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02/05/2001 - 00008443CITY OF FRIDLEY PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING — FEBRUARY 5, 2001 CALL TO ORDER: Vice-Chairperson Young called the February 5, 2001 Parks & Recreation Commission Meeting to order at 7:07 p.m. ROLL CALL: Members Present Members Absent Others Present Sue Price Tim Solberg Dick Young Dave Kondrick 7ack Kirk, Director of Recreation & Natural Resources Paul Lawrence, Public Works Superintendent APPROVAL OF JANUARY 8, 2001 PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION MINUTES MOTION by Mr. Solberg, seconded by Ms. Price to approve the minutes of the January 8, 2001 meeting. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL MEMBERS VOTING AYE, VICE-CHAIRPERSON YOUNG DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED. APPROVAL OF PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION AGENDA FOR FEBRUARY 5, 2001 MOTION by Mr. Solberg, seconded by Ms. Price to approve the agenda for the February 5, 2001 meeting. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL MEMBERS VOTING AYE, VICE-CHAIRPERSON YOUNG DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED. 1. STAFF REPORT a. Program Update Mr. Kirk stated that the first Senior Safety Camp was held on Tuesday, January 23rd with 112 seniors participating. Local experts including a pharmacist, nurse, police officer, sheriff and a representative from the attorney general's office provided safety tips and important information in the day long event. Some of the topics covered were telemarketing scams, fall prevention, personal safety and medication concerns. The Minneapolis Star Tribune had a reporter at the event and printed an article the ne�t day in the Metro section. Evaluations and feedback on the event was very good and staff will be looking at scheduling another camp in the fall. Mr. Kirk further stated that the staff of the Recreation and Natural Resource Department sponsored a Winter Fest event on Saturday, January 27t'` with some great results. Over 400 people total were involved in the event, which included activities at Springbrook Nature Center, Commons Park and the Fridley Community Center. The Fridley Lions Club donated money and provided a number of Lions Parks and Recreation Commission Meetin� — Februarv 5, 2001 Pa�e 2 members to help make this event a success. We also had some volunteers from the newly formed Fridley Jaycees. Mr. Kirk stated that he was very pleased with the effort put forth by his staff in making this event happen. Mr. Kirk further stated that other department activities for the past month are listed in the Program Update included with the agenda packet. b. Park Maintenance Report Mr. Lawrence stated that the majority of the park maintenance efforts in the month of 7anuary was in support of the ice skating program. Workers have been sweeping, shoveling and flooding the rinks on a daily basis. He said that the skating oval at Commons Park/Fridley Middle School turned out very well and we should promote or advertise it more for ne�t season. Mr. Lawrence further stated that the park maintenance workers had helped prepare Commons Park for the Winter Fest activities and also spent time removing snow from the streets and then the skating rinks. c. Springbrook Clean Water Partnership Grant Application Mr. Kirk stated that the City of Fridley has been notified by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency that phase II of the Springbrook Clean Water Partnership did not get grant funding. The project was to include restoration of the Springbrook wetland and the reduction of the heavy water flow into the nature center. The project had the support of the cities of Blaine, Coon Rapids, Spring Lake Park and Fridley. Mr. Kirk further stated that there is a possibility of submitting an application for ne�t year. Mr. Young asked if there were other grant opportunities that might provide funding to support this project, such as a DNR grant. Mr. Kirk stated that other grants are possibilities, however, this MPCA grant seemed to be the best match for the project. Also, we had received funding for phase I, the study part of the project. 2. NEW BUSINESS a. Summer Playground Format and Fees Mr. Kirk presented a staff recommended fee schedule for the summer playground program in 2001. Staff tries to recommend playground fees at a level that will cover a portion of the expenses of the program and yet will be acceptable to the parents. If the fees get too high, we see a drop in participation and an increase in requests to waive the fees. The recommendation for this year includes some fees remaining at last year's level and others being adjusted some. The staff recommended format and fee schedule for the summer playgrounds is as follows: • Preschool Playgrounds, 3 year olds ....Two, four-week sessions are offered. Activity is three mornings per week for 45 minutes. Cost: $18 per four-week session. • Preschool Playgrounds, 4-5 year olds.... Two, four-week sessions are offered. Activity is three mornings per week for one hour and fifteen minutes. Cost: $28 per four-week session. • Elementary Playgrounds, youth completing grades K-4 ... Two, four-week sessions are offered. Activity is four afternoons per week for three and one-half hours. There are three park locations for this option. Cost: $35 per four-week session. Parks and Recreation Commission Meetin� — Februarv 5, 2001 Pa�e 3 • Elementary Playgrounds, youth completing grades K-4... Two, four-week sessions are offered. Activity is four afternoons per week for one and one-half hours. There are three park locations for this option. Cost: $18 per four-week session. • The Chill, youth