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04/05/2004 - 00028704CITY OF FRIDLEY PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING — APRIL 5, 2004 CALL TO ORDER: Chairperson Kondrick called the April 5, 2004 Parks & Recreation Commission Meeting to order at 7:12 p.m. ROLL CALL: Members Present Others Present: Dave Kondrick Marcy Sibell Tim Solberg Dolores Varichak Jack Kirk, Director of Recreation & Natural Resources Dave Lindquist, Park Maintenance Supervisor APPROVAL OF MARCH 1, 2004 PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION MINUTES MOTION by Ms. Varichak, seconded by Mr. Solberg, to approve the minutes of the March 1, 2004 meeting. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL MEMBERS VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON KONDRICK DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED. APPROVAL OF PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION AGENDA FOR APRIL 5, 2004 MOTION by Ms. Sibell, seconded by Mr. Solberg, to approve the agenda for the April 5, 2004 meeting. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL MEMBERS VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON KONDRICK DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED. 1. STAFF REPORT a. Program Update Mr. Kirk stated that the Program Update was a report of the activities sponsored by the Recreation and Natural Resource Department in the past month. Some of the activities with our senior program during the past month included the Tax Assistance, the Healthy Living Series, the Tea Time excursion and the Old Tyme Dancing. A two-part seminar on "Aging with Wisdom and Grace" was offered, and the Handiworks program coordinator reported that 296 jobs had been completed this year as of March 1 St. The elementary after-school programs are operating at Hayes, Stevenson, and Woodcrest Elementary Schools. Some of the popular classes this spring are Creative Cooking and Art Mania. Springbrook Nature Center staff hosted a volunteer recognition event at the end of February. It was a western themed evening with about sixty volunteers and staff enjoying the dinner funded by the Springbrook Nature Center Foundation. Parks and Recreation Commission Meetinq — April 5, 2004 Paqe 2 b. Park Maintenance Report Mr. Lindquist stated that Park Maintenance workers have been taking care of a variety of tasks during the month of March. They have been getting the winter equipment cleaned up and put away, and preparing the summer equipment for the upcoming work. The workers have been trimming trees and picking up litter in the parks. Just today, the park workers have started sweeping the turf in the parks. They have now started to work on the ballfields as the softball and baseball teams have started to use them. Ms. Varichak asked if there is going to be a storage facility at the Commons #2 ballfield to replace the scorer's building that was taken down last fall. Mr. Lindquist stated that a small storage building would be put up to hold maintenance equipment, bases and the pitching machine. He hopes to get the building put up in the next week or two. c. City Council Presentation to Dick Young Mr. Kirk stated that the City Council will present a plaque to Dick Young at next Monday's Council meeting to recognize Dick's 25 years of service to the Parks and Recreation Commission. The presentation will take place at the very beginning of the City Council meeting that starts at 7:30 p.m. Mr. Kondrick stated that he would be at the meeting to recognize Mr. Young's service to this group and he would like to invite the other Parks and Recreation Commission members to attend the presentation as well. d. Commission Member Reappointment — Tim Solberg Mr. Kirk stated that the City Council has reappointed Tim Solberg to a new three-year term on the Parks and Recreation Commission. Mr. Solberg is starting his 16t" year as a member of this Commission. Staff and the Commission members congratulated Mr. Solberg on his reappointment. 2. NEW BUSINESS a. Election of Officers Mr. Kondrick stated that the Parks and Recreation Commission elects a Chairperson and Vice- Chairperson at the April meeting each year. The Chairperson presides over all Commission meetings and serves on the City's Planning Commission. The Vice-Chairperson serves as Chairperson when the Chairperson is absent. MOTION by Mr. Solberg, seconded by Ms. Sibell, to elect Dave Kondrick as Chairperson of the Parks and Recreation Commission. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL MEMBERS VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON KONDRICK DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED. Parks and Recreation Commission Meetinq — April 5, 2004 Paqe 3 Mr. Kondrick thanked the Commission members for showing confidence in him and electing him to continue in the leadership role of this group. Mr. Kondrick stated that with Mr. Young's retirement from the Commission, there is a need for someone to step into the Vice- Chairperson position. MOTION by Mr. Kondrick, seconded by Ms. Varichak, to elect Tim Solberg as Vice- Chairperson of the Parks and Recreation Commission. