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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda for September 14 City of Falcon Heights Parks & Recreation Commission AGENDA City Hall Monday, September 14, 2015 6:30 p.m. ___ Gordon Strom ___ Mary Hannon Jacobson ___ Dave Thomas ___ Michael Breen ___ Cari Lee ___ Ron Eischen ___ Shawn Hubert ___ Council Liaison - Chuck Long ___ Staff Sack Thongvanh ___ Staff Tim Pittman ___ Staff Tim Sandvik 1. Call to Order 2. Approval of May 11th, 2015 meeting minutes 3. Updating Parks Master Plan, Next steps – Curtiss Field 4. Addressing Larpenteur Ave Median 5. Updates on Community Park/Curtiss Field 6. Programs/Special Events Updates 7. Adjourn MEETING MINUTES Monday, May 11 2015 6:30 p.m. City Hall, 2077 W. Larpenteur Ave. City of Falcon Heights Parks & Recreation Commission 1. Call to Order Meeting called to order at 6:35pm. Attendance X=present; AB=absent X Gordon Strom Chairperson X Tim Sandvik Staff AB Tim Pittman Staff X Chuck Long Council Liaison X Mary Hannon Jacobson Co-Secretary X Ron Eischen Co-Secretary X Dave Thomas AB Liz Asmus AB Michael Breen AB Cari Lee AB Emily Metcalf 2. Approval of April 13, 2015 meeting minutes The meeting minutes were reviewed and approved. 3. Update from Andy Hovland (City Arborist) Most Ash trees are gone from the city. Those that are left were left for shade at Community Park or because its loss would have a significant negative impact on park aesthetics (making it not visitor friendly.) New trees will replace these: 2 at Grove Park, some at Curtiss Field, many at Community Park. Tree inventory is redone/complete. Andy used iTree which is free software for the forest service from the government. It provides canopy assessment and some rudimentary storm water runoff information. The inventory is complete as of this winter, but does not include the new trees that will be replacing the removed Ash. Replacement trees will consist of a variety of disease resistant Elm, Hackberry, etc. No Maple (overstocked). No Spruce – lost too many from salt/pollution from Snelling. Andy said that in a previous conversation, Tim Pittman suggested he get started on planting trees at Curtiss Field (between the pond and Snelling Ave). These trees will consist of Austrian Pine, Red Pine and Red Cedar. These trees will NOT be able to block sound… but will instead be more of a visual block (which is what the residents requested.) Question asked: What about police observance from Snelling? Don’t we want some breaks in the tree wall so that police can have a view into the park from Snelling Ave? Andy suggested getting police involvement/feedback once trees marked but before planted. Tim Sandvik said he would get Andy in touch w/St Anthony Police Dept (SAPD) to discuss their recommendations on tree spacing for a visual from Snelling Ave to the park. Question asked: Is KaBoom! offering plantings? Tim Sandvik said there have been discussions on that. We don’t want to put too many plantings put in when the Curtiss Field Master Plan is being revisited. Also, we need to discuss the maintenance of any plants with city staff before moving forward. Andy said he had some new trees staked/marked where the proposed building would be at Curtiss Field, so he will remove those and just concentrate on the areas of the park that will not be changed with any changes to the Curtiss Field Master Plan (ie: south side of playground/pond and west side of pond.) Question asked: When do the replacement trees need to be planted by? (Was this a grant?) Andy reported that this was a DNR grant and originally, all trees were to be removed and replaced by 6/1/2015. However, because of the wet spring last year (2014), plantings were delayed and he received verbal approval from the DNR that he would have until July. Yet… with this year’s spring (2015), plantings could begin sooner than usual so he may still be able to meet that June 1st date. 4. Discuss Updating Parks Master Plan The commission reviewed the proposal sent forth by Candace from WSB. Everyone agreed it was much more than what is needed… and some of the proposal inclusions should already be done from previous engagement with WSB or have on file from the city because of the KaBoom! project. The commission agreed that Candace/WSB should put forward a new proposal outlining the following: 1. Have Candace assemble the resident feedback she previously collected for Curtiss Field and the final park design 2. Host an Open House with Falcon Heights residents to receive additional feedback on the design 3. Incorporate changes to the playground footprint (from the KaBoom! project) along with new resident feedback into a revised design 4. Present this revised design to the Parks & Rec Commission with explanation for what has changed, why, associated feedback, etc. The Parks & Rec Commission will then host another Open House or invite residents to a Parks & Rec Commission meeting to review and discuss the revised design (new feedback, what was changed because of that, etc.) 5. Adding Accessible Equipment to new Playground at Curtiss Field Tim Sandvik started the conversation that grants have certain confines when they are established. Because of this, we didn’t get everything incorporated into the final KaBoom! playground plan that the community wanted. One such example: an accessible swing. Tim reached out to the group that is supplying the equipment for KaBoom! and said we can install an accessible swing for about $1000 ($722 for the swing, plus shipping, plus installation). This swing would replace 1 larger/belt swing … so we’d have 1 larger/belt swing, 1 accessible swing and 2 tot swings. We have to replace 1 larger/belt swing or move the accessible swing away to its own area, which is not desired. A motion was made and approved to recommend to the city council to purchase and install this accessible swing at Curtiss Field. 6. KaBoom! Project Update Tim Sandvik: Build Day is June 3rd (4 weeks out)… volunteers are slowly signing up. Still working on food donations, DJ , etc. Tools seem to be well in hand. If food is a concern, a recommendation was made to only offer lunch. Tim felt getting some fruit, muffins, donuts, coffee, etc. would suffice if the city needs to pay. Re: volunteers, the city only needs to provide 75... Toro and the Vikings are supplying the rest. So far we are just under 30. JobCorps may be offering 20 volunteers per Beth Behnke. A suggestion was made to link the Viking video from Design Day (on the Vikings website) to Falcon Heights city website. Tim said he would look into that. 7. Update on summer programming and special events Tim Sanvik reported that he was putting together staff for summer programming... has already made some “offer” calls (for employment). Positiongs are filling slowly but surely. All offerings are at Community park this year. This summer there will be another “Parents night out” and “Movie in the Park” events… also the 5K in Sept. Those are starting to get pieced together: food licenses and misc will get submitted soon. 8. Community Garden Fence Update Still haven’t received half of community gardeners voicing that they are in favor of the fence (14 is half/needed to move forward.) Spring cleanup is next Sat and hope to hear from more gardeners then. There is roughly $5,200 in the Community Garden fund. Gardeners have built their own fences around their plots which may result in folks not approving the new fence. 9. New Business No new business. 10. Meeting Conclusion Meeting adjourned at 7:50pm. a. Summary of Decisions Made i. Request new proposal from Candace/WSB ii. Recommendation re: accessible swing to city council b. Summary of Action Items i. Gordon will contact Candace re: a revised proposal ii. Tim Sandvik said he would get Andy in touch w/SAPD to discuss their recommendations on tree spacing for a visual from Snelling Ave to the park iii. Tim Sandvik will attempt to link the Vikings Design Day video to the city website iv. Tim Sandvik or Chuck Long will bring recommendation to city council for approval of Accessible swing to be purchased and installed at Curtiss Field playground c. Next meeting date: Monday, June 8, 2015 d. Submitted By: Mary Hannon Jacobson