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Home My WebLink About07-27-2023 PRF Minutes PARKS AND RECREATION AND FORESTRY COMMISSION 6:30 P.M. I JULY 27, 2023 I MOUNDS VIEW CITY HALL = `*` MEETING MINUTES MOUNDS VIEW 1. CALL TO ORDER at 6:30 PM 2. ROLL CALL: Commissioners: Anderson, Arel, *Lillemo, Lundberg, Mills, *Palm, *Wake Wiesner Staff: Peterson I Thomas *to be absent 3. APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Motion to approve by Lundberg, 2nd by Arel. Motion passed 4- 0. 4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES June 23, 2023: Motion to approve by Mills, 2nd by Lundberg. Motion passed 4-0. 5. PUBLIC INPUT Citizens may speak to issues not on tonight's agenda. Before speaking, please give your full name and address. Please limit your comments to three minutes. Julie Clark @ 8005 Woodlawn: started a nonprofit to promote parks, specifically to promote Ardan park area. Project Ardan. Reminded commissioners of previously presented plan for Ardan Park area. At 7:55 PM, public input revisited: Chris Kalina @ 2407 Greenfield PI.: thanks for replacing pitching mound in greenfield park, but mound is not ideal. Formally offered $2K towards purchase of clay mound. The current mound is an artificial mound: "official babe ruth mound," and has a safety issue with metal cleats. Residents teams use metal cleats and thinks older groups in IBL use metal cleats. Artificial mounds are used to alleviate divots and digging and clay mounds require more ongoing maintenance. Resident will send requests to Don on more work to have done: cleaning up infield, shoring up infield, sprinkler head broken towards home plate. Resident also asked about a dog park in Ardan park and recommended a port-o-potty for dog waste. Commissioner Arel suggested homework for commissioners: check out current mound at Greenfield- Don stressed the work is not done. 6. STAFF REPORTS A. Parks and Recreation —Andy: We have hired a new recreation coordinator to start in August. Still have open positions for facilities maintenance. Summer leagues ended July 26th; it was a good season with both soccer and baseball. Registration is closed for fall leagues, there are 80 participants in fall league, which is growth since last year. Explore more park program is going well, they are currently in week 7 and were at the children's museum today. 4 more weeks remain. Parks half day program has one more week left. Fall volleyball registration is open. Sand volleyball is ongoing. Continuing to expand offerings. There's been an increase in events for Fridays and Sundays after hiring a facility coordinator about 3 months ago. Open gym is typically slow in summer, but less slow than normal this year. Revenue numbers- almost to budget goal for the year. Provided a parks usage chart which showed number of bookings and hours booked- Commissioner Lundberg requested available time booked or previous year's numbers for reference. Sept. 16: 4th annual community resource fair- combined effort with Pursuit church, which meats in community center, and Ralph Reeder. Parks advertises 6 weeks ahead of fair. Ralph Reeder will put in peach jar for mounds view schools, and Pursuit does a facebook boost. *Lillemo present at 6:37 PM B. Public Works— Don: Busy with normal summer parks maintenance (mowing of fields). Forestry- a lot of storm clean up following recent storms. Silver view pond: large portion had buckthorn removal and seeding, will eventually have to do entire pond. Greenfield: playground is not complete, still have components waiting to be installed including climbing wall, merry-go-round, and balance beam. Balance beam and merry-g-round are being painted. Sidewalk and ADA work remains. Vandalism- painted over the buildings and got the vandalism off the structures- small wait on getting off the structure, as had to check with manufacturer on best way to remove without ruining the structure. Clip had fallen off on playground structure, but clip was retained and was able to repair. 