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• Falcon Heights Park and Recreation Commission Minutes August 9, 1999 The Falcon Heights Parks and Recreation Commission met on August 9, 1999 at 7:00 p.m. in City Hall. Members present: Donna Daykin, Jim Eckberg, Peter Lindstrom, Lois Millett, Greg Schaefer; Staff Carol Kriegler, and City Council liaison Laura Kuettel. Members absent: none. Guests: Christina and Sven Sjostedt. It was moved and seconded that the minutes of the June meeting be approved as written. The first item of business was consideration of the issue of whether or not to allow pets in the city's parks. Falcon Heights residents Christina and Sven Sjostedt appeared before the Commission to request that pets on a leash be allowed in Falcon Heights' parks. They would like to be able to walk their pets in a park atmosphere. Sven and Christina are very offended by the numerous signs at Community Park stating that pets are not allowed in the park. Carol Kriegler responded that the additional signs were put up in 1995 because the existing brown signs were not effective at deterring pet owners from bringing their pets to the parks. • The additional white signs have been effective at getting the message to park users that pets are not allowed. The signs also create an atmosphere of community policing of the ordinance because they raise awareness of the restriction. Laura Kuettel pointed out that multiple signs are needed at Community Park because of the multiple entrances to the park. The concerns expressed by the 1995 Commission regarding pets in the park were mostly due to irresponsible pet owners not cleaning up after their pets and the intimidation and danger posed by unsupervised pets in the park. When the Commission discussed this issue last month, they felt that these concerns were still valid. It was suggested that residents could be surveyed to determine if people would like pets allowed in the parks. Sven and Christina said that they do not want to informally survey residents they encounter in the park because the results would be biased by their choice of who they talk to. Laura offered to place a survey in the next city newsletter to survey residents about the issue. The next item of business was an update on the status of plans for management of the city's prairie areas. Applied Technology did not follow through on their bid to manage the prairie areas. Paul Jackson of Native Landscapes, who used to work for Prairie Restorations, has looked at the city's prairie areas and will probably be hired to manage the • prairies. The price for Native Landscape's services will be competitive with Applied Technology's bid.