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010907 PK AgPz 0 I Davis Young Westerlund Moonen Hensley Norman Trent B. Review Agenda 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A. Park Commission Meeting Minutes of December 12, 2006 CITY OF SHOREWOOD PARK COMMISSION MEETING TUESDAY, JANUARY 9, 2007 5755 COUNTRY CLUB ROAD SHOREWOOD CITY HALL 7:00 P.M. AGENDA 1. CONVENE PARK COMMISSION MEETING A. Roll Call 3. REPORTS A. Report on City Council Meeting B. Update on Winter Conununity Event— (Att.4313) 4. END OF YEAR REPORT FROM COMMUNITY REC RESOURCES - (Att.44) 5. DETERMINE LIAISON FOR JANUARY 22 CITY COUNCIL MEETING 6. ADJOURN 0 L1 I CITY OF SHOREWOOD 5755 COUNTRY CLUB ROAD PARK COMMISSION MEETING SHOREWOOD CITY HALL TUESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2006 7:00 P.M. MINUTES 1. CONVENE PARK COMMISSION MEETING Chair Davis called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. A. Roll Call Present: Chair Davis; Commissioners Young, Hensley, Norman, and Trent; Public Works Director Brown; City Council liaison Wellens Absent: Commissioners Westerlund and Moonen B. Review Agenda Young moved, Hensley seconded, approving the Agenda as submitted. Motion passed 5/0. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A. Park Commission Meeting Minutes of November 14, 2006 Hensley moved, Young seconded, approving the Minutes of the November 14, 2006, Park Corn nission Meeting as presented. Motion passed 510. 3. MATTERS FROM THE FLOOR There were none. 4. REPORTS A. Report on City Council Meetings Brown reported that the City Council voted 3/2 to hire a new City Engineer, James Landini, who is scheduled to start January 8, 2007. Brown indicated that he would continue as the Park Commission liaison for the city. B. Update on Winter Community Event Norman reported that he has spoken to several Shorewood business owners and managers and will be followi17g up with them to obtain potential sponsorship. Chair Davis stated that Mayor Love had indicated that he would leave lunch with the Committee to brainstorm additional funding and sponsorship opportunities. She encouraged Commissioners to promote the event and pass along any sponsor suggestions to the committee. noting that the ffiuiding would come out of 2007 budgets for businesses. Chair Davis pointed out that it is their intent to Underwrite the sleigh rides. rather than have to charge fees, as well as, provide sponsorship for the curling demo and kid's ice fishing contests. FA PARK COMMISSION AGENDA TUESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2006 PAGE 2 OF 2 Norman added that Excelsior would be hosting events concurrently with Shorewood's, which would include events such as, snowman building contests, MCES emergency kits demos.. and ice sculptures. Brown noted that a kickoff Snowflake masquerade Ball was being planned at St. Alban's Bay Boathouse on Friday evening. Other events such as sidewalk sales by Excelsior businesses, music in the streets, free skating on the lake, and chili hosted by several Excelsior Restaurants were also planned. He pointed out that possible broomball games would be running in the afternoon at Badger Park Rink. Young asked if the concession stand at Eddy station would be open and volunteered his support where necessary. Chair Davis pointed out that the Southshore Business Monthly volunteered to print and insert an events schedule and map in their paper to distribute and obtain sponsorship. 'dWellens suggested the Business journal be asked to print additional inserts to distribute the day of the event and possibly placed in the Shorewood newsletter. Chair Davis suggested the Committee plan to host a rurlthru meeting the Saturday before the event, January 13, with all of the volunteer captains, event coordinators, and participants to run through each's responsibilities for the upcoming event. Chair Davis also asked City staff to post a sign at Badger Park restricting use from Thursday evening through the Saturday Arctic Fever events in� order ,to ensure the best possible ice for the curling demo. Brown indicated the City could post a sign and that CRR would inform the Hockey Association. 5. MUSIC IN THE PARK' A. Date for Big Walter Smith Band Chair 'Davis indicated that Big Walter Smith was reserved for July 13` In addition, Davis noted that she hadbeen introduced to the Plymouth Famous Dave's owner who owns the traveling Famous Dave's semi truck and was trying to reserve the truck for the show. She felt confident that he would participate, as long as, he could retain the proceeds. She commented that attendance often more than triples when Big Walter and Famous Dave's semi team up. B. Subcommittee Brown encouraged the Commission to form a subcornmrttee for the 111LISiC series coordination. Chair Davis stated that she did not mind reviewing musicians for the adult performances. Hensley suggested the Commission review her favorites at an upcoming meeting by visiting their websites or listening to their demos. Trent volunteered, with the help of his wife, to review potential children's program participants as provided by Park Secretary Grout. 0 ► PARK COMMISSION AGENDA TUESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2006 PAGE 3 OF 2 0 C. Southshore Center Chair Davis asked staff to investigate whether the Southshore Center could be reserved as a back -up location for the children's events in the case of bad weather. Brown noted that there is a minimal $50 fee to use the facility and stated that he would check the centers event schedule. 