7. UNFINISHED BUSINESS A. Explore Location of potential Dog Park: Commission had been given previous homework to read information on dog parks. One option is to use hocky rinks to allow a dog run area- this would eliminate/pause previous commission idea of using the hockey rink as a pump track. This would give residents a place to let dogs run. Question about adding a double gate system for entrance. Question on resident feedback-this is something we can make happen sooner. It's not the same as something like a large dog park, but it could be a first step while planning bigger. Motion to utilize the hockey rinks as dog parks until they are needed for hockey in winter by Lillemo. Anderson second. Motion passed 5-0. B. Hillview Park Play Ground — Inclusive Play Ground: Exploring more of what an inclusive playground means. Inclusive goes beyond accessibility. Want to think about hearing or sight impaired individuals, and want to think about jump in spots- places for an individual to sit and watch or slowly acclimate before joining in play. We've talked about rubber playground surface previously. There are 7 principles to be inclusive: fair, included, smart, independent, safe, active and comfortable. Don will put an RFP out to various playground communities with a blank slate- let the playground companies come back with their inclusivity ideas-we may need to think about expanding foot print of playground area. Lillemo suggested we add small scale inclusive experiences to all parks. Lundberg asked if we can have an outside resource help us determine what is inclusive. C. Trails —Ardan Park- Pulte project will not be happening. Trails are not being proposed at this time by staff. Council recently approved moving forward with dredging the ponds, and trails will be looked at in conjunction with or following dredging, to prevent creating a trail that would then be eliminated due to dredging. 8. NEW BUSINESS A. Festival in The Park Update: Wednesday August 16th: medallion clues start Friday August 18th, city hall park: Parade at 6, family fun night at splashdown following parade Saturday August 19th: 5K run/walk, car show, safari bob, crafters/vendors, beer garden, family petting zoo, bingo, canine demonstration, car show trophy presentation, touch a truck event, spray foam party for kids (new this year), raffles (including a ride in the firetruck that could be used on the first day of school), live music, fireworks at 945pm. Free shuttle from community center to park all day. B. Fencing at Hodges Park— Long Lake Road: staff has received multiple emails/calls for fencing. Concern is that children will run from playground to road. When playground was replaced, the footprint was enlarged. Fencing could go up to Ramsey county's right of way, and could be any height up to 8 feet. Ramsey County will be lowing speed limit on long lake road (and all county roads that have bike lanes) to 25 mph. Commission directed staff to get estimate of fencing for edge of playground to north edge of basketball court with different price options for varying heights considering goal of fencing and estimate for 1-3 benches for that side so park patron concerned about running child could be a block. Resident @ 8005 Woodlawn suggested community garden as block or buffer. Homework for commissioners: visit Hodges park. C. Review RAPP Strategies Inc.- Marketing for the Proposed Community Center expansion. Seeking commissioner input on brochure hoping to have completed and handed out for Night to Unite- National Night Out, Tuesday August 1st. Commissioners suggested brochure explain different between sales and property tax, and also highlight the why behind the idea of expansion. Current brochure hits bullet points on what and how much, but doesn't necessarily explain why. Suggested "our possibilities" instead of"our concerns." Brochure will have a qr code that will lead to website: website will hopefully spell out more. 9. COMMISSIONER REPORTS A. Memorandum from City Administrator—Trail Spring Lake Road: packet of information following misinformation that city had taken trees from private property. Trees had been in city right of way. Packed included background information for vision of Spring Lake trail. Homework for commissioners: review packet and reach out to Don with questions. B. Commissioner Mills requested cost information on changing signs at single stall bathrooms within parks to unisex. Commission directed staff to change signs. C. Commissioner Arel: no tribute park meeting in July, next one is August Stn D. Council member Gunn (stepping in for council liaison Meelhouse): thinking about inclusive park at Hillview is wonderful, and something the city is lacking. All the permits for the park are reading to go. City finance director is retiring, have found replacement, Gayle Bauman. E. Commissioner Lillemo would like to challenge city council to start shifting money to parks; it helps parks commission with discussions and planning to know how parks and rec will continue to be funded. 10. REQUESTS FOR FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS / OTHER BUSINESS 11. Next Regular Commission Meeting: August 24, 2023 12. ADJOURNMENT: adjourned at 8:16