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• August 29, 1989 Minutes of the Parks and Recreation Commission Meeting 6:30 P.M., Tuesday, August 29, 1989 Present: Linda McLoon, Connie Lasser, Jyneen Thatcher, Jeff Johnson, Sue Gehrz, Jean Suppes, Lloyd Jacobson, Sr. Representative, Pat Bush, City Council Representative, Carol Kreigler, Park Director. Absent: Michael Srnallpage 1. Falcon Heights School Playground Equipment Committee Request Kirsten Eckberg, representative of the F.H. School playground committee gave a presentation on their current status in their fundraising. They have raised approximately $6,200 earmarked for handicapped accessibility and another $10,000 through fundraisers and private organization donations. They were requesting $7,000 from the city of Falcon Heights. Kirsten indicated to cost of specific pieces of the playground equipment. Jyneen indicated that it might be a good idea for the city to buy specific pieces of playground equipment rather than less tangible items, such as pea gravel. When asked whether there was any assurance from the school district about the school being put up for sale, Kirsten indicated that the district had no plans to sell the school and had been told for the next 10 years the plans in the school district indicated the school would be in use. Kirsten said that the school district was going to pay for installation of the equipment and had also contributed $5,000 for handicapped accessibility pieces. The school district would also retain the liability for the equipment and maintain the whole structure. Linda asked why the Falcon Heights PTA had not given a big donation to the playground, since it was their school. Kirsten said that the whole issue only came up after the budget had been prepared for last year. For the current year the PTA pledged anything over their operating budget of $1,600 to go towards the playground equipment. After Kirsten left, it was generally agreed upon that the city should contribute something to this facility. This is the only playground "park site" in this area of Falcon Heights, and the only way to serve this area of the population would be to support this playground. Several options were presented by Linda, who indicated we could support just the spiral slide and spiral slide section, for $4,800, or include the accessory pieces for $6,586, or also include .the step section for a total of $7,261. If the latter course was taken, if for some reason the school was sold, the equipment would be able to stand alone and therefore could be moved to another site. Jeff felt uncomfortable about one taxing unit donating money to another separate taxing unit. Carol indicated that the city attorney said that there were no legal reasons why this type of thing couldn't be done. Little Canada was supporting a gym and other equipment for the elementary school in Little Canada, and Roseville was doing the same thing for schools in Roseville. Lloyd expressed concern of the Seniors he knew that all this money expenditure would result in higher taxes and that would possibly force people to move from Falcon Heights. He did see the need for this • equipment in the area and said that a number of Falconeers had donated to the fundraising efforts. Pat asked how much had been spent by the city for similar equipment in other parks. The average in the past several years had been between $3,000 and 4,000. Maybe we should limit our contribution to a similar amount. Once again it was brought up that to