HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - 2025/09/25
PARKS AND RECREATION AND FORESTRY COMMISSION
6:30 P.M. | SEPTEMBER 25TH, 2025 | MOUNDS VIEW CITY HALL
MEETING MINUTES
1. CALL TO ORDER at 6:30 PM
2. ROLL CALL: Commissioners: Arel, Bankston, *Bosneag II, *Lundberg, Palm, *Mills, Wake
Wiesner
Staff: Peterson | Szurek | Thomas
*To be absent
3. APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Motion to approve by Palm; 2nd Wake Wiesner. Passed 4-0
4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES FROM: August 28th, 2025, meeting: Motion to approve by
Wake Wiesner; 2nd by Bankston. Motion Passed 4-0
5. PUBLIC INPUT
Citizens may speak about issues not on tonight’s agenda. Before speaking, please give your
full name and address. Please limit your comments to three minutes. No residents present.
6. STAFF REPORTS
A. Parks and Recreation – Thomas: see attached report. Still need to do the Storybook walk.
Maybe at the Community Bonfire and/or the Fall Festival in October.
B. Public Works – Szurek: see attached report.
7. UNFINISHED BUSINESS
A. Zipline update, Pulling Zipline Starting this week -Szurek: Low removal process so the
pipes don’t bend. The site at Silver View is prepped for concrete and MW Playground
to come and reinstall, and to put up swings and dinosaurs back at Hodges.
B. Discussion on the Park and Recreation pamphlet with updates - Thomas: see first draft
with updated pictures, but not updated text revisions. Need to include fitness court at
City Hall and update pics at Hodges, and Lakeside. Hope to have second draft in
October with text revisions. LUNDBERG PRESENT 6:53 PM
C. Parks Rules Signs will be addressed in October Park Commission meeting.
8. NEW BUSINESS
A. Community Garden Update: Resident @ 2501 Sherwood and Resident @ 8432 Groveland
spoke about the Community garden. About 20 people signed up to participate. Able to build
3, got donations of wood, supplies, and plants to build 4 total raised beds, and had some in-
ground garden spots. Lots of cardboard for pathways under the wood chips. Started with 11
members, ended up with 6 active. Got to meet a lot of Edgewood parents to share tools and
promote and use the seed library from Ramsey County—White Bear Lake! There was lots
of donations for starter plants, so it wasn’t just seed planting. Did not have to worry about
watering too much this year with the natural rainfall. Not as much member activity as what
was hoped for. Challenge to find a common way to communicate with each other. Too
many meetings at the start led to burnout. Garden problems: voles and rabbits. Learning
ideas: Set date each month to meet and share ideas. Might want a sign next year with
rules & expectations. Members were thrilled to be able to build community, share,
converse, and learn! Nobody was assigned spaces — everything was shared. Could
provide a space for future Master Gardener training and learning experiences. Need more
compost next spring. They will let Public Works know about a truck for clean up this fall.
B. Review 2026 Fee Schedule: Consider adding a fee for goals, pitching mounds, and other
sporting equipment, decorations, coolers, grills, personal items that are left behind at the
fields whereby public works has to move and store in order to mow and/or set up for a
different activity. This fee would be above and beyond just the deposit. IBL wanted a
storage building at Silver View, but it never came to fruition. Also larger parties have left
things behind. Could store pitching mounds under the bleachers, at the owner’s
understanding of personal property on public grounds without security. If staff moves the
pitching mounds to under the bleachers, the organization would still be charged for staff
having to move it, but we could work out a plan where the organization could move it to the
bleachers for storage. Public Works will not bring the sporting equipment back out to the
fields. Add a statement to the rental agreement that property left behind will be held for up
to one week and then will be disposed of.
C. Rental of fitness studio: How do we prevent an outside group from charging a fee to hold a
class at the fitness studio, thereby reserving the space and making money, but the city is
not making the money from the reservation? Can we see how it is used for the first year,
and then make changes later? If it is reserved for classes, but someone is there to use it on
their own, they can still use it. It is a community resource. There is a reservation option in
the MVCC system. Fitness side will always be free for the community, but we could arrange
to reserve the studio side. There are a couple of organizations that want to offer free
community classes. If someone wants to offer a paid class on the studio side, will we
charge them for it? Not at this time. We can bring this back of we find many groups want to
do this. In order for a group to offer classes on either side (studio or fitness court), they
have to become an ambassador through BCBS with online training. We do want to require
reservations so multiple groups are not trying to come at the same time. Motion to
approve the fee schedule as suggested by Palm. This includes a fee for cleaning up
property left behind, but no fee for the fitness court or studio reservations at this
time. Reservations for the fitness court and/or studio for organized classes must be
reserved through MVCC. 2nd by Bankston. Motion Passed 5-0.
9. COMMISSIONER REPORTS:
A. Is the park plan published? How can it be viewed? The final document is complete, waiting
for a final review, and will be added to the city website for the Park System Master Plan.
B. Any totals from the city cleanup day? No totals yet, but we do get them-probably 2026.
C. September 13 was the soft opening of the Tribute Park and well attended! Thank you to
Public Works for getting everything ready—it was “all hands on deck!” The committee will
meet again soon to get ready for the Veterans’ Day ceremony. We are waiting on lights to
be able to keep the flags up.
D. Task Force is being established for the funding for the Park System Master Plan and
includes Commissioners Arel and Wake Wiesner.
E. Public Works is working on several grants for four projects around the community.
F. City Hall parking lot on the north side of the splash pad. We need to wait for a fiber line to
be lowered and do not want to risk equipment for that work to ruin the final coat of asphalt.
We have received no timeline from the contractor for the fiber line, so this could go into next
year. There are also issues with the infiltration basins and the DNR—something with turtle
nesting within 5 miles?
10. REQUESTS FOR FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS / OTHER BUSINESS
11. Next Regular Commission Meeting: October 30th not October 23, 2025
12. ADJOURNMENT: Motion by Palm to adjourn at 8:10 PM, 2nd by Wake Wiesner, Passed 5-0