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City Council Regular Meeting Minutes October 23, 2001 Page 2 Ms. Schober referred to a petition that was signed by one hundred and seventy-five 2 students in the Middle School that requested that the skating return to both parks. 3 Ms. Schober continued with a background on the rinks and various situations with the 4 parks. She continued that promises were made last February to re-level the park, provide 5 a warming house, and make skating good for this winter. She indicated that the Parks 6 Commission recently had to make a decision to take out another season of one of the 7 sports; hockey was the chosen sport to eliminate this year. 8 Ms. Schober stated that she wanted it in the minutes that the City Council wants hockey 9 at all three parks, so that it does not become a debate in the future. 10 Ms. Schober stated that they needed the skating for the winter because it is the only 11 recreational outdoor activity for the City of St. Anthony. She added that traveling the 12 distance to another park takes away the independence that children have to go to the park 13 and play with their neighborhood friends. 14 Ms. Schober concluded that the issue at hand was that if the City could offer all of the 15 sports than they should. She added that the City desires skating at all three parks. 16 Councilmember Sparks thanked Ms. Schober for her persistence in the issue. She added that she wanted to go on record that the City Council supports skating in the recreational parks, and that they will offer skating at all three parks in the future. 19 Councilmember Thuesen stated he was in support of them to offer skating at this time, 20 but said he could not promise that it would never be taken away due to financial issues. 21 Mayor Pro Tem Horst stated that it was in the plan to have skating and hockey at Central 22 and Silver Point Parks. He added that she could feel comfortable that this Council does 23 support youth hockey. 24 Councilmember Thuesen asked if Todd Hubmer, WSB, could come forward and address 25 the issue from an engineering perspective. 26 Hubmer indicated that last year was the first year that the park was back in full use. He 27 stated that they discovered that the slopes out near the ice at Silver Point Park made for 28 poor ice conditions. He added that they wanted to wait until the summer sports were 29 over before they began correcting the problem. 30 Hubmer reviewed the areas that would be corrected and stated that next spring will, 31 hopefully, help the grass growth and make for better conditions for the ice, as well as the 32 other sports. Councilmember Thuesen asked why it was not done correctly the first time. Hubmer stated that there were a number of things that happened the first time,the mis-grading of 35 the slopes being the main problem.