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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPRCAgenda_92Feb10PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING CITY HALL 7:00 P.M., FEB. 10, 1992 AGENDA 1. City of Roseville Teen Center 2. Request for $5,000 for Brimhall Elementary School Playground 3. Community Park Play Equipment 4. Cleveland Avenue Road Improvement Update DATE: February 4, 1992 TO: Falcon Heights Pazk and Recreation Commission FROM: Carol Weisberg, Park and Recreation Commission Member and Parent Volunteer from Brimhall Elementary School RE: Request for $5,000 for Brimhall Elementary School Playground Background Information. Brimhall Elementary School has a student population of 724 children, one-third of whom live in Falcon Heights. Brimhall's playground was installed when the school was built in the late 1950's. As well as being outdated, much of the playground equipment has had to be removed over the years because it had become unsafe or worn out. This has left the children with insufficient and inadequate playground equipment. There has not been money in the Roseville Area Schools capital outlay budget for playgrounds since the eazly 1980's. Lack of funding at that time led to the decision to put as much money as possible into buildings and educational equipment. As a result, the playgrounds have deteriorated, and schools needing to improve or replace their playgrounds have had to raise the money themselves. Action. The Brimhall PTA has been working for the past 18 months to develop and implement a plan for a new playground. The PTA has given this project top priority. It plans to build a new outdoor activity area that will be safe, require rrunimal maintenance, and be accessible to children with physical disabilities. There will be paved paths to the structure for wheelchairs and transfer points for children who have the ability to transfer from their wheelchairs. The azea will include a small amphitheater which will be used during the school day for outdoor lessons. Landscape Structures was selected as the vendor and the playground will be installed this summer (1992). Budget. The total cost for this project is $75,000. This includes equipment, installation, site preparation, and landscaping. The school district has pledged $15,000 to cover the cost of installation and Brimhall is seeking an additional $5,000 from the 623 Foundation, a new fund for which guidelines aze still being established. Brimhall parents have scheduled several fundraising events which aze projected to yield approximately $25,000. The remaining $30,000 is being raised through individual contributions, community service organizations, foundations, and cities. Financial support is being requested of Falcon Heights, Lauderdale, and Roseville. Brimhall Population. There are 724 students at Brimhall as follows: 31 % from Falcon Heights 24 % from Lauderdale 44% from Roseville 1 % from miscellaneous places Anticipated Usage. The playground will be used primarily during the times that school is in session. It will be open to the community whenever school is not in session. To the best of my knowledge, this will be the only playground in our school district that is accessible to children with physical disabilities. 2!4/92 2 Brimhall Playground Request Appropriateness of Spending City Money. The City of Falcon Heights made a $5,000 contribution to Falcon Heights Elementary School for their playground. Part of the rationale for this contribution was the fact that there was no city land available for a park in that area so the school playground functioned as a park for neighborhood children. Several Roseville children attend Falcon Heights Elementary School. Although Brimhall is located in the City of Roseville, it is the neighborhood school for 224 Falcon Heights children. It would be hard to justify why it is alright for the City to spend money on a school playground for some Falcon Heights children but not others. This is an important community project. There are adequate funds in the Park & Recreation Capital Improvement Program to cover this contribution. All three cities involved are being asked to support this project. Given the current receptive climate of finding ways to share and consolidate community resources, this project provides an ideal opportunity to demonstrate that sharing resources makes for better communities. $75,000 is a large amount of money for parent volunteers to raise, particularly during a recession. On behalf of the children and parents of Brimhall, I urge your approval of this contribution. Thank you for considering this request. Your support is vital to the success of this project. MINUTES PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING • January 13, 1992, 7 p.m. Members Present: Carol Weisberg, Steve Schugel, Jyneen Thatcher, Carol Huso, Morris Nicholson, Lloyd Jacobson, Linda McLoon, Carol Kriegler, Parks Director, Sue Gehrz, Council Liaison Members Absent: Dave Wickhem 1. Changes in Commission Members Two new members of the commission were introduced. Our new liaison to the city council is Sue Gehrz, and our new commission member is Morris Nicholson. 2. Corrections to the Minutes, Dec. 9, 1991. Carol K pointed out that the grade of the hardcourt at Curtiss Field should be "within acceptable standards", without a strict % given. Carol K indicated that the city is holding some money from the final payment to cover potential contractor error in both the grade of the hardcourt and the grade of the hockey rink area in the park. The site contractor has not made the final walk through on the project. Again the potential liability of Barton/Aschmann was brought up, since they drew up the plans for the site. 2. Executive Summary The commission members were asked to direct their comments about the Deloitte Touche study of cooperation opportunities between Roseville and Falcon Heights to Carol Huso, a member of the citizen's committee for this study, or to another member of the • committee. Some discussion followed about assumptions that were in the report, for example, that we would benefit from Roseville increased staff for park maintenance when it is clear that Roseville parks have not been as well maintained as the parks in Falcon Heights over the past few years, etc. 3. Ice Rinks Carol K went over the problems with the ice at Curtiss Field, in particular the smaller hockey rink, due to too much slope at the south end, with the grade too steep to flood effectively (so the rink is 10-15 ft shorter) and the shorter pleasure rink (so as not to disturb the new sod at the north end of the rink). The grade of the hockey rink area will be checked when the snow is gone, so stay tuned..... Carol K reported that the ice was just opened for skating this week. This is 3-4 weeks after other parks in the area, and there were a lot of complaints. Carol K said that because the rink flooders were 2-3 days late in December, the warm weather that followed made it impossible to effectively flood the rinks. Carol K felt that good flooding opportunities were missed, due to lack of someone to direct the flooding daily. Carol K and Sue Hoyt agreed that the solution is to have a seasonal, part-time city employee whose job is to: coordinate, schedule, flood and manage the ice rinks and the rink attendants. This job requires good organizational skills and a knowledge of how to floor ice rinks. Vince did the job up to now. A person was hired to be the "ice maintenance/ice rink director" under the supervision of Carol K and Vince. 4. Winter Event The winter special event will be held on Sunday, Feb. 2, 2-5 pm, with a theme of "Frosty the Snowman meets Godzilla, the Groundhog". There will be community ice skating with piped in music, a treasure hunt, maybe a snow sculpture contest, snow hockey or volleyball, food, etc. Carol K will take care of publicity. The Carol's will work on the details. 5. Cleveland Ave. Improvement Cleveland Ave is scheduled to be redone this spring. Because the pond in the NW corner will be impacted, and due to the wetland mitigation law that went into effect, a pond will have • to be added somewhere else along the west side of the park. This in turn affects the jogging path in this area. Ramsey County is responsible for rebuilding the path. We need to determine where it must go. After some discussion, it was agreed that we need a 20, 30 and 100 plan for flooding in the park, as well as the exact plans for the changes the road and pedestrian path will make on the west side. The city now has the wetland authority to authorize the wetland changes in the park. Soil borings were taken in this area to help determine the condition of the soil in this area. The DNR will provide natural plantings at our request. Jyneen will come up with a list of appropriate plantings for the wetlands and also for the prairie area along the south end of the park, hopefully as a "prairie restoration". There is very little natural prairie area around, and would be an asset to the area. There was some discussion about who should engineer the plan for the new trail, the city engineer, who has the technical expertise but not the park or user expertise, or Barton/Aschmann, who has the park planner perspective. 6. As there was no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:45 pm. Respectfully submitted, (~ Linda McLoon, Secretary •