#21 - Baseball Field Improvements

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STAFF REPORT DATE: 04/04/2023 REGULAR TO: Mayor and City Council FROM: Adam Swanepoel, Assistant Public Works Director REVIEWED BY: Marty Powers, Director of Public Works Kristina Handt, City Administrator AGENDA ITEM: Baseball fields – Site Improvements BACKGROUND: At the October 2022 Parks Commission meeting, City Planner Ben Hetzel presented results from a community baseball POLCO survey. This 30 day online ballfield survey was designed as part of the analysis for the 2022 ballfield work plan. With money set aside from the Royal Golf Development, funds are to be used for the development of new ballfield or refurbishment of existing ballfields. Currently the city has two competitive ballfields (VFW, Lions) which serve the downtown area and eight recreational fields throughout the community. (Demontreville, Klies, Pebble, Reid, Ridge, Stonegate, Tablyn and Tana) There were 313 respondents to the 2022 Baseball survey. Summary of those results were: Would you like to see more ballfields at City parks? 88% - Yes Would you like to see more recreational or competitive ballfields? – 54% - Competitive Would you like to see existing recreational ballfields upgraded to competitive ballfields? 84% - Yes Would you prefer to see multiple ballfields in one location? 82% - Yes Lake Elmo Baseball Association is the most frequent user of the competitive fields. They also rent Reid Park for youth baseball ranging in ages of 9-13. Mahtomedi Youth Baseball, Oakdale Athletic Assoc., St. Croix Valley Athletic Assoc., Thrive Baseball and Midwest Power Softball are additional renters of the fields throughout the year. During the months of April through July: VFW, Lions, Reid, and Demontreville fields are rented out daily for youth baseball. The competitive fields continue to be rented out through September for both baseball and softball use. Ideally stakeholders have suggested placement of multiple fields in one location is ideal for practice, games and tournaments. Of the current parks only Pebble and Ridge Park could potentially hold multiple fields, but not exceeding more than two. History of updates to our current recreational fields have been limited to continued maintenance conducted by our Public Works department. In 2017, Lions Park was a completely renovated field. In 2018 members reviewed the possibility of updating the Demontreville baseball field with input from the Mahtomedi Baseball Association. As the most frequent user of the filed, they recommended moving the field and requested additional parking. The Parks Commission approved the bids for improvements to the field, however this was denied by City Council. Minutes from that meeting indicated Council wanted to see some level of buy-in from the community or users of the park. Neither Mahtomedi Baseball nor any other community group would contribute to the cost of the project. At the October 17, 2022 Parks Commission Meeting, commissioners unanimously approved a motion to direct city staff to explore upgrading existing recreational ballfields in City parks.