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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04/04/1994 Park Board Packet City of Lino Lakes PARK BOARD MEETING Monday, April 4, 1994 6:30 PM *** AGENDA *** 1. Call to Order and Roll Call 6:30 pm 2. Approval of Minutes of March 7, 1994 6: 35 pm 3 . Open Mike 6:40 pm 4. Old Business A. Update on Goals/Priorities 6:45 pm 1. Approval of Expenditures 2 . Recreation Complex Update 3 . Referendum Issue Update 4. Spring Parks Projects B. Friends of the Parks Update 7: 00 pm C. Recreation Report and Recreation 7:05 pm Committee Update D. Other Updates and Other Old Business 7:15 pm 5. New Business A. CEPTD - Jeanne Kenow 7:25 pm Community Service Officer B. Randy Rehbein Sub-division 7:45 pm Park Dedication and Trail Proposal 6. Adjourn 8:00 pm All times are approximate._ Please call Carole Kohler at 464-5562 if you cannot attend this meeting. CITY OF LINO LAKES PARR BOARD MEETING MONDAY, MARCH 7, 1994 The City of Lino Lakes Park Board meeting was called to order at 6:30 pm at Lino Lakes City Hall by Chairperson George Lindy on Monday, March 7, 1994. Roll Call was taken, members in attendance were: Sharon Lane, Brian Bourassa, George Lindy, Ken Johnson, Joe Schmidt and Amy Donlin. Not in attendance was newly appointed member, Pam Taschuk. Also in attendance was Councilperson John Bergeson, recently appointed Capitol Buildings Chair, Councilperson Linda Elliott, council liaison to the Park Board, Marty Asleson, 'Parks, Recreation and Forestry Coordinator, Barry Bernstein, Recreation Program Supervisor, and Carole Kohler, Parks Secretary. George Lindy welcomed the new board members. He noted that the three new appointments are women, and commented that it will be good to get the women's perspective on the issues. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Brian Bourassa asked that the minutes of the February 7, 1994 meeting have a more clear description of the trail dedication for the Pineridge 2nd Addition. He wants the minutes to read "Trail dedication will consist of a trail stub (add the word "stub") connection on the northeast, (change the word north to northwest) eventually (add the word eventually) connecting into the Ware Road transportation trail , and the existing trail to the west to the park and then go north. " The minutes of the February 7th meeting were corrected as shown and then approved with no other corrections or additions. OPEN MIKE• No one appeared under open mike. UPDATES: Friends of the Parks- Joe Schmidt presented a brief report on the progress of the Friends of the Parks Foundation. Members are in the process of meeting to set goals and priorities. They will be going forward with election of officers and are still seeking board members. The Mayor has been asked to attend the next meeting to formally appoint the Board of Directors. Recreation Focus/Steering Committee Brian Bourassa spoke briefly on this committee. A first meeting was held in February attended by several residents with good input. Brian feels that this support committee will be an asset in helping the department put together quality programs. The Mission Statement for this committee is taken 1 CITY OF LINO LAKES PARK BOARD MEETING MONDAY, MARCH 7, 1994 from the Comprehensive Plan. It is, " The purpose of the Lino Lakes Park System is to provide a comprehensive, balanced and high quality system of parks, natural/open spaces, trails and leisure- oriented activities/programs for city residents to use and enjoy in as cost effective manner as possible." Meetings will be held monthly. Copies of the minutes from these meetings will be distributed regularly to park board members. Change of support staff personnel - Marty Asleson took this time to announce that Carole Kohler, Department Secretary will be leaving full time employment with the City approximately April 1. Carole would like to continue as part time staff. Hopefully the new staff person will be at the April Park Board meeting. Joe Schmidt had some questions regarding spending of funds for the remodeling of the new recreation building. He noted that the first bids received were rejected by the council and the council has asked that bids be re-submitted. Joe wondered if there should be leftover funds not spent on the building if they would go back to the general fund or back into dedicated park funds from where $12,000 has been allocated for the remodeling. Both Linda Elliott and Marty Asleson assured him that the remodeling is being done on a very tight budget and that there would most likely not be any monies left over. However, Marty says, that the actual costs won't be confirmed until the building is over. Linda Elliott says there will certainly be a strict accounting of all monies spent. REFERENDUM ISSUE: Jeff Schoenbauer from Brauer and Associates came before the board with a presentation on referendums. George Lindy prefaced the presentation with references to the board's priority list of expenditures for the coming year, mainly their decision to pursue methods of funding for a recreation complex. George explained the need to turn to the citizens for support. He asked Jeff to "get down to the basics and show us how to do it. " Mr. Schoenbauer supplied handouts containing information on the referendum process. This information included a flow chart drawing of the referendum process overview. He said it is not a difficult process, the key is to present the community with what they want. In his opinion the referendum issues that have failed in other communities did so because the package presented was not in line with what the community needed. Many times he has seen too many issues try to be put through in one confusing package. Education is also a very important part of the process. Help the community to n see exactly what they do need. Promote the plan but don't oversell 2 n CITY OF LINO LAKES PARR BOARD MEETING MONDAY, MARCH 74F 1994 it, that'll put off a lot of people. A Citizen Task Force should be established. This group should be well balanced and representative. Assessing