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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - 2026/04/23PARKS AND RECREATION AND FORESTRY COMMISSION 6:30 P.M. | APRIL 23, 2026 | MOUNDS VIEW CITY HALL MEETING MINUTES 1. CALL TO ORDER @ 6:30 PM 2. ROLL CALL: Commissioners: Arel, Bankston, Berg, Bosneag II, Lundberg, Mills, Wake Wiesner Mounds View City Council: Lindstrom, Gunn, Meehlhause, Clark, Smith Staff: Peterson | Szurek | Thomas | Zikmund *To be absent 3. APPROVAL OF AGENDA. Motion to approve agenda by Wake Wiesner, Second by Bankston. Motion passes 7-0 4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES FROM March 26th, 2026, meeting. Motion to approve Minutes by Bosneag II, second by Lundberg. Motion passes 7-0. 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. 6. STAFF REPORTS A. Parks and Recreation – Thomas. See packet. Full y staffed for Camp and Sports officials for summer. Fields all open! Late registration is still open for league registration. So far the field usage is a little lower than it has been in previous years. Question about Oakwood Park- in 2024 the fields had too much wear and tear and parking issues based on the groups that had booked. The same group was not back in 2025 and has not booked for this year. B. Public Works – Szurek. See packet. Playground inspections have happened. Parks have had wood chip applications, but several playgrounds will get new woodchips. There are still 22 trees available for the tree sale! Please don’t prune your trees yet. Arbor day! Tree planting at Groveland park at 1PM on Friday, April 24. Silverview Park- Playing Cricket is causing damage on the fields. Fresh damage happened recently when it was used without a permit. Thomas talked to the Cricket groups and they have been informed that they need a mat. Commissioners/Councilmembers are encouraged to stop and talk to groups if they see field use happening without mats- if they are using a mat confirm they’ve rented the field. Lakeside Lions Park- Peterson met with Spring Lake Park- some of the playground equipment needs to be replaced- that is a joint cost. 7. UNFINISHED BUSINESS 8. NEW BUSINESS A. Selecting 2026 park tour locations conversation (2025 tour locations: Woodcrest, City Hall and Silverview parks, met at 5:30PM before the meeting) 1. Lakeside Lions, 2. Silverview Park, 3. Hillview Park. Meet at 5:30pm on May 28th at Lakeside Lions. B. GOAL Parks discussion with City Council. see packet. Specifically, the GOAL PARKs Committee recommended funding options including: 1) ballot for a voter approved bond referendum, 2) having the charter commission consider a .5% to 1% levy adopted into the charter for future park improvements. 3) explore sales tax, 4) encourage staff to search and apply for grants, 5) city discussions with ISD 621 for partnership, 6) community built projects, 7) cannabis revenue, and 8) corporate sponsorships City has met with ISD 621- the school district is looking for help specifically with gymnastics space and robotics space. They are also looking for indoor turf. WSB has given a list of key users of the community center to talk about needs. The Charter commission has started to talk about a levy option but that discussion was tabled pending this meeting. Per Commissioner Smith: the Sanneh Foundation is a group that helps provide funding to help parks in Ramsey County. Question on can we go back to sales tax: Answer is there has to be a regional project to qualify. There’s two parts to the funding question: 1) Doing a bond. There will be a survey to see if there is support for a bond. 2) Levy. The levy would be for future projects. Levy: The streets are levied every year. We don’t know what streets we are going to do exactly every year, but we know it’s going to be needed. The levy portion of the parks would be similar- we know we’re going to need funding to continue to update the parks, but we don’t know what the exact need will be every year. What needs to happen next: We have the master park plan. The master plan had to happen first because the city can’t get grants without a master plan. We had the GOAL PARKs committee talk about the funding options and where to start for maintenance. The GOAL PARKs has suggested the community center and Silverview as the big first projects and Woodcrest as a small project. There is not currently enough in the funds for continued maintenance on the parks, so something needs to happen. The general public does not have a general knowledge that the funding is currently not available. The previous failed vote on the community center expansion seemed to be caused by the community not understanding the why of the investment. Also the previous study on sales tax did not factor in internet sales, so residents were worried that they would be too adversely impacted. Question- what will happen if a levy doesn’t go through and we don’t have a plan for ongoing park maintenance? Eventually parks will close. Woodcrest currently needed the playground removed once it was inspected and determined that it was no longer safe- so Woodcrest currently does not have a playground and there are no current plans to add one, because there is no fund. Question on community-built projects: Per GOAL PARKs committee: partnership with organizations that fundraise and help with the plan and the residents help actually build the park. These would be smaller projects- a playground at a specific park- Woodcrest may be a great option for this. The GOAL PARKs and Parks commission are most interested in Silverview and Community Center as the push of a project. Silverview priorities: inclusive playground, realign the two ballfields, redoing the parking lot and creating a new building, building an additional building by ballfields to be used for concessions. Pickelball courts. Community Center priorities: walking track, an additional gym, better reception area and offices. A locker room. Mayer Lindstrom and Councilmembers Gunn, Meelhouse are supportive of levy. Councilmember Smith is on the fence. Tentative bond support: Councilmembers Gunn, Meelhouse and Mayor Lindstrom reported on being supportive. Support for use of cannabis funds: tentative idea for using cannabis funds as a special projects fund for the parks. Goal (8:02): people are using Lakeside Lions Park. The shelters are used frequently. Resident R. Sholl: Lakeside Lions park doesn’t always feel like it’s part of Mounds View. Resident Grasmon: Lives near Lakeside Lions and sees its frequent use. Park Commission and City Council will be brought together again to talk about the plans. 9. COMMISSIONER REPORTS Mills: Tribute park: Deadline for paver for this year is June 15th. Charter commission voted to remove all personal contact information from city website following a phishing attack. Would this commission like to do the same. Commission unanimously agreed to remove personal information from the website. 10. REQUESTS FOR FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS / OTHER BUSINESS Updates from park tour Oath of office for new commission members Bylaws to add new commission members. 11. Next Regular Commission Meeting: May 28th 2026 @ 7:00PM, immediately following park tour at Lakeside Lions, Silverview and Hillview. 12. ADJOURNMENT: 8:15pm.