6. DETERMINE LIAISON FOR JANUARY 8TH CITY COUNCIL MEETING Norman volunteered to be the liaison for the January 8 "' City Council meeting. Brown pointed out that the Commission would be examining their 2007 work program in January, and not to count on these short agendas in coming months. Chair Davis suggested that the Commission use the February 13"' meeting as an Arctic Fever wrap -up and evaluation meeting, and Music in the Park series planning meeting to determine final programming. She further suggested that the February 27"' wort: session be used as originally planned to examine park priorities. 7. ADJOURN • Norman moved, Trent seconded, adjourning the Park Commission Meeting of December 12, 2006, at 7:45 p.m. Motion Passed 5/0. RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED, Kristi B. Anderson Recorder • CITY OF SHOREWOOD Hui 5755 Country Club Road • Shorewood, Minnesota 55331 •952- 474 -3236 Fax: 952 -474 -0128 • www.ci.shorewood.mn.us • cityhall aci.shorewood.mn.us To: Park Commissioners From: Twila Grout — Park Secretary 0 0 V Date: January 4, 2007 Re: Winter Community Activity - The committee met on December 20 to review job descriptions for the event coordinators and how many volunteers would be needed for each event. The job descriptions have been e- mailed to the event coordinators and they are now working on recruiting volunteers. A letter and the flyer for the event have been sent to local businesses to see if they would like to sponsor Arctic Fever. The wine tasting event has been cancelled and rescheduled for February 3 at the Soutl1shore Center. They could not secure the required permits from the LNICD in time. Let's hope the weather will start to cooperate so we have ice for the fishing contest, curling and skating. There will be a meeting on Saturday, January 13 at City Hall for everyone involved (event coordinators, commissioners, volunteers and staff). A time has not been set. If you are able to volunteer or know of anyone that would like to volunteer please let me know. • 0 community rec. resources Date: 1/1/07 To: Larry Brown, Park Commission, Honorable Mayor, and City Council CC: Administrator Dawson From: Kristi Anderson. and Sally Keefe RE: 2006Year End Report from Community Rec. Resource We, at Community Rec. Resources (CRR), were pleased to provide Park Coordinator Services for the City of Shorewood during 2006 and have strived to meet the challenges presented this year. Through extensive on site monitoring of field use and parking, on -going communication with sports organization representatives, and spring and fall sports organization meetings, we are also pleased to report successful sporting season activity for the year. In review, the spring season commenced with a positive response to the ongoing document collection process. Community Rec. Resources staff followed the process initiated in 2005 by electronically mailing documents to all sports organization representatives which netted savings in both time and money to City staff. Once again, representatives were directed to attend the spring and fall Sports Information Meetings with completed documentation and fee payment in hand, to the best of their abilities. In return, each representative was given a schedule for the season. With few exceptions, the collection process went smoothly. With the advent of the 2006 spring sporting season, CRR was faced with a new set of issues surrounding the use of Freeman Park by two sports organizations vying for field space. Due to poor drainage, ineffective lighting, and the need to rest the field, as directed by Public Works staff, Badger Park was omitted from the organized field use for spring /sum_mer 2006. This had a "trickle down" effect upon the other parks in many ways. Lacrosse was moved to Freeman Park, and based on the Park Priority Policy was given field time, which Tonka United Soccer Association (TUSA) organization felt adversely impacted their scheduled use of the facilities. After much debate and negotiation between the sports organizations. City staff, and CRR, Lacrosse agreed to relocate to Manor Park as a temporory solution this season. Ongoing monitoring efforts of both the intensified facility and parking lot use proved this to be a do -able, albeit temporary solution, as both South Tonl<a Little League (STLL) and Minnetonka Grins' Softball Association (MUSA) already used the facilities at Manor Part:. CRR Staff would like to recognize that, despite striping efforts providing a regulation size lacrosse field proved impossible, the sports organizations utilizing Manor Park for spring sports were cooperative and attentive to the other's needs when sharing use of this park. CRR Staff believes it important to note, as defined in the 2002 Parks Master Plan, a Neighborhood Park (as designated by its size of less than 25 acres) is defined as [an] "Area for intense recreational activities such as field games, court gaines, crafts, apparatus area, skating, and neighborhood centers. " This definition clearly does not support this type of intensive use at Manor Park as a long term solution. In addition, on page 11 of the same document, it states, "Manor Park is a neighborhood parkfocusing on informal activities, with very limited organized sports opportunities." As such, CRR staff also believes serious consideration should be given to maintaining Manor's designated usage levels in the years to come. The fall sports organization meeting was well attended with representatives from all fall /winter organizations