HomeMy WebLinkAboutMarch 2, 2026 Parks & Rec Minutes1 | Page
CITY OF FALCON HEIGHTS Regular Meeting of the Parks & Recreation Commission
City Hall 2077 West Larpenteur Avenue MINUTES March 2, 2026
A. CALL TO ORDER: 6:32 PM B. ROLL CALL:
Eric Brenton (Chair)__X___Tom Faust (Vice-Chair) __X___Joe Morseth (Secretary)_____ Robert Haight__X___ Jerry Buckridge__X___Naomi Loud-Heinsch__X___Chuck Long__X___ COUNCIL LIAISON: Randy Gustafson __X__
STAFF PRESENT: Kelly Nelson__X___ C. PRESENTATION: N/A D. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: 1. February 2, 2026 – Parks and Recreation Commission and Environment Commission Joint Meeting Minutes Buckridge motions to approve the Park minutes; approved 6-0 E. AGENDA: 1. 2026 City Events
Nelson says that establishing dates for upcoming events will allow them to be published in the biannual newsletter mailed to every resident in late March.
Commissioners set the date and time of Ice Cream Social for 5:00 to 7:00 PM on Thursday, July 16. The location is TBD and may have to move from Community Park to City Hall, depending on construction in the park.
Next, commissioners set the date for Fall Fest, which will be held on Saturday, October 10, from 1:00 to 3:00 PM at Falcon Heights Elementary, if the school is available for use. Lastly, commissioners discuss whether to hold an event from The Grove and what that event might look like. Faust suggests holding a music event mid-week.
Buckridge mentions a neighbor that leads a sing along at Coffman that might be able to provide assistance with the event.
Haight wonders if we could have a bonfire.
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Brenton suggests looking at the Silverwood Park Series for music suggestions.
The commission sets the date of Thursday, June 11th, from 6:30 to 8:00 PM, and will begin working towards hosting a new event at The Grove. 2. Programming Discussion Nelson provides a recap on enrollment numbers over the years and how they began to drastically decline and not recover after approximately 2018. She provides a summary of programming that has been offered since then, but nothing has gained much traction, including recreation scholarships offered in 2025; only three families requested reimbursement, which totaled just $75.
Gustafson suggests increasing the scholarship reimbursement amount from $25 to $50 per family.
Long says that it’s a challenge to compete with facilities and other resources and that we don’t want to duplicate what Roseville and St. Paul are offering.
Loud-Heinsch says that offering free programming may actually be holding people back because maybe they don’t see value in it then. She suggests looking into hiring staff onsite for the splash pad. Faust says that we’ve done programming as an obligation, but wonders if there is an actual need. Long suggests taking this year to finish construction of the new amenities and then make future determinations. Brenton echoes Gustafson’s proposal of increasing the reimbursement amount to $50.
Gustafson suggests soliciting feedback for various age groups in the newsletter each week. Commissioners suggest posing a question each week or every so often to seek public feedback. Haight looks at the US Census data and says that 10% of Falcon Heights residents are aged zero to ten years. Another 10% are ten to seventeen years.
Gustafson recommends family-based activities to appeal to a wider range of ages than youth soccer ages 4 to 6, for example, because our pool of interested participants may be small in a very specific and narrow age range. 3. Community Garden – 2nd Plot Requests Nelson updates the commission about the recent garden plot lottery that closed on February 28th. For this gardening season, the supply matched the demand for those wanting their first garden plot. But, no determination has been made yet for existing gardeners who have expressed interest in gardening a second plot, and it would be helpful to have direction from the commission for those requests.
Haight suggests having a lottery for second plot requests now, but you only get to garden the plot for this season. After that, the plot returns to the lottery.
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Gustafson and the commissioners support opening the lottery up for any remaining plots to all existing gardeners, not specific to Falcon Heights residents, but this plot is only valid for one
year.
4. Community Advisory Committee
Gustafson explains that the City will form a Les Bolstad Golf Course Redevelopment Community Advisory Committee (CAC), which will act in an advisory role and represent the community, providing recommendations to the City Council regarding the redevelopment process. There will
be nine members, one of which would be a representative from this commission. Gustafson says that the committee will meet on the third Wednesday of every month, with the first anticipated meeting to start on April 15. There is a stipend available to serve on the committee. If any
commissioner(s) would like to apply, applications are available now and due by March 16 for consideration.
Information/Announcement G. ADJOURNMENT: 9:01 P.M. Loud-Heinsch motions to adjourn the meeting; Approved 6-0