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Home My WebLink About01-25-2024 PRF Minutes PARKS AND RECREATION AND FORESTRY COMMISSION 6:30 P.M. I JANUARY 25, 2024 I MOUNDS VIEW CITY HALL MOUNDS VIEW MEETING MINUTES 1. CALL TO ORDER @ 6:30 p.m. 2. SPECIAL BUSINESS A. Oath of Office for Re-Appointed Commissioner Arel by Don Peterson B. Oath of office for Re-Appointed Commissioner Wake Wiesner by Don Peterson C. Vote on Commission Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary Motion to nominate Gerald Arel as Chair, Laura Wake Wiesner as Vice Chair, and Cindy Palm as Secretary by Lundberg, second by Lillemo. Motion passes 6-0. 3. ROLL CALL: Commissioners: Anderson, Arel, Lillemo, Lunberg Palm, Mills,Wake Wiesner Staff: Peterson I Thomas *to be absent 4. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Motion to approve with agenda item 9a to be deferred until next month by Mills, second by Wake Wiesner. Motion passes 6-0. 5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Motion to approve by Lillemo, Second by Anderson. Motion passes 6-0. 6. 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. 7. STAFF REPORTS A. Parks and Recreation: Andy Community center has added staff: facilities maintenance and a part time custodian. New fitness equipment arrived today- a functional trainer and a flat bench and new dumbbell racks. There's been a lot more traffic in the weight area so more pieces have been added. YEAR IN REVIEW-see packet-Added bag toss to adult sports Biggest growth: explore more camp and rec leagues. New for the year: hag toss tournament for festival in the park. Last year was a big push for memberships and the reports for membership numbers from 2022 to 2023 reflect that. Youth specifically had 177 memberships in 2022 and 3943 in 2023. Future events: Valentines bingo and St Patricks day bash Also new: planning a penny carnival at festival on Friday night on festival.The 5K will not be offered this year. Field reservations start in February. Ice rinks officially opened last week, and will probably close this weekend for the season due to weather. In December there were social media posts featuring an elf that traveled to different parks and around the community center. Groveland rentals have been blocked off intermittently for use for water meter replacement, but that has not been completed. B. PublicWorks—Don Flooding of rink is short lived- again, due to unusually warm weather. Maintenance on buildings- see packet. City arborist has been working on getting the marked tree inventory down. There is projected to be a lot of trees next year that will still have to come down (ash and oak) due to disease. Buckthorn removal has also been happening at Silver View. Most of the removed buckthorn will be burned, as Ramsey county is restricting what cities can bring in to disposal site-the disposal sites are overwhelmed with ash trees. 8. UNFINISHED BUSINESS A. Ball Field Improvements: City Hall, Greenfield and Silver View Parks Staff came back with projected costs for dug outs at silver view park, city hall park, sidelines for city hall and silver view, and a plated enclosure for storage. Bleachers at City Hall would need to be moved (to behind home plate) for the placement of the dug outs. Mike Hanson IBL president: please look at these improvements as an investment in use for the kids (of IBL) and residents. Silver View is most important for dug outs and fencing so IBL can have multiple games at the same time- right now the lack of fencing makes it unsafe. IBL received a donation for a shed and wants to pay for a shed at Silver View. The MN Twins grant deadline is March 1St. The Twins grant requires specifics. It doesn't include resurfacing grass or turf, and is specific to items like fencing and maintenance/safety issues. Motion to recommend to council to install sideline fences at City Hall and Silver View parks and dug outs and enclosure at Silver View, and to have staff apply for the Twins grant in hopes to defray some cost by Wake Weisner, second by Lundberg. Motion passes 6-0. Councilmember Meelhouse: special projects: brought up the question on whether the budget for the challenge course could be used for ball field improvements, but there is a question of whether the challenge course actually has that budget available. Pitching mound at Greenfield park: staff is trying to find someone that can build a pitching mound, so is still waiting to find a price. B. Ga Ga Ball Pit Location At park tour in May of 2023, there was a suggestion of adding a Ga Ga Ball Pit at Groveland. Staff received projected cost for 26' GaGa Ball Pit at$3,410. Ga Ga Pit can not be installed on asphalt, and woodchips can become problematic. Natural turf works best-grass wears down and turns to dirt. Motion by Wake Weisner to have staff purchase GaGa Ball Pit and install at Groveland Park in Southeastern corner, second by Lundberg. Motion passes 6-0. C. Restroom Signs at Park Buildings City administrator is bringing to city council. Splash pad currently has gender neutral restroom. Silver View has restrooms with multiple stalls so those restrooms would not be considered; the goal is to focus on changing designations of single stall restrooms to gender neutral. Council will look at further. 9. NEW BUSINESS A. Eagle Scout Candidate—Blue Bird Houses—deferred until February B. Tribute Park—Presentation: Concept for Tribute park presented. Tribute park is proposed to be at City Hall. It is a proposed winding path with granite slabs on the sides for police, firefighter, ems, and the three local tragedies (tornado, pipeline and 35W bridge), the center is a circle with granite slabs for the different branches of military service. Lights around the circle and along the trail with led lights that can be change color for different anniversaries or events. There would be pavers on either side of the path with the option to purchase in honor of service member. There is also an opportunity for people to place a bench. Estimated cost of project is 339,162; paver sales ($250 each for 450 pavers) are estimated to bring in 81,000 which would defray the cost to 258,162. There are two separate informational meetings scheduled for January 31. Following those, in February-March there will be time for public comment and a survey. The survey will be available both online and paper copies. The hope is for a completion date of November in time of Veterans day, with the acknowledgement that it is an aggressive timeline. If there is a business or group that would like to be donate-there will be a thank you plaque in City Hall to give the business recognition but keep it a separate space. Question from Wake Wiesner- is there a list of mounds view police/fire that have died in the line of duty that we could make sure are honored. Councilmember Meelhouse: Mounds View has never lost a police officer in the line of duty. Fire department may have a list of history. C. Review—Master Trail and Sidewalk Plan updated 2024— Review for 2024 Street Maintenance Projects See packet for projected sidewalks. There is a new parking lot proposed under the water tower. After the parking lot is finished, then more parking will be added in front of the splash pad and a sidewalk will be added. Also looking at including a trail into city hall park from Mounds View Blvd-this would be part of the tribute park plan. Ardan park-trail system- not mentioned in packet, but staff is looking at adding a trail system; dredging is still happening soon. D. Review—Parks Capital Project Plan 2024 Park improvement plan budget sheet: City Council will be going through a proposal from WSB engineering on a parks master plan-to look at how to fund projects. There are some grants that can be obtained to fund parks projects, but most grants require a park master plan. Homework for commissioners- look over and project plans see If there's things we want to discuss. 10. COMMISSIONER REPORTS Lundberg: recognizing neighboring New Brighton for Brave the BRR and Bartz Brothers Snow Sculpture. Go see it before it melts! Are!: please look at the list of tasks/project updates. 11. REQUESTS FOR FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS /OTHER BUSINESS Lundberg: local girl scout troop is interested in community garden. They are interested in building the plot/pay for the materials. They are hoping to build a garden space and to maintain a garden to grow vegetables to donate produce to Ralph Reeder. 12. Next '-:egular Commission Meeting: February 22, 2024 13. Adjournment: 8:06pm