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HomeMy WebLinkAbout02-11-2014 CCMLAKE ELMO CITY COUNCIL MINUTES FEBRUARY 05, 2014 Page 1 of 5 CITY OF LAKE ELMO CITY COUNCIL/PARK COMMISSION JOINT WORKSHOP MINUTES FEBUARY 11, 2014 Mayor Pearson called the meeting to order at 6:32 pm. PRESENT: Mayor Mike Pearson, Council Members Wally Nelson, Anne Smith and Mike Reeves. Parks Commission Chairman Shane Weis, Commission Members Pam Hartley, Mike Zeno, Sarah Heitpas, Jacob Silvernale, Dana Nelson and Mary Frick. NOT PRESENT: Council Member Bloyer, Commission Members David Steele and Jon Ames Also Present: Deputy Clerk Beckie Gumatz, Public Works Director Bouthilet PLEDGE OF ALLIGENCE PURPOSE OF WORKSHOP Mayor Pearson goes over purpose of workshop. Ordinance Requirement. Chairman weis recapped the last 6 months of progress. Talked about parks survey. Used to design next years CIP. Audit of 6 community parks and neighborhoods. Use to prioritize park refurbishing fund. 3 parks priority this year, pebble, reid and tablyn. Been working with nick Johnson and Washington county on bike trail. Council member reeves added about park retreat. Spent time defining role of parks commission. Parks commission developed really good focus. Been a very productive last 6 months. Chairman weis, developed sunfish lake sub committee. Addressing best they can. Hartley on subcommittee. Commissioner Hartley spoke on subcommittee. Notes from commissioner steele. Work on developing plan of action for this year. Items to be considered are paving parking lot, survelince cameras, tree planting at west entrance. A lot of ideas tossed around, watch tower, interpretive center with rest room, widening trails, holding educational events, talk about developing geocaching. Mayor pearson asked if there are other subcommittees for other parks. Weis says only sunfish lake right now. Hoping to have task list by june or july. Commissioner frick thinks its premature at this point to bring up ideas, she has ideas. Has been advised to not go into much detail at this point. Council member reeves said commission trying to be atuned to having sunfish lake more utilized. Trying to figure out hwo to have better uses for the park. Commissioner heitpas mentioned that even when there’s no one in park, it serves very important purpose. Wildlife habit. Preserving nature. Council member Smith offered historical perspective. Park was never meant to just sit and not be used. Problem is that it sits off the road. Looked at many things over last 10 years. If want to attract people to the park, you gotta give them something to do. 20 acres set aside, 15 to go prairie, 5 made for usage. Idea of interpretive center or ice skating rink. Right now there is no reason for people to go there. Would like to see sunfish lake task force Frick has put out ideas that do address council’s issues, one of which is bringing people in. speaks about a nature center or interpretive center. Spoke about programs that other communities have. Council member smith spoke about taking kids to national parks. Excited about some of the ideas that may be brought forth LAKE ELMO CITY COUNCIL MINUTES FEBRUARY 05, 2014 Page 2 of 5 Heitpas says can be assured that task force has the same goal in mind of using the park to the best of its resources. Goal is to have it be utilized. Mayor pearson talked about x county skiing. Asks if people snowshoe out there. Chairman weis says he has. And has seen people out there. Mayor pearson would like to amp up that use. Frick says skiing is fantastic there. Greater trend of snowshoeing out there. Weis noted that exploring more uses, there will be challenges regarding land grant that will need to be evaluated. Council member smith spoke on land grant. Wants to get something done that everyone can benefit from. Now doing a much better job of advertising parks with Fresh. Mayor pearson brought up mountain biking. Would like better explanation of why it’s not allowed. Would like to may be revisit it. Heitpas understanding is that topic has been studied and that mountain biking would not be allowed. Weis concurred. Parks commission decided to tackle other issues instead. Reeves commented on Stillwater school wanted to use park for mountain biking. Land trust said no. Frick spoke about mountain biking and why it doesn’t support mountain biking. Erosion. Bikers vs hikers. Need to be separated. Safety concerns. Interior of sunfish doesn’t support mountain biking. smith would like to see all the facts before a decision is made. Would like to have a conversation with the land trust. Wants to know what they would say about allowing mountain biking and why. Doesn’t think it’s been vetted out yet. Weis agreed with council member smith. If it was deemed allowable, parks commission would consider it. Reeves would like to see who contacted land trust about Stillwater group and why recommendation was to deny the group Pam Hartley thought it was written into the easement that it wasn’t allowed. III. RECAP OF PARKS SURVEY. IV. FALL AUDIT Pam Hartley went over Fall Park Audit. Last fall 6 commissioners tourned 6 community parks. Wanted to look at larger parks. As a result of audit, 3 parks noted needed improvement: pebble, reid and tablyn. Hartley went over criteria that was considered during audit. Mayor Pearson asked about basketball hoop at Reid Park. Is recommendation getting rid of it? Hartley responds yes. Because it is in a dangerous location. Weis talked about using this docuemtn to develop list of priorities for refurbishing fund. Just started developing list. Talked about new park signage. Trying to have one action item in place at each meeting to look at. Signage was action item for January. LAKE ELMO CITY COUNCIL MINUTES FEBRUARY 05, 2014 Page 3 of 5 Nelson asked about security cameras. Heitpas responded is that there hasn’t been much research done on it yet. There are many options to look at. Weis spoke about passing gates for sunfish lake park. Bouthilet responded that contractor we bid with, has been postponed. Also spoke on the security camera. Smith asked about when most issues occur. Weekend or during the week? Bouthilet responded that it’s mostly a spring/fall issue. During