendly Fridley Folk. He stated they were trying to focus in on eliminating this old conflict, even to the possibility of changing the name of the City's program to better reflect a service to all senior citizens of Fridley. F. Teen Program F.E.S.T. � This item was discu�sed on page 8 of the minutes under Item B �- "Winter Re-Cap." PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING FEBRUARY 27, 1978 - PAGE 11 G. Annual Report Mx'. Kirk stated that this information would be printed and given to each of the Commission members. It was something he and Mr. Boudreau had discovered from the Nat�onal Recreation Park Association. ' It was a new way of documenting the recreational services to the community. It had never been done before, and they felt it was really a break- tnrough. It was a way of putting a dollar value on recreation to the community. It was very difficult to put a dollar value on social service, but there was a simple formula that had been worked up, The whole system was called an "Economic Equivalence Index (EEI)." i�at it was based on what that every hour was an opportunity hour for a person. So, it was based on participant hour, the number of parti- cipants taking part in an activity, and the minimum wage. The parti- cipant hour times the number of participants times the minimum wage equalled the "EEI"--what that activity was worth to the citizens in Che community. Other things would be explained when the Commissioners received this material. For those persons 13-18 years of age, the minimum wage was divided in half; and for children, the minimum wage was divided by three. There were some multiplication factors for the handicapped and seniors as recreational services were worth more to the handicapped and seniors. Mr. Kirk stated that according to their figures, the City of Fridley ^ had furnished $931,000 worth of activities to the citiaens. Another thing about this system was that a cost benefit ratio cauld be computed also. The cost benefit ratio to the city for ttie recreational programs was .23, which was good. Mr. Kirk stated he thought it was an exciting way of justifying the program and they could start setting some goals. Mr. Boudreau stated this was part of their annual report, and it �as an exciting thing for the Parks & Recreation Department to finally find a way of attempting to come up with a cost benefit analysis of what they were doing. Ms. Seeger stated she thought it was fabulous to have a cost benefit to the city. Mr. Boudreau stated he would like to commend Mr.Kirk for his many hours of work tracking down information, developing the system, and putting it into the format for the figures. Mr. Boudreau stated he was very grateful for Mr. Kirk's help. 10. Meeting with Dave Torkildson--Anoka County Park Director Mr. Boudreau stated he and Jack Kirk had met with Dave Torkildson, George Leverance, and Jack Hansen, H.A.F. President. Problems and solutions were discussed. He and Mr. Kirk had asked about the figure skating school and were told there were four sessions per year with ^ approximately 250 students at each session. The school was run by the the county and was a year-round school and should get firsC priority. . PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING FEBRUARY 27, 1978 - PAGE 12 They were told that the high school league games were super and were given second priority. Jack Hansen stated he had no problem with the high school practices as those were during the summer months, pne of the problems with the high school team practice was the influx with the Hockey gooster Club, that there had been an additional SO hours of prime ice time given to the high school for practices. And, once 50 hours were given to one high school, the same 50 hours had to be made available to other high schools in the county. Mr. Boudreau stated that a possible solution that might be tried was to take the high school team practices and the hours they had in 1976 as the hours they would be allocated. �ny hours over and above that would come after 10;00 p.m. Mr. Boudreau stated they had agreed to drop the high school non-conference tournaments priority below the city programs. Regarding the figure skating club, this was ice time that was sold. Mr. Boudreau stated that Mr. Hansen appeared to be satisfied, and they should be getting additional ice time during the prime hockey season. This would be tried out next year, and it seemed to be the reasonable solution to the problem. Mr. Boudreau stated that Ms. Suhrbier had been concerned about Mr. Torkildson's recommendation that hockey became part of the city's regular school curri- cuium. Mr. Torkildson had stated tliat tilere were some hockey rinks around the state that had agreements with the schools that in place of the physical education hour, they put the children on a bus and would rent an hour of ice ta teach hockey or skating. His reco�nendation was that the ice arena eould be used during the day as part of the on-going physical education program if the schools wished to do so. Mr. Boudreau stated that, generally speaking, it was a good meeting. He thought they had gotten a positive indication from these gentlemen. They were willing to cooperate with the city, and they were looking at breaking even and making Columbia Arena self-supporting. Mr. Boudreau stated he had also proposed that the City would like to share some of the Coon Rapids city ice. Supposedly, this ice was restricted to only Coon Rapids people and not even M.A.H.A. was allowed to use it, so the overflow was taking ice at Columbia �rena. They had agreed to try to talk to the �noka County Board of Commissioners to open up some of this ice time. 11. Update on genjamin-griardale Survey Mr. Boudreau handed out new copies of the City of Fridley Recreational Interest Survey and the Benjamin-Briardale Neighborhood