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PRM 02/02/2015 CITY OF FRIDLEY PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING – FEBRUARY 2, 2015 CALL TO ORDER: Chairperson Solberg called the February 2, 2015 Parks & Recreation Commission Meeting to order at 7:03 p.m. at Springbrook Nature Center. ROLL CALL: Members Present: Tim Solberg, Michele Barrett, Dave Kondrick Others Present: Jack Kirk, Parks and Recreation Director Mike Maher, Director of Springbrook Nature Center Scott Lund, Mayor – City of Fridley Malcolm Mitchell, Chairperson – Springbrook Nature Center Foundation Neal Hayford, Springbrook Nature Center Foundation Member Anna Pribula, 6680 East River Road Kent Buell, Springbrook Nature Center Foundation Member Ron Refsnider, Springbrook Nature Center Bird Banding Volunteer Paul Anderson, Partners and Sirny Architects Bryan Harjes, Hoisington Koegler Group, Inc. Doc Smith, EDS Builders APPROVAL OF JANUARY 5, 2015 PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION MINUTES MOTION by Mr. Kondrick, seconded by Ms. Barrett to approve the minutes of the January 5, 2015 meeting. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL MEMBERS VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON SOLBERG DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED. APPROVAL OF PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION AGENDA FOR FEBRUARY 2, 2015 MOTION by Mr. Kondrick, seconded by Ms. Barrett, to approve the agenda for the February 2, 2015 meeting as submitted by staff, with the adjustment of moving item 2a – Springbrook Nature Center Improvement Project- to the first item on the business agenda. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL MEMBERS VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON SOLBERG DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED. 1. STAFF REPORT a. Program Update Mr. Kirk stated that the Program Update includes information on programs and activities during the past month. He did want to call attention to this year’s Winterfest event which took place a week ago last Saturday. It was our largest attended Winterfest ever with an estimated 900 participants this year. Parks and Recreation Commission Meeting – February 2, 2015 Page 2 Mr. Kirk stated that the weather was pretty mild on that day which did create some issues for the outdoor activities like sledding and the dog sled rides. The nice weather did seem to bring out the people, so they were happy it turned out to be a nice day. A picture display showing many of the Winterfest activities is included in the agenda packet. b. Park Maintenance Report Mr. Kirk stated that the meeting packet included a report from Operations Manager for Streets and Parks Jeff Jensen about activity of the Park Maintenance division during the past month. The Parks Division got a great start on preparing rinks for the skating season and then we had some 40 degree temperatures which caused the rinks to be closed for a few days. The Park Maintenance staff also did a great job helping us set up the Winterfest activities. c. Springbrook Nature Center Report Mr. Kirk stated that a report from Nature Center Director Mike Maher has been included in the agenda packet. The nature center staff has a new seasonal naturalist who started in the past month. Her name is Victoria Thompson and she will be working primarily with our programming to Fridley school students. Mr. Kirk also stated that the Discovery Dinners have been a nice addition to the activities at Springbrook th and the most recent one on January 10 had 28 people participating. The speaker was Sharon Steiteler and she shared information on birds and her photography of birds. d. SNC Foundation Fundraising Update Mr. Kirk introduced Springbrook Nature Center Foundation Chairperson Malcolm Mitchell and invited him to provide some information on the fundraising efforts of the Foundation. Mr. Mitchell stated that while the State of Minnesota is providing $5 Million toward the SPRING project, it is not the total amount that is needed to complete the project. There is still needs to be another $2.7 million that needs to be raised through private fundraising. They are well into the process of raising funds and have been pleased with the results so far. Since November, they have raised about a half million dollars for the project. That money is in the bank and can be used for the building project, as well as for the additional planning and design of the remaining project. Mr. Mitchell stated that the Parks and Recreation Commission was involved in developing a naming rights policy for the nature center project and that policy is being used as we move forward. The Foundation looks to this to be a successful project and will be attempting to raise as close to that $2.7 Million goal as possible. Mr. Kondrick asked if the $5 million that was received from the State of Minnesota would cover all the costs associated with the new and remodeled interpretive center building. Mr. Mitchell stated that it would be close. The cost of the building, parking lot and interior furnishings, including exhibits, is budgeted to cost approximately $5.4 Million. Mr. Mitchell further stated that the SNC Foundation annual fundraiser event, the Springbrook Spree, is th coming up on February 28 at Murzyn Hall in Columbia Heights. He hopes that all of the people here tonight would consider buying tickets and join us at this fun event. 