winter there’s hardly any issue. Would have to go to Sheriff to get more data. Frick talked about prioritization. Pebble seems to need most work. Bouthilet asked question on direction from Council. Purchasing equipment goes through council. But other things, should they be administrative, or go through council? Mayor pearson responds that council has affirmed plan of work. Nelson asked if it would be easiest for park commission to decide all they want to do with pebble park, for example and bring all that to council? Asks how parks commission sees work going forward. Agreement that if money is being spent, council wants to know about it. Rolf Larson, liason to planning commission, would like to see minimum standards for parking at all parks. Some parks are used less because people can’t get to them. Would also like to see greater support of maintence equipment. Third thing, for sunfish lake, horses have separate trail. If going to bring biking in, it needs to have a separate trail. 2014 PROGRAM OF WORK Council Member Reeves went over the 2014 Plan of Work. This is the document that will guide them through the year. Rolf Larson concurred with Mike Reeves. Good stuff happening with parks commission. Reeves talked about thing being trying to eliminate surprises. This plan of work lays out what theyre going to do, trying to eliminate surprises. Pearson commented that its very well thought out. Nelson is impressed. Hopes implementation goes just as well. Smith, very comprehensive. Impressed. Great piece of work. Asked park commission to read old village plan for parks and take that into consideration as well. 5-7 years put into it. Mayor pearson talked about taking into account what council has said as well. Take into consideration all parts. Heitpas believes it’s difficult to make decisions when not sure what council has in mind. Makes a difference for when they review developments and make comments on parks. Would like to see a plan from Council to work off of. ???????? Pearson talked about liking what commission did with Easton village. Talk about Easton Village plans. Nelson, Easton Village plan was wonderful. Also commented on ballparks. Talk of hydrolics. Heitpas would like council to communicate with commission on where they would like parks to be. LAKE ELMO CITY COUNCIL MINUTES FEBRUARY 05, 2014 Page 4 of 5 Reeves talks about one role he could play, as liason, is to communicate ideas from council to parks commission and from commission to council. Better chance of trying to make sure that communication happens. More talk about Old Village work group and village green ??? Hartley talked about families not putting kids in organized sports as much anymore so putting in portable areas rather than designated spaces for specific sports uses. Anne recommends talking with LE Baseball or St Croix baseball. Hartley and Zeno respond that they have spoken with them. Pearson recommends talking more with staff about direction. Pearon asked about contacting HOAs regarding trail access and such. Shane responds that it has not been done yet. SPECIAL EMPHASIS. Trail Subcommittee. Weis presented powerpoint. Went over Trail Selection Criteria. Goes over Lake Elmo Regional Trail phase 1 and 2. Goes over estimated costs of phase 1 and 2. Goes over Grants that may be available. Also goes over private entities that may be willing to contribute. Mayor pearson asked about health insurance companies helping out with funding. Pam Hartley responded that there are some who might be able to offer assistance. Also a medical device company may be willing to help. Reeves commented on purposes of trails. Talked about reading more and more that people are using trails to get to and from work. Mike Zeno commented on people using it to get to work. Becoming a trend. Even in the winter. Mayor pearson asked about land acquisition costs being left out. Shane responded that it depends on what final route is chosen. Depends on where trail goes. Mayor pearson asked about matches from grants. Also question about what kind of priorty this is. Zeno responds that it would be a high priority. This is just the beginning of trail. Heitpas asked about funding if we connect LE regional park to marine on st croix regional park. Shane responded yes, working with county on that. Mayor pearson asked when we may hear back from any of these entities. Shane responded that nick Johnson is currently drafting a letter now, and that is the first step. Issue of getting incorporated into Washington county master plan could take up to 2 years. Also looking at other avenues. Just starting out. Mayor pearson asked how often group gets together. Anne commented that it’s good they’re looking at so many different entities. Sunfish Lake Park Mayor Pearson believed it has already been covered. No further comment. Signage and Promotion. Mayor Pearson believed also already been covered and Alyssa is not here. No further comment. LAKE ELMO CITY COUNCIL MINUTES FEBRUARY 05, 2014 Page 5 of 5 Anne asked Commissioner Silvernale about his generation and what he is hearing from kids his age. Silvernale responded that the trail system is a great idea and is something he would use a lot of. From what he hears other people his age would also like that. Anne also asked about skate parks. Silvernale responded that that’s not as popular anymore. Weis mentioned council gets more public input than park commission, but if they could encourage people to attend meetings that would be helpful. Mayor? Asked if meetings are recorded or broadcasted. Bouthilet responded that meetings have just started to be recorded. They are not broadcast live yet though. Reeves admires park commissions passion. Commented on his appreciation of Park Commission. They are passionate and they do their homework. Thanked everyone for serving on Commission. Mike Zeno spoke on Park Audit. Thinking of having parks have a personality. Ex: tablyn being a winter park. Mayor Pearson thinks that is a great idea. Anne concurred. Mayor Pearon thanked everyone. Mayor Pearson adjourned the meeting at 8:18pm. LAKE ELMO CITY COUNCIL ATTEST: ________________________________ Mike Pearson, Mayor _______________________________ Adam R. Bell, City Clerk