in attendance - STLL, Tonka Babe Ruth (TBR), Tonka Football Association (TFA) and Minnetonka Youth Hockey Association (MYHA). CRR was pleased to forge a renewed relationship with Minnetonka Youth Hockey Association this season as in recent years communications with this sports organization had become spotty at best due to changes within the organization's infrastructure. Unfortunately, due to mild weather, the rinks and warming houses have not been open to date, but we expect the arrival of winter weather prior to the much anticipated Arctic Fever Event scheduled for January 20, 2007. The fall sporting season provided its own set of challenges, especially in light of the conditions at Badger Park with regard to use by the Tonka Football Association. Parking issues associated with the Southshore Senior Community Center were alleviated due to continued communication with the Center throughout the sporting season. However, TFA continued to loudly voice their concern over the condition of the field and quality of lighting at the Park. Via ongoing monitoring, CRR noted numerous lights out of service during the course of the season causing dimly lit surfaces on the field and posing a potential hazard for players. While CRR Staff worked with MFA representatives and City Staff to provide immediate resolution to these issues, long term improvements such as the much anticipated installation of new lighting and field repair were delayed until the first of the year. In addition, it would be CRR's recommendation that serious attention be given to improvements at Badger Park in order to make this field available for both spring and fall use. The facility is ideal for stated needs of sports organizations requiring field space, should logically be available to users in both spring and fall each year, and would alleviate the problems faced this year, once attention to drainage and lighting issues have been addressed. It is CRR's understanding that, while improvements to the lighting have been slated in the CIP for the upcoming year, little improvement has been slated for field quality. CRR Staff encourages the City to work toward a compromise with sports organizations in providing appropriate field cover in the bare spots on the field each season, and consider the potential installation of a more permanent ball retention system along the creek area and the parking lot for Lacrosse, if that use is to continue. Both the sports organizations and the City cite safety as goals for park users. The sports organizations cite safety for players during wet weather in the bare spots on the field as a concern, and protection of property (cars and homes) as rationale for the ball retention systems. As stated in the City's 2002, Parks Master Plan policies section numbered 9 and 10 respectively, "Parks shall be designated and maintained with proper lighting, landscaping, shelter design, etc., to ensure a high degree of public safety and protection for public property " and "Where necessal y, parks shall be screened, fenced, and /or bL ered fog° the safety and protection of the user as ivell as the adjacent property owners. " Field use demand for these two sports will likely increase as popularity within the sports continues to grow. Also as stated in this same section of the Parks Master Plan on page 8, the authors noted, "The football facility is important to the community and if not located at Badger, the City would have an obligation to locate it at another park, most likely, Freeman. Moving the field presents both budget and space problems. Since there have been no neighborhood complaints regarding the noise or light generated by the games, the football,f eld is expected to remain at Badger Park. " Should the City wish to remain as a field provider to these organizations and a premier sports facility for the greater South Lakes community, CRR Staff strongly believes these improvements should be given serious consideration for funding in the upcoming years. ® As always, monitoring efforts continue each year with heaviest emphasis at Badger and Freeman ParIc. CRR Staff noted there was a marked increase in monitoring at Manor Park due to its increased use this past year. Obviously. Freeman Park provides the largest volume of use due to its size and fields. A staggered schedule combined with appropriate signage and carpooling have dramatically improved the parking situation at Freeman Park during its busiest times. CRR has noted an increase in passive activity at Freeman Park with the inception of the walking trails and community events, such as Music in the Parks. Badger Park usage remains highest during the spring and fall sporting seasons with sports organization utilizing the majority of the parks amenities. Each summer various tennis organizations request usage of the courts on a smaller scale. The City should also contemplate increased usage at this park as additional sports organizations, such as lacrosse, vie for equitable field allocations. Each year, CRR Staff looks forward to meeting and surpassing the challenges of the Park Coordinator position and working diligently with City staff to continue to provide quality services at a value to the City. Should any questions arise regarding the information presented in this report, please do not hesitate to contact Kristi Anderson or Sally Keefe at 612- 743 -4124. As always, Community Rec. Resources appreciates the continued support offered by the City of Shorewood. Kristi Anderson and Sally Keefe Cornmunity Rec. Resources