HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes for April 8 City of Falcon Heights Parks & Recreation Commission MEETING MINUTES City Hall Monday, April 8 6:30 p.m. X Melissa Weber-Sanders, Chair ab Serena Jones-White X Tom Keene X Christina Erickson X Gordon Strom X Mary Hannon Jacobson X Staff Michelle Tesser X Staff Tim Pittman X Council Liaison Chuck Long 1. Call to order- 6:30pm 2. Approval of March11th m eeting minutes- Approved 3. Welcome New Parks and Recreation Commissioner Mary Hannon Jacbonson 4. Tree Master Plan A. Define Scope of Plan- Andy Hovland, City Forester Hovland spoke to the Commission about the Tree Master Plan. Hovland will take direction of drafting the plan over the year and asked to meet with the Commission periodically to provide feedback. B. Organize Tree Master Plan Task Force The area of the master plan that Hovland is concerned about and wants active participation from the Commission is the long-time Parks vision. Community Park is filled with ash trees. Removal all ash trees would grossly affect the look of the park. Approximately 90% of the parking lot shade and playground shade would be removed. Removal must be strategic but more importantly planting has to be thoughtfully considered. The Commission will go out either June or July during a Parks Commission meeting to look at the trees at Community Park. During that meeting, Hovland will go over the long range time table of the draft of the master plan. 5. Update on Spring/Summer Program Enrollment Enrollment for recreation programs are going smoothly. Four programs have filled: Blastball Monday 6pm, Pee W ee Tennis 9am, Tennis with Family and Summer Discovery Playgrounds M/W afternoon (four away from fu ll). Enrollment
has been steady and across the board. Tesse r only foresees 2 classes that may be cancelled in June. Babysitting Clinic will go and currently has 8 registrations. Recreation page views on our w ebsite for March was 1,600. 6. Update on Seasonal Summer Staff Hiring Process Tesser expressed her fears that s he does not have an adequate amount of applications for the selection and hiring of quality staff. Half of her long-time staff are not returning. She has received many applications for Assistant Rec Leader and Art Instructor but barely enough fo r Rec Leader and Head Activities Leader positions. Tesser has eliminated the appl ication deadline and m ade the positions continuous until position filled. Tesse r has advertised including the League’s website. Commissioner Christina Eri ckson will hang up the recreation position flyer that Tesser emailed to her in high foot traffic areas around Augsburg. 7. Update on Special Event s Sponsorships/Donations Tesser updated the Commission on the tota l amount of donations received, totaling $1,100. That is a $700 increase fr om last year. This amount does not include the annual donation fr om Source of $500.00 for the Movie in the Park event. 8. Approve Community Gar den Fence Grant Submission Commissioners reviewed the letter to the Li ons Club for assistance in funding a new Community Park Garden fence. Af ter a minor change to the letter it was signed by Commissioner, Christi na Erickson and mailed on April 9 th . 9. New Business Tesser is currently working on the below: Ordering new equipment to repl ace old equipment as needed Researching different Mo vie in the Park vendors Applying for the 2013 Midwest Garden Grant Submitting MRPA Award of Excellence fo r sustainability- A dopt a Crop project Community Garden Update- Tesser is managing the community garden. Currently, Tesser is receivi ng the garden fees. April 27 th is the first Spring meeting. May 4 th will be the garden clean-up day. Tesser is working with Pittman on obtaining compos t for the gardeners. Lending Library at Parks- Grove resident Rebecca Montgomery put in a request with the Parks and Recreation Commission to donate her Lendi ng Library to one of the Falcon Heights’ Parks. Commi ssioners discussed different parks and decided against the Grove Park for lack of foot tr affic and users. Commissioners favored Community Park as a site for the Lending Library because of t he vast amount of
users and children present at the park. Commissioners believe at Community Park vandalism will be minimal with the seasonal staff present and amount of foot traffic. 10. Public Works Report: Pittman discussed street sweeping project, remodeling of city offices, sidewalk replacement, (2) seasonal hirers, Lar penteur Ave (2) street light repair Next meeting dates: Monday, May 13 th Monday, June 10 th