completing grades 4-7 ... Two, four-week sessions are offered. Activity is on four afternoons per week for two hours. Cost: $24 for each four-week session. • The ZONE, youth completing grades 4-7 ... Two, four-week sessions are offered. Activity is four afternoons per week for two hours (immediately following the Chill). Activity is held at the FCC lower level. Cost: $24 for each four-week session. • ROCKS, youth completing grades K-5 ... Eight weeks of this activity are offered. This is the all day component to the playground program with staffing available from 7:45 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Activity is based at the Fridley Community Center and Commons Park Cost: $80 per week. Mr. Kirk stated that the 4-5 year olds program is being raised from $25 to $28; the Chill is being raisedfrom $21 to $24: and the ROCKS program from $75 to $80. The rest of the fees will remain at year 2000 levels. Mr. Young asked if participants in the ROCKS program can sign up for individual weeks or did they need to sign up for all eight weeks. Mr. Kirk responded that participants could sign up for individual weeks. Mr. Solberg asked if there were a lot of non-residents, perhaps people that work in Fridley, that sign upfor the ROCKS program. Mr. Kirk stated that there were some, but the majority of participants live in the city. MOTION by Ms. Price, seconded by Mr. Solberg to approve the year 2001 Summer Playground format and fees as recommended by staff. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL MEMBERS VOTING AYE, VICE-CHAIRPERSON YOUNG DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED. b. Showmobile Rental Request — City of Blaine Mr. Kirk stated that the City of Blaine has requested an application form for use of the showmobile, but they have not returned the completed application as of yet. Mr. Young pointed out that the Blaine celebration, known for many years as `Blaine's Blazin Fourth", will no longer be held over the fourth of July. It is being held the weekend prior to the fourth. MOTION by Mr. Solberg, seconded by Ms. Price to table this agenda item until the application is received. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL MEMBERS VOTING AYE, VICE-CHAIRPERSON YOUNG DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED. c. Outdoor Recreation Grant Applications Mr. Kirk stated that the City has requested application materials from the Minnesota Department of Parks and Recreation Commission Meetin� — Februarv 5, 2001 Pa�e 4 Natural Resources for two potential outdoor recreation grants. The first grant would be to construct an asphalt walking trail through the Sand Dunes (West Moore Lake) park The second grant would be to install a drainage system at the Community Park ballfields. The DNR grants will normally fund up to 50% of the cost of a project with the City providing the balance of the funding. Mr. Kirk further stated that the Sand Dunes Park is in need of some type of trail or path since the old boardwalk system was removed over one year ago. The Parks and Recreation Commission recommended last year that an asphalt trail would be the best alternative for this park, considering maintenance concerns and accessibility issues. Mr. Kirk stated that the Community Park has been a very valuable park since it was opened in 1982. The most significant problem at the ballfields is the poor drainage following rain events. Games at the facility are often postponed or played under very poor field conditions because of the water retention at the site. Recent proposals to the City for alleviating the water problems were much more expensive than originally thought and has led to the looking at the DNR grant for assistance. The City does have some money ($85,000) in the Parks CIP to address this concern over the ne�t two years. Even with the grant money, it would require additional City resources to make this project happen. Mr. Kirk asked if the Commission was in support of the City submitting the two grant applications. Mr. Young thought pursuing these grants was a good idea and even if funding allowed us to do only two of the fields, the City would be better off than we are now. Mr. Young further stated that when you look at timing on a project like this, you would almost have to do the work after Labor Day so as to have the least impact upon our programs. Would the fields have to be taken out of use the following year because of the work being done? Mr. Kirk agreed that the scheduling and phasing of the work would be important so our programs could still operate. Mr. Lawrence stated that the fields would not be out of use for a long period of time, because the turf areas would have a slit drain system installed and not total removal of existing grass. Mr. Solberg commented that it costs the City each time staff has to work on getting the fields in condition for playing ball games and in the long run, it makes sense to look at alleviating the wet fields problem. MOTION by Mr. Solberg, seconded by Ms. Price, to support the application for grant money to the Minnesota DNR for a trail project at the Sand Dunes and a drainage system project at the Community Park. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL MEMBERS VOTING AYE, VICE-CHAIRPERSON YOUNG DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED. Parks and Recreation Commission Meetin� — Februarv 5, 2001 Pa�e 5 ADJOURNMENT MOTION by Mr. Solberg, seconded by Ms. Price to adjourn the February 5, 2001 meeting at 7:59 p.m. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL MEMBERS VOTING AYE, VICE-CHAIRPERSON YOUNG DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED AND THE FEBRUARY 5, 2001 MEETING ADJOURNED.