HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes for July 8 City of Falcon Heights Parks & Recreation Commission MEETING MINUTES City Hall Monday, July 8th 6:30 p.m. X Melissa Weber-Sanders, Chair ab Serena Jones-White X Christina Erickson X Gordon Strom X Mary Hannon Jacobson X Dave Thomas X Liz Asmus X Staff Michelle Tesser X Staff Tim Pittman X Council Liaison Chuck Long 1. Call to order- 6:30pm 2. Approval of June 10 th meeting minutes- Appr oved Hannon-Jacobson and Dave Thomas 3. Tom Keene’s resignation from Commission Tom Keene had to resign fo r medical reasons. 4. Park Playgrounds and maintenance Tesser received confirmation from the League of MN Cities Loss Control Consultant, Tara Bursey stated that t he Minnesota Wisconsin Playgrounds audit list results are valid in its assessment of the Parks’ play ground equipment. Commission members requested a priori ty list be developed based on immediate safety needs. Gordon Strom volunteer ed to help put the list together. Commissioners asked Tesser to look into wh at kind of liability the city has in playground safety from City Attorney, R oger Knutson. Tesser received Roger’s opinion below: The City has pretty good , not absolute, immunity from park and rec. claims, but safety is an issue even if liability is not. (See MN State 466.03 Exceptions) MINNESOTA STATUTES
466.03 EXCEPTIONS. Subdivision 1. Scope. Section 466.02 does not apply to any cl aim enumerated in this section. As to any such claim every municipality shall be liable only in accordan ce with the applicable statute and where there is no such statute, ever y municipality shall be immune from liability. Subd. 6e. Parks and recreation areas. Any claim based upon the construction, operation, or maintenance of any property owned or leased by th e municipality that is intended or permitted to be used as a park, as an open area for recreati onal purposes, or for the provision of recreational services, or from any claim based on the clearing of land, removal of refuse, and creation of trails or paths without artificial surfaces, if the claim arises from a loss incurred by a user of park and recreation property or services. No thing in this subdivision limits the liability of a municipality for conduct that would entitle a trespasser to damages against a private person, except as provided in subdivision 23. 5. Pickle Ball at Coffman Because of lack of quorum for the last tw o meetings Tesser went over the Pickle Ball discussion with Commissioners. The final decision is too wait until there are more interested residents (apprx 30). The cost to buy Pickle Ball equipment and have staff to set up the courts needs to be considered cost effective and used by a larger amount of constituents. 6. Update on Summer Program Enrollment and Revenue August camps registration are going somew hat slow, Tesser hopes that similar to Spring she gets last minute registrations. 7. Update on Summer Event Planning The Movie in the Park event was one fo r the books with one of the worst storms Falcon Heights has seen in many years. Tesser had the event inside the park building but the storm took out the elec tricity 15 minutes into the movie. The storm passed within twenty minutes and people left. The electricity was taken out by a downed tree. There wa s about 25 people in attendance. Parents Night Out is Friday July 19 th the Parks and Rec department has been receiving a good amount of registrations. ICS is Thursday, July 25 th . Tesser asked for volunteers to help out with the ICS including ticket purchasing and staffing the Parks and Rec Commission table. Several commissioners volunteered. Te sser has confirmed the band, jumping castle, and ice cream vendor. 8. Donation and Scholarsh ip Funds Received Tesser received $650.00 in scholarship funding (total of $1,000) from Commonwealth Terrace as part of their Joint Partnership with Falcon Heights
Parks and Recreation to continue to of fer programs at CTC and other Falcon Heights’ locations for sc holarship recipients. Tesser received $500.00 from the lions cl ub for a new Community Garden fence. Pete Lindstrom received a complaint from a gardener saying that they didn’t want a new fence. Chair Weber-Sanders look ed at the fence and not ice the south end falling down. The Commissioners felt overwhelming that a new fence would be more ascetically pleasing and would k eep critters out. Tesser will put out a survey to the Community Gardeners to ask their opinion about the fence. 9. Public Works Report: Pittman discussed street improvement pr oject, sidewalk replacement, sanitary sewer clean/televised. 10. New Business Mary Hannon Jacobson brought up that she would like to change the process meeting minutes are done. She would like to have minutes on a type of collaborative software for all commissi oners to see and add comments. Mary would like this item discussed when she returns. 11. Public Forum: See separate attachment that is ongoing du ring park visits and forum. This will be reviewed with commissioners.