2. NEW BUSINESS a. Springbrook Nature Center Improvement Project – Presentation by Partners and Sirny Architects Mr. Kirk stated that the Springbrook Nature Center Improvement Project continues to move forward and we have invited the project architects to the meeting tonight to present the design of the interpretive Parks and Recreation Commission Meeting – February 2, 2015 Page 3 building and plans for the surrounding area. He stated that this is not a completely finished product at this point and they had an open house just prior to the Commission meeting to share information with the community. The architects have been meeting with the local SPRING Project Committee for the past couple of months and are pleased with the progress being made. The plans to date will be shared with the Parks and Recreation Commission tonight and input and suggestions would be appreciated. He further stated that they would be bringing back more of a final plan to the Commission at the March meeting. He introduced Bryan Harjes from Hoisington Koegler Group and Paul Anderson from Partners and Sirny Architects. Mr. Bryan Harjes from Hoisington Koegler Group stated that he is Landscape Architect that has been working on the project. He stated that they have been working on re-routing the main trail into the nature center park, since the existing trail location is right where the expanded building will be built. It was the general consensus of the local planning committee that they did not want to see the trail immediately next to the windows of the southern edge of the building. To accomplish a loop trail connection, they are proposing a connection off the parking lot and a second connection going north and east of the interpretive building. Mr. Harjes stated that he heard a concern about the northern loop of the trail possibly being too close to the proposed amphitheater. He will be looking at how they can provide a little more separation of the trail from this program area. We need to make sure that we can work with the current elevations and maintain the maximum trail slope at five percent or less to comply with ADA requirements. Mr. Harjes stated that another key piece of the project is the parking lot and looking at expanding the number of parking spaces available. It will essentially be the same footprint as the existing parking lot, but we will be taking out the center island area to provide more parking. There will also be additional parking on the perimeter and will include a permeable paving surface. Mr. Harjes stated that the path to the building from the parking lot will start with an arrival area that preserves some existing oak trees just off the parking lot. This path system will allow visitors to access the nature trails in the park or provide a direct lead to the main entrance of the interpretive center building. Mr. Harjes stated that one of the unique elements to the plan is that the building could have a butterfly vegetation roof that would channel rainwater run-off to a center spine that would empty into a collection rain garden area. This could be used as an educational exhibit as well as a functioning system to deal with rainwater. Mr. Mitchell asked if the butterfly roof could be a problem for snow and ice in the winter months. Mr. Paul Anderson of Partners and Sirny Architects stated that the butterfly roof would be engineered to the Minnesota required standards for snow loads. He did not anticipate problems with this type of roof. He stated that the idea is to have a green roof on the building with sedum plants growing. These type of plants have a high tolerance for low moisture and high heat. Mr. Anderson gave the Commission members an overview of the various components and facilities of the renovated and expanded interpretive center building. He stated that the building is designed to accommodate large numbers of school children and general park visitors using the facility at the same time. Mr. Anderson stated that they want to integrate as many sustainable designs as possible in this building as the budget will allow. Some of those features include a green roof; good insulation of the roof, walls and windows; geo-thermal ground source heating and cooling; and a site design that includes appropriate ground water treatment. The building will possibly include solar energy use or, at the very least, be Parks and Recreation Commission Meeting – February 2, 2015 Page 4 solar energy ready for a future application. The building will take advantage of solar heating with the south facing windows. Re-using the existing building is a big sustainable move in itself. Mr. Buell asked if there had been consideration given to having a lower ceiling in the room used for the bird banding. At times, a bird gets loose during the banding process and a higher ceiling makes it more difficult to re-capture the bird. Mr. Maher stated that the ceiling height for bird banding came up very early in the planning process and was discussed by the planning team. All along the way in the design, we have had to make choices and weigh