the needs plays a major role also. In Jeff's opinion, this could be the most constant and difficult part of the process. After his presentation, Mr. Schoenbauer took questions from the board. There was a wide variety of questions, some of them were: Should we pursue individual issues or put several tasks together? Mr. Schoenbauer says there should be a balance so the community gets what they need. The ballot can have many issues> (Example: A- B-C or none of the above. Or even A & C or B alone, etc. ) How often should a referendum issue be brought before the residents? Jeff says the committee should be careful here. What is put on the ballot should be clearly defined as to what the public will get for their dollars. He commented that Lino Lakes has no history to build on so you'll have to gain the public's confidence. If you're moderately successful you can come back in perhaps five to six years. If too big of a failure it will be harder to come back. A good measure is to see if the issue will sustain for at least five or six years. This is where a consultant will have to provide guidance. What is the cost of putting a referendum program together? Mr. Schoenbauer suggests professional assistance. There's just too much involved for staff to handle alone. Most of the time involved will come from assessing the community needs. This could run from $5000 to $15, 000. A plan must be developed, this could be done at staff level with some outside help, that could run around $6000 to $7000, and approximately $5000 for communications/publications, and some additional outside costs for follow through not mentioned. How effective are phone surveys? In Jeff's opinion, "not good enough". What is the time frame? All steps for the entire process could take up to seven or eight months on the minimal side, realistically, about a year. There is a lot of volunteer involvement and commitment with a referendum, so be careful not to wear the volunteers out. Jeff suggests approximately 15 dedicated people should be on the task force. There was some discussion regarding financing options and alternatives. This should be the responsibility of the task force. The lion's share will come from tax dollars, so it is very important that the people understand all facets of the project. 3 �..� CITY OF LINO LAKES PARK BOARD MEETING MONDAY, MARCH 7l 1994 The cost was touched upon. Mr. Schoenbauer used the figure of approximately $2.5 million for an indoor sports arena/complex, and $3.5 to $4 million for both an indoor and outdoor complex. He says that for a community of our size, it's not realistic to float anything greater than $6 million. Next step? We're at the right place now according to the Comprehensive Plan, securing of the A-3 site should be the focal point. That will have a bearing on how neighborhood parks are handled. Timing is very important. Jeff pointed out that we are located within three school districts and would be competing with them. The schools have already created a value of the dollar for education. Parks and recreation hasn't done that yet. Educating the community to the value of parks and recreation is a very critical aspect. Another aspect talked about is the possibility of a new city hall being built in the very near future. Should there be a referendum coupling a recreation complex and new city hall? How do we let the people choose between a city hall or a recreation complex? Jeff says don't waste too much time on this, the people will only spend so much, the key is to educate them. There were some questions as to how soon the council will be looking into a new city building. Marty commented that he would like to get the process underway and outline a plan this year. He would like to meet with the council and see if they would be interested in working together. John Bergeson commented that competing for dollars would be the worst situation of all. He noted how important it is to coordinate the efforts. These issues must be worked out before we go to the public. Linda Elliott questioned how long it would take to get the process going. Mr. Bergeson commented that the first couple of meetings will be held next month. He may have something to report to the park board at their next meeting. George Lindy reiterated the sense of urgency involved in securing the property identified for the recreation complex. He would like an agreement on the property tied up in some manner as soon as possible. Consensus of the board is that they would be willing to wait a short time for the council if there is going to be a joint venture. The next step will be to communicate with the council. John Bergeson thinks we should keep close communication with the council and come up with a way to tie up the complex property. Marty Asleson commented that the City Administrator has spoken of 4 r CITY OF LINO LAKES PARK BOARD MEETING MONDAY, MARCH 7, 1994 alternative ways of financing the property. Marty will be talking about this with him. When asked what steps the council will follow to determine if they will work jointly with the park board, Mr. Bergeson explained that there is a need to update the last need study and then a priority will be to locate a city hall site. Once this is done, it should be clear if the council and park board could work together on a referendum process and share the costs. George Lindy commented that the few months of waiting to see what the council chooses to do will not be wasted, that time should be used to pursue and tie up the land. Marty Asleson thinks that the original ad hoc comprehensive plan committee along the recreation focus committee would be a good choice for a citizen referendum task force. George Lindy asked that regular updates on the progress of the referendum process be a continual agenda item for park board meetings, and suggested that all members keep thinking about how they would like to direct the referendum issue. ADJOURN: There was no other business discussed. A motion was made and seconded and a vote showed all were in favor of adjournment at 8: 30 pm. 5