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL MEMBERS VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON KONDRICK DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED. b. Parks 5-Year Capital Improvement Program Mr. Kirk stated that he has presented the Commission members with the staff-recommended 5-Year Parks Capital Improvement plan (CIP). The Parks CIP has changed much in the past couple of years due to the budget situation and the reduction in Local Government Aid from the State of Minnesota. All projects scheduled for last year (2003) and this year were put on hold to help the City of Fridley deal with the budget shortfall. Mr. Kirk further stated that he has met with other staff in the Recreation and Natural Resource Department and with Dave Lindquist, Parks Supervisor, to come up with the plan being presented tonight. It is not a very aggressive or ambitious plan, because we just do not have a lot of dollars available for projects in the City at this time. Most of the projects in the plan are to improve or maintain existing facilities. In light of the budget concerns, this staff recommended plan seems reasonable for us to accomplish the work that needs to be done in our park system. Mr. Kirk stated that he would like to go over the items for each year in the plan and also cover projects listed in the "other" category, but not scheduled for a specific year. The Parks and Recreation Commission can make changes, additions or subtractions to the plan that the Commission would like to recommend to the City Council for approval. Mr. Kirk stated that projects in the new staff recommended plan are as follows: 2005 Court resurfacing and overlays, including a replacement of the two north tennis courts at Commons Park. Replacement of the carpeting in the Springbrook Interpretive building. Repairs to the roof and restrooms at the Community Park central building. Park furnishing replacements. 2006 South parking lot replacement at Commons Park. Court resurfacing and overlays. Park furnishings and fencing replacements. 2007 Court surfacing and overlays. Park furnishing replacements. Commons Park hockey rink replacement. Innsbruck trail upgrades. 2008 Farr Lake Park trail improvements. Court surfacing. Park furnishing replacements. 2009 Community Park scoreboard replacements. Park furnishing replacements. Court resurfacing and overlays. Parks and Recreation Commission Meetinq — April 5, 2004 Paqe 4 Mr. Kirk stated that the total dollar amounts for the projects scheduled in each year are as follows: 2005 $123,000 2006 $113, 600 2007 $ 91,150 2008 $ 81, 700 2009 $ 56, 300 Mr. Solberg stated that General Mills is doing some carpeting replacement in the office complex where he works. Some of the carpet being replaced appears to be in good shape and he has inquired about the City getting the old carpet to use at Springbrook and possibly at the Community Park building. Mr. Kirk asked if he could set a time with Mr. Solberg to come out to the office and look at the carpet being replaced to see if it would work at one of our locations. Mr. Kondrick thanked Mr. Solberg for looking into this and stated that it could help us save some money in our parks improvement program. Mr. Kirk stated that there have been some additions and changes made to the "Other Years" projects list. The projects on this list are almost at $5 million dollars now. Many of the projects on this list would be very nice additions to our park system, but with the financial situation of the City, they are not scheduled at this time. Mr. Kondrick stated that one of the glaring things that hits him when reading the Parks 5-Year CIP is the high cost of the court surfacing every year for the tennis and basketball courts. He further stated that he did not know if we had any numbers or if we had a pulse on the number of people that played tennis in our parks. It did not seem like very many people were using the tennis courts. It seems like a lot of money for fixing up courts, but do we really need all of the courts that are in our park system. Should we re-think the amount going into courts, the number of courts needed and the location of the courts? Ms. Sibell stated that she had run some of the numbers and 42% of the money allocated in this staff recommended plan would go for court overlays and resurfacing. She also believes this is a lot of money for a limited number of park users. Mr. Kondrick stated that he felt we could cut back on the number of courts in our community. It may make sense to centrally locate a certain number of the courts, but cut down our overall number. Ms. Sibell asked if we could do a study to determine the number of courts and the preferred locations for tennis facilities. We did a similar study several years ago when we were faced with cutbacks in the skating and hockey rink program. We looked at centralized locations and tried to service all areas of the