out positives and negatives of many design features. The decisions have been made with all the program and activity uses in mind. We will likely need to be creative in our scheduling of certain rooms and the equipment we use in those rooms to accommodate the various program groups, including the bird banding. Mr. Kondrick suggested a portable screen tent be used inside the facility for bird banding to help with a situation when a bird would get away from the handlers. The screen tent area would make it easier to recapture the bird. Mayor Lund asked if the architects had considered locating the table and chair storage room on the west side of the gathering space area, rather than on the east. Mr. Anderson stated that they had looked at several locations for the storage, but would take another look at moving the storage to the west side of the gathering space. A benefit of that move would be to allow more viewing of nature toward the southeast when using the gathering space. Mr. Anderson stated that the exhibits at the nature center are planned to be indoors and outdoors as well. The exhibits could start with outdoor ones as you leave the parking lot and then continue to the entrance to the building and into the interior of the interpretive center. Mayor Lund stated that he hoped the catering kitchen is of sufficient size to allow for expansion to a full service kitchen at some time in the future. During the design phase, now is the time to at least think about future use and possible kitchen needs down the road. Mr. Smith stated that he felt the existing floor space for the catering kitchen would be sufficient to accommodate a conversion to a full service kitchen in the future. It would require the installation of the cooking stoves, ventilation hood and fire suppression system. These are the more expensive items for kitchens and are not required with the catering kitchen. It is his understanding from staff and the planning committee that we did not want to get into those high cost items at this time. Mr. Anderson stated that if additional kitchen space were needed in the future, the most likely add on space would be to expand to the south. Mr. Maher stated that they did talk about the type of kitchen that would be most appropriate for this facility and also discussed the differences in cost. He was confident that the catering kitchen would serve the needs as they see this building being used for the various events and activities. A catering kitchen is what other facilities similar to this have been using. Mr. Kirk stated that staff and the local planning committee wanted to show the Parks and Recreation Commission and interested community members where things were at with the design for the renovation and expansion of the nature center building. A more final design plan will be presented to the Commission at the March meeting. Parks and Recreation Commission Meeting – February 2, 2015 Page 5 b. Softball Tournament Request – Fridley Lions Club Mr. Kirk stated that the City has received a request from the Fridley Lions Club to host a softball thst tournament at Community Park on June 19 - 21. The Lions Club has run tournaments in our community for many years and have always done a great job. Staff would recommend approval of this request. The Lions Club has normally requested the option of making a donation to the Parks and Recreation Department in lieu of the normal rental fee for the fields. The donations have usually been larger than the rental fee and staff would support this option. MOTION by Ms. Barrett, seconded by Mr. Kondrick to approve the request by the Fridley Lions Club to host a softball tournament at Fridley Community Park on June 19 – 21, 2015, at the normal rental fee rate or working out a donation to the Parks and Recreation Department in lieu of the rental fee. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL MEMBERS VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON SOLBERG DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED. c. Request to use Commons Park for City Celebration – Fridley 49er Days Mr. Kirk stated that the City celebration Committee for Fridley 49er Days has requested the use of Commons Park as the main site for the festival this year. The festival has used the Medtronic Campus parking lot for the activities the past couple of years, but a construction project on the site will prevent that area from being used this year. Staff would be supportive of this request and would work with the 49er Committee on the appropriate layout of the activities. MOTION by Mr. Kondrick, seconded by Ms. Barrett to approve the request by the Fridley 49er Days Committee to use Commons Park on June 25– 27, 2015 for the festival activities. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL MEMBERS VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON SOLBERG DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED. 3. ADJOURNMENT MOTION by Mr. Kondrick, seconded by Ms. Barrett, to adjourn the February 2, 2015 meeting at 8:32 p.m. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL MEMBERS VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON SOLBERG DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED AND THE FEBRUARY 2, 2015 MEETING ADJOURNED.