park Survey. He stated they had talked to the planning Department since the last �ommission meeting about this survey. He thought they had finally convinced them it was more important to find out what activities people were interested in participating in before telling them what facility they needed. So, they had done a door-to-door interest survey of basic activities. Included with that was a revised questionnaire. As of that evening, 30% of the survey was completed, and almost 100% of that 30% had been positive. The people were excited about being asked about what they wanted. Mr. Boudreau stated he thought this was a better, more warkable solution than what was first put forth at the last Commission meeting. �, � � � PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING, FEBRUARY 27, 1978 - PAGE 13 � NEW BUSINESS: 1. Shelter Reservations at Locke Park Mr. Boudreau stated that in the past, the system for anyone to use Locke park was by coming in and filling out a reservation form. The reservation form really meant nothing. He stated that this year, they were not going to have reservations of any kind, unless the Commission saw some logical reason for continuing the reservation forms. He stated they were going to request that groups over 50 notify the city only because the city would then know when to leave more trash containers and would know when to pick them up. He stated this would be publicized. The Commission concurred with Mr. Boudreau's recommendation. 2. Cooperation with Cou►merical Recreation Programs Mr. Boudreau stated he was looking for same direction from the Commission on this item. A local roller skating rink had called up the city offering a program where they would provide bus transportation Co and fram the rink for the children to rollerskate at the regular price. Mr. Boudreau stated they had done this once and abotit 200 children had turned out for it. He stated this person had called again, and he and Mr. Kirlc had thought about it and wondered if the city wanted to open the door to cooperate wi�h commercial recreation programs. The only reason this person wanted the city to cooperate was because the fliers goi through the school system to generate this person's business. Did the city want to be placed in that position? Mr. Moore stated he thought it sounded exciting as it provided a service that alleviated the parents having to transport the children. Ms. Seeger stated that the city rented buses and facilitated businesses such as skiing. Mr. Kirk stated that the big difference was that this person wanted to do it on a regular basis, and this person wanted the city's name on the brochure. With skiing, the city was setting up the program and hiring the bus and just using the facility. Mr. Kirk stated he would like to use the roller skating rink some time as a special event-type thing, but the city should set up the program. Mr. Boudreau stated he thought the city was overstepping its boundary by using the 'school for this person's business. The city was helping a commercial business at this person's request rather than the city running the program. It did not preclude that the city could run the program and use this facility. So far, this person had indicated there would be no ^ reduction in rate for a Fridley group. PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING, FEBRUARY 27, 1978 - PAGE 14 � MOTION by Betty 1�Iech, seconded by Robin guhrbier, to recommend ttiat the city not accept any offers for conunercial ventures, and that, in the future, the city run all the programs. Ms. Seeger stated she would like to see the city provide some skating program because of the enthusiastic response for this skating trip. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, THE MOTION CARRIED UNAIIIMOUSLY, 3. Prairie Restoration Ms. Mech stated she knew a young man who had gone into prairie restoration. He had been doing this a number oi years. Hennepin County Park Reserve was one that he had done. She stated he could come and give a short presen- tation and show slides or photographs. She felt it was possible to establish prairies in some of the parks. ' Ms. Seeger stated she thought it was a good idea to have this gentleman speak to the Commission. , The Commissioners agreed and Ms. Mech stated she woiald arrange to have him come to the next meeting. � 4. Recreation Frograms into North Park � Ms, Suhrbier stated that there had been some concern in the gouth Innsbruck and Gardena area, that since Gardena would be closing, the programs would not be offered there anymore. They wanted to know if North Park, being in the Columbia Heights School District, could have some recreation programs? Columbia Heights did nat seem to care because those were Fridley residents. and Fridley had said that maybe they couldn`t because it was in the Columbia Heights School District. Mr. Kirk stated he would check into this with Columbia Heights as he knew that Columbia Heights had run after-school activities there for three years. Ms. Suhrbier stated that if they did, none of the parents were receiving any notices of these activities. Mr. Kirk stated he would also check into how Columbia Heights publicized their activities. Fridley could certainly make after-school programs available there. He stated he would report�back to the Commission next meeting. 5. Park for Rice Creek Townhouses 'rhis item was discussed under ,Agenda Item 9, D, "Summer Playgrounds" on page 9 of these minutes, � , � P�ARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING, FEBRUARY 27, 1978 - PAGE 15 ADJOURNML�NT : MOTION by Jan Seeger, seconded by Betty Mech, to adjourn the meeting at 10:45 p.m. Upon a voice vote, all voting aye, the motion carried unanimously. Respectfully su�mitted, , A�e � �.n Y',. :'i' .f�. � � �l,'' �--�' Ly,�ine Saba Recording Secretary /'� �