city. Parks and Recreation Commission Meetinq — April 5, 2004 Paqe 5 Mr. Solberg stated that he believes we need to take care of the court surfaces. If they are in good condition, people will play on them more. He also is concerned about the large percentage of the Parks capital improvement money that is going strictly to court surfacing. We may need to look at some options to reduce these costs. Mr. Kirk stated that we have 17 tennis courts in the middle of our City around Commons Park. Commons has 4 courts, the Fridley Middle School has six and there are seven courts at Fridley High School. There are also twenty more tennis courts located at parks and schools around the City. It could be that some of the courts are not needed to support our tennis playing population in Fridley. Mr. Kirk further stated that we should do a study to determine if reductions in the courts and the maintenance expenditures can be made. MOTION by Mr. Solberg, seconded by Ms. Sibell to approve the staff recommended Parks 5- year Capital Improvement Program as presented at tonight's meeting. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL MEMBERS VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON KONDRICK DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED. c. Edgewater Gardens Park Proposed Partial Use By Redeemer Lutheran Church Mr. Kirk stated that he had met with representatives of Redeemer Lutheran Church regarding a lack of parking for church services and activities. Their church membership is growing and they are facing the parking problems on a more frequent basis. For Sunday morning services, cars must park on the neighborhood streets. They would like the City to consider some arrangement for use of park land at Edgewater Gardens Park for parking of cars. They would be open to purchasing land, renting land or gaining an easement for improving the parking situation. They made it clear to Mr. Kirk that they did not want something for nothing. They are ready to make some improvements to the park such as a park shelter or play equipment in exchange for the City allowing park land to be used by the church for parking. Mr. Kirk further stated that they also said they would consider providing maintenance services for the park in exchange for parking space. Mr. Kirk stated that this issue has come up several times in the past 15 years. In the early 1990's, the City did a neighborhood survey in the Edgewater Gardens Park area and asked the residents about giving up park land to accommodate a larger parking lot for Redeemer Lutheran Church. While the results of the survey were not decidedly for or against providing park land for church parking, many residents of the neighborhood were very much opposed to reducing the size of their park. Some of the residents pointed the value of open space and how the neighborhood had waited a long time for their park and did not want to give it up. Other residents stated they would prefer to put up with cars on the street in front of their houses on Sunday mornings as opposed to having a black top parking lot seven days a week. The Parks and Recreation Commission has opposed giving up park land in the past and denied previous requests from Redeemer Lutheran Church to expand their parking into the park. Mr. Kirk showed the Commission members an aerial photograph provided by the representatives of Redeemer which shows the parking problem they had at a special event last fall. Parks and Recreation Commission Meetinq — April 5, 2004 Paqe 6 Mr. Kondrick asked about some of the open lots across Mississippi Street as a possible alternative for parking cars for the church. Mr. Kirk stated that Redeemer Church owns several parcels of land on the south side of Mississippi. They are looking at a possible future project of relocating their facilities to this area. They do not appear to be very interested in using the lots on the south side of Mississippi for parking because of safety concerns. Ms. Sibell stated that several years ago a woman walking across Mississippi for a church service was hit by a car. The traffic on Mississippi usually moves along fairly fast and that is a concern for the church leadership when discussing parking on the south side of the road. Ms. Sibell further stated that she went to the park and looked at the park land adjacent to the existing church parking lot. It has several trees in that area and is not specifically designed as an active use facility like a ballfield or open play area. Mr. Kirk stated that the representatives of Redeemer Church may want to attend a future Commission meeting to discuss some of their ideas and thoughts on this issue directly with the Commission members. Once again, the church representatives are not asking the City to give up park land for nothing in return. They want to know if there is anything the City would consider in exchange for providing some land for parking. Mr. Solberg asked about the possibility of the church building a walkway over Mississippi to provide better access