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1 *'! J Minutes Carol could find out how long our leases could be extended. 5. Budget Carol has started work on the Capitol Improvement budget plan for the next 5 years. She is basing her figures on the end table in our Park Plan, using Scott's suggestions for expenditures per year. It was generally agreed that until we knew how realistic the figures were, it was too early to begin to prioritize expenditures. We all agreed, however, to go with the figures from our Park Plan. We are already at work on the first year Capitol Improvement plan of rebuilding our park building at the Community Park, and costs were not year finalized. Carol explained the new accounting system being set up by the city. The Parks budget will consist of three parts. First, the Capitol Improvements budget, the administrative budget (which includes things like Carol's salary, postage, utilities and the like), and lastly, a programs budget. This last will give a better cost accounting of the cost of each individual program and the revenue it generates. This will help us plan more cost effective programming in the future. The general discussion indicated that we were all comfortable letting some programs help pay for others, and that just because a program was more expensive to run shouldn't mean that it wouldn't be offered. Linda asked how comparable our program fees were to those of the surrounding communities. Carol and Pat both indicated that they were on the low side. We were all pleased at the new budget system. Carol indicated that she would continue working on it. 6. Fall Programs Carol said she had started working on the Fall Programs, which would be sent home with children along with information on after-school activities run by the school district. Carol said the programming would be largely the same as last year, since everything went so well. 7. Center for Community Studies Jyneen had information, which she passed around, on a program at the Center for Community Studies at the University of Minnesota where students used parks as part of classroom projects or thesis projects. She felt it might be an inexpensive way to get a large number of landscaping plans for any park site we wanted. She felt it would be especially useful for Garden or Lindig park sites, which are currently totally undeveloped. Linda asked if we couldn't get these services free from landscaping firms, since it represented large amounts of potential purchases. Carol said she would find out. We all agreed that the program was worth pursuing, especially as the university is juxtaposed physically to Falcon Heights. 8. 9:30 p.m. meeting was adjourned. •