to the lots they own on that side of the road. It would not be as convenient as parking right next to the church, but it would be another alternative. Ms. Sibell asked if the church representatives were talking about shelters, restrooms, picnic facilities, or other pretty significant improvements to the park. Mr. Kirk stated that it sounded like they were open to any suggestions for significant improvements. Mr. Kondrick stated that he was opposed to the precedent of selling or giving up park land. That really troubles him and he does not want to go in that direction. He further stated that in his mind, nothing has changed from the last several times that Redeemer Church has made a request to use some land at Edgewater Gardens Park for parking purposes. He was opposed to it then and is still opposed to it today. Mr. Kondrick further stated that selling or giving up park land from Edgewater Gardens to the church for parking would be kind of a betrayal to the Fridley residents who live in that neighborhood. In his opinion, we would not be acting in their best interests if we moved in that direction. He further stated that he would be opposed to using park land for anything other than its intended use. Mr. Solberg stated that he was in agreement with Mr. Kondrick and he is not in favor of giving up park land for church parking. He further stated that it is difficult to be on this Commission and not feel protective of park land and see the value in green space versus a parking lot. Parks and Recreation Commission Meetinq — April 5, 2004 Paqe 7 Mr. Kondrick stated that if the church were offering to add to the size of the park with some additional land in exchange for some other land near their property, it may be something to look at. However, he did not see that as something likely to happen. Mr. Kondrick stated that he sensed that the Commission was not interested in giving up park land to accommodate parking at Edgewater Gardens Park. The Commission did not seem to favor giving up park land for any other purpose. The Commission members were in agreement with Mr. Kondrick. Mr. Kirk stated that he would provide feedback from the Commission discussion to the representatives of Redeemer Lutheran Church. d. Showmobile Rental Request — City of Vadnais Heights Mr. Kirk stated that the City of Vadnais Heights had request the use of the showmobile for two days this August, the 14t" and 15t". The rental rate is $700 plus tax per day. In addition, we charge for delivery and pick-up of the showmobile at the overtime rate for the Parks worker. Staff would recommend approval of this request with the understanding that we look at the site and determine that it is accessible for us to move the unit into. Mr. Kondrick asked if the dates requested were a conflict with our use. Mr. Kirk stated that the dates requested were available for use. MOTION by Ms. Varichak, seconded by Mr. Solberg to approve the showmobile rental request by the City of Vadnais Heights at our standard showmobile rental rates. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL MEMBERS VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON KONDRICK DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED. e. Fall Athletic League Fees Mr. Kirk stated that the Fall Softball Leagues are held Monday through Thursday evenings for five weeks. Teams play double headers and the entry fees include umpires, softballs and a field supervisor. Due to some increased costs, the softball league fees would go up $20 per team. The 4-person football league fees would remain the same as in 2003. Mr. Kirk stated that staff is recommending the following fees for the fall athletic program: 1. Fall Softball ................................................. $335 2. Fall Softball (Co-Rec) ................................... $360 3. 4-Person Footbal I ........................................... $55 4. 4-Person Football (officiated Lg) .................. $160 Mr. Kondrick asked why the football league fees would stay the same. Parks and Recreation Commission Meetinq — April 5, 2004 Paqe 8 Mr. Kirk stated that our costs for operating the program did not increase and we had a slight decrease in the number of teams last year. We would like to get the number of teams up again. Mr. Kondrick asked what percentage of the football teams play in the officiated league. Mr. Kirk responded that about half the teams play in the officiated, half in the non-officiated. MOTION by Ms. Sibell, seconded by Ms. Varichak to approve the fall athletic program fees as recommended by staff. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL MEMBERS VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON KONDRICK DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED ADJOURNMENT MOTION by Mr. Solberg, seconded by Ms. Sibell to adjourn the April 5, 2004 meeting at 9:05 p.m. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL MEMBERS VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON KONDRICK DECLARED THE APRIL 5, 2004 MEETING ADJOURNED.